Animal Farm Friday: Monkey Lovin' for Kitteh

These photos of a macaque cuddling and adoring this kitty is such a stark contrast to that psychotic old slag who wooed a cat over to toss it into a trash bin.

The Crises of Capitalism Visually Explained

Animal Farm Friday Follow-up

Just can't get enough koala!

Animal Farm Friday - Critter Hitter

I certainly wouldn't call this a joy ride for the poor fella. Luckily, me made it through the ordeal completely unscathed. I'm sure he'll be keeping a lookout for fast moving Ford Falcons in the future! Bigger pics here.

Drug Money

As our country plunges headlong towards third world conditions, we're continually bled to the bone by Wall Street, and by the pharmaceutical companies. We're all doped up enough to not even care.

The coming American Apocolypse, brought to you by the GOP with a little help from the Dems

MarketWatch takes a deeper dive into Stockman's recent Op-Ed in the NY Times, and provides a little more insight.

There is a difference between nihilistic thinking, and realism, and this is it:

First, that most Americans, 300 million, are helpless, will do nothing, sit in the bleachers passively watching this deadly partisan game like it's just another TV reality show.

Second, that, unfortunately, politicians are so deep-in-the-pockets of the Wall Street conspiracy that controls Washington they are helpless and blind.

And third, there's a depressing sense that Stockman will be dismissed as a traitor, his message lost in the 24/7 news cycle ... until the final apocalyptic event, an unpredictable black swan triggers another, bigger global meltdown, followed by a long Great Depression II and a historic class war.

So be prepared, it will hit soon, when you least expect.

And we're back...

Sort of quietly.

Animal Farm Friday (belated) - Sleeve Me Alone

Animal Farm Friday - Suicide Bomber Ants

Camponotus saundersi

Its defensive behaviours include self-destruction by autothysis. Two oversized, poison-filled mandibular glands run the entire length of the ant's body. When combat takes a turn for the worse, the ant violently contracts its abdominal muscles to rupture its body and spray poison or glue in all directions.^[2][3] The ant has an enormously enlarged mandibular (abdomen) gland, many times the size of a normal ant, which produces the glue. The glue bursts out and entangles and immobilizes all nearby victims. ^[4][5]

Seriously rad! But this earlier Wikipedia entry was pretty spot on!

The Israeli settlers steal Palestinian land and resources, and then wonder why Palestinians fire rockets at them?

Animal Farm Friday - The 8th Spider Leg, I haz it!

Why BP Is Deliberately Sinking Oil

In a shocking interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper on June 29th, Allegiance Capitol Corporation V.P. Fred McCallister said that BP is deliberately sinking oil with the toxic chemical disbursant Corexit, to hide the size of the oil spill. By sinking the oil before it can be collected, BP won’t have to pay fines on it.

McCallister said, “Everybody in Europe, where the standard practice is to raise the oil and collect it, is scratching their heads, and quite honestly laughing at what’s happening in the Gulf.” He added, “Everyone is looking at us and wondering why we’re allowing this to happen.”

If this is true, heads need to roll. Literally, not figuratively.

America's Energy Sacrifices

WHERE IS MY FLYING CAR?!?

Oh, there it is...

What would you do with $700 Billion per year?

Now that it looks like we don't need it to threaten China over Taiwan, it looks like we might have some extra cash to use for, I don't know, something that actually serves a beneficial purpose to this country?

“The Chinese are coming” became the last refuge of war-profiteering scoundrels once the Russians started cutting back dramatically, but this alarm was never plausible. The authoritative quadrennial Defense Department reports have always made clear that China has at most threatened to become a regional power with Taiwan as its focus. Yet that pathetic excuse for the United States's spending as much on its military as do the rest of the world nations combined seemed plausible to most in Congress who voted for massive military appropriations even as our government had to borrow money from the Chinese to cover our deficits.

Then those treacherous Chinese, both the mainland Communists and their feuding Taiwan-based cousins, had to go and ruin a good thing by going way beyond kissing and making up.

Poor Joe Lieberman is going to lose his subs.

Mid-day Mindwarp

Were it not for the
the carriage returns after
every instance of the
the word 'the', it would be
easy to spot the the repeating
the.

Why BP Should Vanish: Reason 201,093

It seems BP's Command Center has a major competency problem!

Animal Farm Friday (belated) - Get-Along-Lil-Doggie

Who says cats and dogs can't get along?

