Don’t you feel lots better knowing now that Congress can move quickly if it’s something vitally important? Here’s the story.
We’re in a war, we’re looking at a looming mortgage crisis, and I can tell you that our educational system is getting flushed down the tubes, and what does our brave Congress do? Why, it decides to make the words “In God We Trust” bigger on our coins.
Responding to complaints from the Religious Right, Congress has passed legislation mandating that the phrase “In God We Trust” be moved from the edge to the back or front of the new presidential dollar coins.
President George W. Bush signed the measure into law Dec. 26. It was tucked into a $555 billion domestic spending bill after having been pushed by U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.). Brownback and other Religious Right conservatives have been complaining about the new coins since the series started last year.
Oh, yeah. That’s a solution. Maybe God will like us better if put His name in bigger print on our money.
A newly discovered video of a 2004 appearance at Northwestern University by Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama, in which he calls for the federal decriminalization of marijuana, was posted online today by The Washington Times. In that appearance, Obama states, “I think the war on drugs has been a failure, and I think we need to rethink and decriminalize our marijuana laws.” Obama continued, saying that while he supported decriminalization, he did not support the full legalization of marijuana.
In contrast, Senator Obama appeared to oppose decriminalization in a 2007 Democratic primary debate when MSNBC moderator Tim Russert asked candidates who opposed then-candidate Senator Chris Dodd’s support of decriminalization to raise their hands. In the video, Senator Obama is seen hesitantly raising his hand halfway before quickly lowering it again.
When asked about the two different answers, Senator Obama’s campaign stated that he has “always” supported decriminalization, and that Obama misunderstood the question when he raised his hand in the debate. In that same statement, Obama’s campaign reiterated the Senator’s opposition to full legalization, but said that an Obama administration “will review drug sentences to see where we can be smarter on crime and reduce the blind and counterproductive sentencing of non-violent offenders.”
“It appears Senator Obama, alone among the major candidates for the presidency, has the courage to state the obvious: it is time that we stopped treating responsible marijuana smokers like criminals,” said NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre. “According to a recent CNN/Time Warner poll, 76% of the American people agree with Senator Obama, as well as the 48 million Americans who smoked marijuana last year.”
Democratic rival Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign stated that she opposes decriminalization. On the Republican side, Senator John McCain opposes decriminalization, while former Utah Governor Mitt Romney opposes both decriminalization and physician-recommended access to medical cannabis.
For more information, please contact NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre at (202) 483-5500. The Washington Times story, along with video of the two appearances referenced above, are available online.
WF not only had all the oils (Avocado, Macadamia Nut, and Grapeseed oil—the others I already had—they also had a large cabinet of tiny vials of various essential oils—all that one could imagine. Eucalyptus Lemon was interesting, but I finally settled on three: Lemon, Negroli, and Ylang Ylang. That’s enough for 3 different batches.
Then when I went to the regular supermarket (Nob Hill, in this case) to pick up kitty litter, I checked the oil section—they also had every food oil I needed: the three listed above, plus Almond and Olive oils. Some were more expensive than those from WF, some were less expensive. I didn’t check for the Jojoba oil at Nob Hill—unlikely, I think—nor did I check for the essential oils.
I noticed that WF had several versions of Macadamia Nut oil—including one containing also red palm and coconut oils. Nob Hill had only one Macadamia Nut oil, but it was pure macadamia nut (from Australia).
With all the recent bans on plastic bagsaround the world, it’s natural to wonder just how effective all the bag banning will be. Instead of simply enacting laws to phase out plastic bags - which seems like a wishy-washy attempt at most, Ireland has implemented a tax-based incentive to cut plastic bag useage — and it seems to be working wonders. Between the government tax on bags, an effective advertising campaign, and public support, plastic bag usage has dropped 94% in a matter of weeks.
Plastic bags were not outlawed, just made publicly unacceptable. Could this be the most effective way to rid stores of a wasteful and unnecessary product that seems to have sneakily insinuated itself into the generic shopping experience? We think Ireland is a great example for cities and countries around on the world who want to tackle the plastic bag problem decisively and effectively.
Speaking financially, is the US headed for a third-world-style meltdown? Interesting comment from Paul Krugman:
Carmen Reinhart and Ken Rogoff have an alarming paper on parallels between the United States and countries that have experienced financial crises in the past. The bottom line of the paper, which has already gotten a lot of attention, is that we look an awful lot like those other countries — and that if their experience is any guide, things could get really, really bad.
