The pot calling the kettle black, and other fun things.

In my research of the goings on in the world, I tumbled upon two unrelated items I thought I'd share with you.  The first comes from an article on World news (wn.com) by a contributing writer named Dallas Darling.  Who is Dallas Darling?  Well, his basic bio is that he was a Master of Divinities from the Assemblies of God, who became an anti-imperialist after watching alleged atrocities by the US of A in the overthrow of Manuel Noriega.  His scorecard further reads that he was de-frocked lost "several careers", and received death threats that have caused him to move several times. Commentators about him have ranged from "...displays a kind of intellectual freedom sorely lacking in American politics..." and "...his subversive literature is necessary to confront the American Empire and globalization of the world..." to  " ...a left wing loon. A true Blame America First nut case..." and "  While it is all well and good to examine the options, it seems Mr. D's issue relies on a pragmatic approach to pragmatism. Using circular logic and employing the functionality of a particular issue to dismiss its functionality is incoherent. My beef is not that I am on the other side of most issues as Mr. D but that the argumentation used to justify his position is intellectually unsound. Mr. D needs to go back to school and learn the fundamental laws of logic...for the first time obviously..."

For my part, I can only (and hopefully will only) be able to judge on the basis of the article I read here Which discusses how "dishonest and intellectually lazy" Republicans are for coming up with words like Obamacare to perjure the health care act and other such things.  First thing I would ask Mr. Darling (no apparent relation to Briscoe Darling) is, if "Obamacare" is a perjorative, does that mean that health care has been perjured by connecting the Obama plan to it?  He goes on to various other (if I may be so lazy and intellectually dishonest) wooly-headed ideas as the Columbine massacre being blamed on liberalism, Republican domination of "basic idioms, phrases, and even complex issues" (One of these things is not like the other...), and "What if Democrats started saying 'Romneyneglect'?"

But the thing that caught me was this line, which puts his "intellectual argument" in its true light, was this bon mot:

Not only have Republicans weaved a web of intellectual (and emotional) dishonesty, but using the idiom "Obamacare" is a lesson in intellectual laziness. (Recall that "idiom" means idiot. It is an expression having a meaning that cannot be understood from the combined meanings of its actual words nor individual meanings of its component words.)

Did you catch that?  ""Idiom" means idiot.  Let's take a look at the definition of idiom, from Dictionary.com:

noun

1.

an expression whose meaning is not predictable from the usual meanings of its constituent elements, as kick the bucket or hang one's head, or from the general grammatical rules of a language, as the table round for the round table, and that is not a constituent of a larger expression of like characteristics.

2.

a language, dialect, or style of speaking peculiar to a people.

3.

a construction or expression of one language whose parts correspond to elements in another language but whose total structure or meaning is not matched in the same way in the second language.

4.

the peculiar character or genius of a language.

5.

a distinct style or character, in music, art, etc.: the idiom of Bach.

---

Origin:
1565–75; < Latin idiōma < Greek idíōma peculiarity, specific property equivalent to idiō- (variant stem of idioûsthai to make one's own, appropriate, verbal derivative of idiós; see idio-) + -ma noun suffix

 

So, while he used the fraction of the definition that pertained to his argument- which is okay- he also appended his OWN definition, contained in neither the ACTUAL definition nor the etymology of the word.  Hmmm, what was he saying about "intellectual dishonesty?"  Not to mention that he goes on to lament that Republicans not dominate idioms, thus working both sides of the street.  Using circular logic and employing the functionality of a particular issue to dismiss its functionality is incoherent, yes?

 

Reminds me of an old episode of Family Affair where Mr. French is trying to explain classical idioms to young Buffy and Jody, and Jody, innocently interested, asks, "Can you tell us any more classical idiots?"  Well, Jody, I think I can.

 

 

____________________________________

 

Scrappy has had a couple of incidents worth mentioning in the last few days.  We had been taking late night walks, and discovered we are not alone.  One night we encountered 5 dogs being walked, a guy sitting under a tree with his laptop, at least one person doing... something... in the exercise room WITH THE LIGHTS OFF, and a person changing his oil... all at 10:30 PM.  At any rate, We went out two nights ago, met a 6-month-old puppy named Oliver, and on the way home, Mr. Skunk was going down the street not thirty feet in front of us.  Which caused a rapid deceleration on my part and an equal-but-opposite acceleration on the part of Scrappy.  Mr. S noticed us and crossed the street- just as a car was coming in from behind us.  As I prayed aloud "Don't hit 'im, don't hit 'im", the car slowed.  Mr. Skunk saw the headlights and OF COURSE (Much like Mr. Darling's logic) headed right for them.  Fortunately, the car was able to adjust and Mr. S finally crossed the street and made for cover, tail straight up the whole way.

