Rubber-Necking

 CB: [T]he main thing I feel bad for, it gives every black and white person who is racist a platform to vent their ignorance. 
That's the thing that bothers me the most because I watched this trial closely and I watch all these people are television talking about it. A lot of people have a hidden agenda. You know, they want their racist views, whether they are white or black --
MB: The bias comes out.
CB: The bias, it definitely comes out. It was a bad situation, we all lost.

Who gave this incredibly insightful interview?  Check it out in the comments...

Drive-Bys

How major media in the U.S. reports the Occupy Wall Street mess:

So enthused about promoting the far-left protests, ABC anchor Diane Sawyer on Monday night's World News championed “the Occupy Wall Street movement” by ludicrously claiming that “as of tonight, it has spread to more than 250 American cities, more than a thousand countries -- every continent but Antarctica.”

How they look at it across the pond:

A very privileged protest: Wearing $300 jeans and from some of the most exclusive schools, the children of the one per cent out for a good time at Occupy Wall Street

Which do you suppose is the more unbiased reporting?
_____

A "rewind button" for blurry photos? Ooooo! Faster, please! (Yesterday, if I had my druthers.)
_____

Currently unemployed? Read this article (with an admittedly depressing title), for some good food for thought about how you may be sabotaging your own prospects... and what you can do to change.
_____

One of the things I love about fall is the return of squashes in great quantity in my local supermarket. This article not only has great descriptions of all the differing varieties, it also has some great recipes for a slow cooker soup and two different stuffed squashes. Yum!
_____

I was glad that Chris Christie declined to join the current presidential race because I honestly believe that he should at least finish his first full term in office before running for something else. Now that he's come out for Romney, I'm really glad he's not running... because it would have been more of the same thing Mitt's known for.
_____

Quote of the Day:

"If the candidates are smart, they'll make it be 5, 5, 5, 5, and more 5." -- Ann Althouse

Damn straight, Skippy.
_____

Teach your children?

With every passing hour, the meeting between Chicago Public Schools officials and the Chicago Teachers Union to discuss longer school days appears less likely.

Last week, CTU President Karen Lewis had said she and her union officers were ready to talk about the district's controversial plan, but suggested union headquarters as a meeting location.

CPS countered by suggesting the two parties meet at a school that has chosen to add 90 minutes to its school day.

And since then, the talks have stalled.

This morning, schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard suggested Brown Elementary as a meeting site.

CPS officials have not heard back from CTU, said district spokeswoman Becky Carroll. CTU spokeswoman Stephanie Gadlin said she too does not know if a meeting will take place today.

It's called compromise or neutral territory, people, and you ought to learn how to find it. Both sides ought to be ashamed of themselves for the example they are setting for the very students they purport to care so much for.


_____

Giggle of the Day:


see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

Quick Stops

This headline is showing the paper's bias:

Valparaiso sixth-grader handcuffed over spilled milk

What he's really guilty of is assault on a police officer. Big difference.
_____

Good News/Bad News:

The bad news: I love my Flip, and am very sorry to see Cisco is closing them down. They're tiny, incredibly easy to use and have wonderful sound and picture quality. If you don't have one now, get one before they're gone!

The good news: The price of the Kindle is going down -- way down! I agree with Andy Ihnatko that you'll see them for under $100 soon.
_____

Winter is coming... SOON... and it looks like AGOT will be a hit. I can't wait!
_____

Think the death penalty isn't a deterrent?

"[B]efore he left Canada, the 20-year-old unemployed computer technician took the unusual step of determining that Illinois had no death penalty, prosecutors say."

Think again.
_____

Drive-Bys

WTF?

A shooting at a Coast Guard recruiting station in Northern Virginia is connected to a string of similar incidents at military-related buildings, the FBI said Wednesday.

FBI spokeswoman Lindsay Godwin said ballistics tests concluded that the same gun was used in the first four shootings, and preliminary test results also link the latest shooting. The Coast Guard incident was reported Tuesday. No one has been injured in any of the shootings.

No details about the type or caliber of weapon have been released. But investigators previously have said it appeared that the shots were fired from a high-powered rifle.

Five different military buildings in Virginia have been shot at and this is the first we've heard of it???
_____

It's idiotic articles like this that make me want to disown most feminists:

It’s a wise child, they say, that knows its own father. Nowadays, however, wisdom is hardly required; DNA tests can do the job with scientific certainty. For the entire course of human history, men have nursed profound, troubling doubts about the fundamental question of whether or not they were fathers to their own children; women, by contrast, usually enjoyed a reasonable level of certainty about the matter.

Now, a cotton-wool swab with a bit of saliva, plus a small fee, less than £200, can settle the matter. At a stroke, the one thing that women had going for them has been taken away, the one respect in which they had the last laugh over their husbands and lovers. DNA tests are an anti-feminist appliance of science, a change in the balance of power between the sexes that we’ve hardly come to terms with. And that holds true even though many women have the economic potential to provide for their children themselves. [Emphasis mine]

I want to tar and feather this bitch myself for her breathtaking egocentrism and profound stupidity.

Gawd. It's no wonder so many men dislike and distrust women.
_____

For all you people who think only cat people are nuts, think again:

The PAWsitive Therapy Troupe is hard at work preparing to present "A Canine Version of the Nutcracker" in Glen Ellyn and Downers Grove this holiday season. Their 45-minute production will feature 28 dancing therapy dogs and one human, said Becky Jankowski, founder of the troupe, organizer of the show and wife of the human (Don Jankowski).

Some dogs are unleashed for solos, and others perform on leash with their owners in group dances. All are in costume, or as much as a dog will tolerate.

At least cats are smart enough that they'd never put up with this nonsense!
_____

Well, this little piece of news makes me have new respect for Oklahoma voters:

Oklahoma voters have approved a measure that would forbid judges from considering international law or Islamic law when deciding cases.

Republican Rex Duncan, the sponsor of the measure, called it a "pre-emptive strike" designed to close the door on activist judges "legislating from the bench or using international law or Sharia law."

Well done!
_____

Because I just love the guy:


_____

Quote of the Day:

"We've got pigs in there, you've raw meat hanging up...I was there this morning, and it was absolutely disgusting. It smelled foul and looked foul but that's how it should be, so we're happy."

I'm such an idiot fan girl!
_____

Urk. It'll be days until we know who are next Governor will be. I have no idea what the voters in this state were thinking that made the race this close.
_____

The owner of a North Side auto dealership was ordered held on $50,000 bond Wednesday on a weapons charge after police found a gun on his passenger seat and him apparently naked from the waist down inside a Bentley on the Near West Side.

What do you want to bet there was alcohol involved?

Tootin' The Horn

In a recent Chicago Tribune column "Answer Angel" Ellen Warren responded to a reader's question thusly:

I hear this lament all the time, and I totally agree. You'd think that for all those boomers, stores would have a huge selection of dressy dresses. They don't. The search is more frustrating for plus-size women. But I have an answer: separates.

Being a not-small-person myself, I wrote to her:

"In your recent column you mentioned that it is difficult for plus sized women to find beautiful dresses for special occasions in stores. That may be so, but etailers have taken over where retailers refuse to go. And good for them! Here's a smattering of etailers who offer lovely options for dressy occasions at all price points and for all plus size body types." (I listed a bunch of links for etailers like Igigi, Kiyonna and more.)

We emailed back and forth a couple of times, and I thought that was the end of it... but, no! Today I got this heads-up:

I'm going to use some of your suggestions in the column on july 29. I will identify you as “L.S.” if that’s ok!!! I looked at the sites and there’s some wonderful stuff there. You’ve done plus size gals a great service and now I will pass it on. Thanks, Leslie.

How cool is that? Stay tuned...
_____

Fashionable Giggle of the Day:


see more Happy Chair Is Happy

Stomping the Brakes

I don't care what your race, color, creed or political affiliation -- this is simply appalling.

Either Obama brought in appointees with agendas other than those he espoused throughout his presidential campaign OR he knowingly appointed them. In any case, that heads in the Justice Department have not rolled over this debacle is pretty compelling evidence the White House has no problem with any of this.

Just when I think I can't possibly be gobsmacked by the hypocrisy of this administration, I get whomped again.

_____

One little note that you may have missed in there is that J. Christian Adams has joined Pajamas Media. I've kind of resisted registering there before this, but that changed today... and a darned good thing, or I'd have missed this story:

Call it Panthergate, call it what you will. The Department of Justice (or its minions) is already attempting to slime its whistleblower J. Christian Adams — the attorney who recently resigned from the Department over its abandonment of the New Black Panther case.

Now Adams has struck back, telling Pajamas Media that the DOJ’s smears were a “blatant lie.”

Go register.

Interpreting the Signs Along the Way

Having a hard time keeping up with fast-moving developments in the Gulf? Confused by the cacophonous nonsense coming from oil industry hacks and government spokesmouths?

Don’t worry, you’re not alone. Below is a handy timeline that cuts through the absurdity and tells you everything you need to know.

April 20 – An explosion on the oil rig Deepwater Horizon – owned by TransOcean and leased to British Petroleum (BP) – kills 11 workers and injures dozens in the Gulf of Mexico. Within days, the rig sinks in 5,000 feet of water. Industry and government officials insist there is no oil leaking from the site. Few people believe them.

April 24 – BP and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency admit that well, actually, yes, oil is leaking, but only at a rate of 1,000 barrels a day. This number is determined by combining data from an Ouija board, several antique backgammon dice, and a family of capuchin monkeys who throw darts at numbers taped to a wall. (This method is also used to calculate the unemployment rate and other massively understated government statistics.)

April 28 – The Obama administration and BP now say that oil is spilling at a rate “more than originally estimated,” perhaps as much as 5,000 barrels a day. BP insists that “it’s too early to speculate” on the flow rate and flatly refuses to make its capuchin monkeys available for comment.

May 7 – As the scale of the disaster becomes clear, outraged Americans react in typical American fashion: By complaining loudly about oil company greed – and by continuing to consume 20 million barrels of oil a day.

May 11 – In testimony before Congress, BP blames TransOcean. TransOcean blames Halliburton. Halliburton blames TransOcean and BP. Rinse. Repeat.

May 12 – Some Americans begin to ask why a private corporation continues to call the shots on containing the spreading environmental disaster it created. These Americans are quickly labeled socialists, tree-huggers, terrorists, dead-enders, criminal elements, petty thieves, and even “former Ba’athists.” Meanwhile, heavy oil reaches Louisiana’s coastal marshes.

May 13 – Independent scientists studying new video of the massive gusher suggest the flow rate may be as high as 95,000 barrels per day. Viewing the footage for the first time, a spokesperson for BP accidentally says, “Whoa! Look at that sucker go! Ain’t nothin’ gonna stop that thing!” (He is quickly fired.)

May 14 – BP CEO Tony Hayward suggests that the amount of oil released is “tiny” compared to “the total volume of water” in the Gulf of Mexico. A BP spokesman says “it’s too early to speculate” on whether Hayward’s brain is “tiny” when compared to the size of his entire skull – or to the brain of a capuchin monkey.

May 15 – BP again refuses to deploy equipment that could accurately measure the flow rate. A company spokesman actually says, “It’s not relevant to the response effort, and it might even detract from the response effort.” This earns him a Botox Award, given to PR flacks who say ridiculous things with a completely straight face.

May 19 – With options dwindling, the world turns once again to the one man who can save the day. He is contacted by a talking holographic image of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, beamed from a small, beeping robot: “Help us, Kevin Costner. You’re our only hope!” Costner responds by (a) providing technology that filters oil from seawater, and (b) apologizing, yet again, for “Message in a Bottle.”

May 20 – BP tests a new machine (also developed by Kevin Costner!) that takes weeks’ worth of preposterous public relations statements and transforms them into a massive, impenetrable ball of solid waste that can be used to plug leaking oil wells. The company says “it’s too early to speculate” on the machine’s effectiveness, but ramps up its production of “preposterous public relations statements” anyway.

May 21 – Reports surface that a newspaper columnist Bill Shein recently trademarked the phrase, “it’s too early to speculate” and has made millions in royalties from BP and the Obama administration for its use. BP says it’s too early to speculate on how much the columnist will ultimately earn, but that a team of capuchin monkeys are working on an estimate.

(Thanks, Elizabeth!)

_____

Via Calvin's Mom, an explanation of just what "Mr. I'm Responsible" has been up to since the day the well blew. Pryoritteez -- he haz Dem.