Happy (Reformed Gregorian) New Year! Eat Vigna unguiculata for Good Luck!

Click image to enlarge.

 

I hate cliches, so some years ago I resolved to tell C-space Happy New Year completely free of babies in diapers and hunched-over old men. That's its only virtue: it's different.

 

Light -- a shortcut nickname for electromagnetic radiation of all sorts, not just the narrow band of colors human eyes can perceive -- has a well-measured speed and well-understood properties. So light's speed and properties produce this Light Cone, and inside the Light Cone is all we can ever perceive or remember about the Past, the Present and the Future.

 

There may be other "stuff" outside the Light Cone, but we can never perceive or know it.

 

I suppose I should also throw in a word about The Arrow of Time. It flows inexorably in just one direction, and never flows backwards (even though Newton's wonderful laws of motion and gravitation and mechanics merrily work equally well forwards and backwards). So the Past is always behind us, the Present is now, and the Future is always ahead of us, and hasn't happened yet. And never Contrariwise.

Eventually we'll reach the Heat Death of the Universe, but you don't have to worry about that any time soon.

 

If you're preparing a big hoopla Happy New Year whoop-de-doo at your local Midnight -- mine will be about 8 hours from now -- please remember that this Magic Moment of the Odometer flipping over its rightmost digit specifically references the Reformed Gregorian Calendar. There are lots of other calendars, each with its own different Happy New Year date. But for a variety of reasons, some logical and scientific, most entirely arbitary, most of the world chooses to pop open a bottle of methode champaignoise and shoot off colored explosives when the Reformed Gregorian Calendar tells it to.

 

I just heard about 1,000,000 people in Hong Kong sing "Auld Lang Syne" first in English/Scots Gaelic, then in Chinese.

 

Vleeptron would like to thank Israel for making last week's Pilgrimage to Bethlehem unsually welcoming and easy for Christian pilgrims. Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity also got its first architectural makeover in 600 years, and the little town's merchants apparently prospered. Just like the first Christmas, but for happier reasons, there was No Room at the Inn.

 

For all Vleeptroids in Galaxy Dwingeloo-2 and on Earth and low-Earth orbit, Vleeptron and Agence-Vleeptron Presse and Lenny & Spike wish you a spectacularly peaceful and happy 2014. Leave a Comment and tell us how you celebrate the New Year. We eat black-eyed peas (Vigna unguiculata) for good luck. If we can stay awake until Guy Lombardo plays Auld Lang Syne, we'll drink a little methode champagnoise.

 

the dreaded unreliable Pons Asinorum / Yorkshire Pudding

Click image to enlarge.

For many centuries long ago, if you were an educated European (male), if you had studied at any European university, you would be intimately familiar with this "bridge of asses," a common but fallacious screwup in Aristotle's logic scheme called the Syllogism.

And your failure was all your own fault -- your professor had explicitly warned you not to try to cross the logical chasm over the Pons Asinorum.

If you have things to say, or memories of plummeting into the chasm from the Pons Asinorum, please Leave A Comment. Also if you have nasty insulting things to say about Aristotle, feel free to post them here.

Meanwhile, Vleeptron wishes you all a Happy Solstice (summer or winter, your choice), a Merry Christmas, a belated Happy Hannukah. We're having a great, relaxed, cozy Christmas Day, a roast beef and Yorkshire Pudding in the oven, a fire in the wood stove.

at long last, a pardon for England's war hero and computer genius Alan Turing

Click poster to enlarge.

The Associated Press
(USA newswire)
Monday 23 December 2013
U.K. finally pardons
computer pioneer 
Alan Turing

by Raphael Satter, Associated Press

LONDON (AP) -- His code breaking prowess helped the Allies outfox the Nazis, his theories laid the foundation for the computer age, and his work on artificial intelligence still informs the debate over whether machines can think.

But Alan Turing was gay, and 1950s Britain punished the mathematician's sexuality with a criminal conviction, intrusive surveillance and hormone treatment meant to extinguish his sex drive.

Now, nearly half a century after the war hero's suicide, Queen Elizabeth II has finally granted Turing a pardon.

"Turing was an exceptional man with a brilliant mind," Justice Secretary Chris Grayling said in a prepared statement released Tuesday. Describing Turing's treatment as unjust, Grayling said the code breaker "deserves to be remembered and recognized for his fantastic contribution to the war effort and his legacy to science."

The pardon has been a long time coming.

Turing's contributions to science spanned several disciplines, but he's perhaps best remembered as the architect of the effort to crack the Enigma code, the cypher used by Nazi Germany to secure its military communications. Turing's groundbreaking work — combined with the effort of cryptanalysts at Bletchley Park near Oxford and the capture of several Nazi code books — gave the Allies the edge across half the globe, helping them defeat the Italians in the Mediterranean, beat back the Germans in Africa and escape enemy submarines in the Atlantic.

"It could be argued and it has been argued that he shortened the war, and that possibly without him the Allies might not have won the war," said David Leavitt, the author of a book on Turing's life and work. "That's highly speculative, but I don't think his contribution can be underestimated. It was immense."

Even before the war, Turing was formulating ideas that would underpin modern computing, ideas which matured into a fascination with artificial intelligence and the notion that machines would someday challenge the minds of man. When the war ended, Turing went to work programing some of the world's first computers, drawing up — among other things — one of the earliest chess games.

Turing made no secret of his sexuality, and being gay could easily lead to prosecution in post-war Britain. In 1952, Turing was convicted of "gross indecency" over his relationship with another man, and he was stripped of his security clearance, subjected to monitoring by British authorities, and forced to take estrogen to neutralize his sex drive — a process described by some as chemical castration.

S. Barry Cooper, a University of Leeds mathematician who has written about Turing's work, said future generations would struggle to understand the code breaker's treatment.

"You take one of your greatest scientists, and you invade his body with hormones," he said in a telephone interview. "It was a national failure."

Depressed and angry, Turing committed suicide in 1954.

Turing's legacy was long obscured by secrecy -- "Even his mother wasn't allowed to know what he'd done," Cooper said. But as his contribution to the war effort was gradually declassified, and personal computers began to deliver on Turing's promise of "universal machines," the injustice of his conviction became ever more glaring. Then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown issued an apology for Turing's treatment in 2009, but campaigners kept pressing for a formal pardon.

One of them, British lawmaker Iain Stewart, told The Associated Press he was delighted with the news that one had finally been granted.

"He helped preserve our liberty," Stewart said in a telephone interview. "We owed it to him in recognition of what he did for the country -- and indeed the free world --  that his name should be cleared."

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.- 30 -

Michigan Hand Map made of burnt toast (Lower Pæninsula only)

Click on Lower Pæninsula of Toast to enlarge.

My Army pal what lives in the USA state shaped like the palm of a right-hand mitten so he can point to where he took art classes and everybody in Michigan knows where that is knows my fascination with the MHM and just sent me this one made of burnt toast. 

He will have to e-mail his old Army buddy Joe Schloblodewski (everybody who ever served in the military ends up with a buddy for life named Joe Schloblodewski) to explain how he came to be in possession of this amazing toast map of the Lower Pæninsula of Michigan (Michigan is in 2 parts). 

Some Michiganders know how to use both their hands to show both pæninsulæ, but this skill is rare. Maybe you point to where you bought a used car with your nose.

The other night they showed a really nice uninterrupted print of "Anatomy of a Murder," about a murder trial which takes place in the Upper Pæninsula. James Stewart is the jazz piano-playing and trout-fishing defense lawyer -- it's one of Stewart's most exciting and rivetting performances -- and Lee Remick is Very Attractive and enjoys playing pinball (Old School noisy Electromechanical) in the tavern near where she and her Army lieutenant husband live in the trailer park. 

I think the jazz score was by Count Basie. The judge is Joseph Welch, a very famous and much-admired lawyer who stood up to the vicious megacreep dipsomaniac US Senator Joseph McCarthy in the televised Army-McCarthy hearings in 1954.

are you so blind that you cannot see are you so deaf that you cannot hear

recent e-mails to Right-Hand Mitten State pal

Click coupon to enlarge. 

Present coupon to head referee at kickoff.

**********

Subject: bankruptcy sale / clean out the van or rent U-haul

Sister Wendy did the DAI in her American Collection (2000), but I don't know which piece(s) she showed. She's a Sister of Notre Dame -- not a Carmelite, but is a contemplative at a Carmelite monastery.

Christie's:

    Detroit art sale could raise

    up to U$866,000,000

by Steve James
NBC News contributor

When you owe over $18,000,000,000 , does selling off a few paintings for $800 million make much difference?

