Thursday, June 26, 2014

World Cup, what are the stats?

Teams - Top Goals (click here)

Top team currently is the Netherlands with 10 goals scored.

MATCHES PLAYED48/64 (click here)



Best Attacking - France

Best Passing - Germany

Best Defending - Iran

Top Scorer - Thomas Mueller - Germany - 7 shots - 4 scored

Top Runner - Michael Bradley - USA - Distance traveled 38019 meters 
                                                                                (452818 feet)

Player with Most Passes Completed - Javier Mascherano - Argentina - 89.4%

Top Saves - Ben Foster - England 

Social Responsibility (click here)
If I were running for office in Kentucky, I would not miss the chance of being seen at the new addition to the Corvette Museum. I'd be careful of where and how I walked, though.

June 26, 2014
By Jolie Lee
The National Corvette Museum (click here) appears to be benefiting from its own misfortune.

After a massive sinkhole swallowed eight Corvettes in February, it has become an attraction in its own right

The museum's board of directors decided Wednesday to keep the sinkhole partially unfilled for now....

And exactly how important are Corvettes?

See, that man in the orange hat? He is standing next to his car. His car is a Corvette. And why is he such a noteworthy example of a Corvette owner.

He has been waiting to be reunited with his Corvette for 33 years. Now. That is love.

June 25, 2014
By Frank Witsil, Eric Lawrence and Katrease Stafford
Mississippi Bureau (click here) of Investigation officials said the car was located at a residence in Columbia, Miss. "The investigation is ongoing regarding the vehicle's history and whereabouts during the past three decades," the MBI said in a statement.

Shaw said SCAR worked with the Mississippi police and the National Insurance Crime Bureau to trace the vehicle back to Talley. The investigation revealed that Talley's claim was never paid by his insurance and he remains the owner of the car.

Talley said when he received an initial phone call from his insurance company notifying him that the car was found, he thought it was a joke. But when the Michigan State Police called, he couldn't believe his luck.

"I said, 'This isn't no joke. They wouldn't be joking with me because I don't think they have time to play with me,'" Talley said. "I was shocked."

Smith said the last time Talley, now 71 and retired in Detroit, had seen his beloved car was when it was parked on Jefferson Avenue in July 1981. Then the car disappeared. Talley reported the incident to police, but never thought he'd see the car again....

And to realize the stolen car was in unknown condition and it was General Motors that payed the bills to bring the car back to it's owner. That is a car.

Pro-Life

Jesus Christ never killed anyone to change their hearts.

I basically see the cartoon as did the ancient Vedic of India. "A concern with preserving the male seed."

Ever hear of legislative malpractice?

I look forward to lawsuits against individual legislators when they disregard expert advice or step outside the bounds of what is reasonable for a legislature to do. The legislative quackery existing in Red States and the US House is rampant. 

Congressional Job Approval Rating 13% (click here).

The Congress shall have power...To establish a uniform rule of naturalization...To promote the progress of science and useful arts,...To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof.

There are no other bodies of government in the USA that can address the problems of this nation. Any unwillingness to do so while swearing loyalty to political funders demonstrating the same unwillingness to have the legislature conduct the country's business while holding funding as hostage is culpability and proves the US House has alienated their electorate and substituted those that pay for the services they provide. 

54 votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act is legislative malpractice. It is abuse of power. I think it is time individual Americans file suits against legislative malpractice especially when it seeks to provide venues that hurt Americans.

Class action suits whereby people are injured by an obstructive congress, such as immigration reform, should point to the degree the Republicans are hiding from their responsibilities and not solving the nation's problems. There is a crisis along the USA border existing more than a week now and yet there is absolutely no action in Congress to address this emergency. Instead, the US House rather play politics with children and prolong their outcomes. That is hurting life in the USA, disrupts quality of life for those involved and borders on human rights abuse. The country should never stand for legislative malpractice. Canter was the first real victim of this malpractice, but, hopefully he won't be the  last.

Usually, this form of poor performance is reserved for impeachment, but, since the entire US House is gripped with loyalty to their Funding Gods, it requires a lawsuit to bring about the justice the American people seek. There should be no reason for ONLY violent overthrow of a government so much as demanding relief from the damages the legislators cause.

