5 Obnoxious Things Restaurants Need to Stop Doing
By: Felix Clay May 19, 2013

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#1. No Substitutions

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Any decent restaurant should allow you to make requests above and beyond the menu. Most restaurants do, in fact. But not all. Some ballsy restaurant owners always seem to pop up here and there to test the waters of human tolerance with their “no substitutions,” insinuating that you ordering food is somehow an inconvenience to them and you better take what you can get with a smile and a 15 percent mandatory tip. So when you want to order the shrimp alfredo but without any garlic because your garlic allergy may causes your eyes to bulge out Total Recall style, you should be allowed to. But this helpful restaurant refuses to alter their menu in any way.

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My pet peeve is to be ignored.

I think every restaurant should have a flag on the table. Put it up and you want attention.

Sad that your restaurant would need such, but most of them do!

Argh!

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Speaking of gun control, here is the end result of disarming honest men and women: Blood on his hands, hatred in his eyes: 2.30 pm on a suburban high street, Islamic fanatics wielding meat cleavers butcher a British soldier… As we say here in the States: “When seconds count, the police are only minutes away.” In this case, it was 14 minutes after the first 999 call. A lot can happen in 14 minutes. There is no substitute for an armed citizenry.)

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WH: ‘IRRELEVANT’ WHERE OBAMA WAS DURING BENGHAZI ATTACKS

by BEN SHAPIRO 19 May 2013, 7:29 AM PDT 283

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On Fox News Sunday this morning, White House spokesman Dan Pfeiffer was asked by Chris Wallace where in the White House President Obama was during the September 11, 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi that killed four Americans. “Question,” asked Wallace. “What did the President do the rest of that night to pursue Benghazi?” Pfeiffer answered, “Look, the President was kept up to date on this as it was happening the entire night, from the moment it started until the very end …. I recognize that there’s a series of conspiracy theories Republicans have been spinning about it since the time it happened.” He then added, “The question here is not what happened that night.”

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So where was he?

We have pics of him in the room when the raid on OBL was happening. 

What was more important?

Remember the Hillary commercial about the red phone ringing unanswered at night.

I think they nailed it!

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BUSINESS
THESE ARE THE 4 MOST IMPORTANT TAKEAWAYS FROM TODAY’S IRS HEARING
May. 17, 2013 8:16pm Becket Adams

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Ousted Internal Revenue Service’s interim head Steven Miller appeared before the House Ways and Means Committee Friday to testify on his agency’s targeting of conservative groups.

And although a slightly bored-looking Miller spent most of the four-hour interrogation doing his best U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder impersonation (i.e. playing the “I don’t know” game), some important facts came to light today.

Here are the top four most important takeaways from Friday’s hearing [in no particular order]:

4. PLANT CONFIRMATION

3. TREASURY KNEW ABOUT THE AUDIT DURING THE 2012 ELECTION

2. MORE INVESTIGATIONS ARE ON THE WAY

1. WHY DIDN’T IRS OFFICIALS SAY ANYTHING ABOUT THIS EARLIER?

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So, they used the IRS to swing the election!

What was going on in all the other agencies?

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Official Story Has Odd Wrinkles: A Pack of Questions About the Boston Bombing Backpacks

by David Lindorff
WhoWhatWhy.com

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The horrific bombing of the Boston Marathon, to hear the FBI and the Boston Police tell it, is solved: One bomber, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, is dead, gunned down by police and then run over for good measure by his fleeing brother Dzhokhar, who was captured a day later in a citywide manhunt, after being hit by a fusillade of police bullets fired into a trailered pleasure boat he was hiding in.

Among the reasons law enforcement sources are so confident they “got” their men were video surveillance photos from a Lord & Taylor storefront area showing the two brothers as they arrived at the finish-line area, each wearing a backpack, allegedly carrying what the FBI now says were two identical 6-quart steel pressure cookers marketed by the Canadian corporation Fagor. Fragments of those pots, which the FBI says were packed with black powder (gathered from a collection of fireworks) as well as nails and BBs, were recovered at the scene.

