The nurturing of mothers everywhere is so generous. This is Isabella, a golden retriever who adopted these white tiger cubs at the Safari Zoological Park in Kansas. The mother tiger had problems with them. Isabella licks and cleans her cubs, all the while thinking her babies are beautiful!
An apple a day, helps you learn every day.
My own tree of knowledge in my garden with fruit.
After her oncologist prescribed a cancer drug that would cost $4,000 a month, the newspaper reported, "Wagner was notified that the Oregon Health Plan wouldn't cover the treatment, but that it would cover palliative, or comfort, care, including, if she chose, doctor-assisted suicide."A country with socialized health care system will have to depend on pseudo-triage assessment of who should live and who should die. The government won't be able to take care of everybody. Those who want national health medicine should be careful what they ask for. If they get sick, they may have to die for their ultimate faith in the government taking care of them.
Predictably, critics of Oregon's unique-in-the-nation law are aflame over Wagner's story, some claiming it covers killing but not cancer. That's not exactly true, of course. The program that rations subsidized health care for low-income Oregonians has paid thousands of dollars over the years for Wagner's cancer care, and it will continue to do so.
It stopped short, however, of paying for a cancer drug that failed to meet the state's long-standing "five-year, 5 percent rule." It won't approve payment for treatment that doesn't provide at least a 5 percent chance of survival after five years.
In Wagner's case, administrators of the Oregon Health Plan had to make a difficult call. But that's what they do every day in performing the tough, thankless job of rationing government-paid health care to the needy.
What's unacceptable, however, is that Wagner's rejection letter included the offer of payment for doctor-assisted death. Such notification creates at least the appearance of an ethical conflict: state encouragement of dying as a cost-saving measure.
As the only state that both allows assisted suicide and tries to ration health care, Oregon has created a fine ethical line for state officials to navigate. In this case, they stepped over it. For the sake of ethical clarity in Oregon's Death With Dignity Act, the state health plan should stop offering to pay for those who use it.
They don't mind that the doctor offered assisted suicide. They are offended that the insurance company should pay for it.
What's next? Oregon liberal's solution for the energy crisis: Soylent Biofuel.
To parodize Nancy Sinatra...Residents in a Pinellas County subdivision found about 30 catfish walking around their neighborhood on Tuesday.An exotic invasive species that's not expected to overtake Florida any time soon but they make great photographs for the tourists and even the locals. We have enough great blue herons to pick 'em off one at a time. Let 'em come walkin' around the yard.
The walking catfish uses its pectoral fin to shuffle up the street and can breathe out of water as long as it stays moist.
Dianna Fernandez maintains the lawns in the area and drove up on the incredible sight.
Barack Obama knows how to play the audience. He knows what they want to hear. The anti-American, George Bush-hating audience of journalists and MSM's want to hear their presidential candidate trash the United States.The Hawaii-born senator, who has told local reporters that he supports the federal recognition bill for native Hawaiians drafted by U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka, noted other ethnic groups but did not mention native Hawaiians when answering a question about his thoughts on a formal U.S. apology to American Indians.
"I personally would want to see our tragic history, or the tragic elements of our history, acknowledged," the Democratic presidential hopeful said.
"I consistently believe that when it comes to whether it's Native Americans or African-American issues or reparations, the most important thing for the U.S. government to do is not just offer words, but offer deeds."
In page after page, they show the devastation to a state's economy that is wrought by the enticing, hopelessly false promises of using confiscatory taxation to protect the poor and disadvantaged. All it does, in the end, is drive off the producers to freer states, leaving behind the poor and disadvantaged and a state budget in deficit, while growth – including growth in state tax revenues – accrue to the freer states.More Sma' Talk:
Ten thousand employees go to work to find restaurant doors closed.
One of my favorite almost fast-food restaurants.
Maariv, the second most popular newspaper in Israel, was roundly criticized for publishing the note Obama left in the Kotel. But now a Maariv spokesperson says that publication of the note was pre-approved for international publication by the Obama campaign, leading to the conclusion that the "private" prayer was intentionally leaked for public consumption.
So now for public viewing I provide Obama's sincere prayer to God for his family and his own life.
Is there nothing that this man won't stoop to? Is there no portion of this campaign that is not contrived? The disrespect this citizen of the world shows to the world indicates more and more that he could be the Anti-Christ.
“Though far less responsible for climate change, African-Americans are significantly more vulnerable to its effects than non-Hispanic whites,” the report says. “Health, housing, economic well-being, culture, and social stability are harmed from such manifestations of climate change as storms, floods, and climate variability.More Sma' Talk:
“African-Americans are also more vulnerable to higher energy bills, unemployment, recessions caused by global energy price shocks, and a greater economic burden from military operations designed to protect the flow of oil to the U.S,” it says.
The commission Clyburn helped launch claims Hurricane Katrina’s impact on New Orleans was a preview of how global warming will affect African-Americans.
The probe has upended Alaska state politics and brought negative attention to Stevens—who is running for re-election this year—and to his congressional colleague, Rep. Don Young, who also is under investigation.
Stevens' indictment further damages Republican prospects in the November elections as Senate Democrats, who now enjoy a 51-49 majority, try to capture a filibuster-proof 60-vote majority.
Prosecutors said Stevens received more than $250,000 in gifts and services from VECO Corp., a powerful oil services contractor, and its executives. From May 1999 to August 2007, prosecutors said, the 84-year-old senator concealed "his continuing receipt of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of things of value from a private corporation."
The indictment unsealed Tuesday says the items included home improvements to his vacation home in Alaska, including a new first floor, garage, wraparound deck, plumbing and electrical wiring, as well as a Viking gas grill, furniture and tools. He also was accused of failing to report swapping an old Ford for a new Land Rover to be driven by one of his children.
Will police be more likely to write less tickets and provide happy meals in Manila? Will the fast food chain become "slow down" restaurants? Police in Manila are looking to convert their patrol cars to run on a mixture of diesel and used cooking oil from McDonald's, officials and the company said Tuesday.
With oil prices at crippling highs, the project would convert cars in the Makati financial district to run on a mix of 40 percent diesel and 60 percent cooking oil, its police chief Senior Superintendent Gilbert Cruz said.
Used cooking oil will be donated by Makati outlets of the hamburger giant, said McDonalds franchising manager Buth Salaya.
Other restaurants are also considering donating their used cooking oil as well, Cruz said.
One police car has been converted to use the diesel/cooking oil mixture and is already in use, and the government is studying how viable it is to convert more vehicles.
Romanian immigrant family blessed by 18 beautiful, healthy children. Alexandru Ionce does not know if the couple will be having more children.
"We never planned how many children to have," he said. "We just let God guide our lives, you know, because we strongly believe life comes from God and that's the reason we did not stop the life.
"We let life come."
What a wonderful family. The more the merrier is God's blessing.
The Orlando Sentinel's television critic, Hal Boedeker reviews a new PBS documentary on the Bible."It challenges the Bible's stories if you want to read them literally, and that will disturb many people," says archaeologist William Dever, who specializes in Israel's history. "But it explains how and why these stories ever came to be told in the first place, and how and why they were written down."
The Nova program will premiere Nov. 18. PBS presented a clip and a panel discussion at the summer tour of the Television Critics Association.
The program says the Bible was written in the sixth century BC and that hundreds of authors contributed.
"At least the first five books of the Bible come together during the Babylonian exile," says producer Gary Glassman.
The program challenges long-held beliefs. Abraham, Sarah and their offspring probably didn't exist, says Carol Meyers, a religion professor at Duke University.
"These stories are unlikely to represent real historical events, but rather there's some kernel of ancient experience in there which has survived and which helps give identity to the people at the time the Bible finally took shape centuries and centuries later," Meyers says.
There's no archaeological evidence of the Exodus, either, she says, but "it doesn't mean that there's no kernel of truth to it."
Nova series producer Paula Apsell says she found it "extremely shocking" to learn that monotheism was a process that took hundreds of years.
"I was always brought up to believe that the minute Abraham and the patriarchs came on the scene, the Israelites accepted one God and there was just always one God and that was it," Apsell says. "I think people are going to really be stunned by that."
Another shocker: The program contradicts the biblical view that the Israelites came from somewhere else into the land of Canaan. "The film shows that they were Canaanites," Apsell says.
Now we know why secularism is god in universities. Hasn't Apsell ever heard about the Israelites and the golden calf story? Semitic mythology?
Apsell's statements highlight an educational ignorance component about religion prevelant to liberal news media. I'm sure her American political beliefs have Europeans believing we have a cowboy in the White House.
Wayne Huston of Newsbusters yells about the huge error in the Berlin Obamarama speech that none of the MSM's decided to point out. The bold emphasis is Huston's.The walls between old allies on either side of the Atlantic cannot stand. The walls between the countries with the most and those with the least cannot stand. The walls between races and tribes; natives and immigrants; Christian and Muslim and Jew cannot stand. These now are the walls we must tear down.
