I believe a country and a community will have a lot of what it values most. Our country has a lot of debt, a lot of vehicles, a lot of bombs, a lot of psychotic criminals running our economic and political systems and a lot of willfully ignorant drones – disguised as citizens. As I drove along West Chester Pike I tried to observe what it is we value today. This route is inundated with automobile repair shops, gas stations and auto dealerships. We cannot live without our cars. I can say without a doubt that I saw not one manufacturing facility along this entire route, but if you want your Japanese car fixed, detailed, or waxed, you’ve hit the jackpot.
by Jim Quinn
This is not going to end well, for all of us…referring to the top and bottom stories.
Whatever the reason, there you are, flying in a commercial jet to Denver.
Suddenly, even before conscious mind can register the horror, the plane is disintegrating in mid-air, cartwheeling into the ground in a blaze of burnt metal and plastic. Your remains are never identified.
Uttered by the incomparable Charles Krauthammer, here’s what I consider to be the best line of the year so far:
I an predicting that the first guy who uses a Second Amendment weapon to bring a drone down that’s been hovering over his house is going to be a folk hero in this country.
Amen, brudder. Please sign me up as a contributor to his legal defense fund. (Dr. Mercury/Maggies Farm)
In my opinion its all the same cause and will have the same result, when we stopped creating or nurturing citizens in favor of subjects, we turned down this road. How long has it been since the High Schools in your area stopped teaching the Citizenship and Government classes.( In my day, taught by a Vet.) The schools turned to teaching “self-importance” and “entitlement” creating the un-important and the un-entitled.
I received the following statement from Amazon.com today regarding its decision not to renew its membership with the American Legislative Exchange Council:
Thanks for reaching out to me. Each year we evaluate all of our association memberships and we’ve decided not to renew our participation in ALEC, in part because of positions that group took on issues unrelated to our business.
May 21, 2012 4:45 AM EDT Exclusive: CentCom commander’s call for third Persian Gulf carrier group was rejected, reports Eli Lake. * As Western diplomats meet this week in Baghdad to try to coax Iran’s leaders to disclose its full nuclear program, Gen. James Mattis will be keeping an eye on the Persian military.
Mattis wanted to send a third aircraft-carrier group to the Persian Gulf earlier this year, The Daily Beast has exclusively learned, in what would have been a massive show of force at a time when Iranian military commanders were publicly threatening to sink American ships in the Strait of Hormuz.Continue reading →
George Lucas is tired of fighting Marin County over developing his land there for business use. This may be unfair, because I don’t really know much about George Lucas’s politics, but my bet is that he is a typical wealthy liberal who supported all these sorts of restrictions on everyone else, until they applied to him. Anyway, he is pushing a new plan, one sure to highlight the absolute hypocrisy of more-liberal-than-thou Marin County residents (NYT via Reason)
Mr. Lucas said he would sell the land to a developer to bring “low income housing” here.
“It’s inciting class warfare,” said Carolyn Lenert, head of the North San Rafael Coalition of Residents.
Mr. Lucas said in an e-mail that he only wanted “to do something good for Marin,” waving away accusations of ulterior motives.
“I’ve been surprised to see some people characterize this as vindictive,” he said, adding that there was a “real need” for affordable housing here. “I wouldn’t waste my time or money just to try and upset the neighbors.”
Whatever Mr. Lucas’s intentions, his announcement has unsettled a county whose famously liberal politics often sits uncomfortably with the issue of low-cost housing and where battles have been fought over such construction before.
Complete post from CoyoteBlog.com…Which I don’t usually do, however it was too short to excerpt.
Facebook shares continue to drop to new lows, wiping out more than $11 billion off the social network’s market value as investor complaints grow louder, Aaron Lucchetti reports on Markets Hub. Photo: AFP/Getty Images. (Video)
No truth to the rumor that the company will change it’s name to “Face-plant”.
So I received a invitation in the (E)mail from the NSRWA, which is a group I joined last month during the Annual River Cleanup and at which I had a very nice time, despite being mistaken for a criminal. (What would assume about someone picking trash on the side of 3A wearing a orange vest?)
Oh yes! the invitation…
Visit the Enchanted George Anderson Forest, Rockland Sunday at 1 pm
This walk is the second in our Exploring the Outer Limits of our watershed series. Did you know that the entire watershed of the North and South Rivers encompasses 12 towns, 93 square miles or 59,000 acres? Come with us to explore some of the farthest reaches and most fascinating places that you didn’t even know you were connected to by water!
Each walk is FREE for NSRWA members – $5 for non-members. Children are welcome, but please leave your dog at home. PRE-REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED.
Thinking about doing several walks with us? Consider becoming a member of the NSRWA! The benefits are clearly worth it!
