Today, Markey and other critics complain that these policies have cost the U.S. Treasury tens of billions in lost revenue, and led to a reckless search for oil in fragile environments like the deep floor of the Gulf of Mexico. He and others say the unfolding catastrophe at the Deepwater Horizon rig, which exploded April 20 in a disaster that killed 11, can be directly linked to oil-friendly legislation over the last two decades.
It’s killing me that our so-called “leaders” are just waking up to these realities. Have they missed the news stories that are published every year around tax time that “reveal” that the big oil companies don’t pay a dime in U.S. taxes?
So now they bring this up because it’s politically expedient. Nevermind that it’s an outrage for those of us that give up a huge chunk of our salaries to help support our society while these big oil assholes don’t contribute anything, then we have to pay the price when they screw up.
Fuck BP and every other oil company making record profits on our dependence on oil (and not just gasoline - but also the plastics that go into our computers, electronics, and everyday household items). Fuck these idiot politicians who are either so out of touch they didn’t realize that this was going on until now, or they want us to believe they weren’t aware they were in the pocket of big oil so they can coast on election-year legislation outrage. Fuck them both for looking out for the own interests, which led to Gulf coast states coastlines being utterly destroyed.
Please read this if you haven’t already. Also, please understand that psychiatric drugs aren’t as effective as the pharmaceutical industry would like you to believe. If they were, we’d be living in a state of national euphoria.
I’m not exactly sure what the purpose is of this. I’m sure there are people who are medicated who maybe shouldn’t be, but I do know people who literally cannot function without anti-depressants. I really do think this is a result of the unknown territory that is mental health because you certainly don’t see snarky graphs like this for stuff like insulin, AIDS medication, antibiotics, etc.
This is how it’s done folks. Nobody is getting hurt, just a little inconvenience and LAPD’s finest trying to figure out how to unsnarl the situation.
There is no such thing as an “illegal” protest. Tagging protest as illegal separates protests into boxes - that which is approved by the very forces that are being protested, and thus have become sanitized and de-toothed of meaning, and that which is evil wrong and somehow “un-American.”
Real protest poses a problem for law enforcement and the suits trying to get around the city. This is why the protests of the 60s were effective and the protests of more recent years have been limp. Nobody gave a shit when thousands of people marched against the Iraq war in their special, government-approved areas. Nothing changed. People will care about this and they will talk about it and it will scare them. Because they couldn’t get to their meeting in time, or they couldn’t get their double mocha latte with raspberry syrup quick enough, or because the police didn’t know what the fuck to do about a bunch of people chained together lying in the road in the midday LA heat.
Real protest stirs things up and pisses people off. Otherwise you’re not protesting, you’re just whining.
That man was George Alan Rekers, of North Miami — the callboy’s client and, as it happens, one of America’s most prominent anti-gay activists. Rekers, a Baptist minister who is a leading scholar for the Christian right, left the terminal with his gay escort, looking a bit discomfited when a picture of the two was snapped with a hot-pink digital camera.
Reached by New Times before a trip to Bermuda, Rekers said he learned Lucien was a prostitute only midway through their vacation. “I had surgery,” Rekers said, “and I can’t lift luggage. That’s why I hired him.” (Though medical problems didn’t stop him from pushing the tottering baggage cart through MIA.)
Yet Rekers wouldn’t deny he met his slender, blond escort at Rentboy.com — which features homepage images of men in bondage and grainy videos of crotch-rubbing twinks — and Lucien confirmed it.
It doesn’t take a social scientist to see the trend that has developed with regard to homophobic far-right conservatives being outed constantly. Denial ain’t just a river, as they say.
I think these men are in a horrendous cycle of self-hatred. They were raised to believe homosexuality is abnormal and disgusting, and perhaps their actions as leaders to punish other homosexuals is some sort of penance for their own feelings. My first reaction to these cases is disgust at the hypocrisy, but I think I also feel a bit bad for them so obviously hating themselves so much. Instead of coming out, facing the initial reaction from their families, then maybe settling down with a long-term partner, they’re forced to engage in secret trysts with prostitutes.
I don’t mean to say this excuses their homophobic impact on public policy, but I think it’s a sad cycle the religious right contributes to generation after generation.
I’d been meaning to post this for the past week or two.
Branson warns that oil crunch is coming within five years
“The next five years will see us face another crunch – the oil crunch. This time, we do have the chance to prepare. The challenge is to use that time well,” Branson will say.
“Our message to government and businesses is clear: act,” he says in a foreword to a new report on the crisis. “Don’t let the oil crunch catch us out in the way that the credit crunch did.”
