July 24, 2013

" WBNS-10TV: Columbus police searching for four masked men"

WBNS-10TV: Columbus police searching for four masked men

Now at first glance this article from the Columbus Dispatch seems ok.

But I got to thinking that it is a somewhat difficult task, even for Columbus' finest to search a metro area of one million people, none of whom, unless it's Halloween, for 4 MASKED MEN.

Just saying.

July 21, 2013

WTF????

Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight Blog Is to Join ESPN Staff

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/20/business/media/nate-silver-blogger-for-new-york-times-is-to-join-espn-staff.html?_r=0

" Nate Silver, the statistician who attained national fame for his accurate projections about the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections, is parting ways with The New York Times and moving his FiveThirtyEight franchise to ESPN, the sports empire controlled by the Walt Disney Company, according to ESPN employees with direct knowledge of his plans."

But on a more happier note;

" At ESPN, Mr. Silver is expected to have a wide-ranging portfolio. Along with his writing and number-crunching, he will most likely be a regular contributor to “Olbermann,” the late-night ESPN2 talk show hosted by Keith Olbermann that will have its debut at the end of August. In political years, he will also have a role at ABC News, which is owned by Disney."

What, now I have to get my politics, except for the national biggies from Politico?

July 15, 2013

"Tame Inflation Also Has Some Drawbacks"

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/tame-inflation-drawbacks-185900650.html

Leave it to Rupert via his rag, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

From the article;

"While tame prices avoid spooking the Fed, freeing it to consider factors such as unemployment, they may be too subdued. Rising prices boost companies' top lines and, ultimately, profits (Corporate profits are ALREADY AT HISTORIC HIGHS!). That is needed to underpin stock gains. With margins already well above average, corporate revenue must start pulling its weight. As earnings season gets under way in earnest this week, it seems possible, though, that year-over-year revenue will be about flat. This would mark the third-consecutive quarter of ennui."

"The inflation rate may be reassuring for the Fed, but it is cold comfort for stock-market investors (Well isn't that special!)."

Let's hear it for the 1% and their making profit vs. wanting to raise the core inflation rate (to ???).

June 30, 2013

And you thought 'Travon' incidents could only happen in the South;

"Teen wants apology after officer pulls gun

“A gun was pointed at me (Xzavier Brandon) and handcuffs were put on me, and that’s everything that’s done to a criminal,” Brandon said in an interview last week.

Exempt from final exams because of good test scores at New Albany High School, Brandon was walking his usual route to preseason football practice on May 28 when a resident of Hilltop Trail Drive thought he looked suspicious. A house in the Northeast Side neighborhood had been broken into between 8:30 a.m. and 12:40 p.m., when the homeowner returned and discovered the crime.

“There’s someone walking down the street who might have something to do with this,” he told the Columbus police dispatcher (Mike Eberts). “It may just be a coincidence that he’s just walking by, but it sure looks suspicious to me.” He told the dispatcher he would follow the youth in his car.

Eberts, the neighbor who called police, said this week, “I wasn’t accusing anyone of anything. I simply was encouraging the police to talk with someone in the area.” He wouldn’t elaborate on what he thought was suspicious about Brandon."

How many times have we heard it said, 'Brandon was guilty of being black'.

June 16, 2013

Spock drops the 'f bomb';

Which IS bleeped out naturally (it's part of a commercial).

http://io9.com/old-spock-battles-new-spock-in-the-greatest-car-commerc-493836696

The premise is a battle between the old (Nimoy) and the new (Zachary Quinto) Nimoy featured in a Volvo commercial.

As you can imagine there's several references to the show, all done very well.

MUCH funnier than 'the Darth Vader kid'!

It's an Audi commercial!!!!!!!!!!!

My bad.

June 14, 2013

'Get a brain morans;'

Has a new site of where to view it;

http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/bl-funny-pictures.htm?x=249&y=146&PS=165%3A22

It made their 'funniest political pictures of all time'.

March 12, 2013

What Betting Markets Are Saying About the Next Pope

This is a link to Nate's blog;

http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/04/what-betting-markets-are-saying-about-the-next-pope/#more-38988

I would not have even the title another thought had I not read his blog a few days ago.

Then, I read an OP;

O'Malley, the `cappuccino priest,' a hit in Rome

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014422607

What will the average Joe, Catholic of course, do now?

Are they going to fly those stupid mini flags of their favorite sport's team; HELL, I live in Columbus OH and 10% of the cars fly these flags, paint their cars Scarlet and Gray (OSU's colors) or have some sort of decal displayed.

Will the chant during church, led by the priest, be 'USA, USA, USA' during a regularly scheduled hymn?

Will red be the new color (see the pic at the OP)?

USA, USA, USA!

February 15, 2013

Finally got around to seeing, 'Land of the Dead;'

It's OK, for a zombie movie (my favorites are 'Shaun of the Dead' and 'Fido'), but considering it's from George Romero...

A critique of the film is not my reason for posting though.

Dennis Hopper plays the anti-hero.

He is a psychopathic; greedy, runs all the vice in 'his' city, class A bigot and all around bad guy.

Now I don't know about any of you, but aren't these the qualities that make for a 'card carrying' Republican?

Now I seem to remember that Mr. Hopper underwent a political transformation before he died; he 'converted' to a Republican.

So, for what it's worth, Dennis was playing a character that he would have greatly loved and admired; Cheney, Reagan, Bush, etc...

