Friday, December 30, 2011

Pants on Fire

You've probably heard the rumors that presidential candidate and '90s Trivial Pursuit answer Newt Gingrich divorced his first wife while she was being treated for cancer, then dumped Mrs. Gingrich #2 for his current wife Callista. To dispel the notion that he's a serial cheater and all-around terrible person, Gingrich has dispatched his daughter Jackie Gingrich Cushman on the campaign trail to "set the record straight" about her father. The problem is, newly uncovered legal documents show the nasty rumors are at least partly true. Add another check to the "horrible monster" column.


More on the lying sack of shit that is Newt Gingrich.

Just more evidence of Newt's trouble with the truth. You know, "it depends on what the definition of is is ..." He's a historian, not a lobbyist. He has an unfortunately pattern of dumping his wives when they become ill. Fortunately he's asked for God's forgiveness, unfortunately he should have asked that of his ex wives.

Monday, December 05, 2011

A spot of cold weather



After the month of November having an average high in the mid 50's, the weather has turned a tad colder the last week. Tonight we expect a low in the negative single digits!

Cuteness overload!

Thursday, December 01, 2011

Ron Paul goes on the attack

Well this explains Politics


Poo-flinging identified as a sign of intelligence in Chimps

In a study published in the latest issue of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, psychobiologist Bill Hopkins and his colleagues report that poo-flinging (and any-other-object-flinging) is, in fact, a sign of high-order brain development. The researchers report that chimps who threw more and with greater accuracy had more developed motor cortices and significantly better communication abilities than inaccurate, non-flingers.
Link.

Monday, November 28, 2011

What if Dr. Seuss wrote The Call of Cthulhu?



The artist, DrFaustusAU, is at page 42 of 50. See the rest of the book at Deviant Art.

Back to the future



Well it appears that Newt has become the Republican flavor of the month. This status is a double edged sword. Being the front runner means increased scrutiny, and Mitt has plenty in his past to keep the tabloids going for weeks. I only wonder how long he'll stay on top.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

More Republican Debate

10:31 Someone told Herman there are mountains in Iran.

10:32 Ron Paul, no foreign entanglements.

10:35 Newt give up our addiction to foreign oil.

10:41 Man on Dog is makes some sense about foreign aid.

10:44 Mitt is looking uncomfortable with Ron Paul telling truth.

10:47 Newt proves he doesn't understand technology. He seems to be a lean sigma six fan. He keeps bringing it up.

10:49 Huntsman sounds like a pragmatist.

11:01 Perry, Texas, Texas, Texas, and Texas.

11:11 Man on Dog, no compromise!

11:13 Newt, wants to follow the Chilian model for social security reform.

11:16 clean coal propaganda.

Enough for tonight.

Live Blogging Republican Debate

10:01 Ron Paul rules! Only one who stands up for our personal liberties.

10:03 Newt can barely contain himself listening to Ron Paul.

10:06 So Mr. Man on Dog Thinks we need a police state.

10:10 Ron Paul is rolling his eyes at Cain. Classic.

10:12 I like Huntsman. Clearly the most intelligent one on the stage.

10:14 Bachman just can't answer a question can she.

10:15 Perry, kill them all and let god sort it out!

10:16 Bachman, Perry is naive.

10:18 Mitt, throw good money after bad into central Asia.

10:21 Huntsman is making sense again. He's taking on Mitt and running circles around him.

10:23 Mitt is being petulant again.

10:24 Newt is pontificating again. He needs to read the news, were already doing what he says we need to do.

10:25 Man on Dog agrees with Ron Paul again.

10:26 Selling crap.

Appropriate Force

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Gratuitous dog photo



Found this while sorting through old photos. Here's the little black dog three years ago, before turning grey, and before she injured her ear, doing what she does best, napping.

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Friday, November 11, 2011

Wednesday, November 09, 2011

Tuesday, November 08, 2011

Herman has a problem

Herman has a problem. Its no longer he said, she said. Now its he said, they said. He can continue to cry lynching, but he really needs to get his story straight. Is it the democrats, or Perry, or someone else who is trying to destroy him. And it doesn't help when you claim you've never met the women, but there are witnesses who say otherwise.



