Locally Speaking

Myrtle Beach Area Officials Not Sweating Debt

Area governments will be inconvenienced, perhaps, and possibly frustrated if the federal debt level impasse isn't resolved before Tuesday, but should worse come to worse, Horry-Georgetown Technical College and Coastal Carolina University could find themselves swimming in a vat of pickle brine.

Federal funds, primarily grants and loans to pay students' tuition, make up nearly $26 million of HGTC's $34.5 million operating budget and, last fiscal year, was more than $66 million of CCU's overall $148 million budget, college officials said.

If the aid is cut off, said Harold Hawley, HGTC's vice president of business affairs, the college would cease to exist.

No one could be reached at CCU Friday afternoon for comment, but Hawley said that HGTC has about $5.5 million in a fund balance and a state-mandated reserve that would keep the college open for at least three months, if worse came to worse.

By that time, presumably, the federal problem would be resolved and the college would get its money back.

But he doesn't believe things would get even close to that, saying that the federal Department of Education likely would not be on the front end of things to be cut if no debt level deal is struck.

"They don't want to put lives on hold because of what's taking place in Washington," Hawley said.

Hawley said that, unlike some area governments that receive federal payments for a variety of things quarterly, the college gets its money monthly. Like those that get the quarterly payments, though, the college's funding is on a remittance basis. It initially pays bills, then submits receipts and gets the federal payback.

He said that, like area governments, there have been no formal "What if?" conversations at HGTC, a situation that likely reflects officials' belief that their money won't be threatened by whatever happens.

In the case of area governments, federal money isn't either a large enough or critical enough part of their budgets to cause much of a fuss.

"On an annual basis the [federal] grants represent about 3 percent of the city's annual budget," North Myrtle Beach spokesman Pat Dowling said in an email, "so the impact is negligible."

Horry County government gets the lion share of federal funds paid to area governments with a total of $9,661,609 in its fiscal 2011 budget, county spokeswoman Lisa Bourcier said.

But as part of an overall $276 million budget, the federal funds don't have a high profile.

About $5.7 million of the total is earmarked for the airport fund, but the loss of it wouldn't impact the facility's operation or the expansion that is underway.

Cities such as Georgetown, Conway and others could see what Georgetown City Administrator Chris Eldridge calls a trickle-down effect should the federal government delay mailing Social Security checks to pay other bills.

Late checks to seniors, he said, could mean late payments for utilities.

"You can tell when they get their Social Security checks," Eldridge said. "They're in here paying their utility bill."

Myrtle Beach budget director Michael Shelton said there are two schools of thought about short-term effects should the stalemate go unresolved.

One is that failure of the federal government to pay even some of its bills on time could drive a rise in interest rates to everyone and that could affect other government's financial decisions.

Governments such as Myrtle Beach might decide not to refinance debt it already has for better interest rates and to delay capital projects. The city of Georgetown, for instance, hurried to complete a refinance of some of its debt this week, just in case worries about interest rates prove valid.

But the second school of thought, Shelton said, could be a silver lining for state and local governments looking for money.

The last state default happened in 1933, he said, and very few municipalities have defaulted since. That could make municipal bonds attractive to investors seeking stability from the federal roller coaster. –Sun News

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Myrtle Beach Mayor Rhodes Headed To China

Mayor to promote MB, business opportunities in September trip

Mayor John Rhodes is going to introduce China to Myrtle Beach.

He has been invited to attend several tourism and development conferences on his nine-day trip in September. Keller Williams Realty is paying the estimated $4,500 cost, including hotel, airfare, meals and ground transportation.

"I've been trying to arrange this for two years," said Jane Zheng, a real estate broker in Myrtle Beach. "I'm very excited."

Rhodes said he has never been to China, but is looking forward to communicating with potential visitors and investors.

Brad Lofton, president and CEO of Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corporation, said he has spoken with Rhodes only briefly about the trip, but supports it.

"The mayor is an ambassador for the Grand Strand area with ample credibility to sell our community. He is a partner with the EDC, and any positive exposure he could provide for us in Asia or elsewhere is much appreciated," he said. "Our desire now is to literally let the world know that we are aggressively seeking companies to invest in Horry County and that we are open for business."

He said the economic development agency will follow up on any leads Rhodes solicits on his trip.

Zheng, who is originally from Shanghai, will accompany Rhodes to all meetings and social events, and will translate for him.

"I wanted to take the mayor and others - maybe even the governor - to show them how China has changed," she said. "They turned undeveloped areas into amazing things."

But the Chinese know nothing about Myrtle Beach, she said, so this will be an opportunity for Rhodes and others on the trip to introduce them to the area.

"They are starting projects here, but they go to big cities like New York," Zheng said.

Having Rhodes and the owners of Keller Williams along will help form bonds with Chinese counterparts, she said, which is a more efficient way to do business. She has been to several similar conferences and staffed real estate booths there, but it's too much work for one person, she said.

Lofton said the United States is becoming more attractive to international companies because of the dramatic decrease in the value of the U.S. dollar compared to foreign currencies, especially in Asia.

"The good news for the U.S. is that it makes us more attractive for large tranches of capital investment in manufacturing. We are seeing our own share of international prospects that are inquiring about our location," he said.

Rhodes and the others on the trip will fly from New York to Beijing and see the Great Wall and the royal palace on Sunday before a Monday meeting with Beijing municipal officers and visit the Zhonguancun National Innovation Demonstration Zone. They'll tour the Binhai New Area, one of the fastest growing and largest seaports in China. It's called an eco-city, and presents a model of green living and technology using solar, wind and geothermal energy.

Then they go to Xiamen for the International Fair for Investment and Trade 2011 conference, which Zheng said is the second-largest conference in China.

There are opportunities for "matchmaking," connecting business and tourism contacts with the Myrtle Beach group, and Rhodes will also be asked to make a 15-minute presentation on Myrtle Beach. One day of the conference is dedicated to investment in the United States.

Before returning to Myrtle Beach, Rhodes and the others will spend their final Sunday on an ancient-style bamboo rafting trip down the 18-kilometer Jiuqu Stream, and will visit Wuyi Mountain, both in one of China's five largest nature preserves.

Rhodes said he plans to take Myrtle Beach-related gifts for the people he meets. Zheng said she and the mayor will meet a few more times before they leave Sept. 2 so he can feel prepared. –Sun News

The Norway Terrorist

A year or two ago I was at a dinner party where a gentleman and his wife confronted me about my writing on Islamic terrorism. “Why is it,” he asked irritably, “that terrorism is always called ‘Islamic’? What about ‘Christian’ terrorists?”

“Well, name a Christian terrorist,” I replied. I wasn’t being combative; I was genuinely curious to know whom they considered to be someone committing politically-driven murder and mayhem in the name of Jesus. The sentence was barely out of my mouth before the wife shot back, “Timothy McVeigh.”

McVeigh’s bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City took place sixteen years ago. Unlike Muslim fundamentalists who theologically justify their acts of terrorism, McVeigh can not rightly be characterized as a “Christian terrorist,” because he was, by his own admission, not a committed Christian, and he carried out the attack not because God or the Bible commanded him to, but because he hated the U.S. government. And yet after all these years his name remains virtually the sole flimsy example that people have at the ready to challenge what they consider to be the stereotype of Islamic terrorism.

