Mediocre coffee for $50 a pound

I found this story off the Los Angeles Times:

Much about the art and science of the consumer market is mysterious, but nothing's stranger than the seeming popularity of those coffee-pod brewing contraptions sold under brand names such as Keurig. 

Here's what's strange about them: First -- speaking with the authority of a coffee devotee with my own genuine Italian espresso machine at home -- the coffee they make is horrible. Second, it's ridiculously expensive.

Keurig uses plastic and foil pods filled with about 10 grams of ground coffee each (some are less, some "bold" brews are a little more), which are placed in the brewing device, automatically pierced with a needle, and inundated with hot water. The coffee-making process is mess-free. That's the good news, but once you've said that you've said everything. The result is typically a flavorless brew of brown hot water. The pods are discarded after a single brew, creating a detestable volume of non-recyclable packaging waste.

Keurig's single-serve pods, or K-Cups, sell on its website in packs of 24 for about $16.50. That's about $30 per pound of coffee; the price for some blends licensed from Starbucks can approach $50 per pound.

For comparison, at Peet's you can get a pound of top-flight fresh Italian or French roast for $15. For the same sum, Keurig will sell you half a pound of Folgers, which you can find in canisters at Wal-Mart for less than five bucks per pound.

How do you spell "sucker"? 

 Keurig Coffee Maker, from Bed Bath and Beyond.

My sister has one of these Keurig coffee makers in red.  Every morning she makes her one cup of coffee from this ridiculous machine.  It takes her less than a minute to make a cup of coffee.  As with myself, I'll use the old fashioned Mr. Coffee 12-cup coffee maker, or the smaller Mr. Coffee 4-cup coffee maker.  It takes me around five minutes to make a cup of coffee--perhaps two or three minutes, if I want to pull the pot out for that first cup while brewing.  I know it is more convenient to run a Keurig machine for a single cup of coffee, over that of a 4-cup Mr. Coffee maker, but is it worth the time, price or taste quality of your coffee? 

I'm sticking with the Mr. Coffee machine.  It makes great tasting coffee, at a cheaper price than Keurig.

Developer building private city for the ubber-rich

I found this rather interesting story through Daily Kos, which redirects into another Kos link.  The original source story can be found in The Guardian:

It's a sight to behold. Just off Lagos, Nigeria's coast, an artificial island is emerging from the sea. A foundation, built of sand dredged from the ocean floor, stretches over ten kilometres. Promotional videos depict what is to come: a city of soaring buildings, housing for 250,000 people, and a central boulevard to match Paris' Champs-Élysées and New York's Fifth Avenue. Privately constructed, it will also be privately administered and supplied with electricity, water, mass transit, sewage and security. It is the "future Hong Kong of Africa," anticipates Nigeria's World Bank director.

Welcome to Eko Atlantic, a city whose "whole purpose", its developers say, is to "arrest the ocean's encroachment." Like many low-lying coastal African countries, Nigeria has been hit hard by a rising sea-level, which has regularly washed away thousands of peoples' homes. To defend against the coastal erosion and flooding, the city is being surrounded by the "Great Wall of Lagos", a sea defence barrier made of 100,000 five-ton concrete blocks. Eko Atlantic will be a "sustainable city, clean and energy efficient with minimal carbon emissions," offer jobs, prosperity and new land for Nigerians, and serve as a bulwark in the fight against the impacts of climate change.

This new city is being funded and built by a financial empire called The Chagoury Group, along with some African and international banks.  The Chagoury Group "was a close advisor to the notorious Nigerian dictatorship of the mid 1990s, helping the ultra-corrupt general Sani Abacha as he looted billions from public coffers."  With Nigerian oil revenue flowing into the corrupt military government and elites, they are discovering they have no place to spend their money in a nation of extreme inequality: 

In congested Lagos, Africa's largest city, there is little employment and millions work and scavenge in a vast, desperate informal economy. Sixty percent of Nigeria's population – almost 100 of 170 million people – live on less than a dollar a day. Preventable diseases are widespread; electricity and clean water hard to come by. A few kilometres down the Lagos shoreline, Nigerians eke out an existence in the aquatic slum of Makoko, built precariously on stilts over the ocean. Casting them as crime-ridden, the government regularly dismantles such slums, bulldozing homes and evicting thousands. These are hardly the people who will scoop up square footage in Eko Atlantic's pricy new high-rises....

As elites in Nigeria and elsewhere have embraced such inequality as the very engine of growth, they have re-established some of the most severe forms of colonial segregation and gated leisure. Today, boutiques cannot open fast enough to serve the Nigerian millionaires buying luxury cars and yachts they'll be able to dock in Eko Atlantic's down-town marina. Meanwhile, thousands of people who live in communities along the coast expect the new city will bring displacement, not prosperity, says environmental activist Nnimmo Bassey. To get their way, the developers, backed by industry and politicians, have trampled over the country's environmental assessment process. "Building Eko Atlantic is contrary to anything one would want to do if one took seriously climate change and resource depletion," he says.

The wealthy and powerful may in fact take climate change seriously: not as a demand to modify their behaviour or question the fossil-fuel driven global economy that has made it possible, but as the biggest opportunity yet to realize their dreams of unfettered accumulation and consumption. The disaster capitalists behind Eko Atlantic have seized on climate change to push through pro-corporate plans to build a city of their dreams, an architectural insult to the daily circumstances of ordinary Nigerians. The criminalized poor abandoned outside their walls may once have served as sufficient justification for their flight and fortification – but now they have the very real threat of climate change as well.

So the end result is that we have this enormous, luxury city, which is sitting off the coast of a nation filled with extreme poverty. The big question I would have, and in the comments on Kos, who is going to take care of the city infrastructure?  Who is going to perform the maintenance of utilities, provide food, haul trash away, own and operate a myriad of shops and stores?  If there are restaurants in this city, who will perform the menial jobs of waiting on tables, or busboy services, or washing the dishes?  Who will be working the low-wage retail customer service jobs?  Stocking the grocery shelves?  Cashiers?  Will the individuals working these low-wage jobs be able to afford to live in this city--especially if the rents for this city's housing rises to astronomical prices?  Or will these low-wage workers come into Eko Atlantic from the surrounding slums?  Because if the ordinary Nigerians realize the disconnect of their living in slums and extreme poverty, while working in Eko Atlantic and the opulent wealth of the rich, how long will it be before 170 million people in a nation start to revolt against a city of 250,000?

