Sunday Morning at the Confluence Bed & Breakfast

Good morning Conflucians! It’s a cool fall day here in the Mid-Atlantic – a perfect day to linger just a bit longer in bed.  Not to worry, your breakfast and Sunday news are being delivered bedside.  I’ll just leave the thermal coffee urn.  I’m sure it will take a second cup to get you moving..

First let me summarize the pre-packaged distractions useless news dominating the headlines:  The Republicans are complaining about Obama bowing in Japan and applying the U.S. Justice system to Guantanamo Bay suspects, and the McCain camp is complaining about Sarah Palin’s book content.  {{zzzzzz}}

National and World News

Don’t miss Hillary on Meet the Press this morning!  (h/t fif).

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The pool accused of racism when they tossed a group of minority children from the premises is going bankrupt.  Embattled pool can’t stay afloat.

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It appears that Immigration is being moved to the head of the presidential agenda.  White House prepares to press for overhaul of U.S. immigration.

The Obama administration will insist on measures to give legal status to an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants as it pushes early next year for legislation to overhaul the immigration system, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Friday.

In her first major speech on the overhaul, Napolitano dispelled any suggestion that the administration — with health care, energy and other major issues crowding its agenda — would postpone the most contentious piece of immigration legislation until after mid-term elections next November.

Laying out the administration’s bottom line, Napolitano said officials will argue for a “three-legged stool” that includes tougher enforcement laws against illegal immigrants and employers who hire them, a streamlined system for legal immigration, and a “tough and fair pathway to earned legal status.”

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Oh Dear.  Tsk tsk tsk…The Boston Globe is going to get a visit from the media re-education brigade.  They’re being mean to teh One.  Obama’s swelling ego.

PRESIDENT OBAMA was too busy to attend the celebrations in Germany this week marking the fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago. But he did appear by video, delivering a few brief and bloodless remarks about how the wall was “a painful barrier between family and friends’’ that symbolized “a system that denied people the freedoms that should be the right of every human being.’’ He referred to “tyranny,’’ but never identified the tyrants – he never uttered the words “Soviet Union’’ or “communism,’’ for example. He said nothing about the men and women who died trying to cross the wall. Nor did he mention Harry Truman or Ronald Reagan – or even Mikhail Gorbachev.

He did, however, talk about Barack Obama.

(SNIP)

Was there ever a president as deeply enamored of himself as Barack Obama?

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I don’t even know what to say about this.  The title alone is enough to bring out bellows and belly laughs: Obama Aide Dunn Renews Criticism of Fox, Hails Jon Stewart.  But it’s Dunn’s commentary in the first paragraph, including her assessment of MSNBC, that’s a real knee slapper:

President Barack Obama’s outgoing communications director, Anita Dunn, renewed her attacks against Fox News as she praised the “investigative journalism” of Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart and said MSNBC isn’t a biased cable news network.

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Now this is just crazy.  The Wall Street Journal thinks that Obama’s poll problems can be remedied by shifting right.  Are they kidding?  How much farther right can he go?  Obama is losing Independent voters.

Healthcare Reform

The New York Times is reporting on the sincerity, or lack thereof, of the impassioned speeches being heard in the halls of Congress during the *cough* adversarial, bipartisan battles over healthcare.  In House Record, Many Spoke with One Voice: Lobbyists.

In the official record of the historic House debate on overhauling health care, the speeches of many lawmakers echo with similarities. Often, that was no accident.

Statements by more than a dozen lawmakers were ghostwritten, in whole or in part, by Washington lobbyists working for Genentech, one of the world’s largest biotechnology companies.

E-mail messages obtained by The New York Times show that the lobbyists drafted one statement for Democrats and another for Republicans.

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Is it just me or should Democratic women in Congress be conceding the overall abortion issue so easily? shouldn’t they be pushing to remove restrictions on abortion like the Hyde amendment, not agreeing with the status quo as though it’s acceptable?  Maybe I’m just being “selfish?”  That seems to be the meme lately.  Diana DeGette Talks About Her Letter & Blocking The Stupak Amendment

But having said that, I think we can work this out. You know Congressman Stupak seems pretty firm in his views, but frankly we already compromised in the Energy and Commerce Committee on the Caps Amendment, which said that all of the funds will be separated, so no federal funds can be used to pay for abortion. So we felt like we compromised to the Hyde language.

