NEWS YOU CAN USE

Five skills not everyone has–or wants, maybe–but are useful in today’s a-go-go world. Pepper your food like a pro, how to spot a poser, how to make a good drink, how to shovel your walk so it’s spotless and how to catch an iPhone thief.

We’ll give you the down-and-dirty; click on the links for more info.

1-Pepper Your Food Like a Pro

It’s very simple: if you use a pepper mill, then simply twist a quarter-turn of ground pepper onto a plate, press your index finger on the pepper grounds and whatever sticks to your finger is the right amount to flick into your soup, salad, mashed potatoes, whatever.
–How to Add the Proper Amount of Pepper to Food

2- How to Spot a Poser

Every day you’re surrounded by people whose motives may not be clear. You may wonder whether they really are who they say they are, and if they really believe what they say that they do. Learning to spot a poser can be somewhat tricky, especially if the person is really good at hiding his true identity. Here’s how you can spot a poser in your own social circles.
–How to spot a poser

3- Make a Good Drink

Good booze is not rocket science, nor does it have to be expensive. A very small amount of prep time, a little attention to detail, some creativity, and bingo: cocktails after work for you and yours, or you and your friends. You will need, the right equipment, yummy finger foods, and some great drinks. The internet is replete with recipes and methods so I wont bother here. Don’t let terms like muddle, strain, and garnish intimidate you. An orange can be garnished and made into ingredients in seconds. If you screw up a drink too badly, it can always be tossed out. (that was a difficult sentence to type)
–The Booze Thread Pt 2: Happy Hour and Making Great Drinks.

4- How to Shovel Your Walk Of Snow So That It Is Spotless

Step 1: Use the cooking spray on the plastic bottom of the shovel so that the snow glides off of it easier. Then shovel the snow away from the walkway by pushing the shovel in front of you underneath the snow.
–How to Shovel Your Walk Of Snow So That It Is Spotless

5- How to catch an iPhone thief

The whole thing started when my plane landed in Los Angeles on Monday afternoon at 2:55pm coming from Cabo San Lucas. The guy sitting next to me on the plane asked me to loan him a pen so that he could fill out his customs form. I watched him fill out the form and clearly remember his birth year of 1984, but am a bit unsure about his name. I think it was —–, but in this story, we will refer to him as Pinche.
[...]
When it came time to move into the aisle, an old lady sitting in 27C started moving and so I stopped, but Pinche saw this as an opportunity. He bumped me, then jumped in front of the old lady and ran off of the plane. I waited for the old lady to step into the aisle, and I walked behind her. Five seconds later, I reached for my phone and it was not in my pocket anymore. I waited for everyone to exit the plane and went back to my seat. I looked everywhere but was not able to find the phone. One of the flight attendants (Karen) offered to help. She called the phone and it was not ringing. This was strange because I had perfect reception a minute ago.
–Busting an iPhone thief

Did readers find any of these useful?

MAINSTREAM PRESS HAD NO PROBLEM BELIEVING RIDICULOUS SCHEME

Andrew Young, in his book, The Politician, holds forth on the beginnings of the John Edwards’ cover-up. One of the main pillars of the cover-up, after the National Enquirer discovered that Rielle Hunter was pregnant was the ridiculous story that she was pregnant, not by Edwards, but by Edwards’ campaign fall-guy, Young.

It was an absolutely preposterous lie, but Edwards decided to go ahead. “This single paragraph was to be offered to the National Enquirer or any other media person who called the Edwards campaign about Rielle Hunter,” writes Young. “The senator and the advisers who worked closely with him on this issue — Jonathan Prince and Mark Kornblau — expected the onslaught to begin on Wednesday, December 19, when the new edition of the Enquirer would be posted online.” In anticipation of a firestorm, Young sent his family out of town.

But when the Enquirer story was published, nothing much happened. “To our relief, no serious newspaper or TV network picked up the story because they couldn’t find a source to confirm it,” Young writes. “Our phones and those of our friends and relatives rang constantly with calls from reporters and producers, but we ignored them all. Rielle and the campaign followed the same strategy, and since they still play by the multi-source rule, the big print and broadcast news organizations were stymied.” The damage was confined to a few websites. “We began to think that perhaps our strategy had worked,” Young writes.

