The Broken Synapse

Pay Attention

2011-07-28T15:30:00.002-04:00

Do you know what is gone? Thought. Contemplation. Reason. Andyes, most definitely perspective. You accomplish nothing when you act like stuborn children. And that is for BOTH sides. But if the "new wave" of Republican reactionaries are to blame for a loss of the countries credit rating or a precipitous rise in interest rates, and if there is NO action to closing taxloopholes or reform entitlements, then THEY should pay the bill.

Oh, and just ofr the record, Donald Trump is an idiot.
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Inflexible GOP should listen to Reagan on debt

By John Avlon, CNN Contributor
July 28, 2011 1:59 p.m. EDT

(CNN) -- As the debt-ceiling deadline ticks closer, conservatives in Congress are fighting among themselves. The civil war is between responsible Republicans and extreme ideologues. The question is whether the collateral damage will include the American economy.

House Speaker John Boehner abruptly abandoned his attempt to negotiate a "grand bargain" on the deficit and the debt with President Barack Obama because of a lack of support among tea party members, and now he is struggling to keep support for his Plan B intact in the face of an open rebellion.

A senior staff member of the Republican Study Committee was found to have been e-mailing conservative activist groups, encouraging them to attack Boehner's late-inning option as being insufficiently radical. The all-or-nothing impulse makes enemies even of allies.

In the face of this political crisis masquerading as a fiscal crisis, it seems that no one can unite the Republican Party, let alone the nation. If far-right conservatives can't listen to reason, maybe they will listen to Ronald Reagan.

Because Reagan had stern words for Congress when it tried to play political games with the debt ceiling in 1987. They still ring true today.

I was at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, on Thursday to hear my wife, Margaret Hoover, speak in support of her new book, and I inquired about a Reagan quote that Obama referenced in his Monday night prime-time speech. Reagan offered this particular dose of common sense on September 26, 1987, in a national radio address. Here is the key part of the text:

"Unfortunately, Congress consistently brings the government to the edge of default before facing its responsibility. This brinkmanship threatens the holders of government bonds and those who rely on Social Security and veterans benefits. Interest markets would skyrocket. Instability would occur in financial markets and the federal deficit would soar.

"The United States has a special responsibility to itself and the world to meet its obligations. It means we have a well-earned reputation for reliability and credibility -- two things that set us apart in much of the world."

Congressional Republicans should read that paragraph out loud twice before going to vote on the debt ceiling in the next few days. It is essentially the same argument Obama has been making. But in our current hyper-partisan environment reason doesn't resonate across party lines. Instead, there is too often an overheated impulse to oppose Obama at any cost. Hearing the same argument from the Gipper might inspire a needed sense of perspective.

That loss of perspective is a key symptom of hyper-partisanship. It causes people to forget that the national interest comes before partisan interests. This affliction is epidemic at the moment. Whole segments of the GOP 2012 presidential field are debt-ceiling deniers, arguing that defaulting on our debt doesn't really matter.

Tim Pawlenty has said that he "hopes and prays" that the debt ceiling isn't lifted. Ron Paul made this approach the cornerstone of his first ads. Rep. Michele Bachmann says, nonsensically, that she doesn't believe the nation will default on August 2 but she'll vote against raising the debt ceiling anyway.

There are believed to be dozens of votes in the House Republican caucus who will also oppose any raising of the debt ceiling. They are like a person who refuses to pay a credit card bill after a spending spree and calls it a stand for fiscal responsibility.

The most insidious line of argument is one that encourages default for supposed political advantage.

This sentiment is most often articulated behind closed doors, but Donald Trump brought it out into the open, telling Fox News on Monday: "Unless Republicans get 100% of what they want -- and that may include getting rid of 'Obamacare,' which is a total disaster -- they should not make a deal other than a minor extension which would take you before the elections which would ensure that Obama doesn't get elected, which would be a great thing. ... The Republicans have the leverage. I don't care about polls. When it comes time to default, they're not going to remember any of the Republicans' names. They are going to remember in history books one name, and that's Obama."

What can you say about such a breathtakingly cynical and nihilistic approach to politics, other than it is the exact opposite of John McCain's 2008 campaign slogan, "Country First."

Responsible Republicans are beginning to understand that the conservative populist fires they have stoked to win elections can be the enemy of effective governance. Fiscal responsibility and fiscal conservatism have been effectively delinked. Even a conservative icon such as Reagan would not pass the litmus tests imposed today. After all, Reagan raised the debt ceiling successfully 17 times and increased the deficit during his term in office, a byproduct of his successful strategy to spend the Soviet Union into oblivion.

Most significantly, he closed dozens of tax loopholes as a means of lowering tax rates while still raising revenues -- the same approach that was labeled an unacceptable tax hike by anti-tax absolutists and killed the prospects for a grand bargain with Obama and Boehner.

Reagan governed effectively with a Congress controlled by Democrats. There were principled differences and heated debates, but in the end, the two sides were able to reason together and negotiate in good faith, understanding that all or nothing is not a practical option between fellow countrymen. By demonizing people we disagree with -- especially the president of the United States -- we demean our democracy.

We are playing a dangerous game right now. Republicans do not know what will happen in their own conference, let alone what plan might pass both the House and Senate. And even if we avoid default, this Kabuki theater could have the consequence of downgrading our credit rating. The alleged purpose of this fight has been essentially forgotten -- tax and entitlement reforms are not on the table right now. This will eventually be seen as a lost opportunity. We are just fighting to avoid default.

The dysfunctional debt-ceiling debate needs a dose of common sense before it is too late. Perhaps the unifying figure of Reagan will provide a reinforcement of reason. It's sad and stupid to have to say, but conservatives might accept an argument made by the Gipper, even as they ignore the same appeal made by the current president of the United States.

PISSED OFF

2011-07-28T12:57:00.001-04:00

I am SICK and TIRED of the lying bullshit. I loathe the political posturing and arrogant behavior being exhibited by people who have been elected to act like intelligent adults.
I am more than fed up with it.
I have been an Independent since the day I could vote. I have voted conscientiously in every election since then. I try to research as much as I can about the people and issues before casting my vote. I don't give a rat's ass which party people are from because I want them to do the best job possible. I am utterly tolerant that others have different opinions - and respect that, assuming they are based on logical principles and they can put forth some kind of intelligent argument for their position.
I have come to believe that the 2-party system is broken in today's America. I firmly believe that the entire monetary lobbying system and profession should be illegal. I disagree, but respect, the Supreme Court's ruling that corporations are equivalent to people. They are not.   I believe that so-called "think tanks" are detrimental to the process - AND that they are nothing more than money & influence-grubbing entities of little value.
I further believe that the narcissistic environment of today has done nothing but hurt our country and society.
The 24-hour cable "news" networks are ALL jokes. I understand that media has had a long history of partisan behavior. I also know that once there was an integrity to mass-access media outlets that attempted to provide unbiased journalism, respecting the intelligence of the viewer/reader in that they tried to present THE FACTS and the history of a given subject, and let those people form their own decisions and conclusions from that.  They would also have a CLEARLY stated area or time-slot that was OPINION.
We even AWARDED these entities for their attempts at this kind of behavior.
No more. That is gone. What remains is bullshit.
To Congress, I call bullshit.
To CNN, MSNBC and FOX, I call bullshit.
Grover Norquist is not an elected official. Any idiotic pledge he elicits should hold no water.  Congress reports to ME...to US. He should be sent on his way as irrelevant.

It has gone way beyond looking to persuade and move forward through the encouragement of intelligent discourse. There is no respect for anyone.

I agree with this opinion piece below.... Yes, it is opinion.
But I also KNOW that the stated facts are true, and I have a problem with people and media flat out lying.
It's not fun, nor is it funny any more.
And mocking through satire loses its effect when people are to ignorant to get it for what it is - a request ofr changed behavior.

Change is needed. I still believe that a large, large portion of this country is made up of what was once called the silent majority..... people who understood the reality of the middle, of the give and take necessary to move the country in the right direction. People who were more aware and sentient than the extreme, outspoken edges.
It is time for action from THESE people.
Everyone else? Shut up. You have done harm to the country and the system....and to actual people. We will not let you hijack our country, politics, systems, education or anything else any more.

It's beyond the point regarding this subject where we say "If anything untoward happens....there will be hell to pay." It's already too late. The bullshit has reached the top. There already NEEDS to be hell to pay.

I want sacrifice where it's needed. I want people to do right, sane, logical, proper thing. I want civility.

And I want the bullshit to end. NOW.
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Still True Today: Frequently Forgotten Facts of the Debt Debate

By Michael Grunwald Wednesday, July 27, 2011

If the debt-limit debate had anything to do with reality, every story about it would include a few basic facts. Starting with: President Obama inherited a $1.2 trillion budget deficit. And: Republican leaders supported the tax cuts and wars that (along with the recession, another pre-Obama phenomenon) created that deficit. Also: Republicans engineered this crisis by attaching unprecedented ideological demands to a routine measure allowing the U.S. to pay its bills. Finally, Obama and the Democrats keep meeting those demands—for spending cuts, then for more spending cuts, and even for nothing but spending cuts—but Republicans keep holding out for more.
These are verifiable facts, not opinions. But since they aren’t new facts, and re-reporting them would make “GOP claims” about the crisis look, um, non-factual, they’re rarely mentioned, except as “Democratic claims.” This is a real problem for journalism in an era where—now this is an opinion—one of the major parties has abandoned its grip on reality. I understand why objective reporters aren’t encouraged to contradict political lies with historical truths, but this hostage drama is one of the prices of our era of amnesia.
Look, staying in opinion-land, I think this particular hostage drama could conceivably drive budget policy in a good direction. I’d love to see big cuts in spending on agriculture, housing and the military. We do need to restrain long-term Medicare and Medicaid costs, although there are better and worse ways to do that. There’s still a chance to eliminate ludicrous tax breaks for ethanol producers, private jet owners and hedge fund managers, maybe paired with an economy-boosting payroll tax cut to help Republicans honor their no-new-taxes pledges.
In other words, it’s at least possible that this crisis the Republicans created could have a beneficial effect. It’s also possible that this crisis the Republicans created could cripple the full faith and credit of the U.S. government, plunge the economy back into recession, and increase borrowing costs for just about everyone. But whatever happens, Republicans created this crisis. They blew up the debt. They refused to raise the debt ceiling without conditions. And because of their internal divisions, they can’t even decide what those conditions should be. They initially demanded a breakdown of 85% spending cuts and 15% revenue increases, before deciding the deal had to be 100% spending cuts. Some initially praised the bipartisan Gang of Six plan—until Obama endorsed it. Now Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has a proposal for 100% spending cuts, all of which Republicans had already endorsed –until, of course, Reid proposed them.

I remember back when I was at The Washington Post, a guy named Matt Miller (unsuccessfully) pitched my boss about running a daily front-page feature called “Still True Today,” to inform readers about important facts that didn’t happen to be newsworthy that day. Miller’s plan wouldn’t really address the problem of a major political party creating its own fact-free reality. And I don’t know how many minds would be changed by constant reminders that President Clinton left behind a substantial surplus, that President Bush vaporized it into a gigantic deficit, that President Obama’s health care reforms will actually reduce the deficit.
But it does seem to be worth pointing out that those facts are still true today. Not that they seem to matter.

The Young Adults Reunion ....

2011-07-21T17:38:00.000-04:00

The Young Adults, "Complex World" from Jonathan Flynn on Vimeo.

2011-07-14T09:49:00.000-04:00

A man named Sherwood Schwartz passed away the other day, on July 12th, 2011. He was the creator of many things in entertainment, most notably the creator of ‘Gilligan’s Island’ and ‘The Brady Bunch’. Being the age I am, many evenings and, later, afternoons were filled watching those shows. Classics of their time. Corny, but as a kid you couldn't turn them off.....

Mr. Schwatrz left a letter, it seems. It was published the day after he died in The Hollywood Reporter, and it bears repeating here. Originality is key … wish I could be that creative.

Thanks for the laughs, Sherwood! RIP

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A Conversation at the Gates

One day in the not to distant future, I will find myself standing in front of the Pearly Gates.

I knock.

A pleasant voice calls out, “Who’s there?”

“Sherwood Schwartz,” I answer.

“One moment,” says the Voice. “I have lots of Schwartzes on my list. Did you say Sherwood?”

“Yes, Sherwood Schwartz. I was born November 14, 1916. My parents were Rose and Herman Schwartz.”

“Yes, yes, I have it right here. Your parents love you very much.”

“I loved them very much as well. I lived with them until I got married.”

“To Mildred, according to my records,” says the Voice.

“Yes. I never believed in love at first sight until I met Mildred. I always thought ‘Love at first sight’ was just poetic babble.”

“That’s what they all say until it happens to them.”

“I loved Mildred with all my heart for over sixty-nine years. I’m sure she loved me as much as I loved her.”

“She did,” says the Voice. “And you had four children, Donald, Lloyd, Ross, and Hope.”

“Four wonderful children,” I couldn’t help adding.

“All of them quite different, but all of them talented, and hard-working. I’m pleased I was able to watch each of them reach certain goals.”

“You sound very proud of them,” says the Voice.

“Mildred and I were always very proud. We took good care of them when we were young, and they took good care of us when we got old.”

“I see they each have two children; Donald two girls, Lloyd two boys, Ross two girls, and Hope two girls.”

“All of them talented and industrious, like their parents,” I say. “All well-educated in different professions: Medicine, Law, and Entertainment.”

“I see you also have four great grandchildren. Two great granddaughters, and two great grandsons.”

I say, “You keep very good records.”

“I have to,” says the Voice. “People keep coming and going all the time. You’ve been pretty busy yourself. After college you started writing and you never stopped.”

“That’s because writing isn’t a profession; it’s a disease. And it’s accompanied by a disease that’s even worse, rewriting.”

“I know all about that,” says the Voice. “You’re not the first writer to knock on my gate. But at least you were successful. Many writers are not.”

“That’s true. I’ve been well-rewarded with plenty of money for me, for my family, and for my many charities.”

“A good life I would say,” says the Voice, “With plenty of awards and honors.”

“And plenty of hard knocks from critics,” I reply.

“That comes with the territory,” says the Voice. “But you’ve had lots of compensation. Not just money; thousands of fan letters you’ve received from people all over the world, thanking you for entertaining them with words that brought them a smile or a laugh, sometimes when they needed it most.”

Then the Voice continues apologetically, “I didn’t mean to keep you waiting outside the gate. Go ahead: Ask.”

Ask what they all want to know when they knock at my gate: Am I going to heaven or not?”

“That’s what I was going to ask when I got here,” I say. “Then I suddenly realized something when we talked. Heaven is where I’ve been since the day I was born.”

A fond farewell,

SHERWOOD SCHWARTZ

See What Happens When You "Friggin' Smack It" ?!!!!!

2011-07-12T20:23:00.000-04:00

If you didn't see this...watch this. Yeah - it's soccer. Shut up and watch it.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOAJn8h6VAI&feature=player_embedded

Best description of a play by an athlete ever goes to Megan Rapinoe of the US Women's National Team when asked about her kick to Abby Wambach in the 122nd minute of their game with Brazil:

"I just took a touch and friggin' smacked it with my left foot," Rapinoe said after the game, "I don't think I've ever hit a ball like that with my left foot. I got it to the back post and that beast in the air just got a hold of it."

If you watch the replay over and over, you can just BARELY tell that Rapinoe could see Wambach's hand point towards the right goalpost.... and that's EXACTLY where the kick went...on what was to have been the last opportunity to even the score before going home in defeat. And Wambach slammed it into the net with a perfect header....

A team with players that believe in themselves...and who know they can overcome just about any diversity.

GO USA !!!!!!

And Now, a Pet Dog

2011-07-06T13:33:00.005-04:00

He can sit, lie down and roll over. Try giving him a pet and watch how he responds. Keep him entertained by playing ball or giving him a bone. Reward him by giving him a treat. To get him to sit, double-click your mouse on the ground close to him. Double-click again to get him to lie down. Then hold your mouse button down and make a circular motion to tell him to roll over.

"This Just In...."

2011-07-05T10:37:00.000-04:00

So I was getting a coffee this morning and the TV was turned to CNN HeadLine News – a complete JOKE of a channel, now. It’s more like “The 24 hour TMZ” Channel.

HEADLINE LOSERS NETWORK

Case in point: Along the bottom of the screen is a bright red, bold banner: BREAKING NEWS!
And what is this “BREAKING NEWS”?

“Nothing heard yet from jury deliberating on Casey Anthony trial…”

That’s what it said. Their “BREAKING NEWS” was that they hadn’t heard anything.
There news was that there was no news.

Obviously they were SO focused on this that they missed some of the OTHER major BREAKING NEWS stories of the day.

“Sunrise Occurred Just Around Dawn this Morning!!!!”

“Fat Kids Love Cake!!!”

“Males Use Internet to View Porn!!”

Pure Jealousy!!!

2011-06-21T20:22:00.000-04:00

So the Bruins went from the Stanley Cup Victory Parade in Boston last Saturday...to Foxwoods to, you know... DRINK. And drink they did! This is the bar tab.

I am impressed !!!

A Random Cylon

2011-06-14T14:47:00.000-04:00

Thanks for Nothin'....!

2011-06-14T14:02:00.000-04:00

From: iO9.com 06/14/11

Doctors Raise False Hopes In Largest-Ever Study Of Beer’s Benefits For Athletes

Robert T. Gonzalez —Here's some bittersweet news from the world of beer. In the largest-ever study of its kind, research scientists have shown that the consumption of wheat beer has a positive effect on athletes' health, with one caveat: the study was conducted using non-alcoholic beer as the test beverage — a not-so-minor technicality decried by beer-enthusiasts the world over as "totally lame."

And in a corollary finding, it was found that all the ugly girls were left AT the bar at closing time. Duh.

The Magical Mystery Tour

2011-06-01T12:36:00.000-04:00

Shut up and go away you vapid, manipulative clown.
The media is a tool for still covering you.

