June 26, 2007
New Hampshire's convicted tax evaders Ed and Elaine Brown have gained a new supporter: presidential hopeful Ron Paul.In an interview with RogueGovernment.com, the Texas congressman compares the Browns to Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Junior. He says the Browns are suffering like those leaders.
The Browns are holed up in their Plainfield, New Hampshire home and have threatened violence against federal officials if marshals come to arrest them. They were convicted of an elaborate scheme to hide millions of dollars in income. Their protest has become a rallying cry for anti-tax activists and militia members.
So now it appears that the renegade Republican has sided with convicted felons who threaten to murder law enforcement officials who attempt to take them into custody. This is support for terrorism by any other name -- if true.
However, Ron Paul denies that it is true.
Texas Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul said he did not compare a New Hampshire couple who refuses to pay taxes with Ghandi.On Fox News Channel today, Paul said he doesn't know much about the case of Ed and Elaine Brown on Plainfield, N.H. but that he, like Ghandi, doesn't believe in violence to protest wrongs and it has appeared that the Browns have chosen another path.
I've not seen the interview, but I wouldn't be surprised if the initial report is true. After all, the site with the original interview describes it as follows.
Lee Rogers interviews Congressman and Presidential candidate Ron Paul about a myriad of issues in this interview. Lee discusses the following topics with Dr. Paul in this half hour interview.Abolishing the Federal Reserve and the IRS, the restoration of honest money, the plunge protection team, the government standoff with Ed and Elaine Brown over the income tax, the broken health care system, abolishing big government agencies, the CIA/NSA, global government, the New World Order, the North American Union, semi-secretive organizations like the Council on Foreign Relations, American imperialism around the world, the billion dollar embassy being built in Iraq, the fraud of the global war on terror, illegal immigration, the move to tax and regulate the Internet by the establishment, the coming world ID system, the move towards fascism in America, the possibility of martial law being declared in the United States, the prospects of a new independent investigation into the attacks of 9/11 as well as the prospect of impeaching George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.
In other words, Paul is associating with the radical fringe of the conspiracy movement. I think giving the interview to this fellow should be reason enough to disqualify Ron Paul from any serious consideration as a candidate -- especially given that it is incredibly easy to believe that the initial press report is true. After all, given the fact that Ron Paul gives aid and comfort to 9/11 conspiracy theorists and Truthers, would you really be all that surprised if he did come out in support of the Browns?
Fortunately, we at the national level have other choices besides Ron Paul. And in Texas CD14, GOP primary voters have the opportunity to replace Paul with Friendswood City Counncilman Chris Peden.
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Indeed, I agree with Randy Cohen, whose column, "The Ethicist" is syndicated by the New York Times.
Cohen had given $585 to MoveOn.org in 2004, when it was organizing get-out-the-vote efforts to defeat Bush. Cohen at first told MSNBC.com that he thought of donating to MoveOn.org as no more out of bounds than giving to the Boy Scouts."We admire those colleagues who participate in their communities — help out at the local school, work with Little League, donate to charity," Cohen said in an e-mail. "But no such activity is or can be non-ideological. Few papers would object to a journalist donating to the Boy Scouts or joining the Catholic Church. But the former has an official policy of discriminating against gay children; the latter has views on reproductive rights far more restrictive than those of most Americans. Should reporters be forbidden to support those groups? I’d say not."
Now I'd argue that his slanted comments against the Boy Scouts and borderline-bigoted comments about the Catholic Church show some other reasons why he probably isn't fit for the field of journalism or a column of the sort he writes (aside from the fact he has no formal training in ethics), he is essentially right. In a society that values expressive speech, why should those who speak for a living be banned from speaking as private individuals?
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Iranian Revolutionary Guard forces have been spotted by British troops crossing the border into southern Iraq, The Sun tabloid reported on Tuesday.Britain's defence ministry would not confirm or deny the report, with a spokesman declining to comment on "intelligence matters".
An unidentified intelligence source told the tabloid: "It is an extremely alarming development and raises the stakes considerably. In effect, it means we are in a full on war with Iran -- but nobody has officially declared it."
"We have hard proof that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps have crossed the border to attack us. It is very hard for us to strike back. All we can do is try to defend ourselves. We are badly on the back foot."
The Sun said that radar sightings of Iranian helicopters crossing into the Iraqi desert were confirmed to it by very senior military sources.
Now I've got some question about the veracity of the report -- but if it is true, what will be the response of the Bush Administration? And will the Democrats still advocate unilateral retreat -- or will they instead insist upon petitioning Iran to negotiate the terms of America's surrender?
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This increase shows two important things. First, the American people are a generous people who will rise to meet the needs of our country without crippling taxes. Second, it shows that the economy is fundamentally strong.
Giving historically tracks the health of the overall economy, with the rise amounting to about one-third the rise in the stock market, according to Giving USA. Last year was right on target, with a 3.2 percent rise as stocks rose more than 10 percent on an inflation-adjusted basis."What people find especially interesting about this, and it's true year after year, that such a high percentage comes from individual donors," Giving USA Chairman Richard Jolly said.
Individuals gave a combined 75.6 percent of the total. With bequests, that rises to 83.4 percent.
It isn't corporate giving that produces these results -- it is individual generosity.
Furthermore, this should be an indication of which Americans are most generous.
The biggest chunk of the donations, $96.82 billion or 32.8 percent, went to religious organizations. The second largest slice, $40.98 billion or 13.9 percent, went to education, including gifts to colleges, universities and libraries.About 65 percent of households with incomes less than $100,000 give to charity, the report showed.
Religious donors and those of relatively modest means gave the biggest percentage of the money -- voters who tend towards the conservative side of the spectrum, not wealthy liberals.
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June 25, 2007
Are you into shooting sports that don't involve "live" ammunition? You know what I'm talking about -- air guns, paint ball guns, pellet guns, air soft rifles and bb guns. Or maybe you are interested in blank guns. If you are, then AirGunDepot.com is a site that you really need to check out. They have a great selection and supply of these guns at reasonable prices. And unlike many websites, they are laid out in a manner that makes it really easy to find exactly what you are looking for. And given their constantly expanding stock, it is likely that they will have what you want soon if it isn’t a part of their stock today.
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New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said Friday that if he is elected president, he would use abortion as a litmus test for Supreme Court nominees, rejecting candidates who don't support the 1973 decision legalizing abortion."I know that I am going to upset some people," Richardson said. "I would say, 'Do you believe Roe v. Wade is settled law?' and if they say, 'Yes,' they have a good chance of being picked. If they say 'No,' I will not pick them."
