Geïnspireerd door de reis naar Italië – waar elke slager en boer zijn eigen worst maakt – en door verhalen van collega-bloggers (zie onder andere het onvolprezen worstlog!) en met een vrije zaterdag in het vooruitzicht was dit de dag:  een worst maken.

Het pas aangeschafte boek ‘Charcuterie’ (van Ruhlman & Polcyn) voorzag in een simpel recept: Saucisse Sec. Inderdaad, een Frans recht-toe-recht-aan worstje.

De varkensdarmen, nitrietzout, gehakt en varkensspek kwamen van slager Kemavlees op de Kinkerstraat. Kemavlees is dé kiloknaller van Oud-West, een grote slager waar men elkaar verdringt op de zaterdag, zo druk is ‘t daar.

En toen kon kok aan de slag! Hieronder voor u de ingrediënten op een rijtje:

• 500 g gehakt (kok heeft nog geen eigen gehaktmolen, vandaar…)
• 50 g varkensspek
• 6 gram nitrietzout
• 10 gram suiker
• theelepeltje venkelzaadjes
• 2 geperste knoflookteentjes

En dat alles bij elkaar, mengen & wat kneden. De varkensdarmen werden gevuld met zo’n simpele spuitzak, waar normaal slagroom mee gespoten wordt. (Kok heeft nog even geen ruimte voor een echte worstvulmachine in zijn keuken).

Vullen ging goed maar is zwaar werk. Nu ligt er 400g worst te drogen in de cv-ketelkast. Over twee tot drie weken is de boel gedroogd en gerijpt. Afwachten maar!

*just a quick one

Well, this commercial is stupid.  It isn’t funny, Flo isn’t funny, the guy who looks like Steve-O isn’t funny, and progressive insurance isn’t funny.  So the joke is… I don’t know, there isn’t one.  She just kind of talks… for the whole fucking time.  This commercial suggests she rides a motorcycle.  She pantomimes riding a motorcycle and the guy, who’s just trying to make conversation and be nice, suggests she rides a 500.  Then Flo, acting like a total bitch, one-ups the guy and says she rides some better motorcycle showing her vast knowledge of the subject.  The guy who looks like steve-o clearly doesn’t give a shit about her, and to avoid talking to her again, ends the conversation.  I don’t know why she felt she had to prove her knowledge of motorcycles.  It’s just like someone who feels the need to announce something they’ve done, like scoring a goal, because they didn’t get a reaction for anyone.  The go “yeah!  I scored!” and nobody fucking cares because we all saw you score and clearly don’t give a shit because we don’t feel like wasting breath acknowledging it.

So what did I learn at the end of all these progressive commercials?  Flo is consistently unfunny and I’m muting the commercials every time they come on.  If I could give this commercial a rating out of 5, I wouldn’t.  1 isn’t low enough.

**Viewer Discretion Advised**

Serious lack of funny

Well, if I could afford Tivo, I would really like to rewind this commercial when it comes on so I could have a second chance at finding the joke.  Seriously, I miss it every time.  Those folks over at Geico must do a really good job hiding it because I’m almost convinced there actually is no joke.

Anyways, I guess the whole point of this commercial is to show you how much money you could be saving if you switched to Geico.  What confuses me is this little money stack with eyes is supposed to represent that “money which could have been saved” but since you would have already spent that money with your other insurance company, does that mean that that money stack with eyes is a ghost of your spent money?  It would have to be a ghost because if it was physically there, then that would mean you never spent that money on the other insurance company.  And if you never spent it on the other insurance company, then you just took out a stack of money for no fucking reason and glued eyes on it, not saving anything.  Mindfuck.  But that’s just looking too far into a commercial that doesn’t deserve any type of thought.  Not only is this commercial incredibly unfunny, the song played at the end is like a parasite that latches on to your brain and forces you to replay that song over and over and over until you finally manage to forget it.  And as soon as you do, another one of this fucking stupid commercials comes on.  I really don’t have anything else to say about it because my brain has suffered enough from watching them let alone talking about them.

Verdict:  Geico cavemen are funnier, and that’s not saying much

What to do when it comes on:

Mute:  Silence it.

