Homey D. Clown

Birds And Bread

Not all birds eat bread, but there are other uses....

The GOP Always Increases The Deficit - Always!

Every time the GOP is in charge, through their ill-considered arms buildups and tax-reduction policies, they they make certain the deficit explodes. When Democrats get in charge, they attempt to fix things. Why anyone would trust the utterly-untrustworthy GOP on these matters is a mystery:

The reality is that we had low debt and no fiscal problem before Reagan; then an unprecedented surge in peacetime, non-depression deficits under Reagan/Bush; then a major improvement under Clinton; then a squandering of the Clinton surplus via tax cuts and unfunded wars of choice under Bush. And yes, a surge in debt once the Great Recession hit, but that’s exactly when you should be running deficits.

The point about the fake history that expunges the Clinton years is that it turns the budget into a story in which nobody is at fault because everyone is at fault, and the problem is a generic issue of runaway spending. No, it isn’t; we would have come into this crisis with very little debt if the GOP hadn’t always insisted on tax cuts.

"Urinetown" Rehearsals This Week At DMTC

The last two weeks have been pretty arduous, and the next weeks look like they'll be equally-arduous.

Newspapers Acting In Complicity With The Government

Since Gutenberg came along, complicity between reporters and governmental agents has been the oldest story in the world. In all nations, times, and circumstances, complicity is normal. We tend to think of an adversarial press, especially as it pertains to democracies, but that's an exceptional condition. Respect for press independence is mostly empty flattery directed at craven reporters, many of whom are perfectly-ready to toe the government's line, anytime, anyplace, and especially so if money or camera-time are at stake.

But what about our principled, liberal press? Well, they aren't principled and they aren't liberal. Those who believe otherwise haven't been paying attention, especially since 1994, or so.

But liberals hate drones, don't they? Well, not really! Drones can be very useful tools! Better than bombs alone!

Of course, people with other priorities - like terrorists - can use drones too. But, for now, liberals are content to see what uses prove suitable for our new toys.

Like they say, when the only tool you have is a hammer, everything else begins to look like a nail:

In the last 24 hours, events in Congress have shown how leaders of both political parties have worked together to create a new extra-constitutional precedent — one allowing the occupant of the White House to execute American citizens without judicial oversight or even concrete incriminating evidence.

...This is exactly the kind of thing that rightly sows suspicion that for all the politicians yelling at each other, and for all the media hand-wringing about polarization, in many cases both parties collude to guarantee certain outcomes — especially on national security issues. Yet, as evidenced by an equally troubling revelation, that collusion is not limited to elected officials. It also extends to the media that is supposed to provide a check on those officials.

...In a stunning interview with the paper’s ombudsman, managing editor Dean Baquet admitted that the Times decided not to censor the story because it would pose any kind of imminent danger to Americans, but because it might result in the drone program being curtailed.

...It is not overstatement to call this a genuine watershed moment for American journalism.

Here you have one of the most powerful news organizations in the world publicly admitting that it refused to report a story not because it was concerned about the safety of Americans (aka “national security) but because it believed that doing so might result in people finding out about what’s going on and consequently forcing a change in government policy.

...Can you imagine the reaction if, for instance, a major news outlet openly said it refused to publish a story about a secret tax policy specifically because doing so might result in public outrage and therefore a change in said policy? It doesn’t matter whether the tax policy was ultra-conservative or super-liberal — the notion of any news organization, much less some of the most powerful in the world, publicly saying it suppressed a story to prevent a change in that tax policy is anathema to the most basic understanding of the press’s role in society. It would almost certainly generate a huge amount of outrage — and rightly so.

...That such a decision was nonetheless made quite obviously undermines the entire notion that the Times editors (or any editors at the other papers that made the same decision) have any serious regard for objectivity.

...But perhaps even more problematic than the bias is the government-media collusion that is never supposed to occur in a democratic society.