Just for the record: one of those “few websites” was this one. While the mainstream press not only covered up, but helped the Edwards’ campaign hide the story, DBKP was publishing over 160 articles on various parts of the affair, scandal and elaborate cover-up.

We also spent considerable space on the Mainstream Media dereliction of duty towards the Edwards story.

The Edwards’ campaign was well aware of who we were, according to several sources.

We want to take this opportunity to remind the Mainstream Media–so that the next time, they’ll be sure to ask Andrew Young about those “few websites.”

We’re not holding our breath.

Keep in mind as you read the following: the Inspector General overseeing the TARP operations is the one who is issuing the warning to Congress.

Morgen Richmond, at Big Government, Inspector General: TARP has created a looming disaster, provides a public service by breaking down the TARP report to the level of a DANGER! sign for Americans.

Yesterday the Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP) released their Quarterly Report to Congress for the period ending 12/31/2009.

To the extent that institutions were previously incentivized to take reckless risks through a “heads, I win; tails, the Government will bail me out” mentality, the market is more convinced than ever that the Government will step in as necessary to save systemically significant institutions. This perception was reinforced when TARP was extended until October 3, 2010, thus permitting Treasury to maintain a war chest of potential rescue funding at the same time that banks that have shown questionable ability to return to profitability (and in some cases are posting multi-billion-dollar losses) are exiting TARP programs.
[...]
Stated another way, even if TARP saved our financial system from driving off a cliff back in 2008, absent meaningful reform, we are still driving on the same winding mountain road, but this time in a faster car.

Richmond’s assessment of the report seems to be right on:

The White House is in the midst of a campaign to focus populist anger on Wall Street, which is certainly deserving of some blame for the financial crisis. But by continuing to leverage the future of our children by adding trillions of dollars more to our national debt over the next few years, the Administration is demonstrating where the ultimate blame should reside for the culture of irresponsible borrowing and financial mismanagement which led us to this point. It’s not Wall Street – it’s Pennsylvania Avenue.

Click the link, read the entire assessment. It’s not pretty–but it’s necessary.

The TARP catastrophe can be avoided, but only if the same Senators and Congressmen who got us into the mess will pay attention and muster the political will to do the right thing.

In which case, everybody better buckle their seat-belts.

Click image to enlarge.

You heard that correctly. My site is all new! Not just award winning illustration but also everything from music to comedy to house portraits.
Go have a look! www.robertpizzo.com

HOMETOWN BOY MAKES GOOD

Spend a few moments–or longer–perusing the ninth wonder of the world (I think the eighth is already spoken for) that is Robert Pizzo’s new site.

You may go for the sheer adventure of visiting a graphic design site.

But you’ll probably stay for the collectible RP Fun Facts

Infographics are all there for the readers’ discernment–and pleasure.

Now, treat yourself to some fun.

[Click image to enlarge.]

HOLLYWOOD STARS are for the CONCEPT of HUGO CHAVEZ:
The Reality is Somewhat Different

The graphic above, from I Own the World’s I’m In With The In Crowd illustrate several things about the intellectual cesspool that is Hollywood.

1-When your life consists of playing the part of other people, you’re more likely to identify with the guy who’s Top Dog, like Hugo Chavez. The people that Hugo Chavez represses and kills are just so many eggs in the latest trendy Hollywood omelet.

2-Where else other than Hollywood is the concept of GroupThink practiced? Most big universities, the Mouthpiece Media and Big Government are three that first come to mind. They’re also the places that you’ll see support for Chavez at its strongest.

3-It’s notable that none of the Hollywood celebrities in the graphic above have decided to move to the Heaven-on-Earth that is Venezuela under Hugo Chavez. Why not forget the photo ops and put your liberty where your mouth is? A few years of living in Caracas and running afoul of the Chavas censorship might force the Hollywood elite to change their minds.

Such as it is.

MORE: If a Tea Party happened in Venezuela.

NEEDING REPUBLICANS TO HELP PASS UNAPPETIZING OBAMA AGENDA

President Obama’s agenda is stalled and his political acolytes are on the electoral run.

NOW, he wants to work with Republicans.

As long as Republicans act like Progressive Democrats and agree to help him shove his unpopular programs down voters’ throats.

Mr. Obama appeals to Republicans to be “bipartisan” and help him “fundamentally transform” the United States.

The following two video clips may help readers decide if that appeal is sincere.

One such bipartisan Obama appeal.

Here’s another demonstration of Obama’s desire to work with the opposition.

Is President Obama now “Mr. Bipartisan”?

Readers can decide.

THE AMERICAN MEDIA NEWS BLACKOUT ON CLIMATEGATE

The scandal that is the hoax of man-made climate change continues.

Joining it in the scandal world: the American Mouthpiece Media’s almost total news blackout of near-daily revelations–being reported in other countries–that dismantle the elaborate Rube Goldberg-esque scheme that used to be known as “Anthropogenic Global Warming” (AGW).

Where is noted scaremonger, Seth Borenstein of the Associated Press? When the subject was the now-discredited fear that warmists pushed as science, Borenstein was cranking out an article or two on the issue every week.

In one 10-day period in late November 2009, Borenstein authored articles like, “Global warming may require higher dams, stilts”, “‘A million small changes’ to better climate” and “‘We are in more trouble than we thought’”.

You would think that a reporter that cautioned that his readers may “require stilts” because of global warming’s catastrophes would be jumping for joy at being able to inform them that things might not be so bad after all.

Seth is silent, however.

As is the rest of the American media. The blogosphere is still on the case, as is talk radio and Fox News. When the mantra was “the science is settled”, climate change was a steady news staple in Big Media. Now, that the fraud is collapsing like a house of cards, suddenly, it’s news that’s not so vital for viewers/readers to hear.

The ClimateGate news blackout is only comparable to the one imposed on the John Edwards’ scandal for 10 months. Not one word was spoken over that time about the affair, scandal or cover-up.

ClimateGate joins it as evidence that for the Mainstream Media, all news is politicized.

And if it ain’t the right politics, it ain’t news.

Dan Karipides, U.S. Media Silent as Climate Scandals Continue, agrees:

Bad science done using bad data to start with is a recipe for disaster. Or, perhaps more to the point, is a recipe for being able to manipulate public opinion. The scientific method is a way of discovering observable truths about the world around us. To use it as a propaganda machine is shameful and the mainstream media’s silence on the story is doubly so.

So does Instapundit, Glenn Reynolds. But Reynolds points out, “…The Times of London is eating their (MSM’s) lunch. And dinner, breakfast, and bedtime snack.”

ClimateGate is one reason that 1-trust in traditional media rests somewhere in the neighborhood of Nigerian email requests for your money; and 2-news customers every day demonstrate that they will no longer pay for a defective MSM news product.

All of this leads to one final question: Why does the AP’s Seth Borenstein choose now go silent on the subject of climate change–just when he has a real story to report?

UPDATE: Mark Steyn, Change of Climate comes to much the same conclusions on the reticence of the American press to report on climate change.

“The settled science” seems to now have morphed from climate change into some sort of science having to do with stealth technology of how the data was discovered and then–sadly–lost!

You have to assume that America’s dying monodailies are now actively auditioning for state ownership. How else to explain the silence of the massed ranks of salaried “environmental correspondents” on the daily revelations emerging from the fast disintegrating “scientific consensus” on “climate change”? You get livelier coverage from the Chinese press.

Steyn has a bit of fun–don’t we all?–listing what the UK dailies are writing about the settled fraud. He quotes James Delingpole, who has a particularly good quote. Which by the way, pretty much sums up the feeling in these parts.

Meanwhile, James Delingpole can do without these johnnies-come-lately:

For years I’ve been made to feel a pariah for my views on AGW… Now it’s payback time and I take small satisfaction from seeing so many rats deserting their sinking ship. I don’t want them on my side. I want to see them in hell, reliving scenes from Hieronymus Bosch …screw ‘em.

Screw ‘em.

Exactly.

The authorities haven’t caught him but so far, the Moundsville flasher (WV) has 1,199 Facebook fans.

Moundsville Flasher Facebook Page

The man has flashed residents of Moundsville , WV, seven times:

MOUNDSVILLE — A woman jogging on First Street was the latest to spot the flasher.

Police say he was, as always, nude from the waist down, this time with a black concert T-shirt pulled up over his head, “wrapped around like a turban,” in the jogger’s words.

And the flasher may be broadening his territory.

“Usually he is between Cedar Avenue and Grant in the areas of Second, Third and Fourth Streets,” says Sgt. Don DeWitt of the Moundsville Police. “This (Wednesday night’s sighting) is a little out of that general area.

Moundsville is small blue collar town, pop. 9,998 in 2000, located in northeastern West Virginia along the banks of the Ohio River. Home of the infamous West Virginia State Penitentiary, a favorite site of paranormal investigations.

Facts on Flashing or Indecent Exposure

Exhibitionism (”Flashing”): Exhibitionism is characterized by intense, sexually arousing fantasies, urges or behaviors involving exposure of the individual’s genitals to an unsuspecting stranger. The individual with this problem, sometimes called a “flasher,” feels a need to surprise, shock or impress his victims. The condition usually is limited to the exposure, with no other harmful advances made, although “indecent exposure” is illegal. Actual sexual contact with the victim is rare. However, the person may masturbate while exposing himself or while fantasizing about exposing himself.
-Medicine Net

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK

A neat bit of detective work by Judicial Watch and Doug Ross. Ross is to be congratulated for seeing that this is simply a clear illustration of one huge thing wrong with our system.

He’s also found one other nugget among the abuses: the military planes were used to ferry members of Pelosi’s family around the country when there were no congressional representatives on the plane.

Political representatives–in this case, Nancy Pelosi–who are so out of touch, they think it’s better that the military fly their family all over the U.S. at the cost of $18,000 per hour than to fly commercial.

Of course it’s better for Pelosi: Joe Sixpack paying her travel and babysitting bills is always better than if she has to.

From Un-frickin’-believable: U.S. Military serving as chauffeurs, baby-sitters for the Pelosi kids: receipts that will blow your mind:

Meet the Pelosi family! Using Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, Judicial Watch uncovered thousands of pages of travel documents related to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s use of military aircraft.

What hasn’t been revealed so far is that military aircraft are being used to shuttle Pelosi’s kids and grandkids between DC and San Francisco without any Congressional representatives even onboard! Put simply, the United States Air Force is serving as a multi-billion dollar chauffeur- and baby-sitting service for Nancy Pelosi’s kids and grandkids — presumably because commercial travel is beneath the families of the autocrats.

Ross had receipt after sickening (if you’re a taxpayer) receipt where Madame Speaker has forced the military and U.S. taxpayers to pick up the tab for shuttling her kids and grandkids from coast to coast on the little people’s dime.

In some of these cases, there was no one else on the plane but members of Pelosi’s family.

Ross: “Here’s but one example of the Speaker’s kids traveling by military aircraft by themselves!”

Ross’ article should be read to be believed: an unending series of Pelosi’s abuse of the military and tax dollars. Check out the link [Un-frickin-believable: U.S. Military Serving as Chauffeurs, Babysitters for the Pelosi Kids: Receipts That Will Blow Your Mind] for more–much more.

Remember when she vowed to “drain the swamp?”

If that happens today, taxpayers are likely to find more babysitting bills for the chumps paying taxes to pick up–courtesy of Her Royal Speaker, Nancy Pelosi.

NEW OBAMA PLAN TO PASS HEALTH CARE:
TALK SLOWER and USE MONOSYLLABIC WORDS

Pity poor, poor Barack Obama: elected to lead a nation of idiots.

The president has a new approach to passing his take-over of health care: explain it in very small words so the voters–those morons–can understand him.

You see, that’s all that’s standing in the way of his glorious transformation of the USA into something both he and the First Lady can be proud of–for the first times in their adult lives.

Mastering this theme is the hilarious–but accurate–read by A. Barton Hinkle of the Richmond Times-Dispatch:

From Hinkle: Talking Down to the Public Will Surely Work .

This is a complex issue, and the longer it was debated, the more skeptical people became. I take my share of the blame for not explaining it more clearly to the American people.

–Barack Obama, State of the Union.

There’s a lot in the bill that people are going to like. It’s just a question of understanding it.

–ABC’s Cokie Roberts, Dec. 20.

What are the immediate plans for recalibrating the message or intensifying the message to explain better to the American people what you’re trying to do?

–Question to White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, Jan. 20.

It mighty big of man with nice voice to take blame like that. Him not need to. Head honchos not often take blame. Most times after big screw-up, head honchos say they have “full confidence” in someone who work for them — right before pushing someone off edge of cliff, or letting someone twist “slowly, slowly” in wind, like tricky Nixon guy did with man who ran FBI.

Man with nice voice not like those other head honchos. Him bring change to Washington already, see?

But him right. Him not explain health care good. Use too many big words. Say too many compound-complex sentences. Confuse American people. American people not want that. American people want simple explanation. Simpler the better.

Me feel kind of sorry. It must really get on nerves for man with nice voice and people on his side, like lady on TV and cheerleaders in White House press pool. Why can’t lamebrain American people get idea through thick skulls? Them not know how to make choices in own best interests! Need enlightened leaders to make choices for them. (Enlightened = smart. Me look this up in thing called “dictionary.” Dictionary good! Try sometime!)

Read the rest of this spot-on analysis: Hinkle: Talking Down to the Public Will Surely Work .

image: DBKP file

THE ‘BLUE MODEL’ EXPLAINED

Came across a very good piece on why the current U.S. government model is not only a throwback to times which no longer exist, but is unsustainable in its current form.

A few excerpts follow.

From Walter Russell Mead’s American Challenges: The Blue Model Breaks Down:

In the old system, both blue collar and white collar workers hold stable jobs, a professional career civil service administers a growing state, with living standards for all social classes steadily rising while the gaps between the classes remain fairly stable, and with an increasing ’social dividend’ being paid out in various forms: longer vacations, more and cheaper state-supported education, earlier retirement, shorter work weeks and so on. Graduate from high school and you were pretty much guaranteed lifetime employment in a job that gave you a comfortable lower middle class lifestyle; graduate from college and you would be better paid and equally secure.

Life would just go on getting better. From generation to generation we would live a life of incremental improvements — the details of life would keep getting better but the broad outlines of our society would stay the same. The advanced industrial democracies of had in fact reached the ‘end of history’: this is what ‘developed’ human society looked like and there would be no more radical changes because the picture had fully developed.

Call this the blue model, and the chief division in American politics today is between those who think the blue model is the only possible or at least the best feasible way to organize a modern society and want to shore it up and defend it, and those who think the blue model, whatever benefits it had in the past, is no longer sustainable.

Not only was the government model blue, but so were the successful big private companies.

As the old system dissolved, companies had to become more flexible. As industry became more competitive, private sector managers had to shed bureaucratic habits of thought. Lifetime employment had to go. Productive workers had to be lured with high pay. The costs of unionization grew; in the old days, government regulators simply allowed unionized firms to charge higher prices to compensate them for their higher costs. The collapse of the regulated economy (plus the rise of foreign competition from developing countries) made unions unsustainably expensive in many industries.

Some companies (like the automakers) seemed large enough and rich enough that they clung to the blue model long after the sell-by date. The result was a long, slow and grueling decline whose late stages are still unfolding today. They lost market share to more nimble rivals. Their workforce became old and expensive, and they were supporting ever larger numbers of retirees on the basis of smaller market shares and shrinking profitability.

These days, private sector blue companies can only survive with vast and continuing government support. Government protection from foreign competition (economically wasteful and illegal under our trade agreements) is one option; direct subsidies and cash transfers (bailouts and tax breaks) is another. Neither works very well or very long. Both are expensive.

The entire piece is very much recommended reading for anyone who has had the nagging suspicion that something is not right (which includes all of those people surveyed who respond that the “country is not no the right track”) but couldn’t quite put their finger on the mechanics of the answer.

It continues with a look at the ‘blue model’ governments–both state and federal–as well as the coming ‘blue model’ crack-ups. It ends on a downbeat, if accurate note.

As I continue blogging about the American future, one of the subjects that will come up again and again will be the blue crack up–we are all going to be singing the blues as the process moves on.

The whole piece is a very good read, especially for libertarians and conservatives looking for a bit of history on how the U.S. got itself in its current predicament and why the political elites seem paralyzed about offering any meaningful solutions.

One solution they might start contemplating: privatization of various government agencies to allow them to sink or swim.

If they are truly needed, people will pay for their services.

by Mondo Frazier
image: http://www.geekologie.com