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You didn’t really believe the Boston fairy tale, did you?

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CAMPUS
REPORT: HOFSTRA STUDENT WAS SHOT, KILLED BY COP TRYING TO RESCUE HER
May. 18, 2013 9:47pm Dave Urbanski

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MINEOLA, N.Y. (TheBlaze/AP) — Authorities say a police officer’s bullet killed a New York college student during the response to a home invasion at an off-campus home.

Nassau County homicide squad Lt. John Azzata said Saturday night that Andrea Rebello was killed by a police officer as she was being held in a headlock by a masked intruder.

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I don’t fault the police officer. He was in a bad situation. It’s only int he movies that the bad guy can get shot and the hostage walks away.

Doesn’t anyone ask why was a repeat violent felon on parole in the first place. And, when he violated his parole, why wasn’t he scooped up?

Then, let’s talk about the “NY Safe Act” and the culture of “Victim Disarmament” that exists in New York, Chicago, LA, and New Orleans.

I don’t KNOW that an armed “good guy” could have changed the outcome. But, could it have made it any worse?

Argh!

Is this an example of “political wishful thinking”?

The world is a dangerous place made even more so when the Sheeple and Clovers forgo their own defense.

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“Victim Disarmament is the view that it is somehow better to see a woman raped in an alley and strangled with her own pantyhose, than see her with a gun in her hand.” — T.D. Melrose 

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Not clear what happens after you’ve had a good wife?

Do you become “philosophical”?

Spouses should die together.

Push off on that proverbial iceberg.

The surviving spouse SHOULD voluntarily throw themselves on the pyre.

Argh!

Grief is a funny thing.

It sneaks up on you when you least expect it!

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My friend Pete’s in the hospital in Jacksonville FL.

I know where is phone is!

Laff.

I assume he still has it with him.

So, without bothering anyone, I know he’s still there.

Now if it could just tell me the altitude, I’d know if he’s still in ICU or moved to a regular room.

Laff!

Stalking to a new level.

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WASHINGTON (TheBlaze/AP) — A top White House adviser insisted Sunday that President Barack Obama learned the Internal Revenue Service had targeted tea party groups only “when it came out in the news” while Republicans continued to press the administration for more answers.

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Doesn’t anyone think he should have known?

Is the News Media his only information channel?

I’d start asking hard questions.

What are all the other agencies doing?

Shake a haystack and some needles fall out, you can be sure there are MORE in there.

This stuff doesn’t happen in a vacuum.

A national disgrace.

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May 12, 2013
More Idiocy on the Idiotic TSA’s Idiotic TWIC
Posted by Becky Akers on May 12, 2013 07:04 AM

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One “consulting engineer in the offshore oil business” writes that “If you want to fly to any offshore oil platform, like in the Gulf of Mexico, you must have a TWIC card just to board the transport helicopter because being on an offshore oil platform requires a TWIC.” So though he only “occasionally attend[s] loading of ships for my job,” he duly “applied for the card, got the electronic fingerprint scan and facial 3-d hologram and the card with my picture and embedded chip.”

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And, what does this prevent?

Argh!

How much does this cost “We, The People”?

The terrorists ties us in knots with lost freedoms and productivity while attacking us with sub $100 pressure cookers.

Argh!

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May 11th, 2013 at 9:30 am
Pilotless passenger planes ready for takeoff
in: Alternative Transportation,Analysis,Robots,Science & Technology News

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While everyone seems confident that the technical challenges of such visions can be overcome, there is perhaps one more significant hurdle to overcome – persuading the general public that a plane without a pilot is safe.

On that point, Professor Cummings says the data is increasingly in favour of unmanned systems. “About three years ago UAVs became safer than general aviation, meaning that more general aviation planes are crashing than UAVs, per 100,000 flight hours,” she says. “So UAVs are actually safer than a weekend pilot, flying a small plane.”

