April 03, 2007
Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Florence Shapiro said Tuesday a combination of an across-the-board teacher salary increase and incentive pay should be considered in the state budget."I think there's still room ... to look at both of them. I think they both need to be in the bill. I don't think there should be one or the other," said Shapiro, R-Plano. "As a pragmatist, I recognize that we need to review both and have some very serious conversations when it comes time."
Shapiro last week had suggested there might not be money for both after the House in its two-year state spending plan took $583 million from incentive-pay programs to fund an $800 across-the-board teacher pay raise. A strong incentive-pay advocate, Shapiro said then she'd fight for it and noted lawmakers approved a $2,000 across-the-board teacher raise last year.
This week, Shapiro and other Senate budget-writers put a smaller, across-the-board pay raise of about $500 on their unfunded "wish list." It would cost $300 million.
The Senate Finance Committee next week is scheduled to recommend a proposed budget to the Senate. After a vote, legislative negotiators will work out differences between the House and Senate proposals.
Shapiro said putting the raise on the "wish list" keeps it alive for negotiations.
We teachers keep being told we are important -- why don't you pay us like we are? And as far as merit pay goes, we are willing to give it a shot -- but only after you bring teacher pay in general up to national standards.
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It is the rare presidential candidate who comes to Idaho to raise money, but there was Mitt Romney last month, packing more than 100 people, at up to $2,300 a head, into the Crystal Ballroom in Boise."Nearly every seat was filled. Just about everybody that's anybody was there," said Grant Ipsen, a former Idaho state legislator. "I don't think I'd ever attended another fundraiser for a federal candidate in Idaho."
There was no great mystery why Romney was in town. The former Massachusetts governor is a Mormon, as are about one-quarter of Idaho residents, including Ipsen and many others who turned out for the lunchtime event. The fundraiser was bracketed by two others in the Mountain West: one in Las Vegas and another outside Phoenix. At both of those events, Mormons made up at least half the crowd, organizers said. Altogether, the two-day swing brought in well over $1 million for Romney.
As he vies for a place in the top tier of contenders for the Republican nomination, Romney is reaping enormous benefits from being part of a growing religion that has traditionally emphasized civic engagement and mutual support. Mormons are fueling his strong fundraising operation, which this week reported raising $21 million, the most of any Republican candidate. And they are laying the foundation for a potent grass-roots network -- including a cadre of young church members experienced in door-to-door missions who say they are looking forward to hitting the streets for him.
"When Mormons get mobilized, they're like dry kindling. You drop a match and get impressive results quickly," said University of Notre Dame political scientist David Campbell, who is Mormon. "It's almost a unique group in the way in which it's organized at the local level and the channels through which mobilization can occur."
But the intensity of this support has a potential downside as Romney tries to establish an identity separate from a religion still regarded warily by many Americans -- a quarter of whom, polls suggest, do not want a Mormon president.
Really, this is a non-issue for most Americans, except a minority of bigots; a few on the Right but more on the Left who would never have voted for Romney in any event. It survives because the media keeps up a focus on it -- in a way they would never do over Obama's black support. Indeed, they would never treat racist refusal to vote for a black man as the basis for calling Obama's heritage and support among African-Americans a "mixed blessing", would they?
It seems clear that too many folks in the MSM have forgotten the lessons of 1960. And I say that as someone who is not Mormon and has serious issues with Mormon teachings and theology -- but who also supports Mitt Romney as the best the best declared GOP candidate for 2008.
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Burger King, of all places, has taken the biggest initiative to pull savagery off the menu. After several years of consulting animal welfare groups, the chain last month announced significant changes in the way it buys meat.Starting now, 2 percent of Burger King's eggs will come from cage-free birds; that proportion will rise to 5 percent by the end of this year. The chain also will buy 10 percent of its pork from suppliers who refuse to keep their animals in crates; that percentage will rise to 20 by 2008.
Burger King also has told suppliers it will prioritize buying chickens that have been killed humanely, with a "controlled atmosphere" technique that is already in use in Europe.
The effect of these measures together, animal welfare groups say, is enormous. First, Burger King's actions will increase awareness about the way meat is routinely produced. If more Americans knew about these methods, the factory farms that sell more than 95 percent of U.S. meat surely would be pressured into changing.
* * * Most promising of all, Burger King has announced it will continue its ongoing discussions with animal welfare experts. The Humane Society and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals both worked closely with the chain to develop the policy changes.
In keeping that conversation going, Burger King shows that ethics can coincide with good business. Few consumers, after all, need or want animals tortured in the service of lunch.
I'm sorry, but if your conscience is that prickly concerning your food, how can you justify eating meat? After all, it is still being killed. And if you are still willing to kill to obtain your food, is it really cruelty free? Either become a vegetarian or quit your bitchin' about it.
Personally, I want my meal to have been water-boarded, dressed in women's underwear and terrorized by dogs before it is dispatched with a single bullet to the back of the head. I'll take two Abu Ghraib burgers to go, please.
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In the aftermath of Watergate, President Jimmy Carter directed Attorney General Griffin Bell to prepare legislation that would make the attorney general an appointed post for a definite term, subject to removal only for cause. Carter's idea was to keep the attorney general independent of presidential direction to ensure that the Justice Department's authority would never again be abused for political purposes, as it had been during the ethically troubled Nixon presidency.Despite Carter's noble intent, Bell refused. In a little-known memorandum to the president dated April 11, 1977, he explained why. Any law that restricted the president's power to remove the attorney general — and, by inference, to fire any U.S. attorney — likely would be found unconstitutional. The president, Bell reasoned, is held accountable for the actions of the executive branch in its entirety, including the Justice Department; he must be free to establish policy and define priorities, even in the legal arena. "Because laws are not self-executing, their enforcement obviously cannot be separated from policy considerations," Bell wrote.
Carter argued that the attorney general is different from other Cabinet officers. The job entails dual responsibilities: carrying forward White House policies like any other Cabinet official and representing the law of the United States, whether it coincides with the president's policies or not. Bell agreed, but he found that insufficient to justify separating the attorney general and subordinate U.S. attorneys from presidential direction.
