Friday, December 21, 2007

In a world.....

It's all downhill from here!



Well, the old man has been diagnosed with the Big C......At 81 years, it looks like he may only have one or two Braves seasons left....

This is the year to win the World Series, for the old man. The most devoted Braves fanatic there is.

I'll be playing with Mudcat @ the Northside next Sat night...

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

I'll get you, my pretty.......





http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=80298&in_page_id=34



It shows Mohammed, 40, with his new 11-year-old wife, Ghulam. Taken by US photographer Stephanie Sinclair, it was named Unicef Photo of the Year yesterday.

Monday, December 17, 2007

The crying Dutchman!!!


He is known as the "hard man" of climate-change negotiation.

But after 12 exhausting days of trying to reach a worldwide agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, it was suddenly all too much for Yvo de Boer.

As the 200-nation Bali conference wrangled over a minor procedural matter, the Dutch diplomat in charge of the talks burst into tears and had to be led away by colleagues.

Moments earlier, Mr de Boer had been warning delegates that failure to reach an agreement on global warming could "plunge the world into conflict".

Officials from China, which feels Western countries should do more to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, accused UN negotiators of ignoring conference protocol.

Mr de Boer, distinctively dressed in a floral shirt, stepped up to the microphone to defend his staff - only to find that the words would no longer come.

As his unfinished sentences trailed away, he broke down and walked off the platform to supportive applause.

"He wasn't just wiping his eyes, he was in floods of tears," said one observer.

"Three colleagues - one of them a woman - formed a protective group around him and escorted him out of the hall. It was all very dramatic."

Mr de Boer's breakdown came after nearly a fortnight of squabbling over proposals to cut carbon emissions.

The European Union went to the conference demanding that industrialised nations commit to cuts in CO2 emissions of 25-40 per cent by 2020, a stance which was strongly opposed by the US, Canada and Japan.

America's representatives had also been jeered for insisting on firmer commitments from developing countries --despite President Bush's refusal to sign up to the previous targets laid down in the Kyoto Protocol in 2001.

In the end, a compromise was reached with a text that did not mention specific targets but acknowledged that "deep cuts in global emissions will be required".

A wave of relief swept the hall as US delegation chief Paula Dobriansky finally declared: "The United States is very committed to this effort and just wants to really ensure we all act together.

"With that, Mr Chairman, let me say to you we will go forward and join consensus."

The resulting treaty, known as the "Bali road map", sets in motion a two-year process of negotiations designed to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

Under the deal, a new pact will be agreed at a meeting in Copenhagen in 2009.

By then, members of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change - the organisation of which de Boer is executive secretary - should have agreed on a comprehensive plan involving wealthy and developing nations.

Environment Secretary Hilary Benn hailed the Bali deal as "an historic breakthrough" and a "huge step forward" in tackling climate change.

But Prime Minister Gordon Brown sounded a note of caution. "The Bali road map agreed today is just the first step," he said. "Now begins the hardest work."

The deal will come as a relief to Mr de Boer, who is known in the Netherlands for his passionate advocacy on the subject.

His reputation as an incisive --and tireless - negotiator has earned him the "hard man" tag.

However, former colleagues said his behaviour in Bali was not entirely out of character.

Political adviser Matthijs Spits said: "We Dutch can become quite emotional --surprisingly so for other nations who think we are cold."...........

........

So two weeks of talks to decide, in effect, to have two more years of talks (let's hope they actually produce more than these talks did), with an admission that "deep cuts in global emissions will be required" (well that was a surprise revelation now, wasn't it?), with no specific target, and with the prospect that even if they do come up with a detailed plan of actions (that's what is needed not a Road Map of infinite meetings) that it's recommendations (some 'new sort of 'Kyoto' replacement) will not come into force until 2013 (and that's 6 years away.)

How anyone can say that this was an historic breakthrough is beyond me - what breakthrough?

