In the early 20th century, was a manufacturer of asbestos spread of the product, which is in isolation in the building and the boiler as brake linings, and as a reinforcing material in cement, water and sewage pipes, insulation panels Fire-resistant tiles and wall tiles, wall panels, ceiling, and gas masks, lifts and machinery. Already in 1918, the Prudential Insurance Company was not for the life insurance of workers to asbestos because of Selloff"Health-injurious conditions of the industry."

Since 1920, the management of U.S. companies mining and processing of asbestos and manufacturing companies that used asbestos, knew that the exposure of the fibers produced significant risks to the health of workers. But do not tell these companies, their employees about the risks to health, nor provide adequate ventilation, masks or other safety devices that could reduce their exposure.

The U.S. Bureau of Mines was also knownproblem. Outrageous misconduct in its innovative coverage of the sector's exposure asbestos-up, Paul Brodeur, quoted a letter from an official of the Office of Mines in1933 in Eagle-Picher, a maker of asbestos, which is now known that asbestos dust is one of the most dangerous dust is exposed to humans. "

Asbestos companies continue to insist that there is no connection between the use of asbestos and the high incidence of asbestosis,Lung cancer and mesothelioma in workers exposed to asbestos. In 1933, 29 percent of workers in a Johns Manville plant had asbestosis. Eleven employees have to sign complaints against the company for failure to comply with them the danger, and the failure of any preventive or mitigation. Johns-Manville constant complaints, and wrote in terms of settlement that was not the lawyer for the workers directly and indirectly, the collection of new Complaints against the company. This requirement means that Johns Manville clearly understood its responsibility and its contribution to illness and death of workers.

During the Second World War, the shipyards employed thousands of workers on both coasts. At its peak, the shipyards of the United States and their suppliers 1337000 workers employed in occupations, office and administration and mechanical engineering, construction and repair of military and commercial fleets in the country.> Asbestos products were widely used in this work. Shipyard workers often worked in closed, unventilated spaces, where the concentration of asbestos particles in the air was so high that the air was white. Suppliers of products containing asbestos and owners of the yard, not to pass on this patriotic work of threatening risks faced by those working around asbestos.

A decade later, Dr. Irving Selikoff of New York's Mount Sinai School of Medicine has alwaysconcerned about the unusual incidence of lung cancer and mesothelioma in asbestos workers. initiated a comprehensive study on the health of all members in 1117 in New York and New Jersey local of the International Association of heat and insulators Frost and asbestos workers.

Has found evidence of asbestosis in more than half. The longer the exposure to asbestos, the greater risk of developing cancer of an employee. He also showed that the rate of mortality among Asbestos workers, 25% more than anticipated. His innovative study, published in 1964, founded in irrefutable dangers of exposure to asbestos.

After the publication of the study Selikoff, neither the company nor its experts can reasonably be assumed to support the continued ignorance of the dangers. The road is now open to the claimant of product liability suits on behalf of workers against asbestos terminally ill producers fileProducts containing asbestos>.

Approval for the health care monstrosity is plummeting – and Obama’s approval index hit a new all-time low of -19. The bill has bi-partisan disapproval, although for different.

This bill is even less popular than HillaryCare that went down in flames during the Clinton years. In December of 1993, Gallup found that 47% of voters backed HillaryCare while 32% opposed it. Today, support for Obamacare runs at just under 39% and over 51% oppose it. Those are statistically significant numbers. 63% of Americans believe that their own costs will increase (including 44% of Democrats polled), almost 1/2 believe the quality will decrease and almost 3/4 – 74% – believe that passing this legislation will increase the deficit.

Nancy Pelosi recently said she would do “just about anything” to finish the bill before the Christmas recess. It seems unlikely, however, that a final vote to reconcile the Senate bill and the House bill would occur before January.

It is very likely that there will be new pressures brought to bear on the 39 D’s who voted against it in November. A Wall Street Journal article recently pointed out that “Speaker Pelosi has told her members that health-care reform is so important she is willing to lose 20 seats next year if that is what it takes to get it. Polls showing Republicans leading in the generic vote for Congress make some Democrats worry that she is seriously lowballing the risk.” Some recent reports are putting the number at 40 and climbing….

