Now before hitting me with your hate comments let me advise you to go read your Bible. No really, I'll wait. The Bible is one of the nastiest pieces of filth I have ever seen, well besides the thing with the Japanese folks in the bath tub... never mind.

This is exactly the kind of attention that should be given religion in general. I am so happy! Someone pinch me!

Click on link below to hear Michael Hayne impersonate the gargantuan lizard in this hilarious parody.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

6 Degrees of Separation: Hula Dancers and Glenn Beck

Hula dancing originated in Hawaii, as did...

Barrack Obama, whose "Kenyan Birth Certificate" was a big hoax, just like...

The Balloon Boy, who never really got off the ground, just like...

Real Health Care Reform, which died in 2009, just like...

Billy Mayes, who made a living off of selling crap to the American public, just like...

Glenn Beck.

Barack Obama?  Howard Dean?  Hillary Clinton?  Al Franken?  

Go ahead, speak your piece.  

(Awesome.  I love this kind of stuff. - promoted by leftake)

Watch the video VERY closely. How did he know about this blog? The folks on it?  Just how powerful is Fox?!!!

Stupid evil Beck!

It was something that was going to change the world! The internal combustion engine was not only going to allow everyday citizens to have personal transportation, but also was going to replace the more hazardous steam power.

The only problem was the fuel. When the engines were made more efficient and more powerful with higher compression, this horrible problem kept revealing its ugly side. A ominous sound would start up from the very bowels of the engine cylinders when put under stress. This sound was discovered to be "Pinging" or sometimes called engine knocking. The sound was like somebody had put gravel rocks in the cylinders!

Besides the very undesirable sounds that were produced from the relatively new technology, it was discovered that pinging caused damage to the internal workings of the engine itself. Some solution had to be found or this technology would never be accepted!

So in 1916 a chemist, named Thomas Midgley, was given the job of finding a solution to this particular nasty problem. He was told that not only was it bad for the automobiles being produced, but the newly developed flying machines and the associated aviation engine development was being hampered.

So working for General Motors Research, he tried several schemes to prevent this engine knock. Since Thomas thought that too much heat might be the problem, he tried different dyes in the gas. Perhaps different colors would absorb less heat. This didn't work out so well.

They then accumulated almost every element they could think of based on the Periodic Chart of the elements and started going down the list. By trial and error, they stumbled upon a substance called Tetra-Ethyl-Tin that showed some promise. Further investigation showed that it was the lead in the Tetra-Ethyl-Tin that stopped the knock completely. Lead was extremely cheap so if this substance worked out, a lot of money could be made.

The chemist cooked up a batch of Tetra-Ethyl-Lead and tried it out. The knock went away completely like magic! But by this time, other researchers had discovered that lead had some very bad properties like brain damage, strange skin reactions, difficulties in walking, etc.

The League of Nations was already recommending to ban all lead in paint to which Europe complied. The United States, for whatever reason, did not regulate lead in paint until a much later date. Thomas Midgley was by then receiving all sorts of reports and letters telling about the hazards of lead. In 1922, the surgeon general wrote a letter to the president of General Motors with concerns that lead would become a serious health issue to the public. In spite of these warnings, the president of General Motors had too much invested in this magical liquid solution.

General Motors president, Pierre DuPont, partnered with Standard Oil to form Ethyl Gasoline Company naming Mr. Charles Kettering as president and Thomas Midgley, the chemist, as Vice-President. The product went on sale in 1923. Additional public advertising was helped by the fact that they sponsored Ethyl fueled cars that won 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place at the Indianapolis Raceway in 1923.

But problems started to show up. At the Ethyl production facility in Deepwater, the workers became disoriented, had a strange gait, and couldn't seem to think clearly. The Deepwater Ethyl plant started to be called the "House of Butterflies" for the strange effects to the workers.

The companies leaders excused the effects as the workers are "working too hard" and that was causing the slow insanity. "We are going to have to protect the workers against themselves" stated Mr Kettering. The public took these statements as a clean bill of health and soon the Ethyl lead additive started taking over the market.

