fayadane 30 11 2010 casa al hoceima
فيضانات الدار البيضاء30 11 2010
 |
mardi 30 novembre 2010
Fayadan 30 11 2010 casa Inondation al hoceima فيضانات الدار البيضاء
fayadane 30 11 2010 casa al hoceima
فيضانات الدار البيضاء30 11 2010
John Boehner's staff consorts with terrorists
If the Obama Administration thinks John Boehner is a guy they can work with, one wonders how long it's going to take for them to throw reproductive self-determination under the bus along with everything else that's already there (and now this):
Here is Part I of "The Assassination of Dr. Tiller", a film about the terrorists in this country who target doctors:
The rest can be seen starting here.
This is terrorism -- terrorism that involves white "Christian" males; the very kind of white Christian males being touted as "the real America" by the Republican Party. By consorting with Randall Terry, and condoning his staff consorting with Randall Terry, John Boehner is signaling that he endorses this kind of terrorism.
When it comes to the GOP agenda, future House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) always looks for constructive input. On Wall Street Reform, Boehner was quick to consult corporate lobbyists on how to defeat it. On the GOP “Pledge to America,” he made sure to invite “senior Republican lobbyists” and “more than 20 trade representatives” to offer their advice, while summarily ignoring that of the public. Now, apparently seeking to flesh out the GOP’s social agenda, Boehner has invited another influential voice to the table: the far right Christian activist Randall Terry.As the founder of the extremist, pro-life group Operation Rescue, Terry turned rabid fanaticism into a high-profile career. Known for his outlandish antics and incendiary rhetoric, Terry earns the scorn of most respectable lawmakers. But, according to an email alert obtained by Right Wing Watch, Terry’s extremism has now secured him a spot in Beohner’s inner circle. Meeting with Boehner’s staff, Terry apparently demanded the GOP “hasten the end of legalized child killing in America” and that “unless the Republicans do something concrete to save babies from murder, then they are collaborators with child killers, and we must treat them as such”:
We must demand that Republicans who won the House of Representatives hasten the end of legalized child killing in America. Their victory could be a strong step forward for the babies, but it also might be yet another set back after 50,000,000 dead babies.
We must not delude ourselves!…We already see pro-life fundraising letters and petitions heralding this GOP victory as an automatic victory for the babies’ lives. This is simply not true![...]
When the Republicans are in power, pro-life groups and leaders become way too “polite.” We lose our edge; we don’t hold them accountable; we settle for trite phrases and broken promises as long as they will meet with us for 10 minutes, and we can take our picture with them, or they come to one of our meetings and receive some useless award.
I beg you to carefully consider my words; look at this situation with prophetic insight. Unless the Republicans do something concrete to save babies from murder, then they are collaborators with child killers, and we must treat them as such.
Here is Part I of "The Assassination of Dr. Tiller", a film about the terrorists in this country who target doctors:
The rest can be seen starting here.
This is terrorism -- terrorism that involves white "Christian" males; the very kind of white Christian males being touted as "the real America" by the Republican Party. By consorting with Randall Terry, and condoning his staff consorting with Randall Terry, John Boehner is signaling that he endorses this kind of terrorism.
lundi 29 novembre 2010
Supermarkets, ensaymada and Arce Dairy ice cream - Manila, Phiippines
Food courts. And supermarkets. Is it odd that these were my top two touristing highlights in Manila?JeepneyAdmittedly I'd wanted to ride on a jeepney, but with our hotel within walking distance of Greenhills Shopping Centre in San Juan, there was no need for a jeepney.SecurityI'd been pre-warned about the presence of armed security at shopping centres in Manila. At every public entrance, security
When Ruth Marcus is your idea of "the liberal commentariat", you're living in the DC bubble
Every time I bring myself to read Ross Douthat in the New York Times, I wonder how someone so mind-bogglingly stupid can possibly even dress himself in the morning. Here he is today, opining about how the ENTIRE "liberal commentariat" is defending the Obama Administration's expansion of x-ray scanners at airports:
The online version of this piece links to a Ruth Marcus column in the Washington Post.
Ruth Marcus? THIS is Douthat's idea of the "liberal commentariat"? A WaPo hack of a quarter-century's duration? Does anyone even READ Ruth Marcus, let alone take her seriously?
Forget about little blogs like this one, which have been all over this TSA nonsense like flies on horseshit. What are the Big Boiz doing? Yes, Josh Marshall seems far more willing to give the Obama Administration and the entire process the benefit of the doubt than I am. But Digby has been noting the absurdity of it all. HuffPo has had a slew of articles which can hardly be said to defending the TSA. Over at the Great Orange Satan, there's hardly a rush to defend the Obama Administration. The Big Blue Smurf, as is his wont, has his customary series of one-sentence posts, mostly about nonsense, but since this is nothing new for him, it hardly qualifies as a defense of, or even silence about, Obama's TSA.
Here's JUST ONE of the many segments Keith Olbermann has done on the subject:
Rachel Maddow, understandably, is focusing on DADT. But Chris Hayes, subbing on the 22nd, talked about the whole TSA foofarah, and while hardly defending the Obama administration, did point out that a certain amount of the TSA-outrage pot is being stirred by libertarian activists (including John Tyner, the "Don't touch my junk" guy) and others who are exploiting the whole mess to advocate for privatizing the TSA -- as if that would make a difference. But this is hardly a defense of the proliferation of scanning and pat-downs:
Karoli over at Crooks and Liars cites a much-publicized (and much maligned in the progressive blogosphere, which shows that we are far more willing to criticize our own than the right is) article in The Nation which pointed out Tyner's role as a libertarian activist and accused him of being a shill for the Koch brothers. The C&L piece cites other commentary on the Nation article, commentary which blasted it as a smear -- which it is.
What NO ONE on the left is doing is defending the use of x-ray equipment and genital-groping as a means of "keeping us safe" -- not even Ruth Marcus, who seems to feel that this system may be crap but it's all we've got. This is far more skepticism than we ever got from the right, which marched in lockstep to the notion that "If you haven't done anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about" in the context of the Bush Adminstration's appalling record on Constitutional protections.
And this is the difference between the so-called "liberal commentariat" -- at least the commentariat you get if you stick your nose outside the beltway. On the left, we are having a conversation among many minds. On the right, we get only one theme: Republican Good. Obama Bad.
Imagine, for a moment, that George W. Bush had been president when the Transportation Security Administration decided to let Thanksgiving travelers choose between exposing their nether regions to a body scanner or enduring a private security massage. Democrats would have been outraged at yet another Bush-era assault on civil liberties. Liberal pundits would have outdone one another comparing the T.S.A. to this or that police state. (“In an outrage worthy of Enver Hoxha’s Albania ...”) And Republicans would have leaped to the Bush administration’s defense, while accusing liberals of going soft on terrorism.
But Barack Obama is our president instead, so the body-scanner debate played out rather differently. True, some conservatives invoked 9/11 to defend the T.S.A., and some liberals denounced the measures as an affront to American liberties. Such ideological consistency, though, was the exception; mostly, the Bush-era script was read in reverse. It was the populist right that raged against body scans, and the Republican Party that moved briskly to exploit the furor. It was a Democratic administration that labored to justify the intrusive procedures, and the liberal commentariat that leaped to their defense.
This role reversal is a case study in the awesome power of the partisan mindset. Up to a point, American politics reflects abiding philosophical divisions. But people who follow politics closely — whether voters, activists or pundits — are often partisans first and ideologues second. Instead of assessing every policy on the merits, we tend to reverse-engineer the arguments required to justify whatever our own side happens to be doing. Our ideological convictions may be real enough, but our deepest conviction is often that the other guys can’t be trusted.
