Steve's Serendipities

Friday, September 30, 2011

"3D printing: The world's first printed plane"

Human ingenuity is just absolutely amazing...

Paul Marks has the detail on this story at NewScientist.com:

"Under darkening skies on a grass airstrip in the UK's Wiltshire Downs, north of Stonehenge, I am watching half a dozen aeronautical engineers rushing to assemble an uncrewed aircraft before the weather takes a turn for the worse. They are hoping to show how 3D printing will revolutionise the economics of aircraft design – by flying the world's first fully "printed" plane"

posted by Steve @ 6:01 AM

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Thursday, September 29, 2011

"Media Bias 101"

It probably doesn't get more obvious than this...

Byron York explains a glaring example at Townhall.com:

"You want a quick and easy introduction to media bias? Just look at the reception given to author Ron Suskind when he appeared on NBC's 'Today' show recently to promote his new book, 'Confidence Men,' which is critical of President Obama -- and then compare it to the reception Suskind received in 2004 when he appeared on 'Today' to tout another book, 'The Price of Loyalty,' which was critical of President George W. Bush."

posted by Steve @ 6:03 AM

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EDITORIAL: The solar swindle - Washington Times

There was a time when I couldn't believe anything like this.
These days, it actually makes sense and seems likely.
Politicians are disrespecting us on a grand scale.
It's time for a change...

The Washington Times tells us this and more:

"His agenda was designed to drive up the cost of efficient, carbon-based energy to match the price of expensive power wearing the trendy “renewable” label. The rationale: When artificially inflated prices for oil, natural gas and coal begin to bleed consumers dry, they’ll have no choice but to turn to politically correct forms of energy like sunlight, wind and biofuels. The 'greenhouse gas' menace would end, according to liberal belief, purported global warming would be remedied, and we finally would “get ourselves back to the Garden,” as the iconic Woodstock-era song urged.

The administration has spent nearly three years blocking access to America’s abundant carbon-based energy resources and throwing cash at 'green' manufacturers. In effect, it has been an attempt to ruin a proven market and replace it with a government-approved one"

posted by Steve @ 6:02 AM

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"MSM Sheep: Ignoring the Scandal of the Century"

This article does a great job of pointing out the media's dereliction in reporting on the "Fast and Furious" “walked” firearms issue...

Bob Owens strongly criticizes the media in his posting at PajamasMedia.com:

"This is objectively the most important political and legal story in America right now.

But despite the revelations from of documents and testimony obtained by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and repeated calls for full disclosure from senators and congressmen, mainstream media organizations have done everything in their power to bury the scandal. This can only be viewed as a partisan media’s attempt to protect a criminal executive branch."

posted by Steve @ 6:01 AM

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Wednesday, September 28, 2011

"Blacks file Class Action Racial Discrimination Suit Against Obama & Democrats"

This seems pretty significant.
Do you wonder why you haven't heard about it?
Do you live in a cave, or could it be the media is biased?...

Robert Oliver has this plus the whole story at the Move-On-Up website:

"On September 11, 2011, blacks from the West Coast and the East Coast joined together and signed one of the most comprehensive legal briefs ever prepared on racial discrimination, then filed their brief today, September 12th, at 9:00 AM Pacific Daylight Time in US District Court in Seattle (Case No. C11 - 1503). The plaintiffs, who refer to the defendants as “Father of Racism,” allege that as an organization, the Democratic Party has consistently refused to apologize for the role they played in slavery and Jim Crow laws and for other subsequent racist practices from 1792 to 2011. "

posted by Steve @ 6:03 AM

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"Rep. Paul Broun Introduces Concealed Carry Recognition Bill"

It's pretty amazing how many states have so many variations of gun laws.
In addition, there are some interesting statistics in this article.
Statistics that are contrary to what the media tells (or doesn't tell) us...

AmmoLand.com is pushing citizens to support this bill:

"Pro-gun champion Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) recently introduced a concealed carry recognition bill, H.R. 2900, that allows law-abiding citizens who can legally carry concealed in their home state to carry all across the country, as well.

Titled 'The Secure Access to Firearms Enhancement (SAFE) Act,' this legislation recognizes that constitutional rights do not become null and void at the state line.

And, most importantly, Rep. Broun’s bill is 'constitutional carry' friendly. The SAFE Act recognizes that while CCW permits are the 'norm' in most states, constitutional carry is the ideal."

posted by Steve @ 6:02 AM

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Politicians - Maryland State Rep. Tiffany Alston

More of the same from an elected official...

Aaron C. Davis has this and more at WashingtonPost.com:

"Charges brought by the Office of the Maryland State Prosecutor allege that Del. Tiffany T. Alston (D-Prince George’s) spent thousands of dollars of campaign contributions to pay for wedding expenses and for the salary of an employee in her law firm.

In several instances, Alston wrote herself checks from the account of 'Friends of Tiffany Alston' and then cashed the checks for personal use, according to the prosecutor’s office."

posted by Steve @ 6:01 AM

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Tuesday, September 27, 2011

"House Votes to Ban Automatic Dues Deductions For School Unions"

I don't know whether this will get passed into law or not; however, unions are clearly coming upon tough times.
I wouldn't depict them as not be useful; however, I think that in the public sector, they have gone over the top.
Now, they are clearly getting a backlash...

Tom Gantert reports this at MichiganCapitalConfidential.com:

"The state House recently passed 2011 House Bill 4929, which would ban using public school resources to deduct union dues.

