Knowledge is Power

I’ll buy today’s audience participation for a dollar!

January 4, 2013 –

name the show…

By SondraK, Queen of my domain
Say it don't spray it (17)

I’m from the government and I’m here to kill you

January 4, 2013 –

…researches advised that customers exercise caution and stay two feet away from the bulbs at all times…

recently…

The New Year means lights out for 75-watt light bulbs. As of January 1st, under federal law, 75-watt incandescent bulbs can no longer be produced or imported. Retailers can still sell existing stock until they run out.

The government is gradually phasing out incandescent bulbs in favor of more energy-efficient, LEDs halogens or compact fluorescent bulbs.

One hundred watt incandescent bulbs were retired last year. Traditional 60 and 40-watt bulbs will be phased out in 2014.

By SondraK, Queen of my domain
Say it don't spray it (13)

created congress persons in her image

January 4, 2013 –

“The group photo showed four House members who arrived too late to pose on the Capitol steps. A computer program was used to add them to the image later posted on Flickr…

…But Pelosi maintains the picture is still an accurate historical representation. “Pelosi told a news conference Friday the picture was an accurate historical record of the female lawmakers from her party. She also said it was freezing outside, and that the members were entertaining guests on the day they were sworn in for the 113th Congress…

By SondraK, Queen of my domain
Say it don't spray it (12)

♪ one of these things is not like the other ♬

January 4, 2013 –

Yvette Clark, the U.S. Representative for New York’s 11th congressional district doesn’t know that ~~John Boehner~~Obama is the president………just like George Bush.

President Obama comforted you and offered you “immediate” assistance. Since your encounter with him months ago, what has been your interaction with the White House?

After his visit, I sent an email to President Obama. Many days later, I got a response back. It was disturbing.

How so?

It had nothing to do with what I was asking him. It was a form letter. It thanked me for supporting the troops….

By SondraK, Queen of my domain
Say it don't spray it (8)

for no reason but to touch

January 3, 2013 –

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By SondraK, Queen of my domain
Say it don't spray it (16)

out of my belleh!

January 3, 2013 –

OBESE people who refuse to go to exercise classes prescribed by GPs face having their benefits docked.

Westminster Council yesterday proposed giving claimants swipe cards which show they have been.

Council leader Philippa Roe said: “The potential improvements to the nation’s health and to the public purse could be significant.”

The British Medical Association called the plan “silly” and said the best way to cut the £5.1billion cost of Britain’s obesity epidemic is to stop food outlets selling fatty grub.

By SondraK, Queen of my domain
Say it don't spray it (12)

four more years

January 3, 2013 –

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By SondraK, Queen of my domain
Say it don't spray it (12)

holy spirit

January 3, 2013 –

The Daughters of the American Revolution, one of the nation’s oldest patriotic organizations, has erased any mention of Jesus Christ in their official book, removed prayers and poems that reference Christian imagery, and directed members to refrain from praying in the name of Christ, an outraged group of members alleged.

The dispute has been brewing for more than a year when DAR members learned that the newly revised Ritual and Missal books – the primary guide for chaplains – were altered. They noticed that the name of Jesus Christ had been omitted…

Finish your assignment! »

mech

By SondraK, Queen of my domain
Say it don't spray it (21)

slam ma’am, thank you

January 3, 2013 –

Senator Dianne Feinstein,

I will not register my weapons should this bill be passed, as I do not believe it is the government’s right to know what I own. Nor do I think it prudent to tell you what I own so that it may be taken from me by a group of people who enjoy armed protection yet decry me having the same a crime. You ma’am have overstepped a line that is not your domain. I am a Marine Corps Veteran of 8 years, and I will not have some woman who proclaims the evil of an inanimate object, yet carries one, tell me I may not have one.

I am not your subject. I am the man who keeps you free. I am not your servant. I am the person whom you serve. I am not your peasant. I am the flesh and blood of America. I am the man who fought for my country. I am the man who learned. I am an American. You will not tell me that I must register my semi-automatic AR-15 because of the actions of some evil man.

I will not be disarmed to suit the fear that has been established by the media and your misinformation campaign against the American public.

