Charles Johnson Music • Fri Jun 12, 2009 at 2:32 pm PDT • Views: 313
These are some albums I bought recently and recommend, with Amazon’s cool little MP3 widget that lets you listen to clips and click through if you want to buy. The records are:
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I love Robert Plant and Alison Kraus on their own and I've tried to get into their duets but I'm just not feeling it.
I'm quite disappointed that I wasn't blown away. I was so excited when I heard of the combo
have seen Joe Bonamassa at the Royal Oak Theater up in MI...blew the house away...when he takes off you almost gotta take cover...but he plays some lighter delicate stuff too...
I remember Allison and Union Station doing the bluegrass circuit...cute little fiddle player with a squeeky high voice...always a crowd pleaser...she has that mountain soul quality
WASHINGTON – Influential senators working to overhaul the nation's health care system have investments and family ties with some of the biggest names in the industry. The wife of Sen. Chris Dodd, the lawmaker in charge of writing the Senate's bill, sits on the boards of four health care companies
WASHINGTON – Influential senators working to overhaul the nation's health care system have investments and family ties with some of the biggest names in the industry. The wife of Sen. Chris Dodd, the lawmaker in charge of writing the Senate's bill, sits on the boards of four health care companies
As they always say at the beginning of every Senate session, "Let us pray prey."
You have to wonder just how much further they can take "pay to play" without pushing the bounds of pure hypermathematics farther than a Disaster Area tax return does.
I'm taking a wee break from dinner preparations. I'm making radiatore baked in tomato sauce with lotsa' garlic and basil, a huge romaine salad, crusty garlic bread and orange sherbet with dark chocolate shavings.
I'm taking a wee break from dinner preparations. I'm making radiatore baked in tomato sauce with lotsa' garlic and basil, a huge romaine salad, crusty garlic bread and orange sherbet with dark chocolate shavings.
I'm taking a wee break from dinner preparations. I'm making radiatore baked in tomato sauce with lotsa' garlic and basil, a huge romaine salad, crusty garlic bread and orange sherbet with dark chocolate shavings.
Damn. Two more climbers die in a 2k foot fall on Mt. McKinley. Two doctors from down south. I don't understand the mentality of wanting to climb that mountain.
Damn. Two more climbers die in a 2k foot fall on Mt. McKinley. Two doctors from down south. I don't understand the mentality of wanting to climb that mountain.
Damn. Two more climbers die in a 2k foot fall on Mt. McKinley. Two doctors from down south. I don't understand the mentality of wanting to climb that mountain.
As they always say at the beginning of every Senate session, "Let us pray prey."
You have to wonder just how much further they can take "pay to play" without pushing the bounds of pure hypermathematics farther than a Disaster Area tax return does.
cheers
eon
There has to be a new law passed. After a someone gets elected to the senate or house, their spouses and kids can NOT be hired by a company that is regulated or overseen by gov't. So many times the "senators" hands are clean, but we find out that VOILA,, his wife was named to the board of Widget Co. a month after the senator was sworn in
The government looking at expanding a pioneering scheme in Flint, one of the poorest US cities, which involves razing entire districts and returning the land to nature.
Local politicians believe the city must contract by as much as 40 per cent, concentrating the dwindling population and local services into a more viable area.
The radical experiment is the brainchild of Dan Kildee, treasurer of Genesee County, which includes Flint.
Having outlined his strategy to Barack Obama during the election campaign, Mr Kildee has now been approached by the US government and a group of charities who want him to apply what he has learnt to the rest of the country.
Mr Kildee said he will concentrate on 50 cities, identified in a recent study by the Brookings Institution, an influential Washington think-tank, as potentially needing to shrink substantially to cope with their declining fortunes.
Most are former industrial cities in the "rust belt" of America's Mid-West and North East. They include Detroit, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Memphis.
I'm taking a wee break from dinner preparations. I'm making radiatore baked in tomato sauce with lotsa' garlic and basil, a huge romaine salad, crusty garlic bread and orange sherbet with dark chocolate shavings.
Where is the next stepping disk? Only happens when you desperately need one.
*** This is my first Birthday here!
***
It has been my greatest privilege to meet you Lizard this last year.
I have learned a lot, Shared a lot, met some outstanding people here.
Thank you...And thanks for the thousands of prayers and emails for
our Marine Son...
***
Charles you have something most bloggers lack...
It's called integrity...Hat tip sir...
***
golly.That year just seemed to fly by didn't it?
*** This is my first Birthday here!
***
It has been my greatest privilege to meet you Lizard this last year.
I have learned a lot, Shared a lot, met some outstanding people here.
Thank you...And thanks for the thousands of prayers and emails for
our Marine Son...
***
Charles you have something most bloggers lack...
It's called integrity...Hat tip sir...
***
golly.That year just seemed to fly by didn't it?
Checking out a different layout -- main content on the left, two sidebars on the right.
I just logged on and thought this might be the British style of driving on the right. The original layout places the ads away from LGF content and is easier on the eyes. Just my too sense.
There has to be a new law passed. After a someone gets elected to the senate or house, their spouses and kids can NOT be hired by a company that is regulated or overseen by gov't. So many times the "senators" hands are clean, but we find out that VOILA,, his wife was named to the board of Widget Co. a month after the senator was sworn in
There are already just such conflict of interest laws applied to the relatives of government employees. Which the Congress passed, and as usual carefully exempted themselves from.
