December 28, 2012

Who remembers "Smoking or Non-Smoking"?

Now it appears (if the NRA prevails), parents will have yet another criteria when choosing a school/community.

If guns are to be a regular facet of school-life in the future, look for a wider schism than we now experience. How long before we see advertising for "Firearm-protected schools v gun-free schools"? Perhaps the gun-folks will opt out of gun-free schools and start their own "new" schools (like the Christian storefront Jesus schoolfolk have done).

So many of these "shooters" seem to have a death-wish for themselves , so perhaps they would start to choose the gun-schools so they could fulfill their shoot-out fantasy in a more spectacular way..

"Gun-maps" might also start to play into homeowner's insurance policies and even life insurance policies, and real estate prices too. Want to live gun-less in a community of arsenal-builders? Perhaps that bucolic wonderland of a community you are interested in buying a home in, just may be too dangerous for kid-sleepovers.

December 28, 2012

China Starts Longest Bullet-Train Line, Luring Air Travelers

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-26/china-starts-longest-bullet-train-line-luring-air-travelers.html

By Jasmine Wang - Dec 25, 2012 5:03 PM PT



China started its 2,298-kilometer (1,428-mile) high-speed train line, the longest in the world, as the nation boosts investment in rail networks, intensifying competition for airlines.

The first train on the Beijing-Guangzhou line left Beijing West Station at 9 a.m. as scheduled, according to state broadcaster China Central Television. The trains will initially run at a speed of 300 kilometers per hour, reducing the travel time to as few as eight hours from the previous 21 hours, according to the rail ministry.


A high-speed train departs a platform in Hebei province south of Beijing on Dec. 22, 2012. The new line, which will eventually connect to Hong Kong, is part of the nation’s plan to build a 16,000-kilometer high-speed rail network by 2015, undeterred by a deadly bullet-train accident last year. Photographer: Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images

The new line, which will eventually connect to Hong Kong, is part of the nation’s plan to build a 16,000-kilometer high- speed rail network by 2015, undeterred by a deadly bullet-train accident last year. The new service may lure air travelers and prompt China Southern Airlines Co. (1055) and Air China Ltd. (601111) to cut fares, according to Barclays Plc.

“The continued development of the high-speed train network will marginalize short-haul domestic air routes,” Barclays analysts Patrick Xu and Jon Windham wrote in a note to clients last week. It will “exacerbate the competition on long-haul domestic routes and depress margins.”

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December 21, 2012

Boehner's Speakership Not in Jeopardy...so sayeth John Boehner I wonder what Pres. Romney thinks

I think that smarmy little rat-bastard Cantor has been planting stink bombs for years and would be quite happy to throw Boner a going-away party

Boner may be crying real tears soon..

December 21, 2012

Asa Hutchinson??? Really ?

Good grief ! NRA makes an offer we "cannot" refuse"..

We just can never be rid of these cretins.. They are worse than zombies...


NRA has now "immunized" themselves because if a school does not take their ":free gun-shit", and there is a massacre, they will say.. "They should have taken us up on our offer"..

December 21, 2012

Poor Wayne LaPierre

He's about to pull a "full-twisting-backwards Boner..."

Looks like he's about to cry..

He's just soooooo damned sad about that evil media and film industry..

A side note.. I dare anyone to find any info about his family on Google.. He seems to shroud his own family in complete silence & anonymity.. (There are some articles that include his wife Susan..but zero mention of kids... maybe they were "barren&quot The irony? The people who would commit gun violence on his own family are the ones he clings to so fervently..and sells gun to.....


just in case

December 20, 2012

John Boehner IS "doing his job".

I cannot believe the nonsense day in an day out about how "John Boehner & the republicans need to start doing their job(s)".

Thwarting Obama is "Job Number One"..

It was their job when they held their Inauguration-night soirée, when they plotted their strategy, and it remains their job.

The people they answer to, and whose "work" they do, are the people in the districts of states who helped them remain in control.

That small sliver of humanity (?) is holding the rest of the nation hostage to their odious brand of "conservatism".