That may not be a huge surprise. But what is perhaps more telling is that last year UAVs became safer than highly trained military fighters and bombers. “I knew that was coming, and it’s one of the reasons I jumped into this field and left commercial piloting and military piloting behind,” says Prof Cummings

Yet data may not be enough, she acknowledges. “The reason that you like a pilot in the plane is because ultimately he or she shares the same fate that you do,” she says. “So if the plane is about to go down, you feel better knowing that there is a human in the front seat doing everything that they can to save their own life.”

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Not for me thanks. Let’s have driverless cars for a while to get a future generation ready for these.

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Saturday, May 11, 2013
“The Coffee, Meal or Beer Rule” of Social Media
thom singer 

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Not every one of my contacts originally met this criteria, but a majority of those in my LinkedIn and Facebook lists are those with whom I have had a substantial initial conversation. A few got in before I established the policy, and I often make exceptions for meeting professionals and recruiters whose industries practices are to utilize LinkedIn as a way to reach out to people they may wish to do business with in the future.

There are those who disagree with my policy and believe one gains more from linking to everyone, but this has served me well. When I get a request, I will often ask for a personal meeting or a call. If the person reaching out cannot make the time for a chat, I am not sure why they want the connection at all.

My advice to others is to have a policy (even if it is different from mine), and then to be respectful of others who use these tools in different ways! (Lack of respect for those with differing opinions is an epidemic online, and we must get beyond that!).

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I agree one needs rules.

In the early days of LinkedIn, I loaded my address book.

Now I regret that.

Not enough to go back and clean it up, but enough to have printed copy of my connection and disconnection criteria.

I also dislike this new trend on LinkedIn of people saying you have a skill. (Dumb!)

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KABUL, Afghanistan – A suicide car bombing tore through a U.S. convoy during rush hour in the Afghan capital on Thursday, killing at least 15 people, including six U.S. military advisers and two children, officials said.

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A Guide to Practical Compassion
By Leo Babauta

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The Practical Steps

So compiling all of the above into some practical steps, here’s how to do compassion:

Be aware of your own suffering. Be willing to face, and accept, the suffering you do on a daily basis. This includes stress, doubt, fear, anger, frustration, disappointment. Watch it happen, and be OK with the sensation. Don’t run from it.

Ease your own suffering. Learn the cause of your suffering. The cause is the ideal you’re holding onto in your mind — how other people should act, how your life should be, how you should be better, how things will turn out, how people will think of you, etc. Let go of this ideal, and you’ll suffer less.

See the suffering of others. Pay attention to the other people in your life, strangers you pass. Notice the signs of their pain, empathize with this pain, understand them because you’ve experienced it too.
Reach out to them, and connect. Ease your own suffering (that comes from seeing their suffering) by reaching out and making a connection. Smile, be open to who they are, let go of your expectations of that person, and just connect.

Share your suffering, and your method. Share ways that you’ve suffered that the other person might relate to, and this in itself will be helpful, because then you share suffering. Then share how you solved it, and that method can then be useful to the other person, if they decide to try it (it’s their choice). Don’t be preachy, just share what worked.

Learn from the methods of others. Just as you share with others your method of easing your suffering, there’s much to be learned from others. If others have solved a problem that’s causing you some suffering, learn how they did it. By sharing with and learning from each other, we can all get better at our methods of compassion.

This is a simple method that I share with you, but it works wonderfully for me. I hope it helps.

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This is a great boon. And, I’m going to try this advice.

Reminds me of an article over on the Lord Acton site about “Effective Charity”.

Have to find that again!

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City of Keene Goes after Robin Hooders in Court – Admits the amount of tickets issued are down and robin hooding is legal
May 12, 2013 by James Cleaveland

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The city of Keene has filed a lawsuit (copy here) against me and several other people regarding robin hooding (Respondents). Basically, the city wants the court to issue a “preliminary” and “permanent” injunction “restraining Respondents, or anyone under their direction, supervision, employment, or control, from coming within a safety zone of fifty (50) feet of any PEO [Parking Enforcement Officer] while that PEO is on duty.” Additionally, the city wants to stop us “from video recording, within a safety zone of fifty (50) feet,” and “from communicating with any PEO.”

