These last couple of days have seen a flurry of whining and moaning about the uncovering of a CIA assassin program. I don't get all the hysteria surrounding it. First, the program NEVER CAME TO BE!!!! Second, the proposed targeted killings would have been top al-Qaeda leaders. Wouldn't that be a good thing? I mean, I have no military background, but isn't that what is done when you're at war with the enemy? Helllloooooo! Are people in our country, especially the elitist politicians, MSM, and entertainers, so disconnected from the realities of this world and its evil that we just think we can hold hands with everyone and sing "Kum Bah Ya" and make it all better?
Fer cryin' out loud!
Well, I found today that I'm on the right track with regards to "not gittin'" all the hoopla the MSM and Dems are stirring up around this non-controversy. Uncle Jimbo of BlackFive, a retired Special Operations Master Sergeant now writing and podcasting about the military and politics, has posted a great video on YouTube in which he gives a great explanation of the story, giving us the side we would never hear from The Obamedia. He makes some very insightful points, such as ...
• the difference between assassinating political leaders versus targeted killings of the enemy,
• this is possibly only to cover Pelosi's butt when she claimed the CIA was lying to her and Congress,
• this was a "presidential finding" that was never put to use,
• Penetta is a former house Democrat who now runs the CIA,
• the House Intelligence Committee played politics with this information and released classified national security information to the press,
• this same committee claims they just found out about the proposed program, but it was published back in 2002 in The New York Times (here is the NYT article from Dec. 2002) ... I guess that was when the Dems first released this classified info to the press ... and, of course, the NYT published AGAIN classified state secrets,
• this is all a deflection tactic to pull the focus away from Obama's administration being a total debacle and a lame attempt to throw blame back on the Bush administration
Uncle Jimbo succinctly recaps it with these words: "Politics trumps national security."
I like his line that the Democrats, who are using yet another classified military plan for making political hay, should just "shut the f#@% up about it."
[BlackFive is a great blog, by the way! Check it and its podcasts out!]
Many, many of you have sent me notice that Shifty Powers of the heroic Easy Company, 2-506th PIR, 101st Airborne Division, died on June 17th. I had no idea that he had passed on. I have written here a lot about Easy Company and even have an autographed photo (Bill Guarnere) on my desk of the jump into Holland (Market Garden).
If you use GoogleNews (any combo of Darrell and/or Shifty Powers), there are less then ten notices of his death. There are less than four articles about his passing on from "old media" news agencies.
Quite frankly, this is an affront to a genuinely good man. Shifty Powers received two Bronze Stars and a CIB and fought in every campaign that Easy Company was in. He was severely injured on his way home in a truck accident (the irony is that the men of Easy rigged the lottery to go home so Shifty would be first, but he ended up being one of the last to get home after an extensive hospitalization).
This email has gone viral about Shifty:
We're hearing a lot today about big splashy memorial services.
I want a nationwide memorial service for Darrell "Shifty" Powers.
Shifty volunteered for the airborne in WWII and served with Easy Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, part of the 101st Airborne Infantry. If you've seen Band of Brothers on HBO or the History Channel, you know Shifty. His character appears in all 10 episodes, and Shifty himself is interviewed in several of them.
I met Shifty in the Philadelphia airport several years ago. I didn't know who he was at the time. I just saw an elderly gentleman having trouble reading his ticket. I offered to help, assured him that he was at the right gate, and noticed the "Screaming Eagle", the symbol of the 101st Airborne, on his hat.
Making conversation, I asked him if he'd been in the 101st Airborne or if his son was serving. He said quietly that he had been in the 101st. I thanked him for his service, then asked him when he served, and how many jumps he made.
Quietly and humbly, he said "Well, I guess I signed up in 1941 or so, and was in until sometime in 1945 . . . " at which point my heart skipped.
At that point, again, very humbly, he said "I made the 5 training jumps at Toccoa, and then jumped into Normandy . . . . do you know where Normandy is?" At this point my heart stopped.
I told him yes, I know exactly where Normandy was, and I know what D-Day was. At that point he said "I also made a second jump into Holland, into Arnhem." I was standing with a genuine war hero . . . . and then I realized that it was June, just after the anniversary of D-Day.
I asked Shifty if he was on his way back from France, and he said "Yes. And it's real sad because these days so few of the guys are left, and those that are, lots of them can't make the trip." My heart was in my throat and I didn't know what to say.
I helped Shifty get onto the plane and then realized he was back in Coach, while I was in First Class. I sent the flight attendant back to get him and said that I wanted to switch seats. When Shifty came forward, I got up out of the seat and told him I wanted him to have it, that I'd take his in coach.
He said "No, son, you enjoy that seat. Just knowing that there are still some who remember what we did and still care is enough to make an old man very happy." His eyes were filling up as he said it. And mine are brimming up now as I write this.
Shifty died on June 17 after fighting cancer.
There was no parade.
No big event in Staples Center.
No wall to wall back to back 24x7 news coverage.
No weeping fans on television.
And that's not right.
Let's give Shifty his own Memorial Service, online, in our own quiet way. Please forward this email to everyone you know. Especially to the veterans.
Rest in peace, Shifty.
"A nation without heroes is nothing." - Roberto Clemente
Here is a clip of the men of Easy Company (Shifty too) talking about heroes...
...Johnson said her father kept a busy schedule up until the end. Two years ago, he visited soldiers stationed in South Korea and Japan. Last September, had he not fallen ill, he would have traveled to Iraq. He kept a busy schedule up till the end. Two years ago, he visited soldiers in South Korea and in Japan. Last September, had he not fallen ill, he would have made a stop in Iraq.
“I had his suitcase packed,” Johnson said.
Missing the trip overseas disappointed him, she said, especially the worry of disappointing the soldiers there.
“My daddy was a simple man, not complicated and very comfortable with himself and approachable,” Johnson said. “He spoiled us. Right now I don’t feel as safe. I know I’ll never be as loved.”...
Godspeed, Shifty. I'm sure the Jumpmaster has you cleared on the manifest.
Airborne!!!
What a great story! I'm glad it was posted. Now, we just need to be sure such stories do not get lost in a tidal wave of non-news crap. Pass it on!!!
This is rather alarming .... from FoxNews (emphasis added):
Two Israeli warships reportedly sailed through the Suez Canal on Tuesday, ten days after a submarine believed to be nuclear-armed made the crossing.
The deployment into the Red Sea, confirmed by Israeli officials to The Times of London, came ahead of long-range exercises by the Israeli air force with the U.S. later this month and the test of a missile defense shield at a U.S. missile range in the Pacific.
Israel has strengthened ties with Arab nations who also fear a nuclear-armed Iran. In particular, relations with Egypt have grown increasingly strong this year over the “shared mutual distrust of Iran”, according to one Israeli diplomat.
"This is preparation that should be taken seriously. Israel is investing time in preparing itself for the complexity of an attack on Iran. These maneuvers are a message to Iran that Israel will follow up on its threats," the Times of London quoted an Israeli defense official as saying.
If Israel were to launch an attack on Iran, Israeli naval vessels would likely pass through the Suez Canal, the official said.
It is believed that Israel’s missile-equipped submarines, and its fleet of advanced aircraft, could be used to strike in excess of a dozen nuclear-related targets more than 800 miles from Israel.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit told The Times that his government explicitly allowed passage of Israeli vessels, and an Israeli admiral said the drills were "run regularly with the full co-operation of the Egyptians."
Two Israeli Saar class missile boats and a Dolphin class submarine have passed through Suez. Israel has six Dolphin-class submarines, three of which may carry nuclear missiles.
“It is not by chance that Israel is drilling long-range manoeuvres in a public way. This is not a secret operation. This is something that has been published and which will showcase Israel’s abilities,” said an Israeli defence official.
He added that in the past, Israel had run a number of covert long-range drills. A year ago, Israeli jets flew over Greece in one such drill, while in May, reports surfaced that Israeli air force aircraft were staging exercises over Gibraltar. An Israeli attack on a weapons convoy in Sudan bound for militants in the Gaza Strip earlier this year was also seen as a rehearsal for hitting moving convoys.
The exercises come at a time when Western diplomats are offering support for an Israeli strike on Iran in return for Israeli concessions on the formation of a Palestinian state.
If agreed it would make an Israeli strike on Iran realistic “within the year” said one British official.
Diplomats said that Israel had offered concessions on settlement policy, Palestinian land claims and issues with neighboring Arab states, to facilitate a possible strike on Iran.
“Israel has chosen to place the Iranian threat over its settlements,” said a senior European diplomat.
