This'n'That; March Sixteenth #1; More Unremarkable Remarks

"Clown Prince" Blather Opportunity
Unremarkable Remarks,
Prince George's Community College,
Largo, Maryland
March 15, 2012
Now, I just finished learning about some of the work that you’re doing here at this community college to make sure that homes are using less energy, and helping folks save money on their heating and their air-conditioning bills. And I was very impressed. I’m even more impressed because I know this program is giving a lot of people a chance to make a decent living -- everyone from veterans to folks with disabilities to folks who’ve just been down on their luck but want to work. So I want you to know how proud I am of this program, of this institution, of all of you. The skills that you gain here at this community college will be the surest path to success in this economy. Because if there’s one thing that we’re thinking about a lot these days, is, first of all, how do we make sure that American workers have the skills and education they need to be able to succeed in this competitive global economy? And community colleges all across the country and all across Maryland are doing an outstanding job providing young people that first opportunity after high school but also helping older workers retrain for the jobs of the future because the economy is constantly adapting.  So community colleges are big. Community colleges are critical to our long-term success. What’s also critical to our long-term success is the question of energy: How do we use less energy? How do we produce more energy right here in the United States of America?
I have mixed emotions coming here today.  On the positive side, I so enjoy coming to community colleges; I don't have to sound very smart to impress the student audience.  Another positive is that the student body are usually in their teens and as such, are highly impressionable, they believe all the crap I feed them.  On the negative side, this school is in Maryland, just outside the District of Corruption.  With the school being that close, I don't have to use Air Force One and that's a dam' shame.  The taxpayers fund all my travel--even all those illegal campaign charges I write off to them--but coming here is just a short helicopter ride.  Actually it takes three helicopters for all the Secret Service protection and one just hauls all the sound crap and teleprompters.  I can't speak without them!! 
    I have found though, that many students don't belong in a community college.  They'd fare far better if they were in a high-quality trade school.  The great demand for the future will be in the trades.  We have far more lawyers, economists, professional lobbyists and professional, career politicians than we'll ever need in the foreseeable future!! 
    And I know this is an especially important topic for everybody right now because you guys have to fill up at the gas station.  And it’s rough. Gas prices and the world oil markets right now are putting a lot of pressure on families right now. And one of the things that is important to remember is for a lot of folks, just doing what you have to do to get your kids to school, to get to the job, to do grocery shopping -- you don’t have an option. You’ve got to be able to fill up that gas tank. And when prices spike on the world market, it’s like a tax, it’s like somebody is going into your pocket.  We passed the payroll tax at the beginning of this year to make sure that everybody had an extra $40 in their paycheck, on average in part because we anticipated that gas prices might be going up like they did last year, given tight world oil supplies. But that doesn’t make it easier for a lot of families out there that are just struggling to get by. This is tough. Now, the question is, how do we meet this challenge? Because right now we’re starting to see a lot of politicians talking a lot but not doing much. And we’ve seen this movie before.  Gas prices went up around this time last year. Gas prices shot up in the spring and summer of 2008 -- I remember, I was running for President at the time. This has been going on for years now.  And every time prices start to go up -- especially in an election year -- politicians dust off their 3-point plans for $2.00 gas.  I guess this year they decided, we're going to make it $2.50.  I don't know where -- why not $2.40?  Why not $2.10? But they tell the same story. They head down to the gas station; they make sure a few cameras are following them and then they start acting like we've got a magic wand and we will give you cheap gas forever if you just elect us.  Every time. Been the same script for 30 years. It's like a bad rerun.
    Now, here’s the thing -- because we've seen it all before, we know better. You know better. There is no such thing as a quick fix when it comes to high gas prices. There’s no silver bullet. Anybody who tells you otherwise isn’t really looking for a solution -- they’re trying to ride the political wave of the moment.  Usually, the most common thing, when you actually ask them -- all right, how is it that you're going to get back to $2.00 a gallon gas, how are you going to do it, specifically, what is your plan -- then typically what you'll hear from them is, well, if we just drilled more for oil then gas prices would immediately come down and all our problems would go away. That's usually the response.  Now, Maryland, there are two problems with that answer. First of all, we are drilling. Under my administration, America is producing more oil today than at any time in the last eight years. (Applause.) Any time. That's a fact. That's a fact. We’ve quadrupled the number of operating oil rigs to a record high. I want everybody to listen to that -- we have more oil rigs operating now than ever. That's a fact. We’ve approved dozens of new pipelines to move oil across the country. We announced our support for a new one in Oklahoma that will help get more oil down to refineries on the Gulf Coast.  Over the last three years, my administration has opened millions of acres of land in 23 different states for oil and gas exploration.  Offshore, I’ve directed my administration to open up more than 75 percent of our potential oil resources. That includes an area in the Gulf of Mexico we opened up a few months ago that could produce more than 400 million barrels of oil.  So do not tell me that we’re not drilling.  We’re drilling all over this country.  I guess there are a few spots where we’re not drilling. We’re not drilling in the National Mall. We’re not drilling at your house. I guess we could try to have, like, 200 oil rigs in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay.  Well, that’s the question. We are drilling at a record pace but we’re doing so in a way that protects the health and safety and the natural resources of the American people.  So that’s point number one. If you start hearing this “drill, baby, drill; drill, drill, drill” -- if you start hearing that again, just remember you’ve got the facts -- we’re doing that. Tell me something new.  That’s problem number one.