Right wingers "Do not go gentle into that good night". They are always poised and ready to strike out at any opportunity given them.

Their "brand" is toxic, and their numbers overestimated and over-valued, but they maintain their self-importance and have able-bodied "transmitters" in every media venue, to keep selling their stale & dangerous ideology.

Their goal is to devalue Obama, and they will fight to the last-man to make his tenure as uncomfortable and ineffective as possible.

So, Boehner IS doing his job...or at least what he perceives his job to be.

Negotiating with him or his crew is ridiculous. He has no reason to negotiate in good faith. To do so voids his contract.

December 20, 2012

Instead of basing bans on the "style" of the weapon, why not base a ban on ANY weapon

that can deliver X-number of rounds/bullets/projectiles/whatevers of whatever wiggle words define it.... in x-number of seconds..

or a weapon that can be "morphed" by purchasing add-ons designed to "upgrade" it to a higher delivery number.

and if one has to show ID and sign a book to buy cough syrup that a doctor says you need, and who gives you a "permission-paper" to prove it....why not do the same for ammo & gun parts?

Ammo is only needed if you use it in a gun..and who needs gun parts, if they don't plan to modify a gun or build one?

December 18, 2012

"Cold-Dead-Hands" vs "Binders of Bloody, Shredded, Young Bodies"

Congresspeople & Senators should have to view EVERY crime scene photo....as they were found when the law enforcement folks arrived.

When someone is on a jury, they are forced to look at autopsy photos & crime scene photos ..

Prosecutors see them daily..

Victims LIVE (and die from) them

Family members see them and the actual body (for identification)

Law makers should have to see them...and see them again, every time they start bloviating about how much they love the "gun culture", or when they quash gun-legislation

Perhaps photos like this could even be a Rorschach of sorts for people buying guns.. The way people react to the possible result of using the weapon, might be a definitive part of their "gun-worthiness"

December 17, 2012

This deadly item is banned in the USA (I own it..I'm not even allowed to re-sell it.. too dangerous)

Someone took the time to create a law that banned this...why? because it might kill children (actually it did kill a few.....totally by accident)


An item designed and sold as a harmless...fun...toy, but which accidentally killed some kids, gets banned, but items which when used for their designed purpose, definitely kills people...... they are not banned, and are worshiped by 1/3 or more of the population

December 17, 2012

Workers say charity gave little money to vets

http://www.theeagle.com/news/nation/article_46fb431f-3f1c-5cde-bef3-d2a356d1011a.html


Posted: Sunday, December 16, 2012 7:01 pm | Updated: 9:14 pm, Sun Dec 16, 2012.


A veterans charity already under scrutiny for how it raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in Tennessee handed out only a fraction of the money in the form of gift cards and threatened to fire workers if they didn't meet fundraising quotas, former employees say. The Stuart, Fla.-based Veterans Support Organization has been criticized by other groups for how it uses donations raised outside retail stores and supermarkets. It had been fined by Tennessee for making false claims about the benefits it offered, and Connecticut lawmakers called for a federal investigation before the group's Tennessee branch closed last month.

However, former employees interviewed by The Associated Press shed new details on how the charity operated. For instance, it claimed to help veterans and non-veterans by providing them jobs, but disciplined people who didn't meet fundraising quotas. It also claimed to provide housing and help for poor or homeless veterans, though the former workers say that amounted to little more than a rented home in Tennessee where the workers were charged $400 a month for bunk beds and plastic dressers.

snip

VSO reported raising nearly $8.5 million nationwide during the last fiscal year, but leaders emptied its office in Madison and laid off about 20 workers the day before Thanksgiving. Charity officials declined to answer questions about the workers' claims, but provided a short statement. The Tennessee chapter was raising tens of thousands of dollars a month at its peak, former chapter manager Kurt Jones told the AP, who was among those laid off. However, he said, its only donations were about $400 worth of Walmart gift cards given every other month to Veterans Affairs facilities in Tennessee and Kentucky.

snip