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Wednesday Reads: Frankie and Olive…Cowboys and IndiansPosted: April 23, 2014 Filed under: Affordable Care Act (ACA), court rulings, energy, Environment, Environmental Protection, Media, Medicaid, morning reads, poverty, Republican politics, right wing hate grouups, science, SCOTUS, tar sand oil, U.S. Politics | Tags: Affirmative Action, Albuquerque Police Department, Civil Rights act, drew barrymore, Keystone Pipeline Protests, Southern Ocean 30 Comments
Good Morning
After suffering with a migraine the last four days, I really do not know what the hell has been going on in the world…that is, other than the few interesting stories Boston Boomer wrote about yesterday.
One thing I have been keeping an eye on for updates, was any news on the birth of Drew Barrymore's second child. Well…yesterday it happened. Drew Barrymore Welcomes Daughter Frankie with Husband Will Kopelman
Drew Barrymore's own heart just got a little bigger: her baby girl is here!
The actress and star of the upcoming comedy, Blended, 39, and her husband, art advisor Will Kopelman, 36, welcomed their second child on Tuesday, April 22, her rep confirms to PEOPLE exclusively.
"Happy to announce that today we are the proud parents of our second daughter, Frankie Barrymore Kopelman," the couple tell PEOPLE in a statement. "Olive has a new little sister, and everyone is healthy and happy!"
Yeah I know, for some I can hear the words…who gives a shit…but bully for her! Glad she has another healthy baby girl. I just thought the names made a great title for a post.
As for the cowboy and indians…from AJAM: Cowboys and Indians ride into U.S. capital to protest Keystone pipeline
For a few days, teepees erected by Native Americans and their cowboy allies will frame the view of the Washington Monument from the National Mall.
A group of roughly 60 ranchers, farmers, tribal leaders and members whose land falls near or on the proposed pathway of the contested Keystone XL pipeline, calling themselves the Cowboy-Indian Alliance, rode into the nation's capital on horseback Tuesday to set up camp and begin four days of demonstration to register their protest of the project.
The yet-to-be-approved 1,179-mile pipeline, which would carry crude oil from the tar sands of Canada's Alberta province to Gulf Coast refineries in Texas, has been mired in controversy, legal challenges and delays for five years.
Critics, many of them environmentalists, say that the Keystone XL will only deepen the United States' dependence on fossil fuels, hasten the effects of climate change (although that contention is disputed) and violate landowners' rights.
Proponents, on the other hand, say its construction will boost the economy, lead to the creation of American jobs, and move the country towards energy independence.
Many see the issue as the defining test of President Barack Obama's commitment to the environment. As a candidate in 2007, he vowed to end "the tyranny of oil."
The ranchers and Native Americans — about 40 of whom led a procession on horseback before coming to the National Mall to set up a camp of teepees — said they wanted to ensure lawmakers and the Obama administration were hearing them loud and clear about their qualms.
Matthew Black Eagle Man, a 45-year-old member of the Sioux Long Plain First Nation tribe in Manitoba, Canada, said the government attempting to build a pipeline on Native American lands continues a longstanding pattern of abuse inflicted on indigenous people.
"For 500 years, our people have been suffering," he said. "The government gave us the most desolate places in the country for our reservations. Now they want to build a pipeline on our land."
Black Eagle Man said too that Native Americans were committed to being good stewards of the earth's resources.
"We're here to help protect the water, our first medicine," he said. "Our most abundant resource is being destroyed by man."
As for the cowboys:
"I raise horses on a small ranch and they can't drink oil. Sooner or later, that thing's going to leak," said Mike Blocker, 62, whose ranch is in Antelope County in Nebraska, directly in the path of the pipeline. "How can you sleep at night knowing that 830,000 pounds of this crap is flowing underground where you live?"
Donna Roller, 62, who owns a farm in York County, Neb., was appalled that more of the public was not up in arms that a foreign oil company — TransCanada, the owner of the pipeline — was marching into the United States and trampling on American land rights.
"What the hell? What is wrong with the American public that they are complacent in this?" she said. "This is a foreign corporation that's going to make billions off our backs. We won't allow them to go — we will lay our bodies on the line with the Native Americans."
"We need water, we need food," she added. "We don't need tar sands."
The Cowboy and Indian Alliance has four days of events planned, including documentary screenings, meetings with environmental groups and elected leaders, traditional Native American ceremonies and delivering a teepee painted by the activists to the Museum of the American Indian in honor of Obama, as a sign of respect. The week will culminate in a rally on Saturday that organizers are expecting to attract 5,000 protestors.
The protest is planned for a full week, let's see what comes of it.
The pictures for today's post were found on pinterest of course, you can see some of the images here:
For the pinups by George Petty:
And the one image that is my absolute favorite…which goes without saying….
Yes, he is what you think he is.
Alright then. On we go.
After the news yesterday from SCOTUS, that effectively puts those 50th Anniversary Civil Rights Act celebrations earlier in the month to shame. Court Backs Michigan on Affirmative Action
In a fractured decision that revealed deep divisions over what role the judiciary should play in protecting racial and ethnic minorities, the Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a Michigan constitutional amendment that bans affirmative action in admissions to the state's public universities.
The 6-to-2 ruling effectively endorsed similar measures in seven other states. It may also encourage more states to enact measures banning the use of race in admissions or to consider race-neutral alternatives to ensure diversity.
States that forbid affirmative action in higher education, like Florida and California, as well as Michigan, have seen a significant drop in the enrollment of black and Hispanic students in their most selective colleges and universities.
In five separate opinions spanning more than 100 pages, the justices set out starkly conflicting views. The justices in the majority, with varying degrees of vehemence, said that policies affecting minorities that do not involve intentional discrimination should be decided at the ballot box rather than in the courtroom.
I know that Dakinikat quoted the Justices yesterday in the comments, but I wanted front page this real quick:
But Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in the longest, most passionate and most significant dissent of her career, said the Constitution required special vigilance in light of the history of slavery, Jim Crow and "recent examples of discriminatory changes to state voting laws."
Her opinion, longer than the four other opinions combined, appeared to reflect her own experiences with affirmative action at Princeton and Yale Law School. "I had been admitted to the Ivy League through a special door," she wrote in her best-selling memoir, "My Beloved World." For years, she wrote, "I lived the day-to-day reality of affirmative action."
Signaling deep displeasure, Justice Sotomayor summarized her dissent from the bench, an unusual move that happens perhaps three times a term. She said the initiative put minorities to a burden not faced by other college applicants. Athletes, children of alumni and students from underrepresented parts of the state, she said, remained free to try to persuade university officials to give their applications special weight. "The one and only policy a Michigan citizen may not seek through this long-established process," she wrote, "is a race-sensitive admissions policy." That difference, she said, violates the Constitution's equal protection clause.
"The Constitution does not protect racial minorities from political defeat," she wrote. "But neither does it give the majority free rein to erect selective barriers against racial minorities." Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg joined the dissent.
Justice Sotomayor seemed to mock one of Chief Justice Roberts's most memorable lines. In a 2007 decision that limited the use of race to achieve integration in public school systems, he wrote, "The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race."
Justice Sotomayor recast the line. "The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race," she wrote, "is to speak openly and candidly on the subject of race, and to apply the Constitution with eyes open to the unfortunate effects of centuries of racial discrimination."
That is a great way to introduce this little tidbit of news from a disturbing Easter Egg incident in Virginia (with snark of course): Some White Supremacists Planted Easter Eggs with Racist Messages in Them | Mediaite
Parents in the West End of Virginia discovered, much to their horror, that amongst the Easter eggs planted for egg hunts, there were eggs that contained messages from a white supremacist group. One family discovered an egg with a little piece of paper "'Diversity' = White Genocide" at the top. Here's what it read:
Yep, imagine your child getting an Easter egg with a recommendation to check out WhiteGenocideProject.com. Doesn't that just fill you full of the holiday spirit?!
Parents are very disturbed that the eggs were placed on their property, with one saying, "You can hit the whole world with the Internet, stay out of my yard."
I don't know…the whole thing is fucked up. Like that shit with CNN even giving the opportunity to discuss the KKK rebranding itself.
Things are just bad. Real bad.
Just a few more articles:
Albuquerque officer fatally shoots woman
Albuquerque police said an officer shot and killed an auto theft suspect early Monday, the third shooting by officers in the troubled department in just over a month and the first after a federal investigation faulted the department for excessive force and a culture of abuse and aggression.
Gordon Eden, police chief of the New Mexico city, said the shooting occurred Monday morning during a chase.
"An officer pursued on foot when the suspect stopped, turned and pointed a handgun at close range," Eden said.
Police identified the woman as Mary Hawkes, the daughter of Danny Hawkes, a retired magistrate judge in Valencia County, south of Albuquerque.
Court records show Mary Hawkes had two previous run-ins with the law as an adult, one for drinking in public and another for shoplifting, according to the Albuquerque Journal. As a juvenile, she was charged in 2011 with attempted criminal sexual contact of a child under 13. She was convicted of a lesser battery offense and sentenced to two years of probation.
No further details about the shooting were immediately available. Phone calls and e-mails to the Albuquerque Police Department were not returned.
The shooting comes just weeks after a series of sometimes violent protests against Albuquerque police, who have shot at 38 people since 2010, killing 24.
Citizens and civil rights group have repeatedly expressed concerns that the department is using excessive force, particularly with the city's mentally ill and homeless populations.
More at the link.
Huffington Post had a link to an interactive article from the NY Times, from back in January. Mapping Poverty in America – The New York Times
Seems fitting to review it again.
And it goes hand in hand with this from the Daily Banter: Medicaid Expansion Will Cost States Even Less Than Expected | BobCesca.com
From the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities:
CBO now estimates that the federal government will, on average, pick up more than 95 percent of the total cost of the Medicaid expansion and other health reform-related costs in Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) over the next ten years (2015-2024).
States will spend only 1.6 percent more on Medicaid and CHIP due to health reform than they would have spent without health reform. That's about one-third less than CBO projected in February. And the 1.6 percent figure is before counting the state savings that the Medicaid expansion will produce in state expenditures for services such as mental health and substance abuse treatment provided to the uninsured.
The federal government will cover 100 percent of the cost of expanding Medicaid until 2017 and, while it was projected that the government would cover 90 percent of the cost beyond that time period, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) now projects that the federal government will cover more than 95 percent until at least 2024.
Expanding Medicaid was already a pretty good deal for states given that the federal government will cover the entire cost for several years and the overwhelming majority of costs thereafter, but the deal just got sweeter.
But that doesn't mean shit to the assholes who run the states like mine.
Finally, not all things that quack like a duck…turn out to be a duck. For the last 50 years there has been these strange quacking sounds heard from the Southern Ocean that has kept people wondering…what the hell is it? Mystery of 'ocean quack sound' solved
The mystery of a bizarre quacking sound heard in the ocean has finally been solved, scientists report.
The noise – nicknamed "the bio-duck" – appears in the winter and spring in the Southern Ocean. However, its source has baffled researchers for decades.
Now acoustic recorders have revealed that the sound is in fact the underwater chatter of the Antarctic minke whale.
The findings are published in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters.
Lead researcher Denise Risch, from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Massachusetts, said: "It was hard to find the source of the signal.
"Over the years there have been several suggestions… but no-one was able to really show this species was producing the sound until now."
The rest of this story sounds like something out of The Incredible Mr. Limpet (1964):
The strange sound was first detected by submarines about 50 years ago. Those who heard it were surprised by its quack-like qualities.
Since then, the repetitive, low frequency noise has been recorded many times in the waters around the Antarctic and western Australia. Suggestions for its source have ranged from fish to ships.
The researchers now say they have "conclusive evidence" that the bio-duck is produced by the Antarctic minke whale.
In 2013, acoustic recorders were attached to two of the marine mammals and recorded the whales making the strange noise.
Dr Risch said: "It was either the animal carrying the tag or a close-by animal of the same species producing the sound."
They still need to do analysis on the tapes to see when or why the whales make the sounds, but at least the scientist are sure the minke are the ones making the noise.
