Quote It Now

Ticket Brokers World Wide Are Welcome To Join FlipATicket The Ticket Revolution Has Begun

2011-01-28T17:08:00.000-05:00

FlipATicket.com - New From the Creators of BlueBucs.com

FlipATicket.com today announced that it is leading the charge of brokers who have united and said, "Enough is enough!". Over the course of the last several years, brokers have witnessed drastic changes the ticket industry has undergone; so drastic, in fact, that it is difficult to fully grasp. If you were told five years ago that EI would be purchased by Ticketmaster, or that StubHub would be purchased by eBay, or that TN would morph into a gargantuan network of thousands of brokers, or that Ticket Technology would be bought by StubHub/eBay, or that LiveNation would buy every venue under the sun and ditch Ticketmaster for their own ticketing service, only to merge with Ticketmaster a few months later, would you have believed any of it? Who could have imagined that all of those things would take place in five short years?

Perhaps a better question would be: How have these changes helped your business? Let's see...

Fewer places to list your tickets.
Little to no access to other brokers to work trades.
Fee after fee after fee after fee piled up on top of you.
Policy changes, sometimes daily.

And what is the result of these changes that we have all witnessed? You, the broker, are left holding the short end of the stick, working harder to earn less. Your choice of places to buy, sell, and trade tickets has been boiled down to making a decision between the lesser of all that is evil. That's how you grow a business, right? No, we didn't think so either.

A number of months back, the folks behind BlueBucs.com sat down and started working on ideas of how to counteract the absurdity that has transpired in our industry, and to help brokers regain control over their business and costs. They poured over so many ideas and options that it is impossible to enumerate, but their brainstorming team always came back to two primary "must do" points:

Control costs for brokers and consumers.
Keep it simple and effective, a la Google. Read More

FlipATicket.com - New From the Creators of BlueBucs.com

2011-01-24T12:50:00.000-05:00

If you were told five years ago that EI would be purchased by Ticketmaster, or that StubHub would be purchased by eBay, or that TN would morph into a gargantuan network of thousands of brokers, or that Ticket Technology would be bought by StubHub/eBay, or that LiveNation would buy every venue under the sun and ditch Ticketmaster for their own ticketing service, only to merge with Ticketmaster a few months later, would you have believed any of it? Who could have imagined that all of those things would take place in five short years?

Perhaps a better question would be: How have these changes helped your business? Let's see...

* Fewer places to list your tickets.
* Little to no access to other brokers to work trades.
* Fee after fee after fee after fee piled up on top of you.
* Policy changes, sometimes daily.

* Control costs for brokers and consumers.
* Keep it simple and effective, a la Google.

Brokers need to be able to effectively communicate with one another, and consumers need to be able to do a simple search, find the tickets they want, and make a purchase. Neither the broker nor the consumer should be gouged with a litany of fees. Folks are tired of the nickel-and-dime games!

Imagine, if you will..

* No more throwing away thousands (or tens of thousands) of dollars in fees each year.
* No more ridiculous "rules" and policy changes each week that are impossible for anyone (including those imposing them) to keep up with.
* No more bowing to your "master", the ticket exchange. They should work for you, not the other way around!

The solution is FlipATicket.com, a brand new, back-to-basics site for brokers to buy and sell tickets, and retail outlet for consumer sales.

Will FlipATicket be the next StubHub, or EI, or TN? Absolutely not. And we don't want to be! Those guys define "ticket exchange", and "ticket exchange" is the problem that FlipATicket is designed to solve! Rather, the goal is to build a platform designed by, run by, and geared for ticket brokers. A platform that offers you an affordable and effective alternative for listing, buying, and selling tickets. A platform with a simple fee structure so that you don't need to hire an IRS agent to help you figure out how much revenue you just lost.

FlipATicket.com will attract customers who are just as tired as you are of dealing with a "ticket exchange". Customers that will appreciate never having to call the horrendous customer service line of a "ticket exchange", because they can now contact you, the seller, directly. The bottom line is, FlipATicket.com will provide you with more opportunities for sales to customers who are *yours*, and both you and your customer will be paying less fees!

We are currently operating in a beta test, which will run until Monday, February 28, 2011. During the beta test period, all ticket brokers will be able to buy, sell, and trade tickets - free of charge, our way of saying "Thank you!" for helping us work out any bugs and for providing feedback on features and future development ideas. As a special added bonus, during the beta test period, registered brokers will have free limited access to our flagship website, BlueBucs.com (the #1 source of presale and onsale information).

On Tuesday, March 1, 2011, all beta test accounts will be disabled, and broker accounts will be available for a nominal fee. A monthly subscription will be available for $39, or you can save 5% by choosing the annual subscription at a rate of just $444. There will be no additional fees to buy, sell, and trade your tickets on FlipATicket.com.

However, we are offering special discount pricing for those who choose to partner with us during the beta launch period. We have allotted a limited number of FlipATicket memberships at deeply discounted prices. As of this posting, only 25 of these spots are available. They are available only while they last, or until the beta test ends, whichever occurs first. Choose from one of the following:

* Founding Member Lifetime Membership - A one-time fee of $999. Never pay another penny to buy, sell, and trade your tickets on FlipATicket.com.
* Charter Membership - Annual subscription rate of just $365. Yes, you read correctly. Just $1 a day to buy, sell, and trade your tickets on FlipATicket.com, with no additional fees.

Again, these are being offered on a first come, first served basis. They are going fast, and will never again be offered.

