Monday - August 16, 2010

OBAMA?  KAPUT?  ALREADY?  We’ll see come elections …

No point in reprinting everything here so ....  Read the whole thing here.

IS OBAMA KAPUT?

I can only hope that liberalism is actually growing weaker.  You sure don’t see that in California, and I’m from a pretty conservative place there. I’ll believe liberalism is weaker when I see those 5th column SOBs like the aclu, the splc, amnasty (sent packing out of our country) and the like lose power and influence. Sadly, I do not see that in the future.  Those bums will remain as they are now. A cancer on the body politic. 

Anyway, this is worth a peek.  Although I suppose it confirms what we’ve all known for awhile. So maybe there isn’t really anything new here.

Off topic ....
Thanks much Christopher for keeping us alive this wkend.  I haven’t been up to much lately. 

Barack Obama has made it clear that he doesn’t believe in American exceptionalism, and has made apologising for his country into an art form.

The stunning decline of Barack Obama:

10 key reasons why the Obama presidency is in meltdown

By Nile Gardiner

The last few weeks have been a nightmare for President Obama, in a summer of discontent in the United States which has deeply unsettled the ruling liberal elites, so much so that even the Left has begun to turn against the White House. While the anti-establishment Tea Party movement has gained significant ground and is now a rising and powerful political force to be reckoned with, many of the president’s own supporters as well as independents are rapidly losing faith in Barack Obama, with open warfare breaking out between the White House and the left-wing of the Democratic Party. While conservatism in America grows stronger by the day, the forces of liberalism are growing increasingly weaker and divided.

I read something interesting re. elections and O. come 2012.  Someone has suggested a good move to save his presidency in 2012, would be to dump Biden and get Hillary to run as VP. Say whatever we will about both, but that would make one interesting ticket. And a scary one too cos ya know, it just could work.
Never discount anything as not possible.  Hey ... the sky could actually damn well fall. Just cos it hasn’t yet doesn’t mean ....

   Sunday - August 15, 2010

Weekend Parodies

Wow! I was looking on YouTube for Bored of the Rings postings. I found some but they were…boring.

But, the Lord of the Rings parodies were…well…

I post, you decide.

Gods! The things I watch for BMEWS…

“Okay. Let’s get this bitch to Mt. Doom!”  

Education?

Remember when going to school meant you got an education?

I gave a speech at my local Toastmaster’s club about this. I remember being anxious about 4th grade. Seems that 4th grade had a hard subject called ‘Civics’. I’d never had ‘Civics’ before. It had the biggest, heaviest textbook. (good thing I lived right across the alley from the school. Back then me and my sisters went home for lunch. But that’s for another post.) You studied the Constitution, three branches of government, etc. Mom was the one who made me anxious: she didn’t like ‘Civics’ class when she was in school. She thought it was ‘hard’.

As it turned out, I found it an easy subject. We’d already covered similar subjects in Indiana history and government in 3rd grade. (I wonder what do they teach now in 3rd grade?) But… they were preaching the ‘living Constitution’ nonsense we’ve come to expect from liberals. At that time I thought it was neat. But I was thinking that the ‘living’ part meant the amendment process. I got a bit older and found out how wrong I was…

This also made it into my Toastmaster speech: my sister, two years younger than me, didn’t have ‘Civics’ in 4th grade. Ditto for my baby sister two years after her. Coincidence? A plan to dumb down the electorate? Or were the NEA ‘teachers’ just too stupid to teach the subject?

I report; You decide.

It’s Sunday!

It’s Sunday! That means we go to church. And we watch baseball. Why not combine the two?

I really wanted to use this YouTube version, but ‘embedding was disabled by request.’ You need to watch that to find out who ‘he who has not sinned’ is.

We Christians can laugh and make fun of ourselves. We’re ‘tolerant enough’ to handle ridicule.

Now, my question is: can Muslims handle ridicule? Can Islam survive humor? The prima facie evidence would suggest that followers of Islam are so insecure in their false religion that they overreact to any slight.

   Saturday - August 14, 2010

The next liberal ‘Chicken Little’ government pandemic.

