What Motivates Government Change

I always thought that the 17th Amendment (Volstead Act - Prohibition) was repealed because the American people were thirsty. Not so, says Don Boudreaux in a very interesting read in Reason On Line.

The standard, schoolbook history of alcohol prohibition in the United States goes like this:
Americans in 1920 embarked on a noble experiment to force everyone to give up drinking. Alas, despite its nobility, this experiment was too naive to work. It soon became clear that people weren't giving up drinking.

Worse, it also became clear that Prohibition fueled mobsters who grew rich supplying illegal booze. So, recognizing the futility of Prohibition, Americans repealed it in 1934.

This popular belief is completely mistaken. Here's what really happened:

National alcohol prohibition did begin on Jan. 16, 1920, following ratification of the 18th Amendment and enactment of the Volstead Act. Speakeasies and gangster violence did become familiar during the 1920s. And Americans did indeed keep drinking.

But contrary to popular belief, the 1920s witnessed virtually no sympathy for ending Prohibition. Neither citizens nor politicians concluded from the obvious failure of Prohibition that it should end.

As historian Norman Clark reports:
"Before 1930 few people called for outright repeal of the (18th) Amendment. No amendment had ever been repealed, and it was clear that few Americans were moved to political action yet by the partial successes or failures of the Eighteenth. ... The repeal movement, which since the early 1920s had been a sullen and hopeless expression of minority discontent, astounded even its most dedicated supporters when it suddenly gained political momentum."

What happened in 1930 that suddenly gave the repeal movement political muscle? The answer is the Great Depression and the ravages that it inflicted on federal income-tax revenues.

Prior to the creation in 1913 of the national income tax, about a third of Uncle Sam's annual revenue came from liquor taxes. (The bulk of Uncle Sam's revenues came from customs duties.) Not so after 1913. Especially after the income tax surprised politicians during World War I with its incredible ability to rake in tax revenue, the importance of liquor taxation fell precipitously.

By 1920, the income tax supplied two-thirds of Uncle Sam's revenues and nine times more revenue than was then supplied by liquor taxes and customs duties combined. In research that I did with University of Michigan law professor Adam Pritchard, we found that bulging income-tax revenues made it possible for Congress finally to give in to the decades-old movement for alcohol prohibition.

Before the income tax, Congress effectively ignored such calls because to prohibit alcohol sales then would have hit Congress hard in the place it guards most zealously: its purse. But once a new and much more intoxicating source of revenue was discovered, the cost to politicians of pandering to the puritans and other anti-liquor lobbies dramatically fell.

Prohibition was launched.

Despite pleas throughout the 1920s by journalist H.L. Mencken and a tiny handful of other sensible people to end Prohibition, Congress gave no hint that it would repeal this folly. Prohibition appeared to be here to stay -- until income-tax revenues nose-dived in the early 1930s.

From 1930 to 1931, income-tax revenues fell by 15 percent.

In 1932 they fell another 37 percent; 1932 income-tax revenues were 46 percent lower than just two years earlier. And by 1933 they were fully 60 percent lower than in 1930.

With no end of the Depression in sight, Washington got anxious for a substitute source of revenue.

That source was liquor sales.

Jouett Shouse, president of the Association Against the Prohibition Amendment, was a powerful figure in the Democratic Party that had just nominated Franklin Roosevelt as its candidate for the White House. Shouse emphasized that ending Prohibition would boost government revenue.

And a House leader of Congress' successful attempt to propose the Prohibition-ending 21st Amendment said in 1934 that "if (anti-prohibitionists) had not had the opportunity of using that argument, that repeal meant needed revenue for our government, we would not have had repeal for at least 10 years."

There's no doubt that widespread understanding of Prohibition's futility and of its ugly, unintended side-effects made it easier for Congress to repeal the 18th Amendment. But these public sentiments were insufficient, by themselves, to end the war on alcohol.

Ending it required a gargantuan revenue shock -- to the U.S. Treasury.

So, if the history of alcohol prohibition is a guide, drug prohibition will not end merely because there are many sound, sensible and humane reasons to end it. Instead, it will end only if and when Congress gets desperate for another revenue source.

That's the sorry logic of politics and Prohibition.

It makes sense, doesn't it? Love of money is the source of much evil.

Selective Outrage

For whatever reason, I am listening to Nancy Grace on CNN Headline News right now. She is foaming at the mouth, so to speak, over the allegations of Michael Vick running a dog fighting network from his home. Today, one of the quarterback's friends business partners, Tony Taylor, rolled over on Vick and will offer evidence of Vick's complicity. The media sharks smell blood in the water.

While the cries of outrage were echoing from the TV, something occurred to me. These "good"people were incensed over the brutal treatment of dogs. These media stars are asking questions like - how could a football hero be so evil; -how can these men bring their children to these dogfights? And on and on and on. Video clips of dogs fighting each other played on the screen while Michael Vick was castigated.

These people got all worked up over dogs ripping into each other. And don't get me wrong. I like dogs too and I think that it is a barbaric practice.

But not a word was spoken to the barbarism, the unholy violence visited upon millions of children who are slaughtered unborn while still in the womb. No mention of partial birth abortions where the skulls of babies are cracked open and their brains vacuumed out.

One of the animal commentators on CNN stated that one dog was kept that had its muzzle ripped off while fighting. The dog was kept alive so that others could see the "fight" in it. The owner wanted to breed it because the dog demonstrated that it would not quit despite fierce pain. But what of the pain of humans? What of the hellish, bloody destruction of babies? Partial birth abortions are performed from 20 weeks almost until birth.

The following images are disturbing, but they are far more descriptive than the medical terminology that robs the procedure of its horror.


Guided by ultrasound, the abortionist grabs the baby's leg with forceps.

The baby's leg is pulled out into the birth canal. The abortionist delivers the baby's entire body, except for the head.

The abortionist jams scissors into the baby's skull. The scissors are then opened to enlarge the hole...






The scissors are removed and a suction catheter is inserted. The child's brains are sucked out, causing the skull to collapse. The dead baby is then removed.

In thirty-three years of LE experience (seven of them as a crime scene technician) I have seen some very nasty things. But this makes me sick. I don't dare show actual photos of this barbarism.

Reconquista Gets Pwn3d

A bandana clad Mexican wanna be revolucionario tries to set an American flag on fire. See what happens when a patriot gets sick of his act.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=4e0_1184800229

Now if Jerry Falwell Did This...

If a Christian fundamentalist wanted American women to return to wearing this style of swimwear to the beach, there would be hell to pay. The editorials would be full of outraged feminists decrying the Neanderthal-like mentality of Christians. They'd be like flying monkeys ripping into the Scarecrow.

But if some muslim whackjob wants woman to wear this to the beach it's okay.

Mecca Laa Laa wears a 'Burqini' on her first surf lifesaving patrol at North
Cronulla Beach in Sydney, Australia on February 4, 2007

Only the face, hands and feet are showing. Do you hear any howls of derision from the media? Thought so.

