I live in a community that is politically conservative - very conservative. Think: Attila The Hun conservative.

Like all people everywhere there are intelligent conservatives (yes, really), dimwit conservatives, thoughtful conservatives, knee-jerk conservatives.

There is one for whom I have the misfortune of having to endure almost daily. He is a hybrid of dimwit and knee-jerk. He has never had a thought which is either original or even derivative. Every "thought" in his head is comparable to the "thought" of a parrot or mynah. His idea of talking is to repeat what he hears from such intellectual giants as Limbaugh, O'Reilly, Beck, Medved, and some sports guy on ESPN..

Actually, I'm exaggerating. His speech goes beyond those, um, reprobates.

• He spices up their words with an unimaginable number of F-bombs. Think:
  
  F%^&*k noun F$%^k verb f$%^& f#$%k f#$%^k.
  
  
• Also, those radio-based talking anatomical orifices are far less racist than he. He could make a neo-Nazi vomit in disgust.

Needless to say (but I'll say these anyway):

• He is a climate-change denier.
• He has no sense of irony.
• On the rare occasions when he says something that he thinks is funny, he breaks out in a huge grin. It's obvious to anyone nearby that he believes that his last utterance was funny - maybe even hilarious.

All of that said, on Groundhog Day he stated, completely deadpan, "if global warming were real, why didn't it affect the Groundhog?"

I know him well enough to say unequivocally He Was NOT Joking. His fellow conservatives in the room reacted with stunned silence. Finally, one started to explain it, and gave up.

Some of you may have noticed that there is an economic recession. Times are tough — unless you work for the Feds.

The number of federal workers earning six-figure salaries increased sharply during the recession. The trend to six-figure salaries is occurring throughout the federal government, in agencies big and small, high-tech and low-tech. The primary cause: substantial pay raises and new salary rules.

USA TODAY analyzed the Office of Personnel Management's database that tracks salaries of more than 2 million federal workers. Excluded from OPM's data:

• the White House
• Congress
• US Postal Service
• intelligence agencies
• uniformed military personnel.
  

Federal employees making salaries of $100,000 or more jumped from 14% to 19% of civil servants during the recession's first 18 months — and that's before overtime pay and bonuses are counted.

• The highest-paid federal employees are doing best of all on salary increases. Defense Department civilian employees earning $150,000 or more increased from 1,868 in December 2007 to 10,100 in June 2009.
  
  
• When the recession started, the Transportation Department had only one person earning a salary of $170,000 or more. Eighteen months later, 1,690 employees had salaries above $170,000.
  
  
• The growth in six-figure salaries has pushed the average federal worker's pay to $71,206, compared with $40,331 in the private sector.
  

Key reasons for the boom in six-figure salaries:

• Pay hikes.
  
  
  • Then-president Bush recommended — and Congress approved — across-the-board raises of 3% in January 2008 and 3.9% in January 2009.
    
  • President Obama has recommended the smallest pay raises since 1975: 2% pay raises in January 2010.
    
    
• Longevity pay hikes. Most federal workers also get "steps" that average 1.5% per year.


• New pay system. Congress created a new National Security Pay Scale for the Defense Department to reward merit, in addition to the across-the-board increases. The merit raises, which started in January 2008, were larger than expected and rewarded high-ranking employees. In October, Congress voted to end the new pay scale by 2012.
  
  
• Paycaps eased. Many top civil servants are prohibited from making more than an agency's leader. If Congress lifts the boss' salary, others get raises, too. When the Federal Aviation Administration chief's salary rose, nearly 1,700 employees' had their salaries lifted above $170,000, too."
  

Recession? What recession?

A central purpose of the California Milk Board is to convince consumers to buy local dairy products to keep the spending in-state, but the board acknowledged in November its advertising contract had gone to an agency in New Zealand.

Said a board official: "We have a . . . responsibility to spend (taxpayers') hard-earned dollars as efficiently as we can."

Do as we say, not as we do.

And people wonder how I was so prescient about the Iraq Attaq.

• I told everyone there were no WMDs.
  
• I told everyone that Saddam Hussein had no collaboration with Al Queda.
  
• I told everyone that invading Iraq meant breaking Iraq, and that a broken Iraq would be a nightmare.
  
• I told everyone that Rumsfeld's prediction of "5days, maybe 5 weeks, certainly not 5 months" was off by a power of ten - or more.
  
• I told everyone that Wolfowitz's claim of "less than 3 billion dollars" was wrong by a factor of at least a hundred. OK, I was wrong on that: I should have predicted a factor of a thousand.
• I cringed (out loud) when Mighty Warrior George Bush proclaimed "Mission Accomplished" and followed it up with "I say bring 'em (Iraqi insurgents)."
  

What makes me so brilliant? Well, I'm not (he says, humbly). What set me (and many others like me) apart from the crowd was that I (we)

1. Ignored every claim from anyone who had a vested interest in going to war.
2. Listened for the propaganda behind the public statements and proclamations.
3. Found sources of information that had no vested interest in going to war.
4. Applied critical analysis to each concept that sounded correct.
5. Checked, and re-checked everything that seemed to be correct as I went through steps 1 - 4.

The best sources for information, then and now (and always):

• "Between the lines" of articles in publications (and websites and blogs) that are often thorough and often correct; the actual articles, on the whole, tend to be wrong, but the truth is sometimes in there.
• Left-wing fishwrap/birdcage liners such as Mother Jones (Smart, fearless Journalism) and The Nation(unconventional wisdom since 1865).
• Listening to the sheep(major news media) - and their listeners - bleating while marching in lockstep with those who have a vested interest in doing the wrong thing ... then using the opposite of what they say as a starting point in my research.
  

And ... I (we) tend to be on the right side of history, e.g,

• I thought way back then that Viet Nam was a mistake. In fact, I yelled it.
• I told people that there was torture going on at Guantanamo and in our prisons in Iraq.
  
• I predicted that if it ever got started that the "9-11 Commission's" recommendations would be largely ignored.

There's a much longer list inside my head, but those voices in there drown out the items on my list. Stay tuned. Some of those will sneak out. Truth For Dummies!

In my post on 1-26-2010, The Power of Twisted Thinking, I blathered about a good example of bad science. Specifically I discussed flawed research that made its way into a prestigious medical journal.

From today's (February 2, 2010) news @ CNN.com:

Medical journal Lancet fully retracts 1998 study linking MMR vaccine to autism, citing "incorrect" elements of research. (emphasis mine)

See: I told you so. You want truth - get it here, where smart dummies shop for wisdom.

