The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) recently introduced a budget proposal that would amount to a 10.5 percent increase in funding for veterans care and benefits. Watch VA's Chief Financial Officer break down the budget on YouTube.
(Attention Congress! Remember, veterans vote! Shoot this down at your political peril!)
A new treatment program for post-traumatic stress disorder at the University of Wisconsin-Madison uses yoga to help veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan turn off the sights and sounds of war. The yoga therapy seems to be working. Phase two of the study is about to begin...
Veterans enrolled in the health care system of the Department of Veterans Affairs have begun to receive personalized booklets that explain their health care benefits and contain other useful information. The new booklet, called a Health Benefits Handbook, will provide a personalized listing of health benefits based on each Veteran's specific eligibility. The handbook will also have contact information for their local VA medical facilities, appointment scheduling information, guidelines for communicating with their clinical team and, as applicable, information about co-pays...
(I haven't received mine as yet, but I'm pretty 'up' on all that having been in 'the system' since '91 and a DAV Life Member. I don't think there'd be anything in it that I don't already know. But, for the new enrollees, it could be very useful and it's a great idea!)
Understand the VA Loan benefit you've earned by downloading the free Military.com VA Loan Guide. The PDF guide walks you through the benefits of a VA Loan, eligibility, how to refinance, what forms you'll need, and more. Download your free PDF now.
(Attention Vets! Now hear this! If you haven't used this benefit yet and you are thinking of buying or refinancing a home... Read that guide! That is an order! Well, maybe not an order, but a pretty darn good suggestion anyway, dagnabbit!)
The Department of Veterans Affairs VA has always provided assistance to Veterans and Service members who experience trouble paying their mortgage, whether they have a VA loan or not. To get help, veterans and service members -- even those without a VA guaranteed loan -- may call a national toll-free number, 1-877-827-3702 to speak with VA loan specialists who will provide information about the process of obtaining a VA-guaranteed home loan, or assistance in retaining their home loan or avoiding foreclosure...
Under a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization plan, Leslie Controls, Inc, a manufacturer that supplied asbestos-containing gaskets and valves to the U.S. Navy from the 1940s until the 1980s, has established an "Asbestos PI Trust" available to Navy veterans. The plan includes a pay level based on the medical issue affecting the claimant. Amounts are also established for lung cancer and
asbestosis. Claims may be filed with the trust starting in March, 2012...
(This is for all you 'Black Gang' Navy (and Coast Guard) types, like my Navy Chief Boilerman Dad was. Unfortunately, he 'passed over the bar' before this was recognized and compensated.)
Many states offer veterans benefits. These benefits may include educational grants and scholarships, special exemptions or discounts on fees and taxes, home loans, veteran's homes, free hunting and fishing privileges, and more. Each state manages its own benefit programs. View the full summary by state here.
(This is definitely worth checking out. For example, here in Michigan I'm eligible for a Homestead Property Tax Credit from the state due to my disability status. Also, both my daughters received college tuition money from the state Dept. Of Military affairs. You won't know until you look!)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Also, be advised that I'm working on compiling all the past 'Veterans Reports' that 'The Boss' (i.e. Marty) will provide a permanent link for on the page. That should be available NLT next week. Pretty cool, eh? I'm thinkin' so...
World Happiness Map (Disinformation)
If you want to be happy, live in Scandinavia (Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden take up the top four spots).
Critical thinking explained in six kid-friendly animations (io9)
If you've been looking for a crash course in basic logic - or just want to explain to a friend exactly what a logical fallacy is - turn your attention to these simple, easy-to-understand videos, which lay out the basics of critical thinking.
Paul Krugman: States of Depression (New York Times)
… one significant factor in our continuing economic weakness is the fact that government in America is doing exactly what both theory and history say it shouldn't: slashing spending in the face of a depressed economy.
Szandor Blestman: Paypal, Credit Cards and Government Censorship by Proxy (Weekly Blitz)
… I am an independent author.... I work hard on my own even though I am most days not paid a penny, even though there is no guarantee I will ever see one dime from my hard work. If nothing else, I do try. Something has happened recently that threatens even this most modest means of trying to earn a living. Paypal has decided to threaten the platform I use to publish my works.