Bell anchored his reasoning on Supreme Court precedent, especially Chief Justice William Howard Taft's opinion in Myers v. United States (1926).
Congress enacts different types of laws, the chief justice opined. Some laws require close supervision by the president, while others draw upon the expertise found within the specific agencies of government. Much law, however, generally empowers the executive, and when subordinates perform these functions, "they are exercising not their own but (the president's) discretion," the court said. "Each head of a department is and must be the president's alter ego in the matters of that department where the president is required by law to exercise authority."
In other words, history, the Supreme Court, and the Constitution are on the side of the Bush Administration.
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Drop by DaycareBear.com to see what is available in your neighborhood.
Paid Endorsement.
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Lagging in fund-raising and under fire for his support of the Iraq war, Senator John McCain is overhauling his campaign finance operation and delaying the official announcement of his candidacy, his aides said Tuesday.They said he would adopt the kind of big-donor fund-raising program pioneered by President Bush and give a speech explaining his support for the administrationÂ’s troop buildup in Iraq.
The maneuvers come at a time of sharp anxiety in Mr. McCainÂ’s camp, especially over his fund-raising, which is trailing all the major Republican and Democratic presidential candidates.
The concern grew after his visit to Iraq over the weekend, when he asserted that conditions there were improving.
Mr. McCainÂ’s aides said that to deal with his fund-raising problems, he would adopt what had been a centerpiece of Mr. BushÂ’s fund-raising technique, and one that has been embraced by most major presidential candidates: creating an honorary campaign designation to reward the campaignÂ’s top money raisers. Mr. Bush called his Rangers and Pioneers; Mr. McCain will call his the McCain 100Â’s, for supporters who collect $100,000 for the campaign, and the McCain 200Â’s, who collect $200,000.
Mr. McCain has been identified throughout his career as an advocate of curbing the influence of money in politics, notably as a co-sponsor of a landmark bill limiting political contributions. He criticized Mr. Bush, when the two were opponents in 2000, as leading overly aggressive fund-raising efforts.
I think the word for this is HYPOCRISY!
But then again, McCain is desperate to become president, and if that means selling out his own principles, he'll do it.
Not that he will ever get his vote.
Indeed, the only way John McCain will ever be president is if he runs as an independent with Joe Lieberman as his VP candidate -- and even then he would be a long-shot.
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Often times you have a chance to transfer balances from one card to another. Done correctly, this can save you a wad of cash. If you are walking around with a typical card with a 15% interest rate, it is possible to find opportunities to transfer the balance from that card to one of the many interest free credit cards that are available for a year or longer! Or maybe you can get an offer of a 0% credit card which will allow you to make some of those purchases with no interest for an extended period of time. Either way, you save if you act responsibly with your credit.
Of course, you do need to behave responsibly with that credit. Never take out more than you can afford to pay back, or else you find yourself in a real jam.
Paid Endorsement.
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A top researcher predicted a "very active" 2007 Atlantic hurricane season Tuesday, with at least nine hurricanes and a good chance one will hit the U.S. coast. The forecast by William Gray predicts 17 named storms this year, five of them major hurricanes. The probability of a major storm making landfall on the U.S. coast this year is 74 percent, compared with the average of 52 percent over the past century, he said.The forecast, issued two months before the hurricane season starts, is virtually identical to the one Gray issued before the 2006 season, which turned out far quieter than he and others had feared.
"Our forecast skill does improve as we get closer to the start of the season," said Phil Klotzbach, a member of Gray's team at Colorado State University. "Stay tuned."
Last May, Gray's team forecast 17 named storms in 2006, including nine hurricanes, five of them major ones, and an 81 percent chance that at least one major hurricane would hit the U.S. Scientists with the National Hurricane Center and two other National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration agencies issued similar predictions.
Instead, there were 10 named storms in 2006 and five hurricanes, two of them major ones, in what was considered a "near normal" season. None of those hurricanes hit the U.S. Atlantic coast — only the 11th time that has occurred since 1945.
I'd argue this constitutes a wild @$$ guess -- and will treat it as such.
Sort of like global warming.
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Now how to you get into the global futures and forex trading markets? Is it difficult? Is it necessary to be familiar with lots of financial arcana just to keep from losing your shirt? Actually, it isn't. All you really need to do is hook up with a brokerage firm or trading company that works in these markets and begin to trade on these two hot markets. If you have questions, might I suggest you contact Global Futures Exchange & Trading Co., Inc. at GlobalFutures@GlobalFutures.com for additional information. They can explain to you the many opportunities that are out there for the small investor (or the large one) as part of your overall investment strategy, and how the tools on their website can help you track trends, make purchases and sell off the futures and currency you own in order to receive a great return on investment.
There is risk of loss trading Futures, options and forex.
Paid Endorsement.
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Tacoma police say last month's 12-day anti-war protests cost the city an unbudgeted $500,000 to provide a large-scale law enforcement presence.The rough estimate covers overtime, regular compensation, equipment and food for hundreds of workers from Tacoma police and other agencies, Assistant Chief Bob Sheehan said.
The city plans to ask the Port of Tacoma and the military to cover some of the costs.
"That's a tremendous hit on our budget -- a half-million dollars of unexpected expense," said Tacoma Mayor Bill Baarsma, adding that the military would get the first invoice.
"I think our request is justifiable," Baarsma said. "I would expect that we would be reimbursed. I would be surprised if we weren't."Police increased law enforcement at the Port of Tacoma during the convoying and storage of Army Stryker vehicles from March 3 until a ship carrying the military equipment left for Iraq on March 14.
Protesters were there each night.
Might I suggest that the invoice be returned with the words “BUGGER OFF!” scrawled across it.
Either that, or bill Tacoma for its proportionate share of the national defense budget.
H/T Michelle Malkin
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Keith Richards has acknowledged consuming a raft of illegal substances in his time, but this may top them all.In comments published Tuesday, the 63-year-old Rolling Stones guitarist said he had snorted his father's ashes mixed with cocaine.