    I'm really in an indefensible position, here.   You've heard all those lies I've been peddling since fuel prices became the topic du' jour.  There's alot more facts that I could spell out, but they're directly opposite of my public position.  See, the first and foremost fact is the national average gas price is up over 105% since my immaculation, three LONG years ago.  Additional national average diesel price is up 80++% since my immaculation.  
    I blather almost constantly about that 2% versus 20% lie.  The actual phrase that  was stolen from is:
"America has 5% of the population but use 24% of the world's energy."                                                                                Of course, we had to tweak the numbers to make the consumption seem far worse than the rest of the planet.  One point that's never mentioned:  with the exception of my incredible borrowing and spending, all the energy consumed by the citizens of the United States is bought and paid for; nothing was stolen from the world's third-world ratholes as we socio-fascists would have you believe.
    Those 'drilling' numbers I cite?!?  Some guy in some broom-closet in MY barackingham Palace pulls them out of his ass!!  The actual truth is the vast majority of working drilling sites were approved and permitted in the past 25 years or so, by Presidents Bush-41, "Slick-Willie" Clinton or President Bush-43.  True, I opened up lots of federal lands to oil drilling.... but I forgot to mention that I very rarely approve a permit to actually start the drills turning!!  Most of the drilling I refer to--that drilling I lead you to believe is taking place on federal lands--is taking place on private lands, sometimes in someone's front-yard!!  Given the current--and ongoing--owe-bama Depression, most folks would relish having an oil rig in their yards.... just imagine the royalties they'd be receiving for every barrel pumped out of the ground.
    Here’s the second problem with what some of these politicians are talking about. There’s a problem with a strategy that only relies on drilling and that is, America uses more than 20 percent of the world’s oil. If we drilled every square inch of this country -- so we went to your house and we went to the National Mall and we put up those rigs everywhere -- we’d still have only 2 percent of the world’s known oil reserves. Let’s say we miss something -- maybe it’s 3 percent instead of 2. We’re using 20; we have 2.  Now, you don’t need to be getting an excellent education at Prince George’s Community College to know that we’ve got a math problem here.  I help out Sasha occasionally with her math homework and I know that if you’ve got 2 and you’ve got 20, there’s a gap.
Do we have anybody who’s good at math here? Am I right?  Okay.
So if we don’t develop other sources of energy, if we don’t develop the technology to use less energy to make our economy more energy-efficient, then we will always be dependent on foreign countries for our energy needs.  And that means every time there’s instability in the Middle East, which is the main thing that’s driving oil prices up right now -- it’s the same thing that was driving oil prices up last year -- every time that happens, every time that there’s unrest, any time that there’s concern about a conflict, suddenly, oil futures shoot up, you’re going to feel it at the pump. It will happen every single time.  We will not fully be in control of our energy future if our strategy is only to drill for the 2 percent but we still have to buy the 20 percent. And there’s another wrinkle to this -- other countries use oil, too. We’re not the only ones. So you’ve got rapidly-growing nations like China and India, and they’re all starting to buy cars. They’re getting wealthier. They want cars, too. And that means the price of gas will rise.  Just to give you an example -- in 2010, China alone added 10 million new cars. That’s just in one year. And there are about a billion Chinese. So they’ve got a lot more people who are going to want cars in the future, which means they are going to want to get some of that oil and that will drive prices up. So we can’t just drill our way out of the problem. We are drilling, but it’s not going to solve our problem.  That’s not the future I want for the United States of America. We can’t allow ourselves to be held hostage to events on the other side of the globe. That’s not who we are.  America controls its own destiny. We’re not dependent on somebody else.  So we can’t have an energy strategy for the last century that traps us in the past. We need an energy strategy for the future -- an all-of-the-above strategy for the 21st century that develops every source of American-made energy. Yes, develop as much oil and gas as we can, but also develop wind power and solar power and biofuels.  Make our buildings more fuel-efficient. Make our homes more fuel-efficient. Make our cars and trucks more fuel-efficient so they get more miles for the gallon.  That’s where I want to take this country. And here's -- the best part of it is thousands of Americans have jobs right now because we’ve doubled the use of clean energy in this country since I came into office. And I want to keep on making those investments. (Applause.) I don’t want to see wind turbines and solar panels and high-tech batteries made in other countries by other workers. I want to make them here. I want to make them here in Maryland. I want to make them here in the United States of America, with American workers. That's what I want. So when I came into office, we said, all right, how are we going to start moving America in that direction? It's not a thing you get done in one year, but how do we start moving in that direction? So after 30 years of not doing anything, we raised fuel economy standards on cars and trucks so that by the middle of the next decade, our cars will average nearly 55 miles per gallon -- that's double what we get today -- 55 miles per gallon.  Fifty-five miles a gallon.
    I have to apologize for this meaningless, unfactual blather.... it ain't my fault; nothing's ever my fault!!  The teleprompter is programmed ahead of each blusterful blather; I just read what appears on the screen.  We socio-facists are quick with 'the word,' but short with 'the facts!' 
    The "2%" I'm constantly referring to as if it were a 'cuss-word,' is a far cry from the truth.  That "2%" is 22.3 billion barrels of proved oil reserves.  "Proved oil reserves" as explained by my own Energy Information Administration (EIA), is a small subset of recoverable resources!!   Ok--and George Soros is gonna get really pissed at me for this--let's look at all the oil reserves:
**22.3 bln barrels: those "2%" I blather about, HOURLY, per my own the EIA, and
**86 bln barrels in the Outer Continental Shelf, per my own Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, and
**24 bln barrels (shale deposits) in the 'lower-48,' per my own EIA, and
**2 bln barrels (shale deposits) in Alaska's 'North Slope,' per my own U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and
**12 bln barrels in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), per my own USGS, and
**19 bln barrels in the Utah Tar Sands, per my own Bureau of Land Management, and
**1.4 TRILLION barrels in Wyoming's Green River Formation, per my own USGS.
    Oh, but these are only estimates, you say!!  How true, I say!! 
Historically, federal agencies' estimates on anything are generally on the low side.  As but one example, I cite North Dakota's Bakken Formation:
In 1995, the USGS estimated the total recoverable oil volume to be 151 million barrels.
In 2008, the USGS increased it's estimate to 3 billion to 4.3 billion barrels.
In 2011, oil analysists increased the estimate to 20 billion barrels.
The United States--by these totals--truely is awash in crude oil!!
    So the young people here who were driving those beaters that getting 5 miles per gallon we're going to get you to 55. And that will save the average family more than $8,000 over the life of a car -- $8,000.  That will help pay some bills. That means you’ll be able to fill up every two weeks instead of every week.  And those are the cars we need to keep building here in the United States.
All right, so now, to fuel these cars and trucks, obviously if they're using less gas, that's great. That saves us; we're using less oil. But we also want to invest in clean advanced biofuels that can replace some of the oil that we're currently using. That's important.  Already, we’re using these biofuels to power everything from city buses to UPS trucks to Navy ships. I want to see more of these fuels in American cars -- homegrown fuels -- because that means we're buying less oil from foreign countries and we're creating jobs here in the United States including big parts of rural America, big parts of rural Maryland, where the economy oftentimes is struggling and you have a real opportunity to create entire new industries and put people to work. And it's happening all across the country.  So all of these steps have put us on a path of greater energy independence. Here's a statistic I want everybody to remember next time you're talking to somebody who doesn’t know what they're talking about. Since I took office, America’s dependence on foreign oil has gone down every single year.  In 2010, our oil dependence, the amount that we're bringing in, the percentage we're bringing in, was under 50 percent for the first time in 13 years.  We've got to do better than that, and we can do better than that.
    But in order to do better than that, we've got to tell the folks who are stuck in the past that our future depends on this all-of-the-above energy strategy. That’s our job. That it can't just be -- it can't just be drilling for more oil. We're drilling for more oil, but that can't be all the solution; that's just part of the solution.  Now, here's the sad thing. Lately, we’ve heard a lot of professional politicians, a lot of the folks who are running for a certain office who shall go unnamed they've been talking down new sources of energy. They dismiss wind power. They dismiss solar power. They make jokes about biofuels. They were against raising fuel standards. I guess they like gas-guzzlers. They think that's good for our future. We’re trying to move towards the future; they want to be stuck in the past.  We’ve heard this kind of thinking before. Let me tell you something. If some of these folks were around when Columbus set sail they must have been founding members of the Flat Earth Society.  They would not have believed that the world was round.  We've heard these folks in the past. They probably would have agreed with one of the pioneers of the radio who said, "Television won’t last. It’s a flash in the pan."  One of Henry Ford’s advisors was quoted as saying, "The horse is here to stay but the automobile is only a fad."   There have always been folks like that. There always have been folks who are the naysayers and don't believe in the future, and don't believe in trying to do things differently. One of my predecessors, Rutherford B. Hayes, reportedly said about the telephone, "It’s a great invention, but who would ever want to use one?" That's why he's not on Mt. Rushmore because he’s looking backwards. He’s not looking forwards.  He’s explaining why we can't do something, instead of why we can do something.
    The point is, there will always be cynics and naysayers who just want to keep on doing things the same way that we’ve always done them. They want to double down on the same ideas that got us into some of the mess that we’ve been in. But that's not who we are as Americans. See, America has always succeeded because we refuse to stand still. We put faith in the future. We are inventors. We are builders. We are makers of things. We are Thomas Edison. We are the Wright Brothers. We are Bill Gates. We are Steve Jobs. That’s who we are.  That’s who we need to be right now. That's who we need to be right now. I don't understand when I hear folks who are in elected office, or aspiring to elected office, who ignore the facts and seem to just want to get a cute bumper sticker line, instead of actually trying to solve our problems.  What I just said about energy, by the way, is not disputed by any energy expert. Everybody agrees with this. So why is it that somebody who wants to help lead the country would be ignoring the facts?
    If you want an example of what I’m talking about, consider an important issue that's before Congress right now.  The question -- there’s a question before Congress I want everybody to know about. The question is whether or not we should keep giving $4 billion in taxpayer subsidies to the oil industry.
 The oil industry has been subsidized by you, the taxpayer, for about a hundred years -- 100 years. One hundred years, a century. So some of the same folks who are complaining about biofuels getting subsidies, or wind or solar energy getting subsidies, or electric cars and advanced batteries getting subsidies to help get them off the ground, these same folks -- when you say, why are we still giving subsidies to the oil industry –- “well, no, we need those.”  Oil companies are making more money right now than they’ve ever made. On top of the money they’re getting from you at the gas station every time you fill up, they want some of your tax dollars as well. 
That doesn't make any sense. Does it make sense?
