I'll preface this with the fact that I am a non-smoker; I hate it. Can't stand the smell, can't stand the smoke, can't stand it period, yuck.
It's unhealthy, it promotes a variety of lung diseases and makes you age faster. I had an uncle die in a house fire he accidentally started with his own cigarette, fortunately his wife and children made it out safely. Wildfires are started by people throwing their butts on the ground. The impoverished spend precious dollars on their addiction rather than putting food on the table. I think you see where I'm coming from here.
But now in the great state of Colorado, it is illegal to smoke in bars, restaurants and the majority of businesses. I find it interesting that smoking is banned in bars, but not the casinos, hmm. Ya think there's something to that? Lobbyists? Anyone? Anyone?
Anyway, a business owner should have the right to cater to his customers; to provide them with choices. Meat or fish, broiled or grilled, smoking or non-smoking. At what point will big brother quit stepping in on business owners? This is the genesis of socialism, government making choices on how PRIVATE businesses should be run.
Advocates of the ban claim that this will reduce the risks of second-hand smoke on employees and non-smoking patrons. I have yet to see a SIGNIFICANT study on second-hand smoke from a reliable source. If you are truly concerned about the actions of others affecting your health, then perhaps you should pursue alcohol. I've never known anyone who's wrapped their car around a tree because they smoked one too many cigarettes that night. I've never heard of a death caused to an innocent person because some smoker crossed over the center line. I've never heard of a domestic abuse dispute because someone finished off a pack of cigarettes in one evening.
Yes, if you truly are concerned for the public, you'll address alcoholism. In our nation an average of 17,000 people are killed every year by drunk drivers with an additional 500,000 injured, some quite severely, by drunk drivers. Not to mention the prices the families and employers of alcoholics must suffer with.
I've never sat at a funeral for someone killed by someone else smoking, I have however sat at my nephew's funeral because someone else was drinking. Logic people, God gave you a brain; use it.
Technorati Tags smoking ban, alcoholism, drunk drivers
I'm sure many of you saw this on Free Republic; it was rumored that Senator John Glenn said the following:
WHAT SENATOR JOHN GLENN SAID:
There were 39 combat related killings in Iraq in January. In the fair city of Detroit there were 35 murders in the month of January.That's just one American city, about as deadly as the entire war-torn country of Iraq.
When some claim that President Bush shouldn't have started this war, state the following:
a. FDR led us into World War II.
b. Germany never attacked us; Japan did. >From 1941-1945, 450,000 lives were lost ... an average of 112,500 per year.
c. Truman finished that war and started one in Korea. North Korea never attacked us.
>From 1950-1953, 55,000 lives were lost ... an average of 18,334 per year.
d John F. Kennedy started the Vietnam conflict in 1962. Vietnam never attacked us.
e. Johnson turned Vietnam into a quagmire. >From 1965-1975, 58,000 lives were lost .. an average of 5,800 per year.
f. Clinton went to war in Bosnia without UN or French consent.
Bosnia never attacked us. He was offered Osama bin Laden's head on a platter three times by Sudan and did nothing Osama has attacked us on multiple occasions.
g. In the years since terrorists attacked us , President Bush has liberated two countries, crushed the Taliban, crippled al-Qaida, put nuclear inspectors in Libya, Iran, and North Korea without firing a shot, and captured a terrorist who slaughtered 300,000 of his own people.
The Democrats are complaining about how long the war is taking. But
. It took less time to take Iraq than it took Janet Reno to take the Branch Davidian compound. That was a 51-day operation.
We've been looking for evidence for chemical weapons in Iraq for less time than it took Hillary Clinton to find the Rose Law Firm billing records.
It took less time for the 3rd Infantry Division and the Marines to destroy the Medina Republican Guard than it took Ted Kennedy to call the police after his Oldsmobile sank at Chappaquiddick
It took less time to take Iraq than it took to count the votes in Florida!!!!
Our Commander-In-Chief is doing a GREAT JOB! The Military morale is high!
The biased media hopes we are too ignorant to realize the facts
Snopes has said that it was most definitely not Senator Glenn who stated it and none of us should be surprised. His years in Congress he spent voting in true liberal form. But I think there are items here that we must consider. Despite it's author those items are indeed true. I grow continually discouraged with this war and see-saw back and forth regarding the validity of it. I honestly don't know how to feel about all of it.
Yesterday my children and I were speaking about biblical prophesy and this war came into our conversation. I told them that this war was not the end and that according to prophesy, it's going to get worse. The anti-christ will enter this picture and bring peace with his "one world religion". Are we watching biblical prophesy unfold? Or is this just a bump in the road with the tribulation ages away? Don't know; but what I do know is that I do have a God. A God that provides me with all I need. A God that has promised me eternal life; a God that brings me the peace that surpasses all understanding. I'll keep trying to remember the big picture.
I've been so consumed by learning Spanish that I haven't been paying much attention to the news, national or local. I blogcrawled over to Bob's page and was somewhat embarrassed that he posted a Colorado story I knew nothing about. Thanks for letting me know what's happening in my own backyard. God bless this girl.
Just heard Tom Tancredo on The Laura Ingraham Show and if this man chooses to run, I will support him. I've always felt that a Congressman really doesn't stand a chance at the presidency, but I like the words coming out of this man's mouth. I am however, concerned about his ability to cancel out Shillary.
That mother f'er is dead!! Me thinks he's not experiencing 72 virgins right now. Although I fear that another terrorist will take his place and that ultimately he will be martyred, motivating more to take on his plight.
Jonah Goldberg's piece at National Review Online is a poignant look at the fallacies of the press regarding Katrina. We all sat in horror listening to the network and cable news outlets during the aftermath of Katrina wondering to ourselves "How could this happen in an American city?" Well, the overwhelming percentage of stories coming out of New Orleans were indeed false; yet what news agency has admitted that they colored, okay, out right lied, about these stories?