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This case also validates that robin hooding and all activities performed by people robin hooding are perfectly legal because the city (Petitioner) admits, “Petitioner has no adequate alternate remedy at law.” Further, the city has resorted to a civil case against me and others instead of a criminal one providing more evidence that no criminal actions were committed.

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I can’t wait to get to NH and join the Free Staters.

Gandhi and MLK would be proud of the Robin Hooders. Non-violent non-cooperation civil disobedience.

The “City of Keene”, whatever fiction that means, is getting its shorts twisted in a knot by these folks.

I think the three rules of “resistance” is: non-violent, stay out of jail, and make them hurt. And, if you can get the Sheeple and Clovers laughing at their stupidity.  

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Watch out for Petraeus in Benghazi scandal – Washington Times

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Despite protestations by the White House, this scandal is just beginning. And the White House has picked a very bad scapegoat: the Central Intelligence Agency. The CIA follows RFK’s edict: “Don’t get mad, get even.” And when the CIA gets even, it isn’t pretty.

With the White House putting all blame on the agency, expect push back this week — nuclear push back. Gen. David H. Petraeus, the former director forced to resign after a sex scandal, is a dangerous man to the Obama administration. Mad and intent on getting even, he’s already talking, telling one reporter the talking points were “useless” and that he preferred not to use them at all. The floodgates will open this week, and by the end of business Friday, the scandal will be full blown.

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So maybe the truth will come out?

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Scratchpad Is Moving to Google Keep
By Dinsan Francis, 11/05/2013

In a no-surprise-here move, Google has made it official that Scratchpad will be moved to Google Keep. This was an expected change because Google stopped development on the official note taking app Scratchpad a couple of months back.

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Use these things at your own peril. If you don’t own it, then you better be prepared for it to disappear some day. Google Reader going away is a big loss for me.

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RIP, an inspiring lady.

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A Co-worker sent this to me. 

My thoughts went like this:

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Would you consider that “race”, whatever that is, is an obsolete paradigm and an erroneous meme?

Changing paradigms is easy; memes are painful.

What did MLK say? “Content of their character” …

and Gandhi “be the change you want to see in the world” …

and the old Catholic hymn “let their be peace on earth and let it begin with me”.

Sigh, I’m just a fat old white guy injineer …

and I “Dona Nobis Pacem”. 

–30–  

Quick Emergency Prep Project: Build a Texting Tree
Posted on May 9, 2012 by aptprepper

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A few weeks ago, we posted a guest post on having a meeting place in times of emergency, which covered having multiple backup plans in place where your family can congregate. At the same time, when a disaster occurs, we would also want to reach out to loved ones to communicate our situation or inform them of our next move. In recent emergencies, it was widely observed that while land lines did not work, many people were able to use their cell phones to send text messages. For this reason it would be a good idea to organize your own texting tree. Much like the phone trees used by kids’ schools to keep parents informed, the texting tree would be used in times of emergency to keep family and friends informed.

This project is simple: all you need is your cell phone, contact list and a sheet of paper. You can either draw it out manually or build the tree using Word or Excel, in the same manner you would create an organization chart. It should only take about an hour at the most, except for the part about explaining how it works to your contacts.

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IT would be a good idea to have your contacts be in a different geographic area.

For example, my three contacts are geographically diverse. 

And, I’ve asked them to contact three folks in region or who’d care. 

Laff!

Not that I’d be sad about being released for this “vale of tears”, but it’s against the rules to leave the game early.

