BP Dispersant is Killing the Gulf

Those responsible for allowing the dispersants to used need to be imprisoned.

Watch step by step as WPI Chemical Engineer Marco Kaltofen performs an experiment using actual crude oil from the BP well and Corexit 9500A, the oil dispersant used by BP in the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Mr. Kaltofen demonstrates how Corexit suspends the most toxic hydrocarbons in the water column by a factor of about 35X more than absorbtion from crude oil alone, which floats to the surface in its natural form. BP used close to 2M gallons of this dispersant at the base of the blown out oil well and at the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, allowing this substance to mix into 5000 feet worth of water from the base of the well.

Head Injuries: Why Motorcycle and Bicycle Helmets Should Be Mandatory

It is not unreasonable to expect every motorcycle rider in the country to be licensed specifically for riding (and many states do have this requirement). Perhaps one condition that could be imposed - strongly highlighted - would state that any time a rider chooses to not wear a helmet, they automatically waive their right to care paid for with public funds.



This would keep freedom of choice in the hands of the chest thumping riders, and the freedom for me to not have to pay for their uninsured butts when they smear their faces across the highway.



(I'll bet the rider who was wearing this helmet was glad he did! http://www­.samatours­.co.za/ass­ets/pictur­es/crashed­-helmet.jp­g)
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Animal Farm Friday - Cat v Corvids and Cat

I didn't know cat fights lasted this long! (Hat tip to @Scamper for the find!)

Animal Farm Friday (on Saturday) - Laser Cats!

From the SFist:

Photo by Andrew Dalton of Aggressive Panhandler.

If we must to go down in flames, shouldn't it be at the hands of darling felines? Andrew Dalton of Aggressive Panhandler (and, ahem, SFist) snapped this pic of the new cherishable cat mural that went up at the Harding Theater on Divisadero.

On The Commission to Balance the Federal Budgets Report

I do think there are a lot of ideas here worth seriously considering, even if they need some adjusting. But there's one very simple way this country could have been saving, and could start money on, and that's to STOP fighting UNNECESSARY wars!

Why this concept seems so hard for the frightened sheeple majority amongst us to grasp is a sad statement on our current reality.

Imagine if even half of the money spent on Iraq and Afghanistan went to developing smarter and more efficient means of detection, and went to expanding our intelligence apparatus, and went to foreign development and education in means not of welfare, but of meaningful support systems.

This is the difference between investing and gambling; the former rewards more often, the latter rarely rewards.

Animal Farm Friday - Leaps of Faith

Sometimes, your god just isn't there for you.

How it Works

The Distinction Between Fox and MSNBC

Here's a 'little' something that might make Jon Stewart's comparison of Olbermann/Maddow/MSNBC to O'Reilly/Hannity/Fox and notably, Beck, seem somewhat quaint. Neither Keith Olbermann–nor anyone else at MSNBC–has inspired any of their audience to attempt to commit an act of murder. In this particular case, it could have been a case of mass murder (in my backyard!!!):

From a letter written by Drummond Pike, CEO of the Tides Foundation:

On July 19th of this year, I arrived at our San Francisco office to learn that a misguided person carrying numerous guns and body armor had been on his way to start a "revolution" by murdering my colleagues and me. The Oakland Police Department called to tell us that, following a 12 minute shootout with the California Highway Patrol, law enforcement officials arrested an assailant who had targeted the Tides Foundation, an organization which I founded and currently serve as CEO, and the ACLU for violence. To say we were "shocked" does not adequately describe our reaction. Imagine, for a moment, that you were us and, had it not been for a sharp eyed highway patrolman, a heavily armed man in full body armor would have made it to your office with the intent to kill you and your colleagues. His motive? Apparently, it was because the charitable, nonpartisan programs we run are deemed part of a conspiracy to undermine America and the capitalist system, which is hogwash.

Although not a political organization, the Tides Foundation has been a frequent target of misinformation, propaganda, and outright lies by Fox News' Glenn Beck. Since his arrival at Fox in early 2009, Beck has repeatedly vilified Tides, suggesting we are intent on "creat[ing] a mass organization to seize power." He accuses the foundation of indoctrination and says we are "involved in some of the nastiest of the nasty." Beck tells viewers that Tides has "funneled" money to "some of the most extreme groups on the left" and that our mission is to "warp your children's brains and make sure they know how evil capitalism is." In total, prior to the attempted rampage, Beck had attacked the Tides Foundation 29 times. On September 28th, more than a month after the shooting, Beck reiterated his focus on the Tides Foundation, warning, "I'm coming for you." In jailhouse interviews, the gunman confessed he views Beck as a "schoolteacher" who "blew my mind." My would-be killer admitted that Beck "give[s] you every ounce of evidence you could possibly need" to commit violence.

