COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Wednesday, December 04, 2013

Memo to AIPAC’s Castrado in the US Conga Line:




Pollster finds support for Iran deal

By ALEXANDER BURNS | 12/2/13 7:03 PM EST Updated: 12/3/13 6:22 AM EST

Americans have a favorable early impression of the Obama administration’s nuclear deal with Iran and feel strong skepticism toward the prospect of military action against the Islamic state, according to private Democratic polling shared with POLITICO.
In a survey taken for the liberal group Americans United for Change and conducted by the firm Hart Research, a 34-percent plurality of respondents who had heard at least “a little” about the deal said they favor the White House arrangement with Iran. A total of 22 percent said they oppose the deal and 41 percent said they had no opinion or didn’t know enough to answer.
After hearing a clinically worded description of the deal — stating that it requires Iran to “freeze its nuclear development program” and admit international inspectors, while reducing some U.S. economic sanctions and continuing negotiations for a six-month period – a full 63 percent of respondents favored the deal.
The survey, which tested 800 voters from Nov. 26 to Dec. 1 — but did not include calls on Thanksgiving and the day after — may bolster the case President Barack Obama and his allies will make to Congress, as they ask the legislature to hold off on placing new sanctions on Iran as the administration seeks to make the Iran deal work.
There are also indications that the argument over Iran is far from over: While many voters are “somewhat” inclined to back the deal or find Obama’s arguments “fairly convincing,” there is not yet a majority solidly set behind the administration’s position.
Democratic pollster Geoff Garin, who conducted the survey, said the straightforward takeaway is that voters “clearly want to give negotiations a chance to work if there is a possibility negotiations can prevent Iran from acquiring a weapon without a military strike.”
“Americans do not want to get involved in another war in the Middle East,” Garin said. “The public is reassured by the fact that most sanctions remain in place and Iran has agreed to intrusive inspections, and Americans understand tougher sanctions can be imposed if and when negotiations for a permanent resolution do not succeed.”
Offered a choice between two congressional approaches to the Iran deal, 68 percent of voters said they would prefer to see Congress “closely monitor” the implementation without taking “any action that would block the agreement.” Twenty-one percent of voters said Congress should pass new Iran sanctions “even if doing so would break the agreement … or might jeopardize the negotiations.”
In a sign of the country’s continuing war weariness, only 27 percent of respondents said they would take a favorable view of a lawmaker who backed “military action against Iran to destroy its nuclear development program.” Fifty-two percent said they would take a somewhat unfavorable or strongly unfavorable view of such a position.
And two thirds of respondents said they would prefer a member of Congress who “wants to give the new agreement and further negotiations a chance,” as opposed to 25 percent who’d rather support a lawmaker who wants to hand down new sanctions at the risk of undermining negotiations.
That divide isn’t merely a partisan one: Obama’s Iran deal has drawn flak from Democrats such as New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, as well as an array of leading Republicans, who have voiced concern that Iran is merely playing for time with the deal and has no real intention of abandoning its quest of atomic weapons.
Garin maintained: “The clear majority of voters do not want Congress to impose more sanctions at this point if doing so might jeopardize the agreement and ongoing negotiations.”
AUC president Brad Woodhouse said the group would be briefing congressional Democrats and “other interested parties” on the Iran poll in the coming days.
Update: This story has been updated to clarify that the poll did not test voters on Thursday and Friday of the Thanksgiving holiday.



168 comments:

  1. You will refer to her by her posted name.

    And no the overwhelming majority of us do not support Israel. In fact, the opinion of the majority on this blog is representative as to how the Real American Public really feels.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Actually poles place Israel in quite high regard as compared to Palestinians.

      After all Israelis don't throw rocks at kids.

      they don't blow themselves up in Pizza Huts.

      They don't breed kids as human bombs...

      Now maybe YOUR America does.....

      But Real Americans don't let their babies grow up to be bombers..

      Delete
    2. Real Americans don't let their babies grow up to fight land wars in Asia as proxies of the chickenhawks on the Conga Line, like Dick Cheney.

      Delete
  2. Liberating America From Israel
    By Former Congressman Paul Findley
    9-12-2

    Nine-eleven would not have occurred if the U.S. government had refused to help Israel humiliate and destroy Palestinian society. Few express this conclusion publicly, but many believe it is the truth. I believe the catastrophe could have been prevented if any U.S. president during the past 35 years had had the courage and wisdom to suspend all U.S. aid until Israel withdrew from the Arab land seized in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

    The U.S. lobby for Israel is powerful and intimidating, but any determined president - even President Bush this very day - could prevail and win overwhelming public support for the suspension of aid by laying these facts before the American people:

    Israel's present government, like its predecessors, is determined to annex the West Bank - biblical Judea and Samaria - so Israel will become Greater Israel. Ultra-Orthodox Jews, who maintain a powerful role in Israeli politics, believe the Jewish Messiah will not come until Greater Israel is a reality. Although a minority in Israel, they are committed, aggressive, and influential. Because of deep religious conviction, they are determined to prevent Palestinians from gaining statehood on any part of the West Bank.

    In its violent assaults on Palestinians, Israel uses the pretext of eradicating terrorism, but its forces are actually engaged advancing the territorial expansion just cited. Under the guise of anti-terrorism, Israeli forces treat Palestinians worse than cattle. With due process nowhere to be found, hundreds are detained for long periods and most are tortured. Some are assassinated. Homes, orchards, and business places are destroyed. Entire cities are kept under intermittent curfew, some confinements lasting for weeks. Injured or ill Palestinians needing emergency medical care are routinely held at checkpoints for an hour or more. Many children are undernourished. The West Bank and Gaza have become giant concentration camps. None of this could have occurred without U.S. support. Perhaps Israeli officials believe life will become so unbearable that most Palestinians will eventually leave their ancestral homes.

    Once beloved worldwide, the U.S. government finds itself reviled in most countries because it provides unconditional support of Israeli violations of the United Nations Charter, international law, and the precepts of all major religious faiths.

    How did the American people get into this fix?

    Nine-eleven had its principal origin 35 years ago when Israel's U.S. lobby began its unbroken success in stifling debate about the proper U.S. role in the Arab-Israeli conflict and effectively concealed from public awareness the fact that the U.S. government gives massive uncritical support to Israel.

    Thanks to the suffocating influence of Israel's U.S. lobby, open discussion of the Arab-Israeli conflict has been non-existent in our government all these years. I have firsthand knowledge, because I was a member of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee in June 1967 when Israeli military forces took control of the Golan Heights, a part of Syria, as well as the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza. I continued as a member for 16 years and to this day maintain a close watch on Congress.

    {...}

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. {...}

      For 35 years, not a word has been expressed in that committee or in either chamber of Congress that deserves to be called debate on Middle East policy. No restrictive or limiting amendments on aid to Israel have been offered for 20 years, and none of the few offered in previous years received more than a handful of votes. On Capitol Hill, criticism of Israel, even in private conversation, is all but forbidden, treated as downright unpatriotic, if not anti-Semitic. The continued absence of free speech was assured when those few who spoke out-Senators Adlai Stevenson and Charles Percy, and Reps. Paul "Pete" McCloskey, Cynthia McKinney, Earl Hilliard, and myself-were defeated at the polls by candidates heavily financed by pro-Israel forces.

      As a result, legislation dealing with the Middle East has been heavily biased in favor of Israel and against Palestinians and other Arabs year after year. Home constituencies, misled by news coverage equally lop-sided in Israel's favor, remain largely unaware that Congress behaves as if it were a subcommittee of the Israeli parliament.

      However, the bias is widely noted beyond America, where most news media candidly cover Israel's conquest and generally excoriate America's complicity and complacency. When President Bush welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, sometimes called the Butcher of Beirut, as "my dear friend" and "a man of peace" after Israeli forces, using U.S.-donated arms, completed their devastation of the West Bank last spring, worldwide anger against American policy reached the boiling point.

