Category Archives: Politics & Religion

US national debt simplified

Here is a way to look at the US national debt with simplified math. (via)US national debt simplified

Meanwhile, 14 millions Americans clinging to hope

Joe Biden and John Boehner on tape talking to each other before Obama’s big jobs speech. Does this look like a congress that is concerned about the gravity of 14 million out-of-work Americans?

More random Duck Duck stuff

Dan Wilson/ Star Tribune photo by Jeff Wheeler

Dan Wilson/ Star Tribune photo by Jeff Wheeler

1. Minnesotans are a quietly proud bunch when it comes to our local celebrities. Songwriter-singer Dan Wilson (Semisonic) cowrote the Adele piano ballad “Someone Like You,” and is enjoying it’s No. 1 status. He writes a lot in case you didn’t know and won a grammy for co-writing the Dixie Chicks’ “Not Ready To Make Nice.” (story)
2. This is why I don’t heroize. Martin Luther King Jr. tried to arrange a sex party during the March on Washington? (ABC News)
3. In case you haven’t heard, there was a homicide on 9/11 in NYC that remains unsolved to this day. I suppose the events of that day created the ultimate diversion for getting away with murder. (story)
4. Unreality Magazine published a gallery of celebs without eyebrows to demonstrate how having eyebrows helps us not look like escaped mental patients.
5. This picture pretty much sums up how I feel about politicians right now.
politicians
6. An honest letter to New Yorkers from a kid that “didn’t really care” about 9/11. (via McSweeneys)
7. Turn game night on its head with these awesome games from the mental_floss store. There are great educational games for the kids available too.

Random Duck stuff

bono1. A new U2 documentary will air on Showtime at the end of October. They are also going away for a long time. Jared, do you have Showtime?
2. Karma is a bitch. Boy Throwing Rocks At Cars gets a crossbow arrow to the abdomen. That’ll learn ya!
3. What? Romney and Bachmann both slipping in the polls? This can’t be right. Oh yeah, I forgot that Perry was vetted by the GOP years ago.
4. Bummer to learn about former Wild player Pavol Demitra (and others) dying in that Russian plane crash Wednesday.
5. Not the best segway here, but virtual boarding agents might be coming to an airport near you. The lifelike 2-D holograms make eye contact, blink and smile while emitting automated phrases, such as “bonjour” and “bon voyage.” Does anyone else think this is spooky?
virtual boarding agents
6. A new online video game is out called, Tea Party Zombies Must Die. Players can take aim at characters as the “Sarah Palin Zombie” and the “Michele Bachmann Zombie” and kill them. I wonder how Gabby” Giffords would feel about this?
Tea Party Zombies Must Die
7. KARK 4 News meteorologist Brett Cummins is in some hot water after being found in hot tub with naked dead man wearing a dog collar. (Read more)
8. Buttrock definition – If you have heard this term and don’t understand what it means, then let me enlighten you. Buttrock is a subpar genre of music where every song sounds exactly the same. It is usually produced by a band trademarked with cheap, unoriginal song lyrics, and a music that sounds manufactured and predictable. Current music that falls into this category includes Nickleback, Hinder, and Daughtry. It’s not a new term though. 15 years ago, my friends and I considered bands like Winger, Firehouse, and Warrant to be buttrock.

Hiding the Lockheed Plant during World War II

During World War II the Army Corps of Engineers needed to hide the Lockheed Burbank Aircraft Plant to protect it from a possible Japanese air attack. They covered it with camouflage netting to make it look like a rural subdivision from the air. Here are the pictures.

Lockheed - Before

Lockheed - Before

Lockheed - After

Lockheed - After

Lockheed was set up like a movie studio production. They had fake houses, trees, etc. and moved parked cars around so it looked like a residential area from the skies overhead.

The net over the plant was strong enough to walk on. Lockheed hired people to ride bicycles and move around as if they lived there to make it look authentic.

Employee cars parked under the net to avoid being seen from planes above.


*Original photo sources unknown. Info on this can be found all over the web.

We can quote the Bible too

Settle down! I’m not advocating one way or another on the subject of gay marriage. This picture shows that quoting the Bible to back your cause can be a double-edged sword. Is Old Testament law relevant today? (via 9GAG)

Should people be able to use food stamps for fast food?

Photo: frugivore

U.S. Department of Agriculture records show that the number of businesses approved to accept food stamps grew by a third from 2005 to 2010. Vendors from convenience and dollar discount stores to gas stations and pharmacies increasingly joined the growing entitlement program. Now, fast food chains like the YUM! brand are trying to get government approval to accept food stamps too. If it’s approved, the government will technically be paying for low-income people to eat at places like Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, KFC, and Long John Silver’s.

The food police and public health advocates are not happy about this. I assume that many of you who pay taxes are not happy about it either. Obviously, the public would prefer that food stamp recipients make good nutritional choices with our hard-earned money. Fast food is bad for you right? How bad? Are you assuming welfare recipients are making good decisions in the grocery store aisle and that fast food options will derail that sensibility? Should poor people not be able to enjoy a Whopper? Should we have special EBT aisles in stores where people can only buy what we deem as healthy? Lots of questions. Not a lot of good answers.

 What do you think the answer is?

The Day Metallica Came to Church

John Van Sloten is a pastor at New Hope Church in Calgary.

John Van Sloten is a pastor at New Hope Church in Calgary.

What does the music of Metallica have to do with God? According to author and pastor John Van Sloten, a lot. God can speak through their music – if we’re listening, he says. Van Sloten has built a church around the band’s music and lyrics and shows us first hand how God uses many things (including heavy metal music) to call his children home. In fact, Van Sloten shows how God can speak to us through anything and everything – heavy metal music, R-rated films, sports, and even the latest fashions. If you’re listening, his book The Day Metallica Came to Church might just change the way you hear God’s voice – and how you live in today’s world.

You can read the first chapter for free by clicking here. I recommend it. You can buy it here.

The Day Metallica Came to Church

7 largest military budgets in 2010

7 largest military budgets in 2010 (source). Do you feel safer? (via this isn’t happiness)
7 largest military budgets in 2010

John Stewart bashes the media over Ron Paul

John Stewart takes on the corporate media machine over their blatant exclusion of Ron Paul from news reports. Of course, this is nothing new. Ron Paul and his ideas for helping this country have been largely ignored by the left and right for years. They treat him like a crazy uncle and dismiss his ideas until the public steps up enough times to echo him. Then, and only then, do candidates jump on the bandwagon (like auditing the Fed) and claim the idea as their own.

The bottom line is this. You have no real say in who “wins” a GOP/DFL nomination for President. Ron Paul’s only chance now is to run as an Independent. What you can do as a voter is write in Ron Paul (or your favorite choice) on the ballot and hope that it sends a message that you know the Presidential elections are skillfully orchestrated. Or, you could decide not to participate in the vote at all, which is also within your right. This might send an even stronger message.