Happy 4th of July!

Thanks to some other commitments of mine, t's been well over a month since I bothered updating the blog. But for those of you who are stopping by on Independence Day, I'd like to wish you a safe and happy Independence Day weekend.

White House, Democrats Announce New 'Berate Your Family' Charm Offensive For the Holidays

If you're travelling to visit loved ones this Thanksgiving or Hanukkah, the Democrats and Obama Administration have made it clear that they would like you to incessantly pester your loved ones about the merits of 0bamacare (or gun control) in an attempt to sugarcoat the flailing 0bamacare rollout.

From Obama's own website which shockingly, actually works:

This holiday season, millions of Americans have a chance to get quality, affordable health insurance—many for the first time. If you have family members who are uninsured, you can play a big part in helping them find coverage that works for them. It might not always seem like it, but your family listens to you. So have the talk.

He's actually encouraging people to print up these lying points and to, I don't know, recite them at Thanksgiving dinner? This sort of flies in the face of his reassuring back-patting and confidence in you being your family's healthcare policy expert if you have to rely on pathetic propaganda you printed up. It's got pretty colors and paint-by-number instructions, so maybe this shit will fly over at the kids' table, but I wouldn't be so quick to try this in front of adults. Hungry and varying degrees of intoxicated adults who just want to watch football and be left alone.

If you can't catch the Chris Hayes "how to talk to conservatives about Obamacare at Thanksgiving dinner" special, don't worry, the same thing has already been printed in a number of newspapers and magazines across the country. From WaPo: A guide to surviving Obamacare debates at Thanksgiving.

That's the part of the health-care law that isn't working. But in some states that built their own insurance marketplaces, Obamacare is working--and the health law is meeting enrollment projections. California, for example, has signed up 80,000 people for coverage and Washington has enrolled nearly 12,000. These examples are limited, but the suggest that the problem isn't with demand but a technical one. We won't know whether this is true everywhere, though, until HealthCare.gov is fixed.

[What they neglect to mention is that an estimated 900,000 people in California have lost their individual health insurance policies under 0bamacare, so even if the 80,000 figure is accurate the ratio of those who lost their insurance plans still vastly outnumbers the enrolled under California's 0bamacare exchange- NANESB!]

Yeah, go with that.

Next up, Huffington Post, who is not even trying to hide what side of this debate they're on: Here's Every Argument You'll Need To Win Your Obamacare Debate This Thanksgiving.

We've all got a crazy uncle we love. He might not even technically be an uncle -- it's not something the family likes to get into -- but he's there at Thanksgiving every year just the same, getting heavy handed with the 1.5-liter wine bottle, insisting on calling the dog "bitch," starting with off-color jokes that made people uncomfortable even before the country "evolved" and finishing with a tea party-inspired screed about the Kenyan in the White House. We'll call him Uncle Hank.
...
Those plans were terrible anyway -- high deductibles, no hospital coverage, dropped you if you got sick, etc. It wasn't insurance if you actually needed it. Cite an example from a family member here who's gotten screwed by an insurer. Shouldn't be hard to find.

Your plan sucks Uncle Hank, you dumb slack-jawed hick. Get over it.

Slate jumps in as well. They're not content with just bringing up Obamacare, they actually want you to fight about it: How To Pick a Fight With Your Relatives This Thanksgiving

2) Getting Started. First off, you should wait until everyone's seated at the table before you try to get things started. That way you have a captive audience that has to watch the fireworks, and everyone is settled in for a nice long time. Getting the topic of conversation to politics shouldn't be too hard. Stick to short, sarcastic, tendentious remarks to get things going. "I'm thankful for all that free stuff Obama gave me." Once you've engaged the enemy, it won't take much effort to pivot to whatever particular subject you feel most comfortable with. A good Thanksgiving skirmish will scamper from topic to topic wildly and without warning, but it's best to begin by digging into one particularly contentious subject to get tempers flared.

"Get in their faces". I remember someone saying that once.

There are others out there, even in local papers like the Denver Post and the Pittsburgh Courier. I'm sure there will be more before Thursday. But what if you don't feel like talking about Obamacare, what with the steady, embarrassing and collapsing failure and all? Well don't you worry one bit, because there are other liberal causes you can awkwardly bring up as well! Michael Bloomberg wants you to start talking about gun control, for instance.

Lovely people, aren't they? And of course, all coincidental.

Perhaps completely unrelated, the White House had a closed-door meeting with select journalists from the Washington Post, MNSBC, the Huffington Post and Mother Jones last week, reportedly to coordinate damage control over the 0bamacare rollout. The media has also been attempting to find positive stories about the 0bamacare experience in the wake of last week's meetings.

Despite the happy talk by some media outlets, a number of state-run 0bamacare exchanges had only a fraction of the anticipated number of enrollees- in some cases falling well short of projected 'worst case scenario' numbers.

[Hat tip- Ace of Spades; Weasel Zippers]

Keep Watching Those Skies- Summertime Perseid Meteor Shower Close To Its Peak

Jeff Rose- Jeka photography

Between baseball on the radio, the occasional thunderstorms, road trips, county fairs and fireworks, there's a lot for me to love about this time of year.

But I'd have to say that one of the most underrated events of summertime is actually the Perseid meteor shower, which usually slashes luminescent stitches across the night sky in mid-August. The peak for this year's meteor shower will be Monday, Aug 12th. All one needs to take advantage of the nocturnal light show is about an hour or so of spare time to gaze skyward in a fairly sparsely populated location.

This is nothing new- the Perseids have been observed by mankind for nearly 2000 years. The display is said to be caused by debris from the passing Swift-Tuttle comet breaking off and burning up high in the earth's atmosphere as the comet makes its way through our solar system. Many of these meteors are bright enough to be visible to the naked eye as they streak across the sky.

Lack of ambient lighting is key, which is why skywatchers highly recommend that anybody in densely populated urban centers head out to a state or National Park for less light and more open terrain. The National Parks out in the Western USA are ideal and are expecting an increase in visitors, with plenty of wide open spaces and miles away from many population centers.