By 1963, over 98 percent of all gasoline contained the additive. But all this lead was also coming out of the exhausts of all those cars across the country. Thousands of tons of lead per year at its peak. But because of political muscle, Ethyl lead gasoline enjoyed the protection of the government.

One instance, when a competitor came up with a nonlead additive, the US government actually sued them into bankruptcy. The US Federal Trade Commission came out with a report that stated that leaded gas was not a narcotic, poisonous dope, or dangerous to human health in any way. Ethyl Gasoline was here to stay........except for one person who just wouldn't go along.

This one geochemist graduate student, Clair Patterson, was trying some new ways of measuring how old rocks were with the goal of finding out how old the earth was. His new method was by measuring the isotopes of uranium and lead naturally found in rocks samples.

But something was wrong! All of the rock samples he tested contained about 200 times the amount of lead they should have naturally. He just couldn't figure out where the contamination was coming from! He set up a strict contamination procedure in his lab. Still he was coming up with the same results. Where was all the lead coming from?

He found out that the lead contamination was from the atmosphere and spoiling the samples. He then discovered that it was from the gasoline additive, Tetra-Ethyl-Lead, and started publishing his findings. Dr Patterson came up with an experiment in which he would take core samples from pack ice in Greenland and from the different layers, be able to determine lead contamination throughout past years. The experiment worked and it show that lead levels started increasing in 1923 and that the last tested year of 1965, the lead levels were 1000 times what they had been before 1923. He also started testing human bones and found that modern human bone lead level were many times greater than pre-1923 bone lead tests.

When these results were published, the proverbial "crap hit the fan". First the Ethyl corporation offered him lucrative contracts for more favorable results. He refused. They then started a public smear campaign designed to destroy his credibility. Even the US government got into the campaign with the National Research Council disputing the findings.

The Ethyl Corporation had many friends on their side including a Supreme Court Justice, members of the US Public Health Service, and the American Petroleum Institute. But Dr. Patterson would not relent on his campaign to inform the general public. Eventually Congress passed the Clean Air act of 1970 which demanded that leaded gasoline was to be phased out because of research that Dr Patterson published.

DuPont and the Ethyl Corporation were able to delay the death of Ethyl based additives for 10 more years in court, but eventually all gasoline became lead free in 1986. In the 63 years of Ethyl additives existence, 6 million tons of lead was released in the atmosphere.

What happened to the chemist, Thomas Midgley, who ignored all the warnings about lead and came up with Ethyl additives? Well, he was not totally out of the creative process when Tetra-Ethyl-Lead ceased to exist. He later went on to invent ChloroFluroCarbons, otherwise known as CFC'S. What a guy!!

Resources:

The Nation: The Secret History of Lead by Jamie Kitman

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetra-ethyl_lead

Damn Interesting: The Ethyl Poison Earth by Alan Bellows

http://www.chemcases.com/tel/tel-13.htm Kenneshaw University "How the best known Poison on Earth remained in the Gasoline Supply for 60 Years"

We have one less Republican running for a House seat. His name is Ralph Reed, a former Christian Coalition executive director and chairman of the Georgia Republican Party.

That's a relief. But wait...what's he going to be doing instead?

In a statement, Reed said Wednesday he could be more influential leading a new conservative grassroots organization he started, the Faith and Freedom Coalition, than by serving in Congress.

 

“In 2010 and 2012, [the Faith and Freedom Coalition] will register an estimated one million new faith-based voters and make tens of millions of voter contacts in what may be the largest conservative get-out-the-vote effort in modern political history,” he said. “These nationwide efforts offer a much better prospect for changing the direction of the country than winning a Congressional race myself.”

How many more of these groups are going to pop up on the right side? I'm not sure whether to be upset or not about this. It could end up splitting the votes if some of them are also Tea Party members. But it could also put a majority of Republicans in the House and Senate.

The worst part is that he's got a great idea here. Just round up a large group of people who all believe in the same thing and get them to vote in every election possible. I can see him being very successful if he can get people all across the nation to join forces and that scares the living daylights out of me.

But he's mostly concentrating on evangelical christians.