The bill passed 55 to 53, with all of the 'no' votes coming from Democrats, as well as eight Republicans: Reps. Ben Glardon, R-Owosso, Kenneth Horn, R-Frankenmuth, Earl Poleski, R-Jackson, Holly Hughes, R-Montague, Sharon Tyle, R-Niles, Deb Shaughnessy, R-Charlotte, Kenneth Kurtz, R-Coldwater, and Paul Muxlow, R-Brown City.

If the bill becomes law, teachers would still owe and be legally required to pay the union dues unless other state laws were changed to make teacher union membership voluntary. If that were to occur, the union itself would have to collect the fees that go into its pocket, much as if it were the cable company collecting a monthly bill."

posted by Steve @ 6:03 AM

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"Report: ‘Romneycare’ a jobs killer"

Politicians continue to "explain" (fog) about their past mistakes.
Wouldn't it be refreshing if they could just admit their errors, and explain honestly what they would do differently to get better results?
Trying to maintain an aura of perfection seems more harmful than useful...

Frank Quaratiello posted information on this at BostonHerald.com:

"Romneycare has come under fire from conservative Republicans, even as its author has sought to brandish his job creation credentials in the race for the GOP presidential nomination. His opponents are certain to seize on these findings to undercut that image."

posted by Steve @ 6:02 AM

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"Insult Obama? Not on this campus!"

I thought we were all well educated about the First Amendment by now.
Apparently not so on some college campuses.
Caution - this article contains very strong language...

Robert Shibley handles this story very well at Daily Caller.com:

"Insulting the president and other government officials is practically a national pastime in the United States. This is a testament to the freedom of our society; in some parts of the world, insulting those who govern earns you swift punishment, or at least official censorship. That isn’t the case in America — unless you live on a college campus.

Students at Sam Houston State University (SHSU) in Texas found this out the hard way yesterday when they erected a 'free speech wall' — a recently popular way for students to highlight the importance of free speech in which students put up a freestanding wall covered in paper, upon which anyone can write anything they want. Students jumped on the chance to participate."

posted by Steve @ 6:01 AM

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Monday, September 26, 2011

The 2013 Tax Cliff - WSJ.com

I've noticed that politicians give names to things that don't truly represent what the name implies.
Also, legislation passed now often doesn't take effect until some time in the future.
These two items seem harmless, but I think they represent a bit of sneakiness that we could do without...

The Wall Street Journal has discovered:

"President Obama unveiled part two of his American Jobs Act on Monday, and it turns out to be another permanent increase in taxes to pay for more spending and another temporary tax cut. No surprise there. What might surprise Americans, however, is how the President is setting up the U.S. economy for one of the biggest tax increases in history in 2013.

Mr. Obama said last week that he wants $240 billion in new tax incentives for workers and small business, but the catch is that all of these tax breaks would expire at the end of next year. To pay for all this, White House budget director Jack Lew also proposed $467 billion in new taxes that would begin a mere 16 months from now."

posted by Steve @ 6:03 AM

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"The Un-American American President"

This article isn't new, but it's premise is still quite current...

At AmericanThinker.com, Jay Clarke wrote about Barack Obama and concluded:

"Barack Obama does not sound like an American because Obama's heart and soul are not American in nature. His thoughts are not American. His attitude and philosophy are not American. He cannot speak from the heart about America because America does not reside there. With a Muslim upbringing, a radical family, radical mentor, a myriad of radical connections, radical advisors, a radical theology, and some say a radical spouse, it's no wonder.

Obama's agenda is informed by Marx and guided by years of close associations with extreme individuals and groups whose stated goals are the demise of America and America's influence in the world. When he says he wants to 'fundamentally transform America,' he is dead serious.

For the first time in all of American history, we are at the mercy of an un-American American President."

posted by Steve @ 6:02 AM

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"Wind farms: the monuments to lunacy..."

Wind power (like solar power) is just not ready for prime time.
Without their many subsidies, "green" energy enterprises cannot stand on their own merits.
Maybe someday, but clearly not at this time.
In spite of this, the European Union has mandated moving these issues forward...

Christopher Booker writes about the situation in the U.K. Daily Telegraph:

"Hence the two other items reported last week, one being the Government’s proposed changes to our planning rules (already being implemented, even though the 'consultation' has scarcely begun) which are drawing fire from all directions. The particular point here, on page 43 of the Government’s document, is a proposal that local planning authorities must 'apply a presumption in favour' of 'renewable and low-carbon energy sources'.

What this means in plain English is that we can forget any last vestiges of local democracy. Our planning system is to be rigged even more shamelessly than before, to allow pretty well every application to cover our countryside with wind turbines – along with thousands of monster pylons, themselves up to 400 feet high, marching across Scotland, Wales, Suffolk, Somerset and elsewhere to connect them to the grid.

All this is deemed necessary to meet our EU-agreed target to generate nearly a third of our electricity from 'renewables' – six times more than we do now – by 2020. This would require building at least 10,000 more turbines, in addition to the 3,500 we already have – which last year supplied only 2.7 per cent of our electricity."

posted by Steve @ 6:01 AM

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Sunday, September 25, 2011

2011-09-25 - Words of Wisdom

posted by Steve @ 6:01 AM

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Saturday, September 24, 2011

"Watch a Saturn fly-by video..."

Considering the obstacles, this is quite an accomplishment for NASA and it's scientists...