      The fury should surprise no one who reads foreign newspapers or listens to BBC. In several televised statements long before 9/11,Osama bin Laden, believed by U.S. authorities to have masterminded 9/11, cited U.S. complicity in Israel's destruction of Palestinian society as a principal complaint. Prominent foreigners, in and out of government, express their opposition to U.S. policies with unprecedented frequency and severity, especially since Bush announced his determination to make war against Iraq.

      The lobby's intimidation remains pervasive. It seems to reach every government center and even houses of worship and revered institutions of higher learning. It is highly effective in silencing the many U.S. Jews who object to the lobby’s tactics and Israel's brutality.

      {...}

      Delete

    2. {...}
      Nothing can justify 9/11. Those guilty deserve maximum punishment, but it makes sense for America to examine motivations promptly and as carefully as possible. Terrorism almost always arises from deeply-felt grievances. If they can be eradicated or eased, terrorist passions are certain to subside.

      Today, a year after 9/11, President Bush has made no attempt to redress grievances, or even to identify them. In fact, he has made the scene far worse by supporting Israel's religious war against Palestinians, an alliance that has intensified anti-American anger. He seems oblivious to the fact that nearly two billion people worldwide regard the plight of Palestinians as today's most important foreign-policy challenge. No one in authority will admit a calamitous reality that is skillfully shielded from the American people but clearly recognized by most of the world: America suffered 9/11 and its aftermath and may soon be at war with Iraq, mainly because U.S. policy in the Middle East is made in Israel, not in Washington.

      Israel is a scofflaw nation and should be treated as such. Instead of helping Sharon intensify Palestinian misery, our president should suspend all aid until Israel ends its occupation of Arab land Israel seized in 1967. The suspension would force Sharon's compliance or lead to his removal from office, as the Israeli electorate will not tolerate a prime minister who is at odds with the White House.

      If Bush needs an additional reason for doing the right thing, he can justify the suspension as a matter of military necessity, an essential step in winning international support for his war on terrorism. He can cite a worthy precedent. When President Abraham Lincoln issued the proclamation that freed only the slaves in states that were then in rebellion, he make the restriction because of "military necessity."

      If Bush suspends U.S. aid, he will liberate all Americans from long years of bondage to Israel's misdeeds.


      Mr. Paul Findley, who served as a Republican congressman from Illinois for 22 years, is the author of 'They Dare to Speak Out' and a member of the American Educational Trust's Foreign Relations Committee

      From RePortersNoteBook.com

      Delete
    3. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

      Delete
    4. amazing how you have such a hatred for Israel and yet?

      you never set foot there...

      wow...

      now that's ability...

      Delete
    5. Paul Findley accurately states what a majority of Americans feel.

      Delete
  3. I am sick of you and your foul mouthed personal attacks and insults against people on this blog. You are an infantile shill that never posts anything but Aipac propaganda.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wow, that's deep.....

      Didn't you get the memo?

      I quit AIPAC months ago...

      Delete
    2. Just ask Ms T, Xenia, Teresita,

      she got it...

      Delete
    3. Are you not tired of Rat's personal attacks?

      Or Ms T's?

      Ah I see, just the Jews piss you off...

      LOL

      Good.

      Delete
    4. The good news Deuce? selfish, jew hating twits like you will not rule us. You will not get away with genocide ever again. Nor will we stand back and allow you to let it happen.

      I now that ruins your dinner plans...

      so be it.

      The world is a tough place,.

      you seem to get angry that Jews seek to LIVE.

      well sparkie?

      We aint your granddaddy's Jews...

      We will fight back and if you don't like our style?

      To back.

      Your way? just put a bullet in the head of a jew and poof no more annoyance....

      Delete
    5. Are you not tired of Rat's personal attacks?

      Or Ms T's?


      When you call me a Nazi cunt or "wicked witch" it's difficult to hold back. I do try to limit my attacks to legitimate criticism of Israel, such as when they shook down Pappy Bush for $13 billion dollars for not responding to scud attacks. "That's a nice coalition you got there, be a shame if something happened to it."

      Delete

    6. “A freedom fighter learns the hard way that it is the oppressor who defines the nature of the struggle ,
      and the oppressed is often left no recourse but to use methods that mirror those of the oppressor.
      At a point, one can only fight fire with fire”

      Delete
    7. If you want the Jews to leave, say so; but don't be a hypocrite and feign offensive at foul-mouthed language, not after what I've seen while you remained mute: to wit:

      ufus IITue Dec 03, 11:22:00 AM EST
      1) You are the one that listed all the drugs, and their dosages, that you take every day.

      2) And, You are the one that goes off on these silly-assed rants that no one gives the smallest flip about.

      let it go, allen. You leave me alone, and I'll leave you alone. None of these other people give a crap about any of this.

      Reply
      Replies

      allenTue Dec 03, 10:26:00 PM EST
      Oh, aren't we cute: "You are the one that listed all the drugs...

      Sport, if I were mainlining heroin, it would not alter the truth. You have noted that everything I claimed has been sourced. I fairly sure they are not all junkies.

      Re: "silly-assed rants" Oh, this is such a pleasure. Do you mean these kinds of rants?

      phony-balony, drug-addicted bitch.
      Pissant
      phony piece of shit.
      You are one crazy dick.
      bitch.
      lying maggot
      you are a Fraud
      Junkie. Another Rush Limbaugh.
      asshole
      asshole, allen
      deranged motherfucker
      phony motherfucker
      asinine
      asshole
      idiot phony motherfucker
      sad-sack maggot
      goofy, drugged-up ass
      full of shit as the druggie.
      asshole
      pop a pill, prick
      phony motherfucker
      dipshit
      asshole
      Motherfucker!!!
      Dumbfuck
      phony sonofabitch
      asshole
      unpleasant asshole
      nuttier'n hell
      work the VA for drugs (which he could, of course, sell to allen.)
      lying piece of shit,


      This list is not exhaustive, but from time to time real life intrudes.

      Delete
    8. .

      Well, at least there seems to be a developing consensus.

      .

      Delete
  4. The first responsibility of a man is to protect his woman and children, his family and his tribe. It is not someone else’s duty , it is his. Some murdering thug knocks on your door to kill your family, you make the trade and kill him first. That is what Americans did on 911 when they realized what was happening on the fourth aircraft. You can rail on about everyone wanting to kill your people and find fault in the people that have done nothing to harm you or your people, but that will never change the facts that when your people had the chance to protect their own, they didn’t.

    That is on you. My people fought to kill the nazis. Your people, had they done their duty, would have not left so many around that needed killing when we got there. You want to lay blame, look in the mirror.

    Take your own responsibility. use your own money and your own men and do what you have to do. My people had nothing to do with any of it and I am sick of your filthy innuendo. Your angry? You should be., but at the scum that did it you and the people in your tribe that let them get away with it until someone else had to do the dirty work to stop them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Our people weren't allowed even to have cutlery. But why dwell on the past. You are so right, one fights for one's family. Since 1948 that is what we have done. That is what we will continue to do. See, we no longer have to look bare handed at Panzers, mechanized infantry, artillery, APCs, and bombers crush all before them. We also quit listening to rabbis with a greater interest in being martyred than saving their people.

      You don't like what we do to defend ourselves, as you make clear daily. But we are going to do what we have to do. And if that means meeting boomer with boomer, so be it. But as you imply, we are going to make sure others pay the price. Never Again will someone like you question our masculinity. And never again will psychopaths determine our destinies. NEVER AGAIN!

