Just When You Thought The Selfie Craze Had Reached Rock Bottom, This Happens




Introducing, the Selfie Toaster: just in case you can’t make it through breakfast without looking at your own face.

As Mashable reports:

Vermont Novelty Toaster Corp. has been making image-burning toasters for four years. It specializes in sports logos and last year had a big hit with Jesus toast, but company President and CEO Galen Dively had long dreamed of making truly customized designs, including toast with peoples face on it. It was, until recently, an impractical dream.


Read more: http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/01/31/just-when-you-thought-the-selfie-craze-had-reached-rock-bottom-this-happens-imagesvideo/#ixzz3QQIHjxsj

The elderly poor had it so good back in the day

Paul Rosenberg has a very interesting interview on Salon with Nancy Altman and Eric Kingson, authors of
"Social Security Works!"
http://www.salon.com/2015/01/31/tea_partyers_union_members_democrats_republicans_all_love_social_security_so_lets_expand_it/

...............

Rosenberg: You point out that before Social Security came into being, old age and poverty were synonymous, and old age was commonly looked at with dread. Few people alive today have any memory of that, but could you talk about that reality, what it was like, and what kind of difference Social Security made?

Altman: When Social Security was enacted, every state except New Mexico had poorhouses. I know that sounds like Dickens, but this is just 80 years ago. The residents—they were called “inmates”—were not working-age people, or children; they tended to be people who have been independent all their lives, but dependent on wages. When they were no longer able to work, if they didn’t have children who could take them in, they literally went to the poorhouse. It was often common at that time that if the worker died, the family would split apart. Orphanages were full of children who still had a parent living who couldn’t support those children. Often you’d see people begging on the streets; there were lots of stories about that.

Yes, these poorhouses existed all the way up until the 1930s.

Here's what the population looked like:





The second one is a poorhouse broom factory. Working until they dropped dead kept the old people from becoming moochers and parasites, dontchaknow.

Conservatives won't admit that this is the system we will inevitably adopt if they have their way. It's where their philosophy leads. Sure, some people will have children who will be forced to take them in at the expense of their own kids. And some people will make enough money in their lifetime to be able to support themselves in old age (assuming they don't have to spend every penny on medical care, which is probable.) But in the conservative/libertarian system this will be the inevitable end for a whole lot of people.

By the way, they are also trying to destroy disability insurance and are questioning whether mental illness really exists, so there are going to be a lot of folks in the poorhouse. They seem to be willing to spend whatever it takes to keep massive numbers of people in prison however, so I'd imagine that most of the sick, old and mentally ill poor could wind up there, so that's good. They'll have a roof over their heads at least.



More, plus links:
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2015/01/the-elderly-poor-had-it-so-good-back-in.html

https://mtc.cdn.vine.co/r/videos/4F656CF4C41172963139768496128_37c1c86b648.1.4.15067522805097277846.mp4?versionId=VyAKBbay1707FQDihyGWPmVs1robVyve




http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/01/30/this-is-chris-christie-falling-off-his-chair/

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/01/new-video-shows-chris-christie-falling-off-chair.html

Thanks to the Boston Globe, we know what it's like to get high with Jeb Bush.

The newspaper spoke with several of Bush's former classmates from the elite Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., who portrayed the former Florida governor as a stoner and a bit of a bully.

Former classmate Peter Tibbetts told the Globe that he smoked marijuana for the first time with Bush and other classmates in the woods outside their dorm building. He recalled another time when he smoked hashish, or cannabis resin, in Bush's dorm room to the tune of Steppenwolf's 1968 hit "Magic Carpet Ride."

“The first time I really got stoned was in Jeb’s room,” Tibbetts said. “He had a portable stereo with removable speakers. He put on Steppenwolf for me.”


the rest:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/jeb-bush-andover-marijuana

Texas Governor to declare ‘Chris Kyle Day’ in honor of sniper
Texas Governor Greg Abbott said on Friday he would officially declare Feb. 2 “Chris Kyle Day” in the state, in honor of the late Navy Seal sharpshooter portrayed in the film “American Sniper.”

The movie, starring Bradley Cooper as Kyle who was killed by a disgruntled U.S. veteran on a Texas gun range in 2013, has been a box office hit as well as a flashpoint of debate between liberals and conservatives.

Abbott, a Republican, made the announcement during a speech at the Texans Veterans of Foreign Affairs Mid-Winter Convention in Austin, according to a statement from the governor’s office.


“In honor of a Texas son, a Navy SEAL and an American hero – a man who defended his brothers and sisters in arms on and off the battlefield – I am declaring February 2nd Chris Kyle Day in Texas,” Abbott said during the speech, according to the statement.


http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/01/texas-governor-to-declare-chris-kyle-day-in-honor-of-sniper/











Peace,
kp

Bill Maher Drops A Reality Bomb On Republicans Who Pretend To Care About The Middle Class

By: Jason Easleymore from Jason Easley
Saturday, January, 31st, 2015, 11:24 am




Republicans are pretending to care while they go back to servicing eight rich d***heads who own coal mines, and no one is telling the truth, which is that the large thriving middle-class that America used to have didn’t just appear out of the blue.

It was created using an economic tool called socialism.

Oh, I know when never use that word here in buzzword nation, but that is exactly what our government did after World War II. It taxed the rich up to ninety percent and massively redistributed that money through the GI Bill so that more than half the population benefitted from free college, free job training, cheap mortgages, and much much more. Yes, for a brief shining moment, we were Finland. Now we can debate whether that is a good thing or bad thing to go back to, but what is beyond debate is that is what happened. The Fifties and Sixties are the era of socialism in America.

Here’s the reality. A middle-class is actually not the byproduct of capitalism. Ask any historian, a middle-class is actually a fluke in history.


MORE:
http://www.politicususa.com/2015/01/31/bill-maher-drops-reality-bomb-republicans-pretend-care-middle-class.html

Former Director of NSA & CIA: I interpret the Constitution -- not the courts.

Hayden's entire speech can be viewed here:

In a speech at Washington and Lee University, Michael Hayden, a former head of both the CIA and NSA, opined on signals intelligence under the Constitution, arguing that what the 4th Amendment forbids changed after September 11, 2001. He noted that "unreasonable search and seizure," is prohibited under the Constitution, but cast it as a living document, with "reasonableness" determined by "the totality of circumstances in which we find ourselves in history."

He explained that as the NSA's leader, tactics he found unreasonable on September 10, 2001 struck him as reasonable the next day, after roughly 3,000 were killed. "I actually started to do different things," he said. "And I didn't need to ask 'mother, may I' from the Congress or the president or anyone else. It was within my charter, but in terms of the mature judgment about what's reasonable and what's not reasonable, the death of 3,000 countrymen kind of took me in a direction over here, perfectly within my authority, but a different place than the one in which I was located before the attacks took place. So if we're going to draw this line I think we have to understand that it's kind of a movable feast here."

Does this translate to: "Ve know vhat iss gut for you Untermenschen. Trust us."

http://news.yahoo.com/former-nsa-director-nsa-doesnt-just-listen-bad-110000822.htmlhttp://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/01/31/1361382/-Former-Director-of-NSA-CIA-I-interpret-the-Constitution-not-the-courts

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2015/01/31/americas-first-family-and-barack-obama/

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/01/31/1361316/-Cartoon-Animal-Nuz-236-Super-Bowl-XLIX-Edition


and in more animal news:

CLICK HERE: http://vault.fbi.gov/louie-louie-the-song/louie-louie-the-song/view
& SCROLL DOWN.....

sometimes, in my travels inside the tubes, i find the oddest stuff!


peace,kp