Reblogged from Jelo1317's Blog:

Sad and so avoidable if people would simply prepare in advance!

Anarchy Along The Jersey Shore And On Long Island In The Aftermath Of Hurricane Sandy

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"Do Buffalo County, WI Residents Know What "Silica" Is? What About Fracking?"

Reblogged from Jelo1317's Blog:

"Do Buffalo County, WI Residents Know What "Silica" Is?  What About Fracking?" by Johnnie Loeffler Schmeckpeper

 

Facts from OSHA:

 

What is crystalline silica?

Crystalline silica is a basic component of soil,

sand, granite, and many other minerals.  Quartz

is the most common form of crystalline silica.

Cristobalite and tridymite are two other forms

of crystalline silica.  All three forms may become…

Read more… 1,564 more words

Some Fracking Advice!

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WTF – Facebook Is Like Jail!

Oh so true!

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WTF – You Are What You Eat!

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WTF- Swine Flu Hits U.S.A.

Mexico issues surgical masks to residents to protect against swine flu

By now, we’ve all heard the news on swine flu. Cases of swine flu were first reported in Mexico. However, news reports have now stated that it has spread into American soil. Known cases have been noted in California, New York, Texas, Ohio and Kansas to name a few. Other cases are now being reported on a global scale, notably, in New Zealand.

While swine flu has paralyzed most of  Mexico in recent days, the White House has declared a state of public health emergency although cases in the U.S.A. have been mild. While no known vaccine (or cure for the lack of a better term) exists, White House officials recommend that regular procedures are still followed: cover your mouth and nose when sneezing, wash your hands at all times.

To learn more on swine flu and key facts on it, please visit the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) page on swine flu. To learn more on the White House briefing regarding swine flu, please visit Yahoo’s article titled US Declares Public Health Emergency for Swine Flu. You can also visit CNNs home page for the latest news on swine flu.

*Please note that all information in this entry has been obtained by the websites listed above and should be credited to their respective authors.

(Image courtesy of The Huffington Post)

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WTF Is Gay Tax Protest Worth It?

This seems to be growing momentum since the defeat of Proposition 8 in CA.  I wonder who comes up with these lame-brain ideas?  Yes, let’s get the IRS all over us for not reporting/paying in our taxes.  If you get a return of money, you sure as hell are not going to protest!  Come on everyone!  Use your fucking heads, and come up with something better than this taxing proposal!

Gay tax revolt grows
by Matthew S. Bajko
Bay Area Reporter – edgeboston.com
Sunday Nov 23, 2008

Melissa Etheridge has written that she will not pay her state taxes in the wake of Prop 8’s passage.    (Source:Becky Sapp/Berliner Studio)

The stripping of marriage rights from same-sex couples in California is giving renewed attention to calls for a national gay tax protest.

A handful of LGBT activists have refused to pay any state or federal income taxes for several years now. They argue that since they are not treated equally under the law as their heterosexual neighbors, they should not have to fork over the money they owe to state or federal governments.

Their protest has largely gone unnoticed or unheeded by the majority of LGBT Americans – until now.

Two days after the passage of Proposition 8, the anti-gay constitutional amendment California voters passed November 4 that bans gays and lesbians from marrying in the Golden State, lesbian singer Melissa Etheridge penned a posting on the Daily Beast blog titled “You can forget my taxes.”

She wrote that she would be withholding the half a million dollars she owes the state in taxes this year and urged other LGBT people to do the same.

Because she and her wife, Tammy Lynn Michaels, are no longer afforded the same rights as other Californians under the state constitution, Etheridge wrote that, “Okay, so I am taking that to mean I do not have to pay my state taxes because I am not a full citizen. I mean that would just be wrong, to make someone pay taxes and not give them the same rights, sounds sort of like that taxation without representation thing from the history books.”

Etheridge’s stance has led to the creation of a Facebook group called “I will join Melissa Ethridge [sic] in refusing to pay CA taxes until I can marry!” San Francisco resident Emily Drennen, a bisexual who this summer married her wife, Lindasusan Ulrich, created the page.

