"America is built on freedoms - of speech, religion, press, assembly, AK-47s and your face."---Mike Strobel

When all is said and done there is nothing left to say or do.
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Today is as good as it gets, and our tomorrows won't be any better
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These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA, EPA, FBI, DEA, CDC, or FDIC. These statements are not intended to diagnose, cause, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. If you feel you have been harmed/offended by, or, disagree with any of the above statements or images, please feel free to leave.
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"The trouble with Republicans is that when they get into trouble they start acting like cannibals"-Richard Nixon
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The News According To Jersey Shore Snooki

I now have seen it all.  Now you can see Snooki, the Jersey Shore Bimbo, report the news streaming on http://www.cambio.com/news/snooki-news

CEO Rewards for Tax Dodging


I had just been watching one of those "newz" opinionator programs that had a scroll going across the bottom of the screen saying that corporations were ready to cut back over 51,000 jobs - and then I saw this when I came over to the computer:


Remember this:  The Supreme court ruled that corporations are the same as people.  Therefore the corporations can donate as much as they want to political candidates.

CEO$ rake it in while their corporation$ dodge taxe$

...corporate tax dodging has gone so out of control that 25 major U.S. corporations last year paid their chief executives more than they paid Uncle Sam in federal income taxes.

Here's a few:

PRUDENTIAL FINANCIAL
CEO: John Strangfeld
Executive Compensation, 2010: $17,187,028
U.S. Corporate Income Taxes Paid, 2010: -$722 million

VERIZON
CEO: Ivan Seidenberg
Executive Compensation, 2010: $18,126,854
U.S. Corporate Income Taxes Paid, 2010: $-705 million

BANK OF NEW YORK MELLON
CEO: Robert Kelly
Executive Compensation, 2010: $19,379,257
U.S. Corporate Income Taxes Paid, 2010: -$670 million

DOW CHEMICAL
CEO: Andrew Liveris
Executive Compensation, 2010: $17,739,490
U.S. Corporate Income Taxes Paid, 2010: -$576 million

HONEYWELL
CEO: David Cote
Executive Compensation, 2010: $15,216,953
U.S. Corporate Income Taxes Paid, 2010: -$471 million

INTERNATIONAL PAPER
CEO: John Faraci
Executive Compensation, 2010: $12,303,423
U.S. Corporate Income Taxes Paid, 2010: -$249 million

AMERIPRISE
CEO: James Cracchiolo
Executive Compensation, 2010: $16,252,851
U.S. Corporate Income Taxes Paid, 2010: -$224 million

STANLEY BLACK & DECKER
CEO: John Lundgren
Executive Compensation, 2010: $32,570,596
U.S. Corporate Income Taxes Paid, 2010: -$183 million

CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL
CEO: Richard Fairbank
Executive Compensation, 2010: $14,850,675
U.S. Corporate Income Taxes Paid, 2010: -$152 million

NABORS INDUSTRIES
CEO: Eugene Isenberg
Executive Compensation, 2010: $13,537,486
U.S. Corporate Income Taxes Paid, 2010: -$138 million

EBAY
CEO: John J. Donahoe
Executive Compensation, 2010: $12,382,486
U.S. Corporate Income Taxes Paid, 2010: -$131 million

MARSH & MCLENNAN
CEO: Brian Duperreault
Executive Compensation, 2010: $14,038,187
U.S. Corporate Income Taxes Paid, 2010: -$90 million

FORD
CEO: Alan Mulally
Executive Compensation, 2010: $26,520,515
U.S. Corporate Income Taxes Paid, 2010: -$69 million

MYLAN LABORATORIES
CEO: Robert Coury
Executive Compensation, 2010: $14,975,235
U.S. Corporate Income Taxes Paid, 2010: -$73 million

ALLEGHENY TECHNOLOGIES
CEO: Patrick Hassey
Executive Compensation, 2010: $14,978,587
U.S. Corporate Income Taxes Paid, 2010: -$47 million

QWEST COMMUNICATIONS
CEO: Edward Mueller
Executive Compensation, 2010: $13,446,399*****
U.S. Corporate Income Taxes Paid, 2010: -$14 million*****

CHESAPEAKE ENERGY
CEO: Aubrey McClendon
Executive Compensation, 2010: $21,044,952
U.S. Corporate Income Taxes Paid, 2010: $0 *****

