TampaYankee

No policy maker or government executive likes dissent. It impedes their job or mission. However it is tolerated in a democratic society to one level or another with varying levels of push back. However, when the aggrieved policy maker or executive feels the dissent is threatening enough and a case can be made that laws were broken then the push back reaches a whole new level to crush that avenue of dissent. This is the reason why Whistleblower Laws nothwithstanding, most Whistleblowers are still persecuted in one way or another rather than being lauded and exalted.

The Patent Office has run amuck!! I'm offended that the Patent Office can take it upon itself, or rather some bureaucrat sitting in the Patent Office, to determine that a long-existing trademark has become unacceptable. Whether it is or not can be up for discussion but government offices ought not chime in by fiat revoking a long existing trademark. Who made them the arbiters of political correctness. I think the only acceptable way to revoke this trademark is either by consent of the owner (possibly influenced by legal action or public pressure) or by statute passed by Congress and signed by the President. Else where will this stop. Personally, I don't feel the term is offensive but then I'm only 1/32 or 1/64 Native American depending on family lore. However, I guess others do and I don't want to be insensitive to them. Nevertheless, I would be disappointed to see the name changed. Realizing that change is probably in the works eventually and noting my disappointment in that change I would strongly consider changing the team name to the Washington Redskin Potatoes if that isn't infringing on someone else's trademark.

Of all of them I care only for Wendy's anymore -- the value menu. I loved the old flame-broiled Whopper but when they removed the open-flame cooking they became just another tasteless grey meat patty imitating cardboard. I agree that Bojangles and Popeye's far surpasses KFC except for their cole slaw which remains the standard. A rare trip to McD's is basically a nostalgia trip mostly for the onions and pickles which I loved as a kid.

McDonald's Is America's Least Favorite Major Fast Food Chain The Huffington Post | By Kevin Short There may be no restaurant in the world as American as McDonald's, but that doesn't mean Americans like it all that much. In fact, McDonald's is the country's least favorite major fast food chain, according to a new report from the American Customer Service Index, an organization that measures customer satisfaction across industries. The report is based on a survey of 4,500 people about how satisfied they are with their experiences at various chain restaurants. The average customer satisfaction score at a fast food restaurant was an 80 out of 100, but McDonald's scored a 71, down from 73 one year before. Taco Bell and KFC barely beat out McDonald's, scoring a 72 and 74, respectively. Here's how the others fared: McDonald's has stumbled lately, posting lower sales as it struggles to revamp its Dollar Menu and combat harsh winter weather. McDonald's has also been a target of recent fast food protests aimed at raising wages and improving worker conditions. It's also not helping that Americans are more likely to opt for higher quality meals at chains like Outback Steakhouse or Olive Garden as they emerge from the recession. "In a weaker economy, consumers respond to price, but as the economy improves, quality becomes more important to restaurant customers," ACSI chairman Claes Fornell said in a statement about the report. See original article at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/17/mcdonalds-least-favorite-fast-food_n_5504125.html

How to recognize an open-carry patriot byRubenBollingFollowforComics Found at: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/06/12/1305939/-Cartoon-How-to-recognize-an-open-carry-patriot?detail=email

Put my reservation in for #15.

Simple Tests for Heart Attack Risk Could Save Lives and Money By Lisa Collier CoolJun 02, 2014 Thousands of heart attacks and strokes could be prevented—and millions of dollars in healthcare costs saved—if doctors used a new, more accurate screening strategy to identify at-risk patients, according to new research presented at the International Society of PharmacoEconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) Annual Meeting in Quebec. The study was the first to analyze clinical and financial outcomes of adding a multimarker blood test to standard cholesterol testing. The new test checks a sample of the patient’s blood for three inflammatory biomarkers that may signal future heart attack and stroke risk. Each biomarker test costs $20 to $50. Researchers from Cleveland HeartLab (CHL) and economists from Analysis Group calculated that if a commercially insured U.S. health plan with one million members adopted this approach, 2,018 heart attacks and 1,848 strokes could potentially be avoided, resulting in $180.6 million in cost savings over five years, compared to outcomes if standard screening methods were used. See the complete article at: http://health.yahoo.net/experts/dayinhealth/simple-tests-heart-attack-risk-could-save-lives-and-180-million

Isn't this just peachy-keen!! I guess stare decisis no longer means much either in the large or the small. I have no real issue with changing errors of fact or even findings, but only if done in the open, in the full light of day, and the changes are signed on to by a majority of the Justices on public record. Errors can and will be made and should be corrected but not in secret. If the SOTUS is embarrassed by publication of their mistakes then they should make fewer of them. They should not hand down law in the middle of the night or while shielded under a blanket. There ought to be a law!!

