December 23, 2011

Xmas: Redneck Style

 Xmas Lights

Greeting Card

Santa

 Wreath

 House Xmas Lights

Advent Calendar
  
Redneck is a term that originated in reference to agricultural workers (i.e. farmers) alluding to the sunburning of the neck from working long hours in the fields.

Today it is a slang term for a rural, white southerner who is politically conservative, usually racist and often a religious fundamentalist. The term is generally considered to be offensive.

But not to Jeff Foxworthy and his fans!


December 22, 2011

Modern Science

From:   Eyepoppers Best Science Photos



 
Nov. 18, 2011: A metal developed by a team of researchers from the University of California at Irvine, HRL Laboratories and the California Institute of Technology is pictured resting on a dandelion fluff without damaging it. The metal, which is about 100 times lighter than styrofoam, is the world's lightest material, according to the team.
Source: Reuters
WOW!!
That is truly impressive.
You know what the only thing better would be?
A cure for the common cold!

December 20, 2011

Christopher Hitchens, R.I. P.


Christopher Hitchens, the author and essayist who wrote the provocative best-seller "God is Not Great," died December 15th of pneumonia, a complication of his esophageal cancer.

Who was this guy?

From: Christopher Hitchens Dies:
He was an acknowledged contrarian and contradiction -- half-Christian, half-Jewish and fully non-believing; a native of England who settled in America; a former Trotskyite who backed the Iraq war and supported George W. Bush. But his passions remained constant and enemies of his youth, from Henry Kissinger to Mother Teresa, remained hated.

He was a militant humanist who believed in pluralism and racial justice and freedom of speech, big cities and fine art and the willingness to stand the consequences. He was smacked in the rear by then-British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and beaten up in Beirut. He once submitted to waterboarding to prove that it was indeed torture.

Hitchens was an old-fashioned sensualist who abstained from clean living as if it were just another kind of church. >snip<

An emphatic ally and inspired foe, he stood by friends in trouble ("Satanic Verses" novelist Salman Rushdie) and against enemies in power (Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini). His heroes included George Orwell, Thomas Paine and Gore Vidal (pre-Sept. 11). Among those on the Hitchens list of shame: Michael Moore, Saddam Hussein, Kim Jong il, Sarah Palin, Gore Vidal (post Sept. 11) and Prince Charles.

>snip<
He advocated intervention in Bosnia and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.

No Democrat angered him more than Clinton, whose presidency led to the bitter end of Hitchens' friendship with White House aide Sidney Blumenthal and other Clinton backers. As Hitchens wrote in his memoir, he found Clinton "hateful in his behavior to women, pathological as a liar, and deeply suspect when it came to money in politics."

He wrote the anti-Clinton book, "No One Left to Lie To" at a time when most liberals were supporting the president as he faced impeachment over his affair with Monica Lewinsky. 
Hitchens also loathed Hillary Rodham Clinton and switched his affiliation from independent to Democrat in 2008 just so he could vote against her in the presidential primary.

The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, completed his exit. He fought with Vidal, Noam Chomsky and others who either suggested that U.S. foreign policy had helped caused the tragedy or that the Bush administration had advanced knowledge. He supported the Iraq war, quit The Nation, backed Bush for re-election in 2004 and repeatedly chastised those whom he believed worried unduly about the feelings of Muslims.

"It's not enough that faith claims to be the solution to all problems," he wrote in 2009 after a Danish newspaper apologized for publishing cartoons of the prophet Muhammad that led Muslim organizations to threaten legal action. "It is now demanded that such a preposterous claim be made immune from any inquiry, any critique, and any ridicule."


His ideal way to die: "Fully conscious, and either fighting or reciting (or fooling around)."

Mr. Hitchens became a U.S. citizen April, 13, 2007, on the steps of the Jefferson Memorial.

Asteroid 57901 Hitchens is named after him.

Quotable Hitchens:
On newspapers:
    "Only aspirants for president are fool enough to believe what they read in the newspapers."