This is not the only acoustic puzzle that scientists have recently shed light on
Another baffling low frequency noise – called The Bloop – turned out to be the sound of Antarctica's ice cracking.
And there you are…
Well, have a good day and if you feel like seeing some Cowboys and Indians…TCM is having a John Wayne marathon this week, 58 movies: John Wayne – Star of the Month
I am no Duke fan, but I had to end this post the way it started…pilgrim.
Sunday Reads: Housewife Bakery, Homeless Mother and More Wealthy PeoplePosted: April 6, 2014 Filed under: A My Pet Goat Moment, abortion rights, Africa, Art, child sexual abuse, children, China, court rulings, Crime, Egypt, Foreign Affairs, History, Homeless, income inequality, Injustice system, morning reads, poverty, Psychopaths in charge, Real Life Horror, Reproductive Rights, Spain, Violence against women | Tags: amazonfresh, Black Death, Chase Elliott, Kansas City Public Schools, Kansas City school, measles Orange County, Medieval Shit Stinks, MH370, NY Subway, rape, Southwest Early College Campus, Vogue Italia, Ziguinchor Senegal 30 Comments
Good Morning All…
It was so distressing for to see one of our Sky Dancing family have such a traumatic reaction to one of our post a few days ago, I could somewhat understand, as my rape experience comes back in nightmares…and even in flashes of memory during times when I least expect it. But I could not think of anything to say, of any words to offer that would be consoling…it was like I froze up. I was afraid to even look at the comments yesterday. I did not want to face up to it.
Why couldn't I do that? What was making me recoil from the blog like that?
I feel so bad, and still do not know what to say to my dear one, who know who she is…
I'll try to keep from lingering on the issue, but there are a few disturbing stories I am bringing y'all today that will probably rub salt in old wounds.
First some good and happy news, on Friday Bill Elliott's son Chase Elliott won his first Nationwide Series NASCAR race: Dawsonville's Chase Elliott wins first Nationwide race at Texas
Hometown hero Chase Elliott used a strong move on the outside to pass Kevin Harvick for the lead at Texas Motor Speedway and then sailed away his first career Nationwide Series victory.
The 18-year-old won in his sixth career start and is the second youngest winner in series history. He's roughly four months older than Joey Logano, who was 18 years and 21 days when he won his first career Nationwide race in 2008.
Elliott won in a Chevrolet for JR Motorsports, driving the No. 9 as a tribute to his father, 1988 Cup champion Bill Elliott.
"I can't believe it, just to have the opportunity to race with these guys at JR Motorsports, just to have this opportunity is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for any racer who wants to make it to the top," Elliott said. "It just means the word for me to be here."
Elliott became the fourth driver in Nationwide history to earn his first series victory at Texas, joining Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kurt Busch and Trevor Bayne.
Chase is finishing his senior year of high school…my dad worked for Bill here in Banjoville when Chase was born…and it is a funny thing. See, Daddy put up the wallpaper in Chase's nursery, and now look at what the kid has done!
On another personal note, hurray: UConn beats Florida 63-53 to make NCAA final. (I went to UConn for my Paralegal degree…)
And…one more, the title of this post is referring to the Housewife Bakery in Tampa, Florida.
When I was a little girl we would drive by this bakery every day except Sundays. It was on the way to my ballet studio…and the name of the place always pissed me off!
I would always complain, "Why would they call that Housewife bakery, how sexist!"
Ugh, it still rubs me the wrong way.
Okay on with the rest of the links.
News on MH370: Second pulse detected in hunt for missing Malaysia Airlines plane
A Chinese ship searching for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane has detected a pulse signal for a second time, Australian co-ordinators say.
Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston called the discovery in the southern Indian Ocean an "important and encouraging lead" but warned that there was no confirmation of a link to flight MH370.
He told reporters that the second signal was monitored for about 90 seconds and was detected less than 2 km (1.2 miles) from the original.
Update on a case in China where the school children were poisoned to death: Chinese kindergarten head sentenced to death for child poisoning | The Raw Story
A Chinese court has sentenced the head of a kindergarten and an accomplice to death for killing two children with poisoned yoghurt in northern China, state-run media reported Sunday.
Kindergarten head Shi Haixia poisoned the children last year in a revenge attack aimed at a rival school in Hebei province which had higher enrollment, state broadcaster CCTV reported.
A court in Hebei sentenced Shi and an accomplice to death, while another person was given a five-year jail sentence, the report said.
Two village girls died after their grandmother found the yoghurt, which was laced with rat poison and placed on a roadside along with several notebooks, state media reported earlier.
The children, whose ages were not given, were found "foaming at the mouth," the report said. One died before reaching hospital while the other died after receiving treatment.
China has a shortage of state-run kindergartens, and competition between private profit-driven institutions can be intense.
And in another horrifying news story dealing with a young girl: Senegalese law bans raped 10-year-old from aborting twins | Global development | theguardian.com
A 10-year-old girl who is pregnant with twins after she was raped by a neighbour has been forced to continue with her pregnancy after human rights campaigners lost their fight to secure a legal route to abortion.
The plight of the girl, who is five months pregnant and lives in Ziguinchor in the south, highlights the heavy cost women and children are paying for a Napoleonic law on abortion that is still in force in the former French colony.
"She is going to have to go through with the pregnancy," said Fatou Kiné Camara, president of the Senegalese women lawyers' association. "The best we can do is keep up pressure on the authorities to ensure the girl gets regular scans and free medical care.
"Senegal's abortion law is one of the harshest and deadliest in Africa. A doctor or pharmacist found guilty of having a role in a termination faces being struck off. A woman found guilty of abortion can be jailed for up to 10 years."
It is sickening.
But there is more disgusting shit…this time back here in the US: 6 suspended amid Missouri school rape allegations – Yahoo News
Months after vowing to boost security at a Kansas City school where a student says she was dragged to a room and raped, district officials have suspended six employees amid new allegations from a 14-year-old girl who alleges a boy repeatedly raped her at school.
The girl in the latest case, who the police report describes as autistic, told authorities the 14-year-old boy raped her "on numerous occasions" over the last month at Southwest Early College Campus while a 13-year-old girl stood in the hall as a lookout. The boy and the alleged lookout were charged Wednesday in juvenile court with one count each of rape and sodomy and ordered to remain detained Friday.
The school district began its own investigation after learning of the new allegations Wednesday. Kansas City Public Schools Superintendent R. Stephen Green said in a statement released Thursday the district has placed "a number" of school employees on administrative leave and that other personnel could be put on leave depending on the outcome of the district's probe.
"Once the investigation is complete, a final decision will be made about whether they will continue as employees of KCPS or will be dismissed," Green said in his statement.
Please read more of the details of all these stories at the links.
I am going to move on to more newsy reads for you after the jump.
Sunday Reads: Little Big MenPosted: February 2, 2014 Filed under: 2016 elections, Affordable Care Act (ACA), corporate greed, Economy, morning reads, poverty, the GOP, The Great Hunger, U.S. Politics, unemployment, worker rights | Tags: Chris Christie, Danny DeVito, david wildstein, Food4Patriots, George Washington Bridge, minimum wage, National Review, Peter Schiff, to send one a mitten, U.S. Postal Service Banking 36 Comments
Good Morning
This post is going to have a theme, can you guess what that is?
Our first "little" big man story, or should I say stories, of the morning…updates on the man from New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie. The little being in quotes because this dude's future role in the GOP used to be about as big as his "big and tall" non-wrinkle pleated-front dress slacks. Now he is being booed, yeah…you read that right…booed, and you know for a man like Christie, that has to sting like hell.
Gov. Chris Christie Booed Twice in One Week at Super Bowl Events | Mediaite
For the second time this week, Governor Chris Christie was met with scattered boos when he took the stage for an event leading up to Sunday's Super Bowl XLVIII at New Jersey's MetLife Stadium. The first incident occurred on Monday night, when Christie appeared alongside New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio in Jersey City.
As Al Sharpton, who aired video footage from the event on PoliticsNation Tuesday night said, "It was a dramatic contrast to what we saw three months ago" when he was reelected in a landslide.
No kidding, video at the link.
Well, a lot has happened since the first and second booing. That being the news that Christie knew what was going on with the bridge…as told by former BFF David Wildstein.
Okay, you know I am joking with the BFF thing right? The NY Times had the story here: Christie Linked to Knowledge of Shut Lanes
Read all the stuff there, I know Dak and Boston Boomer have covered it too.
Then we have the backlash from Christie himself.
Chris Christie attacks N.Y. Times, David Wildstein – Mike Allen and Maggie Haberman – POLITICO.com
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, after a low-key initial response to Friday's explosive allegations about his involvement in a bridge-closing scandal, mounted an aggressive defense late Saturday afternoon, attacking The New York Times and a former political ally in an email to friends and allies obtained by POLITICO.
"Bottom line — David Wildstein will do and say anything to save David Wildstein," the email from the governor's office says, referring to the former appointee who reignited the controversy.
I think the best part of this move from Christie is the title of this email his office sent out:
The subject line of the 700-word email from the governor's office is: "5 Things You Should Know About The Bombshell That's Not A Bombshell." It offers a harshly negative portrayal of Wildstein's character and judgment.
Sounds like one of those quickie news articles from USA Today.
Read the rest at that link to Politico, I have another link about the email here from TPM, I just wanted to use this picture: Christie Hits Back: Bridge Official Will 'Say Anything To Save' Himself
The full email is below.
This email goes back to an incident in Wildstein's past…when he was a 16-year-old kid for Christ's sake.
Geezus….go look at the full email, it is priceless.
Worse Than I Realized by Josh Marshall at TPM:
It speaks for itself that Wildstein is out to save himself. He is not sitting on a reputation for integrity and truth-telling. So the wisdom of doing anything more than saying Wildstein is trying to save himself and lacks credibility is highly questionable. The end product here reads like it's coming from a team or a person who is flailing and grasping at straws.
If I'm a Republican power player reading this to a get a read on what's actually happening, what's likely to happen next week or next month, I think I come away thinking things are considerably worse than I realized.
One more Christie link: Chris Christie should resign if bombshell proves true: Editorial | NJ.com
Forget about the White House in 2016. The question now is whether Gov. Chris Christie can survive as governor.
David Wildstein, the man who ordered the George Washington Bridge lane closures, is now pointing the finger directly at Gov. Chris Christie, saying the governor knew about the lane closures in September when they occurred.
That directly contradicts Christie account at his Jan. 13 press conference when he made this statement: "I had no knowledge of this — of the planning, the execution or anything about it… I first found out about it after it was over."
If this charge proves true, then the governor must resign or be impeached. Because
that would leave him so drained of credibility that he could not possibly govern effectively. He would owe it to the people of New Jersey to stop the bleeding and quit. And if he should refuse, then the Legislature should open impeachment hearings.
Well, moving on…to another New Jersey little "big" man…Danny DeVito. Esquire Interview -The Serene Beauty of the Five-Foot Fury of Asbury Park Guy just needed a job, and instead he became Danny DeVito. And the word big is in quotes for Danny because the man is just fucking awesome and bigger than anything you can possibly imagine.
His parents sent him to board at a prep school in the upper-crust suburb of Summit, New Jersey, fifty miles north and inland. He was the baby by more than a decade to two sisters, and as the only boy—the DeVitos had suffered the loss of two children, including a son, years before Danny came along—he was their prince. His father, Daniel Sr., preferred paying tuition to bail money.
"My father was a good man," DeVito says. "He supported his family. He always worked hard. He had a candy store, a luncheonette kind of thing, when I was born. Then he had a pool hall. That didn't really do very well. It was small—five tables—and couldn't really compete. But he loved to play pool."
One of the classic experiences I had with my father was we drove from Asbury to see a guy named Mr. Blatt. Mr. Blatt had pool tables—probably had other sports equipment, too. I don't know. All I know is we drove up to New York, I think—November, December—in one of his Oldsmobiles. He always had an Oldsmobile. It was like paradise for a kid going into this place, and he ordered five slate-top four-and-a-half-by-nine tables, which fit—just fit—in the little store he rented. And he picked out the felt, he picked out the balls, the cue balls, the chalk, the counters for the straight pool counters, pill bottles for pill pool. Picked all this stuff out. I was twelve, maybe."
