Category — Uncategorized

The ABC reports that Azerbaijan takes home Eurovision prize.

This is a story that belongs in the “Offbeat” or “Strange” category, rather than “Entertainment”. The Eurovision song contest is a cruel joke played on television viewers. Ostensibly, it is a talent show, but it has more in common with The Gong Show than any attempt at finding people with talent.

It is best viewed in a local bar or pub that has a Mystery Science Theater 3000 tradition.

The BBC tells us Power hopes rise at Japan plant

Workers are close to restoring power to cooling systems at a quake-hit Japanese nuclear power plant, officials say.

Engineers connected a cable through which they hope to supply electricity to part of the Fukushima Daiichi plant.
…

Radioactive contamination has been found in some food products from the Fukushima prefecture, Japanese officials say.

The iodine was found in products – reported to be milk and spinach – tested between 16 and 18 March and could be harmful to human health if ingested, the officials said.
…

Traces of radioactive iodine have also been found in tapwater in Tokyo and five other prefectures, officials said on Saturday.

The traces are within government safety limits, but usual tests show no iodine, the AP news agency reported.
… [Read more →]

The BBC says that Gates cutting Pentagon budget by $78bn over five years

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has announced a $78bn (£50.3bn) military budget cut, in part by scrapping a $14bn amphibious fighting vehicle.

The cuts over the next five years come in addition to $100bn in internal savings already announced.

Those savings will be redirected to other defence programmes, but the new cuts slow growth in the overall budget.

This isn’t cutting the budget, it is reducing the growth in the increase. The DoD budget will still increase, even with these “cuts”. It is unlikely that much of what Gates has proposed will make it through Congress as it impacts defense contractors who will use their tame Congresscritters to oppose them.

The Miami Herald reports that Legislators inadvertently give ‘pill mills’ a break

TALLAHASSEE — In their zeal to slow down government regulations, Florida lawmakers have inadvertently halted an effort to regulate so-called “pill mills” that fuel an epidemic of prescription drug abuse.

The regulations were set to take effect Sunday for most pain clinics. But they are stalled by a new law intended to crack down on expensive state regulations. The law requires legislative approval of rules that have a significant fiscal impact.

The twits in Tallahassee “accidentally” passed a bill that would stop the cut off a certain radio host from his Oxycodone supply from cash-only “pain clinics”.

In Florida medical clinics are currently only subject to inspection and regulation if they accept insurance payments. Barbers have more stringent requirements than doctors, and that is a relic of their profession’s past as the surgeons and dentists in the 19^th century.

An excerpt from the text of Pope Benedict’s Westminster speech:

If the moral principles underpinning the democratic process are themselves determined by nothing more solid than social consensus, then the fragility of the process becomes all too evident – herein lies the real challenge for democracy.

The inadequacy of pragmatic, short-term solutions to complex social and ethical problems has been illustrated all too clearly by the recent global financial crisis.

There is widespread agreement that the lack of a solid ethical foundation for economic activity has contributed to the grave difficulties now being experienced by millions of people throughout the world.

On the BBC site today: Vatican Bank ‘investigated over money-laundering’. The good news for the Institute for Religious Works, the official name of the bank, is that so far no one has been murdered.

And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

From Weather Underground

Cinco Bayou – Pocahontas Dr., Fort Walton Beach, Florida (PWS)
Updated: 1:33 PM CDT on August 06, 2010
Scattered Clouds
82.6 °F [28.1 °C]
Humidity: 89%
Dew Point: 79 °F
Wind: Calm
Wind Gust: 1.0 mph
Pressure: 29.91 in (Falling)
Heat Index: 93 °F [33.9 °C]
Visibility: 10.0 miles
UV: 10 out of 16
Pollen: 4.30 out of 12
Pollen Forecast new!
Clouds:
Few 2000 ft
Scattered Clouds 19000 ft
Scattered Clouds 21000 ft
(Above Ground Level)
Elevation: 16 ft

Finally, we are nearer to normal!!!

I needed to send a fax this morning, something I rarely do anymore because of e-mail. It was a Word document, so I just brought it up and selected the fax from the printer menu.

Everything seemed to be going normally when a big security window popped up informing me that the Microsoft Firewall had blocked the Microsoft Fax Program. I was conflicted because the security window wanted to know if the software came from a trusted source.

The philosophical question is: Can you go to hell for lying to your software?

Given the reception for Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin, CNN reports that Pee-Wee Herman’s ready for a comeback.

