Monthly Archives: August 2011
You will not believe what those nutty teens in Germany are doing to get drunk
Police in southern Germany warned this week of a dangerous new form of alcohol abuse among teens – using tampons soaked in vodka to get drunk quickly and hide the smell. The practice poses grave health risks, they said.
Police in the Baden-Württemburg city of Tuttlingen responded Tuesday to growing online chatter among teenagers that they could become intoxicated using the vodka tampons without having alcohol on their breath.
This is not true, police said, denying that it was an effective way to get drunk. They also warned girls that the alcohol could damage vaginal walls and increase the risk of infection. Boys have reportedly also been using tampons anally.
“I believe this is very dangerous,” head of a children’s clinic in Singen told southern German paper Südkurier last week. “For us this is a new thing.”
Katy Perry supports Israel, gets threatened by “peaceful” Muslims, Palestinians, leftists
It’s been an odd few days for pop-sensation Katy Perry. Not only did she make history after tying Michael Jackson for having five #1 hits off of a single album, but now the week has taken a vitriolic twist. That’s because Perry faced a slew of angry responses from Palestinians and their supporters after she sent a tweet asking others to pray for Israel:
This supportive message offers up the word “shalom” (peace) and seems to indicate Perry’s support for the Jewish state. Of course, it didn’t take long for the Twitterverse to light up with responses from Muslims, Palestinians and others who found the her message less-than-appealing. MichelleMalkin published some of these harsh messages:
Go read the messages at Michelle’s blog. Michelle also reports that Perry, sadly, has “clarified” her statement The nasty attacks, however, have continued! Katy, please understand you cannot appease these miscreants.
Obama On Virginia Earthquake: It’s Bush’s Faultline
New York City, Washington Buildings Shake As 5.8 Earthquake Hits Virginia – Bloomberg
A 5.8 magnitude earthquake, the biggest to strike Virginia in more than a century, hit about 40 miles (65 kilometers) northwest of Richmond, rocking buildings from Washington to Boston and causing office workers in New York City to rush into the street.
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Vibrations were felt as far west as Columbus, Ohio, and as far north as Toronto after the quake hit at 1:51 p.m. local time today, the U.S. Geological Survey said on its website. The temblor, which was 3.7 miles deep, was the strongest to hit the Virginia area since 1897, according to USGS data. There were no immediate reports of major damage, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said.
“I was sitting at my computer in the second floor of my house when all of a sudden I feel the table shaking,” Brian Loebig said by telephone from Chesterfield, outside Richmond. “I was doing laundry, so I thought maybe the spin cycle had got out of whack. It would have had to have been incredibly out of whack. It was maybe two minutes. The dog was going crazy.”
About seven miles from the epicenter near the town of Mineral, Dominion Resources Inc.’s North Anna nuclear power plant safely shut down its reactors, the company said in a statement. The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond was open and operating, and employees didn’t evacuate, Laura Fortunato, a spokeswoman for the central bank, said in an e-mail.
Mineral Mayor
“We’re all just scared to death,” said Pam Harlowe, mayor of Mineral, a farming and bedroom community with a population of about 430. The temblor damaged drywall at a local school, dumped food into the aisles of grocery stores and knocked pictures off the walls of her house, she said by telephone.
Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell said he was working with federal, state and local agencies to assess the situation and determine if there were any damage.
“All resources of the commonwealth have been put on alert to assist in any way necessary as we move forward,” he said in a statement.
The quake struck as residents of Mid-Atlantic states prepared for Hurricane Irene, which is forecast to strike the North Carolina coast this weekend.
Airline flight delays rippled across the northeastern U.S. as almost 400 planes ran at least a half-hour late at New York and Washington airports after the Federal Aviation Administration halted some flights into John F. Kennedy Airport, Newark Liberty Airport and Washington’s Ronald Reagan National. Control towers at Kennedy and Newark were evacuated.
Holland Tunnel
The Holland Tunnel connecting New York and New Jersey reopened after closing for about five minutes for inspection, said Ron Marsico, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
Verizon Communications Inc., AT&T Inc. and Sprint Nextel Corp. experienced a surge in phone calls and said they had no immediate reports of network damage.
Workers in downtown Washington gathered on street corners. While there was no visible damage, the quake jarred residents unused to such temblors.
“I thought, ‘I just better get out of here,’” said Alex Vasquez, 25, whose 10th-floor office near the White House shook. He said he assumed it was a construction accident until he spoke with others fleeing the building.
U.S. Capitol police prevented pedestrians from coming within a block of the building.
‘Very Unusual’
“It’s very unusual for an earthquake of this size on the East Coast,” said Thomas Hillman Jordan, director of the Southern California Earthquake Center at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, in a telephone interview. “It’s a moderate-size earthquake, and on the East Coast they tend to be felt over a much larger area.”
“This is a good reminder that even on the East Coast you want to be prepared,” he said. There is a risk of aftershocks, he said.
Amtrak service was disrupted after Washington’s Union Station was evacuated, said Steve Kulm, a spokesman. The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority slowed all its Metro trains to a maximum of 15 miles per hour. New York commuters will find regular train and subway service for tonight’s rush hour, transportation agencies said.
Some New York courthouses were evacuated, as were offices including City Hall and Lazard Freres & Co. Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. cut short a press conference about the Dominique Strauss-Kahn case when the quake hit.
“We have so far no reports of any damage any place and let’s just hope that nobody got injured or killed in this,” New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in an interview outside City Hall after it was evacuated. The mayor is founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP.
Trenton Rocks
In Trenton, New Jersey, the state Capitol shook for about a minute during the temblor and offices emptied as those in the building rushed into hallways. The New Jersey Office of Emergency Management said it was monitoring the effects and that there were few reports of damage to any infrastructure.
In the Philadelphia area, where the quake rattled windows and swayed tall buildings, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission sent inspectors to nuclear power plants and declared an “unusual event,” the lowest of NRC emergency classifications, said Diane Screnci, an agency spokeswoman in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.
Plants near Salem, New Jersey; Calvert Cliffs, Maryland; and Limerick, Pennsylvania; were among those to alert extra staff. They remained in operation with no damage, she said.
Jim Maring, 40, was nearing the end of a tour in the White House with his wife and three young children when the floor started to shake.
“I thought, well our tour is now over,” said Maring, of Middleville, Michigan.
“The Secret Service and armed guards started telling us to leave firmly,” said his wife, Barbara, 42, who at first feared it was a bomb. “Our kids won’t ever forget that experience.”
Heart-Wrenching Image: Dog Keeps Watch Over Fallen SEAL’s Casket During Funeral
Heart-Wrenching Image: Dog Keeps Watch Over Fallen SEAL’s Casket During Funeral – The Blaze
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Petty Officer Jon T. Tumilson was laid to rest Friday in Rockford, Iowa, where an estimated 1,500 mourners came to pay respects for the fallen Navy SEAL, including his dog Hawkeye. In fact, Hakeye’s loyalty to his owner at the funeral was visible, creating a heart-wrenching image as he laid down by the casket of his owner during the entire service:
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KIMT-TV captured the scene on video:
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The 35-year-old Tumilson died Aug. 6, when a rocket-propelled grenade disabled the helicopter he was in. It crashed, killing 30 Americans and eight Afghans. Fellow Navy SEALS told KIMT-TV that Jon was someone with unmatched work ethic and character.
Last week hundreds of people were out at the airport to welcome the plane that returned his remains home:
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Perry Beeman of the Des Moines Register writes that Tumilson wrote a class paper when he was 15 about how he wanted to spend the next 20 years as a Navy SEAL:
“‘J.T. was going to be a Navy SEAL come hell or high water,’ friend Scott Nichols said of Tumilson, who was born in Osage on July 1, 1976, the nation’s bicentennial year, and grew up in Rockford.