Ronald Reagan: the greatest president ever - assuming that you are

1. a Republican
2. in denial (of everything real)

Barack Obama: the worst president ever - assuming that

1. you have a blind hatred of Democrats in general
2. you have a blind hatred of the fact that Obama is so uppity - and is in charge (again)
   

Today's pundits and republicans are thrilled that Obama's favorability rating is down. His approval rating is 57% at the end of his first year.

His presidency is toast. It's in the toilet. The republicans will get back control of Congress in 2010. Any republican will beat Obama in 2012. After all, his approval rating is down to 57%.

Unlike Reagan, whose favorability rating after his first year was, um ..... 57%.

After the good old fashioned ass-wuppin' that Obama handed out last week, I suspect his approval rating will be heading back into the stratosphere ... and the republicans will have to come up with a new strategy. Just saying NO! and lying to the public is not going to work as well as it did last year.

It's Groundhog Day.

BFD?

Not so fast.

• It's the biggest non-event that won't go away; it comes back every year. Grown men wearing top hats hang out in the woods waiting for a rodent to climb out of his hole. Based on how that works out, they (and the news media) can predict the weather for the next month-and-a-half.
  
• It's one of the best movies ever. I say that because my life often seems like Groundhog Day (the movie, not the rat-fest)
  
• It's Ayn Rand's birthday.
  
  • Google her name and you get 2.5 million hits - most of them fawning.
  • Or try this reality check. I've been on both sides of the discussion. From one who knows: Rothbard nailed it.
    

You're right: BFD.

I got an interesting e-mail. It was from "Bank of America." It looked authentic. However, my scamdar sounded an warning.



Yes,I have credit card accounts at Bank of America (but only because B of A swallowed up my previous banks). However, the warning in the email was about a check card. I don't have a cash account at BofA, and therefore have no "check card."

I looked at the links embedded in the email. The idea was to get me to click on a link. Clicking on that link would open up a browser (for example, IE or FireFox) and then open up a website.

Would the web site be legitimate? Not likely.

By hovering my mouse over a link, the real destination for the link displayed in the lower-left-hand corner of the e-mail window. By the way, that feature is in the e-mail program Thunderbird. If you're not using Thunderbird, it might not work the same.



Another way to see the real link:

1. highlight the link (carefully drag mouse across the link)
2. copy it (Menu --> Edit --> Copy),
3. paste it into the address bar of the web browser (IE, FireFox,etc)

Just to be sure,

1. I used FireFox to go to the real BofA website
2. logged in as myself
3. clicked on the "Alerts" link.

Guess what ... Bank of America sent no such e-mail.

I missed a real adventure. Had I blindly followed the email's instructions, many wonderful things could have happened.

• the website could place a Trojan Horse on my computer
• the Trojan could capture all of my keystrokes, thereby making available to the scammers all of my accounts and passwords
• the site could have planted a virus on my computer, wreaking all sorts of havoc
• and a lot more .....
  

There's a lesson in there somewhere.

How do you know that the "silence was deafening" if you're not deaf, and how would a deaf person know the difference?

In 1998 the distinguished medical journal Lancet reported that a team of scientists found a positive correlation between childhood vaccinations and autism.

The alleged culprit in the disaster was thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative used in bottles of vaccine that might be opened, used partially, and then stored.

Because of Lancet's rock-solid reputation, this finding set off a wave of terror among parents of young children. Parents began refusing to have their children protected against what used to be common - and potentially deadly - diseases. The panic began in 1998 and persists today.

Fast-forward to 2004. Of the 13 scientists involved in the original study:

• 10 retracted the parts of the study about the positive correlation between childhood vaccinations and autism
• 2 Two did not voice an opinion
• 1 scientist, the leader of the research team, defended the study and the conclusions drawn from the data gathered.
  

The lead author didn't bother to tell his co-researchers AND Lancet that he was on the take: lawyers representing the parents of autistic children paid him $800,000 to determine whether there were grounds for pursuing legal action. He delivered the results to the lawyers before publishing it in that major medical journal.

When the ten scientists (and Lancet) learned that part of the story, they were not amused. The term "conflict of interest" kept coming up. The $800,000 richer 'scientist' insists that

• His participation and leadership was not influenced by the money
• He was objective and dispassionate in his work
• He was off the hook, anyway: "... we emphasise that this was not a scientific paper but a clinical report."
  

He also did not look for the converse: was there data that showed the lack of a positive correlation (between vaccines and autism)? His fellow scientists and Lancet apparently missed, in 1998, those nuances.

Also, no one noticed that vaccines are administered when the children are the same age as when autism is typically diagnosed¹.

Follow up:

• There have been five major studies that found no causal relationship between autism and thimerosal
• The use of thimerosal in vaccines was discontinued in 2001. If thimerosal were truly a problem, there would have been a drop in the rate of autism among vaccinated children. There was no such decrease.
  

And yet, the anti-vaccination hysteria continues. There was a lot of noise about this year's flu vaccines being

• loaded with brain-damaging mercury
  
• likely to cause autism
• a government plot (read: Obama's plot) to get people's medical records.
  

¹ I am reminded of a physician who had written a somewhat popular book. In that book he linked ice cream and polio. After all, people 'caught' polio in the summer, and people ate ice cream in the summer.

In a similar vein, I knew a fellow who (as a child) in a short time frame: ate peanut butter, got sick, and was diagnosed with, um... polio. He died in his adult years from a brain tumor. That damned peanut butter - it's a plot by Skippy to get our medical records. To this day Skippy refuses to list polio-causing agents and carcinogens as ingredients in their product - creamy or smooth.

Actually this is beyond being addicted to information. It's for seriously disturbed Info-junkies.

When growing up, every Info-Junkie spent time devouring encyclopedias, dictionaries, and thesauri. I had some of my parents' textbooks. Talk about COOL! Imagine learning about world geography from the early 20th century? A few things have changed.

Any of today's Info-Junkies care who want to learn everything there was to know in 1911. Now they can read the

1911 Edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica

As I said: it's for seriously disturbed Info-junkies. It's also fun.

... "of calamine lotion."

Anacardiaceae: a family of flowering plants bearing fruits. Some of those plants produce urushiol, an irritant.

Notable plants in this family include

• cashew
• mango
• poison ivy, oak, sumac
  

That means that poison ivy, poison oak, poison sumac, mangoes, and cashews are closely related.