 

The other incident happened yesterday morning as we walked along "dead tree road".  I had seen two squirrels from down the road a ways; one headed as fast as his fat little butt could move for the woods, the other scrambled up a tree.  By the time we got to where they had been, I was searching the trees (and seeing nothing) and Scrappy was sniffing the scene.  Suddenly the dimwit squirrel FELL out of the tree- about 3 1/2 feet right in front of Scrappy. Scrappy's ears went, SPROING! and the squirrel just managed to vacate the area ahead of him, climing another, presumably safer, tree in which to change his underwear.

 

__________________________________

 

Finally, I tumbled upon this culinary treat in perusing the same news source the other day.

 

'Cannibal cult members' arrested for murder, eating raw brains and making penis soup

 

Authorities in Papua New Guinea have arrested 29 members of a suspected cannibal cult accused of killing seven people before eating their brains and making soup from their penises.

The accused are alleged to have been part of a 1000-strong group which was formed to take on suspected witch doctors.
They believed their victims had all been involved in 'sanguma', or sorcery, and that they had been demanding sex and money from villagers in return for exercising their spiritual powers.
A Madang Police Commander, Anthony Wagambie, confirmed reports that the cult members had eaten the victims' brains raw and had made soup from their penises.
“They don't think they've done anything wrong; they admit what they've done openly,” Wagambie said.
The group claimed witch doctors had begun charging large fees of 1,000 kina or $475 for casting out evil spirits and providing other services.
The accused also claimed the alleged witch doctors had begun demanding sex as payment.
The cult members believed that by eating the witch doctors' body parts they would attain their spiritual powers, and become bullet-proof.


Once again, another of those cultures I am glad God didn't decide to birth me in.

In response to David Sowards

You know, I try not to respond to letters in the Journal-Gazette anymore.  Liberal spoutoffs who spend half their letters accusing conservatives of "parroted phrases" when their whole rant was lifted off a Barackobama.com "how-to" page.  But sometimes, I have to say something, if only to let the world know that there are people with intelligence still alive in the US of A.  One such letter came in today from a David Sowards, who is apparently seeking the Democratic nomination for Congress from the third district- i.e. NE Indiana.  Here is his letter, and my response.

Do-nothing party must be dumped

Some good reasons not to vote for the Republicans:
1. They often like to brag about how conservative they are. But remember, some of the worst presidents we ever had were conservatives – Bush 1, Bush 2, Nixon, Hoover, Harding, Taft, all failures.

Really.  But let's not talk about Wilson, who sent thousands of boys to their deaths in WWI in order to get his name on the USA entry into the League of Nations- which never happened, and that was a good thing; or about FDR, who created the entire system of Welfare that keeps thousands safe and secure from having to work and costs taxpayers billions; or Jimmy Carter, who plunged the economy from a mess to a disaster.  And the only reason that Bush I was a "failure" was that the Democrats in Congress forced him to rescind his "Read my lips-no new taxes" pledge.

2. They support another plan to reduce taxes for the wealthy and to increase our national deficit.

Reducing taxes wouldn't be increasing the debt.  That would be the added spending on Obamacare and so many other things,  and Republicans are trying to REDUCE that, i.e. the Paul Ryan plan.  The man preventing those cuts is Sen. Harry Reid, who last I checked was a Democrat.

3. They are anti-union, anti-working class, anti-minority, anti-women, anti-foreigner and anti-anyone who disagrees with them on any issue. They are almost like a hate group.

Republicans are a Hate Group. Wow.  And people want to vote for this guy?  Yes, we are against unions being a parasite on our economy; no, we are not anti-working class- why do Dems want to regulate jobs out of business?  Why do they want to shut down pipelines and oil wells and thus force the working class to pay $4 and up for a gallon of gas?  No, we are not anti-minority, we are anti-favoritism to minorities.  We are for minorities that work to improve themselves. We are in favor of minorities who come here UNDER THE RULE OF LAW.  No, we are not anti-women.  Many of us believe that the taking of life is a sin, and try to defend those too young to defend themselves.  If you think that is "anti-women", so be it.  Anti-foreigner?  See "anti-minority".  And anti- anyone who disagrees with them?  Please.  I have listened so many times on talk shows where liberals are given a chance to speak, and they rant loudly, on and on, not giving the host a chance to respond or even speak, and then pat themselves on the back when they get hung up on for having proven some great point.


4. Under President George W. Bush, they did everything possible to try to bankrupt this country and destroy the future of your children.

Hey, Dave?  You want to look at the spending President Obama has created- the spending that the GOP has tried hard to eliminate- and then come back and compare notes?