One of the reasons a free press is so necessary to a functioning democracy is so that it can shed light on the actions of the people’s government — even if that light reveals taboo facts. Clearly, though, the opposite is happening — major news organizations made the decision to turn that light off precisely because it would reveal such politically inconvenient truths.

The other label for that is “state-run propaganda.” That’s a term Americans may not be comfortable with — but unfortunately it’s a term that accurately describes more and more of what we see, read and hear when it comes to national security.

Florida's Brilliant New Business Slogan Campaign

Checking in on Facebook this morning, I noted Brennan said this:

Heard this on the radio, had to share:

So apparently Florida has a new slogan to encourage business in their state, it says "Florida: The Perfect Climate for Business" except the I in Florida is a tie instead of an I. Of course, this being America, someone found offense with it. Saying it is "sexist", because obviously only men wear ties ever.

A columnist for the Tampa Times suggested "draping the "F" in Florida in pearls or anchoring the "A" in fashionable heels".

I can't even believe people like this exist... It hurts my brain... If this tie offends you, your stupidity offends me. So you better cut it out! Or I'm going to complain about it loudly and accomplish nothing!

Hmmm..... It is mildly offensive to women, but only mildly. These days, the crowd that Rush Limbaugh loves to call "feminazis" are in danger of suffering combat burnout. Every other day, some powerful legislature somewhere tries to implement mind-bendingly stupid laws regarding lady parts. Feminist outrage is pegged at such a high level right now, for sound, legitimate reasons, that getting all worked up about some dumb slogan would simply slip below their overtaxed radar.

But then my BS detector began to buzz. I began to wonder, and replied:

If anything's stupid it's that some ad agency got paid big bucks for this slogan. Maybe there is no controversy, and faux anger is the campaign rollout. If so, it's brilliant!

I started looking deeper. At the Tampa Bay Times:

This week Gov. Rick Scott and business leaders unveiled plans for a blitz to attract business to our state with this slogan: FLORIDA The Perfect Climate for Business.

Clever. That's climate as in business climate, but also our lack of sudden ice storms. Notably, the "i" in Florida is in the shape of a man's power tie.

This next thought may seem as ancient to younger women as whalebone corsets. But to some of us who grew up with tales of important downtown clubs where businessmen dined and women were unwelcome, of big deals cut on golf courses without pesky women in attendance, the message is not so subtle: Businessmen Welcome Here. The rest of you? Eh.

I consulted prominent local business types who also happen to be female:

"How you completely dismiss that entire segment of your business community and use a visual that is so associated with men — this is something out of the Mad Men era," says Beth Leytham, owner of the Leytham Group public relations firm.

"Not everyone wears a tie," said former Tampa mayor Pam Iorio, now a leadership speaker. "The business community is both men and women. I think I would have chosen something 21st century."

So, who is Beth Leytham?:

"Perhaps they should add a tag line: 'Florida is the perfect climate for business if you're a man,'" wrote Beth Leytham, a Tampa-based public relations executive, in an email to the Tampa Tribune.

"I thought immediately that it set us back, all the work that we've done. It's not that they have to make it pink or 'girlie,' but maybe put a briefcase or something like an iPhone or smartphone in there to represent business," Pamela Rogan, the President of the Central Florida Chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners, told MyFoxOrlando.

I smell fish! The businesswoman at the center, Beth Leytham, is in advertising. And what are the odds that there are connections between Enterprise Florida and Central Florida Chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners? There's a second controversy about funding going out of state, where the real scandal (if any) might be.

I bet Leytham is getting paid under the table. I bet Rogan is in collusion. My head explodes at the possibilities. It is brilliant!

As Brennan later remarked:

Mark, that would be pretty brilliant and whoever thought of it deserves a raise or promotion.

Yes, we are certainly talking about this slogan (that's mildly-offensive, but not truly so)! Generate a bit of heat, and Voila!

