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Nuclear power! Carcinogenic cell phones! The Stanley Cup! and the usual parade of kids dancing and shaking their bones, politicians throwing stones, etc. Discuss.
Obama names super-greats to Cabinet
Lew Alcindor, Walt Chamberlain and and Elgin Baylor have been confirmed as nominees for Sec. of Defense, Nat. Sec. Adv. and Sec. of the Treasury. Republicans have vowed to drop all opposition to this all-star line-up heavily slated toward African-Americans and they are expected to sail through confirmation proceedings.
Obama is expected to have substantive discussions over blunts after Wed. night pick-up games at a rec. gym in the blighted corners of SE Washington DC..
Tarrantino (movie producer) blames violence on insanity and guns
Please Mr.Tarrantinino, spare us. We know violence comes from a variety of factors:
*** Easy exposure to guns
*** Video Games
*** Movies, Television and other media
Mental Health? Are we really ready to say people are 15 times more crazy in this country than every other civilized country in the world? (Violent murders based on a per capita basis). Perhaps, but I believe due to unique factors within this country that make people mentally sick.
I hope Tarrantino enjoys his toys. He is getting emotional in interviews because he knows in his heart he is partly to blame.
Clockwork Orange anybody?
DEADHEADS FOR SANDY HOOK
“One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.” ― Bob Marley
Event Info:
Doors @ 8PM
Opening Act: Jellyface (8:30-9:30PM)
Headlined by: The Remnants (10:00PM-1:00AM)
Admission: Free
Please read for more info below:
The Newtown Memorial Fund will be sponsoring a new way to share love with those who have been effected by Sandy Hook. "Deadheads For Sandy Hook" will be hosted at the Eleven Bar and Grille on Friday, January 25th, and will celebrate the power of music through tough times. Donations will be collected at the door by members of the Newtown Memorial Fund, a fund that is working to help to rebuild both the school and community after the tragic incedent.
The night will be hosted and headlined by The Remnants, The Remnants are 2 year veterans of Connecticut's own Gathering of the Vibes and have very graciously agreed to headline the night for and evening of great music, dancing and fun, they will also be joined by special guest guitarist Eduardo Macias. The night will also feature Connecticut's own "Jellyface" who will be opening the night with a special acoustic set. All who can donate are asked to, admission for the night will be free, and doors will open at 8PM.
A 50/50 raffle will be held and any who would like to sell handmade Sandy Hook memorabilia are welcome to.
Please spread the word to friends and family that the Deadhead community will be doing their part in supporting Sandy Hook Elementary on 1/25/13.
More information is also available via http://www.TheRemnantsCT.com or http://www.Facebook.com/TheRemnantsCT & http://www.Facebook.com/TheElevenBarAndGrille
By all means, support Sandy Hook
Meanwhile, the Sheriff's Association in NH held a"youth gun raffle" to raise money for their sporting organization.
The best thing that can come out of Sandy Hook is a ban on assault rifles and multi-round clips. We may not get it in this Congress but it is coming. And that will only be a first step.
Hunters and people who want/need personal protection can have it. The rest of these yahoos can start turning in their guns, or we'll pry them from their cold dead fingers!
Amazing!
NY is poised to enact tougher laws on guns, including reporting people who may be mentally unstable. As well, limiting clips to 7 and stiffer jail sentences for illegal possession. Hoo-Ray!
VP Biden's study/findings are to come out soon and the battle between the gun nut minority and the mass of sensible people will begin. Screw LaPierre and the NRA. They're a bunch of freaks and shills for the gun industry!
The time to act on gun contrrol with an opening salvo is NOW!
Start with:
*** A ban on assault rifles
*** No more large clips
*** Ban the sale of body armor
Get that done and then go on to
*** No universal personal conceal carry right without permit
*** Limit the number of weapons per household to 2 or 3
*** All guns must be in lockboxes
Of course, with 200,000,000 guns in circulation we're all doomed to random mass murder for the next 100 years or more.
Ehhwww! That is stinking karma!
Failed Nation States
Most of us are familiar with such countries as Afghanistan; Zimbabwe; Pakistan; Somalia; Yemen; Central African Republic. There are many more on the fringe, such as Nepal. These are due to human weakness. There are at least that many countries destabilizing into chaos because of global warming.