The online version of this piece links to a Ruth Marcus column in the Washington Post.
Ruth Marcus? THIS is Douthat's idea of the "liberal commentariat"? A WaPo hack of a quarter-century's duration? Does anyone even READ Ruth Marcus, let alone take her seriously?
Forget about little blogs like this one, which have been all over this TSA nonsense like flies on horseshit. What are the Big Boiz doing? Yes, Josh Marshall seems far more willing to give the Obama Administration and the entire process the benefit of the doubt than I am. But Digby has been noting the absurdity of it all. HuffPo has had a slew of articles which can hardly be said to defending the TSA. Over at the Great Orange Satan, there's hardly a rush to defend the Obama Administration. The Big Blue Smurf, as is his wont, has his customary series of one-sentence posts, mostly about nonsense, but since this is nothing new for him, it hardly qualifies as a defense of, or even silence about, Obama's TSA.
Here's JUST ONE of the many segments Keith Olbermann has done on the subject:
Rachel Maddow, understandably, is focusing on DADT. But Chris Hayes, subbing on the 22nd, talked about the whole TSA foofarah, and while hardly defending the Obama administration, did point out that a certain amount of the TSA-outrage pot is being stirred by libertarian activists (including John Tyner, the "Don't touch my junk" guy) and others who are exploiting the whole mess to advocate for privatizing the TSA -- as if that would make a difference. But this is hardly a defense of the proliferation of scanning and pat-downs:
Karoli over at Crooks and Liars cites a much-publicized (and much maligned in the progressive blogosphere, which shows that we are far more willing to criticize our own than the right is) article in The Nation which pointed out Tyner's role as a libertarian activist and accused him of being a shill for the Koch brothers. The C&L piece cites other commentary on the Nation article, commentary which blasted it as a smear -- which it is.
What NO ONE on the left is doing is defending the use of x-ray equipment and genital-groping as a means of "keeping us safe" -- not even Ruth Marcus, who seems to feel that this system may be crap but it's all we've got. This is far more skepticism than we ever got from the right, which marched in lockstep to the notion that "If you haven't done anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about" in the context of the Bush Adminstration's appalling record on Constitutional protections.
And this is the difference between the so-called "liberal commentariat" -- at least the commentariat you get if you stick your nose outside the beltway. On the left, we are having a conversation among many minds. On the right, we get only one theme: Republican Good. Obama Bad.
dimanche 28 novembre 2010
Hello! Kyochon Chatswood
Soy marinated chickenFried chicken is my weakness.Is there anything more magical than crunching through a layer of golden batter and sinking your teeth into sweet and juicy chicken?Complimentary cabbage saladAn impromptu dinner is no excuse to contend with the tried and tested. I could barely type 'yes' fast enough when fried chicken was mentioned in the lazy tic-tac of group emails.We push open
Hey, Alaska! How's that "Abstainey Sexy" stuff workin' for ya?
Alaska: Rapidly on its way to becoming the clap capital of America:
An outbreak of gonorrhea across Alaska that began in 2009 is continuing this year, and health officials say they are trying new ways to curb it.
Between 2008 and 2009, the number of gonorrhea cases in Alaska rose an alarming 69 percent, according to a new U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report.
State health officials began calling attention to a spike in gonorrhea cases in Southwest Alaska more than a year ago and highlighted the statewide rise in March.
The new report shows that Alaska ranks ninth in the nation for its rate of gonorrhea, compared with its ranking in recent years in the mid-20s. Alaska also is second in the nation for its high rate of chlamydia, another sexually transmitted disease that often is transmitted along with gonorrhea.
"Hopefully, the high numbers now are more of a success story in that people are coming in and getting tested. Though I am surprised the numbers haven't declined," said Susan Jones, the state's HIV/STD program manager. "It's this continuing rise in numbers that we haven't been able to get under control."
Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/11/26/104330/gonorrhea-outbreak-puts-alaska.html#storylink=omni_popular#ixzz16ayPk7cj
New American Zen Cover
(Photoshopping courtesy of my sister Alicia Morgan of Last Left Turn B4 Hooterville.)
This is the visual I'm going with for the new cover of the American Zen Kindle edition (I wish it was a Les Paul Stratocaster, which is Mike's guitar, instead of a Gibson, but you take what you can get). I think it just about sums up the most important abstracts of the book. Alicia's looking for a better, more Zen-like font than the Presidential one I've been using. Then when she inserts the title into the .jpeg, I'll upload it. It'll make for a more professional-looking cover. After all, there are approximately 650,000 titles on Kindle alone, so one must make their work stand out in some way.
I also just reduced the price from $9.99 to $4.99 and sales are already picking up. So please give it a try. Once again, you can download a free 50 page sample to help you make up your mind as to whether or not to purchase it. I've also posted a review of it that's actually an expanded synopsis to further give you an idea of what it's about.
samedi 27 novembre 2010
Idiots.
Would someone please tell the holiday weekend crew over at Fox Nation that The Onion is SATIRICAL?
The same way that Rush Limbaugh has to paint the Pilgrims as Randian capitalists -- nothing....NOTHING...is beyond the ability of the right to turn everything into an ideology-driven screed.
It looks like the "article" has been taken down, but there's still this:
Yes, Barack Obama does have a pastry chef. And a regular chef. And a staff full of people who clean and organize his household. He flies around on a private plane. He doesn't do his own yard work, either. It's because he's the fucking PRESIDENT, morons. And even George W. Bush, hero of said morons, had the very same things.
Sorry, but people who watch Fox, who read Fox's web site, who have anything to do with Fox, are idiots. Period.
Most people recognize The Onion as the Peabody Award-winning satire machine that it is. Some people, however, don’t. Which is why we get a story like this every few months. Of course, it’s sometimes easy to mistake an Onion article for the real thing since the writers make sure to skew as close to their targets as possible. It also doesn’t hurt when real news outlets reprint the satirists’ work and decide not to let their readers know it’s a joke, as Fox Nation did today.
Yes, the Fox Nation editors were apparently so enamored with an Onion piece from today entitled “Frustrated Obama Sends Nation Rambling 75,000-Word E-Mail” that they reposted the first two paragraphs in their culture section with nary a sign as to its fictional nature. The only clue that this wasn’t real (besides a quick peek at your inbox to confirm that Barack Obama hasn’t been emailing you) was a link at the bottom instructing readers to go to TheOnion.com for the real story. This tiny link was, unfortunately, not enough for the vast majority of FN readers.
The same way that Rush Limbaugh has to paint the Pilgrims as Randian capitalists -- nothing....NOTHING...is beyond the ability of the right to turn everything into an ideology-driven screed.
It looks like the "article" has been taken down, but there's still this:
Poor Bill Yosses. He's the White House pastry chef. He makes desserts for a living. He works for Barack and Michelle Obama. They talk about healthy eating. All the time. Sounds like a recipe for disaster, right?
Not at all. Yosses' creations -- especially his pies -- have won over even the Obamas. The president calls him "The Crustmaster."
Yes, Barack Obama does have a pastry chef. And a regular chef. And a staff full of people who clean and organize his household. He flies around on a private plane. He doesn't do his own yard work, either. It's because he's the fucking PRESIDENT, morons. And even George W. Bush, hero of said morons, had the very same things.
