May 24, 2012

Probably nothing to worry about. The forward compartment is just where...

...they keep the...


...winning LOTTO numbers, apparently:


Nuclear Submarines: As safe as sleeping next to broccoli!

PB

May 23, 2012

I wish no ill will on those who lost money in the Facebook IPO but I...

...thought it was interesting in reading about how the majority of folks took a bath on the deal and came out of the tub with substantially less money than they went in with.

Just a day or two before the IPO, I was reading articles which didn't mince any words and basically said "Hey, only the top customers (at whatever the selling firms/banks were) are going to get a chance to buy this stock, so if you're not already sinking money into the market, you're low on the totem pole."

Now, while that's paraphrasing it's definitely not paraphrasing much. It had been a while since I'd seen this sort of naked taunting between one economic group and another in articles in what would otherwise be well-respected business publications.

I didn't think so much about it at the time but it was a curiosity to me.

And then of course, all the tumbling-down stuff happened. And I read about the better-informed groups of potential investors, who were given information which was more accurate and which would cause a person to think twice about investing at that price. From everything I've read, that more-protected group were the high rollers. What casinos call "whales". Big, big money investors.

I guess my point is a lot of people grossly misunderstand what the 1% is, who the 1% is. Maybe you have $50k in the bank. Maybe you have $200k in the bank- or maybe a million. Maybe you see something like the Facebook IPO as a way to quickly parlay a good chunk of that cash into something more, make ya even richer!

I live in a town where $50k in the bank is pretty damned rich. A million in the bank? Oh, you'd be financially teabagging on most of America if you wanted to.

But you're still not in the 1%. You're still a sucker on the boardwalk and Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are carnies handing you the baseball, for a price, and showing you how you can win big if you just knock over the milk bottles. Oh, it's not the same boardwalk that you and I walk down. Much glitzier, much more exclusive.

It's the same fleecing machine, though. Just a nicer version of it for people who might fancy themselves as movers and shakers. Being in the 1%, IMO, is not just about how much money you have in the bank. It's about the connections you have, how much pressure you exert to get your way, bend the rules, subjugate others. Everyone else is just fruit the Morgan Stanleys of the world pick and eat at their leisure.

This is why people who have $5 million in the bank should still work hard for banking regulation. Chances are, they're still on someone's menu, just like the rest of us.

PB

May 20, 2012

Good for you for contacting the Oregonian about it. That's messed up!

A friend of mine found something similar because he used to live near the cemetery way out on Donald street in Eugene. He found a bunch of the most amazing weird metal pieces- they were fabulous looking, kind of like something art deco from the movie Metropolis. Being a Eugenian (god bless him!) he tried to turn one of them into a marijuana pipe. That's one of the things we do in Eugene with found objects: Try to turn them into something we can smoke weed out of, LOL!

Anyway, neither of us could figure out what the metal pieces were and they were fucking up his drill bits like mad, so he started doing research on the word "vitallium" (which was stamped on the side), to find out why what the fuck these indestructible, odd-looking metal things were.

It's then that he realized they were artificial hip joints!



We assumed later that they probably weren't dumped improperly, but they were from cremations and they just wanted to keep the ashes for the families instead of all the metal bits from their health problems in life. So they just tossed them out on the neighboring property, which was kind of wooded.

IIRC, he did manage to turn one of them into a pipe but he had to kill a number of pricy drill bits to get through the ball. Looked like something out of steampunk. Smoked a little hot for my tastes, IIRC.

That was almost 20 years ago, now that I think about it. Shit, someday soon, someone's going to be finding my bits and pieces and turning them into a marijuana pipe!

That's the circle of life in Eugene for ya!



PB

May 20, 2012

On Draw Mohammed Day, don't forget: Drawing Jesus is just as offensive to devout Muslims too!

On Draw Mohammed Day, don't forget: Drawing Jesus is just as offensive to devout Muslims too!

So be sure to scribble down some pictures of him and maybe King David (King of Israel) or Moses or maybe Abraham, too. All of those guys are considered Prophets in Islam. In fact, except for King David, those guys are also considered holy Messengers, which is on the same par as Mohammed, himself.

In fact, Islam is the only religion of the big three that actually accepts prophets from the other two as valid.

But you wouldn't know that, LOL! All you know is that there's something a little dangerous and maybe even patriotic (!) about drawing a picture of Mohammed- because it pisses off Muslims! Actually...hate to break it to ya...it doesn't piss them off. Not the majority of them, anyway. There's like a billion Muslims, BTW. The only reason there's a prohibition against drawing those religious figures is that they didn't want people to go around worshiping images of holy men instead of the One True God, which is what monotheism is all about anyway, right?