The one in the news today is Mali (think Timbuktu). A section of that country the size of France has been taken over by Islamic extremists and the French have recently sent a small amount of troops in (2500) to stabilize the country. As US drones overfly the country it is sure that nothing will take out this base of terrorist operations except a force at least the size of the US occupying armies in Afghanistan.
Consumed with our trials and tribulations we spare nary a thought to suffering people in far-off lands. Rather, we conspire to keep as much wealth as possible within our grasp (personal, family, country). Then we ram our culture down other people's economic throats to ensure that wealth stays here and we see the result of having everything without meaningful limit.
There are many good, decent people who would gladly live a smaller imprint if it could be arranged. We all know it. We just arranged our society in such a way to reward conspicuous consumption.
So sad... Sorry to be preachy, just thinking of a certain refugee camp of 50,000 displaced Syrians in Jordan where people are shivering in a living hell on earth and what king of petty battles over worthless crap I'm going to fight today.
God Bless America
In the last 24 hours, we've had shootings at schools in Kentucky and Missouri. Also, this Saturday is Gun Appreciation Day.
Subvert the Dominant NRA paradigm!
Go Obama, go! This is a legacy issue for him. The ad. with his daughters was just mean. The NRA is mean. The gun nuts are mean! This debate is horribly ugly. Mean people suck - mean people with guns should be locked up!
It isn't about mental health background checks! It's about the availability of guns -- Duhhh!
There is a sheriff in in Oregon who has written VP Biden saying he will not enforce any new gun law because it is unconstitutional. Find that guy and strip him of his badge and throw him in jail.
There is no thinking, intelligent position for more availability of guns.
Trillion Dollar Coin Fantasy
The Repubs. want to mint a trillion dollar coin to raise the debt limit. Then deposit it in the US Treasury as an asset. Talk about living in a fantasy world!
A coin with the actual value of one trillion dollars would weigh 1.333 million pounds at 7500.00 per ten ounces (the current market price of the base metal to be used - Palladium). Get ready for soaring interest rates and inflation. Nobody has the balls to do anything.
We are living in fantasy land folks - the gun nuts, the budget cutters, the war hawks. This is complete denial.
Thank God for the Grateful Dead.....
and dead.net. with all of the absurdity surrounding us daily, sometimes it's hard to believe that all of us aren't running around with prozac in a pez dispenser.THAT would be understandable human behavior.
-"without love day to day, insanity's king"
"prozac in a pez dispenser"
...better than hell in a bucket!
(&);~}}
Yeahhh, I'm lovin' Furthur at the moment. Think I'll stay up with some fine wine on this fine wintry evening and snort a little zoloft.
The Trouble with Tribbles
By a continuous process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. By this method, they not only confiscate, but they confiscate arbitrarily; and while the process impoverishes many, it actually enriches some". John Menard Keynes
Despite the rosy markets and lack of a huge fight over the debt ceiling, the Fed continues to pump $85 Billion a month into the economy by just printing money. The government has decided to not make any painful decisions and not continue to spend on wasteful military programs and necessary reforms in entitlements (not cuts, reforms) . The tax code will not be reformed.
This means that within 7-10 years the interest on the national debt will go to one trillion dollars per year. One trillion that cannot be used on education, infrastructure, health, care of the less fortunate.
Foreign countries who pour money into Treasury Bonds, thereby cheaply financing our growing debt, WILL INEVITABLY raise the amount of interest they demand because of our government's fiscal madness. This will in turn lead to higher interest rates and a contraction in the economy, coupled with inflation as high as 100% per year for some time.
Our politicians who only care about power and re-election will keep the party going as long as possible. Along with global warming incidents and international instability our way of life and standard of living will change rapidly, for the worse, in ten years. It is now inevitable.
The Dow & S&P hitting a five year high today is not, sadly, reality. They drank and fornicated in Rome till it burned. Here in Washington they are drinking the Kool-Aid and want you too also. (Contribute to that 401k)
I propose a revolution immediately.
NFL championships
First of all, NHL hockey is back!!!
Meanwhile, go Falcons and go Ravens!! I like the underdogs. Will it be snowing in Foxboro?