They (Government) tried the ‘bird flu’. They tried the ‘swine’ flu. No ‘pandemics’ actually occurred. It’s so embarrassing that the UN recently declared the ‘swine’, or H1N1, pandemic over. It never started!

But here’s the newest crisis: The era of antibiotics is coming to a close.

No. Really.

In just a couple of generations, what once appeared to be miracle medicines have been beaten into ineffectiveness by the bacteria they were designed to knock out. Once, scientists hailed the end of infectious diseases. Now, the post-antibiotic apocalypse is within sight.

Hyperbole? Unfortunately not. The highly serious journal Lancet Infectious Diseases yesterday posed the question itself over a paper revealing the rapid spread of multi-drug-resistant bacteria. “Is this the end of antibiotics?” it asked.

Doctors and scientists have not been complacent, but the paper by Professor Tim Walsh and colleagues takes the anxiety to a new level. Last September, Walsh published details of a gene he had discovered, called NDM 1, which passes easily between types of bacteria called enterobacteriaceae such as E. coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae and makes them resistant to almost all of the powerful, last-line group of antibiotics called carbapenems. Yesterday’s paper revealed that NDM 1 is widespread in India and has arrived here as a result of global travel and medical tourism for, among other things, transplants, pregnancy care and cosmetic surgery.

“In many ways, this is it,” Walsh tells me. “This is potentially the end. There are no antibiotics in the pipeline that have activity against NDM 1-producing enterobacteriaceae. We have a bleak window of maybe 10 years, where we are going to have to use the antibiotics we have very wisely, but also grapple with the reality that we have nothin

Now, we all know that some of this is true. My mother lost most of her leg to a MRSA infection she caught in the hospital. But, she’d have never gotten it if she’d taken her medicine as prescribed. If she’d done that, she’d never been in the hospital to catch MRSA. So we know there’s just enough truth to this.

What is the solution? The usual liberal solution to any problem. Can you guess?

Beyond that, there is a real need to conserve those antibiotics we have. “To me, it has many parallels with the problems of energy in economies around the world,” he says. Carbon trading was dreamed up to try to conserve oil and reduce its pollutant effects. There have now been a couple of interesting papers suggesting a Pigouvian tax – which he defines as one levied on an agent causing an environmental problem as an incentive to mitigate that problem – for antibiotics.

Like oil, he points out, antibiotic usefulness is finite. And the cost of drug resistance is not reflected in the price of the drug. “If you consider antibiotic sensitivity as a resource like oil, you want to maintain that by introducing a tax,” he says. It would be worldwide and the proceeds could fund new drug development.

I don’t understand why anyone listens to liberals. Their solution to any problem is…TAX IT!

Move along. No bias here. Nothing to see.

From the Washington Post:

This is the how Steven Pearlstein starts off his ‘Business News’ article:

As a general rule, whenever you hear special-interest groups using near-hysterical language to warn that some proposal will destroy jobs, snuff out innovation and end free-market capitalism as we know it, you can generally assume that progress is being made.

Huh? This is ‘news’? This is nothing but hyperbole and Pearlstein’s opinion masquerading as a news article.

However, he is correct. We can indeed assume that ‘progress’ is being made: destroying jobs, snuffing out innovation, ending free-market capitalism (as an aside, I’ve never lived under ‘free-market’ capitalism. I’m 50+ yrs old. I’d like to try such capitalism before I die.) is indeed ‘progress’ according to the Social Leftist-Statist neo-journalists like Pearlstein.

You can go read the rest of the article which is basically about ‘net neutrality’. I’ve never had a problem with the net being neutral. It isn’t broke. Leave it alone. It doesn’t need an ‘ObaMessiah’ fix.

“Progress just means bad things happen faster.”
–Granny Weatherwax, Witches Abroad

Re: Eva Mendes Sex Tape

Here’s another sex tape. I’ve posted it below the fold due to the graphic nature of the subject.

My first Demotivator

This is my first attempt at creating a demotivator. Not up to the Skipper’s standards, but I liked the result.

Study finds Roman charioteers were very big earners ….

Found this today and was totally fascinated.  Who would ever have thought?

