Saturday Morning Post Archived Editions

SATURDAY MORNING POST EDITION 106 FOR 12.07.2008

2008-10-25T12:34:00.000-07:00

Within the past three years we have learnt a lot about the vengefully irrational partisan and religious hatred that Iranian dictator Makhmud Ahmadinejad has exercised against Israel.
Mr Ahmadinejad has a major league problem with coexisting with a sovereign republic that treat their Muslims INFINITELY BETTER than his country treat THEIR Jews!

Let us examine some of the incriminating evidence against Mr Ahmadinejad:

In April 2006 Ahmadinejad announced plans to contribute US$50m to fund the terrorist-riddled Palestinian Authority after Western nations withdrew aid in the wake of the terror group Hamas winning elections held in that part of Israel three months earlier. His foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki announced Iran's determination to help the Israeli Arabs.
In December 2005 Ahmadinejad dismissed the reality of the Holocaust of Nazi Germany as a myth, suggesting the relocation of Israel to Canada, Alaska, the United States, or Europe.
In October 2005 Ahmadinejad claimed that all hurdles for Iranian nuclear development had been cleared --- and that no power could stop him.
In May 2007 Iran were reportedly within three years of a nuclear bomb.
And the crown jewels of the lot: Not only has Ahmadinejad called for "wiping Israel off the map" --- he has even made the same threat against the United States too!
Near the end of June 2007, National Intelligence Director Admiral Michael McConnell exposed a clear pattern of Iran supporting Iraqi terrorists attacking Coalition forces with roadside and other homicide bombs.
A January 2007 Karbala attack by Shia Muslims who as it turned out were trained by the Quds Forces.
In November 2007 it was discovered that Iranian chemical and biological weapons, under even greater secrecy than their nuclear programme, could deliver their dangerous toxic payloads to Iraq, Israel, and even the United States.
In February Iran announced the launch of a "research rocket" that was launched from what turns out to be a missile development site where missiles capable of striking targets 6000 kilómetros away were under development.
In April Iran announced the installation of 6000 nuclear centrifuges, thus trebling their uranium enrichment capacity.
A suspicious report about Iran's nuclear capabilities was found to have been crafted by former State Department officials instead of senior United States intelligence intelligentsia. And Iranian officials have condemned the independent media news website NewsMax and condemned Israel/Syria talks.

Ahmadinejad is not alone, either, as we will find. Take for instance Hashemi Rafsanjani, who served as president from 1989 to 1997, affirming that Hitler SAVED EUROPE!

And other nations have obviously noticed, too: On 17 September 2007 French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner advised that a nuclear Iran would be a grave danger to the world. In fact some of the American Embassy hostages held in captivity for more than 14 months even claimed Ahmadinejad was one of their captors!
When Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert visited France in October 2007 newly-elected president Nicholas Sarkozy concurred with Olmert about the need to stop Iranian nuclear aspirations.
Last fall, Bahranian Crown Prince Prince Salman BinHamad BinIsa AlKhalifa became the first Arab leader to lodge a claim about Iran developing nuclear weapons.
Israel in fact expressed a fact contrary to CIA sentiment, that Iran are still continuing their nuclear programme...though Iranian defectors have been known to provide crucial information about nuclear programmes.

Our own president, George Walker Bush, warned of war with Iran last October, citing the need to prevent Iran from having necessary knowledge for arms construction. At the same time, Iraqi Military Commander General David Petraeus lodged an accusation against the Iranian ambassador to Iraq being allied with the terrorist gang called the Quds force. Subsequently the United States Government levied new sanctions against Iran. Zogby would confirm growing American sentiment favouring strikes on Iran shortly afterward.
Even Dennis Ross, a Middle Eastern peace process developer, has warned of a nuclear Iran.
Is it any wonder the US State Department have called Iran the world's most active state sponsor of terrorism? The Defence Secretary Robert Gates has warned about Iran's dogged determination to get nuclear arms!

A treasonous university president in New York City refused to rescind the invitation for Ahmadinejad to speak --- and consequently a number of Jewish groups urged mass protests in New York but were subsequently disappointed at the low turnout for such protests. One brave former Embassy hostage, however, questioned the logic in letting someone speak freely on American soil when he does not afford his own people that same freedom.
And Illinois Democrat Senator and Presidential Candidate Barack Obama has called for talks with Iran even as he claims support for Israel, thus raising a number of doubts about where his true allegiances lie.
On the other hand, a number of pundits have assembled their own strategies against Iran --- such as this brave columnist from TownHall.com explaining how to defeat Ahmadinejad, or a great well-known married couple calling for New York's disinvestment from Iran.

And now reports have streamed in that as Iran prepare to attack Israel's nuclear heart, Israel are preparing a pre-emptive strike against Iran --- something that Vice President Richard Bruce Cheney had already considered asking for at the same time Ahmadinejad rejected talks about Iranian nuclear capabilities and millions of his countrymen rallied against Israel. A subsequent assessment by Iran's Judiciary Ayatollah claimed a global referendum against Israel's supposed "illegitimacy" as the capital Tehran's provisional "Prayers Leader" demanded "continued resistance against Israel and the United States". Yet Iranian emissaries have met with Iranian exiles in Europe and America to deliver a controversial message about the Iranian people supporting swift, decisive strikes to the Ahmadinejad regime.

How close are we to seeing Iran facing war with Israel and/or the United States? The idea of an American bombing campaign has been floated before. And Iran clearly have no desire for another hawk in the Oval Office. In fact, just three months ago, Jewish sources made it abundantly clear that military strikes were increasingly likely.Tough beans, Mr Ahmadinejad, you had it coming from the moment you started spewing your anti-Semitic, anti-American horse manure. And if Bush doesn't stop you --- either Macca, Olmert, or even Netanyahu surely will.
And in the most recent days, the Iranians carried out nine missile tests in two days, ostensibly to threaten Israel, who along with the United States slammed the new tests. Allegations have been raised about a doctored photo released by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. Some are even questioning the bold claims of the Iranian government about their missiles. Israeli Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak has expressed his support for a strike on Iran.
We are facing an ever more precarious situation in the Middle East where we will have fewer and fewer options. Hemming and hawing over the process needlessly will produce greater risk, will perpetuate danger in the Middle East, and will place us in a number of terror threats.
Iran are clearly emboldened by our current efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, wishing for us to get out of those areas because they have expressed a desire to fill a supposed power vacuum we would supposedly leave.
But this is NOT the time to remain soft. Consider this: We have a number of advanced methods of weaponry we are currently not using against the Taleban in Afghanistan or the likes of AlQaeda and other terror gangs in Iraq. We could easily use some of those methods to take out Iranian military, nuclear, and administrative centres, thus delivering serious neural injury to the Iranian regime promoting totalitarianism in the name of a perverted and radicalised form of Islam.
The Iranian people are yearning for freedom. And maybe it will be only one of the US or Israel...or maybe it will be both simultaneously. Though the idea of both might appear to alienate most Arab nations --- in reality a number of the neighbours of Iran and even Iraq when they were dictated by the late Hussein have had their suspicions and grievances. Some might call it just jealousy, but more enlightened minds see a potential for real peace if Iran are neutralised. Iraq are already on their way to developing into a full-fledged republic rooted in direct democracy like Israel, having held several elections. Hope for Iran still abounds.
But then again, we cannot be sure how this one turns out.

CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: A PROFILE IN COURAGE AT THE CIRCUS

I have to admit, I have total respect for veteran actor Christopher Knight.
The man who played Peter Brady on the late 1960s/early 1970s sitcom, The Brady Bunch, has long since grown up, appearing on the 2000s reality series, My Fair Brady, and even marrying an America's Next Top Model Winner, Adrianne Curry.
On that alone, I am quite impressed.
But all of that pales in comparison to what he just did.
Recently you may have seen him on Celebrity Circus on NBC. On 2 July he made a stunning decision out of regard for his own health and safety.
By resigning from the show before he had wanted to, he basically went out on top, like John Elway, who retired from professional football after a number of years as the iconic Denver Broncos quarterback in the number 7 jersey, then guided his team to two back-to-back Super Bowl championships in the National Football League.
But how he got there was nothing short of inspiring in itself.
First, he attempted the German wheel, which involves a lot of twisting and turning, and when performed well, can be rather graceful.
Unfortunately, Mr Knight experienced a broken arm when he faltered.
Now, for most of us, that could have been the end of the experience.
Not Chris Knight.
He got up, attended an X-ray, learnt of his broken arm, and was quickly assigned a new activity.
Enter the tightrope.
He managed the highwire very deftly, and for a 50-year-old man period, let alone one with a broken arm, he was impressive in the premiere of the series. After taking his walk across the ring he walked back with a lovely woman standing on his shoulders. Now THAT is a classic circus act --- and what a class act he was.
He was graded fairly hard by the three judges at first but the viewers must have thought differently, so he was back the next week.
Where he attempted a unique combination of a fire act and a clown act, teaming with an experienced firehandler in an entertaining routine performed to the Beach Boys classic, Good vibrations. We evidently MUST have been digging his good vibrations and his act, for we gave him enough votes that he was safe.
Last week, he pulled himself up and down a very entertaining and acrobatic act with two other trapeze artists, but with a twist --- the trapezes were attached to bungee straps! He handled himself very impressively to the routine set to the Black Eyed Peas' hit, Let's get it started, and his stellar act started the show for sure. Two of the judges gave him very high scores, with the third drawing jeers for his significantly lower score. But once again enough of us must have thought differently.
Now as it turns out, he was safe, for he obviously had enough votes to continue. Someone else who was about to lose his spot on the show just got a second wind because Chris chose to resign from the act. I won't speculate here, I don't believe in speculation --- when you achieve proficiency in three other circus acts after a broken arm, you deserve total respect.
He lived out a good part of his youthful dream of circus life, and it is good to dream when we are young. Some young celebrities thrust into the spotlight are inhibited for a time in their ability to enjoy their youth, and as they get older they often express themselves in more lavish methods, like Michael Jackson's former home/amusement park, the Neverland Ranch.
And Christopher Knight has lived his by participating in this show, and with the true grit he exhibited in light of the setback he endured during his progress in the series, he has clearly earned my respect. Well done, Chris. Take a bow. You deserve it.

WHY NOT GET YOUR OWN PERSONAL WIND FARM --- ON YOUR CITY LOT

I have been batting this idea around in my head for a number of months.
And admittedly it sounds like it is a nutty idea on the surface.
That said, given the rising costs of energy, including natural gas and electricity and even heating oil, alternative energy sources have caught on in our society, with mixed results depending on the source.
We are now finding that ethanol is a bust given the soaring petrol costs, the skyrocketing animal feed costs (which are heavily corn-based --- corn is a major source for ethanol), and the low impact that ethanol has truly had on our fuel supply.
Some people have failed to understand the inefficient nature of maize-based ethanol and now there is a push to abolish that mandate, even here in Missouri, where I live.
That said, renewable energy sources should not be ruled out completely. Even if it will take a number of months at the very least before we start seeing fuel prices some down to more reasonable levels, homeowners CAN take advantage of the environment --- to their own profit.
The big question is: HOW?
The answer requires multiple solutions.
Let's take a look at some good ideas that are popular.
Solar panels were first noticed in the 1970s as a good source of energy and the technology has improved since. Today you can use solar panels on your rooftop to heat your water --- and improved solar panels are able to heat more water more quickly.
Solar panels are also useful for other necessities like lighting, especially with the new power-efficient fluorescents and LEDs coming onto the scene. Myself, I went all-fluorescent years ago by choice, for economic reasons. However, you should STILL be able to choose your own lightbulb --- and that INCLUDES incandescent. Politicians have already started questioning the Establishment Media's Congress' hostile policy toward Thomas Alva Edison's greatest invention. But back to the subject at hand: You can even buy refrigerators and freezers that run off of solar and wind energy, which are usually expressed in direct current (DC) but can be converted to alternating current (AC) with certain implements. Most conventional electrical appliances, from televisions to computers to microwave ovens, work via AC.
Windpower has become increasingly accessible, to the point where homeowners can easily obtain a wind turbine and set that in their yards.
One major drawback of the wind turbine with its propellers is it can cause lethal injuries to flying birds. Another is you may have to get a variance to exceed the maximum height allowed for residential areas, typically 35 feet, for man-made structures. And then there are the space limitations.
Enter another type of wind turbine that is becoming more commonplace --- the vertical axis wind turbine.
You can purchase VAWTs for use at your urban home, and you can set them up in a small area.
Six VAWTs can easily fit in a 4x8ft area, generating as much as 6000 kilowatts. In a 10x10ft area, you can set up nine --- or even 15 --- turbines, and in a staggered formation at that --- in which the VAWT, whose blade apparatus is actually a drum, like that in an old evapourative cooler (I actually got one of those running again in 2000). The drum spins in any wind direction and does not need to be rotated, unlike the traditional fan-blade turbine.
Thsoe turbines can help your electric bill come down --- in some cases to the point you see a CREDIT --- that means the electric agency PAY YOU for energy PRODUCED when it exceeds that which you consumed.
And the typical mast of the turbine is rather compact --- 30 feet, with the drum running another four feet or so, meaning you are inside the 35ft variance limit. This means that it is even easier still to take advantage of those breezes that cross your property.

Of course, communities could do their part by raising the variance to as much as 50ft. Whilst it is unlikely that most folks will place a structure taller than that, 50 feet will put more --- and taller --- turbines within the limit and maybe even catch stronger breezes. Most wind turbines can handle 160km/h (100mi/h) winds and even stronger, as much as 200km/h (125mi/h).
Communities could also use vertical axis wind turbines in local parks and greenspaces to generate extra energy, helping to power municipal street lights and traffic robots and signals, just as is being done now for solar panels. I can personally attest to a solar-powered pair of signals on each side of an old railway overcrossing just blocks from my home that have replaced traditional electric landlines. Why not place more traffic signals with solar panels and wind turbines, so that even in foul weather, power will not be interrupted, thus making traffic control easier?
Although such applications may be more difficult in built-up old town areas, especially in the downtowns of older and more densely-packed cities like New York and Chicago and Cleveland, even inner-city single-occupancy housing can easily handle those VAWTs --- and the technology will further improve for them with stronger posts being designed even for warehouses and skyscrapers.

Another idea that has hit me is the prospect of creating our own hydroelectric dams on streams that run through our properties and our water gardens. The first half of that may well be more applicable to rural landowners, but still quite useful. In addition to providing a better habitat for aquatic and amphibious fauna, we can create more aesthetic ponds that may even benefit our own personal water supplies.
As for water gardens --- I wish I had thought of this idea years ago when I had a house of my own AND a water garden --- streams and rills could be outfitted with small hydroelectric structures made with paint stirrers with drum heads, and the shafts cut down to fit a structure. Of course a filter will be needed and checked carefully at regular intervals, but the electricity could help power low-power lighting around the ponds and streams and even the plants that line them.

Whilst we may not completely replace coal, natural gas, and even hydroelectric power, we CAN make an impact upon our energy use --- by changing the way we GET our power, by taking matters into our own hands, using our own resources. Initial resources will be fairly expensive, but the payoff will dwarf the investment over time, as you may have to worry less about power restoration after a power outage in the local power grid.

MY JOURNEY THROUGH INDEPENDENCE DAY

First of all I should state that Independence Day for me started at midnight and continued with me working on some of these articles on this weekend's blog.
But I should ALSO state that I was starting to doze off, because I had been up since 5.30a the previous day, having to go to work on the last day of a two-week temporary assignment at a tinned milk facility on the Missouri-Oklahoma border about 20 miles from my home. When I wrapped that part of it up scrubbing milk residue off of a magnet table I headed in to the temporary agency and picked up a cheque. I was not disappointed by the amount, and figured I could withdraw some of what my regular employer had deposited then combine the two to make a substantive rent payment.
Was I right.
What a sigh of relief that was. Then it was off to the filling station to put $40 worth of petrol in my truck --- almost enough to fill it all the way. That amount would surely have topped off my car which has a smaller fuel tank.
Then I accepted a phone call from my good friend David Cholesterol from Chimpsy Radio, who conducted an interview with me. He was amazed at some of the folks on my profile, but I told him to just add them, baby, as if to paraphrase a slogan from my beloved Oakland Raiders. We also talked about this blog, and I must admit, you are going to be here a while. That show is scheduled to air on 23 July at 8.00p American Eastern Time; he should also have a podcast on his blog shortly afterward. The show will re-air several times before the next show.
But as I worked on more articles on this blog I also started feeling more and more tired. At about 3.30a I finally surrendered and went to sleep.
I was up at about 10.30a to take a shower, check on my email and other stuff, then headed to Big Lots in Webb City, driving the car to get the charcoal and lighter fluid for a barbecue I had also picked up for my mother at Lowes the day before in the truck.
Them Mum barbecued some steaks and prepared some macaroni style. As she was preparing, I grabbed a couple of double cheeseburgers from Hardees and ate them on the way back to Mum's house. Later, I ate everything on my plate but half of my steak then took home some of the leftovers, including the baked beans with sauteed onions.
Then after going home, I took my neighbour to the store and then headed over to the local Independence Day festival.
At Landreth Park, along Murphy Boulevard which runs diagonally through most of Joplin, there is an open-air stage where entertainers perform for a couple of festivals held annually at the park just north of downtown. This year, we had a couple of local acts on stage, Duke Mason, a little man with a big voice, big heart, and big talent, and a local rock band called Rukas.
In between acts I would grab a snowcone with mango flavour, then a plate of funnel cakes --- tiny globs of fried batter covered with powdered sugar --- and also some pop, Sprite and Coke specifically. When I grabbed the Coke I also grabbed a Philly-style cheesesteak sandwich, then sat back down and enjoyed both. I must admit, that was one of the better sandwiches I have had lately.
Then came the big name act of the night, veteran country recording artist Mark Chesnutt, who performed one of his big hits, Bubba shot the jukebox. Along the way he performed some new tracks from a recent CD, a couple of George Jones classics, and after a train passed through just 70 or 80 yards away from the stage, he started into a medley of Johnny Cash classics. He then performed a few more major hits, including It sure is Monday, palying most of his major hits, but not the one that drew me into his music --- Almost goodbye, from the 1994 MCA CD of the same name.
Then after an ambulance cleared the area where fireworks would be shot off it was time for the fireworks, set to patriotic music.
I must admit that we are somewhat complacent as conservatives, compared to how even the most liberal of folks were 100 years ago, let alone the folks that were in place shortly after we won our War for Independence. The more liberal folks of that time would have gladly fought for traditional freedoms, for the concepts spelled out at Independence Hall on a hot summer afternoon in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania so long ago.
Which is a lot different from the most liberal fringe amongst us today. The most extreme leftists want to silence critics of liberalism, simply because they actually have an audience in real talk radio, the one area they have had real problems securing monopoly control with regard to content. Talk radio is one of the few refuges most folks have to the print media and television news --- both of which are overwhelmingly liberal in establishment. That is why Fox News continue slamming MSNBC and CNN in the ratings: Fox News take a more objective viewpoint that CNN and MSNBC evidently cannot handle.
Suffice it to say that as we conclude our Independence Day holiday we need to remember, that this is not merely a day off, but a day that we must remember those who gave their lives so we could live ours in liberty.