GENERAL ELECTRIC
CEO: Jeff Immelt
Executive Compensation, 2010: $15,199,762
U.S. Corporate Income Taxes Paid, 2010: -$3.2 billion

CABLEVISION SYSTEMS
CEO: James Dolan
Executive Compensation, 2010: $13,320,691*****
U.S. Corporate Income Taxes Paid, 2010: -$3 million*****

WYNN RESORTS LTD
CEO: Steve Wynn
Executive Compensation, 2010: $14,615,779
U.S. Corporate Income Taxes Paid, 2010: $0*****

COCA-COLA
CEO: John F. Brock
Executive Compensation, 2010: $19,114,318
U.S. Corporate Income Taxes Paid, 2010: $8 million*****


MOTOROLA SYSTEMS
CEO: Gregory Q. Brown
Executive Compensation, 2010: $13,732,802
U.S. Corporate Income Taxes Paid, 2010: $7 million*****


AON
CEO: Gregory Case
Executive Compensation, 2010: $20,783,301
U.S. Corporate Income Taxes Paid, 2010: $16 million*****


MOTOROLA MOBILITY
CEO: Sanjay Jha
Executive Compensation, 2010: $13,016,126
U.S. Corporate Income Taxes Paid, 2010: $12 million*****


BOEING
CEO: Jim McNerney
Executive Compensation, 2010: $13,768,019
U.S. Corporate Income Taxes Paid, 2010: $13 million*****


Details at:
http://www.ips-dc.org/reports/executive_excess_2011_the_massive_ceo_rewards_for_tax_dodging/  http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/08/25-ceos-who-earned-more-than-their-companies-paid-in-taxes/244346/#slide16
http://www.ips-dc.org/files/3552/Executive-Excess-CEO-Rewards-for-Tax-Dodging.pdf

Pendulum Waves

What it shows: Fifteen uncoupled simple pendulums of monotonically increasing lengths dance together to produce visual traveling waves, standing waves, beating, and random motion. One might call this kinetic art and the choreography of the dance of the pendulums is stunning! Aliasing and quantum revival can also be shown.

I'd like to view it from above.

Adult Children Sue For 'Bad Mothering'


Adult children’s ‘bad mothering’ lawsuit dismissed
BY STEVE SCHMADEKE

Chicago Tribune

First published Aug 27 2011 07:01PM
Updated Aug 28, 2011 12:06AM
Chicago • Raised in a $1.5 million Barrington Hills, Ill., home by their attorney father, two grown children have spent the last two years pursuing a unique lawsuit against their mom for "bad mothering" that alleges damages caused when she failed to buy toys for one and sent another a birthday card he didn’t like.

The alleged offenses include failing to take her daughter to a car show, telling her then 7-year-old son to buckle his seat belt or she would contact police, "haggling" over the amount to spend on party dresses and calling her daughter at midnight to ask that she return home from celebrating homecoming.

Last week, at which point the court record stood about a foot tall, an Illinois appeals court dismissed the case, finding that none of the mother’s conduct was "extreme or outrageous." To rule in favor of her children, the court found, "could potentially open the floodgates to subject family childrearing to ... excessive judicial scrutiny and interference."

In 2009, the children, represented by three attorneys including their father, Steven A. Miner, sued their mother, Kimberly Garrity. Steven II, now 23, and his sister Kathryn, now 20, sought more than $50,000 for "emotional distress."

Miner and Garrity were married for a decade before she filed for divorce in 1995, records show.

Among the exhibits filed in the case is a birthday card Garrity sent her son, who in his lawsuit sought damages because the card was "inappropriate" and failed to include cash or a check. He also alleged she failed to send a card for years or, while he was in college, care packages.

On the front of the American Greetings card is a picture of tomatoes spread across a table that are indistinguishable except for one in the middle with craft-store googly eyes attached.

"Son I got you this Birthday card because it’s just like you ... different from all the rest!" the card reads. On the inside Garrity wrote "Have a great day! Love & Hugs, Mom xoxoxo.


MORE at
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/world/52469658-68/garrity-card-court-lawsuit.html.csp 

NYT Classical Music Reviewer Outraged Over Guy With Oxygen Tank

The New York Times sent James Oestreich to review a free Mozart Concert at Avery Fisher Hall a few weeks ago. How was the concert? Don't ask James Oestreich! He spent the bulk of his review complaining about the presence that some selfish jerk with an oxygen tank.

James Oestreich's review:
I hesitate to delve further into details of the performances, because I was thoroughly distracted throughout.

