California High School drops science labs because "only whites take them."

When I first read this, I just couldn't believe it. Then I looked again and it's from California---Berkeley, California. I guess that just explains it all. In my opinion, the entire High School staff including the School Governance Council, a body of teachers, parents, and students should be removed for malfeasance in office.

Here's a summary. The Berkeley High School has a problem with test scores. They're in the tank. The ones from the black students that is. To improve this, the School Governance Council needs more resources for remedial study to bring up those test scores. To get that, they propose eliminating science labs because "only white students take them" and those students don't need assistance to raise their scores.

It's just insane. Here's more information from the East Bay Express.

Berkeley High May Cut Out Science Labs

The proposal would trade labs seen as benefiting white students for resources to help struggling students.

By Eric Klein

Berkeley High School is considering a controversial proposal to eliminate science labs and the five science teachers who teach them to free up more resources to help struggling students.

The proposal to put the science-lab cuts on the table was approved recently by Berkeley High's School Governance Council, a body of teachers, parents, and students who oversee a plan to change the structure of the high school to address Berkeley's dismal racial achievement gap, where white students are doing far better than the state average while black and Latino students are doing worse.

Paul Gibson, an alternate parent representative on the School Governance Council, said that information presented at council meetings suggests that the science labs were largely classes for white students. He said the decision to consider cutting the labs in order to redirect resources to underperforming students was virtually unanimous.

Science teachers were understandably horrified by the proposal. "The majority of the science department believes that this major policy decision affecting the entire student body, the faculty, and the community has been made without any notification, without a hearing," said Mardi Sicular-Mertens, the senior member of Berkeley High School's science department, at last week's school board meeting.

Sincular-Mertens, who has taught science at BHS for 24 years, said the possible cuts will impact her black students as well. She says there are twelve African-American males in her AP classes and that her four environmental science classes are 17.5 percent African American and 13.9 percent Latino. "As teachers, we are greatly saddened at the thought of losing the opportunity to help all of our students master the skills they need to find satisfaction and success in their education," she told the board.

...

The full plan to close the racial achievement gap by altering the structure of the high school is known as the High School Redesign. It will come before the Berkeley School Board as an information item at its January 13 meeting. Generally, such agenda items are passed without debate, but if the school board chooses to play a more direct role in the High School Redesign, it could bring the item back as an action item at a future meeting.

You can read the entire article here.

Corruptocrat to appear on TV

Democrat Senator Ben Nelson, AKA, the Nebraska Corruptocrat, will appear on TV to "explain" himself. This is in response to the Rasmussen poll just released that show Nelson 31 points behind Republican Gov. Dave Heineman in a potential 2012 Senate race. Nelson is so out of step with Nebraskans that a poll showed Nelson with a 55 percent unfavorable rating and 64 percent disapproval for Democratic health care reform legislation.

Gov. Heineman went so far to say that if the senate version of Obamacare is passed, the state would refuse the special exemptions granted to Nelson by Baccus and Reid to buy Nelson's vote. Julie Schmit-Albin, executive director of Nebraska Right to Life, said, "One wonders if (Nelson) misjudged the level of opposition to this legislation from his constituents, or if he had already made a decision to never seek office again."

Schmit-Albin said Nelson betrayed his pro-life supporters when he agreed to compromise language prohibiting federal funding of abortions. She has argued that the language would allow federal funding to be used to subsidize abortions. Nelson maintains there would be no funding of abortions with federal money.

Corruption, malfeasance in office, incompetency, lies and fraud. The legacy of the of the democrat party. We see more examples every day and more is revealed through the democrats own actions to support that description. Sounds more like the old Soviet Communist Party every day. Just look what they did to the USSR. If we don't permanently remove the democrat party from the political scene, we only need to review the history Soviet Union to see what's in our future.

Cartoon of the Day: Chuck Asay, Michael Ramirez

Just light blogging today. Here's something to tickle some chuckles.

And, in light of the recent attempted airliner bombing, here's this one from Michael Ramirez.

"Who are you going to believe? Me or your own lying eyes?" -- Groucho Marx

"Who are you going to believe? Me or your own lying eyes?" That is a well know quote by Groucho Marx. The liberals Global Warming fraud is coming apart. This is not new information. It has been present and available all along. But the deliberate suppression or denigration of contrary theory and data has been pursued by the liberals from the beginning. The truth is that the agenda hasn't been about climate change/global warming. It's been about control and pursuing a statist agenda.

A Canadian peer review group is studying a paper that predicts colder weather for the next fifty years. Personally, I think portions of the theory are bunk and can be explained by other means. However, it is proceeding through peer review which is more than can be said by anything out of the ICC and their Anglican accomplices.

From IBD comes this report.

Five Decades Of Cooling Ahead

Posted 12/24/2009 06:17 PM ET

As Americans dig out from another bout of global warming, a new, peer-reviewed study sees decades of lower, not higher, temperatures ahead. AP View Enlarged Image

Climate Change: A peer-reviewed study by a respected Canadian physicist blames the interplay of cosmic rays and chlorofluorocarbons for 20th-century warming. The CFCs are now gone, and so is warming — perhaps for the next 50 years.

Much of the nation got a white Christmas this year, some in unprecedented quantities. A record-breaking storm deposited 12 to 30 inches of snow in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C. Many places set records for the most snow in a single December day as more than 50% of the U.S. was covered by the white stuff.

Scientists (and here we use the word loosely) at Britain's Climate Research Unit may have tried to "hide the decline" in global temperatures, but it's hard to hide two feet of snow. Their motto seems to be the immortal words of Groucho Marx: "Who are you going to believe, me or your own lying eyes?"

Qing Bin-Lu, a professor of physics and astronomy at Canada's University of Waterloo, is a believer in the value of drawing conclusions from observable data and not from selective data fed into computer models that are based on false assumptions and include "fudge factors."

In a peer-reviewed paper published in the prestigious online journal Physics Reports, Lu, who holds a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Newcastle, reports that CFCs, the compounds once widely used as refrigerants, and cosmic rays, which are energy particles originating in outer space, are mostly to blame for climate change, rather than carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

Lu puts the start of the cooling trend at 2002 and writes that "the observed data show that CFCs conspiring with cosmic rays most likely caused both the Antarctic ozone hole and global warming. These findings are totally unexpected and striking, as I was focused on studying the mechanism for the formation of the ozone hole, rather than global warming."

