The United States of Shame

A Joke

When my doctor asked me about what I did yesterday, I told him about my day:

"Well, yesterday afternoon, I waded across the edge of a lake, escaped from a mountain lion in the heavy brush, marched up and down a mountain, stood in a patch of poison ivy, crawled out of quicksand, and jumped away from an aggressive rattlesnake"

Inspired by my story, the doctor said, "You must be an awesome outdoorsman!"

"No," I replied, "I'm just a crappy golfer."

Fun Juggler - follow the this link

The Adventures of Helen Keller - comic strip

Want It!

Disclaimer: Hornady® Zombie Max™ ammunition is NOT a toy (IT IS LIVE AMMUNITION), but is intended only to be used on…ZOMBIES, also known as the living dead, undead, etc. No human being, plant, animal, vegetable or mineral should ever be shot with Hornady® Zombie Max™ ammunition. Again, we repeat, Hornady® Zombie Max™ ammunition is for use on ZOMBIES ONLY, and that's not a nickname, phrase or cute way of referring to anybody, place or thing. When we say Zombies, we mean…ZOMBIES!

Supreme Court Wades Into Raging Dispute Over Riverbed Ownership

By LAWRENCE HURLEY of Greenwire

THOMPSON FALLS, Mont. -- When he looks down at the frothing Clark Fork River from his vantage point on a high rocky outcrop, Noel Jacobson can't help cracking a smile.

He is amused by the notion that the river could be deemed navigable here at Thompson Falls, about two hours west of Missoula.

"Logically, you would say it's not navigable," Jacobson said as he gestured toward the fast-flowing channels that cut between two huge rocks in the middle of the river.

The object of his ridicule is a Montana Supreme Court ruling from March 2010, in which a majority held that this and two other rivers -- the Missouri and the Madison -- are navigable.

The court decision has serious implications for PPL Montana, which owns 10 dams on the three rivers, including one that spans the river at Thompson Falls and is managed by Jacobson.

In finding the rivers navigable, the court concluded that the state owns the riverbeds, which means PPL owes $40 million in rent for its use of the riverbeds since the company acquired them in 1999.

The court based its ruling on an 1845 U.S. Supreme Court case that said states hold title to riverbeds if the river was navigable at the time the state was admitted to the Union.

Clad in denim and wearing a white safety helmet, Jacobson pointed out that, on this day, the dam was open, making the flow of water more like what the river might have been before the dam was built in 1915.

It is a tableau that might be of interest to the nine justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, who will review the Montana court ruling when they hear arguments Dec. 7.

To the easygoing Jacobson, who has worked at the plant since 1997, the navigability question has a simple answer: Look at the raging waters and figure out if a boat could have passed through in 1889, the year Montana was admitted to the Union.

But it's not as simple as that.

For the kids

The tussle over who owns the riverbeds arose out of a debate in Montana over how the state utilizes public lands.

Like in other Western states, certain tracts were put into public trusts at the time Montana was admitted to the Union.

Among them are lands set aside for funding schools. Over the years, some Montanans have speculated whether the state has made the best use of its lands, which, they claim, could have had a detrimental effect on the revenue generated.

It was Helena-based lawyer John Bloomquist who came up with the idea of focusing on riverbeds.

Bloomquist immediately thought of it when several school districts first contacted him to ask about whether the state was making best use of its assets.

"One of the issues I had always been interested in was whether the state of Montana was receiving compensation for the stream beds," he said

A subsequent investigation confirmed that "no compensation was being provided," he added.

Bloomquist joined with a Bozeman law firm, Goetz, Gallik & Baldwin and -- representing the school districts and some individual parents -- filed suit in 2003, arguing that the state had "failed to obtain full market value" for the land upon which hydroelectric projects were located as required under state law.

That notion was a surprise to PPL, which has always operated under the principle that either it, the federal government or other private landowners owned the riverbeds on which its projects are located (two other power companies were initially involved in the case but later settled with the state after agreeing to lease the riverbeds).

At that initial stage, the state was not involved in the case, James Goetz -- one of Bloomquist's co-counsels -- recalled.

