These are the White House cats
Max (on top) and Sam
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
He should be an artist
These drawings by John MacNair caught my eye and I had trouble looking away.
Even though I kind of wanted to...
Green Energy
Night Attack
Tchaikovsky
See more at his website or his blog Scritchy Scraps. but be advised that you may be disturbed. The images above do not do his oeuvre justice.
Even though I kind of wanted to...
Green Energy
Night Attack
Tchaikovsky
See more at his website or his blog Scritchy Scraps. but be advised that you may be disturbed. The images above do not do his oeuvre justice.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Earth Hour
Tonight at 8:30 pm (local time) is the 2010 celebration of Earth Hour.It's easy to participate, just turn your non-essential lights off for 60 minutes starting at 8:30 pm.
Although probably not as noticeable in non-urban areas, if you happen to live in a city, take a look out your window - the impact is pretty amazing.
On Earth Hour, hundreds of millions of people around the world will come together to call for action on climate change by doing something quite simple—turning off their lights for one hour. The movement symbolizes that by working together, each of us can make a positive impact in this fight, protecting our future and that of future generations...The first Earth hour took place in Sydney Australia in 2007 and was conceived by WWF (World Wildlife Fund) and The Sydney Morning Herald - 2.2 million residents of Sydney participated by turning off all non-essential lights in this inaugural event, the world joined in the following year.
Earth Hour is the largest climate event in history. In 2009, more than 4,000 cities in 87 countries went dark. Here in the United States, an estimated 80 million Americans participated, along with 318 cities and 8 US states.
~ EarthHour.org
Join the rest of the world - be a part of Earth Hour 2010!
This video of participating cities from 2009 is pretty amazing -
And check out this series of photos from the Boston Globe of the impact on some iconic monuments from last year's Earth Hour post on the White House blog.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Oh Really...Ms. Obama
"It was better than Chicago pizza,"
- Michelle Obama, at Grimaldi's pizzeria in Brooklyn.
via Andrew Sullivan blog
TW: This may represent Mr. Blogger's first official break with the familias POTUS
- Michelle Obama, at Grimaldi's pizzeria in Brooklyn.
via Andrew Sullivan blog
TW: This may represent Mr. Blogger's first official break with the familias POTUS
I think your cat is broken...
This made me laugh so hard I cried.
And don't forget - Earth Hour is tomorrow at 8:30 pm local time. Lights out!
And don't forget - Earth Hour is tomorrow at 8:30 pm local time. Lights out!
When Dissent Is Exiled
TW: The Dems are not perfect in this respect but the monochromatic, toe the line or else mentality of the current Republican approach certainly makes one wonder what role dissent can play amidst their governance approach.
From Bruce Bartlett:
"As some readers of this blog may know, I was fired by a right wing think tank called the National Center for Policy Analysis in 2005 for writing a book critical of George W. Bush's policies, especially his support for Medicare Part D. In the years since, I have lost a great many friends and been shunned by conservative society in Washington, DC.
Now the same thing has happened to David Frum, who has been fired by the American Enterprise Institute. I don't know all the details, but I presume that his Waterloo post on Sunday condemning Republicans for failing to work with Democrats on healthcare reform was the final straw.
Since, he is no longer affiliated with AEI, I feel free to say publicly something he told me in private a few months ago. He asked if I had noticed any comments by AEI "scholars" on the subject of health care reform. I said no and he said that was because they had been ordered not to speak to the media because they agreed with too much of what Obama was trying to do.
It saddened me to hear this. I have always hoped that my experience was unique. But now I see that I was just the first to suffer from a closing of the conservative mind. Rigid conformity is being enforced, no dissent is allowed, and the conservative brain will slowly shrivel into dementia if it hasn't already.
Sadly, there is no place for David and me to go. The donor community is only interested in financing organizations that parrot the party line, such as the one recently established by McCain economic adviser Doug Holtz-Eakin.
