2014 Impala .... Looks like GM did it right
Consumer Reports gives a Chevy its highest rating
Top Speed review
Comments: Not in the market but if I were looking I would consider this
This is the Blog of a guy who retired from a major financial institution in technology. I chose the title "Cold Fusion Guy" because I love programming in Cold Fusion
Posted by
Jim Peet
at
7/25/2013 11:30:00 AM
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comments
Labels: 2014 Impala, Consumer Reports
Mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner admitted today he had another extended, raunchy online sexual relationship with a young woman — just months after resigning in disgrace from Congress in a sexting scandal. But he won't be dropping out of the race. And his wife, Huma Abedin, is standing by him. In a hasty scheduled joint press conference Abedin, Weiner said he will forge ahead with the campaign despite the latest sex scandal. Weiner insisted that Huma knew all the details of the new revelations and insisted it's "behind" them.Comment: Letterman's goto be thinking ... the gift that just keeps on giving
Posted by
Jim Peet
at
7/23/2013 07:20:00 PM
7
comments
Labels: Anthony Weiner
Posted by
Jim Peet
at
7/22/2013 03:57:00 PM
1 comments
Labels: Fort Bliss
Comments: Good tips for preachers (1st vignette) More on early Kermit: here
Posted by
Jim Peet
at
7/22/2013 02:17:00 PM
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comments
During the first year after leaving home our children are probably more vulnerable to the attacks of Satan than at any other time in their lives. Those who enter directly into the job market, enroll in vocational school, or enlist in the military will be under tremendous peer pressure to give in to sin. There will be few strong Christians from which to draw strength to do right. Those who enroll in a secular university or college will face the additional danger of the humanistic professors’ influence. Young students become enamored with and intimidated by the professors’ knowledge with the result that they eventually reject the Bible standards they have grown up with. Non-fundamental religiously affiliated colleges are even more dangerous than secular schools. The teaching at such institutions is not only steeped in humanistic thought, but also in false doctrine.Comments: Image source
Posted by
Jim Peet
at
7/20/2013 10:13:00 AM
7
comments
Labels: Christian Isolationism
Posted by
Jim Peet
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7/20/2013 08:09:00 AM
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comments
Labels: Neighbors
Posted by
Jim Peet
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7/19/2013 10:40:00 PM
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comments
Labels: KWR, Quaker Chemical Corporation
A sign posted outside a south suburban church is generating a powerful debate over race in the wake of the George Zimmerman verdict. The marquee outside the First Baptist Church of University Park earlier this week read: “It Is Safe To Kill Black People In Amerikkka.”Comment: "Just the Facts"
Any candid debate on race and criminality in this country would have to start with the fact that blacks commit an astoundingly disproportionate number of crimes.
African-Americans constitute about 13% of the population, yet between 1976 and 2005 blacks committed more than half of all murders in the U.S. The black arrest rate for most offenses—including robbery, aggravated assault and property crimes—is typically two to three times their representation in the population.
The U.S. criminal-justice system, which currently is headed by one black man (Attorney General Eric Holder) who reports to another (President Obama), is a reflection of this reality, not its cause.
"High rates of black violence in the late twentieth century are a matter of historical fact, not bigoted imagination," wrote the late Harvard Law professor William Stuntz in "The Collapse of American Criminal Justice."
"The trends reached their peak not in the land of Jim Crow but in the more civilized North, and not in the age of segregation but in the decades that saw the rise of civil rights for African Americans—and of African American control of city governments."
The left wants to blame these outcomes on racial animus and "the system," but blacks have long been part of running that system. Black crime and incarceration rates spiked in the 1970s and '80s in cities such as Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago and Philadelphia, under black mayors and black police chiefs. Some of the most violent cities in the U.S. today are run by blacks.
..... The homicide rate claiming black victims today is seven times that of whites, and the George Zimmermans of the world are not the reason. Some 90% of black murder victims are killed by other blacks.
So let's have our discussions, even if the only one that really needs to occur is within the black community. Civil-rights leaders today choose to keep the focus on white racism instead of personal responsibility, but their predecessors knew better.
