1/ Matt Taibbi cuts through the BS and says things noone else in the media dare say, like this story that the 2012 Presidential race will be the most boring contest ever......and read why........
Is This the Most Boring Election Ever?
I was channel-surfing the other day, looking for something genuinely interesting on television, like maybe a repeat of the Big Ten Network's Diamond Report or video of a wrecked Nazi tugboat, when my fingers got stuck on a news channel. There, lighting up an NBC broadcast with her smile, was New Hampshire's Republican Senator Kelly Ayotte, talking about her Vice Presidential qualifications ...
Who? That was my first question, but then my second obstacle was the sudden recollection that we were in an election year. I'd actually forgotten this was the case. Four years ago at this time, that would never have happened – we were in the middle of one of the most witheringly nasty primary fights ever, with people very nearly coming to blows depending on where you stood in the Hillary-Barack battle.
Back then there was great nervousness in the country even beyond the Democratic Party's intramural mess, as the specter of the first black presidency was hanging over everything: People as diverse as Geraldine Ferraro and Jeremiah Wright were dragged into racial controversies, while whispers about Obama's birthplace and "Muslim" heritage spread across the country like wildfire.
This year? It's been eerily quiet. The apathy factor in American presidential politics has seemingly never been higher.
As if to combat this, we're getting stories now about how this election is closer than you'd think, how Obama is in for a "tight race" or a "fierce fight" with Romney, and how the Republican challenger is "closing in" to a "statistical dead heat."
They're going to say this, and they may even have numbers to back it up, like this week's Gallup poll showing Obama with just a two-point lead. But I think it's a mirage.
2/ One of the funniest SNL clips ever, with Kristen Wiig as the tanning mom being interviewed by Seth Meyers......hysterical......
3/ Paul Krugman with some commentary on the recent European elections, where the people spoke loud and clear about how they thought the austerity program was working.......
The French are revolting. The Greeks, too. And it’s about time.
Both countries held elections Sunday that were in effect referendums on the current European economic strategy, and in both countries voters turned two thumbs down. It’s far from clear how soon the votes will lead to changes in actual policy, but time is clearly running out for the strategy of recovery through austerity — and that’s a good thing.
Needless to say, that’s not what you heard from the usual suspects in the run-up to the elections. It was actually kind of funny to see the apostles of orthodoxy trying to portray the cautious, mild-mannered François Hollande as a figure of menace. He is “rather dangerous,” declared The Economist, which observed that he “genuinely believes in the need to create a fairer society.” Quelle horreur!
What is true is that Mr. Hollande’s victory means the end of “Merkozy,” the Franco-German axis that has enforced the austerity regime of the past two years. This would be a “dangerous” development if that strategy were working, or even had a reasonable chance of working. But it isn’t and doesn’t; it’s time to move on. Europe’s voters, it turns out, are wiser than the Continent’s best and brightest.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/
10/ I love this column "Baseline Scenario - these guys are numbers geeks and dissect things with the facts.....in this article they prove how important Social Security is to normal people.....
ATTORNEY: What was the first thing your husband said to you that morning?
WITNESS: He said , 'Where am I, Cathy?'
ATTORNEY: And why did that upset you?
WITNESS: My name is Susan! _____________________________
ATTORNEY: What gear were you in at the moment of the impact?
WITNESS: Gucci sweats and Reeboks.
_____________________________
ATTORNEY: Are you sexually active?
WITNESS: No , I just lie there.
_____________________________
ATTORNEY: This myasthenia gravis , does it affect your memory at all?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And in what ways does it affect your memory?
WITNESS: I forget..
ATTORNEY: You forget? Can you give us an example of something you forgot?
_____________________________
ATTORNEY: Do you know if your daughter has ever been involved in voodoo?
WITNESS: We both do.
ATTORNEY: Voodoo?
WITNESS: We do..
ATTORNEY: You do?
WITNESS: Yes , voodoo.
_____________________________
ATTORNEY: Now doctor , isn't it true that when a person dies in his sleep , he doesn't know about it until the next morning?
WITNESS: Did you actually pass the bar exam?
_____________________________
ATTORNEY: The youngest son, the 20-year-old, how old is he?
WITNESS: He's 20, much like your IQ.
_____________________________
ATTORNEY: Were you present when your picture was taken?
WITNESS: Are you shitting me?
_____________________________
ATTORNEY: So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8th?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And what were you doing at that time?
WITNESS: Getting laid. _____________________________
ATTORNEY: She had three children , right?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: How many were boys?
