Memorial Day

Never forget their sacrifice, nor let it have been in vain.

New Normal

Might have been a tad more informative to show the rise in diabetics and children with type to diabetes as well? And maybe a better spike in that soda in the 1980's when sugar was replaced with HFCS? Just some suggestions.

My Kind of Town...

Awesome

I don't even know where I found this -- but, man, it's just so full of win.

Gotta get back to the streets. Protesting the NATO. The, uh, National, um, Attitude Terrorist

Mr. Duck, why don't you have a seat right over there

There's so much wrong with this picture, I don't really know where to start.

Maybe -- Debbie Does Donald?

The first rule of shore leave in Amsterdam is don't bring a camera

Dear Penthouse, you'll never believe this happened to me...

Putin's Nuclear Iran Policy

Putin Is Reportedly Not Worried About An Iranian Nuclear Bomb Because 'The Israelis Will Take Care Of It'

“I, you — we can sell everything, even if we are worried by an Iranian nuclear bomb. Because at the end of the day, the Israelis will take care of it.”

This was part of a conversation between former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Aznar told reporters at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs on Wednesday, The Times of Israel reports.

Read more ....


Well, if there's ever been a bigger green light on an operation - I'd have to wait for the whole pole to turn green. 

Welcome to Life

On the Frame Rate show on TWIT. It’s from Tom Scott.

Sunday Comics

The week in review - Today is mother's day. Call your mom. Thank her for not putting you on the cover of Time Magazine when you were three. She should at least get a card for that.

Quick recap of the week - We found out that Mitt was a big Mr. Meany in High School. Especially to one particular gay student. Romeny cut his hair. Free haircut, or an act of violence that should be treated as a hate crime? It's a good thing they're vetting this guy. And for the Republicans, I guess it's better to have the class bully rather than the male cheerleader (W. Bush) in 2012? Funny how that story fit like a glove for the suddenly pro-gay Team Obama?

Since Mr. Obama has 'evolved' so that he can get checks from the LGBT community, apparently his record is wiped clear?

Just in case anyone still cares about those sort of things... I wonder if he's still going to keep blaming Bush?  He ran against him in 08, and apparently thinks it'll work again in 12? The difference is that Mitt wants to be President. McCain didn't really seem to care one way or the other.

Mitt spoke to the Evangelicals the other day -- and it was supposed to be the make or break, tipping point - the meeting of the Mormon... which all he really had to say was "I don't like the gays gettin' hitched" and he would have gotten the same standing ovation. What are they going to do? Go to Ron Paul? (they are)

An interesting story about Mitt's #2... when Mitt Romney invited several evangelical leaders to his house. Afterward, he sent each attendee a chair, with an inscription promising a seat “at our table.”

Meantime -

And over in Europe, or pre-WWIII land as I think I'll start calling it...

In other news, the lead peace negotiator in Afghanistan was assassinated. 

Dick Luger was taken out of his chair by the Tea Party in Indiana.

JP Morgan lost 2 Billion in credit default swaps - "whoops!"

Well hope you make it back next week. Hope I do.

Talk soon!

Evolution on Gay Marriage

It's funny - when Obama changes his mind, he "evolves" -- when Mitt Romney does it, he's a flip-flopper.

"Obama became the first U.S. president to back the right of gay and lesbian couples to marry, a reversal from views expressed during the 2008 campaign, when he said he opposed same-sex marriage but favored civil unions as an alternative…"

To my gay friends, a moment to catch your breath... just because he's turned his opinion around (and is obviously shilling for votes and donations), doesn't mean he can DO anything about it. That would have been in the first half of his first term, when he controlled the House and Senate. And even now, buried deep in the pillow of that interview he still affirms that it's an issue that's up to the States. [Which is hilarious because he thinks the exact oposite when he's talking about Arizona!] And also, take note, how he bravely took a stand on the issue exactly one day too late to make any difference in the Amendment One vote in North Carolina? Literally, a day late.

Of course, it wasn't really close in North Carolina. It was 61-39 [source]. That's about 832,000 against. So, coming out after the fact makes him look 'clean' and won't be used as another failure (Chicago Olympics, Environmental Conference in Copenhagen, no budgets passed) ...