Now I've Gotta Go See It

It appears that someone's got their panties all cinched up because of a movie that appears to absolutely drip with Americanism. From the London OnLineTimes:

Now, I’m as big a fan of fast cars, slow-mo helicopter shots, rock music, billowing American flags, square-jawed muscle men and pert-breasted sex objects as the next guy. But after sitting through Transformers one can only deduce that something has gone seriously wrong in the world of Michael Bay.

Fast cars, rock music, billowing American flags - what's not to like? I'm in. Throw in a few Sousa marches and I'll see it twice.

For everything that was once implicit about Bay movies such as Armageddon and Pearl Harbor – namely that American men are cool and that everyone else can just shut up – has suddenly become so explicit as to be almost emetic. And maybe it was the pressure of the crisis in Iraq, or the need to make a “statement” movie after his box-office flop The Island, but so much of this movie is a jingoistic fantasy riposte to the grim reality of the moment.

Thus huge chunks of Transformers take place in the Middle East, where evil unseen killers (the Decepticons, but we know who we’re really talking about, don’t we, Osama?) emerge from the very sand itself, attack and disappear. Dialogue lifted straight from the Rumsfeld/Cheney playbook is peppered throughout the movie – Americans are warned to prepare for imminent attack; they are told that there will be no victory against the enemy without sacrifice; and we, the audience, are cannily informed by a robot that “Freedom is the right of all sentient beings”.

The world (at least a small cinematic fantasy) as seen through the eyes of a conspiracy freak. I see that Cheney Climate Control, Inc., has recently diversified to Mind Control For Screen Writers. Amazing what these fellas can do.

Transformers, however, isn’t the only steroid-fuelled movie guilty of subtext overkill. The sword’n’sandals epic 300 went straight for the metaphorical jugular by describing, in gory detail, the heroic stand of a bunch of panty-clad mighty Western defenders against hordes of Persian savages, complete with pseudo-turbans.

Wow, another DVD I may have to buy.

That’s not to say that the Middle East should be off-limits for mainstream Hollywood entertainment. On the contrary, the major studios are tackling the subject head on – the Daniel Pearl story A Mighty Heart, Paul Haggis’s In the Valley of Elah and the Jamie Foxx thriller The Kingdom are all set in the region, and all coming soon.

But if you’re going to make a movie that espouses a belligerent stance in the Middle East, don’t try to hide it in a kids’ robot adventure.

If you're going to make a political statement attacking another country for it's foreign policy initiatives, don't try to hide it in a movie review.

As happens in so many other instances, let the market place decide on what is what. The market place conducts a truely representative poll on what people want because consumers vote with discretionary cash. Why do critics rave about a movie that bombs? Elitism loses at the box office.

Unlike politics, the media can only hype a cineographic turd for so long- people know what they like and what they don't.

After only three weeks Transformers has grossed over $260 million. It is already #33 on the biggest box office hits of all time.

These are some partial reviews from Rotten Tomatoes:

It’s a big, cool, dopey, noisy, non-stop action powerhouse. It’s also too long by a half hour and it left my ears ringing, but it’s a lot of fun.

An overly long, repetitive jumble of a movie that isn't nearly as much fun as it should be.

Transformers isn't just dorky, it's gloriously dorky.

Though it's at least 20 minutes too long and uneven dramatically, the acting is sharp, and it features some of the most spectacular action and effects sequences of any movie of its kind.

Whatever chance Transformers might have been a decent movie disappeared the moment Bay was hired to direct.

it's the transformation of robots that will blow your mind ... Add that to the eye-popping robot smackdowns and good old fashioned car chases, and you have a movie that is going to get your blood pumping and your heartbeat racing.

It's as juvenile as it exhilarating, as staggeringly-stupid as it is keenly well-crafted.

There is so much action packed into every second of Transformers that by the time it's over, you may be tempted to go outside and give the box office another 10 bucks.

O mais longo anúncio publicitário que já fui obrigado a testemunhar.

I have no idea what the last comment says.

Sol

I believe that the Sun is the major contributor to weather on this planet simply because the sun, as a star, generates the most energy in our solar system. This isn't an astonishing revelation but we really don't know enough about the sun.

The real reason I am posting this is because of the following graphic; this is just way too cool.

From the UK Daily Mail - The Sun - as you've never seen it before. And it's an interesting read also.

Rudy Guiliani

The Ace of Spades has a wonderful post on some drivel that Rudy Giuliani used coarse language at some point in his public life and that he attended a cop rally where racist placards were in public view.

Well, what if he did? Get over it. Let's examine the deeds, not the words, of his public life and how these deeds affected the very people that he is now accused of minimizing.

Washroom attendant is nothing compared to what other things NYPD cops had to say about Dinkins. I heard NYPD cops talk about him because they were trying to transfer to my department. Morale on the NYPD was not only low in the early nineties, it was non-existent. I had a number of conversations with a NYPD sergeant who was willing to take a $30,000 cut in pay to get out. Dinkins’ own moral values were called into question when it was discovered that he had failed to pay income taxes over a five year period. Dinkin’s response to this? “I haven’t committed a crime. What I did was fail to comply with the law.”

NYPD cops told me that they had special training where they were instructed not to use gender specific references when writing a police report. Manhole covers were now “personnel access” lids or some nonsense like that. Cops were getting shot at, but their perception was that the administration was more interested in not offending women and minorities.

Criminals do not care about politically correct measures. They only are thwarted by one thing. Swift and sure justice. And a good ass kicking.

During Dinkins administration, NYC generated well over 2,000 homicides a year and about three-quarters of every violent felony in NYS occurred within NYC boundaries. Look at this chart that details the Uniform Crime Report For NYC between the years 1965 and 2005 and see for yourself. Dinkins was the Mayor 1989-1993. Guiliani was mayor 1994-2001. By 2001 NYC homicides were down to 960 from a high of 2,605 in 1990.

Total UCR Part I Crimes (murder, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, vehicle theft and arson) went from 1,010,176 at the end of Dinkins’ administration to 556,025 at the end of Giuliani’s administration. That is a decline of 45% in the most serious crime categories.

In this chart, The NYS Division of Criminal Justice Services compares the Index, Violent and Property crime rate per 100,000 population over a twenty-five year period. You may notice that these levels were very high during Dinkins' administration (near record levels) and show a pretty standard increase/decrease sine wave like pattern for nearly twenty years (1975-93). But something happened; index crime rates began a steadfast, decline when Giuliani took office in 1994. The following graph gives an indication of the statistical significance of Giuliani's contributions.

Look at the two straight lines, the blue one at the top is the upper normative range (mean/average plus standard deviation) and the yellow straight line near the bottom is the lower normative range (mean/average minus standard deviation). The purple line in between in the actual index crime rate per 100,000 population for NYC between 1975 and 2001. In 1980-82 the index crime rate went above the normative range and approached it again during Dinkins' administration. Again, note the precipitous decline in the crime rate once Guiliani took over as Mayor.