Look away:  You’ll be sorry if you don’t

The world’s worst industrial disaster took place 25 years ago, in central India. A chemical leak at the plant of the Indian subsidiary of an American corporation, Union Carbide, poisoned an estimated half million residents of the city of Bhopal. The death toll remains disputed, but certainly thousands died in the ensuing days and thousands more are believed to have succumbed to gas-related diseases since then…. From VOA. Full story

This site may contain information about: second city. For a different topic see las vegas crowd levels. The blog is also related to: city mortgage.

Ibn-e-Pakistan

WARNING: USER DISCRETION ADVISED!!

You want to see real face of friends of Pakistani, Saudi and other Muslim governments and armies?

We neither have courage nor words, just click the link below and see yourself:

Soldiers of US Armies who are supported by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and other governments of unfortunate Muslim world

Which so-called Muslim army is fighting against these Kuffar to take revenge? In our case, all of our armies are protecting Kuffar from Mujahideen. Think, who is your enemy and who is your friend!

“Any army is made to protect their civilians and safeguard interests of its people, unfortunately, today’s Muslim armies are made to fight against Muslims and protect the interests of Kuffar threatened by Mujahideen” – Shaykh Anwar Al Awlaki [hufudo-Allah]

Ibn-e-Pakistan

WARNING: USER DISCRETION ADVISED!!

You want to see real face of friends of Pakistani, Saudi and other Muslim governments and armies?

We neither have courage nor words, just click the link below and see yourself:

Soldiers of US Armies who are supported by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and other governments of unfortunate Muslim world

Which so-called Muslim army is fighting against these Kuffar to take revenge? In our case, all of our armies are protecting Kuffar from Mujahideen. Think, who is your enemy and who is your friend!

“Any army is made to protect their civilians and safeguard interests of its people, unfortunately, today’s Muslim armies are made to fight against Muslims and protect the interests of Kuffar threatened by Mujahideen” – Shaykh Anwar Al Awlaki [hufudo-Allah]

A technology originally developed for premature babies may be helping to save some of the sickest swine flu patients by rerouting their blood so their lungs can rest.

It’s a risky approach using equipment that only certain specialized hospitals have. But faced with children and young adults struggling to breathe despite ventilators has intensive-care doctors dusting off these machines, named ECMO, that they often consider last-ditch and almost never use for influenza.

“It was pretty scary knowing that was his blood flowing through those tubes in and out of his body,” says Susie Damm of Omaha, Neb., whose 19-year-old son Ryan survived a life-threatening bout after 10 days on ECMO.

“I was one of the people sick and tired of hearing about the swine flu, thinking people were making a big deal of it,” she adds. “Now I’ve had a different look, and I’m very, very thankful” he survived.

No one knows which patients are most likely to benefit — not everyone does. But ECMO is gaining attention after Australian researchers reported that the machines helped during that country’s outbreak of what scientists call the 2009 H1N1 flu strain. A voluntary U.S.-based registry counts 107 critically ill swine flu patients recently treated with ECMO, most from this country.

In Omaha, Dr. Jeff DeMare credits the technique with saving Ryan Damm and 7-year-old Tania Romero-Oropeza after both patients’ lungs went from clogged to nearly useless in a stunning matter of hours. Tania’s care was complicated by a drug-resistant staph infection.

“You wonder, ‘OK, we’ve got a lot of folks who get this disease and why is it so bad in some cases?’ We don’t have a real good handle on that,” says DeMare, a critical care specialist at Children’s Hospital & Medical Center.

Whatever the reason, “your body needs time to fight the infection,” he adds, and he gambled that the pricey equipment could buy that time.

Estimates from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggest that swine flu has hospitalized 98,000 Americans in the past six months, and killed nearly 4,000. For most, standard treatment works.

But the sickest often need ventilators to pump their lungs, and ventilators damage lung tissue, especially as they’re turned up to higher pressures as patients worsen.

Hospitals are “exhausting all measures” on those patients, says Dr. Pauline Park, a University of Michigan ICU co-director who’s helping to analyze the ECMO registry in hopes of determining best candidates. “Physicians don’t want to give false hope to families, but also don’t want to stand by if a life can be saved.”

