If you have the time, watch #8....a great Aussie comedian on our crazy gun policies, and definitely read #13 - "How Doctors Die"....excellent....
Also - two Frank Rich stories!
1/ A major story from Frank Rich on Dr. Ben Carson, one of the rising stars on the extreme right wing. Rich looks at the man, his policies and his chances of becoming President.....but most of all, he looks at the crazy edge of Republicanism....
Fascinating article for anyone interested in politics.....
Partisans of both parties may be able to agree that one contender stands apart from the rest. That would be the 63-year-old neurosurgeon Ben Carson, the only African-American in the race and the only candidate with a Horatio Alger story that can accurately be described as inspirational. Some voters have already begun to notice. Carson came in second to Ted Cruz in two 2014 conservative beauty contests, the Republican Leadership Council andValue Voters straw polls. He has outperformed Jeb Bush and Chris Christie in this year’s early polling of Iowa Republicans. Carson’s political-action committee raised more cash (some $12 million) in the early going than Ready for Hillary, and his best-selling political manifesto of last year, One Nation, outsold her Hard Choices by roughly a third. (In literary quality, it’s a draw: They are equally effective as sleep aids.) In a December Gallup poll measuring “the most admired men in America,” Carson was bested only by Barack Obama, Pope Francis, Bill Clinton, Billy Graham, and George W. Bush; in a tie for sixth, he was on a par with Stephen Hawking, Bill Gates, and Bill O’Reilly. No other presidential aspirant in either party made the top tier.
2/ Two Ferguson stories came out yesterday from the Justice Dept......they won't be doing anything about the killing of Michael Brown, but they will be monitoring the Ferguson Police Department.....
Jon Stewart and his "Senior Ferguson Correspondent" Jessica Williams try to make sense of both of these items....two parts, five minutes and three minutes....
Jon Stewart tonight tackled the DOJ report this week on the Ferguson police and how “it turns out everybody was right” in their anger.
Because, on the one hand, Brown did not have his hands up to surrender, as the DOJ report says, but on the other hand, there were some racist police practices.
Correspondent Jessica Williams helped explain this from outside the Ferguson police station, which turns out is a pretty huge, nice-looking place. And amid getting a bunch of citations for being black or something, Williams did say, “Fuck these people.”
3/ One of the things progressives can't get their head around is the rock solid belief system most Republicans have, and even when presented with facts, proof and overwhelming evidence their belief is wrong, they won't change it. This is one of the strengths conservatives have, but it's also a major weakness......
But as Heather Richardson writes in Salon, this behavioral pattern has been coopted by the more cynical leaders of the party, and used as deliberate policy.....
Another fascinating story.....
Scott Walker, Jack Nicholson in "A Few Good Men," Ted Cruz (Credit: AP/Mark Humphrey/Tristar/Reuters/Lucas Jackson/Photo montage by Salon)
Deep on page 546 of his 1,839-page budget, Wisconsin’s Governor Scott Walker tucked in a crucial idea. He proposed to strip a principle from the mission statement of the University of Wisconsin, a school that attracts students from all over the nation and from 131 foreign countries. From the core philosophy that has driven the university since the turn of the last century Walker wanted to hack out the words: “Basic to every purpose of the system is the search for truth.” Rather than serving the people of the state by developing intellectual, cultural and humane sensitivities, expertise, and “a sense of purpose,” Walker prefers that the state university simply “meet the state’s workforce needs.” In the face of scathing criticism, the governor backtracked and, despite a trail of emails that led to his office, tried to claim the new language was a “drafting error.”
But Walker’s attempt to replace the search for truth with workforce training was no error. Since the earliest days of Movement Conservatism in the 1950s, its leaders have understood that the movement’s success depends on destroying Americans’ faith in the academic search for truth. For two generations, Movement Conservatives have subverted American politics, with increasing success, by explicitly rejecting the principle of open debate based in reasoned argument. They have refused to engage with facts and instead simply demonized anyone who disagrees with their ideology. This is an astonishing position. It is an attack on the Enlightenment principles that gave rise to Western civilization.