No, this will be used against him in ways he and his team haven't even considered. But, conversely, the negative ads will actually be seen as a positive for his base. So, on the bright side, some of that poison will be like a shot in the arm for about, oh, 10% of the population?

Truth in Memes

Isn't that supposed to be about fishing?

European Socialism

France's new socialist president, Hollande, has promised a government-sponsored stimulus program to revive growth, a 75% tax bracket, lowering the retirement age from 62 to 60 and the hiring of 60,000 new teachers.

Or, to put it another way, rather than applying the breaks - they've decided to rev the engine and 'gun it' to the brick wall of doom.

It's the part in the movie where they say, "I think we can make that cliff...."

Only it isn't a movie, and they're not in the General Lee - they're in a Renault Vel Satis.


The Greece election results, besides throwing the financial bailout of the country into doubt, included an alarmingly strong performance by a party that goes by the name Golden Dawn. This anti-immigration and anti-austerity political movement was projected to have taken 7% of the vote. This compares to .29% of the vote this radical party won in 2009. 


So it's a RACE to the bottom, is it?

Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin was re-Inaugurated As Russian President, for another 6 years. 


Mr Putin is returning to the presidency after an absence of four years in which he served as prime minister. In the hat changing ceremony he took the hat off President, Dmitry Medvedev, and put it back on to his own head. More »

The third story doesn't seem to fit, does it? Well, that's called foreshadowing, my dear readers.

The Week in Review

We made it to the end of the week.

Obama made a surprise visit to Afghanistan - a whole year after he made a 'gutsy' call to allow the SEAL Team 6 to pop into Pakistan to pop Osama bin Laden. Not only was the vague 'long-term' non-binding agreements with Karzai all for show (all done at 4AM in order to hit the news cycle in the Homeland) but he also delivered a big speech. Mr. Obama got his win of announcing a troop pair down, but he also is keeping troops in Afghanistan through 2024. Now there's no cut-and-run. Instead it's Korea, in a landlocked country in Asia.

Romney was forced to make a Bin Laden defense as he insisted that "even Jimmy Carter" would have ordered the raid. Then good old Donny Rumsfeld came out of a spider hole to say Obama's decision was hardly a "tough call". Funny that the GOP is on the defensive on who's the bigger war hawk.

We haven't heard a whole bunch from the Occupy movement especially after it was evicted Zuccotti Park late last year — until the clamorous anti-bank movement returned this week for a series of nationwide May Day protests. But sadly for the Occupiers, the demonstrations didn't lead to much more than dozens of arrests and inconvenienced commuters. The group to watch is the Occupy the SEC -- that group may do more to change Wall Street than any other... that is, if they can shout over the dollars and influence of the lobbyists.

China and America wrangled over blind activist Chen Guangcheng. Every body Guang-Chen-g tonight... He's coming to America. The activist, kept under house arrest by the Chinese government after exposing abuses, including forced abortions, under the country's one-child policy, has been offered a fellowship at a U.S. university. Before the deal, U.S.-China relations were at risk as Chen hid out in the U.S. embassy, all while the GOP criticized Obama's handling of the case. Well, the Chinese will be happy to have him out of country - as he'll be irrelevant the minute he leaves.

Apple's taxes are suddenly under the IRS's scrutiny. The New York Times reported this week that Apple paid only 9.8 percent in global taxes last year, compared to Walmart's 24 percent. Apple hasn't broken the law — but will their lower than Mitt Romney tax rate play to the hipster ire? Don't count on it.

The One World Trade Center rose above the Empire State Building in height this week — when the tower is complete, it will be the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere.

The Avengers - Disney's grand strategy - opened this weekend. Maybe you've heard about it? Will it blow out the record books of iconic comic goodness, or turn off the casual fan? Joss Wheaton to become the next JJ or stay on the sidelines with esoteric wallflower geeks? We'll see by the end of Sunday.

In the meantime, hang in there, hope to see you back here next Sunday.

Saturday Morning Cartoons

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Here's the trailer for Disney XD’s Tron: Uprising. The series will premiere next month with a voice cast that includes Paul Reubens, Nate Corddry, Mandy Moore, Reginald Vel Johnson and Bruce Boxleitner as “Tron”. Oh, and Elijah Wood plays the main character, leader of a revolution inside The Grid, named “Beck”. The show will officially debut Thursday, June 7th on Disney XD, with a prelude called Tron: Uprising, Beck’s Beginning airing on the regular Disney Channel on May 18th. Charlie Bean (Ren & Stimpy, Samurai Jack) is directing and exec producing, and Alberto Mielgo is also contributing to the project.

