Parents who shouldn’t be allowed on planes

See this article on CNN: http://bit.ly/XGIf

The problem is as old as air travel itself: Adults seated next to misbehaving kids while confined to a pressurized aluminum tube. But it seemed like until now, at least, we knew whose side the parents were on. Like the mom on Meador’s flight, they did everything they could to keep their offspring from driving the rest of the passengers quietly mad.

To echo a part of this article – on a 2 hour flight, our otherwise mild mannered 2yo daughter, began a pitched screaming fit that lasted almost the entire flight. I tried everything. I even gave her rum. To no avail. I drank the rest of the rum and ordered a round of drinks for the adults around us (those who wanted a drink). Then I banned our family from jets until both kids were rational and sensible. We took our first jet ride when they were 8 and 5. And I haven’t had a drop of rum since.

Fueling the future with fish tank residue: Yum!

Who knows, we may save fish tank scum as a biofuel.

Researchers have turned to algae as a promising new fuel source. The approach has the potential to significantly reduce the nation’s reliance on imported oil while contributing to rural economic development and lowering greenhouse emissions. As the nimrods of oil chant ‘drill baby drill’, the rest of the rational world may l be singing “suck baby suck” (or something to that effect).

Experts expect algae-based biofuels could displace large volumes of diesel and jet transportation fuels. One of the field’s leading experts, Ron Pate, a researcher from Sandia National Laboratories based in New Mexico, presented an overview of the research during the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Diego on Feb. 19.

Pate, who is a principal member of technical staff at Sandia, has been in Washington, D.C. since November 2009 serving as a technical consultant to the emerging algae biofuels program within the Biomass Office of the Department of Energy’s Office of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (EERE).

The DOE program evolved out of an initiative started in 2008 to develop a National Algae Biofuels Technology Roadmap; researchers from Sandia, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and other national laboratories, universities and industry are teaming up with DOE to overcome some of the field’s biggest challenges.

“We’ve been heavily involved in supporting the Office of Biomass Program for the past year and a half on the Algae Biofuels Roadmap and a couple of specific projects that are algae biofuel-related,” Pate said.

Among those projects are two international collaborations: one with industrial partners in Israel and the U.S., and another with the National Research Council Canada.

“Using algae as a feedstock source for biofuels has a lot of potential benefits, but there are also some tremendous challenges. We’ve been working very hard to determine what the needs are, the current state of the technology and the areas that really need some focused investment and work,” Pate said.

Through recent American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (stimulus package) and other program investments in Integrated Biorefinery and Algae Consortia projects beginning in FY2010, DOE/EERE is providing about $180 million in near-term funding specifically focused on algae biofuels research and development.

Pate’s presentation, “The Promise and Challenges for Algae Biofuels: Overview of Approaches and Issues for Sustainable Production Scale-up,” will cover many of the current issues surrounding algae research and development. Algae is emerging as an attractive resource because it reproduces quickly, uses large quantities of carbon dioxide and can thrive in non-freshwater, including brackish and marine water, thus avoiding competition with traditional agriculture’s freshwater needs. In addition, algae can produce biomass and oils, and is attractive as feedstock for renewable fuels, with potentially greater productivity and significantly less land use requirements than with other commodity crop feedstocks such as corn, soy and canola.

Building on earlier work done under the DOE-funded Aquatic Species Program during the late-1970s through the early 1990s, Pate and others have been taking a new look at the nation’s potential for algae biofuels production capacity development and resource requirements. The U.S. has ample sunlight, lower value land and non-freshwater resources in the lower latitude coastal and inland states, including the Southwest region of New Mexico, Arizona and California, to potentially produce large volumes of biofuel feedstock, if high productivies can be reliably achieved.

With algal oil productivities that could potentially reach annual average levels in the range of 3,000 to 5,000 gallons per acre, the land footprint required for large volumes of renewable fuel production would be minimal when compared with other conventional oil crops, such as soy and canola, that produce between 50 and 120 gallons per acre per year.

“With algae, we’re talking about annual average productivities that could reach several thousand gallons per acre per year — with practical values that analysis has shown might be able to reach more than 6500 gallons per acre – so if you do the math, you can see the reasoning behind this research,” Pate said.

“Algae can produce oils, which are nature’s most effective energy storage medium. We already have the technologies coming online to be able to take that and affordably convert it into really useful fuels that are essentially drop-in equivalent to today’s petroleum-based ground and aviation transport fuels. And there is a lot of promise to create quite a bit of oil from algae, but nobody has really done that affordably on a large, routine scale yet so that you can rely on it day in and day out.”

Making the leap from the current preliminary analytical stage to full-scale muck production is challenged by a number of technical hurdles and unknowns. In the last decade, Pate and his colleagues have analyzed factors that are critical to the success of algal biofuels. Sunlight, carbon dioxide, usable, flat land and water are the key ingredients to algae growth, so the researchers looked for areas of the country where those factors were abundant and provided an optimal environment for growth.

The team determined that Southwestern states offer the most sun and large areas of available land, but are lacking in carbon dioxide and water. Although algae can thrive in the region’s brackish groundwater, uncertainties remain about how much water is actually available. The team also had to address concerns that biofuel production will encroach on the nation’s valuable land, water and fertilizer resources currently used for traditional agriculture.

To generate potential solutions, Pate and his colleagues contributed to a three-day workshop hosted by DOE’s Office of Biomass Program in December 2008 in Washington, D.C., to discuss the future of algal fuels research and industry. The event was attended by 200 technical experts and stakeholders from government and state agencies from around the nation, who provided valuable comments and insights.

Pate was part of the DOE-sponsored team that drafted a report based on comments received both at the workshop and from public, and the report, which will outline the nation’s strategy in algal biofuel research, is expected to be published in the next few months and will help drive the nation’s algal biofuels efforts.

Despite the challenges, Pate is confident that algae has a strong chance of becoming a viable source of transportation fuel in the long-term future. “People who are more realistic think this will take at least 10 years for research and investments to get it to the point where it has commercial viability,” Pate said. “I think the jury’s still out, but we’ll likely see an impact in the next decade.”

File under: Stupid Human Tricks

Gothic Hello KittyHolly Crawford, a dog groomer from Northern Pennsylvania, was found guilty for one count of animal cruelty. Her crime? Opportunism and supreme superbole!

She took kittens and pierced their ears, necks (according to MSNBC), and other body parts. Then she attempted to market the animals on eBay under the headline: “Gothic Kitties.”

A picture of the kittens on eBay, taken on a pet bed with ears weighed down by belly button rings, was noticed by a woman who contacted Crawford and subsequently authorities. Pennsylvania Humane Society officers and police removed four, three month old kittens and one cat from Crawford’s home.

The kittens had multiple piercings on their ears and necks. One kitten’s tail was docked and another’s banded.

The case grabbed attention from animal rights activists nationwide. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) condemned Crawford and describe the piercings as “barbaric”

No laws specifically state that docking cat’s tails or piercing cats is illegal.

Many Pennsylvanians are outraged by the case, citing it a waste of time and money. Supporters of Crawford claim that there is little difference between declawing a cat, spaying/neutering an animal, tagging wild game or wrapping a show dogs ears.

Carol Morrison, a Pennsylvania Humane Officer, testified the total expense to treat and rehabilitate the kittens was over $1,000.

Upon hearing the verdict, Crawford was distraught. Her defense attorney John Pike told reporters, “She really loves animals and is upset because in her heart she considers herself a true animal lover”

Crawford is to be sentenced March 31, 2010 and faces up to 5 years in prison. Reports say that the prosecutor is seeking a sentence of 12 to 18 months.

Ah, but this story only scratches the surface! Apparently there’s a real trade in “gothic” pets. According to the Times Leader in Wilkes-Barre, PA – Northern PA again, of all places – three kittens with ear, neck and tail piercings were removed from a home in Ross Township.

One of the officers from the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals of Luzerne County said the pierced kittens were being sold as “gothic kittens” on an Internet auction site.

“This is a first,” said Officer Carol Morrison. “It’s unbelievable anybody would do this to kittens.” Yeah, well, surprize, surprize.

Once again, the investigation started when somebody noticed “gothic kittens” being sold on eBay. The animals were also being sold on a pet classified Web site with an attached picture of a pierced kitten.

“You’re not allowed to sell live animals on eBay,” Morrison said. Nor ones that have been tortured and mutilated, I’ll bet.

Aside from the cats, a dog was also found with various piercings. Here’s another big fat “guess what happened next.” The perp had a pet grooming business in the basement of the residence. Several signs advertising “Pawside Parlor” were adorned on the front of the home. Hmm… nothing about body mutilations?

Morrison said the kittens will be checked by a veterinarian before deciding if the kittens will be placed for adoption. Or have a wooden stake driven through their hears (yeah, okay – bad joke).

Apeshit Teabagging Nitwits

Cuss words. “The quality or state of being profane.” See also desecration or disrespect toward an object of religious veneration. One utterance can be a single word, a general expression or gesture. The Chinese tend to be more poetic than Americans or their European cousins, dashing insulting haiku in rude and vulgar strains. Blasphemy is handy for damning one person or his whole frakking family. And here’s a conundrum – why is it that profanity from a man is more acceptable than from a woman? Shit man… equality!

In polite cultures, profanity can involve taboo words. Over the course of time, some words that were originally considered profane have become much less offensive. Meanwhile, some formerly common words have worked their way into profanity. Still others, like racial or ethnic epithets, is considered hate speech generally not tolerated by society, unless you have a screw loose for purity.

Anyhow, there is poetry found profanity – even American. I think of it as folk poetry laced into American heritage like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  Common, but also very much a part of the cultural fabric. And its absence is pretentious and unnatural.

There is an etymological a pattern to cussing. Like my dad (and his father), anything and anybody can be a “sonovabitch.”  The poetry of cussing requires that the user know how to intensify his feeling with certain adjectives. If “sonuvabitch” is treated as a root, then you can plainly see the transformation:

A friend in an amusing situation may be called “that damn sonovabitch” or just “that sonovabitch” followed by a loud guffaw.  An acquaintance that you know nothing about except for an amusing situation may be labeled “that goddamn sonovabitch” or “that damn sonovabitch” depending upon the given situation.

A person with whom the community holds a general disregard may be “that stupid goddamn dumass sonovabitch” or simply “dumbass sonovabitch.” A person who has earned some measure of infamy may be labeled “that fucking goddamn stupid sonovabitch” or “fucking stupid sonovabitch” or “stupid fucking sonovabitch” depending on the user’s mood and object of notoriety.

The next level of language engenders levels of personal irritation especially when theses words are added to the mix: “socialist,” “democrat,” and (my favorite of late), “liberal.” which may or may not be combined with variations of “Shit for brains socialist,” “Shithead democrat,” or “dumbass liberal” depending upon the intended purpose and prose, and our all time favorite: the Libtard.

Of course, this socialist liberal may retort with his own poetry in uttering something along the lines of “most of these apeshit teabagging nitwits wouldn’t know a serious fucking issue if it came up and bit them in their goddamned stupid asses.”

By the way, the whole point of this exercise is to display my general disdain for all things TP. I have yet to meet one that grasps the mere comprehension of (a) true socialism nor (b) the meaning of liberalism.  And THEY think Obama is their problem?

Dumshits.

Learning from history: How Hoover’s pro-labor stance helped cause Great Depression

According to a new study, the pro-labor policies of President Herbert Hoover triggered two-thirds of the drop in the nation’s gross domestic product over the two years that followed the stock market crash of 1929. The study, entitled “What — or Who — Started the Great Depression” by Lee E. Ohanian, a UCLA economist, finds that a series of seemingly “pro-labor” decisions were ultimately the worst things that anybody could have done to an economy that was already reeling from the effects of the crash.

“The recession was three times worse — at a minimum — than it would otherwise have been, because of [Hoover’s actions],” says Ohanian, who is also a professor of economics at UCLA.

The policies that Ohanian cites includes propping up wages, encouraging job-sharing, and urging major industries to hold off massive layoffs. These and other actions, as history shows, contributed significantly to the precipitous decline in productivity in the manufacturing sector and sent overall GDP skidding 18 percent of the 27 percent decline by the fourth quarter of 1931.

The report does not attempt to compare today’s economic situation and the Great Depression – attempts  to do so (as pundits on CNN and FOX frequently have done)  are roundly discredited by reputable economists. However, as Ohanian’s study reveals, Hoover’s actions clearly illustrates the perils of ill-conceived government policies in times of economic upheaval and confusion.

Ohanian, a macroeconomist who specializes in study of economic crises, speculates that Hoover’s response clearly “illustrates the danger of knee-jerk policy reactions in a time of crisis. Almost always when bad policies are adopted, it’s during a period of crisis. The real risk is picking a cure that turns out to be worse than the disease.”

While historians and economists have tried to pinpoint the underlying factors that made the Great Depression so “great,” Ohanian’s study is a refreshing new look that quantifies how Hoover’s policies lead to labor-market distortions that ultimately drove down a badly crippled economic system. The study also challenges Hoover’s reputation as pro-market president.

“This was a president who had served as secretary of commerce under his predecessor, yet many of the mistakes he made were remarkably similar to those later made by Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose reputation is much less market-based and more pro-labor,” says Ohanian.

Other economists have also implicated Roosevelt in prolonging the Great Depression and Hoover’s employment policies have been suspect in actually precipitating the epoch. Often-cited and often misunderstood causes of the Depression include banking failures and large contractions of the money supply. However, neither of these events really started taking effect until the 2nd quarter of 1931 — nearly two years after Hoover installed his fateful wage policies.

Moreover, unemployment did not plague the part of the labor force that was exempt from Hoover’s 1929 wage policy. Farm employment remained surprisingly strong and only fell due to changing climatic conditions of the “Dust Bowl” in 1935. But unlike in the manufacturing sector, agricultural wages fell dramatically, by 30 percent.

“Wages fell substantially, but farm employment rates held steady until the Dust Bowl,” Ohanian said.
Despite continued calls from industry for wage cuts in 1930 and 1931, Hoover held industry to their original promise. By late 1931, manufacturers requested that Hoover provide relief in the form of increasing their ability to collude for price-setting purposes. Hoover denied this request. In response, industry signaled they would no longer support the wage freeze.

“In late 1931, industry finally did cut wages, but it was too late,” Ohanian said. “By this point, the economy was in an unprecedented, full-blown depression.”

Read the study, “What — or Who — Started the Great Depression,” can also be found at www.econ.ucla.edu/people/Faculty/Ohanian.html

Findings of the study are scheduled to appear in the December issue of the peer-reviewed Journal of Economic Theory and were posted today on the website of the National Bureau of Economic Research as a working paper.

Women Jokes

Source: Wikipedia
Source: Wikipedia

I have collected dozens of them. I never had a problem with women. Never bought into the “battle of the sexes,” I just like jokes. Especially the funny ones. Like this one – sent to me by a true believer in the battle – a woman, by the way – who relishes every example, every bit of evidence of the “male dominated society.” The jokes, she says, are more about how we perceive societal interaction than how we actually behave. “In real life,” she says, “people tend to be more cruel. The jokes allow us to laugh about it.”

LOL…  yah. Okay, whatever. This list is titled “Women are like…”

Newspapers…

They always think that they must have the last word.

Saran Wrap…

Useful but clingy.

Credit cards…

You never know how much you spend on them, and when you find out all you can do is cry.

Hi-tech gadgets…

It takes forever to figure out how they work and a better gadget always comes along once you’ve gotten used to your old one.

Computers…

Even the smallest foible is stored in long-term memory for later retrieval.

Cell phones…

Handy, but beware of the roaming charges.

The stock market…

Alluring but impossible to predict, and they will bankrupt you if you’re not careful.

Fax machines…

Useful for one very specific purpose, otherwise they’re just high-maintenance paperweights.

Political campaign contributors…

If you let them talk about themselves long enough you wind up in bed with them.

Refrigerators…

They’re always cold and never seem to have a beer when you need one.

Country western songs…

They’re annoying, they all sound alike, and if you really listen to them you’ll get depressed and drink a lot.

Hurricanes…

At first they come at you all wet and wild, but when they leave they take your house, your car, your cat, your boat…

So much for that.

That g_oddamn stupid fa__ot sunovabitch

Source: Wikipedia
This photo has nothing to do with the article. I just thought it was really cool

Let me tell you a little story about a friend of mine who is a lifetime Texan. He served with my dad in the Air Force as a NCO during Korea (replaced propellers on B29 bombers). He had a short stint as some kind of intelligence officer during Vietnam. He retired to a small ranch southwest of Amarillo that’s been in his family for some untold decades. We talk on the phone every once in a while; he doesn’t own a “g__damn computer” and doesn’t have time for the “g__damn Internet.”

You see, old Thurman Kemp is a man who walks firmly and proudly in the rut of his ancestors. His “internet” is a white and red 1974 Ford pickup has a gun rack in the cab with two weapons: an old 12-gauge pump and a baseball bat. He takes the truck (and accessories) to the local watering hole for ‘chat sessions’ that he says is better than that “g_damn CNN or any other of those fa__ot journalists” – present company excluded. The bat says he is ready for anybody he doesn’t like that needs an “impression”; the shotgun is there to help emphasize any point that the bat fails to make.

He has brown hands that look like cracked mud and lines on his face like old leather. He still clings to the dream that history will eventually see that LBJ was one of this country’s best presidents. He is a bitter-minded, opinionated, foul-mouthed, beer swilling old fart that loves “old” country music (“none of that g_ddamn sonovabitch fa__ot music” that the “young humps” listen to these days).

Now that you have a firm picture in your mind of this old Texan’s outward character, you can appreciate what he has to say about Mr. Perry’s recent tirade about secession: “That g_oddamn stupid fa__ot sunovabitch is right off the book – made us [Texans] look like we’re nuttier than a sack of weasels. I don’t need that kind of f__king grief, I gotta tell you. Not one f__king g_ddamn bit. That f__king stupid treasonous sonovabitch fa__ot is f__king gone, I’ll tell you whut.”

I’m no Texan and I really don’t know Rick Perry from a hole in the ground, but I get the point, tell you whut.

So?

Dick Sez I was thinking of the various forms of superbole. Usually, it’s the market-speak variety designed to provoke a buying frenzy. Then there are the multi-syllabic brain-pokers; the erudite rants that nobody really understands anyhow (but we nod anyhow to feign comprehension). Of course, we shant forget colorful scatological metaphors that we learn on the playground before we work up to more sophisticated assaults. Then there are the uniquely succinct ones that just sneek up and poke you in the eye, like whatDick Cheney did the other night.

ABC‘s Martha Raddatz had him on-camera for a recent interview. She peppered him with the usual round of political questions du Jour. Then, late in the interview she cited polling that shows that two-thirds of Americans believe that the Iraq War is not worth the cost.

“They’re looking at the value gain versus the cost in American lives, certainly, and Iraqi lives,” she emphasized.

To whit, Dick said, “So?”

Obviously astonished by the cavalier toss off, Raddatz countered, “So you don’t care what the American people think?”

For a moment, Dick stared at her – to emphasize that, yes, indeed, he didn’t. I believe he almost chuckled before he finally smugly replied, “No.”

Of course, there is context. He went on to make the case that leaders should not be “blown off course” by ever-moving and ever-changing public opinion. And I would agree with that point and might have let this pass were it not for his obvious display of utter disregard for the question, especially in his position as a servant of the people.

Many in the foreign press also commented and several made great emphasis of Dick’s personality: a man of great arrogance. By my lights, Mr Cheney gets the award for the least number of syllables uttered in superbole.

Congrats.

Is Barack Obama a RACIST??

Obama with VetsHe is if you believe some bloggers and a handful of anonymous email.

Here are the facts. Obama attends Trinity United Church of Christ which adopted the Black Value System written by the Manford Byrd Recognition Committee chaired by Vallmer Jordan in 1981. They identify “12 precepts and covenantal statements” that reflect on “Black Ethics” which “must be taught and exemplified in homes, churches, nurseries and schools, wherever Blacks are gathered.”

The concepts of “Black Ethics”:

1. Commitment to God
2. Commitment to the Black Community
3. Commitment to the Black Family
4. Dedication to the Pursuit of Education
5. Dedication to the Pursuit of Excellence
6. Adherence to the Black Work Ethic
7. Commitment to Self-Discipline and Self-Respect
8. Disavowal of the Pursuit of “Middleclassness”
9. Pledge to make the fruits of all developing and acquired skills available to the Black Community
10. Pledge to Allocate Regularly, a Portion of Personal Resources for Strengthening and Supporting Black Institutions
11. Pledge allegiance to all Black leadership who espouse and embrace the Black Value System
12. Personal commitment to embracement of the Black Value System.

Now to return to the claim that Obama’s church (and by association Obama himself) are racists. Obviously not. Clearly the sources of this claim are ultracon groups and race-driven derivatives of the soon to be late Bush era who are a bit upset that the last 8 years has produced such a backlash that their most dear enemy, Hillary, and their worst nightmare, a black presidential candidate, are poised to take over the Executive branch. These points alone draw serious doubt on any validity, but on the point of fact, it is fallacious.

First off, black communities and churches were formed because of Jim Crow and subsequent social conditioning. The conditioning came in the form of total segregation and subjugation that lasted more than 100 years. White communities viciously conspired against blacks and forced them to live separate lives. It is no surprise to sociologists that the social barrier lingers. It took what I consider the Second Civil War of 1963 to FORCE white communities to cease the subduction of the black community. But we were too late; the damage was done.

Deep problems continue to plague many black Americans and this church is simply recognizing them as community borne and a communal burden. By stating “Black Ethics” they are taking making an honest attempt to repair the social damage caused by a lack of identity and security. Everything in this mission statement is an intelligent distillation of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs – creating togetherness, collective membership, and support through Christian fellowship. And they have done this hand-in-hand with the spirit of God of mercy and love. Clearly, statements like ‘black community,’ ‘black family,’ and ‘black leadership’ are constructs for self-improvement and self-motivation, not ambitions toward racial supremacy.

Which leads me to my second point. There have never been nor is there likely ever going to be roving black church death squads killing whitey. Hit the buzzer, ain’t going to happen. Nor will the greater Black Community ever condone any action that aims to marginalize any other ethic community. Personally, I think the long lesson of communal suffering has made black leaders stronger that way; they are quicker in sniffing out the stench of racial injustice in all its insidious forms.
The wording of this mission statement may be jarring to some, but I think non-whites feel threatened being around blacks because of background social guilt over the centuries of injustice against Blacks. But it is entirely likely that a white person could walk into that church and worship Jesus right alongside the rest of the parishioners – and receive the Lord’s blessing just the same. But what would happen if a black person walked into a church somewhere in the Deep South?

In fact, is it not true that portions of the White Community are still active in promoting “White Ethics” ala KKK? Are there not churches throughout the country continue to marginalize and discriminate against non-whites? Not only do they spread hate for black people, but they also heap up Jews and any body else who doesn’t measure up to their brand of whiteness. But what is really scary is that you don’t even need the KKK to seed racial terrorism: America did it to the American Indians from the colonial times and right through the 1800’s. Then they did it to Chinese immigrants who slaved to build the railroads and man the factories and mines during the 1800’s. The Japanese took a good strong turn during and after WWII. And now they’re doing it to the Latinos – this time under the guise of national security.

There is no practicable argument that can successfully equate a black Christian church making an honest attempt to address social problems in their community with KKK White churches that created the terrorism of racial “ethics.” I can only conclude that this position is seeded by an appalling ignorance and is mere slander.

UPDATE: “Pastor Gate” doesn’t change a whit. But this time I suspect other politico machination at work (e.g., White Dems who may fear Obama’s strength with independent voters). Sadly, the populace is responding in predictable ways.

To My Surprise

Ohmy!I’m a bit surprised by the results from the latest primaries… surprised that we’re diving into the motherlode without clear front-runners. But this is a good thing. Like a close World Series or a hot match up in the NFL, the race is heating up the popular vote, making people pay attention (we Americans love a close race). Here’s my opinion slate as of today: I’m giving Obama a second look – impressed that he has galvanized younger voters, but there are simply not enough of them to matter I think (the ‘Boomers’ and elders outnumber them 3:1 in voting). But I really dig the way he’s rattled up those folks in the ivory tower – I savor good strong debate between him and just about anybody from the red column. I’m still askance with Hillary, never did like her laugh, but I am more than interested in the idea of her as America’s first female president (note: nearly every developed nation on the planet has had a woman in their executive office; so what’s up with that?).

Pretty much over Huckabee – he’s just way too Baptist for me. I’m not in the least entertained by that proclivity of his leaking out little foibles over social issues (e.g., religion vs constitution). I’m still rooting for McCain, but I always have had a soft touch for perennial underdogs. I’m very happy to see Edwards’ falling star – the man was just pissing me off with his populist gladwrapping and glittering generalities. I’m even more irritated with Romney, perfect hair and all – but that cultish religion of his his will never go over with me (yep, I said it – Mormonism is a cult). Glad to see people have pretty much forgotten about Rudy – what a ‘tard. And I have all but given up hope for Michael Bloomberg and a third party. The timing isn’t right – again. Way too many populists appealing to the indies. Maybe next time, Mike. But I think that Hillary is going to clench it with the Dems. Too early to tell if she’ll be in a position to pick Obama as her running mate (certainly will not be Edwards). Clinton-Obama. What a ticket that would be!