Rabid Liberal’s Rants

This is just way too funny. In fact, it’s probably something I would have done myself. You gotta give the guy some credit for being ballsy. In a private meeting with other G-8 summit leaders, President Bush finishes  a meeting with the words “Goodbye from the world’s biggest polluter.” Not only that, he pumps his fist into the air. I’m not his biggest fan but you gotta love it. Kinda reminds me of the Simpsons episode where Homer steals some candy from a candy convention and while being chased by the convention folks, he lobs a pack of pop rocks candy and soda at them. Before the explosion he yells “See you in hell candy boys!”.

A leaked report by the World Bank, purportedly confirms that biofuels, not increased demand from India and China, has caused the world’s food prices to increase by 75%.

The report’s author, a senior World Bank economist, assessed that contrary to claims by US President George W. Bush, increased demand from India and China has not been the cause of rising food prices.

The news also suggests that the report was finished back in April, but was held back to:

avoid embarrassing the US government, which has claimed plant-derived fuels have pushed up prices by only three percent.

It all sounds to corny to me, hehehe….

No freakin way! These guys are actually riding Segways? This photo (found on Yahoo), apparently an official photo released by the official Xinhua news agency, depicts a demonstration of “rapid deployment” by members of China’s armed police on what seems to be Segways. An anti-terrorist drill, held to prepare for the Olympics.

So that’s where all the Segways went…..

Here we go again. The corn industry, this time under the guise of the New Fuels Alliance and FoodPriceTruth.org, are saying that higher food prices, in particular, chicken, are NOT a result of more corn going to corn based biofuels instead of chicken feed.

Yeah, right. Same old story.

A great opinion page in the Christian Science Monitor by Mickey Edwards, describing what’s wrong with Congress today. Basically, how Congress has become an extension of the Executive Branch, rubber stamping the President’s orders. Instead, members of Congress should:

“come from the states they represent and to serve as a check on – not enabler of – the president. “

 

NY Bank ‘loses’ 4.5M unencrypted customer records by ZDNet’s Michael Krigsman — In yet another unbelievable story of data irresponsibility, the Bank of New York (BNY) Mellon lost two sets of unencrypted backup tapes containing private data belonging to 4.5 million individuals. Third-party vendors misplaced the tapes during transport to off-site locations.

This is ridiculous. In this day and age, where identity theft is commonplace, encryption should be standard practice. Safeguarding customer information should be priority #1. I’m all for limited government, but this is one place the government should get involved and make it mandatory, for any company that stores personal information, to make the data encrypted. The software and technology exists to do encryption/decryption in real-time, on-the-fly. Of course, for huge multi-national corporations, they say your privacy is important to them, but not as important as the bottom-line.

In its annual report, the Red Cross warned of a possible surge in “food-related violence” due to soaring food prices. It suggests that several factors are contributing to the rise is prices:

Drought and climate change have led to a slow down in the growth of agricultural production: in Australia, wheat production plummeted by 52% between 2004 and 2006, and grain production dropped by 13% in the United States and 14% in the European Union in the same period. The use of mainly corn-based biofuels is also contributing significantly to the current shortages. Lastly, changes in eating habits in the West and in the so-called emerging markets primarily in Asia, along with rapid urbanization, have driven up demand for food, putting further strain on supply. Speculation on food commodities is also a major destabilizing factor.

There’s been a warning of food riots every month, from different sources. Sounds like things may destabilize in parts of the world by the end of the year.

You read it right. There is rocket fuel in drinking water, “found in at least 395 sites in 35 states”. It’s called perchlorate. And the EPA - the ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION Agency- rather than pushing for safe standards, pushing for cleanup, for both health and environmental reasons, has been twiddling their thumbs for years, has been pushed around by DoD and their contractors. Instead, they’re thinking about issuing a public health advisory.

[Perchlorate] interferes with thyroid function and poses developmental health risks, particularly to fetuses.

If you care about rocket fuel in your drinking water, call your elected official and tell them you want it cleaned up. And while your at it, contact the EPA and let them know you don’t want perchlorate in your drinking water.

More information on perchlorate:

• EPA Perchlorate Links
• Wikipedia info
• FDA Q&A Page on Perchlorate
• CA Dept. of Public Health

I hate mass chain email letters…In fact, I hate them with a passion. My mother-in-law always forwards the ones she receives. Now, I have her on my blocked email address list.

But this one that I received might make sense:

THIS IS NOT THE ‘DON’T BUY’ GAS FOR ONE DAY, BUT IT WILL SHOW YOU HOW WE CAN GET GAS BACK DOWN TO $1.30 PER GALLON.

This was sent by a retired Coca Cola executive. It came from one of his engineer buddies who retired from Halliburton. If you are tired of the gas prices going up AND they will continue to rise this summer, take time to read this please.

Phillip Hollsworth offered this good idea. This makes MUCH MORE SENSE than the “don’t buy gas on a certain day” campaign that was going around last April or May! It’s worth your consideration. Join the resistance!!!!

I hear we are going to hit close to $ 4.00 a gallon by next summer, and it might go higher!! Want gasoline prices to come down? We need to take some intelligent, united action. The oil companies just laughed at that because they knew we wouldn’t continue to “hurt” ourselves by refusing to buy gas. It was more of an inconvenience to us than it was a problem for them. BUT, whoever thought of this idea has come up with a plan that can really work. Please read on and join with us!

By now you’re probably thinking gasoline priced at about $2.00 is super cheap. Me too! It is currently $3.19 for regular unleaded in my town.

Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us to think that the cost of a gallon of gas is CHEAP at $1.50 - $1.75, we need to take aggressive action to teach them that BUYERS control the marketplace…not sellers.

With the price of gasoline going up more each day, we consumers need to take action.

The only way we are going to see the price of gas come down is if we hit someone in the pocketbook by not purchasing their gas! And, we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves. How? Since we all rely on our cars, we can’t just stop buying gas. But we CAN have an impact on gas prices if we all act together to force a price war. Here’s the idea: For the rest of this year, DON’T purchase ANY gasoline from the two biggest companies (which now are one), EXXON and MOBIL.

If they are not selling any gas, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit.

But to have an impact, we need to reach literally millions of Exxon and Mobil gas buyers. It’s really simple to do! Now, don’t wimp out on me at this point…keep reading and I’ll explain how simple it is to reach millions of people!! I am sending this note to 30 people. If each of us send it to at least ten more (30 x 10 = 300) … and those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x10 = 3,000)…and so on, by the time the message reaches the sixth group of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION consumers. If those three million get excited and pass this on to ten friends each, then 30 million people will have been contacted!

If it goes one level further, you guessed it…THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE!!!

Again, all you have to do is send this to 10 people. That’s all! (If you don’t understand how we can reach 300 million and all you have to do is send this to 10 people…Well, let’s face it, you just aren’t a mathematician. But I am . so trust me on this one. How long would all that take? If each of us sends this e-mail out to ten more people within one day of receipt, all 300 MILLION people could conceivably be contacted within the next 8 days !!! I’ll bet you didn’t think you and I had that much potential, did you! Acting together we can make a difference.

If this makes sense to you, please pass this message on. I suggest that we not buy from EXXON/MOBIL UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE $2.00 RANGE AND KEEP THEM DOWN. THIS CAN REALLY WORK.

Keep it going!!!

File Under: Awesome Gadgets/Flying Contraption 

The Gryphon Glider. I want one!