The Perseids actually began a couple of weeks ago in mid-July and will continue for several days past Monday. I actually went for a fairly short 2 mile hike this weekend and literally lost track of how many shooting stars I saw while scanning the skies on the hike.

Moonlight will also be a minimal factor, as the moon will be at a waxing crescent (and setting relatively early) when the Perseids is at its peak.

Quick Blog Note- Gone Canvassin'

Just wanted to post a quick update that I will be travelling to my nearest friendly neighborhood swing state on the day leading up to the November 6th Presidential election, volunteering for the Romney/Ryan campaign.

While I figured my vote for Romeny/Ryan in my perpetually bankrupt and dysfuntional dark blue state wouldn't make much of a difference, I thought that I could perhaps offset that by spending time with other volunteers at the Romeny/Ryan campaign offices in a much more competitive state up the road. This was a last minute decision on my part, as I was uncertain about the roadworthyness of my car, not to mention the best route and travel time to the aforementioned swing state as well as my work schedule for the remainder of this week.

I will likely be doing alot of travelling on Election Day itself, but I have already voted by absentee ballot last week. As I'm writing this, the first polls are getting set to open in the tiny village of Dixville Notch, NH in about an hour.

Right now, there isn't a whole lot to do but encourage the few who are still sitting on the fence to go out and vote tommorrow and hope for nothing short of a Romney win beyond what columnist Mark Steyn referred to as 'The Margin of Lawyer'- a reference to the razor thin margin of the 2000 Presidential election.

Clear Eyes, Full Heart, Can't Lose.

Happy Halloween From Not Another New England Sports Blog

Well, for the second year in a row it looks as though much of the Northeast is going to have a Halloween with widespread power outages in the wake of a major storm moving through the area.

In fact, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has ordered that halloween celebrations postponed until Monday due to unsafe conditions throughout the state after the Garden State was particularly hard hit by Hurricane Sandy.

For those of you wondering, the enchanting little bruja [and voyeuristic pumpkin- NANESB!] above comes to us courtesey of pin-up artist Freeman Elliot. According to the Pin Up Files, this work from Elliot dates back to 1950 and is titled This Trick's a Treat.

Whatever your Halloween plans are, stay safe tonight- particularly if you have no electricity right now.

NOAA Denies Existence of Mermaids- Hipster Ariel Hardest Hit

In an announcement a few months too late for April Fool's Day, the NOAA issued a statement denying the existence of mermaids earlier this month.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was reportedly promted to issue the statement after fielding a number of inquiries from the public in response to the Discovery Channel airing a mock documentary called Mermaids: The Body Found.

"No evidence of aquatic humanoids has ever been found," the NOS said in a post on its website.

The conclusion was apparently not based on research but was drawn from publicly available resources.

"We don't have a mermaid service programme," a spokeswoman told the BBC, prompting sighs of relief from American tax payers.

At least two people wrote to the agency demanding answers after the Discovery Channel broadcast a programme called, Mermaids: The Body Found.

The show was shot in a documentary style and was described as painting "wildly convincing picture of the existence of mermaids".

When reached for comment, one bespectacled mermaid who declined to give her name defiantly declared "I totally existed- Long before it went mainstream!" without a hint of irony.

However, while cracking open a Pabst Blue Ribbon, the unnamed mermaid was reportedly contemplating trading her mermaid lifestyle in exchange for life on land and completion of her vinyl record collection.

Cherokee Group Demands Elizabeth Warren Come Clean About Claims of Native Ancestry; Moveon.org Warns They May 'Pull the Plug' on Warren Campaign

Most likely NOT one of Elizabeth Warren's ancestors

While Massachusetts Democrats would like nothing more than the whole issue of Elizabeth Warren's bogus claims of Cherokee ancestry would go away, actual members of the tribe are keeping the issue alive and liberal fundraisers fear that it may be costing her campaign money.

A group consisting of more than 150 Cherokees have started up a blog and Facebook page titled Cherokees Demand Truth From Elizabeth Warren which includes a page highlighting her family's genealogy. From the 'About Us' section:

This is NOT a political group, but instead, a group that demands Elizabeth Warren and others like her understand OUR history belongs to us and no one has the right to try to rewrite it or make up fictitious stories so they can fit in it or take advantage of it. Only those who meet the requirements under Cherokee law should claim to be Cherokee. We hope to help educate the public on what is and is not true about our history and also why the false claims like Elizabeth Warren is making are harmful to the Cherokee people.

So far, Warren has replied to inquiries about whether or not she used her claims of minority status with boilerplate remarks about how she promises to help the middle class.

Also probably no relation to Warren, despite the high cheekbomes- but still worth looking at

Officials from progressive group move.org have cautioned members that they may have to pull the plug altogether on supporting Warren's campaign, citing a shortfall of cash and a primary challenge from immigration attorney Marisa DeFranco. Should DeFranco win at least 15% of the delegate's votes at the Massachusetts Democrat Party's Convention in Springfield, MA, she'll appear on the September primary ballot. While Warren has managed to raise millions of dollars, much of it from out of state, DeFranco has yet to surpass $50,000 in fundraising.

UPDATE- 6/1: This is too good to pass up- nervous Democrat delegates are being warned not to wander from the reservation ahead of the state convention in Springfield, MA this weekend.

Meanwhile, members from the Cherokee group have made plans to protest Warren outside the convention venue on Saturday.

Meet Convicted Bomber, Drug Trafficker and Democrat Activist Brett Kimberlin

Why is it that the progressives in this country seem to go out of their way to embrace murderers and terrorists like Bill Ayers or Mumia Abu-Jamal?

While not as high profile as the Weather Underground terrorist-turned-college-professor or the convicted Philly cop-killer, this deboinaire fellow above is convicted drug trafficker, unrepentant bomber and progressive attack dog Brett Kimberlin.

During September 1978, the Indianapolis suburb of Speedway, IN was rocked by a series of bomb blasts including one that gravely injured Vietnam veteran Carl DeLong outside of Speedway High School and another that destroyed a parked Speedway Police cruiser.