So scan in a crayola drawing of Mohammed and Moses, especially one with them kissing a pig or something really fucking offensive- post it to Facebook and it's like you're practically a co-signer on the Bill of Rights!

Or not. It certainly absolves you of having to fight the real battle that fundamentalist Christians are taking to your bedroom, your love life, your library- here in America! But that would probably would be hard.

Hard = Yuck!

But it's worth remembering that if all that oil in the Middle East had Hindus living over it, you'd be celebrating "Eat a Hamburger and think of Vishnu Day" and if in some alternate universe there were 200 million Jews sitting on all that black gold, there'd be a special edition of Wheel of Fortune to put the vowels back in Jehovah's name.

Suckers!



And I'm an atheist, too! Normally, the major religions with their sky wizards and all that silly shit are by far the most entertaining thing keeping the world going. But on Draw Mohammed Day, the ignorance and bigotry of the Patriotic Poserati here, if only for a moment, eclipses all of that.

PB

May 10, 2012

PLEASE READ-> House panel: Don't even think about more base closings

From USA Today:
[div class="excerpt" style="border-left: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-top: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-right: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-radius: 0.3077em 0.3077em 0em 0em; box-shadow: 2px 2px 6px #bfbfbf;"]House panel: Don't even think about more base closings[div class="excerpt" style="border-left: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-bottom: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-right: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-radius: 0em 0em 0.3077em 0.3077em; background-color: #f4f4f4; box-shadow: 2px 2px 6px #bfbfbf;"]It wasn't enough for lawmakers to refuse approval of additional rounds of base closings; they have voted to stop the Pentagon from spending any money on even considering the idea.

The Military Times reports the House Armed Services Committee, which omitted the Pentagon's request to authorize two more rounds of base closings in the 2013 defense authorization bill, added a provision to the bill that would specifically bar spending any money next year "to propose, plan for or execute" the base closing and realignment process. The 44-18 vote came Wednesday.

Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va., who offered the amendment, said the five previous rounds of base closing have shown there are upfront costs in the process, which would come at a time of declining defense budgets. Base closings, he said, "could cost billions of dollars and thousands of jobs."

There was never any doubt that in an election year the committee would block base closings, but Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, the committee's ranking Democrat, said Wittman's restriction goes too far. "It prevents them from even looking at and talking about what they might do," he said.

This little story might otherwise have gone unnoticed today but I think its implications are terribly important. Think about it- we're living though a time in America where austerity cuts (whether they're called that or not) are affecting the lives of almost every American at every age: From education and nutrition for the young to the security net for the old, and everyone else in between.

And yet behold the neat little wall these insects are attempting to construct around the military in order to prevent those same cuts from affecting it.

Please consider this, not just in the specific context in which it is presented, but as a view port into our future under austerity cuts and how you and I will become more and more affected by them while the Military Industrial Complex will safely remain cocooned behind legislative walls.

Some might see this as an isolated event. I see it as prophesy.

PB

February 5, 2012

US warns tourists against 'immodest attire' in Jerusalem

From YNet:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4185277,00.html
[div class="excerpt" style="border-left: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-top: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-right: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-radius: 0.3077em 0.3077em 0em 0em; box-shadow: 2px 2px 6px #bfbfbf;"]US warns tourists against 'immodest attire' in Jerusalem[div class="excerpt" style="border-left: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-bottom: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-right: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-radius: 0em 0em 0.3077em 0.3077em; background-color: #f4f4f4; box-shadow: 2px 2px 6px #bfbfbf;"]The US State Department is concerned over recent violence exhibited by extremists in Israel's haredi community and has published a travel recommendation for tourists: Do not walk around dressed immodestly in haredi neighborhoods for fear that extremists would assault you in the street.

--snip--

The travel recommendation follows on the heels of statements made by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who, speaking at the Saban Conference two months ago, expressed her shock that some busses in Jerusalem allocated separate seating areas for women.

"It's reminiscent of Rosa Parks," she said, referring to the black American woman who refused to give up her seat to white passengers in the 1950s.

Referring to the decision of some IDF soldiers to leave an event where female soldiers were singing, she said it reminded her of the situation in Iran.

Full text of warning can be found HERE on Travel.State.GOV. It's both heartening that Clinton would call a spade a spade on this matter and disheartening that it's reached a point where the State Department had to officially warn Americans traveling about it.

It does remind one of Iran. All religious extremists seem to begin their tyranny with oppression of women.

