Sunday 30 April 2011Posted by marisacat in Divertissements, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter.
A butterfly sits on a flower in a garden in Dhulikhel near Kathmandu, Nepal [Narendra Shrestha/EPA]
Mouser-in-Chief 30 April 2011Posted by marisacat in 2012 Re Election, Divertissements, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, Total fucking lunatics, UK.
Larry, the 10 Downing Street cat, sits on the Cabinet table wearing a Union Flag bow tie ahead of the street party to celebrate the Royal Wedding. Hopefully Larry won’t need to catch any rats during the street party [AFP / GETTY]
I tried to fnd a still shot of the verger who did cartwheels down the red carpet in Westminster Cathedral… Larry is a good runner up however. I say put him in charge of everything.
Did anyone catch the military uniform worn by Harry? Epaulets, stand-up collar and gold swag that managed to look heavy. And lots of it. Obviously, faded empire has too much in common with lunatic tin pot dictators.
Of course, we are not far behind.
war war war war war 27 April 2011Posted by marisacat in 2012 Re Election, Afghanistan War, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, Israel/AIPAC, WAR!.
An Afghan policeman leads a fireman out of the scene of a burning NATO fuel tanker on Jalalabad-Kabul highway, east of Kabul [AP]
Recognition 25 April 2011Posted by marisacat in 2012 Re Election, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, Total fucking lunatics.
Szilvasvarad, Hungary: English bulldogs meet at an international dog show [Laszlo Balogh/Reuters]
BTW, I just read that Ron Paul is IN. The primary race that is.
Endless 24 April 2011Posted by marisacat in Inconvenient Voice of the Voter.
Minamisanriku, Japan: People take an outdoor bath amid tsunami destruction [Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty Images]
ribbit! 22 April 2011Posted by marisacat in Divertissements.
A European hare (Lepus europaeus) hops into a field near Reitwein, eastern Germany [Patrick Pleul/AFP/Getty Images]
Hare – rabbit – bunnie.
Pomp 21 April 2011Posted by marisacat in 2012 Re Election, AFRICOM, Divertissements, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, Total fucking lunatics, WAR!.
Corporal Andrew Skinner from 1st Battalion Mercian Regiment shows ram Derby to former England women’s cricket captain Baroness Rachel Heyhoe-Flint after she was awarded the freedom of Wolverhampton [AFP/GETTY]
and a whole lotta circumstance…
I think Derby the ram is saying quietly, Holy Fucking Fuck! Unhand me! Return me to my meadow! I am NOT a Dog! I am not amenable to “walkies”!
Also in the column of pomp and circumstance is Libya… John Ellis, Bush relative, calls it, meaning L’Obster’s move to permit armed drones over Libya, a “tactic in search of a strategy”…
It is also a nightmare.
He quotes from a FT article:
[I]t is hard to see how regime change can be achieved, and its consequences managed, without committing ground forces, at least in a stabilisation role. This would be a huge step, threatening an open-ended entanglement, though Libya’s population is only a fraction of Iraq’s or Afghanistan’s. It would split the Nato alliance, many of whose members are unwilling even to join the bombing campaign. It would engage Britain, France and the US in a deployment to arbitrate the future of Libya, while Iraq and Afghanistan remain unfinished business. . . .
yup: Q U A G M I R E
Underwater 20 April 2011Posted by marisacat in 2012 Re Election, Divertissements, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter.
A British diver swims near a blue whale. The images, taken last month, are the first ever to show a human and a whole blue whale in the same shot together. Many have battled hard to achieve the feat, but due to the size of the whales have only come up with shots showing divers and parts of the animals. Team members of Scubazoo – a British dive company based in Malaysia – spent 200 hours diving eight-hours-per-day for 25 days trawling the ocean around Sri Lanka in order to capture the scene. Roger Munns, from Cornwall, was photographed by Jason Isley, from Essex, making contact with the giant of the seas at around 10 metres depth. Roger said: “It was amazing. It was murky so we didn’t see the whale until the last minute, and it travelled so fast. The encounter only lasted about 45 seconds and then it was gone. But all those hours waiting were worth it.” [SCUBAZOO / BARCROFT MEDIA]
Hopeless 19 April 2011Posted by marisacat in 2012 Re Election, Culture of Death, DC Politics, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, The Battle for New Orleans, Total fucking lunatics.
