Clipmarks | debbyski's Pops

Top 10 reasons Palin is resigning

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 23:52:04 GMT

clipped by: moonspirit4ever
clipper's remarks: I was hoping she was going to defect to Cuba, but these will do nicely, too

Clip Source: www.democraticunderground.com

10. Joining the Alaska National Guard just in case Putin rears his head again.

9. Needs the extra time to buy up and shred every copy of this month’s Vanity Fair.

8. RNC accidently emailed her the speech meant for Mark Sanford.

7. Plotting revenge against Letterman is a full time job.

6. Wanted to knock all the Michael Jackson coverage off of cable news.

5. Premiering this fall: “Regis & Sarah”.

4. Finally decided to study up for the Katie Couric interview

3. Heard Biden had left the country and is hoping to be considered for the VP job again

2. Is moving to Minnesota to head up the recount for Norm Coleman

Victim of a consumer Rip-off? Want justice?

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 00:09:53 GMT

clipped by: ofcapri
clipper's remarks:

Unlike the Better Business Bureau, Ripoff Report does not hide reports of "satisfied" complaints. ALL complaints remain public and unedited in order to create a working history on the company or individual in question.
Clip Source: www.ripoffreport.com

Beware! Don't pay upfront fees to modify a delinquent mortgage loan
Millions of Americans are behind or facing problems with their mortgages. Companies offering help but, sometimes, for a fee. Mortgage modification ads appear all over TV & the internet but are the services helpful? If they are asking for a fee up front, ..walk away! ..hang up the phone!
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Victim of a consumer Rip-off? Want justice?

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Ripoff Report® is a worldwide consumer reporting Web site and publication, by consumers, for consumers, to file and document complaints about companies or individuals. While we encourage and even require authors to only file truthful reports, Ripoff Report does not guarantee that all reports are authenic or accurate. Be an educated consumer. Read what you can and make your decision based upon an examination of all available information.
..And, it's FREE.

Tags: victim

Obama Killed Michael Jackson!

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 01:23:54 GMT

clipped by: Jorjor
clipper's remarks: The first paragraph is from the cigar-sucker's own web page. The rest, and below, is from politicsusa.com.

Rush’s comparison does not work. It doesn’t make sense. Partisan politics can’t be applied to something as random as a celebrity death. Ronald Reagan had as little to do with Jackson’s success, as Obama did with his death. Jackson’s talent made him the world’s biggest star in the 80s, not Ronald Reagan, and Obama did not cause Jackson’s heart trouble.

The wingnut pundits are doing everything they can to cast Obama in a bad light. He's a tyrant and a dictator, but they descend to trivialities like his choice of mustard or his reaction to a reporter's intrusive ringtone. The cognitive dissonance it takes to agree with these people is becoming more conflicted every day. What's next - blame Obama for the Teapot Dome Scandal?

Clip Source: www.rushlimbaugh.com

Jackson's success paralleled the rebound of the United States under Ronaldus Magnus. Michael Jackson's biggest successes, and as it turns out his final successes, real successes took place in the eighties. That was Billie Jean, Thriller and all this. I mean he was as weird as he could be but he was profoundly, because of his weirdness, an individual. He wasn't a group member. He reached a level of success that may never be equaled. He flourished under Reagan; he languished under Clinton-Bush; and died under Obama. Let's hope the parallel does not continue.

Clip Source: www.politicususa.com

Limbaugh later asked what about his statements were not true. Well, we can start with the idea that Michael Jackson was not a group member. It can be argued that the foundation for his entire successful solo career was his membership in the Jackson 5. Secondly, Jackson’s success or failure after the 1980s had nothing to do with the party of the president, and everything to do with a bizarre, scandal riddled, personal life

Tags: michael jackson, rush limbaugh, obama, politics, wingnut, conspiracy theories, unbelievable

Whose to blame for the housing bubble? Lenders!

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 04:34:18 GMT

clipped by: egoldstein
clipper's remarks: In my opinion, the housing bubble was caused primarily by one thing - greedy lenders who knew exactly what they were doing and how disastrous the consequences would be long term. This clip from Rolling Stone magazine says it well...

Clip Source: www.rollingstone.com

By now almost everyone knows that for decades mortgage dealers insisted that home buyers be able to produce a down payment of 10 percent or more, show a steady income and good credit rating, and possess a real first and last name. Then, at the dawn of the new millennium, they suddenly threw all that shit out the window and started writing mortgages on the backs of napkins to cocktail waitresses and ex-cons carrying five bucks and a Snickers bar.

Tags: economy, housing bubble, morrgage

Whose to blame for skyrocketing oil prices? Speculators!

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 04:40:37 GMT

clipped by: egoldstein
clipper's remarks: At what point in time will the financial industry be regulated so they're not making money at the expense of everyone else?

Clip Source: www.rollingstone.com

Between 2003 and 2008, the amount of speculative money in commodities grew from $13 billion to $317 billion, an increase of 2,300 percent. By 2008, a barrel of oil was traded 27 times, on average, before it was actually delivered and consumed.