Enter ECMO, decades-old technology that essentially offers a temporary lung bypass. Tubes carry blood out of the body so a filter can remove carbon dioxide and reinfuse oxygen, and then dump the blood back.

It’s a twist on the heart-lung machine used for open-heart surgery, modified so that patients can stay on the machine for weeks instead of just hours and, key here, so that blood doesn’t have to bypass the heart if only the lungs need a rest.

There are many cautions. It’s risky, requiring blood thinners to avoid clots and posing the potential for additional infection. It can double the cost of ICU care. Only about 120 hospitals in the U.S. offer it, most just a few times a year for newborns with respiratory failure, its primary use.

ECMO in adults is hugely controversial because past research couldn’t prove that it significantly increased survival.

Ryan Damm, 19, a swine flu patient whose life was saved by using a lung-bypass technology called ECMO, sees his physician, Dr. Jeff DeMare at Children’s Hospital of Omaha in Omaha, Neb

Here’s what’s new:

_Australian researchers reported last month that they used ECMO in 68 critically ill swine flu patients who failed standard care, and about 71 percent survived. That research predicted some 800 people might be ECMO candidates if the U.S. experienced similar rates of swine flu.

_Coincidentally, a British study also published last month found that nearly two-thirds of adults randomly assigned to ECMO survived other types of respiratory failure — before swine flu hit — while just 47 percent survived with regular ICU care. It’s the most rigorous study of ECMO performed in adults and one that has lung specialists debating wider use.

_Preliminary data from the Michigan-run ECMO registry suggests survival can reach 72 percent if recipients get it within six days of using a ventilator. With longer ventilator use, the survival rate plummets.

Back in Omaha, DeMare agrees ECMO shouldn’t be last-ditch, noting his own patients were on ventilators for just hours before getting it. Still, Tania had a monthlong hospital stay, including her eight days on ECMO.

“Thank God the doctor took that decision to use this machine,” said Tania’s mother, Antonieta Oropeza, speaking in Spanish through an interpreter.

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A drawing, that is believed to be the world’s worst e-fit sketch, has helped Bolivian police track down a murder suspect. The e-fit followed a savage murder of a taxi driver in South America. A burnt body was found in March with 11 stab wounds. Most believe the e-fit resembles the Wizard of Oz’s scarecrow.

**Viewer Discretion Advised**

Prolonged exposure may cause severe dementia and face melting

There really isn’t a whole lot to say about this commercial.  It isn’t funny, the song sucks, and it still isn’t funny.  Below is my reaction every time the free credit report guys start singing.

My biggest issue with these commercials is the guy can’t lip sync.  He lip syncs as if he’s talking when he should be singing.  I spend most of the time during these commercials trying to figure out why the fuck these guys were hired for the job when they clearly can’t even mock playing instruments or pretend they know what they’re doing.  But then again, freecreditreport obviously doesn’t care about that judging the pile of shits they put on the tv.  I’m pretty sure the meetings over at advertisement for freecreditreport go a little something like this.

“Alright, so our talent scouts found this retarded guy whose worth is equivalent to nothing, and he’s got these two friends with personalities of mud that would just fit perfectly for our new commercial pitch.  We’ll take all three of these guys, give them instruments they don’t know how to pretend to play, have them attempt to sing this song our comatose monkey intern spelled out with his own shit, and play it during every fucking commercial break on every station.  We’ll be as famous as those hilarious Geico cavemen that aren’t completely overused and stale.”

I mean good God.  I would really like to meet the test audience that these commercials were shown too, but I’m pretty sure they all died just like in The Ring after watching that weird video.  In fact, The Ring should have just played that video instead of the other ones.  The people wouldn’t have died in seven days because they would have committed suicide before the tape ended.  If Shakespeare was alive today, he would have to bow down to the beauty and pure genius of these lyrics

“so throw your hands in the air and wave em around like a wannabe frat boy trying to get down.”

Then again, Shakespeare has been dead for a while and his brain is decomposed as shit right, which would just about explain how I feel the more this commercial comes on.

Verdict:  Microwaved dog shit.

What to do when it comes on:

Mute:  It will be stuck in your head for days if you don’t.