 It’s inexcusable. It is time for this oil industry giveaway to end.  So in the next few weeks, I expect Congress to vote on ending these subsidies. And when they do, they’ll put every single member of Congress on record. I guess you can stand up for the oil companies who really don't need much help, or they can stand up for the American people, because we can take that $4 billion -- we could be investing it in clean energy in a good energy future, in fuel efficiency.  We could actually be trying to solve a vital problem.  They can bet -- they can place their bets on the energy of the past, or they can place their bets on America’s future -- on American workers, American ingenuity, American technology, American science, American-made energy, American efficiency, American productivity.  We can bet on America and our own capacity to solve this problem.  That’s the choice we face. That’s what’s at stake right now.
Maryland, we know what direction we have to go in.
And every American out there, as frustrated as they are about gas prices right now, when you actually ask people, they’ll tell you, yes, we’ve got to find new sources of energy. We got to find new ways of doing things. People understand that. We just got to get Washington to understand it. We got to get politicians to understand it.  We’ve got to invest in a serious, sustained, all-of-the-above energy strategy that develops every resource available for the 21st century. We’ve got to choose between the past and the future. And that's a choice we shouldn’t be afraid to make because we’ve always bet on the future, and we’re good at it. America is good at the future. We are good at being ahead of the curve. We’re good at being on the cutting edge.  Ending these subsidies won’t bring down gas prices tomorrow. Even if we drilled every inch of America, that won’t bring gas prices down tomorrow. But if we’re tired of watching gas prices spike every single year, and being caught in this position, where what happens in the Middle East ends up taking money out of your pocket, if we want to stabilize energy prices for the long term and the medium term, if we want America to grow, we’re going to have look past what we’ve been doing and put ourselves on the path to a real, sustainable energy future.  That’s the future you deserve. So I need all of you to make your voices heard.  Get on the phone, write an email, send a letter, let your member of Congress know where you stand. Tell them to do the right thing. Tell them we can win this fight. Tell them we’re going to combine our creativity and our optimism, our brainpower, our manpower, our womanpower. Tell them: Yes, we can.  Tell them we are going to build an economy that lasts. Tell them we’re going to make this the American century just like the last century.
    $8,000!!  Wow!! $8,000, really?!?  That's a huge number, right?!?  OK, now take blusterful bullshit out of the equation.  The average age of a car in the United States has increased since I instututed the owe-bama Depression with my wild borrowing from the Chinese and my reckless spending to reward the various unions, my donors, my supporters as well as my campaign workers.  That vehicle average is now about 12 years!!  Wow!!  That's a pretty old car for anyone to be driving.  Now--all bullshit aside--when you do the math--here we go again with the math--that $8,000 "over the life of the car" now looks like less than $700 a year; $58  a month; less than $3 a work-day!!  The number suddenly isn't so big any more, is it?!?  
    "....invest in clean advanced biofuels...."  On it's face, that's a ludicrius statement!!  As much as the socio-fascists--the liberals; the progressives; the owe-bamacRATics--want the public to see them as the nation's "do-gooders," I'm completely dumbfounded that they go along with this biofuels bullshit!!  Biofuels are manufactured--actually, distilled--from food grains and grasses.  To put the grains to this use is the greatest mis-use that could be undertaken.  OK, the aforementioned socialist groups "don't-give-two-hoots-in-hell" for those in the United States that may be food-deprived, if not starving; the grains could be used to feed millions of souls in world's various third-world ratholes!!
    Until the various unsustainable 'green' energy sources I support and promote, are stand-alone industries in the energy sector, all 'R and D' should be left to the private sector without federal interference; without federal monies.  As it stands now, so long as the interference and monies are as pervasive as they are; no 'green' energy source will ever be able to stand alone.  Can anybody spell "Chevy-Volt?!?"  We bribe each buyer with  $7,500.  If the Volt's sales remain as dismal as they've been of late, I'm contemplating raising the bribe to $10,000!!  If the Volt were forced to 'stand alone,' it would be a $41,000 vehicle!  What idiot would buy one when--with the addition of less than $8,000--they could drive away in a Corvette!!!
    The jet engine in it's various sizes, is the most prolific energy source in aviation.  Thousands are used in both civilian and military aircraft, worldwide.  No 'green' energy source can compete with the jet engine!  Until they can--which is probably NEVER--no 'green' energy source will completely replace fossil fuels.  Until there is a wind-powered; a water-powered; a solar-powered aircraft, fossil fuels will be the ONLY WORKABLE ENERGY SOURCE for high speed travel; high speed military aircraft!!  
    America DOES NOT have to choose between the past and the future.  This is nothing more than a source for further socio-fascist 'warfare,' much like class warfare; much like economic warfare; much like racial warfare!!  I employ an "all-the-above" approach when it comes to using 'warfare' to advance my dismal chances for re-immaculation!! 
    As I quietly acknowledge, those "$4 billion in oil company subsidies" are a necessity.  Sure, it may appear that we're subsidizing said companies' huge--albeit evil--profits at the expense of the working man and woman; at the expense of working families;.... ah..... what-ta-hell.... at the expense of the children!!  Everybody uses 'children' when they want to make a point by tugging at the  public heartstrings!!  What do you suppose would be the net affect of ending said subsidies?!?  Let me tell'ya.... The evil oil companies ain't gonna 'eat' the added expense!!  They'll pass it on, ultimately to the end user..... YOU, the consumer!!   How--when coupled with MY doubling of gas prices in three years--do you think that will affect my dwindling chances at re-immaculation?!?  Not Well!!
    Ta'hell with George Soros!!  Yes, contact your senators and congressmen and women!!  But.... tell them to approve more drilling permits; tell them to approve more oil refineries; tell them to approve new--as well as replacement--nuclear reactors!!   If we truly want an "all-the-above"   approach to a national energy policy, these will put the 'non-greens' on equal footing with the 'greens,' thus truly "all-the-above!!"                                                                     
                                                                                                                                                            