We, the people, deserve better than you.

Respectfully Submitted,
Joshua Boston, Cpl, United States Marine Corps, 2004-2012

Somebody buy Cpl Boston a beer!

You know … NUTS!

By DougM (Progophobe)
Say it don't spray it (22)

oh the big oily irony

January 2, 2013 –

Al Jazeera on Wednesday completed a deal to take over Current TV, the low-rated cable channel that was founded by Al Gore…

Who’s runnin’ this goat rope?

January 2, 2013 –

President Barack Obama is back in Hawaii for vacation after a tense, end-of-the-new-year standoff with Congress over the fiscal cliff. [more]

Well, hey, why not? I mean he worked his butt off on this crisis, right?
Right?

The White House had no immediate update on when Obama would receive and sign the bill.

Wait … he didn’t even stick around long enough to firkkin’ sign the bill?!

~~Then, there’s this … pesky little detail.~~

The wide-ranging deal, approved by the Senate earlier ….

Maybe I’m missin’ somethin’, here; but this looks unconstitutional as Hell.
(Article I, Section 7: All bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives ….)

Nev-er-mind
Sigivald
(D’oh!)

By DougM (Progophobe)
Say it don't spray it (32)

Sending DOW futures up 200 points

January 2, 2013 –

on this?!?

It was 2am 1/1/13 when this passed.

No. Excuse.

Income tax rates will only rise on those making over $400K (liberals wanted $250K, GOP wanted no taxes to rise). Spending cuts will be delayed for 2 months to give the sides more time to address them.

These are included in the 2am Special, so won’t be addressed in 2 months or 2 years.

It’s called ‘‘American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012’’ RTWT, if you can stand it.
*sigh*

These @$$#0(3$ can’t manage to say no to any lobby nor opportunity for social engineering.

See Title !V — Energy Tax Extenders

Extension of credit for:
energy-efficient existing homes.
alternative fuel vehicle refueling property.
2- or 3-wheeled plug-in electric vehicles.
cellulosic biofuel producer credit
incentives for biodiesel and renewable diesel.
production credit for Indian coal facilities placed in service before 2009.
credits with respect to facilities producing energy from certain renewable resources.
credit for energy-efficient new homes.
credit for energy-efficient appliances.
special allowance for cellulosic biofuelplant property.
alternative fuels excise tax credits.

“cellulosic” Swell.

Like this.

Finish your assignment! »

Construction cranes rise like storks 40 stories above the Mojave Desert. In their midst, the “power tower” emerges, wrapped in scaffolding and looking like a multistage rocket.

…looming berms of sand and a chain mail of fencing that will enclose more than 3,500 acres of public land. Moorings for 173,500 mirrors — each the size of a garage door — are spiked into the desert floor. Before the end of the [2012], they will become six square miles of gleaming reflectors, sweeping from Interstate 15 to the Clark Mountains along California’s eastern border.

That’s six square miles of dead desert floor.

Industrial-scale solar development is well underway in California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah. The federal government has furnished more public property to this cause than it has for oil and gas exploration over the last decade — 21 million acres, more than the area of Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties put together.

…$2-billion plant …3,500 acres of public land …capable of generating 370 megawatts, enough to power roughly 140,000 homes during peak hours.

Even if only a few of the proposed projects are built, hundreds of square miles of wild land will be scraped clear. Several thousand miles of power transmission corridors will be created.

The desert will be scarred well beyond a human life span, and no amount of mitigation will repair it, according to scores of federal and state environmental reviews.

…Schwarzenegger freed large solar plants from property tax and handed out $90 million in exemptions from sales and use taxes. Under Gov. Jerry Brown, the state invested more than $70 million in clean energy research last year, funded by a ratepayer surcharge.

…BrightSource’s Ivanpah facility is expected to employ … 86 full-time maintenance and facility workers once it is up and running

140,000 homes … 3,500 acres …$2-billion …86 JOBS

The Department of Defense also has raised questions. The Pentagon has the China Lake weapons testing facility, Ft. Irwin, Edwards Air Force Base, Twentynine Palms Marine base and the Chocolate Mountain Naval Aerial Gunnery Range.