    "I became a journalist because I did not want to rely on newspapers for information."

On religion:
    "If religious instruction were not allowed until the child had attained the age of reason, we would be living in quite a different world."

    "To choose dogma and faith over doubt and experience is to throw out the ripening vintage and reach greedily for the Kool-Aid".

An excellent essay:

 More about him:

He will be missed.

Xmas Decor

More than just a few lights strung around the windows:






 

LOL Cats Do Xmas



Holiday 'Toons

Here are some of my favorites:






December 18, 2011

The Obama$ Merry Xma$

In a previous post regarding the Obummers' Holiday travel plans to Hawaii, I wrote that since they are traveling separately - because SHE did not want to wait - the plane 'fare' was going to cost the American taxpayers $100,000.

Oh, but that is apparently just a drop in the bucket, the tip of the iceberg.

According to The Hawaiian Reporter, which obtained more specifics about the executive expenditures, the total cost (based on what is known) for the 17-day vacation round-trip vacation to Hawaii for the President, his family and staff has climbed to more than $4 million.

Read all about it :

Hawaiian Reporter:  Obamas Vacation

The Obamas are certainly working hard to distribute the wealth, everybody else's that is.

December 17, 2011

Nancy Pelosi: Queen of the Congressional Fools

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and the same nitwit who actually said:

"We have to pass the (Healthcare) bill so that you can find out what's in it."

   and

"The American people voted to restore integrity and honesty in Washington DC, and the Democrats intend to lead the most honest, most open and most ethical Congress in history" ...

Has now said,  

“It can clearly be labeled the Republican do-nothing Congress. It’s a year of missed opportunities and made-up crises.”

Well, Nancy, The Republicans are trying to rectify / amend / undo / neutralize the damage that the screwed-up Dummycrat-controlled Congress (Senate AND House) perpetuated on the American people when you presided over the House.


And the last time I checked, the Dummycrats control the Senate.

The Hypocrite-in-Chief

Mrs. Obummer and the kids have left for their 17-day Hawaiian Holiday Vacation without Barack Hussein Obama who is still in Washington. SHE did not want to wait. He will join them later.

The two separate flights will cost the U.S taxpayers about $100,000.  Because, as you know, they don't fly commercial.

Oh, but what about THIS :

"In an executive order issued November 9, 2011, titled "To Cut Waste and Promote Efficient Spending", which was touted by the white House as a sign of Obama's commitment to cut the deficit, Obama instructed agencies to try to avoid unnecessary plane trips.


Hyprocrite: a person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings; example: Barack Hussein Obama


Lovejoy Lives!

This is the stuff Sy-Fy Channel movies are made of:

On December 14th, newly-found Comet Lovejoy took aim at the sun's corona where temperatures can reach 2 million degrees Fahrenheit (1.1 million degrees Celsius).

Most researchers expected the comet to be completed destroyed, blazing as brightly as Venus in the sky.

But Comet Lovejoy plunged through the sun's corona ... and came out the other side, zipping off into space!

Comet Lovejoy, a large sun-grazing comet, officially called C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy), was discovered by Australian amateur astronomer Terry Lovejoy on Nov. 27.



NASA also created a website providing updates about the comet's pass through the corona, as well as images of the event beamed down by SDO. It can be found here: http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/lovejoy.php

And from

Photo: NASA/ SDO

This image, taken by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, shows Comet Lovejoy diving through the sun's atmosphere on Dec. 15, 2011. Lovejoy's tail is visible as a faint diagonal smudge to the left of the sun, toward the bottom of the image. The tail points from lower left to upper right. 

Fallen Hero: Pvt. Jalfred Vaquerano



U.S. Army Pvt. Jalfred D. Vaquerano, 20, died December 13th, in Landstuhl, Germany, of injuries suffered from enemy small-arms fire while deployed in Logar province, Afghanistan.