"The strangest thing I've tried to snort? My father. I snorted my father," Richards was quoted as saying by British music magazine NME.
"He was cremated and I couldn't resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow. My dad wouldn't have cared," he said. "... It went down pretty well, and I'm still alive."
Richards' father, Bert, died in 2002, at 84.
And we thought he only looks like a corpse.
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Keith Richards has acknowledged consuming a raft of illegal substances in his time, but this may top them all.In comments published Tuesday, the 63-year-old Rolling Stones guitarist said he had snorted his father's ashes mixed with cocaine.
"The strangest thing I've tried to snort? My father. I snorted my father," Richards was quoted as saying by British music magazine NME.
"He was cremated and I couldn't resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow. My dad wouldn't have cared," he said. "... It went down pretty well, and I'm still alive."
Richards' father, Bert, died in 2002, at 84.
And we thought he only looks like a corpse.
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As federal investigators examine how the leading U.N. agency in North Korea illegally kept 35 counterfeit American $100 bills in its possession for 12 years, documents indicate that more officials were aware of the existence of the fake currency — and earlier — than the agency has reported.Spokesmen for the United Nations Development Program have said top officials at the agency's New York headquarters learned in February that their safe in Pyongyang contained the counterfeit bills and immediately reported it to American authorities. But several documents shown recently to The New York Sun indicate that higher-ups knew much earlier that the safe held counterfeit money.
The documents are part of a worldwide reporting system that allows the agency to keep track of the contents of its office safes.
Where did the cash come from?
The safe contents record shown to the Sun includes such items as a "petty cash box," its keys, a zip drive containing finance-software data backup, an official U.N. stamp, identity cards, a log for checks, and a long list of checkbooks in euros, dollars, and North Korean won. One line in the record itemizes $3,500 in " Counterfeit US Dollar Bank Notes (given by FTB)."A UNDP spokesman, David Morrison, declined to provide the Sun with the agency's rules governing the tracking of safe contents and how regional offices report on them, citing the ongoing probe.
Mr. Morrison explained the presence of the counterfeit currency in the safe by saying an unidentified Egyptian consultant did some work for the UNDP in North Korea and as payment was given a check equal to $3,500 in North Korean won. The Egyptian consultant then cashed the check at the Foreign Trade Bank in Pyongyang, received American bills, and left the country.
Once abroad, the Egyptian consultant tried to deposit the bills, but was told they were suspect. He then returned the bills to the UNDP office in Pyongyang, where they were kept since 1995 in a safe, unnoticed, until February, the spokesman said.
Unnoticed – except for being recorded on all those inventory forms.
US prosecutors are seeking to interview at least 13 UN officials – who are resisting those interviews based upon questions of diplomatic immunity and legal representation.
Indictments must be sought – against officials of Communist North Korea, as well as against those UN officials who knew about this counterfeiting ring and covered it up for over a decade. And I agree with the assessment of Captain Ed Morrissey.
If federal prosecutors can return an indictment and confirm this activity, the UN will face a much tougher time in the US than it did in the Oil-for-Food Programme scandal. In that case, they turned a blind eye and enabled Saddam Hussein to enrich himself through a vast kickback scheme. If the UN helped hide North Korea's counterfeiting ring, that is a direct insult to our sovereignty, as well as our hospitality.It would be an insult that we cannot afford to let pass. If the UN does not immediately fire everyone involved in this scandal and revoke their immunity, then we must cut off all funds for the UN and create a timetable for withdrawal from this thoroughly corrupt organization. We have no need of a debating society whose members transform refugee camps into seraglios, who stuff the pockets of dictators with money meant for those they oppress, and who actively assist other nations in undermining our currency. If the UN fails to cooperate, it's time to push Turtle Bay into the water and bid adieu to the last of the Cold War anachronisms.
Actually, I’d take matters a bit further – given that the evidence is clear that UN officials were more interested in protecting the NorK dictatorship than the primary financial supporter of the UN and the host of its headquarters, it is appropriate to take at least some of those actions, if not all of them. It is time for the UN to join the League of Nations on the garbage heap of history, a fate which this corrupt organization deserves even more than its impotent predecessor.
H/T Stix Blog
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Here's the good news: The Republican party is dying. Slow, painful, twitching, secreting war and intolerance and desperation like a fetid gas, snarling and gagging like Jabba the Hutt being choked by the hard chain of progress and hope and relaxed social mores and an upcoming Generation Next that seems to sense that screaming about gays and women's rights and Muslims and drugs actually doesn't do much to move the human experiment forward in the slightest.Is this not delicious? Is this not cause for rejoicing? According to Pew Research, the percentage of young 'uns age 18 to 25 (a.k.a. Generation Next) who identify with Republicans has been in steady decline since the early '90s, and now hovers around a meager 35 percent, down from a high of 55 percent in the Reagan-toxic early-90s, and is still dropping, whereas fully 48 percent of 18-to-25-year-olds now lean Democratic ... and rising.
Seems Generation Next tend to be more socially liberal and much less worried about the trembling "sanctity" of the failed nuclear family, and are overall less inclined to align with a particular religion. Indeed, it almost makes you want to weep and sigh and go buy a large grass-fed free-range organic hybrid vibrator.
Ah, but there is a flip side. A counterargument. A dark cloud of righteous bleakness and it looms like a giant synthetic cheesecake-scented Glade PlugIn of potential misery.
It is this: According to another set of data, for the past 30 years or so, conservatives -- particularly those of the right-wing red-state Christian strain -- have been out-breeding liberals by a margin of at least 20 percent, if not far more.
It's true. The reason? Why, God loves babies, of course. White American babies, most especially. Also: issues of space, religion, sexual orientation and, of course, conscience. Or, you know, lack thereof.
IÂ’ll take Liberal Hatemongers for $500, Alex.
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Rep. Tom Lantos, a San Mateo Democrat and chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee who is accompanying Pelosi and several other Democrats and one Republican lawmaker, said during the group's visit to Israel on Sunday, "We have an alternative Democratic foreign policy. I view my job as beginning with restoring overseas credibility and respect for the United States."
