Mitt Romney is a deliberate enigma, and rarely reveals what he is really thinking.....until now......see video #2......
1/ One of the more dangerous things proposed by the Romney economic team is their plan for energy.....it basically consists of drill in Alaska and off the East Coast, pipe in the dirty oil from Alberta and mine more coal.....a complete disaster for the planet......
The smirk appeared on Mitt Romney's face near the end of his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention. President Obama, he said, had "promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans" and to "heal the planet." Here Romney paused, giving the crowd in Tampa a moment to savor the fact that he was about to turn climate change – arguably the greatest challenge civilization has ever faced – into a joke. "My promise," he said, "is to help you and your family."
The smirk summed up everything you need to know about the GOP's addiction to fossil fuels. Even George W. Bush – a Texas oilman and loyal servant to Big Oil – paid lip service to the importance of clean energy and the risks of climate change. But what Romney and the Republicans are offering voters this November isn't a coherent energy plan. It's a suicide note.
The nut of Romney's plan, such as it is, goes like this: Because of technological innovations like fracking, America is awash in gas and oil that we're now able to reach. If we drill the hell out of everything, including protected public lands and fragile regions like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, America can emerge as an "energy superpower." This "drill, baby, drill" policy, the Republicans claim, will lower energy prices, create 3 million new jobs, add $500 billion to the gross domestic product, boost tax revenues by $1 trillion and strengthen national security by increasing "freedom from dependence on foreign energy supplies."
This fantasy is not only a blueprint for polluting the planet and speeding up climate change – it's also precisely the energy policy that David and Charles Koch, the billionaire conservative oilmen who have pledged $400 million to help defeat Obama, would advocate if they were sitting in the Oval Office. Indeed, America's leading fossil-fuel barons have lined up behind Romney, funneling hundreds of millions of dollars into his campaign, as well as the shadow groups and Super PACs that are supporting him. During a recent stop in Texas, Romney raked in nearly $7 million during a single lunch hosted by ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson and other oil and gas executives. As Justin Ruben, the executive director of MoveOn, puts it: "It's not a stretch to say that the fossil-fuel industry is attempting a hostile takeover of the U.S. political system."
2/ If you support President Obama this is what the Republicans really think of you......taken with a hidden camera at a Romney fundraiser.....1 1/2 minutes of Mitt telling the truth for a change.......
Note - you won't like the description of who he thinks you are.......get ready to be insulted......
This was shown on The "Ed Show" and "Rachael Maddow" last night, but was all over the lamestream media this morning.....
3/ If you are a golfer, know one or live with one watch this clip - it's a one minute golf joke and it's very, very funny........
4/ You may have read about a record melt of the Arctic sea ice, but what you saw or read probably didn't say why the Arctic melt matters. But it does......to our weather by disrupting the jet stream leading to extremes of cold and drought, to Greenland and Siberia causing their ice and permafrost to melt faster. But most of all to the warming of the planet, because the white reflective ice is replaced by dark, heat absorbing open water.....
You may get fed up with being reminded we are in a very serious situation, but we are.....read this and even though we can't do anything about it because the fossil fuel industry owns most governments, at least you won't be surprised.......
So sell your house in South Florida and anywhere prone to flooding, get ready for extreme weather conditions and hope like hell.....
Why the Arctic Sea Ice Death Spiral Matters
By Joe Romm, ThinkProgress
27 August 12
n the past week the Arctic sea ice cover reached an all-time low, several weeks before previous records, several weeks before the end of the melting season. The long-term decline of Arctic sea ice has been incredibly fast, and at this point a sudden reversal of events doesn't seem likely. The question no longer seems to be "will we see an ice-free Arctic?" but "how soon will we see it?". By running theArctic Sea Ice blog for the past three years I've learned much about the importance of Arctic sea ice. With the help of Kevin McKinney I've written the piece below, which is a summary of all the potential consequences of disappearing Arctic sea ice.
Arctic sea ice became a recurrent feature on planet Earth around 47 million years ago. Since the start of the current ice age, about 2.5 million years ago, the Arctic Ocean has been completely covered with sea ice. Only during interglacials, like the one we are in now, does some of the sea ice melt during summer, when the top of the planet is oriented a bit more towards the Sun and receives large amounts of sunlight for several summer months. Even then, when winter starts, the ice-free portion of the Arctic Ocean freezes over again with a new layer of sea ice.
5/ A very good Bill Maher.....he's on top form in this 6 minute "New Rules"......I've never seen his guests crack up so loudly at some of the jokes.....wonderful.....