But even if they weren't immune, the majority of corporations today have so many subsidiaries, interlocking directorships, etc., that it is all too easy to "hide" such relationships behind a bureaucracy.
Slightly OT; the new, Obama-appointed head of GM is the former head of AT&T. He claims he knows "absolutely nothing" about making cars, but that he intends to "improve" GM just the way he "improved" his former company, with particular emphasis on adopting procedures he "innovated" at Yahoo!.
My guess is, inside of a year, any complaint anyone has with a GM car, or any request for warranty service, will have to submitted by email. And the only response will be "You need to upgrade your system".
On a real note, as the page scrolls down, it seem like there is excessive dead space on the right side one you get past the tools bars. It looked better balanced.
I doubt it, Palin just escalated the insult game that's going back and forth. She she just said:
"It would be wise to keep Willow away from David Letterman."
Asked on Friday if that comment was suggesting that Letterman could "not be trusted around a 14-year-old", Palin replied: "Take it the way you want to take it. It's from the heart."
Letterman made a tasteless joke, but accusations like that are over the top too, no sign that Letterman is a pedophile IMHO.
I doubt it, Palin just escalated the insult game that's going back and forth. She she just said:
"It would be wise to keep Willow away from David Letterman."
Asked on Friday if that comment was suggesting that Letterman could "not be trusted around a 14-year-old", Palin replied: "Take it the way you want to take it. It's from the heart."
Letterman made a tasteless joke, but accusations like that are over the top too, no sign that Letterman is a pedophile IMHO.
I doubt it, Palin just escalated the insult game that's going back and forth. She she just said:
"It would be wise to keep Willow away from David Letterman."
Asked on Friday if that comment was suggesting that Letterman could "not be trusted around a 14-year-old", Palin replied: "Take it the way you want to take it. It's from the heart."
Letterman made a tasteless joke, but accusations like that are over the top too, no sign that Letterman is a pedophile IMHO.
She didn't say he was. She was just giving him a taste of his own medicine. Well deserved, IMO.
She also said "wise to keep Willow away from David Letterman" not the other way around. I think you could just as easily understand her to be saying that Willow might try to rip his face off given the opportunity. Understandable.
I can't imagine a lot of people enjoy living in the only occupied house on the block. They may be eager to move, but haven't done anything about it because they know they can't sell the house.
I doubt it, Palin just escalated the insult game that's going back and forth. She she just said:
"It would be wise to keep Willow away from David Letterman."
Asked on Friday if that comment was suggesting that Letterman could "not be trusted around a 14-year-old", Palin replied: "Take it the way you want to take it. It's from the heart."
Letterman made a tasteless joke, but accusations like that are over the top too, no sign that Letterman is a pedophile IMHO.
You got a sister, mother, girlfriend, female cousin? Are you a gentleman?
I can't imagine a lot of people enjoy living in the only occupied house on the block. They may be eager to move, but haven't done anything about it because they know they can't sell the house.
think of the excellent field of fire when they doze up the neighborhood
If this becomes the new format, it would be nice to have something set it off from the Lizard Spy feature.
When it was just Spy that was left justified, I could flash between all of the various screens that I would have up and be able to tell at a glance what I was looking at.
With both now left justified, it will take more time to tell one from the other.
I doubt it, Palin just escalated the insult game that's going back and forth. She she just said:
"It would be wise to keep Willow away from David Letterman."
Asked on Friday if that comment was suggesting that Letterman could "not be trusted around a 14-year-old", Palin replied: "Take it the way you want to take it. It's from the heart."
Letterman made a tasteless joke, but accusations like that are over the top too, no sign that Letterman is a pedophile IMHO.
Letterman is not the victim here, sorry but that spin is not going to happen.
She's pissed and I can't fault her for saying that. Letterman couldn't even find the decency to offer a genuine apology, a true liberal.
Fair enough, I just think if she goes too far she'll lose some of support she got for the lame ass joke, but that's just me. No need for her to get down in the gutter with Dave.
OT: Intrade has Ahmadinejad surging and his opponent falling sharply. Ahhmadinejad's chances are currently at 68%; Moussavi's at 40%. (Obviously there's a big bid-ask spread.)
I'm taking a wee break from dinner preparations. I'm making radiatore baked in tomato sauce with lotsa' garlic and basil, a huge romaine salad, crusty garlic bread and orange sherbet with dark chocolate shavings.
You do realize that the kid will never leave home.
Fair enough, I just think if she goes too far she'll lose some of support she got for the lame ass joke, but that's just me. No need for her to get down in the gutter with Dave.
you are all about support via numbers and polls...principle escapes you
Those are all excellent ideas, but it seems the problem is Flint doesn't even have enough people to attempt rehabbing the neighborhoods. Maybe Michael Moore could buy up the empty homes, repair them, and give them to people. After all, he thinks GM should stop making cars but continue to pay the workers.
Fair enough, I just think if she goes too far she'll lose some of support she got for the lame ass joke, but that's just me. No need for her to get down in the gutter with Dave.
Saying she'd keep her daughter away from a 62 year old man that compared her mother to a "slutty" flight attendant, joked about the possibility of her OR her older sister being sexually assaulted in a public venue, saying this in front of MILLIONS, and then sidesteps the issue with lame excuses, a 62 year old man who is no role model for anyone but low class comedians...Yeah, I'd keep my children away from him too.