Now I don't want to denigrate the outstanding contributions and sacrifices of New York's Finest. They are a fine, professional organization and I admire their spirit and hard work. But politicians have much to do with personnel moral and the resources available for public safety employees.

I have seen departments with lavish budgets and lousy moral. In contrast, I have seen other departments that are struggling with severe fiscal limitations, but have excellent morale and esprit de corps. The latter departments are staffed by men and women who use everything within their means to accomplish the goals and objectives of their organization. They make it work because they are motivated to pursue excellence. You will see this in departments that have outstanding relationships with management and staff, including city government. It is amazing how fast the union grievances disappear when a new administration makes an honest effort to work with the cops.

I have seen how this works and remarked to other executives how time and again it is the proper use of modern, professional management techniques and good, old fashioned sweat that gets the job done.

I believe that Giuliani took a struggling department in a crime torn city and gave it the needed boost. This is a truer measure of a politician’s mettle rather than somebody's rantings about coarse language and rallies. There are nearly 10,000 people right now who did not end up as murder statistics because of Giuliani’s efforts to re-energize the NYPD and provide the leadership and accountability needed to reduce crime.

Despite my glowing words, I have problems with Rudy's stance on other issues. Just because he is a Republican law 'n order candidate does not mean I'll give a brass farthing to his campaign.

UNUSFF

An entire UN detachment of 700 men has been suspended from peace making duties in the country of Cote d'Ivoire while they are investigated for allegations of misconduct.

The United Nations said on Saturday it had suspended a Moroccan military contingent from its peacekeeping mission in Cote d'Ivoire while it investigated allegations of widespread sexual abuse.

It seems all too often that whenever and where ever a UN peace keeper detachment is deployed, the forced deportations of UN troops soon follow. But of course these stories are buried in the back pages of the the International News Section. If the Moroccans had made these women into a naked human pyramid or posed them with dog leashes, we would never hear the end of it, right?

"It means they don't participate in our operations," said Hamadoun Toure, spokesman for the U.N. mission in Cote d'Ivoire (ONUCI).

Now that's gonna harsh the Moroccan mellow. Underpaid, poorly trained, oversexed soldiers forced not to go on patrol. Say it ain't so Yogi!

Sending some of these third world shithole countries as UN troops for peacekeeping is like assigning Michael Moore to guard a train load of Twinkies.

"Those who are found guilty will be sent back home."

Drop the twelve year old and step awaaay from the condom dispenser. That's it. Nice and slow now.

The world body said the measure was in addition to a decision to confine the entire battalion of 734 soldiers to barracks.

In addition, UN officials are considering another measure; the Moroccans may be subjected to the "Mother Of All Time Outs."

U.N. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Friday the investigation involved Moroccan soldiers having sex with a large number of underage girls in the West African country's northern rebel stronghold of Bouake.

I have yet to find punitive measures taken against any UN troops who have been found guilty of crimes against those whom they were supposed to protect. I can't even find mention where these men have been subjected to trials. What I do find is the media wringing its hands over UN abuses and ... nothing. Like this ABC News report last year.

UN peacekeepers and humanitarian staff are having sex with Liberian girls as young as 8-years-old in the very camps where their families have sought protection, according to a new report by Save the Children UK. Along with UN peacekeepers, the report says that camp officials, humanitarian staff, government employees and even teachers are involved in the sex trade with young Liberian girls.

Men often trade inexpensive items such as beans, bulgur wheat or even rides in their UN vehicles for sex with the young girls.

Well, it may be a step above plastic beads and blankets. Is this how the UN distributes humanitarian aid? Underage Sex For Food? Sounds like an acronym we can all live with, UNUSFF. Perhaps if Saddam had tried teenage sodomy with the UN he'd still be in power.

The UN said that since the beginning of the year, eight sexual abuse and exploitation cases involving UN personnel in Liberia have been reported to the internal UN office in charge of investigating all cases of serious misconduct. One of those cases has been substantiated, and the staff member was immediately suspended.

That'll teach him. Send him home where he'll have to pay cash up front for these services.

And people look to the UN for international leadership, even a fledgling world government. It makes me sick.

King Sol

Old King Sol was a merry old Sol
And a merry old Sol was he.
He turned up the gas
That blew out his ass
And broiled the earth and its seas.

The debate on weather should be centered on what is the primary cause of our climate. The emissions produced by Man have been a factor for less than several hundred years. Yet there have been dramatic changes in our climate for thousands of years.

The hysterical ecoloons would have us believe that this planet is so fragile, so sensitive, that we are bringing it to the edge of destruction. Yet they fail to take into account the major changes that occurred in eons past, like the Ice Age that ended less than 12,000 years ago. This was long before the invention of the internal combustion engine, locomotives, freon, and LiveEarthDC.

More evidence that the sun is the primary motivator behind our weather changes is emerging constantly.

In what could be the simplest explanation for one component of global warming, a new study shows the Sun's radiation has increased by .05 percent per decade since the late 1970s.

The increase would only be significant to Earth's climate if it has been going on for a century or more, said study leader Richard Willson, a Columbia University researcher also affiliated with NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

This is what the ecoloons fear. As more and more scientists from various disciplines turn their skills toward the global warming question, they find more and more evidence that man is not necessarily the problem, if it is a problem at all. They fear this because Global Warming is the new socialist tool to bring mankind under the thumb of the eco-elitists.

In a NASA-funded study recently published in Geophysical Research Letters, Willson and his colleagues speculate on the possible history of the trend based on data collected in the pre-satellite era.

"Solar activity has apparently been going upward for a century or more," Willson told SPACE.com today.

So the hysterics are ramped up and the doubters vilified as the nutroots insist that something must be done right now or WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE. There is no longer room for any debate because WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE. Dissension from the Book of GORE (blessed Be His Offsetness) cannot be tolerated because WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE.

Scientists, industry leaders and environmentalists have argued for years whether humans have contributed to global warming, and to what extent. The average surface temperature around the globe has risen by about 1 degree Fahrenheit since 1880. Some scientists say the increase could be part of natural climate cycles. Others argue that greenhouse gases produced by automobiles and industry are largely to blame.

Willson said the Sun's possible influence has been largely ignored because it is so difficult to quantify over long periods.

Confounding efforts to determine the Sun's role is the fact that its energy output waxes and wanes every 11 years. This solar cycle, as it is called, reached maximum in the middle of 2000 and achieved a second peak in 2002. It is now ramping down toward a solar minimum that will arrive in about three years.

Changes in the solar cycle -- and solar output -- are known to cause short-term climate change on Earth. At solar max, Earth's thin upper atmosphere can see a doubling of temperature. It swells, and denser air can puff up to the region of space where the International Space Station orbits, causing increased drag on the ship and forcing more frequent boosts from space shuttles.

