Another Problem for the CH Brain

A guest post by bagoh20.

Let's say there is a man who has a profitable company.  Upon his death, he wishes the company to be transferred to at least some of the long term employees.  He would prefer that it continue to employ people and support its customers and vendors, but secondarily it could be sold and the proceeds divided among the employees based on seniority.

The problem:

1)     Depending on the law at the time, the tax burden of a transfer of ownership could be enormous and enough to make the new owners insolvent, and thereby prevent it from continuing.

2)     It will be impossible to sell it for what it’s worth, because the proceeds passed to the employees would be sufficient for most of them to quit their jobs, and the value of the company is closely tied to the employees.  The real value of the company is their ability to produce a profit.  If they are leaving, nobody will be buying.

It’s a catch 22.  Maybe I'm alone on this, but this post forced me to finally know the origin of that term after pretending to my whole life.

“The term catch-22 was coined by Joseph Heller in his novel Catch-22. Initially this is based on the explanation of the character Doc Daneeka as to why any pilot requesting a psych evaluation hoping to be found not sane enough to fly, and thereby escape dangerous missions, would thereby demonstrate his sanity:”  ~ Wikipedia

So: 

1)     Is there a way to avoid the pitfalls above?

2)     If you were a key employee, middle aged, and likely to inherit this, what would you want to happen?

"Pasta -- There is only so much I can do on my own.

The special interests know it, and they're counting on you to be silent on gun violence and climate change. They hope you're not paying attention to creating jobs or fixing our broken immigration system.

And they plan to make the loudest noise when your members of Congress come home for August recess.

I'm counting on you to be just as vocal -- to make sure the agenda that Americans voted for last year is front and center.

Say you'll do at least one thing as part of OFA's Action August in your community, no matter where you live.  (Link removed.)

I know it's easy to get frustrated by the pace of progress.

But it's not a reason to sit back and do nothing -- our system only works if you play your part.

If you don't let your representatives know where you stand in August, we risk losing an important battle on your home turf.

So I'm asking you to speak up -- commit to do at least one thing in your community during Action August:

http://my.barackobama.com/Commit-to-Action-August  (Link removed.)

Thanks,

Barack

 And appearing at the end of this very personal email from my pal, Barack:

PAID FOR BY ORGANIZING FOR ACTION.

 Organizing for Action is, of course, a tax exempt educational entity with no partisan political purpose.  In fact, it was not only granted this status with no delay, but it was granted it retroactively; even though such a thing was "extralegal", a perky and upbeat way to describe usurpation by rogues answerable to no one.

Come on, guys.  Be patient.  There's only so much Barack can do on his own.

Fox News babes are intriguing

I just now flicked through Fox News slowly enough to hear Kirsten Powers say something very close to, "I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I don't think it's right to say, the military did something wrong so let's close down the military." Then repeated or buttressed that I stopped listening, went on to another channel.

But my thinking stayed back there with her, assuming she was talking about the IRS and drawing a comparison with demands to closing it down, I'm assuming all that, and imagined myself across from Kirsten Powers annoyed with her false analogy, it's a thing people do all the time, and I really do not have a kind way or a gentle amusing way, I'm not that mature, I haven't learned to not be aggressive when annoyed that way and I know my visage changes and I do not want that.

P-p-p-p-p-p-poker face.

That's what I want. The unsightly argument that formulates all by itself by being stuck there like a magnet by her alluring beauty, intermittent charm and annoying sayings was, "T-t-t-t-t-t-there is alternative means to collect funds Federal government, and do that fairly, as yet there is no alternative for military. So your comparison there does not make sense"

People hate being told they do not make sense.

She is formulating her counterattack while I was there speaking in my mind and since she is doing that and not paying full attention to me speaking her counterargument is farther away from where she started and where it has gone. Being a gentleman and averse to the un-poker face thing that happened, to make up and to compensate I go, "B-b-b-b-b-but you do make a very good point about being rash. Best to get to the bottom and get it all out."

Selling my baby

What a lovely way of sayin' how much you love me

Selling my baby

What a lovely way of sayin' what you're thinkin' of me

Heather Wall and Randall Bonneville. 

We see Randall is 80. Is that centimeters? Big person. 6+1/2 feet tall. 

She received 10 year suspended sentence, 8 years probation, his deal is still pending. 

star-telegram

Department of Education investigating Arizona High School for hosting "Redneck Day"

In mockery of television show "Duck Dynasty."

One student arrived to class draped in a Confederate flag. Queen Creek Unified School in suburban Phoenix said they are sorry but that does not satisfy the most honorable and always well-meaning Rev. Jarred Maupin II, former Phoenix school board member,

protégé to Al Sharpton, whose conviction for lying to FBI was all overt racism, and who has very nicely styled non-African type hair, is not satisfied with that and remains outraged at the school creating a racially hostile environment.

He does have a point. You display a historical flag, one that carries emotional weight, one that provokes irrational emotional response, and get that response, then it is your fault for not controlling your flag displaying impulses. 

What if the student brought a Death's Head Jolly Roger Skull and Bones flag then people even outside the school who didn't even notice the flag would start thinking about pirates and the environment turned hostile. We can all become hostile just thinking and talking about it. The school created a hostile environment by allowing something awful provoking hostility. The school, and we,  must always be careful not to provoke hostility this way. 

