I can't believe that came from your mouth!
Archive for March, 2006
MySpace Deletes 200k “Objectionable” Profiles
Mar 31st
It seems that MySpace is responding to parental and safety concerns regarding hate and predatory speech on MySpace pages. They deleted 200k profiles. I think its a good start. They could delete about 800k more based on style choices and html coding skills.
From Financial Times here, with a nod to Drudge for the pointer.
MySpaceMySpace.com, the fast-growing community website hugely popular with American teens, has removed 200,000 objectionable profiles from its site as it steps up efforts to calm fears about the safety of the network for young users.
Ross Levinsohn, head of News Corp s internet division, said some of the material taken down contained hate speech . Some of it, he said, was too risqu .
It s a problem that s endemic to the internet not just MySpace, Mr Levinsohn said. The site, in the last two months, I think has become safer.
Advertisers have to feel confident their reputation will not be tainted by inappropriate content. Teachers and parents are concerned that, because information on MySpace is publicly available, it might put teenagers in contact with predatory adults. In terms of retaining its appeal, Mr Chernin said users had to keep feeling the site was theirs. We don t want to change the fundamental look and feel of the site, he said. We do not want users?to have any sense that it is corporatised.
I would be interested to see the criteria they chose to remove the profiles. This move will certainly have reverberations among the myspace community, and the persons removed will likely end up moving to a competitive journal. Some users, angry about this action to censor people, will also move to another site.
I bid them one and all adieu.
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Loading ...Blogging from The Villages, FL
Mar 30th
My wife and I are on vacation this week, and we are currently visiting my wife’s grandmother for the first time in her new home at The Villages, Florida.
What a beautiful, wholesome town this is.
The villages is a planned community, much like my own hometown of Reston, VA. But unlike Reston, the Villages is primarily a retirement community of low-cost homes and golf courses, more golf courses and still more golf courses. In fact, most residents of this huge town drive everywhere in their golf carts, with golf clubs in tow, and in case they cant get a tee time, they go shopping.
You cant move here unless you are 55. And I’m so jealous of the current residents, cause I really want to come here. Beautiful architecture, plenty of churches and shops, and everything is so clean and – wholesome. Ive said that twice now. Its because every night is dance night in the town square. Grandchildren love to come visit Paps and Granny because everyone has such a good time in this town. Grandfathers dance with their granddaughters under the starlight to Lady in Red on a typical Thursday.
It strikes me that with the baby boomer generation becoming the largest retirement group ever, the Villages in FL should be a model of a retirement community. For far too long, Americans have envisioned a retirement community as a place where you go to watch old folks waste away and die. Boy has that changed for me. A retirement community is where you should celebrate your twilight years under the stars with a different band every night, surrounded by your neighbors and golf friends, and attended by your children and grand children.
This country is hopefully building more and more communities like the Villages, where the skies are big, the air is clean, and the neighbors are friendly.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Stupid Hollywood Whores: Part 2 – Barbra Streisand
Mar 29th
Christopher Anderson wrote a Tell-All book on Barbra Streisand called Barbra: The Way She Is. In it the author details the many affairs Babs had.
Some of the shocking details include:
- Warren Beatty- Warren got Bugsy in Babs’ Ishtar.
- Ryan O’Neal- After the affair he was quoted as saying “What’s up Doc?”
- Steve McQueen- Leaving Babs was The Great Escape.
- Kris Kristofferson- Part of a Convoy of B-Rate Actors
- Don Johnson- Rated Babs as a “Dead Bang.”
- Jon Voight- Used his Anaconda when Babs was in Heat.
- Elliot Gould- MASHed it.
- Andre Agassi- Overhand Smashed it.
- Richard Gere- Babs can afford the most expensive American Gigolo
- Omar Sharif- Visited his Last Valley of Love.
- Liam Neeson- A Darkman.
- Peter Jennings- Took up smoking after he left Babs.
- Tommy Smothers- Stopped being funny after Babs.
- Peter Weller- Said Babs was the best of the Screamers.
- Dodi Fayed- Babs made him hire a cheauffeur because she criticized his driving.
- Bill Clinton- Babs made a political contribution.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Stupid Hollywood Whores: Part 1- Sharon Stone
Mar 29th
Sharon Stone, who is pushing 50 and a new movie called “Basic Instinct 2,” has made a huge splash lately in the news headlines with stupid comments that highlight two things- Sharon Stone is Stupid, and, Sharon Stone is a whore.
As a reminder, Sharon Stone became famous for her first Basic Instinct movie, in which she spread her legs on camera and showed the world her hairy hatchet gash.
Its too bad that Sharon Stone’s basic instinct isn’t to keep her big yap shut.
To prove she’s stupid, consider Evidence A- her naive views on Peace in the Middle East, which she declares is just a “Breath Away.”
From Breitbart here:
A peaceful co-existence between the peoples of the Middle East is but a breath away, Hollywood star Sharon Stone said after a highly publicized visit to Israel.
“It feels to me that we have an opportunity … to choose understanding in a new way,” she told a press conference in Paris when asked about her trip.
