Rob Ford, the crack smoking, bike and bus hating, drunk driving, Chris Farley stunt double Mayor of Toronto has registered to run for reelection.
Jon Stewart, and his entire team at The Daily Show, have broken out the Champagne.
Category: Weird
You Have Got to be Sh%$ting Me!
Pope Francis’ condemnations of unbridled capitalism are far too mild.
Most Amazing Medical Development Ever Happened Wednesday
This guy turned 70 on Wednesday.
Considering the level of abuse that he has voluntarily inflicted on himself, he should have been found dead in his swimming pool about 40 years ago.
Somewhere in his genes is the making of an absolutely indestructible superhero, as well as a kick ass rhythm guitarist.
You can hover over the image with your cursor to get the answer if you do not recognize the guy.
Now I Know Where Sharon* Gets It From….
I’m at my mother-in-laws, tweaking her computer. (Right now, I am waiting for updates to install)
Additionally, there were some documents she could not find.
They were on her kitchen table, and now she cannot find them.
Well, she did find them. It turned out that she had put them away, in the proper folder, in the proper drawer, in her filing cabinet.
If I had a dollar for each time that Sharon* did something list this, I’d be a part of the 1%.
*Love of my life, light of the cosmos, She Who Must Be Obeyed, my wife.
Deep Thought
H/t Neo at the Stellar Parthenon BBS.
We Have All Been There ……… All Men, I Mean
Man kills himself after trapped on 5hr shopping trip.
Been there, almost done that, have not bought the f%$#ing T-shirt.
Major Supreme Court Not-Ruling on Labor Organizing
After giving cert (accepting) the case, the Supreme Court has dismissed the case, essentially saying, “Oops, my bad.”
Unions dodged a bullet today when the Supreme Court took the unusual step of dismissing the strange and possibly disastrous case of Mulhall v. Unite Here Local 355 as “improvidently granted.”
Though the dismissal leaves some bad law in place in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, which includes Florida, Alabama and Georgia, labor should nonetheless breathe a sigh of relief.
In Mulhall, a Florida casino employee backed by the anti-union National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation (NRTW) argued that neutrality agreements violate an anti-bribery provision in the Taft Hartley Act of 1947 and therefore constitute a federal crime.
Making neutrality agreements a crime would have struck at the heart of organizing as it is practiced today. The neutrality approach—in which the employer agrees not to oppose an organizing campaign—has been the mode of choice in most union drives since the ‘90s. The employer usually further promises to “card check,” which means that it will recognize the union if a majority of the employees sign cards stating their desire for union representation.
………
Although this was a bad ruling, letting it stand would have been less dangerous than the approach Unite Here took—appealing it to the Supreme Court and giving them the chance to invalidate neutrality agreements entirely. Though incorrectly reasoned, the 11th Circuit decision did not end neutrality agreements as we know them. The precedent may have caused some problems for unions in the 11th Circuit by scaring some potentially cooperative employers into demanding NLRB elections, by inviting additional lawsuits from the NRTW (which uses “strategic litigation” to “eliminate coercive union power and compulsory unionism abuses”), or by posing a possible danger in the hands of a future, zealous Republican U.S. Attorney in Florida, Alabama and Georgia. However, the case did not pose an immediate threat that warranted bringing this case before the Supreme Court—a court that has been found to be the most pro-business Supreme Court since World War II.
I’m not sure of his analysis, but the dismissal is profoundly odd.
- They accepted the case.
- They had oral arguments.
- Then they dismissed the case.
My guess right now is that the Supreme Court has 5 justices more or less inclined to rule that neutrality agreements are bribery (WTF?!?!?!), but one, or two, of the 5 decided that they needed some less expansive cases to build a foundation to justify to their partisan goal of gutting organized labor.
If you want to look at the legal minutae here, try SCOTUS blog.
Mon dieu, pas de polonium. Qui a été foutu avec nous*
Well, the French Doctors have finished their autopsy of Yassir Arafat, no Polonium, cause of death inconclusive, so I guess the next question is how did that exotic radioactive element end up in his personal effects, if it did at all:
French investigators studying the remains of Yasir Arafat have concluded that the Palestinian leader most likely did not die of radiation poisoning, Mr. Arafat’s widow, Suha, said here Tuesday. She noted, however, that the investigators did find unusually elevated levels of radioactivity in and around his body.
