What are Austerity Measures? The War on Words in Right Wing Media and Politics

I keep hearing about Austerity Measures on tv and radio and have no idea what they are talking about. I figured the root of it was austere so it must have to do with the rich. Apparently austerity measures make people in greece and italy mad, so i am kind of scared of it happening here in the USA too – so I looked it up.

From wikepedia:

a reduction in the amount of benefits and public services provided

Ok, that makes sense. I would be mad too. The government gets in trouble so it “cuts spending” on public services, which is effectively the same as thing raising taxes on poor people. It makes everything more expensive for them at zero cost to the wealthy. Did the poor people get them into the mess? Nope. I bet the “job creators” had something to do with it!

Come to think of it, Austerity Measures have been happening in the USA constantly since Reganomics but no one would dare call it that. Even if they did no one knows what it means. I’m a college grad and didn’t know and I consider myself quite up-to-date on politics. Which brings me to my point:

If the “left” wants to affect progressive change in the USA they need to own the language. Spouting off about oligarchy and plutocracy makes you sound smart but to the average joe (the person you are trying to educate and get rowled up) it is just babble and they don’t have the time/energy to look it up and remember it. If you can’t make a meme that spreads quickly and easily and can infect the majority of the population (not just the intellectuals) then that meme is doomed to fail. That’s it. Simple. The root of the reason why people are voting republican is because their ideas are “easy” and this is not by mistake, it is by design. They speak in terms that are easy to understand and phrase descriptions of economic processes in ways that make the process seem obvious. If noe-cons (there I go again, what does that even mean?) discover a word they don’t like, they re-define it. Take for example yesterdays war on the word “forward”

War on words

Yesterday the right wing echo chamber (Beck, Limbaugh, & Hannity, etc) talking point was focused on one thing: to redefine a word. Not just any word, a powerful, easy to understand word the left uses all the time. That word is “forward”. Apparently now that is code-speak for communism. go figure. Whether it is or not, the fact that this word “forward” sustained a targeted and collective attack in the media yesterday is simple proof that the “right” (we really need a better word for that, it supposes so many things!) understands the value of owning the language and are actively working to change definitions of words that run counter to their dogma and if that is not possible: demonize the word. When demonized, a person that hears it just hears “communism” which fear and skepticism about the rest of the message, essentially nullifying it.

Sure, both sides work to redefine and own their political language but the republicans are EXPERTS at it.

What do you think?

The Meat Shop of Tacoma – Closing its Doors after 50 years in June

After buying my annual thanksgiving turkey from them for the past few years I just got a phone call from the Meat Shop of Tacoma. This is a small business that provides organic locally raised meats and custom sausages to the south Puget Sound area. They kindly notified me that they are going out of business due to a number of factors and will not be able to supply my turkey this fall. What kind of service is that? Can you imagine any other business calling you in advance to warn of short supply – 6 months ahead of your order that you have only placed 3 times?

My heart breaks for them.

Shame on our collective buying patterns for not supporting this fine local establishment. Now if you want organic locally-raised and humanely butchered meat in Washington state where are you to go? Sure, local shops are carrying more organic – but LOCAL organic meats?

Jesus on Marijuana in the Holy Bible

Ever wonder what bible verses cover Jesuses opion on the marijuana burning bush?

Matthew 7:18

A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither [can] a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

Matthew 7:19

Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

period.

marijuana is bad, cut it down and burn it. but don’t stand too close.

Drug war forever in god’s name!

well, unless you judge a tree by its fruit according to Matt 7:20. wait, Jesus says “know” does that mean identify or judge? the cannabis fruit is a seed. is a seed a fruit?

Matthew 7:20

Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

Furthermore, for the love of god DO NOT patch your clothing!

Matthew 9:16 No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse.

How to Hack Electronic Voting Machines aka “black box voting”

Just released; this hand how-to step-by-step guide on hacking electronic voting machines via remote control. Cost? $10 Skill level? 8th grade. Written by? US GOVERNMENT!!! Well, specifically the department of energy. A quote from them:

“attacks are potentially possible on a wide variety of electronic voting machines…”

will this be the nail in the coffin to end the madness and “downgrade” to voting with an auditable paper trail?

the fact that we are still using e voting machines is a testament to the success of our corporate propogana machine’s dominance in mainstreammedia penetration.

how is it that this is still possible? What lessons were learned from the year 2000 voting scandal? Surely not much as the same tactics were deployed in Ohio and the world watched as the USA elected their worst president in history – twice.