No more. Now a new McVeigh has arisen, a symbol that the Left and Islamic supremacists themselves will use to bludgeon Christian conservatives and critics of jihad for the next sixteen years – Anders Behring Breivik. Breivik is in police custody for carrying out what some are calling Norway’s “Oklahoma City,” a reference to McVeigh’s 1995 bombing, of course. Breivik, who claims to have acted alone, set off a massive bomb that devastated an Oslo government building and killed seven, then traveled to a nearby youth camp for hundreds of teen children of Labour Party politicians, where he proceeded to massacre as many as 90 of them with ruthless, methodical gunfire.

As the news began leaking out about Europe’s deadliest terror attack since the 2003 Madrid train bombing, there was a predictable – and perfectly reasonable – assumption on the part of terrorism experts, the media, and possibly anyone who follows the Clash of Civilizations, that the perpetrators were Islamists. After all, there were plenty of reasons to suspect initially that these were acts of Islamic terrorism: at least one Islamist group initially claimed responsibility (but later retracted it); Muslim extremists cheered the attacks in online chatrooms; Norway is still a target of Islamists burning to avenge the Muhammad cartoons; legal action was finally taken against the radical Mullah Krekar whom Norway has been sheltering for years, and he threatened retaliation; al Qaeda tried to attack Oslo last year; and, frankly, most terrorism carried out worldwide today is at the hands of jihadists.

But the truth was a stunning reversal. Not only is the perpetrator a well-educated, boyishly blond, ethnic Norwegian, he is a self-described Christian conservative bent on sparking a Pan-European resistance movement to oppose – by violence if necessary – the corrosive forces of multiculturalism, Islamic immigration, and “cultural Marxism” that are destroying the fabric of European society and culture. It’s too soon to have all the facts –speculation, as usual, began flying at light-speed over the rumor-mongering internet, including the mystery of a fake Facebook page and the musing that Breivik is himself a jihadist posing as a Christian conservative. But as of this writing, the coldly rational Breivik has apparently confessed to what he described in a 1500-page manifesto as the “systematical and organized executions of multiculturalist traitors.”

But the tragedy won’t end at the lives lost in Norway. Bruce Bawer, the author of Surrender: Appeasing Islam, Sacrificing Freedom who lives in Norway, notes the broader concern that “legitimate criticism of Islam, which remains a very real threat to freedom in Norway and the West, has been profoundly discredited by association with this murderous lunatic.” As the European anti-jihad blogger Fjordman puts it, Breivik has scored a major victory for his opponents. An agent provocateur seeking to discredit the right-wing conservative sliver of the European political spectrum would have a hard time doing a better job. It is the perfect excuse to persecute and silence opposing voice. We’re heading for dark days.

The Left – including the mainstream media, and stealth jihadists themselves, like the ubiquitous Muslim Brotherhood legacy group CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations – won’t even bother to contain its collective glee over the fact that Breivik is a “right-wing Christian.” The narrative is already being constructed that will use him to tar everyone on the Right, particularly vocal critics of Islamic fundamentalism. This is the same Left that hijacks any and all discussions of Islamic terrorism by jumping up to insist that all Muslims must not be smeared because of the actions of a “tiny minority of extremists,” that not all terrorism is committed by Muslims and not all Muslims are terrorists. Of course, no responsible anti-jihadist has ever made such claims, but the Left never bothers to concede this. By contrast, instead of living by the standards they demand of the Right,lLeftists will now be perfectly happy to politicize Breivik’s terrorism and use him to tar everyone on the Right – Christians, conservatives, anti-jihadists, the Tea Party – everyone. And in fact, they have already begun attempting to link the Norway terrorist to Sarah Palin, of all people.

Breivik is a terrorist. His targeting of helpless schoolchildren makes him no better than the slaughterers at Beslan. But that doesn’t make everyone concerned about unfettered Islamic immigration, jihad, or the rapid disintegration of Europe’s cultural heritage a terrorist or even a sympathizer. There is no connection between the legitimate, courageous, lawful work of notable anti-jihadists and such evil. No true Christian, conservative, or responsible critic of jihad would condone Breivik’s despicable, cowardly acts or deem them to be in accordance with our beliefs and values. Much less would we celebrate those acts, unlike our Islamist counterparts. But denouncements of Breivik will be purposefully ignored by the Left.

Nor does it make Islamic terrorism any less of a threat. But the Left will use Breivik to divert attention from worldwide jihad, to advance their cultural Marxism, and to demonize the defenders of freedom. To echo Fjordman, we are facing dark days. We must face them with the truth. –Front Page Mag

Andrew Klavan:

How to Behave During an Islamic Massacre

5 Minutes, 6 Lessons

Lesson 1:

A man is getting into the shower just as his wife is finishing up her shower, when the doorbell rings.

The wife quickly wraps herself in a towel and runs downstairs.

When she opens the door, there stands Bob, the next-door neighbor.

Before she says a word, Bob says, 'I'll give you $800 to drop that towel.'

After thinking for a moment, the woman drops her towel and stands naked in front of Bob, after a few seconds, Bob hands her $800 and leaves.

The woman wraps back up in the towel and goes back upstairs.

When she gets to the bathroom, her husband asks, 'Who was that?'

'It was Bob the next door neighbor,' she replies.

'Great,' the husband says, 'did he say anything about the $800 he owes me?'

Moral of the story:

If you share critical information pertaining to credit and risk with your shareholders in time, you may be in a position to prevent avoidable exposure.

Lesson 2:

A priest offered a Nun a lift.

She got in and crossed her legs, forcing her gown to reveal a leg.

The priest nearly had an accident.

After controlling the car, he stealthily slid his hand up her leg.

The nun said, 'Father, remember Psalm 129?'

The priest removed his hand but then, changing gear, he let his hand slide up her leg again.

The nun once again said, 'Father, remember Psalm 129?'

The priest apologized 'Sorry sister but the flesh is weak.'

Arriving at the convent, the nun sighed heavily and went on her way.

On his arrival at the church, the priest rushed to look up Psalm 129.. It said, 'Go forth and seek, further up, you will find glory.'

Moral of the story:

If you are not well informed in your job, you might miss a great opportunity.

Lesson 3:

A sales rep, an administration clerk, and their manager are walking to lunch when they find an antique oil lamp.

They rub it and a Genie comes out.

The Genie says, 'I'll give each of you just one wish.'

'Me first! Me first!' says the admin clerk. 'I want to be in the Bahamas, driving a speedboat, without a care in the world.'

Puff! She's gone.

'Me next! Me next!' says the sales rep. 'I want to be in Hawaii, relaxing on the beach with my personal masseuse, an endless supply of Pina Coladas and the love of my life.'

Puff! He's gone.

'OK, you're up,' the Genie says to the manager.

The manager says, 'I want those two back in the office after lunch.'

Moral of the story:

Always let your boss have the first say.

Lesson 4

An eagle was sitting on a tree resting, doing nothing.