Bill Maher's Warning to Liberals: Obama Could Still Lose to Santorum
I often talk about how conservatives are in a bubble, but liberals have their bubble too. And inside it, Obama is a shoe-in, because the Republicans are just so ridiculously out of touch. Well, they may be out of touch with you, but believe me, they're in touch with your brother-in-law in rural Pennsylvania.
David Bruce has 42 Kindle books on Amazon.com with 250 anecdotes in each book. Each book is $1, so for $42 you can buy 10,500 anecdotes. Search for "Funniest People," "Coolest People, "Most Interesting People," "Kindest People," "Religious Anecdotes," "Maximum Cool," and "Resist Psychic Death."
Peaberry, also known as caracoli, is a type of coffee bean. Normally the fruit of the coffee plant develops as two halves of a bean within a single cherry, but sometimes only one of the two seeds gets fertilized, so there is nothing to flatten it. This oval (or pea-shaped) bean is known as peaberry. Typically around 5% of all coffee beans harvested are of this form.
Normal coffee beans are less commonly called by contrast flat berry.
Peaberry coffees are particularly associated with Tanzanian Coffee, although the peaberry variety of Kona coffee has also become quite prominent.
Source
mj was first, and correct, with:
Since we buy it regularly
I don't even have to look it up to confirm. It's coffee.
Alan J said:
Coffee
BttbBob wrote:
Coffee... and I truly didn't have any idea that is what it was. My first inclination was some manner of navy bean... I shall have to get some for my little grinder and give it a try. But, I have to tell you that I'm a 'Sumatra' kinda guy, so there's the bench mark... A report will be filed later.
Charlie replied:
Coffee
Jim from CA, retired to ID, responded:
Peaberry, also known as caracoli, is a type of coffee bean.
Adam answered:
A type of Coffee Bean.
Sally said:
Company here, nice weather, and we are ready too hit the road. So, here is the short and sweet: Peaberry, also known as caracoli, is a type of coffee bean.
The only kind of coffee in my house!
John I from Hawai`i says,
"Coffee!"
All the Joy the world contains,
Has come through wishing happiness for others.
All the misery the world contains,
Has come through wanting pleasure for oneself.
Pat Sax replied:
A coffee bean.
Dale of Diamond Springs answered:
Coffee plants produce their fruit in the form of a coffee cherry. Typically, the coffee cherry grows two halves of a bean within a single cherry. Sometimes the coffee cherry produces a single bean rather than two beans - this single bean is processed into Peaberry coffee.
From a coffee drinker's perspective, Peaberry coffee beans are much smaller in size than typical coffee beans. Since only one bean rather than two are formed, Peaberry coffee beans are said to be more robust in flavor and more acidic (good for taste) than regular Arabica coffee beans. I've had Peaberry coffee many times over the years and can't notice any difference from a well roasted bean. It's all in the roast. Used to get it at Peet's in Oakland or Bezerkeley a long time before Starbucks.
Ted responded:
The peaberry is a mutant coffee bean, it is rounder, so it roasts differently than normal beans
And, Joe S answered:
Wow. I had no idea, therefore the following has been lifted directly from the peaberry Wiki page.
Peaberry, also known as caracoli, is a type of coffee bean. Normally the fruit of the coffee plant develops as two halves of a bean within a single cherry, but sometimes only one of the two seeds gets fertilized, so there is nothing to flatten it. This oval (or pea-shaped) bean is known as peaberry. Typically around 5% of all coffee beans harvested are of this form.
Normal coffee beans are less commonly called by contrast flat berry.
Peaberry coffees are particularly associated with Tanzanian Coffee, although the peaberry variety of Kona coffee has also become quite prominent.
By the way, Kona coffee is marvelous in case you didn't know that. My favorite coffee is Sumatran however.
March 20 or 21 is the autumnal equinox in the Southern Hemisphere, so in the Northern Hemisphere it falls on September 22 this year. This is a lady enjoying the last of the hot nights at Rio. She'll need to cover up soon for it's gonna get cold soon!
By the way, I love women and hate everything Limbaugh pukes out of his sexist, hateful and odious orifice.
