California will soon pass a law banning most big screen TV's
The California Energy Commission is expected to adopt rules this summer requiring retailers by 2011 to sell only TVs that meet guidelines of the federal Energy Star program, which is generally voluntary. The proposal includes labeling that tells California buyers how much of their utility bill goes to powering their flat-screen.
First Cars, now TV's, I wonder what is next? Computers?
Industry leaders also say the proposed standards threaten to limit consumer choice, drive shoppers to the Internet and put specialty retailers out of business. Nearly a quarter of all flat-screen TVs—and all but one plasma TV on the market today— would not be allowed for sale in California once the rules are fully implemented, according to the Plasma Display Coalition."It's setting a limit that many TVs that are larger and more fully featured could not meet," said Doug Johnson, a technology expert at the Consumer Electronics Association. "It appears to be an effort to really regulate entertainment, not energy use." (emphasis mine)
Welcome to socialist rule.
If they are not trying to take away my Celebrex, then they are trying to take away pain medications
Call it the cold case file of drug safety. Federal health officials convened a public hearing Friday on whether to ban Darvon, a painkiller first approved in 1957, when there were few alternatives for treating pain except aspirin and powerful narcotics.Now mainly marketed as Darvocet, which includes a dose of acetaminophen, the drug remains one of the top 25 most commonly prescribed medications. More than 20 million prescriptions were written in 2007.
I use Darvocet as my main pain relief drug. It's nonaddicting and doesn't make me all loopy like Vicodien nor does it knock me completely out (like Vicodien)
But they are saying it doesn't offer much pain relief ...
The consumer group Public Citizen said the FDA should withdraw Darvon from the market because the drug offers relatively weak pain relief and poses an overdose risk, with the potential to be used in suicides.
It was that stupid Public Citizen group that went after my Celebrex too, someone needs to tell them to stay out of my medicine cabinet.
In an analysis prepared for the hearing, the FDA's safety office said it had searched the agency's database of reported drug problems, but the result was "insufficient" to allow reviewers to make a clear-cut recommendation. The safety office found more than 3,000 reports of serious problems. The top three were suicide, drug dependence and overdoses.
The only way to overdose or kill yourself with Darvocet is to take more then prescribed. My Darvocets have yet to jump out of the bottle and force themselves into my mouth, but now I will keep a careful eye on them just in case.
Darvocet for me helps when I have, the more then I want to handle but not of the Vicodien variety, arthritis pain.
Geez, I am tired of worrying about medications I take. Once I am on something that works I hate having to find something else.
UPDATED
Crap, they are going to get it this time too...
Government medical advisers Friday recommended a ban on Darvon, a prescription medicine that's been used to treat pain for more than 50 years but left a trail of problems such as addiction and suicide.A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel voted 14-12 to recommend withdrawing Darvon after a daylong hearing examining its risks and benefits. The FDA is not required to follow the recommendations of its advisers, but often does so.
The saying "when it rains, it pours" is an understatement.
Mr Weenie works at Ford (obviously) and the past couple of years the area where he works has seen it's work load get smaller and smaller due to higher ups (with financial stakes in other companies) outsourcing their work.
They just layed off another 20 people where he works (even though they have the work for them). Mr Weenie missed this lay-off by 5 people.
Come late spring they are saying another lay-off will take place, guaranteeing Mr Weenie gets layed off.
Word has it those getting layed off will probably not be coming back.
Which means if I don't find a job very soon we will be up shits creek, Mr Weenie has our health insurance through his job (pretty damn good insurance at that). I can not go without insurance and my medication costs alone would put most people in the poor house.
We could be screwed very soon.
Mr Weenie has a huge adversion to moving out of state, even though 90% of our families live out of state. (it's the whole change thing, he hates change). Moving out of state would be very adventagious to us, he maybe forced to accept change, liking it or not.
This winter, much like last winter, has sucked cold, wet socks.