The Beautiful World

Two Tales of Julia

There's The Life Of Julia  the new Obama campaign piece where voters can "Take a look at how President Obama's policies help one woman over her lifetime -- and how Mitt Romney would change her story."

Needless to say, it's causing a Twitter Sh*t storm. Not only are conservatives falling all over themselves with this virtual pamphlet - it's also kind of patronizing to women. Maybe the Obama camp doesn't see it?

...now there's been some reaction - starting with The Life of Julia (there are many more, but this one was the least offensive).

What's your take?

Spiking the Football

Who deserves the credit for killing Osama Bin Laden? The United States Navy SEALs. Frankly, there's still about 1/4 of the population that don't believe that he was killed and are still demanding to see the photos. About another 1/4 don't believe Osama never existed and that all of 9/11 was an inside job. The other 1/2 are either looking for jobs, sick of looking for a job or are scared stupid that their incredibly terrible job that they absolutely hate is going to go away at the end of the week.

Bin Laden = Cobra Commander?

A study of newly declassified documents seized in the raid on Osama bin Laden’s Abbottabad compound a year ago reveals the Al-Qaida leader wasn't the mastermind we were led to believe.

Kind of closer to, say Cobra Commander - from the cartoon - than the James Bond villain we had suspected.

He ha a tumultuous relationship with his “affiliates” around the world; the documents show also that Bin Laden had chosen CBS as the recipient of a Sept. 11 anniversary propaganda message by Al-Qaida. (Would have suggested MSNBC....)

The series of 17 letters penned by Bin Laden to his henchmen, dating from September 2006 to the weeks leading to his death in 2011, has been made available in Arabic and English translations by the Combating Terrorism Center at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

Read, in detail, Bin Laden’s increasingly disenchanted perceptions of Iran, Pakistan, and the Arab Spring and the dysfunction within his own network — all which can be found here.

Hype & Blame

In a swipe at President Obama’s 2008 campaign slogan, “Hope & Change,” the GOP today is rolling out new messaging — “Hype & Blame” — making fun of Obama's broken promises to the American people during his first term in the White House.

Kirsten Kukowski, with the Republican National Committee:

“Obama has no record to run on so he’s out on the trail resorting to the same tactics he campaigned against in 2008. He has a litany of broken promises so what does he do? Lay blame, make excuses, run on gimmicks and engage in divisive politics. Four years later we know the candidate of Hope and Change is now Hype and Blame.”

The bumper sticker can be yours for $10.

Come on you guys, he made a gutsy call and shot Osama Bin Laden in the face! He's a war hero.

Chillin' at the Beach

End of the World

A story out today - well, "story" is a stretch. A poll was conducted, and apparently that's a "news" item. Anyhow, 1 in 7 people think the end of the world will occur during their lifetime, with 1 in 10 fearing the Mayan prophecy will come true.

Historically, everyone has thought that the end of the world would happen in their lifetimes. Generations of your ancestors have been hoping to be able to participate in the Zombie Apocalypse - or to have Jesus Rapture their asses off this rock of ours. But their thinking isn't entirely false, as the end of the world happens to all of us, when your brain pan refuses to fire off electricity to the nurons.

But as to the newest poll, I have only one response. A meme, if you will.

Ah, that's better. Any questions?

Soup De Jour

Yum!

Rise of a Tower

Is It Getting Cooler in Here?

The sun may be entering a period of reduced activity that could result in lower temperatures on Earth, according to Japanese researchers. Officials of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan and the Riken research foundation said on April 19 that the activity of sunspots appeared to resemble a 70-year period in the 17th century in which London’s Thames froze over and cherry blossoms bloomed later than usual in Kyoto. In that era, known as the Maunder Minimum, temperatures are estimated to have been about 2.5 degrees lower than in the second half of the 20th century.
[...]

If that trend continues, the north pole could complete its flip in May 2012 but create a four-pole magnetic structure in the sun, with two new poles created in the vicinity of the equator of our closest star.

But you'd be a complete denier to think that the Earth's temperature has ANYTHING to do with that nearby star that we keep circling.