From 1850 to 1950, Lu notes, the recorded CO2 level increased significantly because of the Industrial Revolution; the global temperature stayed constant or rose only 0.1 degree Celsius.

"Most remarkably, the total amount of CFCs, ozone-depleting molecules that are well-known greenhouse gases ... decreased around 2000," Lu said. "Correspondingly, the global surface temperature has also dropped. In striking contrast, the CO2 level has kept rising since 1850 and now is at its largest growth rate."

Other reputable scientists have also predicted decades of cooling ahead to, er, varying degrees and for varying reasons. Earth's climate is affected by many things and is more complicated than the CRU computer models.

Who's John Galt?

The democrats in Congress think we're fools, idiots, that we're powerless, the ignorant who can be ignored. They will learn differently but the process may be long.

From BigGovernment.com...

Lessons from John Galt

Posted By Dan Freeman On December 24, 2009 @ 7:06 am

Recent headlines seem lifted directly out of an Ayn Rand novel. President Obama decries the “fat cat bankers on Wall Street” ^[1]. Harry Reid attacks insurance companies for making too much profit. House Democrat leaders call Tea Partiers “Racist, Nazi, Gun Nuts ^[2]”. How about this nauseating statement made by Army General George Casey ^[3] after the Muslim terrorist attack on Ft. Hood?

As great a tragedy as this was, it would be a shame if our diversity became a casualty as well

Each of these headlines might well have been uttered by an Ayn Rand character. Rand, whose father’s pharmacy was confiscated by the Soviets during the communist revolution of 1917, and who came to America in 1926, seems uniquely able to speak to us about the inverted morality of our times. Virtue is to be apologized for. Depravity commands respect. Success is cast as evil and punished while failure is blamed on others and rewarded. Rand’s insights into the psychological state of collectivists—those who demand that we sacrifice our individual freedom and happiness for the sake of the state—explain what often seems incomprehensible to thinking people.

A Christmas Tradition

Merry Christmas, everyone!

I posted this originally a year ago. Since I'm too lazy to create something new this year, I'm re-cycling this one.

***

A Gathering of the Clan for the Holidays

When my Grandmother lived with us on the farm, Thanksgiving and Christmas was always a big deal. Many of our relatives lived at both ends of the state. My Aunt Anna May and a bunch of cousins lived near Cairo (rhymes with Aero. Kayro is a syrup. The other is a city in Egypt.), Illinois. My Aunt Clara and Uncle Bill lived near Chicago along with their batch of kids and cousins. We lived betwixt them with a local batch of cousins and therefore often hosted the gathering of the Clan at the holidays.

In the late 1950s, most of the cakes and pies were hand-made including pie crust. Betty Crocker was expensive and not to be trusted according to Mom and Grandma. A week or so before the guests arrived, Mom and Grandma started making pie dough. They would make it in small batches, enough for a couple of pies and then store it on the porch. The porch was unheated and was used as a large refrigerator during the colder months.

Mom and Grandma had collected pie filling most of the year. When cherries were in season, they canned cherries. When blackberries and raspberries were in season, they canned the berries---along with making a large batch of berry jelly and jam. When apples were in season, they canned and dried apples. When the holidays arrived, they were ready. About the only things they didn't can was pumpkins. Mom and Grandma purposely planted late to harvest late. I don't remember a year that we didn't have pumpkins or sweet-potatoes for pie filling.

The count-down started with the pie dough. When the dough was ready, Mom began baking pies. When a pie was finished, it'd go out to the porch covered with a cloth. The division of labor was that Mom would make pies, Grandma would make cakes.

Grandma liked sheet cakes. I rarely saw a round, frosted cake unless it was someone's birthday. Grandma's cakes were 12" by 24". Icing was usually Cream Cheese or Chocolate. Sometimes, when Grandma make a German Chocolate cake, she'd make a brown-sugar/coconut/hickory nut icing. The baking was done right up until it was time stick the turkeys, hams or geese in the oven. The last item Grandma would make was a apple-cinnamon coffee-cake that was an inherited recipe from her mother. It was common-place that when everyone arrived, we'd have a dozen pies and another dozen cakes ready. That was our contribution. The guests brought stuff as well.

The holiday gathering wasn't just a single day, it was several. Thanksgiving, for instance, lasted through Sunday. A Christmas gathering lasted through New Years. We weren't the only relatives in the central part of the state, but we were the gathering place. Come bedtime, the visitors left with some of the local cousins and would gather again the next day at another home and the visiting continued.

It was not unusual for us to have twenty or thirty folks at the house at one time. Our barn was heated for the livestock, so the men and boys---and some girls, gathered there. Dad would turn a blind eye to the cigarettes, cigars and bottles---as long as no one started a fire. Grandma's jugs of Applejack appeared present as well.

The women would gather in one of our side bedrooms where Grandma's quilt frame was set up. They would sit, talk, quilt and plan future family affairs. A number of weddings were planned in those sessions. Sometimes before the bridegroom was aware of his upcoming fate.

Over the years, the clan has dispersed. Most moving to locations where jobs were available. The elders have passed on and with them the traditions. Cousins have lost touch and few live on the old homesteads.

It was a different time, another era. Some families still maintain the old traditions. They are the fortunate ones.

Update: I changed the title of this piece to a more appropriate one. I'd orginally started to describe the preparations we made for the holidays and the story kinda morphed into something else.

Christmastime during war

Just after the Japanese attacked, Winston Churchill visited Washington. Germany and Ital, the other Axis partners had declared war on the United States and Churchill was visiting to cement an alliance between Britain and the US. During this visit, Churchill was given the opportunity to address both houses of Congress in a unified session on Christmas Eve. It is as timely and pertinent today as it was then.From the Washington Times, reprinted in editorial and a tip of the hat to Rick Shay...

EDITORIAL: Christmastime during war

Winston Churchill's Christmas Eve address, Washington, 1941

Fellow workers in the cause of freedom: I have the honor to add a pendant to the necklace of that Christmas goodwill and kindliness with which my illustrious friend the president has encircled the homes and families of the United States by his message of Christmas Eve, which he just delivered.