Outside the service at the Rudd-Rockford-Marble Rock gym, two cranes hoisted a huge U.S. flag in Tumilson’s honor.
‘If J.T. had known he was going to be shot down when going to the aid of others, he would have went anyway,’ said Boe Nankivel, another friend.
Tumilson leaves behind parents George and Kathleen, sisters Joy and Kristie, nieces and nephews and, of course, Hawkeye.
Obama Approval Rating Plummets To Minus 26
Obama Approval Rating Plummets To Minus 26 – Rasmussen
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday shows that 19% of the nation’s voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-five percent (45%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -26.
This is the lowest Approval Index rating yet measured for President Obama. The previous low was -24 reached yesterday and also in September 2010. Additionally, the level of Strong Approval matches the lowest yet recorded. By way of comparison, President Bush had ratings near the end of his second term in the minus 30s.
Only 20% think government anti-poverty programs reduce poverty. Seventy-one percent (71%) believe too many people get welfare who should not be getting it. Only 18% believe the opposite is true. Fifty-nine percent (59%) think immigrants who follow the law and enter the United States legally should have to wait three years or more before collecting welfare benefits
Republicans continue to lead Democrats on the Generic Congressional Ballot. Today, at 3:00 p.m. Eastern, Rasmussen Reports will update our weekly look at how President Obama matches up with a Generic Republican. The president leads Sarah Palin by 17 points and later today new numbers will be released on a match-up between the president and Ron Paul. Additional match-up information will be released tomorrow.
The Presidential Approval Index is calculated by subtracting the number who Strongly Disapprove from the number who Strongly Approve. Overall, 44% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the president’s performance. Fifty-six percent (56%) at least somewhat disapprove.
Joe Biden: Moral Retard!
Apparently the only problem Crazy Uncle Joe sees with China’s force abortion policy is……………….. that those dead babies will not grow up to be taxed!
In his statement, Biden talked about the other set of concerns about the one-child policy — demographic — in that China will increasingly have similar problems to the United States in terms of paying for entitlements to the growing number of people retiring who will need government support to make ends meet and a smaller population of younger workers able to take care of those obligations.
“But as I was talking to some of your leaders, you share a similar concern here in China. You have no safety net,” Biden said in the prepared remarks. “Your policy has been one which I fully understand — I’m not second-guessing — of one child per family. The result being that you’re in a position where one wage earner will be taking care of four retired people. Not sustainable.”
“So hopefully we can act in a way on a problem that’s much less severe than yours, and maybe we can learn together from how we can do that,” he continued.
So, the only real value people have, in Joe Biden’s mind, is as taxpayers? WOW!
General Motors Again Ripping Off Americans: Warranties Edition
General Motors Again Ripping Off Americans: Warranties Edition – Big Government
The transformation of General Motors (GM) to Government Motors (GM) has cost a lot of Americans a lot of money.
Many, many of them under questionable and in fact illegal circumstances.
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Let us begin with the $50 billion ‘We the People’ were forced to “invest” in General Motors – including a $30 billion Barack Obama bump so as to give his Administration greater sway in how things would subsequently go down.
We were originally told – by Obama himself – that we would make money on the bailout. Now we’re told we’ll lose somewhere between $11 and $14 billion (and given the stock price’s long, slow slide, maybe even more).
And about which we were lied to by the Administration. Which said this titanic loss of coin is less than they were expecting – just seven months after Obama his own self said we’d turn a profit.
Then there was the 2009 GM bankruptcy filing (which we were told our $50 billion would forestall – oops).
Through which the Obama Administration’s new toy car company eviscerated existing law to benefit their union, campaign-funding cronies at the illegal expense of GM bond holders – who should have by law received preferred treatment.
