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A group of atheists, led by a California man known for challenging the use of the words "under God" in recitals of the Pledge of Allegiance at public schools, filed a lawsuit yesterday to bar prayer and references to God at the swearing-in of President-elect Barack Obama.
Newdow and others also argue that the phrase "so help me God," used consistently in inaugural oaths since the swearing-in of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, should be stricken, saying it is not part of the oath as specified in the Constitution.
(source)
If atheists are going nutso over the phrase “so help me GOD” being included in oath of office for Obama, they should consider what Congress set up for the 1st inauguration of George Washington:
“Resolved, That, after the oath shall have been administered to the President, he, attended by the Vice President and the members of the Senate and House of Representatives, proceed to St. Paul's Chapel, to hear divine service, to be performed by the Chaplain of Congress already appointed.”
(Source: American Memory section of Library of Congress)
Imagine what the atheists would think if Obama and all of Congress attended a church service presided over by a federal employee, one of the Congressional Chaplains.
A Topeka community activist hoping to establish a national holiday to commemorate President-elect Barack Obama said Thursday he is tickled he was beaten to the punch this week by a small Alabama county.
Commissioners in Perry County approved the second Monday in November as "The Barack Obama Day." The rural Alabama county, which overwhelmingly supported Obama in last month's presidential election, passed a measure to close county offices for the new annual holiday beginning in 2009.
Perry County Commissioner Albert Turner Jr. said the holiday is meant to highlight the Democratic president-elect's victory as a way to give people faith that difficult goals can be achieved. Under the holiday, roughly 40 workers will get a paid day off.
(source)
Shouldn’t "The Barack Obama Day" wait until the Obama presidency is over? I think there are going to be a whole bunch of liberals pissed off by the Obama presidency. He already has the anti-war liberals mad at him. And most poor people in this country will be ticked off when they realize that the number of poor won’t have changed much. And some say the number of unemployed is and will increase because of his corporate tax increases.
With that said, there will be a “Barack Obama day”. Even if he gets nothing done, his presidency will be a milestone like George Washington and Lincoln.
Should it be a paid day off? For most private companies, it will not be a paid day off. There are too many paid holidays already. Washington and Lincoln lost their separate days off.
The following comment was posted to this blog:
I find it amusing how you can have comments like its 9-11 and not 7-11, but you're too afraid to show your face on your blog. Could it be that you realize such a comment is racist?
Liberals still want to fight terrorism against the US like it is still Sept. 10, 2001. They want us to handle a terrorist act like it is a robbery at the local 7-11 store. They don’t want us to preemptively gather information about future terrorist acts that might prevent something occurring on US soil.
There are Islamic extremists that are interpreting the Quoran to say anyone who is not a Muslim can and must be killed. If you think that statement is racist, fine.
As far as not showing my face, there are a lot of crazy people in the world. And with stuff like Google streetview, people can find a whole lot about you on the internet without you providing it. And after one of my letters to the editor appeared in the USAToday, I got a nasty snail mail letter from somebody with an opposing point of view. My address was not printed but that didn’t stop this person from getting my address. They could have as easily just appeared at my door with a gun even though guns are banned here.
Oh, and by the way, I believe the person who posted the above comment was in Berea, Kentucky at the time.
While England has some of the strictest national gun control laws, here is this week's list of UK violence that the laws didn't stop:
In a country with tough gun control laws:
Police are linking an armed robbery in a village outside Oxford to five other attacks in recent weeks. In the latest robbery, a woman was threatened by a man in the back seat of her car as she got in at the Talkhouse pub in Stanton-St-John on Friday night.
A TEENAGER was being treated in Edinburgh Royal Infirmary last night, following the second shooting within months on a housing estate in Edinburgh. The 19-year-old was shot in the stomach with a single bullet, amid claims that the shooting is linked to an escalating drug war in the capital. Members of the rival groups are said to be involved in the heroin and cocaine trade. Other alleged incidents include two gunmen on a motor-cycle firing shots from a semi-automatic pistol at a man sitting in a van in Broomhouse Loan. Then another man had two shots fired through his front window in Craigmillar.
THE best friend of murdered 16-year-old Kodjo Yenga has launched an anti-knife campaign in schools to try to shock pupils away from a life of violence. Bilal Ayonote, 18, said not enough was being done to stem the rise of a knife culture among the young. He criticised police and government saying they do not "have a clue" how to combat the problem. "Knife crime is worse than it seems in the papers. Carrying a knife is just like smoking - it is a trend, a bad habit. It is peer pressure.
