- Polluters, Australia is putting you on notice. The country’s legislature has passed a carbon tax that wall be imposed on the country's 500 largest polluters even though polls have indicated that the poll is extremely unpopular with Australians. "This reform is right for our country's future, it's the right thing to do," Prime Minister Julia Gillard said of the measure. Under the new law, which goes into effect July 1, coal mining companies, steel makers, and electricity generators will be among the companies that have to pay about $23 for each ton of carbon gases they produce. Opponents of the law believe it will damage the nation's economy and that Australian consumers will be unjustly burdened by higher costs passed onto them by major polluters. Other countries, along with city and state governments around the world, have imposed similar taxes. Three Canadian provinces have their own carbon tax, but Canada overall does not have one. Australia’s Green Party celebrated the passage of the new law but was quick to let everyone know that there are more steps to take to move to a full reliance on renewable energy. The law itself consists of 18 different bills and led Green Party deputy leader Christine Milne to state that Australia had "turned its back on the fossil fuel past and will now move to a renewable energy-powered future.” Sen. Milne credited a power-sharing arrangement with the Labor Party with leading to the passage of the law. "At last we have the foundations," she said. "We need to build on this. It doesn't go far enough but it puts in place a fantastic platform on which we can now campaign for even more." There is obviously another side of this story and it was voiced by Australian Coal Association chairman John Pegler, who complained that the legislature had voted "to handicap one of Australia's largest exports at a time when uncertainty in the global economy once again threatens to reach our shores.” Someone sounds a little bitter…………
- Are you a singer looking for that established rock band with well-known members to gravy train all the way to a Grammy or lucrative recording contract? If so, mainstream rockers Velvet Revolver could be the perfect fit for you. Velvet Revolver guitarist Slash has revealed that the band will resume their search for a new lead singer later this year even though they recently admitted that they had recorded an entire album's worth of material with Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor. For whatever reason, they elected not to choose Taylor as their permanent lead singer and have been without a lead singer since Scott Weiland quit the band in 2008. For a band comprised largely of members who broke off or were kicked out of better-known acts (Slash and bassist Duff McKagan with Guns N’ Roses, Weiland with Stone Temple Pilots), continuity may not be as big a priority, but every band needs a lead singer at some point. McKagan and Slash both said in recent months that Velvet Revolver was on their musical back burner as they were both recording and touring as part of other projects, but Slash said in an interview with Billboard that the search for a permanent lead singer will resume in December. The top hat-wearing enigma said that Velvet Revolver would be reuniting in December to "spend some time with a couple of singers,” but refused to elaborate. Another item on the to-do list for McKagan and Slash could soon be accepting the honor of being officially inducted into the Rock N' Roll Hall Of Fame, a distinction for which Guns N’ Roses was recently nominated. "It's become very prestigious over the years, and it's become a huge honor for anybody to be inducted into it, or even nominated, for that matter," Slash said. On that point, he’s completely full of sh*t. If Madonna and Donna Summer are nominated and/or inducted into anything music-related, it can’t be prestigious at all. But in the meantime, all free-agent lead singers should be polishing up their audition skills and getting ready to make a run at this opportunity……………
- Way to drop the legal ball, U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon. Leon idiotically chose to stand in the way of a cause much bigger than himself by ruling against the Food and Drug Administration’s plan to plaster extremely graphic warning labels on cigarette packs. Leon ruled that the images are too far removed from the objective of simply providing consumers with "factual and uncontroversial information." He issued an injunction against the FDA that prohibits the labels from being imposed until the lawsuit is resolved, which could take years. The Supreme Court is expected to be the final arbiter on the case, but Leon’s ruling retards the über-important push to stamp out the menace to society that is smoking. "The government's actual purpose is not to inform, but rather to advocate a change in consumer behavior," the judge wrote in this ruling. And the problem there is? Look, it’s understandable that the government can’t tell people what to do in certain cases of personal lifestyle preference, but does the government allow people to walk around with guns and shoot whomever they have a beef with? No, of course not. So why should it not do everything possible to stop idiot smokers from walking around with their cancer sticks, spewing toxic secondhand smoke into the air and killing