Investigators were able to piece together enough evidence that led them to the store that sold the device that was used as the timer- clerks who were able to identify Brett Kimberlin from a photo array. Kimberlin ran a vegetarian resturant called to Broad Ripple that local police believed was a front for drug trafficking.

In late July 1978, 65-year old Julia Scyphers was shot to death by a man who knocked on the door of her Speedway home. While looking for a motive, police learned that Scypher's daughter, Sandra Barton, worked at the Broad Ripple. A few weeks prior to the murder family dispute, Scyphers had expressed concern that one of Sandra's co-workers expressed an inordinate interest in her 10 year old granddaughter Julia. Police suspected that Kimberlin was involved in the shooting and had set off a series of bombs in Speedway as a distraction.

That September, a Speedway print shop notified the United States Army after a suspicious customer requested that a quantity of military ID cards be reproduced. On September 20, the customer returned wearing a security guard's uniform with a Department of Defense insignia. The customer turned out to be Brett Kimberlin and the DOD insignia was fake. An Army Criminal Investigative Divison investigator was in the shop waiting for Kimberlin and arrested him for wearing the bogus DoD badge. Local police investigating the Speedway bombings obtained a search warrant for the car that Kimberlin had driven to the print shop. In the trunk, they found traces of Tovex- the water gel based explosive used in the Speedway bombings- and four devices similar to the timers used. Although investigators felt that they had their man, they didn't immediately pursue charges because they needed to further bolster their case.

A few months later Kimberlin got himself arrested again. He was in Texas with another man, trying to rent a small airplane. Investigators down there soon found out that the men had also rented construction equipment with which they'd built a small landing strip in the desert. On the night of Feb. 16, 1979, federal agents watched as a plane loaded with Colombian marijuana approached the little airstrip. But there was a heavy fog that night and the pilot radioed that he could not land at the makeshift airport and would have to set down at real airport nearby -- but that meant he had to dump the cargo from the air. The men on the ground, and the agents observing them, converged in the desert. Nine men were arrested, including Brett Kimberlin.

Although investigators couldn't conclusively tie Kimberlin to the murder of Julia Scyphers, in 1980 prosecutors charged Kimberlin with the Speedway bombings. Although the first trial ended in a hung jury, Kimberlin recieved a 12 year sentence for impersonating a DOD security guard on top of his 4 year sentence for drug smuggling in Texas. After a second trial in Indiana, Kimberlin was convicted of illegal posession of explosives while a third trial resulted a conviction for the Speedway bombings and a 50 year prison sentence.

While in prison, Kimberlin kept busy studying up on the law before fabricating stories about selling pot to then vice-president Dan Quayle and suing the Federal Bureau of Prisons for depriving him of his right to play electric guitar while incarcerated. While Kimberlin was incarcerated, Carl DeLong committed suicide due to the injuries he recieved from the bomb Kimberlin left outside of the Speedway High School.

In 1983, DeLong's widow won a $1.6 million judgement against Kimberlin in a civil suit. After serving only 13 years of his 50 year prison sentence, Kimberlin was paroled in 1994. However, his parole was revoked in 1997 after he made no effort to pay the DeLong judgement. By 2001, Kimberlin was once again released from prison.

After his release, Kimberlin involved himself with a number of progressive organizations while maintaining that he was exonerated of his crimes in a some secret and undisclosed deal with the government. Kimberlin co-founded a left leaning organization called Velvet Revolution with liberal blogger Brad Freidman, as well as another group called the Justice Through Music Project. Both organizations recieved substantial donations from singer Barbara Streisand and the George Soros-funded Tides Foundation. Some of the victims of Kimberlin's lawfare theorize that the lawsuits are attempts by the domestic terrorist to secure the names and home addresses of additional bloggers to harrass and stalk.

Since at least 2010, Kimberlin reportedly put his jailhouse lawyer expertise to not only threaten conservative bloggers with nuisance lawsuits and baseless criminal complaints, but also calling employers and families of bloggers and making thinly-veiled threats. The basis for these lawsuits? The bloggers pointed out Kimberlin's extensive criminal background, which is a matter of public record.

More disturbingly, those who have run afoul of Brett Kimberlin or Brad Freidman have found themselves on the recieving end of a malicious prank known as 'Swatting' where an anonymous individual dials 911 claiming to have murdered somebody before giving the dispatcher the victim's home address, prompting an armed response from a SWAT team. The caller generally uses Skype and remains anonymous after hiding behind anonymous IP proxies while making the call.

In his final interview before his February 2012 death, conservative web publisher Andrew Breitbart mentioned in passing a 2011 incident in which an LA County Sheriff's SWAT team was summoned to the home Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney and conservative blogger Patrick Frey in the middle of the night. A similar incident reportedly took place in New Jersey the same week. Frey, who blogs under the monicker Patterico posted audio of the 911 call on his blog.

Earlier this month, Kimberlin apparently contacted the wife of blogger Robert Stacy McCain's employer. As a precaution, McCain and his family vacated their home before a convicted bomber could come a-knockin' or send a SWAT team to his house under false pretenses. The Other McCain continues blogging from an undisclosed location after alerting the authorities of Kimberlin's attempts to communicate with him.

Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said that Kimberlin's lawfare and harassment of conservative bloggers comes as no surprise. The senior senator from the Beehive state said that he and a staffer were on the recieving end of a civil suit from Kimberlin in 1999 claiming that Hatch's office involved itself in his 1997 parole hearing.

In response to Kimberlin's escalating lawfare, harassment and attempts to stifle the first amendment rights of right-leaning bloggers and social netorking users such as The Other McCain, Liberty Chick, Patterico and Ace of Spades a number of conservatives on twitter and the blogosphere have declared May 25th as 'Blog About Brett Kimberlin Day'. Not only is this an attempt to bring the disenfectant of sunlight onto Kimberlin and his Democrat supporters in hacker group Anonymous and the Occupy Wall Street movement, but it should also raise the very valid question of why exactly Speedway bomber Brett Kimberlin is a free man.