Can we compete on sheer volume of sales from day one? No, we can't. But by partnering with FlipATicket.com, we can all work together and slowly but surely take back our industry, one-by-one as brokers decide for themselves: "Enough is enough!"

Big 12 Football Championship Game Tickets

2010-11-22T23:39:00.001-05:00

Need Tickets for the Big 12 Football Championship Game at Dallas Cowboys Stadium? We have Flippin' Great Seats! www.FlipATicket.com

Energy without the Jitters Efusjon EDGE Energy Drink

2009-12-08T10:31:00.000-05:00

Efusjon EDGE is the 100% all-natural alternative to today's unhealthy energy drink market. This delicious, caffeinated drink is made with Acai Berry - natures powerful antioxidant. Acai Berry, one of the world's most potent super foods, is believed to deliver up to thirty times the anthocyanins found in red wine (anthocyanins are said to help aid in the prevention of heart disease, fight cancer cells and reduce memory loss). Efusjon EDGE Energy Drink contains no additives or preservatives and is made from the purest ingredients. Young or old, Efusjon EDGE delivers your body the power it needs to thrive throughout your demanding day and life.

# Caffeinated
# Made with Acai Berry - considered one of the top 10 super foods
# Rich, smooth flavor
# Made from 100% all-natural ingredients
# Efusjon EDGE Energy Drink contains NO preservatives or additives
# Helps your body fight the free-radical toxins
# Twelve - 8.4 oz. cans

Get Healthy and Get Paid!

Not only does efusjon offer the healthiest energy drinks anywhere, but also provides a unique opportunity to make a serious income! At the efusjon energy club, we believe in healthy bodies and a healthy income. You can enjoy the delicious and nutritious virtues of our amazing energy drinks and reap the rewards from your very own successful efusjon energy club business. Under the efusjon energy club revolutionary new community compensation structure, you get rewarded in ways you never dreamed possible. It's a unique opportunity never before seen in the network marketing industry!

CLICK HERE - To Find Out More and How to Join!

Win A Framed, Ernie Banks Autographed, Chicago Cubs Jersey

2009-12-07T11:20:00.000-05:00

Efusjon Home Run Team,

Starting today through December 31, 2009 every team member that personally enrolls 3 people will be placed in a drawing for a Framed, Ernie Banks Autographed, Chicago Cubs Jersey. This will be an incredible keepsake for our Home Run Club winner.

The Jersey is being provided by Mrs. Liz Banks, wife of Mr. Ernie Banks, of the 500 Home Run Club, and proud member of the Efusjon Home Run Club.

Each member of the Efusjon Home Run Club that enrolls 3 people in the month of December will have their name placed in a raffle.

Each time you enroll three your name will be entered into the raffle again.

For example if you enroll 6 people in December you would have two chances in the raffle, 9 would give you three chances and so forth.

End the year with a Home Run for your Efusjon business, let's knock the cover off the ball!

Ernie Banks
http://www.500hrc.com/ernie-banks.html

500 Home Run Club
http://www.500hrc.com/

Efusjon Home Run Club
http://seemymatrix.com/66079

Mangosteen Documented Health Benefits

2009-12-07T09:25:00.000-05:00

1. Anti-fatigue (energy booster)

2. Powerful anti-inflammatory (prevents inflammation)

3. Analgesic (prevents pain)

4. Anti-ulcer (stomach,
mouth and bowel ulcers)

5. Anti-depressant (low to moderate)

6. Anxyolytic (anti-anxiety effect)

7. Anti-Alzheimerian (helps prevent dementia)

8. Anti-tumor and cancer prevention (multiple categories cited)... shown to be capable of killing cancer cells

9. Immunomodulator (multiple categories cited) - helps the immune system

10. Anti-aging

11. Anti-oxidant

12. Anti-viral

13. Anti-biotic (modulates bacterial infections)

14. Anti-fungal (prevents fungal infections)

15. Anti-seborrheaic (prevents skin disorders)

16. Anti-lipidemic (blood fat lowering, LDL)

17. Anti-atherosclerotic (prevents hardening
of arteries)

18. Cardioprotective (protects the heart)

19. Hypotensive (blood pressure lowering)

20. Hypoglycemic (anti-diabetic effect, helps lower blood sugar)

21. Anti-obesity (helps with weight loss)

22. Anti-arthritic (prevention of arthritis)

23. Anti-osteoporosis (helps prevent the loss of bone mass)

24. Anti-periodontic (prevents gum disease)

25. Anti-allergenic (prevents allergic reaction)

26. Anti-calculitic (prevents kidney stones)

27. Anti-pyretic (fever lowering)

28. Anti-Parkinson

29. Anti-diarrheal

30. Anti-neuralgic (reduces nerve pain)

31. Anti-vertigo (prevents dizziness)

32. Anti-glaucomic (prevents glaucoma)

33. Anti-cataract (prevents cataracts)

34. Pansystemic - has a synergistic effect on the whole body

Efusjon Breeze - 100% Natural Mangosteen & Passion Fruit (with caffeine)

Efusjon EDGE is the 100% all-natural alternative to today's unhealthy energy drink market.

2009-12-03T09:36:00.000-05:00

Efusjon EDGE Energy Drink contains no additives or preservatives and is made from the purest ingredients. Young or old, Efusjon EDGE delivers your body the power it needs to thrive throughout your demanding day and life.