This faux-anger kind of campaign has infinite possibilities these divided days. Here the focus is on the right wing, with talk-radio as the messenger, but it could work equally-well on the left, through blogs and appropriate venues. INFINITE POSSIBILITIES!

I look forward to much manipulative sturm und drang in the coming years, courtesy of the Mad Men who really run our nation.

I Always Wanted A Manifesto - This Cop Has A Manifesto

Christopher Dorner is mad as hell:

I know most of you who personally know me are in disbelief to hear from media reports that I am suspected of committing such horrendous murders and have taken drastic and shocking actions in the last couple of days. ... Unfortunately, this is a necessary evil that I do not enjoy but must partake and complete for substantial change to occur within the LAPD and reclaim my name. The department has not changed since the Rampart and Rodney King days. It has gotten worse.

...I have exhausted all available means at obtaining my name back. I have attempted all legal court efforts within appeals at the Superior Courts and California Appellate courts. This is my last resort. The LAPD has suppressed the truth and it has now lead to deadly consequences.

...I’m not an aspiring rapper, I’m not a gang member, I’m not a dope dealer, I don’t have multiple babies momma’s. ... I didn’t need the US Navy to instill Honor, Courage, and Commitment in me but I thank them for re-enforcing it. It’s in my DNA.

...Luckily I don’t have to live everyday like most of you. Concerned if the misconduct you were apart of is going to be discovered. Looking over your shoulder, scurrying at every phone call from internal affairs or from the Captains office wondering if that is the day PSB comes after you for the suspects you struck when they were cuffed months/years ago or that $500 you pocketed from the narcotics dealer, or when the other guys on your watch beat a transient nearly to death and you never reported the UOF to the supervisor. No, I don’t have that concern, I stood up for what was right but unfortunately have dealt with the reprocussions of doing the right thing and now losing my name and everything I ever stood for.

...Self Preservation is no longer important to me. I do not fear death as I died long ago on 1/2/09. I was told by my mother that sometimes bad things happen to good people. I refuse to accept that.

From 2/05 to 1/09 I saw some of the most vile things humans can inflict on others as a police officer in Los Angeles. Unfortunately, it wasn’t in the streets of LA. It was in the confounds of LAPD police stations and shops (cruisers). The enemy combatants in LA are not the citizens and suspects, it’s the police officers.

This department has not changed from the Daryl Gates and Mark Fuhrman days. Those officers are still employed and have all promoted to Command staff and supervisory positions. I will correct this error.

...I am here to change and make policy. The culture of LAPD versus the community and honest/good officers needs to and will change. I am here to correct and calibrate your morale compasses to true north.

...Citizens/non-combatants, do not render medical aid to downed officers/enemy combatants. They would not do the same for you. They will let you bleed out just so they can brag to other officers that they had a 187 caper the other day and can’t wait to accrue the overtime in future court subpoenas. As they always say, “that’s the paramedics job…not mine”. Let the balance of loss of life take place. Sometimes a reset needs to occur.

Fly

Look... I feel like I'm running out of ways to explain this to you but once more, I shall try. This fly is a major problem for us. It will ruin our batch. And we need to destroy it and every trace of it, so we can cook. Failing that, we're dead. There's no more room for error. Not with these people.

Perchlorate Brine On Mars?

It's funny, I had thought the properties of inorganic salts had long been known, but maybe it's not true. Certainly space exploration allows one to formulate questions that might not seem obvious at first, but are more and more plausible:

“They do seem to depress the freezing temperature to the point where you could have stable liquid on the surface,” said Selby Cull of Bryn Mawr College.