The military, whose pilots often trace the contours of the desert floor from 200 feet, is concerned about maneuvering around 460-foot solar towers. The Marines have asked the companies for more information about the glare produced by a vast carpet of solar reflectors.

The Federal Aviation Administration has voiced concerns about the heat plume rising from the Ivanpah towers and about the installation’s possible radar interference.

Unintended consequences.

“These are big businesses chasing federal dollars — they don’t care if they fail. They got what they want.”

They’re “”gentle mowing” the desert plants so they will fit under the mirrors — where they will get no sunlight and die. They are catching desert tortoises and putting them in pens “pending relocation.” [remember how that worked out for the "No Otter Zone"?] And they’re creating another fake land boom.

Desolate acreage that a few years ago might have sold for less than $500 an acre can now fetch as much as $20,000 an acre, according to land brokers in the region. Farmers are also getting in on the action. Alfalfa and cotton fields are being converted to solar and wind farms as the industry’s big players put together mega-deals.

…Less than 17% of the Mojave’s 20 million acres is private property.

…some developers prefer private property, even at high prices, because public land carries a thick sediment of bureaucracy: a snarl of federal and state environmental laws that requires time-consuming and expensive analysis before the first shovel of dirt is turned.

…The Ivanpah Solar Project, for example, requires … 7,000 acres to replace habitat for the threatened desert tortoise.

This ought work out well…

By Claire: rebellious pink pig with car keys - and a *cause*
Say it don't spray it (14)

I’d buy that!

January 2, 2013 –

for more than $1

[Intel is making a] …set-top box, said by industry insiders to be available to a limited beta of customers in March, [which] will offer cable channels delivered “over the top” to televisions anywhere there is an Internet connection regardless of provider.

…For the first time, consumers will be able to subscribe to content per channel, unlike bundled cable services, and you may also be able to subscribe per show as well. Intel’s set-top box will also have access to Intel’s already existing app marketplace for apps, casual games, and video on demand. Leveraging the speed of current broadband, and the vast shared resources of the cloud, Intel plans to give customers the ability to use “Cloud DVR”, a feature intended to allow users to watch any past TV show at any time, without the need to record it ahead of time, pause live tv, and rewind shows in progress.

O’ course the “why it won’t work” argument against Intel includes the old “it’s cheaper when we make you buy it” meme.

Disney, for instance, charges TV distributors about $5 for every subscriber that gets ESPN. And, by some estimates, only about 25 percent of cable customers actually watch ESPN on a regular basis. So if you unbundled ESPN, the per-subscriber cost might shoot up to $20 or more, to account for the 75 percent drop in its customer base.

I would counter that with the savings from just three channels I don’t want, I could afford one that I do want. Add up all the stupid “shopping,” sports, religious, teen, “urban,” “women’s,” children’s, and The Loser Channel channels at $5 each, I could afford the Western channel, RFD 1 & 2, and several old Movie channels — with $$$ left over for snax!!

Go Intel!
[nothing too optimistic in their stock prices but overall DOW futures are up 200 points on "fiscal cliff" "resolution" legislation][??!?!][As are world markets][??!?!?!?]["fundamentals" - whassat?]

By Claire: rebellious pink pig with car keys - and a *cause*
Say it don't spray it (7)

New Year’s resolutions

January 1, 2013 –

(What, me? Well, I resolve to look back on 2013 with a degree of satisfaction tinged with a little guilt.)

via KaChing

By DougM (Progophobe)
Say it don't spray it (15)

happy new year

January 1, 2013 –

( * )

By SondraK, Queen of my domain
Say it don't spray it (12)

today’s “new” year fun facts

January 1, 2013 –

( * )

By SondraK, Queen of my domain
Say it don't spray it (9)

Here we go again…

January 1, 2013 –

~~do nothing~~ and over-react

The incident began as an argument and fight inside the Sports Corner Café at Second and K streets [in SacTown] about 9:30 p.m…. A 22-year-old man involved in the fight pulled out a gun and shot at the people he was fighting with as a bar employee attempted to break up the scuffle,

Two dead – three wounded.

