Chamblee54

There is a controversy about Catholic orgainizations being required to offer contraceptives as part of health care insurance. This is a rather strange flap, which seems intended to score political points. The non Catholic PG (which should not be confused with PC) has a few thoughts.
PG will never be a Catholic. The business of claiming to believe something, while living your life another way, just does not make sense. Maybe there is a mindset which allows people to be happy with this custom, but it simply does not work for PG.
There is an oft repeated claim that 98 percent of Catholic women use birth control. Get Religion has a festive post about the silliness of this claim. It really doesn’t matter what the numbers are, the point is, a lot of Catholic women are doing what they want to do, and ignoring the Pope.
There is also the issue of employers being responsible for the health care expenses of workers. Many feel that there should be a one payor system, and others feel that individuals should take care of themselves. The concept that an employer should enforce archaic beliefs on their employees private lives is puzzling.
The Catholic Company starts with an ancient text. Men, wearing funny hats, interpret it for the followers. Another text based religion, Islam, is having some weird scenes these days. The birthday of the Prophet was celebrated recently, and Hamza Kashgari decided to send a happy birthday message . The government of Saudi Arabia is not amused, and Mr. Kashgari might die.
It is tough to imagine why these messages are offensive. These are English translations, and the Arabic original may be tougher. Also, it is not known what the clerics were telling the faithful. Once a message starts to “go viral”, it’s meaning can change. PG heard a radio broadcast on the Catholic controversy, where they said the Church was now required to hand out abortion pills.
Jesus and Mo have not discussed the matter of the forbidden tweets. (Rumor has it that the barmaid thinks Mr. Kashgari is cute.) They did post a sign this week…We politely request that you refrain from laughing at and/or joking about our religious beliefs.
Pictures today are from the Atlanta Beltline, taken November 11, 2009.

There is a dandy feature at 99% Invisible now about US postal service stamps. Stamps are many things… collectables, miniature works of art, a cost of doing business. 99pi talks to some of the people who determine what image will be on your mail.
The USPS receives thousands of stamp suggestions every year. They must be submitted by US mail. (The USPS despises the expression snail mail.) There are lots of rules and guidelines, which should surprise no one. First you had to be dead twenty years, then ten years, then five years, before you could have your picture on a stamp. Soon, the USPS will announce the first living person to be honored with a stamp. It probably will not be Lady Gaga, even though the curator likes her music.
Collectors buy stamps, and then do not use the service of mail delivery. This makes collectible stamps a profit center.
One of the most popular stamps in recent years has been one for breast cancer research. It cost an extra eight cents, and has raised millions of dollars. It has avoided the lawyers of the Susan G. Komen foundation in two ways. The color pink is not used, and the stamp says “a cure” instead of “the cure”.
Pictures are from The Library of Congress

It is a question for the ages…why do telephones have 123 on the top row of the keypad, while computers have 789? The best answer is , we don’t know.
Calculator/computer keypads were an improvement on cash registers. These devices had a matrix of buttons, with the 9 row on top. The row at the far right had single digits, and the row next to them had digits ending in one zero. To ring up a sale for $1.95, you had to push 100, 90, and 5. This evolved into the adding machine configuration of three rows of three buttons, with 0 on the bottom row and 789 on the top row.
When we got started, the telephone used a dial. 1 was at the top, and 0 was at the bottom. The early phone systems used letters as part of the phone number. The first three letters of the seven digit code were two letters and five numbers. (This is what PG remembers from childhood. It may have been different before then).
The two letters referred to an exchange, or part of town where the number was located. The two letters referred to a word. An example would be PG’s grandmother. Her number was TR2 2345. The TR stood for Trinity. Many numbers in midtown Atlanta still start with 87.
In the sixties, ma bell started to develop a keypad to use for what were then called push button phones. In a break with the adding machine tradition, the numbers 123 went on the top row. There are a few ideas why this is, but nothing is certain.
In the early days, the phone switching equipment was not as fast as today. Some thought that by switching the numbers to the top of the keypad, people would have to slow down a bit to “dial” the number. This answer does not make sense to those of us who have grown up with these keypads, and who learned to punch in numbers fast, no matter what system is used. (Anyone using a rotary phone, after getting used to touch tone, is shocked at how slow it is.)
