Thursday, January 02, 2014

Michigan State super fan 'Johnny Spirit' handcuffed then released at Rose Bowl

Johnny Spirit arrest 1Michigan State super fan 'Johnny Spirit' handcuffed then released at Rose Bowl | MLive.com

Rose Bowl on field---Yes! &Trophies

Yes!&Trophies - YouTube: "

NFL should be alarmed that three of four playoff games, including Green Bay's home game, still not sold out

NFL should be alarmed that three of four playoff games, including Green Bay's home game, still not sold out | Shutdown Corner - Yahoo Sports:
"It would be a tremendous embarrassment to the league to have three of four playoff games blacked out locally, and likely, the tickets will get sold somehow to avoid that scenario.
But there's a bigger issue here. Is this the most stark example that NFL fans aren't too excited to go to games anymore?
A quick glance at Ticketmaster on Wednesday afternoon showed the face-value prices for the Packers playoff game ranged from $313 and $102, not counting Ticketmaster fees.
If you've attended a NFL game, you know that the cost doesn't end with tickets. 
Parking is outrageously and insultingly high at most NFL games. 
Concessions aren't cheap either. NFL teams have gouged and gouged and gouged, and maybe there's a breaking point."

The Global Warming Tipping Point is Near

Blog: The Global Warming Tipping Point is Near:
"In 2004, NASA's chief scientist James Hansen authoritatively announced that there is only a ten-year window to act on AGW (presumably by transferring mass quantities of taxpayer funds to global warmist causes) before climate Armageddon destroys humanity. 
Well, that window has now shut tight, and AGW is AWOL.
Al Gore, the high priest of AGW theory, has closed all of his Alliance for Climate Protection field offices, and laid off 90% of his staff.  
Contributions have all but dried up since 2008."

After Pageantry, Tough Stop and Timely Passes Lift Spartans in Rose Bowl

After Pageantry, Tough Stop and Timely Passes Lift Spartans in Rose Bowl - NYTimes.com:
"Cook threw another interception that was voided by a defensive penalty.
He had at least two other interceptions dropped.
One hit a Stanford cornerback in the stomach.
After the touchdown return, Dantonio found Cook on the sideline.
“You good?” the coach asked his quarterback.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” the quarterback responded.
They bumped fists, and Cook hustled back onto the field."

Pork market prices are expected to rise in 2014

AgriNews: Pork market prices are expected to rise in 2014: "DANVILLE, Ind. —
Steve Meyer, the founder and president of Paragon Economics, said in a recent interview that producers can expect to see some changes in pork figures next quarter as a result of the porcine epidemic diarrhea virus, which hit first in June and July.

Due to this, he noted, that there will be a reduction in slaughter numbers from where they would have been had the animals not been sick.

The first and second quarters of the new year probably will be down between 2 percent and 4 percent in slaughter production, Meyer said.

The good news for pork producers is that hog prices will be positive.

“Reduce supplies, prices go up,” Meyer said, adding that producers whose hogs were infected with PEDV most likely lost three to four weeks of production."

Plutocracy---The Trillion-Plus Heist

And this is only the Federal government.
Lot's more theft from our state, county and local rulers.
Articles: The Trillion-Plus Heist:
"Recap:
Executive -- 6,546,673 employees; salaries ..... $ 549,126,870,330.
Legislative -- 12,835 employees; salaries ....... 5,250,599,780.
Judicial -- 1,324 employees; salaries ....... 199,418,700.
Agencies -- 5,298,867 employees; salaries ....... 569,886,700,000.
Total = 11,859,699 employees; salaries .... $ 1,124,463,588,810.

The consequences of these stupefyingly large numbers are far more devastating than can be seen directly.
To grasp the extent of that destruction, consider the level of prosperity that employers and employees achieve today despite regulations, taxes, permits, fines, and wasted time on government paperwork.
Because of government confiscation of producers' time and money, gone are the businesses that would have been started with that income.
Never to be recouped is the time that would have been spent on innovations, inventions, discoveries and products that would have been made. 
Never to be retrieved is the prosperity that would have inevitably raised the standard of living, elevated the destitute and eventually wiped out poverty."

Concealed Carry Means Fewer Murders, Says New Study

Concealed Carry Means Fewer Murders, Says New Study - Hit & Run : Reason.com:
"Using data for the period 1980 to 2009 and controlling for state and year fixed effects, the results of the present study suggest that states with restrictions on the carrying of concealed weapons had higher gun-related murder rates than other states. 
It was also found that assault weapons bans did not significantly affect murder rates at the state level. 
These results suggest that restrictive concealed weapons laws may cause an increase in gun-related murders at the state level. 
The results of this study are consistent with some prior research in this area, most notably Lott and Mustard (1997)."

