Leo's Stuff

It appears that I need therapy

2012-02-02T01:30:00.000-06:00

Those of you that know me might want to sit down. There. Comfy? Good. I have a confession to make. No, not that one...I'm still denying that. It's this: Theresa has a favorite entertainer. I have never seen her go bat-shiat insane over anyone but this guy will do it. And so what do I do? I oIffer to take her to one of his concerts over in Moline. Really, I know she will love, love, love it. And I will go with her because she's one hell of a wife and mother and deserves fun things.

Who will we be seeing if she decides to go? I'll give you a hint: He can't smile without you.

*sigh*

Rant of the week

2012-02-02T01:00:00.000-06:00

Do-It-Yourself Deportation
By ANTONIO ALARCÓN
Published: February 1, 2012

ONE of my happiest childhood memories is of my parents at my First Communion. But that’s because most of my memories from that time are of their being absent. They weren’t there for my elementary school graduation, or for parent-teacher conferences.

From the time I was just a baby in Mexico, I lived with my grandparents while my parents traveled to other Mexican states to find work. I was 6 in 2000 when they left for the United States. And it took five years before they had steady jobs and were able to send for me. We’ve been together in this country ever since, working to build a life. Now I am 17 and a senior in high school in New York City. But my parents have left again, this time to return to Mexico.

Last week, when asked in a debate what America should do about the 11 million undocumented immigrants living here, Mitt Romney said he favored “self-deportation.” He presented the strategy as a kinder alternative to just arresting people. Instead, he said, immigrants will “decide they can do better by going home because they can’t find work here.”

But really this goes along with a larger movement in states like Arizona and Alabama to pass very tough laws against immigrants in an attempt to make their lives so unbearable that they have no choice but to leave. People have called for denying work, education and even medical treatment to immigrants without documentation; many immigrants have grown afraid of even going to the store or to church.

The United States is supposed to be a great country that welcomes all kinds of people. Does Mr. Romney really think that this should be America’s solution for immigration reform?

You could say that my parents have self-deported, and that it was partly a result of their working conditions. It’s not that they couldn’t find work, but that they couldn’t find decent work. My dad collected scrap metal from all over the city, gathering copper and steel from construction sites, garbage dumps and old houses. He earned $90 a day, but there was only enough work for him to do it once or twice a week. My mom worked at a laundromat six days a week, from 6 a.m. until 6 p.m., for $70 a day.

But the main reason they had to leave was personal. I have a brother, 16, a year younger than me, still living in Mexico. He was too little to cross the border with me when I came to the United States, and as the government has cracked down on immigration in the years since, the crossing has become more expensive and much more dangerous. And there was no hope of his getting a green card, as none of us have one either. So he stayed with my grandparents, but last year my grandmother died and two weeks ago my grandfather also died. My parents were confronted with a dilemma: Leave one child alone in New York City, or leave the other alone in Mexico. They decided they had to go back to Mexico.

Now once again I am missing my parents. I know it was very difficult for them to leave me here, worrying about how I will survive because I’m studying instead of earning money working. I’m living with my uncles, but it is hard for my mother to know that I’m coming home to a table with no dinner on it, where there had been dinner before. And it’s hard for me not having my parents to talk to, not being able to ask for advice that as a teenager you need. Now that they are in Mexico, I wonder who will be at my graduation, my volleyball games or my birthday? With whom will I share my joy or my sad moments?

I know a girl named Guadalupe, whose parents have also decided to return to Mexico, because they can’t find work here and rent in New York City is very expensive. She is very smart and wants to be the first in her family to attend college, and she wants to study psychology. But even though she has lived here for years and finished high school with a 90 percent average, she, like me, does not have immigration papers, and so does not qualify for financial aid and can’t get a scholarship.

People like Guadalupe and me are staying in this country because we have faith that America will live up to its promise as a fair and just country. We hope that there will be comprehensive immigration reform, with a path to citizenship for people who have spent years living and working here. When reform happens, our families may be able to come back, and if not, at least we will be able to visit them without the risk of never being able to return to our lives here. We hope that the Dream Act — which would let undocumented immigrants who came here as children go to college and become citizens and which has stalled in Congress — will pass so that we can get an education and show that even though we are immigrants we can succeed in this country.

If, instead, the political climate gets more and more anti-immigrant, eventually some immigrants will give up hope for America and return to their home countries, like my parents did. But I don’t think this is something that our presidential candidates should encourage or be proud of.

Immigrants have made this country great. We are not looking for a free ride, but instead we are willing to work as hard as we can to show that we deserve to be here and to be treated like first-class citizens. Deportation, and “self-deportation,” will result only in dividing families and driving them into the shadows. In America, teenagers shouldn’t have to go through what I’m going through.

Antonio Alarcón is a high school student and a member of Make the Road New York, an immigrant advocacy group. This essay was translated by Natalia Aristizabal-Betancur from the Spanish.
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Ok, where to start? Antonio doesn't question why his parents, or anyone coming from Mexico to the US wouldn't stay and try to change their laws and system of government instead of coming here and demanding that we change ours. Antonio doesn't grasp the fact, once again because he's being aided by the idiotholes here, that he SHOULD NOT BE HERE. He's complaining about laws in Arizona, but they are no different that those in HIS country. And his whining about not being able to get a scholarship or loan...I wouldn't expect to be able to go to Mexico and get a scholarship or loan, so why does he think he should be able to here? Go home....change YOUR country to be more like the US and then maybe you won't have to come here. And we're supposed to have sympathy for Guadalupe, who's parent's couldn't afford rent in New York. Hell, I can't afford rent in New York, what the hell are they doing living there?

And, it's a small detail, but if Antonio has been here since he was 11, why the hell wasn't this essay written in English (see last line of the article)?

And I know, I know...what I just wrote was heartless and insensitive and ignorant. I should support doubling of our taxes just so we can give it to as many people as can manage to sneak into the country, isn't that right. Oh, and this NEVER gets brought up: You can say that his folks were here and weren't hurting anyone...is that really true? Whose social security number are they using? Would that person think it's so cool? Would you, if it were your soc sec # being used by a couple dozen other people? Isn't that identity theft? So, they are breaking the law to come here, and they break the law just to stay here. What part of illegal should we abolish?

Cool picture

2012-02-02T00:30:00.000-06:00

Somewhere in Germany...

Cheating? or No?

2012-02-01T02:00:00.000-06:00

Backing Tracks Used In Growing Number of 'Live' Concerts
(Alan Cross)
It is the dirty secret of today's concert world. But it's really not that dirty at all. Here's why.
In the Olden Days--around the same time "real" musicians refused to use synthesizers or other electronics because "they didn't take any talent to play"-- no one would be caught dead using taped bits to augment difficult arrangements in concert.

I remember the brouhaha that broke out around Queen's Live Kllers album in 1979. "They couldn't have reproduced those vocals in concert! They must have used backing tapes! That's cheating! Worse yet, that's a fraud perpetrated on the audience! How DARE they?"

Please. Get over it. Backing tracks have been a way of life for touring musicians for ages. And I'm not talking about Britney and Madonna.
(1) Audiences pay a lot of money for concert tickets these days. They expect an appropriate spectacle with good sound, lots of lights and maybe some fire. They also expect the songs to sound just like (or very close to) what they hear on the CD or the download. That not only means backing tracks but all manner of pitch correction hardware.
(2) Yes, you could just hire enough musicians and singers to reproduce all the studio sounds in a live situation, but that's awfully, awfully expensive. Backing tracks accomplish the same thing at a fraction of the cost.
(3) In the case of older acts, voices are shot. That doesn't help when your audience is hoping and praying that the performer (and by extension, themselves) still has the same stuff they did when they were much, much younger.
You think Ozzy can still hit those high notes? Hardly. There's apparently a guy backstage with a mic who helps him through those parts. It's alleged that AC/DC couldn't change up the set list of their last world tour because "they'd have to go back into the studio to redo all the tracking." That's a quote from someone I know deep within the concert industry. How much of U2's 360 Tour was tied to programmed material? Yes, they played the vast majority of what we heard, but with a show that big and complicated, backing track assistance is a necessity.
(4) We're so far into the Age of Sampling that most people don't even give a second thought to whether portions of a performance are live or recorded. It's almost assumed that a performer uses that technology as part of his/her bag of tricks. As long as it sounds good, right?
If Van Halen comes around, I'll go see them. And I don't care of Eddie's kid sounds scarily like Michael Anthony. I just want the background vocals to "Runnin' With the Devil" to sound like it did on the 1984 tour.

-----------------------------------------

So, where do you fall out on all of this? Me? Play it live, folks. With just a few exceptions (and I don't know what they would be at this point), screw the backing tracks. I don't go to a concert to hear it sound just like the CD, in fact, I'm pretty disappointed if it does. Heck, I could stay home and listen to the CD and save big bucks, considering what tickets are these days.

No, I want to hear some jamming, a new guitar fill here or there, an ad-libbed vocal--something to make the song more interesting and a 'one-off' performance. That's special.

What do you think?

Take some time....

2012-02-01T01:00:00.000-06:00

...out of your day to read this post. I think you'll get a kick out of it. Certainly, the former slave deserves much credit for the tone he took here....scathing just below the surface. Here's the set up:

A newly discovered letter from a freed former slave to his onetime master is creating a buzz. Letters of Note explains that in August of 1865, a Colonel P.H. Anderson of Big Spring, Tennessee wrote to his former slave Jourdan Anderson, requesting that Jourdan return to work on his farm. In the time since escaping from slavery, Anderson had become emancipated, moved to Ohio where he found paid work and was now supporting his family.

Here is his reply:

Dayton, Ohio,

August 7, 1865

To My Old Master, Colonel P.H. Anderson, Big Spring, Tennessee

Sir: I got your letter, and was glad to find that you had not forgotten Jourdon, and that you wanted me to come back and live with you again, promising to do better for me than anybody else can. I have often felt uneasy about you. I thought the Yankees would have hung you long before this, for harboring Rebs they found at your house. I suppose they never heard about your going to Colonel Martin's to kill the Union soldier that was left by his company in their stable. Although you shot at me twice before I left you, I did not want to hear of your being hurt, and am glad you are still living. It would do me good to go back to the dear old home again, and see Miss Mary and Miss Martha and Allen, Esther, Green, and Lee. Give my love to them all, and tell them I hope we will meet in the better world, if not in this. I would have gone back to see you all when I was working in the Nashville Hospital, but one of the neighbors told me that Henry intended to shoot me if he ever got a chance.

I want to know particularly what the good chance is you propose to give me. I am doing tolerably well here. I get twenty-five dollars a month, with victuals and clothing; have a comfortable home for Mandy,—the folks call her Mrs. Anderson,—and the children—Milly, Jane, and Grundy—go to school and are learning well. The teacher says Grundy has a head for a preacher. They go to Sunday school, and Mandy and me attend church regularly. We are kindly treated. Sometimes we overhear others saying, "Them colored people were slaves" down in Tennessee. The children feel hurt when they hear such remarks; but I tell them it was no disgrace in Tennessee to belong to Colonel Anderson. Many darkeys would have been proud, as I used to be, to call you master. Now if you will write and say what wages you will give me, I will be better able to decide whether it would be to my advantage to move back again.

