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Watching the Carly Fiorina “Demonic Sheep” political ad makes me wonder how stupid our candidates for office think we are. Of course looking at some who do get elected that answer’s my question. 
1) Carly Fiorina is campaigning to represent California in the US Senate. She run the ad below comparing an opponent, Tom Campbell, to demonic sheep.
I was reminded of another famous political ad, Daisy, that the LBJ campaign created during his 1964 Presidential race against Republican Barry Goldwater.
Vote for Goldwater and you’ll get blowed up. Vote for LBJ and you’ll be sitting in a peaceful bed of flowers. I did vote for LBJ and peace. My reward, along with 400,000 other young Americans, was to get shipped off to fight, and die, in Viet Nam.
Do you think political ads have a significant impact with voters?
2) I have also been exposed to some pretty creepy commercials.
The Quizno Subway chain put out some ads featuring pirate rats singing in really creepy voices. No, as you see below, I did not make that up.
The commercial below makes me want to scrub out my eyes and ears.
I think the only thing Smiling Bob would turn on is demonic sheep.
Proving there is some justice in life Steve Warshak, founder of the Berkeley Premium Nutraceuticals that sponsored the commercials, was found guilty of fraud, sentenced to 25 years in Jail, and ordered to pay back consumers $500,000. It is sad to think enough men paid for these male enchantment pills to generate $500,000.
What other creepy, weird commercials you have been assaulted with?
Looking at the tragic events that befell Haiti, I saw an outpouring of love and compassion by the people, and nations, of world. For one moment all the barriers came down. Love is the one force that can do that.
I looked up Bible verses that dealt with love of others and found 1 John 4:7-12.
1 John 4:7-12 (New International Version)
7Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
1) Love is not just something God does, it is what he is. Love has existed eternally, and the world was created out of this love.
Our relationships with our fellow man can become mixed and confused. As the Christ Follower learns to use the soul God gave them this confusion will be removed. Strengthen your connection to God, and his guidance will lead you to more fully experiencing love and joy.
By choosing to live by the truth of God you will learn to recognize your fellow man as having the same loving father, and share God’s love with them.
2) I believe the desire to be loved is the most basic of human emotions we feel, perhaps even in the womb.
The only why to experience authentic love is by first being willing to risk giving it. The more we live in the world there will be times when our love is rejected, we will experience pain. It is natural to want to erect barriers to avoid being hurt. However we will never experience love again if we live behind a barrier.
It’s a hard but clear choice. We must remove these barriers if we are to live with love and joy.
Haiti proves the barriers dividing the people of the world can be overcome. Love can overcome anything, if given a chance.
I found these interesting articles in the news I thought I would share.
1) Some funny lines in the comic strips:
“For some marriage isn’t a period in life, it’s a sentence.”
”For some marrying a free spirit turns out to be very expensive.”
“Why do we need Stainless Steel Cleaner? If it’s stainless why would we need a cleaner?”
“Father to son, “You’re a little late coming home from school.” Son,”I’ve been to Compulsory Opportunity Sessions designed to redirect my behavior to success.” (Detention – my favorite class) Father, “Keep up the good work.”
Question – How well behaved were you in school.
In class I was actually pretty quiet. Except for driving the teachers crazy with questions. That is when I made to class. About once a week I sought my education in the great outdoors. I missed over 30 days of school my senior year in high school.
I was on my own a lot. My father worked 7 days a week to pay the bills. My mother was sick and in the hospital much of the time.
2) Northwestern University researchers have developed a new nanoscopic material that enables cartilage to do what it doesn’t do naturally, grow.
http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2010/02/cartilage.html
“Northwestern University researchers are the first to design a bioactive nanomaterial that promotes the growth of new cartilage in vivo and without the use of expensive growth factors. Minimally invasive, the therapy activates the bone marrow stem cells and produces natural cartilage. No conventional therapy can do this.
“Our material of nanoscopic fibers stimulates stem cells present in bone marrow to produce cartilage containing type II collagen and repair the damaged joint,” Shah said. “A procedure called microfracture is the most common technique currently used by doctors, but it tends to produce a cartilage having predominantly type I collagen which is more like scar tissue.”
The Northwestern gel is injected as a liquid to the area of the damaged joint, where it then self-assembles and forms a solid. This extracellular matrix, which mimics what cells usually see, binds by molecular design one of the most important growth factors for the repair and regeneration of cartilage. By keeping the growth factor concentrated and localized, the cartilage cells have the opportunity to regenerate.”
3) In travel news one theme park I need to visit. China’s “Chocolate Wonderland”, boasts chocolate model of the Great Wall.
“What do you do with empty Olympic facilities to try to make them useful once the Games are over? Why, open a World Chocolate Wonderland, of course.
That’s what the Chinese have done. In a hangar-like building next to the Bird’s Nest a team of innovative chocolatiers have taken 80 tons of Belgian chocolate and turned it into replicas of the Great Wall, the famed terracotta warriors, and even more unlikely icons, such as a Louis Vuitton handbag.