In 1996, near the last solar minimum, the Sun is nearly featureless. By 1999, approaching maximum, it is dotted by sunspots and fiery hot gas trapped in magnetic loops.

And that's just in three years. There are other indications that solar activity has caused dramatic changes in the earth's climate.

A glaciologist at Ohio State University made a presentation at the 2004 conference of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.

MAJOR CLIMATE CHANGE OCCURRED 5,200 YEARS AGO: EVIDENCE SUGGESTS THAT HISTORY COULD REPEAT ITSELF

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Glaciologist Lonnie Thompson worries that he may have found clues that show history repeating itself, and if he is right, the result could have important implications to modern society.

Thompson has spent his career trekking to the far corners of the world to find remote ice fields and then bring back cores drilled from their centers. Within those cores are the records of ancient climate from across the globe.

If global warming is eminent, you'd think that a guy who spends his life studying glaciers would be on top of it.

From the mountains of data drawn by analyzing countless ice cores, and a meticulous review of sometimes obscure historic records, Thompson and his research team at Ohio State University are convinced that the global climate has changed dramatically.

But more importantly, they believe it has happened at least once before, and the results were nearly catastrophic to emerging cultures at the time. He outlined his interpretations and fears today at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.

A professor of geological sciences at Ohio State and a researcher with the Byrd Polar Research Center, Thompson points to markers in numerous records suggesting that the climate was altered suddenly some 5,200 years ago with severe impacts.

Do I need to say it again? This was at least 5,100 years before anyone even thought of an SUV.

Professor Thompson brought this ice core samples in for analysis and made some startling observations. Perfectly preserved plants were somehow frozen all at once approximately 5,200 years ago. Something caused the climate to change very suddenly to capture these plants in such condition. There is more...

In 1991, hikers found the preserved body of a man trapped in an Alpine glacier and freed as it retreated. Later tests showed that the human – dubbed Oetzi – became trapped and died around 5,200 years ago.

Thompson points to a study of tree rings from Ireland and England that span a period of 7,000 years. The point in that record when the tree rings were narrowest – suggesting the driest period experienced by the trees – was approximately 5,200 years ago.

He points to ice core records showing the ratio of two oxygen isotopes retrieved from the ice fields atop Africa’s Mount Kilimanjaro. A proxy for atmospheric temperature at the time snow fell, the records are at their lowest 5,200 years before now.

He lists the shift by the Sahara Desert from a habitable region to a barren desert; major changes in plant pollen uncovered from lakebed cores in South America, and the record lowest levels of methane retrieved from ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica and all occurred at the same time – 5,200 years ago.

Thompson believes that the 5,200-year old event may have been caused by a dramatic fluctuation in solar energy reaching the earth. Scientists know that a historic global cooling called the Little Ice Age, from 1450 to 1850 A.D., coincided with two periods of decreased solar activity.

Evidence shows that around 5,200 years ago, solar output first dropped precipitously and then surged over a short period. It is this huge solar energy oscillation that Thompson believes may have triggered the climate change he sees in all those records.

“The climate system is remarkably sensitive to natural variability,” he said. “It’s likely that it is equally sensitive to effects brought on by human activity, changes like increased greenhouse gases, altered land-use policies and fossil-fuel dependence.

“Any prudent person would agree that we don’t yet understand the complexities with the climate system and, since we don’t, we should be extremely cautious in how much we ‘tweak’ the system,” he said.

“The evidence is clear that a major climate change is underway.”

If what Professor Thompson says is correct, there must be another factor, or factors, behind global climate change. And if the magnitude of the previous changes are any indication, human activity is a pretty small player.

So let's give the WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE screed a rest for now, m'kay?

Al Gore's Whine

The Live Earth concerts didn't do much for the environment but they sure produced a lot of noise. From John Berlau's article in the American Thinker:

Now it's official. Global warming alarmism has indeed "jumped the shark", as revealed by the dismal failure of the Live Earth concerts to galvanize the general public. In particular, the puny turnout in Washington, DC, where Gore himself personally showed up, has proved an acute embarrassment.

But although Al Gore's Live Earth concerts have failed in the ratings, he appears to have partially succeeded at doing what does best: shifting blame for his woes to his political opponents and getting the media to go along. Since last weekend, the Net has been abuzz with stories of how Gore overcame Republicans who allegedly did everything they could to stop the concert from being performed on Washington's National Mall.

"Al Gore foils opponents," proclaimed Associated Press, after Gore had just announced a "surprise" Live Earth concert in Washington, D.C., the next day. "Global warming naysayers in the political world have not been able to have their way, because this will - despite their best efforts - be held on the Mall," Gore was quoted in the story as saying.

The next day, Gore again took a shot at the opponents who he said denied him the use of Washington's famous Mall - the area surrounding the Smithsonian Institution museums between the Capitol and the Washington Monument - and the press again largely parroted his claim. In his speech at National Museum of the American Indian last Saturday, which the Paris-based wire service AFP called "a thinly veiled hit on members of President George W. Bush's Republican party," Gore declared, "Some who don't understand what is now at stake tried to stop this event on the Mall."

And "some" media outlets, who don't understand or don't care that Gore is spinning them, allowed him to peddle the biggest set of urban myths to appear on the Internet since Gore "took the initiative in creating" it.

If at first you don't succeed, blame someone else.

To start with, the Washington "show" consisted of country stars Garth Brooks and Tricia Yearwood added to preexisting events with Indian artists. As Carter Wood observed at the National Association of Manufacturers' blog ShopFloor.org: "The Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian had already scheduled a day of events -- including the Indian Summer Showcase 2007, which appeared to be absorbed into ‘Mother Earth - In the Spirit of the Live Earth Concerts.' There were already going to be performances, drum circles and spiritual/environmental speeches by tribal leaders. Al Gore and the Smithsonian's organizers just figured a way to add Gore's overtly political address and the Garth Brooks/Trisha Yearwood performance to an existing event."

But Gore's most blatant falsehood - as phony as a three-dollar carbon credit - is his claim that Republican lawmakers or global warming "deniers" prevented him from holding the concert on the Mall. This spread through the left-wing blogosphere like the proverbial wild fire, with entries on ThinkProgress claiming that Republicans "had tried to block the event from happening in DC" and on Daily Kos declaring that "[d]espite Republican efforts ...to deny this, Friday Al Gore announced LiveEarthDC."

Nothing new here. The nutroots latch on to conspiracy rumors like tics on a passing hound dog. And like tics they burrow deeply into the flesh and feed off it as long as they can.

In truth, the only thing some GOP lawmakers objected to was an unusual last-minute effort to hold the concert on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol, after its organizers discovered that Mall had already been booked for other events. Use of the Mall had been denied to Gore and his colleagues for one reason: they failed to apply for the proper permits before other parties had. And one of the groups "blocking" Live Earth's use of the Mall happened to be the Smithsonian Institution itself.