If people have ideas about how we can make that more clear, we’d be happy to make it more clear. We can talk about it. We don’t want to kill this bill. But were not going to let this wonderful health care bill be the vehicle to restrict a woman’s right to get full reproductive services.

Health and Science

Looking to reduce your carbon footprint in the afterlife?  Allowing yourself to be worm food instead of a vaulted corpse might be a nice gift to the planet as you make your exit.  Green funerals: Funeral fair opens door to eco-friendly exits

For the true minimalist, a coffin is not necessary. Esmerelda Kent, founder of Kinkaraco Green Burial Products in San Francisco, makes shrouds that range from $399 to $999. One was featured in HBO’s “Six Feet Under” series. Meanwhile, her 5-ounce bottles of burial wash go for $12.

“One bottle is enough for most bodies,” Kent said. “But some big people need two bottles.”

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Why we’re better at picking out liars than deciphering when someone is faking their emotions: Emote control.

There is little empirical study of how well people can detect a feigned emotion, but there are many studies of how well they can detect liars. Experts examine the way a person who’s fibbing contorts and shifts his face in a way that reveals hidden emotions, like delight at having duped someone. In the end, though, lie detection is about guessing whether a particular statement, or set of statements, is true. By contrast, emotional forensics would involve judging the veracity of the emotion itself based on how the subject behaves. (A fibber may look as if he’s experiencing delight at having duped someone—but is he really?)

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This is really neat.  Have you ever wondered how big a human egg, a single sperm, a rhino virus, or blood cell really is?  You can find out at this Cell Size and Scale chart.   Move the bar at the bottom of the picture to the right to see the smaller items.

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Before you head out to that fast food franchise, check to see fat, calorie, and carb content of menu items.  Fatburger Nutritional Information.

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Ruh Roh…is the Alpha Male becoming extinct?  It looks like a possibility. Dwindling Alpha Males

Having a penis used to mean something. From the time our species got its start until very recently, being a guy came with a codified set of behaviors and responsibilities: hunting large, dangerous mammals, charging into battle, subjugating would-be usurpers. Men who displayed prowess in these areas quickly rose in status within the group and increased their popularity with the ladies.

(SNIP)

But it looks like among us humans, the behavioral Alpha signals men can emit—machismo, cockiness, the aggressive protection of their place at the front of the pack—are getting progressively weaker and less common as women’s roles in relationships, jobs, and the economy become stronger and more central. With their traditional dominant, moneymaking position eroding, where does that leave men? Consider what might happen if the peacock didn’t bother to fan his spectacular plumage, if the ram could no longer muster the will to clash horns, if the mighty lion neglected his patrolling duties. Can humankind handle the diminishment of the Alpha Male?

Oddz ‘n’ Endz

Websites that prove there’s a website for just about anything

Bad Parking.com — if you’re the type that notices and comments on all of the bad park jobs you come across on a daily basis, you’ll love this pictorial site.

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I never knew so many things looked like a duck.  But by gawd, here they are:  This Peanut Looks like a Duck. No really.  It’s an enormous collection of things that look like a duck.  {{shakes head}}

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This website needs no introduction other than it’s name:  Animals with Lightsabers.

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How about a whole pile of adorable? Yes you say?  Then you’ll love Cute Overload.  Unfortunately, all that cute must be balanced out by some Ugly Overload (and there is some serious ugly happening there).

Stories to make you go hmmmm…

The New York Times wasted 1000 words on the fact that “douche” and “douchebag” are becoming ubiquitous terms on television.  More than Ever You Can Say That on Television.  I’m guessing it’s a slow news period.

On many nights this fall, it has been possible to tune in to broadcast network television during prime time and hear a character call someone else a “douche.”

(SNIP)

In total, the word has surfaced at least 76 times already this year on 26 prime-time network series, according to research by the Parents Television Council, which compiled the statistics at the request of The New York Times. That is up from 30 uses on 15 shows in all of 2007 and just six instances on four programs in 2005.

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Buy an food from a street vendor lately?  You may want to walk on by from now on.  Police say: Body parts sold to kebab stand.

MOSCOW – Russian police have arrested three homeless people suspected of eating a 25-year-old man they had butchered and selling other bits of the corpse to a local kebab house.

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Talk about a goat with an attitude — this one is really mouthy.  But then again when you see the video, he may just be impressed with his natural endowments.

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As always, share what you’ve found in your internet travels this morning.  Happy Sunday all!

SoD

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