IWC Moratorium on Whaling Stands!

Hooray!

“We now call on governments to work together to ensure the moratorium is implemented fully and effectively ending commercial, and so-called scientific whaling, which have no place in the 21st century. WDCS believes that the IWC has a strong future, but not one that legitimizes this cruel, unmanageable and unnecessary industry,” says Nicolas Entrup, spokesperson of WDCS in Agadir.

BOO!

Japan, Iceland and Norway continue to whale outside of the sanction of the IWC.

FUCK YOU, JAPAN! FUCK YOU, ICELAND! FUCK YOU, NORWAY!

One important item still to be debated is the demand by Demark that Greenland should be allowed to expand its hunt to include 10 humpback whales per year.

FUCK YOU TOO, DENMARK & GREENLAND!

Obama Did What Needed Doing...

...and said what needed to be said. (But I still think he should have demoted McChrystal!)

Why McChrystal MUST Be Fired

McChrystal MUST be fired, for two reasons:

1. Civilian command of the military MUST be protected. That's what separates us from 3rd world countries. Any fracture in that foundation will severely weaken civilian rule of law.
2. Anything short of firing McChrystal will make Obama look weak and as though he has no control over his generals. This would be an exceedingly dangerous position for a sitting Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces to be in. It will also only give truth McChrystal's statements.

Allowing him to resign will not do. Simply demoting him will not do. Obama MUST fire McChrystal (but a nice little demotion on the way out would really make a point that insubordinate generals will pay dearly for insubordination!)

Animal Farm Friday (early) - Kitty v Floor

Some things can't wait.

I will grant that this is funny...

Great protest sign!

Federal commission approves box-office futures trading

So why is gambling illegal nearly everywhere in America, save for Indian Reservations, boats, and Las Vegas, but this is legal?

Socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor

Seems quite apt these days...

Animal Farm Friday - Dog and Baby Show

Which is cuter? Which is having more fun?

See more funny videos and Cute Animals Videos at Today's Big Thing.

GigaOM TV Launches Green Top Gear-style Show

Sweet ride!

Journalist driven PR?

I hope this serves as a counterpoint to PR driven journalism, but I worry it may help facilitate that very awful thing.

The Low Bar on Twitter

In an effort to separate my personal political stuff with my personal and professional design stuff, I've created a Twitter account specifically for The Low Bar. If you want to follow me there, look for "thelowbar".

Blame the Israel people and not just the government?

This sounds plausible, and reasonable:

I get notes all the time from family and friends in Israel. These are generally liberal, secular people. None of them are settlers. None of them vote for Likud, to say nothing of parties further to the right. Overwhelmingly, the sentiment among people I know in Israel was in favor of the Gaza war, in favor of the embargo and blockade, in favor of a policy of collective punishment against the people of Gaza.

The reason is simple. From the perspective not only of the Israeli center but of people who consider themselves basically on the left, though not the far left, when Israel unilaterally left Gaza that meant the Gazans “got what they wanted” and left no basis for continued hostilities. The fact that, after the withdrawal, Hamas rained mortars and rockets down on Israeli territory, proved that Hamas had no “legitimate” political goals but was simply interested in destroying Israel and killing Jews. After that, whatever Gaza got, from their perspective, they had coming to them, and there’s nothing more to say.

[...]

If you think about it, though, it’s not at all hard to “understand” why Hamas launched their rockets. First of all, because they could. Israel was the enemy, fleeing with her tail between her legs. Why should they refrain from shooting? Second, of course they still had grievances. Even from the perspective of the most moderate possible interlocutor on the other side, what Israel “gave” the Palestinians by unilaterally withdrawing from Gaza didn’t remotely satisfy Palestinian grievances. Did Israel actually expect the people of Gaza to say “thank-you?”

Israel Attacked the USS Liberty 43 Years Ago Today

On June 8, 1967, US Navy intelligence ship USS Liberty was suddenly and brutally attacked on the high seas in international waters by the air and naval forces of Israel. The Israeli forces attacked with full knowledge that this was an American ship and lied about it. Survivors have been forbidden for 40 years to tell their story under oath to the American public. The USS Liberty Memorial web site tells their story and is dedicated to the memory of the 34 brave men who died.

The cover-up continues to this day.

Israeli IDF are scum

Israel acknowledged Sunday that it edited recordings of what it said were anti-Semitic and anti-American radio calls by pro-Palestinian activists who tried to run the Gaza blockade and that it could not identify the origin of the broadcasts.