[hat tip- The Lonely Conservative; Ace of Spades; Patterico]

Tea Party Marine Discharged From Corps For Facebook Posts Critical of President Obama

The United States Marine Corps has announced the discharge of a Marine sargeant who posted several messages on his Facebook account critical of President Obama. The discharge also carries with it an automatic demotion to lance corporal- or the E-3 paygrade.

Sgt Gary Stein, 26, a Temecula resident, ran afoul of Marine Corps and Pentagon regulations restricting troop political activity by calling for Obama's ouster and making statements that the president was the "enemy" and that he would not follow his orders unless he considered them lawful.

Stein, who could not be reached for immediate comment, was informed of the decision Wednesday morning, according to one of his attorneys, Gary Kreep of the United States Justice Foundation.

"He is very disappointed," Kreep said. "His grandmother died last night and then this hit him."

Stein will now fight for reinstatement through Marine Corps legal channels and continue pressing a court case, Kreep said. Earlier this month, he unsuccessfully sought to persuade a federal court to issue a restraining order or preliminary injunction to stop the separation.

In a statement issued late Wednesday morning, the Marine Corps said Yoo had reviewed the findings of a separation board that unanimously recommended earlier this month that Stein be kicked out after nine years of service.

"The Commanding General found that the board was conducted in accordance with law and regulation, that the findings of misconduct were supported by the evidence of record, and thus has approved the board's recommendation that Sgt Stein be separated from the Marine Corps with an "other than honorable" discharge," the Marine Corps statement said.

A Marine separated as a result of adverse conduct can receive an other than honorable characterization of discharge if the basis for separation is the commission of a serious offense which is a "significant departure from the conduct expected of a Marine."

Stein was also a member of the Armed Forces Tea Party Patriots- the offending commentary was reportedly left on the groups Facebook page.

According to court documents, Stein posted "'Obama is the economic enemy ... He is the religious enemy ... he is the 'Fundamentally change' America enemy ... he IS the Domestic Enemy" in one Facebook update. Stein's critcisms of President Obama would be perfectly legal under the First Amendment in the civilian world, his statements wouldn't neccesarily enjoy the same protections under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Although I think that Stein's comments should call for some sort of disciplinary action [short of discharge- NANESB!], one has to wonder why the Pentagon wasn't keeping as close an eye on the Facebook page of- oh, I dunno...let's say Bradley Manning as the were Sgt. Gary Stein.

Hop to It- Japanese Patrons Flock to Nagoya 'Bunny Cafe'

Seriously- when I heard that Japan had a bunny-themed restaurant, I figured it would be an eatery where the waitstaff would look like this:


I mean- c'mon, it's Japan. They already have such a thing as 'Maid Cafes'- which are dining establishments staffed almost exclusively by young women in maid outfits. Seriously, go ahead and check Wikipedia, I'll wait.

Anywhoo, although the Year of the Rabbit has come and gone, I thought Easter might be as good a time as any to highlight an article I recently saw about an offbeat dining experience in Japan.

For at least one cafe in the central Honshu city of Nagoya they really mean actual bunnies. And they're not on the menu, either.

It seems as though most apartments in Japan prohibit renters from keeping pets. To offset that, Nagoya's Usagi-to-Cafe (or Rabbit & Cafe) offers patrons the chance to play with a number of pet rabbits kept on the premises. The cafe also serves coffee, dishes decorated to look like rabbits and rabbit pottery.


Usagi-to-Cafe is a variation of a cat-themed Tokyo restaurant called Cafe Calico where patrons can dine or play with cats kept on site. While not as clean and fastidious as cats (who can mingle in the dining area with the patrons) the rabbits are kept in an enclosure separate from the dining area [this is making me wonder if they had any ads with whoever did the Japanese voiceover from the movie version of Lennie from Of Mice and Men- NANESB!].

Cafe patrons are charged a ¥900 (about $11) cover charge and an additional ¥100 per minute to cuddle or play with one of the 18 rabbits on hand. Usagi-to-Cafe also has a BYOB policy- as in 'Bring Your Own Bunny'- where owners can bring their pet rabbits to socialize with the cafe's own rabbits.

Conservative Blogger, Pundit, Author, Entrepreneur Andrew Breitbart Dead at Age 43

Internet publisher and founder of the 'Big' series of conservative websites Andrew Breitbart died of apparent natural causes early Thursday morning.

Breitbart was walking near his house in the Brentwood neighborhood shortly after midnight Thursday when he collapsed, his father-in-law Orson Bean said.

Someone saw him fall and called paramedics, who tried to revive him. They rushed him to the emergency room at UCLA Medical Center, Bean said. Breitbart had suffered heart problems a year earlier, but Bean said he could not pinpoint what happened.

Breitbart was a prolific commentator who founded several websites devoted to covering politics, entertainment and everything in-between. Earlier in his career, he worked for the Drudge Report before breaking off to start his own outlets -- including Big Government, Big Hollywood and Breitbart.tv.

Perhaps Breitbart's best known for upstaging Congressman Anthony Weiner's press conference in June 2011 and demanding an apology from the Congressman shortly before the Brooklyn Democrat adressed the media, confessing to sending sexually explicit mesages via Twitter from his office and fabricating a story about his account being hacked. Weiner would resign within a few weeks and his heavily Democrat district went to Republican Bob Turner in a September 2011 special election.



Breitbart was also a prolific user of Twitter- sometimes retweeting hate-mail and death threats as often as he used the social network to promote the newest articles on his own 'Big' websites. Unsuprisingly, the hate-tweets directed at him continued when news of his death broke.

While not as big a follower of the Breitbart family of websites as other bloggers, I actually did hear a live interview with him on the Hugh Hewitt radio show what turned out to be a few hours before his death. Besides fielding questions about an ongoing dispute between him and Current TV's Keith Olberman and Simon Schuster, Breitbart also defended his taste for early 80's alternative music when pressed by the host.

