Despite having been wishing people a ‘happy New Year’ I guess it’s time I came clean and admitted that I just don’t believe in it. The idea of a ‘New Year’ is really nothing but a generally agreed marker on where one revolution of the sun begins and another ends. People see it as a beacon of hope and a point from which to effect personal change, but why do we need a society’s marker to give us permission?
I’m busy reading Moshe Feldenkrais’s ‘Awareness Through Movement’ and am finding it fascinating. Feldenkrais states in no uncertain terms that ’society’ wants productive members without worrying too much about their individual fulfillment. As an example of his insights I like this quote a lot:
“The vast majority of people live active and satisfactory enough lives behind their masks to enable them to stifle more or less painlessly any emptiness they feel whenever they stop and listen to their heart.”
Could it be that going along with the majority definition of ‘hope’ etc is in fact nothing more than another means of going along with what’s expected of us and stifling our individuality? Accordingly we at Tigerchess Inc. will not be wishing you a ‘Happy New Year’ nor recognising it is anything more than just another day.
If I must say something about 2010 then I suggest that you see the possibility for personal growth as something that comes but once a year and that whatever you do DON’T LISTEN TO YOUR HEART. You’ll like it better that way, really you will…
Sledges, snowmen, snowballs and the excitement of waking to find that the stuff has settled outside are all a rapidly diminishing part of Britain’s culture, as warmer winters – which scientists are attributing to global climate change – produce not only fewer white Christmases, but fewer white Januaries and Februaries.
…
According to Dr David Viner, a senior research scientist at the climatic research unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia,within a few years winter snowfall will become “a very rare and exciting event”.”Children just aren’t going to know what snow is,” he said.
…
David Parker, at the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research in Berkshire, says ultimately, British children could have only virtual experience of snow. Via the internet, they might wonder at polar scenes – or eventually “feel” virtual cold.
So says The Independent, one of Britains largest newspapers.
Oh wait, hold on, that was written in 2000! Silly me, lets check the current weather in England.
DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano said that the thwarting of the attempt to blow up the Amsterdam-Detroit flight this week demonstrated that “the system worked.”
Asked by CNN’s Candy Crowley on “State of the Union” how that could be possible when the young Nigerian who sought to set off the bomb was able to smuggle explosive liquid onto the flight, Napolitano responded: “We’re asking the same questions.”
Wise Americans feared that a Candidate Obama turned president would attempt to take away many of our liberties.
Obama has felt free to take any liberty not expressly forbidden to him by the general public. Don’t confuse that with the constitution, because Obama obviously doesn’t care about that. He thinks the constitution is merely a document of “negative liberties.”
Any time citizens feared Obama would attempt to grab a specific liberty or right, he has merely lied about his intentions to placate the weak minded among us.
During the financial and automotive meltdown, Obama said he had no desire to be in the banking or automotive business. Yet, the federal government headed by Obama owns banks and auto makers, and dictates salaries, bonuses, and more. In the health care “debate” he claimed that illegal aliens would not be paid for, yet again he lied (thank you, Joe Wilson). He said there would be “not one thin dime” of new taxes on 95% of Americans under his administration. That promise/lie went the way of the do-do. It is living in the same place as the pledge not to raise taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 per year.
So when Obama waves his hand in an attempt to push a Jedi mind trick on us saying he has no intention of taking our guns away from us, based upon his track record of dishonesty, why should we believe him? Simple. We shouldn’t. Despite what he says, his record on the 2nd Amendment shows that he has no desire whatsoever to let you keep your firearms. Let’s look at some examples.
Opposed bill in Illinois that asserted the right of citizens to protect themselves against home invasions, quantifying that self-defense requirements would be viewed to take precedence over local ordinances against handgun possession.
Double-speak: “I believe that the Constitution confers an individual right to bear arms. But just because you have an individual right does not mean that the state or local government can’t constrain the exercise of that right.”
Obama lied about endorsing Illinois handgun ban
“No, my writing wasn’t on that particular questionnaire. As I said, I have never favored an all-out ban on handguns.”
Actually, Obama’s writing was on the 1996 document, which was filed when Obama was running for the Illinois state Senate. A Chicago nonprofit, Independent Voters of Illinois, had this question, and Obama took hard line:
35. Do you support state legislation to:
a. ban the manufacture, sale and possession of handguns? Yes.
b. ban assault weapons? Yes.
c. mandatory waiting periods and background checks? Yes.
Elitist Obama revealed how he truly feels about mainstream America when he said “It’s not surprising they get bitter. They cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”
More Obama double-speak:
Q: You said recently, “I have no intention of taking away folks’ guns.” But you support the D.C. handgun ban, and you’ve said that it’s constitutional. How do you reconcile those two positions?
A: Because I think we have two conflicting traditions in this country. I think it’s important for us to recognize that we’ve got a tradition of handgun ownership and gun ownership generally. And a lot of law-abiding citizens use it for hunting, for sportsmanship, and for protecting their families. We also have a violence on the streets that is the result of illegal handgun usage. And so I think there is nothing wrong with a community saying we are going to take those illegal handguns off the streets. And cracking down on the various loopholes that exist in terms of background checks for children, the mentally ill. We can have reasonable, thoughtful gun control measure that I think respect the Second Amendment and people’s traditions.
2000: cosponsored bill to limit purchases to 1 gun per month (if you’re not a criminal, why should it matter if you buy more than one gun per month?)
Surprisingly, Obama votes in favor of law allowing retired police officers to carry concealed weapons. Why?
Obama said “I am consistently on record and will continue to be on record as opposing concealed carry. This was a narrow exception in an exceptional circumstance where a retired police officer might find himself vulnerable as a consequence of the work he has previously done–and had been trained extensively in the proper use of firearms.“
However, another reason for Obama’s uncharacteristic vote soon emerged. Obama was battling with his GOP opponent to win the endorsement of the Fraternal Order of Police.
Principles that Obama supports on gun issues:
Ban the sale or transfer of all forms of semi-automatic weapons.
Increase state restrictions on the purchase and possession of firearms.
Require manufacturers to provide child-safety locks with firearms.
Voted AGAINST prohibiting civil liability actions against manufacturers, distributors, dealers, or importers of firearms or ammunition for damages resulting from the misuse of their products by others. ANOTHER BACK DOOR WAY OF CONTROLLING GUNS.
When Obama said “I have no intention of taking away folks’ guns,” he forgot to add “right now.” Obama and his henchmen like Eric Holder, along with the anti-constitution and liberty liberals in congress and the senate will continue to do all they can to EVENTUALLY take our guns away from us. But in the meantime they will do all they can to make gun ownership and possession by law-abiding citizens as expensive and inconvenient as possible. One of the proposals being floated by anti-gun advocates is to make all ammunition and powder for reloading such that the powder will break down and become useless after a certain period, one to two years. There are several other such proposals outlined below.
Do you oppose ownership of guns by private citizens? If you do, what do you think stands between you and criminals or an oppressive government? The government and legal system have paralyzed the police to the point that they CAN’T protect us. When seconds count, the police are only minutes away. As for governments, remember that throughout history those who have pounded their guns and swords into plowshares have plowed for those who did not.
If you don’t fight for your constitutional rights and freedoms, who will?
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?print=yes&id=34932
Ammunition Control by the Obama Administration
by A.W.R. Hawkins
Posted 12/22/2009 ET
Without bullets, a gun is no more useful as a weapon than a rock or a hammer. Although an unloaded gun could be thrown at an intruder or a tyrant, the lack of ammunition ultimately reduces it to the status of a glorified paperweight.
And this is not lost on the nearly 100 million gun owners in America, a number of which are asking if the current shortage of bullets is the result of backdoor efforts at gun control (via ammunition control) by the Obama Administration?
The quick answer to that question is — not exactly.
In other words, the reasons behind the current shortage, as the well as the price increases on what little ammunition is available, are both governmental and nongovernmental in nature.
As for the government’s role, a prime example arose in March 2009 when the Department of Defense (DOD) suddenly changed its policy about selling old brass from spent military rounds to Georgia Arms, an ammunition manufacturer located in Winston, Georgia.
According to Curtis Shipley, President of Georgia Arms, on March 12, 2009, the DOD, which had been a longstanding source of cheap brass for the ammo manufacturer, decided that brass could only be purchased from the military if it was “mutilated.” In other words, it would not longer be possible to buy empty brass casings that Georgia Arms could then clean, quickly reload, and sell to the public at a low price.
When I spoke to Shipley, who had been accustomed to buying spent brass in increments of fifteen tons from the DOD, he said, “This portended higher prices because it required us to either mutilate perfectly good brass when we picked it up from a military base or have a DOD employee travel with us (and the brass) to verify that we did indeed mutilate it at a another site.”
Once mutilated, Georgia Arms would have had to melt the brass down, re-alloy it (casings for each caliber require a specific alloy blend that can sustain the pressures for that caliber), and then re-shape it into the proper casing for whichever caliber they were manufacturing. Said Shipley: “Such a process would add approximately $90 to the cost of one thousand rounds of 9mm ammunition right off the bat.”
Fortunately, the public outcry against this DOD maneuver was so great that the order to mutilate all brass was rescinded after just five days. However, those five days were enough to contribute to another problem the government had been causing since November 2008 – namely, fear of an all out Obama-led assault on guns and ammo.
Speaking to this fear, Larry Pratt, Executive Director of Gun Owners of America, said: “You can go to gun stores all over the country and many of them will have a picture of President Obama hanging on the wall. However, when you get up close to the picture and look at the caption on the bottom, instead of saying ‘President’ it says ‘Gun Salesman of the Year.’”
Pratt said gun owners are rightly leery of this administration. Obama supports the new California law that will require every semi-automatic pistol sold in that state to come equipped with a special firing mechanism that makes a distinctive mark – a “fingerprint” – on every bullet casing it fires. And currently, some Democrats in the House of Representatives want to take that law a step further and enact legislation that would force ammunition companies to place serial numbers on every shell casing they manufacture.