SHOULD THE ACLU BE SHUT DOWN UNDER THE RACKETEER AND INFLUENCE CORRUPT ORGANISATION (RICO) ACT?

HAVE THE ACLU VIOLATED THE RICO ACT?

In 1970, Congress passed the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, Title 18, United States Code, Sections 1961-1968. At the time, Congress' goal was to eliminate the ill-affects of organized crime on the nation's economy. To put it bluntly, RICO was intended to destroy the Mafia.
Click Here To Read The Text Of The Racketeer Influenced And Corrupt Organisations (RICO) Act.

We all know that the American Civil Liberties Union have involved themselves in a number of controversial courtroom decisions in recent years. We have seen them get involved in issues ranging from immigration issues to marriage issues to unborn rights to freedom of speech.
But their voracity toward attacking laws that the people approved in effort to counter some of the more radical problems afflicting our society with some common sense may have gone way too far.
So what does the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations Act---the RICO Act---have to do with the ACLU's antics? More than you think. And here's one example:

In 2005 the ACLU successfully won the overturn of an Oregon law prohibiting live sex acts. But before you start cheering, understand that they also explain their own motives in their Policy 211: “The ACLU supports the decriminalization of prostitution and opposes state regulation of prostitution”.
There is a sinister side behind this policy: With their opposition to zoning laws and their claim that whatever consenting adults do in private is "their own business" it suddenly becomes more evident that such activity can suddenly become public and next thing you know you have houses of ill repute opening near schools and churches and amusement parks and neighbourhood park.
But wait, you say. What about my right to conduct business like that?
NO! WHAT ABOUT PARENTS' RIGHTS TO RAISE THEIR CHILDREN WITHOUT THAT SORT OF THING CONSTANTLY LOOMING OVER THEIR HEADS? You want to sell pornograhic magazines at corner markets? I have no problem! But this is different!
And speaking of children and sex acts, they even challenged a 1997 Massachusetts law prohibiting the mere possession of child pornography. But for those who do not have the benefit of HighBeam.com membership I'll reprint excerpts from that Boston Herald article.

From the Boston Herald, ACLU: New child porn law won't pass high court challenge, 9 December 1997:

QUOTE: John Roberts, executive director of the Boston branch of the American Civil Liberties Union
"Mere possession should not be a crime. This law really sweeps too far, and from an ACLU point of view, this really gets into areas that we believe are protected by the First Amendment."
And the ACLUnatics would even like to see child pornography legalised---which a Supreme Court ruling appeared to favour in their 2004 case that crippled the Child Online Protection Act.
Right off the bat I can tell you of SEVERAL RICO Act violations committed by the ACLUnatics:
Section 1503 (relating to obstruction of justice)
Section 1510 (relating to obstruction of criminal investigations)
Section 1511 (relating to the obstruction of State or local law enforcement)
Sections 2251, 2251A, 2252, and 2260 (relating to sexual exploitation of children)

In their particular quest for seeking the appeasement of paedophiles and paedophilia and decriminalisation of child pornography the ACLUnatics have dug themselves a deep enough hole that if we had an attorney general with enough balls to indict them we could surely see them hit with no less than seven ways to pursue criminal charges under the RICO Act...and the case would stick like peanut butter to hot toast.

"The law was officially signed by acting Gov. Paul Cellucci at a ceremony yesterday. Under the statute, individuals who are caught with any visual or computer image of a child under 18 engaged in sex acts could be prosecuted as felons.
First-time offenders could be jailed for up to five years if convicted, while second-time offenders could face five years to life imprisonment and those convicted a third time could be jailed for 10 years to life, the law states. "

And that's supposedly not good enough for the ACLU? Hello, I thought that this was the ACLU that cared so much for children's rights when they have problems with schools that won't let them wear "(EDIT) BUSH" tee shirts!
Alas that is the other side of the coin: The ACLU will eagerly protect child molestors claiming it is just a lifestyle choice, denigrating homosexuals and bisexuals by comparing paedophilia to those two groups...and this ON TOP of the ACLUnatics' blind defence of a Marxist agenda concerning LGBT folk!

""There will be zero tolerance for those who dare to dabble in this filth," Cellucci said, adding that Massachusetts was the 43rd state in the nation to enact such a law.
Cellucci was joined at yesterday's signing by the father of 10-year-old Jeffrey Curley, who was kidnapped, raped and murdered in October allegedly by two men branded by authorities as sexual predators.
Curley dismissed the legal concerns about the bill, and said it was a "major step forward in the fight against child predators.""

And guess who is bankrolling the canteen of one of the killers of young Jeffrey Curley?

The Boston Herald reports that Jaynes is now battling efforts by his victim’s mother to uncover whether NAMBLA is bankrolling Jaynes’ prison canteen. There were court affidavits from two inmates claiming Jaynes engages in sex acts in the prison without discipline, shows off his victim’s autopsy and has a fat canteen account courtesy of NAMBLA.

What do the ACLU have in common with the North American Man/Boy Love Association?

From "The ACLU And Nambla: A Match Made In Hell"

"The ACLU is a supporter of NAMBLA, representing the organization in the civil case related to the aforementioned murder. The ACLU is representing NAMBLA PRO BONO. Their official position: “In representing NAMBLA, the ACLU does not advocate sexual relationships between adults and children. What we do advocate is robust freedom of speech. This lawsuit strikes at the heart of freedom of speech. The defense of freedom of speech is most critical when the message is one most people find repulsive.” "

Want to know how Jeffrey Curley was murdered? Get ready for this, from the same source:

"Charles Jaynes, 25, reportedly viewed the group’s web site shortly before the killing of Jeffrey Curley, a 10 year old boy, slain in 1997. Jaynes also had in his possession some of NAMBLA’s publications. Also convicted in the killing was 24 year old Salvatore Sicari. Sicari, convicted of first degree murder, is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Jaynes’ second degree murder and kidnapping convictions enable him to seek parole within the next 20 years. Was this a case of misunderstanding? Does this fit with NAMBLA’s philosophy of man/boy love that is non violent? Hardly. Prosecutors said Jaynes and Sicari were sexually obsessed with the boy, lured him from his Cambridge neighborhood with the promise of a new bike, and then smothered him with a gasoline soaked rag when he resisted their sexual advances. They then stuffed him into a concrete filled container and dumped it into a Maine river."

Sick? OK, I'll wait for you to grab a SevenUp or some saltines.

Now, this is the sort of filth that the ACLU seek to appease in their entirely ungodly alliance with Nambla. And we come back to those four elements of the RICO Act which if we had an attorney general with enough balls we could easily break those filthy bastards under that act...and then bust Nambla under the same act to boot! THINK ABOUT IT!

Back to that Boston Herald article:

"But even supporters of the bill such as Plymouth County District Attorney Michael J. Sullivan admitted the law will be tough to enforce because it will involve monitoring private activities in the home or on a personal computer.
"Detection obviously is going to be a challenge," he said.
And civil rights lawyers scoffed at the notion the bill will pass constitutional muster."

I can't see why we mayn't be able to trace child pornography if we can trace terrorist activity...but more importantly it is going to come down to us to start busting child pornographers online and those efforts are being aided by law enforcement and by websites like this one. And BTW that law would most certainly pass constitutional muster considering the grave impact child pornography would impose upon the general public!

ANOTHER EXCEDRIN HEADACHE (BristolMyersSquibb trademark, 1964): APPEASING ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

Illegal immigration is constantly in the news day and night, 24X7X366. Most Americans, irrespective of skin colour, age, ancestry, sex, or sexuality, are increasingly opposed to people jumping the borders...so much that an organisation formed in order to monitor the borders to check for gaps in the Immigration and Naturalisation Service's and the Border Patrol's efforts.
What you may or may not also know is the ACLUnatics have been front and centre in their efforts to oppose the Minuteman Project---in fact they harassed the organisation by interfering with their efforts to help enforce immigration laws and the borders by falsely branding them as "racists" and setting up warning systems and advising illegal aliens not to cross the border where Minuteman Project volunteers were working in Arizona. Sounds like the Minuteman Project are within their rights to sue the ACLUnatics for defamation of character and libel...and could crush them with a bootheel from HELL.
The ACLU even have an "Immigration Rights Project" which for 19 years has worked to find ways to flout US immigration laws. And this is on top of their move to ask a Los Angeles court to allow illegal immigrant groups to intervene in Judicial Watch's Special Order 40 Lawsuit in September 2006.
Earlier this year the ACLU complained about immigration law reforms stripping away the due process rights of illegals...showing you just how far off course immigration law enforcement has really gone.

I just found another THREE sections of the RICO Act with which we can indict the ACLUnatics which apply in this situation and they are as follows:

Section 1425 (relating to the procurement of citizenship or nationalization unlawfully)
Section 1426 (relating to the reproduction of naturalization or citizenship papers)
Section 1427 (relating to the sale of naturalization or citizenship papers)

In addition, because such activities invariably involve forged government documents like passports and drivers licences and visas, we find that these articles ALSO warrant prosecution under the following acts:

Section 1542 (relating to false statement in application and use of passport)
Section 1543 (relating to forgery or false use of passport)
Section 1544 (relating to misuse of passport)
Section 1546 (relating to fraud and misuse of visas, permits, and other documents)

The ACLU have even been known to defend illegal aliens' supposed rights to welfare payments. Therefore I propose that we also charge them under the following section of the act:

Section 1954 (relating to unlawful welfare fund payments)

How many charges could we file in this case? I could think of no fewer than 15 counts of RICO Act violations...and that is only the tip of a massive iceberg in which we could nail the ACLU for hundreds if not thousands of RICO Act violations...and George Romero, the ACLU President, would be amongst those headed to federal prison where they belong!
Is it any wonder talk radio host Mark Levin calls them the American Criminal Liberties Union?

And since I wrote the preceding paragraphs of this article 21 months ago, in October 2006, the ACLUnatics have engaged in yet even MORE dangerous activities.

Currently they have joined several anti-democracy, anti-family, anti-real marriage fascist organisations hellbent on forcing a totalitarian agenda in the name of the thin minority of people who happen to be homosexual, in their effort to interfere with Californians' right to vote on the legality of homosexual marriage. And such organisations have already successfully gotten away with interfering with the will of the Massachusetts people to engage in the same activity, with the ACLUnatics even levelling false charges of assault and battery against an innocent man innocently protesting that state's gay marriage laws.

Responsible homosexuals should insist that George Romero and the rest of his organisation at the ACLU gang stop trying to deface the great culture of the United States of America in the name of "diversity", "tolerance", or "equality". Those three are code words for "we will force our fringe minority viewpoint on the American people whether they like it or not", basically, they are codes for socialism, totalitarianism, tyranny, and other Marxist concepts.

And at least some of us are asking what do homosexuals need marriage for anyway. They already have the ability to declare anyone a beneficiary, they have the ability to declare who can visit them in hospital, and so forth.
They cry for "equal rights", yet they ALREADY have equal rights, they ALREADY have equal opportunity. The problem is a few radicals are screaming for special recognition of their lifestyle and therefore screaming for special rights. Contrary to seemingly popular misbelief this is NOT analogous to the civil rights battles of the 1950s and 1960s when there REALLY WERE genuine discrepancies between how Caucasians were treated and how Negroes were treated. And as a result of the radicals' false comparison, most Negroes today are justifiably offended at the weak excuse for a comparo.

And what is with the constant attempts to redefine discrimination anyway, even to the point of throwing temper tantrums about antidiscrimination bills that don't go their way?
Their ilk are the type of folks forcing such draconian homonazi measures that in their quest to defend homosexuals they attack innocent people innocently expressing a constructive moral objection to homosexuality to the point where a professor can get dumped from his or her job simply for stating their beliefs on this topic! Evidently they don't believe in the First Amendment --- UNLESS the person's words jibe with their beliefs so they push for "hate crimes" laws that criminalise criticism of their sexuality.
The radicals are the VERY reason people are feeling resentful toward their results. Time to exclude those with irrational partisan hatred from these debates. The hotheads who cry about the need to tamper with marriage because it doesn't go their way in civilised society are the first who should be locked out of the debate. Then we target those who want to force "tolerance" by behaving INtolerantly toward those who disagree with them on moral grounds, and knock them out of the debate as well. Crying because you know that the people are vigourously against the imposition of same sex marriage DOES NOT excuse you to abuse the courts and force your will --- which is most certainly NOT held even by the majority of homosexuals anyway --- will draw only MORE outrage and venom.
And there is ALREADY TOO MUCH of that in this case!

I have already explained that I have stood in solidarity with a homosexual teen who simply wanted to wear a couple of homosexual pride tee shirts to school. (I would do it again in a heartbeat too.) I should also tell you that I learnt how to shoot revolvers and handguns from a lesbian couple 20 years ago. One of them had a .44 Magnum --- "The most powerful handgun in the world, and it could blow your head clean off...you gotta ask yourself a question...Do I feel lucky...Well, do ya, punk?!"--- that chestnut from the Dirty Harry films.
So you could say that LGBT folks sort of HELPED me understand the importance of the First AND Second Amendments.

Back to the ACLUnatics on other RICO Act Violations: They have sought to interfere with the executive branch's authority to conduct necessary investigations on terror suspects, thus bringing in the Immigration and Nationality Act, Sections 274 and 277 into play. Sounds like a real criminal enterprise at work, don't you think?
But then again what do you expect from a gang of misfits that claim that crossdressing men supposedly are entitled to enter women's restrooms? Sounds like they may be encouraging other criminal conduct, including rape. Do women NOT have the civil liberty not to expect to be raped when using public restrooms? Of course they do. Problem is we have to take great care to prevent the occasional pervert from slipping through the cracks.

And then there are their efforts to interfere with the religious freedom of midshipmen at the United States Naval Academy. This ties in perfectly with both the ACLU's socialist roots and the Marxist aim of eliminating religion from society.

One thing is very abundantly clear: The American Civil Liberties Union have clearly gone way overboard and over the top in their efforts to force neosocialist totalitarianism, not unlike that of the Castro, Chavez, Mugabe, Mengistu, Hitler, Mao, and Il regimes. Attorney General Michael Mukasey should authorise investigations into the ACLUnatics and make an effort to shut them down. The charges are clearly in place and it would be a moderately difficult yet provable and credible case; such principals as George Romero could easily be led off to prison where they belong, with the ACLUnatics' assets being frozen and liquidated at auction, and the proceeds used to fund necessary government functions such as corrections facilities or highway construction.
And maybe we could start breathing a sigh of belief. We could wind up feeling like we live in America again...instead of the fringe leftist cloudcuckooland of Disturbia.

CURRENTLY LISTENING TO:

Exposé
By Exposé

SATURDAY MORNING POST EDITION 105 FOR 05.07.2008

2008-10-25T12:29:00.000-07:00

JESSICA SIMPSON CAN AND WILL TOO AD INFINITUM EAT WHATEVER SHE WANTS --- AND SO WILL I!

I blew up in a fit of rage on Monday afternoon when I saw this outrageous article from some kook fringe nutcase deriding contemporary singer Jessica Simpson's culinary and dietary freedoms.
I understand perfectly clearly the need to pay attention to animal welfare. That said, everyone knows that it is common knowledge that bullying us into not eating meat is NOT the solution to the supposed "problems" of animal welfare --- to the contrary it is A WHOLE NEW PROBLEM altogether, an invasion of our right to eat whatever we want to eat.
And sadly, governments are starting to peck into those delicate areas of our lives, wanting to dictate what we can and cannot eat.
Case in point: New Jersey legislators are now targeting fast food restaurants with extra taxation. Come on, we just want to eat a halfway decent meal, one that tastes as good as we can get it in a short period of time, and get on our way, and government want to bully US with their inflammatory interference with OUR right to eat what we want to eat?
Maybe Jessica Simpson should slap a restraining order on the fringe leftist kooks at "PETA", though it might not do any good. And even if she did obtain a good scientist to help her with a defamation lawsuit, it would still be tough to prove --- this is even in a British court, where the loudmouthed anti-meat kook shot his mouth off at her, and also where the defendants have the burden of proof is on the defendants, instead of the plaintiffs as is the case here in the United States.
And then there is the outrageously unconstitutional calorie posting regulation in New York City. Someone at the Thomas More Law Centre and/or the Centre for Consumer Freedom should be able to craft a constitutional challenge --- and trash that new law* in a heartbeat. (*Adobe Acrobat required for this link --- it is a .PDF document.)
Down the shore in Maryland, Montgomery County officials, not content with imposing their ideas of proper education for children by forcing onesided sex education down the gullets of little kids, even want to force their residents onto their idea of a "diet".
On the Left Coast --- and in this case Left is CERTAINLY appropriate for the Pacific Coast states that propose this crap --- a new California law is basically strongarming schools and food companies into some sick twisted fringe leftist kook's dumbassed idea of "healthy food". (And that link even shows you a comment I left on that article too.)
In San Francisco, College Republicans took to the streets to protest a proposed beer tax.
Down in Los Angeles there is a push by fringe kooks opposed to your culinary and dietary freedom to force people into eating "slow food". Their proponents claim that it is "gaining popularity" but in reality it is mere propaganda by left-of-centre loudmouths who have an irrational animus against successful restaurants that serve food we the people actually want to eat.
And a New York newsanchorman-turned-state legislator has rallied to the aid of the lowly cupcake, threatened in the Boogie Down Bronx. (Read my response to that article, too.)
In Philadelphia, the City Council also addressed a possible calorie and salt content mandate on restaurant menus.