The kid wanted a haircut, so it seemed like a good time to have my ears lowered (as my grandfather would have phrased it), as well. Took off about a foot.
Tonight, Tuesday:
CBS begins the night with a RERUN'NCIS', followed by a RERUN'NCIS: The 2nd One', then a RERUN'Unforgettable'.
On a RERUNDave (from 2/15/12) are Jon Stewart, national grocery bagging champion Stephanie Teteak, and Yelawolf with Kid Rock.
Scheduled on a FRESHCraig is Joel McHale.
NBC starts the night with a FRESH'NBC News Special: Decision 2012', followed by a FRESH'Biggest Loser'.
On a RERUNLeno (from 1/30/12) are Madonna, Chris Colfer, and Joe Perry.
On a RERUNJimmy Fallon (from 1/18/12) are Bill Cosby, Anthony Mackie, and Wale.
On a RERUNCarson 'The Scab' Daly (from 12/21/11) are Josef Centeno, Dumbfounded, and Kylesa.
ABC opens the night with a FRESH'Last Man Standing', followed by a FRESH'Cougar Town', then a FRESH'The River', followed by a RERUN'Body Of Proof'.
On a RERUNJimmy Kimmel (from 2/22/12) are Jessica Alba, Rep. Barney Frank, Nathan Myhrvold, and Tower of Power.
The CW offers a FRESH'90210', followed by a FRESH'Ringer'.
Faux has a FRESH'Raising Hope', followed by a FRESH'I Hate My Teenage Daughter', then a FRESH'New Girl', followed by a FRESH'Breaking In'.
MY recycles an old 'Cold Case', followed by another old 'Cold Case'.
A&E has 3 hours of 'Storage Wars', followed by a FRESH'Storage Wars Texas', then another FRESH'Storage Wars Texas'.
AMC offers 'CSI: The 2nd One', followed by the movie 'National Lampoon's Vacation', then the movie 'National Lampoon's Vacation', again.
BBC -
[6:00AM] BBC WORLD NEWS
[7:00AM] BBC WORLD NEWS
[8:00AM] THE GRAHAM NORTON SHOW-Ep 6 - Jack Black, Justin Bieber, John Waters, Miranda Hart
[9:00AM] THE GRAHAM NORTON SHOW-Ep 3 Katie Price, Jo Brand, Jackie Collins
[10:00AM] DOCTOR WHO-Ep 1 Smith and Jones
[11:00AM] BEING HUMAN-Episode 5
[12:00PM] RAMSAY'S KITCHEN NIGHTMARES - SERIES 1-Ep. 2 Glass House
[1:00PM] RAMSAY'S KITCHEN NIGHTMARES-Ep 2 Piccolo Teatro
[2:00PM] GORDON RAMSAY'S GREAT ESCAPE-Episode 3
[3:00PM] RAMSAY'S KITCHEN NIGHTMARES-Ep 1 - Mojito's
[4:00PM] RAMSAY'S KITCHEN NIGHTMARES-Ep 2 Lela's
[5:00PM] DOCTOR WHO-Ep 2 The Shakespeare Code
[6:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION-Ep 11 Hero Worship
[7:00PM] RAMSAY'S KITCHEN NIGHTMARES-Ep 4 Finn McCool's
[8:00PM] RAMSAY'S KITCHEN NIGHTMARES-Ep 3 Trobiano's
[9:00PM] RAMSAY'S KITCHEN NIGHTMARES-Ep 7 Jack's Waterfront
[10:00PM] RAMSAY'S KITCHEN NIGHTMARES-Ep 3 Sebastian's
[11:00PM] RAMSAY'S KITCHEN NIGHTMARES-Ep 4 Finn McCool's
[12:00AM] RAMSAY'S KITCHEN NIGHTMARES-Ep 3 Trobiano's
[1:00AM] RAMSAY'S KITCHEN NIGHTMARES-Ep 7 Jack's Waterfront
[2:00AM] TORCHWOOD-Ep 1 Everything Changes
[3:00AM] TORCHWOOD-Ep 2 Day One
[4:00AM] THE X-FILES-Ep 4 Conduit
[5:00AM] BBC WORLD NEWS (ALL TIMES EST)
Bravo has 'Bethenny Ever After', 'Real Housewives Of OC', followed by a FRESH'Real Housewives Of OC', then a FRESH'Tabatha Takes Over'.