As to my freedom, which you say I can have, there is nothing to be gained on that score, as I got my free papers in 1864 from the Provost-Marshal-General of the Department of Nashville. Mandy says she would be afraid to go back without some proof that you were disposed to treat us justly and kindly; and we have concluded to test your sincerity by asking you to send us our wages for the time we served you. This will make us forget and forgive old scores, and rely on your justice and friendship in the future. I served you faithfully for thirty-two years, and Mandy twenty years. At twenty-five dollars a month for me, and two dollars a week for Mandy, our earnings would amount to eleven thousand six hundred and eighty dollars. Add to this the interest for the time our wages have been kept back, and deduct what you paid for our clothing, and three doctor's visits to me, and pulling a tooth for Mandy, and the balance will show what we are in justice entitled to. Please send the money by Adams's Express, in care of V. Winters, Esq., Dayton, Ohio. If you fail to pay us for faithful labors in the past, we can have little faith in your promises in the future. We trust the good Maker has opened your eyes to the wrongs which you and your fathers have done to me and my fathers, in making us toil for you for generations without recompense. Here I draw my wages every Saturday night; but in Tennessee there was never any pay-day for the negroes any more than for the horses and cows. Surely there will be a day of reckoning for those who defraud the laborer of his hire.

In answering this letter, please state if there would be any safety for my Milly and Jane, who are now grown up, and both good-looking girls. You know how it was with poor Matilda and Catherine. I would rather stay here and starve—and die, if it come to that—than have my girls brought to shame by the violence and wickedness of their young masters. You will also please state if there has been any schools opened for the colored children in your neighborhood. The great desire of my life now is to give my children an education, and have them form virtuous habits.

Say howdy to George Carter, and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting at me.

From your old servant,

Jourdon Anderson.

2012-02-01T00:30:00.000-06:00

Check out these RC planes in NYC.

Reptile problem

2012-01-31T01:30:00.000-06:00

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A burgeoning population of huge pythons — many of them pets that were turned loose by their owners when they got too big — appears to be wiping out large numbers of raccoons, opossums, bobcats and other mammals in the Everglades, a study says.

The study, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that sightings of medium-size mammals are down dramatically — as much as 99 percent, in some cases — in areas where pythons and other large, non-native constrictor snakes are known to be lurking.

Scientists fear the pythons could disrupt the food chain and upset the Everglades' environmental balance in ways difficult to predict.

"The effects of declining mammal populations on the overall Everglades ecosystem, which extends well beyond the national park boundaries, are likely profound," said John Willson, a research scientist at Virginia Tech University and co-author of the study.

Tens of thousands of Burmese pythons, which are native to Southeast Asia, are believed to be living in the Everglades, where they thrive in the warm, humid climate. While many were apparently released by their owners, others may have escaped from pet shops during Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and have been reproducing ever since.

Burmese pythons can grow to be 26 feet long and more than 200 pounds, and they have been known to swallow animals as large as alligators. They and other constrictor snakes kill their prey by coiling around it and suffocating it.

The National Park Service has counted 1,825 Burmese pythons that have been caught in and around Everglades National Park since 2000. Among the largest so far was a 156-pound, 16.4-foot one captured earlier this month.

For the study, researchers drove 39,000 miles along Everglades-area roads from 2003 through 2011, counting wildlife spotted along the way and comparing the results with surveys conducted on the same routes in 1996 and 1997.

The researchers found staggering declines in animal sightings: a drop of 99.3 percent among raccoons, 98.9 percent for opossums, 94.1 percent for white-tailed deer and 87.5 percent for bobcats. Along roads where python populations are believed to be smaller, declines were lower but still notable.

Rabbits and foxes, which were commonly spotted in 1996 and 1997, were not seen at all in the later counts. Researchers noted slight increases in coyotes, Florida panthers, rodents and other mammals, but discounted that finding because so few were spotted overall.

"The magnitude of these declines underscores the apparent incredible density of pythons in Everglades National Park," said Michael Dorcas, a professor at Davidson College in North Carolina and lead author of the study.

Although scientists cannot definitively say the pythons are killing off the mammals, the snakes are the prime suspect. The increase in pythons coincides with the mammals' decrease, and the decline appears to grow in magnitude with the size of the snakes' population in an area. A single disease appears unlikely to be the cause since several species were affected.

The report says the effect on the overall ecosystem is hard to predict. Declines among bobcats and foxes, which eat rabbits, could be linked to pythons' feasting on rabbits. On the flip side, declines among raccoons, which eat eggs, may help some turtles, crocodiles and birds.

Scientists point with concern to what happened in Guam, where the invasive brown tree snake has killed off birds, bats and lizards that pollinated trees and flowers and dispersed seeds. That has led to declines in native trees, fish-eating birds and certain plants.

In 2010, Florida banned private ownership of Burmese pythons. Earlier this month, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced a federal ban on the import of Burmese pythons and three other snakes.

Salazar said Monday that the study shows why such restrictions were needed.

"This study paints a stark picture of the real damage that Burmese pythons are causing to native wildlife and the Florida economy," he said.

___

Now, don't you feel silly for even thinking this might be true?

2012-01-31T00:30:00.001-06:00

Gloom, despair, and agony. That's what was promised. The answer, of course, was for you to give all of your money away to 'carbon exchanges' and the like. Ran by AlGore and his band of Idjits.

Brilliant!

2012-01-31T00:30:00.000-06:00

This is awesome. Someone has figured out a great way to separate idiots from their money. This is great. Folks, presenting the Museum of Non-Visible Art. Yep.

Being an art lover can turn into an expensive endeavor, but to lay down some cold hard cash on works that don’t even exist is pushing the bounds of art appreciation to its breaking point. New media aficionado Aimee Davison doesn’t quite share that same viewpoint and she used her bank account to show it, spending $10,000 on a piece of non-existent artwork from the Museum of Non-Visible Art (MONA).

The MONA project is the work of artist duo Brainard and Delia Carey, along with actor James Franco. You might remember the intrepid trio launching a Kickstarter fundraising effort for the mythical museum last month. The most expensive item available for purchase from MONA was a $10,000 work titled Fresh Air, which is now the property of Ms. Davison.

I am now selling the latest in fashionable music, the Non-Audible Orchestra. If you send me $25,000, I will send you a postcard describing what the song that you cannot hear sounds like. Next week, we're opening the Non-Eating Restaurant--get your reservations now--they're only $1000/plate. Send me your checks and I will personally call you to describe the meal that you won't eat.

People get ready

2012-01-31T00:00:00.000-06:00

(CNSNews.com) - The amount of money the federal government takes out of the U.S. economy in taxes will increase by more than 30 percent between 2012 and 2014, according to the Budget and Economic Outlook published today by the CBO.

At the same time, according to CBO, the economy will remain sluggish, partly because of higher taxes.
“In particular, between 2012 and 2014, revenues in CBO’s baseline shoot up by more than 30 percent,” said CBO, “mostly because of the recent or scheduled expirations of tax provisions, such as those that lower income tax rates and limit the reach of the alternative minimum tax (AMT), and the imposition of new taxes, fees, and fines/penalties that are scheduled to go into effect.” One of the fines would be for those not buying a health insurance policy, which is part of Obamacare.

The U.S. economy, CBO projects, will perform “below its potential” for another six years and unemployment will remain above 7 percent for another three.

Turn it up and dance a little jig....

2012-01-30T19:36:00.002-06:00

2012-01-30T06:01:00.000-06:00

2012-01-30T04:00:00.001-06:00

Love this story. ...'work hard, don't work hard--everyone gets the same. So people don't want to work'
We should make this mandatory reading for the 2nd grade. And 3rd grade. And 4th grade. And high school.

NPR reports about a contract among Chinese farmers in 1978:

There was no incentive to work hard — to go out to the fields early, to put in extra effort, Yen Jingchang says. “Work hard, don’t work hard — everyone gets the same,” he says. “So people don’t want to work.” In Xiaogang there was never enough food, and the farmers often had to go to other villages to beg. Their children were going hungry. They were desperate. So, in the winter of 1978, after another terrible harvest, they came up with an idea: Rather than farm as a collective, each family would get to farm its own plot of land. If a family grew a lot of food, that family could keep some of the harvest…

Despite the risks, they decided they had to try this experiment — and to write it down as a formal contract, so everyone would be bound to it. By the light of an oil lamp, Yen Hongchang wrote out the contract. The farmers agreed to divide up the land among the families. Each family agreed to turn over some of what they grew to the government, and to the collective. And, crucially, the farmers agreed that families that grew enough food would get to keep some for themselves. The contract also recognized the risks the farmers were taking. If any of the farmers were sent to prison or executed, it said, the others in the group would care for their children until age 18…
by changing the economic rules — by saying, you get to keep some of what you grow — everything changed. At the end of the season, they had an enormous harvest: more, Yen Hongchang says, than in the previous five years combined. That huge harvest gave them away…
fortunately for Mr. Yen and the other farmers, at this moment in history, there were powerful people in the Communist Party who wanted to change China’s economy. Deng Xiaoping, the Chinese leader who would go on to create China’s modern economy, was just coming to power. So instead of executing the Xiaogang farmers, the Chinese leaders ultimately decided to hold them up as a model. Within a few years, farms all over China adopted the principles in that secret document. People could own what they grew. The government launched other economic reforms, and China’s economy started to grow like crazy. Since 1978, something like 500 million people have risen out of poverty in China.

In 1623 William Bradford figured out the same thing after the Pilgrims spent two years on their communal farms: “they began to think how they might raise as much corn as they could…so assigned to every family a parcel of land, according to the proportion of their number…and ranged all boys and youth under some family. This had very good success, for it made all hands very industrious…The women now went willingly into the field, and took their little ones with them to set corn; which before would allege weakness and inability.”
It is of note that terrible hardships preceded the discovery of simple truths. In the case of China, tens of millions of people died over decades in service of Mao’s utopian fantasies. In Plymouth it took them three hard years to figure out how to deal with the freeloaders. Small wonder that in our world today, ideas that have lived off a lazy prosperity, like green energy and global warming, are having some problems of their own.

2012-01-30T04:00:00.000-06:00

Good interview with Joe Walsh. Here.

Sample quote:
“I sure did. I just decided I better get with it. After all, it is the digital age. Back when it was all analog, we used to go in the studio, and studios had knobs. We used to turn knobs and say, let’s see what this does. Now, we have a mouse. We [the members of the Eagles] spend hours yelling at our computers. My son comes in and he says, Dad, you’re really stupid.”

Twit

2012-01-30T02:30:00.000-06:00

When Leigh Van Bryan and Emily Bunting flew from the UK to America, they were detained upon arrival, reports The Sun.

The offense? Some poorly-received tweets. Bryan had tweeted about "diggin' Marilyn Monroe up" and that he would "go and destroy America."

When the two arrived, they were questioned for five hours and held in cells for 12 hours before being put on a flight home, despite Bryan attempting to explain that "destroy" is British slang for "partying."

They were even searched for shovels, as the agents suspected Bunting would act as lookout while Bryan dug up the grave. "It's almost funny now but at the time it was really scary," Bryan told The Sun. "The Homeland Security agents were treating me like some kind of terrorist."

A healthy reminder to watch what you tweet. Bryan's Twitter account is now private.

But what do I know, I'm white

2012-01-30T01:00:00.000-06:00

This makes my head hurt. Love the quotes "Maybe they will give us more jobs, more opportunities for black people." I was evidently under the impression that everyone makes their own opportunities instead of waiting for handout. But, duh, that's not what this country is about anymore. It's 'what can my country do for me'.

Angry at the rich? It's a moving target....

2012-01-30T00:30:00.000-06:00

The “rich” in America are not a monolithic, unchanging class. A study by Thomas A. Garrett, economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, found that less than half of people in the top 1 percent in 1996 were still there in 2005. Such mobility is hardly surprising: A business school student, for instance, may have little money and high debts, but nine years later he or she could be earning a big Wall Street salary and bonus.

