Posts from — January 2009

It’s a good decision for his election, as he chose from outside of New York City.

CNN reports: “New York Gov. David Paterson on Friday appointed relatively unknown U.S. Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand to replace Hillary Clinton in the U.S. Senate.”

Her district covers the Hudson Valley and North, which means rural, agricultural, and conservative. She get perfect scores from the ACLU, the NRA, and is a Blue Dog fiscal conservative. She is from a long-time capital area [Albany] political family, getting her first political experience working with her activist grandmother.

Please note: contrary to conventional wisdom, New York State as a whole is not liberal or Democratic, it is a centrist swing state. This is an acceptable choice for the state that will help Paterson get elected in his own right. Hillary Clinton busted her butt getting support from upstate, and her replacement would be expected to do the same.

Son of Writer’s Block

Not nice!

[Editor: Income – demonstrating what he learned from his mom.

Friday Ark

The Republicans keep trying to give public lands to their friends in Big Oil so “we can reduce our dependence on foreign oil”. There are are whole lot of assumptions built into their concept that can’t be reconciled with the real world.

For example, the Pensacola News Journal is reporting Production suspended at Jay Oil Field

Denver-based Quantum Resources has suspended its Jay Oil Field production and laid off about half its employees as a result of the economic recession and dramatic fall in oil prices.
…

The Jay fields were first discovered in 1970 and contained estimated reserves of one billion barrels of oil, one of the largest single discoveries in U.S. history.

This isn’t exploration, it’s a proven field, but they are shutting it down to wait for higher prices. Just because the Republicans give them rights to public property doesn’t ensure they will use those rights for anyone’s benefit but their own. As Alan Greenspan finally realized, the self-interest of corporations isn’t very enlightened, just greedy.

Well, for at least one reader: Girl Scout Cookies Not Affected By Peanut Butter Warning.

The Girl Scouts investigated and determined that the two companies that are involved in the manufacture of their cookies do not use anything from the Peanut Corporation of America.

I assume there will be more of this type of announcement as people backtrack their suppliers.

Update: Not good news for Nutrisystems snack bars, but the FDA finally has a searchable list.

CNN reports that Pet treats recalled because they may be contaminated:

(CNN) — PetSmart is recalling seven of its Grreat Choice dog biscuit products because they contain peanut products made by a company that has been linked to a salmonella outbreak in 43 states and Canada, the Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday.

If you handle the treats, you can be contaminated and pass the infection to your family.

This is what happens when everything gets centralized for the sake of efficiency and cost cutting – problems at a single plant can have a huge impact on the food supply. We are nickel and diming ourselves to death.

To avoid any questions, Chief Justice Roberts went to the White House today and again administered the oath of office to President Obama. This time Justice Roberts did it right, and it was witnessed by pool reporters among others.

Update: Caroline Kennedy has made the rumor a fact. [I guess I’ll get the blame for opposing her.]

The “breaking news” is that someone has said that Caroline Kennedy has called Governor Paterson of New York and asked that her named be withdrawn from consideration.

I would note that unlike a lot of people, Governor Paterson doesn’t run off at the mouth, and hasn’t given any indication of who he is considering for the office, although there are rumors that he is getting tired of being lobbied on the issue. The two people most actively lobbying for the position have been Caroline Kennedy and Andrew Cuomo.

The Senate seat became vacant today as Hillary Clinton was confirmed as Secretary of State, so the governor will probably make a decision soon. I would hope, as much as I like his father, that the governor could find someone other than another white guy, like Andrew Cuomo, but a Sino-Puertorican transsexual atheist would probably be overreaching, even for New York.

It would appear that fashion is one of the more important items to be considered when judging the success of an inauguration as many are commenting on two hats.

Obviously the most important is Aretha Franklin’s hat. The LA Times says “The $179 hat, customized with Swarovski crystals, came from Mr. Song Millinery in Detroit where Luke Song has been making ladies dress hats for 25 years.”

I saw a wool felt cloche hat with a decorative ribbon that would keep her head warm and stop the wind. The design, popular during the 1920s and ’30s, also keeps the hair over the ears. This combined with a matching wool scarf and gloves, and a high collar coat with narrow double-breasted detailing kept her warm, and shows the wisdom of someone from Detroit dealing with a cold windy day outside. Anyone who doesn’t understand the hat should put “church hat” into a search engine and be prepared for the flood.