The Sunday 'Report;' 10/23/2011

What The Nation Pamphleteers Don't Report:
Seven Hidden-Gem Careers
By Larry Buhl,
Monster Contributing Writer
Jobs that impress strangers and make your parents giddy with pride may not be the best for you. Whether you’re starting out or changing careers, lesser-known alternative careers may offer lower pressure, better hours and greater personal satisfaction. Here’s a look at seven hidden-gem careers:
If you love to teach but prefer adult students to kids:
Corporate trainers teach employees skills, technologies and protocols. A bachelor’s degree is required. A technical, business or psychology background plus a certificate are helpful. The median training and development specialist salary was $54,160 in May 2010, according to the BLS.
If you’re a wiz at finance and investing but wary of Wall Street:
Personal financial advisors are often self-employed, so you’ll need entrepreneurial skills. Strong math, accounting and problem-solving abilities [....]
http://career-services.monster.com/yahooarticle/alternative-careers-less-stress#WT.mc_n=yta_fpt_article_hidden_gem_careers
 
Steve Jobs and the 7 Rules of Success

By Carmine Gallo
Entrepreneur,
October 14, 2011
Steve Jobs' impact on your life cannot be underestimated. His innovations have likely touched nearly every aspect -- computers, movies, music and mobile. As a communications coach, I learned from Jobs that a presentation can, indeed, inspire. For entrepreneurs, Jobs' greatest legacy is the set of principles that drove his success.  Over the years, I've become a student of sorts of Jobs' career and life. Here's my take on the rules and values underpinning his success. Any of us can adopt them to unleash our "inner Steve Jobs."
1. Do what you love. Jobs once said, "People with passion can change the world for the better." Asked about the advice he would offer would-be entrepreneurs, he said, "I'd get a job as a busboy or something until I figured out what I was really passionate about." That's how much it meant to him. Passion is everything.
2. Put a dent in the universe. Jobs believed in [....]
http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/steve-jobs-and-the-7-rules-of-success.html

Conservative Celebrites (38 images)
Tony Danza
The star of "Who's the Boss" is glad to see Republicans as the bosses, and is a registered Republican. [....]
http://www.upi.com/News_Photos/Entertainment/Conservative-Celebrites/5289/28/?ref=ma

U.S. truckers, lawmakers unite in bipartisan opposition to cross-border trucking

[Along with OOIDA’s Executive Vice President Todd Spencer, small-business trucker and OOIDA member Jose Escott spoke of concerns about opening the border to Mexico-based motor carriers. They were joined by Congressmen Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., and Bob Filner, D-Calif., along with James P. Hoffa, general president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.]
The Truckers News Service,
10/19/2011
OTAY MESA, Calif. — The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) today stood at the Mexican border alongside Republican and Democratic lawmakers and other vocal opponents of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s cross-border trucking pilot program — citing concerns for highway safety, homeland security, and regulatory fairness for U.S.-based companies and drivers.  The bipartisan [....]
http://www.thetrucker.com/News/Stories/2011/10/19/UStruckerslawmakersuniteinbipartisanoppositiontocross-bordertrucking.aspx

Letting Wood Express its Kinetic Energy
Posted by hipstomp

October 11, 2011
Having spent time in the shop, we all know the line that wood is still alive even after it's dead. Sawn boards have an elasticity and flex that we attempt to master with screw guns and glue-ups (and occasionally, screw-ups). But here's a rather novel use of wood's properties for recreational purposes: The Stick Bomb.
A Stick Bomb is simply a grouping of sticks—in this case, tongue depressors or ice cream sticks—woven together [....]
http://www.core77.com/blog/materials/the_stick_bomb_letting_wood_express_its_kinetic_energy_20758.asp

The Conservative Case Against Mitt Romney (2011 Edition)
John Hawkins,
Townhall.com 
October 18, 2011
It's no accident that Mitt Romney has done so well during this election cycle. He has excellent name recognition, he's extremely well organized, he's a great fundraiser, he's become a polished debater, and he's not gaffe prone. His business experience doesn't hurt either, although it is worth noting that the only reason he's able to brag that he's not a "career politician" is because he lost to Ted Kennedy for the Senate and probably would have lost in 2008 had he run for governor of Massachusetts again.
All that being said, there's a reason why Mitt Romney has been unable to walk away with the nomination despite all of those advantages. It's because Mitt is a deeply flawed candidate. Yes, he would certainly be better than Obama (and I will vote for him if he gets the nomination), but this IS NOT someone conservatives should want as their nominee.
Why?
1) Romneycare: One of the biggest issues the Republican Party has to run on in 2012 is Obamacare. Although Mitt Romney does oppose Obamacare, it's purely a political calculation because [....]
http://townhall.com/columnists/johnhawkins/2011/10/18/the_conservative_case_against_mitt_romney_2011_edition

Rare Titanic photos and letters

An archive of incredible photos and handwritten letters acquired from the descendants of Titanic survivors John and Nelle Pillsbury Snyder, who were returning from their honeymoon when the tragedy struck. They were some of the first people to board lifeboats and later rescued by the Carpathia, the first ship that arrived at the disaster scene on the morning of April 15, 1912. The collection is due to be sold by Philip Weiss Auctions on October 22, 2011, and the current minimum bid is $36,000. [....]
http://news.yahoo.com/photos/rare-titanic-photos-and-letters-1319127118-slideshow/

