Read the real thing at
http://velvetfactor.blogspot.com/
Excellent post. I've never seen it stated any clearer or better than this.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
WE LIVE IN A DEEPLY STUPID COUNTRY
This country is a hopeless mess of idiotic, spoiled children. The morons in this land of ours twice elected possibly the stupidest man to ever hold the office of the President, what's worse, they knew he was a fucking idiot and voted for him anyway. Now these jerkoffs are out of work, lost their homes, have no health care and no future. They put their lives and this nation in the hands of an unserious ignorant clown and now have reaped the whirlwind. Now the shit has hit the fan who do they all blame? Big surprise, the new President. Barack Obama has been president for a year and has spent much of it trying to slog through and clean up the disastrous heaps of shit that George W. and his minions left in their wake. But he's not done anything to help America's spoiled brats who want everything fixed overnight.
Destroyed economy? Yep. Two fucked up, basically unwinnable quagmire wars? Yup. A world that hates us because of the previous administration's bullying, torture and incompetence? Yup. 1.85 Trillion dollar deficit? Yup. Health care costs soaring? Yup. Infrastructure 20 years behind Europe's? Yup. Unemployment through the roof? Yup.
Obama did not set all this calamity in action But you wouldn't know it by the grousing and bitching and whining out there in this country. Fix it daddy! They all yell but don't actually want him to do anything that might actually solve a problem. Then they complain that nothing is getting done.
Stupid.
People want jobs and they want Obama to do something about it. OK what is he supposed to do? The government could create Jobs but that would raise the deficit more and it would be socialism which is bad, or Obama could give more tax cuts to the rich and hope they hire people but that doesn't work. The wealthy corporations take the money and run or use it to give themselves bigger bonuses. Conservatives want hands off of business, hate big government and socialism and taxes. They don't like when the government does anything except bomb other countries but they expect Obama to get everyone a job and they want him to smack the banks around.
"Don't bail out the banks!" Conservatives cry.
Obama says, "OK, I'm gonna tax the banks to get tax payer money back from TARP."
"NO!!! shout the conservatives, "That's socialism. Don't punish the banks!"
"Don't bail out the auto industry" But keep everyone in the country working
They're foreclosing on my house, help me Mr. president
Ok says Obama I'll try to stop banks from foreclosing
No!!! that's socialism
I have no health care, or my payments are too high or I've been dropped from coverage. help me!
OK we'll try to fix the health care system maybe even make it possible to buy insurance on the open market with an option to buy health care from the government to create competition and break up the insurance monopoly
"No!! That's socialism how dare you mess with those fine, upstanding, insurance corporations! "
Quite the conundrum.
Quite the stupid country
On top of all this you have stupid people saying
that Obama isn't an American citizen that he was somehow smuggled illegally into this country from Kenya
That he's a Muslim
That he's a socialist, fascist, communist
That he's not patriotic
That his wife hates the country
That he's a Hugo Chavez clone
That he's a Hitler clone
deeply stupid people in a deeply stupid country
And I ask conservatives, republicans, tea partiers, birthers, Palinites, the rest of the idiots with no plan yet that think they are smarter than Obama. What the hell would you do to fix anything?
Here's their answer, Nothing.
Because that's what republicans do, they say no, they cry socialism, they wave the flag, clean their guns and pray, but in the end they do nothing.
Stupid country filled with stupid people
Posted by TED VELVET at 10:46 AM
Friday, January 29, 2010
Thursday, January 21, 2010
What's up with Haiti?
Read this article if you really want to know. . .
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion/517494/imf_to_haiti_freeze_public_wag
Haiti's vulnerability to natural disasters, its food shortages, poverty, deforestation and lack of infrastructure, are not accidental. To say that it is the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere is to miss the point; Haiti was made poor--by France, the United States, Great Britain, other Western powers and by the IMF and the World Bank. . . .
. . . the impoverishment of Haiti began in the earliest decades of its independence, when Haiti's slaves and free gens de couleur rallied to liberate the country from the French in 1804. But by 1825, Haiti was living under a new kind of bondage--external debt. In order to keep the French and other Western powers from enforcing an embargo, it agreed to pay 150 million francs in reparations to French slave owners (yes, that's right, freed slaves were forced to compensate their former masters for their liberty). In order to do that, they borrowed millions from French banks and then from the US and Germany. As Alex von Tunzelmann pointed out, "by 1900, it [Haiti] was spending 80 percent of its national budget on repayments.". . .
In 2003, then-President Aristide called on France to pay restitution for this sum--valued in 2003 dollars at over $21 billion. A few months later, he was ousted in a coup d'etat; he claims he left the country under armed pressure from the US.
Then of course there are the structural adjustment policies imposed by the IMF and World Bank in the 1990s. In 1995, for example, the IMF forced Haiti to cut its rice tariff from 35 percent to 3 percent, leading to a massive increase in rice-dumping, the vast majority of which came from the United States. As a 2008 Jubilee USA report notes, although the country had once been a net exporter of rice, "by 2005, three out of every four plates of rice eaten in Haiti came from the US." During this period, USAID invested heavily in Haiti, but this "charity" came not in the form of grants to develop Haiti's agricultural infrastructure, but in direct food aid, furthering Haiti's dependence on foreign assistance while also funneling money back to US agribusiness.
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion/517494/imf_to_haiti_freeze_public_wag
Haiti's vulnerability to natural disasters, its food shortages, poverty, deforestation and lack of infrastructure, are not accidental. To say that it is the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere is to miss the point; Haiti was made poor--by France, the United States, Great Britain, other Western powers and by the IMF and the World Bank. . . .
. . . the impoverishment of Haiti began in the earliest decades of its independence, when Haiti's slaves and free gens de couleur rallied to liberate the country from the French in 1804. But by 1825, Haiti was living under a new kind of bondage--external debt. In order to keep the French and other Western powers from enforcing an embargo, it agreed to pay 150 million francs in reparations to French slave owners (yes, that's right, freed slaves were forced to compensate their former masters for their liberty). In order to do that, they borrowed millions from French banks and then from the US and Germany. As Alex von Tunzelmann pointed out, "by 1900, it [Haiti] was spending 80 percent of its national budget on repayments.". . .