The normal temperatures for this time of the year are in the low 30s, but Richter said temperatures this winter have been in the 20s or lower.Weather service meteorologists said that 47.7 inches (3.97 feet) of snow has fallen this winter, 17.9 inches above normal. Five inches of snow fell Tuesday in Metro Detroit, helping to push this season's snowfall into the top 20 of all time in the area, according to the weather service.
The temperatures this season have tied for the eighth coldest winter in the area, according to the weather service. (emphasis mine)
So this winter has been one of the coldest, snowiest ever. It's January and we have already beaten our average snowfall FOR THE YEAR by 18 inches. We still have a solid 1 1/2 - 2 months of winter left. Maybe Gore has moved to Michigan.
That is how much Ford lost last year.
Ford Motor Co. today posted a record loss of nearly $14.6 billion for 2008 and reported a fourth-quarter net loss of $5.9 billion.
With the way they are sheading people, pretty soon there will be nobody left to build anything.
Still, Ford's automotive operations finished the year with $24 billion in available liquidity, including $13.4 billion in gross cash. But the Dearborn automaker said it would begin drawing down on its $10.1 billion in available credit to ensure it can meet its goal of restoring profitability in 2011.
And that $10.1 Billion credit they are speaking of is what they secured on their own, they are not taking anything from the government.
Keep the postman from delivering.
Massive deficits could force the post office to cut out one day of mail delivery, the postmaster general told Congress on Wednesday, in asking lawmakers to lift the requirement that the agency deliver mail six days a week
Apparently Tuesday is a slow mail day, so look forward to not receiving mail 6 days a week.
Total mail volume was 202 billion items last year, over 9 billion less than the year before, the largest single volume drop in history.And, despite annual rate increases, Potter said 2009 could be the first year since 1946 that the actual amount of money collected by the post office declines.
"It is possible that the cost of six-day delivery may simply prove to be unaffordable," Potter said. "I reluctantly request that Congress remove the annual appropriation bill rider, first added in 1983, that requires the Postal Service to deliver mail six days each week."
I bet you won't see that headling on the front page of any paper today.
Toyota is recalling 1.3 million vehicles worldwide due to a seat belt defect. The recall includes more than 130,000 Yaris models sold in the U.S.Toyota Motor Sales USA says it is working with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to recall 134,900 model-year 2006 and 2007 Yaris subcompact cars. The automaker says in severe front-end collisions, the seat belt is at risk of causing a foam pad in the vehicle to ignite
Obambi signed orders on Monday that will destroy the auto industry.
And yet Obama went ahead with orders to the Environmental Protection Agency to review whether California and other states should be allowed to set their own emissions standards. The EPA is expected to quickly grant the states that power, something the Bush administration opposed. (emphasis mine, but remember that Obambi voters)
California has repeatidly said they plan on raising fuel rates high and quickly.
That will place the automakers at the mercy of the most environmentally goofy states -- such as California and Vermont -- and subject them to regulations that vary across the country. For example, California's standard would translate to 44 miles per gallon in 2020 compared with the federal standard of 35 mpg.
These impossible to meet in the time frame allowed regulations will add at least $5,000 and upto $15,000 to a new car. How is the auto industry or even america suppose to recover when you are pricing the middle class out of buying new cars?
And Obambi had the balls to say he doesn't want to further burden the auto industry, well dickhead what do you think you just did? Oh yea, he said he wants to help prepare them for the future, what future?
And of course Pelosi claims the California rules will steer the auto industry towards innovation and greener cars. These people have no fucking clue what the auto industry has been doing for the last decade. Might I remind you of who will be the first to bring out an electric vehicle (um GM).
California plans on sticking it to the auto industry, but refuses to be stuck themselves.
Not only does Schwarzenegger, faced with a massive state budget deficit, want Obama's EPA to allow his state to regulate greenhouse gases. The governor this month demanded that job-creating infrastructure projects be exempt from reviews required by the California Environmental Quality Act and rules under the National Environmental Policy Act, according to Energy & Environment Daily.
So it's only good for the environment if it doesn't cost money to California.
Michigan released unemployment figures for December ...