6/ Did you know the introduction of the I-Phone 5 will cause an upward blip in the GNP figures? And the reason is that people will be spending more, which is good for business.....
Paul Krugman with his excellent commentary on our economy.....
Are you, or is someone you know, a gadget freak? If so, you doubtless know that Wednesday was iPhone 5 day, the day Apple unveiled its latest way for people to avoid actually speaking to or even looking at whoever they’re with.
So is the new phone as insanely great as Apple says? Hey, I’ll leave stuff like that to David Pogue. What I’m interested in, instead, are suggestions that the unveiling of the iPhone 5 might provide a significant boost to the U.S. economy, adding measurably to economic growth over the next quarter or two.
Do you find this plausible? If so, I have news for you: you are, whether you know it or not, a Keynesian — and you have implicitly accepted the case that the government should spend more, not less, in a depressed economy.
Before I get there, let’s talk about where the buzz is coming from.
A recent research note from JPMorgan argued that the new iPhone might add between a quarter- and a half-percentage point to G.D.P. growth in the last quarter of 2012. How so? First, the report argued that Apple was likely to sell a lot of phones in a short period of time. Second, it noted that although iPhones are manufactured overseas, most of the price you pay when you buy one is domestic value-added — retailing and wholesaling, advertising and profits — all of which counts as part of G.D.P. Finally, it took some plausible guesses about the price of each phone and the number of phones sold, and used those guesses to make an estimate of the impact on G.D.P.
It’s all pretty straightforward. But the implications are wider than most people realize.
The crucial thing to understand here is that these likely short-run benefits from the new phone have almost nothing to do with how good it is — with how much it improves the quality of buyers’ lives or their productivity. Such effects will kick in only over the longer run. Instead, the reason JPMorgan believes that the iPhone 5 will boost the economy right away is simply that it will induce people to spend more.
7/ The younger Meatloaf had a great energy and passion......this is his finest hour, singing to a fine looking Karla Divito about 'Paradise By the Dashboard Light"......what a tale of young lust! Great, classic rock theater.......
Three health/food related stories for you........
8/ A couple of weeks ago Stanford University made headlines with a study that concluded organic food wasn't that much better for you than 'normal" food......turns out the study was funded by Cargill and other Big Ag companies.....so much for academic integrity........
“So we were not one bit surprised to find that the agribusiness giant Cargill, the world’s largest agricultural business enterprise, and foundations like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which have deep ties to agricultural chemical and biotechnology corporations like Monsanto, have donated millions to Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute, where some of the scientists who published this study are affiliates and fellows.”
Stanford researchers had touted their independence by stating they had not received outside financial support for their study, but failed to delineate the close ties between their internal funding sources and industrialized agriculture and biotechnology interests.
Organic advocates also discovered that one of the study’s authors has a well-documented history of accepting research funding from the tobacco industry when a growing body of scientific literature in the 1970s pointed to serious health risks from smoking.
Dr. Ingram Olkin, a Professor Emeritus in statistics at Stanford and co-author of the organics study, accepted money from the tobacco industry’s Council for Tobacco Research, which has been described as using science for “perpetrating fraud on the public.”
“Make no mistake, the Stanford organics study is a fraud,” says Mike Adams of Naturalnews.com and Anthony Gucciardi of Naturalsociety.org, who discovered the link between the organic study author and Big Tobacco. ”To say that conventional foods are safe is like saying that cigarettes are safe. Both can be propagandized with fraudulent science funded by corporate donations to universities, and we’re seeing the same scientist who helped Big Tobacco now helping Big Biotech in their attempt to defraud the public.”
9/ Jon Stewart doing what he does best and he really enjoys - skewering Fox News......and they give him so much material! Here he nails Sarah Palin and Hannity on their reaction to the Middle East turmoil.....wonderful....5 minutes.....
On Monday night's "Daily Show," Jon Stewart returned from last week's break a little confused -- and not just because violent protests broke out in the Middle East while he was gone.
It's more the media's reaction to the protests that has him puzzled. See, pundits like Sarah Palin and Sean Hannity were all about Middle Eastern democracy a few years ago when it was on the Bush administration's agenda, but now that Obama's in office everyone seems to be singing a different tune.
Stewart pulled up some choice footage to assert his point.
10/ The GMO labeling referendum in California is a big deal - if it passes, and it should, it will make food manufacturers disclose if any of their products contain genetically modified vegetables.....