The show opened Friday, and organizers say they expect as many as 1 million visitors over the next 10 weeks to pay a hefty $12 each to marvel at what they call “a combination of Chinese tradition and chocolate creativity.”
4) The Humane Society came up with a great re-cycling idea. Turn in you old fur coat to help cloth an orphaned animal, Coats For Cubs.
http://www.hsus.org/furfree/campaigns/c4c/
“The furs are cut into an appropriate size for the animal, whether it be a bobcat, fox, raccoon, squirrel, or rabbit, and placed inside the animal’s enclosure. The furry blanket becomes a surrogate mother to orphaned animals, reducing stress and giving comfort.
One rehabilitator related a story about a restless orphaned river otter who chirped constantly. Once she was given a fur blanket, she settled right down. Turning the sleeve of a fur coat inside out, a rehabilitator can also create a warm nest for a burrowing animal such as an opossum. Some animals adopt a piece of fur as a playmate, jumping on it and wrestling with it.”
This being the season of awards I am giving the Lifetime Award for Stupid ideas to PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) . I read about their latest in the Christian Science Monitor. They want to replace Punxsutawney Phil with a robot groundhog:
Any award winning stupid ideas you would like to submit?
Any animal behavior stories?
Link to article by Chris Gaylord:
Unfortunately Phil saw his shadow so we could see another six weeks of winter. Of course I crawled back under my covers this morning too. I’ll also take my bursitis pains over any Weather Channel predictions.
Five Punxsutawney Phil Facts.
• Punxsutawney Phil is immortal. Well, practically. According to folklore, the furry oracle was born in 1887, making him 123 years old. The average groundhog lives less than 10 years, making Phil a statistical anomaly … or not Phil (remember when Daddy came home from the vet with Harry the hamster, only Harry looked different?). Fans of Punxsutawney Phil insist a magical “elixir of life” keep Phil looking youthful.
• Phil’s about as accurate as your average meteorologist. That is to say, not very. The US National Climatic
Data Center estimates Phil’s forecast is correct only about 40 percent of the time. (Perhaps he could find a job at the Weather Channel.)
• Phil’s got competition. Watch out, Phil: prognostication is popular among the rodent set. New York’s got Staten Island Chuck, Ohio’s got Buckeye Chuck, and Georgia’s got good ol’ General Beauregard Lee. There’s more. Wiarton Willie, Dunkirk Dave, Shubenacadie Sam, French Creek Freddie, Balzac Billy, the list goes on.
• Phil’s gone high-tech. He may hail from the 19th century, but Phil’s getting word out in a decidedly 21st century way: he’s texting. And YouTubing. Phil text messaged fans his forecast Tuesday morning (followers signed up in advance by texting ‘Groundhog’ to 247365), and he has his own YouTube channel. And like everyone else and their mother, he’s on Facebook.
• There’s no Groundhog Day in Alaska. For which we can thank Sarah Palin. There aren’t many groundhogs in Alaska, so then-Gov. Sarah Palin signed a bill last year officially designating February 2 as Marmot Day. The marmot can’t forecast the weather, but he may be the only rodent that can see Russia from his burrow.
More Animal Forcasters from the CSM:
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2010/0202/Groundhog-Day-Top-five-animal-forecasters
1. Birds on a telephone wire signal a rainstorm. (Think Hitchcock’s “The Birds.”)
2. When dogs eat grass, expect a severe storm. (Or, you forgot to feed your dog.)
3. Squirrels are busier gathering nuts before a bad winter. (But who really has time to count nuts?)
4. If rats in the hold climb out on deck, it will be a fair day. (Or maybe tanning machine below deck is broken.)
“In England, it’s said that rain is on the way when the woodpecker laughs, and that frost is coming if a cat sits with its back to the fire. Plants and trees, too, evidently have the knack: frost is ended when mulberry tree put out shoots, but if the Ash buds before the Oak, then it’ll be “a regular soak.” And in lower Canada and America’s northeast, Woolly Bear Caterpillars are said to show a wider middle brown section if the coming winter will be mild.
The ATSC Ltd, based in England, has sold $85,000,00 of it’s ADE-651 device to the government of Iraq to detect explosives. In it’s training manual the company also claims the device can also detect elephants, humans and $100 dollar bills. The ADE-651 has never passed any scientific test, it’s a scam.
In December an attack killed over 120 people after security using the ADE-651 failed to detect any explosives. It is still apparently being used at checkpoints in Iraq.
The founder, and managing director of ATSC, Jim McCormick, has been arrested for fraud, and is now out on bail. Who knows how many Iraq’s have dead as a result of the failure of this device. In my view McCormick should be charged with murder, not just fraud.
What is even more tragic is that McCormick’s history of fraud goes back to at least 1995, when he was marketing his detector in the US. He was exposed back then by the James Randi Educational Foundation, which has offered McCormick $1,000,000 if he can prove his device works.
James Randi, a retired 82 year old magician, who is one of my favorite persons on the planet. Here is Randi’s own words on this story.
A link to a story in the Guardian:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/8471187.stm
A link to the Wikipedia bio on James Randi.
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