The truth is that Gore's desires for a huge concert on the Mall were actually thwarted not by Republicans, but by a very talented group of Irish Riverdance cloggers, Vietnamese folk artists, and African-American gospel singers. They were performing as scheduled at the acclaimed annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival and at a gospel show sponsored by the predominantly black Christian organization Together One Unity.

It seems the "nefarious right-wingers" who organized these folk and gospel fests had the temerity to schedule their events with the National Park Service, which runs the Mall, weeks and months before Live Earth's organizers ever contacted the agency, and then not call them off when Gore let out a sneeze.

[...] If Gore had really wanted a big event on the Mall, all he would have had to do was pick another weekend. The big bad Bush Administration and the mean old Republican-controlled Congress placed no obstacles in the way of antiwar rallies and Earth Day events held on the Mall in the past few years that bashed the President and the party. The Park Service issues permits in a professional manner without regard to an event's ideological content. But it will not let an event jump in front of the line, even if the organizer is a former vice president and Academy Award winner. As the Washington political newspaper The Hill explained, "Getting access to the Mall comes on a strict first-come, first-serve basis."

But that doesn't make headlines. There is no righteous conflict, no controversy over readily available guidelines to staging events on public property. No controversy? No problem. We'll invent some.

Gore's friends in Congress, namely Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-NV, then tried to bail out Gore's lack of planning with a thoroughly impractical alternative: putting the concert on the Capitol building's West Lawn. With rare exceptions, the only large public gatherings there are the National Symphony Orchestra concerts on the 4th of July and Memorial Day. Much attention was paid to Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-OK, who regularly challenges Gore's views on humans role in global warming and the effects of climate change, calling the concert a "partisan political event" that shouldn't be held on Capitol grounds. Gore shot back, with his oft-repeated claim that climate change is a "moral issue."

But even Democrats reportedly chafed at some of the practical impediments to holding Gore's extravaganza on the West Lawn. An all-day concert drawing huge crowds on the grounds of the Capitol, as opposed to a three-hour symphony performance there at night, could have posed formidable security challenges for those guarding the Capitol building. Plus, in the holiday concerts, the Mall is utilized to pick up the overflow in the crowds from the West Lawn. But, in this case, of course, the Mall would be hosting its own events and would be unable to absorb as much of the overflow.

I have participated in for public safety planning for events that involved thousands of people. It isn't easy to draw together the various public agencies needed to address safety issues for large gatherings. That's why there are time considerations when applying for these kinds of events. Even in private venues these planning considerations come into play.

These concerns may be part of the reason Democrats on the Hill backed off as soon as practical questions about the event were being raised. Unlike Inhofe, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY, merely refused to let Reid's bill on Gore's concerts clear the Senate with "unanimous consent." According to The Hill, McConell wasn't necessarily opposed to hosting the concert at the Capitol, but "wanted more time for his side to look at the resolution." Reid soon backed off, and Gore announced that the concert would be in New Jersey. The fact that Reid and Gore didn't push harder suggests that they may never have wanted an actual concert on the Capitol grounds, but merely an issue to beat-up Republicans with.

In the meantime, out of the media spotlight, thousands of people gathered on the Mall for the festivals that had been properly booked. As Ludacris and Madonna crooned (if you can call it that) in the bask of media attention, the Folklife Festival was abuzz with the sounds of Southeast Asian flute music, folk songs and dances from Northern Ireland, and the bluegrass tunes of rural Virginia.

We'll Take A Greyhound

I usually drive wherever I go, so my sightseeing is generally restricted to glances away from the roadway. If the scenery is particularly impresssive, I'll pull over to take a good, long look or take a photo. America has some spectacular visages and someday I hope to see more of them. But I kinda wonder if I am ready for this.

LAGUNA NIGUEL - WARNING: If you are eating, stop. You are about to read about bottoms. Five thousand of 'em, all bared in the name of … well, that's hard to say.

No one at the 28th annual Mooning of Amtrak seems to know exactly why they pull down their pants every time a train goes by.

I wonder if sociologists have a specific reference, a nomenclature, for dropping trou and waving your ass at total strangers.
Or perhaps there is another reason for this. Are their butts too warm? Or too cold? Is there a priest inside the train throwing holy water out a window and giving a buttock benediction? Perhaps there is a curative effect to having a chain-link cross hatch pattern embedded in your ass.

They just hear the cry of "Train," and respectable men and women – we're talking grandmothers and grandfathers, guys who stormed Omaha Beach on D-Day and women who run day-care centers, OK? – sprint to this chain-link fence like lemmings, cackling and cajoling each other to join in.

It just doesn't fit in with my time schedule. The things I really want to do and the time I have to do them does not allow for casual butt baring.

Even the origins of this Orange County phenomenon (it's been featured on the Discovery Channel, the Travel Channel, and Ripley's Believe it or Not) are a bit fuzzy. It supposedly started 28 years ago in the Mugs Away Saloon when patron K.T. Smith vowed to buy a drink for anyone who'd cross the street and moon a train.

But ask if anyone remembers this guy and they say no. He moved to Idaho. Or Iowa. Or somewhere. Regardless, the legend lives on. And it's morphed into one of the most bizarro assemblages of humanity you'll meet anywhere: part Family Day, part "Girls Gone Wild," part street fair with mom; part Harley Rally on Spring Break.

What's good for one set of asses is good for another, so a few of the passengers on the train respond in like fashion. Of course there is a difference between the ass prints left on a chain link fence and those left on a train window.

Gramma Claire Lema of Riverside will end up giving members of her brood a towel – which she brought for soda spills and such – to wipe the windows clean of any telltale smudges left from the goings-on. (Moonings on the train are strictly verboten, but some passengers get rambunctious in returning the favor to the crowds.)

And I thought I was being careful when I packed some Benadryl. Hopefully Gramma also packs some Windex, Lysol spray and muriatic acid in case those windows don't clean up so well.

Another One Bites The Dust

I graduated from Moonbat Central (Syracuse University) in 1971. My oldest daughter was born during the Kent State riots in 1970. Needless to say, by the time I graduated I had my fill of bandanna clad wannabe revolutionaries.

One of those wannabes was David Ifshin. I remember this shithead running around campus like a little Che' windup toy. He went to North Vietnam in December of 1970 to preach his virulent brand of anti-American rhetoric with other student traitors activists. This traitorous piece of crap became Willy Clinton's general campaign counsel for the other traitorous piece of crap's sucessful run at the presidency. IMHO, the only praiseworthy act committed by this man was to die at an early age, 47, in 1996.

By now you may be wondering why I am celebrating this traitorous piece of crap's death eleven years after it occured. I'm not celebrating Ifshin's death (though I did do a little happy dance in my head when I first read of his demise). I am celebrating the demise of a liberal institution that has bred thousands of Ifshins over the decades. Antioch College.