Final Word on U.S. Law Isn’t: Supreme Court Keeps Editing By ADAM LIPTAK MAY 24, 2014 WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has been quietly revising its decisions years after they were issued, altering the law of the land without public notice. The revisions include “truly substantive changes in factual statements and legal reasoning,” said Richard J. Lazarus, a law professor at Harvard and the author of a new study examining the phenomenon. The court can act quickly, as when Justice Antonin Scalia last month corrected an embarrassing error in a dissent in a case involving the Environmental Protection Agency. But most changes are neither prompt nor publicized, and the court’s secretive editing process has led judges and law professors astray, causing them to rely on passages that were later scrubbed from the official record. The widening public access to online versions of the court’s decisions, some of which do not reflect the final wording, has made the longstanding problem more pronounced. Unannounced changes have not reversed decisions outright, but they have withdrawn conclusions on significant points of law. They have also retreated from descriptions of common ground with other justices, as Justice Sandra Day O’Connor did in a major gay rights case. The larger point, said Jeffrey L. Fisher, a law professor at Stanford, is that Supreme Court decisions are parsed by judges and scholars with exceptional care. “In Supreme Court opinions, every word matters,” he said. “When they’re changing the wording of opinions, they’re basically rewriting the law.” Supreme Court opinions are often produced under intense time pressure because of the court’s self-imposed deadline, which generally calls for the announcement of decisions in all cases argued during the term before the justices leave for their summer break. In this term, 29 of the 70 cases argued since October remain to be decided in the next five weeks or so. The court does warn readers that early versions of its decisions, available at the courthouse and on the court’s website, are works in progress. A small-print notice says that “this opinion is subject to formal revision before publication,” and it asks readers to notify the court of “any typographical or other formal errors.” But aside from announcing the abstract proposition that revisions are possible, the court almost never notes when a change has been made, much less specifies what it was. And many changes do not seem merely typographical or formal. Four legal publishers are granted access to “change pages” that show all revisions. Those documents are not made public, and the court refused to provide copies to The New York Times. The final and authoritative versions of decisions, some published five years after they were announced, do not, moreover, always fully supplant the original ones. Otherwise reliable Internet resources and even the court’s own website at times still post older versions. See the original article at: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/25/us/final-word-on-us-law-isnt-supreme-court-keeps-editing.html?src=twr&_r=0

I know I'm repeating myself but... we have the best government that money can buy. The Oligarchy is willing to accept the charade of regulation and fines as the cost of doing business, as someone above has mentioned. There ought to be at least half-a-dozen bank CEO's cooling their heels doing hard times for no less than a sure decade sentence for the 2008 meltdown thefts. We can add new names from there as time passed. In addition, their ill-gotten gains should be confiscated just as is done with drug seizure cases. Equal justice!!

Iran billionaire executed over $2.6B bank fraud 1 hour ago . TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — A billionaire businessman at the heart of a $2.6 billion state bank scam, the largest fraud case since the country's 1979 Islamic Revolution, was executed Saturday, state television reported. Authorities put Mahafarid Amir Khosravi, also known as Amir Mansour Aria, to death at Evin prison, just north of the capital, Tehran, the station reported. The report said the execution came after Iran's Supreme Court upheld his death sentence. Khosravi's lawyer, Gholam Ali Riahi, was quoted by news website khabaronline.ir as saying that his client was put to death without any notice. "I had not been informed about execution of my client," Riahi said. "All the assets of my client are at the disposal of the prosecutor's office." State officials did not immediately comment on Riahi's claim. The fraud involved using forged documents to get credit at one of Iran's top financial institutions, Bank Saderat, to purchase assets including state-owned companies like major steel producer Khuzestan Steel Co. Khosravi's business empire included more than 35 companies from mineral water production to a football club and meat imports from Brazil. According to Iranian media reports, the bank fraud began in 2007. A total of 39 defendants were convicted in the case. Four received death sentences, two got life sentences and the rest received sentences of up to 25 years in prison. The trials raised questions about corruption at senior levels in Iran's tightly controlled economy during the administration of former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Mahmoud Reza Khavari, a former head of Bank Melli, another major Iranian bank, escaped to Canada in 2011 after he resigned over the case. He faces charges over the case in Iran and remains on the Islamic Republic's wanted list. Khavari previously admitted that his bank partially was involved in the fraud, but has maintained his innocence. See original article at: http://news.yahoo.com/iran-billionaire-executed-over-2-6b-bank-fraud-104949782.html