In the meantime, Senator Harry Reid announced he strong-armed – I mean “convinced” – the last Democrat hold-out and has Senator Ben Nelson’s vote, giving him the 60 he needs. Reid also just released today (Saturday) another 400 pages amending the 2000 page bill and scheduled the vote for 1 am Monday. So much openness and transparency…..

So Microsoft, that bastion of totalitarian control and never-making-any-interesting-products-ever, offered a special family pack version of Windows 7, the newest version of their hideous word-conquering OS, which gave you three installations for $150. Because if you’re going to force people to use that abomination, you might as well do what you can to ease the pain of it.

So they put this on sale, even though it’s still not as good of a deal as Snow Leopard is, and it sold well. It sold so well, in fact, that they sold out, and they won’t be making more of them. Microsoft is saying they were only ever intended to be released in limited quantities.

What in the sam hill is the matter with you, Steve Ballmer? Seriously, Steve, has all that carnuba wax you use to make your stupid bald head look like that seep through your skull and kill your five remaining brain cells? People were buying the Family Pack because they wanted multiple copies at a good price, but you’d rather they just steal copies of Windows 7? Is that what you’re saying? Because even the most dimwitted troglodyte knows that the decision isn’t between buying the OS for cheap or paying more; it’s between buying it for cheap and stealing it. And a boat-load of people are going to be stealing it just to spite you, there, baldy.

What’s with the fear of giving customers what they want, Steve? Are you scared of your own shadow? Do you stand in the corner looking at the wall just so no girl will notice you and try to talk? Do you wet your goddamn pants at investors meetings?

Jesus Christ, Steve; grow a pair and start offering customers what they want.

First – the CLOT. I have passed a CLOT. And starting shaking immediately. No, it was not the baby. But it could have been.

I called the doc the next instant. Of all the days, I chose to pass a clot and freak out big time on her day off. She will call me back tomorrow morning. Of course, I also have her mobile, but was ashamed to call her during her off time. The clot was not the baby after all. And I don’t have chills, or fever, or unbearable pain, just anxiety attacks, and mild bleeding and cramping. Of which I was warned before hand. Not sure the moment of sanity would last too much, I shoved the cell number somewhere away from my current freaking out location (couch).

Then, totally unrelated, the revenge of the FB.

See, I never had problems with FB. My friends are conveniently in the habit of having funny statuses, they are well behaved and have good manners and none of them flaunts their kids, gestating or born, on FB.

And then, there was the co-worker. Long story short – aaa, I just copy paste what I wrote on Mel’s Virtual Lushary:

And then there is the Fb friend who gave birth in August and said that she loved so much the pregnancy clothing that she still wears it in December. WTF, I thought she had SUMMER pg clothing?! Anyway, she has just posted that she will wear them at least until next August, because she loved them so much, that she got herself pregnant with her THIRD. Useless to tell you that she had no problem and she is the most obnoxious fertile ever (unlike me, who am the most thoughtful and kind fertile I know), full of assvice for anyone and I never liked her in the first place, we just worked together and I hate her for telling me, when I had the miscarriage: ‘Well, you just have to be more careful next time, but hurry up and get back pregnant, you are not that young anymore.’ For my ‘friend’, whom I have just unfriended, a heartily f*** you with a double whopper of up your a**. That would be ‘fondle you with a double whopper of up your attention.’

You might be right in your thinking that I am quite the drama queen (or attention whore, depending on your level of tolerance towards strong words usually preferred by sailors). But I swear my mind is shattered into pieces by fear. I want this to work so much, that I can drive myself insane in a matter of minutes. As my ‘friend’ said, I am not getting any younger here…

PS – Just to imagine the level of freak out I reached – Hubs, who usually tells me off for hours when I let it slip that I consulted dr. google, not only offered yesterday to bring me the laptop to look up the symptoms, he HAS DONE SO HIMSELF today. Poor darling. Seeing him at a loss breaks my heart.

