The Watering Hole: December 14 — Obamadon

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obamadon

Guess who has a dinosaur named after him?  You’re right — President Obama!  Wow, you’re good guessers.

In the picture, Obamadon is the cute one in the foreground.  I think the other one is John McCain, screaming at Obamadon to get off his rock.

From examiner.com:

The lizard sized dinosaur is thought to have lived on insects, and was small in stature in comparison to other known behemoths. Researchers say that the dinosaur’s size is not in anyway a political reference. The name Obamadon was chosen due to the lizard’s tall, straight teeth. According to sci-news.comPaleontologist Nick Longrich said, “Obama has these tall, straight incisors and a great smile.”

Interestingly enough, our President has a fish and a fungus named for him as well:

Obamadon is not the first organism to be named after Obama. Other researchers have given his name to Etheostoma obama, the spangled darter or “Obamafish”, and the fungus Caloplaca obamae.

It’s nice to have a President who is so well-respected, although George W. Bush also had something named after him…

While in office President George W. Bush also had something named after him, the “agathidium bushi“; a slime-mold beetle.

You had to see that one coming.  🙂

This is our daily open thread — It’s Friday, Obamadonbots!

137 thoughts on “The Watering Hole: December 14 — Obamadon”

  1. I love waking up in the morning and knowing that Barack Obama is our president.

    I caught the very end of Hardball last night and Chris Matthews mentioned several good Democrats that could replace John Kerry. One of the names was “Kennedy” which is still a popular name in MA.

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    • With the exception of the ‘Kennedy’ on the Supreme Court, I agree. ANY Kennedy, ANY TIME, for ANY position of ANY authority. And all of that in spite of the fact(s) that (a) in 1960 when I was still three years too young to vote in the national election, to vote FOR (b) JFK who, as my very old auntie explained, would quickly demand, upon his election, that EVERYONE IN AMERICA would have to go to mass every Sunday.

      Times (and issues, and politics) were far simpler way back then. I constantly lament the change, the downhill slippery slope which has sadly come to define today’s Amurka.

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      • Disagree Frugal, a name does not imply any fitness for anything. I’ll give you a Kennedy I would c**k punch if I could: the original Kennedy – Joe Kennedy.

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    • If Obama picks Kerry, he damn well better make sure he doesn’t get Scott Brown or any other GOP senator from Mass. We’ve seen that movie before.

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  2. Tim Heffernan pens a great little piece on the rise of overkill urban hunters:

    “One: more white-tailed deer live in the United States today than at any other time in history. Two: fewer hunters are going after them than did even 20 years ago. And yet, three: deer hunting now rivals military combat in its technological sophistication. Outfitters’ shelves are crammed with advanced electronics, weaponry, chemicals, and camouflage, all designed to eliminate every last shred of chance from the pursuit. The average American hunter now spends nearly $2,500 a year on the sport, despite the fact that finding a deer to kill has literally never been easier.

    A brief description of the “advanced hunting arsenal”:

    “The chemical-weapons aisle alone boasts such products as Dead Down Wind ScentPrevent e3 Field Spray (“Prevents human odors from forming”), Team Fitzgerald Deer Dander Attractant (“Makes you smell like the deer you pursue”), and Wildlife Research Center Special Golden Estrus—that’s bottled urine, “taken right from does brought into heat early through the use of hormones and lighting conditions.” Autonomous, infrared-triggered trail cameras such as the Reconyx Hyperfire HC500 help with surveillance. Target-acquisition systems include the Leupold RX‑1000i TBR Compact Digital Laser Rangefinder With DNA, and ATN Aries MK‑410 Spartan Nightvision Riflescope, which promises “resolution beyond current military standards.”

    Some serious nerd tech coupled with phallic issues.

    http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/11/the-deer-paradox/309104/

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  3. Fracking is back on the menu for the UK. They held it up a bit because of earthquakes in Lancashire… “I read the news today oh boy, 4,000 holes in Blackburn, Lancashire”

    If you read this, you get an insight into the US fracking issues because the debate held in Parliament got into it quite publicly. Then go on a read the comments – the person who made the decision’s father-in-law owns a fracking company, the readers are all wondering why their gas prices won’t go down despite this so-called bonanza. And the fracking in the US goes on, under far more lenient rules and oversight than in the UK
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2247421/Fracking-ban-lifted-Controversial-technique-mining-shale-gas-given-ahead.html

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      • hey now!!….you can’t be talkin’ trash talk about oil ‘n gas. that’s a sacred cow that can’t be touched!

        those fuckin’ Lesser Prairie Chickens and them Sand Dune Lizards can just find somewhere else to go extinct….we got holes to punch!