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Mr. Broder you were “pwnd” by my octogenarian Mother: the Carter’s daughter is named Amy, not Chelsea.

Dr. Gupta: a 60° temperature differential is not good for healthy people, much less people getting over chemotherapy, like Senator Kennedy. Check with the military or sports medicine people, as well as looking at the latest research on the treatment of hypothermia. As a supposed brain surgeon you might consider: “Physician heal thyself.”

The committee that decided to switch the Air Force’s wool greatcoat for a polyester overcoat should be required to guard aircraft on the Minot flight line all winter. Lord, but those guys looked frozen. All services need a winter dress hat of some kind for these occasions.

CNN is reporting that US Airways has sent checks to all of the passengers on the flight for $5,000 plus the cost of their tickets. The $5,000 is for the luggage they may never see again, as it is impounded as evidence by the NTSB, as is probably waterlogged in any case.

The ditching and rescue were not “miracles”, that’s how these things are supposed to happen. The flight crew and first responders spend a lot of time practicing for these events as part of their job, and are professionals. [I was flight crew and a first responder.]

Ditching may be rare in commercial aviation, but the military has a lot of experience with the “event”. It was a “good landing”, because everyone survived. Disasters associated with ditching are normally because the aircraft lacks the speed or altitude to line up properly for the landing. Waves and having the landing gear still extended can also lead to disaster by causing the aircraft to tumble. This was essentially a routine, nose-high landing on water with the luxury of no obstacles and a long, straight landing area. The aircraft is air-tight, so there was a lot of flotation potential, and the slides on the front doors are pressurized for even more assistance. A gear up landing on land is much more dangerous, even with foam.

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It will be months before any real change to the way the government works can be expected, regardless of tomorrow. The Shrubbery will be gone, but the Hedgemony lingers on in every department.

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, was decided in1954, I was in a segregated high school in 1962.

Griswold v. Connecticut was decided in 1965, and contraceptives are still not readily available in this country. In some ways they are less available now than they were a decade ago.

Loving v. Virginia was decided in 1967, but states are still in involved in telling people who they can marry.

Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, but I doubt that anyone thinks that fight is over.

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The BBC reports that Hamas announces ceasefire in Gaza.

Hamas’ deputy chief in Syria, Moussa Abou Marzouk, said the ceasefire was in the name of all “Palestinian resistance factions”.

“We… announce a ceasefire of our factions in the Gaza Strip and we stress that our demand is the withdrawal of the enemy forces from the Gaza Strip within a week, along with the opening of all the crossings for the entry of humanitarian aid, food and other necessities for our people in the Gaza Strip.”

The group said the ceasefire would be temporary unless Israel met these long-standing demands.

These are exactly the same demands that Hamas has made since it came to power.

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Update: The Houston Chronicle has a report on more products being recalled.

Here’s the deal, we know that some peanut butter is contaminated, but it comes from a bulk supplier whose smallest container is 5 pounds. You can’t buy it in a supermarket.

The FDA has finally admitted that it doesn’t know which companies and products are using the tainted peanut butter, other than Kellogg which instituted it’s own recall.

The result is that, while the standard brands [Jif, Skippy, and Peter Pan] on shelves are alright, every product that contains peanut butter or peanut paste is suspect. Don’t eat anything, cookies, cakes, crackers, ice cream, candy, or anything else that contains peanut butter.

If you have children, make sure they know not to eat peanut butter at school, or in restaurants. Those are the locations of the first reported cases.

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I’m as careless as everyone else in not making it clear that I have problems with governments and politicians, not the people in countries or areas. I know that many of the “supporters” of government policies have been deluged with agitprop for years, and don’t have the time or resources to come to their own conclusions. I would certainly hope that the world at large understands that Hedgemony is not the United States, and I should make an effort not to appear to condemn entire populations for the actions of the crazies who run things.

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It is currently [5:44pm CST] 44° in Fairbanks, Alaska and 37° here. Their low won’t be as low as mine. Don’t tell me that Global Climate Change isn’t happening. 😡