Photo: Lynn C Dot
2.05.2011
So I'm in the grocery store this morning...
...picking up some stuff for jambalaya and a woman ahead of me in the checkout line has a bag of chips, a package of guacamole mix, and a bottle of Zinfandel. I'm asking, is that a girl's Super Bowl party or what? Seriously. Guacamole and Zinfandel? Of course it is.
Innovative, but...
Immigration Officer Puts Wife on the No-Fly List - Lowering the Bar
I guess this is one way to save money on a divorce.
According to the Daily Mail Online, an immigration officer who worked for the UK Border Agency managed to get his wife out of his hair for three years by putting her name on the no-fly list while she was visiting the in-laws overseas....
...well, read the whole thing.
From a commenter at the NYTimes
The Federal Crisis Inquiry Commission Should Have Followed the Money - Room for Debate - NYTimes.com
Simply, the creation and sale of financial instruments designed to fail for the express purpose of betting against them is, as you said, fraudulent. The most massive swindle since businesses kept their records on clay tablets has gone down at high noon on Wall Street and no one,... no one is on trial. No one is in federal prison. No one has had his assets seized.
Where are the States' Attorneys General? Where is Eric Holder? Where is the President?
Read the article at the link.
Oh. That.
Obama's pressure on Mubarak could cost US regional influence - CSMonitor.com
As the US looks more and more like it is “throwing in the towel” on Mr. Mubarak, one unwanted result could be a building mistrust between the US and countries it relies on for cooperation on issues ranging from international terrorism and the flow of energy to the Arab-Israeli peace process and the containment of Iran, experts in the region say.
2.04.2011
Freedom! Freedom!
Rand Paul Won’t Interfere With People Shooting Down Airplanes With Lasers
Since the dawn of American civilization, man has directed his laser pointer at airplane cockpits in order to blind the pilots and make the thing crash to the ground.... Unfortunately, the Senate yesterday passed a bill making this sort of thing illegal, by a vote of 96-1. Any guesses as to the brave legislator who stood against big government and for the founders explicit intent to let people shoot lasers as they please? Yes, Rand Paul.
LOL
Obama the most polarizing president in decades | Raw Story
No president in recent decades had polarized the American public in their second year as much as President Barack Obama, according to polling organization Gallup.
A perfect example of why polling organization Gallup and every other poling organization on this and nearby planets as well occasionally need to be treated as so much blabbermucky. Seriously. No other president in recent decades, or long-ago decades either, has had to put up with Fox Noise. And Fox Noise is the very definition of polarizing. Blabbermucky too.
Wonkette on U.S. foreign policy
U.S. Sends Egypt a Script For How This Will All Play Out
Now Egypt, be nice. America took the time to understand your cute little Constitution and look up your officials on Wikipedia, so the least you can do is do exactly what they want. The U.S. would like “dictate” things now! It’s making them horny. [ABC News/NYT]
A whole lot of snow
Shaq-o-meter: Does season's snowfall measure up to Shaq? - Boston.com
In honor of Shaq's first year with the Celtics, we are measuring Boston's snowfall so far this winter in "Shaq-inches."
(Graphic at the link)
Here, I'd guess 40 inches on the ground with another 6 - 10 forecast for tomorrow.
Very nifty idea
Amazing Bike Path In Holland Embedded With Solar Panels >> MetaEfficient Reviews
What could make bike riding even more efficient? How about a bike path embedded with solar panels to produce clean energy while encouraging people to get on their bikes? The town of Krommenie in the Netherlands, just north of Amsterdam, will be receiving the SolaRoad bike path, scheduled to open in 2012.
(H/T UNDERNEWS)
2.03.2011
And we don't really need WikiLeaks to tell us this, do we?
Delicate balance - As applied to American policy towards Egypt, it means replacing a dictatorial regime that did what the U.S. told it with a democratic regime that will do what the U.S. tells it. - Josiah Swampoodle
Just go read the study
The Tax Foundation - Federal Spending Received Per Dollar of Taxes Paid by State, 2005
And then if your state gets more than a buck back, quit bitching.
It's over, Bunky, bar the door
Kissinger praises Obama’s handling of Egypt, gives Mubarak ‘months, at most’ | Raw Story
"We have been acting correctly," he told Bloomberg TV during a Tuesday broadcast. "We have been playing catch-up, but so is everybody else."
When we have an even nominally Democratic president who does something - anything - Kissinger approves of, the end of the world is right around the corner, probably just after this next, last snow.
Fenceline
Yeah, you can go look at all those cool picture from the big cities or you can just hang out here where nothing much is going on. (You notice we don't even have snow going on today but more is on order, for Saturday.)
A good day for snow pictures
The Chicago Tribune has a bunch of them, if you haven't already seen more snow than you really care to.