Okay, so. The boy troubles?

I guess they’re gone, although if anything else happens I’m sure I’ll be motivated to write about it. But, hey, if he can barely look at me, I think I can figure it out.

Maybe I’m being neurotic and fatalistic and dramatic. I probably am, in fact. I am just uncomfortable, since, after I explained myself, he said he needed time to think.

Okay, I’m cool with that. After all, I’d need to think about it, too. Even though
a.) I’m not too ugly
b.) I’m not too fat
c.) I’m decent to talk to if you get me going, and
d.) I really didn’t think I suck that much,
I’ll give him thinking time. I’m the kind of person, who, when faced with the possibility of change, likes to sit and weigh the posiitives and negatives of the situation. So I get it. I really get it.

But, seriously. If his first response is “just let me think about it,” maybe… maybe there’s something else. Someone else. Granted I pretty much sprang it on him. Christ, I’m dumb.

And then Sarah tells me there are other girls he’s been talking to. And not like just-talking girls, either. I’m talking about the kind of girls that do the talk that I’d been doing. Which is to say the “I like you” kind.

So, what is he, some kind of playa? How funny. But how annoying.

And crap! It’s not as if I don’t have a life, I do. I’m crazy-busy allllll the time. And I’m willing to sacrifice a slice of that crammed time for a boy I barely know who’s caught my attention. Do I want to date him? Nooo. Do I want to have my way with him?

That’s so outrageous, and probably the answer to that is no, too. But I should be able to add some frivolity to my life, shouldn’t I? A little fun.

And damn it, I just have to say that if– yet again– I am the second option, or third, or fourth, I am quitting. I’m not a quitter, and I never really have been. I’ll say it, spur-of-the-moment, and not be serious about it at all.

But here, I am. I’m thinking clearly and perfectly serious. If this doesn’t work out, and I’ve done everything wrong again, I’m just going to live out the rest of high school as a monk. Danse, mon moine, danse, because there’s nothing else to do but dance around in circles and circles like the spinning top that “moine” is also slang for. I’m always circling around, never stopping, never settling anywhere that wants me.

I just won’t involve myself with boys after this. They don’t like me anyway, I don’t know why I bother. And I’m not just beating myself up, here, because do you see any boys lining up for me? No, sir. You don’t.

So whatever. I have enough to do. If straightforwardness isn’t enough to accomplish what I want it to, then I’m finished here. And that’s how it’s gona go down.

via | Computer Choppers

Do you see this ish! It “only” costs $4,999 …. SMH!

In an outrageous story out of Seattle, single mother Rachel Porcaro was audited for not making enough money. She works at a hair salon and made $18,992 at $10/hr. The all-knowing IRS decided that based on their spreadsheet of incomes in the Seattle area, she could not “make it” on less than $36,000. So – they launched an aggressive and punitive audit.

Living at home with her parents and two children, she does not use welfare, food stamps or other public assistance, saying “We’re an Italian family. We’re surviving as a tribe. It seems like we got punished for that.”

Seriously. Not only did the audit drag out over a year, her parents were also audited. The IRS said that she could not claim the Earned Income Tax Credit because she lived in her parent’s home (paying monthly rent, btw). Therefore, she owed the government $16,000 for 2006 and 2007 – almost a year’s salary. Of course she could not pay it. Her father, a small business owner, asked his accountant for help. The accountant quickly determined the IRS was wrong in how it was interpreting the tax laws. He sent in the necessary code citations and hoped that would be the end of it.

Instead, the IRS responded by launching an audit of Rachel’s parents. According to the Seattle Times,

Rob and his wife, Patty, had to send in house blueprints, bank statements, old utility bills. Rachel was asked to prove her children were hers, as well as document the money she’d spent on her children’s clothes, health care and so on.

In the end – after TEN THOUSAND dollars in accounting fees, her parents were cleared and the IRS backed off their claims about the EI credit. But – they insisted she could not PROVE she was supporting her children because she did not have enough receipts, so she had to stop claiming them as dependents. She recently paid the IRS $1438 plus penalties and interest. Her children are in “tax limbo“. She can not claim them as dependents, nor can her parents.