Oddly, if you check out the big MSM outlets online, it seems like this story isn't showing up in many places. Instead, we continue to be bombarded with such stories as Michael Jackson's hair, the Sotomayor hearings, the Cheney-CIA-hitsquad story (I don't have a problem with trying to knock off al Qaeda leaders ... don't get all the hoopla), more taxes for Americans ... blah, blah, blah. It will be interesting to see if this story starts to get more airtime.
In December I blogged about movie producer Peter Soderbergh filming a two-part, four-and a half hour epic about Che Guevara, starring Benicio del Toro. (Go here.) Released at the end of 2008, the producer of "Traffic" and "Erin Brockovich" got some Europeans to invest $58 million in the movie. Unfortunately, the movie has grossed on $30 million -- and that's worldwide earnings. Soderbergh now regrets having made the movie.
In an interview with Henry Barnes of the Guardian, Soderbergh lists some of the reasons for the movie's flop (emphasis added):
Lack of funding fuelled his fear. And the money wasn't there partly because of Soderbergh himself. In the characteristically noble pursuit of authenticity he decided to film Che in Spanish, a decision that effectively blitzed any hope of finding significant investment within the US. ...
Soderbergh blames piracy ("We got crushed in South America. We came out in Spain in September of last year and it was everywhere within a matter of days. It killed it.") but it probably didn't help that his film is a foreign-language marathon with an admittedly distant and impersonal lead.
Che seems, in retrospect, like a glorious, sad aberration: a niche-audience epic it would be impossible to commission in these straitened times. Today, the willingness of the studios to take such a punt has all but evaporated – a fact that Soderbergh is more alive to than most.
"I'm looking at the landscape and I'm thinking, 'Hmmm, I don't know. A few more years maybe,'" says Soderbergh. "And then the stuff that I'm interested in is only going to be of interest to me."
It would all sound depressing if Soderbergh didn't pepper his speech with fits of incredulous laughter. Perhaps the last few years – capped by his recent run-in with Sony over his revised script for Moneyball, a baseball movie starring Brad Pitt, that saw him elbowed off the project – have left him punch-drunk.
"In terms of my career, I can see the end of it," he says. "I've had that sensation for a few years now. And so I've got a list of stuff that I want to do – that I hope I can do – and once that's all finished I may just disappear."
"Straitened times?" He gives that as one of the reasons for the failure of "Che?" What about that maybe not so many people worship Che like the Liberal elites in Hollywood. And, why would anyone want to idolize a murderer? (See a previous post here about Del Toro having his butt handed to him by a Miami reporter while questioning him on his hero Che, and go here for a prior post about Che.)
I am trying to quit swearing, since at times I "swear" I cuss worse than a sailor. (I usually say "cuss" instead of "curse." For some reason, I think of "curse" as being more like a bad spell you put on someone, or that Judas was cursed for having betrayed Jesus. "Cuss" is more like Yosemite Sam ... which I do a pretty good imitation of, by the way.)
BUT!!!!! today I found an article LiveScience article on FoxNews that makes me feel at least not so bad about cussin'. It turns out that cussin' helps the body deal with pain (picture the little toe stub we've all done while making the bed), as well as originating in the right side of the brain, whereas language production normally occurs in the left hemisphere. It is believed that swearing provoked by pain is connected with our "flight-or-fight" response.
That muttered curse word that reflexively comes out when you stub your toe could actually make it easier to bear the throbbing pain, a new study suggests.
Swearing is a common response to pain, but no previous research has connected the uttering of an expletive to the actual physical experience of pain.
"Swearing has been around for centuries and is an almost universal human linguistic phenomenon," said Richard Stephens of Keele University in England and one of the authors of the new study. "It taps into emotional brain centers and appears to arise in the right brain, whereas most language production occurs in the left cerebral hemisphere of the brain."
Stephens and his fellow Keele researchers John Atkins and Andrew Kingston sought to test how swearing would affect an individual's tolerance to pain.
Because swearing often has an exaggerating effect that can overstate the severity of pain, the team thought that swearing would lessen a person's tolerance.
As it turned out, the opposite seems to be true.
The researchers enlisted 64 undergraduate volunteers and had them submerge their hand in a tub of ice water for as long as possible while repeating a swear word of their choice.
The experiment was then repeated with the volunteer repeating a more common word that they would use to describe a table.
Contrary to what the researcher expected, the volunteers kept their hands submerged longer while repeating the swear word.
The researchers think that the increase in pain tolerance occurs because swearing triggers the body's natural "fight-or-flight" response.
Stephens and his colleagues suggest that swearing may increase aggression (seen in accelerated heart rates), which downplays weakness to appear stronger or more macho.
"Our research shows one potential reason why swearing developed and why it persists," Stephens said.
The results of the study are detailed in the Aug. 5 issue of the journal NeuroReport.
I wonder if swearing at idiots in traffic is part of that "flight-or-fight response" ... I better work on not swearing so much, especially since school is starting up again in a couple of weeks. (I always worry about slipping with a little expletive in front of the kiddos.)
My favorite instrument has always been the acoustic guitar played in just about any style. But, blues is one of my favorites. Now, you mix that with some nice wine, and that's a great combination there!
Last month I made one of my best music discoveries! I'm probably a Johnny-Come-Lately; but, I thought I would share this just in case you haven't heard of this fabulous singer, songwriter, and musician. He's Eric Bibb, and here's a bit of background information from his official website :
Eric was born In New York into a musical family. Eric's father, Leon Bibb, is a trained singer who sang in musical theatre and made a name for himself as part of the 1960's New York folk scene. His uncle was the world famous jazz pianist and composer John Lewis, of the Modern Jazz Quartet. Family friends included Pete Seeger, Odetta and actor/singer/activist Paul Robeson, Eric's godfather.
Eric was given his first steel-string guitar aged seven. By Junior High School, Eric was consumed by music. "I would cut school and claim I was sick" said Bibb. "When everyone would leave the house I would whip out all the records and do my own personal DJ thing all day long, playing Odetta, Joan Baez, The New Lost City Ramblers, Josh White."
At 16 years old, Eric's father invited him to play guitar in the house band for his TV talent show "Someone New". Eric's early musical heroes were from his father's band, and included Bill Lee, (father of director Spike) who appeared on Eric's album Me To You, years later.
In 1969, Bibb played guitar for the Negro Ensemble Company at St. Mark's place in New York and went on to study Psychology and Russian at Colombia University. "After a while it just didn't make much sense at all. I didn't understand why I was at this Ivy League School with all these kids who didn't know anything about what I knew about." Aged 19, Eric left for Paris, where a meeting with guitarist Mickey Baker focused his interest in blues guitar.
You wouldn't believe how I found him! One day last month I was in Target looking at radio/speaker systems. All the display systems on the shelves had red buttons in front that allowed the customer to push and listen to a sample of music and compare the sound among the candidates. I was considering one from Bose that I could use with my iPod. When I pushed the red button, I was impressed with the quality of the sound; but, my attention was drawn to the music. I thought: "Who is this guy they have playing here? This sounds great!" And, on the screen of the Bose display appeared Bibb's name and face. So, I went home and checked him out on iTunes. I was so thrilled with his music that I downloaded FOUR albums! (I've promised myself to not buy anymore until I've listened enough to these first four to have them about memorized!)
Check out his website and MySpace page. You can listen to a lot of his songs and decide for yourself. You can also find some videos of his on YouTube. Here's one for you to sample ... Enjoy!!
Check out this stinging rebuke of Andrew McCarthy with respect to Obama's recent order to release the "Irbil Fvie." [Source -- emphasis added]
Obama Frees Iranian Terror Masters The release of the Irbil Five is a continuation of a shameful policy. By Andrew C. McCarthy
There are a few things you need to know about President Obama’s shameful release on Thursday of the “Irbil Five” — Quds Force commanders from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) who were coordinating terrorist attacks in Iraq that have killed hundreds — yes, hundreds — of American soldiers and Marines.
First, of the 4,322 Americans killed in combat in Iraq since 2003, 10 percent of them (i.e., more than 400) have been murdered by a single type of weapon alone, a weapon that is supplied by Iran for the singular purpose of murdering Americans. As Steve Schippert explains at NRO’s military blog, the Tank, the weapon is “the EFP (Explosively Formed Penetrator), designed by Iran’s IRGC specifically to penetrate the armor of the M1 Abrams main battle tank and, consequently, everything else deployed in the field.” Understand: This does not mean Iran has killed only 400 Americans in Iraq. The number killed and wounded at the mullahs’ direction is far higher than that — likely multiples of that — when factoring in the IRGC’s other tactics, such as the mustering of Hezbollah-style Shiite terror cells.
Second, President Bush and our armed forces steadfastly refused demands by Iran and Iraq’s Maliki government for the release of the Irbil Fivebecause Iran was continuing to coordinate terrorist operations against American forces in Iraq (and to aid Taliban operations against American forces in Afghanistan). Freeing the Quds operatives obviously would return the most effective, dedicated terrorist trainers to their grisly business.