Another concept is the phone company wanting to model the new keypad after the dial phones. This would mean putting the 1 at the top, and 0 at the bottom. Also, with the letters assigned to each number, it would make a lot more sense to have 123/abc def ghi on the top row.
It was suggested that the calculator keypad was patented in the 789-on-top format. Western Electric did not want to pay royalties on this important piece of equipment, so it designed another one. There is also the thought that the calculator was on a desk shelf, where the lower numbers should be at the bottom of the keypad. At the same time, the telephone was on the lower part of the desk, and having 123 on top would be easier to use.
This is a repost. This comment was left on facebook, after the first post.
I won’t pretend to know exactly their reasons, but I will say that I can see some logic in doing it this way. In a numerical context (calculator/computer), you’d want zero next to one, which is where it is in the number sequence. However on… a telephone, 0 has a special meaning: call the operator (at least, it used to mean this).
The guys at Bell Labs took this into consideration when they implemented the “touch tone” or DTMF dialing system. Old style pulse dialing was annoying because it would literally send a pulse for each number (two pulses for two, nine pulses for nine, etc). I meant larger numbers took longer. To change this, and also in anticipation of the fact that eventually phones would be connected to computers, they instead put all the numbers on a grid with each row and column assigned a unique frequency. Each key on the pad combined the two frequencies to produce a tone. In order to accommodate ten numbers, you need a grid of at least 4X3, which they actually increased to 4×4 because they wanted some additional tones (A-D) for extra network functionality. Given these constraints, I feel like their final design is inevitable:
1 2 3 A
4 5 6 B
7 8 9 C
* 0 # D
Pictures are from ” The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”

PG just used up 101 minutes of his life watching Slacker. The first movie in the machine was “The Women”, but the copy kept skipping around the screen. It might have settled down, and it might have gotten worse, but PG figures that is another 25 cents he should have spent on something else.
Slacker is a movie about life in Austin TX. It is populated by people who talk in monologs, with no concern for the person who is listening. There are a lot of people like that loose in the world, with notions about John Kennedy, space invaders, the gynecology of Madonna, war, peace, taxis, police, and the sum total of reality. The thing about a movie like this is, you can hit stop at any time.
The movie goes from one monolog into another. A woman is caught shoplifting, and a girl walks by. She says to her old man companion that the shoplifter was in her ethics class. The old man tells a story of something he saw in Paris one time, while he walks across the parking lot of the store. They go past a billboard… Ron Paul, Libertarian for Congress.
Another movie from this extended weekend was Raising Arizona. It is over the top, makes no sense at all, and is a lot of fun. When PG put it on, he was in bad shape. The knee hurt, and the future looked bad. Raising Arizona was the sort of escapist nonsense that can pick up your spirits from a low point.
Pictures today are from Gwinnett County. PG is getting tired of this, and is probably going to take a break. If he decides to start collecting mug shots, they will be waiting for him.

The weekend got off to a bad start. PG though a step down was 18″, and turned out to be 27″. When he landed on his right foot, his knee twisted into an uncomfortable position. He spent most of Thursday reading and going to bed early.
There was a pair of crutches, left over from a knee episode in 1988. They had been a tough item to store, and had been in the way several times. NEVER throw a pair of crutches awy.
You take walking freely for granted. You forget what it is like to plot every step, and figure out how to get by. You learn that plastic bags fit over crutch handles, and can carry things. Later, you learn that some tupperware containers do not seal all that well. Plastic bags are disposable.
Some friends were having a party friday night. PG had helped with the preparations, and was going to throw a costume together, and have a good time. Instead, PG saw Free Jack, a 1992 movie starring Mick Jagger. Some scenes of this were filmed downtown, and PG was working in the Healey Building at the time. Free is supposed to be set in dystopic New York of 2009. It had nuns, and high tech shoot em up…in other words, a good substitute for the party.
Saturday, the knee was feeling better. PG decided to go see Dr. Xu. (The Doraville office had been closed Friday). PG explained what had happened, and the Doctor led him into a 7″x9″ treatment room. PG lay down on a table, and needles were stuck in his leg. A heat lamp was turned on, and two of the needles connected to a little white box. Soon, PG could feel a current going through his knee. The Doctor left, to go attend to other things.
The cell phone went off. PG did not know if it was safe to talk on a portable phone, while having electricity pumped into his leg. The Doctor came in, and told him it was ok. When the message from the call center was over, PG had 66.6 minutes of air time left.
