02.27.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 10:43 pm by livefood
Do yo think the congressional folks can figure this out? Or do you think that based on past and recent experience they just might think that these mule guys and gals need to have the proper clearances like the port workers?…
Mule driver security question reaches Congress
The Associated Press
Posted: 02/26/2009 12:05:05 PM PST
EASTON, Pa.—A question has reached the halls of Congress about whether mule drivers at an eastern Pennsylvania historical park need the same federal security clearance as port workers.Employees who operate a mule-pulled boat at the National Canal Museum in Easton have been told they need Transportation Worker Identification Credentials.
A federal anti-terror law typically requires the clearance for workers who need unescorted access to secure areas of ports and ships.
Congressman Charles Dent represents Easton. He asked Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano at a congressional hearing Wednesday whether the regulations should apply to the crew of the mule-pulled boat.
Napolitano says her department will look into it.”
Well…the first thing I think they chould do is form a committee…part of that is my Presbyterian background…it’s an “inside” joke that Presbys love committee…so form one…I’ll feel right at home…next study the issue…and then corm a commission to lay out the plan for the study…not just one…make that studies with grants…that’s good grants…give away money to study the issue…maybe spend 1000s…no make that MILLIONS…if thousands would be good MILLIONS would be better…but don’t make a decision this election cycle…pass the buck (or the millions of bucks) to the next committee, commission, researcher and then the cycle of nothing happens again (or doesn’t happen again depending on your perspective).
The fact that this type of material even hits the news is a wonderment…and then folks like me start to write about it and ponder on what is really going on…or not going on depending on the perspectives again.
But that I might have enough faith in the government process to work well is very sad…what do you bet they find in favor of needing that clearence…and perhaps that the mules should be fed organically on top of that.
Permalink
02.26.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 11:27 pm by livefood
I can understand the nexus between our fighting in Iraq and the damages caused and our government finding a need to rebuild the country…we helped to cause it and we should help to fix it…and while I’m not sure that we should being paying quite as much as we are paying, I can see where, and agree that we should pay a good deal of the costs.
In the case below, I’m finding a hard time justifying the expense. If I was going to ask the IRS to accept my trip to the middle-East as a tax deduction, their would have to be some finding that the trip was business related…the government would require that finding…so what is the finding to justify the US to pay NINE HUNDRED MILLION to the folks in Gaza…and of course the money wouldn’t be going to HAMAS…wink wink.
***
U.S. plans “substantial” pledge at Gaza meeting
By Sue Pleming Sue Pleming on Yahoo News – Mon Feb 23, 4:40 pm ET Full Test
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States plans to offer more than $900 million to help rebuild Gaza after Israel’s invasion and to strengthen the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, U.S. officials said on Monday.
The money, which needs U.S. congressional approval, will be distributed through U.N. and other bodies and not via the militant group Hamas, which rules Gaza, said one official.
“This money is for Gaza and to help strengthen the Palestinian Authority. It is not going to go to Hamas,” said the official, who asked not to be named (JIM - well…duh…if I was saying something like this I wouldn’t want to be named either.)
In December, the former Bush administration said it would give $85 million to the U.N. agency that provides aid to Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.”
***
So if you thought that the Bush administration was dumb…does this make the Obama administration 10x dumber for now offerring to pay 10 times as much as the Bush folks? I mean really…is this going to be part of that wonderful stimulicious package that I’m going to get to pay for?
Like in Iraq with our own damages…Israel created the damages, they should pay for the repairs.
Of course this is all a simplified solution to the damages…but why the US…and why so much…and what will come from it for us (quid pro quo)? These are the same people who hate us and just love to strap on bombs to kill us…so will the money stop that? HA HA. Don’t be fooled by that line of unreasoning…not going to happen. And will not paying them anything increase the bombing and hatred of the US…probably not…I think I would vote for “not at all”…so what will the money do for the US. Absolutely nothing.
…and to try to sell this money as not going to HAMAS…okay, so maybe it will be for the tunnels and not for the bombs…the housing and not the guns…but trying to separate HAMAS from Gaza is a little more complicated that just some “diplomat” saying it is so.
We might as well send the money in an envelope address to Santa at the North Pole…going nowhere, to no one and doing nothing…that is unless the envelope is intercepted by the Easter Bunny.
Permalink
02.25.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 11:42 pm by livefood
Yesterday I talked a little about the sensational speak of Ms. Amanpour…today a little clarification or fact checking would be in order…either ALL of the terrorism of the pre-911 days has been solved or it hasn’t…
Amanpour: Obama’s call to arms and optimism
By Christiane Amanpour
CNN Chief International Correspondent
Full Piece
“As Obama now inherits the militants and the terrorism forged since 9/11 he called for America to succeed by standing firm on its own historic principles.”