Sorry, but people who watch Fox, who read Fox's web site, who have anything to do with Fox, are idiots. Period.
vendredi 26 novembre 2010
Rachel Maddow is a Trash Culture Mutant
Yes! She IS "one of us"! Puzzling evidence proving this was broadcast on October 28 and can be seen at 2:08:
Actually, it was the 1980's, and I have three copies of the ORIGINAL printing of the Book of the Subgenius to prove it.
By the way, any resemblance between "Bob" Dobbs and Stephen Colbert is, well, I don't know if it's intentional or not, but it's there.
(via)
Actually, it was the 1980's, and I have three copies of the ORIGINAL printing of the Book of the Subgenius to prove it.
By the way, any resemblance between "Bob" Dobbs and Stephen Colbert is, well, I don't know if it's intentional or not, but it's there.
(via)
Wasilla deserves this guy
It's their just punishment for foisting Sarah Palin on the political world:
Friday Big Blue Smurf Blogging: What they said
Today's honoree: BooMan, who has some advice for President Obama in dealing with the Republicans.
Money quote:
Money quote:
...at a certain point you have to knock off the happy talk about how we can solve our problems if we just talk to each other. These idiots think you're a Muslim who isn't even an American citizen. They think you're pushing some Leninist agenda. They're cuckoo for cocoa puffs. And those who aren't are perfectly content to pretend that they are. I am not saying you should accuse them all of doing six months in Chino for exposing themselves to eight year-olds, but it might not be the worst idea. The truth doesn't matter anymore, and you'd probably be half-right with a bunch of these kooks.
jeudi 25 novembre 2010
The Cat That Ate Thanksgiving
Welcome to my first foray into Windows Movie-making. While Mrs. JP was puttering around on the internet tonight on the one laptop that actually gets online, I was puttering around on the Dell and discovered the Windows Movie Maker. After reading a few tutorials and experimenting with it, I shot this video of our cat Popeye and added some of my own subtitles. The results were kind of unexpected.
And yes, he's really like this every day of the week. See what I have to live with?
Grab the shovel and backhoe
You're going to need it to dig out after reading this:
There you have it: Why I Hate Bono, despite all his good works.
And by the way, I heard a radio segment this morning on this show, where they played an audio snippet. It sounded like a high school kid trying to sound like Bono. "Creating art that has never been done before"? Is that why every U2 song sounds like every other U2 song?
Oh the humanity.
And the two and a half hours of sheer exhilaration that is Fela! is closing January 2.
There is no God.
Four minutes into the Act I rehearsal, a “Spider-Man” crew member announced on his mic, “We’re gonna hold.” It was the first of several pauses to deal with technical glitches, mostly in transitions between scenes. By the dinner break, only 15 minutes of the two-and-a-half-hour show had unfolded. And the first scheduled performance (this Sunday at 6:30 p.m.) was just eight days away.
In the last week, the nervous creators of the show, the most expensive in Broadway history, have begun to see the hand-drawn sketches, the digitally animated videos, the comic-book-inspired costumes come to life — to see “Spider-Man” finally, literally, take flight.
“Creating art that has never been done before is the reason I get out of bed in the morning,” said Bono, leaning forward in Row A on the aisle, as Reeve Carney, playing Spidey, rehearsed onstage. “This feels like it.”
Yet time is running out.
At the creators’ last dinner on Friday night before Bono and the Edge left for a U2 tour in Australia, Bono said bluntly that the show “won’t get out of the gate” and have a chance to catch on with audiences if technical problems persist, as they have in rehearsals.
Still, he and the others did not dwell on mundane matters like flying harnesses. They are all artists who dream big, who compare the show’s themes to great literature and philosophy.
“We’re wrestling with the same stuff as Rilke, Blake, ‘Wings of Desire,’ Roy Lichtenstein, the Ramones — the cost of feeling feelings, the desire for connections when you’re separate from others,” Bono continued. “If the only wows you get from ‘Spider-Man’ are visual, special-effect, spectacular-type wows, and not wows from the soul or the heart, we will all think that we’ve failed.”
There you have it: Why I Hate Bono, despite all his good works.
And by the way, I heard a radio segment this morning on this show, where they played an audio snippet. It sounded like a high school kid trying to sound like Bono. "Creating art that has never been done before"? Is that why every U2 song sounds like every other U2 song?
Oh the humanity.
And the two and a half hours of sheer exhilaration that is Fela! is closing January 2.
There is no God.
Wow, someone actually did it
This is all kinds of awesome:
And the original:
Not too shabby, eh?
Indianapolis - The students competed in video competition as part of the Marsh Hoosier Classic at Lucas Oil stadium this year. They got their idea from an episode of Glee where the football team does a dance to Beyonce's "Put a Ring on it."
Brandon Ledford is the quarterback of the high school's team. He was apprehensive about the idea when his fellow students came to him, "I was like wow. No. I gotta focus on winning some football games."
But with money on the line for his school, Ledford and the rest of the team decided to go for it.
Travis Duncan is also on the team. He say it made for a busy week for all the players, "We were practicing for football and the dance video at the same time."
Amber Derrow taught the guys the moves and directed the video, "Attention span was not that long on getting everyone set for it."
Derrow says no one expected the guys to be perfect, "If they messed up it made for a funny idea."
The entire video was shot in one day, but it took a lot longer to prepare and plan for that shoot. Ben Ettinger edited the final product, "We finished it in about 2 or 3 days"
The video was presented at the Marsh Hoosier Classic at Lucas Oil stadium where it won the school $300, but the school brought home more than just money. Ledford says, "We were on a two game losing streak. After that week we went Lucas Oil and our video was played and we went on a three game winning streak." (Fox 59 WXIM)
And the original:
Not too shabby, eh?
Thespians of Mass Destruction
Pennsylvania's Office of Homeland Security thinks this man is a terrorist
Sure, he's kind of swarthy, I guess. But he's Italian swarthy, not, like MIDDLE-EASTERN swarthy. Not that it should matter, but I guess that in a state that has Philadelphia on one end, Pittsburgh on the other, the Amish in the middle, and Alabama everywhere else, you'd expect Mark Ruffalo to end up on a terrorist watch list:
Actor Mark Ruffalo has been placed on a terror advisory list by U.S. officials after organizing screenings for a new documentary about natural gas drilling.
The "Zodiac" actor arranged showings for "GasLand" earlier this year and voiced his concerns about the practice in relation to the national water supplies.
But his efforts to raise awareness and demand a stop to natural gas drilling reportedly attracted the attention of officials from Pennsylvania's Office of Homeland Security - and he recently discovered it had landed him on a terror alert watchlist.
So...while 80-year-old women and six-year-old children are being virtually strip-searched at airports this weekend, and Mark Ruffalo is being branded a terrorist, I wonder what ACTUAL, REAL terrorists are doing.
Luxe Bakery Cafe, Newtown
Ham and cheese crossiantMan cannot live by bread alone, they say, but maybe they haven't yet been to Luxe. Bright, airy and ever popular, Luxe Bakery Cafe is not quite when you expect when you step through the doors of this former five bedroom cottage. Co-owners Jonathan Harvey, Simon Cancio and Tony Leibowitz gutted the building to create this buzzy cafe packed with loaves of fresh sourdough
What are You Grateful For This Thanksgiving?
Well, for starters, despite the prostrate-before-Wall St-and-the-GOP Obama administration, I'm still grateful, for starters, that this deeply superficial asshole isn't still in office. His ghost-written, plagiarized turkey of a book ought to be a reminder as to why we should all be grateful for presidential term limits.
But, as with last year, I'm grateful that I can spend Thanksgiving with Mrs. JP and Popeye the sassy cat and Arlo Guthrie and "Alice's Restaurant" (I'm listening to it now on my CD mix, as I do at noon every Thanksgiving, a cool tradition I carried over from the last house). Have a happy, safe and grope-free Thanksgiving.