The results partly contradict and partly confirm those of Swiss scientists who last month reported finding abnormal levels of radioactive polonium-210 in Mr. Arafat’s remains. In contrast to the French, however, they concluded that their findings “moderately support the proposition” that Mr. Arafat, who was 75 at his death in 2004, died of radiation poisoning.
The French investigators concluded that the remains had been irradiated post-mortem by the air and soil surrounding his body and “dismiss the hypothesis of poisoning by polonium-210,” Ms. Arafat said.
………
Mr. Arafat’s body was exhumed in Ramallah, in the West Bank, last year. Body, air and soil samples were taken by French judicial investigators and by the Swiss scientists, who were commissioned by Ms. Arafat, her lawyers said, and by Russian scientists contracted by the Palestinian Authority, whose relations with Ms. Arafat are known to be hostile.
The French report was delivered on Tuesday but has not been made public, as it is part of a continuing judicial inquiry. As a complainant in the case, however, Ms. Arafat is legally authorized to describe its contents.
In contrast with French and Swiss scientists, the Russians have reported finding no abnormal levels of radioactive polonium in Mr. Arafat’s remains, said Saad Djebbar, a lawyer who represents Ms. Arafat. But Mr. Djebbar characterized those findings as unserious and incomplete.
I’m beginning to think that someone is trying to ratf%$# (frame) someone here.
The only question now is who is trying to ratf%$# whom.
Wheels within wheels.
*I last took French in 1979, and got a “C”, so cut me some slack.
Toronto Has Officially Jumped the Shark
You know that it’s true, because Florida, home of the hanging chad and governor Batboy, is now looking down on Canada’s largest city:
A north Florida sheriff has filed drug charges against a local mayor, saying Bradford County “isn’t Toronto.”
Hampton Mayor Barry Layne Moore was arrested Monday afternoon in Polk County on a Bradford County warrant.
Bradford County Sheriff Gordon Smith appeared to draw a comparison between Moore and Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, who has admitted to smoking crack cocaine while he was in a drunken stupor.
Authorities say Moore faces charges of possessing and selling Oxycodone.
Congratulations Toronto, you are now the butt of jokes from Floridians.
Your fall is complete.
If You Don’t Trust Bill Gates with Your Data, Will You Trust Him With Your Penis
It appears that among his various charitable endeavors Bill Gates is trying to create a super condom:
It’s been hailed as the new wonder-material, set to revolutionise everything from circuit boards to food packaging, a magic super-strength membrane that is barely there at all. Now, thanks to the unlikely sex champion Bill Gates, graphene could be used to make the thinnest, lightest, most impenetrable condom ever conceived.
“The common analogy is that wearing a condom is like taking a shower with a raincoat on,” says Dr Papa Salif Sow, senior program officer on the HIV team at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has awarded $100,000 (£60,000) to scientists at the University of Manchester’s National Graphene Institute to aid their pursuit of the ultimate super-sheath. “A redesigned condom that overcomes inconvenience, fumbling or perceived loss of pleasure would be a powerful weapon in the fight against poverty.”
At only one atom thick, an all-graphene condom would put the Durex Ultra Thin to shame – although the fact that the material is barely visible to the naked eye could lead to some awkward moments between the sheets. A slight ruffle of the duvet and could it just float away?
Dr Aravind Vijayaraghavan, who will lead the research team, explains the focus is on developing a composite material, with latex, “tailored to enhance the natural sensation during intercourse while using a condom, which should encourage and promote condom use.”
If Windows gives us the Blue Screen of Death, what does the BingCondom give us?
I don’t trust Windows Firewall, and I should trust this?
Rob Ford Just Stopped Being Funny
Everyone’s (Or at least Jon Stewart and his writing team’s) favorite Chris Farley tribute band, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has put on quite a show over the past few months.
I’ve not written about him, because I had nothing to add that The Daily Show has already covered.
Well, we now have credible reports that he was beating his wife:
New details from a months-old police report revealed on Friday indicated that Mayor Rob Ford’s wife, Renata, displayed bruises indicative of domestic violence and was possibly inebriated, according to a Toronto Star story published by columnist Rosie DiManno.
“The mayor’s wife was slurring her words and belligerent with the driver. She either refused to pay the fare or did not have the money,” DiManno wrote. “Their argument became so heated that the cabbie called for police assistance.” The columnist said the incident occurred “nearly a year ago” and began with a dispute between Renata Ford and a cab driver outside her parents’ home.
When police arrived, DiManno wrote that they “observed that Mrs. Ford appeared to have bruising on her limbs.”
“When asked about it, she refused to say how the injuries had been suffered. She was, in fact, too incoherent to say much of anything — either inebriated or on drugs,” explained DiManno.
According to DiManno, no one was charged after the argument between Renata Ford and the driver. However, DiManno said police “tried following up” with Renata Ford afterward because they were concerned “domestic abuse may be involved.” DiManno described Renata Ford as having been “not cooperative” with the police.
This is not the first time there have been questions about domestic violence in the Ford household. In 2008, Ford, then a member of the City Council, was charged with assault and making a death threat against his wife. Those charges were dropped after prosecutors found inconsistencies in Renata Ford’s allegations that they said raised “credibility issues.”
The Toronto Star has pulled the story, saying that it wasn’t ready for release, but is serves to reinforce something we should all be aware of when we are tempted to make jokes: There are people who are collateral damage to this sort of bullsh%$, and I am not referring to the embarrassment suffered by the citizens of Toronto.
I’m no particularly surprised by this. Ford is a product of the sort of nihilistic self-destructive hostile populism that was detailed in Mark Ames’ magnificent essay, Spite the Vote.
What he is, and what he does, is not motivated by a desire to fix things, but by a hatred by the other, which in his case are mass transit users and bicyclists. (?!?)
It is an illustration of the old Chinese adage, “If you are out for revenge, dig two graves.
Here is Jon Stewart is weighing in on the distinguished Mr. Ford:
Rule 34, No Exceptions………
That which is seen cannot be unseen.
To my older, hairier, brother, Stephen, who saw fit to post this, Your Mother was a Hamster, and Your Father Smelled of Elderberries!!!!
Schwer zu Sein a Yid*
It appears that some folks from my wife’s old home town have been up to no good:
In Brooklyn’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods, Mendel Epstein made a name for himself as the rabbi to see for women struggling to divorce their husbands. Among the Orthodox, a divorce requires the husband’s permission, known as a “get,” and tales abound of women whose husbands refuse to consent.
While it’s common for rabbis to take action against defiant husbands, such as barring them from synagogue life, Rabbi Epstein, 68, took matters much further, according to the authorities.
For hefty fees, he orchestrated the kidnapping and torture of reluctant husbands, charging their wives as much as $10,000 for a rabbinical decree permitting violence and $50,000 to hire others to carry out the deed, according to federal charges unsealed on Thursday morning.
Rabbi Epstein, along with another rabbi, Martin Wolmark, who is the head of a yeshiva, as well as several men in what the authorities called the “kidnap team,” appeared in Federal District Court in Trenton after a sting operation in which an undercover federal agent posed as an Orthodox Jewish woman soliciting Rabbi Epstein’s services.
………
When two undercover F.B.I. agents — one posing as a woman seeking a divorce, the other as her brother — asked a rabbi for help, the rabbi explained how Rabbi Epstein might be able to assist them.
“You need special rabbis who are going to take this thing and see it through to the end,” Rabbi Martin Wolmark, a respected figure who presides over a yeshiva in Monsey, N.Y., said in a recorded telephone call on Aug. 7. He described Rabbi Epstein as “a hired hand” who could help, according to the criminal complaint in the case.
When the undercover agents met with Rabbi Epstein a week later, he said that he was confident he could secure a get once his “tough guys” had made their threats.
(emphasis mine)
Women who are trapped by this are called Agunot, (literally “Chained Women”) and their plight is heart-breaking, but these guys are not trying to help, they are drying to make bank of these women’s pain.
Some of the alleged kidnappers come from My wife’s old neighborhood.
She spent much of her time growing up in Rockland county, just over the line from Monsey.
Who knew that she was in an area that was mobbed up?
*It’s hard to be a Jew. This is so embarrassing.
I Cannot Believe that I Found this in a Grocery Store
In this case, a Pitcher Plant
It was Whole Foods, but still, I would not expect to find carnivorous plants on the store shelves, but I did.
In additions to Pitcher Plants, though according to the web site, you can also get Venus Flytraps, Sundews, etc.