Leaving the computer for the rest of the day.  Persistent cough, pharmacy told me this stuff would make me drowsy.  I didn’t believe it coz every time I have seen that on a bottle or box it has never been true where I was concerned.  But not today.  All I can do to keep head upright and besides, I don’t think I actually shook off that damn bug I had two weeks ago.  Hmmm.  Maybe I shouldn’t have followed the cough liquid with the anti cough pills I took.
Hey ... desperate times call for desperate measures.  Damn cough really bothersome.  Damp cold wet day all day.

Not sure about tomorrow gang so have a good weekend ....and stay tuned.

Wealth of today’s sports stars is ‘no match for the fortunes of Rome’s chariot racers’
Roman charioteers earned far more than even the best-paid footballers and international sports stars of today, according to academic research.

By Murray Wardrop

While golfer Tiger Woods was heralded last year as the first athlete to earn over $1 billion, the figure would apparently have been small beer for the fearless entertainers of the Circus Maximus.
One charioteer, named Gaius Appuleius Diocles, amassed a fortune 35,863,120 sesterces in prize money – the equivalent of $15 billion (£9.6 billion), claims Peter Struck, a professor of classical studies.

The 2nd century “champion of all charioteers” made his fortune even without the sponsorship and marketing fees that bolster the pay of his modern counterparts in the sporting world.
The extent of his riches is recorded on a monumental inscription erected in Rome in 146AD by his fellow charioteers and fans.
Prof Struck, from the University of Chicago, calculated that Diocles’s wealth would have been enough to fund the entire Roman Army for more than two months at the height of its imperial reach.

“By today’s standards that last figure, assuming the apt comparison is what it takes to pay the wages of the American armed forces for the same period, would cash out to about $15 billion,” said Prof Struck.
“Even without his dalliances, it is doubtful Tiger could have matched it. Tiger was never all that well paid when compared with the charioteers of ancient Rome.”
The higher level of pay did not come without its perils for Diocles and his contemporaries. With little more than a leather helmet, shin guards and simple chest armour for protection, racers endured seven gruelling laps of competition, which often ended in the deaths of rivals unfortunate enough to be upended.

Competitors were affiliated to teams – not dissimilar to those of today’s Formula 1 – which invested in training and development of horses and equipment. Like Diocles, who retired aged 42, they were usually drawn from the lower orders of society.
Writing in the history magazine Lapham’s Quarterly, Prof Struck, undergraduate chair of classical studies, says: “The very best paid of these – in fact, the best paid athlete of all time – was a Lusitanian Spaniard named Gaius Appuleius Diocles.

“Twenty-four years of winnings brought Diocles – likely an illiterate man whose signature move was the strong final dash – the staggering sum of 35,863,120 sesterces in prize money.
“His total take home amounted to five times the earnings of the highest paid provincial governors over a similar period—enough to provide grain for the entire city of Rome for one year, or to pay all the ordinary soldiers of the Roman Army at the height of its imperial reach for a fifth of a year.”

ROME SOURCE

AT GROUND ZERO …. IS THIS A CASE OF A MOSQUE WHOSE TIME HAS COME?

In a free country, I believe folks have a god given right to be stupid without being arrested for it.  Unless that is, their stupidity causes harm or danger to others.
Being being just plain silly is another right everyone has.  And I suppose being insensitive to others should not be thought of as a crime. 
Now then ... Brit papers have been covering the angst and anger with regard to a muslim center along with an attached mosque, or perhaps it’s just a room in a building, to be built near ground zero in N.Y.

I think if muslims own the property, and they apparently do, they have a right to do whatever the heck they want to do with property they paid for. They have that right in law.  But it’s quite insensitive and inconsiderate to go ahead with that project.  The idea of a muslim anything in or within miles of ground zero, I find intolerable.  But they have the right.  If they have the brains god gave a tennis ball, they would realize how Americans might feel about their plans to build a mosque there.  So the right to be stupid also comes into play here. 