Mobility is not limited to the top-earning households. A study by economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis found that nearly half of the families in the lowest fifth of income earners in 2001 had moved up within six years. Over the same period, more than a third of those in the highest fifth of income-earners had moved down. Certainly, there are people such as Warren Buffett and Bill Gates who are ensconced in the top tier, but far more common are people who are rich for short periods.

The real income problem in this country is not a question of who is rich, but rather of who is poor. Among the bottom fifth of income earners, many people, especially men, stay there their whole lives. Low education and unwed motherhood only exacerbate poverty, which is particularly acute among racial minorities. Brookings Institution economist Scott Winshiphas argued that two-thirds of black children in America experience a level of poverty that only 6 percent of white children will ever see, calling it a “national tragedy.

Making the poor more economically mobile has nothing to do with taxing the rich and everything to do with finding and implementing ways to encourage parental marriage, teach the poor marketable skills and induce them to join the legitimate workforce. It is easy to suppose that raising taxes on the rich would provide more money to help the poor. But the problem facing the poor is not too little money, but too few skills and opportunities to advance themselves.

Spiking the Ball

2012-01-29T17:25:00.000-06:00

From now on, whenever anyone mentions global warming, or climate change in relation to global warming, know that you are dealing with an idiot. The real data is in...and we're headed for a mini-ice age. Snowmobile dealers ought to do well.

Read it.

2012-01-29T11:31:00.001-06:00

Fast and Furious

2012-01-27T02:30:00.000-06:00

Just like Watergate, except F&F has a dead body. And it was actually about something, not a cover-up of a bungled break in. This is a cover up that caused a murder, well, hundreds if you count the number of Mexicans killed by guns that the US gov't supplied them. When will the press care? Never. What should happen? Well for starters, Eric Holder should be fired and indited for manslaughter. Then Obama, should it come out that he knew or authorized it, should be impeached and indited for manslaughter. Or at least have to take a looooong timeout.
Ask Uncle Ted. He says it correctly.

2012-01-27T02:00:00.000-06:00

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced his second bio-fuels loan guarantee in a week, revealing that the Agriculture Department (USDA) is slated to loan an Oregon biorefinery $232.5 million for a project expected to create 65 jobs and support 38 others.

“This project and others like it will help to establish a domestic advanced biofuels industry that will create jobs here at home and open new markets in the Pacific Northwest and across America,” Vilsack said in a statement.
Last week, USDA appoved a conditional $25 million loan guarantee for an Iowa project expected to create 38 jobs. Combined, the two projects create 103 new jobs at a cost of $257.5 million — or, $2.5 million per job.

Friday

2012-01-27T01:30:00.000-06:00

Let me tell ya folks, the job is heating up. Can't go into details, but suffice it to say that the bigger a organization is, the more questionable it's decisions get to be. I'm playing damage control.

Hey, it's the end of the week. Got any big weekend plans? Not much here.

Coming soon

2012-01-27T01:00:00.000-06:00

To a TV near you, it's the new sitcom "Mr. and Mrs. Crankypants".

Made me smile this morning

2012-01-26T01:30:00.000-06:00

This is how you do it:

The rest of the story

2012-01-26T01:00:00.001-06:00

Despite Unfair Tax Burden, Warren Buffett's Secretary Was Just Able To Buy A Second Home

Despite a heavy tax burden, Warren Buffett’s secretary (Obama's poster child for tax victims of the rich) last year was able to purchase a second home in Arizona, a residence complete with a swimming pool and a “professional PGA putting green,” according to real estate records.

Debra Bosanek, 55, and her husband Gerald bought the in Surprise, a city outside Phoenix. The Bosaneks paid $144,000 for the four-bedroom, two-and-a-half bath property (the purchase was financed, in part, by a $115,200 mortgage).

The principal Bosanek residence is in Bellevue, Nebraska, several miles from Buffett’s corporate headquarters in Omaha. The couple’s , built in 2000, also has four bedrooms and two-and-a-half baths. But the modest property, which Sarpy County assessors last year valued at $217,716, offers no outdoor amenities for swimmers or golfers.

Bosanek, who last night attended the State of the Union speech, has become the face of President Barack Obama’s so-called Buffett Rule, which contends that the secretary of a wealthy individual should not pay a higher tax rate than their boss.

Her salary has been estimated at north of $200K/yr.

Globalization headaches

2012-01-26T01:00:00.000-06:00

Wage balance. Heard that phrase before? No, you haven't, probably, but it's going to be your children's biggest obstacle to continue the uniquely American tradition of having one generation do 'better' then the previous (usually gauged by material acquisition).

At issue is globalization and what it means for labor and wage costs around the world. American workers, indeed, most Western workers, have been paid at a premium compared to the rest of the world's labor force for decades. And it was justified given the productivity of the US labor force. Now the rest of the world is catching up to us. India and China, for instance, are full of a fledgling and growing middle class willing to work for 1/3 of the wages of the average US worker. And as companies expand to offer goods and services across the globe, it makes more sense to source products locally.

What's it mean. Stagnation for us. Flatline wages (unless you work for the government, then you'll get 3-8% a year) until the rest of the world catches up. American workers still hold a huge productivity edge, but it's decreasing each year.

In a related story, your iPad and iPhone take a human toll on those making them. Here's a pretty good article, even though it comes from the NYT, about factory and living conditions. Let me state up front though, that although conditions are sometimes harsh, the alternatives for most of these people is to not have a job at all. That's not to defend conditions there at all, but it is what it is.

Heck, it all makes sense now.

2012-01-26T00:30:00.000-06:00

Good news and bad regarding Keystone XL. Obama is not sacrificing our economic security and tens of thousands of jobs on behalf of screwballs like Robert Redford and Daryl Hannah after all. He’s doing it on behalf of zillionaire crony fake socialist Warren Buffett:

Warren Buffett’s Burlington Northern Santa Fe LLC is among U.S. and Canadian railroads that stand to benefit from the Obama administration’s decision to reject TransCanada Corp. (TRP)’s Keystone XL oil pipeline permit. With modest expansion, railroads can handle all new oil produced in western Canada through 2030, according to an analysis of the Keystone proposal by the U.S. State Department.

Going by rail instead of pipeline would cost more and produce more of the greenhouse emissions libs pretend are hazardous, and might not prevent Canada, which needs a reliable buyer, from selling the oil to China instead. But being part of the 1% of the 1% of the 1% who are rich enough and corrupt enough to benefit from socialism, the tax-evading higher taxes advocate Buffett is an important guy to please. Like the crooks at Solyndra, he was a big supporter of Obama in 2008.

Really?

2012-01-25T07:00:00.000-06:00

Righties are always accusing the lefties, particularly the Obamacle, of harming the United States on purpose. Cooler heads usually dismiss this charge as being a pipe bomb, thrown for political purposes.

Lately, though, a majority of people that I chat with--heck--most people with 2 brain cells that actually still connect have enough brain power to determine that rejecting the Keystone pipeline is nothing less than pure partisan politics bordering on treason--there is not a legit reason not to do it. Environmental concerns are bullshit. Name the last major pipeline incident in the United States. Come on. I'll wait. No. Name ANY major pipeline disaster. Anywhere.

*crickets chirping....Jeopardy music playing....pictures of the seasons changing*

Thought so. Couldn't. Here. I'll help you. Here's a map of all of the major pipelines in the US.

So. Where have the trouble spots been? The major ecological disasters? Hmm. That dog just doesn't hunt. Candidate Obamessiah told us, to our faces, that energy costs would rise because of what he would do. He wasn't lying at all. And now to support him, some have to attack Canada. Yeah, let's get upset with Canada, because they want to sell us oil, in fact, would prefer to sell it to us than the ChiComs, whom are more than happy to take it and think that we are complete fools . You tell me. Which side is he on? Yours?

While I'm bitching, and you're reading...the other thing that got me thinking last night was this: During the ~~Class Warfare Rally~~ State of the Union address, Obama had a guest up with his family, you know, up in the crowd. That position is customarily reserved for true American hero's. The 'jump in the freezing river to save plane crash victims' hero, or the walking wounded war hero.

Obama chose to have Warren Buffet's secretary. Why? So he could point out that she pays a higher income tax rate than her boss. Which is ludicrous. Emmie pays a higher rate than Buffet. I do. So do you. Buffets income is $1/year. That's his salary...that's what he pays income tax on. One freaking dollar. The rest of his money is all capital gains and shielded in trusts. Bottom line: why the hell drag up his secretary? Is she eating Ramen noodles every night? Down to beans and weenies? If so, doesn't that reflect on Buffet badly? She's no victim, yet she's being held up as one--so that YOU feel like a victim, too, and demand that the rich pay MORE. You know who the rich are? Yeah. You are, my pal. Don't kid yourselves. 'More' mean higher effect tax rates for you and I, and the rich still keep their sheltered tax breaks, don't kid yourself.

And the money from more taxes? Yeah, that goes into a slush fund for kickbacks to campaign donors.

I'm done. Thanks for indulging me. And if you've made it this far, what the hell is wrong with you? : )

2012-01-25T02:30:00.000-06:00

WTF

2012-01-25T01:00:00.000-06:00

Love the 'crumbling bridges and roads line'. He spent $1 TRILLION dollars giving our money to his environmental whacko campaign donors, but couldn't manage to get the bridges and roads fixed.

Autistic Girl Expresses Unimaginable Intelligence

2012-01-24T17:51:00.000-06:00

This will wake you up......and probably make you cry, too. Nice girl.

Autistic Girl Expresses Unimaginable Intelligence

Straight to DVD

2012-01-24T12:25:00.002-06:00

A film inspired by the 1981 KISS concept album "(Music From) The Elder" may be coming to the big screen.

The album was intended to be the soundtrack to a movie — a movie which, due to the relative commercial failure of the album, was never made.

30 years after the album's original release, U.K.-based writer, musician and independent filmmaker Seb Hunter has announced plans to produce a "post-apocalyptic road movie" based on '(Music From) The Elder'", with production slated to begin this summer. more on this story

Why the US will never manufacture iPhones

2012-01-24T11:56:00.000-06:00

Well, this is interesting. Just puts into perspective how backwards we are here in comparison to the some of the rest of the world....

Here's the news.

The Ominous Red Light

2012-01-24T01:30:00.000-06:00

East Orange, New Jersey to beam suspects of future criminal activity with flashy, hi-tech police surveillance equipment

Aaron Dykes
Infowars.com
January 23, 2012

In a glowing review of the rising prevalence of high-tech big brother surveillance gadgets in police force use, the Associated Press reports that East Orange, New Jersey plans to cut crime by highlighting suspects with a red-beamed spotlight– before any crime is committed– a “pre-crime” deterrent to be mounted on nearby street lights or other fixtures.

According to the report, police officers monitor hundreds of video feeds from across the city and opt to brand would-be criminals with a red glow if they believe they are about to engage in a crime, such as a street corner mugging.

“Whereas London has talking cameras, we’re about to deploy light projecting cameras, better known as light-based intervention systems.” said William Robinson, Police Chief for East Orange. He added, “The message to criminals is, we’re observing you, the police are recording you, and the police are responding.”
As Robinson mentioned, other “pre-crime” measures have been deployed both in the UK and United States, as well as other countries. Talking cameras in the UK bark orders at ‘anti-social’ offenders, while the Homeland Stasi here has partnered with Intellistreets to release “smart” street lights capable of saving energy while monitoring & recording citizens, as well as displaying government-mandated emergency alerts on digital banners.

Now “pre-crime” spotlights that bathe surveillance targets in a criminally-branded red color will help complete the circle of preemptive suspicion.