# Caffeinated # Made with Acai Berry - considered one of the top 10 super foods

# Rich, smooth flavor # Made from 100% all-natural ingredients

# Efusjon EDGE Energy Drink contains NO preservatives or additives

# Helps your body fight the free-radical toxins

# Twelve - 8.4 oz. cans

Get Healthy and Get Paid! Not only does efusjon offer the healthiest energy drinks anywhere, but also provides a unique opportunity to make a serious income! At the efusjon energy club, we believe in healthy bodies and a healthy income.

You can enjoy the delicious and nutritious virtues of our amazing energy drinks and reap the rewards from your very own successful efusjon energy club business. Under the efusjon energy club revolutionary new community compensation structure, you get rewarded in ways you never dreamed possible. It's a unique opportunity never before seen in the network marketing industry!

CLICK HERE - To Find Out More and How to Join!

Efusjon Home Run Club December Sales Contest

2009-12-02T18:30:00.000-05:00

The Jersey is being provided by Mrs. Liz Banks, wife of Mr. Ernie Banks, of the 500 Home Run Club, and proud member of the Efusjon Home Run Club.

Each member of the Efusjon Home Run Club that enrolls 3 people in the month of December will have their name placed in a raffle.

Each time you enroll three your name will be entered into the raffle again. For example if you enroll 6 people in December you would have two chances in the raffle, 9 would give you three chances and so forth.

End the year with a Home Run for your Efusjon business, let's knock the cover off the ball!

With trillions of dollars at stake, Americans deserve some discussion of the climate-gate e-mails.

2009-11-30T17:10:00.000-05:00

With the Copenhagen climate talks starting next week, climate-gate keeps getting worse. There is no precedent for so many academics engaging in coordinated efforts to distort research for political ends. The problems go well beyond deleting e-mails to prevent their disclosure from a Freedom of Information Act request. The UN claims that "there is 'virtually no possibility' of a few scientists" biasing their reports. But it doesn't just involve a few minor figures: implicated are the most powerful and well placed people in academia -- heads of departments and centers.

The Climatic Research Unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia, which has been at the center of the scandal, has been incredibly influential in the global warming debate. The CRU collected the world's most extensive surface temperature data set by far and its research and mathematical models formed the basis of the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's 2007 report.

But the CRU's temperature data and all of the research done with it are now in question. The leaked e-mails show that the scientists at the CRU don't know how their data was put together. CRU took individual temperature readings at individual stations and averaged the information out to produce temperature readings over larger areas. The problem comes in how they did the averaging. One of the leaked documents states that "our flagship gridded data product is produced by [a method that] renders the station counts totally meaningless" and "so, we can have a proper result, but only by including a load of garbage!" There were also significant coding errors in the data. Weather stations that are claimed to exist in Canada aren't there -- leading one memo to speculate that the stations "were even invented somewhere other than Canada!"

The computer code used to create the data the CRU has used contains programmer notes that indicate that the aggregated data were constructed to show an increase in temperatures. The programmer notes include: "Apply a VERY ARTIFICAL correction for decline!!" and "Low pass filtering at century and longer time scales never gets rid of the trend -- so eventually I start to scale down the 120-yr low pass time series to mimic the effect of removing/adding longer time scales!" The programmers apparently had to try at least a couple of adjustments before they could get their aggregated data to show an increase in temperatures.

All this could in theory be correctable by going back and starting from scratch with the original "raw" data, but the CRU apparently threw out much of the data used to create their temperature measures. We now only have the temperature measures that they created.

The extent to which these academics are willing to go to get the results they want can be seen in their attacks on others. Upset that the editor of Geophysical Research Letters, Jim Saiers, and the journal Climate Research had published research that questioned man-made global warming, these e-mails reveal an attempt to remove Saiers as editor, prevent others from publishing in these journals or citing their work, and, even worse, exclude work critical of the man-made global warming theory from being cited by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

-- Tom Wigley, a scientist with the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research wrote in one of the e-mails: "If you think that Saiers is in the greenhouse skeptics camp, then, if we can find documentary evidence of this, we could go through official AGU channels to get him ousted." Saiers' term as editor ended the following year. In another e-mail, Wigley wrote: "If we could reduce the ocean blip by, say, 0.15 deg C, then this would be significant for the global mean -- but we'd still have to explain the land blip."

-- Professor Mann, the Director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University, wrote: "Perhaps we should encourage our colleagues in the climate research community to no longer submit to, or cite papers in, this journal."

-- Professor Phil Jones, head of the CRU and contributing author to the United Nation's IPCC report chapter titled "Detection of Climate Change and Attribution of Causes," wrote: "I can't see either of these papers being in the next IPCC report. Kevin [Trenberth] and I will keep them out somehow -- even if we have to redefine what the peer-review literature is!"

Despite all this, ABC, CBS, and NBC have failed to even mention anything about this scandal on their news broadcasts. CNN has covered it, but has minimized any concerns. The Obama administration has also either dismissed these events as either irrelevant or just completely ignored them. With trillions of dollars at stake for the climate decisions that are going to be made next week in Copenhagen, Americans deserve some discussion of these e-mails and what they mean.

"Power of 3" Challenge: Here are three simple steps you can follow to get off to a fast start in Efu

2009-11-20T10:27:00.001-05:00

"Power of 3" Challenge: Here are three simple steps you can follow to get off to a fast start in Efusjon:

Step 1: Develop a deep-seeded belief in the Efusjon product by drinking it daily. Remember, people buy belief!

Step 2: Create a sense of urgency to immediately get your 3 and make yourself an Executive within hours or days. Congratulations! You have now earned $225 in Associate Product Volume Bonuses that will be paid to you the following week and you have a 115% return on your initial investment.

Step 3: You are also able serve as the Coach/Trainer for the 3 people that you personally sponsor into the club. For each of these 3 people that you help get to Executive within 30 days from the date they join, you will receive a $200 Coaching Product Volume Bonus paid the following week. Simply put, if you help each of your 3 personally enrolled members reach Executive within 30 days, you will receive a total of $600 in Coaching Product Volume Bonuses and you now also qualify to receive 100% of the money due to you in monthly matrix residual income ($5.10/month for direct distributors and $1.50/month for overlap distributors).

Following the above 3 steps will have made you $825 in total Product Volume Bonuses, and you will also be receiving $60 in monthly matrix residual income starting the following month. How powerful that all of this money is paid to you off of only having 12 people in your matrix (3 + 9 = 12)

http://www2.seemymatrix.com/forums/index.php/topic,350.0.html

Teamplayer: Once who unites others toward a shared destiny

2009-11-20T09:35:00.000-05:00

One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team, but one man cannot make a team. Kareem Abdul-Jabbor http://twitter.com/efusjonmmi

Teamplayer: Once who unites others toward a shared destiny through information & ideas, empowering others & developing trust. D Kinlaw http://twitter.com/efusjonmmi

The greatest danger a team faces isn't that it won't become successful, but that it will, and then cease to improve. Mark Sanborn http://twitter.com/efusjonmmi

The main ingredient of stardom is the rest of the team. John Wooden
http://twitter.com/efusjonmmi

1.25 Million Contract Mystery Flu In Ukraine As Flu Cases Spike In Russia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Serbia

2009-11-18T14:12:00.001-05:00

The latest numbers out of Ukraine indicate that 1.25 million people have now contracted what is being called "the mystery flu". Over 65,000 of those have required hospitalization and 239 are officially reported to be dead. As the situation in Ukraine continues to become more dire, many health experts continue to be absolutely perplexed as to why the WHO continues to refuse to release the sequences from the samples taken from patients in Ukraine well over a week ago. Meanwhile, there has been a dramatic spike in flu cases in neighboring countries such as Russia, Belarus and Bulgaria. In addition, a dramatic increase in flu cases is being reported in Serbia, Norway, India and Canada. In many of these nations there are reports of the flu virus absolutely disintegrating the lungs of patients just like it is doing in Ukraine.

Ukrainian Professor Viktor Bachinsky recently commented on the behavior of this mystery flu, and his assessment of this virus is very sobering.....

"The virus, which causes death, is very aggressive, it does not strike the trachea, but immediately gets into the lungs and causes heavy swelling and solid hemorrhage. Mixed types of parainfluenza and influenza A/N1N1 lead to this state. This is a very toxic strain, which has not yet answered to the treatment of the Ministry of Health."

So what in the world is going on there?

Hopefully world health authorities will have some answers for us soon.

Meanwhile flu cases across the globe continue to spike.....

source>>>

Russian cybercriminals target H1N1 Swine flu fears

2009-11-18T14:04:00.001-05:00

Report outlines massive affiliate campaigns pushing pharmaceuticals, including counterfeit Tamiflu, making Russian hackers millions.

Researchers at security vendor Sophos' Canadian-based research labs have released a report outlining how some Russian cybercriminals are making millions off the H1N1 flu by pushing counterfeit Tamiflu through well organized affiliate programs.

The cybercriminals have created an affiliate network to make it more difficult to track them down by distributing responsibility for different spam tasks while increasing advertising space to gain visibility and more potential victims. It's been an evolving process and today there are literally hundreds of malicious affiliate networks touting everything from phony dating websites, porn and pharmaceuticals such as Tamiflu.

Rather than direct spam campaigns that flood inboxes, the cybercriminals use Web marketing campaigns and drive potential victims to partner affiliate websites using a mixture of spam, search engine results (search engine optimization), blogs and forum posts, the report finds. Each affiliate gets a small cut but most of the profits go to cybercriminal gangs in Russia.

Many organize expensive parties for their members, send generous gifts for holidays, run lotteries where a top producer wins a luxury car, and the list goes on. In some cases, the war between different partnerkas turns ugly, where one portal may get DDoS'ed by a competing gang.

Members of the affiliate network learn how to mine Google Trends data for popular search terms, generate content and use appropriate linking to trick search engines into giving the malicious sites a higher slot in search results. The results are affiliate websites that have potential to get more than 10,000 page views a day, generating hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.

The good news says Sophos' Dmitry Samosseiko is that security researchers are gaining a better understanding of the affiliate networks and working closely with law enforcement to get rogue networks shut down.

source>>>

500 Homerun Club & Efusjon Invite you to come hit a home run

2009-11-07T23:43:00.001-05:00

Welcome to the 500 Home Run Club®, LLC, the exclusively authorized, internationally recognized organization founded to celebrate the awe inspiring achievements of the greatest home run hitters in baseball history. The club operates with the endorsement and support of both Major League Baseball and the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Man Plans EBay Auction to Fund Defense of Accused Murderer of Abortion Doctor

2009-10-27T16:46:00.001-04:00

An anti-abortion activist Dave Leach, is planning an online auction to help support the defense of Scott Roeder, accused of entering a Church in Wichita, Kansas and fatally shooting abortion provider Dr. George Tiller.