It seems that the sanction are really starting to bite. Putin admits so and has ratchited up his bitter denunciation of Obama and the US. http://news.yahoo.com/putin-obama-made-him-judge-135549344--abc-news-topstories.html

For mattresses, ovens, paint, vacuums, and more, cheaper is better 6 products Consumer Reports tests show it pays to pay less By Mandy WalkerMay 22, 2014 4:38 PM Due to copyright restrictions see this article at: https://shopping.yahoo.com/news/for-mattresses--ovens--paint--vacuums--and-more--cheaper-is-better-203842109.html

We must all thank Justice Scalia for this fortuitous turn of events. He is the one who laid out the equal rights ramifications of the US vs WIndsor decision. All these other judges did was take his lead and that decision. Flowers and other expressions of thanks may be sent to Justice Antonin Scalia c/o The Supreme Court, Washington, DC. Please don't skimp on your expression of appreciation.

I don't expect to be around to suffer any consequences. I have my own Y2K/signed 32 bit issue.

Some people have pools installed just so they can help tuition-strapped college dudes with summer pool-boy jobs. There is potential for those with deep pockets to help up to seven different dudes a week. But then deep pockets are presumed if one installs a pool just for philanthropic measures.

6 'Bad' Carbs that Are Actually Good for You By Health.com | Healthy Living – Mon, May 12, 2014 11:21 AM EDT by Leslie Barrie Thanks to popular low-carb diets, these carb-heavy healthy foods have been unfairly blacklisted. But there's no need to be scared of spuds or ban bananas. We're setting the record straight-dig in guilt-free! Corn Corn gets a bad rap because it's frequently found in packaged, processed food that can be void of nutrients. But real, straight-up corn is a healthy whole grain, points out Jessica Levinson, RD, a New York City-based nutritionist. "It's a good source of fiber, vitamin C, and the antioxidants lutein and zeaxanthin, which promote healthy vision," she says. Grill corn on the cob, heat up popcorn or top a salad with fresh kernels. Bananas It's bananas to think that nature's perfect portable snack could have ever gotten labeled as bad for you, just because of its carbs and sugar content. "The fruit is a good source of vitamin B6, manganese, potassium, and fiber," says Henderson. And when slightly unripe, bananas are also a good source of slimming resistant starch. Snack on them whole, pop them into smoothies, or even use them as a substitution for fats in baking. Breakfast cereal There's no need to shun a bowlful of flakes. Many cereals are made with whole grains these days, so they can be a healthy way to start your day. Just check the label: Look for a short ingredients list with whole grains at the top and at least 3 grams of fiber and no more than 10 grams of sugar per serving. White potatoes We know we're supposed to limit white bread, white rice and white pasta. Somehow potatoes got swept up in that ban, too. "White potatoes are actually very good for you," says Christian Henderson, RD, a New York City-based nutritionist. "They're a great source of potassium and vitamin C, and they have almost 4 grams of fiber with the skin on-15 percent of your recommended daily allowance." As an alternative to the classic sour cream-slathered baked potato, try cutting potatoes into cubes, tossing them with olive oil and rosemary, and roasting until crisp. Sourdough Bread You don't always have to pick whole wheat. Traditional sourdough is made through a process of fermentation, so it contains beneficial bacteria known as probiotics. "When these good bacteria are present in the bread-making process they help break down some of the gluten, so sourdough may actually be easier on gluten intolerant people than other gluten-containing breads," Henderson says. "They also lower your insulin response and make some nutrients more readily available for digestion." Green peas Sure, they're higher in carbs and sugar than non-starchy vegetables-they're even on some low carb diets' "foods to avoid" lists. "But peas are a great source of phytonutrients with anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activity," Henderson says. One in the spotlight is coumestrol, which has been shown to potentially protect against stomach cancer, Henderson adds. A cup of cooked green peas also boasts more than 7 grams of filling fiber. Eat them straight up or in soups or salads, or add dried peas to a trail mix. See original article at: https://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/6-bad-carbs-actually-good-152100770.html

There are good gifs and bad gifs. Depends on the gif maker and his subject matter. Will never replace the full length movie.