But that’s just one flashy feature in a rash of new high-tech solutions provided to the crime-ridden city under federal grant money. In East Orange, and probably a locale near you, too, everyone is a “pre-crime” suspect until proven innocent. Officer squad cars also scan the license plates of every single vehicle they pass, checking them against a variety of lists– from terrorist monitor lists, to unpaid parking tickets, warrants and more. Officers can then pull over vehicles that match watch lists, even if the driver has committed no violations to draw attention from the patrol vehicle.

So, here is where we are...

2012-01-23T02:00:00.000-06:00

Oh bloody hell. Really? I cannot believe the level that the race-baiter industry will stoop to. Ok, folks, go review the clip below. I know, I just posted it the other day. But start paying attention at 2:45. Juan Williams asks Newt a racially charged question. See if you can find the racism in the first 5 words of Newt's response. Go ahead, I'll wait.

Did you find it? No? Look again. Surely you saw it there. What? Well, if you weren't such a racist yourself you would have noticed that Newt called Juan by his first name. Racist. Yep, he said it in a racist way. Don't believe me? Here. Geraldo says that it was racist. And here so does Chris Matthews. Google it. There are at least 8 newswire stories about it. Not a big Newt fan....he's narcissistic and that whole sitting on the couch with Nancy Pelosi talking about global warming was enough to make me gag. Don't get me wrong. I'll crawl over broken glass to vote for this statist politician if the choice is between him and Obama. But I'll hold my nose doing it.

So, we learned in the debate that Republicans are racist. That's the takeaway. Now the real question is: why the hell do they keep putting themselves in debates with loony moderators?

Interesting

2012-01-23T01:00:00.000-06:00

Too complicated to report

January 14th, 2012

IBD:

According to the BLS, the “labor force participation rate” — the ratio of the number of people either working or looking for work compared with the entire working-age population — is now 64%, down from 65.7% when the recession ended in June 2009. That’s the lowest level since women began entering the workforce in far greater numbers several decades ago. If you adjust for this drop, the unemployment rate would be close to 11%, instead of the official 8.5%.

Of course this has been the case for a long time now. Imagine how the media would be reporting unemployment, and indeed, will be reporting unemployment, if the White House changes hands this year.

Q

2012-01-22T10:53:00.002-06:00

What's faster than a speeding bullet, stronger than silent 'e', and more powerful than a diesel train?

Queen, 1977
Holy mother of mercy, they are moving...and I think I got dizzy during the solo break.

Wash. Post....yep, he's an idiot.

2012-01-20T13:10:00.000-06:00

Rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico is an act of national insanity. It isn’t often that a president makes a decision that has no redeeming virtues and — beyond the symbolism — won’t even advance the goals of the groups that demanded it…environmentalists won’t get much. Stopping the pipeline won’t halt the development of tar sands, to which the Canadian government is committed; therefore, there will be little effect on global warming emissions. Indeed, Obama’s decision might add to them. If Canada builds a pipeline from Alberta to the Pacific for export to Asia, moving all that oil across the ocean by tanker will create extra emissions. There will also be the risk of added spills… Consider how Obama’s decision hurts the United States. For starters, it insults and antagonizes a strong ally; getting future Canadian cooperation on other issues will be harder. Next, it threatens a large source of relatively secure oil that, combined with new discoveries in the United States, could reduce (though not eliminate) our dependence on insecure foreign oil. Finally, Obama’s decision forgoes all the project’s jobs. There’s some dispute over the magnitude. Project sponsor TransCanada claims 20,000, split between construction (13,000) and manufacturing (7,000) of everything from pumps to control equipment. Apparently, this refers to “job years,” meaning one job for one year. If so, the actual number of jobs would be about half that spread over two years. Whatever the figure, it’s in the thousands and important in a country hungering for work. And Keystone XL is precisely the sort of infrastructure project that Obama claims to favor. The big winners are the Chinese. They must be celebrating their good fortune and wondering how the crazy Americans could repudiate such a huge supply of nearby energy.

I'm formally endorsing.....

2012-01-19T20:06:00.000-06:00

VH Unplugged

2012-01-19T02:00:00.000-06:00

Here ya go fans. An acoustic 'You Really Got Me'. Dave has lost tons of range on his vocals. Not surprising, I guess.

2012-01-18T08:52:00.000-06:00

January 18, 2012

'Habits of the Heart' and a rescued cat in Iowa City

David Pau

A cat stuck up a tree in Iowa City captivated residents during its miserable four-day ordeal -- clinging to a 30-foot-high branch over a residential street.

On Monday, the cat was rescued -- but not by city employees. It was two civic-minded volunteers who finally got the cat down, after borrowing a bucket-lift from a public-spirited local business.

The mini-drama's happy ending served as a parable about civic action verses government inaction in a story making headlines across the Midwest.

The cat, a female tabby, was first spotted on a branch last Thursday evening in the parking lot of Lasansky Gallery. Gallery employees reported getting numerous visits by passers-by calling attention to the hapless feline. A college town, Iowa City is home to the University of Iowa.

The local media quickly picked up the story, stirring up public sympathy for the feline. While most people fretted over its well being, residents living near the cat grew increasingly annoyed over its howling. The racket kept them awake at night and annoyed their pets. Most everybody, it seemed, was frustrated over the city's inability to get the cat down. The story about the hapless feline was one of the most popular in the online edition of the Iowa City Press-Citizen, a daily newspaper.

Local officials quickly gave up on rescuing the cat, following an aborted attempt by an animal control officer aided by city firefighters and a forestry crew. After that, officials said the tabby should be left alone: It would come down on its own, they advised.

It never did.

Accordingly, residents grew increasingly alarmed. Some were upset over a fire official's claim that rescuing the cat would put firefighters in danger and tie up city resources.

Residents didn't buy it -- especially the part about the cat being able to take care of itself. "There's no reason she'd stay up in the tree and freeze if she could get down on her own," resident Arlene Donnelly told the Cedar Rapids Gazette.

On Monday afternoon, two men finally decided enough was enough. Borrowing a bucket-lift from a local business, they went out and rescued the cat -- defying a sign posted below the tree by animal control. It warned people to leave the cat alone and noted it had bitten two would-be rescuers.

"(The cat) was pretty wiped out," Jeff Waite told the Gazette of his 20-minute rescue effort with Michael Matthess.

Waite called the rescue a "spooky" experience, saying that because he and Matthess each weigh 200-plus pounds, the bucket-lift was shaking as the squirming cat was grabbed by the scruff of the neck. Other than that, the rescue went smoothly.

The cat is now resting comfortably in an Iowa City animal shelter. "She's kind of like a little local celebrity right now," Willa Hamilton, an animal services officer, told the Gazette. The feline may be a feral, she added.

"Habits of the heart" was how French social theorist Alexis de Tocqueville described America's singularly unique virtues -- including the virtues of civic engagement and volunteerism. Both were on display in Iowa City this week, as two men with a borrowed bucket-lift accomplished in 20 minutes what city officials had been unable to do in four days.

2012-01-18T04:30:00.001-06:00

It's been pointed out on the interwebby that at least 4 of the songs on the 'new' Van Halen release have been around for a while. Here is the song that contains quite a bit of the riffage from the first single "Tattoo". Interesting to see how things evolved.

Here's an early version of 'Hang Em High' off of the Diver Down album.

Presidential Nonsense

2012-01-18T04:30:00.000-06:00

by Walter Williams

Last week, President Barack Obama, at a Capital Hilton fundraising event, told the crowd, “We can’t go back to this brand of you’re-on-your-own economics.” Throughout my professional career as an economist, I’ve never come across the theory of “you’re-on-your-own economics.” I’m guessing what the president means by — and finds offensive in — “you’re-on-your-own economics” is that it’s a system in which people are held responsible for their actions, that they take risks and must live with the results, that people can’t force others to pay for their mistakes, and that they can’t live at the expense of other people.

President Obama’s vision was shared by our Pilgrim Fathers of the Plymouth Colony in modern-day Massachusetts. They established a communist system. They all farmed together, and whatever they produced was put in a common storehouse. A certain amount of food was rationed to each person regardless of his contribution to the work. Many Pilgrims complained that they were too weak from hunger to do their share of the work. As deeply religious as the Pilgrims were, they took to stealing from one another. Gov. William Bradford, writing his history of the colony in “Of Plymouth Plantation,” said, “So as it well appeared that famine must still ensue, the next year also if not some way prevented.”

In 1623, after much debate, a new system was set up, in which every family was assigned a parcel of land, and whatever they produced belonged to the family. Gov. Bradford then observed, “The women now went willingly into the field, and took their little ones with them to set corn; which before would allege weakness and inability; whom to have compelled would have been thought great tyranny and oppression.” After Gov. Bradford’s establishment of what Obama calls “you’re-on-your-own economics,” harvests were so bountiful that Bradford is credited with establishing what we now call Thanksgiving.

There are several seemingly immutable, hard-wired characteristics about humans that socialists, liberals and progressives find difficult to deal with and would like to change. People tend to work harder and produce more when they own what they produce. Property is better cared for when it is privately owned. People love to exchange, what Adam Smith called a “propensity to truck (and) barter.” To suppress these characteristics requires brute force.

President Obama also told the Washington Hilton crowd that “we are not a country that was built on the idea of survival of the fittest.” Obama is not by himself, but “survival of the fittest” is one of the greatest misunderstandings of Charles Darwin’s pathbreaking work “On the Origin of Species.” When Obama and most other people use the expression “survival of the fittest,” they suggest that a bunch of people or animals are competing with one another and the strongest, smartest or cleverest survives. That’s not what Darwin and evolutionary biologists have in mind. Instead, what they have in mind is that those who survive have characteristics that make them better-equipped to survive and hence reproduce themselves in a particular environment. They are not laying waste to their competitors.

Let’s try a few survival of the fittest questions. Which companies do you think should survive and expand, those that can meet the changing wants of their customers in a least-cost fashion or those that cannot do so? If the means of communication become cheaper through fax machines, the Internet and telephones, should subsidies be expended to help the U.S. Postal Service survive? Years ago, typing was done on a mechanical typewriter; milk was delivered to doorsteps via horse and wagon; slide rules were used to make calculations. Should any of these products and practices have survived, or was it OK for natural selection to consign them to the dustbin of history?

Try cornering the president or his supporters, and ask them whether they believe government should ensure that the unfit survive and rather than “you’re-on-your-own economics” there should be “you’re-on-somebody-else economics.”

How to speak clearly

2012-01-18T03:00:00.000-06:00

Don't get me wrong. Really have no use for Newt at all. He has been the problem as much as anyone. BUT...his instincts are usually correct. This IS the correct answer to this racially-tinged gotcha question by tool Juan Williams. He gets a standing 'O' for his answer...watch the whole 4 minutes.

Of course, since you cannot logically deny that what Newt said is the truth, you have to attack the messenger. This is the best that Obama-thrill-up-his-leg Chris Matthews could come up with:

Chris Matthews Accuses Newt Gingrich Of Racially Charged Use Of The Name ‘Juan’

Matthews’ comments came during an appearance on Andrea Mitchell Reports in which he discussed the tone in yesterday’s all white audience (pay attention folks---they just got away with a zinger--the audience was NOT all white). Matthews accused Rick Perry of using terms bordering on “succession” when he talked about the South Carolina people’s “war” with the government. However, the focus was on Gingrich and Williams and particularly Williams’ first name. While Matthews agreed with a lot of what Gingrich said, he argued that this was a coded message to the crowd.

“That use of the name ‘Juan,’ the way he did it. You can’t argue these things. You either see them or you don’t. It’s just the way he did that. I sensed a little applause when he said ‘Let me help you’ when he answered the Juan question. It’s in the eye of the beholder. And, by the way, calling someone a racist is the worst way to get them to stop being racist because everyone gets defensive. … So it’s stupid to say it but, honestly, if you notice it, you sort of ought to blow the whistle. Because there is a dog whistle going on here.”