If you can get away to sex scandals as a US Senator, why not as an entertainer? Actually the US Senate reminds me of the “Pee-Wee’s Fun House”.

Via Cookie Jill at skippy’s, an Oklahoma City TV station reports: 75 Percent of Oklahoma High School Students Can’t Name the First President of the U.S.

The survey was commissioned by the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs in observance of Constitution Day on Thursday.

Brandon Dutcher is with the conservative think tank and said the group wanted to find out how much civic knowledge Oklahoma high school students know.

The Oklahoma City-based think tank enlisted national research firm, Strategic Vision, to access students’ basic civic knowledge.

“They’re questions taken from the actual exam that you have to take to become a U.S. citizen,” Dutcher said.

A thousand students were given 10 questions drawn from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services item bank. Candidates for U.S. citizenship must answer six questions correctly in order to become citizens.

About 92 percent of the people who take the citizenship test pass on their first try, according to immigration service data. However, Oklahoma students did not fare as well. Only about 3 percent of the students surveyed would have passed the citizenship test.

Dutcher said this is not just a problem in Oklahoma. He said Arizona had similar results, which left him concerned for the entire country.

The questions are below the fold, but I won’t include the answers because if you stop by here and are an American citizen you know the answers.

[Read more →]

Jimmy Carter, the only real Democrat elected to the Presidency since LBJ, has broken with the Southern Baptist Convention and explains his action at Comment Is Free: The words of God do not justify cruelty to women.

A moderate liberal, and, in the eyes of Walter Cronkite the most intelligent President he ever reported on, Carter said what he thought, held to his ideals, and did what he thought was right. Since Carter, almost every politician who calls themselves a Democrat lacks any loyalty to any concept except being elected.

Groucho Marx summed up the current crop of “Democrats” is his quote: “Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them… well, I have others.”

Have any of you guys read the Charter of the Organization of American States?

The reason I ask is that, being a glutton for punishment, I read it and saw:

Article 13

The political existence of the State is independent of recognition by other States. Even before being recognized, the State has the right to defend its integrity and independence, to provide for its preservation and prosperity, and consequently to organize itself as it sees fit, to legislate concerning its interests, to administer its services, and to determine the jurisdiction and competence of its courts. The exercise of these rights is limited only by the exercise of the rights of other States in accordance with international law.

This seems to be saying that a country gets to pass its own constitution, and have that constitution interpreted by its own courts, as long as it does not mess with other countries.

[Read more →]

The headline is: San Angelo mayor quits over immigrant boyfriend

This is a story about the town outside the gate of Goodfellow AFB in West Texas, one of the places I was stationed in the Air Force.

The job only pays $600/year but this guy won re-election for a fourth term with 89% of the vote.

The only reason I bring it up is the reading skills of the people at the Houston Chronicle commenting.

One of them actually said: “well thats one way to get that visa, marry an American and have an anchor baby”, having apparently missed the part about HIS honor having an immigrant BOYFRIEND.

Actually, having a “close, personal friend” that is human is rather upscale in West Texas. [/snark]

[OK, so the Florida legislature still hasn’t made bestiality a crime. Come on, the Republicans can’t attack their base.]

Realizing that they don’t have to build Fantasyland, Disney plans new resort near Washington, D.C..

I wonder how having the real Mickey Mouse outfit in town will affect all of the pretenders in Congress?

Steve Benen’s post, Katrina Revisited, explains something that was bugging the hell out of me at the time: why wouldn’t they allow the military to help with Katrina?

The USS Bataan followed the storm and had helicopters, personnel, medical facilities, landing craft – all kinds of things that were needed to help, but it was never allowed to do it.

The helicopters and resources of the military’s two rotary wing training bases at Whiting Field and Fort Rucker were never allowed to help.

NAS Pensacola helicopter pilots were reprimanded for helping the Coast Guard in New Orleans.

The combat engineers of the local AF Redhorse squadron were finally sent by road to Biloxi, but were kept bottled up for days.

The AF Special Ops were sleeping near their aircraft ready to go after returning to their local bases following the storm, waiting for word. They were finally allowed to reopen the New Orleans airport.

It made absolutely no sense with all of the military capabilities available on the coast that they weren’t being used, as they have been used following every other major hurricane, especially since the Louisiana Guard’s equipment, and a large segment of their personnel were in Iraq. They regularly get sent to Central America, but not to New Orleans – Whiskey Tango Fox, Over?

Now we know it was Rumsfeld.

Kryten supplied another piece on Rumsfeld, The Undertaker’s Tally (Part 1) in comments.