The Israeli military released a 26-second recording Friday night in which a warning call to a ship in the flotilla was met with the reply of "Shut up -- go back to Auschwitz." After another voice reports that the convoy has the permission of Palestinian officials to dock in Gaza, a third voice responds, "We are helping Arabs going against the U.S. Don't forget 9/11, guys."

[...]

On the full recording, an Israeli warship hails one of the vessels in the flotilla to warn it was approaching a blockade zone and warned that "all necessary measures" would be taken to prevent it from docking in Gaza. After three warnings, Free Gaza activist Huwaida Arraf replied that the blockade was a violation of international law and that the convoy was carrying only humanitarian aid.

"We do not carry anything that constitutes a threat to your armed forces," she says on the recording.

Let me say this loudly and clearly: FUCK YOU, ISRAEL!*

*Pertains to Zionists, Netanyahu's government, and the IDF

Restrepo

Animal Farm Friday on Monday - Popcorn Kittens

How the battle at Armageddon begins...

This could be interesting.

Offensive and Reprehensible

It's pretty fucking sad when even a legend speaks up against Israel, that legend can be toppled.

Helen Thomas announced on Monday that she is retiring, moments after the White House Correspondents Association said it was considering stripping her of her front-row press room seat.

The 89-year-old so-called “dean of the White House press corps” had caused an uproar after making remarks in May suggesting that Israeli Jews should “get the hell out of Palestine” and return to Germany and Poland “or wherever they came from.”

I echo Helen Thomas. The Jews have no more right to that land than anyone else in the world. They have it only because they took it, and they did it with US money and military support. Without that, there would be no Israel.

Mr. Gibbs said he had not spoken directly with the president about it. But, he added: “Those remarks were offensive and reprehensible. She should and has apologized. Obviously those remarks do not reflect, certainly, the opinion of I assume most of the people in here, and certainly not of the administration.”

I think this Obama administration is offensive and reprehensible. I think the Israeli government and the IDF are offensive and reprehensible. I think my tax dollars going to prop up Israel is offensive and reprehensible.

[Al Jazeera] Price to pay for opposing Israel

Animal Farm Friday - Meow Mix: Homage to talking heads

If this doesn't drive you nuts...

America has begun to see Israel more as a burden than an asset

That being declared by the head of Israel's Mossad.

Most telling of all are the stirrings of disquiet in America, Israel’s most steadfast ally. Americans are still vastly more sympathetic to the Israelis than to the Palestinians. But a growing number, especially Democrats, including many liberal Jews, are getting queasier about what they see as America’s too robotic support for Israel, especially when its government is as hawkish as Binyamin Netanyahu’s. A gap in sympathy for Israel has widened between Democrats and Republicans. Conservatives still tend to back Israel through hell and the high seas. Barack Obama is more conscious that the Palestinians’ failure to get a state is helping to spread anti-American poison across the Muslim world, making it harder for him to deal with Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan. His generals have strenuously made that point. None other than the head of Israel’s Mossad, its foreign intelligence service, declared this week that America has begun to see Israel more as a burden than an asset.

Read the full post here.

The Israelis apparently do not understand the concept of meta-data in photos.

Idiots. (Click to embiggen.)

Neutrinos have mass? Uh oh.

That means a whole lot of re-working of the Standard Model. Time to get busy, physicists!

For the first time, physicists have confirmed that certain subatomic particles have mass and that they could account for a large proportion of matter in the universe, the so-called dark matter that astrophysicists know is there but that cannot be observed by conventional means.

The finding concerns the behavior of neutrinos, ghost-like particles that travel at the speed of light. In the new experiment, physicists captured a muon neutrino in the process of transforming into a tau neutrino.

That's pretty awesome on a fundamental level, but how about these little details?

Because the neutrino beam that is created is not affected by electrical or magnetic fields, the proton accelerator must be pointed directly at detectors in the laboratory under Gran Sasso mountain 453 miles away in central Italy, between the towns of L'Aquila and Teramo. When neutrinos are produced, they continue in the same direction of the proton beam, arriving at Gran Sasso in 2.4 milliseconds.

The detector at Gran Sasso is a massive apparatus made up of 150,000 "bricks" of photographic film interleaved with lead sheets. The total mass of the bricks, which are accompanied by electronic detectors and other apparatus, is about 1,300 tons.

Mind = Blown.