I’ve heard any number of ppl say that on 9/11, there were muslims who also were killed but who go ignored.  In fact, there were quite a large number of them killed that day.  There were even some who were members of fire and police depts and deaths among them too.  I acknowledge that and btw, some were actually Americans but members of the ROP.  We can not hold that against them.  BUT ....  Somehow deep inside I still do not approve of people exercising their right to be insensitive in this particular case.

Sometimes, some things are beyond the pale.  Sometimes, people should not be allowed to exercise a right in so sensitive an area.  Or a right to do stupid things.
Someone didn’t think this one through.

Or, Maybe they did.

Barack Obama’s Ground Zero mosque plea will cost him and the Democrats votes

President Barack Obama’s intervention in the row over the Ground Zero mosque plan will cost the Democrats votes, argues William Lowther in Washington

by William Lowther in Washington

By charging headlong into the ferocious controversy over the plan to build a mosque near Ground Zero, President Barack Obama may have further damaged Democratic Party prospects in the upcoming mid-term elections.

For while his return to the soaring rhetoric that won him the White House in the first place will be popular with hard-core liberal supporters, it is unlikely to capture the hearts of middle-America this year.

According to the NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll, 52 per cent of Americans disapprove of Mr Obama’s handling of the economy; 45 per cent disapprove of his handling of the Afghanistan war; 40 per cent say the country is worse off since he became president.

Mr Obama has lost the political high ground and on the mosque issue - where emotions are far more likely than logic to win the argument - his stand will not go down well at the voting booths in November.

THE MOSQUE AT GROUND ZERO

   Friday - August 13, 2010

A Drop In The Bucket

More Border Bullshit

$26 Billion for teachers and medicaid
$600 Million to protect the borders


This is an insult. It’s not even smoke and mirrors. It’s a puff of mist and a little shiny bit of tin foil.

The Senate on Thursday voted to hire 1,000 more U.S. Border Patrol agents as part of a $600 million border security bill, acting swiftly in the hours before they left to face constituents during their five-week summer vacation.

Sen. Charles E. Schumer, the New York Democrat who is spearheading his party’s immigration efforts, said the money shows Congress is committed to border security as a down payment on eventually legalizing illegal immigrants.

“I’m for comprehensive immigration reform. I think that’s the way to go. And I’m continuing to work on it,” Mr. Schumer said. “But we’ve always said we should do border security first. This is border security first.”

Fuck you Chucky. You pro-amnesty cock sucker. $600 million isn’t even peanuts. It’s one peanut, and a moldy one at that.

Republicans, led by Sen. John McCain, had offered their own proposals which would deploy more agents to the border and expand detention of illegal border crossers, but Mr. McCain said Mr. Schumer’s bill was “a significant step forward.”

Fuck you too Juan McAmnesty. Turncoat. Bread yeast can look at the words “Republicans, lead by Sen. John McCain” and realize there’s something wrong. You are no Republican. You’re barely even a RINO. You’re a back stabbing liberal sycophant. We don’t like you, and we sure as hell don’t trust you. And when it comes to border security and illegal aliens, your track record proves that every word out of your mouth is a lie.

Hey, remember Bush’s border fence? Remember that bad joke? Recall how it was going to be mostly “virtual” fencing, and use cameras and UAVs and stuff instead of landmines and concertina wire? Did you ever wonder what happened to that? Well, all these years later, and it’s almost complete. Almost. Except for several dozens major holes, and an empty area across almost the entire Texas border. Fat lot of good that does. gee whiz. And don’t forget how Bush, and Obama too, both sent extra National Guard troops down there to help out. And armed them only with cell phones. No guns, no bullets. No use.

Senate Democrats said they’ve now proved they are “serious” about security and that it’s time to restart talks on legalizing illegal immigrants.

The Senate called a special session in the middle of its five-week August break just and passed the bill with the consent of all 100 senators. The House approved it earlier this week, and Mr. Obama has signaled he will sign the measure, calling border security “a top priority.”

The bill funds 1,000 new U.S. Border Patrol agents, as well as 250 Customs and Border Protection officers and two more unmanned aerial vehicles.