That's a big deal for a boy that age.
"Yeah, a real big deal. And on the way home, it started snowing. One of the biggest blizzards that we ever had. And we were stuck without chains, on the way back to the shore, in the middle of it. No cell phones—you're at the mercy of humanity. And people stopped. Somebody stopped, and they had an extra set of chains and fixed my father up. He never was slow with the duke, my father"—an old-school nod to the timeless practice of greasing the right palm in return for a solid—"so it worked out good."
Which is a wonderful story, don't you think? That made me think of this scene from Throw Momma From the Train:
Please go read the entire interview, it is a great long read. I've caught up on lots of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia episodes I've missed over the years. That is one funny show.
In other news that seems fitting for something out of the circus, this article by Zach Beauchamp: The Inside Story Of The Charlatan Who Duped The Nation's Top Conservatives | ThinkProgress
On New Year's Eve, I learned FEMA's "Dirty Little Secret."
It was the title of a fascinating email, one that had somehow dodged my spam filter. The message was suffused with breathless concern about the Federal Emergency Management Agency's recent order of "420 million survival meals;" such provisions are apparently "the #1 most critical item in a crisis." You see, "FEMA knows that if you control the food supply, then you control the people."
Normally, such paranoid ramblings merit nothing more than a quick delete and a sad shake of the head. But the New Year's note stood out because of the source. I was being alerted to FEMA's nefarious plot by no less than National Review, the nation's most important conservative magazine.
"Please find this special message from our sponsoring advertiser Food4Patriots," the publication wrote. "This important support affords us the continuing means to provide you with National Review's distinctly conservative and always exceptional news and commentary. We encourage you to patronize our sponsors."
Since being added to National Review's subscriber list, I had received four emails from the venerable publication selling me on Food4Patriots' plan to "make darn sure your family won't go hungry or get herded into a FEMA camp" by purchasing the dehydrated food they're hawking. Indeed, Food4Patriots is deeply ensconced in the conservative movement, placing its ads in both more mainstream outlets (Fox News, Townhall.com) and fringier sites (Glenn Beck's The Blaze, RedState, WorldNetDaily).
Food4Patriots is a lucrative enterprise. Its parent company, Reboot Marketing, took in $11.8 million in 2012, an astonishing 1,428 percent increase over its 2009 revenue.
But the company's skyrocketing revenues came on the back of some (arguably) really shady practices. In fact, when I wrote National Review's editor and publisher to give them a heads up about what I learned about the company, they promptly suspended future Food4Patriots ads.
Oh it is good…fascinating stuff, and it is a long read so go refill that coffee.
Another link for you, this is an update to something I don't think we have mentioned on the blog before so first the back story. Sam Bee interviewed Peter Schiff, an asshole CEO. Who goes on to tell Daily Show viewers the 'mentally retarded' could work for $2: 'You're worth what you're worth' | The Raw Story
The investment broker and talk radio host told Daily Show correspondent Samantha Bee that lifting the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour, as President Barack Obama announced he would do by executive order for federal employees, could have devastating effects.
"There's a law in economics, supply and demand, that you learn in Econ 101, and if you increase the price of something, you decrease the demand," Schiff said. "The higher you make the minimum wage, the more jobs are going to be destroyed.
The CEO of Euro Pacific Capital argued that government programs, not low wages, were trapping Americans in poverty, and claimed that paying workers twice as much would double the cost of some goods – such as fast-food hamburgers.
"I do like to taste the tears of poverty in my milkshakes," Bee said.
Schiff said those workers already earn enough.
"Did you ever go into a McDonald's or Burger King?" he said. "I don't really eat there, but they don't seem desperate and hungry to me. They're young kids, they seem to be enjoying themselves mostly."
People don't go hungry in a capitalist economy, Schiff claimed.
"It's socialism that creates, you know, scarcity, that creates famine," he said. "In a free market, there's plenty of food for everybody – especially the poor."
Schiff argued that eliminating the minimum wage law would allow more people entry to the workforce, and Bee asked him to identify someone whose work might be worth just $2 an hour.
"You know someone that might be? Maybe someone who is – what's the politically correct word, you know, for mentally retarded," Schiff said. "I believe in the principles this country was founded on."
"I'm not going to say that we're all created equal," he said. "You're worth what you're worth."
Well, the video is something you need to see, it is at the link. Go watch it.
Okay that was crazy, wasn't it?
Now, check out what the dude is saying now: Investor Peter Schiff digs himself in deeper after 'Daily Show' remarks about the 'retarded' | The Raw Story
Radio commentator and investment adviser Peter Schiff , who was recently interviewed by The Daily Show's Samantha Bee for a segment on the minimum wage, is very upset that he has been pilloried for using the not very politically-correct expression "mentally retarded" on air. During the episode, when prodded by Bee to explain who might be willing to work for $2 an hour, Schiff responded, "You know someone that might be? Maybe someone who is – what's the politically correct word, you know, for mentally retarded. I believe in the principles this country was founded on."
Responding to public criticism about his star turn, Schiff has taken to his blog to express his displeasure with The Daily Show by pointing out that that Samantha Bee didn't assist him with his answer and that he had delivered a four hour long disquisition on the free market and pay rates that somehow didn't make it onto the half-hour long satirical news program.
It is like some kind of canyon he is digging here.
Mr. Schiff pointed out that "Of the more than four hours of taped discussion I conducted, the producers chose to only use about 75 seconds of my comments. Of those, my use of the words 'mentally retarded' (when Samantha Bee asked me who might be willing to work for $2 per hour – a figure she suggested) has come to define the entire interview." He then added, "I just couldn't remember the politically correct term currently in use (it is "intellectually disabled"). Assuming she knew it, Bee could have prompted me with the correct term, but she chose not to."
Mr. Schiff then went on to further clarify that there were were two groups who would probably be happy to work for $2 an hour: the more appropriately named " intellectually disabled" and "…unpaid interns who tend to value work experience and connections more than pay. " He then pointed out that the Daily Show staffer who booked him for the show and attended the interview had "… been thrilled to start there as an unpaid intern."
Turning back to the "intellectually disabled", Mr. Schiff added that if they "…can't perform work that produces a minimum wage level of output, then no employer seeking to make a profit could afford to pay that person the official minimum wage. " and that "Many of the jobs they perform may seem mundane to those of normal intelligence, but they are often the most enjoyable and rewarding aspects of the lives of people with intellectual disabilities. I pointed out that if the federal minimum wages were to apply to them, a great many of those opportunities would vanish. Others may disagree, but I believe a job for such a person at $2 per hour is better than no job at all."
Some of his best friends are retards, oops… "intellectually disabled." WTF is wrong with these people?
Just a few more links for you today, in dump fashion.
Postal Service Banking: How the USPS Can Save Itself and Help the Poor | New Republic by David Dayen
One of the key messages of tonight's State of the Union address will be President Obama's willingness to bypass Congress to create jobs and reduce inequality. As luck would have it, yesterday a new government report detailed an innovation that would preserve one of the largest job creators in the country, save billions of dollars specifically for the poor, and develop the very ladders of opportunity that Obama has championed as of late. What's more, this could apparently be accomplished without Congressional action, but merely through existing executive prerogatives.
What's the policy? Letting the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) offer basic banking services to customers, like savings accounts, debit cards and even simple loans. The idea has been kicked around policy circles for years, but now it has a crucial new adherent: the USPS Inspector General, who endorsed the initiative in a comprehensive white paper.
I have read this whole article and I don't know what to think of it. Dak? Any thoughts?
This op/ed is only here because of the spelling topic of the thing…not the repeal Obamacare stuff…okay. Correct Spelling, Canceled by Phil Kerpen
As an American, I laugh at those archaic British spellings. Colour? Honour? Their inferiourity, if you will, is obvious. Centre? Theatre? Ridiculous. Most of these barbaric forms were corrected in America hundreds of years ago. Yet one galling Britishism is appearing on my computer screen all too frequently of late: "cancelled," with a gratuitous extra l.Randall Enos / Cagle Cartoons
Does something about Obamacare drive otherwise reasonable people to write about health plans being "cancelled" instead of "canceled"? Does the prospect of intrusive government involvement in health care cause us to regress? Is it subconscious deference to British and Canadian expertise at imposing socialized medicine? Whatever the cause, it needs to stop.
I don't know, I usually have to go back and correct my spelling of flavour to flavor. Anyway,
Google's Ngram feature searches the vast library of books Google has digitized. A search for "traveller" and "traveler" shows the British version remained dominant in America throughout the 19th century, but by 1915 the single l version overtook it and is now dominant. Merriam-Webster even touts "traveler" as an example of a Noah Webster triumph.
It took longer for "canceled" to triumph over "cancelled," according to Google Ngram. The single l version didn't take the lead until 1942, and they remained competitive for the next 40 years before "canceled" took the lead for good in 1983. As of 2000, the most recent year covered by the Google data, the now-standard American version was used over 73 percent of the time. The double l monstrosity appeared destined to finally disappear. In 2010, the Associated Press helpfully reminded the world that their style guide says "canceled" has one l.
Yet lately it seems everywhere I look there are American publications going British on this word. It's baffling. If we are slouching towards a British-style health care system, we should at least spell the canceling of all those health plans in the correct American fashion.
This leads me to a little wordplay: World Wide Words Newsletter: 1 Feb 2014 Give the mitten
Q From Michael Thomas: I was recently working an acrostic puzzle and came upon the clue, "to break up with a loved one". The answer, which I had never run across, was give the mitten. Could you explain the history of this phrase, please?
A It's new to me, too, Mr Thomas, as it probably is to readers, since it is now extremely rare. The meaning has often been the one you give (in the American Civil War, a soldier who received a Dear John letter was said to have been given the mitten) but it could also often mean that a woman had rejected a unwelcome admirer out of hand. It occasionally meant that a student had been expelled from college or a workman had got the sack.
It's known to be at least 170 years old. It has sometimes been taken to be North American, as the examples that were written down first — in the 1840s — are from works by Thomas Chandler Haliburton of Nova Scotia, who had a keen ear for the vocabulary of his times. However, as it is also recorded in Britain and Canada during much of the nineteenth century, it is probably an older British idiom that emigrants had carried abroad. In support of this, at the end of the century, the English Dialect Dictionary noted it as a British regional or dialect expression in the form to send one a mitten, to reject somebody or to cast them off.
Oh why didn't we know this when Mitt was running for Prez…we could have used that as a slogan. Let's send Mitt a mitten. More at the link.
Back to the little big man theme: The Extreme Emotional Life of Völundr the Elf
Elves have been a fixture in the European mentality for a long time in fairytales and legends and, recently, in the most popular novels and films of our age. In this article, my aim is to determine the function of elves in Old Norse narratives from the thirteenth century by concentrating on the figure of Völundr, the protagonist of Völundarkviða, who to my mind is the most important Old Norse elf. The poem portrays his marriage to a southern swan-maiden who later leaves him. He then retires into solitude, hunting bears, and counting his rings until he is captured and enslaved by the avaricious King Níðuðr. The poem ends with Völundr's gruesome revenge on the king and his family.
Völundarkviða is the tenth of twenty-nine poems in the Codex Regius ms of the Poetic Edda. Few Eddic poems have suffered less from scholarly neglect: a recent bibliography lists over 100 studies, not counting editions. There are grounds for this attention. To take one, Völundarkviða is usually classified as a heroic rather than mythological poem and shares common characteristics with some of the more ancient heroic poems in the Elder Edda, and yet it stands among the mythological Eddic poems in the manuscript between Þrymskviða and Alvíssmál.
Over the weekend I saw this man was buried with his Harley Davidson, did you see it?
American biker buried 'riding' Harley-Davidson in clear box – Americas – World – The Independent
An American biker has made his final journey on his beloved Harley-Davidson and been buried astride the motorbike in a clear box.