Third, Obama’s decision to release the five terror-masters comes while the Iranian regime (a) is still conducting operations against Americans in Iraq, even as we are in the process of withdrawing, and (b) is clearly working to replicate its Lebanon model in Iraq: establishing a Shiite terror network, loyal to Iran, as added pressure on the pliant Maliki to understand who is boss once the Americans leave. As the New York Times reports, Gen. Ray Odierno, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, put it this way less than two weeks ago:
Iran is still supporting, funding, training surrogates who operate inside of Iraq — flat out. . . . They have not stopped. And I don’t think they will stop. I think they will continue to do that because they are also concerned, in my opinion, [about] where Iraq is headed. They want to try to gain influence here, and they will continue to do that. I think many of the attacks in Baghdad are from individuals that have been, in fact, funded or trained by the Iranians.
Fourth, President Obama’s release of the Quds terrorists is a natural continuation of his administration’s stunningly irresponsible policy of bartering terrorist prisoners for hostages. As I detailed here on June 24, Obama has already released a leader of the Iran-backed Asaib al-Haq terror network in Iraq, a jihadist who is among those responsible for the 2007 murders of five American troops in Karbala. While the release was ludicrously portrayed as an effort to further “Iraqi reconciliation” (as if that would be a valid reason to spring a terrorist who had killed Americans), it was in actuality a naïve attempt to secure the reciprocal release of five British hostages — and a predictably disastrous one: The terror network released only the corpses of two of the hostages, threatening to kill the remaining three (and who knows whether they still are alive?) unless other terror leaders were released.
Michael Ledeen has reported that the release of the Irbil Five is part of the price Iran has demanded for its release in May of the freelance journalist Roxana Saberi. Again, that’s only part ofthe price: Iran also has demanded the release of hundreds of its other terror facilitators in our custody. Expect to see Obama accommodate this demand, too, in the weeks ahead.
Finally, when it comes to Iran, it has become increasingly apparent that President Obama wants the mullahs to win. What you need to know is that Barack Obama is a wolf in “pragmatist” clothing: Beneath the easy smile and above-it-all manner — the “neutral” doing his best to weigh competing claims — is a radical leftist wedded to a Manichean vision that depicts American imperialism as the primary evil in the world.
You may not have wanted to addle your brain over his tutelage in Hawaii by the Communist Frank Marshall Davis, nor his tracing of Davis’s career steps to Chicago, where he seamlessly eased into the orbit of Arafat apologist Rashid Khalidi, anti-American terrorists Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, and Maoist “educator” Michael Klonsky — all while imbibing 20 years’ worth of Jeremiah Wright’s Marxist “black liberation theology.” But this neo-Communist well from which Obama drew holds that the world order is a maze of injustice, racism, and repression. Its unified theory for navigating the maze is: “United States = culprit.” Its default position is that tyrants are preferable as long as they are anti-American, and that while terrorist methods may be regrettable, their root cause is always American provocation — that is, the terrorists have a point.
In Iran, it is no longer enough for a rickety regime, whose anti-American vitriol is its only vital sign, to rig the “democratic” process. This time, blatant electoral fraud was also required to mulct victory for the mullahs’ candidate. The chicanery ignited a popular revolt. But the brutal regime guessed right: The new American president would be supportive. So sympathetic is Obama to the mullahs’ grievances — so hostile to what he, like the regime, sees as America’s arrogant militarism — that he could be depended on to go as far as politics allowed to help the regime ride out the storm.
And so he has. Right now, politics will allow quite a lot: With unemployment creeping toward 10 percent, the auto industry nationalized, the stimulus revealed as history’s biggest redistribution racket (so far), and Democrats bent on heaping ruinous carbon taxes and socialized medicine atop an economy already crushed by tens of trillions in unfunded welfare-state liabilities, Iran is barely on anyone’s radar screen.
So Obama is pouring it on while his trusty media idles. When they are not looking the other way from the carnage in Iran’s streets, they are dutifully reporting — as the AP did — that the Irbil Five are mere “diplomats.” Obama frees a terrorist with the blood of American troops on his hands, and the press yawns. Senators Jeff Sessions and Jon Kyl press for answers about the release of the terrorist and Obama’s abandonment of a decades-old American policy against trading terrorists for hostages, and the silence is deafening.
Except in Tehran, where the mullahs are hearing exactly what they’ve banked on hearing.
The Community Organizer in Chief's lack of experience, which was oh-so-obvious during the campaign, is rearing its ugly head now in this present administration. But, will the Obamatrons wake up and notice, including the members of our Pravda-like MSM?
I'm a bit alarmed at what I've been reading lately regarding one of Obama's appointments to his cabinet: John P. Holdren will be Science Advisor. Holdren has very impressive credentials, having a bachelor's degree from MIT and a PhD from in plasma physics from Stanford. Wikipedia lists many notable committees and studies he has participated in, as well as listing many of his writings.
It is Holdren's writings that are causing some to wonder if he isn't a "ecopalyptic" eugenicist. Here's a brief section from Wikipedia about Holdren (emphasis added):
Various positions
In 1969, writing with Paul R. Ehrlich, Holdren claimed that, "if the population control measures are not initiated immediately, and effectively, all the technology man can bring to bear will not fend off the misery to come."[9] In 1973 Holdren encouraged a decline in fertility to well below replacement in the United States, because "210 million now is too many and 280 million in 2040 is likely to be much too many"[10]. Currently, the U.S. population is 306,892,000[11].
Holdren has written and lectured extensively on the topic of climate change. In 1969 he advocated (with Paul R Ehrlich) substantial spending for expansion of nuclear power on the grounds that nuclear plants generate electricity without greenhouse gas emissions.[9]He co-authored a 1977 book in which he advocated the formation of a “planetary regime” that would use a “global police force” to enforce totalitarian measures of population control, including forced abortions, mass sterilization programs conducted via the food and water supply, as well as mandatory bodily implants that would prevent couples from having children. In 2006, Holdren reportedly suggested that global sea levels could rise by 13 feet by the end of this century[12]. (The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report (2007) suggests a potential sea level rise over the same interval on the order 13 inches[citation needed]).
Now, we all know that Wikipedia is not to be considered a reliable source for such "official" writings as a paper for school. However, similar information is being reported lately on the Net, echoing the same ideals in Holdren's writings. So, I've gone fishing, because this is too spooky not to want to check it out for yourself. Here's what I've found so far ...
The above image is the cover of one of his books, co-authored by the above-mentioned Paul Ehrlich along with Anne Ehrlich. FrontPage Magazine reported on the book back in February with is article "Obama's Biggest Radical:"
... The Neo-Malthusians
Holdren gave a clear indication of his philosophical views in the 1977 book Ecoscience, which he co-authored with Paul and Anne Ehrlich. [1] In its pages, the authors noted, "The neo-Malthusiasn view proposes...population limitation and redistribution of wealth." They concluded, "On these points, we find ourselves firmly in the neo-Malthusian camp" (p. 954).
Economist Thomas Malthus is one of the most literally anti-human theorists in human history. He viewed overpopulation as the fount of all woe, but one which could be staunched with enough blood. In "An Essay on the Principle of Population" Malthus wrote, "All the children who are born, beyond what would be required to keep up the population to a desired level, must necessarily perish, unless room be made for them by the death of grown persons...if we dread the too frequent visitation of the horrid form of famine, we should sedulously encourage the other forms of destruction, which we compel nature to use...and court the return of the plague." Like their intellectual forebear, Holdren and the Ehrlichs proposed their own acceptable sacrifice to the environment.
Compulsory Abortionfor American Women
The trio prescribed a rigidly enforced, government-imposed limit of two children per family. Holdren and the Ehrlichs maintained "there exists ample authority under which population growth could be regulated." Hiding behind the passive voice, they note, "it has been concluded that compulsory population-control laws, even including laws requiring compulsory abortion, could be sustained under the existing constitutionif the population crisis became sufficiently severe to endanger the society." (Emphasis added.) To underscore they mean business, they conclude, "If some individuals contribute to general social deterioration by overproducing children, and if the need is compelling, they can be required by law to exercise reproductive responsibility" (pp. 837-838). Moreover, if the United States government refuses to take proper measures, they authorize the United Nations to take compelling force.
"A Comprehensive Planetary Regime"
Holdren believed a world government might play a moderate role in the future: setting and enforcing appopriate population levels, taxing and redistributing the world's wealth, controlling the world's resources, and operating a standing World Army.