I will have more to say on this topic later. But I wanted to say that this is a black day for what passes for a conservative movement, scholarship, and the once-respected AEI."
http://capitalgainsandgames.com/blog/bruce-bartlett/1601/groupthink-right-would-make-stalin-proud
From Bruce Bartlett:
"As some readers of this blog may know, I was fired by a right wing think tank called the National Center for Policy Analysis in 2005 for writing a book critical of George W. Bush's policies, especially his support for Medicare Part D. In the years since, I have lost a great many friends and been shunned by conservative society in Washington, DC.
Now the same thing has happened to David Frum, who has been fired by the American Enterprise Institute. I don't know all the details, but I presume that his Waterloo post on Sunday condemning Republicans for failing to work with Democrats on healthcare reform was the final straw.
Since, he is no longer affiliated with AEI, I feel free to say publicly something he told me in private a few months ago. He asked if I had noticed any comments by AEI "scholars" on the subject of health care reform. I said no and he said that was because they had been ordered not to speak to the media because they agreed with too much of what Obama was trying to do.
It saddened me to hear this. I have always hoped that my experience was unique. But now I see that I was just the first to suffer from a closing of the conservative mind. Rigid conformity is being enforced, no dissent is allowed, and the conservative brain will slowly shrivel into dementia if it hasn't already.
Sadly, there is no place for David and me to go. The donor community is only interested in financing organizations that parrot the party line, such as the one recently established by McCain economic adviser Doug Holtz-Eakin.
I will have more to say on this topic later. But I wanted to say that this is a black day for what passes for a conservative movement, scholarship, and the once-respected AEI."
http://capitalgainsandgames.com/blog/bruce-bartlett/1601/groupthink-right-would-make-stalin-proud
Thursday, March 25, 2010
More than just a place to put your coffee
I wouldn't say no to any one of these tables:
Zaide Coffee Table
by Ali Sandifer Studio of Chicago via +Mood
Clean, simple lines and beautiful wood - it even has storage for magazines or books
Antique Steel Drawer Coffee Table
via JCovington Designs
I love the trunk effect and the steel drawers make it very unique
City
by Ferruccio Laviani via Furniture Seen
At first glance I thought the city was Chicago - probably not the best fit for the White House loft but still pretty cool
Cat Hammock
by Koichi Futatsumata via if it's hip, it's here
In addition to looking great, the kitties would LOVE it!!
Real Moss Table
by Ayodhya via Design Boom
Imagine having a 'live' coffee table - one that you didn't have to care for. The moss in this table is dried but it looks like it was just taken from a cool forest floor - beautiful!
Zaide Coffee Table
by Ali Sandifer Studio of Chicago via +MoodClean, simple lines and beautiful wood - it even has storage for magazines or books
Antique Steel Drawer Coffee Table
via JCovington Designs I love the trunk effect and the steel drawers make it very unique
City
by Ferruccio Laviani via Furniture Seen At first glance I thought the city was Chicago - probably not the best fit for the White House loft but still pretty cool
Cat Hammock
by Koichi Futatsumata via if it's hip, it's hereIn addition to looking great, the kitties would LOVE it!!
Real Moss Table
by Ayodhya via Design Boom Imagine having a 'live' coffee table - one that you didn't have to care for. The moss in this table is dried but it looks like it was just taken from a cool forest floor - beautiful!
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Okay I Admit It...I Am a Zombie
TW:...young folks and I suppose some of us old farts are lobotomized by the mysterious Islamo-Kenyan-Indonesian dude...but those teabaggers...absolute pillars of well-thought out logic...
From Drudge Report advertisement for apparently a real book:
"In 2008, Barack Obama lobotomized a generation.
For an entire year, otherwise clear-thinking members of the most affluent, over-educated, information-drenched generation in American history fell prey to the most expensive, hi-tech, laser-focused marketing assault in presidential campaign history.
Twitter messages were machine-gunned to cell phones at mach speed.
Facebook and MySpace groups spread across the Internet like digital fire.
YouTube videos featuring celebrities ricocheted across the globe and into college students’ in-boxes with devastating regularity.
All the while, the mega-money-raising engine whirred like a slot machine stuck on jackpot.