Random Thoughts
by Dr Thomas Sowell,
Townhall.com Columnist,
October 18, 2011
Like so many people, in so many countries, who started out to "spread the wealth," Barack Obama has ended up spreading poverty.
Have you ever heard anyone as incoherent as the people staging protests across the country? Taxpayers ought to be protesting against having their money spent to educate people who end up unable to say anything beyond repeating political catch phrases.
It is hard to understand politics if you are hung up on reality. Politicians leave reality to others. What matters in politics is what you can get the voters to believe, whether it bears any resemblance to reality or not.
I hate getting bills that show a zero balance. If I don't owe anything, why bother me with a bill? There is too much junk mail already.
Radical feminists seem to assume that men are hostile to women. But what would they say to the fact that most of the women on the Titanic were saved, and most of the men perished -- due to rules written by men and enforced by men on the sinking ship?
If he were debating Barack Obama, Newt Gingrich could chew him up and spit him out.
Whether the particular issue is housing, medical care or anything in between, the agenda of the left is to take the decision out of the hands of those directly involved and transfer that decision to third parties, who pay no price for making decisions that turn out to be counterproductive.
It is truly the era of the New Math when a couple making $125,000 a year each are taxed at rates that are said to apply to "millionaires and billionaires."
On many issues, the strongest argument of the left is that there is no argument. This has been the left's party line on the issue of man-made global warming and the calamities they claim will follow. But there are many scientists -- some with Nobel Prizes -- who have repudiated the global warming hysteria.
With professional athletes earning megabucks incomes, it is a farce to punish their violations of rules with fines. When Serena Williams was fined $2,000 for misconduct during a tennis match, that was like fining you or me a nickel or a dime. Suspensions are something that even the highest-paid athletes can feel.
Most of us may lament the fact that so many more people are today dependent on food stamps and other government subsidies. But dependency usually translates into votes for whoever is handing out the benefits, so an economic disaster can be a political bonanza, as it was for Franklin D. Roosevelt. Don't count Obama out in 2012.
Politicians can solve almost any problem -- usually by creating a bigger problem. But, so long as the voters are aware of the problem that the politicians [....]
http://townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2011/10/18/random_thoughts/page/full/

Protests Are a Payday for Security Firms

by Kevin Roose,
The New York Times
October 18, 2011
They call when they make the Forbes 400 list. They call when annual hedge fund rankings appear, when their names are mentioned on CNBC and when their children travel abroad. And, these days, they call when protesters camped in Lower Manhattan grow uncomfortable with the idea of their existence.
The ultra-rich bankers, hedge fund managers and private equity executives of New York City have long enlisted private security firms to help safeguard them and their wealth. But as the mood on Main Street turns increasingly hostile, New York’s financial titans are cranking their security measures up to 11. For the high-end security firms that provide the moneyed elite with specialty services like around-the-clock bodyguards and elaborate home security systems, Occupy Wall Street has been a stimulus package all its own.  “We expect to more than double our revenue in New York this year,” said Paul M. Viollis, a [....]
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Protests-Are-a-Payday-for-nytimes-150438655.html?x=0

No Apology Necessary, Mr. President

by Ben Crystal
personalliberty.com
October 15, 2011
[....]
(video)
http://www.personalliberty.com/feature-video/no-apology-necessary-mr-president-50153/?rmid=2011_10_15_PLA_[P11176710]&rrid=387432349

Mexican drug cartels recruiting Texas children

By Jim Forsyth
Reuters
October 18, 2011
SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - Texas law enforcement officials say several Mexican drug cartels are luring youngsters as young as 11 to work in their smuggling operations.  Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, told Reuters the drug gangs have a chilling name for the young Texans lured into their operations.
"They call them 'the expendables,'" he said.
McCraw said his investigators have evidence six Mexican drug gangs -- including the violent Zetas -- have "command and control centers" in Texas actively recruiting children for their operations, attracting them with what appears to be "easy money" for doing simple tasks.
"Cartels would pay kids $50 just for them to [....]
http://news.yahoo.com/mexican-drug-cartels-recruiting-texas-children-173402030.html

Mark Cuban and His OWS White Lie

by Jeff Carter
Townhall.com
October 17, 2011Mark Cuban has shared his opinons on Occupy Wall Street. I empathize with them, but Mr. Cuban and I have very different opinions on the movement.
I like Cuban’s public persona. He is obviously smart, is unafraid of risk and has been wildly successful. I have never met him.
Wall Street doesn’t shoot straight with the public. Investment bankers are salesman. Do you think a car salesman shoots straight with you when you go into the showroom? Why do you think an investment advisor that makes money selling you financial products is going to be any different? “Buyer beware” holds true no matter what you are buying.
In order to be a successful CEO of a company, you have to know how to sell. It’s one of my basic requirements if I am going to invest in a start up. Some CEO’s are great salesman, and it’s reflected in the companies stock price. Warren Buffett is a tremendous sales person. How much value he himself by force of personality adds to the stock price we won’t know until after he is gone. Apple’s ($AAPL) Steve Jobs was a great salesperson too. It will take some time for the dust to settle to see how much of a dollar effect his loss figures into the stock price. One of the reasons that Apple doesn’t mind articles pushing the fact that “Jobs still has products in the pipeline” is because they want to Jobs effect to be priced into their stock.
Cuban says, “Great CEO White Lie = “We are acting in the best interests of shareholders.””.
It is a great white lie depending. CEO’s also act in the best interest of management, which doesn’t always align with the best interests of shareholders. If the economic interests of shareholders and CEO compensation are aligned correctly-everyone benefits. That’s generally where the problem is found.  I don’t pay too much attention to the actual salary of the CEO and top management. I pay more attention to the type of asset they are being paid to manage, and how much risk the shareholders have at stake. The CEO of Boeing ($BA) ought to be paid more than the CEO of Kellogg ($K). Boeing has a market cap of 47 billion, Kellogg 19 billion. Steve Kaplan did [....]
http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/jeffcarter/2011/10/17/mark_cuban_and_his_ows_white_lie/page/full/