The other flags that provoke hostility are, the Japanese flag with the rays coming out as attacking when at war , the Nazi flag that usurped the pinwheel symbol that was easy to weave into fabrics, forever tarnishing flag and symbol, and Britain's flag because it looks like the Confederate flag and because they harshly bossed us around all over the place and attacked us, kidnapped our mariners, came here to kick our butts twice, burned our brand new capitol, so those four flags provoke hostility and if they're ever seen around here then, Buddy, it's on, law suit time. 

Moral: Just when you think this is dead, very nearly dead, a protégé pops up to keep it alive another generation. Too profitable to let go. Cannot help noticing the II in the name Jarred Maupin II, where Jr. will not do.

redalertpolitics

tattoos

What I got up to when you weren't looking. This is about hieroglyphics, skip if you like, I will not be offended. Not one bit.
A visitor from Japan dropped into one of my other little sites where I tack up various nonsense, a visit from photobucket hieroglyphic set and that is unusual so I looked to see which hieroglyphic chicken scratch would interest a viewer in Japan and it turns out to be the word for "old". 

From there the visitor went to a page with beginner phrases. And there are some really cool phrases too that I think would make decent tattoos. If they were drawn better than mine. 

I remembered a guy with a large ankh drawn on his torso. You rarely see that glyph on its own in real glyphics. And here are all these nice phrases available, nothing at all tricky with grammar.  

I looked in images to see if other hieroglyphic tattoos would be that single ankh. If so, I am ready to ridicule them completely. But it turns out I'm wrong. They are all rather nice, sophisticated in fact, and better than I draw them myself. 

Let's read them.

Focus, Dude. 

Oh, that means disease. It's an oval tipped over, there are two types of this symbol and he picked the squishy one, this one has tendril and looks like a big fat sperm with ears, but they mean disease. And with the tail, the person is saying it's bad. That's what sticks out among all of that. It's odd and sticks right out. It is the last character of four characters printed on somebody's back. They are excellent unadorned stark glyphs as if typewritten. The b/w photograph stark too in its low quality. 

The first character is a standing eagle, "ah," when you sound it out in your head, and the second character looks like a feather is a sedge frond, "ei" when you sound it out in your head, and the third is a tall incomplete inverted u representing folded linen meaning the sound for "es" when you sound it out in your head, and I suddenly felt sad.

He has AIDS and is saying so with his tattoo, and sad too because he left out the "d" which would be a flat hand.  

Wait. I'm wrong again.  "ahies" means brain. Really now. When you have that determinative symbol for "disease" sticking right out like that. Meaning "body organ" for this and not necessarily a diseased body organ, I did hear Egyptians regarded the brain as junk but I did not hear it regarded as disease, and he did select the symbol with stuff squirting out, the other non-squirting symbol less interesting, I suppose. For some reason he says "brain" quite clearly on his back. That's the problem with sounding things out phonetically, a portion of your thinking goes to assembling as you go and it's zipping around drawing conclusions for you based on everything there and gets it wrong. It's why I come off as such a dunce all the time.

This one has a wadjet eye and a stylized cartouche containing a lion, "leh", standing eagle, "ah", baby chicken  "weh" or "eu", stylized human mouth "ar", standing eagle, "ah."  leh -ah-ew-ar-ah, l. The name is the modern name "Laura." I double-dog betchya.

One more. 

Tattooed leg or arm, I do not know, one or the other. Like a typewriter inside a cartouche. Royal names go in cartouches so expect the name of royalty. Owl, "em",  string with a knot, alternate "oh", half circle "tee", simple maze, "heh", forearm "eh", stylized human mouth, "ar" so then, em-oh-tee-heh-er-ar, the English word "mother"

Isn't this fun?  I'm impressed with these thoughtful tattoos. They completely surprise me and there is real art too. I do appreciate these.

I was thinking the way to go is put a protective symbol across your whole back possibly embellished with a simple spell, something along the lines of, "whosoever messes with this human being while he is here on Earth I shall break their neck like a bird." And, this is important so that it works, the subject must forego idle conversation with the artist and slip into a meditative trance while enduring the prolonged torture of being tattooed and that will serve as required ritual for both artist and subject that imbues the symbol energizing it with protective magic. 

Saudi editor sentenced to 7 years and 600 lashes

For founding an internet forum that offends Islam and expounds liberal thought.

Raif Badawi

600 lashes with what? That has got to destroy your back, completely shred it. Why so many? Is the point to kill him? I do not understand this at all.

But I do know this photo of Riyadh is very psychologically revealing.

dailymail.uk

“Given that civilian possession of weapons is much less available,

they’re unlikely to have weapons because they’re unlikely to be facing people with weapons.”

"They're" refers to guards protecting $136 million diamonds at the Carlton in Cannes.

Every paragraph in this article makes you go, "What?" Every paragraph seems an inverse of reality, or notes from the edge, the edge of reality and the beginning of pretend space, the 'edge of fail' where reality breaks through wishful thinking.

Breaks through to unreality where Israeli billionaires allow displays of their collections in places they know assume to a fault that everyone is civilized. An unreality so deep that loss that great doesn't really matter. I wonder, Lev Leviev, did you even feel that?

dailycaller

Guantanamo librarians have said in the past that they screen reading material for sexual content,

even blacking out photos of scantily clad women in the advertisements in sports magazines.