A woman found dead in her Hull home had been attacked with an axe and suffered "severe head injuries" police said. The body of 65-year-old Irene Robertson was found in a flat in Euston Close, off Anlaby Road, by officers from Humberside Police on Sunday. Where is the axe registry?
A 20-year-old man was shot dead in the street as he emptied his car after a shopping trip to buy last-minute presents on Christmas Eve.
Fatal stabbings in England and Wales have risen to their highest level in three decades, say the Conservatives. The Home Office said the data used by the Tories might overstate the problem of knife crime as the figures related to sharp instruments, which could include broken bottles. Where is the broken bottle registry?
If gun control laws are suppose to stop crime and violence, they don’t work. Check the follow link for a story about knife crime in the UK. What is more important is to look at all the other related stories and videos about knife crime.
A story about knife crime in England
While unionized General Motors and Chrysler will receive billions in federal aid to avoid collapse, and Toyota is tabling plans to produce the ”green”Prius hybrid in Mississippi, Non_unionized Kia Motors remains on track to build a sport utility vehicle in Georgia.
Kia spokesman Alex Fedorak said production of the Sorento SUV is still scheduled to begin in November in West Point, a small city 80 minutes southwest of Atlanta.
South Korea-based Kia promises to create 2,500 jobs. It received 43,000 applications, Fedorak said.
The automaker’s suppliers could employ an additional 3,765 people in Georgia and 1,500 in Alabama, the Development Authority of LaGrange says.
(source)
One of the worst Small SUV mileage-wise is the Kia Sorento LX with a 15 mpg. Yet KIA is selling enough that they are building a brand new plant.
Obama favors giving more power to unions.
And here is another story that shows America will not be "green" unless forced by Obama.
This morning, PETA fired off a letter to Vikram S. Pandit, CEO and director of Citigroup Inc., urging him and his fellow executives to replace their pricey steak and lobster lunches with healthy, humane, and cheap vegetarian fare. PETA's letter was prompted by news reports that Citigroup has been paying for its executives' extravagant dinners, first-class airline tickets, and other high-priced perks with a portion of the billions of dollars that the company received in a government bailout. In its letter, PETA points out that not only could the banking giant save money on its food bills by serving only faux seafood and fake steak in its executive dining room, it could also hold down its medical insurance costs by reducing its employees' risk of heart disease, diabetes, and obesity, which are all linked to meat-eating.
Proving that you can serve your country without serving meat, Monterey-based Lt. Col. Bob Lucius has been chosen by PETA as the sexiest vegetarian in the U.S. Marine Corps. Lucius is among five winners (one from each branch of the military) in PETA's first-ever Sexiest Vegetarian Soldier contest, a tribute to all the men and women in uniform who are defending the country and animals at the same time. The Massachusetts native is the assistant provost and dean of students for the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center in Monterey. He went vegetarian after seeing dogs used for food in Vietnam.
(source)
Mythbusters ran tests that verified Cleve Backster’s research that plants feel pain.
When you chop the "head" off of a lettuce plant, you don't hear the screams of pain.
Give a voice to tortured plants.
Join PETP – People for the Ethical Treatment of Plants!
Be a carnavoire!
A rare winter storm swept through Southern Nevada Wednesday, dumping the most snow on the valley in nearly three decades, grounding flights at the airport, forcing the closure of major highways and closing schools for today.
"This is the most snow we've had in Las Vegas in almost 30 years," said Chris Stachelski, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. "It's a significant historical event."
(source)
The membership to the “Church of Global Warming” had been increasing rapidly. Then historic events like Vegas snow started happening. The “church” started losing members. People started losing faith that global warming was man-made. “Pope” Al Gore decreed: Don’t use the term “global warming”. Use the term “climate change”.
The government of Belgium's French-speaking region of Wallonia has approved a tax on barbequing, local media reported. Experts said that between 50 and 100 grams of CO2, a so-called greenhouse gas, is emitted during barbequing. Residents of Wallonia will have to pay 20 euros for a grilling session. The local authorities plan to monitor compliance with the new tax legislation from helicopters, whose thermal sensors will detect burning grills.
On Sunday, July 20, the Greenpeace folks in Raleigh threw a "Community Barbeque to Stop Global Warming," and everyone's was invited. It was part of the Greenpeace "Project Hot Seat," which aims to bring Americans together and demand that Washington create 5 million new green jobs, clean up global warming pollution, break the nation's dependence on coal and other dirty energy, and embrace efficiency and renewables.
Can the global warming crowd get on the same page on what causes global warming?