Reed launched the Faith and Freedom Coalition following the 2008 election as a way of getting more evangelicals involved in politics. The group has attracted little public attention, but quietly helped mobilize Christian conservatives in last fall's gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia. Reed is working to establish state-based branches of the group and was in Iowa Tuesday night speaking to evangelical activists about his plans.

This could be good or bad since not all evangelical christians are conservative. But they'll probably attract more than just evangelicals right now.

This leaves me to wonder why isn't our side as vocal. I always see news articles about the right having protests and big grassroots movements. What about us? Do we need to start a movement? Or do we need to revamp a movement? Because I never hear about a big liberal group going around like the right does.

Do we need to start a movement to expose their lies and reverse the brainwashing that has been going on for years and years?

I think we do. And we may have some already. But we need to get the attention the Tea Party has gotten. We need to get more people on our side voting more.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/34198.html

http://www.publiceye.org/magazine/v17n2/evangelical-demographics.html

Cross posted from Border Jumpers, Danielle Nierenberg and Bernard Pollack.

It's hard to believe that more than 90 percent of the workforce in Zimbabwe are part of the informal sector. These workers do everything from selling bananas and playing music to selling stone carvings and other crafts. Unfortunately because they are not considered part of the formal economy, they are often the most exploited-or ignored-by the government. As a result, in 2002, they formed the Zimbabwe Chamber of Informal Economy Associations (ZCIEA), an associate of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), to help gain a voice for their members in government.

These workers, who traditionally competed against each other and with the formal sector -are now coordinated and working together to tackle pressing issues such as social security, disability benefits, improved infrastructure, working conditions, and many others.

At no time in the history of the Republic of the United States of America has either the previous Chief Executive, OR his VP decided to maintain their national spotlight for the express purpose of calling attention to their issue's at the expense of the NEW administration, or to illustrate the NEW administration's policies that they disapprove of, and to do so in such an outrageous manner that they become personally insulting, disrespecting both to the President as a man, AND the Office of the Presidency itself.

For someone like a former Vice President to disregard the historical tradition(s) observed by EVERY previous U.S. administration, AND instead of gracefully fading BACK into their rolls as private citizens amounts to blatant disrespect for those long held traditions, AND most of all an affront to the American people. Each new Administration must be given the necessary space to operate AND learn the levers of power in Washington without being judged publicly by the old guard at every turn!

Of the two people who manned the previous administration the chief critic has always been the Vice President DICK CHENEY. Obviously, he is a man not in possession of the historical facts about U.S. tradition concerning ANY prior administration's role after relinquishing their Constitutional authority at the swearing in of a new Chief Executive, but even if he were, I do not believe Dick Cheney would pay those tradition's an ounce of respect OR heed.

I wonder about the calculus used by those on the political (R)ight that enables them to respect a man who is one hundred eighty degrees in the opposite direction from everything we see on they support on posters, their political ads, rally's, town halls, websites, and their TV channel? The man received FIVE deferments from fighting in a War (Vietnam), AND he has had FIVE heart attacks paid for by American TAX payer's, but he wants them to DO without health-care.

The man is a scoundrel and hopefully history will record it that way.

Last evening I watched the Rachel Maddow Show.  Maddow, via her producers and writers, commented at length about the recurrence of disruptions at Town Hall Meetings.

While the world was markedly different during the American Revolution and resultant U.S. Constitution, I thought about the First Amendment.  I contemplated, how the Founding Fathers would have felt about organized and guided disruptions of deliberations and meetings related to the developing Constitution (and subsequent government).  My mind went to "dissent'.

Dissent is defined by Webster's dictionary as "to differ in belief or opinion."

Our right to dissent is assured by the first amendment.

It states,

    "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

So, the Tea Party town hall meeting 'disruptors' are very much within their rights to dissent. (Let me state up-front that most people who associate with the Tea Party Movement are not 'disruptors'.) The next question in my mind?  "How can the disruptors feel it is within their rights (to dissent) to show up at open forums with the intent to drown out dialog and information?

Other questions. Where are we headed if the nation segments into camps based in socio/political dogma - RIGHT AND LEFT?  Is it truly democrat to practice emailing guidelines,and hiring professionals, to possibly agitate an already concerned and maybe angry audience. (death panels!!! was the battle cry. from the RIGHT).

