Security experts,
researchers and analysts have discovered a vulnerability in the widely
used Java software that has the potential to allow hackers to access to
your computer.
Oracle’s Java platform is used and installed on more than one billion user computers worldwide. Three billion mobile phones are running the software too.
It's always something. The more intertwined we become through the "web" (which I've always thought was a deliciously spooky and yet insightfully descriptive name), the more we are vulnerable to others' bad, stupid, evil shit. Hey! Just like socialism....but I digress...Anywho, since I am not inclined to "look under the hood" of my computer, I take seriously those who do.
Please visit this website and go through the fairly easy steps to remove Java from your computer and then disable it on the browsers which you routinely use.
Every time they were doing something adorable that I wanted to record for posterity and so would grab the video camera, they instantly stopped doing whatever adorably cute thing they were doing and started acting like perfect little retards, emitting random noises, flailing and gyrating, completely distracted by the appearance of the camera.
Oh, it was cute. Once. Maybe. Like this kid. But an entire video library of this shit is not cute at all.
That's why I don't have any video of my adorable children.
All kidding aside, if there is one New Year's resolution that I think is important to make, it's to resolve to slow down and consciously build rituals in my life.
With the memories of the holidays still warming to the heart, this is a wonderful video that speaks to the softness and gentle rhythm of days spent building rituals. A winter's walk through the forest, cutting down the tree, noticing the new growth of next year's fiddleheads, baking the recipes handed down from our mothers, gathering together against the cold to share life. We don't make rituals in our lives anymore. We hurry through life, running so fast we're like stones skipping over the surface of the pond. But there are great, wondrous, important things hidden in the depths of the pond, and it is in diving into these things, deliberately, consciously, that we create rituals. These things used to be the province of women who tended the fires, and baked the bread, and nurtured the community by weaving together the single, individual strands of sisters and cousins and neighbors into tightly-knit groups. Groups that laughed together, quietly, voices pressed down by the close warmth of company.
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Rituals once were a constant in people's lives. They used to come from religion, which we are rapidly abandoning, from women, whom we have liberated from the chore, from the seasons, which demanded attention for our very survival. But we no longer seem to need rituals, and consequently they have been tossed aside to lighten the load as we speed along until we are all skipping stones. Busy, busy, busy...going nowhere fast.
Rituals create mindfulness and build connections. Rituals give structure and meaning to the present, by shaping the experience of all who participate so that we are pulled closer by shared memories. Without rituals we are left to gather memories on our own from a jumble of constantly bouncing, rushing experiences, each of us pulling different impressions and pictures from the hectic scenes through which we move. Rituals slow us down and connect us.
I resolve to create rituals in my life.
But they won't all involve bread, or I'll get big as a house.
I think it is perfectly reasonable to believe that Dear Leader President Obama and his crack team of insightful economic wizards should be the ones who pick all the winners in our economy. That way we will know - without a doubt - that it will not only all work perfectly, but it will all work FAIRLY. And "fair" is the new freedom, kittens.
Fair is freedom from risk.
Fair is freedom from failure.
Fair is freedom from effort.
Fair is freedom from sacrifice.
Fair is freedom from inequality.
Fair is freedom from ingenuity.
Fair is freedom from outcome.
Besides, you morons, this isn't YOUR economy. You didn't build that. Government did. So government should rightfully be able to decide how best to use all the resources. You'd just want to keep any profits to yourself anyway because you're greedy. Government is never greedy. That's a proven fact because government never -- EVER -- manages to make a profit. So there. Even when they move their incredible intelligence and insight into the private-sector. Now THAT'S an accomplishment. Don't say they can't do anything. They can piss away your money like it is water.
Let's look back to celebrate the awesome foresight of our betters.
It is no secret that President Obama’s and green-energy supporters’ (from both parties) foray into venture capitalism has not gone well. But the extent of its failure has been largely ignored by the press. Sure, single instances garner attention as they happen, but they ignore past failures in order to make it seem like a rare case. (I bolded that. Pay attention!)
The truth is that the problem is widespread. The government’s picking winners and losers in the energy market has cost taxpayers billions of dollars, and the rate of failure, cronyism, and corruption at the companies receiving the subsidies is substantial. The fact that some companies are not under financial duress does not make the policy a success. It simply means that our taxpayer dollars subsidized companies that would’ve found the financial support in the private market.
OH! And if the private market isn't enlightened enough to buy the green energy just because it doesn't work or because it is vastly more expensive and or because it is incredibly inefficient compared to other forms of energy, the government is taking care of that, too. See, kittens? They really do care. They really, really do.