Look Away: Below is the reason why

]]> http://robblanum.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/justice/ Tue, 24 Nov 2009 06:40:16 +0000 Robb http://robblanum.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/justice/

(Years Three/Four of Robb’s Illustrious Career)

My third/fourth year in the business I worked for this show-runner who was a real piece of work. He was the most hated figure I’ve ever worked for. He made The Weasel look like a normal, well-adjusted human being. From the writers room to the production office to the stage, everybody hated him.

This guy was a harsh dictator. I’ve never seen anybody better at shutting down creativity in a room. Writers pitching jokes or brainstorming ideas would be cut off and dismissed mid-sentence, mid-pitch. Nice. The in-joke in the writers room was that if he was looking for an integer between 2 and 4 and you pitched 3, you would get shot down.

Strangely, this guy was also helpless. He couldn’t do anything by himself. He had no personal assistant, so we were ALL his personal assistant. I was personally called by the guy on a weekend and compelled to help him out with something personal. Let me repeat, I was NOT his personal assistant. My son was an infant at the time, but apparently the guy didn’t think I had anything more important to do on a Sunday morning than get in the car and go help him out. The in-joke in the production office was that you might get a call from the guy in the toilet demanding that you come help him with the paperwork.

One day Mr. Sunday Morning said his computer monitor “flickered.” I was called into his office and yelled at when I could see no flickering. Well, actually, he didn’t yell, he rolled his eyes condescendingly and told me to go find somebody else – anybody else – to come in his office to confirm the flickering. No matter how many assistants and then producers were called in, NO ONE else could see any flickering. The line producer called the computer rental company and had the non-flickering computer and monitor replaced. Twice. Guess what? Mr. Sunday Morning said it still flickered. I will never forget this: I was personally in his office, along with the line producer and all the writers and some of the cast, when Mr. Sunday Morning became enraged and literally shouted to the heavens, “Why does no one else see this flickering?!”. Everybody in the room was acutely aware of the obvious reason. Everybody except him.

He was fired. Well, I got ahead of myself. First the executive producer was told – by everyone – about this guy. Producers were running around in circles wasting time and money on crap for him. The executive producer’s hand-picked writers were not being allowed to write or even contribute, and were threatening to quit. Nobody was happy. A few shows in, production was shut down and Mr. Sunday Morning was given a serious talking-to. After that, he was on his best behavior. At considerable expense, we spent weeks retooling. An additional writer was brought in to clear the air and “reset” the writers room. Writers’ contributions were welcomed and accepted. Everything was back on track, and everyone was happy.

Until we started taping again. With the stress of production, the dictatorial prima donna control freak jerk returned and everything went back to the way it was. A few shows into this second part of the season, the executive producer unexpectedly appeared on the lot, went into Mr. Sunday Morning’s office, and fired him. Security escorted him off the lot.

It was wonderful. It was… justice.

For weeks afterward it was like the laws of gravity did not apply in our little world. As my Uncle Bernard used to say, “When you hit your thumb with a hammer as hard as you can over and over and over… it feels so good when you stop.” The rest of the season was filled with sweetness and light. And with cruel, unrelenting jokes from everyone about the disgraced, fired jerk. The satisfaction was overwhelming. The world is fair after all.

Or is it?

Four years later, I saw Mr. Sunday Morning’s name on a movie poster. And I about lost my lunch. He wrote a movie – a big, successful, $100+ million Hollywood blockbuster. And later that same year, he did it again. He wrote ANOTHER big, successful, $100+ million Hollywood blockbuster. Movies with BIG HUGE stars. And prominent, beloved, cult-following directors. I am not making this up. The guy made it big. Twice in one year. The disgraced jerk hadn’t faded away, he just moved… into movies. And looking at imdb, his plate is still quite full. This guy is a huge success. We got cancelled, but he made it big.

He sure showed us.

In the years since, I have tried to figure out the true meaning of these events. You know, the big, cosmic truth. Was Mr. Sunday Morning really a jerk? Yes. Is he really a successful writer? Yes. Is he successful BECAUSE he is a jerk? Or in spite of this? Or is there any relationship between these whatsoever? For me, this is the question. Young P.A.s and assistants often ponder this issue, because the vast majority of the time in the business the people in charge (like Mr. Sunday Morning and The Weasel) are dictatorial prima donna control freak jerks. So do people become dictatorial prima donna control freak jerks BECAUSE they are successful and are allowed to get away with anything? Or do they become successful BECAUSE they are dictatorial prima donna control freak jerks to begin with? Is one a prerequisite for the other? If so, which one? Can you really be successful if you are NOT a dictatorial prima donna control freak jerk? Or will all normal, nice, well-adjusted writers become dictatorial prima donna control freak jerks once they become successful?