It was Bill Standley's wish to share a grave with the 1967 bike, which took him travelling around 49 out of America's 50 states.
His body was dressed in full riding gear and positioned on the Harley in a see-through box, which was driven to the cemetery on a trailer before being lowered into the extra-large plot.
Work on the unusual coffin started six years before Mr Standley's death, aged 82.
He built the plastic casket that would hold him and his motorbike himself with his sons, and bought three burial plots next to his wife.
Damn, talk about taking it with you. There is a video report at the link, if you need to see it. The photo is enough for me.
And finally another twist on our title, but this features little big men and women…
Alrighty then. Y'all have a wonderful day, and since it is Superbowl Sunday…I guess we'll see you around the blog later on. In the meantime, what are you reading about this morning?
Sunday Links: In dump fashionPosted: January 26, 2014 Filed under: Cuba, Diplomacy Nightmares, Discrimination against women, Economy, Environment, Feminists, Foreign Affairs, GLBT Rights, History, morning reads, Philippines, poverty, Republican politics, Russia, sports, U.S. Politics, Women's Rights | Tags: american girl dolls, Sochi 2014, women in aviation 48 Comments
Good Morning
Wow, last night I watched this cult movie called The Baby…oh boy…I kept asking myself, wtf? But like some sort of twisted train wreck, I could not look away. Mad Mad Mad Mad Movies: The Baby (1973): or, You Oughta Wean Him, He's Old Enough
That link will give you an excellent review of this "Horrible Old Movie" as Dr. Paul Bearer would say…holy shit. That was disturbing. One thing however, I bet it is David Vitter's favorite flick!
Reading synopses, reviews, and open-mouthed shock reactions for Ted Post's 1973 weirdo exploitation romp The Baby, I had somehow got the idea that at least part of the movie's shock value was inherent in the reveal of its premise–a social worker goes to the house of an eccentric family to assess the needs of their "special" youngest member, only to discover that the "baby" she thought she'd be caring for is in fact a thirty-year old man in an oversized crib and diapers. Therefore I worried that, since I knew the premise going in, much of the effectiveness of that shock reveal would be diffused.
Parishioners, I was happily misinformed–not only about how much the flick's effectiveness relies on that shock reveal (hint: it doesn't), but about that knockout premise's centrality to the plot as a whole. Yes, there's a thirty-year-old man with the brain of a pre-verbal infant who sleeps in a gigantic crib and occasionally needs his nappy changed, but surprisingly that's just a small part of what makes the movie tick. It's merely the soup base, if you will, to which Post and writer Abe Polsky add a variety of savory exploitation ingredients–some diced, some chunky, some pureed–to arrive at a delicious Mad Movie stew.
Anyway, that just blew me away. So much that I am only able to give you a dump of my own this morning. A link dump that is…
A lot of these links are things I have saved up over the last few weeks, so you may have seen them already. They are in no particular order, honestly I am too "weirded" out to get them organized in a decent way.
I thought this is kind of cool, especially for those of you who..like me…get a kick out of letters and words: Artist Transforms The City Of Chicago Into A Giant Typography Playground
It's strange to think that although we encounter letters and numbers all the time, the little guys are normally confined to a page or a screen. That is, until one bold MFA student dared to take her ABCs out of the two-dimensional world and into her environment — the urban playground of Chicago.
In the "no shit" department: Dollar Stores Are Getting Too Expensive For Many Americans I won't quote from that article, it's all been said here before.
This next link is awesome: 'Aviatrix' Is My New Word | Dr. Mae Jemison
Tenacity. Daring. Talent. Courage.
Aviatrix Amelia Earhart had these qualities in abundance. Aviatrix was the term for women who flew "flying machines" at the beginning of powered flight. The word bothered me greatly years ago, as aviatrix, a feminization of aviator, seemed to make their accomplishments parenthetical. But I think of it differently these days as I understand the women of that era were different than the men — they had to be "more" and overcome extraordinary barriers to participate in this new adventure.
Amelia Earhart is perhaps the most well known of a genre of incredible women whose life stories offer inspiration, vital insight and critical lessons for us today. (I am a bit chagrined that I did not recognize much of this until after becoming a NASA astronaut and the world's first woman of color in space.) Earhart learned to fly at a time when flying was dangerous and society considered women less capable than men in almost every sphere of life. Earhart became an international sensation as she set flying records solo and as part of a team. And she continued to strive for more until the last.
Similar elements mark the career of black aviatrix Bessie Coleman, while other aspects diverge due to racial discrimination rampant during the era. Coleman is the first American of any gender or ethnicity to receive an international license from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale in 1921. Coleman traveled to France to learn to fly because no one in the United States would teach her — no one white, and not even black men! Earhart was the 16th woman to get FAI license in 1923. While Coleman had to learn French and travel to France, Earhart rode to the end of the bus line and then walked four miles to lessons. Working as a manicurist, Coleman saved money and gained sponsorship to pay for lessons and travel. Earhart worked to save money for lessons while getting some help from her mother. They were both tenacious just to get the opportunity.
From Aviatrix to crazy-ass holidays: What crazy national day falls on your birthday?| studentbeans.com
Christmas is great and all but it's so boring – EVERYONE celebrates Christmas. So we decided to have a look at some unconventional & weird days we could fill the calendar with. First stop, the internet. Unsurprisingly we were not disappointed. Though some of these may be a little obscure (give them a quick Google if you're unsure), they are all genuine national days somewhere in the world.
My birthday "national day" of April 13… Blame Somebody Else Day…hot damn, that is a great birthday present if you ask me!
As you can see, the artwork for today's post features winter sports, only a couple of weeks til the winter games in Sochi. Did y'all see this: IOC's Mario Pescante Rips U.S. For Including Openly Gay Athletes In Official Delegation To Sochi
Here are a few other news stories on the Olympic Games:
Few Americans heading to Sochi Olympics | Travel | The Seattle Times
U.S. ready to 'extract' citizens from Sochi Olympics: Hagel – World News
Warning to U.S. athletes: No Olympic uniform outside Sochi venues – CNN.com
And…an update of sorts on the Philippine Heroes of the Night | Dr. Laura Stachel
Moving from Russia, to the Philippines to Cuba: The Metropolitan Museum of Art – Havana's Remarkable Architecture
Okay, what makes this next link so funny is that Boston Boomer had a similar link in her post yesterday. It is a quiz…and no, I did not put mine in here because she did. Like I said up top, I have had these things saved for a while. LOL
Which American Girl Doll Are You
I took the quiz and got Samantha. But who the fuck is Samantha?
- You got: Samantha!
Samantha is basically the Samantha of the American Girls: you're fabulous and you don't give a damn about what anyone thinks of your life and who you spend your time with. But that doesn't mean that you're clueless, and not generous, oh no. You know that with great power comes responsibility.
So I went and looked up who this chick is…List of American Girl characters – Wikipedia
Samantha Parkington, 1904
Samantha is an only child growing up during the Edwardian period (although American Girl designated her as Victorian). Orphaned at age five and raised by her wealthy Victorian-era grandmother in fictional Mount Bedford, New York, Samantha befriends a poor servant girl named Nellie O'Malley. Eventually Samantha, Nellie and Nellie's young sisters are adopted by Samantha's uncle and aunt. The themes of Samantha's books include women's suffrage, child labor, and classism.
What Your American Girl Doll Says About the Rest of Your Life | The Hairpin
I never had one of these, they weren't around in the 70's, but then…neither did my daughter.
Check out what these American Girl shits are all about now: How American Girl Dolls Have Changed Since the '90s:entertainment:glamour.com
American Girl dolls ain't what they used to be, guys. I fell into an AG hole this morning while investigating the latest doll of the year (yes, "investigating"—I'm suspicious of her), and what I found was shocking, just shocking. Kiss the days of historical paperbacks in burgundy plastic goodbye, because the American Girl dolls/fans of today have other kinds of fun in mind. I officially now have a beef with the following:
Isabelle, the Girl of the Year, has ombre hair.
Except it's not ombre hair (which is already kinda done—make her a teen vampire while you're at it, AG). It's just pink streaks. So: You're welcome, moms everywhere, whose daughters will be dipping their ponytails in various colored substances this year.
Isabelle also sounds like she might be terrible when she grows up.
Not to stomp on any dreams, but Isabelle's collection includes a studio where she can "design and dance." She's a designer and a dancer. I'm sorry, but I don't think we should be teaching girls to grow up and go to parties calling themselves "designers slash dancers." That's how people end up on The Bachelor. In my day, American Girls were either stable hands or blacksmiths! (At least, that's how I remember it.)
And yet, you know, don't aim too low either.
Nothing says "We've decided to spend all the college money on your brother" like buying your daughter a snack cart they can play-pretend they work at!
I wonder if that hot dog cart comes with a bikini thong uniform…well, my guess is the bikini is extra. (Y'all remember this: Thong-clad Hot Dog Vendor Blasts Critics – Sun Sentinel December 19, 1990)
More map goodness for you: POLL: How Americans Feel About The States – Business Insider
After seeing an excellent poll that asked Europeans what they thought of other European countries, we talked to our polling partner SurveyMonkey Audience to expand the questions and try it on Americans, to see how they felt about other states.
The results were hilarious, informative and tell you everything you need to know about the dynamic between the states.
We asked respondents — 1603 of them — to answer each question with a state that wasn't their own. The poll was carried out using SurveyMonkey's Audience feature, which was more accurate predicting the 2012 election than numerous traditional pollsters.
The following maps show that data. Look under each map for details when it comes to the color scale. The darkest color had the highest number of votes, the whitest color had next to none.
The Oscars are coming up…moviemorlocks.com – Stunning Visuals, Editing and Sound!
The Oscar nominations for 2013 came out recently and I was once again put in mind of the different technical categories and how misunderstood they are because when most craftsmen and artists do their job and do it well, the result is a seamless vision. If it's not, it's jarring and there's a problem. As a result, we often associate great technical work with what we can see as obvious: Great cinematography is often interpreted as great, sweeping visuals; Great editing as lots of intricate cuts; Great Sound as the sounds of explosions or music. But, honestly, it's about so much more.
One of the best authors, I think, has a new book out: Roddy Doyle, Master of Working-Class Family Drama – D.B. Grady – The Atlantic I love his Barrytown Trilogy, and this is yet another book about the Rabbitte family. (The Snapper is my favorite.)
I know you all saw this news headline: As Seen in 'Goodfellas': Arrest Is Made in '78 Lufthansa Robbery – NYTimes.com Know what the defense said about Vincent Asaro, this is funny…they said the fact that he was still alive proves he had nothing to do with the crime. Wow.
More art, this is some cool ass ink: The world's most spectacular tattoos revealed | Mail Online
Then you have the latest news out of lower Manhattan, oh this pisses me off: 9/11 Museum Admission Fee – The 9/11 Museum's New Pricing Plan – Esquire
So you want to take your family of four to the 9/11 memorial? You want to mourn or talk to your young kids about what happened at the site? That will now be $96, please.
Late yesterday, the foundation behind the 9/11 memorial quietly voted to charge a $24 admission fee to the soon-to-be-open underground museum at the site. The above ground memorial will continue to be free, victims' families will not pay, and there will be discounts and three free hours a week.
Sure, the admission fee is in line with other museums in the city (the MoMA is $25 for adults, for example), but you're certainly not paying to look at art. You're paying to grieve and learn about the largest terrorist attack on U.S. soil. Ground Zero is already a dark tourism site. Now someone's just making a buck off that fact.
Assholes…so not only did they make the memorial an underground ridiculously damp embarrassment of remembrance to the dead, a design that the families and most of NYC did not like…but now they are charging folks to go and see it? Yeah, assholes is to nice a name to call them.
I'll end this post with another gallery…The week in wildlife – in pictures | Environment | theguardian.com
Strange weather has confused many species in this week's pick of images from the natural world
Divers swim with dozens of West Indian manatees as the animals congregate around a freshwater spring north of Tampa, Florida. Local temperatures dropped below freezing, redirecting the animals to the warm springs at the Crystal River national wildlife refuge
I've never seen so many manatees in one place before…
Enjoy your day and stay warm, what are you reading about today?