PG stayed in the treatment room for what seemed like a long time. Finally, the Doctor came in, and pulled the needles out. He put a plaster on the knee, said to apply heat to it, and come in tomorrow.
At some time or another, PG bought a heating pad. The trouble was finding where he had put it. His brother, GP, found one on top of a box of Christmas decorations.
PG hadn’t written anything for a day or so, but was feeling lazy. The first movie he picked skipped around the screen. The second movie was All About Eve. Margo smoked and smoked, but never flicked an ash. When PG was finished, he cranked up the computer, and found out that Whitney Houston had died.
Pictures are from The Library of Congress.

One day in the Garden of Eden, Eve calls out to G-d, “G-d, I have a problem!”
“What’s the problem, Eve?”
“G-d, I know you created me and provided this beautiful garden and all of these wonderful animals and that hilarious comedic snake, but I’m just not happy.”
“Why is that, Eve?” came the reply from above.
“G-d, I am lonely, and I’m sick to death of apples.”
“Well, Eve, in that case, I have a solution. I shall create a man for you.”
“What’s a man, G-d?”
“This man will be a flawed creature, with many bad traits. He’ll lie, cheat, and be vain and glorious; all in all, he’ll give you a hard time. But…he’ll be bigger, faster, and will like to hunt and kill things. He will look silly when he’s aroused, but since you’ve been complaining, I’ll create him in such a way that he will satisfy your physical needs. He will be witless and will revel in childish things like fighting and kicking a ball about. He won’t be too smart, so he’ll also need your advice to think properly.”
“Sounds great,” says Eve, with an ironically raised eyebrow. “What’s the catch, G-d?”
“Well… you can have him on one condition.”
“What’s that, G-d?”
“As I said, he’ll be proud, arrogant, and self-admiring… So you’ll have to let him believe that I made him first. Just remember, it’s our little secret…You know, woman to woman.”
Somebody else wrote the story. Pictures are from The Library of Congress

There is a video making the rounds. It shows a young man getting roughed up on McDaniel Street, and has caused quite a fuss. The entertainment was posted on World Star Hip Hop,
WSHH appears to be an urban YouTube. It has a twitter feed, facebook page, and Candy, home of the World Star Hiphop Freaks. WSHH is full of advertising, with McDonalds, ATT, the free credit score players, and much more.
There are a lot of videos here. There are 339 pages of videos, and PG was counting the videos on page one. He got to 37 rows, of three videos each, when a screen popped up. It seems like the antivirus works had prevented something from coming in. While PG would like to share the splendor of WSHH with you, testing the limits of antivirus protection is asking for too much.
The viral epic, shot in Jack City, was posted on February 6. It is no longer listed with the rest of the videos recruited that day. We cannot tell who submitted it. The police might have had a chat with the autuer by now. There was one Oscar caliber performance, My Pussy feels like Jesus.
Pictures are from ” The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”

There’s an invisible yet palpable mist of nervous uncertainty in the air these days. Will our banks crumble and our economy collapse? Are our already-stifled freedoms being further stripped away by evil corporations and misguided politicians? Will our water and food supplies be contaminated and rendered useless by a blind and wasteful society? And perhaps most threatening of all, will any these events delay the release of the new Madonna album? With the year 2012 upon us, and the bleak ambiguity of the future unfolding before our very eyes, we must all prepare for the inevitable rebirth of humankind. We mark this as a time to burn away the old, negative, destructive practices, to turn ourselves to a more loving, compassionate way of living and relating to each other. If the end of days is near, then we say it’s time to celebrate! The Intergalactic Love Affair descends upon Atlanta to welcome all the creatures throughout the cosmos with love in their hearts to rejoice in our diversity of body and mind, and our prosperity of spirit! Transport yourself to a time of galactic disasters, meteor storms, alien invasions, mutant outbreaks, zombie uprisings and robotic overlords! Break out your ray guns and iridescent bell-bottoms and prepare for the DIGITAL DOOMSDAY DISCO! This locally produced phenomenon is a Valentine’s costume ball where imagination, creativity, and embracing your inner-misfit push the limits of pageantry and spectacle. On February 10th, you are welcome to join us as we transform Jungle Club into a visual feast of color and light, pump up the music with stellar DJs, and sprinkle in magical performance art. To guide the way, we have enlisted local dance-floor icons Diablo Rojo (of Manshaft fame) and