How Wolves Change Rivers - Trophic Cascade

How Wolves Change Rivers.  Or... "How destructive uncontrolled deer populations can be to an ecosystem".



This video was brought to my attention by my friend John Kress.  It's produced by "Sustainable Man".  Very nice indeed.  Excellent scientific work that went into all of the factual observations, recorded data, and scientific method applied.   (you mean, they didn't just trust in a Bible story for guidance on how to observe the actual changes, over time?)

Whenever I hear a former Wasilla Alaska mayor (a town with NO City Services whatsoever, relying entirely on the county & state to help the citizenery) turned partial single term governor, talk about how she enjoys shooting wolves, I begin to mourn for the loss of insight, the lack of focus on science, and perpetual dumbing down of the United States electorate.  At least she helped prevent a McCain presidency (and a war with Iran that would have resulted)... even if she's really bad at everything else she's tried to do.

If you're afraid of wolves, that's natural for an uninformed human to feel fear of a pack of large predatory carnivores who are poorly understood by most people.  But in the last 100 years in North America, there's been exactly 2 people killed by wolves (link here).  In comparison: "in North America, since 1990, bears (black and grizzly) killed 59 people and cougars killed 11. In the U.S., domestic dogs kill 20 to 30 people every year. And hunters kill nearly 100 people in the U.S. and Canada every year and injure around 1,000."  Appears homo sapiens are still the most lethal species on this planet, after viruses and bacteria (on average).

Vice Presidents Huckabee & Brownback

Had John McCain picked someone electable for his running mate, I am NOT SURE that Barack Obama would have been elected president.  Huckabee actually won several state primaries and caucuses.  Brownback would have appealed to all the evangelicals and extreme right wingers who eventually became Tea Baggers.  Both Brownback and Huckabee would have energized their bases and might have gotten the more reasonable right wing to go out and vote.  Instead, McCain made the fatal flaw of picking a 1/2 term Governor, who had formerly been a mayor of a 2000 person rural city where there were no city services provided, a city known as the crack capital of Alaska.  The VP candidate he picked galvanized opposition from literate, intelligent, reasonable people, like librarians, teachers, professional females with college degrees of all sorts, moderates of all shapes and sizes.

I postulate here, as I watch the circular firing squad that the Republican Primary field of 2012 is presenting, that it was McCain's choice of Palin that sealed his fate as an unelectable moderate Republican.  McCain was the least undesirable of Republican candidates in 2008.  Yes, he had some terrible flip flops, lapses in judgments, and mis-statements, but he never believed Barack Obama was a secret Muslim, or that Barack Obama was not patriotic or that he hated America.  McCain corrected ignorant supporters who called then-candidate Obama a 'socialist' and 'secret Muslim' at his rallies.  Compared to the 2012 field of loons who are running, McCain presented a very reasonable choice.

Huntsman is reasonable, and therefore, in 2012, he will be unelectable.  Romney, though easily despised, completely artificial, and slippery enough to do ANYTHING to get people to like him, is still less electable today than McCain was in 2008.  Front runners Paul, Bachmann, and Dick Perry are each to the right of most of the wackiest 2008 candidates (with Perry again today, denying climate change, and wanting to abolish 80% of all Federal Revenue by abolishing Federal Income Tax, what an idiot!). 

There is the possibility that the GOP will come up with a reasonable candidate who can appeal to moderates and independents, but so far, no such person has shown his (or her) face or raised their hand.  Whoever that reasonable person Might be, will have their pick of extremist Tea Party courtiers who they can choose as a VP running mate.  Maybe they'll repeat McCain's fatal flaw of picking a loser who will seal their fate against the incumbent President.  Maybe they'll learn from previous history...  I dunno.

There is also the possibility that the GOP will field a reasonable (yet un-named candidate), AND the Tea Party crazed faction of the far right wing will field their own Tea Party Candidate as well, splitting the vote in a 3-way, 1992 Perot/Bush/Clinton-esque race (Perot was from Texas also).  There's not predicting what crazy people might do. 

And yes, I know that the Republicans are going to do everything in their power (in the majority in House of Representatives, and as the LARGE Minority in the Senate, and as rulers of the SCOTUS) to make things as bad as possible for all Americans leading up the November 2012 elections, saying "NO" to everything, not compromising on anything, and redefining the word "Despicable" ... but there's nothing we, as a nation, can do about it.   At least, not without a TARDIS.