And which one am I?

**Viewer Discretion Advised**

The commercial you are about to watch simulates the effects of having a full frontal lobotomy

Upon watching this commercial for the first time, I felt as if I had died and ended up in some sort of twisted purgatory where this commercial would loop for eternity.  If you could physically injure yourself from cringing, I would have paralyzed myself, and would be spending the rest of me years in a vegetable state.

Apparently, this commercial takes place in the “cheer factory”, a place where everyone loves to break dance and rap about the holidays, but based on closer examination, Gap re-opened Auschwitz, painted it white, and filmed a commercial inside.  Aside from the commercial’s target audience being no one, it doesn’t even fulfill the purpose of the advertisement, which is to make people want to buy their product.  Not only will I not buy Gap clothes, I will never step foot inside a Gap store in fear of the people who actually liked this commercial and wanted to buy Gap clothes after seeing it.  I guess people could argue that it would be some sort of reverse-advertising, where you make a commercial so stupid that everyone talks about it (Geico, Freecreditreport), creating publicity.  After all, bad publicity is better than no publicity.  However, I am not about to give Gap the benefit of the doubt for making this commercial with some sort of reverse psychology in mind because the level of intelligence required to think up and write this commercial borderlines metal retardation.   The most amusing part about this commercial is when the girl eats shit at the end, summing up this whole waste of 33 second.

Verdict:  Doo doo/Epic Fail

What to do when it comes on:

Mute: hit the mute next time this commercial comes on

Look Away: shield your eyes from this atrocity because even the slightest glimpse can kill brain cells

Andrew Jackson was the 7th President of the United States and he served two term in office. Do to his affection towards the common man he was reelected for a second term, however he proved himself to be by the end of his eight years Single minded, Disobedient, and incompetence. Although it is argued still today as to whether or not Andrew Jackson was a good president, there is clear evidence that he was in fact not.

When Jackson was first elected into office one of the first things he did was to get rid of all his enemies. That meant anyone that wasn’t a Democrat that held a spot in a high position was kick out and replaced by one of Jackson’s “Golf buddies”. This in itself is a testament to his self-centeredness. Jackson was also for the common man, he saw them as equals and therefor he thought that they were the ones that he could most relate to. This meant that if you fell into this category that you were all set. However if you didn’t then Jackson hated you and would not help you. Again Jackson’s inadvertent leadership abilities show. But because the common man was the majority, the majority loved him. Now Jackson, throughout his entire career as president, he only focused on this particular group and therefore he wasn’t a good leader. A good leader looks out for the interests of all not just the majority. It just goes to show how single-minded he really was.

To add to Jackson’s detrimental character he was very disobedient, and had no respect for authority or rules. A great example of this is an event from history known as “The Trail of Tears”. This was just after what was known as “the Indian Removal act”, which stated that all Native American were to be moved to a new place out west. One Tribe, “the Cherokee” did not want to go, they took it to court saying that the act was unconstitutional. The court ruled in favor of the Cherokee. The Supreme Court ruled that they didn’t have to move. Jackson told then to enforce their ruling as he went and had them moved, They didn’t, ergo, the trail of tears. This single act of impudence shows the lack of care President Jackson had for any of the laws and rules that this country has and really what he was showing was that he would do whatever he wanted unless you were gonna do something to stop him.

During Jackson’s Presidency there was an incident called “the Peggy eaten affair”. This was a perfect example of Jackson’s Impudence and his Lack of leadership skills. What had happened was many of the of the people on the white house knew of Peggy’s somewhat shady past and could see that she was getting close to the president. Any time that anyone would say anything about Peggy Jackson would take her side and this got worse and worse as the days went on. It got so bad the people couldn’t work. So all of the cabinet members that couldn’t deal with it resigned. Jackson as a leader and a public figure should not have put himself into a situation such as that one. As a man with morals he should have seen what he was doing and tried to prevent it from happening, but he did not do that. Something like realy brings out a mans true colors.

