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POPSObama Takes Break From Vacation To Let Us Know He Won't Rest! in the bathroom of a Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines flight on Sunday. Several police vehicles and a police command unit have surrounded a plane at Detroit’s Metro Airport, after the pilot of a Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines flight requested emergency help. Two sources tell Fox News that the suspect boarded a plan in Lagos with no baggage, and said the FBI has already sent an email alert to other federal agencies notifying them of the incident. The source said the man taken into custody at the Detroit airport was a Nigerian man in his 30s. Federal officials know who the suspect is, but won’t provide any more details. He allegedly barricaded himself in the plane’s bathroom for an hour. There are some reports suggesting that the Nigerian man may have just been a sick passenger. Why the hell would anyone travel international so light? No luggage should have been the first red flag. http://deadenders.wordpress.com/
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POPSHot Air: Welcome to the Obama Administration’s “New Transparency” I’m sure it is … for analysts and Fannie and Freddie workers, but I’m not sure taxpayers should share that optimism. The report states the U.S. Treasury will receive preferred stock paying 10% dividends and warrants to acquire nearly 80% of the common shares in Fannie and Freddie. However, the Treasury has already loaned $60 billion to Fannie and $51 billion to Freddie. At this point, it’s hard to believe more money is the answer. Maybe the New York Times was right: Democrats plan to talk about deficit reduction in 2010 but not do anything about it for now. Or as President Obama puts it: “Mr. Obama calls it “a false choice” to pit spending to spur the economy against reducing the deficit. His advisers say the president, and American voters, favor both " spending to create jobs in the short term, and commitment to spending discipline and deficit reduction over the long term.”
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POPSWhy is the modern view of progress so impoverished? The trouble is that a belief in progress is more than just a branch of accounting. The books are never closed. Wouldn’t nuclear war or environmental catastrophe tip the balance into the red? And the accounts are full of blank columns. How does the unknown book-keeper reconcile such unknowable quantities as happiness and fulfilment across the ages? As Adam traverses history, he sees material progress combined with spiritual decline.
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POPS Cash for Cloture: Demcare Bribe List, Pt. II
1. The Hill reports that while Nelson credited Nebraska’s governor for giving him the idea to lobby for the government preference, Nebraska’s governor assailed the payoff: “Nebraskans did not ask for a special deal, only a fair deal,” Heineman said in a statement Sunday. In response, Nelson fired off a letter Sunday to Heineman saying he’s prepared to ask that the provision covering Nebraska’s Medicaid share “be removed from the amendment in conference, if it is your desire.” 2, Vermont and Massachusetts will get similar (though less generous) special treatment by the feds in covering Medicaid expansion costs. Combined with Nebraska’s tab, the exclusive clique’s payoffs will cost taxpayers $1.2 billion over 10 years. At least. 3, He’s plunging in the polls and in need of a little bacon to bring home. A $100 million item for construction of a university hospital was inserted in the Senate health care bill at the request of Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn ......
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POPS Code Red In Washington D.C. Today; “This bill must be stopped!” Also: The Dems now expect the CBO scoring of the Reid plan that no one has seen to look good once the Medicare expansion is thrown under the bus. And: After all the sound and fury, Joe Lieberman is now reportedly on board with Demcare. Update: Heeeeere come’s MoveOn! Steamed at the Democrat majority over negotiating with Joe Lieberman, the nutroots will hold their own “emergency rally” today at 1pm Eastern today to lobby for nationalized health care. Wonder if unhinged Jane Hamsher will show up to burn Sen. Lieberman’s wife in effigy. Update 11:49am Eastern: Lieberman talking to press right now. Says Demcare plan is now “heading in the right direction.” GOP Sen. Susan Collins is standing by him, smiling, through his remarks. Ok, Susan Collins speaks. She can’t see voting for the bill in its current form. “It’s still too deeply flawed for me to support it.” She says she won’t support it even with amendments intended to improve the bill (that no one has seen, of course).
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POPS'Unfriend': dictionary's word of the year To spite the naysayers, there is at least one case in which men (and women) of letters will be happy. According to the Scrabble website, "unfriend" is an acceptable word, worth 12 points when played on blank spaces.
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POPSCreating a yarn painting. My sister is a school teacher and was looking for a lesson plan for the kids to create their own Huichol yarn painting. I found this site that explains it pretty good at HuicholYarnPainting.com My sister and I tried it out over the holiday - - I kind of think her third graders just might look better than mine did - - FYI - if you are needing something like this....
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POPSBrowner - Who Cares if Data is Lost and Manipulated? For the last decade or so, we’ve been operating under “The Science is settled. We don’t have time. WE MUST ACT NOW!” Well, last time I checked, global temps have been falling. Even if you’re right, the temperature trend has bought us some time. Maybe it’s time to start the analysis afresh, only this time with a blank slate, and without a stacked deck.
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POPSLee Sandlin: Losing the War Quite long – click through for the full essay. More: I figured people had to know the basics -- World War II isn't exactly easy to miss. It was the largest war ever fought, the largest single event in history. Other than the black death of the Middle Ages, it's the worst thing we know of that has ever happened to the human race. Its aftereffects surround us in countless intertwining ways… So what did the people I asked know about the war? Nobody could tell me the first thing about it. Once they got past who won they almost drew a blank. All they knew were those big totemic names -- Pearl Harbor, D day, Auschwitz, Hiroshima -- whose unfathomable reaches of experience had been boiled down to an abstract atrocity. The rest was gone… I think what my little survey really demonstrates is how vast the gap is between the experience of war and the experience of peace.