But then again, why should we be surprised.
They tried to undermine US foreign policy under Reagan – and arguably engaged in treason at that time.
Heck, they tried that alternative foreign policy thing during the Civil War – and justly earned the name “Copperheads†at that time.
And today we see that Pelosi, Lantos and the rest are clearly Neo-Copperheads.
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Rep. Tom Lantos, a San Mateo Democrat and chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee who is accompanying Pelosi and several other Democrats and one Republican lawmaker, said during the group's visit to Israel on Sunday, "We have an alternative Democratic foreign policy. I view my job as beginning with restoring overseas credibility and respect for the United States."
But then again, why should we be surprised.
They tried to undermine US foreign policy under Reagan – and arguably engaged in treason at that time.
Heck, they tried that alternative foreign policy thing during the Civil War – and justly earned the name “Copperheads” at that time.
And today we see that Pelosi, Lantos and the rest are clearly Neo-Copperheads.
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Iran has more than tripled its ability to produce enriched uranium in the last three months, adding some 1,000 centrifuges which are used to separate radioactive particles from the raw material.The development means Iran could have enough material for a nuclear bomb by 2009, sources familiar with the dramatic upgrade tell ABC News.
The sources say the unexpected expansion is taking place at Iran's nuclear enrichment plant outside the city of Natanz, in a hardened facility 70 feet underground.
Libs, of course, are accusing the Bush Administration of faking information to justify “another unnecessary war” – a song they will sing until the Iranians detonate a bomb in downtown LA, at which point the will claim it is all Bush’s fault for not stopping Iran over the objection of the libs.
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April 02, 2007
They just dangerous and weird.
Surrender! Surrender!
Let's just give Iraq away!
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Monday he wants to cut off money for the Iraq war next year, making clear for the first time that Democrats are willing to pull out all the stops to end U.S. involvement.Reid's new strategy faces an uphill battle because many of his colleagues see yanking funds as a dangerous last resort. The proposal increases the stakes on the debate and marks a new era for the Democratic leadership once reluctant to talk about Congress' power of the purse.
"In the face of the administration's stubborn unwillingness to change course, the Senate has no choice but to force a change of course," said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who signed on Monday as a co-sponsor of Reid's proposal with Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis.
The move is likely to intensify the Democrats' rift with the administration, which already contends Democrats are putting troops at risk by setting deadlines.
Funny, but I thought the Democrats had told us they would never abandon the troops in the field or cut off funds. Now, in a fit of pique because the president won't accept their timetables for surrender, they are going to do precisely that.
I stand with Dick Cheney on this one.
"It's time the self-appointed strategists on Capitol Hill understood a very simple concept: You cannot win a war if you tell the enemy you're going to quit," Vice President Dick Cheney said Monday....
Of course, maybe the problem is that they DO understand that such a course is nothing but surrender.
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Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney provided a jolt to the Republican presidential contest yesterday, reporting a haul of $21 million in the first three months of the year, as Sen. John McCain of Arizona posted a lackluster third-place finish that even his campaign manager called a disappointment.As campaigns release their first meaningful fundraising figures in what appears certain to become the most expensive presidential campaign in history, McCain's $12.5 million total also put him behind former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who leads the Republican field in public polls and reported taking in $15 million in the first quarter.
Among Democrats, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) has set the pace for the field so far, reporting Sunday that she had raised $26 million in combined primary and general election funds and transferred an additional $10 million from her Senate campaign account. Her total was followed by that of former North Carolina senator John Edwards, who raised $14 million. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois has so far declined to release figures for his campaign.
The totals of the major contenders easily surpassed the record $8.9 million raised by Al Gore in the first three months of 1999.
Now some folks may be disturbed by the sheer number of dollars raised and spent during this election cycle, but let me put it in perspective for you -- taken in the aggregate, the money raised by the six leading candidates amounts to $0.33 (yeah, that's right, thirty-three cents) per American. Is that really too much to be spent by those seeking the most powerful elected office in the United States?
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A school district violated a fourth-grader's constitutional rights to free speech and equal protection by refusing to allow her to distribute "personal statement" fliers carrying a religious message, a federal judge has ruled.The Liverpool Central School District in upstate New York based its restrictions on "fear or apprehension of disturbance, which is not enough to overcome the right to freedom of expression," Chief U.S. District Judge Norman Mordue wrote in a 46-page decision Friday.
"School officials had no right to silence Michaela's personal Christian testimony," attorney Mat Staver said Monday.
Staver is executive director of Liberty Counsel, the Orlando, Fla.-based conservative legal group that represented Michaela Bloodgood and her mother, Nicole.
Liverpool school district lawyer Frank Miller said the school district was studying the decision and "reviewing its options."
According to the family's 2004 lawsuit, Nicole Bloodgood tried three times to get permission for Michaela to pass out the homemade fliers to other students at Nate Perry Elementary School. The flier, about the size of a greeting card, started out: "Hi! My name is Michaela and I would like to tell you about my life and how Jesus Christ gave me a new one."
Bloodgood's requests to school officials said that her daughter, now a sixth-grader, would hand them out only during "non-instructional time," such as on the bus, before school, lunch, recess and after school.
The lawsuit noted that Michaela had received literature from other students at school, including materials for a YMCA basketball camp, a Syracuse Children's Theater promotion and Camp Fire USA's summer camps.
Clearly, the problem was the content of the speech.
And interestingly enough, this case shows that there is still serious division among the appellate circuits on how much freedom students have to speak in a school setting. Some circuits, notably the Ninth, have been willing to allow schools to ban Christian religious speech simply because it might make religious and sexual minorities feel uncomfortable. This issue will, sooner or later, need to be resolved by the Supreme Court.
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Here's how it works -- you put your music on Music.com. You can set your price for whole songs, ringtones, or whatever -- and receive up to 81% of the money your music makes, a pretty fair deal compared to what other sites offer.
And best of all, you might just get yourself selected for advance marketing or special promos, based upon how well your music does. It is an excellent opportunity for you.
