TALLAHASSEE -- A state legislator whose district is home to thousands of Caribbean immigrants wants to ban the term "illegal alien" from the state's official documents."I personally find the word 'alien' offensive when applied to individuals, especially to children," said Sen. Frederica Wilson, D-Miami. "An alien to me is someone from out of space."She has introduced a bill providing that: "A state agency or official may not use the term 'illegal alien' in an official document of the state." There would be no penalty for using the words.In Miami-Dade County, Wilson said, "we don't say 'alien,' we say 'immigrant.'"She said she encountered the situation when trying to pass a bill allowing children of foreigners to get in-state tuition at colleges and universities. Wilson, who directs a dropout prevention and education program in Miami, said she politely asks witnesses at public hearings on such issues not to use the term."There are students in our schools whose parents are trying to become citizens and we shouldn't label them," she said. "They are immigrants, through no fault of their own, not aliens."Wilson said the first word isn't as bad as the second."'Illegal,' I can live with, but I like 'undocumented' better," she said.Asked if her bill (SB 2154) might run afoul of Gov. Charlie Crist's "plain speaking" mandate for government agencies, Wilson said, "I think getting rid of 'alien' would be plain speaking."

THE EVOLUTION OF TERMS IN AMERICA:

2000 WAS "ILLEGAL ALIENS"
2002 WAS "ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS"
2004 WAS "UNDOCUMENTED WORKERS"
2005 WAS "UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS"
2006 WAS "MEXICAN IMMIGRANTS"
2007 IS NOW "MEXICAN NATIONALS" (just last week in Florida!)
2008 WILL BE "MEXICAN-AMERICAN VOTERS"

GOTTA LOVE THE MAIN STREAM MEDIA, DON'T YA?

This from The Tennessee Center For Policy Research 02/26/2007:


Al Gore’s Personal Energy Use Is His Own “Inconvenient Truth”
Gore’s home uses more than 20 times the national average

Last night, Al Gore’s global-warming documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, collected an Oscar for best documentary feature, but the Tennessee Center for Policy Research has found that Gore deserves a gold statue for hypocrisy.

Gore’s mansion, located in the posh Belle Meade area of Nashville, consumes more electricity every month than the average American household uses in an entire year, according to the Nashville Electric Service (NES).

In his documentary, the former Vice President calls on Americans to conserve energy by reducing electricity consumption at home.

The average household in America consumes 10,656 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year, according to the Department of Energy. In 2006, Gore devoured nearly 221,000 kWh—more than 20 times the national average.

Last August alone, Gore burned through 22,619 kWh—guzzling more than twice the electricity in one month than an average American family uses in an entire year. As a result of his energy consumption, Gore’s average monthly electric bill topped $1,359.

Since the release of An Inconvenient Truth, Gore’s energy consumption has increased from an average of 16,200 kWh per month in 2005, to 18,400 kWh per month in 2006.

Gore’s extravagant energy use does not stop at his electric bill. Natural gas bills for Gore’s mansion and guest house averaged $1,080 per month last year.

“As the spokesman of choice for the global warming movement, Al Gore has to be willing to walk to walk, not just talk the talk, when it comes to home energy use,” said Tennessee Center for Policy Research President Drew Johnson.

In total, Gore paid nearly $30,000 in combined electricity and natural gas bills for his Nashville estate in 2006.


###
Kind of reminds me of John Edwards $6 million mansion. I personally don't begrudge either one of these guys their wealth or high use of utilities. What I DO OBJECT TO is these two pompous asses telling the rest of us to lower our thermostats while their pools are set at 100 degrees......
­­­­­­­­­­
The Tennessee Center for Policy Research is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan research organization committed to achieving a freer, more prosperous Tennessee through free market policy solutions.

Labels: pompous asses

Ok, kids...I'm out of here for 6 days to beautiful Southern California for a business engagement. I'm sure the other contributors here at The Record will gladly keep at least a little fresh meat dangling in front of your e-cages...maybe keep you salivating for my special brand of stupidity. I gave Nate Dinken a call to let him know that any contributions would be appreciated...so who knows, maybe he'll stir up the shit-pot again.

Fear not, I shall return (unless I don't, of course, in which case let it be known that I wish to be cremated without fanfare and dumped on a beach someplace tropical).

My absence will, however, preclude me from attending the official candidacy announcement for one Mitch Harper in his bid to become the next 4th district representative to the Fort Wayne City Council. I do extend my apologies for not being able to accept the gracious invitation to attend, but duty calls, and my job pays the bills a helluva lot better than my raunchy little blog, so I'd better make good on the business obligation. Again, thanks for the invite Mitch...and I hope we get a chance to catch up soon.

Everybody else - Stay cool, stay warm, stay drunk, stay home...whatever. Fuck it, I'm up outta dis bitch fo' a minit.

Labels: ....Just for the Record, California, Fort Wayne, Indiana, local elections, Mitch Harper, TJ Donkey Show

I read a great funny today, entitled What if people bought cars the way they buy computers?
There is some truly classic stuff in the article, like the following:

Helpline:
"General Motors Helpline, how can I help you?"

Customer:

"I got in my car and closed the door, and nothing happened!"

