Did I mention sentiment and loathing?

It’s hard to get worked up about the early game @ 1 pm on CBS.  On the one hand the Ravens are kind of overdogs in comparision to the Chiefs who haven’t been in the playoffs for a long time.  On the other hand I know a rabid Chiefs fan and he’s a total idiot.

Pick ’em.

Now the late game @ 4:30 pm on FOX I can get enthused about.  In the first place I’m only half troll and over the bridge we’re all huge fans of the Pack.  Not to mention it’s the only publicly owned franchise in the NFL so it has that anarcho-syndicalist vibe to it.

And then you have the Iggles, loathsome not just because they play in the same division as my Giants, but also because they employ the despicable Michael "Dog Killer" Vick.  Obama may have forgiven him, but I sure haven’t.

So I think you know how to root.  As I did yesterday I’ll try to note breaking developments in the comments and bump this when the late game starts.

Bumble Bees In U.S. Suffer Sharp Decline, Joining Countless Other Species Disappearing Worldwide

Travis Walter Donovan, The Huffington Post

1/4/11, 01:26 PM

Honey bees have long been known to be in decline, suffering from the enigmatic colony collapse disorder, and the latest research on U.S. bumble bees only exacerbates concerns over future food production, as bees are responsible for pollinating 90 percent of the world’s commercial plants, from fruits and vegetables to coffee and cotton.

…

Unfortunately, insects aren’t the only creatures suffering drastic losses to their populations. Tigers could be extinct in 12 years if efforts to protect their habitats and prevent poaching aren’t increased. A recent study across three continents showed snakes to be in rapid decline due to climate change. Overfishing and changing weather patterns have left 12 of the world’s 17 species of penguins experiencing steep losses in numbers. A recent World Wildlife Fund report found that all animals in the tropics have declined by 60 percent since 1970, with everything from gorillas to fish thinning out.

Honey laundering: The sour side of nature’s golden sweetener

JESSICA LEEDER – Global Food Reporter, Globe and Mail

Jan. 06, 2011 2:07PM EST

What consumers don’t know is that honey doesn’t usually come straight – or pure – from the hive. Giant steel drums of honey bound for grocery store shelves and the food processors that crank out your cereal are in constant flow through the global market. Most honey comes from China, where beekeepers are notorious for keeping their bees healthy with antibiotics banned in North America because they seep into honey and contaminate it; packers there learn to mask the acrid notes of poor quality product by mixing in sugar or corn-based syrups to fake good taste.

None of this is on the label. Rarely will a jar of honey say “Made in China.” Instead, Chinese honey sold in North America is more likely to be stamped as Indonesian, Malaysian or Taiwanese, due to a growing multimillion dollar laundering system designed to keep the endless supply of cheap and often contaminated Chinese honey moving into the U.S., where tariffs have been implemented to staunch the flow and protect its own struggling industry.

…

While many of the executives are still at large, U.S. investigators arrested four honey brokers in the U.S. who are Chinese or Taiwanese nationals with connections to ALW. All have plead guilty; three have been sentenced to a range of jail terms and deportation proceedings are continuing. The fourth is scheduled for sentencing in Seattle this week.

…

Mr. Adee, the beekeeper, said he’s been attending talks in Washington to convey who the targets of honey laundering probes should really be.

“It’s kind of like they’re running a car-stealing ring,” he said. “You catch the guy stealing the car and put him out of business. But the guy that’s laundering, the chop shop or the packer, he just finds another supplier,” he said, adding: “I think it’s going to keep getting worse until we catch a couple of big ones, give them a little jail time.”

Well of course the big news is Throwball which will get bumped in due course, but if you’re looking for alternate programming you might start with Austin City Limits (premier).

Excuse me. Everyone, I have a brief announcement to make. Jesus was black, Ronald Reagan was the devil, and the government is lying about 9/11. Thank you for your time and good night.

• ABC Family– Aladdin, Cheaper by the Dozen
• AMC– True Grit (the old one, it’s hard to call it better)
• Bravo– House marathon
• Discovery– Mythbusters marathon
• E!– The Princess Diaries
• Food– Iron Chef America marathon
• FX– Jumper
• History– Conspiracy Theories and Aliens! (evidently right wing JFK slime fests don’t meet their exacting standards of truthiness)
• Lifetime– The Boy She Met Online, The Craigslist Killer
• Nick– Big Time Rush, Victorious (premiers), House of Anubis (Series Premier repeat)
• Oxygen– Pretty Woman x 2
• Sci Fi– FeardotCom, Ghost Ship
• Spike– The Exorcist, Hannibal Rising
• TBS– Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, Legally Blonde
• Turner Classic– Road to Morocco, The Prince and the Showgirl
• TNT– Gumped, A Time to Kill
• Toon– Jungle 2 Jungle
• USA– Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Street Kings
• Vs.– Bull Riding

Later-

• AMC– El Dorado
• Sci Fi– Silent Hill, Ghost Voyage
• Spike– The Hills Have Eyes
• TBS– Bring It On: In It to Win It
• Turner Classic– The Swan, Mrs. Brown (a little recent for Turner Classic)
• TNT– Lakeview Terrace
• USA– Shoot ‘Em Up
• VH!– Take the Lead, Shall We Dance

SNL– Jim Carrey and the Black Keys (premier).