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  5. I heard several sirens outside that appeared to be coming from different directions. When I looked out the door I saw that a school bus (the special needs bus with 6 children aboard) had hit a SUV. The SUV appeared to have backed into the roadway in front of the on coming bus. Being the overgrown boy that I am when it comes to fire trucks and rescue vehicles I had to go look things over.

    After one Down’s Syndrome child had been transported in an emergency medical unit and the other fire rescue vehicles had left, and after the other children had been transferred to another bus and the police had finished their paperwork, I had the occasion to talk to the bus driver who was driving the bus that hit the SUV. Having once been the Safety Director of a transportation company I was curious about the procedure a bus driver would have to undergo when involved in an accident, an unforeseen event that resulted in injury to person or property.

    I was curious as to whether the driver would have to undergo a drug test, even though the accident was clearly not her fault, however, when I asked her if she was the bus driver she responded, “I was driving the bus but I wasn’t involved in the accident!”

    I actually asked a second time, “You were the driving the bus that hit the SUV?”

    She responded, “I wasn’t involved in the accident!”

    The mechanic from next door witnessed this exchange and suggested she meant that she wasn’t at fault. I hope the woman was just upset and not under the influence of anything that would impair her driving.

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    • The bus driver could have been dazed from the accident. It is rather traumatic.
      Do hope she wasn’t under the influence.
      Was the SUV driver a teenager?

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    • Oh dear my prior reply seems to have fed the spam bin…

      That’s so traumatic. Perhaps the bus driver was dazed from the accident.
      Do hope she wasn’t under the influence.

      Was the SUV driver a teenager?

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      • The SUV driver was a young woman in her 20’s and the bus driver looked to be in her forties, hard forties I would say or as the neighbor said, “She looks like she was ridden hard and put up wet.”

        My concern is that this county may not have written procedures that outlines actions to be taken when accidents occur involving vehicle and equipment operators. Lackadaisical attitudes about safety are prevalent in Florida, a Right To Work state, and even though the Governor wants to drug test all applicants (at the applicants expense) for government benefits there’s probably no funds to test all government employees involved in accidents.

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  11. It’s just horrific, made more so by the fact that we’re impotent as a society to prevent this from happening.

    I’m a bit uneasy knowing my wife is teaching her first grade class at the moment and she has some odd parents to deal with.

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  19. It’s being reported the shooter’s mother was a kindergarten teacher at the school and that was his target.
    Shooter is from Hoboken.
    A body at the suspects home may be that of his father.

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    • “It’s being reported the shooter’s mother was a kindergarten teacher at the school and that was his target.”

      — Apparently he got a little carried away then

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    • This was the first thing I heard this morning, without a death count or any real information, and I’ve been in tears off and on since then.

      Someone, please tell this woman it’s too soon to discuss gun violence in this country.

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  21. On my drives home (from Minnesota to Ohio) recently, I kept seeing signs along the road (in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana) talking about how guns save lives.

    I would love for the person(s) who put up those signs to fucking explain that to me. Should the teacher be packing? The kids? (Kids around guns even if it’s the teacher’s is never a good combination.)

    The problem isn’t that we have too few guns. The problems is we have way too many. Period. End of story.

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    • The country needs to hold confront the NRA and tell them to stfu about people kill people…yes and if the guns were not so freely available they’d not use them to murder kindergartners.

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  26. Bob G: Right … it is the NRA’s fault … We should take away your car, because women can’t drive … they KILL! FU Ford!!!

    Bob G: Now Obuttplug is trying to score points … faking being choked up. Opportunistic piece of shit.

    Yes this piece of excrement is an NRA member and a co-worker of my sister.

    I can’t imagine anyone having that attitude at this point in time.

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    • Like all parents, it hits at a core of our being; our children will never be completely safe, no matter how hard we try. The Prez also realizes that our society is sick, and there is not enough “political will” to address a public policy on how to reduce the manifestation of the this sickness. I project that he feels the powerlessness we all feel. Children being slaughtered. Welcome to America, but don’t mention the unmentionable, cause we got rights. Pfft. 😦

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  30. So my coworker who was so depressed by the Clackamas shooting that he developed a migraine, the same guy who convinced his wife to now get a carry permit, got into it with me this morning. He was upset because now people will try to ban assault rifles. Government shouldn’t be “reactive”, whatever the fuck that means. But he seems to honestly believe that we all need weapons like that to protect us from the government, because it’s not right that only the police should be armed, and we can’t really trust the army because they’re controlled by government.