Helpline:

"Did you put the key in the ignition and turn it?"

Customer:

"What's an ignition?"

Helpline:

"It's a starter motor that draws current from your battery and turns over the engine."

Customer:

"Ignition? Motor? Battery? Engine? How come I have to know all of these technical terms just to use my car?"

Yes, there's more...go read it and then come back here to continue.

Now, I don't care who you are...that shit's funny. But the more I thought about it, the more it pissed me off (a little, between giggles).

Let me give you a little background on me, so that you all can get a grasp of what drives this little rant. I grew up with computers. I learned how to program in BASIC when I was in the 2nd grade. I could write programs that contained a couple of hundred lines of code that could make little ASCII figures dance on the green-screen of the AppleII machines that we were allowed to use. Sure, IBM computers existed...but IBM used to mean International Business Machines...and they were aptly named: Business Machines. There was little or no educational value in letting elementary school students experiment with them. Anyway, I was intimately familiar with GOTO, IF/THEN and END commands...and they were neat, however impractical.
Fast forward 3 years. My family purchased our first PC: An Acer 286 with a 20 MB hard drive, and a pair of 5.25 floppy drives. It had a keyboard, a joystick (had to play Test Drive), Print Shop, Paintbrush, Paint and some generic blue-screen word processor. We eventually loaded Lotus on the machine so that my mother could manage her business finances on a spreadsheet. It also allowed me to continue to screw around with GWBasic on a very non-academic level...introducing some new concepts like stationary color graphics (straight lines and single points, mind you...and gawd it was tedious). It also had an interesting new program on it known only as MS DOS. It was a cute little deal that allowed you to index your hard disk and arrange it into compartments. I got very fast with my DOS commands, and engrained them to the point where I can still key them at lightning speeds to this day.

Then, the family upgraded to a new computer. This baby was a SMOKIN' fast 386 with Windows 3.1 installed. At first, I was completely confounded by Windows. Why in the fuck would anyone want this? It was slower and more cumbersome, but luckily, it had a quick path to "command.com" so that I could pull up my familiar black-screen C:> prompt...and key my not-quite-yet-obsolete DOS commands faster than anybody else could mouse their way through Windows.

My freshman year in college, I was introduced to Windows 95. I've only got one word to describe Windows 95: Pinball. I literally learned this ridiculous new operating system solely based on the fact that I enjoyed that stupid-ass game. I found myself using my DOS commands at a drastically reduced rate. Ditto Windows 98. I learned how to use the built-in networking components in Windows 98, but since then, have had little luck getting computers to speak with one-another. I even attempted to stumble my way through a "Teach Yourself" Visual Basic program...and that was the last of my fascination with the inner-workings of software. I am still a prolific computer user, but I couldn't give a shit less about all of those irritating and maddening lines of code. I did, however, learn about computer hardware along the way. Hardware is really much cooler for a layman. I can strip a desktop computer down to its simplest physical components in about 10 minutes (without damaging anything) and put it back together blindfolded. It just came from years of beating the piss out of computers and putting in newer, faster parts when called for. I haven't the faintest idea how the parts speak with eachother, but I know the proper configurations to get them to do so.

Now, to explain why the article started to annoy me for a second. Let me break it down so that I am well understood here.

1. Yes, there is a comical lack of rudimentary computer knowledge among the rank-and-file of the American public. This is a given.

2. Yes, these people have a tendency to let themselves become completely stupefied by some of the most basic concepts of computer functionality.

3. No, most people can't get out of their own way when it comes to differentiating software problems from hardware problems.

4. Ok, number 3 was giving people a lot of credit. MOST people literally don't know that hardware and software are the two components that even make up the mystifying device known as a "computer."

5. Yes, computer programmers are some backwards motherfuckers (begging all pardons...Ric, Chris, Todd and Pete...seriously, no offense intended). The things that make sense in the minds of computer users are absolutely NOT the things that are on the forefront of the average programmer's mind.

A simple demonstration of number 5: How do you stop your computer? Push "Start." Are you following me? Good.

Here's the problem as I see it: The "Powers that Be" are convinced that no matter what happens, the lowest common denominator is a constant. Dell, Gateway, Verizon, HP...all of those assholes think that if you are calling them for help, you are obviously some kind of dumbfuck. Now, just based on raw numbers, they are probably right.

Here's where it gets sticky: As many of you may be aware from reading here, I've been having a very trying time with Verizon and the installation of my data-only "dry loop" internet service to my new(ish) home. I wrote about it here and here. Well, the problems have been somewhat solved, but this has presented an entirely new set of issues.

Now, I am not by any means a computer-illiterate ramrod. I'm also, though, no programmer. I have no idea how to negotiate my way through a Linux server, and I only know enough HTML to destroy a perfectly good web page...but I know goddamn well how my computer is supposed to work...and when it's fucked up, I exhaust every possible "Troubleshooting for Toddlers" trick I have learned in the last 22 years of making these confounded "computer" things function. I have not, in the last 5 years, been on the phone with some Middle-Eastern tech support call center and ended the call by saying "oops, I didn't think of that...how simple that was!"

Here's what I propose: Once you have made it through the hour-plus queue that all phone-traffic cattle must endure to actually speak to someone at "tech support," how about they give you a special phone number so that if their "fix" or suggestion doesn't work, you can just call the it and get ahold of someone smarter than the last guy you spoke with...sans the monkey-fucking-a-football style "is your computer plugged in" bullshit?

Like right now, for example...the DSL indicator on my wireless router intermittently blinks, at which time the Internet indicator turns red. When this happens, our computer is cut off from the world.

Call Verizon.

Automated queue...BS questions...enter data....yes....yes....yes....no....no.....a technician will assist you shortly.

Tech: Thank you for calling Verizon...I need to confirm your account...please hold.

Hold.

Hold.

Tech: Thank you for waiting...please hold while I continue "confirming" your account.

Now, the reason this is taking so long, is because he/she is reading up on all of my previous requests for assistance, and the supposed "resolutions."

Tech: Thank you for your patience, Mr. Kay-dahk. What can I help you with today?

Me: Same problem as last time...I keep dropping my DSL signal at intermittent times.

Tech: I just ran a line test, and your line appears to be functioning properly.

Me: Excuse my abruptness here, but what the fuck don't you understand about intermittent? Hop on Dictionary.com...you'll find that it means every-so-often...random!

Tech: Please switch off the modem, wait 30 seconds and turn it back on....

Good God...the CIA could take some torture lessons from these fuckheads.

3 Technicians have been to my house to "fix" my DSL.

My signal is still intermittent at best.

Any ideas? Probably not, but at least maybe now you can understand my mild annoyance with the article...insinuating that somehow fucked up computer stuff is inevitably the fault of the user. It's not always user error...and the pompous, condescending attitude from this guy who is or was (obviously) a tech-support dickhead at some point is really irritating to me.

Labels: around the house, Big business, funny shite, Verizon

It's amazing how a little snow makes it so easy to see the neigbors' dogs' feces peppering the landscaping (yeah, the footprints help too). I'll be installing a sign in the spring:

Labels: around the house, funny shite, suburbia, white trash

Labels: old men that probably smell funny, senile politicians

It's hard to type this while I'm laughing so hard, but here goes. (courtesy of NY Times click title above)
In her historic bid to populate various committees with "the most ethical" people.......forgive me, I'm laughing again,.......Her Highness Pelosi has rewarded that well known.....(oops...another laughing jag, sorry)....pillar of Louisiana politics...... The one and only "DOLLAR BILL JEFFERSON" with a spot on the Homeland Security Panel.
I feel safer already. It doesn't surprise me Pelosi has the gall to do such a thing, but I do find it a little surprising that at least a few Democrats don't find it appalling. What a bunch of pussies.

Labels: Democrats, Pussies

Dustin's back from the Middle East. We had a fun little get-together at Mad Anthony's Auburn location on Friday night. I probably drank too much...but that occasionally happens on the weekends. Anyway, it was great to see Doobie back in action on the home-front. He'll be stationed in Seattle for a while, which he seems to enjoy immensely. Evidently, there are no plans for his re-deployment in the future. Of course, being a Ranger probably has him "on call" whether he likes it or not.


Link: Just to be inflammatory!

Labels: friends; afghanistan; Iraq, terrorism, war

Last week I reported that Fort Wayne's Deputy Mayor Mark Becker interviewed Fort Wayne's Deputy Director for Planning and Operations, John Urbahns, in a ridiculously scripted dialogue that amounted to little more than a piece of marketing propaganda for Graham Richard's utopian dream, or at very least, a canned PR piece that NIPR should have been paid to air. This flowchart explains why, in fact, it was such an absurd waste of time for those of us in the listening audience.

Labels: Democrats, Fort Wayne, Fort Wayne Mayor, Fort Wayne Media, funny shite, Radio

From New Hampshire:

"I want to know if right here and right now, once and for all, without nuance, can you say that the war authorization vote was a mistake?"

That question was how one voter welcomed Clinton to New Hampshire. It was a zinger that put her on the hot seat.

"Knowing what I know now that I would never have voted for it," she said.

Of course some already KNEW it. But you didn't listen did you? You, Kerry and the rest of the DLC crowd played politics with this. Dennis Kucinich was there speaking out against the intelligence and voted NO against the Iraq War Resolution:

"A lead inspector, Scott Ritter, said that he believes that nearly all other weapons not found were destroyed in the Gulf War. Furthermore, according to a published report in The Washington Post, the Central Intelligence Agency, yes, the Central Intelligence Agency, has no up-to-date accurate report on Iraq's capabilities of weapons of mass destruction."

Did you hear that?

"The American people deserve to know that the key issue here is that there is no proof that Iraq represents an imminent or immediate threat to the United States of America. I will repeat: there is no proof that Iraq represents an imminent or immediate threat to the United States. A continuing threat does not constitute a sufficient cause for war. The administration has refused to provide the Congress with credible evidence that proves that Iraq is a serious threat to the United States and that it is continuing to possess and develop chemical and biological and nuclear weapons."

Too ambiguous for you?

"Furthermore, there is no credible evidence connecting Iraq to al Qaeda and 9-11, and yet there are people who want to bomb Iraq in reprisal for 9-11. Iraq is not connected by any credible evidence to 9-11, nor is it connected by any credible evidence to the activities of al Qaeda on 9-11."