Drennen did not respond to a request for comment. On the Facebook page she wrote, “Singer Melissa Etheridge rails against the passage of the same-sex marriage ban in California – and she won’t be paying the state a dime. This group is for Californian LGBTQI citizens and our allies who pledge to withhold paying our 2008 taxes unless our marriage rights are restored.”

As of Tuesday, only 19 people had signed up, many being residents of other states.

In July of this year John Bisceglia started writing at http://www.gaytaxprotest.blogspot.com/ about the idea for a national tax equality protest on April 15, 2009. The Bellingham, Washington resident wrote that he used to pay his taxes until he divorced his partner in 2005 and saw how the law mistreated gay couples.

In a statement he released in August, Bisceglia said he had “reached his limit” and would withhold his tax filings until the federal government grants all LGBT Americans and their children the 1,400-plus legal rights and protections civil marriage affords.

“The federal government’s discrimination against LGBT families is an abomination; it is cruel to deny our families a marriage certificate while simultaneously doling them out like candy to heterosexuals,” he stated. “My hope is that those in the LGBT community with substantial income demand their long overdue rights by taking a stand for justice, for society, and for equality for all Americans.”

Palm Springs resident Charles Merrill stopped paying his federal and state taxes four years ago after President Bush urged in his State of the Union speech for Congress to pass a federal amendment banning same-sex marriage in the U.S. Constitution. At the time he and his partner of 18 years, Kevin Boyle, were living on a farm in the mountains near Asheville, North Carolina.

Two years ago they moved to California and married this year. He has continued to withhold his federal and state income taxes and is suing the Internal Revenue Service. His lawsuit, Merrill vs. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, is scheduled to be heard by the U.S. Tax Court in San Diego sometime in 2009.

“My hope is that those in the LGBT community with substantial income demand their long overdue rights by taking a stand for justice, for society, and for equality for all Americans.”

Merrill, 75, is a cousin to the founder of Merrill Lynch & Co. He applauded Etheridge for shining a national spotlight on the gay tax protest. In an interview this week, he said he would gladly pay his taxes, but not before he is afforded the same rights as straight taxpayers.

“I want to pay taxes but I want to pay them as everyone else, not as a second-class citizen,” said Merrill. “I am really doing this for the 18,000 couples who got married in California and are denied all those rights.”

Should the tax protest snowball into a national movement, he said it would send a strong signal to President-elect Barack Obama to maintain his campaign pledge to repeal the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which has been used to justify discriminating against same-sex couples. Merrill noted that in Massachusetts, where same-sex marriage is still legal, and California prior to Election Day nearly 30,000 gay and lesbian couples have married, with more exchanging vows in Connecticut now that that state has enacted same-sex marriage.

At a time when governments are hurting for money, a gay tax revolt would have an impact, argued Merrill.

“I think it would be a wake-up call to President-elect Obama to get started on this, these promises he made us. It could turn into a economic problem if enough gays and lesbians stop paying taxes,” he said. “It is not extortion or anything, just a reminder of what he said he was going to do.”

Not everyone is jumping onto the tax protest bandwagon. Asked about Etheridge’s comments by Joy Behar last week on CNN, lesbian actress Cynthia Nixon said withholding her tax payments is “something I am not going to do.”

The Human Rights Campaign has not taken any official stance for or against the idea.

“The beauty of our movement is that people get the choice to practice civil disobedience in whatever way they wish,” said spokesman Brad Luna. “Obviously, we would encourage people to understand their personal responsibility that comes with practicing that civil disobedience. Nonetheless, we understand people are going to protest these anti-LGBT measures in their own way.”

Fred Karger, the founder of Californians Against Hate, which has organized against Prop 8, also took a measured stance when asked if he supported a gay tax revolt.

“I am supportive of every legal approach to get our equal rights. Certainly laws could be questioned and people can protest however they want to. It is a personal decision,” said Karger, who said he had no intention of not paying his own taxes. “You got a lot of angry people out there.”

An e-mail seeking comment from state Board of Equalization member Betty Yee was not returned by press time.

Of course anyone opting to join the tax revolt should take precautions should the taxman cometh.

