July 30, 2014

Artists change bomb blast pics

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/Default.aspx?pageID=447&GalleryID=2204&gpid=1

Some of them are amazing...

July 30, 2014

Turkish women stage a "laughing" protest

What started the protest:

32 pf the fantastic pics:
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/Default.aspx?pageID=447&GalleryID=2205

............................................................
and he responds to their protest in Ted Cruz fashion..

the pic is NSFW but a truly in-your-face bonanza

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkish-deputy-pm-slams-women-having-vacation-without-husbands.aspx?pageID=238&nID=69797&NewsCatID=338

July 19, 2014

The end of Malaysian Airlines?

http://www.buzzfeed.com/jimdalrympleii/the-death-nail-for-malaysia-airlines

Could Crash Of Flight MH17 Mean The End Of Malaysia Airlines?

In the aftermath of two air disasters in less than six months, Malaysia Airlines is in serious financial trouble and the end may be nigh. posted

on July 17, 2014, at 9:51 p.m.

Jim Dalrymple II BuzzFeed Staff





After Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down Thursday over Ukraine, some observers are wondering if the already-troubled company can survive.

The crash of Flight MH17 comes at an extremely difficult time for Malaysia Airlines. Just four months ago, the company lost Flight MH370. That flight is still missing, and having two high-profile disasters back to back won’t bolster the company’s image, analyst Robert Mann, of R.W. Mann & Co., told BuzzFeed Thursday. “Unfortunately, this is not going to help that situation,” he said.

Mary Schiavo agreed. Schiavo — a former inspector general of the U.S. Department of Transportation who now works as an attorney specializing in plane crashes — spoke with BuzzFeed Thursday and envisioned an airline that will be further wounded by tragedy.
Malaysia Airlines was already a financially “fading” company before the two recent disasters.

Schiavo called Malaysia Airlines a “fading” company that was already destined for the history books even before recent disasters, and financial analysis bears out that conclusion. The airline has been losing money for years, with those losses continuing in 2013 “due to intense competition and its high cost structure.” The airline has been unable to turn things around this year, and is still losing money even as it cuts ticket prices in an effort to fill its many empty seats.

snip

July 16, 2014

Any Shelton folks in here?

We just made an offer on a house in Shelton, WA..

July 16, 2014

My husband and I did the scariest thing ever today

We made an offer on a house in Washington state..sight unseen..(we did send a realtor we only met by phone to preview it)..We used a recommendation by her for a mortgage company in WA and got pre-approved by phone.. auto signed the offer online ..

Did the whole thing in less than 4 hours..

and we cannot even list our house in CA until we move all of our stuff out and send it up to WA..

are we nuts?? or just in love with our perfect retirement home near our grandchild?

July 10, 2014

The lawsuit that should have been brought..GOP Conspiracy

on the night of the first Obama Inauguration.

The LEADERS of both houses met in relative secrecy (and extremely bad manners/poor sportsmanship) to determine a plan of action to deliberately fail to perform their own sworn congressional duties, and to sabotage a new president's term...

People elected these folks to DO THEIR JOBS..not to sabotage a new presidency and collect a paycheck for nothing but malicious mischief while harming the US.

July 10, 2014

Dinesh D'Souza??? "Guest" on The Ed Show..WTF??

He ADMITTED guilt in a federal suit...and MSNBC gives HIM airtime???

C'Mon...let him do his time and then Fox can have him..

July 6, 2014

When one side tries to use reason. and the other side uses guns

This seems to be the perpetual dilemma.

We seem to have always been locked in combat with fundamentalists of one sort or another. Americans often equate fundamentalism with snake-handling religious sorts who seem to be against most things, but fundamentalism exists in all religions and in all philosophies. These are the folks who do NOT welcome change of any kind.

This weekend I was introduced to Folke Bernadotte (via Al Jazeera), and was amazed that I had never heard of this wonderful man.

After watching the 3 part documentary of his life, I could not help but think about AnwarSadat & Menachem Begin, and Dr Tiller and Dr Martin Luther King and Medgar Evers... and JFK and Bobby Kennedy..and so many others we have lost.

These folks all had a message that did not "resonate" with fundamentalists. These people had long range plans that were about more than a fast bandaid. These people were thinkers .

Fundamentalists do not like thinkers. They know their ideas are stale and useless, but they refuse to even think there might be a better way to handle whatever problems exist, so their only option is to kill the person they cannot agree with.

This act does not necessarily kill the ideas of the dead person, but it does change history.

The radical fundamentalists who are now raging in the Middle East and Africa (and figuratively now, in America) are similarly focused. They are only interested in killing those who do not agree with them.

We can call them crazy...lunatics..deranged..whatever.. but we cannot ever really stop them.

All we can do is to keep trying to convince enough thinking people to stop electing crazy fundamentalists who use their power by throwing gasoline on every fire they can find.

There are economic fundamentalists
There are climate fundamentalists
There are education fundamentalists
There are anti-civil rights fundamentalists

We can fight their nonsensical theories, but we can never convince them, because their fundamentalist beliefs tell them that THEY are right and we are wrong. They refuse to see what is right in front of them. They are reminiscent of the anorexic 80 lb girl who sees a fat girl when she looks in a mirror.

It all seems so hopeless sometimes, and makes me glad that I am 65 and not 25

July 5, 2014

Nothing lasts forever..

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/right-wing-billionaires-behind-mitt-romney-20120524
another article :
http://thinkprogress.org/election/2012/07/19/543801/consumer-brands-conservative-attack-ads/

This article has good detail about the richest of the rich right wing donors.
These guys are getting quite OLD... and their families may not have the same interest in throwing money at politicians.

These people are annoying, bitter people, but they are not immortal...and when they check out, I suspect that their estates will be fought over for a very long time.

Without their money, I wonder how many of the think tanks will continue to have the resources to carry on in the manner they do now..

There are some younger ones, but when the demographic bomb goes off in a few years, and the tea party is more ensconced in GOP politics, I am betting that some of these younger ones will not be all that eager to pick up the slack with their personal wealth..

One can hope



Sheldon Adelson
AGE 80...(variety of ailments)


Charles Koch
AGE 79 (prostate cancer survivor)


David Koch
AGE 74 (prostate cancer survivor)..and survived a plane crash in 1991