Leach plans to launch an eBay auction to raise money to get Roeder a better attorney. Roeder currently is being represented by a public defender.

Leach believes a private attorney could get Roeder an acquittal, based on the necessity defense.

"The necessity defense is the only thing that allows the letter of the law to be set aside in situations where the author of the law never would have intended it to be enforced," said Leach.

According to U.S. criminal law, the necessity defense argues the defendant should not be held liable for their crime, because it was necessary to prevent greater harm.

That defense did not work for Shelley Shannon who tried and failed to kill MD.Tiller in 1993..

Shannon was convicted of attempted murder, and sentenced to 11 years in prison.

Leach plans to auction prison cookbooks by Shelley Shannon, as well as drawings from Roeder in his online auction.

source>>>

MDA Telethon 2009, Labor Day

2009-09-07T15:58:00.000-04:00

Every year over the Labor Day holiday, the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) holds an annual telethon. Although, many people dispute the effectiveness of the organization, MDA is responsible for doing an incredible amount of good for people severely disabled with a terminal illness known as Muscular Dystrophy.

Unfortunately, in recent years, many articles have surfaced questioning the cash flow of the Muscular Dystrophy Association. The organization operates at a very high overhead and many people question just how much of the money goes to helping individuals with these life-changing diseases.

In fact, Muscular Dystrophy has over 40 different subtypes, each of which manifest in their own unique ways, and unfortunately many of which are fatal. As technology improves, more people with Muscular Dystrophy are living longer and healthier than ever before.

Technology has not yet brought us a cure; scientists say they are close every year but the years keep on ticking. I remember when I was only 14 the first news of mice being cured began to surface... this month I turn 29.

Living with muscular dystrophy is not an easy hand to have been dealt. Those years continually marched on in an unforgiving and cold kind of way. Yet, I sit here today, as living proof that just because you have a disease does not mean that it has you.

MDA sponsors many wonderful activities such as camps for the disabled but those things cost money. Does the majority of the money go to research for a cure?

I'm not sure.

I can tell you that many of our members have benefited from the MDA. They may not be the best organization in the world; they even turned me away after reaching the age of 18 because they could no longer provide me with services that would be useful.

Having said that, everyone with muscular dystrophy is touched by MDA one way or another, and I can honestly tell you that they could be the most corrupt organization in the world and it does not matter. The MDA has brought awareness of the disease and its impact on millions of people across the world.

Speaking as someone who is fighting to propel this nonprofit organization, just the fact that they make muscular dystrophy and headline for one day a year, is well worth what they do.

Please consider donating to the MDA not because I told you to, but because you care. You can donate anonymously, in your name, or even in ours. source>>>

Teach Kids the significance of Labor Day

2009-09-07T15:52:00.000-04:00

On Monday, September 7, our nation celebrates Labor Day--a holiday honoring all American workers, present and past. Typically spent around the grill with neighbors and friends, Labor Day has become the unofficial symbol of the end of summertime fun, as well as a last chance getaway for families with school-aged children.

Before heading out for a day of family fun, take a minute to let your kids know the significance of the holiday. According to the Department of Labor, the first Labor Day was celebrated in 1882 in New York. Over the next few years, more and more states celebrated this "workingman's holiday" and, in 1894, Congress passed an act, signed by then President Grover Cleveland, decreeing it a national holiday celebrated on the first Monday of each September. Although the holiday was originally associated with Labor Unions, it is now the celebration of all workers.

Although San Jose and other local banks, schools, post offices and the likes are closed on Labor Day, chances are that at some point during the day you'll encounter someone at work. Turn this into a teaching opportunity and talk to your kids about the person's job--what are they doing, why are they doing it, do you think they like their job, what we do without this type of worker, why do they need to be at work on a "holiday", etc. If you spend the day at home, take a minute to let your kids view the Bay Bridge construction project so that you have a fun discussion about American workers. source>>>

Temporary replacement for Senator Kennedy a clear example disgusting Massachusetts Politics

2009-09-02T16:48:00.001-04:00

THE DEBATE over amending the law so that the governor could immediately appoint a temporary replacement for Senator Edward Kennedy presents a clear example of why the Legislature and our current governor represent everything that's disgusting in Massachusetts politics today.

Are we going to change the rule again once the voters throw Governor Patrick out of office next election?

I'd like to hear this conversation between a Democratic state lawmaker and his son: "Well, it's like this. We have enough guys on our team so that we can change the rules any time we want. We're changing the rules now so that our team will have a tremendous advantage and it will be almost impossible for the other guy to win. I know it's not ethical or fair, and most voters would prefer we just have an election, but I'm a Massachusetts legislator, and that's how we do things.''

While the hypothetical young man may be very proud of his dad, I'd be ashamed to say he represents me. source>>>

Techs Stocks Slip As Apple, EBay Retreat

2009-08-27T14:43:00.000-04:00

Tech stocks reversed course Wednesday morning, slipping into the red as shares of Apple Inc. and eBay Inc. chalked up losses and chip makers turned in a mixed performance.

The sector earlier had posted modest gains as semiconductor shares rose after technology researchers Gartner Inc. updated its 2009 forecast for the chip industry and now foresees a smaller-than-expected revenue decline.

But the mini-rally lost steam by late morning as the Nasdaq Composite Index ( RIXF) fell 0.2% to 2,021, while the Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index (MSH) eased 0.1%.

Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) held on to a 0.2% gain.