Proved? You ain’t proved a damn thing. When I see dozens and dozens of extra long passenger trains running every day, shipping illegals to points south, I’ll start to believe in “serious”. When I see TV news footage of the 10,000 illegals arrested and deported EVERY SINGLE DAY I’ll have the smallest bit of faith in your actions. When ICE starts doing it’s job, and the feds stop blocking states like Arizona from trying to pick up the slack, then we’ll have some proof. Some Change that I can Hope I can believe in. Until then, you’re all a bunch of lying pansies.

It’s taken the House and Senate several tries over the past months to agree on the contents of the bill and how it should be paid for. Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, D-Ariz., said that throughout this legislative back-and-forth she had worked “to make sure that Congress knows that we are fed up with the federal government’s failure along the border.” She said that with Senate action, “at least this time, they are listening to us.”

Immigration and Customs Enforcement director John Morton, on a visit to Phoenix, said his agency removed a record number of illegal immigrants from the country in the fiscal year ending last September. According to ICE numbers, some 387,000 were removed, of whom 35 percent were convicted criminals. Through the beginning of August this year, about half the 294,000 who have been deported were criminals, also a record level.

This is the same John Morton who got a unanimous no-confidence vote from all the ICE worker bees. The same one who just made a visit to the southwest that was derided by top state officials as a BS photo-op. So should we believe his numbers? I think not.

Don’t let this pissant publicity stunt fool you. Washington is NOT serious about border security. Neither side of the aisle. They WANT the US to become a turd world cesspool overrun with non-assimilating foreigners. They WANT the new slave class. Because they are the ELITE and they are in charge. And you, peasant, can pay for it. And you’ll be so impressed that these elected liars made the unprecedented EXTREME EFFORT to come back to work in the middle of their FIVE WEEK SUMMER VACATION (which has nothing to do with their fall recess, their mid-winter break, or their spring recess you know) for a couple of days, that you’ll run to the polls in November and vote them all in again.

I haven’t been on an actual vacation since 1999. Screw all these bastards; vote ‘em out. This bill is nothing. And Chucky Schumer is an oozing sack of snake oil. You want secure borders? Hey, guess what? Our military is involved in wars in desert nations. Against non-uniformed insurgents. I’d think border patrol would be great training for them. Especially since Mexico seems to be having something like a civil war just the other side of the wire.

UPDATE: Oh you dirty low down motor forkers. You summuna beaches.

Via Volokh via Malkin, it turns out that this $600 million is being paid for by a) increasing the H-1B visa charge, which violate a WTO agreement and will be shot down, and thus provide no funding; and b) taking money away from the border fence building project.

Much was made of the fact that these increases were “paid for.” That’s true, sort of.  It looks as though a lot of it was “paid for” by canceling hundreds of millions of dollars in fence-building and air security spending.
...
But there could easily be a WTO challenge to the new fee.  In a dumb move that hasn’t recently been repeated, the US long ago agreed at the WTO that it would always allow at least 65,000 H-1B visa holders to enter the country.  I would not be surprised to see India challenge the new fee on a couple of WTO grounds

So we’re getting “added” border security by NOT building more fence, and instead spending the money on UAVs, which the FAA won’t allow anyone to fly over US territory. Bottom line: less border security, no actual added funding. In other words, this is total bullshit legislation. All is does is shuffle the money around a little, robbing Peter to pay Peter. A photo-op for the left as we go into election season. Well, that settles it! Everybody grab a broom, it’s Shenanigans!

   Thursday - August 12, 2010

International Interconnectivity

Will New Constitution In Kenya
Save Millions of Lives In India?



Or at least lower prices here in the USA?


You may have heard, Kenya just voted themselves a new constitution. On Obama’s birthday. And they did it without killing each other or rioting in the streets. Thumbs up Kenya!

Kenyans have today approved a new constitution in a landmark referendum vote. Thank you, fellow Kenyans! And welcome to Kenya 2.0! This new constitution - which is probably one of the best in Africa, if not the best - is redefining Kenya and is indeed a very historic moment signalling a new dawn for East Africa’s most vibrant economy. The wind of change has blown through our country, and we should all be ready to contribute to the building of a great nation, creating an example for Africa, and becoming an important and respected player in the world. This time for Africa, our time for change has come.

