The Department of Veterans Affairs has extended the presumptive period for Persian Gulf War veterans to file claims for undiagnosed illnesses. The new deadline is Dec. 31, 2016. The Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that 25-35 percent of veterans of Desert Shield/Desert Storm have undiagnosed and chronic multi-symptom illnesses, such as chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome and concentration problems. For more information, visit VA's Gulf War Illnesses website .
(If in doubt, see a service rep and file a claim anyway! This is not welfare, it's compensation! Get your ducks in a row and collect any medical records you may have. That includes any treatment you may have received by civilian doctors after your service. If you don't have your DD-214's, get them. Your service rep can help you, or you can get copies here - Veterans Report - How Do I Get My DD214?. It's all about documentation. The VA Comp and Pension Board will not take your word for it. Do not try to do this yourself. Get a service rep; VFW, DAV, American Legion etc. It doesn't matter who. They are the pros at this and know all the ins and outs. They will legally act on your behalf with the VA...)
VA Home Loans allow qualified buyers the opportunity to purchase a home with no down payment. There are also no monthly mortgage insurance premiums to pay, limitations on buyer's closing costs, and an appraisal that informs the buyer of the property value. For most loans on new houses, construction is inspected at appropriate stages and a 1-year warranty is required from the builder. VA also performs personal loan servicing and offers financial counseling to help veterans having temporary financial difficulties. Although there is no maximum VA loan, lenders generally limit the maximum VA loan to $417,000. See a list of VA Loan FAQ on Military.com
The Department of Veterans Affairs has deployed 20 additional Mobile Vet Centers. These customized vehicles travel to communities to extend VA's reach to veterans, service members and their families, especially those living in rural or remote communities. VA has 300 Vet Centers across the country offering individual and group counseling for veterans and their families, family counseling for military related issues, bereavement counseling for families who experience an active duty death, employment assessment and referral, VA benefits explanation and referral, screening and referral for medical issues and other services. To find out more about Vet Center services or find a Vet Center in your area, visit VA's Vet Center web page at www.vetcenter.va.gov.
Unfortunately, many veterans must deal with PTSD stereotypes that surround wartime service. To learn more about how these stereotypes persist, and what can be done to stop them, read the Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA's) VAntage Point blog.
Paul Krugman: How Fares the Dream? (New York Times)
To say the obvious: to look at a photo of President Obama with his cabinet is to see a degree of racial openness - and openness to women, too - that would have seemed almost inconceivable in 1963. When we observe Martin Luther King's Birthday, we have something very real to celebrate: the civil rights movement was one of America's finest hours, and it made us a nation truer to its own ideals.
William D. Cohan: When Romney ran Bain Capital, his word was not his bond (Washington Post)
I never negotiated directly with Romney; he was too high-level for any interaction with me. Rather, I dealt often with other Bain senior partners, who were very much in his mold. In my experience, Bain Capital did all that it could to game the system by consistently offering the highest prices during the early rounds of bidding - only to try to low-ball the price after it had weeded out competitors.
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."
Morris the Cat (voiced by John Erwin) is the advertising mascot for 9Lives brand cat food, appearing on its packaging and in many of its television commercials. A large orange tabby tom, he is "the world's most finicky cat", and prefers only 9Lives brand, making this preference clear by means of humorously sardonic voice-over comments when offered other brands. Every can of 9Lives features Morris's "signature".
Source
mj was first, and correct, with:
He was also among the luckiest
Morris, an orange tom shelter rescue.
BttbBob wrote:
No looking this up... Morris the '9 Lives' huckster (My eccentric daughter, Andrea, told me once long ago that if she had a cat she'd call it 'Pod'. Well, she finally got one and she called it 'Murphy'. I asked, "What about 'Pod'?" She replied, "It opened up and out jumped Murphy". See? Eccentric...)
Alan J answered:
Morris
Sally said:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MLK!!
(IT'S REALLY THE 17TH!!)
Morris, a large orange tabby tom, is "the world's most finicky cat" according to 9Lives brand cat food...
It may be 24 years later, but Newt still looks the same to me...
Jim from CA, retired to ID, responded:
Morris the Cat (voiced by John Erwin) is the advertising mascot for 9Lives
brand cat food, appearing on its packaging and in many of its television
commercials. A large orange tabby tom, he is "the world's most finicky
cat", and prefers only 9Lives brand, making this preference clear by means
of humorously sardonic voice-over comments when offered other brands.