I spend this anniversary and festival far from my country, far from my family, and yet I cannot truthfully say that I feel far from home, whether it be by the ties of blood on my mother's side, or the friendships I have developed here over many years of active life, or the commanding sentiment of comradeship in the common cause of great peoples who speak the same language, who kneel at the same altars, and to a very large extent pursue the same ideals. Whichever it may be, for all of them together I cannot feel myself a stranger here in the center and at the summit of the United States.

I feel a sense of unity and fraternal association, which added to the kindliness of your welcome, convinces me that I have a right to sit at your fireside and share your Christmas joys.

Fellow workers, fellow soldiers in the cause, this is a strange Christmas Eve. Almost the whole world is locked in deadly struggle. Armed with the most terrible weapons which science can devise, the nations advance upon each other. Ill would it be for us this Christmastime if we were not sure that no greed for the lands of wealth of any other people, no vulgar ambition, no morbid lust for material gain at the expense of others had led us to the field. Ill would it be for us if that were so.

Here in the midst of war raging and roaring over all the lands and seas creeping nearer to our hearts and homes. Here, amid all these horrors we have tonight the peace of the spirit in each cottage home and in every generous heart. Therefore, we may cast aside, for this night at least, the cares and dangers which beset us, and make for the children an evening of happiness in a world of storm.

Here then, for one night only, each home throughout the English-speaking world should be a brightly lighted island of happiness and peace. Let the children have their night of fun and laughter. Let the gifts of Father Christmas delight their play. Let us grown-ups share to the full in their unstinted pleasures before we turn again to the stern tasks and formidable year that lie before us. Resolved that by our sacrifice and daring these same children shall not be robbed of their inheritance or denied their right to live in a free and decent world.

And so, in God's mercy, a happy Christmas to you all.

It's all about...

Chuck Asay understands. It's all about...

Control. Or perhaps, as Michael Ramirez says, "dependence?"

Constitutional?

Harry Reid's bait 'n switch on healthcare will probably go to a vote late on Christmas Eve. A thought just struck me. Why must democrats try to hide their programs by delaying the votes until the middle of the night? No CSPAN? Oh, wait. They blocked CSPAN the last time. Because they don't want the public to see their schemes? More likely.

A number of groups, legal and healthcare, are preparing lawsuits to block any Obamacare that passes congress. Here's a short summary of some issues and groups fighting for us from Conn Carroll's Morning Bell for December 23, 2009.

The very core of the Senate health plan includes an unprecedented expansion of the power of the federal government over the lives of every American. For the first time in history, every American would be forced to buy federally regulated and approved health insurance or face a $750 fine. 

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) wrote in 1994, "A mandate requiring all individuals to purchase health insurance would be an unprecedented form of federal action. The government has never required people to buy any good or service as a condition of lawful residence in the United States." This mandate draws forth a number of constitutional issues. At no time in our history has the federal government EVER required citizens to buy a product.

Enumerated Powers: Article I allocates to Congress "[a]ll legislative powers herein granted," which means that some legislative powers were intended to remain beyond Congress's reach. The Supreme Court recognized and affirmed this fundamental principle from the earliest days of the republic, as Chief Justice Marshall famously observed: "The powers of the legislature are defined and limited; and that those limits may not be mistaken, or forgotten, the constitution is written." Nowhere in the Constitution is Congress given the power to mandate that an individual enter into a contract with a private party or purchase a good or service. Democrats have pointed to both the general welfare taxing power and the commerce clause as possible justifications for the mandate, but as a recent Heritage Legal Memorandum details, neither justification withstands scrutiny.

5th Amendment: The Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution reads in part: “No person shall … be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.” Sen. Ensign will argue today: “The Democrats’ health reform bill would require an American citizen to devote a portion of income – his or her private property – to health insurance coverage. … But, Mr. President, if a Nevadan does not want to spend his or her hard-earned income on health insurance coverage and would prefer to spend it on something else, such as rent or a car payment, this new requirement could be a “taking” of private property under the Fifth Amendment.”

Racial Discrimination: On December 10th, the United States Commission on Civil Rights sent a letter to the Senate regarding racially discriminatory provisions in Obama’s health plan. The letter reads: “No matter how well-intentioned, utilizing racial preferences with hope of alleviating health care disparities is inadvisable both as a matter of policy and as a matter of law. … Ensuring that all Americans, regardless of race, have access to quality health care requires both creativity and hard-nosed attention to data. It also requires staying within the requirements of the Constitution. The current race-based provisions of the Senate Health Care bill display none of these qualities.”

Unequal State Treatment: Speaking to Fox News, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) described Sen. Ben Nelson’s (D-NE) deal to support Obamacare in exchange for a bailout Nebraska’s Medicaid costs as “disappointing, sleazy, unconstitutional.” Graham is not the only one examining Cornhusker Kickback. The Attorneys General of Alabama, Colorado, Michigan, North Dakota, South Carolina, Texas and Washington state are jointly investigating the deal to see if special treatment for only one state in the nation at the expense of the other 49 violates the Constitution.

The leftist majority in the Senate is likely to vote down the DeMint/Ensign constitutional point of order, but the very objection itself will help build a record that courts will look at when determining whether or not Obamacare is unconstitutional. The Senate is not the final arbiter of whether or not the laws it passes are consistent with the United States Constitution. That question was settled over 200 years ago in Marbury v. Madison. Although it is always difficult for the Supreme Court to thwart what is perceived to be the popular will, polling consistently shows that this legislation faces strong popular opposition. If that remains true after enactment, the majority of the Justices who are inclined to preserve the enumerated powers scheme and adhere to the original meaning of the text will have little inclination or incentive to stretch the Constitution to reach so decidedly unpopular and far-reaching a law as this one.

Here are some bullet items to ponder while thinking about Obamacare.

• The 150,000 member National Nurses United organization yesterday called the Senate plan, “a seriously flawed bill that could actually exacerbate the health care crisis and financial insecurity for American families, and that cedes far too much additional power to the tyranny of a callous insurance industry.”
• With unemployment in the construction sector already at 19.4%, the construction industry was surprised to learn a job killing employment tax especially targeting them made it into the Senate’s final version of Obamacare.
• Across all sectors of the economy, businesses worry that a series of new taxes and fees to pay for expanding health-care coverage will push up premiums, particularly for smaller employers.
• Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) says three other senators have told him they want to bargain for the same Medicaid bailout deal Nelson secured for Nebraska.