Dred Scot v. Sanford and Plessy v. Ferguson were both beloved precedents for Democrats in their day, and considered "settled law" by that party before they were overturned. Richardson therefore fits well in the tradition of his party in establishing a litmus test in support of a decision that says some human beings are less equal than others under the US Constitution.
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Charles W. Lindberg, one of the U.S. Marines who raised the first American flag over Iwo Jima during World War II, has died. He was 86.Lindberg died Sunday at Fairview Southdale hospital in the Minneapolis suburb of Edina, said John Pose, director of the Morris Nilsen Funeral Home in Richfield, which is handling Lindberg's funeral.
Lindberg spent decades explaining that it was his patrol, not the one captured in the famous Associated Press photograph by Joe Rosenthal, that raised the first flag as U.S. forces fought to take the Japanese island.
In the late morning of Feb. 23, 1945, Lindberg fired his flame-thrower into enemy pillboxes at the base of Mount Suribachi and then joined five other Marines fighting their way to the top. He was awarded the Silver Star for bravery.
"Two of our men found this big, long pipe there," he said in an interview with The Associated Press in 2003. "We tied the flag to it, took it to the highest spot we could find and we raised it.
"Down below, the troops started to cheer, the ship's whistles went off, it was just something that you would never forget," he said. "It didn't last too long, because the enemy started coming out of the caves."
Lindberg is the last of the survivors of that flag-raising. May he rest in peace, and may his service to this country never be forgotten.
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The D.C. administrative law judge who sued his neighborhood dry cleaner for $54 million over a pair of lost pants found out this morning what he's going to get for all his troubles.
Nothing.In a verdict that surprised no one, except perhaps the plaintiff himself, a D.C. Superior Court judge denied Roy Pearson the big payday he claimed was his due.
Delivering her decision in writing, Judge Judith Bartnoff wrote 23 pages dissecting and dismissing Pearson's claim that he was defrauded by the owners of Custom Cleaners and their "Satisfaction Guaranteed" sign.
"A reasonable consumer would not interpret 'Satisfaction Guaranteed' to mean that a merchant is required to satisfy a customer's unreasonable demands or to accede to demands that the merchant has reasonable grounds to dispute," the ruling said. " . . . The plaintiff is not entitled to any relief whatsoever."
Now it is possible that Pearson will not only lose his pants, but his shirt as well.
Financially, he could soon be on the hook for tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees incurred by the owners of Customer Cleaners. Attorneys for the Chungs have said they will seek such payments, as well as sanctions against Pearson for bringing the lawsuit. Bartnoff said in her ruling that she would decide those issues after both sides have filed their motions, counter-motions and legal briefs.
Professionally, Pearson could find himself out of his $96,000-a-year job as an administrative law judge for the District government.
This was clearly a case of abuse of the legal system, given the Chungs made repeated offers to go above and beyond the call of duty to make him whole, even offering early on in the case to give him more than enough money to replace the entire suit – after the judge insisted that the pants the owners produced for him (complete with the original tags that match his receipt) were not his despite matching the suit jacket.
PearsonÂ’s behavior will also likely cost him his appointed judgeship, because his term is up and his conduct has shredded any credibility he might have. After all, any man who can become so emotional over a pair of pants really doesn't have teh staility to be trusted to do justice, does he?
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The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that students can face limits on their rights to free speech.Schools can rein in students' speech if it can be interpreted as promoting illegal drug use, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the court's opinion.
The case stemmed from an incident in January 2002 in which a crowd of students, townspeople and teachers gathered on a public street in Alaska across from a high school to watch the Olympic torch relay pass in front of them as part of a parade in support of the upcoming Winter Olympic Games.
Student Joseph Frederick wanted to make a statement about his First Amendment rights in front of the television crews covering the event. As the crowd thickened, he unfurled a banner with the message "Bong Hits 4 Jesus."
Frederick had been bothered in his senior year by the lack of attention to the issue of freedom of speech in the United States, and at his school in particular.
In briefs, Frederick argued that he was only trying to assert his rights and that the message was not an attempt to "spread any idea."
Now the opinion in the case is not yet up on the SCOTUS website, so I have not had a chance to read it yet. However, it might be that last little admission that made the difference. I wonder if a banner reading “Legalize Pot” and displaying the logo of NORML (National Organization for the Repeal of Marijuana Laws) might not have resulted in a different decision, given that it would have clearly been express advocacy on a public policy issue.
On the other hand, we have repeatedly seen a trend in recent years towards allowing public schools to ban even serious speech of a political and religious nature on the grounds of “offensiveness”. In practice, this has meant that schools have repeatedly been permitted to censor speech opposing legal abortion and questioning the morality of homosexuality, not to mention objecting to affirmative action programs. The basis for such bans have been policies against racial, sexual, and sexual orientation harassment and the desire of the school to promote an unambiguous message of inclusion (of everybody except those who dissent from the officials position on these contentious public policy issues).
As a result, this case leaves me very worried. Tinker held that students do not surrender their civil liberties at the schoolhouse gate. Could it be that we are reaching the point that students do, in fact, require that students surrender those liberties? Rather than recognizing (as in West Virginia v. Barnette in 1943) that no public official, high or petty, shall define what the orthodox and acceptable opinions shall be held and expressed, we are going to permit school boards and their employees to determine what speech on matters of public importance shall be considered acceptable?
Perhaps most importantly, this decision leaves me a very basic question – how does one prepare students to exercise their full rights as citizens of a free society in an educational setting where their civil liberties are regularly suppressed and their exercise punished? Are we instead educating them to be serfs or subjects rather than free men and women?
UPDATE: No sooner do I post this than the slip opinion in Morse v. Frederick appears on the SCOTUS site.
UPDATE II: Having read the opinion, it is clear that the holding of the court is that the War on Drugs overrides the First Amendment -- at least if you are a student at school. -- because Congress has declared anti-drug education to be a compelling government interest. This is not good.
UPDATE III: Justice Thomas, in his concurring opinion, indicates that he would overturn Tinker completely because it is not grounded in the Constitution. I guess he doesn't believe in the word "no law" in the First Amendment. This is particularly troubling due to the requirement that students attend school -- therefore resulting in the government mandating that the spend a part of the day in a setting in which their constitutional rights would be suspended.
UPDATE IV: Alito and Kennedy concur together in order to specifically affirm the central holding in Tinker.
JUSTICE ALITO, with whom JUSTICE KENNEDY joins, concurring.I join the opinion of the Court on the understanding that (a) it goes no further than to hold that a public school may restrict speech that a reasonable observer would interpret as advocating illegal drug use and (b) it provides no support for any restriction of speech that can plausibly be interpreted as commenting on any political or social issue, including speech on issues such as “the wisdom of the war on drugs or of legalizing marijuana for medicinal use.” See post, at 13 (STEVENS, J., dissenting).
