Robert Reich agrees with me

Back a few posts ago, I said that 'The Tea Party is Winning'.  Well, Robert Reich, HuffPost columnist and former Secretary of Labor for the Clintons, agrees with me on that.


The Ongoing War: After the Battle Over the Cliff, the Battle Over the Debt Ceiling 

Quotes:

 "On it goes, battle after battle in what seems an unending war that began with the election of
Tea-Party Republicans in November, 2010."

"But they're not debating this, because the federal deficit is not what this war is about.

It's about the size of government. Tea-Party Republicans (and other congressional Republicans
worried about a Tea-Party challenge in their next primary) want the government to be much smaller.

"My goal," says conservative guru Grover Norquist, "is to cut government in half in twenty-five
years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub."

So as long as the Tea Party forces a battle over a thing like the debt ceiling -- which they should never do, because they don't want to tank the economy (we don't think)* -- then they are winning.

And when they're winning, they're also f*cking up the whole country, because nothing they are doing or trying to do has any basis in reality.

 * Quoting Greg Sargent from the Washington Post's Plum Line:

"Indeed, you can read through reams of the coverage without learning three basic facts about this fight:
1) Republican leaders will ultimately agree to raise the debt ceiling, and they know it, because they themselves have previously admitted that not doing so will badly damage the economy.
2) Because of the above, a hike in the debt ceiling is not something that Democratic leaders want and that Republican leaders don’t. In other words, it is not a typical bargaining chip in negotiations, in the way spending cuts (which Republicans want and Dems don’t) or tax hikes (which Dems want and Republicans don’t) are.
3) And so, if and when Republicans do agree to raise the debt ceiling, it will not constitute any kind of concession on their part — even though they will continue to portray it as such to demand concessions in return. It will only constitute Republicans agreeing not to damage the whole country, which does not constitute (one hopes) them making a sacrifice."

 So it is now up to us -- and to me -- to write directly to John Boehner and President Obama and tell them that we will not accept any negotiation over the debt ceiling increase -- BECAUSE WE KNOW THAT THE REPUBLICANS WILL EVENTUALLY VOTE TO RAISE IT.

Either that, or seriously risk getting blamed for tanking both our economy and the rest of the world's.

Japan No Nukes? Not So Fast

The Japanese Prime Minister is indicating that Japan will likely build more nuclear power plants, bucking the public sentiment that developed after the Fukishima Daiichi event.

Japan's new PM says government will 'endorse' new nuclear plants

"During the campaign for last month’s House of Representatives elections Mr Abe said he would determine “the optimum power-generation makeup” for Japan within 10 years. Before taking office last month, he said he would review the Democratic Party of Japan-led government’s policy of not allowing new nuclear plants to be built.

In his latest statement, Mr Abe said the Japanese people are worried about having sufficient electricity in the immediate future. He said parties that called for a shift away from nuclear energy were therefore “not trusted” in the recent election."

Reality bites, which is exactly what I've been saying for months.  I'm sorry that they had a nuclear incident due to a once-in-a-lifetime tsunami.  But now they know what can happen with a coastal unit.  They can fixt that.   The article notes that several other plants in the quake zone did pretty well (in fact, maybe better than the North Anna unit after the freakish Northeast U.S. earthquake that had an epicenter almost directly under it).

Yet another global warming positive feedback

Real interesting science here - first-year ice is thinner than multi-year ice, I would think (obviously), so that it would make sense that more sunlight penetrates a layer of first-year ice, causing more warming of the ocean water under the first-year ice, as compared to the water under multi-year ice.

But even though that's an obvious supposition, in order to prove that is actually the case, you have to make measurements.  And that's what these intrepid Arcticologists did.

Light absorption speeding Arctic ice melt

Yet another indication we are on a very hard course to reverse unless we come up with a way to cut emissions drastically and start augmenting sinks for carbon.

Cutting emissions drastically = more nuclear power. Especially in a power-hungry world.

Daphnis makes waves

Saturn's micro-moon Daphnis, inside the ring's Keeler Gap, makes waves in the ring material as it goes by.

You've got to look close, right in the middle, to find the moon and the waves.

With a closeup:  Daphis is back!

More on this later... really, Anne?

Anne Hathaway thinks she has a "plain vanilla'' image that reduces her sex appeal.

I'll analyze this, but I think that some people have just plain NOT been paying attention.

Smart play, Gerard

I never posted this, when lothario Leonardo DiCaprio had a brief dalliance with Italian model Madaline Ghenea:

"Which brings us to DiCaprio.  This article has the whole potential  bedmate list. 

Some of the babes may have just been inaccurate rumors, some of them flings (lucky, lucky), but there was definitely Kristen Zang in the 90s, and then this amazing run:

- Gisele Bundchen, who would be virtually impossible to surpass unless you wanted a girl with a little more curve than length, in which case you could then land

- Bar Refaeli, who combines a sweet face with a devilishly soft and curvaceous body, which we've seen virtually all of;  they stayed together awhile, but perhaps her level of sophistication as a fashion model wasn't quite on par with Leo's worldliness, but breaking up with someone of her attributes had to be really hard  unless you could then end up with

- Blake Lively, an accomplished actress, back in the lengthy mode, perhaps more glamorously pretty than the swimsuit model ravishingness of Bar, but it seems that maybe Blake sensed that Leo was still  longing for the purer lingerie look so they didn't last long, and  now Leo ends up with, if truth can be believed,

Madalina Ghenea. 

I'm arguing here that each step in this progression could be construed as a step up, or at least level with the previous titleholder of DiCaprio main squeeze.  But how could you possibly, arguably, SURPASS Bundchen, Refaeli, and Lively?  Again,

Madalina Ghenea. 

When I first heard about this, I obviously looked up Miss Madalina, and I immediately formed the following opinion  of her:

She's the most beautiful woman I've ever seen.  Now, I obviously have seen pictures of a lot of other beautiful women, and there are clearly women who are (or were) closely competitive with Madalina - several Playboy playmates, Victoria's Secret models, a few of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit models, a number of actresses, because there is a range of attractiveness and there are a number of different combinations that are very appealing.  But in terms of a combination of facial features and stunning figure, Madalina is classically exquisite. 

Fortunately she's a lingerie model, which means there are LOTS of pictures of her demonstrating how frighteningly gorgeous she is. My selection below is intended to highlight her various looks  and isn't comprehensive.  It is very easy to go on a Madalina Ghenea image search and not come back for a long long time. 

And it's worth the trip. 

So here's my advice to Leo.  If you've been searching for the ultimate girlfriend, at least in the pulchritude category, you can't, can't do better than this.  Plus, you're 37.  Marry (or at least establish the basis for a long-term relationship with), enjoy as much lovemaking as the human body can handle  with her, impregnate her to establish the foutainhead, and then look back on a romantic life well-lived."

Well, quite obviously (or obliviously), Leo did not take my advice.  But it now appears that the wily Gerard Butler has.  And that, in my book, is real, real, real, smart.

Gerard Butler and girlfriend Madalina Ghenea styles are in sync on the red carpet

Luscious

Elegant

It can't get much better than this

Happy AND sexy

  

Undangerous 2013 predictions

Last year I did pretty good with my not-too-much-of-a-stretch predictions (revisited mid-year here).  I was getting worried at the end but Andy Murray and President Obama came through for me.   So here on the first day of 2012 are my "undangerous" predictions for 2013, with short comments.

One surprise I didn't realize until I looked back at them - while I predicted (hopefully) that Khloe Kardashian would get pregnant, I mentioned that Kanye West appeared to be in a baby-making mood with new girl (at the time) Kim.   Well, surprise surprise, she turned out to be the one preggers at year end.



Well, here are my predictions for 2013.   Actually, these are considerably riskier than last year.  I expect I'll be lucky to get five of them right.

1. Caroline Wozniacki wins a tennis Grand Slam
-- I think it's her time, if Serena falters.  Hard to tell with Sharapova.  Kvitova and Vuvuzela (er, Azarenka) are tough.  Woz is down to #10 in the rankings, so this one might be risky.

2. McCauliffe elected governor in Virginia
-- If hard-line, pugnacious, take-no-prisoners Cooch the Gooch Cuccinelli gets elected, God Help Us All.

3. Arctic sea ice doesn't set new minimum record;  skeptics publicize this everywhere
-- After all, you can't have a minimum every year, unless global warming is  accelerating and the positive feedbacks are dominating.  Wait a minute...

4. Jennifer Aniston has a baby
-- I think, just to get the paparazzi off her back, she'll either get pregnant or adopt. I'm leaning toward the Katherine Heigl strategy - keep your gorgeous looks and  adopt.  However, Justin Theroux might prefer the natural method, because that would keep Jennifer on her back a lot.

5. Mitch McConnell has a heart attack and dies (only wishing here - skip that one)

5. The GOP House fights another pitched battle over raising the debt ceiling, and only capitulates when China threatens to cause us economic harm because our pending recession is hurting their economy.
-- Only makes sense, the Chinese will only put up with this nonsense for so long.

6. The U.S. Men's Soccer team fails to qualify for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
-- They don't have any real scoring stars to take them there.   I think they will be shocked by two losses to Jamaica. Sorry, Jurgen.

7. Playboy will make an inspired choice for Playmate - Audrey Nicole (@msaudreynicole).
-- I have to toss one in here that I just basically want to happen; I'm not sure how likely it is but she's amazingly gorgeous.

8. Due to the nation's budget problems, several large national parks will close for at least a few days during the summer vacation season, to demonstrate how bad the situation is.
-- This would be a smart way to sway public opinion.

9. Joe Lieberman gets a position in the Obama administration.
-- Maybe head of the CIA.

10. A major satellite collision in space emphasizes the space debris problem.
-- The odds of this keep increasing every year!

So, there you have it.  Any comments? (I'd be stunned)