Every can of 9Lives features Morris's "signature".
Charlie replied:
Morris, of course.
Might as well use the opportunity to plug a good book.
Adam answered:
Morris the Cat. I forgot what brand he eats.
Marian wrote:
Morris the cat
John I from Hawaii says,
"Morris!" My cat Moley is very unfinicky.
Dale of Diamond Springs replied:
Enough said!!!!!!! Morris!!!
Dr. Kenny responded:
Is it Morris?
I'm a cat person myself.
MAM wrote:
Morris (prefers only 9Lives brand)
And, Joe S answered:
Morris, by unanimous vote.
Morris, fat cat
CANBERRA, Australia - A newly discovered horse fly in Australia was so "bootylicious" with its golden-haired bum, there was only one name worthy of its beauty: Beyonce. Previously published results from Bryan Lessard, a 24-year-old researcher... were recently announced on the species that had been sitting in a fly collection since it was captured in 1981 - the same year pop diva Beyonce was born. He says he wanted to pay respect to the insect's beauty by naming it Scaptia (Plinthina) beyonceae. Lessard said Beyonce would be "in the nature history books forever" and that the fly now bearing her name is "pretty bootylicious" with its golden backside. (I invite you to decide)
Beyonce gets 'bootylicious' horse fly named after her | Detroit Free Press | freep.com
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I guess... Me? All flies are damn'd ugly...
No matter whose name you give them... and that's a fact!
CBS begins the night with a RERUN'NCIS', followed by a RERUN'NCIS: The 2nd One', then a RERUN'Unforgettable'.
Scheduled on a FRESHDave are Ricky Gervais and Kathleen Edwards.
Scheduled on a FRESHCraig is Colin Firth.
NBC starts the night with a FRESH'Biggest Loser', followed by a FRESH'Parenthood'.
Scheduled on a FRESHLeno are Sam Worthington, Sherri Shepherd, and Adam Lambert.
Scheduled on a FRESHJimmy Fallon are Kyra Sedgwick, Ndamukong Suh, and Outasight.
On a RERUNCarson 'The Scab' Daly (from 9/23/11) are Game, Melanie Pullen, and Thievery Corporation.
ABC opens the night with a FRESH'Last Man Standing', followed by a FRESH'Work It', then a FRESH'Celebrity Wife Swap', followed by a FRESH'Body Of Proof'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJimmy Kimmel are Katherine Heigl, Ne-Yo, and Grouplove.
The CW offers a FRESH'90210', followed by a FRESH'Remodeled'.
Faux has a RERUN'Glee', followed by a RERUN'New Girl', then a RERUN'Raising Hope'.
MY recycles an old 'Cold Case', followed by another old 'Cold Case'.
A&E has 'Storage Wars', another 'Storage Wars', still another 'Storage Wars', yet another 'Storage Wars', followed by a FRESH'Shipping Wars', then another FRESH'Shipping Wars', followed by a FRESH'Storage Wars', then another FRESH'Storage Wars'.
AMC offers 'CSI: The 2nd One', followed by the movie 'Die Hard 2', then the movie 'Die Hard 2', again.
BBC -
[6:00AM] BBC World News
[7:00AM] BBC World News
[8:00AM] The Graham Norton Show-Ep 10 Bill Bailey, Kelly Rowland
[9:00AM] The Graham Norton Show-Ep 15 - Sigourney Weaver, Professor Brian Cox, Sandi Toksvig, Sugarland
[10:00AM] Doctor Who-9 - Cold Blood
[11:00AM] Gordon Ramsay's F Word-Episode 12
[12:00PM] Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares-Ep 3 Rococo
[1:00PM] Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares-Ep 11 Cafe 36
[2:00PM] Gordon Ramsay's F Word-Episode 13
[3:00PM] Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares-Ep 1 Ruby Tates
[4:00PM] Jamie Oliver's American Road Trip-Ep 2 - Wyoming
[5:00PM] 24 Hours in the ER-Episode 1
[6:00PM] Star Trek: The Next Generation-Ep 9 Final Mission
[7:00PM] Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares-Ep 4 Finn McCool's
[8:00PM] Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares-Ep 6 Hannah & Mason's
[9:00PM] Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares-Ep 9 The Olde Stone Mill
[10:00PM] Jamie Oliver's American Road Trip-Ep 3 - New York NEW
[11:00PM] Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares-Ep 6 Hannah & Mason's
[12:00AM] Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares-Ep 9 The Olde Stone Mill
[1:00AM] Jamie Oliver's American Road Trip-Ep 3 - New York
[2:00AM] Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares-Ep 6 Hannah & Mason's
[3:00AM] Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares-Ep 9 The Olde Stone Mill
[4:00AM] The Fades-Episode 1
[5:00AM] BBC World News (ALL TIMES EST)
Bravo has 'Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills', 'Real Housewives Of Atlanta', 'Tabatha Takes Over', followed by a FRESH'Tabatha Takes Over'.
