I've Been Tagged and I Liked It

I've been tagged by Godless Grief, a USN veteran.

The rules of tagging are as follows:

Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.

People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.

At the end of your blog post, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.

Don't forget to leave them each a comment telling them they're tagged, and to read your blog.

So, here we go!

1. I love animals and have given money to animal rights activists who might now be considered terra-ists by the U.S. government, although they have never harmed anyone and just tried to make the world safer.

2. My undergraduate degree is in Commie Community Studies from UCSC (Univ. of California at Santa Cruz) and my Master's Degree is in Library Science.

3. I managed the conversion of a public library's card catalog to an online catalog.

4. I have 3 cats ranging in age from 3 months to 10 years and 2 Rhode Island Red hens.

5. I try to eat low on the food chain and would like to be a vegetarian, but sometimes I eat fish.

6. I own and manage Ring of Fire Enterprises, home of the Darwin fish, the Flying Spaghetti Monster and the Invisible Pink Unicorn.

7. I practice yoga and I'm interested in Buddhism, but I'm not a member of any group.

8. My husband and I met online in 1993 and we started Ring of Fire Enterprises in 1994.

I'm tagging:

Dada's Dally

Watergate Summer

WTF Is It Now?

Beep! Beep! It's Me

Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy

Skippy the Bush Kangaroo

Zen Yenta

The Funny Farm

Tagged signed and delivered. Letting the games continue. Keep up the non-faith.

Investing for Dummies

I don't pretend to understand how to manage my retirement investments, so a couple of months ago I turned my funds over to professional management. At the time I'd been doing well with three funds, but the financial manager offered diversification. I have no clue about the bond market and wanted to protect my retirement funds, so I signed up. The manager would charge me 1.1% of the value of my account.

I'm deliberately not going to reveal which company I used (don't want to be sued) but I turned one account over to professional management on April 30th and was dismayed to discover that the value of my investment was decreasing almost every day I checked on it. I decided to give them time to improve, but today, at the end of the quarter, I decided to bail out.

I called my "manager" and told him that I was disappointed in his results and wanted to resume control over my account. He launched several sales pitches designed to convince me to give him more time, but I'm facing the end of the quarter where the value of my account is lower than when he began to manage it and to add insult to injury, he's going to send me a bill for managing my account for the past 2 months.

He was still trying to convince me to give him more time. He blamed the market. I told him that I noticed that he'd invested a portion of my money to real estate funds and pointed out to him that I watch the news and I know about the defaults on sub-prime mortgages and if I had been managing my accounts, I would not now be holding any real estate funds.

I finally got tired of arguing with him and told him that I don't really need to pay him to lose my money - I'm perfectly capable of losing my own money for free. He didn't have a response to that, so I'm now in control of my own funds again.

Now what to do?

The Philosophy of Cats

"I have studied many philosophers and many cats. The wisdom of cats is infinitely superior."

—Hippolyte Taine (French historian, 1828 - 1893)

Weekly Headlies

I'm late with this week's Fukin Newz but here it is:

Are Republicans Inherently Cruel?

I still haven't recovered from the disclosures of former Senator and cat-killer Frist who "adopted" homeless kitties from shelters, pretending that he was going to provide them with a loving home, and then he sliced and diced and removed their tiny hearts. Obviously he was missing a similar organ.

Now I've discovered that Mitt Romney is guilty of cruelty to the family pet, an Irish Setter. Bastard! This kind of stuff makes my blood boil.

The incident: dog excrement found on the roof and windows of the Romney station wagon. How it got there: Romney strapped a dog carrier — with the family dog Seamus, an Irish Setter, in it — to the roof of the family station wagon for a twelve hour drive from Boston to Ontario, which the family apparently completed, despite Seamus's rather visceral protest.

If you've got the stomach for it, you can read all about at Time.com

After reading the article, you probably won't be surprised to discover that Romney supports Bu$h & Cheney's torture policies.

New Entry in the Fish Wars

Recently Inkling Magazine held a contest for intellingently designed entries into the Fish Wars. The first place winner was Godfrey Temple for "Food Fish".

Food Fish is available for purchase now at Ring of Fire Enterprises, your one-stop shop for Darwin fish, Flying Spaghetti Monster stuff, Pirate fish, etc.

Coming soon, another winning design.

Albertoasswipe

D.K. found the following in Wikipedia and notes that we all knew Abu Gonzales' head was up there, (in the nether regions of the rear side of the retarded cowboy who resides in the White House). Now we understand his role there:

Groom of the Stool
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Groom of the Stool was a medieval English groom (i.e. a male servant) who, among other duties, had the task of cleaning the Monarch's rear after a bowel movement.[1]

In the early years of Henry VIII's reign, the title was awarded to minions of the King, court companions who spent time with him in the Privy Chamber. These were the sons of noblemen or important members of the gentry. In time they came to act as virtual personal secretaries to the King, carrying out a variety of administrative tasks within his private rooms. The position was an especially prized one, as it allowed one unobstructed access to the King's attention.

David Starkey writes: "The Groom of the Stool had (to our eyes) the most menial tasks; his standing, though, was the highest... Clearly then, the royal body service must have been seen as entirely honorable, without a trace of the demeaning or the humiliating."[2] Further, "the mere word of the Gentleman of the Privy Chamber was sufficient evidence in itself of the king's will," and the Groom of the Stool bore "the indefinable charisma of the monarchy."[3]

Why the Media Don't Like John Edwards

If you've been paying attention, you've noticed that wealthy media elites (AKA the mainstream media) have determined that John Edwards is a traitor to his class because he speaks for working class people. They have declared that he is a hypocrite for spending $400 on a haircut while speaking out on behalf of those of us who go to Supercuts. He can never be president because he might not represent the interests of the corporate class.

Deek Jackson explains how this all works in this week's Fukin Newz:




Everything is great and protest in unneccessary say unelected owners of the world Shops are open now and Shopping is fun say money printing rulers of the world We are the goodies and they are the baddies say beingn rulers of earth

The Rise and Fall of the Republican Reich

Kleptocracy

This is kind of nuts, but it's the true!

The Fukin Newz

Pathological Liars for Jesus

Your Toothpaste Could Poison You

Your friends in China might have added a little extra flavor to your toothpaste: anti-freeze:

FDA Advises Consumers to Avoid Toothpaste From China Containing Harmful Chemical FDA Detains One Contaminated Shipment, Issues Import Alert

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today warned consumers to avoid using tubes of toothpaste labeled as made in China, and issued an import alert to prevent toothpaste containing the poisonous chemical diethylene glycol (DEG) from entering the United States.

DEG is used in antifreeze and as a solvent.

Consumers should examine toothpaste products for labeling that says the product is made in China. Out of an abundance of caution, FDA suggests that consumers throw away toothpaste with that labeling. FDA is concerned that these products may contain "diethylene glycol," also known as "diglycol" or "diglycol stearate."
FDA is not aware of any U.S. reports of poisonings from toothpaste containing DEG. However, the agency is concerned about potential risks from chronic exposure to DEG and exposure to DEG in certain populations, such as children and individuals with kidney or liver disease. DEG in toothpaste has a low but meaningful risk of toxicity and injury to these populations. Toothpaste is not intended to be swallowed, but FDA is concerned about unintentional swallowing or ingestion of toothpaste containing DEG.

FDA has identified the following brands of toothpaste from China that contain DEG and are included in the import alert:

Cooldent Fluoride;
Cooldent Spearmint;
Cooldent ICE;
Dr. Cool,
Everfresh Toothpaste;
Superdent Toothpaste;
Clean Rite Toothpaste;
Oralmax Extreme;
Oral Bright Fresh Spearmint Flavor;
Bright Max Peppermint Flavor;
ShiR Fresh Mint Fluoride Paste.

Manufacturers of these products are:

Goldcredit International Enterprises Limited;
Goldcredit International Trading Company Limited;
Suzhou City Jinmao Daily Chemicals Company Limited.

The products typically are sold at low-cost, "bargain" retail outlets [like WalMart]

Based on reports of contaminated toothpaste from China found in several countries, including Panama, FDA increased its scrutiny and began sampling toothpaste and other dental products manufactured in China that were imported into the United States.

FDA inspectors identified and detained one shipment of toothpaste at the U.S. border, containing about 3 percent DEG by weight. In addition, FDA inspectors found and tested toothpaste products from China located at a distribution center and a retail store. The highest level found was between 3-4 percent by weight. The product at the retail store was not labeled as containing DEG but was found to contain the substance.

DEG poisoning is an important public safety issue. The agency is aware of reports of patient deaths and injuries in other countries over the past several years from ingesting DEG-contaminated pharmaceutical preparations, such as cough syrups and acetaminophen syrup. FDA recently issued a guidance document to urge U.S. pharmaceutical manufacturers to be vigilant in assuring that glycerin, a sweetener commonly used worldwide in liquid over-the-counter and prescription drug products, is not contaminated with DEG.

FDA continues to investigate this problem. If FDA identifies other brands of toothpaste products containing DEG, FDA will take appropriate actions, including adding products and their manufacturers to the import alert to prevent them from entering the United States.

Consumers can report adverse reactions or quality problems experienced with the use of these products to FDA's MedWatch Adverse Event Reporting program:
www.fda.gov/medwatch/report.htm(800) 332-1088