Thursday, April 29, 2010

NASA does another keystone cops imitation

Huge NASA Science Balloon Crashes in Australian Outback
SPACE.com

This story was updated at 6:32 p.m. EDT.

A huge NASA balloon loaded with a telescope painstakingly built to scan the sky at wavelengths invisible to the human eye crashed in the Australian outback Thursday, destroying the $2 million astronomy experiment and just missing nearby onlookers, according to Australian media reports.

In dramatic video released by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), the giant 400-foot (121-meter) balloon is seen just beginning to lift its payload, then the telescope gondola appears to unexpectedly come loose from its carriage. The telescope crashes through a fence and overturns a nearby parked sport utility vehicle before finally stopping.

"No one was injured. A mishap investigation board is being convened," NASA officials said in a statement released late Thursday.


WTF?! These silly dipshits can't even launch a fucking balloon. And do you wonder why it's a crap shoot every time the shuttle launches?
Apollo was sooooo long ago. Are there really no techno-weenies left like the techno-weenies who put 12 men on the surface of the Moon and brought them all back alive?
The current NASA needs to be gutted from the top down. A whole new (or more accurately an "old") culture needs to be brought about so that we can get back to the achievement of exploration.

Monday, April 19, 2010

al-qaida in Iraq

How is it that we keep killing the "top al-qaida figures" over and over again? There seems to be a never ending supply.

Top al-Qaida leaders killed in Iraq, US says
AP –

BAGHDAD – The U.S. and Iraq claimed a major victory against al-Qaida on Monday, saying their forces killed the terror group's two top figures in this country in an air and ground assault on their safehouse near Saddam Hussein's hometown.


Remember, before MoronMonkeyBoy Bush the Chimp invaded IRaq, there were NO al-qaida in Iraq. None, zero, zippo, nada.
Still, this war criminal continues to walk free.
Where is the outrage? Where is the protest?
Oh yea, they're all teabagging and protesting against the president who is extricating us from the totally fucked up mess this last screw-up republican left us. Such is the duty of democrat presidents for the past 4 decades.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Obama poll numbers slipping?!?!

WTF!! The market (DJIA) is at over 11,000. Elevenfuckingthousand! It was at 6,000 when BarryO inherited this mess from the republican fuck-ups.
We just signed the first nuclear nonproliferation treaties in decades and it IS significant in getting rid of left over nuclear material, guarding the supply and decreasing the arsenal.
Our standing throughout the world is much higher than it's been in a decade.

What the fuck do people want? Are the moronic proles really only listening to the FoxNews idiots? Is Rush Limpdick really their source of inspiration?

Obama couldn't have done any better at this point than what he has done. In fact, his handling of the economic crisis has been brilliant (and I was against the "bail-outs" at the time) and probably saved us from a decade long recession.

Remember, every republican president in the past 4 decades has left the democrat successor with an economic mess ans every democratic president of the past four decades has solved the huge economic mess left to them. Yet still:
Democrats also have lost their advantage on the economy; people now trust both parties equally on that, another first in 2010.

I don't get it. What do people want? I guess when folks step in, take control, work out solutions, fix problems, show real progress, it's just not as good a nationalistic bullshit hoopla. Ya just gotta have the fear and then the patriarchal soothing. Stupid fucking proles.
Well, we won't survive long with that.

AP-GfK Poll: Obama slips, other Dems slide, too
AP
By LIZ SIDOTI, AP National Political Writer Liz Sidoti, Ap National Political Writer –

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama's national standing has slipped to a new low after his victory on the historic health care overhaul, even in the face of growing signs of economic revival, according to the latest Associated Press-GfK poll.

The survey shows the political terrain growing rockier for Obama and congressional Democrats heading into midterm elections, boosting Republican hopes for a return to power this fall.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Massey Energy getting away with murder. . .

All this, but they didn't shut them down and didn't make them do anything. They didn't even hit them with fines big enough to make them stop doing it.

When are the bureaucrats, from the goobernor on down at the state level and the boss at the Office of surface mining at the federal level going to take responsibility for the huge part that they have played in the events leading up to the deaths of these West Virginia miners!!!

Massey ignored ventilation citations in months before blast
By Ken Ward Jr.
Staff writer
Advertiser

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- In the months before the deadly explosion at Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch Mine, company officials were engaged in major disputes with state and federal regulators over serious ventilation problems at the sprawling underground mine in Raleigh County.

Regulators had cited Massey's Performance Coal subsidiary in December for ignoring orders that it redirect potentially dirty air from a conveyor belt tunnel away from the longwall machine section where miners were working.

And last month, inspectors from the state Office of Miners Health, Safety and Training recommended the violation for "special assessment" -- which carries heavier fines -- after Massey delayed in fixing the problem.

Also last month, federal inspectors cited Massey when they found airflow was half of what was needed to clean mine air and control levels of explosive methane underground.

More stupid fucks. . .

Wow, talk about backwoods knuckle dragging!

DA's sex ed warning befuddles Wis. teachers, kids
AP

By TODD RICHMOND, Associated Press Writer Todd Richmond, Associated Press Writer – 2 hrs 22 mins ago

MAUSTON, Wis. – Mike Taake has taught sex education for 30 years, and he says he knows what doesn't work: just telling kids to wait.

The Mauston High School health teacher has used abstinence-only and comprehensive curriculums, and he said students need all the information they can get about sex to make the best choices. But teaching them about contraceptives could land him and other teachers in court.

Juneau County District Attorney Scott Southworth last month sent a letter to area school districts warning that health teachers who tell students how to put on a condom or take birth-control pills could face criminal charges. The warning has left many teachers, school administrators and parents flabbergasted. . .

Southworth, a Republican and a Christian evangelical, took issue with a law Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle signed in February requiring schools that teach sexual education to adopt a comprehensive approach.

Southworth warned that teaching a student how to properly use contraceptives would be contributing to the delinquency of a minor, a misdemeanor punishable by up to nine months behind bars and a $10,000 fine. He said it would be promoting sex among minors, who are not legally allowed to have sex in Wisconsin.


And here's what dumb fuck republican christian envangelical knuckle dragging moron Scott Southworth looks like. . . just so y'all know what dumb fuck ignorance in the flesh looks like. It always amazes me how dickass buffoons like this can get through a course of higher education. Obviously education is not the answer for everyone's brand of ignorance.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Coal culture, death and the irony of it all. . .

From the Massy Energy website:

2009 WAS ANOTHER RECORD
SETTING YEAR FOR SAFETY
http://www.masseyenergyco.com/

No doubt another record year for pay-offs to politicians and gov't regulatory bureaucrats.
Massey Energy is the sludge of the corporate sludge pile.

Monday, April 5, 2010

Another million dollar "DUH!"

My oldest is going to be 32 this year. Back in 1978 there was plenty of evidence that breast fed babies were significantly healthier than non breast fed babies. That's all we needed to know. It's gotta be a no-brainer in 2010.
Unless there is a real good reason, all children should get breast milk. Those who don't feed their children the proper way (from a real live breast) ought to be charged with child neglect.

The other thing that needs to be done is for society to stop with the ridiculous taboo attitude about breast feeding. Mothers shouldn't be made to feel at all bashful about breast feeding their babies wherever and whenever the need arises.

If you don't like it, put a fucking blanket over your ignorant pea brained fucking head.

Study: Breast-feeding would save lives, money
AP
By LINDSEY TANNER, AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner, Ap Medical Writer – Mon Apr 5, 1:53 pm ET

CHICAGO – The lives of nearly 900 babies would be saved each year, along with billions of dollars, if 90 percent of U.S. women fed their babies breast milk only for the first six months of life, a cost analysis says.

Those startling results, published online Monday in the journal Pediatrics, are only an estimate. But several experts who reviewed the analysis said the methods and conclusions seem sound.

"The health care system has got to be aware that breast-feeding makes a profound difference," said Dr. Ruth Lawrence, who heads the American Academy of Pediatrics' breast-feeding section.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

My education continues. . . thankfully.

So I'm sitting around thinking that geez, Obama's been kinda lettin me down. I didn't like him spending all that shit load of cash bailing out the banks, he hasn't gotten us out of Iraq yet and he's pushing it in Afghanistan. WTF is going on with this guy, doesn't he know anything. I'm sure I could get things done much better with much less debt than he's doing.

Yea, I think I know everything. I'm not a whole lot different than those dumb fuck teabaggers except I'm a self righteous liberal know-it-all fuck. . . well, I'm probably more educated, well read, experienced, compassionate and breath through my mouth a lot less than those creepy morons.

Just when I think Obama's letting ME down, I get my eyes opened up by a certain article in this month's Atlantic Monthly (http://www.theatlantic.com/). It's all about Obama's treasury guy Geithner, who I thought was a bumbling incompetent. Turns out the guy is fucking brilliant. Ya see, this guy's been working for the Treasury since the 80s and 90s when economies all over the world were tanking. He did a lot of liaison work between US Embassies in those countries and the Treasury Dept. He saw how these countries would be very reluctant to jump in and pump capital into their economies because it was politically bad. Also they hoped that their economies would solve their own problems without a lot of intervention. They never did and eventually, the countries were stuck with horrible economies that required huge sums of cash to revive. The Japanese waited years in the 90s before stepping in and taking control and it took 8 yrs for it to improve.
Geithner knew all this and had witnessed it. So when he was put in charge, he proposed hitting the economy hard and fast with cash. Stop it now or have a much bigger and more expensive mess later.
Now there were lots of folks who were telling Obama, 'no, don't listen to him. Spending huge sums will be political suicide. The economy will cure itself.'
Lucky for us, Obama listened to Geithner and today our economy is slowly but sirely emerging from the republican created cluster fuck. Economists are happy and many are saying there will be no "double dip" recession.
The other thing Gaithner proposed was to hold off on busting these CEO who fucked up the banks and investment firms in the first place. If the fed was too quick to bust these guys and impliment reform, it would scare off investors and keep the market low.
What did the market close at on Friday. . . 10,900? Glad Obama listened to that instead of the politicians who were telling him to crush Wall St.
Sure, it cost a shit pile of money that we didn't have. I wish there had been another way. I HATE seeing deficit spending. It really fucks with the conservative side of me, but it looks like it had to be done.
Then I read another couple articles on why Obama can't just yank us out of Iraq and Afghanistan. It wasn't the old bullshit line about leaving a strong gov't either. IT was about what a cluster fuck we've created and how damn difficult it is going to be to extract us from those places without the void being filled with something really bad. Beleive me, we'd have been a WHOLE LOT better off leaving Saddam in Iraq. . . but most intelligent thinkers in this country know that.

It's difficult being President of the United States, especially when you're actually in charge and making the decisions. . . unlike some presidents we've had. . . recently.
You've got to get all the information you possible can handle and then make a decision based upon what YOU believe is best for the nation.
I'm glad we have someone as intellectual, thoughtful and capable as Barack Hussein Obama to handle the mess we were left with after eight years of having a bunch of dumb fuck corpo-fascists running the country.

Another thing I heard Obama say while listening to the TV with one ear in a restaurant the other day. . . "battery technology." Wow, a president finally puts it together. If we're going to exploit solar and wind, we've got to have better battery technology. Oil companies have been fighting gov't spending for this for years now. They know that it's a direct threat to their dominance.
I hope the president will push batter R&D and push it hard.
Until we have better (much better) battery technology, wind and solar will just be side bars.