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On the eve of Passover, the Jewish holiday that celebrates the story of Moses leading the Israelites through this wilderness out of slavery, Egypt’s chief archaeologist took a bus full of journalists into the North Sinai to showcase his agency’s latest discovery.It didn’t look like much — some ancient buried walls of a military fort and a few pieces of volcanic lava. The archaeologist, Dr. Zahi Hawass, often promotes mummies and tombs and pharaonic antiquities that command international attention and high ticket prices. But this bleak landscape, broken only by electric pylons, excited him because it provided physical evidence of stories told in hieroglyphics. It was proof of accounts from antiquity.
That prompted a reporter to ask about the Exodus, and if the new evidence was linked in any way to the story of Passover. The archaeological discoveries roughly coincided with the timing of the IsraelitesÂ’ biblical flight from Egypt and the 40 years of wandering the desert in search of the Promised Land.
“Really, it’s a myth,” Dr. Hawass said of the story of the Exodus, as he stood at the foot of a wall built during what is called the New Kingdom.
Later on, they get in a dig about the lack of evidence of Jesus being in Egypt as a child (though why an obscure Jewish family would have been noted at the time is pretty obvious).
Personally, I have some qquestions about the Exodus story as handed down to us -- but don't doubt it is historically based on some smaller scale -- sort of the "George Washington and the cherry tree" effect. And since i am not a biblical literalist, that does not trouble me at all.
But I do have a question -- will there the NY Times be running articles debunking the Koran or raising questions about Muhammad during Ramadan this year? Or do they know that the response from Jews and Christians to such articles is more sedate than those of Muslims to attempts to call their faith into question?
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Not only that, but you can also download up to 12 other great software programs from Google -- all for free.
Paid Endorsement.
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Criticizing other GOP candidates as weak in their efforts to stop illegal immigration, Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo announced Monday he would seek the Republican presidential nomination."The political elite in Washington have chosen to ignore this phenomenon," he said.
I'm not happy with any candidate's position on immigration, but I think that a one-trick pony like Tancredo does nothing to advance the debate by entering the race -- and can do much more harm, both by draining support away from the candidates who are better on the issue and by endangering his Congressional seat.
Withdraw, Ton.
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Executive Gaming Monthly offers a casino game of the month club! You can get a real casino game set up in your home, with the opportunity to play and learn.
You can get a setup for any number of casino games. Play blackjack in your home, just like in Vegas. Or get your very own roulette wheel! Maybe even get set up for craps! Imagine the possibilities -- those would be my first three months worth of games.
Paid Endorsement.
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Ordinarily I let lying blogs sleep, but this post at the Daily Kos was too insipid to ignore: “Partying Down with Bush in His Radio Address†by Susan G:
If the President of the United States goes on a stark raving mad lunatic partisan word salad spree in a purportedly non-partisan venue in which he is — at least on paper — supposed to represent all of America, would anyone notice? Apparently not.Really? So what was this act of insanity by President Bush?
He called the Democrats “Democrats.†And Susan G counted:
He mentioned “Democrats†or “Democratic†22 times, in almost every instance linking the chosen term to America’s biggest bugaboo, taxes.I would call her complaint childish but my wife and I raised 3 children and they never did~anything like that.
Surber then goes on to note that the Dems have plenty to be paranoid about over this truth-in-labeling by the President, given the bankruptcy of an agenda that has failed every time it has been tried in the last three decades. And he also notes that the Dems are troubled by a sometimes-missing syllable.
I am curious as to what Susan G wants us to call Democrats. Some of them go off the deep end if you fail to include the “ic†in Democratic Party.How about the “Icks†then? Icky Frye did seek the party’s nomination for governor in West Virginia in 2004. Harold Ickes is a very familiar name in presidential politics.
I’ve been doing something like that for a while, referring to them as the DemocratICK Party. But hey – if “Democrat†really offends them, I can go with calling them the Icks.
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Ordinarily I let lying blogs sleep, but this post at the Daily Kos was too insipid to ignore: “Partying Down with Bush in His Radio Address” by Susan G:
If the President of the United States goes on a stark raving mad lunatic partisan word salad spree in a purportedly non-partisan venue in which he is — at least on paper — supposed to represent all of America, would anyone notice? Apparently not.Really? So what was this act of insanity by President Bush?
He called the Democrats “Democrats.” And Susan G counted:
He mentioned “Democrats” or “Democratic” 22 times, in almost every instance linking the chosen term to America’s biggest bugaboo, taxes.I would call her complaint childish but my wife and I raised 3 children and they never did~anything like that.
Surber then goes on to note that the Dems have plenty to be paranoid about over this truth-in-labeling by the President, given the bankruptcy of an agenda that has failed every time it has been tried in the last three decades. And he also notes that the Dems are troubled by a sometimes-missing syllable.
I am curious as to what Susan G wants us to call Democrats. Some of them go off the deep end if you fail to include the “ic” in Democratic Party.How about the “Icks” then? Icky Frye did seek the party’s nomination for governor in West Virginia in 2004. Harold Ickes is a very familiar name in presidential politics.
I’ve been doing something like that for a while, referring to them as the DemocratICK Party. But hey – if “Democrat” really offends them, I can go with calling them the Icks.
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The South Carolina Supreme Court has tossed out a lawsuit filed by barbecue magnate Maurice Bessinger accusing several grocery store chains of unfair trade by not selling his sauce on their shelves.Nine chains with over 3,000 stores between them removed BessingerÂ’s mustard-based barbecue sauce in 2000 after he raised the Confederate flag over his restaurants in protest of the General AssemblyÂ’s decision to take the Confederate flag off the top of the Statehouse dome.
News stories at the time also pointed out Bessinger distributed literature at his restaurants with titles like “The South Was Right” and “Myths of American Slavery.”
Bessinger sued Bi-Lo, Food Lion, Harris Teeter, Kroger, Publix, Wal-Mart, SamÂ’s Club, Winn-Dixie and Piggly Wiggly stores, asking for $50 million. He said they violated his right to free speech under the stateÂ’s Unfair Trade Practices Act by removing his barbecue sauce.