And the ever-opportunistic, grossly-misnamed "Physician's Committee on Responsible Medicine", merely a left-wing front group for trial lawyers hellbent on robbing innocent food companies, are always begging for new "plaintiffs" so they can harass our food companies with nuisance lawsuits.
More lawsuit mania from the food fascists: At the beginning of 2006 the Centre for Science in the Public Interest --- who as I pointed out in my blog last week deserve to be broken under the RICO Act --- decided to file an outrageous lawsuit against FritoLay over alleged issues in their advertising. They have also threatened lawsuits over sodium content in everyday foods.
Such ninny-nanny neocommunists are meeting increasing resistance from Americans, however...

But such blatantly idiotic disregard to culinary and dietary freedoms are not limited to the USA either: North of the border, the province of Ontario have pushed a new prohibition on so-called "trans fats" in food served in schools.

Across the pond, British community councils have started offering five-hole salt shakers in hopes of reducing salt intake, out of an irrational fear of health problems supposedly associated with a normal salt intake. Renfrewshire have decided to bar burger and ice cream vans from within 500m (1600ft) of schools even though a number of British students, as is the case with American students, disapprove of substandard school cafeteria food.
And young Britishers' culinary and dietary freedoms are under special attack: Now, school instructors are being encouraged to commit the criminal theft of a child's lunch simply because it doesn't jibe with what the schools feel is "appropriate" --- even to the point of locking in schoolchildren at lunch for the sake of healthier eating.
Then there are the concerns of Britishers who fear draconian warning labels on dairy foods as a few activists cry for cheese to be treated as "junk food". And of course there is an all-out assault on the bacon butty, a traditional British staple featuring bacon on brown bread, similar to the BL&T.
And the medical journal The Lancet have called for a 10 percent meat diet to fight the so-called ruse of so-called "global warming", even though it does not exist and mankind has NO ability to alter the climate of the Earth whatsoever.

And such idiocy has spread across Europe too: Last year, some nutcase wrote a blog demanding the taxing of snack foods and fast food. I remember such a tax being imposed in California in 1991, and it failed miserably after only 18 months due to its inherent consistencies. Fatty foods have been targeted with extra taxation in Holland. In Norway, an adult novelties store chain were targeted with food safety authorities harassing them about the labelling on certain edible products.
The European Commission have even bullied a number of food companies like Nestlé and CocaCola into "voluntary" advertising restrictions with regard to children.

In Japan, the government have taken to bullying their people into limits for waistlines and other body parts that have driven people into dangerous dietary behaviours such as fasting, even as companies are threatened with fines for overweight staff. Meanwhile, Taiji prefecture officials have branded dolphin meat as "toxic waste". (Come on!

Where ELSE do you get mahi mahi from?!)

Down under, a Queensland Labor member who operates nine McDonalds restaurants exploded in a fury when confronted with his party's push to eliminate certain food adverts. Maybe he should switch to the more conservative-leaning Liberal Party. (Which are COMPLETELY different from the American standard for liberalism!)

And how about this for a one-world government? An idea is floating with the "International Obesity Task Force" and "Consumers International" designed to outlaw advertising for fast food and snack food all over the world. Which when you consider the one-world order already being pushed by the United Nations,
href="http://www.canada.com/topics/news/story.html?id=c0fbd593-17b7-485b-b0c5-f7cefdc7ade9" target="_blank">who have now blasted the world's overweight over their so-called "excess consumption", is rather disturbing in and of itself.

However, not all is lost: In one instance from last year, a Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals judicial panel dismissed two class action complaints targeted against Anheuser Busch and Advanced Brands and Importing regarding supposed claims of marketing alcohol to minors.
In the District of Columbia Circuit Court, the Court of Appeals decided last November to reject an appeal of the dismissal of a class action lawsuit against a number of milk sellers in the name of the lactose-intolerant.
In Georgia, a proposed shame-based approach toward children has been bravely questioned by a columnist at no less than the Atlanta Journal and Constitution.
A Mississippi legislature bill that would have allowed restaurants to deny service to fat people has met its demise.
A Hawaii bill that would have outlawed aspartame bit the dust due to lack of coherent scientific evidence.
Here is a look at a brave nutritionist exposing the lack of integrity in certain school meal projects.
This California editorial exposed a fatal flaw in menu labelling legislation.
And then there is the Personal Responsibility in Food Consumption Act, which passed the US House in 2005 but has yet to reach the Senate.
In the UK, Tesco shareholders rejected a television cook's call for "improving chicken-rearing standards" for sale in the supermarket chain's stores.
And how about this brilliant Australian newspaper column demanding that the people take guard of their culinary and dietary freedoms and watch out for jackboots hellbent on destroying them?

These and many more stories abound in our quest to enjoy, exercise, and even protect our culinary and dietary freedoms --- and certain fringe minority neoliberals' efforts to sabotage them, thinking that you don't have any sense of self-responsibility when it comes to what you eat and drink.
And we the people have no choice but to start taking a stand.
Why?
You should remember how the National Socialists eradicated people in Germany. Let us recall the words of Pastor Friedrich Gustav Emil Martin Niemöller (1892-1984):

Als die Nazis die Kommunisten holten, habe ich geschwiegen; ich war ja kein Kommunist.
Als sie die Sozialdemokraten einsperrten, habe ich geschwiegen; ich war ja kein Sozialdemokrat.
Als sie die Gewerkschafter holten, habe ich nicht protestiert; ich war ja kein Gewerkschafter.
Als sie die Juden holten, habe ich geschwiegen; ich war ja kein Jude.
Als sie mich holten, gab es keinen mehr, der protestieren konnte.

Now let's translate that from German to English:

When the Nazis came for the communists, I remained silent; I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats, I remained silent; I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists, I did not speak out; I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for the Jews, I remained silent; I wasn't a Jew.
When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out.

And there you have it: The ninny-nannies have already targeted smoking, they have already targeted drinking, they have already targeted off-road vehicles, they have already targeted large families, and now they are targeting food and drink.

What this means is the likes of food fascists like Michael Jacobson, Kelly Brownell, Marion Nestlé, Margo Wootan, and now this PETA nutcase, Alistair Currie. What a waste of a perfectly good name on an absolutely irrational and totally spiteful jerk who cannot learn to coexist with meat-eaters.
I tried vegetarianism myself three times when I was in college and never lasted more than 10 days. I must admit, it CAN be a good way to lose weight, and I was able to keep the weight off for a few years.
But that was a decision I made of my own free will. And you know what? I didn't have any more problems with the vagaries of our own individual diets.
I figured that as a meateater I could easily get along with vegetarians and vegans, and generally that has been the case. I had a couple of very good friends who were vegans, and who also helped me to understand some of the other problems in our society, including urban pollution, which has been largely eliminated due to improvements in technology, with or without legislation.
A car built today will produce LESS pollution than a car built even 10 --- let alone 20, 30, 40, 50, or even 60 --- years ago. A farm tractor can produce even less pollution than their counterparts of previous years, and emissions controls on small engines, such as those on lawn mowers and weed choppers and brush hoggers, continue to advance.
And so it is with our foods. We have seen reformulations of a number of breakfast cereals and other grain products with whole-wheat and whole-grain sources in recent years, so that it is easily possible to enjoy even more whole-grain goodness at every meal. And in the old days, whole-grain was very common indeed.
Then with advances in refrigeration, flash freezing, food preservation, and even to some point some COMMON SENSE food regulations --- namely the establishment of food safety regulations --- we began seeing yet even safer and safer foods. And we even saw the growth of families fostering the increases in sizes of some packages, like hot dogs and hot dog buns.
And people appeared a lot happier back then.
Now I am not saying let's go back to the '50s when as Michael Savage says "the chrome was thick and the women were straight"; I am sure that even our homosexual neighbours could stand a lot less haranguing from the food fascists. Because guess what, Todd and Paul, Marion Nestlé and Michael Jacobson and Kelly Brownell ALSO want to crap all over your choices in the foods you eat, just like they want to crap all over the food choices of the typical Tim and Faith, the typical George and Laura, the typical Jermaine and Latasha, the typical Eduardo and Pilar, the typical Wolfgang and Heidi, the typical Sergio and Gioia, the typical Shlomo and Golda, and EVERYBODY ELSE THAT LIVES IN OUR GREAT REPUBLIC!
You want to see AMERICAN schools stealing snacks from children? IT'S ALREADY HERE.

And NOW is the time to start taking stock of the people whom we put into elected office.
That means find out where people stand on culinary and dietary freedoms --- and if they disfavour your right to eat whatever you want, then start removing them from office. Start electing politicians who truly care about our culinary and dietary freedoms, who will work to keep the likes of the Centre for Science in the Public Interest and all the animal rights jackboots (NOT TO BE confused with folks GENUINELY concerned about animal rights, who do NOT engage in violence). PETA members were known to throw blood on people who wear fur.
I myself accepted the notion that fur is unnecessary, in fact, in one instance in high school, I recall leaving a note for a girl wearing a rabbit skin coat that read, Cruelty Without Beauty, in the vein of Morrissey's video, Every day is like Sunday, I enjoyed Jane Wiedlin's album, Fur, and its title track, with its catchy chorus:

No I don't wear fur, I won't do it, fur is for fools, I'm too cool...

That said, I NEVER believed that wanton violence, like throwing blood or smashing fur shops, was EVER the answer.
God forbid that the ninny-nannies like Mr Brownell and Mr Jacobson and Ms Nestlé start encouraging people to smash out the front windows of their local Maccas and Burger Kings and Hardees and Braums and Arbys and Sonics and Jack In The Boxes and Del Tacos and White Castles and Lions Choices. Then the managers of those stores NEED to start keeping loaded shotguns on the premises. (They will ALSO come in handy when a prospective robber comes calling.)
Yeh. That's right.
If a restaurant manager has to shoot one of those ninny-nanny nutcases to the floor in defence of his business and paramedics cannot save the punk who was trying to bust out the front windows of the restaurant, so be it. It's all worth it to send a loud and clear message to those criminals and tyrants: We ARE going to eat whatever we want, whenever we want, however we want, wherever we want, and if you don't like it, get out of the United States of America and stay out.
The plain and simple is people are FED UP of being told what they can and cannot eat. We are under enough stress as it is, dieting and exercising ourselves to death, or at least to the point of obtaining unhealthy body images.
But I am NOT advocating we should firebomb the headquarters Centre for Science in the Public Interest. That is why we have a legal system. Let's get after Michael Mukasey or some other competent attorney general, and at least a few brave US Attorneys as well, to start investigating the likes of the CSPI, PETA, the patently anti-meat Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, and even the Sierra Club under the Racketeer and Influence Corrupt Organisation (RICO) Act.
That is because every time the ninny-nannies bully another food company, they are committing a violation of Section 1951. Sad to say the RICO Act is a horribly underused yet very versatile and powerful tool that needs to be used.
Understandably John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzales shied away from that if only to avert the abuses of Janet Reno under the Clinton anointistration. Fair enough. But this is getting to a fevered pitch. Would Ronald Reagan have tolerated such an attack on culinary and dietary freedoms?
HELL NO!
He would have shut the CSPI gang, the PCRM gang, and other anti-freedom outfits under the RICO Act --- and bust them hard. Edwin Meese would have had no problem with locking some asses behind bars.
Getting just one of those gangs shut down under RICO would discourage other likeminded gangs from tempting the law, knowing full well that they would be investigated.
Then maybe we would FINALLY get left the hell alone.
What animal rights advocates should do is be careful with your approach. Exalt the benefits of vegetarianism and even veganism if you must, but do it in a way that doesn't turn off your audience.
And as for Jessica Simpson, she has made significant contributions to pop culture, contemporary music, and society. What the hell have YOU contributed, BESIDES irrational hatred and propaganda?
And this is especially for YOU, Alistair Currie: Jessica Simpson has more than earned her right to eat whatever she damn well pleases, so for Christ's sakes, LEAVE JESSICA SIMPSON ALONE!

SOME WISDOM I LEARNT FROM OLD DRIVERS EDUCATION FILMS

Whilst I was away from MySpace during all of 2007 I had my experience with a number of videos online, both as a member of YouTube and in exploring some other sites, like SpikeTV and the Internet Archives.
And in particular, I would like to note some interesting classic drivers education films from the 1950s and 1960s.

Take for instance, the film that kickstarted the whole genre back in 1959, Signal 30, which was produced by the Highway Safety Foundation, started by a travelling Ohio accountant named Richard Wayman, who was also a law enforcement supporter and avid photographer, when he encountered a fatal collision during a 1954 business trip.
During the decade, Mr Wayman and a number of associates, starting with Phyllis Vaughan, crusaded with their photography of a number of motorcrashes appearing in regional media throughout northern Ohio, including a 27 May 1956 article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer Sunday Magazine.
All eyes turned upon Mansfield --- Mr Wayman's hometown --- when on 16 October 1959 Mr Wayman and company presented a print of Signal 30, which took its name from an Ohio police code for a fatal accident, to the Ohio State Highway Patrol. This film, which for the purposes of this article appears in two parts, click here, and then click here, contained graphic footage of motorcrashes, most of them involving some sort of fatality, with a number of the still-living victims moaning and crying in pain. One vivid example shows a young woman forced to accept the fact that she by driving badly caused a motorcrash that killed her mother whose painful crying was heard in the film, with the dour voiceover of the male announcer advising, "The woman whose crying you are hearing died a few hours later from her injuries." The dreary tone of the music accompanied the dire consequences showcased in the collisions featured in the film, this on top of the soundtrack of the film beginning with tyres screeching, crashing metal and glass, and then the opening scenes of a fatal collision, mangled automobiles wrapped around trees, people thrust into steering columns and through windscreens and out of doors in horrifically askew positions.
One must-see feature is the interview an Ohio trooper had with a widow of a collision victim who had had to correct her late husband's speeding quite often and would then have to go to work soon to support their children.
Millions of young American drivers were educated with the stark consequences of irresponsible driving on display such that they resolved not to turn up like those corpse-like and injured (and in one case charred), though a number of them were driven to tears, sickness, vomiting, fainting, and shock. Call it a "Scared Straight" '50s/'60s style for teens wanting to become drivers.
Myself, I wish like hell I could have watched this film when I was taking drivers education in high school myself. As horrifying as it would appear, it would have motivated me to become a yet even better driver.
And that was just the beginning for Highway Safety Films. In 1961 another brutally honest drivers education film, Mechanised Death, started reaching the youth of America, with roughly the same results and techniques. The film opened with a woman practically spewing her own lung all over, and another scene from the film shows a baby bottle wedged in the door --- with a baby found under the car itself.
Then came the 1963 classic, Wheels Of Tragedy, which featured not only a number of the same collisions, but also a fatalistic driver disregarding his passenger's warnings about speed and tiredness. There is even a scene of an accident victim who is basically in a coma.

The films with rough content mixed with important message about personal responsibility continued into 1966 with the film The Third Killer, illustrating how motorcrashes had become one of the leading causes of death in American society, followed by a 1969 film, Highways of Agony.
And the truckers were not spared either: In 1965 the film Carrier Or Killer was released, and a Mansfield policeman who would later become chief of police even urged Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa to buy copies for the truckers in his labour union.

But not all of the Highway Safety Foundation's offerings were blood-and-gore hard knocks lessons about drivers safety, however. Some of them were otherwise helpful to law enforcement, like The Child Molester, a 1964 film that focused upon the 1962 kidnap-murders of two local girls. Then there was A Great And Honourable Duty (1965) which extolled the virtues of careers in law enforcement. The Paperhangers followed the next year to advise people about how to deal with con artists who write forged cheques. There was even a 1968 film about drivers education that did NOT feature blood and gore, A Matter Of Judgment.

Their work began to really pay off when in the early 1970s a number of celebrities, key amongst them Sammy Davis Jr, got involved in the efforts, even hosting a 24-hour highway safety telethon in 1973. Though their efforts would later collapse and then become a part of the State of Ohio, as a part of the Ohio public safety authority, the Highway Safety Foundation would leave a positive impact upon drivers --- and other members of society as well --- by bringing about better drivers, better policemen, better merchants, and higher levels of honesty and respectable behaviour.

And the Highway Safety Foundation were not alone with these films either: Witness the powerful impact of Anatomy of an Accident, a 1961 film depicting the horrific death of a father and slow painful death of a son in a head-on collision, leaving a grieving mother and daughter to deal with the aftermath.
In 1971 "The Suicide Club" released a rather gory but very useful film, Death On The Highway, in the same vein as that of the Highway Safety Foundation, with more still shots and more gruesome footage of mutilated, decapitated, charred, and otherwise mangled collision casualties. Of special note, some of those stills were painted with red paint for a garish accent on the bloodied condemned.
And then there is the classic Red Asphalt series from the California Highway Patrol. Starting in 1964 millions of California and other drivers education students got to see the same sorts of graphic images depicted in the Highway Safety Foundation films in Ohio.
The Bottle And The Throttle, vintage 1961, takes place in the Los Angeles suburb of Culver City and features a reference to the driver who strikes a little girl and her mother crossing the street having a blood alcohol content of 0,08 percent, with a then-current legal limit of 0,15 percent. We all recall how the BAC under the law was 0,10 percent, but 0,15 percent?! Today, that driver would be arrested, and probably facing even more serious charges, like homicide or even murder.
In 1992 a San Luis Obispo County prosecutor successfully obtained a murder conviction for a drink driver who caused the death of four-year-old Ashley Harris --- yet the local chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Drivers REJECTED her grieving mother!