The accountant said that that it is well-known that the system targets the weak – people with sloppy returns, for example. “It’s the way a wolf goes after the weakest sheep”, he said.

Today, there are no words to describe my loathing of bloated government agencies who love to bully people simply because they can.

DOES ANY ONE HERE LOOK FAMILIAR??
See the white guy in the white suit, see the blond with the white dress, see the guy in the middle, this picture was taken a few years ago, it seems Obama has known these two phonys for awhile, at least when he was a senator, they are getting all this press now as party crashers and the secret service is taking heat, funny how this has not come out in the press, what has happened to the investigative reporter?

DISCLAIMER:  I am not affiliated with  Kathy Griffin.  Also, she is not PROMISED to come but I am hoping she will join us on the Sex and the City tour bus when she comes to NYC.  Nothing is set in stone

Please join On Tour Locations (www.screentours.com) and me tomorrow for some D-LIST HISTORY! SPREAD THE WORD – even if you can’t go!!

COME HELP GET KATHY GRIFFIN BACK TO NEW YORK CITY

WHERE: THE PULITZER FOUNTAIN ACROSS FROM THE PLAZA HOTEL
(Take the N, R, W to the “Fifth Avenue-59th Street” Stop)

WHEN: 10:30AM

MORE INFO: We are in talks with comedienne Kathy Griffin and her people to bring her to NYC to come on the official Sex and the City Tour! There will be a donation in her name for the wonderful organization, Broadway Speaks OUT (www.broadwayspeaksout.com).

She has expressed interest, so to make it even better – we are putting together a video that her and her team will watch! SHE WILL NOT BE THERE TOMORROW, BUT SHE WILL BE WATCHING THE VIDEO WE WILL MAKE!!

You’ll be there for about a half hour starting around 10:30AM cheering, holding signs and maybe being interviewed! Bring any Kathy books, CD’s, DVD, or props. Come as you are, bring friends and be ready for a good time!

If you have anymore questions- please message me!

Neal
Fanpage: Neal B. in NYC
www.nealbinnyc.wordpress.com

1. Baring it all
 
PETA aren't Michael Vick fans, but that doesn't mean they're opposed to employing models who play with the pigskin. The Atlanta Falcons' Tony Gonzales is the latest (quasi-) celebrity to bear it all for an ad campaign for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. In an ad out this month, the vegan tight end posed in the buff with wife October to discourage people against donning fur, joining the likes of Dennis Rodman and Paul McCartney as notables who have stripped for the cameras.

2. Too Soon?
 
In 1991, less than a month after police arrested Jeffrey Dahmer for murdering 17 men in Ohio and Wisconsin, PETA paid The Des Moines Register $11,214 to run an ad likening the gruesome crime spree — which involved sodomy, necrophilia and cannibalism — to practices within the meatpacking industry. Explaining their decision to run the spot, which was rejected by Milwaukee's newspapers, the Register's national advertising director said the PETA campaign wasn't unlawful, fraudulent, libelous … or in bad taste. "We were most concerned about separating it from the obituaries," Nancy Jo Trafton-Dyer told USA Today. Protests against the ad soon followed, which PETA's co-founder and national director, Ingrid Newkirk, dismissed as "mock outrage" from the same people who do "nothing in their communities to make sure no one grew up to be another Jeffrey Dahmer."

3. Naughty Veggies
 
When NBC declined to air a saucy PETA ad featuring scantily clad women embracing their vegetables during the 2009 Super Bowl, the organization sniffled that the network had something against female vegetarians. NBC might have shot back that PETA cares more about the dignity of animals than of women. Testing the adage that "sex sells," the animal-rights group cites in the commercial that "studies show vegetarians have better sex," and proceeds to show simulated foreplay between the nearly nude women and their veggies of choice. The ad, deemed too hot for ABC talk show The View also inspired a reenactment reenactment by co-host and comedian Whoopi Goldberg. Bet you're glad you missed that one.