Such a comprehensive Plenetary Regime could control the development, administration, conservation, and distribution of all natural resources, renewable or nonrenewable...not only in the atmosphere and oceans, but in such freshwater bodies as rivers and lakes...The Regime might also be a logical central agency for regulating all international trade...The Planetary Regime might be given responsibility for determining the optimum population for the world and for each region and for arbitrating various countries' shares within their regional limits...the Regime would have some power to enforce the agreed limits. (p. 943.)
Part of the power wielded by this "Regime" would be in the form of a World Army. The trio wrote that the United States must destroy all its nuclear arsenal. But this would not render us defenseless against Communist aggression. "Security might be provided by an armed international organization, a global analogue of a police force...The first step necessarily involves partial surrender of sovereignty to an international organization" (p. 917, emphasis added).
Far from distancing himself from this wooly-headed notion as he matured, Holdren explicitly reaffirmed it in his 1995 Nobel Prize acceptance speech on behalf of Pugwash, declaiming, "The post-Cold-War world needs a more powerful United Nations, probably with a standing volunteer force -- owing loyalty directly to the UN rather than to contingents from individual nations." As recently as last January, he told the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) the world needs "a universal prohibition on nuclear weapons, coupled with means to ensure confidence in compliance." (Emphasis added.) ...
Zombietimeand Michelle Malkin are both reporting on Holdren's radical, eugenist ideas. Zombietime makes direct quotes from the above-pictured book of Holdren's, citing pages and showing excerpts. You can find the book online at Questia. (You will have limited access, unless you're willing to pay an "introductory offer" fee. But, you could look at Zombie's report and use the page references to see for yourself.)
Now, of course there is the question of which of the authors actually composed those thought? But, wouldn't YOU want to be sure your co-authors ideas were in keep with yours, and you would clearly separate yourself from conflicting ideals ... or even pull away from the book?
Ah, the Obamedia have a short memory. While they are so quick to hail Obama's "triumphant" visit to Africa this week, they conveniently forgot how warmly received President Bush was back in February. Oh, that could be because it didn't get as much coverage as Obama's visit. But, I will at least concede that a "Lame Duck" president doesn't get as much attention as a new one. On the other hand, the Obamatrons never wanted to look at what Bush had done for Africa, resulting in Bush's popularity on the continent.
CNN's Don Lemon was gently reminded of Bush's warm reception by African journalist Nkepile Mabuse:
Kikwete told Bush: "The outpouring of warmth and affection from the people of Tanzania that you have witnessed since your arrival is a genuine reflection of what we feel towards you and towards the American people."
A FRIEND OF AFRICA
In a reference to Bush's domestic problems, Kikwete added: "Different people may have different views about you and your administration and your legacy.
"But we in Tanzania, if we are to speak for ourselves and for Africa, we know for sure that you, Mr. President, and your administration have been good friends of our country and have been good friends of Africa."
Although many Africans, especially Muslims, share negative perceptions of Bush's foreign policy with other parts of the world, there is widespread recognition of his successful humanitarian and health initiatives on the continent.
Bush has spent more money on aid to Africa than his predecessor, Bill Clinton, and is popular for his personal programs to fight AIDS and malaria and to help hospitals and schools.
Bush has stressed new-style partnerships with Africa based on trade and investment and not purely on aid handouts.
His Millennium Challenge Corp. rewards countries that continue to satisfy criteria for democratic governance, anti-corruption and free-market economic policies.
Bush signed the largest such deal, for $698 million, with Kikwete on Sunday.
Because of the U.S. anti-malaria program, 5 percent of patients tested positive for the disease on the offshore islands of Zanzibar in 2007 compared to 40 percent three years earlier, the Tanzanian leader said.
Bush's legacy in Africa would be saving the lives of hundreds of thousands of mothers and children who would otherwise have died from malaria or AIDS and enabling millions of people to get an education, he said.
"I know you leave office in about 12 months' time. Rest assured that you will be remembered for many generations to come for the good things you've done for Tanzania and the good things you have done for Africa," Kikwete said.
Wow ... a surprisingly positive article about Bush. Rare indeed.
Not only was Bush's triumphant visit under-reported, notice how now it continues to be glossed over. Did you notice at the end of the video clip Lemon's lame attempt to cover up his dumb question? He ended the segment with: "So, they welcome everyone, it doesn't matter. This is part of how the people do it, right?" I take Nkepile Mabuse's comment that preceded his to mean that this is how everyone is greeted, regardless of where the person is from. Lemon seems to want to make it more like it doesn't matter how lame the person is.
But, I'm a bit jaded when it comes to the press ...
The other day, The New York Times printed an interview Emily Bazelon had with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader-Ginsburg, and some of Ginsburg's comments therein have set off a fire storm. The conversation between the reporter and Ginsburg brushed on several topics such as Sotomayor's nomination, gender equity, and abortion. It is Ginsburg's remarks about abortion and, specifically, Roe v. Wade, that have alarmed some (emphasis added):
Q: Are you talking about the distances women have to travel because in parts of the country, abortion is essentially unavailable, because there are so few doctors and clinics that do the procedure? And also, the lack of Medicaid for abortions for poor women?
JUSTICE GINSBURG: Yes, the ruling about that surprised me. [Harris v. McRae — in 1980 the court upheld the Hyde Amendment, which forbids the use of Medicaid for abortions.] Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don’t want to have too many of. So that Roe was going to be then set up for Medicaid funding for abortion. Which some people felt would risk coercing women into having abortions when they didn’t really want them. But when the court decided McRae, the case came out the other way. And then I realized that my perception of it had been altogether wrong.
[Go here for the entire interview "The Place of Women on the Court."]
"Concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don't want to have too many of???" What does THAT mean? Is she merely speaking of what she perceived to be the mood of that day -- of the Roe era -- that there were other people in society, not including herself in that group, that were wanting to avoid any "undesirables?" Does she include herself in that group, as if she adhered to the ideology of eugenics? It is not clear from the wording, so I do not know if some people are upset over what, I hope, is simply a case of poor, cloudy wording. I am rather confused as to why reporter Bazelon did not pounce on this and ask for clarification. To completely gloss over such comments is poor journalism.
Many, however, do find the feminist Ginsburg rather controversial. Her staunch adherence to feminism has raised eyebrows when, in the past, Ginsburg has attacked gender-based ideas such as the Boy Scouts, Mother's Day and Father's Day (advocating for just having a "Parents' Day"), co-ed prisons, and going so far as to cause some to wonder if she supports the legalization of bigamy and prostitution. These issues, though, remain as muddy as her recent comments about abortion. (Go here for a rundown of some of Ginsburgs' controversial views.)
What an interesting e-mail I got yesterday regarding a letter Glenn Beck received from one of his listeners ... (emphasis added):
July 8, 2009Last week Glenn got a call from a very impressive young man named Jerome Hudson, who told Glenn he had written an op-ed during the 2008 election on being a black conservative. He sent it in and it's fantastic. Enjoy!
While attending a black fraternity party, I recently learned it’s a bad idea to profess one’s affinity for Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, and Sean Hannity.
Worse, according to current polls, it appears I may be the only black 22 year old in America who will be voting for Sen. John McCain.
It’s not that I was unaware that being a black conservative Republican puts me in the ultimate “minority.” After all, Shelby Steele’s classic article “The Loneliness of the Black Conservative” has become an article of faith that I’ve all but committed to memory.
But I guess I had made the mistake of buying into all that liberal yammering about being “open minded” and supporting “diversity” that I’d deluded myself into believing that a civil, discussion about the herd-like ideological mentality of so many of my contemporaries suffer from was possible.
Boy, was I wrong. Big time!
My official “Negro” card got stripped away. I instantly lost my “blackness.” And now, consequently, I now am greeted with this: “Hey, y’all, here comes The Black Republican.”
And that’s when I think to myself, Hmmm…so this is how it feels to be an "Uncle Tom."
Still, being labeled “The Black Republican” is undoubtedly a promotion from: "Hey, why are you dressed so nice? You got a job interview or something?" Or, worse, “Man, why are you talking like that? You sound white? Who do you think you are? A conservative Kanye West?”
But my path to ideological emancipation began where all the most important things always begin—with my father and mother. Growing up, my Army drill sergeant father was a firm believer in tough love. My parents instilled in us Christian values. But I believe that first part—having an involved mother and father—was critical. With 70% of all black babies being born out-of-wedlock, it’s no wonder black poverty remains entrenched, welfare has become a way of life, and that many of my fellow young black male counterparts choose gangsta life over college.
But it wasn’t until college that I realized I had been ensnared in what John McWhorter calls the “Cult of Victimology.” One of my professor’s pointed me toward a world of literature I’d never been introduced to: Thomas Sowell, John McWhorter, Shelby Steele, Star Parker, Angela McGlowan, Larry Elder, Walter Williams—they obliterated the Leftist foolishness that floods my community.