That's the question for Kevyn Orr, emergency manager of the city of Detroit, who is looking for ways to satisfy creditors now that America's largest municipal bankruptcy has been given the go-ahead by a federal judge.

On Wednesday, the revered auction house Christie's said it has appraised some of the Detroit Institute of Arts' collection and said the works had a fair market value of $452 million to $866 million. It also suggested five alternatives to selling, which would allow the city to benefit financially, while keeping the DIA collection intact.

Christie's, which was retained by the city to appraise city-owned works as part of Detroit's bankruptcy case, said 11 pieces on display in the museum account for 75 percent of the appraised collection's total value.

Christie's only appraised 2,781 pieces, purchased with city funds and representing less than 5 percent of the institute's total collection, which includes masterpieces by Bruegel, van Gogh and Cézanne.

The alternatives, outlined in a letter to Orr from Christie's Americas president Doug Woodham, were: to use the art as collateral for a loan, lease the works to a partner museum, create a "masterpiece trust," sell the art and loan it permanently to DIA, or put the works in a traveling exhibition.

On Tuesday, Judge Steven Rhodes ruled that Detroit was eligible for Chapter 9 bankruptcy restructuring.

But the federal judge questioned the push by some of the city’s largest creditors to sell paintings and sculpture from the DIA. While he did not say specifically that the art should be spared, Rhodes said that such a sale would not have helped Detroit avoid bankruptcy.

“A one-time infusion of cash by selling an asset,” he said, would have only delayed the city’s “inevitable financial failure” unless it could have also come up with a sustainable way to enhance income and reduce expenses."

Related: Grandparents, have you changed how you spend on your grandkids?

Rhodes said that in considering selling assets, a city “must take extreme care that the asset is truly unnecessary in carrying out its mission.” 

A coalition of creditors filed a motion last week asking the judge to appoint a committee to oversee an independent appraisal of the collection. 

Orr told the Detroit Free Press editorial board after Tuesday's ruling that in “preliminary discussions” with Christie’s, it appeared that the market value of some of the best pieces in the collection would be less than $2 billion — a figure widely cited as a low estimate of the collection’s value — and that the appraisal could come in at less than $1 billion.

“We will try to get some value from the art in some fashion,” he told the board, but he said that did not mean that there was any plan at present to sell any art at auction. “Let’s be clear. That’s a city asset,” he told the newspaper.

He has said publicly that museum officials must “save themselves” by finding a way to contribute money, possibly as much as $500 million, toward the city’s debt relief. 

The institute itself is opposed to an art firesale.

"The DIA art collection is a cultural resource of the people of Detroit," it said in a statement. "The museum's collection is the result of more than a century of public and private charitable contributions for the benefit of the public.

"Protected by a charitable and public trust, the collection has survived several municipal fiscal crises and financial downturns, including the Great Depression, free from threats to its existence," it said.

- 30 -

PizzaQ! what is it? where is it? what's its name?

Click to enlarge.

* What is it?

* Like your cat or your dog, it has a Name. What's its name?

* Where was the camera that captured the image?

1 large pizza with shallots & garlic.

Vleeptron honors its vow of presenting clear big masterpiece of art / the story of my Uncle Doughboy in Montmartre

Cliquez cette fiche pour le plus grande.

blogspot.com has e-mailed Vleeptron that it can no longer accomodate the deluge of Comments requesting a clearer, bigger image of Ingres' "The Turkish Bath" / "Le Bain Turc." 

We tried to filch the image from the Louvre itself, where it hangs, but they anticipated our penchant for filching and we couldnt right-click COPY IMAGE. 

This one is from Wikipedia, and therefore not subject to any laws or punishments associated with digital burglary.

(One of my first image filches was an ancient manuscript of Euclid's proof of the Pythagorean Theorem from the Vatican Library.)

Anyway Vleeptron continues its charter vow to share the masterpieces of Earth's visual arts with its uptown hi-tone sophisticated readers. 

M. Ingres was 82 when he paid some young French women to sit around his atelier for a month or so while he immmortalized them. 

Or maybe they just dropped by the atelier for free. I wouldn't demand a paycheck for a month like that, as long as the dude provided refreshments and kept the fire burning. 

This was France, so there was probably some absinthe to pass around.

Please observe that apparently the artist did provide ample refreshments. These babes look as if they've been eating regularly and sufficiently. And they're not faking it with any tricks of clothing or foundation garments. WYSIWYG. 

* * *

This may be an appropriate moment to post  

The Story Of My Doughboy Uncle  

& his Adventures in Paris

My Uncle was a kid from Baltimore and either got conscripted or joined the Army to fight World War 1 and Make The World Safe for Democracy, and Beat The Hun. He had never been out of Baltimore before.

Years later he would tell his little nieces that he had chased Kaiser Wilhelm II around a tree in Berlin, but had not caught him, and the Kaiser escaped.

Anyway my Uncle the Doughboy was affianced to a nice Jewish woman in Baltimore, and they planned to marry as soon as Uncle Doughboy won World War 1 and then sailed back to Baltimore with the other Yankee Doodle Doughboys.

The war ground to a halt with the 1918 Armistice, and all the American soldiers were supposed to march onto ships and sail back home to the USA.

Weeks passed, and thousands of American soldiers came home.

But no word from my uncle. His family and his fiancee were worried. No Uncle. No letters from Uncle.

My uncle's family got a car and drove to nearby Washington DC and went to many Army offices asking about their missing soldier.

Finally the Army found Army documents that said that he had chosen to take his Army discharge in France, and stay in France, and not sail home.

He had been in good health when he stopped being a soldier and became a civilian. The Army told the worried family they were not responsible for him anymore. If they wanted to find him now, they must contact the Red Cross.

The Red Cross in Washington DC telegraphed the Red Cross in France, and a Red Cross representative began trying to find my uncle. The Red Cross representative -- I don't know if it was a man or a woman -- traced him to an address in Paris, to an apartment building in a low-rent neighborhood.

The address was up 5 flights of stairs, and when the Red Cross agent knocked, the apartment door opened, and the Red Cross agent looked inside.

There were many empty wine bottles on the floor. There were many filled wine glasses on the table.

In a corner of the cramped apartment was a young French woman standing and posing in the nude.

Since his Army discharge, Uncle Doughboy had grown a pencil-thin moustache, was wearing a beret, and was painting the nude young woman on canvas with a palette and an easel and camel-hair brushes. 

There were 3 or 4 other men and some more pretty young French women in the apartment in various stages of déshabillé. The men seemed also to be recently discharged American soldiers.

Agents of the Red Cross cannot carry weapons or handcuffs of any kind, and they are not police officers, they have no authority to order anyone to come with them.

All the Red Cross agent had was his/her wit and mouth.

All I know is that Uncle Doughboy promptly sailed back to Baltimore, married his fiancee, and resumed his career in the tailoring and laundry business. My uncle and my aunt stayed married for about half a century and had a bunch of kids.


I don't think my uncle ever painted any more young nude women.

So ... if you were the Red Cross agent outside the cheap 5th floor apartment in Montmartre ... what would you say to the young American guy in the beret and moustache painting the nude young French woman, to convince him voluntarily to sail back to Baltimore and marry his fiancee and become a tailor and laundry guy?

VleePorn / Ingres' "The Turkish Bath" as Fujeira UAE stamp

 Click stamp to enlarge.

Leave A Comment if you want to see bigger clearer Louvre-size original of "The Turkish Bath" / "Le Bain Turc."

the death & birth of kings / or at least princes from big eu dynamo places / stay on designated trails / Gifts of Magi / House of Bread / M4 automatic assault weapon / poultry guts / Newton & Halley / vodka / Prince X-treme van Helikopter

Click on photos to enlarge.

Comments:

PatFromCH said...

    According to wiki it is expected that the Comet can be seen from the beginning of November untill around January with the naked eye, but be careful kids, this could be a standard candle. It will pass Mars and astronomers are having much fun debating wether the bugger will only pass the sun, plunge into it or be torn apart. I can remember the controversy around Shoemaker-Levy 9 and in the end it was absolutely spectacular so we will see. Let’s just hope it won’t be pissing cats and dogs over the skies in CH. The weather for activities like these in this country is lousy, I sometimes wonder how Herschel managed to cope with the weather in England.....

    I also would like to give a shout to Lou with 2 cover versions:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4XVJj4jER4
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEpSW7x6kpk

    Maybe he was an annoying bastard, a horrible man full of self-hatred, arrogance and an ego the size of Mount Everest but they don't make 'em like this anymore.
    Monday, 28 October, 2013  
 
Vleeptron Dude said...

    i am at this very instant, i happily and proudly found it in the Clean Clothes basket and wore it into town yesterday, my Hale-Bopp t-shirt personally signed by both Bopp and Hale.