/ he had bastard children...any jokes about that?
Former President George H.W. Bush defended Judge Sonia Sotomayor on Friday, saying it is “not right” to call President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee a “racist.”
“She was called by somebody a racist once. That’s not right. I mean, that’s not fair,” Bush said in an interview with CNN. “It doesn’t help the process. You're out there name-calling. So let them decide who they want to vote for and get on with it.”
"I don't know her that well, but I think she's had a distinguished record on the bench and she should be entitled to fair hearings,” he said.
Fair enough, I just think if she goes too far she'll lose some of support she got for the lame ass joke, but that's just me. No need for her to get down in the gutter with Dave.
Eh...be honest. Lefties hate it when one of their own gets called on the carpet for being vile.
Something like that. Remember a few years agoa few people were busted hanging nooses on their doors and vandalizing their own property with swastikas and claiming hate crimes were committed against them. I guess some people just need the attention.
think of the excellent field of fire when they doze up the neighborhood
Oddly enough, for the last thirty years or so the main demolition/bulldozing jobs in major cities have been the removal of the public-housing tracts that were built in the Sixties and early Seventies- Cabrini Green, in The One's home turf, comes to mind.
The "Projects", as they were inevitably called, were born of equal parts socialist hubris ("we know how people should live") and modernist theory untainted by reality (Le Corbusier's La Ville Radiuse, an English translation of which is about a foot from my right hand right now). As Tom Wolfe pointed out in From Bauhaus to Our House, such "public housing" is "non-bourgeois within an inch of its life", and thus "philosophically pure" in the minds of "progressives".
The fact that such "Projects" turned out to be poorly-designed, shoddily- built, crime-ridden rats-warrens where no reasonable, sensible person (no matter how poor) would voluntarily live, is something that I strongly suspect galls The One no end. Not because of the problems, but because the "poor", and everyone else, by refusing to live in same are Not Doing What Is In Their Best Interest As Defined By Their Betters. And That's Just Wrong.
So the idea of bulldozing neighborhoods and stacking the refugees from same up twenty stories high in "environmentally and socially responsible" mass housing would have an irresistible appeal to someone with the typical progressive mindset. After all, as Wolfe wrote, the typical "progressive", of Yale/Harvard/Greenwich Village extraction, sees himself as "The Common Man", and can't understand why no one else realizes just how absolutely, unchallengeably f**king brilliant he truly is.
Yes, I am wondering... and concerned about... just how far our One, Perfect Leader intends to take this. And I live in a near-city center area in a relatively small town, already.
Last week, we learned that California's animal shelter system is among the programs facing cutbacks as a result of the state's budget crisis. If a proposal from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is approved, strays in California's shelters could face euthanization in as few as three days, down from the six-day minimum hold generally applied in the state's shelters.
I'm taking a wee break from dinner preparations. I'm making radiatore baked in tomato sauce with lotsa' garlic and basil, a huge romaine salad, crusty garlic bread and orange sherbet with dark chocolate shavings.
The jobs are definitely the key. Your idea of attracting artists is interesting - a really good marketing campaign could convince a few hipsters that Flint is the place to be. I don't know if that would translate into attracting families though, and they're really the key to sustaining the population.
Well, I'm convinced. Tax the shit out of me. It's for the kids...and the puppies...and the kitties...just stop tugging at my heartstrings for gawds sake!
The newly revealed painting, hidden for almost a century within the wood wall of a private library, shows a portrait of a half-naked woman with clear links to the famous (and clothed) Mona Lisa.[...]
The lady in the portrait does not exactly resemble the original Mona Lisa, but there is little doubt it has parallels with the painting hanging at the Louvre museum in Paris.
Wouldn't it make sense, if these houses are abandoned, to have them etc
You dreamer, you! ;-)
IMHO, for a major program to get through Congress, a critical preponderance of special interests is required. You have to hope that the special-interest part does not outweigh the overall national interest, but there is no guarantee. Pro or con, the special interests don't care; the national interest is just a pretext to them.
At first glance, your proposals are in the overall national interest, but I can't think of entrenched interests that they would help and I can think of some that they would hurt. (And there's that whole market-economy thing...)
I'll be very pleasantly very surprised if your proposals come to pass, but I'll upding you for well-intentioned ingenuity.
Find a formulation that incorporates profits and special-interest gimmes and you might have something.
The problem is that they want to have everybody living in dense cities.
Local politicians believe the city must contract by as much as 40 per cent, concentrating the dwindling population and local services into a more viable area.
So let people who care about strays donate or open shelters.
The governator wants to call people's bluff and cut tug-at-the-heartstrings-services. I'd let them; save the taxing & borrowing until they fire some beaurocrats, cut their pensions, whatever, slash legislative perks, and get spending on par with revenue.
If they want to make puppies pay for their social programs, fine. I don't think tax protesters who would like to stay in buisiness in California a bit longer are the ones to blame here, Killgore, personal bugaboo of you or not.
Saying she'd keep her daughter away from a 62 year old man that compared her mother to a "slutty" flight attendant, joked about the possibility of her OR her older sister being sexually assaulted in a public venue, saying this in front of MILLIONS, and then sidesteps the issue with lame excuses, a 62 year old man who is no role model for anyone but low class comedians...Yeah, I'd keep my children away from him too.