An armed security guard near a side door heard the gunshots, confronted the shooter inside the bar and the two exchanged gunfire, police said.

Both the suspect and the security guard were shot during the exchange.

So, of course:

The fireworks show in Old Sacramento [that was expected to draw as many as 40,000 people] was canceled after the incident at the request of the police department…

By Claire: rebellious pink pig with car keys - and a *cause*
Say it don't spray it (8)

the voice of Prog prototyranny

January 1, 2013 –

Gun control has never been about firearms.
It’s always been about the right to self-defense and self-determination.
Always.

[Okay, I pulled the #@$%*! auto-starting video. Follow the ~vid~ link below.]
~ vid ~

One of the definitions of a nation state is that the state has a monopoly on legitimate violence. And the state ought to have a monopoly on legitimate violence.

Extra credit:
Who said the following: King GeorgeIII* or the state-worshiping jackass above?

If the premise of your question is that people are going to resist a tyrannical government by shooting [gov't] troops, that’s insane …. [more]

* Historical refs BTF: »

Note: It’s magazines, not clips, dammit! (Explained in the BTF lesson here.)
Any official or journalist who doesn’t know the difference does not know what they’re talking about and cannot be taken seriously.

By DougM (Progophobe)
Say it don't spray it (9)

“Progress!” …toward what?

January 1, 2013 –

“Something Must Be Done!”
…again, what “something”?

The Prog Tool-Blamers… Walking blithely down the street with their dress tucked in their pantyhose.

This guy seems to embody their argument with all its …nuance.

Full text here:

Here, then, is my “madder-than-hell-and-I’m-not-going-to-take-it-anymore” program for ending gun violence in America:

- Repeal the Second Amendment, the part about guns anyway. It’s badly written, confusing and more trouble than it’s worth. It offers an absolute right to gun ownership, but it puts it in the context of the need for a “well-regulated militia.” We don’t make our militia bring their own guns to battles. And surely the Founders couldn’t have envisioned weapons like those used in the Newtown shooting when they guaranteed gun rights. Owning a gun should be a privilege, not a right.

- Declare the NRA a terrorist organization and make membership illegal. Hey! We did it to the Communist Party, and the NRA has led to the deaths of more of us than American Commies ever did. (I would also raze the organization’s headquarters, clear the rubble and salt the earth, but that’s optional.) Make ownership of unlicensed assault rifles a felony. If some people refused to give up their guns, that “prying the guns from their cold, dead hands” thing works for me.

- Then I would tie Mitch McConnell and John Boehner, our esteemed Republican leaders, to the back of a Chevy pickup truck and drag them around a parking lot until they saw the light on gun control.

And if that didn’t work, I’d adopt radical measures.

Fisking BTF:

Finish your assignment! »

Here, then, is my “madder-than-hell-and-I’m-not-going-to-take-it-anymore” program for ending gun violence in America:

Why is “gun violence” somehow worse than, say, running a ginormous front-loader into a skull full of children. Or tossing in a molotov cocktail? Or…

Repeal the Second Amendment, the part about guns anyway. It’s badly written, confusing and more trouble than it’s worth.

Well, as you seem to be an illiterate, I can see your confusion.

It offers an absolute right to gun ownership…

Glad to see you noticed.

It offers an absolute right to gun ownership, but it puts it in the context of the need for a “well-regulated militia.”

A “militia” being defined since 1795 as every “free able-bodied male citizen” between the ages of 18 and 45 and, now, women already serving in the military.

We don’t make our militia bring their own guns to battles.

Again, if you’re gloogle-impaired…

*Militia members were to arm themselves with a musket, bayonet and belt, two spare flints, a cartridge box with 24 bullets, and a knapsack. Men owning rifles were required to provide a powder horn, 1/4 pound of gun powder, 20 rifle balls, a shooting pouch, and a knapsack.

And surely the Founders couldn’t have envisioned weapons like those used in the Newtown shooting when they guaranteed gun rights.

No. They envisioned the citizenry with weapons just like those the State military used.

Owning a gun should be a privilege, not a right.

