Voices Heard This Past Week

There was much interest in the oil spill off the Louisiana coast affecting the west coast of Florida as well.  Governor Charlie Crist declared a state of emergency in six Florida counties and the people commenting are represented by the most often positions described below the story.  News story begins below the image.

(CNN) -- Florida Gov. Charlie Crist declared a state of emergency in six counties Friday as a result of the Gulf Coast oil spill, the governor's office said.


Crist joins Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who declared a state of emergency in his state Thursday.

Crist said the oil spill "threatens the state of Florida with a major disaster." He declared an emergency in Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, Walton, Bay and Gulf counties in the Florida Panhandle.

Officials anticipate Venice and Port Fourchon, Louisiana, will be the first places affected Friday when the massive oil spill caused by last week's rig explosion reaches shore, said Mike Abendhoff, a spokesman for BP, which owns the ruptured well where oil continues to leak.

CNN

Every single one of you people bitching about oil companies are a bunch friggin idiots. You have absolutely no clue what you are talking about. I guarantee that 90% of you bozos going on and on about killing the planet, and oil companies suck and blah blah blah are driving around in SUV's and mini vans and would scream bloody murder if you had to ride a bike to work. This was an accident people. Accidents happen, it's a dangerous world out there. Everyone bitches about our dependence on foreign oil but yet you dont want to drill domestic....you cant have both and your carbon dependent lifestyles at the same time...hypocrites

Posted by: bigoil

To all the knee jerkers out there thinking we should drill our oil at all. Im totally ticked off too because Pensacola is my favorite summer spot. However, it's all about implementing and overseeing safety measures on rigs. It's been over 20 years since the last major spill. Now that this has happened, do you think that its likely to happen again any time soon if we implement further measures?

Second thought...lets just let the middle east keep in a choke hold until we can develop alternative energy sources. We are one pissed off country away from paying $6,7 or 8 per gallon.

Posted by: WPC

I just read the CNN poll whether this oil spill has changed your mind regarding drilling off shore. Majority of people still support offshore drilling. I guess the environment will never be more important their lifestyle.

Posted by: camberly lillich

I am waiting for the news that this wellhead didn't even have a blowout preventer on it because some idiot decided that the well was too deep underwater to cause an environmental issue in case of an accident.

Posted by: Txepsiyu

T G I F

Yes my friends, the TGIF model is heading to the beach this weekend and so am I.  This will be a special weekend with friends as we play in the surf and invite the grand children over to do the same.  I love walking on the sand and when I do, I walk for miles.  It's good exercise.  Make sure you get out in the Spring weather and get some sun, work up a sweat, keep that blood flow flowing, have a great weekend!

Keep This For My Grandies

Love it!

Bob McDonnell is An Idiot

Earlier this month, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) signed legislation allowing “concealed carry permit holders to bring loaded handguns” into establishments that serve alcohol. The law allows permit holders to carry guns in restaurants, “as long as the holders do not consume alcohol.” A leading Virginia gun lobby is now arguing that the law unfairly stigmatizes gun carriers as second-class citizens because there is an exception that “allows law-enforcement officers and commonwealth’s attorneys to carry concealed weapons and consume alcohol.”

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Bat!

The reflection looks like a dog.

Fuel Efficient Airplane

Can go 100 mph.

Sad

I loved going to the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. when I lived in Northern Virginia.  The writer is from there.

Park officials had separated Pansy from the other chimpanzees for treatment when she became ill in November 2008. But when her breathing became erratic a few weeks later, the other three chimps were allowed to join her.

In the 10 minutes before she died, the three animals – an elderly female named Blossom, Blossom's adult son Chippy and Pansy's adult daughter Rosie – frequently groomed and caressed Pansy. They crouched in close, and Chippy shook her arm, apparently testing for signs of life.

When they got no reaction, "they appeared to arrive at a collective decision that something had changed, and she was no longer the same as she was beforehand," said lead author James Anderson, who studies primate behavior at the University of Stirling. "It seems they are clearly able to distinguish the difference between being alive and unresponsive."

Soon, both Blossom and Chippy left Pansy's side. Even though it was not her usual sleeping area, Rosie stayed by her mother's corpse almost the entire night, sleeping fitfully.

Sixteen hours after Pansy's death, zookeepers removed the body, with the three chimps watching quietly. For several days afterward, the group was subdued, refusing to make a nest on the platform where Pansy had died. They also demanded more attention from the keepers.

Copied from Hecate

OK Got It

You're Good Until You're Bad . . .

Oh Bravo!

LOL.

Spring Has Sprung

Pretty soon everything will be coming up roses around here . . . my house.  The Sprinkler Man is coming today to fix our sprinkler system and the yard work is almost done.  I see tons of clippings, branches, that have to be hauled away.  But soon we will look like new.

Tee

LOL

Get Out Your National ID Card Folks

by Eugene Robinson
The Washington Post

Arizona's draconian new immigration law is an abomination -- racist, arbitrary, oppressive, mean-spirited, unjust. About the only hopeful thing that can be said is that the legislation, which Republican Gov. Jan Brewer signed Friday, goes so outrageously far that it may well be unconstitutional.

Brewer, who caved to xenophobic pressures that previous governors had the backbone to resist, should be ashamed of herself. The law requires police to question anyone they "reasonably suspect" of being an undocumented immigrant -- a mandate for racial profiling on a massive scale. Legal immigrants will be required to carry papers proving that they have a right to be in the United States. Those without documentation can be charged with the crime of trespassing and jailed for up to six months.

Activists for Latino and immigrant rights -- and supporters of sane governance -- held weekend rallies denouncing the new law and vowing to do everything they can to overturn it. But where was the Tea Party crowd? Isn't the whole premise of the Tea Party movement that overreaching government poses a grave threat to individual freedom? It seems to me that a law allowing individuals to be detained and interrogated on a whim -- and requiring legal residents to carry identification documents, as in a police state -- would send the Tea Partyers into apoplexy. Or is there some kind of exception if the people whose freedoms are being taken away happen to have brown skin and might speak Spanish?

Read the rest HERE

Lovely

Christine Falk

WOW!

This ride looks mean.

Change

Lots and Lots of Change!

Game Over!

Oh Mario, No!

Worth Reading

The quote below is from the New York Times review.  This book is about a father dealing with his son's Meth addiction.  A son who was a Varsity star athlete until he started doing Methamphetamines.

In the midst of weathering the grief and worry that came with watching Nic deteriorate, the senior Mr. Sheff suffered a brain hemorrhage. Did the son’s addiction and recidivism contribute to the father’s health crisis? In the words of one of the many therapists who drift through this book, often to frustratingly little effect for the Sheffs, “Well, it sure didn’t help.”

NY TIMES

Baby Alert!

First time photo of Zoey and Jerome in a chair together.  They sat there for at least 15 minutes and Zoey didn't even move when Jerome pulled his hat off and laid it on her furs.  Zoey is taking to her new job as baby sitter.

Oh Really!

no comment.

Cassette Portraits

Weird but not so weird.  Find more portraits here.

Lovely

Water Coloring was always a favorite art for me in school.

Butterfly Clock

Fly Away, Fly Away

WOW! This Poster Says a Mouthful

I knew it all the time.

And It's Off to Work We Go

Unfortunately, it's off to work in rain today with thunder storms and where I live, we are under a Tornado watch.  Usually means nasty weather with strong winds blowing the rain every which way.  But it is a work week for most of us and I'll be heading to Brevard Community College, the Melbourne campus, sometime around noon.  I hope it stops raining by then but the forecast says all day.  I'm lucky I will be driving instead of taking a train like the photo above.  Have a wonderful week!

Wood Carving

I really like the detail in this piece of wood art.

What If TeaBaggers Were Black?

Actually if this were true the white people who are the real teabaggers would choke.  They would probably point and shoot.  But this is a funny game called Imagine.

Imagine that hundreds of black protesters were to descend upon Washington DC and Northern Virginia, just a few miles from the Capitol and White House, armed with AK-47s, assorted handguns, and ammunition. And imagine that some of these protesters —the black protesters — spoke of the need for political revolution, and possibly even armed conflict in the event that laws they didn’t like were enforced by the government? Would these protester — these black protesters with guns — be seen as brave defenders of the Second Amendment, or would they be viewed by most whites as a danger to the republic? What if they were Arab-Americans? Because, after all, that’s what happened recently when white gun enthusiasts descended upon the nation’s capital, arms in hand, and verbally announced their readiness to make war on the country’s political leaders if the need arose.


Imagine that white members of Congress, while walking to work, were surrounded by thousands of angry black people, one of whom proceeded to spit on one of those congressmen for not voting the way the black demonstrators desired. Would the protesters be seen as merely patriotic Americans voicing their opinions, or as an angry, potentially violent, and even insurrectionary mob? After all, this is what white Tea Party protesters did recently in Washington.

READ THE REST HERE

I Believe

Doesn't look like he's collected much.  Need new sign!

Shower

Next time I build another dream home I'm going to ask the contractor to make the master shower look like this image above.  There's something very earthy and appealing to the eye.  This is a shower that gets used!  I love it.

Here We Go!

First joke making fun of the State of Arizona and I bet there's much more to come.  The new Brown People-Your Papers Please Law is really not funny at all.

Sunday Morning

Love is the most powerful force in the universe, and for centuries mystics have understood the transformative potential of divine love. Love draws us back to love, love uncovers love, love makes us whole and love takes us Home. In the depths of the soul we are loved by God. This is the deepest secret of being human, the bond of love that is at the core of our being. And yet we have forgotten this essential nature of our being; we are hidden from our own deepest love. The mystical path is an uncovering of this love, an awakening to our own capacity to love and be loved.

Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

Sunday Funnies

great one!
happy earth day.

Crooks!

and they should be in jail.

Oh Yeah!

snow pins?

Start Digging!

I love it.

Funnies

LOL

Oldie But Goodie

must be the old health care.

For Those Who Want the Buck Rodgers Experience

This hot little item is a great gift idea for that person in your life that already has everything.

Check it our here:  The Predicta Meteor

Eyes in the Sky

Twenty years ago today the Hubble Space Telescope was launched. I can hardly believe the telescope has been in space twenty years already. Along with this remarkable image, the Hubble folks have a whole series of other things lined up to mark the occasion. Be SURE to read the press release below OR just click the link and read it on Hubblesite and see more images!

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OK Mr Lion, What Day Is It?

"It's Caturday!"

Getting the Garden Ready for Spring

Them paws are big enough to be put to work.

Ooooh My Eyes Hurt

Poster this week.

On the Prowl . . .

Well this lower image looks like she's waiting for Mom to come home.

See You Next Caturday . . .

"I Be Here, when you come back to see us again"

WOW! Is This Close or What?

LOL.

Voices Heard This Past Week

There were many news items with lots of comments this past week but a major theme running through news threads was the controversial illegal immigration bill heading to the Governor's desk for approval in Arizona.  President Obama came out with the comments below, first the news story, then the comments from different news reports around the internet.

Washington (CNN) -- President Obama on Friday criticized a controversial new immigration bill in Arizona, calling it "misguided."

"Our failure to act responsible at the federal level will only open the door to irresponsibility by others. That includes, for example, the recent efforts in Arizona, which threaten to undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans, as well as the trust between police and their communities that is so crucial to keeping us safe," the president said at a naturalization ceremony for 24 members of the military.

"In fact, I've instructed members of my administration to closely monitor the situation and examine the civil rights and other implications of this legislation. But if we continue to fail to act at the federal level, we will continue to see misguided efforts opening up around the country."

CNN

Comments:

KingKongKing Wrote:


It's racial profiling because you won't ask a white guy you just pulled over his I.D. It's that simple.

Brittanicus wrote


There are nearly 16 million Americans out of work, and about 8 million jobs are held by illegal immigrants. By simply enforcing immigration laws already on the books, we could create millions of job opportunities for American citizens and legal immigrants who played by the rules and entered the U.S. the right way.

Susanne Wrote:


I think we can all agree Az is a fairly backward state, we keep reelecting McCain and Kyl.


nwexcal21 Wrote


finally a sensible post - politicians from both sides won't do anything - incase people forgot we did have a republican president from 2000-2008. what exactly did he do about this problem?