Should You Replace Your Congressman? Take This Test

If you answer “yes” to any of the questions below, it is time to boot your Congress representative, and vote in a new one: 1. Did he/she support renaming “french fries” to “freedom fries”? 2. Does  he/she refer to the Koch brothers by their first name? 3. Does he/she wear …

Scientific Study: Many of our “Leaders” are Insane

Wall Street Protesters, it is not only OK to push back, but probably a very ‘sane’ thing to do.  When the insane have taken over the asylum, it is time to act. A recent study from Switzerland’s University of St. Gallen shows that the most successful of the global financial …

Right Brain Stimulation Reduces Stress, Enhances Creativity

Keywords: Dance Therapy, Music Therapy, Pain Management, Stress Reduction, Creativity Enhancement, Education, Language, Conceptual Skills Researchers analyzed scores from the International Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) test, which is given in 65 countries. In 2009, about 32 percent of American students scored what the researchers termed “proficient” on the PISA, …

Should You Replace Your Congressman? Take This Test

If you answer “yes” to any of the questions below, it is time to boot your Congress representative, and vote in a new one: 1. Did he/she support renaming “french fries” to “freedom fries”? 2. Does  he/she refer to the Koch brothers by their first name? 3. Does he/she wear …

Recent Articles:

Solar Roads In our Future?

This promising research has been awarded our coveted “technology-that-might-save-our–butts” designation.  We all can use a little “sunshine” right now.  Watch:

GOP becomes Wacky Banana. Why do they keep winning?

August 3, 2011 Blog, Mayhem Politics 1 Comment

Here’s a theory (follow the arrows):

Presenting, the "Power Elite", a.k.a. the Republican Party. They only represent about 2% of the honest-to-God interests of the people in the U.S.

The "rich elite" perform some kind of magic here.

The "magic" influences 51% or more of the Voters. Perhaps it's the influx of special interest money?

$1 Gazillion of special interest money can buy a lot of TV time!

Which results in this map of the 2010 election. Magically, the interest of about 2% of our population turns into 51% of the popular vote!


I don’t know about you, but I can’t believe that 49% of Americans are that gullible (%51 – 2% of the rich and famous).  For the past few years, Republicans have made no bones about where their loyalties lye;  directly at the feet of corporations and the very rich of this country.  Exhibit A: during our manufactured “debt limit crisis”, they held congress hostage on such issues as: “should corporate jet owners continue to get tax subsidies?”.   Exibit B: they would rather see our middle class crash and burn than to increase taxes on the very rich.  How transparent is that!   I don’t care if you’re an Okie From Muskogeeby, it has to be pretty clear that the Republican party no longer gives a rat’s ass about anybody making less than $250,000.   In fact, let’s face it, they HATE YOU if you are earning below that amount.  You are no good to them.  You are a waste of their time.  You are a drain on our society and if they had their way they would dispose of you.  What else would explain why they are trying to bust unions, undermine social safety nets such as social security and medicare,  get rid of any kind of free or subsidized medical care,  deep 6 public transportation projects,  trash  the quality of our air and water?  The answer is simple: it’s because if you make more than $250,000 a year, the absence of any of these things will not effect you.  If you make less than that, you are a failure, and thus deserve to suffer.

So, I pose this question to republicans making less than $250k, why do you vote for these guys?

One Corporation, Under God

August 3, 2011 Blog No Comments

Are you a U.S. Corporation? We've created just the template for you. And, it's FREE!

We’ve created just the template for you. And, it’s FREE!

Debt Deal: The REAL Winners and Losers

August 2, 2011 Blog, Environment No Comments

After months of terrifying millions of Americans  and the world in general, our Congress is patting itself on the back for saving us from a disaster that they themselves created.  (Thanks guys, you’re really swell).  Meanwhile, on the news that these budget cuts have become law, the stock market takes a serious loss (hmmm, does Wall Street know something we don’t?  Maybe reduced spending in a recession isn’t a good idea?)

However this is just the beginning.  Forming in September, the next round of $1.5 trillion in cuts would be decided by a committee of 12 lawmakers evenly divided between the two parties and two chambers. This so-called “super Congress” would have to present its cuts by Thanksgiving, and the rest of Congress could not amend or filibuster the recommendations.

BUT:  if the super Congress somehow failed to enact savings, the measure requires automatic cuts worth at least $1.2 trillion. Those cuts would be split equally between military and domestic programs. Social Security, Medicaid and programs for the poor would be spared, but Medicare providers — not beneficiaries — would take a hit.