Or what about this?

"Indeed, an argument could be made that such an attack would exacerbate the condition in the Middle East and destabilize the region."

"And if we are to go to war against any Nation, and I oppose us doing this in this case, we ought not be taking such action in retaliation, and ought not put it in a document like this in retaliation, attacking a nation that had nothing to do with 9-11"

And about those weapons of mass destruction:

"The key issue here is that there is no credible evidence that Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction. Congress has not been provided any credible information which proves that Iraq has provided international terrorists with weapons of mass destruction."

Seems like Kucinich had enough information to vote against the war. Which are we to believe - that you didn't have the same information or that you just aren't quite as bright as Kucinich? Seems like the only two logical choices to me...

Labels: Hillary, Iraq, Kucinich

Man, it really pisses me off when somebody I have admired for a long, long time turns out to be a real horse's ass. I've seen this guy perform live 4 times, and I've bought a ton of his music over the years. Wonderful performer and talented musician, just too far removed from the America he sings about. With too much money and too much time on his hands he now fancies himself a philosopher. Click on the title above and watch the interview with Charlie Rose, and let me know what you think.

I hope he's saved some of those millions, he's probably going to need it.

This has to be the funniest thing I've read in months...and that says a lot, because I go out into the far reaches of the web every day and specifically look for this brand of cynicism. I was hooked just from reading the title of the op-ed. I'm just gonna re-publish the whole thing here, it's worth it...From Gizmodo.com:

Consumer electronics are a joke. It's everyone's fault but mine. You assholes.

These guys want me to write a weekly column, but I hate consumer electronics, I hate marketing, and I hate you people, because you're all so dumb. If you're lucky and I need the money, I will.

I gave up two years of my life writing about gadgets for this site. Waking up every morning at 5 AM, chewing up press releases to find the rare morsel of legitimate information, chasing down "hot tips" that ended up being photochops of iPods with reflections of genitals in the touchscreens. Oh, and the worst: fielding emails from PR parasites eager to suck away precious time in a half-hour phone meeting while the Senior Vice-President of Smoke Blowing tells me about how his company's software—based on an idea cribbed from Google—is going to change the way I look at something I didn't care about in the first place. (Inevitably, "forever.")

And you guys just ate it up. Kept buying shitty phones and broken media devices green and dripping with DRM. You broke the site, clogging up the pipe like retarded salmon, to read the latest announcements of the most trivial jerk-off products, completely ignoring the stories about technology actually making a difference to real human beings, because you wanted a new chromed robot turd to put in your pocket to impress your friends and make you forget for just a few minutes, blood coursing as you tremblingly cut through the blister pack, that your life is utterly void of any lasting purpose.

Then you had the audacity to complain about broken phones, half-assed firmware that bricked your gear, and winner-takes-nothing arms races between the companies whose gear your bought and the hackers who had nothing better to do than try to fix it. Do you realize how ridiculous that is? Programmers with free time did more to help you get quality products than you ever did by buying the broken gear in the first place.

Stop buying this crap. Just stop it. You don't need it. Wait a year until the reviews come out and the other suckers too addicted to having the very latest and greatest buy it, put up a review, and have moved on to something else. Stop buying broken products and then shrugging your shoulders when it doesn't do what it is supposed to. Stop buying products that serve any other master than you. Use older stuff that works. Make it yourself. Only buy new stuff from companies that have proven themselves good servants of their customers in the past. Complaining online about this stuff helps, but really, just stop buying it.

You want to know the punchline? The average Joe that makes up the market is smarter than you saps. The market-at-large waits until a clear leader emerges, then takes a modest plunge. You may think you're making up the "bleeding edge" of "gadget pimpatude" but you're really just a loose confederation of marks the consumer electronics industry uses as free market research and easy money. "Give me the latest version," you coo, hiking up your skirt another inch over your exposed wallet. "Point Oh One upgrades make me so hot."

And for god's sake, Gizmodo, stop giving this stuff such a free pass. Stop using terminology that they've programmed into you by puking it into your eyeballs via press release after press release. What is this "unleashes" horseshit, Deleon? You're not in marketing. Don't write like you are. This is obviously a not a real product, Frucci. Did you even read the site you linked? Are you actually writing boosterism-filled copy about products that don't actually exist? Oh my god, Wilson, you're writing about that house-printing machine? I wrote about that almost three years ago. (You get a slight pass because I couldn't find my old link in Google because of Gawker's inexplicable "Wheel O' Permalink Syntax," but still, you guys are supposed to be well-versed experts about technology. You should know about this stuff. The C in "Gizmodo" is for "some fucking context," which you should provide, even if you only get paid per cock joke.)
While we're on the subject of your torpid, irresponsible copy, stop calling stuff "*tastic." Especially "geektastic," your slackest-jawed portmanteau. Would you drop that bon mot to a woman you were trying to hit on in real life? Of course you would, because I know you guys, and you're dorks.