Jon Stewart sees fit to lump Keith Olbermann into the same camp with Glenn Beck. Perhaps he should consider this distinction first.

You should consider sending this link to the full letter to everyone you know.

Bill Maher on the Million Meh March and Stewart and Olbermann

Bill Maher makes my point quite well, without all the fire breathing, but with a whole lot of well deserved snark.



Well said, Bill!

Petition and Letters to NBC and MSNBC on behalf of Keith Olbermann

Keith Olbermann's regrettable suspension could not have been more timely, as far as my earlier post goes. Rather than say anything more on it here, I'll just share with you the letters I wrote to Phil Griffin of MSNBC, and to Steve Capus, President of NBC News, since they make my point succinctly:

Dear Mr. Capus,

I think it is only fair that I share with you this letter that I sent to Phil Griffin earlier today. But I have additional comments now, having read this article below, which seems to reveal a double standard at work here.

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=4192

It seems, from this reporting, that even though Keith Olbermann is clearly an opinion journalist and commentator, just like Joe Scarborough, you are applying a different standard to Mr. Olbermann.

Something here STINKS. It is clear that NBC and MSNBC either have a political or a personal agenda at work here.

The first report of Mr. Olbermann's suspension by Mr. Griffin was enough to warrant a boycott of MSNBC. As the day has gone on, and more reports come out after the other, revealing NBC's and MSNBC's blatant hypocrisy, the demand to boycott NBC as a whole seems in order.

I believe that unless steps are made by you and others at MSNBC to handle this matter more professionally, and not with the clear bias that is being projected, it will become necessary to not only boycott your networks, but to also begin a campaign to contact your advertisers and demand they pull advertising form your network, or face boycotts of their products.

Mr. Capus, your network–specifically, Mr. Griffin–has acted irresponsibly in this matter, and actions to remedy this situation are demanded.

Sincerely,
Jake Barlow


Mr. Griffin,

Congratulations on your major step in driving MSNBC into irrelevancy, if not oblivion. Your suspension of Keith Olbermann for not reporting donations to Democrats–something which NBC by law could not prohibit–smacks of utter stupidity, and seems entirely politically motivated.

Regardless of your reasons, you should be fired simply for being so stupid as to willfully disenfranchise an untold number of viewers–viewers like me–who will undoubtedly be boycotting MSNBC because of your actions in this matter.

While Fox celebrates its donation of $1 million dollars to GOP governors, you suspend the one person who almost single-handedly saved MSNBC from Fox's onslaught just a few years ago for a nearly insignificant matter of not reporting donations prior to making them. Stupid does not begin to describe your behavior.

Good luck with keeping your job.

Sincerely,
Jake Barlow

We'll see if anything happens, but in the meanwhile, you can help out by signing this petition.

Why I find science so much more beautiful than religion

Alternately, why I find religion so ugly.

Animal Farm Friday - Fox in the Hen House

Rather, Fox in the House. There's a metaphor in there, somewhere.

Olbermann vs Stewart: Or, the Voice for the Little Guy vs the Voice for Capitulation

Keith Olbermann was right about one thing he said in regards to Jon Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity™. The point Stewart was trying to make with the rally is that both sides need to tone it down, and so he implored everyone to do just that. But the problem is–as Olbermann tweeted–"I wish it were otherwise. But you can tone down all you want and the result will be: the Right will only get LOUDER. Sorry."

That is factually true, and it is a statement supported by evidence. Fox News, a.k.a. The Right™has been getting louder and louder regardless of how loud or quiet The Left™ is. With complete control of the media cycle, in print, online, and broadcast, The Right™ can easily plant stories in blogs, which are sent virally by the minion bloggers and the trolls, which are then picked up in broadcast, then later cemented in print, by both The Left™ and The Right™. Nice work, News Corp.

This same mechanism exists for the rest of the free press of America, too. The problem here is that everyone other than The Right™ doesn't care to
utilize
manipulate the system this way. On the one hand, that is admirable. On the other hand, it is exactly how the Republicans took back control of the House, only two years after their policies nearly collapsed the economy, and supposedly drove them into the political wilderness.

That Jon Stewart shows more deference to Bill O'Reilly than he does for President Obama is profoundly troubling. That he conflates Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow, and MSNBC with the likes of O'Reilly, Sean O'Hannity, Sarah Palin, and all of Fox News is not much less disturbing.