Five things that could go wrong in 2014

Five things that could go wrong in 2014
The outgoing year certainly earns its place in history as one of the best of times for stocks.
It was pretty much smooth sailing to a new high on the S&P 500 of 1,848—a 30 percent gain with no correction greater than 7 percent. Stocks in the coming year are also expected to make good strides, but no forecasts come close to the performance of 2013. 
But 2013's advantage over the coming year was that the market was able to climb a wall of worry—starting with the fiscal cliff last New Year's Eve, through the government shutdown in October, and up to the Fed's announcement in December that it would pull back on stimulus.
...There are, however, several potential trouble spots to watch, and most of them expect to see a pullback sometime in 2014.
Rising rates. 
Slowing profit growth. 
Inflation. 
Washington. 
Geopolitical risks.

10 HILARIOUS Old Advertisements You will NOT BELIEVE EXISTED!

Chicken overtakes beef as the meat of choice on America's dinner tables

Chicken overtakes beef as the meat of choice on America's dinner tables | Mail Online:
"While the per capita consumption of beef has dropped from a peak of 90lbs per capita in the 1970s to 50 lbs in 2012, chicken consumption has gone the other way rising from under 20 lbs in 1960 to about 55 lbs in 2012. "

The Problems of Women in Combat - From a Female Combat Vet

The Problems of Women in Combat - From a Female Combat Vet:
"Men and women are different, but those pushing women into combat don’t want to admit that truth.
They huff and puff about how women can do whatever men can do, but it just ain’t so.
We’re built differently, and it doesn’t matter that one particular woman could best one particular man.
The best woman is still no match for the best man, and most of the men she’d be fireman-carrying off the battlefield will be at least 100 lbs heavier than her with their gear on."

Here are 89 Life Hacks That Will Make Your New Year So Much Better

Here are 89 Life Hacks That Will Make Your New Year So Much Better:
hacks-24

Outrage at JFK as Customs men smash a musician’s instruments

Outrage at JFK as Customs men smash a musician’s instruments:

Outrage at JFK as Customs men smash a musician’s instruments

Boujemaa Razgui, a flute virtuoso who lives in New York and works with many US ensembles, was returning to base over the holiday when Customs officials at Kennedy Airport asked to see his instruments.
Bourjemaa carries a variety of flutes of varying ethnicity, each made by himself over years for specific types of ancient and modern performance. He is a regular guest with the diverse and enterprising Boston Camerata.
At JFK, the officials removed and smashed each and every one of his instruments
No reason was given.
UPDATE: We have just managed to reach Boudemaa by phone. His ordeal may have been worse than described above. Report here. And in a further email, Boujemaa describes the joy his instruments brought to different communities across North America. Read here.

Industry, not environmentalists, killed traditional bulbs

Industry, not environmentalists, killed traditional bulbs | WashingtonExaminer.com
People often assume green regulations like this represent the triumph of environmental activists trying to save the plant. 
That’s rarely the case, and it wasn't here. 
Light bulb manufacturers whole-heartedly supported the efficiency standards. General Electric, Sylvania and Philips — the three companies that dominated the bulb industry — all backed the 2007 rule, while opposing proposals to explicitly outlaw incandescent technology (thus leaving the door open for high-efficiency incandescents).
This wasn't a case of an industry getting on board with an inevitable regulation in order to tweak it. 
The lighting industry was the main reason the legislation was moving. 
As the New York Times reported in 2011, “Philips formed a coalition with environmental groups including the Natural Resources Defense Council to push for higher standards.”
Industry support for the regulations struck lawmakers and journalists as a ringing endorsement of the regulations. Republican Congressmen Fred Upton, who has since flip-flopped and attacked the regulations, cosponsored the light bulb provision in 2007. His excuse, according to conservatives I spoke to: It couldn't be that bad if the industry supported it.
Liberals used this very argument to ridicule Republicans' 2011 efforts to repeal the law. Democratic congressman Steny Hoyer defended the rule by saying, “The standards are supported by the lightbulb industry.”
Joe Romm at the Center for American Progress pinned repeal efforts on the “extremist Tea Party wing of the party, which opposes all government standards, even ones that the lightbulb industry itself wants.”
That “even” signifies that the industry’s support indicates consensus. 
Instead, it signifies how consumers lose.