WITNESS: None.
ATTORNEY: Were there any girls?
WITNESS: Your Honor, I think I need a different attorney. Can I get a new attorney?
_____________________________
ATTORNEY: How was your first marriage terminated?
WITNESS: By death..
ATTORNEY: And by whose death was it terminated?
WITNESS: Take a guess. _____________________________
ATTORNEY: Can you describe the individual?
WITNESS: He was about medium height and had a beard
ATTORNEY: Was this a male or a female?
WITNESS: Unless the Circus was in town I'm going with male.
_____________________________
ATTORNEY: Is your appearance here this morning pursuant to a deposition notice which I sent to your attorney?
WITNESS: No, this is how I dress when I go to work. _____________________________
ATTORNEY: Doctor , how many of your autopsies have you performed on dead people?
WITNESS: All of them.. The live ones put up too much of a fight.
_____________________________
ATTORNEY: ALL your responses MUST be oral , OK? What school did you go to?
WITNESS: Oral...
_____________________________
ATTORNEY: Do you recall the time that you examined the body?
WITNESS: The autopsy started around 8:30 PM
ATTORNEY: And Mr. Denton was dead at the time?
WITNESS: If not, he was by the time I finished.
_____________________________
ATTORNEY: Are you qualified to give a urine sample?
WITNESS: Are you qualified to ask that question?
_____________________________
And last:
ATTORNEY: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for blood pressure?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for breathing?
WITNESS: No..
ATTORNEY: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: How can you be so sure, Doctor?
WITNESS: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.
ATTORNEY: I see, but could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless?
WITNESS: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law.
Bubba says to his pal, 'Billy Bob, Look here! We could buy a whole gob of these, take 'em back to Sand Mountain, sell 'em to our friends, and make a fortune.
4/ A flash mob is a group of performers surprising onlookers with......"something", in this case on a Copenhagen subway car a performance of Peer Gynt.....some culture for a change......about 2 minutes......
5/ A trifecta on the gay marriage issue, and a joke for you....
North Carolina, where you can legally marry your cousin.....just not your gay cousin..........
Jon Stewart delights in skewering the passing of the gay marriage ban in North Carolina.....
On the other end of the spectrum, President Obama officially endorsed same-sex marriage during a TV appearance Wednesday.
Both events have been met with mixed emotions, but Jon Stewart took some time on Wednesday night's "Daily Show" to give us his take on things.
Regarding the North Carolina ban, he joked: "But you know what, actually? That is a step towards equality, since many opposite-sex couples will now enjoy the same lack of rights same-sex couples have always never had."
And regarding the popular defense that allowing two men or two women to marry would open a Pandora's box of human-dog or human-car marriages, Stewart simply asked: "Does your wife know that you can't see the difference between the consensual love that leads to matrimony and the enjoyment you get from a Dairy Queen Blizzard? Nobody would mistake these two things."
6/ And this is truly weird - Chinese animation of how the gay marriage ban came about....I don't pretend to fully understand this one, but it's just so OOT strange.....in Chinese with subtitles......1 minute.....
7/ Jason Jones from the Daily Show reports on George Clooney's fundraiser for the President.......very funny......5 minutes......
Lord of the Rings - George Clooney's Fundraiser
Jason Jones reports on the most powerful man in the free world having Barack Obama over to his house for a fundraiser.
8/ An article from the Times editorial with a summary of where we are with climate change, and the author's opinion that if the Tar Sands oil fields are fully developed it's game over ......a matter of fact tone, simply said......but as we all know the Alberta field is in full production, and the big money wants the Keystone pipeline to be built so it truly is toast for this planet......
Oh well.....glad I'm the age I am......
GLOBAL warming isn’t a prediction. It is happening. That is why I was so troubled to read a recent interview with President Obama in Rolling Stone in which he said thatCanada would exploit the oil in its vast tar sands reserves “regardless of what we do.”
If Canada proceeds, and we do nothing, it will be game over for the climate.
Canada’s tar sands, deposits of sand saturated with bitumen, contain twice the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by global oil use in our entire history. If we were to fully exploit this new oil source, and continue to burn our conventional oil, gas and coal supplies, concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere eventually would reach levels higher than in the Pliocene era, more than 2.5 million years ago, when sea level was at least 50 feet higher than it is now. That level of heat-trapping gases would assure that the disintegration of the ice sheets would accelerate out of control. Sea levels would rise and destroy coastal cities. Global temperatures would become intolerable. Twenty to 50 percent of the planet’s species would be driven to extinction. Civilization would be at risk.