The ripped off didn’t take too kindly to being the Administration’s latest dupes:
We believe the offer to be a blatant disregard of fairness for the bondholders who have funded this company and amounts to using taxpayer money to show political favoritism of one creditor over another…
What they’ve offered us is ridiculous,” said Chris Crowe, 50, a Denver, Colorado-based home inspector at an event organized for small bondholders in this Detroit suburb. “I know there are only so many pieces of pie, but they’re giving us crumbs.”…
(S)aid retiree (and GM bond holder) Dennis Buchholtz,… “We have invested twice as much as the government and we’ll only get a fifth of what the government will.“
Well that seems fair.
“I’m equally as mad at GM as at the government because GM has done nothing more than give the UAW (United Auto Workers union) and the government what they want,” said retiree (and GM bond holder) John Milne…
Government Motors giving the government and their union campaign suppliers what they want, and ripping off the rest of us. Shocker.
Now we get word that Government Motors is gearing up to rip off GM warranty holders. Specifically (at least for now) those holding on the 2007 and 2008 Chevy Impala.
Let us flashback to GM Bailout Time: Obama his own self promised Americans that were GM unable to make good on their warranties, the government would.
From one of his famous problem-solving speeches:
“Let me say this as plainly as I can. If you buy a car from Chrysler or General Motors, you will be able to get your car serviced and repaired just like always.
Your warranty will be safe. In fact, it will be safer than it has ever been. Because starting today, the United States will stand behind your warranty.”
When Obama asserts plainness or clarity – prepare for the worst kind of obfuscation.
GM is now trying to claim that their bankruptcy – which they used to illegally rip of bondholders – also allows them to rip off those who are seeking to have their GM cars repaired as per their written guarantees.
(I)n a recent filing with the U.S. District Court in Detroit, GM noted that the cars were made by its predecessor General Motors Corp, now called Motors Liquidation Co or “Old GM,” before its 2009 bankruptcy and federal bailout.
The current company, called “New GM,” said it did not assume responsibility under the reorganization to fix the Impala problem, but only to make repairs “subject to conditions and limitations” in express written warranties. In essence, the automaker said, Trusky sued the wrong entity.
“New GM’s warranty obligations for vehicles sold by Old GM are limited to the express terms and conditions in the Old GM written warranties on a going-forward basis,” wrote Benjamin Jeffers, a lawyer for GM. “New GM did not assume responsibility for Old GM’s design choices, conduct, or alleged breaches of liability under the warranty.“
So all Obama has to do is change his name, and he’s not responsible for the terrible economy he’s fostered? Same guy, same failed policies, different name – so vote for him again in 2012.
Is this a set-up? Is GM looking to duck their responsibility – so as to foist the bill upon We the People, as per Obama’s “plain” promise?
Or is there something even worse occurring?
Wasn’t GM “too big to fail” – meaning (we were told) we had to bail them out to make sure they kept their promises to the American people?
Not just to their employees, but to all those parts manufacturers and car dealers – everyone who was so intertwined with the auto monolith that they too would go down were GM to do so?
And weren’t we told over and over again that we needed to bailout GM because we had to make good on their contracts with the auto unions – you know, the ones that were illegally over-rewarded in the bankruptcy?
In fact, hasn’t that been a primary defense of the back-breaking status quo in government budget fights all over the country – Wisconsin, Ohio, Illinois and elsewhere?
That these governments have signed sacrosanct contracts with their public sector union cronies – and they must be maintained and adhered to, no matter how insolvent it leaves their states?
Well, these GM car owners have contracts too. But these are “plainly” deemed less sacrosanct.
Because these folks made the same fatal mistake as did GM bondholders (and select GM car dealers) – they didn’t contribute huge coin and political field work to Democrats.
Which of course the unions always do.
So on Obama’s Animal Farm, all contracts are equal, but some are more equal than others.
Thusly is the newest round of Government Motors rip offs set to commence.
Gatordoug
darcprynce
Dave C
