In the last election, unions spent $450 million to elect candidates who favor their agenda. They have succeeded beyond the dreams of avarice. The federal government is now virtually the empire of Big Labor.
Especially gleeful are the teachers' unions, who helped elect a president explicitly and vociferously opposed to vouchers.
Even as America's students have dropped to their lowest level on standardized tests compared to students internationally, and even as drop-out rates soar past the 50 percent mark in most of the largest urban school districts, President-elect Barack Obama has shown contempt for school choice-even as he exercised school choice in enrolling his own children in the most expensive and exclusive private prep school in Washington, D.C.
But there is a ray of hope for those who favor freedom of choice in education: home schooling. A report just out in Education Next (by Milton Gaither) shows that in the face of the continuing failure of the public school system and the roadblocks to freedom erected by the public school special interest groups, parents are increasingly home schooling their children. Especially striking is the growth of home schooling among African American households... [snip]
No doubt the public school monopoly will continue to use its force (fueled by millions of dollars in union dues) to keep its stranglehold on American education. We can anticipate major efforts to stop home schooling in its tracks. Here in California, Justice H. Walter Croskey ruled last year that home schooling was illegal unless the parents had teaching credentials (as if that were any indication of teaching competence!)
The ruling was reversed, but it is just a matter of time before another move is made...
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Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Home-schoolers: There is no hope in Obama
Gen. Sherman's 'Disproportionate Response'
History
Reviled in the South to this day as a terrorist, Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman decided that the only way to end the protracted armed conflict of the American Civil War and terminate the rebellious, racist, slave-regime in the south was to bring the war home to the civilian population of the Confederacy.
(Snip) Recognizing that it was not in their economic interest to continue the fight, civilian political support for the Confederacy began a precipitous collapse...
[Recommended > ]
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CONGRESS TARGETS PHILANTHROPY
Congressman Xavier Becerra (D-Ca.) thinks he's discovered a new source of political treasure: the money inside private and community foundations. Unless foundations reprogram money in the direction of Mr. Becerra's preferences, he'll start proceedings to dismantle their tax exemption.
But he may want to think twice. A study out this month suggests that foundations spread economic benefits more broadly through society than had been previously imagined. For the $43 billion that foundations spent on grants in 2007, they created direct economic benefits of $368 billion. Those nonprofits that consistently outperform government programs have been saving taxpayers a bundle. Consider:
- Foundations offered $10 billion to support health-related programs, which yielded $75 billion in benefits.
- Some $10 billion for education programs produced $49 billion in benefits.
- $6 billion for human-services programs produced $65 billion in benefits.
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ABC News Shocker: The 'All Time Dumb Quotes' Are All From Republicans
Looks like ABC News is starting out 2009 with a partisan bang. On its main page, ABC News is hosting a slide show featuring what it is calling the "All Time Dumb Quotes." Now, these are not all strictly political dumb quotes, to be sure. They also have the denizens of the Hollywood Mensa club among the 16 featured quotes -- and some of them are doozies, too.
But, there are six political quotes five by Republicans and one by Tina Fey making fun of a Republican (Palin, naturally), yet there are no "All Time Dumb Quotes" from any Democrats. Not a one. Apparently ABC doesn't think there's ever been a dumb Democrat?
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2008: The year the U.S. media lost relevance
What would happen if America won a war and no one reported it? Is it still news? What if a credible argument were made pretty much demolishing Darwin's theory of evolution? If no media outlet conveyed this information to the American public, does that mean it is not a valid argument?
The old media elite, comprised of less than 1 percent of our population, has set the agenda and defined the issues in America for decades. More importantly, the old media has had the ability to relegate any facts that didn't conform to their version of reality to the ash heap. If it doesn't make the news, it's not news.
Ignoring inconvenient news and embarrassing facts is a tried and true tactic of the liberal media. A prime example is conservative author, Thomas Sowell. Sowell has written dozens of books dealing with race, culture, economics and other issues vital to America [and frequently posted here]. More importantly, his facts have never been rebutted. Knowing there is no chance of disputing Sowell's studies and conclusions, the media elite have chosen to ignore him. He is simply not a part of their carefully fashioned reality.
A majority of Americans are now somewhat aware of media bias. Increasingly, when reading a news story, Americans have the ability to recognize the obvious slant. This is all well and good. What is not well and good, is the fact that many of us are not made aware of all the news out there that is ignored — credible, relevant facts that are simply not reported.
How many of you are aware that at the recent UN gathering on global warming, 650 renown scientists made a credible challenge to the UN's conclusion that man-made global warming is a crisis situation requiring trillions of our tax dollars to remedy?
Once again, a credible challenge to a core tenet of progressivism was ignored rather than rebutted. This is media malfeasance.
The lack of reporting both sides of a story is having a pernicious effect on America, breeding anti-Americanism, victimology, feelings over facts and form over substance. The traditional values which made our country great, including those derived from Christianity, capitalism, the importantce of families are being cast aside.
The media would have us believe that inclusiveness, multiculturalism, equality and the environment are the most important themes facing our country today. And millions of Americans blindly accept their version of reality as gospel...
[thank God none of us get our news from TV... Highly Recommended {surprise} > ]
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For Dummies series tackles climate change
"Readers may be scared by information about the effects of climate change, like melting permafrost, disappearing glaciers, rising seas, the spread of pests and diseases, eradication of species, and declining sources of food and drinkable water, but the book also offers solutions and hope for the future", Ms. May said. [Hmm. Who wrote this thing...?]
Both authors are globally recognised environmental activists. Ms. May, currently federal Green Party leader, was executive director of the Sierra Club of Canada for 17 years and policy adviser to former prime minister Brian Mulroney. Ms. Caron’s pedigree includes membership in the Canadian Youth Climate Change Coalition and the board of directors of the Sierra Club of Canada
[stop laughing {or crying} it's ok because...]
The book was fact-checked by scientists from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a 2,000-member body that has created an objective source* of climate information.
[apologies - resume laughing/crying]
READ MORE
[BTW: about that 'objective source' crack - for the record, the IPCC's charter is:
"The IPCC was established to provide the decision-makers and others interested in climate change with an objective source of information about climate change. The IPCC does not conduct any research nor does it monitor climate related data or parameters. Its role is to assess on a comprehensive, objective, open and transparent basis the latest scientific, technical and socio-economic literature produced worldwide relevant to the understanding of the risk of human-induced climate change"
I.e., it assume AGW as fact and exists only to enact policies to 'counter' it. Can't get much more 'objective' than that.]
.
Threat of Punishment Works, Study 'Suggests'
The threat of punishment actually does stamp out freeloaders, tending to transform them into rule-following members of a society, a new study suggests.
The research results show how established norms and rules in a society could keep freeloaders in check and increase pro-social behavior, such as helping others or sharing with them rather than looking out for number one.
The new study shows that punishment gets ingrained in people's psyches in a way that causes them to fear getting into trouble. This fear can keep otherwise freeloaders, who would normally act as sponges to soak up the generosity of others without having to contribute any time or money, on the straight-and-narrow.
[could have saved themselves a bundle on 'study' costs by talking to a responsible parent]
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Monday, January 5, 2009
Yes, the war in Gaza is terrible. But the alternative was worse - for all of us
War is always terrible and to be avoided if humanly possible. War in Gaza, where Hamas terrorists are embedded within densely crowded areas, is particularly awful. No one wants to see civilians being killed. Every decent person will be dismayed that it has come to this.
This is a war that Israel spent more than seven years trying to avoid, while no fewer than 6,000 rockets and other missiles rained down from Gaza upon its southern towns. No other country in the world would have sat on its hands while its traumatised children were raised in bomb shelters.
The often-made comparison with IRA terrorism spectacularly misses the point. Hamas actually run Gaza. The equivalent would have been the Irish government firing 6,000 rockets at England. Does anyone seriously doubt that, in such a hypothetical situation, Britain would have been at war with Ireland long before that total had been reached?
What is profoundly troubling, however, is that as the Israeli ground offensive escalates hostilities still further, so many in Britain don’t understand that, appalling as this war is, the alternative is even worse...
[Highly Recommended > ]
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Only the end of Hamas can bring peace to Gaza
In the case of recent Israeli operations in Gaza, it is not enough to justify them, by mentioning the (literally) thousands of rockets Hamas has been pumping into every Israeli town within their range, expressly to massacre the defenceless. This, and this alone, necessitated decisive Israeli action.
A government has a solemn duty to protect its people from gratuitous acts of violence. The Israeli government is unambiguously justified in taking whatever measures are necessary to make the rocketing stop. Hamas carries the entire moral responsibility for putting the people of Gaza in harm's way.
But we should not stop at justifying Israeli action. As their allies against a common enemy -- against Islamists who consider the West to be their ultimate target -- we should be offering our help and encouragement for the completion of the stated Israeli task: the complete annihilation of the Hamas organization. For by no other means can peace be obtained in Gaza.
[exaggeration? Then tell me; what course do you set to coexist with those who explicitly state they believe in no coexistence?]
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Son of Hamas Leader Gives Glimpse Into Terror Organization
As Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other world leaders try to broker a cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas, one former member of the militant Islamic organization said there will never be lasting peace between the two groups.
''There is no chance. Is there any chance for fire to co-exist with the water?''said Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of one of the group's founding members.
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US blocks UNSC action on Gaza Strip
[HT:Ldot; "Someone found some stones over at the UN."]
At an emergency Security Council meeting Saturday, the US blocked approval of a UN Security Council statement calling for an immediate cease-fire between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers.
The US, Israel's closest ally, has designated Hamas a terrorist organization. US deputy ambassador Alejandro Wolff said the United States saw no prospect of Hamas abiding by last week's council call for an immediate end to the violence.
Though the Security Council took no action on Saturday night, an Arab draft resolution circulated by Libya on Wednesday night that would condemn Israel and halt its military attacks on Gaza remains on the table. It would have to be revised, however, since the United States has already called it "unacceptable" and "unbalanced" because it doesn't call for an end to the Hamas rocketing of Israel.
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In Gaza, the real enemy is Iran
[HT:GP]
Jerusalem -- The images from the fighting in Gaza are harrowing but ultimately deceptive. They portray a mighty invading army, one equipped with F-16 jets that have bombed a civilian population defended by a few thousand fighters armed with primitive rockets. But widen the lens and the true nature of this conflict emerges.
Hamas, like Hezbollah in Lebanon, is a proxy for the real enemy Israel is confronting: ..Iran.
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The real agenda
[meanwhile, in the 'professional' media...]
BBC World TV has spent much of the day whining that Israel is refusing to allow the international media entry into Gaza despite an Israeli court ruling that it should allow the media in.
This is amongst the reasons why it isn’t choosing to do so: Police were searching Saturday night for a foreign reporter working for an Iranian TV network who reported the IDF incursion into Gaza before the military authorized the release of the information to the public...
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Face of Defense: Wounded Warrior Ready to Return to Fight
Danger lurks on every stretch of road in Iraq with the prospect of roadside bombs, which have taken a terrible toll on those serving downrange. Army Spc. Jake Altman knows very well the destruction they can cause.
"I was the lead vehicle scouting for IEDs and letting the guys behind me know what's up ahead,” he recalled. “About three hours into it, I came across one. I saw it for about a split second. I called it, and then all of a sudden, it blew up,"Although in tremendous pain and agony, Altman could not help but think what only heroes perceive during this type of emergency.
"I was actually glad it was me. If I would have missed it, it would've hit a truck full of guys. That explosion would have killed everybody in the truck,"After a year and a half of recovery and physical therapy at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., Altman returned to the 9th Engineer Battalion here, continuing his service and eager to take on future challenges. He has decided to deploy once again, and will readily leave Schweinfurt in January, fulfilling his desire to "stay in the fight."
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ACLU, Liberal Pundits Lying About Gitmo
Chairman of Move America Forward, Melanie Morgan, has recently returned from a Christmas visit to the controversial Guantanamo Bay, Cuba -- telling Newsmax that the American people have been lied to about how the terror war detainees being held there are treated.“I saw that there were a lot of attorneys and big mouths in this country who are trying to describe hideous conditions at Gitmo,” she says. “That is simply not the case. Those people are lying to the American people.”
Morgan, who began her career reporting on the 1983 Beirut, Lebanon Marine Barracks bombing, where 241 Marines were killed, goes on to describe what she discovered during her three-day visit.
“The terrorists at Gitmo are given more religious consideration than our troops are ... They have six meal plans every day that they can choose from. At the beginning of the week on Monday they describe what kind of foods that they would like. If the fresh fruit is bruised, they are allowed to return it for a higher quality fruit.Late this past summer, the Guantanamo trial of Salim Hamdan, one of Osama bin Laden's drivers, ended with bad news for the prosecution. Hamdan was acquitted of conspiring with al-Qaida to attack the U.S., and his five-and-a-half year sentence for providing material support for terrorism was only a fraction of what the prosecutor wanted.
“They live in air conditioned state of the art buildings ... So, there is a communication center in the middle, and the inmates are kept in rooms that form a spoke around there. They are allowed to shower every single day for 15 minutes. They have more exercise and recreational time than American school children do..."
Morgan’s opinion on all this is straightforward:
“It’s extremely short sided, dangerous, and self delusional decision by our highest court…”
[Recommended > ]
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Russia donates 10 MiG-29 fighter jets to Lebanon
Moscow - Russia will deliver 10 MiG-29 fighter jets to Lebanon as a gift, the head of the federal military and technical cooperation service said Wednesday. The jets are to be fully outfitted to 'export standards' before being shipped, he said
Mikhail Dmitriyev called the donation a means of 'military and technical assistance provided for in the (Russian) budget.
Russia has long sought to expand its influence in the Middle East, and as a member of the Quartet of Mideast peace negotiators proposed to host a conference in Moscow next year.
[at 30M$ each that's a 'gift' of 300M$ - and they'll host a peace conference in Moscow. How nice of Russia to do so for purely altruistic reasons.]
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Globaloney Update: A Tale of Two 'Realities'
From June: 'No ice at the North Pole,' to January: 'Sea Ice Ends Year at Same Level as 1979'
No pairing of any two stories better illustrates the child-like alarmism of global warming religionists than these two stories. The first from June of 2008 claims that all the ice at the North Pole has melted and will be gone for the first time ever, while the second shows that by January of 2009 the polar ice measurements show that it is the same as it was in 1979, with no ice loss seen at all between then and now. [snip]
So, what we see here in the first story is "scientists" that imagine that they "know" that everything will travel in a straight line from their claims to the end of life as we know it. They make no allowance for the reality that, like it has for millions of years, this planet might just know what it’s doing after all. And we find them shocked and surprised by the time the second story rolls around that they couldn't have been more wrong...
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Cooling global warming hysteria just one story of '08
As James Peden, an atmospheric physicist, said, many scientists "are now searching for a way to back out quietly" from global-warming fearmongering, "without having their professional careers ruined."
This is an ethical or political problem, not a problem in climate science. The crux of it is that major research grants and, in this country, prestigious Canada Research Chairs, have been awarded on the assumption something must be done to stop CO2 from destroying the world.
Those scientists who are the current beneficiaries of a moral panic they help sustain are squirming not because of their ethical transgressions but because of scientific facts. Facts are fragile because they could always be different, but stubborn because they are what they are, independent of opinions, including any "consensus." In this context the big inconvenient fact is that for almost a decade, ice-core data have shown climate cycles antedate changes in atmospheric CO2.
In 2006, experiments at the Danish National Space Center provided evidence that changes in the magnetic field of the sun can affect not CO2 but water vapour--clouds--which are responsible for up to 95 per cent of the warmth that keeps Earth habitable. Last year the implications finally sunk in.
The original experiment is being replicated by CERN, the European Organization for Nu-clear Research, so stay tuned.
Remember, there is no experimental evidence--none at all--that an increase in CO2 can increase greenhouse warming, and that ice-core evidence indicates the causal arrow does not go from changes in CO2 to changes in climate...
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NYT: Winter Weather Stifles Alternative Energy Sources, Will Nets Follow?
It has been a particularly cold winter season, and the energy issue is front and center for the Obama administration. In a surprising December 25th New York Times piece, Kate Galbraith wrote about the season's deleterious effect on alternative energy sources like wind, solar, and biodiesel.
The network news shows have yet to pick up on this story. Galbraith first tackles the issues regarding solar panels in snowy conditions(my emphasis throughout):This time of year, wind turbine blades ice up, biodiesel congeals in tanks and solar panels produce less power because there is not as much sun. And perhaps most irritating to the people who own them, the panels become covered with snow, rendering them useless even in bright winter sunshine...
Galbraith showed examples of how expensive alternative energy can fail, but she does not mention coal, oil, and nuclear have been keeping modern society consistently warm in the winter, cool in the summer, and moving comfortably in our vehicles every single day.
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America Needs Its Frontier Spirit
[HT:NF]
The greatest danger in the current economic crisis is that the United States will lose its historic appetite for risk. The mood now is that risk-taking got us into this mess. Risk, though, is the quintessential American trait that built the nation -- from the Battle of Bunker Hill to the rise of the microchip. If we let risk give way to a new ethos of commercial reserve and regulatory restriction, the upward arc of the U.S. ascendancy will flatten. Maybe it already has. [snip]
The great danger now is that a depressed and angry people will allow the risk-taking American baby to be thrown out with the toxic-securities bathwater. The line of waiting washerwomen is long. France's Nicolas Sarkozy ("Laissez-faire capitalism is over") and our European friends propose a global regulatory body to monitor financial risk, which of course means it would corral America's cowboy capitalists. Barney Frank wants a "systemic-risk regulator." [snip]
The current crisis is the result of a world gone madly long on real estate. Daniel Boone, the famed American frontiersman, went belly-up speculating on Kentucky land. He moved on in 1788 and paid his debts. So should we, without losing sight of the American frontier, where we discovered the rewards of risk.
[Recommended > ]
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California mulls paying bills with IOU's
When a company runs out of money with which to pay its bills, involuntary bankruptcy usually follows. But the State of California, which is expected run out of money at the end of February, plans to pay at least some bills with what amount to IOU's (call them "registered warrants" if you accept the sham).
The group likely to get them are taxpayers owed refunds on their state tax payments, also know as "voters."
Last year I warned that a state bankruptcy was not unthinkable. That would be one way to get California out of its unsustainable gold plated pension obligations to state employees, not to mention the union contracts that have large numbers of prison guards making over $100,000 a year - not bad for a job that requires a GED level of education.
Absent shock therapy of some sort, California's fiscal madness will go on and on until the last taxpayer leaves.
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[but we re-elect the same folks time and again]
Mexico's drug violence expected to intensify in '09
WASHINGTON – Drug-related violence in Mexico, already at unprecedented levels, is expected to escalate further this year, with targets likely to include top Mexican politicians and law enforcement agents and possibly even U.S. officials, according to diplomats and intelligence experts on both sides of the border. As the war against cartels escalates in 2009, so will the threats, particularly against U.S. officials and other Americans...
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Your Nanny Government
State [NY] Health Commissioner Richard Daines has become the point man for one of the more controversial of Gov. David Paterson's revenue-generating budget proposals: The so-called ''fat tax'' - an 18 percent levy on sugary drinks like non-diet soda...
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Recipe for success? Salt and fat, admits McDonald's chief
The woman given the job of promoting McDonald's has revealed the secret of the fast-food chain's success – salt and fat. (Snip) ''But fat and salt makes food taste good. There is no point taking all the fat and salt out of your food because people won't like it and they will eat with someone else.
We have to make small steps to help people improve their diet.''
[why? How about we each decide if and how we'll improve our diets? Just as if we had personal choice in the matter...]
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A Workout For The Media
Just looking at the hypocrisy of the media. So what else is new? But sometimes you just have to point out the obvious.
Christmas day the Washington Post slobbered (metaphorically speaking) all over it's front page about Obama's workout:"The sun glinted off chiseled pectorals sculpted during four weightlifting sessions each week, and a body toned by regular treadmill runs and basketball games."
The subtitle of the piece is "Gym Workouts Help Obama Carry the Weight of His Position." The WaPo just gushes about how wonderful it is that Obama stays in shape.
[the point? > Flashback to Pres. Bush's workouts and how the WaPo described them.
... attacked Bush three years ago in an opinion piece for the Los Angeles Times headlined "The (over) exercise of power."
Recounting how President Bush ran 3.5 miles a day and preached more cross-training to a federal judge, Chait fumed:
"Am I the only person who finds this disturbing? . . . What I mean is the fact that Bush has an obsession with exercise that borders on the creepy."
[what bias?]
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Grim California deficit horizon
The current estimate is that the 2008-09 budget is $11.2 billion out of whack and the 2009-10 income-outgo gap is another $17 billion, but with new forecasts of a declining economy and up-to-date revenue numbers, state officials believe that both numbers could be as much as 50 percent higher, around $40 billion... [snip]
While the quartet -- dubbed "the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" by one Capitol type -- pleaded for rapid action, there was absolutely no indication afterward that the political stalemate on taxes, spending cuts and demands by Republicans for easing some labor and environmental rules would suddenly resolve itself.
While Democrats believe that the depth of the crisis will compel Republicans to abandon their no-new-taxes position, GOP leaders believe they can force Democrats into giving ground on what they call "economic stimulus" -- a list of pro-business measures, such as no longer requiring overtime pay after eight hours of work, that Democrats and their labor and environmental allies despise...
[this state is now spending in excess of 100 Billion dollars a year ---
and we're supposed to include tax increases - now? - as 'part of the solution'??
It's the spending, idiots. Always has been, yet we keep sending the same idiots back to Sacramento confident that if they just keep running up the tab eventually we'll be forced to throw good money after bad.
Are they right? Silence is interpreted as consent...
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then;
CA Governor: http://gov.ca.gov/interact mailto: governor@governor.ca.gov
CA State Legislature = http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/yourleg.html
CA Senate Email list pg. http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/senemail.htp
Sen. Don Perata (9th) Senator.Perata@senate.ca.gov
.
CNN Places Sarah Palin With 2008's Criminals, Sex Addicts, and the Corrupt
CNN features corruption mired Rod Blagojevich, the sex crazed Elliot Spitzer and John Edwards, and the criminal bribe taker Ted Stevens among four others. Each of these men in the CNN list have either been convicted of criminal actions, are indicted for corruption, lost their positions, been drummed out of their party, or are soon to face jail time. Among these eight criminals, however, is a name that doesn't belong among this class of serial abuser of the public trust.
Sadly, it won't be shocking to note that among the worst sex criminals, bribe takers, liars and thieves in politics for 2008, CNN ridiculously included the name of Governor Sarah Palin...
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[they're still frightened of her - and for good reason...]
It's no Tripp: Palin still popular
WHEN Sarah Palin's teenage daughter, Bristol, gave birth last month to the Governor of Alaska's first grandchild, America's comedians had a field day.
Two months after she crashed to defeat with John McCain, Ms Palin remains a prime source of hilarity. Yet the "hockey mom" who cracked jokes about pitbulls and lipstick enters 2009 as a key figure in Republican plans for political revival.
Ms Palin ended 2008 with a striking run of personal successes in high-profile popularity polls. A poll by Gallup found she was the second-most admired woman of the year, after Hillary Clinton.
Time magazine chose her as the world's fourth-most influential person, behind Barack Obama, Henry Paulson of the US Treasury and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Last week she triumphed in an annual poll, commissioned by a property website, as the person Americans would most like to have as their neighbour.
For all the abuse she endured as a vice-presidential candidate, Ms Palin continues to excite Republican voters with what they see as a unique political style...
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Big Media's Many Similarities to the Big Three
As media company after media company fall on hard times, the amount of handwringing within the journalistic community is reaching epic proportions. One point not often noticed, however is that there are many similarities between the American media business and our auto manufacturing industry as Tony Hopfinger points out in an excellent Alaska Dispatch post:There are many reasons for the downturn - a weak economy, the Internet, etc. But one explanation that often goes unmentioned is the generally poor management within the newspapers themselves. It's surprising how many editors, publishers and executives have been allowed to keep their jobs as their papers crumble around them. In any other business, these managers would be replaced. Instead, failures are blamed on "markets" and "ad dollars" and "the Internet," instead of lack of vision and poor leadership.
[another: quality of product ]
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Friday, December 19, 2008
Face of Defense: Double Amputee Marine Wants to Stay in to Help Others
“I want to be a Marine. I don’t want to get out yet,” he said. “I’m trying to stay in so I can go back to Bethesda and work at the hospital in the liaison office so I can talk to the wounded.”The reactions he occasionally gets when he’s out in public bother him, though, he acknowledged. Some thank him, some buy meals for him, and some even apologize for what happened in the course of serving his country.
“I’m like, ‘Don’t be. It could’ve happened to anyone,” Bradford said. “[I have] no regrets. I’d go back if I could, but I can’t see.”
He lost his left eye when a piece of shrapnel went through it and lodged in his brain, and retina damage cost him sight in his right eye.
[you read that right, the blindness was in addition to his amputations. What unit of measurement do we use to describe such character?]
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Local woman organizes 'God packages' for U.S. troops
Not to worry. This won’t make you feel “yucky” like the flu or the sniffles. More than likely, it’ll make a person feel good. It’s called gratitude.
And I didn’t realize just how catching it is until I met Jan Sass on our latest KTNW-TV In Steppe show. She’s the founder of U.S. Troop Care Package, a local effort that puts together care packages to show appreciation for deployed military.
It started with one box. Today, thousands of Care Packages are sent to troops in more than 30 countries...
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Typical items found in the care packages that we send to our deployed troops.
Gaza militants up rocket attacks as truce to expire
Gaza City/Tel Aviv - Palestinian militant factions in the Gaza Strip said Wednesday they were unlikely to extend an Egyptian- brokered six-month truce with Israel that expires on Friday. (Snip) Palestinian fighters in the strip fired 15 self-made rockets into southern Israel on Wednesday, in addition to one mortar shell, a military spokeswoman in Tel Aviv said, adding they brought the total number launched since Tuesday to 25...
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The Sovereignty Dodge
"We don't think the world's great nations and countries can be held hostage by non-state actors," Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said yesterday. Fair enough. But what is the world to do when those non-state actors operate from the territory of a state and are the creation of that state's intelligence services? [snip]
... but nations should not be able to claim sovereign rights when they cannot control territory from which terrorist attacks are launched...
[moreover, Pakistan's complaining of US drone bombing is particularly hypocritical considering its only been done in regions the Pakistani government itself has labeled the 'ungoverned territories'.]
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Newsweek: Shoe Toss Was 'One Small Measure of Justice'
"Bush is not going to end up in The Hague obviously, there’s not going to be any charges against him, and so, you know, a shoe shied at him by an Iraqi journalist might be the one small measure of justice that was achieved."
He suggested the Bush era was a time of "mass hallucination" and Obama’s rise put an end to the madness. Hirsh wished Bush good riddance:
"This guy’s about gone, and we can stop pretending that there was any kind of, you know, rational strategic motivation behind this act of war that he committed."
Hirsh said Bush and his team have "blood on their hands," but will never admit they were wrong. Hirsh’s interview was posted on YouTube on Monday
[what bias?]
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Durban II
.
Claudia Rosett wrote a sensible article about the coming Durban-2 summit in Forbes. For those unfamiliar with Durban-1, or the idea of Durban, what we’re talking about here is an infamous 2001 anti-racism-turned-anti-Israel UN conference, soon to be reconvened:
Durban II is not solely a mob move against Israel. It is a dishonor to real heroes of the war on prejudice, such as Martin Luther King. It is an assault on the genuine tolerance of free societies. It is an attempt to commandeer the U.N.–yet again–as a vehicle for the kind of hate that leads to such horrors as the slaughter in Mumbai, or for that matter, Sept. 11.The extent to which the Obama administration will be willing to compromise in order to participate in this dispensable event can serve as an indication from which to learn more about the new team in power. We know very little about the way this man is going to rule, one Israeli official has told me. Durban will give us some early sense of his real priorities.
Among the U.N.’s 192 member states, only two have had the backbone to announce that they will boycott the Durban Review: Canada, and for obvious reasons, Israel. In the U.S., President Bush has deferred any final decision to the next administration.
President-elect Obama, what will you do about Durban II?
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FLASHBACKs:
081208: Coming Soon: UN Racists to convene conference on racism
081112: ‘Apartheid’ Israel, Islamophobia on the Agenda for U.N. Racism Meeting
081007: The Pathology of Durban II
"Boycott Durban II"Obama transition http://www.change.gov/page/s/contact
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GLOBAL WARMING FREEZE?
The last two years of global cooling have nearly erased 30 years of temperature increase. To the extent that global warming ever existed, it is now officially over, says David Deming, a geophysicist and adjunct scholar with the National Center for Policy Analysis.
In fact, there is worldwide evidence of the end of global warming, says Deming: [multiple multi-year cooling stats, snip]
These cold weather events are not abnormal or isolated incidents; global measures of climatic conditions indicate significant cooling. Moreover, NASA reports that oceans have been cooling for the last five years, sea level has stopped rising and Northern Hemisphere cyclone and hurricane activity is at a 24-year low.
But even though global warming is over, politicians are still trying to enact solutions to a non-existent problem. Instead, we must recognize that weather and climate change are natural processes beyond human control. To argue otherwise is to deny the factual evidence, says Deming.
[it's not about climate but power and money]
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The Plan to Create 'Green' Jobs
Just as the mainstream media are beginning to admit their bias during the election for Obama, the emboldened enviros are finally beginning to admit that the economics behind the green movement are bogus. In a nutshell, Obama says it cost $150 billion to create five million new jobs over the next decade, but the left wing San Franciso based Apollo Group says it will cost over three times as much - $500 billion.
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Cave bears killed by Ice Age
Oslo - Giant cave bears froze to death during the last Ice Age in Europe about 28 000 years ago, according to a study on Wednesday that cleared human hunters of driving them to extinction thousands of years later. The largely vegetarian bears, weighing up to a tonne and bigger than modern polar bears or Kodiak bears, apparently died off as a sharp cooling of the climate led to a freeze that killed off the fruits, nuts and plants they ate.
[cooling is the much larger threat than warming to virtually all life on earth - especially man]
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The Great North American CO2 Sink
[not really readable to most of us humans - it's real science - but thought I'd post as future FLASHBACK when next I reference]
A Large Terrestrial Carbon Sink in North America Implied by Atmospheric and Oceanic Carbon Dioxide Data and Models
S. Fan, M. Gloor, J. Mahlman, S. Pacala, J. Sarmiento, T. Takahashi, P. Tans
Atmospheric carbon dioxide increased at a rate of 2.8 petagrams of carbon per year (Pg C year1) during 1988 to 1992 (1 Pg = 1015 grams). Given estimates of fossil carbon dioxide emissions, and net oceanic uptake, this implies a global terrestrial uptake of 1.0 to 2.2 Pg C year1. The spatial distribution of the terrestrial carbon dioxide uptake is estimated by means of the observed spatial patterns of the greatly increased atmospheric carbon dioxide data set available from 1988 onward, together with two atmospheric transport models, two estimates of the sea-air flux, and an estimate of the spatial distribution of fossil carbon dioxide emissions. North America is the best constrained continent, with a mean uptake of 1.7 ± 0.5 Pg C year1, mostly south of 51 degrees north. Eurasia-North Africa is relatively weakly constrained, with a mean uptake of 0.1 ± 0.6 Pg C year1. The rest of the world's land surface is poorly constrained, with a mean source of 0.2 ± 0.9 Pg C year1.
S. Fan and J. Sarmiento, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Program, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA. M. Gloor and S. Pacala, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08542, USA. J. Mahlman, Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory-National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Princeton University, Post Office Box 308, Princeton, NJ 08542, USA. T. Takahashi, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, NY 10964, USA. P. Tans, Climate Modeling and Diagnostics Laboratory, NOAA, Boulder, CO 80303, USA.
[point: the US has reforested an average of 1 million acres per year for ~40 years which, due to the order-of-magnitude increased consumption of CO2 by growing trees vs. mature ones (parents: think feeding a teenager) which results in North America 'uptaking' more CO2 than it 'emits' - and is unique in the world in doing so. That's why all UN conversation focuses solely on emissions - as the US's net CO2 contribution is negative. Easily handled: the IPCC's 'recommendations' simply don't count it, or the US would be lecturing the rest of the world instead of the other way around.]
Read the Full Text
Groups line up for share of huge stimulus package
As President-elect Barack Obama and congressional leaders construct a behemoth economic stimulus package, a parade of interest groups is seeking shares of the portion that will go to infrastructure construction projects. The "ready-to-go" project lists are longer than the supplicants' arms and for sums that would have seemed fantastic only months ago, before the depth of the recession became apparent.
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"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. This crisis provides the opportunity for us to do things that you could not do before."..
California Democrats devise plan to hike taxes
By structuring them as fees, they would skirt GOP opponents and raise $9.3 billion. A court fight looms.
Reporting from Sacramento -- California's Democratic leaders were planning a vote today on a brazen proposal to raise gas, sales and income taxes through a series of legal maneuvers that would bypass the state's Constitutional requirement for a two-thirds vote to increase taxes.
The Democratic gambit, announced Wednesday, would raise $9.3 billion to ease the state's fiscal crisis by increasing sales taxes by three-fourths of a cent and gas taxes by 13 cents a gallon, starting in February. The plan would add a 'surcharge' of 2.5% to everyone's 2009 state income tax bill.
It would also require businesses to withhold taxes on payments above $600 made to independent contractors. Their package would total $18 billion and nearly halve the state's budget shortfall, projected to reach $41.8 billion in the next 18 months. [snip]
Republican legislators and antitax groups promised legal challenges to derail the Democrats' plan."Raising taxes on people and playing funny math and calling it fees is not governing," said Assembly GOP leader Michael Villines of Clovis. "That's trickery, is what that is."
The Democrats intend to do two things: eliminate some existing taxes, including those on gasoline, and substitute 'fee' increases that would include a 9.9% 'levy' on oil extraction and the income tax 'surcharge'. The Democrats will then reimpose the gas 'fees' at higher levels [but at 39 cents a gallon, hence the '13 cent' increase referred to]; fees can be raised with simple majority votes. The net effect would be billions of dollars in new revenue for the state.
Similar proposals have been considered in past budget crises but never acted on out of concern that they would unravel in court."If they proceed with this proposal to raise taxes with a simple majority vote, they will be sued and they will lose,"
[it's illegal, they know it, and they're going to do it anyway so they get the money while it's tied up in the courts. Still think this is a government representitive of the people or based on the rule of law?
If so, you need tell them ... >
CA State Legislature (Asy./Senate) = http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/yourleg.html
and pass on...]
U.S. Capitol Visitor Center Emphasizes Liberal Political Causes
The DC Capitol Visitor Center opened last week three years late and $360 million dollars over budget. The AP reported that James Billington, the librarian of Congress, said the new visitor’s center provides a splendidly presented civics lesson.” [snip]
... The exhibit hall display cases look like they were overrun by liberal interest groups. Environmentalism, healthcare, and public education groups must be pleased to have been deemed as important if not more important than our Constitution’s Bill of Rights... [snip]
S.203 38th Congress, Regarding Yosemite Valley, May 17, 1864
This bill signed into law ... to keep Yoesemite Valley from being ruined by increasing commerce and tourism...
... The Medicare Act of 1965-Gauranteeing Healthcare for the elderly. The president’s uneven signature results from his using multiple pens--gifts to key sponsors of the bill...
The Northwest Ordinance, the nation’s first legislators laid down the principles for public education... Article 3 declared, “…education shall forever be encouraged,” ...
But don't bother looking for the history on the second amendment at the visitor’s center.
South Carolina Republican Senator Jim DeMint has taken up the cause of exposing the “left leaning” displays(h/t salon.com) in the CVC. DeMint’s statement said the following...
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[and then there's the religious component - FLASHBACK:
081209: (God) Bless America
"The center identified "E. Pluribus Unum" (rather than "In God We Trust") as the official national motto.".
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Internet Attacks Are a Real and Growing Problem
A new report says cyberwar isn't science fiction
Last week's Center for Strategic and International Studies report disclosed that the departments of Defense, State, Homeland Security and Commerce all have had intrusions by unknown foreign entities.
The Pentagon's computers are probed "hundreds of thousands of times each day." An official at the State Department says terabytes of its information have been compromised. The Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security had to go offline for several months. NASA has stopped using email before shuttle launches. Jihadist hackers are trying to confuse military computers into mistaking the identities of friendly and unfriendly forces in Afghanistan and Iraq... [snip]
It's telling that the U.S. doesn't have a publicly stated doctrine on cyber defense that warns enemies and commits to taking action in response. Likening today's issues to the Cold War, the report says there should be clear rules about who will be punished how for what. It's in the nature of cyber attacks that it's hard to know exactly who's responsible, but some response must be made.
"These uncertainties limit the value of deterrence for cybersecurity," the report says. "The deterrent effect of an unknown doctrine is quite limited"
The report has recommendations for the Obama administration, including a new government structure for cyber protection and working more closely with the private sector on security research. The broader point is that it's about time that we knew the extent of the cyberwarring against us. The first step to fighting back is to admit that there's a fight...
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Secret Rocket Balls Target WMD Bunkers
The Pentagon doesn't want to talk about them, but published documents show that the fireballs have undergone tests on underground bunkers.
[correction: the Pentagon had a secret weapon]
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'Christmas is the pathway to hell'
A Muslim lawyer has launched an extraordinary rant against Christmas, branding the celebration 'evil'. Hate preacher Anjem Choudary claimed the festival was the 'pathway to hell' and urged his followers to boycott it. 'In the world today many Muslims, especially those residing in Western countries, are exposed to the evil celebration Christmas,'
'The very concept of Christmas contradicts and conflicts with the foundation of Islam.'
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How Canada's Little Mosque on the Prairie is aiming for our souls
Muslim integration in those early years was high (mostly through inter-marriage), and Muslim immigration was a bare minimum. In the 1930s, there were about 700 Muslims throughout Canada. Now, there are over 700,000. The original Al Rashid mosque attendees were never allowed to forget or ignore Canada's foundations and values.
Contemporary Muslims, their large numbers exempting them from assimilating into the dominant society, are not only ignoring these values, but are subtly using mainstream imagery and cultural symbols and trends as a strategy to assimilate Canadians into their Islamic culture.
They have no real attachment to Laura Ingalls' lovely family, the true pioneers and nation-builders of the Midwestern prairies. Instead, they are using her cultural influence surreptitiously as a way to get to the Canadian soul (and soil). And given the international popularity of Little Mosque on the Prairie, the agenda is to do the same world-wide.
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Ctrl-Alt-Delete
[HT:RB]
"Barack Obama says his presidency is an opportunity for the United States to spread a message of tolerance," the Los Angeles Times reports in "Obama's first newspaper interview since his Nov. 4 election":
"I think we've got a unique opportunity to reboot America's image around the world and also in the Muslim world in particular," Obama said Tuesday, promising an "unrelenting" desire to "create a relationship of mutual respect and partnership in countries and with peoples of goodwill who want their citizens and ours to prosper together."
The world, he said, "is ready for that message."
Sorry, what is that message again? He's promising an unrelenting desire to create a relationship with peoples of goodwill? What about peoples of badwill? What about peoples of goodwill who are ruled by corrupt and oppressive governments?
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twofer
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Iran rejects Obama's carrot-and-stick approach
Iran has rejected a "carrot-and-stick" approach from president-elect Barack Obama that would combine economic incentives and threats of sanctions to try to change Tehran's plans for its nuclear program.
''The carrot-and-stick policy has no benefit,'' Qashqavi told reporters during his weekly press briefing. ''It is unacceptable and failed.''READ MORE
Iran accuses Barack Obama of 'cowboy talk'
Iran's conservative parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani has branded US President-Elect Barack Obama's comments on Tehran's nuclear activities as "cowboy" talk, the ISNA news agency reported. "These comments resemble those of old American cowboys. If you have something to say about (Iran's) nuclear issue, just say so. Why wave a stick," asked Mr Larijani, in a speech in Qazvin province.
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Blind man's guide dog barred from restaurant for offending Muslims
Alun Elder-Brown, a recruitment executive, said he was left feeling "like a piece of dirt" after being barred from bringing the animal into Kirthon Restaurant in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, on religious grounds.
The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association said the decision was illegal under the Disability Discrimination Act.
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Tampa Mayor Honors Extremism
In April of 2007, Pam Iorio was sworn into office for her second term as Mayor of Tampa Bay, Florida, given the confidence of Tampa’s citizens that she will help protect them from harm. Yet every year for at least the last four years of the six-plus years she has served, Mayor Iorio has honored CAIR, a radical Muslim organization, with a Proclamation naming a day for the group...
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[See:
Jihad Watch: CAIR and terrorism
CAIR: 'Moderate' friends of terror - article by Daniel Pipes
CAIR: Islamists Fooling the Establishment - Middle East Quarterly
CAIR called 'turnstile' for terrorist suspects
CAIR and Terrorism: Blanket Opposition to U.S. Investigations ...
ad infinitum - but I guess if they make political contributions...]
Russia in talks with Iran over sale of anti-aircraft missiles, despite Israeli objections
Earlier this year, Russia said it would not move forward with the transaction. In October, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert visited Russia, where he met with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (Snip) in spite of these statements, Israeli officials say Russia and Iran renewed negotiations on the purchase of the missile system several weeks ago. The sources confirmed a report that appeared in the foreign press on the matter two weeks ago.
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Iran raises profile in Latin America
CALABOZO, Venezuela — The foremen bark out instructions in broken Spanish, saying "aqui" and "mas" as they direct crews to lay water pipes and smooth out cement. But on their lunch break, they switch into Farsi — the language of Iran...
Their Iranian company is building thousands of apartments for Venezuela's poor. Iran is also helping to build cars, tractors and bicycles in Venezuela and has opened new embassies in Bolivia and Nicaragua.
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U.S. Hits Alleged Iranian Terror Front
"This scheme to use a front company set up by Bank Melli - a known proliferator - to funnel money from the United States to Iran is yet another example of Iran's duplicity," said Stuart Levey, the Treasury Department's under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.
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'Iran could attack US with nuclear bomb'
"If it built even a primitive nuclear weapon like the type that destroyed Hiroshima, Iran would not hesitate to load it on a ship, arm it with a detonator operated by GPS and sail it into a vital port on the east coast of North America."Indicating the possibility of a military strike, Barak said,
"We are not taking any option off the table, and we recommend to the world not to take any option off the table, and we mean what we say."[this is where Russia's sale of anti-aircraft systems to Iran is particularly 'helpful'...]
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Scientists Denounce AP For Hysterical Global Warming Article
Scientists from around the world are denouncing an Associated Press article hysterically claiming that global warming is "a ticking time bomb" about to explode, and that we're "running out of time" to do anything about it.
As reported by NewsBusters, Seth Borenstein, the AP's "national science writer," published a piece Sunday entitled "Obama Left With Little Time to Curb Global Warming."
Scientists from all over the world have responded to share their view of this alarmist propaganda:
- How can this guy call himself a "science reporter?"
- He is perhaps the worst propagandist in all the media, and that's stating something.
- In his latest screed, he screams: "global warming is accelerating"
- How then does he explain the fact that the mean global temperature (as measured by satellite) is the same as it was in 1980?
- How can global warming be "accelerating" when the last two years have seen dramatic cooling? Is this guy totally removed from all reality?????
- He completely ignores any evidence contrary to his personal beliefs, and twists everything to meet his preconceived notions.
- How can anyone so ignorant be a reporter for AP? Seriously?
-- David Deming, University of Oklahoma
[the problem is that the AP piece will be repeated thousands of times world wide. The response from the scientific community? This is probably it.
Again, time is not on the alarmists side; they need get legislation on the books before the evidence of their maleficence breaks]
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