Breitbart typically displays the following quote on his 'Big' websites.

"I love my job. I love fighting for what I believe in. I love having fun while doing it. I love reporting stories that the Complex refuses to report. I love fighting back, I love finding allies, and -- famously -- I enjoy making enemies. Three years ago, I was mostly a behind-the-scenes guy who linked to stuff on a very popular website. I always wondered what it would be like to enter the public realm to fight for what I believe in. I've lost friends, perhaps dozens. But I've gained hundreds, thousands -- who knows? -- of allies. At the end of the day, I can look at myself in the mirror, and I sleep very well at night,"

Breitbart also authored a number of books books including Hollywood, Interrupted and Righteous Indignation- the above quote appearing in the latter. Reportedly, Breitbart had recently completed a follow-up to Righteous Indignation.

The Calm Before the Storm

Well, here we are- less than 24 hours to go before the big game. When the NFC championship went final, my first thought was that two weeks was a fairly reaonable amount of time between Championship Sunday and the Super Bowl. If there were any injuries [such as Gronkowski's, let's say- NANESB!] two weeks is a pretty reasonable time to convalesce.

Heck, I even thought that during the Pro Bowl last week.

However, as the hype that's been building up around the Super Bowl, Media Day and the halftime show performane over the past week, I felt compelled to paraphrase Monty Python: 'Get on With It!'. So if you've noticed a distinct lack of pre-game coverage on my part, chalk it up to a lack of interest in these pre-game rituals and traditionds that I think cross the line into absurd.

Even though they're not heading into the Super Bowl undefeated like the last time, I like New England's chances. Yet just like Vancouver's 2 meetings with Boston in the regular season prior to last season's Stanley Cup Final, I don't think we can take away too much from a regular season meeting between the Patriots and Giants in Foxborough.

Supebowl XLVI between the New England Patriots and New York Giants gets underway at 6:30 PM ET on NBC.

With that said, go Patriots!

End of the Year Appeal From Not Another New England Sports Blog!

I seldom go into my personal affairs on this blog because let's face it....isn't there enough of that crap going around on the social networking sites to begin with?

However, I lost my grandfather not too long ago. As it turns out, this past week was our family's first-ever Christmas without him.

The final few years of his long and rewarding life was spent in a retirement home like few other- the Firemen's Home of New York State. The facility- located in Hudson, NY- is designed to accommodate volunteer firefighters from throughout New York State as well as their spouses. The camaraderie that goes with their trade extends into well into retirement at this facility. Aside from some of the traditional nursing home activities like bingo, other activities include group visits to parades and local firehouses. Physical therapy for the FASNY Firemen's home members also includes working on structures and rolling stock for the N-Scale F&H Model Railroad Association (altho' I understand they recently upgraded to a bigger O-Scale layout).

In 2007, a brand new $25 million 126,000 square foot facility opened up adjacent to the original 1892 Home [which had beer on tap and accommodations for family members staying overnight- NANESB!]. Both the new and the old Firemen's home are adjacent to the FASNY Museum of Firefighting. The Museum houses vintage firefighting apparatus and exhibits from across the country and around the world while the Members of the Firemen's home serve as docents.

In 2009, less than two years after the new Firemen's home opened its doors, it was reported that a number of cost-cutting measures were undertaken to ensure the long-term viability of the facility. The FASNY Board of directors said they were looking at a number of measures to reduce operating costs throughout the organization, including the Home.

The home itself is reportedly funded through a combination of donations, Medicare reimbursement, resident fees upon admittance to the Home and fees paid by out-of-state insurance companies to local Fire Departments as well as fundraising activities on behalf of the Home throughout New York State.

Not surprisingly, donations have been off since the late 2008 economic crisis and subsequent recession.

And this is where I'm asking you, good reader, to pitch in. I have already donated multiple times this year and plan on continuing to do so at different points throughout 2012. If you're so inclined, you can donate online or even provide some items from the Administration's current 'Wish List'. Keep in mind that the FASNY Firemen's Home is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, meaning that donations are tax-deductible.

Many thanks in advance for your consideration of support to this organization that has meant so much to our family.

Merry Christmas From Not Another New England Sports Blog!

Like so many other Americans, Christmastime is usually a time for me to hit the road and visit various relatives scatteres throughout the northeast.

Odds are that I'll be away from the internet for awhile, but I wanted to take this opportunity to wish my regular visitors a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year's.

You'll probably recognize the above image as Bettie Paige. Despite the classic imagery, almost timeless imagery, this is a fairly recent work from contemporary pin-up artist Olivia DeBerardinis. Besides a vast portfolio of images centering around Bettie Page, DeBerardinis works also appears regularly in Playboy and has gained something of a cult following both here in the USA and overseas in Europe and Japan.

Interestingly, Olivia's rendering of Paige is actually tamer then the real-life photo shoot with Paige (with Bunny Yeager on the other side of the lens) featuring the raven-tressed pin-up decorating a Christmas tree wearing not much more than a Santa Hat.

Dispatches from The Wonder Years

While growing up in the hinterlands of Western New England, the rabbit ears would catch the signal from the nearest ABC affiliate often enough for me to see The Wonder Years on a pretty regular basis.

The story centered around the day-to-day exploits of adolescent Kevin Arnold (played by Fred Savage) and his family growing up in the suburbs- presumably in an unnamed California municipality- during the tumultuous late 1960s while his older self was often narrating events off screen with the benefit of some introspection and hindsight 20 years later.



And what TV or cinematic depiction of adolescent slice-of-life would be complete without a first crush? In the Wonder Years, that was the button-cute Winnie Cooper (played by Danica McKellar) who would have an on-again, off-again relationship with protagonist Kevin as the series progressed. Interestingly, the recurring role of Kevin Arnold's antagonistic classmate Becky Slater went to Danica's younger sister Crystal.