After a brief set of words related to a town hall meeting in a St. Louis, MO suburb, I have posted the actual Right Principles (a guide to disrupting town hall meetings). The following exert is not related to boisterous disruptions; it is an exert of an article that focuses on one Republican Congressman's 'flip' conducting of his meeting as he states intended humorous remarks about how other legislators were treated in their meetings.

http://www.examiner.com/x-15877-Kansas-City-Young-Democrat-Examiner~y2009m8d7-Orchestrated-outrage-fake-protesters-disrupt-healthcare-town-hall-meetings

At a town hall meeting in St. Louis, where he did not take questions, Representative Todd Akin (R-MO) joked that democratic lawmakers "almost got lynched" by angry protesters. The audience responded with applause. Representative Akin added that the GOP does not "approve of lynchings" while making a choking motion that prompted laughter from the crowd. Clearly in bad taste, the joke seems particularly off-putting considering that, Congressman Bishop (D-NY) was escorted to his car by five police officers for his own safety after a town hall meeting, Representative Brad Miller (D-NC) has received a direct threat against his life, and Representative Frank Kratovil (D-MD) was hung in effigy by a healthcare protester.

Perhaps foreshadowing fear mongering at its best, Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) stated "Fear, I would say, precedes anger, and I think there are a lot of people who tell me they are scared of what they see coming out of Washington...I see real opportunities for us."

I have to ask, "What is that about". Is that democracy at work? Why should I not think back to Germany 1933 and the rise of the 'brown shirts'? My point relates to suppression of free and open speech, not the coming of the Third Reich per se.

I ask that some LEFTAKERS read the following document, and help me understand why this is the right way show opposition to health care reform (Or bills that were being developed in Congress).

And he's, of course, stopping all the progress his brother Raul was trying to make.

When Raúl Castro became president of Cuba in 2006, he raised hopes, at home and abroad, that he would usher in a new era of reform. His brother, El Comandante Fidel, was struck with some sort of intestinal illness and rendered incapable of governing. So in stepped Raúl with promises to undertake "structural" change in the country. He distributed parcels of idle land to farmers. He encouraged young people, many of whom feel restive about their country's system, to "fearlessly debate" the country's problems. He decreed that Cubans could finally buy cell phones and computers, and could stay at tourist hotels that had previously been off-limits to them. When it came to relations with the United States, he said last April, "We are prepared to discuss everything—human rights, freedom of the press, political prisoners—everything, everything, everything."

But over the past year, some prominent Cuba analysts say, Fidel has steadily reasserted his authority and applied the brakes to these efforts. Despite his convalescence far from public view, Fidel is once again the arbiter on all critical matters facing the state, says Brian Latell, a former CIA analyst and now a senior research associate at the University of Miami. "I think Fidel decided that Raúl was going too far, that Raúl was playing with fire," he says. As evidence, Latell points to recent shuffling of the leadership ranks that he considers an affront to Raúl and to Fidel's backsliding commentary in more than 100 "Reflections" he has published in the Cuban press during the past year. Any hope of warmer relations with the U.S. has been dashed, says Latell. "I don't see any progress possible in the foreseeable future."

It seemed at first like Fidel had relinquished control when his intestinal disease laid him up  three and a half years ago. "He was gravely ill" between the summer of 2006 and the spring of 2007, says Andy Gomez of the University of Miami. He stopped showing up in public, stopped running government meetings, and appeared to yield the reins to Raúl. Yet in the past year, "there's no question that Fidel's condition has improved," says Gomez. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva reported that Fidel was "exceptionally well" after visiting him in Havana last month. Since Fidel's condition remains a state secret, analysts can only read tea leaves. But other indicators suggest he is back, and he's not pleased.