If Syracuse University is Moonbat Central, then Antioch was the Moonbat Mothership. I can envision the mass suicide of hundreds of Daily Kos Kids once they learn that the butthole of the moonbat universe has finally slammed shut for the last time; it has pinced it's final liberal loaf. The mind numbed droppings of socialist professors have to find another spawning pond in which to propagate their species.

George Will has written a eulogy for Antioch College that details some of it's contributions to American society.

DURING THE CAMPUS convulsions of the late 1960s, when rebellion against any authority was considered obedience to every virtue, the film "To Die in Madrid," a documentary about the Spanish Civil War, was shown at a small liberal arts college famous for, and vain about, its dedication to all things progressive.

When the film's narrator intoned, "The rebels advanced on Madrid," the students, who adored rebels and were innocent of information, cheered. Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, had been so busy turning undergraduates into vessels of liberalism and apostles of social improvement that it had not found time for the tiresome task of teaching them tedious facts, such as that the rebels in Spain were Franco's fascists.

But this is a typical liberal education. Never let the facts interfere with a good emotional outpouring against "the man."

That illustrates why it is heartening that Antioch will close after the 2007-08 academic year. Its board of trustees says the decision is to "suspend operations" and it talks dottily about reviving the institution in 2012. There is, however, a minuscule market for what Antioch sells for a tuition, room and board of $35,221 -- repressive liberalism unleavened by learning.

Founded in 1852 -- its first president was Horace Mann -- Antioch was, for a while, admirable. One of the first colleges to enroll women and blacks, it was a destination for escaped slaves. Its alumni include Stephen Jay Gould, Coretta Scott King and Rod Serling, whose "Twilight Zone" never imagined anything weirder than what Antioch became when its liberalism curdled.

Rod Serling was a native Upstate New Yorker. He hailed from Skaneateles, about twenty miles from here. Fortunately he attended Antioch prior to it's capture and conversion.

In 1972-73, Antioch had 2,470 students. In 1973, a protracted and embittering student and employee strike left the campus physically decrepit and intellectually toxic. By 1985, enrollment was down 80 percent. This fall there may be 300 students served by a faculty of 40.

I see that Antioch's death has been a long, slow, debilitating one. Intellectual cancer does that.

In 1993, Antioch became an international punch line when it wrote rules to insure that all sexual conduct would be consensual, step by minute step: "If the level of sexual intimacy increases during an interaction ... the people involved need to express their clear verbal consent before moving to that new level." Does consent to a touch cover a caress? Is there consent regarding all the buttons?Although laughable, Antioch was not funny.

Former public radio correspondent Michael Goldfarb matriculated at what he calls the "sociological petri dish" in 1968. In his first week, he twice had guns drawn on him, once "in fun" and once by a couple of drunken ex-cons "whom one of my classmates, in the interest of breaking down class barriers, had invited to live with her." A true Antiochian still, Goldfarb says: "I do think I was made stronger for having to deal with these experiences."

Antioch sounds more like a sociological cesspool. I wonder if Mr. Goldfarb thinks he would be even stronger if the trigger was pulled two or three times? And speaking of pulling the trigger, read on about Antioch's proclivities for peaceful resolution and how the institution invites speakers who reflect the highest morals and ideals...

Steven Lawry -- Antioch's fifth president in 13 years -- came to the college 18 months ago. He told Scott Carlson of The Chronicle of Higher Education about a student who left after being assaulted because he wore Nike shoes, symbols of globalization. Another left because, she told Lawry, the political climate was suffocating: "They all think they are so different, but they are just a bunch of conformists."

Carlson reports that Lawry stopped the student newspaper's practice of printing "announcements containing anonymous, menacing threats against other students for their political views."

Antioch likes to dabble in menace: It invited Mumia Abu-Jamal to deliver its 2000 commencement speech, which he recorded on death row in a Pennsylvania prison, where he lives because 26 years ago he shot a Philadelphia police officer first in the back, then three times in the face.

This is one of the reasons why I truly despise liberal philosophy. It's the out and out insanity of closed thinking. I was exposed to a lot of different experiences as a student. I had to work full time for my last last two and a half years of college (senior and post grad) so I was spared from the total "campus experience." Unfortunately many students never recover as evinced by the following...

In an essay in the Chronicle, Cary Nelson, Antioch class of 1967 and now a professor of English at the University of Illinois, waxes nostalgic about the fun he had spending, as Antioch students did, much time away from campus, receiving academic credits.

What Nelson calls "my employee resistance to injustice" got him "released from almost every job I had until I became a faculty member." But "my little expenditure was never noticed" when "I used some of Lyndon Johnson's anti-poverty money" to bus anti-Vietnam war protesters from Harlem to Washington.

Given that such was Antioch's idea of "work experience" in the "real world," it is unsurprising that the college never produced an alumni cohort capable of enlarging the college's risible $36 million endowment.

Those who can, do; those who can't teach.

I wonder how many of our nation's college instructors are like Cary Nelson, who views the misappropriation of government funds as a lark. Nelson sounds suspiciously like a congressman.

I've Been Busy

I took this week off to work on a major remodeling project at my church. It's all volunteer work and I've been putting in 12 hours a day. I hurt my elbow on Monday and then I really tore up a tendon today. So I'm sitting her with an ice pack on my elbow and hoping the ibuprofen works. I can't even make a fist. It hurts to type so I'm going to stop.

UPDATE:

15 JUL 05 - Got a ton of stuff accomplished this week. It's amazing what ibuprofen, ice and a tennis elbow brace can do. I got some more mud I have to throw up on the walls before they can finish painting but it is looking good.

Are Nukes Back In Play?

It appears that nuclear power may be coming out of the penalty box.

BOSTON - Thanks to global warming, nuclear energy is hot again. Its promise of abundant, carbon-emissions-free power is being pushed by the president and newly considered by environmentalists. But any expansion won't come cheaply or easily.

The enormous obstacles facing nuclear power are the same as they were in 1996, when the nation's last new nuclear plant opened near the Watts Bar reservoir in Tennessee after 22 years of construction and $7 billion in costs.

France produces approximately 80% of its electricity from nuclear power.

There is also fervent anti-nuke sentiment waiting to be restoked. Jim Riccio of Greenpeace said nuclear advocates are exploiting global-warming fears to try to revive an industry that's too risky to fool with."You have better ways to boil water," Riccio said.

But notice how Riccio also fails to mention any alternatives. If Riccio knows a better way then why doesn't he mention it?

But environmentalists aren't in lock step on the issue. Bill Chameides, chief scientist for Environmental Defense, said anything that helps alleviate global warming must be an energy option."I think it's somewhat disingenuous that folks who agree that global warming is such a serious issue could sort of dismiss it out of hand," he said. "It's got to be at least considered."

It's surprising to hear this discussion among environmentalists.

The U.S. has 104 commercial reactors, including five in Florida, that supply about 20 percent of the country's power.

The Department of Energy projects a 45 percent growth in electricity demand by 2030, meaning 35 to 50 new nuclear plants will be needed by then just to maintain nuclear's share of the energy market, said Scott Peterson of the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's chief lobbying arm.