Barb Dybwad calls attention to this video at Tecca.com:

"The most striking thing to note about the breathtaking visual fly-by of Saturn seen above is that the footage isn't computer-generated or enhanced with CGI or 3D effects. What you see are a huge number of high-resolution still images animated in sequence to create full motion using a "2.75D" photographic fly-through technology."

posted by Steve @ 6:01 AM

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Friday, September 23, 2011

"U.S. Researcher Preparing Prototype Cars Powered by Heavy-Metal Thorium"

In 1807, there was Fulton's Folly.
History shows it was anything but.
Now, we don't seem to learn from history, so we probably can't conceive that something like this could become commonplace...

Keith Nuthall writes about Thorium at WardsAuto.com:

"A 250 KW unit weighing about 500 lbs. (227 kg) would be small and light enough to drop under the hood of a car, he says.

Jim Hedrick, a specialist on industrial minerals – and until last year the U.S. Geological Survey’s senior advisor on rare earths – tells Ward’s the idea is 'both plausible and sensible.'

Because thorium is so dense, similar to uranium, it stores considerable potential energy: 1 gm of thorium equals the energy of 7,500 gallons (28,391 L) of gasoline Stevens says. So, using just 8 gm of thorium in a car should mean it would never need refueling. Thorium has highest melting point of all oxides at 3,182° F.

Stevens’ prototype systems generate electricity within 30 seconds of firing a laser. This can feed power into a car, without the need for storage."

posted by Steve @ 6:01 AM

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Thursday, September 22, 2011

"More Lies: WH Emails Reveal Major Obamacare Accounting Fraud"

Long-Term Care for everyone. Sound goods, heh?
Well, it might have a chance to be good, IF politics weren't involved.
This article seems to indicate that LTC premiums were intended to falsely make ObamaCare APPEAR less costly.
Crony capitalism. Pay for play. Winning reelection at ANY cost.
Call it whatever you want, but oppose it and vote accordingly every chance you can...

At Townhall.com, Guy Benson has this story:

"Rep. Paul Ryan exposed and debunked Democrats' most audacious tricks during the healthcare summit -- which of course did absolutely nothing to convince Democrats of the error of their ways. During his illuminating dissection of the bill, Ryan mentioned a provision called the CLASS Act, a new federally funded long-term care program embedded within Obamacare. Ryan quoted Sen. Kent Conrad, a Democrat, as decrying the program as a Madoff-style 'Ponzi scheme.' Why? Because the premiums supposedly collected to pay for the CLASS Act over Obamacare's first decade would be injected into that phony, contrived 'deficit reducing' CBO formula -- while the program itself would likely collapse under its own weight almost immediately. In other words, some critics suspected, Democrats were creating an entire program just to extract hypothetical dollars from its front-loaded revenue mechanism to 'pay for' the larger bill -- with no real intention of implementing a sustainable long-term care program. To outside observers like Ryan, it looked like a giant shell game. As we now know, it looked that way to inside observers, too. The AP has the hugely important exclusive:"

posted by Steve @ 6:02 AM

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"State of the unions"

The union movement is clearly under duress...

Maureen Callahan had this in her recent article in the New York Post:

"Private-sector unions in the US are nearly extinct, having long ago abandoned an unwinnable fight against big business. Meanwhile, public-sector unions are thriving by comparison, even though public opinion has been on the decline since the rise of unions in the 1930s, when 72% of Americans had a favorable view of them.

By 2009, according to a Gallup poll, that number had declined to 48%.

How did this happen? How is it that the average American worker has come to view unionized labor — which, by definition, was meant to protect and progress each generation in ever-greater ways — with such contempt?"

posted by Steve @ 6:01 AM

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Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Politicians - Rhode Island State Rep. Daniel Gordon

This is pretty hard to believe...

Zach Howard reports on the Reuters News website:

"Gordon, 42, a Republican whose district includes Portsmouth, Tiverton, and Little Compton, Rhode Island, told Reuters he has a history of motor vehicle charges in Massachusetts.

He has previously faced other criminal charges including assault, attempted murder, weapons, and car theft, authorities say.

'I am not stepping down at all, period,' said Gordon, who lives in Portsmouth, Rhode Island."

posted by Steve @ 6:03 AM

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"The Security Sex"

Interestingly to me, I've had some of the same thoughts expressed here.
I don't see it as any grand conspiracy, but I do see the same troubling societal trends as the author.
Of course, once again, political correctness is likely to condemn those of us who are willing to express these ideas...

Selwyn Duke writes about it all at AmericanThinker.com:

"In light of this, what would you do if you wanted to grow government? I think you would try to remove any hope in women's minds that they could find security through a husband. You do this by destroying the man. You need to make him look weak, ineffectual, feckless, and buffoonish. And the more you can actually make him so in reality -- through the feminization of boys -- the easier this becomes.

Here is how you would proceed:"

posted by Steve @ 6:02 AM

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"Friction over women’s role in Obama White House was intense"

Score one for Mr. Ron Suskind.
Oh, and try to imagine a communications director that doesn't know about recording devices.
Duh!...

Peter Wallsten and Anne E. Kornblut have the story in the Washington Post:

"One of the most striking quotes in the book came from former White House communications director Anita Dunn , who was quoted as saying that, 'this place would be in court for a hostile workplace. . . . Because it actually fit all of the classic legal requirements for a genuinely hostile workplace to women.'

Dunn says she was quoted out of context and told The Post on Friday that she told Suskind 'point blank' that the White House was not a hostile work environment.