others through eventual lung cancer and other ailments? Anti-tobacco groups are livid over Leon’s decision and rightfully so. He had a chance to bring the hammer down on the supposed First Amendment rights of tobacco companies by allowing the images, including depictions of a man smoking through a tracheotomy hole, a pair of putrefied lungs and even a corpse on an autopsy table, to go on cigarette packaging. Not only should Leon have allowed the images, but he should have mandated that the accompanying texts be changed from, "WARNING: Smoking can kill you" to “WARNING: SMOKING WILL KILL YOU.” Even if the FDA’s estimates that the revolting images would reduce the number of smokers by 213,000 by 2013 and save between $221 million to $630 million in health care costs over the next 20 years were too optimistic, they still would have made a difference as the first update of tobacco warnings in 25 years. Eff the First Amendment rights of corporations because CORPORATIONS ARE NOT PEOPLE. But don’t listen to me on that one, listen to Matthew L. Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. "The judge mischaracterized the goal, purpose and effect of the warnings," which he said the FDA adopted because it determined "that they were the most effective warnings at communicating the health effects of smoking," Myers said. Myers rightly pointed out that 50 years of text-only warnings have illustrated that these warnings are typically ignored. Put anything and everything up to and including electrodes to deliver heart-stopping shocks on cigarette packaging because this is a battle that must be won…………
- No division in the NFL is as much of a mess right now as the AFC West and no team in the AFC West is as much of a mess as the San Diego Chargers. Reeling after consecutive losses and a costly fumbled in the last minute that led directly to the first of those two losses, the Chargers are tied for the division lead at 4-4 with Kansas City and Oakland but headed in the wrong direction quickly. At the heart of their tailspin is a surprisingly subpar season from quarterback Philip Rivers, who has more interceptions (14) than touchdowns (11) and threw two interceptions in Sunday’s loss to Green Bay that were returned for touchdowns in the first quarter alone. Rivers has been peppered with questions about what’s wrong with him and why he’s struggling and has begun to bristle over the queries because they have become so frequent. He recently insisted that “there’s nothing different” about him. Chargers owner Dean Spanos also rallied to his embattled quarterback’s defense - sort of - by saying that there isn't an overarching theme to Rivers’ struggles. “Sometimes you just have an off year,” Spanos stated after Sunday’s loss. “That is what Phillip Rivers is having so far.” Way to rally to your quarterback’s defense, Dean-O. At least respond with a non-responsive answer about what a great leader he is and how the stats don’t tell the entire story. Of course, compared to what an anonymous team source said in a story about All-Pro tight end Antonio Gates, Spanos’ remarks might as well be effusive praise to the highest degree. Speaking to Yahoo! Sports, a source said Gates is “fat” and can't get any separation from defenders. Who this source is or why he or she thought that calling one of the team’s best players in essence FAT and lazy is unclear, but odds are those words will not improve team morale or motivate the Chargers to a surge in the second half of the season that ends with them hoisting the Lombardi Trophy in Indianapolis on Feb. 5………….
- The time has come……to start keeping large vats of Dawn dishwashing detergent bolted to the wall alongside that old, reliable fire extinguisher in the event of a blaze at your home or place of business. The power of Dawn to not only fight tough grease stains on your favorite plate or pan, but to put out major industrial fires was on display in Bertie County, N.C. over the weekend. A pile of scrap at the Liverman's Recycling on Highway 11 in Bertie County caught fire Sunday afternoon and the fire burned until in spread and was noticed early Monday morning. The Aulander Fire Department reported that a pile of "fluff", consisting of car parts, rubber and foam, nearly the size of a city block and about five stories high caught fire and sent flames high into the sky. Several local fire departments responded to battle that blaze and firefighters were sent out to area grocery and department stores to buy every bottle of Dawn soap they could find. The dishwashing liquid was used it to create a massive blanket of soapy foam that smothered the fire, which had been burning since approximately 4:30 p.m. Sunday and was not fully extinguished until 1 a.m. Saturday. Dawn soap does have a long history of being used in rescue and emergency efforts. Rescue workers used it to wash crude oil off waterfowl and other animals following the massive Exxon Valdex oil spill off the coast of Alaska in 1989 and nine years later, emergency crews in Cincinnati used Dawn soap to clean up a 6,700-gallon spill of animal fat on Interstate 75. Add fire retardant to the list of tasks Dawn is useful for and keep that in mind the next time one of your family members manages to set something in the kitchen on fire while trying to cook dinner…………
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