I'm with TBogg on this one
It's now a Thanksgiving tradition, sort of like WFUV's annual noontime playing of Alice's Restaurant:
And yeah, I think Reich is right on the money too.
This is a holiday classic just like A Charlie Brown Christmas but with death and blood and a skinny white chocolate mocha from Starbucks. -- TBogg
And yeah, I think Reich is right on the money too.
Who benefits? And where are the opportunities?
The story of terrorism, and the fight against terrorism in this country, always contains a question: Who Benefits?
9/11 "Truthers" speculate on who benefitted from the 9/11 attacks, but you don't have to be a "Truther" to wonder, when a presidency was deemed in the press to be over almost as soon as it began turned into a press darling over the corpses of nearly three thousand people. Dick Cheney has profited handsomely over contracts given to Halliburton in Iraq.
A year after the so-called "underwear bomber", whose own father notified the U.S.Embassy in Nigeria that his son was planning something, failed in his attempt to bring down an airliner, and weeks after CARGO PLANES were targeted, air passengers are being whipped into a frenzy of terrorism fear again by a TSA that works according to some strange alchemy in which ignoring cargo but x-raying and groping passengers somehow prevents explosives from being deployed on cargo planes.
Despite the potential risks to both passenger and TSA worker posed by radiation administered to travelers by low-wage workers without medical training, and despite the consensus among security experts without a financial stake in body scanners that their implementation simply is not effective, not only are more airports planning to deploy these monstrosities, but there is a very real possibility of Americans having to go through this security theatre nonsense if they want to take a cruise or a ferry, or get to work via train or subway.
If you have ever worked in New York City, or commuted to ANY major metropolitan area, or for that matter, ever been any place where people congregate -- shopping malls, ball games, concerts, ballets, operas, megachurches, you can imagine the chaos that would result from a requirement to be groped or strip-searched just to get to work, or watch the Yankees play, or go see Bruce Springsteen, or take your aunt from Dubuque on the Circle Line.
They're getting away with it for air travel because the images of the 9/11 attacks are etched into our minds. But taken to this logical extreme, as Janet Napolitano appears to be considering, I wonder if Americans will stand for it.
Images of government-money sugarplums are dancing in the heads of lobbyists for the x-ray scanner industry, who are the REAL beneficiaries of this insanity, as Cenk Uygur, who seems to be handling the anchor load on MSNBC during this holiday weekend all by himself, noted yesterday:
We already know that George W. Bush's head of the Department of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, stands to profit handsomely from the indiscriminate deployment of these scanners. Chertoff has been a tireless advocate for this industry, advocating that the "administration must stand firm against privacy ideologues"in a Washington Post op-ed last January.
Who else benefits?
There's an opportunity here for the progressive netroots to find common cause with the Tea Party, if we only dare to take it. Granted, many Tea Party followers give lip service to the Constitution without knowing what's in it beyond the Second Amendment. But as I've often said, the political spectrum is sometimes less a continuum than a circle, in which left and right eventually meet at the top. All too often, civil liberties have been framed as a leftist issue, what with George H.W. Bush calling his opponent during the 1988 campaign a "card-carrying member of the American Civil Liberties Union". But now that the right has been whipped into a frenzy about "big government", and Tea Partiers are subject to virtual strip searches and government-mandated groping along with the Dirty Fucking Hippies they loathe, perhaps there's some room here to find common cause. And once we find common cause there, are there other areas as well?
9/11 "Truthers" speculate on who benefitted from the 9/11 attacks, but you don't have to be a "Truther" to wonder, when a presidency was deemed in the press to be over almost as soon as it began turned into a press darling over the corpses of nearly three thousand people. Dick Cheney has profited handsomely over contracts given to Halliburton in Iraq.
A year after the so-called "underwear bomber", whose own father notified the U.S.Embassy in Nigeria that his son was planning something, failed in his attempt to bring down an airliner, and weeks after CARGO PLANES were targeted, air passengers are being whipped into a frenzy of terrorism fear again by a TSA that works according to some strange alchemy in which ignoring cargo but x-raying and groping passengers somehow prevents explosives from being deployed on cargo planes.
Despite the potential risks to both passenger and TSA worker posed by radiation administered to travelers by low-wage workers without medical training, and despite the consensus among security experts without a financial stake in body scanners that their implementation simply is not effective, not only are more airports planning to deploy these monstrosities, but there is a very real possibility of Americans having to go through this security theatre nonsense if they want to take a cruise or a ferry, or get to work via train or subway.
If you have ever worked in New York City, or commuted to ANY major metropolitan area, or for that matter, ever been any place where people congregate -- shopping malls, ball games, concerts, ballets, operas, megachurches, you can imagine the chaos that would result from a requirement to be groped or strip-searched just to get to work, or watch the Yankees play, or go see Bruce Springsteen, or take your aunt from Dubuque on the Circle Line.
They're getting away with it for air travel because the images of the 9/11 attacks are etched into our minds. But taken to this logical extreme, as Janet Napolitano appears to be considering, I wonder if Americans will stand for it.
Images of government-money sugarplums are dancing in the heads of lobbyists for the x-ray scanner industry, who are the REAL beneficiaries of this insanity, as Cenk Uygur, who seems to be handling the anchor load on MSNBC during this holiday weekend all by himself, noted yesterday:
We already know that George W. Bush's head of the Department of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, stands to profit handsomely from the indiscriminate deployment of these scanners. Chertoff has been a tireless advocate for this industry, advocating that the "administration must stand firm against privacy ideologues"in a Washington Post op-ed last January.
Who else benefits?
There's an opportunity here for the progressive netroots to find common cause with the Tea Party, if we only dare to take it. Granted, many Tea Party followers give lip service to the Constitution without knowing what's in it beyond the Second Amendment. But as I've often said, the political spectrum is sometimes less a continuum than a circle, in which left and right eventually meet at the top. All too often, civil liberties have been framed as a leftist issue, what with George H.W. Bush calling his opponent during the 1988 campaign a "card-carrying member of the American Civil Liberties Union". But now that the right has been whipped into a frenzy about "big government", and Tea Partiers are subject to virtual strip searches and government-mandated groping along with the Dirty Fucking Hippies they loathe, perhaps there's some room here to find common cause. And once we find common cause there, are there other areas as well?
mercredi 24 novembre 2010
Top 10 Ways to Prevent a TSA Patdown
Sadly, even nerdy love dolls are subject to TSA patdowns.
This weekend, millions of American passengers will be flying all over the country for Thanksgiving in the midst of the TSA controversy over "enhanced patdowns" and X-ray screening. Last week alone, 170,000 passengers had been subjected to what many consider intrusive searches, possibly by homosexual TSA officials. The Transportation Security Administration is struggling to find a balance between safety in the skies and personal privacy, yet there are some measures you can take to prevent both an X-ray screening and a groping of your genitals. What are they?
mardi 23 novembre 2010
Bra Dengan Lampu Disco yang Unik
Jaman sekarang memang ada ada aj, bra pun bisa dibuat bermacam macam model
ini dia gambarnya...pa ga takut kesetrum yach.?!
ini dia gambarnya...pa ga takut kesetrum yach.?!