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POPSThe DailyKos reaction to the Fort Hood shooting How do you get this stupid? You have to work hard at it. You have to wake up everyday and carefully consider what you will listen to and what you will have to stare at with an expression of blank incomprehension to remain this dense. And then you need to go on the Daily Kos and write misconceptions about those who disagree with you politically. It’s almost scary to see people this willfully stupid and this angry, This is a screenshot. I don't want links to Kos in my clips.
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POPSBlack SAS war hero who held off 250 rebels single-handed
With no cover and facing certain death, he sprinted across 800 metres of exposed ground to reach a 25-pound field-gun. It was a brave - but apparently futile manouevre - as the huge weapon took three men to operate. That, however, did not deter Labalaba. Nor did facial injuries which would have rendered a lesser man helpless. As British forces watched in astonishment, Labalaba turned the cumbersome gun on the enemy and opened fire at near point blank range. He went on for six hours, decimating the rebels and ultimately paying for his courage with his life. His comrades found him slumped face down by the massive gun. His selfless actions undoubtedly saved many of the British soldiers holed up inside the fort and won him a posthumous Mention in Despatches. For many, his statue will be a long-overdue memorial to one of the SAS's greatest heroes. It is also some small recompense to thousands of ethnic minority servicemen, many from Commonwealth countries, who feel their
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POPSSen. Byrd Challenges Obama's Afghanistan Surge, the Forgotten Bin Laden "The reason for the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan has become lost, consumed in some broader scheme of nation-building" Then point blank: "I am compelled to ask: Does it really take 100,000 U.S. troops to find Osama bin Laden? If al-Qaida has moved to Pakistan, what will these troops sent to Afghanistan add to the effort to 'defeat' al-Qaida?" Can anyone answer that, straight up? In other words, it's contrary to their own propaganda. Will Obama listen to him? : Do recall Sen. Byrd's famous "The Truth Will Emerge" speech opposing war with Iraq --which is now entirely vindicated. mark my words, the calculated intimidation that we see so often of late by the "powers that be" will only keep the loyal opposition quiet for just so long. Because eventually, like it always does, the truth will emerge. And when it does, this house of cards, built of deceit, will fall.
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POPSAnd civilians are still allowed to own guns why? A so-called "responsible gun owner" gunned down a man in cold blood — 4 shots, point blank — because the man got grass on him. This is why guns and gun owners need to be strictly controlled; because anyone can have a bad day (Then again, some people are just complete sociopaths). Having easy access to something that is designed only to harm and kill is just not something that the common person should have. People buying guns should be required to have initial and regular psychological assessments, as well as screening for any violent criminal activity; whether committed as an adult, or as a juvenile. It's not worth taking a chance on people's lives just to allow cowards like Harrington to have guns to hide behind.
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POPSNobel Tops 'SNL' for Obama Joke by Mark Steyn What "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy" did he make in those first 12 days? Bowing to the Saudi king? Giving the British prime minister the Walmart discount box of "Twenty Classic Movies You've Seen A Thousand Times"? "Er, Barack, I've already seen these." "That's OK. They won't work in your DVD player anyway." For these and other "extraordinary efforts" in "cooperation between peoples", President Obama is now the fastest winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in history. Alas, the extraordinary efforts of those first 12 days are already ancient history. Reflecting the new harmony of U.S.-world relations since the administration hit the "reset" button, The Times of London declared the award "preposterous," and Svenska Freds (the Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society) called it "shameful." Why, only the other day, very conversationally, the administration floated the trial balloon that it could live with the Taliban returning to government in Afghanistan.
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POPSCretins on the March I'll never forget the first time I saw a Ray Comfort video. He was using a banana to debunk evolution! This tool for the religious right goes far beyond parody and falls more into the area of pity. Along with his cohort, Kirk Cameron, they are pulling out all the stops on the stupid express. If you're a Creationist I'd suggest you try to wrangle a free copy. Just ignore the BS that Comfort added and read the rest. Maybe you'll learn something? Such basic ignorance of simple science is wide spread in the US. I don't recall the actual statistics but a much too large portion of the US believes this Creationist/ID drivel. Very sad indeed.
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POPSSupreme Court Guts American Justice System The Iqbal decision is - literally - an assault by the Supreme Court on the American system of justice. For it prevents plaintiffs from having their day in court if either: 1 - The judge doesn't want to hear the case; or 2 - The defendant has hidden the evidence of wrongdoing, so that the plaintiff cannot provide the details of defendant's wrongdoing without the use of the formal discovery process which only starts once litigation has commenced. This is another one of our rights being eroded away.
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POPSProgress But comfort yourselves. Children may not know how to handle cutlery, but if UNESCO has its way they will soon be instructed, from the age of five, in the joys of masturbation.
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POPSHow to recognize an economic bubble
More: See, here's the thing. Once people start making "guaranteed" returns on investment…the last thing they want to hear is that what they're doing is participating in a form of the long Con. They believe that earning return on investment above the inflation rate at no risk is their God-given constitutional right as American investors…and they will always scream bloody murder when anyone "infringes" on that "right," even after the nay-sayers were proven right the last time. And, well, this is a democracy. People who are deeply invested in a fraudulent investment bubble get to vote, too. If one isn't stopped before it reaches half or more of the voters, half or more of the voters will always and consistently demand that they get given their punchbowl back, demand that the party go on… Unless, of course, we start demanding that our Fed Chairmen be people who know to stop that kind of thing… But where on Earth would we find one of those, let alone an uninterrupted string of them?
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