Oh, wait…there is a branch of governement that is looking over this, data.gov ?

So much on black box voting flaws have already beet written, documented, peer reviewed, filmed, demonstrated and re-demonstrated that something must be going on at a very high level to let this happen. Oh, wait…the systematic dumbing down of America and continual restriction of media channels is doing the job – automatically. you can take Noam Chomsky’s word for it: we did it to ourselves.

“Part of this decline is self-inflicted. What the Economic Policy Institute calls Failure by Design has significantly weakened the United States, and that will continue unless there’s real changes here.” – chomsky

In case this is all new to you, listen to a republican talk about how insecure their own diebold voting machines are:

The cure? How to solve this problem with e-voting security? Independent media. Independent media – the only way out. Oh, that and fixing the voting problem yourself. all other methods are futile tail-chasing. Unplug and spread the word!

Ninja Rolls Cause Straight Men to Become Gay

In further proof that ninja rolls cause people to become gay comes the story of Chris Birch, who upon completing ninja rolls on grass became instantly gay;

“I was doing a forward roll down a grass bank one day and …I realised I’d changed.”

Given this startling revelation we strongly recommend that all ninja activities be suspended pending investigation…unless that is your thing, of course. Nothing wrong with that, just sayin’ if you like liking girls then think twice before training to become a ninja.

Cops Kill Dogs for Fun and Pleasure

UPDATE 4./27.2012: Huffington post does extensive reporting on this subject, coined cops killing pet dogs as puppycide.

This will be a continuously updated post highlighting stories of Cops shooting family dogs without the dogs sowing any aggression to them other than barking (kinda what dogs do after all)

http://abcnews.go.com/US/texas-man-claims-police-killed-dog-cisco-responding/story?id=16150874

“I said, ‘Don’t shoot him. Don’t shoot my dog. He won’t bite you.’ But he shot him, just like that. It all happened in under 30 seconds,” Paxton said. “There was no attack on the officer other than barking and challenging him.”

NICE, new one, cops shoot dog playing frisbee in its own backyard:

here is a link that shows the office shrugging his shoulders in front of the dead dog when confronted by the owner:

And here is a cop shooting a pet dog in the head WHILE THE DOG IS RESTRAINED:

any force necessary, really?

Superchimp Discovered, Breeding Program Begins to Select for Intelligence

Stop the presses – a “super chimp” has been discovered that is three times smarter than his peers – he learned 308 words in about 3 months!

Now a breeding program has been initiated to produce a super-super chimp. (well I have no evidence for this but it is the obvious super-secret thing to do don’t you think?) Via force breeding and back crossing to select for certain traits that we consider markers for “intelligence”

You heard it here first!

On a related topic, why doesn’t anyone breed dogs for personality rather than how they “look”?

million dollar idea: spend your life breeding dogs for personality, create a dog so personable that even the super chimp would want one as a pet.

Zombie Location in Brain Discovered

The general Zombie theory is that your brain is still alive but only exists at its most primitive level. As you may know, the human brain contains layers built upon layers and you can remove all those layers until you get down to a brain equivalent of a lizard.

How the Zombie Brain was Discovered

What scientist have done is a zombie-based study of  positron emission tomography brain scans of people (who volunteered, using real zombies would be too dangerous) coming out of anesthesia and discovered the sequence as parts of the brain “woke up” when the patient first regains consciousness. This initial period of awakening is characterized by delerium and lack of coordination – AKA Zombie Brain – as the brain “re boots” itself, starting from the inner core and working outwards.

The emergence of consciousness was found to be associated with activations of deep, primitive brain structures rather than the evolutionary younger neocortex.

This is a good start but it must be more complex than zombies just being “younger evolutionarily” versions of modern humans. Surely there is some symbiosis with bacteria or fungus that controls motivation – like the fungus that takes over ants brains and makes them climb to a high spot before their brain explodes to release more zombie spores. To further that idea at least one scientist hypothesizes that the brain stem alone cannot be enough for zombies to function.

