Thursday, January 31, 2013

FILM CELEBRITY OF THE DAY – JANUARY 31


NOOMI RAPACE


From Google Images

Statistics  Age: 33 (December 28, 1979), 5' 4-1/2"

All information from IMDB  

Born Noomi Norén in Hudiksvall, Gävleborgs län, Sweden.

Mini Biography — 

Swedish actress Noomi Rapace is the daughter of actress Nina Norén and Spanish Flamenco singer Rogelio Durán. Her parents did not stay together, and when Rapace was five she moved to Iceland with her mother and stepfather, where she lived for three years. When she was eight, she was cast in a small role in the Icelandic film, 'Í skugga hrafnsins', and this sparked her love of acting. At the age of 15, she left home and joined the Stockholm Theatre School.

Rapace went on to win the recurring role of Lucinda Gonzales in the Swedish TV series "Tre kronor" (1994), and also became a respected stage performer. She won critical acclaim for playing the leading role in 2007's Daisy Diamond (2007). In 2009, Rapace came to the attention of international audiences for her portrayal of Lisbeth Salander in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009). Her performance was widely praised, and she won the Best Actress prize at Sweden's prestigious Guldbagge Awards. She went on to reprise the role in the sequels, The Girl Who Played with Fire (2009) and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (2009).

Rapace made her English language film debut in Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011), alongside Robert Downey Jr. She was also cast as Elizabeth Shaw in Ridley Scott's Prometheus (2012).


Spouse, Ola Rapace (2001 - 2011) (divorced) 1 child

IMDb Mini Biography By: Anonymous


Trivia


She used the holes of her old piercings when she was a young punk rocker in her role as Lisbeth Salander in David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009).

Has a son, Lev, born in 2003.

She has one sister, Særún Norén, who is a photographer.

She left home at age 15 to go to Stockholm, Sweden, to start her acting career.
At age 5, she moved to Iceland with her mother and her stepfather.

At age 7, she got a non-speaking role in an Icelandic movie. She then decided to become an actress.

Her mother, Nina Norén, is a Swedish actress. Her father, Rogelio de Badajoz, (1953-2007) was a Spanish cantador (a Flamenco singer) from Badajoz, of Roma descent.

Used some of her husband's (Ola Rapace) clothing for her wardrobe in the "Millennium" (2010) film series.

Is half Spanish, half Swedish.

Spoke very little English at the time she finished the Lisbeth Salander [known to people who read books as the "Millenium"] trilogy. In a determined attempt to master English as quickly as possible, Noomi watched numerous English language movies with native language subtitles disabled, along with hours of television channels such as BBC, CNN, and miscellaneous TV talk shows.

Insists on doing her own stunts whenever possible and to the absolute extreme extent a given production will safely permit her to do so.

Admires strong women roles such as Anne Parillaud as the indomitable La Femme Nikita (1990) and Patricia Arquette's feisty Alabama in True Romance (1993). She was particularly moved by the bloody motel fight scene between Arquette and James Gandolfini, after having watched the movie numerous times.

To date, counts her role in Daisy Diamond (2007) as her greatest emotional stretch as an actress. [2012]

Her second name "Rapace" (ruh-PASS), is from French ("predatory", "rapacious", "greedy"), a pseudonym adopted by Noomi's birth parents.

During her early teens, Noomi went through a period where she aspired to being a punk rocker in the vein of the late Nancy Spungen, one-time girlfriend of The Sex Pistols' Sid Vicious.



Personal Quotes

I'm interested in people's darker side, the ones that aren't easy and well balanced. The cracks.

We need more extreme movies in Sweden, personal projects that aren't necessarily made for a bigger audience. I think it creates a creative block to always have the audience as a goal.

I hate when you see a film and after one scene you know what's going to happen and you can predict the whole story. I hate that. I think it's very boring.

[on doing fight scenes in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011)] I tried to do as much as they allowed me to do. You get bruised, and your body aches, and you hurt yourself, but that's kind of part of it. I am very self-critical, and I don't like to pretend.



THIS AND THAT – JANUARY 31


OBAMACARE


From TheBlaze

Union leaders finding out Obamacare will actually cost them money.

Membership, if you don't run away screaming from your union leadership NOW you're beyond help. These guys KNEW what was going down when this "legislation" was being prepared! Congrats on paying your dues all this time. Knuckleheads!



NEW AL-QAEDA THREAT

"The group promises to implement 'shocking' attacks on the U.S. and other democratic targets. The message also details a 'map' of al Qaeda’s 'future strikes,' which the unidentified writer claims will carry the weight of 'God’s might.'

Wait, Federal government, we may need those guns after all. PLUS, isn't it interesting to see that Islamic terrorists believe in God? What do our liberal buddies here in the good old USA think about that? Personally, I just hope that God is at least neutral on this but there was WWI and WWII.