Let me just say that if you think ammunition is scarce and expensive now, wait till manufacturers have to put a serial number on every casing and maintain records containing the names, addresses, etc., of everyone who purchases such casings.
No wonder Pratt said: “None of this is about safety. Rather, it’s about finding ways to create an ammo and gun registry that will allow the government to finally figure out which son got daddy’s gun when daddy passed away.”
And while the government is doing its part to make ammunition harder to find, either directly, via episodes like the one between Georgia Arms and the DOD, or indirectly, by scaring citizens to death through anti-gun posturing that has caused a run on ammo sales, the market plays a role as well. With demand outpacing supply the market sustains higher prices for ammo under Obama than it was able to sustain for that same ammo during the presidency of a pro-gun politician like George W. Bush.
Add to this the fact that we’re now sending the majority of the lead from our recycled car batteries to China, instead of selling that lead to ammunition manufacturers who can cheaply reclaim it to make affordable bullets for their casings, and it’s no wonder consumers are scrambling to find ammunition and then paying a fortune for it when they do.
Did I fail to mention that millions upon millions of rounds of ammunition are currently being diverted to our troops in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere right now as well? While this is understandable, it further highlights the fact that we gun owners are in a tight spot, as far as getting ammunition for our guns is concerned.
With all these variables affecting the availability of ammunition, this would be a great time to join a group like Gun Owners of America. By so doing we would assure the politicians in D.C. that if they use their offices to further deny us bullets for our guns, we will use the voting booth to deny them the very offices they now hold.
HUMAN EVENTS columnist A.W.R. Hawkins holds a Ph.D. in U.S. Military History from Texas Tech University. He will be a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal during the summer of 2010.
Over great public opposition, the U.S. Congress has publicly and formally made the transition from principled lawmaking to pragmatic history-making with their passage of health care reform legislation. The Darth Vader-like transition to the dark side of politics is probably the most well documented in history. House then Senate majority leaders bespoke the virtues of the historic nature of their legislation, while virtually no one had time to read either bills before limited debate and passage. Due diligence and process has taken a back seat to political expedience and backslapping.
Closed door meetings and back room sweetheart deals characterized the entire process clinching the 60 votes needed to streamline passage. I would like to think that the straight party line vote drew a clear line between pragmatism and principle, but I am not that naïve. Partisanship is not dead, in fact it is quite alive and well on both sides of the aisle. Money and power have always been a human nemesis and political corridors house no exception.
So how does a principled citizen respond to this misuse of authority? You purpose to vote the inglorious and dishonorable out of office while praying for their political demise along the way. You barrage their offices with your promises of their impending defeat as you raise up and support replacements who will take a stand for liberty, truth, and justice. In the meantime, you continue to defend the right. When the outer castle walls are compromised, you retreat to the inner walls and prepare a new defense there. With regard to this health care reform debacle, the next line of defense is to drive a wedge into the opposition and make compromise impossible and conference committees unsuccessful in finding any consensus. If all else fails, you move to the castle keep for a final defense; in this case, the final votes of each house and the President’s signature. At long last, living to fight another day, we can pray we survive and somehow reverse the damage that was done. This may all sound extremely negative to some, but my point is, there is always hope–something worth fighting for! In Churchill’s inimitable words, “Never, never, never, never give up!”
For the Christian citizen, the spiritual dimension of this battle is always primary and is met in the full armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-18) and with spiritual means (2 Corinthians 10:3-5). Prayer leads the Christian soldier into action–the spiritual world superimposed over the physical world. “God’s truth is marching on.” His sustaining presence is always with His people.
One last ray of hope…who would have thought that Darth Vader, at the last moment, would have turned against the evil emperor and ended up restoring balance to the galaxy? Perhaps principle is not completely gone after all, and conscience can be cleansed and restored. May God add his Amen.
I received a comment from a reader on a recent post about the film Avatar, where he remarked that:
Well I look past the entertainment value and look at the message, particularly films aimed at a younger audience. Im not about to hand out my hard earned money on films aimed on brainwashing our youth (Propaganda). Public schools are bad enough. Only way Hollywood will get the message is by them losing money. You want to reward them, that is your right.
My commentor, in a true libertarian fashion which I applaud, afforded me my personal right to reward Hollywood as I so choose. Kudos to you Elric. After consideration of the basic story, however, I do take issue with his description of the film as “leftist propaganda” (this was remarked in a comment previous to the one quoted above). I believe that it is more consistent with a libertarian perspective than it is liberal perspective.
Without delving into the film too deeply, at first glance to me it is a story about the Navi… an indigenous people who live on the planet Pandora. A technologically superior civilization from earth (I don’t believe that it is mentioned in the film from which country they come), is on the planet extracting minerals. Their hunger for these minerals drive them to wanton destruction of the habitat of the Navi, and the Navi themselves.
I see two major themes here. 1) habitat destruction and 2) personal liberty.
With regard to habitat destruction, there is little doubt in my mind that as the superior being on this planet we have a responsibility for the stewardship of the earth itself and the creatures that share it with us. The rape and pillage of a planet is as irresponsible and wrong as is the rape and pillage of an individual or a group of individuals. Since property rights are an important part of personal liberty, one may do with his property as he wishes, but he or she may not do something on his property that pollutes the property of his neighbor. This would become an invasion of his neighbors’ property rights.
In the film, the driving force behind the planetary occupation is greed. Recognizing greed (humans are appetitive creatures) as a driving force of our existence, we are yet social creatures whose overarching right is individual liberty. This liberty extends to our person and our property. As a group, we may play in the sandbox with our own shovel and bucket, but we may not dump the sand outside the sandbox so that only we may play with it, and we may not throw up or defecate in the sand, or we have removed the right of others to enjoy the sand that belongs to all of us.
I ask then is the promulgation of the idea of stewardship liberal propaganda? I think not. Today there is little doubt that many of the ideas and warnings surrounding “Global Warming” have their basis more in a propaganda promulgated by the liberal eco-movement than are they based on science, but that does not mean that the fundamental idea of stewardship, or living in an ecologically friendly fashion is wrong. There is no doubt that if our species is to survive, we must have land to till, water to drink, atmosphere to breathe.
The earth, unless some cosmological cataclysm destroys it, will survive. Our paleontological and geological evidence tells us however, that species come and go. We must, of necessity, be stewards of our planet. Liberal ideology does not own the idea of stewardship or ecological friendliness.
With regard to the second major theme of the film, that of personal liberty; as a libertarian, this is a fundamental principle necessary for not only good governance, but for the attainment of the “good life” itself.
Throughout human history, the strong have lorded it over the weak. The insatiable hunger of our species for territory, for power, for resources has led the strong to impose their will on the weak. This has led to the destruction of peoples and indeed, entire civilizations. This sort of behavior is counter to the ideas of libertarian thought. If one believes in the fundamental principle of personal liberty, war, with the exception for the protection of personal liberty, is inconsistent with this principle.
In the film, the advanced civilization, in their greed for a mineral resource (unobtanium), seek to destroy the Navi and their homeland. A very un-libertarian action. The Navi embark on a “just war” against their oppressors to protect their property and their person as is their right as holders of “personal liberty.”
In summation, if there is propaganda here, it is a propaganda with which I am much in agreement with. It is a propaganda that is fundamentally libertarian in nature, and I believe a libertarian world would be a better world for all.
Ken, a lumber salesmen and veteran from Alabama wants to help save America. He says, “This country is not what it ways. Work hard your entire life! For What? End up with nothing! Ken started as a teenager working in his family owned lumber yard. Loaded trucks by hand till I could hardly stand. He worked his way through college and chose a career selling lumber products to builders and contractors. He became the leading salesmen in the Birmingham area. Ken claims, ” I’ve been through the ups and downs of the economy since the sixties. Worked hard and steady for forty years. Raised my children. I’m 59. Today, I can barely make my mortgage payment. Lost all my investments for retirement in 2008. I’m screwed! Too damn old! Too damn tired! This new government of ours has backed me to the wall! I’m ready to fight! Hell! I’m ready to die fighting! Ain’t got nothing left!
Dear Ken,
I feel your pain. All of working America feels your pain. It’s their pain! Remember! Dead soldier don’t fight! Live to free this country! Free it’s pain! Live! So our children may live with freedom and liberty. Our battles will succeed! The Jefferson Monument is our sword! The Washington Monument is our anchor! The “Constitution” is our resolve and God is our commander! Run “Congress Bitch Boys” Run!
There’s an old round Polish couple that always sits in the corner of my coffee shop, and I watch them proudly. The man is short, values khaki, is seldom without a light gray coat, and is very proud of mustaches. She’s a tad shorter, prefers wool, is thinning on top, and has sparkling eyes. In their days of dreaming, they dreamed of freedom and America and of house and a job and however else freedom looked. This couple was lucky, for they managed to find a way in to America, probably because they knew someone rich, or knew someone who knew someone rich. He drinks espresso, takes small sips long after going cold, and she drinks tea, with honey, I think. They sit in the corner, seldom with books, seldom in speech. They just sit, side by side, watching all of us as the ages go by overhead. They don’t see it, and it doesn’t really matter that they don’t, for they will soon be dead, by natural causes, hopefully. As for the college kid next to them, the one with the stack of biology books and those on psychology and economics, he’s fucked. The age is upon him, ravenous, full of lust, already feasting, and he, reading those unadaptive writ of stones, is without hope or mind or will to resist.
In this place are many windows. There is a world outside that comes and goes, and at night, sometimes the brightness of the lights obscures and distorts the goings on outside. When standing afar from the windows, we only see our reflection, sparkling against the black backdrop, but dim. I choose this venue for writing and thinking because of the people. There are many types: young, old, healthy, sick, Asian, Indian, Arab, Persian, Hispanic, white, Anglo, Saxon, Protestant. I could spend my whole life writing about them and never run out of things to say.