Sure, “peer-reviewed-and-published” fancy-pants university-tenured scientitians probably don’t even think zombies can be understood at this point due to the lack of sample size. But me, I don’t need facts to believe and certainly not to prepare, for the upcoming zombie apocalypse. If you think this is all fun and games – it isn’t. A global pandemic is ripe and eminent - just ask the CDC – Even the government is asking you to prepare!

Even the Centers for disease control is asking the US population to prepare for a future zombie outbreak.

Don’t be a fool. You think it is just a coincidence that “The Walking Dead” television series is one of the most popular shows of all time? Nope, it is science doing what science does best: predicting the future so we can prepare for it (being zombies in this case).

Hollywood is in bed with the government and in order to ease our mental transition to a new reality the “governments” are trying to get us used to the fact that zombies will be the new reality. WAKE UP PEOPLE~!

Resources for further education on the topic:

• Zombie Research Society
• Zombie Squad – a zombie hunters preparedness society
• Zombie Preparedness Initiative
• The Survival Podcast – not zombie-centric but useful for learning how to prepare while driving
• Custom RSS feed for zombie news updates from Science Daily – or copy and paste this URL into your RSS aggregator/ newsreader: http://www.feedyes.com/feed.php?f=5mQ94rtI10XTgs2M 
• Create your own google news email alert for breaking zombie science news

Full zombie brain scan article on Science Daily here.

The study was part of the "Neurophilosophy of Consciousness" project funded by the Academy of Finland (Research Programme on Neuroscience, project No. 8111818)

When you hold your breath while dreaming do you hold it in real life?

Dream: riding a car on an elevated road. Road gets skinnier, I see a point up ahead that is too skinny for the car and stop, but not in time. car falls off and into deep water. I open door for escape but foot caught in the car. trying not to panic, I released my foot from my shoe with some effort while the car sank so deep everything was black.
Returning to the surface I wasn’t sure if I should float or swim due to the requirement for oxygen. eventually i needed to breath so started swimming up, seeing light now. But it is too late, I need air so bad I breathe in water.. It surprised that it didn’t kill me or hurt and then I realized I was lucid dreaming. The dream ended almost immediately after that realization, before I reached the surface. I guess Ill never know if I made it or not.

Flour tortillas without interesterified oil or trans fat

They don’t exist, at least not in my part of the world. Sure, they proudly claim”zero trans fats” but how can they lie like that and still look at themselves in the mirror? Interesterified oil isn’t technically trans fat it is just as worse. Interesterfied oils is a work around put into place when the FDA mandated trans fat labeling and it makes me sick.

So for now it is either corn tortillas or homemade flour tortillas, I am not putting that garbage into my body.

http://www.stop-trans-fat.com/interesterified-fat.html

Thanks for nothing Mission!
Thanks for nothing Resers!
Thanks for nothing Don Pancho! an excerpt from your website:

“You can rely on Don Pancho brand tortillas for wholesome, authentic flavors — the kind that come from using only the finest ingredients and Mexican recipes. “

My ass! Maybe out of a Mexican meth lab but I doubt many recipes for flour tortillas in Mexico contain interesterfied oils in the ingredient list!

Seems this new evil oil is the result of ADM:

FDA OKAYS NEW TERM FOR ADM’S INTERESTIFIED PRODUCTS

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of the term “interesterified soybean oil” on product labels of Archer Daniels Midland Co.’s (ADM) products containing Novalipids™ oils and shortenings, according to INFORM report. After requesting clarification from the FDA regarding the appropriate labeling description of enzymatically interesterified oils and shortening, ADM was advised that interesterified fats containing a stearate content of greater than 20% may be properly labeled as “interesterified soybean oil,” with the possible additional descriptor of “high in stearic acid” or “stearate rich.”

This designation for ADM’s interesterified ingredients will allow customers to replace the term “hydrogenated”, which is perceived increasingly by consumers as being unhealthy, with the term “interesterified” when describing these ingredient declaration. ADM’s interesterified fats are produced from fully hydrogenated soybean oil, which is then interesterified with conventional soybean oil to produce a product without the trans fatty acid content of partially hydrogenated fats.