10 Sungai Terpanjang Di Dunia
10. Sungai Lena berada di Benua Eropa (Rusia) memiliki panjang 4400 km
9. Sungai Amur berada di Eropa dan Asia memiliki panjang 4444 kilometer
8. Sungai Kongo berada di Afrika memiliki panjang 4700 kilometer
7. Sungai Ob - Irtysh berada di Eropa dan Asia memiliki panjang 5410 kilometer
6. Sungai Kuning / Huang Ho berada di China Benua Asia memiliki panjang 5464 kilometer
5. Sungai Yenisei - Angara - Selenga berada di Rusia dan Mongolia memiliki panjang 5539 kilometer
4. Sungai Mississippi - Missouri berada di Amerika Utara memiliki panjang 6275 kilometer
3. Sungai Yangtze / Chang Jiang berada di Negara China memiliki panjang 6300 kilometer
2. Sungai Amazon berada di Amerika Selatan memiliki panjang 6400 kilometer
1. Sungai Nil berada di Afrika memiliki panjang 6650 kilometer
Di Indonesia Sungai Terpanjang adalah Sungai Kapuas
9. Sungai Amur berada di Eropa dan Asia memiliki panjang 4444 kilometer
8. Sungai Kongo berada di Afrika memiliki panjang 4700 kilometer
7. Sungai Ob - Irtysh berada di Eropa dan Asia memiliki panjang 5410 kilometer
6. Sungai Kuning / Huang Ho berada di China Benua Asia memiliki panjang 5464 kilometer
5. Sungai Yenisei - Angara - Selenga berada di Rusia dan Mongolia memiliki panjang 5539 kilometer
4. Sungai Mississippi - Missouri berada di Amerika Utara memiliki panjang 6275 kilometer
3. Sungai Yangtze / Chang Jiang berada di Negara China memiliki panjang 6300 kilometer
2. Sungai Amazon berada di Amerika Selatan memiliki panjang 6400 kilometer
1. Sungai Nil berada di Afrika memiliki panjang 6650 kilometer
Di Indonesia Sungai Terpanjang adalah Sungai Kapuas
Sumber: http://juandry.blogspot.com/2009/11/10-sungai-terpanjang-di-dunia.html
Food courts in the Philippines
Forget about sightseeing - the only thing I want photograph when I travel is food.A trip to Manila for a wedding offered limited free time and we ended up spending much of it shopping. Even then, I found myself continually gravitating toward the sights and smells of the food court.Kusina ni GraciaFood courts. What's not to love?We ended up shopping at the SM Mall of Asia, the fourth largest
Melihat Kepribadian Pria dari Posisi Bercinta
Kesukaan seseorang terhadap satu posisi favorit bercinta bersama pasangan ternyata bisa mengungkap kepribadian orang tersebut. Bagaimana kepribadian Anda?
1. Suka misionaris
Suami sangat menyukai posisi standar ini saat bercinta? Dia adalah seorang perencana yang baik dan melakukan segalanya dengan metode yang jelas, bahkan untuk urusan di tempat tidur.
Sisi kreatifnya mungkin biasa-biasa saja, tetapi sebagai imbalannya si dia akan memberikan rasa aman yang luar biasa untuk Anda.
2. Woman on top
Dia seorang laki-laki yang dengan senang hati menyerahkan kendali permainan bercinta pada Anda.
Laki-laki yang membiarkan Anda di atas saat bercinta berarti dia sangat percaya diri dan tak merasa terganggu oleh 'kekuasaan' Anda. Baginya, Anda adalah mitra untuk maju bersama.
3. Berdiri
Mungkin dia tak begitu suka posisi ini dalam artian yang sesungguhnya, namun dia mau melakukannya atas nama spontanitas. Dia adalah laki-laki pemberani dan penuh rasa ingin tahu.
Dia siap mencoba apa saja bersama Anda. Dengan laki-laki ini, hidup terasa penuh warna dan tidak membosankan.
4. Duduk berhadapan
Dia suami yang selalu ingin berbagi. Ia juga kreatif dan penuh antusiasme dalam menjalani hidup bersama Anda. Dia adalah pencinta sejati yang akan berusaha membahagiakan pasangan dengan segala cara.
5. Doggy style
Dia punya sisi liar dalam penampilannya yang terlihat kalem itu. Meskipun gaya ini agak kasar, namun menyuguhkan pemandangan yang luar biasa bagi laki-laki, yaitu tubuh pasangan.
Dengan gaya 'dari belakang' ini pria punya kendali penuh dalam permainan. Jika laki-laki suka sekali gaya ini, dia adalah pria mandiri, tahu cara menikmati hidup dan bagaimana meraihnya untuk diri sendiri.
Namun dia kurang terbuka terkait dengan perasaan dan pikirannnya. Pendekatan yang intens akan mencairkan 'kebekuan' dan dia mau berbagi cerita dengan Anda.
Kepribadian Dilihat Dari Warna Baju Favorit, Apa Warna Baju Favoritmu?
Tahukah Anda bahwa warna baju bisa mencerminkan kepribadian, atau mewakili perasaan pada saat tertentu. Karena itu, pilihlah warna baju yang tepat pada saat Anda berbelanja pakaian. Jangan sampai, warnanya justru akan menghilangkan mood Anda. Namun, beberapa warna di bawah ini dipercaya bisa mengungkap karakter dan kepribadian Anda.
Oranye. Perpaduan antara warna kuning dan merah ini identik dengan karakter orang yang menyukai tantangan dan senang menjadi pusat perhatian. Apalagi jika dipadankan dengan aksesori yang menarik. Warna cerahnya juga bisa membangkitkan mood Anda.
Merah. Adalah cerminan orang yang tangguh dan mandiri. Selain mewakili keberanian dan kemandirian, merah juga sering diidentikan sebagai warna yang seksi dan menggoda. Perpaduan antara warna kuning dan merah ini identik dengan karakter orang yang menyukai tantangan dan senang menjadi pusat perhatian. Apalagi jika dipadankan dengan aksesori yang menarik. Warna cerahnya juga bisa membangkitkan mood Anda.
Hitam. Ini adalah warna paling gelap dari pakaian wanita. Cocok digunakan bagi Anda yang cenderung ingin tampil ‘aman’ dalam berpenampilan. Karakter misterius biasanya terpancar pada penyuka warna hitam. Namun, selain warna netral, hitam juga sering dipakai untuk mewakili kesan seksi dan elegan.
Putih. Warna satu ini identik dengan suci dan bersih. Putih juga termasuk warna paling aman selain hitam, karena bisa dipadu dengan segala warna. Bila Anda tipikal orang yang penuh pertimbangan, tanpa sadar, pasti Anda akan menyimpan banyak baju putih di lemari Anda.
Hijau. Merupakan warna yang segar dipandang mata karena senada dengan warna alam dan semua yang berbau natural. Penggemar warna ini pasti menyukai hal-hal yang berhubungan dengan alam dan kedamaian.
Kuning. Warna cerah pada baju ini melambangkan kecerdasan dan intelektual seseorang. Kuning juga sering identik dengan kebebasan. Penyuka warna ini biasanya memiliki pribadi yang optimis, tangguh dan tahan banting.
Biru. Mewakili keteduhan dan kenyamanan. Penyuka baju warna biru biasanya sangat menyukai ketenangan. Bila ingin merasa nyaman dan tampil sangat percaya diri, warna biru bisa menjadi pilihan Anda saat berbelanja pakaian di butik atau mall.
Pink. Adalah simbol dari cheerful, girly dan feminin. Jika Anda memakai gaun warna pink, akan mengesankan kelembutan dan mewakili perasaan jatuh cinta yang berbunga-bunga. Tak ada salahnya Anda memakai balutan busana pink lembut saat berkencan atau makan malam dengan si dia. Sumber: Vivanews
Bagaimana dengan warna baju kesukaan Anda, cocokah tulisan diatas dengan yang Anda rasakan?