Here is a YouTube video of what Eko Atlantic will look like, once completed:



YouTube video of Eko Atlantic's Business District:

Experts say Mayans prophesized, but not the end of the world

This is a fun story from Yahoo News:

MEXICO CITY (AP) — As the clock winds down to Dec. 21, experts on the Mayan calendar have been racing to convince people that the Mayas didn't predict an apocalypse for the end of this year.

Some experts are now saying the Mayas may indeed have made prophecies, just not about the end of the world.

Archaeologists, anthropologists and other experts met Friday in the southern Mexico city of Merida to discuss the implications of the Mayan Long Count calendar, which is made up of 394-year periods called baktuns.

Experts estimate the system starts counting at 3114 B.C., and will have run through 13 baktuns, or 5,125 years, around Dec. 21. Experts say 13 was a significant number for the Mayans, and the end of that cycle would be a milestone — but not an end.

Fears that the calendar does point to the end have circulated in recent years. People in that camp believe the Maya may have been privy to impending astronomical disasters that would coincide with 2012, ranging from explosive storms on the surface of the sun that could knock out power grids to a galactic alignment that could trigger a reversal in Earth's magnetic field.

Mexican government archaeologist Alfredo Barrera said Friday that the Mayas did prophesize, but perhaps about more humdrum events like droughts or disease outbreaks.

"The Mayas did make prophecies, but not in a fatalistic sense, but rather about events that, in their cyclical conception of history, could be repeated in the future," said Barrera, of the National Institute of Anthropology and History.

Experts stressed that the ancient Mayas, whose "classic" culture of writing, astronomy and temple complexes flourished from A.D. 300 to 900, were extremely interested in future events, far beyond Dec. 21.

"There are many ancient Maya monuments that discuss events far into the future from now," wrote Geoffrey Braswell, an anthropologist at the University of California, San Diego. "The ancient Maya clearly believed things would happen far into the future from now."

It is true.  The Mayans did make prophesies about future events, which probably did not mean the end of the world.  Maybe the Mayans were making prophesies about Hollywood making bad, disaster movies about the "End-of-the-World."  Perhaps the Mayans knew about 2012:


Or the Day After Tomorrow (which probably never came after 2012):



Or perhaps the Mayans were just channeling their inner REM: 

Snake-handling Pastor dies of rattlesnake bite

All I can say here is that if you play around with rattlesnakes, you're going to get bit. From Yahoo News:

Mack Wolford, a flamboyant Pentecostal pastor from West Virginia whose serpent-handling talents were profiled last November in The Washington Post Magazine , hoped the outdoor service he had planned for Sunday at an isolated state park would be a “homecoming like the old days,” full of folks speaking in tongues, handling snakes and having a “great time.” But it was not the sort of homecoming he foresaw.

Instead, Wolford, who turned 44 the previous day, was bitten by a rattlesnake he owned for years. He died late Sunday.

Mark Randall “Mack” Wolford was known all over Appalachia as a daring man of conviction. He believed that the Bible mandates that Christians handle serpents to test their faith in God — and that, if they are bitten, they trust in God alone to heal them.

He and other adherents cited Mark 16:17-18 as the reason for their practice: “And these signs will follow those who believe: in My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

I have to wonder about the religious fanatics, and why they feel it is important to their religion to handle snakes. Do they really believe that the snake is a manifestation of evil, or a part of the devil? The snake is an animal, doing what it should do when it feels threatened--the snake bites!

There is a couple interesting items in this story. The first is that Wolford's father was also a snake handler, who died in 1983 of a rattlesnake bite. Wolford was apparently trying to keep the practice alive in the West Virginia area, where it is still legal. The second is that this incident took place in an isolated part of a stake park. After Wolford was bitten, he was taken back to a relative's home in Bluefiled to recover. When his situation got worst, messages began flying through Facebook, asking for prayer. Instead of asking for prayer, why didn't Wolford go to the hospital for treatment of the rattlesnake bite? Isn't that why God created anti-venom? Finally, had state park officials known that Wolford was playing his snake-handling game, they "would have never allowed it."

Harrisburg praying God can pull them out of financial ruin

I found this story through Americablog, and even I can't believe it. The source story is from CNBC.com:

If all the brightest minds in Harrisburg’s government can’t solve the city’s financial problems, maybe God can.

That seems to be the thinking in Pennsylvania’s capital city, where Mayor Linda Thompson and a host of other religious leaders are about to embark on a three-day fast and prayer campaign to cure the city’s daunting money woes.

Maybe Greece should have thought of this.

“Things that are above and beyond my control, I need God,” Thompson told WHTM TV, the region’s ABC news affiliate. “I depend on Him for guidance. Spiritual guidance. That’s why it’s really no struggle for me to join this fast and prayer.”

But judging by its financial picture, the city of 49,000 in the central part of the Keystone State may not even have a prayer.

According to a recent analysis from the state’s Department of Community and Economic Development, Harrisburg is likely to end the year with a nearly $3.5 million deficit in its $58 million budget, and things are only expected to get worse.

All I can think of is this:



Instead of prayer, why doesn't the mayor bring some economists or financial experts in to propose tough solutions to fix Harrisburg's financial situation--even if that may include a combination of budget cuts and tax increases?

Sarah Palin wants to star in her own reality TV series

Looks like former Republican vice presidential candidate and Alaskan governor Sarah Palin is back in the news again (Or has she ever been out of the news?). I found this interesting news story that made me stop and ask...what? Here is a March 4, 2010 ABC News story where Palin is shopping around for her own reality TV series:

We knew Sarah Palin was in Los Angeles this week. What we didn't know was that she was shopping...shopping around a reality TV show.

Yes, the former vice presidential candidate is venturing outside of politics and into the land of "The Real Housewives," "The Bachelor" and "Dancing With the Stars."

Palin's show would be set in Alaska and follow her family celebrating the natural beauty that surrounds them.

Her business partner is none other than reality show producer Mark Burnett, who famously asked, "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" He also helped coin the Donald Trump phrase, "You're Fired!" And he created that father of all reality shows, "Survivor."

Surviving is something Palin has mastered. But would a Palin reality program survive?

"The fact that they are shopping this show to broadcast networks, rather than cable networks, shows that there's a lot of interest in her," says Matthew Belloni, managing editor of features for The Hollywood Reporter. "I will say, she is an A-list personality and a reality show starring her would command A-list money."

