Friday, April 10, 2009
USO, Military Families Show Troops Support with Care Packages
FORT BELVOIR, Va., – While many children are spending their spring break away from the schoolhouse on the couch watching television or playing video games, some spent part of their week off this year volunteering and giving back to their military community.
When the day started, the goal was to put together 500 care packages. But when the care package party ended, nearly 3,000 packages filled with toiletries, snacks and “thank you” cards were boxed up and ready to ship overseas, Wise said.
Since the program started in 2003, the USO has shipped more than 1.5 million care packages to deployed troops serving all over the world, Wise said. Although inviting young children to participate won’t happen very often, he added, it’s definitely an event he and the USO would like to do again.
Rebecca Stoffer, right, places a USO care package into a shipping box for deployed troops during a care package party April 9, 2 009, at Fort Belvoir, Va. Stoffer and her two children were among 70 volunteers, including more than 50 children ages 3 to 17, who spent the day filling care packages with toiletries and snacks for deployed troops.
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BUTTER FOR GUNS
In the 1990s, defense cuts helped pay for increased domestic spending, and that is true today. Though Gates said his decisions were "almost exclusively influenced by factors other than simply finding a way to balance the books," the broad list of program reductions and terminations suggest otherwise:
- The termination of the F-22 Raptor program at just 187 aircraft inevitably will call U.S. air supremacy -- the salient feature, since World War II, of the American way of war -- into question.
- The U.S. Navy will continue to shrink below the fleet size of 313 ships it set a few years ago; the number of aircraft carriers will drop eventually to 10.
- The proposed cuts in space and missile defense programs, including the termination of the Airborne Laser and Transformational Satellite programs -- the most promising form of defense against ballistic missiles -- reflect a retreat in emerging environments that are increasingly critical in modern warfare.
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Al-Qaeda terror plot to bomb Easter shoppers
[HT:MO]
An al-Qaeda cell was days away from carrying out an "Easter spectacular" of co-ordinated suicide bomb attacks on shopping centres in Manchester, police believe.
Sources told The Daily Telegraph that the arrests of 12 men in the north west of England on Wednesday were linked to a suspected plan to launch a devastating attack this weekend...
[G.W.O.T.]
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Somali immigrants remake Minneapolis
In case you missed it, the New York Times has been running an in-depth series examining the impact on the country of massive levels of immigration, which is unprecedented both in numbers and fact that many of the newcomers are from the Third World, not from Europe as in the past.
"Remade in America," as the series is called, implies that America is remaking the immigrants. But if you read between the lines in the Times series, just the opposite seems to be the case.
The immigrants are remaking America. [snip]
... in Minneapolis, there are as many as 80,000 refugees from war-torn Somalia, as well. They were resettled in politically liberal Minneapolis because the State Department felt the city's splendid social services system could accommodate them, the Times noted. State Department officials also were impressed with the city's many civic groups that help newcomers.
So how are the Somalis doing in their quest for the American dream? Defying the "Remade in America" theme of the Times series, it seems that they're been remaking Minneapolis...
[Highly Recommended > ]
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Mosque doesn't agree with restaurant's plan to serve alcohol
Knoxville (TN)
It's a Fort Sanders clash of cultures and good intentions. On one side of the disagreement is a Muslim mosque, and some of its worshippers are unhappy about plans for a new restaurant that will serve alcohol.
On the opposing end of the clash is a business owner who says he's invested $1 million to upgrade a blighted building and has tried to accommodate Muslim worshippers during spiritual holidays...
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Obama admin warns Israel, not Iran
... In the face of these manifold existential threats, what does Barack Obama do? He sends an unprecedented warning to Congress that there will be an upcoming clash with Israel and he demands that Congress support his policies. Will he send his legion of grassroots supporters to petition their Congressional members to support the President? After all, he has told them recently that he is "keeping score" regarding the level of support they show for him.
Just in case, no one misses the message, his Vice-President, Joe Biden, to reinforce the message to Israel that traditional American support may not be forthcoming. Last night on CNN, Biden warned Israel not to attack Iran. . Israel is a sovereign nation whose people face the prospect of another Holocaust. Yet the message from the leader of a nation who has in the past been its best friend is... what? Drop dead?
Any experienced leader would realize that threats of military force is one tool that can be used with diplomacy to shape other nations' behavior. America has just sent a message to Iran that they need not take risk into account in the future. As America cuts the F-22 Raptor and missile defense programs-just a day after North Korea (allied with Iran) launches a ballistic missile, what message is Obama sending to the rest of the world?
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CNN Bemoans Americans' Hostility to Islam, Obama Needs to 'Educate'
[Meanwhile, in the MSM....]
CNN latched onto two separate poll results on Monday that indicated that about half of Americans view the Islamic world negatively or don’t trust Muslim allies as much as other allies, and indicated that President Obama and others in authority need to be “educators” for the public about Islam.
[Evidently it's just not possible that the 'education' need flow the other direction {all evidence to the contrary}]
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EU bans use of 'Miss' and 'Mrs' (and sportsmen and statesmen) because it claims they are sexist
Using 'Miss' and 'Mrs' has been banned by leaders of the European Union because they are not considered politically correct. Brussels bureaucrats have decided the words are sexist and issued new guidelines in its bid to create 'gender-neutral' language.
The booklet warns European politicians they must avoid referring to a woman's marital status...
[The inevitable evolution of government - infinite meddling.]
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Only 27% See the U.N. As America's Ally
Just 27% of U.S. voters regard the United Nations as an ally of the United States, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.
Seventeen percent (17%) say the U.N. is an enemy of the United States, and 49% see it as somewhere in between an ally and an enemy.
Fifty-seven percent (57%) of political liberals classify the U.N. as America’s ally, but just 15% of conservatives agree.
Twenty-one percent (21%) now say America should not participate in the U.N., and 19% are undecided.
Fifty percent (50%) of voters have a favorable view of the U.N. while 45% hold an unfavorable opinion.
Among those who feel strongly about it, however, the perception is more negative. Just seven percent (7%) have a Very Favorable opinion of the global organization while 24% have a Very Unfavorable view.
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Michael Steele: ‘We Are Not Warming’
The Republican National Committee Chairman, Michael Steele, has weighed in on climate change. 
In a March 6 radio appearance that is only now percolating through the blogosphere, Mr. Steele apparently fielded a skeptic’s question about global warming. As transcribed by The Huffington Post, a liberal site, Mr. Steele thanked the questioner and replied this way:
We are cooling. We are not warming. The warming you see out there, the supposed warming, and I am using my finger quotation marks here, is part of the cooling process. Greenland, which is now covered in ice, it was once called Greenland for a reason, right? Oh I love this. Like we know what this planet is all about. How long have we been here? How long? No very long.
Mr. Steele -– the originator of the “drill baby drill” slogan that dominated last year’s Republican National Convention — appears to be aligning himself with Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma, also a Republican, who has denounced the idea of a global warming catastrophe as
“the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people,”
and said that many of the Obama administration’s early moves amounted to “environmental thuggery.”
[Again, I prefer 'scam'; hoaxes are done for fun whereas scams are perpetrated for (in this case, extreme) profit.]
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Markey Taps FERC Over CFTC as U.S. Carbon Market Fuels Turf War
Washington - U.S. Representative Edward Markey says his committee should be in charge. No, says fellow Democrat Collin Peterson, this one should fall under my panel.
Markey and Peterson are jockeying for control of the biggest regulatory plum to hit Washington in years: a proposed system for trading carbon-dioxide permits that would be one of the world’s largest derivatives markets....
[extreme profit]
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Aircraft may spot energy wasters
The Christchurch City Council says it may "shame" people into more energy-efficient ways by using an aircraft with infra-red imaging to identify poorly-insulated houses. The scheme will be rolled out this winter. (Snip) The 10-year, $6.6 million energy plan includes a $240,000 scheme to target poorly insulated homes via a heat-sensitive eye-in-the-sky...
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US wants limits on Antarctic tourism
The Obama administration is pushing to protect Antarctica's fragile environment by imposing mandatory limits on the size of cruise ships sailing there and the number of passengers they bring ashore. At a conference set to begin Monday in Baltimore, U.S. diplomats will propose amending the 50-year-old Antarctic Treaty...
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EPA head announces new port emissions proposal
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said Monday that the United States and Canada have applied to the International Maritime Organization to create a 230-mile emissions control area around much of their coastline...
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Enviro-Elmo Gives Green Gospel to Terrible Twos
The environmental left has accomplished what marketers dream of: hooking consumers from a young age and creating customers-for-life. What’s more, they’ve done it on the cheap.
As CMI has documented, Nickelodeon’s “Big Green Help” gives valuable web resources, ad time and talent resources to getting kids to “pledge” to take carbon-reducing actions and to annoy their parents into taking them too. Just last week, Nick used valuable airtime during its “Kid’s Choice Awards” to bestow the “Big Green Help Award” on actor Leonardo DiCaprio.
Having already conquered the preteen market, and emboldened by evidence that it’s made important inroads with adolescents, the Gaia Conglomerate has scored the ultimate product placement victory – for free! The traditionally red Elmo was literally “turned green,” in a new “Sesame Street” DVD called “Being Green” to teach preschoolers about all environmental pieties.
[Parents, watch the video and be aware.]
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IRAN: There will be oil, and lots of it
Beirut-Iran is reporting huge new discoveries of oil that contain "billions" of barrels of reserves, state radio quoted the managing director of the country's National Oil Co. as saying today. Seyfollah Jashnsaz said Iran has discovered seven new oil fields in unspecified locations around the country...
[Again, 'peak oil' is a myth: the historical fact is that we've consistently found more reserves in increasing excess to our growing demand. I.e., the amount of 'untapped' oil above our usage has done nothing but grown throughout history - the only thing limiting recovery is our suicidal politics.]
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Japanese, Venezuelan leaders agree to deepen ties on energy
Tokyo - Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez agreed Monday to deepen ties in energy, with Japanese companies ready to participate in gas and crude production in the Latin American country.
Aso and Chavez decided to set up a working team to discuss details of Japanese investment in heavy crude production in Venezuela's oil-rich Orinoco River basin...
[Everyone but US]
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Oil companies: underinvesting can spark price jump
The global economic crisis is leading international oil and gas companies to under-invest in new capacity, which threatens to spark renewed sharp increases in oil prices once the crisis ends, executives from two of Europe’s leading oil companies warned today.
“Definitely this crisis will leave strong traces in the long term and we will probably not see the same world anymore,” Total SA Chief Executive Christophe de Margerie said at an oil industry conference.
The event gathered industry executives and ministers of Gulf states to debate the industry’s future amid a gloomy economic outlook for the world’s biggest energy consumers...
[Read how every country other than ours is pursuing increased supply to guard against a repeat shortage... Recommended > ]
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STEPS TOWARD FASCISM
[HT:RT]
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner declared last week that some banks will receive huge amounts of new government Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) money even if they don't want it. President Obama, Geithner, et al. tell us they do not want to run companies.
But when they fire chief executives, install new ones, remake boards of directors and force mergers, that is exactly what they are doing, says Steve Stanek, a research fellow with the Heartland Institute.
- Geithner's announcement that his agency is conducting "stress tests" that could force banks to take more federal money comes just a week after leaders of the nation's largest banks met with Obama and told him they want to pay back the TARP money they have already received, not take more of it.
- Last week, he announced he would decide, apparently with no firm guidelines, which companies -- including nonfinancial firms -- could pose "systemic risk" to the financial system; such a designation would give the government unprecedented powers to inject itself into any business it chooses.
- The Constitution gives Congress, not the president, the power to appropriate money, yet trillions of dollars have been spent, borrowed and committed in the form of various guarantees without congressional approval.
- The Constitution also blocks the government from interfering in private contracts; various court rulings since the 1930s have weakened the protections, and now the executive branch is shredding them.
- In addition to recent attacks on contractual bonuses at American International Group, the administration has recently moved to impose unjustifiable mortgage "cram downs" that require lenders to rework loans.
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California plans big bond sale, with U.S. taxpayers' help
California, which just completed one of the largest municipal bond offerings in U.S. history, will go back to investors for another big chunk of change this month. This time, the state plans to sell taxable rather than tax-free bonds. A portion of the deal will be subsidized by U.S. taxpayers under Congress’ new Build America Bond plan, part of the economic-stimulus program.
[And the spendathon continues unabated.]
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Just 53% Say Capitalism Better Than Socialism
Only 53% of American adults believe capitalism is better than socialism.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 20% disagree and say socialism is better. Twenty-seven percent (27%) are not sure which is better.
Adults under 30 are essentially evenly divided: 37% prefer capitalism, 33% socialism, and 30% are undecided. Thirty-somethings are a bit more supportive of the free-enterprise approach with 49% for capitalism and 26% for socialism. Adults over 40 strongly favor capitalism, and just 13% of those older Americans believe socialism is better.
Investors by a 5-to-1 margin choose capitalism. As for those who do not invest, 40% say capitalism is better while 25% prefer socialism.
There is a partisan gap as well. Republicans - by an 11-to-1 margin - favor capitalism. Democrats are much more closely divided: Just 39% say capitalism is better while 30% prefer socialism. As for those not affiliated with either major political party, 48% say capitalism is best, and 21% opt for socialism.
[Look at the trend line re: acceptance of socialism in our younger folks and its virtual duplication of Democratic party sentiments, and tell me our current public education is little more than liberal indoctrination.]
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Whitehall to train pro-West Islamic groups to game Google
Whitehall officials will train pro-West Islamic groups to manipulate their Google search ranking in an attempt to drown out extremist voices online, The Register has learned. The policy is being developed despite recent warnings from a group of international experts on radicalisation that such strategies are likely to be ''largely ineffectual''. (Snip) It wants to ''flood the internet'' with ''positive'' interpretations of Islam.
[I think it's a capital idea, and exactly what's been missing in this cultural contest {contestation}]
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The Gore Effect: Catlin Arctic Expedition Hampered by Cold
The Catlin Expedition, which is trekking to the North Pole to highlight effects of global warming on Arctic sea ice, has had equipment malfunctions due to extremely cold weather. According to the BBC:
But when the expedition, the Catlin Arctic Survey, set off in late February, it encountered an unexpected wind chill as low as minus 70 degrees Celsius, and the technology failed...
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Our Problem is Immorality
by Walter E. Williams
Most of our nation's great problems, including our economic problems, have as their root decaying moral values. Whether we have the stomach to own up to it or not, we have become an immoral people left with little more than the pretense of morality. You say, "That's a pretty heavy charge, Williams. You'd better be prepared to back it up with evidence!" I'll try with a few questions for you to answer.
Do you believe that it is moral and just for one person to be forcibly used to serve the purposes of another? And, if that person does not peaceably submit to being so used, do you believe that there should be the initiation of some kind of force against him? Neither question is complex and can be answered by either a yes or no. For me the answer is no to both questions but I bet that your average college professor, politician or minister would not give a simple yes or no response. They would be evasive and probably say that it all depends.
In thinking about questions of morality, my initial premise is that I am my private property and you are your private property. That's simple. What's complex is what percentage of me belongs to someone else. If we accept the idea of self-ownership, then certain acts are readily revealed as moral or immoral. Acts such as rape and murder are immoral because they violate one's private property rights. Theft of the physical things that we own, such as cars, jewelry and money, also violates our ownership rights.
The reason why your college professor, politician or minister cannot give a simple yes or no answer to the question of whether one person should be used to serve the purposes of another is because they are sly enough to know that either answer would be troublesome for their agenda. A yes answer would put them firmly in the position of supporting some of mankind's most horrible injustices such as slavery.
After all, what is slavery but the forcible use of one person to serve the purposes of another? A no answer would put them on the spot as well because that would mean they would have to come out against taking the earnings of one American to give to another in the forms of farm and business handouts, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps and thousands of similar programs that account for more than two-thirds of the federal budget.
There is neither moral justification nor constitutional authority for what amounts to legalized theft. This is not an argument against paying taxes. We all have a moral obligation to pay our share of the constitutionally mandated and enumerated functions of the federal government.
Unfortunately, there is no way out of our immoral quagmire. The reason is that now that the U.S. Congress has established the principle that one American has a right to live at the expense of another American, it no longer pays to be moral. People who choose to be moral and refuse congressional handouts will find themselves losers. They'll be paying higher and higher taxes to support increasing numbers of those paying lower and lower taxes. As it stands now, close to 50 percent of income earners have no federal income tax liability and as such, what do they care about rising income taxes? In other words, once legalized theft begins, it becomes too costly to remain moral and self-sufficient. You might as well join in the looting, including the current looting in the name of stimulating the economy.
I am all too afraid that a historian, a hundred years from now, will footnote America as a historical curiosity where people once enjoyed private property rights and limited government but it all returned to mankind's normal state of affairs -- arbitrary abuse and control by the powerful elite.
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