4. American Kennel Klub?
 
There's no room for timidity when you're comparing someone to the Ku Klux Klan. That seems to be the driving principle behind PETA's multi-platform campaign accusing the American Kennel Club of prizing "pure bloodines" much in the manner that the Klan does. In addition to a video spot, above, the group launched an online quiz challenging people to try and tell the AKC and the KKK apart, and protested outside the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show at New York City's Madison Square Garden in February wearing white robes and hoods. But was the blitz successful? Onlookers in New York seemed befuddled. "Most passers-by seemed more puzzled than offended," the Associated Press reported at the time. A few snapped pictures on their cell phones, and woman stopped to ask, "Is this really the KKK?" Not exactly the message PETA was going for.

5. What on a Plate?
 
When PETA launched its "Holocaust on Your Plate" campaign in 2003, the animal-rights organization quickly went from kosher to controversial. The exhibit featured eight 60 sq. ft. panels juxtaposing scenes from Nazi death camps with images of factory farms and slaughterhouses. (For example: a photo of concentration-camp inmates crammed into bunkers displayed alongside a snapshot of chickens stuffed into wired cages.) The disturbing comparisons were apparently inspired by Yiddish author and Nobel laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer, who once wrote of animals: "In relation to them, all people are Nazis." Singer's grandson was even recruited to help promote the campaign. But rallying behind a Jewish vegetarian didn't deter virulent criticism. Groups like the Anti-Defamation League, which fights anti-Semitism, were horrified that the murder of some 6 million Jews in World War II was trivialized, and Germany's high court banned the exhibit altogether. It took Newkirk almost two years to release an apology for the stunt.

6. Cookies n' (Breast) Milk
 
In September 2008, PETA sent a letter to Ben and Jerry's with a simple request: start making ice cream with milk from humans instead of cows. "The breast is best!" it read. The gross-out scheme—intended, PETA said, to assuage cows' suffering and boost human health—was inspired by reports that a Swiss restaurateur planned to start making the same substitution in his food. Not surprisingly, it never caught on. PETA co-founder Ingrid Newkirk later admitted to TIME that it was a stunt designed to draw attention to the fate of cows forcibly impregnated so they will lactate and calves who face being shipped to inhumane veal farms. "It isn't very feasible at all," she said. "But it was great fun to suggest it."

7. Fried Chicken Cruelty

When Kentucky Fried Chicken founder Colonel Harland Sanders died in 1980, he didn't exactly rest in peace. Just steps from Sanders' grave site in Louisville's Cave Hill Cemetery, the group produced a new headstone in 2008 with a seemingly innocent poem about how KFC is a "Kind Friend of Chickens." In reality, the poem was acrostic: the first letter of each line spelled out, in bright-red letters: "KFC Tortures Birds." The cemetery had the headstone removed.

8. Lactose Intolerence?
 
When a 2008 study suggested milk might exacerbate autism, PETA took the opportunity to fashion a typically tasteless ad campaign. In a nod to the famous "Got Milk?" spot, PETA put up a "Got Autism?" billboard in Newark, N.J., suggesting a direct link between dairy and the disease — an argument for which scant evidence exists. Several autism groups rallied to get billboard removed.

9. Fashion Faux Pas

Since its inception in 1980, one of PETA's primary aims has been to rid the world of fur garments harvested from animals. In the same way that police departments hold annual gun buyback programs across the nation — taking guns from people, no questions asked, in exchange for money or gift cards — PETA started collecting fur clothing from reformed wearers in 1988. But what does one do with all that fur? PETA chose to hand them out to the homeless and ship them to Iraq. Newkirk's logic? "When the homeless are wearing fur, you know fur has hit rock bottom."

10. Happy Mother's Day!

Nothing makes for a cheerier Mother's Day celebration than invoking the plight of caged pigs. In 2008, PETA put a naked pregnant woman in a pen in London to encourage people to eat vegetarian — and to call attention to the fact that all days are bad days for knocked-up sows. The temperature in London at the time was a brisk 40°, suggesting that the exhibitionist who played along may have been as nutty as whomever dreamed up this act of lunacy in the first place.