8 Hewan Paling Fenomenal di Dunia
1.Mike, the Headless Chicken: (Hidup 18 bulan tanpa kepala)
Mike ( April 1945– Maret 1947) si ayam tanpa kepala adalah Wyandotte rooster yg dapat hidup selama 18 bulan setelah kepala nya dipotong.Setelah banyak orang yg mengiranya sebagai HOAX belaka, ayam itu dibawa oleh pemiliknya ke University of Utah di Salt Lake City untuk menetapkan keaslian nya.
Pada hari Senin 10 September 1945, petani Lloyd Olsen asal Fruita, Colorado, hendak mempersiapkan makan malam dan diperintahkan oleh isteri nya mencari seekor ayam. Saat itulah Olsen memenggal leher ayam tua berumur 5 setengah bulan bernama Mike. Kampak yg digunakan Olsen luput dr pembuluh darah leher, sehingga kebanyakan dari pembuluh otak tetap utuh. Mike sempat masuk dalam puluhan surat kabar dan majalah, termasuk Time dan Life Magazines. Olsen mendapat kritik dari beberapa pihak karena memelihara ayam tanpa kepala hidup-hidup. Di Maret 1947, pada suatu motel di Phoenix, Mike tiba2 seperti tercekik dan mati di pertengahan malam itu.
2.Oscar, the cat: (Mampu Menebak Kematian Pasien yg Akan Datang)
Oscar adalah seekor anak kucing 3 lantai pusat rehabilitasi di Providence, Rhode Island.Tempat itu merawat penderita Alzheimer,parkinson,dan berbagai penyakit lain di mana sang penderita bisa menemui ajal nya kapan saja dalam waktu yg tidak bs di tentukan.
Setelah sekitar 6 bulan,para staff mulai menyadari ada kejanggalan pada oscar. Oscar masuk ke ruangan yg dia mau lalu mulai mengendus-ngendus dan mengamati pasien dan selanjutnya tidur di dekat pasien tersebut. Yang mengejutkan para perawat di sana adalah pasien yg di hampiri Oscar pasti meninggal dalam kurun waktu 2-4 jam kemudian setelah kedatangan nya.
Salah satu dari kejadian pertama melibatkan seorang pasien yg memiliki semacam gumpalan darah di kaki nya.Oscar datang dan melingkarkan badan nya di kaki pasien tersebut dan tetap di situ sampai pasien tersebut meninggal beberapa jam kemudian. Ada kejadian lain di mana dokter telah menetapkan waktu kematian seorang pasien berdasarkan pada kondisi pasien.
Oscar membuktikan bahwa prediksi dokter tersebut 10 jam terlalu awal. Karena begitu Oscar mengunjungi nya pasien tersebut meninggal 2 jam kemudian dan dokter tersebut cm bisa tercengang.
Ketelitian Oscar's yg telah terbukti pada 25 kejadian akhir nya di percaya oleh pimpinan staff untuk menciptakan suatu protokol tidak biasa dan mungkin sulit dipercaya. Setiap Oscar ditemukan sedang tidur dengan seorang pasien, staff akan menghubungi anggota keluarga sang pasien untuk memberitahu mengenai kematian yang akan segera terjadi.
Kemampuan Oscar untuk memprediksi jam2 terakhir kehidupan manusia ini membingungkan banyak orang dan dideskripsikan oleh Dr.David Doza bahwa Oscar adalah kucing yg tidak mau berteman pada orang hidup. Salah satu contoh nya yg di tulis dalam artikel NEJM. Ketika ada seorang pasien wanita tua yang ditemani oleh Oscar, Dokter menyuruh Oscar untuk keluar dan Oscar mengeluarkan suara mendesis seperti ular derik yg seakan mengatakan 'Tinggalkan Aku Sendiri'.
3.Tillamook Cheddar, the dog: (Binatang Pelukis Paling Sukses di Dunia)
Tillamook Cheddar adalah anjing Terrier yg berasal dari Brooklyn, New York.
Dia dikenal dunia sebagai seniman yg paling unggul dari dunia fauna, dia telah 17 pameran tunggal di Amerika dan Eropa.Saat ini Tillie berusia 8 tahun.
Pada bulan Juli 2005 sang seniman melahirkan 6 anak anjing sehat. Salah satu putranya, Doc Chinook Strongheart Cheddar tampak akan meneruskan jejak langkah ibunya. Tapi sampai saat ini Doc belum melukis, dia hanya di pakai untuk model pemotretan oleh berbagai majalah.
4.Alex, the parrot: (Burung Terpintar Di Dunia)
Alex adalah burung beo berwarna abu-abu yg menjadi subjek eksperimen oleh pengamat psikologi hewan Irene Pepperberg. Pepperberg membeli Alex di suatu petshop ketika alex berumur 1 tahun. Nama Alex sendiri sebenarnya adalah singkatan dari Avian Learning EXperiment.
Sebelum Pepperberg bekerja dengan Alex, dunia meyakini bahwa burung bukan lah makhluk yg cerdas. Tetapi Alex berhasil menunjukkan pada dunia bahwa burung dapat memahami komunikasi dengan manusia dan memahami pesan dasar nya.Pepperberg menyatakan bahwa tingkat kepintaran Alex setingkat dengan lumba-lumba ataupun kera. Dia juga menyatakan bahwa Alex memiliki kepintaran yg setara dengan manusia berumur 5 tahun walaupun belum bisa mencapai potensi maksimal nya karena dia mati dalam umur yg masih muda. Dia bisa menghitung, membedakan warna, dan menunjukkan ekspresi2 frustasi layak nya orang.
Kematian Alex menjadi kejutan, karena lama hidup rata2 dari burung beo afrika adalah 50 tahun. Dia keliatan sehat sehari sebelum dia mati, dan tiba2 ditemukan sudah tak bernyawa pagi harinya. Berdasarkan pada pernyataan Alex Foundation pada pers, 'Alex dalam kondisi kesehatan yg baik tanpa kelainan fisik apa pun selama 2 minggu terakhir sebelum kematiannya. Kematian menjadi misterius karena setelah dilakukan otopsi tetap tak diketahui penyebab kematian burung tersebut. Lab tersebut lalu menguji 2 burung lain, tetapi kemampuan mereka tak ada yg mendekati Alex bahkan sampai skrg.
5.Oliver, the 'Humanzee': a human-chimp hybrid
Oliver ditemukan oleh Frank and Janet Berger di awal 1970 di umur sekitar 2 tahun. Beberapa pengamat perilaku dan fisik binatang kemudian meyakinkan Berger bahwa Oliver adalah binatang yg lain dr simpanse, mungkin adalah human-chimp hybrid (gabungan antara manusia dan kera)Oliver memiliki muka yg lebih datar drpd teman2 simpanse lain nya. Gigi depan nya di cabut sewaktu dia muda dan tidak pernah tumbuh taring di kumpulan gigi nya.
Oliver tidak pernah berjalan dengan kepalan tangan nya melainkan berdiri dan berjalan layak nya manusia. Yang paling mengejutkan setelah nya adalah bahwa Oliver lebih menyukai manusia perempuan dibaningkan simpanse betina. Selama peliputan special oleh Discovery Chanel, Janet Berger menyatakan bahwa Oliver telah jatuh cinta padanya ketika dia memasuki usia 16 tahun. Oliver memanjat Berger dan mencoba untuk kimpoi dengan nya. Karena tingkah laku nya itulah Oliver di anggap menjadi ancaman untuk Janet, sehingga diputuskan untuk memindahkan Oliver. Sebagian orang mengakui ia tidak memiliki suatu bau khas yang umum seperti simpanse dan hal itulah yg membuat simpanse2 lain menjauhinya.
