Coming to a country near you

Also, while I will not relinquish Italian engineering jokes (and will not stop giggling at the parent company of Ferrari naming its subcompact engine the "FIRE" engine), Japanese and American automakers please take note: Laying out things under the hood is a clean, logical, easy-to-access way?  Good thing.  Jamming the engine so far back it's practically sitting on the radio (lookin' at you, Toyota)?  Not good thing.

Now would you guys please send diesel ones over before my wife decides she wants one?

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

India has reacted angrily to the detention of Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan by US authorities for 90 minutes at White Plains airport near New York.

This "policy of detention and apology by the US cannot continue", External Affairs Minister SM Krishna said.

The actor arrived on a private plane and was on the way to Yale University for a function when he was stopped.

US customs and border protection authorities later expressed "profound" apologies for the incident.

The spokesman for the US embassy in Delhi, Peter Vrooman, also apologised "if Mr Shah Rukh Khan experienced an inconvenience or delay".

It is not clear why Khan was detained at the airport, which serves New York City.

In 2009 the actor was detained for two hours at Newark airport and was released after India's embassy in the US intervened.

The actor said then that he was stopped because he had a Muslim name. US customs officials denied that Khan had been detained, saying he was questioned. 'Uncalled for'

"Apologies from America have become mechanical," Mr Krishna said on Friday.

i just saw this guy in a great movie last night (my name is khan).  

It's a fine line between homage, parody, and consumer opportunism. Jess Walter

The Fox News Chairman and CEO spoke to about 350 people, including young journalists, Thursday as part of a special lecture series at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He started by telling them to change majors, which, Melody Butts reports, "elicited at least a few eye rolls." Here's what else he said:

• "If you're going into journalism if you care, then you're going into the wrong profession ... I usually ask (journalists) if they want to change the world in the way it wants to be changed."
• "Democracy depends on freedom of the press. But freedom depends on fairness in the press. There has to be more than one point of view."
• "Remember, the last time all of us got lined up together, we were lined up by two guys - Hitler and Stalin. If there's an alternative point of view, don't wet your pants. ... Suck it up and say, `Hey, there's room for everything.' "
• "We're the only news organization who has not had layoffs because of economic conditions. Why? Because we win."
• His strength: "I pick good people ... although some people point out that most of them are blond ... when women get into television, they dye their hair blond."
• On Jon Stewart: "I don't think he could make a living without Fox News. I think he likes Fox."
• On Newt: "Newt is trying to get a job at CNN because he knows he can't come back to Fox News."
• On the Fox News mole: "The mole shows a culture that believes in theft, a lack of loyalty, turning on his colleagues, lying to management, and there are some real, ethical, serious questions about it."

lol

i massaged a woman once who was fired for not dying her hair blond at fox news.

It's a fine line between homage, parody, and consumer opportunism. Jess Walter

I just read one of the most inspiring articles I've read in a very long time!  It is inspiring not because of its great prose, or poetic beauty, but because it restores my "faith" in the possibility that maybe, just maybe, the progressive movement may have finally grown a spine to really take on the corporatist-led attack on what is left of our democracy.

The article, "Exposing ALEC: How Conservative-Backed State Laws Are All Connected," was written by Atlantic correspondent Nancy Scola.

It talks about how the website ALEC Exposed came to life, and the impact it has had as a powerful "weapon" against the corrupt back-room deals between pay-to-play politicians, and their corporatist pay-masters.

Having the bills all in one place painted a certain picture. "If it's voter ID, it's ALEC," observed Doug Clopp, deputy director of programs at Common Cause. "If it's anti-immigration bills written hand-in-glove with private prison corporations, it's ALEC. If it's working with the N.R.A. on 'Shoot to Kill' laws, it's ALEC. When you start peeling back state efforts to opt out of the regional greenhouse gas initiative, it's ALEC." Adopted first in the states, by the time these laws bubble up to the national level, they're the conventional wisdom on policy.

It talks about the role The Nation magazine had in helping bring about ALEC Exposed, "with a series of companion articles."

But most importantly, it talks about how organizations like ColorOfChange.org have used "I'm going to make you an offer you can't refuse" tactics to "convince" some of the biggest corporate players in the U.S. to stop supporting ALEC.

But it runs Vista, which is sooooo slow compared to 7even it's ridiculous.

Still, I'm now a 2 laptop family.

keep to the Fen Causeway

Katzenjammer : By appointment to Nobel Prize Winning Economist

keep to the Fen Causeway