Leo's Stuff

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.
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

Question for you...

2011-12-15T00:00:00.000-06:00

You, meaning every one of the folks that insist that raising taxes on anyone must be done to save the economy. How can you justify sending one more penny when this crap goes on night and day? Read on--and don't be mad or anything, it's just YOUR money.

The U.S. Navy was just forced to buy 450,000 gallons of biofuels from an Obama-connected firm at an outrageous $16 per gallon.
The massive Obama stimulus was supposed to generate millions of jobs, but the $535 million loan guarantee it gave to solar panel maker Solyndra on the eve of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy illustrated the fundamental incompetence of Obama’s neo-Keynesian economic ideology.
Now we find the Navy partnering with the Agriculture Department to purchase hundreds of thousands of gallons of alternative biofuel in place of standard JP-5 fuel for Navy aircraft — the biggest federal purchase of biofuel ever.
It’s part of the White House’s “we can’t wait for Congress” strategy as the 2012 election year looms. But JP-5 typically costs less than $4 a gallon. If a family on a budget started filling up with $16-a-gallon gas, it might want to adopt the motto, “we can’t wait to go broke.”

Why pour a fortune down this particular rat hole?

As J.E. Dyer noted over the weekend on the Hot Air Green Room, “a member of Obama’s presidential transition team, T. J. Glauthier, is a ‘strategic advisor’ at Solazyme, the California company that is selling a portion of the biofuel to the Navy. Glauthier worked — shock, shock — on the energy-sector portion of the 2009 stimulus bill.”
Solazyme had already gotten a nearly $22 million chunk of change out of the taxpayers thanks to the 2009 stimulus.

Rule of thumb: If it has “Sol” in its name, you do not want Obama giving it your money (in addition to Solyndra and Solazyme, examples include SolarCity and Solexel).

Hmmmm....maybe we're okay after all....

2011-12-14T02:00:00.000-06:00

Space Truckin'

2011-12-14T01:30:00.001-06:00

NASA is on the brink of putting a man-made craft into interstellar space for the first time, as Voyager 1 speeds toward the outer edge of our solar system. The Voyager program's chief scientist, Dr. Ed Stone, spoke with NPR's Steve Inskeep about that feat, and what it means for NASA.

But they also talked about how the two Voyager spacecraft are still running, 34 years after their launch. And as you might expect, our two ambassadors to the galaxy are sporting the finest technology of 1977, the year they were launched."The computers onboard this spacecraft — it's a totally automated spacecraft — the computers have 8,000 words of memory," Stone tells Steve.Steve reacts by saying, "That's, well, nothing" — to which Stone replies, "Yes. It's nothing."

Today's smartphones are exponentially more powerful, a fact that has been remarked upon in recent years, as processing power reached new heights in size and efficiency.The Voyager probes send their data back to Earth via a large dish antenna, which stays pointed at their home planet.Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are now about 11 and 9 billion miles from the sun, respectively.

In total, here's how far the the two spacecraft have traveled since their launch, as of Dec. 9:
* Voyager 1: 14,714,066,931 miles
* Voyager 2: 14,061,424,348 miles

"We have a 23-watt transmitter, transmitting from 11 billion miles out," Stone says.It's worth noting that that means the Voyagers' transmitters are about 8 times stronger than, once again, a cellphone.But despite their now-humble technology, the probes require energy to operate — and they're running out of juice. They're powered by heat from the natural decay of plutonium-238, which is translated into electricity by thermocouples."Very simple, robust power supply," Stone says. "The radioactive decay half-life is 88 years. And that's one reason that the spacecraft are still working. Because we have a very long-life battery, if you like.But that battery is running down, and the Voyager craft are losing power.

NASA scientists believe they'll be able to get data from the two probes until some time after 2020."We do know that our power level drops by 4 watts every year," Stone says. "And so, we have to systematically turn things off, one at a time. By about the year 2020, we'll have to turn off one of the science instruments. And by 2025, we'll have to have all the science instruments off. And that will be the end of the mission."If they hang on that long, the two probes will have been in service for 48 years.