“And it really is just a breath. It’s just an agreement that’s just a breath. We are not far apart. We can choose to have this alternative kind of growth that is a collective nuance of understanding.
“We are just that breath away from a peaceful co-existence.”
What a friggin genius! Why didn’t the rest of the World figure this out before her? She said these wonderful pearls of wisdom after she prayed at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, once again proving that you can visit Israel and come back with your head still attached.
If Sharon Stone were to go to Gaza City and spread her legs to show the Palestinians her Holy of Holies, and then return with her head still attached to her neck, then the world might believe that there is hope for Peace in the Middle East.
Evidence B: Hillary Clinton is a ‘babe’ with Sexual Power. From Human Events here:
Stone said, “I think Hillary Clinton is fantastic. But I think it’s too soon for her to run. (for president) This may sound odd, but a woman should be past her sexuality when she runs. Hillary still has sexual power, and I don’t think people will accept that. It’s too threatening.”
The video of her making this statement, and I think I saw her drool a bit imagining Hillary naked, is here at Michelle Malkin’s site.
I know what people are thinking who have read this far- But Pat, her political views don’t make her a whore! No, but Evidence C suggests it quite well. From the Post Chronicle in the UK here:
Sharon Stone explains, “I was in the store the other day and I watched a young girl trying on clothes, showing her abdomen.” Her mother was trying to talk to her about not being inappropriately alluring.
I said, ‘Gee that would look much nicer with a camisole under.’ “Her mother walked away, and I said to the girl, ‘I’d like to give you a two-minute conversation about sex.’
“Young people talk to me about what to do if they’re being pressed for sex. I tell them (what I believe): oral sex is a hundred times safer than vaginal or anal sex. “If you’re in a situation where you cannot get out of sex, offer a blow job. I’m not embarrassed to tell them.”
Notice how she waited until after the mother walked away before she spouted this sage advice. If her mother was there, Stone would have been slapped in the face for saying such things. If I were to walk around the local Sears telling little girls that they should chug cock whenever they got a chance, you would see my picture on the local news! But Sharon Stone gets away with it because she thinks she is superior to the commoners.
Evidence suggests that Sharon Stone is a Stupid Hollywood Whore. My basic instinct is to save my money and avoid any movies where I would be forced to gaze at Stone’s gaping hole- her open mouth or any other orifice for that matter.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...The French are Sissies
Mar 28th
Yeah, I know, this is hardly headline news. Massive protests all over France today. It seems that someone tried to pass a law that it is okay to fire someone from a job in the first two years if that person is a slacker. Well, those gold bricker Frenchmen will have nothing to do with that! Viva la Revolution!
PARIS – Nationwide strikes disrupted airline, train and bus service, closed the Eiffel Tower and sent hundreds of thousands of protesters into the streets across France on Tuesday as unions joined in solidarity with students angered by a new labor law.
Tuesday’s strikes represented the first time that the unions had ordered walkouts in support of the student protests of the labor law, which would make it easier for companies to fire young workers.
Organizers estimated that 3 million people joined marches across the country claiming 700,000 in Paris alone. Police estimates were far lower.
Some of the marchers in Paris skirmished with each other, as union members armed with truncheons charged several dozen youths who tried to break into a lingerie store. Other demonstrators threw stones, traffic cones and other projectiles at riot police, who surged repeatedly into the crowds to make arrests.
I was watching the riots on Fox News and saw a bunch of French men and boys throwing things at the befuddled French Police, who were all wearing riot gear and wielding Lexan shields.
The police are in no danger. The French throw like girls.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Seal Hunting Is Messy Business
Mar 28th
And so is protesting seal hunting. Less protesters showed up this year than previous years. But the protesters present tried to inhibit the legal slaughter of the Harp Seals by blocking hunting ships with tiny little row-boat sized zodiac dinghies- which could be deadly if the passengers fell in the water.
The hunters responded by dumping seal guts on the protesters and reporters. Somehow, the reporters are part of this story, rather than just standing off and reporting the facts from an objective point of view.
From the Canadian Press here:
Irritated hunters throw seal innards at protesters
CHARLOTTETOWN Protesters had to dodge flying seal guts pitched at them by angry hunters Saturday as tempers flared on the first day of Canada s East Coast seal slaughter.
News reporters and animal rights activists tried to get as close as permitted to the hunt on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, but their presence infuriated sealers as they hunted for scarce animals on small, drifting ice pans.
At one point, a sealing vessel charged up to a small Zodiac inflatable boat carrying reporters and protesters, and a sealer flung seal intestines into the midst of the observers.
Hunters in the Gulf typically use spiked clubs called hakapiks, but scarce ice conditions in southern areas have meant many are using rifles because they cannot get close enough to the seals.
There is still ice in northern areas of the Gulf, where hunters traditionally use hakapiks to crush the seals skulls.
Sealers in the Gulf of St. Lawrence can take 91,000 animals this year.
A second, much larger hunt off the northern coast of Newfoundland and Labrador will take place later in April. Hunters in that slaughter can kill 234,000 seals.