Posted via email from HikiCulture – A Forum for Reclusive People (and Hikikomori) {hikiculture.com site blog}

I took Movie Boy to school today. And popped in to the office. Ms. Ap was unavailable. The Principal was unavailable. His guidance counselor was unavailable.

“Can someone make themselves available to me for FIVE MINUTES to discuss my son’s safety?”

No.

A random guidance counselor, unrelated to Movie Boy’s program, talked to me. She called the cafeteria security person, Mrs. G, who told me they were in the process of “reviewing the security tapes”, but in the meantime to protect Movie Boy today, she would have him sit at the “detention table”.

WHAT? Where is a wall? I need to knock my head against it.

I left messages for everyone. I went to the office. I called several members of the administration. No one was available. I called a lawyer and set up a consultant for next week.

I sent this e-mail….

Dear Ms. AP,

I spoke with Movie Boy last evening. He said that he was in the cafeteria eating his lunch, when he was hit on his head from behind. He turned to see what happened, and saw that the student who had hit him was smirking about it. When Movie Boy sought out a teacher (he says he raised his hand) the student then suddenly changed from smiling to back-pedaling, trying to say that it was an accident. Movie Boy did not feel that it was an accident, he said this student “hates” him and the blow to his head was very hard.

Movie Boy talked to a nearby adult, as he was instructed to do. This adult did not handle the incident per policy, but instead told the boys to shake hands. He did not take Movie Boy to the clinic, despite having suffered a blow to the head.

Movie Boy then also informed his case manager about what had happened. The case manager took Movie Boy to the nurse.

I was called at approximately 2:30 to let me know that Movie Boy was in the nurse’s office after sustaining a blow to the head. My husband picked up Movie Boy around 3 p.m. and took him to the pediatrician. At that time he still had a headache, which he had well into the evening. Movie Boy is extremely upset about this incident, which is on the heels of another assault he sustained while in the cafeteria just last week.

As you are well aware, last Monday he was punched in the stomach while waiting in the lunch line.  Yesterday, he was hit from behind while eating.  In both cases, he was not immediately taken to the nurse for assessment.  As you also know, he also sustained at least three injuries during 6th grade (last year) that required medical attention.

He also tells me that the girl who punched him in the stomach last week has been in class everyday – leading me to believe that she did not receive any significant consequences for her actions. She has not been deterred – just yesterday in science she took Movie Boy’ colored pencils and would not give them back when he asked.

I am convinced that this most recent incident is not an “accident”. However, if it is an accident, then consideration must be given to the layout of the cafeteria – if children must pass so close to each other that head injuries occur, then the layout if not conducive to safety.

I stopped in this morning to discuss this with you, but you were not available. I left my phone number but have not heard from you yet today regarding this incident or how my son will be kept safe at school. I also inquired about speaking to the Principal, Movie Boy’s guidance counselor, the Assistant Superintendent for Middle Schools, and the Assistant Superintendent for Equity Affairs– no one has returned my call.

Again, I request that you please contact me immediately to discuss how you will insure that  my son is safe in your school building.

Thank you,

Kat

As soon as I hit send, Assistant Superintendent called me. He said that the school was “still reviewing tapes”. Still? He was not aware that they were reviewing tapes this morning. All day? Really?

He said that he thought it was really “odd” that a kid would just hit Movie Boy without any provocation. He also thought it was really odd that my son, even though autistic, would not seek out the help of an adult or care at the clinic.

I called the school to try to talk to Ms. AP. Was told she is out of the building at an all day meeting with the Principal. But… the Superintendent said they were “reviewing tapes”.

Wall? Come here. Need to knock my head some more.

I was furious when, on Facebook,  I read this; one reason being that the eight-year-old referenced here is my grandson, and the mother’s post concerned how her son was to speak in a public school in San Diego, CA.

My third grader has just informed me that they are now supposed to say “Happy Holidays” and the Christmas tree is to be a “Holiday Tree”.