50 Shades of Grey is more popular that the Koran at Guantanamo Bay detention camp.

During a visit last week, Reuters saw an eclectic mix of books in numerous languages, from religious tomes to Star Trek novelizations, Agatha Christie mysteries, stress reduction workbooks and the Greek classic "The Odyssey."

That's good. Whatever keeps their minds occupied as long as they cannot hurt anybody. I understand a good mind stimulus activity used widely to keep captive's minds from wasting is to hide their food. 

nypost, Reuters

Bubble Yum Armageddon.

Darcy said... Hi. I buy canned peppers.

Helter Skelter: It's Coming Down Fast.

When the Sirens Whistle and the Shrill Whistles Call, I Ask: What is In Your Shelter?

Insert: All the Shoelaces of Civilization Have Come Untied.

You Have a Year to Wait Out the Radiation: Chocolate-Covered Pretzels? Canned Spam? Paperback Novels? Have you Prepared?

What Did You Bring Into the Shelter? What Do You Wish You Had Brought Inside for a Mole's Year?

Continued adventures in low-grade alcoholism

With this post I hope to recapture some of the scorn, profanity, and abuse heaped upon me after my first cocktail post, my take on the Old Fashioned.

Tonight's drink:  Gordon's Cup.

This is no ordinary drink.  I'll have you know that I've received glowing compliments on this, and not just from slobbering yobs already half in-the-tank.  I've had sophisticated people, actual hoity-toity Europeans (well, dirty Swedes, but still technically Europeans) tell me it's the best cocktail they've ever had.  It's refreshing and somewhat dangerous, in that you don't taste the alcohol and could drink them like it's your goddamned job.

You'll need:

3/4 lime, wedged
cucumber, two 1/2" thick slices
1/4 cup gin
2 tbsp simple syrup
pinch sea salt
crushed ice

Details after the jump.

So...Bradley Manning was acquitted of the charge of aiding the enemy.

Manning was acquitted of the most serious charge against him this afternoon, but convicted on many of the lesser charges.

Manning was a 5-foot-1, 105 pound out-and proud homosexual who enlisted during the DADT era. He once threatened his stepmother with a knife, and the police were involved, although apparently no charges were filed.  He was nearly discharged in basic training, where he complained of being bullied, was rumored to have had a breakdown, and screamed back at his drill sergeants when they would scream at him.

During his military training, he was referred to Army mental health counselors.  He was an emotional basket case. once crying for hours after watching "The Last King of Scotland."  At one point, he sent a photograph of himself dressed as a woman to his master sergeant, and he considered gender reassignment surgery.

So naturally, this guy was given top secret security clearance.

WTF, US Army?  My son hopes to get into intelligence, and his Marine recruiter told him that if he had so much as a high school suspension, he could forget it.  They had him fill out a questionnaire with about 200 items on it, and a "YES" on any one of these items meant "Your Enlistment Stops."

My question:  Had he shown up for his enlistment in an evening gown, would he have been put on the fast track?

Open Thread

Bell Peppers

Remember to get Bell Peppers.

Do we make a list? Althouse was big on lists.

I claim my five pounds

More "Crowd-sourced Solutions"

I'm building a swivel chair for my daughter. It's actually an old IKEA chair with a round seat and a wooden shaped back which I removed and attached to the seat with hinge (think toilet seat cover for a visual as I can't put a photo up at this point). The hinged part will support a leather saddle which she wants to convert to a seat for her room.

The engineering problem is that I want something to support the hinged saddle part and which adjusts through an angle of about 5 to 30 degrees. I made this quick sketch:

I've thought of just using various sized shims made out of wood but I'd rather have something adjustable which can bolt to the base and to the seat part. It should be strong and able to support the weight of a small adult and the saddle.

Poetry... your favorite lines or stanzas

Between melting and freezing
The soul's sap quivers.

-T.S. Eliot

and yet the fear level is still stoked

even though what we have is objectively less murders every year, (double karate chop) we have less crime (double karate chop), we are living in a safe society (double karate chop), at the same time crime is going down, and we are (table jab) putting (table jab) more (table jab) people (table jab) in prison (ta daaa)

Amazingly, the woman sitting there listening to Chris Hayes spouting frenetically deluded stupid silly nonsense does not say, "You idiot." 

The comments pin him like a nail gun, a joy to behold. 

Greg Hengler  at townhall. 

Contractors running U.S. spy missions in Africa

"Tusker Sand is a manned airborne intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) platform, along with an associated intelligence fusion cell designed to address emerging theater collection requirements and command strategy to build partner nation capacity." If I am decoding this government-ese correctly, the "associated intelligence fusion cell" are the private contractors. The Chinese are already ensconsed in Africa, and do we, or do we not, need to catch up?

In October, President Obama sent about 100 elite U.S. troops to central Africa to scour the terrain for Joseph Kony, the messianic and brutal leader of a Ugandan rebel group. But American contractors have been secretly searching for Kony from the skies long before that, at least since 2009, under a project code-named Tusker Sand, according to documents and people familiar with the operation.

The previously unreported practice of hiring private companies to spy on huge expanses of African territory — in this region and in North Africa, where a similar surveillance program is aimed at an al-Qaeda affiliate — has been a cornerstone of the U.S. military’s secret activities on the continent. Unlike uniformed troops, plainclothes contractors are less likely to draw attention.