Boondocks– Garden Party (Series Premier repeat), Granddad’s Fight

GitS: SAC 2nd Gig– Transparent (Episode 18), Chain Reaction (Episode 19)

How many times have I told you you bet’ not even dream of tellin’ white folk the truth? You understand me? Shoot… makin’ white people riot. You better learn how to lie like me. I’m gonna find me a white man and lie to him right now!

Zap2it TV Listings, Yahoo TV Listings

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

1 South Sudan leader wants ‘coexistence’ with north

by Steve Kirby, AFP

1 hr 2 mins ago

Today’s games are both on NBC and represent the end of this season’s Throwball schedule for them.  The early game at 4:30 pm pits the Who ‘Dats @ Seahawks, the late one at 8 pm features the Jets @ Bolts.

Now since I don’t care much about Throwball (the season is half over by the time the Series is), I make my post season picks based purely on sentimentality and loathing.  Take the Who ‘Dats, they had another tough year down on the bayou what with BP spewing up Billions of Barrels of Crude through a combination of incompetence and greed and the Obama administration is still busily covering it up, so I’m rooting for them.

Sorry Seahawks.  Have a Grande Mocha Latte on me (I’ll have a double Redeye, black as my soul).

As for loathing, there’s no easier team to hate than the Bolts.  Over Irsay?  I don’t think I’ll ever get over Irsay, Elaine.  The Jets also have the virtue of playing in the Tri-State Area which appeals to my inner Doofenschmirtz.

This is a live blog (for both games) which means I’ll kinda sorta be paying attention while I’m actually doing something else entirely and if I do impart some useful information you can console yourself with the knowledge that it’s just an accident.

You know, what’s really discouraging about political blogging for me is how often you have to repeat yourself about obvious, undeniable facts (as a fer instance pasted over there on the right is Stephen’s take on BillO and whether the tides are explicable by a little something Sir Isaac Newton liked to call THE LAW of Gravity, because it’s not just a suggestion you see).

In the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Banks and Securities Holders can no longer claim title to property unless they can produce a mortgage and a statutory chain of transfer for the note.

This not a new concept, Stare Decisis is CARPENTER V. LONGAN, 83 U. S. 271 (1872), which means that it’s not easily appealable.

This exposes the Banks to severe financial losses in the Trillions of dollars.

First of all, there is no reason for someone who owes a mortgage to continue to make payments if clear title can’t be shown.  The value of all that paper those photons and electrons and derivatives is exactly zero.

Secondly, the Banks are going to be forced to honor their contracts with the big Mortgage Backed Securities holders who won’t be rolled as easy as Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, and Barack Obama, and buy back their fraudulent paper for more Trillions.

And finally (for the purposes of this piece at least), there’s the Hundreds of Billions they owe in title transfer fees (tax fraud) and fines.  Smart States are going to start tapping that you betcha, though it really falls in the rounds.

Felix Salmon writes about this and seems disappointed that another financial crisis is inevitable, but it is.

The legal craziness that this decision sets in motion is going to be huge, I’m sure. Anybody who was foreclosed on in Massachusetts should now be phoning up their lawyer and trying to find out if the foreclosure was illegal. If it was – if there was a break in the chain of title somewhere which meant that the bank didn’t own the mortgage in question – then the borrower should be able to get their deed, and their home, back from the bank. This decision is retroactive, and no one has a clue how many thousands of foreclosures it might cover.

…

Going forwards, every homeowner being foreclosed upon will as a matter of course challenge the banks to prove that they own the mortgage in question. If the bank can’t do that, then the foreclosure proceeding will be tossed out of court. This is likely to slow down foreclosures enormously, as banks ensure that all their legal ducks are in a row before they try to foreclose.

This decision won’t be appealed: the state law seems pretty cut-and-dried, every judge who’s looked at it has come to the same decision, and there’s no conceivable grounds for the US Supreme Court to take on the case.

What’s more, courts in the other 49 states are likely to lean heavily on this decision when similar cases come before them. The precedent applies only in Massachusetts for now, but it’s likely to spread, like some kind of bank-eating cancer.

If a similar decision comes down in California, which is a non-recourse state, the resulting chaos could be massive. People who are current on their mortgage and perfectly capable of paying it could simply make the strategic decision to default, if and when they find out or suspect that the chain of title is broken somewhere. They would take a ding to their credit rating, but millions of people will happily accept a lower credit rating if they get a free house as part of the bargain.

It’s not so much that the law and the facts are against them as that there are so many tables to pound on that they’re starting to look like tobacco lawyers.  If there are similar rulings (and it’s hard to see why not) in Connecticut, New York, and California then we could be looking at an entirely different political and economic landscape.

