Get ready for the Solstice, full moon and eclipse!  Staring in a sky near you Tuesday. 

Is all the shopping done?  Has everything arrived?

Legislation still going on…what next? 

Will the Koreans light up the sky or will we have peace on earth,  good will toward men?

152 Thoughts to “Open Thread…………………………………….Monday, December 20”

  1. George S. Harris

    @Cargosquid
    Isn’t this what we used to call anarchy?

  2. George S. Harris

    We all get fat because we sit on asses at computers carrying on conversations that, in the long term, may not affect anything except our BMI. Thanks marinm for pointing out that corn sugar is just that–sugar… It pays to read labels–that’s what they are there for. Of course, there are those who have their mind made up and do not wish to be confused with facts.

  3. Big Dog, that link didnt work.

  4. The govt does have some say so in school lunches. They are subsidized. There has been a balancing act for a long time over healthy vs etable. If lunches are too healthy, most kids won’t eat them.

    After all, ketchup is a vegetable, isn’t it? Ask the Reagan administration.

  5. marinm

    I believe “facts” off a corporate lobbying group’s website as much as I do facts from a politician.

    So, you are OK with getting “facts” from a corporate lobbyist’s website? What if Big Oil, Big Bank, Big Pharma, Big Soda, and Big Government did the same? Equally believe that information as fact?

    Ketchup and noodles.. yum!

  6. @George S. Harris
    No! Its not my fault that I’m fat! Its the…the….government’s fault! Its Global Warming! George Booooooossh!

    Ok.

    Its my fault. AND the food industry that puts sugar in EVERYTHING to make it “taste better.” Of course, HFCS doesn’t kick your insulin reaction and you don’t feel full. So you eat more. And buy more.

    However, I don’t understand the anarchy question. Isn’t this anarchy? Huh?

  7. I don’t think I understand this repeal amendment. Does that mean if 3/4th of the states didn’t like the dread scott decision, they could repeal it? Does it apply to legislation or court cases?

    If I am reading this right, there is simply no reason to have a country. Lets just disband and everyone be their own state. We won’t need a president, a congress or a supreme court. Think how much money we will save.

  8. marinm

    MH, Cato has a good write-up

    http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=12144

    These para’s are of interest to you and your question.

    The Repeal Amendment should not be confused with the power to “nullify” unconstitutional laws possessed by federal courts. Unlike nullification, a repeal power allows two-thirds of the states to reject a federal law for policy reasons that are irrelevant to constitutional concerns. In this sense, a state repeal power is more like the president’s veto power.

    This amendment reflects confidence in the collective wisdom of the men and women from diverse backgrounds, and elected by diverse constituencies, who comprise the modern legislatures of two-thirds of the states. Put another way, it allows thousands of democratically elected representatives outside the Beltway to check the will of 535 elected representatives in Washington, D.C.

  9. That sounds absolutely horrible and…to the notion that there would be a diverse constituency, I say a loud, resounding BS. I may have been born at night but it wasn’t LAST night.

  10. e

    dec 21, 2012. according to the mayans we have exactly two years left before the end of the world

  11. @Cargosquid
    It’s my parents’ fault.

    It’s always the fault of the parents. Remember that, especially if you are a parent.

  12. @e
    Good! Then we can all go together.

  13. Cato the Elder

    Some red meat for the piranha tank! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIvA3rfIyG8

    1. @Cato,

      Definitely red meat. Yu weren’t kidding about being a good stirrer. I can feel the old blood pressure rising as I type.

  14. @Posting as Pinko
    Nah, my mom was a “food is fuel” person and was proud of her low fat, skinless chicken. She couldn’t understand how I could remember past meals and how good they were. She was a very good cook, though. Her paella and her gumbo……….mmmmmmmmmMMM!

  15. Diversity Gal

    Anyone seen the Battlefield High School candy cane story yet?

  16. @Cargosquid
    WOW! You were one of the lucky ones. We grew up with pasta and rice and ravioli and cannoli. When we didn’t have that, everything was fried…with the skin on, mind you! I’m trying to teach my kids better, but it’s pretty difficult considering all the bad food out there.

  17. fried chicken without skin is just sacriledge.

  18. marinm

    DG, Drudge carried the story from WUSA. My wife saw it before I did and was like “WTF?” A school administrator actually said with a straight face that candy canes could be licked down to shiv’s and used as weapons?