In 2003, then-President Aristide called on France to pay restitution for this sum--valued in 2003 dollars at over $21 billion. A few months later, he was ousted in a coup d'etat; he claims he left the country under armed pressure from the US.
Then of course there are the structural adjustment policies imposed by the IMF and World Bank in the 1990s. In 1995, for example, the IMF forced Haiti to cut its rice tariff from 35 percent to 3 percent, leading to a massive increase in rice-dumping, the vast majority of which came from the United States. As a 2008 Jubilee USA report notes, although the country had once been a net exporter of rice, "by 2005, three out of every four plates of rice eaten in Haiti came from the US." During this period, USAID invested heavily in Haiti, but this "charity" came not in the form of grants to develop Haiti's agricultural infrastructure, but in direct food aid, furthering Haiti's dependence on foreign assistance while also funneling money back to US agribusiness.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Where your food comes from #1
This is a revised version of a post I did last year.
Americans have no idea where their food comes from and what goes into the growing and processing of their food.
Pay attention, this is important stuff if you eat food.
I raise totally organic, truly free range pasture fed turkeys and other poultry. In USDA lingo, "free range" means the birds have a place to put their feet on the ground. On my farm it means they get to go wherever the fuck they want to go. That's why it doesn't surprise me when a neighbor stops by and asks if I've seen my turkeys lately because he was then 1/4 mile down the road foraging the local cemetary. My birds live happy, wild and free lives full of sunshine, fresh insects and vegetation and lots of whole grain organic feed. . . that is, until Thanksgiving and Christmas comes.
What follows is a graphic description of what it takes to kill and process a bird.
At that point, I very humanely take them into the slaughterhouse, insert them upsidedown into a “killing cone and slit their throats. After all the blood has drained from their body I lift the dead bird out of the cone by their feet and submerge them into a tub of 145 degree water for ~1.5 minutes. From there they go into the plucking machine where a big majority of their feathers are removed. After that, the plucking table where the remainer of the feathers are removed by hand. Now the fun begins. I pass them over to the dressing table where the process goes like this. . . remove feet, remove head, insert knife into abdomen and slice down along side the vent (asshole), cut around vent, cut fat and connective tissue from entrails (intestines), pull intestines from bird, reach into abdominal cavity and grab ahold of the gizzard. You gotta pull hard and hopefull the gizzard, liver and gall bladder will come out intact without rupturing the gall bladder. A ruptured gall bladder can ruin a bird. Slive the meaty sides from the gizzard and deposit in the giblet bowl, remove gall bladder from liver (this is a very precise maneuver requiring a steady hand, sharp eyes and sharp knife. I usually have a sharp knife) and deposit liver in giblet bowl (the giblet bowl is a big bowl with ice), Reach into abdominal cavity and with finger tips rip the heart out and deposit in giblet bowl then reach in and dig out the lungs and kidneys from around the ribs. Now spin bird around, cut skin down the neck and with one blow of a cleaver remove the neck. Trim and deposit neck in giblet bowl. Very delicately work your fingers around the crop and pull it out of the chest cavity. Hopefully you will remove the throat and esphagus at the same time. If not, remove. Clean out any remaining fat, go into the abdominal cavity and clean out any bits of guts and fat. Now spray bird down with water hose and get all the traces of blood and guts off. Submerge into ice water bath after removing previously killed bird and depositing it in a cooler full of ice.
Repeat . . . in my case, 25 times five days before Thanksgiving and 15 times, five days before Christmas.
In early summer I process over 100 chickens the same way.
The next day, deliver and collect a crisp $100 bill for each turkey. That evening, bemoan the fact that it just isn’t worth the effort when all I do is break even at best.
Yes, I sell these turkeys for $100 each and only break even. My chickens are $20 each and I only break even. . . sometimes, not even even.
Now go down to your local grocer and see how much he charges for a fully dressed turkey. $20? $25? WOW! How do they do that?!
Well, I’ll tell ya. They raise em in big pens containing thousands of birds. Each bird has a small area to move around in. They feed them a specially processes feed for each stage of their life. The feed is full of cheap grains, which are grown with tons of cheap chemical fertilizers, vitamins, growth enhancers, “animal byproducts” (you don’t wanna know what that is) and all sorts of things that when you read the label you just wonder WTF they’re feeding these birds. They grow em fast. Factory chickens are raised in 6 weeks. Yup, that chicken you bought at the market last week was six weeks old when slaughtered.
I described above the slaughtering process that is done with respect to the living animal and with the least amount of trauma to the animal as possible. No animal ever sees another animal killed on my farm. The way animals are killed on factory farms is reprehensible to me. There is no respect. The animals are treated like some sort of manufactured product, which is basically how they are raised and delt with their whole lives. I won’t describe the horrendous conditions and terror under which these birds are processes.
So yea, they grow em fast and cheap and use a big bag of tricks to do so.
How bout that cheap beef you get at your store. Same deal; fast and cheap. Lots of antibiotics, because when you finish off cattle in close proximity feed lots that are nothing but mud or dust, they tend to pass around some nasty bacterial infections. For feed, they get lots of cheap corn grown like the grains described above with all sorts of artificial chemical growth enhancers. Much of the corn is genetically modified these day. And like above, the slaughtering process is horribly brutal.
How bout the politics of food? Do you know where the beef comes from when you bite into that cheap fast food burger that’s full of cholesterol and carbohydrates? Much of it comes from South America. Remember back in the 90s you heard a lot of screaming about the destruction of the Amazon rainforest? Well, it’s all for the beef. You see, they cut down huge patches of rainforest and up pops lots of green thick forage for cattle. They populate those patches with lots of cattle to eat this abundance of new growth. Unfortunately, this new growth doesn’t last too long as the soil in a tropical rainforest is leached clean of nutrients and depends upon the natural cycles of growth death and decomposition to remain viable. Clear cutting the forest halts that process, so after a year or so, the cattle farmers have to abandon those once forested patches and move on to another leaving behind huge tracts of barren wasteland where once stood a glorious tropical rain forest. So next time you hear “Where’s the beef?” think of thousands of square miles of parched tropical wasteland.
Like I said, in the late 80s and early 90s there was outrage, but then it kinda dried up when the new right wing took over. Hmmmmmm. Wonder why?
So every time you chomp down on that fast food burger, be aware of where it came from and the consequences. Wanna save the rainforest? You can start right here at home by knowing where your beef comes from.