That is the long-term outlook. But near-term, things will be bad enough. Over the next several decades, the Western United States and the semi-arid region from North Dakota to Texas will develop semi-permanent drought, with rain, when it does come, occurring in extreme events with heavy flooding. Economic losses would be incalculable. More and more of the Midwest would be a dust bowl. California’s Central Valley could no longer be irrigated. Food prices would rise to unprecedented levels.
If this sounds apocalyptic, it is. This is why we need to reduce emissions dramatically.
9/ A funny video of Crufts dog show and a strange "happening".....funny......1 minute......
10/ I love this column "Baseline Scenario - these guys are numbers geeks and dissect things with the facts.....in this article they prove how important Social Security is to normal people.....
Social Security Matters
By James Kwak
Catherine Rampell wrote a post last week about how Americans expect to retire later and how more elderly Americans are working. Her last chart also showed that a growing proportion of nonretirees expect Social Security to be a major source of their income in retirement.
That shows that Americans are becoming more realistic. But still, just 33 percent?
Just how important is Social Security, anyway? Let’s look at some numbers. Around 2003, Barbara Butrica, Howard Iams, and Karen Smith analyzed the composition of household income for people at age 67. They projected that median-income early baby boomers, when they reached 67, would have mean per capita family income of $33,000 (Table 3), of which Social Security made up $13,000, or 40 percent. Does 40 percent qualify as a “major source” of income? I would say so. Imagine losing 40 percent of your income.
But Social Security is actually more important than that. Remember, these are 67-year-old people, and 49 percent of them are still working. Yet most people hope to stop working someday. If you subtract out earnings, imputed rental income (the non-cash benefit you get from living in a house you own), and co-resident income (earnings of younger family members who happen to live with you), you’re down to a total of $23,000, of which Social Security is now 57 percent...
11/ Probably the only show on TV that is explaining the evil SuperPacs and how they work is the Colbert Report, and he had an excellent show this week nailing Karl Rove and his "American Crossroads" slush fund.......funny, and informative.....5 minutes......
Stephen Colbert continued hammering away at Karl Rove and Super PACs on Tuesday night, talking more in-depth about the way 501(c)(4)'s, or "Spooky PACs", use huge sums of anonymous money to influence politics.
"Their negative attack ads count as charity, in the same way that yelling, 'Get a job you dirty bum!' is a donation to the homeless."
The host also explained how Rove uses money raised through his own 501(c)(4), Crossroads GPS, to donate to the Center For Individual Freedom, which is "aggressively toppling disclosure laws at the state level." As Colbert put it, "That's Karl Rove giving anonymous political money to help keep political money anonymous. I believe that's what our founders envisioned for democracy. No, not those founders... the anonymous ones in the back."
Watch the full clip above and let us know if, like us, you've learned everything you know about Super PACs from Colbert as well.
12/ Great article about Big Pharma and the diseases they want you to get......so you will demand drugs to treat your non-existent syndrome......
Here's the deal folks - noone makes money if you are healthy, so society encourages you to eat garbage so you then get sick and need treatment....an endless loop of Big Media ads for drugs, Big Ag, Big Pharma and the Medical system......ka-ching.......
Your health is up to you....and you know what you need to do.......so do it.
It used to be joked that a consultant is someone who borrows your watch to tell you what time it is. These days, the opportunist is Big Pharma, which raises your insurance premiums and taxes while providing you "low-priced" drugs that you paid for.
How did Pharma get a good third of the U.S. taking antidepressants, statins and purple pills, albeit at low prices? By selling the diseases of depression, high cholesterol and gastroesophageal reflux disease -- or GERD. Supply-driven marketing, also known as "Have Drug; Need Disease and Patients," not only turns the nation into pill-popping hypochondriacs, it distracts from Pharma's drought of real drugs for real medical problems.
Of course not all diseases are Wall Street pleasers. To be a true blockbuster disease, a condition must 1) really exist but have huge diagnostic "wiggle room" and no clear-cut test 2) be potentially serious with "silent symptoms" said to "only get worse" if untreated 3) be "under-recognized," "under-reported" with "barriers" to treatment 4) explain hitherto vague health problems a patient has had 5) have a catchy name -- ED, ADHD, RLS, Low T or IBS -- and instant medical identity 6) need an expensive new drug that has no generic equivalent.