A dead sea turtle washed onto the shore at Waveland, Mississippi. Endangered sea turtles and dolphins are still dying in high numbers in Mississippi, which continues to be impacted by tar balls and weathered oil following the Deepwater Horizon oil leak [Mario Tama/Getty Images]
From the above link:
[T]he view from her submarine is different, and her attachment is almost personal. On her descent to a location 10 miles from BP’s well in December, Joye landed on an ocean floor coated with dark brown muck about 4cm deep. Thick ropes of slime draped across coral like cobwebs in a haunted house. The few creatures that remained alive, such as the crabs, were too listless to flee. “Most of the time when you go at them with a submarine, they just run,” she says. “They weren’t running, they were just sitting there, dazed and stupefied. They certainly weren’t behaving as normal.”
Her conclusion? “I think it is not beyond the imagination that 50% of the oil is still floating around out there.”
At a time when the White House, Congress, government officials and oil companies are trying to put the oil disaster behind them, that is not the message from the deep that people are waiting to hear. Joye’s data – and an outspoken manner for a scientist – have pitted her against the Obama adminstration’s scientists as well as other independent scientists who have come to different conclusions about the state of the Gulf. She is consumed by the idea that she – and other colleagues – are not really being heard.”It’s insanely frustrating,” Joye says. . . .
The Guardian article included this little tidbit:
[K]en Feinberg, the independent administrator of BP’s $20bn compensation fund, says he is close to finishing compensating individuals and businesses who were hurt by the disaster – without even coming close to exhausting the $20bn.
He paid out only $3.6bn last year . . . .
In other news, I see Hapless Hopeless, our iron-deficient so-called leader, is in Annandale today for a dry run, with some hapless kids, of the speech he will give at Facebook tomorrow.
We are blessed to have Leader with us for two whole fucking days. Here on Wednesday and Thursday in Los Angeles.
Something around 35K per ticket.
Oh right! The Democrats pretend to take a principled, spine-filled stand against the Citizens United SCOTUS ruling.
Bridges for sale and moving fast over in Aisle 4!
[M]ore than 150 dolphins, half of them infants, have washed up since the start of 2011. At least eight were smeared with crude oil that has been traced to BP’s well, NOAA said, and 87 sea turtles – all endangered – have been found dead since mid-March. [that would be 87 in just over a month - Mcat]
“To me it makes no sense to think that it is random consequence, but it is kind of maddening because there has been a lot of energy and effort put towards beating the drum of everything is wonderful, everything is going to be fine by 2012,” says Joye.
Other studies have disputed Joye’s findings. Terry Hazen, a scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Labs, failed to detect any traces of underwater oil in the six weeks after the well was capped. But he did find evidence of naturally occurring bacteria that ate the oil. John Kessler, a scientist at Texas A&M, found that the huge quantities of methane gas, which were released along with the oil, had also rapidly degraded. . . . . .
Oh please. Lawrence Berkeley (Chu had been head of it) and Lawrence Livermore Labs are part of the Defense Industry. Get a clue. Lawrence’s widow has campaigned for what seems like two decades to have his name taken off the labs.
None other than RUSH, as in Limbaugh, loves to push that oil eating bacteria. I have no doubt that such an organism exists and functions with naturally occuring oil leaks.
We’re talking massive, on-going disaster here.
Interloper 17 April 2011Posted by marisacat in Divertissements, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter.
Fife Scotland: This inquisitive dog was left stunned when a playful young seal gave him a friendly slap on the cheek after he bounded into the sea during a game of fetch. The seal patted the boxer on the face during the encounter after he chased a tennis ball that had been thrown into the ocean by his owner. The young dog found the baby seal with its head poking out the water and instead of retrieving his ball, he circled his intriguing discovery. [Lynn Morris/Solent]