Wednesday June 11, 2014 5:32 AM


Chiropractors shouldn’t be ruling on young athletes’ concussions (click here)


The Ohio legislature has ignored expert medical advice and put children at risk by opening the door for chiropractors to independently clear young athletes to resume play after they’ve suffered a concussion.
Elected officials last week tucked the provision into a wide-ranging education bill not open to line-item veto by the governor.
This is a terrible idea.
Concussions are traumatic brain injuries. They require time to heal. Young people’s brains are still developing. A second impact, whipping the brain around again, can cause a lot more damage.
Chiropractors are experts at what they do, but that expertise does not extend to concussions.
The General Assembly leapt over common sense and science in yielding to chiropractors, weakening the state’s model law, which took effect last year. That law, the result of hours of expert testimony and debate at the Statehouse, protected injured youths by giving physicians ultimate authority over return-to-play decisions....

Anti-abortion activists seeking to change the mind of a woman about her unwanted pregnancy is assault.

Generally, the essential elements of assault consist of an act intended to cause an apprehension (apprehension is defined as anxiety or fear that something bad or unpleasant will happen) of harmful or offensive contact that causes apprehension of such contact in the victim.

If any woman entering an abortion clinic is approached by an anti-abortion activist and she perceives the words and/or written materials or otherwise as a threat to her causing anxiety in any way may seek to press criminal charges and/or civil damages.

Example: "Did you know you can die from abortions?" Those are hostile words meant to create anxiety regarding that woman's decisions. It is already law that every medical practitioner provides all the information to a patient regarding the procedure and what could be adverse effects. It is not the place of an activist licensed to practice medicine or not to provide apprehension to any woman at any time. The relationship is between she and her health care practitioner. 

Anti-Abortionists

There is something that needs to be stated in regard to all these anti-women movements. 

The first premise of accepting there is a need for abortion clinics and women's health clinics is to realize a woman does have sex. Therefore, their health is at risk, wittingly or otherwise, for sexually transmitted disease and unwanted pregnancy.

All to often anti-abortionists want to simply state if women didn't have sex in the first place and simply practiced abstinence there would be no problem at all. That fantasy by anti-abortionists is simply that, a fantasy. The reason women's health clinics and abortion clinics exist is because women do have sex. That is the reality. Women do have sex. Once one admits women have sex then there is whom are they having sex with because they aren't practicing abstinence either.

There is also the fact about rape. Women advocates know there are far more rapes that women survive than is ever reported. So, when a woman comes to a health clinic for help in handling what may have been a rape, that real fact isn't necessarily known. They are simply coming to the health clinic because they are worried and/or are pregnant in a manner they had never consented to.

There is a need for women's health clinics for a real reason and to simply state abstinence is the best resolve is to hold childhood priorities and fantasies above all realities as they present themselves.

Then there are the heartbreaking stories about women and their spouse/partner that see the pregnancy adverse to a full term birth and the child's prognosis afterward. 

Women do have sex.

How do we know that?

Because they become pregnant with either an expected child and/or an unwanted pregnancy. The unwanted pregnancy has every equitable right for medical intervention as much as a pregnancy to full term has. Women have sex and they have sex for reasons that are their own. Society doesn't have to deal with their reasons for abortion or how the pregnancy occurred in the first place. Society has to deal with a woman's health and providing legal and competent methods and medical professionals for that woman.

A woman's uterus should never be a death sentence. Society has it's responsibility to all citizens not just those adorned in theocratic values. And, yes, forced adoptions are theocratic issues, not that of reality.

The Supreme Court decision regarding Recess Appointments is mute.

Richard Cordray is still head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and has the capacity to sign regulations that make all his initiatives retroactive to the creation of the Bureau. In doing so he needs to write two sets of regulations that are both retroactive and current to July 16, 2013.

July 16, 2013
By Danielle Douglas

The Senate (click here) on Tuesday confirmed Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, ending years of contentious political wrangling over the leadership of one of the most influential agencies in Washington.
The 66 to 34 vote came hours after lawmakers averted a showdown over Senate rules governing whether the filibuster could be used to block presidential appointees.
Cordray’s confirmation clears the way for the consumer bureau to take more aggressive steps to police the financial services industry. In the past year, the agency issued a series of rules to govern mortgage lending and handed down enforcement actions against big banks, including U.S. Bank, for abusive lending practices. It will also be more difficult to challenge the agency’s efforts to regulate those industries....