Of course the piece my Ms. Amanpour is longer and by and large very good…but these little factoid things and statements she brings into the picture are very reminiscent of grandstanding. Mr. Obama “inherits” a whole lot more than the militants and terorism post 911…he gets a dollop of crud from just about the time my family stepped off the Mayflower…if you don’t believe it Christine, talk with some Native Americans. The missionaries we send around World…the minerals we get from “Third World” nations…the fact that we refer to them as “Third World” or “underdeveloped”…all this and a whole lot more is in the stew that Mr. Obama has inherited…not completely from Mr. Bush (or Mr. Clinton et al) but from the office representing the entire national ethos.
I don’t think it’s fare to the readers to simplify the solution in a single sentence. It’s also a bit twisted to think that solving the World situations can be accomplished by, “standing firm on (our) own historic principles.” I would think that a good case could be made for our “hisitoric principles” having gotten in the way of fairness and justice for some of the World populations (again look to Native Americans for guidance).
Now granted, at times we have done some really super things in the World playground. I think that perhaps some of the events that now haunt us could have been ground in fairly innocent intentions (and some not I’m quite sure)…but in any event, we continue to be chased by ghosts of the long past and need to be aware of that.
To imply that that problems that Mr. Obama is facing is all post 911 (and therefore from Mr. Bush) is quite immature. It’s on the border of bad reporting from a news perspective.
Tell the story…the whole story. If we keep dumbing down stories to simple sensational sound bites we get a public who can not understand the bigger picture…and what we need right now is a public who can see beyond self and can imagine a big, intertwined, convoluted socio-political quagmire that can probably never be fixed and only mitigated in a topical fashion…like a giant bandaid that will need to be examined and replace every so often.
The World view of the USA will not change in a few short years…it may never be complete changed (it’s that deeply rooted in the past)…but understanding a bigger picture can, in the very least, help Mr. Obama not make the problem worse going forward.
Permalink
02.24.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 11:29 pm by livefood
This woman is by no means an amateur at reporting or writing or editing. She is a world class reporter and I have enjoyed her work on many occasion…often wondering how she has the guts to go where she does and get the stories she shouts back at us with…
…but the choice of words in this piece leaves me a little curious about her real feelings. I think she highlights the media’s need to sensationalize just about everything. Or is that a reflection of what we as the viewer/consumers are wanting to buy. In either case, I think it’s wrong. She should not sensationalize the news and pander to us…and we should not want nor consume “junk reporting” where the news is consumerfied…either by dumbing it down or show-bizzing it.
Amanpour: World has questions for Obama
By Christiane Amanpour
CNN Chief International Correspondent
complete article
“Obama’s secretary of state has already taken his message on the road to China and elsewhere in Asia, and special envoys have also been deployed. But on April Fool’s Day, President Obama himself sets off on his maiden voyage to the world stage.”
…really…”April Fool’s Day”…I think you should have just said April 1st and left the “fool” out of the equation.
Beyond that…let’s face it. Unless something has really truly changed, none of the countries she mentions really want to help the USA solve World issues…the leaders of those countries enjoy the power that they have and they want more…if we can help them to that end…they will work “with us”…but if they will have to give up some of that power for a greater good (like for the entire World)…forget it…not going to happen.
Do you really think that Iran will give up the nuke program for nothing? And then when they get what they want…do you really think that they will not be working in the halls towards a work-around so that they can continue that nuke deal? They want the nuke for leverage…without the leverage who are they?
…and the Russians…like they wouldn’t stomp on another country to take out a gas or oil line route so that they could keep their control over the European markets?
Mr. Chavez really wants to work with the US right? Sure he does…I didn’t realize that there were flying pigs down in the Venezuela too.
None of these folks are going to give up anything…they all want to test the diplomatic waters with Obama and do a touchy feelly session to see how weka or strong they might think he is…and they will proceed from there.
So what if a country is sending a signal…I think that time has shown that if they crack a door open we should not rush is…the nuke might waiting for us.
Oh…I apolgize…I forgot to give the little short man in Korea (the one with the platform shoes) his due. What a piece of work that dude is. He should work on his photogenic qualities…but then does he have a good side. Surely he’ll want to talk to Obama about World Peace…and then promptly run for Miss Universe.