It was then that my eyes were opened to the truth, a truth that my father was willing to give his life for, a truth that hundreds of thousands of American soldiers have paid the ultimate price to pass on to future generations. And that truth is this: America remains the greatest country that God gave to man.
So imagine me, a member of various organizations that largely consist of young black Americans, most of whom are womb to the tomb Democrats and liberals, speaking openly about the many opportunities and blessings we enjoy in our great nation and refuting Michelle Obama’s supposition that America is a “downright mean place..”
Can you say…..social suicide?
"So Jerome,” the partygoers asked, “you’re REALLY a Republican?!"
Duh!
Of course I’m a Republican! And your great grandparents were too!
Yes, I’m a member of the Anti-Slavery Party, the party responsible for: the 13th (abolished slavery), 14th (gave former slaves full citizenship rights), the 15th Amendment (gave slaves voting rights), the Civil Rights Act of 1871(protecting southern blacks from the Ku Klux Klan), the Reconstruction Acts, and the 1866, 1875, 1957, 1960, and 1964 Civil Rights Acts.
And no, my brothers and sisters, yesterday’s southern Democrats are NOT today’s Republicans! If so, former Klansman, Sen. Robert Byrd—the highest ranking senate Democrat and President Pro-Tempore of the Senate—apparently didn’t get the memo and forgot to switch parties.
But it’s more than just the history. I’m proud to stand for self-empowerment, personal responsibility, strong family values, small government, low taxes, free markets, a strong military, and individual achievement etc.
And don’t even get me started on which side stands up for the precious 1.4 million unborn children (32% of whom are black), who will be casualties in the war inside the womb. When I see these so-called “black leaders” bashing conservatives for “racist policies,” I wonder how they justify cheering on the political team who proudly defends the annihilation of 13 million black children since 1973.
And conservatives don’t care about black people? I don’t think so!
No, I think I’ll ride with the team who says enough with the welfare cancer that has destroyed people’s innate desire to achieve. Yes, I’ll ride with the folks who respect me enough to consider me their equal and not insult me with Affirmative Action racism. Yeah, I’ll ride with the gang who would rather create effective policies than emotional “feel good” symbolism that robs individuals of their desire to aspire.
So while it may take a little getting used to walking into college parties where I’m known as “The Black Republican,” I now realize I am a newly inducted member of a rich tradition of ideologically emancipated black conservatives. And guess what? I’m more than cool with that. I’m proud, actually.
“The conservative Kanye West”?
Hmmm….
Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?
Jerome Hudson is a sophomore at Tallahassee Community College with plans to transfer to Florida A&M University in the fall.
A 19- or 20-year-old wrote this?!? There's hope for the future, America!
Remember last fall's big controversy surrounding Nebraska's Safe Haven Law? Because of poor wording, between July and November of 2008, some 35 children were dropped off at hospitals and other such "safe havens", abandoned by parents who felt they could no longer adequately care for their children. The original intent was to protect babies under 30 days of age, but some teenagers were getting dumped off due to a possible interpretation of the law to include teenagers. That snafu has since been fixed. (Go here, here, here and here for prior postings.)
A particularly difficult day was back in September of 2008 when eleven children had been abandoned in one day -- 9 from one family! Last week came the shocking news that that father is now expecting twins!!!! Here's the story from FoxNews:
Father Who Ditched Nine Kids Via Safe Haven Law Has Twins On the Way
The Nebraska man who abandoned his nine children under the state's Safe Haven law last year is expecting to become the father of twins, FOXNews.com has learned.
Gary Staton, 37, became a single father in February 2007 when his wife, RebelJane, died of a cerebral aneurysm shortly after giving birth to the couple's ninth child. Unable to handle the burden alone, Staton made national news more than a year later on Sept. 24 when he dropped off his children — ages 1 to 17 — at a hospital in Omaha. According to the law at the time, parents could hand children up to age 18 over to state custody without prosecution. Legislators would later amend the law to limit its reach to infants up to 30 days old.
Joanne Manzer — the wife of RebelJane's father, Jack Manzer — told FOXNews.com that Staton informed his children last week that he's expecting to become a father again with his new girlfriend, a woman named Gail.
"I was told she's pregnant with twins," Manzer told FOXNews.com. "[Staton] told them the last time he visited them in Lincoln, that his girlfriend Gail was pregnant. He even showed them the ultrasound picture."
Staton, who could not be reached for comment for this article, declined to discuss his girlfriend's pregnancy when the Omaha World-Herald reported on Sunday that he would become a father again. Details of a multiple birth and the woman's name were not included in that report, but in an e-mail to the newspaper, Staton said, "Do you think I'm going to raise this one alone?"
Joanne Manzer said Staton's seven youngest children are staying with their mother's aunt, who plans on adopting them. The two oldest boys, she said, are living with a 75-year-old woman in Omaha so they can graduate high school. Despite the revelation that Staton will be a father again, Manzer said the children aren't angry.
"They don't seem to be, they're doing fine," Manzer said. "He goes up there for visits — they still have a connection. They kind of understood what he did, he was stressed with everything else."
Asked if she and RebelJane's father felt differently, Manzer replied, "It's his life. He can do whatever he wants as long as he doesn't hurt the kids anymore. That's all we care about at this point."
Manzer said she wishes that Staton had turned to his family for help instead of abandoning the children at Omaha's Creighton University Medical Center.
"He did what he did, but we wish he had done it a different way," she said. "If he had come to anyone in the family, we would've figured something out. He didn't come to us though, and I saw him the morning he dropped off the kids."
She said the children wouldn't have been left in the hands of the state, if the children's mother had survived her last pregnancy and become a single mom.
...
In November, after its first special session in more than five years, Nebraska's legislators revised the safe haven law to apply only to babies up to 30 days old. Gov. Dave Heineman said the original law had "serious unintended consequences" after 36 children — ranging from 1 to 17 years old — were abandoned at hospitals, including children brought to Nebraska from as far away as California and Washington. Twenty-two of the 36 children were age 13 or older, and eight were ages 10-12, according to state records.
"Revising the law to create a 'baby safe haven' in Nebraska does two things," Heineman said in a statement last November. "First, it puts the focus back on the original intent of these laws, which is saving newborn babies and exempting a parent from prosecution for child abandonment. It should also prevent those outside the state from bringing their children to Nebraska in an attempt to secure services."
The last use of the state's safe haven law was on Nov. 21, the last day it applied to children up to age 18. A 14-year-old boy from Yolo County, Calif., was abandoned at the Kimball County Hospital by his mother, who drove roughly 1,200 miles to get there.
...
Kathie Osterman, a spokeswoman for Nebraska's Department of Health and Human Services, said the Staton family had received more than $995,000 in government aid as of last fall, including an estimated $600,000 in food stamps and more than $100,000 in Medicaid.
Safe Haven laws have been passed in all 50 states since 1999, according to the National Safe Haven Alliance. The District of Columbia is the only place in the U.S. without such a provision ...
So much for all the advertising about safe sex and clinics offering free birth control ... Honestly, couldn't the guy have put a condom on his Johnny Hancock?!?
This is the poem "The New Colussus" by Emma Lazarus, engraved on a tablet within the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. The final lines are the most famous, inscribed in the tablets she carries on her arm.
The New Colossus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
God bless and protect our military who fought and maintain our freedom!!!
Eeeegads! The House just passed the Waxman-Markey "Cap & Trade" bill! The Dems' victory, however, came with a tough battle from the Republicans -- 219-212. All but 30 Dems voted for the bill; but all of the GOPs reps voted against it. Now, the bill is headed for the Senate.
Here's what the AP reported (source) -- emphasis added:
House Passes Milestone Energy, Climate Change Bill
WASHINGTON -- The Democratic-controlled House, dealing a legislative victory to President Obama, narrowly passed sweeping legislation Friday that calls for the nation's first limits on pollution linked to global warming and aims to usher in a new era of cleaner, yet more costly energy.
The vote was 219-212, capping months of negotiations and days of intense bargaining among Democrats. Republicans were overwhelmingly against the measure, arguing it would destroy jobs in the midst of a recession while burdening consumers with a new tax in the form of higher energy costs.
The House's action fulfilled Speaker Nancy Pelosi's vow to clear major energy legislation before July 4, and sent the measure to a highly uncertain fate in the Senate.
... Al Gore posted a statement on his Web site saying the measure represents "an essential first step towards solving the climate crisis." ...
On the House floor, Democrats hailed the legislation as historic, while Republicans said it would damage the economy without solving the nation's energy woes.
It is "the most important energy and environmental legislation in the history of our country," said Rep. Ed Markey of Massachusetts. "It sets a new course for our country, one that steers us away from foreign oil and towards a path of clean American energy."