Wednesday Reads: Overpriced GOP-Head Pumps and When No Means YesPosted: January 15, 2014 Filed under: American Gun Fetish, anonymous, court rulings, Crime, Criminal Justice System, Discrimination against women, FBI, Foreign Affairs, Gun Control, Homeless, income inequality, Injustice system, Medicare, misogyny, morning reads, net-neutrality, PLUB Pro-Life-Until-Birth, poverty, Real Life Horror, Reproductive Health, Reproductive Rights, Republican politics, the GOP, the internet, The Right Wing, Violence against women, War on Women, Women's Healthcare, Women's Rights | Tags: Berrendo Middle School, Chad Oulson, Curtis Reeves, Deric Lostutter, Kelly Thomas, Lund district court judge Ralf G. Larsson, Michael Eisenga, Popcorn as a deadly weapon, Rep. Joel Kleefisch, Roswell School shooting, Steubenville rape case, Tampa FL, Wesley Chapel Movie Theater Shooting 56 Comments
Good Morning
What a crappy few days it has been… such terrible stories in the news lately. Yeah…text messages, popcorn, penis pumps, poor dead children, (that should be dead poor children), rich GOP dead-beat dads, murdering cops, and judge's decisions. Oh boy, and let me tell you, things are Fukushima'd up!
Let's start with Fukushima: The Nuclear Disaster That Won't Go Away
On New Year's Day (nearly three years after the initial incident) operators of the Fukushima plant reported that "plumes of most probably radioactive steam" had been seen rising from the reactor 3 building. According to RT.com, "the Reactor 3 fuel storage pond still houses an estimated 89 tons of the plutonium-based MOX nuclear fuel composed of 514 fuel rods." Unfortunately, high levels of radiation inside the building make it nearly impossible to determine the source of the mystery steam. Although TEPCO, the plant's operator, claims there's no increased danger (small comfort from the people who admitted to the world that they have no control over the situation), most agree that the plant is just seconds away from another disaster.
Meanwhile, here in the US, another meltdown has been brewing. A fire arm meltdown.
The latest on the Shooting down in Tampa: Profiles Of Man Allegedly Shot For Texting And His Suspected Killer
They say the gun jammed when the killer tried to shoot a second time. Who the fuck was he going to shoot the wife of the man he just killed?
After officers read him his rights, Reeves told the detective that Oulson struck him in the face with an unknown object, and that's when he removed a .380 caliber gun from his pants pocket. The report said Reeves fired the gun and struck Oulson once in the chest and that he "was in fear of being attacked."
The sheriff said at a news conference that Reeves' son — who was off duty from his job as a Tampa officer — was walking into the theater when the shooting happened. Nocco said Reeves briefly struggled with an off-duty deputy but released the weapon. The gun was jammed and unable to fire again.
I want to know where Reeves went and who he talked to and what was said…what was the son doing there just as the shooting occurred? The management probably to Reeves to move to another seat, I mean how ridiculous was his complaint. It was the damn previews.
Devon Detrapani and her husband Joseph were friends with the Oulsons and that the men worked together at Sky Powersports, a motorcycle and off road vehicle dealer.
Chad Oulson was the company's finance manager and a hard worker, Detrapani said. He rode dirt bikes on the weekend and "liked" several motocross stars on Facebook, but his true love was his baby daughter, Lexi.
"They are awesome parents," said Devon Detrapani. "They love that little girl so much."
Detrapani said that Oulson was texting with his daughter's daycare on the afternoon he was shot. She said that Oulson was a kind man with no anger issues.
"He is a very nice guy," she said. "He would give the shirt off his back to help someone."
Oulson had Monday off and his wife, Nicole, worked at USAA Insurance and took the day off so they could go to the movies together.
Detrapani said she and her husband, who attended kids' birthday parties with the Oulsons, are in shock.
"This does not make sense. I don't understand," she said. "It should have never happened. Now poor Lexi has to grow up without a daddy and Nicole doesn't have a husband."
And…on that shooting in New Mexico:
Officials: Boy opens fire in New Mexico middle school gym, wounding 2 – CNN.com
A 12-year-old boy entered his middle school gym, pulled a shotgun out of a bag and opened fire on students waiting for school to start Tuesday, wounding two, authorities in Roswell, New Mexico, said.
A girl, 13, was in stable condition Tuesday night following surgery, authorities said. A boy, 11, was in critical condition after surgery.
The bloodshed rattled students and other citizens of Roswell, a city of just under 50,000 people 200 miles southeast of Albuquerque. Monique Salcido, a Berrendo Middle School student who saw two of her friends get shot, admitted she is "in shock."
"I don't want to go to Berrendo again because of what happened," she told CNN's Piers Morgan. "Because I'm afraid it's going to happen again."
The horror might have been much worse if not for one staff member. "(He) walked right up to him and asked him to put down the firearm," said New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez.
For some thoughts on this, Charlie Pierce: Gun Shootings January 14, 2014 – Two Days In Gun America
As it happens, I'm sitting in a hotel room a few exits east up I84 from the town of Newtown in Connecticut, where a crazy man named Adam Lanza walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School and murdered 26 people including 21 children. In the immediate aftermath, it was decided by elite opinion leaders that the country had reached a Teachable Moment in its insane attachment to its firearms. And this is what we've learned — people are coming to get our guns and we must buy more and better and bigger guns and carry them everywhere so that we can fight off the gun-grabbers and the insane people who we still must allow to have guns because the Second Amendment has no exception for insane people and therefore freedom.
That's what we've learned.
And, in the past couple of days, we've had a school shooting in New Mexico, the killing of a man in a movie theater for the crime of texting his daughter, and a Republican group in Oregon which thought the best way to honor Martin Luther King, Jr. and Abraham Lincoln was to raffle off a rifle. I mean, why not? Only one of those two guys was murdered with one.
It doesn't end there. News of the acquittal of cops who beat Kelly Thomas to death is another nugget of shit from the past two days that has pissed me off and Digby has some good coverage of the story here: Hullabaloo
So they found the police not guilty of a crime in the torture and beating death of Kelly Thomas. I haven't heard what the jury thought they were doing but the defense was based upon the idea that the officers were fighting for their lives.
Take a look at the victim after the beating he endured…
Go…go and look at it and read the rest. I could not bear to put the picture up on the post it is that graphic and disturbing.
I've got a few more stories on court rulings for you:
Federal court throws out net neutrality rules | Al Jazeera America
A federal appeals court on Tuesday threw out rules from the Federal Communications Commission, or FCC, that required Internet service providers to treat all Internet traffic equally, a principle known as "net neutrality."
The decision in the case, which pitted telecommunications giant Verizon against the FCC's Open Internet rules, might open the door for ISPs to charge major companies like Google or Facebook for speedier access to content, edging out smaller content providers.
This next one really takes the fucking cake: Judge Rules That 'No' Means 'Yes'
Last week, a Swedish judge ruled that a man who proceeded to have sexual intercourse with a woman who was screaming "NO" so loudly that she went hoarse was not guilty of rape. People were understandably upset. And so, today, the judge wrote an op-ed clarifying that what he MEANT was that rape really depends on whether or not the rapist feels like they're raping someone. Much better!
The case that's causing forehead slaps across Sweden involves a 27-year-old woman who met a man at a restaurant and
invited him back to her homeaccompanied him back to his home. After some consensual kissing, the man attempted to push for other sex acts, which the woman declined. The man proceeded to have sex with her, anyway, as she screamed "NO" loudly enough for the neighbors to hear. Which, you know, is rape. Pretty obviously rape.
Hmmm…..of course, you know…no means not no.
Lund district court judge Ralf G. Larsson, who listened sympathetically to the rapist's claim that he didn't think the woman actually meant that "NO" (which she was yelling); rather, she meant YES, which is a common synonym for NO. The woman countered that she most certainly did not mean YES, as she was screaming NO, but the judge ruled that because the rapist doesn't know what NO means and thought that his victim was kind of into it, that thing he was doing to her as she was yelling NO, no rape was committed.
Today, he explained his big strong man judge logic with an op ed column that was both condescending and idiotic. Larsson wrote,
If the thought had not occurred to him, that she did not want to have sex with him, then he didn't have any intention to do what he did.
He should have been acquitted. That's how the rule of law works and that's how the rule of law should work if I'm going to be a part of the justice system. [...]
The woman had made very clear to the man at least six times that she did not want to do what he wanted to do. For example, oral and anal sex came up, and at each such incident the man did not proceed with what he wanted to do.
In other words, because he didn't every kind of rape, he therefore could not have committed one form of rape. Rock solid logic.
Yeah, he didn't fuck her up the ass so he could not have "raped" her. Then this dickhead of a judge goes on to say:
If what is happening right now in mass and social media has the potential to scare less experienced judges, we're on a dangerous path.
Raise your hand if you think Rolf Larsson has NO business being a judge. And by NO, I mean NO.
I will second that and add a NO and I mean FUCK NO!
In other ridiculous rape news: Anonymous Hacker Who Exposed the Steubenville Rapists May Get More Prison Time Than Rapists : Political Blind Spot
Deric Lostutter, the 26-year-old "hacktivist" who leaked the evidence that led to the conviction of two of the Steubenville, Ohio rapists is now facing more time behind bars than the rapists he exposed. The Steubenville Rape Case made national headlines when a video made by the rapists themselves, and their friends, proved that their victim was unconscious and unable to consent.
Instead of giving Lostutter thanks for exposing these criminals, however, the FBI raided his house last April. At first, Lostutter had denied that he was the man in the video, but he decided to come forward after the appalling reaction of the rapists after they were exposed.
Lostutter is now facing ten years behind bars if indicted for obtaining tweets and social media posts which revealed the details of the rape as well as for threatening action against the Steubenville rapists and school officials who helped to cover up the crime. Lostutter posted the video to the Steubenville High School football team website, bringing national attention to the case and the cover-up.
Word of Lostutter's 10-years comes just as one of the rapists themselves, Ma'Lik Richomond, 16, was just released from prison for "good behavior."
More at the link…outrageous. The rapist gets less time than the dude who got the news of the rape and cover-up out to the public.
I think we need a new Superhero…make it a SuperShero. She is defender of rape victims everywhere, and she pulls a Bruce Wayne ala Peter Parker con Clark Kent on your ass if you rape or attempt to rape a person. Fuck yeah…this is gonna be good. Someone has to help me come up with a good name for her. And a good cover story and job and superpower.
She could be the Sky Dancer mascot…no that won't do, it doesn't go with the Buddhism thing. The idea of kicking someone's ass to a pulp is not very peaceful is it. (I guess that is why the 5th season of Dexter resonated so much for me…not to mention the film Thelma and Louise.)
And while we are on the topic of Women's Issues and how bad the situation is in the United States: America Gets An Embarrassing C- In Women's Reproductive Health
The Population Institute has released its annual State of Reproductive Health And Rights report card, and it seems that in the opinion of the massive educational nonprofit, America isn't doing so hot. If America were a high schooler, America would be grounded until America gets its grades up, otherwise America won't be getting into any colleges.
The report consolidates information most people who have been paying attention to the news probably suspected: as the federal government attempts to expand access to reproductive health care, right wing ideologues at the state level are working busily to ensure that women can't physically access the care the federal government is trying to expand. It's like the federal government built a dream house halfway up a mountain and handed women the keys, but states were like, let's make it illegal to build a driveway and then put a fence around the house and remove all the doors. And the women of states run by conservatives are like, hey, why can't I get into my house? And the state legislators are like, use your bootstraps to get in. Monday morning analogy!
Because of this, the United States still lags embarrassingly behind other developed countries in women's reproductive health (half of pregnancies in the US are "unintended," which is absurdly high) and, if social conservatives at the state level get their way, could slip even further.