On Monday, Suskind allowed a Post reporter to review a recorded excerpt of the original interview, which took place over the telephone in April. In that conversation, Dunn is heard telling Suskind about a conversation she had with Jarrett."

posted by Steve @ 6:01 AM

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Tuesday, September 20, 2011

"Disney | The Path to 9/11 | Hillary Clinton"

Politics is everywhere.
We already know news outlets, including public television and radio, are biased.
Here, we see that commercial entertainment companies are exactly the same...

Matthew Boyle begins his article at DailyCaller.com with this:

"Activists tell The Daily Caller that The Walt Disney Company is refusing to re-air a 9/11-related docudrama, effectively burying politically inconvenient facts about the events which led to the 9/11 terror attacks, in order to protect the political future of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

“The Path to 9/11,” first aired on ABC in 2006, portrayed President Bill Clinton’s administration as ignoring warnings and signs that Osama bin Laden and al Qaida were planning a major attack on the United States — a finding supported by The 9/11 Commission Report. But since 2006 Disney CEO Bob Iger has repeatedly refused to rebroadcast it, or to sell the rights to other broadcasters."

posted by Steve @ 6:02 AM

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Government at Work - Behind the Constitution

I have to think that national security and constitutional freedoms create many "Catch-22" situations.
We have a Constitution that protects our rights to privacy, but we all want to be safe.
Decisions as to what trumps what are not easy choices and are sure to create controversy...

Thomas Drake is a former National Security Agency "senior executive". Recently, in the Washington Post, he asked:

"Why are we subverting the Constitution in the name of security?"

posted by Steve @ 6:01 AM

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Monday, September 19, 2011

"Minority home ownership efforts backfired, wiped out minority households' wealth"

People ARE finally writing about this; however, it's just not getting across.
Government CANNOT force ANYTHING to happen.
Maybe I should qualify that.
Government can DESTROY things in a heartbeat; however, creating positive social change (before it's time) is NOT something they have been proven competent at.
In fact, if you really think about it, most of the things they claim to fix are things they screwed up previously...

Mike Thomas wrote this in his posting on the Orlando Sentinel website:

"Nearly 50 years after President Lyndon Johnson began the War on Poverty, we are as impoverished as ever.

There are various reasons. But a big one is this: The federal government turned home ownership into an affirmative-action program, complete with quotas. And a lot of people who had no business buying houses bought them and then lost them.

'As sad as it is to say, this began in the Clinton Administration as a response to the argument that the poor and minorities couldn't get credit and were being left out of the home-ownership dream,' says James Wright, a sociology professor at University of Central Florida. 'They couldn't meet credit requirements. There was a lot of pressure in progressive circles' to change those requirements."

posted by Steve @ 6:02 AM

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"Why Do Blacks Still Let Obama Off the Hook?"

Well, to quote one of my favorite people, "How's that hopey changey thing working out for you" (Sarah Palin)...

Star Parker recently made this point and more at Townhall.com:

"According to the data, taken from the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute, median net worth of white households fell from $134,280 in 2004 to $97,860 in 2009, while over the same period median black household net worth went from $13,450 to $2,170.

The national unemployment rate stands at 9.2 percent, while black unemployment is over 16 percent.

There’s more, but you get the picture. The nation has been hit hard, but blacks much harder."

posted by Steve @ 6:01 AM

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Sunday, September 18, 2011

2011-09-18 - Words of Wisdom

posted by Steve @ 6:01 AM

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Saturday, September 17, 2011

The Other Climate Theory - WSJ.com

As the writer says, "Al Gore won't hear it, but heavenly bodies might be driving long-term weather trends"...

Anne Jolis writes about them in the Wall Street Journal:

"On the phone from Geneva, Mr. Kirkby says that Mr. Svensmark's hypothesis "started me thinking: There's good evidence that pre-industrial climate has frequently varied on 100-year timescales, and what's been found is that often these variations correlate with changes in solar activity, solar wind. You see correlations in the atmosphere between cosmic rays and clouds—that's what Svensmark reported. But these correlations don't prove cause and effect, and it's very difficult to isolate what's due to cosmic rays and what's due to other things."

In 1997 he decided that 'the best way to settle it would be to use the CERN particle beam as an artificial source of cosmic rays and reconstruct an artificial atmosphere in the lab.' He predicted to reporters at the time that, based on Mr. Svensmark's paper, the theory would 'probably be able to account for somewhere between a half and the whole' of 20th-century warming."

posted by Steve @ 6:02 AM

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Politicians - U.S. Rep. Tim Scott.

I've seen this guy on TV more than once.
He seems like the "real deal"...

Marin Cogan writes about him at Politico.com:

"NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. — Republican presidential hopefuls are learning fast: If you want to take this must-win primary state, pay a visit to hometown tea party hero Rep. Tim Scott."

posted by Steve @ 6:01 AM

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Friday, September 16, 2011

"Michelle Blames it on the Kids"

If you prefer to be duped, so be it.
This writer sees it for what is is...

Jeannie-ology discusses vacations on her blog:

"So, after three years and the reported millions in taxpayer dollars spent this year alone on Michelle Obama’s vacation expenses, family time, 'private' family vacations, and the 'long-planned family trip' excuses are starting to get old.

Especially for Americans whose chances of ever taking a family vacation again are almost as likely as Mrs. Obama wearing a designer outfit twice, staying at a Motel 6™, or going 60 days without taking off on a costly excursion financed with other people’s money, justified with the excuse that visiting Costa del Sol is 'quality time' with the kids."

posted by Steve @ 6:01 AM

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Thursday, September 15, 2011

"Democrats Should Know Jim Crow, They Created Him"

If we would allow history to be taught and learned, this wouldn't even be possible, BUT!
Here's another of those "a lie repeated becomes the truth" items than the mainstream media continously enables...

