It would be hard to imagine: in this country.....
A group of more than 200 Japanese pensioners is volunteering to tackle the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima power station.The "Skilled Veterans Corps", as they call themselves, is made up of retired engineers and other professionals, all over the age of sixty.
One of the group, Yasuteru Yamada, told the BBC's Roland Buerk that they should be facing the dangers of radiation, not the young.
Most people who dig motorcycling talk about the freedom of the open road, the wind in their hair and the versatility of traveling on two wheels. Palin, on the other hand, loves the exhaust fumes — the aspect of riding that no one else likes. At all. In fact, the exhaust fumes are the most objectionable aspect of any motor vehicle, other than, you know, crashing. But okay. We know why she said that. To snark at liberals and environmentalists. Sarah Palin has this unique ability to be ditzy while also snarking at liberals. All at once.
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Washington (CNN) -- Protesting members of the controversial Westboro Baptist Church were met with an unlikely group of counterprotesters Monday at Arlington Cemetery.
Hours before President Barack Obama led the nation's Memorial Day observances at the Tomb of the Unknowns, three members of the Westboro Baptist Church were challenged by others who disagreed with them -- including members claiming to be from the Ku Klux Klan.
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Fez hits it on the head:
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Eric Cantor apparently comes from the kind of family that will not spend the money to get their dog spayed only to later go on to drown the resulting puppies. Sure it is somewhat motivated by being cheap and short-[sighted], but mostly for the thrill of possibly killing puppies.
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I'm beginning to believe that qualification to be part of the Republican leadership is you have to be a psychopath/sociopath. Where taxing the rich and defense spending are off the table, yet people who've had their lives wiped out are held hostage to conservative ideology, there can be no other explanation.
If they weren't sick, they wouldn't be able to sleep at night.
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report) – Presenting what he called a revolutionary plan to slash the nation's mountain of debt, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) today proposed eliminating the Social Security program in its entirety and replacing it with Groupons.
"Instead of waiting each month for a check from Social Security, America's elderly will receive valuable Groupons for everything they need, from Ramen noodles to cat food to caskets," Mr. Ryan said in an appearance on Fox News.
Adding that Groupons would also help provide for elders' medical needs, the congressman illustrated his point by holding up a Groupon offering 30 percent off on open-heart surgery in Cincinnati.
Moving on from Social Security, Mr. Ryan also proposed replacing Medicare with a new program in which seniors are shot at by Predator drones.
Speaker of the House John Boehner, appearing alongside Rep. Ryan, offered these words of praise for the Wisconsin congressman: "Preachers like Harold Camping go around predicting the end of the world, but it's guys like Paul Ryan who do the hard work of making it happen."Word.
There are always reasons for force:
The Pentagon has concluded that computer sabotage coming from another country can constitute an act of war, a finding that for the first time opens the door for the U.S. to respond using traditional military force.The Pentagon's first formal cyber strategy, unclassified portions of which are expected to become public next month, represents an early attempt to grapple with a changing world in which a hacker could pose as significant a threat to U.S. nuclear reactors, subways or pipelines as a hostile country's military.
In part, the Pentagon intends its plan as a warning to potential adversaries of the consequences of attacking the U.S. in this way. "If you shut down our power grid, maybe we will put a missile down one of your smokestacks," said a military official.
Wonder how the usuals suspects will fare in the market this morning (General Dynamics, etc.).
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The fact that a clown like Walter Russell Mead is a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations tells you everything you need to know about the decline of our so-called civilization:
The existence of Israel means that the God of the Bible is still watching out for the well-being of the human race. For many American Christians who are nothing like fundamentalists, the restoration of the Jews to the Holy Land and their creation of a successful, democratic state after two thousand years of oppression and exile is a clear sign that the religion of the Bible can be trusted….
Also too, I'm tired of hearing people whose favored policies would ultimately destroy Israel describe themselves as "pro-Israel".
REUTERS/Joshua Roberts
Part-time Governor and full-time Grifter Sarah Palin arrived on a Harley-Davidson at the annual Rolling Thunder motorcycle rally, which is meant to honor military veterans, but instead became a photo-op for the Borealis Narcissus.
Artie Muller, national executive director of Rolling Thunder, said Palin was welcome to attend the event like any other American. "We're all here for a reason. She's just like anybody else," he said.
Palin was hardly like anyone else at the event, however, cruising into the lot with a police escort 45 minutes before starting time and eventually taking a place near the front of the line, which snaked for miles through the mammoth lot.
Nice job, Mooselini. Arrive late and go to the front of the line.
UPDATE 1: From Oliver Willis' blog: 
Mooselini has crib notes on her palm again.
--Tengrain
(Reuters)
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Says the Fox News website as an introduction to this Zapruder clip for our time:
###Seen at the last seconds of this video clip it appears as though President Obama was chewing gum. What do you think?
Andrew Breitbart is investigating the most serious issues. Not the economy or the climate crisis or even the hostilities in Syria. Nope — Breitbart is delving into whether or not Anthony Weiner tried to send a pseudo-crotch-shot via Twitter. And it's overtaken his entire Big Government website.
Just like Dylan Ratigan said, Breitbart is obviously a "sharpshooter who's good," a "smart man," and "an incredibly passionate and effective man."
Of course, once Weiner has been publicly disgraced, you can expect Breitbart to admit that it was a hacker who sent the photo and not Weiner himself. If not, an investigation will reveal this. And Breitbart will either ignore it, or he'll suggest the investigation was rigged, or he'll admit it — just like he admitted to the ACORN fakery — and laugh about how great it was to report about "Weiner's weiner." Har-har.
What a hero.
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Afghan leader warns NATO not to become "occupying force"
Good. Can we please leave now?
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Although job growth is slowly returning to the economy, the new jobs that are created come with lower wages. National "pay figures on rank-and-file workers, who hold 80% of nongovernmental jobs, show a steady rise in earnings from the mid 1990s through 2009 — and then a significant drop the past two years."