Thursday, December 13, 2007

It's a two-fer!


What can we say about post election fights? Nobody wins and the country loses a lot.

In fact, arguing about a close election is like having mom and dad scream at each other in front of the children--someone may be technically right but both sides end up losing!

Let's look back.

In 1960, Sen. John Kennedy beat VP Richard Nixon by 112,000 out of 76 million.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._presidential_election,_1960)

John Fund wrote a wonderful summary of the 1960 controversies--Chicago, South Texas and Alabama. Kennedy's name did not appear on the ballot but he was awarded the Alabama vote anyway:

"Congressional Quarterly, the respected nonpartisan chronicler of Washington politics, spent some effort in the 1960s to come up with a fair way of counting Alabama's votes.

Reporter Neil Pierce took the highest vote cast for any of the 11 Democratic electors in Alabama--324,050--and divided it proportionately between Kennedy and the unpledged electors who ended up voting for Harry Byrd.

Using that method, Kennedy was given credit for 5/11ths of the Democratic total, or 147,295 votes. Nixon's total in Alabama of 237,981 remained the same. The remaining 176,755 votes were counted as being for the unpledged electors.

With these new totals for Alabama factored in with the vote counts for the other 49 states, Nixon has a 58,181-vote plurality, edging out Kennedy 34,108,157 votes to 34,049,976. Using that calculation the 1960 election was even closer than we thought.

Remember this the next time a Democrat complains that President Bush "lost the popular vote."

As Mr. Southwick told me in 2001, "Camelot was made possible by the Electoral College. The same is true of George W. Bush's presidency.

Both were legitimate."(http://www.opinionjournal.com/diary/?id=110004320)

Did Kennedy win in 1960? He won the electoral college and was awarded a small popular vote victory despite some controversy because of Alabama.

Did Nixon have a case for challenging the results? He did.

Thankfully, Nixon did not challenge the elections. As a result, we were spared a partisan mud fight about dead people voting in Chicago, illegal residents voting in South Texas and Alabama's bizarre count.

It would have been time consuming for Nixon to prove these allegations and find the smoking gun. Nevertheless, it would have made great drama and hurt the country's reputation.

VP Nixon was under a lot of pressure to challenge the results. He did not. No one was more grateful than Senator Kennedy, who faced a divided nation with a weak mandate.

In 2000, VP Al Gore and Gov. GW Bush had another close election. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._presidential_election,_2000)

Bush beat Gore, 271-267 in the Electoral College. He carried 30 states and Gore 20. But Gore had 543,816 more votes out of 106 million.

Bush won every recount in Florida, including the one done by several newspapers. (http://archives.cnn.com/2001/ALLPOLITICS/04/04/florida.recount.01/)

Did Bush win? Yes, he did. Did Gore have a case? No.

Besides, how do you prove that some voters meant to vote for Gore but voted for Buchanan? How do you prove that? On the Bush side, how do you prove that the premature network call for Gore sent voters home?

Gore would have easily won the election by winning his home state of Tennessee or Pres. Clinton's Arkansas.

Give Gore Tennessee and he would have won the Electoral College, 279-259!

Give Gore Arkansas and he would won, 273-265!

On election day 2000, Pres. Clinton and VP Gore did not deliver their home states and that's why Gov Bush won the election. Florida was close and controversial. Yet, it would have been meaningless if Gore or Clinton delivered their respective home states to the Democrats!

Moral of the story: Win your home state!

In conclusion, Nixon was right in '60 and Gore was wrong in '00.

As we saw in Florida, these challenges divide the country and change few minds. Also, these challenges make extremists more extreme.

Florida gave birth to several myths, such as stories that people were intimidated from voting. Peter Kirsanow is a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and he wrote "The Florida Myth Spreads":

"The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights conducted a six-month investigation of the charges and found absolutely no evidence of systematic disenfranchisement of black voters.

The civil-rights division of the Department of Justice also found no credible evidence that any Floridians were intentionally denied the right to vote.

These findings did little to dispel the myth of massive disenfranchisement.

Politicians and activists persisted in circulating outlandish stories of nefarious schemes to steal votes, stories that became more numerous and absurd during the run-up to November 2004.

Speaking before predominantly black audiences, John Kerry repeatedly suggested that a million black votes were stolen in the 2000 election." (http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/kirsanow200501100742.asp)

These myths, and the politicians who repeat them, divide us and poison our discourse.

This just in.....




Pope Benedict XVI has launched a surprise attack on climate change prophets of doom, warning them that any solutions to global warming must be based on firm evidence and not on dubious ideology.

The leader of more than a billion Roman Catholics suggested that fears over man-made emissions melting the ice caps and causing a wave of unprecedented disasters were nothing more than scare-mongering.

The German-born Pontiff said that while some concerns may be valid it was vital that the international community based its policies on science rather than the dogma of the environmentalist movement.

His remarks will be made in his annual message for World Peace Day on January 1, but they were released as delegates from all over the world convened on the Indonesian holiday island of Bali for UN climate change talks.

The 80-year-old Pope said the world needed to care for the environment but not to the point where the welfare of animals and plants was given a greater priority than that of mankind.

"Humanity today is rightly concerned about the ecological balance of tomorrow," he said in the message entitled "The Human Family, A Community of Peace".

"It is important for assessments in this regard to be carried out prudently, in dialogue with experts and people of wisdom, uninhibited by ideological pressure to draw hasty conclusions, and above all with the aim of reaching agreement on a model of sustainable development capable of ensuring the well-being of all while respecting environmental balances.

"If the protection of the environment involves costs, they should be justly distributed, taking due account of the different levels of development of various countries and the need for solidarity with future generations.

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

very cool way to stop speeders


I cant stand those lousy speed bumps all over residential Atlanta streets....While going down my old street today, I saw this very lifelike cut out attached to a mailbox.

It works! It makes EVERYBODY slam on thier brakes. Hilarious!

nit wit

Monday, December 10, 2007

Hokey in the Pokey



Thus ends the saga of Mike Vick, the sick dick ( hat tip to William Smythe).

23 months, 1 served. That means he's gonna really be locked up for 19-20 months...

If he hadn't flunked that piss test he KNEW he had to take, or lied to the judge ( he did so THIS MORNING!!) he could have saved his career. What a colossal dumbass.

It's very entertaining hearing the people feeling sorry for this douchebag because his attorney asked for him to be able to wear a suit, like a civilized man. But the 'hanging judge' he lied to said 'uh, nope. Your gonna wear black and white stripes like the thug you izz. Keep it real!'

So now the civil rights warlords are going to be beside themselves because a white judge made a black man wear stripes like he was on the chain gang.

From rags to riches to black and white britches. Karma's a bitch, huh?

Friday, December 7, 2007

a great article from the uk


Friday, December 07, 2007 at 05:56am

http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/column_welcome_to_my_nightmare/


I can’t remember exactly what I wrote that was so evil. So much to choose from.

Was it that I refused to be freaked by this latest panic attack that global warming was blasting in and . . . Oh, my God, WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE!

Or was it that I wouldn’t listen to that frenzy of activists insisting the genetically modified canola oil I use to fry my chops would nuke us all into an explosion of pustulating tumours?

Anyway, one young reader was furious that I’d yet again stood snobbily apart, while his mob ululated warnings of some fresh horror.

“You’d be on your own,” he sneered in an angry email.

True enough, my young critic, I do often feel lonely in this astonishing age when to panic is a sign of virtue and to reason a sign of a cold heart.

But do you know my problem?

It’s not just that I hate mobs, knowing there’s no wisdom in them.

It’s not even that I’m stubborn by nature, and like the answer Albert Einstein gave to One Hundred Authors Against Einstein—that all it took to defeat his Theory of Relativity was not 100 scientists but just one fact.

My real problem is simply that in my 48 years I’ve lived through so many pack-panic attacks over nothing that I won’t fall so easily for the next.

Your parents or grandparents may know what I mean. Go ask if they remember all those plagues we were told would surely smite us if we didn’t sign some cheque, praise some god, or vote for some politician.

Ask if they remember scares like the nuclear winter, DDT, mega-famines, global cooling, acid rain, Repetitive Strain Injury, bird flu, the millennium bug, SARS, toxic PVC, poisonous breast implants, the end of oil, death by fluoride, the Chernobyl doom, the BSE beef that would eat your brains, and other oldies and mouldies.

It’s amazing we’re still alive after all that, let alone richer and healthier.

So, my furious friend, don’t try to panic me now about global warming, GM food, peak oil or ADHD. I’ve seen too many.

You want to know how they’re tricked up? First, you get a possible problem—preferably with some skerrick of truth.

You then get some expert, or maybe an Al Gore, to make wild assumptions or faulty extrapolations. You know the kind: that if a dodgy levee breaks in New Orleans, the whole world is gonna drown.

And then you whistle for the carpetbaggers—journalists keen to sell a sensation, business keen to sell a cure, and politicians keen to sell themselves as the solution.

And bang, you have a mass panic, with more people gaining from the scare than are game to expose it.

I guess you’re shocked by my cynicism. Would it help if I gave some examples of the panics I was once fed?

Here’s the very first I remember. When I was a student, too, my earnest teachers used to tell me the world was running out of food, and show pictures of starving Indians, which made me worry a lot.

They were repeating the hot theories of people like green guru Prof Paul Ehrlich, whose 1968 book The Population Explosion sold in the millions.

“The battle to feed humanity is over,” Ehrlich preached. “In the 1970s and 1980s, hundreds of millions of people will starve to death.”

He was wrong, of course. Better crops, better communications, better transport, better education—and see now. Famines are now virtually unknown outside of war zones.

But such apocalyptic talk was everywhere then. Take the Club of Rome, a top think tank, which in 1972 warned the world’s economy was about to hit a wall. We were running out of oil, gas, silver, tin, uranium, aluminium, copper, lead and zinc, it warned in Limits to Growth, which sold 30 million copies, becoming the best-selling environmental book in history.

Panic spread. “We could use up all the proven reserves of oil in the entire world by the end of the next decade,” warned US president Jimmy Carter.

Except we didn’t. Instead, we’ve now got bigger reserves of all the things the Club of Rome said would soon be used up, except for tin.

But those panics about resources were nothing compared with the full-blown hysteria that was now being whipped up over the environment.

These eco-scares really took off in 1962 after Rachel Carson published her Silent Spring, using now disputed or discredited evidence to claim DDT was such a menace in the food chain we had to ban it to save whole species.

So DDT spraying was largely halted to save birds and fish, even though that meant killing tens of millions of Third World children, who were left with no good protection from the malarial mosquitoes against which the DDT had been used.

Never mind! We were too busy then panicking over a fall (sic) in global temperatures. In April 1975, for instance, Newsweek ran an article, The Cooling World, warning of “ominous signs that the Earth’s weather patterns have begun to change”, exposing us to floods, “catastrophic” famines, “the most devastating outbreak of tornadoes ever recorded” and “drought and desolation”.

The panic attacks were now coming in waves. There was “acid rain”, which the United Nations in 1986 blamed for damaging a quarter of Europe’s trees.

Now, of course, we know “acid rain” is hardly harmful, and Europe’s trees are blooming.

There was then the explosion of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor, also in 1986, that was said to threaten millions of people with death and so terrified women that the International Atomic Energy Agency said as many as 200,000 had abortions. Now we know that the true death toll so far is fewer than 60.

There was the warning by British officials in 1996 that more than 500,000 people faced death by BSE, a brain disease they could catch from infected beef. Now we know—after eight million cattle were slaughtered—that the threat was wildly exaggerated, and the 100 or so victims might not have even got the disease from eating beef.

But don’t stop panicking! So we panicked instead about bird flu, with newspapers running screaming headlines such as: “Pandemic Could Kill 150 Million, UN Warns”.

But now we know the UN was just plucking figures from the air, and there’s still no proof this disease, caught from heavy exposure to sick birds, can leap from human to human.

How many more scares should I describe, each quickly buried in embarrassment, rather than held up as a warning to be slow to panic?

Remember the fear that the world’s computers would crash the second the clocks ticked over to the year 2000? Planes would fall from the sky thanks to this Y2K bug, which the world spent an estimated $300 billion “fixing”. But what happened at midnight? Tick, tick, tick . . . er, tick.

It was in the 1980s that I first declared my personal war against panic, after thousands of Australians suddenly started to complain of what they called Repetitive Strain Injury.

The theory was that typing for hours gave them a crippling wrist pain that would never go away.

So firmly was this believed here that by 1985, RSI was blamed for a third of all claims for compensation for disease, and every federal public servant who put out a sore hand was simply paid off.

What struck me, though, was that all the sufferers I knew seemed to be moaners by nature, or already unhappy. Even odder was that this disease seemed to hit only Australians and only in some workplaces, such as Telecom and the Commonwealth Bank—often heavily unionised or soggy with complaint.

You see, as psychologist Professor Robert Spillane says now, RSI was actually not a medical problem but a social one, suffered largely by unhappy people “who chose to become patients” and who had there-theres murmured to them by compensation lawyers and the new breed of occupational health therapists.

But who gets RSI now? It’s like a magic wind blew it away, overnight.

So that, my young friend, is why I refuse to join your latest panic party.

Sneer at my loneliness all you like, as your howling, screaming, gasping mob gibbers in unison with a fear you seem to catch from each other.

I’ve learned that if I wait long enough, you’ll come to your senses.


http://www.reason.com/news/show/34823.html

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Monday, December 3, 2007

Mom knew Evel



it's true. My mother and Evel were high school classmates in Butte, Montana.....

Some people said he was stupid. Other's called him a 'hero'. I'd say he was somewhere in between.

Fairwell, R.C..... I played with your toys as a child!




Friday, November 30 marked the end of what will forever be remembered as the longest and most courageous battle between one man, a man we all know as the world's greatest daredevil, and death. Robert Craig "Evel" Knievel died in Clearwater, Florida, finally succumbing after nearly a three-year bout with the terminal lung disease, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. He was 69.

His death was preceded by more than 40 years of constant battle against the persistent pain of broken bones and severe trauma after jumping and crashing motorcycles like no man had ever done before. In addition, he fought to overcome the tremendous obstacles of diabetes, hepatitis C, a liver transplant, numerous surgeries and two strokes.

Knievel's legacy as America's Legendary Daredevil, Last of the Gladiators, and King of the Stuntmen will undeniably live on among millions of fans, past, present and future.

However, the memories of the man apart from his legend will live on even stronger in the hearts of his friends and family. Despite his well-known swagger of self confidence, the legacy he wished for most of all was simply to be an inspiration.

"The fame of great men ought to be judged always by the means they used to acquire it." By this maxim, nothing will ever be able to take away or challenge the things accomplished by Evel Knievel.

Whether it was unmatched courage or just an absolute unwillingness to give in to fear, Robert Craig Knievel was a man's man through all the days of his life. He took great pride in the simply stated, yet most difficult to accomplish principles: always living up to his word, never shirking the responsibility or consequences for his actions regardless of the personal risk, and never, not ever, failing to stop trying.

Knievel was born in Butte, Montana on October 17, 1938 to Robert Edward and Ann (Keough) Knievel. He and his younger brother Nic were raised by the loving family of paternal grandparents Ignatius and Emma Knievel.