Make no mistake: the attack is deliberate.
4/ Good God Gertie.....have a look at this three minute video of the Ukranian women's gymnastics team performing in competition......astonishingly precise......love the British announcer....and there is one moment early on when your jaw will drop open in disbelief.....
Check out this awesome routine from the finals of the 2010 Acrobatic Gymnastics World Championships in Wrocław, Poland. These three young, Ukrainian women placed third after Russia and Great Britain. I didn’t know this type of routine was humanly possible, as I’ve never seen gymnasts display such incredible flexibility and strength. In the video, the petite gymnasts seem to defy every possible law of gravity, and without breaking a sweat. Where are they hiding all that muscle to be able to do this?
5/ We often ask "what the hell has happened to Canada"? The bastion of common sense, a kinder gentler America has become a right wing petro state......but as this excellent story in Rolling Stone argues, it's all about to come crashing down with the collapse in the price of oil.....
Barack Obama's veto of Keystone XL has placed the export pipeline for Canadian tar-sands crude on its deathbed. Earlier in February, the Environmental Protection Agency revealed that Keystone could spur 1.37 billion tons of excess carbon emissions — providing the State Department with all the scientific evidence required to spike the project, permanently. If the news has cheered climate activists across the globe, it also underscored the folly of Canada's catastrophic quest, in recent years, to transform itself into a dirty-energy "superpower."
In the minds of many American right-wingers, Canada may be a socialist hell-scape of universal health care and quasi-European welfare policies. But it is also home to 168 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, the third-largest in the world. Since ultraconservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper — famously described by one Canadian columnist as "our version of George W. Bush, minus the warmth and intellect" — took power in 2006, he's quietly set his country on a course that seems to be straight from the Koch brothers' road map. Harper, 55, has gutted environmental regulation and fast-tracked colossal projects to bring new oil to market. Under his leadership, Canada has also slashed corporate taxes and is eliminating 30,000 public-sector jobs.
Riding record-high oil prices — $107 a barrel as recently as last June — Harper's big bet on Canadian crude appeared savvy. The oil boom had driven a seven percent surge in national income, helping Canada ride out the Great Recession with less anguish than most developed nations. And with fossil fuels swelling to nearly 40 percent of net exports, Harper's Conservative government was on track to deliver a Tea Party twofer in advance of federal elections this fall: a budget surplus and a deep tax cut for the country's richest earners.
http://www.rollingstone.com/
6/ Todays music video - something a little different......80 actors were in a field, and a car drove by for 5 seconds with a ultra high speed camera.....this 5 second shot was made into a surreal and actually quite mesmerising three minute music video.....
The song is by Siska, "Unconditional Rebel".....
They shot 80 actors for 5 seconds from a moving car at 1000FPS and made a 3 minute music video (plus FX):Here’s what the 5 second shot looked like:
7/ Lots of talk of Scott Walker as the likely frontrunner for the Republican nomination in 2016, but Matt Taibbi says this is the best thing that could possibly happen to the Democrats.....
Most interesting story from one of our best political reporters......
Beltway Democrats may not deserve good luck, but it looks like they could have plenty in the next presidential race. Heading into the weekend, Scott Walker, a man born to be slaughtered in a general election, is suddenly leading the Republican pack in the Iowa polls.
Walker is surging thanks to his performance at this week's Conservative Political Action Conference, where the union-busting governor inspired raucous applause with his "I was a dick in Wisconsin, and I can be one in Washington, too!" stump speech.
Walker's address was a broadside against a litany of conservative bugbears, from Planned Parenthood to the media to tax day to the subversive act of voting without a photo ID, etc.
But the money line came during a Q&A session. Asked how he would take on radical Islamist terrorists, Walker referred to his experience taking on pro-union protesters in his home state:
If I can take on 100,000 protesters, I can do the same across the world.