Tags: finance, oil, speculators

Healthcare industry outspends opponents 200 to 1

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 04:50:40 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: And that's your premiums they're spending on lobbying rather than healthcare

Clip Source: www.dailykos.com

In the first three months of 2009, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has spent more money on lobbying since 1998 than any other company, trade association, or advocacy group, and the Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers of America (PhARMA)--the No. 6 all-time spender--paid lobbyists a combined $22.5 million to promote their interests.

Meanwhile, prominent champions of the public insurance option spend very little on lobbying or campaign contributions

Families USA, a self-described consumer watchdog dedicated to health care issues, for example, has spent a mere $10,000

Health Care for America Now (HCAN), a national network that unites doctors' associations, consumer groups and other activists, spent $80,000 last year

Yowza. All that money spent to keep us getting

insurance and prescription medications

It's us, the consumer, the people who are having to shell out all this money for health "care" vs. the people taking all of our money

and pouring it into lobbying

Tags: healthcare

Palin: Not quitting is for quitters, so I'm quitting

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 05:15:54 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Once again, Palin blurts her way into senseless babble.

Clip Source: www.talkingpointsmemo.com

Perhaps the best part of Palin's announcement today:

Life is too short to compromise time and resources... it may be tempting and more comfortable to just keep your head down, plod along, and appease those who demand: "Sit down and shut up", but that's the worthless, easy path; that's a quitter's way out.

Tags: palin

Sara Palin Resigning As AK Governor, Won't Seek Re-Election

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:41:02 GMT

clipped by: Jorjor
clipper's remarks: "The media made me do it, gosh darn it!"

Clip Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

After Sarah Palin's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week she has announced she will be stepping down in a few weeks. In a press conference call this morning, Alaska's Governor Sarah Palin has announced she will not run for re-election and is stepping down as governor.

She had a brief statement. She took no questions.

Her commissioners and Lt. Governor were with her at her home. Palin did not relinquished the reigns of the state to the Lt. Governor while running for vice president.

Lt. Governor Sean Parnell will step in as governor at the end of the month. He was defeated by Congressman Don Young in the Republican primary last year.

Resignation is certainly out of character for Sarah Palin. Senator Mark Begich had a meeting with Sarah Palin two days ago with no mention of her leaving office.

Palin's father, Chuck Heath, told Fox News he thought her resignation was due to the negativity from the media.

Tags: palin, republicans, politics, alaska, resignation, you betcha

My Black is Beautiful Manifesto

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 05:52:40 GMT

clipped by: zizzy

Clip Source: www.myblackisbeautiful.com

From the color of my skin, to the texture of my hair, to the length of my strands, to the breadth of my smile,

To the stride of my gait, to the span of my arms, to the depth of my bosom, to the curve of my hips, to the glow of my skin,
My Black is Beautiful.

It cannot be denied. It will not be contained. And only I will define it.

For when I look in my mirror, my very soul cries out,
My Black is Beautiful.

And so today, I speak it out loud, unabashedly, I declare it anew,
My Black is Beautiful.

Whether celebrated, imitated, exploited or denigrated. Whether natural from inside or skillfully applied,
My Black is Beautiful.

To my daughters, my sisters, my nieces, my cousins, my colleagues and my friends,
I speak for us all when I say again,
My Black is Beautiful.

Download and Print the
My Black is Beautiful Manifesto (PDF)

Why you aren’t nearly as unique as you think?

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:37:49 GMT

clipped by: einbar
clipper's remarks: "Since 1994, photographer Ari Versluis and profiler Ellie Uyttenbroek have been trekking the globe together, recording Exactitudes — “exact attitudes” captu(red) in people’s peculiar dress code as an attempt to differentiate themselves from others or identify with a group."

Clip Source: www.brainpickings.org

Why you aren’t nearly as unique as you think, or what 12 Japanese school children have to do with 12 homeless people in Rotterdam.

Each “exactitude” consists of twelve distinct portraits structured in a grid. Think of it as street fashion meets cultural anthropology meets data visualization — a visceral exploration of subcultures, group identity and individualism.

The series is also an ethnographic and temporal portrait of our collectively individual identity across time and space — the big bags of 2008, New York’s yupster girls, the tracksuits of Japanese schoolkids, the soccer jersey fetish of European teenage boys, even “street style” at its rawest in the face of the homeless.

We see the Rotterdam-based duo’s work as a collage of contradictions — between individuality and uniformity, between street style and studio setting, between self and group — that make you question our cultural givens and our self-conception as unique personas.

Why do we nod our heads for "yes" and shake them for "no"?

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:50:13 GMT

clipped by: thisnamecantbetaken
clipper's remarks: Dear Cecil:

"With reference to your column on gestures, did you leave out or just not know that in Greece the five fingers spread out and thrust forward at someone means "[poo] in your face"? - Had to Tell You.