He was assigned to 1st Battalion, 41st Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, Fort Bliss, Texas.

Vaquerano, of Apopka, Florida, was an Infantryman who entered the Army from Tampa, Florida in January 2011. He was previously stationed at Fort Benning, Georgia.
 
Vaquerano’s awards and decorations include the National Defense Service Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal with a Campaign Star, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, and the Army Service Ribbon

 Pvt Vaquerano is the 1,855th American killed in Afghanistan.



Requiescat in Pace, Soldier


December 15, 2011

Hawaii Five-Oops ?

The National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific , located in Punchbowl Crater just north of Honolulu, is the final resting place of over 30,000 veterans of World Wars I and II, Korea, and Vietnam.



And it is the site of an unforgivable show of disrespect to not only every veteran interred there, especially the ones whose graves were trod all over, but also to the 23 veterans who survived the December 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor who were special guests that day.

Hawaii Five-O Oops

Hawaii-Five-O TV show Disrespected Graves

Video Report here


December 14, 2011

Xmas at Arlington




Rest easy, sleep well my brothers.
Know the line has held, your job is done.
Rest easy, sleep well.
Others have taken up where you fell, the line has held.
Peace, peace, and farewell...


Every December since 1992, volunteers have laid holiday wreaths donated by the  Worcester Wreath Company  of Harrington, Maine, at the headstones of over 5,000 of America's honored dead.

In 2006, the project was expanded into  Wreaths Across America  

In 2009, volunteers placed over 16,000 wreaths at Arlington and other memorial sites across America.
 

December 10, 2011

Ft Hood Massacre = Workplace Violence ?


During a joint session of the Senate and House Homeland Security Committee on Dec 7th, Senator Susan Collins (ME/R) blasted the Defense Department for classifying the Fort Hood massacre as workplace violence and criticized the Barack Hussein Obama administration for failing to identify the threat from radical Islam.

She (correctly) suggested political correctness is being placed above the security of the nation’s Armed Forces at home.


This is the ultimate example of what is wrong with Barack Hussein Obama and his Administration -aka- the Insane Clowns of the Circus of Ineptitude.





The Disney Holiday Spirit


In less than two weeks, the joy of the holiday season will come in the form of a fully decorated tree to 17 local military families from the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit!



AND, Walt Disney World Cast Members (employees) collected 30,000 toys for the local Toys for Tots.




Obummer Defined


This sums up NoBama:

Hypocritical,  Incoherent, and  Unpresidential


 "Obama’s hypocrisy is built on a foundation of incoherence. This is not surprising. As a candidate and president, he has been as constant as a second is long."

Read more:


 Obama's Hypocritical, Incoherent and Unpresidential Economic Speech



December 07, 2011

Holidaze

The other day one of our local news readers remarked that our local pro basketball players will be playing out of town on Christmas Day and thus won't be spending the Holiday with their families.

And he sounded as if I should be sad about this.
 
Really,  George ?  

I'm just so upset that millionaire sports players may have to spend Xmas eve in a luxury hotel away from their multi-million dollar mansions, that I don't know what to do.  < sarcasm

Oh, wait.

I could send Xmas packages and cards to the thousands of U.S. Marines, soldiers, sailors and airmen who are serving their country overseas.  
 
They aren't staying in luxury hotels nor cashing paychecks with lots of zeros.
 
Their families aren't with them either.



Day of Infamy



On Sunday, December 7th, 1941 the Japanese launched a surprise attack against the U.S. Forces stationed here. This precipitated the United States’ entry into WW II.

When it was over:
 2403 Killed   (1144 from the USS Arizona, alone) including 68 civilians

Of the 8 Battleships in port, 5 were Sunk:
 USS Arizona: Total loss when a bomb hit her magazine; 1,177 lost
 USS Oklahoma: Total loss when she capsized and sank; 429 lost
 USS California: Sunk at her berth
 USS West Virginia: sunk at her berth
 USS Utah: sunk