Do you ever wonder what kind of fish Antonin Scalia uses to shave his face?

On the Fareed Zakaria – GPS blurb above: A village completely wiped out must be a War Crime. Does that not require a charge of Genocide?

No absolutely not, not if they were designated as enemies of the ‘mercun empire. “Merca can do anything (torture, murder, genocide, terrorism) as our leaders are omnipotent and are incapable of error and given a little air time on MSM the pontificating pinheads will prove it without using a single fact.

Good morning, pups. MoDo is off today, and The Moustache of Wisdom is still out flogging his book, so it’s Mr. Kristof and Mr. Rich this morning. Mr. Kristof, writing from Beijing, says his microblog was “Banned in Beijing!” He says to measure the democratizing effect of the Internet on China, he conducted a little experiment. He survived. But will his blog? In “The One-Eyed Man is King” Mr. Rich says “True Grit” has unalloyed faith in values antithetical to those of the 21st century America so deftly skewered in “The Social Network.”

Here they are.

The coffee, tea and hot chocolate are ready, and I’ve got chocolate croissants to share. We’re back down in the deep freeze, at 25°, and it’s been gray and dank when it hasn’t been freezing. Genuinely icky weather. I hope it’s better where you are. Have a great day.

We’re back down in the deep freeze, at 25°

A virtual bloody heatwave. Here it is 6°.

I see in the NYT that our great state of NH has turned the GOP party over to the ‘baggers, of curse the move from Sununu to ‘bagger is not a great leap. However being the first primary state it will certainly give pause to the liberal wing, Mitty?, of the gooper party in the quest to be the next liar in chief.

Karen Hughes….What is her expertise? Helping women in Afghan? Tutoring the useless? Letting us know more about the misplaced Lib’ry? Just do not get it.

G’Morning, RB
My take on Karen Hughes is that GWB was drawn to her because she reminds him of his mother. Can you spell battle axe. I’m not usually into name calling, but those women b. u. ug. me, bug me.

As we wait in suspense/s/ for the POTUS to give the SOTU speech, (see the front page of the NYT)
we know that The President of Third Way speaks for the President of the United States because both entities are ‘owned’ by Wall Street. That the new stated focus shifts from economic security to ‘economic growth’ is merely a facade for looting the middle class:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/1/22/937858/-Third-Ways-false-start-on-saving-Social-Security-

(saving future generations from reduced SS benefits and a raised retirement age by reducing their benefits in advance and raising the retirement age)

PS, ygm.

Christopher Hitchens sits down for an hour with Brian Lamb (Q&A)

Oh geez, stick a RR spike in my brain. Nothing in the world could be worse than listening to that.

Good morning all. A balmy -2.6 here, up a degree from the overnight low.

Hey, my best….I do not know how you spell battle ax….but I get your drift. Hysterical.

How come you get such warm weather? You’re a couple of hundred miles north of me. Not fair.

Oh geez, stick a RR spike in my brain

Careful what you ask for. Do you know how much the copay on a CAT scan is?

No cat scan required. With the way things are going, terminal painful disease or worse looks like a romp in the park.

Somehow I believe that those suffering from a terminal painful disease might disagree with you. Just a guess.

What have we learned in the past ten years about Sunday talking heads? Well what I’ve learned is that when Republicans control both houses of congress, only conservative opinions matter and when Democrats control both houses, only conservative opinions matter and when control is split, only conservative opinions matter.

Yep….as in be careful what you ask for….

I’ve heard that grace is not getting what you deserve. And, mercy is not getting what you do deserve.

So would those with a RR spike in their brains. Hyperbole.

Hey there, Peggy
I never watch the Sunday Talking Heads. Maybe that’s why I haven’t “learned” that.

I don’t watch them either but I do read these threads and see who’s on.

I know what hyperbole is and it’s just too early on a beautiful Sunday morning for me to appreciate it. YMMV.

We cheat, the ocean keeps us balmy!

Aha. Forgot that you are close to the coast.

Perhaps it’s a matter of those who can’t, become talking heads?

There are progressive voices in Congress. Why isn’t Al Franken ever on or Lloydd Doggett? Why isn’t there one talking head show moderated by a progressive voice?

Here’s a link to an interesting article.

I think maybe conservatives are more defensive and feel they have to dissect and attack. Could it be?

What a surprise! Israel clears itself of wrong doing in the flotilla raid in which they slaughtered several civilian relief workers. But I guess since most of them were brown and/or Muslim, it’s all good…

While offering some criticism of the way the takeover was planned, the commission’s conclusions exonerated the government, the military and individual soldiers of wrongdoing.

Oh, and any further condemnation is just anti Israel sentiment, it has nothing to do with the actual events.

“I doubt very much whether it will make an impression on those elements of the international community who are pushing the anti-Israel hostility,”

Meanwhile, interesting things happening in Tunisia and spreading to other parts of the Arab world.

How long will Israel and its comical sidekick, the U.S., let democracy go on? Let O bring on the drones.

Just checking in, now on board and off to sea the world. (yes, urg)

Now signed in but of course email is iffy on board. Love the Barcelona area, however, very cold at present. Familia Sagrada was jam packed. Later.