"Do you know that Negroes are 10 percent of the population of St. Louis and are responsible for 58% of its crimes? We've got to face that. And we've got to do something about our moral standards," Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. told a congregation in 1961. "We know that there are many things wrong in the white world, but there are many things wrong in the black world, too. We can't keep on blaming the white man. There are things we must do for ourselves."
Posted by
Jim Peet
at
7/16/2013 03:54:00 PM
1 comments
Labels: Race relations
Posted by
Jim Peet
at
7/16/2013 12:28:00 PM
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comments
Labels: Ransomware
Posted by
Jim Peet
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7/15/2013 01:50:00 PM
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comments
Labels: Red Jewel Crabapple
Minn. National Guard Unit Deploys to Afghanistan
Excerpt:
Their mission will be to clear roads of improvised explosive devices that could injure or kill U.S. troops as they patrol and largely withdraw from a country three times the size of Minnesota. "It can be dangerous, (but) we're prepared," Capt. Matt Jukkala, commander of the 849th Mobility Augmentation Company based in Litchfield, said in an interview. The company, of which four out of five soldiers will be going on their first overseas deployment, will train for several months in Ft. Bliss, Texas, before arriving in Afghanistan in the Fall.Comment: Sad goodbye yesterday
Posted by
Jim Peet
at
7/15/2013 06:58:00 AM
9
comments
Labels: Afghanistan
“All ash trees are at risk, and all of the infected trees will die,” Peggy Booth of the Minneapolis Tree Advisory Commission told members of the City Council’s Regulatory Services, Energy and Environment Committee. “We really have five new areas of the city that now have confirmed emerald ash borer as of late winter,” said Booth. Ash trees are a major part of the urban forest in Minneapolis, with 38,000 on public land and an estimated 175,000 on private property.Comment: See Emerald ash borer infestation. We had the Bachman's consultant out today. He recommends a dwarf crab apple to replace the green spruce. Consultant says that it is likely that ash in front yard and ash in side yard will be killed off within 5 years.
Posted by
Jim Peet
at
7/12/2013 08:53:00 PM
3
comments
Labels: Ash, Emerald ash borer infestation
Because Profumo actually believed in shame, he could absorb it and let it change him however it would. In a way what he believed in was reality. He'd done something terrible—to his country, to his friends, to strangers who had to explain the headlines about him to their children. He never knew political power again. He never asked for it. He did something altogether more confounding. He did the hardest thing for a political figure. He really went away. He went to a place that helped the poor, a rundown settlement house called Toynbee Hall in the East End of London. There he did social work—actually the scut work of social work, washing dishes and cleaning toilets. He visited prisons for the criminally insane, helped with housing for the poor and worker education. And it wasn't for show, wasn't a step on the way to political redemption. He did it for 40 years. He didn't give interviews, never wrote a book, didn't go on TV.Comment: Same goes for pastors who have fallen morally (into adultery). Go away. Serve quietly. Redeem yourself. Don't seek to Pastor again!
Posted by
Jim Peet
at
7/11/2013 06:50:00 PM
0
comments
Labels: Anthony Weiner, Bill Clinton, Eliot Spitzer
The Twinkie Returns, With Less Baggage
Excerpt:
As more than 50 million Twinkies start making their way to stores next week, the first order of business for the 83-year-old brand's new owner is to let customers know a classic is back. But behind the return of the familiar cream-filled sponge cake is a leaner operation, free of the union labor and the $1.3 billion in debt that saddled the brand's previous owners. With that clean slate, the new owner and chief executive, C. Dean Metropoulos, plans to launch into an ambitious growth plan and avoid the problems that led to two Chapter 11 bankruptcies, the last of which ended in liquidation.
... The previous distribution system involved roughly 6,000 drivers—all with union wages and pension benefits— delivering products to stores and placing them on shelves. The old Hostess distribution was governed by complicated work rules that required drivers to deliver bread and cakes on separate trucks, adding costs. Those delivery routes also reached only 50,000 of the country's roughly 150,000 convenience stores, and left some pockets around the country entirely without Twinkies.Comment: Free from:
Posted by
Jim Peet
at
7/08/2013 03:49:00 PM
2
comments
Labels: Twinkies
Behind Wal-Mart, the second-largest employer in America is Kelly Services, a temporary work provider. Friday's disappointing jobs report showed that part-time jobs are at an all-time high, with 28 million Americans now working part-time. The report also showed another disturbing fact: There are now a record number of Americans with temporary jobs. Approximately 2.7 million, in fact. And the trend has been growing. In the first quarter of 2013, U.S. staffing companies employed an average of 2.86 million temporary and contract workers, according to the American Staffing Association. This represents a 2.9 percent growth from the same period in 2012. For just the month of June, there was a 6.7 percent growth in the number of staffing jobs than last year. Temp jobs made up about 10 percent of the jobs lost during the Great Recession, but now make up a tenth of the jobs in the United States. In fact, nearly one-fifth of all jobs gained since the recession ended have been temporary. It's a sad state of affairs for our country. While part-time and temp jobs reached highs last month, full-time jobs decreased by another 240,000. The recovery, or lack thereof, is being fueled by a shift from full-time to part-time work.Comment: Image source. I have 2 family members who are temporary workers - both full time. Vacation benefits? Nil! Sick days? Nope!
Posted by
Jim Peet
at
7/08/2013 02:24:00 PM
1 comments
Labels: Kelly Services, Temporary Services
Posted by
Jim Peet
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7/06/2013 09:31:00 PM
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comments
Labels: Dell Mini 9
“Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? (Luke 15:8)Comment: I gave these coins (all minted in 1918 - the year of his birth) back in the late '90s. When my sister and Mother cleaned out Mom's house in prep for Mom's moving and the house sale, I asked them to look for the coins. No luck. Today my wife find them in our own house. Precious to me because I gave them to Dad for his birthday (I think back in 1997)
Posted by
Jim Peet
at
7/06/2013 09:09:00 PM
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comments
Labels: Coins
AS a racial classification, the term Caucasian has many flaws, dating as it does from a time when the study of race was based on skull measurements and travel diaries. It has long been entirely unmoored from its geographical reference point, the Caucasus region. Its equivalents from that era are obsolete — nobody refers to Asians as “Mongolian” or blacks as “Negroid.”
......
The use of Caucasian to mean white was popularized in the late 18th century by Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, a German anthropologist, who decreed that it encompassed Europeans and the inhabitants of a region reaching from the Obi River in Russia to the Ganges to the Caspian Sea, plus northern Africans. He chose it because the Caucasus was home to “the most beautiful race of men, I mean the Georgians,” and because among his collection of 245 human skulls, the Georgian one was his favorite wrote Nell Irvin Painter, a historian who explored the term’s origins in her book “The History of White People.”
In 1889, the editors of the original Oxford English Dictionary noted that the term Caucasian had been “practically discarded.” But they spoke too soon. Blumenbach’s authority had given the word a pseudoscientific sheen that preserved its appeal. Even now, the word gives discussions of race a weird technocratic gravitas, as when the police insist that you step out of your “vehicle” instead of your car. ...“If you want to show that you’re being dispassionate then you use the more scientific term Caucasian,” Ms. Painter said.
Susan Glisson, who as the executive director of the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation in Oxford, Miss., regularly witnesses Southerners sorting through their racial vocabulary, said she rarely hears “Caucasian.” “Most of the folks who work in this field know that it’s a completely ridiculous term to assign to whites,” she said. “I think it’s a term of last resort for people who are really uncomfortable talking about race. They use the term that’s going to make them be as distant from it as possible.”
There is another reason to use it, said Jennifer L. Hochschild, a professor of government and African-American studies at Harvard. “The court, or some clever clerk, doesn’t really want to use the word white in part because roughly half of Hispanics consider themselves white.” She added, “White turns out to be a much more ambiguous term now than we used to think it was.”Comment: It's simple ... there is just one race .... the human race! Image source. To quote MLK:
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.
Posted by
Jim Peet
at
7/06/2013 08:42:00 PM
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comments
Labels: Caucasian, Race relations
ONLY 47% OF ADULTS HAVE FULL-TIME JOB
Excerpt:
The release of the June Jobs' Report Friday was something of a relief for the markets. The Labor Department reported that the economy gained 195,000 jobs in June, which beat economists' expectations. The Department also reported that the economy gained 70,000 more jobs in April and May than it originally estimated. The report, however, also provides clear evidence that the the nation is splitting into two; only 47% of Americans have a full-time job and those who don't are finding it increasingly out of reach.Comment: Romney's 47% comment.
Posted by
Jim Peet
at
7/06/2013 03:39:00 PM
2
comments
Labels: Unemployment rate
It's nerve-racking to drive toward the North Korean border with Park Sang Hak. Called "Fireball" by his admirers, the North Korean-born Mr. Park is designated "Enemy Zero" by the Pyongyang regime, which two years ago sent an agent into South Korea to assassinate him with a poison-tipped pen. On this summer morning, he promises to do again what so infuriates the Kim dictatorship—launch large balloons into North Korea carrying leaflets, computer-memory sticks and sweets for the oppressed people of the hermit kingdom. In return, Pyongyang promises to "physically eliminate the kind of human scum that commits such treason." Adds the North Korean military: "The U.S. and the present puppet authorities of South Korea should not forget even a moment that the Rimjin Pavilion"—Mr. Park's favorite launch site near the Demilitarized Zone separating the two countries—"is within the range of direct sighting strike" of the Korean People's Army.Comment: Image source. That a regime is afraid of sweets and leaflets is telling!
Posted by
Jim Peet
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7/06/2013 01:41:00 PM
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comments
Labels: North Korea, Park Sang Hak
Posted by
Jim Peet
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7/06/2013 12:14:00 PM
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comments
Labels: Forster Preserve, Homes for Sale my Neighborhood, Plymouth MN
Posted by
Jim Peet
at
7/05/2013 08:30:00 PM
1 comments
Labels: House
And, lo, over eight interim final rules, three final rules, 20 requests for comment, 21 proposed rules, one information collection request, two amendments to the interim final rules, six requests for information and one frequently-asked-questions document, the Administration has created an employer-mandate system that, for example, requires business to track and report every full-time employee's hours of service on a monthly basis.
... Meanwhile, the law stipulates that a full-time workweek for the purposes of the mandate is 30 hours, when general business practice is at least 35. The result is that businesses have been scrambling to insulate themselves from higher labor costs by hiring part-time workers, or splitting shifts, or in some industries like fast food even sharing workers. Small firms trying to expand while avoiding the 50-worker trigger have come to be known as 49ers.
...... ObamaCare has become a rolling "train wreck," in Senator Max Baucus's memorable phrase, and it gets worse the more of it the public sees. The employer mandate is terrible policy, as the law's critics said before it passed. Now the Administration is all but admitting it can't implement it properly, and the task for opponents is to press the concession and begin to delay the rest of the law and dismantle it piece by piece.Comment: Charles Krauthammer calls Obamacare A Massive Transfer Of Wealth From The Young To The Old
Young people are going to be paying double and triple what [they] would ordinarily be paying in health insurance if the premium were linked to the risk, which is the way that would be for the last 600 years in insurance. But it's not; it's linked to what Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid agreed upon as the risk ratio. So they are going to be doubling and tripling, and the free lunch part of this affair is now over.
Posted by
Jim Peet
at
7/04/2013 09:38:00 AM
1 comments
Labels: Obamacare
Posted by
Jim Peet
at
7/01/2013 03:12:00 PM
2
comments
Labels: French Telecom, FTE, ORAN, Orange
Country cooking queen Paula Deen's admission last week that she had used the N-word in the past and once planned a slavery-themed wedding has caused more companies to jump ship. Sears and KMart announced Friday that they would no longer carry Paula Deen cookware or any other of her products. Target announced Thursday it was severing ties with the former TV chef, while shopping network QVC announced it was "taking a pause" in its relationship with Deen.Alec Baldwin's ... homophobic rant
Several hours after the article was published on Thursday, in a series of poisonous tweets, the father-of-one repeatedly threatened the MailOnline reporter with violence. The 55-year-old actor has since deleted his entire Twitter account. He said: 'I'm gonna find you, you toxic little queen, and I'm gonna f*** you... up.' 'If put my foot up your f*****g a**, but I'm sure you'd dig it too much.Update: Anderson Cooper: 'Why Does Alec Baldwin Get a Pass Using Gay Slurs?' Conservative 'Would Be Vilified'
Well Anderson, it's simple: liberals are allowed to say and do whatever they want no matter how offensive and hypocrites in the media will always give them a pass. It's like how feminist groups such as the National Organization for Women weren't at all bothered by how President Clinton treated women. Since they agreed with his politics, his sexual misdeeds were unimportant.
Posted by
Jim Peet
at
6/28/2013 05:24:00 PM
1 comments
Labels: Alex Baldwin, Capital One, Paula Deen
I ordered Ubuntu 13.04 on a 16 G thumbdrive from osdisc.com. The install was straightforward and it boots up fine. But the wireless card is not working. Next: Connect directly to router with ethernet cable and try these options. Another night.
Posted by
Jim Peet
at
6/26/2013 08:30:00 PM
5
comments
Labels: Dell Inspiron 910, Ubuntu 13.04
Plymouth waiting for Wal-Mart to reveal plans for vacant mall site
Excerpt:
Plymouth city officials have not heard from Wal-Mart for more than eight months as residents wait anxiously for the retail giant to submit an application to build at the site of the vacant Four Seasons Mall.
In November 2010, Wal-Mart purchased the 21-acre property at the corner of Hwy. 169 and Rockford Road for $10.6 million, originally intending to demolish the half-vacant strip mall and build a 240,000-square-foot Supercenter in its place.
After facing resistance from the neighborhood and a yearlong development moratorium from the City Council, the Arkansas-based retailer has decided to take its time in submitting an application to the city.
“It’s something that’s hanging over everyone’s head,” said Council Member Ginny Black, who represents the area of Plymouth that includes Four Seasons. “People drive by [Four Seasons] all the time thinking, ‘I wonder what they’re going to do?’ … Sometimes it’s just better to know than to have all that uncertainty out there.” Black added that she was “disappointed” that Wal-Mart has gone so long without communicating with city staff and that her constituents are “overwhelmingly opposed” to the construction of a massive Wal-Mart at the Four Seasons site, although many would be amenable to a smaller store.
“Wal-Mart is continuously looking for new ways to serve its customers across the state of Minnesota. Though we have not submitted a proposal to the city of Plymouth, we are still working on plans to develop the former site of Four Seasons Mall,”
Wal-Mart spokeswoman Rachel Wall wrote in an e-mail sent through the Minneapolis-based public relations firm Karwoski and Courage. Wal-Mart declined to answer any follow-up questions, and Peter Coyle, a Minneapolis-based attorney who has been working for Wal-Mart on the Four Seasons site, did not respond to interview requests.Comment: Here's my take as a Plymouth resident: Plymouth blew it by resisting development of the site.
Posted by
Jim Peet
at
6/26/2013 08:02:00 PM
1 comments
Posted by
Jim Peet
at
6/25/2013 11:02:00 AM
0
comments
Labels: Fort Wayne, Trailer, Where I've lived
Posted by
Jim Peet
at
6/23/2013 09:00:00 PM
2
comments
Labels: Plymouth MN
... do not be overly euphoric on market upswings or overly morose on downswings
Posted by
Jim Peet
at
6/17/2013 04:20:00 PM
0
comments
Labels: DJIA
One source says that Kim Jong Un has been ratcheting up his wild behavior in an attempt to create some sort of charisma. “One source says there have been many overt attempts to imbue Kim Jong Un with an ‘intimidating charisma,’ such as having him shout very forcefully at associates … and even throwing things at people,” says the paper’s international editor, Shirley Lee.Comment: Kim Jong Un: Mister Popularity.
Posted by
Jim Peet
at
6/17/2013 04:00:00 PM
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comments
Labels: Kim Jong Un, North Korea
Posted by
Jim Peet
at
6/17/2013 03:27:00 PM
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comments
Labels: Faucet
Posted by
Jim Peet
at
6/17/2013 02:42:00 PM
0
comments
Labels: House
Posted by
Jim Peet
at
6/15/2013 04:25:00 PM
1 comments
Labels: Domino's Pizza, Investing, Papa John's, Pizza Hut, YUM
Posted by
Jim Peet
at
6/15/2013 11:40:00 AM
5
comments
Labels: Dell Inspiron 910, Ubuntu