Get it together: every single one of these consumer electronics companies should be approached as the enemy. They work for us. Hold their feet to the fire when they say their product is going to change even a small part of our lives. Circle back again in six months when they're shilling the incremental upgrade and ask them why the last version didn't cut the mustard. Step out of your blogging trench and ask yourself what your responsibility is to the tens of thousands of idiots who are reading this site right now to determine what they should spend their next paycheck on. They've already proven they're too imbicilic to make any smart purchases on their own. (Remember, Gizmodo was a nexus of debate over which MP3 player was going to "kill" the iPod two years after Apple won.) If you write like another stupid fanboy who ricochets a pillar of spunk off the roof of his gaping mouth just because something is glossy and uses electricity, you're just doing the work of the companies trying to get rich selling us broken promises.

Ah. I feel better. Didn't help a thing, but I feel better, and I'm what's important here.

–Joel Johnson

There you have it...and yes, he actually said "like another stupid fanboy who ricochets a pillar of spunk off the roof of his gaping mouth."

Labels: Big business, cool toys, funny shite, hilarious

Casualty #1. Indiana's version of Robbie Douglas from My Three Sons (shown here with that guy from the first Harry Potter movie, Ingrid or Acrid I think) was forced to exit the field early on when he came to realize the far left would not only sodomize him repeatedly, they would make him say out loud he liked it and wanted more.

Labels: biches dat lie and shit, Democrats, hilarious

From The Boston Globe:

Boston Beer Co. unveiled a special glass today so customers can savor its Samuel Adams brand beer.

You had me at "Boston Beer Co."

Labels: Beer, Boston, grocery shopping, Sam Adams

My favorite was the last line of the piece: "They really do have an iron deficiency. I honestly believe that in certain places in America now, people have started to mate with vegetables."

I agree.

Labels: bigotry, funny shite, hilarious, rednecks, Top Gear, white trash

I have been noticing instances in the local blog-o-sphere lately where folks are throwing a lot of anonymous support behind RINO Nelson Peters and his mayoral campaign.

Some advice for these anonymous commentors: If you want your support to mean anything, it might be wise to identify yourselves (or yourself, as it seems). Otherwise, your guise(s) of anonymity will likely create a stink of trollish shenanigans.

Labels: Fort Wayne; Nelson Peters; Fort Wayne Mayor; local elections; anonymous trolls

I just thought I would link to Craig's post about Beck's distortion of the facts regarding a story on scientists with dissenting views on climate change.

This blog has shown outrage on this very topic towards the Allen County Democratic Party Chair. I just want to point out that this is much more damaging when done on a national scale by "journalists" like Mr Beck. Excerpt below:

Beck was pushing this story on his show this morning:


"The political climate isn't good for scientists with dissenting views on global warming, leaving some researchers to fear that honest research could be blackballed in favor of promoting a "consensus" view.

A dispute erupted this week in Oregon, where Gov. Ted Kulongoski is considering firing the state's climatologist George Taylor, who has said human activity isn't the chief cause of global climate change.

That view is not in line with the state policy of Oregon to reduce "greenhouse gases," which are considered by many researchers to be the chief cause of global warming."

So when I heard Glenn talking about this I said to myself "I bet Glenn is full of it." Sure enough, he is:

"1) Taylor is not the “state climatologist.” Oregon abolished the position in 1989. He was bestowed the title by Oregon State University, not by Gov. Kulongoski or the state of Oregon.

2) Taylor is not a “climatologist.” Taylor is a meteorologist. He does not possess a PhD or have a background in climatology.

3) He will not be fired. Taylor will not lose his job or income, which comes from Oregon State University. He will merely be stripped of his title, which he never earned but claims to retain. Gov. Kulongoski has the right to appoint a climatologist who is an expert in the field and adheres to the state’s climate policies."

Why do many on the right feel like they MUST fight every single climate change story? Why not just embrace the idea that maybe, just maybe, climatologists are on the right track? It doesn't have to be the end of the world. We can work to find political solutions to climate change w/o destroying the economy. It seems to me that those on the right that fight this just CAN'T admit they might've been wrong. I really just don't get this. Beck is actively mischaracterizing the story to fit his agenda but I can't figure out WHY he even has that agenda. Can someone help me here?

I'm serious about this. I would rather this not delve into snarky comments going back and forth. I would like to stimulate a REAL discussion on climate change and why some refuse to believe it. I know a little about this topic because it's been part of my job and that's all I really want to say about that...

Labels: Fort Wayne Media, funny shite, Indiana, legislative bed-shitting, Radio

Labels: biches dat lie and shit, big tits, gold diggers, shrill overweight lesbian entertainers with issues, Stupid twats

Labels: blasphemy, censorship, First Amendment, legislative bed-shitting, those wacky Christians

There was a long dialogue between myself and William Larsen a while back, I assumed the role of staunch ethanol proponent (which I was), and William, on the other hand, was decidedly of the opinion that my stance was...well, flawed (that's euphemistic).

Larsen: I believe a bit more information is needed on Ethanol. The United States consumes on average more than 400 million gallons of gas per day. The United States had 81,759,000 acres devoted to corn production in 2005. The average yield per acre was 147.9 bushels with the five year average at 142.5 bushels per acre.

