We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
Playboy Mansion bacteria points to Legionnaires’ disease outbreak. Is that all?: “DomainFest released a statement Tuesday that urged those who attended the Feb. 3 fundraising event at the Playboy Mansion to fill out a confidential survey to assist health officials with their investigation.” – I’d like to see that “confidential survey.” Will it rival Penthouse letters?
What were #s 1 to 5?
– In 1998, a friend, newly married, went (sans bride) to a party at the Playboy mansion. He said it lived up to his expectations. He is since divorced.
Michael Barone: The public no longer sees government shutdown as a 'train wreck'
The Decline of U.S. Naval Power: Sixty ships were commonly underway in America's seaward approaches in 1998, but today there are only 20. We are abdicating our role on the oceans.
Gallup: Americans Maintain Broad Support for Israel: U.S. adults nearly four times as likely to side with Israelis as with Palestinians
Between 1995 and 2008, according to the researcher Stanley Kurtz, Arab Gulf states gave $234 million in contracts and about $88 million in gifts to American universities. Although amounting to only a drop in the bucket of total university endowments, such targeted gifts, like the $20 million contributed by King Fahd of Saudi Arabia to the University of Arkansas, and various multi-million-dollar donations to Berkeley, Cornell, Princeton, Texas A&M, Columbia, Rutgers, and other schools, have meant a very great deal locally.
The aims of these investments are very specific: the creation of a particular sort of cultural "understanding." And in this respect they have paid off, especially in the area of faculty hiring and concentration.
Tank defense: Israeli Trophy Technology May Prove of Great Value to U.S.
Here's how it works: A person passes through a passageway in which a Bioexplorers system is installed. A fan passes air into a sensor receptor, and delivers it into a chamber with several mice. The mice, having gone through intensive behavioral training, sniff the air. If the odor is one associated with items the mice have been trained to recognize, like drugs or bombs, they move into another chamber - setting off an alarm. Security officers can then move in and stop the appropriate suspect.
"The mice rarely make an error, and the entire procedure is far less invasive or intimidating than the alternatives, like using dogs or X-ray machines," says Lumbroso. "There's no radiation, and no concern about being seen naked," he adds.
ZINGO!: “the Bob Woodward and Sy Hersh brand of “journalism” will remain what it is: little more than self-serving accounts relying on anonymous or biased sources who often had little role in decision-making.”
Another reason to have liked Jane Russell (Hint: not her six-shooters)
“Benedict's arguments expand on what church leaders at the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s wrote in a historic document exonerating Jews of the past or present for collective responsibility in the death of Jesus.”
You don’t have to be Arab to protest:
Despite protests,Navy to name ship after Congressman Murtha who defamed Marines. “A better name would be the USS Stab Us In The Back”
In May 2010, he told guests at a private White House dinner that race was probably a key component in the rising opposition to his presidency from conservatives, especially right-wing activists in the anti-incumbent "Tea Party" movement that was then surging across the country.
Meanwhile, Obama’s Attorney General Holder’s race-based view of voters rights:
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. played the race card in congressional testimony on Tuesday, referring to blacks as his “people” while neglecting the rest of Americans. That race-based lens pervades his Justice Department, causing consistently skewed enforcement of the law.
Tank defense - Kenetic energy weapons are becoming the "thing" of modern defense and offense systems. Beyond active tank defense, there are now systems for active ship defense using kenetic energy weapons. Throw a lot of ball bearings in the air at high speeds and you're going to hit something and that something is gonna go ka-boom.
The Navy is testing a ship bound rail gun system which throws a seven pound load at 7,680 feet per second at nine mega joules. The latest is that same weight at 32 mega joules which achieves 11,500 something meters/second (that's close to Mach 10 I think) for a distance of 200 miles with pin point accuracy. Take that same system chucking ball bearing clouds (and not big ones either - teeny tiny ones) and you can pretty much defeat any weapons thrown at you - including hyperspeed missiles.
I probably disagree with Hefner on just about everything, but I admire him for maneuvering his life to get just what he wants.
Having said that, I recently read a very unflattering account from two of his live-in playmates. That his entire life seems to center around sex (which requires massive amounts of viagra) is not nearly so objectionable as his disregard and disinterest in his girlfriends beyond that. I think you can be a horn-dog while being classy, but he is apparently just a horn-dog.
Marianne,
Yes. In fact I first wrote "child" in describing him but reworded it. He is a child and I certainly don't consider that a good thing, however as I said, I admire that he has so successfully set his life up to be just the way he wants it (apparently without coercion). I wish I could be as successful at that - of course, my life would not at all look like his if I did.
The implications (as per other mysterious crises, BP Macondo is never far from mind) are just ...vast.
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March 3, 2011
MORE ON THAT BATF GUNRUNNING SCANDAL: Agent: I was ordered to let U.S. guns into Mexico. “An Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms senior agent assigned to the Phoenix office in 2010, Dodson’s job is to stop gun trafficking across the border. Instead, he says he was ordered to sit by and watch it happen.” All while the ATF was blaming U.S. gun shops for weapons found in Mexico . . . .