But this is causing the organic divisions of the giant food companies to have corporate heart attacks......
I've started looking closer at the packaging, looking for "family run" or similar.....
Giant bioengineering companies like Monsanto and DuPont are spending millions of dollars to fight a California ballot initiative aimed at requiring the labeling of genetically modified foods. That surprises no one, least of all the proponents of the law, which if approved by voters would become the first of its kind in the nation.
But the companies behind some of the biggest organic brands in the country — Kashi, Cascadian Farm, Horizon Organic — also have joined the antilabeling effort, adding millions of dollars to defeat the initiative, known as Proposition 37.
Their opposition stands in sharp contrast to smaller, independent organic companies, which generally favor labeling products that contain genetically modified organisms, or G.M.O.’s. And it has raised a consumer reaction on social media that has led some of the organic brands to try to distance themselves from their corporate parents.
“We want to be clear that Kashi has not made any contributions to oppose G.M.O. labeling,” the brand said in a statement issued late last month after its Facebook page was inundated with comments from consumers saying they would no longer buy its products because its corporate owner, the Kellogg Company, has put more than $600,000 into fighting the ballot initiative.
But as recently as last week, consumers were still peppering the sites of Horizon, owned by Dean Foods; the J. M. Smucker Company, which has a number of organic products, and Kashi with expressions of betrayal and disappointment. “It is unconscionable for you to be funding the effort to defeat Proposition 37,” one post said.
“Consumers aren’t always aware that their favorite organic brands are in fact owned by big multinationals, and now they’re finding out that the premium they’ve paid to buy these organic products is being spent to fight against something they believe in passionately,” said Mark Kastel, a co-founder of the Cornucopia Institute, an organic industry watchdog and farm policy group that has been tracking corporate contributions in the ballot fight. “They feel like they’ve been had.”
11/ It's Fox News day, because the excellent Rachel Maddow illustrates how Fox has become a subset of the Romney campaign.....blatant conflicts of interest, but they don't care.....6 minutes of great journalism......
12/ Another thing you need to protect yourself against the medical industry.....if your doctor prescribes antibiotics for something minor or routine, and he writes a script for Cipro or Levaquin you need to speak up......ask for something less potent......
Don't forget Physicians get kickbacks from the drug companies for pushing expensive drugs......
Antibiotics are important drugs, often restoring health and even saving lives. But like all drugs, they can have unwanted and serious side effects, some of which may not become apparent until many thousands of patients have been treated.
Such is the case with an important class of antibiotics known as fluoroquinolones. The best known are Cipro (ciprofloxacin), Levaquin (levofloxacin) and Avelox (moxifloxacin). In 2010, Levaquin was the best-selling antibiotic in the United States.
But by last year it was also the subject of more than 2,000 lawsuits from patients who had suffered severe reactions after taking it.
Part of the problem is that fluoroquinolones are often inappropriately prescribed. Instead of being reserved for use against serious, perhaps life-threatening bacterial infections likehospital-acquired pneumonia, these antibiotics are frequently prescribed for sinusitis, bronchitis, earaches and other ailments that may resolve on their own or can be treated with less potent drugs or nondrug remedies — or are caused by viruses, which are not susceptible to antibiotics.
In an interview, Mahyar Etminan, a pharmacological epidemiologist at the University of British Columbia, said the drugs were overused “by lazy doctors who are trying to kill a fly with an automatic weapon.”
Dr. Etminan directed a study published in April in The Journal of the American Medical Association showing that the risk of suffering a potentially blinding retinal detachment was nearly fivefold higher among current users of fluoroquinolones, compared with nonusers. In another study submitted for publication, he documented a significantly increased risk of acute kidney failure among users of these drugs.
13/ Thinking about an I-Phone 5? Don't automatically renew your AT&T subscription, as all of the other carriers now have the I-Phone. Here is a guide to the best plan for you, with useful links in the article.....save money, get better service and stick it to AT&T as well....or not......
With the iPhone 5 hurtling toward a release on Sept. 21, many of you are likely thinking about ditching your current carrier and signing up with a new one. You've suffered through one too many dropped calls, and now you're ready to leap to the greener pastures of that phone company your buddy swears never lets him down.
But how, in the name of the 112th Congress of these United States, are you to decide which carrier to choose? Do you opt for Verizon, Sprint or AT&T? How can you come to a resolution on an issue that could very well determine your frustration and stress levels on any given day for the next two years?
Choosing a carrier, in essence, comes down to two conflicting considerations: Thecost of the plan and the quality of the service. There are other issues, obviously -- international plans and compatibility, customer service quality, how funny their television commercials are -- but mainly, you're looking for the most reliable carrier that is also the cheapest.
Here are the steps one should take in deciding on a carrier for the iPhone 5 -- or, really, any new smartphone. Study up before you go shopping:
14/ Not often we read a review like this one for "The Master"....destined to become a classic, and definitely Oscar material......a story loosely based on Scientology.....Philip Seymour Hoffman plays the L. Ron Hubbard character......
“The Master,” Paul Thomas Anderson’s imposing, confounding and altogether amazing new film, is partly concerned with the life and work of one Lancaster Dodd, leader of a therapeutic, quasi-religious cult known as the Cause. Dodd’s “process,” a stew of Freud, hypnosis and carnival sideshow mumbo-jumbo, is based on a kind of mental time travel. The subject is led, by a series of pointed, painful questions, on a search for past trauma — earlier in life, before birth, in a previous existence — that can be identified as the source of negative emotion and destructive behavior in the present.
At a certain point Dodd modifies his theory, suggesting that instead of “remembering” our prenatal past, our minds “imagine” it. This shift leads to some consternation among his followers (notably a wealthy benefactor played by Laura Dern), and it may also fuel the audience’s skepticism about this charismatic mountebank, brought to life by Philip Seymour Hoffman with the flair and precision of a great concert pianist.
More showman than shaman — he holds his followers in thrall with jokes, dinner-table toasts and bawdy songs — Dodd is so adept at the performance of sincerity that he may long ago have fooled himself into believing the bizarre doctrines he seems to pull out of thin air. “The Master,”meanwhile, is rigorously agnostic about his methods and intentions, refusing the temptations of satire and gazing fondly at Dodd’s follies even as it notes the brutal way he and his acolytes deal with doubters and heretics. This semi-sympathetic stance makes sense, since the film, a glorious and haunting symphony of color, emotion and sound, is very much its own Cause.
Our minds sometimes play tricks on us, substituting invention for memory. Movies turn this lapse into a principle, manufacturing collective fantasies that are often more vivid, more real, than what actually happened. “The Master,” unfolding in the anxious, movie-saturated years just after World War II, is not a work of history in the literal or even the conventionally literary sense. The strange and complicated story it has to tell exists beyond the reach of doubt or verification. The cumulative artifice on display is beautiful — camera movements that elicit an involuntary gasp, passages in Jonny Greenwood’s score that raise the hair on the back of your neck, feats of acting that defy comprehension — but all of it has been marshaled in the pursuit of a new kind of cinematic truth. This is a movie that defies understanding even as it compels reverent, astonished belief.
"The Master" trailer......mysterious......
Todays video - Want to be a cowboy? Thought not......
Todays guy joke
Mowed the lawn today, and after doing so I sat down and had a couple nice cold “Silver Bullets . ”
The day was really quite beautiful, and the brew facilitated some deep thinking on various topics.
Finally I thought about an age old question: Is giving birth more painful than getting kicked in the Nuts?
Women always maintain that giving birth is way more painful than a guy getting kicked in the nuts.
Well, after another beer, and some heavy deductive thinking, I have come up with the answer to that question.
Getting kicked in the nuts is more painful than having a baby; and here is the reason for my conclusion.
A year or so after giving birth, a woman will often say, "it might be nice to have another child."
On the other hand, you never hear a guy say, "You know, I think I would like another kick in the nuts."
I rest my case…
Todays marriage jokes
Marriage (Part I )
Typical macho man married typical good-looking lady, and after the wedding, he laid down the following rules:
Typical macho man married typical good-looking lady, and after the wedding, he laid down the following rules:
I'll be home when I want, if I want and at what time I want -- and I don't expect any hassle from you.
I expect a great dinner to be on the table unless I tell you that I won't be home for dinner.
I'll go hunting, fishing, boozing, and card-playing when I want with my old buddies, and don't you give me a hard time about it.
Those are my rules. Any comments?' His new bride said: 'No, that's fine with me.
Just understand that there will be sex here at seven o'clock every night...whether you're here or not.'
******************************
Husband and wife had a bitter quarrel on the day of their 40th wedding anniversary!
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Husband and wife had a bitter quarrel on the day of their 40th wedding anniversary!
The husband yells, 'When you die, I'm getting you a headstone that reads, 'Here Lies My Wife -- Cold As Ever'!' 'Yeah?' she replies. 'When you die, I'm getting you a headstone that reads, 'Here Lies My Husband -- Stiff At Last'!'