      But two things have recently happened that may give us a respite from US interference. China has decided the time has come to give back to the West the humiliation it was forced to bow to because of military superiority: It has expanded its sea and air space. Obama has already capitulated by ordering civilian craft to cooperate fully with the Chinese orders.

      The second world changing event is the discovery during the past year in Australia of two vast petroleum deposits (one on land, the other at sea). Each may dwarf the Saudi reserves. The ME may soon be off all radar screens as all eyes turn far too the east.

      Delete
  5. You are always blaming everyone else, but had your men been men, a few tens of thousands would have saved millions. Blame them. Keep your filthy charges against me and others that have done you no harm for yourself and all the other just like you that are incapable of honest introspection.

    ReplyDelete
  6. It is now that I must put up with being called a Peckerwood, a North Idaho Nazi. a fucking fascist farmer Fudd on this blog and cannot respond in kind.

    I do not like Teresita Redinger for all the reasons I have posted.

    She has used many names.

    And has called me names unendingly. Peckerwood, Nazi, on and on.

    If she - and Mr Redinger - if there is one - go back to the Philippines I will be quite pleased.

    I she, desert rat, Rufus 2 and Deuce represent the majority of True Americans I am ready to give up my citizenship.

    Thank you,

    bob

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If she.....etc

      Delete
    2. a·non·y·mous
      adjective
      adjective: anonymous

      1.
      (of a person) not identified by name; of unknown name.

      synonyms: unnamed, of unknown name, nameless, incognito, unidentified, unknown, unsourced, secret

      Delete
    3. Theodore RooseveltWed Dec 04, 09:00:00 AM EST

      "Our allegiance must be purely to the United States.
      We must unsparingly condemn any man who holds any other allegiance.


      “But if he is heartily and singly loyal to this Republic, he is just as good an American as any one else.”

      ….

      The man who calls himself an American citizen and who yet shows by his actions that he is primarily the citizen of a foreign land, plays a thoroughly mischievous part in the life of our body politic.

      He has no place here; and the sooner he returns to the land to which he feels his real heart-allegiance, the better it will be for every good American.”

      Delete
  7. You and that shitbird Allen have the unmitigated gaul to go after a man like Rufus, who when called to duty went out and did what a man was supposed to do. Right or wrong, he was doing what his culture taught him, protect the tribe. Today, he can criticize that it was right or wrong. Where were you? Where would you have been in 1938? Tough guy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I never went after Rufus.

      I said I know nothing about military service and took no position on the dispute.

      I have questioned the wisdom of anyone falling off a bar stool and joining the Marines -- this was Ru'fs description of what he did.



      I do know Rufus is totally unread in the areas I like.

      bob

      Delete
    2. May I request that if I am called a fucking fascist farmer fudd again you might take that down>

      bob

      Delete
    3. Because what I actually am is a small farmer retired who has voted for the Pubs recently.

      We do not have a fascist party here, and if we did I would not join it.

      bob

      Delete
    4. I voted for Frank Church once because I wished to preserve the Salmon River area.

      Which you are all welcome and invited to visit.

      bob

      Delete
    5. And Allen is not a "shitbird".

      His posted name is Allen.

      bob

      Delete
    6. The only "real" things I care about now are my wife and kids and my adopted niece.

      They are quite real to me.

      They are not political slogans.

      While I wish the Jews well, my heart is first to my family.

      I welcome Jews here in my backyard, so to speak.

      I do not wish to have unending political disputes with moslems.

      bob

      Delete
    7. The 9 11 Commission ReportWed Dec 04, 08:31:00 AM EST


      “Islam is not the enemy.
      It is not synonymous with terror.
      Nor does Islam teach terror.
      America and its friends oppose a perversion of Islam, not the great world faith itself.
      Lives guided by religious faith, including literal beliefs in holy scriptures, are common to every religion, and represent no threat to us.”

      Delete
    8. a·non·y·mous

      adjective
      adjective: anonymous

      1.
      (of a person) not identified by name; of unknown name.

      synonyms: unnamed, of unknown name, nameless, incognito, unidentified, unknown, unsourced, secret

      There is no 'bob', no 'bobal', no 'Farmer Fudd', no one by any of the nom de plumes you provided Anonymous.
      You are Anonymous, you are Legion you are the Collective.

      You are not bob not Fudd, nor even the farmer.
      You are Anonymous, revel in it, you fuckin' racist.

      Delete
    9. And NO ONE posts using he avatar "Allen".
      If you were to notice it is 'allen'.

      A definitive difference, to those that take note of such things.

      He is a Fünfte Kolonne von Teamleitern, as well as being a 'shitbird'

      Delete
    10. Ifeanyi Enoch OnuohaWed Dec 04, 08:49:00 AM EST


      “In you is the ability that will move you from nonentity and mediocrity to an entity of meteority.

      Take responsibility now!”

      Delete
    11. aka "shitbird" :-D)))

      From 1946 – 1966 the standard Marine Corps enlistment obligation was four (4) years. Anyone wishing to join had to take all or none. To meet manning requirements in the anticipated build up in Vietnam, the Corps offered three (3) year enlistments as an inducement.

      No one fell off a bar stool and found himself in the Marine Corps. The enlisted ranks were filled most often as they are today, by young men, fresh out of high school. In a moment of clarity, these fellows would show up at the Marine Corps recruiting facility, where they would meet an NCO impeccably dressed and with a four inch stack of ribbons. He would also be an impressive physical specimen of manhood.

      It might take more than one meeting, but often the recruiter got his man. Since the recruiter gained points for selling the longer tour of duty, four years, you may be certain that Rufus got the whole song and dance. But since no one can win them all, Rufus opted for the three year hitch. If he were less than 18, his guardian would have to give permission for his enlistment. Whatever the case, the process could and usually did take several weeks, given records procurement and physical exams etc.

      Again, no one is shanghaied into the Corps and no one just gets drunk and enlists. The system did not and does not work that way. And without doubt, the prospective enlistee would know his time commitment options. Granted, his recruiter might have given the impression of Parisian embassy duty right out of boot camp, but there was no bull about length of service. Indeed, the contract was/is multi-paged. The enlistee would have to mark the box specifying enlistment preference (3 years or 4 years), initial and sign several copies. No one was kept in the dark.

      Even you, Deuce, would have to admit that no one, other than Forrest Gump, could put in a hitch without knowing the SOP. With that, you can imagine my surprise to receive this comment from Rufus:

      allenTue Dec 03, 10:42:00 AM EST
      Rufus II Sat Nov 30, 06:13:00 PM EST
      “Oh, and by the way, you idiot phony motherfucker, the Marine enlistment was 3 yrs., not 4” [Comity is so refreshing]

      When provided with three sources of evidence that sustained my defense of Marine Corps enlistment policy (thereby eliminating a he said-he said situation), I received this brilliant reply:

      Rufus II Tue Dec 03, 10:48:00 AM EST
      All my buds were 3 yr. I guess. whatever.

      Yeah, it is hard overcoming such a strong retort if you are Forrest Gump and have never heard of statistical probability, but I am not Mr. Gump and I am aware of the probability as well as Marine Corps policy. It was BS, 100%

      Rufus knew nothing about the most basic element of service, enlistment. Now, Rufus is not Forrest by any stretch, but for some reason he is blowing smoke up your chimney about his enlistment and you allegedly are buying it.

      None of this could have to do with Israel, could it?

      As to methodology in this game, I played chess, keeping several themes moving at all times. Rufus does not play chess, obviously.

      Delete
  8. Nigerian man survives 3 days at bottom of Atlantic

    LAGOS, Nigeria — About 100 feet down, on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, divers had already pulled four bodies out of the sunken tugboat. Then a hand appeared on a TV screen monitoring the recovery.