Wednesday, November 02, 2011

Real reason we don't trust the government



Americans believe an amazing range of kooky things. FEMA has death camps, fluoridation corrupts your bodily fluids, the existence of UFOs are more likely than the survival of social security, Sarah Palin is qualified to be president, and so on.

In the old soviet union, rumors like these came about because everyone knew that the state media was just spewing propaganda. Americans believe this crap because the Internet allows any idea, no matter how crazy to get equal footing with just about everything else.

But not every rumor is unfounded. As the saying goes, just because I'm paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get me. Things such as the air at ground zero is perfectly safe and toxic sludge is good for you seriously erode what little faith people have in government institutions.

Now there is this:

The US government skirted over the radiation safety concerns of airport X-ray machines

According to a new report by ProPublica and the PBS NewHour, the US government has gone ahead with the controversial scanners despite serious concerns from radiation safety experts. The scanners are expected to be in place in every American airport security lane by as early as 2014. This is a big reversal from as recently as 1998, when the device's own inventor, Steven W. Smith, told a panel of radiation safety experts, said he didn't think such devices would be used at lower-security facilities - such as airports.


People don't seem to appreciate that every decision has a cost. Want more intrusive security to feel safer when you fly. You might be increasing your chance of cancer. Proponents argue that the increased risk is very small.

UC San Francisco radiologist Rebecca Smith-Bindman found that the radiation emitted by the machines would lead to six cancers in the lifetime of a year's worth of airline passengers, while Columbia's David Brenner placed the figure at as high as a hundred. Those, however, are out of a total of 100 million airline passengers, meaning the odds of developing cancer from a backscatter machine are at worst about one in a million. And, as Smith-Bindman points out, those same 100 million people will develop about 40 million cancers over the course of their lifetimes, with or without the scanners.


On average that is true. But if you are one of the many Americans who has high risk factors or has already had cancer, the average> risk may not be relevant to you. Radiation risk is cumulative. the more you play the game, the stronger the odds you'd hit.

The rest can be found here.

Herman Cain Under Attack

This pretty much sums it up.

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Herman Cain Under Attack
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full EpisodesPolitical Humor & Satire BlogVideo Archive

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Winter has arrived

Well, the grilling season has officially ended. We got a huge dump of snow last night.


Unfortunately the leaves are still on the trees, so the snow did significant damage. You can see some of it here and here.

Saturday, October 22, 2011

More faces of occupy



Yes, clearly the folks protesting at the occupy movement are just white upper class kids. Not real Americans like those Tea people.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Here Kitty Kitty!



A very brave house cat. More on the story here.

The Religion of Capitalism


The horrors of a European socialist life. You can just see the suffering going on here.

Occupy is not the left's Tea Party

Barack Obama’s OWS problem
A poll released by Time last week found that 54 percent of Americans say they have a favorable view of the protest movement compared to 23 percent who have an unfavorable view, making OWS far, far more popular than the Tea Party. And while a Reuters/Ipsos survey found a clear partisan divide, with Democrats expressing a positive opinion of the movement by a 51-11 percent margin and Republicans expressing a negative one by a 44-22 spread, it also found that OWS is viewed favorably by a strong plurality of independents. Polling also reveals deep, bipartisan anger toward Wall Street, broad support for prosecuting executives who played major roles in the meltdown, and a widespread belief that the gap between rich and poor is too vast...

... if Obama is counting on receiving a more direct political boost from OWS, he may be in for a disappointment, because there’s reason to believe that OWS is rooted much more in a broad frustration with America’s political and economic systems than in simple partisan politics.


The article is here.

Monday, October 17, 2011

Strawman Arguments



I get tired of the strawman arguments that imply that unless corporations are completely unfettered and allowed to peruse profits then its socialism. The GOP likes to liken corporations to people, but if people acted the way corporations do, they'd be sociopaths.

They're back!