Jerome Hudson tries to help at HumanEvents.com:

"In 1832, the phrase 'Jim Crow' was born. By 1900, every former Confederate state (including Wyoming, Missouri, Ohio, Utah, Kentucky, Kansas and Oklahoma) had enacted “Jim Crow” laws prohibiting everything from interracial marriage to racially integrated public school systems. These state laws served to place blacks back on a virtual plantation. Similar to the “Black Codes” that came before them, Jim Crow laws were numerous. However, one denominator codified their sound support in Southern states: They all resulted from Democratic legislators of the 'Solid South.'

When Bill Clinton was 18, his future vice president’s father, Sen. Al Gore Sr., was locked arm-in-arm with other segregationist Democrats to kill the Civil Rights act of 1964. Clinton’s 'mentor' and 'friend,' klansman J. William Fulbright, joined the Dixiecrats, an ultra-segregationist wing of Democratic lawmakers, in filibustering the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and in killing the 1965 Voting Rights Act."

posted by Steve @ 6:02 AM

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"Keep your health plan? Don't count on it"

Many products have seductive, alluring packages.
Apparently, ObamaCare is one of them...

Byron York reports this and more at WashingtonExaminer.com:

"The bottom line is that the new system appears designed to push more and more people into the exchanges, with more and more people receiving health coverage subsidized by the government. For the cynical, it might even appear that is what Obama and his Democratic allies wanted all along. Remember that Obama said, during a January 2008 debate that, 'If I were designing a system from scratch, I would set up a single-payer system.' He couldn't pass a single-payer system, or even a public-option system, even when he had filibuster-proof majorities in Congress. But he could enact a system that will take a slower route in that direction."

posted by Steve @ 6:01 AM

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Wednesday, September 14, 2011

"Jamie Gorelick, Mistress of Disaster

I knew about some of this, but WOW!.
It's an awful lot for just one person...

Doug Ross presents a history of Jamie Gorelick in the positions she's held. It's not pretty:

"It's not often that one person plays key roles in two -- count 'em, two -- trillion-dollar disasters. Welcome, my friends, to the world of well-connected Democrat Jamie Gorelick."

posted by Steve @ 6:03 AM

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The Food-Stamp Crime Wave - WSJ.com

This fits my "government at work" category perfectly.
It also fits the category of "good intentions gone astray".
Disclaimer: fasten your seat belt...

James Bovard writes this and much more at the Wall Street Journal's website:

"Millionaires are now legally entitled to collect food stamps as long as they have little or no monthly income. Thirty-five states have abolished asset tests for most food-stamp recipients. These and similar 'paperwork reduction' reforms advocated by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) are turning the food-stamp program into a magnet for abuses and absurdities.

The Obama administration is far more enthusiastic about boosting food-stamp enrollment than about preventing fraud. Thanks in part to vigorous federally funded campaigns by nonprofit groups, the government's AmericaCorps service program, and other organizations urging people to accept government handouts, the number of food-stamp recipients has soared to 44 million from 26 million in 2007, and costs have more than doubled to $77 billion from $33 billion.

The USDA's Food and Nutrition Service now has only 40 inspectors to oversee almost 200,000 merchants that accept food stamps nationwide."

posted by Steve @ 6:02 AM

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"The Reckless Folly of the 'Undocumented Immigrant'"

If you're paying any attention at all, you must notice the clever use of words to confuse the way we see things.
"Trash men" are now "sanitation engineers" would be an example.
Those that DON'T think are vulnerable to this; and, those that DO think, wonder how the others can be so naive...

Michelle Malkin recently gave us this at Townhall.com:

"Making false claims of citizenship is a felony offense. Document fraud is a felony offense.

Vargas, who frames himself as a helpless victim, freely chose instead to secure yet more dummy documents. He used a friend's address to obtain an Oregon driver's license under false pretenses. It gave him an eight-year golden ticket to travel by car, board trains and airplanes, work at prestigious newspapers, and even gain access to the White House -- where crack Secret Service agents allowed him to attend a state dinner using his bogus Social Security number.

At least Vargas tells the truth when he says he's not alone. Go visit a 7-11 in the D.C. suburbs. Or the countless vendors in MacArthur Park in East L.A. Or any of the 19 cities in 11 states from Massachusetts to Ohio to Kentucky where a massive, Mexico-based 'highly sophisticated and violent' fraudulent-document trafficking ring operated until February 2011. 'Undocumented workers' and 'undocumented immigrants' have plenty of documents.

The persistent use of these open-borders euphemisms to describe Vargas and countless millions like him is a perfect illumination of the agenda-driven, dominant progressive media."

posted by Steve @ 6:01 AM

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Tuesday, September 13, 2011

"The Cult of Obama"

Here's a few sentences that are part of a bigger thought.
You'll have to at least read the beginning of this article to see how this portion fits in...

Robin of Berkeley writes at AmericanThinker.com:

"Why now? This may be the most important question of our time. Why are some people reaching the boiling point? Why do many others look vacant, like in an Invasion of the Body Snatchers? The shootings at military bases, from Little Rock to Fort Hood -- why now?

It's Obama, of course.

Liberals will excoriate me for writing this. They'll insist that bad behavior is not Obama's fault. He's a man of peace.

