Kraven Moorehead

The Irish Bagpiper

As a bagpiper, I was asked by a funeral director to play at a graveside service for a homeless man who had no family or friends. The funeral was to be held at a cemetery in the remote countryside and this man would be the first to be laid to rest there.
As I was not familiar with the backwoods area, I became lost and being a typical man, did not stop for directions. I finally arrived an hour late. I saw the backhoe and the crew who were eating lunch but the hearse was nowhere in sight.
I apologized to the workers for my tardiness and stepped to the side of the open grave where I saw the vault lid already in place.

I assured the workers I would not hold them up for long but this was the proper thing to do. The workers gathered around, still eating their lunch. I played out my heart and soul.

As I played the workers began to weep. I played and I played like I'd never played before, from Going Home and The Lord is My Shepherd to Flowers of the Forest . I closed the lengthy session with Amazing Grace and walked to my car..

As I was opening the door and taking off my coat, I overheard one of the workers saying to another, "Sweet Jeezuz, Mary 'n Joseph, I never seen nothin' like that before and I've been putting in septic tanks for twenty years."

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The New York Times


June 12, 2009
Op-Ed Columnist
The Big Hate
By PAUL KRUGMAN

Back in April, there was a huge fuss over an internal report by the Department of Homeland Security warning that current conditions resemble those in the early 1990s — a time marked by an upsurge of right-wing extremism that culminated in the Oklahoma City bombing.

Conservatives were outraged. The chairman of the Republican National Committee denounced the report as an attempt to “segment out conservatives in this country who have a different philosophy or view from this administration” and label them as terrorists.

But with the murder of Dr. George Tiller by an anti-abortion fanatic, closely followed by a shooting by a white supremacist at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the analysis looks prescient.

There is, however, one important thing that the D.H.S. report didn’t say: Today, as in the early years of the Clinton administration but to an even greater extent, right-wing extremism is being systematically fed by the conservative media and political establishment.

Now, for the most part, the likes of Fox News and the R.N.C. haven’t directly incited violence, despite Bill O’Reilly’s declarations that “some” called Dr. Tiller “Tiller the Baby Killer,” that he had “blood on his hands,” and that he was a “guy operating a death mill.”

But they have gone out of their way to provide a platform for conspiracy theories and apocalyptic rhetoric, just as they did the last time a Democrat held the White House.

And at this point, whatever dividing line there was between mainstream conservatism and the black-helicopter crowd seems to have been virtually erased.

Exhibit A for the mainstreaming of right-wing extremism is Fox News’s new star, Glenn Beck.

Here we have a network where, like it or not, millions of Americans get their news — and it gives daily airtime to a commentator who, among other things, warned viewers that the Federal Emergency Management Agency might be building concentration camps as part of the Obama administration’s “totalitarian” agenda (although he eventually conceded that nothing of the kind was happening).

But let’s not neglect the print news media. In the Bush years, The Washington Times became an important media player because it was widely regarded as the Bush administration’s house organ. Earlier this week, the newspaper saw fit to run an opinion piece declaring that President Obama “not only identifies with Muslims, but actually may still be one himself,” and that in any case he has “aligned himself” with the radical Muslim Brotherhood.

And then there’s Rush Limbaugh. His rants today aren’t very different from his rants in 1993. But he occupies a different position in the scheme of things. Remember, during the Bush years Mr. Limbaugh became very much a political insider. Indeed, according to a recent Gallup survey, 10 percent of Republicans now consider him the “main person who speaks for the Republican Party today,” putting him in a three-way tie with Dick Cheney and Newt Gingrich. So when Mr. Limbaugh peddles conspiracy theories — suggesting, for example, that fears over swine flu were being hyped “to get people to respond to government orders” — that’s a case of the conservative media establishment joining hands with the lunatic fringe.

It’s not surprising, then, that politicians are doing the same thing. The R.N.C. says that “the Democratic Party is dedicated to restructuring American society along socialist ideals.” And when Jon Voight, the actor, told the audience at a Republican fund-raiser this week that the president is a “false prophet” and that “we and we alone are the right frame of mind to free this nation from this Obama oppression,” Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, thanked him, saying that he “really enjoyed” the remarks.