Other British executives who will support the warning include Ian Marchant, chief executive of Scottish and Southern Energy group, and Brian Souter, chief executive of transport operator Stagecoach.
Their call for urgent government action comes amid a wider debate on the issue and follows allegations by insiders at the International Energy Agency that the organisation had deliberately underplayed the threat of so-called “peak oil” to avoid panic on the stock markets.
Ministers have until now refused to take predictions of oil droughts seriously, preferring to side with oil companies such as BP and ExxonMobil and crude producers such as the Saudis, who insist there is nothing to worry about.
And in particular, this was also interesting…
Chris Skrebowski, an independent oil consultant who prepared parts of the peak oil report for Branson and others, said that only recession is holding back a crisis: “The next major supply constraint, along with spiking oil prices, will not occur until recession-hit demand grows to the point that it removes the current excess oil stocks and the large spare capacity held by Opec. However, once these are removed, possibly as early as 2012-13 and no later than 2014-15, oil prices are likely to spike, imperilling economic growth and causing economic dislocation.”
Something like this could possibly kill the suburbs and place a sudden demand on urban dwelling, and residences closer to work or more central to the major locations in a families life.
It should be interesting to see what happens.
Isn’t Branson head of: Virgin Mobile, which produces phones that require the use of petroleum products to produce.; Virgin Airlines, which uses a fuckton of fuel to operate; and Virgin Galactic, which could become the biggest consumer of fossil fuels in his operations.
Now, is he actually himself within his company pushing for his researchers to find alternate ways to run these businesses, or does he have an ulterior motive in pushing for legislation? I’m not saying I don’t agree. I think we’re going to get caught with our pants down as far as an energy crisis, but coming from Branson, as much as I admire him for his business acumen, I have to question his motives.
A New Angle
From my inbox:
ICPC NIGERIA (Anti-Fraud Unit) ……..ICPC NIGERIA (Anti-Fraud Unit). Head Office: Plot 802, Constitution Avenue Zone A9 Central Area P. M.B 535, Garki Lagos. TEL : +234 80590 27293 *****24HRS SERVICE ***** Dear Sir/Madam, LETTER OF COMPENSATION/SETTLEMENT. This letter will definately be amazing to you because of it’s realistic value. Sorry for the inconveniences that was rendered to you in your line of Inheritance Payment transaction with some impersonators some while ago. I know that this letter will hit you by surprise, but firstly I will like to introduce myself; I am (Justice.Emmanuel Ayoola ) the Legal chairman of “ICPC”, (Nigeria’s Anti-Fraud Unit). On the 1st of October 2000, the former President of The Federal Republic of Nigeria (Chief Olusegun Obasanjo) introduced a Commission named the “ICPC”, (Nigerian’s Anti-Fraud Unit) which is duly registered under the United Nations (U.N.O). This particular Commission was initiated to detect fraud/funds delay/impersonation of Government Officials. Secondly, we are mandated by the US Government to Settle foreign debts/fraud victims/Un-paid beneficiaries to satisfactory in other to maintain peace in the world at large and also to create a good relationship with the international bodies. Presently, we are being paid by the American government inother to avert beneficiary funds delays/fraud here in Nigeria. So far in this present year, we have settled the likes of (Mrs. Debbie Hargrove, Mr. Micheal Wagner , Patricia Norton , Emason Ayers etc). You are being contacted by this office today because your Case File (A) is the very first File on our Settlement Files Cabinet. From our Intelligent investigations and Probing processes we discovered that you are a victim of fraud/funds delay. The “ICPC”, is faithfully under my governance as the Legal Chairman of the great Commission and to this Authority I took an oath of allegiance to settle all fraud victims peacefully.. This Memorandum is to notify you that you will be settled by the Nigerian Government from our initial Deposit Account. Your settlement will be actualized within 3working days after your response to this Official Letter. For further clearification/investigation kindly send the below information to us immediately: 1. Your residential address: 2. Mobile and fax number (for regular official contact). 3. Your inheritance funds value: 4. Amount which you have lost previously: These above-mentioned informations will officially enable us to carry out our verification processes and after that your compensation sum/Inheritance Funds will be Electronically wired into your designated Bank account or through a Diplomatic Delivery Service, depending on which mode you prefer. Your immediate compliance to this will expedite actions on your Payment because here in this office, we have alot of listed victims to be settled. Call me +234 80 590 27293 Officially Signed, Justice.Emmanuel Ayoola Chairman ICPC Nigeria. Powered by Information Communication Technology Dept., (C) 2008ICPC Nigeria, registered trademark.