    Honestly, I wanted to cockpunch him in the worst way.

    Oh, and his solution? We just need to have a better society where there won’t be any crazy people.

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      • Somalia;

        The “Wild West”, etc.

        you think having an assault rifle is gonna protect you from teh govermint? Think again. How many “terrorists”, Al Qaeda #2’s etc. have been taken out by drone strikes? they gots themselves assault weapons & all kinds of other toys, but they is also ded, thank you very much. Joe, the armed to the teeth deer hunter won’t last 60 seconds in a shoot-out with Special Ops…..

        The question is: which is more important, the profits of the gun industry, or the lives of our children?

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    • Weapons to protect us from the government? Has he ever seen the SWAT team go into the house next door? They’re not even military grade and it’s stunning to see what they are carrying. Good luck with that fantasy.

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  31. I just read these news and the only thing that I thought was to come here, say how sorry I am and mourn with you. I haven’t stop crying since then.

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  32. I’m reflecting now on how other people around the world may view this – and it’s felling like “How can we expect them to care about what happens to me and my children or how what they do afftects or hurts me, when they don;t care enough to stop these things happening to their own children?

    Michael Moore tweeted earlier noting that Michigan just passed a law yesterday allowing concealed weapons in schools and day-cares…..

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  33. I’m proud to have Barack Obama as my President….

    Mr President, it’s time for that talk about gun control and new gun laws in this country…you sir, are a lame duck president, so why not roll with it.

    5 year old children…..really???!!!

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    • If I was a reporter, I might take my microphone and my camera and head down to the local gunshop and ask people coming out what prompted them to get that Uzi today instead of writing Santa a nice letter asking for one…?

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      • the NRA, gun dealers and manufacturers are the only people on this rock who benefit from a national tragedy such as we’ve seen today…..and this is a national tragedy, it reflects the weakness of goodhearted progressive citizens to stand up to the bullying of fanatical groups such as the NRA

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  36. In a news item from Michigan:

    “Changes to the concealed weapons law passed the [GOP-controlled] state House and Senate late Thursday, allowing trained gun owners to carry their weapons in formerly forbidden places, such as schools, day care centers, stadiums and churches.”

    Michigan, also a “right to carry” state now. No word post-Newtown on whether the Republican governor will veto it. I’d bet against it.

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    • so shall we have a pool…????

      In which venue will the first concealed carry murder at a sports event occur?

      Michigan Int’l Speedway
      Michigan Stadium
      Pontiac Silverdome
      Spartan Stadium
      Ford Field
      Comerica Park
      Rynearson Stadium
      Kelly Shorts Stadium
      Waldo Stadium
      Palace of Auburn Hills
      Joe Louis Arena
      Breslin Center
      Crisler Arena
      Fifth Third Ballpark
      Cooley LS Stadium
      Atwood Stadium
      Van Andel Arena
      Houseman Field
      Withington Stadium

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  37. My suggestion for the improvement of the Second Amendment:

    A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

    I recommend a rewrite:

    A non-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State facilitate the murder of innocent children and adults, the right of the people idiot to keep and bear Arms, shall not NEVAH!!!!! be infringed ‘by no bleedin’ heart atheist democraps! Period.

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  38. It dawned on me that mass murders like this didn’t happen in previous generations. Plenty of people owned long guns and fewer had handguns but they were exclusively for hunting (well, and holding up banks). Events like this were unheard of — maybe until Whitman climbed that tower in Texas, and I suppose that was quite awhile back. Hell, I don’t know what I mean.

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  39. Guns don’t kill people – people do. By the same token, planes don’t kill people – people flying them into buildings do.

    And yet, I recall that we immediately and decisively worked to keep deranged people from gaining possession of planes when a handful of those people used them as tools of mass murder; indeed, we made it much more difficult for the overwhelming majority of peaceful, law-abiding citizens to board a plane.

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  40. Religion is a disease…

    Brian Fischer: God Didn’t Save Kids Because There’s ‘No Prayer In School’
    crooksandliars.com

    Huckabee Says Connecticut School Massacre Occurred Because We ‘Removed God From Our Schools’
    thinkprogress.org

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  43. Some song lyrics running through my mind:

    God bless America, land of much blood

    and

    Spree the USA with a new AK, thanks to the NRA its very easy to do

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