Escapa

The object of the game is to move the red block around without getting hit by the blue blocks or touching the black walls. Click and hold the red square. Now, move it so that you neither touch the walls nor get hit by any of the blue blocks.

If you make it to 18 seconds, you are doing brilliantly!

Give it a try but be careful...it is addictive

Up, Up and Away

Police Misconduct, False Confessions and Unethical Prosecutions

UPDATE II: Another fabricated confessions. Read CNN, Mentally challenged man freed 14 years after false confession.


UPDATE: Another case where "the prosecution had essentially framed [two men] for murder by knowingly procuring false testimony." Read Sports Illustrated, Terry Harrington spent 25 years in jail for crime he didn't commit.

Another great expose' of the criminal justice system, by PBS Frontline. Watch The Confessions, about the Norfolk Four.

Real Dogsledding

When it snows, go sledding:

SOTU

Politics today, this pretty much says it all:



Needs no additional comments.

Sub Today at NoBullU on WEBY

Usually on Thursdays you can listen to me, the voice of wisdom and reason in a wilderness of partisan rhetoric -- no political insanity, no conservative hypocrisy, no liberal foolishness -- just straight talk, straight at you, and that’s no bull!!

But I can't make it today, Morning Mike will sub. I'll be back next week to deprogram you.

Until then, watch the hilarious photo booth, guaranteed to make you laugh, especially the last one:

Hilarious Photo-Booth!
- Watch more Videos at Vodpod.

How to Find Mr./Ms. Happily Ever After

"[H]ow many dates do you have to go on to find 'the one'? And how do you know for sure that once you do meet Mr. or Ms. Right, a more attractive, more compatible prospect won’t pop up right around the corner?" Science can help. Read CNN, Dating with science on your side.

Who Controls End-of-Life Decisions?

The State or you? Read The New York Times, Unflinching End-of-Life Moments, which reviews an HBO documentary about assisted suicide, "How to Die in Oregon."

Myth of the Hero Gunslinger

UPDATE: What do others studies show? What other studies? "Researchers who study guns and violence say the influence of the group has all but choked off funds." Read The New York Times, N.R.A. Stymies Firearms Research, Scientists Say.

Your ignorance is the NRA's bliss.

"New studies, and perhaps the example of the Tucson shootings, suggest that a better-armed population actually makes us less safe." Read The New York Times, Myth of the Hero Gunslinger.

Health Care Lawsuit Score: US 2 - VA 1

UPDATE V: Trivia: The first U.S. law that included an individual mandate was the Militia Acts of 1792. What was the second?

Read Forbes, Congress Passes Socialized Medicine and Mandates Health Insurance -In 1798.


UPDATE IV: Add Iowa, Ohio, Kansas, Wyoming, Wisconsin and Maine to the lawsuit.


UPDATE III: Today it is US v. FL, SC, NE, TX, UT, LA, AL, MI, CO, PA, WA, ID, SD, IN, ND, MS, AZ, NV, GA, and AL. Read the Washington Post, Florida judge to rule on health-care challenge by states.


UPDATE II: "Twenty-four lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordability Act are working their way through federal courts around the country. The cases contest many aspects of the law beyond the one that has drawn the greatest attention: the requirement that most Americans carry health insurance starting in 2014. Most of the suits still are before district court judges, but a few already have been ruled on and are being appealed to federal circuit courts. Legal experts predict that one or more of these cases eventually will be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court." Track some of the cases at the Washington Post, Status of legal challenges to Obama health care overhaul.


UPDATE: It's all about the individual mandate. Read the Washington Post, Is the Hudson ruling good news for health reform?, Cutting off your policies to spite your opponents, and A world without an individual mandate.

And what U.S. law required the first individual mandate. Read the Militia Acts of 1792.

A federal judge in Virgina, with a long history in Republi-con politics, has ruled that "Congress went too far by requiring most Americans to obtain insurance, a key provision of the health care overhaul that passed muster in two prior court challenges." Read The New York Times, Health Care Law Ruled Unconstitutional.