(And Perry needs to stay off my radio, his hubris and hypocrisy is over-whelming: link here)

Rubbing MSNBC Into Republican Faces

As I sip wine - A delicious screw top Southern French Carignan (2009 vin de pays des Cotes Catalanes, indication geographique protegee, from Total Wine, $9 a bottle) - I am still chuckling about my earlier work out in the hotel's small but useful exercise room.  The Hampton Inn here in Greenville has one tread mill, one step machine, one recumbent bike, and one poorly maintained weight machine (it squeaks loudly, pulleys stick, and has some knobs missing for adjustments).  It ALSO has a 30-some inch HD TV on the wall in front of the treadmill and step machine. 

Usually, the TV is tuned to FOX and just being in the weight room is either unbearable, or outrageously hilarious, depending on what is on.  But tonight, when I entered, Chris Matthews was talking about quitter 1/2 term governor and talk show guest Sarah Palin, he was followed by the snarky and snide Cenk Uygur.   Cenk is MSNBC's version of 'a smarter Hannity' or a 'more sarcastic O'Reilly' ... but I don't enjoy watching him.  HOWEVER, as I walked uphill at 1 degree inclines, at 5 mph, and then jogged a few miles at 6 mph, a series of stereotypical South Carolina Republicans walked in, worked out for a few minutes, decided they couldn't take the MSNBC feed, and left.  How did I ID them as "stereotypical South Carolina Republicans"?   There were the golf shirts that several wore, to work out in.  The paunch guts from drinking beer and eating lots of carbs while getting little or no exercise, on pasty white middle aged frames.  The indignant looks on their faces at the laughter I produced at negative (but truthful) comments CM made about Palin helped to give them away.  The storming out after 2 or 3 minutes of a non-work out, clinched it.

Now, this is the hotel that keeps Fox  on the lobby, 24/7 - providing hilarity when I refill hot water into my tea from time to time.  Greenville is the buckle of the Bible belt, with Bob Jones "University" located here, and 1/2 a dozen "christian" colleges in the area, solidly Red State, so I really enjoyed the disdain I drew from those who hate MSNBC, perhaps inordinately.  Glee comes in many forms.

TDS and Colbert, Emmy Material

I was kinda tired Tuesday night, and considered just DVRing The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, but I decided to try and watch and see if I conk out on the couch.  Both shows were HILARIOUS!
- Calling out Palin on her hypocrisy and stupidity
- Demonstrating Awesome writing, once again
- Having intelligent, informed, dynamic guests with awesome interviews (Neil deGrasse Tyson and Cornel West)
This is the kind of stuff that Emmies for "Best Writing" and "Best Comedic Series" are made out of.  Truly fantastic shows January 18th 2011.
Daily Show link here.
Colbert Report link here.
Even if you are part of the 20% of America who loves the former part term governor of the great state of Alaska, you have to admire the way the Daily Show writers dissect her talking points - NOT out of context, FULL WITHIN context - and how Colbert voices precisely what Mika Brzezinski is thinking / feeling by her comments and disgusted expression on her pretty face (mmmm Mika.... 6 months younger than I am, and looking as lovely as my 32 year old wife!).  Definitely worth the time to download and watch.

NPR, Stop Covering That Alaskan Quitter!

I am seriously considering writing to NPR and asking for my annual pledge money back.  They've been really tremendously piss poor in covering the Tucson shooting.  I had to turn them off, AGAIN this evening, as I was responding to blog posts, and they ran a disgusting 4 minute piece on Sarah Palin's reaction, and her predictable re-accusal of others (as she is the Master of Personalized Victimization). Who Cares? Her 15 minutes of fame were up in November of 2008.  Stop Covering her, if you want to maintain any shred of dignity as a news organization... or did all of that leave with Ellen Wiess?  They got Mayhem Fest wrong, and didn't bother to look it up.  They're stumbling all over themselves.  They keep calling the disturbed Jared kid an "accused suspect" - there's witnesses, he's proud he did it, he was pinned at the scene, there's no "accused" about it.  Yes, yes, in America we have too many lawyers who sue everyone for "libel", whatever. 