/ he had bastard children...any jokes about that?
I just checked wikipedia for the contact number for the SSPCA (Scottish Society For The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) and this is what I found:
The Scottish Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is a charity tae forder ainimal weelfare. It wis foondit in 1839 wi the the ettle o betterin the weelfare o cairt-horse. It haes 13 ainimal weelfare centres that helps owre 15,000 ainimals ilka year. The associe is kent internaitionaly for its traitment o seabirds catched in ile sleeks
I doubt it, Palin just escalated the insult game that's going back and forth. She she just said:
"It would be wise to keep Willow away from David Letterman."
Asked on Friday if that comment was suggesting that Letterman could "not be trusted around a 14-year-old", Palin replied: "Take it the way you want to take it. It's from the heart."
Letterman made a tasteless joke, but accusations like that are over the top too, no sign that Letterman is a pedophile IMHO.
i'm not so sure she is implying he is a pedophile.
but w/ such a crude nasty bizarre vulgar statement coming out of his perverse joke-hole, you can see how a mother might not want their 14 yr. old child around the horrid old bastard. period.
he is not right in the head.
The problem is that they want to have everybody living in dense cities.
You know, sustainable.
I hate that word too, but I didn't see anything about the remaining parts of the city being high-density. I think they make a good point about the cost of things like garbage pick-up and street repairs. Even if all of buzzsawmonkey's excellent ideas could be implemented, I'm not sure a city built for a quarter of a million, now housing 110,000, can ever be brought back to its former glory. Selective pruning in areas with few or no occupied homes might work.
It's such a waste, killing all those puppies and kittens... and then tossing the bodies out.
It's protein!
Why put a 48 hour limit on the holding pen... and then harvest them!
Dogs-as-food is part of the culture in some Asian locales.
By taking the bodies, grinding them up, and making sausages... the state could then use the meat in the school-lunch programs, thereby saving even more $$$!
/That's the problem with today's socialist nanny-state - no creativity!
I'm sure the captains of industry will chip in to save the puppies.
Q: I can haz taxes?
A: No. You die now!
And? They didn't buy the dogs, did they?
Screw it. Don't we have compassionate liberal celebrities living in CA? Let them care about the puppies. So long as they are disposed of in a sanitary manner, what public interest is there, anyway? If you want to be nice to dogs, do with with your own money.
Yes -- the LGF Spy now shows full comments with all formatting, instead of an excerpt.
Thank you Charles.
I have come to expect the excellent design and features I enjoy here at LGF also with other sites I visit.
I am constantly being disappointed.
So recombine some of the lots, and let people choose which house they want to keep, and turn the rest of the land into a semi-rural area of small farms. You know, a few greenhouses and some intensive small farming.
The Israelis know how to do it; get the technology that built the Gaza greenhouses the Palis destroyed working to create a veritable green belt of year-round produce and flower cultivation.
Totally destroying a formerly-viable city to further some academic's moronic back to nature dreams is nuts.
I agree, and I think what you describe is closer to what they have in mind, although they may be thinking of parks instead of farms. In fact, I really like the idea of farms and greenhouses. They could have quite a little business going with things like heirloom tomatoes. Maybe keep some goats and make handcrafted cheeses.
Thank you Charles.
I have come to expect the excellent design and features I enjoy here at LGF also with other sites I visit.
I am constantly being disappointed.
Thank you Charles.
I have come to expect the excellent design and features I enjoy here at LGF also with other sites I visit.
I am constantly being disappointed.
If voters blame Arnold they could just end up voting in a Democrat.
My theory is that they're announcing cuts to the most sacred of sacred cows in the hope that the public will clamor for more taxes to save the puppies and the AIDS patients. I don't see anyone proposing that legislators go part-time and take salary cuts, or that university diversity offices shed some of their employees.
Yeah, I guess it really doesn't make a difference. It's not like any good Republicans have ever come out of California anyways. Let the whole state go solid blue forever.
That's quite a 'solitary' solution. ;-)
I compare the features we are enjoying here also with websites of news publications and they mostly fail the test of ease of use of feedback functions for example.
My theory is that they're announcing cuts to the most sacred of sacred cows in the hope that the public will clamor for more taxes to save the puppies and the AIDS patients. I don't see anyone proposing that legislators go part-time and take salary cuts, or that university diversity offices shed some of their employees.
yes, but they have run out of other people to tax, a minor detail.
Let's see. I understand that Arnold isn't perfect by any means but he has vetoed many a Democrat bills. Such as:
To the Members of the California State Senate:
Schwarzenegger vetoes California DREAM Act
I am returning Senate Bill 1 without my signature.
At a time when segments of California public higher education, the University of California and the California State University, are raising fees on all students attending college in order to maintain the quality of education provided, it would not be prudent to place additional strain on the General Fund to accord the new benefit of providing state subsidized financial aid to students without lawful immigration status. Under existing law, undocumented students, who meet the required criteria, already qualify for the lower in-state tuition rate while attending California public colleges and universities.
Therefore, I cannot sign this bill.
Sincerely,
Arnold Schwarzenegger
I doubt a Democratic governor would have vetoed that bill.
Arnold was threatening to start releasing prisoners too. He might do it. I don't think he has anything to gain by making threats at this point. There's nothing that can be done, is there?
