Wow, Is Anthony a Wiener or What?

Anthony Weiner says he'd be mayor 'if the Internet didn't exist'



What a wiener. 



...and I would've gotten away with it too, if it weren't for that meddling "internet".
In other words, Weiner meant that he'd be mayor if the truth didn't get out. What does that say about a person, who they are, how they'd lead and what they believe? I want me elected officials to be honest and forthcoming, not like Weiner.

Tor, We Hardly Knew Ye

Here's me in my scary-had-it-since-I-was-eleven-bought-it-at-Walt Disney World-for-$11-everyone-loves-or-is-scared-by-it mask:

Here's the real face it was made to mimic, Tor Johnson. I thought you'd want to know that.

Nothing To See Here, People, Keep Moving....

The National Park Service has closed privately run marinas, restaurants and inns throughout the country and in some cases even posted guards to keep people from using them during the government shutdown, arguing that it doesn’t have the money, manpower or authority to let them operate.

Views to Mt. Rushmore blocked......

Or, you could get kicked out of your home.

Not surprisingly, Wisconsin and it's eeeeevil republican governor said "nope, not gonna do it" to some NPS demands.


Oh, it's the House's fault. Not the kind, gentle, wise, educated, master of locution.

These folks beg to differ.....

Bread and Circuses

Seriously, folks, what is your red pill? What does it take for you to recognize the level of political theatrics BOTH SIDES of the aisle will go to to manipulate you?

The Parks are close because of the "Shutdown," but we can staff the placement of signs and barricades for open air, 24-7 accessible, non-staffed war memorials? In the interest of reaching across the aisle, here's part of CNN's version of the story, read the rest at the link you just skipped over.

Veterans break past World War II Memorial barricade

Posted by

CNN's Laura Koran and Ashley Killough

Update 1:45 p.m. ET: House GOP leadership sources tell CNN they plan to vote on a series of bills to fund the government, beginning Tuesday with three measures–spending for veterans, the District of Columbia and the Park Service.

Washington (CNN) – Busloads of World War II veterans, many in wheelchairs, broke past a barricade Tuesday morning to cross into the World War II Memorial, as onlookers applauded and a man playing the bagpipes led the way.

Moments earlier, a few Republican members of Congress had removed a section of the black gates that surrounded the site, allowing a line of veterans to roll past security officers, who willingly stood aside.

Follow @KilloughCNN Follow @laurakoran

Veteran Donald Quinn of Pascagoula, Mississippi, said he was pleased with his visit to the memorial, despite the initial blockade.

"I'm surprised to see so many people here and so many important people, but I've enjoyed it," he said. "At first I didn't think I'd come, but I'm glad I did."

Photo by Laura Koran

The National Park Service closed all of its parks, including national memorials, as a result of the federal government shutdown that went into effect at 12:01 a.m ET.

But a spokeswoman from the National Mall and Parks Service said efforts were no longer being made to hold anyone back.

"These are important visitors," Carol Johnson told reporters, adding that they're seeking guidance from the director's office on "where we go next."

"Obviously we did not want to do anything to mar the trip of these people," she said, saying the visitors came from Mississippi and Iowa. "They've come here specifically to see the memorial that was built for them."

Some Republican members of Congress and a Democratic senator were on site, blasting the federal government for fencing off the memorial. Outraged and baffled, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, crossed through an opening in the railing earlier in the morning–before the breach–and got on the phone to try and reach the secretary of the Department of Interior.

"I don't get it. I'm furious. I'm trying to get a hold of people," he said, standing on the other side of the barricade and looking around for help. "But I can't seem to get a hold of anybody."

.......

Read the rest at the link.

IPCC Commentary Starting To Flow

First, this ridiculous, ridiculous story that has gotten press thanks to Yahoo.

A meteorologist who has covered weather for the Wall Street Journal tweeted that he has decided not to have children in order to leave a lighter carbon footprint, and is considering having a vasectomy.

He also vowed to stop flying after the world's recent climate-change report made him cry.

Uhm, wow.

Then, another story from Fox News. I can only imagine that it is on Fox because no one else would publish it, which is a shame, because the guy is absolutely a life-long ecologist, he's just committing what has become the mortal sin of "doubting."

"I've studied climate and its effects on life—all kinds of life ---for more than four decades, starting in 1968. Along the way, among other things, I developed a computer model of forests that in the 1990s we used to forecast the effects of climate on jack pine forests in Michigan that were the only habitat of the endangered Kirtland’s warbler.  A lot of effort was going into saving the bird’s habitat, and I wondered if, with global warming, it might all be in vain.

As a result I'm one of the reviewers of sections of the latest report on climate change and its impact by the United Nations-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the first part of which was released last week in the form of a general summary for policymakers.

I had some serious concerns about the sections of the much bigger report that I reviewed — which hasn't yet been released---and I have some of the same reservations about the document that was published last week.  

The report’s language appears to be sometimes coupled with a selective reading or oversimplification of the facts, so that the authors have "high confidence" in something that is not the whole story.  

My biggest concern about the climate report is that it presents a number of speculative, and sometimes incomplete, conclusions embedded in  language that gives them more scientific heft than they deserve. The report, in other words, is "scientific-sounding," rather than clearly settled and based on indisputable fact.  Established facts about the global environment exist less often in science than laymen usually think.

...

Having worked for decades on climate change and its possible effects on life, I come away from the just published "summary for policymakers" believing that it does not allow a scientist, let alone a policymaker, to decide that we are, or are not, creating a global warming.   

As a result, I foresee two dangers. One is that it will simply  intensify the political, ideological and, yes, moral debate that has erupted over who does and does not believe we are causing global warming, and thus move us even farther from the important scientific effort that the issue deserves.

The second danger may be even worse: it reinforces the belief that there is some kind of climate normality, usually characterized as existing earlier in the twentieth century or before the Industrial Revolution (but after the Little Ice Age, which lasted from approximately the mid-1400s to 1700) that is desirable, even necessary, for our species and for the ecology of the planet.

In fact, there has never been such a thing, which is one of the reasons that biological evolution and adaptation exist in the first place. "

Exactly the point I've been making for years.

May Your Hometown Have This

Seriously, I hope wherever you live has someone making shirts like these:

all images from cincyshirts.com

Not that all is perfect in my city, it's run by Dems, after all.

There are four new public road projects that have me convinced that they are deliberately making traffic worse, I assume to make us clamor for the Streetcar, light rail, and more public transportation (+ bikes, duh).

Down on Riverside Drive, formerly Eastern Avenue, they have celebrated the new lanes and bike lanes that have made traffic worse, created jams where none had been, and made parking more difficult and scarce with a little party. The really cute part? The brand new pavement is so wavy, it may actually be worse that the old road. Just for fun, a water leak appeared in the middle of a slight curve that went unrepaired for over a week a block away from the Waterworks pumping station. Now we have a new rectangular patch in the middle of the new road. Shovel Ready Jobs! I drive towards the city every day as far west as Collins, and I have seen maybe 1 commuter cyclist in the morning, and maybe 3 different (several more than once, though) in the afternoon drive time. Not kidding.

Linwood Avenue from Mt. Lookout Square to Grand Beech (right by Columbia Pkwy) has been re-laned, but not for bicycles. It's just stupid. Seriously. One lane where there were two, no parking where there was, new parking where you could go around those waiting to turn at Christ the King, turn lanes that start in odd spots so you can't get over soon enough to help continuing traffic stay moving. Ridiculous.

More is planned for Mt. Lookout/Hyde Park.

Columbia Parkway becomes Wooster Pike as it enters Fairfax, and it is a major artery for those heading to those eastern 'burbs. At this major intersection, anchored by the classic Frisch's Mainliner, I recently discovered (along with a LOT of other drivers, gauging by the backup) that the left and right lanes are now Turn Only lanes, with only the center lane continuing forward. Instant bottleneck. Awesome decision.

Lastly, there is one closer to my home, in Anderson Township (btw, officially there is no place/area/community/neighborhood called "Beechmont." That's the main Avenue that runs through Mt. Washington and Anderson, but it's not a place, as such. People say it, but it's not real) you will find a re-laned Salem Avenue. Like Linwood, it has removed parking where some was, added it in other spots, and you now weave back and forth like a slalom course to account for new turn lanes. A retired CPD friend and neighbor calls it "stupid" and "confusing" and he's younger than I am, so no "grumpy old man" comments, please.

Spring Grove Avenue has a similar tale to tell, no doubt there are others. Makes me believe the Agenda 21 alarmists may be on to something....

$5900? Each? You Can't Be Serious!

Found these at a little lot in town, no one was there, so I took some pictures and opened some doors. When I called, the lady said $5900 for either. Yellow didn't run when they got it, does now: orange is how it arrived. Neither are worth that kind of money, just the poor paint jobs (with obvious bondo work in the rear of the rockers under the rear doors.

The pictures from the site make the yellow look a lot better than it does in person! Of the two, though, I'd take the yellow for a couple of reasons, but  mostly, the rockers on the orange have been covered with something that was screwed in place, plus there was rust in the wheel wells: all very typical, but it means there are hidden woes.

It was a surprise to me, wanting one but never having sat in one, that you are stepping over the threshold to get in and sit in a way that modern cars don't really make you do. Maybe that was because the seats in the yellow one are pretty beat? 

Bro-in-law the car guy called and offered $4000. He was too drunk after a football game and a concert to say much more.

How Much We Just Don't Know

"It is far below the level the panel predicted. "Not only is this the smallest cycle we've seen in the space age, it's the smallest cycle in 100 years," according to a NASA research scientist cited in the popular blog Universe Today("Solar Cycle 24: On track to be the weakest in 100 years)."


It never ceases to amaze me how much some folks think we know, compared to how little we truly know. Making trillion dollars worth of policy on things we don't really know is stupid.

Hubris, remember?

*image from NASA: Visible in the lower left corner, the sun emitted an M6 solar flare on Nov. 12, 2012, which peaked at 9:04 p.m. EST. This image is a blend of two images captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), one showing the sun in the 304 Angstrom wavelength and one in the 193 Angstrom wavelength. Credit: NASA/SDO