11.25.2009

I knew it!

STOCKHOLM — A Hindu spirit is stalking the streets of Stockholm, armed with this Nordic capital’s latest fad: the nail bed.

link: Stockholm Journal - A Bed Where Comfort Is Not the Point - NYTimes.com

See, that's proof: Living in cold places freezes your brain.


Obama's LBJ moment

WASHINGTON – The White House says President Barack Obama is placing heavy emphasis on how the United States eventually will withdraw from Afghanistan even as he plans to announce a troop increase next week.

link: White House: Exit plan from Afghanistan is key - Yahoo! News

There will be light at the end of the tunnel Dec. 1.


11.24.2009

Peace prize guy wants more troops

"President Barack Obama met Monday evening with his national security team to finalize a plan to dispatch some 34,000 additional U.S. troops over the next year to what he's called 'a war of necessity' in Afghanistan," officials purportedly told the newswire.

link: Obama to deploy 34,000 more troops to Afghanistan, report says | Raw Story

We were in a little classroom building next to the parade ground at Ft. Dix, NJ. We were there to listen to a presentation by an Army chaplain. Just before we filed into the classroom we'd been on the parade ground for bayonet drill, shouting "kill! kill! kill!" while stabbing dummies made of straw.

The chaplain asked, "Why do we have an Army?"

A guy in the back of the room stood up and said, rather enthusiastically, "To kill people."

"Oh no," said the chaplain. "It's to keep the peace."

On the parade ground, nobody was yelling "Peace! Peace!"

Seen at the Walgreens

Penny Candy - $1.99

Oh, never mind.


Ho freakin' Ho

The movie site, Hulu, has a selection of movies and TV re-runs labeled "Hulu for the Holidays," and one of the movies in that heartwarming category is called "So I Married an Axe Murder," described as an "offbeat, hatchet-driven romance...".

Yo, this is just tooo coool!

Former CNN host Lou Dobbs fueled already rampant speculation about his political future Monday, sending the clearest signals yet that he's mulling a bid for president — and leaving third-party political operatives salivating over the possibility of a celebrity recruit for the 2012 campaign.

link: Lou Dobbs mulls White House bid - Alexander Burns - POLITICO.com

I mean hey, can you dig it? Dobbs! Palin! And don't fergit Mitt! (Actually, this could be the plan: Get enough total wackjobs into the act and Mitt might start to look good. Is Huckabee still around? That Fred?)

I can't wait for 2012. The entertainment quotient will be off the charts.


I am shocked! Shocked!

Even with the stock market roaring back - the Dow Jones industrial average rose nearly 133 points yesterday, for instance, and the Standard & Poor’s 500 index is up more than 60 percent since March - ordinary investors are not reaping the benefits of the rally.

link: As market surges, many can’t afford to hop back in - The Boston Globe


One day you look up and...


P1000268, originally uploaded by tedcompton.

...damn. Look, you gotta admit that these cold, dark, damp November days get pretty depressing. And as soon as the ground gets covered with white (yeah, it's coming, sooner or later it is) there won't be even a spot of color left anywhere on the planet, or at least in Gfld, MA. All the houses are painted gray and everybody wears brown, or black. It's grim. (After a few days it's also grime, but I'm trying not to think about that.)

News at 11 - next week sometime

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will announce his decision on whether to send more U.S. troops to Afghanistan "within days" after he held a final strategy session with top aides, the White House said on Tuesday.

link: Obama to announce Afghanistan decision within days - Yahoo! News

Next Tuesday maybe says Reuters. Enjoy your turkey, turkey.


Everybody's doing it


Change I can believe in, not

RW: Nobody has guaranteed all Americans good quality, affordable health care. There’s no question that, under the bill, underinsurance will remain a very substantial problem. Bankruptcies will still continue. People will be paying nineteen percent of their income out-of-pocket on health care—even people with subsidies. This is going to take a toll when you’re falling farther and farther behind every year. I’m very, very concerned with the issue of underinsurance.

link: Ron Wyden Speaks Out : CJR

The RW here is Ron Wyden, a U.S. Senator from Oregon. I don't know if he's an R or a D and I don't care.

Every word I read about this health care fiasco and it's so-called public option makes me more grateful for my own commiefascist government health care plan because, as far as I can see, it is the only game in town.


11.23.2009

Where your oil money goes

It's a Mercedes Benz owned by an Abu Dhabi
oil billionaire (naturally).

Featuring the newly developed V10 quad turbo
with 1,600 horsepower and 2800nm of torque
0-100km/h in less than 2secs, 1/4 mile in 6.89secs
running on bio-fuel.

That is NOT stainless steel, people; it is WHITE GOLD!


-Noted by Door County Charlie


Going to the dogs


IMG_0254, originally uploaded by tedcompton.

Speaking of which, I was updating my iPhone apps (one of the best things about the iPhone and its attendant publicity is that one can finally say the word, "apps," right out loud) and I was reminded (speaking of iPhone apps) you have to swear you are of legal age to download the American Heritage Dictionary because, presumably, the language is just all full of naughty words. Shit.

11.22.2009

You mean, not everybody gets a bonus this year?

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- A growing number of states reported rising jobless rates in October, and thirteen states reported unemployment rates above the national average of 10.2%, according to a government report released on Friday.

Overall, jobless rates increased in 29 states and the District of Columbia last month, while they fell in 13 states, according to a monthly Labor Department survey on state unemployment.

link: State unemployment rates rise - Nov. 20, 2009


Lots of goodness here

11 Awesomely Creative Billboards (PHOTOS)


History is dead

It seems this is the cover of Beck's latest book.

Meanwhile, in one of the most hilariously funny, scream-out-loud terrifying graphs ever printed in a daily newspaper, the NYTimes' Brian Stelter reports:

Glenn Beck, the popular and outspoken Fox News host, says he wants to go beyond broadcasting his opinions and start rallying his political base — formerly known as his audience — to take action.