Well, nothing else would be more depressing then the attitude of those right-wing assholes once those pregnancies come to fruition. They just don't give a damn. Like this next story out of Indiana, which is so upsetting, I can't even tell you how it disturbed me to read about it. Three Children Died During The Polar Vortex After Their Heat Was Cut Off | ThinkProgress
Like the rest of the mid-west, the town of Hammond, Indiana, spent the first part of last week plunged below zero degrees. But while some families tried to shut out the cold by turning up their heat and staying under blankets, the bitter temperatures turned deadly for the family of a man named Andre Young.
The house that Young was renting for himself, his wife, and five children had its electricity cut off since March, gas since April, and water since October, according to records obtained by the Chicago Tribune. On that fateful night last week, the family was getting by on propane space heaters. Authorities suspect that's what sparked a flame that engulfed the house around 10:30 p.m. on Wednesday, January 8th.
According to witness accounts, Young ran in to the house to try to rescue his five children inside. He successfully saved two — a two-year-old and a six-year-old — before the flames caused serious injury and he collapsed into the snow. Another man tried to kick in the door and save the three children who remained inside, ages four, three, and seven months. But the attempts were unsuccessful; when first responders arrived, they found the three and the four-year-old holding on to one another, just feet from the door. The seven-month-old was nearby. All three children died.
Young, who remains hospitalized in critical condition, works in lawn care, according to the Tribune. His wife worked at Walmart, but most recently was a stay-at-home mom. As is the case with so many low-income families across the U.S., neighbors say the money was not enough to make the utility payments. On two occasions, he had tried to take electricity from meters hooked up to other houses.
Turns out the house had not been inspected and the landlord was ignoring officials and refusing to pay fines, in fact the landlord was supposed to be in court this past Thursday, but did not show. The mother worked at Walmart, the father was in lawn care.
"We inspect every rental property and this one was not inspected," City Attorney Kristina Kantar told ThinkProgress. "No water, no power, no electricity, that's bad. But we can't tell that from the outside of the property."
Kantar said that she sees cases like this "every day." Sometimes people are squatters, or sometimes, like Young, they're just behind on utilities, and no city officials realize there is a family inside. "It's only because there's a fire that you even know about this," Kantar said.
There are some programs meant to assist families like Young's. In Hammond, Indiana, the North Township Trustee administers the federal money provided by the federal low-income energy assistance program (LIHEAP). The office can give amounts between $100 and $500 starting in October to individuals and families within 125 percent of the poverty line. Indiana's utility, NIPSCO, also offers a hardship program and a discount program. NIPSCO spokesperson Kathleen Szot confirmed to ThinkProgress that Young was on some form of assistance, though she did not specify which kind.
Read the rest of this story. It is heartbreaking. These fucking Republicans have so much blood on their hands. Real human being blood, and not a zygote clump of cells. PLUB assholes.
Check this out, Rich GOP Donor Gets Lawmaker to Draft a Bill to Lower His Child Support Payments | Mother Jones
After Michael Eisenga, a wealthy GOP donor and Wisconsin business owner, failed to convince several courts to lower his child support payments, he came up with an inventive plan B—he recruited a Republican state legislator to rewrite Wisconsin law in his favor.
A set of documents unearthed Saturday by the Wisconsin State Journal shows Eisenga and his lawyer, William Smiley, supplying detailed instructions to Republican state Rep. Joel Kleefisch on how to word legislation capping child support payments from the wealthy. Kleefisch began work on the legislation last fall, weeks after an appeals court rejected Eisenga's attempts to lower his child support payments.
For example, in a September 13 letter, a drafting lawyer with Wisconsin's legislative services bureau complained to a Kleefisch aide, "It's hard to fashion a general principle that will apply to only one situation."
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Eisenga's current child support payments for the three children he has with his ex-wife are set at $216,000 a year. (Per the couple's prenuptial agreement, the divorce settlement left his $30 million in assets untouched.)
The balls on these guys!
In 2010, Eisenga donated $10,000 to Kleefisch and his wife, Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, according to the Journal Sentinel. Eisenga also donated $15,000 to Republican Gov. Scott Walker.
The drafting documents, available on the Wisconsin legislature's website, leave little not doubt that the bill was written to Eisenga's specifications. According to the documents, on September 5, Eisenga's lawyer briefed him on changes he was suggesting to a draft of Kleefisch's bill. "We focused only on the portion that would require the court to modify your child support order based solely on the passage of the bill," Smiley wrote. Eisenga then forwarded that letter to Kleefisch and one of his aides, saying, "Please have the drafter make these SPECIFIC changes to the bill." The next day, Kleefisch's aide forwarded the letter to the legislative lawyer drafting the bill.
A hearing for the bill is scheduled Wednesday before the Assembly Family Law Committee.
Eisenga and Smiley declined to speak to local news outlets about their emails with Kleefisch. On Saturday, Kleefisch told the Journal, "I do a gamut of legislation with the help and assistance of many, many constituents, and whether they gave a contribution or not has not made a difference."
Oh…I think Kleefisch is full of Bullshit!
While on the subject of inflated dickheads: Medicare Is Grievously Overpaying for Penis Pumps – Jordan Weissmann – The Atlantic
Perhaps you had assumed that penis pumps were merely novelty items, sold mostly by email spammers and in a few musty sex shops. If so, you might be interested to learn that they're actually considered a medical fallbackoption for men whose erectile dysfunction cannot be cured by drugs like Viagra—and that Medicare has been vastly overpaying for them for years.
So says a new report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General, descriptively titled: "Medicare Payments for Vacuum Erection Systems Are More Than Twice As Much As the Amounts Paid For the Same or Similar Devices By Non-Medicare Payers."
A "vacuum erection system," in case anybody's unclear, is just a penis pump. Between 2006 and 2011, Medicare spent a total of $172 million to purchase 473,620 such devices, at an average cost to the government of $360 each. The Veterans Administration, by comparison, pays just $185 per pump. With a little Google searching, the OIG found options available for an average of $164.
Had Medicare paid those sorts of prices, it could have saved $14 million during each of the five years the report examined.
Ugh…go and read the rest of that shit too.
This next link is full of information, and it is just neat. 40 more maps that explain the world
Maps seemed to be everywhere in 2013, a trend I like to think we encouraged along with August's 40 maps that explain the world. Maps can be a remarkably powerful tool for understanding the world and how it works, but they show only what you ask them to. You might consider this, then, a collection of maps meant to inspire your inner map nerd. I've searched far and wide for maps that can reveal and surprise and inform in ways that the daily headlines might not, with a careful eye for sourcing and detail. I've included a link for more information on just about every one. Enjoy.
And I will end with this wonderful tweet from NYC:
Jerry Seinfeld, Jason Alexander Seen Outside Tom's Restaurant In NYC (PHOTO) (UPDATE)
Innit it great to see the two of them outside that familiar diner once again?
Have a great day and stop by for a comment or two.
Sunday Reads: Let them drink tap water…Posted: January 12, 2014 Filed under: 2014 elections, alternative energy, Corporate Crime, Department of Homeland Security, energy, Environment, Environmental Protection, hunger, Israel, morning reads, poverty, Republican politics, Republican Tax Fetishists, science, toxic waste, U.S. Politics, Water | Tags: 4-methylcyclohexane methanol, clean coal, Crude MCHM, Elk River, Freedom Industries, Freedom Industries executive Dennis P. Farrell, Freedom Industries President Gary Southern, Jeff McIntyre president of West Virginia American Water, MCHM, The Charleston Gazzette, Water Pollution Control Act, West Virginia, West Virginia's Air Pollution Control Act 62 Comments
Good Morning
I used to think of Twitter as a stream of consciousness thing, where
you type out a thought that comes to you…abstract, free-form and unassuming.
It just floated out there in the mass twit universe.
Facebook was more like a personal thought because it was "friends" or "family" that would see the shit you typed out into your little space on the wall.
More like a statement made out-loud…right?
I make statements out-loud at home all the time. Hell, don't we all. I mean, sometimes I do it when no one is listening. (And lots of those times they include the words asshole and shithead preceded of course by the key adverb "fucking") But when someone is listening in my home…they usually know what my thought process is and can complete the fragment of a statement I make even if I don't state my case in a full and intelligent manner.
I realized the other day that I do the same exact thing here…in the comments. And it is funny because the same people who pick up on my cues here…are the ones who pick up on the shit I type out on my Facebook wall.
The was a little item in the news over the weekend, Rep. Steve King was talking out of his ass again…and of course it pissed me off. I mentioned it here and on my Facebook page. I think I called King a fucking asshole and posted a link to his comment:
Susan Wood, a George Washington University professor and former FDA official, told the all-male judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution that HR7 – which would make the Hyde Amendment permanent, ban federal subsidies for private insurance plans that cover abortion and would permanently block the District of Columbia from spending local tax money on abortion services – could "virtually eliminate abortion coverage from the private insurance market" and would especially hurt low-income women, threatening to push them "deeper into poverty."
"While it may not seem like a big expense to a Member of Congress, in these tough financial times, for many people, abortion care costs more than their monthly rent, putting it out of reach for their family's pocketbook," Wood said.
When it came time to ask questions, Rep. King mocked Wood's comparison of the cost of abortion to a month's rent, wondering, "I wonder how many abortions a month does she need to keep up with the monthly rent check."
My mind was working on his comical statement, considering his PLUBic stance on providing that woman and her fetus with funding for food stamps and other "welfare" assistance once that fetus pops out of the incubation hole and becomes a living breathing tax burden.
That is what I was thinking..but I didn't write it all down. Do you all do that? I don't know. Is it cause I am lazy. Or cause I just tend to write stuff here like you are my family and this is my way of talking to you all? It is a ridiculous observation…but there it is.
BTW, images are from The Antikamnia Chemical Company via BibliOdyssey:
After beginning his working life as a printer's apprentice, Louis Crucius (or Crusius) completed the necessary requirements to graduate as a pharmacist in 1882 and a doctor in 1890 in St Louis, Missouri. While he was studying he worked in a pharmacy and made humorous sketches that were placed in the window of the store. A collection of these drawings was published in 1893 ('Funny Bones'). He lectured in histology and anatomy and eventually came to be a Professor of Anatomy but died in 1898 from kidney tumours.
Although he gave most of his drawings away, Crucius sold a number of them to the Antikamnia ('opposed to pain') Chemical Company which had been established in St Louis in 1890. They produced antikamnia medicines containing the coal tar derivative, acetanilid, an anti-fever drug with pain relieving properties somewhat related to paracetamol, but which would be later shown to be a toxic compound not to mention addictive. Antikamnia was mixed with substances like codeine and quinine to enhance the pain relieving effects.
30 of the Crucius 'dance of death'-inspired drawings were used to make 5 years worth of Antikamnia Chemical Company calendars – between 1897 and 1901. They had a fairly aggressive marketing campaign in which the calendars (aimed at the medical fraternity) as well as postcards and sample packs were distributed to doctors in the United States and overseas.
Now for the morning's reads, starting with a series of links on the chemical spill in West Virginia.
The Wait Continues for Safe Tap Water in West Virginia – NYTimes.com
As hundreds of thousands of residents faced a third day without water because of a chemical spill in a local river, a water company executive said on Saturday that it could be days before it was safe for them to drink tap water again.
Jeff McIntyre, president of West Virginia American Water, said that officials had set up four labs to test the amount of chemical in the water, but that it might take days to provide enough samples to determine whether the water was safe.
A state official also said that thousands of gallons more of the chemical had leaked into the river than was initially believed.
Not only that…but it turns out the company was not the one who notified authorities of the leak. It was the EPA. The amount of chemicals spilled was under-reported at first, and it sounds like the company Freedom Industries…fucking ironic isn't it, is starting to cooperate a little more.
About 7,500 gallons of chemical was spilled into the river, about 2,500 more than previously estimated, said Mr. Dorsey, the state environmental official.
After local officials complained of problems communicating with Freedom Industries, Mr. Dorsey said on Saturday that the company had been more cooperative. "It's in everyone's best interest to communicate well," he said.
State officials said the chemical 4-methylcyclohexane methanol, or MCHM, used in coal processing, seeped from the ruptured storage tank on Thursday into the Elk River, just upstream from the intake pipes for the regional water company. Exposure to the chemical, which smells like licorice, can cause headaches, eye and skin irritation and difficulty breathing, according to the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists.