The state Supreme Court recently upheld rulings by two lower courts that BessingerÂ’s case did not have enough merit to be heard by a jury.
Bessinger attorney Glen Winston LaForce Sr. said the ruling ends BessingerÂ’s legal fight.
“Mr. Bessinger is still proudly flying the Confederate flag. He stood for his principles, and I’m proud of him for that,” LaForce said.
I’m sorry, but there is no merit to the lawsuit from a constitutional standpoint – after all, no state action is involved in the actions of the stores. And I don’t see how the decision of the stores can run afoul of a state statute – after all, these stores have every right not to associate themselves with the speech of Mr. Bessinger. Indeed, I’d argue that any statute that required them to do so would constitute a violation of THEIR rights under the First Amendment.
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The Washington-DC based human rights group, International Christian Concern (ICC) has just learned that an Ethiopian evangelist named Tedase was beaten to death by militant Muslims on Monday, March 26th, as he and two young women were on a street evangelism assignment in Jimma, Ethiopia. This marks the second time in six months that Christians residing in Southeast Ethiopia have been attacked and killed by extremist (Wahabbi) Muslims.On Monday afternoon Tedase and two female coworkers were conducting street evangelism on Merkato Street in Jimma, Southern Ethiopia. Merkato Street runs by a Wahabbi Mosque. As the team was walking by the Mosque, a group of Muslims exited the Mosque and began to run after them to confront them. Tedase's female coworkers ran away from the mob but Tedase continued on. The Muslims caught up with Tedase, pulled him into the mosque, and savagely beat him to death. Sources from Jimma reported that Tedase was beaten with a calculated intention to kill him. This was no accident or case of mob frenzy getting out of control. His body was later taken to the hospital for an autopsy and he was buried Tuesday, March 27.
Our sources also reveal that Jimma Christians were conducting an evangelism campaign, and news of the outreach was spreading among Jimma residents as well as militant Muslim groups in the area. The Muslims that belonged to the Wahabbi sect purposefully beat Tedase to death as a message to Christians that they are ready to combat evangelism.
In the West, we grant Islam full rights along with other religions – as is appropriate, given that freedom of conscience is a fundamental human right. However, all too often Islamic nations deny such rights to Christians – or turn a blind eye to the violation of the rights of Christians by Islamic religious groups. It has been only a little over six months since a full-scale pogrom against Christians took place in the same region of Ethiopia, with no significant response from the Ethiopian government.
To register your outrage at this event:
Ethiopian Embassy, Washington D.C.
3506 International Drive, NW
Washington, DC 20008 USA
Tel: 202/364-1200
Fax: 202/587-0195
info@ethiopianembassy.org
Ethiopian Embassy, London
17 Princes Gate
London SW7 1PZ UK
Tel: +44 (0)20 7589 7212
Fax: +44 (0)20 7584 7054
info@ethioembassy.org.uk
Ethiopian Embassy, Canada
#210-151 Slater Street
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1P5H3
Tel:- 613-235-6637
Fax: 613-235-4638
infoethi@magi.com
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April 01, 2007
Schools are dropping the Holocaust from history lessons to avoid offending Muslim pupils, a Government backed study has revealed.It found some teachers are reluctant to cover the atrocity for fear of upsetting students whose beliefs include Holocaust denial.
There is also resistance to tackling the 11th century Crusades - where Christians fought Muslim armies for control of Jerusalem - because lessons often contradict what is taught in local mosques.
The findings have prompted claims that some schools are using history 'as a vehicle for promoting political correctness'.
The study, funded by the Department for Education and Skills, looked into 'emotive and controversial' history teaching in primary and secondary schools.
It found some teachers are dropping courses covering the Holocaust at the earliest opportunity over fears Muslim pupils might express anti-Semitic and anti-Israel reactions in class.
The researchers gave the example of a secondary school in an unnamed northern city, which dropped the Holocaust as a subject for GCSE coursework.
The report said teachers feared confronting 'anti-Semitic sentiment and Holocaust denial among some Muslim pupils'.
It added: "In another department, the Holocaust was taught despite anti-Semitic sentiment among some pupils.
"But the same department deliberately avoided teaching the Crusades at Key Stage 3 (11- to 14-year-olds) because their balanced treatment of the topic would have challenged what was taught in some local mosques."
I'm terribly sorry, but you can take whatever immoral and hate-filled teachings about the Holocaust that are being spewed in your mosque and shove them up your collective arses -- the reality is that the Holocaust is well-documented and undeniable, just like the Turkish genocide against the Armenians. And as for the Crusades, they are simply one part of a larger clash of cultures that were taking place over hundreds of years -- beginning with the Muslim aggression against and conquest of Christian areas of the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe beginning within the lifetime of Mohammad himself.
Oh, and by the way -- I suspect the school that was challenged by Christian parents had presented a view that was overly sympathetic to the Palestinians rather than a balanced view of the conflict in the Middle East (considering recent events in british academia with regard to anti-Semitic boycotts of Israeli students and scholars). But even so, I have a problem with those who insist that history conform to their religious views -- and would make run out of my classroom any parent who attempted to impose their religious viewpoint of history on me and my students.
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As the government's crackdown on illegal immigrant workers has intensified in recent months, so have the consequences for a large subgroup of U.S. citizens: American-born children of illegal immigrants.Numbering at least 3.1 million, according to an analysis by the Urban Institute and the Pew Hispanic Center, such children range from teenagers steeped in iTunes and MySpace to toddlers just learning their ABCs.
Until recently, their parents' illegal status had limited impact on these children's lives, because, although every year hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants are detained attempting to cross the U.S. border, once they make it in, they are rarely caught.
But the increase in raids against companies employing illegal workers is beginning to change that.
In December, immigration agents descended on six meat-processing plants belonging to Swift & Co. and arrested 1,297 illegal workers. At one plant, in Worthington, Minn., the workers had at least 360 U.S.-born children and probably many more, according to a local pastor who raised money for them.