What is more, salts such as perchlorates provide a way for Martian soils to take up water from the atmosphere. When the Martian atmosphere becomes more humid during its daily cycle, perchlorates can undergo a process called deliquescence, pulling water from the air and essentially transforming from a crystal to a droplet. As the humidity decreases again, the salts effloresce, releasing the water vapor back into the atmosphere. Intriguingly, the process is asymmetrical—preliminary laboratory data presented at the conference demonstrated that perchlorate salts deliquesce and effloresce at very different humidity levels. Once a perchlorate has taken in water via deliquescence, which occurs as moderate humidities, it will retain that water until the humidity drops to very low levels. “The salt really likes to maintain its aqueous state,” said Raina Gough of the University of Colorado at Boulder. The ready uptake of water by perchlorate salts points the way to the regular emergence of pockets of liquid under typical Martian conditions. “We’ve expanded the region where you can have an aqueous phase to lower temperatures and lower humidities,” Gough said.

...All the same, McEwen and his colleagues have recently found what appears to be the best evidence for present-day flowing liquid on Mars. In 2011 the researchers used the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s HiRISE camera to identify several sites where warm slopes are periodically darkened by linear streaks. Flowing briny water was, and still is, the best explanation for the seasonal appearance of the so-called recurring slope lineae—although McEwen noted that non-perchlorate salts, with less extreme properties, could be in play.

"Urinetown" - Act One Finale

Probably the hardest part of learning "Urinetown" so far is this segment between 5:05 and 5:39, where the song moves very fast. I can barely do it, sitting down, but I'll have to be moving around while singing it, and I haven't done that successfully yet.

California's Money Sewer, And Where It Goes

We need improved infrastructure:

A group that backs privatizing public infrastructure engineering work gave $400,000 to an opaque, out-of-state organization that injected millions of dollars – and plenty of controversy – into California's initiative campaigns last year.

New state campaign filings show that the American Council of Engineering Companies California made a $150,000 donation to a Virginia-based nonprofit in July and another $250,000 in September.

That nonprofit, Americans for Job Security, in turn, gave money to another nonprofit organization based in Arizona, which then contributed $11 million to a California committee that opposed Gov. Jerry Brown's Proposition 30 tax hike and supported Proposition 32, which sought to end payroll- deducted political contributions.

The engineering business group's donation surfaced Friday because California law requires political action committees to show their spending, including money that goes to issue-advocacy groups.

"We completely believed and understood – and still believe and understand – that we were donating to an issue-advocacy effort," said Paul Meyer, executive director of the American Council of Engineering Companies California. "And so that's why we appropriately, timely and fully reported to the secretary of state. We fully complied with the law."

Asked what issue the council gave $400,000 to advocate, Meyer said, "The issue was really sort of money in politics. Our members really don't like the whole money-in-politics thing."

The president of the state engineers union, which has fought privatization for many years, issued a statement blasting the council's donations.

"They sought to deny our schools desperately needed funding, silence middle class families, and evade California's campaign finance laws," said Steve Lee, president of Professional Engineers in California Government. "They should be ashamed."

And they're right down the street too:

American Council of Engineering Companies
1303 J Street, Suite 450
Sacramento, CA 95814

GOT IT!

32nd Anniversary Of Moving Into Dr. Tom's Place

On this day in 1981, I moved from my office at the University of Arizona (the cramped quarter where I had been living for an uncomfortable month) into the relative tranquility of the hacienda-style house of Dr. Tom Edwards. I lived there until late 1986.

Strange place, Dr. Tom's. He was always trying to improve on the property, but the harder he worked, the more the place fell apart. Interesting memories:

• Across the street from the house where John Dillinger was captured;
• Intelligent cat that ate all the koi;
• The three-legged dog whom I could never outrun;
• the tarot reader and her optimistic forecast;
• the parrot that hated women, bearded men, and mailmen;
• the unfortunate canaries whom the parrot would systematically strip of claws and beaks;
• what happens when the water evaporates when hard-boiling eggs;
• the amazing library in the cabin on Mt. Lemmon;
• the mosquito-infested room;
• cockroach tales;
• the fellow who stared at the sun;
• puncturing holes in the sides of the Mercedes-Benz;
• unintended blackface;
• recovering the wounded in the motorcycle crash;
• the book project that never seemed to be completed;
• the flasher in the alley;
• the disorganized 22-year-old;
• the carsick Great Dane;
• how Inca Doves sound like cheerleaders;

And too many other tales!