What's Behind the Sarah Palin Rebranding Tour

Washington (CNN) -- by Gloria Borger -- 06/01/11
So Sarah Palin walks into a Pennsylvania coffee shop, virtually unannounced. She sits down with a bunch of guys, gets her picture taken and is asked whether she would declare her candidacy right there.
Palin's response: She needs to make up her mind first.
My response: Then do it already (if you're even actually thinking about running). No making-up-my-mind-road-trip-with-the-family necessary; no leathery motorcycle photo opps; no discovering-America-so-we-can-raise-money ventures. And, while we're at it, no more disingenuous cat-and-mouse games with the media, whom you know will follow you (because we can't resist). In fact, you actually wouldn't have it any other way, because that's what this is all about: free press coverage.
Welcome to the Sarah Palin Rebranding Tour.
After all, it's been tough for Palin lately. Seems as if the limelight had moved elsewhere -- to President Barack Obama, for killing Osama bin Laden, to Donald Trump, for making a fool of himself, even to Tim Pawlenty and Mitt Romney, actual GOP presidential candidates.
And try as she might to tweet her way into relevancy, it was getting hard. Here's a weighty Palin tweet about the serious matter of whether to release the photos of a dead bin Laden: Saw photo as warning to others seeking America's destruction. No pussy-footing around, no politicking, no drama; it's part of the mission.
Did she actually write "no politicking?" And "no drama?" Oh, the irony!
If you're a serious presidential candidate -- or even a serious presidential wannabe -- policy tweets on complex matters just don't cut it for the long haul. It's kind of like getting a medical degree through the mail: I suppose it can happen, but would I really want to hire you as my doc?
OK, so back to the "One Nation" tour -- which seems devoid of most things except a very big bus, and a maw around Palin as she steps off of it. Then we get to hear Palin speak, telling us what we already know: that this is a great, beautiful country with a glorious past. And we ought to appreciate it, and the tour is there to "remind Americans about our foundation -- our Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and our historical sites that should be a reminder every day to every American about how important it is to stand strong upon our foundation and build upon it." Not exactly a hard sell for most of us, who didn't need any reminding.
But this is not about America's history; it's about Sarah Palin's future. And if you look at the polls, it's clear that's pretty much up in the air. It's hard, for instance, to recover as a political force when your unfavorable ratings are at 59 percent, according to a recent CNN poll. Or when 61 percent of independent voters don't like you much.
Of course, if Palin were to run, she would have a far better reception among Republicans in any primary fight: 56 percent of them say they would be pleased or enthusiastic about her candidacy.
But here's what GOP voters want most of all: to win. And when the candidate has higher negative than positive ratings -- and independent voters don't like you -- it's gets harder to make the case that you're likely to beat Obama. "You can't win the Republican nomination by proving you are unelectable," says an unaffiliated Republican strategist. "You can't sell books that way, and you can't have a real influence on policy and politics."
Hence, the political rehab. For those of us who have seen Palin as too relentlessly negative to be ultimately successful, here's the new, improved, sunny version. Leadership, after all, is about taking voters somewhere, not just about echoing their resentments. "She's a mirror, not a light," says one Republican pollster. "And voters want to be lifted up."
Just ask Barack Obama about that.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Gloria Borger.

"Call Me on the Line...Call Me, Call Me Any Time" ....

2011-05-31T14:14:00.000-04:00

World Health Organization: Cell phone use can increase possible cancer risk

(CNN) -- Radiation from cell phones can possibly cause cancer, according to the World Health Organization. The agency now lists mobile phone use in the same "carcinogenic hazard" category as lead, engine exhaust and chloroform.

===============

Wait... chloroform????
Crap - NOW I have to completely change my dating methodology. This sucks.

Terror Alert Levels

2011-05-20T08:27:00.000-04:00

Purportedly written by John Cleese ~ and stolen by me from and email joke going around...Thanks Di!

TERROR ALERT LEVELS

The French government announced yesterday that it has raised its terror alert level from "Run" to "Hide." The only two higher levels in France are "Collaborate" and "Surrender." The rise was precipitated by a recent fire that destroyed France 's white flag factory, effectively paralyzing the country's military capability.

The English are feeling the pinch in relation to recent events in Libya and have therefore raised their security level from "Miffed" to "Peeved." Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to "Irritated" or even "A Bit Cross." The English have not been "A Bit Cross" since the blitz in 1940 when tea supplies nearly ran out. Terrorists have been re-categorized from "Tiresome" to "A Bloody Nuisance." The last time the British issued a "Bloody Nuisance" warning level was in 1588, when threatened by the Spanish Armada.

The Scots have raised their threat level from "Pissed Off" to "Let's get the Bastards." They don't have any other levels. This is the reason they have been used on the front line of the British army for the last 300 years.

Italy has increased the alert level from "Shout Loudly and Excitedly" to "Elaborate Military Posturing." Two more levels remain: "Ineffective Combat Operations" and "Change Sides."

The Germans have increased their alert state from "Disdainful Arrogance" to "Dress in Uniform and Sing Marching Songs." They also have two higher levels: "Invade a Neighbor" and "Lose."

The Spanish are all excited to see their new submarines ready to deploy. These beautifully designed subs have glass bottoms so the new Spanish navy can get a really good look at the old Spanish navy.

Australia, meanwhile, has raised its security level from "No worries" to "She'll be alright, Mate." Two more escalation levels remain: "Crikey! I think we'll need to cancel the barbie this weekend!" and "The barbie is canceled." So far no situation has ever warranted use of the final escalation level.

-- John Cleese - British writer, actor and tall person

ARMAGEDDON OUTTA HERE!!!

2011-05-18T23:06:00.003-04:00

So according to the devout listeners of California's "FAMILY RADIO", the beginning of Judgement Day is next Saturday, May 21, 2011.

SHIT, I JUST renewed my AAA subscription. WTF.
And, as one article said, it's already too late. So, like, don't even bother buying green bananas.

http://www.doonesbury.com/

RIP Harmon Killebrew - "Hittin' Home Runs for Me and You"

2011-05-17T13:10:00.000-04:00

Tuesday May 17, 2011 12:04PM SI.com by Steve Rushin
Nobody had more wrong names than Harmon Killebrew, whose nickname --Killer -- always seemed ironic, in the way huge bikers are called Tiny, or sweet puppies are called Mad Dog. When Killebrew retired from baseball in 1975, having circled more bases with his head down than any player in baseball history, he became the first Killer on record to sell insurance in Boise, Idaho.

Harmon's first name was no better, as it always got shortened to Harm, an ill-fitting verb for a guy who -- 30 years after teammate Danny Thompson died of leukemia -- kept alive a golf tournament in memory of the Twins shortstop. Killebrew died of cancer Tuesday in Scottsdale, Ariz., at age 74.

Worse still was that surname, Kill-a-Brew, which inspired a college drinking game called Harmon Killebrew. Never mind that the Killer's beer of choice was the one he marketed: Killebrew Root Beer, a phrase underscored on bottles by the words "Old-Fashioned," which would complete the public perception of Killebrew -- Loyal Friend, Insurance Salesman, Root Beer Aficionado -- if he weren't also a Hall of Fame Slugger.

There was something Old-Fashioned about the 573 home runs he hit, the second most of any righthander in American League history, behind the decidedly New-Fashioned Alex Rodriguez, who admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs. Killebrew was Pez, not PEDs, square in body -- 5-foot-10, 213 pounds -- and square in spirit. Asked in a 1963 Sports Illustrated profile if he had any unusual hobbies, Killer replied: "Just washing the dishes, I guess."

"Killebrew is so quiet that sportswriters have given up trying to jazz up his image," Time magazine lamented the following season, in a brief, rare, never-to-be-repeated profile.

"There is nothing especially exciting or colorful about Harmon Clayton Killebrew," Baseball Digest concurred, the same summer, "except that he hits home runs farther and more frequently than any one else on the current scene." By then, Killebrew was averaging a homer every 12 at-bats, the best rate since Babe Ruth, and the nation's scribes could scarcely ignore him.

Though they both wore number 3, Killebrew was never going to be Ruth. He didn't go out, he didn't go ballistic, he didn't go anything but bald. And yard, of course. Killebrew went yard in ways that few hitters ever have. He was the first man to hit a ball over the leftfield roof at Tiger Stadium, three decks and 94 feet off the ground. He hit the longest home run in the history of Metropolitan Stadium, home of the Twins. When it finally landed in the bleachers, 520 feet from home plate, the Twins painted that seat red, which had the same effect on Killebrew's face.

In 1969, when he hit 49 home runs and drove in 140, Killebrew was at once the league's Most Valuable and Least Voluble player. He even led by silence. A simple glare from Killebrew conveyed to Twins teammates that they shouldn't throw their bats, or helmets, or comport themselves in any way that was -- the worst possible word -- unprofessional.

The ridiculously long home run, then, was his sole expression of immodesty. His very first homer, as an 18-year-old rookie with the Washington Senators in 1954, was literally a tape measure shot: The team's p.r. director measured it out the next day. The Senators were getting killed by the Tigers -- Washington would lose 18-7 -- and Detroit catcher Frank House told Killebrew, in what was likely an effort at reverse psychology: "We're going to throw you a fastball." It says much about the square-dealing young Harmon that he took the catcher at his word, and sat on Billy Hoeft's fastball, which he promptly hit 476 feet.

There would follow, over the next 22 seasons, 572 more home runs, 11th most in history. It's a happy coincidence that Killebrew grew up in Idaho to become synonymous with taters. He was born in Payette, the fourth child of Harmon, a housepainter, and his wife, Katherine, whose three boys often played baseball in the yard. When Katherine complained that they were tearing up the lawn, Killebrew's father told her: "We're raising boys not grass."

Killebrew was still a boy, just 17, when he signed with the Senators as a $30,000 bonus baby. In 1961, he moved with the team to Minnesota, to Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington, where I grew up. By the time I was attending games at Met Stadium, Killebrew had retired, and so I remember him as an occasional Twins broadcaster, face framed by a fringe of white. I remember his soft voice, pronouncing the surname of Twins infielder Ron Washington as "Warshington."

Mostly I remember that the street leading to the stadium was renamed in his honor, so that I -- and a lot of other Minnesotans -- associate some of life's happiest memories with Killebrew Drive.

It is one of a handful of monuments in Minnesota to a man who -- without a bat in his hands -- never called attention to himself. There's a bronze statue of Killebrew outside the Twins' new home, Target Field, that is exactly what the 11-time All-Star never claimed to be: Larger-than-life. Killebrew knew, as he endured esophageal cancer, that life was larger than he, and released a statement on May 13 expressing his "profound sadness" that this "awful disease" had "progressed beyond my doctor's expectation of a cure."

In the end, that dignity and humility were what endeared Killebrew to Minnesotans. They will serve as his signature -- along with his actual signature, which was the cleanest in baseball. When he went into hospice care, several Twins and ex-Twins said Killebrew admonished them as young players for the sloppiness of their signatures. The fan that waits for a player's autograph, Killebrew believed, should be able to read it. And so the man with the imperfect name signed that name perfectly. Thanks to him, so do Joe Mauer and Torii Hunter and Justin Morneau. That legacy of class and quiet decency is the true measure of Killebrew's tape-measured life.

Which isn't to say that Minnesotans don't love the long ball. Of course we do. When the Met was razed, and replaced by the Mall of America, Killebrew's red bleacher seat was bolted high above the mall's central atrium, in roughly the same space it occupied at the ballpark. It is there to this day, a permanent testament to one man's baseball-crushing powers, on a street still called Killebrew Drive, now and forever a Boulevard of Broken Seams.

Back to the Future

2011-05-12T14:44:00.000-04:00

Packers to Retire No. 4 -- Eventually
ESPN.com news services ~ Thursday, May 12, 2011
Green Bay Packers president and CEO Mark Murphy said Wednesday the team one day will retire Brett Favre's No. 4 jersey, but the team will wait a few years to make sure the quarterback is retired for good this time. "I think it's probably going to be a few years," Murphy told Packers fans during the team's Tailgate Tour, according to the Green Bay Press-Gazette. "We made that mistake when he first retired after the 2007 season.

DATELINE:  September 1, 2051
Green Bay, WI.
Packers team officials announced today that the retirement ceremony for Brett Favre's #4, originally scheduled for the first game of this 2051-2 season has been cancelled.   Police reported yesterday that the former quarterback's grave has been found dug up and empty.
Speculation abounds that the new, secretively signed Oakland Raiders QB is a "dead ringer" for old #4.

In an unrelated matter, 2 Raider's Cheerleaders have filed complaints with the local police regarding unsolicited holographic images of a wrinkled penis that was sent to their personal communicators.

Today on "Gas Price Justification" ... THE FLOOD!

2011-05-11T12:22:00.000-04:00

Right - because the Mississippi has never flooded before. And these refineries were just built there last week, so they've never had this problem before either.

Once again the fact that gas pricing here is based on market speculation instead of real pricing
allows these people to manipulate the market.

Every day is more 'in-your-face" proof that this country needs to get the hell away from petroleum-based energy dependence. Aside from it just being the right thing to do, we are being raked over the coals by forces that are unrelated to real supply & demand.

We are big, fat, stupid suckers.

Of course, the price of a gallon of milk is, like, $3.70 .... So, hell, if we can make cars that run on milk, we're golden.

========
NEW YORK (CNNMoney 05/11/11) -- Flooding along the Mississippi River is driving up gas prices over fears that refineries could become inundated in coming weeks, especially as the flood heads downriver for Louisiana.
"When we've had flood waters in this part of Louisiana before, it has closed up to 12 refineries," said Peter Beutel, analyst with energy risk management firm Cameron Hanover, referring to the impact of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. "The fear here is that we could see refineries close again."
Prices at the pump can vary widely among states due to a number of factors. More The nationwide average price for unleaded gasoline climbed 1.1 cents to $3.962 per gallon on Wednesday, according to motorist group AAA, reversing the downward trend of the previous five days.
"The concern is that the infrastructure could be dampened or knocked out for a while," said Joseph Stanislaw, an independent senior adviser at Deloitte LLP & Touche LLP.
Stanislaw said the impact is "both physical and psychological." The flood has already impacted some refineries, such as a Valero (VLO, Fortune 500) facility in Memphis, where the flood has already crested.
There are concerns that the flood will wash over refineries in New Orleans in the next two weeks, driving up gas prices further, he said.
He said that supply would be impacted as refineries either shut down or slow down production, going into "maintenance mode."
Valero spokesman Bill Day said the Memphis refinery is still operating, but barge access to and from the facility is limited, so the refinery has had to fall back on other means of shipping, such as pipelines.
The company is also bracing for flood-level waters at its refinery in St. Charles, La., located on the Mississippi River immediately upstream from New Orleans.
"We're taking precautions at that plant very similar to what we do during hurricane season," he said, explaining that the plant is protected by levees but workers are also moving electrical equipment to higher ground and stocking up on supplies. "We don't expect there will be any interruptions to production."
Some of the largest refineries in the U.S. are located next to the Mississippi River downstream from Memphis, which means they have yet to be impacted by the water. But flood-level waters are imminent as they head downstream.
The riverside refineries in Louisiana include ExxonMobil's (XOM, Fortune 500) facility in Baton Rouge, the second-largest U.S. refinery with a daily capacity of 504,500 barrels. The fourth-largest U.S. refinery, owned by Marathon Oil Corp., (MRO, Fortune 500) is located on the Mississippi River in Garyville and produces 436,000 barrels a day. ConocoPhillips (COP, Fortune 500) has a refinery next to the river in Belle Chasse, immediately downstream of New Orleans, with a daily production of 247,000 barrels.
"We're doing everything we can to protect our facility," said ExxonMobil spokesman Kevin Allexon, explaining that workers are sandbagging parts of the refinery complex and moving equipment to higher ground. "We're going to continue to operate as best we can."
Spokesmen Marathon and ConocoPhillips were not immediately available for comment.
Tom Kloza, the chief oil analyst for Oil Price Information Service, said that rival refineries will capitalize on the shut-downs.
"The notion of flood-inspired refinery problems had tones of the Epic of Gilgamesh yesterday," said Kloza, referring to an ancient Iraqi story that references a legendary flood. "The water poses logistical issues but there is incredible profit motive to run refineries everywhere else and take advantage of incredibly wide refining margins."
Were it not for the flood, gas prices would probably be headed lower, said Beutel. He said that wholesale gasoline prices, which typically lead retail prices, were down last week on a variety of economic factors.
This would include a recent plunge in oil prices. Last week, crude oil futures dropped nearly 15% in their biggest weekly decline since last 2008.

Getting a Lube Job...

2011-05-06T10:42:00.000-04:00

“NEW YORK (CNNMoney) 05/06/11 -- Commodities remained under pressure Friday, with oil hovering below $100 a barrel and silver continuing to slide. A stronger-than-expected report on the labor market weighed on the dollar.

Oil slipped 66 cents to $99.14 a barrel following the report. Before the data came out, oil was 3% lower. On Thursday, crude sank nearly 9% -- the biggest one-day percentage drop in two years.

Crude prices neared $114 a barrel last month as fears about supplies took hold following escalating violence in Libya. But as investors got 'accustomed' to those concerns, oil prices became mired in a fairly tight range...until this week”

And yet… as the price went up, because it’s (heinously) based on speculation in the market, the price at the pump escalated sometimes more than once per day. Now explain this to me – do gas stations ORDER their supplies multiple times per day? No. Yet they raise their prices multiple times per week… and, as I’ve witnessed 1st hand, sometimes multiple times per day. And now that the crude price has dropped $15 per barrel – why is it not lowering at the pump in like fashion????

There is ALWAYS a different explanation. Most recently, it is that the actual price quoted in these articles is a specific type of crude, from a specific area/market…and that doesn’t reflect the price that most of the oil comes from. Umm.so why are they using this false indicator, then? You mean that they are speculating on an oil price that is false? Riiight.

What will be the reason TODAY for the price not going down?

Rhode Island Hospital and the Secret Link to Harry Potter

2011-05-05T20:53:00.001-04:00

I keep finding things around here that are eerily coincidental. Methinks perhaps there is an otherworldly link between this area and Harry Potter's world. For example... I suddenly looked out the window today and amongst all the green there is this.... The Whomping Tree.

See???

Plus... on the Rhode Island Hospital campus...there is a VERY old building, and it's name?

And another thing... until quite recently, one Emma Watson was "going to school" less than a mile away from the hospital campus. Coincidence? I think not!

Stay tuned .....

Facebook Never Lies

2011-05-04T19:04:00.002-04:00

A Twit's Tweet

2011-05-04T16:59:00.002-04:00

Sarah Palin tweeting about the President's decision NOT to release the death images of bin Laden:

"@SarahPalinUSA Show photo as warning to others seeking America's destruction. No pussy-footing around, no politicking, no drama;it's part of the mission"

And my response to this is: Shut up. Go away. You don't know what you are talking about. You and your attempts to garner popularity and personal relevance through comments such as these are ridiculous, insulting to actual thoughtful people and God-Awful annoying.

I have zero respect for you based on your arrogance and woeful lack of knowledge.

...As you can tell, she aggravates the hell out of me.

Donald Trump ~ STFU

2011-04-25T15:18:00.000-04:00

(CNN) - Donald Trump – who has a habit of picking personal fights with anyone who publicly challenges him – is now targeting legendary actor Robert De Niro, whom Trump says is "not the brightest bulb on the planet."