Merrill said he has squirreled away the taxes he should have paid over the last four years in case of the day when he is ordered to hand over the money. He also does not own property and said he has moved a large part of his savings into gold coins, which are hidden away in a secret location – even his partner does not know the whereabouts.

“I put those in a private place that nobody could attack them,” he said.

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WTF – Disney Eggs!

Sometimes I think that the world is becoming more sane, that people are beginning to understand where food comes from, and that marketing to children is becoming a little less respectable. Then I see Disney branded eggs and wonder what is going on here.

Are they any different? Are they from happy cage free hens that get to play outside and frolic with the other farm animals?

No, it appears that the only difference is that the eggs are stamped with your favorite Disney character. Do kids ever see the eggshells?

In the TV commercial they do show mom making fried eggs in some kind of mickey mold, but no word if that is included with the eggs. But what is the point? Does it sell eggs? Or is it just Disney corporatizing something that used to be branded by the farm, that even in the biggest supermarkets was still a relatively local product?

A simple, healthy relatively natural product, now branded. Is nothing sacred?

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WTF?! Russian Raccoon Rape Revenge!

I’m not even sure where to start with this one!  I guess Russian guys get pretty lonely during the winter.  What a dumb ass!  Raccoons are known to be mean and have sharp teeth.  He deserved to get the short end of the stick on this one.  I wonder if the raccoon’s name was Lorena Bobbit?

http://www.spike.com – January 26, 2009

Russian Raccoon Rape Turns Rowdy

Alaxander Kirilov got wasted with his buddies (like ya do in Russia).  And, because Russia is basically just one gigantic, Eurasian ghost town, he decided when he saw a raccoon wander into their social circle that he’d, “have a little fun.” Anybody that’s ever had sex with a raccoon can tell you what happened next. If you don’t know anybody that has, though, I’ll tell you: the raccoon bit off his dong.

No means no, man. Even when spoken in raccoon. After the incident, he was alive (but certainly not well), and his friends rushed him to the hospital.  Also, given that his erect penis was suddenly severed and his blood had been thinned with alcohol, this dude must’ve been, to quote James Bond, a “bloody mess.”

Russian plastic surgeons said they’d be able to get everything working again, but the lost inch-age was, well, lost. Here’s hoping that this dude is blessed with the curse of Rasputin, for his own sake.

Image Source: Harold Pfeiffer/Riser/Getty Images

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WTF-Ooops! Bombing Iran Was Supposed to be a Secret!

The Israeli Ambassador slipped up during a news conference, and he told the world that Israel planned on bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities in the next month instead of 10-11 months down the road. Then, he asks for the cameras to be turned off.  Can you say “Fuck Up?”  This will certainly make for a interesting February, unless they change their minds and decide to wait until spring or summer now.  The U.S. or Israel should have dropped one of their new smart cluster bombs on Tehran to blow those turban-headed dumb fuckers with a itchy trigger finger to smithereens!

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WTF-Palin Opens Her Gaping Hole Again?…and Her Mouth Too?!

I hope Palin can see the volcano from her back yard!

Alaskans Brace for Volcano to Blow

By DAN JOLING,

AP

posted: 12 HOURS 17 MINUTES AGO

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Jan. 30) — Hardware stores and auto parts shops scored a post-holiday run of business this week as Anchorage-area residents stocked up on protective eyewear and masks ahead of a possible eruption of Mount Redoubt.

Monitoring earthquakes underneath the 10,200-foot Redoubt Volcano about 100 miles southwest of Anchorage, scientists from the Alaska Volcano Observatory warned that an eruption was imminent.

Blowing Their Tops

R. Clucas, Alaska Volcano Observatory / AP

This file photo shows Mount Redoubt erupting on April 21, 1990. Geologists warned Thursday that the volcano in south-central Alaska could be ready to explode. “Its pressure keeps building and building,” said one geologist. The volcano is about 100 miles from Anchorage.

Peter Cervelli, a research geophysicist with the observatory, told CNN that “every indication is that we’re heading toward an eruption.”