Most people are aware of the itch (contact dermatitis) so generously given when one touches the leaves or vines of poison ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac. The itch is so remarkable that it has been celebrated in song. My favorite is by The Coasters.

Mango peel contains the irritant urushiol. Presumably, the urushiol is removed before the mangoes get to my local produce stand. I say this because for every festive dinner I make mango salsa, but I never 'break out' in rash. I also eat the peels, but don't get an itchy tongue.

To me, however, the real surprise is that cashew shells exude urushiol. The meat is fine, but touching the shells can make you miserable. In stores you'll see raw & in-the-shell walnuts, almonds, pecans, and such. But you won't see cashews raw & in-the-shell. There are tales, perhaps apochraphyl, about people getting a surprise along with the bag o'nuts they bought from the local Boy Scouts' fund-raiser.

One last thing: cashew isn't a nut; it's a seed. The cashew tree also produces 'cashew apples.'

Read all about it.

Poutine Poo'-teen (n): a popular Canadian dish consisting of French fries topped with fresh cheese curds, covered with brown gravy and sometimes additional ingredients. The term is derived from a Native American expression that translates literally as "gums up heart valves."

The US Government accumulates a lot of stuff. From time to time the Feds sell some of that stuff. There are some bargains out there:

Treasury Executive Office of Assets Forfeiture (TEOAF) auctions

• Real Estate
• General Property
• Car Auctions
• More Car Auctions - (Customs and Border Protection, US Department of Homeland Security)

IRS auctions

• Real Estate, cars/vehicles, and more

Online Auctions and Sales

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

• Homeowners Assistance Program (HAP) Property

DOD Auctions

• Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service Public Sales Listing
• Mailing List Information: Contact custservice@drms.dla.mil

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

• FDIC Asset Information

GSA Auctions

• GSA Multi-Agency Auctions
• GSA Fleet Vehicle Sales
• Surplus / Excess Property
• Office of Property Disposal
• Mailing List Information: Contact pbs.webmaster@gsa.gov

• Homes for Sale by the U. S. Government

• Tennessee Valley Authority Surplus Auctions

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Auctions

• HUD Homes by state

• U.S. Marshals Service Asset Forfeiture Program

• USDA Multi-family Housing For sale

U.S. Postal Service

• Auctions of Unclaimed Loose-in-the-Mails Items

U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Auctions

• SBA Property for Sale

• Surplus, Seized, and Forfeited Property (includes browse by state) – GSA
• Real Estate and Merchandise - GovSales (some online)
• Fleet Vehicle Sales - GSA
• U.S. Marshals Service (some online)

In-Person Auctions and Sales

• Fleet Vehicle Sales - GSA
• Real Estate and Merchandise - U.S. Marshals Service
• State and Local Surplus Property Sales
• Books and Merchandise – U.S. Postal Service
• Real Estate - Small Business Administration

Real Estate

• HomeSales.Gov
• HUD Homes
• U.S. Marshals Service
• Small Business Administration

Listed by Agency - Includes Gift Shops

• USA.gov - The U.S. Government's Official Web Portal

Subscribe to Treasury Auctions e-mail updates.

If you were so inclined, you could start a business selling this information to those poor saps who don't realize that they're buying data that they can get for free. Oh, wait ... it's already being done. At least you no longer have to be one of those poor saps.

You're welcome.

Question:

What do these organizations have in common?

• Allianz
• Avago Technologies
• City of Los AngelesEquitec
• Major League Baseball
• New Zealand Postal Service
• Serena Software
• Swiss Confederation (Switzerland)

Answer:

They all used to be "Microsoft Shops" - they used Microsoft software (Exchange Server for email, Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.) and operating systems (Windows). Now they don't.

In the computer world that is almost heresy. Everyone uses Windows and Office (and Exchange). Or so Microsoft would have us believe.

Most computer users don't know that there are alternatives to Microsoft products. Some know about the Apple alternative. Only a few know there are products that beat Microsoft's and Apple's offerings in every way. Here are some examples:

Note: don't get bogged down in the tech-talk part.

Allianz Insurance

Allianz Australia Insurance Limited employs about 3,000. As part of a nationwide program, the company has a target to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by 2012. It replaced an aging Windows Server infrastructure and installed Red Hat Enterprise Linux (a variant of Linux). That's because Linux operates much more efficiently than Windows. Allianz reduced its data center power needs (thus saving money) and saved $500,000 in licensing costs.

Avago Technologies

Avago Technologies' CIO Bob Rudy moved over 4,000 employees from Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft Office to gMail and Google Apps - and saved saved $1.6 million by doing so.

NOTE: Google Apps is a web-based system that features several Web applications with similar functionality to traditional office suites, including word processor, spreadsheet, presentations (PowerPoint), Gmail, Google Calendar, Talk, Docs and Sites. All software is online - one can access it from any Internet connection anywhere; all data are stored online - one can access it from any Internet connection anywhere AND the organization does not need servers, high-powered workstations/notebook computers, or server-trained support staff.

The rising cost of storage was one of his motivating forces, he said in an interview. His company's adoption coincided with Google's release of its "Apps Sync" adapter that lets users access Gmail with Outlook. He said of the adapter: "For me, it eliminates the last hurdle or mindset for letting go of [Microsoft] Exchange or the Exchange mentality" said Rudy. "This will help with adoption."

City of Los Angeles

In October, the Los Angeles City Council approved a $7.25 million five-year deal Tuesday in which the city will adopt Gmail and other Google Apps. $1.5 million for the project came from the payout of a 2006 class action lawsuit between the city and Microsoft. Such sweet irony... Microsoft paid $70 million three years ago to settle the suit, brought on behalf of six California counties and cities who alleged that Microsoft used its monopoly position to overcharge for software.

Equitec Group

Chicago-based financial services company Equitec Group, LLC, was running mission-critical, proprietary financial trading software on 100 Windows-based servers. When performance issues hit, the company decided to move to Ubuntu (a variant of Linux) Server . Along with that move, Equitec moved its database from Sybase on Windows to the free - and powerful - MySQL version that comes with Ubuntu. Because the performance problems are gone. Equitec has been running the same workload on just 30 Ubuntu-based servers. Hmmm .... It takes 30 Ubuntu servers to do what it took 100 Windows servers to do - at a fraction of the cost for licenses.