But because the arms-length arrangement exists outside traditional channels, there is virtually no public scrutiny or oversight. And if something goes wrong, the U.S. government and its partners acknowledge that the contractors are largely on their own.

(snip)Among the jobs to be outsourced: pilots, sensor operators, intelligence analysts, mechanics and linguists. The expectation was that the personnel would be veterans; most needed to certify that they had passed the military’s survival, resistance and escape training course, because of the possibility of aircrews being downed behind enemy lines.

Contractors would have to supply the surveillance gear, including electro-optical and infrared sensors that work in the dark, and a laser-emitting sensor that can peer under the jungle canopy. All had to be concealed within the body of the plane with retractable mounting to avoid attracting suspicion.

WaPo

Added: creeley23 says, "Last year a friend told me to look into Joseph Kony because Kony had become very high profile with young Americans after a documentary "Kony 2012" came out. Kony is abducting and enslaving children to be child soldiers and child sex slaves, so it's the sort of cause the young can identify with."

The IRS subjected conservative groups already granted tax-exempt status to additional scrutiny during the 2012 election cycle

thehill via Instapundit

Elijah Cummings is trying everything he can to push back and hold the tide, here is what he says about Darrell Issa expanding the probe into IRS treatment of organizations already recognized as tax-exempt by the IRS  that appear to have faced questionable treatment by the IRS:

* Issa is pushing a political narrative by picking choice quotes and disregarding contrary evidence.

* not conducting a responsible investigation focused on implementing real reforms

* urges to focus on obtaining the full set of facts rather than making unsubstantiated allegations. 

Cummings said that in a letter to Issa on Monday

The Leadership Institute was audited in 2011 and 2012 for activites in 2008 election year, even though it had functioned as tax-exempt since 1979. It faced invasive questions including questions about intern, where they went to work. Ultimately turning over to IRS more than 23,000 pages of documents at a cost of $50,000 (jeeze, that's $2.00 a page) 

Organizations already tax exempt appear to have faced questionable treatment by the IRS, Issa wrote to Treasury Inspector general 

Cummings countered bravely

* groups were referred to the special unit on a case-by-case basis

* unit did not automatically mean an audit would occur

* referrals to the group were actually meant to facilitate an approval, not burden the organization with additional inquiries.

* liberal groups cam under the same scrutiny

Jack Lew reiterated progressive groups were improperly targeted alongside conservative ones, adding there is no evidence of political pressure

More details at the Hill. 

Colorado is home to delicious craft beer and wonderful scenic ski slopes.

Thankfully though, it also has the largest concentration of Space Warfare facilities in America, because skiing is for pussies and space-nukes are cool.

Tatiana Danger, road rippers.kinja per gizmodo

This does not look modern at all.

The places Dad worked looked different from this, all those places you could smell the ozone from electronics. The rooms were darkened with a green glow. That is how I recall them and nearly all my recollections are faulty. When I see photos they're brighter than that.

I told my aunt a photograph of the inside of USAF radar control room was my dad's stereo and she goes, "Really?" She had every reason to believe it was true. She was so easy to fake out. Only because we all are so distant. My nuclear family was what I knew for the most part. The others were there, of course, but we rarely saw each other.

I don't get the interest over there at rippers, these places look like dumps. I get the creeps just looking at these, and not just regular creeps, claustrophobic anachronistic, what's-with-that-huge-paper-catalog thing kind of creeps, like you really deep down do not trust your Earth-destroying electronics completely or your competency with them so need paper backup.

I love that show. Love that whole show. Stargate. But this entrance is dithhhh-pickable. Deplorable uncompromising brutalistic utilitarianism. Needs more flamingos. A few mountain plants.

[Somebody outside is singing. And has been for hours. It is the sort of thing where your impulse is to go, SHUT UP! Then I realize the noise is why I came here and the alto voice does sound very nice. And now when they stop I miss it.]

line up

line up, line up

row, row, people in line

row, row, line up

get in line

two separate signs

for emphasis

No reason.  

I wondered why the previous things posted already, and I did see the schedule say EST and wondered, "Hey! Im in the middle, not the East Coast," that's what I wondered. And now I realize, it really meant it when it said that.  Me park bad all time. 

The word for line is your two pinkies touch then pull apart and it really does look like a line, and if you wiggle them then it means spaghetti.

Teabow will play quarterback not receiver.

bostonglobe from somebody's conversation with Tom Brady and Josh McDaniels.

90% of Tebow's activity during his time with the Patriots has been spent learning to play quarterback with the teams's system. He wears a red non-contact jersey on the field and he runs the third-team offense during team drills. <-- I do not know what that means.

McDaniels doesn't show much concern about replacing Aaron Hernandez. Refers to him as "Swiss Army Knife" explosive, versatile player.

Quarterback cameras suck. They bounce around too much and do not add anything to the quarterback's experience that doesn't contribute to him overanalyzing things. Good for coaching but they give you a headache. 

Other linked items on the Boston Globe page.

* MLB may suspend Alex Rodriguez under labor deal, its collective bargaining agreement, instead of suspending him under its drug rules. 

* Indians beat White Sox on Jason Giambi's home run

* Michael Phelps hasn't absolutely positively conclusively decided not to swim in Rio Olympics.