Comedy Central has '30 Rock', another '30 Rock', 'South Park', 'Futurama', 'Tosh.0', another 'Tosh.0', still another 'Tosh.0', and yet another 'Tosh.0'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJon Stewart is Liam Neeson.
Scheduled on a FRESHColbert Report is Jennifer Granholm.
FX has the movie '2012', followed by a FRESH'Justified'.
History has 'MonsterQuest', 'Pawn Stars', another 'Pawn Stars', 'Ax Men', and 'Only In America With Larry TCG'.
IFC -
[6:00AM] Darkon
[8:15AM] Dear Frankie
[10:30AM] The Sea Inside
[1:15PM] Affliction
[3:45PM] Dear Frankie
[6:00PM] Malcolm in the Middle-Pilot
[6:30PM] Malcolm in the Middle-Red Dress
[7:00PM] Malcolm in the Middle-Home Alone 4
[7:30PM] Malcolm in the Middle-Shame
[8:00PM] From Hell
[10:30PM] The Thaw
[12:30AM] From Hell
[3:00AM] Bug
[5:15AM] Portlandia-One Moore Episode
[5:45AM] The Whitest Kids U'Know (ALL TIMES EST)
Sundance -
[6:00A] LUDO BITES AMERICA: Santa Fe (Episode 1, Season 1)
[7:00A] LUDO BITES AMERICA: Omaha (Episode 2, Season 1)
[8:00A] LUDO BITES AMERICA: Mobile (Episode 3, Season 1)
[9:00A] LUDO BITES AMERICA: Denver (Episode 4, Season 1)
[10:00A] LUDO BITES AMERICA: Raleigh (Episode 5, Season 1)
[11:00A] LUDO BITES AMERICA: Redondo Beach (Episode 6, Season 1)
[12:00P] LUDO BITES AMERICA: One More Bite (Episode 7, Season 1)
[1:00P] ALL ON THE LINE WITH JOE ZEE - Angelo Lambrou: Your Dream Turned Into My Nightmare (Episode 1, Season 2)
[2:00P] ALL ON THE LINE WITH JOE ZEE - Qristyl Frazier: Plus-Sexy (Episode 2, Season 2)
[3:00P] Life For A Child
[3:35P] Kassim the Dream
[5:05P] Worlds Apart
[8:00P] THE MORTIFIED SESSIONS - Filmmaker Ed Burns & Bridesmaids' Paul Feig (Episode 8, Season 1)
[8:30P] THE MORTIFIED SESSIONS - NYPD's Rick Schroder (Episode 7, Season 1)
[9:00P] Bunny and the Bull
[10:45P] Coffin Rock
[12:20A] À l'aventure
[2:05A] Bunny and the Bull
[3:50A] Eclipse
[4:00A] GIRLS WHO LIKE BOYS WHO LIKE BOYS - Get Out of My House (Nashville - Ep. 9)
[5:00A] UNLEASHED BY GARO: I Kind of Feel Naked (Episode 6, Season 1) (ALL TIMES EST)
SyFy has the movie 'Dark Water', followed by the movie 'The Haunting In Conecticut'.
TBS:
Scheduled on a FRESHConan are Antonio Banderas, Fred Armisen, and Blake Mills.
Muhammad Ali., left, welcomes his guests along with his wife Lonnie Ali, center, at a fund raiser for the Muhammad Ali Center in his hometown of Louisville, Ky., on Saturday, Jan. 14, 2012. Ali turns 70 Tuesday.