They support Tinker, but still support what Justice Thomas calls an "ad hoc exception" to that case's central holding.
UPDATE V: Justice Breyer would have avoided the First Amendment question entirely and instead held for "qualified immunity" imposing a prohibition on the suit.
UPDATE VI: Fantastic dissent by Justice Stevens (joined by Justices Ginsburg and Souter) defends Tinker and points out that this case establishes a First Amendment exception previously rejected in American jurisprudence -- namely that mere advocacy of illegal behavior, absent an actual threat of imminent lawlessness, can be suppressed and punished.
Having read the opinions, I expect that the holding in this case will be used to justify the continued suppression of speech by religious and conservative students on issues like abortion, gay rights, and affirmative action, with schools arguing that the student speech on those matters undermines the mission of the school by contradicting the school policy on the matter. This will effectively further the notion that schools are indoctrination centers, not educational institutions.
MORE AT A Blog For All, Phi Beta Cons, Betsy's Page, Hot Air, Volokh Conspiracy, Stop the ACLU (Twice), Reason's Hit & Run, ProfsBlawg, Althouse, SCOTUS Blog (Twice)
OPEN TRACKBACKING AT Right Pundits, Perri Nelson's Website, Committees of Correspondence, DeMediacratic Nation, Jeanette's Celebrity Corner, Big Dog's Weblog, Maggie's Notebook, DragonLady's World, Stuck On Stupid, The Bullwinkle Blog, The Amboy Times, Conservative Cat, Pursuing Holiness, third world county, The World According to Carl, Pirate's Cove, High Desert Wanderer, Right Voices, and The Yankee Sailor, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.
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· A deadline for withdrawal is an incentive for Iraqi political compromise. Levin thinks we ought to pressure Iraq's government with a warning tantamount to saying: "You better fix the situation before we leave and your country descends into chaos." He should consider the more likely result: an American exit date crushing any incentive for Iraqi leaders to cooperate and instead prompting rival factions to position themselves to capitalize on the looming power void.My experience in Iraq bore this out. Only after my unit established a meaningful relationship with the president of the Samarra city council -- built on tangible security improvements and a commitment to cooperation -- did political progress occur. Our relationship fostered unforeseen political opportunities and encouraged leaders, even ones from rival tribes, to side with American and Iraqi forces against local insurgents and foreign fighters.
· We can bring the war to a "responsible end" but still conduct counterterrorism operations. The problem with this argument is what a "responsible end" would mean. What is "responsible" about the large-scale bloodshed that would surely occur if we left the Iraqis behind with insufficient security forces? What is "responsible" about proving al-Qaeda's thesis that America can be defeated anywhere with enough suicide bombings?
The senator also seems to believe that America will have success fighting terrorists in Iraq with a minimal troop presence, despite the fact that 150,000 troops have their hands full right now doing precisely that.
· We are "supporting the troops" by demanding an immediate withdrawal from Iraq. Levin says that "our troops should hear an unequivocal message from Congress that we support them." He explains his vote to fund and "support" the troops while simultaneously trying to legislate the war's end. But what kind of "support" and "unequivocal message" do the troops hear from leaders in Congress who call their commanders "incompetent" or declare the war "lost"?
Such statements provide nearly instant enemy propaganda to every mud hut with a satellite dish in Iraq and throughout the Arab world. These messages do not spell support, no matter how you spin them. And they could inspire insurgents, making the situation more dangerous for our soldiers and Marines.
Veterans know firsthand that numerous mistakes have been made in the war. But that does not change the unfortunate reality: Iraq today is the front line of a global jihad being waged against America and its allies. Both Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri have said so.
Those who seek withdrawal from Iraq are really proposing a policy of surrender that devalues every sacrifice made by the troops fighting against the forces of Islamofascist terrorism. Far from supporting the troops, such anti-war activists who back such a policy spit in the face of men and women in uniform just as surely as they did during the Vietnam war.
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THE former presidential front-runner, John McCain, may drop out of the 2008 race by September if his fundraising dries up and his poll ratings continue to drop, according to Republican insiders.The speculation, vigorously denied by McCainÂ’s camp, is sweeping Republican circles after a disastrous few weeks in which the principled Arizona senator has clashed with the partyÂ’s conservative base on immigration and also alienated independent voters by backing President George W BushÂ’s troop surge in Iraq.
Randy Pullen, chairman of the Arizona Republican party, said: “He’s a battler, so I’d expect him to carry on, but everyone is waiting to see what his new fundraising totals are. That’s pretty critical. If he doesn’t have the money, he won’t be able to run.”
The second fundraising quarter for candidates closes at the end of June and McCainÂ’s results should be known by mid-July.
The interesting question is this -- if McCain does leave the presidential race, how does his support break? Does it fracture, or go as a block t one of the other candidates -- possibly raising a second-tier candidate's profile or putting one of the front-runners into a commanding lead?
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Retirement speculation focuses on Justices John Paul Stevens and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, both liberals. Stevens is 87 years old; and although Ginsburg is 13 years younger, her frail appearance has often prompted conjecture of poor health.These justices have also taken to reading their dissents from the bench in recent months, a practice that Curt Levey, general counsel for the Judicial Confirmation Network, believes may signify their displeasure with being in the minority on several important cases.
Justice David Souter, 67, who was appointed by President George H. W. Bush, also is rumored to be considering retirement.
Jan Crawford Greenburg, author of the recent book, "Supreme Conflict: The Inside Struggle for Control of the United States Supreme Court," has written that the Bush administration has prepared a "short list" of possible nominees should a justice step down.
According to Greenburg, possible nominees include Janice Rogers Brown of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals; Priscilla Owen and Edith Brown Clement, both of the Fifth Circuit; Diane Sykes of the Seventh Circuit; Loretta Preska, a New York Federal District judge; and Raoul Cantero of the Florida State Supreme Court.
While all six are considered conservatives who would fit the president's judicial restraint criterion, Preska and Cantero are more junior than nominees over the past 20 years. All justices since Scalia's nomination in 1986 have been elevated from the Federal Court of Appeals.
Quin Hillyer, senior editor for the American Spectator and a regular contributor for the conservative blog ConfirmThem, told Cybercast News Service that he knows of "nobody who really believes there will be a new Supreme Court vacancy" at this time.
Levey agreed with Hillyer to a point. Though there are no rumors of an imminent retirement floating around Washington, he told Cybercast News Service Friday: "I'm not sure you can take that as an indication one way or the other. These upcoming vacancies are such a closely held secret, so rumors often have no correlation to the truth. When [former Justice Sandra Day] O'Connor retired, the conventional wisdom was that [former Chief Justice William] Rehnquist was to retire, not O'Connor."