We know they have fallen before. After centuries of strife, the people of Europe have formed a Union of promise and prosperity. Here, at the base of a column built to mark victory in war, we meet in the center of a Europe at peace. Not only have walls come down in Berlin, but they have come down in Belfast, where Protestant and Catholic found a way to live together; in the Balkans, where our Atlantic alliance ended wars and brought savage war criminals to justice; and in South Africa, where the struggle of a courageous people defeated apartheid.
As Catholics become the majority religion in Northern Ireland, and as Nationalists start to dominate the DUP, Obama's statement is a misstatement.
Obama claims that the walls built to separate Protestant from Catholic have come down in Belfast. Well, in fact, they have not. In reality MORE ARE BEING BUILT all the time.
As a May 5th USA Today story chronicles, "Ten years after peace was declared in Northern Ireland, one might have expected that Belfast's barriers would be torn down by now. But reality, as usual, is far messier. Not one has been dismantled. Instead they've grown in both size and number."
Obama says its so...While in Berlin on July 24,2008, Obama was proclaiming: "As we speak, cars in Boston and factories in Beijing are melting the ice caps in the Arctic, shrinking coastlines in the Atlantic, and bringing drought to farms from Kansas to Kenya."
Complete list of all the things thought to be affected by global warming. (rolling eyes here)
Glick: So Larry, good or bad move at this point heading into the conventions?
Sabato: Well, look...that's all on issues of one sort or another. I am just like most Americans, I don't like nasty, negative campaigns, but people need to understand that politics is the rough, cutting edge of democracy. It's our substitute for riots in the streets and coup d'etats. It's not a Sunday afternoon tea party. So I think that [McCain's ad] is in bounds. You can dispute varying portions of it, but it's inbounds.Negative ads are nothing new. Eric Burns' book on the history of American political journalism, "Infamous Scribblers, The Founding Fathers and The Rowdy Beginnings of American Journalism", lays out the yellow journalism practiced by journalists of the late 1700's. The modern voter today would be horrified at the lies, hyperbole and character assassination printed daily about political opponents in the 18th century. Revolutionary journalists reveled in negative campaigning despite not having a concept of a television commercial ads.
George Washington complained to Thomas Jefferson about newspapers printing the "grossest and most insidious misrepresentations" of his deeds and thoughts. Thomas Jefferson offered solace to Washington, but kept to himself that he was responsible for some of those misrepresentations and was secretly putting forth his own agenda, not the President's. [Burns, p256]. Samuel Adams, with helpful oversight from John Adams, wrote inflamatory hyperbole in the Boston Gazette, known as "The Weekly Dung Barge" to stir the souls of New Englanders against the British. Adams 'Journal of The Times' catalogued supposed atrocities perpetrated by the British troops stationed in Boston. Sound familiar, Sen "Porker of the Year" Murtha?
What I've come to find is that liberals can't answer or debate their politics. They take offense to their policies being explained by their opponent and campaign ads in a perspective they don't like, honest and factual as they may be. Differences of opinions is why we have a democracy in the United States to begin with. Conservatives policies vs liberal policies. Which one is better for America.
Democrats should respond back with their reasoning and defend their policies. The American Public deserves nothing less.
Federal immigration agents raided the kosher meat packing plant in May, rounded up 389 illegal immigrants. They found more than 20 underage workers, some as young as 13 years old. Now these young immigrants have been -- these young immigrants -- have begun to tell investigators about their job. Some say they work shifts of 12 hours or more, wield be razor edge knives and saws to slice freshly killed beef. Some work through the night, sometimes six nights a week.
One Guatemalan named Elmer L. who was 16 when he started working on the plant's killing floor said he was working 17 hour shifts six days a week. In an affidavit he said he was constantly tired, didn't have the time to do anything but work and sleep. He said, "I was very, very sad." Quote, "I felt as though I were a slave." You felt like you were -- you were a slave. "
Talk about extra-special extra terrestrials, diamonds may be the foundation to our carbon-based life here on Earth.Diamonds are crystallized forms of carbon that predate the oldest known life on the planet. In lab experiments aimed to confirm work done more than three decades ago, researchers found that when treated with hydrogen, natural diamonds formed crystalline layers of water on the surface.
Water is essential for life as we know it. Also, the tests found electrical conductivity that could have been key to forcing chemical reactions needed to generate the first birth.
When primitive molecules landed on the surface of these hydrogenated diamonds in the atmosphere of early Earth, a few billion years ago, the resulting reaction may have been sufficient enough to generate more complex organic molecules that eventually gave rise to life, the researchers say.
What's exciting is more theories on life. We learn so much every day in science.Another theory, called panspermia, holds that life on Earth arrived from space, as organisms rained down inside tiny meteors or giant comets.
The new research does not conclusively determine how life began, but it lends support to one possible way.
"Hydrogenated diamond advances to the best of all possible origin-of-life platforms," the researchers contend.
Gerard Baker of the Times has found this scriptural testament to the Messiah's pilgrimage.
And it came to pass, in the eighth year of the reign of the evil Bush the Younger (The Ignorant), when the whole land from the Arabian desert to the shores of the Great Lakes had been laid barren, that a Child appeared in the wilderness.
The Child was blessed in looks and intellect. Scion of a simple family, offspring of a miraculous union, grandson of a typical white person and an African peasant. And yea, as he grew, the Child walked in the path of righteousness, with only the occasional detour into the odd weed and a little blow.
When he was twelve years old, they found him in the temple in the City of Chicago, arguing the finer points of community organisation with the Prophet Jeremiah and the Elders. And the Elders were astonished at what they heard and said among themselves: “Verily, who is this Child that he opens our hearts and minds to the audacity of hope?”
In the great Battles of Caucus and Primary he smote the conniving Hillary, wife of the deposed King Bill the Priapic and their barbarian hordes of Working Class Whites.
And so it was, in the fullness of time, before the harvest month of the appointed year, the Child ventured forth - for the first time - to bring the light unto all the world.
He travelled fleet of foot and light of camel, with a small retinue that consisted only of his loyal disciples from the tribe of the Media. He ventured first to the land of the Hindu Kush, where the
Taleban had harboured the viper of al-Qaeda in their bosom, raining terror on all the world.
And the Child spake and the tribes of Nato immediately loosed the Caveats that had previously bound them. And in the great battle that ensued the forces of the light were triumphant. For as long as the Child stood with his arms raised aloft, the enemy suffered great blows and the threat of terror was no more.
From there he went forth to Mesopotamia where he was received by the great ruler al-Maliki, and al-Maliki spake unto him and blessed his Sixteen Month Troop Withdrawal Plan even as the imperial warrior Petraeus tried to destroy it.
And lo, in Mesopotamia, a miracle occurred. Even though the Great Surge of Armour that the evil Bush had ordered had been a terrible mistake, a waste of vital military resources and doomed to end in disaster, the Child's very presence suddenly brought forth a great victory for the forces of the light.
And the Persians, who saw all this and were greatly fearful, longed to speak with the Child and saw that the Child was the bringer of peace. At the mention of his name they quickly laid aside their intrigues and beat their uranium swords into civil nuclear energy ploughshares.
From there the Child went up to the city of Jerusalem, and entered through the gate seated on an ass. The crowds of network anchors who had followed him from afar cheered “Hosanna” and waved great palm fronds and strewed them at his feet.
In Jerusalem and in surrounding Palestine, the Child spake to the Hebrews and the Arabs, as the Scripture had foretold. And in an instant, the lion lay down with the lamb, and the Israelites and Ishmaelites ended their long enmity and lived for ever after in peace.
As word spread throughout the land about the Child's wondrous works, peoples from all over flocked to hear him; Hittites and Abbasids; Obamacons and McCainiacs; Cameroonians and Blairites.
And they told of strange and wondrous things that greeted the news of the Child's journey. Around the world, global temperatures began to decline, and the ocean levels fell and the great warming was over.
The Great Prophet Algore of Nobel and Oscar, who many had believed was the anointed one, smiled and told his followers that the Child was the one generations had been waiting for.
And there were other wonderful signs. In the city of the Street at the Wall, spreads on interbank interest rates dropped like manna from Heaven and rates on credit default swaps fell to the ground as dead birds from the almond tree, and the people who had lived in foreclosure were able to borrow again.
Black gold gushed from the ground at prices well below $140 per barrel. In hospitals across the land the sick were cured even though they were uninsured. And all because the Child had pronounced it.
And this is the testimony of one who speaks the truth and bears witness to the truth so that you might believe. And he knows it is the truth for he saw it all on CNN and the BBC and in the pages of The New York Times.
Then the Child ventured forth from Israel and Palestine and stepped onto the shores of the Old Continent. In the land of Queen Angela of Merkel, vast multitudes gathered to hear his voice, and he preached to them at length.
But when he had finished speaking his disciples told him the crowd was hungry, for they had had nothing to eat all the hours they had waited for him.
And so the Child told his disciples to fetch some food but all they had was five loaves and a couple of frankfurters. So he took the bread and the frankfurters and blessed them and told his disciples to feed the multitudes. And when all had eaten their fill, the scraps filled twelve baskets.