Humanity, with its soft outer layer and fragile soul, all bound up in some kind of fear, is a beautifully treacherous thing to behold. We can spend all our days thinking and hoping and trying to be that dishonest something, unaware of the slave-drivers and opiates making us go along the way, to a certain way, to think a certain thing. Here, in the belly of the allusion, Orange County, California, the predators of the sky are always ahead of us, dropping barbiturates from flight. Clive Lewis said we are far too easily pleased; he was right. And I say, we have no idea what true pleasure is, and as such can only live through our medications.
I call this the Invisible Age, because in the air are whispers and signs of a terrible storm,
though the people are still making preparation for good times, normal times, as they always have,
as if normal times is such a thing.
We feel something though.
Its moving under our feet.
Its moving our feet.
We are afraid to ask the guy over there if he felt it too because we know he will say he did.
Then we would be forced to talk about it.
No keep quiet, I’m just tired, going mad.
There is a unsaid exhaustion among the looks of lovers, and friends too.
Its tingling skin, heavy sighs, red eyes averse to contact with other red eyes.
They itch.
Its invisble.
The Invisible Age is not really an age, for it has superseded all the ages.
Its the sum of every age.
Its what all the ages wanted to be.
To encompass everything.
Its floor underneath us, drawing us forward, into this great dark opening,
into serfdom.
On the walls shine our many distractions,
and on we go being distracted,
never fully knowing ourselves,
knowing human nature,
not really caring either way.
The predators of the air are circling above the dark opening.
They already have all the money they could ever want, now they want all the power.
Power is in our blood.
The blood is on the ground, as it has since Abel was killed.
Don’t worry though, down in that dark opening are drugs of all sorts, so we won’t care much. I wonder if we will even care when our toes and fingers are nibbled off. Maybe when we only have our elbows left, maybe then we will cry out to God for our liberty.
Liberty without arms. I don’t know.
The old round Polish couple is leaving which tells me its nine o’clock. I will see them tomorrow, and the kid too, and regardless of everything I have said, they’re all beautiful. They’re all beautiful, even as they try to outrun the guy next to them to keep from being eaten.
I hope, that when the age is revealed, we don’t think like that,
like outrunning our brother will bring us salvation,
Courtesy of Butler Shaffer, a law professor in the Southwestern University School of Law and contributor for the Mises Institute, a humourous yet eye-opening take on Scrooge- Bah Humbug!
Selfishness is A Virtue
http://mises.org/article.aspx?Id=3952
(Article copyrighted by author and the Mises Institute. Scrooge McDuck copyright Disney Corporation)
Season's Greetings!
Happy Holidays ( I personally celebrate Festivus) Everyone, May Liberty Bless Your Will and Grant You Victoria In The New Year!!!!
I told you there was a light at the end of the tunnel of apathy toward American politics.
As it turns out, this light is a hope for more than one issue.
It’s a light at the end of the tunnel of big government, of the onslaught of attacks upon American liberty.
Funnily enough, however, this light is rooted in the same place many believe to be the core of apathy: the American youth.
And this light? It has a name: The Year of Youth, Project 2012. The youth revolution.
Founded by Jared Fuller and Christopher Pille, Year of Youth is a movement dedicated to liberty, localism, political and economic freedom. Its Executive Board consists of many experienced liberty activists, many of whom founded their own branches of Young Americans for Liberty and liberty-based newspapers, college groups, a complete array of impressive action. Its core team, too holds an impressive number of young liberty activists.
The cause of Year of Youth?
To revolutionize our government, to restore it to the parameters of the Constitution, without firing a single shot…a war fought on the battlefield of ideas.
The purpose is to take government down a peg or two, to knock the politicians from their high horses and return them to the Constitution, which seems to have been battered and bruised throughout the years. And it will all come to a high point on November 5, 2012.
This is Project 2012: to elect to office a candidate who will not make it their goal to “stay the course,” but to change course, to find American government as it was meant to be. Benjamin Franklin once called this great nation “A republic…if you can keep it.”
And this is is exactly what the Year of Youth strives to do; keep our republic. If the youth aren’t keepers of the republic, then I pose one question: Who is? Who else will restore and strengthen it, if not the youth?
Since hearing of YOY, I’ve heard many times the lament that this movement is wasted on the youth. That the youth of the nation is nothing but apathetic trouble. They couldn’t be more mistaken.
We are the future. Those of us who cannot yet vote will be there at the next election. We have the potential to swing this government in an about face. And we will.
I can promise you that.
We are strong, we are determined, and we have the greatest cause I can think of: the future of our beautiful nation.
Well, the Republic ended today. Barring divine intervention “health care reform” will be the end of the American experiment with liberty. From here forward a soft tyranny will determine how we live from what we eat to what we drive to how we spend our leisure time. Nothing will be free of government inspection. Not tanning salons, not smoking, not eating double-cheeseburgers. Every choice we make will be claimed to have implications on our health and therefore the public treasury.
We’ve had decades of paying allegedly deserving groups from the public coffer. Now we are going to pay for every medical procedure known to man including for anyone who happens to be inside our borders. Never mind that Medicare is bankrupt, Social Security is bankrupt and we are fighting a global war, we will pay for abortions, Viagra and cold medicines until we can’t. At some point we’ll have to pull in our horns and leave the battlefield to the jihad crazies who want to exterminate us. Our roads and bridges will continue to decay. And at some point (sooner than later you can bet) we’ll have to start rationing the precious health care we’ve “reformed”.
Seeing as how every human institution eventually erodes and ends, it was a good run. 200+ years. The odds say it couldn’t last. Too bad I was here to see the end of it.
More to come on how to live in a post-liberty, post-capitalism, post-America America.
There is forward and backward, good and evil, right and wrong, and right and left. Each of these pairs of opposites have been used to describe our political landscape. Let me suggest another pair that is relevant today: free and enslaved. We don’t have to go back to pre-Civil War days to learn about slavery. All we have to do is look at what our government is doing in modern times through out-of-control, heavy-handed, mismanaged and corrupt government. A barrage of oppressive regulations, crushing taxes, and exploding debt of epic proportions are turning “we the people” into “we the slaves.”
What can we do? For starters, let’s take a page out of the weight loss industry’s handbook and create an inspirational “before and after” image in our minds. Today we are in chains. Tomorrow the chains will be broken IF enough freedom-loving Americans wake-up, rise up, and take a non-negotiable stand against tyranny and for the Constitution. Let’s start breaking those chains TODAY!
No! Wasn’t the James Gang! An eastbound train was mysteriously delayed in Nevada desert Wednesday. Train reached next stop less one rail car! Conductor claims, “Engines stopped! Men in Black! Time I came to! Them poor sheep were gone! My rail car was gone! Don’t know what happened! Not sure I want to know!”
Dear Conductor,
I agree! Best you don’t know. I’ll give you a hint! American Sheep terrify our United States Congress. Congress just established a “Sheep Safety Zone” of ten miles around our Capitol. Senate claims sheep are terrorist in wool clothing! Congress banned all American sheep from Washington two weeks ago! Congress claims, “Sheep Go! Or! We Go in our pants!”
December 17, 1989. In the morning, Timisoara takes to the streets again. Most of the leaders of the previous night’s battles had been badly beaten or arrested by the Militia and the Securitate in the raids that had swept the city all night. But by the end of the morning, hundreds of people gather around the head offices of the Communist Party in Timisoara County, on August 23rd Boulevard. Chanting anti-governmental slogans, a group of the most adventurous storm the building, and under the eyes of the petrified Party functionaries, they tear down Ceausescu’s pictures from the walls, they grab Ceausescu’s books from the bookcases and, together with other communist totems, throw them out of the window into the street. Outside, the crowd meets every shattering of an icon with a huge cheer. They watch as books and portraits crash from the balcony and windows. But the cheer rapidly turns into grief, for it is here that the soldiers use their bayonets on the people for the first time. The stories of the eyewitnesses are terrible: people bayoneted in the stomach, in the back, bayonets cutting people’s faces or ears… a brutal counter-offensive from the army who was supposed to protect the people, not slaughter them for the only fault of having wanted to be free… Panic and fury. Cruelty and revenge. The communist icons of the criminal authorities crushed to the ground. Ceausescu, in effigy, being dragged into mud. His glorious books set on fire. And then the barricades appear. The first clashes. Natural leaders take the lead of the crowds, directing them towards the nerves of the Power. Nothing can control the rebelious city anymore. The workers’ areas are on fire. The harrassed dictatorship is giving in with each step. The stifled soul of freedom is taking its first breaths. The army tanks, sent on the street to crush the people, are blocked by the naked chest of the common people. For the first time in the past fifty years, somewhere in Romania, at Timisoara, God is taking side with the many. God, but not His clerks, who have locked up His churches on the inside!
Timisoara, December 17, 1989. In front of the City Hall, a line of military, armed to their teeth, defend an invisible line. Thousands of people chant uselessly: The Army is with us! The Army is not with them. The Army has used its weapons against the people – and the worse is yet to come…
In Bucharest, dictator Nicolae Ceausescu is yelling at the Ministers of Defence and Interior, calling them traitors, for not having shot directly in the people, as he had ordered. “I ordered that the security forces be armed, that warning shots be fired first, and that afterwards the demonstrators be shot in the legs. Why was this not done?” His Ministries make excuses that they couldn’t possibly think of taking the army out in the street with arms and war cartridges. Ceausescu’s fury is growing: “I ordered you to fire warning shots, and then, if they don’t withdraw, shoot them in the legs. I didn’t think for a minute that you were using blank cartridges. This is eyewash! Those who broke into the Party County Committee headquarters should never have got out alive! They should have been shot dead!“
And so they were… in Timisoara, only a few hours later… and then in Cluj, Arad, Lugoj, Brasov, Bucharest…
In his telephonic conference, at noon, Ceausescu told the officials he had sent in Timisoara: “Some very serious events have been occuring in Timisoara in the last two days… Mistakes have been made because the problem should have been settled within an hour or two… Units were sent out without proper armament before, but now they have been given war ammunition… This is a state of emergency… Everyone who does not submit to the soldiers, I’ve given the order to be shot. People should be challenged, and if they do not comply with the order, they should be shot… I gave order to the troops to fire… They made the mistake before of turning the other cheek… Humanism does not mean joining the enemy. Humanism means the defence of the socialism.”