This story is only going to get more disturbing as the investigation starts to delve deeper into the spill and the companies involved. For that I turn to the local newspaper, The Charleston Gazzette. Check these articles out, they are excellent and you need to read them in full:
This one details the discovery of the leak…Freedom Industries cited for Elk chemical spill by Ken Ward- The Charleston Gazette
When West Virginia inspectors arrived at Freedom Industries late Thursday morning, they discovered that the company had taken "no spill containment measures" to combat the chemical spill that has put drinking water supplies off-limits for hundreds of thousands of residents.
The state Department of Environmental Protection said Freedom Industries violated the West Virginia's Air Pollution Control Act and the Water Pollution Control Act by allowing the chemical "Crude MCHM," consisting mostly of 4-methylcyclohexane methanol, to escape from its facility, just upstream from West Virginia American Water's regional intake in the Elk River.
"It's a bad situation," said Mike Dorsey, chief of the DEP's homeland security and emergency response division.
Dorsey said the tank contained about 30,000 gallons of material at the time of the leak, and that the company had pumped the rest of the material out and shipped it to another of its operations.
Dorsey has said DEP officials began an investigation after receiving odor complaints from nearby residents starting at about 8:15 a.m. The DEP and Kanawha County emergency officials traced the odors to Freedom Industries, which had not self-reported any sort of leak or accident, officials said.
So the company did not notify EPA…it was residents in the area that started to smell this shit who called the local DEP…and they were the ones who contacted Freedom Industries and told them they had a spill on company property. WTF? This is where you want to pay attention to the matter:
In an air-quality enforcement order, the DEP said air-quality officials who arrived at the site at 11:10 a.m. "discovered that no spill containment measures had been initiated and that an accumulating MCHM leak pool was seeping thru a dike wall adjacent to the Elk River and a downstream oil sheen was observed."
DEP Secretary Randy Huffman said more information needs to be gathered, but that it seems possible the spill into the river might not have been as bad if Freedom Industries had acted more quickly.
"Depending on when they knew [about the leak], had they put containment measures in place the instant they knew, it's logical to deduce that there wouldn't have been as much product in the stream," Huffman said.
Oh yeah and you want more ridiculous ways Freedom Industries handled the situation?
Smells from the spill were reported early Thursday morning, but Freedom mostly stonewalled media inquiries — releasing only a bland news release through a public relations firm — until a 10-minute news conference Friday evening.
At the news conference, Freedom Industries President Gary Southern gave few details about the company, made several statements seemingly in conflict with what government officials have said, and was whisked away by a public relations handler with reporters still shouting questions.
Prior to the news conference, the most extensive public statement from anyone connected with the company came Friday afternoon from Kathy Stover-Kennedy, the girlfriend of Freedom Industries executive Dennis P. Farrell.
Stover-Kennedy stressed that the spill was an accident and said that Farrell has received threatening and frightening messages from people around the world.
"I'm not asking for anyone's sympathy but a little empathy wouldn't hurt. And just so you know, the boys at the plant made and drank coffee this morning! I showered and brushed my teeth this morning and I am just fine!" Stover-Kennedy wrote on her personal Facebook page.
Yeah…Let them drink tap water!!!!!
"There has been criticism from many about how Freedom Industries is handling this," she continued. "Denny is not a spokesperson and has no desire to be. His expertise was much needed elsewhere. If he had taken the time to talk to the numerous media networks, giving statements, he would not have been able to react to the situation and perform his job accordingly. It wasn't his decision to hire a spokesperson and it isn't his job to be one."
Well, if you look at these links I am giving you here, it seems Denny did not do much…in the way of working his expertise. The Charleston Gazette is examining this leak, and the company, Freedom Industries, rather well…I wish there were reporters like these out there doing the same in other towns where industrial environmental disasters have devastated more than the water supply. (But then perhaps there is a reason for the silence too…) (And really, I could go further and add political governmental disasters as well but that would get me off on another tangent.)
Anyway, take a look at this…regarding the leak and what actions took place after it was discovered…and prior to? Why wasn't there a plan? Key players knew of potential for Elk River spill By Ken Ward Jr. – The Charleston Gazette
Freedom Industries filed its "Tier 2″ form under the federal Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act. State emergency response officials got a copy. So did emergency planners and responders from Kanawha County.
Under the law, government officials are supposed to use chemical inventory information on Tier 2 forms, like Freedom Industries', to prepare for potential accidents.
Armed with the forms, they know what facilities could explode, where large quantities of dangerous substances are stockpiled, and what industries could pose threats to things such as drinking water supplies. They can plan how to evacuate residents, fight fires or contain toxic leaks.
Sounds like that diagram from the movie Office Space, "Planning to Plan"
Those same agencies and public officials, though, have said they know little about the chemical involved. They're all acting a bit surprised that this mystery substance was being stockpiled so close to a crucial water intake, and shocked that something like this could have happened.Water company officials are equally puzzled. For example, West Virginia American Water President Jeff McIntyre told reporters on Friday that his company didn't know much about the chemical's possible dangers, wasn't aware of an effective treatment process, and wasn't even sure exactly how much 4-methylcyclohexanemethanol is too much.
"We're still trying to work through the [material safety data sheet] to try to understand the risk assessment of this product," McIntyre said during a Friday-morning news conference. "We don't know that the water is not safe. But I can't say that it is safe."
McIntyre said his company hadn't at that point had any contact directly with Freedom Industries, and he wasn't able to identify any previous efforts by the two firms to work together on emergency response planning.
"I can't answer that question," McIntyre said when asked about such planning. "I don't have that information."
Fred Millar, a longtime chemical industry watchdog in Washington, D.C., said the lack of better planning was an example of how the landmark emergency response law hasn't been properly enforced around the country.
"Obviously, the whole idea of the chemical inventory reports is to properly inform local emergency officials about the sorts of materials they might have to deal with," Millar said Friday. "It's just head-in-the-sand to be ignoring this type of threat."
No shit.
But this next article is one that starts to peel at the toxic layer of protections "corporations" can muster when it comes to being people…Freedom Industries execs are longtime colleagues- by Dave Gutman The Charleston Gazette
Freedom Industries, the company whose chemical spill is responsible for the contamination of much of the Kanawha Valley's water, has existed in its current form for less than two weeks.
On the last day of 2013, Freedom Industries, which distributes chemicals used in coal mining, merged with three other companies: Etowah River Terminal, Poca Blending and Crete Technologies, a Delaware company.
Poca Blending, in Nitro, and Etowah River Terminal, in Charleston, now comprise the two branches of Freedom Industries.
The company's website says the Charleston branch, which spilled the chemical, "can process large volumes of chemical rapidly, and cost effectively."
They can leak the shit rapidly too.
And what exactly is 'Crude MCHM'? Few know – by Ken Ward Jr – The Charleston Gazette
That should really get you all up to speed on the spill in West Virginia. The rest of the links will be quick, in dump format after the jump.
Sunday Reads: Faults, Fashions and FailuresPosted: December 8, 2013 Filed under: Art, bees, campaign financing, Citizen's United & Super Pacs, corporate money, Crime, Drone Warfare, Free Press, Japan, morning reads, poverty, The Right Wing, U.S. Economy | Tags: "Operation Santa 2013", House Armed Services Committee Chairman Howard "Buck" McKeon (R-Santa Clarita), Neanderthals, New York's medical examiner, Noah's Ark Animal Sanctuary, Rene Gruau, US Post Office, vintage fashion, vintage perfume 44 Comments
Good Morning
I hope that those of you trapped beneath the ice and snow, are safe and doing fine. Some of the pictures out of Texas are amazing. I have a house full of munchkins as I write this post (Saturday night) and it is wonderful to hear laughter from my daughter's room.
So, with that in mind, here is your post for this cold December morning. (Written by a distracted mum, so mind the awkwardness.)
By the way, all the illustrations are by René Gruau (February 4, 1909 – March 31, 2004)
…a renowned fashion illustrator whose exaggerated portrayal of fashion design through painting has had a lasting effect on the fashion industry . Because of Gruau's inherent skills and creativity, contributed to a change in the entire fashion industry through the new pictures that represented the already popular designs created by designers in the industry. The benefits, including economic stimulation and enhancement of advertising are still vividly presented in the industry today via a new way of fashion illustration, fashion photography. Gruau became one of the best known and favorite artists of the haute couture world during the 1940s and 50s working with Femina, Marie-Claire, L'Officiel, L'Album Du Figaro and an assortment of "high-style" magazines.[3] Gruau's artwork is recognized and commended internationally in some of Paris and Italy's most prestigious art museums including the Louvre in Paris and the blank in Italy. in addition to his international fame and recognition, "Gruau's artwork is known for its timeless and enduring style".[3]
You can find many more of these beautiful fashion illustrations here: RENE GRUAU
I will have more fashion links later in the post, now let's get to some "newsy" links.
There is some disturbing policy news out of Japan, Japan's controversial new state secrets law condemned as 'the largest ever threat to democracy in postwar Japan' by Nobel academics | The Raw Story
Japan's controversial new state secrets law was condemned Saturday as "the largest ever threat to democracy in postwar Japan" by a group of academics, including two Nobel prize winners, reports said.
On Friday Japan's parliament adopted a new law handing out stiffer penalties for those who spill state secrets, despite a public outcry over fears the legislation was draconian and would impinge on press freedom and the public's right to know.
In a strongly worded attack on the new law, a group of 31 academics, including Nobel Prize winners Toshihide Maskawa and Hideki Shirakawa, accused the Japanese government of threatening "the fundamental human rights and pacifist principles" established by the country's constitution.
The controversial bill, proposed by the right-wing government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, was approved by the Senate on Friday evening, a few days after it was passed in the lower house.
The Senate vote in favour was expected as the coalition government led by Abe's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) holds a majority of seats there.
The opposition raised motions to stop the law but each move was rejected by the LDP members and their allies.
Sounds like Japan has their own form of "GOP" like assholes in control, and they are making a mess of things.
The scholars' statement — which Kyodo said was also endorsed by a further 3,150 academics — condemned the country's ruling bloc of behaving in a way that was "reminiscent of the prewar government that wrested away freedom of thought and freedom of the press" by pushing the law through both Japan's legislative chambers.
Shirakawa was awarded the Nobel prize for chemistry in 2000 while Maskawa won the prestigious award for physics in 2008. The Kyodo report did not name any of the other academics who signed the statement.
The law allows government ministers to designate as a state secret information related to defence, diplomacy, counter-intelligence and counter-terrorism.
Abe has argued that the measure is necessary to plug a notoriously leaky government machine, which prevents its chief ally the United States from sharing intelligence.
But critics say the categories are so vague that almost anything could fit the definition. They worry that information that is embarrassing to governing politicians or to their patrons could easily be hidden from public view.
They point to the way that Tokyo withheld news of the severity of the nuclear disaster at Fukushima in 2011, and say a state that already operates largely behind closed doors will become even more secretive.
That problem is exacerbated by a relatively weak institutional press.
Oh yeah, weak press? Hmmm, that does sound familiar. But ours is weak because of who "sponsors" it…
Those convicted of leaking "state secrets" could get long prison terms, up to ten years…and anyone encouraging someone to spill the beans…they could get up to five years in prison, the language so vague….it may even include journalist and lawyers.
And talking about Japan: Largest Fault Slip Ever Recorded Generated Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami
The magnitude 9.0 earthquake that unleashed the devastating 2011 tsunami in Japan was triggered by the largest fault slip ever recorded, the journal Science reported Thursday.
By measuring the frictional heat produced by the fault slip during the earthquake, researchers from the University of California, Santa Cruz and other organizations found that friction along the Tohoku fault was remarkably low when the earthquake struck on March 11, 2011.
"The Tohoku fault is more slippery than anyone expected," said Emily Brodsky, a geophysicist at UC Santa Cruz. Brodsky acted as co-author for three papers on the Tohoku earthquake published in the journal Science this week.
The scientist say the fault is slippery as a banana peel.