That growing demand, not global warming, "has been the single biggest factor in companies looking at building large nuclear plants again," Peterson said.

Must be all those power-gobbling 46" plasma HDTV's with the home theaters attached. Seriously, where do people think all the juice is going to come from?

Unfortunately NIMBY determines a lot of the politics surrounding power generating facilities. Look at the situation in Massachusetts when Sen. Kennedy nixed the creation of a wind farm in Nantucket Sound last year. These wind generators would have produced 75% of the electricity needed by Cape Cod and the islands of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard.

Seems like the Senator is all for environmentally friendly electricity as long as it is produced far away from his property.

What's In The News - July 8, 2007

ROSWELL, N.M. - If for no other reason than to dress like a fruitcake:

If you truly believe a UFO and its crew of bug-eyed aliens came crashing down here 60 years ago, rest assured: You're not alone. At least 35,000 people have escended on Roswell this weekend for the 2007 Amazing Roswell UFO Festival to commemorate a purported flying saucer crash on a nearby ranch in July 1947. Participants have filled hotel rooms and nearly doubled the southeastern New Mexico town's population

LONDON, ENGLAND - It's the *cough* biggest effort yet *gasp* to Save *choke* The Planet.

"If you want to save the planet, I want you to start jumping up and down!" Thus
Madonna revealed her plan to combat global warming. Clad in a black satin
leotard, she gyrated with dancers and simulated sex with an amplifier and a
guitar.

Don't read anymore of this tripe if you want to Save Your Lunch. In an emergency meeting, the Society For The Prevention of Cruelty To Fenders has sent Madonna a "cease and desist" order for violating the International Washed Up/Wore Out/Rock Whore Sex With Electronic Devices Act of 1987.

John Buckley of Carbon Footprint, an organization that helps companies reduce their carbon dioxide emissions, said Saturday that Live Earth will produce about 74,500 tons of the gas."We would have to plant 100,000 trees to offset the effect of Live Earth," he said, speaking by telephone.

I'll tell you where you can plant 'em too. And you'd better do it by hand using gardening implements made from flint.

San Rafael, CA. - Goat lovers from all over the world are converging on San Rafael, sorta like the UFO fruitloops flocking to Roswell.

More than 240 goats were killed Friday morning when a big-rig carrying them tipped over in San Rafael's Canal area. Many of the animals, en route to clear vegetation in Mill Valley, suffocated when the rig overturned near Irene Street on "The Loop" traffic route, police said.

The flags of a dozen Islamic nations have been lowered to half mast in mourning for these potential brides. San Rafeal is about twenty klicks north of San Francisco.

The horrific scene took its toll on Marin Humane Society officials. Humane Society Sgt. Michelle Rogers, among the crew digging through wreckage, said 243 dead goats were pulled out of the tipped truck.

"I need a moment," she said, stepping away to compose herself.

Oh the capranity!

Ya Can't Uncook An Omlete, Or A Terrorist

Doctors in Scotland are in frenzy trying to save the life of one of the Glasgow bombers who received grieveous burns.

London, July 6: Kafeel Ahmed, 27, the former Bangalore man who suffered 90 per cent burns when he doused himself in petrol and set himself alight at Glasgow airport last Saturday, has been moved into a specialist unit in a desperate attempt to save his life.

I hopefully this unit has a steam table to keep him warm. Maybe it specializes in spreading marmalade and placing catsup on the home fries.

Kafeel, who was initially taken to the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley, has been transferred to a specialist burns unit Glasgow Royal Infirmary, where he continues to be kept under armed guard.

The Royal Infirmary kitchen is where he belongs, right next to the sausage links and bacon strips.

Pictures were taken by members of the public with their mobile telephone cameras immediately after the flaming Jeep Cherokee was driven by Kafeel and his associate, Bilal Abdulla, into the terminal building at Glasgow airport. One shows Kafeel’s skin had peeled off.

Denny's should sponsor a new anti-terrorist breakfast special - the Kafeel Slam. Three eggs boiled in their shells, toast with petroleum jelly and an orange peel garnish.

Charley's Jokes

1. A man comes into the ER and yells, "My wife's going to have her baby in the cab!" I grabbed my stuff, rushed out to the cab, Lifted the lady's dress, and began to take off her underwear. Suddenly I noticed that there were several cabs ---and I was in the wrong one.. > > Submitted by Dr. Mark MacDonald, San Francisco

2. At the beginning of my shift I placed a stethoscope on an elderly and slightly deaf female patient's anterior chest wall. "Big breaths," I instructed. "Yes, they used to be," replied the patient. > > Submitted by Dr. Richard Byrnes, Seattle , WA

3. One day I had to be the bearer of bad news when I told a Wife that her husband had died of a massive myocardial infarct. Not more than five minutes later, I heard her reporting to the rest of the family that he had died of a "massive internal fart." > > Submitted by Dr. Susan Steinberg

4. During a patient's two week follow-up appointment with his cardiologist, he informed me, his doctor, that he was having trouble with one of his medications. "Which one?" I asked. "The patch, the Nurse told me to put on a new one every six hours and now I'm running out of places to put it!" I had him quickly undress and discovered what I hoped I wouldn't see. Yes, the man had over fifty patches on his body! Now, the instructions include removal of the old patch before applying a new one. > > Submitted by Dr. Rebecca St. Clair, Norfolk , VA

5. While acquainting myself with a new elderly patient, I asked, "How long have you been bedridden?" After a look of complete confusion she answered.."Why, not for about twenty years - when my husband was alive." > > Submitted by Dr. Steven Swanson-Corvallis, OR

6. I was performing rounds at the hospital one morning and while checking up on a woman I asked, "So how's your breakfast this morning?" "It's very good, except for the Kentucky Jelly. I can't seem to get used to the taste" the patient replied. I then asked to see the jelly and the woman produced a foil packet labeled "KY Jelly." > > Submitted by Dr. Leonard Kransdorf, Detroit , MI

7. A nurse was on duty in the Emergency Room when a young woman with purple hair styled into a punk rocker Mohawk, sporting a variety of tattoos, and wearing strange clothing, entered. It was quickly determined that the patient had acute appendicitis, so she was scheduled for immediate surgery. When she was completely disrobed on the operating table, the staff noticed that her pubic hair had been dyed green, and above it there was a tattoo that read, "Keep off the grass." Once the surgery was completed, the surgeon wrote a short note on the patient's dressing, which said, "Sorry,had to mow the lawn." > > Submitted by RN no name

AND FINALLY!!!.................

8. As a new, young MD doing his residency in OB , I was quite embarrassed when performing female pelvic exams. To cover my embarrassment I had unconsciously formed a habit of whistling softly. The middle-aged lady upon whom I was performing this exam suddenly burst out laughing and further embarrassing me. I looked up from my work and sheepishly said, "I'm sorry. Was I tickling you?" She replied, "No doctor, but the song you were whistling was, "I wish I was an Oscar Meyer Wiener". > > Dr. - Wouldn't submit his name

H/T to Charley the Cop

Huh?