Thence he travelled west to Mount Sarkozy. Even the beauteous Princess Carla of the tribe of the Bruni was struck by awe and she was great in love with the Child, but he was tempted not.
On the Seventh Day he walked across the Channel of the Angles to the ancient land of the hooligans. There he was welcomed with open arms by the once great prophet Blair and his successor, Gordon the Leper, and his successor, David the Golden One.
And suddenly, with the men appeared the archangel Gabriel and the whole host of the heavenly choir, ranks of cherubim and seraphim, all praising God and singing: “Yes, We Can.”
An incredible exhibit showcasing the sadness, injustices, and mistreatment of those impoverished, argumentative, socially unacceptable, and truly mentally ill but receiving no true medical treatment. Thousands of people entered Willards Psychiatric Center for help and very few left. When New York's 120-plus-year-old mental institution Willard State Hospital was closed down in 1995, New York Museum curator Craig Williams found a forgotten attic filled with suitcases belonging to former inmates. He informed Penney, co-editor of The Snail's Pace Review and a leading advocate of patients rights, who recognized the opportunity to salvage the memory of these institutionalized lives. She invited Stastny, a psychiatrist and documentary filmmaker, to help her curate an exhibit on the find and write this book, which they dedicate to "the Willard suitcase owners, and to all others who have lived and died in mental institutions."
What follows are profiles of 10 individual patients whose suitcase contents proved intriguing (there were 427 bags total), referencing their institutional record-including histories and session notes-as well as some on-the-ground research. A typical example is Ethel Smalls, who likely suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of her husband's abuse; misdiagnosed and institutionalized against her will, she lived at Willard until her death in 1973. While the individual stories are necessarily sketchy, the cumulative effect is a powerful indictment of healthcare for the mentally ill.
Check dates and locations to visit the museum when it comes to your area. Please go to this unforgettable museum of forgotten humans. You can read and hear the letters, photographs, memories, and their feelings, all packed in stored suitcases they left behind.
Lives Long Lost
Forgotten Suitcases, Emotional Baggage
Kim Komando has this 2006 surfer's dream, called the most perfect wave ever. Incredible footage that had me not hanging ten, but gripping all ten fingers and toes to see if Mike Parsons makes this death-defying attempt to surf the big one at Cortez Bank in a Pacific Ocean coral reef.
Hat tip to Pappy!
Everyone is dying, some people have the fortune and the gift of knowing when and time to prepare for it. The "Last Lecture" was a poignant event that was created just for Randy Pausch's children. He was best known for "dying" right in front of us, but he also achieved much in his life.Pausch died at home of complications from pancreatic cancer, Carnegie Mellon University, where he taught for 10 years, reported on its Web site.
The computer science professor was best known for his "last lecture," entitled "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams," which he gave in September 2007 just weeks after learning he was suffering from terminal cancer.
Footage of the poignant and inspirational lecture became a hit on the Internet, viewed by millions of people.
A book based on the talk, "The Last Lecture," was translated into 30 languages and became an international bestseller, Carnegie Mellon, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, said on its Web site.
In the lecture, Pausch spoke about the dreams he had achieved, such as writing a World Book Encyclopedia entry and experiencing zero gravity. But he said he learned more from the dreams he had not achieved, such as his desire to be a professional football player.
He said he delivered the lecture as a guide for his three young children.
"I'm attempting to put myself in a bottle that will one day wash up on the beach for my children," the university quoted him as saying.
BBC's article on Randy Pausch. Randy developed the 3-D animation software instrumental for use in movies such as Pirates of the Caribbean.
SNP's (Pàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba) candidate John Mason won by 365 votes over Labour's Margaret Curran."This is going to have a huge impact. Somebody said it's No 10 on the Richter scale. It just feels tremendous. It was a huge challenge, a huge majority to overcome."It is going to send a message all around the country."
Unbelievable that NPR holds these two up as a victim of their circumstances. This is the epitome of the 'generational welfare' society that permeates our country.
By the way, the report adds almost as an aside, there's also about 1,669 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in the Arctic region. That's about 27% of the world's total.We need to drill here, drill now!
This again puts the lie to the "peak" oil theorists, who have asserted repeatedly that the amount of oil we can use is in terminal decline and that it's therefore futile to drill for more. It's not.
Let's put this in perspective. That 90 billion barrels of Arctic crude is enough to run the entire world economy for three years. And it could fuel the U.S. alone for 12 years.
Using a conservative estimate, let's say we pump 3 million barrels a day after developing these Arctic resources. That would boost total U.S. crude output of 8 million barrels a day by 38%. It would shrink the trade deficit, saving us roughly $137 billion a year in money we now send to Mideast and South American oil potentates, some of whom use the money to train and equip terrorists.
Obama said Israelis could be certain of his commitment to Israel's security by looking at "my deeds."
"Just this past week, we passed out of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, which is my committee, a bill to call for divestment from Iran, as a way of ratcheting up the pressure to ensure that they don't obtain a nuclear weapon," he said.
However, Obama does not serve on the banking committee, and McCain's campaign seized on the mistake.
"Not only is it not his committee, but he's not even on the committee, he didn't vote on the bill, and he had nothing to do with its passage," McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said in a statement issued Wednesday.
Whose idea are these convoluted, misplaced policies? Obama's? Or his campaign advisors telling him what to say? Again placing doubt and inability on Obama's part to be a Commander in Chief of the United States.
What a pathetic ineffective speech!
Obama interjects racism in his rambling and lackluster speech at the at the Siegesäule, Victory Column in English, in Berlin's Tiergarten park. His speech was typical evangelistic, which didn't seem to inspire any of the huge crowds upon leaving, according to Major Garrett, a Fox News reporter. But the Germans did respond with glee when Obama dissed the United States AGAIN...
The crowd was filled with many American citizens, including those who stood in lines to register to vote. But the overwhelming share was made up of German residents, who cheered when Obama called upon the United States to correct its deeds.
Obama said that America took stock of its loss after the victory of World War II and defeat of Hitler's army? We won that war!
Obama's talk of the fall of the Berlin Wall is exactly what George Bush did in Iraq with the toppling of Saddam Hussein and what's happening in Iraq today.Sixty years after the airlift, we are called upon again. History has led us to a new crossroad, with new promise and new peril. When you, the German people, tore down that wall -- a wall that divided East and West; freedom and tyranny; fear and hope -- walls came tumbling down around the world.
From Kiev to Cape Town, prison camps were closed, and the doors of democracy were opened. Markets opened too, and the spread of information and technology reduced barriers to opportunity and prosperity.
While the 20th century taught us that we share a common destiny, the 21st has revealed a world more intertwined than at any time in human history.
The fall of the Berlin Wall brought new hope. But that very closeness has given rise to new dangers -- dangers that cannot be contained within the borders of a country or by the distance of an ocean.
As we speak, cars in Boston and factories in Beijing are melting the ice caps in the Arctic, shrinking coastlines in the Atlantic, and bringing drought to farms from Kansas to Kenya.
Finally to top it all off, Obama used the phrase "We are a people of improbable hope." 'Improbable' hope? Why on earth would he use that phrase?
This is what the word means:
Main Entry: im·prob·a·ble
Etymology: Middle French or Latin; Middle French, from Latin improbabilis, from in- + probabilis probable:
1. unlikely to be true or to occur ; also : unlikely but real or true
Unlikely??? What a poor choice of words. Next to his 'Uh's' and pausing so as to have to respond to the questions, he makes Presidential George Bush look smart.
Synch story floating on Internet today: "Improbably Divine: 10 Unconventional Religious Articles
How about unlikely candidate for the Presidency of the United States? It's okay with me if Germany wants Barack. He can represent them, he doesn't represent this citizen of the United States.
Hat tip to Dave.
Church officials did not recognize the ordination, and the Vatican has previously warned that women taking part in ordination ceremonies will be excommunicated.
The group known as Roman Catholic Womenpriests held the ceremony at the Church of the Covenant, a Protestant Church in Boston.
The group said the three women—Gloria Carpeneto of Baltimore, Judy Lee of Fort Myers, Fla., and Gabriella Velardi Ward of New York City—are responding to a heartfelt call to serve the church as priests.
A fourth woman, Mary Ann McCarthy Schoettly of Newton, N.J., was ordained as a deacon, the group said.
The Archdiocese of Boston issued a statement decrying the ceremony.
Previous Sma' Talk Posts:
What About The Women?
When I was 11, a common "peace-love" liberal bumper sticker said: "Stop the war in Vietnam, and start one in China." Obama's bumper sticker policy on his war issues now involves sending more 7000 more troops to Afghanistan because the US shouldn't be in Iraq. This is a total flip-flop on his policy in Jan '07 of bringing the troops home and in Mar '08.“It is past time to end this war that should never have been waged by bringing our troops home, and finally pushing Iraq's leaders to take responsibility for their future. "
Or is it? Will he bring troops home or will he send them elsewhere or keep them in Iraq? After this weekend of chummying up as a pseudopresident of the USA with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and promising aid, I'm betting that if Obama becomes president, the troops will not come home for years.