Having the ability to protect one’s self and ones family from State Tyranny — not to mention random predators — “should be a privilege, not a right.” That’s one interesting idea ya got there…

Bet you expect *someone else* to protect you. Again: literacy FAIL. Police, according to the Supreme Court and despite the nice slogans painted on the doors of their cars, do NOT have a constitutional duty to protect a person from harm*.

They also do not have the physical capability to be with every person at all times. [you can comprehend that, right?] Their job is to clean up afterward [not literally, of course -- that's also your job] in order to make a case for prosecution.

Declare the NRA a terrorist organization and make membership illegal.

Give me one instance wherein the NRA has harmed anyone.
[NB nagging fone calls trying to sell ya stuff is not actually harm.]

Hey! We did it to the Communist Party,

hm… I missed that. Since there is a Communist Party Clubhouse in the town down the road, I think you may be mistaken.

and the NRA has led to the deaths of more of us than American Commies ever did.

This is such an oddly framed “thought.” American Communists’ hands are fairly blood-free. But world-wide? Hundreds of millions. All of whom were disarmed before they could be shot / starved / “re-educated” / etc.
The Iron….

(I would also raze the organization’s headquarters, clear the rubble and salt the earth, but that’s optional.)

Pissy and Gratuitous. I expect no less.

Make ownership of unlicensed assault rifles a felony.

See also: Lady DiFi [Feinstein] [with "900 exceptions 1!!!!1!1lbenty!11"]

If some people refused to give up their guns, that “prying the guns from their cold, dead hands” thing works for me.

So you are openly advocating some citizens shooting and killing other citizens. In order to keep citizens from shooting other citizens.
*ow* my head hurts

Ignoring the fact that far more people would die — on both sides — in an situation like that than in all the “gun violence” incidents in all of US History.

Which would be okay by you since it would come with the magykkal State Sanction.

Staggering.

I guess I can quit wondering how it could happen that the citizenry could allow something like the rise of the National Socialist Party or the Bolsheviks. With …”people” among us “thinking” this way it seems quite apparent how that could happen.

And how History may be repeating herself. Here. Now.

Then I would tie Mitch McConnell and John Boehner, our esteemed Republican leaders, to the back of a Chevy pickup truck and drag them around a parking lot until they saw the light on gun control.

An approving allusion to the 1998 KKK dragging death of James Byrd Jr.? Charming.

And if that didn’t work, I’d adopt radical measures.

With an approving allusion to dragging deaths of those with whom one disagrees and the open advocacy of the killing by the gobt of numberless citizens, I really don’t want to imagine what would be more “radical.”

I am amazed that this …individual is not being shouted down by more people horrified by his skreed. That is perhaps the most disturbing part of all.

Another thought... »

So, what about the Other Part of Doooo Somethingggg? That part where we “take better care of our Mentally Troubled Brothers?” [Our Mentally Troubled Sisters don't generally do this mass-shooting kind of thing. sexiiiist!!!1!!1!!!2!!!]

Imagine what that would look like, run by folks like the illiterate mook above. Everyone connected in any way with the gobt would have to be “mentally evaluated” before, say, getting a driver’s license or a permit to upgrade the bathroom.

Imagine being “mentally evaluated” by a DMV clerk or a Planning Dept counter-tender. [I imagine the cost of having "trained professionals" to "evaluate" hundreds of millions would be recognized as being too expensive, even by the Progs.][unless there is a Union involved]

Clerks would be supplied by experts with a form to fill in, and be tasked with asking you questions designed to tease out any neuroses and psychoses. Kinda like that TSA “naked machine” — only for your mind. [with, I assume, the same kind of failure rate] Maybe they’d even expand the TSA Union to cover this task.

Regular, law-abiding people would answer the best they could but there would be hundreds of [mostly incorrect/astroturffed] cheat-sheets passed around on the Innar-Toobz for those having a few, shall we say, concerns about their mental status.

It would be trumpeted by the state-run media that “there are no right or wrong answers.” But, occasionally, people would notice some poor soul being hustled off into a back room after the “test” was “scored.”

Yeah. Let’s have the gobt decide who is sane and who is not. That ought work out swell.

By Claire: rebellious pink pig with car keys - and a *cause*
Say it don't spray it (13)