Comedy Central has '30 Rock', another '30 Rock', 'Key & Peele', 'Tosh.0', another 'Tosh.0', still another 'Tosh.0', followed by a FRESH'Tosh.0', then a FRESH'Key & Peele'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJon Stewart is Julianne Moore.
Scheduled on a FRESHColbert Report is Jonathan Safran Foer.
FX has '2½ Men', followed by the movie 'The Day After Tomorrow', then a FRESH'Justified'.
History has 'Pawn Stars', another 'Pawn Stars', still another 'Pawn Stars', yet another 'Pawn Stars', followed by a FRESH'Top Gear', then a FRESH'Top Shot'.
IFC -
[6:00AM] Medicine for Melancholy
[8:00AM] The Cup
[10:00AM] Arrested Development-Family Ties
[10:30AM] Arrested Development-Exit Strategy
[11:00AM] Arrested Development-Development Arrested
[11:30AM] Marie Antoinette
[2:00PM] Medicine for Melancholy
[4:00PM] The Cup
[6:00PM] Malcolm in the Middle-College Recruiters
[6:30PM] Malcolm in the Middle-Mono
[7:00PM] Malcolm in the Middle-Hal Grieves
[7:30PM] Malcolm in the Middle-A.A.
[8:00PM] Marie Antoinette
[10:30PM] Little Miss Sunshine
[12:45AM] Marie Antoinette
[3:15AM] 2 Little Miss Sunshine
[5:30AM] Portlandia-Baseball (ALL TIMES EST)
Sundance -
[6:00A]
Grizzly Man
[7:45A]
A Town Called Panic
[9:00A]
Hotel Gramercy Park
[10:15A]
Grizzly Man
[12:00P]
FREAKS AND GEEKS - Beers and Weirs (Episode 2, Season 1)
[2:15P]
Hotel Gramercy Park
[3:30P]
Love Lust & Bad Girls
[4:30P]
Grizzly Man
[6:15P]
Summer Hours
[8:00P]
Angel
[10:00P]
GIRLS WHO LIKE BOYS WHO LIKE BOYS - Naughty or Nice? (Nashville)
[10:30P]
GIRLS WHO LIKE BOYS WHO LIKE BOYS - Let's Get This Party Started (Nashville)
[11:00P]
The Good Thief
[1:00A]
GIRLS WHO LIKE BOYS WHO LIKE BOYS - Naughty or Nice? (Nashville)
[1:30A]
GIRLS WHO LIKE BOYS WHO LIKE BOYS - Let's Get This Party Started (Nashville)
[2:00A]
The Exterminating Angels
[3:45A]
Angel
[5:35A]
Soft (ALL TIMES EST)
SyFy has the movie 'Anaconda 3: The Offspring', followed by the movie 'Lake Placid 2'.
TBS:
Scheduled on a FRESHConan are Don Cheadle, Elisha Cuthbert, and WZRD.
Tim Roth, left, and Eddie Izzard arrive to Amnesty International's "Secret Policeman's Ball" in New York, Sunday, March 4, 2012.
Photo by Charles Sykes
Current TV is launching a morning talk block with live simulcasts of the radio programs "The Bill Press Show" and "The Stephanie Miller Show."
The TV version of Press' nationally syndicated radio program will air weekdays from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. Eastern time. The TV simulcast of Miller's show will follow from 9 a.m. to 12 noon Eastern time.
The program block will begin this Spring, the left-leaning political TV network announced Monday.
A liberal commentator, Press is a veteran of CNN's "Crossfire" and "The Spin Room." Miller is a liberal talk-show host and comedian.
Actress Salma Hayek, right, and her husband Francois-Henri Pinault attend the Stella McCartney fashion house presentation for Women's Fall-Winter, ready-to-wear 2013 fashion collection, during Paris Fashion week, Monday, March 5, 2012.
