WOW there is some random stuff on the internet.

I mean, this whole website is dedicated to "turtles eating things"! And I love it.

Poor Dubya. Go Giants!

George W. Bush and Nolan Ryan watching their Rangers struggle on their way to the World Series.

Ever heard of fainting goats? Enter fainting kittens...

Another great idea for recycling, reusing.

These vacuum cleaners work just like any other, but they're made from bits of plastic found on beaches and in the Pacific Ocean. If you haven't heard about the North Pacific Gyre, which is made up of this kind of refuse, read up. The Story of Stuff also explains how to avoid adding to this problem in the first place.

Exercising doesn't necessarily make you an "active" person.

According to research, "the amount of time you exercise and the amount of time you spend on your butt are completely separate factors for heart-disease risk. New evidence suggests, in fact, that the more hours a day you sit, the greater your likelihood of dying an earlier death regardless of how much you exercise or how lean you are."

Apparently, even standing more often can make you "active". So if you don't have a job that keeps you moving, sit on your exercise ball at work or get a standing or treadmill work station. Make sure to use your legally mandated 15 minute break to get outside for a walk, or even just to sit outside in the sun for a few minutes, soaking up some rays to help boost your vitamin D.

How quickly we forget.

Despite the absence of news coverage following the capping of the well in the Gulf of Mexico, there's still plenty of oil remaining in the water.

So maybe Jersey Shore isn't ALL bad? Now I'm confused...

And another thing about taxes in America...

Do you remember how much you paid in taxes last year? Probably not, but I'm guessing you know that you paid at least SOMEthing, right?

So how does it make you feel to know that "Two-thirds of U.S. corporations paid no federal income taxes between 1998 and 2005, according to a new report from Congress"? The next time you hear people complaining about how the sky high corporate tax rate is putting American businesses at a competitive disadvantage, remind yourself and others of that statistic. Sure, a tax rate of 25-35% is really high! But when you're paying exactly $0.00 in taxes that 35% doesn't seem so bad.

And would someone please explain to me how you're supposed to cut ANYthing out of zero dollars???

Obama picking policy over politics. How refreshing.

Did you know that according to a New York Times/CBS News Poll last month, "fewer than one in 10 respondents knew that the Obama administration had lowered taxes for most Americans"?

Furthermore, "Half of those polled said they thought that their taxes had stayed the same, a third thought that their taxes had gone up, and about a tenth said they did not know."

The reality is this: "...the tax cut was, by design, hard to notice. Faced with evidence that people were more likely to save than spend the tax rebate checks they received during the Bush administration, the Obama administration decided to take a different tack: it arranged for less tax money to be withheld from people’s paychecks.

They reasoned that people would be more likely to spend a small, recurring extra bit of money that they might not even notice, and that the quicker the money was spent, the faster it would cycle through the economy."

Read the full NY Times article here.

Maybe that why people don't see Democrats as having helped our economy and are making them pay at the polls this election.

Make sure to VOTE on November 2nd!

As if we needed another reason to think Glen Beck is off his rocker.

Just because we don't see half monkey-half human-like centaurs walking around doesn't mean that evolution isn't true.

Justice Thomas' wife asks Anita Hill to apologize, 19 years later.

This woman is crazy. Get over it already!

NPR: "In a truth-is-stranger-than-fiction twist, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas earlier this month left a voice-mail message for Anita Hill, asking Hill to apologize for her 1991 testimony accusing then Supreme Court nominee Thomas of sexual harassment."

Don't Ask, Don't Tell

Let's review the Constitution, people.

Wouldn't it be nice if there was SOME sort of prerequisite for becoming a politician?? I mean, I had to take years of college level science classes to even be able to APPLY to medical school and yet people like Christine O'Donnell from Delaware can run for the U.S. Senate without even knowing what's in the first amendment. The scary thing is, she's not the only one to worry about this election season.

"...in a debate before an audience of legal scholars and law students at Widener University Law School, as O'Donnell criticized Democratic nominee Chris Coons' position that teaching creationism in public school would violate the First Amendment by promoting religious doctrine.

Coons said private and parochial schools are free to teach creationism but that "religious doctrine doesn't belong in our public schools."
"Where in the Constitution is the separation of church and state?" O'Donnell asked him.

When Coons responded that the First Amendment bars Congress from making laws respecting the establishment of religion, O'Donnell asked: "You're telling me that's in the First Amendment?"

Her comments, in a debate aired on radio station WDEL, generated a buzz in the audience.
"You actually audibly heard the crowd gasp," Widener University political scientist Wesley Leckrone said after the debate, adding that it raised questions about O'Donnell's grasp of the Constitution."

The statistical truth about the gays.

OK Cupid has mined the data from its online dating site users to come up with some interesting statistics...

Whitehouse whiteboard. Cool.

I love this kind of presentation tactic in general, but it's especially helpful to explain complicated government policy ideas. This one's great, although they neglect to mention that it's basically stolen from Ezra Klein's article in the Washington Post.

The foreclosure story.

I had to watch this twice to make all the connections! This stuff is complicated on purpose so that the American people will disengage from the debate, which is the LAST thing we should be doing right now. Make the effort to understand for yourself, and for the nation as a whole.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Foreclosure Crisis
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Rally to Restore Sanity

Here's a follow up article on the foreclosure bill that Obama promises to veto that will help you understand Stewart's rant.

Another reason to choose your meat more carefully or to stop eating it altogether.

This is a photo of "mechanically separated meat".

Fooducate explains: Someone figured out in the 1960s that meat processors can eek out a few more percent of profit from chickens, turkeys, pigs, and cows by scraping the bones 100% clean of meat. This is done by machines, not humans, by passing bones leftover after the initial cutting through a high pressure sieve.

From Pineapple Express to Milk, now crossdressing for a trans mag.

This guy is so interesting.
















And props for making the magazine in the first place.


CANDY 2 from Luis Venegas on Vimeo.

Politics is so much more engaging with some good beats to back it up.

Walking the walk.

Obama plans to have solar panels installed on the White House by the spring of 2011. Presidents Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush also used solar energy while in office, however only to power some offices and amenities such as the pool, whereas Obama's new panels will supply the living quarters as well.

An unconventional approach to dealing with homeless alcoholics.

San Francisco is looking into adopting "wet houses" similar to the government-subsidized housing project in Seattle that "caters exclusively to 75 hard-core alcoholics who came from the streets and are allowed to keep drinking, snub treatment and still keep a roof over their heads". This may sound counterintuitive, but according to a study of the project conducted by the University of Washington the city has saved more than $4 million in its first year of operation due mostly to fewer ER visits and periods of incarceration, and reduced stays in subsidized rehab programs. Researchers followed 95 residents and found that on average they each racked up $42,964 in health care and incarceration bills in the year prior to moving into the "wet house",  compared with $13,440 during their first year of residency. Furthermore, residents' daily alcohol consumption has dropped from 15.7 drinks a day to 10.6.

Just so you know, we've got three wars going on. Not two.

I like Obama just as much as any other liberal Democrat, but I'm opposed to the American people being misled into war. Tricking us through secrecy is as bad as telling us but lying about the reasoning. Just because we may lack combat troops on the ground somewhere doesn't mean we're not at war in that place.

This will make you a pet person.

Last Minutes with ODEN from phos pictures on Vimeo.

Tim Brauch Memorial Skate Contest this weekend.

The Citizens United Supreme Court decision put to action.

If you haven't heard about the Citizens United Supreme Court case from last year, read about it here. It's something we should all be aware of because it's an affront to American democracy as we know it. In essence, it says: "Political spending is a form of protected speech under the First Amendment, and the government may not keep corporations or unions from spending money to support or denounce individual candidates in elections. While corporations or unions may not give money directly to campaigns, they may seek to persuade the voting public through other means, including ads". This means that campaign contribution limits that apply to average citizens like you and me are irrelevant when it comes to corporations because they can subvert campaign finance rules by posting ads on television to support their candidate of choice with NO LIMIT to how much they can spend.

Kind of makes that $25 contribution you made online during Obama's campaign seem pretty puny, right?

An important message from Ellen.