Sunday, April 30, 2006
Clearly an American hot button
Oil companies, politicians, & taxes. Read all about it...
Rich Jurgens writes about what the media isn't telling us:
"Governments vigorously tax oil companies for the same reason legendary criminal Willie Sutton robbed banks: 'Because that's where the money is.'
Take the owners of the five East Bay refineries. As a group, Chevron, Shell, ConocoPhillips, Valero and Tesoro posted 2005 profits of more than $58 billion, as soaring fuel prices boosted their total sales to $859 billion.
A portion of that money went to finance the operations of governments. The five companies paid $41 billion in income taxes in the United States and other nations during 2005, according to company financial filings.
Those companies also handed over to governments $112 billion in other taxes -- mostly sales and excise taxes. Jonathan Williams, an economist with the pro-business Tax Foundation, said that the oil companies 'are bearing a very substantial load, not only in dollar terms but percentage terms as well.'"
Communications Security Establishment
Looks like other governments are listening, too. It's no surprise to me...
Stewart Bell writes in Canada's National Post:
"During a tour of a CSE building that cannot be identified, there were long pauses as an official who cannot be named was asked for examples of what the agency does. He could not get into details, he resolved."
Text messaging in Iran
Just a reminder to enjoy our freedom of speech...
Tehran, 14 April (AKI):
"Iran's hardline president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has apparently been incensed by an anonymous text message suggesting he does not wash enough. Ahmadinejad has taken legal action over the offending text, has fired the president of a phone company and has had four people arrested and accused of colluding with the Israeli foreign intelligence service, Mossad, the anti-government website Rooz Online reports."
Saturday, April 29, 2006
In our own backyard
Who to worry about?
Terrorists, immigrants, and our own citizens, that's who...
Terrorists, immigrants, and our own citizens, that's who...
From Memphis, Tennessee, Lawrence Buser reports:
"Federal prosecutors on Friday credited state and federal investigators for foiling a plan by a McKenzie, Tenn., farmer to blow up government buildings and kill scores of people with nerve gas.
Demetrius 'Van' Crocker, a 40-year-old divorced father of two, was convicted late Thursday of illegally trying to obtain dangerous chemicals and explosives. He faces up to life in prison when sentenced July 13 in Jackson."
Friday, April 28, 2006
The media's reliable sources
Read this and then try not to be skeptical about things you read and/or see about circumstances in Iraq...
Bill Roggio writes "The Fourth Rail: A Street Corner in Ramadi [Updated with another photo from February of 2005]:
"A reader in Holland notes some curiosities between a video from last weekend's purported Ramadi attack taken on April 8th and a photograph taken in Ramadi on March 14th. Study the video, then the photo, and you will see both of these images were taken at the exact same street corner in Ramadi, and shot from an almost identical angle. Note the awning, the poles, the two 'booths', even the stance of the 'insurgents' and the direction which they are firing. This is without a doubt the same street corner in Ramadi. The video and photo are obviously taken at two different points in time (note the umbrella in the video, as well as the different dress of the insurgents). (You'll have to watch the video to get the full effect as I was unable to capture a screen shot for a photo comparison.)
And there is yet another photograph from the same street corner in Ramadi, this time from a different angle. Note the red riot-shutters and the 'Sharp' advertising on the building. The photograph was taken at the end of February of 2005 and published in The Global Beat, which is a self described 'resource for the global journalist.'"
Cleaning your blood
So where do we store the spare blood filters?..
David Kohn, reports in Popular Science:
"No bigger than a pen, this device filters smallpox, Ebola and other viruses from the blood"
"Aethlon Medical, a small San Diego biotech company, is developing a portable device that removes viruses from blood. Known as the Hemopurifier, it filters not only smallpox but numerous other viruses, including Marburg and Ebola."
Thursday, April 27, 2006
From a Professor of Atmospheric Science at MIT
Doesn't this, in effect, prevent balanced research?...
In the Wall Street Opinion Journal, Richard Lindzen writes that global warming alarmists seem to get funding, while those with opposing opinions, lose funding:
"But there is a more sinister side to this feeding frenzy. Scientists who dissent from the alarmism have seen their grant funds disappear, their work derided, and themselves libeled as industry stooges, scientific hacks or worse. Consequently, lies about climate change gain credence even when they fly in the face of the science that supposedly is their basis."
Real estate at a discount
As the authors say, something stinks in Roxbury, Massachusetts...
At the Weekly Dig, Paul McMorrow and Ted Siefer write about the Boston Redevelopment Authority:
"Something stinks in Roxbury, and for once, it’s not the Orange Line. It’s the land deal underpinning what would be the Northeast’s largest mosque—the controversial Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center."
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
All-star cast of fraud witnesses
Birds of a feather, flocking together?...