Another veto from Arnold that wouldn't have been vetoed by a Democrat:
Governor Schwarzenegger Vetoes Harvey Milk Bill
California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has vetoed a bill that would have honored Harvey Milk's birthday as a statewide "day of significance," reports the Associated Press. In a statement on Tuesday, Schwarzenegger defended his decision by saying that the icon's "contributions should continue to be recognized at the local level."
Why would they blame Arnold? It has always been Democrats spending money like drunken sailors. Now is the time to pay the bill.
the Cal legislature makes the law not the gov...Arnaold barrowed like the rest of them and is now waiting for me to pick up the tab...Cal is not serious about fiscal reform...show me the beef...let the lunatics go to the poorhouse, they have no clue
Yeah, I guess it really doesn't make a difference. It's not like any good Republicans have ever come out of California anyways. Let the whole state go solid blue forever.
well as a good California R once said, "let them pull themselves up by their bootstraps" ... or flip-flops what ever.
Arnold was threatening to start releasing prisoners too. He might do it. I don't think he has anything to gain by making threats at this point. There's nothing that can be done, is there?
Nothing that can be done to balance the budget? There's plenty that can be done, but there's no political will to do it. IIRC, Arnold can't run again anyway. The only explanation I can think of is that he is desperate to be liked by his fellow liberals and is willing to sell the state down the river to do it.
Oh, and "no good Republicans have ever come out of California?" The Reagan fans here will beg to differ.
Arnold was threatening to start releasing prisoners too. He might do it. I don't think he has anything to gain by making threats at this point. There's nothing that can be done, is there?
The "live animal" phrase is pretty funny actually. I don't know about those laws. Like "driving while playing a musical instrument." In NJ you're not even suppose to drive and drink coffee or a soda (aka pop). Allegedly.
Right wingers -- keep the traditional web layout so i can not be distracted while i work to pay the bills.
Left wingers -- I want something new everyday so i don't have to be responsible and just have fun traveling in europe now that they like us again.
The "live animal" phrase is pretty funny actually. I don't know about those laws. Like "driving while playing a musical instrument." In NJ you're not even suppose to drive and drink coffee or a soda (aka pop). Allegedly.
Nothing that can be done to balance the budget? There's plenty that can be done, but there's no political will to do it. IIRC, Arnold can't run again anyway. The only explanation I can think of is that he is desperate to be liked by his fellow liberals and is willing to sell the state down the river to do it.
Oh, and "no good Republicans have ever come out of California?" The Reagan fans here will beg to differ.
States often try to "balance" their budgets by leaving in place ALL the same services they provide, but cutting back on the number of state employees who provide them, with some cute statement like, "We must do more with less!", or "We need to figure out a smarter way to work!". And of course what happens is things slow down, the public gets angry with those pesky "state workers" who are very often working in substandard conditions with substandard equipment and supplies.
The legislators seem to FORGET that they are the ones who passed the laws and regulations and requirements that state employees are required to enforce or deliver on.
What needs to happen is a state needs to determine which services it believes are critical to provide, fund those services so that they can be provided efficiently and effectively, and DO AWAY WITH EVERYTHING ELSE.
But of course, there's a political price to pay for that.
Louisiana at one time had a driver's license office in just about every little podunk town. They would often serve maybe one or two people a week. Every time the DPS suggested that some of these offices should be shut down, you wouldn't believe the hue and cry. It took years and years before the DPS could finally shut down some of these offices.
Right wingers -- keep the traditional web layout so i can not be distracted while i work to pay the bills.
Left wingers -- I want something new everyday so i don't have to be responsible and just have fun traveling in europe now that they like us again.
WASHINGTON – Influential senators working to overhaul the nation's health care system have investments and family ties with some of the biggest names in the industry. The wife of Sen. Chris Dodd, the lawmaker in charge of writing the Senate's bill, sits on the boards of four health care companies
So the senators and their wives get rich while we wait in line for treatment.
Screw that.
here in NM the DMV stuff is all contracted out privately...offices are everywhere and one never waits for too long...people love it altho we do pay a bit more...the Sec of State offices up in Mich are a nightmare of waiting, inefficiency etc...union droolers on the state dole...big difference
here in NM the DMV stuff is all contracted out privately...offices are everywhere and one never waits for too long...people love it altho we do pay a bit more...the Sec of State offices up in Mich are a nightmare of waiting, inefficiency etc...union droolers on the state dole...big difference
Our DMV actually works amazingly efficiently, and makes excellent use of technology. Wasn't always that way, but now there are minimal waits. Some things, like license plate renewals, are "contracted" out and a person will pay a little extra, but the service is still also available at DMV and I'm not sure many folks use the "contractors".
here in NM the DMV stuff is all contracted out privately...offices are everywhere and one never waits for too long...people love it altho we do pay a bit more...the Sec of State offices up in Mich are a nightmare of waiting, inefficiency etc...union droolers on the state dole...big difference
We've also had a big problem with licenses issued to anybody, using any kind of "ID", or none, for a price. I think they've tightened up some, but I'm sure not enough.
hoops--have a great vacation! i hope the fish just jump in your boat--may i have another manhattan on rocks, two cherries, plz? oh--and im still in mourning after the game last night--sniff!