On the domestic front, Cuba observers say, Fidel has blocked the fundamental economic reforms necessary to lift the country out of its worst economic crisis since the collapse of the Soviet Union. "It's pretty clear that Raúl Castro is much more open to economic liberalization than Fidel Castro," says Philip Peters, a Cuba specialist at the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Va. As Latell describes in his book After Fidel,Raúl pushed for market reforms in the 1990s and was impressed with the Chinese economic model. Now that he is ostensibly in power, though, he has been unable to deliver the same changes—more opportunities for private enterprise, an elimination of the dual-currency system (which involves regular pesos for routine purchases and dollar-pegged "convertible pesos" for imported goods)—that he is thought to want for his country and that many Cubans had hoped for. The regime's recent crackdown on dissidents, activists, and bloggers also bears Fidel's fingerprints, says Latell. After Raúl's very public commitments to reform, it's unlikely he would willingly retreat so much back to the vision Fidel was known to hold.

Fidel has also ensured that tensions with the U.S. remain high. Only days after Raúl asserted that "everything" was on the negotiating table, Fidel wrote in a "Reflection" that his brother had been "misinterpreted." He then offered this clarification: "When the President of Cuba said he was ready to discuss any topic with the U.S. president, he meant he was not afraid of addressing any issue. That shows his courage and confidence in the principles of the Revolution." (This was widely interpreted, including in Foggy Bottom, as a reprimand.) Then in December, the Cuban government arrested an American contractor, Alan Gross, who was delivering communications equipment to Jewish groups on the island. He's being held without charges—an act that seems designed to provoke the United States. "We have seen this MO many times," says Carlos Saladrigas, co-chairman of the Cuba Study Group, which advocates greater American engagement with the island. "The U.S.A. softens, Cuba hardens. It seems to be a repeat of Fidel's playbook." Fidel unleashed the Mariel boatlift just as Jimmy Carter was trying to engage Cuba, and he shot down unarmed airplanes belonging to an anti-Castro group in Miami just as Bill Clinton was trying the same.

Fidel—who relinquished his titles as head of the Council of State and Council of Ministers, but remains leader of the Communist Party—still has taken no additional government post since his return fitness. But he has made leadership changes that some analysts suspect are aimed at preserving his vision of the revolution. Key among them is the promotion of Ramiro Valdés, a former Interior minister regarded as a diehard Fidel loyalist and a brutal enforcer. Despite a history of strained relations with Raúl, Valdés is now effectively the No. 3 man in the regime after the Castro brothers. "That was a Fidel appointment," says Gomez. Valdés "is Fidel's eyes and ears on a daily basis within the inner circle."

The Comandante won't be around forever, of course. However improved his health, it can't be that great, considering his continued seclusion. But as long as Fidel is calling the shots, the Cuban economy will remain unproductive, the youth will remain restive, and relations with the U.S. will remain at an impasse. "Nothing is going to happen while Fidel is alive," says Gomez. Which leaves everyone, on and off the island, pretty much where they were three and a half years ago: waiting for Fidel to die.

I was starting to hope we were finally rid of Fidel Castro. I've heard some nasty stories about him from my Cuban friend who came over from Cuba 7 years ago. The one great thing she can say about Cuba is that they have a pretty decent music program. (She was in the magnet arts school with me in Ft. Lauderdale.)

So it looks like nothing is going to change in Cuba until he's completely gone. I imagine it shouldn't be too much longer since he is 84 years old now. But you never know.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/234446

In Harare, on the way to our meeting with Wellington Chibebe, the secretary general of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), even our driver was excited for us.

"He is a good, good man. I've only seen him on TV, but he's fights very hard for the people and to promote democracy!"

Since the early 1990s, ZCTU grew increasingly opposed to the government of Robert Mugabe and was the main force behind the formation of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). In fact, MDC's leader and the current Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, Morgan Richard Tsvangirai held the same position with the ZCTU before Chibebe.

Chibebe is one of the most vocal-and effective-voices in civil society promoting respect for human rights and democracy. Despite being brutally beaten, tortured, and having his life threatened over the last two decades, Chibebe remains more positive than ever about the direction of his country. It was largely due to Zimbabwe's labor movement that in the 2008 presidential election Tsvangirai defeated Mugagbe. Yet despite MDC's victory, Mugabe, refuses to step down and the nation has a "power sharing" agreement.