Jacques Brinon
"Ozzy Osbourne" and "animated" aren't words that are typically associated with each other -- but that's all about to change.
Toronto-based animation group Cuppa Coffee Studios -- the people behind Comedy Central's "Ugly Americans" -- will launch a new series featuring Ozzy, Sharon, Kelly and Jack in April. The series is dubbed "The F'n Osbournes" -- though, according to Cuppa Coffee, the "F" stands for "family."
According to Cuppa Coffee Studios' president Adam Shaheen -- who created the series and will co-executive produce the series, along with Sharon and Jack Osbourne -- the stop-motion offering "combines absurd animated sitcom premises that only the Osbournes can pull off!"
"The F'n Osbournes" will begin production over the summer. Cuppa Coffee hopes to finalize sales of the series at the MIPTV gathering in Cannes, which takes place in early April. The family will play themselves on the series.
The sponsors of the top prizes in children's literature have established two awards for grown-up fiction.
The American Library Association announced Monday that the first Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence, given for the year's best adult fiction and nonfiction, will be awarded when the association meets in June for its annual conference. Each winning author receives $5,000, with the prizes funded by the Carnegie Corporation. The first selection committee will be chaired by NPR commentator and former librarian Nancy Pearl.
The ALA has long sponsored the John Newbery medal, for best children's story, and the Randolph Caldecott medal, for best illustration.
An important early work by Pablo Picasso painted when he was just 19 or 20 has been put up for sale by its aristocratic Welsh owners, and is estimated to be worth around 50 million pounds ($80 million).
The intention to sell "Child With a Dove", a 1901 work which marked the beginning of the Spanish artist's "blue period", was posted on the website of the Arts Council England which has some say over whether important works of art are allowed to be sold abroad.
The painting, depicting a child holding a dove next to a colored ball, belongs to the Aberconway family, and was loaned to the Courtauld Gallery in London only last year, according to the Sunday Times, which first reported the intended sale.
The Arts Council England estimated the work to be worth 50 million pounds, but added that the valuation was meant only as a rough guide.
US authorities' treatment of WikiLeaks suspect Private Bradley Manning was "cruel and degrading," the UN special rapporteur on torture Juan Ernesto Mendez said Monday.
"I believe Bradley Manning was subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in the excessive and prolonged isolation he was put in during the eight months he was in Quantico," he told AFP, referring to the US military prison near Washington.
Mendez said that "fortunately" the alleged mistreatment ended when Manning was transferred from Quantico to another prison in Kansas.
"But the explanation I was given for those eight months was not convincing for me," he said, speaking on the sidelines of a UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva.
Jailed for more than a year and a half before his arraignment last month, Manning, 24, has complained of being placed in solitary confinement, of bullying by guards, and of being subjected to an ultra restrictive regime in Quantico.
Actor Jack Nicholson (L) watches the Los Angeles Lakers play the Miami Heat in their NBA basketball game in Los Angeles, California March 4, 2012.
Photo by Lucy Nicholson
More of Rush Limbaugh's advertisers say they are dropping his program after the conservative talk show host's derogatory comments about a Georgetown law student.
On Monday, AOL Inc. and Tax Resolution Services Co. were the eighth and ninth companies to say that they will suspend advertising on Limbaugh's program, supposedly one of the most popular radio shows in the country.
Clear Channel's Premiere Radio Networks Inc. hosts Limbaugh's show. The company is supporting Limbaugh, whose on-air contract runs through 2016.
Premiere Radio said in a statement Monday that it respects Limbaugh's right to express his opinions, and said that "in an attempt at absurdist humor to illustrate his political point, Mr. Limbaugh used words that unfortunately distracted from the message he was trying to convey."
Bob Odenkirk, left, and David Cross arrive to Amnesty International's "Secret Policeman's Ball" in New York, Sunday, March 4, 2012.
Photo by Charles Sykes
A member of the Backstreet Boys pop music group tells police that $120,000 in jewelry was stolen from a Stone Mountain hotel where he and his wife were staying.
Brian Littrell tells WSB-TV they were leaving Stone Mountain Park outside Atlanta when they realized the jewelry had been left on a nightstand in their hotel room. He said that when they returned to the hotel to retrieve the items, they were gone.