Wrong. Just wrong. Also silly and unconstitutional. For the holiday season which we are experiencing today, culminates on  the 25th of December, an official United States of America holiday, which day is Christmas. CHRISTMAS. It’s called Christmas, not Holiday. It’s called Christmas because it is to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.

Let us adore Him, the God of all the universe, who loving us so much, prepared Himself a body, and came to earth. Isaiah beautifully prophesied the event in chapter 9, verse 6.

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

I recently became aware of the group whose music I’m bringing here. Please listen to this stunning rendition of  Oh, Come All Ye Faithful, an enduring, majestic song of the Christmas season. (If you have headphones, so much the better.)

Another call today. Movie Boy was eating lunch when a boy (who has expressed dislike for him in the past) walked behind him and whacked the back of his head. I got a call from the school nurse telling me about it. They were quick to point out that Movie Boy “did the right thing” by telling an adult. Unfortunately, the adult was a substitute who did not react to the assault. So, Movie Boy sought out the help of his case manager, Mr. F., who then brought him to the nurse. We have him at the pediatrician now, just to be sure.

But why does this happen at all?? WHAT THE HELL??

I wrote this to the AP….

Dear Ms. AP,

I was contacted today by the school nurse. I spoke with her and Mr. F. They informed me that my son, Movie Boy, was hit in the back of the head by another student while he ate his lunch in the cafeteria today.

As you are well aware, this is the second injury he has sustained in this environment in the course of only one week. Last Monday, he was punched in the stomach while waiting in the lunch line.  Today, he is hit from behind while eating.

As you also know, he also sustained at least three injuries during 6th grade (last year) that required medical attention.

Please contact me immediately to discuss how you will insure that  my son is safe in your school building.

Thank you,

Kat

Although meant to describe the “perfect” place, if you live in one of the 16 cities that signed on to Utah’s version – and especially if you are a Brigham City resident – UTOPIA is simply a nightmare.  At it’s heart, it’s a prime example of government getting in the way of private enterprise – and totally botching the job.  (Of course it begs the question: is it the proper role of government to pay for access to the Internet?  Residents already have choices, from using an “air card” and a cell phone provider to small ISPs, to state networks, to huge organizations like Comcast.)

UTOPIA stands for the “Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency”.  The (short-sighted) cities that signed on to the idea that this UTOPIA would help their cities get high-speed Internet and “increase competition” must not have read the fine print.  Those pushing this idea of UTOPIA assured all cities that they were financially viable (of course), so that little piece of the contract that obligated the cities to kick in tax revenue would never be brought into play.  Wouldn’t you know it, though – those obligations have come due to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Here’s the real kicker – instead of sticking with the $200 million worth of already-issued bonds, 15 of the 16 cities passed NEW bonds to be repaid with NEW taxpayer money, hoping that the bad investment would suddenly become profitable if only they threw more money at it.  They ignored the first rule of holes: “When you find yourself in one, STOP DIGGING.”

In May, the Utah Taxpayer’s Association – an organization against UTOPIA from the start – warned that property taxes would rise in those 15 cities.  Additionally, they pointed out that:

UTOPIA’s socialist telecom system was a bad idea to begin with. That’s why UTOPIA failed to generate the subscribers necessary to pay for its own operations and the original bonds. Refusing to acknowledge they had made a mistake, the member city councils doubled down. Now taxpayers in the member cities will be stuck with higher taxes for the next 33 years. We can only hope that this debacle serves as a warning to other cities about the dangers of competing with the private sector.

Back to Brigham City.  In an effort to raise the money to pay more than DOUBLE the original obligation ($16.7 million compared to the original $6.7 million), the city literally sent people door-to-door getting homeowners to sign a contract to “support” UTOPIA.  What has become apparent is that, yet again, the fine print was not shared.  As you pledge your $3000 to the city (at a very affordable $25/month) you also agree to put a 20-year lien on your home to pay for UTOPIA.   What?!  A 20-yr lien for Internet service?!  Oh wait – no service – just connection.  Maybe.