DEER (IN THE HEADLIGHTS) ANTLER "SPRAY"


This is probably ranks one bizzare-o notch below the Manti Te'o "girlfriend" issue (I don't know if I even want to call it a hoax as it just makes him look even more stupid that he already has to be). Sports Illustrated broke the story that Baltimore's Ray Lewis allegedly spoke with the Sport With Alternatives to Steroids (SWATS) owners about the substance after injuring his arm this season. 

Even if he used the stuff, given that the guys is about to retire and allegedly only used it for part of this season, I'm giving this story a big 10% significance factor, in spite of it's odd nature. The only importance in it will be if other players are and have been using their substance and it actually performs as intended. 

Plus if he only used it for that short a time I don't think there will be any Barry Bonds/Mark McGwire/Roger Clemens/Sammy Sosa HOF election issues for Ray-Ray.



"NAH, I DON'T DO THE GAY GUYS, MAN"

From TMZ

Someone who plays in San Francisco, for crying out loud, says this? OK, we KNOW he's stupid but I'm amazed that he seems to be sticking to it in some way. "The derogatory comments I made yesterday were a reflection of thoughts in my head, but they are not how I feel," Culliver said. Will the NFL suspend him? Probably not. Does he deserve to be suspended. Yeah, if not just for sheer imbecility!




JOBS COUNCIL


From TheBlaze

"President Barack Obama will let his jobs council expire this week without renewing its charter, winding down one source of input from the business community even as unemployment remains stubbornly high." Read the rest here. I'm assuming this means that Himself, having been re-elected in a 50.6% majority "landslide", is no longer interested in what the American people think with respect to job creation, or anything else for that matter.

Further, based on his past actions and attitudes, he is probably going to move toward some sort of emergency proclamation or executive order negating the 22nd Amendment and placing himself in office indefinitely. Really? Well, as impatient as he is with what others don't see as the obvious (otherwise known as his opponents) do you think he's going to take the time to initiate a Constitutional Convention and for the process required to ratify a rescindment of the 22nd Amendment?

Isn't the guy on El Presidente's left an actor? I recognize him from somewhere.




SUPER BOWL XLVII
You know, I had planned to write a whole post on the Super Bowl but there has just been so much crazy stuff going on that I just can't find the time. So, this is all you get: I'm rooting AFC, it's probably going to be a good game and someone named J. Harbaugh is going to be the winning coach. I'm exhausted.




LET'S CLOSE WITH THIS

ATHEIST/AGNOSTIC/DOES SHE KNOW-MOM BLOG ESSAY



From CNN

This is why most agnostics or atheists are liberals. Liberals ALWAYS WANT ANSWERS to things that are, really, unanswerable. It's liberals who always want to know WHY that kid killed his mother and then school children in CT. They want to know WHY there are Hitlers, and Stalins (well, maybe not) and Obamas (that's one I want to know). They also want to be protected from EVERYTHING, which is why they want to know how someone could do this or why is there war or why are we not perfect (well, liberals really don't want to know that since they think they are).  

I can't remember who said it but there is the known, the unknown and the unknowable, meaning there are some things we just WILL NOT KNOW and there actually may be good "reasons" for that, in a cosmic or psychological way. When doing some research for this I read an idiot blogger who tried to comment on the subject and got it all confused with knowns, known unknowns and unknown unknowns which is really about risk and risk management and nothing else. (It was probably a liberal.) I thought I'd link it for you.

Anyway, here is the "Atheist Mom" interview and her essay in case you haven't seen or heard about it.

Atheist Mom

I like (actually DIS-like) some of the comments the interviewer made in the video the belief in which, to me, is one reason "shit" happens and is evidence as to why liberals actually are NOT perfect and are mostly part of the problem. See if you can figure out which comments to which I am referring.

Her blog essay



As usual, take it and go.

AND WE THOUGHT GERMANY AND THE USSR WERE "POLICE STATES"

From Wikipedia — 

ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES AND POLICE


FEDERAL
Executive Branch

  • Department of Agriculture (USDA)
  • Office of Inspector General (USDAOIG)
  • United States Forest Service (USFS)
  • U.S. Forest Service Law Enforcement and Investigations (USFSLEI)
  • Department of Commerce (DOC)
  • Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS)
  • Office of Export Enforcement (OEE)
  • National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
  • National Institute of Standards and Technology Police (NIST Police)
  • National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
  • National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)
  • National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Office for Law Enforcement (OLE)
  • Department of Commerce Office of Security (DOCOS)
  • Department of Commerce Office of Inspector General (DOCOIG)


Department of Defense
  • Office of Inspector General (DODOIG)
  • Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS)
  • Pentagon Force Protection Agency (PFPA)
  • United States Pentagon Police (USPPD)
  • Department of Defense Police
  • Defense Logistics Agency Police (DLA)
  • National Security Agency Police (NSA)
  • Defense Intelligence Agency Police (DIA)
  • National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Police (NGA)
  • Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR)
  • Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR)

Department of the Army
  • Counterintelligence activity (CI), United States Army Intelligence and Security Command
  • United States Army Criminal Investigation Command (CID)
  • United States Army Military Police Corps
  • Department of the Army Police
  • United States Army Corrections Command

Department of the Navy
  • Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS)
  • United States Marine Corps Criminal Investigation Division (MC CID)
  • Department of the Navy Police (civilian police)
  • Marine Corps Provost Marshal's Office (military police)
  • United States Marine Corps Police (civilian police)
  • United States Naval Academy Police (civilian police)
  • Master-at-Arms (U.S. Navy military police)

Department of the Air Force
  • Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI)
  • Air Force Security Forces Center (AFSFC)
  • Department of the Air Force Police

Department of Education (Teacher's unions enforce here)
  • Office of the Inspector General (EDOIG)

Department of Energy (DOE)
  • Office of Inspector General (DOEOIG)
  • Office of Health, Safety and Security (DOEHSS)
  • Office of Secure Transportation (OST)

Department of Health and Human Services
  • United States Food and Drug and Administration (HHSFDA)
  • Office of Criminal Investigations (OCI)
  • National Institutes of Health (NIH)
  • National Institutes of Health Police (NIH Police)
  • Office of Inspector General (HHSOIG)

Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
  • Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC)
  • United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)
  • United States Coast Guard (USCG)
  • Coast Guard Investigative Service (CGIS)
  • United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
  • Office of Air and Marine (OAM)
  • Office of Border Patrol (OBP)
  • Office of Field Operations (OFO)
  • Federal Protective Service (FPS)
  • United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
  • Enforcement Removal Operations (ERO)
  • Homeland Security Investigations (HSI)
  • Office of Intelligence
  • Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR)
  • United States Secret Service (USSS)
  • Transportation Security Administration (TSA)
  • Office of Law Enforcement/Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS)
  • Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General (DHSOIG)
  • [edit]Department of Housing and Urban Development
  • Office of Inspector General (HUD/OIG) [1]
  • Protective Service Division (HUDPSD)

Department of the Interior (USDI)
  • Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)
  • Bureau of Indian Affairs Police (BIA Police)
  • Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
  • Bureau of Land Management Office of Law Enforcement (BLM Rangers and Special Agents)
  • Bureau of Reclamation (BOR)
  • Bureau of Reclamation Office of Law Enforcement (BOR Rangers)
  • Hoover Dam Police aka Bureau of Reclamation Police
  • National Park Service (NPS)
  • Division of Law Enforcement, Security and Emergency Services (U.S. Park Rangers-Law Enforcement)
  • United States Park Police
  • Office of Inspector General (DOIOIG)
  • Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE)
  • United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS)
  • Office of Law Enforcement
  • Division of Refuge Law Enforcement

Department of Justice (USDOJ)
  • Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau
  • Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF)
  • United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) (since 1973)
  • Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
  • Federal Bureau of Investigation Police (FBI Police)
  • Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP)
  • Office of Inspector General (DOJOIG)
  • United States Marshals Service (USMS)

Department of Labor (Apparently the Feds let the OTHER unions "enforce" here)
  • Office of Inspector General (DOLOIG)

Department of State (DoS)
  • Bureau of Diplomatic Security (DS)
  • U.S. Diplomatic Security Service (DSS)
  • Office of Foreign Missions
  • Office of the Inspector General of the Department of State

Department of Transportation
  • Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
  • Office of Inspector General (DOTOIG)
  • United States Merchant Marine Academy Department of Public Safety (USMMADPS)
  • Office of Odometer Fraud Investigation - NHTSA (OFI)

Department of the Treasury
  • Bureau of Engraving and Printing Police (BEP) patrol car.
  • Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau
  • Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP)
  • Bureau of Engraving and Printing Police (BEP Police)
  • Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FINCEN)
  • Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division (IRS-CI)
  • Office of Inspector General (TREASOIG)
  • Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA)
  • United States Mint Police (USMP)
  • Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP)

Department of Veterans Affairs
  • Office of Inspector General (VAOIG)
  • Veterans Affairs Police

Legislative Branch
  • Library of Congress, Office of Security and Emergency Preparedness (LOC)
  • Sergeant at Arms of the United States House of Representatives
  • Sergeant at Arms of the United States Senate
  • United States Capitol Police (USCP)
  • United States Government Printing Office Police
  • Office of Inspector General, United States Government Printing Office

Judicial Branch
  • Marshal of the United States Supreme Court
  • United States Supreme Court Police
  • Administrative Office of the United States Courts, Office of Probation and Pretrial Services (AOUSC)

