Last year they kicked the hell out of tomato farmers (six weeks later, it turned out to be peppers), this year it’s peanuts?  How long will this one go before they determine it was something else, or not an industry wide problem?

“We urge consumers to postpone eating any products that may contain peanut butter until additional information becomes available ” Stephen Sundlof of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration s FDA Center for Food Safety told reporters during a teleconference.

via FDA warning: Do not eat peanut butter products : Scientific American Blog.

Screw ‘em, I’m gonna go eat a peanut butter sandwich.

Three years without having to suffer through another windbag, snake-oil salesman’s pitch from the dark prince of nighttime television infomercials…

Yay!

Judge Orders Kevin Trudeau to Pay More Than $37 Million for False Claims About Weight-Loss Book

A federal judge has ordered infomercial marketer Kevin Trudeau to pay more than $37 million for violating a 2004 stipulated order by misrepresenting the content of his book, “The Weight Loss Cure ‘They’ Don’t Want You to Know About.”

In August 2008, Judge Robert W. Gettleman of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois had ordered Trudeau to pay more than $5 million and banned him, for three years, from producing or publishing infomercials for products in which he has an interest. The ruling confirmed an earlier contempt finding, the second such finding against Trudeau in the past four years.

I always thought this guy reminded me a little too much of another scam artist in need of indictment: Al Gore.

I think my mom even bought one of his books…

Here’s evidence of that picture and thousand words thing… okay, there’s a few words, so make it a thousand and four.

Passing The Torch Of National Safety

President ‘has four years to save Earth’

Soaring carbon emissions are already causing ice-cap melting and threaten to trigger global flooding, widespread species loss and major disruptions of weather patterns in the near future. “We cannot afford to put off change any longer,” said Hansen. “We have to get on a new path within this new administration. We have only four years left for Obama to set an example to the rest of the world. America must take the lead.”

Of course, this is the guy apparently responsible for creating statistics to support his fanaticism.  (NASA Chief James E. Hansen cooked the books on Global Warming)

Headlines that don’t evoke images of doom and gloom don’t sell papers, though.  Perhaps that “fairness doctrine” they keep yelling for on radio should apply to the print media as well?  Here’s another, equally qualified opinion:

Professor denies global warming theory

“This is George Orwell. This is the ‘Germans are the master race. The Jews are the scum of the earth.’ It’s that kind of propaganda,” Happer, the Cyrus Fogg Brackett Professor of Physics, said in an interview. “Carbon dioxide is not a pollutant. Every time you exhale, you exhale air that has 4 percent carbon dioxide. To say that that’s a pollutant just boggles my mind. What used to be science has turned into a cult.”

Happer served as director of the Office of Energy Research in the U.S. Department of Energy under President George H.W. Bush and was subsequently fired by Vice President Al Gore, reportedly for his refusal to support Gore’s views on climate change. He asked last month to be added to a list of global warming dissenters in a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee report. The list includes more than 650 experts who challenge the belief that human activity is contributing to global warming

But the dissenting opinions don’t get the headlines – the religion of global warming (oops… “climate change”) has banished such talk to the side channels.

We may never know the truth, but I’m sure that regardless the outcome (freezing cold, burning heat, drowning in deep water, dried out husks…) someone with a gift for eloquent, convincing speech will find a way to use that event to control some portion of humanity.  After all, most of us are idiot followers looking for someone else to lead.  Fortunately for the rest of you, there are enough cynics like me in the world who can tell you just how stupid you’re being.  All you have to do is listen.

Things I’ll miss about Kali:

• Followed me everywhere, but never a “lap cat”
• Always there to greet me at the door when I got home
• Plastic bags
• Her favorite treats – three times a day
• Opening the blinds for her when she sat near a window
• Playing “Catsketball”™
• Filling the sink so she could drink “really fresh” water
• Buying her toys she would ignore – watching her play with the damnedest things
• The plastic ring from a milk bottle (see previous)
• Arranging the items in the closet where her litter box was, to crowd her to the center of the box (only way I figured out how to keep her from crapping over the side!)
• That last one was weird, but seriously… it was almost a game
• Waking up every morning to find her at the foot of the bed
• Having her follow me out onto the front porch and sit with me while I smoke
• Watching her squeeze into too-small boxes, and sleep there like it was a bed made for a queen

I’ll revisit this and add more as they occur to me.  Thanks for indulging me.

* Kali’s exact birthdate is not known, she was taken in by a nice lady as a kitten – we adopted her soon after.

The sad part of this post is below the fold – I decided I wanted pleasant memories of Kali to take precedence on the front page.

Read more »

Okay, so while I’ve been tempted by the rash of “Netbooks” on the market, I soon realized that there were a number of decent laptops on the market for not that much more.  I’m open to suggestions, but I’m doing my own research and reading to find not only the best bang for my buck, but the best deal on the one I finally decide on.  I love the fact that Dell has a factory outlet store that sells “scratch-n-dent”/refurb/off-lease!  I know HP has a similar store, and I’ll be finding the same from the other major players before I stop looking.  Interesting to note that (most) all the big boys get their laptops from a fewunrecognizable manufacturers…  Makes it a lot less important to decide based on a name.

Anyway, while shopping around today, I came across this – I’m afraid some of the features might be out of my price range, but hey, I can dream!

Score another victory for socialized medicine!

Dean Scriven, 27, from Pantside, said although he was rushed to Newport’s Royal Gwent Hospital by ambulance at 3.30am on Saturday, the knife remained in his back for at least 12 hours until it was finally taken out at the University of Wales Hospital, Cardiff, the following afternoon.

The six-inch knife was lodged in Mr Scriven’s back between his shoulder blades and narrowly avoided his spinal chord and vital organs.

via Newbridge man’s 12-hour wait for stab op (From South Wales Argus).

Happy to hear this fellow survived his ordeal.

A very nice update – not much changed from the visitor’s standpoint (basically, nothing!), but the admin bits are very nice.

This little “Quickpress” editor could have a few more features, but it’s quite a handy way to drop in a short note.

Wordpress 2.7 “Coltrane”

Watched Dick Clark, noticed they showed literally NO shots of the new ball dropping or even lit up; toasted the new year; watched Robby Knievel jump the volcano; now it’s time for bed.

Good night / Good bye 2008.

Welcome, 2009.

May all the terrorist assholes in the world lay down and die this year.