How unfortunate that we all have to take the news with a grain of salt.
Yes, the housewife owes New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin a huge apology. You see I've called him several names since Katrina, none of them nice. I've blamed him for not encouraging his citizens to be more responsible for themselves, to not have a plan should a storm hit a city lying next to the ocean that just happens to be under sea level; yes, Mr. Nagin, I'm sorry. Apparently you're not the one with the issues, it's your constituency. They obviously are inept, sheltered and ignorant. I mean, actually re-electing you? Perhaps we really should funnel more money into the New Orleans schools and teach the students some common sense. Oh and here's a little gift to get you started rebuilding your community.
After going to a local television news' website searching out info on that twat Bennish, I reached my breaking point with KUSA, Channel 9, local NothingButCrap affilliate. This station has become so liberal over the past few years that it's unbearable. I sent this e-mail yesterday:
This is the straw that has broken this camel's back:
I have increasingly been unable to tolerate your liberal bias. This has been a growing problem with your station over the past few years and continues to worsen. In searching out information on the Jay Bennish issue I went to your web site looking for an image and found this.
Students walk out of OHS in protest? Teacher criticized for expressing his views on American foreign policy? You posts pictures of students holding signs, tape over their mouths and completely ignore the real story in order to promote your agenda.
I have often shook my head in disbelief with your presentation of the news. I have lost count as to how many times I've had to change the channel because I can no longer tolerate your liberal dribble.
The media is to simply report the news. It is to be unbiased and clear. It is to present both sides of a story and allow the viewer to come to their own conclusions. You have failed miserably and it's a shame that you cannot think for yourself and must follow the drum beat of the rest of the left-leaning media. At least half of our nation is conservative and you insult and belittle us repeatedly.
I will never watch your news broadcasts again, never. I'd rather watch a station that accurately reports a story and appeals to the spectrum of it's viewers.
Stacy -------
-------, CO
Their response came today:
Thanks for your note. Interestingly, I just hung with a caller whose daughter attends a public high school in Jefferson County, asking why we haven't done stories about the conservative bias in those schools. She asked if Republicans owned our television station because of our obvious bias in favor of Sean Allen and against Jay Bennish.
At least part of the reaction to our news coverage is in the eye of the beholder. We really do our best to be fair.
Thanks again.
--- ----
Total BS, total. Real news is ignored so they can focus on ridiculous social, culture, sexual orientation garbage. Blah Blah Blah!!!! It's like the end of The O'Reilly Factor. Locals here know, 9News is blatantly liberal. Bite. Me. Rant. Over.
Please God, huge meteor, huge-ass meteor.
Geeeeezzzz, it's like a gift from God. Keep it up lefties, you look more ridiculous as the days go by. This Cheney thing is hilarious; anyone with half a brain can see the stupidity of the media. Did it ever occur to them that perhaps VP Cheney was digesting this whole thing? When you have a horrific event happen to you, you pull yourself out of life and attempt to dissect and procces that event. I feel horrible for our VP, can you imagine what it must feel like to accidently shoot a friend of yours? Really, think about it. As he said last night on Fox "It was the worst day of my life".
A ginormous thank you to Jeff for this image. It pretty much sums up my feelings.
And I'm going to add this in here, now don't get me wrong, I like Cheney; but I thought this was hilarious. I won't give credit as to where I found it, he use to be reasonable but has made a left-hand turn.
Can you believe this guy? A former US Attorney General defending 'So-Damn-Insane'? I think I'm going to be sick.
Sorry about being gone, I still have a few days before I'm back in full force. Darn job, every now and then I actually have too much to do.
Anyway, the other night I had a dream that I was a nominee for SCOTUS. I was taken into a back room full of books that were gigantic. I was told to sit down and read everything before it was time to present me to the nation. I remember in this dream I sat there thinking "you guys are insane".
I have recently changed my opinion on Miers, not because of the dream though. When she was first nominated she was supported by Jay Sekulow, a man I greatly admire. But the recent coverage regarding her 'diversity quota' has left me siding with the majority of the GOP. I was shocked to see so many politicians and pundits voicing a negative opinion of her. I just can't see her being confirmed at this point. But . . . . . this new thinking of mine has revived by 'finger-crossing' for Janice Rogers Brown.
Pardon the crappy post.
Got this from one of the gals in our Cotillion group. It's real, make sure you tell everyone you know.
Warning - It's Real & Confirmed.
Emails with pictures of Osama Bin-Laden hanged are being sent and the moment that you open these emails your computer will crash and you will not be able to fix it!
This e-mail is being distributed through countries around the globe, but mainly in the US and Israel.
Don't be inconsiderate; send this warning to whomever you know.
If you get an email along the lines of "Osama bin Laden Captured" or "Osama Hanged" don't open the attachment.
Origins: There are few headlines that would grab the attention of more computer users around the world than "Osama bin Laden Captured," and that's exactly what whoever created this lure was counting on to snare unsuspecting victims who use Microsoft platforms.
"Osama bin Laden Captured" isn't a virus in itself; it's the text of a message that includes a link to a file called EXPLOIT.EXE. When a message recipient clicks on this link to view what he thinks are pictures of Osama bin Laden's capture, he can end up downloading an executable Trojan known as Backdoor-AZU, BKDR_LARSLP.A, Download.Trojan, TrojanProxy.Win32.Small.b,or Win32.Slarp. Clicking the embedded link in the "Osama bin Laden Captured" message auto-executes a file called "EXPLOIT.EXE," which exploits a known security hole to download the Trojan. According to McAfee Security:
The Trojan opens a random port on the victim's machine. It sends the Port information to a webpage at IP address 66.139.77.145. The Trojan listens on the open port for instructions and redirects traffic to other IP addresses. Spammers and hackers can take advantage of compromised systems by using the infected computer as a middleman, allowing them to pass information through it and remain anonymous
Y'all know how I feel about viruses!!!