When all else fails....make up some charge totally unrelated to the conversation so biased that there is no response that is appropriate other than 'you fucking moron', which of course, you can't say on television.

And he'll ignore his own panels recomendations, again

2012-01-18T01:30:00.000-06:00

President Obama’s jobs council called Tuesday for an “all-in approach” to energy policy that includes expanded oil and gas drilling as well as expediting energy projects like pipelines. “[W]e should allow more access to oil, natural gas and coal opportunities on federal lands,” states the year-end report released Tuesday by the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.

The report does not specifically mention the Keystone XL pipeline, but it endorses moving forward quickly with projects that “deliver electricity and fuel,” including pipelines.

“The Council recognizes the important safety and environmental concerns surrounding these types of projects, but now more than ever, the jobs and economic and energy security benefits of these energy projects require us to tackle the issues head-on and to expeditiously, though cautiously, move forward on projects that can support hundreds of thousands of jobs,” the report says.

Of course, on the heels of that, we hear that our dipshit of a president is going to say 'no' to the Keystone XL pipeline...even though rejection means that Canadian oil will be heading to China vs the US. Folks, as recently as last year I used to think it was ridiculous to think that any President of the US would willfully hurt the country. Now--not so much. Obama is a deliberate menace to the US. There I said it.

All of a sudden, it ain't cool....

2012-01-18T01:00:00.001-06:00

You might have heard. Beyonce and Jay-Z had a baby girl. Congrats and all that. And it seems that daddy has had a realization....he doesn't ever want anyone referring to his little girl as a bitch. Oh, heck, it was fine before--he was spewing the word left and right in his music. I guess referring to other people's daughters as bitches (and really, if you think about it, he was also referring to his wife) is just fine. But, oh no, we're getting religion when it comes to his baby girl.

So, Jay-Z, thanks for growing up, finally, it's nice that you could join the adults. Here's the details, including a poem that he wrote about it. I'm sure you'll want to read it. And get ready. The legacy that you are leaving in pop culture almost guarantees that your little angel will be referred to as a bitch. Count on it. And thanks. I have a daughter too.

2012-01-18T01:00:00.000-06:00

Once again the idiots among us willfully fail to distinguish between the real and the unreal, as police state style gun laws are applied even to toys in the People’s Republic of New York:

The owner of a discount store in Brooklyn says the city is holding him up for $30,000 in fines he can’t afford — all because he stocked six toy sheriff sets that included plastic guns.
And now the .44-caliber fines for the orange-tipped, obvious fakes are forcing him to close for good.
“It doesn’t make any sense,” said Khaled Mohamed, 23, manager of 99¢ Target in Flatlands, which has been ordered to pay a staggering $5,000 fine for each gun offered for sale — the maximum under the law.

Sure it makes sense, once you understand that the objective of authoritarian liberal regimes is to make it impossible to earn a living through non-coercive economic activities. Only when the last 99¢ store has been fined into bankruptcy can we at last enter into moonbat utopia.
Congratulations to the Bloomberg regime on subjecting another capitalist exploiter to The People’s justice. Don’t worry about Mohemed; he can always sign up for welfare.

Pretext enough to destroy a business in NYC.

Rats.

2012-01-17T01:00:00.000-06:00

The District of Columbia is well endowed with rats.

In addition to those infesting the White House and Capitol Hill, the city is literally overran with them. Why? Rats are a protected species:

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli says he is worried that a new District of Columbia law that governs how pest control operators must handle rats may result in entire rodent “families” being relocated across the Potomac River into Virginia by D.C. pest control personnel.

Cuccinelli said D.C.’s new rat law — the Wildlife Protection Act of 2010 is “crazier than fiction” because it requires that rats and other vermin not be killed but captured, preferably in families; no glue or snap traps can be utilized; the rodents must be relocated from where they are captured; and some of these animals may need to be transferred to a “wildlife rehabilitator” as part of their relocation process. The law does not allow pest control professionals “to kill the dang rats,” Cuccinelli told CNSNews.com.

“They have to capture them — then capture them in families. [Not sure] how you’re going to figure that out with rats. And then you have to relocate them. That brings us to Virginia. Now, if you don’t relocate them about 25 miles away, according to experts, rodents will find their way back. Well, an easy way to solve that problem is to cross a river, and what’s on the other side of the river? Virginia."

Hi , we are from the Government….

2012-01-16T08:56:00.000-06:00

Hi , we are from the Government….

Not to be redundant...

2012-01-13T20:26:00.001-06:00

But I found this soon after then one below. Same song. And the only redeeming thing about the Stones performance is Mick Taylor. But he alone makes this one worth watching. Be patient until the chorus. Then behold how the guitar should be played. He was amazing.

It's the traveling Keithburys

2012-01-13T20:13:00.001-06:00

Duke Tumatoe

2012-01-13T18:57:00.000-06:00

Don't know if this is with the All Star Frogs or not...but this is a treat.

POST 6000

2012-01-13T18:24:00.000-06:00

And I've lost my head evidently.

So, I've been hanging out at the house tonight by myself--the girls both have plans. So far, I've alerted the entire north side of town to that fact by cranking up both of the amps that I have here at the house to about 6 running thru the stereo chorus stompbox. That was refreshing. Had to stretch the fingies a bit since we are playing tomorrow night.

Meanwhile, I jumped into Spotify to find some old tunes to listen to...typed in 1972, and I got this. Ahh...remember before their whimpy era? I love early REO Speedwagon. Here's a prime example:

And then there is this old favorite...especially because it's pre-Kevin Cronin.

Hard Barney Alert

2012-01-13T15:13:00.000-06:00

Hey folks, get out from under the snow and come over to KT's in Keswick tomorrow night for a winter thaw-it-out party. We realize it hasn't been froze all that long, since it was in the 50's this week, but what the heck. I bet they're serving up those yummy gin buckets, too.

So, c'mon...get out of the house. We'll fire up the tunes around 9.

Oh, yeah, almost forgot.....you can follow us on Twitter. Just hit the button up there under 'Leo's Stuff'. You know what to do......

Happy Friday.....

2012-01-13T04:30:00.000-06:00

Quote of the day, Standing 'O' edition

2012-01-13T01:30:00.000-06:00

“Seven young people, somewhere between 14 and 16 years old, on a Tuesday night, a school night, are out in a car going to somewhere to have a fight with some other teenager. That is completely insane, it is irresponsible. Parents have to know where their children are and what they are doing. Their little butts should have either been in bed, getting ready for bed, or doing some homework, not out in a car, not in some other neighborhood, and not up to this kind of nonsense. I’m not your mom and I’m not your dad. We cannot completely legislate, or by policy, make people responsible for their children.”
----Philly mayor Michael Nutter after a shooting spree that left 3 teens deadPHILADELPHIA

(CBS) – Following a shooting Tuesday night in the Juniata section of the city that left three teens dead (see related story), Mayor Michael Nutter had strong words for the shooter, calling him “a dog.”

The outraged mayor also had strong words for the parents of Philadelphia’s youth, telling them “not to act like idiots and a–holes.”

While Nutter says he is gratified about the quick arrest in the multiple shooting, he is fuming that the victims were out on Tuesday night apparently looking for trouble. And he blames their parents.“Seven young people, somewhere between 14 and 16 years old, on a Tuesday night, a school night, are out in a car going to somewhere to have a fight with some other teenager. That is completely insane, it is irresponsible. Parents have to know where their children are and what they are doing,” the mayor said.“Their little butts should have either been in bed, getting ready for bed, or doing some homework,” Nutter added. “Not out in a car, not in some other neighborhood, and not up to this kind of nonsense. I’m not your mom and I’m not your dad. We cannot completely legislate, or by policy, make people responsible for their children.”

Meanwhile, Eyewitness News has learned the suspect in the shooting, Axel Barreto, has a lengthy criminal record, including at least seven arrests since 2000, mostly for drugs. But on Saint Patrick’s Day 2004, court records show Barreto was arrested for illegally possessing a gun, but those weapons charges didn’t stick.Authorities say police chased Barreto down after he was seen acting suspicious on what they considered a known drug corner. They found him in possession of marijuana but also with a gun, which was illegal because he was already a convicted felon according to Tasha Jamerson, a spokeswoman for District Attorney Seth Williams.

Nutter pleaded with teens who know the victims to avoid any retaliatory acts. “It is not going to work out well for any of you,” the mayor said.“The least you can do is know where the hell your kids are, in the daytime, in the nighttime, or at any time during the week or on the weekends. That’s the minimum we should ask and expect from our parents. You want to have kids? Take care of them.”

2012-01-13T01:00:00.001-06:00

1:37 PM, JAN 13, 2012 • BY DANIEL HALPER

Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.), a former Army lieutenant colonel, sends THE WEEKLY STANDARD an email commenting on the Marines' video, and has given us permission to publish it.

“I have sat back and assessed the incident with the video of our Marines urinating on Taliban corpses. I do not recall any self-righteous indignation when our Delta snipers Shugart and Gordon had their bodies dragged through Mogadishu. Neither do I recall media outrage and condemnation of our Blackwater security contractors being killed, their bodies burned, and hung from a bridge in Fallujah.

“All these over-emotional pundits and armchair quarterbacks need to chill. Does anyone remember the two Soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division who were beheaded and gutted in Iraq?

“The Marines were wrong. Give them a maximum punishment under field grade level Article 15 (non-judicial punishment), place a General Officer level letter of reprimand in their personnel file, and have them in full dress uniform stand before their Battalion, each personally apologize to God, Country, and Corps videotaped and conclude by singing the full US Marine Corps Hymn without a teleprompter.

“As for everyone else, unless you have been shot at by the Taliban, shut your mouth, war is hell.”

More moonbattery...

2012-01-13T01:00:00.000-06:00

When the companies that supply motor fuel close the books on 2011, they will pay about $6.8 million in penalties to the Treasury because they failed to mix a special type of biofuel into their gasoline and diesel as required by law.

But there was none to be had. Outside a handful of laboratories and workshops, the ingredient, cellulosic biofuel, does not exist.

In 2012, the oil companies expect to pay even higher penalties for failing to blend in the fuel, which is made from wood chips or the inedible parts of plants like corncobs. Refiners were required to blend 6.6 million gallons into gasoline and diesel in 2011 and face a quota of 8.65 million gallons this year.

“It belies logic,” Charles T. Drevna, the president of the National Petrochemicals and Refiners Association, said of the 2011 quota. And raising the quota for 2012 when there is no production makes even less sense, he said.

Sure it makes sense. The reason our liberal overlords mandate the use of flaky technology that isn’t even available is that their objective, as stated plainly by Obama before he was elected, is to cause energy prices to skyrocket. For once a politician is fulfilling his promise.

Quote of the day

2012-01-12T12:31:00.001-06:00

“The first bill I signed — a bill that said that we’re going to have equal pay for equal work because I want my daughters treated the same way as my sons.”
----President Barrack Obama

Ummmm....so, the president has some other kids we don't know about....evidently. I wonder which of the 57 states they live in. Does Michelle know?