Apparently official Nigerian agencies are using yahoo.com email addresses. Who knew?
An email to Famima
I was looking for a healthy treat so purchased your Low Fat Strawberry and Blueberry Yogurt Parfait. I had recently read an article in the New York Times about how the FDA is considering making new rules regarding food labelling, and reading the food label on this yogurt, it’s clear why that is.
The Serving size on the yogurt is 2 oz. The amount per serving is 4.75. So you’re selling me what appears to be a single-serving cup of yogurt, but there’s actually 4.75 servings in the cup? So, let’s translate the nutrition facts on this thing. The first number in the list below is for one serving, and the second number is the actual amount in the entire cup that appears like it should be one serving to an individual - your customers.
Calories: 60 -> 285
Fat Cal.: 10 -> 47.5
Total Fat: 1g -> 4.75g
Sodium: 40mg -> 190 mg
Carbs: 11g -> 52.25g
Sugar: 6g -> 28.5g
I’m not sure if whoever gets this will actually look at the cup of yogurt that you sell, but at first glance it looks like a reasonable portion. To find out that the whole thing has such a huge amount of sugar and sodium is disappointing. I realize that this sort of thing is endemic to the entire food industry, but I would like to bring it to your attention since Famima seems to be a fairly forward-thinking company that takes things like this into consideration. Baby steps, right?
Additionally, I’m going to try to bring this to the attention of anyone I can, because I think part of the obesity problem in this country is that we don’t all read tiny food labels when we’re in a hurry, and we certainly don’t do the calculations whenever we buy food.
Thanks for your time.
America’s experiment with banning alcohol created problems that persist to this day. Article by historian Thomas Fleming.
Introducing Kelpie
So call me crazy.. but I thought it would be a good idea to write a little web server in PHP.
I’d like to think that it’s fast, lightweight and hard working. :-)
Ok, show me the code
1 class HelloWorld
2 {
3 public function call($env)
4 {
5 return array(
6 200,
7 array("Content-Type" => "text/plain"),
8 array("hello world")
9 );
10 }
11 }This is what a simple Kelpie web app looks like.
The call method accepts an array of CGI like environment variables and returns an array of 3 items:
Status code Headers as array(key => value) Body text as an array (or Iterator) of strings To actually run a Kelpie app, you need to start up a server:
1 $server = new Kelpie_Server('0.0.0.0', 8000);
2 $server->start(new HelloWorld());There’s not really much more to it at the moment, I’m hoping to build a more fully featured framework on top of this.
For now I’m just having fun dabbling in writing server apps. :-D
Credits
I can’t really claim much credit I’m afraid, I haven’t really done anything original here.
Most of the code is based on the Ruby Thin web server. I also copied the Rack web server interface as you may have noticed. ;-)
I started out this project by writing a PHP extension for the Mongrel http parser.
The httpparser PHP extension code is based on this tutorial and I also used the Python bindings as a guide. It could really do with some code review, my C is a bit rusty..Download
The code is @ github. Feedback is welcome.
Ok, crazy. Considering the base of PHP isn’t meant for this sort of hammering, I’m looking forward to killing this sort of thing like crazy when 20 users at once deploy them on a shared hosting machine.
Welcome to Hell. Population: Me.
Finally, a voice with reason
California is free to make its own drug laws
There are plenty of reasons to support AB 390 apart from the estimated $1.3 billon it would add to the state’s coffers. It would allow law enforcement the time and resources to actually prioritize public safety. In the last 20 years, while arrests for all criminal offenses in California dropped by 40%, arrests for marijuana possession have more than doubled. These arrests (about 78,000 occurred in 2008 alone) constitute a waste of precious resources that could have been spent protecting Californians from violent crime.
AB 390 would also rectify the discriminatory enforcement of California’s drug laws. African Americans make up about 7% of the population in California, and, according to federal government statistics, they do not use marijuana at a higher rate than whites do. Yet of those arrested for marijuana offenses in California, nearly one-fourth are African Americans.
Children would also find it more difficult to buy marijuana under AB 390. Currently, kids can — and do — easily obtain marijuana illegally without anyone checking ID.
The state’s existing marijuana laws are an example of destructive and reactionary public policy. They are largely responsible for the horrific drug-related violence in both California and along our border with Mexico. Thankfully, we aren’t stuck with this destructive marijuana policy.
Damn straight. Thank you, Tamar Todd.