Today is a great day; it is the official first day of wrestling season for No. 2. Last season No. 3 took 2nd place at state and No. 2 wrestled for the high school. No. 1 quit several years ago so having No. 2 on the high school team was a monumental step. We have sacrificed weekends and evenings for many years to be where we are right now. All of that combined with my husband coaching and wrestling himself makes for an exhilarating experience.
In reminiscing last year, I remembered a tourney we went to in Fort Collins. High schools place banners of the schools in their leagues in their gymnasiums and it's always interesting to see the team names and colors. At this tourney we saw two team names that left us laughing. One was the 'Lambkins' and the other the 'Impalas'. No. 2 looked at me and said "Uh, both of those are prey. Why would you name your team after prey?" This past summer on our vacation in Texas, we noticed the team name 'Unicorns' in New Braunfels.
The largest issue with the PC team name movement has centered around Native Americans. Many of you know my husband is mostly Apache Indian so his input on anything Native American I greatly appreciate. He, like most people with grey matter, feels that naming a team after something 'Indian' is a great compliment. Why would anyone name their team after something that is non-threatening?
The recent controversy over the Seminoles in Florida with the NCAA is classic PCism run amuck. Even with the permission of the official Seminole tribe in Florida, the NCAA chose to take the cowardly stance.
A few years back in northern Colorado there was a story regarding an intramural basketball team that chose to use the team name of "Fightin' Whities".
Solomon Little Owl, director of Native American Student Services at the University of Northern Colorado, is a member of an intramural basketball team that has adopted the name "The Fighting Whities." Team members say they want to raise awareness of the issue of painful cultural stereotypes.
The team, made up of American Indian, Anglo and Hispanic players, is protesting nearby Eaton's use of the team name "Fightin' Reds" and an Indian caricature as a mascot -- both identified with the school for generations.
Painful, cultural stereotypes. Hmm. How can one possibly believe that naming your team after something strong, or stealth, or intimidating is an insult? This social disease has taken over too many schools and has created an unnecessary controversy. Schools spend their time combating people who are offended rather than educating children. For shame.
I found an interesting site that contains high school team names from across the country. If you're needing a good laugh, go check out the site and see what the PC movement has left our schools with. Some of the names are ones that have always existed for their teams, but it's still a good laugh.
Maggie e-mailed me this article from Opinion Journal regarding black America. Many of you know that I have been posting on this battle, and with much help from her we are witnessing the victories and losses. Despite this affecting mostly black Americans this is something that affects us all.
I have also placed the article in the extended entry just in case you have a hard time getting to it.
Shall We Overcome?
The black American condition today.
BY CHARLES JOHNSON
Friday, October 14, 2005 12:01 a.m. EDT
As Louis Farrakhan, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton prepare for yet another symbolic and substanceless "Million Man March" in Washington, all three have managed to dodge the joke about the first such rally a decade ago (the one in which Mr. Farrakhan dazzled the world with his knowledge of numerology): namely, that black men in America are the only group ever to march in protest of themselves. I'm guessing that the rationale for this weekend's gathering is identical to that of the initial march. It is a lament we have heard in one guise or another for 3 1/2 decades: Our family is in crisis; black men are an endangered species.
As tired as one might be of hearing this, the crisis can be seen as possibly terminal for a considerable portion of black Americans at the dawn of the 21st century. Furthermore, it is not merely an economic or political problem but also a cultural, spiritual and moral one that has at its center behavior and attitudes that make far too many black men noncompetitive (except in sports and entertainment) and, perhaps, irrelevant in an increasingly complex multicultural and knowledge-based global economy.
Messrs. Farrakhan, Jackson and Sharpton are no doubt responding to the inevitably contradictory profiles offered by black America in the post-civil rights period. Like the subatomic entity that can be either a wave or a particle, depending on when (and where) you glimpse it, one portrait of blacks today discloses that we are, as Reginald McKnight once wrote, "as polymorphous as the dance of Shiva."
On the one hand, we are CEOs at AOL Time Warner, American Express and Merrill Lynch; we have served as secretary of state and White House national security adviser; we are mayors, police chiefs, best-selling novelists, MacArthur fellows, Nobel laureates, professors, billionaires, scientists, stockbrokers, engineers, toymakers, inventors, astronauts, chess grandmasters, dot-com millionaires, talk show hosts, actors and film directors; Protestants, Catholics, Muslims, Jews and Buddhists (as is yours truly). We are inescapable in the fabric of America's lived experience and defy easy categorization. The GDP of black America is $631 billion. Homeownership is close to 50%. The number living in poverty is 25%, which is too high, of course, but a vast improvement over indigence of the past.
But there is a second, disturbing profile that reveals too high a percentage of black men being AWOL as fathers and husbands; as disappearing from our colleges (UC Berkeley's 2004-05 freshman class had only 108 African-Americans out of 3,600 students, with less than 40 males, and not one black among the 800 entering students in engineering); as graduating from high school with an eighth-grade level of proficiency in math and reading; in prison, on probation or on parole (a third of black men in their 20s). With the HIV infection rate doubling for blacks in the past decade, as well as urban violence, hypertension, social stress and heart disease, the number of black men now trails black women by two million. And it is not as if black women are thriving; the HIV infection rate for black women is 20 times that for white women (possibly because of "down low" bisexual black males who hide the fact of their homosexuality).
It seems that after decades of supporting and building up our daughters, sisters and wives, we are finally willing to acknowledge a national "boy problem" in general, one with devastating consequences for black males in particular. That belated recognition, our "leaders" seem to be saying with yet another media-courting march, might be too little too late. We have already allowed the talent, resources and genius of two generations of young black men who might have enriched this republic to be squandered by gang violence, by poor academic preparation, by the lack of good parenting and by the celebration of an irresponsible "thug life" that is ethically infantile and, predictably, embraced by a notoriously values-challenged entertainment industry.