Other federal law enforcement agencies
  • Central Intelligence Agency Security Protective Service (CIASPS)
  • United States Environmental Protection Agency
  • Criminal Investigation Division (EPACID)
  • Office of Inspector General (EPAOIG)
  • National Aeronautics and Space Administration
  • Office of Inspector General (NASAOIG)
  • NASA Security Services
  • Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Office of Inspector General (NRCOIG)
  • Office of Personnel Management, Office of Inspector General (OPMOIG)
  • Railroad Retirement Board, Office of Inspector General (RRBOIG)
  • Small Business Administration, Office of Inspector General (SBAOIG)
  • Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Office of Inspector General (FDICOIG)
  • General Services Administration, Office of Inspector General (GSAOIG)
  • Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General (SSAOIG)
  • United States Postal Service (USPS)
  • USPS Office of Inspector General (USPSOIG)
  • United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS)
  • U.S. Postal Police
  • Smithsonian Institution
  • Office of Protection Services (SI)
  • National Zoological Park Police (NZPP)
  • Office of the Inspector General (OIG)
  • Amtrak
  • Amtrak Office of Inspector General
  • Amtrak Office of Security Strategy and Special Operations (OSSSO)
  • Amtrak Police
  • Federal Reserve Bank: Federal Reserve Police
  • Tennessee Valley Authority
  • Tennessee Valley Authority Office of Inspector General (TVAOIG)
  • Tennessee Valley Authority Police (TVAP)
  • United States Agency for International Development, Office of Inspector General (AIDOIG)
  • Not listed - the EPA!


STATES  ALABAMA only (i.e, multiply by at least 50)

State Agencies

  • Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Police
  • Alabama Attorney General's Office
  • Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center
  • Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources
  • Alabama Department of Homeland Security
  • Alabama Marine Resources Division
  • Alabama Marine Police
  • Alabama Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries Division
  • Conservation Enforcement Division
  • Alabama State Parks Ranger Service
  • Alabama State Lands Security
  • Alabama Department of Corrections
  • Alabama Revenue Enforcement
  • Alabama Department of Mental Health Police
  • Bureau of Special Investigations
  • Alabama Department of Public Safety
  • Alabama Bureau of Investigation
  • Alabama Highway Patrol
  • Alabama Capitol Police
  • Alabama Protective Services
  • Alabama Executive Security Unit
  • Alabama Securities Commission
  • Alabama State Port Authority Police
  • Alabama Department of Insurance
  • State Fire Marshal's Office


County agencies
  • Autauga County Sheriff’s Office
  • Baldwin County Sheriff’s Department
  • Barbour County Sheriff’s Office
  • Bibb County Sheriff’s Office
  • Blount County Sheriff's Office
  • Bullock County Sheriff's Office
  • Butler County Sheriff's Office
  • Calhoun County Sheriff's Department
  • Chambers County Sheriff's Office
  • Cherokee County Sheriff's Department
  • Chilton County Sheriff's Department
  • Choctaw County Sheriff's Department
  • Clarke County Sheriff's Office
  • Clay County Sheriff's Office
  • Cleburne County Sheriff's Office
  • Coffee County Sheriff's Office
  • Colbert County Sheriff's Department
  • Conecuh County Sheriff’s Office
  • Coosa County Sheriff’s Office
  • Covington County Sheriff’s Office
  • Crenshaw County Sheriff’s Office
  • Cullman County Sheriff’s Office
  • Dale County Sheriff’s Office 
  • Dallas County Sheriff’s Office
  • DeKalb County Sheriff's Office (Alabama)
  • Elmore County Sheriff’s Office
  • Escambia County Sheriff's Department
  • Etowah County Sheriff’s Office
  • Fayette County Sheriff’s Office
  • Franklin County Sheriff’s Office
  • Geneva County Sheriff’s Office
  • Greene County Sheriff’s Office
  • Hale County Sheriff’s Office
  • Henry County Sheriff’s Office
  • Houston County Community Corrections
  • Houston County Sheriff's Department
  • Jackson County Sheriff's Office
  • Jefferson County Sheriff's Department
  • Lamar County Sheriff's Office
  • Lauderdale County Sheriff's Office
  • Lawrence County Sheriff's Office
  • Lee County Sheriff's Department
  • Limestone County Sheriff's Office
  • Lowndes County Sheriff's Office
  • Macon County Sheriff's Office
  • Madison County Sheriff's Department 
  • Marengo County Sheriff's Office
  • Marion County Sheriff's Office
  • Marshall County Sheriff's Office
  • Mobile County Sheriff's Department
  • Monroe County Sheriff's Office
  • Montgomery County Sheriff's Office
  • Morgan County Sheriff's Office
  • Perry County Sheriff's Office
  • Pickens County Sheriff's Office
  • Pike County Sheriff's Office
  • Randolph County Sheriff's Office
  • Russell County Sheriff's Office
  • Saint Clair County Sheriff's Office
  • Shelby County Sheriff's Department
  • Sumter County Sheriff's Office
  • Talladega County Sheriff's Office
  • Tallapoosa County Sheriff's Department
  • Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Office
  • Walker County Sheriff's Department
  • Washington County Sheriff's Department
  • Wilcox County Sheriff's Office
  • Winston County Sheriff's Office


City agencies
  • Alabaster Police Department
  • Alexander City Police Department
  • Altoona Police Department
  • Andalusia Police Department
  • Atmore Police Department
  • Bay Minette Police Department
  • Bessemer Police Department
  • Birmingham Police Department
  • Boaz Police Department
  • Bridgeport Police Department
  • Calera Police Department
  • Camp Hill Police Department
  • Cherokee Police Department
  • Columbia Police Department
  • Chatom Police Department
  • Citronelle Police Department
  • Cottonwood Police Department 
  • Dadeville Police Department
  • Daphne Police Department
  • Decatur Police Department
  • Demopolis Police Department
  • Dothan Police Department
  • Enterprise Police Department
  • Eufala Police Department
  • Florence Police Department
  • Fort Payne Police Department
  • Gardendale Police Department
  • Guin Police Department
  • Guntersville Police Department
  • Gurley Police Department
  • Hamilton Police Department
  • Hanceville Police Department
  • Heflin Police Department
  • Homewood Police Department
  • Hoover Police Department 
  • Huntsville International Airport Police Department
  • Huntsville Police Department
  • Jacksonville Police Department
  • Kinston Police Department
  • Lanett Police Department
  • Leeds Police Department
  • Lincoln Police Department
  • Millbrook Police Department
  • Mobile Police Department
  • Montgomery Police Department
  • Moody Police Department
  • Mount Vernon Police Department
  • Northport Police Department
  • Pelham Police Department
  • Pelham Fire Marshal
  • Pelham School Resource Officers
  • Pinedale Shores Private Police
  • Saginaw Police Department


College and University agencies
  • Alabama A&M University Police Department
  • Auburn University Department of Public Safety
  • Birmingham Southern College Police and Security
  • Calhoun Community College Police Department
  • Gadsden State Community College Security and Safety Office
  • Jacksonville State University Police Department
  • Jefferson State Community College Department of the Police
  • Russell Community College Public Safety Department
  • Samford University Police Department 
  • Southern Union Community College Public Safety Department
  • University of Alabama Police Department
  • University of Alabama at Birmingham Police Department
  • University of Montevallo Police Department
  • University of North Alabama Police Department
  • University of South Alabama Police Department
  • University of West Alabama Police Department
  • Wallace State Community College Police Department
  • University of Alabama in Huntsville Police Department

Other agencies
  • Alabama National Guard Military Police
  • Alabama Protection Services of Homeland Security
  • Liberty Park Security Marshals
  • Marshall Space Flight Center Protective Services Office
  • Birmingham Office of the Inspector General
  • Guntersville Fire Marshal's Office

Are you getting it?!?

OBAMA'S ECONOMY – PART I

From PJ Media — 

Obama’s Economy: The Excuses Begin
Blame everything, except the government's policies. 

Also read: Shrinking Economy? The GOP Built That


by TOM BLUMER
January 30, 2013 - 12:00 am

Just days after the November presidential and congressional elections which gave President Barack Obama a non-mandate of 50.6% of the popular vote and the demonstrated supported of less than 27% of all U.S. adults, NBC’s Brian Williams actually told viewers: 

"With the election now over, it is once again safe to talk about the economy and jobs. Now that it is not a campaign issue, it’s back to reality."

Still in Democrat-supportive campaign mode, Williams then introduced a report by correspondent Harry Smith about how 'the idea that manufacturing in America is dead … is an outright falsehood.' Mary Andringa, president and CEO of Iowa manufacturer Vermeer Corporation and then-board chair at the National Association of Manufacturers, told Smith:

"What’s really outstanding is the fact that in 2010, the U.S. had an output of $4.8 trillion of manufactured goods. That was up from $4.1 (trillion) in 2000 — and we’ve been through two recessions in the past decade."

That is undoubtedly an impressive achievement which should not be discounted. But then Smith delivered the kicker:

"Five million manufacturing jobs were lost in the U.S. in the last decade. But new jobs have been created too, and believe it or not, many manufacturers in the U.S. are looking for help."

This highlights two problems. The first, which is that our educational system and culture are not preparing enough people for the jobs which need to be filled, is self-evident to anyone with open eyes.

The second, despite the unfilled positions just noted, is even more important: unlike what occurred after every other post-World War II downturn, not enough new jobs are currently being created to make up for the ones being lost. The new companies and entire industries which have always emerged and generated enough new jobs to replace those lost as a result of increased productivity in existing industries aren’t appearing at a rate necessary to reduce unemployment to an acceptable level.

Why not?

At the Associated Press, aka the Administration’s Press, the post-election search for an explanation clearly had two important constraints. First: do not blame the Obama administration or the federal government for anything. Second: find something to blame which appears to be plausible and can’t be immediately refuted.

What resulted was a three-part series bemoaning the rapid advancements in technology and smart machines. It can be summarized in four words: “This time it’s different.” Well, it sadly is, and more than likely for the next four years, but not for the reasons AP cites. AP’s premise:

"For decades, science fiction warned of a future when we would be architects of our own obsolescence, replaced by our machines. … [T]he future has arrived."

The team which produced the report believes that technology is advancing so quickly and on so many fronts that it’s simply unreasonable to expect new jobs to appear fast enough to replace the ones being destroyed.

While the pace and nature of tech advancements have been and continue to be phenomenal, the notion that they are unique to the point of causing insurmountable economic and employment problems should be absurd. As economist and George Mason University Professor Walter Williams pointed out in a 2011 column:

"(In) 1900 … about 41 percent of our labor force was employed in agriculture. By 2008, fewer than 3 percent of Americans were employed in agriculture. … [O]ur farmers are the world’s most productive. As a result, Americans are better off.

"In 1970, the telecommunications industry employed 421,000 workers as switchboard operators, annually handling 9.8 billion long-distance calls. Today the telecommunications industry employs only 78,000 operators … (processing) more than 100 billion long-distance calls a year.


"Fifty years ago, a typical textile worker operated five machines capable of running thread through a loom 100 times a minute. Today machines run six times as fast, and one worker can oversee 100 of them.

"You say, 'Williams, certain jobs are destroyed by technology.' You’re right, but many more are created."


Defying Professor Williams’ optimism, AP’s team of reporters left readers with three unacceptable choices as to what will result:

"The best-case scenario is that 'the economy returns to health after a wrenching transition.' AP quotes leftist economist Joseph Stiglitz as claiming that it will take at least 'half a decade,' meaning after Obama’s time in the White House has (hopefully) ended. How convenient."

"The economy continues to produce jobs, just not enough good ones."
"Technology leads to mass unemployment."

If this "blame tech" mantra sounds mildly familiar, it’s because Obama himself has on a few unguarded occasions commented on how technology has destroyed jobs, indicting ATMs, airport kiosks, and the Internet for sending bank tellers, airline reservation agents, and others to the unemployment line. Apparently, never to return except perhaps as burger flippers or cashiers. I fear that the AP’s decision to identify tech as the scapegoat is no mere coincidence, and may foreshadow foolish attempts by the administration to slow down technological progress in the name of “saving jobs.”

Obamacare is already slated to do that very thing to the entire healthcare sector.

With all due respect to Professor Williams above, he would be right about enough replacement jobs being created if we were living in a genuine free-market economy. Unfortunately, that’s not where we are in this nation. Virtually all of the reasons why sufficient job growth isn’t occurring can be traced to the Obama administration’s market-hostile economic policies and postures.


Here are ten of the most obvious out of a list which could easily reach several dozen:
  • The war on fossil fuels, which has limited job growth in energy-related industries and caused prices to be higher than they should be for everyone else.
  • Cronyism on steroids.
  • Trillion-dollar deficit spending.
  • New bureaucracies like Dodd-Frank’s Consumer Financial Bureau, which Congress can’t legally touch.
  • Sarbanes Oxley, a relic of the 2001 Enron debacle which the administration has done nothing to reform, and which has closed off the going-public option for many companies which would have done so before “Sarbox” became law.
  • Unemployment and other government benefits which make remaining unemployed relatively attractive, or a least a more tolerable circumstance than it should be, and for a longer period of time than should be necessary.
  • Onerous labor laws and regulations. I’ve spoken with many entrepreneurs in the past year, some of whom have had employees in the past. A vast majority of them have told me that they won’t hire any new employees in the current regulatory environment, even if the economy improves. Most start-up entrepreneurs likely feel the same way.
  • Trade policy, a problem which spans the past four administrations but is being most acutely felt now.
  • Federal, state, and local tax increases.
  • Last but certainly not least, Obamacare, especially its career-killing definition of a full-time employee as anyone who works 30 or more hours per week, and the destructive impact it will have in slowing medical innovation and research to a crawl.
What the AP series really tells us is that the economy wasn’t performing as well as the government and the establishment press claimed it was during the presidential campaign — something I believe this week’s report on fourth-quarter gross domestic product will confirm — and that the White House really doesn’t expect the malaise to lift during most of Obama’s second term.


TBBT QUOTE OF THE DAY – JANUARY 31


THE FINANCIAL PERMEABILITY  Season 2, Episode 14 (February 2, 2009)


From The Big Bang Theory: The Complete Second Season DVD

(Sheldon starts to enter his apartment but stops as Penny runs up the stairs.) 
P: Oh, oh. Shut the door, shut the door. 
S: Why. 
P: Just do it. 
(Penny enters the apartment and Sheldon closes the door locked outside) 
P: (She opens the door) Come inside and shut the door. 
S: You didn’t specify. (He walks in and Penny closes the door) 
P: Is Leonard around?
S: He went to the movies without me. (looking over his shoulder) It was the only option. 
(Penny is listening at the door. Sheldon joins her.) 
S: (He backs away) I’m sorry, I don’t understand what social situation this is. Could you give me some guidance as to how to proceed? 
P: The building manager is showing an apartment downstairs and I haven’t paid my rent. 
S: Oh, I see. (pause) Penny, I’m not sure I’m comfortable harboring a fugitive from the 2133 Northwest Robles Corporation. 
S: It’s no big deal I’m just a little behind on my bills ‘cause they cut back my hours at the restaurant and my car broke down. 
S: If you recall I pointed out the “Check Engine” light to you several months ago. 
P: (disgusted) Well, the “check Engine” light is fine, it’s still blinking away. It’s the stupid engine that stopped working.



THIS DAY IN HISTORY – JANUARY 31


HISTORICAL EVENTS

1606 Guy Fawkes, Catholic conspirator in a plot to blow up Parliament (The Gunpowder Plot), leaps to his death before his execution for treason. Guy Fawkes Day, November 5th, is still celebrated in Great Britain.

1865 – The U.S. House of Representatives passes the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery in America.

1945 The execution of Pvt. Eddie Slovik. Slovik was the first American soldier since the Civil War to be executed for desertion and the only one in WWII.

1950 – President Harry S. Truman announces development of the H-bomb.

1968 – The Viet Cong attack the U.S. Embassy in Saigon as part of the Tet Offensive.




FAMOUS BIRTHS

1923 Winner of two Pulitzer prizes, Norman Mailer is born in Long Branch, NJ. 

1937 – American composer Phillip Morris Glass is born in Baltimore, MD.

1872 – Author of the American West (Riders of the Purple Sage and 78 other books), Zane Grey, is born in Zanesville, OH.



FAMOUS DEATHS

1788 – [Bonnie Prince Charlie] Charles Edward Stuart, English pretender to the throne, dies at 67.

1954
 – Edwin Howard Armstrong, American radio inventor (FM), commits suicide at 63.

1974 
– Samuel Goldwyn, born Samuel Gelbrisz, Polish/English/US film magnate (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer), dies at 91.


100 DAYS OF THE BEATLES – TOP 100 SONGS – 69



NUMBER 69: "Julia" (Lennon  November 25, 1968) 
The BEATLES (a.k.a., The White Album)  Side 2, Track 9  (2:54)

YouTube Video
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (sans footnotes/references) 

‎"Julia" was written by John Lennon (credited to Lennon/McCartney) and features Lennon on vocals and acoustic guitar. It was written during the Beatles' 1968 visit to Rishikesh in northern India, where they were studying under the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. It was here where Lennon learned the song's finger-picking guitar style (known as 'Travis-picking') from the Scottish musician Donovan. No other Beatle sings or plays on the song. While Paul McCartney made several "solo" recordings attributed to the group, dating back to his famous song "Yesterday", this is the only time that Lennon played and sang unaccompanied on a Beatle track.

"Julia" was written for John's mother, Julia Lennon (1914–1958), who was knocked down and killed by a car driven by a drunk off-duty police officer when John was 17 years old. It was also written for his future wife Yoko Ono, whose first name, which literally means "child of the sea" in Japanese, is echoed in lyrics such as "Oceanchild, calls me."

In an interview in 1971 John Lennon said, "I wrote "God Save Us" with Yoko, and "Do the Oz", and there's one track on the album that she wrote. She had written other things, even "Julia" back in the Beatles days.", indicating that she may have contributed some lines to it when John returned from India.

"Julia" was originally released as the final song on side two of The Beatles on 22 November 1968. Eight years later it was released as the B-side of the "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" single.

A portion of the song also appeared on the Love album mixed with "Eleanor Rigby".



Wednesday, January 30, 2013

THIS DAY IN HISTORY – JANUARY 30

HISTORICAL EVENTS

From Google Images
1835 – Shots are fired in the U.S House of Representatives as Andrew Jackson narrowly escapes the first attempt against the life of a United States president.


From Google Images
1933 – Adolf Hitler is named Chancellor of Germany.


From Google Images
1948 – India's Mohandas Karamchand "Mahatma" Ghandi was assassinated in New Dehli by a Hindu fanatic. Mathatma means "Great Soul" in Sanskrit.


From Google Images
1968 – North Vietnam launches the Tet Offensive with coordinated attacks throughout South Vietnam. Journalist Walter Cronkite declares on national TV that the war in Vietnam is now "unwinnable".


1972 – Blood Sunday in Northern Ireland as 13 unarmed civil rights demonstrators are shot by British Army paratroopers.



FAMOUS BIRTHS

From Google Images
1882 – Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President and cousin of Theodore Roosevelt, is born in Hyde Park, NY.




FAMOUS DEATHS

1649 Charles I, King of Great Britain (1625-49), is beheaded for treason


1836 – Betsy Ross (Elizabeth Griscom), seamstress widely credited with making the first American flag (b. 1752).


From Wikipedia
1948 – Orville Wright, US aviation pioneer, dies at 76.


TBBT QUOTE OF THE DAY – JANUARY 30


THE FRIENDSHIP ALGORITHM  Season 2, Episode 13 (January 19, 2009)



S: It’s true, Kripke lacks the basic social skills that we take for granted, but he also controls the new open science-grid computer that I need to use to run some simulations of structure formation in the early universe.
L: Good luck getting time on it the only people he lets use it are his friends.
S: Well then, the solution is simple, I shall befriend him. (Kripke walks by)
S: Kripke!



K: Yeah.
S: What would you say to the idea of you and I becoming friends.
K: I would say, ‘I have no interest in becoming your fwiend.”



S: Really? That seems rather short-sighted coming from someone who is generally considered altogether unlikeable. (pause) Why don’t you take some time to re-consider.
K: Yeah, I’ll do that. (he shakes his head and walks away)



S: Well, I think we’re off to a terrific start. 


All images from The Big Bang Theory: The Complete Second Season DVD.


THIS AND THAT – JANUARY 30




From Google Images

What's with Matt lately? I asked the same question Glenn Beck asked in the linked program excerpt when Lauer went after another liberal back before the election. I can't remember who it was now or what it was about but it shocked me. 

The biggest thing about this interview is Gore's claim of Toilet Works or Idiot Science or whatever his "network" was called having been "a TRULY independent network." What a purveyor of duncery and misdirection. I'm certain every liberal/progressive/Anti-American group from Albany to Zambia was backing this farce of a television effort that never drew more than about 20,000 "loyal" viewers but was showered with awards by those same liberal/progressive/Anti-American groups.

Perhaps Matt is becoming weary of his guilt-by-association label in the mainstream liberal media cabal and ministry of truth. Or ways he simply insulted by the fact that Gore apparently duped everyone. Almost, everyone.


OUTDOOR SUPER BOWL


I've gone off on this before but here goes again... HOW THE HELL CAN THE NFL NOW GIVE NEW YORK A FREAKING SUPER BOWL TO BE PLAYED OUTSIDE IN THE MIDDLE OF WINTER?!? In my mind EVERYONE should have the opportunity to at least HOST a Super Bowl. To date, only one team in NFL history has never hosted or participated in a Super Bowl--Cleveland. 

My major objection? Why should teams in warm climates or with domed stadiums be the only teams to potentially be able to play a HOME GAME in a Super Bowl? Jerry Jones thought he was going to pull that one off two years ago and what happened? 1) The Cowboys didn't make it to the playoffs let alone the Super Bowl AND North Texas had ice for the entire week prior to the games.

Just because the NFL wants the Super Bowl to be "pretty" where everyone's uniform stays clean, the field can be easily seen, and Prince, Madonna, et al can perform at half time without wearing Eskimo gear? Horse pucky! 

Rotate hosting of the Super Bowl among the 32 league teams. This will be one way we can help kill Jerry Jone's cash cow (a.k.a., Jerry World) perhaps forcing him to actually put a good product on the field in order to make money. 

Regular season NFL games and even playoff games are played in adverse weather conditions, in this case potentially SNOW and COLD. Is the money THAT important? I repeat, is the money THAT important? Are all the expensive parties and schmoozing and butt kissing THAT important? What does this have to do with football and WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH US? 

Ask Al.




MONDAY MORNINGS


From Google Images

Everyone loves a good soap box drama, right? Well, David E. Kelly is back. You'd have thought people would have given up on this schmuck by now but liberals abound in Hollywood and elsewhere in the arts. His last show only lasted two or three seasons; long enough to irritate the hell out of me. As it appears the program is some sort of medical drama we can expect to hear a lot about the moral and economic rectitude of Obamacare. We certainly heard enough about the horrid practices of insurance companies and the millions of uninsured American's in Kelly's other programs cum propaganda fests. 

My doesn't THAT look like a progressively forthright bunch, the "rainbow doctor coalition"? I'm sure they'll have all the answers to what ails America. [Coughing onto sleeve, "Obama!"]



THE AMERICANS?

From Google Images

I guess it's also time to start bashing Reagan again which is why I'm assuming the new TV program The Americans, with the "c" being a hammer and sickel, is due out soon. The trailer has Reagan proclaiming that "the Soviet Union" is "the enemy" so you know what we're in for.



SOCIAL ENGINEERING?

From Google Images

PBS presented a 2 hour documentary on Henry Ford last night. One aspect that I found fascinating was that Ford at one time had created a "social" department in the Ford Motor Company, one of it's purposes being to investigate the lives of his employees, allegedly to help his multitude of foreign workers become "ideal" American citizens. 

One aspect of this was Ford "social workers" canvassing to determine intimate aspects of the employees' lives--where they lived, their drinking habits, who their family members were, religious affiliations, etc. Ford saw himself as a individual who took seriously how his employees lived in order to "better" their lives. The filmmakers presented this as quite invasive and uttlerly reprehensible.

While watching it dawned on me that the modern "census" questionnaire and the American Community Survey* are just as invasive. The original intent of the census was for determining representation in Congress and to establish the nation's population. Liberals and progressives then started to use it as a tool for collecting all sorts of personal information the ultimate use of is never really clear. Surely I'm not the only person to see this as "invasive" and "reprehensible,' at least I hope I'm not. But since it is the government "investigating" us the liberals and progressives who started this written inquisition think it's OK.