A small rabbit saw the eagle and asked him, 'Can I also sit like you and do nothing?'

The eagle answered: 'Sure, why not.'

So, the rabbit sat on the ground below the eagle and rested. All of a sudden a fox appeared, jumped on the rabbit and ate it.

Moral of the story:

To be sitting and doing nothing, you must be sitting very, very high up.

Lesson 5

A turkey was chatting with a bull.

'I would love to be able to get to the top of that tree' sighed the turkey, 'but I haven't got the energy.'

'Well, why don't you nibble on some of my droppings?' replied the bull. They're packed with nutrients.'

The turkey pecked at a lump of dung, and found it actually gave him enough strength to reach the lowest branch of the tree.

The next day, after eating some more dung, he reached the second branch.

Finally after a fourth night, the turkey was proudly perched at the top of the tree.

He was promptly spotted by a farmer, who shot him out of the tree.

Moral of the story:

Bull Shit might get you to the top, but it won't keep you there.

Lesson 6

A little bird was flying south for the winter. It was so cold the bird froze and fell to the ground into a large field.

While he was lying there, a cow came by and dropped some dung on him.

As the frozen bird lay there in the pile of cow dung, he began to realize how warm he was.

The dung was actually thawing him out!

He lay there all warm and happy, and soon began to sing for joy.

A passing cat heard the bird singing and came to investigate.

Following the sound, the cat discovered the bird under the pile of cow dung, and promptly dug him out and ate him.

Morals of the story:

(1) Not everyone who shits on you is your enemy.

(2) Not everyone who gets you out of shit is your friend.

(3) And when you're in deep shit, it's best to keep your mouth shut!

THUS ENDS THE FIVE MINUTE MANAGEMENT COURSE

Author Unknown

Check Out This Yacht!

A shipbuilder in France and one in Monaco joined hands to build this yacht: the Wally et Hermes. It measures 58 meters [174 feet] long and 38 meters [114 feet] wide. The yacht has an area of 3400 sq. meters [10,200 sq. feet]. It has staterooms for 12 passengers and a crew of 20. The yacht is "green" [energy efficient]. Equipped with 900 sq. meters [2700 sq feet] of solar panels with a daily output of 500 kilowatts, it translates to 20 to 30% savings in fuel use and 40 to 50% electricity consumption.

The Amenities & Equipment

Three decks,

Helipad,

Indoor swimming pool 25 meters [75 feet] long,

Spa 100 sq. meters [300 sq. feet] in size

with a hammam [Turkish bath], sauna, gym and massage room,

Promenade 130 meters [390 feet] long,

Music room,

Formal dining room,

Cinema,

Sun decks,

Five (5) guest suites,

Owner's suite with terraces,

Lounge with piano bar and a bibi,

The three decks are connected both by stairs and elevator.

!!!! SWEET !!!!

Source/Pics Unknown

Barack Obama & His Fellow Liberals Have Awakened A Sleeping Nation

Barack Obama and his fellow liberals is the best thing that has happened to America in the last 100 years. Truly, he is the savior of America's future.

Despite the fact that he has some of the lowest approval ratings among recent Presidents, history will see Barack Obama as the source of America's resurrection. Barack Obama has plunged the country into levels of debt that we could not have previously imagined; his efforts to nationalize health care have been met with fierce resistance nationwide; TARP bailouts and stimulus spending have shown little positive effect on the national economy; unemployment is unacceptably high and looks to remain that way for most of a decade; legacy entitlement programs have ballooned to unsustainable levels and there is a seething anger in the populace.

Why Barack Obama is such a good thing for America? Here's why.

Obama is the symbol of a creeping liberalism that has infected our society like a cancer for the last 100 years. Just as Hitler is the face of fascism, Obama will go down in history as the face of unchecked liberalism. The cancer metastasized to the point where it could no longer be ignored.

Average Americans who have quietly gone about their lives, earning a paycheck, contributing to their favorite charities, going to high school football games on Friday night, spending their weekends at the beach or on hunting trips - they've gotten off the fence. They've awakened. There is a level of political activism in this country that we haven't seen since the American Revolution and Barack Obama has been the catalyst that has sparked a restructuring of the American political and social consciousness.

Think of the crap we've slowly learned to tolerate over the past 50 years as liberalism sought to re-structure the America that was the symbol of freedom and liberty to all the people of the world. Immigration laws were ignored on the basis of compassion. Welfare policies encouraged irresponsibility, the fracturing of families and a cycle of generations of dependency. Debt was regarded as a tonic to lubricate the economy. Our children left school having been taught that they are exceptional and special while great numbers of them cannot perform basic functions of mathematics and literacy. Legislators decided that people could not be trusted to defend their own homes and citizens should be stripped of their rights to own firearms. Productive members of society have been penalized with a heavy burden of taxes in order to support legions of do-nothings who loll around, reveling in their addictions, obesity, indolence, ignorance and "disabilities". Criminals have been arrested and re-arrested, coddled and set free to pillage the citizenry yet again. Lawyers routinely extort fortunes from doctors, contractors and business people with dubious torts.

We slowly learned to tolerate these outrages, shaking our heads in disbelief and we went on with our lives.

But Barack Obama has ripped the lid off a seething cauldron of dissatisfaction and unrest. 

A former Communist is given a paid Government position in the White House as an Advisor to the President. Auto companies are taken over by the Government, and the Auto Workers' Union - whose contracts are completely insupportable in any economic sense - is rewarded with a stake in the company. Government bails out Wall Street investment bankers and insurance companies who pay their executives outrageous bonuses as thanks for the public support. Terrorists are read their Miranda rights and given free lawyers. And, despite overwhelming public disapproval, Barack Obama has pushed forward with a health care plan that would restructure one-sixth of the American economy.

Literally millions of Americans have had enough. They're organizing, they're studying the Constitution and the Federalist Papers, they're reading history and case law, they're showing up at rallies and meetings and a slew of conservative candidates are throwing their hats into the ring. Is there a revolution brewing? Yes, in the sense that there is a keen awareness that our priorities and sensibilities must be radically restructured. Will it be a violent revolution? No. It will be done through the interpretation of the original document that has guided us for 220 "FANTASTIC" years --- the Constitution. Just as the pendulum swung to embrace political correctness and liberalism, there will be a backlash, a complete repudiation of a hundred years of nonsense. A hundred years from now, history will perceive the year 2010 as the time when America got back on the right track. And for that, we can thank Barack Hussein Obama. –The Aspen Times

by Gary Hubbell: The Redneck Tree Hugger
[Published in Aspen Times Weekly, February 2010]

Gary Hubbell is a hunter, rancher, and former hunting and fly-fishing guide. Gary works as a Colorado ranch real estate broker. He can be reached through his website, aspenranchrealestate.com.

Ragbag Headliners

Smaller Raises for Seniors?

Lawmakers are considering changes to how Social Security is adjusted for inflation.

When inflation rises, retirees' social security checks keep pace with small increases. But if some lawmakers get their way, those raises may be a whole lot smaller in the future.