    Wikipedia:

    Comet Hale–Bopp (formally designated C/1995 O1) was perhaps the most widely observed comet of the 20th century and one of the brightest seen for many decades. It was visible to the naked eye for a record 18 months, twice as long as the previous record holder, the Great Comet of 1811.

    Hale–Bopp was discovered on July 23, 1995, at a great distance from the Sun, raising expectations that the comet would brighten considerably by the time it passed close to Earth. Although predicting the brightness of comets with any degree of accuracy is very difficult, Hale–Bopp met or exceeded most predictions when it passed perihelion on April 1, 1997. The comet was dubbed the Great Comet of 1997.
 
    ======================

    Okay, we are getting into Important Matters here because with the appearance of great comets -- great enough to make souvenir t-shirts -- is also intimate association with the birth and death of Kings, and the winning and the losing of great battles.

ISTI MIRANT STELLA

so i got nothing to do today, maybe we move this discussion up from deep in the Comment Sewer of Vleeptron, and elevate it to its own Illustrated post. See next post.

    But comets is Big Stuff.

    Our Vice-President, Uncle Joe Biden, is regularly letting forbidden vulgarities and curses fly out his mouth and into live microphones.

    So when President Obama gave the opening remarks at the annual National Press Club dinner -- an event notorious for Naughty Public Behavior By The Rich & Powerful, accompanied by much alcohol-lubricated laughter -- he said:

    "I didn't want to come tonight, but Vice President Biden told me, "Mister President, this is a big fucking deal!'"
    
dunno what lurid art i gonna do yet, so this may take a few hours.


[a few hours of feverish hard creative work & filching pass]
 
Original image from which lawfully filched says it is

1024 × 1024 pixels

(we could have banged it up on MSPaint and read the Y pixel at the bottom to verify if the Austrians or Wikipedia were telling the truth or not telling the truth -- there is no allowable third possibility)

so maybe this Lawful Vleeptron Filch is also 1024 x 1024 pixels. Go further with this belief at your own risk. Vleeptron or its authorized agents Lenny & Spike deny all responsibility for what happens to you if you believe this image is 1024 x 1024 pixels.

Anyway, if you want the above signed by both Alan Hale and by Thomas Bopp so it can be printed out, framed and hung on your wall ...

(both amateurs, Bopp didn't even own a telescope, he saw The Thing thru a fellow amateur's borrowed scope and suspected strongly That Thing shouldn't be There)

... bite me. I got their comet signed on my t-shirt.

Call me, come over, I will model my signed Hale-Bopp t-shirt, U$0.50 per modeled foto or cel phone foto. I will smile or not as you wish. But no funny hats. just me and the signed t-shirt.

Wikipedia:

Bopp did not own a telescope. He was out with friends near Stanfield, Arizona observing star clusters and galaxies when he chanced across the comet while at the eyepiece of his friend's telescope. He realized he might have spotted something new when, like Hale, he checked his star maps to determine if any other deep-sky objects were known to be near M70, and found that there were none. He alerted the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams through a Western Union telegram. Brian G. Marsden, who had run the bureau since 1968, laughed, "Nobody sends telegrams anymore. I mean, by the time that telegram got here, Alan Hale [in New Mexico] had already e-mailed us three times with updated coordinates."[8]

resume vleeptron:
Bopp must had had a real Old Edition of The Book, because his edition said 

UPON CERTAIN BELIEF 

YOU HAVE VERIFIED COMET 

SEND WESTERN UNION TELEGRAM 

TO CENTRAL BUREAU 

FOR ASTRONOMICAL TELEGRAMS

CAMBRIDGE MASSACHUSETTS USA

so he did it Old School ... but Western Union still existed, he probably had to drive around to find a convenience store/gas station that did Western Union cash transfers in the middle of the night, but he found it and, as his Book had clearly instructed, sent the telegram to the office in Cambridge Massachusetts USA where the old book said.

yeah yeah well Flash Gordon's Amazo-Zapotronik e-mail Blast Ray of Instant Data to the Cambridge MA office's Inbox still got there the same time, so they both got to sign my t-shirt.

===========

Upon the discovery of ISON -- a thrilling, deeply human name, a name only the computer that first disseminated it to all sentients could love (it's Russian, I think they were passing around vodka at late-night Star Party) --

the 

V leeptron 
M inistry of 
W homp-
A ss 
C omets

has consulted its Astrologer and found and verified that a King died. I think he expired after ISON was first verified.

Well, okay, not a King. But a real Royal Prince of a Big and Rich EU powerhuis. He was like 3rd or 4th in line to throne, so he was n0t even waiting for The Cel Phone Call; he was X-treme Skiing Off Designated Official Trails in the Alps -- I think Austria -- and got whomped by avalanche, followed by
very long coma, ending in flatline and Todt.

Astrologer-Consultant (if you want to see VMW-AC CV & foto Leave Comment) says Prince X-treme van Helikopter satisfies the traditional paramaters for the King-Death-v-Birth nexus. (This is Logic v = vel = or, not politics debate or lawsuit or boxing prizefight v = versus.) So we got ourselves a Genuine Comet Here.

Look -- hahaha and rofl and all that, but the first time i crawled out of tent and stood up and saw That Big Thing in the Sky -- where I sure had never seen a Big Thing Like That ever in the sky before -- I was genuinely scared. A very limbic part of my head said:

The Sky Is Broken

I think that's at the center of the Human-Comet thing. Those things are up there in the sky suddenly without warning and it frightens you.

Well haha i have been to skool and got passing grades in trig and the calculus and took physics and know what Newton said and then what his drunk sailor pal Halley said. I know what them things are. i can program my box to tell you where The Thing will be next week (or at least i can give you url of SkyandTelescope.com ). I got comet's license plate number as it whizzed past.


And when you finally see comet in the sky, it scares you. and of course you can't see comet from your apartment sofa or balcony. You are in the wilderness, the deeper the wilder the better. Animal Things are making loud killing and screwing noises. It's dark, and if it's not, somebody yells 

TURN OFF THAT LIGHT

(Everybody carries little red-light flashlights, red does not degrade night vision.)

A fun thing to do in the coming ISON months will be to monitor astrology websites and horoscopes and see how the human-destiny-fate-comet link is showing up in the horoscopes. 

Are the world's astrologers on top of this green comet? Do they know about ISON? Do they care? Will ISON in sky be a propitious season to get my gall bladder removed? 

What do we do with or about an infant born under ISON? (Ætna in Sicily is currently available for -- but certainly not encouraging -- sacrifices.) What shall we name this child?

The Magi, the 3 Wise Men, were Babylonian and Persian astrologers, a star had guided them west to the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, to do him homage and bring him gifts (gold, frankincense and myrrh). Comets are always the leading suspects when Sky and Telescope writes its Christmas feature, but it is fuzzy and difficult to antedict the dates of appearance of an ancient comet, we'll probably never know which comet the Magi followed to Bet Lechem, the House of Bread. 

(it's a suburb of and an extremely challenging cab ride from Jerusalem. I hope you're not allergic to the USA-made or licensed M4 automatic assault weapon. Please buy and send me snow-globe or cheap souvenir from Manger Square, I pay you back.)

I would make a GREAT astrologer. I love the threads, the vestments, the cone hat with planets (Saturn with rings of course) and stars and comets on it.

And I can program computers. I would be the programmer coder astrologer. (Probably just Number Next of many Programmer Coder Astrologers.)

If it comes out the ass of a digital computer, it is science and therefore true. Freeman Dyson was originally supposed to present an intro to "2001," they stood him in front of MGM Elstree UK computer, which had been doing the payroll checques, but they had to shut the big IBM for filming because the bright movie lights screwed up the magnetic tape drives.

I think Kepler (Brahe's assistant at Uraniborg) said:

"Were it not for the Mother Astrology, 
the Daughter Astronomy 
would have starved to death."

What fees do Consulting Astrologers charge for an important augury? Do they have fancy suite in skyscraper with nice waiting room and New Age music over the speakers?

Or are they all in basement office room of their parents' house?

I do not read the future from poultry guts, but yesterday at the market I bought 1 pound = 0.453592 kg of chicken gizzards and hearts. I love gizzards. NostraBobus foresees boiling water, onions & garlic & breadcrumb bake.

Oh, the Consultant-Astrologer says the Afghanistan War will end while ISON is in the sky. Still not sure if Taliban or Karzai Kabul Force will win, but he says the heavens clearly predict NATO coalition loses bigtime. Maybe they march out over that Afghanistan–Uzbekistan Friendship Bridge like Soviet Army did.

