We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo;
How about you, you, you?
You can come too, too, too.
We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo

these things matter, dammit !!!

:-))

keep to the Fen Causeway

Going to brave the grocery store tonight for a few days of food, booze and, of course, Super Bowl supplies.

Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.

...if only for the intro.

What a great band they were.

Modern conservatives engage in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy: the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.Galbraith

The United States has been attacking within Pakistani land with drones for the last four to five years and is also killing innocent people. Our rulers and parliament regard these attacks as attacks on our sovereignty. A minister says that we do protest but the United States does not listen to us. This will mean that if the invader does not listen to you, you should concede and remain silent and should neither retaliate nor defend yourself. There were 44 drone attacks in 2009 alone in which more than 700 innocent people, majority of whom were innocent children, elderly, and women, were killed. According to the statistics provided by various agencies, those who belonged to "Al-Qa`ida" or the Taliban could not be more than 18. Our government kept on expressing fake concern over the killing of hundreds of innocent people and demolition of dozens of localities, and the nation as a whole remained silent. Mian Nawaz Sharif, leader of the opposition, remained so indifferent as though all this was happening not in his own country.

Last week, I wrote about a revelation buried in a Washington Post article by Dana Priest which described how the Obama administration has adopted the Bush policy of targeting selected American citizens for assassination if they are deemed (by the Executive Branch) to be Terrorists.  As The Washington Times' Eli Lake reports, Adm. Dennis Blair was asked about this program at a Congressional hearing yesterday and he acknowledged its existence:

So I'm puttering inside Hobo House. I hear SCREECH! BAM! SKWIIIIIIITCH! I peek through the blinds. There's a Buick stranded on the median --8" clear of the road surface. Unidentified fuid's gushing onto the two-lane. No smoke, yet. Incredibly, a jogger and county police patrol happened to be within visual distance -- two to three minutes after the mishap. Jogger pulls at the door assists a little ol' man from under the bag to the walk, leaves as (here's when I go outside to invite the driver to Hobo House veranda) the patrol rolls up, plants flairs, escorts the driver to gubmint issue cabriolet. Five minutes later, another patrol, a ladder truck, and an EMS. Ten minutes later, I open the door, everyone and everything has VANISHED.

Trains on time or wut.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

With Congress and the White House considering spending scarce dollars to jump-start employment, they'll need to get the biggest jobs bang for the buck to give Americans confidence that they're spending our money wisely. Probably the biggest jobs generator of all, and one of the least recognized, is investing in forest and land restoration and sustainable management, with conservation, watershed projects, and park investment coming close behind.

Heidi Garrett-Peltier and Robert Pollin at The Political Economy and Research Institute of the University of Massachusetts report the following numbers for jobs created per dollar of investment.

I received a tip from a New York retailer named Oh Nuts, that Google came to their store to take pictures for a new Google Maps product named "Google Store Views." I was told that they took pictures of the inside of the store, every 6 feet, in all directions. They also took pictures of products.

DUNBAR Community Bakery (DCB) members will have to rise to the challenge of finding an alternative venue for their vision - after talks with former High Street bread shop stalwarts Smiths crumbled.

DCB co-ordinators have been in discussions with the ex-baking family since July last year after it closed in November 2008 due to retirement.

But after months of negotiations both parties failed to come to an agreement with DCB chiefs, citing an inadequate lease as the main obstacle.

It is understood Smiths had hoped to tie down the would-be bakers to a short-term lease which DCB bosses said would not "represent value for money".

Two potential High Street premises are now being considered by DCB, which has amassed more than £50,000 in funds from 230 community shareholders as well as interest-free loans and grants.

First they could enter into an equity share arrangement with the landlord re gross revenues, and a gradual buy-out of the building.

Second, they could try the DeliDollar approach: ie simply sell Units redeemable in payment for bread etc. like the famous DeliDollars.

Muffin Money?

Modern conservatives engage in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy: the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.Galbraith

http://www.res-alliance.org/public/RESAllianceNavigantJobsStudy.pdf

Jobs Impact of a National Renewable Electricity Standard
Final Report

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

guardian - Ofgem: UK cannot trust energy companies to keep the lights on

Regulator says free market approach will leave UK short of energy supplies by 2015

Gas and electricity could be sold to consumers via a state-controlled body under radical reforms, proposed by the regulator Ofgem, which acknowledge that the decade-old free market approach to energy is no longer working.

​Just got a few calls telling us that President Obama, during a meeting with Senate Democrats, referred to the GOP's recent Massachusetts Senate victory and quoted our headline, "Scott Brown Wins Mass. Race, Giving GOP 41-59 Majority in the Senate."

Per TPM, the President said, "There was apparently a headline after the Massachusetts election. The Village Voice announced that Republicans win a 41-59 majority. It's worth thinking about. We still have to lead."

"Good scolding!" says the American Prospect's Ezra Klein. Not everyone is pleased. "The President just quoted the far Left Village Voice," says Sean Hackbarth Online Communications Advisor to the Senate Republican Conference. "But he isn't an ideologue."

England buys shatter-proof glasses.

Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.

Allow me to elaborate: If someone would have told me twenty five years ago that the second most important US trading partner in 2009 would be a communist country responsible for the killing of its dissidents (Tianamen Sq.), I would have laughed you out of the room.

"Beware of the man who does not talk, and the dog that does not bark." Cheyenne