Two things could not be more clear in 2005: First, without strong, self-sacrificing, frugal and industrious fathers as role models, our boys go astray, never learn how to be parents (or men), and perpetuate the dismal situation of single-parent homes run by tired and overworked black women. The black family as a survival unit fails, which leads to the ever-fragile community collapsing along with it. Second, our black predecessors (particularly Booker T. Washington with his corny but unfailingly correct "gospel of the toothbrush") understood from the era of Reconstruction until the late 1960s how indispensable was the black family for sustaining a fight against racism that by its very nature can only be measured in centuries, and for ensuring that our progress toward liberation, personal and political, would not be lost in but a single generation as it now threatens to be.
The columnist William Raspberry has lately urged black people to resist becoming trapped and limited by antique narratives about their lives. "For the first time in black American history," he wrote, "what we do is a greater determinant of our future than what is done to us. We need to teach that and preach that and shout that--to our young people and ourselves. We need to take note of the immigrants--including those from Africa and the Caribbean--who see opportunity where too many born here see only disparity."
Some of our black celebrity athletes, many of whom had their education cut short by their careers, seem to be bellwethers for a possible black male renaissance, which our most insightful intellectuals have quietly bolstered by presenting as role models our geeks and boffins rather than our rappers, our "Hip Hop culture," and those mired in what Thomas Sowell calls "black redneck" behavior. Observe Shaquille O'Neal, pursuing a master's degree in criminal justice; or Washington Wizards player Kwame Brown, who is studying business courses online, and who believes that "you gain respect with an education"; or former University of Nebraska football star Bobby Newcombe, at work on a master's degree in business administration, who sees how "education is a means for something else--whether it's developing yourself to better serve people, to support your family, or for marketability."
These individuals, so highly competitive on the court, understand that the responsibility for the breadth of their skills, the depths of their intellects, the daring of their imaginative pursuits, and the quality of their lives rests--just like their athletic prowess--only on themselves. This is hardly a fresh idea in black American life, but what is new and exciting--the opportunity tucked away inside this "crisis"--is the radical, perhaps even revolutionary, proposition that in the 21st century, if we are willing to give up the "soft bigotry of low expectations," we can reshape the cultural profile of the black American male so that it embodies what our predecessors and ancestors valued most: literacy and a love of learning; the wide-ranging intellectual curiosity and catholicity represented by a W.E.B. Du Bois or a Mark Deans (an IBM research-center director who holds 40 patents); personal discipline, delayed gratification, a commitment to creating wealth and passing that along to our children, and the very hard truth that, despite our appreciation of modernity, people of color do not have the luxury of half-stepping, failure and indiscretions in a very white, unabashedly Eurocentric society.
If, instead of denial and avoidance, our graying leaders and opinion-makers--who have dismally failed to address the serious problem of black male culture for almost half a century because it is so much easier to apologize for black underperformance or arm-wrestle with Mexican president Vicente Fox over a slip during one of his speeches--tell the men in their audience that each and every one of them must become the intellectual and spiritual leader they have been looking for, then perhaps this latest racial spectacle in our nation's capital will not be staged in vain.
Mr. Johnson, a professor of English at the University of Washington in Seattle, is the author of "Middle Passage" and, most recently, of "Dr. King's Refrigerator and Other Bedtime Stories" (Scribner, 2005).
Has anyone else noticed that predicted death tolls in US disasters are most often grossly overstated; yet in other countries it's the opposite? They often start with a few thousand and it ends up being in the tens of thousands; or even in the case of the tsunami past 100,000? God bless building codes, even though they can be a huge pain in the ass from time to time.
p.s. Since AlJazeera stated that Hurricane Katrina was a punishment from Allah for the evils of America, what will they say about the massive death toll in the wake of the Pakistani earthquake? I mean, Pakistan is an Islamic country.
It's taken me awhile to get around to this, I wanted to hold out a bit and see what came about. Without surprise, Dr. Bennett is still be slandered by the left.
I have heard the conversation Dr. Bennett was having with a caller; the call in its entirety is non-controversial. The caller threw out a hypothesis stating that the reasoning behind Social Security going bankrupt has to do with the massive amount of abortions that have occurred in this nation. Dr. Bennett used an argument, claimed by the authors of Freakonomics, that was to show the absurdity of claims such as these. He is a pro-lifer, everyone knows that. And for him to be abused by the left in this way simply shows the pure hatred they have.
‘Immoral policies are wrong because they are wrong, not because of an economic calculation. One could just as easily have said you could abort all children and prevent all crime, to show the absurdity of the proposition.’
Dr. Bill Bennett
Listening to pro-abortion guy Ed Schultz birth a cow over Dr. Bennett's incomplete statement was almost comedic. The left puts much effort in making sure abortion will remain legal and to hear them say what they've been saying is more entertaining than any evening at the Improv.
Dr. Bennett has posted on his website his responses. I also found an interesting piece over at CNS News that shows the racist beginnings of Planned Parenthood.
Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood (then called the American Birth Control League), which is now the nation's largest abortion provider. Sanger was a racist and eugenicist, and an early admirer of Adolf Hitler. Sanger infamously advocated birth control for blacks and other ‘inferior’ people, ‘to create a race of thoroughbreds.’ (ref: The Birth Control Review, Nov. 1921) She located her birth control clinics in minority neighborhoods to reduce the birth rates in those communities.
Of these two, who is the real racist?
Maggie e-mailed me this article and I felt it needed to be shared. I will keep posting on this subject for a variety of reasons. With the first installment I received several e-mails from bloggers who agreed with my post. Many stated that they had been wanting to post the same thing but were concerned that they would be labeled as a racist. I honestly could care less if I'm labeled as one because I know what's in my heart and there is not a shred of it there. It comes down to simple truths, that's all. The more the issue is addressed, the more likely it will be acknowledged and corrected.
FOR THE RECORD
"How does one artfully say that out of a small percentage of America's population—13 percent—blacks account for 37.2 percent of all those arrested for violent crimes, 54.4 percent of all robbery arrestees, and are the known offenders in 51.3 percent of all murders? The murder rate in the city of New Orleans stands at over 7.5 times the national average, and authorities convict only one in four arrested for homicide. Speaking of 'inartful,' back in 1993, a noted civil rights leader made the following comment: 'There is nothing more painful to me at this stage in my life than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start thinking about robbery—then look around and see somebody white and feel relieved.' The speaker? Jesse Jackson. Despite calls to do so, [William] Bennett, as of this writing, refuses to apologize [for his comments regarding blacks, crime and utilitarian abortion]... To so-called 'civil rights leaders' offended by Bennett's remarks, consider this: As between urban crime and Bill Bennett's 'inartful' comments, which poses a bigger threat to the health, growth and prosperity of the black community?" —Larry Elder
This article can be found at The Federalist Patriot and in the extended entry below.
10 October 2005 | FederalistPatriot.US | Patriot No. 05-41
THE FOUNDATION
"[J]udges...should be always men of learning and experience in the laws, of exemplary morals, great patience, calmness, coolness, and attention. Their minds should not be distracted with jarring interests; they should not be dependent upon any man, or body of men." —John Adams
INSIGHT
"To ban guns because criminals use them is to tell the innocent and law-abiding that their rights and liberties depend not on their own conduct, but on the conduct of the guilty and the lawless, and that the law will permit them to have only such rights and liberties as the lawless will allow... For society does not control crime, ever, by forcing the law-abiding to accommodate themselves to the expected behavior of criminals. Society controls crime by forcing the criminals to accommodate themselves to the expected behavior of the law-abiding." —Jeff Snyder
IChThUS IMPRIMIS
"[B]e strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." —Paul of Tarsus
FAMILY
"Two decades of research produced a consensus among social scientists of both left and right that family structure has a serious impact on children, even when controlling for income, race, and other variables. In other words, we are not talking about a problem of race but about a problem of family formation or, rather, the lack of it. The best outcomes for children—whether in academic performance, avoidance of crime and drugs, or financial and economic success—are almost invariably produced by married biological parents. The worst results are by never-married women... The upshot of these studies is that America is confronted by a form of poverty that money alone can't cure. Many of us think social breakdown is a result of racism and poverty. Yes, they are factors, but study after study shows that alterations in norms and values are at the heart of economic and behavioral troubles. That's why so much research boils down to the old rule: If you want to avoid poverty, finish high school, don't have kids in your teens, and get married." —John Leo
CULTURE
"A recent trend in tutoring children is outsourcing. The students work at their computers in America, and their online tutors work with them from their computers in...India. Shocking? No. If you believe that the prime responsibility for educating children should rest on the parents, then ALL teaching outside the home is outsourcing. In America, of course, most people are used to outsourcing the job to the public schools. But our governments' schools haven't been doing so well. So there is growing competition. Now even from India." —Paul Jacob
LIBERTY
"The day before hurricane Rita hit Texas...I saw on TV something that disturbed me... It was a fat Texas guy swimming in the waves off Galveston. He'd apparently decided the high surf was a good thing to jump into, so he went for a pre-hurricane swim. Two cops saw him, waded into the surf and arrested him. When I saw it the guy was standing there in orange trunks being astonished as the cops put handcuffs on him and hauled him away. I thought: Oh no, this isn't good. You'd have to be crazy, in my judgment, to decide you were going to go swim in the ocean as a hurricane comes. But in the America where I grew up, you were allowed to be crazy. You had the right. Sometimes you were crazy and survived whatever you did. Sometimes you didn't, and afterwards everyone said, 'He was crazy.'... It is the government's job to warn and inform. That's what we have the National Weather Service for. It is not government's job to command and control and make micro-decisions about the lives of people who want to do it their own way." —Peggy Noonan
THE GIPPER
"Accommodation is based on wishing not thinking, and if the wish doesn't come true the enemy is far stronger than he was before you started down that road. The other way is based on the belief (supported so far by all evidence) that in an all out race our system is stronger, and eventually the enemy gives up the race as a hopeless cause. Then a noble nation believing in peace extends the hand of friendship and says there is room in the world for both of us. We can make those rockets into bridge lamps by being so strong the enemy has no choice, or we can bet our lives and freedom on the cockeyed theory that if we make him strong enough he'll learn to love us." —Ronald Reagan
OPINION IN BRIEF
"It is particularly dismaying that this act should have been perpetrated by the conservative party. For half a century, liberals have corrupted the courts by turning them into an instrument of radical social change on questions—school prayer, abortion, busing, death penalty—that properly belong to the elected branches of government. Conservatives have opposed this arrogation of the legislative role and called for the restoration of the purely interpretive role of the court. To nominate someone whose adult life reveals no record of even participation in debates about constitutional interpretation is an insult to the institution, and to that vision of the institution. There are 1,084,504 lawyers in the U.S. What distinguishes Harriet Miers from any of them other than her connection with the president?" —Charles Krauthammer
GOVERNMENT
"Given the abysmal failure of state and local officials in Louisiana to plan adequately for or respond to the effects of Hurricane Katrina on the city of New Orleans, and given the long history of public corruption in Louisiana, I hope the House will refrain from directly appropriating any funds from the public treasury to either the state of Louisiana or the city of New Orleans. The head of the FBI in New Orleans just this past year described the state's public corruption as 'epidemic, endemic and entrenched.' Over the last 30 years, a long list of Louisiana politicians have been convicted of crimes; the list includes a governor, an attorney general, an elections commissioner, an agriculture commissioner, three successive insurance commissioners, a congressman, a federal judge, a State Senate president, six other state legislators, and a host of appointed officials, local sheriffs, city councilmen and parish police jurors. I am not confident that Louisiana officials can be trusted to administer federal relief aid." —Rep. Tom Tancredo
RE: THE LEFT
"[E]ven among the most passionate donors to MoveOn.org there is a sense of unease because they know, even in the face of a string of the dreadful developments befalling the GOP, there is something missing. And that something is a lack of a positive alternative... There [is] no point-person for the Democrats who can help Democratic supporters easily understand their agenda. Part of that is there is no point-person. Another part of that is there is no agenda. Until the Democrats can clearly define an alternative future under their control, the only future they will continue to face is: Republicans in power." —Rich Galen
POLITICAL FUTURES
"The departure of Tom DeLay from his post as House Majority Leader is being viewed with cautious optimism by budget-cutting conservatives. After Mr. DeLay's indictment last week, they were able to block the appointment of Californian David Dreier to replace Mr. DeLay and give the post to Majority Whip Roy Blunt instead. Now the conservatives are saying they will demand new leadership elections in January unless Speaker Dennis Hastert pushes forward with spending cuts to offset the lavish spending on Hurricane Katrina relief efforts." —John Fund
FOR THE RECORD
"How does one artfully say that out of a small percentage of America's population—13 percent—blacks account for 37.2 percent of all those arrested for violent crimes, 54.4 percent of all robbery arrestees, and are the known offenders in 51.3 percent of all murders? The murder rate in the city of New Orleans stands at over 7.5 times the national average, and authorities convict only one in four arrested for homicide. Speaking of 'inartful,' back in 1993, a noted civil rights leader made the following comment: 'There is nothing more painful to me at this stage in my life than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start thinking about robbery—then look around and see somebody white and feel relieved.' The speaker? Jesse Jackson. Despite calls to do so, [William] Bennett, as of this writing, refuses to apologize [for his comments regarding blacks, crime and utilitarian abortion]... To so-called 'civil rights leaders' offended by Bennett's remarks, consider this: As between urban crime and Bill Bennett's 'inartful' comments, which poses a bigger threat to the health, growth and prosperity of the black community?" —Larry Elder
"I am so... I have no words... when I opened the e-mail from your Shield of Strength liaison, I never imagined you would be sending our unit thousands of Shields this week—I can't thank you enough and The Patriot readers who contribute to your Operation SoS. Many of the soldiers from Camp Taji are currently in the two most hostile areas in Iraq—we are praying for their safe return daily. As I said before I have no words—except to say thank you again!" —Chaplain, Camp Taji, Iraq
THE LAST WORD
"The very fact that Harriet Miers is a member of an evangelical church suggests that she is not dying to be accepted by the beautiful people, and is unlikely to sell out the Constitution of the United States in order to be the toast of Georgetown cocktail parties or praised in The New York Times. Considering some of the turkeys that Republicans have put on the Supreme Court in the past, she could be a big improvement. We don't know. But President Bush says he has known Harriet Miers long enough that he feels sure. For the rest of us, she is a stealth nominee. Not since The Invisible Man has there been so much stealth. That's not ideal by a long shot. But ideal was probably never in the cards, given the weak sisters among the Republicans' Senate 'majority.'... The bottom line with any Supreme Court justice is how they vote on the issues before the High Court. It would be nice to have someone with ringing rhetoric and dazzling intellectual firepower. But the bottom line is how they vote. If the President is right about Harriet Miers, she may be the best choice he could make under the circumstances." —Thomas Sowell
Lex et Libertas—Semper Vigilo, Paratus, et Fidelis! Mark Alexander, Publisher, for the editors and staff. (Please pray for our Patriot Armed Forces standing in harm's way around the world in defense of our liberty, and for the families awaiting their safe return.)
*PUBLIUS*
The Federalist Patriot (FederalistPatriot.US) is protected speech pursuant to the "inalienable rights" of all men, and the First (and Second) Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America.
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2005 © Publius Press, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
If someone is only allowed to attend an event on the basis of their skin color; what is that? Discrimination? I think so.
Tell me what you think.
Thanks Maggie.
It is with deep sorrow that I have reached a point where my feelings towards African-Americans borders on racism. It's not racism based upon skin color; but rather a racism against an ideology that exists within a skin color.
I have spent my entire life believing and promoting the equality of all. To me ones gender, race, religion, etc., never was a basis for determining the worth of an individual. That basic belief does still remain, but as of late, with much soul searching and heartache, my thinking has been altered.
I have moaned and groaned ad nauseam about Jesse Jackson and his ilk. I have a mental picture of one of the greatest men ever to walk the face of this planet, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; rolling in his grave each and every time Jackson opens his mouth.
I roll MY eyes every time the name Louis Farrakhan is mentioned. I twitch when Al Sharpton speaks. I run the risk of a myocardial infarction every time Charlie Rangel opines. Maxine Waters? Good God! Harry Belafonte? Holy shit!
Then, Hurricane Katrina. The polls following this natural disaster from the African-American community in this nation were unbelievable. I do not remember the exact number (but I do remember that it was incredibly high), the number of African-Americans that fell for the Kanye West bullshit "George Bush hates African-Americans".
When I look at the African-American community and see them following the lead of the aforementioned individuals, I can't help but be troubled by it.
I have raised my children with the belief in equality, but now am having to explain to them that black leaders in this nation are brainwashing their communities. I would have gone to the ends of the earth to end racism, I would have sacrificed much to ensure that racism was nothing but a memory. But now? Black America has lost its vision for Dr. King's dream.
The city of New Orleans was failed by a black man and a white woman. But in today's media criticizing either one would be considered 'insensitive'. In the liberal world only white men can do wrong. All others are readily excused and even supplied with their excuses.