Art Moore writes in World Net Daily:
"Bill and Hillary Clinton head an all-star cast of witnesses in a lawsuit by business mogul Peter Franklin Paul that alleges the former president reneged on a $17 million deal in which he promised to promote a business in exchange for massive contributions to his wife's Senate campaign.
The potential witness list includes celebrities such as Muhammad Ali, Brad Pitt, Barbra Streisand, James Brolin, Cher, Whoopi Goldberg, George Hamilton, Olivia Newton John, John Travolta, Diana Ross, Shirley McLaine, Michael Bolton, Toni Braxton, Paul Anka and Larry King.
Also on the list are former Vice President Al Gore, the Clinton's daughter Chelsea Clinton, former Attorney General John Ashcroft, Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff, former California Gov. Gray Davis, former Democratic National Committee Chairman Terrence McAuliffe, CBS News reporter Mike Wallace and ABC News reporter Brian Ross.
Paul told WND these people, and many others, have direct knowledge of the alleged frauds."
Eating our lunch?
Sometimes, a piece of information puts things in better perspective...
I found this article on the National Association of Manufacturers website. :
"'[T]o help get at vital and abundant supplies of offshore energy, [Cuba] has chosen tracts of real estate in the Gulf of Mexico as close as 45 miles from Florida. Forty-five miles is just a bit farther than the distance between the University of Miami and Fort Lauderdale.
Imagine what Castro is thinking as we spend our time quarreling over whether we should produce American energy 100, 150 or 250 miles from the Florida coast while he makes arrangements to set up shop hundreds of miles closer. He must love that we've allowed emotion to win out over reason, facts to be dwarfed by fear and our nation's energy policy to be driven by unreasonable environmental concerns.'"
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Deception; or bias?
Here's the Washington Post, ABC, and Good Morning America, all "accurately" reporting some "news". Survey says, "the mistakes seem one-sided"...
I found this critique (More Deception From "Good Morning America") at the Power Line Blog.
This paragraph caught my eye:
"We are living through an extraordinary era, in which our principal news media have little regard for truth, and have dedicated themselves monomaniacally to destroying the President of the United States and his administration."
Monday, April 24, 2006
"All praise to Allah"
If a foreign culture has never allowed free speech, how do they even understand that concept?...
Brigitte Gabriel discusses her recent experience:
"It is a sad state of affairs when any speaker on any American University campus has to be surrounded by police officers to protect their freedom of speech and person from intimidation and menace. America is the country where free speech is protected under our constitution. Who would have expected that in the home of the Beale Street Blues, W.C. Handy and Elvis, I would be confronted by Muslims trying to muzzle my free speech and perhaps all of us?
At the end of the lecture the Muslims immediately in front swarmed over me questioning and intimidating. Police officers quickly moved in and pulled me out straight to the police cars as the enraged Muslims started shouting."
Is this California or Iraq?
Business as usual here, but "out of control" over there.
Let's talk about double standards...
Let's talk about double standards...
At the American Enterprise Online, Victor Davis Hanson, after a recent personal experience, makes some comparisons:
"... once again there were six more murders, 27 rapes, 38 arsons, 180 robberies, and 360 instances of assault in (???)- yesterday, today, tomorrow, and every day..."
"'600 women raped in February alone!' Or try, 'Over 600 violent robberies and assaults in March, with no end in sight!'"
Who's behind the decline of politics?
When politicians are coached to be all things to all people, it often doesn't work out...
Joe Klein, at Time.com, writes about the decline of politics, and the consultants that have caused it:
"Gore won Michigan and Pennsylvania, but he lost an election he should have won, and he lost it on intangibles. He lost it because he seemed stiff, phony and uncomfortable in public. The stiffness was, in effect, a campaign strategy: just about every last word he uttered—even the things he said in the debates with George W. Bush—had been market-tested in advance. I asked Devine if he'd ever considered the possibility that Gore might have been a warmer, more credible and inspiring candidate if he'd talked about the things he really wanted to talk about, like the environment. 'That's an interesting thought,' Devine said."
"But politicians are, for the most part, lousy performers.Their advisers are pretty awful at what they do too. In the absence of inspiration, they have fixed upon the crudest, most negative and robotic forms of communication."
Sunday, April 23, 2006
In Kosovo
I know very little about Kosova; and I certainly wasn't aware of this...
Aleksandar Pavic writes at WorldNetDaily.com:
"If you want to see American troops committed to establishing a narco-Islamic state on Christian land – come to Kosovo.
If you want to see Christian churches, monasteries and cemeteries desecrated on an almost daily basis, under the noses of thousands of Western soldiers – look no further than Kosovo.Seven years after William Jefferson Clinton launched a bombing campaign against a European Christian land in support of the Islamic terrorist Kosovo Liberation Army, it's as though the bombs have never stopped falling on the Christian remnant in Kosovo.
There are well over 1,000 Christian churches and monasteries in Kosovo, many filled with priceless medieval frescoes from the Byzantine era, in which Italian art historians have spotted the beginnings of the Renaissance about a century before it appeared in Western Europe. At least 150 have been destroyed by Muslim Albanian mobs since Clinton's post-bombing deployment of NATO "peacekeepers" in 1999. The rest are menaced on a daily basis. Those that are lucky enough to be protected have armed NATO troops and barbed wire around them."
Don't we all know this?
It may be common sense, but some things just need to be said...
At HumanEventsOnline.com, Ann Coulter states the obvious:
"And if you are a girl in Aruba or New York City, among the best ways to avoid being the victim of a horrible crime is to not get drunk in public or go off in a car with men you just met. While we're on the subject of things every 5-year-old should know, I also recommend against dousing yourself in gasoline and striking a match."
Saturday, April 22, 2006
At the University of North Carolina
Tolerance; and diversity? Seems like a stretch to me...
At TownHall.com, Mike S. Adams writes:
"The UNCW student newspaper, The Seahawk, quotes UNCW General Counsel Eileen Goldgeier as saying “Child pornography and obscenity are a violation of the law and will not be tolerated.”
Goldgeier’s statement is tough to take seriously if you’ve been watching the UNC diversity movement in recent years. For example, UNCG’s tolerance of child pornography led to the school decision to admit a convicted pedophile even after he disclosed his record on his application. After the Office of Student Life hired him he helped hire a porn star to lecture on “safe sodomy.” There were $3000 in state funds used to fund (read: tolerate) that little dose of obscenity."
Friday, April 21, 2006
Katie Couric's Liberal Bias: Today and Yesterday
And soon to be bringing us "balanced" evening news...
From the Media Research Center:
"Since becoming co-host of NBC’s Today in April 1991, Katie Couric has often used her perch to salute her liberal heroes (including Hillary Clinton and Jimmy Carter) or complain about "right-wing conservatives." In her years on Today, She’s lectured Charlton Heston about the need for gun control, championed the need for campaign finance "reform," and even touted the wonders of France’s nanny state. Here are some of the most outrageous quotes from Katie’s career, many accompanied by audio and video clips. (Updated April 2006)"
Thursday, April 20, 2006
Why The Clintons Belong in Prison
I wonder how much of this is true...
This book, by Melrose Larry Green certainly isn't subtle:
"I feel that Bill Clinton committed treason when he sold American military secrets to the Red Chinese government. I think that Bill Clinton is guilty of rape (of Juanita Broaddrick). I think that there are numerous examples of bribery committed by Bill and Hillary Clinton during the final round of Presidential pardons (especially the case of Marc Rich and his ex-wife Denise Rich.) Let's not forget the dozens of unexplained deaths surrounding Bill and Hillary Clinton - Ron Brown, Vince Foster, Mary Mahoney – for which there have been no proper investigations."
"I can go on and on about crimes committed by the Clintons, but you should just read my book. The Clintons are not in prison because they are clever lawyers who amassed a team of lawyers, public relations spinners, and media consultants to con the American people. The very fact that Ken Starr was vilified by the Clintonistas for simply doing his job, while Bill Clinton turned the White House into his personal house of sexual infidelity says it all."
George Will on global warming
Including some references to what was being said 30 years ago...
George Will writes about global warming:
"Eighty-five percent of Americans say warming is probably happening, and 62 percent say it threatens them personally. The National Academy of Sciences says the rise in the Earth's surface temperature has been about one degree Fahrenheit in the past century. Did 85 percent of Americans notice? Of course not. They got their anxiety from journalism calculated to produce it. Never mind that one degree might be the margin of error when measuring the planet's temperature."
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
But the crime rate is down
Here are statistics that put other statistics in doubt.
Couldn't happen here in the U.S., could it?...
Couldn't happen here in the U.S., could it?...
In the U.K.'s Daily Mail, "Muggings go unreported in despair at police":
"If, as research cited by Demos suggests, police are not told of 58 per cent of muggings, the 80,780 offences recorded last year would in reality number 192,000."
"More than half the public have lost faith in the police."
"The list of unreported crimes also includes 35 per cent of violent attacks by strangers, 38 per cent of burglaries and 42 per cent of thefts from vehicles."
Media propensities
What's wrong with this picture?...
From Michael Barone in the Washington Times:
"'Doesn't the fact that 90 percent of your people are Democrats affect your work product?' I asked.
'Oh, no, no,' he said. 'Our people are professional. They have standards of objectivity and professionalism, so that their own views don't affect the news.'
'So what you're saying,' I said, 'is that your work product would be identical if 90 percent of your people were Republicans.'
He quickly replied, 'No, then it would be biased.'"
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Are Facts Obsolete?
In my opinion, the premise of this article seems quite correct...
At RealClearPolticis.com, Thomas Sowell wonders, "Are Facts Obselete?":
"The net result is a student population that does not even know enough to know what needs to be looked up, much less how to analyze facts, so as to test opposing beliefs -- as distinguished from how to gather information to support a preconceived notion that happens to be fashionable in the schools and colleges."
"Yet people are considered to be 'educated' after they have spent so many years in ivy-covered buildings, absorbing the preconceptions that prevail there."
"Facts that go against preconceived notions are likely to be ignored, even by many scholars."
Double taxation in Pennsylvania
Want to sign a petition?
What have you got to lose?...
What have you got to lose?...
In support of the petition, MyWireless.org reports:
"Pennsylvanians are double taxed for their cell phone service – a 6% state Sales Tax and a 5% state Gross Receipts Tax! You can help STOP the double state tax on cell phone service. Tell the Pennsylvania Senate and Governor Rendell to repeal the excessive Gross Receipts Tax on your wireless services!"
Calling the bluff?
"Stupid in America" hit a nerve. And then...
At RealClearPolitics.com, John Stossel tries to take this challenge:
"Randi Weingarten, head of New York City's union, took the microphone and hollered, 'Just teach for a week!' She said I could select from many schools. 'We got high schools, we got elementary schools, we got junior high schools!'"
"I accepted. I even said I'd let the union pick the school. I thought I'd learn more about how difficult teaching is. Above all, it was a chance to get our cameras into schools -- something the N.Y. bureaucracy had forbidden -- so we could show you what was really going on."
Monday, April 17, 2006
Tilting Maryland's Vote
Anything goes to win elections...
In the Washington Post:
"Before they voted, Democratic lawmakers stripped the bill of provisions that would have permitted Republicans an equal role in deciding where to place the early-polling stations and that would have required that the stations' locations be geographically central. The conference committee that wrote the bill was composed of six Democrats and zero Republicans."
Wanna buy a "hot" TV?
I bet it only gets the "Cooking Channel" ...
In the Sun Times :
"Oven doors are an increasingly hot item in burglaries targeting vacant properties. Walsh said oven doors were among the items stolen in five recent burglaries"
Sex tourism thriving
In the "Bible Belt", no less...
Reuters Verna Gates and Mickey Goodman report:
"Men fly in, are met by pimps, have sex with a 14-year-old for lunch, and get home in time for dinner with the family," said Sanford Jones, the chief juvenile judge of Fulton County, Georgia."
Sunday, April 16, 2006
Happy Easter
That's it, just Happy Easter...
Saturday, April 15, 2006
Credit to students who rally lawbreakers
Somehow, this just doesn't seem right...
At the National Ledger, Jim Kouri writes:
"School District Gives Credit to Students Who Rally Lawbreakers"
"Officials with Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland say those students who attend the upcoming pro-illegal immigration rally can get credit for their Student Service Learning hours. However, no credit is being offered for attending rallies that are opposed to open borders or illegal immigration."
Search Results - Library of Congress
Guess which Senator named Harry Reid sponsored this bill back in 1993?...
Unfortunately, I can't provide a direct link; however, here's what a search of the Library of Congress reveals:
"103d CONGRESS"
1st Session
S. 1351
To curb criminal activity by aliens, to defend against acts of international terrorism, to protect American workers from unfair labor competition, and to relieve pressure on public services by strengthening border security and stabilizing immigration into the United States.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
August 4 (legislative day, JUNE 30), 1993"
Friday, April 14, 2006
Porkbusters
There is too much wasting of our money identified here than I can deal with....
PorkBusters, among others, tries to publicize government "pork". Some of what they find is really disheartening. After all, it is OUR money.
First Ladies
This book looks to be interesting (smile)...
At NewsMax.com, Jim Meyers describes:
"A new book by best-selling author Ronald Kessler – "Laura Bush: An Intimate Portrait" – has Hillary Clinton supporters hopping mad as it strips off the veneer of Sen. Clinton's image as first lady."
Thursday, April 13, 2006
It's a small world after all
Ever meet a family member at the gas station,
or have trouble 'ditching' your kid sister?...
or have trouble 'ditching' your kid sister?...
From the Defend America website:
"'I was surprised to hear her voice,' said Capt. Jeremy Holmes, 40th Air Expeditionary Group B-52 aircraft commander. “To make absolutely sure it was her, without throwing out any names over the radio, I asked if there were any Packers fans on the jet tonight. Right away the boom operator said, ‘yeah, the co-pilot is a Packers fan.’ then I knew for sure it was her."
A peaceful religion?...
Doesn't sound so "peaceful" to me.
suzerain- noun
a state exercising a degree of dominion over a dependent state especially in its foreign affairs...
suzerain- noun
a state exercising a degree of dominion over a dependent state especially in its foreign affairs...
Efraim Karsh writes about it in the Wall Street Opinion Journal:
"Though tempered and qualified in different places and at different times, the Islamic longing for unfettered suzerainty has never disappeared, and has resurfaced in our own day with a vengeance. It goes by the name of empire."
"'I was ordered to fight all men until they say, 'There is no god but Allah.' ' With these farewell words, the prophet Muhammad summed up the international vision of the faith he brought to the world. As a universal religion, Islam envisages a global political order in which all humankind will live under Muslim rule as either believers or subject communities. In order to achieve this goal, it is incumbent on all free, male, adult Muslims to carry out an uncompromising 'struggle in the path of Allah,' or jihad. As the 14th-century historian and philosopher Abdel Rahman ibn Khaldun wrote, 'In the Muslim community, the jihad is a religious duty because of the universalism of the Islamic mission and the obligation [to convert] everybody to Islam either by persuasion or by force.'"
Cal Thomas on the media
The media is reluctant to publicize their own shortcomings.
No surprise there.
However, if you do some searching, you find many people and organizations do keep track of media bias and erroneous reporting. Some even honor them accordingly...
Here's Cal Thomas's report of one such event:
"Last Thursday, I served as the unpaid master of ceremonies for the Media Research Center's 'Dishonors Awards' dinner in Washington. The annual event highlights the most outrageous statements by media heavies about Republicans, the Bush administration, terrorism and other subjects. To see these sound bites presented one after another focuses the mind as nothing else does on the opinionated news that so much broadcast journalism has become."
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Democrats' Narrow Vision
"Poll tested phrases" may be all right for selling products, but...
Here is a Washington Post story by Fred Hiatt discussing the Democrats recently released "Real Security" plan:
"You can look at the Democrats' national security plan, released last week, as simply a political shield, akin to the upgraded body armor they promise for U.S. troops.
The party remains traumatized by the failure of biography to protect Vietnam veterans Max Cleland and John Kerry from charges of being soft on security."
So "Real Security" -- with its red, white and blue cover, its poll-tested phrases (policies that are "both tough and smart") printed in English and Spanish -- is an amulet for 2006 candidates: You see? We have a plan. We Democrats will buy more weaponry than the Bush administration, sign up more troops, give more to veterans, inspect more shipping containers."
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Wash Post: Nothing Wrong with Bush 'Leak'
Bet this doesn't get reprinted very often...
NewsMax reports:
"But as the Post notes: 'The material that Mr. Bush ordered declassified established, as have several subsequent investigations, that Mr. Wilson was the one guilty of twisting the truth. In fact, his report supported the conclusion that Iraq had sought uranium.'"
"Wag the Mexican"?
Here's one idea to fix illegal immigration...
Here's an opinion column by Cynthia Tucker on immigration:
"If they really wanted to, your representatives in Washington could dry up illegal immigration almost before you could say, 'Tom Tancredo is a tiresome demagogue.' All they would have to do is require U.S. employers to check the legal status of all employees and impose stiff sanctions -- including multimillion-dollar fines and prison time -- on employers who flout the law."
"After a few executives had done the perp walk, others would get the message. Illegal hiring would drop precipitously."
The ACLU's Leap to Inaction
The ACLU frequently rubs me the wrong way. This article continues that trend...
At Front Page Magazine, Hillel Stavis criticizing the ACLU, begins:
"For nearly a hundred years the crèche sat in front of the Balch Elementary School in South Norwood, Massachusetts. Then in 2004, Sarah Wunsch, attorney for the Massachusetts branch of the American Civil Liberties Union contended that the display depicting the birth of Jesus in a Bethlehem manger, violated separation of church and state. and its presence on the grounds of a public school sent a message that the schools endorse Christianity. ''Kids being driven to school or being dropped off see it and think it's part of school," she said.
Eventually, the ACLU prevailed, the crèche was removed and relocated nearby to private land."
Monday, April 10, 2006
About that ports deal
American politics at it's best? or worst?...
I found this at the American Spectator:
"So what do former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, former EPA Director Carol Browner, and former Clinton Administration lawyers from the White House and the Department of Justice have in common besides their administration time together?
They all earned millions working for the United Arab Emirates weeks before their roles became public in the sale of American-based port operations to Dubai World Ports.
This shouldn't come a surprise to anyone; in fact, just about anyone who works with the UAE earns millions. But no one has earned more than former President Clinton."
Staging the news?
I suspect this happens more often than we know.
I'll let you decide for yourself about this one...
I'll let you decide for yourself about this one...
Michelle Malkin reports:
"I have been talking with a producer of the NBC Dateline show and he is in the process of filming a piece on anti-Muslim and anti-Arab discrimination in the USA. They are looking for some Muslim male candidates for their show who would be willing to go to non-Muslim gatherings and see if they attract any discriminatory comments or actions while being filmed."
Whitney hits rock bottom
This is very ugly...
In Australia's Herald Sun, Nick Papps writes about Whitney Houston:
"It's hard to believe that the drugged, dazed woman seen wandering the streets near her home was once one of the most beautiful and popular singers in the world.
But today that woman, Whitney Houston, is just another crackhead.
In a painfully public self-destruction, the six-time Grammy award winner, who had hits such as I Wanna Dance with Somebody and Greatest Love of All has spiralled into a drug hell that appears irreversible.
Houston's life hit rock bottom this week when photographs, published in The National Enquirer in the US, showed a bathroom in her $7.2 million mansion looking more like a crack den."
The jury is still out
Time and scientific evidence will tell the true story behind climate change...
This article, from the Washington Times reminds us to be cautious before reacting to the current global warming hypothesis:
"... science is not about consensus in any event. It is about testing hypotheses and building evidence through experimentation."
"In 1975, Newsweek's correspondent was convinced that politicians would fail to prevent the coming Ice Age. 'The longer the planners delay, the more difficult will they find it to cope with climatic change once the results become grim reality,' Mr. Gwynne intoned darkly. Thankfully, they did not take the global-cooling bait."
Sunday, April 09, 2006
More "passengers" per flight
We've come a long way since the "quiver" was invented...
www.defencetalk.com is reporting:
"Northrop Grumman Corporation has completed an upgrade of the U.S. Air Force's B-2 stealth bomber that allows the aircraft to deliver five times its previous capacity of independently targeted, “smart'' (GPS-guided) weapons."
"The company delivered the 54th and final smart bomb rack assembly (SBRA) earlier this month to the Air Force's 509th Bomb Wing at Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., home of the B-2 fleet. A SBRA-equipped stealth bomber can deliver 80 500-pound smart weapons, each targeted against a different aimpoint."
History and tax cuts
Harding, Coolidge, Kennedy, Reagan, and Bush II have cut taxes.
Each time, the economy got better...
Each time, the economy got better...
Herman Cain argues that history proves the point:
"The other lie liberals perpetually tell is that low tax rates cause budget deficits. History proves just the opposite – that cuts in income, capital gains and dividends tax rates increase the amount of federal revenues available for Congress to spend. The only thing that can cause a budget deficit is when Congress spends in excess of available revenues, and the president at the time signs off on that spending. Members of Congress who blame tax cuts for causing deficits might as well argue that gun manufacturers cause homicides, fast food restaurants cause obesity and cigarette makers cause lung cancer. Surely no one would agree with that flawed logic."
Saturday, April 08, 2006
Pringle for President?
Just maybe, there are some reasonable politicians...
Steven Greenhut writes in the Wall Street Opinion Journal:
"Instead, Anaheim created a land-value premium by creating an overlay zone that allowed almost any imaginable use of property. Because current owners could now sell to a wider range of buyers, the Platinum Triangle is booming, with billions in private investment, millions of square feet of office, restaurant and retail space, and more than a dozen new high-rises in the works."
"The area is developing quickly, without controversy and without a single piece of property taken by eminent domain."
Friday, April 07, 2006
Money is Power
This sounds possible, but I can't see it being probable...
At ConservativeMatch.com, J. B. Williams has some wishful thoughts:
"Imagine waking up one morning to the news that both political parties are forced to down-size their offices all over the country due to a lack of operating funds. If all campaign funds dried up at the party level, where would politicians go to gain financial support? Back to the people who have the money…right?"
"Who would hold the power then? Who would politicians have to play ball with now? What power would either political party hold over any politician or any American? How would corporations or union bosses buy either party (and they buy both) and what difference would it make if they tried? Elected officials would be chosen by and beholden to the people, not the parties."
Thursday, April 06, 2006
Hostages must sign here
The National Post may have a point here...
From Canada.com:
Here's a suggestion: The next time peaceniks are taken hostage in a war zone while attempting to thwart the efforts of Western coalition forces, when those same forces come to save them and before the helicopters lift off to safety with the hostages aboard, the soldiers should ask the former detainees how they feel about being saved. And if there is a moment's hesitation for philosophic reflection or any hint of ingratitude, the soldiers should be free to return their passengers to the desert with all good wishes for fair treatment by the first jihadis who pass by."
What's Right on Immigration?
This appears to be an even-sided discussion of the immigration issue...
Stephen Bainbridge writes about immigration:
"It's been a very long time since U.S. politicians addressed illegal immigration in anything approaching a comprehensive way. President Bush came into office planning to change that through negotiations with Mexico and new legislation. Those plans got derailed by 9-11, but last week the President put illegal immigration back on the policy front burner with a major policy address."
"The reactions across the political spectrum were predictable but still disappointing. The extreme left dismissed President Bush's plan as an effort to revive the controversial post-World War II bracero program. The Democratic presidential candidates mostly supported the idea of immigration reform, while claiming they would do it better, fairer, or whatever. And, not surprisingly, many voices on the right condemned the plan as an amnesty that will encourage even more illegal immigration."
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
Dear American Organized Labor Officials
I doubt that this writer's thoughts could be expressed more clearly.
I can't even decide which paragraph to quote.
You'll have to decide for yourself...
I can't even decide which paragraph to quote.
You'll have to decide for yourself...
From Alain's Newsletter:
"LUCIFER LETTER TO AMERICAS ORGANIZED LABOR OFFICIALS"
Global Warming - On Mars!!!
Well, there are two Mars Rovers driving around...
Pete DuPont trys to put things in proper perspective:
"And Mars is warming significantly. NASA reported last September that the red planet's south polar ice cap has been shrinking for six years. As far as we know few Martians drive SUVs or heat their homes with coal, so its ice caps are being melted by the sun--just as our Earth's are."
"...it just went bang"
I'm posting this just for a change of pace.
Would you want to be on the jury?...
Would you want to be on the jury?...
From the U.K. Telegraph:
"A woman accused of murdering her husband of two months, said yesterday that she shot him accidentally as she danced provocatively for him with his shotgun to the music of Shania Twain."
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Democrats "real security plan"
This former NY City police chief is not impressed...
Jim Kouri reports on the Democrats release of their war strategy:
"By all means read the strategy statement cooked up by the Democrat National Committee. Just remember that the real strategy contained therein has nothing to do with fighting terrorists. The strategy is how to please the far-left of their party -- the MoveOn crowd, the Hollywood intellectuals like Streisand, Fonda, Baldwin and others, and the Code Pink Kool-Aid drinkers -- while at the same time conning regular Americans into believing the Democrats are capable of winning the war on terrorism by sticking their heads in shipping containers. That's truly their strategy. The "Real Security" plan is really about job security to these hack politicans."
Worried about the Russians?
On April 3, 2003, retired Col. Gen. Vladislav Achalov, a former Soviet deputy defense minister, said he had repeatedly visited Iraq just before the war and had inspected Baghdad’s “multiple defense rings.” He said they were “impossible to break straight away,” the Interfax-Military News Agency reported.
…
“I believe the Americans have so far been unable to capture a single large locality because the Iraqis organized their defense using the combat experience of the Soviet army, obtained during World War II,” Achalov told Interfax-Military.
…
“Units of the U.S. 3rd Mechanized Division and 1st Marine Division have been worn out in combat and marches through the desert. At present, they are simply incapable of launching an offensive,” he said, adding that storming Baghdad is “out of the question” until new forces arrive"
And then, just 7 days later...
…
“I believe the Americans have so far been unable to capture a single large locality because the Iraqis organized their defense using the combat experience of the Soviet army, obtained during World War II,” Achalov told Interfax-Military.
…
“Units of the U.S. 3rd Mechanized Division and 1st Marine Division have been worn out in combat and marches through the desert. At present, they are simply incapable of launching an offensive,” he said, adding that storming Baghdad is “out of the question” until new forces arrive"
And then, just 7 days later...
on April 10, 2003, CNN reports:
"Saddam regime loses grip on Baghdad - Apr. 10, 2003: "BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Nearly a quarter-century of iron-fisted rule by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein crumbled dramatically Wednesday, sending jubilant Iraqis into the streets of Baghdad just three weeks after the U.S.-led coalition launched Operation Iraqi Freedom."
The Plan
The government should give every American $10,000--and nothing more.
Read all about it...
Read all about it...
Charles Murray writes in the Wall Street Opinion Journal:
"There are many ways of turning these economic potentials into a working system. The one I have devised--I call it simply 'the Plan' for want of a catchier label--makes a $10,000 annual grant to all American citizens who are not incarcerated, beginning at age 21, of which $3,000 a year must be used for health care. Everyone gets a monthly check, deposited electronically to a bank account. If we implemented the Plan tomorrow, it would cost about $355 billion more than the current system. The projected costs of the Plan cross the projected costs of the current system in 2011. By 2020, the Plan would cost about half a trillion dollars less per year than conservative projections of the cost of the current system. By 2028, that difference would be a trillion dollars per year."
Monday, April 03, 2006
Eminent Domain?
So, is this what they mean by "abuse of power"?...
In the Wall Street Opinion Journal, Edward D. Herlihy writes:
"... the mayor of North Hills wants to use the power of government to condemn Deepdale--whose members are a diverse group of people from all over the country and around the world--to make it an exclusive high-end golf course restricted to people who live in his small village and would be willing to pay thousands of dollars in yearly membership fees."
Oliver North in Heidelberg, Germany
Germans (Europeans) certainly see things differently...
Oliver North reports from Germany:
"Though hardly a scientific sampling of European public opinion, these students' perspectives on the U.S. role in defeating fascism, communism, in bringing down the wall, of standing up to Islamic terror were both shallow and twisted. According to them, Germany would have rid itself of Hitler without "terror bombing German civilians"; the Americans "created the 'Red-Scare' to divide and punish Germany; the wall would have come down decades earlier but for the presence of U.S. bases in Europe; the Sept. 11 attack was concocted by the Bush administration; German troops should never have been sent to Afghanistan, and -- because this is much on the news here right now -- U.S. troops in Iraq routinely commit atrocities and human-rights violations."
Even free money doesn't work
I guess we all know people like this.
Hopefully, we aren't among them...
Hopefully, we aren't among them...
I found this in the Waterbury, Connecticut Republican American Newspaper:
"Even free money can't get millions of Americans to save. Instead, the best way to get them to do it is to force them, unless they specifically say they don't want to.
"... But Utkus and I would add another reason why people don't save: Plain inertia, and what Utkus calls a 'psychological inability' to do so.
'I call it the 'savings-averse' population,' Utkus said. 'They put up a lot of good reasons why they can't save,' The problem, however, is often one of behavior, not finances."
Sunday, April 02, 2006
Ground Zero Grassy Knoll?
Here's more than enough to get your conspiracy juices flowing...
If you want to read this multi-pager from New York Magazine about 9-11, make sure you have plenty of time. The article begins:
"And why was it so important, as decreed by Mayor Giuliani, to clear away the debris, before all the bodies were recovered?"
"And what about the short-selling spree on American and United airlines stock in the days before the attacks? Betting on the stocks to go down—was this real sicko Wall Street insider trading?"
"There were so many questions. But when it came to the big “why” of 9/11, there was only the classic conspiratorial query: 'Who benefits?'"
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
Here's a website devoted to oil drilling in ANWR.
Their photo gallery provides some interesting perspectives...
Their photo gallery provides some interesting perspectives...
ANWR.org - Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
BP's carbon footprint calculator
Brain cells meet computer chips
Becoming unglued may soon take on new meaning...
Ker Than writes for LiveScience.com:
"The line between living organisms and machines has just become a whole lot blurrier. European researchers have developed 'neuro-chips' in which living brain cells and silicon circuits are coupled together."
"The achievement could one day enable the creation of sophisticated neural prostheses to treat neurological disorders or the development of organic computers that crunch numbers using living neurons."
"To create the neuro-chip, researchers squeezed more than 16,000 electronic transistors and hundreds of capacitors onto a silicon chip just 1 millimeter square in size."
"They used special proteins found in the brain to glue brain cells, called neurons, onto the chip."
Saturday, April 01, 2006
McKinney from Georgia
See if you agree with me that a lot of McKinney's "baggage" is exposed in this article.
I'm providing no hints...
I'm providing no hints...
The Atlantic Journal Constitution writes about their Congressional Rep.:
"This is not the first time McKinney has had an encounter with Capitol Hill police."
RFID chip in tooth
Could your dentist do this without your knowledge?...
The U.K. Register reports:
"Belgians implant RFID chip in tooth"
Global Warming b4 SUV's
Sea levels rose by 400 feet during the 20,000 years before there were SUV's?
How could this be?...
How could this be?...
Bill Steigerwald discusses global warming:
"New scientific "proofs" of our doomed melting planet are dutifully trumpeted in media almost daily, often without perspective and rarely with any journalistic skepticism."
"The New York Times' March 3 piece on Antarctica was short and perfunctory. But it made sure to note that the study "added credence to recent conclusions" that global warming "caused by humans was likely to lead to higher global sea levels" than previously thought."
"And what will be the sea level rise when that 36 cubic mile ice cube joins Earth's 320,000,000 cubic miles of ocean? A whopping 0.4 millimeters per year, says the study. For nonscientists, that's 0.015 inches."
Myths of Iraq
Some say it's bad; some say it's not so bad; some haven't been there.
Probably, the truth is somewhere in the middle...
Probably, the truth is somewhere in the middle...
Ralph Peters writes in the San Diego Union-Tribune:
"During a recent visit to Baghdad, I saw an enormous failure. On the part of our media. The reality in the streets, day after day, bore little resemblance to the sensational claims of civil war and disaster in the headlines."
AnnCoulter.com
Ann Coulter is picking on the New York Times here...
Ann writes at AnnCoulter.com:
"Four major world leaders who sent troops to Iraq have faced elections since the war's inception — Jose Maria Aznar in Spain, John Howard in Australia, Tony Blair in Britain and Junichiro Koizumi in Japan. Three of them won re-elections in campaigns that centered on their support for the Iraq war."