To conclude you can see that Jackson had many faults and hid them by giving the majority of the country, “The Common Man” what they wanted. By doing that he was able to be president for two terms and do as he pleased. He was corrupt, immoral and conceded. Its as simple as that. What do u think?

A response to boxcarman123 on YouTube. Bridge!!

To make up for the lack-luster phrase of the week, I’m gonna give all you kiddies at home a real treat. These are the worst romance novel quotes ever and they will make you laugh till your spleen hurts. There are 20 of them so take it easy and take breaks in every five or so to breath. Some are metaphors, some are similes, all are ridiculous.

20> His body was hard — not hard like Milosevic, the Serbian strongman, but hard like the marble on your shower floor, when you fall and bang your knee.

19> Her shoulders heaved like the tiny sobs of Snuggles the cat being run through with a roasting spit.

18> Her embrace made his manhood swell like week-old roadkill on hot asphalt in the Georgia sun.

17> Her petticoats dropped to the ground, rustling like a cockroach in a sugar bowl.

16> As she kissed her way down his manly chest, he felt his Amalgamated Crane Company stock increasing in value.

15> Beatrice was on him like a piranha on a corn dog.

14> …then he kissed her, like a butterfly kisses the windshield of a Porsche on the Autobahn.

13> Her breasts heaved like a stormy ocean, and her pointed nipples were like hypodermics washed up on the shore.

12> With his broad shoulders and slim waist, he was a yield sign — yet she could NOT!

11> He tore open her blouse like a Publisher’s Clearing House letter in which he, and some guy named Steven Bouber from Stockton, California, were potential finalists for the ten million dollar prize.

10> His manhood stood at full attention, stiff and stony like the vice president.

9> Sleekly malevolent, driven by a violent hunger, Donovan glided through the chum-filled waters of the singles bar,
oblivious to the remora of Annabelle’s adoring gaze.

8> Like the wind, she ran, her breasts lurching like a motor boat over a wake, and then, as fluid as a fine imported transmission, she whipped out her man-organ and pissed away his dreams.

7> Her sun-glazed back formed a golden arch as he moved his face toward her happy meal.

6> With each breath, her chest heaved like a bulimic after Thanksgiving dinner.

5> He Beatty-ed her shamelessly, making her squeal like Ned and hallucinate like Warren.

4> He awoke my slumbering womanhood with his double tall loin latte. “Starbuck!” I cried.

3> His chest was her pillow, and oh, did she drool.

2> Claire felt swept away by this dark stranger, a helpless dust bunny in the roaring cacophony of his gas-powered leaf
blower.

Number 1 Bad Romance Novel Metaphor or Simile…

1> His finger, weathered and rough from years on the ranch, danced in and out of his nose like a slimy ballerina.

**Remember, don’t ask, but do tell everyone.

>Heather<

Unemployed Americans Should Hunker Down

Think the worst is over? Wrong. Conditions in the U.S. labor markets are awful and worsening. While the official unemployment rate is already 10.2% and another 200,000 jobs were lost in October, when you include discouraged workers and partially employed workers the figure is a whopping 17.5% unemployment rate.

While losing 200,000 jobs per month is better than the 700,000 jobs lost in January, current job losses still average more than the per month rate of 150,000 during the last recession.

Also, remember: The last recession ended in November 2001, but job losses continued for more than a year and half until June of 2003; ditto for the 1990-91 recession.

So we can expect that job losses will continue until the end of 2010 at the earliest. In other words, if you are unemployed and looking for work and just waiting for the economy to turn the corner, you had better hunker down. All the economic numbers suggest this will take a while. The jobs just are not coming back.

There’s really just one hope for our leaders to turn things around: a bold prescription that increases the fiscal stimulus with another round of labor-intensive, shovel-ready infrastructure projects, helps fiscally strapped state and local governments and provides a temporary tax credit to the private sector to hire more workers. Helping the unemployed just by extending unemployment benefits is necessary not sufficient; it leads to persistent unemployment rather than job creation.