    Everyone assumed it was another corpse, and the diver moved toward it.
    As the temperature dropped to freezing, Okene, dressed only in boxer shorts, recited a psalm his wife had sent him earlier by text message, sometimes called the Prayer for Deliverance. “Oh, God, by your name, save me. ... The Lord sustains my life.”

    To this day, Okene believes his rescue after 72 hours underwater was the result of divine deliverance. The 11 other seamen aboard the tug Jascon 4 died.

    On the video, there was an exclamation of fear and shock from Okene’s rescuers, and then joy as the realization set in that this hand belonged to a survivor. “What’s that? He’s alive! He’s alive!” a voice can be heard exclaiming.

    “It was frightening for everybody,” Walker said of that moment, speaking in a telephone interview Tuesday. “For the guy that was trapped because he didn’t know what was happening. It was a shock for the diver while he was down there looking for bodies, and we (in the control room) shot back when the hand grabbed him on the screen.”

    Walker said Okene couldn’t have lasted much longer.

    “He was incredibly lucky. He was in an air pocket, but he would have had a limited time (before) ... he wouldn’t be able to breathe anymore.”

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There's a video of the otherworldly rescue.

      Delete
  9. Kayak fisherman killed in Maui shark attack identified

    According to the Division of Aquatic Resources, this is the 13th reported shark incident statewide this year, and the 8th on Maui.

    ---

    Humans be chum in the water, or even in kayaks, in Maui waters these days.

    ---

    The incident was the second fatal shark attack in Maui waters this year and comes following the death of German visitor, Jana Lutteropp in August at Maui’s Palauea Beach in Mākena.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hezbollah commander assassinated outside his Beirut home

    By Loveday Morris, Wednesday, December 4, 7:01 AM E-mail the writers


    BEIRUT — A senior Hezbollah commander was gunned down outside his home in Beirut, the Lebanese militant group said Wednesday, immediately blaming Israel for the assassination and warning that it would suffer the consequences.

    Hassan al-Laqees was shot late Tuesday in the Hadath area of the Lebanese capital as he returned from work, Hezbollah said in a statement.

    “The Israeli enemy is automatically held completely responsible for this heinous crime,” it said. Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor denied that Israel was involved, the Associated Press reported.

    “Israel has nothing to do with this incident,” Palmor said. “These automatic accusations are an innate reflex with Hezbollah. They don't need evidence, they don't need facts, they just blame anything on Israel.”

    The commander was shot five times in the head and neck, the Lebanese Daily Star reported, citing an unidentified security official. Hezbollah said Laqees had spent his life serving the “resistance” against Israel and lost a son during the group’s 2006 war with Israel. He was previously the target of several failed assassination attempts, it said.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sounds like they did a good job of it too.

      Delete
    2. “It was so much easier to blame it on Them.
      It was bleakly depressing to think that They were Us.
      If it was Them, then nothing was anyone's fault.

      If it was us, what did that make Me? After all, I'm one of Us.
      I must be. I've certainly never thought of myself as one of Them.
      No one ever thinks of themselves as one of Them. We're always one of Us.

      It's Them that do the bad things.”

      Delete
    3. Although an a'Q affiliated group claims credit, Hezbollah blames Israel. This is the sort of logic indulged here.

      Delete
  11. More than 30 Anonymous-related Twitter accounts, including @Anon_Central, one of the largest with over 150,000 followers, have been suspended by Twitter following a campaign of misogynist abuse aimed at feminist campaigners on the social network.

    The four women, Labour MP Stella Creasy, Times columnist Caitlin Moran, freelance journalist Caroline Criado-Perez and campaigner Hannah Curtis, were all named in a document shared by the largest anonymous Twitter account, @YourAnonNews, which claimed that "mentioning these accounts can result in suspension and possible scrutiny for future accounts." It also claimed that "Perez and Creasy appear to have some direct line to Twitter to get accounts suspended sooner."

    Criado-Perez, who has been the subject of campaigns of misogynist abuse before, says that those claims are nonsense. "I certainly don't have the power to ban accounts, but I do report accounts that send threats and harass me," she said. "Sometimes they get suspended and sometimes they don't.

    "I don't bother reporting accounts that just call me a cunt, which is what they seem to think.
    Just ones that are directly threatening or are inciting harassment, like the Anonymous accounts have been."

    http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/dec/04/anonymous-related-twitter-accounts-suspended-misogynist-abuse

    ReplyDelete
  12. Canadian police have reopened the case of a teenage girl who was allegedly gang raped after her suicide led online activists Anonymous to threaten to 'do their job for them'

    Halifax, Nova Scotia, with its population of a little under 400,000, is promoted as a place devoted to outdoor pursuits, with over 150 parks. But on Sunday 14 April, a large group of people gathered outside the police station in protest against something far from wholesome. "Do your job. Do your job," the protesters chanted, in response to the death a week ago of 17-year-old Rehtaeh Parsons, who committed suicide after allegedly being raped by four boys, photographed during the attack and then viciously bullied. "Do your job," the protesters warned police, "before somebody else does it for you."

    Several protesters wore V for Vendetta masks, the distinctive white masks worn by members of hacktivist network Anonymous, which had called for the protest in a bid to force Canadian authorities to review the decision not to press charges against anyone following Parsons' rape complaint in November 2011. Anonymous claims to have identified two of the alleged rapists and believes it is only a matter of time before it knows them all.

    "We engaged #OpJustice4Rehtaeh in response to her suicide," Anonymous explained in a video broadcast last week. "We want the RCMP [Royal Canadian Mounted Police] to take immediate action against the individuals in question … We do not approve of vigilante action. The names will be kept until it becomes apparent you have no intention of providing justice. Better act fast."

    In response Corporal Scott MacRae of the Halifax Regional Municipality, the province's local government body, said: "It's concerning … that people may be wanting to take any form of vigilante action. Opinions and rumours are being taken as a truth. Innocent people could be impacted."

    MacRae also asserts that a year-long investigation into the alleged rape was carried out but the decision was taken "not to proceed with criminal charges due to insufficient evidence".

    Critics including Selley highlight the death of Amanda Todd, another Canadian teen who ended her life after being targeted by sexual extortionists, and whose alleged tormentor Anonymous outed in 2012, as evidence of what happens when "they finger the wrong culprit". The response from Anonymous was that the absence of arrests didn't mean their information was wrong but is "another example of how lazy and ill-equipped the police are in handling these types of crimes".

    But Anonymous's involvement in the recent high-profile case of sexual assault at Steubenville High School, Ohio, in which an incapacitated 16-year-old was assaulted by two boys, while others took pictures, was something of a PR coup for the network. "I really think that the heroes in this story are the hackers who got the photos out there because I think that actually led to a kind of shaming process that pushed this trial forward," said journalist Dave Zirin. Anonymous published a video that showed the rapists revelling in their crime. "She is so raped," one boy laughed, before comparing the victim's unconscious form to "JFK, OJ's wife, Trayvon Martin".

    If sexual assault has a ghastly new pattern in the internet age – a girl is raped, someone whips out their phone to record it, the resulting pictures aren't treated as evidence of a crime but a tool with which to taunt the victim – then Anonymous's involvement is about more than a collective sense of public anger about these assaults, it could also represent a turning point in the way local communities and the authorities deal with rape allegations.


    http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/apr/15/hacktivism-rehtaeh-parsons-rape

    ReplyDelete
  13. The most interesting comment so far today is Doug's post about the man surviving the three.days of extreme distress.

    Was just listening to the news about that on Fox.

    Truly amazing.

    bob

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Luck?

      Perhaps.
      But more often, I dare to say, luck is simply the advantage a true warrior gains in executing the correct course of action

      Delete
    2. This year, the rabbis cited “the extreme seriousness involved in killing fetuses, which is like actual murder.”

      http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/chief-rabbis-of-israel-praise-efforts-to-reduce-abortions#ixzz2l0g8NiJB


      Celebrate Life!

      bob

      Delete
    3. .