This stumbling admission from Obama in 2004 saying he wouldn't necessarily bring troops home.
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows Barack Obama attracting 44% of the vote while John McCain earns 41%. When "leaners" are included, it’s Obama 47% and McCain 45% .
Democrat Speaker of the House has committed the "2008 John Wiley Price Award" for opening her mouth and removing all doubt that she is a fool.Any leader with an energy record as derelict as Speaker Pelosi's ought to step down. Where she once was just incompetent and irresponsible, she has now — with her latest scheme to fix oil prices — become dangerous.
Despite polls showing Americans in favor of drilling more oil from America's huge untapped supplies, Pelosi won't allow it. She just wants to empty our Strategic Petroleum Reserve for a short-term fix to get through Election Day.
It's an irresponsible suggestion, signaling not only an ignorance of how the economy works but also a willingness to place the nation at risk in the case of emergency.
Last Tuesday, Pelosi sent a letter to President Bush urging him to release a "small portion" of the nation's 706 million barrels of strategic-reserve oil to bring down prices. Regardless of how one feels about whether reserves should be held at all, two big problems stand out with Pelosi's tiny demand.One, she's proposing a misappropriation of the reserves. The U.S. oil stockpile is a 58-day cushion for emergencies that today are all possible. If Israel attacks Iran, for example, and prices double again. Or if Hugo Chavez cuts off his supplies, as he threatened to do as recently as Sunday.
The reserve is there to cushion the blow of a market disruption; it's not an open-market mechanism to manipulate prices for political ends.
Two, Pelosi has finally admitted that supply matters, something that contrasts with her entire legislative record. We count 14 energy actions to suppress supply on her Web site just since 2005.
She has blocked efforts to open Alaska to drilling, denounced fossil fuels, blamed oil companies for high gasoline prices, voted for biotech boondoggles and condemned speculators.
You'll also be able to compare your News IQ with the average scores of 1,003 men and women; with college graduates as well as those who didn't attend college; with people who are your age as well as with younger and older Americans. Are you more news-savvy than the average American?
Where are the Republicans on this? Where is the liberal hue and cry of separation of church and state? And yes! Where is the ACLU?According to the Gates of Vienna, the government advertised:
In celebration of Ramadan, Global Publishing Solutions (GPS) is offering a limited edition of the 2009 Mosques in America Wall Calendar. This 12-month calendar is perfect for Muslim outreach efforts, as well as office and event giveaways. The wall calendar features a vibrant photograph or photomontage for each month, displaying the beauty of mosques in America. The upper half of the hanging calendar depicts mosque facades or interiors, and the lower half displays a monthly calendar grid. The 28-page calendar is saddle-stitched and measures 23 x 30 1/2 cm (9 x 12 inches) This item is on sale until August 1st, 2008 in shrink-wrapped packs of 20 pieces.
"Remember," said the Internet commentator, "This was on an official State Department (state.gov) web page. GPS describes itself this way: 'The Global Publishing Solutions, manages this site as a gateway to information and transactions for their U.S. State Department clients."
On the Gates of Vienna site, a reader posted a comment recommending the State Department "adorn the calendar with equally vibrant Quranic verses and hadiths, samples of what is preached in those mosques. For example: January: Kill the infidels wherever you find them. February: Allah's Apostle said: I've been made victorious with terror – and so on and so forth."
JihadWatch.org pointed out the page was pulled after the weblog Snapped Shot posted an image of it yesterday. Snapped Shot said it seems the public servants at State "get all nervous when We, The People actually notice" what they're doing.
JihadWatch also made available captured screen shots of the top half and the bottom half of the page.Gates of Vienna commented: "Since Islam is not really a religion, but a political ideology, the government's sale of an Islamocentric calendar evidently doesn't violate the separation of church and state. It's like selling photos of local Democratic Party Headquarters."
The cached page reveals the prices are $44 per pack if you order from 6-10 packs of 20.
The Archbishop's letter is a reply to feelers to Christians put out by Islamic leaders from 43 countries last autumn.
In it, Dr Williams said violence is incompatible with the beliefs of either faith and that, once that principle is accepted, both can work together against poverty and prejudice and to help the environment.
He also said the Christian belief in the Trinity - that God is Father, Son and Holy Ghost at the same time - 'is difficult, sometimes offensive, to Muslims'.
Trinitarian doctrine conflicts with the Islamic view that there is just one all-powerful God.
Dr Williams added: 'It is all the more important for the sake of open and careful dialogue that we try to clarify what we do and do not mean by it, and so I trust that what follows will be read in this spirit.'
He told Muslim leaders that faith has no connection with political power or force, and that Christians have in the past betrayed this idea.
'Christianity has been promoted at the point of the sword and legally supported by extreme sanctions,' Dr Williams said.
What do other Anglican leaders think about Williams and his pro-Muslim comments?
It's summer time and gators are about... Do you know what to do?Alligator Alert
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is advising hikers, hunters, fishers, and golfers to take extra precautions and keep alert for alligators while in Osceola, Polk, Brevard, and Orange counties. They advise people to wear noise-producing devices; such as little bells on their clothing, to alert, but not startle, the alligators. They also advise the carrying of pepper spray in case of an encounter with an alligator.People should recognize the difference between young alligator and large adult alligator droppings. Young alligator droppings are smaller and contain fish bones and possibly bird feathers. Adult alligator droppings have little bells in them and smell like pepper spray.
This Right was designed to be a weapon against oppression and a shield from tyranny, a means of civil expression and a vehicle for positive change. Any effort to muffle or eliminate Free Speech that is civilly presented, factually correct and intended to preserve, extend, or improve our Republic is a strike against all of us. Conversely, any use of this Right to embarrass and harm individuals is a strike against Free Speech itself.
Blogging is an extension of our Right to Free Speech and must granted the same privileges as any other responsible media but must also be held to the same legal, honorable, and valued traditions.
Let the Government spend it's time peeking into peoples bedrooms and skewing information, it has more experience. Bloggers need not stoop to that level.
How perverted is it when a predator has a t-shirt that says "World's Greatest Dad?" What's even scarier is that his screen name online was danmichelle2004. Parents are encouraged to check their children's "buddy lists" for the screen name(s) Everett used including "danmichelle2004". If they believe their child had contact with Everett, parents should contact the Attorney General's office at (313) 456-0180.How many unexpecting adults and children has Daniel Allen Everett talked to online that were unsuspecting and thought he was normal?
There are three billboards across Orlando that all contain the same controversial image.
Each shows the Twin Towers burning and read ‘Please Don’t Vote for a Democrat’. At a time when people are trying to forget the Twin Towers on fire, the billboards attempt to remind us of the War on Terrorism.
It turns out the bill boards direct people to a website which promotes a political song, written by a Saint Cloud resident Mike Meehan, who also has his own music video. The musician and business owner is making a musical statement in Presidential politics. His song is called "Please Don't Vote for a Democrat."
Meehan says this is about his First Amendment rights and his freedom of speech.
Mike Meehan has also written a great song also called "Don't Vote For A Democrat." You can listen to it here. Mike says the billboards will be up through the election this fall.
I've written Mike and asked him where can I contribute to his next billboard: Vote ALL Incumbents Out!
Orlando City Council just found out that because of housing crisis, Gov Crist's and the Republican legislature Amendment 1 property tax rollback there will be a $30 million dollar loss in tax revenue. The Orlando City Council's solution: 21% property tax increase to homeowners. No cutting back on "entertainment venues" being built by the city, no cuts on fat cat city consultant experts, no belt tightening (without laying off the overworked public servants) of city budgets. Just tax the homeowner.
Mayor Buddy Dyer? You're out next election!
District 1 Commissioner: Phil Diamond You're out next election!
District 2 Commissioner: Tony Ortiz You're out next election!
District 3 Commissioner: Robert F. Stuart You're out next election!
District 4 Commissioner: Patty Sheehan You're out next election!
District 5 Commissioner: Daisy W. Lynum You're out next election!
District 6 Commissioner: Samuel B. Ings You're out next election!
Senator Mel Martinez and Senator Rick Keller? You're history!
Thank Bud Hedinger and WDBO 540AM for bringing this to our attention. I couldn't call in, but I was furious when I heard about the City Council meeting. That's it, enough is enough!
...pleaded guilty on Monday to conspiring to cause explosions, part of a plan prosecutors say would have involved smuggling liquid bombs onto airliners with the intention of blowing them up mid-flight.
The same three, and two others, also pleaded guilty to conspiring to cause a public nuisance by publishing martyrdom suicide videos, admitting their guilt in the final stages of a major airline bomb plot trial.
Those who entered the pleas are among eight men on trial for the so-called Heathrow airport bomb plot, which was uncovered in August 2006 and led to the imposition of tight new restrictions on carrying liquids on board flights worldwide.