The court missed the point.

The Supreme Court treated the law as a freedom of speech law when in fact it is a consumer safety law. If the Supreme Court can't get their ducks in a row, then the clinics themselves have property rights which can enforce "No Trespassing" to anyone, but, clients. It will at least provide for a safe entrance way to the clinic and a somewhat remote location of protesters so bombs can't be planted at, in or near the building. 

The clinics will have to apply an added layer of permission to entering the building such as a key pad at the entrance way. The client then picks up a phone or pushes a button or rings the inside receptionist to validate the appoint and provide entrance to the building.

There will be an ID issue to insure those entering the building are actually clients. A code or statement or a list of questions on the appointment reservation. It adds danger to the clinic, but, there are methods to securing a building. Massachusetts could create a task force through state legislation to explore the ways in which clinics can secure their entrances and insure only clients to their services are finding their way in.

The No Trespassing laws, with posted signs, that already exist is an immediate measure enforced by police officers and signing complaints against protesters. But, legislation of a Task Force to bring long time security is probably needed.

If invoking No Trespassing laws, the clinic needs to write an administrative letter to the local police department with copies to mayor and council stating there is a problem and this is how the clinic is remedying the problem. The notice is not necessary as No Trespassing is a legitimate law, but, it would provide notice to police this will be an activity they might require assistance with. 

June 26, 2014
By Pete Williams The U.S. Supreme Court (click here) on Thursday struck down a Massachusetts law requiring protesters to stay at least 35 feet from the entrances to clinics that provide abortions, a decision that cast a legal cloud over similar provisions in other states.
The court found that Massachusetts had violated the First Amendment and shut off a traditional public forum. It held that the state had not tried less intrusive methods to address its concerns.
The law was challenged by opponents who said they wanted to talk to women entering the clinics about alternatives to abortion....

Can the Tea Party take their Koch Money to a third party?

I doubt it. The Kochs as has Sheldon Adelson moved into a private party venue. Instead of backing a political candidate they favor regardless of extremism they are holding private conventions whereby potential presidential or federal legislative candidates meet the king makers.

The Tea Party has always been an emergency measure for the survival of the RNC. It is just that simple. The 2008 Congress was dominated by Democratic victories. The remains of the Republican Party was limited following the obviously incapable Bush/Cheney administration. I would not expect The Tea Party to achieve victories as a third party. The Third Party choice usually comes from the Libertarian Party. If the Tea Party wants to move outside of Republican money their best option is to meld into the Libertarian Party where they belong actually. They were never sincere Republicans, so much as disgruntled Libertarians.

The gross difference between the Tea Party and Libertarian Party is war mongering and/or racism. They are the disciples of Bush/Cheney and their "Scaredy Cat" viciousness. Otherwise stated, "A barking dog doesn't bit, except, when the USA military provides the perfect vehicle to Wall Street profits." 

The Tea Party needs to assess their NEGATIVES that have pushed them aside and decide if they can measure to Libertarian standards. I don't hear any words of reflection by defeated Tea Party members so much as finding a line of attack.

The 2008 global economic crash also was the crash of the Republican Party. The nation was looking for hope in all the wrong places if they were adverse to the Democratic party. The rise of the so called "Tea Party" was an opportunity rather than a sincere result of national directives. The Tea Party came in with NEWNESS and nothing else. The votes for Tea Party members were more in hope of fresh faces making a difference.

Basically, the Tea Party had it's chance and failed. It is unfortunate because in the 2010 elections proved the country was looking for an alternative to change the path of the country. Once in power the Tea Party as proved too extreme. They had losses in 2012 and now there are losses in the primaries of 2014. Their extremism doesn't serve them well and they are probably branded with it now. Their only chance at 'staying in the game' is to exchange their extremist name for a Libertarian name. They need to make that change with full cognition of what that entails. The Libertarian Party is not about faux priorities and won't cater to the Tea Party extremism.

If the Tea Party insists on narcissistic identity by a charismatic name and a Fourth Party in elections it needs to realize they will suffer considerable funding losses as a Fourth Party candidate. It may be when they leave the RNC behind they will simply disappear into the vapors.