Yesterday Kenya defied expectations. Voting in a referendum on a new constitution was peaceful, and yet the changes this piece of paper could make are potentially momentous. It would introduce an impeachable president, MPs recallable by their constituents, a land commission to look at historic injustices, an expanded bill of rights, a reformed judiciary. These are causes for which generations of opposition leaders have fought. It took a fraud-plagued election in 2007, in which Kenya teetered on the edge of civil war, to put this on the agenda, as a requirement of the peace deal. But, if the opinion polls are correct, it will happen. It is not a magic wand, but – as Maina Kiai, a former chairman of the Kenya national commission on human rights, said – it is a chance for a new beginning.

Not that it will be easy

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The passage of Kenya’s new constitution ends a decades-long struggle to cut down the massive powers of the presidency, although it now will take up to five years to implement all the changes approved in this week’s referendum.

New institutions such as a Supreme Court and a Senate must now be formed. The country’s judiciary is to face a vetting process aimed at ridding it of corrupt or incompetent judges. And Parliament will have to pass 49 new laws under a timetable.

“Kenyans can’t just sit back and relax. We have to pay attention now to the criteria and process of appointing people to the commission that is responsible for implementation. That is going to be the first big political battle in terms of interests,” said Muthoni Wanyeki, the executive director of the independent Kenya Human Rights Commission.

But they’ve got to try, waka waka eh eh? And when they say radical, they mean it. Land reform plays a prominent role in their new document, attempting to both rid themselves of colonial holdovers and even out past injustices; former Kenyan Presidents always set things up for their own tribes at the expense of all the others. So Kenya is really going to level the playing fields. And the growing fields as well.

One of the clauses allows parliament to set a limit on the maximum and minimum acreage of land that can be owned by any individual, clearly a cause of concern to Kenya’s landowners. All other land outside the minimum or maximum bracket will revert to the state.

Those who have huge tracts of land come mostly from the Kikuyu community, which has produced two presidents (Kenyatta and Kibaki), and Kalenjins, who produced Moi. So voters from such groups would be reluctant to vote in someone who would be seen to upset the status quo. They will be comfortable with a president they can trust to lobby MPs to set maximum land limits in their favour.

The constitution provides for a land commission and allows for the repossession of land illegally acquired, such as land which was previously forest but was then recategorised and given away to individuals.

Not sure how that one will work out, especially since farming is one of the major exports Kenya has. Too many little farms and there won’t be any confidence in what crops will be raised, or whether produce will get to market fresh or even at all.

Nairobi — To other East Africans and, indeed the rest of the world that do business with Kenya, the draft constitution, passed in the referendum this Wednesday, will not radically change the way things are done in the country.

However, while the words “radical reform” have been used in heated debate ahead of the referendum, the new constitution will certainly rearrange its politics in ways that only the Ethiopian constitution of 1994 did in the wider East African region.

Kenya’s food basket, the Rift Valley Province, has always been key to Kenya’s politics—from colonial times to post-Independence—but usually for the wrong reasons. The same is true as the country goes to a referendum on a new constitution. Rift Valley is not just Kenya’s food basket, it is also the region where most of the flowers for the country’s lucrative export industry are grown.

Yes, they grow flowers in Kenya. For export. Specifically, Kenya is the leading world source of chrysanthemum cinerariaefolium, the pyrethrum daisy. The what? It’s a flower that is used to make insecticide. Tasmania is also in the pyrethrum game, but only contributes 10% of the world market. Because of the 5 year life cycle of the plant, the political upheavals in Kenya from the 2007 election caused a worldwide insecticide shortage that lasted 3 years. We’re still feeling some of the effects.

Kenya and pyrethrum
The Republic of Kenya lies on the Indian Ocean coast of eastern African. While it is the most developed economy in East Africa, Kenya’s population of over 30 million people realize a GDP per capita of only US$ 390. Employment in Kenya is largely dependent on the agricultural sector. The major export commodities in Kenya include tea, coffee, horticultural products including cut flowers,
processed petroleum products, pyrethrum, and chemicals including fluorspar, soda ash,
sodium carbonate and diatomite. Kenya’s development challenges are not unlike those of other developing economies. Longterm barriers to growth, such as the dominance of key sectors by the government, endemic corruption and a high population growth rate continue to retard development.