Major League Baseball

Adobe Flash (we all use Adobe Flash) grabbed Major League Baseball's MLB.com Web site from Microsoft Silverlight (a webiste with lots of video) in the fall of 2008. MLB.com had been a marquee account for Silverlight. But the Web site suffered from multi-day video problems at the opening of the 2008 season; that had fans fuming. Adobe made the announcement of the two-year deal with MLB at its annual Adobe Max conference in San Francisco.

New Zealand Postal Service

The New Zealand Postal Service is one of the largest users of Google Apps. NZ Post entered into what it thought was a routine renegotiation with Microsoft to renew licenses for MS Office. The talks didn't go well. NZ Post instead decided to yank out Microsoft Office and roll out Google Apps to 2,100 employees. The deal was expected to save the country $2 million in hardware costs over three years, it said.

Serena Software

Serena Software, a privately owned company with 29 offices in 14 countries and 800 employees, is another flagship customer for Google Apps. It ousted Microsoft Exchange (email server system) over the summer in an amazing cutover which took a grand total of six hours (!!). Ron Brister, senior manager of Global IT Operations at Serena Software explained in the Official Google Enterprise Blog, "Inbox storage space was a constant complaint. Server maintenance was extremely time-consuming, and backups were inconsistent. Then we found that - calculating additional licenses of Microsoft Exchange, client access licenses for users, disaster recovery software, and additional disk storage space to increase mailbox quotas to 1.5GB - staying with our existing provider would have cost us upwards of $1 million. That was a nearly impossible number to justify with executives." Brister says the company saves $750,000 annually with Gmail and Google Apps.

Swiss Confederation (Switzerland)

The government lost a lawsuit, with the court ordering that the Swiss government could not grant Microsoft a no-bid contract for Office when so many other options exist.

NOTE: When put up for open, honest bidding, Microsoft cannot compete. There are other systems that deliver comparable results, with fewer problems, and at a far lower cost. That is the point of this post.

Disclaimers:

1. I own Microsoft stock - and have for years (I'm a glutton for punishment)
2. I have been a Microsoft Partner
3. I have performed work for Microsoft as a contractor.
4. I hold several Microsoft certifications (including Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer)
5. I am a Systems Engineer for a large organization, where I administer Windows AND Linux servers, and support thousands of users - most of whom use Windows (and a few are fluent in Linux as well)
6. I prefer Linux over Windows, and Linux applications over most Windows applications.
   
7. Actually, I prefer open standards for hardware. operating systems, and software.
8. I prefer open source software over proprietary software. But those last two are topics unto themselves. In the future there will be plain-English posts here. Stay tuned.
   
9. I use Google as my primary search engine (but then, outside of people at Microsoft, who doesn't?)
   

Source:
http://www.itworld.com/windows/93258/businesses-dumped-microsoft-and-won?source=ITWNLE_nlt_linux_2010-01-19

Everyone who cares about US politics is analyzing the special election in Massachusetts (January 19, 2010) in which a Republican pulled off an upset and defeated a sure-win Democrat. Here's my $0.02 worth:

Iron is a hard substance, but not hard enough for applications in today's world. It was fine in the first century, but not today. Today we use steel. To make steel even harder than the run-of-the-mill steel (pun intended), we diversify its composition. Then we give it 'trial by fire' by heat treating the steel to give it extra strength, extra hardness.

Republicans are iron: not good enough for today's world. They're OK for the old, old, old days. That's where they stopped. The Iron Age began in the 8th century BC, and ended with the early Middle Ages (between approximately the 5th and 10th centuries AD - or CE, if you prefer).

The Democrats are steel. Unfortunately, they are annealed steel: steel that softened when heated, and never finished by tempering (heat treatment for toughness, strength, hardness).

The Dems never used their opportunity to toughen. With an overwhelming majority in Congress, the Democrats never really got down to business. Instead of following the mandate the American public gave them, they tried for the past year to convince the Iron Age gang to work with the majority. At every opportunity the repugnicans told the Dems to go f$%^#* themselves. The Dems wasted a year and a huge opportunity - and the American voters got more and more restless.

In Massachusetts on January 19, 2010 the heat treatment began. But heat treatment can go either way: it can anneal, and it can temper.

Will the Democrats, who still have solid majorities in Congress (and the White House) use this as an opportunity to get the strength that the fire can give them? Or will they soften in the heat and give up?

My advice:

1. Tell the "just say 'no' mobsters" that you're going to make America a better place - with them or without them.
   
   
2. Tell them that if they want to filibuster (a method of delaying the legislative process), they can go for it - but make them actually do the filibuster¹, so that the American public can see them for what they are: obstructionists. They threaten to filibuster and you whimper away, practically apologizing for doing what you're supposed to do: return America to Americans.
   
   
3. Do what we sent you to DC you to do: implement a Progressive agenda. We told you in 2006, and again in 2008. Now get your sorry asses in gear and DO IT!
   

¹ filibuster

Just in time for the holidays, a UC San Diego professor has invented the gift for the person who has nothing: a high-tech device that helps save your life while you illegally cross the US-Mexico border. Art professor and human rights activist Ricardo Dominguez calls his controversial creation "a Transborder Immigrant Tool."

Designed for crossing dangerous desert terrain, the device--a cheap Motorola cell phone outfitted with GPS technology--provides the user with basic orientation, the distance to destinations, and the location of water, all under encryption to prevent detection by border patrol agents. The phone is also loaded with short, welcoming poems, consistent with Dominguez's philosophy that "the right of safe passage is a trans-global right."

Dominguez, who developed the technology with the help of other researchers at the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology, has been accused of "aiding and abetting criminals." He acknowledges that making his device available constitutes an act of civil disobedience, but claims it will only save lives, not increase the number of border crossings.

Dominguez hopes to make his application available for free via the internet, and plans to distribute a large number of his Transborder Immigrant Tools in the summer of 2010, via churches and volunteer groups such as Border Angels and No Mas Muertas.

Cell Phones To Help Illegal Immigration

Cell Phones To Help Illegal Immigration

Cell Phones To Help Illegal Immigration

I am NOT afraid of heights. However, gravity scares the crap out of me.

• Two-Thousand-Ten?
  
  
• Twenty-Ten?
  
  
• MMX?

      or my favorite:

• 2K10?

      We provide, you decide.

National Priorities Project analyzes and clarifies federal data so that people can understand and influence how their tax dollars are spent.

The Security Spending Primer: Getting Smart About The Pentagon Budget is a 'one-stop-shopping' resource and has two main goals:

1. to provide comprehensive, easy-to-understand information on the complexity of the federal budget process
2. to help build the capacity of people across the United States who want their voices and their priorities to be heard in the debate over federal spending in general and military spending in particular.