Perhaps I’m a silly person….but if each of these little tiny minded “leaders” would help their own people eat, clothe, educate and house their children and stop focusing on their own personal power trips…perhaps they would end up with a power given to them by their people from the gratitude for having a better life. Just a silly concept I know. This notion of public servant gets tossed out the window too quickly by leaders when they hit the big time…it goes to their heads…and it’s universal, crossing all borders and peoples.
The World is not looking for the USA to help them help themselves…they want to use the USA to increase their influences and that is about it.
I know, I’m a cynic. Oh joy…feel sorry for me. I have to live with it everydy.
Permalink
02.23.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 11:22 pm by livefood
There are a alot of really big problems in the World right now…I suppose that there have always been larger than life challenges on a global basis…so what’s new right? I chuckled when I read this article.
It would seem that some people still are able to find some humor and light-heartedness in the dark corners of the planet…and thank God for that (and many other things if you believe).
“Baboons, colons, sieves vie for odd-book prize
Friday, February 20, 2009
By JILL LAWLESS, Associated Press Writer
LONDON — Books about baboons, colons and a French dairy product are among the finalists announced Friday for the Diagram Prize for year’s oddest book title.
“Baboon Metaphysics,” an academic study of primates in Botswana by Dorothy L. Cheney and Robert M. Seyfarth, is a strong contender for Britain’s quirkiest book prize, which salutes the unsung, unusual and just plain odd corners of the publishing world.
The finalists range from business books _ “The 2009-2014 World Outlook for 60-milligram Containers of Fromage Frais,” by Philip M. Parker _ to a medical tome, “Curbside Consultation of the Colon,” by Brooks D. Cash.
Some of the titles are enigmatic. Emmanuel Kowalski’s “The Large Sieve and its Applications” is about arithmetic rather than kitchenware. Disappointingly, Mark Hordyszynski’s “Strip and Knit with Style” does not involve naked knitting. It is a manual on craft projects using strips of cloth.
The remaining contender is “Techniques for Corrosion Monitoring,” by Lietai Yang.
The prize, run by trade magazine The Bookseller, was founded in 1978.
Philip Stone, a sales analyst at The Bookseller, said choosing the finalists had been particularly difficult this year.
“Six seems such a cruelly low number given titles such as ‘Excrement in the Late Middle Ages’ and ‘All Dogs Have ADHD’ were rejected,” he said.
Previous winners of the prize include “The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field Identification” and “People Who Don’t Know They’re Dead: How They Attach Themselves to Unsuspecting Bystanders and What to Do About It.”
The winner will be chosen by the public through an online vote at http://www.thebookseller.com. The winner will be announced on March 27.”
…an odd story about odd book titles but it’s a good thing that people can look for avenues to enjoy life…a really good thing. If all we did was sit in the corner with our thumbs in our mouths and looked at everything in a dark way, life would be pretty ugly.
But if you think about it, life is not that ugly for everyone. It’s a matter of perspective…where you are at any time and place could determine your lack of uglyness…and if that is the case…move a few degrees from left to right or front to back and you can find yourself in a new space with a fresh look…sometimes it’s that easy.
I had someone tell me a story about his consulting practice and the story was about a person who was so focused on tightening his budget he had just stopped looking at opportunities to make money…he metaphor was a sink..the client was so into putting stoppers in the sink drain that he completely overlooked the two faucets at the top of the sink…turn just one of them and more water flows…well duh.
It’s that old saying that one sometimes can not see the forest because the trees are in the way. Step back and you can see more…not get closer to see more (well maybe…with my eyes…getting closer seems to be the norm nowadays)…but I think you can get the point.
I beat up alot of topics in my BLOG…some with tongue in cheek and some not…but I don’t take a dark view of life in general. Goth is not my favorite look or attitude…I’m a happy guy by nature…just highly opinionated. A favorite Pastor of mine once said, “God loves you just the way you are.” Well thank you for that.
Still reading the Bible…slowly mostly…Leviticus…ouch. We’ve completed 156 segments…1044 to go…49 days down…251 to go. But like the comparisons above, there are some dark places and times in this reading process…but turn the page and some great stuff pops out….it’s all about where you are in comparison to what’s going on around you and “the take” you have or “the spin” you put on it.
I think you can actually be your own spin doctor…and for my control freak self…a personal spin is nice from time to time.
Permalink
02.22.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 11:24 pm by livefood
It looks like another young person has been abducted.
I can tell you that all of my male friends with female children worried and continue to worry about this sort of thing all the time. It seems that we males tend not to worry so much about our male babies…haven’t figured out that one…but the female children…we worry about. I know this…I have two daughters.