6.Owen & Mzee : Keunikan Ikatan Persahabatan Dua Spesies
Sehari setelah tragedi tsunami dahsyat Samudera Hindia yang menghantam Asia dan Afrika, puluhan penduduk desa tepi Pantai Malindi di Kenya melakukan tugas penyelamatan bersama aparat setempat. Saat itulah Owen Saubion melihat pemandangan ganjil di kawasan tepi pantai itu. Ia melihat bayi kudanil (masih berusia 1 tahun) itu meringkuk lemas di batu karang. Kondisinya sangat memprihatinkan. Ia terjebak di antara gelombang laut dan derasnya air dari muara Sabaki River.
Setelah dirawat, kudanil itu pun akhirnya dibawa ke Haller Park dekat Mombasa, sebuah taman suaka margasatwa milik Lafarge Eco Systems’ East African firm, pada 27 Desember 2006. Di suaka margasatwa Haller Park inilah kisah persahabatan unik itu dimulai.Bayi kudanil itu kemudian diberinama Owen, sesuai nama penyelamatnya.
Petugas suaka menempatkannya di sebuah area untuk hewan-hewan kecil. Langkah ini dilakukan karena Owen masih tergolong bayi. Sementara jika di tempatkan di lokasi untuk kawanan kudanil, petugas perawat hewan khawatir ia akan diserangan kawanan kudanil lain yang tak mengenalnya. Karena kudanil sangat agresif dan “fanatik” pada kawanannya, bila ada kudanil asing mereka bisa saja membunuhnya.
Ketika Owen dilepas, ia masih bingung. Mungkin karena harus menempati lingkungan baru. Namun setelah ia merasa sedikit nyaman, Owen langsung menatap dan tertarik pada seekor kura-kura bernama Mzee.
Mzee, adalah spesies kura-kura Aldabran usia 130 tahun seberat 700 pound (320 kg). Mzee yang dalam bahasa Swahili (Afrika) berarti “wise old man” (si tua bijaksana), merupakan penghuni lama area yang dilengkapi dengan kolam asri dan hutan buatan itu.
Awalnya, Owen langsung beranjak mendekati Mzee. Namun Mzee sama sekali tak peduli padanya. Hari demi hari Owen selalu mengikuti Mzee ke mana pun ia pergi. Agaknya Owen berupaya mengambil hati Mzee. Seiring waktu dan kegigihan Owen mendekatinya, Mzee akhirnya menerima kehadiran kudanil muda itu.
Berminggu-minggu kemudian keduanya sudah tampak begitu akrab. Mzee layaknya dianggap sebagai induk oleh Owen, sementara Mzee merasa sebagai orangtua asuh bagi Owen. Bukan hanya dalam kiasan, pada kenyataannya Mzee selalu menjaga Owen dengan kelembutan. Owen juga selalu mematuhi dan senang bermain dengan Mzee.
Ikatan persahabatan mereka mengental bagai sebuah keluarga. Para perawat hewan di Haller Park bingung dengan tingkah dua hewan beda spesies ini. Mereka bagaikan induk dan anak dari satu spesies yang sama.
Apa yang disantap Mzee juga disantap Owen, di mana Owen tidur di situ pasti ada Mazee. Mereka selalu bermain air di kolam bersama, makan bersama, tidur bersama dan berjalan-jalan keliling area taman bersam-sama pula.
Setahun berlalu, namun kedua hewan beda spesies itu semakin lengket. Keduanya sudah tak terpisahkan lagi. Fenomena ini sungguh mengejutkan sejumlah besar ilmuwan. Bukannya saja karena peristiwa seperti ini belum pernah terjadi, tetapi di antara mereka juga sudah mengembangkan “bahasa” mereka sendiri sebagai sistem komunikasi di antara keduanya. Bahasa komunikasi lewat suara yang sama sekali belum pernah ditemukan dalam kelompok kudanil atau pun kura-kura Adabran.
Suara dalam nada tertentu dari Mzee akan direspons oleh Owen secara tepat. Begitu pula sebaliknya, suara dalam nada tertentu dari Owen direspons Mzee pula secara tepat. Selain itu, keduanya juga mengembangkan bahasa tubuh yang hanya mereka berdua pahami, seperti gigitan lembut, sentuhan, dorongan dan belaian yang masing-masing direspons sebagai suatu kode untuk melakukan sesuatu atau ungkapan kasih sayang di antara keduanya.
Keunikan persahabatan Owen dan Mzee pun menjadi fenomena mendunia. Tingkah laku dan komunikasi unik yang sama sekali baru dalam dunia zoologi (ilmu tentang hewan) itu membuat mereka menjadi selebriti dunia. Sejumlah besar foto, film, dokumentasi, bahkan buku dan artikel mengulas soal teka-teki besar persahabatan mereka.
Owen dan Mzee pun menjadi lambang cinta dan persahabatan yang tidak mengenal batasan fisik, ras, spesies dan teritori.
7.Anjing Bunuh Diri Setelah Dipukul Majikan
BEIJING--Satu anjing 'mastiff' Tibet di Hangzhou, ibukota Provinsi Zhejiang, menggigit lidahnya sendiri dan menemui ajal setelah dipukuli oleh majikannya.
Sang pemilik, yang bernama keluarga Pan, memukuli anjing tersebut karena berkelahi dengan anjing lain, dengan tujuan memberi anjing itu pelajaran.
'Saya merasa sangat menyesal,' kata Pan setelah kejadian itu. 'Teman saya yang telah memelihara anjing mastiff Tibet selama 20 tahun memberitahu saya bahwa hewan tersebut adalah rajanya semua anjing dan memiliki rasa kebanggaan diri yang sangat kuat.'
"Jika anda memukuli anjing mastiff di hadapan anjing lain, hewan itu merasa malu dan akan bunuh diri untuk mempertahankan martabatnya," katanya.Kasian banget hewan jg punya harga diri.
8.Tama,Kucing Kepala Stasiun
Seekor kucing bisa mendatangkan pemasukan sampai 1,1 miliar yen atau sekitar Rp 99,18 miliar per tahun bagi sebuah kota kecil di Jepang. Tama adalah seekor kucing tortoiseshell yang lahir dan hidup di stasiun kereta api Kishi yang tanpa kepala stasiun di Kinokawa, Provinsi Kishigawa, Jepang barat.
Karena itu, Tama menjadi kepala stasiun lengkap dengan seragam perusahaan kereta api Wakayama. Kucing ini tampil di stasiun saat kereta api lewat, berjalan seperti layaknya kepala stasiun kereta api. Aksi Tama ini mengundang ribuan turis datang ke sana.
Menurut Katsuhiro Miyamoto, profesor pada Sekolah Akuntansi Universitas Kansai, yang meneliti dampak berganda dari kehadiran Tama sebagai kepala stasiun, menyebutkan ada dana sebesar 1,1 miliar yen pada tahun 2007 yang mengalir ke Kinokawa. Selain mereka yang datang, suvenir buku bergambar Tama dan berbagai barang lain bergambar kucing kepala stasiun ini juga laku.