Order Up "Breaking Bad" Lingo When You Please

Via Tim at UBFFT:

Heisenberg Ipsum, a Lorem Ipsum generator for Breaking Bad fans.

If you want a good laugh, view source on the code. CSS bitch!

First Up, Steve's Left Eye

Steve is enjoying the fruits of today's cataract surgery.

Next up, the right eye.

Derecho Assessment

Left:  Progress of the June 29, 2012 as it decimated the landscape. (It was something like a science fiction movie disaster come to life!)

Jerry notes an interesting and important document, just released by the National Weather Service, assessing their performance regarding the June 29, 2012 derecho. As the report notes:

A historic derecho impacted the Ohio Valley and Mid-Atlantic states on June 29, 2012. The event originated in northeast Illinois as a small cluster of thunderstorms. The derecho became organized over northeast Indiana during the afternoon and raced southeastward across Ohio and West Virginia at 60 mph. The derecho remained intact crossing the Appalachians, a climatological rarity, and caused widespread damage in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area during the late evening. The derecho moved offshore shortly after midnight on June 30, 2012. In its wake, 13 people were killed and several million customers were left without power, many for several days. Tony Cavalier, Chief Meteorologist from WSAZ-TV Huntington-Charleston, WV, was quoted as saying, “The derecho was one of the top two impacting events in my 25 year career.”

This derecho was not forecast until the day of the event. Summertime derechos are often difficult to forecast because they respond to smaller-scale forcing mechanisms.

That HRRR model looks like it is useful. It’s interesting how the derecho tries to stay north and hew to the frontal boundary, even the higher values of CAPE might be further south. I guess it’s the rain-induced cooling that is so important!

Oooh, Mr. Trump Can't Take A Joke

And this is supposed to make Bill Maher look bad?:

The real estate mogul yesterday filed a $5 million lawsuit against Bill Maher, after the television host failed to fulfill his end of a deal asking Trump to prove he is not a “spawn of an orangutan.”

Maher made the bet on Jay Leno’s show, very obviously mocking Donald Trump’s non-announcement announcement in October, in which the birther promised to donate $5 million to a charity of Obama’s choice upon the release of the president’s college transcripts. Maher mocked Trump and ”the syphilitic monkey that runs his Twitter tweet,” saying, “We did a new rule one week, that suppose that Donald Trump had been the spawn of on orangutan having sex with his mother.” He clarified to Leno, “I’m not saying it’s true — I hope it’s not true. But unless he comes up with proof, I’m willing to offer $5 million to Donald Trump that he can donate to a charity of his choice.”

Everyone was in on the joke except for Trump, who amazingly became the joke of the joke (of the joke). He offered up his birth certificate to prove that he was not, in fact, the son of an orangutan: “Attached hereto is a copy of Mr. Trump’s birth certificate, demonstrating that he is the son of Fred Trump, not an orangutan.”

And after Maher didn’t pay up, Trump sued. ”I don’t think he was joking,” Trump said regarding the bet on Fox News yesterday. “He said it with venom. That was venom. That wasn’t a joke. In fact, he was nervous when he said it. It was a pathetic delivery.”

Neanderthals And Modern Humans May Not Have Had Much Interaction

Getting the dates right is hard:

Theories about when the last Neanderthals walked the Earth may have to be revised, according to a study that suggests they became extinct in their last refuge in Spain much earlier than previously thought.

Previous dating of bone fossils found at Neanderthal sites in the region put the youngest at about 35,000 years.

But researchers from Australia and Europe re-examined the bones using an improved method to filter out contamination and concluded that the remains are about 50,000 years old.