First there was the dotcom bust of the late 1990s, then came the real-estate bubble that's deflating before our eyes. Next up: the green bubble. Alternative energy ventures have received a lot of great press, heavy investment and lip service from politicians in the last couple of years, but many of the nascent green industry's balance sheets are beginning to bleed red.
Among the hardest hit is T. Boone Pickens and his alternative energy hedge fund BP Capital, which has reportedly lost some $2 billion. The Oklahoma oil tycoon who leased hundreds of thousands of acres in West Texas for a giant wind farm, has put that project on hold. Another canary in the coal mine: the once soaring market for carbon credits in Europe has tanked, as manufacturing firms worldwide slow production. Even the once promising sector of corn ethanol has gone bust, with the American company VeraSun declaring bankruptcy in October and other publicly held ethanol companies reduced to penny stocks.
(source)
Why should we use a major food source for fuel?
Besides “Wind Farm Syndrome” increasing medical costs, wind farms have many problems. The wind farm, near Fondu Lac, WI, covers an extremely large area. You need transmission lines for that area. Most wind turbines in the USA are not being properly maintained and therefore fail. Wind is not 24/7 so you need coal-fired turbines running 24/7 as backups.
How much does it cost to repair a hydrid vs. a regular car?
Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk is drawing fire over his request for a $350 million loan from the federal government. Although the company receives widespread support for its leadership role in the burgeoning electric car industry, a growing number of observers believe that any funds given to Tesla, regardless of how the money would be used, are unwarranted. The Tesla Roadster sells for $109,000, but the company hopes to build a more affordable plug-in vehicle.
(source)
Even the mighty Toyota Prius has fallen victim to economic chaos and plunging gas prices: Toyota said today it was postponing its plans to build the Prius at a new factory under construction in Blue Springs, near Tupelo, Mississippi—indefinitely.
US auto sales have plummeted roughly 30 percent against last year’s numbers, from an annual sales level of roughly 15 million to a mere two-thirds of that level in October and November 2008. And while the Detroit Three have seen sales fall further than their Asian counterparts, Toyota suffered a 32-percent loss in November. With gasoline back under $2 a gallon in many states, Prius sales have fallen further than that, almost 50 percent in November 2008 against the monthly level from a year ago.
(source)
Americans don’t buy cars like the Prius because they truly believe in global warming.
Assume Tesla Motors makes another breakthrough where their all-electric car gets 500 miles per charge. Further assume they can make an inexpensive version of their car. Consider if most cars in LA became Tesla electrics. Where would the recharging power come from? Coal-fired power plants, not wind farms.
Journalist Muntadhar al-Zeidi, who was kidnapped by militants last year, was being held by Iraqi security Monday and interrogated about whether anybody paid him to throw his shoes at Bush during a press conference the previous day in Baghdad, said an Iraqi official.
He was also being tested for alcohol and drugs, and his shoes were being held as evidence, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
Showing the sole of your shoe to someone in the Arab world is a sign of extreme disrespect, and throwing your shoes is even worse.
(source)
What would have happened to the journalist if he had thrown the shoe during a meeting between Saddam Hussein and an American official?
Today, the journalist may get charged with assault. Under Saddam, he may have been tortured and/or executed. Or he may have been rewarded.
Would the Iraq people have been free to hold a protest rally for a journalist held by Saddam?
My afternoon drive talk show commented on the slow response of the secret service. Did you hear the partisan press talk about that part of the story? Would the partisan press have talked about the slow secret service response if it had been President Obama?
The Bush administration has denied President-elect Barack Obama's request to move early into an official guest house across from the White House, citing previously scheduled commitments, a transition official said today.
The Obamas wanted to move into Blair House before Jan. 5, so that daughters Malia and Sasha could start classes on time at Sidwell Friends School in Washington. "But there were previously scheduled events and guests that couldn't be displaced," said a transition spokesperson, who agreed to be quoted only on condition of anonymity.
(source)
Obama and his staff know that Blair House is normally available on Jan. 15th. I can understand Obama wanting to minimize the distruption in his kids lives. Regardless of who is in Blair House thru the 15th, the White House said NO. No one has a right to whine that the Obamas couldn’t get moved in early. I am surprised the DU nutbags aren't asking that the Obamas be allowed to move into the White House early. The Obamas are spending $60,000 per year to send the kids to Sidwell. They can afford to rent some hotel rooms for a couple days.
My original Mythbusters plants feel pain post
While checking the statistics on my blog, I continue to see regular hits for my original Mythbusters plants feel pain post. I decided to do a web search on Cleve Backster again. This time I found the following interview.