The black community has a large percentage of its men in prison. It also has the highest out-of-wedlock births, high drug use and a high crime rate. Then when you combine these issues with rap artists promoting violence and the degradation of women you are left with a race that has no vision or pride. These are all choices people, choices that they are making of their own free will. It has nothing to do with being repressed; it has nothing to do with the current administration. When you hear a successful black athlete give credit, how often do they mention a father? Rarely. Their response is often "my mother made sure I stayed out of trouble". "My grandmother made me walk the straight and narrow". The failure of men being men in the black community is directly to blame for the epidemics affecting the current state of African-Americans. There are plenty who disagree with that analogy, but I'm sorry this is what white America is witnessing.
AIDS was not started in a lab by the government to kill black people. FEMA did not show up late in order to decrease the black population. It wasn't President Bush that didn't allow the Red Cross, parked only a mile away from the Superdome, to provide food, water and hygiene products to the evacuees. It wasn't the Bush administration that left the buses sitting empty and unused. It wasn't a Republican that refused the offer by Amtrak to move out those without transportation. And you, Mr. Farrakhan, the levees in New Orleans were not blown up by the Bush administration in order to destroy black neighborhoods. Go look at a map Louie, it was the white neighborhoods in the path of that breech.
Foul has now been called so often that its lost its meaning. I am sickened that I now have to view black America with suspect. It breaks my heart to know that the people I have spent my life looking up to (Dr. King and Sojourner Truth) have been betrayed by their own people.
I find it ironic that the civil rights movement has taken the same path as the womens' rights movements. Both have reached a point where what they set out to accomplish has been done, yet neither have recognized it. So in order to continue a war that no longer exist, they fabricate issues to maintain their self importance.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not a racist. But I am now at a point that I must be suspect of every African-American that I run across. "Is this one of the African-Americans that thinks I hate them? That I don't care about them and their lives?" It is a sad day to know that they view us this way. So black America; you've lost a supporter with me. I'm hoping that one day you will realize that you have been misled.
Hey, I'm all for First Amendent rights; but Gawd!!!! That 'Ditch Bitch' needs to be muzzled; it's like fingernails on a chalkboard. Dale Carnegie Cindy, Dale Carnegie.
That voice equates to a Playboy centerfold with stretch marks, it's just not right.
A few weeks ago I watched a special on the National Geographic Channel regarding hurricanes. In this program scientists claimed that hurricanes go through active and inactive cycles, and that we are now on the tail end of an inactive cycle. (I couldn't find a link on the Internet for this program, sorry.)
With the results of their research they discovered that the number of devastating hurricanes will only be increasing in the future. The early part of the 20th century holds the record for the most devastating hurricanes, before global warming came into play, and there have only been a few storms since the 1950's that reached devastating levels in comparison to the double digit number of hurricanes in the early part of the century.
I read blogs ad nauseam posting on the Chicago heat wave during the Clinton administration. At no time did the MSM nor the GOP place blame of a disastrous meteorlogical event upon him. The same supposed global warming situation existed at that time, yet Clinton was not accused of failing to act upon global warming, nor getting FEMA on site fast enough. (My favorite piece on this was done by my buddy Jason.)
The more I read about global warming, the less convinced I am. Historically our planet has gone through cycles. Hot cycles, cold cycles, wet cycles, dry cycles. When you hear of 100 year floods, droughts, et al; these are all facts that are on record and need to be called to attention more often. Recently it was reported that fossil fuel use had little to do with global warming; yet there are scientists at the current time hitting radio and televion programs claiming that the frequency and intensity of this hurricane season is in fact directly related to global warming.
I have decided that science is too much like politics. Different people with different theories coming to different conclusions. The facts on both sides are overwhelming and to the public often confusing. I do think we use too much fuel, and I do think that the government has made deals with oil companies to keep that industry thriving. What do we do? We need reputable citizens, NOT CELEBRITIES, to join this fight. Yes I have a gas-guzzling SUV. I purchased this car partially in protest to the left and their hypocrisy. But I do know that in the future, when hybrids are better performing, or a new technology has come about, that I will leave my SUV behind and enjoy the accountability I owe to the planet that God endowed us with.
In the mean-time, drill in ANWR, drill here in Colorado, drill in Wyoming and Utah. This would impact our dependency on foreign fuel and hopefully make the energy industries focus on the future a bit more.
Technorati Tags hurricanes, global warming, and heat waves
"I need you to answer me this Judge Roberts; will you overturn Roe v. Wade? We all have wives at home and when we knock up our interns we need to know that we can send them to Planned Parenthood to destroy the evidence."
Sorry, had to sneak one in.
Technorati Tags scotus, John Roberts
I'm assuming that this is not just a Colorado thing, but, I've noticed that those who chose to place a Bush/Cheney or the 'W' sticker on their car, have done just that, just that sticker. At least half of the cars I see with a Kerry/Edwards sticker are accompanied by another sticker spouting an insult towards the President or Republicans.
The over-zealous hatred of Republicans does little good for the Democratic Party. When I have a liberal troll call me a ugly, fat, white trash cunt and tell me that he was going to pray for something bad to happen to me and my family; how well does rubbish such as that sit with the average American? Not very well at all, whatever your party of choice. I would never wish ill upon someone simply because I do not agree with them politically.
I always have and do to this day, believe that as a whole, both parties want the same things. We would like to see an end to poverty and crime. We would like to see world peace. We want our children to grow up healthy and well educated and we both want our freedom to come at the smallest price possible. We just simply believe in different paths to reach the same destination.
This past election season we chose not to place yard signs up. We wanted to be respectful towards our neighbors and not create unnecessary animosity. Because come November 3rd, our neighbors were still going to be our neighbors. Our cars are the same situation. You aggrevate others around you when they read bumper stickers that insult them. Additionally, there were more reports of vandalism towards individuals with pro-Bush stickers and signs than the opposite. Again, what good does that do for the Democratic Party when a car sporting a Bush/Cheney sticker has it's windows broken?