Even the kids got in on the act: The film, One Got Fat (Interlude Films, 1963), showcases a number of children riding a short distance to the park displaying a number of faults regarding young bicyclists, lessons that definitely need to be learnt even today. The film features some macabre moments and grotesque monkey masks.

And yet the prevailing politically correct attitude today in a number of public schools, is, We don't want the children to be scared off from driving, so many changes have happened in so many cars between now and then.

Guess what folks? Right there is a sign of denial of the problem. Indeed, seatbelt usage is now mandatory in practically every state in the nation. Indeed, a number of metal components like unforgiving steel dashboards have given way to plastic and composite parts that collapse for the purpose of improved safety, along with airbags becoming increasingly commonplace, even in side panels.

That said, there is still a lot of wisdom in those old films, that we need to learn from. We need to understand the consequences of our irresponsible ways behind the wheel, because that is a two or three metric tonne weapon you are getting behind the wheel of, with the added force of a number of kilómetros per hour, leaving a Newton-metro force that can cripple or kill. And you stand to become a killer if you do not exercise due caution. That was the basic lesson of those old films.

But as with so many things that were once held as sacrosanct, personal responsibility appears to have left the milieu of academia. Nowadays we endure dangerous professors who want to kill White people, we endure hazardous secondary school instructors who seek to encourage terrorists to bomb the United States, we endure perilous intermediate school instructors who indoctrinate children with radical leftist propaganda, we even force horrific environazi lies upon primary school children, yet we won't teach budding drivers the necessary concepts behind responsible driving.

Why?

Because we are afraid we'll have to call in the custodian to clean up three gallons of vomit off the damn floor? Because four kids were left crying about that film when they had to watch it at an assembly over at Poly High in Manchester? Because we are afraid to scare them out of driving?
Telling the young drivers the plain and simple truth about the importance of responsible driving MEANS you show them the consequences of irresponsible driving. Who in the HELL wants to wind up getting his or her ass scraped off the bloody bitumen after sustaining 200 to 400 metric tonnes of impact in a collision on a motorway at 100 kilómetros an hour?!

These old drivers education films provided some older drivers (maybe including some of you folks reading this article) something that many young drivers-to-be are missing right now in drivers education if not in the rest of their education in general. It's called a healthy dose of wake-the-bloody-hell-up-and-smell-the-awful-reality.

Such films have become the subject of a documentary film called Hell's Highway which has been available for several years on DVD. And now you can find a number of these old films on specialty sites targeted toward drivers education.
Maybe your local public schools will consider them too. And don't let the prevalence of blood-and-guts video games and movies and TV shows fool you: You just might wake someone up to the real impact of seeing a dead body being prised out of a tree all night and make them think...What if it were to happen to me?

And then it hits them...How do I prevent this? It makes them pay better attention to their drivers education. It makes them pay better attention to their driving during drivers training. It makes them pay better attention behind the wheel on their own.
And I don't think that kids are learning these things soon enough. We could make drivers education a MANDATORY course in the EIGHTH grade, make drivers training MANDATORY for ALL high school freshmen (EXCEPT those without the vision to do so; but even 20/100 eyesight can be corrected with the correct lenses), and issue full licences to 15-year-olds, and have very few if any problems whatsoever.
The key is the technique, coupled with a constant reminder of what their 50-to-70kg bodies and young minds will have to understand when piloting a two-metric-tonne motor vehicle capable of 130 kilómetros an hour or more, and the lethal force it often contains, that will provide suitable education for the students who seek to drive.
No I am not suggesting turning back the clock to 1963. But I am suggesting that we can do better when it comes to drivers education. We can keep the tried and true lessons with the new updated lessons addressing the realities of modern technology.
But that technology gets one only so far. Personal responsibility is the MOST important thing to carry with oneself behind the wheel --- so the driver doesn't wind up just another "Signal 30."

THE LOOMING IRANIAN THREAT: A TICKING TIMEBOMB IN TEHRAN

Within the past three years we have learnt a lot about the vengefully irrational partisan and religious hatred that Iranian dictator Makhmud Ahmadinejad has exercised against Israel.
Mr Ahmadinejad has a major league problem with coexisting with a sovereign republic that treat their Muslims INFINITELY BETTER than his country treat THEIR Jews!

Let us examine some of the incriminating evidence against Mr Ahmadinejad:

In April 2006 Ahmadinejad announced plans to contribute US$50m to fund the terrorist-riddled Palestinian Authority after Western nations withdrew aid in the wake of the terror group Hamas winning elections held in that part of Israel three months earlier. His foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki announced Iran's determination to help the Israeli Arabs.
In December 2005 Ahmadinejad dismissed the reality of the Holocaust of Nazi Germany as a myth, suggesting the relocation of Israel to Canada, Alaska, the United States, or Europe.
In October 2005 Ahmadinejad claimed that all hurdles for Iranian nuclear development had been cleared --- and that no power could stop him.
In May 2007 Iran were reportedly within three years of a nuclear bomb.
And the crown jewels of the lot: Not only has Ahmadinejad called for "wiping Israel off the map" --- he has even made the same threat against the United States too!
Near the end of June 2007, National Intelligence Director Admiral Michael McConnell exposed a clear pattern of Iran supporting Iraqi terrorists attacking Coalition forces with roadside and other homicide bombs.
A January 2007 Karbala attack by Shia Muslims who as it turned out were trained by the Quds Forces.
In November 2007 it was discovered that Iranian chemical and biological weapons, under even greater secrecy than their nuclear programme, could deliver their dangerous toxic payloads to Iraq, Israel, and even the United States.
In February Iran announced the launch of a "research rocket" that was launched from what turns out to be a missile development site where missiles capable of striking targets 6000 kilómetros away were under development.
In April Iran announced the installation of 6000 nuclear centrifuges, thus trebling their uranium enrichment capacity.
A suspicious report about Iran's nuclear capabilities was found to have been crafted by former State Department officials instead of senior United States intelligence intelligentsia. And Iranian officials have condemned the independent media news website NewsMax and condemned Israel/Syria talks.

Ahmadinejad is not alone, either, as we will find. Take for instance Hashemi Rafsanjani, who served as president from 1989 to 1997, affirming that Hitler SAVED EUROPE!

And other nations have obviously noticed, too: On 17 September 2007 French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner advised that a nuclear Iran would be a grave danger to the world. In fact some of the American Embassy hostages held in captivity for more than 14 months even claimed Ahmadinejad was one of their captors!
When Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert visited France in October 2007 newly-elected president Nicholas Sarkozy concurred with Olmert about the need to stop Iranian nuclear aspirations.
Last fall, Bahranian Crown Prince Prince Salman BinHamad BinIsa AlKhalifa became the first Arab leader to lodge a claim about Iran developing nuclear weapons.
Israel in fact expressed a fact contrary to CIA sentiment, that Iran are still continuing their nuclear programme...though Iranian defectors have been known to provide crucial information about nuclear programmes.

Our own president, George Walker Bush, warned of war with Iran last October, citing the need to prevent Iran from having necessary knowledge for arms construction. At the same time, Iraqi Military Commander General David Petraeus lodged an accusation against the Iranian ambassador to Iraq being allied with the terrorist gang called the Quds force. Subsequently the United States Government levied new sanctions against Iran. Zogby would confirm growing American sentiment favouring strikes on Iran shortly afterward.
Even Dennis Ross, a Middle Eastern peace process developer, has warned of a nuclear Iran.
Is it any wonder the US State Department have called Iran the world's most active state sponsor of terrorism? Defence Secretary Robert Gates has warned about Iran's dogged determination to get nuclear arms!

A treasonous university president in New York City refused to rescind the invitation for Ahmadinejad to speak --- and consequently a number of Jewish groups urged mass protests in New York but were subsequently disappointed at the low turnout for such protests.

One brave former Embassy hostage, however, questioned the logic in letting someone speak freely on American soil when he does not afford his own people that same freedom.
And Illinois Democrat Senator and Presidential Candidate Barack Obama has called for talks with Iran even as he claims support for Israel, thus raising a number of doubts about where his true allegiances lie.
On the other hand, a number of pundits have assembled their own strategies against Iran --- such as this brave columnist from TownHall.com explaining how to defeat Ahmadinejad, or a great well-known married couple calling for New York's disinvestment from Iran.

And now reports have streamed in that as Iran prepare to attack Israel's nuclear heart, Israel are preparing a pre-emptive strike against Iran --- something that Vice President Richard Bruce Cheney had already considered asking for at the same time Ahmadinejad rejected talks about Iranian nuclear capabilities and millions of his countrymen rallied against Israel. A subsequent assessment by Iran's Judiciary Ayatollah claimed a global referendum against Israel's supposed "illegitimacy" as the capital Tehran's provisional "Prayers Leader" demanded "continued resistance against Israel and the United States". Yet Iranian emissaries have met with Iranian exiles in Europe and America to deliver a controversial message about the Iranian people supporting swift, decisive strikes to the Ahmadinejad regime.How close are we to seeing Iran facing war with Israel and/or the United States? The idea of an American bombing campaign has been floated before. And Iran clearly have no desire for another hawk in the Oval Office. In fact, just three months ago, Jewish sources made it abundantly clear that military strikes were increasingly likely.Tough beans, Mr Ahmadinejad, you had it coming from the moment you started spewing your anti-Semitic, anti-American horse manure. And if Bush doesn't stop you --- either Macca, Olmert, or even Netanyahu surely will.
We are facing an ever more precarious situation in the Middle East where we will have fewer and fewer options. Hemming and hawing over the process needlessly will produce greater risk, will perpetuate danger in the Middle East, and will place us in a number of terror threats.
Iran are clearly emboldened by our current efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, wishing for us to get out of those areas because they have expressed a desire to fill a supposed power vacuum we would supposedly leave.
But this is NOT the time to remain soft. Consider this: We have a number of advanced methods of weaponry we are currently not using against the Taleban in Afghanistan or the likes of AlQaeda and other terror gangs in Iraq. We could easily use some of those methods to take out Iranian military, nuclear, and administrative centres, thus delivering serious neural injury to the Iranian regime promoting totalitarianism in the name of a perverted and radicalised form of Islam.
The Iranian people are yearning for freedom. And maybe it will be only one of the US or Israel...or maybe it will be both simultaneously. Though the idea of both might appear to alienate most Arab nations --- in reality a number of the neighbours of Iran and even Iraq when they were dictated by the late Hussein have had their suspicions and grievances. Some might call it just jealousy, but more enlightened minds see a potential for real peace if Iran are neutralised. Iraq are already on their way to developing into a full-fledged republic rooted in direct democracy like Israel, having held several elections. Hope for Iran still abounds.
But then again, we cannot be sure how this one turns out.

CURRENTLY LISTENING TO:

Sweet Sensation
2-CD Set (Take it while it's hot, Love child)

SATURDAY MORNING POST EDITION 104 FOR 28.06.08

2008-10-11T05:42:00.000-07:00

THE BRASS LINE ON THE FLOOR

I never realised just how important that that two-inch band of brass running across the factory floor really was to the establishment of that particular factory.
Just inches away on either side of the band are two plaques, one marked OKLAHOMA, with faded light blue paint, and MISSOURI on the other side of the band.
But when I read the article in the breakroom earlier this week I learnt an interesting lesson about how regulations used to be in the past.
It turns out that this old plant, built in the late 1940s along what once was US60, and today is Business US60, had had two different sets of operations in place, because of existing state laws that forbade the sale of tinned milk in a state other than where it was produced. Those laws were long since repealed and now larger operations covering more states can be rolled out at that facility.
Now I should point out why I was working a temporary assignment down at a tinned milk plant on the state line near Seneca, Missouri this past week. This past week, there were no inventories, in part due to the runup to Independence Day, which is next week. And I was still playing catchup with my bills.
I had just had to make two withdrawals en route from St Louis County to Springfield so I could pay my car insurance bill...via Express Mail. Then I had to make a withdrawal on Saturday to cover the phone bill. Now that left me precious little for rent, and so I made the call to a temporary employment service I have been aligned with for most of the past seven years.
It was about 8.00 or 9.00a or something like that and I was having trouble sleeping later. Therefore I found the need to do something constructive. With one week already gone in the current pay period, I found that extra work was a must. At 10.00a I got the call.
Within the next hour I had eaten, taken a shower, driven to the office, gotten instructions, filled out a safety awareness form, and started driving down to Seneca. Blasting an Exposé CD --- I guess maybe I AM predictable that way --- I would find myself at the factory shortly after 11.00a. It was time to pull weeds and grass, then sweeping gravel into potholes that had formed.
I joined someone who had also come in from Joplin, and we talked about music and current affairs. He did show some different views but then again even I had a different take on this...and then there was more work ahead.
The 96-degree heat was definitely not the most comfortable but we got quite a lot done outside that day.
Tuesday was a day when I came better prepared with tea and Powerade, in addition to salami-on-rye sandwiches and tortilla chips. There was more filling of potholes with dirt and gravel shovelled off the streetside car park. Then I was one of three temps sweeping up, scraping out grass, and swabbing down the algae off of some outdoor storage tanks. Along the way I discovered refrigerant-filled pipes which held a thin coat of ice in the near-100-degree heat, and we all noticed how cool it was. Then a milk truck drove in from Minnesota to receive cream for use in making butter, and I walked alongside that noticing how the mirror finish of the caravan had the distortion effect of a circus mirror. I tried just a small taste of that cream and noticed it lacked all flavour.
Wednesday was rather hot outside, getting more cleanup done along the side of the warehouse across the Oklahoma line --- I was past the Welcome to Oklahoma Native America sign, shovelling out dirt accumulated in the trench, as there was a corporate audit coming right after Independence Day. But at about 9.00a I was moved indoors and wound up cleaning up a number of parts and pieces out of an upstairs storage area in the shop. It was hot and sticky work...and ultimately I needed a fan up there, and then I discovered some of the reason for those pipes being so cold: anhydrous ammonia tanks were in place, with some pipes and connectors covered with a thick coat of ice, sometimes up to one inch thick. It felt great to stick my forehead or even temple against the side of that...and I brought lots of iced tea with the Gatorade...
On Thursday I cleaned up another storage area, taking the whole day to clear out some packages dating back to the 1960s, a few never opened. It took the whole day but everything would wind up in order.
Finally I made it to the production floor on Friday, stacking cases of five-ounce milk tins onto pallets. I saw quite a few pallet changes and continued until I stepped aside for a Gatorade break then came back to find production was done for the day.
After work I went across the street to a liquor store that was also the site of a Bud Girls appearance as Anheuser Busch representaqtive presided over a Bud Light Lime tasting session. I wound up drinking the equivalent of a shot glass of beer. One of the lovely ladies offered more but I indicated I was content with that. I could definitely taste the lime, it appears to be OK, even though Bud anything is not on my hot list. Right after that I walked out, drove back, using the cruise control, with Herman Cain's admonition, Use The Cruise, ringing in my head from his guest appearance on Neal Boortz' radio show on Monday.
That's one thing that I like about the Chevrolet that I drive, that I miss in my Ford pickup. But that will likely be added at some point later this year. Right now I must focus on fixing the Chevrolet's left front tie rod and then getting the rest of the process completed on the paperwork for the Ford. Of course now the Ford pickup has a great new Sony stereo, which I am seriously contemplating for the car whose CD player sometimes skips the first track or so...
But that brass line in the floor showed me some of the important things in life, such as appreciation for more normal work conditions that I am accustomed to. I know I will appreciate my regular job even more when I go back to it after Independence Day which is next Friday (04_07_2008).

FREEDOM REAFFIRMED --- WITH A BANG

You have no doubt heard the glorious news about the Supreme Court ruling that reaffirmed what our founding fathers had already declared more than two centuries ago about gun owners' rights.
But the 5:4 ruling that set in stone for all time the individual right to own, keep, bear, and carry a firearm by eliminating the unconstitutional and contrarian Washington DC handgun ban of 1976 made it abundantly clear that a city that engage in such a ban have no respect for the constitutionally-protected civil rights of the individual.
But how can such a historic declaration be applicable to the present time?

It's actually very simple...

When the right to keep and bear arms was written into the United States Constitution as one of the first ten amendments known as the Bill of Rights we were rather fresh off our War for Independence. The idea of arming oneself in order to prevent another tyranny like the one that we had had to fight off just a few short years earlier prevailed in the minds of our founding fathers.
And though it was fairly common for people to own muskets back in those times --- there were even colonial laws as well as state laws at that time that mandated that people travelling carry sufficient ammunition and armament --- it was not intended that the Second Amendment merely protect people's ability to hunt, as a number of (usually) Democrat politicians falsely claim that it was designed for.
Instead, the Second Amendment protects us because we the people have the right to strip government of their powers, by armed force if necessary, because the government perform their activities only by consent of the governed --- we the people.
However, recent activities in the courts across the United States make us wonder if either we have lost our mettle to defend ourselves from freedom, out of fear of violating the law, or maybe we have lost our will to fight back against the powers that be.

The Founding Fathers would clearly not have accepted last month's ruling in the mislocated California Supreme Court that allowed same sex marriage; to the contrary they --- or even Americans living 50 years ago for that matter --- would not have stood for such judicial activism. No, they would have ridden down to the Courthouse, bearing muskets and gunpowder, and they would have exterminated at the very least the corruptors of the law who usurped power from the people in a fashion contrary to the Tenth Amendment.
And other citizens would have followed suit, as the actions of the judicial tyrants would be met rather violently, a useful and genuinely angry mob who would have the express mission of eliminating the threat to their freedom.
Nor would they have tolerated the SCOTUS ruling from the day before the ruling on Washington's handgun ban, in which the death penalty for child rapists was dumped --- a ruling that to his credit even Illinois Senator and Democrat Presidential Candidate Barack Obama condemned, because he thought that the Louisiana death penalty law for child rapists was clearly constructed enough to meet his satisfaction.
And they definitely would NOT have tolerated an activist federal judge's ruling against an Oklahoma law that was designed to prevent illegal aliens from obtaining jobs in the underground economy for the sake of avoiding income taxes. With the growing mood amongst growing majorities of Whites, Blacks, Asians, Native Americans (INCLUDING THIS Native American blogger --- my great-grandmother was of Cherokee extraction), and Hispanics (INCLUDING THIS Hispanic blogger --- I have BOTH of those ancestries) being to put the brakes on illegal immigration --- the law made perfect sense and the Founding Fathers would have approved of the law, condemned the ruling, and met this activist judge with muskets and gunpowder.
They surely would not have tolerated the 12 June ruling that gave terrorists constitutional rights either: Justice Anthoney Kennedy and Ruth Ginsburg would be on the short list to face the founders' wrath, muskets, and gunpowder as well for endangering the American public.