      But more often, I dare to say, luck is simply the advantage a true warrior gains in executing the correct course of action

      But then, who gives a shit what you say, you are merely one Anonymous among many, and other members of the Gaggle Anonymi would likely disagree stating instead that when circumstance or incompetence puts you in a position were you have limited options if any, the end result will turn out to be either serendipidous or disastrous regardless of you actions or inaction .

      if you don't like luck, call it what you will.

      A true warrior?

      :)

      A fart in the wind.

      I dare say.

      .

      Delete
    4. a·non·y·mous
      adjective: anonymous

      1.
      (of a person) not identified by name; of unknown name.

      synonyms: unnamed, of unknown name, nameless, incognito, unidentified, unknown, unsourced, secret

      Delete
    5. .

      Exactly.

      A nothing that lacks any type of differentiation even in something as simple as a name, a nothing absorbed in a miasma of nothingness, one of a gaggle of nothings spouting nothing on this blog.

      Not even a nit, merely naught.

      .

      .

      Delete
  14. Republican leaders are no longer talking about repeal,
    which is now harder to pull off after Americans are purchasing their new health insurance.

    Per NBC’s Natalie Cucchiara, not a single Republican lawmaker used the word “repeal” on a Sunday show in the last two weeks.
    That’s not an accident. “Repeal” does not play well with swing voters.

    firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/12/04/21754503-first-thoughts-what-do-republicans-do-next?lite

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ... Democratic strategist and longtime Bill Clinton political confidante Doug Sosnik ... about the current political climate
      . “At the core of Americans’ anger and alienation is the belief that the American Dream is no longer attainable,”he wrote.
      “Previous generations held fast to the promise that anyone who worked hard and played by the rules could get ahead,
      regardless of their circumstances.
      But increasingly, Americans have concluded that the rules aren’t fair and that the system has been rigged
      to concentrate power and wealth in the hands of a privileged few at the expense of the many.

      And now the government is simply not working for anyone.”

      More from the memo:

      “Americans’ long-brewing discontent shows clear signs of reaching a boiling point.
      And when it happens, the country will judge its politicians through a new filter—one that asks,

      ‘Which side of the barricade are you on?




      firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/12/04/21754503-first-thoughts-what-do-republicans-do-next?lite

      Delete
    2. Take from the haves and give to the have nots.

      Since most of the haves actually do something it is take from the makers which are the only ones who have anything to take.

      Delete
    3. Members of bob's Anonymous Million Mask March movement hit the streets of Los Angeles on Tuesday evening as part of what bob described as a global protest against corporate greed and government oppression.

      The marches, during which protesters wore anonymous masks, took place in cities including Melbourne, London, Prague and Washington, D.C., organizers named bob said.

      "Worldwide, every day, our rights are being taken away," said a protester who identified himself as bob.

      "We are here to stand up for our rights," said another marcher who identified himself as bob. 

      Delete
    4. You have put up about 10 meaningless posts today, rat.

      Going for 100?

      Delete
    5. I'm going back to sleep myself.

      Delete
    6. “You ask, what is our aim?
      I can answer in one word.

      It is victory, victory at all costs,
      victory in spite of all terror, victory!
      However long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival.”

      Delete
  15. Detroit is in total financial collapse now. There isn't anything left to take.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There is still the city owned Art Collection, baby.

      The DIA therefore opposes the motion filed last week by certain City creditors to allow them to form a committee to oversee the valuation and sale or "monetization" of the museum art collection to satisfy municipal obligations.

      http://www.wxyz.com/dpp/news/region/detroit/detroit-institute-of-arts-issues-response-to-decision-detroit-is-eligible-for-chapter-9-bankruptcy#ixzz2mWQdQ0pD

      Delete
    2. .

      The art collection is still a tough sell. The DIA is against it, obviously. The State Attorney General says it can't happen. Then there is the issue that some of the art is bequeathed with the stipulation that is for the people of Detroit and Michigan. Also, some of the pieces are merely loaned to the DIA and title was never transferred.

      However, IMO, these will likely be insignificant in the final settlement. What will be more important is that the judge must rule in a manner that leaves a viable city after the re-structuring. In doing so, he is supposed to take into account the cultural life of the city. However, more importantly he has to judge the financial impact of any sale of assets, would it contribute to the long-term viability of the city. Currently, the DIA is run by an independent board that does not report to the city. The DIA is funded by the surrounding counties (Oakland, Macomb, and Wayne) through a special millage passed a few years ago. It represents multiple millions of dollars each year. The counties have already gone on record as saying any sale of DIA assets will result in that millage being nullified.

      The judge will be looking at the long-term result of any actions taken.

      I personally hope there is no sale of the assets. IMO, there is more value in having Bernini's Triton with a Shell viewed by millions of people than sitting on some bedroom nightstand in Dubai.

      .

      .

      Delete
    3. .

      Saw a post here yesterday taking a special glee in the Detroit bankruptcy and the fact that union members would likely be losing a portion (large or small TBD) of their pensions.

      I take no pleasure in it at all. Forget about the fact that some of the people have worked for the city for 30 years are more. The average pension for a city worker before any cuts is $18,000 a year. Police and firemen get around $30,000 per year but they are ineligible for social security. After the cuts, many of these people will be under the poverty line, too old to get a job even if there were one to get, trapped in a city that will take years to rebuild. Every dollar cut will hurt.

      Nobody wins in a bankruptcy but the lawyers.

      .

      Delete
    4. The US military must spend something on the order of $50 billion a year in the Middle East. We pay tribute to Israel of something just shy of $4 billion. The American public is waking up to that and the continuous calls for war coming from Saudi Arabia and Israel. The “everything is on the table” means the US checkbook.

      Detroit is being forced to sell the last of its remaining culture and retired firemen are going to take a haircut on their pensions so that defense contractors and the War Party can be toasted at AIPAC.

      Delete
    5. At todays’ interest rates, $3.5 Billion that we piss away on Israel, could finance a staggering $350 billion in municipal financing.

      Everything is on the table all right, pensions , schools, road, water systems and the bounty taken for redistribution by the Conga Line.

      Delete
    6. We need one honest politician with the money and the balls to step up and tell the truth.

      Delete
    7. Someone who cares more about US cities instead of Middle Eastern relocation colonies.

      Delete
    8. The US public continues to support Israel overwhelmingly. You confuse your feelings with the facts. That has been personally obvious for days. But you can continue to dream.

      Delete
  16. One must wonder ...

    Is this the E-9 that Wi"O" was referring to, just yesterday ?

    Army Master Sergeant Brad Grimes, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan,
    was charged this year with conspiring to pay a female private for sex.
    His trial started on Monday at the base in central Texas.

    "In the court-martial of U.S. versus Master Sgt. Brad Grimes,
    a panel found Grimes guilty of conspiring to patronize a prostitute and solicitation to commit adultery,"

    the base's press center said in a statement late on Tuesday.

    The military panel sentenced him to be reprimanded and demoted.


    bob

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That is Deuce's friend desert rat again.

      It is not me.

      I am out for the entire day, leaving and driving into Spokane to shop with the wife. Going to have lunch at a nice Chinese place we both like.



      bob

      Delete

    2. “Who would you be but who you are?”

      Delete
  17. Quirk is the reason God made Oklahoma

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxiLoXntRMU

    Leggy Loveless

    ReplyDelete
  18. Here is a guy who can’t remember how to log into his Google account:

    Rufus IITue Dec 03, 10:41:00 PM EST
    Allen, you may have forgotten, but you gave a location a year or so, ago, that was close to Chu Lai. I looked it up. You never said anything about being shot up at the battle of July 2nd.