Expect, Consultant-Astrologer tells Vleeptron, Big Stuff coming soon, preceeded by Signs. Like lots of women driving cars in Saudi Arabia. That's a Sign. You seen that before ever?

If you ski in Alps, stay on designated trails with lifts. No helicopter X-treme crap.

fly into the sun / Lou Reed

Click image to enlarge.

As the Vleeptron High Non-Junk Science Council recently reported, there is controversy among astronomers about what Comet ISON will do after it passes Earth and dives toward the Sun.

Some believe it will behave as almost all comets behave and whip around the Sun in a highly eccentric elliptical orbit, and then head back into far space, never to return in our human lifetimes.

But some think ISON will be drawn directly into the Sun's huge gravity field, and will smash into the Sun. And so ISON will cease to exist as a comet. Its constituent atoms will be absorbed into the Sun.

On Thursday Lou Reed died, age 71, at his Long Island home after a long struggle with liver disease. 

This was one of my favorite Lou Reed songs, maybe my favorite.

================

fly into the sun

from the 1984 album
"New Sensations"

by Lou Reed

I would not run from the holocaust
I would not run from the bomb
I'd welcome the chance to meet my maker
And fly into the sun
fly into the sun, fly into the sun
I'd break up into a million pieces
and fly into the sun

I would not run from the blazing light
I would not run from its rain
I'd see it as an end to misery
As an end to worldly pain
An end to worldly pain
I'd shine by the light of the unknown moment
To end this worldly pain

Fly into the sun, fly into the sun
I'd shine by the light of the unknown moment
And fly into the sun

The earth is weeping, the sky is shaking
The stars split to their core
And every proton and unnamed neutron
is fusing in my bones

And an unnamed mammal is darkly rising
As man burns from his tomb
And I look at this as a blissful moment
To fly into the sun
Fly into the sun, fly into the sun
I'd burn up into a million pieces
And fly into the sun

To end this mystery answer my mystery
I'd look at this as a wondrous moment
To end this mystery
Fly into the sun, fly into the sun
I'd break up into a million pieces
And fly into the sun

human rights gulag scum Martha and her palsy-walsy chats with the nice lady from public radio and TV

Click image to enlarge.

"Beat the Press" is a Saturday news commentary panel program carried by public television stations in Massachusetts. Emily Rooney, of Boston Public Radio WGBH, is the show's producer.

===============

Emily Rooney
Executive Editor, "Beat the Press"

Dear Ms. Rooney:

On today's "Beat the Press," you mentioned a recent chat you had with Attorney General Martha Coakley.

I am happy you are on such close, friendly terms with AG Coakley. This will certainly assist AG Coakley in her upcoming campaign for governor, and will guarantee you preferred and frequent broadcast access to a major candidate.

I view AG Coakley differently.

I thank heaven that she failed to win the U.S. Senate seat left by the death of Sen. Edward Kennedy. After a confused interregnum of the questionable Scott Brown, Massachusetts now has a smart, effective, dedicated senator in Elizabeth Warren.

In her series of criminal prosecutor offices, Martha Coakley has made herself Massachusetts' premier champion of incarcerating non-whites for dramatically disproportionate felony sentences. Much of this wretched and racist accomplishment came from new felonies and expanded mandatory minimum sentences Coakley drew up and submitted to the Statehouse, which promptly rubber-stamped her felony wish list.

After African-Americans and Hispanics/Latinos, Coakley's favorite incarceration target is young adults. And of course all poor accused, with the ineffective legal defense to which they have access, are Coakley's sitting ducks.

Very recently, with Coakley leading the charge, Massachusetts won the 50-state prize for disproportionate state felony incarceration of non-whites.

For decades, Coakley has been Massachusetts' leading and most powerful and notorious human rights violator. If she becomes governor -- with your friendly, admiring journalistic assistance -- she will ratchet up her career campaign of non-white felony incarcerations. Under Governor Coakley, Massachusetts may reclaim the 50-state prize of race-based and poverty-based felony incarcerations.

Coakley is Massachusetts' cog in the USA's world-record incarceration nation. The Land of the Free has more human beings behind bars than Russia. The Land of the Free has more human beings behind bars than the Peoples Republic of China.

In January 2008 the USA hit the benchmark of locking 1 of every 99 adults behind bars. Coakley's contributions as a county and state prosecutor were significant in this vile achievement. 

Politically, Coakley is Old School -- she gives (white) Massachusetts voters what they have always wanted: blacks and Hispanics in prison, and blacks and Hispanics and young people hobbled and crippled with lifelong criminal records, most for non-violent victimless acts.

Shame on you for cozying up and giving your journalistic access and preference to this creep. Do your job. Report on the politically powerful objectively and toughly, with neither fear nor favor.

Sincerely,

Robert Merkin

Chesterfield, Massachusetts

What To Do If You're Stopped By The Police / American Civil Liberties Union wallet card instructions

Click image to enlarge.

Print (with MSPaint) to wallet size & keep in wallet.

======================

POLICE OFFICER

Anything you say 

will be held against you.

BUSTED GUY

Uma Thurman.

Carl subconsciously helps Pat solve the PizzaQ while picking mushrooms in Elfenau / Vleeptron Dude wants to savagely murder Emily Dickinson / there, i've said it / feels great / bring euros or Bitcoin if u want to bid on Lichaam en Geest / unadvertised link: listen to an ethereally beautiful song & see a supergreat video

Click stamps to enlarge. 

This set seems to be for sale at Christie's. Bring money.

Who our close neighbors/Nachbarn are probably does taint/flavor/contaminate one's Weltanschauung ... but I am beginning to think too many strolls with Herr Doktor Jung -- I guess you called him Carl when you picked mushrooms in Elfenau -- have perhaps affected the way you grapple with and lunge at tough PizzaQs.

BUT ... you have indeed sniffed a distant connection that is indeed a valid aspect of The True Answer. 

(But still no pizza, not even a complimentary piece of garlic bread while you continue to tear your hair out and look for Klaas' fone number.)

... something like the bomb-and-drug-sniffing dog in the airport waiting lounge who got very excited at my wife's purse ... the paramilitary handler blushed and apologized, the doggie had made straight for a hidden wrapped tasty homemade sandwich. He does that frequently, explained the annoyed handler.

(btw, all the world's best sniff dogs speak only deutsches. This is true. Do not try to communicate with or distract your sniffer guard dog in French or English or Ladino or Papiamento.)

Twin small cities -- too lazy to look at map, but probably like Pest and Buda, separated by a river -- in the southern part of Illinois are Champaign and Urbana. Or Urbana-Champaign (often connected with the dash and considered as one city).

========================

GEOGRAPHY
CORRECTION &
RESEARCH UPDATE

Champaign is the COUNTY. 

Urbana, a pretty big CITY, is the County Seat.

(So if you're looking for hot Saturday Night Action, park the rental car in downtown Urbana. Send me a postcard.)

========================

To the ignorant and blind, Champaign-Urbana IL are/is the World's Capital of Boring Nothing. (They do have a big summer Corn [maize] Festival, a pal brought me back the t-shirt.) 

I cannot imagine the screaming horror of being a teenager in Champaign or Urbana.

But as you and Herr Doktor Jung have pointed out, there is more to Urbana than meets the eye.

Urbana-Champaign may actually be the world's capital of Not Nothing.

The Vleeptron Ministry of Pizza (MoP) can say no more at this time.

* * *

oh, my neighbors and their effects on my Weltanschauung -- 30 years of living 5 miles from Emily Dickinson ... well, this has a very heavy and entirely negative effect on the nicer parts of the human geest, and it doesn't help my lichaam either.

J’en ai assez d’être seul chez-moi
Ç a crève le coeur et puis le foie
J’éloigne les chiens
J’effraie les chats
J’fais peur aux petits enfants

Every year on Emily's birthday, you have to cross the street carefully so you will not be run over by big tour busses packed with Japanese (not Japanese-American, not Issei, Nisei or Sansei) Emily Pilgrims.

The same unexpected busses of pilgrims clog the parking lot of Green Gables (where Anne lived) on the north coast of Prince Edward Island.

Is it a crime to want to brutally murder a neighbor who died in 1886? Some religions very clearly say that the Sin is not in the Act, but in the Desire. You just think about it one time, and Straight to Hell Forever for you, boyo.

PizzaQ -- my new t-shirt!

Click image to enlarge.

Print image, have Paradise Copies make t-shirt. Wear it around town. Vleeptron guarantee you'll be the only person with this t-shirt.

(If you find another person with this t-shirt, start a conversation immediately. Get the person's phone number, e-mail addie.)

Best explanation of t-shirt image wins 1 Large Pizza with 4 toppings. (Not 3, not 5.)

