Yahoo News (Internet News)

Although Google is my homepage of choice, I have Yahoo messenger, and as such, when I log into my computer each day, I am treated to a screen full of Yahoo News.

The most trivial, most unimportant news, all focused on gossip of the actors of the day.

For example, today I was informed that Catherine Zeta-Jones had tripped over her dress while getting on stage for the Tonys. Did I really need to know this? Did anybody really need to know this?

But that is the kind of crap Yahoonews presents us with. I've seen the earth-shattering news that two actresses showed up at the same event with the same dress, that one actress did her own dress alterations by borrowing a scissors and cutting away, and so on.

This is not the level of reporting that even gossip reporters should descend to. I'm sure there will soon come a day when we're told how many times a particular actor goes to the bathroom.

Hallmark Card Should Be Pulled, But Not Because It's Racist

In a decade and country where political correctness has run amok, the latest example is the NAACP of Los Angeles demanding that Hallmark remove a SPACE-THEMED graduation card from the stores because the voice that says "black hole" pronounces it, to their ears, like "black ho" and of course, that is racist.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/06/11/naacp-urges-hallmark-pull-racist-card-shelves/#

Now, having listened to the card, I have to agree that it should have been pulled, not because it was racist, because of course it isn't, but because it is just stupid. I thought I was listening to a card for kindergarten kids graduating to go into first grade, not 18 year old kids graduating and ready to go to college. Embarrassing!



Here is what two black women - members of the NAACP - had to say about the card:
http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/ci_15281166

But Verrett and others said Hallmark should issue a formal apology to African-Americans. They also said they found the card in Hallmark stores in Redondo Beach and on the Palos Verdes Peninsula as recently as last week.

Councilwoman Lula Davis-Holmes, who is an NAACP member, said she will probably vote in support of the resolution on Tuesday.

"I'm insulted in the first place because we, as black women, cannot be victimized if, in fact, it says `ho,"' she said. "I think Hallmark owes an apology. If there's an inkling of a doubt, it should be dealt with. People are outraged."

People are certainly outraged....that Hallmark has even destroyed this card.

What about the millions of black rap musicians who call black women hos on a regular basis? Shouldn't these black women's rage be directed towards them, or to the 70% of black women who give birth to illegitimate babies because they want money for the child but don't want the man responsible for that child?

But, as Eric Holder has said, white people in America are afraid to talk race. Hallmark was afraid to tell these people that the card was not racist and they were just being stupid, and so their cult of victimhood is allowed to continue - never mind that it is their own black males who are victimizing them, not greeting cards aimed at kids who have actually managed to graduate from high school.

Breaking Bad (TV Series)

Meth -heads


I don't watch a lot of first run television - I prefer the more moral shows of the 60s, 70s and 80s... so I'd never heard of Breaking Bad before until I came across it at Wikipedia while doing an unrelated search.

It has got to be one of the most disgusting TV shows ever filmed. And worse - it's had three seasons.

Here's the plot:

Breaking Bad is an American television drama series created and produced by Vince Gilligan. The series is produced by Sony Pictures Television and broadcast in the United States and Canada on the cable channel AMC. It premiered on January 20, 2008, and completed its first seven-episode season on March 9, 2008. The show's 13-episode second season ran from March 8 to May 31, 2009. The third season began on March 21, 2010.

Set and produced in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Breaking Bad is the story of Walter White (Bryan Cranston), a struggling high school chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer at the beginning of the series. He breaks down and turns to a life of crime, producing and selling methamphetamine with his former student Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) in a desire to secure his family's financial future.

Breaking Bad has received widespread critical acclaim, particularly for its writing as well as Bryan Cranston's and Aaron Paul's performances, and has won four Emmy Awards in addition to numerous other awards and nominations.

So the lead character of this show, the hero, is a man who creates and sells methanphetamine, a drug that ruins people's lives? And we're supposed to feel sorry for him, and hope he succeeds because, after all, all he's trying to do is provide financial freedom for his family after he dies!

Talk about blurring the lines of morality, this show rubs them out.