According to studies, you can get 2.5 gallons of ethanol from one bushel of corn. In 2005, the US produced 1.5 billion gallons of ethanol. This consumed 5.2% of all the corn grown in the US. I saw on TV the new ethanol plant in Lagrange will yield 1.5 gallons per bushel. This is a lot less than what I found published. Hopefully it is only a reporting error.

If all corn were devoted to ethanol production, we could produce 29.1 billion gallons of ethanol. To equate this to the US gasoline consumption of 400 million gallons per day and the fact that ethanol has 70% of the energy content of gasoline; we could reduce gasoline consumption by no more than 14%.

In addition if all corn were devoted to ethanol production, we would not have corn for feed or on our dinner tables. The by-products from the production of ethanol are used else where, but can the market absorb and use this amount of by product efficiently or will some of it simply be scrapped? Ethanol can show a positive energy value when an energy credit is given for the by-product. If the by-product is scrapped, any energy credit applied to ethanol for the by-product cannot be realistically counted.

Turns out he was absolutely spot-on.

From NRO:

Many Democrats and some Republicans applauded President Bush’s State-of-the-Union proposal for a 20 percent reduction in gasoline use over the next ten years, largely through greater reliance on ethanol.

Bush’s idea, however, is adding corn-based fuel to the fire in Mexico City. Existing federal laws that mandate ethanol in U.S. gasoline have diverted trainloads of corn from America’s food supply-chain to ethanol factories. This boosted U.S. corn prices nearly 80 percent in 2006.

That’s bad enough if you buy corn on the cob for a weekend barbecue. But it’s much worse if you are a poor Mexican surviving on corn tortillas. The price of a kilo (2.2 pounds) of tortillas recently has shot up 55 percent, from 5.5 to 8.5 pesos. Poor Mexicans are not taking this sitting down.

It seems that I was horribly, horribly wrong in my unwavering support of corn-fuel. I take it back.

Labels: energy, ethanol, executive thieves, government waste, Indiana, legislative bed-shitting

Mike Kole gives Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN) a thorough flogging.

Pay attention, partisan Republicans. Public disclosure is a bitch...especially when you're dicking the dog.

Labels: congress, funny shite, government waste, Indiana, legislative bed-shitting

Do you remember "School Corn?" I remember within the glorious walls of DeKalb High School that it was served often...dark golden yellow...buttery flavor...usually served along-side the rectangular pizza that was oh-so-common to the menus of public schools all over this area (and probably many others). Anyway, this corn wasn't like other from-the-can varieties. No, it had a distinct flavor (much like the aforementioned pizza). Here's a dirty little secret: I always kinda liked it.

Anyway, I accidentally found some shit that tastes exactly like School Corn, and I figured I'd pass along the information just in case anyone else out there felt as I do.

Here's the best part: It's only $0.37 per can, and you can buy it in 24-can flats!

Thanks, Aldi.

Labels: around the house, food, grocery shopping, public education

Labels: ....Just for the Record, ATHF, Boston, Democrats, fear mongering, First Amendment, funny shite, legislative bed-shitting, terrorism

Tell me she doesn't hold her finger up in the wind every single day to figure what her position of the day will be.

"Cal Thomas recently pointed to a speech Hillary Clinton made to the anti-war organization, Code Pink in 2003, when the decision to go into Iraq was popular. At that time, Sen. Clinton said, "There is a very easy way to prevent anyone from being put into harm's way, that is for Saddam Hussein to disarm. And I have absolutely no belief that he will. I have to say that this is something I've followed for more than a decade. If he were serious about disarming, he would have been much more forthcoming. I ended up voting for the resolution after carefully reviewing the information, intelligence that I had available, talking with people whose opinions I trusted, trying to discount the political or other factors that I didn't believe should be in any way part of this decision."

Today of course, she said if SHE had been President in 2002 she would NEVER have gone to war. She sure as hell didn't sound like that in 2003, long before she was a Presidential candidate.

sheesh

Labels: biches dat lie and shit

I had to watch the video a few times (click above) because I couldn't believe she actually said "I want to take those profits (from the oil companies) and put them in a strategic oil fund". I guess that pesky old "capitalism" thing really gets in the way of her wealth re-distribution plan.

Labels: Stupid twats

Hey, Boston, do you hear that sound? Yeah, that's the one...that faint hissing noise...the one that's getting louder by the second. Do you recognize the sound? If not, let me clue you in: It's a large, flying skewer....and it's heading right for you.

from MSNBC online:

Young Bostonians familiar with the unconventional marketing tactics used by
many companies tended to see the city’s reaction as unmitigated hysteria.

Trust me, oh sheltered ones, it's not just "young Bostonians" who feel this way. There are some of us that fall in the "middle-aged hayseed hicks from the Corn Belt" category who also feel that "unmitigated hysteria" is a fair analysis.

Tracy O’Connor, 34, a retail manager, called the police response “silly and insane,” contrasting it with that in other cities where no one reported concerns about the devices — an advertising gimmick for the Cartoon Network show “Aqua Teen Hunger Force.”

“We’re the laughingstock,” she said.

To be fair, Tracy, you're not the laughing stock at this point. But your city leaders and anyone else who is towing the "better safe than sorry" line in anything other than a politely tongue-in-cheek fashion most certainly are the laughingstock.