Industry insiders suggest she could make well into six figures, perhaps more than $1 million an episode.

The ABC News story reports that the cast for MTV's reality series "Jersey Shore" earn around $10,000 per episode. Sarah Palin is asking for a million per episode. If someone produces 22 episodes of Palin's new series, then Palin collects a $22 million paycheck from the series. That is just Palin's paycheck--that is not counting the cost such a studio will have to pay for producing and filming each episode.

And yet, cable television networks are interested in Sarah Palin's series. From Reuters:

Sources say A&E Networks and Discovery Communications want to acquire Palin's project, which focuses on the ex-governor giving a guided tour of her native Alaska -- visiting fishing boats and taking a trip to a gold mine, to cite a couple of examples. Mark Burnett is executive producer of the project, whose working title is "Sarah Palin's Alaska."

A&E Networks hasn't officially put in a bid for the show, but sources indicate that the company is interested in the project for several of its brands -- A&E, History or Lifetime.

Discovery Communications is likewise vying for the project for one or more of its outlets, such as TLC. Some sources say the flagship Discovery Channel is no longer in play, while others say otherwise.

The former vice presidential candidate is asking for between $1 million and $1.5 million per episode, a hefty amount for a first-year cable series.

Palin initially pitched the show to broadcast networks. Given the show's laid-back nature theme and lack of high-stakes drama that tends to typify broadcast reality hits, industry executives see cable as a better fit.

A&E is the home of bold reality fare like "Intervention" and "Dog the Bounty Hunter," while Discovery has compatible outdoors series, such as Alaska-set "Deadliest Catch."

"It will sell," predicts one insider. "One way or another."

Now I'm not going to criticize Sarah Palin for being greedy here in asking for a million per episode. I'm not even going to criticize network executives for expressing interest in "Sarah Palin's Alaska." What I am surprised is that there will be probably be enough conservative Americans so willing to watch Sarah Palin give us guided tours of shooting wolves from helicopters, or showing us Russia from her house. Then again, Sarah Palin is the darling of the conservative movement. Will these conservatives turn away from the Fox News rantings to watch Sarah Palin on A&E or Discovery?

It is also interesting that Mark Burnett, the father of the "Survivor" reality TV series, has latched on to this Sarah Palin TV series. I wonder if Burnett will make Sarah Palin engage in physical challenges for an immunity idol, or not have Donald Trump tell Palin, "You're fired" from her own TV series--that is if Sarah Palin doesn't quit her reality TV series first. I guess Burnett has got to find another reality TV spin, as Survivor and the Apprentice have gotten really stale and old. There is really nothing new with either Survivor or Apprentice (Or even Celebrity Apprentice), except for the names of the contestants--be it Heroes and Villains, or the latest crop of has-been celebrities. Burnett's "Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader" is really dumb--a game show based on fifth grade educational trivia questions. Of course, I've heard somewhere that the average American has the equivalence of the sixth grade education (Not sure if it is true or not), so maybe this game show appeals to average Americans. So Mark Burnett has to think up another reality TV series to go up against, not only his current crop of reality TV series, but Dancing with the Stars, American Idol, Project Runway, food reality TV shows, Deadliest Catch, Dog, and who knows what other reality TV is out there. What's better than to have a popular has-been governor and VP candidate talking to her rabid, conservative-loving fan base about Alaska? I'm guessing such a series would be a hit for the conservative fans of Sarah Palin. I can't say if Sarah Palin's Alaska will gain enough ratings to pay for the show's expenses, or even Sarah Palin's million dollar per episode paycheck. Then again, I will not be watching the series.

Toyota tells dealers to stop selling eight model cars covered by recall

This is a huge blow for Toyota. From the Los Angeles Times:

Toyota Motor Corp. is temporarily halting sales and production of eight models, including the top-selling Camry and Corolla, that it has recalled because the accelerator pedal can stick and cause unwanted acceleration.

The automaker announced the recall of 2.3 million cars and trucks late last week. That came just months after Toyota launched its largest-ever recall -- 4.3 million vehicles -- because floor mats could trap the gas pedal and also cause sudden acceleration.

Today, Toyota informed its roughly 1,200 U.S. dealers to immediately halt sales of both new and used models of the affected vehicles: the 2009 to 2010 RAV4, 2009 to 2010 Corolla, 2009 to 2010 Matrix, 2005 to 2010 Avalon, 2010 Highlander, 2007 to 2010 Tundra and 2008 to 2010 Sequoia. It also is halting sales of certain 2007 to 2010 Camry sedans, depending on where those vehicles were manufactured.

Toyota also said it would stop production of those models on five assembly lines in the U.S. and Canada, effective Monday.

The automaker did not say how long it would freeze sales of those vehicles, which represent the majority of its sales, by volume, in the U.S.

"At this point, we don't know," Toyota spokesman Brian Lyons said about a remedy for the problem. He said that Toyota had never before issued a "stop sale" order. "I'm not going to speculate on how long this will be in effect."

This has become a huge problem for Toyota--a recall of eight models produced over a span of 3-5 years, affecting over 6 million cars. I do not even think that Toyota really knows what the problem is with these cars regarding unexpected acceleration. What is more, both the recall and the halting of sales affects some of Toyota's best-selling models--including the Camry, the Corolla, the Tundra, and the Highlander--affecting Toyota's small car, truck, and SUV platforms. So far, Toyota is now taking the right steps now in both issuing the recall order and halting the sales of their vehicles. But apparently Toyota has been rather late in issuing such a recall, according to this ABC News story:

The major announcement comes just days after Toyota recalled 2.3 million vehicles to correct the sudden unexplained acceleration in some of its models, after ABC News informed the company that the latest in a long series of investigative reports on the issue was about to air.

Safety expert Sean Kane told ABC News that since last fall, when Toyota said it had solved the acceleration problem with proposed changes to gas pedals and a recall of 4.2 million cars with suspect floor mats, more than 60 new cases of runaway Toyotas have been reported.

In the most tragic incident, on the day after Christmas, four people died in Southlake, Texas, a suburb of Dallas, when a 2008 Toyota sped off the road, through a fence and landed upside down in a pond. The car's floor mats were found in the trunk of the car, where owners had been advised to put them as part of the recall.

"There's one thing that didn't cause the accident," said Southlake police spokesman Lt. Ben Brown.

Federal safety investigators have joined in the investigation, according to Lt. Brown.

