Archive for Life - page 24

Some people seems to have a pathological need to see crises everywhere.  The current panic I am referring to is the illogical paranoia over “gentically modified organisms” or GMOs or more commonly Genetically Modified Foods.  Some people (yes, those “some people”) are upset becasue GMOs are “unnatural” or that GMOs are part of some plot by Big Ag to poison the world.  Never mind that GMOs have been around for almost 20 years (longer, really) and the most destitute populations of the world will reap the most benefit from them, literally in this case, since most GMOs take the form of modified strains of corn or rice that will increase yields, nutrition or resistance to pests to help feed a hungry third world.

BAD corn…BAD!!

We have been eating GMOs for almost two decades now;  there have been approximately 2000 studies done without a single documented case of illness, disease or harm caused by GMOs.  So enough with the panic already.  Besides – if worse comes to worse, you can always live on Soylent.

Cross posted at Men Out Of Work Blog

…It means inferior, damaged or otherwise of poor quality and I’ve never used it to refer to the quality of music.  I’d always heard it used to refer to certain…ahem..”combustibles” of poor quality.  But using it to refer to the quality of music is what Jody Rosen does in this Vulture.com article In Defense of Schlock Music: Why Journey, Billy Joel and Lionel Ritchie Are Better Than You Think.  Rosen spends a fair amount of ink (electrons? pixels? bandwidth?) explaining that if you’ve ever read or paid any attention to music critics you would know that almost all popular music, past and present, is considered schlock by those critics.  And despite the critic’s…err…criticism, the music was and is commercially successful, widely popular and has stayed popular over time.  Huh.  I can’t really decide if the article is a true defense of the music, a defense of the critics who deemed the music schlock, or an idictment of the public for embracing and consuming the schlock tunes because about halfway through the article I started to lose the will to live – no offense meant to Jody Rosen.  Anyhoo…I don’t care.  Beauty is in the eye of the beholder as they say (or so I’m told that they say) and I don’t need a critic to tell me if a painting is good, or if I should like a song.  I know what I like when I hear it.  I DO NOT LIKE The Pina Colada Song – just want to get that out there.  Now THAT is some schlock.  God, now I’ve got that in my head.

So in the critics’ opinions, my taste in music runs to “schlock”.  Everyone has their opinions – one man’s schlock is another man’s…umm…something that’s good music.  Let’s try that again.  One man’s schlock is another man’s..BACH!  Awesome.  Just find something you like and let it make you happy!

Here is number 109 from The 150 Greatest Schlock Songs  of All Time:

Hat tip:  Althouse

Remember back when Bush was President and during the whole Congessional Inquiry into the Iraq WMD kerfuffle, the name of Washington socialite CIA employee Valerie Plame was published in a news article, and the the Special Prosecutor spent two years going after Scooter Libby for it finally convicting him of something like inadvertently making a false statement?  Good times… anyhoo, turns out now that some of Obama’s folks just outed the CIA Chief in Afghanistan.  Oh well…sh*t happens.  Sorry about that.  Investigation? Special Prosecutor?  Nah… it was just a clerical error.  Besides – see that “D”?  That’s for Double Standard.  Also it’s a get out of jail card so just move along.  Why?  Because shut up that’s why.

They’re just stupid that’s all

Bonus:  Here’s one of the things you’ll find if you google “Sh*t Happens:  click this link to see it happening (not literally!)

...another urban legend debunked.  It seems that an earlier study had been interpreted to mean that lottery winners were unhappier after winning the lottery, but further research has been done and now we know that lottery winners are no less happy after winning than they were when they won.  Makes sense to me.  An unhappy person tends to be unhappy, money or not;  also a happy person tends to be happy, money or not.  Money is physical, happy is inside your head.

That’s inside your head, too.

I didn’t want to have to write anything about this little puke who committed six murders in Santa Barbara.  But since all law-abiding gun owners are now apparently to blame I have to speak up.

There is already a law against murder.  If a lunatic is willing to violate that law multiple times then some silly regulation about how or when he can buy a gun legally will not deter him.  Even if you could make guns completely illegal and have every single one of them magically disappear there would still be at least 4 dead people here.  Assuming the nut would find some way to off himself.  The one, the only issue to consider here is how can we change our current system to deal with people who are known to be mentally ill and potentially dangerous, other than to clean up the mess they leave when they finally snap.  Maybe you smart people out there can think about that instead of how to deprive gun owners of their civil rights.  

…because we refuse to look.  Whenever someone does look, they find…voter fraud.

Another local independent investigation, this time in Lee County Florida, has turned up evidence that non-citizens are registering to vote and are in fact voting.  How can this happen?  Easy.  On the voter registration form, simply check “yes” box where it asks if you are a US citizen and then sign the form, attesting to the truth of the statement.  That’s it.  No proof required.

Reporters at Fort Myers, Florida TV Station WBBH decided to look in the possibility that ineligible people were voting and so contacted local election officials.  They got no help there, since county election officials apparently have no authority to attempt verification of a potential voter’s eligibility.  They don’t check – they just process the forms.  So the reporters cast their own net – a very narrow net.  They obtained, from the county government, cards that people send in when they refuse jury duty for one reason or another.  They selected the cards that gave “non-citizenship” as the reason, then crossreferenced those names with voter registration rolls and – voila!  94 non-citizens registered to vote.  In one county.

There is a note of bitter irony here also.  These people are voting yet refusing jury duty.  They are illicity claiming one of the benefits of citizenship while shirking one of the responsibilties.  Nice.

Lastly, if you say that there were “only” 94 illegal voters, remember this: this was one county in Florida.  There are 67 counties in Florida, and if the numbers are extrapolated then there were potentially 6,300 illegal voters.  And these investigators cast a very small net, using only jury duty refusal cards as a starting point – a very small percentage of the population is even contacted for jury duty.

By the way, it is a felony for an illegible person to register to vote and vote.  I’ll be waiting to see if anyone is charged or prosecuted.

Nothing to see here…move along.

Memorial Day began as a custom shortly after the Civil War when on the last Monday in May, the graves of fallen civil war soldiers were decorated with flowers, ribbons, etc.  It was known as Decoration Day.  At this time the Civil War had been the deadliest conflict in our short history;  All too soon would there be more fallen warriors of greater conflicts to be remembered alongside their civil war brothers in arms.  The term “Memorial Day” was first used in 1882, but did not become common until after WWII, and it was declared the official name of the holiday by Federal Law in 1967.

This day we remember those who fought for us – who went to fight and never returned.  May they rest in Peace.

Here follows a photo essay in solemn memory of our fallen warriors.  All photos are mine.  Click on the photo to enlarge.

The Tomb Of The Unknowns, Arlington National Cemetery

Viet Nam Veterans Memorial

The Wall

WWII Memorial

WWII Memorial

WWII Memorial

WWII Memorial

Yorktown Battlefield, Redoubt No. 10 where the battle was won

A Famous and Fitting Quote

Remember:

“We sleep soundly in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm.”

-it’s not important who said it.  It’s true.

I have said in the past that there is no aspect of life that the California Legislature will not eventually involve themselves in.  And most likely it will be for the children.  If we can eventually bring society down into a crumbling ruin, at least we did it for the children!

AB2127 passed the Assembly on a 55-20 vote.  The bill will go on to the Senate, and if passed there will go on to the Governor’s desk for his signature or (hopefully) veto.  

Credit: Jack Ohman, Sacbee.com

The bill is designed to fight the so-called “concussion epidemic” by limiting the number of full-contact practices teams can have each week.  Hmm…let’s think about this for a minute.  How is it that amateur athlete’s learn  how to play their respective sports?  Practice.  In a physical contact sport where it is important to learn proper techniques in order to avoid injuries, how do amateur athletes learn those techniques?  Practice.  So let’s limit practice!  Problem solved! 

More Here – Reason.com: This bill turns your state into a football referee

Cross posted at Men Out Of Work Blog

Let me start by saying I am sick of bullsh*t.  What bullsh*t, you ask?  All this bullsh*t *waves hands around*.  It’s knee deep these days and getting worse.  So I am going to start calling people out on their bullsh*t.  Or call bullsh*t out on it’s bullsh*t or whatever…I’ll point out bullsh*t.

First – some of my own bullsh*t.  I have several favorite phrases that I use when confronted with and perplexed by various bullsh*t scenarios.  I like to exclaim “it’s all bullshit!” when someone makes an inexplicably bad and/or illogical decision that goes against my interests.  Sometimes I say “Dees ees boolsheet, man!”  in the voice of Ren from Ren & Stimpy which is what I often say when confronted with an unpleasant and unexpected surprise.  Or there is “Dat’s some bullshit right there” said a la Eddie Murphy (emphasis on the Bull) which is beautifully suited to any situation.  And finally the simple exclamation “BULLSHIT!” , used like a verbal rubber stamp, as if stamping the bullsh*t label on the offending transgression.  This is done quickly and loudly as if trying to win the bullsh*t game where you must be the first to buzz in with the response.

Our quest for deciphering bullsh*t may take us on  strange paths and across some unexpected reveleations up to and including multi-level bullsh*t which is bullsh*t built upon a foundation of more bullsh*t;  6 degrees of separation bullsh*t, where you will be surprised to find out that two apparaenlty separate instances of bulllsh*t are actually part of the same larger pool of bullsh*t;  and what is referred to as “unbelievalbe bullsh*t” which is something that is such total bullsh*t that it is…well… unbelievable.

Bullsh*t slingers beware!  You have been warned!

The spotlight turns to Joe Walsh, who many of you may know as a member of the Eagles;  However…Joe Walsh was Joe Walsh before he was an Eagle.  In the late 60’s he joined a band called The James Gang – 70’s refugees will recognize the name and recall that this band produced some of the first hit songs written/performed by Walsh.  He left the James Gang and formed a group called Barnstorm, which had a few hits, the most commercially successful being “Rocky Mountain Way” which reached #23 on the 1973 US Top 40 Chart.  Interestingly, the band released three albums, but only the first branded as Barnstorm, the later two marketed as Walsh solo efforts.  As a result, no one remembers Barnstorm – I know I didn’t.

This James Gang song is the one with the famous riff and the funky name: Funk #49:

OK then.  I’ll close with a few bonus fun facts about Joe Walsh:

He played the Oboe in his high school band; He produced Dan Fogelberg’s 1974 Album Souvenirs;  he is an amatuer (HAM) radio operator, call sign WB6ACU.