National Priorities.org/

People for the Ethical Treatment of Software

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: SEVEN SOFTWARE COMPANIES ADDED TO "WATCH LIST"

New York, NY, July 10 -- People for the Ethical Treatment of Software (PETS) announced today that seven more software companies have been added to the group's "watch list" of companies that regularly practice software testing.

"There is no need for software to be mistreated in this way so that companies like these can market new products," said Ken Granola, spokesperson for PETS. "Alternative methods of testing these products are available."

According to PETS, these companies force software to undergo lengthy and arduous tests, often without rest for hours or days at a time. Employees are assigned to "break" the software by any means necessary, and inside sources report that they often joke about "torturing" the software.

"It's no joke," said Granola. "Innocent programs, from the day they are compiled, are cooped up in tiny rooms and 'crashed' for hours on end. They spend their whole lives on dirty, ill-maintained computers, and are unceremoniously deleted when they're not needed anymore."

Granola said the software is kept in unsanitary conditions and is infested with bugs.

"We know alternatives to this horror exist," he said, citing industry giant Microsoft Corp. as a company that has become extremely successful without resorting to software testing.

Question:What do these have in common?

1. 9/11/2001 - 4 Al Qaeda attacks using hijacked commercial airplane flights
   
   
2. Winter 2001-2002 - a series of terror attacks in which the terrorist(s) used the US Postal Service to deliver biological weapons - letters containing anthrax
   
   
3. December 22, 2001 - the Al Qaeda "shoe bomber" terror attack on an airplane flying from Paris to Miami
   
   
4. July 4, 2002 - terror attack on the El Al ticket counter at LAX
   
   
5. October 2002 (a 3 week period) "DC sniper" terror attacks
   
   
6. March 3, 2006 - a terrorist drove his SUV into a group of pedestrians in Chapel Hill, NC to honor his role model, Mohammed Atta (one of the 9/11 terrorists)

Answers:

1. They were all terrorist attacks that occurred in the USA (or in airplanes bound for the USA).
   
   
2. They all occurred while George W. Bush was President of the USA
   
   
3. All but #1 (9/11) are conveniently forgotten by people who twist reality, hoping to get you to think that Republicans make American safe from terrorists (and that Democrats make us less safe)
   
   
4. In each case where the terrorist(s) survived, the terrorists
   
   • were arrested as suspects in crimes (as opposed to being treated as 'enemy combatants')
     
   • were treated as suspects: constitutional rights were upheld
   • were NOT tortured
     
   • were tried in civilian courts
   • were convicted of their criminal acts of terrorism
   • are rotting away in US prisons on US soil
     
     
5. For what it's worth, in all of the attacks but #2, the perpetrators were Muslims. In the case of #2, the case was apparently a low priority for the Bush Administration. Why shouldn't it be a low priority? After all, every one of the politicians who received a contaminated letter was a Democrat. Eventually the case was closed, unsolved, because the only person close to being a suspect died (supposedly a suicide).
   

The Bible Ends with Revelation and begins with Genesis.

Revelation foretells the end of the Earth and humankind.

That end begins with a sacrificial lamb carrying a holy scroll. As the lamb breaks a series of seals on the scroll, stuff (much of it bad) happens. After the seventh (final) seal is broken, all Hell breaks loose (in a manner of speaking). The angels in the trumpet section start blowing. The first 5 blasts bring on the destruction of the Earth. It gets worse.

Hold it right there, Chester!

In the beginning (Genesis) God almost destroyed the Earth and all of humankind.

It seems that God had become irritated by the human species. In retaliation for people's wickedness, he destroyed the Earth as we knew it, and wiped out all animal life - except the Noahs and their menagerie (one male and one female of each species).

After the flooding stopped and things calmed down, God told Noah to go forth and multiply (on the Earth). As they started to settle in, Noah gave God burnt offerings of some of the beasts he had saved. Note that in performing those sacrifices, Noah caused the extinction of some species. But I digress.

God was impressed by the wiping out of several species. In return, he made a promise (or more precisely, a covenant):

"Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease." (Genesis 8:21-22)

Just in case Noah (or future generations) might doubt his sincerity, God sealed the deal with a rainbow.

"I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth."

And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth."

So God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth." (Genesis 9:11-17)

We have a deal, signed, sealed, and delivered.

If things go as the Book of Revelation predicts, it means that God reneged on the deal he made with Noah and all future generations.

'Splain me that.

The Titanic was the latest & greatest sure-thing behemoth - and it sank in a huge disaster. What did the ship building industry and maritime biz learn from that? Not much, because the same industries built and used the Exxon Valdez.

The difference?

• The Titanic is just a rusted relic wasting away deep below the surface.
• The Exxon Valdez? - They patched the EV, slapped on a new name, and then it was back to business as usual. It's still dangerous, just one fool at the helm away from another disaster.
  

The only substantive differences between the EV, the Titanic, and today's Republican Party? None.

Actually, there is one difference: the Titanic took down only its own passengers and crew.

My imaginary friend and I were at the recycling center the other day. There were all sorts of people there. Identified by their vehicles, they were Prius dude, compact pickup guy, green Subaru Forester chick (with her girlfriend, they were wearing matching checked flannel shirts), Mormon Assault Vehicle (the biggest, stretchiest Suburban) lady & her kids and more kids and more kids.

Then up drove a guy in a Nissan Armada (ominous name, no?). An Armada is a fleet of warships - or a Suburban wanna-be, made in Japan.

My Imaginary Friend: On the upside, have you noticed that even Republicans have embraced recycling?

Me: This place doesn't have a bin for recycled political slogans and failed political policies.

The world's least endangered bear species:

• American black
• Brown

In danger of extinction:

• Polar
• Giant Panda¹
• Sun
• Sloth
• Andean
• Asiatic black

¹Contrary to popular opinion,the Giant Panda is a bear, not a raccoon. The Red Panda (also in dire straits) is a close cousin to raccoon.
Don't feel badly that you got it wrong:

1. I didn't know, either.
2. Bar Bet!
   

Yeah, I know. Everyone else covered blue moons over a week ago. I was busy. So shoot me.

The term 'blue moon' is almost meaningless. In the grand scheme of things, it's not even a BFD.

Usually, there is only one full moon each month because the monthly calendar was built on the lunar cycle (29.5 days). But once every 2-1/2 years, those extra half days add up to two full moons in a month. As I said, it's no BFD.