The series remained on the air until the 1990s and has since been airing in Syndication on the Nickelodeon networks. I'm not 100% sure what the appeal was for me at the time- while there were a few similarities, it wasn't as though the protagonist's life and mine followed similar trajectories [altho we both ended up working for a Chinese restaurant in high school; there was no Wonder Years episode that centered around heavy snowfall or moving out of state, things didn't go nearly as well with my 1st crush and I don't recall Kevin Arnold spending two weeks at Volleyball camp where he was the only male out of 20 or so people. I'm just sayin'- NANESB!].

After the Wonder Years run, Savage would go on to act in some films and other TV Series, including Working and direct episodes of Ugly Betty, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Modern Family and Two Broke Girls.

Danica McKellar, on the other hand, hasn't been quite as visible in TV or film since the Wonder Years wrapped up. 'Why is that?' you might be asking 'What has she been up to since then? Shoplifting? DUI? Drug Possession? Assault conviction? Rehab?'.

Worse than any of those.

She's on Twitter.

Wonder Years star McKellar (in yellow) on USO Tour with Salma Hayek, Garrett Morris and Johnny Grant in 1999- Life Magazine photo

Actually, before the advent of either Twitter or social networking, McKellar earned my gratitude as an infantryman in the United States Army when she toured with Salma Hayek, Saturday Night Live's Garrett Morris and radio personality (and USO ambassador) Johnny Grant with the USO in the late 1990s, visiting the troops in Kosovo.

Usually when I use the phrase MENSA, I typically do so in the snarkiest and most ironic manner possible, but McKellar has demonstrated a MENSA-caliber intellect when it comes to mathematics. While she has managed to land a few roles post Wonder Years, McKellar graduated from UCLA Summa Cum Laude in 1998 and its safe to say is the only child star out there who has a mathematical theorem bearing her name; the Chayes-McKellar-Winn Theorem.

Danica has also gone on to write a pair of books designed to make mathematics studies more appealing to teenage girls- Math Doesn't Suck and Kiss My Math. She also was kind enough to strip down to her lingerie and do some photo shoots for Stuff and Maxim in 2005 and 2010.

While on Twitter the other night, somebody in my timeline had less-than-kind things to say about McKellar's Winnie Cooper character. I replied that she gets a pass as far as I'm concerned because A) She toured with the USO while I was still serving and B) when all is said and done, it's just a TV show.

While checking my account a few hours later, I was pleasantly surprised to receive this message from 'Winnie Cooper' herself.

I have to say, that made my evening. I wasn't really expecting to hear from her at all, and I'm glad to hear from Danica herself that touring with the USO left an impression on her.

These days, McKellar is keeping busy by raising a family, getting ready to release a 3rd math-centric book and has landed some leading roles in a few SyFy Network movies as well as some guest appearances on CBS's The Big Bang Theory [which given the premise of the show, would seem to be right up her alley. Not sure if they have her typecast as 'hot mathematician' yet- NANESB!]. Her son Draco, who just turned 1 in September, had already been to his first Dodgers game.

So just in case there was any question, yes- girl-next-door Winnie Cooper is all grown up.

Although she's spoken for, if that seemingly all-to-rare combination of beauty and brains holds any appeal to you, in addition to her twitter feed, you can also see what Danica's been up to lately at her official website as well as her Facebook page.

Just don't quiz her on the Wonder Years- she may not do as well as you'd expect.


Say- did I mention that McKellar was on the same USO tour as Salma Hayek? Ah, to be driving the Humvee carrying the both of them....

Text Messages Reveal That Police Officers in Denver Were Texting What everybody Else Was Thinking About #OccupyDenver & #OWS

CBS News Photo

A 30-page dossier of car-to-car text messages from police officers during the height of the #OccupyDenver protests earlier this fall was released by the Denver Police Department was released to the public this week.

The overwhelming majority of the messages contained routine and mundane observations of the protesters movements, but the Denver Post has thoughtfully compiled some of the messages in which certain police officers make clear their disdain or fatigue in dealing with the #Occupy demonstrators:

Oct. 1: ... did you see all those crazy youtube videos of the ny police and the protesters? crazy stuff!

Denver protesters are too pathetic for us to have anything like that.

Oct. 13: probably little problems from the "real" protesters, but the grungy hippies and the usual civic center yahoos will more than likely be a problem

Oct. 14: I bet if you guys dropped a box of skunks in the middle of them .. they would probably scatter real good

Oct. 21: If you think about it, large scale protests are a good way to waste city money and possibly cripple the system.

Oct. 30: It is nuts down here i have costume freaks yelling at protesters who are yelling at police who are yelling at transients.

Oct. 30: in the last two days no less than one hundred people, at protest and other places, have screamed obscenities and directed demeaning remarks at me, and I am not allowed to respond in any way. what a great system.

Oct. 30: I guess Heather dealt with a hippie on 1st and Broad that said You are making me feel Dehumanized by the way ur treating me. Probably a protesters.

Nov. 4: but they claim to be peacefully protesting. i say we just baton the people who start to incite everyone. the rest who are peaceful, let em stay.

Nov. 12: This occupy s--- has got out of hand because this liberal administration has allowed them to

Nov. 20: I like how almost all of the "demonstraors" that occupy the sidewalk at night are bums.

A spokesman for the Denver Police Department said the department "regrets the tone and tenor of some of these texts". The release came on Wednesday afternoon, the same day a federal judge denied #OccupyDenver a restraining order against the police department to prevent them from enforcing a handful of city ordinances.

In early November, #OccupyDenver attempted to crash a conference in Denver featuring conservative bloggers only to have that backfire when the bloggers in attendence were waiting for them and chanting "We Want the Dog!" - a reference to Shelby the Border Collie, who was appointed the de-facto leader of #OccupyDenver.

Monkey Business: Taiwanese Student Becomes Internet Sensation After Simian-Induced Wardrobe Malfunction

What she's really thinking: "Get your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape!"

Wonder if this can be blamed in any way on the ever-mischievous Robomonkey.

A Taiwanese student and model has garnered nearly instant Internet celebrity status after her encounter with some grabby primates while on vacation in Bali.