Let’s face it, this is nothing but a “Super Cop-out”.  Based on what we saw over these last few months, why should we think that this “Super Congress”  will get ANYTHING  done?  6 Republicans and 6 Democrats agreeing on how to cut spending?  Get real.  Boehner already said he will not appoint anyone for this committee that is pro tax (er, I mean “revenue”).  Obama still thinks he can get some tax revenue.  No way.  So, let’s just go ahead and ASSUME they will resume their infantile bickering and  fail.   Then, “Plan B” goes into effect.

Plan B will gut domestic spending -  read: minimal spending/investment in our infrastructure (dams, levees, etc.), government oversight of industry (i.e., Wall Street and their corporate friends that love to pollute),  and anything else that has to do with maintaining our life support system (i.e., Earth).

So who gets the real hit?  Once again, our Mother Earth takes it on the chin.  Goodbye life support system, you’ve been great.

One has to wonder how legal this thing is anyway?  The congress forms a forth branch of government to make decisions because our legislative branch is incapable of doing so?   So our representatives can go home to their constituents and say “hey, it’s them, the committee, not me making these unpopular choices”.    Our founding fathers have to be spinning in their graves (or laughing their asses off).  Can anyone say “dysfunction”?

Is It Just Me Or Is Everyone Looking To Hire Talent an Idiot?

August 18, 2010 Rants & Raves 1 Comment

This was taken from Los Angeles Craigslist…

Sure this might sound a little surly but hear me out

Cue rant in 3, 2 …..

As you all know the economy is a little tight and we thought that we could come over to craigslist to drum up some business

We are developers and designers who really live and work in Los Angeles not freekin’ New Delhi

We’re also English fluent and some of our guys are really named Jeff, Scooter & Dave not Punjab a.k.a. Jeff, Scooter or Dave

You then get these techno-tards who think LAMP is something you put on your nightstand and just because they have a computer they know stuff

They figure “Hey Nephew Joey spends A LOT of time on the computer let’s have him do our Corporate site”

Sure Joey is just lifting music and watching porn but he must be some kind of freekin’ expert because he spends SO much time online and yet no one has ever checked his browsing history

They offer him like 7 bucks an hour because “that’s more than he’s making now delivering newspapers plus he still lives at home”

Then all too soon they figure out little Joey is a little unreliable.

… Continue Reading

Cutting the Cable

A new year, a new decade, a time to trim the spending.

We have had Time Warner Cable as our cable television, internet and phone for the past few years under the “all the best” plan. According to Time Warner the “all the best” plan is a cheaper alternative to have TV, Internet and Phone service, bundled though them as aposed to having three service providers.

We have 4 tvs two of which are HD, and two are SD we had 3 digital cable boxes and one tv on basic cable. For the internet we have a wireless router, and a gigabit wired LAN. The phone was

digitalphone using the cable network. All of this was costing us about $170 a month.

Now that would not be to horrible if it worked all the time, but there was always issues with our service. During the time we have had Time Warner Cable we have made probably over 10 service calls and had just as many techs out to our house to fix the same issue over and over, weak signal…

Our neighborhood was built in the 1940′s and its aging infrastructure is starting to show its age, the city is constantly working on improving services and ripping the road up replacing sewer, and street lighting. But you rarely see Time Warner Cable upgrading there hardware. … Continue Reading

PayPal’s Major Flaw – Bank Transfers and Bad Design

I shop on eBay about once a month and normally pay with PayPal in the last 6 years making and receiving thousands of transactions, using PayPal I have had a few small issues but nothing that could not be cleared up by a phone call. But my last experience with PayPal will change the way I look at that company, and may influence the ways I purchase online in the future.

On Dec 22 2009 I had purchased a 1.75″ shackles & spacer lift for my jeep cherokee, during checkout I wanted to use a new credit card. So like most people would do I clicked on alternate payment sources, and entered my cards information, and then hit save and submit. Little did I know that once I hit the submit button all hell would break lose…

To my knowledge the transaction worked as planned the next day my credit card showed a pending charge from PayPal, but it was for only $1. At this point I still thought it was working as I see a $1 charge all the time as merchants use that to authorize the card.

About four days later I get an email from my bank that I have been overdrawn and has over $100 in NSF fees, this is when I discovered PayPal made a big mistake. … Continue Reading

Project Code Yellow: Engine Cooling

December 19, 2009 Auto No Comments

Living in southern California it can get quite toasty in the summer but up until now we haven’t had a day over 75, but last week we had a triple digit day with it peaking to around 105. This uncovered a hidden issue with the Jeep, as we where driving though Thousand Oaks we noticed that the coolant temp was pegged at 260. We quickly pulled into a gas station and and checked the coolant level, all looked good but after idling for a few minutes the temperature went down and took about 2 quarts of coolant. We made it to our Los Angeles location but was running hot the entire time.

Because of this we wanted to beef up the cooling system, so after some research we decided a conversion to a 92+ system was best. The two types of cooling systems are Open and Closed, the 90 jeep comes with a closed system, this means that the system is closed and has a inline recovery tank that allows for expansion, this type does not have a radiator cap and fluid is filled though the recover tank. The Open system is different as it has a radiator cap and a overflow tank instead of a inline tank, this recovers the extra coolant when the system gets to hot.

Each system has its advantages and disadvantages

Open system Advantages:

  • Ease of filling system
  • Overflow tank
  • Simple hose routing

Open system Disadvantages:

  • Overflow tank only works one way without special cap

Closed system Advantages:

  • No overflow tank to worry about, recovery tank takes the overflow and also fills when needed

Closed system Disadvantages:

  • No radiator cap
  • Coolant must be added to the overflow tank
  • Complicated hose routing
  • Plastic recovery bottle can crack

So the game plan for this retrofit would consisted of the following:

  1. CSF 3 row all steel radiator – radiatorbarn.com
  2. Water Pump
  3. High Flow Thermostat 195 Mr. Gasket
  4. All new hoses
  5. Heater Control Valve … Continue Reading

Project Code Yellow: One Year Later

December 19, 2009 Auto, Featured No Comments

One year ago at this time I was looking at a project Jeep to purchase, it was in poor condition to say the least and would not move under its own power.

I then spent a long few months rebuilding it and transforming it into an off road Jeep. Tomorrow December 20th is exactly one year after purchasing the Jeep and having it towed home. In this time I have done many unique things to it and have customized it in and out.

In the year I have put over 10,000 miles on the Jeep and taken it many places, I have never been let down or stranded by the Jeep and over all it is a reliable Jeep. I would feel comfortable taking it on a long road trip with no worries about being stranded, I also have all the tools and spare parts to fix most the issues I would encounter on the road.

Jeep Specs & Projects:

  • Painted exterior
  • Stripped interior and replaced with new carpet, Volvo seats, recovered headliner
  • Applied peel-n-seal on entire floor pan
  • Rebuilt Transmission and replaced torque converter
  • Converted to open cooling system, CSF 3 row radiator, Three Electric Fans
  • Custom HD SYE (Rubicon Express collar, cut down yolk) and Coast Driveline HD CV shaft
  • Rubicon Express 3.5″ Super Ride lift, full packs plus extra stock leaf for weight capacity
  • 31″ BFG AT tires, 15 x 8 American Racing soft 8
  • Diy Front & Rear Bumpers
  • Con Ferr roof rack & DIY Ladder
  • Slide out storage drawers
  • Rope racks … Continue Reading

Mathematical Proof: Single Payer = “Good”

August 29, 2009 Blog, The Mud Pit, World No Comments

56586291There has been much debate in the last few months over the Health Care Bills in Congress.  Much of it, I’m afraid, has been more emotion and misconceptions than logic or truisms.  Few that have gotten through high school can dispute certain mathematical truths that were drilled into them ad nauseum.  One that we learn early on, is:

If A = B

and A = C,

Then B = C

Instead of ranting and raving illogically at various town hall meetings, let’s try using a little good old-fashioned logic (that we were all bored-to-death with in high school, but, let’s face it, can come in handy now and then).

Now consider the following statistics:

When asked in a new Harris Poll how strongly those polled support 14 different government services, five services receive strong, or a fair amount of support, from about three-fourths of all adults or more. The five most popular services are The National Parks Service (85% support), Crime-fighting and prevention services (77%) Medicare (76%), Social Security (76%), and Unemployment benefits (74%).

Medicare came in with a strong 76%, over 3 out of 4 people polled by Harris.  (REMINDER: Medicare is a “single payer” system, with the government as the payee).  I think it is safe to say that overall, Medicare is a success, and, if we can say that success is “good”,  it logically follows that:

Medicare (A) = Single-payer System (B)

Medicare (A) = “good” (C)

then, Single-Payer System (B) = “good” (C)

Now, that wasn’t so painful was it?


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