But, in 1943, Sky and Telescope Magazine erroneously wrote that the second full moon in any calendar month was called a blue moon. The label stuck and is still used today.

Here's your can't lose bar bet for this week:

The second full moon in any calendar month is NOT a blue moon.

Because last week, every fool in every bar heard every talking head on every TV station repeat S & T's oopsie, every one of those fools will get it wrong. Of course, the hard part is proving that you're right (and that they are wrong).

Here's how to prove it (and collect your winnings):

According to NASA, that phrase is believed to have originated in 1883 after the eruption of Indonesia's Mount Krakatoa. The volcano put so much dust in the atmosphere that the moon actually looked blue in color. The event was deemed so unusual the phrase once in a blue moon was coined.

I could give you a link, but you need to learn to Google, so look it up yourself. Hint: search on "blue moon" + nasa. When you get your 184,000 hits, pick one of the first ones that has nasa.gov in the link.

Of course, the big money is in the bars where those talking heads go to BS each other. Line 'em up and take their money.

Whatever ...

The only truly significant aspect of "Blue Moon" is its inspiration for use in poems and lyrics. Check it out:

Amazon.com

I'll save you the trouble. The best of the best are

• The Marcells: Blue Moon (click to listen)
• John Fogarty:(click to listen)
• Ray Charles: Blue Moon of Kentucky (click to listen)
• Bill Monroe & The Blue Grass Boys: Blue Moon of Kentucky (click to listen)

The very bestest of the bestest is
Nanci Griffith: Once In A Blue Moon: (click to listen)

Many of the recent (last 30 years) performances of Once In A Blue Moon are covers of NG's version. Nanci Griffith is in that elite company known as the songwriters' songwriters. Check out (at the above link to Amazon's several hundred) the covers by Van Morrison and Dolly Parton.

Click on the image

Family values run stronger among the righteous folks in the Red States than in the liberal leftie leaners of those Blue States. Everyone knows that.

In liberal-land one doesn't see billboards that remind us that "The family that prays together, stays together." Apparently more prayer leads to greater family values, and as we all know, liberals don't pray. Right?

Divorce rates would seem to be a measure of family values. So 'splain me this:

• According to the Barna Group :
  • 19 percent of Northeasterners have divorced
  • 27 percent of Southerners and Midwesterners have untied their knots at least once.
  • 27 percent of self-described born-again Christians have been divorced
  • 24 percent of other Christians - those less faithful than the born-agains - have renounced their vows.


• Divorce rates, by denomination
  • 34% non-denominational evangelical Christian congregations
  • 29% Baptists
  • 25% Mainline Protestants
  • 24% Mormons
  • 21% Catholics and Lutherans


• As a sanity check, 21% of atheists and agnostics have succumbed to the temptations of divorce court


• Number of states, according to the 2004 & 2008 presidential voting election results:
  • red: 32 in 2004, 20 in 2008
  • blue:19 in 2004, 31 in 2008 (includes District of Columbia)


• According to the CDC (2004) the red-state/blue-state morality chart reveals some interesting facts. The national average divorce rate (divorces per 1000 population) was 3.6.
  • 73.3% of blue states were below that average (26.7% were above)
  • 20.0% of red states were below that average (80.0% were above)
  • note: 2 blue states and 3 red states did not report.
    Source:Centers for Disease Control


• Teenage (15-19) pregnancies, by state:
  • 9 of top 10 (highest rate): red states
  • 9 of bottom 10 (lowest rate): blue states
  • States with rates significantly higher than US average (includes top 10, above):
    1 of 19 blue, 20 of 32 red
  • States with rates significantly lower than US average (includes bottom 10, above):
    18 of 19 blue, 10 of 32 red
  • States with rates not significantly different from US average:
    0 blue, 2 red
    Source: Centers for Disease Control


• The highest rates of divorce, murder, STD/HIV/AIDS, teen pregnancy, single parent homes, infant mortality, and obesity rates in the nation are in the Bible Belt. As a region, the Bible Belt has the poorest health care systems and the lowest rates of high school graduation.
  Source: stopthereligiousright.org

At religioustolerance.org there is an article discussing much of the above; it has many citations and web links.

So the next time you need some advice on family values and morality, just look for your favorite bible-thumper.

Since almost no one is willing to identify with the GOP these days, it can be difficult to diagnose conservatism. Here are some tips to help determine if you are a conservative:

1. 10. You refused to share your toys in kindergarten, saying it would put you on a dangerous path to socialism.


2. 9. You get angry when there are choices for languages on an automated call because you still don't have a good grasp on English.


3. 8. You hate those "elite Hollywood liberals" but refuse to cancel your Netflix account.


4. 7. You go to tea bagger rallies because you have no job, thanks to the recession that "started under Obama."


5. 6. You watch Fox News, but unlike most people, you actually take it seriously.


6. 5. You become absolutely livid about imaginary tax increases [that wouldn't affect you or anyone that you know —  even if those tax hikes actually existed.] ¹


7. 4. You are against wasteful programs like Medicare, but also against cutting waste from programs like Medicare.


8. 3. You criticize Michael Moore for his weight, without being able to refute a single claim that he makes in his documentaries.


9. 2. You can enter any collective noun into the following sentence "The ______ are screwing everything up" except for the correct ones.


10. 1. You find yourself saying "no" even to things that you actually want, like ice cream, and health care.

Original by Ken Kupchik
¹ greyed-out part added by me

• Number of U.S. congressmen (Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif.) who suggested global warming was caused by "dinosaur flatulence": 1
  
  
• Number of U.S. congressmen (James Inhofe, R-Okla.) who said motivation for global warming publicity was a desire by the Weather Channel for good ratings: 1
  
  
• Number of U.S. congressmen (Joe Barton, R-Texas) who said trying to take measures to improve climate change is "absolute nonsense": 1
  
  
• Number of nationally known churchmen (Rev. Jerry Falwell) who claim global warming believers are actually "agents of Satan": 1
  
  
• Number of national radio windbags (Rush Limbaugh) comparing shots of polar bears stranded on melting icebergs to "when your cat got stranded in its litter box": 1
  

Yes, my guard stood hard when abstract threats
Too noble to neglect
Deceived me into thinking
I had something to protect.
Good and bad, I define these terms
Quite clear, no doubt, somehow.

Ah, but I was so much older then,
I'm younger than that now.