* Red Sox take back first in AL East with a 5-0 win over Orioles, with the Ray's loss to the Yankees, the Red Sox are in control of the division.

* David Ortiz gets a pass but was ugly and nobody wants to see it again. 

Oh! That the Papi thing innit. Who says we don't want to see that again? 

* Kamar Aiken hopes to be a regular with Patriots

Red Sox ramp up as trade decline approaches

Government whistleblowers discuss their new lives and how things fell apart

Emily Fox for washingtonpost

Peter Van Buren, blew the whistle on waste and mismanagement of the Iraq reconstruction program now works in an Arts and Crafts store. Wrote a book about it. We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People.


You lose your security clearance is what happens blam cut off. 


Thomas Drake is a genius. At Apple. Voiced concerns about privacy violations by NSA and spoke to a reporter about waste and fraud in the NSA program, he says none of that was classified, apparently everything is. Lost a good paying job with pension even though his case fell apart so did his life. Grateful for his job at Apple. Massive legal debts. Son ready for college. He imparts an interesting anecdote about encountering Holder at the Apple store by chance 

un com for ta ble 

Sibel Edmonds was fired as translator for trying to expose security breaches and cover-ups she thought presented a danger to US security. Her allegations were confirmed by Justice's inspector general office but she was not hired back. Left Washington but is still dedicated to exposing. She runs Boiling Frog Post Home of the Irate Minority. She is also founder and director of the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition.


Presently views Washington as last resort for releasing information, she prefers going directly to people and she doesn't need Washington for that.

Richard Barlow, seriously damaged burned-out intelligence officer. Likes his three dogs more than people. An issue of Pakistan getting F-16s and their ability to deliver nuclear weaponry and his testifying about that to Congress, under orders, undermined DoDs intention to sell them, Barlow said Congress is being lied to. Days later he was fired. 

Ruined his marriage.

His situation was investigated, State Dept. and CIA concluded Barlow had been fired as a reprisal. Defense Dept. maintained that the Pentagon was within its rights to fire Barlow. Vindicated by GAO report but cannot be rehired because his record is smeared.

Found work as consultant with FBI counterproliferation program but that dried up. Trying to collect pension and health insurance due him.

Much of what he tried to report about is common knowledge today. Best sellers include his story. 

Now. No money. About one month from being homeless.

Barlow believes the Obama administration has criminalized whistleblowing on levels he's never seen before.

He fly-fishes and bird hunts with his dogs.

Jesselyn Radack attorney for Justice told to find another job after she disclosed FBI interrogated John Walker Lindh without an attorney present.  Her case was closed and prosecutors never identified a potential charge against her.

Became an advocate for whistleblowers. 

Open Thread

Kansas - Carry On My Wayward Son (live) 

(Thanks Betamax for the tip)

 

bagoh20 said...

 

"When I was a teen, my friends and I were into drinking tall boys and consuming virtually anything else intoxicating and driving around the hills of western Pennsylvania with music blasting and smoke billowing. One of the eclectic mix of music we were into included Kansas. 70's kids loved their Prog Rock.

In about 2 weeks I'm gong back to Pittsburgh to hook up with about 30 friends from back then, including some I've not seen for 30 years, best friends, old girlfriends, the whole mess. We're having a party, renting a bus, and all going together to a Kansas reunion concert. These people still love to party. I hope I don't die....kinda."

Sweet Home Auld Lang Syne (Turn it Up)

End of July: We Are Closer to the New Year than the One That Started Almost Seven Months Past.

Things Change, and -- When They Do -- What They Have Changed From Becomes Inevitably More Distant Than Where the Change May Be Leading Us: History Wears BiFocals.

If it Matters: I Am Typing This Wearing a French Maid's Outfit and Duct Tape. I am That Sexy: Auld Lang Hot.

So:

Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind ?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and old lang syne ?

    CHORUS:
    For auld lang syne, my dear,
    for auld lang syne,
    we'll take a cup of kindness yet,
    for auld lang syne.

In the Hot of Summer, What Does "Auld Lang Syne" Mean To Anyone? Or is it Only a Depths of Winter Want-to-Hibernate Thing? 

Feel Free To Drink Room temperature Egg Nog....

 

Suggested by JAL: Who serves in the military?

Outstanding commenter JAL suggested posting something on this Powerline post, that points to this Heritage Foundation study, that answers the question thusly (summarized by Powerline):

...generally speaking, folks from Red States are much more inclined to serve in the military than folks from Blue States.

The most over-represented region consists of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana. The most under-represented region is the Northeast from Pennsylvania upwards.

And, no doubt, many of those recruits from conservative states are probably themselves pretty conservative.   That's one reason that many of us opposed to gays openly serving saw the issue as a cudgel with which the left could beat their opponents and their most despised institutions, and not really an issue about rights that anyone really wanted to take advantage of.

Of course, allowing gays to serve might help the military's collective IQ, as they currently have to pick from the bottom of the barrel -- unemployable losers too thick to go to college and too lazy to get a job.  Right?

American soldiers are more educated than their peers. A little more than 1 percent of enlisted personnel lack a high school degree, compared to 21 percent of men 18-24 years old, and 95 percent of officer accessions have at least a bachelor’s degree.

Yeah, not so much.   