Tama juga disorot oleh stasiun televisi dan publisitas lainnya. Atas semua perannya ini, Tama hanya mendapat gaji dan bonus berupa makanan kucing yang hanya bernilai 280 juta yen per tahun. Padahal, Tama lahir dari seekor kucing yang tersesat, yang dibawa ke stasiun oleh tukang bersih-bersih dan kemudian dipelihara Toshiko Koyama, yang punya toko di dekat situ. Kondisi menguntungkan ini sudah berlangsung sejak Januari 2007.
sumber: http://fenz-capri.blogspot.com/2010/11/8-hewan-paling-fenomenal-di-dunia.html
sumber: http://fenz-capri.blogspot.com/2010/11/8-hewan-paling-fenomenal-di-dunia.html
$4-$6 trillion for war...and a decade later we're being frisked and strip-searched at airports
Given all the current government talk about austerity, and how the elderly will just have to give up their Social Security because the government stole it all to pay for war and tax cuts, you'd think that the costs of the so-called "War on Terror" would at least be mentioned.
For thirty years, "government spending" is a term that in the minds of all too many Americans is the same thing as saying "Welfare for lazy people", despite the fact that defense, Social Security, and Medicare make up over three-quarters of Federal spending. And yet no one except Rand Paul is even looking at defense spending.
Here we are, almost a decade into Afghanistan and seven years into Iraq, with no end of our involvement anywhere in sight. We are not one iota "safer", and not one of the so-called fiscal conservatives is even addressing the cost of these wars:
If these wars were doing anything to keep us safe, it might be possible to justify the cost. But it seems that Americans are as frightened as they've been at any time since the 9/11/01 attacks, we are subject to security theatre at airports that is designed to reinforce that fear while our luggage gets loaded onto planes by Goddess-knows-who, and we keep playing a game of catch-up with a few thousand terrorists who seem able to simply nail together two things that have never been nailed together before and bring us to our knees. Positive steps such as fortified cockpits and passengers who now know that being passive with onboard terrorists no longer means that no one gets hurt minimize the chance of another 9/11-style attack. Everything else is whack-a-mole: Richard Reid tries to light explosive in his shoes, so we have to take off our shoes. Someone else tries to make a bomb out of liquids, so we can only take as much shampoo and moisturizer as will fit in a baggie. A guy tries to light powdered explosive in his underwear, so we have to search elderly people wearing depends and cancer survivors' ostomy bags. Someone hides explosives in printer cartridges and so we ban the shipping of printer cartridges. Whoever finances these penny-ante tactics is laughing at our foolishness.
Because the fact is that we don't know what the hell we're doing. Not in our conduct of war (in which today we find out that a high-level Taliban "leader" with whom we've been negotiating is a fake), not in our air security operations, not in how we handle the economy.
Yesterday was the 47th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. I was eight years old then, and while I remember the impact of that event, I also remember that it was a time when Americans were about looking forward, about the future and its potential. The Kennedy assassination was a wake-up call that there was a dark underbelly in this country, but still -- we went to the World's Fair in 1964 and attended exhibits called "Futurama" and "Avenue of Progress" and "Wonder Rotunda" and looked ahead into a future of continued innovation and prosperity.
Forty-seven years later, we are a nation of frightened, medieval-thinking people who deride people who actually live in caves while we behave as if we do, with legislators who say we don't have to do anything about climate change because God wouldn't allow the effects of global warming. We have potential presidential candidates who participate in rituals banishing witchcraft and who think behaving like a high school mean girl is the way to power. Educated people are regarded as "elites" and ignorance is valued as symbolizing "real Americans." Sixty-five years ago we vanquished the Third Reich and the Japanese emperor in four years and now we haven't been able to defeat terrorists in Afghanistan and Iraq in nine.
And now cannibalism is being lauded on national television as symbolizing good old American ingenuity.
For thirty years, "government spending" is a term that in the minds of all too many Americans is the same thing as saying "Welfare for lazy people", despite the fact that defense, Social Security, and Medicare make up over three-quarters of Federal spending. And yet no one except Rand Paul is even looking at defense spending.
Here we are, almost a decade into Afghanistan and seven years into Iraq, with no end of our involvement anywhere in sight. We are not one iota "safer", and not one of the so-called fiscal conservatives is even addressing the cost of these wars:
"Another four years of war—at the current rate—we’re talking about 2400 more coalition and American soldiers dying, thousands more Afghans killed, and a price tag of about a half trillion dollars,” said Matthew Hoh, a former US Marine who resigned his Afghanistan post in protest last year and now serves as director of the Afghanistan Study Group. And the question remains—what does this sacrifice buy us? How does this benefit the US? How does it impact Al Qaeda? How does it help stabilize Pakistan? How is any of this worth it?"
Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard professor Linda Bilmes now estimate the costs of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars will reach $4 to $6 trillion. There have been approximately 2,200 US and coalition casualties in Afghanistan, and tens of thousands of Afghan civilian deaths. The Christian Science Monitor reports that “softening” the 2011 and 2014 deadlines “could add at least $125 billion in war spending—not including long-term costs like debt servicing and health care for veterans."
[snip]
According to the Congressional Research Service, the costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan account for 23 percent of the combined budget deficits since 2003. The Republicans' hypocrisy here is venal. If they were indeed serious about shrinking the deficit in a responsible way this war is one area where they would focus needed attention. Certainly those concerned with the budget and rebuilding our economy can agree that these resources could be put to better use at home.
If these wars were doing anything to keep us safe, it might be possible to justify the cost. But it seems that Americans are as frightened as they've been at any time since the 9/11/01 attacks, we are subject to security theatre at airports that is designed to reinforce that fear while our luggage gets loaded onto planes by Goddess-knows-who, and we keep playing a game of catch-up with a few thousand terrorists who seem able to simply nail together two things that have never been nailed together before and bring us to our knees. Positive steps such as fortified cockpits and passengers who now know that being passive with onboard terrorists no longer means that no one gets hurt minimize the chance of another 9/11-style attack. Everything else is whack-a-mole: Richard Reid tries to light explosive in his shoes, so we have to take off our shoes. Someone else tries to make a bomb out of liquids, so we can only take as much shampoo and moisturizer as will fit in a baggie. A guy tries to light powdered explosive in his underwear, so we have to search elderly people wearing depends and cancer survivors' ostomy bags. Someone hides explosives in printer cartridges and so we ban the shipping of printer cartridges. Whoever finances these penny-ante tactics is laughing at our foolishness.
Because the fact is that we don't know what the hell we're doing. Not in our conduct of war (in which today we find out that a high-level Taliban "leader" with whom we've been negotiating is a fake), not in our air security operations, not in how we handle the economy.
Yesterday was the 47th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. I was eight years old then, and while I remember the impact of that event, I also remember that it was a time when Americans were about looking forward, about the future and its potential. The Kennedy assassination was a wake-up call that there was a dark underbelly in this country, but still -- we went to the World's Fair in 1964 and attended exhibits called "Futurama" and "Avenue of Progress" and "Wonder Rotunda" and looked ahead into a future of continued innovation and prosperity.
Forty-seven years later, we are a nation of frightened, medieval-thinking people who deride people who actually live in caves while we behave as if we do, with legislators who say we don't have to do anything about climate change because God wouldn't allow the effects of global warming. We have potential presidential candidates who participate in rituals banishing witchcraft and who think behaving like a high school mean girl is the way to power. Educated people are regarded as "elites" and ignorance is valued as symbolizing "real Americans." Sixty-five years ago we vanquished the Third Reich and the Japanese emperor in four years and now we haven't been able to defeat terrorists in Afghanistan and Iraq in nine.
And now cannibalism is being lauded on national television as symbolizing good old American ingenuity.
Inscription à :
Articles (Atom)