It is difficult to even put my arms around these types of stories. What must the parents go through…and what is going on in this young girls head. She’s probably frightened in a way that I can not comprehend. I hope that she has hope and faith to help her cope…
The story first and then some comments…
Teen vanishes on way to school
By Emanuella Grinberg
CNN
(CNN) — Last Friday the 13th was supposed to be a special day for 14-year-old Amber Leeanne DuBois.
Loved ones say Amber Leeanne DuBois, 14, would never go anywhere without telling her parents or friends.
She left her home in Escondido, California, around 7 a.m. for school with a check in hand, a down payment on a baby lamb that she was going to raise and care for as part of her Future Farmers of America class.”
…my continuing comments…until society puts it’s foot down and makes sure that anyone and everyone that considers this type of crime…and I don’t care how “sick” some pycho-cologist will claim them to be…until we deal with this type of crime firmly (okay, maybe harshly) we will continue to have way too many folks thinking they can get away with it.
Solitary for life…a diet of cheap food served to the cell…no TV…learn to read…no exercise yard…no male parts (you get the drift)…no parole (it’s an insult to the victim, the parents and the friends)…no rehab (another insult)…and don’t be finding Jesus to try to get out of the deal…if you had found Him before you would be in a completely different space.
I’m tell ya, we need to get very serious about these types of people. Now I may be jumping the gun a bit, but I’ve got one of those bad feelings about this case…she could still be alive and well…I’m not thinking that is the case.
To have sexual preditors be released into society to create more fear with the larger population is just not all that cool. I don’t believe that the person has served “his debt to society” in a few years. The perp has created a life long burden on the victims, the friends and the families…the notion that a few years in a medium security facility comes anything close to justice and equitiable is ludicrous.
Can a person like this be forgiven. I suppose so. It’s what we are suppose to try to do. But the differences between forgive and forget…or forgive and let it continue…well I don’t think that forgiveness is contrary to a lifetime in prison. I think we can have both.
Permalink
Posted in Uncategorized at 12:55 pm by livefood
Some people deal well with their lives…and that gives us all hope.
Christopher Nolan, Irish novelist, dies at 43
By RAPHAEL G. SATTER
The Associated Press
Saturday, February 21, 2009; 5:04 PM
:Link to the whole story
LONDON — Christopher Nolan, an Irish poet and novelist who refused to let cerebral palsy get in the way of his writing, has died. He was 43.
Permalink
Posted in Uncategorized at 3:14 am by livefood
This woman can not possible believe she is the center of the Universe…I write there and have yet to see her except in the paper…on the newstands mags…on the TV “news”…everyone I know (even my Dad with Alzheimers) has heard and talked about this woman…she can’t get enough.
Hey Kaiser…if she’s out buying M.A.C. to put on her too slick (and puffy) lips…perhaps she can afford a portion of that bill…send it too her…before she buys a house that some schmuck will do a loan on.
Now it could have been batted about in tabloids and TV and such, but I watch TV with clicker in hand and click past her stories, so I could have missed something along the way…I’ve had about all I can take by the time I have read the papers…and I don’t do tabloids…but it was news to me that the “father” of the babies…the guy with sperm to spare…that one…is Octo saying that he is MARRIED…geeze will the twists and turns ever end?…is it not convoluted enough already?…is it not soooo…so very wrong on so many levels.
I do have compassion for her (a smidge…tiny bit)…I feel more for the kids and hope they turn out okay. I’m not holding my breath on that one either…dysfunction tends to make more of the same…forgiveness is not in order…she hasn’t done anything too me to forgive…judge her…well so maybe I’m a bit into that….she is spending money that is not hers (it’s her children’s legacy, not hers)…she is having children by a married man…she is lying at every turn…so if you think I’m saying she is a bad person (judging her)…well not really…IM SAYING SHE IS DOING BAD THINGS…there is a distinct difference being judging the actions and not the person. I’m pretty sure that in the end she will get whatever she deserves…I’m just hoping that the kids don’t get caught in the middle.
But here is the funny interview for today…from US Magazine…
**********************************
Friday February 20, 2009
Here’s some excerps…for more click HERE.
I know…ooooh…you can hardly wait…
Us: Will you live with your mom?
S: No. She doesn’t want to live with me. I really shouldn’t be talking to you at all.
JU (Jim’s Universe): Then shut up.
Us: I saw your dad gave an interview to Oprah. Why didn’t you?