But study the phenomenon of cults, and the dynamics are always the same. The leader can incite violence without ever getting his hands dirty. Obama is controlling the marionette of the masses.

If Obamamania is a cult, then Obama is the cult leader. Cult leaders routinely pull the strings of their followers. The most extreme example is Charles Manson. He rots in prison for murders he never committed. He didn't have to do the dirty work. His brainwashed charges did his bidding."

posted by Steve @ 6:03 AM

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"Obama: The Obsolete 'Post Office President'"

Oh my!
Pundits and analysts DID notice the absurdity of calling vehemently for the passing of something that doesn't even exist yet.
This political ploy may actually be harmful...

Robert Tracinski starts with this at RealClearMarkets.com, and then goes much, much deeper:

"The preposterous irrelevance of President Obama's jobs speech is summed up by the fact that he repeatedly urged Congress to 'pass this jobs bill right away'--but there is no bill. By the admission of his own aides, Obama's jobs bill is still being drafted. It won't be submitted until next week, and his plan for how to pay for it won't be submitted until the week after that. (Even then, the plan is mostly to pass the buck to the 'super-committee' created by this summer's debt ceiling compromise.) All of this gave his exhortations an air of 'buy now!' hucksterism. For a moment there, I wasn't sure whether he was selling us a jobs bill or the Slap Chop."

posted by Steve @ 6:02 AM

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"Barack Obama inauguration: this Emperor has no clothes, it will all end in tears"

Wow! Talk about an astute prediction...

Gerald Warner closed his opinion column in the U.K. Telegraph with this. HE WROTE IT ON JANUARY 20th 2009!:

"It is questionable whether the present political system can survive the coming crisis. Whatever the solution, teenage swooning sentimentality over a celebrity cult has no part in it. The most powerful nation on earth is confronting its worst economic crisis under the leadership of its most extremely liberal politician, who has virtually no experience of federal politics. That is not an opportunity but a catastrophe.

These are frank, even ungracious, words: they have the one merit that, unlike almost everything else written today about Obama, they will not require to be eaten in the future."

posted by Steve @ 6:01 AM

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Monday, September 12, 2011

"Boehner Greeting Biden Caught on Live Mic"

I believe that the "good old boy" types are "gaming" the news media and talk shows.
I've think politicians' "in front of the camera" contentious behavior toward the opposing political party is not exactly true.
This little video seems to supports my thoughts...

Breitbart.TV recently posted this video snippet. You may need your sound on high for the full benefit:

"ABC News caught Vice president Biden and Speaker of the House Boehner chatting it up on the podium while waiting for the President's arrival last night"

posted by Steve @ 6:03 AM

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"The irrelevancy of the Obama presidency"

Just in case you missed this...

At WashingtonPost.com, Dana Milbank discusses Barack Obam's recent jobs speech, and it's not pretty:

"President Obama gave one of the most impassioned speeches of his presidency when he addressed a joint session of Congress on Thursday night. Too bad so many in the audience thought it was a big, fat joke."

posted by Steve @ 6:02 AM

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"Lessons about Alzheimer's disease"

Some studies. like history, are worthy of consideration.
If nothing else, they serve to counter the over prevalent hype of the news media and sales oriented medical world...

At Nature.com, Gwyneth Dickey Zakaib recently interviewed Psychologist Margaret Gatz:

"What does your research show?

Somewhere in the ballpark of 70% of risk for Alzheimer's disease across a population is due to heredity. In each individual, there's some combination of genes and environment. But on average, genes have a greater influence than environment in explaining the disease.

What will be the main message from your talk at the conference?

People need to be careful not to overstate what we know about preventing Alzheimer's disease. A lot of popular press says that there are things you can do to protect yourself — in particular, cognitive-enrichment activities, social activities and physical exercise. There's an upbeat message about what you can do to make sure you have a healthy brain. I'm concerned that it tends to slide into suggesting that you can prevent Alzheimer's disease.

Is there anything people can do to lower their risk?

Physical exercise and reducing cardiovascular risk factors have the strongest evidence. We find in our Swedish twin data that midlife diabetes and obesity are significant risk factors for Alzheimer's disease1,2, so reducing those may help."

posted by Steve @ 6:01 AM

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Saturday, September 10, 2011

"The Myths About Legal Gambling"

Advocacy groups promote their agendas, while this writer presents both pros and cons of gambling...

After presenting some facts, Steve Chapman came to this conclusion about gambling in his posting at Townhall.com:

"In the end, permitting more gambling is a good thing because it accommodates the desires of ordinary people. Millions of Americans happily patronize casinos and racetracks each year, and there is no good reason for governments to stand in their way.

But anyone who expects a major impact, good or bad, from the proposed expansion is going to be surprised. This measure is not the equivalent of betting the house. It's dollar-ante poker."

posted by Steve @ 6:02 AM

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"Burning down the house"

The belief that creating home ownership for everyone is a panacea was, and still is, absolutely FALSE.
I have the thought that society is much like nature.
Human efforts to completely control or manage it are doomed.
We just do NOT have the power to have some things go the way we wish...

In a New York Post opinion column, George Will recently used the publication of a book to remind us about it:

"Most explanations of the financial calamity have been indecipherable to people not fluent in the language of 'credit default swaps' and 'collateralized debt obligations.' The calamity has lacked human faces. No more.