This story neglected to state why the animals were being hunted or culled. Is this a harvest? Are they culled to protect other animals? This story is intended to portray the hunters as angry and cruel people, and of course, the protesters were just observing- not trying to block the hunters or anything else that would interfere with the legal hunting of the animals, or would endanger the lives of the hunters or even the protesters.
The official Canadian Government report on the animals is available here, and it states that the population remains stable due to yearly harvesting of the animals.
The hunt is carried out by fishermen from areas that were devastated by the depletion of the Cod fisheries. The seals eat the cod, and the fishermen kill the seals. See this article:
The commercial hunt today is largely carried out by fishers in Newfoundland and Quebec (map).
Backers of the hunt say it brings vital income to coastal communities devastated by the collapse of the Atlantic cod fishery in the 1990s. Last year’s harvest of 320,000 harp seals generated about 16.5 million Canadian dollars.
This means that for each seal that is killed, a hunter gets about 51 dollars for the animal by selling the meat and skin. This seems like a fine way to keep the families affected by the Cod industry fed.
Protesters are claiming that global warming will cause a huge depletion of seals due to the lack of free-floating ice. This will just mean that there will be less seals killed next year. That is, if global warming is not just some kind of hoax.
Thanks go to the Jawa Report for the pointer to the article.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Great Distractions
Mar 28th
My wife and I have found a new favorite website- its VH1′s Best Week Ever Blog.
It is great fun to lie in bed together with a laptop (in bed its a tummytop) and watch the posted videos and catch up on all of the celebrity gossip. It has inspired me to capture some of the best videos and post them on the new BelchSpeak Video Page located here.
First up on the video page is an odd collaboration between Kotex (makers of fine feminine hygeine products) and Walt Disney. Its a cartoon that describes in vivid 1940′s detail, all that you need to know about the menstrual cycle. ‘Nuff Said.
Also is a great 1999 television pilot by Ben Stiller starring Jack Black and the voice of Owen Wilson called “Heat Vision and Jack.” Its an unbelieavable superhero story of a talking motorcycle and a wandering former astronaut who, together, encounter adventures and are pursued by the evil Ron Silver. You gotta see it.
I will update the vids page with new items as they are encountered.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...George Mason Cinderella Story!
Mar 27th
These guys are GOOD! The George Mason Men’s basketball team defied all of the odds and wrecked countless betting brackets by knocking off top seed University of Connecticut in the NCAA tournament yesterday 86 to 84 in Overtime.
I live in Fairfax County, and the whole region has become Mason Patriots, and all of the pubs are full of fans, both new and old, crowded around the HDTV plasmas and rooting for this group of players who weren’t supposed to make it out of the second round of the tournament.
Local talk shows on the radio are saying that GMU’s advance to the final four is the equivalent of the greatest Cinderella stories in sports EVER. They said it is bigger than Seabiscuit.
From the San Jose Mercury News here:
Don’t be fooled.
Don’t look at George Mason University in the Final Four and get duped into seeing Cinderella.
Don’t look at the roster of no-name kids who couldn’t get scholarships to any major program and see 14 pairs of glass slippers.
George Mason is not Cinderella.
Cinderella would not – make that could not – have done what the Patriots just did.
Cinderella might always show up in the NCAA Tournament, but she does not go to the Final Four. That exclusive arena is reserved for truly elite teams.
“So what you’re saying now is we’re no longer a Cinderella now, we’re an elite team?” George Mason coach Jim Larranaga joyfully said after his 11th-seeded Patriots stunned top-seeded Connecticut in overtime, 86-84, to win the Washington Regional on Sunday at the Verizon Center.
Of course, George Mason looks like Cinderella. The Patriots join Louisiana State (1986) as only the second double-digit seed to reach the Final Four.
How could an 11th-seeded team from the Colonial Athletic Association going to the Final Four not look like a poor girl turned into a princess at the whim of a fairy godmother?
Considering who and when, this is arguably the most shocking upset in NCAA Tournament history. Princeton, seeded 13th, stunned reigning national champion UCLA in 1996, but that was in the opening round.
However, the fact that George Mason’s achievement appears to be some kind of miracle is the best explanation for why it is not. Miracles are one-time events.
In the last two weeks, George Mason, a program that had been 0-3 in the NCAA Tournament, has taken out a No. 6 seed (Michigan State), a No. 3 (North Carolina) and now a No. 1 in UConn.
Those programs have combined for eight NCAA championships.
Telling no-name players on a no-name team from a no-name conference that they can play with storied programs like Michigan State, North Carolina and Connecticut is one thing. Defeating them is an entirely different story. You might beat one; if you’re really lucky, maybe two, but there’s not enough magic in a wand to account for beating all three plus a good Wichita State squad on the way to the Final Four.
That’s not a result of magic.
That’s a result of the things that only championship-caliber teams show – guts, talent, poise and determination.
Cinderella doesn’t reach the Final Four, only great teams do.
This team can go all the way, based on looking at their performance in this tournament. And if they do, Fairfax County will never be the same. Go Patriots!