If any of the three justices mentioned were to retire, the replacement would certainly be more conservative. And each of the potential replacements mentioned is well-respected -- and it is interesting to note the presence of a Hispanic and a black woman on the list.
More likely, in my eyes, is a death between now and the 2008 election -- and every day closer to that election contributes to the difficulty of getting ANT nomination through the Senate. The precedent? Lyndon Johnson's unsuccessful attempt to elevate Justice Abe Fortas to the center chair in 1968 -- although I doubt that any potential nominee would be as scandal-ridden as that Johnson crony.
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You love this kind of stuff, don't you. You know what I mean -- those business promotional items that businesses give out to promote themselves with clients and the public in general. It is quite surprising how much good will they generate with consumers and clients -- and employees.
Well, if you are in the market for business promotional products for your business, Gimmees.com is a great place to turn for all your promotional item needs. They have gone way beyond the traditional pen, key chain and koozie type merchandise and offer items like picture frames, watches and clocks, and computer supplies. I honestly don't think there is anything that they won't print with your logo -- I'm almost overwhelmed by the options available. So drop by Gimmees.com to see how you can best promote your company!
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Every day there is some reminder of what Mark Harris calls 'the lost years'.It could be his daughter's reference to a particular birthday party or a family holiday. It could be talk of exams sat, dentists visited or pop stars worshipped.
Each time it happens, he feels a stab of regret. 'I missed so much,' he reveals, with understandable bitterness. 'They took my daughter's childhood, her formative years, from me. Lisa is 20 now. I didn't see her between the ages of ten and 16. An awful lot happens in a child's life in that time, and I missed it all.'
Lisa missed a lot, too. She sits by Mark's side as he talks, a beautiful and assured young woman, but one still coming to terms with the fact that her father simply wasn't there when she needed him - and for an entire decade she did not know why.
'There were times when I needed a father figure - for reassurance and advice,' she says, with quiet restraint. 'There just wasn't one there.'
But the story of what happened to the Harris family isn't just another tragic case of broken homes and estrangement. Mark, Lisa and her two younger sisters were wrenched apart by the state.
Mark was not a feckless, irresponsible father. He did not walk out of his children's lives. Rather, he was ordered out by the family courts, and when he objected - insisting it was his right to see them - he was dealt with in a scandalous way.
Mark Harris went to prison for his girls. He was jailed for waving to them after a court order demanded he sever all contact. It was the most shameful chapter in an extraordinary ten-year custody battle.
He has now 'won' - today, two of his daughters live with him - only because they shared their father's determination to re-establish their relationship.
Sadly, even today, all it takes is a single accusation by a mother to get a father thrown out of the lives of their children. Even though the laws that created it are gone, the presumption of maternal custody is still strong, even in states where the law allows for joint custody. Even a hint of "abuse" (defined at a low level -- and often without any evidence to back the accusation) will be sufficient to deny custody to a father and impose strict limits on his visitation rights. I've seen it in too many cases.
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June 24, 2007
I keep hearing a lot about hoodia and its impact on weight loss. Now I'll admit to being generally suspicious of diet fads, but some folks seem to have success with hoodia. There is a new website out presenting information on hoodia, including testimonials and weight loss journals. This would be a good site to look at if you are interested in learning more about or are considering using hoodia.
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Here are the full tallies of all votes cast:
| Votes | Council link |
|---|---|
| 3 | Gaza Becomes Hamastan, Part 2 -- Clarity and an Opportunity Joshuapundit |
| 2 1/3 | Muslim And Christian? In One Body? Cheat Seeking Missiles |
| 2 | Happy Father's Day To the "Dragon Slayer" ‘Okie’ on the Lam |
| 1 2/3 | The New York Times Spins Away Bookworm Room |
| 1 1/3 | A Tragic Case Done With Mirrors |
| 2/3 | Overstating a Problem Rhymes With Right |
| 1/3 | Yon On Baqouba Big Lizards |
| 1/3 | The Resilience of Olmert and Kadima Soccer Dad |
| 1/3 | A Conversation With My Dead Father Right Wing Nut House |
| Votes | Non-council link |
|---|---|
| 3 1/3 | Be Not Afraid Michael Yon |
| 2 | Beware: Misleading Income Statistics Are Coming Your Way Back Talk |
| 1 2/3 | The American Left's Silly Victim Complex Adbusters |
| 1 1/3 | Twenty Years Ago in Berlin, Seeing the Rally Against Reagan Gay Patriot |
| 1 1/3 | Stacking the Deck Against Justice Thomas Pillage Idiot |
| 1 | A French Lesson for America's Grand Old Party American Enterprise Institute |
| 2/3 | What Is Your Purpose Here, Senator Reid? BitsBlog |
| 2/3 | War Against Iran Somewhere On A1A... |
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You know, I've got lots of questions about Lap Band surgery. I know that one of my colleagues underwent the procedure last year, and she certainly lost lots of weight and has kept it off. I've never really known, though, how it works and what the cost of the procedure is.
That is why I find the concept behind MyLapBandSurgery.com to be a really interesting one. This website, which has helped thousand of happy patients receive life-saving and lifestyle altering gastric bypass surgery to facilitate weight loss. Indeed, it is a real God-send for folks who don't have the sort of insurance coverage to get the surgery done under their health plan -- and I know that I don't.
Part of the secret is to have the lap band surgery performed in Mexico. Yes, you read that right -- you travel to Mexico and have the surgery done there. This seriously reduces the cost of the procedure, and puts it within reach of many more patients seeking to lose that excess weight. Of course, many of you reading this might have some serious doubts about going to another country -- especially Mexico -- to get surgery done at an inexpensive price. But that does not mean that you are putting yourself at risk. MyLapbBandSurgery.com is affiliated with a reputable hospital and works with licensed, certified physicians to see to it that every surgery is successful and has no problems. Indeed, the team has performed over 48,000 lapband and other gastric bypass surgeries with a success rate of over 98%.
How does it work? You fly into Mexico and are taken to the hospital for your surgery, You spend one night as an in-patient in a private room, and a second ioght in a local hotel before returning to you home. The staff with whom you work all speak English. All materials and procedures meet American standards for care. It is just that everything is so much less expensive in Mexico that you will save thousands of dollars, even with the travel.
So contact MyLapBandSurgery.com for more information, and look at their resource guide to what you can expect.
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The July/August issue of The Atlantic magazine includes a profile of Harlan Coben, author of 16 best-selling crime novels. The article identifies some of Coben's celebrity friends, including television host Bryant Gumbel, rock musician Nils Lofgren and Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.
* * * The article's author, Eric Konigsberg, reports that he accompanied Coben on a book-signing tour that stopped in Las Vegas. He describes a telling scene:
"When we arrived at our hotel, the Luxor, the check-in line looked as if it would take 45 minutes," Konigsberg writes. "Coben e-mailed Reid's office, and it took about a minute for a secretary to call the hotel and arrange for a VIP check-in and a room upgrade."
Hmm. Now, we all know how things work in Las Vegas. The more money you have, the better treatment you receive. Few people around here really argue with that, right?
But this Harlan Coben scenario is a little different.
First, we have this novelist, who lives in New Jersey, securing a favor from Reid's office. Clearly, Coben was made aware sometime in advance of this incident that if he contacted the senator's office, any problems he encountered in Las Vegas would be taken care of. Is this a common activity at Reid HQ? Who else is Nevada's senior casino host helping out in this way? Coben may seem fairly harmless, but what about others who have benefited from Reid's succor?
Second, we have somebody in Reid's office dropping everything to place a call to the Luxor to fix an inconvenience experienced by the senator's friend. Is it possible that Reid's staffers might have more important things to do than ensure VIP treatment for a New Jersey-based novelist?
Third, we have the folks at the Luxor, an MGM Mirage property, immediately bending over to provide special treatment to Reid's buddy. What does this say about the relationship between Reid and the state's dominant industry? Doesn't this suggest something more than an arm's-length association? What does the casino expect in exchange for helping out Reid's friend?
I'm curious -- since when is it the role of Congressional staffers to "hook up" the friends their bosses? And what do the folks who do these favors for staffers expect to get in return? Seems like an ethics violation to me -- because after all, isn't the appearance of impropriety an impropriety? Or is that standard only for Republicans?
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Masked Muslim moral police force a man wearing clothes deemed un-Islamic to suck on a plastic container Iranians use to wash their bottoms.
Bloodied, beaten, then taken away.
Whipped for wearing a soccer shirt.
Behead all those who wear their hair too long.
Another public beating.
The Iranian morality police arrest the infidel after forcing him to drink from the toilet watering cans hanging around his neck.
Another head busted open in the name of Allah.
H/T Michelle Malkin. Additional coverage at Gateway Pundit, Ali Eteraz, Iran Focus.
And by the way, lest you think that this is not based upon government policy, let me direct you to (of all places) an article from today's New York Times.
Young men wearing T-shirts deemed too tight or haircuts seen as too Western have been paraded bleeding through Tehran’s streets by uniformed police officers who force them to suck on plastic jerrycans, a toilet item Iranians use to wash their bottoms. In case anyone misses the point, it is the official news agency Fars distributing the pictures of what it calls “riffraff.” Far bloodier photographs are circulating on blogs and on the Internet.The country’s police chief boasted that 150,000 people — a number far larger than usual — were detained in the annual spring sweep against any clothing considered not Islamic. More than 30 women’s rights advocates were arrested in one day in March, according to Human Rights Watch, five of whom have since been sentenced to prison terms of up to four years. They were charged with endangering national security for organizing an Internet campaign to collect more than a million signatures supporting the removal of all laws that discriminate against women.
Eight student leaders at TehranÂ’s Amir Kabir University, the site of one of the few public protests against Mr. Ahmadinejad, disappeared into Evin Prison starting in early May. Student newspapers had published articles suggesting that no humans were infallible, including the Prophet Muhammad and IranÂ’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
I'm curious -- will we hear a peep of condemnation from the Left over this sort of stuff? Will the same folks who condemn the imagined "theocratic" tendencies of American conservatives speak out against the theocracy of the Islamofascists in Iran? Or does this sort of violence constitute "cultural diversity" that should be celebrated? You know, sort of like homicide bombings and honor killings.
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Sam Anderson never hesitated. Not for a moment.The walk-on forward for the University of Houston knew the decision most likely would end his basketball career, but Anderson knew the man at the other end of the phone — his cousin, Steven Anderson, 46 — was desperate for help, and that's all that mattered.
Steven Anderson's health was rapidly deteriorating because of renal failure, so one day he thought of Sam and picked up the phone. It was his only option, and Steven had put off this phone call as long as possible.
After all, everyone in the Anderson family knew how much Sam loved basketball. It had been Sam's haven as a child back home in Detroit, a refuge from the cold realities of the streets, where friends were devoured by drugs and violence.
But Sam Anderson didn't hesitate -- he said yes to his cousin almost before the question was out of his mouth. It may (but may not) be the end of his basketball career -- but the beginning of something much more important, a healthy life for his cousin.
And by way of explanation, I put that "may not" up there for a reason. During my first year of teaching, one of our students gave a kidney to her sister, and then returned to be a starter on the basketball team the following year, and even received a college scholarship to play basketball. I hope that Sam Anderson can do the same. But even if he can't, the UH program offers him support.
Cougars coach Tom Penders said that the door always will be open for Sam Anderson, as a player or even if he wants to start coaching.Anything to help "one of the most remarkable" people Penders has met.
"This is one of the greatest stories I've ever seen," Penders said. "All I can say is that Sam is going to heaven before I do."
Now there is a coach with his priorities in order.
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Sen. Barack Obama told a church convention Saturday that some right-wing evangelical leaders have exploited and politicized religious beliefs in an effort to sow division."Somehow, somewhere along the way, faith stopped being used to bring us together and faith started being used to drive us apart," the Democratic presidential candidate said in a 30-minute speech before the national meeting of the United Church of Christ.
"Faith got hijacked, partly because of the so-called leaders of the Christian Right, all too eager to exploit what divides us," the Illinois senator said.
"At every opportunity, they've told evangelical Christians that Democrats disrespect their values and dislike their church, while suggesting to the rest of the country that religious Americans care only about issues like abortion and gay marriage, school prayer and intelligent design," according to an advance copy of his speech.
"There was even a time when the Christian Coalition determined that its number one legislative priority was tax cuts for the rich," Obama said. "I don't know what Bible they're reading, but it doesn't jibe with my version."
Of course, Obama doesn't back up that statement -- it is impossible to do so because it is called, in common parlance, a "lie". While the Christian Coalition did support tax cuts across the board for all Americans, it never supported tax cuts for the rich only. I guess that Obama's version of the Bible has only Nine Commandments, having deleted "Thou shalt not bear false witness."
But remember what Obama and the dying, apostate denomination he addressed believe is in keeping with their version of the Bible.
Obama is a member of the United Church of Christ, a church of about 1.2 million members that is considered one the most liberal of the mainline Protestant groups.In 1972, the church was the first to ordain an openly gay man. Two years ago, the church endorsed same-sex marriage, the largest Christian denomination to do so. Obama believes that states should decide whether to allow gay marriage, and he opposes a constitutional amendment against it.