Muslims Abdullah Ahmed Ali, Assad Sarwar, and Tanvir Hussain are now saying in their defense that they were never planning to kill thousands of passengers on jet planes but just wanted to bring attention to a documentary that they were making showcasing British and US public foreign policy. Yeah, and I have property in the New York City Twin Towers they want to sell to us along with that excuse.
Oh wait, that property isn't there anymore, it was blown up on 9-11 by Muslims wanting to show the world the evil in the United States.
Move along, nothing to see here folks, just the British in denial that their country is a haven for Muslim terrorists.
Senior citizens and still active, still traveling, do you ever wonder what popes do to relax?One shot pigeons, another played bocce ball with the Swiss Guards, and John Paul II skied and hiked.
But give Pope Benedict XVI a grand piano and he will feel his vacation is complete....On Monday, the day after flying more than 20 hours from the Vatican in the longest journey of his three-year papacy, the 81-year-old Benedict took several walks, touched up his speeches for later in the week, and was treated to an afternoon concert by seven members of the Sydney Symphony Training Orchestra. They played Schumann, Schubert and Mozart—a particular favorite, Lombardi said.
He met with Sydney Archbishop Cardinal George Pell to discuss the upcoming events over brunch.
"His health is very good. The pope is resting," said Lombardi.
On the grounds of the retreat is a swimming pool, tennis court and a miniature chapel built right against the bush—with windows looking out onto Australian native eucalyptus trees.
Awaiting Thursday's commencement of a busy four-day schedule, Benedict, an accomplished pianist, will be more than content to practice on the piano, read or make last-minute touches to his speeches.
The Obama campaign quickly condemned the rendering. Spokesman Bill Burton said in a statement: “The New Yorker may think, as one of their staff explained to us, that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Sen. Obama's right-wing critics have tried to create. But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree."So the uproar over denigrating New Yorker covers of Bush, Cheney, and Rice? Where were the critics then over these covers?
Let's see, satire... hmmmm doesn't anyone appreciate satire on the Left? Maybe it's because subconsciously, New York has more to fear from an Obama victory than a McCain victory?
Okay, this video has gone through multiple hands... I blame a reader for introducing me to Charlie Sykes blog who got it from Shark and Shepherd. It's just weird for me to hear women singing that high and men singing about papayas.This is apparently from a 2000 movie called "Pennin Manathai Thattu" and the song is called "Kalluri Vaanil." The words translated as "benny lava" are actually "-dha nilaavo." I have no idea what any of it means.
Fremont's is the first city council in the state to propose an ordinance that would ban harboring and renting to illegal immigrants. Lawmakers in other U.S. localities have introduced similar initiatives, often later struck down by the courts, according to national immigration groups.
Bob Warner, the longtime councilman who sponsored Fremont's proposal, said he did so because residents were "sick and tired" of what he said was the federal government's lax enforcement of immigration laws.
He said Fremont residents want their own immigration laws."I'll fight to the dying end to do what they want," Warner said. "I don't know why everybody is making a mountain out of something that is very simple."
The Oxford English Dictionary would seem to concur, as its first citation is from a 1968 article by John Wheeler in American Scientist.
It has nothing to do with African Americans. Why is Commissioner Price offended again? Do Blacks own every derogatory term or phrase, past and present, coined in the world?
There are phrases and words that sadly reference slavery, such as blackbirder, Black Belt, black bottom, but I don't think anyone but history majors and nautical buffs would know these phrases and I guarantee you that the average African-American could not tell you the definition unless they were history and nautical buffs.
Should we add to their racist dictionary these words and phrases?
Black Irish, black labs, black list, black pepper, black pudding, Black Watch, blackguard, blackmaster, blackberry, black arts, Black Betsy, black book, Black Belt (Judo) Black Death, black dog, black eye, black-eyed peas, Black Friday, black frost, black goods, Black Hand, black humor, black magic, blackmail, black money, blackout,Black Sea, Blackshirts, black shoe navy, blacksmith, black widow spider.
Do Blacks own these words as well?
Oh, how about this phrase? Black Republican, which my Driser's Library Facts on File Encyclopedia Word And Phrase Origins, third edition defines as :An insulting nickname for a Republican in the South, the term was first used to describe a Republican favoring emancipation of the slaves. It came to be applied to any Republican and is still occasionally heard.Michelle Malkin has added the following words to the imaginary racist dictionary.
Next on the p.c. forbidden list: black box, Blackberry, blackjack, and blackout. Oh, and all black Crayola crayons, which shall henceforth be called “African-American.”
Commissioner John Wiley Price owes Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield and Dallas County an immediate apology for this humiliating display of ignorance and "me" victimization.
What ever happened to "Black is Beautiful"?
UPDATE: Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield's rebuttal?
"In no way will I apologize for this ridiculous hypersensitivity. Anyone who is offended by the term black hole needs serious psychiatric treatment.
Commissioner Mayfield, more black power to you.
Hughes, who was an aide to George W. Bush in the White House and when he was Texas governor, will report to Mark Penn, the Burson-Marsteller worldwide president and chief executive who was chief strategist for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's Democratic presidential campaign.What does that make? Five, six sell-outs? What does this say about Bush's judgements?
"Karen is one of the leading communications strategists working today," Penn said. "She brings enormous strategic insights coupled with the ability to drive successful campaigns at the highest levels of the political, governmental and corporate arenas."
Hughes was undersecretary of state for public diplomacy in the Bush administration from August to December 2007 and oversaw the State Department's bureaus of educational and cultural affairs, public affairs and international information programs.
She was counselor to the president in 2001 and 2002, and then returned to Texas but continued serving as an informal adviser and a consultant his 2004 re-election campaign.
Whenever liberals tout that we should have a national health care system and ignorantly use the Canadian and British health care system as examples, I hope they research just a little and see that the health care paid for by the citizens in these countries is irresponsible and borders on fraud.No one should be forced to travel thousands of miles to obtain quality care. Yet that exactly is what I was forced to do after being diagnosed with a brain tumor three years ago.
After my government told me that I'd need to wait four to six months to see a neurologist and endocrinologist, and with my eyesight rapidly deteriorating, I decided to seek a diagnoses at the storied Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Ariz.
After a battery of tests, the doctors there told me I needed treatment immediately and advised me to return home for surgery. I returned to Canada confident that no doctor would turn away a patient in such obvious need of care. I was wrong.
Ten days later I flew back to the Phoenix area and underwent successful surgery that removed the tumor and restored my vision.
Why would someone who lives in an industrialized country with a high standard of living and a promise of guaranteed health care need to go anywhere else?
The answer — incredibly — is that Canada's bureaucratic health care system transformed me from a human into a number, put me on a waiting list and essentially told me to hope for the best.
More nationalized health care system horror stories:
Dave Racer, with the Minnesota Majority, has excellent points along with facts not fictional health care stories.
A Few FACTS, not fictionWell said Dave! We don't need mandatory health care along with even higher taxes. We need to have insurance reform along with hospital oversight on medical charges. United States citizens are being charged $129 for a box of Kleenex. That's price-gouging and should be illegal. The worse thing we can vote for is our government overseeing a nationalized health care system.
FACT: The U.S. health care system serves the most diverse population of any country in the world. Our statistics are affected by that diversity. Black women, for a variety of reasons, are more prone to underweight babies than are Caucasian and Asian women. Consistent genetic lineage also contributes to Sweden having a lower infant mortality rate and Japan having a longer life expectancy. These factors must be taken into account when comparing statistics around the world with U.S. statistics.
FACT: There is a direct correlation between two parent, marriage-based families and lower infant mortality rates. We need to do everything we can do to support and maintain traditional marriages.
FACT: Not every country defines “life birth” as strictly as we do. Here, it means any sign of life in the umbilical cord, any brain activity, or any muscle movement. If the baby shows any of these signs of life, and then dies, it counts against our infant mortality statistics.
FACT: The true number of chronically uninsured Americans is 3-5 percent of the population, not 15 or 16 percent.
FACT: Seventy-five percent of the uninsured are uninsured for less than a year. Uninsurance is temporary.
FACT: The largest group of uninsured U.S. residents is made up of temporary/seasonal workers, mostly of Hispanic/Latino origin, who are born in a foreign country.
FACT: U.S. and state taxpayers spent more than $500 billion in 2006, paying for health care services for low-income and uninsured residents.
FACT: Mandatory insurance laws always fail. Some 25 percent of Californians fail to buy auto insurance, even though the law says they must, and about 20 percent are without health insurance, though it is a voluntary purchase. In Minnesota, in 2003 some 17 percent of auto owners were uninsured, but only seven percent of Minnesotans were without health insurance. Hawaii has had mandatory health insurance for three decades, but more than 10 percent of its population is without health insurance.
FACT: In the United States, we do spend more than any other country in the world on health care. We also spend more than any other country in the world on houses, cars, food, TVs, telephones, designer clothes, and a whole host of consumer products. We spend because we can, and after we spend on necessities, we have more left over to spend on health care than any other country in the world.
The question is not if we can spend money on health care, or even how much we spend, it is on how we spend it. We can be more efficient. We can get more value for our health care dollar, and we ought to do. But it will never happen if politicians design a federal or state program to do it.