Toyota had a reputation for producing safe, quality-made cars. This latest order to halt sales will probably severely tarnish Toyota's image as a quality car-maker, not to mention the losses Toyota will take in U.S. car sales market as a result of the halting of sales and production of these models. The longer this halting of sales and production of Toyota cars takes place, the greater the losses that Toyota will incur. And it is not just dollar amounts of lost sales, but also potentially long-term, loyal Toyota customers who will be shopping for other manufacturer's cars.

Man dies after falling into vat of chocolate

Talk about Death by Chocolate! This is from The MercuryNews.com:

CAMDEN, N.J. — Authorities say a man died after falling into a vat of melted chocolate in a New Jersey processing plant.

A spokesman for the Camden County prosecutor's office says the 29-year-old temporary worker at the Cocoa Services Inc. plant fell after a blade used to mix raw chocolate hit him. His name has not been released.

The accident happened Wednesday morning as the worker was loading chocolate into the vat where it's melted and mixed before being shipped elsewhere to be made into candy.

Prosecutor's spokesman Jason Laughlin says a co-worker tried to shut off the machine and two others tried to pull the man out of the 8-foot-deep vat.

Cocoa Services hires a second company — Lyons and Sons — to do the mixing.

All Michael Jackson News, all the time

Michael Jackson died.

I'll admit that I was a little surprised when I read the June 25, 2009 story on the King of Pop's death. What I found even more ironic is was how the mainstream news started out with their big morning news story about Charlie's Angel Farrah Fawcett's death from cancer, but then suddenly dropped Farrah's death for what would become the incessant coverage of EVERYTHING MICHAEL! For the past two weeks, the mainstream news media has been playing All Michael News, all the time. Here's the ambulance that transported Michael to the hospital. Here's the helicopter transporting Michael's body to the morgue--Look! There's Michael's body being transported from the morgue to the funeral home! If watching Michael Jackson's body being transported from one place to another was bad enough, with news pundits filling the video time of Jackson's body being transported with bloated commentary, then there was the Michael Jackson special tributes, the old pop star interviews, and the new, exclusive interviews with brother Jermain, the stories revolving around Michael's prescription drug use, the financial problems, the legal questions of who gets custody of Michael's children. It was endless. Of course, then there was the public funeral for Michael Jackson--a media moment that The New York Times called "a star-studded live concert infused with all the pageantry, sorrow and ghoulish curiosity that attends the untimely demise of a beloved, troubled superstar."

I just avoided watching the TV news for the past two weeks, trying to stay away from the All Michael Jackson News, all the time.

I'm sorry to hear that Michael Jackson died. I'm sorry for what his family has to endure, and that his children will no longer be with their father. I'll admit that Jackson was a musical genius, and possibly a troubled child trapped in a man's body. But watching the incessant media coverage of Michael Jackson was part exasperating, and part disgusting. This was not news--this was ghoulish entertainment pre-packaged as news, for big corporate media profit. Michael Jackson's death was milked by the corporate media for two weeks of advertising profit. Consider this NY Times story, where more than 31 million viewers watched Michael Jackson's memorial yesterday:

More than 31.1 million viewers tuned in to watch the memorial service held on Tuesday for Michael Jackson, according to numbers released on Wednesday by the Nielsen Company. The broadcast of the Staples Center event, at which the Jackson family and an ensemble of performers and political figures paid their respects to the King of Pop, was carried live from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern time on 18 television networks: ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, Telefutura, Telemundo, Univision, CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, Headline News, BET, E!, MTV, VH1, VH1 Classic, TV Guide Network and TV ONE.

By historical standards, the Jackson memorial was among the most watched funeral services of a notable personality in recent years. According to data provided by Nielsen, the funeral for Pope John Paul II in 2005 was watched by more than 8.8 million people, and the funeral of President Gerald R. Ford in 2007 drew more than 15 million viewers. In 2004, the funeral of President Ronald Reagan was watched by 20.8 million people and his burial drew 35 million viewers. The funeral of Princess Diana was watched by more than 33.2 million people in 1997.

You can bet that a lot of viewers were also watching all the Michael Jackson tributes, which were quickly put on by the news networks in the aftermath of the pop singer's death. And with that many viewers watching the All Michael Jackson News, all the time, all those viewer ratings translate to big advertising dollars that the corporate media could charge.

Of course, the All Michael Jackson News is not yet finished. Because now we've got the post-Michael Jackson RIP analysis currently taking place. It appears that nobody knows where Michael Jackson will be buried:

LOS ANGELES -- Now that the memorial is over, the question remains, 'What will happen to Michael Jackson's body?"

It was rumored the body would be buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills.

But police and cemetery officials say Jackson's body would not be returning to the cemetery where the family held a private service Tuesday morning.

Jackson's death certificate lists Forest Lawn as the responsible mortuary because the body was embalmed there.

[....]

Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter said Jackson's brain, or at least part of it, was still being held by investigators and would be returned to the family for internment once neuropathology tests were completed.

It's not uncommon for the coroner to hold onto a brain or samples from it. Winter said families sometimes delay burying a loved one until after the brain has been returned, but he had received no word from the Jackson family about their plans.

"The last I heard, they are not burying the body yet," Winter said.

All I can think of is put Michael Jackson in the ground, and let him rest in peace. And maybe we can move away from the All Michael Jackson News, all the time.

Robert McNamara died

In this Jan. 23, 1961, photo released by the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library in Boston, President Kennedy sits with Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara, right, in the White House Oval Office in Washington. McNamara, the cerebral secretary of defense vilified for his role in escalating the Vietnam War, a disastrous conflict he later denounced as 'terribly wrong,' died Monday, July 6, 2009. He was 93.(AP Photo/Cecil Stoughton, White House via John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library, Boston)

I guess Robert McNamara will no longer be tormented by the ghosts of Vietnam. From The New York Times:

Robert S. McNamara, perhaps the most influential defense secretary of the 20th century, who helped lead the nation into the maelstrom of Vietnam and spent the rest of his life wrestling with the war’s moral consequences, died early Monday at his home in Washington, the Associated Press reported, citing his wife, Diana. He was 93, and according to the news agency, had been in failing health for some time.

Serving Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson from 1961 to 1968, Mr. McNamara oversaw hundreds of military missions, thousands of nuclear weapons and billions of dollars in military spending and foreign arms sales. He also enlarged the defense secretary’s role, handling foreign diplomacy and the dispatch of troops to enforce civil rights in the South.

