Sting (Gordon Sumner) is a Complete Hypocritical Moron

ROCK superstar Sting has forced organizers to move his planned one-night show in the Philippines to another Manila venue amid a spat over pine trees involving the original hosts, it was announced on Friday.
 

Pine trees?  Hmmmm...this looks interesting.  What could pine trees possibly have to do with the cancellation of a Sting (Gordon Sumner, since he hates being called that) concert?

 Environmentalists had sued the SM Baguio shopping mall in the northern mountain resort of Baguio City earlier this year to stop the uprooting and relocation of 182 old trees, mostly pines, growing at its property.

The case sparked calls for a boycott of the SM chain, controlled by the family of the country's richest man, billionaire developer Henry Sy.
 

Ummm...they're pine trees.  Pine trees are freaking everywhere.  And, for some stupid reason, the developer has even agreed to replant the damn things.  I mean...come on...they're pine trees.

Ok...try this.  Look at #8 on the list of "Most Outrageous  Rock Star Purchases." 

8. Sting -- Aside from being a professional douche bag, he once gave his family a Christmas to remember. Sting purchased a $11,900 living Christmas tree which he then had shipped into his 41-room English mansion, with a specialist florist brought in to hang the baubles. Now that's the spirit of Christmas!

That would be a transplant of a pine tree, moron.   And, I'm guessing that at least one tree bit the dust (permanently) when they built one of his seven homes.

Climate Change and Drought

Plug... "Drought caused by global warming"...into the Google search engine and you get over 3.9 Million results.  You will see "serious" articles from the BBC, ABC News,  CNN...etc...

However, how about a truly science driven research paper that takes a look at the specific factual data?  Here's a post by Anthony Watts at WattsupWithThat.com  highlighting such a research paper presented by scientists, Justin Sheffield, Eric F. Wood, and  Michael L. Roderick.

More realistic calculations, based on the underlying physical principles8 that take into account changes in available energy, humidity and wind speed, suggest that there has been little change in drought over the past 60 years.
 

Little change in drought over the past 60 years.  That seems important...to true scientists (not the media). 

Ah...a Revelation on Terrorism

So, I finally figured out why the current Administration and the US Justice Department would rather try terrorists under the US Court of Law instead of military tribunals.

FREE PUBLICITY!!!!

He then blasted US foreign policy and its overseas wars. “I ask you, what is democracy? What kind of system endorses torture?”

He also criticized the very wealthy and denied having anything “to do with any subway bombing plot.”  

He expressed no remorse and said he would appeal his conviction on conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction and other terrorism-related charges.

Medunjanin attended Flushing HS and graduated from Queens College.
 

It's like watching MSNBC and an Obama campaign speech all wrapped up in one.

WHY?

Vice President Joe Biden is coming to New Jersey on Sunday to visit areas devastated by Hurricane Sandy, the White House announced today.

No immediate itinerary was set.

They Already did it Once

An American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit is challenging the federal government’s practice of mandatory incarceration for immigration detainees. The ACLU claims the government unnecessarily incarcerates deportation candidates even if they are documented citizens and pose no flight risk or threat.
 

That's right...immigration detainees are not a flight risk. *cough*   Dumb doesn't begin to describe this fiction.  Someone please change the sign to American Criminal Liberties Union.

The Union Killed my Twinkie

Hostess Brands Inc. says it's going out of business after striking workers across the country crippled its ability to make its Twinkies, Ding Dongs, Wonder Bread and other snacks.

The company had warned employees that it would file a motion with U.S. Bankruptcy Court Friday seeking permission to shutter its operations and sell assets if plants didn't resume normal operations by a Thursday evening deadline.

The closing would mean the loss of about 18,500 jobs.

"Many people have worked incredibly long and hard to keep this from happening, but now Hostess Brands has no other alternative than to begin the process of winding down and preparing for the sale of our iconic brands," CEO Gregory Rayburn said in a letter to employees posted on the company website.

He added that all employees will eventually lose their jobs, "some sooner than others."
 

Holy smokes!!!  Hostess made it clear that unless they cut costs they're going under.  They attempted to cut costs, and the  Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union took it to the streets by striking.