As part of the current deficit-reduction talks, White House officials and Congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle are advocating changes to the way inflation is calculated. The little-noticed proposal advocates measuring inflation with the "chained consumer price index," a metric that would likely make inflation look slower than the current measurement does. That would result in smaller Social Security increases for seniors, experts say. "Seniors cannot afford this," says Mary Johnson, a senior policy analyst at The Senior Citizens League, a non-profit seniors rights advocate. "This would negatively impact not just seniors, but also many families that end up helping out these seniors financially."

For the roughly 60% of seniors who rely on Social Security for at least half of their retirement income, this is a big deal. Under the new calculation, the rate of inflation would grow at an average annual rate of about 0.3% less, on average, than under the current calculations, according to the Congressional Budget Office. If Social Security uses the new measurement to determine cost-of-living adjustments, the average retiree would receive about $18,000 less in benefits over 25 years, according to The Senior Citizens League. Or, under the new calculations, after 10 years, a 73-year-old would get a check that's about 3% smaller than he would get under the old calculations, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Of course, lower benefits are part of the point. Using the slower-rising index is being billed by many including President Barack Obama's fiscal responsibility commission and the Bipartisan Policy Center -- as a way to generate much-needed savings to help deal with the country's mounting debt crisis. In fact, the savings could amount to an estimated $112 billion over 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. "This is a start in helping us fix Social Security," says David John, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation.

But critics say the new proposal only makes a bad system worse. The current measurement of inflation is supposed to account for the spending habits of adults of all ages, including only a small proportion of retirees. That doesn't reflect the true inflation seniors face, says Moshe A. Milevsky, a finance professor at York University in Toronto. For example, many older people spend a large share of their budgets on items like health care, whose prices have risen about twice as fast as overall prices, according to a 2010 paper published by the Congressional Research Service.

To be sure, almost everyone agrees that the current Social Security system is unsustainable, and the current debate over the deficit has turned up the pressure. Social Security has become a target partially because of the significant cost of the program, say experts. (In 2011, the government will pay out an estimated $606 billion in Social Security, survivor's benefits and related expenditures; this number is projected to rise to more than $1 trillion in 2020, according to a report from the Social Security Administration.

Whether the new measurement will be adopted remains unclear. Some experts think at least some Social Security cuts will go through, at least in part because Obama has warned that unless an agreement on the current debate to extend the United States' borrowing limits is reached, Social Security benefits cannot be guaranteed starting on Aug. 3. A spokesman for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) simply said "a deal has not yet been reached," and a representative for Senator Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), who has been vocal in his criticism of the president's budget plan and announced his own plan on Tuesday, could not be reached.

For some retirees, the proposed switch could mean more belt-tightening. For pre-retirees, it could mean saving more earlier to make up for lower benefits. On top of that, it would become more important to protect a retirement portfolio from inflation hikes, experts say. That includes considering investments that rise or keep pace with inflation, such as dividend-paying stocks, Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities, or floating-rate loan funds. What to avoid? Fixed-rate, low-yielding certificates of deposit, says Michael Wall, the founder of Wall Financial Group in Altoona, Penn.: "They're a good way to lose buying power." -Yahoo Finance

Government Schools as Propaganda Mills

It is no secret that government schools across the United States have become indoctrination centers for the spreading of a social gospel that is anathema to the values of the majority of American parents. Public education is largely run by union bosses and liberal school boards protecting incompetent educrats who push an agenda that has nothing to do with teaching children how to think and everything to do with teaching them what to think. Hitler, Stalin and Mao would be proud.

You may be surprised to learn that this disease of so-called progressive education has spread far beyond the borders of blue states and big cities, and is now infecting even the most conservative areas of the country. Thanks to 21st century communications combined with a desire to be considered tolerant, diverse and multi-cultural, and facilitated by a dictatorial federal Department of Education, local school boards across the fruited plain are joyfully leaping into the propaganda business in direct defiance of the will of the people they purport to serve. In fact, this clash of standards has been brought to the heartland in one of the reddest of our red states.

In Nebraska, the board of education of the Omaha Public School district has taken another brazen leap toward brainwashing the thousands of children they hold captive. Using $130,000 of Obama stimulus money, this board has voted to buy 8,000 copies of a book called “The Cultural Proficiency Journey: Moving Beyond Ethical Barriers Toward Profound School Change."

Three former teachers, Randall B. Lindsey, Franklin Campbell-Jones and his wife, Brenda Campbell-Jones, wrote this propaganda manual; and thanks to the Obama administration, every Omaha public school teacher, administrator and staff member — even custodians! — will get a copy. At $16.25 each. Paid for with your tax dollars.

The authors of the book claim that their intent is “to prepare educators to unshackle themselves from tradition and become facilitators for reconciliation of historical injustices.”

What exactly does that mean? Well, here are a few excerpts from their manual:

> "The government and social institutions in the United States have created advantages that disproportionately channel wealth, power and resources to white people."

> "Colorblindness will not end racism. Pretending race doesn’t exist is not the same as creating equality."

> "It is common for teachers to proclaim they do not see color in children. What this communicates to children of color is that their experience, in a racialized society, is to be discounted."

> "One is compelled to recognize that oppressed groups seeking equality needed to be amended into the Constitution in their quest for justice. On the other hand, heterosexual white men as a group, the unstated norm, have never needed to be amended into the Constitution."

> "It is common to see historically oppressed populations of children — African-American, Latino and Native-American — clustered in low-level academic courses, while upper-level courses are filled with historically advantaged groups, primarily Euro-American. The clear distribution of academic benefits for Whites and lack thereof for people of color is evident in the achievement data reported over the past two decades."

> "We need to recognize and dismantle historical forms of oppression that are operational in schools. Schools can, by tradition, institutionalize sexism, racism, ethnocentrism, ableism, and homophobia, to list a few, through organizational policies and practices."

I know. I, too, was ignorant of this latest lingo. Having lived in politically correct America for more years than I care to contemplate, I was more than acquainted with what the ridiculous radical left means when they whine and scream about sexism and racism. I was even familiar with their other silly terms, such as homophobia and ethnocentrism. But “ableism”? That was a new one — one of which I’m sure the three eggheads who wrote this tripe are very proud. It means discrimination or prejudice toward the disabled. Okay.

Lincoln was right. It is long past time we realize that tomorrow’s leaders are in the hands of Marxists who, from top to bottom, now permeate our education establishment. Our children will one day rule this nation. God help us if we do not rescue them from those who would indoctrinate their minds and crush their spirits. –Liberty Extra

By Doug Patton

^^^*^^^

Doug Patton describes himself as a recovering political speechwriter who agrees with himself much more often than not. Now working as a freelance writer, his weekly columns of sage political analysis are published the world over by legions of discerning bloggers, courageous webmasters and open-minded newspaper editors. Astute supporters and inane detractors alike are encouraged to e-mail him with their pithy comments at dougpatton@cox.net.

No Western Government Has Ever Claimed

The Power To Do This, Not even Hitler.

Election 2012 Is Coming

A Nation of Sheep Breeds a Government of Wolves !

 Lets Take a stand!!

Obama: Gone!
Borders : Closed ...
Language : English only ...
Culture : Constitution, and the Bill of Rights!!!
Drug Free: Make a drug screen mandatory for anyone on welfare
and/or food stamps!
NO freebies to Non-Citizens !

