Friday, August 27, 2010

Secret operations are essential in war; upon them the army relies to make its every move.-- Sun Tzu


Super impressive; averaging roughly 4 per day!
Our politicians continue to vacillate and pontificate ad nauseam, while our honored troops accomplish the mission true to their motto- De Oppresso Liber. 
May God continue to Bless America!


Please consider a donation to Special Operations Warrior Foundation, a charity that provides funds for the surviving children of Special Ops personnel killed in battle. 



Wednesday, August 25, 2010

The gourmands pleasures are healthy!

Who would have thought that within

The 10 healthiest ethnic cuisines

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/08/25/healthiest.ethnic.cuisines/

 I regularly enjoy:   

Spanish Paella

 as well as:

Thai Tom Yung Gung, soup 

 I most certainly recommend both highly.


 

 

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Bad News; delivered ohhh sooo sweetly!

I am convinced Mellisa Lee from CNBC could announce to me that the Apocalypse was imminent; and I would demurely smile.
and yet, snippets from today's economic news is troubling to say the least, but the reality is, it's stunning. (yup, I wanted to use the word stunning for obvious reasons)

Aug. 19, 2010, 11:44 a.m. EDT

Jobless claims jump to nine-month high

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- First-time filings for state unemployment benefits rose unexpectedly last week to reclaim the highest level for this key economic benchmark since the middle of last November, the Labor Department reported Thursday. For the week ended Aug. 14, initial claims rose 12,000 to 500,000. This is the highest level since the week ended Nov. 14, 2009.

Claims had fallen as low as the 427,000 level in mid-July but have worsened steadily since and now have increased for three straight weeks. (Buff- remember all those temporary census jobs “created”.) 

 Aug. 19, 2010

Existing home sales dive to 15-year low

……………..Sales of previously owned U.S. homes took a record drop in July to their lowest pace in 15 years, suggesting further loss of momentum in the economic recovery…………
………….The government on Friday is expected to revise down growth in second-quarter gross domestic product to an annual pace of 1.4 percent from 2.4 percent, according to a Reuters survey…………..
   

"We need this stimulus program to prevent unemployment from exceeding 8%".- POTUS


"Prosperity is just around the corner".- POTUS


"The country is mired in malaise".-POTUS (Buff- In other words, it's all your fault people! I'm a great leader! NOT!!!)

God Bless the United States of America!
 









GoTopless.org- finally an issue deserving of my unequivical support !!

http://www.gotopless.org/

Monday, August 23, 2010

How is it that all the Miss Universe contestents speak English better than most of our own citizens- WTF???

ramblings before sleep

ATLANTA – Federal agents are seeking to hire Ebonics translators to help interpret wiretapped conversations involving targets of undercover drug investigations.
The Drug Enforcement Agency recently sent memos asking companies that provide translation services to help it find nine translators in the Southeast who are fluent in Ebonics, Special Agent Michael Sanders said Monday.
Ebonics, which is also known as African American Vernacular English, has been described by the psychologist who coined the term as the combination of English vocabulary with African language structure.
Some DEA agents already help translate Ebonics, Sanders said. But he said wasn't sure if the agency has ever hired outside Ebonics experts as contractors.
"They saw a need for this in a couple of their investigations," he said. "And when you see a need — it may not be needed now — but we want the contractors to provide us with nine people just in case."
The DEA's decision, first reported by The Smoking Gun, evokes memories of the debate sparked in 1996 when the Oakland, Calif., school board suggested that black English was a separate language. Although the board later dropped the suggestion amid criticism, it set off a national discussion over whether Ebonics is a language, a dialect or neither.
The search for translators covers a wide swath of the Southeast, including offices in Atlanta, Washington, New Orleans, Miami and the Caribbean, said Sanders. He said he's uncertain why other regions aren't hiring Ebonics translators, but said there are ongoing investigations in the Southeast that need dedicated Ebonics translators.
Linguists said Ebonics can be trickier than it seems, partly because the vocabulary evolves so quickly.
"A lot of times people think you're just dealing with a few slang words, and that you can finesse your way around it," said John Rickford, a Stanford University linguistics professor. "And it's not — it's a big vocabulary. You'll have some significant differences" from English.
Critics worry that the DEA's actions could set a precedent.
"Hiring translators for languages that are of questionable merit to begin with is just going in the wrong direction," said Aloysius Hogan, the government relations director of English First, a national lobbying group that promotes the use of English.
"I'm not aware of Ebonics training schools or tests. I don't know how they'd establish that someone speaks Ebonics," he said. "I support the concept of pursuing drug dealers if they're using code words, but this is definitely going in the wrong direction."
H. Samy Alim, a Stanford linguistics professor who specializes in black language and hip-hop culture, said he thought the hiring effort was a joke when he first heard about it, but that it highlights a serious issue.
"It seems ironic that schools that are serving and educating black children have not recognized the legitimacy of this language. Yet the authorities and the police are recognizing that this is a language that they don't understand," he said. "It really tells us a lot about where we are socially in terms of recognizing African-American speech."
Rickford said that hiring Ebonics experts could come in handy for the DEA, but he said it's hard to determine whether a prospective employee can speak it well enough to translate since there are no standardized tests. He said the ideal candidate would be a native speaker who also has had some linguistics training.
Finding the right translators could be the difference between a successful investigation or a failed one, said Sanders. While he said many listeners can get the gist of what Ebonics speakers are saying, it could take an expert to define it in court.
"You can maybe get a general idea of what they're saying, but you have to understand that this has to hold up in court," he said. "You need someone to say, 'I know what they mean when they say 'ballin' or 'pinching pennies.'" "

the systematic destruction of the middle class

Sunday, August 22, 2010

a master of stating the obvious

Buff's favorite quotation

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.
The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years.
During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency; from comp...lacency to apathy; from apathy to dependency; from dependency back again to bondage."
--Attributed to Scottish History Professor at University of Edinburgh Sir Alexander Fraser Tytler (1747-1813)