But what I just noticed on a reread is this rather nice line (bear in mind that I was very involved in the Latin American debt crisis of the 80s):
While much praised at the time, 1970s petro-dollar recycling ultimately led to the 1980s debt crisis, which in turn placed enormous strain on money center banks. It is true that this time, a large volume of petro-dollars are again flowing into the United States, but many emerging markets have been running current account surpluses, lending rather than borrowing. Instead, a large chunk of money has effectively been recycled to a developing economy that exists within the United States’ own borders. Over a trillion dollars was channeled into the sub-prime mortgage market, which is comprised of the poorest and least credit worth borrowers within the United States. The final claimant is different, but in many ways, the mechanism is the same.
The truth is that I’m not nearly as pessimistic as some. But comparisons like this do worry me.
A prize-winning little documentary about Steve Benen, a regular blogger and commenter on the Internets. Here’s a sharper Quicktime version, or you can watch the lower-resolution YouTube version below. The story behind the video here.
Housing Secretary Alphonso Jackson is alleged to have retaliated against the Philadelphia Housing Authority after it refused to “transfer a $2 million public property to a developer” who is a business friend of Jackson’s “at a substantial discount.” The authority’s director says he received “dozens” of “menacing” threats from Jackson’s aides over an 11-month period.
Sometime after midnight on September 6, 2007, at least four low-flying Israeli Air Force fighters crossed into Syrian airspace and carried out a secret bombing mission on the banks of the Euphrates River, about ninety miles north of the Iraq border. The seemingly unprovoked bombing, which came after months of heightened tension between Israel and Syria over military exercises and troop buildups by both sides along the Golan Heights, was, by almost any definition, an act of war. But in the immediate aftermath nothing was heard from the government of Israel. In contrast, in 1981, when the Israeli Air Force destroyed Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor, near Baghdad, the Israeli government was triumphant, releasing reconnaissance photographs of the strike and permitting the pilots to be widely interviewed.
As the second term winds down, we see appraisals of the various Administration figures start to appear, with the inner circle most of interest: Condi is more interesting than Paul Bremer, for example. And here’s more on Condi:
Shenon singles out Condoleezza Rice as inept, more interested in being President Bush’s buddy than securing the nation. Newsweek editor Evan Thomas writes a preview of the book:
The official ineptitude uncovered by the commission is shocking. Dubbed “Kinda-Lies-a-Lot” by the Jersey Girls, Ms. Rice comes across as almost clueless about the terrorist threat. “Whatever her job title, Rice seemed uninterested in actually advising the president,” Mr. Shenon writes. “Instead, she wanted to be his closest confidante — specifically on foreign policy — and to simply translate his words into action.”
Another particularly bumbling figure in Shenon’s book is John Ashcroft. On July 17, 2001, the then-Attorney General “received the same CIA briefing about an imminent al-Qaida strike on an American target.” While Rice was interested in cozying up to Bush, Ashcroft was focused on protecting gun owners:
Attorney General John Ashcroft appears more interested in protecting gun owners from government intrusion than in stopping terrorism, and dismissively tells [acting FBI director Thomas] Pickard that he doesn’t want to hear any more about threats of attacks.
UPDATE: According to Shenon, then-White House counsel Alberto Gonzales was intent on placing blame on the Clinton administration. When Ashcroft “unveiled a memo that seemed to cast the antiterror record of the Clinton Justice Department in an unflattering light, Gonzales and his aides high-fived each other.”
Interesting that the GOP are better customers than the Democrats—because the GOP has more money?
Political tricks may not be the only ones turned during the Democratic National Convention in Denver this August. The sex and adult entertainment industries are expecting a boom in business when an estimated 35,000 visitors descend on the Mile High City for the presidential nominating bash.
At the Pepsi Center, the focus will be on a single nominee. But outside the event, the choices available to the delegates, journalists and others are unlimited, giving new meaning to the term “conventional sex.”
More than six months before the convention comes to Denver, the offerings already online range from Claudia the “she-male porn star” to Erin the “adorable college cutie,” whose $300-an-hour services are guaranteed to “leave you breathless.”
Surprised? Don’t be. Denver is, after all, home to Mike Jones, the beefy male prostitute who claimed to have bedded the Rev. Ted Haggard in his Capitol Hill apartment.
Jay Watson, who promises an unforgettable milk bath and lotion massage for $125 an hour, said he’s expecting to be busy during the DNC Aug. 25-28. Why?