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...MySpace.Com- A Place for Rape
Mar 25th
Another MySpace horror story here. Its a horror story from the point of view of the victim, certainly, who was brutally raped by someone from her Friends List.
But imagine this horror- You and your spouse take a vacation or travel away for a weekend, leaving your supposedly mature 18 year old daughter at home alone to take care of the house. You come back home to find that your daughter was raped during a drunken party, your cars all wrecked, and all of your valuables looted from the home. Your savaged, hungover daughter can only explain to you that it happened because she invited friends that she met on Myspace over to the house for a party.
From the DenverChannel.com here:
Detectives used profiles posted on the Website MySpace.com to identify six suspects in a rape and robbery.
Detective Ali Bartley said six men have been arrested in connection with a party Feb. 23 that turned violent. A seventh suspect is sought. They face charges ranging from sexual assault to felony theft.
“There was blood in almost every room of the house. There were broken pictures and statues. They stole stereo equipment. The media center was bare,” she said.
Three cars were damaged when they were taken for joyrides.
“At some point, the victim was no longer aware of what was happening, and she was sexually assaulted,” said Bartley.
Bartley alleged, Nicolas Brison, 18, raped the victim while the others went on a rampage through the house, taking $40,000 in electronics, jewelry, clothing and other items.
The victim, whose name was withheld, met the suspects at MySpace.Com. She knew only their first names but their pictures were posted on MySpace.com.
“Primarily, we pulled up her friends list. It helped us identify some of the players,” said Bartley.
About $13,000 worth of stolen goods have been recovered.
Also arrested were Warren Washington, Chadron Brennan and Tyler Brougham, all 18, and Aaron Cannell, 20, and Andrew Heneks, 19.
Young people and teens think that just because someone has a MySpace Page, they are hip and cool. Wrong. Inviting strangers over to your house from a website makes as much sense as walking up to complete strangers in the Mall and asking them over.
Parents should consider this type of event their own personal nightmare and make it clear to their kids that they should never invite online acquaintances over to the house under any circumstance.
The rapist’s MySpace page is here, and he goes by the name of “40 Oz. Emperor”. Whats up with white kids thinking that they are black gangsters? Stupidity.
Thanks for the tip goes to MyCrimeSpace.Com for the story.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Chef Dies Gruesome Death- MI3 Boycott
Mar 24th
As predicted on this blog, Matt Stone and and Trey Parker would not allow Chef to just go quietly into South Park Obscurity. He would have to die a very gruesome death. And he did die a horrible death in the season premiere of South Park Season 10. But only after he joined a secret society which engages in sex with children!
From the Washington Post here:
In the episode, pals Stan, Kyle, Kenny and Cartman are thrilled when Chef, who’d left South Park to join the Super Adventure Club, returns. But in school the next day, he says to them, “How about I meet you guys after work and we make love . . . come on children, you’re my sexual fantasy, let’s all make sweet love.” Those are the printable things, anyway.
Chef heads back over the bridge, only it’s struck by lightning and falls apart. Chef plunges down the ravine and is impaled on a large stick and attacked by a mountain lion, then a grizzly bear.
Back in South Park, the townsfolk hold a memorial service for Chef. Kyle tells the residents that although a lot of them don’t agree with the choices Chef made in the last few days, they should focus on how much he made them smile and — here’s the money quote — they should not be mad at Chef but instead at “the fruity little club for scrambling his brain.”
There is much furor about Comedy Central pulling the Scientology episode, which is due to Tom Cruise threatening to boycott all promotions dealing with his upcoming Paramount movie of Mission Impossible 3. You see, Comedy Central is owned by Viacom, which is a Paramount subsidiary.
I join in the call to boycott Mission Impossible 3. Don’t go see the movie. Don’t even buy the popcorn.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...The Feds Reject Checkpoint Buyout of SourceFire
Mar 24th
The best firewall in the world is owned by an Israeli company, Checkpoint. Its more robust than Cisco Pix, easier to manage, more versatile, and it works with most other security products more easily than Cisco.
Snort, an open source Intrusion Detection System, was spun off into its own company, SourceFire, and it is still the best Intrusion Detection System around, bar none. Snort is very easy to use and you can write custom detection filters on the fly.
When you combine both the Checkpoint and Snort into a solution, your enterprise network is pretty secure.
But the Federal Government will not allow SourceFire to be sold to Checkpoint.
From the Register here:
A takeover bid by an Israeli firewall firm has become the latest victim of US security protectionism. Check Point Software has dropped its bid for US rival Sourcefire after objections from the FBI and Pentagon were heard by the Treasury’s Committee on Foreign Investments.
The Committee has also overseen the recent rumpus surrounding the Dubai carve-up of P&O, which would put Arab business in control of US ports.
Federal agency objections to the security software tie-up center on the implementation of Sourcefire’s anti-intrusion software ‘Snort’ by the Bureau and Department of Defense, AP reports. In private meetings between the panel and Check Point, FBI and Pentagon officials took exception to letting foreigners acquire the sensitive technology.
If the $225m deal had gone ahead as announced back in October, Check Point would have got the rights to all patents and source code. Check Point says the two companies will find ways round the roadblock.