Here are some potential blockbuster diseases Pharma hopes you get in 2012.
13/ It's Mothers Day tomorrow......so here are a couple of clips for moms from SNL.....the Mom Jeans commercial from JCPenny, and Lawrence Welk celebrating a special mom.....
Hope you enjoy your special day moms everywhere....goo goo.....how come Fathers day doesn't get the same hoopla?
14/ And a Happy Mothers Day slideshow from Awkward Family Photos......
15/ Summer movies - since it's going to be hotter than ever here in Florida we may as well pass an afternoon or two in nice air conditioned cinemas.....and there are some good ones coming up, including 'Prometheus", the new Spiderman, the new Batman and quite a few others. But here are some trailers for movies you may not have heard of.....
"Snow White and the Huntsman", with Charlize Theron, Kristen Stuart. Looks 'Lordoftheringsish"
"Piranha 3DD" looks an absolute hoot, and it stars the Hoff, lots of bikini babes and some nasty critters... this one [like the last Piranha] is played for laughs.....
"Savages", directed by Oliver Stone, one of our premier American Directors......the cartel vs some American growers..... it looks ultraviolent.....but real good......
16/ Evangelical voters are overwhelmingly Republican, so if the Dems want to attract at least some of the sane ones they need to change strategy.......
IT’S election season, and once again Democrats are flummoxed by evangelical voters. They think that “those people” vote against their own self-interest. They cannot believe that same-sex marriage matters so much to so many people. They don’t get why Obamacare is controversial. To them, evangelicals don’t make sense.
That’s because evangelicals and secular liberals (the most puzzled Democrats) think about life — and therefore politics — in such utterly different ways.
If you want to understand how evangelicals conceive of their political life, you need to understand how they think about God. I am an anthropologist, and for the last 10 years I have been doing research on charismatic evangelical spirituality — the kind of Christianity in which people expect to have a personal relationship with God. They talk to God, and in some way or another, they expect that God will talk back. This is a lot of people. In 2006, the Pew Forum reported that 23 percent of Americans embraced this kind of “renewalist” Christianity and that 26 percent said they had received a direct revelation from God.
What someone believes is important to these Christians, but what really matters is becoming a better person.
17/ "Dark Shadows", with Johnny Depp and directed by Tim Burton......excellent review, another wonderful Tim Burton movie.....
Of all the morbid beauties in Tim Burton’s work, the spooky goth girls and deathly pale boys, none wear their ghoulishness as lightly or winningly as Johnny Depp. And what a bewitching corpse he makes in “Dark Shadows,” Mr. Burton’s most pleasurable film in years. As Barnabas Collins, the scion of a wealthy family turned unwilling vampire, Mr. Depp has a face as white as chalk and long-fingered hands that skim the air like skittering spiders. After 200 years of entombment, Barnabas awakes in 1972 and, like a latter-day Rip van Winkle, only thirstier, drinks in a world populated by monsters, living and dead, and lovingly adorned with Mr. Burton’s signature kinks.
Great trailer.....
Todays video - Jimmy Kimmel with the "Tug Toner" commercial......whew.....
Todays Lawyer jokes
These are from a book called Disorder in the American Courts, and are things people actually said in court, word for word, taken down and now published by court reporters that had the torment of staying calm while these exchanges were actually taking place.
ATTORNEY: What was the first thing your husband said to you that morning?
WITNESS: He said , 'Where am I, Cathy?'
ATTORNEY: And why did that upset you?
WITNESS: My name is Susan! _____________________________
ATTORNEY: What gear were you in at the moment of the impact?
WITNESS: Gucci sweats and Reeboks.
_____________________________
ATTORNEY: Are you sexually active?
WITNESS: No , I just lie there.
_____________________________
ATTORNEY: This myasthenia gravis , does it affect your memory at all?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And in what ways does it affect your memory?
WITNESS: I forget..
ATTORNEY: You forget? Can you give us an example of something you forgot?
_____________________________
ATTORNEY: Do you know if your daughter has ever been involved in voodoo?
WITNESS: We both do.
ATTORNEY: Voodoo?
WITNESS: We do..
ATTORNEY: You do?
WITNESS: Yes , voodoo.
_____________________________
ATTORNEY: Now doctor , isn't it true that when a person dies in his sleep , he doesn't know about it until the next morning?
WITNESS: Did you actually pass the bar exam?
_____________________________
ATTORNEY: The youngest son, the 20-year-old, how old is he?
WITNESS: He's 20, much like your IQ.