But today's legal professionals have gravely distorted the meaning of the law, as they seek to attack every tenet of American tradition, from marriage to the backyard barbecue. They seek to promote a more totalitarian methodology and do not believe in traditional laws like the Second Amendment, yet they believe in "discovering" special rights for (usually) fringe minorities, criminals, and/or terrorists. And as a result we see our children coming out of public schools grossly disinformed, facing the real world with little if any understanding about the rich traditions and history of our great republic.
There was a time when such a mindset would have been acceptable, such as Brown V Board Of Education Of Topeka Kansas in 1954, or the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965 --- the last two of which were achieved under Democrat President Lyndon Johnson but required the votes of Republican Senators and House Representatives to pass. Of interesting note: One Democrat Senator who did NOT vote for either Civil Rights Act was the father of a recent former Vice President --- a Tennessee man named Albert Arnold Gore, Senior.
That time has passed but unfortunately the mentality still remains. And those people who are still pushing this mentality of "change" for the sake of stealing what little power we have left --- INCLUDING the supporters of the aforementioned Senator Obama --- have failed to move forward with the times. The 2000s are NOT the 1960s nor the 1970s, folks. We are facing greater and greater threats like never before. We have political organisations that organise on the fly for the express purpose of stealing power from we the people, simply because we would refuse to ignore a certain never-elected media puppet excuse for a President's genuine scandals. We have outfits that would sooner sepulchre us than respect us because we don't share their point of view.

How far are we from the next violent American revolt? My sense is we are not that far away, folks. I am clearly NOT advocating that people take up arms and shoot their local judge over a bad ruling in the local news. Most judges are fair and decent individuals. It is the very very few that give the rest a very bad reputation indeed. You know, the folks who push homosexual marriage, infanticide, appeasement of terrorists, appeasement of illegal aliens, and the forcible indoctrination of radicalised concepts like global warming and evolution down the populace's collective gullets --- even when we the people vote in large majorities to the contrary.
And what if someone snaps, and takes up arms, and exercises the following words of President Thomas Jefferson?:

"God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion.
The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is
wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts
they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions,
it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. ...
And what country can preserve its liberties, if it's rulers are not
warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of
resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as
to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost
in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from
time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
It is its natural manure."

And I have a feeling that such a person may not be alone: Other brave Americans may find themselves with little choice but to join --- and to get back to fighting for freedom --- literally.
And though it may wind up rather violent for a short time, it will be the legacy of Jefferson living on, much as it will be the legacy of the Second Amendment living on.
But judicial tyranny is NOT the only possible venue for such a revolt: Take for instance the current push by Nancy Pelosi to block the Broadcaster Freedom Act from reaching the floor of the House so she can force the failed Fairness Doctrine down our gullets once again.
You can bet the world that our Founding Fathers would NEVER have accepted the Fairness Doctrine either: They would have ridden into town in 1949 and met the Federal Communications Commission with their own distaste in such fashion that at the very least the Commission would have been begging for their lives and promising to scrap the Fairness Doctrine.

Suffice it to say, the Second Amendment is not merely a way for hunters to remain legal, nor even a way to defend ourselves from a criminal, like a carjacker or a home invasion robber. It has an even greater design: there IS a reason some folks regard the Second Amendment as the "defender of the rest". And the close margin of victory for the American people --- 5:4 --- is even more critical than ever as a reason for you to get up and vote, to go out and exercise your freedoms, to stand up for what is right.
For once the SCOTUS get it right.
Let freedom ring!

THE MEDIA'S CONGRESS ATTACK TALK RADIO --- AND PEOPLE ARE FIGHTING BACK

In recent months a number of Democratic House and Senate leaders, as well as an Independent Senator who, with socialist views, tends to poll with the Dems, have called for the reimposition of an insidious form of censorship that would stifle the development of radio.
This form of censorship was imposed upon broadcasters from 1949 to 1987 but was repealed when it was found to have constrained open political discourse.

Enter the so-called 'Fairness' Doctrine.

Initially introduced by US House Representative Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) in January as a means of "reforming" the media and forcibly instilling "balance", simply because people like him have failed in talk radio.

You may recall that Air America Radio --- a patently left-wing radio network whose commentators were more often than not loaded with irrational partisan hatred --- had a similar message that could already be heard in the following outlets:

* ABC News
* CBS News
* Cable News Network
* CNBC
* MSNBC
* NBC News
* National Public Radio
* Public Broadcast Service
* Associated Press
* Most major newspapers like the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Atlanta Journal and Constitution, the St Louis Post-Dispatch, and the Washington Post
* Most major news magazines like Time, Newsweek, and US News & World Report

And in the end the network wound up losing so much money, at least in part because they PAID stations to carry their material, that they have since entered receivership and are trying to recover.

And word is that Communist organisations like Communist Party USA (which was heavily funded by the Soviet Union), the Maoist-influenced Revolutionary Communist Party, and World Can't Wait are all complicit in the efforts to censor the airwaves.

Representative Hinchey --- joined by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, an Independent who has left-of-centre views --- have been supported in their efforts by patently anti-American left-of-centre billionaire George Soros, who has financed a number of left-leaning groups like the Massachusetts-based "Free Press" and other mellifluous-sounding front groups in effort to undermine freedom of speech and maybe even American society as a whole. Soros has also funded organisations dedicated to decriminalising dangerous illegal drugs, even to the point of sending security guards to attack those who protest his methods at public exhibitions.

And whilst the controlled media have been ignoring his numerous and ethical violations in his quest to steal power from and even censor the American people --- they have habitually mongered hatred toward independent media outlets like talk radio and internet-based news sites like NewsMax and WorldNetDaily and even bloggers, and even Fox News (which like MySpace, is a part of NewsCorp, albeit in a different division) as well, all because they have found ways to report the news without injecting their left-of-centre political biases and spin into the news.

They have also attacked the military, enforcement of immigration policy, business, and even innocent people like the Duke lacrosse players falsely accused of rape, not to mention overexaggerating social problems like homelessness, and even demonised religious conservatives.

Another leftist group, the so-called Centre for American Progress, have bemoaned the dominance of conservatives in talk radio by calling it "structural imbalance" in a fake report.

Now, the conservatives are fighting back, not only by contacting their Congressional representatives, but also by introducing, then passing, a bill that would prohibit the reimposition of the "Fairness" Doctrine without an Act of Congress.

The National Association of Broadcasters' CEO and president, David Rehr, has himself condemned the "Fairness Doctrine", citing the numbers of media outlets available today, with more than 13 000 radio stations, more than 1 700 television stations, and a myriad of websites with visual, video, and audio outlets catering to basically any viewpoint in America.

One needs to remember that with the Left --- especially in the editorial desks --- openly promoting a more neoliberal viewpoint that condemns America, condemns conservatism, and condemns freedom --- the marketplace has opened with the advent of myriad cable and satellite channels, including more television news sources, the growth of real talk radio, and the growth of internet-based news sites --- thus leading to the successes of folks like Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Neal Boortz.

And that is the basic rule of the marketplace: You MUST be able to deliver a product the people actually want. With the liberal media dominating print and television news, millions of Americans have chosen to go with real talk radio; Air America Radio failed precisely because the audiences decided that they did not want to hear the same thing that they could easily see on no fewer than six television news channels, read in most major newspapers, or read in most major news magazines.

But because the Left have failed to attract an audience they seek to force-feed their message to the general public, most of whom have determined that they do not want that type of agenda embedded in their news coverage.

And ironically one of their own hosts has been badly burnt at least in part by another controversial talk radio host who aggressively shut down a rival: Al Sharpton, who himself hosts a show carried on 21 stations, led a campaign to bust Don Imus off CBS Radio and MSNBC over his controversial derogatory remarks about the Rutgers University women's basketball team.

Whilst Imus himself did a lot of damage to his career and his credibility --- he willingly apologised publicly and again to the Rutgers team --- incidentally on the same night New Jersey Democratic Governor John Corzine was injured in a wreck caused by a speeding state trooper who crashed the SUV through a guardrail at 91 miles an hour and Corzine was not wearing his seat belt.

But inasmuch damage as he did to himself with his racist comments --- Imus also apologised, and after he was basically driven off the air by racists like Al Sharpton (who has openly condemned Whites and may have contributed to the deaths of several Hispanic employees of a neighbourhood clothing store that burnt in the late 1980s) and Jesse Jackson (who is infamous for his anti-Semitic remarks) --- he even saw fit to file a lawsuit against CBS for breach of contract.

Sharpton was further aided and abetted in his efforts by a rather left-leaning group, Media Matters for America, who not only attempted to have Rush Limbaugh removed from Armed Forces Radio but are funded by Soros as well.

Was the Don Imus affair a dry run to make a charge against the ever-dominant talk radio host Rush Limbaugh? One county government in Florida did consider withdrawing their association with a Miami-area talk radio station because the station carry his show.

And now Senators are debating the matter, just after the House passed the Broadcast Freedom Act. Maybe you too could get involved in this effort, as the reality is people from both the left AND the right regularly get their points heard on real talk radio. Here is a site that will help you get started on that.

And if we don't start standing up to the censors who would want to silence real talk radio right now, there is no question that a onesided media would be forced upon the populace --- and then the next step would be forcible viewing and/or listening of the same onesided media --- and then other outlets would soon wind up under government censorship diktats.

Whether or not you agree with Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity and Michael Savage and Neal Boortz and Glenn Beck and Bill Bennett, you have got to admit that the reimposition of the "Fairness" Doctrine would interfere with your freedom of speech, not to mention your freedom of choice in how you get news, information, and commentary, not to mention even entertainment.

YOU MAKE THE CALL:
SHOULD THE CENTRE FOR SCIENCE IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST BE SHUT DOWN UNDER THE RACKETEER AND INFLUENCE CORRUPT ORGANISATION (RICO) ACT?

The answer to that is an emphatic HELL YEAH!...and I will tell you why.

But first you might want to review the Racketeer and Influence Corrupt Organisation Act. Here is a look at the full text of that law which was passed in 1970 to put the clampdown on organised crime activity specifically with regard to labour unions.

We now take a close look at the Centre for Science in the Public Interest.

Founded in 1971 by known left-of-centre agitator Michael Jacobson, who was forced to keep the coffee machine in the office after a number of employees threatened to mutiny by walking out, the CSPI have basically adopted a basic ideology that you cannot be trusted to make responsible choices for your own alimentary, culinary, and dietary needs.

So they try to find ways to scare you out of eating foods that taste pleasurable. They create false links between dread diseases like breast cancer and foodstuffs generally regarded as safe by the Food and Drug Administration. They whinge about microwave popcorn (which admittedly have been found to have somewhat dangerous additives but the food companies are already sorting that out), they complain about hearty breakfast burritos, they complain about hearty cheeseburgers by branding them with inflammatory pejoratives, they hatch ridiculous screeds about egg companies allegedly deceiving consumers when they talk about the health benefits of eggs, and that is just the tip of the iceberg.

Then they intimidate major companies by threatening lawsuits, like they did with Kelloggs which have caved to pressure from CSPI by "agreeing" not to advertise certain cerealsthat happen to have more sugar than that which the CSPI gang feel is acceptable. Excuse me, but that sounds a LOT like bullying and intimidation to me!
Let's say that you tried to pressure a company into paying you millions of dollars for whatever reason you felt like. Hello, that is the sign of a classic SHAKEDOWN! It's the equivalent of some fat 300lb slob walking up to your little hot dog cart and telling you, "Hey, we're gonna charge you $500 a week just to operate on this block, and if we catch your ass here and you haven't paid your dues, we're gonna send Tiny here (who stands six-foot-six and weighs 375lb) to bust out ya kneecaps, capisce?"
And trial lawyers are infamous for doing the same thing too.

They even demand and propose bans on fast food restaurants, such as those proposed in Ogunquit, Maine, and in Los Angeles, California. They also support schools' efforts to forbid specific foods like cupcakes. They have even bullied Cadbury Beverages over the natural ingredient composition of the iconic soft drink SevenUp, which is now a part of the new DrPepper/Snapple Group...and this on top of their haranguing of Kraft over the ingredient lists of Capri Sun drinks! And the CSPI thugs even harass the manufacturers of sport drinks like Gatorade and Powerade.

They have also demanded that restaurants publicly display calorie and fat content nutrition on overhead menus, and such proposals have been floated in California. A similar New York City ordinance was ultimately struck down in December 2006. When California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed such a proposal the CSPI gang cried that it would "leave a greasy stain on his record".

Bull.

You expect ME to believe that an executive who decided not to impose any more undue regulations is stained? Although Governor Schwarzenegger has done a lot of nutty things during his five-year tenure as California Governor, that have INDEED stained his reputation --- vetoing an absurd bill like mandatory menu labelling which won't do a damn thing to change dietary habits but instead piss us off anymore? Hey, Margo Wootan, Marion Nestlé, and Michael Jacobson, and the rest of you left-wing fringe kook extremists, we are trying to get a damn meal that satisfies us for as little as possible in as little time as possible, and yet you see fit to complain about what I am eating? How about you shut up and leave us the hell alone? Let me eat my Jumbo Jack with cheese, my Breakfast Jack, and my tacos in PEACE!
HOW ABOUT YOU NINNY-NANNY NEOCOMMUNIST FOLKS AT THE CENTRE FOR SCIENCE IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST GET A LIFE.

And such bullying has turned out to be counterproductive. As an example, the growing numbers of teen girls weighing themselves obsessively are enough to cause alarm in University of Minnesota researchers to advise against the practise.
Also, it is increasingly known as common knowledge that we the people don't like being told what to eat and what not to eat.

Guess what?
Maybe it is time that we had a serious effort to shut down these fringe leftist kook neoliberal killjoys who want to interfere with our culinary and dietary freedoms. Maybe Michael Mukasey, in what could well be his last months in office, could grow a spine and then leave a lasting legacy of freedom by charging the CSPI gang under the Racketeer and Influence Corrupt Organisation (RICO) Act, investigating the hell out of those ninny-nanny neocommunists, prosecuting them to the fullest extent of the law, and locking their principals in prison and shutting down their outfit for once and for all.
Michael Jacobson has no understanding of when enough is enough. He is rather zealous about keeping out all the tasty foods out of his diet. He has attacked all kinds of foods, from cinema popcorn (Remember the 1988 coconut oil scare? Turns out coconut oil has more health benefits than we thought) to Chinese food to good-old-fashioned American fast food. Maybe it is time to consider him for a straitjacket in asylum.

Even a first-year law student could easily handcraft a credible case against the CSPI gang and get some RICO Act convictions to stick.

Let us go to the first paragraph of the United States Code, Title 18, Part I, Chapter 96, Paragraph 1961.

"(1) “racketeering activity” means (A) any act or threat involving murder, kidnapping, gambling, arson, robbery, bribery, extortion, dealing in obscene matter"

And what we can see here are a number of cases of extortion, like those directed against Kelloggs and Cadbury. Already I can see no fewer than four violations of the RICO Act.

Then we go further down the list, to Section 1951 (relating to interference with commerce, robbery, or extortion), and we can find dozens of violations, just a few of which are mentioned here. And though it appears to be a relatively thin case, the evidence will clearly indicate that the nature of the charges are clearly warranted and therefore a conviction should be easily obtained.

And then we the people will be able to breathe a sigh of relief and enjoy our food without fear of harassment from the likes of Michael Jacobson, who would be better suited living in a padded cell at Patton mental asylum near San Bernardino. We could live our lives in peace without the added drama from Margo Wootan and Marion Nestlé too.
And then we could FINALLY get back to the business of living.

Currently listening :

You Can't See Me By John Cena & tha Trademarc Release date: 2005-05-10

SATURDAY MORNING POST EDITION 103 FOR 21.03.2008

2008-10-04T04:06:00.000-07:00

GAS PRICES ARE HIGH...AND SO ARE OUR TEMPERS

Let's face it, nobody likes to see you or me angry.
But unfortunately, every time we get upset about another news report proclaiming another jump in the price of petrol or diesel, we are experiencing increased amounts of anger.
And for a change it appears to be directed at the right sources of at least some of that anger.
During the past few weeks an organisation called American Solutions have been informing the public about some of the inside story behind the recent meteoric rise in fuel prices we have sustained lately.
And they have also circulated a petition online to urge Congress to allow drilling for oil from American sources straightaways so we make it easier on our pocketbooks.

But the reasons behind the recent price spikes in petrol and diesel prices are almost myriad.

First we need to accept certain facts about global economic activity. The reality is with Western Europe, the United States, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada now having fully developed economies, growth in those economies is rather modest, about two to four percent depending on the country. The US and Canada have been near the upper end whilst European nations have trended near the lower end of that curve.