Heh, Heh, Heh!! Welcome to The Razor (Gillette Stadium) in Fox
It's gonna be windy, very windy and getting colder by the minute. So windy the field goals will be wobbling again! US NE fans are blessed this year -- we'll even spot you a Gronkowski and kick the crap out of the Ravens. Too bad you ain't a bettin'n man their Ted. We are tailgating as we speak.
Look for a stellar performance from Brady. If he wins today and in the SB he becomes the all-time best QB, bar none.
Bring on K and the 49ers -- they are worthy!
Congratulatios Ravens
Good to see the better team win: Flacco is the man! Looking forward to a Baltimore win in the Super Bowl. Say hi to 'gonz Anna
Go ahead, rub it in Ted
Next time put your money where your mouth is, I would have given you 8.5 points.
If Gronkowski and Asanti Sammuel were healthy it would have been a far different game, far different.
Still, congrats to he Ravens, they are one of the few teams not intimidated walking into The Razor.
Look for Flacco to go Bake-o against the Big K running the football.
Obama's 2nd Inauguration
An unheard of 900,000 people turned out to the capitol mall to brave chilly temps. for Obama's 2nd swearing in,which actually happened yesterday due to a quirk in the calender. Obama is truly the people's candidate. He swore the oath on Lincoln and MLK's bible. If all of this seems extraordinary, it is. This man has the youth (at 52) and vigor to do battle on the budget and gun control in the narrow parameters of his second term.
I rarely gush about presidents but this one has already set his legacy with a health care plan and now seems intent on going where the issues are and doing battle. One can only hope it isn't between Japan and China in the Kurile Islands or between Israel and Iran on the issue of nukes
His muddy grasp of the economy is the only ting that worries me. Giving free reign to Berenanke and Lew (replacing Geithner) is a recipe for disaster - but, hey - at least not during his second term.
He should be on his way to Davos to propose ideas for world peace. We can only hope!
Hillary Clinton
Is bobbing and weaving, story-telling, history creating in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Benghazi. Now, the Republicans are dragging Rice through the mud again so that Hillary can explain why her talking points were correct at the time. She has a blood clot on the head all right, all the Republicans on this committee...
Gawd, give this woman a break!
We Want: Information!
Corporations are locking up gobs of information and trying to make it private property.I think what happened to the Wikki Leaks founder is happening to a lot of "Freedom Of Information" activists. This guy is in exile in Ecuador now.
An expert in the field, a college professor specializing in ethics, said that it was good that these kinds of cases are going before the courts. The government does a terrible job of differentiating between crackers, hackers and open-source/FOI. We need strong delineation of our culture. Criminal crackers need to be locked up, Corporations need to be restrained.
"Anonymous" Hacker Group threatens "Chaos!"
Just thought I'd let you know.
Has Anyone Told
Agents Smart & 99?
The Real World
I just don't understand the people of America. Well, those individuals that are kicking, screaming, and flinging their poo over Big Brother coming to take away their guns, anyway. Anyone with a moderate level of intelligence should be able to read the Constitution and understand that it gave MILITIAS the right to bear arms, not ordinary citizens. Why is it okay to take the Constitution, which was intended to be taken LITERALLY, and warp it to suit one's needs?
What's on the verge of giving me an aneurism on a daily basis is how no one seems upset over the fact that our government has continued their policy of unwarranted wiretapping, the right to lock you up for no reason, and now the right to lock you up indefinitely? Policies, might I add, that WERE NOT instituted by President Obama but by former-President George W. Bush. Why is nothing he did during his 8 years in the Oval Office open for ridicule? Why does he get a free pass for putting us all in this predicament in the first place?
When is this country going to wake up and realize that we're all responsible for our own actions? Stop expecting everyone else to raise your kids and teach them right from wrong. Stop allowing the media conglomerates to do and say whatever they please, because they're distorting our perception of "reality." Stop trying to make me think and talk and dress and act like everyone else. Like Bob Mould said, "I can't think of anything that makes me more upset. People talk all this rhetoric, forgive but not forget. I don't rape, I don't pillage other peoples' lives. I don't practice what you preach, and I won't see through your eyes."