To read the opinion, click here. To read some of the other recent court documents, click here.

A Guy Fairy Tale

From an email:

Once upon a time, a Prince asked a beautiful Princess... "Will you marry me?"

The Princess said "NO!"

And the Prince lived happily ever after and rode motorcycles, and went fishing and hunting and played golf, and dated women half his age and drank beer and scotch, and had tons of money in the bank and left the toilet seat up.

The End

My What Bright Teeth You Have!

"Teens could soon be wandering around with a new fashion accessory that adds glowing LED lights to their teeth." Read The New York Times, New Japanese Fashion: LED Lights for Your Teeth.

How is Your Technology?

More Bailout Bull Revelations

"You would think at this point that there would be nothing left to be outraged about when it comes to government bailouts. But the more bailout rocks you turn over, the more well-connected players you find who aren't being forced to pay the full price of their mistakes." Read the Washington Post,
Old GMAC shareholders are winners after bailout.

So "[w]hy can't those who face foreclosure get the same sorts of help as bankrupt companies?" Read The New York Times, What’s Good for G.M. Is Good For Homeowners.

Needless Rules?

Needless rules, "reviled by some are cherished by others." Would it have prevented a
Gulf Shores mother from running over 4-year-old daughter at an Okaloosa RV park?
Read The New York Times, Obama Is Latest to Hunt for Elusive 'Dumb' Rules.

China, Rogue Economic Superpower

UPDATE II: "Is "our newest economic superpower may indeed be on its way to some kind of economic crisis, with collateral damage to the world as a whole. " Read The New York Times, China Goes to Nixon.


UPDATE: "Here we go again.

China's Supreme Leader visits Washington, and administration officials declare in the run-up to the visit that the United States has had quite enough of Beijing's currency-manipulating, intellectual- property-stealing, domestic- industry-subsidizing policies. . .

By week's end, Americans finally turn their attentions back to the more pressing issue of whether the Jets can really make it to the Super Bowl.

So far, this week's visit by President Hu Jintao has pretty much followed the script."

Read the Washington Post, Chinese follow same old script (and they get the punch line).

"China’s rare-earth monopoly is yet another example of its refusal to play by the rules." Read The New York Times, Rare and Foolish.

And China laughs all the way to the bank.

But all is not lost, yet. we could "use tariffs to counter Beijing’s unfair export subsidies." Read The New York Times, For Our China Trade Emergency, Dial Section 301.

Class Today at NoBullU on WEBY

UPDATE: Regarding thimerosal in vaccines, see the FDA Thimerosal in Vaccines Questions and Answers.

Tammy recommends Thimerosal in Childhood Vaccines, Neurodevelopment Disorders, and Heart Disease in the United States.

But see also WHO Position of the Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety regarding concerns raised by paper about the safety of thiomersal-containing vaccines.

Listen to the voice of wisdom and reason in a wilderness of partisan rhetoric -- No political insanity, no conservative hypocrisy, no liberal foolishness -- Just straight talk, straight at you, and that’s no bull!!

NoBullU will broadcast today from 4:05 to 6:00 p.m. at 1330 AM WEBY and on line.

Topics:

The NoBullU New Year's Resolution and why you don't disagree with me


Follow-up to fact-free fantasies: don't be duped;


Local and regional: Happy Centennial!, non-Christians not welcome in AL, and local Taj Mahal, or poisoned well politics?: first the ECUA admin building and Perdido Key fire station and community center, and now a new sports complex -- can't the kids just play in the streets;