When we met with Chibebe, he was cautiously optimistic about the power-sharing agreement and the future of democracy in Zimbabwe. "Our role as the labor movement is to fight for democracy and good governance, respect for people's basic rights, and also social and  economic rights." He says that while the MDC plays a critical role in promoting democracy, the mission of the union movement will be to hold all political parties accountable to these principles. "We just can't afford to repeat the same mistake by treating any government or political party as angels from heaven," he says. While he described the beginning of the power-sharing agreement as "terrible," Chibebe felt strongly that "things are now getting better, we are able to make some positive changes happen."

Chibebe was born 300 miles south of Harare. His upbringing herding goats and farming built both a sense of responsibility and social consciousness, he says. "Rural kids grow up different from urban ones, you start fighting for your rights at a very early age. If you aren't aggressive, you'll get abused." He also described how in rural life he had no access to books or libraries, so everyone listened to their elders, learning about the importance of struggle and hearing passionate tales of resistance against the ruling government. Not even a teen when his mother passed away, Chibebe became passionately involved in political struggle for social and economic justice that has lasted his whole life.

Being at the helm of the Zimbabwe labor movement at this moment is no easy task. The country faces unemployment rates of more than 90 percent. The media is controlled by the government. Union leaders are routinely harassed and imprisoned. And the Mugabe government instituted draconian laws to thwart unions, such as arresting any meeting of more than four people. Yet the affiliates of the ZCTU, representing more than 30 unions and every sector of the economy, have remained united. "While it is very difficult at times with unemployment so high to convince people to be in unions, we are still able to recruit and grow."

Chibebe works tirelessly to bring attention to Zimbabwe's economic and human rights realities and to pressure the government to reform its ways.  As workers struggle to survive inflation and low paying informal employment, Chibebe has expanded the work of the ZCTU to represent all workers in both formal and informal employment.  ZCTU  fights for economic and social justice not just for his members, but for the fundamental rights of all of Zimbabwe's workers.

In 2002, Chibebe and the ZCTU had the vision of helping informal sector workers-everyone from street vendors to musicians and artisans-form unions. The desire for social and economic change spread like wild fire when the Zimbabwe Chamber of Informal Associations (ZCIEA) started in 2002. Presently with more than 1.5 million paying members (out of  3.5 million members), the informal workers now have access to all the resources of the ZCTU such as their lobbyists, their research arm, and the strength and power of their affiliate unions.

Chibebe, and everyone we met with at ZCTU, speaks with great pride about the support they've been given by the American labor movement through the Solidarity Center, which maintains an office in the country. "Because of the Solidarity Center and the American worker, we've had incredible moral and material support," Chibebe said. Some of the examples he cites are the role the Solidarity Center plays in supporting their research institute, expanding distribution of their newspaper "the Worker," their ability to fund a lobbyist, create a paralegal program, training activists and leaders, and getting support from international governments and politicians through organizational delegations such as the visit from the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU).

I'm so glad I ate breakfast already because I would've lost my appetite after reading this story. I always thought it was a rumor and I never researched it, but it turns out to be true. Asians eat dogs and cats. It turns out to be very popular.

However, China is considering to make eating cats and dogs illegal. They say

"Cats and dogs are loyal friends to humans."...."A ban on eating them would show China has reached a new level of civilization."

I agree with them, but that might just be because the thought of eating cats and dogs makes me want to cry and vomit at the same time.

The consequences of sellling/eating dog and cat meat aren't as bad as I would have them.

The ban on eating dog and cat meat is part of a larger proposal to toughen laws on animal welfare. Individual violators could face up to 15 days in prison and a small fine. Businesses found guilty of selling the meat risk fines up to 500,000 yuan ($73,500.)

But it's a start I suppose. I mean, it is a tradition for them. They even have special farms to raise the dogs and cats!

It's sickening to me, but at least they're trying to ban it. Even if it takes 10 years.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/03/09/china.animals/index.html?hpt=C2

( - promoted by leftake)

Okay, your humble editor/Fearless Leader has gone through the list, and through a combination of votes by Left Takers, and... my gut reaction, I've chosen the final fourteen (since this is the first one by vote, I erred on the side of more candidates).