Then there is the fact that global economic activity has spiralled upward, especially in Asian and East Indian countries. With China and India becoming major global economic vehicles due to the high propensity of manufacturing and services performed by Chinese and Indian labourers, it is only natural that those folks should aspire to higher standards of living. The average man in Beijing or Bangalore is just as likely to buy a new car as the average man in Bakersfield or Bentonville or Boston...and auto manufacturers are becoming more and more proliferate, not only with Western nameplates like General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, PeugeotCitroen, Volkswagen/Porsche/Audi/Skoda/SEAT (pronounced Say-OTT) and RenaultNissan, but also with homegrown marques, like Heibao and Red Flag and Chery in China and Mahindra and Maruti and Tata in India.
In fact, two of those Indian companies have already made great impact within Western automotive and heavy machinery circles. Mahindra have been marketing farm tractors in Western Europe and the United States for a number of years, and in addition to their Jeep-like off-road vehicles and their compact single-cylinder-engined mini-pickup Champion, have launched the Scorpio, an upscale off-road vehicle analogous to the Mitsubishi Montero.
Tata Motors have not only begun selling cars and trucks in South Africa but also recently purchased Jaguar and Land Rover from the ailing American giant Ford Motor Company.
Then there are the lowly Maruti, not so lowly now that Suzuki have been building a number of compact and subcompact cars under the Maruti nameplate in a joint venture, much as has been the case in China with a number of foreign manufacturers.
And you can add at least one more player to the field: Malaysian automaker Proton have been selling cars in Europe and throughout Asia for a number of years, satisfying some of the growing demand for those vehicles as Asians get off their bicycles and get onto cars and motorcycles.
As for Western manufacturers, the Volkswagen Lupo and Santana, a number of Toyotas and Nissans, and anything with the Buick nameplate are being lapped up in China like kittens lapping up saucers of milk. A Buick-nameplated eight-passenger version of our Pontiac Montana is particularly acclaimed and sought after, with a connection to Chinese superstition placing the number eight in positive connotation.
In India, Ford have been marketing a number of compact models, including the popular Ikon, whilst the ever-popular Chevrolet --- long sought after during a number of years when the Indian government had nationalised the auto industry --- have enjoyed a substantive comeback.
And as a result, their fuel consumption has soared drastically in the past few years. With two-and-a-half BILLION people consuming more energy, including more oil, more coal, more uranium, our energy prices have begun to rise rather drastically. Such activity has even fuelled oil market speculation to the point of suspicion.
Next there is the matter of our environmental policies. Let's begin by stating that it is always important to work to preserve the environment. This is why private property is an asset to a country's values. When a company can manage their own property, they have greater incentive to maintain and improve their property. Oilfields and oil projects and coal mines have long coexisted with even the more delicate flora and fauna, and even though we see the occasional disaster, such as the 1969 oil spill off of Santa Barbara or the infamous 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska (attributed to a drugged ship's captain) or even the occasional coal mine collapse like that in Utah from last summer, energy companies have typically enjoyed a stellar track record with regard to environmental stewardship.
Technology has always been available to bolster the energy industry. In the 1960s auto manufacturers like General Motors started utilising fuel injection in performance cars, like the Chevrolet Corvette. (The Beach Boys wrote and recorded a song that included mentions of a fuel injected Corvette!)
This came about BEFORE California implemented their first environmental regulations for automobiles and trucks in 1966, BEFORE the very first Earth Day in 1970, in which the founder, , projected dire predictions for our Earth before 2000, BEFORE the Sierra Club were formed, BEFORE all the controversies erupted over the environment --- and that INCLUDES Rachel Carson's 1964 book, Silent Spring. Then came efforts to minimise smokestack emissions, which in more recent times have even included a method that would place trays for growing algae at the top of a smokestack in effort to remove harmful emissions.
Emissions technologies have arisen to ensure cleaner air especially in major metropolitan areas. A 1970 Ford pickup produced as much pollutants in its emissions as some 30 000 (yes that's thirty THOUSAND) of their 2001 model year counterparts. The reason behind such changes is technological developments. They helped bring the average fuel efficiency rating of the average American production car upward during the 1980s and beyond. Today, you can buy a new hybrid SUV (a model of the Chevrolet Tahoe) with the fuel efficiency of a Toyota Camry!

And there are also some folks who see fit to utilise natural resources for the purpose of energy generation. The Hoover Dam is a major testament to natural energy: The massive dam built during the 1930s had a thriving town with its own stores, postal station, and schools, but left behind a legacy that includes not only electrical generation but also recreation sources including resorts (like Lake Havasu City in Arizona), boating, fishing, and camping. Today it provides electricity to millions of people in California, Nevada, and Arizona. Major cities served by the Hoover Dam include Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas, and Phoenix. If you are reading this in either of those cities, chances are you are using water-powered electricity.
Of course, some American folks have a negative view of hydroelectric power --- but on the other hand Canada have totally embraced it, now producing most of their energy with it. They worry about disturbing the nature of riparian streams which have been known to bring about destructive forces, but then again, even the major rivers, like the Mississippi as of late, have been wreaking havoc on societies for millenia.
Harnessing the power of the river and the stream has had beneficial results for the economy as well as the ecology, providing a number of jobs in addition to clean energy.
But more accessible forms of clean energy have been generating attention from technicians, ecologists, environmentalists, and economists alike for a number of years.
Solar energy has long been a popular source of clean energy and with rising energy prices during the 2000s it has become even more sought after.
The development of improved solar panels continues making an impact, even to the point where traffic robots, warning signals, and highway advisory signs are now available with solar panels. Solar panels are also available as flexible all-weather sheeting for rooftops and even as roofing panels themselves.
A new technology has been developed by the Canadian company Octillion which use microsheeting on windows as a receptor for solar energy, thus turning your ordinary window into a solar panel in itself --- very useful in the United States and the Northern Hemisphere on southern eastern and western facing windows.
Then there is an old standby making a major comeback with a technological twist: Remember the windmills on your grandparents' farm? Maybe you live on or near an old farm which HAS a windmill! Those windmills are not just for quaint country charm, folks: Back in the 1920s and 1930s, before electrical power lines became more widespread, especially with regard to the great energy projects like the Hoover Dam and the Tennessee Valley Authority, hundreds of thousands if not millions of farmers actually used those old pinwheel-like windmills for electricity generation!
And back then a typical electrical circuit plan included lighting for lamps and ceiling lights to replace candles known for their soot and smoke and fire hazard, an occasional small kitchen appliance like a toaster, a clock or two, and maybe a radio in the parlour.

This was BEFORE television, BEFORE VCRs, BEFORE DVRs, BEFORE computers, BEFORE modern stereos, BEFORE the cassette, BEFORE the compact disc, BEFORE the MP3, when records came only at 78RPM. (The long-playing record had yet to be introduced!)
Today's windmills look like large aeroplane propellers or like the more cylindrical fans you might have seen in an old swamp cooler or evapourative cooler. Today you can still find those old coolers at a farm supply store like Atwoods in Oklahoma or Tractor Supply throughout the Midwest and South, but for most Americans they were the forerunner to modern air conditioning, including central heating and air.
Some detractors have claimed that the propeller-like turbines have been dangerous to avian wildlife and taking up too much space. In that event, maybe the vertical axis turbine might be more attractive, if only because birds see the spinning turbines as solid objects.

Most of them can be set up as little as four feet apart and can be built within the 35ft variance limit most communities set as a height limit for structures without obtaining a permit.
Larger scale vertical axis turbines can and should be considered as well for some of the same reasons but also because a rotational axis is not necessary as is noted for traditional propeller-type wind turbines like those you can see dotting western and central Kansas and other areas in increasing numbers. A Coastal Ranges pass near Hayward, California dotted with such turbines is also highly visible along Interstate 580 between San Francisco and Fresno.

Then there are geothermal sources of energy that are increasingly attractive especially in areas where seismic faultzones are noticeable. One such facility in the hills north of San Francisco is set to give that community a large portion of clean energy, and other hotspots throughout our mountain ranges and faultlines stand substantive potential for energy generation.

And then there is nuclear energy: We have had a hard time building new nuclear power plants for decades partly due to the Three Mile Island disaster but also due to the fiction of the Jane Fonda film, The China Syndrome. And I admit, I myself was deadset against nuclear power when I was growing up.
But after seeing energy prices soaring in recent years I have finally eliminated my objections to nuclear power only in the past year --- and evidently I am not alone: Even the founder of Greenpeace wants us to consider nuclear power too!

Unfortunately, some folks have a rather radicalised view of energy generation which by the proponents is seen as "progressive" yet is seen by a number of detractors as "regressive". These folks have a rather strong regard for the environment, such that they fail to see the reality that most other folks understand, that whilst renewable sources of energy are indeed important for energy development, that these specific folks have a methodology of dealing with traditional sources including oil and coal as well as to some degree even renewable sources like hydroelectric power that can best be described as "throwing the baby out with the bathwater".
These folks have been involved with campaigns to prevent efforts to drill, harvest, refine, and distribute petroleum and petroleum products.
They have prevented the development of any new oil refineries since 1976 when a Louisiana refinery went online in the community of Garyville. They have prevented the drilling of certain areas such as a small section of a major wildlife refuge in northeastern Alaska, coastal areas even as much as 200mi off the coastlines of our Pacific and Atlantic coasts as well as the Gulf of Mexico, and a number of leased land areas on American soil.
And now their efforts have come under fire.
How?
They have had a strong lobbying effect upon certain politicians, mostly from the Democrat party, but sometimes from the Republican party, though they have had lesser effects upon the latter. They certainly find their talking points expressing negative outlooks about drilling for oil and irrational hatred toward oil companies as well as certain politicians who have had a history with the oil industry very well covered in the Establishment Media.
They have also had influence over the taxation of your fuel at the federal and state level. Your typical oil company might earn eight cents on a gallon of petrol or diesel. By contrast, the federal government assess 18,4 cents in taxes on a gallon of fuel. State governments vary in the levels of taxation, rising to as much as 50 cents a gallon or more. And those taxes are invariably passed on to you as well. It is said to be part of the reason we pay more for taxes than we pay for food, clothing, or shelter.
Their efforts place an equally irrational focus on forcible conservation, incorporating coercion especially of the American people into smaller, lighter, weaker, less powerful, more dangerous vehicles, occasionally to the point of gravely violent vandalism against inanimate objects like off-road vehicles. They also make note to shame people for living in larger houses, they attack couples who choose to have larger families, they vilify efforts to perform even the most rudimentary efforts to harvest deceased and decaying trees in our forests thus allowing them to become tinder for countless forest fires across the United States, they even call for raising fuel prices and taxes yet even further...and to encourage legal action against oil companies.
And sadly their efforts have a role in the high cost of your fuel. They are a large part of the reason many of you are paying more than $4 a gallon for petrol --- and some of you more than $5 a gallon for diesel. Their efforts to prevent the construction of a new refinery for 32 years, coupled with their efforts to prevent oil and coal harvests, have been part of the reason fuel prices have soared so precipitously, not to mention why we import roughly two barrels of oil for every one we produce in the United States.
Granted, much of it does come from hitherto-friendly neighbours Canada and Mexico. That said, some of it comes from the Middle East, mostly Saudi Arabia, and also from Venezuela. However, Brazil have recently uncovered some sizable oil deposits that just might make them major oil producers such that they would not need oil imports from the Saudis nor the Venezuelans --- quite a feat for a nation that worked during the 1970s and 1980s to become an ethanol-dominant society. We could be relying on Brazil for some of our oil.

OR

We could start taking care of our own affairs.
That's right. As hard as it is to sully the pristine lands and shores and oceanfront with even a few more oil wells we are basically between a rock and a hard place. We are starting to see dire economic predictions, some more dramatic than others.
And even Arizona Republican Senator John McCain, himself a presidential candidate --- with his own stridently environmentalist record, even expressing a belief in man-made climate change (which at least in my opinion is impossible, as though man can do a lot of damage to the environment, man cannot alter the climate, for the forces are beyond the control of mankind) --- has now expressed an interest in drilling for oil on American soil and in American waters.
Yet his opponent, Illinois Democrat Senator Barack Obama, disagrees. Maybe you do too, but consider that he is amongst a number of politicians opposed to drilling and harvesting oil even 200 miles offshore, not only attacking our demands for being able to obtain our own oil and coal from our own sources, but also even condemning our lifestyle as he sees from his idea of the global viewpoint. Even now, he is complaining about the potential for harvesting American oil, even to

the point of blaming President George W Bush and Vice President Richard B Cheney in the same irrational vein that a number of

left-of-centre political groups have taken to doing for whatever problem they claim to have with America.

But ordinary Americans like you and me are standing up to scream that something be done about the shortened supply of oil, the

lack of sufficient refineries, even the ageing of our nation's refineries, typically 40 years, 50 years, even 60 years old, and they are

even yelling that at Congress.
The battlecry?

As in the words of veteran actor and martial artist Chuck Norris, "DRILL HERE,

DRILL NOW, PAY LESS!"

WHY DRILL HERE:

If we drill on American soil and in American waters, we have no doubt about the security and stability of our source of oil. Let us consider that your typical oil company are operating on a thin profit margin of less than 10 percent. Such is the current lack of profitability that ExxonMobil have now decided to exit the retail fuel market.

This could open up further competition between corner markets like SevenEleven, QuikTrip, Kum-N-Go, and On The Run. Smaller fuel companies could benefit as well.
But being able to drill on American soil means oil companies can do much more with less money, thus bringing down the cost of oil, which then brings down our fuel prices. They do not have to import from thousands upon thousands of miles away nor put themselves at risk of a terror attack.
Then consider that most everything you buy, from tyres to tomatoes to televisions to tennis balls, gets transported by truck or by train. Both are heavy consumers of diesel fuel --- and a typical 100-US gallon tank could easily run $500, with the average diesel truck getting six miles a gallon. That means that a cross-country run can run to as much as $3000! And you wonder WHY truckers are parking their rigs and getting out of them! Smaller operators cannot keep pace with the fuel prices.
And every time the prices of petrol and diesel rise --- so do the costs you pay at the supermarket. And the clothing store. And the electronics store. And the record store. And the book store. Even your online marketers have to pass along higher shipping costs --- because the shipping companies, like Fedex and UPS and even the United States Postal Service, have to bear a heavier cost of fuel for powering their aeroplanes and trucks. Whether it is a four-wheel Dodge Sprinter with a five-cylinder engine or a triple-trailer COE with a 10-cylinder behemoth motor bigger than some compact cars --- it needs diesel to run and it takes more to fill the tank these days.
And even the items transported by train --- though they CAN travel a bit further on fuel as the rails offer less friction to the wheels --- STILL have to get to their destinations, from the lumberyards to the ports to the industrial complexes dotting the Anaheims and Aliquippas and Augustas and Alamosas of our great country. They burn large volumes of diesel (which CAN be synthesised from
oal) to move their cargo, some engines generating 5000 horsepower or more apiece, with a number of multi-engine trains typically generating 40000, 50000, 60000 horsepower transporting cargo carriers, coal, and cars and trucks.
And if the rail companies are able to purchase diesel and even coal for lower prices they can pass the savings on to their customers.
Trucking companies already embattled by soaring fuel prices also benefit: They can lower their shipping costs, meaning they pass the savings on to their patrons, the companies whom they ship for.
This then means that every manufacturer and every name brand --- from Amana to Logitech to General Electric to Zenith --- can pass their savings on to the retailers. Then the retailers can pass along the savings they get from the manufacturers, distributors, and the transporters --- on to a very important person.

YOU.

And suddenly you start seeing the difference --- whether it is in that Sweet Sensation double CD you have had your eye on, that copy of Mark Levin's bestseller, Rescuing Sprite, that chicken fried steak from Colton's Steak House, that bucket of fried chicken from KFC, that Jumbo Jack from Jack In The Box, that bottle of SevenUp from Walmart, that DeWalt circular saw at The Home Depot, that Kobalt wrench kit from Lowes, that Boston Red Sox baseball jersey you saw at Finish Line, that Coleman tent you wanted to get from Academy, that new carburettor and door handle you needed to get for your '68 Poncho from AutoZone, or that tank of petrol for your Ford pickup from your neighbourhood Texaco --- you start seeing your prices drop. Suddenly that $18 meal comes down to $16 and you can leave a bigger tip for the waitstaff. That $109 toolkit comes down to $99, that jersey drops from $80 to $75, the touching book about The Great One's rescue of an older dog comes down from $23 to $19, that two-CD set featuring Betty Dee and company comes down a buck --- and it all adds up.
Drilling our own oil makes more sense than one might think --- and our oil companies have long had a stellar track record of working with the environment. British Petroleum have taken to calling themselves "BP" and "Beyond Petroleum" as they work to develop a variety of sources of energy. Royal Dutch Shell are also getting involved in green energy. ChevronTexaco have long touted their record toward working with vulnerable species like certain wild foxes in California's Kern County oilfields.
Any time you can get private enterprise involved means you make it easier to manage the environment. That means that the ability of a private entity to own land gives the company incentive to invest, maintain, upgrade, improve, and take care of their property. This is something we learnt from watching the Eastern Bloc fall and we got to see a number of dead forests in central and eastern Europe.

Those forests are recovering as more and more trees are growing in that part of the world and capitalism takes hold in those areas.

WHY DRILL NOW:

I just put some petrol in the tank of my car and paid roughly $3,65 a gallon in Springfield, Missouri for the weekly drive home from work. For a number of you that would be a dream come true. However, if we don't start acting now, we further place ourselves at the greater mercy of a number of hostile nations who are already flush with petrodollars which they can use to buy influence contrary to American values and interests....and even that seems like a cheap fuel price.
If we can become more self-sufficient and rely less on the Saudis and the Venezuelans, however, they are then going to find it easier to sell to growing Asian economies like China which have grown in double-digit annual percentiles for a quarter century and India which have grown at roughly eight to ten percent annually, both of which are becoming increasingly mobile with the growing prevalence of cars and motorbikes and trucks. Literally billions are advancing from third world to first world standards of living in less than a generation. If we make it easier on ourselves to supply our own oil and fuel, then we make it easier for THEM to obtain oil and fuel too, because the oil prices drop, yet those oil-rich nations STILL earn a strong living because they have less to worry about sending to a more self-sufficient America (1) and because they know they have a steady business anyway as more people attain a more Western-style standard of living (2). This means that people in Chongqing can also afford things more easily just as people in Charleston (WV or SC) can, that people in Kolkata can more readily achieve a higher standard of living just as people in Kansas City (KS or MO) can.
Chances are you would rather dispense with paying $100 to fill your fuel tank and go get a smaller car. Indeed we have had to adjust our driving habits, from buying smaller cars to adjusting your driving habits. We HAVE done both --- and actually dropped 11 percent in our fuel usage this past March over a year earlier.
Also, consider that the framework for a number of the drilling projects already exists as do pieplines. We can use those to our advantage as we reclaim our energy independence. We can then rely less on expensive shipping from overseas and more on our own sources. If we have enough oil to provide petrol and diesel for 100 million cars for 60 years --- to speak nothing of our 200-year supply of coal --- we can certainly put some of that to use whilst we refine our green energy sources. By that time we will long have ceased to rely on oil and electric cars will be the norm as well cellulosic ethanol. But until then, we need to retain traditional sources and continue refining technology to further energy efficiency. We can even use what we learn from such technology to benefit us in a truly post-petroleum society.