Season 2 of the Walking Dead

Sunday, October 16, 2011

No one is watching, so the stakes are low ...



Is the GOP having too many debates?

Nothing beats that first hot slide of pizza. The second slice is also hard to beat. America is on its second slice of Herman Cain right now. But unfortunately there is no such thing as a two slice pizza. So you'll keep stuffing yourself's full of Herman Cain. Soon your tummy will be a gassy mess, and you'll go to bed and have bad dreams. In the morning you'll wake up and say today you're eating a nice salad.


Did not say Herman Cain

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Blame the parents


CAIN: I don’t have facts to back this up, but I happen to believe that these demonstrations are planned and orchestrated to distract from the failed policies of the Obama administration. Don’t blame Wall Street, don’t blame the big banks, if you don’t have a job and you’re not rich, blame yourself! [...] It is not someone’s fault if they succeeded, it is someone’s fault if they failed.

–PIZZA MAGNATE HERMAN CAIN TALKING OUT OF HIS ASS


What an ass! Lets blame the victim. I know this one is a bit dated, but it just became relevant to me once again. Just days shy of working 20 years, one of our best IT people is being laid off. Not because she isn't needed, not because she didn't work hard, and not because her skills are outdated. But (most likely, because this is virtually impossible to prove) because of her age and the faltering economy. My place of work has been undergoing a great purge the last couple of months. Our work load hasn't changes, but the personal to do it has been significantly reduced.

What Cain, and Republicans like him don't seem to understand that this is the reality for a great many of folks. They've played by the rules and did what they were supposed to, and their life is still falling apart. Economic forces well beyond their, and most of our control, are dictating their future.

This is what the Occupy protests are all about. Not about destroying capitalism. Not about bringing on a socialist, or Marxist, or any other ist state. But leveling the playing field. Reversing the trend toward a second gilded age.

Saying that your unemployment has to be your own fault makes as much sense blaming your parents for not being rich.

Friday, October 14, 2011

We are the 99



Almost all of us owe something to the society that provided us with the roads, the schools, the security and all the other infrastructure, to achieve what we have. (More here).

What dogs are good at!

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Monday, October 10, 2011

Stunningly Good Propaganda


In theaters soon!

Capitalism



Many make the mistake that the protesters on Wall Street are just kids with nothing else to do. If you believed FAUX NEWS, you'd think they are bearded unbathed leftists from the 60's who hate capitalism. The MSM isn't any more flattering in their portrayal. Everyone seems to be determined to discount them from the get go, and negate what ever it is they are trying to say. There seems to be this idea that since they haven't created a list of demands like kidnappers, they aren't serious and can be ignored. Other folks on the right, such as B-Daddy, do seem to get it.

The message is very simple. We're mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore. A pretty familiar message to Washington. So what are they mad about?

The middle class is hurting. Its been experiencing a downward slide for the last decade and the last few years its dropped off a cliff. They want this acknowledged. They want the kleptocracy in Washington to stop calling them whiners and start taking them seriously. They are tired of feeling like there are two Americas - the ones being screwed and the ones doing the screwing. They're tired of hearing how great things are just because the job hoarders are getting their bonuses and stock options are soaring.

Over all, they are tired of the rich and powerful, being the rich and powerful. They believe in the myth of the American dream, and that hope is being strangled right before their eyes. Many of the protesters don't oppose Capitalism. They just oppose the trend toward a second gilded age. They remember an America where the middle class used to be comfortable, not homeless. And they are tired that no one in Washington seems to be facing this new reality.

Note to the rich and powerful. People in large numbers can become rather dangerous when when hope is taken from them.

Saturday, October 08, 2011

Not the party of Reagan any more.



So what does it mean for this country that Ronald Reagan would now be seen as a pinko commie socialist.

Thursday, October 06, 2011

The Real Obama Death Panels

From Salon. The president and his cabinet order the execution of a US citizen without any due process. Where is the outrage over this sort of Star Chamber justice. If this had been Bush doing this, the outcry, rightly so, would have been deafening!