Nobody wants "the real world"
In fact, I think more people are employed preserving a communal level of denial.
Nice rant though.
the real world......
is exactly why i miss gd concerts so much. such a wonderful all day getaway from our daily pursuit of not getting shot, not getting busted and not being homeless - formerly known as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
also, in the real world, the asylum patients here in wisconsin are now complaining that their much coveted assault rifles - which are just the hottest ticket right now - are being unfairly priced out of their range (**guns that were $900 3 weeks ago at the gun shows are now $2,000 - wpr).
to which i would just like to say, "sometimes capitalism is a righteous bitch." tee hee :)
(and the patriot act, yeah....................kudzu and colonoscopies are less invasive).
Following Up....
And can we take a minute to laugh at the stupidity of our fellow citizens thinking it'll be their GUNS that'll keep our government from having its way with us and not EDUCATION? Knowledge is and will forever be more powerful than the most powerful firearm we can construct, and there are politicians over there on the right that want us to believe otherwise. They want us all to be about as bright as sheep so they can treat us as such; sadly, too many of us are already there.
Re: slo lettuce
Ah, the fickle mistress that is the law of Supply & Demand. Guess all the gun nuts should've paid more attention in economics class before they all started losing their collective S.H.I.T. and started buying up guns by the truckload. The weapons manufacturers are once again laughing all the way to the bank while the news media conglomerates spread their messages of fear.
It's a shame the Occupy movement(s) didn't do more to open the collective conciousness of the knuckle-draggers and TV zombies. We have too many distractions taking our attention away from the real problems that need fixing. How many fingers need to be pointed at the wrong problem before we finally get back to the root of the problem?
2012 Global Warming Impact
The most preventable tragedy the Earth faces today. The Mayan calender, widely disregarded now, could be looked at again in terms of the effects of Global Warming. While there are many weather events: the New Jersey super storm, 80% melt of Arctic ice pack and people being swept off the cliffs into the Sea in the LA basin all point to a new reality. There were many international events such as the nuclear incidents in Japan after a Tsunami swamped six of their reactors.
Some cultures will die out. Some will make amazing gains and and many others will go into chaos with great displacement of people. Does this disaster itself make the Mayan Calender significant? Probably, for almost every living creature on Earth..
Timbuktu defeat detailed here about six months ago
And today Frech forces liberated Timbuktu. But not after these fundamentalists had destroyed ancient scholastic writing and disgraced the tombs of Sufi Masters.
Congressional Hearing today on Gun Control
Sen Pat. Leahy of VT chairs the hearing which was opened by a statement from gun-violence victim and former congressperson Gabby Giffords. Congress is moving to plug the gun show background check loophole, multiple round clips and assault weapons.
In Lake Placid, NY in the Adirondacks, LE met with many gun-owners, mostly hunters, who wanted to know the content of the new law passed in NY state. Many said they would be in open defiance of parts of it. 73% of people in NY are in agreement with the new law.
To get legislation passed means passing the House. Harry Reid will have to negotiate a watered down deal. Till the next horrific incident
when sanity will try to prevail again. Too bad the Norwegian massacre didn't impact our consciousness first (more than it did).
The positive thing to take away from this is that it has gone as far as it has. Farther than I ever thought.There is hope for the future.
Re: Congressional Hearing today on Gun Control
I still don't think stricter gun control is the answer to the problem. Our country needs to do a better job of identifying, addressing, and treating mental illness. If the new gun control laws can be enforced to they level they should be, it's a good start, but it's just be the beginning. Otherwise, what happened in Sandy Hook and countless times before will happen again. And again. And again....
No doubt (Tightening mental health screening)
But not just on gun control. Can't fine tune these methods.enough to make a difference --Do you trust the composing/compiling entities?.
Chris Kyle shot at shooting range
I reviewed his book: "American Sniper" here in this thread. Kyle was the most prolific and successful sniper in American history. Another man was shot, on Kyle's side. Circumstances are not known.
Blood/Conflict Diamonds in Zimbabwe
Out of total production of diamonds in 2008 of 250 Billion, total imports to the government treasury was 150 Million.
How can a diamond shoppe, online or in your neighborhood, guarantee that you are purchasing "ethichal" diamonds?