WHY PAY LESS:

Again we go back to the basic things you buy in your everyday lives: the dress shirt, the cat litter, the sack of potatoes, the magazine at the checkout stand, the football, the box of cookies. And you can clearly see that with the fact that most of that comes via truck or train, shipping costs influence a number of the costs of those items --- and a large component of that is the fuel.
Do you REALLY want to pay more for that box of Nutter Butters or that Stetson hat or that sack of Jonny Cat or that copy of Martha Stewart Living or Muscle And Fitness? I don't know about you but I would rather not have to pay any more than necessary.

Drilling in the United States also means we pay less to import oil from Nigeria and Saudi Arabia and other potential hotspots in the world. We can then pass along further savings throughout the marketplace and bolster our economy. Even our government will benefit as they will have to spend less money on fuel, meaning lower costs of government, and thus lower tax burdens on you and me.
We don't even have to worry too much about importing from Canada, Mexico, or even Russia. We can prove to the world that we can take care of ourselves --- and consequently other oil consumers will pay less. Yes, the price of oil will drop, and the Opec nations will be bothered by it at first, but consider that so many billions will now rely to some extent on oil, and consequently Opec nations will benefit as they receive a steady supply that will last longer.
And as American oil production rises, oil prices worldwide drop, meaning even more fuel to the fires of growing economies worldwide. That means everyone the world over can experience a stronger economy and a better standard of living...even the poor living in Opec countries. Even China could be paying less for fuel --- which has recently experienced a sharp uptick in
price just like it has here.

So the plain and simple is we must consider what our future is if we do not undertake measures to secure our own economic stability. This means we must consider ALL sources, and yes that includes traditional methods, yes that includes OIL, and yes it means we ALL benefit in the long haul. Some estimates put savings from such a common-sense approach at as much as $2 a gallon --- meaning some of you could be paying less than $2 a gallon again on a regular basis.
Then wouldn't it be nice to have more in your pocket and less to pay to someone else?

CURRENTLY LISTENING:

EXPOSÉ'S GREATEST DANCE MIXES

BY: EXPOSÉ

SATURDAY MORNING POST EDITION 102 FOR 14.06.2008

2008-09-27T00:41:00.000-07:00

Let's discuss last month's court decision in San Francisco.
Yeh, you know the one.
You know, the ruling in the mislocated California State Supreme Court that disregarded the will of more than 61 percent of the voters who opted in 2000 to define marriage strictly as a union between one man and one woman.
BUT
Let us discuss it politely.
I would appreciate it if you would refrain from slurs that some would see as bigoted, either in a homophobic way or a radical pro-homosexual way.
Let me clarify what REAL homophobia means by defining what homophobia IS NOT.
Homophobia IS NOT disagreeing with an activist for homosexual rights.
Homophobia IS NOT disagreeing with an activist for same sex marriage.
Homophobia IS NOT disagreeing with one's sexual preference.
Homophobia IS NOT calling homosexuality religiously immoral.
Homophobia IS NOT showing distaste for the sexual behaviour of homosexuals.
NOW
Let me clarify what a radical pro-homosexual is.
A radical pro-homosexual does not have to be homosexual: This radical uses the basic principles of Marxism to undermine a number of moral statutes and traditions in our society --- including marriage --- in the name of the homosexual. You should recall that Karl Marx initially regarded marriage as a "bourgeois" institution in his disparagement of the practise. And it is very clear that religions generally reject the idea of same sex marriage. Yet many radical homosexuals --- occasionally called homonazis or homofascists --- engage in totalitarian attitudes in effort to distort society.
The 2003 overturn of a Texas statute prohibiting sodomy is a law that a number of Americans --- myself included --- can live with --- because what you do inside the privacy of your own bedroom is your own business.
But then the radicals who pervert the cause of the homosexual as an excuse to force authoritarian measures, such as activist judges imposing same sex "marriage" upon the unwilling masses, first in Massachusetts in 2004 and now in California in 2008. The former sparked a flurry of laws and amendments to state constitutions that clearly define marriage as being the exclusive province of one man and one woman. I was a part of the 73 percent of voters in my home state of Missouri that made such an affirmative declaration myself in November 2004. And now the latter has spurred an inordinate number of people who would not ordinarily vote, or even those who were already planning not to vote, to go to the polls, and reaffirm, not only in California, but also across the nation, that marriage REALLY IS the sole province of one man and one woman.
So do I have a problem with open homosexuals? No. Absolutely not. I have stood in solidarity with an openly homosexual teen in Webb City when he tried to wear a couple of his tee shirts to school, one advertising his former high school's "Gay-Straight Alliance" and another proclaiming his pride in being homosexual. And he did not behave in any inordinate or bizarre way --- he was simply attracted to other young males.
Then Fred Phelps, the notoriously homophobic jackass excuse for a "pastor", had to butt his proboscis into the whole works. He sent five of his minions from his cult at the Westboro "Baptist" "Church" in Topeka, the Kansas state capital, to several local churches here in Joplin and then Webb City near the end of November 1994, then sent them across the street from the high school.
On one side of one street the five stood with their vicious condemnations saying things like Matthew Shepard, Six Years In Hell.
Now whether God actually sent Mr Shepard after being beaten to death in Wyoming in 1998 is His prerogative.
But the filth that comes from Mr Phelps' mouth is every bit as sinful --- maybe even more --- as the sins that befell Mr Shepard. I have seen Mr Phelps spew his irrational homophobic rhetoric in the same way that a MoveOn.org operative spews irrational partisan hatred about President George W Bush on a number of news programmes and again on Ricki Lake's show. He actually walked off the set, this on top of the usual "God Hates (EDITED)" and "I'm the (EDITED)'s friend, TURN OR BURN". Of course now we know that his minions now target the funerals of our brave soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines...and have been met by the Patriot Guard. He has been known to use gutter language, language so vulgar that even a rock singer or a longshoreman or a truck driver would blanch at his language.
The reason I joined 100 other people, many from the local homosexual community (one Black man wore a shirt reading, Let's Get One Thing Straight, I'm Not), and wound up being featured on ABC-12 and The Chart, the latter being the college newspaper at the local university, Missouri Southern State University, was I could not bear to see someone being censored in his freedom to wear a tee shirt within reason. And I did not think that the tee shirt he wore for the Gay/Straight Alliance in Fayetteville, Arkansas, nor the "I'm Gay And I'm Proud" tee shirt necessarily offended me. I had no problem speaking with the young man afterward, or even hugging him as a sign of support. If someone barges in from another community to spew such vicious crapola, what the hell are you going to do?
Now...back to the issue of same sex marriage.
The concept of allowing Paul to marry his boyfriend Todd or Rosie to marry her girlfriend Melinda is a truly abominable idea indeed, for we see how such radical Marxist concepts were tried in the 1960s and 1970s and subsequently proven failures. Yet the Establishment Media continue forcing the concept upon the masses with phony push-polling with inordinately small samples taken primarily in Democrat-dominant area codes like 201, 202, 203, 206, 212, 213, 303, 310, 312, 408, 415, 561, 617, 718, 917, and 978, suggesting (falsely) that a "majority" of Americans support the idea of same sex marriage.
But the reality is these Establishment Media outlets, like CBS News, invariably ignore area codes throughout the rest of America, like 775 and 559 and 661 and 928 and 940 and 405 and 918 and 417 and 712 and 812. Or at the most, they will ask about party affiliation then thank them for their participation and hang up, or even cut off a poll subject if the person being push-polled gives answers that the push-poller does not like. I studied that phenomenon back in 1992 when I was in college --- no Internet, just whatever I could find in the newspapers up and down the Golden State --- and realised just how biased the polls really were. I even wrote a report for my communications instructor at the end of that semester. The name? "POLLITICS". And that was NOT a typo: I meant to add an extra L in "pollitics"...the practise of using media polls to define government policy. I watched the Establishment Media use push polling and pollitics to select William Jefferson Clinton president TWICE.
But the reality remains that Americans, whilst extremely tolerant of homosexuals, are unwilling to let such a fundamental institution like marriage get altered in such a dangerous way. It could lead to a slippery slope, as there is already talk of legalising polygamy, and from there we can go to bestiality and even pederasty. We risk opening the door to paedophiles kidnapping their prey then drugging them and coercing them into a "marriage". That would be the bottom of our slippery slope and perhaps the collapse of our society.
But then again, the impetus has been taken by the voters of the state of California --- a majority of whom favour an amendment restricting marriage to the dominion of one man and one woman. And even a large number of leftists have condemned the concept of allowing same sex marriage. And now some folks are questioning the privacy of sexual behaviour.
What you are going to see as a result is so many Californians --- and Americans too --- are going to go to the polls in numbers not seen in recent years --- and so many people are going to vote in favour of this amendment that the radicals will be forced to step off their Marxist ways. Furthermore, this ruling by itself violates the Tenth Amendment rights of the people to exercise the powers not specifically granted to the federal government or the individual states.
In addition we will see ordinary Americans' concerns as a whole further affirmed regarding marriage, that marriage is the sole dominion of one man and one woman. And the radicals may have no choice but to honour that reality, lest they face an attorney general that seek to prosecute them under the Racketeer and Influence Controlled Organisation (RICO) Act.
There is no question that there will be a state of limbo in the number of same sex marriages performed under the lapse between the date the court ruling takes effect (barring further intervention from more sensible government agencies) and the date that this bill will pass. It could even have a knock-on effect that would hurt not only Democrat Presidential nominee Barack Obama but also a number of Democrat House Representatives, State Senators, and State Assemblypersons in California. In case you are wondering, United States Senator Barbara Boxer will face re-election in 2010 (failing a recall between now and then) and her colleague Dianne Feinstein will face re-election in 2012 (also barring a recall).
This inordinately sticky issue is going to continue to plague us until we the people finally put the brakes on same sex marriage for once and for all --- whether by state constitutional amendments in all 50 states, or by an amendment of the United States Constitution.
Has the law prohibiting same sex marriage in Missouri led to more "hate crimes"? No, because that is the problem of irresponsible people.
And irresponsible people on the bench are just as guilty. They need to be removed or at least marginalised, so that they understand why we the people don't want tradition messed with.

We have basically come to the end of the primary season with brutal deabtes and campaigns on both sides of the aisle.
Democrat Senators Barack Obama of Illinois and Hillary Clinton of New York have held their debates and thir scathing campaigns, occasionally targeting potential Republican opponents like John McCain, the Arizona senator who ran away with the nomination even as more conservative-friendly candidates like Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts Governor, Fred Thompson, the actor and former Tennessee Senator, and Tom Tancredo, the Colorado US House Representative all dropped out.

Barack Obama has just overcome a rough primary season in a close battle for the Democrat Party nomination.
The Illinois junior senator has had to deal with close battle after close battle in primary after primary against the New York state junior senator, Hillary Clinton, who had indicated her willingness to fight all the way to the convention in Denver.
Though it would appear that the Democrat establishment had favoured Obama to win Pennsylvania, Clinton scored a major upset. Wonder if his infamous retort about "Bitter Americans clinging to their guns" had something to do with that. My bet is it was A factor, not THE factor.
But then again, Mr Obama's constant pushing of the slogan, CHANGE!, has caused a growing number of Americans to voice suspicions, to the point where his ideas are now being so closely scrutinised, that his campaign have now launched a website condemning so-called "smears".
His thin experience is not helping matters any either. Then there are the statements of his wife, Michelle, who has claimed only when her husband started performing well in primaries and debates that she was proud to be an American for the first time in her life, amongst a number of controversial statements.
Then there are the associations with outright terrorists like former Weatherman William Ayres, who has publicly wished that he and his cohorts had set off even more bombs.
Of course we cannot forget his aims to talk with Iranian despot Makhmud Ahmadinejad regarding Iraq nor his aims to meet with Cuban leader Raul Castro.
Then there are his deficiencies in domestic policy. What more can you say about a Senator who promises to raise Social Security taxes, proposes some $800bn in new programmes, and propose passing the illegal alien-appeasing "DREAM" Act that was ultimately defeated last October --- and would prove to be nothing but a costly nightmare if ever implemented?
His tax-and-spend policies along with his other left-of-centre and authoritarian policies clearly have hurt and will continue to hurt Barack Obama's reputation with the American people, in ways even his racist former pastor Jeremiah Wright never could.
Of course his character has been called into question. He is basically Hillary Clinton minus the shrillness. He is basically a poorly performing car with a new paint job. Even his morals are being challenged.

Clearly Mr Obama's naivete and ignorance of reality coupled with his irrational idealism stand to become his undoing. He has an uphill battle, and a very steep uphill battle at that, in order to get to the White House. Hopefully most people who choose not to vote for Mr Obama, or even those who DO vote FOR Mr Obama for that matter, do so on substantive issues and not just petty issues like his name or the so-called need for "change".

When was the last time a presidential candidate had it so lucky?
The Arizona senator has been thrust into incredible fortune in recent weeks. His potential Democrat opponents have battered themselves to bloody pulps during their respective campaigns. And now Mr Obama, the winner, is already facing substantive resistance from the supporters of his rival, Hillary Clinton. A number of these supporters have touched bases with Mr McCain's campaign.
Conventional wisdom in the Establishment Media had held that Hillary Clinton would be the candidate to beat. Evidently Mr Obama derailled that plan. That does not mean that Mrs Clinton could still undermine Mr Obama's campaign.
But Mr McCain is in such a lucky position most folks cannot fathom it. This is a position that has been located on only three occasions in the past 72 years --- and only one of those in politics.
Mr McCain is luckier than not only Ringo Starr, when he became the Beatles' drummer shortly before the Fab Four began having their long string of hits and the explosive start to their international careers in circa 1964, but also Ann Curless, when she joined the vocal group Exposé, shortly before they began having THEIR OWN explosive impact on the Top 40 charts in 1987, becoming the first rock group ever to score four Top 10 singles from a debut CD...ironically signed to the same label where the model-like blonde had previously applied for an internship whilst studying in the University of Miami's music marketing programme!
And then there is the big political history lesson, going back to 1936, when Kansas Senator Alf Landon lost by such a humiliating margin to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt that Mr Landon garnered only EIGHT --- that's 8 --- electoral votes, to Mr Roosevelt's 520.
But this time round, Mr McCain could be this year's Mr Roosevelt in that regard. This time, it is the REPUBLICANS who stand to make big gains.

Yet Mr McCain is saying and doing things that are making it hard for conservatives to support him, like the people who consistently demand enforcement be the first priority of any policy regarding illegal immigration. Then there are his concessions to radicals who use Marxism in the name of the environment. And whilst his positions are indeed a bit more moderate, caution MUST be exercised, and balance needs to be obtained, and the way we GET that kind of balance is we ELECT conservative Republicans to Congress.

And that end may be easier to obtain than we may think: We are facing an out-of-control tax-and-spend Democrat Congress who refuse to let us drill, harvest, and refine our own oil, who seek to point fingers away from themselves over "filibusters" regarding the American people standing up to the radical aims of the Media's Congress, who seek to steal what little power we have left.
Yet for as much as Mr McCain seeks to appeal to Democrats and independents, he holds a number of positions concurring with conservative positions supporting an unborn baby's right to live, the protection of real marriage, and gun owners' rights. He even supports clamping down on spending, such as the recent subsidy-laden farm bill.
Mr McCain ALSO supports letting the private sector handle health care. Those positions WILL help him --- and the party --- somewhat.
That said, he still has a lot of fences to mend with the conservative majority. Though his efforts to slam the door shut on corruption are impressive --- he must also address other components of his personality, such as the apparent alienation of religious conservatives by slamming the influential pastor The Rev James Dobson as well as other influential pastors like The Rev John Hagee and The Rev Rod Parsley. He needs to reconsider his eagerness to appease the illegal aliens invading the United States. His amnesty bill's (which he cowrote with the now-ailing Senator Edward M Kennedy, D-MA) resounding defeat is a clear example of his disconnect from reality on that issue. And he is lacking on this issue if his consideration of a pro-illegal alien gang bent on stealing a number of American states from the United States is any indicator.

But then again, his contrarian approach may well be helping him anyway, as large numbers of Independents and even disaffected Democrats rush to his side. And Mr Obama may be doing inordinate self-damage by pronouncing his eagerness to meet with Iran and Syria and even North Korea.
The same clearly cannot be said for Mr McCain.
Mr McCain believes in completing the war on terror, as he repeatedly points out the number of instances where American troops are still in place decades after wars in Germany and Korea...and acknowledges that truly effective efforts against terrorism will most likely require decades of involvement. He has also drawn brickbat over his remarks. He has even been the target of a New York Times smear. Welcome to the real world, Macca.

Macca clearly has a fairly cushy ride. Ringo will smack himself on the head, V8-advert style, saying, "DAMN! Where the BLOODY HELL was THAT kind of luck back in '63?" And Ann will shake her head, asking, "Where in the hell was MY stroke of THAT kind of luck back in '86?" Alright, you two, knock it off, there's a long flight ahead. Let me put that Three Stooges DVD in the player for youse... ;-)

That said, Macca MUST also make SOME sort of effort toward healing the rift he has gouged against conservatives. Those efforts will go a long way toward resolving the problems he has within the community. However, we the people MUST do a little waking up ourselves and understand that distrust of our politicians is not only acceptable but in fact required to some extent. As in the words of Former Hewlett Packard Chief Executive Officer Carly Fiorina, Mr John McCain appears to be "perfect enough".