Credit where credit is due. Some figures in the conservative media have refused to go along with the big hate — people like Fox’s Shepard Smith and Catherine Herridge, who debunked the attacks on that Homeland Security report two months ago. But this doesn’t change the broad picture, which is that supposedly respectable news organizations and political figures are giving aid and comfort to dangerous extremism.

What will the consequences be? Nobody knows, of course, although the analysts at Homeland Security fretted that things may turn out even worse than in the 1990s — that thanks, in part, to the election of an African-American president, “the threat posed by lone wolves and small terrorist cells is more pronounced than in past years.”

And that’s a threat to take seriously. Yes, the worst terrorist attack in our history was perpetrated by a foreign conspiracy. But the second worst, the Oklahoma City bombing, was perpetrated by an all-American lunatic. Politicians and media organizations wind up such people at their, and our, peril.

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 12:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Here is something to think about when negative people are doing
their
best to rain on your parade. Remember this
story the next time someone who knows nothing (and cares less) tries
to
make your life miserable...

A woman was at her hairdresser's getting her hair styled for a trip
to
Rome with her husband.. She mentioned the
trip to the hairdresser, who responded:

" Rome ? Why would anyone want to go there? It's crowded and dirty..
You're crazy to go to Rome . So, how are you
getting there?"

"We're taking Continental," was the reply. "We got a great rate!"

"Continental?" exclaimed the hairdresser. " That's a terrible
airline.
Their planes are old, their flight attendants
are ugly, and they're always late. So, where are you staying in Rome
?"

"We'll be at this exclusive little place over on Rome 's Tiber River
called Teste."

"Don't go any further. I know that place. Everybody thinks its gonna
be
something special and exclusive, but it's
really a dump.."

"We're going to go to see the Vatican and maybe get to see the Pope."

"That's rich," laughed the hairdresser. You and a million other
people
trying to see him. He'll look the size of an
ant.

Boy, good luck on this lousy trip of yours. You're going to need it."

A month later, the woman again came in for a hairdo. The hairdresser
asked her about her trip to Rome .

"It was wonderful," explained the woman, "not only were we on time in one
of Continental's brand new planes, but it
was overbooked, and they bumped us up to first class. The food and
wine
were wonderful, and I had a handsome
28-year-old steward who waited on me hand and foot.

And the hotel was great! They'd just finished a $5 million remodeling
job, and now it's a jewel, the finest hotel in
the city. They, too, were overbooked, so they apologized and gave us
their owner's suite at no extra charge!"

"Well," muttered the hairdresser, "that's all well and good, but I
know
you didn't get to see the Pope."

"Actually, we were quite lucky, because as we toured the Vatican, a
Swiss Guard tapped me on the shoulder, and
explained that the Pope likes to meet some of the visitors, and if
I'd be so kind as to step into his private room
and wait, the Pope would personally greet me.
Sure enough, five minutes later, the Pope walked through the door and
shook my hand! I knelt down and he spoke a few
words to me."
"Oh, really! What'd he say ?"
He said: "Who fucked up your hair?"

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 12:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Posted by Mark Frauenfelder, June 10, 2009 12:42 PM | permalink
American chestnut trees are very fast growing and produce a hard wood suitable for furniture. They're good at sequestering carbon. In the early 1900s a blight nearly wiped out chestnut trees. They've never come back. But Douglass Jacobs, an associate professor of forestry and natural resources at Purdue University, has hybridized American chestnuts with blight-resistant Chinese chestnuts. The tress are 94 percent American chestnut, yet retain the blight resistance of Chinese chestnuts.

200906101241 (Photo by Nicole Jacobs)

Jacobs studied four sites in southwestern Wisconsin that were unaffected by the blight because they are so far from the tree's natural range. He compared the American chestnut directly against black walnut and northern red oak at several different ages, and also cross-referenced his results to other studies using quaking aspen, red pine and white pine in the same region.