Researcher Patrick Fulton, first author of the paper focusing on temperature measurements, concurred.
"The large slip at shallow depths contributed to the tsunami that caused so much damage in Japan. Usually, these earthquakes don't rupture all the way to the surface," he said.
Fulton said that the low resistance to slip along the Tohoku fault can help explain the staggering 165-foot displacement, or movement, that occurred to the seafloor during the earthquake. That low friction, he said, was exacerbated by an abundance of weak, slippery clay material in the fault zone.
Read more at the link…it is an interesting read.
Back at home, this little tidbit of news due to an asshole out of California: Global Hawk Air Force Budget Cuts – Business Insider
A $114 million contract to build three more Global Hawk high-altitude unmanned surveillance aircraft was announced back in September, despite the Air Force not even wanting them.
Facing budget cuts and wanting to save some cash (about $2.5 billion over five years), the Air Force was planning to stop buying the pricey — and rather unreliable — drones and mothball the remainder of the fleet in favor of the battle-tested and accomplished U2 spy plane.
"The Block 30 [Global Hawk aircraft] is not operationally effective," the Pentagon's top testing official had declared in a blunt May 2011 report, according to The Center for Public Integrity.
But the Pentagon was no match for forces on Capitol Hill, as an article written by W.J. Hennigan in the Los Angeles Times points out:
"Northrop responded sharply, saying the U-2 "places pilots in danger, has limited flight duration and provides limited sensor capacity."
In the end, the Air Force didn't win that skirmish. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Howard "Buck" McKeon (R-Santa Clarita), whose congressional district includes Palmdale, jumped in to rescue the project. Congress restored the funding, and last month Northrop received a $114-million contract to build three more drones, saving thousands of jobs."
Go and read all the money that was put into military programs the military did not want. And then…read this op/ed from the LA Times: The saddest Christmas wish lists ever
I was standing in line at the post office when a sign caught my eye: "Operation Santa 2013." According to the poster, "answering letters to Santa has been a holiday custom for over 100 years." Those who wanted to participate could choose one of the many letters to Santa received by the post office and write back as Santa, sending the gift requested.
How cute, I thought. Kids request presents from "Santa" and they actually arrive.
I remember walking to the mailbox with my own letters to Santa as a child. One of my mother's favorite Christmas stories was how, when I was 4, I mistakenly threw my peanut butter sandwich into the mailbox instead of my letter. Santa brought me a whole jar of peanut butter that year.
I couldn't wait until my kids were old enough to write letters to Santa. Now they are too old for Santa Claus and I miss him, so Operation Santa seemed perfect for me.
Bright and early on Dec. 3, the first day the program got underway, I drove to the main Los Angeles post office at Gage and Central to choose my letter. I walked into a large, decorated room where Cleo, the "elf in charge," was waiting. I expected letters full of misspelled words and little-kid grammar, asking for Legos and Barbies, skateboards and My Little Pony. I knew there'd be those who asked for phones or IPads or Xboxes, or other things out of my price range, but I figured I could find some little boy who still wanted a fire engine.
What I found were pleas from parents. A mother out of work said her family would eat, but there wouldn't be any presents. A dad wrote that his kids needed school supplies. Parents with two kids, three kids, maybe more, were hoping for help with what they couldn't provide. A dad just out of prison wanted to make Christmas special for the kids he hadn't seen for so long. A disabled grandmother asked for a church dress for her granddaughter.
I was overwhelmed. Many of the letters — even the ones from kids — asked for groceries and shoes, clothing and shampoo. One child wrote: "Please bring my mommy some food. She's been good this year."
The rest is heartbreaking….especially for me, because my good friend Jessica is one of those mommas who is having a difficult time this year getting a few gifts for her two boys. Seeing her on Facebook looking for "barter or trade" items makes me so sad.
Elf Cleo sat beside me at the table checking in a new batch of letters. She told me 90% of the Santa requests sent to the post office never get answered. Many are written at homeless shelters and city food banks and after-school programs. (I found one letter in which a young teenager asked for gifts for the shelter workers.) Cleo said that every once in a while a family's gift comes back unopened, marked address unknown. She wonders: Have they moved into a shelter? A car? Onto the street?
I read a lot of letters, and I felt worse and worse. I didn't know how to choose. The single dad who needed diapers? The 17-year-old asking for a backpack for her little sister? I believe in holiday magic, but there just didn't seem to be enough of it to go around.
After you read the rest of that op/ed, take a look at this: What If Your Income Grew As Fast As the 1 Percent's? Try Our Calculator | Mother Jones
The richest 1 percent of Americans have seen their average income jump more than 270 percent over the past five decades. Meanwhile, the average income of the least wealthy 90 percent of Americans grew an anemic 22 percent during that time. (Those figures are based on inflation-adjusted real dollars.)
So how much would you be earning today if the phenomenal income growth at the very top of the income scale had trickled down to most Americans? Use this calculator to find out.
All you crime newsy people will eat up this next juicy link: Why Couldn't Worst Crime Lab Employee Get Fired? — Daily Intelligencer
That's the question an exhaustive new report on a particularly incompetent lab worker at the office of New York's medical examiner. Over two years, the office has been looking into how she mislabeled evidence (mixing up suspect and victim's names), ignored or missed DNA samples, failed to test evidence, and couldn't understand basic concepts for testimony. But even though her supervisors knew about "myriad failures," they didn't fire her. The only news in this story that instills confidence in the city's forensics lab: She left on her own in 2011.
Which is connected to a New York Times story here: The City Is Not Handling Its DNA Evidence Too Well
and here: Report Details the Extent of a Crime Lab Technician's Errors in Handling Evidence
Alright, now for the fashion links. Orchid…that is the new hot color for 2014! Actually it is officially called "Radiant Orchid" but that link goes to an AP article so you will need to read about the "creativity" of the color purple on your own.
Well, for me…talking creativity in fashion? How about iconic? Marilyn Monroe's Magician–the One and Only Travilla | GlamAmor
Whenever I want to illustrate the power of costume design, the person I always turn to is the legendary William ("Billy") Travilla. I can usually convince any crowd with two simple words: Marilyn Monroe. As of 1952, Travilla was responsible for her fashion on film, which included iconic work in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), How to Marry a Millionaire (1953), and The Seven Year Itch (1955). He designed for her offscreen as well. In short, as the world continues to obsess over the style of Marilyn Monroe, we are all also celebrating the talent of Travilla.
Though perhaps best known for his work in the 1950s, his career stretched from film in the 1940s to television of the 1980s where he helped shape the style of the decade in shows such as Dallas and KnotsLanding. As a result, there is a nearly endless list of celebrities who absolutely adored him. Barbara Stanwyck, Lana Turner, Ava Gardner, Lauren Bacall, Loretta Young, Ann-Margret, Faye Dunaway, Debbie Reynolds, Joanne Woodward, Mitzi Gaynor, Diahann Carrol, Sharon Tate…this is only the beginning. As biographer and Travilla Foundation founder Kimberley Ashley observes, "Many celebrities of the golden era of Hollywood depended upon the Travilla touch for their career success. He touched their lives with his silver screen alchemy."
Oooo, love that quote, those last three words drip with perfect illusion. Just go to GlamAmor blog and read the rest. Enjoy it!
Then take a look at this: 17 Times The Fashion Was The Best Part Of The Movie
Forget the plot — some movies are best remembered for the costumes.
At least, that's how we feel. We appreciate a well-directed film with good cinematography as much as the next film buffs, but some movies capture a style era so perfectly, we can't help but leave inspired to emulate the characters. Below, we've rounded the films with fashion we'll never forget… even if we can't remember anything else about them.
And what is fashion without scent? A Whiff on the Wild Side: Confessions of a Vintage Perfume Addict That is an excerpt of a book on perfumes, it even has some of the reviews of old vintage scents. Scent and Subversion: Decoding a Century of Provocative Perfume: Barbara Herman
Another book link for you, this time a discussion of an anthology: Why Writers Love New York City (and Then Leave It) – Marie-Helene Westgate – The Atlantic
In the new anthology Goodbye to All That: Writers on Loving and Leaving New York, contributors share the experience of moving to New York in pursuit of the writing life. In essay after essay, writers describe their experiences moving to New York from Long Island, New Jersey, California, and overseas. Anyone from anywhere can come to New York City in pursuit of fame, riches, and romance, and as a result, Goodbye to All That captures New York's uniquely nuanced, overlapping landscape of cultures and geographies that for millions feels at once deeply personal and communal.
But while something deeper also reveals itself in the pages: Some thread of pure accident runs through the story of each writer's dream of making it in the big city.
After you read that interview piece, if the book seems interesting, find it here: Goodbye to All That: Writers on Loving and Leaving New York: Sari Botton
Did you know that the Neanderthals used to decorate their caves? Well, not in the way we do…but: New evidence suggests Neanderthals organized their living spaces
Scientists have found that Neanderthals organized their living spaces in ways that would be familiar to modern humans, a discovery that once again shows similarities between these two close cousins.
The findings, published in the latest edition of the Canadian Journal of Archaeology, indicate that Neanderthals butchered animals, made tools and gathered round the fire in different parts of their shelters.
"There has been this idea that Neanderthals did not have an organized use of space, something that has always been attributed to humans," said Julien Riel-Salvatore, assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Colorado Denver and lead author of the study. "But we found that Neanderthals did not just throw their stuff everywhere but in fact were organized and purposeful when it came to domestic space."
Go figure.
And if that does not make you think twice about things and mans place in the animal kingdom, maybe this will: Honeybees Can Recognize Individual Human Faces: Scientific American
The ability to tell individual faces apart was long thought to be exclusive to large-brained mammals. But in recent years a number of studies have shown that, in fact, some wasps can facially recognize one another. And honeybees can learn human faces, too. In their article in the December issue of Scientific American, biologists Elizabeth Tibbetts of the University of Michigan and Adrian Dyer of RMIT University in Melbourne describe these findings and what they reveal about the neural requirements for seemingly complex cognitive tasks.
Shit. They can learn human faces? Damn, does that mean that the military could train honeybees to become assassins? Think about it. Mercenary "Killer Bees" that are trained to go after a specific target's face. Hey, that would make a great Roland Emmerich movie eh?
The last link for you today is a follow-up on a story from long ago. How An Abused Lion, Tiger And Bear Became An Unlikely Family (PHOTOS)
Baloo the bear, Leo the lion, and Shere Khan the tiger (all three known as BLT) were brought together as 2-month-old cubs and have grown up as a family.
The trio was originally owned by a drug dealer who didn't properly care for them, leading to neglect, poor health and severe injuries.
In 2001, Noah's Ark Animal Sanctuary, a nonprofit that cares for animals in need, came to the rescue, and took them to Locust Grove, Georgia, where they were treated for injuries.
"We could have separated them," Diane Smith, assistant director of the Noah's Ark Zoo told the Telegraph. "But since they came as a kind of family, the zoo decided to keep them together."
I wrote about these three buddies when I started blogging for Sky Dancing years ago. Well, it turns out the fence around their little home need some improvements.
…the government passed new federal regulations requiring big cat enclosures to have 16 foot fences put up, which would take effect in October of this year. Baloo, Leo and Shere Khan's fence was only 8 feet high. If these regulations weren't met, the three animals would have to split up.
Rebuilding the fence would cost $489,000.
With October slowly approaching, The Sanctuary entered a contest to help raise money. On August 15, CrowdRise, an online fundraising site, teamed up with RYOT, a social news platform to announce a challenge called #STARTARYOT, according to ncronline.com. They offered $75,000 to the nonprofit that raised the most money in five weeks.
On Oct. 10, they had announced that Noah's Ark Animal Sanctuary had won. They even received an extra $10,000 for attracting the most unique visitors during the last week of the challenge.
Additionally, they were able to raise $362,269 through crowd-funding. The installment company even agreed to discount the price of the new fence.
And once more, all is right in the BLT-land.
Innit that great! There are lots of more photos at the link…go see the three amigos together. So dang cute!
That is my post for today. Stay warm and happy!