(Thanks and a tip of the hackey-sack to Fareed Zakaraia on Robert Mugabe)
Yow! Cognitive Dissonance!
Superbowl Halftime: Beyonce or switch the channel and watchAlaska: Last Frontier
Ravens 21-49ers 6
Richard III
As a longtime fan of Josephine Tey's "The Daughter of Time," which deals with the perils of the fact that everything we know about Richard III was written by his victorious enemies and those who kissed up to them (e.g. William Shakespeare), I am really interested to hear that they have found what are pretty incontrovertibly his long-missing remains, under a parking lot they were excavating. It will be interesting to see what gets confirmed and what get debunked by this turn of events.
As someone pointed out in one of the comment threads, we owe the right to bail to...Richard III.
Re: Richard III
"A horse, a horse! My kingdom for a horse!"
Very strange yet intriguing tidings indeed! I haven't heard anything about this recent finding of Richard III's remains (under a parking lot, no less!), but then again I don't have as much time for television and the news as I used to. I've always greatly enjoyed Mr. Shakespeare's play involving the king of the same name, so I'll have to keep my eyes and ears out for any and all developments about these findings.
Thanks for the tip!
I usually wait till full moons
“Every now and then when your life gets complicated and the weasels start closing in, the only cure is to load up on heinous chemicals and then drive like a bastard from Hollywood to Las Vegas ... with the music at top volume and at least a pint of ether.”HST
Common Sesse Control
We have the right to protect our famalies, friends and ourselves through the use of our common sense and justified via our fore fathers and a piece of historical importance entitled the Constitution.Granted, it was developed during a different time and place in this world: nevertheless, it is still revelent with the appropriate use and applied common sense to address those areas mentioned but not limited to those areas indicated in the opening paragraph of this discussion forumn such as waiting periods, identifying those with mental illnesses, etc...
Please stay SAFE, HAPPY and GRATEFUL! (~):}
rickey grant
note.....i look forward to hearing and seeing meaningful discussion and debate from ALL ideas and thoughts on this matter...gun owners or not! :)>
Full Moons
I like ur attitude!
(~):} just stay SAFE, HAPPY and GRATEFUL during your drive!
143OR245
Mail-Free Weekends
Not too sure who amongst us caught this one, but the Postal Service is planning on cancelling all mail deliveries on Saturday. Now we'll only have five days in the week to empty our mailboxes of flyers, bills, magazines, etc. I don't know about ya'll, but I'm not too terribly upset by this, and I completely understand why they're doing it. At least they're aren't jacking up the price of stamps...yet (again)!
as one who remembers when we got two deliveries a day
at Christmas, I am not so happy at the continuing decline of the once-noble post office.
At least they will continue to deliver Express and Priority on Saturday.
USPS
Yeah, sort of a bummer that they stopped Saturday delivery. Stamps DID go UP last week. If you haven't been buying "forever" stamps for the last three years you probably should have been.
In rural areas like where I am, the post office is a place to gossip and meet up with people (while you cull the junk mail. Which, by the way, now goes into a locked trash storage -- how sad--)
I live near a large sort facility that was due to be chopped but got saved through God knows how, horse-trading on votes among the Congressional delegation, I guess. The postal workers walked the picket lines to keep their jobs. For me,it was hard to feel sorry for them. Don't get me wrong, I believe everybody deserves banker's hours and holidays and benefits but nobody gets, them except for a few select industries. I also believe you should get 10 extra points on your exam for "life experience".
The USPS will survive, but in a far leaner form and it's not going to get any more efficient.
mail....
just heard on npr that it WILL take congressional approval for the usps to eliminate residential saturday delivery (due date set for august). newspaper companies who have saturday editions are making their voices heard though.i welcome the idea of one less day of mail. i live in a rural area on a dead end road where mailboxes are a long (but welcome) walk. due to them being placed next to a desolate county road, mail theft is an ocassional problem. so one less day of opportunity for the identity thieves is ok with me.
i do love the us mail though; always a cracker jack box. you never know what you're going to get - wanted or unwanted.
i remember as a little kid sending an envelope with a hand written letter and the appropriate amount of coins off to "bazooka joe bubble gum" for whatever little gizmo they were advertising on that specific bubble gum wrapper and then waitng with a lot of anticipation for its arrival. this was years before instant everything, all-the-time. everybody knew their mailman's name and it wasn't uncommon to have him stop just long enough on cold winter days to have a couple of sips of hot coffee. i feel fortunate to have those memories - fuzzier now - but there nonetheless ;-)
Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night...