"We attempted to persuade the Montana attorney general to come with us," he said. "They declined initially."

Ironically, at that point, navigability was not at issue. The state's Supreme Court brief notes that PPL "conceded the navigability of the rivers."

No more.

Lewis and Clark

At a viewpoint overlooking a new fish ladder that PPL recently installed at the dam -- to assist bull trout, a threatened species -- is an informational display that features a 1908 photo of Thompson Falls, taken seven years before the dam was built.

The grainy black-and-white image clearly shows the river shooting down the falls just downstream from where the dam now stands.

Experienced whitewater rafters might fancy their chances, but anyone else might think twice before trying to navigate their way downstream.

If the answer were as straightforward as that, the case would not have ended up in the Supreme Court.

"The question isn't whether you would have taken a boat down the falls," said Gregory Garre, a Washington-based partner at Latham & Watkins, who will argue the case for the state.

Traditionally, the test of whether a river is navigable also touches upon whether the river was used as a "highway of commerce," he added.

The state maintains this was the case with all three rivers. At the Thompson Falls dam, for example, there was a log chute where the fish ladder now sits. Fur traders and miners also used the rivers, the state argues.

Then of course, there is the evidence supplied by two of the most famous figures in the mythology of the West: explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, who traveled along Montana's rivers.

However, they had to portage around tricky sections.

The journey around Great Falls took 33 days.

That still doesn't mean it should be described as nonnavigable, according to Garre.

"The fact there are interruptions in the form of falls or rapids doesn't defeat a finding of navigability," he said.

PPL and the federal government, which has sided with the power company, beg to differ.

As solicitor general Donald Verrilli pointed out in the government's brief, under the Montana Supreme Court's test, any river the U.S. Supreme Court has previously held to be nonnavigable "could be portaged in theory, with enough time and effort."

PPL argues that the correct analysis is to look at sections of the river and determine navigability on a piecemeal basis.

The company's lawyer, Paul Clement, a partner at the Bancroft firm in Washington, notes in his brief that the state never claimed title to the riverbeds in the past.

As for the Clark Fork River, he points out that in 1910 a federal court ruled on the navigability of the section around Thompson Falls.

The river, the judge wrote, was a "non-navigable, torrential, mountain stream, full of rapids and falls."

Property rights case

It is fair to say that PPL Montana v. Montana is not one of the most high-profile cases on the Supreme Court's docket in the 2011 term, which officially begins today and could include a blockbuster ruling on health care reform.

But Thor Hearne, a partner at Arent Fox who filed a brief on behalf of the libertarian Cato Institute and others in support of PPL, said a ruling on the navigability test would be useful in other states, particularly those west of the Mississippi River.

The Montana court "certainly broke company with the previous way every court considered navigability" and, in doing so, infringed on private property rights, he added.

Leon Szeptycki, who teaches environmental law at the University of Virginia School of Law and often represents conservation groups, has a different view: that a ruling for PPL would allow property owners to assert ownership over rivers traditionally viewed as being public land.

"It would result in a decrease in public access to rivers," Szeptycki said.

The signs are not good for the state, however, including the fact that the Obama administration has sided with PPL.

"It doesn't bode well" for the state that the Supreme Court even agreed to hear the case, said Bozeman attorney Goetz -- now merely an interested observer because the state did not allow his firm to remain involved.

That is all good news to PPL's Jacobson at Thompson Falls.

He is hoping that what he sees as common sense holds sway when the justices hand down a ruling next year, but he knows that won't necessarily happen.

"How it will shake out, I don't know," he said. "Let's just get this answered."

Stuff

Want It! (in 2004)

I like the description of the 1.3 million pixel camera. You mean a 1.3 mp camera?

Steve Jobs has coded part of her OS

Yet another reason not to drink Coors Light - Jean Claude Van Damme's nipples

CHART OF THE DAY: Who’s Getting The Most Face Time At The GOP Debates?

Comments7 By Douglas Stanglin, USA TODAY Updated 32m ago CAPTIONMetro Police Dept. A Tennessee lawmaker who was the lead sponsor of a law allowing p

A Tennessee lawmaker who was the lead sponsor of a law allowing permit holders to bring guns into bars has been arrested on DUI charges and possession of a gun while under the influence, The Tennesseanreports.