Vicki Powell (Ladystache and Sunday Services at Church) for an epic DJ DUEL that is going to light the joint on FIRE! Call the fire trucks honey, because it is going to be smoking! Cosmic nuns, frolicking space nymphs and mind-bending acrobatic aliens will serve up a nova of excitement throughout the night. THE RAINBOW CONNECTION The Intergalactic Love Affair (IGLA) is a community celebration-meets-fundraising event lovingly thrown together by the collaborative efforts of the Atlanta Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and the Atlanta Radical Faeries. Now in its 2nd year, the event was conceived as an opportunity to unite the passion and creative powers of a group of friends toward raising funds for queer-minded organizations in the Atlanta community. In its inaugural year, all proceeds from IGLA went to YouthPride to shine a light on the issues facing young queers in our community. This year we fire the spotlight on an often overlooked group in our alphabet soup – the Atlanta transgender community – by donating 100% of funds raised from this year’s event to the Feminist Women’s Health Center (FWHC) and their TransHealth Initiative. The FWHC is one of many independently run feminist centers across the country whose goal is to empower people through education and services that encourage healthy and meaningful lifestyle decisions. Agency spokesperson Jaime Chandra states, “The Center is not just about women; it’s not just about choice. It’s about empowering people to live a healthy life as they truly want to live that life, without judgment.” The FWHC offers compassionate and affordable healthcare to gender variant and intersex individuals, as well as hormone-therapy for transmasculine clients. For the Trans Health Initiative, there was a need in the FTM and transmasculine community for informed healthcare and hormone therapy as bias and ignorance in mainstream clinics often prevented them from getting the care they need. The THI clinic – which has been actively seeing clients despite a forced 5-month hiatus due to a lack of a medical supervisor who could administer hormonal therapy – is happy to announce that they will relaunch their program in the upcoming weeks with a new Primary Medical Supervisor so that hormone therapy can start up again. Additionally, a new coordinator, Sybastian Welch (a trans-identified man and advocate), has spearheaded the project on integrating recommendations into the program to help realize the actual needs of the Trans-masculine community. “Co-creating Space for Love’s Most Bold and Beautiful Expression” The Intergalactic Love Affair was conceived in a common social space when a group of friends asked themselves, “How can we translate the immense sense of love present within our circle and pay it forward to our local communities while also fostering bonds between them? AND how can we make it FABULOUS and FUN?!” The Atlanta Radical Faeries are a very loosely aligned fellowship of friends, family, mutants, and misfits uniting countless queer sub-cultures to foment community through acts of radical self-expression, love, and compassion. Through delicious pot luck meals, healing heart circles, honest and open discussion groups, and volunteer work, we strive to emote the intentions of self-affirming love, empathy, and compassion that drive us all. Many of these same philosophies can be applied to our partners in crime, The Atlanta Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. An order of 21st century queer nuns, the Sisters are dedicated to the manifestation of cosmic joy through freedom of expression, community outreach, social activism and charitable acts. Their manifest states, “We love expiating stigmatic guilt and spreading cosmic joy. We paint our faces to express the diversity in the community and by bringing our inside expressions out and to reflect the beauty of the people we meet and serve.” The Sisters have been in Atlanta since 2009 and delight in helping our communities through condom ministries, diverse fundraisers and promoting health awareness. They are first-line fighters in the campaign for universal human rights in the queer community. The Intergalactic Love Affair is intended to be the beginning of a series of events that will provide public forums, panels, mixers, and performances that will spotlight social issues impacting our queer community. You are invited to join the discussion at facebook.com/intergalacticloveaffair. In the meantime, set your phasers to FABULOUS, rip up your mama’s old sequin gown for your new alien space-frock, and meet us at Jungle on February 10th for what will be a night you won’t soon forget! This text also appears in David Magazine.

PG finished work on a post, and then saw that Karen Handel had resigned from her job at the Susan G. Komen foundation. He decided to leave comments at a few blogs, in an effort to drum up traffic to his site. Self promotion is part of blogging.