I live in a rural area where we don't have delivery, just PO Boxes, so this won't effect me much, except for the one hour on Saturdays when the PO is open to dispense items that are too large for a customer's box. In a way, I think that this change might be a positive one, although it may not seem like it at first, since our society has a tendency to hang onto some ideals, such as government delivery of mail and electoral colleges, that have long since used up their usefullness. There was a time when it took an organization like a government to marshal the resources required to set up and maintain a service like the postal service, but that's not the case anymore.
Chris Kyle shot at shooting range
The greatest sniper in US military history (retired), a Navy Seal, was shot and killed along with his buddy at a shooting range by a young veteran with PTSD they were there to help. I wrote about his book here in this thread about 9 months ago.
This is so freakin' sad and unbelievably ironic. Chris Kyle went through some of the worst firefights in Baghdad and hardly had a scratch. He had almost 200 confirmed kills. It took loose gun laws in his home nation to get him.
I wonder what he would have thought of the idea that he fought for the freedom of western civilization only to have that freedom end his own life with senseless gun violence.
I feel like I 'm looking at 50,000 years of evolution when in reality we have about 12.... We just don't get it about guns.
If you get a chance to read American Sniper by Chris and his wife I highly recommend it for insight into the war in Iraq (2003-12). The story he writes tells a lot, not so much for what his sentiment is as for the obvious conclusions and meaning between the paragraphs.
For me as a Buddhist it showed the result of karma of killing probably more than 200 people in one decade. There are immutable laws, even if the law of man allows killing with impunity during war.
Pope Benedict resigns, lightning hits crosson top of St. Peter's
On the day that Pope Benedict resigned lightning hit the cross atop St. Peter's Basilica. I guess God gets pissed when his CEO bugs out before quitting time.
RE: Pope Benedict resigns, lightning hits crosson top of St. Pet
Perhaps God was simply trying to let the rest of the Vatican know he wants someone worthwhile for the job next time. That, and He wants all those pedophile priests that keep turning families away from the church to put it in their pants and keep it there. Like, NOW.
Lightning Did Not Hit The US Capitol Building Tonight
Could this mean God wants Obama for Pope?
state of the bunion....
i like b, a lot, so i made an honest attempt last night at watching his address, but as luck would have it, my self-preservation instincts kicked in and i fell asleep about 10 min. into it. what an exercise in ego massage this always is, no matter the party elect.with that said, i would like to see all of the lights in the capitol building wired directly to the "clapper". That way, this silliness of standing and applauding at every 5th word spoken would stop and the linguistic fertilizer could be restricted to the appropriate 10 min. span....... of which i could have successfully completed a viewing.
the remaining 1 hr. and 50 min could then be used to saturate the american air space with something useful and entertaining such as the bugs bunny/ road runner show.
and the catholic church? they should take frank zappa's old advice and hire a pope who smokes dope and be done with it. they're in dire need of a plausible scapegoat anyway and at least with this idea, they'd have one.
State of the Onion Address
I didn't watch it. I'll be honest and up front about it. Yeah, sure, I voted for another four years of the three-ring circus act that is Washington, D.C., but largely because he was clearly the better man for the job. I do agree with slo lettuce, though, that it's largely an exercise in massaging one's ego.
Not sure if anyone here is familiar with the website/Facebook group "Being Liberal," but they posted an excellent quote from Mr. Carl Sagan this morning: "The US should legalize marijuana, tax it, and send all the proceeds to NASA. NASA would inspire kids to explore the universe and pot would inspire adults to explore the universe." Who knows, now that we have 2 out of 50 states who've legalized recreational marijuana use, we might be going somewhere revolutionary in terms of how this country views drugs and drug use. It would be nice, though, if our tax dollars could be spent more on exploration and discovery than on our growing paranoia complex. We as a country would do well with a little more introspection.