Review and Comment on The News 8/12/11

The lead based, paint chip eating party gathers for a bit of a chin wag.

Eight Republicans seeking to capture the White House in 2012 attacked the current occupant -- and each other -- in a fiery debate Thursday, but the GOP front-runner, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, though somewhat sidelined, only needed to hold his ground. Romney comes out of the debate looking to keep his position at the top of the pack, as the candidates head into the nonbinding, but influential Iowa Straw Poll this weekend.

The race is still wide open, especially with Texas Gov. Rick Perry ready to enter the fray on Saturday.

The two candidates hailing from Minnesota led off the slugfest Thursday night. Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who is seeking to boost his flagging campaign, dismissed Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann in the debate, dismissing her record of accomplishments and results in Congress as "nonexistent."

That's not going to be good enough for our candidate for president of the United States," he said. "The American people are going to expect more and demand more. And in fact we need somebody who can contrast with Barack Obama on results."


Michelle Turner Overdrive insisted she is Not Fragile:

Bachmann fired back that Pawlenty's actions as governor, including his support for legislation to curb emissions and the individual mandate in health care, "sounds a lot like President Obama." "During my time in U.S. Congress, I have fought all of these unconstitutional measures," she said.

"She says she's got a titanium spine. It's not her spine we're worried about, it's her record of results," he said. "If that's your view of effective leadership with results, please stop because you're killing us."

My guy's already toast, but alas, the plot thickens...

Ron Paul and Rick "Google Santorum Sometime" Santorum had these profound words:

Texas Rep. Ron Paul and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum also clashed during Thursday's debate, over Iran's nuclear ambitions and its threats to the United States. Paul said Santorum engages in "war propaganda." Santorum said Paul is "obviously not seeing clearly" on the subject and does not understand the threats to the country from Islamic militants.

I must agree with Rick  "Google Santorum Sometime" Santorum on this, at least to the larger point that Paul does come off a bit clueless (almost Keebler Kucinich-like) on many things, but I am enchanted by his stance on legalizing marijuana and prostitution, so void is my life in the dating and realtionship world, that striking up a "relationship" with the madam down the block and taking advantage of  the inevitable flood of "buy 9, get the 10th one free" coupons that would flood the Sunday periodicals and newspapers for my local house of ill repute seems compelling and marijuana is no more damaging than alcohol....there, I waxed Libertarian for a bit...onward...

The Carter Misery Index back in play?:

We're doomed:

Confidence among U.S. consumers plunged in August to the lowest level since May 1980, adding to concern that weak employment gains and volatility in the stock market will prompt households to retrench.

Jimmah, Jimmah evawhere....


The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary index of consumer sentiment slumped to 54.9 from 63.7 the prior month. The gauge was projected to decline to 62, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey.

The biggest one-week slump in stocks since 2008 and the threat of default on the nation’s debt may have exacerbated consumers’ concerns as unemployment hovers above 9 percent and companies are hesitant to hire. Rising pessimism poses a risk household spending will cool further, hindering a recovery that Federal Reserve policy makers said this week was already advancing “considerably slower” than projected.

Ugh...

Career Sideways 101:

Oh my, not good...

SPRING HILL, Tenn. – Police in Spring Hill arrested a local music teacher Thursday morning after he was caught engaging in a sex act with a doll outside a local elementary school. Officers were called to Allendale Elementary School on Prescott Way in Spring Hill amid reports of a white male with a duffle bag under a bridge on school property. The bridge provides access to the school from the main road. Spring Hill police told Nashville's News 2 the responding officer witnessed the man, identified as 56-year-old Daniel Torroll, performing sex acts on a child-like doll police later discovered he'd cut holes into. The officer reported the man was naked and in a location where he could be seen by people driving up to the school.

Demands for a "Shared Reality"....

In his own words...

Albert Arnold Writ Large:                                                                               

Perhaps he's responding to this study:

PASADENA, CA—Groundbreaking new findings announced Monday suggest the record-setting heat wave plaguing much of the United States may be due to radiation emitted from an enormous star located in the center of the solar system.

Scientists believe the star, which they have named G2V65, may in fact be the same bright yellow orb seen arcing over the sky day after day, and given its extreme heat and proximity to Earth, it is likely not only to have caused the heat wave, but to be responsible for every warm day in human history.

"Our measurements indicate the massive amount of energy this thing gives off is able to travel 93 million miles and reach our planet is as little as eight and a half minutes," said Professor Mitch Kivens, an astronomer at the California Institute of Technology. "While we can't see them, we're fairly certain these infrared rays strike Earth's surface, become trapped by the atmosphere, and just heat everything up like a great big oven."

"We originally thought that if this star was producing temperatures of 100-plus in the South and Midwest, it must be at least 100 degrees itself," Kivens added. "But it turns out it's far, far hotter than that, with a surface temperature of nearly 10,900 degrees Fahrenheit."

Kivens and his CalTech colleagues said this intense radiation, which results from constant nuclear reactions converting hydrogen to helium in the star's core, could also account for why the orb in the sky is extremely bright and difficult to stare at directly. While scientists initially assumed the heat and luminescence of the star must make it the largest in the universe—a theory lent credence by the star appearing much bigger than other objects in the sky—they said the data actually appear to refute such a notion.

"Apparently it's gigantic simply because it's closer to us than any other star," Kivens said. "Which would also account for why we feel this particular star's heat during the day but are not warmed by the tiny blinking stars we see at night."

"It's interesting stuff," he added.