[Content related to above article.]
Professor Steven Kaplan on CEO pay in Crain’s Chicago Business

by Steven Kaplan,
ChicagoBooth News,
June 10, 2005Are CEO salaries too big? Steven Kaplan, Neubauer Family Professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance , took the opposing view in a May 30 Crain’s Chicago Business article. He squared off in the debate against Dale Moyers, president of the Chicago Compensation Association and director of compensation and benefits at Loyola University of Chicago.
The article took the form of a series of four email responses to questions posed by Crain’s. The use of email allowed each speaker to polish his thoughts.  The debate kicked off with a look at executive salaries for Chicago’s 20 top companies. At an average of $10.3 million, they have increased 35% over the last two years. Kaplan observed that larger salaries “…(boost) the (relationship) of CEO wealth to stock performance by a factor of more than 10.” Kaplan sees that relationship [....]
http://www.chicagobooth.edu/news/2005-06-10h_kaplanceopay.aspx

In tiny rural Kansas district, students out-performing global competition
By Liz Goodwin
National Affairs Reporter
The Lookout
October 20, 2011
In the rural Waconda Lake area of North Central Kansas, the nearest Wal-Mart is 60 miles away and the best-known local landmark is an enormous ball of twine that locals claim is the largest in the world. (Darwin, Minnesota begs to differ.)  But don't be fooled. The students in this sleepy agricultural community are not only out-performing American kids in other, much wealthier schools; they're also out-performing most students in developed nations around the world, according to a new analysis.  The average student at the Waconda school district of 385 kids scores better than 90 percent of students in 20 developed countries on math and reading tests, according to The Global Report Card, published in the journal Education Next. In fact, Waconda is the second [....]
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/tiny-rural-kansas-district-students-performing-global-competition-195446967.html

Pampered Protesters

by Michael Reagan
October 12, 2011
The hordes of so-called “protesters” now polluting the streets of several U.S. cities, including New York, are sending confused messages about their grievances.  The unemployed among them complain that the jobs available to them are beneath them. I guess that cancels out the old concept of starting in the mailroom and advancing step-by-step to the boardroom. It used to be the norm that one started at the bottom and worked his way up. This bunch seems to be living under the delusion that simply by virtue of having been born they are entitled to immediate arrival at the boardroom level with appropriate compensation.
Viewing these unruly mob scenes, featuring numerous public sexual activities posing as protests, I am reminded of the manner in which my dad dealt with such malcontents. If they were government employees he simply fired them. It worked. The remaining ones slinked back to work.
And I recall how he dealt with his son (me) back in 1965, when I dropped out of Arizona State University and thought that I was simply going home to live with — and off — either my mom or dad, who were then divorced. When I got home I found that their doors were locked to college dropouts.
Nancy, my ever-loving stepmom, was busy calling all branches of the military to let them know I was a college dropout and thus now eligible to be drafted. Don’t you just love such devoted stepmothers, eager to help their stepsons make their way in the world by locking the doors to keep them out?
When I finally was able to speak to my parents, they simply told me to find another place to live and to get a job. I did both. I moved in with some friends and got a job working at Asbury Transportation Company in Los Angeles loading oil-well freight from 5:00 p.m. to 1:30 a.m., Monday through Friday. That’s where I was working when my father was elected governor of California.  Did I complain that my lowly job was beneath my new station in life as the son of the governor of California? How could I? I was the one who set [....]
http://floydreports.com/pampered-protesters/

A Blueprint for America's Survival During the Next 50 Years (Part 1 of 2)

by Cliff Ennico
Townhall.com Columnist
October 18, 2011
A lot of people are worried about America's future right now.
And they are right. Things have changed so quickly in the past few decades that only a handful of people -- and I'm not sure about them, either -- have an idea of what it even means to be an American right now. What values do we uphold? Does our Constitution continue to make sense? Does it matter that we may soon no longer be the No. 1 economy in the world?
This is a column for entrepreneurs, not political junkies, but you can't write for business owners without at least thinking about the political, economic and environmental climate that is healthiest for them. I try to do this from time to time, hopefully without getting too personal about my own opinions.
That's why I thought it might help the current debate to point out a few self-evident, if inconvenient, truths about what America will need to do -- not just the government, but all of us as Americans -- if our country is to survive the next 50 years on Earth.
-- We have to maintain leadership in technology.
We no longer can be the world's manufacturer; many countries have proven that they can make stuff cheaper and better than we can. If America has an economic future, it is as the world's research-and-development department. We must maintain our leadership in innovation and the development of new technologies, ideas and business models that will rule the future. If we let China, India or anyone else take that away from us, we're toast.
-- We have to maintain our military might.
We live in an increasingly dangerous world. A nationalistic [....]
http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/cliffennico/2011/10/18/a_blueprint_for_americas_survival_during_the_next_50_years_part_1_of_2/page/full/ 