For anyone wondering about where Voyager stands in comparison to the Pioneer program, Voyager 1 passed Pioneer 10 to become the most distant man-made object in space on Feb. 17, 1998.

Mini Stage Model

2011-12-14T01:30:00.000-06:00

This is kind of cool. Lots of moving parts, I think.

Steady as she goes

2011-12-14T01:00:00.000-06:00

Mid-week and all is well. The boys are almost done with finals for this semester. Jake had 2 yesterday, so he came down last night for supper to relax for a while and do some laundry. Getting a home cooked meal must have sounded good. Sounds like they will both be working a lot next week.

Doing our best do dodge the white stuff so far. As usual, an inch or 2 on Christmas eve would be nice, but not necessary for my holiday enjoyment. It's much easier to get mom over here when it's nice outside, so, a nice 45 degree day for Christmas wouldn't upset me at all.

I believe 95% of the presents are bought and wrapped (I have yet to wrap one...the lovely and talented Theresa did all of the wrapping. I occasionally handed her pieces of tape or found a box the correct size).

Steady as she goes....I have 5 more working days left this month. Looking forward to some extended time off--if I play my cards right, I should get 11 days off in a row. Nice. That sure doesn't happen often--in fact, I'm not sure I could tell you the last time I had that big of a stretch off. I think I've had 7 or maybe 8 days in a row before, but not 10 or 11. I plan to spend a lot of time doing some recording in the basement as well as a few home maintenance items. And napping. Lots of napping.

Federal CAFE Standards

2011-12-13T00:00:00.000-06:00

Some are predicting the demise of the truck. Getting to 47 mpg by 2025 is going to force automakers to stop offering certain models. Here's a great article.

Here's the collective's view on what we should be driving:

It is capable of operating on electricity alone for 20 or30 miles at a stretch and so uses very little gas. It also has asticker price of $40,000. Even with a massive federal subsidy of$7,500 the thing still costs about as much to buy as a new BMW 3series or similar entry luxury-vehicle. Whatever you'd like to call it, it'snot economical -- and few people, other than affluentpeople, can afford to buy one without, ofcourse, government subsidies.

It, of course, is the Chevy Volt.

$465/pound for.....

2011-12-12T11:49:00.000-06:00

....butter.

An acute butter shortage in Norway, one of the world's richest countries, has left people worrying how to bake their Christmas goodies with store shelves emptied.

The shortfall, expected to last into January, amounts to between 500 and 1,000 tonnes, said Tine, Norway's main dairy company, while online sellers have offered 500-gramme packs for up to 350 euros ($465).The dire shortage poses a serious challenge for Norwegians who are trying to finish their traditional Christmas baking -- a task which usually requires them to make at least seven different kinds of biscuits.
The shortfall has been blamed on a rainy summer that cut into feed production and therefore dairy output, but also the ballooning popularity of a low-carbohydrate, fat-rich diet that has sent demand for butter soaring.
"Compared to 2010, demand has grown by as much as 30 percent," Tine spokesman Lars Galtung told AFP.
Last Friday, customs officers stopped a Russian at the Norwegian-Swedish border and seized 90 kilos (198 pounds) of butter stashed in his car.

LIving in the Wild, Wild West

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

Brazil: 50 tons of corn stolen from moving train

By The Associated Press

RIO DE JANEIRO -- Police in Brazil's southeastern Sao Paulo state are investigating the theft of 50 metric tons (55 U.S. tons) of corn from a moving train.
A police report says the thieves greased the train tracks, making the wheels of the 54-wagon locomotive skid and slow down before they used a tow truck with a hook to remove the corn-filled containers.
The report says the theft occurred as the train traveled through a rural area about 180 miles (300 kilometers) north of the capital. The train was headed to the southeastern port of Santos with 60 metric tons (66 U.S. tons) of corn and sugar.
The case is reminiscent of Wild West robberies, where bandits on horses stole from moving trains.