The Bloody Sunday massacre in Timisoara started about 5,30 pm, as darkness fell on the city…
Our “leaders” are in Copenhagen, deciding what new regulations to impose on us in order to protect us from the catastrophic climate change that will supposedly come upon us if we are left to ourselves. If we really valued a cooler future climate (or if we really believed warming to be a real and serious threat), we could drive less, drive cleaner vehicles, go vegetarian, pay more for our electricity, pay more for “green” products, etc. Each one of us does a cost/benefit analysis every time we pay our light bill, and less than 22,000 CT residents have signed up to pay more for the “Clean Energy Option”. Most of us apparently value economical energy over “cleaner” energy. By forcing us to pay more for energy or use less energy (and make no mistake, that is what any new regulations will entail), our leaders are imposing their values on us. They claim to know, better than us, what is best for us. But then again, that is the basic fallacy of the State, whether they are regulating markets, prohibiting alcohol, restricting the use of tobacco and firearms, regulating health care, or taxing some to give to others.
Please. Stop. You’re embarrassing yourselves. Take a deep breath, and try to understand what has happened to you during the past month. You need to accept that your dreams of global domination are over. Increasingly shrill attempts to terrify the masses into ignoring Climagate are only making you look foolish. The con job you’ve been running for the last thirty years is busted forever.
While updating some details on my Blog I came to the realization that some terminology in our Constitution which is used quite often by the media, citizens, etc. is not ever really defined. I believe its definition is intentionally ignored for the same reasons the terms TREASON are..
I believe that actually knowing these definitions would remove the mental haze a lot of Americans rely on to hide from the reality of their present circumstances relating to the overthrow of our country and its corrupt political system so I set out to take the haze of Selective Ignorance away from them by defining DOMESTIC ENEMIES. After numerous attempts to locate any viable legal definition ( hmm.. wonder why) with several different search engines I am forced to go it alone..
Since we already have a common understanding of what FOREIGN ENEMIES are and how they act its time we defined the other very real internalized threat, DOMESTIC ENEMIES, to our freedoms in America on an equal basis.
I define DOMESTIC ENEMIES as they are defined by the use of the term in our Constitution. “..enemies foreign and domestic”. That labels anyone, citizen or not, who is DOMESTIC to this country whether natural born or naturalized, who is actively engaged in undermining, subverting, altering or violating the rights of the people as constitutionally protected and defined, the United States Constitution or its limitations and protections in violation of the laws of these United States as outlined in the constitution or violating the trust of the citizens by willfully violating the oath of office in any elected, appointed or other civil service position granted to the servant by the people. DOMESTIC ENEMIES are self-defined solely by their actions.. not position, standing or place. When the servants no longer serve their rightful masters and choose to serve their own agenda they become self-identified as DOMESTIC ENEMIES.. and we arent talking about house servants either.
Concerning oaths of office there are too many to go into here now but keep in mind that other oaths to states, laws or service to same are invalid if that oath violates in any way, whether by intent or interpretation, the United States Constitution’s protections or limitations. It doesnt matter if some corrupt court or activist rules contrary since that ruling is automatically illegal by default.. people should keep that in mind for future reference.
For the record.. I’m not a Republican or a Democrat, I dont have any corrupt party affiliation. I am a Free Man and United States Citizen by birthright. My race or genetics are immaterial since ALL natural born Americans are free by Gods decree alone. I accept the U.S. Constitution as its written and I dont require some corrupt legal mook to interpret its intent for me, its written in plain english, ..American english.
If you do then your education is lacking, on purpose.. you should think about that.
For those of you who find my topic upsetting, considering the attacks lately by media on the 1st Amendment rights of many in this country, I remind you of its content.. maybe its time you upgraded your leftist funded education.
The Bill of Rights
Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
By Cliff Kincaid 2007 interview on CBS’s “60 Minutes,” O’Reilly said not only that “global warming is here” but that those opposed to the theory were “idiots.”
To read these stories look under our national and international news section at: http://www.worldviewtimes.com/news
• Oklahoma’s Two U.S. Senators Ready To Debate Health Care Bill
• Obama Buys The Last Vote for $100 Million
• BREAKING: San Diego ACORN Document Dump Scandal
• Tampa Council approves transgender protections
• Coca-Cola spearheads 1-world climate tax
• Gold hits record above $1,170/oz
• Ex-FBI agent who watched JFK autopsy reflects on death
• Global body needed to direct green technology, G77 says
Item #2
Worldview Matters with Brannon Howse Topic One: Brannon’s guest is Tom DeWeese with the American Policy Center. Topics include: An update on the Pass Act, the replacement for the real I.D., a national I.D. cart. Defining sustainable development, the real agenda of those pushing global warming and radical environmentalism is global governance. How a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court allows the EPA under the Obama administration to destroy the free-market, eliminate millions of jobs and drastically increase the cost of everything. What four things can the American people do to pull the rug out from under those that are seeking to implement tyranny?
Item #3
Copenhagen confusion
By Henry Lamb
More than 14,000 people have pre-registered to attend the shindig in Copenhagen next week, none of whom are delegates. The facility, which accommodates only 15,000 people, will be overrun by special interest groups, all clamoring for attention and a piece of the $94 billion pie that is divided annually among the global warming congregation.
Item #4
The Waste of Tax Dollars Never Ends
By Tom DeWeese
The nation is collapsing under the federal deficit and Washington can’t find a dime to cut from the budget. Here’s an idea. Stop the Obama phone. What’s the Obama phone, you ask? Well then, that tells me something important about you – you aren’t on welfare – you are just a stupid tax payer. Because everybody on the dole knows about the Obama phone.
Item #5
Understanding The Times with Jan Markell
The Battle for America Bill Wilson is an award-winning Christian journalist and also a part of Koenig’s International News. He states we have a war within America, enormously destructive without shedding blood. All of the new Washington efforts have only one goal: To bring about socialism in America. Dr. Michael Youssef offers some answers as to what we can do about it. Jan also brings an update on the “Fairness Doctrine.”
Item #6
Don’t Let This Happen in America!
By Jan Markell
You might think this cannot happen in America. A young Muslim woman converts to Christianity and both Islam and the State of Ohio are working against her. Political paybacks are more important than her life. And what is happening as I write this is chilling because the fate of many more hang in the balance if this woman loses.
Item #7
Israeli Intel Says Iran Now Has Know-How to Build Nuclear Weapons By Joel Rosenberg
Three dangerous developments this week in the epicenter. First, “Iran now has the technical capability to build a nuclear bomb and the only thing separating it from the bomb is the decision to go ahead and build one, said Brig. Gen. Yossi Baidatz, head of Military Intelligence’s research division, on Monday,” according to a Jerusalem Post report. “Baidatz also said that Iran had been upgrading its missile arsenal, and that it had developed missiles with the capability of carrying nuclear weapons that could reach Israel.”
Item #8
Worldview Matters with Brannon Howse Topic one: Wall street Journal runs article on the number of couples in their thirties and forties that are buying land. The reasons include the desire to be self sufficient, simplifying, and investing in a hard asset. Topic Two: Tennessee mayor says Obama gave speech on night of Charlie Brown special in order to keep the real story of Christmas being told on national TV. The mayor also says that Obama is a Muslim. This story is making national news. Topic Three: Part two of Brannon’s presentation on true and false converts.
Item #9
The Bush-Obama War
By Chuck Baldwin
Now it’s Barack Obama’s war. After campaigning against “George Bush’s War” in the Middle East, Obama has escalated that war. By transferring thousands of America’s forces from Iraq to Afghanistan, and by sending an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan, the liberal Democrat has demonstrated that his administration is not so different from that of his “conservative” Republican predecessor.
Item #10
Wallbuilders Live with David Barton
“Why Does Africa Remain Broken?” Guest: Robert Smith, Agathos Foundation
To read more worldview news and commentary: www.christianworldviewnetwork.com
Let’s see: Harry Reid says opposing the health care bill it is akin to promoting slavery, yet his party favors public funding of abortions for the poor? Hey Harry, black human beings are already destroyed at a rate three times that of whites. Isn’t that high enough for you, and isn’t that the real racism?
—
Why does the RNC just oppose government funded abortions in their purity test? I realize that the issue in the health care bill is front and center, but let’s not forget that all abortions kill an innocent human being.
—
Christian man fired after gay rights group contacts his employer to complain – Your freedoms are eroding at a rapid rate, people.
—
More on Kevin Jennings, the most ironically titled Czar of them all. What a sick freak.
He is Barack Obama’s Safe Schools Czar.
He is a supporter of men who openly and vocally support pedophilia.
. . .
Kevin Jennings, however, is not just a gay man, but a man who believes in the full gay rights agenda, where men and boys can have sexual relationships free of prudish moral people frowning.
Jennings has championed NAMBLA’s [the North American Man Boy Love Association] causes and lauded a pedophilia advocate.
He even wrote the forward to a book called “Queering Elementary Education.” That’s right, Jennings wrote the forward to a book that, in its own description advocates the aggressive homosexual agenda among elementary school students. From the book: “queering education happens when we look at schooling upside down and view childhood from the inside out.” No irony is intended apparently in that description.
Americans of moral decency should be stunned to know the President of the United States would put in charge of “safe schools,” a man who encourages predatory relationships between young boys and grown men.
Barack Obama has done exactly that. Has he no shame?
And here are some of the tips from GLSEN, which Jennings led for many years. This group is one of the most vile and perverse I’ve come across, because they target children.
Also read the Washington Posts’s Obama’s Buggery Czar — Jennings’ group made sex between children and adults look normal.
People who support organizations like Planned Parenthood or GLSEN are spectacularly evil and/or ignorant.
Look, there are over paid people in this world. Athletes. Movie stars. Middle managers at large corporations. Sure. I get it. And to a l ot of people, people who really work and work physically, the money that some of the people make is gross. That being said, the market adjusts pretty well and compensates those people fairly well.
Is shoveling horse manure more physically demanding than running a large Fortune 50 account? Yup. Are more people suited to shoveling manure than managing said account? Just as sure. Hence, the value of the skill is different and the compensation changes.
Which just makes this news predictable:
Anastasia Kelly, general counsel of AIG , Rodney Martin, head of one of AIG’s international life insurance businesses; William Dooley, who runs the financial-services division including AIG Financial Products; Nicholas Walsh, vice chairman and head of the international property and casualty unit; and John Doyle, who runs the U.S. property and casualty division, said in written notices Dec. 1 that they’re willing to leave by the end of 2009…
…
In October, Feinberg cut 2009 compensation for AIG’s top 13 employees by 57%, including limiting most base salaries to no more than $500,000. Another 12 top employees had already left before the review began, according to the WSJ.
Now, you can argue that execs are overpaid. And you might even be able to convince some people of that fact. But what you CAN’T prove is that THESE execs are overpaid in relation to their peers. These people, in theory, are among the best in the world at what they do. There might be only a few hundred who have the ability to rise to the positions these people have. And that is among billions of people. They SHOULD be paid well.
If you believe in forever
Then life is just a one-night stand
If there’s a rock and roll heaven
Well you know they’ve got a hell of a band, band, band
Jimmy gave us rainbows
And Janis took a piece of our hearts
And Otis brought us all to the dock of a bay
Sing a song to light my fire
Remember Jim that way
They’ve all found another place
Another place to play
If you believe in forever
Then life is just a one-night stand
If there’s a rock and roll heaven
Well you know they’ve got a hell of a band, band, band
Remember bad bad Leroy Brown
Hey Jimmy touched us with that song
Time won’t change a friend we came to know
And Bobby gave us Mack the Knife
Well look out, he’s back in town
They’ll all be there together
When they meet in one big show
If you believe in forever
Then life is just a one-night stand
If there’s a rock and roll heaven
Well you know they’ve got a hell of a band, band, band
There’s a spotlight waiting
No matter who you are
‘Cause everybody’s got a song to sing
Everyone’s a star
(Everybody’s got to be a star)
If you believe in forever
Then life is just a one-night stand
If there’s a rock and roll heaven
Well you know they’ve got a hell of a band
If you believe in forever
Then life is just a one-night stand
If there’s a rock and roll heaven
Well you know they’ve got a hell of a band
If you believe in forever
Then life is just a one-night stand
If there’s a rock and roll heaven
Well you know they’ve got a hell of a band, band, band
Rock and Roll Heaven
ROCK AND ROLL HEAVEN RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS MIKE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWQ0tFMcGgY
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I had a meeting recently with a government official about a project I was set to work on. He opened the meeting with “What makes you an expert?” I was to prove to him, right then and there, why I was qualified to do this project because, he said, he was paying my salary. As the discussion progressed, it became obvious that he had very little knowledge of my area of expertise–yet there he sat in judgment.
This little episode explains a lot about why Ronald Reagan said government is not the answer–government is the problem. If Congress passes its health care take-over bill, this little scene will be replayed all over America countless times.
The first problem is that this man had absolutely no experience outside of government. He really couldn’t comprehend the value of the efficiencies I would bring to his organization from private enterprise and the free market. Cabinet appointees in the Obama administration have a shockingly low amount of experience outside of government:
Yet by virtue of his government position this man felt he had the ability and the right to judge whether I am an expert in my field or not. My field has certified me as an expert, but that wasn’t good enough for him. Imagine now that bureaucrat judging whether you need a certain medical procedure or not. Doesn’t matter whether your doctor–an acknowledged expert in his or her field–has said you need it. It’s the government’s opinion that matters.
The second–and perhaps more serious problem–was his attitude that he would be paying my salary. He wouldn’t: the American taxpayer would be. People in government soon forget that they hold their positions in trust to the people and that the resources they have are not theirs. Government as a whole soon begins to believe they have a right to the taxes they levy and can dispose of them as they wish. That worked for Louis XIV, but we call that tyranny. Louis XVII lost his head over the question; King George III was lucky to lose only his colonies.
A third problem is that he wanted the solution to be so universally applicable that it could be used anywhere. There is this streak in government–socialist or not–for one size fits all solutions. In America with its Christian heritage, we believe that all mankind is created equal–but they we are all uniquely endowed by our Creator with different strengths and weaknesses. One size doesn’t fit all except in the dream-world of a socialist utopia.
But perhaps the biggest problem is this: today I am independent with my own business and customers. I make my own choices, I choose my own destiny and I live with the consequences. This is Liberty. If I go to work on this project, pretty soon my customers will find other business partners and I will become dependent on the government. That’s the way it will be with health care. Today we have choices but as we go to a government “option” gradually the other options will fade away.
That’s how we lose our liberty and why we must defeat health care “reform.”
“Now is the winter of our discontent…” to paraphrase the Bard.
Sure the unemployment rate dropped .2 of a percent.
Because they gave up.
Because it seasonal temp worker season.
Not because they got a real job.
The problem can be summed up with the words of the great Fats Domino when he said, “a lot of fellows nowadays have a B.A., M.D., or Ph.D. Unfortunately, they don’t have a J.O.B.”
But that’s a minor detail to the Obama Administration.
He had his “Job Summit” a few days ago where he got his pals around a table for a photo-op and a bull session to see how he can spin this and then he went out onto the CAMPAIGN TRAIL.
It’s time for Campaign Mode again folks. Not Leadership.
Obama’s LA Times- before the “summit”: “Folks who have their jobs face a level of insecurity that is unacceptably high from the administration’s perspective,” said the White House official. “So the president has tasked us to generate ideas and work with Congress on future job-growth measures.”
Having been preoccupied with passing a health care bill, the White House is eager to demonstrate it is sensitive to the economic hardship Americans face. To that end, the White House will host a jobs summit Thursday. And the next day, Obama will travel to Allentown, Pa. — the first stop in a kind of economic “listening tour.” (read: Campaign Mode)
How about listening to this (Rasmussen poll): Only 27% of voters nationwide favor a single-payer health care system where the federal government provides coverage for everyone.
That’s 63% opposed to “The Public Option”.
When it comes to quality, 55% of voters say a single payer health care system would lower the overall quality of health care.
Fifty-seven percent (57%) of voters nationwide favor limiting the amount of money a jury can award a plaintiff in a medical malpractice lawsuit.
That would be the Tort reform opposed Universally by Democrats because they are in bed with the Trial Lawyers.
But I guess we’re not saying anything the politicians want to hear or can twist and spin.
Polling shows that the healthcare overhaul is not as important to Americans as an economic recovery that yields jobs. With a midterm election next year, Democrats in control of the White House and Congress can’t afford to look out of touch.
A Senate Democratic aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, “Democrats have to address the No. 1 concern of their constituents — and that is, by a long shot, jobs.
“We want to show we get it — that we’re responsible and in tune.”
Warm Fuzzies for everyone!
WSJ: Obama’s signature jobs initiative was the stimulus package, but the bill did little to promote private-sector investment or job creation. The new government spending in the stimulus does not encourage entrepreneurs to start or expand a business enterprise unless they received a stimulus contract. Consequently, the stimulus ignores the main factor increasing unemployment: lack of private investment. Instead of encouraging private-sector job creation, the stimulus bill increased government spending on longstanding liberal priorities.
The Obama Administration’s approach to yesterday’s “jobs summit”–excluding the Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Businesses, the principle federations that represent private-sector job creators–further illustrates this shortsightedness.
That’s right, small business groups were EXCLUDED from the summit.
Why?
Because they’d been critical of him.
The poor baby. Did they hurt your feelings Barack.
But do you really know what’s behind this sudden concern, nearly a year into his presidency and with unemployment not going down as all his economic pundits predicted?
2010.
The Congressional Mid-Term elections.
That’s what’s got him into campaign mode.
The 2010 Democratic Whitewash of a 12 Trillion Dollar Debt and nearly 4 Trillion dollars in spending in less than a year that did NOTHING has officially kicked off.
The 2010 Whitewash of massive new Tax proposals to crush you under their heal has begun.
And the spin will likely throw the Earth off it’s axis.
And be warned, there is no line of any kind that the liberals won’t cross in order to hold onto their power.
No Bribe is too big.
No promise too outrageous.
They will make the 2006 and 2008 P.T. Barnum “Centrist” campaigns look like an kindergarten skit.
And anyone who opposes them, they will be nuked into sub-atomic particles and then nuked again.
And their willing accomplices in the “Mainstream Media” will be only too glad to help them out.
The Ministry of Truth will be out in full Orwellian Mode.
So this is a warning to any Republican who might actually read this, The Mainstream Media is your Enemy. And should be treated as such.
They cannot be reasoned with.
They cannot be appeased.
You can’t make nice with them.
They want to destroy you.
Period.
Get over it.
As for Jobs, Government can only create government jobs. And the levels of bureaucracy proposed by Obama and The Democrats is truly frightening.
But it won’t get the average american a job.
But it could make them dependent on government for sustenance.
IN Dependence rather than Independence.
The liberals wouldn’t mind that at all.
How else do explain that the same people who are “life long democrats”, the poor, minorities, et al are the very people who get the hand outs then get the screw and don’t catch on to this shell game at all.
The administration will find it hard to spend further large sums to create jobs because it ran a staggering $1.4 trillion budget deficit in fiscal 2009 and is likely to have a similar shortfall in the current fiscal year ending Sept 30, 2010.
The highest deficit ever. Making George W Bush look like the fiscal conservative he wasn’t.
But damn the torpedoes, full Campaign Mode ahead!!!
Maybe they can get some of those people from the fictitious Congressional Districts that got Stimulus money to hire people.
But imagine your an employer.
Looming on the Horizon are the Twin Collosus of Health Care Reform and Cap & Trade.
Both absolutely guaranteed to TAX the life out of you.
Would you take the risk of hiring more people with this facing you?
Not if you have any sense.
But do you think the Democrats can even see this obvious truth.
Why would they?
It’s not in their agenda.
And they are the best,brightest, smartest and most caring people in the room, after all.
Just ask them, they’ll tell you.
But if we go into Campaign Mode, we can make it sound completely different than it is.
All style and no Substance. But damn it will make you feel good.
So, I hear tell, does doing drugs. At least for a quick buzz.
And the Politicians favourite drug: Your Paycheck.
Government has no money unless it takes it from you.
So , we’re from the government and we are hear to help you.
Trust us. We Care.
Hope and Change.
Yes We Can!
“Investments that we have in jobs should be paid for by TARP funds,” Pelosi said yesterday.
Yeah, lets recycle bribes using money we don’t have to bribe a new group of people with more waste & fraud!
House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio said using the TARP money would a “very big mistake.” The money “was intended to solve an economic emergency in the financial sector” and returned funds should go to repaying government debts, he told reporters.
Not anymore, especially when you have a 2010 election Crisis to solve!
“I don’t think … [global warming] is quite, frankly, among most people, in dispute anymore.” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs.
Well, that problem’s solved.
And now they have their own Health care to keep secure.
Another amendment was proposed to have the Congress live under the Health Care Reform they are proposing.
IBD: Senators and representatives from both sides of the aisle know how good they have it under the FEHBP (Federal Employees Health Benefits Program.), the world’s largest group health program. The reason Congress’ own health care works so well is that it’s based on consumer choice and market competition — the opposite of what it’s trying to impose on everybody else.
Members of Congress and millions of federal workers may choose from hundreds of private fee-for-service plans, HMOs or preferred provider organizations, with no federal worker living anywhere enjoying fewer than a dozen options.
FEHBP members can easily switch plans if they become dissatisfied; that puts competitive pressure on insurers to provide quality and value. Surveys show that members love their coverage, which is why almost all federal employees join the program.
The FEHBP is shielded from state regulation and Uncle Sam subsidizes premiums by more than 70%. Canadian physician and Manhattan Institute senior fellow Dr. David Gratzer, whose opposition to government-run health care comes from first-hand experience, observes that “the federal government’s role in the FEHBP is to pay the bills,” unlike the fiscally doomed Medicare program, of which “Washington is the designer of benefits.”
Coburn and Vitter’s idea (an amendment) of politicians living under a government plan “was opposed unanimously by Democrats during interviews on Thursday,” the Hill newspaper reports.
Do as I say, not as I do.
Oh, and vote for me in 2010. I guarantee I will be looking out for you…
Daily Mail – Like many toddlers, Zak Hessey was a fussy eater who refused his mother’s healthy home cooking. Concerned about his falling weight, his parents sought the advice of doctors. That simple act triggered a shocking chain of events that led to the youngster being put into foster care for four months. Paul and Lisa Hessey believe in the long-term benefits of healthy eating and rejected advice to feed their two-year-old son high-calorie snack food such as chocolate, crisps and cakes.
To their horror, social workers put Zak into foster care ‘to assess his needs’ and allegedly threatened the couple with the loss of their parental rights if they fought the decision in court. …But they went to court and, after four months, Zak returned home with the blessing of social services, who accepted he had good and caring parents. Zak is now putting on some weight, but his eating problems were not cured by his time in the care of ‘experts’ and, much to the annoyance of his parents, he has acquired a taste for junk food.
This is what happens when society starts turning to the government to do this, that and everything else for them. Eventually they start doing things that you won’t like and even worse, they’re not accountable in any meaningful sense to anyone. I’d like to say, when that nannying scumbag comes to your door saying, “I’m from the government and I’m here to help”, get your gun; but most of us gave that up long ago.
Will you make way for the King? Will you make room for me in your life? Will you surrender your thoughts, precepts and paradigms to my will? Will you lay them at my feet so that I may replace that which seems real with that which seems real?
I have called you to be kings and priests, heirs and joint heirs, to rule and reign by my side. That is your destiny and that is my will for you. The only thing standing between us is a worldly mindset, so choose this day whom shall you believe, he who is in the world, or he who has overcome the world and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
Look no longer upon what the world says is truth. Look no more with natural eyes. You have been in the valley of the shadow of death for too long. Come up, come up to the high place. Shake off the burdens this world has placed upon you for they are not yours to carry. Open the eyes of your heart and see the reality of truth. Assume your place with me, seated in power and authority. Make way for the king and I will come and dwell with you and you shall dwell in me.
Look not on the world with your eyes. Allow yourself to perceive that as reality no longer, for it is not. Look upon the world with my eyes and see the truth. Yes all things are possible. Yes, all I have is yours, you lack in no good thing. Yes, you are more than a conqueror. Yes, you walk in kingdom authority. Yes, you speak forth what you see in my eyes and it becomes. Yes, you speak and see creative miracles. Yes, that which is not yet shall become at your word, for my rhema is in your voice, I am God and you are mine.
As you have probably figured out by now, I certainly take a conservative angle on just about everything. I actually like to believe it is not so much a function of being conservative, but in my bed-rock belief that I want as little government oversight and involvement in my life as possible. The government has very few responsibilities which I believe are completely encompassed in the first line of the Constitution:
- Establish Justice
- Insure Domestic Tranquility
- Provide for the Common Defense
- Promote the General Welfare
- Secure the Blessing of Liberty to Ourselves and our Posterity
I could easily expound on each one and the government certainly does each one of these…but the tendency has been to increasingly do more, spend more, and overstep the bounds which these five principles outline.
Now while this may surprise you, Richard Cohen, an opinion columnist at the WP wrote this article today.
Yes, you read it right, I’m forwarding a gay-rights article…but go back to my first assertion, my conservativeness comes from my belief in government having as small a role as possible. Just like the article said, the government now has no right to intervene against the marriage of a racial couple, how then by the same logic can a government discriminate on gender preference?
Is this discrimination based on a religious opinion? Okay, but what about the separation of church and state?
Is it based on the Christian foundation of this country? Fine, I can support that too, but not every Christian has a problem with someone being gay. Remember the gay Episcopalian female priests that were in the news? Were they bad people doing bad things? No, they probably do more for the community than most of us. They were simply controversial. Why then do some people care what others do behind closed doors? Does it really affect their life? Are they a burden on you or society. No? Then what gives anyone the right to interfere in a deeply private and personal matter and essentially make a subset of Americans a second-class citizen which does not have the right to a civil union like the rest of us?
Is this country founded on hating someone because they have a different opinion than you or hating them because they are different than you? Or is this country founded as a free nation where we are a melting pot and we can come together despite our difference, making our culture that much stronger?
I know there are a lot of rhetorical questions here, but I am trying to make you think and identify some bias.
Like Cohen, I want to keep my government out of my bedroom, gay or straight. Citizens of this great nation are going to be gay. Nature or nurture, that is the way they are. How is it fair to deny them the same legal and financial benefits? Especially when that above list for the five roles of government all can be impinged by gays being denied their rights. I don’t want my rights to a civil union be denied, how is it okay then for me to discriminate and say ‘but those people are gay, they don’t count’. Sounds hypocritical to me.
I propose a compromise. Being religious myself, I do believe that the word ‘marriage’ is a technical religious term that is solely a union between a man and a woman. Thus, I do not like the term ‘gay marriage’. It confuses the legal with the spiritual. Make gay UNIONS legal – giving them the same rights as a marriage, but have the various gay rights groups work together to make a new term. I don’t care if it’s a conference or a contest, but give gay couples their own term that removes the religious connotation.
I think that is more than fair, and that is what my argument boils down to. Supporting ‘gay marriage’ is not an attack on the religious right or conservative values. It is what promotes personal freedom and keeps the government out of my life. That is the foundation for my argument - my libertarian ideals. If I preach about it when it comes to my guns or my taxes, it is only fair and makes sense that my belief extends to other issues that I do not have a stake in but are just as valid an argument for liberty.
It seems like just last week the college football season kicked off, and here it is the end of the regular season. A handful of games can potentially scramble the bowl bids that will go out Sunday. With the holidays bringing the five PiRates together under the same roof in northwest Wisconsin for too much turkey and other booty, we stayed up late gathering information for this special bowl edition. We think through hard work and phone calls to contacts in multiple locations, we have one of the best views of the bowl games.
This edition will not be a speculative one. We are actually trying to use information we have gathered to report where we believe the bowls are looking with six days to go.
The BCS Bowls
National Championship Game: Obviously the winner of this week’s Alabama-Florida game in the SEC Championship will finish number one. If Texas wins, then everything is rather easy. The Longhorns will finish number two. Here’s where things get dicey. If Texas loses, there will be controversy no matter which team makes it to Pasadena. TCU would be the logical choice, but Cincinnati could edge ahead of the Horned Frogs with a convincing win over Pittsburgh. And, if Alabama were to edge Florida by a point or win in overtime, there is still a possibility that Alabama and Florida could meet in a rematch. Remember something; part of the BCS equation is human voting. The fourth estate has never been confused for being honest and just. All it takes is for a few voters to move TCU down one spot, and the fix would be in.
We believe Nebraska’s lack of offense will make this all superfluous. Texas will win by double digits this week and face the SEC winner for the national championship. We’ve taken a vote here in the Northwoods; one of us believes Florida will win this week. One of us believes Alabama will win, and the other three consider it a tossup. It should be the next “greatest game,” in the mold of Ohio State and Michigan in 2006, Florida State and Florida in 1996, Notre Dame and USC in 1988, and the two greatest late season matchups of #1 vs. #2—Oklahoma and Nebraska in 1971 and Notre Dame and Michigan State in 1966.
Orange Bowl: The winner of this week’s Clemson-Georgia Tech game for the ACC Championship will automatically go to Miami. We believe Clemson has a better than 50% chance of pulling off the upset. In their regular season game, Clemson’s comedy of errors led to the Yellow Jackets getting a big lead. The Tigers made a great comeback and almost pulled it off. We thing CU gets revenge this week and heads to Miami with a weak 8-4 record. The Orange Bowl will get the third selection in the at-large draft if Texas wins. The Sugar and Fiesta Bowls will have already picked because they will have lost teams to the National Championship Game. With Alabama or Florida and Iowa already taken off the board, this pick will come down to either the Big East champion, Boise State, or TCU. If Cincinnati beats Pittsburgh, we don’t see the Bearcats being chosen even though they would be 12-0. Cincinnati played in Miami last year. It would come down to TCU and Boise State. Believe it or not, Boise’s fans travel better, so we will go with Boise State here.
If Pittsburgh beats Cincinnati, the Panthers will probably wind up here, and Boise State would head to the Fiesta Bowl.
Fiesta Bowl: Assuming Texas wins, the Fiesta Bowl will get the second and fourth picks in the at-large draft. The SEC loser will be off the table, and we believe the best choice for this bowl will be Iowa. After the Orange Bowl picks Boise State, TCU becomes the logical choice. If Pittsburgh beats Cincinnati, then Boise State would land here.
Sugar Bowl: Without a doubt, the loser of the SEC Championship will play here if both SEC teams don’t play again in Pasadena. The Sugar Bowl gets the first pick to replace the number one team being lost to the National Championship Game. The Sugar Bowl also gets the last pick in the at-large draft. Since this cannot be a Hobson’s Choice, Cincinnati would land here as the only option if the Bearcats beat Pittsburgh. If Pittsburgh wins this week, then TCU would land here.
Rose Bowl: Ohio State is already assured of playing here. The winner of Thursday night’s Oregon-Oregon State game will be the opponent. There can be no other options this year.
The Top-Tier Non-BCS Bowls
Capital One Bowl: LSU seems to be a shoo-in for this bowl after Ole Miss fell to Mississippi State. Penn State will land here if Iowa is chosen over the Lions for a BCS Bowl. We see no reason for Penn State fans to believe they can beat out Iowa, especially if the bowl in question is the Fiesta Bowl.
Outback Bowl: The top remaining SEC East team is supposed to play here, while the top remaining SEC West team is supposed to play in the Cotton Bowl. Ole Miss played in Dallas last year, and there was talk that there could be a trade-off with Ole Miss heading to Tampa. However, late news seems to support the Rebels playing in the Cotton Bowl again, so Tennessee looks like the choice here. The Big Ten representative will be Wisconsin unless the Badgers lose in Hawaii this weekend. If that happens, it changes a lot of other bowls.
Cotton Bowl: Oklahoma State should receive this invitation, since the Cowboys have the second best record, but Nebraska or over Oklahoma could leapfrog them. For now, we will stick with the most politically correct pick and go with Oklahoma State. According to late-breaking news, the SEC representative will be Ole Miss.
Gator Bowl: Notre Dame’s fold means the Big East gets this spot. The loser of the Pittsburgh-Cincinnati game will end up in Jacksonville. We believe Georgia Tech will lose to Clemson this week, so the Yellow Jackets will play here. Our pick then is Georgia Tech and Pittsburgh. If the Yellow Jackets win the ACC, then it appears that Miami would be the ACC representative.
Holiday Bowl: Southern Cal will get this bid if Oregon beats Oregon State. If the Beavers beat the Ducks, then Oregon will drop to this bowl. Nebraska is the logical Big 12 choice for this game.
Chick-fil-A Bowl: Georgia’s win over Georgia Tech will put the Bulldogs at the top of the list for this game, but a second year in a row of fewer hotel rooms needing to be booked (Georgia Tech played here last year) probably sends the Bulldogs somewhere else. The likely ACC opponent will be Virginia Tech, and the SEC will try to find the best opponent. Auburn would be the best choice, providing a match-up of offense against defense, but most of their fans can drive to this game. We’re going with Auburn because officials from this bowl repeatedly attended their games. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.
The Mid-Level Bowls
Las Vegas Bowl: Even though they have been to this bowl four years in a row, it looks like Brigham Young is headed here again. The Mountain West would like Utah to go here, but BYU will sell their allotment for this one, while the Utes will not.
The Pac-10 opponent could be a host of teams, but we think it will be either Stanford or Oregon State. One of those two will play here, while the other plays in the Emerald Bowl. We’ll go with Stanford here. If Oregon State beats Oregon, then Southern Cal or California might fall to this game.
Meineke Car Care Bowl: This bowl will have a choice of Florida State or Boston College. With Bobby Bowden announcing his retirement tomorrow, the Seminoles will jump over the Eagles. Rutgers should get the Big East invitation in this game.
Music City Bowl: This could be an interesting rivalry game. How about North Carolina facing South Carolina? Since the Gamecocks joined the SEC in 1991, these two teams have played just once.
Liberty Bowl: Arkansas looks like the best option here. The Razorbacks will fill up the stadium. The Conference USA champion automatically plays here, so that means either Houston or East Carolina will be the opponent. Houston and Arkansas would make this a 100-pass, 4-hour game with maybe 100+ points scored.
Sun Bowl: If Oregon wins Thursday, we believe California will be the Pac-10 representative. Oklahoma looks like the best fit for the Big 12.
Champs Sports Bowl: If Clemson wins over Georgia Tech, Miami should fall to this bowl. If Georgia Tech wins over Clemson, then Miami moves up to the Gator and Clemson falls here. Northwestern should be the Big 10 opponent, but if Wisconsin loses to Hawaii, NU could move up and the Badgers could fall here.
Alamo Bowl: Texas Tech should receive this bid, and their opponent should be Michigan State. It could take 40 points to win this game.
The Bottom Tier
St. Petersburg Bowl: This second year bowl has a chance to make a big splash by bringing together two in-state teams that played each other the last four years but not this year. Central Florida and South Florida could sell this game out. We think it is a strong possibility, but the chances for this dream game have dropped some the last few days.
New Mexico Bowl: Unless some back room deals are made, the Mountain West opponent will be Wyoming. There could be some wheeling and dealing to bring an at-large team here and ship Wyoming to the Humanitarian Bowl, but for now, we’ll keep the Cowboys here. The WAC opponent will be either Nevada or Fresno State. If Hawaii upsets Wisconsin, then there will be one extra WAC team available. For now, we’ll stick with Nevada.
New Orleans Bowl: Troy won the Sunbelt Conference Championship and earns the automatic bid here. There is a rule where the SBC champion could move to a higher-paying bowl, but for that to happen, the SBC must supply two additional seven-win teams. There are only two of these teams, so Troy will play here barring some “exception.” The C-USA opponent should be Southern Mississippi.
Poinsettia Bowl: All signs point to BYU playing here, but we just don’t see the Las Vegas bowl passing over the Cougars for Utah. So, we’re going against the grain and picking Utah to end up in San Diego. Arizona looks like the Pac-10 opponent. If the Wildcats upset USC, then there is a small chance they could move up.
Hawaii Bowl: Here’s where a giant monkey wrench could be thrown into the bowl games. Hawaii will get this bid with a win over Wisconsin. We might be biased, but we think the Badgers can pull this one out. So, in that case, Fresno State should be the WAC representative. The hot CUSA choice is SMU, which would bring June Jones back to the island. Since this bowl desperately wants a Hawaii-SMU game, look for this week’s Hawaii-Wisconsin game to be one of the most partially-biased officiated games.
Little Caesar’s Pizza Bowl: This bowl could be in for a mess. Central Michigan played here last year, so it looks like the Chippewas are headed to Mobile, Alabama. A bigger problem is that there will not be a Big 10 team available for this game. Because the at-large pool must take all the seven-win teams before any 6-6 team can be selected, this bowl might have to invite two MAC teams, neither of which are the conference champion.
Ohio U should be the official MAC selection. This bowl would love to bring Notre Dame here, but even if one 6-6 team can be chosen, it looks like the Irish will vote not to play in any bowls. Middle Tennessee, at 9-3, would be the best at-large option, but we believe the Blue Raiders will be invited somewhere else first. So, this bowl will have to look for two MAC teams that have not played. That leaves Northern Illinois against Bowling Green.
Emerald Bowl: Boston College will be the last available ACC team, and they will fortunate to sell half of their ticket allotment. Oregon State or Stanford will be the opponent here, and since we pegged Stanford for the Las Vegas Bowl, we’ll put the Beavers here.
Independence Bowl: This bowl is tired of having teams that don’t want to be here, but it will be the case once again with the SEC. Georgia could very well end up here if the Chick-fil-A looks elsewhere. The Big 12 representative will come down to either Texas A&M or Iowa State. If Georgia is chosen to play in Atlanta, then this bowl will jump at the chance to pit Auburn with Iowa State for obvious reasons (Auburn coach Gene Chizik was at Iowa State and Iowa State coach Paul Rhoads was at Auburn). Under the assumption that Auburn will play in the Chick-fil-A Bowl, we’ll slate Georgia here against Texas A&M.
Eagle Bank Bowl: This second year bowl faces the possibility that neither of its two tie-ins will be able to supply a team. Army has to beat Navy to earn their bid. We believe that will happen, and the Cadets will make life easier for this bowl. The ACC will definitely not have an available team for this bowl, so an at-large team will be selected. Temple will be making its first bowl trip in almost two decades, so the Owls will be a good choice. If Army loses to Navy, then a 6-6 team will end up here. Since Notre Dame will not be available if they vote not to go to a bowl, Marshall may get this bid, even though Coach Mark Snyder just resigned.
Humanitarian Bowl: With Boise State almost assured of making it to a BCS Bowl if Texas beats Nebraska, this bowl will look to Idaho to replace the Broncos. With TCU earning a BCS bowl, the MWC will not have an available team for this game. With all the seven-win teams coming from over 1,500 miles away from Boise, it looks like UCLA could become the one 6-6 bowl team and play here.
Armed Forces Bowl: The MWC team should be Air Force, as it is a no-brainer to have a service academy playing here. The C-USA opponent should be the loser of the ECU-Houston game this week. Houston would be a great counterpart.
Texas Bowl: Navy has already secured one of these spots. Iowa State or Texas A&M will be the opponent depending on which way the Independence bowl goes.
Insight.com Bowl: Minnesota will be the last Big Ten team in the bowl pecking order, so the Gophers will get this bid. Missouri is the likely Big 12 opponent.
International Bowl: Connecticut is the logical choice as the Big East representative. Ohio U may be shipped here, as they cannot play in the Pizza Bowl against either Bowling Green or Northern Illinois (they beat both).
PapaJohns.com Bowl: Kentucky should be the last available SEC team, and the Wildcats will travel well to Birmingham. West Virginia would be an excellent opponent here.
NCAA Top 25 For November 30, 2009
Rank
Team
PiRate
Won
Lost
1
Texas
134.2
12
0
2
Florida
133.2
12
0
3
Alabama
128.0
12
0
4
T C U
125.4
12
0
5
Oklahoma
124.0
7
5
6
Boise State
120.9
12
0
7
Virginia Tech
120.5
9
3
8
Oregon
119.7
9
2
9
Georgia Tech
119.3
10
2
10
Texas Tech
117.9
8
4
11
Penn State
117.7
10
2
12
Southern Cal
117.7
8
3
13
Ohio State
117.6
10
2
14
Miami (Fla)
117.4
9
3
15
Stanford
116.9
8
4
16
Nebraska
116.1
9
3
17
Arkansas
115.5
7
5
18
Iowa
114.8
10
2
19
California
114.6
8
3
20
Cincinnati
114.4
11
0
21
Pittsburgh
114.2
9
2
22
Oklahoma State
113.9
9
3
23
Ole Miss
113.2
8
4
24
L S U
112.5
9
3
25
Oregon State
112.1
8
3
Note: Ratings rounded to one decimal point
even though I rank them to two decimal points
Atlantic Coast Conference
Atlantic Division
Team
Conf.
Overall
Rating
Clemson
6-2
8-4
111.8
Florida State
4-4
6-6
107.6
Boston College
5-3
8-4
107.1
Wake Forest
3-5
5-7
104.8
North Carolina State
2-6
5-7
102.7
Maryland
1-7
2-10
93.0
Coastal Division
Team
Conf.
Overall
Rating
Virginia Tech
6-2
9-3
120.5
Georgia Tech
7-1
10-2
119.3
Miami-FL
5-3
9-3
117.4
North Carolina
4-4
8-4
110.9
Duke
3-5
5-7
98.4
Virginia
2-6
3-9
94.8
Big East Conference
Team
Conf.
Overall
Rating
Cincinnati
7-0
11-0
114.4
Pittsburgh
5-1
9-2
114.2
West Virginia
4-2
8-3
105.9
Connecticut
2-4
6-5
105.8
Rutgers
3-3
8-3
102.2
South Florida
3-3
7-4
101.8
Syracuse
1-6
4-8
93.9
Louisville
1-6
4-8
90.5
Big Ten
Team
Conf.
Overall
Rating
Penn State
6-2
10-2
117.7
Ohio State
7-1
10-2
117.6
Iowa
6-2
10-2
114.8
Wisconsin
5-3
8-3
105.3
Michigan State
4-4
6-6
101.5
Northwestern
5-3
8-4
99.3
Purdue
4-4
5-7
99.0
Minnesota
3-5
6-6
97.9
Michigan
1-7
5-7
96.6
Illinois
2-6
3-8
96.2
Indiana
1-7
4-8
90.9
Big 12
North Division
Team
Conf.
Overall
Rating
Nebraska
6-2
9-3
116.1
Missouri
4-4
8-4
104.8
Kansas
1-7
5-7
103.9
Kansas State
4-4
6-6
99.4
Colorado
2-6
3-9
97.4
Iowa State
3-5
6-6
94.9
South Division
Team
Conf.
Overall
Rating
Texas
8-0
12-0
134.2
Oklahoma
5-3
7-5
124.0
Texas Tech
5-3
8-4
117.9
Oklahoma State
6-2
9-3
113.9
Texas A&M
3-5
6-6
103.4
Baylor
1-7
4-8
96.6
Conference USA
East Division
Team
Conf.
Overall
Rating
Central Florida
6-2
8-4
104.1
East Carolina
7-1
8-4
103.9
Southern Mississippi
5-3
7-5
100.9
Marshall
4-4
6-6
92.4
U A B
4-4
5-7
91.0
Memphis
1-7
2-10
83.4
West Division
Team
Conf.
Overall
Rating
Houston
6-2
10-2
108.7
Tulsa
3-5
5-7
91.6
U T E P
3-5
4-8
90.8
S M U
6-2
7-5
88.4
Rice
2-6
2-10
76.4
Tulane
1-7
3-9
71.1
Independents
Team
Overall
Rating
Notre Dame
6-6
105.9
Navy
8-4
100.6
Army
5-6
82.0
Mid American Conference
East Division
Team
Conf.
Overall
Rating
Temple
7-1
9-3
100.7
Ohio U
7-1
9-3
95.0
Buffalo
3-5
5-7
92.4
Bowling Green
6-2
7-5
91.4
Kent St.
4-4
6-6
84.7
Akron
2-6
3-9
81.5
Miami (O)
1-7
1-11
76.3
West Division
Team
Conf.
Overall
Rating
Central Michigan
8-0
10-2
108.9
Northern Illinois
5-3
7-5
95.1
Toledo
3-5
5-7
87.1
Western Michigan
4-4
5-7
86.2
Ball State
2-6
2-10
83.0
Eastern Michigan
0-8
0-12
74.2
Mountain West Conference
Team
Conf.
Overall
Rating
T C U
8-0
12-0
125.4
B Y U
7-1
10-2
111.1
Utah
6-2
9-3
107.7
Air Force
5-3
7-5
100.7
Wyoming
4-4
6-6
87.9
UNLV
3-5
5-7
86.8
Colo. State
0-8
3-9
86.1
S. D. State
3-5
5-7
85.2
New Mexico
1-7
1-11
77.8
Pac-10 Conference
Team
Conf.
Overall
Rating
Oregon
7-1
9-2
119.7
Southern Cal
5-3
8-3
117.7
Stanford
6-3
8-4
116.9
California
5-3
8-3
114.6
Oregon St.
6-2
8-3
112.1
Arizona
5-3
7-4
111.4
U C L A
3-6
6-6
105.3
Arizona St.
2-7
4-8
102.1
Washington
3-5
4-7
97.6
Wash. St.
0-9
1-11
70.8
Southeastern Conference
East Division
Team
Conf.
Overall
Rating
Florida
8-0
12-0
133.2
Tennessee
4-4
7-5
110.9
South Carolina
3-5
7-5
110.9
Georgia
4-4
7-5
110.4
Kentucky
3-5
7-5
104.4
Vanderbilt
0-8
2-10
93.1
West Division
Team
Conf.
Overall
Rating
Alabama
8-0
12-0
128.0
Arkansas
3-5
7-5
115.5
Ole Miss
4-4
8-4
113.2
L S U
5-3
9-3
112.5
Auburn
3-5
7-5
107.7
Mississippi State
3-5
5-7
104.2
Sunbelt Conference
Team
Conf.
Overall
Rating
Troy
8-0
9-3
99.0
Middle Tennessee
7-1
9-3
96.2
Louisiana-Monroe
5-3
6-6
86.8
Arkansas State
2-5
3-8
86.2
U. of Louisiana
4-4
6-6
83.7
Florida Atlantic
4-3
4-7
83.2
Florida International
3-4
3-8
81.7
North Texas
1-7
2-10
76.4
Western Kentucky
0-7
0-11
73.3
Western Athletic Conference
Team
Conf.
Overall
Rating
Boise State
7-0
12-0
120.9
Nevada
7-1
8-4
108.6
Fresno State
6-2
7-4
99.0
Louisiana Tech
2-5
3-8
97.2
Utah State
3-5
4-8
91.9
Idaho
4-4
7-5
89.6
Hawaii
3-5
6-6
87.7
San Jose State
1-6
2-9
81.1
New Mexico State
1-6
3-9
71.0
This Week’s Games–PiRate & Mean Ratings
Home Team in CAPS
(N) Denotes Neutral Site
Thursday, December 3
PiRate Spread
Favorite
Underdog
Score
Mean
Arkansas State
WESTERN KY.
10.2
34-24
9
OREGON
Oregon State
10.3
38-28
9
Friday, December 4
PiRate Spread
Favorite
Underdog
Score
Mean
Central Michigan (Det.)
Ohio U
14.9
35-20
7
Saturday, December 5
PiRate Spread
Favorite
Underdog
Score
Mean
CONNECTICUT
South Florida
7.3
27-20
7
PITTSBURGH
Cincinnati
2.8
24-21
0
West Virginia
RUTGERS
0.7
28-27
0
Houston
EAST CAROLINA
1.8
37-35
5
ILLINOIS
Fresno State
0.7
31-30
-3
LOUISIANA TECH
San Jose St.
19.1
40-21
16
BOISE STATE
New Mexico St.
53.4
63-10
44
SOUTHERN CAL
Arizona
10.6
24-13
6
Florida (Atlanta)
Alabama
5.2
21-16
2
California
WASHINGTON
14.0
35-21
8
FLORIDA INT’L
Florida Atlantic
0.5
27-26
1
Texas (Dallas)
Nebraska
19.6
27-7
14
Wisconsin
HAWAII
13.6
38-24
11
Saturday, December 12
PiRate Spread
Favorite
Underdog
Score
Mean
Navy (N-Philadelphia)
Army
18.6
35-16
8
2° / Hi: 3°C Lo: -1°C
Hi: 2°C Lo: -1°C
Hi: 0°C Lo: -1°C
Hi: -2°C Lo: -2°C
I told you there was a light at the end of the tunnel of apathy toward American politics.
While updating some details on my Blog I came to the realization that some terminology in our Constitution which is used quite often by the media, citizens, etc. is not ever really defined. I believe its definition is intentionally ignored for the same reasons the terms TREASON are..