Voicing our opinions is best accomplished at the ballot box. Well, there and the blogosphere. ;-)
Just heard that the Teamsters have left the AFL-CIO, THANK GOD!!! Know why? For political reasons, duh. They were tired of their union dues going to ideologies and politicians that they do not agree with. There were also two other union, food service workers and one I can't remember. I was too busy giggling with excitement about the Teamsters. Nice job guys, nice job.
Hopefully the teachers unions will learn something from this. The overwhelming majority of the teachers my children have had were conservative. No, not the parochial teachers, public school teachers. woo. hoo.
We have all been consumed by Hurricane Katrina, and rightly so. Viewing the devastation has been overwhelming; not only because my relatives were directly affected, but because it's tragic for so many people. The pictures of the destruction were more than I anticipated. My mother attempted to relay exactly what my cousin said, but the pictures are far worse than I feared.
My New Orleans opinion--bunch of frickin' morons. All of the forecasts predicted that New Orleans was going to be hit directly and people chose to stay. There were evacuation orders that were ignored. Windows were not covered with plywood and the ignorance of many has now destroyed them. Yes I know that there are exceptions, there always are. But by in large, people should have known better and just gotten the hell out. There were opportunities for those without transportation to leave and I don't necessarily believe that they are entirely to blame. The city of New Orleans in general did not take Katrina seriously. When your city is below sea level next to the sea, there should be a standard evacuation order that all of your residents are aware of. Years ago when I learned of New Orleans being under sea level next to the Gulf, I knew then, at that very young age, that that was a disaster waiting to happen. If they rebuild New Orleans in its original location, then they are more brain-dead than I imagined. TAKE IT UP THE HILL GUYS SO THIS NEVER HAPPENS AGAIN.
This can somewhat be related to the canyons here in Colorado. When you have a heavy summer storm come into the mountains and open up with massive amounts of rain, all of that water runs down the mountains to the rivers. Within a matter of a few hours there can be tidal wave like flooding, and yet people still choose to build there homes next to the river. Every time we are in the mountains my husband and I look at those homes and call its inhabitants fools. They repeatedly lose their homes and rebuild in the same spot to only lose them again in the future. As a child, we were in the Big Thompson Canyon the day before its devastating flood in the 70's. I remember it raining and becoming worried. The highways throughout the canyons are littered with caution signs stating "In case of flooding, move to higher ground". No Shit Sherlock!!! New Orleans, in case of flooding why don't you move to higher ground?!?! My heart is breaking for those who were indeed incapable of evacuating, but good Lord, the looting, the gang activity? Those were the ones who deserved to drown. I'm understanding of individuals who were just getting food and water, we would all do that, but the other stuff? Unfortunately this all reflects on black America. They are the ones that we see looting, they are the ones guilty of the criminal acts that have been taking place. Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, et al, where the fuck are you? Are you still busy with that ditch bitch? Lead your people, please someone, lead your people. I vote for JC Watts, him or Bill Cosby. Once again Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (my personal hero) is rolling in his grave.
Am I pissed about the lack of assistance by the government? You bet I am, but unlike the liberals I'm not pointing fingers as of yet. Why don't we get the full story before we start to make accusations. If it turns out the President and his administration dropped the ball then you can bet for damn sure I'm going to be one of the first one's complaining.
And if I hear one more liberal say anything about "President Bush was on vacation in Crawford, again, and didn't move into action quick enough" then my conservative head is going to explode!!!! Do you really think that he's sitting around on his ass when he's in Crawford? What about Congress? They're in recess right now, shouldn't they be equally accused of ass sitting? Why the hell aren't the liberals attacking them? "Oh, uh , they're back home with their constituents". Bull Shit!!! They're in Barbados or Hawaii or FRANCE! Grow a mind people, grow a fucking mind!!! That includes you Matt and Katie, God how I wish I could just vomit directly on them when they start spewing their rhetoric. We all need to hold a bake sale and buy those two some common sense!
I need to go, I'm too pissed off to post what I really wanted to today.
I know I'm suppose to be focusing on Cotillion, but wow, I've got to get this off my chest.
I'm not going to post any links, if you're reading this blog you probably already know that the DEMOCRATIC governors from both Arizona and New Mexico have declared a state of emergency to deal with their illegal immigration problem.
Here's a cookie to chew on: Both of these governors have had some participation in allowing illegals drivers licenses. They both have approved of legislation that shows compassion and tolerance to the presence of these aliens. Is it possible that perhaps this is all just a scheme to grab the nation's attention? People on the left and the right understand the seriousness of this situation, but what has the Bush administration done to end illegal immigration? Nothing. This is the Golden Ticket for the Democratic party and they have decided to run with it, real fast and real hard. I'm sorry but the Republican in me sees this as nothing more than a media stunt. The pasts of both of these governors speaks volumes of the opposite.
Umm, not quite sure how to put this. If you own beer goggles you might want to consider using them to view these photos. I'm actually quite pleased these peaceniks did this, it shows the warped ideology of liberal activists.
NOT PG!!!
Swiped From Kevin
President Bush has appointed John Bolton to the UN Ambassador position without the approval of the Senate. How does this tie into the current theme?
It's nice to see our President make a decision that is completely within his authority to do and not be a pussy. Black Monday for the Dems, funny.
Cheers to Lance Armstrong for winning his 7th Tour de France. How does this tie in with my current theme?
Well, Senator Kerry is a narcissistic dick. This guy still acts as if he's on the campaign trail. NEWSFLASH SENATOR --you lost--. He's been hanging out in France with Armstrong and his ''partner" Sheryl Crow. Maybe he just wanted to rub Lance's foot for good luck.
It reminds me of a post that Bob put up about a month ago. Recently Kerry stated that he re-read the New Testament to make sure that he didn't miss anything. Wha?!?!
Senator, perhaps you should meet with a representative from the Vatican to make sure that you didn't miss anything in catechism either.
p.s. All this talk about John Roberts Roman Catholic faith is odd. Aren't Ted Kennedy and John Kerry both Roman Catholic as well? Interesting.