S: I really wish he didn’t. I would have liked to go on Oprah — since her audience is mainly female, I think it would have heightened things so
much more. You know, it would have been way more emotional. Especially if what I said was taken out of true meaning. So, I didn’t think going on would be good for me.
JU: Huh? You wanted to go on Oprah because “it would have heightened things so
much more”…how much more heightening do you need?
Us: Are you moving into the multi-million dollar home that’s been all over the Internet?
S: No. That was just for the interviews.
JU: The interviews…was that to heighten something even more?
Us: How was it talking to Dr. Phil?
S: He was surprisingly very nice and fair, but I really shouldn’t be talking to you.
JU: Then shut up…oh I said that already.
Us: Have you spoken to David Solomon [the sperm donor for your 14 children]…SL… UsL…SL…Us:…
S: I will say this. We were friends…all the lies saying I am so in love and wanted him to leave his wife written in the National Enquirer are totally false.
JU;…I’m telling you, you should’ve shut up…WIFE?…the guy is married and you needed his sperm for your babyparty?
Us: I saw you went shopping at M.A.C. the other day. Must be nice to get out and break away from your regular routine.
JU: May I be so bold to ask where the money to buy M.A.C. product came from? Not the cheapest on the market…although my wife thinks it’s the best…but a bit pricey for the now famous six-aint-enough budget
Permalink
02.20.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 10:56 pm by livefood
If Pete Rose gambled on baseball and lost money…did Bonds (and a raft of others) gamble with non-steriod (really?) enhancers and win big bucks?
I certainly wouldn’t want us to get into a two wrongs make a right…and Mr. Rose shouldn’t have been gambling on the sport he played and managed…but the scale of the punishment in light of all fo the steroid/enhancements and such that are flying around…hey Mr. Rose, a couple of folks out here in the land of reality think you are still getting a raw deal.
I’d much rather come to grips with all of the social ills of the “old school” heros…Killibrew, Mays, Rose (you know…those pre-steriod dudes) and on and on…anything that they coulda-mighta done (but probably didn’t)…drink, womanize, smoke, gamble and on and on that too…and although I don’t condone these behaviors as a policy on a personal level…I can handle these ills a lot better than I can the enhancing…it’s cheating…drinking hurts the drinker…enhancing hurts those of us in the seats.
But you could say that the cheating is part of the game…like spit balls and cork…sure. You’re kidding right? Different and you know it…but these stars that are now being caught with their steriod laced cup in their hand are just too big to hang out to dry. That’s the rub…we put them on a pedestal…we nearly worship them…they let us down…we know it but then can’t deal with it. BE STRONG…they lied. Explain it to you kids…lying is NOT good…cheating is NOT good…
Now, I don’t think I could be best buds with someone who was drunk all the time…but someone cheating so that they could make a bazillion dollars…and some of that money comes from kids who love the game…that’s just plain nasty.
It’s funny really…once upon a time (about the Pete Rose era), we pounded our heros when they did something “wrong”…now, we slap their hand (if anything), pay them more money and take our kids to see them hotdog around the field, diamond, track and court…paying good money for the privilege of eating an overpriced wiener and some week old popcorn, chased down with a watery drink of some ilk.
We’re a pretty messed up group of consumers.
I don’t suggest a solution here…I don’t have one. But I think Mr. Rose is getting a bum rap compared to the deal that will be handed to Bonds, ARod and others (if any…ever).
Permalink
Posted in Uncategorized at 4:17 am by livefood
I don’t believe it…the stimulus package will increase shark attacks! Think about it…if the high price of gas lowered the number of attacks then the now and future lower prices will increase the attacks. So because the stimulicious plan will lower those gas pump numbers…sharks will go nutz.
If nothing else, the researchers will get in line for some of that stimulicious money and increase or save a huge number of jobs…right?
Oh the silliness of the World.
Even sharks are feeling the bite from economic tough times, say researchers, who report shark bites are down with fewer tourists hitting the waves. Shark attacks dropped to their lowest level in five years worldwide last year, said George Burgess of the International Shark Attack File at the University of Florida, who reports attacks fell from 71 in 2007 to 59 in 2008, with four fatalities. “With the price of gas high, fewer people went to the beach,” Burgess suggests.”
Ya know…if I keep running into silly things like this I’m going to go back to beating up on the sports groups…and that opens up the whole BBonds-Arod thing (and who’s the stand up guy of those two?)…and then we get in the justice/fairness issues of Pete Rose. I just might talk about that Rose screw job sometime anyway.
Permalink
« Previous entries