The first round was at Peach Pundit. PG left a quote from his post Sunday, Karen Handel Is An Idiot. This is an edited version of the comment thread.
chamblee54 February 7, 2012 at 12:00 pm Karen Handel gave an interview to Northside Woman , shortly after starting The Handel Strategy Group. There was a fun quote: “What I know is I will be prudent and smart about my career. I will make sure the things I have engaged in are not things that will present a difficulty for me later”.
CobbGOPer February 7, 2012 at 1:02 pm As in when she runs for the Senate.
Engineer February 7, 2012 at 2:40 pm She would make a good candidate for Senate in Georgia.
Andre February 7, 2012 at 2:08 pm Charlie, if you will indulge another request, could you close comments on this thread? I ask, not with the intent to shut down deliberative debate, but due to the fact that many folks on this site know both Karen Handel and her husband on a personal level. It may be difficult for the folks who know Karen Handel personally to remain civil while others excoriate her based on the caricature being portrayed in the media. So, Charlie, to maintain civility, just shut down this thread.
heroV February 7, 2012 at 4:58 pm just move along. literally nobody cares what Andre thinks.
Spacey G February 7, 2012 at 2:44 pm After long and careful thought on the matter, about :20 sec, I can’t help but agree with Andre. Tear down this blog post commenting now, Mr. Charlie.
Doug Deal February 7, 2012 at 3:29 pm Yeah, because that is precisely what she did. She’s just like Hitler. You need to get out in the world and realize that there is more to “women’s rights” than killing fetuses, and there is something troubling and perverse about how much joy it brings many on the left.
chamblee54 February 7, 2012 at 4:53 pm “killing fetuses, and there is something troubling and perverse about how much joy it brings many on the left.” Do you have a link for that? I don’t know anyone who is happy about abortion. It is a troubling issue. This type of toxic rhetoric makes it much worse. The grandstanding and pandering by the anti choice crowd is one reason why this issue cannot be resolved. Remember, Karen Handel was not anti abortion enough to please the Georgia Right to Life organization when she ran for Governor.
Doug Deal February 7, 2012 at 5:19 pm I stay out of the abortion debate because it is populated by an extremley vocal minority (albeit a sizeable one) of crazies on both sides. I will, however, criticize both sides on their extreme behavior from time to time. Regardless of what you believe, there is a certain amount of excess zeal in the actions of members of organizations like Planned Parenthood, NARAL and a number of other that cannot be explanined merely by “protecting a woman’s right to choose” as they are remarkably silent on the issue of a woman having the right to choose to say own a gun. Also, where is the outrage at the vicious attacks on women who chose to be conservative? Of course there is none, as it is about one thing, sticking it in the eye of the people you oppose and since abortion is the means to that end, it is championed fervently.
The next stop is JoemyG-d. Joe is having a busy day, with a court ruling on Proposition 8. Other stories got buried. PG left a comment, and link, about Karen Handel. It got one reply.
Fin Today, 2:30:34 PM Karen Handel Is An Idiot « Chamblee54 I hope it is not bad form to post another person’s blog here, but it is good post on Handel & Komen.
The last spot on the campaign trail was Red State.The initial comment there was:
A fun quote – chamblee54 Tuesday, February 7th at 12:27PM EST Karen Handel gave an interview to Northside Woman , shortly after starting The Handel Strategy Group. There was a fun quote: “What I know is I will be prudent and smart about my career. I will make sure the things I have engaged in are not things that will present a difficulty for me later”. There is more here about Karen Handel” .
The next time PG checked the stats, Red State had sent him 28 viewers. A little while later, he tried to log onto Red State. He got an error message… 601 Database redigestation error. This lasted throughout the day. Finally, using a different browser, PG went to the post. The link had been deactivated, and a tag line was added to his post… “The moderators are guessing that I would sooner bite off my own left arm than have you click on Live Action.“… There were some more comments.
“Karen Handel is an Idiot” Nice blog title – tankertodd Tuesday, February 7th at 1:47PM EST I completely discount you and everything you say simply because you titled your blog thusly. There’s no arguing with you, debating you, so why bother reading? You’re here to throw dirt. It’s idiotic behavior like this that screws up our country. You should be ashamed you’re one of the bad guys.
So Chamblee… – Repair Man Jack Tuesday, February 7th at 2:07PM EST Do you think posting a blog entitled Karen Handel is an Idiot will seriously further your’s. If so, you probably work for some serious scumbags.