Funny, every version of the Bible I've ever encountered calls homosexuality an abomination or some synonym for that word. Would the Senator care to let us know what version of the Good Book he's reading that leaves that book out -- or should we assume that he doesn't read the Bible at all?
By the way, I'm curious -- when will Americans United for the Separation of Church and State and all the other left-wing groups that bleat about "theocracy" issue their condemnation of this theocrat?
More At The Influence Peddler, The New Conservative
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June 23, 2007
Hey, I dote on her (as does my wife), in large part because with no children she is truly a pet-child. That is why I spoil her. And with her eleventh birthday coming up on Wednesday, my wife and I both are thinking about a good present for her.
Given that the lovable mutt is getting older and just a bit stiffer, I'm thinking about a set of raised dog bowls for her, so she doesn't have to stoop as much to get at her food and water. Maybe I'm spoiling her a bit, but I don't think so.
There are lots of good raised dog bowls out there. I personally like this one with the simple metal frame. Let's be honest here -- she is a dog, and doesn't really have a great flair for interior design! While there are many very attractive raised bowl offerings, I just don't think she would fully appreciate the more subtle decorating nuances. And to be honest, we don't feed Carmie in a high-traffic area where a more stylish set-up would be cover up the decor sins of having dog bowls in the room.
I think we might also need to get a seat cover for the car as well. Carmie has always enjoyed playing the queen, riding in style in the back seat. Since my car just got freshly detailed (as well as repainted, courtesy of the insurance company -- thanks to the student who keyed my car with obscenities on every single metal panel!), It would be nice to keep the fur off the seats. I particularly like this hammock variety that will allow my wife and I to store some things on the floor in the back seat. Carmie will still be able to ride in style (when her head isn't out the back window), but the things on the floor will be safe, too!
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tÂ’s a question that often prompts a boastful answer or a bashful one: How many sex partners have you had?Now the federal government says it has authoritative statistics, documenting that men are far more likely to play the field than women.
A new nationwide survey, using high-tech methods to solicit candid answers on sexual activity and illegal drug use, finds that 29 percent of American men report having 15 or more female sexual partners in a lifetime, while only 9 percent of women report having sex with 15 or more men.
In this age of AIDS, I am surprised that the numbers are still this high. But I wonder -- are all those guys sleeping with the same women, to get the 3-1 breakdown?
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June 22, 2007
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Bush touts proposal to cut back on gas
So why is this the opening paragraph?
It must take a lot for President Bush to cancel out on raising campaign cash for a fellow Republican.
In fact, the first FIFTEEN PARAGRAPHS are devoted to the relationship between the President and Senator Jeff Sessions, their conflicts over the immigration bill, political fundraising, and the president getting winded going up some stairs. Only in paragraph 16 do we get this first glimmer of information about the energy proposal.
At the power plant appearance, Bush touted his approach for cutting gasoline consumption as the Democratic-controlled Senate opened debate on a broad energy bill.
That would be the first of seven paragraphs on the president's objections to the Democratic energy proposal in Congress. By my count we have now gone 22 paragraphs without actually talking about the President's "proposal to cut back on gas."
But wait -- here it comes!
Bush wants the standard increased to 35 billion gallons a year by 2017. He calls it an "alternative fuels" standard, instead of a renewable fuels standard, because he would count so-called coal-to-liquid fuel and other nonrenewable sources.
That's right -- paragraph 23 actually deals with the topic indicated in the headline. Now we are in for some substantive reporting on the subject, right?
Wrong. The article has only two paragraphs left. I present them for your consideration.
He also pushed increased use of nuclear power, from the plant that is home to the first U.S. nuclear reactor to go online in more than 20 years. Browns Ferry's Unit 1 reactor began producing power again last month after being shut down for safety reasons in 1985. Its other two reactors returned to service in the 1990s.The reactor was shut down two days after its restart when a leaky pipe burst and spilled non-radioactive fluid. Such problems prompted Greenpeace to call Browns Ferry "a strange poster child for a nuclear future."
Nope -- nothing about gas there.
And so we get a grand total of two sentences about the president's proposal to cut back on gasoline usage -- despite the fact that the headline was about the president's proposal to cut back on gas usage. Even if we are generous and count the criticisms of the congressional plan as "touting" the president's proposal, we still see only 1/3 of the story devoted to what the headline tells us the story is about -- and the third at that!
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I suppose the first issue is whether or not to get a good Home Security System. I've wondered about that issue a lot, especially after a home security company began calling me about the alarm going off at my home? The problem? At the time we didn't have a home security system, much less a monitoring service. They were calling me about someone else's home! And I'm not talking about a fly-by-night company -- this was one of the big names in the industry. SO I have to wonder -- is it better to be hooked -in with a company or to instead work with a system that makes contact with you and police automatically when a problem is detected?
I also wonder about the desirablilty of security cameras. Is my home a likely enough target that a security camera would be a reasonable investment instead of overkill? Or is a decoy sufficient? Personally, in my neighborhood, I don't think that either is a real important investment -- but depending upon what the new development brings to the area, I might be changing my mind on that.
But really -- what is necessary in the way of home security? Do we really need to be on camera all the time, like at school? Do we really need massive security systems? I suppose that it ultimately comes down to you neighborhood and your style of life.
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In 19 months, George W. Bush will leave the White House for the last time. The latest NEWSWEEK Poll suggests that he faces a steep climb if he hopes to coax the country back to his side before he goes. In the new poll, conducted Monday and Tuesday nights, President BushÂ’s approval rating has reached a record low. Only 26 percent of Americans, just over one in four, approve of the job the 43rd president is doing; while, a record 65 percent disapprove, including nearly a third of Republicans.
Yep -- gotta look at the Bush numbers and talk about how bad they are. Frankly, the breakdown of the polling data makes me seriously wonder at the level of ignorance shown by my fellow Americans. For example, only 34% approve of the president's handling of the economy, despite the fact that we are in the 5th straight year of strong economic growth following the Clinton recession and the economic disruptions caused by 9/11 -- growth that can be directly attributed to the president's income tax cuts for all Americans who pay them.
But then Newsweek glosses over this number.
If there is any good news for Bush and the Republicans in the latest NEWSWEEK Poll, itÂ’s that the Democratic-led Congress fares even worse than the president. Only 25 percent of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing.In the scariest news for the Democratic candidates seeking their partyÂ’s nomination in 2008, even rank-and-file Democrats are unhappy with Congress, which is narrowly controlled by their party. Only 27 percent of Democrats approve of the job Congress is doing, a statistically insignificant difference from the 25 percent of Republicans and 25 percent of independents who approve of Congress.