We the people are coming

Souce Unknown

The Truth About Bottled and Tap Water

Whether you're a dedicated bottled water drinker or someone who prefers drinking water straight from the tap, there are a few things you should know about the source of your H20. First of all, just because it's in a bottle does not necessarily mean that the water comes directly from a natural spring or well; it may actually originate from a public water source — that's right, some bottled waters are just tap water in disguise. There are also a number of different kinds of bottled waters. Here are six of the most common types.

6 Types of Bottled Water

> Purified water is essentially tap water that has been purified through a distillation, deionization, or reverse-osmosis process. Purified water may also be referred to as demineralized water. Purified water is typically taken from metropolitan water sources, and then put through commercial filters to remove any chlorines, detritus, or other trace elements that should not be in the drinking water.

> Well water comes from a well that penetrates through the water table. Well water that is bottled for public consumption is regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); however, private drinking water wells are not subject to EPA standards.

> Spring water is sourced from a natural spring where water flows directly from the earth’s surface.

> Mineral water is natural water that comes from a well or spring. It contains dissolved minerals and other trace elements (at least 250 parts per million). While some people believe that mineral water has more health benefits than other types of bottled water, the FDA does not allow a producer to add additional minerals to the water or claim that it provides health benefits.

> Sparkling water is spring or well water that contains dissolved carbon dioxide, which makes the water naturally carbonated. Producers can replace the carbon dioxide that was lost during processing but cannot add more carbonation to what was naturally in the water.

> Artesian water is a type of well water that is derived from an aquifer — a water-bearing underground layer of rock or sand.

Bottled versus Tap

In general, safety standards for bottled water and tap water are the same with a few exceptions. For example, because tap water may become contaminated with lead as it travels through pipes, the government limits the amount of lead in tap water to 15 parts per billion, whereas the limit is set below 5 parts per billion for bottled water. Another major difference is that tap water is often fluoridated, but most bottled waters do not contain fluoride or chlorine. On the other hand, recent studies have suggested that certain plastics used to bottled water may contain potentially harmful chemicals known as phthalates, including Bisphenol A (BPA). If you’re concerned, you may consider purchasing water that has been bottled in glass or in BPA-free plastic.

The Bottom Line

Most people can safely (and inexpensively!) drink water straight from the tap. If you want to improve the taste of tap water, you can purchase a water-filtration pitcher, which reduces the amount of fluoride and chlorine in the tap water. And if you’re looking for a convenient way to stay hydrated and protect the earth, give up the disposable plastic containers entirely and treat yourself to a reusable water bottle made of BPA-free polycarbonate or aluminum, which are both environmentally friendly. –Daily Dash

Liberals Are Smarter Than Conservatives, Just Ask Them

If you are a conservative, Jon Stewart wants you to know you are a moron.

Last weekend on Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace asked the comedian-cum-political commentator who the most consistently misinformed media viewers are. "The most consistently misinformed?” Mr. Stewart said, “Fox, Fox viewers, consistently, every poll." This is a prevalent opinion on the left; they tend to think that those who don’t agree with them must not be bright enough to understand the complexities of the world, or willfully believe in things that are demonstrably untrue. But when the fact-checking website PolitiFact scored Mr. Stewart’s comments it turned out that he was the one who was misinformed. Their review “found three Pew studies that ranked Fox viewers low on the well-informed list, but other general-interest media outlets -- such as network news shows, network morning shows and even the other cable news networks -- often scored similarly low.

Meanwhile, viewers of particular Fox shows -- such as The O’Reilly Factor and Sean Hannity’s show -- scored consistently well, occasionally even outpacing Stewart’s own audience.” The notion that O’Reilly viewers are better informed that his own must simply be too much for Mr. Stewart to bear. No wonder he blotted it out of his mind. And it is worth remembering the April 2010 New York Times/CBS News poll that found that Tea Party supporters tended to be better educated and have higher incomes than most Americans. This is at odds with the stereotyped view portrayed on “The Daily Show” and other liberal-leaning outlets of conservative activists as angry, ignorant, redneck buffoons. But if it makes the left happy to live in their safe, self-affirming fantasy world then so be it. We don’t have to watch. –The Washington Times

Remember Woolworths?

If you were born after 1970s, you most likely have never heard of Woolworth and what it was to have a sandwich at Woolworth. Below is the 1957 sandwich menu at Woolworth's.

And everything those days was in ENGLISH ONLY!

This Weeks Sound Off

New San Francisco Bridge Built In China To Be Shipped To US

First, China made cut-price clothes and knick-knacks. Then it learned how to make mobile phones and iPads. Now it is making a 2,050ft-long bridge spanning the San Francisco bay.

Next month, four enormous steel skeletons, the last of the 12 segments of the bridge, will be shipped 6,500 miles from Shanghai to San Francisco before being assembled on site.

The bridge, which will connect San Francisco to Oakland on the other side of the bay, is a sign of how China has moved on from building roads and ports in Africa and the developing world and is now aggressively bidding for, and winning, major construction and engineering projects in the United States and Europe.

After building forests of skyscrapers in Beijing and Shanghai, showpiece buildings like the Bird's Nest stadium and the Guangzhou Opera House, and a high-speed rail network that is the envy of the world, Chinese construction companies are flush with cash and confidence. This week, Wen Jiabao, the Chinese premier, lobbied David Cameron to give the contract for the UK's new high speed rail link to a Chinese company.

According to Engineering News Record, five of the world's top 10 contractors, in terms of revenue, are now Chinese, with likes of China State Construction Engineering Group (CSCEC) overtaking established American giants like Bechtel.

CSCEC has already built seven schools in the US, apartment blocks in Washington DC and New York and is in the middle of building a 4,000-room casino in Atlantic City. In New York, it has won contracts to renovate the subway system, build a new metro platform near Yankee stadium, and refurbish the Alexander Hamilton Bridge over the Harlem river.

In Europe, meanwhile, China has signed deals with Serbia for a bridge over the river Danube and a connecting road to Belgrade. A £215 million deal will see Chinese firms refurbishing and upgrading a Serbian coal-fired power plant, while China is building a new mobile phone network in Hungary and wants to sell Bulgaria a nuclear power plant, built from a French design.

"The European construction market is huge and the Chinese are very interested in it," said Werner Buelen at the European Federation of Building and Woodworkers, an umbrella organization for Europe's construction trade unions. "At the moment, they seem to be running a pilot program to decide whether to access the market directly by bidding on contracts or whether to buy European construction companies and then use those to access the market," he added.

"They have a very clever mechanism, with several advantages. The first is financing, which they have better access to because Chinese companies are mostly state-owned. It is getting more and more difficult for European contractors to access financing, and you need to have a lot of finance in the construction industry," he said.

"Then they have managed to transfer Chinese workers, who are cheaper.

They can also use construction machinery they have built in China.

Finally, because they can generate still profit despite their low bids, they use that money to hire famous architects and demonstrate they can deliver a project above the normal standard".