5. They have totally failed to help the anti-abortion movement achieve their goals.

You say that like it's a bad thing.  Do you WANT the anti-abortion movement to succeed, Dave?  I would have thought that was because your side was winning their battle, but whatever.


6. They support the gun nuts and the reactionaries. They’re so far right, they’re so far wrong.

Gun Nuts and reactionaries?  Dave, can you tell me why a left-wing name-caller who can't get the simplest fact straight is an improvement?

7. They really only care about serving the interests of rich people like Mitt Romney. They will never care about people like you.

This from the party who want to prevent voter-ID so that dead people and illegal aliens can elect our next President.  This from the people who want Congress to "pass the bill and we'll find out what's in it later."  This from the people that want you to give up your constitutional right to practice your religious rights so that they can have sex, get pregnant, and dispose of the results at their leisure, on your dime.  When was the last time Harry Reid told a union boss, thank you, no, I don't need your contribution?  When did Barack Obama turn down money from George Soros, saying, "No, it wouldn't be right?"  Your statement #7 (and #s 4 and 6) sound like something a spoiled fourth-grader would write.

There’s an easy way to end the gridlock in Congress – just elect all Democrats. And throw out the do-nothing Republicans in Congress.

Do nothing??? Again, I thought Harry ("I won't even allowed that to be debated in the Senate") Reid was a Democrat.
I welcome your support at davidsowardscongress.blogspot.com/

DAVID SOWARDS Candidate for the Democratic nomination for Congress, 3rd District

So, I decided to give Dave the benefit of the doubt- no one seriously running for Congress can be THIS immature, right?

Well, if you want, you can check his Blogger profile.  He has  eleven blogs- some for somewhat legitimate prose, one for a really disgusting story, one for a passle of anti-conservative, anti-God jokes, one (God help me, it's true) with nothing but sketches he drew of Barack Obama, and of course his campaign blog.  All of which have one common theme- NO FOLLOWERS.

Or you can check his Youtube Website here.  Remember, I can't make this stuff up.

Dave is one of the six Dems who will be vying to run without hope against Marlin Stutzman, along with legit candidate Kevin Boyd, a retired carpenter, a retired cop, "college student" Justin Kuhnle, who describes himself as a conservative Democrat (and actually shows evidence of thinking out his positions), and of course Tommy Schraeder, who became famous last year for running in a local election while living in Wisconsin, oblivious to the campaign.

So now, at least we know that if nothing else, the Indiana primary will be fun to see if Dave can outpoll Schraeder.  And that the Journal-Gazette really will print anything.

The importance of real life perspective.

One of the sites I read a lot is Foreign Policy magazine.  They do have informative and interesting articles, but tend to lean a little bit too much to what even they call “the Ivory Tower”:  Academics who have a tendency to make flowery pronouncements without benefit of street realities, and then are puzzled as to why both politicians and the proletariat don’t just fall at their feet.  A good example is this “special report” I’ve been reading-  13 out of the tinderbox ways to save the economy.  It is 13 separate articles which they preface with: “Debt-ridden and hidebound, Europe may be on the verge of a painful breakup. America is still reeling from the 2008 financial crisis. Even China and India -- the new engines of global growth -- seem to be sputtering these days. Worse yet, the usual wonkish prescriptions don’t seem to be working anymore. So we asked 13 of the smartest people we know to give us their one out-of-the-box idea for fixing the global economy. Here’s what they recommend.”
They lead off with business editor Paul Kedrosky’s plan to institute a systematic, measured “Jubilee year” in which worldwide debt at all levels is written off.  Thought process being that while debt is necessary to capitalist economies, the amount we have is so unsustainable that something has to be done- a reset button, if you will.  I can follow that to a point, and the point is his as well- it is not a permanent fix, as debt will and will need to rebuild.  Where I find fault is that his, and any of these other fixes are only temporary in nature.   Follow me:  Modern industrial-financial progress is made possible by two things- the Market and Insurance.  Capitalism at its base is the transfer of goods and services, usually with the help of an exchange medium (i.e. money).  Neither the stock market or insurance transfer a product.  Thus they are a parasite on the system.  However, they have allowed the SCALE of economy that we are now tied to, and cannot untie ourselves short of all joining a Mennonite community.  Thus, a Jubilee year, or any other solution, is just pumping the water out of a basement that was never built to keep water out.
Next up was “freelance economist” Dianne Coyle, who isn’t the only one to suggest a WPA style program, on an emergency basis.  But you know, I wonder if this isn’t time to expand the idea.  Again, follow- what if you established a “National Infrastructure Corps”, by eliminating both Unemployment and Welfare, automatically enrolling these people in the NIC to learn construction and trades, and work the training off in building schools, roads, bridges.  The work would be paid for in unproductive funds no longer going to UEB and Welfare, the ones that learn the best would have the opportunity in private sector, and those that didn’t care for the work would be that much more motivated to go find something they DID like.  Of course, I’m sure that the liberals would be scrambling to put forth “right to not work” legislation to sink it.
Tech forecaster Paul Saffo suggests we find a way to collect “better data” with which to figure out what the economy is doing.  He says that we’ve been beating ourselves by thinking of the global economy as an “equilibrium” economy.  (it isn’t; the market and insurance alone assures that.)  He wants to be able to forecast its dynamism by establishing a world database that would be “ an institution with the analytic resources of Wall Street players, the reach of Google, and the openness of Wikipedia. “  Yeah, but if it has these attributes, how do you guarantee the ACCURACY of the data? It’s easy to say that it would “ serve a purely informational role with no policy responsibilities”; harder to see that those who DO have those responsibilities don’t feed it fudged numbers, like Obama’s unemployment numbers that look better until you add in those who’ve given up job searching altogether.