Case in point:

2012-01-12T06:28:00.000-06:00

Here is a prime example of what happens when you let the progressives, or socialist (as they hate to be called) run things. From Moonbattery:

Living in a country run completely by moonbats such as Greece has its advantages. For example, you can receive disability pay for being a pedophile or pyromaniac. Also, you can run up massive debts with no intention of repaying them, and stick the taxpayers of Germany and the USA with the bill. But there are disadvantages too, as Greeks discover when they try to buy medicine:

Mina Mavrou, who runs a pharmacy in a middle-class Athens suburb, spends hours each day pleading with drugmakers, wholesalers and colleagues to hunt down medicines for clients. Life-saving drugs such as Sanofi (SAN)’s blood-thinner Clexane and GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK)’s asthma inhaler Flixotide often appear as lines of crimson data on pharmacists’ computer screens, meaning the products aren’t in stock or that pharmacists can’t order as many units as they need. … The Panhellenic Association of Pharmacists reports shortages of almost half the country’s 500 most-used medicines. … The financial crisis is brewing a “Greek tragedy” of slowing access to medical care and worsening outcomes for patients…
One major cause is the Greek government, which sets prices for medicines. As part of an effort to cut its own costs, Greece has mandated lower drug prices in the past year. That has fed a secondary market, drug manufacturers contend, as wholesalers sell their shipments outside the country at higher prices than they can get within Greece.
Strained government finances only make matters worse. Wholesalers and pharmacists say the system suffers from a lack of liquidity, as public insurers delay payments to pharmacies, which in turn can’t pay suppliers on time. …
Payment can take three months to up to a year, pharmacists said. Some are turning to patients to pay up front.

So much for using Big Government to force someone else to pay for your medicine. The free market provides people with the goods and services they need. Socialism does not. Progressives/Democrats/Liberals in this country are never asked the question "Why would we want to go down that path when it is certain to end in disaster" But of course, the elephant in Europe's bedroom won't be acknowledged by our own press or if it is, it doesn't call out the root cause or our own idiot politicians (of both parties) desire to do the same to America. Thankfully, more and more Americans are seeing the light every day. Self-described liberals are on the wane. It won't be a politician that saves America....it'll be Americans. Again.

Back to reality

2012-01-11T15:55:00.001-06:00

Hey, if we believe the weather folks, we're going to have some winter. It's 57 degrees right now and they tell me that come midnght, it'll be like 20 and blowing snow..some 3-6 inches worth. Oh well, it was wonderful while it lasted!

Here's something to get you thru:

As if we didn't already know this

2012-01-11T08:02:00.001-06:00

The moonbats live in our schools. I would think with all of the attention paid to things like asbestos and mold in the schools, we'd worry occasionally when these insidious creatures pop up and spew their crap all over the classroom.

Case in point: As reported in The Blaze, an incident was uncovered "at Woodbrook Elementary School in Virginia in which third-grade students performed (and school officials claim wrote) a song titled, "Part of the 99" as part of a "Kid Pan Alley" performance in October."

Some people have it all
But they still don't think they have enough
They want more money
A faster ride
They're not content
Never satisfied
Yes -- they're the 1 percent

I used to be one of the 1 percent
I worked all the time
Never saw my family
Couldn't make life rhyme
Then the bubble burst
It really, really hurt
I lost my money
Lost my pride
Lost my home
Now I'm part of the 99

Some people have it all
But they still don't think they have enough
They want more money
A faster ride
They're not content
Never satisfied
Yes -- they're the 1 percent

I used to be sad, now I'm satisfied
'Cause I really have enough
Though I lost my yacht and plane
Didn't need that extra stuff
Could have been much worse
You don't need to be first
'Cause I've got my friends
Here by my side
Don't need it all
I'm so happy to be part of the 99

Yeah. 3rd graders wrote that. Sure they did. How about once we have them sing about hard work, getting good grades, and having ambition in life?

There. Grumpy old man has checked in for the day.

Tebow 3:16

2012-01-10T12:16:00.000-06:00

You'd think that the Tim Tebow story couldn't get any more bananas? It's not just that Tebow transformed himself into a legitimate passer in the playoffs....the guy who's renowned for writing John 3:16 on his eye black just happened to throw for 316 yards on Sunday in the Broncos win.

Tebow completed 10 passes. That means he averaged 31.6 yards per pass. His final pass was to Thomas who just happens to have been born on Christmas Day.

Oh and this: the Steelers-Broncos game was the most-watched wild-card game since 1988. In the final quarter-hour, the overnight rating was 31.6. As it turns out, the lone interception thrown in the game on Sunday night came from Pittsburg. What down and distance were involved when he threw it? Third and 16. Of course.

Coincidence? Prolly.....but I won't bet against them anytime soon.

One of those 40K new laws....

2012-01-10T06:28:00.000-06:00

A new Illinois state law requires those who buy drain cleaners and other caustic substances to provide photo identification and sign a log…The law came about after two Illinois women were burned by acid attacks back in 2008.

One of the women later admitted to burning herself with acid, but the law was still pushed through…so, because of one random crime where acid was used to burn a victim, thousands of people will be forced to show identification when they purchase drain cleaners, and countless hours of business time will be spent filling out, maintaining and monitoring the government mandated forms associated with each purchase.

Go, go government!!!!

Well, here it is.

2012-01-10T05:42:00.001-06:00

What do you think?

Back at it for 5

2012-01-09T13:47:00.002-06:00

days. In a row. Ouch.   Yep, got a little spoiled over the holidays....don't shed any tears for me.

I picked up another week of vacation at work this year. That means that I have an embarrassing amount of time off this year -- 33 days, plus the 8 that I carried over from this year that I didn't get around to taking.   Throw in 11 company holidays and I'm loaded. I don't know how people who have less than 3 or 4 weeks do it. I guess I did it with less than that for a decade, with little kids, so it can be done. Just don't wanna have to go back there. Wow, thinking back, I wonder how we made that work. Guess we just didn't do anything. That's got to be the biggest bene associated with longevity at a job.   Doesn't happen much any longer, I know, so yep, I feel lucky.

So far, so good. And hasn't this been an outstanding winter so far!   I had the snow shovel in my hands for less than 3 minutes this year, and I really wouldn't have had to do that.   Kinda makes me leery about February and March--I hope our warm trend continues.

Emmie started softball practice for spring ball yesterday. The way the weather is, they could be on the diamond, but think they were in the gym yesterday. Hard to believe this is her last go-around.   I'll miss it big time, but am ready to have time to do other things, too.   Theresa and I have had several conversations about how different it will be when Emmie isn't playing softball all spring and summer.   We will have spring weekends free to do whatever.   And we'll have our summer nights back to do stuff.   It's at least 70 days where we won't be going to watch softball.   That's a hell of a chunk of time. I might need to develop a new hobby. Maybe I'll take up the drums....

Theresa and I have talked about maybe getting a small boat and spending some time floating the days away over at Belva Deer. I could see that. Pack a little lunch. Drink a beverage or 2. Throw a fishing line in Maybe do some frog gigging while listening to the Police (heh!). Oh well, that's a year away, and we've got to get thru this one first. And it's fast approaching...January will be past us in a blur...

Everybody in....except for.....

2012-01-08T10:18:00.000-06:00

Your information for the day:

Labor unions continued to receive the overwhelming majority of waivers from the president’s health care reform law since the Obama administration tightened application rules last summer.Documents released in a classic Friday afternoon news dump show that labor unions representing 543,812 workers received waivers from President Barack Obama‘s signature legislation since June 17, 2011.

By contrast, private employers with a total of 69,813 employees, many of whom work for small businesses, were granted waivers.

Gosh I love socialism! And now we have 2 more classes of people: the ones that Obama likes, and the ones he doesn't. Aren't leftards always tellling us that 'they' can run things better than all of the other socialist/communist countries out there? Don't we hear constantly from the idiots that the 'right people haven't ran it--that's why socialism fails every time.

This is always what happens. Some idiot picks winners and loser based upon political expediency/favoritistm and the system is broke from day one. As is Obamacare. Obama voters, take another bow.

My friend Larry, writes more eloquently than I. Here, he's nailing the problem.

-------------------------------------------------

Do you want Washingtonbureaucrats to literally make your medical decisions for you instead of you andyour doctor? That is precisely what willhappen when the “Independent Payment Advisory Board” (IPAB) comes into existenceafter 2012 under Obamacare.

IPAB will have the absolute power to establish the price forall Medicare funded procedures resulting in reduced fees to doctors to thepoint that many procedures will simply no longer be available since doctorswill be unwilling to perform them at such low cost. Initially, patients will have the option topay the difference between the IPAB rate and the actual doctor fee, but plansare already being made to eliminate that option as well.

Worse than the lack of medical choice and quality of care,is the huge loss of your personal liberty. IPAB members are not elected, their decision have the force of law andfrom the beginning are nearly untouchable by even the U.S. Congress. Congress can only modify IPAB’s decision ifthe total expenditure proposed by Congress does not exceed IPAB’srecommendation. In other words,Obamacare shifts a substantial portion of government spending out of theCongress and into the control of IPAB. IPAB’sdecisions are final and not subject to any kind of review which means that ifyou cannot get the treatment you need because of an IPAB ruling, writing your congressmenwill do no good, nor will you have the option to file any kind of lawsuitthrough the courts. In effect, IPABbecomes the dictator of your health care choices.

This law is already in force, and if Obama wins reelectionin 2012 there will be no stopping it since the law is crafted such that itcannot be de-railed, only repealed. In2012 you can choose to keep your liberty and the ability to make our own healthcare choices or you agree forever to become the subject of a medical dictator.

Ok, here it is...the new Van Halen--UPDATED

2012-01-06T01:00:00.000-06:00

Someone taught Wolfie to play the bass properly...he's ripping it up here. This could get interesting. Still miss Michael's high backup vocals, which were an integral part of the classic VH sound, but Chickenfoot owns that part of the show now.

However, this will work. UPDATE: THIS IS 'She's the Woman', which I assume is on the new CD.

Here is the original version of the song, which has riffs on it that ended up on 'Mean Streets' from FAIR WARNING.

An example of missing MA....

Eddie has put on a little weight.

Just one question, please...

2012-01-06T00:00:00.000-06:00

The haters out there think that Obama is purposely doing things to the detriment of the country. They say so in increasing numbers and with more frequency. So what are we to think when we hear something like this:

President Obama signaled Congress this week that he is prepared to share U.S. missile defense secrets with Russia.
In the president’s signing statement issued Saturday in passing into law the fiscal 2012 defense authorization bill, Mr. Obama said restrictions aimed at protecting top-secret technical data on U.S. Standard Missile-3 velocity burnout parameters might impinge on his constitutional foreign policy authority.
As first disclosed in this space several weeks ago, U.S. officials are planning to provide Moscow with the SM-3 data, despite reservations from security officials who say that doing so could compromise the effectiveness of the system by allowing Russian weapons technicians to counter the missile. The weapons are considered some of the most effective high-speed interceptors in the U.S. missile defense arsenal.
There are also concerns that Russia could share the secret data with China and rogue states such as Iran and North Korea to help their missile programs defeat U.S. missile defenses.
Officials from the State Department and Missile Defense Agency have discussed the idea of providing the SM-3 data to the Russians as part of the so-far fruitless missile-defense talks with Moscow, headed in part of by Undersecretary of State Ellen Tauscher, who defense officials say is a critic of U.S. missile defenses.

So, some Obama supporter out there, please explain why this is not totally bat-shiat insane? Seriously, I'd like to know why divulging our technological secrets are a good idea. I know you're out there, O fans. C'mon, help me out. Why is this a good idea?

Gun Contol

2012-01-04T12:23:00.000-06:00

If you still wonder why people 'cling' to their guns, pay attention:

(GMA)A young Oklahoma mother shot and killed an intruder to protect her 3-month-old baby on New Year's Eve, less than a week after the baby's father died of cancer.

Sarah McKinley says that a week earlier a man named Justin Martin dropped by on the day of her husband's funeral, claiming that he was a neighbor who wanted to say hello. The 18-year-old Oklahoma City area woman did not let him into her home that day.