Thug-o-nomics

2011-12-12T01:30:00.000-06:00

You probably didn't see it if you're not a sports fan--I barely noticed it on the news, but Xavier and Cinci's b-ball teams got into a heck of a fight at the end of their game on Friday night. You can read and see all about it here.

What strikes me about it is just how far we've allowed this thuggish, gang-style attitude by the 20 something crowd to exist outside the wasteland that it came from. You'll see it in the quotes from the players. "We've got a whole bunch of gangsters in the locker room – not thugs, but tough guys on the court. And we went out there and zipped them up at the end of the game," said one player.

Sorry. Wrong. You are thugs.

And so we reap the rewards from a generation of spoiled, whiny, entitled brats who were never allowed to experience failure while growing up because we didn't want to hurt their little feelings. Good grief.

Get 'em while you can....

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

Hi folks,

A fan of good lighting? Have a place where you need a little extra that a 60 watt bulb won't handle? That's where the 100 watt'er comes in handy. So, while you're out Christmas shopping, grab an extra case of them because after New Year's Eve, it'll be illegal to sell them.

Yep. Soon, the 75 watt ones and the 60's will be gone too...phased out for those crappy CFL's, that make you look sick all of the time, take forever to warm up, and are expensive and dangerous to the environment, which was the whole fake reason to do this to begin with. Thanks GW. And an extended middle phalange to AlGore.

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

Weekend wrap-it-up

2011-12-11T19:38:00.000-06:00

Nice gig last night in Wapello. Very nice bar, cool band set up...friendly folks. And not as far as it seemed--we made the trip from Kalona in under an hour. Cool.

Today, we headed up to Sams to do some bulk buying and just check out things. We haven't been there for quite a while. No really big bargains, but I did look twice at a smart TV. Think that's for after Christmas shopping.

Have a nice week.

It's a beautiful day

2011-12-09T12:09:00.001-06:00

Well, ok, so we got an inch or two of the fluffy stuff overnight, and it's pretty chilly. But the sun's out, sort of...so it's all good.

Spending some time with sister Theresa the last day or so. It was her birthday yesterday so we took mom out for supper and had a nice time chatting. Hanging out with mom and her again today for a bit.

Then, I need to change the strings on the Les Paul and get some things ready for the gig in Wapello (cheap plug) tomorrow night.

You know, I could get used to not working....now if there were just some way for someone to give me money to buy things. Maybe I'll go check out those Occupy folks....I think that's what they're after. Heck, some rich person out there has some money that they didn't need. They probably stole it anyway. :)

Cannonball run

2011-12-08T03:30:00.000-06:00

Mythbusters had a bit of a boo-boo...

Like an errant cannonball. The special-effects gurus who host the television show "MythBusters" were cast Wednesday in an ignominious role: visiting a home on a quiet street in Dublin and apologizing to a family for firing a 30-pound cannonball through their front door a day earlier. The cannonball had quite a ride.

Here's the story.

Mid-week check-in

2011-12-08T02:30:00.000-06:00

Well, it's winter all of a sudden. We've been enjoying relatively mild temps until this week. Brisk at 13 degrees yesterday--better at 26 this morning.

My sister, Theresa, and Rollin flew in yesterday for a couple days to visit with mom and Rollin's folks. Haven't seen her for a few months so that'll be nice.

Hard Barney has a rare winter gig on Saturday night. We'll be heading down to Wapello, to The Sandbar. Evidently there is a birthday celebration going on. It's always fun to go into a new place. We've been working up a few new songs in the last week or two. This week we worked on 'Sunspot Baby' by Bob Seger, Stealers Wheel's 'Stuck in the Middle With You', and Rod's 'Maggie May'. The latter worked out really a lot better than I thought it might. We can get a nice sounding fake mandolin sound between the 2 guitars--or at least something that's more than passable. Very fun to play.

The boys are in the middle of crash week--last week of classes before finals. They both sound kind of ragged. Not feeling sorry for them--they have a month off coming up. I got them re-stocked on the groceries, so they are warm and fed. Life is good.