For example, this is an official statement from Boston police commissioner Edward Davis:

“The city clearly did not overreact. Had we taken any other steps, we would have been endangering the public,” he said.

No, Mr. Davis, the city most certainly overreacted. More accurately, the city hyperreacted. After it was determined that the first "device" was nothing more than a Lite-Brite with a battery pack, it might have been wise to not put the entire city on DEFCON 1. What you effectively did was the metropolitan version of "crying wolf."

“People can be smug and say all you have to do is look at this and know this is not an explosive device, but the truth of the matter is that you can’t tell what it is until it’s disrupted,” Davis said.

Evidently, officials and citizens in other cities disagree.

The devices didn’t prompt calls of concern in any of the nine other cities where Turner said the devices were placed. Police in the other cities fanned out to find and remove them after Boston’s scare.

[...]

Most of Boston’s colleagues in law enforcement in the other cities chose their words carefully.

“I wouldn’t want to give my opinion, but in today’s world it’s better safe than sorry. Someone (in Boston) clearly thought there was a threat,” Atlanta police Officer Joe Cobb said.

In the Seattle area, authorities thought the devices were “obviously not suspicious.”

“In this day and age, whenever anything remotely suspicious shows up, people get concerned — and that’s good,” King County sheriff’s Sgt. John Urquhart said. “However, people don’t need to be concerned about this. These are cartoon characters giving the finger.”

How very diplomatic. Of course, there are others who are not being so subtle. I tend to fall in the latter category.

Falling in the former category (laugh on the inside, remain composed on the outside), like most of the uninvolved public officials who have commented on the record, the judge who presided over the arraignment of Peter Berdovsky and Sean Stevens (the two guys who have unwittingly started the clock on their 15 minutes of fame over this ordeal) had this to say:

Judge Paul K. Leary told [Assistant Attorney General John] Grossman that, according to law, the suspects must intend to create a panic to be charged with placing hoax devices.

It appears the suspects had no such intent, the judge said, but the question should be discussed in a later hearing.

Ultimately, it appears as if the final question will be "who pays for this?" Obviously the city of Boston and the State of Massachusetts would like to wash their hands of the matter quickly to avoid further embarassment, but at this point, it's fairly easy to predict that they will likely not be making the wise decision to shut their collective mouth anytime soon. They will continue to go on the record, making ridiculous statements about their not-excessive and not-overblown reaction(s) to this mystery-device menace.

For example, here's congressman Ed Markey (D - Mass):

"Whoever thought this up needs to find another job."

"Scaring an entire region, tying up the T and major roadways, and forcing first responders to spend 12 hours chasing down trinkets instead of terrorists is marketing run amok," Markey, a Democrat, said in a written statement. "It would be hard to dream up a more appalling publicity stunt."

What? What in the fuck is this guy talking about? A major question in my mind that remains to be answered is were Bostonians more alarmed by the illuminated signage or the bomb-squads, the closed interstates and the paramilitary lock-down that was imposed upon them by their elected and appointed authority figures? What dumbfucks like Markey fail to realize is that authorities caused the hysteria...

Some people have suggested that just because these signs were odd and unfamiliar, they should not be used for marketing in this fashion...as if this is somehow irresponsible. Right. Like anyone could have forseen this absurd reaction. A commentor at NielsenHayden.com made the following comparison:

It would be different if there where a bomb was disguised as a weird looking device. Using history as a guide, bombers put bombs in normal looking things that don't draw attention. The IRA put them in trash cans. Ted Kazinski put them into normal looking packages. Bombers in Iraq put them in parked cars and piles of rubbish. The Red Army Faction put the bomb that killed Alfred Herrhausen in a bicycle book bag.

By carefully examining weird looking devices all we are doing is making sure that bombers are only putting bombs in their usual locations. It's like having a guy come to your house and make sure cattle aren't nesting in your chimney. You can't argue that it wouldn't be a problem if they were, what with carbon monoxide and all, and yet I doubt you'd pay money for the service.

Also, in this situation they didn't yell fire in a theater. What they did was yell something like, "Hey Mike!" Someone else concluded that the only reason you'd want to get Mike's attention was because you had finished dumping gasoline on the floor and he had the lighter. If your goal is preventing arson there is probably a better way to go about it.

Brilliant! Now, check this out from the Guardian via NielsenHayden.com:

“The packages in question are magnetic lights that pose no danger,” Turner said in a statement. It said the devices have been in place for two to three weeks in 10 cities: Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Ore., Austin, Texas, San Francisco and Philadelphia.
[...]

Police said only that they were investigating where the device came from. The Department of Homeland Security said there are no credible reports of other devices being found elsewhere in the country.

Emphasis mine. You realize, my friends, that this was the official DHS position even after Turner admitted the blinking signs were distributed nationwide. I don't know about you, but I feel a little screwed by the government. They designed and built DHS to protect us from the world and these are the results we get? That's one well-connected agency, folks.

Implications:

1. The devices have been up for weeks in ten other cities, and no one’s panicked.

2. The devices have been up for weeks in ten other cities, and the Department of Homeland Security doesn’t know about it.

What in the name of God are we doing, America?

More on this later, I can't get enough of it.