January 5, 2013

EVERY TIME there's an OP about a diatribe on NPR;

On DU, there's this usual shit storm from the usual posters.

The latest is 'Why Some Public Radio Supporters Won't Be Donating to NPR This Year.'

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022135384#post33

It's true, there are SOME segments of shows I would not call 'progressive.'

However, these segments of shows and are only limited to the news cycles of the moment.

Also, I'd call ALL NPR moderators to be a 'fair and balanced' lot. In other words, they do have interviewees (nearly always Republicans and Progressives interviewees. On the rare occasion there's only the Progressive guest, there's the ubiquitous disclaimer that an appropriate Republican guest declined to be 'interviewed.').

Much of the time, the moderators will call 'BULL SHIT.' They do this for both sides. Maybe it is this type of action (which is the ONLY way it should be) that gets these DU'ers goat.

In particular, which of these show do these posters have a problem with?

Morning Edition; A REAL news program.

All Things Considered; With hosts Robert Siegel, Michele Norris and Melissa Block, I challenge you to find anything but 'fair and balanced' talk and stories.

Fresh Air; Anyone calling Terry anything but entertaining has a HUGE problem with me!

Car Talk; DUH

On Point; With moderator Tom Ashbrook. He is great and will challenge any and all, callers AND guests.

Talk of the Nation; What's your problem with Neal Conan?

Science Friday; Get it, Science?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Weekend Edition; Just a Republican leaning show celebrating and promoting pure capitalization.

Market Place Money; Another great show on the real life stories of finance and not a rehash of all that's wrong with shows such as 'Market Day' on MSNBC, Bloomberg and of course 'Fox Business.'

Radio Lab; Come on, anyone having listened to this wonderful show can't be serious when they call out NPR as being anything but Progressive.

TED Radio Hour; Other than that MINOR, and solitary, problem, this is a GREAT show.

Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me; TOTALLY Progressive leaning!

This American Life; If you think there is ANYTHING but great shows and stories you are mentally challenged!

A Prairie Home Companion; Again, totally Progressive leaning

StoryCorps; These are actually recordings of CDs stored in the Library of Congress. WTF is the problem here?

World Caft; I can't recall much of this show, but.....

Planet Money; Not another rehash of capitalism;

BBC News Hour; Ahhhhhhhhhh, what's the problem here?

Ask Me Another; 'Humor in a Jugular Vein'.

Toast of the Nation; Great show!

Travel With Rick Steves; Sometimes they do talk of traveling to non Progressive locations such as Europe, etc...

On the Media; 'While maintaining the civility and fairness that are the hallmarks of public radio, OTM tackles sticky issues with a frankness and transparency that has built trust with listeners and led to more than a tripling of its audience in five years.'

The various music programs during the 'off hours;'

There are several NPR shows that don't make it to my local NPR station; WOSU. Maybe it are these shows that these DU'ers are objecting to. But if this is the case, the few I have not listed most certainly are not the reason have such a diatribes about.

Speaking of this superb and nationally recognized station, WOSU (as the call letters imply, OSU supported (sorry about you Michigan fans ;p), there are wonderful and highly professional shows and interviewers in their own right;

Morning Edition;

All Sides With Ann Fisher; Ann could do a national NPR (TOO Left leaning to make it to regular TV) spot. If she did make the transition, Columbus would lose a local treasure, she is that good.

Columbus on the Record;

Humankind;

And as I mentioned above, there are some shows on WOSU I've never had the privileged to listen to.

There is another local NPR station, WCBE. This station is mostly other than classical music orientated. It does have some shows duplicated on WOSU but mostly music.

I have tuned in to this station (not my favorite of the two) on Sunday mornings. Once, there was a church service where the preacher went off on a homophobic rant. WTF?

Also, there is a sister station of WOSU that does play NOTHING but classical music; How dare they! Typical fascistic brain washing (I've actually heard some Wagner!).

So PLEASE, PLEASE, let me know what exactly the reason/reasons you hate NPR.

Oh, a couple of PSs here;

It is true there was a Republican Appointee during the Bush years (can't remember the name). During his tenure, his political bent showed through, some. This is no longer the case.

Gary Knell, president and CEO of Sesame Workshop is now the CEO of NPR. Oh wait, Sesame Street, you're right, another fascistic type!

He replaced Vivian Schiller. Vivian was forced to resign after, gasp, she was slammed by Republicans as promoting 'too much' of a Progressive stance; the horror, the horror.

And as to the point of the OP, NPR CANNOT refuse to air a corporation's 'message.' Any donated money from such gets so many plugs per cycle of giving.

I too detest fracking for the its MANY evils. My major is in Ecology (from OSU thank you very much!). I attended one of the IPP lectures and was enthralled.

I have been convinced, and knowledgeable, of Climate Change since reading an article 20 years ago penned by Carl Sagan on this topic.

I have also posted on the other thread.

December 18, 2012

All in all, the greedy basterds, especially this time of year!

this is in response to a Poll by MSNBC;

"

John Boehner has proposed raising taxes for those earning more than $1 million, while President Obama wants to raise rates on those making more than $250,000. Should $1 million a year be considered rich, or is $250k the right level?"

"Yes, $250k a year is rich, especially compared with the average U.S. family income (54557)
34%
No, $250,000 doesn’t go very far today (68601) - your vote
42%
Depends on where you live (38602)
24%"

While I do support SOME of those who live in, say, Manhattan or a few other SELECT Zip Codes, there can't be THAT many people who do.

All in all, the greedy basterds, especially this time of year!