    But, it doesn't matter. You were not a Marine, and you weren't wounded in Chu Lai, Con Thien, Phu Bai, or anywhere else in Viet Nam. Give it up.

    Delete

    AnonymousTue Dec 03, 10:42:00 PM EST

    And it took you a week to figure this out?

    bob

    Delete

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. rat 'trained' killers for midnight duty in Central America.

      bob

      still waiting to leave for Spokaloo

      country/western is sometimes great isn't it?

      Delete
    2. I have told daughter I am not paying any more stable bills until she gets me properly logged into blogger. She is my administrator.

      That should it, but not sure when. By the first of the year perhaps when the next bill comes due.

      :)

      bob

      Delete
    3. should do it

      bob

      Delete

    4. “The need to prove who you are will vanish once you know who you are.”

      Delete

    5. “My own sense is that the acquisition of self knowledge has been made difficult by the modern world.
      More and more human beings live in vast urban environments,
      surrounded by other human beings and the creations of human beings.
      The natural world, the traditional source of self-awareness, is increasingly absent.”

      Delete
    6. Your daughter must be very frustrated with you Bob. She has gotten you logged in numerous times but then you manage to log-out. You really need to pay attention to what she does so that you can fly the intertubes all by yourself. I have laid out a step by step for you to do it yourself but you refuse to do it. I can not figure out why you don't but most of what you write does not make any sense and why should this particular issue be any different?

      Delete
    7. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
  19. Issa is on Fox News giving update on the House hearing on ObamaCare and websites.

    He is asked "Is it true that a computer group offered to build the website for free?"

    Ans: "That is what the uncontested testimony has been. That is not definitive evidence but that is what we have heard...."

    heh

    We have spent, as my niece might say, "tons and tons and tons" on this stupid website, with much more to come.

    I like Issa.

    bob







    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. “I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.”


      Delete
  20. LOS ANGELES, Calif. --
    Caption Gal GadotGreat Hera! “Batman Vs. Superman” has found its Wonder Woman.

    Gal Gadot, 28, has landed the role of DC’s Amazonian princess in the upcoming “Man of Steel” sequel.


    Needs to beef up a bit though.

    ReplyDelete
  21. German newspaper Der Spiegel reported that the country's interior ministers will meet this week to discuss use of an app developed by local police in Saxony that has attracted the unofficial name of 'Nazi Shazam.' Just like Shazam works out what song you're hearing from just a few bars, the system picks up audio fingerprints of neo-Nazi rock so police can intervene when it's being played. The whole situation sounds pretty insane to an outsider, but apparently far-right music is a big problem in Germany, where it's considered a 'gateway drug' into the neo-Nazi scene.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Ash: Your daughter must be very frustrated with you Bob. She has gotten you logged in numerous times but then you manage to log-out.

    Perfect. Now all Deuce needs to do is set the blog to require log-ins, and we're good to go.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. on the other hand you want to encourage posters to post and requiring login closes that off. You at one point said it would have kept you away and Jenny certainly seem afraid of interacting with google, and then there are those passing by that want to say something. Then there is rat with diarrhea.

      Delete
    2. and a boobie who would probably commit suicide not being able to post during his sleepless nights. Deuce would have a bad conscience then.

      Delete
    3. hardeharhar

      Maybe the place should just be shut down?

      One would not read Ash Cans drivel.

      And one would not be censored by Caesar for fighting back on the name calling a little.

      I volunterr to lug Teresita Redinger's luggage to the International Departure Gate at SeaTac anytime she pleases.

      Cold and snowy here.....

      bob

      Delete

    4. “Bigotry is an odd thing.
      To be bigoted you have to be absolutely sure you are right and nothing makes that surety and righteousness like continence.
      Continence is the foe of heresy.”

      Delete
  23. The deadly train derailment in New York City may force railroads to install automatic brakes by 2015 and dash industry efforts to put off adding the technology by five years.

    How about cyborging the whole crew? No? Unions don't like it?

    ReplyDelete
  24. .

    Reid says his staff won't be part of Obamacare. Hardly a worthy example for a proponent.

    But then, speaking of leading by example, Obama hasn't signed up yet. One would think he would have been the first to sign up. Would have made a good photo op.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The whole thing is a farce, like the opening to Iran.

      bob

      Delete
    2. Bozo is sitting in the White House, just like Menckin once anticipated.....


      bob

      Delete
    3. How did that go...

      The American people will finally get what they so want......a true idiot in the White House....

      May not be exact but close.

      bob

      Delete
    4. ... enthralling stories that make us imagine the lives of others.

      A good story lets you know people as individuals in all their particularity and conflict;

      and once you see someone as a person—flawed, complex, striving—

      You’ve reached beyond stereotype.”



      Delete
  25. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Now that is really really interesting....to some minds.....

      bob

      Delete
  26. allenWed Dec 04, 04:41:00 PM EST
    aka "shitbird" :-D)))

    From 1946 – 1966 the standard Marine Corps enlistment obligation was four (4) years. Anyone wishing to join had to take all or none. To meet manning requirements in the anticipated build up in Vietnam, the Corps offered three (3) year enlistments as an inducement.

    No one fell off a bar stool and found himself in the Marine Corps. The enlisted ranks were filled most often as they are today, by young men, fresh out of high school. In a moment of clarity, these fellows would show up at the Marine Corps recruiting facility, where they would meet an NCO impeccably dressed and with a four inch stack of ribbons. He would also be an impressive physical specimen of manhood.

    It might take more than one meeting, but often the recruiter got his man. Since the recruiter gained points for selling the longer tour of duty, four years, you may be certain that Rufus got the whole song and dance. But since no one can win them all, Rufus opted for the three year hitch. If he were less than 18, his guardian would have to give permission for his enlistment. Whatever the case, the process could and usually did take several weeks, given records procurement and physical exams etc.

    Again, no one is shanghaied into the Corps and no one just gets drunk and enlists. The system did not and does not work that way. And without doubt, the prospective enlistee would know his time commitment options. Granted, his recruiter might have given the impression of Parisian embassy duty right out of boot camp, but there was no bull about length of service. Indeed, the contract was/is multi-paged. The enlistee would have to mark the box specifying enlistment preference (3 years or 4 years), initial and sign several copies. No one was kept in the dark.

    Even you, Deuce, would have to admit that no one, other than Forrest Gump, could put in a hitch without knowing the SOP. With that, you can imagine my surprise to receive this comment from Rufus:

    allenTue Dec 03, 10:42:00 AM EST
    Rufus II Sat Nov 30, 06:13:00 PM EST
    “Oh, and by the way, you idiot phony motherfucker, the Marine enlistment was 3 yrs., not 4” [Comity is so refreshing]

    When provided with three sources of evidence that sustained my defense of Marine Corps enlistment policy (thereby eliminating a he said-he said situation), I received this brilliant reply:

    Rufus II Tue Dec 03, 10:48:00 AM EST
    All my buds were 3 yr. I guess. whatever.

    Yeah, it is hard overcoming such a strong retort if you are Forrest Gump and have never heard of statistical probability, but I am not Mr. Gump and I am aware of the probability as well as Marine Corps policy. It was BS, 100%

    Rufus knew nothing about the most basic element of service, enlistment. Now, Rufus is not Forrest by any stretch, but for some reason he is blowing smoke up your chimney about his enlistment and you allegedly are buying it.

    None of this could have to do with Israel, could it?

    As to methodology in this game, I played chess, keeping several themes moving at all times. Rufus does not play chess, obviously.

    Delete

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I take no position.

      But Rufus did say he fell off a bar stool and wandered down to the Marine Recruiting Office.

      bob

      Delete
    2. This is, by the way, not ignoble in itself.

      It is making a life decision of some kind, even if not totally thought out.