Our DMV actually works amazingly efficiently, and makes excellent use of technology. Wasn't always that way, but now there are minimal waits. Some things, like license plate renewals, are "contracted" out and a person will pay a little extra, but the service is still also available at DMV and I'm not sure many folks use the "contractors".
Loozianna rocks!...state services can be efficient if they need to be
...IMHO, for a major program to get through Congress, a critical preponderance of special interests is required. You have to hope that the special-interest part does not outweigh the overall national interest, but there is no guarantee. Pro or con, the special interests don't care; the national interest is just a pretext to them.
...
Find a formulation that incorporates profits and special-interest gimmes and you might have something.
I once worked for a guy who believed that a certain something needed to be done in the national interest.
The problem was that there were only five or ten organizations that could do the work. Every time a program started getting off the ground, the unfunded contractors would call for a review of how things were going and get the program cancelled. In the interests of efficiency and cost-effectiveness, of course.
My boss's solution was to get a ton of make-work added to the effort so that every contractor got a cut. It made the program literally ten times more expensive than it should have been, and even then some of the contractor teams had to fight their own upper managements. He was not proud of his machinations, but he was adamant that he had taken the only way to get the essential 10% done.
We've also had a big problem with licenses issued to anybody, using any kind of "ID", or none, for a price. I think they've tightened up some, but I'm sure not enough.
I've not been here long enough to know of much corruption, even tho NM is swimming in it...good point
Was the White House unprepared to answer question on Rev. Wright?
Q Okay. Second question: The President's former mentor and spiritual advisor, Reverend Wright, had some choice words to say about "them Jews" that are being -- that are preventing him from talking to the press; and then he later, in fairness, changed that to "Zionists," not "Jews." But I was wondering if the President was aware of these comments and if he had any reaction to it at all?
MR. GIBBS: I haven't talked to him about these comments. I think I would -- I don't have any comment on it except to refer you to the last time the President spoke about Reverend Wright in late April of 2008. I refer you to those comments.
Must be those Jewish settlements. Yeah, that's why the Palis do shit like this.
Collaboration is viewed as a serious offence in Palestinian society. Suspects are often summarily killed.
However, police said it was unlikely that such a young boy would have been recruited as an informer.
He was probably "suspected" of collaboration, which could mean he merely acknowledged the presence of the IDF. AFAIC, it was an honor killing.
The concept has been discussed among the sustainability crowd for some time. Usually it is coupled with turning the razed areas into food producing plots.
Towns die, some just shrink and survive on a smaller scale. My own home town has been shrinking for decades. Years ago they razed an entire neighborhood - turned it into a park.
I saw how to do it when I quoted a comment with such features. In there you have all those programming commands.
I then copied 'n pasted those commands into a txt file which I keep open during my LGF-time for the use in situations like these.
Or this one?
How about this ♥ ?
OT: Intrade has Ahmadinejad surging and his opponent falling sharply. Ahhmadinejad's chances are currently at 68%; Moussavi's at 40%. (Obviously there's a big bid-ask spread.)
The concept has been discussed among the sustainability crowd for some time. Usually it is coupled with turning the razed areas into food producing plots.
Towns die, some just shrink and survive on a smaller scale. My own home town has been shrinking for decades. Years ago they razed an entire neighborhood - turned it into a park.
I thought that might be the case. Sounds like something that would be promoted by the American Institute of Certified Planners. Worrisome if you ask me since now we're talking "central planning." Urban renewal projects come to mind as well as eminent domain issues.
hoops--have a great vacation! i hope the fish just jump in your boat--may i have another manhattan on rocks, two cherries, plz? oh--and im still in mourning after the game last night--sniff!
You are very kind.Thank you...
So check this out...For the last couple of years the big scandal has been this dude that robbed the town of Lake Tomahawk blind...Huge Scandal..He stole money from the town and bought property outside the country...
Busted! the big scandal!
DEZes I haven't said it, but thanks for the never ending up dings to my comments.
I think half my karma points are from you.
I need to do a better job reciprocating but I admit I am lazy on the mouse
You are very kind.Thank you...
So check this out...For the last couple of years the big scandal has been this dude that robbed the town of Lake Tomahawk blind...Huge Scandal..He stole money from the town and bought property outside the country...
Busted! the big scandal!
DEZes I haven't said it, but thanks for the never ending up dings to my comments.
I think half my karma points are from you.
I need to do a better job reciprocating but I admit I am lazy on the mouse
I upding you because you make me laugh, I need that some days.
Glad to see you posting again.
Not long after the “Mission Accomplished” phase of the Iraq War, I attended a dinner in Ramallah, the capital of the rump state of Palestine, hosted by a sophisticated and aggressively secular leader of Fatah, the main faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization. The guests were like-mindedly secular, and the conversation was amiable and reality-based, until someone raised the subject of what George W. Bush’s actual goals in the Middle East might be. The host, growing angry, accused Bush of harboring entrenched and violently pro-Shia sympathies. I said that this was implausible, for any number of reasons. Another guest, an official of the Palestinian Authority, agreed with our host. He argued that the Bush administration was secretly motivated by a desire to establish a Shia state in the Arab heartland in order to create a new Washington-Baghdad-Tehran axis. Such an axis would replace the existing Washington-Riyadh-Amman-Cairo axis, and would serve both America’s oil interests and its desire for vengeance against the radical Sunnis who attacked America on September 11, 2001.