“He’s like a jackhammer,” President Johnson said. “No human being can take what he takes. He drives too hard. He is too perfect.”

As early as April 1964, Senator Wayne Morse, Democrat of Oregon, called Vietnam “McNamara’s War.” Mr. McNamara did not object. “I am pleased to be identified with it,” he said, “and do whatever I can to win it.”

Half a million American soldiers went to war on his watch. More than 16,000 died; 42,000 more would fall in the seven years to come.

The war became his personal nightmare. Nothing he did, none of the tools at his command — the power of American weapons, the forces of technology and logic or the strength of American soldiers — could stop the armies of North Vietnam. He concluded well before leaving the Pentagon that the war was futile, but he did not share that insight with the public until late in life.

"Bailout" costs Domino's 11,000 pizzas

There is some rich irony here, as Domino's Pizza tried to cash in with the bailout. This is from MSNBC News:

CINCINNATI - "Bailout" was the magic word as Domino's had to give away thousands of free pizzas because someone stumbled on an online promotion the company scrapped.

Domino's Pizza Inc. spokesman Tim McIntyre said Wednesday that the company prepared an Internet coupon for an ad campaign that was considered in December but not approved.

He says someone apparently typed "bailout" into a Domino's promo code window and found it was good for a free medium pizza.

Word about the code spread quickly Monday night on the Web and 11,000 free pizzas were delivered before it was deactivated Tuesday morning.

Cincinnati-area franchise owner John Glass says his 14 stores gave away more than 600 pies, but that Domino's promised to reimburse him.

So, Domino's created an online advertising promo for an internet coupon, but then decided to scrap it. However, Domino's never deactivated the online promo. Someone found out that if you typed in the word "bailout" in the promo code window, Domino's will bail you out with a free medium pizza. And it only cost Domino's 11,000 pizzas here. What can I say, but Domino's made a colossal advertising screw-up in which 11,000 Americans became happy pizza eaters. With a medium, hand-tossed, pepperoni pizza priced at around $11.35, it only cost Domino's $124,850 for this pizza bailout.

Fender-bender in the Atlantic

I wonder if they both had insurance? From CNN.com:

LONDON, England (CNN) -- A British Royal Navy nuclear submarine and its French equivalent collided while on operations in the Atlantic Ocean earlier this month, defense ministries in Paris and London confirmed Monday.

Both vessels, HMS Vanguard and Le Triomphant, were armed with nuclear warheads and suffered damage but were able to return to port under their own power following the collision.

"Two "SNLE" (nuclear submarines), one French and the other British, were, a few days ago, on standard patrols in the Atlantic. They briefly came in contact in a very slow speed while they were immersed," the French Ministry of Defense said in a statement.

"There is no casualty or injury among the crew. Neither the nuclear deterrent mission nor the nuclear security have been compromised."

In an earlier press release issued on February 6, the Ministry of Defense said the vessel's sonar dome had been damaged in a collision. The vessel was able to return to its base at Ile Longue in Brittany, northwest France, accompanied by a frigate.

The UK's Ministry of Defence also confirmed the incident. In a statement, the First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Jonathan Band said the collision occurred during "routine national patrols."

"Both submarines remained safe and no injuries occurred. We can confirm that the capability remained unaffected and there has been no compromise to nuclear safety," Band said.

HMS Vanguard returned to its home base at Faslane in Scotland on February 14. The UK's Sun newspaper reported that dents and scrapes were visible on the vessel's hull as it was towed into dock by a tugboat.

Both the UK and French nuclear deterrent operations depend on complete secrecy, despite both countries' membership of NATO. But naval analyst Richard Cobbold told CNN that procedures would be in place to ensure that French and British submarines were routinely kept apart.

"Either one of these submarines was doing something different or somebody made a mistake -- but we don't know that," Cobbold said.

You would think that, in an ocean as big as the Atlantic, both subs would not collide with each other under the sea. But they did. You would also think that both the British and French military commands would coordinate their plans to keep their nuclear submarines apart from each other. In this case, they didn't. Or some big SNAFU took place that both countries never expected. My guess is one sub was driving on the left, while the other sub was driving on the right, and they both collided into each other.

Or perhaps both of the subs collided with each other in this fashion:

Hottest Christmas toy on the market? How about a doll that takes a crap!

I really do not know what to say about this Washington Post story:

So long, Betsy Wetsy. Baby dolls just got a whole lot more real.

Put her on her little pink plastic toilet. Press the purple bracelet on Baby Alive Learns to Potty. "Sniff sniff," she chirps in a singsong voice. "I made a stinky!"

This season's animatronic Baby Alive -- which retails for $59.99 -- comes with special "green beans" and "bananas" that, once fed to the doll, actually, well, come out the other end. "Be careful," reads the doll's promotional literature, "just like real life, sometimes she can hold it until she gets to the 'potty' and sometimes she can't!" (A warning on the back of the box reads: "May stain some surfaces.")

The mess made by the $39.95 Little Mommy Real Loving Baby Gotta Go Doll, ("Over 60 phrases and fun sounds!") is more hypothetical. Once she is placed on her little toilet, a magnet triggers a presto, change-o in the plastic bowl: "The 'water' in the toilet disappears, with the expected 'potty waste' appearing in its place," says manufacturer Mattel. "Your child can then flush the toilet. The 'water' will reappear, while the toilet makes a very realistic flushing sound!" And then comes the applause.

The dolls, which are being heavily advertised on television, are expected to be the season's big sellers. Since the dolls were introduced to stores this fall, managers at Wal-Mart, Target and Toys R Us have reported trouble keeping them in stock. And Baby Alive, listed as one of the Hot Toys of 2008 by Hottoys2008.com, was sold out at Wal-Mart, eToys.com and the AOL shopping site a week before Christmas.

But not everyone thinks dolls need to be this real. Some things, they argue, are better left to the imagination. This battle over whether pooping dolls are an appropriate toy is only the latest skirmish in a long war between child development experts and toymakers. Psychologists say the best toys encourage children to pretend and use make-believe (witness the fact that children often love the boxes their expensive toys come in more than the toy itself). But toymakers want to use the latest technology to make and sell ever-more realistic toys. (Baby Alive's movements are the result of sophisticated robotics controlled by the same kind of microprocessor that navigates satellites and runs nuclear power plants.)