The man seated directly behind me was connected to a portable medical device, presumably an oxygen cart to aid his breathing, that emitted a steady ticking. Hard to describe, it was really more a faint, dull metallic clank in a relentless rhythm that seemed somehow resistant to all the many other rhythms emanating from the stage.

- - - SNIP - - -

Oestreich goes on to spend the rest of the review musing on all the various ways that medical devices can ruin the tranquil quiet necessary to enjoy classical music. 
Anyhow the president of the Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Foundation sent a letter of complaint to the NYT, and the paper, to its credit, published a brief interview with him today. The takeaway is "James Oestreich is kind of an _ _ _ _ _ _ _," in case you don't feel like reading the whole thing.

Click this to read the article where you read it all and view comments.

Time-Lapse Video of the building of the 9/11 Memorial

EarthCam/National September 11 Memorial & Museum
This time-lapse video shows the 9/11 memorial being constructed from 2004 to 2011. The memorial is set to open on the attack anniversary.




Miss An Email ? - Get Ousted From University

As we move faster and faster towards being a paperless society, electronic communication, like email, is becoming increasingly important. One would-be San Jose State University freshman found that out the hard way.

Hanaroo Kim showed up to freshmen orientation at SJSU only to find out that he had been un-enrolled.
Video explanation follows but will have to deal with ads:


LINK to more detail

Milky Way Time Lapse

I never get tired of watching stuff like this
Expand it to full screen to experience it in your heart


Back To School Clean Underwear


Guess Who Got A Credit Card?

Ahhh, the things people put on Facebook.

Tampons For Boys

Two young boys walked into a store one day, picked out a box of tampons and proceeded to the checkout.

The cashier asked the older boy, "Son, how old are you?" 

"Eight," the boy replied. 

The cashier continued, "Do you know what these are used for?" 

The boy replied, "not exactly, but they aren't for me. They're for him. He's my brother. He's four. We saw on the TV that if you use these you would be able to swim and ride a bike.  Right now, he can't do either."

Exorcise The Devil

Slow or difficult to load this one. Suggest you pause it when it starts and wait for it to finish loading. It is well worth the wait.


movies make life easier for us by usually stopping in the middle

An exerpt from a review by Roger Ebert of the current movie titled "One Day" starring Anne Hathaway:
"The film is carefully crafted to make even its sad moments seem not all that bad, and it modulates its progress toward happiness without unseemly haste.  Every single joyous love story ends in death if you follow it long enough.  The movies make life easier for us by usually stopping in the middle."
(color emphasis is mine)

This gave me thought to how portraits of life through various media effect our outlook on life as it should be.  Then when reality does not go the way of storied representation we believe something is wrong with us.

We believe too many tales.

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/isslivestream.asx link to see the view from the International Space Station at various times.  The view is not broadcast all the time.  I think it is on in the evening up to about one in the morning EDST.  This is a screen capture of it this evening at 10hr 37min PM EDST 081411:

Back To School Supply

I'm Rich

Batwoman

Cremation Remains Different In Alabama

Thad Holmes and business partner Clem Parnell recently launched what they describe as “a way to honor your deceased loved one by giving or sharing with him or her one more round of clay targets, one last bird hunt, or one last stalk hunt.”

For $1,250, you can have your loved one packed into 250 rounds of shotgun shells, rifle cartridges or pistol rounds. A variety of calibers and gauges is available. It takes one pound of ash to produce the 250 rounds.

Holmes and Parnell contract with professional ammunition reloaders to add a precise amount of cremated remains to each round. The ashes are hand-delivered to the reloaders and then shipped back to the customer as soon as the rounds are finished.

Holmes said his company uses quality ammunition and that the ashes have no effect on round performance.

“It’s just the fact that you’ve got your uncle up there on the shelf or in 'the judge' or in the shotgun that you can use for your own defense,” he said.

The idea for the company originated with Parnell during a late night conversation with a friend about the hereafter. As recounted on the Holy Smokes website (http://myholysmoke.com/Home_Page.html), Parnell’s friend said:

"You know I've thought about this for some time and I want to be cremated. Then I want my ashes put into some turkey load shotgun shells and have someone that knows how to turkey hunt use the shotgun shells with my ashes to shoot a turkey. That way I will rest in peace knowing that the last thing that one turkey will see is me, screaming at him at about 900 feet per second."
When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy.’ They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.~ John Lennon
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