I'm enjoying listening to my Playlist here instead.  =)

AZ Has No Shortage of Guano

As far as crazy people go, my current state of residence has no shortage.  A young dejected loser, who would not even be accepted by the US Army when he applied in Phoenix, poses rambling questions to his elected Congresswoman back in 2007 - so rambling that even "friends" of 'Jared' thought the question was incomprehensible.  So disillusioned and isolated, this unstable Tucson-ite gets kicked out of community college, arrested on Pot charges, buys a Glock 9mm at an Arizona gun shop right after the November 2010 election, and plots his next move. If his personal agenda could not be solved "by the ballot" then he'd solve it "with bullets".

Jared then sees that his district's Congresswoman Gabriel Giffords is going to hold a 'town hall' meet & greet at a local Tucson Safeway on a Saturday morning.  He goes there, with 33 round extended magazines.  To get a good idea of what a 33 round extended clip Glock 9mm looks like, see the picture to the right.  A Glock has a standard 15 round clip.  To get the "extended" clip that holds 33 rounds, the magazine sticks out twice as long as the pistol's handle. Shown here is one magazine loaded into a Glock 9mm, and 2 additional standard 15 round magazines beside the weapon.

So this delusional Jared boy walks up to Congresswoman Gifford, and shoots her in the head (forehead, from the preliminary look of the ambulance bound photos).  Luckily for Gifford, Jared, not knowing much about firearms apparently, did not have the foresight to buy hollow tipped bullets, so the bullet passed through her skull and out the back.  Also luckily for Gifford, she had a staffer who was trained as a first responder, who applied pressure to the wounds, slowed the bleeding, shielded Gifford from intrusive cameramen, and "probably saved her life" (per the "this Week" ABC report this morning).  Another 6 people, including a 9 year old girl born on 9-11, and Federal Judge John Roll, were not as lucky, and died.  Another 13 people are wounded, some of them critically.  One of the wounded was a woman who after being shot, attempted to wrest the weapon and new magazine from Jared as he tried to reload, while kept yelling "why!?!?" at him (per ABC's "This Week").

Originally, law enforcement was looking for a 2nd "person of interest" who was seen by witnesses running from the seen just prior to the assassination attempt.  This afternoon, Yahoo News was announcing that this misguided idiot Jared "acted alone" from what initial investigations of his home, his internet postings, and the suspect himself were revealing.

Where could a disillusioned, mentally unstable person like Jared get the idea to shoot at, and try to kill an elected official?  Well, sarahpac.com has a convenient list of targets.  I wonder how many other of the Democrats on this list have increased their security details.  Thanks sarah, and glen, Hush Dimbulb, and all the others.  Heck, even Olbermann apologized on air, for ANY acts of violence his rhetoric might have inspired in the past and strictly told all his viewers that nothing a pundit says should ever lead to violence (transcript here).  Calls from Fox News on a similar message have yet to be broadcast or heard.

There is no shortage of guano in Arizona.  Lots of publicly carried hand guns, no shortage of misguided "blame it all on Mexicans" xenophobes, and now one less rational politician.  Giffords may recover, but ask Reagan's press secretary Jim Brady how easy it is to return to your day job after being shot in the head.   First South Carolina, and now Arizona... no shortage of nut cases.

Wanting to get the US back on the gold standard, claiming the US Constitution has no authority to establish police forces, claiming no one in AZ district 8 is literate, posing rambling questions to Congresswomen and getting mad when they don't answer it to your satisfaction, and posting nonsensical youtube videos just prior to going on a shooting spree, I hope Jared finds his new role as "prison b*tch girl friend" enjoyable, until the day he's executed by the vengeful US judiciary system.

Evolution For The Masses

Evolution, illustrated so simply that even Sarah Palin and Christine O'Donnell could follow it.  Thanks Matt G.

Christine O'Donnell, What A Darling!

22 appearances on Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher. Masturbation is adultery. In foreclosure on her home for not paying the mortgage and yet she promotes fiscal responsibility. She's a gift that just keeps on giving!

Iran's W, folksy Ahmadinejad

Last week in Iran, the country's "elected President" (yeah, right) Mahmud Ahmadinejad used the phrase (link here): "The bogeyman snatched the boob" ( مایه ترس ووحشت ربوده ممه ) - in regards to the United States, and how (in his opinion) the US 'needs to just stop threatening Iran and move on', in the same way the lowest class of any Iranian mother might tell her child, when she is weaning the toddler, that the bogeyman has taken the mother's breast away. It's a crude phrase, and most speakers of Farsi, including all diplomats, would never utter such a base, guttural phrase. But Ahmadinejad likes to follow in Bush's footsteps, and is trying to be folksy with his nation. Also, he got a round of laughter from his audience, and really wanted to ham it up. Using the Farsi word "ممه " ("mameh") is a lower class slang than using "tit" or "teet" or "knocker" or the anatomically correct "breast". Mahmud Ahmadinejad has studied Palin and Bush closely - he doesn't want to appear "elitist" or bother with all that book learnin - naw, he want's to be folksy, and relate to the common man "Joe Six Pack" (in Farsi "جو شش بسته").

He followed up with this phrase later in his diatribe with:
"Pour the water where it burns," he said, "why are you wetting other parts?", in regards to the United States being angry and having "burning asses" or "سوزش باسن". More rounds of laughter erupted. (See video here).

In Farsi, slang for 'breast' is "mameh". But it is not often uttered publicly in a country where words and expressions of even the slightest sexual nature are considered taboo and commonly censored in books and publications. Like his counterpart W, rules apparently don't apply. Like other demagogues (Scott Brown, Palin, Joe Arpaio, Michele Bachmann), Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (محمود احمدی‌نژاد) has realized that many less intelligent constituents are easily motivated by fear and rhetoric, and getting down to their folksy level - and Never sounding Elitist or Educated! - helps the masses to relate. For a complete list of folksy Bushisms, see this helpful and comprehensive Slate link (here). If any of our Persian visitors know of a similar list for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (محمود احمدی‌نژاد) folksy expressions, please leave a comment here! =)

"The Palin Model" as Andrew Sullivan Points Out

Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish has a wonderful piece on "The Palin Model". In his succinct summary (I can't put it better): "Sharron Angle is only doing what Sarah Palin did - ducking the media, channeling her message entirely to the base, avoiding what she called the "filter" whereby her statements and record could actually be challenged by reporters. Angle has not quite gotten away with it because the Nevada press is much, much more professional than the national press corps. But she's trying. And she heralds a possible era in which candidates do not even pretend to be accountable, but exist in a bubble of machine politics, with its own media apparatus, designed for p.r. not scrutiny.

And then there are the clones, as above. If the pretty, big-boobed, gun-toting hottie paradigm was enough to get an unbalanced know-nothing this [sic] close to the presidency, then you can rest assured others took notice." (link here)

Stupid Is As Palin Does

Queen of Republican Victims, former local TV sports caster & 1/2 term Alaskan governor who abandoned her elected post to become a part time blogger, Sarah Palin recently spoke at California State University in Stanislaus CA at a conservative fund raiser. She proudly told her adoring fans: "This is Reagan country, and perhaps it was destiny that the man who went to California's Eureka College would become so woven within and interlinked to the Golden State."

Well... problem is, Eureka College is in Illinois, and Reagan moved to CA after he graduated from Eureka. Dee-da-dee! Eureka's motto 'Vox Veritas Vita' (Cry Truthfulness Life) which appears behind Palin would probably be better to say "Venustas puella es puto per bardus populus, haud res quis aiunt." (Pretty girls are believed by stupid people, regardless what they might say)

"Immediately after her speech, a live microphone caught voices in the press area trashing the former Alaska governor, Mediate reported. "The dumbness doesn’t just come from soundbites"". LOL! I'm sure she'll spin this as just another "gotcha liberal media" episode. To her devoted believers, she can do no wrong.

Nicholson on Palin

This is pretty accurate, and funny: (thanks to CrooksAndLiars)

(it's a whole 12 seconds long... but doesn't need to be longer)

Not News - 11Jan10

It is not news that FaceBooker and resigned ex-Governor Sarah Palin joined Pox News. It IS surprising she is not a peroxide blond like her new colleagues, or that anything she says or thinks or comments on could be called "news".

It's not news that Mark McGwire finally admitted he used steroids while playing MLB. It IS surprising he's not had a heart attack, or needed a liver or kidney transplant yet.

It's not news that Ford's market share rose last year. It IS surprising that GM still exists, at all.

Must be a very slow news Monday.

Poignant Observation from a British Comedian

John Oliver was interviewed on WHYY's Fresh Air today, and it was quite a hilarious dialogue. One Extremely Disturbing part of the segment, was when Terry Gross asked John about his interviews at Palin rallies. This British comic, who had been working in the US on a temporary work visa until a few days ago when he finally got his green card after 3 years, said the following:

"Mr. OLIVER: The people's fear, again, is real. That's the thing. I guess the most extreme - I would actually go back to the Sarah Palin rally. We went to a Palin rally in Scranton and so there were people turning up there and their fear was real. But when you talk to someone and they look you in the eye and say he is a Muslim. And not only do they mean that but they mean that they believe that to be a problem. And they then go on to say this country is going to be overrun by terrorists. They're not joking, now. They mean that and their fear is real. They're not faking it, you know, they've - if you gave them a pulse rate you would see their pulse quickening as they said it. And that was the problem with that whole end to the McCain-Palin campaign was it's so cancerous. The hate - the poison opening out there, you know, the - even after the election, they're terrified, these people. They're terrified of this man. Now, there's no reason for them to be, but they don't feel that."

John Oliver is hilarious. We saw him in Scottsdale last year do stand up and it was genius. He's also a very keen observer. Not being an American, he's able to see the guano crazy among us Americans more clearly (I think) than polarized Americans can.

Palin's angry mob of Hoosiers turns on her

Tip of the hat to my buddy Matt and to Andrew Sullivan on this link to former Palin enthusiasts turned angry mob when she shuns them. Max Cat may enjoy this, as it is in his neck of the woods up there in Nobelsville IN. Direct link here. The contrasts to fundamentalist loon Huckabee are pretty humourous in the comments section.

Palin 2012, I sure hope so

Whether it is Palin, or Beck, or some other combination of clueless demagogues who cling to their fears, tax-cuts, mis-information, quick-creationism, fundamentalism, or other "quaint" beliefs and biases whose diminishing influence in a modern, informed and fact-based America continues to make them More and More irrelevant, I am looking forward to the most vacuous ticket possible. Hockey moms who desert their elected offices, victimized Mormons who 'just ask questions', former MA governors whose investment capital firms gut American business and send jobs over seas... the more vocal and charismatic and "lovable" by their hard-core primary voter Republican voter base, the better!

These popularly hyped-up dim-wits futile attempts to win over the VAST MAJORITY of the uncommitted middle of America, the independents, will fail miserably. Sure, thousands of tea-baggers will gather, and blog, and comment on Pox news, and gnash their teeth, and try to rally others, but it will not get the vast majority of Americans interested in voting for ideological nut-jobs. This MIGHT result in Splintering of the Republicans into the "Conservative Party" and the remaining moderates, but that would be out of character for voting base who is well versed at marching lock-step with what their idolized leaders tell them to do.

Breaking the plurality of the American corporate 2 party system would be the Best Thing to happen to the democratic process since the 4 way split of 1824! Let the fringe 20% further become a separatist and regional party, and more strongly embody the side-show in which they continue to increasingly perform. All other major Democracies in the world do not engage in a 2 party system, just the corporately driven Americans embrace it.

Palin or other equally fringe personalities have no more chance of winning national office in the US as Le Pen did in France, even if they run 5 times (like JM Le Pen has). I'm looking forward to participating in a multi-party democracy in the future.

David Brooks - Going Vague

This Crooks & Liars thread and associated graphic had me laughing this morning. =)

"Week after week, year after year, Bobo swims from spotlight to spotlight across the blighted media landscape of a country his ideology helped to mutilate...speaking gauzily of a sane, reasonable Republican Party that does not exist."

LOL!

Photoshop is an awesome tool.

Sarah Palin Reads "Going Rogue" - LOL!

Thanks to Andrew Sullivan!
Watch it before they make Youtube yank it. Link HERE! LOL!!!!!!

What it Said, What it Meant

I was wondering how long it would take to come up with these hilarious, truth based, insightful modifications. You gotta see it for yourself. Links here, and here. Teabagger signs vol 1 & 2.

Very Well Put.

Anyone who has a problem with the real interpretation of the signs shown here, is truly irremediable.

You Betcha!

"A significant lapse in judgment" - T.Purdum
If you don't want to read the 10,000 word Vanity Fair article on how wrong of a selection the McCain campaign made when Palin was chosen, see this short video summary from Crooks & Liars.

Oh please oh please, run in 2012 Sarah! I want everyone to know that dinosaurs were on the ark, global warming is imagined, you didn't really sell your jet or give back the bridge to no where money, you wanted your daughter to marry a fertile red-neck simpleton, you support making rape victims pay for their own rape kits, how Wasilla is the meth capital of Alaska, how easy it is to get residents to like you when you pay each one $3K a year to be in your state. Repressed Conservatives cannot resist you (anymore than they can resist Argentinian women, Minnesota bathroom boys, or congressional pages)!!