Always interesting how the Left… – Moe Lane Tuesday, February 7th at 2:29PM EST …reserves its venom for female and minority conservatives. I’ve also taken the liberty of ending your attempts to draw traffic from our site. No, no thanks necessary. Or possible, come to think of it.
There’s even more relish to it –  jakeofalltrades Tuesday, February 7th at 5:46PM EST when you realize that leftist maroons actually believe Moe has deprived them of the freedom of speech. It’s the cyber equivalent of tazing a hippie.
There are two more points to make before we post the rest of the pictures. (The pictures today are from The Library of Congress ) Chamblee54 is emphatically not pro abortion . It is one of the life issues, along with war, and capital punishment. Abortion is a ghastly procedure which is 100% fatal for the baby. Abortion is the taking of human life. We are almost always better when we let G-d make the decision to terminate a life. However, there are times when the woman feels that it is necessary to terminate the pregnancy. It is a tough decision, which the toxic rhetoric makes worse.
The second point to make is, yes, Karen Handel is an idiot. However good her motives, she screwed this job up royally. The Susan G. Komen foundation is being exposed to scrutiny that it would not have had to face, and is not looking good. It is doubtful that this is going to help the anti abortion movement. Will it keep any babies from being killed? Your guess is as good as mine.
UPDATE A 601 Database redigestation error is serious business. PG had to take the computer to the shop to get it to go away.

The costume challenged PG was thinking about an upcoming dual facebooked event, The Intergalactic Love Affair, aka IGLA. The question troubling the vigilant PG was, Is Fabulisity Legal?(spell check suggestion:Fabulists) Since there is no money available for an official legal consultation, a google search will have to do. The top result is Fabulicity, a live journal writer. (Spell check suggestion: facility) This person likes cats, chocolate, pink, and stockings, and dislikes bullies, eel skin, meaningless affairs, and unsharp pencils. There is an ongoing dispute whether fabulisity is spelled with c or s. Perhaps it is c intown, and s when otp. The second result is a racehorse for sale. “Fabulicity is a brown mare by Fauluke out of Wise Maiden (TB)). Watch for Fabulicity’s huge stride.” The third entry is a book, “Fabulosity: What It Is and How to Get It”. Here are the one star reviews. Flopulosity didnt like it all… Kimora is just a loud mouth who wrote a book… no practical tips at all unless you want to be a model! . A bit of an ego! Bought it as a present, and decided to read it first to get an idea of what Baby Phat brand is like. After reading the first chapter, it made me want to throw it out the window! This lady is very full of herself, and it’s a bad read! DON’T BUY IT!!! The fourth result is The Surge is Working, an insomnia influenced post from 2008. PG had conveniently forgotten about this post, which was not his best effort. After the third re read, the word fabulicity was found. It was used to describe Rosie O’Donnell. Maybe Fountain of Fabulixity would have been better than queen of nice. The fifth result is a fashion blog called PennLive.” Purses Are a Girl’s Best Friend If style was about following form, then there wouldn’t be much to say about fashion, would there? And with all the glam items showing up in stores and catalogues today, there is one item we can’t go any further in our discussion without discussing. My favorite fashion accessory: the purse, murse (male purse), or whatever you want to call it. A girl’s new best friend next to diamonds, of course. These days, purses are more than just a handbag to hold your wallet. Purses are a fashion statement in itself. And this spring, designers have been working overtime to come up with a multitude of colors, shapes and sizes with fringes and chains, buckles and braided straps, metallic and colorful leather skins. It’s no wonder women spend hours contemplating over this must-have accessory. Lucky for you, I’ve come up with the three hottest purses to look out for this spring. “The rest of the results are boring, and no legal advice in any of them. Maybe we just need to wing it friday night. There has been a bit of a flap in the atlanta circle this morning. It seems like a gentleman decided that he had chosen Dandelion as his “faerie name”. PG, who was just trying to be helpful, mentioned that “Two other people are using that name.” A few minutes later, an unkind soul replied “There are lots of people named Luther, too. Maybe you should change that.” Pictures today are from last years IGLA.

BHO set a new standard for public statements from the oval office. He was talking about economic recovery. “So I want to send a clear message to Congress: Do not slow down the recovery that we’re on. . Keep it moving in the right direction.” Thank you Democracy Now for that transcript, and for the rest of the quotes in this story .