And one in which Republicans will pay the price, because the Vampire Squid doesn’t care which stone it squeezes to get its blood just as long as it’s red.

Some premiers.  No LoDo (and there was much rejoicing).  No in my time period but also of note is the Series Premier of Young Justice League.  Despite being listed as new, it’s the same one I’ve already seen where they find the Superboy clone at Project Cadmus.

You’re not your job. You’re not how much money you have in the bank. You’re not the car you drive. You’re not the contents of your wallet. You’re not your fucking khakis. You’re the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world.

• AMC– Open Range x 2
• Bravo– The Green Mile x 2
• Disney– The Suite Life on Deck, Wizards of Waverly Place, Fish Hooks, Phineas and Ferb short (premiers)
• Discovery– Gold Rush marathon (with premier)
• E!– The Soup (premier)
• ESPN– Hoopies, Rockets @ Magic, Knicks @ Suns
• ESPN2– College Throwball, Division 1a Playoff Final: Delaware v. Eastern Washington
• Food– Outrageous (premier)
• FX– The Happening x 2
• History– Secrets of the Illuminati!
• National Geographic– Dog Whisperer (premier)
• Sci Fi– Merlin (should be the season premier, but Zap2it says 9/11)
• Style– Honey x 2
• TBS– The Wedding Planner
• Turner Classic– The Fastest Gun Alive, State Fair
• TLC– Say Yes to the Dress marathon (2 premiers)
• Toon– Clone Wars (Nightsisters Trilogy premier)
• USA– Inside Man, No Country for Old Men
• VH1– Fight Club

Later-

• FX– Little Man
• TBS– Father of the Bride, Father of the Bride Part II
• Turner Classic– Pinky
• TNT– The Terminal, The Family Man
• USA– Matchstick Men

Dave hosts Regis Philbin, Hannibal Buress, and No Age.  

Warning: If you are reading this then this warning is for you. Every word you read of this useless fine print is another second off your life. Don’t you have other things to do? Is your life so empty that you honestly can’t think of a better way to spend these moments? Or are you so impressed with authority that you give respect and credence to all that claim it? Do you read everything you’re supposed to read? Do you think every thing you’re supposed to think? Buy what you’re told to want? Get out of your apartment. Meet a member of the opposite sex. Stop the excessive shopping and masturbation. Quit your job. Start a fight. Prove you’re alive. If you don’t claim your humanity you will become a statistic. You have been warned- Tyler.

Zap2it TV Listings, Yahoo TV Listings

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

1 Taliban attack kills 17 at Afghan public bath

by Nasrat Shoaib, AFP

Fri Jan 7, 10:25 am ET

That was quick.

I have to admit another guilty pleasure. Leonardo DiCaprio’s first movie, The Quick and the Dead.  In fairness it also has Sharon Stone, Russell Crowe, and Gene Hackman.

All I hear from you, you spineless cowards, is how poor you are; how you can’t afford my taxes. Yet somehow, you managed to find the money to hire a gunfighter to kill me. If ya got so much money, I’m just gonna have to take some more. Because clearly some of you haven’t got the message! This is my town! I run everything! If you live to see the dawn, it’s because I allow it! I decide who lives and who dies!

• ABC Family– Bruce Almighty, Evan Almighty
• AMC– The Quick and the Dead x 2
• Bravo– Real Housewives marathon (with premier)
• Disney– Princess Protection Program
• Discovery– Sr. v. Jr. (making of)
• ESPN– College Throwball, GoDaddy.com Bowl: Miami (Ohio) v. Middle Tennessee State (in the interests of full disclosure I suppose I should mention that GoDaddy is our domain name service provider)
• ESPN2– College Hoopies, Xavier @ Cincinnati, Northwestern @ Illinois
• Food– Ace of Cakes (premier)
• FX– Rush Hour x 2
• History– Aliens! and Conspiracy Theories (premier)
• Lifetime– Deadly Relations
• TBS– Failure to Launch
• Turner Classic– I’m All Right, Jack, Heavens Above! (Peter Sellers night)
• TLC– Sarah Palin’s Alaska marathon
• TNT– Hoopies, Thunder @ Mavs, Nuggets @ Kings
• Travel– Man v. Food marathon (thank goodness)
• USA– National Treasure x 2
• VH1– SNL marathon

Later-

• AMC– Airplane
• Turner Classic– Two Way Stretch
• USA– Jurassic Park III
• VH1– Fight Club

Dave hosts Seth Rogen, Beau Garrett, and The Walkmen.  Jon has Patton Oswalt, Stephen Dr. Ronald Depinho.  Conan in repeats from 12/13.

Elaine, you’re a member of this crew. Can you face some unpleasant facts?

No.

I see in fight club the strongest and smartest men who’ve ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need. We’re the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War’s a spiritual war… our Great Depression is our lives. We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won’t. And we’re slowly learning that fact. And we’re very, very pissed off.

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Evening Edition is an Open Thread

1 Ivory Coast rival urges raid to snatch Gbagbo

by Evelyne Aka, AFP

1 hr 37 mins ago