Shall we talk about how that cheap fresh brocolli or those fresh Apples are rainsed? No, you’ve probably heard enough,. but believe me, when you bite into any veggies you buy frozen canned or fresh from the store you’re getting a good dose of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and other chemicals used for the fast and cheap production of food. Unless it’s clearly marked as “organic,” there’s no telling what’s in it. Oh, and those “all natural” labels mean absolutely nothing. An emerging awareness is the fact that it not only what’s in your veggies, but what’s NOT in your veggies. you see, those beautiful heads of brocolli or stalks of asparagus might look nice, but they or a crop like them are grown on the same piece of ground over and over. Crop rotation? Not these days. They pour on the fertilizers and lime and just keep on growing. How can they afford to do anything else selling brocolli in NY grown in CA for $1.99/lb.?
Well, when you use and abuse a soil the way they do it become depleted. Not necessarily depleted of the things needed to grow something that looks good, they can add all that to the soil, but depleted of some of the things necessary for growing healthy well fortified veggies. Human beings need lots of different vitamins and minerals to produce the various chemicals and amino acids for healthy living. Those glorious looking veggies from Bird’s Eye and ADM just don’t contain all that good stuff anymore. . . at least not according to the USDA which has recently isssued a statement to doctors advising them to advise their patients to take daily vitamins. Hmmmm, why only to doctors and not released to the news media and general public?
Who doesn’t love shrimp? Don’t we all? Do you ever buy those relatively inexpensive bags of frozen shrimp or those big “tiger shrimp” in the grocery store? Most of them are labeled “Product of Thailand” or Indonesia or China. How bout that crap meat they’re trying to push on folks these days called “talapia?” “Silverbrite Salmon?” All those products are farm raised in some fairly unsavory circumstances. Who regulates what they are fed over in China and Thailand? Shrimp will eat absolutely anything. You could throw a whole dead diseased dog into a shrimp pond and they’ll strip it clean. How much antibiotic does it take to keep those silverbrite salmon alive in those cramped enclosures that line bays from Washington to China?
Speaking of China. . . after all that has happened in the past year with Chinese products, would you knowingly feed your family anything that is a “Product of China?” Read the labels. You’d be surprised what gets sold in the grocery store from China. Everything from fresh garlic to canned meats.
I’ve just barely scratched the surface here. The point is that you should know where your food comes from. Ask your butcher. READ PRODUCT LABELS! Apply your own moral and ethical standards to your food purchases. You do have moral and ethical standards, don’t you?
Americans have no idea where their food comes from and what goes into the growing and processing of their food.
Pay attention, this is important stuff if you eat food.
I raise totally organic, truly free range pasture fed turkeys and other poultry. In USDA lingo, "free range" means the birds have a place to put their feet on the ground. On my farm it means they get to go wherever the fuck they want to go. That's why it doesn't surprise me when a neighbor stops by and asks if I've seen my turkeys lately because he was then 1/4 mile down the road foraging the local cemetary. My birds live happy, wild and free lives full of sunshine, fresh insects and vegetation and lots of whole grain organic feed. . . that is, until Thanksgiving and Christmas comes.
What follows is a graphic description of what it takes to kill and process a bird.
At that point, I very humanely take them into the slaughterhouse, insert them upsidedown into a “killing cone and slit their throats. After all the blood has drained from their body I lift the dead bird out of the cone by their feet and submerge them into a tub of 145 degree water for ~1.5 minutes. From there they go into the plucking machine where a big majority of their feathers are removed. After that, the plucking table where the remainer of the feathers are removed by hand. Now the fun begins. I pass them over to the dressing table where the process goes like this. . . remove feet, remove head, insert knife into abdomen and slice down along side the vent (asshole), cut around vent, cut fat and connective tissue from entrails (intestines), pull intestines from bird, reach into abdominal cavity and grab ahold of the gizzard. You gotta pull hard and hopefull the gizzard, liver and gall bladder will come out intact without rupturing the gall bladder. A ruptured gall bladder can ruin a bird. Slive the meaty sides from the gizzard and deposit in the giblet bowl, remove gall bladder from liver (this is a very precise maneuver requiring a steady hand, sharp eyes and sharp knife. I usually have a sharp knife) and deposit liver in giblet bowl (the giblet bowl is a big bowl with ice), Reach into abdominal cavity and with finger tips rip the heart out and deposit in giblet bowl then reach in and dig out the lungs and kidneys from around the ribs. Now spin bird around, cut skin down the neck and with one blow of a cleaver remove the neck. Trim and deposit neck in giblet bowl. Very delicately work your fingers around the crop and pull it out of the chest cavity. Hopefully you will remove the throat and esphagus at the same time. If not, remove. Clean out any remaining fat, go into the abdominal cavity and clean out any bits of guts and fat. Now spray bird down with water hose and get all the traces of blood and guts off. Submerge into ice water bath after removing previously killed bird and depositing it in a cooler full of ice.
Repeat . . . in my case, 25 times five days before Thanksgiving and 15 times, five days before Christmas.
In early summer I process over 100 chickens the same way.
The next day, deliver and collect a crisp $100 bill for each turkey. That evening, bemoan the fact that it just isn’t worth the effort when all I do is break even at best.
Yes, I sell these turkeys for $100 each and only break even. My chickens are $20 each and I only break even. . . sometimes, not even even.
Now go down to your local grocer and see how much he charges for a fully dressed turkey. $20? $25? WOW! How do they do that?!
Well, I’ll tell ya. They raise em in big pens containing thousands of birds. Each bird has a small area to move around in. They feed them a specially processes feed for each stage of their life. The feed is full of cheap grains, which are grown with tons of cheap chemical fertilizers, vitamins, growth enhancers, “animal byproducts” (you don’t wanna know what that is) and all sorts of things that when you read the label you just wonder WTF they’re feeding these birds. They grow em fast. Factory chickens are raised in 6 weeks. Yup, that chicken you bought at the market last week was six weeks old when slaughtered.
I described above the slaughtering process that is done with respect to the living animal and with the least amount of trauma to the animal as possible. No animal ever sees another animal killed on my farm. The way animals are killed on factory farms is reprehensible to me. There is no respect. The animals are treated like some sort of manufactured product, which is basically how they are raised and delt with their whole lives. I won’t describe the horrendous conditions and terror under which these birds are processes.