I attended and am very glad I did, first I give my legs a workout instead of my paddling arms and shoulders, second I got to use the Nikon instead of the waterproof Pentax. The Nikon gives me more latitude and control of the images when I don’t have to be afraid of getting it wet. I will have to return here soon with my camera and take more photos, I like what I got, but the walk’s pace was a little brisk so these images are more “snappish” than “composed”. But it is a magical place.
The charming thing about this forest is the way that volunteers have added many whimsical touches and used small toys and objects in a way that validate the title “The Enchanted George Anderson Forest”.
Visitor participation is definitely encouraged. Rock Art, which is the artfully stacking of stones and rocks in an aesthetically pleasing way is encouraged.
What most impressed me was the shear amount of volunteer work that has gone into building these trails.
If you are able to contribute (physically or monetarily the project is still ongoing…
George Anderson Forestlocated off North Ave (Rt 139)in Rockland, Massachusetts. Tel: (781) 878-6370
These guys are scuba diving for moorings. Explanation, the mooring buoys are secured to large weights on the bottom (usually 6 to 10 cement blocks attached to a heavy chain), once settled into the mud they are a fixed point and assigned to one boat. But in bad winters (which we did NOT get this year) the thick ice on the river can seize the mooring and chain and drag it off its location. After mild winters like this one the float on the surface can separate from the chain or cable and then the drag on the bottom must be found. That is what these men are doing.
I’ve done that, in my twenties, and I can tell you that it’s not like the movies. In any river there is mucho slit and you cannot avoid stirring it up, so the process of finding the mooring is groping in the dark with your hands. While you are trying to keep your place in the current.
Tides
Remember this shot of the Norwell/Marshfield launch area, at high tide?
This is Dead Low tide.
Clear what you are looking at? See the rails from the first picture? Its not the Bay of Fundy, but its interesting.
This is why powerboats should observe the low/no wake rule on all parts of the river.
THE nation of Greece said sorry to the European Union with a present of an enormous wooden horse.
In theory these would still fit
Left outside the European Central Bank in the dead of night, the horse has now been moved into the ECB’s central lobby where it is proudly on display.
A gift tag attached to the horse, which is surprisingly light for its size and has small holes along the length of its body, suggested that it should be placed in the bank’s vaults overnight to avoid it being targeted by thieves.
Mario Draghi, President of the ECB, said: “How nice of the Greeks to acknowledge the trouble we’ve been put to on their behalf with this wonderful horse, handmade and so large it could hold a dozen double-decker buses.
“The card with it, which had a teddy bear dressed as a hobo on the front, explained that Greece made us this because they don’t have enough money for a present, which brought a tear to my eye.
“Nonetheless, unless they can somehow find €200 billion overnight then austerity measures must continue.”
Oddly, Greek representatives in Brussels have hinted that they may soon be in a position to settle their debts and have puzzled the French and German banks that hold their loans by asking if there is any discount for cash.
The government of Spain has reacted angrily to the gift, accusing the Greeks of trying to bribe the ECB and redoubling their own efforts to weave a gigantic sombrero-wearing straw donkey.
PRESIDENT Francois Hollande has confirmed France’s unconditional surrender to the Norse god of thunder.
His mighty hammer smashes baguettes
After the newly-elected premier’s plane was struck by lightning, an interim government consisting of clouds was proposed by Hollande in a bid to appease France’s sky-based overlord.
Hollande said: “We will have the list of buildings known to have lightning conductors ready for our new leader as soon as possible and will, of course, be dismantling the Eiffel tower.
“I’m heading for Asgard in a wooden vehicle with a ceremonial hammer to hand over the reins of power just as soon as we’ve established where it is. I hope the suggestion it’s near Iceland proves to be incorrect as I don’t fancy making the trip by longboat.”
This will be the first time France has been under the rule of a mythical figure since 1881 when President Jules Grévy fell ill after eating some chocolate and immediately surrendered to the Easter Bunny in a period known as the Floppy-Eared Republic.
Austerity measures put in place by President Sarkozy will be drastically altered by the new Norse rule, with the building of feasting halls in every town and a new national sport of cutting the braids of wenches with a throwing axe.
Productivity may also be affected as every day in the calendar is changed to Thors-day, meaning workers will permanently feel it is nearly the weekend and time to start winding down a bit.
Hollande added: “We have all seen the terrible foreign policy proposed by Loki in Avengers Assemble so the protection of Thor is very much in the interests of France. During our first meeting I will also be looking into the possibility that Hulk smash puny Merkel.”