Democrat politics at its criminal best.  In any other venue, there would be a RICO investigation of the entire Congress.

RINOs

Updated: First, I'd like to apologize for not posting yesterday. [Wow. I musta been worse than I thought. I'd forgotten about the posting I had queued.]

I was in the dumps. Friday was my last day of work and I'm being forced to retire. I coasted pretty much from Friday until yesterday when it really hit me. I'd made many friends who were also employees of my former employer. Friends across the country, in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. I will not see them again unless by coincidence. Neither do I have anything to fill the time that had been taken working. I'm just not used to that. I normally put in at least nine to ten hours a day even if I was only paid for eight. It was my work ethic.

I'll get over it. It may just take a bit. In the meantime, I'll just muddle through.

***

In current events, it appears that Obamacare will pass in the Senate. Harry Reid plans to have a vote on that monstrous piece of legislative tyranny on Christmas Eve. If there was ever a slap across the face of the citizenry, voting on that pile of crap certainly meets the criteria. Worst of all, the bill now being submitted ISN'T the one that was presented to the Senate. It was a classic "bait 'n switch" operation. For instance, the bill to be voted upon restores funding for ACORN and has provisions to make repeal at a future date extremely difficult or impossible so Reid hopes.

How did we get to this place? By the efforts of a couple of RINOs---particularly, Olympia Snowe, RINO from Maine. The Investor's Business Daily editorial below describes it truly---betrayal.

Snowe Fall In D.C.

Posted 12/21/2009 06:50 PM ET

Betrayal: Who deserves the most blame for the wrecking ball that Congress and the president will soon take to the greatest health system in the world? The Republican who gave them her vote.

'When history calls, history calls," Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe said in October when she joined Senate Finance Committee Democrats as the lone Republican supporting their health care revolution.

Sometime between then and now "history" hung up on her.

With the vote 14-to-9 on that key panel, Snowe wasn't the deciding factor. But she gave Democrats something to use to optimal effect in the next two months — bipartisan legitimacy for the false notion that doing "something" was better than the "status quo."

"As I pledged to the president in an Oval Office meeting Saturday afternoon, I couldn't agree more that reform is an imperative," Snowe said Sunday. But support for the Democrats' reform is in the low-to-mid 30s today in no small part because most Americans think the private health insurance they enjoy today, while not perfect, is pretty darned good.

Snowe made a calculated blunder, crossing her fingers and hoping for the best from the most left-wing Congress and president in history. She thought her vote would let her in the door of Senate Democrats' deliberations in crafting a final bill, and that she could tell the folks back home how she improved it.

It turns out that the sophisticated, compassionate moderate, supposedly so much smarter than the uncompromising Joe Wilsons and Jim DeMints of her party, was played for a fool.

Sen. Snowe issued a 900-word statement last weekend opposing "the pending Senate legislation as it currently stands" — apparently still under the illusion that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid wants her input.

It goes on and on complaining about Reid's "nearly 400-page manager's amendment that cannot be changed or altered, with more than 500 cross references," how "we are now expected to vote on the overall, final package before Christmas with no opportunity to amend it" and that it all "was done in the shadows, without transparency, just to garner the necessary 60 votes and nothing more."

Well, welcome to the World's Greatest Deliberative Body, Sen. Snowe, of which you have reputedly been a wide-awake member for 15 years.

Up in chilly Maine, all those ads for "Rolling Snow Plows" may take on new meaning. Washington is where Snowe gets rolled.

Voting a RINO into office is the same as voting in a democrat. Both will lie to you to achieve their political ends. Neither can be trusted. In my view, a RINO is more despicable than a democrat. You know a democrat lies. You expect support from one calling herself a republican, not a knife in the back.

So much for Carbon Dioxide being a pollutant

Just found this article from NASA. (H/t to Speaker to Lab Animals.) This could be the last nail in the coffin of carbon dioxide being a pollutant and a contributor to non-Global Warming.

NASA CALCULATES A CARBON BUDGET FOR THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. -- While world organizations struggle to find a benchmark and tracking standards for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, NASA has been supporting California's new carbon emissions inventory report, using its satellite imaging data and computer models of the state's natural ecosystems.

Researchers report that in 2004, the state's natural ecosystems absorbed as much carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as fossil fuel carbons emitted into the atmosphere. (Emphasis mine: Crucis) They also discovered that during periods of above normal rainfall, ecosystems trapped significant amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in forests and soils.

...

The whole release is at:

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/news/releases/2009/09-155AR.html

Under Fire!

I just read Brigid's post, Walking the Land. It reminded me of an incident, long forgotten, when I still lived on the farm---under rifle fire from a neighbor. As best I can remember it was in September of 1961. I had just started my Sophomore year in high school.

It was the Saturday after Labor Day. At that time, school in Illinois started the Tuesday after Labor Day. Mom was teaching the third grade in Buckner, Ill. Dad had been laid off earlier that summer when Orient #2 closed for the final time. Dad and I were taking it easy under the shade tree next to the house. I had just finished mowing the lawn. Dad had picked some apples, Jonathon Whites, from our orchard. Mom and Grandma were in town doing the Saturday shopping.

Dad had an old green hammock swung on a metal frame and he was napping in the breeze. It was a warm day with few clouds to lessen the warmth from the sun. I was half asleep lying on a canvas tarp I'd brought from the garage as a ground cloth.

I remember watching the clouds move and listening to ticking coming from the top of the tree. Ticking? There was another rattle of limbs above and a leaf drifted down from the crown. I didn't give it much thought. I could hear a train in the distance on the rail-road along the river a few miles away. Our cows gave an occasional "moo" out in the pasture. There was a car approaching from the east on the gravel road that passed in front of our house. Our neighbor two houses down the road, about three-quarters of a mile to the west was shooting his new 30-30.

30-30!

Our neighbor used the earthen dam at the west end of his pond as a berm for his home rifle range. He had built a shooting bench out of an old table and some rail-road ties. If he overshot the berm, the rounds would fly right in the direction towards our house. Fortunately for us, if he overshot his berm, the trajectory would pass over our house. Should pass over, that is, if he didn't have a short round in his hand-loads but not high enough to miss the top of our shade tree.

There were more rounds ticking through the top of the tree and finally, a bullet cut a small branch about a yard long out of the top. Down it came---landing right on Dad. He awoke with a start. Looked at the branch. Noted the ragged cut that had severed it from the tree-top. Heard more bullets ticking through the limbs aloft and I could see his normally ruddy complexion getting redder. And redder.

Dad and our neighbor had had some run-ins before. Both worked at the same mine for years and neither much liked the other. Dad was an auxiliary Deputy Sheriff. Most of the time, that didn't mean anything other than allowing Dad to carry a pistol if he wanted. Our county had many union/strike-breaker wars in the 1920's and memories on both sides were long.

But, on occasion, Dad would take his duties seriously. He had ticketed this particular neighbor before for speeding at 60mph on our gravel road. He had struck and killed a dog owned by our neighbor across the road and had nearly run another neighbor off the road. On that occasion, Dad put on his deputy shirt and pistol belt, drove down the road and arrested the driver and took him in to the Sheriff's office to swear out a complaint. That episode cost our neighbor several hundred dollars and he didn't forget.

There had been occasions when returning home from shopping, we'd find bullet holes in our garage or find holes in our roof during the next rain. We had no proof but Dad was sure it was our neighbor and he didn't forget.

After a call to the Sheriff, Dad got his uniform shirt out of the closet, slipped his pistol belt around his waist and loaded this S&W .357. A half hour later, another Deputy arrived and pulled into our drive-way. Dad and I went out to see him and while Dad was explaining the situation to the Deputy, there was a Bang from atop our house.

Like many people at that time, there were few TV stations around. The closest was Channel 22 in Harrisburg, IL to the southeast. Another was Channel 6 south in Paducah, KY, and another three were to the northwest out of St. Louis. Our TV antenna was perched atop our house with a rotator to swing the antenna towards whichever station we were watching at the moment. One of our neighbors bullets had struck the rotator squarely and had shattered it. The TV antenna now pointed downwards saved from more damage only by the connecting wires and cables that kept it from falling to the ground.

Dad and the Deputy drove off down the road towards our neighbor. I wasn't allowed to go, but I heard all about it at supper that night. It appeared that our neighbor, unemployed by the recent mine closure, had decided to do a little moonshine distilling to earn some money above that of his weekly unemployment check. He'd moved a chicken coop out next to his shooting bench installed a still inside and had just bottled a run of 'shine. Since he was new at making moonshine, he had to sample some of his product---while sighting in his new rifle.

The Deputy that accompanied Dad knew our neighbor and knew he was a brawler. Our neighbor had a reputation for starting fights when he'd been in his liquor for a bit. The deputy drove up with Dad on the passenger side and both walked back to where our neighbor was about to let loose another round down range and towards our house.

When he saw Dad and the Deputy approaching, his first thought was about all the 'shine that he'd just produced laying around in glass jugs. That alone wasn't a crime IF he was within his limit for personal use. But, drunk as he was, he forgot how much that limit was. He dropped his rifle and started to run but got entangled with his folding chair, the rifle that had fallen between his legs, the shooting bench and several three gallon glass jugs full of moonshine. Down he went, face first into the glass jugs, breaking one that left a deep cut in his forehead and knocking him out cold.

It could have been a dangerous situation if he'd turned that loaded rifle towards Dad and the Deputy. The Deputy was a WW2 veteran , a state pistol champion and he was prepared for anything.

As it was, Dad poured some 'shine over his head to "clean the wound and wash off the blood from the head-cut" while the Deputy applied handcuffs. Our neighbor was hauled off to jail still bleeding from the cut with 120 proof moonshine dripping into it from his hair to remind him that drinking and shooting didn't mix. He was later fined $1000, had to replace our TV antenna,plus one year in jail for "reckless endangerment."

Brigid's post about sleeping out in the open and under a tree reminded me of this. I remembered lying on the ground under the tree---listening to the bullets snap through the upper branches. Some old memories are never forgotten.

Even Keith Olbermann Gets It!

As heard on Radio KCMO-710 Thursday morning...

On his Wednesday night broadcast, Keith Olbermann railed against Obamacare/FedMed. He called for the bill to be killed and even advocated civil disobedience. As best I remember, he said, "I will not accept a government mandate to acquire governmentally approved healthcare. I have healthcare now that satisfies me. I will not change that choice. They can fine me. They can jail me. I will not obey. We must all resist this unconstitutional imposition from Congress."

Even a rabid liberal and socialist such as Olbermann is against Obamacare even if it isn't for the same reasons as those on the conservative side oppose it. You see, Olbermann thinks Obamacare doesn't go far enough. And! It imposes the same restrictions and constraints on him, one of the Elite, as it does on the rest of us peasants!

Be that as it may, at least Olbermann and I have one thing in common. KILL THE BILL!

1775? Or 1861?

SOFA over at the Coodinated Illumination blog proposes this question while comparing current events to those starting in 1765. It's a very interesting question.

On one hand, in 1765, we have the emerging realization that the King and Parliament were not interested in equal representation nor in equitable taxation or policies. The realization that the current government was in reality, a tyranny.

On the other hand, in 1861, a segment of the national citizenry, realized that the government was targeting them personally with legislation intended to do them harm and expressly to limit their personal liberty. Both situations exist today.

SOFA has more information and has done more research to bring these two issues into a better perspective. Go visit and read his post,"2009 was 1765++. Will 2010 be like 1775?"

Postive Feedback

Feedback is a term used in electronics that refers to an output feeding back into the input and causing oscillation and run away amplification. This is the squeal created by holding the microphone into the speaker of a bull-horn.

The Principle of Feedback applies to many other areas as well. Economics for example. Bob Gorrell's cartoon below amply illustrates that principle.

The Gospel according to Luke

Luke 2:1. And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.

²(And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)

³And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.

⁴And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)

⁵To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.

⁶And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.

⁷And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

⁸And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

⁹And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

¹⁰And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

¹¹For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

This time of year, we need to remember the origins of the season, the true meaning of Christmas. It's true that no one really knows when Jesus was born. My theologian wife believes he was probably born in the Spring, most likely in March. The current December celebration was an appropriation of a Roman holiday, Saturnalia. A pagan celebration. In all truth, the actual date matters not.

But as we approach Christmas, we should all reflect on the meaning of the season. The Cartoon below by Chuck Asay illustrates one such viewpoint.

How the federal government does business.

I received this in an e-mail. H/t to Cody Ray.

It's a slow day in a little East Texas town. The sun is beating down, and the streets are deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit. On this particular day a rich tourist from back east is driving through town. He stops at the motel and lays a $100 bill on the desk saying he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one to spend the night. As soon as the man walks upstairs, the owner grabs the bill and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher. The butcher takes the $100 and runs down the street to retire his debt to the pig farmer. The pig farmer takes the $100 and heads off to pay his bill at the supplier of feed and fuel. The guy at the Farmer's Co-op takes the $100 and runs to pay his debt to the local prostitute, who has also been facing hard times and has had to offer her "services" on credit. The hooker rushes to the hotel and pays off her room bill with the hotel owner. The hotel proprietor then places the $100 back on the counter so the rich traveler will not suspect anything. At that moment the traveler comes down the stairs, picks up the $100 bill, states that the rooms are not satisfactory, pockets the money, and leaves town.

No one produced anything. No one earned anything. However, the whole town is now out of debt and now looks to the future with a lot more optimism.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how the United States Government is conducting business today.
Another lesson in government economics 101.

Dinosaur Media Watch - Editor & Publisher folds

And continuing with our watch of member of the State Media following those other extinct members such as the Rocky Mountain News, Editor and Publisher, the so-called "Watch Dog" of the print journalist is going...going...gone!

Media Death Watch

10 Dec 2009 01:01 pm

"Will the last journalist to exit the industry please turn off the lights on their way out?"

That's what I really should have headlined this post. Editor and Publisher has spent the last few years chronicling the demise of scrappy upstarts and venerable media institutions. Now E&P is shutting down. It's been covering the publishing industry for over 100 years. Unfortunately, there's less and less industry to cover.

Incidentally, every time I write one of these posts, I get accused of doing my grim blogger dance on Old Media's grave. This is emphatically not the point. I work in the media. For a venerable print publication, no less. The demise of newspapers and magazines does not make me happy, even at the most selfish level, since it means more competition for the few remaining jobs. At a marginally less selfish level, I love the splendiferous proliferation of outlets, print and web; the death of every one pains me. (Well, almost every one. I cannot say I have much wept for Hallmark magazine or Cottage Living. But I still feel bad for the journalists involved.) At the least selfish level, I quote Tom Stoppard: information is light. Fewer journalists looking for information makes us all a little worse off.

Hmmm. "Fewer journalists looking for information makes us all a little worse off." Yeah, sure. As if any of them every looked for the facts of an issue. It was too easy to just make something up---like Glow-ball Worming.

Harry Reid: "It you oppose the public option, you support slavery."

I surely hope every Nevada voter keeps Reid's comments firmly in mind when they go to the polls next year. Here's a little something to help their memories.

Tora...Tora...Tora!

It's a bit past the 7th, but I've been behind in my internet cartoons.  Here's a good from Michael Rameriz.

New American Serfdom

Pravda, of all things, sees the truth in Cap 'n Tax. Serfdom! Not only that but they're calling those in currently in power not 'Greens' but "Watermelons" because they're "Green on the outside, Marxist Red on the Inside".

Who'd thunk it! (Kudos to Eeyore from Tom Kratman's forum on Baen.com)

America Creates Serfdom Through

Cap and Trade

As I have stated before, when dealing with the American government, expect only the most illogical extremes.

The so called Land of the Free, has decided to recreate the ancient and rejected art of serfdom. As anywhere in history, serfdom was set in gradually with restrictive laws that slowly or quickly ate away at the right of the people to move freely, thus guaranteeing the government a stable tax base and its favorite enterprises, a stable work force to exploit, one that can not walk away.

In America that is about to be done by their new Cap and Trade Law, that will more than likely go into affect next year. Only one of the chambers of the parliament has passed it but the other will soon.

In the name of all things green, humans in the Anglo-sphere will be turned into serfs. How interesting. The Greens or rather Watermelons, Green on the outside, Marxist Red on the Inside have found the perfect tool with which to leverage the futures of all peoples in advanced nations. No longer is the cry of power to the people, as the cover for the power grab of the more equal amongst the "equals" but instead it is the cry of Power to the Plants and the Fishes and the little buggy things that fly around and annoy you....oh and it will cost the future of yourselves and your children, but Gia will love you when you are decomposing in her belly, serf.

But how will this be done?

In the giant, unread "democratic" bills that the American parliament loves to pass, some with literally up to ten thousand pages of unread and undebated laws. (and the Americans were only ranked 19th on the list of the most corrupt nations?) To be specific, Cap and Trade (American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009) will force all home owners to make extremely costly efficiency upgrades to their homes, for energy efficiency, before the government will give the serf, er citizen, a license to sell their home. Of course, before the process begins, the serf must get and pay for a government inspection and another after the upgrades.

More at the Pravda website.

People are dangerous to their own health

The EPA yesterday declared that Carbon Dioxide is a danger to human heath.  Carbon Dioxide. You know, that stuff everyone exhales? The stuff the entire animal kingdom exhales.  We're all killing ourselves with every breath we take.

So says the EPA.

Is everyone in the Obama administration congenital idiots?  That's the only conclusion I can make after watching edict after edict come out of the administration that isn't only wrong, but disastrously stupid.  Obama know that regardless of any commitments he makes in Copenhagen, it's nothing unless Congress approves. And, in the current political climate and climategate, that won't happen.

No, its a political move by Obama to make an end run around Congress.  With this declaration, the EPA can issue regulations that will affect every person in the country without any congressional approval. Before this declaration, the Clean Air standards only applied to power plants and large industries.  Places that created large amount of airborne "pollution."  Now every small business, anything that emits of 250 tons of "carbon" a year is vulnerable. That amount is really very small. That's about what a small industrial business emits in a year (gas heat, water heaters, etc.)

Just think a bit about the consequents.  Like your afternoon Coke?  Ahhh, there's Carbon Dioxide in it.  No more fizz in sodas.  Beer?  It'll be flat from now on.  And farmers?  Just think about all the Carbon Dioxide---and Methane, that your herds emit.  I can imagine all livestock must be kept in hermetically sealed bubbles equipped with carbon dioxide scrubbers.