National and international: I'm waiting, where's the balanced budget, time to call the Republi-CON bluff, first day, first broken promise -- no $100 billion budget cut -- then broken promises two three and four -- the Republi-con health care repeal bill does conform to the pledge to include the statutory basis, identify spending cuts to pay for the $230 billion cost, and Republi-cons say no amendments,
the reason -- health care industry bottomline, time to call the Republi-CON bluff on health care, China déjà vu, but what can ya do?, in the Navy, it's not like not used to be, but maybe that's a good thing, Marriage 101, Happy 400th Birthday to the King James Bible, what Obama can learn from the Republi-CON Reagan myth and Republi-CON fear, anger, hatred = violence yet again;
an example of the fear, anger, hatred industry


Fun stuff: first Pluto, now Ophiuchus, why are they messin with the heavans;

and

Donate to a good cause: help the friends of a former instructor at the Naval EOD school at Eglin Air Force Base, Gunnery Sgt. John Hayes, who was detachment company gunnery sergeant from June 2007 to June 2010 and taught several courses and was recently wounded in Afghanistan.

I'll discuss anything, but expect a no mercy take down if you are a party hack pandering to fear, anger and hatred, because the truth sure makes it hard out there for the party pimps.

So tune-in, call-in, but only if you can handle the truth and some ass kickin' discussion of politics and current events.

Republi-CON Exceptionalism

"One thing that is endlessly amusing about the contemporary right is their comical lack of historical proportion, their frequent tendency to compare their current situation to the plight endured by history's leading victims of oppression, persecution, and genocide." Read the Washington Post, Delusions of world-historical grandeur.

Time to Call the Republi-CON Bluff

UPDATE V: "Republicans are popping up with new schemes on the debt ceiling. They don't just want to extract big cuts in spending; they actually want to refuse to raise the debt ceiling." Read the Washington Post, Do the GOP debt-limit schemes make sense?

I dare, no I double dare them to not raise the debt-ceiling limit and balance the budget immediately!


UPDATE IV: Read The New York Times, About That $100 Billion, which notes:

"It has been four months since John Boehner, now speaker of the House, first proposed to cut $100 billion from this year’s budget, an idea that was later elevated to a “pledge to America” in the 2010 campaign. Last week, Mr. Boehner finally specified his first actual cut: $35 million from House lawmakers’ office budgets.

Precisely because it is puny and painless, the cut passed the House with broad support, showing once again that the path to bipartisanship in Washington is paved with giveaways (like deficit-increasing tax cuts) and grandstanding (like trivial spending cuts dressed up as deficit reduction).

The road to fiscal responsibility is a harder one. . .

House Republicans claim that voters elected them in November to cut spending. Let’s hear the specifics, and then see what the people want."

UPDATE III: "Another conservative economic miracle bites the dust, with implications for the nation. . . Right now, triumphant conservatives in Washington are declaring that they can cut taxes and still balance the budget by slashing spending. Yet they haven’t been able to do that even in Texas, which is willing both to impose great pain (by its stinginess on health care) and to shortchange the future (by neglecting education). How are they supposed to pull it off nationally, especially when the incoming Republicans have declared Medicare, Social Security and defense off limits?" Read The New York Times, The Texas Omen.


UPDATE II: Will the Naive-ocrat be chumps again? Read the Washington Post, Raise debt limit to avoid national catastrophe, Geithner warns Congress.


UPDATE: Countdown to April 2011, when the debt ceiling is reached. The Naive-ocrats were chumps last time. But here is their chance to call the Republi-con bluff. And some are predicting a political 'blood bath.' Why? Because Republi-cons aren't " interested in helping the economy as long as a Democrat is in the White House." Read The New York Times, There Will Be Blood.

The Republi-con jihad against America continues.

Fear, anger, and hatred -- a great campaign strategy, but not much of a governing philosophy.

Now "[t]he new Republican House majority is facing a choice between cultural or intellectual dissent." Read The New York Times, G.O.P. Faces Choice in How to Oppose.

The Naive-ocrats have been too stupid to call the bluff -- give the public what it claims it wants until they don't want it anymore.

Republi-CON Health Care Rashomon

For a review of the "straightforwardly wrong and dishonest arguments" by Republi-cons regarding the health care law, read the Washington Post, Health-care Rashomon.