That was the last straw.  *BOOM*  18,500 less jobs.

How do you think this same mentality of human will react when the US Govt. goes under and they can't get their entitlements at the same level that they expect?  Will they understand the concept of "NO."  Or will they self-destruct like the Hostess Brand employees.  This is prime "nose cutting to spite face" behavior.

Uncivilized

The violence over fuel price hikes in Jordan has escalated, as growing anger threatens to plunge the kingdom into a wave of unrest.

One armed civilian was killed and several policemen injured, some critically, when gunmen stormed a police station in Irbid, in the country's far north, and fired on officers there on Wednesday night.

Another police station came under attack in the northern Amman suburb of Shafa Badran, where automatic weapons were used. One police officer was reportedly critically injured. A police official said the attackers took advantage of the protests to pursue a violent agenda.

In Salt, northwest of capital Amman, protesters set fire to a civil affairs office.
 

Things we've learned:

Muslims are unciviled cretins despite the catalyst.  Our fuel prices in the US have increased by more than 100% in the last few years, but I fail to see rioting and shooting relative to that premise.  Therefore, Occams Razor would suggest that Muslim populations just aren't civilized.  Do you think that's insensitive?   Xenophobic?  Am I a bigot for making such a statement?  OK...prove I'm not.  Explain to me how raising fuel prices warrants wanton violence and destruction if we in the US have had our fuel prices raised even higher.  Uncivilized...it's the only answer.

These Jordanians were in the street causing injury and damage within minutes of the announcement by their government.

Laughable Nonsense from the White House

WASHINGTON  •  Responding warily to his administration’s sudden sex scandal, President Barack Obama said Wednesday that he has seen no evidence that national security was damaged by the revelations that ended his CIA director’s career and imperil that of his Afghan war commander.

But the president said he was reserving judgment about how the FBI has handled the investigation, which began in the summer but didn’t reach his desk until after last week’s election.
 

As they say down on the farm...WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP.  There is no way the President didn't know this was going on way back in the Summer...NO WAY. 

Of course, the President is reserving judgement until General Petraeus testifies before Congress.   If he spills the beans, he will be on every television channel and in every paper stating how dismayed he is that the General "damaged national security."  It will be his only defense since the complicit media will do all they can to make it the real story.

I Didn't get My Publicity...I Didn't get My Publicity!!!

 THE SPECIAL at the White House Sub Shop could have fed President Obama, Gov. Chris Christie and Mayor Lorenzo Langford, with a little left over for a lucky Secret Service agent.

But Atlantic City's most famous eatery was swamped because of Hurricane Sandy when Obama and Christie toured the devastated coastline on Halloween. And instead of sharing a sub with the president and governor, the mayor spent several hours alone that day, waiting for the leaders inside an airport lounge and wondering if they would visit his struggling, storm-damaged resort.

Obama never visited Atlantic City, and Langford thinks Christie had something to do with it.

"The White House called and said they were coming to Atlantic City, and I think the governor changed that and decided to go to Brigantine instead," Langford, 57, said during an interview with the Daily News in City Hall. "That shows how petty he is, number one. And racially insensitive, number two. And politically myopic, number three."
 

This is how Democrat politicians operate.  Mayor Langford didn't get his minutes of fame on the television because Governor Christie didn't bring the Photo-Op-in-Chief to Atlantic City.   He wanted to be standing beside the President on the national news to forward his career.  Instead, the Mayor of Atlantic City wasted his day in the airport lounge straightening his tie for the cameras that never came.

Of course, Langford had to throw out the race card as well. 

Like Opening a Pizza Box and Finding Only a Piece of Crust

You know what must suck?...Being the Socialist President of France, and finding out that there is no money to spend.

"Our national debt is more than 90 per cent of our national wealth; unemployment is rising; our competitiveness is constantly falling," he said. "A change of government changes those in power. It does not change the world.

"I understand the worries of the French people but the only thing that counts is not today's opinion polls but the state of France in five years. The decline of France is not inevitable."

President Hollande is trapped between the realities of France's perilous economic position and the expectations he raised during his campaign, when he spoke of "putting the magic back into the French dream".
 