I found it kind of surreal.
It’s Official, the Nobel Peace Prize is a Joke
First, they give the following people Nobel Peace Prizes:
- Henry Kissinger
- Barack “Drones ‘R Us” Obama
- Jimmy Carter (Bought a civil war and plunged Afghanistan into 30+ years of hell just to f%$# with the Soviets).
And now we have the, “International Academy of Spiritual Unity and Cooperation of Peoples of the World,” Nominating Vladimir Putin for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Of course, the Nobel committee has not awarded him the prize, but the fact Russian President “Cuddles” has been nominated does indicate that their credibility is shot.
No this is not The Onion.
This is a Level of Surreal that Buggers the Mind
I am at a Jiffy Lube, and a Football Game is on, Baltimore vs. Buffalo.
They cut to the Vikings-Steelers game at Wembley in England.
It’s a foreign outreach thing that the NFL does.
They show the singing of both national anthems, the Star Spangled Banner, and God Save the Queen.
Singing the the Star Spangled Banner was Kiss bassist Gene Simons.
Gene Simmons singing the Star Spangled Banner?
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?
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If Only We Could Do It Here
The French Senate Votes To Ban Child Beauty Pageants, because they find that it “hyper sexualizes little girls.
As if Here Comes Honey Boo Boo didn’t already show that this is sick twisted sh%$ that is harmful for the children who participate in it.
Who Knew that the Chinese Were Austin Powers Fans?
Because those in the know are saying that China’s latest satellite launch was testing a claw using anti-satellite weapon:
On July 29, a Chinese Long March-4C rocket blasted into space from the northern Taiyuan Space Center carrying three secretive, experimental satellites. Not really all that unusual by itself — a robotic arm reportedly on one of the satellites could be involved in testing for Beijing’s far-off space station program.
But once they were in orbit, the satellites began acting very, very strangely.
More precisely, one of the satellites, known as SY-7, was moving all over the place and was appearing to make close-in rendezvous’s with other satellites. It was so strange, space analysts wondered whether China was testing a new kind of space weapon — one that could intercept other satellites and more or less claw them to death.
It’s not as crazy as it sounds. The U.S. has experimented with anti-satellite weapons, and is even researching how to cannibalize satellites in orbit. China has even blown up one of its own satellites with a missile. That caused an international outcry considering the giant cloud of debris which has come close to imperiling space travel for a century.
But a claw might be more discreet.
………
Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and author of the sat-tracking newsletter Jonathan’s Space Report, reported that at least one of the satellites wields a robot-manipulator arm developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Could it be an anti-satellite weapon? This would be a satellite capable of impacting with other satellites, destroying them with sheer kinetic force, or detonating explosive charges nearby like a satellite suicide bomber. The manipulator arm could also be potentially used as a weapon, grabbing away and plucking bits off an enemy satellite like it was an insect.
This is so f%$#ing weird.
It reads like something out of The Onion or one of the Austin Powers movie.
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot????
The NASDAQ exchange shut down for 3 hours today:
The United States stock market showed again on Thursday that it remained vulnerable to technological breakdowns even as regulators and market operators work to keep up with trading that is increasingly electronic and driven by speed.
The latest trouble shut down trading on the Nasdaq market and its more than 3,000 stocks — including some of the most popular among investors, like Apple and Google — for more than three hours Thursday afternoon.
The disruption on the nation’s second-largest stock market, after the New York Stock Exchange, reverberated up and down Wall Street, affecting other markets as investors cautiously stepped back. Brokers scrambling to trade elsewhere discovered that they could not complete trades while in the dark about prices on Nasdaq.
“It is everybody — nobody can trade,” Manoj Narang, the chief executive of Tradeworx, said during the afternoon. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Some expressed relief that the problems came in August, typically a slow time for Wall Street.
“We didn’t lose any money on the shutdown, but we also made very little money today,” said the chief executive of one Wall Street firm, who asked not to be named.
Nasdaq officials said the halt was prompted by a problem with the data system that disseminates prices and that its cause had been “identified and addressed.”
I’m thinking that high frequency algorithmic trading is somehow tied into all of this.
The fact that this occurred a day after Goldman Sachs reported a major loss from a programming error for such a program further buttresses my suspicion.
No Cat in Trap Yet………
Though my cats are relieved to be out of the bathroom