Related photo after the jump:

whooah. wait. what?

The universe just gave me money! WOOT! And I wasn't even trying.

THANK YOU, UNIVERSE !

Thank you, Lem.

People who answer other questions by spouting their academic credentials

tend to be the type to inflate them.

Tweets Dan McLauglin

About Reza Aslam who does very poorly in a mess of an interview. He returns a question innocent enough on it face to an assault on his credentials dominating the discussion then blaming the problem of the interview shifting from his book to his authoritah about writing the book, an inversion of observable evident sequence.

He is Muslim, writing about Christianity, claims to be historian, but his CV shows nothing like that. Degrees yes, but nothing like that. Doctorate yes, but in modern jihad, the opposite of history.

Pants not shown, they're on fire. 

firstthings

Container ship carrying US arms to Syrian rebels breaks apart in Indian Ocean

Mol Comfort carrying weapons from US to FSA rebels in Syria when it suddenly broke in half in the Indian Ocean. From Singapore to Jeddah.

* 4,500 containers loaded with weapons

* cause presently unknown

shariaunveiled cites several sources, they seem to be sure of what they are talking about.

Israeli/Palestinian Peace Talk Frame-Work Negotiations

[Above] In the West Bank town of Ramallah, Palestinian police officers clash with activists after they tried to reach the Palestinian Authority president's headquarters during protests against the resumption of the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks

JERUSALEM — The first substantive peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians in years will begin Monday evening in Washington, the Obama administration announced, after Israeli leaders agreed Sunday to release 104 Palestinian prisoners.

 State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the preliminary talks will be led by Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat. The talks, which will continue Tuesday, are expected to address the framework for full negotiations to follow — the talks about talks that had preceded past attempts at a deal.

 The release of Palestinian prisoners was one of the major roadblocks to the peace talks.

There are those who believe that the two-state solution is dead, and it is a race to whether Israel will eventually wear down the Palestinians through land grabs and oppression, or the Palestinians will persistently resist and out-breed the Israelis.

Hold the phone up to Big Papi

Big Papy had an encounter with a phone after striking out the other night. For the video and story click here.*

This morning, I learned the phone still works, after all that punishment.

I don't know where that phone was made. But whoever made it, should be congratulating themselves today. I'm congratulating them from here as well.

Reactions to the Big Papi outburst vary. Most of them are fairly mild.

RT @cbsboston: Should Big Papi be punished for breaking a phone? It's this morning's #wbztalker t.co/NebFbRmQXE

My thoughts are that if it had been anybody else but big Papi (and maybe Pedroia) he would have been traded by the Red Sox by now. Big Papi lost his composure that night, in front of a lot of kids, wearing Red Sox jerseys with his number and his name on them.
The Red Sox may very well still trade him before the end of the season, but I believe they wont. Boston loves Big Papi. My hope is that he apologizes to the fans, sits himself down or makes some kind of restitution and moves on.

Again, kudos to the dugout phone designers, engineers and manufacturers. The people that make the things we take for granted and sometimes smash while in the grips of a tantrum.


* It appears that I can't link to older posts.

Missile-Detecting Blimps Soon To Hover Over D.C.

Within a year, a pair of souped-up $2.7 billion blimps (price includes R&D) will be floated 10,000 feet above the District of Columbia and act as a 340-mile-wide eye in the sky, detecting incoming missiles and the like. 

The design and testing phase for JLENS—the (deep breath) Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System, produced by Raytheon, a major weapons manufactuer—is over, relays Program Director Doug Burgess to Popular Mechanics. Now, it is time for implementation. Or, as he puts it, "[We're] getting away from the Ph.D. engineer types running the system to the 20- or 25-year-old soldier running the system."

Click here to see a picture of how very similar blimps were used during WWII to suspend aircraft-fouling barbed wired above London

Added: Rabel does some independent research and finds that the blimps (aerostats) will be tethered: 

It has the ability to maintain persistent surveillance and monitor activity in its area of operations 24/7 for periods of twenty-five (25) days continuously at altitudes of at least 2,500 and up to 5,000 ft AGL with a mobile mooring platform emplaced at elevations of at least 6000ft above sea level (ASL) and climatic conditions characteristic of the CENTCOM AOR.

Hey, Who Wants to Work for Free?

A guest post by bagho20.

We have a simple, real-world million-dollar problem, and maybe the power of the CH brain can solve it.

The problem: We manufacture a product. Let’s call it a robotic snow shovel. The shovel is pushed by two DC powered electromechanical linear actuators. The problem is that we are forced to use actuators that are not manufactured with sufficient consistency to all push at the same speed. Some are slightly slower. In the product, they are side by side about 6 inches apart pushing on the blade of the shovel. Since they often don’t push exactly the same speed, one actuator does all the work, draws too much current, binds the shovel, and wears out too soon. How do we fix it?

This is a real problem that I must and will solve, but I was wondering what others might come up with. There are better and worse solutions due to costs, reliability, etc, and the best solution is the simplest and cheapest, but we’re just brainstorming at this point. Think outside the box, find a new paradigm, you have to learn to love yourself before you can love anyone else, be the change, give it 110%, It’s a no-brainer, everything happens for a reason, there are no dumb questions, etc. Now take it and run with it….. right up the flagpole.