This is OT but something I’ve been meaning to share with you all and since we’ve mentioned painful conditions, I’m going to use that as my excuse to go OT. MY brother in law has a deteriorated disc in his back. Always somewhat painful with occasional bouts of severely painful. He’s now suffering a severely painful bout and even went to the ER one night cuz the pain was so bad. Nothing, he was told, can be done. Take it easy till it’s just mildly painful again. Well he found a clinic in Miami that uses stem cells to heal the disc. I don’t want to say too much about what they do cuz I’m sure to get it wrong but I do know that he will receive 4 injections of stem cells (made from his own fat tissue) and that they claim a 95% success rate. He’ll be going down in February so I’ll keep you posted on how it turns out. I also know that they’ve done some work on knee pain. The clinic’s address is arthritisusa dot net.

I am interested in the outcome

Best wishes for your brother, Solai.

But democracy is only important when it serves our interests. Whether it’s actual democracy or pantomime democracy, it’s all good as long as the government is friendly to the US. At least during the Cold War, the MIC had focus. Now it’s just groping in the dark for an “enemy” from which to profit.

Have a good time Ruth!

I hope it works out for him. I know first hand what that kind of pain will drive someone to. Though I haven’t got a bad back, (at least not yet), I have done some very desperate things when in pain. All the best to him solai.

Interesting. Never heard that phrase with that abbreviation before, Ecahn, other than in career jargon. In civil engineering “RR spike in power pole” is commonly used as a benchmark for elevation (-7 here in southeast MI.)

6 below in Fargo. Heat wave!

Turned on This Week because ND Senator a guest.
Lieberman whining.
Turned off This Week.

Back to Learning to Die in Miami

I’m with SanderO. Will be very interested to learn how it turns out. Best of all to your BIL.

I love this episode of 60 minutes. Especially because it’s the Steelers.

Heh. Never heard yours but I can see how it came into being. I have a decorative RR spike from some 19thC RR joining event that my parents picked up.

Lieberman whining.

It occurred to me in passing this morning that it would be nice if O followed his mentor’s example & retired this year.

But I suppose if he really follows Lieberman, he will hang around until he is universally hated.

democracy is only important when it serves our interests

Does it ever, at least in countries small enough for the U.S. to push around? In 2nd half of 20thC western Europe, the U.S. had to tolerate democracy because there didn’t seem to be anything U.S. could do about it.

Did you see Lieberman call Arianna sweetheart? As in “I don’t think you read the report, sweetheart”.

morning dogs

been a long time since I’ve live blogged my sunday breakfast

I need to pay tribute for my dad, and share a sentiment that I think will help everyone who will face these kinds of events, sorry to burden everyone here but you do feel like family;

there are things that happen to everyone (our loved ones moving on)but when you are faced with these kinds of life’s heartbreaking challenges, though you think you are prepared, you are brought to your knees in emotional anguish

but if you can realize, the anguish comes from the joy, realize you are in the path on the circle of life, then that pain will somehow soothe and comfort

Well my comment was meant to be more ironic than anything else. I guess it’s too early for me to convey subtle irony well. :)

Sorry for your loss. Very familiar with those feelings.

Condolences, perris. I understand.

Just heard a powerful piece on CBS Sunday Morning about “Jan’s Story”…living with the long good-bye of Alzheimer’s. We grieve in many ways, before, during, after. The burden is eased in the comfort of family left behind and surrounding friends.

Ease for your burden today, perris.

(((perris!)))

Morning All!

Read Still Alice (fictional account of the long goodbye of Alzheimer’s).

Perris, so sorry for your loss.

x2

Welcome to Vietnamistan!

Sadly true – there is no more than a weak effort to justify new MIC contracts as “defense needed” items – today it is all about profit – with Congress bought based on how many jobs their state gets via that government contract. It is the worst form of “economic” reasoning, screwing our country and future generations.

Meanwhile today’s talking heads were impressive in their decision to not talk about anything of political – or any other – interest.

They could have had fun with the “Quantum Entanglement Could Stretch Across Time” paper by S. Jay Olson of Australia’s University of Queensland, where the future and the past are tied together – Indeed they could have least noted that this gives a way to test the predicted Unruh effect of heat radiation from acceleration in a vacuum – which has never been observed and if not observed in the much easier conditions that a time-entanglement experiment would be Quantum Theory needs to be tossed as we find a new theory – and that WOULD be exciting!

Or they could have note that not only MSNBC had dropped Keith Olbermann – he will not return to NBC’s NFL highlights show – and how long his non-compete agreement is to last would have been an interesting discussion – a Connan like rehash to be sure – but interesting.

Or other networks could have commented on Republican Ben Stein’s comment this morning that suggested on CBS that Obama is the best candidate the Republican Party could field in 2012.

Or they could have noted that the HAMP mortgage help program’s change by Obama does nothing about principal reduction – it is only allowing more folks into this failed program by relaxing the eligibility rules so that if you are under water by more than 5% (value of house 5% less than value of mortgage) you are no longer rejected – indeed a mortgage debt up to 125% of the value of their homes is now OK – I could have used some discussion about how this program has failed.

I am sorry to hear about your loss.

My family is blessed with short lifespans, but the leaving is always painful. My wife’s family has its share of ALZ – and that is hard to take.

I saw the Reagan comments by his son on Dad being slowed by ALZ while in office – and Leslie Stahl confirming that his observations were her own – making the rights nonsense about the son being a ballet dancer embarrassment another confirmation of the right’s willingness to lie – and our media (in 1985 – and now) willingness to go along.

In any case – I hope you can concentrate on viewing and mitigating the anguish as part of the “circle of life”. My own experience is that sharp edges disappear over time – but one never forgets – anything – and it is in the front of your mind a lot. Good luck – and God bless…….