And just think about all the carbon dioxide emitted at a football stadium!  Tens of thousands of people all polluting the air! Everyone would have to wear face masks to capture exhalations.  John Fund writing in the Wall Street Journal opines about this idiocy as well.


Here's a report on the EPA edict from Fox News.

Phil Kerpen 

 - FOXNews.com

 - December 07, 2009

EPA's Greenhouse Gases Declaration -- Putting America On the Road to Ruin

Today the EPA declared greenhouse gases a danger to public health. And here's the bottom line: The biggest threat to Americans, when it comes to huge new energy taxes and government controls, is not from legislation, it's from regulation.

President Obama, White House Climate Czar Carol Browner, and their Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are not waiting for Congress to pass cap-and-trade. Shrugging off the Climate-gate scandal, today EPA administration Lisa Jackson issues a so-called "endangerment finding," paving the way for onerous greenhouse gas regulations to be shoehorned into the 1970 Clean Air Act.

Based on a legal theory originally conceived by Climate Czar Carol Browner in the late 1990s, Obama’s EPA is moving ahead with greenhouse gases regulations under the 1970 Clean Air Act even though in 1970 global warming hadn’t even been invented yet, and the doom-saying scientists were instead warning of an impending ice age!

 You can read the complete column here.

Sarbanes-Oxley Unconstitutional? SCOTUS to Review

To those who have not owned nor operated a business, or those who have not been involved in the finances or budgeting in a business, this post may not have much import. I used to be involved, in my last job, with budget creation, monitoring and management. Project cost analysis and spending forecast. Every year, I was drafted to help the company meet their Sarbanes-Oxley compliance. It was a large Pain In The Ass. Sarbanes-Oxley has been a large rock around the neck of American business since 2002. The SEC originally estimated the cost of SarbOx to be around $1.2Billion annually. Instead, as of last year, the cost really exceed $35Billion. Just another example of governmental unintended consequences.

Sarbanes-Oxley was originally conceived by democrats, in another fit of statism, to prevent occurance of business financial misfeasance, such as occured with the Worldcom and Enromn bankruptcies. When businesses cook the books, they need to be prosecuted. Sarbanes-Oxley was intended to be the mechanism to prevent juggling the books. Instead, it has created a jumble of rules, often conflicting, that has imposed such a burden on American business, that it has placed the US in an inferior position when dealing with foreign companies.

Fox News reports that a constitution issue has brought Sarbanes-Oxley to the Supreme Court in "one of the most important separation of powers case in decades." Like much of congress' actions, there was no need for SarbOx. Law, already on the books, detected the crimes and brought the lawbreakers to justice. Like many anti-gun laws brought up in congress, the legislation did nothing to improved the detection of criminal acts that was not already on the books. Instead, they just placed additional burdens on the innocent to the detriment of all.

Here is a portion of the Fox article that documents some of the damage to American business.

Updated December 04, 2009

Will the Supreme Court Free Us From the Scourge of Sarbanes-Oxley?

By Mallory Factor

- FOXNews.com

The implementation of Sarbanes-Oxley has been one of several key factors harming our economy and driving down the dollar. Now the Supreme Court will decide whether or not it's also unconstitutional.

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a case on whether Sarbanes Oxley, with all of its costly regulatory burdens on American business, is constitutional. This case has been called the most important separations-of-powers case in decades. And the outcome of this case will help determine whether American businesses can remain competitive on the world’s stage or America will sink into joblessness and decline.

Sarbanes-Oxley (SarbOx) was enacted in 2002, in the wake of publicity and public outrage over the corporate scandals at Enron and WorldCom. The lawbreakers were ultimately brought to justice under laws already on the books at that time. But members of Congress felt that they needed to address the scandals quickly, and so, all members of the Senate and all but three members of the House voted for passage of this hastily drafted bill. Even Nancy Pelosi now admits that this law has had a lot of “unintended consequences.”

SarbOx has made the cost of doing business as a US public company much higher. By 2005, SarbOx was already costing U.S. companies $35 billion annually, much greater than the $1.4 billion the SEC originally projected. And SarbOx has been particularly detrimental to small and medium sized companies that find it difficult to pay the costs of compliance. The costs for firms grossing less than $100 million annually have been 42 times larger as a percent of revenues than for firms grossing over $5 billion. Large businesses have seen some of their smaller competitors fall away because of these compliance burdens and so, do not generally advocate for the law’s repeal.

SarbOx as implemented by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) requires full external audits of each company’s internal control measures each year and suggests potential criminal liability for violations, including for senior officers uninvolved in any wrongdoing. To comply with these requirements, public companies often have to hire two accounting firms to perform audits. This is why SarbOx is often referred to as a “full employment plan” for accountants—and why the law benefits the same profession that designed and implemented the scandalous financial schemes that SarbOx was meant to combat.

The implementation of SarbOx has been one of several key factors harming our economy and driving down the dollar. A study concluded that Sarbanes-Oxley has reduced the stock value of American companies by a staggering $1.4 trillion dollars. This is capital that could be invested in infrastructure improvements, job creation, and innovative technologies or research and development.

SarbOx acts as a costly barrier to entry into our financial markets, effectively driving business overseas and raising the cost of capital for our start-up and growth stage companies. At a certain point in the life of a small business, owners must raise capital to invest in infrastructure, expand the business and explore new markets. Historically the most efficient way for a company of a certain size to raise new money has been through an initial public offering on a US exchange, which generally offers a lower cost of capital than private equity or other sources. Now, companies that list on U.S. exchanges, except the very smallest, become subject to the burdensome and costly SarbOx regulations. So, these companies now usually decide to accept more expensive financing, list overseas, or postpone their expansion plans—harming our markets and costing the U.S. jobs.

U.S. and foreign companies are now listing on the London Exchange and other non-U.S. exchanges in record numbers. In 2005, only 20 companies made their initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, compared to 129 on the London Exchange—a record for that exchange. And 9 of the 10 largest initial public offerings that year were issued on non-US exchanges. In contrast, 9 out of the 10 largest IPOs issued in 2000 (before SarbOx was enacted) were on US exchanges. IPOs virtually ceased in the United States--in 2008, for example, only 29 IPOs were issued in all of the U.S.