On 14 October 2009, Missouri was moved from her berthing station on Battleship Row to a drydock at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard to undergo a three month overhaul. … The repairs were completed the first week of January 2010 and the ship was returned to her berthing station on Battleship Row on 7 January 2010. The ship’s grand reopening occurred on 30 January.[39]
During that time footage was shot of the USS Missouri under tow for the movie “Battleship”. The movie opens tomorrow, May 18th, and frankly the reviews have not been good. But the movie reminds me of another film with modern military hardware placed alongside WWII icons, “The Final Countdown”. In that 80’s SciFi/Action flick the modern nuclear carrier “Nimitz” is sent back to 1941. The highlight of that movie is an aerial dogfight between a F-14 Tomcat and a Japanese Zero. The writing and acting for that effort, (to be kind), won no awards. But I saw that movie, many times, because it was fun. I suspect the same may be true of “Battleship”.
Director and cast of movie “Battleship”. The star of the film seen to the rear.
In related news, one of the 16″ heavy guns (120 tons) forged for the IOWA class battleships was transported to Delaware to be placed in a memorial park.
Can you hear Richard Dreyfus’s voice yelling, “Stand up front. I need something in the picture for scale!”
World Changing Events You Didn’t Know Obama Played A Part In
Mildly amusing, but the best part is how pissed off these photo composites make The One’s sycophants. I’ll have to create a new category, Sacrilegious.
After having dug to a depth of 10 feet last year, French scientists found traces of copper wire dating back 200 years and came to the conclusion that their ancestors already had a telephone network more than 150 years ago.
Not to be outdone by the French: in the weeks that followed, American archaeologists dug to a depth of 20 feet before finding traces of copper wire. Shortly afterwards, they published an article in the New York Times saying : “American archaeologists, having found traces of 250-year-old copper wire, have concluded that their ancestors already had an advanced high-tech communications network 50 years earlier than the French.”
A few weeks later, ˜The British Archaeological Society of Northern England” reported the following: “After digging down to a depth of 33 feet in the Wigan area of Lancashire in 2012, Charlie Hardcastle from Platt Bridge, a self-taught local amateur archaeologist, reported that he had found absolutely f*ck all. Charlie has therefore concluded that 250 years ago, Britain had already gone wireless.”
Just makes you bloody proud to be British, dunnit ?
This follows the news from yesterday that the Obama Administration drafted a memo to protect the president from blame if the mission to kill or capture Osama Bin Laden would have failed.
Fox News Literally Scares Woman To Death
Tracy Knauss, a publisher and an Occupy activist was no fan of Fox News before he lost his mother,
“FOX News is no more than an arm of the Republican Party and a mouthpiece of the 1%ers in the plutocrat’s attempt to own and control America. Fox’s short-term objectives of using propaganda and misinformation to gain viewer loyalty, have worked toward their long term goal of a symbolic Plantation America, home of greed and land of the slave. Their objectives are close to being accomplished: the elimination of the American middle class via their attack on unions and the subjugation of women through the assault of their reproductive, socio-economic and political rights, and the suppression of fair elections by brainwashing workers via social issues to vote against their own self interests. Their final assault will now be against the colleges and universities, the last fortress of free thought in America.
However, Fox didn’t count on the Occupy movement which, I predict will morph into a People Party that will use term limits and other needed rule making to restore true self government to our nation.”
[sarc/on] Ah! Wolfgang, doesn’t it make you nostalgic for the Nuremberg rallies? With the marching, and the torches and the Jews hanging from the lamp-posts. Soon, Wolfgang, Soon! [sarc/off]
There’s an old internet rule in chat rooms and on the blog comment pages, the first person to invoke the Nazis or A. Hitler against another writer automatically loses the argument.
I hereby declare that rule has expired, gone, timed out, burnt out. The Occupy and Union thugs are brownshirts and we are the Jews. This time there will be no meekly getting into the cattlecars.
On the above headline, I didn’t link to that idiots page, I wouldn’t send them the traffic. Concerning their article, there are no links pointing to actual news stories by actual established newspapers of record. Or any other information that would indicate that the incident is anything but a figment of their imagination. Just a excuse to rant.
With a twinkle in his eye, he turned to a police officer who was also being presented to him and said: “I would get arrested if I unzipped that dress!”
The Duke, who has always had an eye for the ladies, has made a string of politically-uncorrect comments to women over the years.
Two years ago, when a female Sea Cadet told him she worked in a nightclub, he said: “Is it a strip club?”
In 1984, he was presented with a figurine by a woman in Kenya and asked: “You are a woman, aren’t you?”
Earlier this year, he asked a 60-year-old man how many people he had knocked over on his mobility scooter.
Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man.
Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded -- here and there, now and then -- are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty. This is known as "bad luck." -- Robert A. Heinlein
Wrath Of Gnon
“In an age where the media publish endless stupidities, the cultured man is defined not by what he knows but by what he ignores.” ー Nicolás Gómez Dávila
On the North River 