Barney Frank, of all people, is next with a proposal for a Ron Paul/George Sorous like neutering of Defense.  And actually, he has a part of something here.  He is spot on when he says,  “many of my conservative colleagues have opposed the idea of reducing our military budget on grounds that I refer to as "weaponized Keynesianism." They claim that government spending doesn't create jobs -- unless it is for the military. Many opponents of cuts in military spending now argue against them not in terms of national defense, but on the grounds that they would cause job losses. “  I would like to think I am not the military isolationist that the aforementioned gentlemen are; however, there is entirely too much waste being vacuumed into the Pentagon, and that has to stop.

Menzie Chinn and Jeffry Frieden suggest a small raise in the inflation rate will do the trick;  I am not convinced that this will do anything but pay someone else’s debts with my money.  Justin Yifu Lin suggests the WPA idea anew, but as a global project working in the third world- and I say, if I don’t want my efforts militarily expended there, why do I want my development money going there?  By the time we get them on a par with where we are, we’ll be on a par with where they were.
I really find it hard to believe that a blogger with a 30 year old degree in business from IPFW should have to tell such a famous and allegedly intelligent economist as JK Galbraith that he’s full of shit, but here we are.  He proposes a $5 raise in the minimum wage.  “a high minimum wage would be a self-enforcing deterrent against abusive employers seeking cut-rate help. Jobs for the undocumented would dry up. Those who hold onto their jobs -- the vast majority of low-wage workers and especially those with U.S. citizenship, English fluency, experience, and skills -- would gain a big advantage.”  He bases his support of this moronicy on three items. #1- “Would this hurt competitiveness? Not at all. That's an issue for manufactured goods and traded services like insurance and banking, sectors in which everyone already earns far more than $12 an hour.”  Hello, asshole?  I work in a manufacturing job in which NO ONE is making $12 an hour, and if they did, 90% of the jobs would be in China in a heartbeat- including mine.  You might want to look around and see that not everyone works a nice cushy union job before you pour forth such excrement.  #2- “Would prices go up? Some would. But rich people can afford it -- and workers would have extra income to pay the higher prices, so most of them would come out ahead. Women in particular would benefit because they tend to work for lower wages. With more family income, some people would choose to retire, go back to school, or have children, making it easier for others who need jobs to find them”.  Again, this justification discounts the entire strata I live in, and is a nice solution for the wealthy.  Just the kind of thing that idiot occupistas would support.  #3- “Most of all, a big jump in the minimum wage would be a reparation. It would be a payback to those who have suffered from the economic crisis: the working population. It would be an act of justice.”  Thank you, so much, JK, for gifting me with the loss of my job.  Kiss my ass.
The other ideas involved:  Seed money to small entrepreneurs, instead of pissing $500 bil down Solyndra’s toilets; stopping the “gaming” of the world’s exchange system (including, but not limited to, China); a surtax on private consumption over $500,000 (another lovely steal-from-the-rich plan that would fall flat as the wealthy turn savings into offshore investment –nod-nod-wink-wink);  Breaking the cycle of unemployment-to-poor-health- to poor-education- to unemployment by teaching people how to take care of themselves better (Can we wake up here? Please?  People don’t not take care of themselves do to lack of knowing how to- there are resources EVERYWHERE.  They don’t take care of themselves because they don’t FEEL LIKE IT.  Diet, exercise, checkups, are all things readily available.  Motivation is the problem, and no program will solve it.);  redesigning cities to be greener by being denser packed, thus eliminating the need for polluting public and private transportation ( and ensuring we all pay Selling New York prices for the least hovel); and the brilliant idea of one Daniel C. Dennett:  “We academics have long summer vacations and even longer sabbaticals -- glorious big chunks of green time in which to write books, spend months on end studying various phenomena, or just see the world or build a boat. We don't just enjoy recreation; we re-create ourselves.What would it take to create a system of allocating work that maximized green time for everyone? “  Now there’s a helpful idea- but what else would we expect from one of the “Four Horsemen of New Atheism”?

For your next special report, FPM?  How about ideas from people who might have a clue, who fight against total economic loss every day, and for whom bankruptcy is something more than an intellectual exercise to be done on some random “green” day?

Grumble, grumble...

Y'know, there are just some days I've had enough of this world.  I mean, look at this:

Boy, 9, Suspended from School for Sexual Harassment After Calling Teacher 'Cute'

Published December 04, 2011

| FoxNews.com

A 9-year-old boy North Carolina boy was suspended for calling a teacher “cute,” WSOCTV.com reports.

The boy’s mother, Chiquita Lockett, said the principal of Brookside Elementary in Gastonia called her after the incident to say the comment was a form of “sexual harassment.”

"It's not like he went up to the woman and tried to grab her or touch her in a sexual way," Lockett said. "So why would he be suspended for two days?”

According to the station, a district spokeswoman said she could not go into detail, but said the boy was suspended for "inappropriate behavior" after making "inappropriate statements."

The district's Code of Conduct doesn't list "inappropriate behavior," but says "disruption of school" is punishable by five days of out-of-school suspension.

The news of the North Carolina boy’s suspension comes as a Massachusetts elementary school is investigating a first-grader for sexual harassment after the boy struck another boy his age in the groin.

The mother of the accused 7-year-old tells the Boston Globe that her son was fending off another child, who had choked him in an altercation on the school bus on Nov. 22.

“I think my kid was right to fight back,’’ said the mother, Tasha Lynch, 30. “He wasn’t doing anything except protecting himself.’’

Lynch says her son has been afraid to return to Tynan Elementary School in South Boston since the fight, according to the paper.

Matthew Wilder, spokesman for the Boston public schools, declined to comment on the incident or why it has been classified as a possible case of sexual harassment. He said officials do not discuss confidential student information.

Like Laurie pointed out last night, if the teacher thought this was such a problem, why not call the parents and discuss the problem with them?  Why on earth disrupt and embitter a child's education because a teacher can't take a compliment?  And if he said it in an inappropriate manner, why not (like I just said) CALL THE PARENTS?  It seems like that's how it was handled back in the day, and it worked pretty well for us.

Back then, mom and dad were the fear of God, and we behaved. Now, we must be careful not to damage their frail little self image, so they can grow up stupid, spoiled, and join the occupy movement, like Rush says.  Luckily, we have liberal leaders who will rewrite history for us so we can see that it was not their dipshit ideas that ruined this country, it was the fact that this country has never gotten around to apologizing to the radical Muslims, Hirohito, Hitler, and the great-great- great- grandchildren of slaves and Indian chiefs for all the horrible things with did to and thought about them.  That and all the fatty burgers we eat (like the two I cooked myself tonight).

And then you have my favorite female dog, Nancy Pelosi:

Pelosi didn't go into detail about Gingrich's past transgressions, but she tipped her hand. "One of these days we'll have a conversation about Newt Gingrich," Pelosi said. "I know a lot about him. I served on the investigative committee that investigated him, four of us locked in a room in an undisclosed location for a year. A thousand pages of his stuff."

Outside of the fact that what she proposes to release violates every rule of congressional ethics, I just look at this and what the Democratic stooges at Politico and their sister organization, the Lying Liberal Prostitutes of the Food Service Industry, did to Herman Cain, and I have to ask this-

Can the Democratic party defeat any candidate on the merits of their candidate, or do they HAVE to smear a man's reputation to win?  When I got my first voter registration, I told my dad that I registered independent.  He said, "We're Democrats."  I said, "Well, I'm not."  One thing I did that I will never regret.  If I had to change history, bend the truth beyond all recognitions, run to BarackObama.com for my latest sound bites in order to think, tell people, 'let's just vote on it and then we'll figure out what's in it', and pay homeless women to have imaginary affairs just to keep my party in power, I'd rather make a living selling dog poop on the street corner.  At least I could live with myself- at least I could sleep at night.  Outside of morphine, I don't know how "Princess Nancy" does it.

Okay, try to cheer myself up.  Okay, here's something funny.