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In Memory of
SSgt. Richard A. “Richie” Dickson
May 7, 1988 – April 27, 2013
Obituary

SSgt. Richard A. Dickson “Richie” born May 7, 1988 in Sacramento, Calif passed away suddenly on April 27, 2013 in Kandahar Afghanistan at the age of 24. Richie is survived by his loving wife and soul mate – Lacie D. Dickson & their baby girl – Sophie A. Dickson. He is also survived by his Mother Rebekah (Kelly) Pratt, Grandmother Martha Reinking, Sister Erron Poole, Brother Chad (Michelle) Dickson, Nephew Riley Paber, Niece Rachael Paber, In-Laws Robin & Lawrence Gueths, many Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Friends & fellow Airmen.

Richie proudly served his country in the USAF from June 2006 until April 27, 2013 as a Airborne Intelligence Systems Operator. Richie was an amazingly loving husband, father, son, brother & uncle. Richie was a kind, loving soul who accepted everyone for being exactly who they were and he will be greatly missed by all who’s lives he touched, may his memory live on in our hearts forever and ever!!!

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Anyone need a better reason to withdraw troops from around the world and be like Switzerland!

Let the backwaters places settle their own problems.

All we do is give them a unifying target.

Just make it clear, you, or your unruly citizens, attack us, we’ll retaliate tit for tat. So, these two bit “leaders” better get their people under control. Or resign. 

And, just to be clear, I’m anti-war pro-choice pro-life little L libertarian, but I’m not an isolationist or a pacifist. Live and let live. But, don’t mess with me or mine. But by the same token, “sticks ‘n’ stones”.

Argh!

I read this obit on Mother’s Day and felt bad for that woman and baby! 

Argh!

I’d make every politician attend every funeral. Think they’d get the message?

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No reason given. 

Maybe it was a hack.

Sigh! 

Time to change passwords on everything?

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Honest Examination of Race

by Walter E. Williams

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You might ask, “What’s the point, Williams?” Let’s be clear about it. I’m not stating that there’s a causal relationship between crime, poverty and squalor on the one hand and, on the other, Democratic and black political control over a city. Nor am I saying that blacks ought to vote Republican. What I am saying is that if one is strategizing on how to improve the lives of the poorest black people, he wants to leave off his to-do list election of Democrats and black politicians. Also to be left off the to-do list is a civil rights agenda. Racial discrimination has little to do with major problems confronting black people.

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Argh!

Any time one “party” rules, the Sheeple and Clovers get screwed. The fact that the Sheeple and Clovers are various colors makes no difference!

Argh!

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MTTF about a week.

LOCKED in “shutting down”.

Not easy to get access to the battery. Pulled it and reinserted. Problem solved.

Then, I had to fix what I messed up floundering around.

I popped the SIM thinking that might break the “shutting down” lock. 

No dice. 

I guess when I put it back in I didn’t ram it home. Afraid of breaking it. 

So when it came back up, it whined about “no sim card”.

Easy fix. 

But strike one!

Argh!

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A Brief and Bloody History of Gun Control
by Anthony Gucciardi
StoryLeak

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Painted signs reading ‘gun free zone’ and gun control legislation that really only affects law-abiding citizens does not prevent mass shootings, as we have seen evidenced by more than one shooting incident. Both the Aurora shooting at the Colorado movie theater dubbed the ‘Batman shooting’ and the most recent Sandy Hook incident in Connecticut both occurred in areas with heavy gun regulation. Amazingly, the Batman shooter actually traveled to the one movie theater in the area that actually did not permit lawful citizens to carry a concealed weapon. According to Dr. John R. Lott in an interview with Newsmax,

”…the one he picked was the only one of those movie theaters that banned people taking permit-concealed handguns into that theater.”

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Again, these killers are crazy, but not stupid.

I don’t understand why the victims are not litigating with the movie theater for that policy putting them in harm’s way.

Like the Luby’s story, law abiding people obey laws. Criminals don’t.

Seems as simple as 1+1=2 … …

Yet, the Sheeple and Clovers allow the Gooferment, politicians, bureaucrats, and liberal media disarm everyone with “wishful thinking”.

Argh!

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