"Retailers have bought heavily into these dolls," said Reyne Rice, trend specialist with the Toy Industry Association. "They feel that these are some of the more popular items for girls this year." Although most baby dolls are sold in the last six weeks of the year and firm sales figures won't be available until early next year, Rice said indicators look good for big Christmas sales.

A doll that takes a crap, and shows kids the wonders of potty training. Do children really want these type of dolls that show the wonders of human excrement? The WaPost story calls these dolls best-sellers, and I'm sure that the kids are anxious to have the latest toys that are heavily advertised on TV by the toy-makers as the hottest toys. My niece wanted the Hokey Pokey Elmo, for Christmas, two years ago. Santa gave her Hokey Pokey Elmo. She played with it Christmas morning, and maybe a couple of days after that, but then almost completely ignored the toy after that. She got into other toys, like My Little Pony, and Littlest Pet Shop. I think she still has the Elmo doll sitting in her closet. Looking at this Baby Alive doll, I believe it will end up in the back of the closet, along with the Hokey Pokey Elmo doll, as a $60 doll that will be played with once on Christmas morning, and then forever trashed. Then again, the marketers have found a way to cash in by hyping up this outrageous, pooping, toy, and heavily advertise it on the cartoon shows so that children could pester their parents on purchasing this "crappy" toy. It is just incredible.

Great moments in classic comedy--George Carlin's "A place for my stuff!"

My apologies for the lack of posting here during the past two weeks. I've been rather busy watching floor guys refinish the hardwood floors, and helping my parents repaint the house before new roommates come in this Saturday--and the house is currently a disaster, execpt for the hardwood floors which look gorgeous. I'll be back Monday posting, when everything gets back to semi-normal here. In the meantime, I did notice the story of George Carlin passing away on June 24th. The world lost a brilliant comic that day. So in celebration of Carlin's comedic brilliance, I thought it only fitting to present one of his classic sketches on our accumulation of stuff. I love this sketch. From YouTube:

Wall Street Journal’s managing editor leaves

Sounds to me like News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch is ready to "Foxify" the Wall Street Journal. From MSNBC News:

NEW YORK - Marcus Brauchli is stepping down as managing editor of The Wall Street Journal just four months after Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. bought the paper, the company announced Tuesday.

Brauchli, who had been in the post for just under a year, will stay on as a consultant to News Corp. A search for his replacement will begin immediately.

Brauchli didn’t go into detail about his decision to leave, telling the Journal’s staff in an e-mail that with the ownership change to News Corp. complete, “I have come to believe the new owners should have a managing editor of their choosing.”

Through a spokesman, Brauchli declined to be interviewed for this story.

Murdoch has been moving quickly to reposition the Journal as a competitor to the New York Times, adding more political coverage and reorganizing the paper.

On Monday the Journal added a third page to its opinion section, moved a daily column feature off the front of the Marketplace section and added an extra column to Marketplace’s front page.

Nearly all corporate news is now moving to the Marketplace section, with the front section focusing on breaking news, the economy, politics and opinion.

I once had a subscription to the Wall Street Journal, and I will admit that I loved the way the Journal covered business and economic news. The WSJ's writing style was the best, business information reported was top-notch--you knew what was going on within the business world that day when you read the WSJ. The WSJ editorial page was total crap, pushing the standard corporate hype of more tax cuts, less business deregulation, and vote Republican. You didn't order the Wall Street Journal to read the editorial pages--you ordered the Wall Street Journal to read about the business news!

But that is all slowly changing as Murdoch takes control of the WSJ. Murdoch has a tendency to push his extremist conservative ideology through his media empire--and I'm not talking about just through the editorial pages and segments of his newspaper and TV shows. Murdoch has shown just how you can shape the news to fit your own propaganda--look at how the Fox News Channel "editorialize" its news content to support the conservative ideology, and even the Republican Party. And with the WSJ, Murdoch wants to place all the corporate news reports off the front page, and use the Journals front page for breaking news and opinion--in other words, politicize the Wall Street Journal's front page to push Murdoch's extremist, conservative ideology. To bring Fox News propaganda to the Wall Street Journal.

And don't think it is not going to happen because the Bancroft family is demanding that the Journal remain independent from the rest of Murdoch's media empire. Whoever is hired to become the next WSJ's next managing editor will have News Corp. experience and loyalties to Murdoch. This next managing editor will continue to incorporate the Journal deeper into the News Corp. empire, giving Murdoch even greater control in deciding what goes on the Journal's front pages, and how the news will be slanted to Murdoch's ideological views. It is only a matter of time, as Murdoch places his own News Corp. people within the WSJ's staff. We are watching the slow demise of a premier business newspaper to be replaced by another "yellow journalism," GOP propaganda machine.

I no longer subscribe to the Wall Street Journal.

Prince William lands chopper in girlfriend's back garden

Okay, this is really getting ridiculous. From The Daily Mail:

Prince William was under fire again after it emerged that he had landed his £10million RAF helicopter in girlfriend Kate Middleton's back garden during an official military exercise.

Miss Middleton and her parents are said to have watched in delight as the second in line to the throne practiced a series of take-offs and landings in the paddock of their sprawling detached home in Bucklebury, Berkshire, earlier this month.

Details of the two-hour stunt emerged just days after the prince was heavily criticized for using another Chinook to fly himself and his brother Harry to a stag weekend on the Isle of Wight.

It appears that Prince William is learning the fine art of combat chopper flying to stag parties and emergency combat landings in his girlfriend's garden. I can see the prince engaging in one stupid stunt on the RAF--but two stupid stunts in the same month? If an ordinary chopper pilot would have done that, his ass would have probably been grounded for the rest of his life. And our prince here is flying a CH-47 Chinook helicopter--we're talking about a big, two-rotor helicopter that is used to hauling troops and supplies to the battlefield:

Royal Air Force CH-47 Chinook helicopter.

So let us continue on with The Daily Mail story:

The RAF has repeatedly refused requests by the Mail to confirm how much William's attachment has cost taxpayers, arguing that it would take too much manpower to sit down and work the figures out.

The incident is understood to have taken place on April 3 during the final part of the course - codenamed Golden Kestrel - designed to allow army officer William, who one day will become head of the armed forces, to "familiarize" himself with the role of the RAF.

[....]

RAF sources told the News of the World that, William, 25, himself came up with the idea of taking the helicopter to Berkshire, claiming there was a shortage of landing spots at RAF Odiam in Hampshire where he was based for part of his attachment.