Taking tomorrow off....it's the time of the year when I usually have to start jettisoning vacation to get under our limit for 'carry-over' vacation by year's end. Rough, I know....but I should try harder to get out of here when the weather is a bit nicer. Although, any day off is a good one, for the most part. Even if the weather is bad, I can head to the basement and play guitar.

Quote of the day

2011-12-08T01:30:00.000-06:00

"I simply do not know where the money is."
---John Corzine, Demonutt political figure, a former governor and senator, and considered a potential treasury secretary, is pleading ignorance when it comes to the disappearance of over a billion dollars of client money from the investment firm of which he was the CEO.

Wow...a retro throwback new quote of the day

2011-12-08T01:00:00.000-06:00

"...that all depends upon what the definition of 'is' is."
---Bill Clinton, during his Lewinski deposition, ~1998

"... it all has to do with your state of mind and whether or not you had the requisite intent to come up with something that would be considered perjury or a lie"
--- 2011, Eric Holder, idiot and head of the DOJ, whose ass is grass for the Fast and Furious debacle now unfolding. BONUS: It appears that there is another sister scandal brewing--we laundered the Mexican drug cartels money for them in addition to supplying them guns. Also, CBS is reporting that there is written evidence that the intent of this whole operation was to give the administration an excuse to lobby for stricter gun laws. In other words, let's give guns to the Mexican drug lords, launder their money for them, and when American citizens start getting killed, we can use that to push for legislation that we want, which has been determined to be unconstitutional about 500 times.

6th Century Man

2011-12-08T00:30:00.001-06:00

Soon, bananas, cucumbers, and zucchini will be sold in the back of the grocery store, and handed to you in brown paper bags.
--------------------------------------------
CAIRO: An Islamic cleric residing in Europe said that women should not be close to bananas or cucumbers, in order to avoid any “sexual thoughts.”

The sheik, who was featured in an article on el-Senousa news, was quoted saying that if women wish to eat these food items, a third party, preferably a male related to them such as their a father or husband, should cut the items into small pieces and serve.

He said that these fruits and vegetables “resemble the male penis” and hence could arouse women or “make them think of sex.” Bikyamasr.com cannot independently verify the accuracy of the news item at time of writing.

He also added carrots and zucchini to the list of forbidden foods for women.
The sheikh was asked how to “control” women when they are out shopping for groceries and if holding these items at the market would be bad for them. The cleric answered saying this matter is between them and God.

Answering another question about what to do if women in the family like these foods, the sheikh advised the interviewer to take the food and cut it for them in a hidden place so they cannot see it.

Some more 'good' advice....

2011-12-08T00:30:00.000-06:00

....from the know-it-alls. Because 'scientists' know how to raise kids better than you.

On Monday's Morning Edition, NPR science reporter Shankar Vedantam (formerly of The Washington Post) indulged the naughtiest little children, the ones that throw screaming, crying tantrums in public places. The story claimed scientists have now apparently proven that parents should just let the little monsters roar until they exhaust themselves. In the early stages of rage, parents should "do nothing. Don't shout, don't hit, don't try to comfort the child." You can thank NPR the next time this experiment unfolds at the mall."

NPR wasn't scientific enough to realize that children of indulgent parents are much more likely to have spoiled children who throw tantrums. Perhaps these NPR experts never had a parent that would send a child to bed without supper at the first tantrum, and the tantrums were never seen again. This is liberal NPR, where parents are told to just wait out the rages, and let your indulgent parenting be witnessed by everyone who comes across you in public:

Leo's Stuff

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!!

Sometimes, they write themselves.....

The People's Car

Hero vs Zero

Profiles in Countermoonbattery: Maria Conchita Alonso

Dumass

It happened again

Uh-oh. Pot? Kettle.

The RIAA Pirated $9 Million Worth of TV Shows

Old New Stones

I want one of these....

Nat'l R&R Hall of Nothing

Vacuuming BOC-style

Question for you...

Hmmmm....maybe we're okay after all....