The Arab world: suspicion, wrapped in a conspiracy, with a heart of paranoia.
I saw how to do it when I quoted a comment with such features. In there you have all those programming commands.
I then copied 'n pasted those commands into a txt file which I keep open during my LGF-time for the use in situations like these.
Or this one?
How about this ♥ ?
I took a week off from commenting. I had a lot of bad feelings about the hot topic that week.
It's not my blog so rather than flounce off and join the scumbag stalker haters I just took some time away from reading and commenting on the Tiller stuff.
it was the hundreds if not thousands of great Lizards here like you that brought me back, feeling refreshed.
Plus I have a tremendous amount of respect for Charles and what he is doing here, not to mention I get lots of laughs and learn about what is going on in the world, especially when I am stuck at work for long shifts ( like tonight)
I see that WND is now highlighting the Darwin connection to the Brunn shooting.
Another winner is their story: 'Hate crimes' called a reason 'to rumble'
In which Charlie Daniels says it is now time for Christians to "rumble" and that they've misinterpreted the "turn the other cheeck" admonition.
thanks.
I admit I lurked a bit.
Just put tape over my ENTER button so I couldn't log on and say something in the heat of the heat of the moment which I would have regretted.
Time is a wonderful thing. Cooling off is good for people. It allowed me to approach the topic from a more rational place, and open my mind and listen to people with alternate views.
I feel a lot better for it
Good piece by Marty Peretz in The New Republic on Obama in Cairo:
Narrative Dissonance
What the Cairo speech got wrong.
...There are two basic narratives to the nearly century-old Jewish and Arabs-of-Palestine dispute. The sheer truthfulness of these narratives is so unbalanced that Obama or his panel of oddly partisan experts must have felt obliged to tamper with real history. What is most brazen or, at best, bizarre in Obama's historical recitation is the stark omission of the whole Zionist enterprise. Instead, he chose to understand the Jewish presence in Palestine as a sort of restitution for the Holocaust. For the president, the balancing of claims--and they must always be balanced; he does not tolerate asymmetries, which would make his divine even-handedness impossible--requires distortion of what actually happened. First off was to diminish the determination of the Jewish people through the ages, and especially since the age of nationalism in the mid-nineteenth century, to reclaim their homeland, to bring its very earth out of desolation and restore its dispersed sons and daughters to Zion--all this not as a reparation, but as a right. By the time World War II--before the Holocaust, that is--began, there were already more than 500,000 Jews in Palestine. Most of them had arrived as their palpable reply to the 1917 Balfour Declaration, to the approval by the League of Nations of a British mandate for a Jewish homeland in Palestine in 1922, to the recommendations of the Peel Commission for a two-state settlement. None of this enters the president's text, not even a hint of it, perhaps because it might muddle the clarity of the equal-claim argument...
Sometimes its best to take a few steps back and look at the situation, you did just that and thats called wisdom.
I have no clue what happened with you and the Tiller thread, and its not that important to me that I would dig to find out.
well, i will bbl--need a shower and a good cry--a good friend of mine--her 50 yr old son had 1/3 of his face cut out on tues due to cancer from chew--just spoke to her--he is still in med coma so he can heal-family not allowed to see him cause he is in sterile ICU--it is one of the saddest things i have heard lately-prayers please- yes realwest know--BBL
Loozianna rocks!...state services can be efficient if they need to be
Well, I'm not sure about the "rockin'" part, given that it's the DMV that manages to work efficiently, but some would argue that nothing else does LOL.
I always liked Robert Plant - wasn't aware he had any recent albums.
Very OT - glad it's Friday night. Will probably watch a movie tonight, unless AFVet is too tired. Tomorrow will be usual Saturday stuff - laundry, house cleaning, then church at 5 pm followed by dinner out (yeah - no dishes!).
Lots of interesting news this week - just today, all the items about the "firing" of the AmeriCorps IG. Very interesting! Also, time to get serious about opposing the O's health care plans. We definitely have our work cut out for us - stay involved and active!
Oooh, I just got email from Ban Ki-Moon saying the UN will give me 1 million dollars. Funny, though, the email comes from a host in Russia (ses-ko.ru) and reply-to an address at sbcglobal.
Here's the text for fun:
Dear Beneficiary,
How are you today? Hope all is well with you and your family? I hope this mail meets you in a perfect condition. This is the United Nations Organisation (COMPENSATION DEPARTMENT),this program is organised by the Board of Trustees and Directors for the middle of the Year "POVERTY REDUCTION AND ERADICATION". We are using our reputable and well known organisation to let you know that you are one of our chosen beneficiaries for this program of "POVERTY REDUCTION AND ERADICATION" in your country e-mail directory.
We hereby inform you that you have successfully being chosen and compensated for an International Bank Draft written out in your name in the amount of $1,000,000.00 (One Million United State Of America Dollars) in our West Africa regional Annex. Now, for the compensated price, you will have to contact the Finance House and the Compensation Department for your perusals and claims of your compensated price.
My dear beneficiary, below is the contact of the Finance House and Compensation Department (FHCD) for the collection and claims of your international certificated bank draft:
COMPENSATION HEAD OFFICE AND FINANCIAL DEPARTMENT
CONTACT Officer: Mr. Daniel Freeman
EMAIL:((deleted at)sbcglobal.net)
CELL PHONE: +234-(deleted)
Below is our Chief Organiser's contact information in the United Kingdom if you should have any questions and verifications to make for proper enlightment and explanation.case you want to verify or get any comfirmation from me but i want you to be rest assured that your bank draft will be cashed at your nominated Bank.