"I like his acting, but in terms of when I watch him doing interviews and various other things, we're not dealing with Albert Einstein," Trump said on Fox News Monday.
The comments follow recent remarks from De Niro to NBC News, during which the Academy Award-winning actor suggested Trump was acting "crazy."
"I won't mention names, but certain people in the news in the last couple weeks, just what are they doing? It's crazy. They're making statements about people that they don't even back up," he said in reference to Trump. "Go get the facts before you start saying things about people."
"It's like a big hustle. It's like being a car salesman," he added. "Don't go out there and say things unless you can back them up. How dare you? That's awful to do. To just go out and speak and say these terrible things? Unless you just want to get over and get the job. It's crazy."
Trumps harsh response follows a similarly vitriolic lash out at Jerry Seinfeld, after the comedian, citing Trump's birther claims against President Obama, canceled his performance at a charity event organized by Trump's son.
That prompted Trump to write a strongly worded letter to Seinfeld, in which the potential presidential candidate knocked Seinfeld's recently-cancelled show on NBC.
"What I do feel badly about is that I agreed to do, and did, your failed show, 'The Marriage Ref,' even though I thought it was absolutely terrible," Trump wrote. "Despite its poor ratings, I didn't cancel on you like you canceled on my son and St. Jude. I only wish I did."
Trump also took aim at Karl Rove last week after the former Bush strategist said it was unwise for the potential presidential candidate to question the president's citizenship:
"Karl Rove has a loser issue... [he] is the man that ran Bush into the ground," Trump responded. "Bush finished so weak that we ended up getting Obama. He ran the man into the ground."

It's All Over but the Shouting. And Screaming. And Burning.

2011-04-20T11:30:00.000-04:00

Judgement Day (The Sarah Connor Chronicles)

That's right, folks. Last night, April 19, 2011, at 11:11pm Eastern time, it is told that the Skynet system went online, (at least according to the Terminator franchise.)

And ... Skynet first becomes self-aware tomorrow, April 21, 2011.

We are DOOMED!

Gunning for Power

2011-03-15T07:48:00.002-04:00

"Administration Working To Forge Gun Control Compromise"

The Washington Post reports the White House "announced Monday that the administration is starting a series of sessions with leaders on both sides of the gun control issue to try to reach compromise on legislation to reduce gun violence." The meetings "come after President Obama called Sunday for greater enforcement of gun control laws and better background checks. ... Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a group started by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, is expected to be involved in the discussions, but administration officials will also reach out to groups generally opposed to tighter gun restrictions." ....

NRA Declines To Participate In White House Talks The New York Times says the National Rifle Association "is refusing to join the discussion - possibly dooming it from the start, given the lobby's clout with both parties in Congress."

======
And THAT is what's wrong with the system.

Statistically Doomed

2011-03-08T09:19:00.002-05:00

This is despicable. It is wrong and aggravating and an example of EXACTLY what will happen all over the country. We will look back on this period of time in decades to come and mark it as a period of reactionary failure by those in charge of the system. Children of this era will in fact lose ground educationally.

No system will retain talented and competent teachers – because those that are in fact talented and competent, no matter how dedicated, will not stand for it. For all the abuses of the systems that have been put in place (and yes, there are many), you cannot avoid the “real” and ”practical” in favor of pure statistical analysis.

We have seen it, and are constantly arguing it in the area of health care quality measures. These companies rate entire hospitals and systems and services in statistically incorrect manners. Yet paint it as the end-all and be-all , with uber-complicated formulas and oversimplified pretty graphs…. And they sell it (for their own profit) as a tool for people to “choose” which hospital to go to. When pressed, they point to a one-line caveat in tiny print at the bottom of a web page that supposedly exonerates them from responsibility.

We also have seen it in baseball, where Moneyball originally was touted as the perfect way to quantify players’ performances. And over time, it has been proven that it does not work like that – that the accurate measurement of performance is NOT so clinically analyzed.

And because of politics & cronyism and bad appointments, the people that are put/elected into power are NOT knowledgeable in this area. These people are sometimes (often) NOT the sharpest tools in the shed. Add to that the fact that the citizenry is biased, reactionary, and over-emotional on the subject …. And mob mentality takes over.

We have set ourselves up to ruin the HELL out of the system & the kids who must go through it.

========

Evaluating New York Teachers, Perhaps the Numbers Do Lie

By MICHAEL WINERIP
Published: March 6, 2011 The New York times

No one at the Lab Middle School for Collaborative Studies works harder than Stacey Isaacson, a seventh-grade English and social studies teacher. She is out the door of her Queens home by 6:15 a.m., takes the E train into Manhattan and is standing out front when the school doors are unlocked, at 7. Nights, she leaves her classroom at 5:30.
Related in Opinion

Though her principal praised her work, Stacey Isaacson received a poor ranking in a statistical model used by New York City schools to evaluate teachers.
“She’s very dedicated,” said Tejal Bahtt, a fellow teacher. “She works way harder than I work. Yesterday I punched in at 7:10 and her time card was already there.”
Last year, when Ms. Isaacson was on maternity leave, she came in one full day a week for the entire school year for no pay and taught a peer leadership class.
Her principal, Megan Adams, has given her terrific reviews during the two and a half years Ms. Isaacson has been a teacher. “I know that this year had its moments of challenge — you always handled it with grace and presence,” the principal wrote on May 4, 2009. “You are a wonderful teacher.”
On the first day of this school year, the principal wrote, “I look forward to being in your classroom and seeing all the great work you do with your students,” and signed it with a smiley face.
The Lab School has selective admissions, and Ms. Isaacson’s students have excelled. Her first year teaching, 65 of 66 scored proficient on the state language arts test, meaning they got 3’s or 4’s; only one scored below grade level with a 2. More than two dozen students from her first two years teaching have gone on to Stuyvesant High School or Bronx High School of Science, the city’s most competitive high schools.
“Definitely one of a kind,” said Isabelle St. Clair, now a sophomore at Bard, another selective high school. “I’ve had lots of good teachers, but she stood out — I learned so much from her.”
You would think the Department of Education would want to replicate Ms. Isaacson — who has degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia — and sprinkle Ms. Isaacsons all over town. Instead, the department’s accountability experts have developed a complex formula to calculate how much academic progress a teacher’s students make in a year — the teacher’s value-added score — and that formula indicates that Ms. Isaacson is one of the city’s worst teachers.
According to the formula, Ms. Isaacson ranks in the 7th percentile among her teaching peers — meaning 93 per cent are better.
This may seem disconnected from reality, but it has real ramifications. Because of her 7th percentile, Ms. Isaacson was told in February that it was virtually certain that she would not be getting tenure this year. “My principal said that given the opportunity, she would advocate for me,” Ms. Isaacson said. “But she said don’t get your hopes up, with a 7th percentile, there wasn’t much she could do.”
That’s not the only problem Ms. Isaacson’s 7th percentile has caused. If the mayor and governor have their way, and layoffs are no longer based on seniority but instead are based on the city’s formulas that scientifically identify good teachers, Ms. Isaacson is pretty sure she’d be cooked.
She may leave anyway. She is 33 and had a successful career in advertising and finance before taking the teaching job, at half the pay.
“I love teaching,” she said. “I love my principal, I feel so lucky to work for her. But the people at the Department of Education — you feel demoralized.”
How could this happen to Ms. Isaacson? It took a lot of hard work by the accountability experts.
Everyone who teaches math or English has received a teacher data report. On the surface the report seems straightforward. Ms. Isaacson’s students had a prior proficiency score of 3.57. Her students were predicted to get a 3.69 — based on the scores of comparable students around the city. Her students actually scored 3.63. So Ms. Isaacson’s value added is 3.63-3.69.
What you would think this means is that Ms. Isaacson’s students averaged 3.57 on the test the year before; they were predicted to average 3.69 this year; they actually averaged 3.63, giving her a value added of 0.06 below zero.
Wrong.
These are not averages. For example, the department defines Ms. Isaacson’s 3.57 prior proficiency as “the average prior year proficiency rating of the students who contribute to a teacher’s value added score.”
Right.
The calculation for Ms. Isaacson’s 3.69 predicted score is even more daunting. It is based on 32 variables — including whether a student was “retained in grade before pretest year” and whether a student is “new to city in pretest or post-test year.”
Those 32 variables are plugged into a statistical model that looks like one of those equations that in “Good Will Hunting” only Matt Damon was capable of solving.
The process appears transparent, but it is clear as mud, even for smart lay people like teachers, principals and — I hesitate to say this — journalists.
Ms. Isaacson may have two Ivy League degrees, but she is lost. “I find this impossible to understand,” she said.
In plain English, Ms. Isaacson’s best guess about what the department is trying to tell her is: Even though 65 of her 66 students scored proficient on the state test, more of her 3s should have been 4s.
But that is only a guess.
Moreover, as the city indicates on the data reports, there is a large margin of error. So Ms. Isaacson’s 7th percentile could actually be as low as zero or as high as the 52nd percentile — a score that could have earned her tenure.
Teachers are eligible for tenure in their third year. To qualify, a teacher must be rated “effective” in three categories: instructional practices, including observations by the principal; contribution to the school community; and student achievement, including the teacher data report. Ms. Isaacson was rated effective on the first two.
The past chancellor, Joel I. Klein, imposed new policies to make tenure harder to earn.
In an e-mail, Matthew Mittenthal, a department spokesman said: “We are saying that a teacher’s tenure decision should simply be delayed (not denied) until that teacher has demonstrated effective practice for consecutive years in all three categories. The alternative is what we’ve had in the past — 90-plus percent of teachers who are up for tenure receive it. Do you think journalists deserve lifetime jobs after their third year in the business?”
The view seems to be gaining support.
However, the number of years that it should take to earn tenure does not get to the heart of the problem.
The tougher question, says Ms. Isaacson, is how to create a system that will fairly evaluate teachers, whether it is used to grant tenure or lay off teachers. “I don’t have a problem looking at teachers based on merit,” she said. “Every job I had, I was evaluated based on merit.”
Marya Friedman, a sophomore at Bronx Science, describes Ms. Isaacson as brimming over with merit. “I really liked how she’d incorporate what we were doing in history with what we did in English,” Marya said. “It was much easier to learn” — which, of course, is what great teachers strive for.

R.I.P. JD & Holden... You Always Held to Your Principles

2010-01-28T15:02:00.004-05:00

'Catcher In The Rye' Author J.D. Salinger Dies At 91
by Neda Ulaby - NPR

J.D. Salinger, pictured in one of the few existing photographs of the author. The 1951 portrait was featured on the original dust jacket of The Catcher in the Rye.

January 28, 2010
The famously reclusive author J.D. Salinger has died at his New Hampshire home, his literary representative said in a statement. He was 91 years old.
Jerome David Salinger retreated to a New Hampshire farmhouse in 1953, a few years after he published the high-school classic The Catcher in the Rye. And there he stayed, for the next 50-plus years, scowling at photographers who dared snap his picture.
'I Refuse to Publish'
Salinger's published works include Nine Stories, a short story collection, and Franny and Zooey, a novella about one of his favorite fictive subjects, the sensitive Glass family. His last published work was a short story that took up almost the whole New Yorker magazine in 1965 — though rumors have Salinger stashing reams of unpublished fiction in a vault.
Salinger rarely explained himself, though the interview requests never ceased. In 1980, reporter Betty Eppes sent her picture along with her request. She was granted one of the only interviews the author ever gave.
"He said, 'I refuse to publish,'" she told NPR in 1997. "'There's a marvelous peace in not publishing,' he said. 'There's a stillness. When you publish, the world thinks you owe something. If you don't publish, they don't know what you're doing. You can keep it for yourself.'"
Catastrophe in the Background
Salinger came from a Jewish-Scots-Irish New York family who imported meat. In the 1930s, he worked briefly as a cruise-ship entertainer. Then came World War II.
"He was a writer formed by the 1940s," says Andrew Delbanco, director of American Studies at Columbia University. "He participated in D-Day and in the Battle of the Bulge. There's a sense to my ear in The Catcher in the Rye and stories [of his] that catastrophe lies in the background of everything he feels and writes."
One of his most popular stories, "For Esme — With Love and Squalor," deals with a soldier on leave who finds solace in a conversation with a 13-year-old English girl. Many of Salinger's shell-shocked heroes click best with children, an allegation that was thrown the author's way as well.
Salinger "celebrates their innocence and beauty in a way that to our sensibility is almost unnerving," says Professor Delbanco. Another favorite, "A Perfect Day for Bananafish," is about a troubled honeymooner who plays with a little girl in the ocean before killing himself. The protagonist of "Bananafish" is Seymour Glass, the Glass sibling featured most often in Salinger's stories about that peculiar family. Published stories about the Glasses had already established Salinger as a minor literary star by the time he published The Catcher in the Rye in 1951.
'Holden's Indignation ... Struck A Nerve'
The Catcher in the Rye, starring the disaffected adolescent Holden Caulfield, was an instant success, though it puzzled some reviewers. Long before it became a staple in American high schools — and ever since — screenwriters, novelists, actors begged for the rights to adapt it. Salinger seemed appalled by the attention and withdrew to New Hampshire shortly after its publication. He steadfastly refused to sell the rights to anything he ever wrote.

But the book's popularity soared out of sight as counterculture became mainstream culture in the 1960s, according to Delbanco.
"Holden's indignation, his sense of the world, really struck a nerve," he explains. "Everybody carries with them the impulse to say no. [It's] the dissident impulse that is powerful in American culture and literature."
Delbanco traces that impulse from America's first immigrants through Emerson and Thoreau to the Beat writers who were Salinger's contemporaries. He says Salinger empathized with young people as outsiders, and romanticized their straightforward, "non-phoney" impulses.
The title of the book comes from the protagonist's dream to keep everyone from growing up — to preserve the childhood grace Salinger idolized and resist falling headlong into adulthood:
I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in a big field of rye and all. ... Thousands of kids, and nobody big at all, nobody big but me. And I'm standing on the edge of this crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to come and catch them. If they start to fall ... and don't look where they're going. That's all I'd do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all.
The Catcher in the Rye inspired censors, assassins and innumerable ordinary readers, who found in Salinger's hopeful yet disillusioned heroes an uncompromising kindred spirit.

Schadenfreude ....

2010-01-26T12:55:00.001-05:00

NOT that it will matter... He'll be back once again to address his narcissistic desires.

And ESPN willbe there to enable.

No Really...Pull My Finger..."

2009-09-04T09:44:00.004-04:00

Here's a portion of the article in the Projo today regarding the state employees unions' fight to prevent shutdown days because the state can't afford it....

"PROVIDENCE — State government will open on Friday after all, as a result of a temporary stay issued by Supreme Court Justice Maureen McKenna Goldberg that put the kibosh on the first of Governor Carcieri’s 12 government shutdown days.
State workers in matching green T-shirts cheered outside the courthouse. But the celebration was short-lived.
Little more than an hour after the judge ruled, Governor Carcieri said the judge left him “with no option but layoffs.”
He said layoff notices would go out within a week to the last 1,000 union and non-union people hired, which presumably would include the state’s new Medicaid director and education commissioner. “It should greatly disturb every state employee and every Rhode Islander that labor leaders are willing to sacrifice people’s jobs so they can maintain their stranglehold on the citizens of this state,” Carcieri said."

That last sentence by the governor is SPOT ON. No, really.... that's fine. People who are in the unions pay their dues and the union leaders say they are there "to protect their members". Well..how is the choice of MORE for some and ZERO for others ANY kind of fair representation
or protection. It shows arrogance, power-hunger, and a severe lack of common sense. Of course, in THIS state, the unions are so entrenched that people actually PUT UP WITH THIS.
The legislature is elected and charged with making a budget. In RI, the legislature is ruled by democrats. They DIDN'T create a budget that the state can live within. In fact, they increased spending. Now the REPUBLICAN governor - a lone member of his party in this sea of Democrats - must do something.

(from the projo) "The 12 shutdown days are a key part of (governor) Carcieri’s response to the $67.8 million in unspecified savings that lawmakers directed him to produce in the new state budget they adopted in June. While leaving the actual cost-cutting decisions to him, they required “reductions of 6.25 percent of recommended salary and benefits.” "

He proposes 12 shut down days.... even suggesting that employees could work out WHICH days so that it would be to their benefit AND allow the state services to stay in operation. But the unions fight it. And so now their must be layoffs.
And the ignorants of the state will say it's because of the governor, because, well, he IS a Republican. Right. Her eat the center of legislative and elective Democratic corruption.
How lame. How disgusting.

To my favorite Patriot... Congrats on a Fantastic & Honorable Career!!!

2009-08-31T15:47:00.003-04:00

Tedy Bruschi Retirement
New England Patriot: 1996 - 2008

The only pro player whose jersey I actually purchased....

BRUSCHI MAKES HIS LAST PLAY

Posted by Tony Massarotti, Globe Staff August 31, 2009 12:18 PM
Thirteen seasons later, this is how Tedy Bruschi makes his last play: he walks. He leaves with pride and he leaves with dignity. He leaves behind a heart, body, and soul that he entrusted to no team but the Patriots and to no region but New England.
And so with Bruschi announcing his retirement this morning at Gillette Stadium, maybe it is time to take pause. Maybe there is still some loyalty in sports after all. Maybe a guy like Bruschi can come here, as he did in 1996, and play in six AFC Championship Games and five Super Bowls, winning three titles and appearing in one Pro Bowl. Maybe he can survive a stroke and declining skills. And maybe, at the end of it all, he can go out wearing the same uniform he wore in, an increasingly rare example of the company man who stood for principle and values more than he did the bottom line.
But then, we always knew Bruschi was old school, right down to the Ray Nitschke mentality and the genetic eye black.
"There's a sign when you come into this facility that says, 'Do your job.' I did my job for 13 years,’" Bruschi said. "Now my job is done. My job is done. I’m looking forward to living the rest of my life."
The Patriots turned another page today, folks. At roughly 10:45 a.m., Bruschi officially and formally handed the keys to Jerod Mayo, then began the rest of his life. Even the steely Bill Belichick got a little choked up. Bruschi went out the way Mike Vrabel did not, a Patriot from beginning to end, a man to whom Belichick and the Patriots were every bit as loyal as Bruschi was to them, even amid a decline in performance that was apparent to everyone.
Bruschi stayed. The Patriots kept him. A New England organization more businesslike than any in professional sports made obvious choices and sacrifices to accommodate a player who was, if nothing else, different.
Was Bruschi the best player ever to wear a Patriots uniform? No, no, no. But this is about so much more than that. These Patriots will forever go down as a team that belonged to Belichick and Tom Brady, though the club’s identity was formed just as much around people like Bruschi and Troy Brown. Those are the men who defined the Pats as much as anyone, smaller and less physically gifted players who brought a tireless spirit and a desire to win, the latter of which requires a selflessness and coachability that few players ever get credit for.
Every Sunday, from September 1996 through December 2008, the Patriots always could count on getting Bruschi’s best, however good that was.
Along the way, lest anyone forget, Bruschi endured the kind of cataclysmic event that would have (should have?) ended most careers. It was shortly after the Patriots’ Super Bowl victory in 2005 when Bruschi suffered a stroke. Most everyone thought he would never play again. Bruschi missed training camp and opened the year on the physically unable to perform list, then made a celebrated return to the field on October 30 against the Buffalo Bills.
"This is something I’ve never done before -- jumping back in the seventh week," Bruschi said. "It’s just a process. I think it's gotten better as it's gone along. To tell the truth, right now I think I'm close. I can't say I'm all the way back because I believe in the process."
So here we are now, four years later, and Bruschi still believes in the process. The Patriots defense, in particular, has been in a transitional state for the last few years, from the secondary on up. The defensive backfield has completely turned over in the last two years. Now the linebacking corps has, too. Bruschi is one of the original cornerstone of this Patriots dynasty, the ground floors of which were built during the reign of Bill Parcells. He walks away now in good conscience, knowing he has given the Patriots everything he has, and that he can no longer give them enough.
Almost certainly, there was a process here. Maybe the Patriots told Bruschi he was no longer good enough. Maybe they didn’t need to. In this case, the specifics do not really matter. Bruschi was one of the original Patriots who fostered the idea of togetherness, who believed in the players and the coach being on the same page, who believed in the good of the group and the parts being secondary to whole.
Tedy Bruschi now walks away proudly, the consummate playmaker making the final, decisive play.