_____________________________
ATTORNEY: Were you present when your picture was taken?
WITNESS: Are you shitting me?
_____________________________
ATTORNEY: So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8th?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And what were you doing at that time?
WITNESS: Getting laid. _____________________________
ATTORNEY: She had three children , right?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: How many were boys?
WITNESS: None.
ATTORNEY: Were there any girls?
WITNESS: Your Honor, I think I need a different attorney. Can I get a new attorney?
_____________________________
ATTORNEY: How was your first marriage terminated?
WITNESS: By death..
ATTORNEY: And by whose death was it terminated?
WITNESS: Take a guess. _____________________________
ATTORNEY: Can you describe the individual?
WITNESS: He was about medium height and had a beard
ATTORNEY: Was this a male or a female?
WITNESS: Unless the Circus was in town I'm going with male.
_____________________________
ATTORNEY: Is your appearance here this morning pursuant to a deposition notice which I sent to your attorney?
WITNESS: No, this is how I dress when I go to work. _____________________________
ATTORNEY: Doctor , how many of your autopsies have you performed on dead people?
WITNESS: All of them.. The live ones put up too much of a fight.
_____________________________
ATTORNEY: ALL your responses MUST be oral , OK? What school did you go to?
WITNESS: Oral...
_____________________________
ATTORNEY: Do you recall the time that you examined the body?
WITNESS: The autopsy started around 8:30 PM
ATTORNEY: And Mr. Denton was dead at the time?
WITNESS: If not, he was by the time I finished.
_____________________________
ATTORNEY: Are you qualified to give a urine sample?
WITNESS: Are you qualified to ask that question?
_____________________________
And last:
ATTORNEY: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for blood pressure?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for breathing?
WITNESS: No..
ATTORNEY: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: How can you be so sure, Doctor?
WITNESS: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.
ATTORNEY: I see, but could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless?
WITNESS: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law.
Todays oldie joke
A farmer stopped by the local mechanic shop to have his truck fixed. They couldn't fix it while he waited, so he decided to walk home as he didn't live far.
On the way home he stopped at the hardware store and bought a bucket and a gallon of paint. He then stopped by the feed store and picked up a couple of chickens and a goose. However, struggling outside the store he now had a problem - how to carry his entire purchases home.
While he was scratching his head he was approached by a little old lady who told him she was lost. She asked, "Can you tell me how to get to 1603 Mockingbird Lane?"
The farmer said, "Well, as a matter of fact, my farm is very close to that house and I would walk you there but I can't carry this lot."
The old lady suggested, "Why don't you put the can of paint in the bucket. Carry the bucket in one hand, put a chicken under each arm and carry the goose in your other hand?"
"Why thank you very much," he said and proceeded to walk the old girl home.
On the way he says "Let's take my short cut and go down this alley. We'll be there in no time."
The little old lady looked him over cautiously then said, "I am a lonely widow without a husband to defend me.. How do I know that when we get in the alley you won't hold me up against the wall, pull up my skirt, and have your way with me?"
The farmer said, "Holy smokes lady! I'm carrying a bucket, a gallon of paint, two chickens, and a goose. How in the world could I possibly hold you up against the wall and do that?"
The old lady replied, "Set the goose down, cover him with the bucket, put the paint on top of the bucket, and I'll hold the chickens."
Todays Alabama redneck joke
Bubba and Billy Bob are walking down the street, and they see a sign on a store which reads, 'Suits $5.00 each, shirts $2.00 each, trousers $2.50 per pair.'
Bubba says to his pal, 'Billy Bob, Look here! We could buy a whole gob of these, take 'em back to Sand Mountain, sell 'em to our friends, and make a fortune.
Now when we go in there you be quiet, okay? Just let me do the talkin' 'cause if they hear your accent, they might think we're ignorant, and not wanna sell that stuff to us. Now, I'll talk in a slow Georgia drawl so's they don't know.'
They go in and Bubba says with his best fake Georgia drawl, 'I'll take
50 of them suits at $5.00 each, 100 of them there shirts at $2.00 each, and 50 pairs of them there trousers at $2.50 each.
50 of them suits at $5.00 each, 100 of them there shirts at $2.00 each, and 50 pairs of them there trousers at $2.50 each.
I'll back up my pickup and ....'
The owner of the shop interrupts, 'Ya'll are from Alabama , ain't you?'
'Well...yeah,' says a surprised Bubba....'How come you know that? '
'Because this is a dry-cleaners.'
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