Leighanne Littrell says the $120,000 in jewelry included her engagement ring valued at $110,000.
WSB reports that police were at the hotel Sunday night. It wasn't immediately clear when the reported theft occurred.
Musician Paul Stanley of the band "Kiss" (L) watches the Los Angeles Lakers play the Miami Heat in their NBA basketball game in Los Angeles, California March 4, 2012.
Photo by Lucy Nicholson
Within three months of the launch of the Internet "pornography" domain ".xxx," 10 cases have been launched against Web pirates registering sites on it using the names of reputable companies and people, insiders said on Monday.
Sources at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) reported that among complainants to its dispute resolution system over .xxx -- usually called dot-triple x -- were banks, a jewelry business and an online shopping operation.
The first case over a site on dot-triple x was brought less than three weeks after it opened with the Turkish online shopping company Markafoni, owned by giant South African multimedia company Naspers, complaining to WIPO over the site markatoni.xxx.
The others have followed this year, with several of them involving more Turkish companies, a major Swedish real estate portal HemNet Sverige over a site called hemnet.xxx and Polish bank BGZ.SA over bgz.xxx.
A combination photograph shows protesters wearing masks, protective suits and goggles during an anti-nuclear march in Tokyo March 4, 2012. Japanese citizens take to the street, Geiger counters in hand, to protest Japan's ongoing nuclear crisis on Sunday ahead of the one-year anniversary of the March 11, 2011 tsunami and earthquake which triggered the world's worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl.
Photo by Issei Kato
Think tattoos are mostly for tough-looking men and only a few women? Think again. The fair sex is getting inked more often these days, according to a poll set for release on Tuesday.
The TV network behind new show "Best Ink" and Lightspeed Research asked just over 1000 people across the United States about their perceptions of body art, and it turned out 59 percent of women have tattoos compared to 41 percent of men.
But women get their ink in different shapes and sizes than men, and the act of putting a piece of art on their skin is often a shared experience. The number of tattooed celebrities and TV shows have increased cultural acceptance and spurred more people to not only get them, but display them openly.
The Lightspeed survey found that 89 percent of those people who had tattoos said they did not care if people disproved of their body ink and 46 percent said they'd proudly show their tattoo to their bosses at work.
Comic impressionist Steve Bridges, best known for impersonating former resident George W. Bush, has died at home in Los Angeles.
The 48-year-old Bridges was found unresponsive by a housekeeper on Saturday. Coroner's official Craig Harvey says it is being investigated as an apparently natural death but an autopsy will be conducted, possibly on Tuesday.
The coroner's office says Bridges had no recent medical complaints and a statement on Bridges' website says his death came as a shock.
Bridges' George W. Bush impression made him a regular on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" and earned him an invitation to the White House in 2003.
In 2006 Bridges joined Bush in a comic routine at the 2006 White House Correspondents' Association dinner in Washington, D.C., and at a Ford's Theatre benefit.
The Perito Moreno glacier is seen after the rupture of a massive ice wall near the city of El Calafate in the Patagonian province of Santa Cruz, southern Argentina, March 4, 2012. The glacier, a massive tongue of ice in the Santa Cruz province that covers 250 square kilometres (97 square miles), advances yearly into a lake, known as Lago Argentino. As Perito Moreno moves forward, it cuts off a river feeding the lake. Water builds up pressure and slowly undermines the ice, forming a tunnel until ice comes tumbling down. The phenomenon repeats itself at irregular intervals, with the last major ice falls occurring in 2008.
Photo by Andres Arce
You have reached the Home page of BartCop Entertainment.
Make yourself home, take your shoes off...
Go ahead, scratch it if it itches.
The idea is to have fun.
Do you have something to say?
Anything that increased your blood pressure, or, even better, amused or entertained?
Do you have a great album no one's heard?
How about a favorite TV show, movie, book, play, cartoon, or legal amusement?
A popular artist that just plain pisses you off?
A box set the whole world should own?
Vile, filthy rumors about Republican hypocrites?
Just plain vile, filthy rumors?
wrote:
answered:
