Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Oil - it's time for some new friends
I've always been fond of Brazil, Columbia, and Peru.
How about you?...
How about you?...
This is from an article in Investors Business Daily:
"High oil prices and tight supply create incentives to seek out new sources. Enter Brazil, Colombia and Peru, none of which were big players a few years ago. New technology to extract oil and natural gas from previously impossible sea depths or siphon it from laced rock formations brings those countries to the fore.
But the most pivotal factor in why oil's future is south is that most of these new players have the political will to drill, something not seen in oil-producing nations dominated by green sensibilities, as the U.S. is, or by petrotyrants in Venezuela, Russia and Iran."
Oil - It's out there
Oil, and "the shadow CIA".
That should have us thinking...
That should have us thinking...
Joe Carroll reports at Bloomberg.com:
"April 24 (Bloomberg) -- Brazil's discoveries of what may be two of the world's three biggest oil finds in the past 30 years could help end the Western Hemisphere's reliance on Middle East crude, Strategic Forecasting Inc. said.
Saudi Arabia's influence as the biggest oil exporter would wane if the fields are as big as advertised, and China and India would become dominant buyers of Persian Gulf oil, said Peter Zeihan, vice president of analysis at Strategic Forecasting in Austin, Texas. Zeihan's firm, which consults for companies and governments around the world, was described in a 2001 Barron's article as ``the shadow CIA.''
Brazil may be pumping ``several million'' barrels of crude daily by 2020, vaulting the nation into the ranks of the world's seven biggest producers, Zeihan said in a telephone interview. The U.S. Navy's presence in the Persian Gulf and adjacent waters would be reduced, leaving the region exposed to more conflict, he said.
``We could see that world becoming a very violent one,'' said Zeihan, former chief of Middle East and East Asia analysis for Strategic Forecasting. ``If the United States isn't getting any crude from the Gulf, what benefit does it have in policing the Gulf anymore? All of the geopolitical flux that wracks that region regularly suddenly isn't our problem.''"
Why Generation Y is broke - MSN Money
I think this goes a long way toward explaining today's credit problems...
MSN Money's Emma Johnson writes about it:
"And yet stats indicate our generation's financial literacy is abysmal, with personal finances to match. Only 52% of high school seniors passed a recent national financial literacy test, meaning adults entering the work force do not know enough about basic budgeting, interest rates or taxes to make sound decisions for their own lives."
In Our Schools - Meet the teachers
Yikes.
I don't know what to say...
I don't know what to say...
This is at WorldNetDaily.com:
"The big list: Female teachers with students
Here is a list of the teacher 'sexpidemic' cases WND has documented where female teachers have been accused, or convicted, of assaulting students:"
In Our Schools - Prescription drugs
Wanna share my lunch? NO!...
At TampaBays10.com, Janie Porter writes about Hernando County, Florida:
"In the last week, three students at different high schools in Hernando County have been charged with bringing prescription drugs to school.
On Thursday, a 15-year-old at Central High School in Brooksville was found with 27 Klonopin tablets and about half a gram of marijuana. Klonopin is a psychoactive drug that can cause sedation and muscle relaxation by slowing the central nervous system.
Among the drugs, deputies found three Klonopin pills and a note for another student folded in plastic wrap. Allison LeFrancois admitted she was going to give the package to another student, according to the arrest affidavit.
'The defendant also advised she had given many other students Klonopin pills within the last week,' the affidavit read."
Education results in America
I think it's time for "pay for performance"; not, pay through the nose...
In this Wall Street Journal opinion column, Chester E. Finn, Jr. discusses our progress since 1983:
"And just as 'A Nation at Risk' warned, other countries are beginning to eat our education lunch. While our outcomes remain flat, theirs rise. Half a dozen nations now surpass our high-school and college graduation rates. International tests find young Americans scoring in the middle of the pack.
What to do now? It's no time to ease the push for a major K-12 education make-over – or to settle (as Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton apparently would) for reviving yesterday's faith in still more spending and greater trust in educators. But we can distill four key lessons:"
Polticians - Ex.-State Sen. John Ford
Justice!...
This is by the A.P.'s Woody Baird at KnoxNews.com:
"The Rolex watches, fancy suits and plush hotels are all things of the past for former state Sen. John Ford.
Ford, 65, reported Monday to a federal prison camp in Louisiana to begin a 5 1/2-year sentence for taking $55,000 in bribes during the FBI's statewide corruption sting called Tennessee Waltz.
Once one of the state's most powerful lawmakers, Ford was known as a flashy dresser with a taste for fine dining and expensive hotels."
Hillary Clinton - Never mind the truth
Just believe whatever she says.
And the beat goes on...
And the beat goes on...
Steven Thomma writes for the McClatchy newspapers:
"It's a story Hillary Clinton loves to tell, about how the Chinese government bought a good American company in Indiana, laid off all its workers and moved its critical defense technology work to China.
And it's a story with a dramatic, political ending. Republican President George W. Bush could have stopped it, but didn't.
If she were president, she says, she'd fight to protect those jobs. It's just the kind of talk that's helping her win support form working-class Democrats worried about jobs and paychecks, not to mention their country's security.
What Clinton never tells in the oft-repeated tale is ..."
Iraq: Mahdi Army Fades Away
Sounds like more indications of progress...
I found this at StrategyPage.com:
"After a month of fighting, the Mahdi Army has disappeared from the streets of Basra, the largest city in the south. The army and police are everywhere, and people are providing information on where Mahdi Army personnel are hiding out, and the locations of their weapons caches. Up north, in the Sadr City section of east Baghdad, the Mahdi Army is still fighting hard. But the army and police have the upper hand, and are pushing the Shia militiamen back block by block. Mahdi Army leader Muqtada al Sadr has responded by threatening to order his men to go after American troops if the government does not back off. That's won't work, because the Mahdi Army is not particularly skillful, and not very united either. He recently ordered his troops to stop fighting Iraqi soldiers and police, and concentrate on the Americans. The Iraqi security forces have not reciprocated, and continue coming after the Mahdi Army."
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Iraq - the problem is Iran
This is quite an informative interview...
The is from the tramscript of Hugh Hewitt's interview with Major General Rick Lynch:
"HH: Now as part of your ongoing operations, General, do you debrief those, interrogate those people with an eye towards establishing where they’re training in Iran, or how they’re receiving this assistance?
RL: Oh, exactly. You see, what we’re trying to do, Hugh, is to trace the rat line back where it came from. See, I’ve lost 147 soldiers under my command since I’ve been here in the last fourteen months. Many of those soldiers were killed by explosive foreign penetrators that are all traced back to Iran, or by Iranian rockets. So what we do, in everything that we do, for example, we found so many weapons caches over the course of the last month, and in those weapons caches we found Iranian rockets and Iranian mines. So we’ve got detailed biometrics. We check for fingerprints, and we traced those back to where they started. We’re following the money back to Iran, we’re following the munitions back to Iran, and then looking for those people that are trained in Iran as well. So it’s a major piece of our operations, to block that Iranian influence."
Meanwhile - In Basra, Iraq
No more "men in black"?...
That's what Ali Hamdani reports at the U.K. TimesOnline.com:
"Yet after three years of being terrified of kidnap, rape and murder – a fate that befell scores of other women – Nadyia Ahmed, 22, is among those enjoying a sense of normality, happy for the first time to attend her science course at Basra University. “I now have the university life that I heard of at high school before the war and always dreamt about,” she told The Times. “It was a nightmare because of these militiamen. I only attended class three days a week but now I look forward to going every day.”"
Hillary Clinton - $2.3B in earmarks
Considering that it's an election year, I would think she would let the other New York do this dirty work.
Either, I'm not capable of thinking like a politician (or maybe I have scruples)...
Either, I'm not capable of thinking like a politician (or maybe I have scruples)...
The story at theHill.com, by Manu Raju and Kevin Bogardus begins:
"Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) has requested nearly $2.3 billion in federal earmarks for 2009, almost three times the largest amount received by a single senator this year.
The Democratic presidential candidate’s staggering request comes at a time when Congress remains engaged in a heated debate over spending federal dollars on parochial projects."
Hillary Clinton - This is a little weird
Wouldn't you like to know who was thinking what in this case?...
Francis Beckwith has discovered:
"Apparently, Senator Hillary Clinton thought well enough of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright in February 2006 to have him mention in his Pastor's Page in his Church's Sunday Program that her office was looking for a legislative assistant."
Pat Boone writes:
I guess John Murtha had better stand down...
At WorldNetDaily.com, Pat Boone cheerleads Jim Martin:
"Go get 'em, Jim! It's more than high time we seniors used our voices and our considerable clout – and, yes, our anger – to shout down the naysayers, the white-flag wavers, the insensitive critics and demagogues who constantly hack away at our elected leaders, especially when we're at war, at home as well as abroad."
Government at Work - the A.D.A.
They call it "Freakonomics"...
I found this article by Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt in the New York Times earlier this year:
"So Brooks suggested to the patient that they make do without the interpreter. That’s when she told him that the Americans With Disabilities Act (A.D.A.) allowed a patient to choose the mode of interpretation, at the physician’s expense. Brooks, flabbergasted, researched the law and found that he was indeed obliged to do as the patient asked — unless, that is, he wanted to invite a lawsuit that he would probably lose.
If he ultimately operated on the woman’s knee, Brooks would be paid roughly $1,200. But he would also then need to see her for eight follow-up visits, presumably with the $240 interpreter each time. By the end of the patient’s treatment, Brooks would be solidly in the red."
Government at Work - on Student Loans
"The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help you"- Ronald Reagan
Case closed!...
Case closed!...
This "help" is described in a Wall Street Journal opinion column:
"What's now clear is that Congress didn't merely wring the profits out of student lending. It's blown up the entire student loan market. Market leader Sallie Mae says it now loses money on every new federal education loan. Sallie continues to lend in hopes of a change in D.C., or increased investor demand for securitized loans.
Others can't wait. A third of the nation's top 100 lenders to students in 2007 have temporarily suspended new loan originations or exited the business altogether. Citibank subsidiary Student Loan Corporation cited "unprecedented federal legislation" in announcing its recent withdrawal from much of the market.
Usually, the law of unintended consequences takes so long to reveal itself that no one remembers the culprits. But the speed at which Congress's student lending changes have gone south is raising political danger for Democrats, if Republicans had the wit to point it out. (They don't; that's why they're Republicans.)"
Government at Work - in the U.K.
Government actions could possibly be fun to watch (if they didn't affect our lives so seriously).
This one might qualify as "a picture is worth a thousand words"...
This one might qualify as "a picture is worth a thousand words"...
In the U.K. Telegraph, Aislinn Simpson reports:
"It cost�14,000 to create, but clearly no-one at the smart London design outfit that came up with the new logo for HM Treasury thought to turn it on its side.
The logo, for the Office of Government Commerce, was intended to signify a bold commitment to the body’s aim of 'improving value for money by driving up standards and capability in procurement'.
Instead, it has generated howls of mirth and what is likely to be a barrage of teasing emails from mandarins in other departments."
Government at Work - in India
Apparently, governments work (or don't work) the same all over the world...
Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aitar reports in the Wall Street Journal - Asia:
"But the steady increase of yields ground to a halt by 2000. Government scientists failed to deliver new, more productive seeds for grains like rice and wheat – which the private sector tends not to research because farmers can reuse seeds crop after crop, thus cutting into demand for the private companies' products. The emphasis of the government's rural agricultural spending shifted from investment to subsidies, providing palliatives instead of increasing the production base.
Reliance on government also put agricultural policy at the mercy of politicians, with predictable results. For example, in many states, politicians offered to have the public sector pay for canal water, driving the cost down to almost zero. As a result, canal revenues are insufficient to maintain existing canal systems, which are deteriorating."
Monday, April 28, 2008
It couldn't be any clearer
These few paragraphs say it all.
They are worthy of being published everywhere and anywhere in the free and civilized world...
They are worthy of being published everywhere and anywhere in the free and civilized world...
In the U.K. Telegraph, Alasdair Palmer hits the nail on the head with this:
"Deterrence - the threat that if you detonate a nuclear bomb in our country, we will retaliate in kind on yours - has so far prevented nuclear war between nations. The only time nuclear bombs have been used, it was against a country without the capacity to retaliate.
Deterrence, however, depends on your enemy having cities and a population that can be threatened with obliteration.
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The problem is that terrorist organisations have neither. They are simply groups of individuals with no responsibility for, and no control over, a state or its population.
Deterrence breaks down as a consequence. If they could get hold of a nuclear bomb, Islamist terrorists would have every incentive to use it to cause as much destruction as possible in an "enemy" country such as Britain or America - and there's no threat we can brandish to stop them.
Which means that the over-arching aim of the civilised world must be to ensure that they cannot get hold of a nuclear bomb, because that is the only way we can protect ourselves against nuclear terrorism."
Technology vs. Technology
Undetected is pretty impressive in this day and age.
And I wonder what the Russians are thinking...
And I wonder what the Russians are thinking...
This is from an article by Con Coughlin in the U.K. Telegraph:
"The other reason the Israelis want to take a back seat is that they are keen not to reveal too much detail about the technical aspects of the air strike, which is regarded as the most sophisticated operation by the Israeli air force since Osirak. To carry out the attack undetected, the fighter-bombers had to be fitted with equipment that extended their bombing range, while the pilots also had to contend with the challenge of penetrating Syria's state-of-the-art, Russian-built air defence systems. The mission was so successful that the first that the Syrians knew of the attack was when their Turkish neighbours reported that the bombers had returned safely to their base in northern Israel.
The last thing the Israelis want is for the tactical details of their audacious raid to become public, particularly as they may need to use the same techniques again in the not-too-distant future."
The World We Live In - Hotel Rooms
I guess you can't please everyone.
Maybe they could key the adult stuff to an adult fingerprint reader or something similar...
Maybe they could key the adult stuff to an adult fingerprint reader or something similar...
I found this in an article by Penny Starr and Lois Owen at CNSnews.com:
"The letter stressed that pulling the plug on pornography would be in keeping with Marriott's public statement of 'promoting the well-being of children and families.'"
The Media - the New York Times
I think their bias, as depicted here, is extremely transparent.
You can decide for yourself...
You can decide for yourself...
On his blog, Roger Kimball seems to have the New York Times modus operandi down pat:
"This is getting embarrassing. Remember the front-page story The New York Times ran about John McCain’s non-affair with a lobbyist? That was the long-held piece of non-news that the Times subtly dropped like a barbell at midnight shortly after it became clear that McCain would be the Republican nominee for President. The point of the piece was to knock Mr. McCain off his high horse and tarnish his reputation. But the effect was to further diminish the Times in the eyes of its readers. If such mean-spirited and slightly hysterical rumor-mongering is news, who needs it?
Well, they never learn. At least, that’s what I conclude from today’s non-story about Mr. McCain’s use of a corporate jet owned by a company run by his wife. 'McCain Frequently Used Wife’s Jet for Little Cost' screams the headline."
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Illegal Immigration - and unemployment
This should NOT be a surprise to anyone who thinks...
Jerome R. Corsi writes this at WorldNetDaily.com:
"Unemployment rates are rising across the United States, except Oklahoma. That state is experiencing the most dramatic reduction in unemployment since 2007, an improvement many in Oklahoma attribute to the passage last year by the state legislature of a strong employment-focused immigration reform law.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday reported unemployment in Oklahoma had fallen to 3.1 percent in March, down from 4 percent in March last year, while unemployment nationwide was 5.1 percent, up from 4.4 percent in March last year.
'Oklahoma is no longer 'OK' for illegal aliens,' said State Rep. Randy Terrill, who sponsored House Bill 1804 which passed by overwhelming majorities last year in both the House (84-14) and Senate (41-6) of the Oklahoma Legislature."
Topsoil - Another thing to worry about?
David Montgomery's book is called "Dirt"...
In the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Tom Paulson writes about it:
"'Globally, it's clear we are eroding soils at a rate much faster than they can form,' said John Reganold, a soils scientist at Washington State University. 'It's hard to get people to pay much attention to this because, frankly, most of us take soil for granted.'
The National Academy of Sciences has determined that cropland in the U.S. is being eroded at least 10 times faster than the time it takes for lost soil to be replaced.
The United Nations has warned of worldwide soil degradation -- especially in sub-Saharan Africa, where soil loss has contributed to the rapidly increasing number of malnourished people."
The World We Live In - "Amnesty Cans"
I guess this is a long way from the 4-H Club's County Fair...
Denise Goolsby reports in the Desert Sun:
"...large trash barrels placed near the festival entrance at the Empire Polo grounds, give festival -goers one last opportunity to get rid of drugs, weapons or anything else that could be harmful to the health and safety of the crowds."
Saturday, April 26, 2008
The Media - More bias at the Associated Press
I think we all know the media is biased in a certain way that's not exactly pro-America...
Warner Todd Houston describes another occurrence:
"The issue of illegal immigration has seemed to drift from the front pages of the news, of late, but the AP is not finished trying to advocate for law breakers everywhere, it seems. On April 25, the Associated Press posted a story that serves as a perfect example of how the wire service aims their reporting to support illegal immigration in the United States. In 'Arizona sheriff stirs furor with crackdown on illegals,' all the negative framing of the issue is used against Sheriff Joe Arpaio's efforts to curb illegal immigration and those who stand against him are constantly given the benefit of the doubt with neutral or positive language describing their actions. Additionally, whenever illegals are mentioned they are presented as victims, one 'afraid' immigrant even being quoted as calling our immigration officials 'the devil.'"
The CAUSE of our energy problems
It seems clear to me...
At GOPUSA.com, Thomas D. Segel writes:
"For the past thirty plus years we have allowed the environmental activists of the Democratic Party to, stop all forward movement in our national quest for energy independence. We know how to obtain oil from places such as Alaska, Wyoming and the Dakotas, but legislation to drill has been blocked. We know oil is waiting offshore, but we are not allowed to drill due to environmental impact, even though other nations are reaching for that same oil, just a few miles away.
We have even allowed these same activists to stop the building of new oil refineries for the past 30 years.
Our energy demands from abroad could be reduced by nuclear power, but the socialist led environmentalists have swayed enough pandering politicians to stop the production of nuclear power plants. Other socialist-activists who hide behind the green wall of environmentalism have slowed the much touted wind farms of this country to almost a standstill. When construction is almost at hand there is always another call for a study to see if these wind farms will kill migrating birds, or perhaps block Ted Kennedy's oceanfront view."
Cheerleaders in India
Oh well!...
This is from a BBC News article:
"'We live in India where womanhood is worshipped. How can anything obscene like this be allowed?,' Siddharam Mehetre told the Press Trust of India news agency.
'This thing is meant for foreigners and not for us. Mothers and daughters watch these matches on television. It does not look nice.'"
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Governmentium
I found this little snippet back in November of 2004.
It seems appropriate that we review this important element from time to time...
It seems appropriate that we review this important element from time to time...
The characteristics are posted at the Dull Men's Club:
Government at Work - on regulations
I keep wondering why we don't learn the lesson of having government manage the marketplace. I think it was Ronald Reagan who said something to the effect that if there were smart people in government, private industry would quickly hire them away.
I wholeheartedly agree...
I wholeheartedly agree...
In the Wall Street Journal, Allan H. Meltzer summarizes his opinion of government regulation:
"Mr. Frank and Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd are planning more schemes to move the risk to the taxpayers from those who made bad decisions, such as buying mortgages that are now in default. As a result, ordinary citizens will ask themselves: Why should I pay my mortgage if my neighbors can get theirs reduced? These proposals have stark long-term consequences. The financial system cannot survive if the bankers make the profits and the taxpayers take the losses.
The government has a responsibility to prevent systemic crises and financial collapse. Long ago that job was given to the Federal Reserve. It serves as lender of last resort to the market. Today, the Fed should not rescue individual firms, but it must keep the payments system from failing. To carry out that responsibility, the Fed has auctioned reserves and exchanged marketable Treasury bills for illiquid mortgages, and it has succeeded so far. Now, it must stop responding to calls for lower interest rates.
If the government underwrites all the risks, call it socialism. If it underwrites only the failures, call it foolishness."
Government at Work - on Safety
As weird as it seems, "safety" might just be out of control...
Thomas Sowell writes at GOPUSA.com:
"...people are dying from safety rules. Safety crusaders often say, 'if it saves just one life,' it is worth it -- without counting how many other lives may be sacrificed on the altar to 'safety.'
Some safety crusaders may be satisfied just to be morally one-up by making lofty statements. Politicians who are safety crusaders will be satisfied if that gets you to vote for them, which is their real bottom line."
Environmental Disaster Predictions
The results are in, and the predictions were: "Stunningly Wrong"!...
I found this in a National Center for Policy Analysis Earth Day press release:
"Most Earth Day predictions turned out to be stunningly wrong. In 1970, environmentalists said there would soon be a new ice age and massive deaths from air pollution. The New York Times foresaw the extinction of the human race. Widely-quoted biologist Paul Ehrlich predicted worldwide starvation by 1975. "
Global Warming - this sounds ominous
Hot vs. Cold. Everyone seems to have "facts". So, who should we believe?...
I found this article by Phil Chapman in the Australian News. He begins:
"THE scariest photo I have seen on the internet is www.spaceweather.com, where you will find a real-time image of the sun from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, located in deep space at the equilibrium point between solar and terrestrial gravity.
What is scary about the picture is that there is only one tiny sunspot.
Disconcerting as it may be to true believers in global warming, the average temperature on Earth has remained steady or slowly declined during the past decade, despite the continued increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, and now the global temperature is falling precipitously.
All four agencies that track Earth's temperature (the Hadley Climate Research Unit in Britain, the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, the Christy group at the University of Alabama, and Remote Sensing Systems Inc in California) report that it cooled by about 0.7C in 2007. This is the fastest temperature change in the instrumental record and it puts us back where we were in 1930. If the temperature does not soon recover, we will have to conclude that global warming is over."
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Politicians - Say anything!
And never let the facts get in the way...
This was posted bt Daniel Griswold at cato-at-liberty.org:
"On the eve of today’s crucial Pennsylvania primary, here is how the Boston Globe described a scene at a Hillary Clinton event in the western side of the state:
'We need to still be a manufacturing nation,' she said at a rally in downtown Pittsburgh yesterday, as a woman in the crowd shouted 'Right on!' 'I don’t think a country that doesn’t make things can remain strong and vibrant and leading in the global economy.'
Right on? Not exactly. Implied in Clinton’s remark is that manufacturing has been in decline and that we are in danger of becoming a nation 'that doesn’t make things.'
One huge problem with her statement is that manufacturing output in the United States has continued to EXPAND in recent decades. According to the Federal Reserve Board, America’s factories produced 30 percent more in real output in 2007 than a decade earlier and three times more than in the 1960s."
Politicians - Gov. Blagojevitch
Sounds like another politician might be going down.
But, then again, it IS Chicago...
But, then again, it IS Chicago...
Natasha Korecki reports in the Chicago Sun-Times:
"A former top official in Gov. Blagojevich's administration said Tuesday the governor gave him a $127,000-a-year state job in exchange for pouring cash into Blagojevich's campaign fund, including tens of thousands of dollars out of his own pocket.
That bombshell from Ali Ata came as the onetime director of the Illinois Finance Authority pleaded guilty in a deal in which prosecutors plan to have him testify in the ongoing corruption trial of former Blagojevich fund-raiser Tony Rezko."
Politics - Campaign Financing
Read this article, and then try to understand what possibly might have been accomplished by the much publicized campaign finance "reform"...
This is from a Wall Street Journal opinion column:
"On Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard Mr. Davis's challenge to McCain-Feingold's so-called Millionaire Rule, which burdens self-financing candidates with 24-hour reporting deadlines on expenditures, and allows opponents to raise three times the normal amount from individuals and to coordinate spending with their national parties without limits."
Islamic Terror - It is what it is
Somehow, I can't imagine asking a politician to be "politically correct"...
In the Washington Times, Rowan Scarborough reports:
"A coalition of American Muslim groups is demanding that Sen. John McCain stop using the adjective 'Islamic' to describe terrorists and extremist enemies of the United States."
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Historical Reality vs. Perception
I wonder how many people would be surprised by this historical item...
This is from the blog of Michael Zak:
"For decades after the Civil War, the Ku Klux Klan was the terrorist wing of the Democratic Party. Klansmen murdered hundreds of Republican activists and office-holders, including U.S. Representative James Hinds (R-Arkansas).
On this day in 1871, the Republican-controlled 42nd Congress passed and the Republican President, Ulysses Grant, signed into law the Ku Klux Klan Act. The law banned the KKK and other Democrat terrorist organizations. President Grant then deployed federal troops to crush a Klan uprising in South Carolina.
Eleven years later, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned most provisions of the Act. Though legalized, this original version of the Ku Klux Klan faded. Why? Because as Democrats regained control over southern state governments, they could oppress African-Americans openly, without need of white sheets."
President Bush - Quietly helping Africa; big time!
Obviously, there's more to President Bush than the Iraq war. Based on my reading, he measures favorably on many issues that get no publicity. This is one of them.
Hopefully, history will depict President Bush honestly, although, my lack of trust and respect for most media types, makes me doubtful...
Hopefully, history will depict President Bush honestly, although, my lack of trust and respect for most media types, makes me doubtful...
At Time.com, Bob Geldof discusses President Bush:
"It is some story. And I have always wondered why it was never told properly to the American people, who were paying for it. It was, for example, Bush who initiated the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) with cross-party support led by Senators John Kerry and Bill Frist. In 2003, only 50,000 Africans were on HIV antiretroviral drugs — and they had to pay for their own medicine. Today, 1.3 million are receiving medicines free of charge. The U.S. also contributes one-third of the money for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria — which treats another 1.5 million. It contributes 50% of all food aid (though some critics find the mechanism of contribution controversial). On a seven-day trip through Africa, Bush announced a fantastic new $350 million fund for other neglected tropical diseases that can be easily eradicated; a program to distribute 5.2 million mosquito nets to Tanzanian kids; and contracts worth around $1.2 billion in Tanzania and Ghana from the Millennium Challenge Account, another initiative of the Bush Administration.
So why doesn't America know about this?"
Islam - tolerable in small doses?
Here's a quite interesting article about Islamic influence in various countries...
At FrontPageMag.com, Dr. Peter Hammond has this and more:
"When politically correct and culturally diverse societies agree to 'the reasonable' Muslim demands for their 'religious rights,' they also get the other components under the table. Here's how it works (percentages source CIA: The World Fact Book (2007)).
As long as the Muslim population remains around 1% of any given country they will be regarded as a peace-loving minority and not as a threat to anyone. In fact, they may be featured in articles and films, stereotyped for their colorful uniqueness:
United States -- Muslim 1.0%
Australia -- Muslim 1.5%
Canada -- Muslim 1.9%
China -- Muslim 1%-2%
Italy -- Muslim 1.5%
Norway -- Muslim 1.8%"
Frozen natural gas
This sounds promising...
News from Canada at TheStar.com:
"A remote drilling rig high in the Mackenzie Delta has become the site of a breakthrough that could one day revolutionize the world's energy supply.
For the first time, Canadian and Japanese researchers have managed to efficiently produce a constant stream of natural gas from ice-like gas hydrates that, worldwide, dwarf all known fossil fuel deposits combined."
Monday, April 21, 2008
Immigration - The Fence
Obviously, building this fence is no easy task.
Politics and environmental special interests are obstacles here, just as they are in the oil drilling, oil refinery building, nuclear power plant building, and a few other things that might just make things easier on us taxpayers...
Politics and environmental special interests are obstacles here, just as they are in the oil drilling, oil refinery building, nuclear power plant building, and a few other things that might just make things easier on us taxpayers...
This is from WorldNetDaily.com:
"The Bush administration plans to cut through the bureaucratic red tape and bypass environmental laws hindering the building of 670 miles of fence along the border with Mexico and finish the section authorized by Congress by the end of this year.
Federal officials said the administration will invoke two legal waivers sanctioned by Congress to overcome obstacles holding up construction in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, the Associated Press reported.
Officials have said the 'virtual fence' along a 28-mile section of the border in Arizona has been delayed by technical problems, and opposition from landowners along the border has delayed plans for the 670 miles of fencing.
The department previously used its waiver authority to build smaller portions, two in Arizona and one in San Diego."
Immigration - in Arizona
This is pretty interesting.
Life is better for Americans when immigration is controlled.
What a novel idea that is!...
Life is better for Americans when immigration is controlled.
What a novel idea that is!...
In the L.A. Times, Nicholas Riccardi reports:
"'What I love about what Arizona is doing is we don't have to rely on the federal government,' said state Rep. Russell Pearce, a Mesa Republican who has authored most of the toughest measures. 'It has truly woken up the rest of America that states can fix that problem.'
The campaign has had an effect: Illegal immigrants complain it's impossible to find good work and are leaving the state."
In the name of safety?
I like stories like this...
I found this one by CLIFFORD WINSTON and ROBERT W. CRANDALL on the Wall Street Journal's editorial page:
"But in response to the FAA's overly aggressive actions that caused American Airlines to cancel thousands of flights, many travelers shifted from air travel to highway travel. In the process, they greatly increased their probability of dying in an accident on their journey."
An eye for the blind
And the improved version is on the way!...
David Rose writes at TimesOnline in the U.K.:
"She had been totally blind for more than a decade with the inherited condition retinitis pigmentosa.
But, with the aid of the camera mounted on a pair of sunglasses, she can now see a rough image of the world made up of light and dark blocks.
She told Sky News: 'When I go to the grandkids’ hockey game or soccer game I can see which direction the game is moving in. I can shoot baskets with my grandson, and I can see my granddaughter dancing across the stage. It’s wonderful.'
Ms Moorfoot’s implant has just 16 electrodes but the US surgeons have helped to fit an even more advanced device to the two British patients.
The updated model has 60 electrodes to give a clearer image."
So, how hard is "'Variable Rate'"?
See if you can agree with me on this.
I think lending institutions should investigate every foreclosure and publish statistics about the educational level of the indebted individual AND the NAME of the school or college that provided said education...
I think lending institutions should investigate every foreclosure and publish statistics about the educational level of the indebted individual AND the NAME of the school or college that provided said education...
At NewsBusters.com, Mark Finkelstein comments on an ABC interview:
"The essence of the Cruz-Rivera's problem is that their monthly mortgage payment, is much higher than she was counting on when the couple took out the loan. The possibility that her mortgage payment might rise apparently came as a nasty surprise to Mrs. Cruz-Rivera. But why? Check out this exchange between the homeowner and Snow."
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Meanwhile - in Oregon
I'm thinking, "only in America"...
At arstechnica.com, Nate Anderson tells us about it:
"The State of Oregon takes exception to Web sites that republish the state's Revised Statutes in full, claiming that the statutes contain copyrighted information in the republication causes the state to lose money it needs to continue putting out the official version of the statutes. Oregon's Legislative Counsel, Dexter Johnson, has therefore requested that legal information site Justia remove the information or (preferably) take out a paid license from the state.
All citizens are legally presumed to know the law, so claiming copyright over it might seem like an odd position for a state to take; wouldn't massive copying be a goal rather than a problem? But in his letter to Justia, Johnson makes a more nuanced case. While the text of the law is not copyrighted, the "arrangement and subject-matter compilation of Oregon statutory law, the prefatory and explanatory notes, the leadlines and numbering for each statutory section, the tables, index and annotations and other such incidents" are under copyright."
Meanwhile - in San Francisco
Government making things better?...
I found this in an article by Jesse McKinley in the New York Times:
"After all, in the last two years, Board members have passed laws banning plastic bags at supermarkets and plastic foam containers at food outlets, proposed an ordinance to fine office buildings that left lights on overnight, and yes, floated a proposition to make any lobbyist wear a name tag when doing business at City Hall. (And outside, too.)
All of which left Mr. Newsom, a former restaurateur, thinking that the city’s business community might be feeling a tad overlegislated."
The Media - A CNN employee!
So now I wonder, "Does the character of the people you employ reflect in any way on your organization's credibility?...
Dareh Gregoprian and Philip Messing report in the New York Post:
"On his official CNN bio, the network calls him "one of the most instantly recognizable members of the CNN team."
'He has become one of the network's highest profile presenters,' and his 'dynamic and distinctive style has made him a unique figure in the field of business and news broadcasting,' the network's Web site says.
He was reportedly once offered a position for the English-language version of the controversial Al Jazeera network, but said he turned it down because being gay and Jewish, he didn't think it would be a good fit."
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Americans - Crooks?
The guilty parties in these cases are very likely to be public figures and role models. That being said, what kind of examples are being set for today's youth?
Now, why did I just have that thought about "stocks" in the public square?...
Now, why did I just have that thought about "stocks" in the public square?...
Lara Jakes Jordan has this at GOPUSA.com:
"Currently, the FBI has 2,500 cases of public corruption under investigation, an increase of 50 percent from five years ago, Mueller said. He called public corruption the FBI's top criminal priority.
At the same time, corporate fraud cases have increased by more than 80 percent, Mueller said, pointing to the recent surge in mortgage fraud investigations. The FBI is investigating an estimated 1,300 mortgage fraud cases -- including 19 into subprime lending practices by U.S. financial institutions."
Bill Maher - Not so funny?
There is certainly no shortage of things to make fun of; so, when so-called "comedians" CHOOSE (it IS a choice) other things, I have to think their motives are more than just earning a living in their comedic profession...
At NewsBusters.com, Noel Sheppard is following Bill Maher:
"Bill Maher on Friday night's 'Real Time' made something crystal clear that conservatives have known for decades: Liberal means never having to say you're sorry."
Human Rights and the United Nations
From my position in life, the United Nations seems to be the epitome of "what NOT to do"...
I found this in an article on the International Humanist and Ethical Union website:
"There has been a seismic shift in the balance of power in the UN system. For over a decade the Islamic States have been flexing their muscles. Yesterday they struck. There can no longer be any pretence that the Human Rights Council can defend human rights. The moral leadership of the UN system has moved from the States who created the UN in the aftermath of the Second World War, committed to the concepts of equality, individual freedom and the rule of law, to the Islamic States, whose allegiance is to a narrow, medieval worldview defined exclusively in terms of man’s duties towards Allah, and to their fellow-travellers, the States who see their future economic and political interests as being best served by their alliances with the Islamic States."
Karl Rove takes on Dan Abrams
I guess Mr. Rove and I have a similar disrespect for the media.
Here, he takes the time to be most eloquent about it...
Here, he takes the time to be most eloquent about it...
In this letter, Karl Rove calls out Dan Abrams, MSNBC, NBC, and the media in general. These are the closing paragraphs:
"People used to believe journalists were searching for the truth. But your cable show increasingly seems to be focused on wishful thinking, hoping something is one way and diminishing the search for facts and evidence in favor of repeating your fondest desires. For example, while you do ask Siegelman what evidence he had to back up his charges, you did not press him when he said 'We don't have the knife with Karl Rove's fingerprints all over it, but we've got the glove, and the glove fits.'
The difficulty with your approach is you reduced yourself to the guy in the bar who repeats what the fellow next to him says – 'The glove fits! The glove fits!' - only louder, because it suits your pre-selected story line ('Bush Justice') and you don’t want the facts to get in the way of a good fable. You have relinquished the central responsibility of an investigative reporter, namely to press everyone in order to get to the facts. You didn’t subject the statements of others to skeptical and independent review. You have chosen instead to simply repeat something someone else says because it agrees with the theme line your producers slapped on your segment, created the nifty graphic for and promoted in the ads before your appearances."
Friday, April 18, 2008
Politicians - and the truth
So, he never said what he said.
Is it a memory problem, or a just a little "white lie"?...
Is it a memory problem, or a just a little "white lie"?...
I found this at Newsmax.com:
"This is what Obama said back then: 'You know, the truth is that right after 9/11, I had a pin. Shortly after 9/11, particularly because as we’re talking about the Iraq war, that became a substitute for, I think, true patriotism, which is speaking out on issues that are of important to our national security. I decided I won’t wear that pin on my chest.'"
Citizen Carter - by Oliver North
I have to wonder if Jimmy Carter is really an American.
I think Oliver North describes him perfectly...
I think Oliver North describes him perfectly...
Oliver North writes at GOPUSA.com:
"Carter's current sojourn in personal diplomacy is just his most recent foreign foray in post-presidential folly since being voted out of office in Ronald Reagan's 1980 landslide. During his global quest for relevance, he rarely missed an opportunity to denigrate our country's interests, helping him to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. But this week's expedition to Jerusalem, the West Bank, Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Saudi Arabia may prove to be the most damaging excursion yet."
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Would this have changed everything?
I think it would have...
Daniel Henninger writes about it in the Wall Street Journal:
"Here's another hypothetical: Would this conversation be different today if in August 2006 seven airliners had taken off from Terminal 3 at Heathrow Airport, bound for the U.S. and Canada and each carrying about 250 passengers, and then blew up over the Atlantic Ocean?
It is a hypothetical because, instead of the explosions, British prosecutors this week presented their case against eight Muslim men arrested in August 2006 and charged with conspiring to board and blow up those planes.
The details emerging from that case are quite remarkable and will be summarized shortly."
Iran - Pat Buchanan says:
Here's an interesting article about Iran and it's position in American politicis, no less...
Pat Buchanan writes at RecordPub.com:
"The Iranians may sense what is afoot. For Tehran helped broker the truce in the Maliki-Sadr clash in Basra, and has called for a halt to the mortar and rocket attacks on the Green Zone.
With a friendly regime in Baghdad that rolled out the red carpet for Ahmadinejad, Iran has nothing to gain by war. Already, it is the big winner from the U.S. wars that took down Tehran's Taliban enemies, decimated its al-Qaida enemies and destroyed its Sunni enemies, Saddam and his Baath Party."
Less noise is bad?
I'm not a subscriber at this website, but this teaser seems worth a look...
It's on the Republican-American website:
"Coming soon to a statute book near you: A law requiring noisier hybrid cars. This latest consequence of reflexive environmentalism is rooted in a University of California study that found slow-moving, quiet-running hybrids must be 40 percent closer to pedestrians than conventional vehicles before they make enough noise to be detected. The National Federation of the Blind believes it is a matter of time before someone walks off a curb and into the path of a hybrid."
Politicians - "Presidential" candidates?
I have my doubts about both the honesty and the maturity of the candidates.
If they were kids, we'd tell them to grow up, tell the truth, and stick to your convictions...
If they were kids, we'd tell them to grow up, tell the truth, and stick to your convictions...
In this article at the Politico.com, Mike Allen discusses some recent behavior:
"Clinton, who bashed guns eight years ago, will have a very different message for same group on Tuesday."
Politicians and their Spouses
Meet Michelle Obama...
I found this at The Campaign Spot blog:
"You get the feeling Michelle Obama is never going to be boring to cover. (See here, here, here and here.) Hot Air and JammieWearingFool already noted the most eye-opening comment from Mrs. Obama...
Obama begins with a broad assessment of life in America in 2008, and life is not good: we’re a divided country, we’re a country that is 'just downright mean,' we are 'guided by fear,' we’re a nation of cynics, sloths, and complacents. 'We have become a nation of struggling folks who are barely making it every day,' she said, as heads bobbed in the pews. 'Folks are just jammed up, and it’s gotten worse over my lifetime. And, doggone it, I’m young. Forty-four!'
... but there's a lot more where that came from,..."
Meanwhile - in Church Point, Louisiana
Here's an interesting and somewhat ugly story.
A lot of amazing things had to happen in order for this travesty to have taken place...
A lot of amazing things had to happen in order for this travesty to have taken place...
Radley Balko tells the whole story at Reason.com:
"It was from this unlikely setting, the United States alleged, that Ann Colomb and three of her four sons ran one of the largest crack cocaine operations in Louisiana. Over the course of a decade, prosecutors said, the Colombs bought $15 million in illicit drugs with a street value of more than $70 million. Judging solely from the indictments, the government’s case seemed formidable: a trail of police reports throughout the 1990s accusing the Colomb boys of possessing or selling drugs; a 2001 raid on the Colomb home that turned up 72 grams of crack, a Titan .25-caliber pistol, and a rifle; and more than 30 prison informants who were prepared to testify that they had sold crack to one or more members of the Colomb family. In 2006 a jury in Lafayette, Louisiana, convicted the African-American family on federal drug conspiracy charges. Ann and her sons served almost four months in a federal prison while awaiting their sentences, which would likely have ranged from 10 years to life.
But in the ensuing months, the government’s case unraveled,..."
National Health Insurance - Survey Says!
This poll and it's internal questions' results seem to prefer the opposite of what several presidential candidates are proposing...
In a survey by Rasmussen Reports:
"Twenty-nine percent (29%) of American adults favor a national health insurance program overseen by the Federal Government. A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 39% oppose such a government-led initiative while 31% are not sure.
The survey also found that 46% believe the quality of care would decrease under a national health insurance program while 16% believe that quality would increase. Twenty percent (20%) say the quality of care would remain about the same while 18% are not sure.
At the same time, 42% believe the cost of health care would increase while 25% would expect prices to go down. "
About Health Insurance
There are some interesting comparisons here...
In the Wall Street Journal, Jonathan Kellerman writes about it:
"You don't need to be an economist to understand that any middleman interposed between seller and buyer raises the price of a given service or product. Some intermediaries justify this by providing benefits, such as salesmanship, advertising or transport. Others offer physical facilities, such as warehouses. A third group, organized crime, utilizes fear and intimidation to muscle its way into the provider-consumer chain, raking in hefty profits and bloating cost, without providing any benefit at all.
The health insurance model is closest to the parasitic relationship imposed by the Mafia and the like. Insurance companies provide nothing other than an ambiguous, shifty notion of 'protection.' But even the Mafia doesn't stick its nose into the process; once the monthly skim is set, Don Whoever stays out of the picture, but for occasional 'cost of doing business' increases. When insurance companies insinuate themselves into the system, their first step is figuring out how to increase the skim by harming the people they are allegedly protecting through reduced service."
Monday, April 14, 2008
The Clintons - Getting the story straight?
I'm starting to wonder if Bill Clinton is losing it or is he also "sleep-deprived"?...
At NewsBusters.com, Mark Finkelstein asks:
"So . . . shall we count the ways Bill twisted the truth?"
Politicians - Attorney General Marc Dann
Hmmm. I wonder what's in those emails.
Why do I think they're gone (or soon will be)?...
Why do I think they're gone (or soon will be)?...
In Ohio's Columbus Dispatch, James Nash reports:
"Dann's office on Friday denied a request from The Dispatch under Ohio's public records law to review three months' worth of e-mail messages between him and his then-scheduler, Jessica Utovich.
Dann in the past has said e-mails are public records and also has sought troves of messages from public offices when he was a state senator and the Democratic candidate for Ohio's top legal office.
One of Dann's first acts as attorney general was to order his staff to retain e-mail messages for 180 days.
'Good government is open government, and we cannot be responsive to citizen requests for information if the information is routinely destroyed, including electronic communication such as e-mails,' Dann said at the time."
Politicians - Nancy Pelosi
I'm no fan of Nancy Pelosi, and this writer shares my opinion...
At NorthStarWriters.com, David Karki writes:
"The sooner the execrable Speaker Pelosi adds the word 'former' to the front of her title, the better off we all shall be."
Global Warming - and the models
An authority allows for some caution...
In his NY Times blog, Andrew C. Revkin has a posting about them:
"The models are telling us something quite different from what nature seems to be telling us. There are various interpretations possible, e.g. a) The big increase in hurricane power over the past 30 years or so may not have much to do with global warming, or b) The models are simply not faithfully reproducing what nature is doing. Hard to know which to believe yet."
Global Warming - Kool-Aid?
I'm reading this to say that Al Gore is training citizens to be activists for the global warming cause, who will then go out and "spread the message", while avoiding any scientific debate.
Is this nuts, or what?
Sounds a little too cult-like for my intellect...
Is this nuts, or what?
Sounds a little too cult-like for my intellect...
In the Kingston Whig-Standard, Jennifer Pritchett writes about it:
"'I'm not a scientist. I'm a messenger,' she said. 'I'm a concerned person who's a member of the human race and I have some messages to give that I've been trained [to give]'.
'I talk from my heart.'
O'Reilly said the most difficult aspect of talking to people about global warming is that it's hard to prove to those who don't believe it's happening.
'You can't see it, you can't breath it and you can't touch it,' she said. 'If I were to be questioned by those who truly don't believe that global warming is happening, I won't engage in debate because I am not a scientist.'"
Global Warming - "Pathological Science"?
I think this article qualifies as "what is true"...
James Lewis writes at AmericanThinker.com:
"Science becomes unhealthy when its only real question --- 'what is true?' --- is sabotaged by vested interests, by ideological Commissars, or even by grant-swinging scientists. Today's Global Warming campaign is endangering real, honest science. Global Warming superstition has become an international power grab, and good science suffers as a result."
Global Warming - at a standstill?
This seems much too logical for anyone to understand...
Lord Nigel Lawson writes at the Science & Public Policy Institute:
"Given that nowadays pretty well every adverse development in the natural world is automatically attributed to global warming, perhaps the most surprising fact about it is that it is not, in fact, happening at all. The truth is that there has so far been no recorded global warming at all this century.
The world's temperature rose about half a degree centigrade during the last quarter of the 20th century; but even the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research - part of Britain's Met Office and a citadel of the current global warming orthodoxy - has now conceded that recorded temperature figures for the first seven years of the 21st century reveal there has been a standstill.
The centre now officially expects global warming to resume at some point between 2009 and 2014.
Maybe it will. But the fact that the present lull was not predicted by any of the complex computer models upon which the global warming orthodoxy relies is clear evidence that the science of what determines the world's temperature is distinctly uncertain and far from 'settled'."
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Say's Law
Isn't it sad to see our elected officials falling all over themselves, trying to be the first to "fix" the economy in this election year?.
When I read articles like this, I think about the education of our children. Shouldn't they be taught some mix of history and economics that would prevent them from being fooled into thinking that the government can actually fix things?...
When I read articles like this, I think about the education of our children. Shouldn't they be taught some mix of history and economics that would prevent them from being fooled into thinking that the government can actually fix things?...
In the Wall Street Journal, George Melloan discusses the issue:
"Say hello to that old ghost from the past we thought banished by Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. It's called 'Keynesian Economics.'
Ironically, even the brilliant John Maynard Keynes disowned it. After meeting with a group of Washington 'Keynesians' in 1944, he said he was the only non-Keynesian in the room. His brainchild, government spending to stimulate demand, had been converted from its originally intended limited application to an all-purpose economic panacea by politicians, academics and journalists.
The fundamental principle of the Keynesians, one that Lord Keynes would have scoffed at, is that government can deliver something for nothing. To be sure, government does transfer income and wealth to favored constituencies, such as rice farmers or ethanol producers, from people who pay taxes. Washington calls that economic stimulus."
In Our Schools - Unintended Consequences
Now, look what we've done!...
In the New York Post, Marty Nemko wonders:
"Why the lack of male college graduates? One main reason is that K-12 education has been made girl-friendly at the expense of boys:
*Competition, a prime motivator for boys, has largely been replaced by "cooperative learning."
*Readings about adventure and heroism are giving way to tales of relationships and heroines.
*Social studies now stress men's ill-doings and women's (and minorities') contributions.
*Today, 91 percent of elementary-school teachers arewomen, the highest level on record. The main male role model most boys see in school is the custodian.
So it shouldn't surprise us that a University of Michigan study found that the number of boys who say they don't like school rose 71 percent from 1980 to 2001.
When boys get home, the lack of positive male role models and the assault on their self-esteem continues: TV portrays most men as buffoons or sleaze bags shown up by wise, confident women.
So is it any surprise that boys, more active than girls from birth, misbehave more in class? In decades past, they were simply called "active" and allowed to work off energy as the blackboard monitor or sent on an errand. Today, they're more likely to be put on Ritalin. Over the last 20 years, the number of boys drugged with stimulants to control "hyperactivity" has risen 3,000 percent."
Politicians - U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott
This is old news because the wheels of justice turn ever so slowly.
I guess this qualifies as irony...
I guess this qualifies as irony...
In the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Matthew Daly reports:
"Democratic Rep. Jim McDermott has paid more than $64,000 in damages to House Republican leader John Boehner -- the first payment in a decadelong dispute over an illegally taped telephone call involving Boehner and other GOP leaders.
The payment, which includes $50,000 in court-ordered punitive damages, $10,000 in statutory damages and $4,169 in interest, is the first of what could be more than $850,000 in fines and fees owed by McDermott, D-Wash."
Barack Obama - Andy Martin says:
What in the world is this all about?...
At ContrarianCommenary.com, Andy Martin writes:
"'Fundamentally, Barack is the first Anti-American candidate for president of the United States. He has been running down America in secret séances with wealthy liberals. Now we know why Obama and is wife hold closed-to-the-media fund raising sessions with wealthy contributors. They want secrecy so they can spew out their message of hate and contempt for the American people. They want secrecy so they can run a public campaign of piety and concern for American values, and a private campaign of elitism and condescension and contempt for the United States. The Secret Campaign has now been exposed for what it is by the ‘San Francisco Tape.’ The Secret Campaign must end. Obama must open fund raisers to full media scrutiny. Senator Clinton must do the same.
'Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun-Times was the first, I think, to make an issue of Obama’s ‘secret’ campaign schedule and Michele’s closed campaign appointments. Sweet also pursued Obama’s secrecy to southern California mansions where Obama delivered his ‘real’ message to wealthy, anti-American liberals in Hollywood. Now Obama is spreading his virus to northern California.
'I demand that Barry and Michele end their ‘Secret Campaign,’ and stop holding clandestine meetings with wealthy contributors, where this pair stomps on Americans and ridicules our values. We now know from the San Francisco Tape that Obama uses these secret meetings with elite contributors to give liberal extremists the ‘Real Obama,’ and to deliver his real message of ‘hate and contempt for Amerika.’"
Unions - and the election
They are certainly investing their money; err; someones money...
Kimberley A. Strassel writes in the Wall Street Journal:
"This election is their best shot in a half-century of making over Washington. Not everyone is thrilled with a Clinton or an Obama, but this matters little next to the big prize. As Gerald McEntee, the savvy head of the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, succinctly put it, Big Labor is looking for a 'trifecta' – the Oval Office, the House and a filibuster-proof Senate. And after that, the biggest rewrite of labor law in modern America.
'This is an all-in bet for them in 2008,' says Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Committee, a group that fights down in the trenches against coercive union power. 'As market cycles go, they're in their peak, we're in our trough, and they're looking for a clear two-year run' in an all-Democrat Washington."
"Congressional character"
I figure you won't be surprised when I tell you that I agree with this writer.
Do you?...
Do you?...
At WorldNetDaily.com, Henry Lamb what I see:
"C-SPAN reveals a Congress that is no longer an arena for open, honest debate – or debate of any kind. It has become a stage for performing actors to convince the media and their audience why they should be in power, and why those who disagree are not worthy of holding power.
How long has it been since there was a real debate about the merits of a policy proposal, either in Congress or among the presidential candidates? In a debate, a proponent presents an idea, and the opponent identifies the flaws in the proposed idea and offers a counter proposal – with hope and expectation of the best possible policy outcome. What passes for political debate today is little more than an exercise in name-calling, sidestepping and often, eloquent ambiguity."
Stop the Monologues
Free speech without discretion really creates controversy...
I found this article by Peter LaBarbera at ChristianNewsWire.com:
"...it is astonishing that Ensler and her vulgar play are being celebrated given TVM's past and current promotion of adult predatory behavior against minors: 'Imagine if an adult homosexual man were to quiz a six-year-old boy about his penis -- or a straight man were to ask a little girl silly questions about her private parts – for use in play! Would such men be praised by the media and famous personalities?'
Stop the Monologues Project Director Donna Miller, the mother of a teenage girl, said, 'I find it horrifying that an author would sexualize a six-year-old girl –– particularly when that same author has a record of writing favorably about adult/child sex, at least for lesbians.'
Miller noted the hypocrisy of a movement whose stated goal is to 'stop the violence against women and girls,' while it celebrates a lesbian rape-seduction, underage drinking, and a lesbian adult asking highly inappropriate sexual questions to six-year-old."
In Our Schools - Fairfax, VA
I believe the writer has a valid point here...
At TownHall.com, Mona Charen writes about her local school system and concludes:
"Like so many other big public systems (and Fairfax is among the country's finest), the system clogs kids brains with so many politically correct messages that more traditional moral lessons are crowded out. My sons have been force-fed Manichean tales about noble Native Americans oppressed by whites and religious fanatics scheming against righteous descendants of slaves.
Far better to drop the newer books and teach only the classics. Let them read "Oliver Twist," "The Red Badge of Courage," and "Little Women." They are great stories and the ethics are implicit -- which is always better if you wish to avoid cynicism."
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Q Tires
Sounds good to me...
I found this on Q Tires website:
"Celsius tires contain anti-corrosive safety studs that deploy when you need them, providing optimal control on icy roads, then retract when driving conditions are safer."
CNN.com - 'nuff said!
If you have the time, take a look at this transcript and see if you agree that the questions have a flavor that seems antagonistic.
Or better yet, see if you can find a question that gives any glimmer of credit, either to Prime Minister al-Maliki or the American effort in Iraq...
Or better yet, see if you can find a question that gives any glimmer of credit, either to Prime Minister al-Maliki or the American effort in Iraq...
This interview is by CNN's Nic Robertson. He's frequently on their news reports. Here are the first three questions:
"ROBERTSON: Mr. Prime Minister, you surprised a lot of U.S. officials when you went on the offensive in Basra. Why didn't you tell the Americans what you were doing?
ROBERTSON: Some American politicians have been surprised. The U.S. has supported the Iraqi army, put a lot of money into the Iraqi army, but they say they really weren't aware -- that they were caught off guard.
ROBERTSON: There was no quick victory over the forces you went against. Some people are saying that you miscalculated did you?"
Food and Water; or Ethanol?
So, could it be that we are jeopardizing our food supply, AND our water supply, while NOT drilling for oil.
I really think it's time for our politicians to think things through before writing laws that could hurt us in the long run?...
I really think it's time for our politicians to think things through before writing laws that could hurt us in the long run?...
This is from the Economist.com website:
"OFFICIALS in Tampa, Florida, got a surprise recently when a local firm building the state's first ethanol-production factory put in a request for 400,000 gallons (1.5m litres) a day of city water. The request by US Envirofuels would make the facility one of the city's top ten water consumers overnight, and the company plans to double its size. Florida is suffering from a prolonged drought. Rivers and lakes are at record lows and residents wonder where the extra water will come from."
Elections - "Street Money"
There are some strange aspects in our election systems...
In the L.A. Times, Peter Nicholas describes this one:
"The dispute centers on the dispensing of 'street money,' a long-standing Philadelphia ritual in which candidates deliver cash to the city's Democratic operatives in return for getting out the vote.
Flush with payments from well-funded campaigns, the ward leaders and Democratic Party bosses typically spread out the cash in the days before the election, handing $10, $20 and $50 bills to the foot soldiers and loyalists who make up the party's workforce.
It is all legal..."
Friday, April 11, 2008
Iran - Bad for our health
It sure doesn't sound good.
Sooner or later, Iran seems likely to go too far...
Sooner or later, Iran seems likely to go too far...
The New York Posts's Amir Taheri reports:
"A GAMBLE that proved too costly.
That's how analysts in Tehran describe events last month in Basra. Iran's state-run media have de facto confirmed that this was no spontaneous 'uprising.' Rather, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) tried to seize control of Iraq's second-largest city using local Shiite militias as a Trojan horse."
Taxes - "Put up or shut up"?
Usually, I don't like Congress's valuable time wasted just to make a point; however, this one has me thinking a little differently...
This is from a Wall Street Journal editorial column:
"Mr. Campbell says he has heard the 'cries' of those wealthy Americans – Mrs. Clinton, Warren Buffett, Barbra Streisand – who reject the lower tax rates passed in 2001 and 2003 and complain that they and their fellow rich don't pay enough. 'It's a great injustice that citizens wishing to fulfill their dream of paying more taxes cannot simply check a box on their 1040 form to make a donation,' he says. His bill would give liberals a chance to salve their consciences without having to raise taxes on millions of Americans who already feel overtaxed as it is"
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Taxes - Looks like they're coming: Big Time!
It's your money and it's your vote!
Use it wisely...
Use it wisely...
John F. Cogan and R. Glenn Hubbard report in the Wall Street Journal:
"...we stand on the verge of a very large tax increase, one that will occur unless the next Congress and president agree to rescind it. Letting the Bush tax cuts expire will drive the personal income tax burden up by 25% – to its highest point relative to GDP in history.
This would be the largest increase in personal income taxes since World War II. It would be more than twice as large as President Lyndon Johnson's surcharge to finance the war in Vietnam and the war on poverty. It would be more than twice the combined personal income tax increases under Presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton. The increase would push total federal government revenues relative to GDP to 20%."
Global Warming - and "Variability"
I like analogies as a way to put things in perspective...
I found this in a Las Vegas Review Journal opinion column:
"Let's put it this way: If a sports betting tout told you to wager the mortgage payment on a supposedly 'hot' basketball team that had, in fact, lost 10 games in a row -- that had done nothing the so-called experts predicted -- would you at least ask a few questions before buying the ticket?"
Politicians - Jon Corzine
My tolls are bigger than your tolls!...
I found this at Central New Jersey's Home News Tribune:
"What is good for the goose evidently isn't so good for the gander when it's New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine doing the honking about New York City's congestion-pricing plan."
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
The Grid
10,000 times faster. Holy Cow, Batman!...
TimesOnLine's Science Editor, Jonathan Leake reports:
"Although the grid itself is unlikely to be directly available to domestic internet users, many telecoms providers and businesses are already introducing its pioneering technologies. One of the most potent is so-called dynamic switching, which creates a dedicated channel for internet users trying to download large volumes of data such as films. In theory this would give a standard desktop computer the ability to download a movie in five seconds rather than the current three hours or so."
The Airborne Laser Cannon
Yikes; and from 5 miles away!...
At the Popular Science website, Eric Adams describes it:
"Boeing's new laser cannon can melt a hole in a tank from five miles away and 10,000 feet up—and it’s ready to fly this year"
About those twisted light bulbs
It will be interesting to see what kind of light bulbs prevail.
As of now, I don't like the "smell" of the compact flourescents...
As of now, I don't like the "smell" of the compact flourescents...
At FoxNews.com, Steven Milloy reports:
"Eco-activist groups, such as Environmental Defense, which historically have agitated to banish toxic substances from homes, workplaces and the environment, surprisingly have said that the mercury in CFLs is nothing to worry about.
But this new posturing flies in the face of the multitude of scary activist-inspired studies that hyperventilate about potential health risks from the slightest exposures to mercury, not to mention a 1987 article in Pediatrics reporting real-life mercury poisoning of a 23-month old from a broken fluorescent light bulb.
Bush and Congress joined the CFL promotion racket, too. The energy bill enacted last December mandates that traditional incandescent bulbs be phased out starting in 2012. CFLs pretty much are the only alternative."
Vietnam Veterans Against John McCain
This group clearly does not think much of John McCain...
Here's the link to their website and some of what they say:
"Ted Sampley, a Vietnam Veteran and former Green Beret, issued a CHALLENGE to John McCain "If you can show us that the information presented in our mailer is untruthful . . . we will Stand Down"
This CHALLENGE was issued during an interview with INSIDE EDITION on January 17, 2008.
John, family members of Vietnam POW/MIA(s) have been waiting for more then 14 years for you to have the courage to face them eye to eye in front of the American Public - Here is your opportunity for some "STRAIGHT TALK." Stop hiding behind your fabricated "War Hero" persona. You know we can prove your collaborations with declassified government documents . . . It is time for the American people to get to know the REAL John McCain - the John McCain that the POW/MIA families witnessed during the 1991-93 US Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs . "
The Clintons - Kathleen Willey says
I'm thinking that Mrs. Willey really went through hell at the hands of the Clintons...
At Front Page Magazine, Michael J. New discusses her book:
"Willey makes it clear that Hillary Clinton played a key role in enabling her husband’s sexual misdeeds. Ever since the start of their marriage, Hillary Clinton made use of private investigators. She did not do this to confront her husband about his affairs, but instead to track these women and intimidate them from going public. This was all done in the name of advancing both her and her husband’s political career. "
Meet Doug Feith
The anti-Bush crowd uses every trick in their book to make fighting the war on terror extremely difficult in the world of public opinion.
And I'm willing to bet that if something bad happens, those same people will find a way to blame him...
And I'm willing to bet that if something bad happens, those same people will find a way to blame him...
Doug Feith's writes at CenterForSecurity.org:
"Even more critical to this week's congressional testimony – and what follows on Capitol Hill, on the hustings and, not least in Iraq – are Mr. Feith's insights into problems that continue to afflict America's execution of the war. For example:
On issue after issue, George W. Bush's decisions on Iraq were undermined by subordinates who opposed the president's policies. As Feith charitably puts it, Mr. Bush "could...justly be faulted for an excessive tolerance of indiscipline, even of disloyalty from his own officials." This pattern continues with members of the intelligence community, senior diplomats and even, until recently, a top military officer routinely flouting presidential direction – sometimes openly, on other occasions through malicious leaks to the press.
There has been an abject failure to address competently and comprehensively the ideological nature of our Islamofascist enemies and their enablers. "...In the fight against terrorism, the effort to counter ideological support remains a gaping deficiency. No one in the Administration...is currently developing and implementing a comprehensive strategy beyond public diplomacy." Congress has not helped matters, by failing to confirm Jim Glassman or reconstituting a dedicated organization like the U.S. Information Agency to do this work.
Most importantly, the costs of failures to act – or win in Iraq – continue to be underestimated. "If and when major new terrorist attacks occur in the United States, the public will reexamine the Bush Administration's strategy for the war on terrorism. The likely criticism then will not be that the President was too tough on the jihadists, the Baathists and other state supporters of terrorism, but that the Administration might have fought the terrorist network even more intensely and comprehensively.
'No dereliction of statesmanship is as unpardonable as a failure to protect the nation's security. If the head of government underreacts when the country is threatened, history is not likely to excuse him on the grounds that his excessive caution enjoyed bipartisan support.'"
Middle East Mystery
Like mysteries? This might be one you like...
I found this at Stratfor.com, written by George Friedman. Here is the conclusion:
"We would like to wrap this up with a crystal clear explanation and forecast. But we can’t. The motives of the various actors are opaque; and taken separately, the individual events all have quite innocent explanations. We are not prepared to say war is imminent, nor even what sort of war there would be. We are simply prepared to say that the course of events since February — and really since the September 2007 attack on Syria — have been startling, and they appear to be reaching some sort of hard-to-understand crescendo.
The bombing of Syria symbolizes our confusion. Why would Syria want a nuclear reactor and why put it on the border of Turkey, a country the Syrians aren’t particularly friendly with? If the Syrians had a nuclear reactor, why would the Israelis be coy about it? Why would the Americans? Having said nothing for months apart from careful leaks, why are the Israelis going to speak publicly now? And if what they are going to say is simply that the North Koreans provided the equipment, what’s the big deal? That was leaked months ago."
Axis of Evil - Iran
I hope we never let our guard down with Iran...
Back in February, at FrontPageMagazine.com, Jamie Glasov posted part of his interview with Kenneth R. Timmerman:
"Timmerman: There is absolutely no doubt that Mugniyeh and his masters in Iran were directly and materially involved in the 9/11 plot.
First, there is the evidence discovered very late in the day by the 9/11 Commission, which I describe in detail in Countdown to Crisis. What is astonishing is that this information has not been widely publicized. I spoke again just yesterday with one of the top investigators involved in reviewing the highly-classified U.S. intelligence reports on Mugniyeh’s involvement in convoying 9/11 hijackers in and out of Iran prior to 9/11. He was astonished when I told him that few people were yet aware of this. “That’s like saying you didn’t know that Jesse James was a crook,” he said.
The Iranians were TERRIFIED on the day of 9/11 and for the next month that the United States would “connect the dots” and discover their involvement to the 9/11 plot, as I reported in Countdown to Crisis.
Senior Iranian government officials were making desperate phone calls to relatives in the United States, asking them to rent apartments for family members so they could get out of Tehran before what they assumed would be a massive retaliatory U.S. military strike."
Operation Merlin
There's a lot going on in the Middle East that we don't know about. That's for sure...
Yossi Melman tells about it at Haaretz.com beginning with:
"The Bush administration is prolonging the hunting season against journalists. The latest victim is James Risen, The New York Times reporter for national security and intelligence affairs. About three months ago, a federal grand jury issued a subpoena against him, ordering Risen to give evidence in court. A heavy blackout has been imposed on the affair, with the only hint being that it has to do with sensitive matters of "national security."
But conversations with several sources who are familiar with the affair indicate that Risen has been asked to testify as part of an investigation aimed at revealing who leaked apparently confidential information about the planning of secret Central Intelligence Agency and Mossad missions concerning Iran's nuclear program."
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Government at Work - Fixing things?
And I thought just having a "middle man" was bad...
The Wall Street Journal provides this in an editorial:
"To put it bluntly, this may be the worst-run program in Washington. So why are Senators making it a centerpiece of this week's housing splurge? Because just about every dollar of the $4 billion will not remain at HUD, but will instead be routed to state and local governments, which can then share the wealth with 'nonprofit' (i.e., politically favored) organizations. And while state and local pols will get the money ASAP – within 90 days of the bill's enactment into law – there is less urgency to address the housing crisis once these recipients cash the checks. They don't have to buy the foreclosed properties for another 18 months.
Senator Richard Shelby (R., Ala.), mindful of the program's appalling history, was able to secure a partial rewrite of the bill last week. Any profits from the resale of homes bought in foreclosure must now be recycled back into buying other foreclosed properties. What remains unclear is exactly how much of the $4 billion will stick to the various fingers touching these dollars along the way."
Meanwhile - In California
Politicans excluded themselves from do-not-call lists and now this.
I think I see a pattern of thinking that laws are for everyone but them?...
I think I see a pattern of thinking that laws are for everyone but them?...
In the Orange County Register, Jennifer Muir has found:
"...is one of 996,716 vehicles registered to motorists who are affiliated with 1,800 state and local agencies and who are allowed to shield their addresses under the Confidential Records Program.
An Orange County Register investigation has found that the program, designed 30 years ago to protect police from criminals, has been expanded to cover hundreds of thousands of public employees – from police dispatchers to museum guards – who face little threat from the public. Their spouses and children can get the plates, too."
Iraq - Stay the course
That's what say...
Senators Lieberman and Graham discuss where we are in this Wall Street Journal opinion column:
"Today's antiwar politicians have effectively turned John F. Kennedy's inaugural address on its head, urging Americans to refuse to pay any price, or bear any burden, to assure the survival of liberty. This is wrong. The fact is that America's prosperity at home and security abroad are bound together. We will not fare well in a world in which al Qaeda and Iran can claim that they have defeated us in Iraq and are ascendant.
There is no question the war in Iraq – like the Cold War, World War II and every other conflict we have fought in our history – costs money. But as great as the costs of this struggle have been, so too are the dividends to our national security from a successful outcome, with a functioning, representative Iraqi government and a stabilized Middle East. The costs of abandoning Iraq to our enemies, conversely, would be enormous, not only in dollars, but in human lives and in the security and freedom of our nation.
Indeed, had we followed the path proposed by antiwar groups and retreated in defeat, the war would have been lost, emboldening and empowering violent jihadists for generations to come."
Meanwhile - in Tucson, AZ
My only problem with this is the same one that Stephen Van Buskirk has...
At AZStarnet.com, Josh Brodesky reports:
"'To allow Spanish speaking adults the freedom to pledge their allegiance to our nation in their native language is completely respectful. However, to require English-speaking second-grade students to recite the Pledge in Spanish is another matter entirely,' wrote Stephen Van Buskirk. 'To the Veterans of Foreign Wars, reciting the Pledge of Allegiance is a sacred and meaningful exercise.'
Van Buskirk also chastised Godfrey for not identifying herself as a school principal when she first inquired."
Meanwhile - in Berkeley
Commissions. ...
Carolyn Jones writes in the Sab Francisco Chronicle:
"Some of Berkeley's commissions provide critical city functions, such as the zoning board and Planning Commission, while about half are devoted mostly to policy. There are commissions on the status of women, animal welfare, aging, disability rights, labor and early-childhood education. Three commissions deal with the environment. Four pertain to health.
Each commission has nine members, each of whom is appointed by a council member, and meets monthly. Many have subcommittees, such as the Peace and Justice Commission's subcommittee on U.N. treaties. And every commission has a city staff member assigned to compile agendas, minutes and reports, and ensure that the board complies with the state's open meetings law and Robert's Rules of Order."
Meanwhile - in Australia
Cat and Mouse? Chicken? Bluff?
It looks like there's a lot going on around Australia...
It looks like there's a lot going on around Australia...
At theAustralian.com, Cameron Stewart discusses Australia's military situation:
"FOR the second time this month, nuclear-armed submarines from China and India have toyed with an Australian navy frigate, keeping it in their gunsights and 'sinking' it regularly as it made its way up the NSW coast.
At the same time, Indonesia has sought to embarrass Australia's undersized and outdated air force by flying its new generation strike bombers along our northern borders in a display of muscular brinkmanship.
Hard to believe? Not according to a frightening new defence report that warns that such fictional scenarios could easily become reality long before 2050."
Meanwhile - in Australia
It looks like every country has some issues with their past...
The Wall Street Journal discusses one of them:
"It's been less than a month since Prime Minister Kevin Rudd apologized to Australia's aborigines for maltreatment and the lawsuits are already in train. The damage to taxpayers will hinge on whether activist judges, one of whom created this problem in the first place, can be curbed."
Monday, April 07, 2008
Global Warming - or Cooling?
With data like this, don't you think we should be just a little skeptical before jumping on to the global warming bandwagon?...
Michael Asher writes at DailyTech.com:
"Twelve-month long drop in world temperatures wipes out a century of warming
Over the past year, anecdotal evidence for a cooling planet has exploded. China has its coldest winter in 100 years. Baghdad sees its first snow in all recorded history. North America has the most snowcover in 50 years, with places like Wisconsin the highest since record-keeping began. Record levels of Antarctic sea ice, record cold in Minnesota, Texas, Florida, Mexico, Australia, Iran, Greece, South Africa, Greenland, Argentina, Chile -- the list goes on and on."
Ron Brown - A .45 caliber problem?
"Clintonesque"?
Sounds like it could be.
We'll have to wait and see...
Sounds like it could be.
We'll have to wait and see...
On his website, Jack Cashill discusses it along with the history:
"'When you get something that appears to be a homicide, that should bring everything to a screeching halt,' Cogswell was quoted as saying of Brown’s death.
Cogswell was referring to the '.45-inch inwardly beveling circular hole in top of [Brown’s] head,' which he described as 'essentially the description of a 45-caliber gunshot wound.' Cogswell argued that at the very least the wound should have prompted an autopsy, but it did not."
Bin Laden's Fatwa
I guess this is what started it all.
If you want to read it, it's here.
Interestingly enough, I think we could learn from this particular quote.
How come they know this, and we don't?...
If you want to read it, it's here.
Interestingly enough, I think we could learn from this particular quote.
How come they know this, and we don't?...
The transcript is at www.pbs.org
"Also to remind the Muslims not to be engaged in an internal war among themselves, as that will have grieve consequences"
The Clintons - Imagine pardoning this
Just a reminder...
In a Wall Street Journal opinion column, Debra Burlingame reminds us:
"On Aug. 7, 1999, the one-year anniversary of the U.S. African embassy bombings that killed 257 people and injured 5,000, President Bill Clinton reaffirmed his commitment to the victims of terrorism, vowing that he 'will not rest until justice is done.' Four days later, while Congress was on summer recess, the White House quietly issued a press release announcing that the president was granting clemency to 16 imprisoned members of FALN. What began as a simple paragraph on the AP wire exploded into a major controversy."
In Our Schools - the Patch?
Coming to a school near you?...
At NaturalNews.com, David Gutierrez has this and more:
"A middle school in Portland, Maine is considering a proposal to provide birth control pills and patches to students as young as 11 years old. King Middle School launched a reproductive health program after five of the 135 students who visited the school's health center in 2006 reported being sexually active. The program already provides condoms to students, but the new proposal would expand this to include prescriptions for birth control pills and patches (which would then have to be purchased at a pharmacy)."
In Our Schools - No parental rights?
I think this is a BIG DEAL, and that parents should be VERY CONCERNED about the final outcome...
Bob Unruh gives the details at WorldNetDaily.com:
The superintendent of a public school that sparked a federal lawsuit by teaching homosexuality to children as young as kindergarten has told another worried parent he can review course material, but he has no right to withdraw his child from class during lessons.
The lawsuit, on which WND has reported extensively, was filed by David Parker, whose child was in a class at Estabrook Elementary in Lexington, Mass.
Parker's strenuous objection to not being notified when lessons concerning homosexuality were presented landed him in jail overnight. His subsequent lawsuit resulted in a court verdict that essentially concludes parents have no rights to control what their children are taught.
The court ruling adopted the arguments submitted by several pro-homosexual organizations that stated they had rights to children in public schools. However, Parker has confirmed for WND the case is being prepared for appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court because of the far-reaching impacts of the ruling.
In Our Schools - They are NOT working!
All the "new" programs, all the money, and this is the result?...
In the Wall Street Journal, Jason Riley reports:
"This week's revelation that 17 of the nation's 50 largest cities have high school graduation rates below 50% surely saddened many. But it surprised few people attuned to the state of U.S. public education. Proponents of education choice have long believed that dropout rates fall when families can pick the schools best suited for their children."
Sunday, April 06, 2008
Be accountable for your gambling
These two excerpts say it all...
I found them attributed to Gary Becker in a Wall Street Journal opinion column:
"The many excuses offered by some home owners for their plight, and also eagerly by the authors of these human interest stories, is that the borrowers did not understand that these introductory interest rates might rise a lot after a few years, or that they would have negative equity in their homes if housing prices stopped rising and began to fall. An obvious alternative explanation for their behavior is that they gambled that the good times would continue indefinitely."
"Successful attempts to shift the responsibility for bad decisions toward others and to society more generally create a 'moral hazard' in behavior. If individuals are not held accountable for decisions and actions that harm themselves or others, they have less incentive to act responsibly in the first place since they will escape some or all of the bad consequences of their actions."
The Enemy Within
I'm sure they exist, and I'm sure their goal is not good for us...
J.B. Williams writes at CapitolHillCoffehouse.com:
"America has a growing enemy within. This enemy is referred to by experts as America’s Fifth Column. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, the term Fifth Column refers to 'A clandestine group or faction of subversive agents who attempt to undermine a nation’s solidarity [unity] by any means at their disposal.'
As Britannica notes, the term is credited to Emilio Mola Vidal, a Nationalist general during the Spanish Civil War (1936–39). As four of his army columns moved on Madrid, the general referred to his militant supporters within the capital as his 'fifth column,' intent on undermining the loyalist government from within.
Does such a group of subversive agents’ intent upon undermining American unity actually exist today? If they do, who are they, what are their methods and what is their goal?"
Oil - Billions of Barrels in N.D.
Sounds good to me.
I wonder why it's getting no publicity...
I wonder why it's getting no publicity...
I found this at TransWorldNews.com from Atlanta, GA:
"The Bakken Formation in North Dakota could boost America’s oil reserves by an incredible 10 times, according to a report Wednesday.
The Bakken Oil Formation, which covers North Dakota and portions of Montana and South Dakota, is believed to have 175 to 500 billion barrels of recoverable oil. The 200,000 square mile reserve that was initially discovered in 1951.
In 2007, EOG Resources of Texas drilled a single well in Parshal N.D. that is expected to have yielded 700,000 barrels of oil. Marathon Oil is investing $1.5 billion and drilling 300 new wells."
Global Warming - He said what!
I just love these stories. I just wish they'd get equal media time as the "other" stories...
Anyway, WorldNetDaily.com has this:
"You could have heard a pin drop at the Hong Kong conference designed to persuade the airline industry to cut back on its production of so-called greenhouse gases to fight 'global warming.'
The 'Greener Skies 2008' conference had just heard from David Archibald, a solar scientist asserting that climate change is mostly dictated by solar cycles, not carbon dioxide levels, as conventional wisdom suggests.
Archibald didn't just tell the group not to worry about carbon dioxide emissions. He told those gathered they should figure out ways of increasing CO2 output.
'In a few short years, we will have a reversal of the warming of the 20th century," Archibald warned, according to CargoNews Asia. "There will be significant cooling very soon. Our generation has known a warm, giving sun, but the new generation will suffer a sun that is less giving, and the earth will be less fruitful. Carbon dioxide is not even a little bit bad – it's wholly beneficial.'"
In Our Courts - in Wisconsin
I don't like judges "making" law; so, I hope that this is the start of a trend...
John Fund reports in the Wall Street Journal:
"On Tuesday, for the first time in over four decades, Wisconsin voters turned out an incumbent justice of their state supreme court. The election showed that, given a clear choice, voters usually prefer a judicial conservative to one with an activist bent.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court certainly bent the rule of law over the past four years, as a 4-3 liberal majority became the nation's premier trailblazer in overturning its own precedents and abandoning deference to the legislature's policy choices."
Survey Says!
Perhaps common sense is still around.
Of course, I seem to remember having heard that nothing really prevents going to court if you really want to.
Anyway, it will be interesting to see if the trial lawyers can influence the voting on this subject...
Of course, I seem to remember having heard that nothing really prevents going to court if you really want to.
Anyway, it will be interesting to see if the trial lawyers can influence the voting on this subject...
The Wall Street Journal tells us:
"A poll released this week finds that most Americans do not want their day in court. Rather, they prefer cheaper and faster methods of settling arguments. When asked how they'd like to settle a dispute with a company, 82% chose arbitration, which avoids the time and expense of going to court. Only 15% opted for litigation. Americans are not confident that a lawsuit will produce a fair result, reports the poll, but a solid majority looks favorably on mediation and arbitration."
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Democrats for Boeing
Wow, this is a tough one. And I honestly don't even know where I stand on this...
Christian Lowe writes at the WeeklyStandard.com:
"As defense budget watchdog and Capitol Hill veteran Winslow Wheeler said last week of the upcoming political battle: 'If Boeing wants to go down the road in Congress, we're in for a real food fight. Boeing has 40 states involved in the 767 contracting; Northrop Grumman has 49. That's not going to be a pretty thing to watch.'"
The Media - "unseemly" and SAD
1. It's a free country.
2. This is "over the top".
3. I think this is an abuse of freedom...
2. This is "over the top".
3. I think this is an abuse of freedom...
At NewsBusters.com, Warner Todd Huston has this:
"Minnesota Star Tribune Publishes Help Wanted Ad For Anti-Military Story"
Could this explain it all?
I'm sure it's not this simple. Is it?...
John Ray posted this and more at the Astute Blogger:
"Just when liberals thought it was safe to start identifying themselves as such, an acclaimed, veteran psychiatrist is making the case that the ideology motivating them is actually a mental disorder. 'Based on strikingly irrational beliefs and emotions, modern liberals relentlessly undermine the most important principles on which our freedoms were founded,' says Dr. Lyle Rossiter, author of the new book, 'The Liberal Mind: The Psychological Causes of Political Madness.' 'Like spoiled, angry children, they rebel against the normal responsibilities of adulthood and demand that a parental government meet their needs from cradle to grave.'"
Meet Geert Wilders
No wishy-washy political correctness from this guy...
In the U.K.'s Guardian, Ian Traynor writes about him:
"The Dutch government is planning emergency evacuation of its nationals and diplomats from the Middle East should the Wilders film be shown. It is alarmed about the impact on Dutch business. 'Our Prime Minister is a big coward. The government is weak,' says Wilders. 'They hate my guts and I don't like them either.'"
Meet Lieutenant Colonel Frances Rice
I think history makes a strong point here...
I found this article by Ronald Kessler at NewsMax.com:
" 'The Democratic Party has built its power base on the backs of poor blacks, and they want to keep blacks poor, angry, and voting for Democrats,' Rice tells Newsmax. 'Every election cycle they go into the black community and preach hatred against the Republican Party and get blacks to cast a protest vote against Republicans.'
In Rice’s view, 'The Democrats fight every effort of Republicans to get blacks out of poverty because they know that once blacks become prosperous, the Democratic Party will lose its power base.'"
Only in America - Instant Sermons
Somehow, even though I can't say it's wrong, this just seems disingenuous.
Then again, something is better than nothing...
Then again, something is better than nothing...
You can get whatever you need at SermonAudio.com where:
"The world is listening." "faith cometh by hearing"
California and Home Schooling
My first take on this was "they are mandating a lesser education"; however, how would one really know?
My second thought is that government and the unions are doing a lousy job here; and the taxpayers and their children are suffering from the results...
My second thought is that government and the unions are doing a lousy job here; and the taxpayers and their children are suffering from the results...
This is from an opinion column on the Wall Street Journal's editorial page:
"A California court ruled this month that parents cannot 'home school' their children without government certification. No teaching credential, no teaching. Parents 'do not have a constitutional right to home school their children,' wrote California appellate Justice Walter Croskey.
The 166,000 families in the state that now choose to educate their children at home must be stunned. But at least one political lobby likes the ruling. 'We're happy,' the California Teachers Association's Lloyd Porter told the San Francisco Chronicle. He says the union believes all students should be taught only by 'credentialed' teachers, who will in due course belong to unions."
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Oil - in the Falkland Islands
When it comes to oil, I have to think "the more the merrier".
Would you care to argue?...
Would you care to argue?...
Jasper Copping reports in the U.K. Telagraph:
"The inhabitants of the Falkland Islands are preparing for a South Atlantic oil rush which they hope will make them among the richest people in the world.
After 10 years of frustrating delays since oil fields containing up to 60 billion barrels of 'black gold' were discovered off the islands, oil companies are planning to start drilling within the next 12 months."
Build a new what?
If true, better late than never, but, somehow I'm thinking this will be easier said than done...
I found this Associated Press story at KeloLand.com:
"The Union County Board of Commissioners has approved a Texas company's request to turn 3,800 acres north of Elk Point into a planned development district for a $10 billion oil refinery."
"Anthropogenic Global Warming - Fact or Hoax?"
This is the most comprehensive rebuttal to human caused Global Warming that I've seen to date.
The creator(s) deserve a lot of kudos for taking the time to provide counterpoints to every aspect that global warming alarmists use to further their cause...
The creator(s) deserve a lot of kudos for taking the time to provide counterpoints to every aspect that global warming alarmists use to further their cause...
I found this at www.middlebury.net by James A. Peden At the end of their global warming hoax editorial is this summary:
"Summary - Exactly what have we learned here?
1. The "Greenhouse Effect" is a natural and valuable phenomenon, without which, the planet would be uninhabitable.
2. Global Warming, at least in recent times, is real.
3. CO2 is not a significant greenhouse gas; 95% of the contribution is due to Water Vapor.
4. Man's contribution to Greenhouse Gasses is relatively insignificant. We didn't cause the recent Global Warming and we cannot stop it.
5. Solar Activity appears to be the principal driver for Climate Change.
6. CO2 is a useful trace gas in the atmosphere, and the planet would actually benefit by having more, not less of it, because it is not a driver for Global Warming and would enrich our vegetation, yielding better crops to feed the expanding population.
7. CO2 is not causing global warming, in fact, CO2 is lagging temperature change in all reliable datasets. The cart is not pulling the donkey.
8. Nothing happening in the climate today is particularly unusual, and in fact has happened many times in the past and will likely happen again in the future."
Global Warming - and CO2
If carbon dioxide is the culprit, it's not showing any effect up lately (like 8-10 years)...
This comes from an interview by Christopher Pearson at the Australian.com:
"She replied: 'No, actually, there has been cooling, if you take 1998 as your point of reference. If you take 2002 as your point of reference, then temperatures have plateaued. This is certainly not what you'd expect if carbon dioxide is driving temperature because carbon dioxide levels have been increasing but temperatures have actually been coming down over the last 10 years.'
Duffy: 'Is this a matter of any controversy?'
Marohasy: 'Actually, no. The head of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) has actually acknowledged it. He talks about the apparent plateau in temperatures so far this century. So he recognises that in this century, over the past eight years, temperatures have plateaued ... This is not what you'd expect, as I said, because if carbon dioxide is driving temperature then you'd expect that, given carbon dioxide levels have been continuing to increase, temperatures should be going up ... So (it's) very unexpected, not something that's being discussed. It should be being discussed, though, because it's very significant.'
Duffy: 'It's not only that it's not discussed. We never hear it, do we? Whenever there's any sort of weather event that can be linked into the global warming orthodoxy, it's put on the front page. But a fact like that, which is that global warming stopped a decade ago, is virtually never reported, which is extraordinary.'"
Global Warming - and common sense
Sounds reasonable: woulodn't you agree?...
At Geartland.com, James M. Taylor and Joseph L. Bast explain:
"The best way to achieve a healthy and green environment is to use sound science to distinguish real environmental issues from imaginary ones, and then to tap the efficiency of market forces to address the environmental issues that truly do exist. This enables us to prioritize environmental and public health problems the first step in any serious effort to address a problem and to solve problems without trampling on other things we value, such as individual freedom and economic prosperity."
Hillary Clinton - at 27 years old
I guess nothing much has changed...
At NorthStarWriters.com, Dan Calabrese writes about this little gem:
"Jerry Zeifman, a lifelong Democrat, supervised the work of 27-year-old Hillary Rodham on the committee. Hillary got a job working on the investigation at the behest of her former law professor, Burke Marshall, who was also Sen. Ted Kennedy’s chief counsel in the Chappaquiddick affair. When the investigation was over, Zeifman fired Hillary from the committee staff and refused to give her a letter of recommendation – one of only three people who earned that dubious distinction in Zeifman’s 17-year career.
Why?
'Because she was a liar,' Zeifman said in an interview last week. 'She was an unethical, dishonest lawyer. She conspired to violate the Constitution, the rules of the House, the rules of the committee and the rules of confidentiality.'"
Hillary Clinton - and health insurance
Paying the bills? Apparently not always...
Here's another article by Kenneth P. Vogel at Politico.com. This time he writes about Hillary:
"Among the debts reported this month by Hillary Rodham Clinton’s struggling presidential campaign, the $292,000 in unpaid health insurance premiums for her campaign staff stands out."
Barack Obama - Caught again?
More of the same from one "presidential" candidate...
Kenneth P. Vogel reports on the findings of Politico.com:
"During his first run for elected office, Barack Obama played a greater role than his aides now acknowledge in crafting liberal stands on gun control, the death penalty and abortion– positions that appear at odds with the more moderate image he’s projected during his presidential campaign.
The evidence comes from an amended version of an Illinois voter group’s detailed questionnaire, filed under his name during his 1996 bid for a state Senate seat.
Late last year, in response to a Politico story about Obama’s answers to the original questionnaire, his aides said he 'never saw or approved' the questionnaire."
This is no April Fool's joke!
Somehow, I find this hard to believe.
Could I be that far out of touch with the real world?...
Could I be that far out of touch with the real world?...
I found this at Breitbart.com. I'm sure it's everywhere:
"Three out of 10 US public school students do not graduate from high school, and major city school districts only graduate one out of two students, according to a study released Tuesday.
In a report on graduation rates around the country, the EPE Research Center and the America Promise Alliance also showed that the high school graduation rate -- finishing 12 grades of school -- in big cities falls to as low as just 34.6 percent in Baltimore, Maryland, and barely over 40 percent for the troubled Ohio cities of Columbus and Cleveland.
And it said that black and native American student's have effectively a one-in-two chance of getting a high school diploma."
