Friday - June 03, 2005

My Baby’s Back

Yep, she’s back! You guys out there better stand back. Don’t make me hurt any of you. She’s mine!
(actually, I’ve been in touch with her, off and on, for the last several months - but that’s her secret)

Oooh! My toes are curling .. my heart is racing .. my fever is rising .. pant, pant ........

Posted by The Skipper     on 06/03/2005 at 03:21 PM   
Filed Under: • Personal •  
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Howard Dean Cracks Me Up

Dean says Republicans never worked an honest day in their lives ....

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean yesterday said many Republicans don’t make an “honest living” - the sharpest barb in a campaign-style speech to a conference of liberal activists.

Speaking to the Campaign for America’s Future, Mr. Dean called for easier rules for voting, saying it is difficult for working parents to make it to the polls on time and wait to vote.

“Well, Republicans, I guess, can do that, because a lot of them have never made an honest living in their lives,” Mr. Dean said. “But for ordinary working people, who have to work eight hours a day, they have kids, they got to get home to those kids, the idea of making them stand for eight hours to cast their ballot for democracy is wrong.”

Posted by The Skipper     on 06/03/2005 at 10:16 AM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists •  
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What Media Bias?: Part MMCLVII

Conspiracy to Embarrass The Media?

Anchor Keith Olbermann: “Why does a book in a toilet start riots, but a war doesn’t?...Newsweek first apologizing for the report over the weekend, and then late this afternoon, formally retracting the story....Something smells funny to me about this Newsweek apology, then retraction. Do you sense the same thing, and what the heck are we smelling?”

MSNBC Analyst Craig Crawford: “...This is a pattern we’ve seen before, Keith. We saw it in the CBS case, as bad as the supposedly fake memorandum that Dan Rather used in the 60 Minutes report on Bush’s National Guard service, as bad as that was, they did show it to the administration ahead of time. It does make you wonder if sometimes they set up the news media.”

— MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann, May 16.
_{(-- courtesy of Media Research Center)}

Posted by The Skipper     on 06/03/2005 at 09:48 AM   
Filed Under: • Media-Bias •  
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Losing The Best

You all remember Second Lt. Ilario Pantano, right? The Marine who was accused of shooting two Iraqis in the back and hanging a sign on them - but who was cleared and charges dropped last week? Well, today he announced he has requested a discharge and wants to leave the Corps ....

WILMINGTON, N.C.—A Marine Corps lieutenant cleared of murder charges for riddling two Iraqis with bullets and hanging a warning sign on their corpses says he now plans to ask for a discharge.

Second Lt. Ilario Pantano said Thursday his fight against the charges was tiring and heartbreaking. The former Wall Street trader had returned to the Marines after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

“This is the best thing for my family, and I think it is the best thing for the Marine Corps, too,” he said.

This is sad. The young man was unjustly accused, pilloried by the media and put through a torturous trial .. for what? So the MSM could have another shot at President Bush and the Iraq war? I’m getting sick and tired of the media’s second-guessing of our troops and making false accusations. I’d bet none of them ever served in the military much less served during wartime.

They have no idea how much damage they are causing or else they just don’t care. This young troop is a case in point. He did the job he was hired to do. In return, he was made a pawn in the ongoing battle between the press and the White House. This is sad. Truly sad. We will continue to lose the best troops and new enlistments will be down as long as the media war continues. What can the honest citizens of America do to help our troops in this war against the media? We can tune them out. Totally. Ignore them and boycott their advertisers. Put them out of business. It’s the only way ....

Posted by The Skipper     on 06/03/2005 at 09:24 AM   
Filed Under: • Media-Bias • Military •  
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Most Outrageous Item Of The Day

Man works at methane plant. Methane is highly flammable. Man goes into porta-potty. Fumes in porta-potty are highly flammable. Man lights cigarette while “meditating”. Man explodes. Man sues porta-potty manufacturer. “S**t happens” is no longer a valid defense. Stupidity rules.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - A Pennsylvania man injured when a portable toilet exploded is suing a general contractor and a coal company for negligence.

John Jenkins, 53, and his wife Ramona Jenkins, 35, of Brave, Pa., filed the lawsuit in Monongalia County Circuit Court on Tuesday. They are suing Chisler Inc., a general contractor from Fairview, and Eastern Associated Coal Corp. for $10 million in damages.

The explosion occurred July 13, 2004, at Parrish Shaft in Blacksville. Jenkins, a North West Fuels Development Inc. methane power plant operator, entered a portable toilet, sat down and tried to light a cigarette.

“When I struck the lighter, the whole thing just detonated — the whole top blew off,” John Jenkins said. “I can’t tell you if it blew me out the door or if I jumped out.”

Posted by The Skipper     on 06/03/2005 at 06:25 AM   
Filed Under: • Judges-Courts-Lawyers • Stoopid-People •  
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Knights Who Say “NO”

_{Mike Thompson, Detroit, Michigan, The Detroit Free Press}

Posted by The Skipper     on 06/03/2005 at 06:16 AM   
Filed Under: • Media-Bias •  
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   Thursday - June 02, 2005

Beer History

How Beer Became The Root Cause of Our Political System…

Division of the human family into two distinct political groups began some 5,000 years ago. Humans existed as members of small bands of nomadic hunter/gatherers. They lived on deer in the mountains in winter and in the summer & would go to the beach & live on fish & lobster.

The two most important events in all of history were the invention of beer & the invention of the wheel. The wheel was invented to get man to the beer. These were the foundations of modern civilization & together were the catalyst for the splitting of humanity into two distinct subgroups:

Liberals & Conservatives.

Once beer was discovered, it required grain & that was the beginning of agriculture. Neither the glass bottle nor aluminum can were invented yet, so while our early human ancestors were sitting around waiting for them to be invented, they just stayed close to the brewery. That’s how villages were formed.

Some men spent their days tracking & killing animals to BBQ at night while they were drinking beer. This was the beginning of what is known as “the Conservative movement.”

Other men who were weaker & less skilled at hunting learned to live off the conservatives by showing up for the nightly BBQ’s & doing the sewing,fetching & hair dressing. This was the beginning of the Liberal movement.

Some of these liberal men eventually evolved into women. The rest became known as ‘girleymen.’ Some noteworthy liberal achievements include the domestication of cats, the invention of group therapy & group hugs & the concept of Democratic voting to decide how to divide the meat & beer that conservatives provided.

Over the years conservatives came to be symbolized by the largest, most powerful land animal on earth, the elephant. Liberals are symbolized by the jackass. Modern liberals like imported beer (with lime added), but most prefer white wine or imported bottled water. They eat raw fish, but like their beef well done. Sushi, tofu, & French food are standard liberal fare. Another interesting evolutionary side note: most of their women have higher testosterone levels than their men.

Most social workers, personal injury attorneys, journalists, dreamers in Hollywood & group therapists are liberals. Liberals invented the designated hitter rule because it wasn’t “fair” to make the pitcher bat.

Conservatives drink domestic beer. They eat red meat & still provide for their women. Conservatives are big-game hunters, rodeo cowboys, lumberjacks, construction workers, firemen, medical doctors, police officers,corporate executives, soldiers, athletes & generally anyone who works productively outside government. Conservatives who own companies hire other conservatives who want to work for a living.

Liberals produce little or nothing. They like to “govern” the producers & decide what to do with the production.

Liberals believe Europeans are more enlightened than Americans. That is why most of the liberals remained in Europe when conservatives were coming to America. They crept in after the Wild West was tame & created a business of trying to get MORE for nothing.

Here ends today’s lesson in world political history.

Tomorrow we talk about coffee now that we understand beer.

(-- thanks to Steve C.)

Posted by The Skipper     on 06/02/2005 at 05:27 PM   
Filed Under: • Humor •  
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Unfair And Unbalanced

Runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks, left, leaves the Gwinnett County courthouse with her attorney, Lydia Sartain, in Lawrenceville, Ga., Thursday, June 2, 2005. Wilbanks pleaded no contest Thursday to a felony charge and wept as she was sentenced to probation, community service and a fine. (AP Photo/Ric Feld)

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. - With her once-jilted fiance at her side, runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks pleaded no contest Thursday to a felony charge and wept as she was sentenced to probation, community service and a fine.

“I’m truly sorry for my actions and I just want to thank Gwinnett County and the city of Duluth,” a crying Wilbanks told the judge as she pleaded to a charge of making a false statement.

She was sentenced to two years of probation and 120 hours of community service. The judge also ordered her to continue mental health treatment and pay the sheriff’s office $2,550.

If she successfully completes her probation, the felony will be erased from her record, Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter said.

Wilbanks, whose disappearance before her wedding in April created a nationwide sensation, was wearing a black outfit and running shoes as she arrived at the Gwinnett County courthouse Thursday to make her plea. Her fiance John Mason, whom she was to have married April 30 in a lavish ceremony, was by her side.

After the judge handed down the sentence, the attorneys approached the bench to discuss the case and Wilbanks sat alone at the defendant’s table, hugging herself and sobbing quietly. Mason sat several rows behind her, watching in silence. The two did not share any words or glances as Wilbanks’ attorney escorted her out of the courtroom after the hearing.

Posted by The Skipper     on 06/02/2005 at 11:44 AM   
Filed Under: • Crime • Stoopid-People •  
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An Offer They Can’t Refuse

Linux geeks will rule the world one day. In fact, they (we) already may do so ....

This is power that Microsoft, Oracle, IBM and many governments could only dream of having. The power to control the press and the skills contained in this organization are likely capable of disrupting travel, power grids and other broad national infrastructure systems if their demands are not met.

In many companies there exists a huge difference in compensation between the management (particularly the CEOs) and the folks that actually make and service the products. There is also an increasing tendency for executives to treat employees (particularly IT employees) as disposable assets, and you have what appears to be an increasing lack of respect for the competence of management in the industry.

Kidding aside, Linux and open source has penetrated most technical schools, government IT shops, and technology companies. Its membership, while not officially listed, is easily in the millions of people who believe in or support their version of the concept of open source, which Linux, to them, represents. There may not be a great deal of agreement on the terms, but the group can act as a group and has the tools to coordinate that action.

Those tools are based on the richness of the Internet, newsletters and blogs with RSS feeds, and more traditional technical publications the Linux faithful can be directed to act with some degree of confidence. The battle with SCO was a case in point: At no time in history has a technology firm been as thoroughly attacked as SCO has been since their litigation with IBM (over Linux) started.

SCO has experienced massive Denial of Service attacks, the company’s customer base has been inundated, their funding sources have been strangled, their executive leadership has been threatened, and their ability to function has been almost completely eliminated. In what has been a massive and loosely coordinated effort, a multi-million dollar company backed by a strong legal team has been all but put out of business, and this couldn’t have happened without some form of organization. Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), with all of its resources, seems powerless against the massive engine represented by Linux, and its supporters often appear as an endangered species during a government-approved hunting season.

Posted by The Skipper     on 06/02/2005 at 11:15 AM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
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Social Security Reform, Part XXIV

President Bush’s health care agenda is introduced in the House and Senate.  Individuals would be able to deduct the cost of HSA insurance.  Senator John Kerry (D-MA) fought this because Group Employee Health Insurance would lose market share to individual insurance companies.  Another part of this legislation would give a refundable tax credit to small employers, under 100 employees, for employer deposits in employees’ HSAs.  But the employee must be on a Group Employee HSA Plan.  So this is discrimination against employees who have individual HSA insurance.  President Bush never demanded that clause.

But most importantly this legislation has a refundable tax credit for the poor to purchase HSA insurance.  Here the dynamics go crazy.  Large Group Health insurance companies know that employees are not going to pay $400 a month to add their families onto their employer’s plan if they can get HSA insurance for practically free from the government.  So young healthy people leave the Employee Plan and old sick people remain.  Employee Group Health Insurance plans would be in more trouble.  Like President Bush said, “Own your home, own your health insurance and own a piece of your retirement.”

On May 9, Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) and Representatives Sam Johnson (R-TX), Eric Cantor (R-VA), Paul Ryan (R-WI), and J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ) introduced bills S. 978 and H.R. 1872, the Healthcare Tax Relief for the Uninsured Act of 2005, to enact into law key elements of President George W. Bush’s health care agenda.

According to a summary on Ryan’s Web site, the bills would implement three new programs to make insurance more affordable:

Premium deductibility. An individual who purchases a high-deductible health plan (HDHP) combined with a health savings account (HSA) and does not receive health insurance through an employer or government program would be allowed to deduct from his or her taxable income the amount of the premium.

Small business tax credit. Small businesses of up to 100 employees would receive a refundable tax credit for contributions they make to their employees’ health savings accounts (up to $200 for a contribution into an individual HSA or $500 for a family HSA). In order to be eligible for the credit, the employer must offer a group high-deductible health plan.

Low-income tax credit for the purchase of health insurance. In order to help low-income people get coverage, the legislation provides a subsidy of up to 90 percent of the cost of their health insurance premiums--up to $1,000 for an individual or $3,000 for a family plan. The credit would be refundable, advanceable, and assignable, meaning the money could go directly to the insurer chosen by the low-income insured.

For more information ...

The Senate version of the Healthcare Tax Relief for the Uninsured Act of 2005 is available online at:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c109:S.978:.

To download the House version, go to:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/D?d109:13:./temp/~bdG2oC::.

Posted by Z Woof     on 06/02/2005 at 10:31 AM   
Filed Under: • Social-Security •  
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Nuke France

We invaded Baghdad, took out Saddam Hussein, scared the crap out of the other Arab dictators and convinced Kadaffi Duck to give up his nuclear projects. Now France is going to help him restart his nuclear plans ....