On New Year's Eve Martin returned with another man, Dustin Stewart, and this time was armed with a 12-inch hunting knife. The two soon began trying to break into McKinley's home.As one of the men was going from door to door outside her home trying to gain entry, McKinley called 911 and grabbed her 12-gauge shotgun.

McKinley told ABC News Oklahoma City affiliate KOCO that she quickly got her 12 gauge, went into her bedroom and got a pistol, put the bottle in the baby's mouth and called 911."I've got two guns in my hand -- is it okay to shoot him if he comes in this door?" the young mother asked the 911 dispatcher. "I'm here by myself with my infant baby, can I please get a dispatcher out here immediately?"

The 911 dispatcher confirmed with McKinley that the doors to her home were locked as she asked again if it was okay to shoot the intruder if he were to come through her door."I can't tell you that you can do that but you do what you have to do to protect your baby," the dispatcher told her.

McKinley was on the phone with 911 for a total of 21 minutes.When Martin kicked in the door and came after her with the knife, the teen mom shot and killed the 24-year-old.

Police are calling the shooting justified."You're allowed to shoot an unauthorized person that is in your home. The law provides you the remedy, and sanctions the use of deadly force," Det. Dan Huff of the Blanchard police said.Stewart soon turned himself in to police.

McKinley said that she was at home alone with her newborn that night because her husband just died of cancer on Christmas Day."I wouldn't have done it, but it was my son," McKinley told ABC News Oklahoma City affiliate KOCO. "It's not an easy decision to make, but it was either going to be him or my son. And it wasn't going to be my son."

Holy Cow!

2012-01-04T11:50:00.003-06:00

Wow...it appears that Iowa's fav professor rattled a few libs, too. Here ya go:

Hawkeye Caucii

2012-01-04T11:01:00.001-06:00

Hey, the Iowa Caucus was last night and the air waves are candidate free for the first time in months. We had at least 24 calls yesterday according to the caller-id info. We stopped answering the home phone a month ago.

All 5 Leinen's attended the caucus last night.   Emmie wanted to go because she is in Gov class at school and gets extra credit for being there. Plus, she will be able to vote in the November election.   She and several of her friends are all in for Ron Paul. Jake and Ben are Paul-ites, too. They came down to go, also. And, Theresa decided that since the rest of the clan was going, we might as well make it a family deal.

Interesting. Our precinct results were : Paul, Santorum, Gingerich, Romney, Bachman.   In that order. I was curious to see who would be there. Lots of youngins voting for Paul. Good for them for being involved and if I were them, he might appeal to me too. Sure like his domestic constitutional gov't ideas.

On a related topic, I suppose you all heard about the article that U of I prof Steven Bloom wrote in THE ATLANTIC magazine that prompted a firestorm here in the state. Of course, it was all just fodder for the MSM so they could say 'hey, Iowa is a hick state and here's one of our really smart professors who lives in Iowa to confirm it', thereby continuing to downplay the Iowa process.     There have been some great responses. Here is one from Michele Malkin:

Iowa-bashing snobs and sore losers

By Michelle Malkin • January 3, 2012 08:56 PM

***
Iowa-bashing snobs and sore losers
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2012
The Iowa caucuses may not have much predictive value, but they did a wonderful job of unmasking both elitist whingers on the Left and incompetent whiners on the Right.

As they do every presidential election cycle, progressives of pallor wore their indelible disdain for middle America on their sleeves. Pale-faced University of Iowa journalism professor Stephen Bloom launched a 6,000-word jeremiad, littered with factual errors, against his home state’s residents. The abridged version: Raaaaaaaacists! Hicks! Christians! Argggh!

In the safe harbors of The Atlantic just a few weeks before Tuesday’s electoral event, Bloom sneered: “Those who stay in rural Iowa are often the elderly waiting to die.” The rest are “[a]n assortment of waste-toids and meth addicts with pale skin and rotted teeth or those who quixotically believe, like Little Orphan Annie, that the sun will come out tomorrow.” One of the poison-tongued prof’s own former journalism students, Kirsten Scharnberg Hampton, took him to task for citing faulty demographic statistics, derisively stereotyping hunters, and falsely accusing a local newspaper of “splashing” the headline “He Is Risen” across its front page (it was a small, boxed quotation marking Easter Sunday).

But the damage was done; the bait dangled. And at the overwhelmingly white NBC Nightly News on Sunday, Andrea Mitchell swallowed the Iowa-bashing chum whole – then dutifully regurgitated the attack on the state as “Too white, too evangelical, too rural.” She was quick to slip in a “critics say” disclaimer, of course. But let’s not kid ourselves about the network’s prejudices.

This is the same news organization that attempted to conduct Islamophobia stings at NASCAR races to expose how racist racing fans supposedly were; whose Meet the Press host David Gregory smeared GOP leaders as “Grand Wizards” in November; and whose execs were forced to apology last month for MSNBC goons who falsely linked GOP candidate Mitt Romney to the Ku Klux Klan.

One local Hawkeye State veteran journalist, David Yepsen, tried to correct the coastal myth of the redneck- hick-outlier Iowa voter by politely pointing out Barack Obama’s triumph in the 2008 Democratic caucuses at the hands of yes, mostly white voters. Moreover, over the last four presidential election seasons, the Iowa popular vote has “closely tracked national preferences.”

Census statistics show that the majority of Iowans are urban, not rural; the median age is 38 (nationally, it’s 36.7); and out of a population of 3 million people statewide, some 90,000 are farming families. But snobs and demagogues on both sides of the aisle eschewed the facts and indulged in racial and class warfare instead. The Hispanic News website issued a clarion call: “In Diverse & Urban Nation, Time to Kick Iowa White, Racist Farmers to Curb.” GOP strategist Roger Stone, who spearheaded the bungled bid to turn statist, pro-bailout, eminent-domain abuser Donald Trump into a Tea Party/GOP “Mr. Everyman” candidate, also jumped ugly. He railed against Iowans as a “bunch [of] hayseeds” who are “not representative of America today.”

More Iowa sins according to Stone: “The food is awful, the people are stout and a lot of them smoke.”
If only a utopian state of non-smoking, vegetarian supermodels and Apprentice reality-show contestants had first-in-the-nation status, imagine how much better off we’d all be.

Joking aside, I’d have no problem with a rotating, kick-off caucus slot. But intermingled with the bi-coastal bigotry against Iowa is the distinct odor of sore-loser-dom. Split voters in Iowa simply reflected the wider discontent among grass-roots conservatives and Tea Party activists with the current Pageant of the Imperfects.

Besides, Iowa caucus critics have had years to change the status quo. Like some of Tuesday’s big losers, the whingers and whiners who complain about the process have failed to get their act together. All talk, no follow-through.

Take Newt Gingrich. The vaunted intellectual field marshal of the GOP whose campaign bubble quickly burst under the weight of his own gross incompetence, blamed his fall on money, staff, a “failed system,” negative ads, and the electorate’s inability to appreciate “big ideas.”

But if you can’t convert a surge into an electoral win, if you can’t effectively rebut opponents’ charges without resorting to tears and tantrums, and — most damaging for Gingrich — if you can’t put people on the ground in places like Iowa and Virginia who can deliver votes and signatures when it counts, how can you win a general election? Frankly, to use a favorite Gingrich verbal crutch, the fault lies in just one place: on Gingrich’s shoulders.

When I was a kid, we took something called the Iowa Test of Basic Skills – a nationally standardized test of minimum competence in core subjects. The Iowa Caucuses serve a similar purpose. When campaigns fail to meet the most elementary requirements of organizational politics, don’t blame the messengers. Blame the test-takers.

Cool story

2012-01-04T01:00:00.000-06:00

Peter Frampton has been reunited with his beloved and historic Gibson Les Paul after three decades. Details:

Peter Frampton's long-lost guitar was recently discovered after its disappearance in a plane crash 32 years ago. In 1980, a cargo plane carrying Frampton's equipment for an upcoming show in Panama crashed, supposedly destroying all of the instruments on board including Frampton's cherished 1954 Gibson Les Paul. Thanks to the unyielding work of two dedicated fans, one in Holland and one on the Dutch Caribbean island of Curaçao, as well as the CEO of the Curaçao Tourist Board, Frampton was reunited with the guitar in an emotional meeting last month in Nashville, TN.

The Curaçao Tourist Board helped acquire the guitar from an individual after hearing news that they may indeed have a lead on the long lost and beloved guitar. Together in Nashville, TN at the Gibson Custom Shop, with experts from Gibson Guitar and Peter Frampton, the team confirmed it was the original guitar long missing from Frampton's collection.
Frampton's custom guitar was given to him in 1970 by a man named Mark Mariana when Humble Pie played at the Fillmore West. Frampton borrowed Mariana's guitar for the show and afterward tried to buy it from him, "But to my surprise he said he couldn't sell it to me—he wanted to give it to me!" he notes.

Frampton played the guitar exclusively on Humble Pie's Rock On and Rocking the Fillmore albums. The guitar also appeared on a number of sessions for other artists including George Harrison, Harry Nilsson, and John Entwistle. Most notably, Frampton played the guitar on the electrifying Frampton Comes Alive!, one of the top-selling live records of all time.
Frampton is ecstatic to have the guitar back in his hands once again. "I am still in a state of shock, first off, that the guitar even exists let alone, that it has been returned to me. I know I have my guitar back, but I will never forget the lives that were lost in this crash. I am so thankful for the efforts of those who made this possible…And, now that it is back I am going insure it for 2 million dollars and it's never going out of my sight again! It was always my #1 guitar and it will be reinstated there as soon as possible -- some minor repairs are needed."

Smackdown

2012-01-03T01:30:00.000-06:00

Rick Perry isn't a favorite of mine. Oh, I got nothing against him, but I'm not taking too kindly to any politician at the moment. However, this is a great smackdown of some dumass reporter who is trying, using the same bald-face lying that always happens, to elicit a response about a non-issue. Fishing, in other words. This is a clinic on how you handle that.

Back in the Saddle

2012-01-03T01:00:00.000-06:00

Let's get at the latest news, eh?

-Caucus day here in IA. Good deal....get those dang idiots out of the state. Is there a keeper in there? Well, any of them would be better than Obama...but that's not saying much. Most dog-catchers qualify if that's the criteria.

-I like Mark Steyn. He's got a great take on things. Here's his latest thoughts about our fiscal issues.

It's a Blast

2012-01-02T10:10:00.000-06:00

In more ways than one. Big wind across the not-quite-frozen tundra. I'm surprised the big pine trees out front haven't lost any branches. But, it's supposed to be close to 50 again by week's end. Nice mild winter....so far.

And it's the last day of our vacation. Theresa and I have been lucky enough to have 11 days off in a row. Nice. I only called into work a few times this week, so it's been great. Nothing planned today except for maybe a quick trip to pick up some provisions for the week.

Taking a quick look at the news...did you know that 40,000 new laws went into effect at midnight on the first? Think about that. 40,000 new laws. How the hell can we have needed 40,000 more laws? Can we give ALL politicians and lawmakers about 3 years off?

Where the heck does this end?

1/1/12

2012-01-01T11:03:00.002-06:00

Happy New Year, Folks. It doesn't get any better than this:

See ya, 2011

2011-12-31T21:29:00.002-06:00

All-in-all, a great year. Everyone in our family is healthy, happy, and employed. Good deal.
Hope yours was good, too.
Happy New Year!

Rock and Stuff

2011-12-30T18:53:00.000-06:00

Well, it's been a lazy one....rain most of the day, so I did what anyone on day 8 of 11 should do...hit the vodka.
*heh heh*

And Cranberry juice, I should add. Ok. Kind of uncharacteristic of me. But what the heck. Nothing to do, no where to go-o-oh...I wanna (fill in the blank).