'Germany's dumbest bank robber' gets seven years

(AFP)–3 days ago

BERLIN — A man who tried to hold up a bank that closed 17 years ago has been jailed for seven years, in what the Bild newspaper on Friday called the case of "Germany's dumbest bank robber".
The regional court in the western city of Osnabrueck said the defendant, identified only as 57-year-old Siegfried K., arrived at the bank branch, now equipped only with cash machines, with a toy gun in May.
He seized a female "hostage" in the lobby of the building to demand a 10,000-euro ($13,483) ransom from bank employees.
a physiotherapy practice," the court said in a statement.
Bild said the bank had moved out 17 years ago.
"After the defendant recognised the situation, he changed his plan and demanded a passer-by withdraw money from the cash machine," the court said.
"She withdrew 400 euros and the defendant made off with the cash in a car he had stolen."
He later abandoned the vehicle but left the plastic pistol, covered with his fingerprints, between the seats.
The court said Siegfried K. had confessed to the robbery and judges handed down a seven-year sentence on Tuesday due to 22 previous convictions over the last 40 years.

I guess next year I should work harder at getting a good stable of "who's dumber" stories.  But man, this year, it just seemed like there were too many to chose from.  Really, just let me sleep till people get good sense.  I got tired waiting.

Scrappy's choice

Try to make this quick, as I'm fading fast, but since the Reds can't get one last man out, I guess I have time.

First, I should tell you the deer story.  This weekend, we took one of our normal walks down the new trail through the woods.  Suddenly, two deer ran across no more than 50 feet in front of us.  As per usual, Scrappy had to sit dumfounded for a few seconds- which is fine, because I figure the less we chase them, the more we see them.  Little did I know...
That night it was closing on 1 AM and the two of us went out for his last nightly trip.  Now the porch is all fenced in, so he can only smell and not see what goes on beyond.  But apparently he couldn't smell what I saw.  At the edge of the woods on the property line are three pines in a row on complex property.  Underneath one of them I saw eyes.  As I continued to watch (and be watched), I realized that one of the deer was lying down beneath the tree!  This was a new one on me, and Scrappy was oblivious- even as I talked to our reclining friend.  Soon, she stood up- and THEN Scrappy caught her scent.  She glided into the trees, and we went to bed.
Not the end of it.  For all his bluster, detecting animals upsets Mr. Drama Queen.  Ten minutes of "But daddy, it was a deer" later, I had just got him calmed down when he erupted again.  Sure enough, two more deer stood grazing at the tree line.  I'm beginning to think that they are spies from BarackObama.com.  After all, both groups have a common enemy in the NRA and environmental developers.  Which would be a nice seque into my last story, but I've got something else to share first.

We took a Scrappy's choice walk tonight.  This is when I let him do the leading and see where we end up.  Not always a good idea, I assure you.  Anyway, we were up on the river end of the greenway trail and he chose a path we rarely take, possibly because itg usually looks like this:

Yeah, Rainbow, we've gotten a lot more rain than you guys, especially lately.  But anyhow, we found another orphaned golf ball (we now have given thirty-one such balls a home this summer), and worked our way around to one of the old canal feeders.

Amazing to find such peaceful little patches in this world of ours. Just tranquil, and reminds you that not all is man's madness.
So we go on, and I found this odd little plant.

Researcher Laurie learned that this is called White Baneberry, and those berries are quite poisonous.  Well, if I ever just want to disappear into the woods and end it all, I know what to look for.  Just sayin'.
Scrappy leading is a lot like trailing a drunk.  Weaving in and out, getting wrapped up, occasionally going around with a bush stuck up one's butt.

I mean, not just anyone can look good with his head in a hole...

Ahh, I bet you were thinking... but no, I meant gopher holes.

And now to that other story, one I could NOT just let lie.

Climate-gate, Himalaya-gate, and now … Atlas-gate?

Publishers of the Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World scrambled Tuesday to correct a controversial statement that Greenland had lost 15 percent of its permanent ice cover over the last 12 years -- an assertion scientists labeled "incorrect and misleading."


The claim came in a HarperCollins press release on the publication of the 13th edition of the atlas, stating that global warming was "turning Greenland 'green.'" The gradual melting was also depicted in the atlas itself, as cartographers carved out huge chunks of ice to reflect the apparent results of a warming planet.
That was a mistake, scientists say.


Poul Christoffersen, a glaciologist at the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge, said the 15 percent decrease in permanent ice cited "is both incorrect and misleading." He believes the actual number is closer to 0.1 percent.
“It is regrettable that the claimed drastic reduction in the extent of ice in Greenland has created headline news around the world,” Christoffersen said. “There is to our knowledge no support for this claim in the published scientific literature.”






HarperCollins on Monday tried to justify its position. “We are the best there is. We are confident of the data we have used and of the cartography,” a company spokesman explained to the Guardian. “We use data supplied by the U.S. Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Col. They use radar techniques to measure the permanent ice. We have compared the extent of the ice surface in 1999 with that of 2011. Our data shows that it has reduced by 15 percent. That's categorical.”
But with mounting pressure from the scientific community, the publisher took an about-face one day later, retreating from earlier claims and admitting the company may have been “misleading with regard to the Greenland statistics.”
"The conclusion that was drawn from this, that 15 percent of Greenland's once permanent ice cover has melted away, was highlighted in the press release, not in the Atlas itself,” HarpersCollins said in a statement. "This was done without consulting the scientific community and was incorrect. We apologize for this and will seek the advice of scientists on any future public statements."

And that makes up for lying?  Not so fast, my friend!

Maintaining the accuracy of the new maps though, may not be enough. When comparing the maps to recent satellite images Christofferson and his team found “numerous glaciers and permanent ice cover where the new Times Atlas shows ice-free conditions and the emergence of new lands.”
"In the aftermath of 'Himalayagate,' we glaciologists are hypersensitive to egregious errors in supposedly authoritative sources," Graham Cogley of Trent University in Canada told the BBC, referring to a debunked claim that the world’s glaciers were melting so fast that those in the Himalayas could vanish by 2035.


You remember this, don't you?  It seemed "scientists" with a vested interest in the existance of global warmingleft out a few zeroes "accidentally" in their time-estimate of the glacial melt-off.

"Climate change is real, and Greenland ice cover is shrinking. But the claims here are simply not backed up by science; this pig can't fly."
HarpersCollins did not return FoxNews.com requests for comment.


This is why you need to get the real facts people.  The liberal elite think that they can get you to believe any lie they tell without checking it out.  Too many people prove them right.  Sleep on it and have a nice evening, everyone.






Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/09/20/times-atlas-apologizes-for-misleading-greenland-ice-melting-claim/#ixzz1YY9YI2u3


September sh... uh, er, stuff. Yeah, stuff is good...

Okay, guys, I have a lot to rant about and I'm getting hungry, so, hang on and let's go.

Last night, Scrappy and I topped off our raccoon adventure with a walk that ended up having us turn a corner( on the woods trail) and run pretty much into our two deer.  They were off the trail about 50 feet or so away.  After we spent a few seconds just looking at each other ( and I tried to get my camera) and Scrappy actually obeyed my whispered command and just sat there, they bounded off to join their friends at the retirement home (yes, friends, they leave salt blocks on the property edge).  We also found a cap I thought might be a winner- a red-and-yellow job called "Cockta".  On looking it up, I found out that Cockta is a Slovenian invention, a soft drink flavored with dog rose hip- which is the hip (fruit) of a dog rose.  Not sure I ever heard of a dog rose, definitely didn't know any roses had fruit, and surely have know idea what a flavoring made from it would taste like.

Pat Miller was having a hard time with some democratic congresswoman from California, stretching the truth like silly putty to make her point.  "What district on this planet, " he asked, "would elect this woman?"  I guess Pat has forgotten the two rules of power liberalism (as opposed to sincere and relatively honest liberals like Dr. Tom Hayhurst): #1- truth is relative, and in some cases fluid, when confronted with proving a point; #2- Liberals can be elected in any district where there is a large enough concentration of one of their "constituencies" (i.e. LGBT, Welfare cases, illegal aliens, union members who use the newsletter to avoid thinking on their own).

Which brings me to another of his rants- Lil' Jimmy Hoffa calling the right wing half of this nation S.O.B.'s.  This doesn't merit that much comment; Hoffa is a) the leader of a dying organization who owes its continued existence to its symbiotic relationship with the democratic party; b) the son of a dead mobster that got his job on his daddy's coattails.  IOW, the man has the credibility of a global warming scientist.

The next on the list is more serious.  Due to obvious reasons, I'm not going to go into much details.  A local school district has given middle schoolers laptops to do homework on.  Not a big deal, but the second part is that they left Facebook and skype unblocked so that the students might use them to communicate about homework.  Still not a big deal?  Several young girls have been contacted by a sexual predator through these unsecured media.  Local police are investigating, but a "spokesperson" for the school has given the impression that the school thinks that that's just the price of technology in the modern world.  Obviously, in the "modern world", protecting the student's "rights" of "free speech" and "privacy" is more important than PROTECTING THE CHILDREN.  I swear to God, there is not one chance in hell I'd ever put a child in a public school ever again!  And as for these predators, my hope is a) that the lowest ring of Hell is ready and waiting for them; b) that the faithful will get a chance at the Judgement to boot a few of 'em over the edge, and c) that they bounce off of  liberal educators who think all of the above is a good idea on the way down.  Honestly, people, I do not understand how ANY PASTOR can teach "there is no hell" when slimebags like this are around just waiting to get there.