-- Bob Dylan (My Back Pages)

There was an oil spill off Western Australia when the the front fell off the oil tanker Kirki. After years of investigations, the true story comes out:

Actual footage AND an explanation of the oil spill.

Friends help you move.
Good friends help you move the bodies.

"We often think of atheism as a dogma, or as a position that has taken a definitive stance against the existence of God, and that, of course, is true academically. "

"But there are many in this country who are functional atheists who may not openly disavow the existence of an infinite being but make their day-to-day decisions as if God did not exist or did not matter. "

"In all of the vital institutions of the land, we're already atheistic — at least functionally."

-- Ravi Zacharias (Christian)

What? Does this mean that the (functional) atheists are really in charge here? Is that really so bad?

If you like to poke fun at politicians, Congressional Representative Michele Bachmann (R-MN) is a problem: she makes it way too easy.

First, indisputable facts:
Rep. Bachmann is a bona fide conservative:

• Progressive Rating: 0/100
• Conservative Rating: 72/100
• Votes with party on 93% of the time.
• She scored 100% on the American Conservative Union 2008 Ratings of Congress.
• She supported the George W. Bush bank bail-out scheme (yes, Bush; it was enacted before the November 2008 election)
  

Not that these are bad things. She has a set of core beliefs, and she legislates based on those beliefs. I'm not criticizing those beliefs. After all, many of my friends are conservatives. I was a Republican-type conservative, and still consider myself to be a fiscal conservative (unlike today's Republicans). I'm merely trying to make it clear that conservatives and liberals alike agree that she is a pure ideological conservative.

That said, I'm not convinced that she represents her district very well:

• Bills sponsored by Bachmann, 13
  Sponsored Bills Made Into Law, 0
  
  
• Bills Co-Sponsored by Bachmann, 223
  Co-Sponsored Bills Made Into Law, 0

That suggests to me that she doesn't pick her battles very well. She too busy being an idealogue, not serious about representing the people who elected her.

Shifting gears, Rep Bachmann is a practicing lawyer (let's hope she only practices). She got her law degree (Juris Doctor) from that fantastic 4th tier law school, Oral Roberts University (note: U.S. News surveyed 184 accredited programs to get the information used in the ranking of top law schools.) Yes, that's the same Oral Roberts University Law School that closed a few years after she got her degree (so one could say that ORU's Law School is no longer 4th tier). Yes, that's the same Oral Roberts University Law School that sent its library and students to Jerry Falwell's "Liberty University." Jerry's "law school" and its students and materials were sent to Regent University.

Regent U. Law School was a favorite recruiting ground for the Bush II administration. They got people with "law degrees" from a 4th tier law school ... plus ideological purity ... and a healthy dose of incompetence.

Now the good stuff about Michele Bachmann:

• She told Americans they should slit their wrists is any kind of health care reform were enacted.
• She called for an investigation into the patriotism of members of Congress.
• She claimed that Americorps training facilities were "re-education camps" to indoctrinate Americans in something (damphyno what).
  
• She said she would - and that everyone should - refuse to participate in the 2010 US Census. After all, the census gives the government information that it can use against you.
  
• Her voice was one of the most prominent among those who spread the "death camps" myth.
• She claimed (through a proxy at Faux News) that House Speaker Pelosi was trying to prevent one of Bachmann's rallies.
• She publicly called for an 'orderly revolution' at a time when many in her target audience are strongly implying that blood must be shed to get rid of elected officials.

The list goes on, but you get the idea (I hope).

I've saved the best for the last. As a 100% true red-white-and-blue conservative, she favors free markets and opposes government subsides. Unless, of course, the free markets are a problem for her business, and the subsidies are given to her business.

Why does the US government subsidize some farmers? The subsidies are used to prop up farmers who can't succeed in free markets. That's a fact, Jack. I'm not saying that's a bad thing. So what would a true free-market advocate say about subverting free markets with subsidies?

Data compiled from federal records by Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit watchdog that tracks the recipients of agricultural subsidies in the United States, shows that Bachmann has an inner Marxist that is perfectly at ease with profiting from taxpayer largesse. According to the organization’s records, Bachmann’s family farm received $251,973 in federal subsidies between 1995 and 2006.

Now for the quiz:

Michele Bachmann
() nut case
() a dense version of Sarah Palin
() Socialist
() Marxist (socialism for the rich)
() welfare queen
() hypocrite
() pretty, conservative, and a taco shy of the combo plate at El Cazador

Choose all that apply.

Note: I've cited very few references in the above material. However, you can do what I did: Google it, and throw out all of the unreliable sources and all of the unverifiable 'information.'

'After 9-11, (Defense) Secretary Rumsfeld said

"There are no good targets in Afghanistan, let’s bomb Iraq."

And initially I thought he was kidding.'

-- Richard Clarke,
Chief Counter-terrorism Adviser on the U.S. National Security Council
under Presidents Clinton and Bush the Lesser

Source:
U.S. Department of Defense
Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)
News Transcript

Pay Attention. There will be a short quiz later.

• When loved ones come home, always run to greet them.
  
  
• Never pass up the opportunity to go for a joyride.
  
  
• Allow the experience of fresh air and the wind in your face to be pure Ecstasy.
  
  
• Take naps.
  
  
• Stretch before rising.
  
  
• Run, romp, and play daily.
  
  
• Thrive on attention and let people touch you.
  
  
• Avoid biting when a simple growl will do.
  
  
• On warm days, stop to lie on your back on the grass.
  
  
• On hot days, drink lots of water and lie under a shady tree.
  
  
• When you're happy, dance around and wag your entire body.
  
  
• Delight in the simple joy of a long walk.
  
  
• Be loyal.
  
  
• Never pretend to be something you're not.
  
  
• If what you want lies buried, dig until you find it.
  
  
• When someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by, and nuzzle them gently.