Almost two thousand people have already signed up, presumably not knowing that the lien must be paid even if UTOPIA fails and there is never any service, that they will be charged 8% interest over 20 years (making the total cost $6,000),  the home may be foreclosed upon if the fee is not paid, that the lien must be paid before the home is sold AND that the lien DOES NOT INCLUDE telephone, TV or Internet fees – it is solely a connection fee.

Once residents started realizing what they had signed, they began calling city hall and were basically told “Too bad, so sad“.  The city now expects to tax the other 4000 homeowners to help pay for the 1600 who thought they wanted UTOPIA.  Now there’s a plan.  The press release sent out by Brigham City on Nov 5, 2009 is quite eye-popping.  They state “Since May of this year, residents of Brigham City have had the opportunity to become part of this effort by signing a consent form that will allow their property to be assessed for construction of the network”  The press release continues “

To date more than 1600 property owners have voluntarily signed up to join the UTOPIA network. However, UTOPIA informed the City that over 600 property owners who had voluntarily subscribed for the service would potentially be unable to receive service because assessment revenues would be insufficient to fund estimated construction costs

So what does the city do?  They decide to fill the gap to the tune of an additional $655,924.00….to be paid for by Brigham City taxpayers.  At the very end of the press release, there is one tiny mention of liens being placed “as allowed by law”.

Brigham City is holding a city council meeting this week.  My guess is the place will be packed – and not with happy campers.  If you want to go, it’s  Thursday, December 10, 2009 at7:00pm.  The address is 20 N. Main Street, Brigham City.  The Utah Taxpayer’s Association also has an online petition for Brigham City residents requesting that the city council immediately rescind the liens.  Go here to sign.

News.com.au – PET owners could be punished for not walking their dogs, under radical new laws being proposed by the RSPCA. Under the legislation, they would have to regularly exercise dogs, ensure animals are not kept chained up and give their pets adequate food and water. If the proposal becomes law, dog and cat owners across Australia would face prosecution, fines of up to $12,000 fines for animal cruelty and magistrates could consider jail in extreme circumstances.

Yes, yes, what this country needs is more laws, we’ve already got piles and piles of crap legislation banning things like raping, murdering, shootings, stabbings and such. And if you read the news every day you’d know Australia is a crime-free utopia, the last time anyone got shot or punched in the face was back in 19something or the other when guns weren’t banned and it was the wild down under. The laws are working, working I tell you, just believe or else.

The article doesn’t mention how any of this will be policed or what would happen if you fell and broke your legs, the way it’s going they’ll expect you to crawl out on your elbows anyway. Nobody in this vast bureaucracy that is to be setup to police the dog-walking laws gives a shit if you can’t walk, that’s simply no excuse. Now we all know that the new canine-patrol can’t be everywhere to make sure you pet-owning cretins are doing as they please, so cameras and gps units will have to be installed at your expense.

Oh and they will be setting up super-computers with fancy algorithms to calculate and ensure that you do walk the full 30 minutes at the required pace or else, none of that stopping to chat and prattle about the weather with your fellow pet-owning cretins.

…Catherine and Mitch Wells said they would welcome laws to prosecute animal owners who did not exercise their pets. They said exercising their much-loved “Diva” was part of the deal of owning a dog, and they said all pet owners should be made to regularly walk their animals.

Now that I think about it, why not make up some new laws saying that dogs must be fed grade-A beef and king prawns for the cat, you the owner can go without if you have to. What if the owner dies, how about passing a law that all their possessions are sold off to care for the pets, won’t somebody think about Diva, do it for the puppies!

To be quite honest, I don’t know why they don’t just propose taxpayer funded concentration camps, where repeat offenders and us peasants unwilling to bend to their fascist will on anything from walking the dog to the light bulbs you use are sent to have our backs broken.

P.S. Having your back broken is not an excuse to weasel out of walking the dog.

….all the key characters in this delightful upending of the St. Nick myth, including Santa’s toy-making lover, Santa’s beard (Mrs. Claus), the Anti-gay crusader who tries to ban Santa Claus, and the little gay boy whose heartfelt letter stirs Claus’s conscience and changes Christmas forever.

Tickets here.

Enjoy.