Similarly, of 361 workers arrested during a raid of the Michael Bianco Inc. manufacturing plant in New Bedford, Mass., last month, about 90 were the sole caregivers for one or more children in the United States, according to federal and state authorities.
On Thursday, a chubby-cheeked fifth-grader named Jessica Guncay joined the ranks of such children when immigration agents raided a Dixie Printing and Packaging Corp. plant in Baltimore, where her parents were working under false Social Security numbers.
During an interview in her home in Pikesville the next day, Jessica, 10, said that although she had known her Ecuadoran parents were in the country illegally, she never imagined they would be arrested.
"I feel sick inside," she mumbled, staring at her white sneakers.
Sorry, folks, but what makes this American citizen sick inside is the fact that the prss has more sympathy for the immigration criminals and their families than they do for the enforcement of the laws of the United States. The reality is that none of these folks should EVER be allowed to enter this country legally, as they have already shown flawed moral character by coming here and staying here in violation of our nation's immigration laws. And while it is sad -- even tragic-- that their law-breaking has a negative effect upon the lives of their children, let's place the blame right where it belongs -- upon the parents, not the government.
I've said it in the past, and I repeat it again -- if we cannot modify the Fourteenth Amendment to deny citizenship to the children of illegal aliens, then we need to pass a law terminating the parental rights of illegal alien parents and place the children for adoption. That will solve the anchor-baby problem once and for all.
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Even as their confrontation with President Bush over Iraq escalates, emboldened congressional Democrats are challenging the White House on a range of issues -- such as unionization of airport security workers and the loosening of presidential secrecy orders -- with even more dramatic showdowns coming soon.For his part, Bush, who also finds himself under assault for the firing of eight U.S. attorneys, the conduct of the Iraq war and alleged abuses in government surveillance by the FBI, is holding firm. Though he has vetoed only one piece of legislation since taking office, he has vowed to veto 16 bills that have passed either the House or the Senate in the three months since Democrats took control of Congress.
Despite the threats, Democratic lawmakers expect to open new fronts against the president when they return from their spring recess, including politically risky efforts to quickly close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; reinstate legal rights for terrorism suspects; and rein in what Democrats see as unwarranted encroachments on privacy and civil liberties allowed by the USA Patriot Act.
"I suppose there's always a risk of going too far," said House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.), "but the risk of not going is far greater."
Would that the Neo-Copperheads realized that Hoyer's statement should be made about the real enemy we are fighting, not the political struggles at home.
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Well, there's a new social networking site starting up for folks like me. It is called Sci-Edge, and is designed for the science fiction enthusiast, science hobbyist, and technology geeks among us. Come on, folks, YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE! It's a place for us all to hang out, be ourselves, and build an online community for folks like us --sort of like MySpace with brains! Best of all, Sci-Edge is free to join, so you can jump on in and find out if it is for you.
Paid Endorsement.
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If President Bush vetoes an Iraq war spending bill as promised, Congress quickly will provide the money without the withdrawal timeline the White House objects to because no lawmaker "wants to play chicken with our troops," Sen. Barack Obama said Sunday."My expectation is that we will continue to try to ratchet up the pressure on the president to change course," the Democratic presidential candidate said in an interview with The Associated Press. "I don't think that we will see a majority of the Senate vote to cut off funding at this stage."
* * * "I think that nobody wants to play chicken with our troops on the ground," said Obama. "I do think a majority of the Senate has now expressed the belief that we need to change course in Iraq.
Too late, Senator -- you and your party already have played chicken with the troops on the ground -- and your failure to send a clean bill to the President will result in a lack of funding as soon as April 16. So stop lying to the American people.
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Barry is looking to drum up some traffic for his blog, Barry's Blog. Since he seems to be somehow related to education, I think he really deserves this plug for his site. The site itself is rather amusing, with bits about insurance, removing stick contact lenses, and variousfinance issues he has written about.
I like his style -- serious yet engaging.
Paid Endorsement.
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Former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson on Sunday joined the crowded field of Republicans running for the White House in 2008. "I am the reliable conservative," he asserted.Thompson, who was health and human services secretary during President Bush's first term, also said he is the only GOP candidate who has helped assemble both a state and federal budget.
Since announcing last year he was forming a presidential exploratory committee to raise money and gauge support, Thompson has lagged behind better-known rivals.
Asked Sunday whether he was running for president, Thompson said, "That is correct."
Thompson, 65, has focused his strategy on Iowa, which holds the nation's first caucuses for presidential nominees. He has made weekly visits to the state and sought to make the case that it will take a candidate who can carry the Midwest to win the nomination.
I like Tommy Thompson, and could see him as a potential vice presidential candidate -- but he has no more chance of getting the presidential nomination than I do.
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Here is a link to the full results of the vote.
Here are the full tallies of all votes cast:
| Votes | Council link |
|---|---|
| 2 | Demographics and the Medicalization of Human Existence Eternity Road |
| 1 2/3 | Student Press Rights The Colossus of Rhodey |
| 1 1/3 | Tinker Must Be Preserved Rhymes With Right |
| 1 1/3 | 3 Card Monte -- the Palestinian aid Scam Continues Joshuapundit |
| 1 | NanFran's Cool Investments Cheat Seeking Missiles |
| 1 | O Believers Done With Mirrors |
| 2/3 | Politicizing Science Right Wing Nut House |
| 2/3 | Dollars (and respect) for Dahlan Soccer Dad |
| 1/3 | More Hollywood Idiocy: "Wristcutters: A Love Story" The Education Wonks |
| 1/3 | Greece and Mesopotamia: Origins of Greek Thought The Glittering Eye |
| Votes | Non-council link |
|---|---|
| 3 1/3 | Tabula Rasa Michael Yon |
| 1 2/3 | Iranian Machinations: Sun Tzu Would Be Pleased Kobayashi Maru |
| 1 1/3 | The Special Care and Feeding of Bullies Freedom's Cost |
| 1 | Geneva What's That Again? The Sundries Shack |
| 1 | Sherman -- Stoic Warriors Chicago Boyz |
| 2/3 | RUBS Michael Yon (2) |
| 2/3 | Apologies, Apologies... ??? Dodgeblogium |
| 1/3 | Eminent Domain in North Carolina Ogre's Politics & Views |
| 1/3 | Liar, Liar, Skirt On Fire? JustOneMinute |
| 1/3 | Still Spewing Moron Emissions: Sean Penn Flopping Aces |
| 1/3 | A Constitutionally Protected Right to Market Pornography to Children? Stop the ACLU |
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Now what I like about this particular site is that it isn’t just a site designed to sell you a service – it is an educational site. The site has many useful articles about dealing with different forms of debt. For example, relevant to recent issues in my own life, there are a number of articles related to medical debt. Frankly, there was information there that I was unaware of regarding ways to deal with such debts after they are incurred.