Put on asbestos mittens and pick up 'Reckless Endangerment,' the scalding new book by Gretchen Morgenson, a New York Times columnist, and Joshua Rosner, a housing finance expert. They will introduce you to James A. Johnson, an emblem of the administrative state that liberals admire.

The book’s subtitle could be: 'Cry ‘Compassion’ and Let Slip the Dogs of Cupidity.' Or: 'How James Johnson and Others (Mostly Democrats) Made the Great Recession.' The book is another cautionary tale about government’s terrifying self-confidence. It is, the authors say, 'a story of what happens when Washington decides, in its infinite wisdom, that every living, breathing citizen should own a home.'

The 1977 Community Reinvestment Act pressured banks to relax lending standards to dispense mortgages more broadly across communities. In 1992, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston purported to identify racial discrimination in the application of traditional lending standards to those, Morgenson and Rosner write, 'whose incomes, assets, or abilities to pay fell far below the traditional homeowner spectrum.'

In 1994, Bill Clinton proposed increasing homeownership through a 'partnership' between government and the private sector, principally orchestrated by Fannie Mae, a 'government-sponsored enterprise' (GSE). It became a perfect specimen of what such 'partnerships' (e.g., General Motors) usually involve: Profits are private, losses are socialized."

posted by Steve @ 6:01 AM

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Friday, September 09, 2011

The 2012 Election Will Come Down to Seven States - WSJ.com

The American election system is quite "interesting".
We constantly hear "every vote counts" and "count every vote", and that is certainly true.
And then, there's the Electoral College...

Larry J. Sabato discusses the circumstances in the Wall Street Journal:

"Both parties are sensibly planning for a close election. For all the talk about how Hispanics or young people will vote, the private chatter is about a few vital swing states. It's always the Electoral College math that matters most.

Voting is predictable for well over half the states, so even 14 months out it's easy to shade in most of the map for November 2012."

posted by Steve @ 6:02 AM

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"EPA's Looming Blackouts"

Could this have been?
I think these are the rules that Barack Obama recently put aside.
No doubt, he has re-election on his mind?..

Read this Investors.com editorial and see what you think:

"It's called the Cross-State Pollution Rule, announced last month, and its implementation over the next 18 months will likely result in the loss of a fifth of the nation's electricity-generating capacity.

The result will be likely power shortages, skyrocketing rates and inevitable brownouts and rolling blackouts."

posted by Steve @ 6:01 AM

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Thursday, September 08, 2011

"Infantilizing the Culture"

I admit to wondering where this is all going, as I suspect our parents thought, too.
Personally, I believe society, in general (not all), is being dumbed down.
We live in a world of sound bites, attention spans are becoming shorter, and we are led to believe that instant gratification is the ONLY thing...

David Solway recently wrote about it at PajamasMedia.com, closing with:

"It may well be too late to turn things around but the fact nevertheless remains. We do not need more money, more theories, more remedial programs, more writing classes, more conferences, more reforms, more administrative diktats, more computers, or more ancillary resources. None of these things are even remotely helpful. What we need are real mothers, real fathers, and real teachers."

posted by Steve @ 6:02 AM

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"Antibiotics: Killing Off Beneficial Bacteria … for Good?"

Great.
So, should I get my immediate problem fixed; or, should I participate in the demise of all mankind?...

Maryn McKenna recently reported this at Wired.com:

"In a provocative editorial published this week in Nature, Martin Blaser of New York University’s Langone Medical Center argues that antibiotics’ impact on gut bacteria is permanent — and so serious in its long-term consequences that medicine should consider whether to restrict antibiotic prescribing to pregnant women and young children."

posted by Steve @ 6:01 AM

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Wednesday, September 07, 2011

"Answering Jonathan Alter’s Challenge"

The current state of America IS a reality.
That being said, I have to wonder why one would risk making a challenge like this...

At CommentaryMagazine.com, Peter Wehner absolutely blasts this softball out of the park:

"'Tell me again why Barack Obama has been such a bad president?' Jonathan Alter writes in his column.

Alter tells us he’s not talking here about Obama as a tactician and communicator, and he’s not interested in hearing ad hominem attacks or about people’s generalized 'disappointment.' (Neither am I.) He wants to know on a substantive basis why Obama should be judged to have failed so far.

In Alter’s words, ;Your mission, Jim [or anyone else for that matter], should you decide to accept it, is to be specific and rational, not vague and visceral.'

Consider the mission accepted."

posted by Steve @ 6:03 AM

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"Traveling Back to the Future on Intercity Buses"

High Speed Rail vs. the BUS!
And the winner is...

The private sector won't stay on something if it's not viable.
Governments operate differently...

Michael Barone explains at RasmussenReports.com:

"Needless to say, the cost to the taxpaying public is minimal. City streets and interstate highways already exist, and maintenance gets financing from gas taxes. And the system has enormous flexibility. If fewer passengers want to line up in Chinatown and more on the Upper West Side, the bus can change stops.

Private bus operators have effectively taken a 100-year-old technology, the bus, and adapted it seamlessly to the 21st century.

Compare high-speed rail... "

posted by Steve @ 6:02 AM

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"Labor Leaders Tell Obama: Stop Killing Jobs"

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, United Mine Workers, the AFL-CIO’s Building and Construction Trades Department, International Association of Machinists, etc.

Maybe, hopefully, people are waking up...