Walker's seeming comparison of peaceful union activists to head-chopping Islamic terrorists drew a predictable response, with progressive groups like American Bridge sending out alerts denouncing his comments, along with outrage from the Democratic National Committee.
http://www.rollingstone.com/
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton writes on her cell phone in Brasilia, Brazil. Photo: Jacquelyn Martin/AFP/Getty Images
Once a leading voice on the climate, Sen. John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, now rarely mentions the issues. Andrew Harper/Bloomberg/Getty
Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science/University of Miami
8/ An Australian comedian, Jim Jeffries, with a 14 minute stand-up act on America's obsession with guns.....
This is one of the funniest clips from a comedian I have seen for a while....quite a few laugh out loud moments, but note - salty language!
It's also a reasoned analysis of our gun laws, cleverly disguised as a very funny comedy act.....halfway through, listen to the percentages.....nails it....
Considering that he was once attacked onstage while performing at the Manchester Comedy Store, it’s interesting to hear Australian comic Jim Jefferies’ stance on guns – of which he is entirely opposed.
In this bit from a show he did in 2014, Jefferies brilliantly and hilariously points out the absurdity of America’s reaction to mass shootings as opposed to his native Australia.
9/ A bonus Frank Rich [yeay], with a look at the stories of last week, including the Hillary State Department email kerfuffle.....
Most weeks, New York Magazine writer-at-large Frank Rich speaks with contributor Alex Carp about the biggest stories in politics and culture. This week, the magazine asked him about Hillary's emails, Netanyahu's speech to Congress, and the alleged potential sale of the Daily News.
The Times revealed that Hillary Clinton exclusively used a personal email account to conduct business as Secretary of State, which may have allowed her to shield some correspondence from the public record. It’s certainly an odd oversight for someone who knows the level of scrutiny that comes with a run for president. Do you think Clinton made a simple mistake or is she up to something more nefarious, or both?
Are Clinton’s email shenanigans a federal offense? Probably not. But we still don’t know the whole story, and it seems to be thickening by the minute — notably with a new report from the AP that she was protecting her email by cycling it through her own private email server out of Chappaqua. But the more important question is why the Clintons, who more than anyone in American politics understand the high risks of perceived improprieties, have left Hillary’s campaign so vulnerable even before it is officially out of the gate.
Are Clinton’s email shenanigans a federal offense? Probably not. But we still don’t know the whole story, and it seems to be thickening by the minute — notably with a new report from the AP that she was protecting her email by cycling it through her own private email server out of Chappaqua. But the more important question is why the Clintons, who more than anyone in American politics understand the high risks of perceived improprieties, have left Hillary’s campaign so vulnerable even before it is officially out of the gate.
10/ Andy Borowitz is a satirical humorist, and this gem about the disgusting things Giuliani mouthed off last week about the President says it all.....
Forgotten Man Seeks Attention
BY ANDY BOROWITZ
11/ Climate change is here, no matter how much the Republicans and their owners try to deny it, but the Pentagon isn't one of the skeptics......for the military it's a real problem and getting worse quickly......
Once a leading voice on the climate, Sen. John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, now rarely mentions the issues. Andrew Harper/Bloomberg/Getty
Naval station Norfolk is the headquarters of the U.S. Navy's Atlantic fleet, an awesome collection of military power that is in a terrible way the crowning glory of American civilization. Seventy-five thousand sailors and civilians work here, their job the daily business of keeping an armada spit-shined and ready for deployment at any moment. When I visited in December, the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt was in port, a 1,000-foot-long floating war machine that was central to U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Cranes loaded equipment onto the deck; sailors rushed up and down the gangplanks. Navy helicopters hovered overhead. Security was tight everywhere. While I was checking out one of the base's massive new double-decker concrete piers that's nearly as big as a shopping-mall parking lot, I wandered over to have a closer look at the USS Gravely, a guided-missile destroyer that has spent a lot of hours on watch in the Mediterranean. Armed men on the deck watched me warily — even my official escort seemed jittery ("I think we should step back a bit," he said, grabbing my arm).
You can't spend 10 minutes in this part of Virginia without feeling the deep sense of history. The Battle of Hampton Roads, a famous naval showdown between two Civil War ironclads, occurred just offshore. The base was a key departure point for thousands of sailors during World War II, many of whom never returned. Their ghosts still haunt the place. Everyone's aunt or uncle has a story to tell about a night in a port in Brisbane or Barcelona or about the way their ears rang the first time they heard a cannon firing from the deck of a ship.
But within the lifetime of a child growing up here, all this could vanish into the Atlantic Ocean. The land that the base is built upon is literally sinking, meaning sea levels are rising in Norfolk roughly twice as fast as the global average. There is no high ground, nowhere to retreat. It feels like a swamp that has been dredged and paved over — and that's pretty much what it is. All it takes is a rainstorm and a big tide and the Atlantic invades the base — roads are submerged, entry gates impassable. A nor'easter had moved through the area the day before my visit. On Craney Island, the base's main refueling depot, military vehicles were up to their axles in seawater. Water pooled in a long, flat grassy area near Admiral's Row, where naval commanders live in magnificent houses built for the 1907 Jamestown Exposition. "It's the biggest Navy base in the world, and it's going to have to be relocated," says former Vice President Al Gore. "It's just a question of when."
12/ A French TV ad for condoms.....a little rude, but once you get over the graphics it's quite amusing.....two minutes....
FRENCH AD FOR CONDOMS ... played on TV in France
What a riot! This commercial is better than most of the shows we have on TV!
Only the French could get away with this.
What a riot! This commercial is better than most of the shows we have on TV!
Only the French could get away with this.
13/ For all of you who believe your doctor, hospitals and drug companies are acting in your interests please read this - it a very illuminating article called "How Doctors Die".
If there's one thing I hope readers of DDD are getting it's that you need to protect yourself against the medical system - always verify what they are recommending you do, what you ingest, what pills you take.....
So if you want to learn something useful that is written by an insider, read this story......excellent!
By KEN MURRAY, MD
Years ago, Charlie, a highly respected orthopedist and a mentor of mine, found a lump in his stomach. He had a surgeon explore the area, and the diagnosis was pancreatic cancer. This surgeon was one of the best in the country. He had even invented a new procedure for this exact cancer that could triple a patient’s five-year-survival odds—from 5 percent to 15 percent—albeit with a poor quality of life. Charlie was uninterested. He went home the next day, closed his practice, and never set foot in a hospital again. He focused on spending time with family and feeling as good as possible. Several months later, he died at home. He got no chemotherapy, radiation, or surgical treatment. Medicare didn’t spend much on him.
It’s not a frequent topic of discussion, but doctors die, too. And they don’t die like the rest of us. What’s unusual about them is not how much treatment they get compared to most Americans, but how little. For all the time they spend fending off the deaths of others, they tend to be fairly serene when faced with death themselves. They know exactly what is going to happen, they know the choices, and they generally have access to any sort of medical care they could want. But they go gently.
14/ And to lessen the chances of things like the above happening to you, one of the best things you can do is eat better......here's five good things that will happen if you minimalise sugar in your diet.....
First, let’s set the record straight by saying that sugar in and of itself isn’t evil, per se. It occurs naturally in plenty of foods, including fruits and milk. With that being said, adding excess sugar to your dietary intake simply isn’t necessary. In fact, you’ll notice numerous positive things happen when you decide to quit sugar for life.
Although people living in the Western world have been trained to desire sugary treats, as well as foods that include copious amounts of sugar for flavoring, we certainly don’t need it. If you stop eating anything but naturally occurring sugars, you’ll notice that 5 very distinctive things will happen.
1. Your Energy Will Improve
Ironically, many of us have a tendency to reach for sugar-filled items, including so-called energy drinks and caffeinated beverages, when we’re tired. Yet without all the sugar, we’re guaranteed to have a higher energy level naturally. In other words, all that sugar is blocking our body’s ability to keep our energy stores at maximal levels. Plus, there will be no up-and-down with your blood sugar, so afternoon crashes will become an experience of the past.
15/ Miami is already a case study of what will probably be the first major Western city to be made unlivable by rising sea levels, and many articles have been written about it including the amazing "Goodbye Miami" in Rolling Stone last year, but I am down in South Florida this weekend and you would not believe the building frenzy that is going on. New condos and apartments everywhere, from downtown Miami to Broward Blvd. in Ft. Lauderdale......thousands upon thousands of new apartments......
But Miami is also a poster child for crumbling infrastructure......no new roads to cope with the increased traffic, and where are they going to get the water for all the new people.....it's a textbook example of greed, political failure and corruption. And noone notices.....just build more units......
They even announced they are going to build the worlds largest mall in Northwest Dade, right next to the Everglades [link below]......insanity.....
But anyway.....here is the latest prediction of doom for Miami.....
You don’t have to look 85 years into the future to see what a sinking world looks like — you only need to look as far as Miami.
Climate scientists have been warning the world about sea-level rise for years, pleading with governments to cut back on carbon lest all our coastal cities go the way of Venice. In 2014, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its fifth Assessment Report, predicting that oceans would rise more than three feet by 2100. Those projections make for some alarming visions of the future — cities water-logged, monuments submerged, islands created.
But the flooding is already happening in Florida. At the University of Miami’s Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Brian McNoldy and other researchers have been accumulating sea-level data from Virginia Key (a small island just south of Miami Beach) since 1996. Over those 19 years, sea levels around the Miami coast have already gone up 3.7 inches. In a post updated Monday, McNoldy highlights three big problems that follow from those numbers — and they should worry all of us.
Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science/University of Miami
First: Sea-level rise is accelerating — perhaps faster than the IPCC has projected. When McNoldy tracked the average daily high water mark, when flooding events are most likely to occur, he saw it increase over time — but he also saw the rate of that increase go up. The last five years saw an average increase of 1.27 inches of water per year. If that rate holds steady for the next 50 years (and if McNoldy is right, it will only get worse), high tide levels in Miami would go up over five feet.
New mall.....
16/ And speaking of infrastructure, John Oliver continues his excellent look into our crumbling bridges and highways, and why this issue will never be solved.....it involves raising the gas tax....
A very good 20 minutes of comedic reporting.....
John Oliver tackled the terrifying topic of America’s crumbling infrastructure on Sunday’s “Last Week Tonight.” Given the amount of time and passion Oliver put into the subject — a 21-minute-long impassioned speech — you’d wish Congress was anywhere close to fixing our aging bridges, dams and roadways. They’re not. According to Oliver, Congress isn’t even close to agreeing on how to fund the soon to be insolvent Highway Trust Fund.
Todays video - time for the Trunk Monkey commercials again.....three pretty good minutes.....
Todays Catholic joke
Twelve Italian priests were about to be ordained. The final test was
for them to line up in a straight row, totally nude, in a garden while
a sexy, beautiful, big breasted, nude model danced before them.
Each priest had a small bell attached to his willy, and they were told
that anyone whose bell rang when she danced in front of them would not
be ordained because he had not reached a state of spiritual purity..
The beautiful model danced before the first candidate with no reaction.
She proceeded down the line with the same response from all the priests
until she got to the final priest, Carlos.
for them to line up in a straight row, totally nude, in a garden while
a sexy, beautiful, big breasted, nude model danced before them.
Each priest had a small bell attached to his willy, and they were told
that anyone whose bell rang when she danced in front of them would not
be ordained because he had not reached a state of spiritual purity..
The beautiful model danced before the first candidate with no reaction.
She proceeded down the line with the same response from all the priests
until she got to the final priest, Carlos.
Poor Carlos.
As she danced, his bell began to ring so loudly that it flew off,
clattering across the ground and laid to rest in nearby foliage...
Embarrassed, Carlos quickly scrambled to where the bell came to rest.