But Rep. John Boehner, the House Republican leader, used an extraordinary one-hour speech shortly before the final vote to warn of unintended consequences in what he said was a "defining bill." He called it a "bureaucratic nightmare" that would cost jobs, depress real estate prices and put the government into parts of the economy where it now has no role.
The legislation would require the U.S. to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020 and by about 80 percent by mid-century. That was slightly more aggressive than Obama originally wanted, 14 percent by 2020 and the same 80 percent by mid-century ...
Under the bill, the government would limit heat-trapping pollution from factories, refineries and power plants and issue allowances for polluters. Most of the allowances would be given away, but about 15 percent would be auctioned by bid and the proceeds used to defray higher energy costs for lower-income individuals and families ...
The final bill also contained concessions to satisfy farm-state lawmakers, ethanol producers, hydroelectric advocates, the nuclear industry and others, some of them so late that they were not made public until 3 a.m. on Friday.
Supporters and opponents agreed the result would be higher energy costs but disagreed vigorously on the impact on consumers. ...
If you interested in seeing who voted how, go here. Also, here's an interesting article about the Australian legislature considering abolishing its carbon emissions plans due to growing numbers of scientists and politicians questioning the "science" of human-caused global warming.
Sadly, many of the proponents point to Europe as a model for the U.S. to follow, ignoring some of the problems Europe has faced with its attempts to limit green house gases. Go here and here to see Cap & Trade has not been all sweetness and light for the Europeans.
Ed McMahon, who passed away Tuesday at 86 years of age after a long bout with cancer and related pneumonia, was Johnny Carson's sidekick for 30 years on "The Tonight Show." Many of us stayed up a bit past the 10:00 news just to at least watch Johnny's monologue. To be honest, I never really cared for McMahon, finding him annoying at times, but when I put that aside and think of how much he permeated American society, it is impressive. All of us adults know the "Heeeeeeeeeeeeeere's Johnny!" Trademark! We saw him promoting countless products on TV, and he was a trusted face and voice.
Farrah Fawcett was someone in my high school years that all of us girls idolized and all the boys lusted after. We girls all wanted her hair, and I think every boy must have had her famous poster pinned up in their rooms. Watching "Charlie's Angels" was one of the high points of our week, back in the days of "Happy Days" and "Starsky and Hutch." I was always impressed with how this 70's pin-up girl maintained her beauty and the awe of everyone even into her 60s.
Michael Jackson's passing on the same day as Farrah brought a too early and so sad ending to Jackson's life. His last years were wrought with scandal, accusations, astronomic debt, and an overall weirdness his appearance and actions. But, given his alleged abusive childhood followed by the hounding he endured as an adult, who wouldn't develop weird behaviors?
I never got around to buying his music until right now ... downloading a greatest hits album from iTunes as I type ... due to his odd life and the accusations and charges against him. But, I always wanted to think the accusations were false and that Jackson truly was a good guy. I do recall how everyone waited with so much excitement surrounding his Thriller video on MTV. Back in the 80s, he cranked out hit after hit and truly was the King of Pop. No one has taken his place since.
Now as I look back on the hey day of his career, I believe that Jackson played a pivotal role in helping tear down many racial divides. It seemed everybody -- Black and White -- was a fan and feverishly buying his music. This one-of-a-kind entertainer ... no, musical and entertainment genius ... had a talent that was admired by everyone.Everyone loved his music, wanted to be him, to imitate him, to dress like him. I remember the wild leather jackets that were the hottest trend at the time, a lá "Thriller." His genius was undeniable.
How sad that he was on the verge of making a comeback, having lined up 50 concerts in London to start next month on July 13th. We will all forever wonder if he would have been successful at this enormous attempt and re-establishing himself in the good graces of society.
How many entertainers have experienced such worldwide worship and adoration? How many entertainers have caused a groan to fall over New York's Time Square as the news of his death passed across the big screens? How many entertainers, let alone events, have actually caused the Internet to slow down as people and websites spread the news of his death?
A woman in a hot air balloon realized she was lost. She lowered her altitude and spotted a man in a boat below. She shouted to him, "Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am."
The man consulted his portable GPS and replied, "You're in a hot air balloon, approximately 30 feet above a ground elevation of 2,346 feet above sea level. You are at 31 degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees, 49.09 minutes west longitude.
"She rolled her eyes and said, "You must be a Republican."
"I am," replied the man. "How did you know?"
"Well," answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is technically correct. But I have no idea what to do with your information, and I'm still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help to me."
The man smiled and responded, "You must be an Obama Democrat."
"I am," replied the balloonist. "How did you know?"
"Well," said the man, "you don't know where you are or where you are going. You've risen to where you are, due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem. You're in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but somehow, now it's my fault."
Not to rub it in to you working stiffs, but I am enjoying being on summer vacation. I do find, however, that I'm having a hard time relaxing. Several times I a day, a sudden mini-panic bursts into my calm mind, gasping: "Huh? What do I need to have ready for tomorrow? What am I supposed to be working on right now?" But, then I take a deep breath and tell myself: "Self, relaaaaax. You're on vacaaaaation. You have nothing to do and all day to do it. Nowhere to go and all day to get there." (Well, until next week when I begin another University of Phoenix online course ... that will keep me busy and out of trouble.)
So, I've been taking myself to the movies quite a bit lately. I thought I would share with you my "movie reviews."
• Star Trek: I'm a bit late writing on this, because I actually saw it back when it first opened in early May. LOVED IT!!!! I'm not necessarily a Trekkie. I watched the original show quite a bit when growing up; but, never could get into the newer shows or the movies. However, this movie is awesome! The plot is very clever: we see the beginning of the original series' careers with Star Fleet and see how the individuals fit into the TV show we know so well. The special effects are phenomenal, too. I put it on a level with Star Wars. My highest praise of a movie is when I would be willing to see it a second time and pay full price. Star Trek is definitely one of those rare movies. 5 of 5 stars
• The Hangover: HATED IT!!!! The only good thing about this movie is watching Bradley Cooper for 2 hours. I don't understand what all the hoopla surrounding this movie. I found the humor very middle school level stupid and gross. OK, I know I shouldn't expect a movie to be high level humor with a plot about 3 friends having a wild bachelor party in Vegas. It could have been the bad mood I was in contributing to my crabby appraisal of it. (I had just gotten back from Germany, having brought back some wonderful chocolate-covered marzipan candies. My dog found them while I was grocery shopping and devoured just about all of them -- foil wrappers included. I was in a really pissed off mood while watching the movie, also worrying a bit about the amount of chocolate my knuckle-head dog had consumed.) Honestly, I got so bored I almost walked out after about 30 minutes. Be warned: it is very crude and raunchy -- something to consider when going to the theater with others, such as kids or your mother. 1 of 5 stars
•The Proposal: Your typical cute date movie. The story is a bit predictable, but I really enjoy the two actors -- Sandra Bullock and cutie pie Ryan Reynolds. Betty White has a fun role as Reynold's grandmother. The best part, besides Reynolds, was the beautiful Alaska scenery. I gotta go!!! 4 of 5 stars
• Upin Disney 3D: Very cute! I paid the extra $2.50 for the 3D glasses. You could just see in in the regular 2D format, but I splurged for the better experience. This is another terrific movie from Pixar/Disney. The animation was beautiful, and the 3D added extra fun. The story was adorable as well -- one that both kids and adults will enjoy. I am amazed at how an animated story can get me a bit choked up. The two main characters, Mr. Frederickson and Russell, are a great mismatch of personality, Russell's cheerful and optimistic cuteness paired up with Frederickson's Walter Mathau-like stodginess. The dogs are hilarious, especially lead dog Doug. 5 of 5 stars
• Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian: I can't really give a decent review of this movie, because I kept falling asleep! (I had just gotten back from Germany, so I was doin' the head-bob off and on due to jet lag. Plus, I had a belly full of yummy Mexican food.) What parts I did see were a bit boring ... so, I'm not inspired to go back when I'm fully conscious and give it a second chance. (No rating, sorry!)
• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: After posting some mini-movie reviews yesterday, I then went to see "Transformers 2", so I decided to tack this on to the end. The special effects were phenomenal, as to be expected from the great results with Transformers 1 and from its executive director Steven Spielberg. I would, however, caution parents on the PG-13 rating. Given the language and sexual content, I found it inappropriate for audiences as young 6th graders. You don't "see" any sex or nudity; but, there are sexual situations that I think would make some parents uncomfortable. There seemed to be some interesting political messages in the movie ... almost like cheap shots at Obama and those who are weak on national defense. From looking around on the Internet, I read that politics have always been a part of Transformers. (I was "too old" for Transformers when they were popular, so I didn't grow oup with them.) If you're interested, you can go to Free Republic and USAToday (although about the 1st movie) for input about the political messages of the movie.