This is a zebrula - a cross between a horse and a zebra. It can be seen at a zoo in Germany.

Nuff said.

Celebrating the 2nd Amendment

Today all of us went to the range for a three hour session of flintlocks, percussion rifles, shotguns, assault rifles and handguns. Oh, and I forgot the cannon. And the mortar.

Kabooom! It shoots golf balls. The owner, a 74 year old black powder enthusiast, made it himself. His friend brought along a hand made mortar (I thought I took a picture but I didn't, rats!) that fires a cement cylinder the size of a frozen juice concentrate container. It was a hoot watching these field pieces fire projectiles with bright orange streamers attached. The streamers didn't do anything for accuracy of course, but you could watch the cylinder in flight. Five hundred feet up and a hundred yards down range.

There is something about freedom and the sight of three of my daughters firing a Bushie M4.

God bless America.

Naturalization Test Answers

Answers:
1. July 4, 1776
2. Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Rhode Island and Virginia.
3. 435
4. Speaker of the House
5. Thomas Jefferson
6. Congress
7. The 15th, 19th, 24th and 26th amendments 8. The right to vote.
9. For countries to discuss and try to resolve world problems or to provide economic aid to many countries.
10. John G. Roberts, Jr.
11. A Republic
12. The Preamble
13. 27
14. The American Indians/Native Americans 15. Form N-400 16. Nine 17. It freed the slaves.
18. The Cabinet
19. The first 13 states
20. There is no limit.

Fourth of July - The Road To U.S. Citizenship

I don't think there are many people who simply want to restrict all immigration into this country. Most of us understand that this is a nation of immigrants and we welcome those from other lands who want to becomes citizens of this great nation of ours. Many people dream of becoming Americans and securing for their children the freedom and opportunities that they do not have in their native lands.

The road to becoming a naturalized American citizen can be daunting for someone who is not familiar with our culture and does not understand our language. But we welcome those who have this desire for citizenship. We welcome them all as long as they understand and obey the laws of our land.

The Apostle Paul was a Roman citizen. In Acts 22:24 a Roman officer orders him beaten (scourged) and nearly soils himself when he finds out that Paul is a Roman citizen.

Ac 22:24 the chief captain commanded him be brought into the castle, bidding that he should be examined by scourging, that he might know for what cause they so shouted against him.

25 And when they had tied him up with the thongs, Paul said unto the centurion that stood by, Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman, and uncondemned?

26 And when the centurion heard it, he went to the chief captain and told him, saying, What art thou about to do? for this man is a Roman.

27 And the chief captain came and said unto him, Tell me, art thou a Roman? And he said, Yea.

28 And the chief captain answered, With a great sum obtained I this citizenship. And Paul said, But I am a Roman born.

29 They then that were about to examine him straightway departed from him: and the chief captain also was afraid when he knew that he was a Roman, and because he had bound him.

The Captain was afraid; and he had not beaten him, merely tied Paul up. To be a Roman Citizen bestowed certain rights and privileges that non-citizens did not have. The Roman soldiers knew this and were afraid. Some of them undoubtedly were not citizens..

To be a U.S. citizen confers many rights and privileges that a non-U.S. citizen is NOT SUPPOSED TO HAVE. This is the rub. People pour across our borders and demand the same privilege's that citizens have. Our pandering politicians give them these privileges and expect the American public to accept this sorry state of affairs.

You want to be a U.S. citizen? You want to obey our laws and love this country as your own? Then God bless you my friend.

The following is a list of qualifications for citizenship. What really pisses me off is item #3 below. The recent immigration bill that was shot down directly violates this stipulation.

From the Post Standard:

To be eligible, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services department requires that candidates:
1) Be at least 18 years of age.
2) Have been lawfully admitted as a permanent resident (with a green card) for at least five continuous years.
3) Have no criminal record.
4) Can read, write and speak simple phrases in English.
5) Understand and know U.S. history and government.
6) Have good moral character.

The definition of bad moral character includes a conviction of one or more vile crimes, polygamy, prostitution, habitual drunkenness, income earned from illegal gambling, failure to support dependents and conviction of any controlled substance law, except for a single offense of possession of 30 grams or less of marijuana.) Candidates must then fill out a 10-page application with submitted photos and pay a $400 fee, which will increase to $675 on July 30.

The person applying for citizenship must then pass a 96 question test. Here is a sample of twenty of them:

1. When was the Declaration of Independence adopted? (Answer needs to include month, day and year)
2. What were the original 13 states?
3. How many voting members are in the House of Representatives?
4. Who becomes President if both the President and Vice President die?
5. Who was the main writer of the Declaration of Independence?
6. What group has the power to declare war?
7. Name the amendments that guarantee or address voting rights.
8. What is the most important right granted to United States citizens?
9. Name one of the purposes of the United Nations?
10. Who is the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court?
11. What kind of government does the United States have?
12. What is the introduction to the Constitution called?
13. How many changes, or amendments, are there to the Constitution?
14. Who helped the Pilgrims in America?
15. What U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services form is used to apply for naturalized citizenship?
16. How many Supreme Court Justices are there?
17. What did the Emancipation Proclamation do?
18. What special group advises the President?
19. What do the stripes on the flag represent?
20. How many times may a Senator or Congressman be re-elected?

I'll post the answers tomorrow.

Operation Allah's Flashlight

In a stunning turn of events, two "Asian" men ran a flaming Jeep Cherokee into the entrance of the airport in Glasgow, Scotland, where it erupted into flames.




From the UK Daily Mail:

Eyewitnesses said two Asian men were in a Jeep Cherokee which was driven at speed with flames coming out from underneath at 3.15pm this afternoon.

After the crash, one of men, whose clothes were on fire, jumped out of the car and ran into the terminal building where he was tackled by a heroic holidaymaker. Police then jumped on top of him as flames continued to rise from his body while terrified onlookers fled in all directions.

One eyewitness, who knocked the terrorist suspect over with his forearm said: "The man was wrestling with police on the ground.

"I had seen him and the other man get out of the car. The flames were burning through his clothes. Police were telling everybody to get back.

The man was burnt rather badly, it is reported that he suffered burns to over 90 percent of his body.

Be watchful and keep an eye peeled for the next installment of Operation Allah's Flashlight.

This fiendish plan utilizes an ancient technology to create panic and to strike terror throughout the Western world.

It is known as L.E.M.

Light Emitting Muslims.

As efforts to curb terrorism have put a crimp in the international Semtex trade, other resources are being used to create fear in the hearts of Brits. Ergo the L.E.M. attacks. Muslims may burst into flames from any point of the compass at any time. So be certain to always have a cool liquid readily available, and perhaps a comfortable folding camp chair, in order to enjoy the spectacle when the occasion arises...