Charmian Chen, who just happens to be a model, was visiting the Sacred Monkey Forest Ubud in Bali last month when two of the primates decided she was a little overdressed.

The 22-year-old student, from Taiwan, was on holiday on the tropical Indonesian island feeding long-tailed macaques when she was singled out.

The two macaques apparently spotted a piece of corn that had fallen down Ms Chen's top and decided they wanted it back.

Despite her valiant effors to fend it off, one monkey managed to pull down her top leaving the red-faced model to cover herself as best she could, with her hands.

But what should have been an amusing holiday wardrobe malfunction has ended up catapulting Ms Chen to internet superstardom.

Pictures of the incident have made headline news in her native Taiwan, with TV stations asking her to appear and talk about it.

Ms Chen said the macaques, as well as being hungry, were also attracted to bikinis worn by many visitors.

She added: 'I think when they took my top down it was because of the corn but the park staff warn visitors that bright bikinis worn under dresses do attract the monkeys.

'I think it's the bright colours which they think might be fruit, well I don't know about that but it was very strange at the time.'

Now, there seems to be this school of thought that this was somehow staged in an attempt to bolster Chen's modelling career.

Chen shown after disrobing without the aid of macaques

To which my reaction would be "So what?".

Assuming the 'cheeky monkey' encounter caught on camera was 100% staged for the sole purpose of furthering the modelling career of Chen, how exactly would that be any more contrived than the smorgasboard of insipid celebrity-themed reality shows that on any given channel at any given moment?

Hmm....I remember taking a trip to the San Diego Zoo once upon a time. They had this enclosure where you could feed lorikeets. They would fly right up and perch on your shoulder or arm and drink out of this little cup of nectar that somebody from the zoo would give you. Sad to say that even if the lorikeets were interested in disrobing some of the more attractive women in the enclosure, they couldn't do much besides maybe partially pull off a pair of sunglasses.

So staged or not, apparently this all made for a good vacation yarn and she posted some of the pictures on Facebook page after returning to Taiwan. Shortly thereafter, that led to requests for interviews from local newspapers and magazines.

Emulation is the sincerest form of flattery.

And from there, Western tabloids like The UK's Daily Mail picked up on the monkey shines. Chen, for her part, insists that the encounter was not staged.

Staged or not, I figured visitors migh appreciate some other images from her portfolio that are uncluttered with primates.

Nancy Pelosi's Jobs Plan: Shut Down Non-Union Plants in Right to Work States (Except for GE's)

House minority leader Nancy Pelosi has weighed this week in on the ongoing dispute between Boeing and the National Labor Relations Board, stating that the aircraft manufacturer's South Carolina facility should shut down if it can't unionize [video at link- NANESB!].

Interestingly, Pelosi's comments come more than two years after workers at the Charleston, SC plant voted overwhelmingly to decertifty their union.

In a move that seemingly went under the radar back in May, General Electric [NYSE: GE] announced that they were constructing a new 500,000 square foot facility to build locomotives in right-to-work Fort Worth, TX- shifting production from closed-shop Erie, PA with no apparent objection from either Congresswoman Pelosi or the NLRB.

Other venues under consideration included Lynn, MA and Mexico. With rival Caterpillar's [NYSE: CAT] subsidiary Progress Rail opening up a new facility in Indiana, GE and Local 201 of the International Union of Electrical Workers were unable to come to any sort of agreement regarding wages.

While GE's Railway unit CEO Lorenzo Simonelli disclosed that a Mexican site had been under consideration by GE they ultimately chose the Ft. Worth site for largely political reasons.

The Fort Worth choice saves Immelt from the potential embarrassment of having the facility go south of the border while he serves as chairman of President Barack Obama's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.

The Obama Administration had previously lavished Immelt's General Electric with millions in stimulus money and 'green energy' grants while the conglomerate continued to outsource jobs overseas. Prior to January of this year, GE was also the parent company of NBC/Universal entertainment, whose networks frequently act as the Obama Administration (or Obama campaign's) unofficial mouthpiece. Earlier this year, Comcast [NASDAQ: CMCSA] gained a majority control of the NBC networks.

Since the May announcement about the Texas locomotive facility, General Electric has announced they are breaking ground on two more projects in right-to-work states.

Last month, the conglomerate announced that they will be building a $95 million 236,000 square foot facility that will make components for mining equipment- also in Ft Worth, TX.

Meanwhile, in Auburn, AL, GE is breaking ground on a new jet engine component factory this month. Like the two facilities in Fort Worth, the NLRB apparently sees no problem with Immelt's GE setting up shop in right-to-work states as they've remained conspicuously silent on the matter.

[Hat tip: Director Blue, Lonely Conservative, Eat it or Wear It]

The Blogosphere is All A-Twitter With the News.

Start spreading the news- now you can follow me on Twitter as I bitch, snark and somehow remain even LESS productive than usual! Simply look for the Twitter handle Fenway_Nation and watch the irreverent 140 character or less goodness flow like water over Niagara Falls.

Actually- can I let you in on a little secret? I've actually been on Twitter for a few months now- since at least when Osama Bin Laden was alive and watching porn in his Pakistani compound and Fukushima-Daiichi was a nondescript, fully functional nuclear power plant in northern Japan. In fact, there's a little sidebar that contains my 10 most recent messages on Twitter off to the left- that's been there for awhile as well.

"So why bother following you?" you may be asking. Fair question; even if you don't like what I'm saying, Twitter requires that I keep it pretty short and sweet. But probably the most compelling argument is so that you can follow the same people that are following me or that I'm following. There's alot of good ones- many of them part of my blogroll or online communities like Correspondence Committee or Table 9.


This also is a very flimsy pretext to toss out some more eye candy in the form of yet another vintage Gil Elvgren piece. This one is from 1955 and is called Well Built (not to be confused with a later piece titled A Well Bult R-R-R-R-Roof) and features what could very well be the forebears to the Twitter logo.

Since many of Elvgren's pieces also served as templates for advertisements, the companies name, logo and phone number would often be displayed where you see the blueprints draped across the sawhorse.