Cleve Backster interview
Backster: Next, I noticed something on the chart that resembled a human response on a polygraph. In other words, the contour of the pen tracing was not what I would expect from water entering a leaf, but instead what I would expect from a person taking a lie-detector test. Lie detectors work on the principle that when people perceive a threat to their well-being, they physiologically respond in predictable ways. If you were conducting a polygraph as part of a murder investigation, you might ask a suspect, "Was it you who fired the shot that was fatal to so and so?" If the true answer is yes, the suspect will fear getting caught lying, and electrodes on their skin will pick up the response to that fear. So I began to think about how I could threaten the well-being of the plant. First I tried putting a neighboring leaf in a cup of warm coffee. The plant, if anything, showed what I now recognize as boredom--it just kept trending downward.
Then at thirteen minutes, fifty-five seconds chart time, the imagery entered my mind of burning the leaf I was testing. I didn't verbalize, I didn't touch the plant, I didn't touch the equipment. The only new thing that could have been a stimulus for the plant was the mental image. Yet the plant went wild. The pen jumped right off the top of the chart.
Be a carnivore. Support PETP (People for the Ethical Treatments of Plants
Demonstrating workers at an Illinois factory have ended their six-day sit-in after reaching a $1.75m agreement with creditor banks. They will receive eight weeks' salary and healthcare benefits and pay for any unused holiday time. The total cost was covered by a $1.35m loan from Bank of America and a $400,000 loan from JPMorgan Chase, both of which were creditors of the plant.
The owners of the company had blamed Bank of America for cutting off their credit line. Republic Windows and Doors was a victim of the collapse in house building in the US. It told workers last week that Bank of America had shut off its line of credit and had refused to allow further expenditures.
Bank of America blamed with the company, expressing concern at "Republic's failure to pay their employees the claims to which they are legally entitled".
It also said that Republic hadlost $10m over the past two years and that it had lent the company the maximum amount it could. In July, JPMorgan wrote off a $7m investment in Republic as well as a $5m loan, which had made it a 40% shareholder, and resigned its seat on the board.
(source)
President-elect Barack Obama said that union workers in Chicago who are protesting their factory’s sudden closure with a sit-in are justified in demanding their benefits and pay.
(source)
I thought the bail-out money was to help the banks and mortgage companies deal with a ton of bad home loans that the liberals forced the banks and mortgage companies to make. Those loans should never have been made.
Thanks to union wages, the housing slump and other stuff, Republic was millions of dollars in debt. While a nice idea, why should failing in debt companies be forced to pay for a 60 day notice?
Banks had to write-off millions of Republic’s bad debt. Now we have the Union and liberals including Obama forcing BoA to pay the worker’s severance. BoA had nothing to do with Republic inability to pay that severance.
Company Closing in 2000
I did a web search trying to find out which order does money get paid when a failed company is liquidated. In the above link, I found a similar situation to Republic. In this case, the workers couldn’t get a union and liberals to blackmail a bank into paying their severance. These workers just lived with the fact that payroll is second from bottom on getting a piece of any liquidation money. Owners are last.
One plan being floated in Congress late last week included the creation of a special government "oversight board" made up of five U.S. cabinet secretaries and the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The board would be led by a "car czar" appointed by the president. Presumably, this board could have a large saw in the kinds of products Detroit produces.
With Democrats controlling both the White House and Congress next year, an automotive bailout might also require U.S. carmakers to turn out fewer trucks and SUVs and more fuel efficient vehicles. And U.S. carmakers might not balk at that.
(source)
Should CEOs make millions in salaries? YES! But I might limit them some. If the lowest paid employee gets $15,000 a year, I might limit CEO’s salaries to 1.5 million.
Why should they get so much more money? Look at what their decisions can effect.
The management of Oldsmobile made the wrong decisions and Oldsmobile closed their doors. All the employees of Oldsmobile lost their jobs. Most of the employees of Oldsmobile dealers lost their jobs. Many of the employees that provided parts for Oldsmobile lost their jobs.
When a janitor makes the wrong decision, who is affected? When a CEO makes the wrong decision, it can affect a lot of people. Shouldn’t they make more money for that bigger responsibility? Note: I agree that upper management shouldn’t get big bonuses in years of major layoffs.
And as far as Congress dictating U.S. carmakers making less trucks and SUVs, the American people don’t care what the Kyoto Protocol or Congress says. They want their trucks and SUVs.
Republic announced early last week that it would be closing its near North Side factory on Friday. With just a few days notice that they were losing jobs and benefits, workers held a sit-in over the weekend and have persisted. In response to a question at a press conference on another topic, President-elect Obama says if the company owes them, the workers should get paid.