Overall, 63 percent of Americans disapprove of the job Congress is doing, including 60 percent of Democrats, 67 percent of Republicans and 64 percent of Independents. Apparently, voters arenÂ’t happy with anyone in Washington these days.
Newsweek, it seems, isn't interested in why the numbers are low, or what areas are driving the low congressional ratings. After all, they don't even ask about such things in their poll.
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June 21, 2007
Fortunately there is a great home organization at ShopToGetOrganized.com. They have all sorts of organizers and other household items that would certainly be useful -- like this earring organizer, now that my darling bride has gotten her ears pierced (at age 45). For that matter, she might like this item for the bedroom as well, for those days she aches too much to get around the house much. For that matter, these shower organizers might come in handy for her as well.
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This situation, though, positively makes my skin crawl.
A 40-year-old high school science teacher and cross country coach who once worked in Guilford County has resigned his position and married a 16-year-old student.Brenton Wuchae coached Windy Hager at South Brunswick High School, where she recently completed her sophomore year as one of the school's top runners. He also lives less than two miles away from the Hagers' home on Oak Island.
Wuchae married Hager in Brunswick County on Monday, according to a marriage license.
Hager's parents, Dennis and Betty Hager, said they did all they could to keep the couple apart after noticing a deeper-than-usual friendship forming between them. The parents said they tried to intervene by talking to the coach, going to school officials, pleading with police and sheriff's office detectives, even other teachers and students at South Brunswick.
But the Hagers say they reluctantly signed a consent form allowing their daughter to marry her coach.
Clearly, this relationship blew right through any and all student-teacher relationship boundaries, and he had to go. I know that this would have been a firing offense in my district, which has a strict "no dating the students" policy in place -- even if the student is 18 and the employee does not have any sort of authority over the student. We had a 22-year-old teacher from an elementary school let go a couple of years ago for dating an 18-year-old girl he knew from church, because she was still a student two months from graduation at one of our high schools. I don't want to even think about the sh!t-storm we would have if one of our teachers actually married a current student.
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GOOD FOR YOU, MR. PRESIDENT!
President Bush yesterday vetoed legislation to expand federally funded embryonic stem cell research, saying that scientific advances now allow researchers to pursue the potentially lifesaving work without destroying human embryos.Bush followed his veto -- his third since becoming president -- with an executive order aimed at encouraging federal agencies to support research that offers the promise of creating medically useful stem cells without destroying human embryos.
This story, however, overlooks the more basic point -- nothing in current law makes it illegal to do research on fetal stem cells. There are a number of approved stem cell lines that can still be funded, and there is absolutely nothing to prohibit any fetal stem cell research using private money. What this veto does is simply prohibit the use of federal money to facilitate the taking of any more innocent lives for scientific research.
There are some points to consider -- some practical, some moral.
1) If fetal stem cell research is so promising, why isn't private industry funding it to the level that these breakthroughs will be made quickly. After all, a cure for diabetes of Parkinsons would be immensely profitable. Could it be that Big Pharmaceutical (the drug equivalent of Big Oil) is so unsure of the potential that it won't put up the money for research -- or that it simply feels that federal subsidies are its right?
2) Large numbers of Americans have moral objections to the methods for obtaining fetal stem cells. Is it appropriate to take their money to fund something that offends their values at such a fundamental level? Do their values and policy preferences matter less than those of researchers and (some of) those with medical conditions that could be cured by such research -- and why?
So I applaud the stand by the president in this case. Just because Dr. Mengele some research scientists seek government funding to destroy Jewish prisoners in a concentration camp embryos n a laboratory does not means that government should facilitate such work -- or that it is morally acceptable if they get such funding.
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Just 14% of Americans have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in Congress.This 14% Congressional confidence rating is the all-time low for this measure, which Gallup initiated in 1973. The previous low point for Congress was 18% at several points in the period of time 1991 to 1994.
Congress is now nestled at the bottom of the list of Gallup's annual Confidence in Institutions rankings, along with HMOs. Just 15% of Americans have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in HMOs. (By way of contrast, 69% of Americans have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in the military, which tops the list. More on this at galluppoll.com on Thursday).
So let me ask -- if the American people don't trust the Congress but do trust the military, do you think that maybe the notion of "supporting the troops" might best be expressed by letting them win instead of bringing them home?
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First, the issue of whetehr we are really dealing with a period of sustained glogal warming at all.
Solar scientists predict that, by 2020, the sun will be starting into its weakest Schwabe solar cycle of the past two centuries, likely leading to unusually cool conditions on Earth. Beginning to plan for adaptation to such a cool period, one which may continue well beyond one 11-year cycle, as did the Little Ice Age, should be a priority for governments. It is global cooling, not warming, that is the major climate threat to the world, especially Canada. As a country at the northern limit to agriculture in the world, it would take very little cooling to destroy much of our food crops, while a warming would only require that we adopt farming techniques practiced to the south of us.
Imagine that -- it is the sun, not "greenhouse gasses" that we need to focus on in dealing with global climate issues.
And, of course, there are teh views of scientists.
In some fields the science is indeed "settled." For example, plate tectonics, once highly controversial, is now so well-established that we rarely see papers on the subject at all. But the science of global climate change is still in its infancy, with many thousands of papers published every year. In a 2003 poll conducted by German environmental researchers Dennis Bray and Hans von Storch, two-thirds of more than 530 climate scientists from 27 countries surveyed did not believe that "the current state of scientific knowledge is developed well enough to allow for a reasonable assessment of the effects of greenhouse gases." About half of those polled stated that the science of climate change was not sufficiently settled to pass the issue over to policymakers at all.
Somehow I don't believe the opinions of climate scientists have shifted so completely in the past four years, though I would like to see additional studies on the matter. Could it be, though, that our "friends" who adhere to the religion of manmade global warming have been fudging the data?
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Our guys are tough. The enemy in Baqubah is as good as any in Iraq, and better than most. ThatÂ’s saying a lot. But our guys have been systematically trapping them, and have foiled some big traps set for our guys. I donÂ’t want to say much more about that, but our guys are seriously outsmarting them. Big fights are ahead and we will take serious losses probably, but al Qaeda, unless they find a way to escape, are about to be slaughtered. Nobody is dropping leaflets asking them to surrender. Our guys want to kill them, and thatÂ’s the plan.A positive indicator on the 19th and the 20th is that most local people apparently are happy that al Qaeda is being trapped and killed. Civilians are pointing out IEDs and enemy fighters, so thatÂ’s not working so well for al Qaeda. Clearly, I cannot do a census, but that says something about the locals.