But, all is not lost.  President Hollande has a pretty classy theme song.   It comes from the 1960 Otto Preminger classic, "Exodus."   You see, when you smack your most productive citizens (who happen to be wealthy) with a 75% tax rate, they go elsewhere.  They take their money with them.  And poor Francios Hollande never gets to spend it.

Saudi Student Visa (Come to the US and learn to blow shit up)

This past school year, Saudi Arabia sent 66,000 students to U.S. universities, four times the number before the 2001 attacks and the fastest-growing source of foreign students in the U.S., ahead of China, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. The Saudi influx is part of a broader increase in international students in the U.S. as American universities seek to raise tuition revenues. Some 723,277 foreign students enrolled during the 2010-2011 school year, up 32% from a decade ago.
 

66,000 Saudi students on US Student Visa's flood the US so that colleges can raise their tuition.  Hey look...here's one now:

 A Saudi national has been sentenced to life in prison for plotting attacks on the Texas home of former US president George W Bush, nuclear plants, and other targets, prosecutors have said.

... Aldawsari was lawfully admitted to the US on a student visa in 2008 and was enrolled at South Plains College near Lubbock, Texas at the time of his 2011 arrest.
 

Well...as long as those institutions of higher learning can increase their tuitions there is no problem installing a chemical engineering degree on a would-be terrorist...I guess it's just fine.

If the Republican Party had an Imagination

With the Environmental Protection Agency set to finalize rules for mercury and other toxic air pollution from power plants on Dec. 16 and to begin regulating cross-state air pollution from coal-fired plants on Jan. 1, here is a breakdown of the numbers:
 

The Republican Party has no imagination or they would see this as an opportunity to educate the masses of bystanders who don't believe this has anything to do with them.

Every Republican Senator, and every Republican Representative of the House  should show up at an advertised press conference outside the Environmental Protection Agency HQ.  Behind them should be a print-out of every single regulation and policy put into place since 2008.  It would be a HUGE honking pile of papers and scripts.

Then...and most importantly...have your spokesperson outline the increased costs to the common man.  Increased electricity costs, increased gasoline costs, increased material goods costs, increased food costs...number of lost jobs etc.  Rinse, lather, repeat...

But, no.  They do nothing.

'I had to be realistic.'

Two years ago, Denise Dennis delivered a dramatic denunciation of Marcellus Shale natural gas development at a Philadelphia City Council hearing. She equated drilling to the tobacco industry, and said that "Pennsylvanians are the lab rats" for a massive shale gas experiment.

The Philadelphia resident had a powerful story: Her family owned a historic 153-acre farm in Susquehanna County, where her ancestors were among the first freed African Americans to settle in Pennsylvania just after the Revolutionary War. She became a potent symbol in the shale gas wars.

"The process for extracting natural gas from shale is as dirty as coal mining," she testified to thunderous applause at the 2010 council meeting.

"Wow," said Councilman Curtis Jones Jr., who sponsored the hearing.

But Dennis' fervor has subsided in the last two years, undone by the financial need of preserving her family's deteriorating historic farm, and by the salesmanship of the Cabot Oil & Gas Corp.

Last week Dennis signed a lease allowing the Houston company to extract the shale gas beneath her family's farm, which the National Trust for Historic Preservation has called a "rare and highly significant African American cultural landscape."

"I decided to stop demonizing the industry and to start negotiating with individuals," said Dennis. "I had to be realistic."
 

I don't know if I would have been so willing to pose for this human interest story highlighting my ignorance.   Two years ago, Ms. Dennis was spouting the talking points of the environmentalist nitwits out there and feeling the power of defiance.  Then she took a closer look and noted that not only were the environmental nitwits mistaken on how detrimental shale harvesting was to the their precious Gaia, it was a finacially sound opportunity.  She had to be realistic.

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
H. L. Mencken

Cherry Picking Morons of Deceit

WASHINGTON -- With both parties positioning for difficult negotiations to avert a fiscal crisis as Congress returns for its lame-duck session, Democrats are latching on to an idea floated by Mitt Romney to raise taxes on the rich through a hard cap on income tax deductions.