One-man and multi-Czar mission to turn the USA into--at least--a third world country
Obama Resolutely Turning US into Third World Country
On a one-man and multi-Czar mission to turn the USA into -- at least -- a third world country, Obama is in the process of taking over all major US industries -- thus far, he’s commandeered the auto industry and banking. He is now going after the creme de la creme -- healthcare and the attendant insurance companies. ObamaControl of this industry will give him ultimate power over all of us.
During a recent speech to the American Medical Association (AMA), he said: ‚"What accounts for the bulk of our costs is the nature of the healthcare deliverysystem.” Translation: ‚"I don’t like this entire US system and plan to trash it.” He then said: "We spend vast amounts of money on things that aren’t necessarily making people any healthier.” Translation: ‚"I know how to manage healthcare better than doctors. Besides, I not only want a piece of this action, I want it ALL!”
In order to support his claims of ‘cheaper healthcare is better than expensive healthcare’, he decided to tell a story -- one which probably will never be verified by the still-fawning ObamaMedia. As supposed support for his argument, he advised the group in attendance that McAllen, TX has higher healthcare costs than does El Paso, TX. He said this is due to doctors giving their patients ‚"in some cases, treatment they don’t need and in some cases [treatment that] can actually do people harm by raising the real risk of infection and medical error. This error is being repeated across America!” Translation: ‚"As I have virtually all of my State-run news channels covering this speech--and they love me and will do anything and everything I tell them--this message will get to the American people. If I can scare them enough, continue to confuse them with my double-speak and convince them that less healthcare really means more healthcare I’ll get this miserable program passed! Then, we can really do some real damage to American and my opposition. Then, I’ll control almost EVERYTHING and EVERYONE! Heh-heh.”
Like Socialism, Communism, Fascism and other forms of totalitarian governments, Universal healthcare (for the USA it’s called ObamaCare) has never worked ...
In a related story, John Lott on FoxNews reported yesterday that several studies show that Americans are overwhelmingly happy with their health care, including most uninsured Americans. Here are excerpts (emphasis added):
As Obama Pushes National Health Care, Most Americans Already Happy With Coverage
As the Obama administration pushes for a national health care plan, studies show that most Americans are overwhelmingly happy with their own health care -- but they are dissatisfied with the country's overall system, because most Americans who have insurance believe that those who don't have it are not receiving care.
Those same studies, however, show that a surprisingly large 70 percent of the estimated 46 million Americans who don't have insurance say they do, in fact, receive health care, and that a vast majority of them are satisfied with it.
A survey conducted jointly by the Kaiser Family Foundation, ABC News and USA Today, released in October 2006, found that 89 percent of Americans were satisfied with their own personal medical care, but only 44 percent were satisfied with the overall quality of the American medical system. The survey is the only recent poll for which data is publicly available that allows for a comparison of the satisfaction of insured and uninsured Americans. (The data from a just-completed New York Times/CBS poll won't be publicly available for several months; the results that have been reported so far don't make the comparisons discussed in this article.)
Those with recent serious health problems, possibly the people with the best knowledge of how health care is working, were generally the most satisfied. Ninety-three percent of insured Americans who had recently suffered a serious illness were satisfied with their health care. So were 95 percent of those who suffered from chronic illness.
President Obama, in his press conference on Tuesday, seemed to understand that degree of satisfaction. While promising to help people who are "out of luck" on insurance, he said: "If you like your plan and you like your doctor, you won't have to do a thing. You keep your plan; you keep your doctor. If your employer's providing you good health insurance, terrific. We're not going to mess with it."
But while insured Americans say overwhelmingly that they are satisfied, more than half of them -- 52 percent -- believe that becoming uninsured poses a "critical problem," 36 percent view the threat as "serious but not critical," and another 7 percent see it as a "problem, but not serious." Only 4 percent view it as "not much of a problem."
Uninsured Americans, not surprisingly, are not as satisfied as people who have insurance. Nonetheless, 70 percent of the uninsured who indicated their level of satisfaction said they were either "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with their health care, and only 17.5 percent said they were "very dissatisfied."
Analysts say legislators should pay close attention before enacting a national health care plan.
"If the insured come to believe that the uninsured are not that dissatisfied with their health care, it is extremely important. It could throw a real wild card into the whole health care debate," Jack Calfee, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, told FOXNews.com.
"It is a common finding in public opinion research,"Henry Aaron, a senior fellow for economic studies at the Brookings Institution, told FOXNews.com. "People are satisfied in the small, but dissatisfied in the large. People are satisfied with their child's teachers or school, but dissatisfied with schools generally.... They are satisfied with their doctor or their last visit to the hospital, but they are dissatisfied with what they perceive is happening with medical care as a whole. This finding is just one additional example."
The Kaiser/ABC News/USA Today survey found that about 13.4 percent of Americans were uninsured (a number slightly smaller than the 15.5 percent estimate used in policy debates from a Department of Labor survey). In crunching the numbers, since 13.4 percent multiplied by the 17.5 percent of the uninsured said that they were "very dissatisfied," it follows that out of all Americans, only 2.3 percent are both uninsured and "very dissatisfied" with the care they receive. The number rises to 3.9 percent when you include all the uninsured who are dissatisfied in any way with their health care.
To put those numbers differently, 5 million uninsured Americans are very dissatisfied with their health care. Including those dissatisfied in any way raises that to 8.4 million.
The survey of patient satisfaction also asked about the aspects of health care that dissatisfy Americans. The uninsured were most dissatisfied with their "ability to get the latest, most sophisticated medical treatments" (35 percent were "very dissatisfied"), followed by their ability to get non-emergency medical treatments without having to wait" (32 percent), and their "ability to see top-quality medical specialists, if you ever need one" (31 percent). At the other end, only 10 percent of the uninsured felt "very dissatisfied" with "the quality of their communication" with their doctor.
A majority of the uninsured are not desperately poor; about 60 percent of them have personal incomes over $50,000 per year and pay out of their own pockets when necessary, rather than paying for insurance. Others manage to obtain care at highly discounted rates as charity cases.
...
The studies also compared patient satisfaction in Canada and the U.S.
A May 2008 survey by Harris/Decima TeleVox asked Canadians the same questions that appeared in the Kaiser/ABC News/USA Today survey two years earlier. In most comparisons, Canadians were more satisfied than uninsured Americans, but just barely, and they were nowhere as satisfied as insured Americans. Canadians are most similar to insured Americans in terms of their happiness with their ability "to get non-emergency care without having to wait." While 77 percent of insured Americans and 41 percent of uninsured Americans were satisfied with timely non-emergency care, the figure for all Canadians was 60 percent.
Another comparison between the U.S. and Canada can be made in terms of how egalitarian the two systems are. That is, is there much difference in levels of happiness between people based on race, education, income, marital status, age, political views, or income? For both Americans and Canadians, higher incomes don't buy higher levels of satisfaction with their health care. In the U.S., there is no difference in happiness by race; blacks are just as satisfied as whites or Asians or Hispanics. Canadians do experience greater differences in happiness across provinces than Americans face across states.
Lott's article is lengthy and well-researched with links to his sources. I encourage you to read it in its entirety.
It is important that we have an open debate that encompasses various viewpoints of this very complicated issue ... something that OBC ... er, ABC ... was not willing to do! (Go here for that story.)
Last week's story of Belgian teenager, Kimberley Vlaminck, who supposedly fell asleep while her face was being tattooed, is admitting this week that she lied.
Helllooooo! No surprise here! Was anybody really fooled by her cockamamie story? I thought the story smelled like horse hockey when I first heard it. My initial thought was if she indeed had fallen asleep, then she must have been extremely drunk or stoned, because who could FALL ASLEEP while getting tattooed?!?! You know the ones right below her eye, on her nose and her temple had to have been excruciating. Fell asleep? Really?!? Her story sounded no different from the situation of a crashing sound being heard in the house, the parents asking "What's going up there?" and the kids responding with "Nothing!"
Here's what FoxNews and The London Daily Telegraph are reporting (source):
She initially insisted she dozed off after asking the tattoo artist for just three small stars – then awoke in horror to find her face was covered with 56 stars. The Belgian teenager blamed the Flemish-speaking tattoo artist for not being able to understand her French and English instructions and threatened to sue.
"I asked for 56 stars and initially adored them,” Vlaminck told a Dutch TV crew. “But when my father saw them, he was furious. So I said I fell asleep and that the (he) had made a mistake."
I hope the tattoo artist sues her little brat ass and that her daddy paddles it!!!!