PizzaQ Honor Code suspended -- Google your brains out, phone Klaas in Rotterdam, ask mom.

Flee for your lives! Buy gas masks! Comet ISON is heading this way!

Cliquez le fiche pour au faire plus grande SVP.

Okay we've known it was headed our way for more than a year.

Early in 2013 shortly after its discovery, the buzz throughout the Inner Planets was that ISON was sure to be The Comet of Your Lifetime. 

well you never seen anything like it!
you never seen anything like it!
you never seen anything like it in your life!

(-- Anthony Newley song, from "Doctor Dolittle," 
about the pushmepullya, the amazing two-headed llama.)

Comet Cock-Tease was guaranteed & certified to blaze in our skies as it passed near Earth, so fiery that you could see it clearly during broad daylight with the naked eye, or, for the modest, with just little eyeblouses. Its souvenirs and t-shirts  would kick-start the ailing economies of Earth, and boost hard times on Venus, Mercury and Mars. Minstrels were composing ballads in tierce picarde about the impending monster Comet.

What a show was on its way!

Now, alas, the latest bulletin from the Vleeptron High Non-Junk Science Council is that ISON is likely to join Kohoutek (1973) as one of modern times' most overhyped boring undistinguished silly comets.

Pull up a deckchair -- probably nighttime only -- buy a bag of trail mix, and Prepare for The Great Disappointment of Late October 2013. Pray for clear night skies, and if you got a telescope or binoculars or opera glasses or expensive telephoto lenses, pull 'em out of the closet. 

But you'll definitely see Comet ISON (with a modicum of luck), and she promises to be one real purdy Sky Thing (see photograph at top).

Now there's a controversy among Cometologists (I think I just made that word up) as to whether ISON will plunge into The Sun with an explosive bang, or just do the Normal Comet Ellipse Orbit thang, zip around The Sun, and then return back to the Oort Cloud, and hang way out there for -- well, the typical gazillion years. It will be back, but you won't ever see it again.

Watch This Space for the latest updates.

That's the cool thing about comets -- they lie, shamelessly, about how supercallifragialisticexpialidocious they're going to be when they zip past Earth. They promise to fry our eyeballs and sear our brains -- and then they make a little poofy fart noise and dive back to the oblivion from whence they came.

I flew to the desert near Alice Springs, Australia to see Comet Halley in 1987. And when the night skies finally stopped being grouse (local slang for crappy), Halley put on a very respectable show. We didn't have to bring our own telescopes; the Alice Springs Amateur Astronomy Society was kind enough to give us view time on their big spiffy scopes. (Most of them were Yanks who worked at the National Security Agency's supersecret Golf Ball Factory, local slang for Pine Gap, an electronic listening facility which does not exist.)

I love comets. If you don't love comets, bite me. Leave a Comment about comets you've seen, and when and where you saw them, and whether a king died, and who lost the big battle. 

I just met somebody who knew that Mark Twain came with the Comet, and went out with the Comet. If I want to see Comet Halley again, I got to hang around until about 2063. 

It could happen -- I finally stopped smoking! And 116.3 is the new 105!

scarecrow in the outhouse

Click image to enlarge.

public broken-bottle brawl re the Boy Scout leaders Goblin Valley teaching experience

===========================
Wikipedia:

[for Boy Scouts in the USA]
The Venturing Oath will be replaced by the Scout Oath in late 2013 or early 2014.

Boy Scouting

On my honor I will do my best
To do my duty to God and my country
and to obey the Scout Law;
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong,
mentally awake, and morally straight.

Venturing

As a Venturer, I promise to do my duty to God and help strengthen America, to help others, and to seek truth, fairness, and adventure in our world.
===========================

    730 Comments [to Salt Lake Tribune story]

Leave a message...

    jameskpolka
    • 4 minutes ago

    i spent a month in Salt Lake City one weekend.

    (this joke was found carved on mesopotamian ziggurat circa 5100 BCE)
   
    ammon1953
    • 17 hours ago

    i am struggling to believe these guys. and the new victim card is a nice touch (sarcasm)

        day_in_the_sun ammon1953
        • 17 hours ago

        Once, I was serving on a mission in Germany stationed in the army. I always felt, I was representing the US Army and the American people. I'm not big on scouting. I've never used a bowline mountaineering. You would think, they know their actions would reflect on scouting.

            ammon1953 day_in_the_sun
            • 17 hours ago

            you would think so. i am so embarrassed for the bsa. they (if they went to all the training they should) should know better. and i have to laugh about the comment that the video doesn't show the whole story; they took the video and put it on the internet. they must have thought the video explained the whole story.

            when were you in germany? my brother was there in stuttgart in the early 70's. i went over there the summer of 72 to be one of those american hippie bums.

                day_in_the_sun ammon1953
                • 17 hours ago

                I got to Germany in Feb 1973. I was in Frankfurt. There are times, I wish, I had stayed in Germany.

                    ammon1953 day_in_the_sun
                    • 17 hours ago

                    frankfurt is awesome. flew in and out of there and visited some of the local castles. did you get down to bavaria while you were there? i climbed the augspitz and the zugspitz.

                        day_in_the_sun ammon1953
                        • 16 hours ago

                        I went to Oberstdorf. I'm been to Munich. I hiked through Switzerland over the Alps to Locarno and into Italy.

                        We had a butter bar (2nd Lieutenant) come up with "adventure training. We ran for a couple weeks.

                        Then, we flew to a launch point on the Rhine River in Huey helicopters. We proceeded to set three OD green army rafts down the Rhine River.

                        We took off our uniforms and we pulled into small villages as we drifted down stream. We have a 2 1/2 truck following us, which we kept in communication with using Army PRC 23 radios call prick 23's.
                           
                            Winston7ok day_in_the_sun
                            • 2 hours ago

                            I sang and danced with Julie Andrews in the Alps.
                            Doe a deer....I digress...
                            C'mon guys.
                           
                   
                    ChairmanMauzer day_in_the_sun
                    • 16 hours ago

                    I think my Dad was at Ramstein Air Force Base around that time.
                        day_in_the_sun ChairmanMauzer
                        • 16 hours ago

                        That was called "USAFE."
                       
                            ChairmanMauzer day_in_the_sun
                            • 16 hours ago

                            Right you are.
                           
                            dongleberry day_in_the_sun
                            • 40 minutes ago

                            Get a room
                                                   Really? ChairmanMauzer
                        • 14 hours ago

                        I watched the Sound of Music.

                        (Equally pertinent to this story!) :)
                       
                            Mari Tatlow Steed Really?
                            • an hour ago

                            Ok, we'll stick with the SoM theme...the hills are no longer alive thanks to these three derps.

                    EliyahuBenYisroel day_in_the_sun
                    • 13 hours ago

                    Frankfurt is a great place. I spent part of 1969 stationed in Hanau with 3d Armored Div., about thirty clicks from Frankfurt 

                oxygen_isotope ammon1953
                • 14 hours ago

                KC Shaw wants $100 from me for friends of scouting. This doesn't build my confidence that it would be well spent.

                I say "would" because I'm through giving $$ to BSA.

                    ammon1953 oxygen_isotope
                    • 13 hours ago

                    friends of scouting money goes to the camps. if kc shaw asked me for $100, i would give him $200. he is awesome

                        oxygen_isotope ammon1953
                        • 2 hours ago

                        Hasn't KC asked you for it? We got that request from the pulpit in our ward.

                        KC is a great guy. It is scouting I'm sour on. I'm well aware that it goes to the camps--not the boys in the local troop--which doesn't help. The large salaries for council heads is one reason I'm sour.

                    Winston7ok oxygen_isotope
                    • 2 hours ago

                    Don't be a narrow-minded painter with only one broad brush.
                    Baby? Bathwater?
                    You know the drill.

                Winston7ok ammon1953
                • 2 hours ago

                I had a shrimp cocktail on the corner of Height and Ashbury, while Jerry Garcia lit and passed me his doobie.

        Jeannie Nunley Rasmussen ammon1953
        • 16 hours ago

        if they weren't laughing so much...they "might" be a little believable. And to think they let the kids play like that on that sandstone. What idiots.
       
            EgbertThrockmorton1 Jeannie Nunley Rasmussen
            • 13 hours ago

            These mental midgets, are scamming the public with their false claims of "making it safe".

I was in Scouting for 27 years consecutively(not in Utah) and served in LDS assignments on the Regional and Area level, as well as the Council level. I do not believe their claims from the video at all.

                RustyNail88 EgbertThrockmorton1
                • 12 hours ago

                I want another round of interviews with them. Can't wait to see what's tomorrow's story!!