The proposal by Mr. Romney, the Republican presidential nominee, was envisioned to help pay for an across-the-board income tax cut, a move ridiculed by President Barack Obama as window dressing to a "sketchy deal." But many Democrats now see it as an important element of a potential deficit-reduction agreement -- and one they can claim to be bipartisan.

If you bother to read the entire article, you will note that not one mention is made of cutting spending.  This is, merely, the Democrat Party cherry picking a portion of Romney's plan that allows the increase of taxes, so that when the public rebels at the idea, they can say it was a Republican's idea, not theirs.  When it fails to solve any real financial deficits, they can say that they've tried the other side's way, and it wasn't successful.

This is how it works now.

Giving It All Away at Bottom Dollar Prices

It is now after the election, and as stated in an unguarded moment, President Obama now perceives himself to possess "more flexibility."

Ambassador to Russia and Obama appointee Michael McFaul makes it rather clear:

The United States will push forward with plans for a missile defense shield, including installations in Europe, which have aroused the Kremlin's ire, but McFaul said he was an optimist that physics would prevail over what he characterized as blustery rhetoric.

"I think the actual conversation about this, not the public posturing … has been more pragmatic, has been more in line with reality," he said, adding that the planned system was not designed to counter Russia's missile capability.

Also, Obama would like to have a "serious conversation" with President Vladimir Putin about a further round of reductions in nuclear weapons to build on the New START treaty, signed in 2010, McFaul said, describing the existing treaty as "modest."
 

Well, that's curious.  If the missile defense shield wasn't designed to counter Russia's missile capability...then, what's it for?   And, this must be what Ambassador McFaul calls "pragmatic actual conversation."  This is from March of this year:

(Reuters) - The Obama administration disclosed on Tuesday that it is considering sharing some classified U.S. data as part of an effort to allay Russian concerns about a controversial antimissile shield.
 

So, in summary.  It's after the election, and President Obama now has more flexibility to give away our defense secrets and compromise our allies in the process while pretending an amicable relationship with Russia.   Not necessarily the best poker player, is he?

Blind Leading the Blind

What can Detroit teach Reading?

That's what Mayor Vaughn D. Spencer and three other city officials hope to discover next week, when they join 19 others on a three-day bus trip to the ailing Motor City that's trying to make a comeback.

"Detroit is going through something more painful than what Reading is going through," said Council President Francis G. Acosta, who will join Spencer, city Managing Director Carole B. Snyder and Community Development Director Lenin Agudo on the trip.

Acosta said Detroit has a plan similar to the recent market value analysis of the greater Reading area.

Here, it's expected to drive city housing and economic development efforts. Acosta and Spencer said they'll see first-hand how the plan works in Detroit.

They'll be meeting with neighborhood groups, foundations and the Detroit Economic Growth Corp.
 

What can Detroit teach Reading?  Graft, corruption, short-sightedness...any number of things, I suppose.  I find it disturbing that the #1 worst small city to live in would seek advice from the #1 worst large city to live in.  I'm not surprised...just disturbed.

The Republicans Never Made it Personal (Lost Election)

You know, I've seen all the excuses and speculation about how the election turned out as it did.  But, the answer is rather simple. 

Does that sound like overstatement?  It isn't.

The straightforward fact of the matter is that the Republicans had the winning issue.  Over and over again, the populous stated unequivocally that the most important issue was and is the economy.  The problem is that no one took the time to educate the public as to how the economy works.

Here's a simple experiment:

Ask any acquaintance or complete stranger what the Federal Deficit is and how it effects them personally.  I guarantee the answer you receive will be, either, woefully incorrect or merely a blank stare. 

This is the country that relishes watching washed up celebrities dance poorly as a form of entertainment.  This is the country where you can be famous for trying to be famous.  This is a country that sits in front of a television amused by the antics of spoiled youth.  It is not a country, any more, where efforts are made beyond immediate gratification and self-interest.  Unfortunately, the Republican party never played to immediate gratification or self-interest.

