If you
think that the financial collapse of America is improbable,
I would like to point out how improbable it seemed to the
Russian people during the 60's that their economy could
collapse while competing with America for the race to the
Moon and
world domination.
"An idealist
is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than
a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup." H.L.
Mencken .
Click
on photo for inspiring montage of Toby Keith's"
OK, first of all I am a very conservative voter who considers himself a conservative RINO. I vote republican because I won't ever again vote for an independent that will take a vote away from the republican candidate.
That said: I think the argument can be made that we should let the taxes go up on high income earners only if we exclude S corporations.............................Rest of story
During a spina bifida corrective procedure at twenty-one weeks in utero, Samuel thrusts his tiny hand out of the surgical opening of his mother's uterus. As the doctor lifts his hand, Samuel reacts to the touch and squeezes the doctor's finger. As if testing for strength, the doctor shakes the tiny fist. Samuel held firm. At that moment, I took this "Fetal Hand Grasp" photo.As a photojournalist, my job is to tell stories through pictures. The experience of taking this photograph has had a profound effect on me, and I'm proud to share this moment with you.
As a veteran photojournalist in Nashville, Tennessee, I was hired by USA Today newspaper to photograph a spina bifida corrective surgical procedure. It was to be performed on a twenty-one week old fetus in utero at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. At that time, in 1999, twenty-one weeks in utero was the earliest that the surgical team would consider for surgery. The worst possible outcome would be that the surgery would cause premature delivery, and no child born earlier than twenty-three weeks had survived.
The tension could be felt in the operating room as the surgery began. A typical C-section incision was made to access the uterus, which was then lifted out and laid at the junction of the mother's thighs. The entire procedure would take place within the uterus, and no part of the child was to breach the surgical opening. During the procedure, the position of the fetus was adjusted by gently manipulating the outside of the uterus. The entire surgical procedure on the child was completed in 1 hour and thirteen minutes. When it was over, the surgical team breathed a sigh of relief, as did I.-------------------------> Rest of Story & better photo
Have You Forgotten
By Darryl Worley
I hear people saying we don't need this war
I say there's some things worth fighting for
What about our freedom and this piece of ground?
We didn't get to keep 'em by backing down
They say we don't realize the mess we're getting in
Before you start preaching
Let me ask you this my friend
Have you forgotten how it felt that day
To see your homeland under fire
And her people blown away?
Have you forgotten when those towers fell?
We had neighbors still inside
Going through a living hell
And you say we shouldn't worry 'bout Bin Laden
Have you forgotten?
They took all the footage off my T.V.
Said it's too disturbing for you and me
It'll just breed anger that's what the experts say
If it was up to me I'd show it every day
Some say this country's just out looking for a fight
After 9/11 man I'd have to say that's right
I've been there with the soldiers
Who've gone away to war
And you can bet they remember
Just what they're fighting for
Have you forgotten all the people killed?
Some went down like heroes in that Pennsylvania field
Have you forgotten about our Pentagon?
All the loved ones that we lost
And those left to carry on
Don't you tell me not to worry about Bin Laden
Have you forgotten?
Today's partisan politics
begs the question, who's side are they on anyway? and regardless of which
party the answer spoken in deeds not words are always the side of their
party, and America is becoming the victim of their divisive ways.
We are incrementally voting
ourselves into a Socialist Society, albeit negligently. You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it. –––––––––> More
Cover of Newsweek 2-9-2009
Norman MattoonThomas (November 20, 1884 - December 19, 1968) was a leading American socialist, pacifist, and six-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America. He was ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1911. As a candidate for President of the U. S. Norman Thomas said, in a 1944 epoch speech:
"The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But, under the name of "liberalism", they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened."
He went on to say: "I no longer need to run as a Presidential Candidate for the Socialist Party. The Democratic Party has adopted our platform."
In
the wake of the Iraq War, there has been much Monday morning quarter
backing by America's weak offensive line (liberals) who insist the “War
on Terror” is to be waged only against Osuma bin ladens al Qaeda.
This essay is to make the connection of pan-Islamo Fascism and its
long terrorism history. As the democratic world confronts al Qeada's
Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Hezbollah
's Hassan Nasrallah, and their followers, many among us are trying
to understand militant Islam, where it came from and its aims. The
following background material is designed to give an overview of
the phenomenon that has been called "militant Islam," "fundamentalist
Islam," “Islamo Fascism” “Islamism,” or "radical Islam."
"Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader.
Koran is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our
highest hope." - The Muslim Brotherhood
Early Islamism
The roots of militant Islam go back to the thirteenth
century; to a traditionalist legal philosopher named Ibn Taymiya, who
opposed Islam's incorporation of western influences. The most successful
militant Islamic movement, which drew its inspiration from Ibn Taymiya
is the Wahhabis of Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam. Ibn Abd al-Wahhab,
a fundamentalist sheikh who preached religious reform, forged an alliance
with a local village chief, Muhammad Ibn Saud, to overturn un-Islamic
practices that had become prevalent among the Arabia's people. As with
his ideological ancestor Ibn Taymiya, Ibn Wahhab fought Muslim rulers
who he believed failed to implement a pure form of Islam. Between 1773
and 1819, the Saudis and the Wahhabis united to conquer the Arabian
Peninsula, and found the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.---------------------------> More
As a well informed political wonk and
news junkie the only argument George Bush had to present
to me for war with Iraq was the well documented fact
that Saddam Hussein was giving the parents of Palaniastian
suicide bombers (terrorists) $25,000. This inducement
for Palestinian parents to sell their children on the
idea of an early death was a good investment for terrorist
supporter Saddam Hussein to stir the pot further fomenting
the Palestinian/ Israeli conflict that is the burr under
the saddle of every Muslim alive. This animus by design
The unreasonable among us believe we should
reach consensus with an unreasonable, contentious and self-serving world
via the United Nations. They want us to subordinate our autonomous right
of decisive self-protection to those that sell weaponry to our enemy,
these well meaning but ignorant folk think that this is a prudent path
to self-protection.
It's a dog eat
dog world and under the thin veneer of civility western society has
cultivated during the last few centuries our human/animal nature under
the surface remains as historically brutal as it has been since the
beginning of time. The bold dominate, the meek subordinate, i.e. Hitler,
Stalin, Mao, Poll Pot. Those that bend over accept a submissive position.
Those that accept a submissive position reap the rewards of their fear,
apathy and inaction.
My enemy is your enemy
therefore you are my friend. That is why we allied with Stalin our
ideological enemy in 1939 and gave him billions of dollars of munitions
during WW2. Hitler partnered with the Japanese not because he included
Asians in his master race concept or because they shared the same worldview;
he worked with them despite his ideology because they were the enemy
of the United States therefore his friend.
John Adams, Aaron Burr, Benjamin
Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George
Washington created a dynamic that fosters the greatest engine for peace
and prosperity that has ever existed, the Constitution of the United
States of America. Lesser men with the noblest of intentions are destroying
it.
Several years ago
observation provided an epiphany that testosterone may be a factor
of political ideological persuasion; later Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
put forth his oversimplified hyperbolic “girly-men” comment about
the California Legislature apparently coming to a similar hypothesis. Anthropology
is the study of humanity..............
If it weren't for the fact
of scarcity, there'd be no economic issues. Scarcity simply means we
all want more of something, but there are not enough resources on Earth
to satisfy every want. That means we must find a way to determine who
is going to get what's available.
As
a news junkie, political wonk, and patriot I have been amazed and outraged
at the indiscretion, thoughtlessness or stupidity that our reporters
have been exhibiting in their questioning of our policy makers and
tacticians conducting our war on terror.