When I think of all the fantastic technology and medical advances we have in the world, it's truly a blessing from God.Nazi hunters said Thursday they were closer to tracking down Aribert Heim, the infamous sadistic "Doctor Death," after finding one of his daughters and what they called "credible" information.
"An Austrian doctor, Heim is wanted for killing hundreds of concentration camp victims with his horrific medical experiments, including performing operations without anesthesia and injecting gasoline directly into their hearts.
"He castrated people, he used parts of their body to decorate his office. I'm not giving out these details to emotionalize the issue, but for people to understand how important it is to catch this criminal," Zuroff said.
The Wiesenthal delegation said they had found Heim's daughter Waltraut Boser in Puerto Montt, but had not contacted her. Now aged 60, Boser is believed to be married to a local businessman and to have lived in Chile some 30 years.
During that time, she has traveled to Europe roughly 50 times, and in the last two years visited the Bariloche area in neighboring Argentina about a dozen times. Several Nazi criminals have found refuge in Argentina.
Heim disappeared from public view some 43 years ago.
A state lawmaker, a former legislative leader and 10 other people connected to the state House Democratic caucus were charged Thursday over allegations that millions of taxpayer dollars were illegally siphoned to underwrite political campaigns.
Pennsylvania prosecutors filed the theft, conflict of interest and conspiracy charges after grand jurors found that legislative employees got taxpayer-funded bonuses for doing campaign work; state computers and equipment were commandeered for political campaigning; and public contracts were issued for partisan purposes. Some of the bonuses issued in 2005 and 2006 were well over $20,000.
"Those charged include former Democratic Whip Mike Veon; Rep. Sean Ramaley, a Beaver County Democrat currently running for state Senate; and several key caucus staffers or former staffers, including Michael Manzo, forced out in November as chief of staff to House Majority Leader Bill DeWeese.
CNN Refuses To Cite Horrific Crime As Muslim Tradition A traditional Islamic crime occurs in Atlanta, Georgia,and CNN reports that the family is South Asian, not Middle Eastern despite the family being Pakistani immigrants and Muslim. Pakistan's official name is the Islamic Nation of Pakistan, situated between Greater Middle East and South Asia, the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman. Pakistan has the second largest Muslim population in the world.
Rashid's wife told authorities Kanwal recently had been married in Pakistan -- an arranged marriage, she said. The young woman's husband was living in Chicago, Illinois, police said, but Kanwal remained at her father's home and worked at a metro Atlanta Wal-Mart for a brief time.
"The victim was not interested in marrying, nor remaining married to her husband," the police report said, citing information authorities received from Rashid's wife.
"This was causing a great deal of friction between the victim and her father," so much so that the two had not spoken in two months, the report said.
Police found Rashid sitting behind a vehicle in the driveway, and he seemed "distraught and possibly mournful," the report said. He told police, "My daughter is dead." But when asked how she died, Rashid did not answer -- "he just dropped his head."
Ligature marks were found on Kanwal's body and police found an iron and cord by the doorway of her bedroom, where she was found. A necklace was found downstairs next to what appeared to be a prayer table.
Honor killings are an Islamic cultural practice that is meant to save the family humilation and shame. But CNN won't name the Muslim practice. A politically correct United Nations also refuses to condemn the Muslim tradition or identify the family as Muslims.
"Honor killings" -- the slaying by family members of a woman or girl thought to be bringing them shame -- are usually kept quiet, making it difficult to determine how frequently they occur. The United Nations Population Fund estimated in September 2000 that as many as 5,000 women and girls fall victim to such killings each year. "My immediate reaction was that this is an anomaly in the South Asian community," Ajay Nair, associate dean of multicultural affairs at Columbia University, told CNN on Tuesday. "Most South Asian-American families enjoy wonderful relationships within their families."
"I think there's ways that we can rationalize it and make sense of it, particularly in thinking about new immigrant communities in the U.S. and thinking about some of the struggles that they face and the generation gap and the cultural differences that children do face," he said. "I think there are some issues there, but by and large, this isn't a rampant problem within South Asian communities. What is a problem, I think, is domestic violence, and that cuts across all communities."
Well, I would think that Muslim women know what will happen to them if they voice any complaints and rebel against accepted misogynistic mores. In the United States, 1,400 women die each year in domestic violence. Dr. Nair, a Muslim male, thinks that 5,000 women and girls dying each year is an anomaly in Muslim, oops excuse me, South Asian communities? Honor killings aren't a rampant problem?
Ajay Nair does bring his South Asian politics to the classroom to mobilize his students at rallies.
More evidence that the murderer is Muslim? In court, the murder charges and legal rights were read to Chaundry Rashid in Urdu. Urdu, a primarily Indic language is the national language of Pakistan, spoken by Muslims, not Hindis. It is also spoken in Afghanistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Botswana, Fiji, Germany, Guyana, India, Malawi, Mauritius, Nepal, Norway, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Thailand, the United Arab Republic, United Kingdom, and Zambia. All heavily populated Muslim countries.
So why can't CNN and Professor Ajay Nair say Muslim or Islamic? Why are they not condemning this horrific and ancient tradition as barbaric and against the laws of God? Who are they really trying to protect? Certainly not women.
But there's an upside...our gasoline is still lower than the majority of the world.
The Rt. Reverend Andrew Burnham, the Anglican Bishop of Ebbsfleet, has made public his plans to come into communion with the Roman Catholic Church and bring his flock with him. His move follows the Church of England’s decision on Monday to allow women bishops to be ordained.We will probably see more Anglicans returning to the Roman Catholic Church. Let's hope and pray that they are greeted with a "Welcome Back Home."
In a column published in the Catholic Herald, Bishop Burnham explains that the move is the result of seeing traditionalist Anglicans denied any sort of special provisions in the Monday vote on women being ordained bishops.
Reacting to the news of debate taking place on Monday, Bishop Burnham said in a message, “I was aware that, in York, my job description was being demolished almost as I spoke.”
Bishop Burnham is one of three bishops in the Church in England that are officially called Provincial Episcopal Visitors but are more commonly known as “flying bishops.” These bishops oversee parishes that refuse to recognize women priests and now women bishops.
He also described the reasons that traditionalist Anglicans are leaving as “not motivated in the least by gender issues but by a keenness to pursue Catholic unity and truth.”
Full video tonight on Fox News all night on O'Reilly, Hannity. And you know Rush is going to be all over this tomorrow.
CNN has described what Jackson said as a paraphrase: "That the senator was cutting off his, you know whats, with black people and black church." The actual tape of Jackson's comments will air on Fox News tonight beginning at 8pm.Drudge has Jackson's backstabbing backpeddling.
Do you enjoy creative design, lost worlds, reading the Book Of Lists, beautiful colorful photographs, global travel, eccentric art and architecture, and unique lifestyles? Then WebUrbanism is for you.Sent to me every day by email, this blog posts a variety of eclectic topics with global "you are there" examples and photographs. The site boasts "urban design, culture, architecture and alternative art." They are exciting, informative, and provoking to read, and the resource links help you research more!
Recent topics include:
This is definitely a must visit for all architects, artists, engineers, designers, world travelers, and geeks.
Who are the WebUrbanists?
WebUrbanist blog collective writers are interested in all things urban - from urban design to subversive art and strange architecture. We scour the net to find neat new stuff then boil that information down and pack it into an article with relevant images and links, as exhaustive as we can manage on a single subject area. Our team is comprised of web designers, bloggers, architects and other curious urbanists.
Want more? Here's some of the WebUrbanism categories that you can get literally lost in:
This blog is a day brightener for anyone who is looking for a spark of inspiration or just plain bored at work. WebUrbanism will keep you occupied for hours. Check them out.
Can you see all the Hillary feminists holding up this tee shirt (click on photograph to enlarge) and thinking... "I voted for Hillary and all I got was this lousy t-shirt?" Dear Democratic Cash Cow,
I have so many wonderful memories from the millions of people I met on the campaign trail. Over the past year and a half, I have also collected a few cherished mementos. They are a reflection of the many ups and downs that we went through together and represent our many accomplishments.
In May, Chelsea announced our "Project T-Shirt" contest, and I never imagined we would have such an outpouring of support and great designs. We received almost five thousand amazing entries, and more than 125,000 of you voted for your favorite design.
While the primary race may be over, I think the winning t-shirt -- and it won by a landslide -- still makes a wonderful statement about everything you and I accomplished in this historic race and our determination to keep fighting for what we believe in.
If you contribute $50 today you'll get a t-shirt with the winning design and continue to help me pay down our campaign debt.
An image of Hillary in a pantsuits? You have to pay an additional $50 to get it? And why the sideshot? Are we sure that's Hillary body profile standing sideways?
I can't wait to see who wears this souvenir in public.
Thanks, R.
Children as young as three years old who don't like ethnic foods and say "yuck" are neophyte racists.The mad dogs and English have been out in the midday sun too much. Socialism has ruined the British Empire.A British government-sponsored organization says toddlers who say "yuck" when given unfamiliar foreign food may be exhibiting racist behavior.