France will “soon” offer Libya a cooperation agreement to help Tripoli develop its civilian nuclear energy program, the French foreign ministry said Tuesday.

“The principle of cooperation in the area of peaceful applications of nuclear energy is a given, but the content has yet to be defined. We’re still in the exploratory phase,” said ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei.

“We will soon offer an agreement to the Libyans on what can be done,” the spokesman told reporters.

France’s ambassador to Tripoli on Monday handed Libyan Foreign Minister Abdelrahman Shalgham an official note announcing France’s readiness to cooperate with Tripoli on its nuclear power projects, officials said.

The note changed hands before French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin presented his resignation, and that of his government, on Tuesday.

During a visit by President Jacques Chirac last November, Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi said his nation had renounced weapons of mass destruction and hoped that the transfer of technology would permit the oil-rich nation to develop a nuclear program for peaceful means.

On that occasion Chirac—the first French head of state to visit Tripoli since Libyan independence from Italy in 1951—vowed to forge a “true partnership” with Libya.

Posted by The Skipper     on 06/02/2005 at 08:02 AM   
Filed Under: • International •  
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Deep S**t

_{Mike Lester, Rome News-Tribune, Rome, GA}

Posted by The Skipper     on 06/02/2005 at 07:47 AM   
Filed Under: • Humor •  
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   Wednesday - June 01, 2005

Call For Papers

Go ahead. Give it your best shot, people. Submit your paper today. You might even get published. Yes, this is for real (but that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun with it) ....

Call for Papers

Toilet Papers: The Gendered Construction of Public Toilets

Editors:
Olga Gershenson (University of Massachusetts-Amherst)
Barbara Penner (University College-London)

“You know what they say about men who hang around women’s lavatories. They’re asking to have their illusions shattered.”
- Georgina to Albert, The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover

We invite contributions for the edited collection “Toilet Papers: The Gendered Construction of Public Toilets”.

Public toilets are amenities with a functional, even a civic, purpose. Yet they also act as the unconscious of public spaces. They can be a haven: a place to regain composure, to ‘check one’s face,’ or to have a private chat. But they are also sexually-charged and transgressive spaces that shelter illicit sexual practices and act as a cultural repository for taboos and fantasies.

This collection will work from the premise that public toilets, far from being banal or simply functional, are highly charged spaces, shaped by notions of propriety, hygiene and the binary gender division. Indeed, public toilets are among the very few openly segregated spaces in contemporary Western culture, and the physical differences between ‘gentlemen’ and ‘ladies’ remains central to (and is further naturalized by) their design. As such, they provide a fertile ground for critical work interrogating how conventional assumptions about the body, sexuality, privacy, and technology can be formed in public space and inscribed through design.

We welcome papers which explore the cultural meanings, histories, and ideologies of the public toilet as a gendered space. Any subject is appropriate: toilet design and signage, toilet humour and euphemisms, personal narratives and legal cases, as well as art sited in public toilets. We invite submissions in the format of traditional academic papers of no more than 7000 words (including footnotes).

We also welcome the submissions of design and art projects that expose the gendered nature of the ‘functional’ toilet spaces and objects.

Papers may be submitted to:

Posted by Drew458     on 06/01/2005 at 06:02 PM   
Filed Under: • Colleges-Professors • Science-Technology •  
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HEL NR! (Hell No!)

Turnout was high and by a two to one margin (63% to 37%) Dutch voters voiced a resounding “NR” to the EU Constitution.

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - Dutch voters overwhelmingly rejected the
European Union constitution Wednesday, the prime minister said, in what could be a knockout blow for the charter roundly defeated just days ago by France.

Less than an hour after the polls closed, Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende conceded defeat in his campaign to ratify the constitution and said the government would respect the results of the referendum.

“Naturally, I’m very disappointed,” he said in a televised statement.

An exit poll broadcast by state-financed NOS television said the constitution failed by a vote of 63 percent to 37 percent, an even worse defeat than the 55 percent “no” vote in France’s referendum Sunday.

Turnout was 62 percent, far exceeding even the most optimistic expectations and a reflection of the heated debate in recent days over an issue that has polarized Europeans. Dutch liberals worried a more united EU could weaken liberal social policies, while conservatives feared losing control of immigration.

Although the referendum was consultative, the high turnout and the decisive margin left no room for the Dutch parliament to turn its back on the people’s verdict. The parliament meets Thursday to discuss the results.

Posted by The Skipper     on 06/01/2005 at 03:56 PM   
Filed Under: • International •  
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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
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It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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