The predictions are sending experienced Alaskans shopping for protection against a dusty shower of volcanic ash that could descend on south-central Alaska.

“Every time this happens we do get a run on dust masks and goggles,” said Phil Robinson, manager of an Alaska Industrial Hardware store in Anchorage. “That’s the two main things for eye and respiratory protection.”

Customer Ron Cowan picked up gear at the store Thursday before heading off to an auto parts store for a spare air filter.

“I’m older now and I’m being a little more proactive than I was the last time,” Cowan said.

When another Alaska volcano, Mount Spurr, blew in 1992, he waited too long.

“The shelves were cleared, so I thought I wouldn’t wait until the last minute,” Cowan said.

Unlike earthquakes, volcanoes often give off warning signs that usually give people time to prepare.

The observatory, a joint program between the U.S. Geological Survey, the University of Alaska Geophysical Institute and the state Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys, was formed in response to the 1986 eruption of Mount Augustine.

It has a variety of tools to predict eruptions. As magma moves beneath a volcano before an eruption, it often generates earthquakes, swells the surface of a mountain and increases the gases emitted. The observatory samples gases, measures earthquake activity with seismometers and watches for deformities in the landscape.

On Nov. 5, geologists noted changed emissions and minor melting near the Redoubt summit and raised the threat level from green to yellow. It jumped to orange — the stage just before eruption — on Sunday in response to a sharp increase in earthquake activity below the volcano.

Alaska’s volcanoes are not like Hawaii’s. “Most of them don’t put out the red river of lava,” said the observatory’s John Power.

Instead, they typically explode and shoot ash 30,000 to 50,000 feet high — more than nine miles — into the jet stream.

“It’s a very abrasive kind of rock fragment,” Power said. “It’s not the kind of ash that you find at the base of your wood stove.”

The particulate has jagged edges and has been used as an industrial abrasive. “They use this to polish all kinds of metals,” he said.

Particulate can injure skin, eyes and breathing passages. The young, the elderly and people with respiratory problems are especially susceptible. Put enough ash under a windshield wiper and it will scratch glass.

It’s also potentially deadly for anyone flying in a jet. “Think of flying an airliner into a sandblaster,” Power said.

Redoubt blew on Dec. 15, 1989, and sent ash 150 miles away into the path of a KLM jet carrying 231 passengers. Its four engines flamed out.

As the crew tried to restart the engines, “smoke” and a strong odor of sulfur filled the cockpit and cabin, according to a USGS account. The jet dropped more than 2 miles, from 27,900 feet to 13,300 feet, before the crew was able to restart all engines and land the plane safely at Anchorage. The plane required $80 million in repairs.

The observatory’s first call after an eruption is now to the Federal Aviation Administration. The observatory’s data collection has become far more advanced in 19 years, as has the alert system.

“Pilots are routinely trained to avoid ash and in what to do if they encounter an ash cloud,” Power said. “That kind of thing was not routinely done in the 1980s.”

The jet stream can carry ash for hundreds of miles. Ash from Kasatochi Volcano in the Aleutians last August blew all the way to Montana and threatened aircraft, Power said.

Particulate is mildly corrosive but can be blocked with masks and filters.

Power advises Alaskans to prepare as they would for a bad snowstorm: Keep flashlights, batteries and several days’ worth of food in the house, limit driving and prepare to hunker down if the worst of an ash cloud hits.

Merely going indoors is a defense against ash. The American Red Cross recommends wearing long-sleeved shirts and long pants outside, plus goggles and glasses instead of contact lenses. If no dust mask is available, an effective respiratory filter is a damp cloth over nose and mouth.

But potential danger all depends on the wind. Mount Spurr erupted three times in 1992. When it blew that June, only climbers on Mount McKinley — about 150 miles north of Anchorage — were affected, Power said. An August eruption dumped significant ash on Anchorage and a September blow sent ash about 40 miles north of Anchorage to Wasilla.

Dust mask customer Elizabeth Keating said Thursday that if the volcano erupts, she expects to stay inside. She bought masks for her school-age grandchildren to carry in their backpacks.

“I want to make sure they’re carrying these in case they’re en route,” she said.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.

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