He bent over to pick it up...
and all the other bells started to ring.
As she danced, his bell began to ring so loudly that it flew off,
clattering across the ground and laid to rest in nearby foliage...
Embarrassed, Carlos quickly scrambled to where the bell came to rest.
He bent over to pick it up...
and all the other bells started to ring.
Todays mobile phone joke
After a tiring day, a commuter settled down in his seat and closed his eyes. As the train rolled out of the station, a woman sitting next to him pulled out her mobile phone.
She started talking in a loud voice: "Hi sweetheart.. It's Mary. I'm on the train". "Yes, I know it's the six thirty and not the four thirty, but I had a long meeting. No, honey, not with that Kevin from the accounting office. It was with the boss. No sweetheart, you're the only one in my life. Yes, I'm sure, cross my heart!"
Fifteen minutes later, she was still talking loudly.
When the man sitting next to her had enough, he leaned over and said into the phone, "Mary, hang up the phone and come back to bed."
Mary doesn't use her mobile phone in public any longer.
Todays retirement options joke
You can retire to Phoenix, Arizona where...1. You are willing to park 3 blocks away from your house because you found shade.2. You've experienced condensation on your hiney from the hot water in the toilet bowl.3. You can drive for 4 hours in one direction and never leave town.4. You have over 100 recipes for Mexican food.5. You know that "dry heat" is comparable to what hits you in the face when you open your oven door.6. The 4 seasons are: tolerable, hot, really hot, and ARE YOU KIDDING ME??ORYou can retire to California where...1. You make over $450,000 and you still can't afford to buy a house.2. The fastest part of your commute is going down your driveway.3. You know how to eat an artichoke.4. You drive your rented Mercedes to your neighborhood block party.5. When someone asks you how far something is, you tell them how long it will take to get there ratherthan how many miles away it is.6. The 4 seasons are: Fire, Flood, Mud, and DroughtORYou can retire to New York City where...1. You say "the city" and expect everyone to know you mean Manhattan ....2. You can get into a four-hour argument about how to get from Columbus Circle to Battery Park, but can'tfind Wisconsin on a map.3. You think Central Park is "nature."4. You believe that being able to swear at people in their own language makes you multi-lingual.5. You've worn out a car horn. (IF you have a car).6. You think eye contact is an act of aggression.ORYou can retire to Minnesota where...1. You only have three spices: salt, pepper, and ketchup ...2. Halloween costumes have to fit over parkas.3. You have seventeen recipes for casserole.4. Sexy lingerie is anything flannel with less than eight buttons.5. The four seasons are: almost winter, winter, still winter, and road repair.6. The highest level of criticism is "He is different, she is different or It was different€ORYou can retire to the Deep South where...1. You can rent a movie and buy bait in the same store.2. "Y'all" is singular and "all y'all" is plural.3. "He needed killin" is a valid defense.4. Everyone has 2 first names: Billy Bob, Jimmy Bob, Joe Bob, Betty Jean, Mary Beth, etc. etc.5. Everywhere is either "in yonder," "over yonder" or "out yonder"..ORYou can retire to Colorado where...1. You carry your $3,000 mountain bike atop your $500 car.2. Your wife tells you to pick up Granola on your way home and so you stop at the day care center.3. A pass does not involve a football or dating.4. The top of your head is bald, but you still have a pony tail.ORYou can retire to Nebraska where...1. You've never met any celebrities, but the mayor knows your name.2. Your idea of a traffic jam is three cars waiting to pass a tractor.3. You have had to switch from "heat" to "A/C" on the same day.4. You end sentences with a preposition: "Where's my coat at.ORFINALLY You can retire to Florida where...1. You eat dinner at 3:15 in the afternoon.2. All purchases include a coupon of some kind -- even houses and cars.3. Everyone can recommend an excellent cardiologist, dermatologist, proctologist, podiatrist, or orthopedist,.....4. Road construction never ends anywhere in the state.5. Cars in front of you often appear to be driven by headless people.
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