Wikipedia will black out the English language version of its website Wednesday to protest anti-piracy legislation under consideration in Congress, the foundation behind the popular community-based online encyclopedia said in a statement Monday night.
The website will go dark for 24 hours in an unprecedented move that brings added muscle to a growing base of critics of the legislation. Wikipedia is considered one of the Internet's most popular websites, with millions of visitors daily.
"If passed, this legislation will harm the free and open Internet and bring about new tools for censorship of international websites inside the United States," the Wikimedia foundation said.
The Stop Online Piracy Act in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Protect Intellectual Property Act under consideration in the Senate are designed to crack down on sales of pirated U.S. products overseas.
Wikipedia's decision to go dark brings the issue into a much brighter spotlight. A group of Wikipedia users have discussed for more than a month whether it should react to the legislation.
Actress Laura Dern, winner of the award for best performance by an actress in a comedy or musical television series for "Enlightened", holds her award as she poses with her mother Diane Ladd at the HBO after party at the 69th annual Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, California January 15, 2012. REUTERS/Danny Moloshok
The company that began advertising for an incredibly lifelike Steve Jobs doll won't sell the figurines after all because of pressure from family and Apple lawyers.
In Icons had planned to offer the 1-foot-tall, lifelike figure dressed in Jobs' trademark black mock turtleneck, rimless glasses and jeans.
But the San Jose Mercury News reports the company posted a statement on its website Sunday saying it had received "immense pressure" to drop the plan and made the decision out of its "heartfelt sensitivity to the feelings of the Jobs family."
In icons had intended to start shipping the doll in February. The company says any money received for pre-orders will be returned.
A Polish court slapped a fine on a popular singer who bad-mouthed the Bible - the latest episode in which authorities grapple with religious defamation in a traditionally Catholic country that is growing increasingly secular.
Dorota Rabczewska, a singer who uses the stage name Doda, said in a 2009 interview that she doubted the Bible "because it's hard to believe in something that was written by someone drunk on wine and smoking some herbs."
A Warsaw court ordered her Monday to pay a fine of 5,000 zlotys ($1,450) for offending religious feelings.
The case comes months after another Polish court let off a death metal performer, Adam Darski, who tore a Bible during a 2007 performance. It deemed his act artistic expression.
Actor Sidney Poitier poses in the photo room at the 69th annual Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, California, January 15, 2012.
Photo by Lucy Nicholson
Scottish writer John Burnside on Monday won the 2011 T.S. Eliot Prize for Poetry, overshadowed this year by the withdrawal of two nominees over a sponsorship deal with an investment company.
Burnside picked up the coveted honor for "Black Cat Bone," which the judges described as "a haunting book of great beauty, powered by love, childhood memory, human longing and loneliness."
He also won the Whitbread poetry award in 2000 for "The Asylum Dance" and this year beat seven other nominees including poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy for her latest collection "The Bees."
The award is also supported by the T.S. Eliot Estate, guardians of the 20th century American-British poet and playwright who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948.
Showbusiness reporters at Britain's Daily Mirror might have secretly engaged in phone-hacking in the past, the tabloid's editor told an inquiry on Monday, in an admission that could embarrass owners Trinity Mirror.
Asked at the Leveson Inquiry into press standards whether phone-hacking could have been going on and hidden from him while he was the paper's showbusiness editor between 1999 and 2000, Richard Wallace replied: "It might well have been."
Trinity Mirror's Group Chief Executive Sly Bailey told the inquiry she had not seen any evidence that pointed to the use of phone hacking.
But she added that the media group had not conducted an internal investigation into whether hacking had been going on at Trinity Mirror titles, despite disclosures the practice had been widespread at Rupert Murdoch's rival News of the World.
A craftsman paints lantern parts in the shape of the head of the bodhisattva Guanyin, for a lantern festival to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year, at a workshop in Suining, Sichuan province January 15, 2012. The Lunar New Year, or the Spring Festival, begins on January 23 and marks the start of the year of dragon. Picture taken January 15, 2012.
A Connecticut contractor who helped build a house on the ABC reality TV show "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" has been accused of burning down his wood pellet business and charged with arson and other crimes.
Bruce "Bruno" Hayn was arrested by Norwich police Monday. The 54-year-old from nearby Colchester also is charged with attempted arson, insurance fraud and giving a false statement.
Authorities say the charges stem from an October fire that caused extensive damage at Shur Fire Energy in Norwich, 40 miles southeast of Hartford.
Hayn helped lead volunteers who built a family a home in Voluntown in December 2008 after two family members drowned in a pond and their home was damaged by fire.
A member of the Occupy WEF movement uses a saw to cut blocks of snow inside of the first igloo at their camp site in the Swiss mountain resort of Davos January 16, 2012. The Occupy WEF members will stay in a camp of several igloos to protest during the World Economic Forum (WEF) which takes place from January 25 to 29.
Photo by Arnd Wiegmann
On a bluff overlooking a sweep of Southern California beach, scientists in 1976 unearthed what were among the oldest skeletal remains ever found in the Western Hemisphere.
Researchers would come to herald the bones - dating back nearly 10,000 years - as a potential treasure trove for understanding the earliest human history of the continental United States. But a local tribal group called the Kumeyaay Nation claimed that the bones, representing at least two people, were their ancestors and demanded them back several years ago.
For decades, fights like this over the provenance and treatment of human bones have played out across the nation. Yet new federal protections could mean that the vast majority of the remains of an estimated 160,000 Native Americans held by universities, museums and federal government agencies, including those sought by the Kumeyaay, may soon be transferred to tribes.
A recent federal regulation addresses what should happen to any remains that cannot be positively traced to the ancestors of modern-day tribes. Museums and agencies are required to notify tribes whose current or ancestral lands harbored the remains, then the tribe is entitled to have them back.
Prestigious institutions from Harvard to the University of California, Berkeley have already begun working through storehouses of remains uncovered by archeologists, highway and building contractors and others since the 19th Century. A few are surrendering bones to Native tribes, and others are evaluating whether to do so.
Undated photo released by Christie's auction house in London Monday Jan. 16, 2012 of Vincent van Gogh's autumn landscape "Vue de l'Asile et de la Chapelle de Saint-Remy," which was once owned by actress Elizabeth Taylor and estimated to sell for 5 million to 7 million pounds ($7.6 million to $11 million) when auctioned in February 2012. Christie's auction house says 38 works belonging to the late actress will be included in their Impressionist and modern sale Feb. 7 and 8.
Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf," banned from German bookstores, will soon be available from newspaper kiosks after a British publisher said he would print excerpts from the text in Germany.
But the state of Bavaria, which owns the copyrights to the Nazi vision of Aryan racial supremacy, said it was considering legal steps to block publication.
Reprinting the Nazi dictator's autobiography, which outlines his ambitions to seize vast areas of land in eastern Europe to provide living space for the so-called master race, is outlawed in Germany except for academic study.
The excerpts will be distributed as a supplement to the company's existing weekly publication, a controversial series called "Zeitungszeugen," or "Newspaper Witnesses," which reprints pages of Nazi newspapers from the 1920s and 1930s, along with a commentary.
The distribution of Nazi ideology for non-educational purposes has been forbidden in Germany since the end of World War Two. Swastikas and the stiff-armed Nazi salute are also outlawed.
Models present swimwear and lingeries of the Fall/Winter collection during the Fashion Week Expo in Hong Kong Monday, Jan. 16, 2012. The exhibition invited more than 1,900 exhibitors from 26 countries and regions.
Photo by Kin Cheung
Investigators are ruling out arson after one of the world's oldest cypress trees caught fire and collapsed in central Florida.
Seminole County Fire Rescue spokesman Steve Wright says the 118-foot-tall bald cypress tree named "The Senator" burned for several hours early Monday. Wright says a 20-foot section of the top fell first and then rest of the tree collapsed.
The county parks department says ring samples showed the tree was roughly 3,500 years old.
The tree was named for a 1920s state senator who donated what is now Big Tree Park to the county.
In this Jan. 13, 2012 photo provided by L.L. Bean, the "Bootmobile" is compared to an actual shoe in Kissimmee, Florida. In 1912 L.L. Bean sold his first pair of boots. The privately held company expects to have $1.5 billion in sales in its 2011 fiscal year. The bootmobile was created to help the company celebrate being in business for 100 years.
Photo by Lincoln Benedict
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?
This is your place.
wrote:
answered:
