Saturday, January 01, 2011
Yet, in 2010, it was still neither welcome nor “politically correct” (itself an oxymoron since nothing “political” is “correct”) to tell Americans to look in the mirror to see what they had become; overweight, overstressed, overmedicated, under-motivated, slovenly dressed. A trip to Wal-Mart spoke a thousand words. The American psyche was reflected in the American physique.
It's easy to point to the poor for buying cheap and eating stupid, but what of the smartest of the smart and the richest of the rich eating stupid?
Sobering thought. The market for all it's risk goes up 11% for 2010. People cheer. Yet, people put lives and fortunes on the line for....Wait....11%. This is not sound investing. Risk and Reward should be commensurate. This wasn't. Nearly any commodity, metal, liquid did better. Even a pure currency play or an energy ETF did. Not Impressed.
www.washingtonpost.com In a year of political upheaval, fiscal crisis in Europe and the threat of a double-dip recession in the United States, the stock market weathered all challenges, plodding upward.
The God Cloud
lamesa.patch.com
Grossmont College journalism instructor Michael Grant shares a snapshot from 8 a.m. Christmas morning. If you have similar shots, add them here.
Friday, December 31, 2010
Near-Record High See Religion Losing Influence in America
Americans' views of the influence of religion in the U.S. have fluctuated substantially in the years since 1957, when Gallup first asked this question. At that point, perhaps reflecting the general focus on family values that characterized the Eisenhower era, 69% of Americans said religion was increasing its influence, the most in Gallup's history.
Views of the influence of religion shifted dramatically in the mid-1960s. By 1970, in the midst of the protests over the Vietnam War and general social upheaval, a record 75% of Americans said religion was losing influence in American society. These views moderated in the years thereafter. At several points during the Reagan administration, a plurality of Americans returned to the view that religion was increasing its influence. By the early 1990s, Americans became more convinced again that religion was losing its influence. These views persisted until a sharp reversal after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, when a number of social and political indicators, including presidential and congressional approval and overall satisfaction with the way things were going, showed substantial increases.
Near-Record High See Religion Losing Influence in America
Why Have Economists Been So Bad at Predicting the Impact of the Stimulus? - By Veronique de Rugy - The Corner - National Review Online
Almost two years after the adoption of the stimulus bill, the data shows that the funds didn’t stimulate GDP much, and didn’t stimulate employment either. One reason is that the package failed to prop up government purchases, or consumption purchases in general. For instance, as was the case with previous stimulus bills, it looks like most of the loan, grant, and contract money in the bill went to pay down state and local governments’ debt rather than buy stuff.
Why Have Economists Been So Bad at Predicting the Impact of the Stimulus? - By Veronique de Rugy - The Corner - National Review Online
So why didn’t White House economists such as Christina Rommer or Moody’s Mark Zandi — two of the biggest stimulus enthusiasts out there — take these facts into considerations when predicting the impact of the stimulus?
Because their models are outdated and based on unrealistic assumptions.Why Have Economists Been So Bad at Predicting the Impact of the Stimulus? - By Veronique de Rugy - The Corner - National Review Online
Eight Botched Environmental Forecasts
When I hear dire predictions from global warming believers I have to keep reminding myself of predictions of "Smart People" from the last couple years.
Paul Ehrlich appears to be the number one offender.
It would be funny if it hadn't put so much fear in folks.
Paul Ehrlich appears to be the number one offender.
It would be funny if it hadn't put so much fear in folks.
This is important information to me, and will be to you SOMEDAY
If you were an alien visiting our planet, you might think Earthlings never age. Even as awareness about aging rises, most major magazines and television stations still fail to display vital, older people. Medical journals, on the other hand, harp on the infirmities of old age. It's no wonder we fear
WOW, you mean that Sarah Palin took all that heat for nothing? She was despised for suggesting that there was such a thing. NOW WHAT? I'll bet someone has an answer for this. . I'm sure there's a good explanation for all this...or does someone owe Sarah an apology? Just asking.
The New York Times ran a fascinating Christmas Day story about the return of the “death panels” for ObamaCare. The term comes fro
Pyrolsis is a great way to extract oil from plastic. Works for tires too. Most garbage. Unfortunately the heat needed is more than the heat value of the oil, but it turns plastic waste into something useful.
In an efficient and safe effort to save us from the ill-effects of plastic waste, Akinori Ito has developed a machine which can convert plastic back into oil.
Why Thomas Jefferson studied the Koran
I know this is a social justice issue, "are the rich paying their fair share of taxes". YET, when I read this the answer seems to be YES and worse, if we remain on this trendline there will come a day when it will all stop. There will be no more rich to pay. I am compelled to balance my mercy impulse with economic reality. I have a sense that taxes no longer can provide what
I keep saying there is NO SHORTAGE of oil. There is a shortage of Cheap oil, but when the price get to a hundred bucks, they will come to Florida and drill in your back yard. There is more oil than we can possibly use.
"Giant new oil fields have been discovered off the coasts of Africa and Brazil. The new oil sands projects in Canada now supply more oil to the United States than Saudi Arabia does. Oil production in the United States increased last year, and the Department of Energy projects further increases over ...
You can be arrested in the USA for ANYTHING the jack booted thugs decide you should be. There is no justice
Almost Everything Is A Crime In America Now: 14 Of The Most Ridiculous Things That Americans Are Bei
Doesn't it seem like almost everything is becoming a crime in America now? Americans are being arrested and charged with crimes for doing things like leaving
I am an Economic Environmentalist. I hope Others will read these questions:
* Why do those who object to tampering with the environment approve of tampering with the economy? Isn’t the economy also a fragile ecosystem where a sudden change can trigger a devastating chain reaction?
* Aren’t most of today’s social ills the result of that tampering with social ecosystems
The two women who showed up early for my book signing at a small bookstore in Houston, TX, never even bothered to open my book. Wearing knowing smiles, they engaged me in a bizarre discussion that wound up leaping all around the known and unknown universe. They hadn’t the slightest curiosity about m
You have to read the comments to see the anger people have over the TSA and the Government misbehavior. How Long before there is a real uprising against this MESS?
COLFAX, CA - WORLD EXCLUSIVE: The airline pilot who lost his federally-issued gun and badge for posting video on YouTube critical of airport security has chosen to go public with his identity.
Spening us into oblivion
Hiring a hit mob paying a bounty to a mercenary who will kill for money. That's the kind of religion that must really please God...Mercy.
Muslims began protests Friday, December 24, against plans to change Pakistan's blasphemy laws, after an Islamic leader offered nearly $6,000 for the killing of a Christian woman he accused of offending Islam.
Why are we so bad at education in this country? We spend zillions on trying to teach and kids come out of school with virtually no competencies. English is abysmal, Math crippled and Ignorance of the sciences and history makes people subject to all kinds of falsehood and propaganda. This is a crime. Let the Church educate. We can do better. VOUCHERS
This chart by Mercatus Center Senior Research Fellow Veronique de Rugy compares K-12 education expenditures per pupil in each of the world’s major industrial powers. As we can see, with the exception of Switzerland, the United States spends more than any other country on education, an average of $91
We just don't have that fire in the belly as a nation any more. How do we get it back?
The Poverty Of Ambition: Why The West Is Losing To China And India - The New World Order | Newgeogra
The last 10 years have been the worst for Western civilization since the 1930s. At the onset of the new millennium North America, Europe and Oceania stood at the cutting edge of the future, with new technologies and a lion’s share of the world’s GDP. At its end, most of these economies limped,
It's nights like this that I DON'T miss North Dakota. They are having a huge blizzard that has shut down the whole state. It's snowing. 40-50 MPH winds blowing the snow, below zero. AND people are out in it. A 100 car pile up just west of Fargo. You die in this kind of weather. BUT, people in ND look out for one ...another. No one did. Still in all...it's brutal.
Weather conditions have made travel dangerous in North Dakota and Minnesota. Hazardous road conditions prompted the Minnesota Department of Transportation and the Minnesota State Patrol to close Interstate 94 and
Thursday, December 30, 2010
The Militant Atheist Mean Spirited Heart
The loudest voices of today's militant atheism, for all their talk of rational thought, don't seem to want to do too much thinking at all. As James Wood wrote in The New Yorker, "The new atheists do not speak to the millions of people whose form of religion is far from the embodied certainties of contemporary literalism. Indeed, it is a settled assumption of this kind of atheism that there are no intelligent religious believers."
What spiritual quest are they on, except to put an abrupt end to those like my father's? For them, the science is settled, the data are conclusive and the book (no, not the Good Book) has been written. Time for everyone else to pack up and move on to other business, like, presumably, accumulating wealth and fulminating at the sight of the nearest Christmas tree.
The militant atheist wants nothing more than to spoil the believer's spiritual journey. That's both mean-spirited and radically unenlightened.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2010/12/29/2010-12-29_the_arrogance_of_the_atheists_they_batter_believers_with_smug_certainty.html#ixzz19b5U8Em3
What spiritual quest are they on, except to put an abrupt end to those like my father's? For them, the science is settled, the data are conclusive and the book (no, not the Good Book) has been written. Time for everyone else to pack up and move on to other business, like, presumably, accumulating wealth and fulminating at the sight of the nearest Christmas tree.
The militant atheist wants nothing more than to spoil the believer's spiritual journey. That's both mean-spirited and radically unenlightened.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2010/12/29/2010-12-29_the_arrogance_of_the_atheists_they_batter_believers_with_smug_certainty.html#ixzz19b5U8Em3
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
How Did All That Happen?
The Improbables
There are a number of improbables, anomalies, paradoxes, ironies, absurdities — call them what you wish – on the national scene that simply defy reason. We usually fault an ignorant media as culpable for creating narratives that have no basis in fact and yet are rarely questioned. Here are some of the glaring examples and you decide how the unlikely became the gospel.
How Did All That Happen?
There are a number of improbables, anomalies, paradoxes, ironies, absurdities — call them what you wish – on the national scene that simply defy reason. We usually fault an ignorant media as culpable for creating narratives that have no basis in fact and yet are rarely questioned. Here are some of the glaring examples and you decide how the unlikely became the gospel.
How Did All That Happen?
What the deal on the right says if you can't read it
Still doesn't come out....click on the picture and you will get a full sized image
Important Information
It takes 7 seconds for food to pass from mouth to stomach. A human hair can hold 3kg. The length of a penis is 3 times the length of the thumb. The femur is as hard as concrete. A woman's heart beats faster then a man's. Women blink 2x as much as men. We use 300 muscles just to keep our balance when we stand. The woman has read this entire text. The man is still looking at his thumb.
SOUTHERN LEE HIGH SCHOOL IN SANFORD NORTH CAROLINA should be closed. Its principal, and board of education, are too dumb to hold jobs. And its Superintendent, Jeffrey C. Moss, is no poster boy for Ed.D. degrees.
“Bottom line is we want to ensure every child feels safe on our campus.” Not safe from idiots like you, Mr. Moss. Because you’re unwilling to take responsibility for discipline, you formulate and enforce rules that make public schools — and now, particularly, yours — a national joke. From the comments: “Let’s have the students feel safe. How about letting them feel like their entire lives and livelihood aren’t at risk at your institution from an honest mistake. You are ruining this child’s life and future because some bonehead can’t recognize an honest mistake.”
It’s beginning to seem like placing your children in public schools is placing them at unacceptable risk.
U.S. Army waiting list near record levels with high unemployment, GI Bill | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment
U.S. Army waiting list near record levels with high unemployment, GI Bill | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment
The military is still an employer of last resort. I think that's good
The military is still an employer of last resort. I think that's good
Insane policies in High School
I don't know any more. Do you ever come to the conclusions that the world has gone completly nuts.
Read this and see if you agree.
Read this and see if you agree.
School officials in Sanford, NC have suspended* a young high school girl for the rest of the year because she accidentally brought her dad’s lunchbox to school, which contained a small paring knife used to cut an apple.
17-year-old senior Ashley Smithwick, an academic and athletic standout who’s even won beauty pageants, was suspended from Southern Lee High School in October after school officials found the knife in her lunchbox during a random search for drugs.
TheDC analysis: EPA global warming regulations no ‘end run’ around Congress | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment
TheDC analysis: EPA global warming regulations no ‘end run’ around Congress | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment
This story is disturbing. The overreaching of government.
This story is disturbing. The overreaching of government.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
UAW Ready for Fresh Triumphs! - Newsweek
UAW President Bob King said the union intends to launch a campaign in January to organize the U.S. manufacturing plants of Asian and German automakers ...
King said the UAW has a better story to tell transplant workers today than it had over several decades of failed efforts to organize those workers.
And that "better story" is:
a) Two of the three firms we've organized have already gone bankrupt!
b) In the process they lost almost 34,000 jobs!
c) "The UAW was first to the table to make concessions and sacrifices that have helped Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group to emerge from the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009, [King] said. Those concessions equate to between $7,000 and $30,000 per worker."
d) "The UAW now represents about 120,000 hourly workers at the Detroit 3, down several fold from even a decade ago because of plant closings and buyouts."
e) Unionize and the Obama administration might help you out.
STUPID
A Faux Compassionate Christmas, Courtesy of the Left
Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson pointed a figurative gun to the heads of large bank CEOs, demanding that they accept government “investment” in their institutions. Thus began the left-inspired statist encroachment that has since moved into more areas than can be named, some of which include auto manufacturing, small agriculture, education lending, and even school bake sales.
The statist “solution” for improving the economy they brought down was Keynesian “stimulus” — y’know, the strategy which was tried and failed with FDR in the 1930s and in Japan in the 1990s. We were supposed to keep a straight face when they told us: “This time it’s going to work.”
It becomes more reasonable with each passing day to believe that Pelosi, Obama, Reid, and the White House’s group of economic lamebrains knew it wouldn’t work, and didn’t care. Why? Because almost two years and over $3 trillion in debt later, after stimulus has clearly failed, it’s still the only “solution” they offer.
Read the whole thingWhen we whistle past the graveyard, this is what the gravestones look like
From Heritage Foundation,
The top ten charts that tell us how close to the tipping point we really are.
HERE
The top ten charts that tell us how close to the tipping point we really are.
HERE
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Elenore thinks Sarah might be POTUS
I watched McGlaughlin Group Sat Nite. Elenore Clift thinks Sarah Palin will run and might even win the Presidency. The Republicans on the panel shuddered. WHY>
If Sarah Palin were Liberal and Black she would be considered to be profoundly qualified to be President of the USA
The left has a visceral hatred for Palin…because she is a maximum threat. Remember! Whatever the object of the liberal progressives hatred is, LQQK that direction because it means it is a threat. They will always tell you where their concerns are. Learn to read their actions.
If Sarah Palin were Liberal and Black she would be considered to be profoundly qualified to be President of the USA
The left has a visceral hatred for Palin…because she is a maximum threat. Remember! Whatever the object of the liberal progressives hatred is, LQQK that direction because it means it is a threat. They will always tell you where their concerns are. Learn to read their actions.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)