'Occupy' memo could discourage victims from reporting assaults
Protest group says it wants to be self-contained community
October 19, 2011
By Peter Hermann,
The Baltimore Sun
Efforts by the Occupy Baltimore protest group to evolve into a self-contained, self-governing community have erupted into controversy with the distribution of a pamphlet that victim advocates and health workers fear discourages victims of sexual assaults from contacting police.
The pamphlet says that members of the protest group who believe they are victims or who suspect sexual abuse "are encouraged to immediately report the incident to the Security Committee," which will investigate and "supply the abuser with counseling resources."
The directive also says, in part, "Though we do not encourage the involvement of the police in our community, the survivor has every right, and the support of Occupy Baltimore, to report the abuse to the appropriate authorities."
Despite this caveat, the heads of three rape crisis centers and a nurse who runs the forensic division at Mercy Medical Center called the message about not involving police dangerous. They said it contains erroneous information that could undermine efforts to convince victims to properly report crimes and get the counseling they need.
"It might actually passively prevent someone from seeking justice," said Jacqueline Robarge, the executive director of Power Inside, a nonprofit support group that helps women who have been victimized.  The hodgepodge of anti-establishment activists who have erected a tent city at the Inner Harbor as part of the broader Occupy Wall Street movement [....]
http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2011-10-19/news/bs-md-ci-occupy-baltimore-rape-20111019_1_sexual-assaults-sexual-abuse-report-crimes
Until Next Sunday....

"Slam" Duncan's Children's Charities [ www.slamskids.org ]

I had been an Over-The-Road truck driver for ten years, commencing on July 4th, 1996-the day after I graduated from the C-1 Professional Drivers School, Indianapolis, In. [In 2006 my career took a temporary detour when "the missus" thought I should spend more time at home]. Early in those years, I invested in an XM Radio unit, one of the first ones on the market. That turned out to be ONE OF THE BEST investments of my trucking career. I felt that the XM offerings were best for me; one who'd rather listen to talk radio than music; old time radio shows, having grown up with them in the early '50s. XM's trucker specific offering-aptly named "The Open Road", quickly became one of my favorites !!! They seemed to offer EVERYTHING !!! The biggest and the best of the radio industry's trucking personalities; Dave Nemo, Dale "The Truckin' Bozo" Sommers and Bill Mack-"The Satellite Cowboy". In the normal [read: non-truckers, civilians] workday, Dave Nemo was up first from 5AM-10AM, eastern. Dave, himself actually worked 5 days a week and had others that stood in on the weekends. One of the stand-ins on both the Saturday and Sunday shows was a guy named "Slam" Duncan. My first thought was "what tahell is a "Slam" Duncan ??" I was used to Dave's way of doing things, straight forward "whatever-benefited-the-trucker" kind of show. But "Slam" is one of those guys that just kinda grows on the listener. Things evolved to the point that I found myself wishing alternately that it was either Sunday or that "Slam" had taken over as the primary personality on the show...... I don't recall what the topic was, but something piqued my interested and I called into the show on a Sunday and spoke to "Slam", both on and off the air. This began to happen almost on a weekly basis; We talked about almost anything; this guy is well versed on nearly any topic one can think of !!! As the evolution of some friendships go, happenstance found me in the Nashville, Tn., area on a Saturday night with nowhere to be until my delivery appointment Monday morning. After speaking with "Slam" on the air, we had lunch together afterward; he even came to the truck and picked me up !!! Sometime during an early stage of our friendship we exchanged cellphone numbers and he would call the truck at midnight or after, on his way home from work. His "real [fulltime]" job was the evening DJ at WSIX, Nashville. If I were awake and answered, we'd "talk him home" and sometimes thru the fastfood drive-thru or the local Walmart. These conversations were could be as short as 15 minutes [I lost my signal] or as long as a couple of hours [he was both hungry and in a shopping mood]. OK, so.............. WHAT's THE POINT ?!?! While doing "country radio" in the Roanoke, Va., market, "Slam" saw a great need for the underpriviledged and deserving children of the Roanoke Valley. The kids of the area were in dire need of bicycles !!! Some families were unable to provide them and still put food on the table !!! To showcase this need and to raise donations of bikes and/or funds to buy them and in conjunction with the Marine Corps' "Toys for Tots" campaign-"Slam" and a Marine Seargeant were hoisted by crane [in a camper] to some 93 feet into the air. Their campaign was called "93 Bikes for 93 Kids". This initial campaign netted the children 624 bikes through the overwhelming generosity of the local community !!! The next year and thereafter, the fundraiser was called "Bikes or Bust" and over the course of 4 years raised a total of 6,524 donated bicycles. As these things evolve, the bike drive became larger than one person could manage and "Slam" Duncan's Children's Charities was born. Again through evolution, the charity either partially or fully funds the following: The Gary E. Cooper Memorial Scholarship The Roanoke Theraputic Riding Program "Take a Kid to King's Dominion" "Campout for Kids" "Summer Splash with 'Slam' " "Take a Kid Fishing" "Help Us..... Help Kids" [an annual carshow in October in conjunction with the Roanoke Valley Volkswagen Club- http://www.rvvwc.com/ ] "Angels Helping Angels" [During the 2007 Christmas Season, the charity funded the purchase, wrapping and delivery of 85 gifts to those most deserving !!!] I gotta tellya...... This guy has a heart AS BIG AS ALL OUTDOORS !!! While "Slam" was on XM Radio, his charity developed a somewhat national following among the trucking community. "Slam" found out what those of us in this closeknit group have always known....... The truckers are some of the most generous folks on the planet !!! They've donated cash, the cost of the development of the website [ http://www.slamskids.org/ ], and generous bids on various items "Slam" has auctioned off for the charity. Another neat thing.... beyond all the help that's provided to "Slam's Kids" is that the charity has virtually NO OPERATING EXPENSES, so well over 98% of all donations BENEFIT THE KIDS!!! I have to say that ANOTHER POINT would be: that the whole planet should become acquainted with this guy........ a MOST GENEROUS HUMAN BEING !!! Til Nex'Time....