PB

January 30, 2012

African Union Opens New Headquarters Funded By China

From Radio Free Europe:
[div class="excerpt" style="border-left: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-top: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-right: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-radius: 0.3077em 0.3077em 0em 0em; box-shadow: 2px 2px 6px #bfbfbf;"]African Union Opens New Headquarters Funded By China [div class="excerpt" style="border-left: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-bottom: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-right: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-radius: 0em 0em 0.3077em 0.3077em; background-color: #f4f4f4; box-shadow: 2px 2px 6px #bfbfbf;"]African Union leaders have inaugurated a new $200 million headquarters that was funded by China as a gift.

The Chinese government fully financed the construction of the 20-story tower overlooking a conference center in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa

--snip--

China's top political adviser, Jiao Qinglan, said the gift is a "symbol of deepening relations."

He said China is Africa's largest commercial partner and Chinese investment there amounts to $13 billion.




Hrmm....

PB

January 27, 2012

A bit of beautiful singing and Harry Anderson performing The Old Shell Game

Ahhh...beautiful.

PB

January 16, 2012

What if the Iranians start killing scientists?

From Haaretz:
[div class="excerpt" style="border-left: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-top: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-right: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-radius: 0.3077em 0.3077em 0em 0em; box-shadow: 2px 2px 6px #bfbfbf;"]What if the Iranians start killing scientists?[div class="excerpt" style="border-left: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-bottom: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-right: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-radius: 0em 0em 0.3077em 0.3077em; background-color: #f4f4f4; box-shadow: 2px 2px 6px #bfbfbf;"]Israel's official response to news of the assassination last week of Iranian nuclear scientist Mustafa Ahmadi Roshan was a deafening silence. The unofficial response was a wink. The day before, Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, grinning slightly, spoke about "unnatural events" that were delaying Iran's nuclear program. The Israeli self-congratulation was obvious.

The Israeli public did not question the wisdom of assassinating the Iranian scientists. In Israeli culture, which sanctifies security, such questions are seen as treason. If the hit was successful - the scientist was eliminated and the assassins disappeared - you don't ask questions.

But U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton insisted on calling a spade a spade: She categorically denied all U.S. involvement in the latest assassination and even declared that the United States emphatically opposed the assassination of scientists. Her announcement was received with shock and even dismay in Israel. Where is the wisdom in making this kind of public statement, some asked; and in any event, it's hypocritical in light of the fact that President Barack Obama has killed more terrorists using unmanned aerial vehicles than his predecessors.

In order to understand the American criticism of the hits on the scientists, one must ask the questions that Israelis avoid: Do such killings do real damage to Iran's nuclear program? What could be the negative results of the assassination policy? Is it right to create a situation in which scientists (first nuclear scientists and then perhaps scientists in general and senior officials) become pawns in a war of assassinations and counter-assassinations?

In a nutshell: Now that it's started, where does it stop? And is it worth it?

Very good article, IMO.

PB

January 6, 2012

ATA: TOS-wise, is there a difference between these two quotes?

There isn't an ATA forum anymore so I'll ask this here:

What's the difference in how the Admins view the following examples in regards to the TOS?

"I disagree with Obama and so I will not vote for him"

and...

"You disagree with Obama and so you should not vote for him"

The reason I'm asking is partly because of this thread which, FWIW, managed to garner 74 recommendations. Some people chose to answer with counter-arguments which is what I'd expect. Some chose to answer in an ambiguous manner (i.e. "You shouldn't do anything you don't want to do.&quot , also not particularly unexpected a response given the OP.

And then there were at least seven responses which answered the question of the OP, "Why should I endorse, or vote for, a President who signs this into law?", with the following actual quotes:

I alerted on those as TOS violations and every jury allowed the individual comments to stand. But this isn't about juries, because juries don't enforce TOS violations: The Administrators do.

If a person were to explicitly state "I disagree with Obama and so I will not vote for him", I don't imagine they'd last much longer than the post. So, excerpted above are seven examples of "You disagree with Obama and so you should not vote for him" -from the same thread- which were allowed to stand by the Admins, weren't hidden or acted on that I could see.

With at least seven examples in just a single thread I'm wondering what's the difference TOS-wise between those two quotes at the top of my post?

If the response to a "Tell me why I should still support or vote for the President after (whatever)" is met with "Then don't", I don't see that helping DU's mission and it also (explicitly, as I quoted above) promotes people not voting at all on election day- when there are a lot more candidates the Democratic Party has on the ballot than just the President.

Thanks.

PB