The "Telegraph" newspaper of London cites a guide from the British-based "National Children's Bureau" providing advice on recognizing potentially-racist behavior in children. It states that includes children as young as three saying "yuck" in reacting to culinary traditions other than their own. The guide, titled "Young Children and Racial Justice," is for nursery staffs in charge of pre-school children. It states that racist incidents among children in early years settings tend to be around name-calling, casual thoughtless comments and peer group relationships.
The NCB warns that a lack of censure may indicate to the child that there is nothing unacceptable about such negative attitudes.
United States Islamic terrorist expert and blogger, Debbie Schussel has the shocking details at our National Security administration naivete and incompetance regarding Al-Qaeda terrorists with criminal records and arrest warrants in the United States. She's mad and you should be, too. "We've long known that we've made it easy for Islamic terrorists to get into the U.S. undetected, very easy for them to stay here and commit crimes, and very difficult to get rid of them. That's only changed for the worse under George W. Bush, and will be his Presidency's historical legacy many years into the future when its wreckage becomes painful enough for us to feel."
Take Bush's former National Security "expert" Fran Townsend. Debbie doesn't suffer this foolish nitwit at all. How did she even get hired? This is where compassionate Christianity and affirmitive action are going to get us all killed.
That's why unlike many "stunned" people--including so-called terrorism experts who don't actually know much--I wasn't surprised by the Washington Post's front-pager about this. Take special note of Frances Townsend--Bush's clueless, incompetent national security "expert" and her reaction. That reaction alone should tell you how dimwitted and unqualified she was for the job. I pity the companies that now hire her as a "security consultant," since they're pouring their money down an empty pit, in her case:
In the six-and-a-half years that the U.S. government has been fingerprinting insurgents, detainees and ordinary people in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Horn of Africa, hundreds have turned out to share an unexpected background, FBI and military officials said. They have criminal arrest records in the United States.
There was the suspected militant fleeing Somalia who had been arrested on a drug charge in New Jersey. And the man stopped at a checkpoint in Tikrit who claimed to be a dirt farmer but had 11 felony charges in the United States, including assault with a deadly weapon.
The records suggest that potential enemies abroad know a great deal about the United States because many of them have lived here, officials said. The matches also reflect the power of sharing data across agencies and even countries, data that links an identity to a distinguishing human characteristic such as a fingerprint.
"I found the number stunning," said Frances Fragos Townsend, a security consultant and former assistant to the president for homeland security. "It suggested to me that this was going to give us far greater insight into the relationships between individuals fighting against U.S. forces in the theater and potential U.S. cells or support networks here in the United States."
"Stunning"?! Where the heck has Fran Townsend been for the last decade? Well, sadly, for a significant chunk of it, she's been at the White House, which should explain our porous borders and limitless Islamic immigration. Oh, and by the way, Townsend was responsible for the government NOT pursuing various top HAMAS and Al-Qaeda terrorists uncovered by FBI counterterrorism agent Robert Wright. She put the kabosh on it, until it was too late. When a few--like HAMAS operative Mohammed Salah--were finally pursued, it was too late. (Salah beat the terrorism charges.)
Read all of terrorist expert Debbie Schussel's column here. You won't sleep well at night and you'll pray harder for Bush's term to expire and McCain to move into the White House. What is it with politicians and their nepotism and cronyism? Do we have to pay the price of hiring the entire family when we elect somebody?
Yes, Republicans are paying the price of George Bush's unqualified friendship appointments, (Donald Rumsfield, Michael Brown, Michael Chertoff, Fran Townsend, Harriet Meiers, Scott McClellan, etc) but that should be the reason why Obama will be disastrous if allowed in the White House. Think of all the suck-up and owed appointments he has to make as the first black man in office. Heaven knows, he isn't the Democratic nominee because he's the right man for the job.
More from Debbie Schussel:
Hezbollah High School Education
Muslim Doctor's Hypocratic Oath
Who Says Muslims Need 72 Virgins?
Is Fred Thompson's the Right's Republican?
So when Obama says he's going to raise taxes on the rich, that means everyone with income over $30K. The "rich" (over $364,657)include small businesses, the Mom & Pop's, who hire in small and rural towns. If they have to pay more taxes, we will have more unemployment and our economy will decline.Richest 1% of tax filers (over $364,657) pays more than 40% of the entire United States tax burden.
Top 50% of median income ($30,881 and more) tax filers account for 97% of all federal income taxes.
Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as:
Knowing when to come in out of the rain;
Why the early bird gets the worm;
Life isn’t always fair; and
Maybe it was my fault.Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don’t spend more than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults, not children, are in charge). His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place.
- Reports of a 6 year old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate;
- teens suspended from school for using mouth wash after lunch;
- and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, which only worsened his condition.
Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their misbehaved children.
It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer sun lotion or a plaster to a student; but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.
Common Sense lost the will to live as the Ten Commandments became contraband; churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims.
Common Sense took a beating when you couldn’t defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault.
Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.
Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust; his wife, Discretion; his daughter, Responsibility; and his son, Reason.
He is survived by his 3 stepbrothers; I Know My Rights, Someone Else Is To Blame, and I’m A Victim.
Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone.
But let us not get too despondent. If we believe in reincarnation then surely Mr Common Sense can be resurrected. To be honest, I think the pendulum swings throughout life and we are just in the middle of one of those swings. There is never a right or wrong way but there is always a better way and we all need to be vigilant in finding that way.
The original Common Sense by Thomas Paine.
Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one. ~Thomas Paine
LYHUNT/103 and his colleagues worked directly with TECO, the Technical Corps for Special Projects, project manager for “Iraq’s highest priority weapons projects.” TECO was headquarted with the Ministry of Industry and Military Industrialization, and “reported directly to Saddam’s household,” the former operations officer said. Among TECO’s responsibilities were Iraq’s clandestine nuclear weapons, its long-range ballistic missile programs, and the Super Gun that was being built by the former American ballistics genius Gerald Bull. LYHUNT/103 and other colleagues agreed to talk to the former CIA operations officer on condition that they not be identified in any way. They were well aware that their activities in Iraq after 1991 were in violation of international sanctions, U.S. law, and the laws of their own country. They risked serious jail time if they were identified. But they said they were willing to share their knowledge, because they now understood the full import of the highly compartmented project where they had worked, and it scared them. They referred to it as Site 555.
Site 555, also known as the al-Fajr facility, was “intended to be an electromagnetic isotope separation (EMIS) uranium-enrichment facility,” the former CIA operative told Hoekstra. Bombed and partially destroyed during the Gulf War, it was leveled in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 687 in 1991. According to Iraq’s declarations to the UN, the al-Fajr facility was a “duplicate” of an EMIS plant in Tarmiya, but uranium-enrichment equipment was never installed. Once the buildings were leveled, the site was no longer inspected.
But there was much more at the site then the UN inspectors ever saw, the Eastern European engineers said. Hidden beneath a nearby hill was an underground structure about 600 meters deep not related to any mineral quarry. Another East European source, LYHUNT/101, commented that it would have taken only minimal effort to level the entry to the shaft and cover it with sand, leaving the deep underground installations hidden, the former CIA operative told Hoekstra.
In April 2004, the Eastern European engineers drove together down from Mosul to Baghdad, and LYHUNT/103 pointed to a series of low hills beyond the road. “That’s where the shaft is,” he said. But upon further questioning, the former agency officer realized that neither LYHUNT/103 or his colleagues had ever seen the actual opening or visited the underground site itself. They had worked on a water purification plant and other engineering works on the surface.
Bit by bit, as Company X debriefed more of the Eastern Europeans who had worked in the area, they got a better idea of where to look for the underground site.
“The debriefings indicated that the underground facilities had been dug by 2,500 Vietnamese laborers during the mid-1980s, who toiled for $4 per month,” the former CIA officer said. “They dug at night to avoid infrared signatures. It was done by drill and blast, without heavy machinery.” To the trained eye, these were all telltale signs of Iraq’s intent to camouflage the work from satellite surveillance.
The former operative informed Hoekstra of information he had learned from another of the East European engineers:
Per LYHUNT/105’s knowledge and his recollection of documentation that had been available to him, the factories at Site 555 were installations for the enrichment of uranium and nuclear chemistry, with one production building having a large internal movable horizontal crane for some kind of assembly, and a single airstrip runway at the bottom of the hill near the cave. The cave represented the entry to a major underground structure, with horizontal elements (tunnels or pathways), but LYHUNT/105 did not know how many tunnels or how deep the structure was. The location of the entry to the underground structure was by the end of the airstrip towards the bottom of the hill.
No matter what anti-Bush haters say, weapons of mass destruction were found, Saddam violated 17 UN resolutions, and we won the war in Iraq. The surge is working, Murtha was wrong, we are stabilizing and protecting the good people of Iraq who are grateful to us for being there.
Weapons of mass destruction Found - Government report.