“Because look at me,” said Watson, a 25-year-old Aurora man with a Mohawk. “I’m cute. I’m sexy and I deliver it all.”
‘More business’ from GOP
Too bad for Watson and others like him that Denver didn’t land the GOP convention instead, said Carol Leigh, a San Francisco prostitute “over 50″ who has traveled to previous Democratic conventions in Los Angeles and Atlanta.
“It would be a lot better for the sex workers if it was the Republican convention,” she said. “We get a lot more business. I don’t know if they’re just frustrated because of the family values agenda,” she said.
I’ve blogged about the Rim of Fire catalog. On Saturday, I got my little set-up. I got the MaxiMill and the set of 4 Maxibottles. (They all have “Ikea” embossed on the bottom, BTW.) The grinder is exceptionally good: ceramic is a good idea for this grinding job.
I couldn’t at first figure out how to unscrew the grinder top from its bottle, but here it is: the grinder top has a cover (the smooth plastic housing) that you remove by lifting it up, against resistance, but then it snaps loose. Then you can unscrew the grinder. The cover’s not really necessary, but it’s nice enough so that I keep it.
You’ll note that you have 5 bottles if you get the set (the grinder and its bottle plus the 4 extra bottles), but he sells only 4 peppers. For me, at least, buying the 4 peppers brought in a 5th “free sample”. The peppers come in packets, each containing just the right amount to completely fill a bottle. I sensibly used my labelmaker to label the bottles before filling so I’ll know what’s what.
So far I’ve used only the Aji Limon—and it’s wonderful.
One of the most flavorful of the Andean peppers, ‘Aji Límo’ (pronounced ah-hee lee-mo) has survived from pre-Columbian times. Its name means “Lima pepper,” in reference to the Peruvian city. Its distinctive citrus flavor and the bright yellow color of the ripe pods immediately bring to mind the crisp aromas of lemons and limes. A strong hint of citron (the less acidic cousin of lemons and limes) counterbalances the intense spiciness for which this pepper is well-known. The heat, fruitiness and floral quality contribute to the complexity of flavors achieved when the pepper is used in salsas.
It didn’t take too long to dig deep enough into the history of whiskey before I came across the lost and almost forgotten rye. If someone is to list the sad stories found within whiskey’s past, certainly would be amongst those tales.
While bourbon gets all of the press when it comes to American Whiskey, and is often regarded as American Whiskey, the truth is a little more complicated than that. The Scots and the Irish who immigrated to the colonies in the mid 1700’s ended up in Pennsylvania, Maryland and the Carolinas first, long before anyone from the British Isles ever set foot into what is now Kentucky. With these immigrants was brought the skill of distilling fermented mash made from grains - not any specific grains mind you, but from any grains that were available. In Pennsylvania and Maryland, that primarily meant rye.
The marketplace easily accommodated both styles. Order a whiskey in a saloon in the late 1800’s and one would just as likely get a rye whiskey as they would get a bourbon. Of course, one could also likely get an un-aged whiskey colored with tobacco juice, as there was very little in the way of regulations, especially in the west where the law had yet to catch up with the settlers. Ask for a rye, and one would likely get a rye. Ask for a Kentucky whiskey or a bourbon, and one would get a corn whiskey. Ask for a whiskey and one would get what ever cost the cheapest.
The principal policy division between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama involves health care. It’s a division that can seem technical and obscure — and I’ve read many assertions that only the most wonkish care about the fine print of their proposals.
But as I’ve tried to explain in previous columns, there really is a big difference between the candidates’ approaches. And new research, just released, confirms what I’ve been saying: the difference between the plans could well be the difference between achieving universal health coverage — a key progressive goal — and falling far short.
Specifically, new estimates say that a plan resembling Mrs. Clinton’s would cover almost twice as many of those now uninsured as a plan resembling Mr. Obama’s — at only slightly higher cost.
President Bush will unveil his budget for fiscal year 2009 today. During last week’s State of the Union address, Bush declared that he would put the nation on track to a balanced budget in 2012, claiming, “American families have to balance their budgets, and so should their Government.” But under Bush’s proposal, “the budget deficit would jump sharply, from $163 billion in 2007 to about $400 billion in 2008 and 2009. … Such deficits would rival the record deficit of $412 billion of 2004.” Bush’s tax cuts have been the single largest contributor to the reemergence of substantial budget deficits in recent years. Though the budget includes needed increases in funding for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program and the Food and Drug Administration, it also slashes over 100 domestic programs. Bush took office in 2001 facing a projected $5.6 trillion surplus over the next ten years, but his enormous deficits “will absolutely bedevil the next administration,” said Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-ND).
HEALTH CARE SLASHED: Bush’s budget will include $170 billion in cuts to Medicare over the next five years and will also cut $1.2 billion from Medicaid next year “and nearly $14 billion over five years.” Most of the Medicare savings in the budget would be achieved “by reducing the annual update in federal payments to hospitals, nursing homes, hospices, ambulances and home care agencies.” The largest savings “by far” come from cutting funding to hospitals, even as hospitals are closing across the country. (Three hundred fewer public hospitals exist today than 15 years ago.) William Dombi, vice president of the National Association for Home Care and Hospice, said that under Bush’s budget, “75 percent to 80 percent of home health agencies would be doomed. They would not be able to meet payroll. They would not be able to operate.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said, “The President’s cuts are exactly the wrong medicine when the cost of health care and the number of uninsured continue to rise and families are feeling economically insecure.”
CRUEL DOMESTIC CUTS: To maintain his tax cuts for the wealthy, Bush’s budget slashes 151 domestic programs. Poison control centers face a 62 percent cut, rural health programs are decimated 87 percent, and the Community Services Block Grant, “a $654 million program that provides housing, nutrition, education and job services to low-income people,” is completely eliminated. A new health program for 9/11 rescue workers is slashed by 77 percent, “even though the administration has said that many workers were exposed to ‘unprecedented levels of risk’ for lung disease and other illnesses.” The budget slices 22 percent from the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program. “The White House wants to eliminate spending for more than a dozen education programs, including Even Start, which promotes family literacy; grants to the states for classroom technology; Supplemental Education Opportunity Grants, for needy undergraduates; and a scholarship program named for the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Robert C. Byrd, Democrat of West Virginia.” “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would lose more than $430 million, including…$28 million from chronic disease prevention and health promotion. A $301 million program that trains 4,700 pediatricians and pediatric specialists at children’s teaching hospitals also would be eliminated, at a time when pediatric specialties, such as rheumatology and pulmonology, face critical shortages.” The Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program loses $194 million, a cut of 64 percent, and “states and cities would see cuts of $1.5 billion from the $3.75 billion in grants for security, law enforcement, firefighters and emergency medical teams approved by Congress for this year.”
This seems weird, but if true, it would be nice—except for the hordes of people humming on the bus, etc. Humming:
This news comes from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, where the researchers Jon Lundberg and Eddie Weitzberg discovered that humming can help to ventilate and open the sinuses. When they tested 10 men, they found that humming increased nitric oxide levels fifteenfold, compared to quiet exhalations without sound. The exhalations of people with healthy sinuses tend to have high nitric oxide levels, indicating that more air is able to flow between the sinuses and the nose.
The two researchers defined humming simply as exhaling with sound while the mouth is closed; they say that chanting “Om” produces the same effects. Chanting and humming both create sound vibrations, which encourage air to move back and forth between your sinus membranes and nasal passages. This air movement then opens tiny ducts, or ostia, that connect your nose to your sinuses, allowing your sinuses to drain properly.
Two-day stubble means a shaving stick, so this morning I picked up the D.R. Harris Almond shave stick. The rough beard grated off plenty of soap for the Simpsons Emperor 3 Super to bring to lather.
I’m using some new blades, and I have to say that the one this morning—Polsilver Stainless Steel—seemed exceptionally good in my silver Gillette NEW. The Polsilver blade has that combination of sharpness and smoothness essential for a pleasurable shave—at least that’s my reaction, but certainly worth a try (scroll down: a 10-pack for $2.50, or $22 for 100):
Made in Poland by Gillette, the Polsilver blades are very high quality stainless blades. Extremely smooth and very sharp, these blades are popular in Europe and are on a par with the very best. Truly world class blades.
For the Oil Pass, I used Almond Oil, in keeping with the theme. Almond oil is a traditional massage oil: it feels good and the little left on the skin after the rinse and dry is quickly absorbed and works as a moisturizer.
The aftershave was D.R. Harris Marlborough. The shave was again close to perfect. The Oil Pass is here to stay.
Written for the man who wants to enjoy his shave. User comment: "I bought this as a gift for my fiancé, along with a wet-shaving starting kit and a safety razor. He DEVOURED this book, and finds himself reading it again and again. He finally enjoys shaving. This book has helped him figure out so many things about wet shaving, and has recommended it to all of his friends and family. Truly a great source of information for any man."