Kansas/Kenya lips were moving on another subject recently. During a “virtual interview” with youtubers last week, BHO was talking about drone strikes in Pakistan. “I want to make sure that people understand, actually, drones have not caused a huge number of civilian casualties. For the most part, they have been very precise precision strikes against al-Qaeda and their affiliates. ” A report from The Bureau of Investigative Journalism paints a different picture .
“We’ve been looking at this since August of last year. When we were putting together our massive database on CIA drone strikes in Pakistan, we noted that there were repeated reports at the time, contemporaneous reports in publications like _New York Times, news agencies like Reuters, by CNN, that there were these strikes on rescuers, that there were reports that there had been an initial strike and then, some minutes later, as people had come forward to help and pull out the dead and injured, that drones had returned to the scene and had attacked rescuers. Now, we didn’t take that at face value when we began a major investigation, that’s been ongoing for many months now, that we just published in conjunction with the London Sunday Times, where we looked at those 18 original reports, and we’ve been able to confirm, through our researchers on the ground in Waziristan, that a dozen of those attacks on rescuers, and also two attacks on funerals, have taken place in Waziristan. And we’ve been able to name just over 50 civilians that we understand have been killed in those attacks. In total, we think that more than 75 civilians have been killed, specifically in these attacks on rescuers and on mourners, on funeral-goers.”
The US government had a witty response. “A senior American counterterrorism official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, questioned the report’s findings, saying ‘targeting decisions are the product of intensive intelligence collection and observation.’ The official added: ‘One must wonder why an effort that has so carefully gone after terrorists who plot to kill civilians has been subjected to so much misinformation. Let’s be under no illusions—there are a number of elements who would like nothing more than to malign these efforts and help Al Qaeda succeed.”
A few years ago, in Sandy Springs, an abortion clinic was bombed. About fifteen minutes later, a second bomb went off at the site, designed to hit those who had come to aid the victims of the initial blast. Apparently, our armed forces were impressed by this tactic, and have used it in Pakistan. It is not known whether abortion clinic bombers set off bombs at victim funerals.
There were indications that the situation may be improving. “And just to be clear, the attacks on rescuers and mourners that we note, they’ve all occurred under the Obama administration between 2009 and July 2011. I think that date is quite interesting, because that’s also when Leon Panetta stepped down as head of CIA. You have an interim CIA leader, and then David Petraeus comes in. We haven’t had any reports from Pakistan since July of last year of attacks on rescuers. So there’s an indication of a policy change, and there’s also an indication of a targeting change on the ground. So, things may be changing at the moment. “
Pictures are from The Library of Congress.

Those who follow this blog probably know what is about to be said. You can skip ahead to the pictures, which are from The Library of Congress . The rest of you can deal with your hangovers, and indigestion, as best you can.
Does anyone else think the game was rigged? At the end of the first half, and start of the second half, Tom Brady completed forty passes in a row. The Patriots were unstoppable, and it looked like the game was over. Then, the Giants started to move the ball, and play defense. This is not unusual.
Several things were odd. Giving the Giants two points on a technicality was peculiar. Then, as the fourth quarter rolled along, the Giants had a long drive, sparked by a circus catch for 38 yards. They drove the ball close to the goal line. The ball was given to a running back, and the Patriots fell over themselves getting out of his way. He acted like he didn’t want to score a touchdown, and then sat down, backwards, in the end zone. The announcer said something about giving up a touchdown, so that Tom Brady would have a minute for his last drive. Whatever.
One the first two plays of this final drive, the Patriot receiver dropped the ball. They poked around for a few more plays, threw a hail mary pass, and the game was over. The NFL had a champion based in New York, which is always good for the bottom line.
Speaking of bottom line, Madonna performed at halftime. After the nursing home antics of The Who a few years ago, this was a blast of fresh air. Cee Lo made a surprise appearance, in a gown he stole from Eddie Long. This show was a commercial for her new album, and takes the prize for best super bowl ad. Madonna can sell soap.
There is talk about a performer shooting a bird during the show. After more examination than is really appropriate, this youtuber has decided that it was the index finger that was extended. The lady thought that Madonna was number one.
The official commercials were a disappointment. With all that money, and all that attention, is this really the best we can do? Clint Eastwood did a Patriotic spot for Chrysler, saying that Detroit was on the way back. If only the same could be said for Madison Avenue.