      A mythy mind might even seen the beginnings of the birth of the hero of our monomyth here.

      bob

      Delete
    3. You really need to learn that when you misplay a hand, it is better to go onto the next.

      Your response is preposterous, rambling on about his enlistment process. No one remembers those kind of details. Rufus’ comments are credible. I have no memory about what, where and how I enlisted. I remember being at 401 N. Broad Street, lined up with drawers dropped waiting for the mass anal. I remember taking a flight to San Antonio and being in a blur for eight weeks with bits and pieces, some names, most forgotten, some faces, in an open barracks, jogging in formation with combat boots and shorts.

      Half the time doing double time, needing sleep, mail call and qualifying with an M-1. I don’t know what kind of ammo, or how many yards away from target. July and August in Lackland, you prayed for a red flag during the day and an extra blanket at night.

      All that you wrote is pedantic paperback bullshit, that is not from memory of almost fifty years ago. You think you are several moves ahead. It is obvious to me and others that you stumbled into checkmate a couple of days ago.

      Delete
    4. Rufus says he does. Are you disagreeing with Rufus.

      It was obvious to me before I began that I could not win. I supported my claims with facts, Rufus with filth. I wasn't playing chess for your pleasure, but my own. There will be those who remember what I have written. They will use that information against Rufus. I will smile.

      Delete
  27. It sounds like something off the second page of the Manila News.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ANONYMOUS: WARNING WE ARE IN AN OBAMA POLICE STATE


      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uN7KWZwqFw4

      Delete
  28. I think “falling off the stool” was a metaphor on the decisions of youth.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We would have to ask Rufus.

      It is a great metaphor as I noted above.


      It can be both, a real happening turned into a metaphor.

      That is myth.

      After long emails with my OGF this morning we are both hoping my niece falls off the bar stool so to speak (she doesn't drink) and finally puts that abusive Bozo behind her.

      OGF was abused and went through three years of counseling and I have learned a lot from her. Niece is young and is struggling and we hope she makes the right choice and 'becomes a Marine' so to speak.

      If she doesn't and she goes back to India as he is demanding she will just 'become his slave' as niece wrote to me

      She has decided to go to Dresden for a time.

      I am trying to put OGF and niece in contact.

      An older abused woman and a younger abused woman might bind and have a lot to talk about.

      bob



      Delete
    2. “The Dresden atrocity, tremendously expensive and meticulously planned, was so meaningless, finally,
      that only one person on the entire planet got any benefit from it. I am that person.

      I wrote this book, which earned a lot of money for me and made my reputation, such as it is.
      One way or another, I got two or three dollars for every person killed. Some business I'm in.”

      Delete
  29. You enjoy Allen’s nonsense, have at it, but to everyone else, it is a tortured sophomoric Sherlock Holmes Schtick.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Stocks declined, U.S. Treasury bonds sold off and the dollar fell against the yen as investors weighed the outlook for the Federal Reserve to scale back its bond buying after a slew of economic reports. U.S. crude-oil futures prices rose as stockpiles declined for the first time in 11 weeks, while gold and silver futures rallied as some bearish investors grew cautious.

    Investors will want to keep an eye on Chinese telecom stocks trading in Hong Kong after China late Wednesday handed down long-awaited 4G licenses to the country's major-state owned telecom firms: China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom. Any big move for China Mobile shares in particular will impact Hong Kong trading as the stock carries the second-biggest weighting on the HSI, accounting for around 8% of the blue-chip index.

    ...

    The S&P 500 is down 0.7% this week amid a slate of better-than-expected economic reports. Traders and investors say the stronger data support expectations that the Fed could start trimming its easy-money policies, a process known as "tapering," as soon as this month.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Anonymous Texas (Anonymous): Operation Free Acuña #OpFreeAcuña

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqd3OHiDAMw

    ReplyDelete
  32. Stolen container of radioactive material found empty in Mexico.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. With my radioactive prostate seed implants can I become a Weapons of Mass Destruction suicide bomber in Times Square?

      I can only do it once.

      bob

      Delete
  33. On this day in 1980, Led Zeppelin announced it was disbanding after the death of drummer John Bonham.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Let us recall our monomyth.

    The Hero leaves the realm of common day, moves to a realm of supernatural wonder, and returns transformed

    This does not really happen "out there" but "in here".

    The first stage of this movement is the Urge to Adventure.

    One may be invited to go on adventure, tricked to go on adventure, go on adventure by mistake, forced to go on adventure by circumstance, somehow impelled to go on adventure by Coyote the Trickster.

    But it is internal.

    Though, paradoxically, it must have something to do with the "real world", what we normally in our current sleep think of as the "real world".

    Falling Off A Bar Stool With A Gut Full Of Vodka And A Fistful Of Coins is a marvelous metaphor of this Urge to Adventure..

    Has one truly fallen off the bar stool, been pushed off the bar stool, been invited off the bar stool.......?

    Or is Something Else going on?

    The Great Adventure Now Begins

    Though the Call to Adventure may not succeed.

    One may crawl back up the bar stool, wander to the Marine Recruiting Office, pass out, die of alcohol poisoning or discover a brand new Glad Day.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:William_Blake_-_Albion_Rose_-_from_A_Large_Book_of_Designs_1793-6.jpg

    "The stages of life are set forever, a person passes through"

    William Blake


    bob

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No one that has the first clue about life would say Life Sucks.

      My niece is off the bar stool, I pray she does not return to that stool with Bozo.

      She has opted to go to Dresden. And she unconsciously used the term "this adventure".

      :)

      bob

      Delete
    2. May she drink hearty German spiritual wine rather than American Gut Busting Budweiser.

      bob

      Delete

    3. “She sought an adventure but didn't find one.
      She was inexperienced and besides she didn't have too much imagination.”

      Delete
    4. The Somali accused of raping a dying woman and then having intercourse with her dead body will remain in Sweden. Diversity lives.

      http://unityofnobility.com/2013/11/29/swedish-woman-raped-to-death-by-somali-immigrant/

      Delete
    5. She can scan your brain at Max Planck, rat.

      Find the deformities.

      Maybe suggest a solution.

      But she is going on to Dresden, rat as you sit behind your computer, continue to attack your betters, who might do you some possible good.

      bob

      Delete
    6. That is why a country should offer to buy one way tickets back to point of origin for its fourth world immigrants.

      Delete
    7. Swedish women are raped by moslem immigrants with regularity.

      The Swedes should deport all the moslems.

      But that is what trying to be open minded and enlightened sometimes gets you - unending problems

      Delete
    8. Soon the moslems in Sweden will be - in fact, are now - preaching to Swedes about how to treat women.

      Delete

    9. “Another lesson to file away about Sweden: insulting other people in a childish manner was the national pastime.”

      Delete

    10. “The Occident has never found it easy to grasp the strange netherworld of spirits that followers of Islam universally believe exist in a realm overlaid our own.”
      ― Tahir Shah, Travels With Myself

      Delete
    11. Spare the rod spoil the child, Molly Rat.

      You might like it there.

      Too cold for you though, rat.

      They were idiots for thinking the could actually talk to moslems, or people like you.

      But I will buy you the one way.

      Delete
    12. You could take Teresita Redinger with you.

      Two birds with one stone, so to speak.

      Suck off the Swedish welfare state.

      Delete
    13. Probably free sex schange ops too!

      You could marry.

      And divorce is probably free.

      Delete
    14. Wayne Gerard TrotmanThu Dec 05, 12:17:00 AM EST


      “The sad truth about bigotry is that most bigots either don't realize that they are bigots,
      or they convince themselves that their bigotry is perfectly justified.”

      Delete
  35. Beats me, Quirk. You win (this time). 'Though I did relate mine to the last album with Bonham. Points?

    ReplyDelete
  36. Young Americans are turning against Barack Obama and Obamacare, according to a new survey of millennials, people between the ages of 18 and 29 who are vital to the fortunes of the president and his signature health care law.