    I think some of those ‘professionals’ at Battlefield have a future at TSA…

  19. Lafayette

    Leave it to Battlecat, err Battlefield High to make the news with dangers of candy canes. 🙄

    @marin
    “a future with the TSA”-good one! I can’t stop laughing.

  20. Need to Know

    @Cato the Elder

    Here’s another one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_VzkJllsDw&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

    Corey shows again how he just makes up stuff rather than use facts. He claims in this video that Obama has racked up more debt than all previous presidents combined. That’s simply not true. The total debt on December 31, 2008, the month before Obama took office, was $10.7 trillion. Today the debt is about $13.8 trillion.

    http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/data/GFDEBTN.txt

    Obama has a dismal record on debt and spending, and has accumulated new Federal debt faster than any previous president, but let’s get our facts straight to be credible.

  21. Is there a link for those sharpened candy canes? I can’s seem to find it.

  22. hello

    Interesting article about Obama’s newest executive order:

    “Nearly two years after Obama’s pledge to close the prison at Guantanamo, more inmates there are formally facing the prospect of lifelong detention and fewer are facing charges than the day Obama was elected.”

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/21/obama-guantanamo-detainees-executive-order_n_799991.html

  23. Lafayette

    Here’s a message from the principal on the school’s website.
    Message from Principal, Mrs. Ethridge-Conti

    To Our Battlefield Community:

    Yesterday, there was a TV news report about an incident which occurred on Monday, December 13 that has generated much misinformation and extremely negative emails and phone calls to the school. The school administration is prohibited from discussing student discipline cases in order to protect student privacy. However, certain facts not related to student discipline need to be clarified. Please know that students are allowed to dress up for the holidays, celebrate accordingly, distribute candy, and sing.

    As with all schools, there are rules in place for our students to discourage behavior that could get out of control, become unsafe, or result in creating a mess on school property. This is especially true in an environment where literally thousands of students are confined in a narrow space. Students are not discouraged from participating in activities related to the holidays as long as it does not cause any disruptions. These are very reasonable rules and are applied equitably to all students. What started out as an event that was acceptable got to the point where it caused a disruption, one that was reported by students and staff. Since this occurred, many students have dressed up for the holidays, attended our school holiday concerts, and distributed candy without any problems resulting.

    As always, we appreciate your continued support and again wish you all a happy holiday season!

    Mrs. Amy S. Ethridge-Conti
    Principal
    http://battlefieldhs.schools.pwcs.edu/

  24. George S. Harris

    @Moon-howler
    That is what I meant when I asked Cargo if what the Repeal Amendment wasn’t what used to be called anarchy. In addition, would such action be by popular vote or by the state’s legislative body? BIG difference, big, huge.

  25. Need to Know

    Breaking News – – North Korea retaliates against South Korea in response to military exercises.

    http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/12/22/koreas.propaganda.war/index.html?iref=NS1

  26. @George S. Harris
    A-ha.

    Didn’t understand the question about anarchy. Since the repeal process would be bound by rules and procedures, and would seem to have quite a high bar to pass, no, I don’t think that this would be anarchy.

    I don’t know what the mechanism would be. I guess that would have to be hammered out while passing the Amendment.

  27. @George S. Harris

    Sounds like anarchy to me also, George.

  28. Anarchy would be everyone IGNORING any laws. Kind of like Congress and tax laws……

  29. Obama and the environuts are on track to destroy the US energy industry. First it was the drilling moratorium. Now, EPA trying to control a gas needed for life on this planet, based on religious belief, ….. I mean AGW climate “science”. I was told that if I voted for McCain I would get a government that promotes politics over science. And they were right!

    http://gatewaypundit.rightnetwork.com/2010/12/breaking-obama-administration-radical-environmental-groups-to-set-greenhouse-gas-standards-for-industry-to-fight-non-existent-global-warming/

  30. ‘Nothing says Christmas like taking away a child’s treasured toy and destroying it.”

    This is just pathetic. Destroying your child’s trust in order to brainwash him. And the toy the he destroyed is one that his parents’ bought him. Mixed messages anybody?

    http://www.saysuncle.com/2010/12/22/sad-pathetic-and-infuriating/

    Malik Hall, a round-eyed second-grader, looked apprehensive as he stood in line with his favorite toy, a thick, blue gun with plastic sword underneath the muzzle. The 8-year-old was furious when his mother, Amanda, told him he would have to give it up. Yesterday morning, he tried to hide it under his pillow, she said.

    “I’m worried,’’ she said. “He might cry.’’

    But when it was his turn, Malik strode dry-eyed and with quiet dignity to the Bash-O-Matic and fed it the gun. When his mother approached, he said nothing.

    “You don’t want to talk to me?’’ Hall asked. He looked at her stonily and left to retrieve his gift.

    http://www.boston.com/news/local/rhode_island/articles/2010/12/19/providence_program_destroys_childrens_toy_guns/?comments=all#readerComm

    Of course when Malik becomes a teen , this demonization of guns as evil totems won’t influence him at all when he rebels…..

  31. @Lafayette
    Who reported the discipline to the media?

  32. marinm

    Cargo, let’s replace toy gun with book and maybe the lefty’s would get an idea of the anger they should be feeling over such a fascist program.

    I bet some of these kids will become future TSA agents or BATFE jack boots.

  33. @marinm
    What’s this, Marin? “BATFE jack boots”

  34. marin, that gun comment makes no sense. Who is smashing guns? It is a parent’s every right not to allow his/her child to have a gun as a toy. I never let mine have toy guns. Guns are NOT toys. When my son was old enough he took gun safety and handling in scouts, then through NRA. He has a conceal carry permit. Apparently my harsh treatment of no toy guns didn’t hurt him or his development. My daughter was not interested.

    Also toy guns have gotten more than one kid shot Still more have gotten suspended from school for long periods of time. When people have to make split second life or death decisions regarding their own safety, they don’t have time to decide, is it real or is it memorex or some kid pretending.

  35. @Posting as Pinko
    It would be easier for you to google BATFE abuses than list the shenanigans that the ATF likes to pull. They like to change the rules of the gun legality game in mid-play, much less the game.

    They’ve been known to shut down gun shops because of infractions that they had previously stated as legal. They are known to make up the rules as they go along.

  36. Censored bybvbl

    Attention, gun nuts, the state of Virginia needs to do a better job of educating young hunters. Oh, cry me a river about some kid’s toy gun being confiscated. The fact is that there are ignorant kids running around with bb guns and licenses. We recently ran three off the road behind our house after they killed a squirrel on my birdfeeder. My feeder is within twenty feet of my house and ,of course, on my property. There were three other houses within fifty feet of these kids. When told to leave they said that they had licenses and could shoot from the road. They simply went down the road and fired into other neighbors’ yards. It took a call to the police from two neighbors to get rid of them. Tell me again about education and licensed young hunters and the right to fire guns in a residential subdivision. You guys make soooo much sense .

  37. @Moon-howler
    However, you did not teach them that guns are “evil”. That is the intent here. And those are toys that the PARENTS bought them. Besides, NOT BUYING the toys is much different than forcing your child to purposely destroy a favorite toy.

    We’re talking about “a thick, blue gun with plastic sword underneath the muzzle”, not an Airsoft look-a-like.

    That parent stated that she has tried to “wean her boy off toy guns for six years.” The boy is eight. Who bought the other six toy guns that she had destroyed?

    Don’t want your kids to have toy guns? Fine. But forcing a child to destroy a favorite toy is just wrong. She should have just been an adult and taken the toys away at home, in private, explaining her reasoning.

  38. But it was the parent enforcing, not the government? Parents do things all the time that I think is just stupid. I guess it is their right to be stupid. And I don’t disagree with you that it is bad parenting. But it isn’t facist.

    And no, I didn’t teach my kids that guns are evil. I taught them that guns are not toys and that if misused or used carelessly, guns can harm or kill people and animals.

    If we had lived in the country and not the suburbs, I would have let them used real guns, under supervision, earlier. My mother, who was a regular Annie Oakley, never allowed my brothers to have guns until their were fairly old teenagers said that they would shoot at birds. (and my mother raised bird dogs) She just knew kids were jerks and that hers were no different. There was none of this 10 year old with a bb gun stuff.

    Censored, that is a horrible story and I hope the kids didn’t just get a warning. Where were their stupid parents? I doubt if they had licenses. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

    Kids get by with too much under juvenile justice. More and more of them deserve a good swift kick in the ass before they start doing some weekend time with community service or being locked up.

  39. “Tell me again about education and licensed young hunters and the right to fire guns in a residential subdivision. You guys make soooo much sense .”

    Apparently, that education did not take. This is actually proof that licensing does not matter. I don’t know your county laws, but, I’m reasonably sure that they were breaking the law. Hunting rules may state that one can hunt along a road, but, I’m sure that there are other conditions that need to be met. I’m not familiar with the hunting regs as I only shoot at paper.

    Nothing against hunting, but traipsing around the woods, in the dark, in the snow, and then waiting patiently for the chance that an animal might appear, and then, if your successful, do a bunch of hard work to clean and then carry that deer back to your truck……

    that is way too much like work……I’ll stick to sirloin and baby back ribs.

  40. Censored bybvbl

    M-h, the police checked their licenses. I don’t know if I could get a copy of the police report since they’re juveniles (15 and 16 year olds). These kids, whose collective IQ was probably around 100, had all their hunting “facts” totally wrong. That’s why I question what standards or tests have to be met to get a license – if any.

  41. I don’t think there is a hunting test. Sounds like there should be. How dangerous, shooting at houses. How stupid.

  42. Cargo, I am going to agree with you about sirloin and baby backs. I don’t eat game as a matter of principle. It has made me sad since I was a kid. I don’t care if other people do it though. I also don’t like game…of any sort. It might be mental. Who knows. When I say game I mean mammal or bird.

    Isn’t a hunting license just a tax? I don’t think there is any testing to it.

    It is illegal to hunt on someone’s property without permission and it is illegal to hunt along a road, I feel certain.

  43. You can buy a hunting and fishing license on line so I am assuming there isn’t much to know.

    http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/licenses/

  44. Cato the Elder

    Speak for yourselves. One deer supplies me with a month’s worth of hamburger helper (venison of course). Add a little sausage to the venison to give it some fat content, or fry it in bacon grease. Use the lasagna hamburger helper so the meat doesn’t completely overpower the noodles. Mmm Mmmm good.

  45. Cato the Elder

    I’d probably buy my kid a BB gun, having BB guns growing up taught me to handle and respect weapons. 10 seems a little young to me, though. Maybe more like 13. Hunting food is a family tradition for us so it might seem a bit odd to those who don’t do it but BB and pellet guns for appropriate aged kids is instructive and prepares them to handle the real thing.

    Agree on the toy guys. Guns aren’t toys and I’d never buy one for a kid nor allow him/her to have one.

  46. marinm

    Moon-howler :marin, that gun comment makes no sense. Who is smashing guns? It is a parent’s every right not to allow his/her child to have a gun as a toy. I never let mine have toy guns. Guns are NOT toys. When my son was old enough he took gun safety and handling in scouts, then through NRA. He has a conceal carry permit. Apparently my harsh treatment of no toy guns didn’t hurt him or his development. My daughter was not interested.
    Also toy guns have gotten more than one kid shot Still more have gotten suspended from school for long periods of time. When people have to make split second life or death decisions regarding their own safety, they don’t have time to decide, is it real or is it memorex or some kid pretending.

    In this case, the government is smashing guns. You DID read the story, right? What I posted was that if instead of a govt toy smasher it was a book burning session administered by a jack boot it would be the same thing. Telling citizens that the government disapproves of what they were doing and the best thing to do to be a good citizen is to destroy it.

    Diane Levin, professor of education at Wheelock College, said police and parents coming together to destroy toy guns sends a powerful message to children.

    Yes, it does. It shows you how fascist Boston cops are and how these parents can’t think for themselves and would rather be patted on the head like a good family pet and do as they’re told.

    That the parent (Hall) has given her child a plastic gun for the last 6 years and can’t wean him off it means that the parent probably wades in the shallow end of the intellectual pool. She’s the parent – why is she negotiating with her kid?

    I don’t hunt either but don’t have an issue with anyone doing so safely and legally.

    I think in Censored’s case that those parents should’ve kicked the crap out of those kids and marched them to his/her home to appologize and make amends.

    But, we live in a society where we don’t have parents rearing kids — the government does.

  47. @Cato the Elder

    [Moon-howler runs her finger down her throat.]

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