If you’re over the age of 40 you probably remember the infamous $600 toilet seats and $400 hammers from the golden age of government waste, fraud and abuse. Should you believe those days are behind us, you’ve got another thing coming.
In the Liberals world of anything for green, the U.S. Navy is implementing a program to power its ships with bio-fuel, despite the fact this “green fuel” costs nearly seven times more than conventional diesel fuel.
I'm sure you all are aware of this exceedingly wise decision by our ruling Wizards to use up the biofuels that the unenlightened free market doesn't want. This is NOT an example of how stupid and wasteful government is, but an example of how regressive and selfish the free markets is. If people weren't so incredibly selfish, they would understand how important it is to assume the exorbitant costs of green energy in order to save the planet for everyone. But noooooo. They refuse to pay more and take less. Selfish bastards. So it is up to the government to act with benevolent wisdom to save us from ourselves. That this "rescue operation" requires our dear politicians to, once again, shovel more of our money down the Rathole of Infinity is a small price to pay for their unending sacrifice on our behalf. So it never hurts to remember just how well they are looking after us and spending our money more wisely than we would EVER be able to do.
To be so awesome and wise and to still care about the little people. How did we get so lucky?
(CBS News) LOS ANGELES - Gun sales in California are booming. More than 600,000 were sold in 2011. However by last year, sales had jumped to 817,000. That's an increase of 36 percent. But we noticed the number of people wounded by gunfire is dropping.
[...]
California gun sales have steadily risen from 350,000 in 2002, to last year's record. Recently, some gun owners became worried that President Obama's reelection and the Newtown shooting will lead to more gun control. Military style weapons have become popular for target practice and self-defense.
Yet despite the rise in gun sales in California, there has not been a corresponding rise in gun deaths or gun injuries. Hospitalizations for gun injuries have actually dropped nearly 28 percent and gun deaths by 15 percent.
Gun sales go up; crime rates go down.
This isn't rocket science, kittens.
Here are the four most likely results of guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens.
The criminal realizes that crime really doesn't pay, and may even cost him his life, and decides to straighten himself out.
The criminal attempts a robbery/rape/murder/assault/whatever and is stopped by a law-abiding gun owner.
The criminal attempts a robbery/rape/murder/assault/whatever and is killed by a law-abiding gun owner.
The criminal kills the law-abiding gun owner.
Those are the best odds you are going to get on the issue of crime and violence. I'll take'em.
Notice that "the police show up in the nick of time and stop the robbery/rape/murder/assault/whatever" was not one of the choices. Police investigate crimes; they do not stop them.
With the election of President Obama to a second term, the left in this country is now quite comfortable with showing its open contempt for the rights of American citizens. This is the online petition for the repeal of the 2nd Amendment.
So you thought electing Obama to a 2nd term was safer than that Mormon?
My question to all the good little liberals.
WHERE IS YOUR LINE IN THE SAND?
Mine is here. As Ted Nugent says, "You can kiss my ass."
I know this is foolish and naive of me, but if every law-abiding gun owner in the United States simply refused to turn in his or her guns and accepted prison, it would collapse the court system and destroy the legitimacy of our government.
This little video does a pretty good job of explaining the fallout of the Very Bad No Good 17th Amendment.
But it starts a line of thought which carries us back through all of human history. Bill Whittle does an extraordinary job (as always) in explaining the importance of the 17th Amendment in the context of our nation's history and mankind's history.
In short, mankind's history is the story of the struggle and pain of change, for change always brings fear and uncertainty -- even real loss. But to cease to change is to die. That is why, for all their rallying cries for "CHANGE!" progressives always bring death. At the heart of their calls for "CHANGE!" is the desire to actually stop any change which they see as a threat to their own security or power.
The free market of a free people is the most changeable, fluid, spontaneous environment imaginable. It is fundamentally based on change. It cannot operate as a free market without the ability to radically, even painfully, change things, people, ideas, outcomes -- without answering to POWER.
To bring the inventiveness, initiative, self-expression, curiosity, imagination and spirit of a people to its knees in the name of "CHANGE!" requires a great deal of power. The power to punish and to reward, to control and to kill. The progressives' cry for "CHANGE!" is intended to destroy true change since it is always -- and only -- expressed through the power of government.
Here's my nutshell summation, for what it's worth.
Conservatives understand that principles are unchangeable, but that everything that exists because of those principles is constantly changing.