I’ll let you know what solution we eventually prototype and use. Maybe it will be what you come up with.

Baton Rouge Sherriff arresting gays using antiquated law

The sodomy law is already struck down by the Supreme Court. Sheriff Sid Gautreaux and deputies ask men if they want to go home together to bump uglies, if they concur and get in the car, then boom, arrested.

Someone asks in the comments, "What about Shreveport?"

And that made me laugh. I used to live there. It seemed like a sweet question.

John Aravosis Americablog

Well played, Korean TV, well played

Felicitates James Poling on slothed. For making up fake American names for their report. Paybacks. Ha ha ha. Captain Kent Parker Wright ha ha ha ha ha, Co-captian Wyatt Wooden Workman.

wut?

And fake names for interviewees, Heywood U. Flye-Moore and Macy Lawyers.

NSA already larger that Pentagon

Larger than Pentagon in square footage, and growing by 50% within a decade, and that is only Ft. Meade, MD. 

Its civilian/military workforce has increased by 1/3 to to 33,000 employees, since that fateful day when everything changed. For the worse. Privacy-wise.

Its budget has doubled. It depends on triple the number of private companies as before from 150 to 500 by Washington Post's count. 

"We track 'em you whack 'em" 

The article describes how a SEAL call to track a phone with urgency and without the usual controls set in motion a a practice that expanded to operations in Iraq. 

* 2007 ground breaking for $ 1 billion facility Ft. Gordon 4,000 employees. (They do not say, but Ft. Gordon is in Augusta Georgia.

*  Outgrew  250,000 sq.ft, #358 million addition to existing facilities, Wahiawa, is where Snowdon worked

* Added facilities in San Antonio, Texas, Lackland AFB, 

* Colorado, Buckley AFB in Aurora.

* NSA station at RAF Menwith Hill Yourkshire grows by 1/3 to 2,500 employees.

* Pine Gap Australia added hundreds of new employees. 

NSA adds to its statement to the Post, "The notion of constant, unchecked, or senseless growth is a myth."

It is not notion, it is observation. The growth is constant and unchecked, senseless and menacing, controlled and managed by us, we have proven untrustworthy. It is not fear, it is observation of facts. The objective is power. The power resists checks. There is no balance. Trust is eroded. Trust is destroyed. 

Washington Post

Open Thread

Volver - Penélope Cruz

Massage Parlor Innuendo

I Will Start With the Digression:

A Wonderful Sunday Night, and I Hope It Was Good or Better To Everyone Here.

For Those Who Lurk, or Don't Feel a Specific Urge to Comment, I Suggest Throwing out a TYL on Sundays.

TYL: Thank You, Lem. As In: This Is Your House, Thank You For Making All of This Possible.

To Keep on the Uplifting Sunday-Nite-Time-Zone-Monday-Morning Feeling: Massage Parlor Innuendo.

What Ending of a Book (or Movie, Or -- Possibly? - Opera?) Made You Happy? Still Brings a Warm Feeling?

Those Who Say 'Old Yeller' Should Be Ashamed. Unless it Is Freeman Hunt, in Which Case...

Just a note to let you know I tried your recipe and everybody loves it.

I changed the flour tortilla to corn tortilla because my husband is on a gluten-free diet, and I eliminated the cheese because I'm lactose intolerant, and I didn't have any pork butt roast so I used beef chuck instead and substituted sweet potatoes for regular potatoes, and Tim cannot have any wine so I left that out and used Cool Aid instead, and put a can of creamed corn where the recipe calls for fresh spinach. Everybody loved it! Thank you so much for the idea, this is an instant family hit and so easy to do I can't wait to try it again.

Abou Ben Adhem

This was in the lineup to the tribute for Mel Smith but it is so funny to me I must single it out and I insist you regard it as funny too. The funniest thing you have ever seen, and I'll hound you until you agree.

The genius is that it is treated respectfully. They must have practiced so much together that it is just not funny to them anymore even when others are laughing.

Abou Ben Adhem by Leigh Hunt, Southgate London, his American parents moved there, Royalists during American War of Independence.

The poem is a childhood favorite for a lot of people. It speaks to them directly reaching to their innermost heart, or perhaps another similar internal organ near to the heart, but it gets them. It is an introductory poem, I think, a grade school thing like Kilmer's Trees.

Enis dimon an tediggle fromlip sumptums dundle flipstop tinlglesissising alog mu sandropid tinflapitots. Allegreis allendrum aninas flillanqueiry. Tef. Anigog algimeim antiququatex formanyde os otossustrelell.

Then we sent trackers to track your trackers

All your trackers are belong to us!

David Brock's super PAC American Bridge will double their trackers from 45 to 90 including 50 full-time trackers to monitor GOP candidates throughout the country. Already prepared oppo books on 20 Republicans, the group is broadening its focus.

Bridge raised about $3 million the first six months of 2013, it plans a budget of up to $18 million.

Trackers have recorded over 1,000 events featuring Republican candidates, going into a library searchable by candidate, topic, keyword.

Announce the launch of Correct The Record website to defend from GOP smears

The author already imagines the parodies.

The vampires have trackers. The immortals have trackers. The GOP has David Brock, David Brock has satirists, satirists have their mums... it's like an eternal circle.