If true, the study, casts doubt on the idea that modern humans and Neanderthals co-existed – and possibly even interbred – for millennia, because humans aren't believed to have settled in the region until 42,000 years ago.

"The results of our study suggest that there are major problems with the dating of the last Neanderthals in modern-day Spain," said Thomas Higham, deputy director of the Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit at Oxford University in England. "It is unlikely that Neanderthals survived any later in this area than they did elsewhere in mainland Europe."

FOX News Just Makes Up S**t On The Spot

So, this is what it takes to be a modern journalist these days! No self-respecting middle school student would say such a thing about climate change! But when you are on FOX News, anything goes! A complete, direct lie:

"For every one scientist that says there is, I'll give you 10 scientists that said it's not manmade"

Conspiracy Theories And The Tea Party

I was looking for one thing, and stumbled across this. It's starting point was the blackouts that happened in January, 2011, in Texas, and elsewhere. Then it proceeds to the Kyoto Protocol, the United Nations, and on and on.

In typical Tea Party style, I'm sympathetic to about half of what's in the video. It's not entirely wrong, but it's not entirely right, either. You'd think that an objective presentation would mention the trouble in Texas was a direct consequence of the astonishing cold snap in the Southwest. It hadn't been that cold in the Southwest in forty years. No matter what kind of system we had, there might have been trouble. But he doesn't even mention it.

Anyway, I don't want a free market in coal combustion. We tried that in the 19th Century, and it wasn't pretty. Look at China! They got a free market in coal over there, and right now people are dying.

The Tea Party was started as an astroturf project by the GOP. Now, the GOP is trying to shut it down:

According to The New York Times, the “Conservative Victory Project” is “intended to counter other organizations that have helped defeat establishment Republican candidates over the last two election cycles. It is the most robust attempt yet by Republicans to impose a new sense of discipline on the party, particularly in primary races.”

The Karl Rove-backed American Crossroads is behind the effort, which will support more traditional Republican candidates in Senate and congressional races. The project already has a target, the Times reports: Representative Steve King, a right-wing, six-term Iowa congressman, who has his eyes on the state’s open Senate seat.

I prefer my own Conspiracy Theory, about the GOP/Los Zetas guns alliance (Patent Pending, despite the mockery I'm getting). I don't try to make it an overarching conspiracy theory, and I can change it, or abandon it, if it seems awkward or begins getting absurd. My pride isn't that involved. Big conspiracy theories, however, are just too complicated.

Alexis Salgado - I Need You

I Know You Are, But What Am I?

OK, time for recess:

Real estate mogul Donald Trump ripped into GOP Gov. Bobby Jindal (La.) Monday over his suggestion that Republicans needed to "stop being the stupid party" if they hoped to rebound in the next election cycle.

"He was stupid for using that term," Trump told "Fox and Friends." "Because that term is so obnoxious, and so good for the other side, he should not have used that term. That term is going to be living now for a long time, and they're going to have his face on television using it."

Southwest Airlines Facebook Phish

Groundhog Day:

For the second time this month, Dallas-based Southwest Airlines is warning people about a scheme claiming to offer two free tickets.

The scheme is still making rounds on Facebook. When people click on the link for the purported free ticket offer, it allows the schemers to essentially hijack their Facebook account. Their account then posts the offer, appearing in their friends' Facebook feeds.

In addition, following the instructions to get the free tickets also provides the schemers with their personal information, Southwest said.

Any and all legitimate offers shared on Facebook by Southwest Airlines will feature the Southwest logo in the section that shows who the post is from, an airline representative told NBC 5.

The scheme isn't new. Southwest warned customers about it earlier this month. It also popped up on social media in late 2011.

Southwest Airlines said people who have already clicked on a link for two free tickets should change the password on their Facebook account.

Bridge Rope Swing

Cool!