However, earlier this month, China was fired from its first major prestige project in Europe, the new A2 motorway in Poland for the Euro 2012 football championships. After bidding 44 per cent lower than the Polish government had budgeted for the road, a Chinese state-owned building company found it was unable to pay its workers to finish the job.

"It is difficult for Chinese companies," said Wang Shouqing, a professor at the International Engineering research department at the elite Tsinghua university. "They are not familiar with Western culture, law or standards. What happened in Poland was a very bad example for other Chinese companies. It could take another decade or even 20 years to put our footprint on Europe and the US." The embarrassment in Poland led China's State Council to publish a notice on Monday warning the heads of China's state-owned companies that they would be "punished" if their companies negligently lost money on overseas projects.

Norman Haste OBE, an engineer whose projects include the second Severn crossing and the design of Heathrow’s Terminal 5, said he had encountered Chinese firms bidding aggressively in the Middle East and that he had a “high regard for what they have done in recent years".

He said: “Their capabilities are second to none, and they are able to finance projects. There is a big demand for new investment in Eastern Europe and similarly in the United States and they will do well there.” But he added that the history of protectionism in the French, German and UK markets might be harder to break. –The Telegraph

So much for saving American jobs! Instead, we support Chinese workers? It sounds like our representatives really don’t care about us first and only us who are trying to keep afloat during this unprecedented economic melt-down in modern history, which by the way, isn’t improving.

It’s time for our representatives to stop paying us lip service and start creating jobs here in the U.S. instead of outsourcing labor that can be done right here at home. But how stupid can I be? China is the NEW U.S.A. After all, they pretty much own us. My bad!

Locally Speaking

Former Atlantic Beach Mayor Found Guilty Of Resisting Arrest

Retha Pierce defended herself in the trial

Former Atlantic Beach Mayor Retha Pierce Sturdivant was found guilty Wednesday of resisting arrest and ordered to serve 18 months probation for an incident on Christmas Day 2007, which began a string of arrests and other troubles that ended with her removal from office.

Sturdivant defended herself in the trial that began Tuesday afternoon and finished Wednesday when a jury of seven women and five men found her guilty of resisting arrest after deliberating for about 30 minutes.

The conclusion of this case comes after Pierce was arrested three more times. Her first attorney was disbarred and is serving jail time for trying to have a former law partner killed and Sturdivant fired her second attorney.

In March, a Marion County judge dismissed a September 2009 driving under the influence charge after officials said the breathalyzer came back 0.0 and the urine test came back clean and the only evidence was from a private witness that saw Pierce driving recklessly.

Sturdivant has a pending charge of hit-and-run stemming from a April 2010. A 51-year-old woman, who told police she was traveling south on U.S. 17 inside the Atlantic Beach town limits when her vehicle was sideswiped by a white Chevrolet Blazer driven by Sturdivant.

In January 2010, Pierce was arrested on a charge of trespassing at Town Hall after a dispute with staff members. She later filed suit stating the arrest was intended to prevent her from uncovering a larger conspiracy among the town's appointed officials. The charge was dismissed.

This week’s trial stemmed from Sturdivant’s first arrest, which occurred two months after Sturdivant was elected mayor of Atlantic Beach, stemmed from Dec. 25, 2007, after an Horry County police officer stopped her on U.S. 17 at Horseshoe Road for driving erratically, according to authorities.

Sturdivant said she tried to walk away from the officer to go to the bathroom. Sturdivant said she was on her way to visit a woman, whose mother had died, and had to use the restroom because of a medical condition.

“The defendant would like to say the prosecution has not proven resisting arrest without a shadow of a doubt,” Sturdivant said during her closing arguments. “He at no time never told her ‘you are under arrest.’ He never told her ‘if you go to the bathroom or continue to go to the bathroom you will be under arrest.’”

Assistant Solicitor Scott Graustein told jurors that the duties of a driver are to stop for a police officer, remain in their vehicle and obey commands from an officer.

“Beyond a reasonable doubt, not shadow of a doubt . . . she wasn’t free to go in the eyes of the law and that’s an arrest,” Graustein said. “She can’t just walk away from a traffic stop.”

After the verdict was read, Sturdivant asked for the jurors to be polled individually regarding the decision. She then told John that she was not tried by a jury of her peers and said the jury was composed of only white people.

John disputed that claim and denied her request.

“A juror of color, juror No. 320, is part of the jury panel that found the defendant guilty. I find no basis for your motion. It is denied,” John said.

Sturdivant then asked for the solicitors to be dismissed from their office because of the way “they handled the case and stacked the jury” against her. Later she asked for a new trial.

“There’s no reason to grant you a new trial,” John said denying her motion.

“The cards are stacked against me, you may proceed,” Sturdivant said in reply before she was sentenced.

Sturdivant showed no emotion when the verdict was read or at the time of her sentencing. But during her closing arguments, the 62-year-old was emotional at times and that was reflected in her voice and facial expressions when she described the events of an “unadulterated mistake.”

“If the party does not know the intricacies of the law . . . they are not guilty of resisting arrest. The officer at no time told the defendant to stop,” Sturdivant said. “A lay citizen who knows nothing would react the same way I did. . . . That’s like expecting a baby to eat a T-bone steak and a baby has no teeth.”

Graustein told jurors that the police officer asked Sturdivant to stop walking away from him, but she did not comply with his requests.

“She would have you all believe she doesn’t know she can’t just walk away from a traffic stop,” Graustein said. “He was doing everything he could to not get forceful with her.”

She told jurors that parts of the tape were omitted when a video from the officer’s dash camera was shown on Tuesday during the trial.

Her voice booming, Sturdivant told jurors: “If you don’t know you are under arrest, how do you know you are under arrest?” “The defendant did not know what she was doing was wrong. She was engrossed in her need to go to the bathroom,” Sturdivant said. “I did not know I was being arrested.”

Sturdivant went on to describe her years as an educator, winning humanitarian awards and her religious beliefs and service to other people.

Sturdivant also told jurors that her arrest was part of a conspiracy to remove her from office because “the status quo” was upset she won the office and wanted to “improve the Town of Atlantic Beach and move the town forward.”

“Because of the status quo and the people in power, they made me run three times [for Atlantic Beach mayoral position] and I finally won in November 2007. The conspiracy then started to keep me from serving,” Sturdivant said. “This officer is part of the conspiracy.”

“There are many shadows here. A shadow of doubt is the mustard seed of justice,” Sturdivant said and also mentioned the Casey Anthony trial and doubt with that jury of that woman’s guilt. “The defense rests because the defendant is not guilty and if you have a shadow of doubt, you must find the defendant not guilty.” -Sun News

Ragbag Headliners

Permissive Parents: Curb Your Brats

If you're the kind of parent who allows your 5-year-old to run rampant in public places like restaurants, I have what could be some rather disturbing news for you.

I do not love your child.

The rest of the country does not love your child either.

And the reason why we're staring at you every other bite is not because we're acknowledging some sort of mutual understanding that kids will be kids but rather we want to kill you for letting your brat ruin our dinner.

Or our plane ride.

Or trip to the grocery store.

Or the other adult-oriented establishments you've unilaterally decided will serve as an extension of your toddler's playpen because you lack the fortitude to properly discipline them, in public and at home.