I busted a gut when I read this AP story yesterday:
Road Cleaned by Neo-Nazis May Be Named for Rabbi
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Two Adopt-a-Highway signs on a Missouri road acknowledge a neo-Nazi group's participation in the state's litter prevention program.
But if Gov. Jay Nixon signs a large transportation bill, that half-mile section of road will be renamed "Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel Memorial Highway" in honor of a rabbi who narrowly escaped the Nazis in World War II and later marched with Martin Luther King Jr.
The Springfield unit of the National Socialist Movement committed last year to clean up trash along the section of Highway 160 near the city limits in west Springfield. Two signs noting the group's membership in the Adopt-A-Highway program went up last October.
"For the National Socialist movement to be in the Adopt-a-Highway program is well within their rights," said Rabbi Alan L. Cohen of the Jewish Community Relations Board of Kansas City, which worked on selecting Heschel's name for the highway.
"But obviously there were people raising the concern that this is the wrong message for people to see driving down a Missouri highway, that there are National Socialists out here," Cohen said Sunday. "Wouldn't it be nice to have someone who stands for justice."
The state says it had no way to reject the group's application. A 2005 U.S. Supreme Court ruling arising from a similar effort by the Ku Klux Klan says membership in the Adopt-A-Highway program can't be denied because of a group's political beliefs.
That 2005 Supreme Court ruling also had to do with a racist group here in Missouri. (Oh, and we have some other radical group in the bootheel of Missouri ... something like the "Covenant, Sword and Arm of the Lord" whack jobs. The Show-Me state excels in home-grown radicalism / terrorism.) The case found that the state cannot deny any organization's application to the program on grounds of political beliefs; but, a group can be denied if any its members have been convicted of violent criminal activity in the past 10 years.
What happened in that 2005 case was that the Missouri Department of Transportation lost a long legal battle in trying to prevent the Ku Klux Klan from adopting a highway on freedom-of-speech grounds. So, the state decided to get in a "cheap shot" by getting the Missouri legislature to officially designate that part of highway 55 as the "Rosa Parks Highway" in honor of the courageous woman arrested in 1955 for refusing to give up her bus to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama.
There is a recent, growing trend in France of women wearing full-body burqas, the traditional head-to-toe black covering worn by many Islamic women. The trend has raised concern among many Frenchmen .... so much so, that dozens of legislators have called for the formation of a parliamentary commission to study this increasing use of burqas. It is possible that the commission could impose a ban on wearing them.
President Nicolas Sarkozy very boldly stated his personal concerns about the burqa, calling it a sign of debasement of women and that its wearing would not be allowed in France.
Here are some of the things Sarkozy commented on (source):
In the first presidential address in 136 years to a joint session of France's two houses of parliament, Sarkozy laid out his support for a ban even before the panel has been approved—braving critics who fear the issue is a marginal one and could stigmatize Muslims in France.
"In our country, we cannot accept that women be prisoners behind a screen, cut off from all social life, deprived of all identity," Sarkozy said to extended applause in a speech at the Chateau of Versailles southwest of Paris.
"The burqa is not a religious sign, it's a sign of subservience, a sign of debasement—I want to say it solemnly," he said. "It will not be welcome on the territory of the French Republic."
Wow! -- pretty doggone bold, especially given that France hosts Europe's largest Islamic population -- estimates of approximately 10% of the general population. (It is difficult, however, to get fairly precise numbers due to the French authorities not asking about a person's ethnic or religious identity.)
This current debate calls to mind a ban declared back in 2004 on the wearing of Islamic headscarves and other conspicuous religious symbols in French public schools. This time, if a ban against burqas were to be enacted, would effect the wearing of them outside of the home -- not just in schools.
Sarkozy's cabinet members are divided over the issue. France's secretary of state in charge of regenerating poor urban neighborhoods, feminist Fadela Amara, supports a total ban. Immigration Minister Eric Besson believes that a ban won't work and would only create tensions. Nadine Morano, secretary of state in charge of families, fears that some women would wind up being confined to their homes if they are not allowed to wear burqas.
A government-approved body representing French Muslims spoke out against a ban Saturday, saying it would breach individual freedoms and stigmatise Muslims.
A leading French Muslim group warned against studying the burqa.
Check out Jib Jab's newest video -- it's great! [Sorry -- I tried several times to embed the video here; but, there must be something wrong with the code. But, just click on the link and go directly to Jib Jab's website to see it.]
The song is to the tune of "When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again."
He's Barack Obama
When darkness had descended all across the land a lone voice in the distance uttered "yes, we can!" he gave good speeches, never sweat he was real good at the internets he's Barack Obama he's come to save the day
he passed a major stimulus for the bourgeois then said he'd half the deficit, hee hee, hah hah stop unemployment, fix health care in his spare time he's Barack Obama he's come to save the day
He’ll use his super powers to win in Iraq, Then kung-fu chop the Taliban! Ka-chow! Ka-cha! Our image in the world he’ll mend, Then make the Jews and Arabs friends! He’s Barack Obama, He’s come to save the day!
[Oval Office scene: phone rings "Sir, we have a situation." "Pirates!"]
He'll spend the dough, write the checks Disregard the mounting debt
Stop the globe from getting warm Fill your car with nuts and corn
Leap a building, run industry Save a kitten from a tree
Fix the schools, go to space Punch a robot in the face
Stop a train, wrestle bears Smoke a butt, we don't care
'Cuz you're Barack Obama You've come to save the day So just snap your fingers and fix the USA!
You can go to here to see and read about how the video was produced -- from the writing and recording of the song to the animation. Very interesting!
This blog is a newborn -- DOB is April 19, 2007! It was born from a discussion (argument?) at work regarding Hummers and their owners. My colleagues said that Humvee owners were basically the scum of the earth. I thought how unfair to judge someone you don't know by what car he or she drives! I've also heard and witnessed similar hate-filled reactions to cigarette smokers.Are Hummers and smokers the scapegoats of today's society? Why?And why on earth do people focus so much energy on such non-issues and disregard the real problems that exist in our society? Is it because such 'distractions' are easier to confront that the real problems? Let's explore the double-standards and hypocrisies of our society, shall we? (For more of the original, founding post, click here.)
"Busted: Exposing Popular Myths about Christianity" by Fred von Kamecke
"Beyond Opinion: Living The Faith We Defend" by Ravi Zacharias
"Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America--and What We Can Do About It" by Juan Williams
"The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam and the Crusades" by Robert Spencer
"Power To The People" by Laura Ingraham
"Do As I Say (Not As I Do) Profiles in Liberal Hyposcrisy" by Peter Schweizer
"State of Fear" by Michael Crichton
"Crazies to the Left of Me, Wimps to the Right: How One Side Lost Its Mind and the Other Lost Its Nerve" by Bernard Goldberg
"Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity -- Get Out The Shovel -- Why Everything You Know is Wrong" by John Stossel of 20/20
"Rumors of Another World" by Philip Yancey
Never Forget!!
no matter how politically incorrect
Listening to ... Gladys Knight "Before Me"
jazz / big band
Eric Bibb
Marc Broussard
Duffy
Rockferry
Michael Jackson
Adele
19
Eric Clapton
Me and Mr. Johnson
Harry Connick, Jr.: "Oh, My Nola"
AWESOME!!! Fundraiser, too, for New Orleans
Diana Krall: "Live In Paris"
jazz
U2 18 Singles
Michael McDonald: "Motown" & "Motown 2"
great remakes of classic R&B hits
Stevie Ray Vaughan: The Real Deal Greatest Hits Vol. 1
awesome blues guitar!
Heart: The Essential Heart
classic rock
Best of the Doobies
Show Me The Money!!!
www.ActivistCash.com
Global Warming Heretic
After watching shows on TV and doing some reading, I do believe that the supposed climate change (and, despite what Greenies try to tell me, the earth has been hotter) is more likely due to the sun's activity than anything else. We humans have a miniscule impact compared to the sun. I also believe that a lot of this nonsense is politically driven. Plus, how better for scientists to scare up research money than by creating a big harem scarem? Predicting 'catastrophies' and alarming people is far sexier and will get you a lot more research dollars. [See my commentary from 4/22/07: "Say It Loud and Proud: I'm A Heretic!"]
These last couple of days have seen a flurry of whining and moaning about the uncovering of a CIA assassin program. I don't get all the hysteria surrounding it. First, the program NEVER CAME TO BE!!!! Second, the proposed targeted killings would have been top al-Qaeda leaders. Wouldn't that be a good thing? I mean, I have no military background, but isn't that what is done when you're at war with the enemy? Helllloooooo! Are people in our country, especially the elitist politicians, MSM, and entertainers, so disconnected from the realities of this world and its evil that we just think we can hold hands with everyone and sing "Kum Bah Ya" and make it all better?
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