In each case the American chestnut grew faster, having as much as three times more aboveground biomass than other species at the same point of development. American chestnut also sequestered more carbon than all the others. The only exception was black walnut on one site, but the American chestnut absorbed more carbon on the other study sites.

"Each tree has about the same percentage of its biomass made up of carbon, but the fact that the American chestnut grows faster and larger means it stores more carbon in a shorter amount of time," Jacobs said.

Jacobs said trees absorb about one-sixth of the carbon emitted globally each year. Increasing the amount that can be absorbed annually could make a considerable difference in slowing climate change, he said.

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WILMINGTON, North Carolina (Reuters) - Three workers died when an explosion caused a roof collapse at a ConAgra Foods Inc processing plant in North Carolina, and more than 40 people were injured, the company and police said on Wednesday.

The 500,000-square-foot (46,000-sq-meter) plant in Garner, south of the state capital of Raleigh, employed 900 people in three shifts and made Slim Jim meat sticks, ConAgra said.

Tuesday's explosion started a fire and blew out a wall that fell onto a row of parked cars, crushing them. People at the scene reported a strong smell of ammonia fumes.

The cause of the blast was unknown.

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By Lynn Adler

NEW YORK, June 10 (Reuters) - Spiking U.S. mortgage rates drove down total home loan applications last week as demand for refinancing shriveled to the lowest level since November, the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Wednesday.

The swift rate rise crimps affordability, likely cutting offer prices on home sales and prolonging a housing turnaround.

Borrowing costs have soared as bond yields have risen, even as the Federal Reserve has sopped up hundreds of billions of dollars in bonds to keep rates low and stimulate the housing market.

The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate jumped 0.32 percentage point in the June 5 week to 5.57 percent. That was nearly a full point, about 100 basis points, above the record low rate of 4.61 percent in March, the trade group said.

"Clearly, 50 or 100 basis points more on mortgage rates is enough to matter. It effects what people can afford to buy," said Bill Cheney, chief economist at John Hancock Financial Services in Boston.

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By Richard Valdmanis

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices surged to a seven-month high near $72 a barrel on Wednesday after a U.S. government report showed a slowdown in crude imports eating away at inventories in the world's top energy user.

U.S. crude for July delivery rose to a high of $71.79 a barrel before pulling back to trade up $1.04 at $71.05 by 1:20 p.m, EDT. London Brent rose 85 cents to $70.47 a barrel.

The gains came after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported nationwide stockpiles fell by a larger-than-expected 4.4 million barrels last week as imports dropped by 676,000 barrels per day.

"The number that kind of stands out right away is the drop in crude oil imports," said Gene McGillian, analyst at Tradition Energy in Stamford, Connecticut. "If imports are going to drop, we're going to see some of the stockpiles erased."

The report also showed a decline in gasoline inventories as refiners slowed production and demand notched higher.

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 02:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif (Reuters) - Google Inc is closing in on its goal of producing renewable energy at a price cheaper than coal, the company's so-called green energy czar, the engineer in charge of the project, said on Tuesday.

But the United States needs to raise government-backed research significantly and take much bigger risks if it wants to make alternative energy mainstream, executive Bill Weihl told Reuters in an interview.

Google, known for its Internet search engine, in late 2007 said it would invest in companies and do research of its own to produce affordable renewable energy -- at a price less than burning coal -- within a few years.

Continue reading "Google closing in on cheap renewable energy" »

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Two people have been shot at the entrance of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, emergency officers said. A private security guard and another person were wounded, according to officials of the D.C. police and fire department.

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 02:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Sweden's Pirate Party, striking a chord with voters who want more free content on the Internet, won a seat in the European Parliament, early results showed. The Pirate Party captured 7.1 percent of votes in Sweden in the Europe-wide ballot.