The site also contains information related to debt collectors and bankruptcy. One of the most interesting is the one dealing with debt collectors, which explains your legal rights if someone calls seeking to collect a debt on behalf of someone else. Did you know that the collector must prove to you that they are, in fact, authorized to collect the debt? And that you can insist that they verify for you that the information they have is accurate? They may not, for example, force you to prove that the debt is not a valid one unless you have first been provided with written information detailing what you owe and how you owe it.
Frankly, DebtHelp.com impresses me a great deal -- and I encourage folks to take a look at it so that they are educated about debt issues before they find themselves in serious harm's way.
Paid Endorsement.
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March 31, 2007
The modern process of recognizing an individual as a saint (not making a saint -- God does that through grace) is much more laborious and cumbersome. Even then, there is the possibility of waiving deadlines in cases of merit, which has been done with the late pontiff. And that leads us to this story.
For months she was known as the "mystery nun," an unidentified member of a religious order who told a Catholic Church investigator that she was miraculously cured of advanced Parkinson's disease after she and other nuns prayed to the late Pope John Paul II.Her testimony -- describing the kind of medically inexplicable recovery that could help advance the pontiff toward sainthood -- was published anonymously on an Italian Catholic Web site. It bore the signature "A French Sister." Church officials, proceeding with a confidential inquiry into the claims, refused to name her.
On Friday morning, Sister Marie Simon-Pierre, an unassuming 46-year-old who works in a Paris maternity clinic, stepped before a bank of microphones on French national television and, in a voice choked with emotion, declared that she was the nun.
She described going to bed one night barely able to write or walk and waking up at 4:30 a.m. fully cured. "All I can say is that I was ill and now I'm healed," said Sister Marie Simon-Pierre, smiling widely. "Now the church will decide if it's a miracle."
Church officials said Sister Marie Simon-Pierre's recovery from the advanced stages of a disease with no known cure could be instrumental in the canonization process, which can sometimes take centuries to complete but has been fast-tracked for John Paul.
In Rome on Monday, Sister Marie Simon-Pierre will take part in ceremonies commemorating the second anniversary of John Paul's death and the completion of the first phase of efforts to declare the pontiff "blessed," an intermediate step toward sainthood. This step, known as beatification, requires confirmation of one miracle brought about by the posthumous intercession of the candidate.
Now let me clarify some misconceptions that some of you may have -- misconceptions that abound in this sloppy opening in the New York Times.
If the story Sister Marie Simon-Pierre told Friday is true, then Pope John Paul II exercised miraculous powers from beyond the grave. A proven physical miracle is an important qualification on the road to sainthood.
Actually, no -- no one argues that John Paul the Great exercised any miraculous powers. The miraculous powers were those of God. Rather, Catholic teaching holds that just as we on earth can pray for and intercede on behalf of our fellow man, so can the saints in heaven (all the faithful departed before the throne in heaven, not just the select few recognized by the Church). God, in His infinite wisdom and sovereign will, decides when and if He performs a miracle in response to prayer. Indeed, this dear nun says it exactly right only a few paragraphs after that sloppy writing by the Times' Elaine Sciolino.
“I have been cured,” she told journalists gathered for a news conference in Aix-en-Provence. “My healing was the work of God through the intercession of Pope John Paul II.”
Now I will praise Ms. Sciolino for including this bit of information in her article.
Pope Benedict has given mixed signals on his approach to sainthood.In addition to putting the late pope’s canonization on a fast track, he fueled speculation that sainthood was imminent when he expressed hope last May during a trip to Poland, John Paul’s homeland, that the process would conclude “in the near future.”
As a cardinal, however, Pope Benedict said several times that he was not in favor of naming an excessive number of saints. He was believed to have been aligned with conservatives who looked askance on Pope John PaulÂ’s record canonization of saints during his 26-year papacy.
Here we have a conflict between different pontiff's over the canonization of (granting formal recognition of) saints. The current Pope is on record, prior to his elevation to the papacy, as wanting to proceed more slowly in granting this recognition -- perhaps, one would surmise, to preserve the special nature of the formal title of "saint". John Paul the Great, on the other hand, seemed to hold to a different position, one which was intent upon recognizing the depth and breadth of holiness that exists among the Christian faithful in this world, hence his eagerness to advance the process of recognizing men and women from around the globe for their holiness of life in order to provide the Church with many more examples of sanctity in many different nations and cultures. But in the end, each of these men was coming from the same place -- the recognition that the saints are exemplars to us all of ways to live the Christian life in fidelity with the Gospel, heroes of the faith to be emulated. And if Benedict wishes to reserve the title to a select few so that it retains its special nature, while John Paul the Great sought to demonstrate the real possibility of each of us attaining that accolade through a close and faithful walk with Christ in our daily lives, there can be no dispute that each was motivated by a desire to have the lives of the saints serve as signposts on the path to Heaven.
And on a personal note, I wait with hopeful expectation for the day when the Church canonizes these five martyrs, one of whom (Sister Kathleen McGuire) I knew when she ministered at the Newman Center in Carbondale, Illinois -- for they are undeniable proof that saints are ordinary people who do the extraordinary by faithfully following their Christian vocation wherever it may lead them.
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