His point that the anger, and the relentless shouting of the talking heads from both sides in the "24-hour politico pundit perpetual panic conflictinator" needs to stop is commendable. The problem with that is that it's comparable to asking one side in a major battle to stop fighting because the other side has louder weapons. The Left™ can choose to stop the shouting on the very few of their outlets, but meanwhile, The Right™ will continue to grow louder and louder in the massive outlets they control, their message reaching larger and larger audiences (indeed, Fox's viewership grew 127% since the last midterm elections).

Jon Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity™ may have drawn in more than double the number of people than did Glenn Beck's recent angry white people rally, but Stewart's audience is a fraction of the number of viewers Fox News reaches every day, just by broadcast. Which of the two do you think got more voters to turn up in this past election? Which of the two might have actually turned off voters, and perhaps made them lose interest in voting?

There can be no question that the adage "the loonies are running the asylum" has now become a fact. The ascension of the some of the craziest political candidates this country has seen in its history should be incredibly alarming to any reasonable person. While the Democrats were responsible for their own failures (I take none of that away from them), Stewart's persistent mocking of the Democrats, Maddow, Olbermann, etc., and his calls for them to basically pipe down and shut up, was not helpful.

Sure, as an "equal opportunity satirist", Stewart mocks The Right™–often more so, but the audience of The Right™ doesn't watch his show; the audience of The Left™ does. Imagine for a moment if there were shows in the Fox News media closed-loop that actually mocked other folks on Fox News, or their audience, or politicians of The Right™, even if there were truth in that mocking. What might the results of that be?

That does not happen on Fox News, or with The Right™, so we can only imagine. It does with The Left™, thanks to Jon Stewart, and we can infer that this had an effect on the morale of moderates and leftists.

Olbermann made another good point in a retort to Stewart's comparison of MSNBC to Fox News, saying, "Sticking up for the powerless is not the moral equivalent of sticking up for the powerful." It is shameful that this minor, yet serious, point even needs to be made.

In Stewart's recent interview with Fox News' Chris Wallace (again, more deferential to him than he was to Obama), Stewart charged that MSNBC was making a mistake trying to play Fox's game in their territory. By choosing a 'liberal bias', they're making Fox's point that the mainstream media has a bias. But so what? At this point, so what? Fox News has had a clear and strong right wing bias for years, and no one cares. Their audience has only grown, and has grown massively, in spite of–or as a direct consequence of–this bias. Has Stewart ever bothered to ask why that has happened?

I was glad when Olbermann first came around, and when Maddow followed. For the first time ever, those of us who were not on The Right™ had a voice in the national media, reaching millions of people, and not just the tiny few viewers of The Daily Show. I'm actually sad to see Olbermann taking any cues from Stewart, such as removing his Worst Persons in the World segment.

Now, given how much more successful Fox News has become, unless a new, major broadcast channel chooses to take a stand against everything Fox News stands for, the war has already been lost. But the war has been lost, because there has never been, and never will be, a Fox News equivalent for moderate or liberal people, for the simple reason that it is anathema to the policies of the corporations that own and operate nearly every media outlet in America. Our only recourse, it would seem, is to capitulate, stop pissing in the wind, and hopefully laugh ourselves into denial, and acquiescence.

Maybe Jon Stewart was also right, and has already figured that out ahead of the rest of us.

Why CNN is a FAIL - Reason #20,032

"Governor Moonbeam" was not a nickname, it was an aspersion, created by Ronald Reagan and the other Republican douchebags that helped trash California in the 70s. Why did they call him this? Because of his very forward-thinking ideas on clean energy (like wind farms, and solar), and because of his stance on conservation, and his frugality, and his views on social justice. 

CNN, you FAIL!

Wow.

The stupidity of the majority of this country is overwhelming and profound.

I am not looking forward to the next two years of a lame duck Presidency; McCarthy-esque witch hunts; attempts at dismantling the small modicum of good things that were actually accomplished these past two years; even more power shifted to polluters, fossil fuel companies, banks and insurance industry; more money shifted to the rich and away from the middle class; and the inevitable impeachment attempt.

Oh, and lets not forget about the war with Iran that our bloodthirsty GOP will work to foment.

I Will Not Vote Republican Because I Remember

I wouldn't vote Republican regardless, but just the same:

NO Fox News, NO Fear, NO Belligerence

If I was at the Rally to Restore Sanity, this would have been my sign!

Animal Farm Friday - Screaming Pug Rocket

That is all.

Arnold and Meg: TWINS

They're both bumper sticker slogan machines.

Animal Farm Friday - Take a Walk on the Wild Side

Thanks for the find, Kitten!