So yea, they grow em fast and cheap and use a big bag of tricks to do so.
How bout that cheap beef you get at your store. Same deal; fast and cheap. Lots of antibiotics, because when you finish off cattle in close proximity feed lots that are nothing but mud or dust, they tend to pass around some nasty bacterial infections. For feed, they get lots of cheap corn grown like the grains described above with all sorts of artificial chemical growth enhancers. Much of the corn is genetically modified these day. And like above, the slaughtering process is horribly brutal.
How bout the politics of food? Do you know where the beef comes from when you bite into that cheap fast food burger that’s full of cholesterol and carbohydrates? Much of it comes from South America. Remember back in the 90s you heard a lot of screaming about the destruction of the Amazon rainforest? Well, it’s all for the beef. You see, they cut down huge patches of rainforest and up pops lots of green thick forage for cattle. They populate those patches with lots of cattle to eat this abundance of new growth. Unfortunately, this new growth doesn’t last too long as the soil in a tropical rainforest is leached clean of nutrients and depends upon the natural cycles of growth death and decomposition to remain viable. Clear cutting the forest halts that process, so after a year or so, the cattle farmers have to abandon those once forested patches and move on to another leaving behind huge tracts of barren wasteland where once stood a glorious tropical rain forest. So next time you hear “Where’s the beef?” think of thousands of square miles of parched tropical wasteland.
Like I said, in the late 80s and early 90s there was outrage, but then it kinda dried up when the new right wing took over. Hmmmmmm. Wonder why?
So every time you chomp down on that fast food burger, be aware of where it came from and the consequences. Wanna save the rainforest? You can start right here at home by knowing where your beef comes from.
Shall we talk about how that cheap fresh brocolli or those fresh Apples are rainsed? No, you’ve probably heard enough,. but believe me, when you bite into any veggies you buy frozen canned or fresh from the store you’re getting a good dose of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and other chemicals used for the fast and cheap production of food. Unless it’s clearly marked as “organic,” there’s no telling what’s in it. Oh, and those “all natural” labels mean absolutely nothing. An emerging awareness is the fact that it not only what’s in your veggies, but what’s NOT in your veggies. you see, those beautiful heads of brocolli or stalks of asparagus might look nice, but they or a crop like them are grown on the same piece of ground over and over. Crop rotation? Not these days. They pour on the fertilizers and lime and just keep on growing. How can they afford to do anything else selling brocolli in NY grown in CA for $1.99/lb.?
Well, when you use and abuse a soil the way they do it become depleted. Not necessarily depleted of the things needed to grow something that looks good, they can add all that to the soil, but depleted of some of the things necessary for growing healthy well fortified veggies. Human beings need lots of different vitamins and minerals to produce the various chemicals and amino acids for healthy living. Those glorious looking veggies from Bird’s Eye and ADM just don’t contain all that good stuff anymore. . . at least not according to the USDA which has recently isssued a statement to doctors advising them to advise their patients to take daily vitamins. Hmmmm, why only to doctors and not released to the news media and general public?
Who doesn’t love shrimp? Don’t we all? Do you ever buy those relatively inexpensive bags of frozen shrimp or those big “tiger shrimp” in the grocery store? Most of them are labeled “Product of Thailand” or Indonesia or China. How bout that crap meat they’re trying to push on folks these days called “talapia?” “Silverbrite Salmon?” All those products are farm raised in some fairly unsavory circumstances. Who regulates what they are fed over in China and Thailand? Shrimp will eat absolutely anything. You could throw a whole dead diseased dog into a shrimp pond and they’ll strip it clean. How much antibiotic does it take to keep those silverbrite salmon alive in those cramped enclosures that line bays from Washington to China?
Speaking of China. . . after all that has happened in the past year with Chinese products, would you knowingly feed your family anything that is a “Product of China?” Read the labels. You’d be surprised what gets sold in the grocery store from China. Everything from fresh garlic to canned meats.
I’ve just barely scratched the surface here. The point is that you should know where your food comes from. Ask your butcher. READ PRODUCT LABELS! Apply your own moral and ethical standards to your food purchases. You do have moral and ethical standards, don’t you?
Friday, January 15, 2010
FoxNews and people of color news
Ripped this from over at redneckliberals.blogspot.com.
Go ahead you dumbfuck proles, watch Fox News till your ignorant eyes pop out.
Check it out.
Haiti earthquake coverage on three top-rated Fox News shows (January 13, 2010):
Beck: 37 seconds
O'Reilly: 2 minutes 56 seconds
Hannity: 3 minutes 8 seconds
Haiti earthquake coverage on three top-rated MSNBC shows (January 13, 2010):
Hardball: 36 minutes 35 seconds
Countdown: 43 minutes 3 seconds
The Rachel Maddow Show: 42 minutes 55 seconds
To put it coldly, the Haiti story is so chock full of devastation, human suffering and heart-rending drama it's a news media wet dream. So why so 'meh' Fox?
Did Fox decide the inability of viewers to empathize with black people would impact ratings? Any other plausible suggestions why they chose to concentrate on Sarah f*cking Palin instead?
Go ahead you dumbfuck proles, watch Fox News till your ignorant eyes pop out.
Check it out.
Haiti earthquake coverage on three top-rated Fox News shows (January 13, 2010):
Beck: 37 seconds
O'Reilly: 2 minutes 56 seconds
Hannity: 3 minutes 8 seconds
Haiti earthquake coverage on three top-rated MSNBC shows (January 13, 2010):
Hardball: 36 minutes 35 seconds
Countdown: 43 minutes 3 seconds
The Rachel Maddow Show: 42 minutes 55 seconds
To put it coldly, the Haiti story is so chock full of devastation, human suffering and heart-rending drama it's a news media wet dream. So why so 'meh' Fox?
Did Fox decide the inability of viewers to empathize with black people would impact ratings? Any other plausible suggestions why they chose to concentrate on Sarah f*cking Palin instead?
The French and the full veil of Islam
France moves closer to banning full Muslim veil
There's a headine that'll catch the eye of all good constitutionalists in these United States of America. As one, my first reaction is that it wouldn't fly here and never will. We believe that one should be able to do as they please and dress any way they like. There is a part of our Bill of Rights that allows for the free practice of any religion, freedom of expression nd a right to privacy. We can do what we want in this country. . . well, we used to be able to at leat before the "Patriot Act" accompanying legislation and certain liberties taken by and taken away by the last administration (BTW, wasn't His "O"ness supposed to restore all that stuff?).
But hold on a minute. . . can we? Would I be allowed to enter a federal building or even a county courthouse if I were wearing a mask that completely hid my face? Could I walk into a bank? Get on an airplane?
The French law states "No one may, in spaces open to the public and on public streets, wear a garment or an accessory that has the effect of hiding the face. . ."
The French also say that such religious practices undermine the essence of what France is all about, which is secular and very much into gender equality. The French are so into religious freedom that they don't like public displays of religion that might undermine the secularist nature of their nation (ignore the Cathedral of Notre Dame. Too late ot change that). In other words, they don't want a bunch of religious fundamentalists running the government like we have had happening in this country and seen in the Middle East. I can understand their shying away from anything that might lead them down that path.
So in the end, I'm left wondering. . . where do I stand on this one? I don't think I've got enough information. My gut is to say "fuck no we won't make you wear anything you don't want to wear or not wear anything you want to wear."
But is there another side to this story? I like the French and often find their ideas and values closely aligned with my own. Maybe women covered from head to toe walking around in public is over the top and unacceptable to their standards and values. The bottom line is that it's their country and they can do what they want as long as they're not committing crimes against humanity. . . like SOME fucking countries I know have done the past 9 years!!
So what do you think?
There's a headine that'll catch the eye of all good constitutionalists in these United States of America. As one, my first reaction is that it wouldn't fly here and never will. We believe that one should be able to do as they please and dress any way they like. There is a part of our Bill of Rights that allows for the free practice of any religion, freedom of expression nd a right to privacy. We can do what we want in this country. . . well, we used to be able to at leat before the "Patriot Act" accompanying legislation and certain liberties taken by and taken away by the last administration (BTW, wasn't His "O"ness supposed to restore all that stuff?).
But hold on a minute. . . can we? Would I be allowed to enter a federal building or even a county courthouse if I were wearing a mask that completely hid my face? Could I walk into a bank? Get on an airplane?
The French law states "No one may, in spaces open to the public and on public streets, wear a garment or an accessory that has the effect of hiding the face. . ."
The French also say that such religious practices undermine the essence of what France is all about, which is secular and very much into gender equality. The French are so into religious freedom that they don't like public displays of religion that might undermine the secularist nature of their nation (ignore the Cathedral of Notre Dame. Too late ot change that). In other words, they don't want a bunch of religious fundamentalists running the government like we have had happening in this country and seen in the Middle East. I can understand their shying away from anything that might lead them down that path.
So in the end, I'm left wondering. . . where do I stand on this one? I don't think I've got enough information. My gut is to say "fuck no we won't make you wear anything you don't want to wear or not wear anything you want to wear."
But is there another side to this story? I like the French and often find their ideas and values closely aligned with my own. Maybe women covered from head to toe walking around in public is over the top and unacceptable to their standards and values. The bottom line is that it's their country and they can do what they want as long as they're not committing crimes against humanity. . . like SOME fucking countries I know have done the past 9 years!!
So what do you think?
Monday, January 11, 2010
Harry Reid and the "negro" word
OK, so Harry Reid, when discussing the Obama candidacy way back when made the comment that Obama was “light-skinned” and had no “Negro dialect." So fucking what?!
Harry is an old dude who uses old terms. Back in the 60s, when Harry was probably in his hayday, Dr. King and Minister Malcolm used the term "negro" all the time. So when Harry is having a PRIVATE conversation where his guard is down and he's all relaxed and speaking his mind, he used the term "negro." I don't get the big deal. It's not like he called Mr. Obama the "n" word. He simply referred to an African-American cultural trait as being "negro."
As for what he said: it was true. Obama had a much better chance of being elected as a light skinned black man with no black dialect than if he were a very dark skinned man with a deep urban black dialect. Gimme a break. I suspect I might have said something very similar at the time.
Of course the most absurd thing about this whole thing is the people who are criticizing him. . . republican right wingers. These mother fuckers have got the worse voting record in congress according to NAACP data. They are the ones who are talking about "taking back the country" since the election of Barrack Obama. They are the ones running the "tea bagger" movement which is a thinly veiled racist movement.
Why are these morons being allowed to run this little news cycle? Fuck a bunch of right wing racist pricks who are accusing this good traditional democrat of being racist.
Back when I was a regular smoker, I smoked Newports. I had a black buddy who I would see on a regular basis at a local smoking spot. He would always walk up to me and say "gimme wunna them negro cigarettes." My reply was always "no problem negro."
It was no problem.
"Negro" is an old fashioned archaic word, but it's not a dirty filthy racist word unless used as a dirty filthy racist word.
So all you right wing pricks who support the racist agenda of the republican party and all you dunderheaded news people with nothing but a desire to agitate, SHUT THE FUCK UP!
Harry is an old dude who uses old terms. Back in the 60s, when Harry was probably in his hayday, Dr. King and Minister Malcolm used the term "negro" all the time. So when Harry is having a PRIVATE conversation where his guard is down and he's all relaxed and speaking his mind, he used the term "negro." I don't get the big deal. It's not like he called Mr. Obama the "n" word. He simply referred to an African-American cultural trait as being "negro."
As for what he said: it was true. Obama had a much better chance of being elected as a light skinned black man with no black dialect than if he were a very dark skinned man with a deep urban black dialect. Gimme a break. I suspect I might have said something very similar at the time.
Of course the most absurd thing about this whole thing is the people who are criticizing him. . . republican right wingers. These mother fuckers have got the worse voting record in congress according to NAACP data. They are the ones who are talking about "taking back the country" since the election of Barrack Obama. They are the ones running the "tea bagger" movement which is a thinly veiled racist movement.
Why are these morons being allowed to run this little news cycle? Fuck a bunch of right wing racist pricks who are accusing this good traditional democrat of being racist.
Back when I was a regular smoker, I smoked Newports. I had a black buddy who I would see on a regular basis at a local smoking spot. He would always walk up to me and say "gimme wunna them negro cigarettes." My reply was always "no problem negro."
It was no problem.
"Negro" is an old fashioned archaic word, but it's not a dirty filthy racist word unless used as a dirty filthy racist word.
So all you right wing pricks who support the racist agenda of the republican party and all you dunderheaded news people with nothing but a desire to agitate, SHUT THE FUCK UP!
Sunday, January 10, 2010
China on your mind
Toxic metal in kids' jewelry from China
AP
By JUSTIN PRITCHARD, Associated Press Writer Justin Pritchard, Associated Press Writer
LOS ANGELES – Barred from using lead in children's jewelry because of its toxicity, some Chinese manufacturers have been substituting the more dangerous heavy metal cadmium in sparkling charm bracelets and shiny pendants being sold throughout the United States, an Associated Press investigation shows.
Are you ignorant proles getting tired of this long line of cheap and toxic crap we're getting from China? How bad does it have to get before you begin checking the label and staying away from items labeled "Made in China?"
Remember when I was shouting out about bad Chinese product?
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
More bad Chinese food products
Oh come on! This is like a bad dream. . . or a bad plot to a Hollywood movie.
You'd have to be crazy to feed your family Chinese food products!
People should be protesting in the streets that the gov't hasn't shut off the flow of Chinese food products into the country.
Lipton-brand milk tea powder recalled in Asia
By DIKKY SINN
Associated Press Writer
HONG KONG (AP) -- Anglo-Dutch food giant Unilever is recalling its Lipton-brand milk tea powder in Hong Kong and Macau after they were found to contain traces of a banned industrial chemical, the company said Tuesday.
The recall of four batches of Lipton's 3-in-1 milk tea powder came after the company's internal quality check found melamine, used to make plastics and fertilizers, in the products, Unilever Hong Kong Ltd. said in a statement.
The contaminated products used Chinese-made milk powder as raw material, said marketing director Sharon Hwang for Unilever Hong Kong. She declined to reveal which brand the company had used.
Dozens of Chinese-made food products have been found to contain melamine, killing four babies and sickening more than 50,000 in mainland China. According to the state-run China News Service, 27 people have been arrested so far in connection with the scandal.
The chemical was first detected in infant formula but has now been detected in dairy and other food products.
Chinese suppliers trying to boost output are believed to have diluted their milk, adding melamine because its nitrogen content can fool tests aimed at verifying protein content.
Posted by SagaciousHillbilly at 8:26 AM 5 comments
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Politics, bamboo shoots and a sorta connection. . .
Product recalls: sliced bamboo shoots
By The Associated Press Fri Sep 26, 2:45 PM ET
The following recall has been announced:
• Lion Pavilion Ltd. is recalling Yulanpian Brand Dried Slices of Tender Bamboo Shoots because the product contains undeclared sulfites, which could cause a severe or life-threatening reaction in people who have sulfite allergies. No illnesses or allergic reactions have been reported, according to the New York company. The product, distributed nationwide and produced in China, was sold in 230-gram clear plastic packages with the code 2008.1.3. For more information, consumers can call 718-384-6951.
Ok, first it was lead in our children's toys, they contaminated dog food, contaminated baby formula, contaminated milk, and now even our bamboo shoots aren't safe.
So why hasn't the Chinese influx of market items been squeezed off until we can take a close look at the situation and make an educated decision on what products we want to continue importing and what products we need to quit importing.
Well, the reason is that all the money that the corpo-fascist republicans are spending like manic shoppers the day after Thanksgiving is being fronted to the US gov't in the form of loans from the Chinese gov't. Yes, the biggest holder of American debt is the Chinese gov't. So get used to tainted products and such.
I'm surprised the Chinese aren't going into space using American technology and equipment instead of Russian technology and equipment. Aw hell, why don't we just give them a Space Shuttle and a piece of the Cape and lettem be space heros. We aint gonna be using them much longer anyway after we revert back to 1960s technology.
ed.
If you buy Chinese products, especially food products, you're fucking crazy. Check the labels on your canned goods and frozen items. . . shrimp, fish, veggies, you name it, it's coming from China these days. Let your retailers know that you don't want Chinese products at this point in time.
Wal-Mart makes it's gazillions by selling such cheap, not-for-shit items.
Posted by SagaciousHillbilly at 10:11 AM 9 comments
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
America the Beautiful (and its own third world absurdities)
Efforts to crack down on lead paint thwarted by China, Bush Administration
By Kevin G. Hall | McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Tuesday, August 21, 2007
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration and China have both undermined efforts to tighten rules designed to ensure that lead paint isn't used in toys, bibs, jewelry and other children’s products. . .
The Bush administration has hindered regulation on two fronts. . . to press for greater inspections of imported children’s products, and it altered the focus of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), moving it from aggressive protection of consumers to a more manufacturer-friendly approach.
Who are the people in this country who would vote for this republican neo-con corpo-fascist pack of dogs?
AP
By JUSTIN PRITCHARD, Associated Press Writer Justin Pritchard, Associated Press Writer
LOS ANGELES – Barred from using lead in children's jewelry because of its toxicity, some Chinese manufacturers have been substituting the more dangerous heavy metal cadmium in sparkling charm bracelets and shiny pendants being sold throughout the United States, an Associated Press investigation shows.
Are you ignorant proles getting tired of this long line of cheap and toxic crap we're getting from China? How bad does it have to get before you begin checking the label and staying away from items labeled "Made in China?"
Remember when I was shouting out about bad Chinese product?
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
More bad Chinese food products
Oh come on! This is like a bad dream. . . or a bad plot to a Hollywood movie.
You'd have to be crazy to feed your family Chinese food products!
People should be protesting in the streets that the gov't hasn't shut off the flow of Chinese food products into the country.
Lipton-brand milk tea powder recalled in Asia
By DIKKY SINN
Associated Press Writer
HONG KONG (AP) -- Anglo-Dutch food giant Unilever is recalling its Lipton-brand milk tea powder in Hong Kong and Macau after they were found to contain traces of a banned industrial chemical, the company said Tuesday.
The recall of four batches of Lipton's 3-in-1 milk tea powder came after the company's internal quality check found melamine, used to make plastics and fertilizers, in the products, Unilever Hong Kong Ltd. said in a statement.
The contaminated products used Chinese-made milk powder as raw material, said marketing director Sharon Hwang for Unilever Hong Kong. She declined to reveal which brand the company had used.
Dozens of Chinese-made food products have been found to contain melamine, killing four babies and sickening more than 50,000 in mainland China. According to the state-run China News Service, 27 people have been arrested so far in connection with the scandal.
The chemical was first detected in infant formula but has now been detected in dairy and other food products.
Chinese suppliers trying to boost output are believed to have diluted their milk, adding melamine because its nitrogen content can fool tests aimed at verifying protein content.
Posted by SagaciousHillbilly at 8:26 AM 5 comments
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Politics, bamboo shoots and a sorta connection. . .
Product recalls: sliced bamboo shoots
By The Associated Press Fri Sep 26, 2:45 PM ET
The following recall has been announced:
• Lion Pavilion Ltd. is recalling Yulanpian Brand Dried Slices of Tender Bamboo Shoots because the product contains undeclared sulfites, which could cause a severe or life-threatening reaction in people who have sulfite allergies. No illnesses or allergic reactions have been reported, according to the New York company. The product, distributed nationwide and produced in China, was sold in 230-gram clear plastic packages with the code 2008.1.3. For more information, consumers can call 718-384-6951.
Ok, first it was lead in our children's toys, they contaminated dog food, contaminated baby formula, contaminated milk, and now even our bamboo shoots aren't safe.
So why hasn't the Chinese influx of market items been squeezed off until we can take a close look at the situation and make an educated decision on what products we want to continue importing and what products we need to quit importing.
Well, the reason is that all the money that the corpo-fascist republicans are spending like manic shoppers the day after Thanksgiving is being fronted to the US gov't in the form of loans from the Chinese gov't. Yes, the biggest holder of American debt is the Chinese gov't. So get used to tainted products and such.
I'm surprised the Chinese aren't going into space using American technology and equipment instead of Russian technology and equipment. Aw hell, why don't we just give them a Space Shuttle and a piece of the Cape and lettem be space heros. We aint gonna be using them much longer anyway after we revert back to 1960s technology.
ed.
If you buy Chinese products, especially food products, you're fucking crazy. Check the labels on your canned goods and frozen items. . . shrimp, fish, veggies, you name it, it's coming from China these days. Let your retailers know that you don't want Chinese products at this point in time.
Wal-Mart makes it's gazillions by selling such cheap, not-for-shit items.
Posted by SagaciousHillbilly at 10:11 AM 9 comments
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
America the Beautiful (and its own third world absurdities)
Efforts to crack down on lead paint thwarted by China, Bush Administration
By Kevin G. Hall | McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Tuesday, August 21, 2007
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration and China have both undermined efforts to tighten rules designed to ensure that lead paint isn't used in toys, bibs, jewelry and other children’s products. . .
The Bush administration has hindered regulation on two fronts. . . to press for greater inspections of imported children’s products, and it altered the focus of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), moving it from aggressive protection of consumers to a more manufacturer-friendly approach.
Who are the people in this country who would vote for this republican neo-con corpo-fascist pack of dogs?
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Destruction from within
Right Now: A 12-Step Program for Defeating the Obama Agenda by Michael Steele
This is the title of Michael Steele's new book. Steele is the chairman of the Republican party.
This is what's really deeply wrong with America and nobody is calling it.
Why does any good American have to "defeat" the Obama agenda? What happened to cooperation, negotiation and working toward the common good. I saw democrats and republicans doing that in the 50s and 60s. Why can't they do it now?
We have an ignorant uneducated proletariat that is all to willing to take sides and fight with the other and a corpo-fascist ruling class that wants to defeat anyone who disagrees with them. This is anti-Americanism. This is what is leading down a road of destruction.
We will not last long if this paradigm is not changed, changed soon and changed drastically.
This is the title of Michael Steele's new book. Steele is the chairman of the Republican party.
This is what's really deeply wrong with America and nobody is calling it.
Why does any good American have to "defeat" the Obama agenda? What happened to cooperation, negotiation and working toward the common good. I saw democrats and republicans doing that in the 50s and 60s. Why can't they do it now?
We have an ignorant uneducated proletariat that is all to willing to take sides and fight with the other and a corpo-fascist ruling class that wants to defeat anyone who disagrees with them. This is anti-Americanism. This is what is leading down a road of destruction.
We will not last long if this paradigm is not changed, changed soon and changed drastically.
Friday, January 1, 2010
Reason #163 why it sucks to live in WV
Recently the WV division of culture and History began a project to put many of it's public records into a database accessible by anyone from the internet. Cool. This is a great idea and I'm glad they finally decided to do this.
Along comes some nobody writer from an NBC affiliate in Washington D.C. He decides to do a tasteless tongue in cheek column on this idea where he says that if in fact WVians could access the internet they'd be able to find “a listing of all the birth certificates for people named Cletus…and a listing of all the weddings in the state where both the bride and the groom had the last name ‘Smith.’”
He also made such assinine random comments as “…they have to poop in their backyard, running through the cold, fearing that the trap door on their red flannel pajamas should pop open early, exposing their nether regions to the bite of the winds? Why do we have to make fun of them for their misfortune?”
Assinine? Yes. Funny. Well yea, in a rude, weird and sick sorta way and I've always been kinda attracted to rude, weird and sick.
When people make comments like this I tend to just look at them and laugh. You see, I have traveled this great country of ours. I've seen other places. Compared to the ghettos of Washington, D.C., living anywhere in WV is paradise. If you look at things like crime rate and cost of living, where would you rather raise a family of four? In WV we have relatively no crime when you look at the numbers from places like Washington, D.C. In WV I can buy a really nice little house for well under $100k. In fact, I can pick up a perfectly livable 2BR house of 1000sq. ft. for under $50k.
So why should I give a shit what some silly assed fucker from Washington D.C. thinks of my home state?
Not so for many people from WV including the governor and most local bloggers. The governor is demanding more than an apology. I'm not sure what the fuck the bozo expects, but he's told them thar Warshinton folks that they dun better do more than jist apologize! Flash back to the 1980s when the bubba governor's uncle was WV secretary of state. This guy was a backwoods hillbilly who dressed like some sort of traveling flim flam man in oversized pin stipped suits with big ol flowers in his lapels. He was a joke. An embarrassing joke. To make matters worse, every time some out-of-state media would make an insulting remark about WV this buffoon would raise hell with them. At times he could be found and heard in his half drunk hillbilly voice in NYC defending the name of WV. It was shameful. What we're seeing today is shameful. As was said in Shakespear's Hamlet: "The lady dost protest too much, me thinks."