The result: an unthinking mass of young voters marched forward to elect the most radical and untested president in U.S. history.
Recognized as one of the country’s top young conservative activists by Human Events, Jason Mattera created an internet sensation with ambush video interviews that exposed clueless young liberals and cunning Democratic officials. Now he reveals the jaw-dropping lengths Barack Obama and his allies in Hollywood, Washington, and Academia went to in order to transform a legion of iPod-listening, MTV-watching followers into a winning coalition that threatens to become a long-lasting political realignment.
Obama Zombies uncovers the true, behind-the-scenes story of the methods and tactics the Obama campaign unleashed on youth culture. Through personal interviews and meticulous original research, Mattera explains why conservatism’s future rests upon jolting the young masses from their slumber, yanking out their earphones, and sparking a countercultural conservative battle against the rise of the ignorant Left"
Catch some air
Hot air balloons are beautifulThey can also be creative - check these out:
click on any image to enlargeYou still couldn't pay me to go up in one...
Yep Adverse Selection Must Be Addressed
TW: Mitt Romney is not stupid he is merely a political pretzel amidst a party increasingly driven by teabaggery.
From Taegen Goodard:
"Some of my libertarian friends balk at what looks like an individual mandate. But remember, someone has to pay for the health care that must, by law, be provided: Either the individual pays or the taxpayers pay. A free ride on government is not libertarian."
-- Mitt Romney, defending the individual mandate to buy health care in the Wall Street Journal back in 2006. Romney now criticizes the same mandate in the recently passed national legislation.
From Taegen Goodard:
"Some of my libertarian friends balk at what looks like an individual mandate. But remember, someone has to pay for the health care that must, by law, be provided: Either the individual pays or the taxpayers pay. A free ride on government is not libertarian."
-- Mitt Romney, defending the individual mandate to buy health care in the Wall Street Journal back in 2006. Romney now criticizes the same mandate in the recently passed national legislation.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Some sites for your surfing pleasure
Places I like to check in on regularly:
Curious Expeditions
From the co-creator of Atlas Obscura, a site that gathers the "wondrous, the macabre and the obscure from around the globe"
Just a word of warning, although the current post (March 15) brings us these lovely butterflies from the Naturhistorisches Museum in Bern, Switzerland, the remainder of the post along with many of the other curiosities found here can get a little creepy.
Plan59
Armstrong Floors 1954
I love looking at old magazine and newspaper ads – Plan59 has an amazing collection of these plus old photos for everything from home décor to cars and trucks. Be sure to check out the Gallery of Demonic Tots and Deeply Disturbing Cuisine
Black and WTF
The name of the blog says it all. Love it!
Eternally Cool
The Michaelangelo Elevator
One of my favorite sites – the gang at Eternally Cool scours the eternal city for fun and interesting items. Put on some opera, browse the archives and take an armchair trip to Rome.
Curious Expeditions
From the co-creator of Atlas Obscura, a site that gathers the "wondrous, the macabre and the obscure from around the globe"Just a word of warning, although the current post (March 15) brings us these lovely butterflies from the Naturhistorisches Museum in Bern, Switzerland, the remainder of the post along with many of the other curiosities found here can get a little creepy.
Plan59
Armstrong Floors 1954I love looking at old magazine and newspaper ads – Plan59 has an amazing collection of these plus old photos for everything from home décor to cars and trucks. Be sure to check out the Gallery of Demonic Tots and Deeply Disturbing Cuisine
Black and WTF
The name of the blog says it all. Love it!Eternally Cool
The Michaelangelo ElevatorOne of my favorite sites – the gang at Eternally Cool scours the eternal city for fun and interesting items. Put on some opera, browse the archives and take an armchair trip to Rome.
Monday, March 22, 2010
A Health Care Rant From the Peanut Gallery
TW: White House reader and friend with his two cents re personal experience with our health care system. He is one of those plague on both their houses (Dems and Repubs) types (which as he knows I have a problem with as one must in life choose else one lets the loudest make one's decisions for you but I digress). So on with Mercutio...