                    Winston7ok RustyNail88
                    • 2 hours ago

                    These dopes are in very deep crud.

                Rianya EgbertThrockmorton1
                • 9 hours ago

                Their video contradicts their story.

                The first thing the do is boast about "changing Goblin Valley". Then he says "muscles here" did it -- obviously not dangerously loose, was it?
                It took more than one try to push the thing over -- in fact you hear one man saying "wiggle it" -- NOT an indication that it was about to fall and "crush" any children.

                In short -- these men are liars of the worst sort. They are liars who don't even accept their own evidence that disproves their lies. I'm wondering if there isn't some mental health issue here.

                flasher3333 EgbertThrockmorton1
                • 2 hours ago

                What does your LDS assignments have to do with anything?

        Winston7ok ammon1953
        • 3 hours ago

        Absolutely reprehensible beyond belief !!!
        What's next, Dip $#!+$ ?
        Tumbling Delicate Arch or Rainbow Bridge?
        Or maybe you can have a go at Bryce Canyon.

        The Taliban would love these guys. They're looking for dunderheads to tumble other antiquities, as they did the 1500 year old Buddha's of Bamiyan.

        *Ban them from Scouting.
        *Ban them from State and National Parks and Monuments
        *Ban them from the Gallivan Center.

        And ban them from anything which requires common sense.
        Good Grief!

        flasher3333 ammon1953
        • 2 hours ago

        Me too and they were worried that a gust of wind would topple that rock?
    
   wallst ammon1953
        • 41 minutes ago

        If he wasn't white the victim card would have worked.

    John Pace
    • 17 hours ago

    Their unmitigated jubilation when the ancient and wonderful rock fell says everything you need to know about their motivation.

        Fisch John Pace
        • 16 hours ago

        Agreed. The rock was in such imminent danger of falling and killing someone with a mere gust of wind, that it took what appears to be a 300-pound man considerable effort to knock it off of its perch.

The ensuing hillbilly-esque antics only demonstrates that they are extremely pumped about saving lives.

'MURICA!

            juvserr Fisch
            • 15 hours ago

            Before I heard they were LDS, I would have been sure they were hammered drunk, that's the only rational reason I could think of as to why seeming adults could act so moronic.. maybe they were blitzed, who knows.
   
            Sandy_Man juvserr
                • 14 hours ago

                They say texting impairs one's driving skills as much as drunkeness. Apparently certain attitudes are as equally debilitating.

                EgbertThrockmorton1 juvserr
                • 13 hours ago

                Probably could have been hammered, even IF they are claiming to be active LDS.

                    jameskpolka  EgbertThrockmorton1
                    • 12 minutes ago

                    you don't have to ask for an LDS i.d. card to smell the fragrance of barley and hops on their breath. they just needed to show age i.d. to buy the 24-case of Bud for their wilderness picnic.

                    Or maybe it was Duff -- this looks very much like a Duff-inspired video.
                  
        Pyrrho Nist John Pace
        • 12 hours ago

        And their organziation
       
        warorpeace John Pace
        • 12 hours ago

        I have seen far too many scout troops demolishing the outdoors and engaging in activities that are dangerous for the younger boys to think this is anything outside the norm for BSA. And now the activities are all approved by LDS local leaders. I wonder who is financially liable for the damages?

        Rianya John Pace
        • 9 hours ago

        That and them crowing about "changing Goblin Valley".

    Jack E Raynbeau
    • 17 hours ago

    Hall should have kept his mouth shut. Now we know for sure he's an idiot.

        Rarian Rakista Jack E Raynbeau
        • 11 hours ago

        Pretty sure the video was evidence enough of that.

    pineconethoughts
    • 17 hours ago

    They have no respect for a treasure in which they are told NOT TO TOUCH! They can not keep them selves from telling lies. I would at least have some respect if they were repentant and admit they
defaced/vandalized when they are told not to in park. Hikers are warned of the danger and the fragile formations are to be respected!

        DemDatDuz pineconethoughts
        • 17 hours ago

        Their teen-aged children were playing a game of "lava" where they jump from formation to formation? My children were allowed to take pictures and walk all around a natural wonder, and if they got a hankerin' to climb like kids will do, they'd just have to wait until we were somewhere else.

Something tells me stupid starts at home with these people.

            juvserr DemDatDuz
            • 15 hours ago

            My thoughts exactly - I remember trying to climb the cherry trees in Washington D.C. and getting my ears boxed by my scoutmaster.. but these guys let the kids jump on 'loose' boulders?

Please...

            RustyNail88 DemDatDuz
            • 12 hours ago

            So the story gets better (or worse) ! Now they admit to having their scouts jumping from boulder to boulder - it was my understanding that you could not climb on these formations, or can you?

Even if you were allowed, it is not safe nor appreciative of the environment.

        moab mike pineconethoughts
        • 16 hours ago

        yes, a conciliatory moron is much easier to stomach than an arrogant rationalizing one.

            EgbertThrockmorton1 moab mike
            • 13 hours ago

            You are giving him far more intelligence by suggesting he is arrogant and rationalizing.

I've seen potatoes in the grocery store, with higher IQs' than these clowns.

                Rianya EgbertThrockmorton1
                • 10 hours ago

                The arrogance shines through, though. They had speshul knowledge that the formation was "dangerous" -- oh so dangerous. I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't a vision involved -- possibly even a new chapter of the Book of Mormon revealed at that very moment.

                    Winston7ok Rianya
                    • 2 hours ago

                    Give your bigotry a rest.
                    Stupidity knows no bounds, as you demonstrate with every post.

            hlouise moab mike
            • 3 hours ago

            i don't stomach them at all. i've been pilloried about my political comments but these arrogant repubs who have a sense of entitlement through the wards think it is ok for their foolishly raised kids to do whatever they think they want. i grew up in a staunch mormon neighborhood. the mopubs did what they wanted and the rest of us tried to do what was right..

    Xposit
    • 17 hours ago

    ""I think we made the right decision, but probably the wrong method," Hall said Friday. Wrong again Mr. Hall, you made a very poor decision. You may want to secure an attorney and keep your mouth shut.

        Rarian Rakista Xposit
        • 11 hours ago

        Republicans like Mr Hall keep saying that Democrats are destroying this country but it is people like Mr Hall who are literally destroying this country piece by piece.

            B1976 Rarian Rakista
            • 10 hours ago

            I don't remember reading about their political leanings. Do you always blame all the world's dumb acts on people you don't agree with politically?

            Rianya Rarian Rakista
            • 10 hours ago

            Since Mr. Hall is Mormon the odds are very high that he is, in fact, Republican -- possibly even a Teabilly.

                B1976 Rianya
                • 10 hours ago

                And so most Mormons, Republicans, Tea Party members, and conservatives would approve of

what Mr. Hall did? Is that your deductive logic here? Maybe I'm putting words in your mouth unfairly.

But if we are going to yolk our political opponents to idiots, the Unibomber was a Liberal Democrat.

So...

                    Rianya B1976
                    • 10 hours ago

                    Yeah, you are putting words in my mouth. I was responding to Mr. Rakista's comment (which I now realize I read wrong). I thought he was claiming Mr. Hall was a Democrat and that
Democrats are destroying the country "piece by piece". Responding to you made me re-read it, though, and I realize now that Mr. Rakista knew already that Mr. Hall is most likely a Republican. But that
really was the extent of my comment. I don't often "imply" anything so if I haven't said it clearly then you are safe in assuming I didn't mean to say it. I have Asperger's and I am a little too literal to try and put messages between lines.

                    Utnomo B1976
                    • 9 hours ago

                    Most wouldn't care and would simply regard those rightfully pissed about this as a bunch of crybaby libs or some such thing.

                    Conservatives equate value with money and money alone. Rock formations have no monetary value (especially for themselves) so they have no value at all. They just don't care about
such things and don't care to understand what the fuss is about. This is the attitude that creates vermin like these and their little followers and lets them justify their actions...at least to themselves.

                        ctiffer Utnomo
                        • 2 hours ago

                        So, recently in the city I live in, there were some drive-by gang-gang-related

shootings in which some very young children were killed. Since the area that those reprehensible acts

took place are almost 100% Democrat, I guess I can use your same strained logic and state that

Democrats are in favor of reprehensible acts against children, because they don't put any value on

life. "They just don't care about such things and don't care to understand what the fuss is about".

"This is the attitude that creates vermin like liberals and their little followers and lets them

justify their actions...at least to themselves"

                    Michael Harris B1976
                    • 6 hours ago

                    and Ted Bundy was a republican, so what's your point? You want to do a comparison

of left and right criminals? McVey? I can go on for days.