1. "Well I'll be gosh-darned Sarah, you really can see Russia!"
2. "So... when is the crowd going to be here..?"
3. "Sarah, that isn't Russia... That's Rush Limbaugh."
4. (Both thinking) "Oh thank God we lost! I couldn't put up with THAT ass-hole for the next 4 years!"
5. "He-e-e-y, Mac-a-rena!"
6. "how 'bout a big round of applause for all the 'creative' spelling on the homemade signs you real Americans brought with ya today..." 
7. "Put your thumbs back, John! You're letting the hot air out!" 
8. "Who has two thumbs and knows the biggest asshat in Alaska!?"
9. Fonzie and Pinky Tuscadaro, celebrate their 50th anniversary!
10. patty CAKE, patty CAKE...
11. "Let's see Boris and Natasha get that moose and squirrel now!
12. "If you're crappy and ya know it clap your hands!"
13. Clapping like trained seals: "Arp! Arp! Arp! Arp! Arp!"
14. "Oh, crap, I washed my hands. What are the three things we believe in again?" 

Check them out below (click "join the discussion" to see the poll), cast your vote, and... whichever one has the highest percent by Wednesday at 5pm eastern is the winner!

(p.s. - feel free to leave more captions below as comments, but only the top 14 being voted on are the potential winners) 

So I call my dad, who spent most of the 70's installing TV antennas (I'd explain what a TV antenna is, but it would be a waste of time for you kids), to ask what in the world is wrong.

You see, I can build a computer from the ground up.  But I'm no good with cars or TVs.  Good thing dad is.  So he says "your red gun died". Granted, I had no idea what that meant.  But I'm smart enough to realize that whatever displays red as red on the TV has malfunctioned.

Then dad said something interesting - "you'll have to go and buy one of those flat screen pieces of shit because they don't make tube sets anymore."

And then it hit me...my god!  I haven't seen a tube TV sold in stores for YEARS!  I am so far behind technology that it's almost pathetic.

The good thing about the flat screen TVs is that they are light [20-30 lbs usually].  So moving them is a breeze.

The bad thing is that for a shitty one, you're paying $400!

I found myself in Target saying "I just want to buy a decent $300 TV!!"  Anyone remember when $300 got you a good TV??  Hell, anyone remember when you could buy an American-made TV?!

Anyway, if my teeth are feeling better tomorrow, we'll go TV shopping.  Boy how I love dropping serious coin for something that I could have bought 2 of in years past!

Anyone else getting tired of being asked?  Some YayWho makes a billboard and every idiot has a new catch phrase.

Cross posted from the Worldwatch Institute's Nourishing the Planet.

Care International's work in Zambia has two main goals: increase the production of staple crops and improve farmers' access to agricultural inputs, such as seeds and fertilizers. But instead of giving away bags of seed and fertilizers to farmers, Care is "creating input access through a business approach," not a subsidy approach, according to Steve Power, Assistant Country Director for Zambia.

One way they're doing this is by creating a network of agro-dealers who can sell inputs to their neighbors as well as educate them about how to use hybrid seeds, fertilizers, and other inputs. At the same time, "we are mindful" of the benefits of local varieties of seeds, says Harry Ngoma, Agriculture Advisor for the Consortium for Food Security, Agriculture and Nutrition, AIDS, Resiliency and Markets (C-FAARM). Care and C-FAARM are working with farmers to combine high- and low-technology practices.

Care thinks that this "business approach" will help farmers get the right inputs at the right time, unlike subsidy approaches that give farmers fertilizer for free, but often at the wrong time of year, making the nutrients unavailable to crops. And Care's focus on training agro-dealers and giving them start-up grants allows the organization to remain invisible to farmers. Power says that Care wants to be a "catalyst to the market" and help transfer resources, without distorting the basic pricing structure.

Another component of Care's work is improving the production of sorghum and cassava. "Zambia is as addicted to maize as we are to Starbucks coffee," says Power. But by encouraging the growth of other crops, including sorghum, which is indigenous to Africa, Care can help farms diversify local diets as well as build resilience to price fluctuations and drought.

Care is promoting conservation farming in Zambia as well. The organization has been working in six districts since 2007, reaching 24,000 households. In addition to promoting minimum tillage practices and the use of manure and compost, Care is helping to train government extension officers about conservation farming so that eventually they'll be responsible-instead of Care-for training farmers.