Mandy Nagy on legalinsurrection.

from politico

too "rah-rah" American

Ground Zero museum. That is how overt patriotism is felt as jingoism by museum staffers. The museum's creative director Michael Shulan is among staffers consider Tom Franklin photograph too kitschy and "rah-rah America" 

That Shulan has a comforting empathetic way with words.

It's a bit Iwo Jima. I have come to realize people love their flags no matter what. On a commenter on b3ta once said of a really cute photochop of overturned bucket of sand turned into a tiny cottage with an American flag. The commenter said, "Fluffy, except for the flag." The flag made it fluffy to me but rendered it harsh to a young British woman. Her flag is harsh to me, after all, they did come here to kick our asses twice, burned down our capitol, in fact. And their flag is all pointy, And they are harsh colonializers, a word that earns a red squiggly line.

I have more to say about this. Crass thoughts. Low thoughts. To cheer you by. Eww I can't wait to say them in comments. 

nypost

Obama doubts pipeline results in employment

Bill Geman, thehill, E2Wire

“Republicans have said that this would be a big jobs generator. There is no evidence that that’s true.” 

Obama is not convinced the total net benefits of job creation for a region outweigh the cost to nation and Earth.

He said he thinks Canada can do more to curb emissions.

“I meant what I said; I'm going to evaluate this based on whether or not this is going to significantly contribute to carbon in our atmosphere. And there is no doubt that Canada at the source in those tar sands could potentially be doing more to mitigate carbon release.” 

This is what Obama takes time to make us understand.

“[M]y hope would be that any reporter who is looking at the facts would take the time to confirm that the most realistic estimates are this might create maybe 2,000 jobs during the construction of the pipeline – which might take a year or two – and then after that we’re talking about somewhere between 50 and 100 [chuckles] jobs in a economy of 150 million working people.” 

Balancing things, Obama also offers praise.

“there is a potential benefit for us integrating further with a reliable ally to the north our energy supplies.” 

BLAMO in the comments there.

At the Cheshire Coffeehouse

Smiles optional.

If you want to be an optimist about America today, stand on your head

Says Thomas Friedman in NYT

If you see how much fun Obama and his immediate predecessors have had in that job (not much we are to understand) -- and when you look where the most innovations in governance are happening --

Okay, hold those two things.

-- how long will it be before our kids, when asked what they want to be when they grow up, answer: "I want to be a mayor." 

Detroit blows the theory, but other than Detroit, look down ticket. That is the conceit of the article. Very well then, do let's. 

You're right. Things do look better upside down. We also notice Washington too is doing quite well, when we look. He's like me, his commenters there are smarter than he, and more interesting too. 

Pop Art Pop Tarts

The Earlier Salvador Dali Post Threw Me Onto Another Tangent, that -- Hopefully -- Will Stand on its Own, At Least as a Conversion Starter: the Idea of Being Simultaneously Overrated and Underrated. Or, Perhaps a Better Way of Expressing This: Overexposed and yet Under-Appreciated. Or: Influential Yet Critically Overlooked. I Hope the General Yin-Yang of the Idea Comes Through.

I Realize That This is Not an Original Dialectic: Again, Conversation Starter.

In the Case of Dali He Can Be Seen as a Both a Publicity-Seeking Caricature and Yet has Provided Culture With Elements That Still Can Be Recognized Today.

However, I Do Not Mean This to Be Specific to Dali: Rather Than Spin about in Oblong Shapes I'll Toss Out a Few (Neutral?) Possibilities in No Particular Order, Low-Hanging Fruit, and See What Gets Added and What Gets Mercilessly Shot Down:

Beatles as a Whole
John Lennon as Himself
Andy Warhol
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Bob Dylan
Alfred Hitchcock
Norman Rockwell

Feel Free to Travel Farther Back in Time.

Jump Ball...

Anthony Weiner's campaign manager quits

Danny Kedam resigned. On account of all the new details suddenly emerging. Staw, camel, break, that's what did it. The warmth of Weiner's personality apparently insufficient to keep him on.

This may turn out to be my favorite tag.

Wash.Times

Beauty Tip

Try not to spend five years in custody.

As Mexico's foremost female drug trafficker, Sandra Avila Beltran is notorious for her lavish lifestyle and love of cosmetic surgery. Soon, the "Queen of the Pacific" will once again be able to enjoy such indulgences as she prepares for her release from a US prison. 

The 52-year-old is set to be returned to Mexico in the next few days after a US judge sentenced her to 70 months in prison but ruled that the penalty had been fulfilled by her five years spent in a Mexican jail and 11 months in US custody.

(snip)She has inspired a number of "narco-ballads" - folk songs which eulogise the exploits of drug traffickers - notably Party in the Mountains by Los Tucanes de Tijuana. In the video for the track, overflowing with Hummers, limousines and helicopters, Avila is portrayed by the Mexican model Fabiola Campomanes, shown jetting into the party on her own private plane. 

(snip)Her imprisonment in a Mexico City jail might have hindered but did not entirely interrupt her beauty regimen. In 2011, two officials at the Santa Martha Actitla Prison were fired after it was revealed they had allowed a plastic surgeon to enter the facility and administer Botox injections to the high profile inmate.

Here is the above mentioned narco-ballad she inspired. Is it just me, or should she be imprisoned for life, rather than being released to further glamorize the mafioso life-style? Or should we just call the whole drug war off?