And we know you don't discipline them at home because you don't possess "the look." If you had "the look," you wouldn't need to say "sit down" a thousand times.

If you had "the look," you wouldn't need to say much of anything at all. But this nonverbal cue needs to be introduced early and reinforced diligently with consequences for transgressions, just like potty training. And whenever a kid throws a temper tantrum in the middle of the shopping mall it's just as bad as his soiling his pants to spite his parents, and it stinks just as much.

I have seen a small child slap her mother in the face with an open hand, only to be met with "Honey, don't hit Mommy." I have seen kids tell their parents "Shut up" and "Leave me alone" at the top of their lungs -- and they are not put in check. I shake my head knowing it's only going to get worse from here.

If I'm sounding a bit judgmental, I assure you I am not alone in my judgment.

Remember that couple that was kicked off an AirTran flight for being unable to control their 3-year-old back in 2007? The child threw a tantrum, refused to get in her seat and delayed the flight by 15 minutes. In a subsequent interview with "Good Morning America," the mother talked about how much more understanding the passengers were compared to the crew that removed the family. That may be true -- but I'm also willing to bet plenty of passengers were happy to have a much quieter flight. An AirTran spokesperson estimated 95% of the 9,000 e-mails the airline received were supportive of taking the family off the plane, according to MSNBC.

Responding to complaints about crying babies keeping people awake, Malaysia Airlines decided to ban infants from first class in some of its flights.

I don't know about you but I would gladly support an airline or restaurant that didn't make someone else's yelling, screaming, kicking offspring my problem.

And there are kid-free cruises and resorts for a reason.

Children are wonderful but they are not the center of the universe. The sooner their parents make them understand that, the better off we all will be.

This is the part of child-rearing people don't like to discuss, because socially, it's not OK to dislike kids. The ugly truth is it's the spineless parents who parade their undisciplined children around like royalty that make people dislike kids.

Parents who expect complete strangers to just deal with it are not doing anyone, including their children, any favors. They are actually making things worse. Not only are their children allowed to interrupt social events and settings when they are young, but they often grow into disruptive forces in the classrooms later. And nobody likes them for that.

I covered education for years and one of the biggest complaints from teachers was about the amount of time they spent disciplining students. Their threats were empty because parents sided with their kids. And, of course, the use of corporal punishment in the classroom is seriously frowned upon, and even punished.

Spanking is not a cure, and should not be the first resort, but I don't think it should automatically be taken off the table when dealing with small kids. We're so preoccupied with protecting children from disappointment and discomfort that we're inadvertently excusing them from growing up.

A young child slapping his or her parent's hand away in defiance is not cute, it's disrespectful. In my house, growing up, that would have earned much more than "the look" from my mother.

If I sound a bit old-school, I am. If I'm coming across as a bit of an ogre, so be it.

As a parent, I can empathize with how difficult raising children can be. There are challenges, especially within the framework of divorce, when parental guilt can sometimes blur what should be the best decision.

But I don't believe making a child's wishes top priority is a demonstration of love. Nor do I believe I, or the rest of the world, should act as a surrogate parents for somebody's bad-ass kids.

You wanted them, deal with them. –CNN Opinion

By LZ Granderson

Editor's note: LZ Granderson writes a weekly column for CNN.com. He has just been named Journalist of the Year by the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. He is a senior writer and columnist for ESPN The Magazine and ESPN.com, and a a 2010 nominee and the 2009 winner of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation award for online journalism. Follow him on Twitter: @locs_n_laughs

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51st State? Small Step Forward For Long-Shot 'South California' Plan

A Republican member of the Riverside County Board of Supervisors wants his county and 12 others to secede from California and form the 51st state. His colleagues gave him an unenthusiastic go ahead Tuesday to explore the idea.

An effort to turn 13 southern California counties into the nation's 51st state took a small step forward Tuesday but remains an extremely long shot, say experts.

Four members of the Riverside County Board of Supervisors agreed Tuesday to allow a fifth member to convene a statewide meeting on the subject in the fall. Each of the four supervisors stated their objections to the secession idea, but went ahead and approved the idea of at least talking about it when Supervisor Jeff Stone said he would “personally see to it” that private funding, not public money, would be used to hold the meeting.

Since the days of the gold rush, more than 220 campaigns to split California into halves or thirds have been tossed around. Mr. Stone's vision involves persuading 13 counties to secede from the state, which he says raids local coffers to plug budget gaps.

Stone's idea has some merit, some analysts say. It addresses the problematic balance of power between Sacramento and California localities, as well as the political reality that the 13 counties in Stone's secession drive are far more conservative than the rest of the state. But the vision remains legally and politically unrealistic, many add, and is perhaps not the best solution to the problems it seeks address.

“Even if everyone in the 13 counties approved of partition, it would still require the approval of the California Legislature. Though theoretically possible, such approval is practically impossible,” says Jack Pitney, professor of government at Claremont McKenna College.

Nothing like Stone's plan has happened since West Virginia broke off from Virginia during the Civil War – and then “only because a rump legislature approved after the regular legislature joined the Confederacy,” says Professor Pitney.

Stone's South California would not include Los Angeles. In addition to Riverside County, the counties targeted for secession would be Fresno, Imperial, Inyo, Kern, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Mono, Orange, San Bernardino, San Diego, and Tulare, which include about 13 million people total.

Republicans account for the majority of registered voters in all but two of the 13 counties – San Bernardino and Imperial. For that reason, the idea has merit, says Robert Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies.

He says the real division would not one between northern and southern California, but internal and coastal California. "This would divide the state in a way that makes political sense: liberals in coastal California and conservatives in east California," he adds. "It would allow the liberals to increase taxes to pay for those services they want, and the conservatives to reduce regulations and taxes in their state.”

Others are not so convinced that the division would be a good thing.

“Secession would be like a divorce, which typically leaves both spouses worse off economically. And like a divorce, it would be bad for the kids,” says Pitney. “The new state would now be responsible for services that California provides, such as regional centers for the disabled. And both sides would have to work out difficult issues, such as ‘custody’ of the University of California at Riverside and other state facilities.”

The plan did not receive enthusiastic approval at the public board meeting, either. Several of about a dozen, three-minute comments from local residents agreed with Stone’s comments that California is extremely hard to govern and needs some kind of overhaul. But some called him names and said they hoped his idea would flop. Some of the supervisors agreed to Stone’s motion to hold a meeting only because he agreed not to use public monies or staff time to convene it, and because the discussions would include other reforms.

Splitting the state is the wrong answer to the right issue, says James Mayer, executive director of California Forward, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization working to bring government closer to the people.

“Indeed, California is too big, too diverse and too complex to be micromanaged by a dysfunctional legislature in the capital,” he says via e-mail.

But the answer, he adds, is to get the state to devolve more of its authority to localities, not to secede. His organization has spent the past two years holding gatherings all over the state to explore ways to give community-level government more authority and responsibility so they can tailor public programs to be responsive and effective in their communities.

“The governor and the Legislature – mostly motivated out of a desire to resolve the state's structural fiscal crisis – has started the process of shifting responsibilities to counties," he adds. "This evolution will take time, and much more needs to happen if it is going to deliver better results.”