Yon is on the scene, while the MSM reports from press releases given to them in the Green Zone -- and the NY Times report buries reports of the success of the operation in an article detailing terrorist attacks in different parts of the country. I guess that is what passes for "supporting the troops" in New York -- give the terrorists top billing and make them appear more successful by playing up their murders of civilians instead of the American fighting man's righteous efforts to wipe out the forces of Islamofascism.
H/T Captain's Quarters
UPDATE: I just got pointed to this NY Times story that deals with Operation Arrowhead Ripper more directly -- and more positively.
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June 20, 2007
If you are trying to manage Pay Per Click accounts, Acquisio has some great software that you might want to look at. This acquisio bid management software accounts for where your traffic is coming from and where it moves on to, as well as what links are productive ones for you, and includes keyword management. Such knowledge enables you to maximize your profit -- which is, after all, why you went into business in the first place, right?
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In her courtroom on the 21st floor of State Supreme Court in Brooklyn yesterday, Justice Jill Konviser-Levine sat and pondered the question of hate.“Bottom line,” Justice Konviser-Levine ruminated aloud, “is animus an element of the crime?”
The crime in question was the killing of Michael J. Sandy, 29, a gay man who was lured to a parking area in Sheepshead Bay last October, beaten and chased into traffic. He later died in the hospital.
Prosecutors have said a group of young men contacted Mr. Sandy through an online gay chat room, selecting him as a robbery victim in the belief that a gay man would be unwilling or unable to put up a fight and unlikely to report the crime.
The defendants — John Fox, 20; Ilya Shurov, 21; and Anthony Fortunato, 21 — have been charged not just with murder, but with murder under the state Hate Crimes Act of 2000, which provides longer prison sentences for crimes motivated “in whole or in substantial part because of a belief or perception regarding the race, color, national origin, ancestry, gender, religion, religious practice, age, disability or sexual orientation of a person.”
Now let's be honest here -- these guys are creeps and deserve to be dealt with harshly. Indeed, I think the most appropriate punishment for them involves a needle in their veins -- or being drawn and quartered by city buses. However, to apply the law in this manner is to prove what many of us have always said about hate crime laws, namely that they constitute unequal treatment of the law by enhancing penalties for the same crime based upon membership in specially protected classes.
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June 19, 2007
Hillary Clinton checks in as the "creepiest" candidate in the hunt for the White House, a new Forbes magazine online character poll has found.A full 15 percent of Americans say Clinton gives them the creeps - including 20 percent of men, compared to 10 percent of females.
No other active candidate comes close to Clinton, who's taken hits from pundits for getting shrill on the speaking stump, making people's hairs stand on end.
But former Vice President Al Gore, a non-candidate basking in the glow of an Oscar award for his recent documentary "An Inconvenient Truth," ties Clinton in the creep-out column at 15 percent.
Any woman who would make the policy proposals advocated by Clinton AND stay married to Bill Clinton should creep out any sane person.
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When was the last time you read a celebrity profile that was "disparaging, demeaning or derogatory"?The rules of the game, as established by the glossy magazines and the stars' PR reps, ensure that "access" (well, a half-hour chat in a restaurant that enables the magazine to proclaim it has an "exclusive" interview) and the all-important exclusive cover shot are granted only to those magazines and journalists who will refrain from anything but fawning prose. It works out well for everybody. Celebrity journalists who play along get a good payday, magazines get newsstand sales bumps, and the rest of us are inculcated into the received myths of Celebland, the legends that sustain the illusion that it is somehow truly important.
Sure, it's possible to publish a rant on the Web (as U.K. journalist Brendan O'Neill did in a devastating piece calling Brad and Angelina "celebrity colonialists"), but such critiques are largely irrelevant to the vast, well-oiled, pap-dispensing Publicity-Industrial Complex (a phrase I believe I was the first to use, in an essay arguing that J.D. Salinger's rejection of this apparatus is a reticence to be admired rather than ridiculed).
The fact is, celebrities don't need a signed contract—celebrity profilers know that the power lies in the hands of PR people, who in many cases demand writer approval before committing one of their stars to a cover story. And no profiler who makes a lucrative living off elaborate fawning wants to do anything that might jeopardize his pre-approval status.
So when Angelina Jolie is proclaiemd "the best woman in the world" by Esquire, don't be surprised. And when celebrity activism gets trumpeted as proof of the heightened caring and moral superiority of the over-privileged entertainment class, don't be shocked. After all, questioning the validity of the cause or the contentions of the star can end your career.
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11:36 PM
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As I mentioned in another context today, there really is a cult of celebrity in our society today, with many worshippers just waiting to get the latest scrap of information about their favorite stars and personalities. I guess that has always been the case, because fan magazines, celebrity tabloids, and scandal sheets have been popular for as long as i can remember.
But where to you get your celebrity news on the internet? Well, you can look at CelebrityGossip.com, a news aggregator that brings together all the latest in celebrity news, happenings, an gossip. Not only that, you get the pleasure of voting on the stories to rate them, so you can help push the news about your favorite stars to the top of the charts!
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New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg abruptly left the Republican Party yesterday, declaring himself free of a "rigid adherence" to ideology and stoking speculation that he will use his multibillion-dollar fortune to mount an independent bid for the White House.The founder of the Bloomberg financial media empire has repeatedly denied interest in the presidency. At a technology conference yesterday in which he attacked partisanship in Washington, he said: "I plan to be mayor for the next 926 days." But he has refused to rule out a run for the presidency, even discussing the possibility privately with close advisers and beginning to travel around the country, including a trip to the home of the nation's first primary, New Hampshire.
In a statement posted on the official Web site of New York City late yesterday, Bloomberg said that his plans "haven't changed" and that abandoning the Republican banner will better reflect his approach to governance. Bloomberg was a longtime Democrat before shifting his allegiance to the GOP before his first mayoral run in 2001.
"Any successful elected executive knows that real results are more important than partisan battles and that good ideas should take precedence over rigid adherence to any particular political ideology," the statement said. "Working together, there's no limit to what we can do.
For all the talk of a presidential run, I want to know where his base would be? It certainly won't be among the mainstream of the GOP, because a pro-abortion, anti-gun candidate who lacks Rudy Giuliani's record on terrorism simply will not draw from among conservatives. And as far as Democrats, they already have a whole raft of candidates who essentially hold the major tenets of Bloomberg's politics. Where is he going to draw votes?
Posted by: Greg at
11:28 PM
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A few well-placed accessories around your home can really spruce the place up. The same is true with your garden. Some of the accessories can even be functional -- things like Rain Gauges, thermometers and such things. They also add value to your home when you try to sell -- the address plaque in our yard was one of the little touches that we found attractive.
Anyway, OnlineDiscountMart.com has a bunch of new home and garden accessories like Bird Baths just in time for summer. You really ought to check them out.
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