Cecil replies:

"Thank you for sharing that with us. Just shows you how the Greeks continue to enrich civilization. "

Clip Source: www.straightdope.com

No less a personage than Charles Darwin looked into it

Nodding and head-shaking turned out to be pretty common, but there were some striking exceptions. For example, certain Australian natives, when uttering a negative, "don't shake the head, but holding up the right hand, shake it by turning it half round and back again two or three times."

Abyssinians said "no" by jerking the head to the right shoulder and making a slight cluck, while "yes" was expressed by the head being thrown backwards and the eyebrows raised for an instant.

The Dyaks of Borneo supposedly raised their eyebrows for "yes" and slightly contracted them, "together with a peculiar look of the eyes," for "no." Eskimoes nodded for "yes" and winked for "no."

where they completely reverse the meaning of our nod and head-shake gestures is Bulgaria. There a nod means no and a shake means yes.

One shudders to think of the implications this has for cross-cultural dating in that country.

The Story of Schroedinger's Cat (An Epic Poem)

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 01:04:26 GMT

clipped by: thisnamecantbetaken
clipper's remarks: Or atom--whatever--but when it emits,

A trigger device blasts the vial into bits

Which snuffs our poor kitty. The odds of this crime

Are 50 to 50 per hour each time.

The cylinder's sealed. The hour's passed away. Is

Our pussy still purring--or pushing up daisies?

Now, you'd say the cat either lives or it don't

But quantum mechanics is stubborn and won't.

Statistically speaking, the cat (goes the joke),

Is half a cat breathing and half a cat croaked.

To some this may seem a ridiculous split,

But quantum mechanics must answer, "Tough shit.

We may not know much, but one thing's fo' sho':

There's things in the cosmos that we cannot know.

Shine light on electrons--you'll cause them to swerve.

The act of observing disturbs the observed--

Which ruins your test. But then if there's no testing

To see if a particle's moving or resting

Why try to conjecture? Pure useless endeavor!

We know probability--certainty, never.'

Clip Source: www.straightdope.com

Win saw that the theory that Newton'd invented

By Einstein's discov'ries had been badly dented.

What now? wailed his colleagues. Said Erwin, "Don't panic,

No grease monkey I, but a quantum mechanic.

Consider electrons. Now, these teeny articles

Are sometimes like waves, and then sometimes like particles.

If that's not confusing, the nuclear dance

Of electrons and suchlike is governed by chance!

No sweat, though--my theory permits us to judge

Where some of 'em is and the rest of 'em was."

Not everyone bought this. It threatened to wreck

The comforting linkage of cause and effect.

E'en Einstein had doubts, and so Schroedinger tried

To tell him what quantum mechanics implied.

Said Win to Al, "Brother, suppose we've a cat,

And inside a tube we have put that cat at--

Along with a solitaire deck and some Fritos,

A bottle of Night Train, a couple mosquitoes

(Or something else rhyming) and, oh, if you got 'em,

One vial prussic acid, one decaying ottom

New Evidence Ties Cheney Tightly to Plame Leak

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:02:08 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: The man is a traitor, should be tried as such, and should suffer the consequences of his actions.

Clip Source: www.washingtonpost.com

A document filed in federal court this week by the Justice Department offers new evidence that former vice president Richard B. Cheney helped steer the Bush administration's public response to the disclosure of Valerie Plame Wilson's employment by the CIA and that he was at the center of many related administration deliberations.

The administration's discussion of Wilson's link to the CIA was meant to undermine criticism by her husband of administration allegations that Iraq attempted to acquire uranium, a matter that her husband had probed for the CIA, according to testimony presented in a 2007 trial.

A list of at least seven related conversations involving Cheney appears in a new court filing approved by Obama appointees at the Justice Department. In the filing, the officials argue that the substance of what Cheney told special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald in 2004 must remain secret.

The Magic of The Purity Ring

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:06:14 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: Given what I have witnessed from some teens, I wouldn't be surprised.

Clip Source: www.smbc-comics.com

8 Family Portaits Tips

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:07:14 GMT

clipped by: n2sooners
clipper's remarks: Some good tips for getting better family portraits.

Clip Source: digital-photography-school.com

The sun is out and shining bright. The sky is blue and the grass is green. Summers here and it seems everyone is wanting a new family portrait on the beach, at the park, or in downtown.

Here are some things to keep in mind when creating family portraits:

Think in “mini-groups”.

Use groups of two’s and three’s to compose your family shot.

Remember “levels”.

vary the levels of your subjects

Consider “color”.

Watching even lighting, but don’t stress about it.

Pick shade:

find awnings, the shaded back side of buildings, or tree cover to diffuse the harsh sunlight

Move quickly:

The more people you have in a shot, the less time you have to create it

Be fun and spontaneous!

Background work:

Most of all, spend some time asking questions of what the family wants.

Tags: family, photography, portraits, tips