The United States will be 232 years old on the Fourth of July.The story behind Julia Ward Howe and the Battle Hymn of the Republic.
Do you know why these aren't true? You should. Contact your state representatives and senators and tell them to start drilling now.
Governor Charlie Crist is no longer the bachelor of the year on the political scene. The Florida state leader Charlie Crist, 51, has asked Carole Rome, 38, ex-wife of Todd Rome, CEO of Blue Star Jets, to be his wife. The two have been seeing each other for the last nine months.For our part, we can't fault the Post for its reporting, but we do wonder: Has it ever occurred to a reporter at the Post or a similar newspaper to go to a Democratic stronghold--say, the Upper West Side of Manhattan--and report on the crazy things people there believe about George W. Bush?
It is also worth noting that the Obama campaign does not necessarily have an interest in separating fact from fiction. Reread that passage from the Post piece, and you'll notice that two of the "rumors" it cites are true: Obama did refuse to wear an American flag pin, and he did have a racist pastor. Obviously Obama would rather have you think of him as the victim of a smear campaign than focus on those things about him that are both damaging and true.
This afternoon [July 1st] on CNN, John Roberts pointed out the most glaring contradiction in Clark's theory of military experience: his enthusiastic endorsement of John Kerry, whose strategic command experience was nowhere near McCain's. Here was the exchange:No wonder Democrats can't accomplish anything with the logic and intelligence of the supporters that they associate themselves with.
ROBERTS: But when it comes to that same type of qualification, you were very robustly behind John Kerry's military experience...
CLARK: Absolutely.
ROBERTS: ... in your speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2004, where you talked about his experience of being there under mortar fire.
CLARK: Right.
ROBERTS: And let's listen to the way that you summed that up.
CLARK: Right.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLARK: John Kerry's combination of physical courage and moral values is my definition of what we need as Americans in our commander in chief.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: So, you said it's what we need in a commander in chief. And I'm wondering how different was John McCain's experience from John Kerry's?
CLARK: Well, a lot, because John McCain basically served honorably and well in uniform. He did everything the country could have asked.
What John Kerry did is John Kerry got out of the uniform. He took a judgment, a judgment I didn't agree with at the time, but he had the moral courage to stand up for himself and oppose the conflict in Vietnam.
ROBERTS: But where was the executive experience that you talked about?
CLARK: The executive experience wasn't the issue there, because John Kerry wasn't claiming that he had some special executive experience on national security against George Bush.
So Kerry's military experience was better than McCain's because after serving for four months in Vietnam, he returned to the U.S. and falsely accused his fellow servicemen of being war criminals. I think it's time for Wesley Clark to be ushered quietly off the stage.
Tarick Hussein, the president of Houston's Council on American-Islamic Relations, told the station he believes the Book of Signs Foundation wants to educate non-Muslims about the religion.Passive aggressive Muslim marketing force fed whether you want it or not. What's the next step? Mandatory mosque attendence to learn how wonderful Islam is? Let's look at real Muslim practices:He told MyFOXHouston.com: "This is a very peaceful way of conveying a message."
Scottish Muslims in the village of Tayside are raising Cain because this cute postcard of the newest addition the to the police force.Postcards showing police dog-in-training Rebel, a German shepherd born in early December, are causing a furor among the region’s Muslims who believe dogs are "ritually unclean," the Daily Mail reports.
What is the problem here? If you don't want to look at the postcard, throw it away. Political correctness in the form of investigations is an outrage and affront to the rest of the non-Muslim population. Britain is being forced to convert to Islam one affront at a time.
How do you know when you're doing something wrong? You keep it to yourself and you don't tell anybody because you know it's better to ask forgiveness than to ask permission.LIFT EV'RY VOICE AND SING
Also known as "The Black National Anthem"
by James Weldon Johnson
Lift ev'ry voice and sing,
Till earth and heaven ring.
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise,
High as the list'ning skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on till victory is won.
Stony the road we trod,
Bitter the chast'ning rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat,
Have not our weary feet,
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
Out from the gloomy past,
Till now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.
God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who has by Thy might,
Led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,
Lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee,
Shadowed beneath thy hand,
May we forever stand,
True to our God,
True to our native land.
At the start of the event Tuesday morning,[Denver] City Council President Michael Hancock introduced singer Rene Marie to perform the national anthem.
Instead, she performed the song "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing," which is also known as the "black national anthem."
When she finished, the audience responded with mild applause. The national anthem was never performed.
Rene Marie isn't asking for forgiveness, nor does she care if you care or not that she didn't sing "our country's" national anthem, she wants to force her personal racist song on the public.
Is this what passes for bringing people together and moving on? Is this what is meant by change?
Founders of the newly created Reformist Catholic Church of Venezuela, based in the western city of Ciudad Ojeda, say that supporting Chavez's socialist ideals goes hand-in-hand with Christian aims of helping the poor.
"We don't side with any political banner, but we cannot fail to recognize and support the socialist achievements of this government," Enrique Albornoz, a former Lutheran minister who helped start the church, said in a telephone interview on Monday. "We back the social programs of this revolutionary government."
A group of dissident Catholic priests, Lutherans, and Anglicans quietly formed the church several years ago, but its first three bishops were sworn in last weekend, Albornoz said.
The church has five sanctuaries in Venezuela and about 2,000 parishioners — most of them in the oil-rich western state of Zulia, he said. An iron-shuttered, concrete house of worship in a working-class neighborhood of Ciudad Ojeda serves as headquarters for the movement, which borrows heavily from liberation theology and the Church of England's Book of Common Prayer.
Venezuelan Cardinal Jorge Urosa Sabino accused the reformists of attempting to divide the Catholic Church, which has consistently criticized Chavez's push toward socialism while retaining its status as one of the country's most widely trusted institutions.
"The apparent political goal of this association distances it from the true expression of Christian faith," Urosa Savino said in a statement on Sunday. "Jesus Christ's true church is spreading the word and the gift of Christ to the whole world, separately from political issues and party affiliation."
Monsignor Roberto Luckert, one of Chavez's most outspoken critics, accused the government of financing the new church in a bid to curb the influence of Roman Catholic leaders.
"They want to destroy the Catholic Church, and they haven't been able to do it," Luckert told Caracas-based Union Radio. The Vatican has issued no formal reaction.
I remember how horrible it was when 11-year old Junny Rios-Martinez was sexually assaulted and murdered. Being on death row for 17 years, this heinous criminal got off too easy. God have mercy on his soul."His reign of evil has come to an end," Vicki Rios-Martinez, Junny's mother, said in a statement after the execution. "I have closure."The Death Penalty IS A Deterrent
Junny Rios-Martinez Sr., the victim's father, vowed that his would be the last face that Schwab ever saw. Tuesday evening, he watched Schwab die in the execution chamber of Florida State Prison.
"You have no idea how hard it was for me not to pound on that glass," Rios-Martinez said.
Junny Rios-Martinez Sr. said he is sure that his son "did not die as peacefully."
"I'm sure that the last few minutes of his life were nothing like this, nothing," Rios-Martinez Sr. said.
Vicki Rios-Martinez described Schwab's death as peaceful, and said she wished her own son's death had been similar.
"This human became inhumane," Vicki Rios-Martinez said, adding that she did not come to witness the execution "to rejoice in a death."
"Seventeen years is way too long to wait without justice," Vicki Rios-Martinez said.
Schwab, 39, made no final statement before his death.
For the second time since March, Chaput publicly apologized to all the victims, saying the church was "mortified and embarrassed." He said he had apologized in person to victims who agreed to meet with him.
The settlements announced Tuesday cover 16 lawsuits and two complaints made outside the court system. The allegations were made against three priests, all of whom have since died, church officials said.
The archdiocese identified the men as Leonard Abercrombie, Lawrence St. Peter and Harold Robert White.
Abercrombie died in 1994, but it wasn't clear if he was still a priest at the time. St. Peter had not been publicly identified before, and no information has been disclosed about him.
White was removed from ministry in 1993 and died of a heart attack in 2006. In his only public comment on the matter, he said the allegation contained "half truths."
Something the drive-by media doesn't want to report: The United States ranks higher than 80 other country in happiness.Researchers responsible for the analysis [World Values Survey], from the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research (ISR) in Ann Arbor, say the overall rise in reported happiness is due to greater economic growth, democratization and social tolerance.
Denmark tops the list of surveyed nations, along with Puerto Rico and Colombia. A dozen other countries, including Ireland, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Canada and Sweden also rank above the United States, which maintains about the same relative position as it did in WVS's 2000 survey.
"Though by no means the happiest country in the world, from a global perspective the U.S. looks pretty good," says Ronald Inglehart, a political scientist at the university, who directs the study. "The country is not only prosperous; it ranks relatively high in gender equality, tolerance of ethnic and social diversity and has high levels of political freedom."
Have you ever given someone your phone number and then regretted it? Your gut instinct immediately said 'Don't answer the phone.' EVER. You couldn't wait to change your number and move?Note: Some websites change or deactivate stories after their immediate posting.
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