                    Winston7ok B1976
                    • 2 hours ago

                    No they would not.
                    Nobody with half a brain condones these dope's actions.
                    They are an embarrassment to themselves alone.

            Winston7ok Rarian Rakista
            • 2 hours ago

            Put your politics down for just a moment, OK, Saul Alinski?

            Olleollo Rarian Rakista
            • 2 hours ago

            It's most likely true that these guys are Republicans, but why can't we keep politics out

of this?

            Golden Rule, right?

            All I know is that it's always a real drag when I see people's comments about left-wing

nut-jobs who despise children. I'm about as far left on the social-policy spectrum as they come and I'm

pretty sure I'm closer to being a dreaded socialist than I am to being one of those "free market"

capitalists, but I haven't eaten any children lately. I even have two that I try to keep fed and

clothed!

            These guys are unmitigated menaces -- who have clearly mastered the art of junior-high

level back-tracking and excuse making (kudos!) when caught red-handed doing something against house

rules -- but I don't think their political leanings are relevant.

            I'm afraid that name-calling and death-threats are going to start getting these guys

unwarranted sympathy.

    ChairmanMauzer
    • 17 hours ago

    These fools appear to be getting dumber by the minute. Maybe they assume that everyone is as

gullible as they are and believe the BS story that they were acting to keep people safe.

    Own up to your juvenile behavior and apologize, fully.

    Oh well, they're giving the prosecution plenty to run with.

    Lets hope the good ol' boys network doesn't win the day in this case.

        RustyNail88 ChairmanMauzer
        • 17 hours ago

        If a gust of wind was going to move it shortly, why did it take tubby as long as it did? Or is

he that out of shape that wind has more energy?

            EgbertThrockmorton1 RustyNail88
            • 13 hours ago

            He was able to expel flatulence to give him that extra bit of "power"...

    moderate_in_sugarhouse
    • 17 hours ago

    Utah White Trash - We have a tried and true saying around the West:
    "Idiot Utah Boy Scouts..."

    The worst, absolutely the worst, most clueless morons I've ever
    encountered in the back-country of the West are Utah boy scouts
    and especially their "leaders"...and here's yet another example of why these people are idiots.

        DemDatDuz moderate_in_sugarhouse
        • 17 hours ago

        Our Boy Scouts, thanks to this kind of local, thick-headed 'leadership,' have burned down

breathtakingly beautiful mountain forests and been drowned by the number in slot canyons in the south

and now I'm wondering how many Boy Scouts have witnessed natural formations being destroyed as a

'safety' measure by a really good person who was just a bit misguided by his intense love of children.

. .and wild animals, as he said.

            pcskier DemDatDuz
            • 16 hours ago

            Then there is leaving food and trash out at campsites leading to officials having to kill

bears, and in once case another Scout "Leader" being a "hero" like this numb-nuts and killing the bear

himself (said bear feasting on candy left out on the table by one of the cluess scouts being led by

this "Leader." Rule #1 in backcountry, don't leave food out. Unless you are a Utah scout.

                EgbertThrockmorton1 pcskier
                • 13 hours ago

                Oh, NOW you have done it! Inserting common sense into any comment about these slugs is

flat out wrong...:)

        Frank Justice moderate_in_sugarhouse
        • 17 hours ago

        It sounds harsh until I think of some of the scout leaders we have in my West Jordan

neighborhood.

        Pyrrho Nist moderate_in_sugarhouse
        • 12 hours ago

        You're too kind to those idiots by calling them the worst. You haven't seen Boy Scouts in

action from the South...Texas to New Jersey

            Stepfordson Pyrrho Nist
            • 6 hours ago

            Dumbest thing Obama did was reopen the national parks at the urging of the Utah gov'nor.

Yes, I know this was a state park, but these are also the kind of Utah businessmen who were losing

their shirts because their political leaders refused to fund the government.

        Winston7ok moderate_in_sugarhouse
        • 2 hours ago

        Broad Brush again?

    Hail_to_the_chef
    • 17 hours ago

    If in Utah all dangerous rocks should be knocked down for safety reasons, we'll have "do gooders"

such as these pulling down every balanced rock, arch and hoodoo in the state and it still won't be

"safe" until we put a metal grate over every slot canyon.

    ModerateDinosaur
    • 17 hours ago

    Sorry guys, but your argument about "dangerous" is a crock of cow crap. Quite trying to rationalize

your incredibly stupid actions and acept any forthcoming punishment.

        RustyNail88 ModerateDinosaur
        • 16 hours ago

        If I was him id stop talking. It just gets worse - his story actually made me think even worse

of him!

        AndyFelder ModerateDinosaur
        • 13 hours ago

        O I think we will just hear another excuse

        Stepfordson ModerateDinosaur
        • 6 hours ago

        They should be charged with reckless endangerment for doing what they were doing with minors -

they could have killed someone.

    chester_drawers
    • 17 hours ago

    Nobody is going to buy this BS. This looks like a classic example of someone doing something

stupid, then having an "oh %$%" moment when they realize this has become much bigger than they

anticipated, and is now desperately clinging to this ridiculous justification because they've panicked.

If a rock stands for millions of years, what is the likelihood that it is going to fall right as a

family walks beneath it. Also, people who are trying to protect the public aren't so obnoxious about

it.

        DemDatDuz chester_drawers
        • 17 hours ago

        Death threats from all over the world will do that to you.

        Can you imagine Al Qeada emailing them,"Dear Satanic Americans. . .Death to America...but

c'mon, you've gone too far this time, seriously, go die, will you, this just p*sses us off!"

        Or a Somalian war lord: "Dear Christian Demons, you are evil and the reason we die willingly

every day to rid the Earth of your kind including fighting off Seal Team 6 last week. . . but you have

more ballz than we do with that story about vandalizing Mother Nature in order to protect innocent

children and wild animals! Wow. . .just Wow!!"

            ammon1953 DemDatDuz
            • 17 hours ago

            or the daughter of the nigerian undersecretary "i can tell by your decisive actions that

you are one that can help me get my father's $15 million out of our country. please, what is your bank

account number so we can deposit the money there?"

                Really? ammon1953
                • 14 hours ago

                Tell her to send a picture first.

            EgbertThrockmorton1 DemDatDuz
            • 13 hours ago

            "Death threats"? Really? Not a chance that is true either. Produce proof, Chubbies, or shut

up.
                Winston7ok EgbertThrockmorton1
                • 2 hours ago

                With some lefty environmentalists?
                Of course it's plausible..

    mach_schnell
    • 17 hours ago

    P!ss-poor excuses for infantile behavior.

        Winston7ok mach_schnell
        • 2 hours ago

        There are no excuses, only twisted rationalizations from twisted minds.

    zionita
    • 17 hours ago

    They'd better be charged.

        utahwild zionita
        • 16 hours ago

        Or what? You'll form a lynch mob? A media drive to destroy them? Protest in front of their

homes? Make senseless comments on internet boards until they rush over and prostate themselves at your

feet and proclaim you royalty?

            zionita utahwild
            • 14 hours ago

            No, I'll protest the prosecutor who didn't bring charges.

            1stedition utahwild
            • 13 hours ago

            Good grief. Don't you, too, think they should be charged with vandalism? Or is a mindless

stunt like this okay with you?

                KXKVI 1stedition
                • 12 hours ago

                Probably the same individual that posted on KSL under a different screen name: "It's

just a rock. Get over it."

                Winston7ok 1stedition
                • 2 hours ago

                Did he say that?

            Restricted utahwild
            • 12 hours ago

            Yes to all the above...derp

            Utnomo utahwild
            • 9 hours ago

            I doubt he wants any prostates at his feet. Heads maybe...

    Frank Justice
    • 17 hours ago

    It astounds me that the neanderthal is sticking to, and believing fiercely, his story that his

felonoius act of wanton destruction of our public lands was an act that saved the lives of children.

This sounds more unbelievable than a storyline from the cable show "Homeland."

        DemDatDuz Frank Justice
        • 17 hours ago

        Let's pray he doesn't put together another crew and walk through Bryce taking care of all those

teetering public health threats.

        RustyNail88 Frank Justice
        • 16 hours ago

        Same here. Id be like look, I made a bad call - il learn from it. But no, he says he will do it

again. That's what makes people angry.

            laytonian RustyNail88
            • 16 hours ago

            He's Utah's version of Ted Cruz.
            "I'll hold my breath until I get my way"

                Restricted laytonian
                • 15 hours ago

                We already have wayyyyyy to many versions of those here as it is... we dont need this

jowly old elf to pile on top with the rest of them.