Labels: ATHF, Boston, Democrats, fear mongering, First Amendment, terrorism

Labels: ATHF, cool toys, Democrats, fear mongering, First Amendment, funny shite, governmental regulation, terrorism

Oops.

Hey, Boston, you flinched. You not only flinched, but then you cowered, curled up on the ground, shaking like an abused dog left in the cold.

From NYT:

Boston temporarily closed parts of bridges, subway stations, an Interstate highway and even part of the Charles River on Wednesday after the authorities found what the police described as suspicious devices at nine places.

But the devices, which included circuit boards, turned
out to be part of a marketing campaign by Turner Broadcasting to advertise a
cartoon television show, “Aqua Teen Hunger Force.”

Yeah, I'll bet those were some really scary cartoons. Let's take a look.

Yup. Those are pretty scary. I'm sure everyone that reads here every day (all eleven of you) have noticed the large milkshake with a face in the banner above....yeah, he's from the same show as the pink and green buggers displayed here.

Are blinking lights and cartoons really that scary?

I say no, but suddenly I'm forced to ride a really bizarre train of thought, as far as the conductor will let me on board.

Boston is a left-wing haven. I'm not saying that to bash the place (there is plenty else to bash, trust me), I'm simply pointing out a simple fact. They haven't elected a Republican mayor since 1926. Boston is roughly 48 square miles of shit-hole, with about 600,000 people living there, basically crammed up the asses of one-another. No, that's not a homosexual joke (however appropriate it may be), but for the sake of comparison, Fort Wayne covers almost 80 square miles and has about half the people.

Back on topic...as of late, the vast majority of the anti-Bush left has been going into great detail on the subject of the current administration's "politics of fear," and how this fear-mongering keeps the entire country jittery and suspicious.

Using the State of the Union for this type of fear mongering demands from us
more than muted dissent. It compels all of us to act. Because Bush is right on
one point: If somebody attacks, you don’t just stand by, particularly if it is a
militarized oligarchy that clings to power by stoking public fears and appealing
to baser instincts.

Yet regardless the mantra, in spite of the ongoing attempt to paint mainstream America as a bunch of knee-jerk reactionaries, we have on display today for all to see an entire "blue-state" city that came grinding to a halt at the hand of an advertising campaign...not one of feigned terrorism, or even one of ghouls, monsters or invading grey-men...but one of cartoons and blinking lights.

Here's Boston's mayor Thomas Menino (D):

“It is outrageous, in a post-9/11 world, that a company would use this type
of marketing scheme,” Mr. Menino said in a statement. “I am prepared to take
any and all legal action against Turner Broadcasting and its affiliates for
any and all expenses incurred during the response to today’s incidents.”

So if I'm understanding this correctly, the President is berated by the press for constantly using 9/11 to leverage his viewpoint, and Mayor Menino is now applauded for his quick and decisive action, preserving the safety of his constituents based on the same 9/11? I'm sure they are all very comfortable today in the knowledge that their local elected officials are ready to combat Scooby Doo, the Flintstone or Spongebob Squarepants in whatever form they may invade their fair city.

Since when were cartoons (especially Atari-like, pixellated 2-dimensional ones) something to fear? Oh, it must have been the circuit boards on which the cartoons and blinking lights were mounted...

So now we're afraid of imprinted low-voltage circuitry? Since when is this type of technology cause for alarm? Anyone reading this right now has a similarly-sized circuit board within a couple feet of them...diligently completing whatever functions demanded of it by the user. I will admit, when you open a computer for the first time, whether to blow the dust out or install a new hard drive or whatever...it can be a little unnerving...but I've never had a bomb squad knock on my front door to save me from such a device. I hope they don't.

Yet in the heart of "we have nothing to fear" blue-state heaven, the anxiety levels must be running high. Why? Can we blame it on the neo-cons, or maybe even the new season of 24? Keith Olbermann sure thinks so.

During the segment, in which host Olbermann asked whether 24 is "propaganda" and a "program-length commercial for one political party," Olbermann used a plethora of adjectives to describe 24, including "fear mongering" and "naked brainwashing."

Ok then, Keith, given the recent shenanigans in Boston, who is falling for this "fear mongering" and "naked brainwashing?" It strikes me that there probably are not a whole lot of GOP loyalists in Boston.

But this scenario speaks of a deeper truth. No matter how people ridicule, admonish or attempt to embarass those among us who openly admit their fear of being blown-up by militant jackasses, all of us do have a subconcious fear of the reality of the situation. The inhabitants of Boston are largely a peace, understanding and diversity crowd. It shows in their voting habits. But at the end of the day, it would seem, they are just as skiddish and reactionary as those of us in the red states...maybe more-so.

Boston officials today are doing a lot of red-faced chest thumping, publicly denouncing the perpetrators of this advertising campaign. Two men are in jail awaiting arraignment. The entire city has breathed a sigh of relief...the "situation" has been diffused. But now the shame kicks in...the leaders of one of the East Coast's cultural epicenters have buckled under the weight of the "imaginary" threat.

Osama Bin Laden is probably laughing in his cave right now. Cartoons and blinking lights indeed.

Labels: ATHF, Democrats, fear mongering, legislative bed-shitting, terrorism