The stuff that dreams are made of.

Pollen?

America's healthiest cities https://homes.yahoo.com/photos/america-s-healthiest-cities-1398877476-slideshow/ Unfortunately, moving to any of them won't automatically improve you health and may bring their stats down.

Sure you can. Follow MsGuy's advice and you'll do just fine.

New York Times pits Galaxy S5 against iPhone 5s, says competition isn’t even close By Zach Epstein Last week, we took an in-depth look at Samsung’s new Galaxy S5 smartphone to see how it compared with the HTC One (M8). While the competition was certainly intense, in the end we called HTC’s new flagship phone the best Android smartphone in the world. In terms of sales, however, the M8 will never compete with the Galaxy S5. Even HTC knows that. Apple’s flagship iPhone 5s is the only smartphone that sits at the top of the food chain alongside the Galaxy S5 when it comes to sales, and The New York Times recently pitted these two leading smartphones against each other to see which one should be called the best smartphone in the world. Interestingly, the newspaper found that the competition wasn’t even close. “Although it offers no spectacular advances over the previous version, Samsung seems to have done just enough with the S5 to stay ahead of every other Android phone maker,” NYT columnist Farhad Manjoo wrote. “The only plausible competition comes in the form of the HTC One, which, as my colleague Molly Wood wrote, is prettier than the S5 but not as functional. The upshot of all these reviews is that if you’re looking for the best Android phone, Samsung’s is the one to buy.” He continued, “But that’s not the whole story. While there are probably some people who go out to shop for the best Android phone, I suspect that most people want to know which phone is best of all, whatever operating system it runs. In other words, how does the Galaxy S5 compare to the iPhone 5S, Apple’s six-month-old flagship device and the champion to beat?” The answer, Manjoo says, is “not very well.” According to The New York Times, the brand new Galaxy S5 really doesn’t complete on any level with the iPhone 5s, which is nearly seven months old at this point. “By just about every major measure you’ll care about, from speed to design to ease of use to the quality of its apps, Samsung’s phone ranks behind the iPhone, sometimes far behind,” Manjoo wrote. “If you’re looking for the best phone on the market right now, I’d recommend going with the iPhone 5S.” Manjoo says the Galaxy S5′s three biggest advantages over the iPhone 5s are slightly longer battery life, water-resistance and the phone’s larger display. The first two are minor advantages according to Manjoo, and the display size discrepancy will reportedly disappear later this year when Apple launches a larger iPhone 6 and an iPhone phablet. The columnist concludes that Samsung’s Galaxy S5 is the best smartphone with a large screen that money can buy right now, and that will continue to be the case for the next few months. But Manjoo says that once Apple launches its larger iPhones, “Samsung’s smartphone ascendance may look a bit uncertain.” More from BGR: Forget 5G – 10Gbps WiFi is coming next year This article was originally published on BGR.com See this Yahoo News article at: http://news.yahoo.com/york-times-pits-galaxy-s5-against-iphone-5s-141628109.html

Some surprising entries. Not sure I believe all of this. I'd like their take on the 10 best states.

10 worst states for retirement security April 17, 2014 If you think you’re financially ready for retirement, where you live can make a difference, according to a recent report that finds that nearly every state falls short in key areas that measure retirement readiness. If you live in Wyoming or Alaska, where retirement income is untaxed, you may fare better. The report, recently presented at the National Institute on Retirement Security’s fifth annual retirement policy conference, gauges the relative performance of the fifty states and the District of Columbia in three key areas: anticipated retirement income; major retirement costs like housing and health care; and labor market conditions for older workers. The study is designed to serve as a tool for policy makers to help identify potential areas of focus for state-based policy interventions to improve Americans’ retirement prospects. The full study, The Financial Security Scorecard: A State-by-State Analysis of Economic Pressures Facing Future Retirees is available here . These are the 10 states that landed at the bottom of the list of the financial security scorecard: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/10-worst-states-for-retirement-security-2014-04-17?siteid=yhoof2