I have worked all around the Federal IT space. The US Government does not use Checkpoint Products. Instead, they use outdated firewalls like old-timey Raptors or other kluged-together old DoD products. Most modern agencies use Pixes. Most of the DoD now uses Cisco products as well. But no Checkpoint Technology allowed. Checkpoint apparantly does not even compete for the Federal dollar for firewall security.
Why? Well, the exact reason is supposedly classified. Rumors have swirled for years that there is an insidious Israeli backdoor in the firewalls. Which may have been the case one day long ago, but the claims seem dubious to persist to this day. Properly managed, there is no way to hack into a Checkpoint Firewall. There are other attacks against the network, like a Denial of Service, DNS poisoning, etc, but unless you are an authorized IP address to manage the firewall, you will not break into it.
It is telling that the DoD and the FBI were the ones that testified that this deal should not go down between Checkpoint and Sourcefire. The fears are obvious, however- The United States is afraid, that should there be a cyberwar, they do not want to risk allowing the Israelis having the opportunity to have seeded their products with crippling code that could render American Enterprises and critical infrastructures inert.
But running enterprises with security products that are inferior, less durable and less resilient to attack is the greater risk.
American Protectionism wins again to America’s detriment.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Moslems Vow Dismemberment
Mar 24th
As explained before, the religion of Islam is based on violence and hatred for all that challenge the ways of Muhammad, a child molester warlord from the 7th century. Abdul Rahman, an Afghani man, converted to Christianity from Islam and professes to love Jesus. He was to be put on trial for “defaming” God, and was facing the death penalty.
But International pressure from the US, Australia, Germany, Italy and many other nations have gained assurances from President Karzai in Afghanistan that Rahman will not be put to death for the sins of apostasy, or turning away from Islam.
But he is not out of the woods yet. The religious leaders of the religion of hatred are howling for his blood and are calling on the people to publically dismember Rahman as soon as he gets out of the courtroom.
From Michelle Malkin Here, and from the WashPost here:
Senior Muslim clerics demanded Thursday that an Afghan man on trial for converting from Islam to Christianity be executed, warning that if the government caves in to Western pressure and frees him, they will incite people to “pull him into pieces.”
…”Rejecting Islam is insulting God. We will not allow God to be humiliated. This man must die,” said cleric Abdul Raoulf, who is considered a moderate and was jailed three times for opposing the Taliban before the hard-line regime was ousted in 2001.
“He is not crazy. He went in front of the media and confessed to being a Christian,” said Hamidullah, chief cleric at Haji Yacob Mosque.
“The government is scared of the international community. But the people will kill him if he is freed,” Hamidullah said.
Raoulf, who is a member of the country’s main Islamic organization, the Afghan Ulama Council, agreed. “The government is playing games. The people will not be fooled.”
“Cut off his head!” he exclaimed, sitting in a courtyard outside Herati Mosque. “We will call on the people to pull him into pieces so there’s nothing left.”
…Said Mirhossain Nasri, the top cleric at Hossainia Mosque, one of the largest Shiite places of worship in Kabul, said Rahman must not be allowed to leave the country.
“If he is allowed to live in the West, then others will claim to be Christian so they can too,” he said. “We must set an example. … He must be hanged.”
…”We are a small country and we welcome the help the outside world is giving us. But please don’t interfere in this issue,” Nasri said. “We are Muslims and these are our beliefs. This is much more important to us than all the aid the world has given us.”
So it appears that they want to make an example of this man so others will not claim to be Christian and flee to the west. No, they cant have that. Without masses of population that are afraid for their lives if they show any western ideas like science, art and individuality, the grip of the Imam and religious leaders will be lost and they will lose their grip of power on the people.
Islam is intolerant of all but their own.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Climatologist: The Sky is Falling!
Mar 23rd
A news article claims that by the end of this century, sea levels may rise by 20 feet due to Global Warming! Miami will be wiped out. Quick, someone stop all of the federal aid from being wasted in New Orleans! We can’t build levees to hold at current sea levels, it will be impossible to stop the sea 100 years from now!
From Reuters here:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Miami would be a memory, Bangkok a soggy shadow of its former self and the Maldive Islands would vanish if melting polar ice keeps fueling a faster-than-expected rise in sea levels, scientists reported on Thursday.
In an issue of the journal Science focusing on global warming, climate scientist Jonathan Overpeck of the University of Arizona reported that if global trends continue, Earth could ultimately see sea levels 20 feet higher than they are now.
By the end of this century, Earth would be at least 4 degrees F (2.3 degrees C) warmer than now, or about as hot as it was nearly 130,000 years ago.
The Earth will get that hot sometime early in the second half of this century, he said, and once it does, the big ice sheets will start melting “in a more dramatic manner” than they currently are.
“If we decide to keep on the track we’re on now and just keep on warming, because of greenhouse gas pollution, then we could easily cook those ice sheets more rapidly,” Overpeck said.
The earlier ice melt was concentrated in the Northern Hemisphere in the summer months, and was due largely to changes in Earth’s orbit, he said.
“The climate warming we’re in now is global and it’s year-round and it’s due to human influences on the climate system,” he said. “That will be more damaging to the ice sheets than the that warming we had 130,000 years ago.”
Jonathan Overpeck has decided to take the role of DoomsDay Prophet in the religion of the Ecosystem. He is marching around, waving a big sign proclaiming that if Humans do not repent of the sins of consumerism, then the world will be doomed, or at least, the cities of Miami and New Orleans.
I was curious about Mr. Overpeck, and I did a little bit of internet research to determine how he came to take on the role of Prophet for the Eco-religionists. To see the future, he uses tree rings and ice core samples as his crystal ball, and refuses to see any other influence on global warming other than Human Influences.
In fact, he attributes any changes in warming that occurred on the planet prior to the appearance of humans to wobbles in the Earth’s orbit. When confronted with evidence that Mars has been detected to be undergoing global warming, he claimed it was due to a wobble in the Martian Orbit. Undersea volcanoes heating the oceans? nah…. Proven data that shows the Sun is in a period of intense activity? nah….
Overpeck went onto a radio show where he was questioned about his speeches, articles, and posed photos with Hillary Clinton, and Overpeck admitted:
And 1degree F is still going to have some big effect for some people in the Unites States. Will it melt the ice sheet? Will it cause the melting of the glacial ice sheet?, probably not; so, we would be much better off, you know, capping the greenhouse gas emissions as soon as we can.
It seems Overpeck’s biggest goal is to get Humans to repent of their consumerism, stop farming animals (cows produce methane and CO2), stop engineering and stop producing things in factories and stop driving cars.
When asked just how much greenhouse gases were being produced by humans- 1%, 5%, 10%? Overtpeck replied:
OK, the humans right now, the best estimates is that we are driving about 80% of the warming.
Overpeck is way off base politically, and he is letting his religious beliefs get in the way of his scientific research.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...My Honeymoon Ship Set Ablaze
Mar 23rd
I am a newleywed, and my wife and I had the most memorable honeymoon aboard the lovely Cruise Liner, the Star Princess. I was heartbroken today when I saw so many of its cabins gutted by a fire that was blamed on a cigarette.
From CBS4 here:
A cigarette is being blamed for starting a fire that killed an American passenger on board the ?Star Princess? cruise ship in the Caribbean.
A Princess Cruises spokeswoman says the victim died after suffering a heart attack.
Eleven other passengers suffered smoke inhalation from the fire which broke out around 3:00 a.m.
The blaze damaged about 150 cabins before the crew could put it out.
A U.S. Coast Guard officer in Miami says investigators and fire engineers are headed to the ship to help nail down the cause and decide if the ship is seaworthy. The officer says safety is the “number-one concern.”
The ship was sailing from Grand Cayman to Montego Bay when the fire started.
Passengers were immediately notified of the fire using the public address system and were asked to report to their muster stations.
The ship is carrying a total of 2,690 passengers and 1,123 crew members.
Star Princess sailed from Fort Lauderdale on March 19 on a western Caribbean itinerary with calls at Cozumel, Grand Cayman, Montego Bay and Princess Cays.
I am a bit suspicious that they would blame a cigarette for setting fire to the ship, especially before the officials with the Coast Guard can determine the exact cause. Would this be a way to deflect culpability away from the Cruise Line? Would this be a way to force cruise ships to go non-smoking? I will wait for the official word before I pass any judgement here.
Also, a fire aboard ship at sea is probably one of the most frightening things anyone could experience, both for passengers, crew, and even the Captain. Thousands of hours of training go into preparation for fire fighting, and a fire can still cause a ship to sink because of the amount of water required to control it. Remember the recent sinking of an Egyptian ferry? A fire broke out, but the water from fighting the fire caused the ballast of the ship to tilt, and the ship went under.
Kudos to the crew of the Star Princess for bravely and heroically dealing with this disaster with a minimum amount of injury
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Free Ipod Site Sued by NY State
Mar 23rd
The State of New York, which happens to have one of the most advanced cyber-response government organizations in the country, and great State-Wide policies to protect its citizens, is going after a multi-level marketing site that falsely offers free stuff in exchange for email addresses, which it then sell to spammers.
From CNET here:
A Web company that offered free iPods, video games and condoms to qualified registrants now faces a lawsuit alleging it sold millions of user e-mail addresses that it had vowed to keep private.
In a civil complaint released Thursday, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer accused Washington D.C.-based Gratis Internet of deceptive business practices. The suit requests monetary penalties and an injunction against the activity in question.
In Thursday’s filing, the state claims that Gratis violated its own privacy policies by collecting and selling personal information on more than 7 million users, over a period of three and a half years. Gratis sold the information to three independent e-mail marketers, including Datran, in 2004 and 2005, according to the suit. Those marketers went on to fire off tens of millions of unsolicited e-mails to the addresses obtained, the complaint alleged.
In order to secure the “free” goods, visitors must sign up for at least one promotion offered by Gratis’ third-party business partners, such as Blockbuster Video, BMG Music Service and CitiBank. They earn freebies by persuading a requisite number of friends to register as well. Gratis receives payments from its partners ranging from $20 to $70 for each participating customer, the court filing said.
The state claims that between 2000 and 2004, Gratis pledged explicitly and repeatedly on its sites to “never” give out, sell or lend its customers’ information to anyone, even its business partners.
Everyone has seen these stupid web banners offering freebies. Such sites typically perform the ol’ bait-n-switch to try to get you to give up the email addresses of yourself, your family and your friends. Nothing in this world is free, and I’m glad that the State of NY has to balls to go after such Internet Scammers.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Vegetable Oil Killer On Trial
Mar 22nd
A stupid woman was peddling snake vegetable oil as a substitute for Botox injections. For some reason, she stuck it into the ass of one of her customers of her salon, and the vegetable oil killed the woman. I’m not too sure who was stupider, the Fake Botox Doctor, or the woman who thought she should take Botox injections to make her ass look better. I guess you could label this a Two-fer.
A woman who allegedly administered fake Botox injections into the buttocks of a client who died afterward could face up to eight years in prison if convicted of the felony manslaughter and practicing medicine without a license charges filed against her Tuesday.
Martha Mata Vasquez, 39, of the Salinas area, is accused of injecting cooking oil into the buttocks of Olivia Castillo, 46, causing her death on Nov. 24, 2005.
Monterey County Assistant District Attorney Berkley Brannon said three other victims have come forward but would not see their day in court because those alleged incidents happened more than three years ago, which is outside the statute of limitations.
Brannon said he did not know whether Castillo thought the injection was Botox, but said it was meant to “enhance her buttocks.”
The dose, nonetheless, caused a lethal embolism, or deadly blockage of blood vessels by a foreign object.
Vasquez, who works in a beauty salon, allegedly administered the injections at the homes of women she met at the salon.
Vasquez is currently out on bail.
Death by vanity. Murder by Veggie Oil.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...North Korean Atrocities
Mar 22nd
North Korea has the bomb. And they destroy children born with birth defects. And they sell their females into slavery in China. And the women, living in absolute poverty (of course, this IS Communism), whore themselves out for a handful of rice.
From Reuters here:
SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea has no people with physical disabilities because they are killed almost as soon as they are born, a physician who defected from the communist state said on Wednesday.
Ri Kwang-chol, who fled to the South last year, told a forum of rights activists that the practice of killing newborns was widespread but denied he himself took part in it.
“There are no people with physical defects in North Korea,” Ri told members of the New Right Union, which groups local activists and North Korean refugees.
He said babies born with physical disabilities were killed in infancy in hospitals or in homes and were quickly buried.
The practice is encouraged by the state, Ri said, as a way of purifying the masses and eliminating people who might be considered “different.”
Mun Hyon-ok said women from her hometown in the northern region of North Korea bordering China were taken by a ring of human traffickers and probably ended up in China.
“And there are women who are selling themselves for a handful of rice,” she told the forum.
North Korea has called itself a people’s paradise and said criticism of its human rights was motivated by a goal of toppling the leadership of Kim Jong-il.
Yet somehow, the international Human Rights groups focus on Guantanamo Bay, where we keep terrorist suspects imprisoned in relative luxury, and they say that we must end this practice. Other groups will blame the US for North Korea’s misery because of UN sanctions. Both ideas are merely anti-American sentiment.
But North Korea remains a threat because of their nuclear weapons program. But their army is likely too hungry to march or fight, and the citizenry cannot long support a military because of the abject poverty created by Communism.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Goofy Word Cloud
Mar 22nd
This is a neat little word cloud that is auto-generated by a web-bot that crawled by Blog. You could even get it on a T-Shirt from this place…
Got the idea from BDogg.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Stupid Coloring Book in Manassas
Mar 22nd
A local news station is trying to stir up some racial tension in one of the outlying burbs around Washington DC by this story about a coloring book that was designed for 4th and 5th graders at Manassas Park, Va.
The book is supposed to say what is needed in the community to be a good neighbor and citizen, but the city chose the stupidest way to get this message across, and it came out sounding racist against… well, Latinos, or maybe Rednecks, or maybe just poor black people… Heck, I dunno.
From NBC4 here: Be sure to watch the video.
MANASSAS, Va. — A coloring book is sparking controversy in northern Virginia. The book is about being a good citizen, but some said it is a veiled attempt to target new immigrants.
City officials in Manassas put the coloring book together. They said the book is to let families know what’s expected of a good citizen and a change in attitude will go along way toward eliminating nuisance complaints.
The coloring book is called “Being a Good Neighbor” and was put together by the city’s housing and overcrowded task force. It is being sent home with 9- and 10-year-olds at Manassas Park Elementary School.
Officials said they want to send the message that some of the neighborhoods in and around Manassas Park need to be cleaned up.
The coloring book features a word search with words like inspections, zoning and overcrowding. It points out that a good neighbor does not park on the front lawn and keeps indoor furniture indoors.
The effort comes as officials recently overturned an overcrowding ordinance many claim was aimed at new immigrants.
Manassas Park officials said the problem is not overcrowding, it is behavior and many of the calls they receive have to do with cars on lawns, trash in yards and uncut grass. They said they want to keep their communities clean and respectable.
Ever since I moved to the area in the mid-Nineties, it has been common knowledge that Manassas is where you had to move if you couldn’t afford to live closer into the city of Washington DC, like Fairfax, Alexandria and Arlington. As such, Manassas is a little less cultured, more country… its the only place you can go in the region to eat at Old Country Buffet or Cracker Barrel. It has a Waffle House near an offramp of I-66. I guess I’m trying to say, the town is kinda Redneck compared to the rest of the region.
And because of the lower cost of living (which is quickly rising due to sprawl), many of the region’s Latino immigrants have moved into the area. Now, I’m not Carlos Mencia, so I can’t speak for the Latinos, but I come from a rich Redneck Heritage. I know that rednecks like to park their cars on the grass and put the old couch on the front porch. And I’ve seen Latinos do it too. It’s called wanting to be comfortable while you drink your beer and watch your kids play in the yard!
Manassas Park spent way too much time planning and making this stupid coloring book. And then, they picked the stupidest method of communication- sending the book home with little kids, in the hopes that little Mary or little Maria would tell Mom and Dad that its not cool to park the car on the lawn. Sheesh.
They should work out a deal with the local cable company, or direct-mail flyers to homes, detailing any regulations that residents may be violating- if there is such an ordinance. Or, neighborhood communities can get together and form Homeowners’ Associations and can govern and enforce rules among themselves. But it is not the business of the local school system to try to get neighborhoods to clean up their act.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Bush Lays the Smackdown on Helen Thomas
Mar 21st
President Bush told the Troll reporter, Helen Thomas, exactly why he invaded Iraq, even after Helen so rudely tried to interrupt him with her misleading Moonbat questions.
Thanks to Drudge for providing the transcript.
Helen Thomas, who in January grumbled that President Bush was a “coward” for not calling on her at a press conference, today was granted a question for the first time in several years. The doyenne of the White House press corps, who once called Bush the worst president in U.S. history, seized her chance with gusto, essentially debating Bush instead of questioning him. Here’s the transcript:
THE PRESIDENT: Helen. After that brilliant performance at the Grid Iron, I am — (laughter.)
Q: You’re going to be sorry. (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: Well, then, let me take it back. (Laughter.)
Q: I’d like to ask you, Mr. President, your decision to invade Iraq has caused the deaths of thousands of Americans and Iraqis, wounds of Americans and Iraqis for a lifetime. Every reason given, publicly at least, has turned out not to be true. My question is, why did you really want to go to war? From the moment you stepped into the White House, from your Cabinet — your Cabinet officers, intelligence people, and so forth — what was your real reason? You have said it wasn’t oil — quest for oil, it hasn’t been Israel, or anything else. What was it?
THE PRESIDENT: I think your premise — in all due respect to your question and to you as a lifelong journalist — is that — I didn’t want war. To assume I wanted war is just flat wrong, Helen, in all due respect –
Q: Everything –
THE PRESIDENT: Hold on for a second, please.
Q: — everything I’ve heard –
THE PRESIDENT: Excuse me, excuse me. No President wants war. Everything you may have heard is that, but it’s just simply not true. My attitude about the defense of this country changed on September the 11th. We — when we got attacked, I vowed then and there to use every asset at my disposal to protect the American people. Our foreign policy changed on that day, Helen. You know, we used to think we were secure because of oceans and previous diplomacy. But we realized on September the 11th, 2001, that killers could destroy innocent life. And I’m never going to forget it. And I’m never going to forget the vow I made to the American people that we will do everything in our power to protect our people.
Part of that meant to make sure that we didn’t allow people to provide safe haven to an enemy. And that’s why I went into Iraq — hold on for a second –
Q: They didn’t do anything to you, or to our country.
THE PRESIDENT: Look — excuse me for a second, please. Excuse me for a second. They did. The Taliban provided safe haven for al Qaeda. That’s where al Qaeda trained –
Q: I’m talking about Iraq –
THE PRESIDENT: Helen, excuse me. That’s where — Afghanistan provided safe haven for al Qaeda. That’s where they trained. That’s where they plotted. That’s where they planned the attacks that killed thousands of innocent Americans.
I also saw a threat in Iraq. I was hoping to solve this problem diplomatically. That’s why I went to the Security Council; that’s why it was important to pass 1441, which was unanimously passed. And the world said, disarm, disclose, or face serious consequences –
Q: — go to war –
THE PRESIDENT: — and therefore, we worked with the world, we worked to make sure that Saddam Hussein heard the message of the world. And when he chose to deny inspectors, when he chose not to disclose, then I had the difficult decision to make to remove him. And we did, and the world is safer for it.
Q: Thank you, sir. Secretary Rumsfeld — (laughter.)
Q: Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: You’re welcome. (Laughter.) I didn’t really regret it. I kind of semi-regretted it. (Laughter.)
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