                EgbertThrockmorton1 laytonian
                • 13 hours ago

                Cruz has multiple Ivy League degrees, and can speak plainly. Chubby and Bubba have

degrees of sunburn and that's about it, as there are carrots in any grocery store in Utah, that have

higher functioning intelligence than the combined brain cells of these three lumps.

                Winston7ok laytonian
                • 2 hours ago

                Do you ever tell the truth?
                Do you actually think that Ted Cruz would condone such behavior?
                Put down your "Rules for Radicals" tactics Saul Alinski, and be objective for once and

avoid your one note samba of political non-sequiturs..

            ForwardUtah RustyNail88
            • 15 hours ago

            Arrogant and ignorant is no way to go through life but I'm pretty sure that's where this

tea bagger is now and will be forever. If you're a tea bagger the world is your sandbox - and YOU not

mother nature is in charge.

        matt9898 Frank Justice
        • 16 hours ago

        Not nice to insult neaderthals....

    MOOBY
    • 17 hours ago

    Keep your brats off of the rock formations. What do you think the trails are for?
   
    The Absent Minded Housewife
    • 17 hours ago

    You don't play "lava" on the hoodoos. Look, don't touch, morons.

        This comment [from EFIS] was deleted.

            The Absent Minded Housewife EFIS
            • 16 hours ago

            I can't imagine what you could mean.

                pcskier The Absent Minded Housewife
                • 16 hours ago

                I believe he is referring to the rather voluptuous photo you are using on your profile.

                    The Absent Minded Housewife pcskier
                    • 15 hours ago

                    Anyone can be voluptuous with polyester fiberfill and a lack of decorum. I used to

sell them on Ebay.

                EFIS The Absent Minded Housewife
                • 16 hours ago

                :)

            Jeannie Nunley Rasmussen EFIS
            • 16 hours ago

            ???
                           
                EFIS Jeannie Nunley Rasmussen
                • 16 hours ago

                Be of good cheer.....ChairmanMauzer didn't get it either.

                    Restricted EFIS
                    • 16 hours ago

                    Don't think you will ever "get it" either

                        EFIS Restricted
                        • 16 hours ago

                        Oh hahaha.....grow a pair, will ya.

                            Restricted EFIS
                            • 16 hours ago

                            Won't fit in the current attire.

                                EFIS Restricted
                                • 16 hours ago

                                I like it - it's sluttier than your last avatar....it suits you....

                                    Restricted EFIS
                                    • 16 hours ago

                                    SL-UT ah my home town... sadly.

                                        EFIS Restricted
                                        • 16 hours ago

                                        LOL - good one!

                            The Absent Minded Housewife EFIS
                            • 12 hours ago

                            Grow a pair, stuff a pair, what's the difference?

                                EFIS The Absent Minded Housewife
                                • 12 hours ago

                                :)

                    ChairmanMauzer EFIS
                    • 16 hours ago

                    Oh, I got it.

    preston simms
    • 17 hours ago

    the Only Thing They Will Get Is Talked To By The Bishop

        ammon1953 preston simms
        • 17 hours ago

        i don't think so. this is becoming big enough that i (hope) believe they will suffer

repercussions from bsa and the state.

            danolgb ammon1953
            • 14 hours ago

            BSA maybe, but there are pics of Shurtleff with Dave at Dave's house and we know how the

state AG office works. If you're a friend of Shurtleff, you're a friend of Swallow.

        Hucklenator preston simms
        • 11 hours ago

        I'm thinking he will get nothing but support at church. And more high fives.
       
            itchy Hucklenator
            • 2 hours ago

            I'm guessing you post things like that to troll responses. Or are you really so stupid that

you believe what you say?

    Catsmirk
    • 17 hours ago

    Given the statement, "Their teens, he said, "were playing a game called lava. You see who can get

furthest in the park leaping from top of rock to top of rock without touching the ground. …", it sounds like respect of nature and the environment is not something they are teaching their troops.

    myopinion100
    • 17 hours ago

    I made the decision that lives are more important than this rock staying here a few more hours....

Now that's a true mo_ron. Lil fella, don't think... You are not good at it. Stick with wearing

sandles... No ties...

    teancum
    • 17 hours ago

    I don't believe much of what these guys say, and I really don't believe they are getting any

serious death threats. I think that is probably an attempt to make themselves appear more sympathetic.

They did an extremely stupid thing. I asked my teenaged, Varsity Scout son what he would do if he say a

rock formation in a park that he thought was dangerously loose. He said he would report it the rangers.

If he can figure it out . . .

        laytonian teancum
        • 16 hours ago

        .
        Since there are signs telling you not to touch or climb the Goblins, how would you know one was

"loose"?

            cuteizzy21 laytonian
            • 3 hours ago

            Jumping form one rock to another (lava game) will probably loosen a few. The effort he used

in pushing that rock over makes me believe it was not as loose as they would have us believe.

    Restricted
    • 17 hours ago

    Excuses are fun aren't they Dave but we all know you were just getting your jollies in a most

pathetic way.

    Hope you enjoy the notoriety... you piece of excrement.

    TaterNutts
    • 17 hours ago

    While I don't believe he should be getting death threats over this...Does anyone reading this buy

that pathetic excuse of a story he's telling. A day has pass and this story is getting more fabricated

by the hour. I mean come on...that video speaks for itself.

        Restricted TaterNutts
        • 17 hours ago

        Kinda like lyin for the lard... whatever helps ya sleep at night right Dave.

        Pathetic waste of skin.

        Guest TaterNutts
        • 13 hours ago

        actually his reaction should be judged carefully, seeing a rock that big tip over would release

a surge of adrenaline causing them to react in excitement as they did. So although it seems

disingenuous the way they 'high fived' it is actually reflective of the adrenaline surge than anything

else. In the end, the lives of children are more important than rocks.
 
            Restricted Guest
            • 12 hours ago

            Not yours or their call and its lies anyway so go throw sock in it... and by the way dont

come by my house looking for donations to BullSA

                scout support Restricted
                • 12 hours ago

                It's just a rock, it's still 200 million years old except now it has a new spot 'down

there'

                    Rianya scout support
                    • 10 hours ago

                    It's a destroyed rock formation that stood for eons and would have remained

standing for centuries longer -- barring an earthquake or an idiot Mormon thinking they know better

than trained professionals because they're taught every twinge of heartburn is a message from the Lord.
          
                    Restricted scout support
                    • 9 hours ago

                    Idiot

                    Utnomo scout support
                    • 8 hours ago

                    Do us all a favor and don't go near anything you don't understand which is pretty

much everything.

            Rianya Guest
            • 10 hours ago

            Begging the question. There is zero reason to believe anyone's life was in danger --

period.

                Stepfordson Rianya
                • 5 hours ago

                They were endangered by their illegal activity within the park. Every jump on a

formation is an illegal activity. It is no different from jumping from tombstone to tombstone; and the

risk of damage to either the minors or the edifice is the same.

        ILV4FTBL TaterNutts
        • 11 hours ago

        I wonder if they caused more damage that is not on video. I bet it is not the first rock they

pushed over.

    Babyboomer
    • 17 hours ago

    Yes, you probably are getting threats. Given your lack of respect and common sense and the need to

boost about your poor judgment, all with your Scouts in tow. What did you actually think the public

would think??? You were in a ROLE model position and had the opportunity to teach our youth how we

respect nature and properly go about alerting Park Officials and allowing them to make the decision!

You are an embarra̲s̲s̲ment to your family, faith and community!

        ghoulie Babyboomer
        • 17 hours ago

        They were saving lives!! ha ha, what is the problem here?

    bedanged
    • 17 hours ago

    The pathetic poor me victim might work in Fast & Testimony meeting or with your Bishop but not with

the general population. This was a State Park and had nothing to do the Federal Shutdown. Ignorance is

bliss for these idiots from Utah County

    DemDatDuz
    • 17 hours ago

    We were running down the street, naked, to save the Earth from invading zombies and a dog ran out

and grabbed my back pack and ate my homework, made me late for work, caused my wife to leave me and not

pay my taxes.

    It's not my fault!

        ForwardUtah DemDatDuz
        • 15 hours ago

        So much for the party and church of "personal responsibility" - I guess that only the case when someone is watching.

    Too much fluff

    Stink-(I) — Been "biting" us since we lost the Fairness Doctrine.
    Letter: GOP is desperate, cowardly, suicidal
 
       6 hours ago
    Tumbleweed — Hey, the gov. was shaky. We just tried to topple it so no one would get hurt and need

health care.Makes …
    Second land art sculpture graces Green River

    BjTp — remember this is Utah, someone will probably push it over.
    Letter: Booted from Senate, Lee will need health care
       
    bgugin — I look at the AHCA as a starting point to clean up the corrupt Health BS we are forced to

live with under the …