The state’s December jobless rate rose from November’s rate of 9.6% to 10.6%, the state’s Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth said today.
My wrist has been hurting since last Friday, don't know what I did and it was just a sudden pain.
Well yesterday I couldn't take the pain anymore. It was painful to just move it let alone do anything else.
So I went to Urgent care to see what was up.
I knew it wasn't arthritis related because it was a different pain and I haven't had pain their before.
It seems I have a hairline fracture in my wrist. Yep, I went a week with a hairline fracture in my wrist before doing anything about it.
They put me in a splint, which is a pain in the ass because it's my right wrist and I am right handed.
I have no idea what I did, don't remember hitting it or even an ouch. Although with the meds I am on I don't usually get ouchies for a day or two after they happen.
The urgent care doc was an ass. I go in and was explaining the pain to him and saying it's not arthritis pain,etc, etc and he says "well what do you want me to do about it".
Hey dick head, I am not the doctor. I tell him I want to make sure it's not fractured or something like that and he says it's probably not fractured. When the x-rays came back showing a hairline fracture he says "well it's a hairline fracture but since it's small were just going to say it's a bad sprain"
Won't be going back to that Urgent care again.
Gee, who would have guessed that one.
President Barack Obama's new administration ordered all federal agencies and departments on Tuesday to stop any pending regulations until they can be reviewed by incoming staff, halting last-minute Bush orders in their tracks.
Honeymoons over, Obama has come out of the starting gate showing just who he really is.
Controversial late rules by the outgoing Bush administration include allowing the carrying of concealed weapons in some national parks and prohibiting medical facilities from receiving federal money for discriminating against doctors and nurses who refuse to assist with abortions or dispense contraceptives based on religious grounds.
Going to be a long 4 years.
Irony, it's whats for breakfast today!
In one of my doggie forums someone on there has their panties in a bunch and her Marine husband has his in a bunch too (quite justified if you ask me) because some asshat republican down the street from them is hanging their flag upside down in protest to Obama. She is saying her husband is going to go down their and give those people a piece of his mind.
It's so ironic that the past 4 years republicans have been screaming about dumocrats doing this and the dumocrats wondering why our panties are in a bunch about it, it's just a flag.
Shoe
Otherfoot
This could be a fun but ironic 4 years!
The automotive industry is going to regret backing Obama once new CAFE requirements go into effect.
Automakers could quickly face tough new rules limiting global warming pollution from new models in more than a dozen states after President-elect Barack Obama’s nominee to run the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday she would tackle the debate soon.
California and 17 other states feel they should be able to regulate vehicle emmisions, which is basically setting CAFE standards (miles per gallon). To let states set CAFE standards would mean that automakers would have to meet 18 different standards or not sell their vehicles in states that they can not meet the standards.
California wants an ungodly standard that only electric vehicles would meet (even hybrids like the Prius wouldn't meet their standards), thus forcing people to buy what California thinks people should be driving.
And with headlines like this:
EPA may get tougher with Detroit 3
You would think that only the american automakers are trying to block this, but all automakers both domestic and foreign are fighting this measure.
Funny how the media seems to be side stepping how bad Toyota is doing, but continue to bash the american auto makers like they are the only ones facing tough times.
Toyota Motor Corp. said Thursday it was making further production cuts in North America as the beleaguered automaker copes with slumping sales and high inventories.
Notice how they used the word further, meaning they have already made production cuts before now. But listening to the media you would never have known that.
CHRYSLER ANNOUNCES DEAL WITH FIAT
Chrysler LLC said today it was striking an alliance with Fiat S.p.A. that will give the Italian carmaker 35% of Chrysler in return for sharing technology, manufacturing and management.
35% today, 100% in another year or two (at the most).
LOST: Motivation
WHEN: Mid-September
LAST SEEN: Motivation could usually be seen sewing, working on a Thesis blogging or exercising.
IF SPOTTED: Do not approach, Motivation is quite skittish. Motivation can be coaxed with chocolate and puppies.
Reward offered if Motivation is returned full and in good condition.