Natural Pyrethrum and synthetic pyrethroids
Pyrethrins are the class of insecticides derived from the dried flowers of the pyrethrum daisy (chrysanthemum cinerariaefolium). Natural pyrethrins are not used widely in agriculture because they degrade easily upon exposure to sunlight. For this reason, several pyrethroids - synthetic chemicals with a molecular structure and biological activities similar to natural pyrethrins - have been developed for use in agriculture. The largest use for natural pyrethrum is in the manufacture of consumer household insecticides.

Pyrethrum was introduced to the highlands of East Africa in the 1920’s and by 1938 Kenya had become a major world producer. It has been the largest source of natural pyrethrum for the last 60 years and currently produces over 70 percent of all pyrethrum traded in the world. Pyrethrum provides valuable economic and social benefits to more than 200,000 subsistence and low-income farmers in Kenya.

Pyrethrum is a perennial crop that requires renewal once every five years and is grown in highland areas enjoying moderate well-distributed rainfall, cool night temperatures and rich volcanic soils. In some areas where pyrethrum is grown, the climate and soil structure cannot support other cash crops such as tea or coffee. Other advantages for farmers are that it grows with limited inputs, such as fertilizers and pesticides, and farmers can rotate it with other crops to compliment land use and avoid disease difficulties. The size of the land owned by pyrethrum growers in Kenya averages three to five acres in which the homestead is located and where farmers grow pyrethrum and food crops such as maize, potatoes, cabbages and kales.

Ok, so what does all this have to do with India? Pyrethrum insecticides, especially those made with Piperonyl Butoxide are great mosquito killers. [They do an awesome job on yellowjackets too, as I’ve learned 3 times in the past week alone!] And India is having a terrible malaria outbreak.

Malaria is spreading like wildfire in Mumbai. In July, there has been a three-fold rise in cases diagnosed with the disease compared to last year. Amidst the lack of beds in hospitals and shortage of medicines, here comes another shocker. Civic body Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) does not have enough insecticides to ward off the mosquitoes spreading the disease.

According to a few BMC officials, the municipal authority does not have enough stock of insecticides to curb this disease. They said that the government has not been able to provide adequate funds for buying insecticides, plus payments have not been made to the insecticide manufacturer; even the supply chains are not working.

According to BMC data, in July, 12,000 people tested positive for malaria from the one lakh slides taken in house-to-house surveys. Last year, during the same period, there were 4,380 positive cases. The number of malaria cases in July has not only more than doubled compared to last year, it could very much be the highest number ever recorded in Mumbai.

There is a shortage of stocks for medicines like Vectobac, and insecticides such as DDVP and Pyrethrum, to combat the disease. Another BMC official told us that ward officers have been asking for the insecticides, but have not been receiving them.

Yes, India always has malaria. And so does Africa. Always. But without DDT, pyrethrum products like RipTide, ($210/gallon) are one of the few effective control agents. (And they’re “green” too!!). So peace in Kenya is in everyone’s interest, but an organized and productive Kenya could save the lives of millions. Through flower power.

There. I can write about flowers too. Ha.

Keeping a Stiff Upper … something

How often do I get to use the Battling Brits category? Almost never! This lady certainly qualifies. Sounds like she gave them both barrels, so to speak!

Defiant British woman strips to bikini in Dubai



Not the woman in Dubai. But any excuse to, um, “wave” the flag, right?

A British woman stripped down to her bikini and strutted defiantly through a swanky Dubai mall after an Emirati woman covered head-to-toe in black confronted her for wearing a low-cut shirt, police said Thursday.

Mall security detained both women and took them to a police station for questioning Wednesday. They were released later in the day after the Emirati woman lodged a complaint for public indecency against the Briton, said a police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Police said the British woman, whose name was not released, was shopping in the five-star Dubai Mall when the Emirati woman approached her and criticized her for wearing a shirt she felt violated the conservative dress code followed by most women in this Muslim country.