Finally remember that I have forwarded instruction to the finance house on your behalf to send the bank draft to you as soon as you contact them without delay.Please be informed that you should treat this as confidential as ever and in good faith from the Board and Management of the Organisation.
You are to provide the following information.
Your Full Name:...
Your Address:...
Personal Telephone Number:...
Age:...
Sex:...
Occupation:...
Nationality:...
Country:...
Thanks. God Loves and Bless you and your family.
Hope to contact the F.H.C.D soon.
Your's Faithfully,
Secretary Mrs. Linda Spray for Mr Ban Ki-Moon
C.E.O / CHIEF ORGANISER
Thanks...I can't get to that mail box from the computer I'm at right now...something about my sack puppet refusing to go online during daylight hours or some such nonsense. Don't understand this tech crap...
yes-mikey is a pure bred of sisters cattery-now shes retired-he is 15 yrs old- 20 lbs--my love! kira is gorgeous!
I do believe one of my cats must have some "maine coon" in it.
The cat is huge. 17 lbs. Stands about 12 inches tall. She's longer than our other cats (haven't been able to measure length). She's got a larger face and head, and is just bigger all the way around.
So who knows what's up w/the Iranian election? Not that it'll make much difference, but the networks are jumbling/re-reporting the poll numbers. Anyone got a real link to the ongoing results?
According to a guest on NPR, the people who vote for Ahmadinejad in Iran are just like Republican evangelicals in America.
OK, hypothetical scenario for NPR guy. Adam Lambert shows up to sing at an evangelical GOP stronghold in Somewhere, USA. Days later, Adam Lambert shows up to sing in some Imadinnerjacket City, Iran. What would ensue from these events? What would be the contrasts?
There seems to be a whole upding-gang at the works. ;-)
You are good people plus you make me laugh as a nice topping.
It is such a wonderful place here, the insights I get, the stuff I learn and the many times I screem of laughter are just priceless.
So who knows what's up w/the Iranian election? Not that it'll make much difference, but the networks are jumbling/re-reporting the poll numbers. Anyone got a real link to the ongoing results?
Just a few days ago, I read in the Courier Journal that Dinnerjacket had little chance of winning.
Yeah I laughed at that, but not in a good way.
There were reports that the police were prepared for riots.
ooops i just heard mark levin announce that dinner-jacket won.
i wonder if that is the final result.
if it is, o will be very disappointed.
his rousing inspiring cairo speech won't have changed the course of world history
in the m.e.
(actually i bet the mullahs picked din-jac just to fck w/ him. )
OK, hypothetical scenario for NPR guy. Adam Lambert shows up to sing at an evangelical GOP stronghold in Somewhere, USA. Days later, Adam Lambert shows up to sing in some Imadinnerjacket City, Iran. What would ensue from these events? What would be the contrasts?
Just a few days ago, I read in the Courier Journal that Dinnerjacket had little chance of winning.
Yeah I laughed at that, but not in a good way.
There were reports that the police were prepared for riots.
The people that voted for Dinnerjacket are not unlike the people that vote for Barbara Boxer.
It's beginning to look like Ahmadinejad has managed to steal this election. One possible good outcome from this is if the Iranian people respond with mass protests to bring down not only Ahmadinejad, but the mullahs as well.
i don't believe for a second that the 'election' in iran was anything but a scam.
the people of iran have no voice.
they are held hostage by a hideous regime which o loves to call the 'islamic republic of iran'.
how could there be even a semblance of fair elections in a cesspool like that?
o could have talked abt. democracy and freedom and individual liberty in his cairo speech to inspire the citizens of iran.
instead he talked stupid, like a suck up moron, awe struck by islam.
totally demoralizing them.
In what a U.S. military official calls an "inadvertent encounter," a Chinese submarine hit an underwater sonar array being towed by the destroyer USS John McCain on Thursday.
The array was damaged, but the sub and the ship did not collide, the official said. A sonar array is a radar towed behind a ship that listens and locates underwater sounds.
The incident occurred near Subic Bay off the coast of the Philippines.
The official, who declined to be named because the incident had not been made public, would not say whether the U.S. ship knew the submarine was that close to it.
However, the Navy does not believe this was a deliberate incident of Chinese harassment, as it would have been extremely dangerous had the array gotten caught in the submarine's propellers.
/China sure does like colliding with our military equipment
I saw Sonny Landreth for the first time two nights ago at a local music bar/restaurant. If anyone likes virtuoso slide guitar, or just amazing guitar, check him out. He has several albums but I recommend his live album Grant Street as an introduction.
Throwing objects such as this are capable of damaging expensive musical equipment and musicians. Any more of this and there will be no more music. -- FZ, Autumn 1981 at Northrup auditorium in Minneapolis, Minnesota. After someone threw a plunger on stage about two-thirds of the way through the show, he stopped the band with a wave of his hand speaking in the general direction that the dangerous object was thrown, while holding it in his hand. This did not prove to be an amusing act and Franks mood hardened. - It was, however, an evening of excellent, serious musicianship around the release of 'Shut up and play your guitar'