After the plan was approved by his instructors, the prince flew the 16 miles to Miss Middleton's family home where he completed one circuit of the field at the back of her parents' million-pound house and practiced landing and taking off in their paddock.

He then piloted the helicopter back to Odiham for further tuition. The entire operation is estimated to have cost around £30,000.

This story just gets better and better--it was the prince's idea to fly his chopper to his girlfriend's house. And the Royal Air Force approved of the operation. I could just imagine the scene in the Middleton's family home as Prince William just happens to land his Chinook in their family garden.

Sound of big helicopter blades thumping overhead, growing in intensity.

Kate Middleton: Mum! William's popping in for a spot of tea!

Kate Middleton's Mother: Tell that royal boyfriend of yours NOT to land on my roses--I just planted them! Oh, would William like some Earl Gray, or Jasmine?

Kate Middleton: Too late! And there goes the petunias!

Of course what is even more incredible is how the RAF not just endorsed this crazy plan, but actually defended William in engaging in this stunt. Going back to the Daily Mail story:

A Ministry of Defence spokesman yesterday defended its decision to allow William to land the Chinook in the Middletons' field, however, saying: "Battlefield helicopters routinely practice landing in fields and confined spaces away from their airfields as a vital part of their training for operations.

"These highly honed skills are used daily in conflict zones such as iraq and Afghanistan.

"The sortie on April 3 was fully authorized and planned and was an agreed part of Prince William's attachment to the RAF."

Of course, this is all standard CYA by the Royal Air Force, which would love to see this embarrassing incident buried. It doesn't look good when royalty is using military equipment for their pleasure--be it a stag taxi service, or to impress their girlfriends. Because it appears that the top RAF brass is getting pissed off at the royal stupidity that is taking place within their service. Again through the Daily Mail:

It has also angered RAF top brass who had been savouring the "fabulous" publicity that William's attachment to the force had brought in this, their 90th anniversary year.

Pictures of the Prince of Wales awarding his son his wings at RAF Cranwell in Lincolnshire, watched by Miss Middleton, on April 11 made front pages around the world.

The head of the RAF, Air Chief Marshal Sir Glenn Torpy, is said to have "erupted" with rage at the "sheer stupidity" of the situation and is said to have demanded a "line-by-line" explanation from subordinates.

One senior RAF source told the Mail yesterday: "William hasn't done anything wrong but the naivety of those around him in allowing him to make these flights without forseeing the potential problems they could cause is astonishing.

"I think there has been a bit of royal fever here."

Royal fever indeed. The RAF was probably hoping for some big, positive press coverage when William received his RAF wings this month. What the RAF didn't expect is that young people sometimes do stupid things--especially if you're royalty, and are in the military, and can get away with it because you're second-in-line to the British throne. My guess is that the to RAF brass is sending the word down through the command to stop Prince William from engaging in these stupid stunts. In other words, cool the royal fever here. And that royal fever can also be quickly cooled when William starts a three-month deployment with the Royal Navy in June.

Next question, what are the Middleton's going to plant in their Chinook-flattened garden?

Starbucks starts serving new ‘everyday’ coffee

And this certainly isn't going to help break my caffeine habit. From MSNBC News:

SEATTLE - Starbucks Corp. will start serving up a new “everyday” brew Tuesday, hoping the signature blend will help revive slumping sales in its crucial U.S. market.

To celebrate the launch, it will give away free 8-ounce cups of Pike Place Roast — named after its first store in Seattle’s famed public market — at more than 7,000 U.S. stores from 12 to 12:30 p.m. EDT.

In a statement Monday, Chairman and Chief Executive Howard Schultz touted Pike Place Roast for its bold flavor, smooth finish and “subtle, rich flavors of cocoa and toasted nuts.”

It will be freshly roasted, hand-scooped, freshly ground and brewed in small batches that sit for no longer than 30 minutes. It will be brewed, both regular and decaf, alongside rotating coffees of the week, and sold by the whole bean for $9.95 per pound.

Starbucks developed Pike Place Roast — testing some 30 roasts and 30 blends — after consulting with nearly 1,000 customers who sought a line of drip coffee that wouldn’t switch from, say, an earthy Sumatra one week to a bright, citrusy Ethiopia Sidamo the next.

Consistently, customers kept saying: “Give us a coffee we can count on every day, all day, all week,” Andrew Linnemann, Starbucks master coffee blender, said Tuesday in a conference call with reporters.

Starbucks has spent the last few months sharpening its focus on the basics — a strategy Schultz is pushing as part of the company’s efforts to reinvigorate its U.S. business, which has suffered amid a soft economy and growing competition from rivals ranging from McDonald’s Corp. and Dunkin’ Donuts to Peet’s Coffee & Tea, Caribou Coffee and small, independent coffee shops.

I wonder if Starbucks has over-extended itself with too many stores and coffee baristas trying to sell the Starbucks brew. From where I live, I can go to four Starbucks' stores within a half-mile radius, plus the Starbucks store inside the local Safeway grocery store, plus the Barnes and Noble cafe that serves Starbucks' coffee. And if I want to just get the Starbucks coffee for my coffee-maker, I could find Starbucks coffee being sold at definitely Safeway and Albertsons, and probably at Whole Foods, Longs Drugs, Nob Hill, and a few other grocery and drug stores. Starbucks coffee is everywhere. If you have a Starbucks coffee store within a couple-block radius and are selling your coffee in just about every grocery or drug store, is it no wonder that perhaps your sales are getting a little too sluggish with all this coffee being sold to an over-caffeinated American public? And if you look at a Starbucks coffee shop, they no longer roast or grind their own beans in stores. There is no longer the sweet, pungent aroma of coffee hovering around the Starbucks store--you could just as easily get your coffee from McDonalds, 7-Eleven, or Dunkin' Donuts! Starbucks has become sterilized. It has become an uber-efficient factory selling fast coffee to on-the-go Americans like McDonalds sells fast food. Somewhere, in that frantic desire to become the biggest coffee company in the world, Starbucks lost the image of what a coffee house should really be--a unique place where the atmosphere and coffee aroma relaxes and rejuvenates you. A place of charm where you could lose yourself within a good book, or hang out with old friends to discuss world politics and social issues over lattes. Will Starbucks be able to regain their sales with this Pikes Peak Roast blend?

We'll just have to see.

Charlton Heston dead at 84

Well, this is the big Hollywood news story for today. From MSNBC News:

LOS ANGELES - Nancy Reagan was heartbroken over Charlton Heston’s death. President Bush hailed him as a “strong advocate for liberty,” while John McCain called Heston a devotee for civil and constitutional rights.