From a White House reader:
"In celebration of the ramp in healthcare stocks today due to another corporate welfare scheme getting passed. I have an ongoing prescription for stomach medication. A bottle contains 30 tablets. From 2005 until last month, I had one of those gold-plated health insurance schemes. Cost of medication to me: $5. I left my old company awhile ago to start a small business.
Last month COBRA ran out and there is no way we can afford any coverage as a business. I figured I would pay for the medication myself and ordered it figuring there was no way it could be more than $3 PER PILL or $90 total. When I went to the pharmacy, they rang it up at $240. I told them to shove it ... back onto the shelf.
I went online to see what my old insurer had been paying. Cost of medication to them: $150. So I ordered it from the UK for $30 including shipping. I have 17 years of business experience as a consultant and as an entrepreneur. This is an old medication. The UK price is the price. I'll be generous and tack on another $10 to make it $40 for the subsidy our moronic system is providing to theirs in the UK by allowing the pharma companies to stick it to us here.
Our healthcare system bears only the most superficial resemblance to anything capitalist. It is "free enterprise" only in the sense that the enterprises involved are free to rape and pillage. What really incenses me is that not being an idiot, I realize full well I was really paying $150 all along but $145 was hidden as a reduction in my salary to pay the health insurance premiums. All of the people with health insurance who don't realize that they are in fact paying all of these costs are like infants who believe the toy has disappeared when an adult hides it behind their back. Nobody wants to trust the government because it is bought and paid for under both parties by corporate America. This has occurred because we the people have abdicated, but the government isn't supposed to be them, it is supposed to be us.
When people say that government sucks, they are saying they suck. Anybody who wants less government should do us all a favor and off themselves. I want to see the government squash somebody's nuts. I for one want my f#$%ing money back. Enough corporate welfare. 30+ countries out there with better systems than ours, all of which are cheaper. I don't particularly care which one we pick from full socialist to full capitalist. Let's just pick one of the damn things instead of adding more duct tape to this thing we have. Otherwise as a society we will continue to get the healthcare and the prices we deserve."
From a White House reader:
"In celebration of the ramp in healthcare stocks today due to another corporate welfare scheme getting passed. I have an ongoing prescription for stomach medication. A bottle contains 30 tablets. From 2005 until last month, I had one of those gold-plated health insurance schemes. Cost of medication to me: $5. I left my old company awhile ago to start a small business.
Last month COBRA ran out and there is no way we can afford any coverage as a business. I figured I would pay for the medication myself and ordered it figuring there was no way it could be more than $3 PER PILL or $90 total. When I went to the pharmacy, they rang it up at $240. I told them to shove it ... back onto the shelf.
I went online to see what my old insurer had been paying. Cost of medication to them: $150. So I ordered it from the UK for $30 including shipping. I have 17 years of business experience as a consultant and as an entrepreneur. This is an old medication. The UK price is the price. I'll be generous and tack on another $10 to make it $40 for the subsidy our moronic system is providing to theirs in the UK by allowing the pharma companies to stick it to us here.
Our healthcare system bears only the most superficial resemblance to anything capitalist. It is "free enterprise" only in the sense that the enterprises involved are free to rape and pillage. What really incenses me is that not being an idiot, I realize full well I was really paying $150 all along but $145 was hidden as a reduction in my salary to pay the health insurance premiums. All of the people with health insurance who don't realize that they are in fact paying all of these costs are like infants who believe the toy has disappeared when an adult hides it behind their back. Nobody wants to trust the government because it is bought and paid for under both parties by corporate America. This has occurred because we the people have abdicated, but the government isn't supposed to be them, it is supposed to be us.
When people say that government sucks, they are saying they suck. Anybody who wants less government should do us all a favor and off themselves. I want to see the government squash somebody's nuts. I for one want my f#$%ing money back. Enough corporate welfare. 30+ countries out there with better systems than ours, all of which are cheaper. I don't particularly care which one we pick from full socialist to full capitalist. Let's just pick one of the damn things instead of adding more duct tape to this thing we have. Otherwise as a society we will continue to get the healthcare and the prices we deserve."
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