Borderline Psychosis Update- Gunmen Dump 35 Bodies on Expressway in Rush Hour; Female Ex-Cop & Zeta Leader Arrested; Border Patrol Finds Arms Cache

VERACRUZ: In a gruesome and brazen display of force, masked gunmen in the Veracruz suburb of Boca De Rio dumped 35 corpses by the side of a busy highway in the middle of rush hour this week.

Veracruz state Attorney General Reynaldo Escobar Perez said the bodies were left piled in two trucks and on the ground at an underpass near the city's biggest shopping mall and its statue of the Voladores de Papantla — ritual dancers from Veracruz state.

Motorists caught in the horrifying scene Tuesday afternoon posted warnings on Twitter that masked gunmen in military uniforms were blocking Manuel Avila Camacho Boulevard and pointing their guns at civilians.

"They don't seem to be soldiers or police," one tweet read. Another said, "Don't go through that area, there is danger."

Escobar said police were reviewing surveillance video recorded in the area.

Local media said that 12 of the victims were women and that some of the dead men had been among prisoners who escaped from three Veracruz prisons on Monday, but Escobar said he couldn't confirm that.

At least 32 inmates got away from the three Veracruz prisons. Police recaptured 14 of them.

The bodies were dumped less than a mile away from where Meixo's top prosecutors were scheduled to meet on Wednesday. A banner left behind at the scene claimed that the dead bodies were the handywork of 'The New Generation', a Jalisco-based gang reportedly allied with Sinaloa Cartel head Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman.

The Gulf cartel had control of smuggling and distribution in and around the port of Veracruz until 2010, when they were usurped by their former enforcers- Los Zetas. At least a dozen of the corpses have been identified as having a criminal background, reportedly working with the Zetas.



NUEVO LEON: Mexican Marines arrested a female underboss for the Zetas in the northern part of the state last week.

Mireya Moreno Carreon is the first woman linked to the Zetas leadership who has been arrested by authorities, the secretariat said.

Moreno Carreon managed drug sales in San Nicolas de Los Garza, a city in the Monterrey metropolitan area.

She apparently took over from Raul Garcia Rodriguez, who was arrested by marines last month in Monterrey, the capital of Nuevo Leon, the secretariat said.

Moreno Carreon was arrested in the Colonia Santa Fe Oriente section of San Nicolas de Los Garza, thanks to "intense intelligence and urban operations work," the Navy Secretariat said.

The suspected drug trafficker was armed with a revolver and driving a stolen vehicle at the time of her arrest, the secretariat said.

Carreon- aka La Flaca- was a former policewoman in Monterrey until 2010 when she was dismissed by supervisors for a "lack of confidence. Reportedly she was wounded by flying glass in a 2009 shootout between police and extortionists that left a kindergarten class pinned down in the crossfire.

TAMAULIPAS: The bodies of a man and a woman left dangling from an overpass in the border city of Nuevo Laredo last week included handmade signs explicitly threatening bloggers and internet.

Not only have social networking and microblogging sites like Twitter demonstrated themselves to be quicker than local media in most cases, but organized crime has succeeded in intimidating local media into silence throughout much of Mexico. Odds are that Twitter users knew about the 35 bodies being dumped on the expressway outside of Veracruz before the local authorities did, as many witnesses were using smartphones to warn motorists of the gruesome spectacle.

"This is going to happen to all the internet busybodies, Listen up, I'm on to you" one placard read. It was signed with a 'Z', presumably for Los Zetas. Two of the blogs mentioned in the threats- Frontera Al Rojo Vivo and El Blog Del Narco [caution, the latter isn't the least bit squeamish about posting graphic crime scene photos- NANESB!] have shown no signs of letting up. The two victims found in Nuevo Laredo have yet to be identified

TEXAS: US Border Patrol agents discovered an abandoned black bag containing six automatic rifles, a grenade launcher, a rocket launcher and three packages of whats believed to be C4 explosive along the Rio Grande outside of Fronton, TX last week.

Agents found the weapons on Tuesday in a black bag along a quiet stretch of the Rio Grande near Fronton, a small community about 210 miles south of San Antonio. No arrests have been made.

The weapons are similar to those reported used in the borderland drug wars and smuggled south from the U.S. into Mexico, and were found in an area of the river that is easily crossed and close to a Mexican cartel battleground.

But authorities stopped short of making any direct link between the guns and the drug cartels, saying only that they signaled a threat to public safety in both Texas and Mexico.

"These deadly weapons could have had a devastating impact on communities on both sides of the border and to our agents and other law enforcement officers," Rosendo Hinojosa, head of Border Patrol's Rio Grande Valley sector, said in a statement.

Officials theorized that the guns were waiting to be smuggled across the border into Mexico, but said that was just speculation.

The discovery took place about 10 miles south of Falcon Lake and on the other side of the border where Los Zetas and the Gulf cartel are locked in a bitter struggle over lucrative smuggling routes.

WASHINGTON DC: In a series of secretly recorded audio tapes dating back to March 2011, an ATF field agent disclosed to an Arizona gun dealer the existence of a 3rd weapon recovered from the December 2010 shootout between the Border Patrol and armed smugglers north of Nogales, AZ that killed Border Patrol agent Brian Terry.

Court records have previously only mentioned two weapons: Romanian WASR "AK-47 type" rifles. Both were allegedly sold to suspects who were under ATF's watch as part of Fast and Furious.

Also, a ballistics report turned over to Congressional investigators only mentions the two WASR rifles. The ballistics report says it's inconclusive as to whether either of the WASR rifles fired the bullet that killed Terry.

The third weapon was reportedly an SKS purchsed from a Texas gun shop.

The recordings were obtained by CBS news as well as copies being turned over to the Office of Inspector General and Congressional investigators.

In other Fast & Furious news, before stepping down this month, US Attorney Dennis Burke had opposed the Terry family's motion to qualify as crime victims in the eyes of the court.

[Hat Tip Support Your Local Gunfighter; Friends of Ours; Pat Dollard]