Liberals believe that principles are as changeable and fluid as the next guy's opinion, but that all the results that happen from this mishmash of "relativistic" values must be made UNchangeable.
WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES. But necessary. Very, very necessary.
Despite its spectacular brutality, communism continues to exert its lure of something for nothing that has intoxicated man since Cain killed Abel. It appears that all we need to follow the next Pied Piper into the depths of hell is the promise of free healthcare.
It's the first day of the year that wasn't supposed to be.
So Happy 2013, kittens!
One of my New Year's resolutions is to Improve The Stupid, and that means learning something every day. Here's your first test. If you don't know the answers, just guess. A pretty good guess would be "b".
BLACK POLITICAL HISTORY: THE UNTOLD STORY NOTE: All answers are "b."
1. What Party was founded as the anti-slavery Party and fought to free blacks from slavery? [ ] a. Democratic Party [ ] b. Republican Party
2. What
was the Party of Abraham Lincoln who signed the emancipation
proclamation that resulted in the Juneteenth celebrations that occur in
black communities today? [ ] a. Democratic Party [ ] b. Republican Party
3. What
Party passed the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to
the U. S. Constitution granting blacks freedom, citizenship, and the
right to vote? [ ] a. Democratic Party [ ] b. Republican Party
4. What
Party passed the Civil Rights Acts of 1866 and 1875 granting blacks
protection from the Black Codes and prohibiting racial discrimination in
public accommodations, and was the Party of most blacks prior to the
1960’s, including Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth,
Booker T. Washington, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.? [ ] a. Democratic Party [ ] b. Republican Party
5. What was the Party of the founding fathers of the NAACP? [ ] a. Democratic Party [ ] b. Republican Party
6. What
was the Party of President Dwight Eisenhower who sent U.S. troops to
Arkansas to desegregate schools, established the Civil Rights Commission
in 1958, and appointed Chief Justice Earl Warren to the U.S. Supreme
Court which resulted in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision ending school segregation? [ ] a. Democratic Party [ ] b. Republican Party
7. What Party, by the greatest percentage, passed the Civil Rights Acts of the 1950’s and 1960’s? [ ] a. Democratic Party [ ] b. Republican Party
8. What
was the Party of President Richard Nixon who instituted the first
Affirmative Action program in 1969 with the Philadelphia Plan that
established goals and timetables? [ ] a. Democratic Party [ ] b. Republican Party
9. What
is the Party of President George W. Bush who appointed more blacks to
high-level positions than any president in history and who spent record
money education, job training and health care to help black Americans
prosper? [ ] a. Democratic Party [ ] b. Republican Party
BLACK POLITICAL HISTORY: THE UNTOLD STORY
NOTE: All answers are "b."
10. What Party fought to keep blacks in slavery and was the Party of the Ku Klux Klan? [ ] a. Republican Party [ ] b. Democratic Party
11. What
Party from 1870 to 1930 used fraud, whippings, lynching, murder,
intimidation, and mutilation to get the black vote, and passed the Black
Codes and Jim Crow laws which legalized racial discrimination and
denied blacks their rights as citizens? [ ] a. Republican Party [ ] b. Democratic Party
12. What
was the Party of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and President Harry
Truman who rejected anti-lynching laws and efforts to establish a
permanent Civil Rights Commission? [ ] a. Republican Party [ ] b. Democratic Party
13. What
was the Party of President Lyndon Johnson, who called Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr. “that [N-word] preacher” because he opposed the Viet Nam War;
and President John F. Kennedy who voted against the 1957 Civil Rights
law as a Senator, then as president opposed the 1963 March on Washington
by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. after becoming president and the FBI
investigate Dr. King on suspicion of being a communist? [ ] a. Republican Party [ ] b. Democratic Party
14. What
is the Party of the late Senators Robert Byrd who was a member of the
Ku Klux Klan, Ernest “Fritz” Hollings who hoisted the Confederate flag
over the state capitol in South Carolina while governor, and Ted Kennedy
who called black judicial nominees “Neanderthals” while blocking their
appointments? [ ] a. Republican Party [ ] b. Democratic Party
15. What
was the Party of President Bill Clinton who failed to fight the
terrorists after the first bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993,
sent troops to war in Bosnia and Kosovo without Congressional approval,
vetoed the Welfare Reform law twice before signing it, and refused to
comply with a court order to have shipping companies develop an
Affirmative Action Plan? [ ] a. Republican Party [ ] b. Democratic Party
16. What
is the Party of Vice President Al Gore whose father voted against the
Civil Rights Acts of the 1960’s, and who lost the 2000 election as
confirmed by a second recount of Florida votes by the “Miami Herald” and
a consortium of major news organizations and the ruling by the U.S.
Civil Rights Commission that blacks were not denied the right to vote? [ ] a. Republican Party [ ] b. Democratic Party
17. What
Party is against school vouchers, against school prayers, and takes the
black vote for granted without ever acknowledging their racist past or
apologizing for trying to expand slavery, lynching blacks and passing
the Black Codes and Jim Crow laws that caused great harm to blacks? [ ] a. Republican Party [ ] b. Democratic Party
I watched him win the Belmont as a very young girl. I had been around horses my whole life, but I really only knew that it was fun to go fast and that my horse loved it as much as I. What I saw that day was that it was more than fun. It was -- to the horse -- his entire reason for being. Secretariat was a horse who vibrated with his own tremendous power. A horse who knew, as every horse does, what it means to run, to fly, but who was given the special gift of exemplifying it for all of us mere humans.
How wondrous. How simple. To do what you were meant to do.
I remember standing in my living room, because one could not sit as they watched that race, and crying...sobbing...laughing. All of it.
Even a young child knows when they witness a miracle.
Happy New Year everyone. Let's look for miracles in 2013.
This is a soup that nourishes the soul, first with scented whispers rising from the stove, and then with lovely, thick warmth that fills your belly and banishes the memory of cold winds outside.
WINTER SPICED PUMPKIN SOUP
1 large potato, peeled and diced
1 medium onion, sliced
2 leeks, sliced (white to just pale green part only)
4 to 6 garlic cloves (The more the merrier, I always say. If Edward is creeping around, definitely throw in the 6!)
Olive oil (or butter, if you're so inclined)
Saute the potato and onion until just beginning to brown in either the olive oil or butter. If you're Martha Stewart or similarly insane, or have too much time on your hands, or want to save money by using one of those pumpkins you still have laying around from that ONE pumpkin vine your kids planted and which yielded far too many of something no one ever really uses, then, by all means, peel, slice and add pumpkin to this melange, too. Knock yourself out. I use canned. It comes in later.
Once this vegetable mixture has softened and just slightly begun to brown, add:
6 cups chicken broth
1 cup water
1 can (29 oz) pumpkin puree (Again, if you're overzealous you've already sauteed real pumpkin into the mix so reduce the amount of puree to a 16 oz can)
Simmer this until all the vegetables are VERY soft. Remove bay leaf and puree in batches in a blender. Taste and adjust seasoning. If it's too thick, add a little water or chicken broth.
Americans are living in an Orwellian state argue Academy
Award-winning director Oliver Stone and historian Peter Kuznick, as they
sit down with RT to discuss US foreign policy and the Obama
administration’s disregard for the rule of law.
Academy Award-winning director Oliver Stone (right) and historian Peter Kuznick
Both argue that Obama is a wolf in sheep’s clothing and that people
have forgiven him a lot because of the “nightmare of the Bush presidency
that preceded him.”
“He has taken all the Bush changes he basically put them into the establishment, he has codified them,” Stone told RT. “It
is an Orwellian state. It might not be oppressive on the surface, but
there is no place to hide. Some part of you is going to end up in the
database somewhere.”
According to Kuznick, American citizens
live in a fish tank where their government intercepts more than 1.7
billion messages a day. “That is email, telephone calls, other forms of
communication.”
No kidding. I mean really. No kidding. When did the inestimable Mr. Stone figure that out? As glad as I am to see him finally have a lightbulb moment, it seems he was way waaay behind those dumb ass Teabaggers who had this figured out before Obama was even elected in 2008. Of course, they are just a bunch of ignint racists...so who listens to them? Not Mr. Stone.
He [Obama] was a great hope for change. The color of his skin, the upbringing,
the internationalism, the globalism, seemed all evident. And he is an
intelligent man. He has taken all the Bush changes he basically put them
into the establishment, he has codified them. That is what is sad. So
we are going into the second administration that is living outside the
law and does not respect the law and foundations of our system and he is
a constitutional lawyer, you know. Without the law, it is the law of
the jungle. Nuremburg existed for a reason and there was a reason to
have trials, there is a reason for due process – ‘habeas corpus’ as they
call it in the United States.
Yes, and the reason is assholes like Obama.
But now Mr. Stone believes he has seen through Obama. What a mind! What insight! A wolf in sheep's clothing, he says. What a dumb ass. It took him four years to see what we saw in 2008 and we're still supposed to concede that he's the smart one. Okie dokie.