Even Michael Moore, who mocked Heston in his gun-control documentary “Bowling for Columbine,” posted the actor’s picture on his Web site to mark his passing.

Heston, who died Saturday night at 84, was a towering figure both in his politics and on screen, where his characters had the ear of God (Moses in “The Ten Commandments”), survived apocalyptic plagues (“The Omega Man”) and endured one of Hollywood’s most-grueling action sequences (the chariot race in “Ben-Hur,” which earned him the best-actor Academy Award).

Better known in recent years as a fierce gun-rights advocate who headed the National Rifle Association, Heston played legendary leaders and ordinary men hurled into heroic struggles.

Now there have been a quite a few postings and commentary on The Daily Kos, which quickly moved into discussing the issue of Charlton Heston and staunch support for gun ownership. And some of the comments have been particularly harsh against Heston. The way I see it, Heston had strong viewpoints and chose to express those viewpoints in his own way. It is no different than having a liberal actor or actress expressing their own strong liberal views--can you say Jane Fonda and her political activism? Heston was president of the National Rifle Association. Jane Fonda took a tour of North Vietnam during the Vietnam War. I could care less about the opinions of any actor or actress--I want to see them play a role in a movie, and hopefully have a great time watching the movie. If they want to express their political opinions, then it is fine with me--regardless of whether I believe their opinions or not. Where I will draw the line is if such actors or actresses become elected in a state or federal political office. Then their views on issues will affect on how they will vote on legislation, and how such legislation may affect my own well being. In that case, all bets are off.

But getting back to Chuck Heston, we've got another great Hollywood actor passing into legend. Heston's acting performance may have been a little wooden at times, but he always ended up playing in some great epic roles, and even the little movies, with memorable quotes:

Take your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!

You've gotta tell them! Soylent Green is people!

Climb baby, climb.

You're being paid to fly fighter planes, not sit in your bunk and cry over your girl's picture! You better shape up, Tiger, or some hotshot Jap pilot's gonna flame your *ass*!

There's never a cop around when you need one.

I have orders to bring you to God... heathen.

You must suit yourself, Milady. But if in the end you should, do it with a becoming grace.

You may conquer the land. You may slaughter the people. But that is not the end. We will rise again.

You gave me this staff to rule over scorpions and serpants. God has made it a staff to rule over kings.

Damn them... damn them all to hell!

Gordon Street? Ah, yes, Gordon Street. I once knew a girl who lived on Gordon Street. Long time ago, when I was a young man. Not a day passes I don't think her and the promise that I made which I will always keep. That one perfect day on Gordon Street. That's uh, five blocks up, two over.

I think the final quote really sums up Charlton Heston's career. Heston made movies for the fun of it, brining his chiseled jaw and semi-wooden performance into every role he played. You always knew what you were getting from Chuck Heston--even in the cult stinker disaster movies like Airport 1975 or Earthquake, he is still fun to watch. You can sum up Heston's career in a bit part he played as a Good Actor giving Wayne Campbell directions to where the First Presbyterian Church is located in the movie Wayne's World 2. You just knew he is having fun making movies for the audiences' enjoyment. From YouTube:

Rachel Maddow rips MSNBC's Joe Scarborough a new one

This is sweet. From YouTube:

FBI raids Liberty Dollar HQ, confiscates "Ron Paul" dollars

The Ron Paul dollar in copper, silver, and gold. From The Liberty Dollar.

I saw this story yesterday, and I just had to shake my head at it. From The Washington Post:

The ardent supporters of Rep. Ron Paul, the iconoclastic Texas libertarian whose campaign for the presidency is threatening to upend the battle for the Republican nomination, got word yesterday of a new source of outrage and motivation: reports of a federal raid on a company that was selling thousands of coins marked with the craggy visage of their hero.

Federal agents on Thursday raided the Evansville, Ind., headquarters of the National Organization for the Repeal of the Federal Reserve Act and Internal Revenue Code (Norfed), an organization of "sound money" advocates that for the past decade has been selling a private currency it calls "Liberty Dollars." The company says it has put into circulation more than $20 million in Liberty Dollars, coins and paper certificates it contends are backed by silver and gold stored in Idaho, are far more reliable than a U.S. dollar and are accepted for use by a nationwide underground economy.

Norfed officials said yesterday that the six-hour raid occurred just as its six employees were mailing out the first batch of 60,000 "Ron Paul Dollars," copper coins sold for $1 to honor the candidate, who is a longtime advocate of abolishing the Federal Reserve. The group says it has shipped out about 10,000 silver Ron Paul Dollars that sold for $20 and about 3,500 of the copper $1 coins. But it said the agents seized more than 50,000 of the copper coins -- more than two tons' worth -- plus smaller amounts of the silver coins and gold and platinum Ron Paul Dollars, which sell for $1,000 and $2,000.

"They took everything, all of the computers, everything but the desks and chairs," the company's founder and head, Bernard von NotHaus, said in a telephone interview from his home in Miami. "The federal government really is afraid." Von NotHaus changed the name of Norfed to Liberty Services earlier this year, but affidavits for government search warrants served yesterday continued to use the older name.

[....]

Von NotHaus said agents also raided Sunshine Minting in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho, a company that makes the organization's coins. He said agents seized huge pallets of silver and gold, worth more than $1 million, that the organization says back the Liberty Dollars. Sunshine Minting did not return calls seeking comment.

I went to the Liberty Dollar website here, and they offer both coins and certificates. The coins are copper, silver or gold coins, the certificates' values are backed by gold or silver. Now this guy Von NotHaus may want the U.S. to go back to either a gold standard, or bimetallism standard. But what Von NotHaus may not realize is that Americans who are worried about the dropping value of the U.S. dollar, can purchase gold or silver coins from a variety of vendors. You can even purchase gold and silver coins from the U.S. Mint. What Von NotHaus was trying to do was to create his own private currency that could be used in the public transaction of goods and services. The FBI said no-no-no, and busted his Liberty Dollar headquarters.

One more interesting note. Since the Feds have confiscated all of Liberty Dollar's Ron Paul dollar coins, and all of Liberty Dollar's gold, silver, and copper, the Ron Paul dollars have shot up in price on eBay. The Ron Paul silver dollars are selling for around $200 to $400 a piece, while the Ron Paul gold dollars are selling for $1,200 a piece.