Photos: Blizzard of 2011 - chicagotribune.com
2.02.2011
Getting downright grumpy in Boston, it seems
How other cities deal with snow - The Boston Globe
Roads have become narrow, snow-walled paths. Drivers negotiate glacial towers at intersections on blind faith. Street-side parking gets farther from the curb each day.
And as Boston takes on more snow today, nerve-jangled residents are demanding the city get rid of it any way it can — suggesting snow be dumped in the harbor or reduced to water by huge snow melters.
Pennsylvania rodent clearly not paying attention here
Punxsutawney Phil predicts an early spring - Yahoo! News
PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. – The country's most famous groundhog predicted an early spring Wednesday...
I would say that this is starting to wear thin but...
...clearly, it's not. In fact it is getting thicker as we speak. And the oracle says it's not the last of the winter. How wonderful is that?
2.01.2011
Please do not try this at home
Evidence is mounting that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas violated federal law by failing to report his wife's annual salary of more than $120,000 per year from conservative political organizations by checking "NONE" on the box for "Non-Investment Income" for his wife Virginia on judicial Financial Disclosure Reports for the last 20 years.
Everything...grinds....to.....a......halt
Blizzard Blog: Early school dismissals for special-needs students - Chicago Breaking News
The airlines serving O’Hare International Airport have preemptively canceled more than 1,100 flights, the Chicago Department of Aviation said today. Forty-five minute delays were reported.
At Midway Airport, airlines preemptively canceled more than 100 flights so far today.
Here, what looks in the air like just a little light snow is piling up amazingly fast. The sidewalk and the driveway have been shoveled twice already - it's just before 1:00 PM - three or four inches each time. No letup. More on the way today, and more more tomorrow. Maybe Thursday some sun.
There are two political-type lawn signs in the front yard - one is completely buried and just a little corner of the other can still be seen. It will surely be erased by the end of the day.
I have candles and matches and a few AAA's for my littlest flashlight (I used the last of the AA's last night, as it turns out). And I plan on keeping the phone and laptop charged near full. I think it's not likely we will lose power where I am but if we do get high winds near the end of this storm it will be a good idea to be prepared, JIC.
Meanwhile, this afternoon might be a good time to search Netflix for a good blizzard movie to stream.
Wait! Wait!
Fourteen what? Inches? Of snow? Are you friggin' kidding?
Guess not. At least that's what Accuweather says - 14.2 inches, to be precise. So the question is, do I trudge to the grocery store through today's snowstorm, wait and do it in tomorrow's snowstorm, or just eat Spam for a few days and forget about the whole thing?
The longer I sit here, the better the Spam option sounds.
And you were expecting...?
Dean Baker: Debts Should be Honored, Except When the Money Is Owed to Working People
This seems to be the lesson that our nation's leaders are trying to pound home to us. According to the New York Times, members of Congress are secretly running around in closets and back alleys working up a law allowing states to declare bankruptcy.
According to the article, a main goal of state bankruptcy is to allow states to default on their pension obligations. This means that states will be able to tell workers, including those already retired, that they are out of luck. Teachers, highway patrol officers and other government employees, some of whom worked decades for the government, will be told that their contracts no longer mean anything. They will not get the pensions that they were expecting.
1.31.2011
Woo friggin' hoo
Menacing winter storm gears up across the US - Yahoo! News
While record snowfalls have pounded the Northeast in what's shaping up to be one of that region's most brutal winters, the Midwest has been comparatively unscathed. Not this time: Up to two feet of snow was forecast for some cities, and the storm was expected to carve a frigid path from Colorado to New England by week's end. Thunderstorms and tornadoes were possible further south.
Right
Oklahoma bill would mandate educators question evolution in classes | Raw Story
Educators in Oklahoma would be forced to openly question in their classes the legitimacy of the scientific theory of evolution should a new bill become state law.
Also, why not also make them question Einstein's scientific general theory of relativity - which, it turns out, explains gravity.
Because if we don't believe in gravity we can...wheeeeee...fly.
Civility, civility
The Demands for Higher Interest Rates - NYTimes.com
Last Saturday, reported The Financial Times, some of the world’s most powerful financial executives were going to hold a private meeting with finance ministers in Davos, the site of the World Economic Forum. The principal demand of the executives, the newspaper suggested, would be that governments “stop banker-bashing.” Apparently bailing bankers out after they precipitated the worst slump since the Great Depression isn’t enough — politicians have to stop hurting their feelings, too.
1.30.2011
But not as creative as just flat-out magic, which is the first plan
US taxpayers should not pay for fixing US infrastructure, new White House chief declares | Raw Story
Daley, a former Wall Street executive who opposed two of President Obama's major initiatives, said that investment for US infrastructure could instead come from private sources both foreign and domestic.
"That's a creative way to move forward," he said.
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