Deroy Murdock reported this and more at NationalReview.com:

"Several labor unions decry the Environmental Protection Agency’s existing and prospective rules, mainly those designed to reduce coal emissions. These stalwarts of the liberal Left resemble capitalists who now call the EPA the Employment Prevention Agency."

posted by Steve @ 6:01 AM

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Tuesday, September 06, 2011

"When algorithms control the world"

If you understand algorithms, this will likely ring true to you.
If you don't, consider how a "typo" can change the entire meaning of something.
Now you have it...

Jane Wakefield recently wrote about it in the U.K. BBC News:

"At last month's TEDGlobal conference, algorithm expert Kevin Slavin delivered one of the tech show's most 'sit up and take notice' speeches where he warned that the 'maths that computers use to decide stuff' was infiltrating every aspect of our lives.

Among the examples he cited were a robo-cleaner that maps out the best way to do housework, and the online trading algorithms that are increasingly controlling Wall Street.

'We are writing these things that we can no longer read,' warned Mr Slavin.

'We've rendered something illegible. And we've lost the sense of what's actually happening in this world we've made.'"

posted by Steve @ 6:03 AM

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"Milwaukee Thug ID'ed as Former Teachers Union and SEIU Organizer"

This doesn't really surprise me.
The failure of the media to publicize people like this also doesn't surprise me...

At Townhall.com, Kyle Olson reports on one of them:

"In yesterday’s article, I wrote about a video that was taken of the Walker protestors who lined the sidewalk outside the school. The video captures one of the thugs verbally intimidating a female school employee, telling her, 'We don’t want you in our neighborhood. Go back to there you came from.'

I ended that article by asking for tips to identify that individual who should have a civil rights complaint filed against him. I received several tips, and the offender has been identified as Brian Rothgery. Not only is Rothgery a former co-president of American Federation of Teachers Local 2169 (the Milwaukee Graduate Assistants Association), but prior to that he was a – wait for it…wait for it – an SEIU organizer!"

posted by Steve @ 6:02 AM

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"President Obama’s uncle had Social Security ID"

Barack Obama has some "interesting" relatives...

Dave Wedge and Laurel J. Sweet write about his uncle at BostonHerald.com:

"President Obama’s accused drunken-driving uncle — who was busted after a near collision with a Framingham cop — has had a valid Social Security number for at least 19 years, despite being an illegal immigrant ordered to be deported back to Kenya, the Herald has learned."

posted by Steve @ 6:01 AM

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Monday, September 05, 2011

2011-09-05 - Labor Day Observance

Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country....

posted by Steve @ 6:01 AM

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Sunday, September 04, 2011

2011-09-04 - Words of Wisdom

posted by Steve @ 6:01 AM

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Saturday, September 03, 2011

Obama and the 'Competency Crisis' - WSJ.com

Has re-election become more important than "America"?
It's seems timely to point out that a second term president is basically unencumbered...

Mort Zuckerman recently expressed this opinion in the Wall Street Journal:

"We lack a coherent and muscular economic strategy, as Mr. Obama and his staff seem almost completely focused on his re-election. He should be spending most of his time on the nitty-gritty of the job instead of on fund raisers, bus tours and visits to diners, which essentially are in service of his political interests. Increasingly his solutions seem to boil down to Vote for Me.

Clearly the president will have to raise his game to win a second term, especially if the Republicans find a real candidate. Will voters be willing to give him another four years? Like many Americans who supported him, I long for a triple-A president to run a triple-A country."

posted by Steve @ 6:01 AM

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Friday, September 02, 2011

"The Debt Crisis at American Colleges"

The word "bubble" certainly creates different thoughts than it did when we were children.
Here's another one that the powers that be have allowed to "sneak" up on us...

Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus write about it at theAtlantic.com:

"If you want to get a name as an economic seer, try this one. The next subprime crisis will come from defaults on student debts, starting with for-profit colleges and rising to the Ivy League. The parallels with housing are striking. In both, the written warnings aren't understood, especially on penalties and interest rates. And in both, it's assumed that what's being bought will rise in value, in one case the real estate, in the other the salaries which will accrue with a degree. One bubble has burst; the second is already losing air.

Still, there's a difference. With mortgage defaults, banks seize and resell the home. But if a degree can't be sold, that doesn't deter the banks. They essentially wrote the student loan law, in which the fine-print says they aren't "dischargable." So even if you file for bankruptcy, the payments continue due. Hence these stern word from Barmak Nassirian of the American Association of College Registrars and Admissions Officers. 'You will be hounded for life,' he warns. 'They will garnish your wages. They will intercept your tax refunds. You become ineligible for federal employment.' He adds that any professional license can be revoked and Social Security checks docked when you retire. We can't think of any other statute with such sadistic provisions."

posted by Steve @ 6:01 AM

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Thursday, September 01, 2011

"Watching A Green Fiction Unravel"

Another takedown of the global warming idea...

Investors.com is reporting this:

"'It's the sun, stupid.'

This new finding of 63 scientists from 17 European and U.S. institutes from an experiment that's been ongoing since 2009 is, if we may paraphrase Vice President Joe Biden, a big deal. Which is exactly why the mainstream media, with so much invested in global warming hysteria, is letting last week's announcement from CERN pass like a brief summer shower, ignoring it."

posted by Steve @ 6:02 AM

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"Florida's Credit Rating Upgraded"

You would think Washington, D.C. could learn from this...

In Florida, WOKV.com recently reported this:

"S&P upgraded Florida in July, which means now the state can refinance its old debt, thereby saving millions of dollars. Since July Florida has refinanced $1.5 billion in bonds, totaling $135 million in savings for the state."

posted by Steve @ 6:01 AM

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