June 25, 2014
By T. Bogg

Former Alaska Governor (click here) Kelly Girl temp and, apparently, recently converted Jew, Sarah Palin left her Facebook Fortress of Derp last night to toss some word salad for Sean Hannity about what was going on in last night’s election whosie-whatsis, while threatening to take the Tea Party to the Promised Land as a third party....

...“Well you know as for the primary, and perhaps if it’s true some shenanigans going on there, nothing should surprise you, but that’s that old school politics where it’s a bit of the status quo and that has got to go. It’s very rare in a Republican primary that the candidate who promises to bring home the bacon, promising bigger government, which is requiring higher taxes, and more burdensome government, actually pulls it off in the primary. That’s a rare thing. It’ll be surprising …. and yet or perhaps not, to find out with that crossover of Democrat voters, how that does impact the general.”...

Speaker Boner is still riding the clown car for the Tea Party.

There is suppose to be clear distinctions between the legislature and the executive branch. The President has extensive power to carry out his administration. Speaker Boner didn't learn a darn thing in the Cantor defeat, he is still playing tough guy for the Kochs' money.

June 25, 2014
By Ashley Parker ...“The Constitution makes it clear that a president’s job is to faithfully execute the laws; in my view, the president has not faithfully executed the laws,” Mr. Boehner told reporters. “And when there’s conflicts like this between the legislative branch and the administrative branch it’s, in my view, our responsibility to stand up for this institution in which we serve.”...

Perhaps the President and/or judicial branch can sue the Legislature for a 'dead in the water' record. The Legislature has not addressed long standing problems facing the USA. "Do nothing Congress" might even apply if they haven't caused so much damage to the nation.

There is a humanitarian crisis at the USA southern border. President Obama has every right to sign an Executive Order with reforms to immigration law in the best interest of the country.

Our cellphones have been returned to us, but, our lives are more in danger than ever.

This is a Shadow drone. It is capable of killing a person when it falls from the sky.

June 22, 2014
Written by Craig Whitlock Shortly after the day’s final bell rang (click here) and hundreds of youngsters ran outside Lickdale Elementary School with their book bags and lunchboxes, a military drone fell from the sky.
The 375-pound Shadow reconnaissance drone skimmed the treetops as it hurtled toward the school in Jonestown, Pa. It barely missed the building, then cartwheeled through the butterfly garden and past the playground. The aircraft kept rolling like a tumbleweed and collided with a passing car on Fisher Avenue. People called 911. The rescue squad arrived in a hurry. Luckily, no one was hurt.
The April 3 near-disaster was the latest known mishap involving a military drone in the United States. Most U.S. military drone accidents have occurred abroad, but at least 49 large drones have crashed during test or training flights near domestic bases since 2001, according to a yearlong Washington Post investigation....

The drone bases are in every state of the USA except for a few. The crashes are clustered to some extent. Most occur near the southern border. Those in Florida are drug cartel related. 
The Nevada crashes resulted in training missions. At least these occurred in mostly uninhabited land. The cost of a crash is still significant. The drone may or may not have been repaired to fly again.

...Michael P. Huerta, the FAA’s administrator, said the agency would integrate drones into the national airspace in stages and only after a careful review of each step....

These are just the crashes within the borders of the lower 48. There are other examples of crashes in foreign venues, (ie: Iran). The US Drone Program should be audited for it's costs and effectiveness. Effectiveness would be something the Joint Chiefs can address. The Drone Program is also high stress with a challenge to keep pilots in the ranks.

HERNDON, Va., Jan. 13, 2014 Northrop Grumman (click here) Corporation’s Hunter Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) (above right), in use with the U.S.Army since 1996, recently surpassed 100,000 combat flight hours in service...
On Tuesday, (click here) in what appears to be a surprise announcement, the Department of Defense confirmed that it has awarded Northrop Grumman a $37.3 million "modification" to an existing logistics and engineering support contract for the Hunter Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS, or more commonly, UAV for "unmanned aerial vehicle").
The Hunter UAS currently in use by the U.S. was originally based on a UAV developed by Israel Aircraft Industries. According to Northrop, the RQ-5A Hunter was the first unmanned aerial vehicle deployed by the U.S. Army, in 1996. It has since been upgraded to the MQ-5B configuration and weaponized by being equipped with laser-guided bombs, which were also developed by Northrop....