(HE ASKED FOR IT!) ******************************
Marriage (Part III)
Husband (a doctor) and his wife are having a fight at the breakfast table.
Husband gets up in a rage and says, 'And you are no good in bed either,' and storms out of the house.
After some time he realizes he was nasty and decides to make amends and rings her up.
She comes to the phone after many rings, and the irritated husband says,
(HE ASKED FOR IT!) ******************************
Marriage (Part III)
Husband (a doctor) and his wife are having a fight at the breakfast table.
Husband gets up in a rage and says, 'And you are no good in bed either,' and storms out of the house.
After some time he realizes he was nasty and decides to make amends and rings her up.
She comes to the phone after many rings, and the irritated husband says,
'What took you so long to answer to the phone?'
She says, 'I was in bed.'
'In bed this early, doing what?'
'Getting a second opinion!' (YEP, HE HAD THAT COMING, TOO!)
******************************
Marriage (Part IV)
A man has six children and is very proud of his achievement. He is so proud of himself, that he starts calling his wife,' Mother of Six' in spite of her objections. One night, they go to a party. The man decides that it is time to go home and wants to find out if his wife is ready to leave as well. He shouts at the top of his voice, 'Shall we go home Mother of Six?' His wife, irritated by her husband's lack of discretion, shouts right back, 'Any time you're ready, Father of Four.'
******************************
THE SILENT TREATMENT
A man and his wife were having some problems at home and were giving each other the silent treatment.
Suddenly the man realized that the next day he would need his wife to wake him at 5:00 AM for an early morning business flight.
Not wanting to be the first to break the silence (and LOSE), he wrote on a piece of paper,'Please wake me at 5:00 AM.' He left it where he knew she would find it.
The next morning the man woke up, only to discover it was 9:00 AM and he had missed his flight.
Furious, he was about to go to see why his wife hadn't wakened him when he noticed a piece of paper by the bed. The paper said, 'It is 5:00 AM. Wake up.' Men are not equipped for these kinds of contests. ******************************
************** ***************************
'In bed this early, doing what?'
'Getting a second opinion!' (YEP, HE HAD THAT COMING, TOO!)
******************************
Marriage (Part IV)
A man has six children and is very proud of his achievement. He is so proud of himself, that he starts calling his wife,' Mother of Six' in spite of her objections. One night, they go to a party. The man decides that it is time to go home and wants to find out if his wife is ready to leave as well. He shouts at the top of his voice, 'Shall we go home Mother of Six?' His wife, irritated by her husband's lack of discretion, shouts right back, 'Any time you're ready, Father of Four.'
******************************
THE SILENT TREATMENT
A man and his wife were having some problems at home and were giving each other the silent treatment.
Suddenly the man realized that the next day he would need his wife to wake him at 5:00 AM for an early morning business flight.
Not wanting to be the first to break the silence (and LOSE), he wrote on a piece of paper,'Please wake me at 5:00 AM.' He left it where he knew she would find it.
The next morning the man woke up, only to discover it was 9:00 AM and he had missed his flight.
Furious, he was about to go to see why his wife hadn't wakened him when he noticed a piece of paper by the bed. The paper said, 'It is 5:00 AM. Wake up.' Men are not equipped for these kinds of contests. ******************************
************** ***************************
Todays commuting joke
After a very busy day, a commuter settled down in her seat and closed her eyes as the train departed Montreal for Hudson.
As the train rolled out of the station, the guy sitting next to her pulled out his cell phone and started talking in a loud voice:
As the train rolled out of the station, the guy sitting next to her pulled out his cell phone and started talking in a loud voice:
“Hi sweetheart it’s Eric, I’m on the train – yes, I know it’s the six thirty and not the four thirty but I had a long meet...ing – no, honey, not with that floozie from the accounts office, with the boss.
No sweetheart, you’re the only one in my life – yes, I’m sure, cross my heart” etc., etc.
Fifteen minutes later, he was still talking loudly, when the young woman sitting next to him, who was obviously angered by his continuous diatribe, yelled at the top of her voice:
Fifteen minutes later, he was still talking loudly, when the young woman sitting next to him, who was obviously angered by his continuous diatribe, yelled at the top of her voice:
”Hey, Eric, turn that stupid phone off and come back to bed!”
Eric doesn’t use his cell phone in public any longer.
Eric doesn’t use his cell phone in public any longer.
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