And yet, if Wikipedia is to be believed, this show is popular, and has been praised in mainstream media:

Breaking Bad has received critical acclaim in addition to two Emmy Awards for its first season. It won the award for best editing, and Bryan Cranston won for best actor in a drama series.[13] Breaking Bad in 2008 also won a Peabody Award for excellence in television broadcasting.[14]

Linda Stasi of the New York Post stated "the acting is as good as you'll see on TV." Time said the series "has the elements of success".[15] Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly rated season one a "B+".[16]

The second season opener was watched by 1.7 million people, up 21% from the previous season.[17]

The second season received Emmy nominations for Outstanding Drama Series, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series (Bryan Cranston) and Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (Aaron Paul). Cranston won for Outstanding Lead Actor.[18]

The third season premiere was the highest rated episode in the series' history; having been watched by 2 million viewers, with an additional 1.1 million watching while the episode was re-aired later on the premiere night

One wonders if real-life "meth heads" are shown in this program, to show its fascinated viewers exactly what the lead character's meth does to people?

Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it

Anyone who studies history learns, to their dismay, that this is true.

This is an article from 2008, about Chuuk Lagoon (formerly called Truk Lagoon)

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Scientists_Find_Oil_Leak_Threatening_Chuuk_Lagoon_999.html

Scientists affiliated with Earthwatch have uncovered signs of an oil leak in Chuuk (formerly known as Truk) Lagoon, a popular dive destination in Micronesia.
Earthwatch volunteers and scientists, who are conducting the first-ever comprehensive survey of the area, recently discovered a long oil slick coming from the sunken oil tanker Hoyo Maru and a smaller surface slick originating from the Rio de Janeiro Maru, a former passenger vessel that was converted to a submarine tender (support ship for submarines) by the Japanese navy during World War II.

There are 52 documented World War II shipwrecks and three oil tankers found in Chuuk Lagoon, with an estimated 32,000,000 litres of oil still secured inside. Dynamite fishing practices, storms and human activities (such as irresponsible anchoring) are destabilizing some of the wrecks, increasing the chances of an oil spill.

"This could have a devastating effect on the marine environment and negatively impact Chuuk's tourist industry," said Dr. Bill Jeffery from James Cook University, who leads the Earthwatch research project. "Some areas of mangroves that provide breeding grounds for many fish species could be completely decimated."

"There is reason to believe that Hoyo Maru is leaking from her bunker, which means there could be a lot more oil left to spill. We're hoping that Japanese historians can help us to determine if she went down with a full tank so we can estimate the full scale of the threat," Jeffery said.

The coral encrusted wrecks attract a diverse array of marine life, including manta-rays, turtles, sharks and corals. In 2007, 266 species of reef fish were recorded by the Earthwatch teams and in 2006 the rare coral Acropora pichoni was identified. (It had never been found at this depth (18 metres) or on an artificial reef before.)

A report from Dr. Jeffery has been submitted to the Chuuk State Department of Marine Resources and the Chuuk Historic Preservation Office who will liaise with the South Pacific Regional Environmental Programme (SPREP) to investigate how the oil pollution can be addressed. Earthwatch dive teams will return in November to continue their assessment into the ecological values of the site.

Chuuk, an island area formerly known as 'Truk', is part of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), found in the central Caroline Islands of the Western Pacific. During World War II, Chuuk Lagoon was bombed for over 18 months by the Allied forces and was considered a potential target for an atomic attack. The waters became a graveyard for the Japanese sailors and pilots killed in ships and aircraft.

"Dynamite fishing practices" is the key phrase here.

People who make their living via fishing would, you'd think, be very careful of the habitat, protecting it from all home. But in many islands around the world, people, as they have done for 4,000 years, typically seek the easy way to do work. Rather than using nets or fishing poles to catch fish, they explode dynamite underwater, which stuns thousands of fish and brings them to the surface, for easy pickings.

But, of course, the dynamite also damages reefs, and as we see here, the 52 oil-and-gas filled ships on the floor of the lagoon.

Do you think "dynamite fishing" has stopped in the face of these revelations? If so, how little you know human nature. It won't stop until the last fish are dead, and then the people will whine, "Where have all the fish gone! Foreigners have come in here and stolen all our fish!"

Inexcusable News From Arlington

There is an old cliche, "Military intelligence is a contradiction in terms."

In the year 2010, screwups by the US military - or indeed, the military of any civilized country, is absolutely intolerable. But... the very nature of the US military is incompetent. People who don't do their jobs well can't be fired, after all...

Anyway, the Arlington debacle:

Army: Bodies misidentified, misplaced at Arlington

WASHINGTON – An Army investigation has found that potentially hundreds of remains at Arlington National Cemetery have been misidentified or misplaced, in a scandal marring the reputation of the nation's pre-eminent burial ground for its honored dead since the Civil War.

Army Secretary John McHugh announced Thursday that the cemetery's two civilian leaders would be forced to step aside, and he appointed a new chief to conduct a more thorough investigation to examine the graves and sort out the mix-up.

"I deeply apologize to the families of the honored fallen resting in that hallowed ground who may now question the care afforded to their loved ones," McHugh told a Pentagon news conference.

Arlington National Cemetery is considered among the nation's most hallowed burial sites, with more than 300,000 people buried there with military honors. An average of 30 funerals are conducted there every day.

Among those buried at the cemetery are troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well service members from past conflicts dating back to the Civil War.

Famous presidents and their spouses, including members of the Kennedy family, also have been buried there. The cemetery, located across the Potomac River from Washington in northern Virginia, attracts more than 4 million visitors annually.

An Army investigation was launched last year after reports of employee misconduct, first reported by the Web site Salon.com.

Led by the service's inspector general, Lt. Gen. Steven Whitcomb, the investigation found lax management of the cemetery, where employees relied on paper records to manage the dozens of burials each week and maintain the thousands of existing gravesites.

Whitcomb said at least 211 remains were identified as potentially mislabeled or misplaced and that there could be more.

"We found nothing that was intentional, criminal intent or intended sloppiness that caused this. ... But of all the things in the world, we see this as a zero defect operation," he told reporters Thursday.

Whitcomb could not say how old the mixed-up remains might be or from what conflict, saying only that the problem had been confined to three areas of the cemetery known as sections 59, 65 and 66.

Whitcomb said he did find two cases of mis-marked graves in section 60, the area for veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan. He said those mistakes had been corrected.

Dorothy Nolte, 68, of Burns, Tenn., said she learned last year that the remains of her sister, Air Force Master Sgt. Marion Grabe, who had been buried at Arlington in March 2008, had been moved to a new grave site. Nolte said she went to Arlington to find out that her sister's urn had been buried on top of another soldier, but then it was disinterred and moved to another grave site. She said she had not been informed of the transfer.

"I made them unearth the urn so I could see the name," Nolte said in a phone interview Thursday from New York. "I have peace knowing my sister is indeed in the right place."

As for the Army investigation, "I think that it's a good thing that the truth is coming out, and it's certainly a situation that needs to be rectified," she said.

Separately, the Army is investigating whether the cemetery's deputy superintendent, Thurman Higginbotham, made false statements to service investigators. Higginbotham, who ran the day-to-day operations at the cemetery, has been accused by former employees of creating a hostile work environment and breaking into their e-mail systems.

Higginbotham is on administrative leave, pending further review.

According to a defense official familiar with the case, who discussed the details on condition of anonymity, Higginbotham won't face criminal charges because of a lack of evidence. But, the official said, the Army will ensure he never works at the cemetery again.

The official wasn't authorized to speak publicly about the case because it is ongoing.

Higgenbotham's boss, John Metzler, is set to retire on July 2. Service officials say he is being pushed out with a letter of reprimand that blames him for failing to rein in Higginbotham's mistakes.

Taking their place will be Kathryn Condon, a former civilian head of Army Materiel Command who as executive director will in charge of fixing any burial errors. Patrick Hallinan, a director with the Veterans Affairs Department, is temporarily being assigned as the cemetery's superintendent.

McHugh also announced the creation of an independent advisory commission that will be led by former senators and Army veterans Max Cleland and Bob Dole.

Family members with questions are urged to call the cemetery at 703-607-8000.

Devolution Politicians

We, Americans, vote politicians into office, and when they turn out to be corrupt, we continue to re-elect them!

Below is an editorial from the Washington Times:

EDITORIAL: Obama team honors Walpin-gate transgressor
From disgrace to embrace for former NBA star
Only in the Obama administration would a public official sanctioned for a form of malfeasance be honored as a speaker by the same organization that sanctioned him. It helps, of course, when he is a self-proclaimed Friend of the First Couple. It also doesn't hurt that the administration already found it politically convenient to fire the inspector general, Gerald Walpin, who blew the whistle on his misdeeds.

Still, the public should consider it a brazen affront for this administration to feature Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson as a key speaker at a major conference sponsored later this month by the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS). Common decency should disallow such a scandal.

On the grounds of image alone, Mr. Johnson sends the wrong message, considering that four different young women or teenage girls have accused Mr. Johnson of inappropriate sexual conduct. Three of the four were actually affiliated with the very institution, the St. Hope Academy, that was sponsored through CNCS grants. (CNCS is the parent body for the AmeriCorps national "volunteering" program.) In none of the cases were charges ever pressed, but one of the students said she was offered $1,000 per month in exchange for her silence, and two staff members resigned from St. Hope to protest how the academy tried (in the words of one of them) to "intimidate the student*." And in the first instance, in the summer of 1995, Mr. Johnson at one point agreed to pay the girl $230,000, according to the Sacramento Bee, after protesting that he "didn't recall us being a hundred percent naked" during the incident.

The sordid sex allegations weren't even what caused Mr. Johnson, a former National Basketball Association star, to be sanctioned. Instead, he was found responsible for multiple financial misdeeds and ordered personally to help St. Hope repay nearly half a million dollars to AmeriCorps. Specifically, investigators found that Mr. Johnson and St. Hope misused federal funds to assign political projects to AmeriCorps workers; to have them run personal errands for Mr. Johnson, wash his car and drive him to personal appointments; to pay staff salaries at St. Hope from funds meant for AmeriCorps grantees; and several other similar improprieties.

Despite such flagrant abuse of CNCS programs, CNCS has invited this man to be a featured speaker at the June 28-30 National Conference on Volunteering and Service, which is advertised as "the world's largest gathering of volunteer and service leaders from the nonprofit, government and corporate sectors." Such an over-the-top level of inappropriateness is flabbergasting even for the O Force.

Throw in the unseemly sexual charges against Mr. Johnson, even if they were never prosecuted as crimes, and what you see is not somebody who should be giving lectures, but who should instead be lectured. For the new Obama AmeriCorps to honor him shows how little this administration understands real honor.

Will and Grace (sitcom)

This is, really, one of the more disgusting sitcoms out there - and its sad that it's so popular.

Don't misunderstand, I have nothing against the depiction of gays in mainstream media. More power to them. But real gays have often dismissed this sitcom as a "minstrel" show - it is hardly represenative of real gays, or at least, the average gay.

All of the people on this show are amoral and immoral.

Originally it was just the two comedic foils - the self-obsessed and absorbed Jack and the self-obsessed and absorbed,and alcoholic and prescription-drug addictioned Karen. Each one of them, in real life, shouldn't have friends at all, but in the world of Will and Grace they are given prominence. Jack doesn't work, so his best friend WIll supports him, and his lifestyle where apparenlty he has a new gay guy every night. Karen will sleep with anyone who catches her fancy, and ignores her two stepchildren.

By the end of the series, it turns out Will and Grace are just as immoral. Grace, indeed, is perhaps the most reprehensible character of them all. She goes to what she thinks is her husband's cabin (he's out of town), only to find $10,000 hidden under the matress. She thinks he's hiding it from her - so she goes out and spends it all. This is supposed to be funny? Of course it turns out she had walked into the wrong cabin, and spent someone else's life savings in a fit of pique. Of course we never see how this turns out - does she then steal $10,000 from her hubby's joint savings or checking account to pay off this debt, or does she pay it off herself?

I could give other examples of the utter lack of morality on this show.

But, of course, the problem is it is funny. Seductively funny. The immoral Jack and Karen get the most laughs, and indeed, were the most popular characters on the show. That's sad.