Growing up and living in Butte were some of the most valued times of his life. His fame took him far and wide across the country and even over seas, but Knievel never let go of the love and pride he had for his hometown.

Growing up in a blue-collar mining town, Knievel attended Butte public schools before serving in the U.S. Army reserves. As a young man he was always an exceptional athlete, hard worker and determined individual. Knievel explored and excelled in many different professions, if only for a short time, before finding his calling as the ultimate daredevil.

During his prime as a bona fide celebrity, Knievel enjoyed his spoils to the highest. He loved fast cars, private airplanes, fancy yachts and the finest clothes and jewelry money could buy. He was sought out by Hollywood and remained friends with many famous people until his death.

In the end, he had a few regrets, but he always sincerely strived to do the right thing. He never forgot who his real friends were. He never forgot his love for his family. And he never forgot the place from where he came, what he'd learned or what others had done to help him get to where he did. The red, white and blue for which he is famous were a tribute to his Butte character as much as they were for America. In his last years, one of the greatest honors was being able to share his hometown with his world of fans and to participate and take pride in the celebration of his annual event, "Evel Knievel Days."

He dearly loved his grandchildren and he always made it a point to stay in touch with the people he loved the most, his friends and family. And lastly, most important to him above all was his new-found faith in Jesus Christ. Just as he always took great care in surrounding himself with the best people he could depend upon to help him make his jumps during his motorcycle career, Knievel found his greatest friend of all in preparation for his final leap from life. He was profoundly happy that he gave his life to God, who comforted him and gave him the strength he needed to make it through the end.

Knievel is survived by his loyal friend and wife, Krystal Kennedy-Knievel, whom he married in 1999. She stood by his side through his greatest struggles with health until his death. His in-laws include Krystal's mother Sylvia and her husband Wayne Croft; father Glen Kennedy, and Krystal?s sister Shawn and husband Rory with their two children.

He is also survived by his former wife of 38 years, Linda Bork Knievel. Though they divorced, Linda and Evel had four children that all made them proud. Son, Kelly Knievel and daughter-in-law Shelli with granddaughter Lily; son, Robbie Knievel and granddaughters Krysten and Karmen, with great-granddaughter Analiese; daughter Tracey and son-in-law Mitch McCloud with grandchildren Josiah, Jesse, Melody, Cody, Cole, Casey and Dusty with wife Rachel and great-granddaughter Lucy; and his youngest daughter Alicia, with son-in-law Matt Vincent and grandchildren Madelyn, Jaicee, Rye and his sixteenth grandchild expected this June.

Other surviving family members include his stepmother, Mrs. Robert Edward Knievel; brother, Nic and his wife Rusty; sister, Kristy and brother-in-law Hugh Lawrence; sister, Renee and brother-in-law Bill Slaughter; sister Robin and brother-in-law John Dick; and sisters Loretta Young and Kadie Boney. His is also survived by numerous nieces, nephews, extended family, friends and his millions and millions of fans.

Public services will be held for family, friends and fans at the Butte Civic Center at 11:00 a.m. on Monday, December 10th. A private Christian burial and graveside services will take place at the Mountain View Cemetery.

Sunday, December 2, 2007

Hawaii should play in the BCS title game!





Pour yourself a big Glass of Shut Up Juice, LSU and Bulldawgs fans.



So Hawaii had a weak schedule: Woop-De-Do! That will happen when Michigan, Michigan State, Florida, and USC run and hide when you try to schedule a game. If the BCS conferences want to whine about Hawaii's weak schedule, then they only have themselves to blame.


12 of the top 5 ranked teams went down to unranked teams this year. Hawaii beat every unranked team they came across.

Make all the rationalizations, calculations predictions, statistics, and temper tantrums you want, but at the end of the day, big guys just couldn't get the deal done and Hawaii did.