    The most startling finding of Harvard University's Institute of Politics: A majority of Americans under age 25--the youngest millennials--would favor throwing Obama out of office.


    Rolling Stone Magazine may yet turn out to be a righty rag.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Does this mean there might still be some hope for youth?

      Delete
  37. Mysterious China-themed 'city' proposed in New York’s Catskills
    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/12/04/massive-china-themed-city-proposed-in-new-yorks-catskills/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. But ev'ryday there's a new thing comin',
      The ways of an oriental view.
      The sheriff and his buddies
      With their samurai swords,
      You can even hear the music at night.
      And though it's part of the Lone Star State
      People don't seem to care,
      They just keep on lookin' to the East.

      Talkin' 'bout the China Grove, oh, China Grove

      Delete
    2. Who would want to live in a bamboo hut with chickens in the living room?

      Investment potential:

      zero

      Delete
    3. Some people been drinking the Ganges water.

      Delete
    4. Johann Wolfgang von GoetheWed Dec 04, 10:42:00 PM EST


      “There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action.”

      Delete
    5. Thank Gott rat just sits in his room.

      Delete
    6. :):):):):):):)

      Delete

    7. Everybody must have a fantasy

      Delete
    8. Mrs Teresita Redinger -

      Spiritually, which means metaphorically, or psychologically, the Ganges is a damn fine stream to drink of, from the high mountains to the sea. Thoreau drank heavily of it, and Whitman, and many other fine writers. I hope I have drunk a glass or two myself, and hope you may have or someday will take a sip as well.

      Back when you were a Taoist Lesbian Master going under which name I can't recall, I was beginning to think you had.

      Now I don't know. You seem to have 'given your life to Christ' and the only river he ever waded across was the Jordan. Though spiritually he knew of the Ganges.

      At any rate, in worldly terms, I do not advise drinking of the Ganges these days. Too many rotting dead bodies, though in some stretches it might be safer than the cesspools around Manila.

      My family donated the land for the first deep artesian well in our area, the water of which flows from an aquifer that still drains from the last ice age.

      I suggest you drink from that.

      We also have a state of art water treatment plant here for sewage.

      One year as an experiment we and the City spread smudge from that plant as an experiment.

      The brewing barley grew well, the heads heavy in the fall, strong beer was brewed of it, and I hope Rufus drank some of it in his Budweiser, though I think we sold to Coors.

      bob

      Delete
    9. When I was in the eighth grade, my friend's dad built an electric "smudge" (aka "sludge") shredder/spreader and spread the processed crap on their lawn.

      Delete
    10. The water is so good, Mrs Redinger, that Quirk came up with a scheme to bottle the eject from the well in plastic bottles under the name "Quirk's Ice Age Water - 20,000 Years - Guaranteed"

      He even had designs for T-Shirts with a cave man quaffing in a cave.

      The project fell into dishonor when Quirk was arrested in Detroit again this time for soliciting money on the street for something he called "Salvation For Atheists"

      bob

      Delete
    11. Bet the lawn grew really well too, Doug.

      bob

      Delete
    12. My birthplace, Coalinga, CA, shipped drinking water in railroad tank-cars until the sixties, when they put in a reverse osmosis system.
      Don't know if houses still have three taps like they used to, 1 for drinking water.

      The oilfields went downhill fast in the 50's when the same brackish saltwater got into the oil formations.

      More than half the oil is still there, seems like if they can frack, they oughta be able to figure a way to extract that watery oil.

      "The Frackers" is sposed to be a good book."

      Delete
  38. A pair of thieves in Mexico may have stolen more than they bargained for when they targeted a truck this week.

    ...

    The container was found about a kilometer away from the truck and had been opened, said Juan Eibens Chutz, head of Mexico's National Commission for Nuclear Security.

    ReplyDelete
  39. President Barack Obama's Kenyan-born uncle, who ignored a deportation order more than two decades ago, on Tuesday was granted permission to stay in the United States.

    President Barack Obama's Kenyan-born uncle, who ignored a deportation order more than two decades ago, on Tuesday was granted permission to stay in the United States.

    Judge Leonard Shapiro made the decision after Onyango Obama, 69, testified that he had lived in the U.S. for 50 years, been a hard worker, paid income tax and been arrested only once. (AP)

    ReplyDelete
  40. .

    Some advocates of war seem gripped by Thirties Envy, a longing for the clarity of the 1930s, when appeasement failed to slake the dictators’ thirst for territorial expansion. But the incantation “Appeasement!” is not an argument. And the word “appeasement” does not usefully describe a sober decision that war is an imprudent and even ultimately ineffective response to the failure of diplomatic and economic pressures to alter a regime’s choices about policies within its borders.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/george-f-will-better-a-contained-iran-than-an-all-out-war/2013/12/04/e4dcb1aa-5c4b-11e3-95c2-13623eb2b0e1_story.html?hpid=z2

    .

    ReplyDelete
  41. .

    ALEC is at it again, squeezing the little guy until there is nothing else to squeeze. This time they want to charge the individual homeowner for installing solar panels on their roofs.

    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/04/alec-freerider-homeowners-assault-clean-energy

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ""As it stands now, those direct generation customers are essentially freeriders on the system. They are not paying for the infrastructure they are using. In effect, all the other non direct generation customers are being penalised," he said.

      Eick dismissed the suggestion that individuals who buy and install home-based solar panels had made such investments. "How are they going to get that electricity from their solar panel to somebody else's house?" he said. "They should be paying to distribute the surplus electricity."

      In November, Arizona became the first state to charge customers for installing solar panels. The fee, which works out to about $5 a month for the average homeowner, was far lower than that sought by the main electricity company, which was seeking to add up to $100 a month to customers' bills."

      ---

      "Freeriders" who invest in Generation Plants providing energy to public utilities.

      Spaghetti Logic, for sure.

      We got our PV system in before the Electric Company began sandbagging the application process seemingly to delay the installation of new systems.

      Delete
    2. I'd bet the majority of residential PV Systems are net consumers of electricity.

      Also, being small, dispersed "Powerplants" would seem to make load distribution less of a problem, although the power companies argue about the problems for THEIR generators caused by the intermittent nature of "alternative energy."

      Delete
  42. Thirties Envy - to those of clear sight - are there any Churchills around today? - the thought is ironic.

    bpb

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. bob said that

      O well, what's a suicide cult with nukes........suitcase nukes.......

      We are going to find out........

      Some would suggest most today are in the throes of Twenties Envy......broads, booze, bands.......

      Like no tomorrow

      bob

      Delete
    2. Followed by the hangover of the thirties,,,,,,and the lethal sobriety of the forties.....

      Before the age of suicide cults.......with nukes......

      Will you be home for Christmas....

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFGfCn5rKIM

      Bing Crosby

      Even if only in your dreams........

      bob

      Delete
    3. Life is a comedy, not tragedy,but is, finally, serious as all hell.

      Joe Campbell

      who thought we ought to keep those weapons sharp and ourselves on our toes

      edited/abridged by

      bob

      Delete
  43. Phil Jackson

    Jackson was born in Deer Lodge, Montana. Both of his parents, Charles and Elisabeth Funk[6] Jackson, were Assemblies of God ministers. Elisabeth came from a long line of Mennonites before her conversion to the Assemblies of God. In the churches that they served, his father generally preached on Sunday mornings and his mother on Sunday evenings.

    Eventually, his father became a ministerial supervisor.[6] Phil, his two brothers, and his half-sister grew up in a remote area of Montana in an austere environment, in which no dancing or television was allowed.

    Jackson did not see his first movie until he was a senior in high school, and went to a dance for the first time in college.[6] Growing up, he assumed he would become a minister.

    ReplyDelete