As revised, Gartner sees the sector's revenue totaling $212 billion for 2009, down 17.1% on the year. Its prior projection had been for a 22.4% decline.

"The semiconductor market has performed better than expected, as was evident when second quarter semiconductor revenue increased 17% in sequential sales," Gartner Vice President Bryan Lewis said.

Shares of chip giant Intel Corp. (INTC) traded up about 0.6%, but other chip makers were in the red, including Texas Instruments (TXN) and SanDisk Corp. ( SNDK).

The tech sector was also weighed down by losses in shares of such bellwethers as blue chips Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and Cisco Systems (CSCO) as well as Google Inc. (GOOG) source>>>

Obama Kenyan birth certificate on eBay called fraud

2009-08-26T15:43:00.000-04:00

The alleged Kenyan birth certificate offered by eBay seller Lucas Smith and displayed last weekend on YouTube.com is not a valid document, a WND investigation has revealed.

Screen shot of whole document from Lucas Smith's video; close-up views available in clip below

Administrators at Coast Provincial Hospital in Mombasa, the hospital named as President Obama's supposed birth hospital in the document, refused to authenticate the record when contacted by WND sources in Kenya.

Demand the truth by joining the petition campaign to make President Obama reveal his long-form, hospital-generated birth certificate!

The document appears to have the following defects:

1. Kenyan news sources have called into question the use of "Coast Province" or "Coast Provincial" as a correct reference to the official name of the Mombasa general public hospital in 1961, citing Professor Dan Branch of the University of Warwick who noted that the term "Coast Province" was not used in the early 1960s when Kenyan provinces were typically referred to as "regions."

2. Until 1964, Kenya was the Dominion of Kenya, not the Republic of Kenya, and Mombasa was part of Zanzibar until Dec. 12, 1963, not a coastal province of Kenya.

3. Dr. James O.W. Ang'awa, the physician who was named in the document as the attending physician at Obama's birth, was a physician who worked in Kenya during the 1960s; however, he worked at Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi. Dr. James O.W. Ang'awa never worked at any hospital in Mombasa.

4. The dates on the document are formatted in U.S. style, listing in order the month, day and year; this is not the British format which typically follows the order of day, month and year.

5. The footprint on the document appears nearly perfect in definition; real infant footprints typically show signs of smudging because of foot movement.

6. The footprint on the document is densely black, revealing few natural lines on the sole of the foot; footprints used for document identification are typically inked much lighter to allow for natural lines to be clearly apparent.

7. Footprints taken for document identification are typically taken for both feet, just as fingerprints taken for identification are typically taken for both hands.

8. The document does not look remotely like the 1961-era birth certificates used in Kenya; infant footprints were not displayed on Kenyan birth certificates in the 1961-era.

WND sources in Kenya described the Smith document as a clever forgery in that Helton Muganga is currently an administrator at Coast Provincial General Hospital
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Bids pour in, and out, for crypt above Marilyn Monroe's

2009-08-25T14:16:00.001-04:00

It was a day of ups and downs when the online bidding ended Monday for the crypt above Marilyn Monroe.

Elsie Poncher, whose husband Richard Poncher is entombed in the crypt at Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park, said she wanted to sell it to pay off the more than $1-million mortgage on her Beverly Hills home.

A bidder from Japan appeared to be the winner of the EBay auction, with an offer of $4,602,100 -- $100 more than the next highest bid.

But several hours after being sent an invoice, the bidder e-mailed Poncher's representative saying, "I am awfully sorry, but I need to cancel this because of the paying problem."

Steve Miller, a mortgage broker and banker who is representing Poncher, said he had e-mailed the 11 other bidders who offered at least $4.5 million for the crypt, giving them 24 hours to make an offer. He said that if the right offer isn't made, he and Poncher may try to find another way to sell the crypt.

No one from EBay could be reached for comment Monday night. Miller said EBay had been vetting the bidders and had cancelled several offers it considered bogus.

The bidding started at $500,000 on Aug. 14, escalated to $1 million two days later and then to more than $4.5 million Aug. 17. There were 21 bids. The closing bid would have made the crypt one of the most expensive items ever sold on EBay. In 2001, a Gulfstream II jet went for $4.9 million, according to the online auction site.

Richard Poncher, who was an entrepreneur who owned a number of companies, died 23 years ago at 81.

He bought the crypt from New York Yankee great Joe DiMaggio when the ballplayer was in the midst of his divorce from Monroe in 1954.

The Ponchers were at the Regency Hotel in New York when DiMaggio asked her husband, "You want to buy two crypts?"

Richard Poncher bought the one above Monroe, where he is -- for the moment -- entombed, and one next to it, where his widow was to one day spend eternity.

"To the man who gave us everything and more," says the plaque on Poncher's crypt. And indeed, he has continued to provide.

Elsie Poncher, who is in her 70s, plans to move her husband's remains to the crypt designated for her, and when the time comes, she'll be cremated. She said that when her husband was dying, he made a request. "He said, 'If I croak, if you don't put me upside down over Marilyn, I'll haunt you the rest of my life.' "

After the funeral, Poncher said, she conveyed her husband's wish to the funeral director. "I was standing right there, and he turned him over," she said.

The cemetery, hidden away off Glendon Avenue, is the final resting spot for many celebrities, among them Natalie Wood, Dean Martin, Rodney Dangerfield, Merv Griffin, Mel Torme, Truman Capote and Farrah Fawcett.

Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner bought the crypt next to Monroe's in 1992 for $75,000. There is an unoccupied crypt in the Corridor of Memories mausoleum where Monroe and Poncher are entombed that the cemetery is selling for $250,000.

Miller said some of the e-mails he has received during the auction have been bizarre.

"I get comments from people thinking [Poncher's] rising from the dead," Miller said. "You can't believe the stuff I'm getting here."
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Miss USA goes NASCAR contesting Miss Universe

2009-08-24T14:02:00.000-04:00

Winning a Sprint Cup Series championship is a daunting challenge -- a 10-month grind with the best drivers in the world on your bumper.

But consider what it takes to be crowned Miss Universe.

Hopefuls at the ambitiously named pageant won't be coming from Venus and Mars. However, competition from this planet alone is formidable -- 80 stunning, tanned, toned, multitalented, multilingual women judged fairest in their respective lands.

America's representative, Kristen Dalton, happens to be a NASCAR fan, and she's counting on the sport for an extra edge at Sunday night's Miss Universe Pageant (9 p.m. ET, NBC).

Fans might remember Miss USA, a blue-eyed stunner from Wilmington, N.C., from the Coca-Cola 600 in May, where she belted out the national anthem in front of 165,000 fans. She hung out at her "local" track with drivers Kasey Kahne, David Ragan and Joey Logano, finding the stars of NASCAR to be regular guys who are a lot of fun and helped her understand the sport's popularity.
"
The national costume can be one last chance to truly separate yourself. ... As much as the Statue of Liberty is America, so is NASCAR.
"
MISS USA KRISTEN DALTON
Getty Images
Photo Gallery

* More of Miss USA, click here

But it was catching the thrill of speed close up at Lowe's Motor Speedway that truly hooked Kristen.

"I never realized the rush of adrenaline each lap around the track causes, the rush of wind from the cars, the overwhelming noise," she said. "I found out firsthand NASCAR truly needs to be experienced live to be fully appreciated."

As she prepared for Miss Universe -- the Olympics of pageants and a true source of national pride -- Kristen had to consider her "national costume." She was confident in her overall repertoire. In winning the pageants for North Carolina and the USA, she'd floored everyone in her evening gown. No one sizzles hotter in a swimsuit. And as an aspiring motivational speaker who studied Spanish and psychology at East Carolina University, Kristen aces her interviews.

The wild card would be the national costume. Dalton knew this item of clothing, which in the past had been inspired by the Statue of Liberty and Kentucky Derby, could be a final chance to put her over the top in the Miss Universe judges' eyes.

Remembering her NASCAR experience, Kristen chose a NASCAR theme. After all, is there anything more American?

"Every girl who gets that far to Miss Universe has a good attitude, can speak well in pressure situations, and wears a spectacular evening gown," Kristen said. "The national costume can be one last chance to truly separate yourself. I knew NASCAR was huge in my home state of North Carolina, and all over the U.S. As much as the Statue of Liberty is America, so is NASCAR. It was one of those ideas where as soon as you say it out loud, you know you've nailed it!"

A designer would be brought in to create a bold red zip-front, long-sleeved, cutoff unitard, decorated with silver sequins and rhinestones, and bearing the patches of her sponsors: NASCAR, Miss Universe, NBC, Atlantis, Trump, Sam Bass, Diamond Nexus and others. The words "Miss USA" with stars were added to the sleeves.

Complementing the racy look, Sam Bass, the first officially licensed artist of NASCAR, designed a stars-and-stripes helmet that would have made Evel Knievel proud. The helmet was autographed by the Sprint Cup field and auctioned last Thursday, bringing $4,500 to the Bahamas AIDS Foundation and the NASCAR Foundation.

So, when Kristen takes to the catwalk along with some of the most beautiful and talented ladies in the universe, she will have a bit of NASCAR in her bag of tricks as she looks to bring the biggest crown of them all -- Miss Universe -- back to North Carolina and the sport she loves. source>>>

sometimes the only antidote is something basic and simple

2009-08-19T14:24:00.000-04:00

KISS It

In a world where we are bombarded from every angle with one complexity after another, sometimes the only antidote is something basic and simple. You know what we're talking about; it's the KISS philosophy:

Keep It Simple, Silly!

And when it comes to making money on the internet, now is definitely the time for simple. Sure, you could spend thousands of dollars buying lists with tens of millions of email addresses on them. You could spend thousands more on software to spam the entire list. You could spend tens of thousands building your new uber cool online store attempting to sell your uber cool new product that no one seems to want to purchase. You could spend hundreds of thousands more attempting to get your site listed number one with all of the search engines. Continue>>>>

Sarah Palin can add another notch to her belt when it comes to influencing health care "reform."

2009-08-17T15:59:00.001-04:00

On a Facebook post, former Gov. Sarah Palin puts the lie to The New York Times' assertion that "the rumor that government-sponsored 'death panels' to decide which patients were worthy of living seemed to arise from nowhere" (emphasis added by The Stiletto).

Had Times reporters Jim Rutenberg and Jackie Calmes read her commentary -- which was posted the day before their article was published -- they would have known that the death panels are real, and where to read up on the details. Palin makes a solid case that health care "reform," as originally envisioned by Democrats, would lead to rationed care and put a price tag on the value of people's lives based on their economic productivity.