The Republicans never went beyond naming an undefined entity as existing in the form of $16 Trillion.   Think about that.  Romney/Ryan and a vast collection of political candidates across the country always stated that we must get that $16 Trillion monster under control.  How much time did they spend associating that monster with the benefits and entitlements voters collect on a daily basis in a detailed basis?  How often did they state, "you know, unless we reel in this Federal Deficit right now, you John Smith are not going to collecting that social security check tomorrow."

The Federal Deficit is amount by which a government's expenditures exceed its tax revenues. The difference is made up for by borrowing from the public through the issuance of debt.   Do you think most voters out there even understand this concept?  I'm willing to bet that you can go to any street in any major city and ask complete strangers to define "Federal Deficit" and you will be lucky to receive a 20% response anywhere near accurate.  But, that's not even the issue.  The main argument should have been how that effects the individual; how it effects the individual voter who may be receiving food stamps, Social Security, Medicare, unemployment, or any other benefit of entitlements.

Eventually, we will no longer be able to borrow at our current rate.  As the outlook for the financial future gets more dismal, the credit rating of the entire country could (and should) be downgraded once again.  This will disallow the country to borrow money effectively.  At the same time, the revenue base from taxes levied on a disintegrating working class will continue to get smaller until there is no way to subsidize any and all government programs.  At that point "goodbye  Obamaphone...goodbye freebies...and welcome to the Apocalypse."

This election was always about the economy.  It still is.  Unfortunately, no one on the Republican side ever made a direct connection to the masses about how the current state of affairs and more of the same will effect them PERSONALLY.  No one put it in understandable terms to a country that spends and exhorbinant amount of time watching The X-Factor and the like.  No one made an effort to eclipse the ignorance and self-interest of the electorate.

Compare that approach to the Democrat position.  "Here...have some free stuff...don't worry about where I got it...it's yours."

That's why the Republicans had their lunch handed to them.  They never made it personal.

ADDENDUM:

Somewhere along the way, the term repercussions lost all relevance.  If a major car manufacturer produces products no one wants and overloads their debts to accomodate a demanding unionized workforce, they don't go out of business...the government gives them money to go on.  If a sex offender gets caught he is placed in rehabilitation and released to try again.  If you lose your job, there is a continuously expanded safety net discouraging a raging effort to regain further employment.  Repercussions are not what they were.

The absolute biggest and most relevant repercussion will be when the Federal Government no longer has these "gifts" to hand out.  When that happens, there will be a purposeful and egregious education levied on the masses.  When that occurs we should seriously consider swapping out the Eagle as our national symbol for the Phoenix.  Because, by that time there will be nothing left but rising from the ashes.

Zero Votes for Romney in 59 Philly Precincts

It's one thing for a Democratic presidential candidate to dominate a Democratic city like Philadelphia, but check out this head-spinning figure: In 59 voting divisions in the city, Mitt Romney received not one vote. Zero. Zilch.

These are the kind of numbers that send Republicans into paroxysms of voter-fraud angst, but such results may not be so startling after all.

"We have always had these dense urban corridors that are extremely Democratic," said Jonathan Rodden, a political science professor at Stanford University. "It's kind of an urban fact, and you are looking at the extreme end of it in Philadelphia."

Most big cities are politically homogeneous, with 75 percent to 80 percent of voters identifying as Democrats.
 

I'm actually a bit surprised that the liberal Philadelphia Inquirer published this.  Usually (and it happens every election in memory) they sweep it under the rug by not even mentioning it.

Keep Your Eyes on Your Own Paper (China)

China is like that annoying kid that tries to copy answers over your shoulder.

China unveiled its attack helicopter, WZ-10, for the first time, during the air show in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province, Sunday.

The attack helicopter is similar with Apachi helicopter o f the United States with air-to-ground and air-to-air weapons loaded on both wings.

China will also introduce a drone, named Yinglung, produced locally during the air show. The drone is reported to be similar with Predator of the United States although it is smaller than the U.S. drone, according to reports.
 

I suppose that's what happens when a country is established based on a political premise that dismisses, discourages, and destroys innovation and creativity.  They are dependent on someone else to do the heavy lifting so that they can copy it to their own arsenal. 

Give & Take

Stimulus Bill