Rep. Curry Todd, a Republican state representative from Collierville, was stopped by police in Nashville on Tuesday, failed a roadside sobriety test and refused to take a breathalyzer, according to court documents.

The newspaper says a loaded Smith & Wesson 38 Special was found in a holster stuffed between the driver's seat and the center console.

"The subject was obviously very impaired and not in any condition to be carrying a loaded handgun,' 'the arresting officer says in his report.

The newspaper says that a lawyer representing Todd was not immediately available for comment.

The Tennessean quotes Adam Dread, a former Metro councilman who led the successful legal challenge against the original guns-in-bars law in 2009, as saying that Todd, if convicted, managed to prove his opponents' point that "guns and alcohol don't mix."

Occupy Sesame Street

It's about as likely to change the world as "Occupy Wall Street."

Robot Unicorn Attack

Nope, Chuck Testa

My Childhood Was Never This Cool

The Strange Powers of the Placebo Effect

Sign Dining

Model Morphosis

The photographer Greg Kessler captures the transformations of Paris Fashion Week. Here, the model Sigrid Agren from Ford Model Management before (left) and after (right) transforms, with makeup by Pat McGrath and hair by Guido Palau for Redken. (Drag the orange bar left to reveal the full transformation.)

Computer Virus Hits U.S. Drone Fleet

A computer virus has infected the cockpits of America’s Predator and Reaper drones, logging pilots’ every keystroke as they remotely fly missions over Afghanistan and other warzones.

The virus, first detected nearly two weeks ago by the military’s Host-Based Security System, has not prevented pilots at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada from flying their missions overseas. Nor have there been any confirmed incidents of classified information being lost or sent to an outside source. But the virus has resisted multiple efforts to remove it from Creech’s computers, network security specialists say. And the infection underscores the ongoing security risks in what has become the U.S. military’s most important weapons system.

“We keep wiping it off, and it keeps coming back,” says a source familiar with the network infection, one of three that told Danger Room about the virus. “We think it’s benign. But we just don’t know.”

Military network security specialists aren’t sure whether the virus and its so-called “keylogger” payload were introduced intentionally or by accident; it may be a common piece of malware that just happened to make its way into these sensitive networks. The specialists don’t know exactly how far the virus has spread. But they’re sure that the infection has hit both classified and unclassified machines at Creech. That raises the possibility, at least, that secret data may have been captured by the keylogger, and then transmitted over the public internet to someone outside the military chain of command.

War and Sacrifice in the Post-9/11 Era

1

Pew Research Center released a study on civilian and military views in the post 9/11 era. Headline MSM coverage (MSNBC; CNN) has focused on the finding that 1-out-of-3 veterans say the wars were not worth fighting – but the report actually contains a treasure trove of interesting graphics about our military.

Interesting Graphic on China's One Child Policy

What Tea Bagger Signs Really Mean

How Do You Do That

Catching Up

Circumstances When Whipping Should Be Considered

Quote

My neighbor Billy on getting old-

“Getting old has made me stop doing things that religion never could.”

Fuck the South

Fuck the South. Fuck 'em. We should have let them go when they wanted to leave. Fighting for the right to keep slaves--yeah, those are states we want to keep. And now what do we get? We're the fucking Arrogant Northeast Liberal Elite? How about this for arrogant: the South is the Real America? The Authentic America. Really?

'Cause we fucking founded this country, assholes. Those Founding Fathers you keep going on and on about? All that bullshit about what you think they meant by the Second Amendment? Who do you think those wig-wearing, lacy-shirt-sporting revolutionaries were? They were fucking blue-staters, dickhead. Boston? Philadelphia? New York? Hello? Think there might be a reason all the fucking monuments are up here in our backyard?

Comparing Internet Speeds Across The Nation

Worst Hunting Do Ever

Warning, Not So Safe For Work phrase on screen for a few seconds at the beginning

Ban places smokers in ‘dangerous situation’

Young women are discouraged from walking across campus alone at night. Most of the University of Montana stays well-lit, but dark shadows still creep across the grass and the flashing blue lights of emergency phones can seem far apart.

With the new smoking ban, young women living in the dorms must now walk to the edge of campus for a cigarette.

Chief of Campus Security Gary Taylor said this issue has not been fully addressed yet.

"We're forcing girls into a dangerous situation," he said.

Gun Ownership

You may have heard on the news about a southern California man put under 72-hour psychiatric observation when it was found he owned 100 guns and allegedly had (by rough estimate) 1-million rounds of ammunition stored in his home. The house also featured a secret escape tunnel.

My favorite quote from the dimwit television reporter: "Wow! He has about a million machine gun bullets." The headline referred to it as a "massive weapons cache”.

By southern California standards someone even owning 100,000 rounds would be called "mentally unstable. Just imagine if he lived elsewhere:

In Arizona, he'd be called "an avid gun collector”.

In Texas, he'd be called "a novice gun collector".

In Utah, he'd be called "moderately well prepared", but they'd probably reserve judgment until they made sure that he had a corresponding quantity of stored food.

In Montana , he'd be called "The neighborhood 'Go-To' guy".

In Idaho, he'd be called "a likely gubernatorial candidate".

In Wyoming, he'd be called "an eligible bachelor".

To all my old friends... Most of my friends are over 50 and should be doing this

every time they go to the beach:

The older you get, the more important it Is to protect your nose from the sun . . ..!

Because I Care : Skin Cancer - a Safety Reminder for Older Men!

Dear Tide

Dear Tide,

I am writing to say what an excellent product you have. I've used it all of my married life, as my Mom always told me it was the best. Now that I am in my fifties I find it eve better!

In fact, about a month ago, I spilled some red wine on my new white blouse. My inconsiderate and uncaring husband started to belittle me about how clumsy I was, and generally started becoming a pain in the neck.

One thing led to another and somehow I ended up with his blood on my new white blouse! I grabbed my bottle of Tide with bleach alternative; to my surprise and satisfaction, all of the stains came out! In fact, the stains came out so well the detectives who came by yesterday told me that the DNA tests on my blouse were negative.

Then my attorney called and said that I was no longer considered a suspect in the disappearance of my husband. What a relief! Going through menopause is bad enough without being a murder suspect!
I thank you, once again, for having a great product.

Well, gotta go. I have to write to the Hefty bag people.

This Ain’t Yo Momma’s Muktuk: Fermented Seal Flipper, Botulism, Being Cold & Other Joys of Artic Living

I also discovered the staggering statistic that Alaska ranks among the highest incidence of foodborne botulism in the world. Indeed, nearly half of all cases of foodborne botulism cases in the United States occur in that icy Northern state; the incidence of botulism in Alaska is 8.46 cases per 100,000 compared to Washington’s paltry 0.43 per 100,000 (1)(9).

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Random Items

So what do the local Tea Parties say about this?

At issue is whether Schweitzer's line-item vetoes of their Treasure State Endowment Program projects in House Bill 351 is constitutional.

The local governments argued that state law "does not provide the governor with authority to strike out the projects approved by the Legislature in HB351 to receive TSEP grants and declaring such strike outs void and otherwise without effect."

They contended that the approved projects are not items in an appropriations bill and therefore aren't subject to the governor's veto power. Instead, the various items in HB351 were approved by the Legislature in priority order as a condition of how the money appropriated to TSEP is to be used.

In response, Schweitzer's spokeswoman, Sarah Elliott, said, "The Montana Constitution grants the governor the authority to veto items in appropriation bills."

The constitution grants the governor the authority to "veto items in appropriations bills, and in such instances the procedure shall be the same as upon veto of an entire bill."

"It is ironic that local governments are suing us to spend more money against the advice of their own local legislator," Elliott said. "The governor remains committed to being fiscally prudent with taxpayers' money."

The local governments called their stricken public works proposals "high-priority projects" recommended to the Legislature for approval by the Commerce Department. The grants are needed to address "urgent and serious public health or safety problems," they said.

Read more: http://missoulian.com/news/state-and-regional/article_f91eef84-de58-11e0-b544-001cc4c03286.html#ixzz1XtiWEBI3

What Happened To Mitrice Richardson?

A recent college graduate, she was jailed briefly for trying to skip out on her dinner tab in Malibu, then freed in the middle of the night in a neighborhood far from home.

She had no car, no ride, no phone, and no money.

When she disappeared, it raised a flurry of questions about how the sheriff’s department handled her case.

The discovery of her body a year later only raised more.

Wikinarco - mapping narcotic gang violence

Study: Police Dogs Are Influenced by Their Handlers' False Prejudices

In a scary new study published in the the journal Animal Cognition, researchers discovered that bomb-sniffing dogs are susceptible to the prejudices of their handlers.

The researchers recruited 18 dogs certified by law enforcement agencies. As a test site, they used four rooms in a drug-and-explosive-free church. The researchers left the first room untouched. In the second, they taped up a sheet of red paper. In the third, they hid a few Slim Jims as a decoy. And in the fourth, they taped red paper to a stash of Slim Jims.

The dog handlers were told they might encounter the scent of pot or gunpowder up to three times per room, sometimes marked with red paper. It was a flat-out lie—there were no target scents. But the dog teams still called 225 false alerts—most often at the site of the red paper, whether there were Slim Jims there or not.

How Not To Do A Time Capsule

The Plymouth was sprayed with cosmoline, wrapped in plastic, and buried in a concrete tomb, placed on a steel plate so the wheels were off the ground. Stuffed in the trunk were five gallons of gasoline in glass jugs, oil, a case of beer, and other artifacts. Placed inside the glove compartment at the last minute were the contents of a woman’s purse containing fourteen bobby pins, a ladies compact, plastic rain cap, combs, a tube of lipstick, pack of gum, facial tissues, $2.73 in money, and a pack of cigarettes. Also placed in were unpaid parking tickets and a bottle of tranquilizers which the winner of the car may need. During the party in 1957, residents were asked to guess the population of Tulsa in 2007; the guesses were sealed in a steel container and placed in the car. The winner or their heir will receive the Plymouth and a $100 trust fund which was accruing interest since 1957, (reportedly now containing $400). The car was buried in downtown Tulsa with traffic cruising nearby; some were concerned that vibrations may have cracked the concrete tomb allowing moisture to enter. Will the 1957 Plymouth be in mint condition or will it require itself to come back to life like its sister car Christine? I will be there for the unveiling on 15 June 2007 for either a pristine 1957 Plymouth with 7 miles on her or a pile of rust with four dried out rubber tires!

It will be the event of a lifetime!

When the capsule was opened, the prize was not what everyone wanted.

Miss Universe 2011 Costumes

Romney's Chart Fraud

unsurprisingly mostly involves tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy. Oliver Williscatches Romney engaging in a pretty blatant example of chart fraud, highlighting job loss during 2007 and 2008, the last two years of the Bush administration, as part of the "Obama recovery."

Higher Learning Remembrances of the first year of high school, and advice for getting through your own, from some of our favorite grown-ups.

Good luck in high school. Being a person is hard.

Rude Illusions

Lewis and Clark Brewery opens a new tap room

Road trip! American student joins rebels in fight for Qaddafi stronghold

Chris Jeon, a 21-year-old university student from Los Angeles, California,shrugging cooly, declared: “It is the end of my summer vacation, so I thought it would be cool to join the rebels. This is one of the only real revolutions” in the world.

In a daring, one might even say foolhardy, decision two weeks ago, Mr Jeon flew on a one-way ticket from Los Angeles to Cairo. He then travelled by train to Alexandria and by a series of buses to the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi. From there, he hitched a ride with rebels heading west towards the Libyan capital of Tripoli. After a 400km (248-mile) trek across the desolate North African landscape, he was now in the town of An Nawfaliyah, the toast of his comrades and a newly anointed road warrior.

Special Education Referral from a General Education Teacher

Vancouver news

Why don't Canadians wash their feet in the shower?

Because the just wash up on shore.