Palin cites and explains the ramifications of Section 1233 ("Advance Care Planning Consultation," pages 424 to 434) of the House's proposed bill, "America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009,'' and quotes from "Principles For Allocation Of Scarce Medical Interventions" (The Lancet, January 31, 2009), a paper co-authored by one of President Obama's health care policy advisors, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel -- whose brother, Rahm, is the president's chief of staff.

Dr. Emanuel, a bioethicist, believes that doctors and hospitals should apply a rationing scheme he calls "complete life" for such medical services as ICU beds, heart transplants and vaccines during a flu pandemic. Under this scheme, adolescents and young adults would get priority over infants and the elderly, because "they have received substantial education and parental care, investments that will be wasted without a complete life. Infants -- have not yet received these investments."

Though the paper's authors admit that their scheme is ageist, they do not even bother to discuss exceptions to their hierarchical valuation of human life. For instance, is the average 14-year old more "valuable" to society than, say, Pablo Picasso in his later years? Objectively, no -- but (s)he is valuable to a circle of family and friends, and that should be enough. Ditto Grandma, even if she isn't in Picasso's league as a world renowned artist. And so is -- too bad it doesn't go without saying -- Trig Palin. But try convincing Dr. Emanuel's fellow bioethicist, Peter Singer, who believes that the lives of animals deserve more protection than the lives of people (see second item in this link).

Believe it or not, the rationing scheme Dr. Emanuel advocates in The Lancet is a softening of his views on which lives are worth saving. Though Palin was mocked -- surprise! -- for her "death panel" analysis, it's now Dr. Emanuel who is backpedaling from an article he co-authored 13 years ago, The Washington Times reports:

"When I began working in the health policy area about 20 years ago ... I thought we would definitely have to ration care, that there was a need to make a decision and deny people care," said Dr. Emanuel ... during a phone interview. ...

He wrote [in a short article published in a bioethics journal in 1996] that "services provided to individuals who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens are not basic and should not be guaranteed."

"An obvious example is not guaranteeing health services to patients with dementia," he wrote in the paper published by The Hastings Center, a nonpartisan, non-profit bioethics research institute. ...

The charges of rationing, or concerns about his language in journal articles, Dr. Emanuel said, is somewhat understandable given that he was "writing really for political philosophers, and for the average person it's not what they're used to reading, even if they've had a good liberal education."

Palin can also put another notch on her belt when it comes to influencing health care "reform" -- the Senate will drop language "encouraging" doctors to initiate conversations with patients about hospice and palliative end-of-life care from its bill, The Boston Globe reports:

Senator Chuck Grassley, the Senate Finance Committee's top Republican and one of six committee members trying to hash out a bipartisan bill, said yesterday that the provision could be misinterpreted and that it will not be contained in the committee's proposed legislation. ...

Yesterday, Grassley criticized the House bill, saying there was a difference between a "simple education campaign, as some advocates want,'' and paying "physicians to advise patients about end-of-life care'' and rating doctors "based on the creation of and adherence to orders for end-of-life care.''

Public support for Obamacare and Congressional Dems has fallen another five points from just two weeks ago, with just 42 percent of U.S. voters now in favor, according to a nationwide Rasmussen telephone survey. Oh, and voters now trust Republicans more than Democrats now on health care (44 percent to 41 percent).

Palin was hardly the only one to look at the House bill and realize its implications. In a commentary posted on The Daily Beast, "thinker" Lee Siegel -- who believes "the absence of universal health care is America's burning shame" -- calls rationing end-of-life care "morally revolting":

Determining which treatments are "cost effective" at the end of a person's life and which are not is one of Obama's priorities. It's one of the principal ways he counts on saving money and making universal health care affordable.

This is the Big Brother nightmare of oppressive government that the shrewd propagandists on the right are always blathering on about. Except that this time, they could not be more right. ...

[T]he argument that fruitless tests and "senseless" procedures are bankrupting the health care system, that is an insult to the intelligence. No one knows which tests and procedures will be effective beforehand. No amount of "study" and research is going to address the particular case and the particular condition, let alone the particular, desperate, irrational will to live -- which, in animal terms, is pragmatic and rational.

The Stiletto seems to recall pundits across the political spectrum writing Palin off as irrelevant after she voluntarily stepped down from public office in July. Guess they were -- what is the word? -- wrong. source>>>

Christian Creationism Exhibit at Tulsa Zoo a Top Priority for Mayoral Candidate

2009-08-12T17:53:00.001-04:00

A mayoral candidate in Tulsa, Okla., is reportedly putting a Christian creationism exhibit in the Tulsa Zoo among her top priorities, along with addressing crime and budget issues.

Republican Anna Falling says the people of Tulsa must recognize that God needs to be honored in the city, Tusla World reported.

"If we can't come to the foundation of faith in this community, those other answers will never come," she told the paper.

As part of that effort, Falling has resurrected a failed push for an exhibit at the Tulsa Zoo that would tell the Genesis story of God creating the world in six days and resting on the seventh, originally proposed by Christian activist Dan Hicks in 2005, Tulsa World reported.

"Installation of this exhibit at the Tulsa Zoo was raised in 2005, discussed, vetted and resolved in a very public process involving the entire community," Zoo officials said in a prepared statement, "A public vote four years ago by the Parks Board resolved the issue."

The zoo currently has a display of the earth's creation from a scientific point of view and an elephant-like statue said to represent the Hindu god Ganesha, Tulsa World reported.

Falling, a former city councilor and founder of several Christian non-profit groups, also stressed the need to reserve leadership positions for those who will "honor God," the paper reported.
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