The long-term picture for workers and families is even worse than current job loss numbers alone would suggest. Now as a way of sharing the pain, many firms are telling their workers to cut hours, take furloughs and accept lower wages. Specifically, that fall in hours worked is equivalent to another 3 million full time jobs lost on top of the 7.5 million jobs formally lost.

This is very bad news but we must face facts. Many of the lost jobs are gone forever, including construction jobs, finance jobs and manufacturing jobs. Recent studies suggest that a quarter of U.S. jobs are fully out-sourceable over time to other countries.

Other measures tell the same ugly story: The average length of unemployment is at an all time high; the ratio of job applicants to vacancies is 6 to 1; initial claims are down but continued claims are very high and now millions of unemployed are resorting to the exceptional extended unemployment benefits programs and are staying in them longer.

Based on my best judgment, it is most likely that the unemployment rate will peak close to 11% and will remain at a very high level for two years or more.

The weakness in labor markets and the sharp fall in labor income ensure a weak recovery of private consumption and an anemic recovery of the economy, and increases the risk of a double dip recession.

As a result of these terribly weak labor markets, we can expect weak recovery of consumption and economic growth; larger budget deficits; greater delinquencies in residential and commercial real estate and greater fall in home and commercial real estate prices; greater losses for banks and financial institutions on residential and commercial real estate mortgages, and in credit cards, auto loans and student loans and thus a greater rate of failures of banks; and greater protectionist pressures.

The damage will be extensive and severe unless bold policy action is undertaken now.

Roubini is professor of Economics at the Stern School of Business at New York University and Chairman of Roubini Global Economics.

Top economic prognosticator says job seekers must face grim economic facts

Read more: Unemployed_Americans_Should_Hunker_Down

Taylor has put up with my feminist outrage for a long time.  When we sit down to watch a television show at the end of a hard day, it’s almost tradition for me to see an ad and blurt something like, “Come on!  By using a woman they are insinuating that women are the only ones who are incapable of taking care of themselves without additional security!”  And Taylor raises his eyebrows a little bit and agrees with me when I press him about it.

I can be a little out of control, it’s true.

My feminist rage is at its strongest when watching cartoons.  It’s a fact: most all of the coolest cartoon characters are men.  The boys are allowed to have complex motivations and badass fight scenes.  They typically get the best jokes and tend to be the main characters.  The women’s motivations tend to be “SHE IS A LADY.  THAT IS WHAT LADIES DO,” and their jokes are limited to nagging  and histrionics.

It’s true that some characters are worse than others, though.  For your pleasure (and to give Taylor’s ears a break) here are the Seven Worst Female Cartoon Characters, rated in order of how much they conform to an unhealthy and unnecessary stereotype.  You may note that I’ve left out the classics – Betty Boop, Disney Princesses…I feel like these characters, sexist though they are, are the product of their times.  But now we have decided we are progressive!  Our entertainment features women who can rassle!  Women who know math!  So our modern cartoons are devoid of girls who rely on sexuality or bitterness, right?

Ha.

Are you ready to get your Righteous Indignation on?

7.  Candace from Phineas and Ferb:  I like Phineas and Ferb.  The show centers around two young boys who live each day of their summer vacation to the fullest, often concocting wild and impressive schemes to get what they want.  They are good natured and fun loving.  Their older sister, Candace, is not.  Candace likes boys and makeup and being a star, and hates fun and things that are messy.  She often plays the role of the villain in the cartoon, but her motivations are completely transparent.  It’s as though the creators decided she was A Big Sister and left it at that.  Boo, Candace.  Booo.

She is the very spirit of fun and mischief!

6.  Roxanne from A Goofy Movie:  What do we know about Roxanne from A Goofy Movie?  The main  character, Max, loves her and wants to impress her.  Why?  Because she’s hot, of course!  And she like…uh.  I guess we don’t really know what she likes.  But she’s very….oh.  I guess we don’t really know her personal qualities either.  Well, we KNOW her name is Roxanne, and that she is HOT!  And that’s enough for her to be a truly compelling character, right?  Right?  You guys?

She has a sparkling uh...personality?