An increasing number of US-listed companies are going private or listing on non-US exchanges in order to get out from under burdensome SarbOx regulation. One study found 20% of public companies are considering going private due to SarbOx.

...

The complete article can be found here.

There are few, if any, congressmen who know business. There are very few, if any, who ever had to meet a payroll, prepare a business plan, meet with stockholders and their expectations, or even develop a budget at stay with it. Almost all, if not all, of our congressmen are lawyers. People who are paid to argue, to support their clients, not to do what is best for the country and certainly not to do what is best for the country's economy. Their clients are those who paid their campaign bills. We have seen, this last summer, who congressmen support. it's not the people, the country, not even the constitution. It's their party, their party's marxist agenda and those marxists who pay the bills. Not the taxpayers of the country but those moneyed socialists like George Soros whose agenda is to further themselves and damnation to the people of these some-what united states.

We would be much better off if, in future elections, we elect businessmen, farmers, people who work with their hands to meet deadlines. Perhaps a carpenter, electrician, or a plumber as well. Such folks certainly could not perform worse than our current collection of incompetent boobs.

Something appropriate for a Sunday.

God Defends the Right!



H/T to Greg from the 1911TechTalk mail list.

Friday Morning at the Pentagon

I came across this story from William the Coroner's blog. It needs to be spread far and wide. Michael Yon writes of a little known ceremony held in the Pentagon to honor Army wounded.

Friday Morning at the Pentagon

Published: 27 November 2009

By JOSEPH L. GALLOWAY
McClatchy Newspapers

Over the last 12 months, 1,042 soldiers, Marines, sailors and Air Force personnel have given their lives in the terrible duty that is war. Thousands more have come home on stretchers, horribly wounded and facing months or years in military hospitals.

This week, I'm turning my space over to a good friend and former roommate, Army Lt. Col. Robert Bateman, who recently completed a yearlong tour of duty in Iraq and is now back at the Pentagon.

Here's Lt. Col. Bateman's account of a little-known ceremony that fills the halls of the Army corridor of the Pentagon with cheers, applause and many tears every Friday morning. It first appeared on May 17 on the Weblog of media critic and pundit Eric Alterman at the Media Matters for America Website.

"It is 110 yards from the "E" ring to the "A" ring of the Pentagon. This section of the Pentagon is newly renovated; the floors shine, the hallway is broad, and the lighting is bright. At this instant the entire length of the corridor is packed with officers, a few sergeants and some civilians, all crammed tightly three and four deep against the walls. There are thousands here.

This hallway, more than any other, is the `Army' hallway. The G3 offices line one side, G2 the other, G8 is around the corner. All Army. Moderate conversations flow in a low buzz. Friends who may not have seen each other for a few weeks, or a few years, spot each other, cross the way and renew.

Everyone shifts to ensure an open path remains down the center. The air conditioning system was not designed for this press of bodies in this area.

The temperature is rising already. Nobody cares. "10:36 hours: The clapping starts at the E-Ring. That is the outermost of the five rings of the Pentagon and it is closest to the entrance to the building. This clapping is low, sustained, hearty. It is applause with a deep emotion behind it as it moves forward in a wave down the length of the hallway.

"A steady rolling wave of sound it is, moving at the pace of the soldier in the wheelchair who marks the forward edge with his presence. He is the first. He is missing the greater part of one leg, and some of his wounds are still suppurating. By his age I expect that he is a private, or perhaps a private first class.

"Captains, majors, lieutenant colonels and colonels meet his gaze and nod as they applaud, soldier to soldier. Three years ago when I described one of these events, those lining the hallways were somewhat different. The applause a little wilder, perhaps in private guilt for not having shared in the burden ... yet.

"Now almost everyone lining the hallway is, like the man in the wheelchair, also a combat veteran. This steadies the applause, but I think deepens the sentiment. We have all been there now. The soldier's chair is pushed by, I believe, a full colonel.

"Behind him, and stretching the length from Rings E to A, come more of his peers, each private, corporal, or sergeant assisted as need be by a field grade officer.

"11:00 hours: Twenty-four minutes of steady applause. My hands hurt, and I laugh to myself at how stupid that sounds in my own head. My hands hurt... Please! Shut up and clap. For twenty-four minutes, soldier after soldier has come down this hallway - 20, 25, 30.... Fifty-three legs come with them, and perhaps only 52 hands or arms, but down this hall came 30 solid hearts.

They pass down this corridor of officers and applause, and then meet for a private lunch, at which they are the guests of honor, hosted by the generals. Some are wheeled along.... Some insist upon getting out of their chairs, to march as best they can with their chin held up, down this hallway, through this most unique audience. Some are catching handshakes and smiling like a politician at a Fourth of July parade. More than a couple of them seem amazed and are smiling shyly.

"There are families with them as well: the 18-year-old war-bride pushing her 19-year-old husband's wheelchair and not quite understanding why her husband is so affected by this, the boy she grew up with, now a man, who had never shed a tear is crying; the older immigrant Latino parents who have, perhaps more than their wounded mid-20s son, an appreciation for the emotion given on their son's behalf. No man in that hallway, walking or clapping, is ashamed by the silent tears on more than a few cheeks. An Airborne Ranger wipes his eyes only to better see. A couple of the officers in this crowd have themselves been a part of this parade in the past.

These are our men, broken in body they may be, but they are our brothers, and we welcome them home. This parade has gone on, every single Friday, all year long, for more than four years.

"Did you know that?

The media haven't yet told the story."

V/R TK
TOM KUNK
COL, GS
Division Chief for ODO
HQDA, G3/5/7

A fitting tribute to those who have paid a price to defend our nation.

Cartoons of the Day: Glenn McCoy, Lisa Benson, Bob Gorrell

KSM's Christmas Present.




The reaction of Obama's Afghan speech as West Point was critiqued as "Too little, too late." Even the Europeans criticized the speech. Der Spiegel writes, "Never before has a speech by President Barack Obama felt as false as his Tuesday address announcing America's new strategy for Afghanistan. It seemed like a campaign speech combined with Bush rhetoric -- and left both dreamers and realists feeling distraught."

And here is another's opinion of Obama's "strategic" warplan.