OK, listen up all you indignant hillbilly clueless self-loathers. There is nothing to protest. It's just some bozo blowing smoke. Next week he'll be calling NJ a toxic waste dump or calling all people from NY rude loud mouths. Californians will all be spaced out stoners, Chicagoans will be moronic football fans, Georgians will be the heatland of the KKK, Mississippi will be a hotbed of poor ignorant low landers, etc., etc., etc.
But there is a solution. It won't happen overnight. You see, I believe like Nitzsche said, the macro reflects the micro. I also believe the reverse.
If somebody had some opinion of you that you thought was wrong, how would you go about changing their opinion? About the only way you are going to change other's opinion of you is for you to reflect the opinion you'd like them to have of you. It's very rare that someone's opinion of you does not reflect some level of reality. Maybe when you were young you drank too much and some people think you're a drunk today even though you don't drink at all. The only way you're going to convince them that you're not a drunk is to not drink and act in a sober manner. Of course there are going to be those who think you will always be a drunk and will never change. Well fuck them and their horse. Who care what some moron like that thinks.
If you go knocking on their door and argueing with them in public over whether or not you're a drunk, others are just going to start wondering about the possibility that you might still be a drunk. And guess what, you will give credibility to the moron who you are argueing with.
The guy who wrote the article about WV for NBC has gotten a lot of publicity, and outside of WV that publicity wasn't a bad thing. So all these silly assed hicks who are creating a ruckus over some insignificant remarks by some insignificant little twit are doing nothing but giving that insignificant little twit tons of free publicity. 100 bucks says the guy moves up in the world as a result of all this.
So, listen; maybe if we focus on educating our children. . . all of our children we'd go a long way toward creating a more positive image of WV.
The other fact of this matter is that the majority of people blogging indignantly about this little tiny episode of geographic bigotry live in places like Charleston and Huntington or maybe Martinsburg and have no clue what life is like in the hollers of Southern WV, the mountains of the east, the central WV farms or the rusty cities of the Ohio Valley.
So do everyone in WV a favor and shut the fuck up.
Any questions?
Along comes some nobody writer from an NBC affiliate in Washington D.C. He decides to do a tasteless tongue in cheek column on this idea where he says that if in fact WVians could access the internet they'd be able to find “a listing of all the birth certificates for people named Cletus…and a listing of all the weddings in the state where both the bride and the groom had the last name ‘Smith.’”
He also made such assinine random comments as “…they have to poop in their backyard, running through the cold, fearing that the trap door on their red flannel pajamas should pop open early, exposing their nether regions to the bite of the winds? Why do we have to make fun of them for their misfortune?”
Assinine? Yes. Funny. Well yea, in a rude, weird and sick sorta way and I've always been kinda attracted to rude, weird and sick.
When people make comments like this I tend to just look at them and laugh. You see, I have traveled this great country of ours. I've seen other places. Compared to the ghettos of Washington, D.C., living anywhere in WV is paradise. If you look at things like crime rate and cost of living, where would you rather raise a family of four? In WV we have relatively no crime when you look at the numbers from places like Washington, D.C. In WV I can buy a really nice little house for well under $100k. In fact, I can pick up a perfectly livable 2BR house of 1000sq. ft. for under $50k.
So why should I give a shit what some silly assed fucker from Washington D.C. thinks of my home state?
Not so for many people from WV including the governor and most local bloggers. The governor is demanding more than an apology. I'm not sure what the fuck the bozo expects, but he's told them thar Warshinton folks that they dun better do more than jist apologize! Flash back to the 1980s when the bubba governor's uncle was WV secretary of state. This guy was a backwoods hillbilly who dressed like some sort of traveling flim flam man in oversized pin stipped suits with big ol flowers in his lapels. He was a joke. An embarrassing joke. To make matters worse, every time some out-of-state media would make an insulting remark about WV this buffoon would raise hell with them. At times he could be found and heard in his half drunk hillbilly voice in NYC defending the name of WV. It was shameful. What we're seeing today is shameful. As was said in Shakespear's Hamlet: "The lady dost protest too much, me thinks."
OK, listen up all you indignant hillbilly clueless self-loathers. There is nothing to protest. It's just some bozo blowing smoke. Next week he'll be calling NJ a toxic waste dump or calling all people from NY rude loud mouths. Californians will all be spaced out stoners, Chicagoans will be moronic football fans, Georgians will be the heatland of the KKK, Mississippi will be a hotbed of poor ignorant low landers, etc., etc., etc.
But there is a solution. It won't happen overnight. You see, I believe like Nitzsche said, the macro reflects the micro. I also believe the reverse.
If somebody had some opinion of you that you thought was wrong, how would you go about changing their opinion? About the only way you are going to change other's opinion of you is for you to reflect the opinion you'd like them to have of you. It's very rare that someone's opinion of you does not reflect some level of reality. Maybe when you were young you drank too much and some people think you're a drunk today even though you don't drink at all. The only way you're going to convince them that you're not a drunk is to not drink and act in a sober manner. Of course there are going to be those who think you will always be a drunk and will never change. Well fuck them and their horse. Who care what some moron like that thinks.
If you go knocking on their door and argueing with them in public over whether or not you're a drunk, others are just going to start wondering about the possibility that you might still be a drunk. And guess what, you will give credibility to the moron who you are argueing with.
The guy who wrote the article about WV for NBC has gotten a lot of publicity, and outside of WV that publicity wasn't a bad thing. So all these silly assed hicks who are creating a ruckus over some insignificant remarks by some insignificant little twit are doing nothing but giving that insignificant little twit tons of free publicity. 100 bucks says the guy moves up in the world as a result of all this.
So, listen; maybe if we focus on educating our children. . . all of our children we'd go a long way toward creating a more positive image of WV.
The other fact of this matter is that the majority of people blogging indignantly about this little tiny episode of geographic bigotry live in places like Charleston and Huntington or maybe Martinsburg and have no clue what life is like in the hollers of Southern WV, the mountains of the east, the central WV farms or the rusty cities of the Ohio Valley.
So do everyone in WV a favor and shut the fuck up.
Any questions?
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