5.  Amy Rose from Sonic The Hedgehog:  When you have a cartoon and video game franchise centered around a blue hedgehog, the natural choice for his counterpart is a pink hedgehog.  It is the law of the wild.  Amy Rose exists to chase Sonic with large hearts in her eyes, wielding a hammer that she uses to stun him into submission.  When she isn’t chasing him, she is nagging him to ‘be more sensitive’ or ’slow down and do things with her’.  Flash forward twenty years and he will be an overweight husband in a dead-end job, and she will be a hot wife that only wants him to do the dishes, and harps on him to eat a salad now and again.  Stay in school, girls!

Don't showcha your chocha, Amy!

4.  Jean Grey from X-Men Evolution:  Okay.  I’m going to catch a lot of flak for this one, because lots of people like Jean Grey, but her X-Men Evolution iteration is…maybe a little less than impressive.  In this era, Jean is a high school student.  She is gorgeous, limber, the most popular girl in school, gets straight A’s, and has fantastic telekinetic and telepathic powers to boot!  All this besides the undying love of most of the male characters.  So, here’s what I don’t like about Jean: she is entirely focused on what others think of her.  From the outside, this sounds like a solid motivation for a character, but Jean, in the true tradition of dim female characters, relies entirely on the males around her to define herself.  Is she dating the football jock or sensitive Scott Summers?  Is she being kidnapped by Magneto, or are her Phoenix powers being squelched by ultra powerful psychic Charles Xavier?  Jean is a grievous cartoon stereotype offender because she purports to be a Modern Woman – smart and powerful, but ultimately she relies on the men in her life to boost her esteem and supply her opinion.

Don't be afraid, Jean! Somewhere out there...somewhere, there is a shirt that will cover your midriff.

3.  Raven from Teen Titans:  In the bold tradition of Jean Grey, Raven is a heroine who seems quite heroic until you take into account who pulls her strings.  She is the daughter of vicious demon Trigon, which has imbued her with impressive magic.  The magic controls her more than she controls it, and when Trigon comes to earth, he promptly subjugates her to his whim.  A great story would be if Raven found her courage and her strength and rose up to slay her father, freeing herself and gaining control over her power.  Buuuuut Robin the Boy Wonder does it for her, and she is so pleased to be saved it establishes her trust in humanity.  Yay, Robin!  You’ve finally showed us all that we don’t need to save ourselves, as long as we can go from one male protector to another.  Did I mention she does all this in a tight-fitting legless leotard?

Dig the belt, Raven! But I think you...did you forget to put something on this morning? Starts with a P? Ends with an 'Ants'?

2.  Tuxedo Mask from Sailor Moon – Oookay.  I know Tuxedo Mask is a dude.  I’ve been focusing mostly on horrible female stereotypes, but male stereotypes exist as well.  Tuxedo Mask is the Edward of Sailor Moon.  He is a preteen girl’s ultimate fantasy.  That bratty guy at school that causes her so much grief secretly loves her for no apparent reason!  And what’s more than that, he is secretly a super hero!  He always shows up at the right moment to save her from evil amid a show of bubbles and delicate rose petals.  What does he like?  What are his hopes and dreams?  What are his fears?  It’s a mystery.  After all, Tuxedo Mask doesn’t need to be a real person, as long as he loves me.  Sob sob sob.

Ohh, Tuxedo Mask! Let me stare into your eyes for another four hours!

1.  I have reserved the number one spot for a cartoon creation that truly kindles the flames of my red-hot ire.  I speak, of course, of The Ruiner.  The Great Hair-Flipper, the Bunny-Smoocher, whose vapid stare and saxophone-stoked entry music sends me into paroxysms of rage.

I speak, of course, of Lola Bunny.

You guys remember the movie Space Jam.  Aliens try to take over the Looney Tunes, and they challenge them to a basketball game.  To tip their hand, the Tunes snag Michael Jordan.  Hilarity ensues.  When it turns out they don’t know how to play basketball at all, Michael Jordan says, in desperation, “Hasn’t anybody here ever played basketball?”

You guys.

Lola Bunny has:

I feel like that is all I really need to say about Lola Bunny.

Tune in next Monday when I post my picks for Top Seven Awesomest Cartoon Ladies!

Poor white boys did worse in primary school tests in England than any other main group, latest figures show…. From BBC News. Full story

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