In the meantime, Stone's secession bid could lead to useful conversation on the subject of what makes California so difficult to govern.

“In this case, even if secession does not occur – which is highly likely will not – it is worth talking about the reasons the idea is being floated at all,” says Jessica Levinson, director of political reform for the Center for Governmental Studies. “Is California too big to govern? Should we change the way we govern ourselves? Should we have more legislators, who are hopefully, more responsive to their constituents' needs? Should we have at-large elections? Proportional representation? Should we get rid of term limits so people get to know their legislators better?” -Yahoo News

Adopt A Terrorist

A Canadian human rights activist wrote many letters to various government agencies and officials including the Canadian Prime Minister in which she complained about the treatment of captive insurgents (terrorists) being held in various detention centers. She received the following letter in reply.

Dear Concerned Citizen:

Thank you very much for your recent letter expressing your profound concern over the treatment of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda terrorists captured by Canadian Forces, and who were subsequently transferred to the custody of the government authorities in Afghanistan, and are currently being held by Afghani officials in the appropriate Afghanistan National Correctional System facilities. The Canadian government takes these matters seriously and your opinions were heard loud and clear here in Ottawa.

Thanks to the concerns of citizens like yourself, you will be pleased to learn that we have created a new program directly administered by the Department of National Defence. The new program is called "Liberals Accept Responsibility for Killers" or LARK for short.

In accordance with the guidelines of this new program, we have decided to assign one terrorist in your personal care. Your personal detainee has been carefully selected and screened, and is scheduled to arrive under heavily armed guard in your residence in Toronto next Monday.

His name is Ali Mohammed Ahmed bin Al-Mahmud (he prefers to be called Ahmed). He is to be cared for pursuant to the standards you personally demanded in your letter of complaint.

It will likely be necessary for you to hire some assistant caretakers. We will conduct weekly inspections to ensure that your standards of care for Ahmed are commensurate with those you so strongly recommended in your letter.

Although Ahmed is a confirmed sociopath and extremely violent, we hope that your sensitivity to what you described as his "attitudinal problem" will help him overcome these character flaws. Perhaps, you are correct in describing these problems as mere cultural differences.

We understand that you plan to have him undergo psychological counselling and home schooling for which you are highly commended.

Your adopted terrorist is extremely proficient in hand-to-hand combat and can extinguish human life with such simple items as a pencil or nail clippers. We advise that you do not ask him to demonstrate these skills in your yoga group.

He is also an expert in making a wide variety of explosive devices from common household products, so you may wish to keep those items locked up, unless (in your opinion) this might offend him.

Ahmed most likely will not wish to interact with either you or your daughters (except sexually) since he views females as some sub-human form of personal property. This is a particularly sensitive subject to him, and he has been known to show violent outbursts around women who fail to comply with his demands, especially the dress code which he will definitely recommend as more appropriate attire for women. I'm sure that over time, you will eventually appreciate the anonymity offered by the burka. We are certain that you fully understand that this is all part of 'respecting his culture and religious beliefs' as described in your letter.

Thanks again for your concern. We truly appreciate it when folks like you keep us informed of the proper way to do our job and care for our fellowmen.

We anticipate that Ahmed will receive the best of care from you, and again, please remember that we shall be closely monitoring his progress while he is in your custody.

Good luck and God bless.
Cordially,

Gordon O'Connor
Minister of National Defence

Los Angeles Has Fallen To The Islamic Caliphate

LA County Police Department has allegedly been the first in the USA to be completely infiltrated by the Muslim Brotherhood. Tom Trento of United West exposes the LA Police Dept as having fallen to the deceit of fundamentalist Islam. With shock and disgust at the foolishness of Americans in leadership positions Click here to watch the video clip.

Quote Of The Century

"Frankly, I don't know what it is about California, but we seem to have a strange urge to elect really obnoxious women to high office. I'm not bragging, you understand, but no other state, including Maine, even comes close. When it comes to sending left-wing dingbats to Washington, we're number one. There's no getting around the fact that the last time anyone saw the likes of Barbara Boxer, Dianne Feinstein, Maxine Waters, and Nancy Pelosi, they were stirring a cauldron when the curtain went up on 'Macbeth'. The four of them are like jackasses [jillasses] who happen to possess the gift of blab. You don't know if you should condemn them for their stupidity or simply marvel at their ability to form words."

By Burt Prelutsky, a columnist in The Los Angeles Times

Senior Driver

No Words Necessary …

A Senior Driver!

Can Speech Be A Hate Crime?

The answer is apparently yes, at least in lefty Boulder, Colorado, where 23-year-old moron Zachrey Harris has been sentenced to 20 days in jail and two years of probation for...wait for it..."using racial slurs" against a Nigerian student and a Saudi student at the University of Colorado.

Let's be very clear here: Harris' language against the two foreign students was reprehensible. According to the Boulder Deputy District Attorney, he called the Nigerian a "monkey" and said "we bought your parents, and we'll buy you."

I think the Nigerian student should beat Harris to a pulp...and then not be arrested or charged with anything, but that hypothetical is for another day.

For now, an American (moron) citizen is going to spend time in jail for "ethnic intimidation" for his ignorant words, spoken (or yelled) while drunk, as many unfortunate statements are.

If Harris had called the Nigerian (or anyone else) any of a range of things which you might find in "Scarface" (or perhaps in the French knight scene in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail"), he'd be charged with nothing.

Instead, because the "victim" was black and the comments had to do with his skin color, it's suddenly a crime? No! Not in America! The First Amendment gives people the right to say all sorts of stupid things, and insulting people for any reason whatsoever must be among them (as long as the rhetoric in question is not a direct call to violence.)

John Adams called Alexander Hamilton a "bastard brat of a Scotch pedlar" and somehow escaped prison...or even being accused of a "crime against society" or against all Scotsmen or all peddlers.

The Deputy DA said that "the verdict and the sentence are the community's way of saying such actions are intolerable." But does the community really have the right to call something "intolerable" upon pain of prison and an indelible criminal record just because the oh-so-tolerant residents of Boulder find that insulting people (as long as they're not white or Republican) offends their tender sensibilities? Again, no!

"Hate crimes" are anathema to the foundation of our nation: the idea that all men are created equal. It can't be that insulting a black guy or me (a Jew) or a gay is worse than insulting a straight white Episcopalian. It can't be that insulting someone who is a member of some minority group is a "crime against the entire community." We have rights and boundaries as individuals, not as victim groups.

It's time for someone to stand up for the rights of morons to be morons, as long as they're not committing or calling for violence, and for Americans everywhere to be reminded that there is no right not to be offended. If there's anything truly offensive about Zachrey Harris' case, it's that he's going to jail for his moronitude.

(Note: I do recognize that Harris' punishment may have been more severe because the guy he was with actually assaulted the Nigerian student and hurt him quite badly, but there's nothing in this story that says Harris called on the co-defendant to do such a thing. And if Harris was in no way responsible for the other guy's actions -- and generally you must assume that people are responsible for their own actions -- then his punishment should not be determined by his co-defendant's even worse behavior.) -American Spectator