"War Of The Worlds" (2005)

All weekend long, I've had a cold, so, when Saturday night came along, I resisted temptation to go out, and instead stayed in, and finished surgery on AR Drone 2.0 (#1) and watched Tom Cruise in "War of the Worlds" (2005).

The story is a perfect Rorschach test of society's anxieties:

The War of the Worlds (1898), a science fiction novel by H. G. Wells, is the first-person narrative of an unnamed protagonist's (and his brother's) adventures in London and the countryside around London as Earth is invaded by Martians. Written in 1895–97, it is one of the earliest stories that details a conflict between mankind and an extraterrestrial race.

...The plot has been related to invasion literature of the time. The novel has been variously interpreted as a commentary on evolutionary theory, British imperialism, and generally Victorian superstitions, fears and prejudices.

When I recently saw the 1953 film version again, what struck me most was the resigned attitude of the military to their failure to stop the Martians after nuking a portion of southern California. That resignation is so much different than today's panicked over-reaction to imagined "terrorists", and was a direct reflection of having passed through a harrowing recent test: World War II battles, barely eight years prior, where American soldiers routinely died by the tens of thousands. This version seemed to be a commentary on bad and careless parenting. It didn't have quite the same gravitas as the 1953 version, but it was OK. Nevertheless, I liked how they tried to blend H.G. Well's Martian tripods with the scarier parts of the 1953 movie, in respectful honor of both, without stinting on the possibilities of modern film magic. I was most impressed how they used the millisecond beading of lightning (a real, and very interesting phenomenon observed in natural lightning) in service of the story. Real science! Imagine!

NOGAPS Completely Missed Today's Little Storm Moving Across the Southwest!

Absolutely, positively missed it entirely! That model is just too damned pessimistic!

There Was Some Kind Of Game Today

M.: Oh, red vs. white! Are we red?

S.: *SMACK*

M.: Ow!

S.: Don't you even recognize the San Francisco colors?

M.: Who is the other team?

S.: Baltimore.

M.: Oh, the Colts!

S.: *SMACK*

M.: Ow!

S.: I've never been able to figure out what 'downs' are.

M.: Oh, I know that!

S.: Look, there are the coaches!

M.: They look so similar. Like they could be brothers, or something.

S.: *SMACK*

M.: Ow!

The Dangers Of Lead

E.: MMMMMMAAAAAAAAARRRRCCCC! What are you doing?

M.: Well, I ate only half the can of chili, so I'm sealing the top of the can with a plastic bag and a rubber band, and putting it back in the refrigerator, for later.

E.: No, you are supposed to put the chili in a bowl and seal the bowl with plastic wrap. What you are doing is too dangerous!

M.: It is? How?

E.: When you open a can of food, the can releases lead into the air in the refrigerator. You don't want that in your food, do you?

M.: Well, no, but they haven't use lead in canning for an awful long .....

E.: Don't give me any of your nonsense! You don't even wash fruits and vegetables. You eat food off the floor. What do you know about food safety?

M.: Well, it's not that dangerous - three-second rule! - but there's no lead .....

E.: No! You have to start watching yourself and be more careful!

Phillip Phillips - Home

People will ask in the future: "What song from 2012 was America's favorite?" This is the song they'll favor most.

"Cop Song", From 'Urinetown'

The pressure is on, to learn a variety of music for DMTC's "Urinetown"!

I've almost got this song. It's a fairly-short, rhythmic patter song, and thus maybe easier to learn than some of the others. I've just just got to know the song blindfolded, so I can defeat my brain's infinitely-elastic capability to mess it up, by substituting incorrect lyrics.

I've been a cop in a number of DMTC musicals, but I've never sung about the cop experience before....

Kennedy Addresses The Nation On The Cuban Missile Crisis

This is the first Presidential address I remember. I was six, at the time, but it was clear the way everyone was freaking out that it was a pretty big deal.

Ryan Adame Stars In Ad For CBS 13 News

This is great!