Adolf Otto Reinhold Windaus	Nobel Laureate Chemistry	1876
Annie Lennox	Singer & Eurythmic	1954
Anwar Sadat	President of Egypt (former) Nobel Laureate, Peace	1918
Barbara Mandrell1	Singer (Country)	1945
Cab Calloway	Band Leader (Minnie the Moocher)	1907
Carlos Castaneda	Anthropologist, stoner, writer	1931
Clara Barton	Nurse	1821
Conrad Hilton	Hotel executive, ancestor of dingbat	1887
Cosima Wagner	Composer's annoying wife	1837
Gary Sandy	Actor (WKRP)	1945
Gerhard Herzberg	Nobel Laureate, Chemistry	1904
Giuseppe de Luca	Opera singer	1876
Helena Rubinstein	Cosmetics merchant	1870
Humphrey Bogart	Actor	1899
Isaac Newton	Mathematician, scientist, lawmaker	1642
Jesus of Nazareth [the place, not the band]	History's Most Influential Liberal, martyr, agent of change	~ Spring, 4 BC
Jimmy Buffett	Singer-songwriter (head Parrot-head)	1946
Joe McCarthy	Commie-hunter and shameless anatomical orifice of the southern kind note: the anatomical orifice is south of somewhere, but the man was from Wisconsin	1908
Karl Rove	Liar, Scumbag, Bush's Brain Excellent reason for birth control and abortion	1950
Kenny Stabler	Pro football player, Snake (Oakland Raiders and most bars & taverns)	1945
Larry Csonka	Pro football player (Miami Dolphins) linebacker knocker-over	1946
Linda Wutzer Name (partly true)	Former girlfriend (completely true)	N/A
Little Richard	Singer, flaming queen	1935
Me1	Renaissance man	N/A
Mike Mazurki	Actor	1911
Mohammed Ali Jinnah	Founder, Islamic Republic of Pakistan	1876
Nellie Fox	Pro Baseball player	1927
Rickey Henderson	Pro Baseball player Thief extrordinaire	1960
Robert L. Ripley	Anthropologist-Cartoonist, Believe It Or Not	1893
Rod Serling	Writer	1924
Sissy Spacek	Actor (Carrie)	1949
Steve Wariner	Singer-songwriter	1954
Tony Martin	Singer	1913

¹Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool

People glad they weren't born onChristmas Day:
• many Jews (other than JC)
• most Muslims
• nearly all atheists

Odds of being born on
• Christmas Day: 1 in 365
• Odds of being born on any other day: 1 in 365

Number one reason that being born on Christmas sucks: you can't get thefree birthday dinner and pecan pie at Stuckey's or the free ice cream cone at 31 Flavors.

"If we use fuel to get our power, we are living on our capital and exhausting it rapidly. This method is barbarous and wantonly wasteful and will have to be stopped in the interest of coming generations."

-- Nikola Tesla, 1900, as quoted in “Great Scientist, Forgotten Genius, Nikola Tesla” by Chris Bird and Oliver Nichelson, New Age, #21, Feb. 1977, p. 42

And who was Nikola Tesla? The guy definitely had cred ... Consider the following:

• Edison's work in electricity was based on using DC (electrical current) . Tesla's work was on AC. So what?
  
  
  • DC can be transmitted only short distances. Imagine having a power generating station every mile or so.
  • AC can be transmitted for hundreds of miles. Those high-voltage power lines that comprise the "power grid?" Thank Tesla, not Edison. The generators that produce and use AC - too numerous to count.
  
  
• Edison and Tesla both created lighting powered by electricity (as opposed to being poered by fire).
  
  
  • Edison invented the incandescent light bulb - the one that we see 'everywhere' - the one that generates more heat than light. Some would say that a "lighting" device that produces more heat than light is, um, inefficient at best.
  • Those fluorescent tubes (and now bulbs) - the ones that use 22% as much electricity to produce the same amount of light and produce very little heat? Tesla.
  
  
• Electric motors including those that power electric
  
  • cars
  • starters for gasoline/diesel/biofuel engines
  • razors
  • fans
  • and on and on and on - just look around you
    
  
  
• Wireless communications devices (radio). Tesla, not Marconi, was the creator. After decades of court battles, Tesla was finally awarded the patent for radio .... it's too bad he died before that happened.
  
  
• X-rays? Tesla discovered the x-ray. Roentgen patented devices using x-rays.
  
  
• Robotics? Electrotherapy (medical devices)? Wireless transmission of electricity?
  
  
• Geothermal energy (Tesla described and experimented with it). Capturing earth's naturally-occurring magnetic fields to produce electricity (Tesla had extensively studied the idea). The laser (Tesla's "death ray" weapons).

To learn more about the forgotten genius, start with Wikipedia. Wikipedia has many pages and dozens of sources.

metonym, noun.

1. A word that denotes one thing but refers to a related thing.

- Example: "Washington is a metonym for the United States government."
- Example: "Plastic is a metonym for credit card."

Before you protest, notice that the above is irony in action.

irony, noun.

1. Incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs;
2. A trope that involves incongruity between what is expected and what occurs;

trope, noun.

1. The use of a word or expression in a sense different from that which properly belongs to that word or expression.
2. The use of a word or expression as changed from the original signification to another, for the sake of giving life or emphasis to an idea.
3. A figure of speech.

Some people are quick to invoke the "Founding Fathers" to justify a claim or action.

Now it's my turn, except that I'm not trying to convince anyone that the Founding Fathers meant this or that. I'm just quoting first James Madison, then the Constitution. You draw your own conclusions.

JIMMY:

"In no part of the Constitution is more wisdom to be found than in the clause which confides the question of war or peace to the Legislature, and not to the executive department."

ARTICLE 1, SECTION 8

The Congress shall have Power:

To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

To provide and maintain a Navy;

To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;

To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress....

ARTICLE II, SECTION 2

The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States when called into the actual service of the United States ....

• 4,367 U.S. Military Fatalities in Iraq (source: icasualties.org)
  Was that before or after "Mission Accomplished"?
  
  
• 931 U.S. Military Fatalities in Afghanistan (source: icasualties.org)
  The count is so low only because Bush ignored Afghanistan for so long. However, Obama with get those casualty counts up where they should be.
  
  
• 31,557 U.S. Military Maimed in Iraq (source: DoD Update as of October 31, 2009)
  Before or after?....
  
  
• 102,949 Iraqis Reported Killed (source: Iraq Body Count)
  1,366,350 Iraqis Reported Killed (source: justforeignpolicy.org)
  At least they're free now, and the economy in Iraq is booming as the country is rebuilt.
  

The 2nd Amendment is in danger!

An off-duty Jacksonville, FL, sheriff's deputy forgot to leave her service weapon outside when accompanying her mother to Shands Jacksonville hospital for an MRI. The powerful magnet sucked her Glock away in a flash, trapping the deputy's hand between the machine and the gun. Repairs, plus the lengthy powering-down and re-powering of the machine, was said to have cost the hospital $150,000.

Source: WJXT-TV (Jacksonville), 10-1-09]

It's obviously Obama's fault.

Source: me