What Russian terrorists hope to accomplish ahead of Sochi Olympics

What Russian terrorists hope to accomplish ahead of Sochi Olympics | Fox News
The tactics, the choice of targets, and the size of the bombs (more than 20 pounds of TNT) suggest multiple objectives: to kill as many Russians as possible, to destroy New Year’s cheer, and to disrupt President Vladimir Putin’s flagship project—the Sochi Olympics.
Putin’s reaction has been muted thus far. He flew to the Russian Pacific Far East to celebrate the New Year with the victims of unprecedented floods there. He mentioned the attacks in his New Year address.
He also ordered Russian law enforcement agencies to tighten security measures.  
But he failed to address the nation on national TV immediately after the bombings, nor did he announce national days of mourning.
Volgograd has become a prime terrorist target in Russia. The bombings marked the sixth time Islamists have attacked the city. 
A few years ago, female suicide bombers blew up two passenger planes flying from Moscow to Volgograd. 
This past August, terrorists targeted police headquarters, but failed to execute the attack. On October 21, a female suicide bomber from Dagestan detonated her explosives in a passenger bus, killing five and injuring some 30 more.
Dagestan has become the epicenter of Islamist insurgency in the North Caucasus. The Russians have been unable to fully identify and neutralize the armed Salafi underground there. The political and religious struggle between traditional Caucasus Sufi Islam and the Wahhabi extremism imported from the Middle East continues, and the local elites and their Russian bosses do not know what to do.
A major player there is the Caucasus Emirate, a Salafi-Wahhabi terrorist organization with connections to al Qaeda and the Taliban. It is headed by Doku Umarov’s, a man with a price on his head, courtesy of the UN and the U.S.  
Earlier this year Umarov declared that his forces would do everything possible to derail the Sochi games. In July, he cancelled the moratorium on strikes on Russian civilian targets he introduced in winter 2012. Now he urges his followers to attack the Winter Olympics in Sochi, which lies close to the North Caucasus.
In the run up to the Olympics, Russian authorities tried to assure the public that their war against terrorism is succeeding. Yesterday’s attacks demonstrate that it is not. The separatists in the North Caucasus understand that they need to strike now, when the world's attention is riveted on Sochi.
The terrorists hope their attacks will serve multiple purposes. They aim to intimidate the Russians, gain support from fellow Moslems in the Caucasus, curry favor with Syrian extremists and their radical sponsors, and scare away tourists and foreign dignitaries.
Russia’s leaders see terrorism as an unavoidable evil. They are collecting saliva from women in North Caucasus, so that the security services can use DNA analysis to identify bombers. It is a tacit admission that future attacks are inevitable.
Meanwhile, the region’s security crisis and inter-religious and inter-ethnic conflict may have irreversibly shattered civic peace in Russia. Slavic and Christian Orthodox extremism has risen in response to expanding Salafi/Wahhabi influence and violence.
Increasingly in Russia, Muslims—especially Muslim youth—are seen and treated as aliens.  The North Caucasus are viewed as a kind of “internal abroad.”  Instead of integrating Muslims into Russian culture and trying to boost tolerance and acceptance of Muslims among ethnic Russians, Moscow has kept pushing Muslims away—and into the hands of terrorist recruiters.
Moscow has never developed, much less implemented a strategy to end the Caucasus insurgency.  Instead, it has delegated responsibility for solving the problem to corrupt and authoritarian leaders like Chechnya President Ramzan Kadyrov.

Dog just caught the car----Pot Opponents Predict 'Hogwild' Colorado Trainwreck

Pot Opponents Predict 'Hogwild' Colorado Trainwreck - US News and World Report:
"Sabet predicts marijuana shops will attempt to create addicts to bolster their bottom line.

"The only way to make money is from addiction," he said, comparing future marijuana sales tactics to casinos luring in gamblers. "They have to produce addiction in order to increase their profits and in order to do that they need to start young.""

After Waging Campaign Of Violence & Terror, Three Union Thugs Plead Guilty To Extortion

Stop Union Violence NowAfter Waging Campaign Of Violence & Terror, Three Union Thugs Plead Guilty To Extortion | RedState:
"While the case is ongoing, the charges against the men who pled guilty included a myriad of criminal acts, including violence, sabotage, threats, intimidation and extortion against their victims–all of whom were non-union contractors or their employees.



BUFFALO, NY—The United States Attorney’s Office announced today that three members of Local 17 of the International Union of Operating Engineers pleaded guilty before United States District Judge William M. Skretny to violations of the federal Hobbs Act Extortion statute and agreed to testify in the upcoming trial of their seven co-defendants."