According to Power, the key to Care's work is promoting business-like approaches to agriculture alongside more traditional ones, so farmers don't become dependent on the organization for gifts of fertilizer or seed. These sorts of programs, according to Care, will be more effective at feeding people and increasing incomes than traditional food-aid projects that rely on long-term donor support. This is a big challenge in a country-and a region-facing the impacts of both climate change and the global economic crisis.

Stay tuned for more blogs about how farmers are linking to the private sector.

To learn more about Care's work in Zambia, visit www.care.org/zambia.

( - promoted by leftake)

The citizens of the country were in turmoil. "The President is a socialist" they cried. A large group of protesters formed to demonstrate around the county.

"We need to take back the country and follow the Constitution" were the slogans used by some of the most affluent New York investors. They had lost a fortune in investments and were convinced that the country was headed in a hopeless direction of Socialism.

They saw the rapid demise of all they had built up.Something must be done...

You may think that this was a description of the "Tea Baggers" and the harsh words were for President Obama. Well, think again. The President is Franklin Roosevelt and the time is during the Great Depression.

Roosevelt had just begun execution of a program called the "New Deal". The "Tea Baggers" of that time were called the American Liberty League and they had actually more in mind than just protesting. What they had in mind was a coup d'etat, a forceful overthrow of the US Government.

In Boulder, CO, a Catholic school has refused to readmit a preschooler because her parents are lesbians.

Luckily, the family had a few people on their side that go to the church that is part of the school. Two dozen protesters stood across the street during a Sunday service to protest.

The priest addressed the situation in his sermon.

 

"He feels like it's a calling to be strict with upholding the catholic principles," said Dave Ensign, president of the Board of Directors of Boulder Pride, a gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender organization.

 

"People who understand the Catholic teaching will understand why the decision was made," said Fabien Ardila, a member of the parish.

 

However, not everyone in the parish agreed with the decision.

 

"I just feel the Catholic church is a church that should be teaching acceptance and tolerance. I just don't think this is an example of that," Juli Aderman-Hagerty told 7NEWS as she was leaving mass. "Father Breslin said it right. We're all sinners. Why discriminate against this end of sinners?"

It sucks to see this now since I was allowed into a Catholic school in Baton Rouge in the 3rd grade, and my mother is a lesbian. (Thank goodness I was only there for one year!) It is good to see that a good amount of people who attend the church are getting up in arms about it. One supporter of the family even mentioned that there was a sort of double standard going on because the Church didn't ask parents if they used birth control or are divorced, which is also against the Catholic Church's teachings. Of course, if they did that, they would hardly have any kids attending the school, I imagine.

Anyway, this is just another story to show how ridiculous the church can be and how they definitely don't follow the teachings of Jesus Christ like they say they do. And they shouldn't be punishing the child for what they believe the parents are guilty of.

If I were one of the parents, I would send my child a charter school. I know they have one in the area that's decent because my liberal uncle teaches there. The child would be better off there I believe.

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/22769137/detail.html?hpt=T2

It seems that after anti-gay crusader Ashburn was busted for DUI at a gay bar, he just couldn't think of a good explanation.

Oh, Roy, Roy, Roy...! Did you learn nothing from Larry Craig and Ted Haggard?  Deny, deny, deny, that's the ticket!

If only Roy had waited for the advice I posted here this very morning!  Why, there's a hundred reasonable explanations for a pol who opposes gay marriage ending up at a gay bar.  (Would you believe, a Dozen?)

Now that Ashburn has shown the way, maybe other religious conservatives will ditch their repressed, joyless, dishonest lives.

Maybe this will begin a Republican Renaissance of honesty and tolerance!

....Naah.  Just kidding.  Ashburn vows he'll keep on voting like a bigot.

Personally, I think the G.O.P.'s attack on gay civil rights is actually their cynical, brilliant move to prevent marriage from taking all those cute guys down at the Boom Boom Room out of circulation.  Let's face it -- widespread gay marriage would be a disaster for these pols, leaving them with nothing but a bunch of their hideous Republican closetmates to hit on.  

Brrr.

The only prospect that could be more horrifying to them is affordable health care for all.