OBAMA: When it comes to the situation here in Chicago with the workers who are asking for the benefits and payments that they have earned, I think they're absolutely right.
Before taking the workers side, consider a couple things.
Republic closed it’s doors because it didn’t have enough money to continue.
Bank of America could have refused credit to Republic because BoA thought Republic was a bad risk.
How can you make a company pay benefits and such when the company is closing because they don’t have enough money to continue? And those benefits are not BoA’s responsibility.
If Republic had enough money to give 90 days notice, don’t you think they would have used the time to get an alternative source of credit so they could have continued operating? The workers may be lucky they got three days notice. Some people come to work to find the doors locked and a note saying their place of work is closed
The company said it would show the financial records to the workers. Did Obama ask to see those records or did he just want to pickup points with the working class?
In recent weeks, as he did in the campaign, Obama has laid out much more stringent plans for cutting U.S. greenhouse gas emissions than those advocated by President Bush and former presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, as well as many in Congress. Obama's statements have been widely applauded by foreign leaders frustrated with the recalcitrant attitude of the Bush administration, which walked away from the Kyoto Protocol immediately upon taking office in 2001. ---- (source}
President Obama will have absolutely zero chance meeting those goals voluntarily. While most in this country do something to be “green”, they know global warming is NOT man-made. They also know Kyoto is flawed. Besides they will never voluntarily give up their big pickup trucks and SUVs.
And will the solution cause problems? Will being greener mean more red ink for our economy?
Wind Power
Wind energy is the latest rage in going green and in shifting the United States away from fossil-based energy supplies. And more wind turbines are coming to Oregon. It is even required by law.
But with giant wind turbines now looming nearby, the Eaton’s fear the rapid move to clean energy will come at the expense of their health. ----- (source)
Wind power has the problem of causing more healthcare problems.
We will need new infrastructure to carry the power.
And since the wind is not guaranteed, you need backup coal-fired generators running 24/7. You can't just turn the key and start them up.
Hybrids
The hybrid trend, of course, is not radical or breaking news. As hybrid vehicles have swept the nation, major transportation systems — including ours in Minneapolis — have joined the bandwagon. According to its website, Metro Transit hopes for 20 percent of its fleet to be hybrid electric by 2012. Its website notes that hybrids have “90 percent fewer emissions and a 22 percent better fuel economy” than traditional gasoline powered vehicles.
While this may be true, there remains a concern for both the drivers and riders of these gas/electric hybrids. The trouble is with electromagnetic fields (EMFs), a byproduct of electricity. According to an article published in The New York Times in April, “There is a legitimate scientific reason for raising the issue. The flow of electrical current to the motor that moves a hybrid vehicle at low speeds (and assists the gasoline engine on the highway) produces magnetic fields, which some studies have associated with serious health matters, including a possible risk of leukemia among children.” ---- (source)
Hybrids have the problem of causing more healthcare problems.
And has anybody done a study comparing the cost to build and maintain compared to regular cars?
All electric Cars
The Volt, a plug-in hybrid vehicle designed to drive up to 40 miles at highway speed on battery power alone, is planned for the 2010 or 2011 model year. On the other side of the country, Tesla Motors, an infant car company that designs and manufactures fully electric cars that can travel more than 200 miles on a single charge.
When electric cars first ran on lead acid batteries, I thought about getting in a roll over accident and having several gallons of battery acid dumped on me.
The Tesla Roadster looks great and has better mileage but you can’t drive to DisneyWorld from Chicago in an electric car.
Then there is what may be an urban legend. A “green” actor got an electric car to prove they were “green”. The car overloaded the house’s outlet and burned the house down.
You also have the problem of concentrating all pollution to the city’s power plants.
Americans including thieves want big gas-guzzling cars
While the Escalade is the most coveted among thieves, the Hummer H2 and the Hummer H2 SUT (a sport utility truck with a small pickup bed in the rear compartment), are also highly desirable--and among the top 10 vehicles with the highest theft claim frequencies. Given a choice between a Hummer and a small car like the Ford Focus or a wagon like the Volvo V70, a thief is eight times more likely to go for the SUV. source
Are the Greenies really green?
Do the “greenies” give up their air conditioners on 100+ degree days? Consider what an air conditioner does? It extracts heat from a room. That heat doesn’t disappear. It is pumped outside. So on a 100 degree and the A/C is set to 70, do we really want to pump 30 degrees of heat outside? To the believers of GW, a one degree average increase in the world's temperature is going to be catastrophic.
Are even the members of the “Church of Global Warming” going to really be “green” enough?
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