The two argued, then the Briton stripped down to her bikini and walked through the mall filled with luxury shops and near hotels with swimming pools.

The mall, one of the world’s largest, has signs asking shoppers to dress modestly, although Westerners routinely ignore the advisories.

Now if we could only get the rest of the Brits to stand up to sharia and pisslam at home like this one did abroad.

Something in the water?

Are All Swimming Coaches Perverts?



And odd question, but this allegation really makes me wonder.

A California woman sued the governing body of U.S. competitive swimming and her former coach, claiming he sexually abused, humiliated and harassed her when she was a teenager training under his supervision.

The suit announced Wednesday is one of several around the country alleging USA Swimming covered up wrongdoing and allowed a culture of abuse to exist in coaching ranks. The lawsuit also names the West Valley Swim Club and Pacific Swimming, the West Coast branch of USA Swimming.

The lawsuit claims swim coach Norman Havercroft sexually abused Jancy Thompson over a five-year period in the 1990s, beginning when she was about 15.

The Associated Press generally does not identify victims of alleged sexual abuse. However, the now 28-year-old has chosen to speak publicly.

Thompson, who graduated from police academy and does gang intervention for a nonprofit group, said she came forward to help affect change.

“I was robbed of my childhood and never performed to my full capabilities,” she said. “I want to ensure that no one has to endure what I went through and carry such a burden the rest of their lives.”

A telephone message left at a listing for Norman Havercroft in Corona del Mar was not immediately returned.

USA Swimming said it investigates misconduct complaints and revokes membership if behavior was inappropriate.

The alleged abuse took place at various locations in Santa Clara County, including a Los Gatos swim club where Thompson trained, the homes of Thompson and Havercroft, and at a school, according to the 44-page lawsuit first filed June 18 and amended Aug. 4.

Havercroft is accused in the lawsuit of groping, engaging in sexual acts, providing pornography and buying an Internet camera for “cyber” sex.

The abuse carried on after Thompson turned 18, even though she never gave consent, according to the suit filed in Superior Court in San Jose.

The suit also claims Havercroft abused another female and says USA Swimming knew about that case and did nothing to remove Havercroft from his position. It also says Thompson witnessed Havercroft inappropriately touch and massage several underage females.

“In the worst of ways we claim that he took advantage of the coach-athlete relationship, exerting his power and authority,” attorney Robert Allard said.

Jane Weil, a lawyer for USA Swimming and Pacific Swimming, said the organizations had no “knowledge of unlawful conduct” by Havercroft, as alleged in the suit. Weil said the San Jose Police Department and the Santa Clara County district attorney’s office investigated claims of abuse by the other female and brought no criminal charges against Havercroft.

During the police investigation, detectives interviewed Thompson and her mother regarding the other case. Thompson said Havercroft never acted inappropriately with the swimmers, according to a 1997 police report provided to the AP by Weil.

A message left with a police spokesman was not immediately returned. A spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office, Amy Cornell, confirmed that office has never brought charges against Havercroft.

The alleged victim in the other case sued Havercroft and West Valley Swim Club in 2001. The case was settled confidentially. Weil said neither USA Swimming, nor Pacific Swimming were involved in that case.

A call to a phone number listed for the West Valley Swim Club said the number was no longer in use.

USA Swimming has come under fire for its handling of alleged abuse cases but has said it was taking steps to keep young athletes safe. At least 46 coaches and officials have been banned for life, mostly for sexual misconduct.

The organization will vote on measures at its national convention in September that include a new athlete protection policy, expanded background checks, and a requirement that all adults who interact with swimmers become members of the organization.

In the lawsuit, Allard called it a belated effort that demonstrates a ”callous indifference to the health and safety of the young swimmers across the country.”

And of course Thompson had nothing incriminating to say at the time; she was still competitive then and needed a coach and the support of USA Swimming. Makes me wonder just how pervasive this kind of abuse is in other sports where parents force their kids to be performing monkeys Olympic hopefuls? Gymnastics? Ice skating? Tennis?

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