American militants like Anwar al-Awlaki are placed on a kill or capture list by a secretive panel of senior government officials, which then informs the president of its decisions . . . . There is no public record of the operations or decisions of the panel, which is a subset of the White House’s National Security Council . . . . Neither is there any law establishing its existence or setting out the rules by which it is supposed to operate. . . . The role of the president in ordering or ratifying a decision to target a citizen is fuzzy. White House spokesman Tommy Vietor declined to discuss anything about the process. . . .

Representative Dutch Ruppersberger, was asked by reporters about the killing. The process involves “going through the National Security Council, then it eventually goes to the president” . . . .Other officials said the role of the president in the process was murkier than what Ruppersberger described. They said targeting recommendations are drawn up by a committee of mid-level National Security Council and agency officials. Their recommendations are then sent to the panel of NSC “principals,” meaning Cabinet secretaries and intelligence unit chiefs, for approval . . . But one official said Obama would be notified of the principals’ decision. If he objected, the decision would be nullified, the official said.

Fall in the Colorado High Country



Just past sunset over Isabelle lake in the Indian Peaks Wilderness of the Front Range of Colorado. Taken yesterday. Just a month ago there were still spring flowers around the lake. Last night everything had turned, and the temperature had dropped. Snow likely this weekend.

See more Fall color in the Colorado High country here.

Tuesday, October 04, 2011

Killng Americans Overseas in The War on Terror



Over at the Liberator Today is a great post about the consequences of sanctioning the assassination of Americans without due process. Go check it out. Our civil liberties are being eroding bit by bit, and as a country we're too afraid of terrorism to do anything about it.

Those who would give up Essential Liberty
to purchase a little Temporary Safety,
deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

Monday, October 03, 2011

Listen to the music



So are the Chinese trying to rub our noses in the fact that they have a maned space program and we don't?

Saturday, October 01, 2011

Its not what you think!



Hilarious, and kind of sad at the same time. Getting old clearly sucks! Probably the best parody of the Cheech and and Chong movies anybody could come up with.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Flower in the forest



One of the big surprises in hiking around Steamboat is the lushness of the forest floor. We found a micro climate with ferns and moss. The light was filtering through the trees when I shot this.

One of these opened here

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

A sign of the times



This was taken in North Central Colorado. Most of the ranchers have rigs on their property. It just happened to be flaming while we drove by. Later, it wasn't burning. Colorado has seen an explosion in oil and natural gas development over the last decade. We've got large fracking projects happening on the Western slope. It came as a rude shock to many ranchers to discover that they don't own the mineral right on their property. Despite the pretty ads on TV, fracking has been surrounded by controversy due to the claims of damaged ground water. This is my favorite. Who says water can burn!

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Rabbit Ears Motel



Another shot from our August trip to Steamboat Springs. The motel is named after a local rock feature called Rabbit Ears Pass.

Dandelion



This is one of a number of photos shot while visiting Steamboat Springs just last month. This was taken along the bike path through town along the Yampa river. My earlier attempts to capture one of these this sumer just hasn't worked out. I suspect its partly due to the lighting. This one has great detail.

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Why seasons change



I know this but I've never seen anything before that makes the concept so clear.

The two-party duopoly

Are the two parties really that different in how they behave. Here's a story by David Sirota of what's going on with politics here in Colorado.

  1. Republican secretary of state, Scott Gessler is refusing to enforce campaign finance rules against Republicans while enforcing the same rules against Democrats.
  2. Then we have Democrat Tom Strickland who's excelled at revolving-door corruption.
" ... different pathologies, but those pathologies both contribute to our political system's overarching dysfunction."

Friday, September 23, 2011

Why do Republican's hate our troops?



Booing a currently serving solder in Iraq, classy move on the part of the Republican audience.

Clearly homophobia trumps respect for all who serve.

Rick man on dog is such an asshat. Treating people the same as everyone else isn't special treatment.
If the issue is that you don't want to give any group special privileges, why isn't Rick calling for an end of women serving in the military?

And what is it about Rick Santorum and his preoccupation with other peoples sex lives.

Friday, September 09, 2011