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 10:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Remarks of President Barack Obama
A New Beginning
Cairo, Egypt
June 4, 2009
I am honored to be in the timeless city of Cairo, and to be hosted by two remarkable
institutions. For over a thousand years, Al-Azhar has stood as a beacon of Islamic
learning, and for over a century, Cairo University has been a source of Egypt’s
advancement. Together, you represent the harmony between tradition and progress. I am
grateful for your hospitality, and the hospitality of the people of Egypt. I am also proud to
carry with me the goodwill of the American people, and a greeting of peace from Muslim
communities in my country: assalaamu alaykum.We meet at a time of tension between the United States and Muslims around the world –
tension rooted in historical forces that go beyond any current policy debate. The
relationship between Islam and the West includes centuries of co-existence and
cooperation, but also conflict and religious wars. More recently, tension has been fed by
colonialism that denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims, and a Cold War in
which Muslim-majority countries were too often treated as proxies without regard to their
own aspirations. Moreover, the sweeping change brought by modernity and globalization
led many Muslims to view the West as hostile to the traditions of Islam.
Violent extremists have exploited these tensions in a small but potent minority of
Muslims. The attacks of September 11th, 2001 and the continued efforts of these
extremists to engage in violence against civilians has led some in my country to view
Islam as inevitably hostile not only to America andWe meet at a time of tension between the United States and Muslims around the world –
tension rooted in historical forces that go beyond any current policy debate. The
relationship between Islam and the West includes centuries of co-existence and
cooperation, but also conflict and religious wars. More recently, tension has been fed by
colonialism that denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims, and a Cold War in
which Muslim-majority countries were too often treated as proxies without regard to their
own aspirations. Moreover, the sweeping change brought by modernity and globalization
led many Muslims to view the West as hostile to the traditions of Islam.
Violent extremists have exploited these tensions in a small but potent minority of
Muslims. The attacks of September 11th, 2001 and the continued efforts of these
extremists to engage in violence against civilians has led some in my country to view
Islam as inevitably hostile not only to America andWe meet at a time of tension between the United States and Muslims around the world –
tension rooted in historical forces that go beyond any current policy debate. The
relationship between Islam and the West includes centuries of co-existence and
cooperation, but also conflict and religious wars. More recently, tension has been fed by
colonialism that denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims, and a Cold War in
which Muslim-majority countries were too often treated as proxies without regard to their
own aspirations. Moreover, the sweeping change brought by modernity and globalization
led many Muslims to view the West as hostile to the traditions of Islam.
Violent extremists have exploited these tensions in a small but potent minority of
Muslims. The attacks of September 11th, 2001 and the continued efforts of these
extremists to engage in violence against civilians has led some in my country to view
Islam as inevitably hostile not only to America and

Continue reading "Hank Aaron aka President Obama hits another home run" »

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 08:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

HEY LITTLE GIRL, WANT TO GO FOR A RIDE?

A Little 10-year-old girl was walking home, alone, from school one day, when a big man on a black motorcycle pulls up beside her. After following along for a while, turns to her and asks,
"Hey there little girl, do you want to go for a ride?"
"NO!" says the little girl as she keeps on walking.
The motorcyclist again pulls up beside her and asks,
"Hey little girl, I will give you $10 if you hop on the back."
"NO!" says the little girl as she hurries down the street.
The motorcyclist pulls up beside the little girl again and says,
"Okay kid, my last offer!
I'll give you 20 Bucks AND a Big Bag of Candy if you will just hop on the back of my bike and we will go for a ride."
Finally, the little girl stops and turns towards him and Screams Out...

"Look Dad"
"Your the one who bought the Honda instead of the Harley"!

"YOU RIDE IT!"

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 11:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese health authorities are putting a stop to restaurants serving chickens which have been bitten to death by poisonous snakes and cooked up for a supposedly detoxing meal.

The dish, served by a small number of eateries in the southern province of Guangdong and the southwestern city of Chongqing, has generated a storm of publicity and controversy in the Chinese media and amongst bloggers.

A video showing a cook holding a snake and forcing it to bite a live chicken until it dies has been widely circulated online,

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 11:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

By John Whitesides

SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) - The United States and Cuba have agreed to resume direct talks on migration, last held in 2003, and open discussions on reestablishing direct mail service between the two countries, U.S. officials said on Sunday.

In the latest sign of progress in President Barack Obama's effort to improve relations with the former Cold War enemy, Cuba presented a note to officials on Saturday agreeing to a U.S. request made last week to resume the migration talks, which President George W. Bush suspended.

The communist nation also agreed to a U.S. request proposing talks about direct mail service, which has been suspended for decades.

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 11:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

By Carey Gillam

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) - A Kansas doctor reviled by anti-abortion groups for his work providing "late-term" abortions was shot and killed in his Wichita, Kansas church on Sunday, and police said they captured the man responsible.

Police said they planned to charge a 51-year-old man on Monday with homicide and two counts of aggravated assault in the death of 67-year-old George Tiller, who died from a single gunshot.

Tiller was shot while serving as an usher for Sunday services in the foyer at Reformation Lutheran Church. The shooter threatened two other men at the church who tried to intervene, police said.

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 11:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

By Kevin Krolicki and John Crawley

DETROIT/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - General Motors Corp filed for bankruptcy on Monday, forcing the 100-year-old automaker once seen as a symbol of American economic might and dynamism into a new and uncertain era of government ownership.

The bankruptcy filing is the third-largest in U.S. history and the largest ever in U.S. manufacturing.

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 11:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

New York.

Natalie Dylan is back on the auction block after an Australian businessman pulled out of his contract to take her virginity. The man, who agreed to pay $3.8 million for the honor of deflowering Dylan, says he can no longer go through with the deal - because his wife says no.

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 11:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) spoke last night at a dinner of the Foreign Policy Association, where he lambasted former Vice President Dick Cheney's speech last week for dishonestly claiming that the interrogation techniques he approved were not torture, and were not connected to Abu Ghraib -- saying that Cheney "bore false witness":Log In

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New Polls: Sotomayor Getting High Marks From The Public

The Face Of The Sotomayor Opposition

Sestak Tells Supporters He Intends To Run For Senate

« Where Do Conservative Democrats Stand On Sotomayor? | Home | TPMDC Morning Roundup »
Levin Calls Cheney A Liar On Torture
By Eric Kleefeld - May 28, 2009, 6:39PM

Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) spoke last night at a dinner of the Foreign Policy Association, where he lambasted former Vice President Dick Cheney's speech last week for dishonestly claiming that the interrogation techniques he approved were not torture, and were not connected to Abu Ghraib -- saying that Cheney "bore false witness":

"I do so as Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which recently completed an 18-month investigation into the abuse of detainees in U.S. custody, and produced a 200-page bipartisan report, which gives the lie to Mr. Cheney's claims," said Levin. "I do so because if the abusive interrogation techniques that he champions, the face of which were the pictures of abuse at Abu Ghraib, if they are once more seen as representative of America, our security will be severely set back."

Levin also went after Cheney for claiming that "enhanced interrogation" saved American lives, and that it was no different from what is done to our own people in SERE training:

Continue reading "Levin Calls Cheney A Liar On Torture.......thanks sue" »

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 01:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

PERTH, Australia (AP) — An Australian student worried about her parents' money problems rifled through a pile of her lottery tickets Thursday and discovered that she had won 13 million Australian dollars ($10 million) 10 months ago, a state lottery agency said.

The student, living in the west coast city of Perth, received the winning ticket for a draw on July 22 last year as a gift from her father, Western Australia state agency Lotterywest said.

She had been unaware that it would have expired after 12 months, it said in a statement.

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 08:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico is reporting six more deaths from swine flu, bringing the country's toll to 95.

The Health Department says that 4,974 people have been sickened nationwide. That number includes the 95 deaths.

Health officials say 34 percent of those who died were obese and diabetic.

Mexico says its epidemic has largely subsided, but the confirmed toll has been rising as scientists test a backlog of samples from patients.

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 08:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)