Okay, and now back to sweetness and light- or, a scam e-mail update.  Today I got two- the first from the English sounding (though not real good at writing it) Sir Mark James, who informs me that the Paris Club International has donated $1.5 million to me, but for some reason has left it in a Western Union office in..... Benin! The financial capital of the world, I should have expected that, I guess.  Then comes #2- Barrister Jim Mike (nifty name) who was kinda peeved that I didn't get down to.... Benin! to pick up the $6.5 million he owes me, so he packaged it up and left it at the Lagos Nigeria branch of Fed Ex in Benin. (so, let's get this straight- Fed Ex has a Lagos, Nigeria branch, and that branch has a branch in Benin?)  Now when I get there, I'll need to pay the FELNBB (Fed Ex Lagos Nigeria/ Benin Branch) the security fee.  Jim doesn't tell me how much that is, but according to Sir Mark, Western Union (which I think is a simple Benin branch and not a Lagos Nigeria/Benin branch) charges $175. 

I was going to do my FCS stuff tonight too, but I'm starving, it's already 7:08, and Laurie is shooting hair bands at Scrappy, probably because she is patiently waiting to get on Farmerama and is taking out her frustration on lower forms of life.  But I promise I'll try harder tomorrow.

more march manglings

Just a quick run through of thoughts I haven't gotten to with all that's going on around here.

1. Per Bob's wishes, there will be no funeral service. The plan right now is everybody's going to meet at the house Friday and see if there's a) anything anyone wants to keep; b) anything worth selling on e-bay and splitting the proceeds; c) anything that Bob hid well enough that it hasn't been found yet ( a real concern, as Bob was a gun aficionado on a Bob G. scale); and d)anything that really should be destroyed before the house gets bulldozed (apparently one back room has some truly spectacular mold formations). Beyond that, I don't know. Chuck is the executor, and thus will win the right to keep the urn and all the fun crap that goes with it.

2. Wisconsin's Governor Walker did what he should have done all along- pulled all

the stuff that required a quorum out of the union scaleback bill and let the loyal state reps pass it while the traitorous (i.e. Democrat) reps sat in their Illinois playpen and cried. Now come the howls of "a corruption of democracy" from the liberals. Which is hilarious because of how ingenuous it is- it's not a "corruption

of democracy" to hide out in another state on the taxpayer's dime, but it is to legally conduct the business of state without them. Nor was it crying foul to bus thousands of union out of staters into Madison to protest, or to have Obama's minions immediately organize a recall movement for the GOP legislators who stayed and DID WHAT THEY WERE ELECTED TO DO!!! Union members, democrat voters, do you want to know why the conservative mainstream can't stand you? Look at this situation. In Wisconsin, we see liberals/unions being:

-cowardly, running from the fight they knew they couldn't win fairly;
-two-faced, demanding "honor" from the GOP they have no intention of living by;
-disrespectful, breaking into and trashing the state house because they didn't get their way.
And the media, screaming about the "Ash Wednesday Ambush". And the cheating doctors, the union sheeple who WILL NOT EXCEPT THAT THEY HAVE TO SACRIFICE TOO!

3. In a sidelight to this, I had heard yesterday that Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels is one of 5 "serious candidates" for the GOP nomination in 2012. Today, it was Walker, whose courage and ingenuity won him some speculative love. If Mitch wants some of that love, he ought to get on to doing the same thing; and woe to him that he didn't think of it first. And Winfield, Phil? How's that house search in the Land o' Lincoln coming?

4.Jim Tressel, OSU football boss, gets a 2-game suspension and a fine from the university for lying about what he knew in Tattoogate. I was just reading that the charges against him involve NCAA rule 10.1 (involving unethical conduct), a rule from which only one coach has ever escaped with his job. Of course the OSU president Gordon Gee (you remember, the guy that thought Minnesota and IU were "murderer's


row" and TCU and Boise St. were "the little sisters of the poor") tried to blow off the situation by implying that Tressel had the power to fire HIM. Fine, I'll go with that. Tressel, you can keep your job- if you fire Gordon Gee. I guess it's true that once a bureaucracy gets so big, even a half-wit can run it. As if Obama didn't prove that.

5. And I apologize for the Obama ending on the Happy Days video. I didn't proof it first as I was trying to save the answer to her dad's birthday song for a surprise. However, Laurie makes up for it with the follwing suggestions:
-Use a paint program to draw moustaches, horns, unibrows, etc. on Obama.
-Photoshop even bigger ears or yellow, rotting teeth on him.
-Paste a hat on him. Her choice was a pointy white one, for some reason.
Keep in mind these are not politically correct choices, and any one of which might lead you to being accused of being Evangelical, homophobic, or racist. Or worse yet, acting like a -OMG- liberal! So be careful.