"We Lose the Last Brother Today ..."

2009-08-26T21:59:00.004-04:00

Edward Kennedy, 1932-2009

For those of us who grew up in this time, these men defined the politics of our youth and beyond. They were also part of the social pain that was the 1960's ...

RIP Senator Kennedy

Sigh...

2009-07-30T18:45:00.002-04:00

From Boston Dirt Dogs

Tested Positive in 2003 ...

Disappointed? Most Definitely.

Sad? Yes, very.

Surprised? I guess not.

The numbers reflect SOMETHING for every player who took P.E.D.'s

And as a Boston fan, I always agreed that perhaps we could feel a certain moral superiority because none of the Red Sox were linked to juicing - unless it was far before or after their tenure there. But now all I can feel is disappointment for the entire situation...for the fact that EVERYONE allowed it to happen.

And it CERTAINLY won't be fun next week to hear the crowd at the new Yankee Stadium when Big Papi comes up....

Why? All I wanted was a pure, wonderful memory of 2004 and 2007..... and now it's a little less "Clear"....

2009-07-25T14:11:00.001-04:00

Walter Cronkite: RIP July 17, 2009

2009-07-21T08:39:00.002-04:00

The man who formed network news, who brought us through the Vietnam War and the race to the moon.

How sad that he died so close to the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing...

40 Years: July 20, 1969

2009-07-21T08:30:00.003-04:00

NASA photo

I am forever in awe of the accomplishments of the US space program, of the bravery of the people involved, and the endless benefits derived from human exploration.

As am 11 year old boy, I thought that those kinds of peaceful accomplishments in space would continue and accelerate...

As wonderful as the Space Shuttle is, I cannot WAIT for the new Constellation Program to bring man back to the moon and Mars.

R.I.P Michael

2009-06-27T22:08:00.001-04:00

In spite of earlier posts, I find I cannot ignore the talent that was Micheal Jackson.

I hope he is happy and in a better place....

RI Legislators Once AGAIN Proving their Irresponsibility

2009-06-27T09:43:00.002-04:00

from Projo.com 06-27-09

“We worry about House business. We are still going to continue to work,” House Speaker William J. Murphy said through a spokesman.

The House’s small but steadfast Republican opposition, meanwhile, offered harsh words over the breakneck pace and lack of a schedule. When the day began, the House had 142 items on its agenda, with dozens more added as the hours passed.

“What you’re seeing now is passage of the bills that were previously held hostage by the speaker so he could corral the votes he needed to get the budget done,” House Minority Whip John Loughlin, R-Tiverton said as the sun set.

“… Now there is a very limited time to pay back all of those favors, so you’re seeing this tremendous crush of questionable legislation cramming out all at once. There is no reason why any of these bills couldn’t have been done in March, but for the fact that they were being held hostage by the speaker.”

What a bunch or arrogant, ignorant idiots. And RI voters ALLOw it to happen every year.

"They Want You Back"...

2009-06-26T14:40:00.003-04:00

Ummm....

Yeah ~ SCREW the Iranian people's struggle for free elections, and their fight against an intolerant oppressive theocracy, damnit!! Michael Jackson died!!!!!

Look - I understand, to a point. He was an incredible talent, and his death is certainly unexpected. And really - I can vividly remember how great the Jackson 5 was. "I Want You Back" is one of the greatest pop songs ever. And "Thriller" was a massive influence on so many things, from music videos to MTV to theatrical pop. He was an entertainer below few others.

But c'mon!!!! There was quite a bit of freakish, scary behavior there. And he was only ABOUT to try to make a comeback. It might or might not have gone anywhere. No one even knows how he would have been received or how good he would have been. (And just WAIT - with MUCH bluster and fanfare, there will be a release of some kind of video of his rehearsal sessions for this 'comeback tour', I have no doubt..... because rust and money-grubbing-promoters NEVER sleep).

So now it's 24 hours later and, as can be seen above from the screen shots, the major "news" networks are still in full-blown tabloid mode.

I smell a fully dedicated "MJ-TV" channel in our future.....

Oh - and let it NOT be lost on anyone the pose that is being used on MS-NBC. Jesus, indeed.

Poor Farrah Fawcett.... about the only pop icon that could have usurped her in death actually did.

Cool RI Airshow Pic

2009-06-26T13:02:00.003-04:00

Oracle bi-plane over the RI Statehouse - from the Projo,com 06/26/09

NEDA...

2009-06-22T13:20:00.002-04:00

To me, a very real question is touched on in the link below.
Would any of us in the US today have the courage to stand up if we thought our government was severely wrong? Would you risk your life? Would you stand up for your belief?

I think that the writer at "Gawker" is probably right in saying that Neda will tragically now be the face of this Iranian Revolution. It remains to be seen HOW far the people will go in trying to change things, however...

All I can say is, it once again brings up some very serious contemplation points on everyone's part.

http://gawker.com/5299414/neda-the-face-of-a-revolution?skyline=true&s=i

2009-06-18T20:54:00.001-04:00

Out Idiotic State Legislators at Work

2009-06-12T11:23:00.002-04:00

Well, it's that time of year again - the end of the legislation session, and the days when Rhode Islanders have a myriad of laws suddenly shoved down our throats. This way, the elected officials don't have to hear any opinion or response from constituents, and they can of course take their summer vacations. After all, that is MUCH more important than doing an honorable job of passing thoughtful, enforceable, common sense laws.

Example 1: Outlawing Organized Pub Crawls as a result of a person being killed by a bus 5 years ago. This law will make it illegal for a group of people to g from bar t bar in an "organized" fashion. So what - they want people to now take separate cars? How is this enforceable? Or is this more of a power shift to police so that they can now easily close/regulate those establishments they wish not to be in business? This is the result of a person who fell/was pushed off a sidewalk at a corner in Newport 5 years ago. The PUB CRAWL they were on didn't kill him. A BUS did. what about the enforcement of personal responsibility? This is a thoughtless, ignorant law that was passed out of the blue on the last week of the legislative session. The state is in economic shambles and this is what they spend their time on. Are they going to stop bachelor parties? bachelorette parties where a SOBER driver of a bus or limo is hired ....you know... in a RESPONSIBLE ACT?
How do you enforce this ridiculousness? A BAR OWNER has to recognize a certain side group of people?

This sounds unconstitutional at first blush anyway.
And the simple concept of this kind of "safety legislation" angers me as a citizen.

Lawmakers outlaw pub crawls in wake of student’s death
Friday, June 12, 2009 PROJO
By Cynthia Needham Journal State House Bureau
PROVIDENCE — Five years after a college student was struck and killed by a bus during a pub crawl in Newport, Rhode Island lawmakers have voted to impose a statewide ban on such events with the onus on bar owners to enforce the rule or risk losing their liquor licenses.
What started as a low-profile proposal erupted this week into full-scale debate on civil liberties and the General Assembly’s role in legislating public behavior.
“I think we need to make it a state policy not to encourage irresponsible drunkenness,” said Rep. Charlene Lima, D-Cranston, in proposing the ban. “We need to say, this is not acceptable behavior in our state. Too often action isn’t taken until there is a tragedy, which is why we need to do this now.”
Opponents, among them Minority Leader Robert Watson, argue that tragedies happen and banning pub crawls won’t prevent them.
“The idea that you are telling me that I can’t get a bunch of friends together and go from one bar to the next flies in the face of what we believe is constitutional and our rights as citizens, not only in Rhode Island, but in America,” Watson said in the floor discussion this week.
House lawmakers approved the bill by a razor-thin 35-33 vote. The Senate gave unanimous approval to the bill on Thursday night. Once each chamber passes the other’s version they will head to the governor’s desk for his signature.
In May 2004, a 21-year-old Fairfield University student, Francis J. Marx V, fell in the path of a bus bringing University of Rhode Island students to Narragansett after a pub crawl. Months later, state lawmakers passed a bill allowing individual cities and towns to ban such drinking events, but only a few did, with Newport, Narragansett and Cranston among them.
If the statewide proposal becomes law, communities won’t have that choice, something Lima says will go a long way in keeping Rhode Islanders safer.
But critics predict the proposal will cause problems for bartenders and their establishments whose job it will be to distinguish between organized crawls and groups of friends out for a drink — risking their liquor licenses if they are wrong.
As for Marx, opponents argue that as tragic has his death may have been, he was not killed because a pub crawl happened, but because he was hit by a bus.
“What we keep trying to do in this building is control how people live their lives,” said Rep. Joseph Trillo, D-Warwick. “We try to give people common sense. You can’t legislate common sense and that’s what we keep trying to do.”

"I Don't Want to be a Distraction..."

2009-06-10T10:28:00.002-04:00

Ramirez visits with Dodger teammates
ESPN.com news services
LOS ANGELES -- Manny Ramirez visited his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates before their game against San Diego on Tuesday night (06/09/09), popping into the clubhouse before a home game for the first time since his suspension for violating Major League Baseball's drug policy.
The dreadlocked slugger, who also talked to manager Joe Torre, told reporters he isn't going to formally address the media about what led to his 50-game ban because it's in the past.

"I don't want to be a distraction for this team," Ramirez said. "What happened, happened. I spoke to [owner] Frank McCourt, I apologized, I spoke to Joe, my teammates and I'm ready to move on.

"I didn't kill nobody, I didn't rape nobody, so that's it, I'm just going to come and play the game."

The fact that he spoke at all could be a problem, however. The terms of his suspension restrict him from addressing reporters, ESPN The Magazine's Buster Olney reported.

_______

I think it's awesome and incredibly thoughtful of Manny to not want to be a distraction to his team, or to baseball in general. If it wasn't for such sensitivity, empathy and consideration, that whole situation could be a mess. After all, it's not like he disappointed anyone, let anyone down, or betrayed his team. And it's not like the Dodgers had spent a lot of money to center an entire marketing campaign around him. And really - there's NO reason for him to feel the LEAST bit of pressure to answer questions about his VOLUNTEERED EXPLANATION to the media.... the one that made zero sense at all. Naaaa.
The best part is that he's not allowed to speak to the media... so what does Manny do? He speaks to the media.

Because - you see - on HIS PLANET, things are different than here.
Doesn't anyone get that?

2009-06-07T13:40:00.001-04:00

From the bike path - Barrington, RI

2009-06-07T12:19:00.001-04:00

I-Way bridge & huricane barrier in Providence.

The Point of KNOW Return...

2009-06-02T12:38:00.004-04:00

(Apologies to the band KANSAS for the Headline)

CNN.COM 06/02/09
Excerpt from and interview with the CFO of GM regarding their current position, and plans moving forward (the bold highlight is mine):

"....Kiran Chetry (CNN): Under the restructuring plan, the government will give the company $30 billion additional in taxpayer money, amounting to $50 billion so far. It’s the largest amount, besides AIG, dolled out by the government. In a nutshell, can you explain what went so wrong for General Motors?
Ray Young (GM CFO): Kiran, we admit there have been errors in the past that we’ve made at General Motors. We’ve had a lot of extra excess costs, excess capacity over the years. We’ve got…defined benefit obligations that have really hurt us in the balance sheet. But going forward, Kiran, we’re going to learn from our mistakes. And we’ve been given a once in a lifetime opportunity to restructure the balance sheet, to shed a lot of our extra capacity, extra costs, and move forward with a profitable new General Motors that’s going to be smaller but more focused with four core brands and with a cost structure that is very, very efficient...."

Noooo...... WRONG. And arrogant. GM's "once in a lifetime opportunity" was back in the late 1970's, when they INITIALLY weren't able to compete in the auto market. By not looking ahead, learning the lessons of the day, and becoming VIABLY competitive then, they merely set the stage for this debacle.

How DARE you?!! Any intelligent person could see that for the past 30 YEARS, the American auto industry was not learning or changing to maintain viability. Sure - build those massive, inefficient trucks and focus sales and marketing on the SUV. It goes beyond "being green". It screams of short sightedness. Pollution, and the simple fact that were were more and more dependant on a dwindling, finite fuel made that business plan arrogant and idiotic. Did NO ONE look at the path of American manufacturing of ANYTHING and take heed?

"But Americans WANT big cars...." Then you sucked at salesmanship.
And now we "have" to help in order to prevent unfathomable unemployment and a cascading landslide of wrecked businesses, communities and lives.

Thanks for being such crappy business people. Let's see... here's a concept that doesn't make sense to a 2 years old: People want to pay NOTHING for a big, huge truck or monster SUV, and yet work for the company that MAKES these vehicles and receive full pensions, not contribute to their health benefits and make massive wages.

Stupid fools.

You HAD your once in a lifetime opportunity - and you screwed the pooch.

No, No, NOOOOOOO!!!!

2009-06-02T10:06:00.003-04:00

GREAT. SUPER. EXCELLENT.

The newest from Red Sox marketing.

I can't take it.

Seriously? SERIOUSLY???!!!

Please, PLEASE STOP.

Oh, and to top it off? It's a 'scratch & sniff"

Just shoot me now.

2009-06-01T09:12:00.002-04:00

Today, from CNN.COM, through Life Magazine, 5 previously unpublished pictures of Marilyn Monroe emerged. they were apparently taken in 1950, when she was primarily known as a model only, and were never used in any story or on a cover.

Obviously MM was quite beautiful, but I was so struck by this picture of her.... to me it portrays her so differently than the thousands of other images that have been shown of her. I don't know why ~ I have never really been a huge MM fan per say, but this new picture is different. Maybe part of it is knowing that this was before her life was so changed by stardom, excess and exploitation.

2009-05-30T11:31:00.001-04:00

Ogunquit - it's not summer YET.

"What happened to my jet pack?"

2009-05-29T14:10:00.003-04:00

CNN.COm had an article today about science-fiction technology. It asked why we never got what was predicted, and outlined the view by author Daniel Wilson that, in many case, the overall prediction was correct, but that those predictions tend not to take into account the practicality of usage of that technology within society.

The funniest comment within the article, however, was in Wilson's example of this:

"The jet pack is a perfect example of predicting the future, Wilson says. He says the jet pack first appeared in 1928 in an Amazing Stories comic book, which featured the hero Buck Rogers zooming though the sky in a jet pack.
The jet pack was actually developed by 1961, Wilson says. An inventor mounted a rocket onto a backpack and called it a rocket belt. A variation of the rocket belt even appeared in the 1965 James Bond movie, "Thunderball."
Today, the jet pack continues to grab inventors' imaginations.
A daredevil wearing a jet pack flew across a 1,500-foot-wide canyon in Colorado in November. A Swiss pilot, dubbed "Fusion Man," flew across the English Channel last year using a single jet-propelled wing. And a New Zealand inventor recently invented a jet pack, which weighs about 250 pounds, that reportedly can run for 30 minutes.
The jet pack, though, has never really taken off, Wilson says.
The problem is its practical application.
While a rocket belt could propel a screaming human to 60 mph in seconds, its fuel lasted for only about half a minute, "which led to more screaming," Wilson says.

Hee. An hysterical mental image, there....

Feeding the Monster

2009-05-28T14:27:00.003-04:00

Standing room ticket on the Green Monster for a Labor Day weekend game: $35

Share of the hotel room: $43

An evening out with old friends: Priceless

The Red Sox losing to the Mets in the 9th, when your friend is a diehard Mets fan? Fucking Brutal.

Stupid City

2009-05-28T14:26:00.002-04:00

OK, so here is a picture of the side street outside my place of work in the old "jewelry district" of downtown Providence. There are health care -related buildings and offices all around the area, not too mention parts of a college and other assorted businesses. This picture was taken on a week day, at about 1:30 PM.

And here's the deal. Up until about a year ago, there were no parking meters on the street. There were simply signs that said "2 Hour Parking". they also have (and had) a "Parking Control Officer" who patrolled the neighborhood and ticketed any cars that were there longer than the allotted time.

This side street had EVERY SPACE taken every single weekday all year long.

THEN, in it's brilliance, the city decided to put in new, expensive, digital, 2-hour parking meters. The idea, I presume, was to collect cash for all the time that people were parked there, AND from the tickets that were issued to people still parked there after the meter expired.

These meters must cost a TON. Then there's the cost of drilling the sidewalk holes and installing the meters. There is STILL the cost of the Parking Control Officer - that hasn't changed.

Actually, all that HAS changed is that NO ONE PARKS THERE AT ALL. Nor do the park anywhere ELSE in the neighborhood where the new meters were installed. Any street that has the meters is basically vacant all day long now. And has been for a year plus.

WAY. TO. GO.

Thanks for inconveniencing people AND losing the city money. Excellent planning.

go 'BIG PAPI' !!!

2009-05-20T20:53:00.002-04:00

David Ortiz just hit his first home run of the season ... on MAY 20th!!!!

The sound from the crowd at Fenway was as if they'd just won the World Series....

After doing so many great things for the team these past 7 years, it's great to see the fans be so supportive.

Hope it's just the beginning, Big Guy.... !!!!

2009-05-20T09:15:00.000-04:00

Run, Forest, Run...

To BEE or Not to BEE

2009-05-18T18:40:00.003-04:00

Remember Bee Girl?

By DOUG IRVING - the Orange County Register

She was a little bit chubby and a whole lot dweeby, a freckled, bespectacled little girl who didn't seem to care what other people thought. She was, let's not forget, dressed in a bee suit.

It took her exactly 4 minutes and 7 seconds to become one of the defining images of mid-1990s pop culture. That's how long she was on screen, dancing her giddy, silly bee dance, in a music video for a lesser-known rock group called Blind Melon.

The Bee Girl, as she came to be known by just about everyone, rubbed elbows with Madonna and brought down the house at the MTV Video Music Awards. She traded jokes with Jay Leno, filmed interviews with Inside Edition, and quickly became far more popular than Blind Melon itself.

But that was a long time ago. These days, the Bee Girl goes by her real name, Heather DeLoach. She's 26 years old, a bartender and aspiring actress with dog named Hemi and a condo in Laguna Niguel. And, in recent years, she's come to understand something very important about her alter ego.

The world needed a Bee Girl.

•••

The Bee Girl wore dark-rimmed glasses, crooked antennae and a black-and-yellow tutu that didn't quite fit right. She tap-danced, she waved her arms, she spun around – and, in her first moments of fame, she got laughed offstage.

That's how the video to Blind Melon's sleepy hit, "No Rain," begins. The rest of the video follows the Bee Girl as she skips across the grimy streets of Los Angeles, doing her dance for the perplexed strangers she meets along the way.

It ends with her pushing open a gate and discovering a green field crowded with happy, dancing bee people just like her.

Heather DeLoach was 9 years old when she landed the gig, mostly because she looked like the drummer's nerdy sister. She didn't know much about dancing, so she just shimmied from side to side and let her arms go wild.

They filmed the video in 1992. Parts of Los Angeles were still smoldering from riots when Heather tap-danced her way through the city as the Bee Girl. Those perplexed strangers in the video? They were just normal people – a homeless man, some customers at a market – that the film crew talked into appearing in the video.

Heather went home exhausted after two days of filming, her underarms rubbed raw from the sequins on her too-tight bee costume. Her mother, Susan, thinks she made a few thousand dollars in her role as the Bee Girl. Soon enough, she was back at school in Lake Forest, just another 9-year-old kid.

And then the video hit MTV.

•••

"I think Jay's going to ask me how I got in the video and if I have any boyfriends and what I want to do with my life." That was Heather in 1993, shortly after the video came out – and just before her appearance on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno."

The life of the Bee Girl went from zero to crazy in the time it took that video to air. Suddenly, newspapers and television shows were calling for interviews. MTV made her one of the closing acts of its 1993 video-awards show; she remembers sharing a dressing room with the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

She landed big-screen roles after that – in "A Little Princess" in 1995 and "The Beautician and the Beast" two years later. More recently, she made cameo appearances in "Balls of Fury" (2007) and in the television cops-spoof "Reno 911!"

But as she got older, she decided she didn't want to miss out on growing up. She began canceling auditions and interviews so she could spend time with her friends. She graduated from El Toro High School in Lake Forest, then got a degree in Communications from Cal State Fullerton.

Her current boyfriend didn't even know that she was, in fact, the Bee Girl until they had been dating for a few weeks.

She still has those thick glasses in a keepsake chest in her bedroom, along with those crooked bee antennae. The Bee Girl, she says, "is a part of me now. I am her… I love it."

She wrote on her MySpace page: "Some people call me 'Bummble Bee' (and) if you know me then you know why." And that's how she began to realize just what the Bee Girl had meant to so many people.

•••

The letters come from short people and fat people, people who have been laughed at and hurt – people who didn't fit in. They have seen Heather's name in a news story, and found her on MySpace… was she really the Bee Girl?

One man wrote about how badly he was teased growing up – and how he took comfort in the idea that even a little girl dressed like a bee could find a place to belong. It was the same for a woman who wrote about how other kids always made fun of her for being short; she, too, found inspiration in the Bee Girl.

Heather gets a few letters like those every week. "Have you ever felt like your heart is smiling?" she said. "It makes me feel like a good person." She does her best to answer them all.

The Bee Girl, she says now, "was somebody that had an inner spark. She seemed very introverted on the outside, but on the inside, she had kind of this inner light, to go out and be alive.

"I think she was full of hope. She had the feeling that she could go out and find acceptance, that there are people out there like her."

"It's a story that gets people through," she says. "When I go through tough times, the Bee Girl prevails."

TV Happiness for Nerds

2009-05-18T11:31:00.002-04:00

They FINALLY renewed Chuck!

At least they kept SOMETHING I watch... It's been a brutal year for actual TV shows. The nerd in me rejoices! Which is to say, I rejoice.

The Trouble with the World Today: "ROWDY AMISH YUTES"

2009-05-14T12:48:00.002-04:00

HaHa!!! Love this!
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2009/05/buffaloarea_amish_youth_ticket.html

The best comments after:

“Guess he’ll be “OFF THE WAGON” for a while…”
The thing is….the HORSE isn’t impaired – so WTH??”

2009-05-13T19:05:00.001-04:00

Gaspee Run - 6:00AM

You're Gonna Make it After All...!!!

2009-05-11T08:51:00.005-04:00

Two things about the developments in other parts of the world. This image is from Pakistan this past weekend.... and an obvious place of disruption and disarray right now.

There have been many comments about the US having it's first Black president, and what a groundbreaking accomplishment it has been here. But the truth is, you haven't really MADE it as a US president, with FULL acknowledgement of what you are...until you've been burned in effigy. At last, Mr. Obama can say he's made it ~ though t be perfectly honest, I don't really see ANY resemblance whatsoever.

=====

Additionally, over the past few days, I've seen the above-pictured "chest emblems" all over the news from that country. All I can say is that they TOTALLY need a new translator. Not that it's WRONG, but "Go America Go" doesn't REALLY have the negative connotations that they intend. Plus, I have to ask .... like, really? They're wearing BUMPER STICKERS??!!

Well, I guess - if you can't afford a car, this is the next best thing...but it's kinda weird if you ask me.

SIGH...

2009-05-08T12:36:00.002-04:00

From Bill Simmons' ESPN.COM article on May 7, 2009 ... after Manny is banned for 50 games.

..... "We look at the 2004 banner again. I always thought that, for the rest of my life, I would look at that banner and think only good thoughts. Now, there's a mental asterisk that won't go away. I wish I could take a pill to shake it from my brain. I see 2004 and 2007, and think of Manny and Papi first and foremost. The modern-day Ruth and Gehrig. One of the great one-two punches in sports history. Were they cheating the whole time? Was Pedro cheating, too? That 2004 banner makes me think of these things now. I wish it didn't, but it does. This makes me sad. This makes me profoundly sad." .....

Commentary on Manny

2009-05-08T08:58:00.001-04:00

Forget Manny, Don't Forgive Him
By Jayson Stark~ESPN.com. Thursday, May 7, 2009

We live in a land that loves to forgive, that wants to forgive. And I couldn't be more proud to live in a land like that.
But what are the odds that the citizens of this great land will have any interest in forgiving a scoundrel like Manny Ramirez?
And even if they do, why should they?
Why should they forgive a man who was willing to do something this stupid, and then tried to spin his crime away with a statement saying, essentially, that it was all his dopey doctor's fault?
Why should they forgive a man who just personally sabotaged the magical season of a team like the Dodgers, the only franchise on earth that was willing to overlook his potholed past, work with him to reshape his sullied image and even build its whole franchise around his sweet swing, his flowing locks and his endearing smile?
Why?
Why would the fans of any team, let alone this team, ever believe in Manny again?
We've learned over the years that it IS possible for drug-stained players to get a second chance. But Manny has already seriously endangered any shot he might have had that he could be one of those players. Let's explain why.
The players who found forgiveness weren't players who asked for forgiveness. They were players who earned that forgiveness.
They were guys like Andy Pettitte, whose prior reputations were pristine to begin with. Who then stepped forward and told their story in a way that people could relate to.
They told you what they did. They told you why they did it. They didn't toss out half-baked explanations that were shot down by the fact checkers 20 minutes later.
Most important, they took responsibility -- ALL the responsibility. They didn't try to drag their doctors or their teammates or their knucklehead cousins into the line of fire. They said, "I'M the one who did this. Blame me."
And when they were through telling their stories, they seemed genuine. Believable. Human. Those are the kinds of people we forgive in this country -- people who give us reason to forgive.
But now let's look at Manny, and how he compares with members of that group.
What word would we use to assess his prior reputation? Hmmm, "pristine" is probably out, right?
The non-New Englanders out there might describe that reputation as, um, checkered. Or complicated. Or confusing.
Red Sox fans, on the other hand, would clearly have some other words in mind. Words we shouldn't be using in casual family conversation. Words that certainly won't be uttered on any episodes of "Teletubbies."
But those words don't matter now. All that matters is that Manny had built up a dubious amount of trust and faith to begin with -- except with the segment of the population known as "Dodgers fans."
So there aren't many folks out there who were predisposed to give him the benefit of any sort of doubt here. That's the point. And why would they?
But now let's look at how Manny has chosen to explain away how he happened to get himself in this mess:
"Recently, I saw a physician for a personal health issue. He gave me a medication, not a steroid, which he thought was okay to give me. Unfortunately … "
All right, enough of that carefully crafted public statement. We get the picture.
Our first inclination, on first glance, is to feel a pang of sympathy here. After all, who among us hasn't had a personal health issue? Who among us hasn't seen a physician for that issue? Who among us hasn't been given a medication to treat that issue?
It sounds so innocent … so downright normal.
But hold on.
Turns out that this physician he saw wasn't the team doctor -- the physician that 99 percent of all players see when they have a "personal health issue" during spring training or the season.
Turns out that this physician wasn't even located in the state of Arizona, where the Dodgers happened to be holding spring training at the time this "personal health issue" cropped up. He was actually located 2,000 miles away, in Florida.
Oh. OK.
Also turns out that the "personal health issue" was, well, what exactly? It was an issue that caused this physician to prescribe a female fertility drug, obviously. And already, you can feel Manny's seemingly innocent story crumbling like ancient Rome.
It wasn't as if he had a toothache here, and he needed a prescription for a painkiller. It wasn't as if he had a sinus infection, and he needed a prescription for an antibiotic.
He was taking a -- what? -- a female fertility drug? Why? Maybe he just wanted to marry the octo-mom. Ya got me.
I've read through all the prescribed uses I could find online for human chorionic gonadotropin (similar to Clomid), which ESPN.com is reporting is the drug in question. And let me tell you -- I'm almost 100 percent certain that Manny wasn't suffering from an inability to ovulate. Or polycystic ovarian syndrome. And if he was, there's a lot more he hasn't been telling us than what really went on in those bizarre final days in Boston.
If you read more extensively about this drug, though, you'll learn that it IS occasionally used to address male infertility. Except if you read the small print, you'll also learn that, according to sharedjourney.com:
"The FDA has not approved the use of Clomid in men, nor has it been found to be especially effective."
Great. So why would a doctor be prescribing it for a guy like Manny, then?
Good question, huh?
A truly upstanding male-fertility doctor wouldn't be likely to do that, right? And a truly upstanding doctor treating a professional athlete would also be likely to know it could cause him to set off a major drug-testing alarm, right?
So where's the logical explanation here? That's a question all rational Americans should be asking right now.
We'd all love to believe that Manny's intent, in taking this drug, was pure and well-intentioned. We'd all love to believe that his "personal health issue" was serious enough to require unorthodox treatment that isn't even approved by the FDA.
But face it, friends, if all the reporting is accurate, that would take the sort of leap of faith only Robbie Knievel ought to attempt.
We also need to recognize something important about baseball's testing program: Its intent is not to catch innocent people who are using run-of-the-mill prescription medications because of pesky "personal health issues."
Basically, the list of substances that can get you flagged fall into three categories:
1. Stuff you'd use to cheat.
2. Stuff you'd use to push the envelope as far as possible in the hope of legally enhancing performance.
3. Stuff you'd use to treat a condition that falls under baseball's limited list of "Therapeutic Medical Exemptions," such as ADD.
But there are no indications that either Manny or his doctors ever contacted the union or MLB seeking any type of Therapeutic Medical Exemption. So there goes that potential for an innocent mistake. And if that's out, what does that leave?
He was using whatever he was using to enhance performance. That's what.
I'd honestly like to believe I'm wrong about that. Honestly. I admire great athletes, and I enjoy watching Manny hit. Honestly.
So I hope there's some more sensible explanation coming. Really. I hope there's a happy ending to this story. I mean it.
I don't like watching anyone's life free-fall to the bottom of the same canyon where, say, Roger Clemens has been booted over the past year and a half. I'm not sure anybody deserves that treatment just for allegedly taking the wrong substance at the wrong time.
As a friend of mine once said, no matter what these guys did, they don't deserve to get treated as if they're worse than O.J.
But after the sad events of this memorable Thursday in May, it's tough to like the odds of Manny Ramirez escaping that fate.
This time -- unlike those euphoric Manny-mania days of last summer -- it's going to take more than just his magic bat and those flowing dreadlocks to win over his no-longer-adoring public.

Arrogance Prevails

2009-05-08T08:10:00.002-04:00

Manny Ramirez Suspended for Doping - Ex-Sox Slugger Accepts a 50-Game Penalty

Well, well, well... so your petulance was ON TOP of your basic dishonesty.

THIS from “MLBTradeRumors.com”:

12:39am: Tim Brown and Steve Henson of Yahoo say Manny tested positive for...drumroll...a sexual enhancer (not Viagra). Ramirez tested positive in Spring Training, and then again recently. Manny did not test positive for a steroid or human growth hormone.

Ahhhh!!! Funny, you say! So it was a “sexual enhancer” … and that would feed into the “MANNY BEING WEIRD” thing, which they (read: Scott Boras) want you to believe. THEN there's THIS later post:

1:30pm: ESPN's T.J. Quinn and Mark Fainaru-Wada say the drug was HCG - "a women's fertility drug typically used by steroid users to restart their body's natural testosterone production as they come off a steroid cycle. It is similar to Clomid, the drug Bonds, Giambi and others used as clients of BALCO."

Now THAT’S more like what I was expecting to read….

I always disliked the "non-team" attitude that was Manny. I also, of course, loved when he hit. He was an asset to the Red Sox whenever he actually put in the effort. But over the years he seemed to cause more and more strife and exhibited an increasing amount of selfish-ness. He was always a great subject for discussion - in the bar or on sports radio.

Then, last year - it became unbearable for even the Team - and he was gone. He played them in order to get out of his contract - which was disreputable. HE insisted on the 2 year options when he signed the damn thing, so he could have the biggest contrack in sports (those 2 years put him over what Kevin Garnet in the NBA had just signed). And then, at the end, with Scott Boras as his manager, he refused to honor his committment, and was finally delt away for the betterment of the team. All so he could be a free agent and demand MORE money. NOly it didn;t work out. After miraculously performing the best he's EVER performed for the last 1/3 of the season with LA, the economy dumped, and other teams actually took his boorish, unprofessional behavior into account. He finally signed back with the Dodgers - for about what he would have gotten if he'd just played out his options with the Red Sox. I thought that was a pleasure to see. Screw him. I know baseball is a business, but I hated that he wouldn't even fill out his obligations like a stand-up human being.

And then.... THIS.

So let me get this straight. So while you were being an ass-hole, you were ALSO being a cheater? You who had some of the most natural hitting talent EVER?

You piece of shit.

Thanks for letting your arrogance and pure selfishness help to ruin the game, dill weed.

The Boy Who Cried Wolf

2009-05-06T15:47:00.004-04:00

You Narcissistic Loser...

I repeat ~ Go away. (http://brokensynapseblog.blogspot.com/2009/02/retirement-600-pm-12-off-merchandise.html)

Your yearly "retirement games" have become quite pathetic.

Even MORE sad is the fact that ESPN believes with all their heart that people care - so we are subjected ot the ongoing love affair with him all year. Spare me.

Source: Favre, Vikings to Meet

ESPN.COM: May 6, 2009, 2:13 PM ET

"Minnesota Vikings coach Brad Childress and quarterback Brett Favre plan to meet at an undisclosed location later this week to discuss the possibility of the former Packers and Jets quarterback renouncing his retirement from the NFL to play the 2009 season with the Vikings, according to a source with direct knowledge of discussions between the two parties...."

"Badges? We Don't Need No Steeenking Badges!"

2009-05-05T16:11:00.005-04:00

I totally can't believe that RI hasn't initiated this kind of practice! It's SOOO much better than that stupis "casino" idea ~ and right up their alley, base dont he overall clinate of authoritative & legislative superiority and corruption....

"Operation Dollar Bill", anyone?

Texas Police Shake Down Drivers, Lawsuit Says

From Gary Tuchman and Katherine Wojtecki - CNN.COM

TENEHA, TEXAS (CNN) --Roderick Daniels was traveling through East Texas in October 2007 when, he says, he was the victim of a highway robbery.

The Tennessee man says he was ordered to pull his car over and surrender his jewelry and $8,500 in cash that he had with him to buy a new car.

But Daniels couldn't go to the police to report the incident.

The men who stopped him were the police.

Daniels was stopped on U.S. Highway 59 outside Tenaha, near the Louisiana state line. Police said he was driving 37 mph in a 35 mph zone. They hauled him off to jail and threatened him with money-laundering charges -- but offered to release him if he signed papers forfeiting his property.

"I actually thought this was a joke," Daniels told CNN.

But he signed.

"To be honest, I was five, six hundred miles from home," he said. "I was petrified."

Now Daniels and other motorists who have been stopped by Tenaha police are part of a lawsuit seeking to end what plaintiff's lawyer David Guillory calls a systematic fleecing of drivers passing through the town of about 1,000.

"I believe it is a shakedown. I believe it's a piracy operation," Guillory said.

George Bowers, Tenaha's longtime mayor, says his police follow the law. And through her lawyers, Shelby County District Attorney Lynda Russell denied any impropriety.

Texas law allows police to confiscate drug money and other personal property they believe are used in the commission of a crime. If no charges are filed or the person is acquitted, the property has to be returned. But Guillory's lawsuit states that Tenaha and surrounding Shelby County don't bother to return much of what they confiscate.

Jennifer Boatright and Ron Henderson said they agreed to forfeit their property after Russell threatened to have their children taken away.

Like Daniels, the couple says they were carrying a large amount of cash --- about $6,000 -- to buy a car. When they were stopped in Tenaha in 2007, Boatright said, Russell came to the Tenaha police station to berate her and threaten to separate the family.

"I said, 'If it's the money you want, you can take it, if that's what it takes to keep my children with me and not separate them from us. Take the money,' " she said.

The document Henderson signed, which bears Russell's signature, states that in exchange for forfeiting the cash, "no criminal charges shall be filed ... and our children shall not be turned over" to the state's child protective services agency.

Maryland resident Amanee Busbee said she also was threatened with losing custody of her child after being stopped in Tenaha with her fiancé and his business partner. They were headed to Houston with $50,000 to complete the purchase of a restaurant, she said.

"The police officer would say things to me like, 'Your son is going to child protective services because you are not saying what we need to hear,' " Busbee said.

Guillory, who practices in nearby Nacogdoches, Texas, estimates authorities in Tenaha seized $3 million between 2006 and 2008, and in about 150 cases -- virtually all of which involved African-American or Latino motorists -- the seizures were improper.

"They are disproportionately going after racial minorities," he said. "My take on the matter is that the police in Tenaha, Texas, were picking on and preying on people that were least likely to fight back."

Daniels told CNN that one of the officers who stopped him tried on some of his jewelry in front of him.

"They asked me, 'What you are doing with this ring on?' I said I had bought that ring. I paid good money for that ring," Daniels said. "He took the ring off my finger and put it on his finger and told me how did it look. He put on my jewelry."

Texas law states that the proceeds of any seizures can be used only for "official purposes" of district attorney offices and "for law-enforcement purposes" by police departments. According to public records obtained by CNN using open-records laws, an account funded by property forfeitures in Russell's office included $524 for a popcorn machine, $195 for candy for a poultry festival, and $400 for catering.

In addition, Russell donated money to the local chamber of commerce and a youth baseball league. A local Baptist church received two checks totaling $6,000.

And one check for $10,000 went to Barry Washington, a Tenaha police officer whose name has come up in several complaints by stopped motorists. The money was paid for "investigative costs," the records state.

Washington would not comment for this report but has denied all allegations in his answer to Guillory's lawsuit.

"This is under litigation. This is a lawsuit," he told CNN.

Russell refused requests for interviews at her office and at a fundraiser for a volunteer fire department in a nearby town, where she also sang. But in a written statement, her lawyers said she "has denied and continues to deny all substantive allegations set forth."

Russell "has used and continues to use prosecutorial discretion ... and is in compliance with Texas law, the Texas constitution, and the United States Constitution," the statement said.

Bowers, who has been Tenaha's mayor for 54 years, is also named in the lawsuit. But he said his employees "will follow the law."

"We try to hire the very best, best-trained, and we keep them up to date on the training," he said.

The attention paid to Tenaha has led to an effort by Texas lawmakers to tighten the state's forfeiture laws. A bill sponsored by state Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, would bar authorities from using the kind of waivers Daniels, Henderson and Busbee were told to sign.

"To have law enforcement and the district attorney essentially be crooks, in my judgment, should infuriate and does infuriate everyone," Whitmire said. His bill has passed the Senate, where he is the longest-serving member, and is currently before the House of Representatives.

Busbee, Boatright and Henderson were able to reclaim their property after hiring lawyers. But Daniels is still out his $8,500.

"To this day, I don't understand why they took my belongings off me," he said.

Army of None...

2009-05-05T14:05:00.003-04:00

Very simply put, this is a bullshit maneuver by The RI Salvation Army.

SALVATION ARMY CUTS TIES WITH CANTEEN VOLUNTEER GROUP

PROJO 12:20 PM Tue, May 05, 2009 Thomas J. Morgan

CRANSTON, R.I. -- The Salvation Army on Tuesday severed its ties with the Special Signal Association, a group of volunteers who for decades had driven canteen trucks to fires and other disasters to provide food and drink for firefighters. It was a development that riled the volunteers.

The trucks may have been familiar to bystanders at fires and other public safety emergencies around Rhode Island, but it was not widely recognized that the trucks, one painted red, the other white, equipped with emergency lights and carrying Fire Department logos, actually were not official vehicles.

Maj. Doug Burr, the Salvation Army's state coordinator, said in a news release that because of a budget squeeze, the organization had decided to sell the building at 34 Commercial St. in Pawtuxet Village, where the two canteen trucks are housed.

Burr said the trucks would be shifted to another garage and would be staffed by Salvation Army volunteers. "It is the Salvation Army's desire that no break in service be noticeable," he said.

That statement did not sit well with Paul J. O'Rourke, president of the Special Signal Fire Association, who has been running the trucks for 17 years when he is not on duty with the Providence Police Department. He said that Burr told him the Salvation Army was changing the locks on the building housing the trucks.

After meeting with Burr Tuesday morning, O'Rourke said, "Burr says he is going to use his own people to man the truck, but they're not going do it like we did it. They are only going out on something real big. When a house fire comes, they ain't gonna show up."

O'Rourke, who has been a police officer for 38 years, said he averaged 25 to 30 hours a week with the canteen trucks. "When I wasn't doing police, I was doing canteen," he said.

"They threw us out," was the reaction of Raymond Hull, a Providence police sergeant and treasurer of the Special Signal Association, who also met with Burr Tuesday.

"Paul [O'Rourke] got me on board a good seven years ago," Hull said. "I only went on board because I realized what Paul did for the police and fire. As a cop, you need an outlet. Here, you drive a big truck and help somebody."

Hull paid tribute to "the many men and women who gave their time and effort for free."
"They didn't ask for anything. We didn't get paid. We just enjoyed it for what we did," he said.

Hull said that after hearing the news, "a lot of guys are hurting. The meeting with the Salvation Army could have happened on a better note. They gave us no notice: 'You're done.' That's what really hurts. I can understand the Salvation Army's reasoning. They want to do it differently? Fine. It's their equipment, their trucks. I don't fault the Salvation Army in any way. I'm just hurt with how we were treated."

Hull vowed that this would not be the end of the Special Signal Association. He said members would continue to provide a service even if they had to use their own vehicles. "There is a need for service out there for police and fire, and for anyone who asks for us and needs help," he said.

O'Rourke said the Special Signal Association has been associated with the Salvation Army since 1969.

He said that when he joined in 1992 or 1993, the trucks were averaging 12 runs a year. He said he reorganized the system and lately had been tallying 500 runs a year. "A fire, a disaster, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut -- we always responded," O'Rourke said.

He said the organization has about 70 members, of whom 25 to 30 work the trucks. "Everyone signs up for a day or night, and the trucks were managed 24 hours, 7 days a week," he said.

O'Rourke said the white truck was donated by the state Emergency Management Agency. The red truck was donated by civic organizations and foundations. The garage where they were housed was donated for $1 by the Pawtuxet Volunteer Fire Department, he said, many of whose volunteers also were members of the Special Signal Association.

2009-04-30T07:28:00.002-04:00

WEEI Boston - WORST- MOST CODESCENDING & OFF-TOPIC morning radio ever. I plead with people to write to complain about the format and about DENNIS & CALAHAN... It's so offensive - not because I do or don't agree with their specific political stanbce - but because they INSIST on bringing it into EVERYTHING throughout the show. And because of their belittlement of anything or anyone that doesn't agree with their "superior" attitudes.

It is a sports talk station. NOT a right-wing political vehicle.

2009-04-29T20:57:00.001-04:00

Fenway Park from the Pub in Right-Center

2009-04-29T20:51:00.000-04:00

McCoy Stadium from the Outfield Grass

EMAIL to BLOG

2009-04-29T20:30:00.001-04:00

And Here is a test of the set up directly from email to the blog.

2009-04-29T20:28:00.001-04:00

Expanding my horizons - Here's the first post directly from my cell ... PSEUDO-TWITTER!

Listen Up - Write Your OWN Damn Song.

2009-04-22T09:16:00.003-04:00

As I write this they are playing the modern version of "You Spin Me" on the local pop radio channel.

My thought is this.

To do a cover of a previously released song is an homage. It recognizes the original artist and honors the belief that the song is noteworthy. Over time, many new listeners are exposed to music that is new to them through the creation and performance of another writer/artist's song.

It's how people are educated about types of music and are taught music history.
It's how I learned (and STILL learn about) about early Rock & Roll, R & B, Jazz and many other areas of music I would otherwise never have listened to or appreciated.

However, I strongly, vehemently disagree with the recent developments in this area.
To take another person's music, re-play a significant portion of it, in order that it be recognizable and attractive to listeners AS THAT SONG OR BEAT, and then simply insert new rap in between these riffs is NOT acknowledging the artistry and significance of the original artist. It is USING them & their work for the pure purposes of making money from it.

It is, in my opinion, disingenuous, dishonorable and basically stealing.

If the original artists are involved in the process, then that is absolutely fine. But if a song is either gone from copyright, or, even WORSE, still under it, but not enough of the song is ripped for legal prosecution to succeed, then it is an insult to the originator and a low-life act.

I hold no joy for the record industry's attempts at preventing copyright infringement, as I firmly believe that their arrogance prevented them form properly seeing the new areas of growth in music recording, distributing, and transferal. Shame on them, and they should be made to lose out.

However - the integrity of people who go beyond "sampling" just to get their own bastardization of a previously successful song out for their own profits, it completely wrong.

You teach nothing but disreputable behavior to young listeners, and it is ignorant and arrogant behavior.

There...had my say.

Radio Ga-Ga? NO... Radio BULLSH**!!!

2009-04-15T08:43:00.002-04:00

I demand to know who the f%^& decided that ALL that people want to hear in the AM on the radio is ridiculous babble between insipid morons. No one cares about your bad humor, your bright and chipper co-host, or Hollywood gossip, or what went on the night before on every show on TV.

Oooo! And here's a wonderful idea! Let's PRANK some listener's boyfriend, spouse, or coworker! That's incredible entertainment!

The humor is non-existent. These people all are self-aggrandizing, thinking they are the most talented, funny and quick-witted radio personalities on the planet.

All people want to hear is some traffic, some news headlines (THE IMPORTANT ONES, not every stupid piece of crap thing that is dumped out on the internet), and then music.

I have spoken to numerous young people - high school and college age, and THEY don't want anything but music. I've listened around the office and in Dunkin' Donuts, and in the gym ....if there is a mention by people AT ALL of radio, it's about how annoying it is. To a person, they fall into two groups... "Why can't I hear a friggin' SONG." and "Why can't I get headlines or sports scores and then some music?"

The advertisers CAN'T POSSIBLY believe that this adds value to the playing of their commercials.

I find it once again a case of "self-fulfillment".
In the 1950' & 1960's, the morning DJ was the spark for listening. This begat power-DJ's, like Petey Greene, who begat shock jocks like Imus and Stern. Marketing weenies in small markets of course copied that to death will lame impostors, and the advertising monkeys went along for the ride.

Today there is pablum. Garbage.... and even WORSE than bland, there is annoying and useless.

Some say it's age creeping in to me that causes the crankiness....
But the fact is, it just gets tiring to see zero effort put in to anything by people now.
Try something new. Find out what people WANT and they will listen to your disreputable ads by shysters selling fake sexual enhancement products in order to scam kids' credit cards.

Or how about this...get a fucking clue and put out a viable product.

ANOTHER Brick in the Wall

2009-04-02T13:02:00.006-04:00

THIS is the legacy that we have to live with, and it's infuriating that a stupid dope such as I was able to discern that we were burning bridges - or at least doing significant political and diplomatic damage with our administration's arrogant policies and attitude. To me, it showed short-sightedness and a blatant disregard for the world as a unit. It assumed such superiority and a misguided belief that the US was the only one right and that we could do it ourselves.

And to all my friends who are heavily critical of this personal belief, I say, yes, the world DID change after 9/11 ~ but the path this country's administration lead us and the manner in which they attempted to achieve their goals was myopic and incorrectly insular.

And now, in the world of today, we see the problems manifested in many ways that will be difficult to repair. And it is EXTREMELY frustrating.

---------

Obama's Challenge
Forget the protesters. The real anger at America this week is coming from European governments.

By John Barry Newsweek
Apr 2, 2009
At the G20 summit this week, President Obama confronts a problem no American president before George W. Bush had to face: suspicion and even hostility toward the U.S. government from European allies. Bluntly, the Bush administration all but destroyed traditional transatlantic ties, including the "special relationship" between the United States and Britain.
Even though Obama is popular among the European public, he didn't do the U.S.-U.K. bond any favors last month. When Prime Minister Gordon Brown came to Washington, he brought with him a present for Obama chosen with the care accorded a gift to some valued ally: a penholder carved from timbers of the sister ship to the Resolute, from whose wood the president's Oval Office desk was made. Obama's gift to Brown was DVDs of American movies—a Christmas gift to a not particularly close business acquaintance. As they say, it's the thought that counts. The thought was duly noted in London.
That
was stupid of the White House, which needs all the friends it can get. On the
most crucial issue facing this summit (how to organize a coordinated Western
response to the worst economic disaster since the Great Depression), Brown has
one view, close to the administration's. Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany
and President Nicolas Sarkozy of France have very different views; the Central Europeans have others.
But Obama's real problem runs deeper. What passes at the
G20's plenary sessions will likely be of slight importance. Just going around
the table for introductory statements will take hours; and the final communiqué
was precooked. Obama's side sessions with individual leaders will be where any
real business is done. (See Wednesday's announcement that the U.S. and Russia
will restart nuclear-arms negotiations, which came out of Obama's presummit meeting
with President Dimitry Medvedev.) In these meetings, Obama will find himself
face-to-face with shrewd European leaders—all longer veterans in government
than he—who, deep down, have learned from painful experience to distrust
America.
It is hard to overestimate the damage that the Bush
administration did to America's historic Western alliance. Former defense
secretary Donald Rumsfeld's offhand dismissal of "Old Europe," as
against the new states of Central Europe, set the tone. Rumsfeld later said
he'd mangled his text; and in another circumstance the European allies might
have accepted that. But Rumsfeld's misspeaking, if that is what it was, points
to the real damage. At its root, the Europeans believe they were systematically
brushed aside—even lied to. At the depth of the Iraq debacle, one senior
adviser at No. 10 Downing Street exclaimed: "We've been betrayed by a
bunch of incompetents in Washington." Tony Blair, Brown's predecessor and
that official's admired boss, was effectively destroyed by his support of W.
The same adviser is now in Britain's Washington embassy. Does anyone believe he
has forgotten what prompted his outburst?
The perception of betrayal goes far wider than rigged
intelligence estimates and unfounded optimism about Iraq. On issue after issue
(Russia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Guantánamo, Iran, the Israeli-Palestinian
negotiations), the current cadre of European leaders and officials believe the
Bush White House failed to consult them; worse, it did not level with them
about its real goals. And, more alarming still, it simply had no idea what it
was getting into. The economic meltdown—which all Europeans see as originating
in a massive failure by a corrupted U.S. system of government to sensibly
regulate Wall Street—is merely, for Europe's leaders, final proof that the
Washington they respected and, ultimately, trusted through the Cold War years
is no more.
Summits are gatherings of leaders, and the media tend to
focus on personal relationships among them. Expect, in coming days, much White
House spin about just how well Obama has bonded with his counterparts. That's a
delusion. National leaders are not swayed by charm. Especially not European
leaders briefed by their officials. "Sherpas" is what the unseen
officials are called who prepare the ground for big international gatherings
like the G20 summit. Obama faces European leaders briefed by their own sherpas.
All those unseen officials bear the scars of their dealings with Bush. Most had
a tour in Washington in the '00s, suffering firsthand the administration's
contempt and, they came to believe, double-dealing.
That outburst by the No. 10 official finds echoes in
every European capital. One of Sarkozy's closest advisers bears the scars
of the Bush administration's dismissal of French concerns about an Iraq
invasion. When France's most-senior military officer came to Washington to
argue France's concerns, he was treated to an angry outburst by a top Pentagon
official, who said France's real concern was a corrupt relationship between
Saddam Hussein and France's then-president, Jacques Chirac—a relationship that,
the Pentagon official said, it would be America's pleasure to expose from
documents Washington was confident it would find in Baghdad. No such documents
were ever found. One of Merkel's top advisers recalls voicing his concerns in
2006 about the worsening situation in Afghanistan—to be met with the comment
that the Germans had always been unreliable allies, so why should the U.S.
listen to their fears now?
Leaders in democracies come and go. Their advisers, at
least in Europe, remain. For two generations of the Cold War and its aftermath,
those officials were confident that they had relationships with their
Washington counterparts of frankness, truth and trust. Differences were
explored. Advice was given and weighed. Problems were sorted out before they
became crises. Policies were quietly thrashed out before any public
announcement. Political sensitivities were mediated by phone calls between
leaders. Those unseen day-to-day relationships were the real bedrock of
America's influence in its dealings with the United States' most enduring
partners. Now President Obama will find himself confronting Bush's legacy, and
trying very hard to get Europe back on his side.
© 2009
http://www.newsweek.com/id/192116

Life on Mars

2009-04-02T09:48:00.003-04:00

Another show I thought was well written, well acted and artistically presented bites the dust. And yes, they gave us an ending - a quick wrap-up, admittedly, after being told only a month ago that the show was cancelled. and no, it wasn't nearly as dark as the ending to the British version - I don't know if American audiences would be comfortable with the UK versions end. Maybe. At least this was written with embedded clues throughout the 17 episodes, so again - it was thought out. But it's strength was in the performances, and the characterizations and the music and views of New York and our culture in '73. You wanted to know about the characters.

And it was funny - the makers of this show were the same people who did "October Road". So there were a couple of quiet tributes along the way... such as last night's sign that said "Catoldo Housing", after the Ray 'Big Cat Catoldo character. Fairly subtle.

And now we can of course look forward to more vapid, useless programming by the networks to fill the slot. Nothing like a fake, idiotic, "un-scripted", demeaning, insulting and above all CHEAP 'reality' show to lure in more fools of the target demographic.

"May you find a home wherever you land."

Apparently Everyone DOESN'T Think Your Principal is your "PAL"

2009-03-17T13:43:00.002-04:00

A biting commentary on the state of people's sanity today...

Police: Providence principal bitten by angry parent
03/17/09 Projo
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- A middle school principal was bitten by a parent after he told her that her son was being suspended from school.
Roger Williams Principal Rudolph Moseley Jr. said that in his office on Friday, he told the parent, Aleyda Uceta of 164 Gallatin St., Providence, that her 11-year-old son would be suspended for three days. He said she became very angry and began yelling at him in his office.
According to a police report, Uceta then punched Moseley in the face. When Moseley pushed the mother away, he was struck by the student, according to the police. Uceta then grabbed Moseley's arm and began biting him.
In an effort to calm the situation, a teacher tried to calm Uceta by speaking to her in Spanish, and Uceta punched her in the face, according to the police.
When the police arrived, they attempted to escort Uceta out of the school but she continued to try to punch Moseley. She also resisted attempts by the police to take her into custody.
By then, a large crowd of Uceta's family had gathered around the police, making it difficult for them to take her into custody.
During the struggle, Uceta bit a patrolman's arm and struck him in the face. After Uceta was placed into police custody, police heard her say, "I'm going to take your gun and shoot all of you," according to the police report.
While handcuffed and seated on the floor, Uceta attemped to kick the window panes out of a door in the school's main office.
Both the police and Moseley received bite wounds to their arms, according to the police report. One patrolman also sustained a back injury. Moseley was taken to a hospital for treatment.
Uceta was charged with assault on school officials, assault on police officers and resisting legal arrest.

Happy Birthday Olive!!!

2009-03-10T19:13:00.002-04:00

You'd have been 8 .... and were the coolest cat around!!!

Representatives... OF THEMSELVES

2009-03-05T09:00:00.003-05:00

I know it’s a matter of big picture and this is just one thing, but it’s the kind of stuff that really ticks me off….

Kyng's political rant for today: Infuriating things about our legislature and our Congressional ‘old boy’ network…

And yes, this is MERELY 10 million dollars, but it exemplifies the disgusting way things are done “on our behalf” by elected officials.

If you look at the vote below, I highlighted where both RI Senators spinelessly voted the bill down. The average person has NO time to wade through the convoluted reports and websites JUST to find out how their own reps voted on bills. In fact, it appears to be purposefully made extremely difficult to research such things. Obtaining this information took at least 15 minutes. And this is ONE highly publicized bill that was voted on yesterday. You could NEVER keep track of how your rep voted on key issues on a regular basis.

It’s disheartening and disgusting.
And, from such a Democratically entrenched state as RI, such “go along” behavior is to be expected.

And then Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid addressed the issue of this amendment/bill, saying “I’ve been here going on 27 years,” he said. “No one should come and lecture me on what my role is as a member of Congress.”

REALLY???? ACTUALLY, YES THEY SHOULD, SIR. YOU ARE A REPRESENTATIVE OF THE PEOPLE, AND THAT ATTITUDE BELIES YOUR ARROGANCE. YOUR ROLE IS TO DO THE RIGHT THING, TO ACT RESPONSIBLY ON THE PEOPLE’S BEHALF, AND TO LISTEN TO THE OPINIONS AND SUGGESTIONS OF OTHER SENATORS AND YOUR CONSTITUENCY.

From the Washington Post:
…The Senate approved $10 million in funding yesterday for clients of the PMA Group, "a now-disbanded lobbying firm that is under federal investigation for alleged fraud in political contributions to members of Congress…”

U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 111th Congress - 1st Session
as compiled through Senate LIS by the Senate Bill Clerk under the direction of the Secretary of the Senate
Vote Summary
Question: On the Amendment (Coburn Amdt. No. 623 as Modified )
Vote Number: 80
Vote Date: March 4, 2009, 06:07 PM
Required For Majority: 1/2
Vote Result: Amendment Rejected
Amendment Number: S.Amdt. 623 to H.R. 1105 (Omnibus Appropriations Act, 2009)
Statement of Purpose:
To prohibit taxpayer dollars from being earmarked to 14 clients of a lobbying firm under Federal investigation for making campaign donations in exchange for political favors for the group's clients.

Vote Counts: 43 YEAs; 52 NAYs; 4 Not Voting

YEAs ---43
Alexander (R-TN)Barrasso (R-WY)Bayh (D-IN)Bennet (D-CO)Bennett (R-UT)Bond (R-MO)Brownback (R-KS)Bunning (R-KY)Burr (R-NC)Chambliss (R-GA)Coburn (R-OK)Cochran (R-MS)Collins (R-ME)Corker (R-TN)Cornyn (R-TX)
Crapo (R-ID)DeMint (R-SC)Ensign (R-NV)Enzi (R-WY)Feingold (D-WI)Graham (R-SC)Grassley (R-IA)Gregg (R-NH)Hatch (R-UT)Hutchison (R-TX)Inhofe (R-OK)Isakson (R-GA)Klobuchar (D-MN)Kyl (R-AZ)Lincoln (D-AR)
Lugar (R-IN)Martinez (R-FL)McCain (R-AZ)McConnell (R-KY)Murkowski (R-AK)Nelson (D-FL)Risch (R-ID)Roberts (R-KS)Shelby (R-AL)Snowe (R-ME)Thune (R-SD)Vitter (R-LA)Wicker (R-MS)

NAYs ---52
Akaka (D-HI)Baucus (D-MT)Begich (D-AK)Bingaman (D-NM)Boxer (D-CA)Brown (D-OH)Burris (D-IL)Byrd (D-WV)Cantwell (D-WA)Cardin (D-MD)Carper (D-DE)Casey (D-PA)Dodd (D-CT)Dorgan (D-ND)Durbin (D-IL)Feinstein (D-CA)Gillibrand (D-NY)Hagan (D-NC)
Harkin (D-IA)Inouye (D-HI)Johnson (D-SD)Kaufman (D-DE)Kerry (D-MA)Kohl (D-WI)Landrieu (D-LA)Lautenberg (D-NJ)Leahy (D-VT)Levin (D-MI)Lieberman (ID-CT)McCaskill (D-MO)Menendez (D-NJ)Merkley (D-OR)Mikulski (D-MD)Murray (D-WA)Nelson (D-NE)Pryor (D-AR)Reed (D-RI)Reid (D-NV)Rockefeller (D-WV)Sanders (I-VT)Schumer (D-NY)Shaheen (D-NH)Specter (R-PA)Stabenow (D-MI)Tester (D-MT)Udall (D-CO)Udall (D-NM)Voinovich (R-OH)Warner (D-VA)Webb (D-VA)Whitehouse (D-RI)Wyden (D-OR)

The Market Drop almost Didn't Matter at ALL...

2009-03-04T08:55:00.002-05:00

The Earth has had a near miss this week when a huge asteroid whizzed past, less than 50,000 miles away.

Wednesday March 04, 2009 ~ Sky.com

The asteroid had been spotted by astronomers monitoring the skies
The asteroid - about the size of a 10-storey building - flew past the Earth at roughly twice the distance of the highest Earth-orbiting satellites, according to website space.com.
It is similar in size to a rock that exploded above Siberia in 1908, flattening 80 million trees across an 800 square mile area.
The impact had the force of a thousand atomic bombs, astronomers say.
Asteroid 2009 DD45 was closest to the earth on Monday at around 8.30am, at just under 45,000 miles above the surface of the planet.
Astronomers knew it was coming after it was spotted last Saturday as a faint dot showing up in pictures at the Siding Spring Observatory in Australia.
There was never any risk of collision, experts said, but anything flying within 50,000 miles of the Earth is taken very seriously.
The closest listed "flyby" to Earth by an asteroid happened in March 2004 when a small one - 2004 FU162 - measuring about 20 feet across came within about 4,000 miles of the earth.
Asteroids are rocks ranging in size from a few feet to several miles in diameter.
Most of them orbit the sun in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Retirement: 6:00 PM ...... 1/2 OFF Merchandise: 6:05 PM

2009-02-11T22:17:00.005-05:00

The best part (aside from these all now being 50% off) is that each shirt is symbolically turning its back on you ... or is it that they are just walking away? Well, except one ~ 'cause ya never know with "God's Gift to Football". What will ESPN do now? Or John Madden?

You Reap What Youb Sow

2009-02-05T09:22:00.003-05:00

Yet another debacle brought on by RI elected officials AGAINST the stated desires of the citizens of the state multiple times. And now we are supposed to acquiesce to the PURCHASE of this mess because our politicians have trapped us by irresponsible budgeting?
This state's politico already HAVE a reputation for corruption and insider deals. How do ya think THIS will work?

Pathetic.

New RI slogan: "Lasciate ogni speranza voi ch'entrate "
from Dante's "Inferno".

(and for the non-Italian speakers: Abandon all hope, ye who enter here)

R.I. Ponders Buying Out Ailing Casino
By Eric Moskowitz, Globe Staff February 5, 2009
LINCOLN, R.I. - Rhode Islanders marveled when the seedy old Lincoln Greyhound Park was transformed by investors into a lavish gambling salon, with a map of the state etched into the terrazzo marble floor and soaring columns fashioned to appear like autumn oaks.
But the legions of new gamblers that were supposed to flock to the glitzy slot parlor, rebranded as Twin River and purchased and renovated at a cost of nearly $700 million, never came. Its operators cannot meet heavy debt obligations and have defaulted on the terms of their loans. Bankruptcy threatens.
So to avoid the risk of a closure and the loss of $250 million the slot machines generate annually for state coffers, the state's politicians are considering ways to keep it open, including a possible purchase - an unprecedented move that would make Rhode Island the first state to own a "racino."
For states, the choice facing Rhode Island starkly illustrates the dangers that accompany the rewards of legalized gambling.
Twin River provides Rhode Island's third-largest revenue source, behind only the income and sales taxes. For state officials grappling with huge deficits created by the recession, it has become, in the recent parlance applied to bank bailouts, too big to fail.
"We're so deep into it," said John J. Cullen, a Lincoln resident and longtime critic of expanded gambling who nonetheless sees the logic of a state buyout. "The state has become addicted to the revenue source."
Rhode Island's general treasurer, Frank Caprio, first proposed a buyout if Twin River fails to right itself. Other prominent officials have jumped on board, including the speaker of the Rhode Island House, saying it must be considered.
Governor Donald L. Carcieri, a Republican, has retained a national law firm and equity analysts to advise him on how to respond to Twin River's financial crisis. Until the studies are done, Carcieri is withholding judgment, said Amy Kempe, the governor's spokeswoman. She called talk of a state takeover "sheer speculation," but said Carcieri has not ruled it out.
"The state needs to stand ready, if this facility is forced into receivership or bankruptcy," Caprio said in an interview.
Caprio likened the proposal to buying a foreclosed home, not to bailing out a Wall Street bank. The state could conceivably purchase Twin River at a discounted price, perhaps $250 million, and hire its own casino manager, he said. Twin River could remain open, and the state could conceivably collect an even greater percentage of house winnings than the 60 percent it currently receives under state law, he said.
Twin River's owners hope to renegotiate their estimated $525 million in debt, or cut a new deal and pay the state less than its current percentage - something state officials have steadfastly refused to do. If they can't do those things, a sale to the state, bankruptcy filing, reorganization, or a post-failure state takeover are all possibilities, said Patti Doyle, a Twin River spokeswoman.
The idea of a taxpayer-financed bailout or a takeover has some state residents worried.
"The state has plenty of things they can spend their money on, rather than bailing out a semi-casino," said Matt Buteau, 34, of Smithfield, who works for an oil and gas company.
The Rev. Dr. Donald C. Anderson, executive minister of the Rhode Island State Council of Churches and a gambling opponent, said putting state officials in full control of Twin River could lead to an expansion from the current slot parlor to a full-blown casino with blackjack, craps, and other games.
"There could be temptation here for the state to see expansion of gambling as one way to dig itself out of this hole," Anderson said.
Yet some think it's not a bad idea. "I think it could be a moneymaker in the right hands," said Kerri Maloney, 45, a self-described "day-care mom" from Greenville. Although she does not favor gambling, "if it's in our state, I'd rather we have control over it."
The operators are BLB Investors LLC, a partnership that includes Len Wolman and Sol Kerzner, who developed Mohegan Sun in Connecticut and also are the investors in a proposed Mashpee Wampanoag casino in Middleborough. They first missed a debt payment early last year and have received multiple extensions from lenders.
Chief lender Merrill Lynch Capital Corp. is "continuing discussions with all parties and interests," spokesman Bill Halldin said Sunday, as talks continued.
Twin River already won the right from Rhode Island officials to operate 24 hours a day on weekends and holidays, over the objections of Lincoln residents. But local and national economic woes have continued to take a toll. Rhode Island's 10 percent December unemployment rate ranked second among the 50 states.
The gross amount of money gambled rose to about $2 billion last year, but to encourage that higher rate of gambling, Twin River has given away increasing amounts of money in winnings and frequent-gambler rewards programs. That left less than $193 million to be divided among the state, Twin River, and other parties from July through December 2008, down from $215 million in the first half of the year.
"It's almost like a perfect storm in terms of circumstances forcing the owners to take a hard look at their debt and say, 'We need to take a step back, and we need some assistance,' " said Doyle.
Those who track casino gambling say there is no precedent for a state takeover, though government ownership is the rule in Canada, where the casinos are owned by the provinces but managed by contractors. In 2007, Kansas became the first US state to legalize casino gambling in a Canadian-style fashion, but it has yet to open its first casino, according to the American Gaming Association.
Some academics say state ownership in Rhode Island may be a mistake.
"I think we've got to do whatever we can to help Twin River get out of the situation they're in," short of buying it, said Edward M. Mazze, a professor and former business school dean at the University of Rhode Island. "If [you] thought casinos that were run without the state had an air of gangsterism, just imagine when the state runs it. I mean, this state cannot run itself."

50 Years Ago Today - "The Day the Music Died"

2009-02-02T13:23:00.003-05:00

I never really paid attention to it until the Don McLean song (American Pie) came out, what with being less than 2 when it happened and all... but to listen to the songs that Buddy Holley and Ritchie Valens wrote, I can see why people felt it was th eend of the "free writing" R&R era...

by Todd LeopoldCNN - 02-02-09
(CNN) -- The facts are these: Just after 1 a.m. February 3, 1959, a three-passenger Beechcraft Bonanza went down about five miles northwest of Mason City Municipal Airport, near Clear Lake, Iowa. The plane crash took the lives of the pilot, Roger Peterson, and three musicians: Charles Hardin Holley, better known as Buddy Holly, 22; Ritchie Valens (originally Valenzuela), 17; and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, 28.
It has become famous, in Don McLean's "American Pie" formulation, as "the day the music died."
The event has echoed through rock 'n' roll history for 50 years, representing, if not the end of rock 'n' roll itself, the close of an era, the end of the first bloom of rock anarchy and innovation.
"It was like a curtain coming down," said Terry Stewart, president of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, which is co-hosting a series of events in Clear Lake for the anniversary, including classes putting the event in historical context.
As they have for decades, visitors have been making the pilgrimage to the resort town about 110 miles north of Des Moines. On Monday night, the 50th anniversary of the trio's deaths, the city's Surf Ballroom and Museum will host a huge concert in conjunction with the Rock Hall.
Expected are luminaries including Graham Nash, whose 1960s British band was named for Holly; the Smithereens' Pat DiNizio, who wrote the song "Maria Elena" for Holly's widow; Los Lobos, who followed in the Hispanic-rock tradition begun by Valens; Texans Delbert McClinton and Joe Ely; and Tommy Allsup, who was a Holly sideman at the show 50 years ago. "The vision [for the Monday show] has always been that we go back to the roots," said Laurie Lietz, the Surf's executive director. "There were so many who were influenced by [the trio]. So the tribute concert is really a tribute to each individual."
The Surf, which was refurbished in 1995 by a local family (it's now run by a foundation), includes the original stage, the telephone where Holly and Valens placed their last calls, guitars, photographs and a green room with hundreds of autographs.
They all pay tribute to the last show for three men.
Holly, Valens and Richardson were part of the Winter Dance Party, a ramshackle tour that had started in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and headed to small cities in Minnesota and Iowa.
The tour, which also included Dion and the Belmonts and members of Holly's backing band, had lumbered along in subfreezing temperatures in unheated buses; two days earlier, one bus had stalled out on a lonely Wisconsin road. By the time the group reached Clear Lake, Holly in particular was ready to bolt.
"Buddy was very determined when he wanted something," said his widow, Maria Elena Holly, of her "otherwise laid-back" husband of six months. He booked the plane to fly to Fargo, North Dakota, where he planned to rest up and do laundry in advance of the group's next concert in Moorhead, Minnesota, across the state line.
Fargo native Bobby Vee, who remembers the tragedy vividly, acknowledges that he owes his career to the event. The then-high school sophomore named Robert Velline had come home for lunch and heard a local DJ talking about the Moorhead show.
"I had a ticket for the show. I was a huge Buddy Holly fan and a huge rock 'n' roll fan," he recalled, adding that a major rock 'n' roll concert in the area was a rarity. "As I got closer into the kitchen ... [my mother and brother] were talking about this plane crash that had taken place. I couldn't put it all together."
But the promoter had decided to go on with the show and invited local bands to participate. Vee was in a garage band, and a friend suggested that they participate. The band, so loose it didn't even have a name, got on the bill. At the end of the night, a local booking agent approached them, and the Shadows (a name Vee came up with as they waited offstage) entered the music business.
Vee's hits eventually included 1961's "Take Good Care of My Baby" and 1967's "Come Back When You Grow Up."
"It changed my life," Vee said. "I was a 15-year-old. I'd never experienced that kind of tragedy. I wasn't there to start a career -- I didn't know what a career was -- I was just there to help out, because that's what people do when there's a problem."
Rock critic Dave Marsh also remembers hearing about the crash.
"I went to the door of our little house in Pontiac, Michigan, and I picked up the newspaper, and ... it was the first thing I saw: Three rock 'n' roll guys dying in a plane crash," he says. "I was 9, but I had an aunt who was just seven years older than me and a mother who was an Elvis fan and who watched 'American Bandstand' every day. So I was aware. ... It was something to deal with, people that young dying."
But, indicating the lack of esteem for rock 'n' roll at the time, it wasn't a major national news story. The New York Times put a plane crash on its February 4 front page, but it was an American Airlines flight that had crashed near LaGuardia Airport. The Clear Lake tragedy was on page 66. The same was true for other major newspapers."[Holly] really wasn't known to the older generation," said "Austin City Limits" executive producer and Holly aficionado Terry Lickona. "Even in his hometown [of Lubbock, Texas], they were embarrassed by him."
The trio's deaths coincided with a period of dark events in rock 'n' roll history, including Elvis Presley's induction into the Army, Jerry Lee Lewis' blacklisting, the record industry payola scandals and Chuck Berry's Mann Act conviction, not to mention the rise of manufactured teen idols such as Frankie Avalon and Fabian.
Partly thanks to McLean's lingering phrase, the ensuing years have been painted as a rock Dark Ages, rescued only by the Beatles' arrival in 1964 at the vanguard of the British Invasion.
Marsh says that canard, which he has refuted in "The Book of Rock Lists" and "The Heart of Rock and Soul," should be laid to rest once and for all.
"I think what happened was that people weren't paying attention themselves and assumed no one else was, either," he said. "I think it's also a way that glorifies the lack of stars [compared to rock's early days]. That was missing. ... I don't think Roy Orbison had quite the same stature."
Which doesn't mean that the music of Orbison, Phil Spector, early Motown or Gary U.S. Bonds deserves to be overlooked, he added: "The quality of the music is undeniable." What would have happened to the trio in that era is, of course, impossible to know. Valens, celebrated in the movie "La Bamba," was just starting his career and may have produced more hits; Richardson, a former DJ and radio program director who shot some rudimentary music videos, had shrewd entrepreneurial instincts.
And then there's Holly, with his songwriting talent, his arranging abilities (he did the strings on "It Doesn't Matter Anymore," his last single) and sheer knowledge of music.
Maria Elena Holly, who watches over his legacy, says Buddy had big plans: He wanted to do albums with Ray Charles and Mahalia Jackson; he wanted to try film music; he wanted to do music publishing.
"He was a multitasker in every way," she said. Monday, he and the others will simply be remembered at the ballroom where it's always February 2, 1959, and they're putting on another great show.
"When I come to these things, I don't think about [that] this is the last time I talked to him was from here. I think, I'm meeting the fans who have kept his memory alive," said Maria Elena Holly, who admits to getting "a little bit teary" when she hears "True Love Ways."
"And that's really what Buddy wanted to happen with his music: He wanted people to enjoy the music, to listen to it and make them happy," she said. "And when I think of it that way, I think at least his dream came true."

How's your Week Been?

2009-01-30T16:01:00.002-05:00

(from: http://www.dragonflightstudio.com/banghead.gif )

Best In Show

2009-01-30T15:56:00.001-05:00

WE'RE #1! WE'RE #1! WE'RE #1! WE'RE #1!
Oh.
Wait.
Shit, we're stupid here. If you ask ANY RI resident, they wouldn't be surprised, and they would point directly to our elected officials, the climate of 'old-boy-networking", pandering to unions, corruption and irresponsibility. And every damn election, most of these leaders run unopposed for re-election. Hell - even the sweetheart deal with the "casino" that they made (against the clearly expressed wishes of the public - TWICE) is going belly up.

New: R.I. led U.S. in employment woes last year
The 4.8 percentage point-increase in the state's unemployment rate last year led the nation, according to new data from the U.S. Department of Labor. Only North Carolina, where unemployment grew by 4 percentage points, and Nevada, where it rose by 3.9 percentage points, came close.

The Writing's on the Wall ...Ummm, Well, the Parking Lot Anyway

2009-01-29T09:52:00.005-05:00

Even snow angels have had enough...

(Busch Stadium)

from Deadspin.com

But Only on the Bottom

2009-01-28T18:10:00.002-05:00

I got a flat tire yestrerday ... well 98% flat and well on it's way to 100.

So I managed to get the car into a repair shop so I could have it fixed.

the guy behind the counter said:

"A flat? Sure - we can take care of it. Just leave it for an hour or two.

Now which tire is it?"

All I could do was look at him with my mouth wide open.

He REALLY said that.

No lie.

Ummmm.... the FLAT one???!

Guess that goes under the category of "Here's your Sign".

Just a Question....

2009-01-28T18:00:00.003-05:00

People are always saying that they will "give their left nut" to get something?

Why's it always the left nut?

Yurtin' for Certin'

2009-01-23T16:15:00.007-05:00

My friend Lisa showe me this website for a private camping area in Brownfield, Maine, called Frost Mountain. And the deal is, you stay in these cabin-tent-do-hickies called Yurts.

I've decided that YURTS are cool. Way cool, in fact. (pictured above - interior shots below).
Read up on it all below...

http://www.frostmountainyurts.com/aboutus.htm

The more you look at these puppies, the cooler they are!
So cool, in fact, that I just had to honor it with a Yurt Haiku (and yeah, I know ~ it's not following the strict sylabic rules of haiku.... get over it, I'm busy) .

Warm and spacious cabin homes
All season woodland “Big Tops”
Yurts Rule. Yurts Rule

Hill's on the Hill

2009-01-23T11:04:00.002-05:00

Craig Ferguson: "Today was Hillary Clinton's first day as Secretary of State. She's now in charge of all foreign affairs. Bill Clinton will still handle domestic affairs."

Ba-Dum-BUM!
Thank you ... we'll be hear all week. Try the veal!!

What D'ya Want?!! Rock-Paper-Scissors?

2009-01-21T12:42:00.001-05:00

From Deadspin.com:
http://deadspin.com/5136124/are-americans-the-worst-hooligans-of-all

Just Sittin' Here Watchin' the Wheels Go Round and Round

2009-01-21T10:29:00.003-05:00

This is simple to the consumer...MAKE BETTER CARS.
And respond more efficiently to the market.
That includes cost, quality and design foresight.

If you look on TV right now - not one American car company is pushing their CARS. They are pushing their trucks. Why? Probably because they have a massive surplus of them - since they kept making them in spite of last year's issues with energy costs and the overall economy.

Stop resisting and start responding. You obviously have made poor market anticipatory moves.
Not to mention a lack of corporate responsibility...

The result of this kind of corporate arrogance is what we are living now.
Did the 70's teach NOTHING?

How frustrating this behavior is.

GM Loses Sales Title to Toyota
GM's sales fell 10.8% in 2008. GM sold 610,000 fewer cars than Toyota, making it the first time in nearly 80 years that GM was not top in global sales.

By Chris Isidore, CNNMoney.com senior writer
January 21, 2009: 9:35 AM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com)
General Motors lost the title of world's largest automaker to rival Toyota Motor in 2008, according to sales figures released Wednesday by the troubled U.S. automaker. It was the first time in nearly 80 years that GM did not sell the most cars in the world.
GM (GM, Fortune 500) reported that global sales plunged 10.8% for the year to 8.36 million vehicles. That allowed Toyota (TM) to move ahead of GM with sales of 8.97 million vehicles worldwide.
And GM said the outlook for sales in its core U.S. market is not likely to improve anytime soon.
GM sales analyst Mike DiGiovanni said during a conference call Wednesday morning that the seasonally-adjusted annual U.S. sales rate will fall below 10 million vehicles in January. That would be the first time below that benchmark since 1982.
Industrywide U.S. sales came in just over the 10 million sales pace in each month of the last quarter of 2008 despite a sharp plunge in demand that left sales down 35% from year ago levels.
DiGiovanni attributed the new low for U.S. industrywide sales to a sharp drop in fleet sales to businesses, such as rental car companies, rather than further weakness in consumer sales.
He added that the decision by GM, Chrysler LLC and Ford Motor (F, Fortune 500) to trim first quarter production due to weak sales is leading to the drop in fleet sales, and that retail sales should be at or slightly above sales seen in the fourth quarter.
DiGiovanni said the company is hopeful that economic stimulus plans being considered in the United States as well as in other nations should hopefully help sales later this year. But he cautioned that "2009 will be a very difficult year."
GM's sales in Europe fell 6.5% while sales in North America plunged 21%. The company did post full-year sales gains in its Asia-Pacific region, as well as in its Latin America-Africa-Middle East region.
The loss of the No. 1 automaker title that GM held for 77 years came as no surprise. Toyota finished 2007 only 3,101 vehicles behind GM, as its sales rose and GM's fell that year.
But Toyota's sales fell 4% in 2008 as all automakers were hurt by high oil prices earlier in the year and the global recession. Toyota has already said that, due to the sharp drop in global demand for autos, it will report its first operating loss as a public company during its current fiscal year.

A New Birth of Freedom

2009-01-20T09:03:00.007-05:00

The official theme of today's inauguration is: "A New Birth of Freedom", taken from Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Abraham Lincoln

I saw the multitudes of people gathering before dawn this morning in Washington to witness and celebrate the inauguration. I t was an incredible sight to see how many had arrived so early.

To me, this confirmation of America's government operating as originally conceived is absolutely amazing.

Today was the coming together just as after 9/11 ... only for a different purpose. Not to console but to celebrate ... both in the strength of the country and its people.

from CNN.COM

Text of Obama's speech for his inauguration as 44th president
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - updated 1:17 p.m. ET, Tues., Jan. 20, 2009

"My fellow citizens,
I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.
Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forbearers, and true to our founding documents.
So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.
That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.
These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land — a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights.
Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America — they will be met.
On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.
On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.
We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.
In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted — for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things — some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.
For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life.
For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.
For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sahn.
Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction.
This is the journey we continue today. We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions — that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.
For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act — not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. All this we will do.
Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions — who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.
What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them— that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the public's dollars will be held to account — to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day — because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.
Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control — and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous. The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our Gross Domestic Product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on the ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart — not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.
As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake. And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and we are ready to lead once more.
Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.
We are the keepers of this legacy. Guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort — even greater cooperation and understanding between nations. We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan. With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet. We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.
For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus — and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.
To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society's ills on the West — know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.
To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.
As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains. They have something to tell us, just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the ages. We honor them not only because they are guardians of our liberty, but because they embody the spirit of service; a willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves. And yet, at this moment — a moment that will define a generation — it is precisely this spirit that must inhabit us all.
For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the firefighter's courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent's willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.
Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends — honesty and hard work, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism — these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility — a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.
This is the price and the promise of citizenship.
This is the source of our confidence— the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny.
This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed — why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent mall, and why a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.
So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled. In the year of America's birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:
"Let it be told to the future world...that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive ... that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet [it]."
America. In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.
Thank you. God bless you. And God bless the United States of America."

Credit Where Credit is Due

2009-01-19T08:18:00.004-05:00

OK, in my opinion, here are the top 3 most irresponsible jobs in existence today...

1) Cable news host, pundit or "expert".
2) Weather forecasters.
3) Mass murderers.

As might be guessed, this opinion has been formed as a result of days of incorrect forecasts regarding the local weather. I think the biggest issue I have is that they must fill endless minutes of air-time to show off their most colorful, interactive, HD graphic display programs, and then follow it up with 10-15 seconds of forecasts provided in the most absolute terms...when again and again it's proven that they CANNOT predict with such certainty. As a result, however, endless business, schools, government operations are delayed/cancelled/planned around these utterly fallible forecasts.
It's ridiculous.

Happy Monday.

Snow-Global Terror!!

2009-01-15T14:31:00.007-05:00

OK ... I know it is FRIGIDLY cold today.

And it will be tomorrow also.

But because this state (RI, which stands for Ridiculous Ignoramuses) had an outrageously overblown SNAFU last year when it snowed during a school day, most school systems closed for the day. Naturally, due to an unprecedented error in forecasting (NOT), it only snowed in the very southern part of the state. Now last year, when it snowed all in the middle of the day, everyone attempted to drive home at the same time, and that caused complete statewide gridlock, which also prevented any sanders/plows from clearing the roads. Thus, there were some school buses still on the roads hours later.

People had a shit-fit.

The governor was out of state, and there followed a nightmare of finger-pointing and douchebagery that resulted in the firing of:

a) The WRONG person - and one who was invaluable to the state

b) Widespread panic reminiscent of an Amish day trip to a zipper factory.

In ANY case, we now have the local rag reporting on the storm that never was ... and the comments that are being posted by the citizenry are HI-larious...

Ladies and gentlemen... I bring you RO-DI-lunders at their best. Enjoy.

"Another stupid move --- my god, 15degrees no snow and now what will they do for Friday????? Only Rhode Island!!"

"Yes..pretty soon they'll be closing school whenever there's "weather" in the forecast."

"Good way to raise wimpy kids. Absurd to close schools due to cold. Its WINTER! "

"Very surprised, this is New England right? I know how to dress for extreme cold and I think most of us do. I remember bundling up my daughter when she was young. I'm still trying to figure out why classes are cancelled? Why don't we just put bubble wrap around all the kids in this country from now on. Sorry, when I was a kid there were metal playgrounds, no bike helmets, we ate what we ate and went outside to play in winter. Jeez people get a grip!! Children are not going to freeze to death, this madness has to stop or the next few generations won't be able to handle anything!"

"We're raising a generation of entitled wimps."

"I was very surprised to hear that Providence Schools were cancelled last night. I understand the reasoning, but it was a bad call. Suppose we end up with below normal temps for a whole week, do you cancel school for a week? Now my kids are home sucking up all the heat/electricity!"

"Im not that old, but when I was a kid I walked to school. It was about 1 to 2 miles and it was indeed uphill one way. I remember my hair freezing solid when I got to school too bad, you still had to be there. This country/state are turning our kids into a bunch of Sallys. Everyone is afraid of harming the children. I have 2 girls and there certainly things out there that they need protection from. However, you need to draw the line somewhere and stop overprotecting them. If were not careful these kids are going to grow up with no way of getting through the tough times which life throws at them because they are going to be soft. Toughen up people winter hats, scarfs and gloves will do the trick."

"It is an overreaction. It seems that the decision was made based on weather forecasts that were then hyped by an ever desperate media." (YES !!!!!)

"I am so angry about the continual knee jerk reaction to 3" of snow. Come on folks, show some common sense. I don't care that you don't want to get in trouble like last year. Our kids should be in school. The first day of summer vacation is going to be Independence Day if you keep going at this rate!"

"This is getting insane people! We are raising our children like VEAL...think about it. If this continues, they will be weak adults and our country will eventually be "eaten". Let's toughen up and prepare for what's coming...it's not going to be pretty."

"I used to have to walk to school in 3 feet of snow, with below zero temperatures, uphill both ways..."

"Your kids are going to be the biggest bunch of pansies. i don't ever remember getting school off because its cold out. heck we never got any snow days either."

"Close school because it's too cold ? The kids today are a bunch of pampered wussies !"

"Tomorrow they will complain about children playing to much xbox and watching to much TV."

(sic)

"Too many schools are jumping the gun on this. It is absolutely ridiculous. You do not see people in other states that have constant snow canceling school. But ONLY IN RI. Who cares its cold dress you kid in layers and send them to school. Oh wait are they afraid of them freezing waiting for the busses. I could see that if the kids actually waited outside, but 90% of them get picked up right at their door and wait inside so they hold up traffic slowly walking out. The state is sooo backwards..."

"I'm not surprised...no one in RI can handle any adversity. What would they do if they lived in Buffalo, NY or anywhere in Minnesota??? Toughen up...bunch of marshmallows in RI!!"

"We're raising a nation of sissies."

Pledge

2008-12-31T22:39:00.003-05:00

It’s about to be a new year … and as I sit and reflect, I find I want to write a lilst of things to see in this new year…
Sort of a “bucket list” for 2009… both personal and otherwise.
Some are goals… some are attitude changes… some are wishes for the country or the world.
And some are just…. Thoughts.

In no particular order~

I want to be more level-headed, more responsible.
I want to be more thoughtful and understanding of others.
I want to train my mind to see the good in people before I see the bad.
I want to calmly speak what I feel and be more self-assertive when it’s proper.
I want to be more self confident.
I want to LAUGH more, and relax about life more.
I want to spend more time enjoying my friends ~ and doing things for them.
I want to fall in love with someone who will love me back.
I want to stop complaining about things and to condition myself to see the positive side of things.
I want to work hard and feel good about what I do.
I want people in my state to realize that we are all in a tough position now and to be willing to make sacrifices.
I want the politicians that represent us to do the right thing because it’s their job – and because it’s proper.
I want the next president to facilitate the healing that this country needs.
I want greed to stop being the overwhelming motivator in everything.
I want people to take responsibility for themselves and their actions.
I want to enjoy every single day I have…

I’m not demanding these things.
I’m not asking for them.
Most are things in MY control.

Like affirmations, I want to think them so much that I am able to make them happen…
I want to appreciate what I have….

I know these things won't happen unless I try...it's up to me.
I also know I will fail at many of these…but I promise that every time I do, I will think hard … and start again.

I took that picture above one October a few years ago ... and whenever I look at it, I feel the calm warmth of that day and the wonder I felt at such beautiful things I've gotten to see.

Happy New Year...

C'mon 2009 !!!!

2008-12-31T18:11:00.005-05:00

courtesy FLMNetwork.com

May this coming year be happier, more fulfilling and mind-numbingly better than last year for you and everyone on this planetoid !!!

Kyng

Merry Christmas!!!!

2008-12-22T22:41:00.001-05:00

Welcome Christmas! Bring your cheer.
Cheer to all Who's ~ far and near.

Christmas Day is in our grasp,
So long as we have hands to clasp.

Christmas Day will always be,
Just as long as we have we.

Welcome Christmas, while we stand,
Heart to heart And Hand in hand
T. Geisel

Neo? Or Neo-Con>?

2008-12-19T12:03:00.005-05:00

Love this!
Coutesy of: b3ta.com
The New Matrix...

History

2008-12-19T10:46:00.003-05:00

The Nixon story dominated my junior & senior years of high school. I couldn't BELIEVE that a president and an administration could or would do such things as they did. I watched as President Nixon went from a dominating, controlled political figure and leader to a broken man - all live on TV. It was a severe lesson in politics, humanity, patriotism and the machinations of this county. It affected the way I thought about America. It made me look at history differently. It made us question what our leaders were doing in our names or behind our backs.

Mark Felt played a big part in that. And he himself had his issues, as you can read near the end of this article. the most fascinating thing, though, is the fact that after EVERYTHING went down, and Felt was on trial himself 8 years later, Mr. Nixon himself TESTIFIED on his behalf!!!

Incredible.

W. Mark Felt, 'Deep Throat' of Watergate, dead at 95
(CNN) -- W. Mark Felt, who leaked information to reporters under the moniker, "Deep Throat," about the Watergate break-in, died Thursday at the age of 95, sources told CNN.
Rob Jones, Felt's grandson, said his grandfather died at his home in Santa Rosa, California. According to published reports, Felt died of congestive heart failure.
Felt admitted in a 2005 Vanity Fair article he was the Washington Post's source for many of its 400 stories on the Watergate affair during the early 1970s. The Watergate break-in eventually led to the 1974 resignation of President Richard Nixon.
"I'm proud of everything that Deep Throat did," Felt, 92, told CNN's "Larry King Live" in 2006, his first public interview on the subject.
Felt's entanglement with history occurred in 1972 after the bungled break-in at the Democratic National Party offices in the Watergate hotel. Felt, an associate director at the FBI, said he was unhappy with the way the administration meddled with the investigation into the break-in, which led him to divulge information to the newspaper. Watch how Felt played a pivotal role in presidential history »
Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, then-rookie reporters with the Washington Post, did stories about the break-in and subsequent cover-up. Both men credited Felt for helping them, but Bernstein said Felt was a tough interview.
"He didn't leak. He had to really be squeezed," Bernstein said in a 2006 interview. "He confirmed mostly what we had gotten elsewhere. He didn't want to volunteer a lot of information, yet his role was essential in giving us a solidity and a knowledge that what we were reporting was right."
When King asked Felt whether he felt he had done anything wrong in going outside approved channels to get information out, Felt was unequivocal.
"I thought I was doing the right thing," he said.
Felt, who retired from the FBI in 1973, had his own legal problems. He was convicted in 1980 on conspiracy charges for authorizing government agents to break into homes without search warrants in a hunt for bombing suspects in 1972 and 1973.
When the case went to trial, former President Nixon testified on Felt's behalf. Felt was eventually pardoned in 1981 by President Ronald Reagan.
When asked how he would like to be remembered, Felt said, "I'd like to be remembered as a government employee who did his best to help everybody."

Sock and Awe

2008-12-19T10:19:00.003-05:00

Completely irreverent .... but funny.

Play here: http://www.sockandawe.com/

Enlightening...

2008-12-19T10:00:00.003-05:00

LED Streetlights

Kinda cool.
And... FINALLY.
This kind of thing should already be in progress EVERYWHERE.

Of course, I have NO idea what kids will do now - we used ot be able to take out one streetlight with a well-thrown rock.
DAMN THEM!

Big City, Brighter Lights: New York City’s New LED Streetlamp Plan
By Emily Stone 11.24.08 Wired Mag
After half a century of walking their dogs under the same old streetlamps, New Yorkers are ready for a new age of enlightenment. Gotham's own Office for Visual Interaction won an international competition to design a replacement. Its inspiration: LED headlights. "We took the same idea and made it vertical," OVI's Enrique Peiniger says. The new lamppost's 4-to 6-foot head boasts up to 100 LEDs with multiple lenses that can be configured to dial in specific lighting "footprints" of uniform brightness. For New York, the coverage patterns will be tailored for three distinct situations—park, street corner, and mid-block.