I watched ISU piss away their game after a strong start. I bet the Hawk game goes the same way...hope I'm wrong.

I did cut a few more tracks for AIG...the next BIG thing. Details soon.

Yikes!

2011-12-28T09:02:00.002-06:00

Mid-week....and it's flying

2011-12-28T08:53:00.001-06:00

OK....so it's day 6 of 11 off work..and it's going waaaaaay too fast.

Great Christmas, etc. Had a blast with the kids. Since then, we've de-Christmas-ized the house, except for a few seasonal things. The lights stay on till New Years Day, then those will come down.

Made it over to see Steve M and his folks on Monday night. That was fun. Good to catch up.

Today, Stevie G will be over. I 'spect we'll lay down a track or two on a song we're working on. Spending tomorrow with the family...the boys need a bit of maintenance at their place and so on. We'll probably go out for dinner, too. Everyone in the family has the day off work...a rare thing for us.

Big smiles all around

2011-12-25T13:22:00.003-06:00

Well, the packages are all unwrapped, our bellies are full of good stuff, and we're kicking back with the family and all is as it should be on this Christmas. Hope your's is going just as well.

Merry Christmas!!!

The important things.....

2011-12-24T11:56:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas from the Leinen house to your's. We hope that you have the opportunity to spend it with ones that you love.

2011-12-22T00:30:00.000-06:00

2011-12-21T15:21:00.001-06:00

2011-12-21T15:20:00.002-06:00

Hey, it's that time of the year!!

2011-12-21T15:15:00.002-06:00

Sometimes, they write themselves.....

2011-12-21T15:12:00.001-06:00

Young brother eats cocaine from
older sibling's butt, then
dies of overdose: cops

New York Daily News, by Michael Sheridan Original Article

A case of brotherly love in South Carolina turned deadly after a young man agreed to eat cocaine hidden in his older sibling's buttocks, then died of an overdose. Deangelo Mitchell is seen in a police car video guilting his brother into ingesting the illegal substance because, he is heard saying, "I can't get no more strikes." (Snip) "Eat that sh*t, so I can get out," he says in the video. "One of us gotta do it, you the only one that don't have any strikes... You my little brother... I'm gonna get life."

The People's Car

2011-12-21T04:30:00.000-06:00

Each Chevy Volt sold thus far may have as much as $250,000 in state and federal dollars in incentives behind it — a total of $3 billion altogether, according to an analysis by James Hohman, assistant director of fiscal policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

Hohman looked at total state and federal assistance offered for the development and production of the Chevy Volt, General Motors’ plug-in hybrid electric vehicle. His analysis included 18 government deals that included loans, rebates, grants and tax credits. The amount of government assistance does not include the fact that General Motors is currently 26 percent owned by the federal government. …

“This might be the most government-supported car since the Trabant,” said Hohman, referring to the car produced by the former Communist state of East Germany.

At least there is a lesson to be learned from the Volt debacle, for those with enough sense to learn it.

“It just goes to show there are certain folks that will spend anything to get their vision of what people should do,” said State Representative Tom McMillin, R-Rochester Hills. “It’s a glaring example of the failure of central planning trying to force citizens to purchase something they may not want. … They should let the free market make those decisions.”

Even with the massive subsidies, these impractical vehicles are outrageously expensive. Who the hell buys them?

According to GM CEO Dan Akerson, the average Volt owner makes $170,000 per year.

Hero vs Zero

2011-12-21T01:00:00.000-06:00

Profiles in Countermoonbattery: Maria Conchita Alonso

Unless you’re looking for trouble, don’t mix hydrogen peroxide with sulfuric acid — or Tinseltown communists with people who have actually lived under communism.

WASHINGTON -- An actress and former international beauty pageant queen had a heated run-in with actor Sean Penn at Los Angeles International Airport recently, in which she says he called her a pig and she responded by calling him a communist.

Maria Conchita Alonso, who is known for her role in the movies "The Running Man" and "Predator 2," was picking up her wheelchair-bound mother at LAX when she noticed fellow actor Sean Penn standing by the same luggage carousel. Alonso had not interacted with Penn since she wrote an open letter to him in March 2010 criticizing him for supporting socialist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

She says the meeting was meant to happen when the pair were waiting for information on Penn's and Alonso's mother's lost luggage.

"I go 'Hello,' and he smiles and says, 'Oh, you lost your bag too?" Alonso told Steve Malzberg on WMAL. "And I'm like, 'No, my mother (lost her bag).' And at that moment he recognizes me because he didn't recognize me before, and he goes, 'Oh, it's you.'"

Alonso says she calmly told Penn she wanted to speak with him about the tension over Chavez when Penn blew up at her.

"He goes, 'I don't want to talk to you. You speak badly about me. You insult me on TV," Alonso said.
Alonso says the conversation escalated when Penn accused Alonso's brother of attempting to assassinate Chavez, which Alonso says is not true.

"So I'm like, 'You are in favor of Hugo Chavez and [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad.' Because I also saw a picture of footage from TV where Chavez and Ahmadinejad are together and Sean Penn is next to them. And, you know, he's like 'I've never said that about Ahmadinejad. You're a pig.' And I go to him, 'And you are a communist, Sean Penn!'"

Not a fan of commies or a-holes.

Dumass

2011-12-21T00:30:00.001-06:00

Slate writer concerned about big issue. Writes about the big problems with.......Nerf Toys. Asshat award winner!!

2011-12-21T00:30:00.000-06:00

Here is the problem, in easy to understand terms. Ought to be required viewing.

It happened again

2011-12-21T00:00:00.000-06:00

When the history of the last 2 decades are recaptured in the coming century, one story that no one seems to care about will stick out like as sore thumb and call into question the fitness of some people's idealogical sanity.

Once again humanity has largely looked the other way as socialism/communism has killed another estimated one to three MILLION people. Here are the sad details from Atlantic magazine.

And the kicker: there are lame-brained idiots here in position of power and influence that think that system is superior.

Uh-oh. Pot? Kettle.

2011-12-20T15:12:00.001-06:00

The RIAA, those fun loving folks at the record industry have been on a big suing run lately, suing housewives, college kids, and hipsters alike for downloading tunes from Kazaa, or whatever pirate service is out there. Sue, sue, sue. Gotta set an example, ya know. Cause, we'd never do that..nope, not us. What? My nose is getting bigger? Huh?

The RIAA Pirated $9 Million Worth of TV Shows

Old New Stones

2011-12-19T09:37:00.001-06:00

I want one of these....

2011-12-19T03:00:00.000-06:00

Nat'l R&R Hall of Nothing

2011-12-19T00:30:00.000-06:00

The R&R Hall of Fame (national) is a disgrace.

The hall’s selective “open-mindedness” explains how ABBA, Neil Diamond, and Grandmaster Flash can be rock hall members. But that big tent gets tiny when it comes to music that mainstream America loves. Journey isn’t in the hall. Neither is Jethro Tull, Boston, Bon Jovi, the Cars, ELO, the Steve Miller Band or Stevie Ray Vaughn. Nor is Kansas. Or Styx. Or Ted Nugent.

Get the picture?

Iron Maiden, Deep Purple, Judas Priest. Def Leppard, Motley Crue, and Motorhead — not one has been elected to the hall. But the band that came after them--Guns and Roses will get added this year.

Rush, the band every critic loves to hate, was snubbed again this year — a streak that’s now nearing Ron Santo/Susan Lucci-like levels of absurdity. Nearly 40 years after the Canadian power trio released their first album, the classic rock radio staple is still recording new music, still touring — with all the original members — and still packing huge venues around the world. Rush has 14 platinum albums — 14!

Only three bands in rock history have more platinum albums than Rush: the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Kiss. Obviously, the first two are in the hall. The third, brace yourselves, is not. Let that sink in. Kiss is not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. This is a band, keep in mind, that has sold 100 million records — and whose biggest single celebrates the phrase “rock and roll” in its title.

Joan Jett and Heart are not in, but yet this year, Laura Nyro is in. Who? Exactly. I'm sorry. This isn't the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but the 'collection of bands that cool east coast hipsters thing are good'. The title just doesn't grab you, does it?

2011-12-17T09:54:00.001-06:00

A little Saturday morning music for you.

Vacuuming BOC-style

2011-12-16T09:28:00.000-06:00

Well, I don't mind telling you I'm a work no-show again this Friday. That's a happy thing.

This morning, mom is singing in the Pleasantview Christmas Choir program. That'll be a hoot! Later on, I think I'm heading down to the super-secret HardBarney hideaway to do some diagnosis on some speakers. The HF horn is out of one of Carvin monitors, and a crossover board appears fried on one of the 3020HT's--those mammoth Peavey PA cabs that we've had forever. All of the speakers or drivers have been replaced, with the exception of the 2-10 inch mid woofers in each cab. I just realized that. Wow, those have been in service for darn near 27 years. That's just crazy.

I work with a bunch of 45-60 year-olds at work, many contemplating retirement if/when the ecomony turns around. A common theme among some of them is 'I wonder if I'll get bored if I don't work'. Not me. I can think of a hundred things to do today. Without trying.

Right now, I have Blue Oyster Cult's ETI Live playing and I am gonna fire up the vacuum and get some domestic chores done. Then, off to mail a package, go to mom's program, work on a passage for a solo that I'm recording for a song that Stevie G is doing, and head to the farm. Later on, going to head out to do a bit of shopping. Nothing major...just some little last minute things.

Have a great weekend.

Here's what I'm hearing:

2011-12-15T01:00:00.000-06:00

Leo's Stuff

It appears that I need therapy

Rant of the week

Cool picture

Cheating? or No?

Take some time....

Reptile problem

Now, don't you feel silly for even thinking this might be true?

Brilliant!

People get ready

Turn it up and dance a little jig....

Twit

But what do I know, I'm white

Angry at the rich? It's a moving target....

Spiking the Ball

Fast and Furious

Friday

Coming soon

Made me smile this morning

The rest of the story

Despite Unfair Tax Burden, Warren Buffett's Secretary Was Just Able To Buy A Second Home

Globalization headaches

Heck, it all makes sense now.

Really?

WTF

Autistic Girl Expresses Unimaginable Intelligence

Straight to DVD

Why the US will never manufacture iPhones

The Ominous Red Light

So, here is where we are...

Interesting

Too complicated to report

Q

Wash. Post....yep, he's an idiot.

I'm formally endorsing.....

VH Unplugged

'Habits of the Heart' and a rescued cat in Iowa City

Presidential Nonsense

How to speak clearly

Chris Matthews Accuses Newt Gingrich Of Racially Charged Use Of The Name ‘Juan’

And he'll ignore his own panels recomendations, again

All of a sudden, it ain't cool....

Rats.

Hi , we are from the Government….

Not to be redundant...

It's the traveling Keithburys

Duke Tumatoe

POST 6000

Hard Barney Alert

Happy Friday.....

Quote of the day, Standing 'O' edition

Allen West on the Marines Incident: 'Shut Your Mouth, War Is Hell'

More moonbattery...

Quote of the day

Case in point:

Back to reality

As if we didn't already know this

Tebow 3:16

One of those 40K new laws....

Well, here it is.

Back at it for 5

Everybody in....except for.....

Ok, here it is...the new Van Halen--UPDATED

Just one question, please...

Gun Contol

Holy Cow!

Hawkeye Caucii

Iowa-bashing snobs and sore losers

Cool story

Smackdown

Back in the Saddle

It's a Blast

1/1/12

See ya, 2011

Rock and Stuff

Yikes!

Mid-week....and it's flying

Big smiles all around

The important things.....

Hey, it's that time of the year!!