I am about to prove why if MSNBC presenter Keith Olbermann's crazy on-air antics are patently offensive.
And we have to start with his irrational partisan hatred.
Take, for instance, his nightly screeds about "The Worst Person In The World". At first people thought it was cute, yet as he kept pushing them for shock value, his show turned out to be increasingly infantile.
One prime example of that was his --- and MSNBC colleague Dan Abrams' --- persistent hate screeds against Attorney General Michael Mukasey during his confirmation hearings because he had yet to declare "waterboarding" torture.
And that is just ONE example of Mr Olbermann's crudity on the air, passing for "news".
There are a number of other examples of his own irrational partisanism, further undermining his own integrity.
And then there is his accusation of real talk radio host Rush Limbaugh for allegedly inciting a riot --- because of the success of Mr Limbaugh's own "Operation Chaos". Mr Olbermann's hate campaign against Mr Limbaugh continues with the former's relishing of the concept of the latter being dumped from the air simply because the latter is telling the truth and the former hates it, in the wake of the Don Imus controversy.
Mr Olbermann has also uttered statements that 50 years ago could have gotten him arrested for treason and sedition, such as accusing the Joint Chiefs of Staff of "faking" a Gulf of Tonkin-type incident with Iran. For more information about the Gulf of Tonkin click here.
And of course with that kind of irrational partisanism comes Bush-bashing, such as this example where Mr Olbermann branded the President a "fascist" then accused him of engaging in "terrorism". He further accused the President of acceding to "war profiteers" by allegedly extending the war. Mr Olbermann even teamed with frequent guest John Dean in one noted example calling for the "impeachment" of certain Bush cabinet members. He habitually calls for cutting and running for Iraq, ignoring the great successes of the mission at hand.
And how about that crown jewel? Yes, you know the one, where Mr Olbermann tells the President to "shut the hell up"!
What an absolute psychopath.
This fool even owes the State of New York more than $2000 --- and is embroiled in a dispute over that. But there is more substance than that.
Where Keith Olbermann stands is not only that he has a serious case of irrational partisan hatred, but he may have enough lack of common sense to use restraint. Maybe he might even have a mental disorder...we don't know.
One thing is for certain: Mr Olbermann clearly cannot be trusted for serious commentary, given his pathetic diatribes. It is no wonder Laura Ingraham has launched a campaign to have him released from MSNBC. Another real talk radio host, Mark Levin, has taken to calling him "Keith Overbite". I personally call him "Keith AllBullMan" myself, and on occasion I will say something else instead of "Bull" in Mr Olbermann's name. But then again it is a moot point as Mr Olbermann has clearly struck out as a political commentator. People are tuning him out and watching Bill O'Reilly and the O'Reilly Factor on Fox News. It is a sad sign of the way the Establishment Media work when they are willing to excoriate the conservative majority in this country then ignore problems with the more liberal minority. Mr Olbermann definitely qualifies.
Why couldn't he simply leave well enough alone and stay at ESPN?

Should MoveOn.org Be Shut Down Under The Racketeer and Influence Corrupt Organisation (RICO) Act?

It all started 10 years ago, when the Establishment Media's unelected puppet, William Jefferson Clinton, received some support from a group of cronies upset about accusations of his sexual improprieties in the Oval Office, whinging and moaning for the country to "move on".
And thus began MoveOn.org.
In the next few years, the Establishment Media would go on to eagerly promote everything coming from that kook fringe leftist outfit, like it was the Word of God, or their idea of the same thereof.
And one of their primary supporters earned his billions by breaking the British pound sterling and the Malaysian ringgit and is now trying to break the American dollar and the American political system.
Enter George Soros, who has actively funded left-of-centre outfits designed to undermine the great American republic with the billions he has earned, personally contributing $2,5m to MoveOn himself. Why would he come to the United States to become successful in business only to use that money to undermine the very country that gave him the greatest freedom?

DOUBLE STANDARD ON FREE SPEECH

MoveOn.org have claimed to be supportive of the First Amendment...then turned around and hassled a CafePress merchant simply for satirising their logo and selling merchandise with that emblem. This is on top of their infantile temper tantrum to Google regarding the adverts for wares satirising their organisation simply because the vendor wanted to raise money for the troops so he could donate to a charity.
Sorry, MoveOn, but it's called

F-R-E-E-D-O-M O-F S-P-E-E-C-H

That vendor was completely within his rights to satirise MoveOn's logo. As a matter of fact, that sort of thing is protected by the First Amendment --- and a number of very famous cases have confirmed that reality, one involving Hustler Magazine Inc who parodied the late Rev Jerry Falwell and the other in which rap maestro Luther Campbell prevailed over Acuff-Rose Music Inc in a suit over Mr Campbell's satire of the late Roy Orbison's classic "Oh! Pretty woman".
Therefore MoveOn are way out of bounds in that case.
And for Google to kowtow to such a patently anti-American, anti-freedom organisation, is the height of hypocrisy. Sounds like Google have some issues with regard to their motto to do no evil, eh?

GENERAL PETRAEUS VERSUS GENERALLY BETRAYING US

MoveOn made a spectacular misfire last summer when they branded General David Petraeus with that infamous advert about "General Betray Us", subsequently exposing them for the appeasement-minded attitudes they hold against the war on terror. They have even gone as far as to deny the realities on the ground as explained by Gen Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C Crocker who disseminated an impressive array of realities about the war being a work in progress.

Fifty years ago MoveOn would have been broken in a government raid and placed in a brig or in Alcatraz...or even shipped out of the country. As important as freedom of speech is...we must acknowledge the grave threat that MoveOn pose to America and to American freedoms.
Sadly they have been allowed to overrun the Democrat Party, to the point where they boldly claim ownership of the party, and now the Democrats in the Media's Congress are under the MoveOn thumb. They have even claimed that the United States would affirmatively attack Iran.

And all this from a group that claim to "Support the troops" then turn around and defame them. Go figure.

Now one must ask specifically WHAT portion of the Racketeer and Influence Corrupt Organisation (RICO) Act would apply to the activities of MoveOn.org.
Let us start with Section 1951 of the RICO Act, which specifically prohibits "Interference with commerce by threats or violence", and clearly with the intimidation exercised by MoveOn against the aforementioned merchant, they have committed a federal offence. There may be enough right there to bust MoveOn under the RICO Act. That said, they cannot be broken under the RICO Act alone, as an attorney general like Michael Mukasey would need to pursue remedies under the Federal Election Code. Then there might be a stronger case. And there is a good prospect of success in breaking this patently anti-American, treasonous outfit.
Then maybe we could bring an end to this monstrosity of an outfit...and enable the Democrat Party to heal itself.

CURRENTLY LISTENING TO:

Satisfied, By Taylor Dayne, Released 02.2008

SATURDAY MORNING POST EDITION 101 FOR 07_06_2008: STOLEN CONGRESS SPECIAL

2008-09-19T23:34:00.000-07:00

On 7 November 2006, the controlled media did something that they had not done in fully 10 years.
On that particular day, America's more left-leaning news sources --- Cable News Network, MSNBC, NBC News, CBS News, PBS News Hour, National Public Radio, Air America Radio, the American ABC News, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Atlanta Journal and Constitution, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Los Angeles Times, the St Louis Post-Dispatch, and the Associated Press --- hijacked a national election by talking down any opposition to the Democrat puppets manipulated by the media.
As a result, the Congress fell into a largely irrational, highly partisan Democrat leadership that has shown very little of that quality itself.

THE MAIN CULPRITS
The primary focus will be on the Democrat leadership; however Republicans bear some of the brunt of the blame; therefore they show no less than a secondary problem, and in some cases they actually have as much to blame as the Democrats do.

HILLARY CLINTON: PUBLIC ENEMY NUMBER 1

It would appear that all that has been said about Hillary Clinton in the media is all that can be said about New York State's highly controversial junior senator.
That said, that is NOT the end of the story. Simply because she lost her bid for the nomination and is scheduled to officially close her campaign later today does not mean she can escape scrutiny for her positions or her votes.
Take for instance her decision to establish a $1m earmark worth of taxpayer funds --- my money, and if you are a citizen of the United States, your money too --- to the Woodstock museum in commemoration of the legendary 1969 rock concert. As if it were not enough that the government steal so much of our money in taxes why waste that money on pork like this?
Mrs Clinton continues showing her disregard for the people who scream for LESS government screaming. Whilst her $350 000 earmark for the Gay Men's Health Clinic IS a noble assessment --- the root cause of the problem, crystal methamphetamine, clearly warrants that law enforcement would be better suited to handling such a capacity, particularly with regard to outreach. You should know that I myself live in a state that have had record numbers of methamphetamine lab busts in recent years --- and that law enforcement in Missouri have been extra busy with that problem.

And of course, who could forget her 1990s debacle regarding socialised medicine, that was finally blocked by an unwilling populace who learnt very quickly about the hazards of socialised medicine in foreign countries. When she revived that last summer, she quickly drew the ire of critics who understood foreign healthcare systems' problems yet even more clearly.
And this was on top of the then-recent failure of the Socialised Children's Health Insurance Programme bill which was stopped not by uncaring people who sought to deny medical aid to children but caring, truly enlightened people who understood the need to minimise government intervention --- and the need to reduce potential abuses, such as that practised with regard to illegal aliens or even to the inclusion of more upscale families. As it stands, even illegal aliens get our quality medical care.
The plain and simple is it is fine to encourage, or even persuade, those to accept the idea of socialised medicine. That said, coercion is clearly NOT the solution --- as a number of folks forced to confront oppressive "code enforcement" agencies snooping in people's backyards will tell you.
And on that track Mrs Clinton is clearly going the wrong way. Contrary to her claims that the new method is "different" --- it clearly is not.

Mrs Clinton has clearly shown duplicity with regard to dealing with crises in the Middle East, like the growing Iranian threat caused by the continued bellicosity of that country's strongman, Makhmud Ahmadinejad, particularly with his continued aims to destroy Israel.
When an Iowa voter asked her about her vote to call Iran's military a terrorist organisation she got in such a sparring match that the voter decided not to support her...then turned around and vowed to negotiate with Iran.
Also, she has proven that she cannot be trusted on matters regarding the sovereignty of Israel. She has defended Israel's September 2007 attacks upon Syria then turned about and voted on a bill that would require Congressional approval for the President to issue a millitary strike on Iran --- knowing full well that Ahmadinejad has clearly demonstrated his desire to annihilate Israel.
For one thing, that bill was extraneous, as Article One Section Eight of the United States Constitution ALREADY delegates those powers to Congress. And for another thing, we may have no choice but to take his threats seriously, as Ahmadinejad has threatened not only Israel but also the United States; besides, the President has executive powers that delineate his powers to protect America as needed.
President Bush has clearly had to exercise those powers, and remember this: Hillary Clinton VOTED FOR the resolution to send America into armed conflict against terrorist organisations like AlQaeda as well as state sponsors like the now-deposed regimes, the Taleban in Afghanistan and the late Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Yet to see her pull back upon that by claiming that if she had been President we would not have gone to war and that if she were president in 2009 she would start pulling out of Iraq. She has openly claimed that the War On Terror is unwinnable! Her isolationist attitudes would further weaken the standing of American security against terrorism particularly if Iran are permitted to ally with other powerful nations like Russia or China.

Also, let's discuss her anti-freedom tendencies. In addition to supporting the Voter Disenfranchisement Act of 2002 --- written by her colleague Russ Feingold of Wisconsin and, ironically, the Republican nominee for President, John McCain --- that basically censored those who wished to criticise political candidates in broadcast media shortly before an election --- Mrs Clinton has openly expressed her involvement in the establishment of fringe minority neoliberal organisations like Media Matters for America and Center for American Progress. This means that such anti-American outfits who would have been shut down fifty years ago for treason are allowed to prosper today --- and the very creator was none other than the First Lady of the United States! Her allies were also behind the establishment of another well-known anti-American fringe leftist gang, MoveOn.org, which ALSO has no place in the United States, ESPECIALLY given their tendency to harass their critics and intimidate anyone who would give them an avenue for expression. At that point Mrs Clinton is clearly guilty of undermining American security and sovereignty. Any wonder she didn't denounce the MoveOn.org New York Times advert branding General David Petraeus as "General Betray Us"?
Then there is the nature of real talk radio host Rush Limbaugh's explosive exposé of phony soldiers who inflated the nature and existence of their services. Mrs Clinton went on a warpath against Mr Limbaugh amidst the furore, turning more attention onto her volatile temper and irrational partisan hatred than on the nature of Mr Limbaugh's own comments.
Also, let's not forget that a number of libertarian organisations have consistently awarded her very low scores for her contrarian attitude toward traditional fundamental freedoms.
Also, in a 2004 fundraiser in San Francisco, Mrs Clinton also called for stealing from people for the sake of "the common good" which is what you WOULD expect from folks like Mrs Clinton.

And then there is the issue of her temperament. Her tendencies toward irrational hatred have given her a number of negative ratings higher than those of her rivals. Mrs Clinton had also had to eat crow when Elizabeth Edwards --- wife of her former rival, former Senator and former Vice Presidential Candidate John Edwards --- slammed her for not "adequately representing women's issues". Mrs Clinton has a history of attacking any female who dares tell the truth about her husband. And don't let's forget about her tendencies toward vulgar language. She evidently has no problem with attacking her rivals.

Then there are the debacles linked to people associated with Mrs Clinton, like Norman Hsu who was linked to illegal campaign funds, and also who finally had to turn himself in to California police after evading a 15-year prison term for grand theft. Mrs Clinton, who initially expressed surprise regarding Mr Hsu's status, ultimately donated his tainted monies to charity after vowing not to return the bundled money.

Not to mention her own ingrained general hypocrisy. And how about her playing the sex card, also known as the gender card, in which she sought to abuse her sex as an excuse to complain about being asked hard questions? We could even explore her anti-business attitudes, such as declaring about how American automakers SHOULD NOT implement unreasonably high standards regarding vehicle efficiency, even though those standards, if implemented, would render American cars weaker, lighter, less powerful, and more dangerous.
And then there is the nature of her campaign planting questions at an Iowa farm during a political event and again at an Iowa biodiesel plant not to mention the planting of six Democrat operatives who posed as "undecided voters" at a CNN debate.
I am afraid that if Mrs Clinton had not expected hard questions she should not have even thought about running for President in first place. Even the feminists made it clear that she would not automatically get a free pass.

However, the establishment media has tended to pamper Mrs Clinton, as exposed in a Times of London story last November. Then of course there is the notorious Democrat debate in Las Vegas that led one columnist to brand one of those establishment media outlets the "Clinton News Network". These are similar to the details offered in a recent book, appropriately titled, "Whitewash". And don't let's forget the outrageous remark from Chris Matthews on "Hardball" on MSNBC, when he claimed that West Virginians had decided in 1957 to support Mrs Clinton over her opponent, Mr Obama?

And yet what was the big claim that she had, that her negatives would not be her undoing? Judging by the methods undertaken at the party level, the truth is proven to the contrary of her assessment. And appealling to the lowest common denominator didn't help either. The hostility shown toward her within her own party clearly proves that further.

BARAQ OBAMA: PUBLIC ENEMY NUMBER 2

Now that Baraq Hussein Obama has won the Democrat nomination by selection with help from Howard Dean, the party chair, he is going to be under the gun for a number of factors.

One of those regards his inexperience. He can point to being a community activist and even a state senator if he likes, but he has moved rather rapidly and with a more ignorant ideology at that.

He has exhibited a disdain for the Defence Of Marriage Act --- a very important issue now that an activist left-of-centre State Supreme Court in a mislocated San Francisco, when the capital of California is Sacramento, have rejected the will of the people of California, who in 2000 overwhelmingly passed a law protecting real marriage by restricting its definition to one man and one woman, by forcing the state to allow same-sex "marriage".
Mr Obama has also taken umbrage to being identified as an appeaser because he has exposed himself as such, with outrageous statements like those calling for the slower development of military tools we will need in future.
How about his attitudes toward Israel turning off Jewish voters?
Then there is the matter of Mr Obama's extensive Communist connexions. He has also called for speaking with Iran regarding Iraq. And how about his relationship with terrorist William Ayers? He even laid out an extensive left-of-centre gameplan said to be lifted from Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick. Of course, he has also mentioned his push for higher Social Security taxes. With his radical neosocialist agenda, Americans will clearly be far worse off under his leadership.

HOW THE DEMOCRATS' DISARRAY THREATENS AMERICA

Let's look into the Democrats' eagerness to steal even more money from the American people after they manage to steal the White House from the American people if enough Americans do not rise up this fall to take back Congress. One major player in the Media's Congress, Charles Rangel, now in his nineteenth term representing upper Manhattan, has even tried pushing a trillion-dollar tax hike. Then there is the abusive harassment of oil companies for the problems that most Americans experience with soaring fuel prices whilst ignoring their willingness to appease the most vocal anti-business radicals who give environmentalists a very bad name indeed, appealing more to the Earth First! end of the spectrum than to the John Muir-Ansel Adams end of the spectrum. And pushing for a "gas tax holiday" is not enough either.
And what is the solution proposed by one John Dingell of Michigan? How about raising petrol and diesel taxes 50 cents more per gallon? Oh great, now he wants to wreak havoc on the American economy?
Time for a simple lesson: Raising petrol and diesel taxes means raising the prices of everything from tyres to tomatoes because virtually everything travels to a store via truck. And with diesel prices ranging from $4,50 to $5,30 a gallon now, the trucking industry is clearly bearing a heavy cross!
And don't let's forget the cut-and-run attitudes exhibited by the Media's Congress either: Even before General Petraeus' report had been issued regarding the truth about progress toward rebuilding post-Hussein Iraq the Democrats were irrationally discrediting it.
Maybe we could bring up a bill that would coerce more Americans into "volunteer" activity.
Hey, how about the tax-and-no-trade attitude exhibited by proponents of a so-called "cap and trade" programme that would inhibit American economic activity, forcing even more jobs outside the United States? It would be even more ruinous than the coercion of ethanol mandates in our fuel supply have proven to be!
Such attitudes have proven disastrous for the economy as petrol prices have soared drastically in the term of the 110th Congress.
Consider this: As the Media's Congress continue protecting trial lawyers by refusing to undertake necessary tort reforms, it's important to note that the trial lawyers are heavily financing Democrat campaigns.
Of course, the Democrats also protect their own earmarks, even as Republicans who have had to face the bitter reality of the establishment media's theft of Congress from the people have already abandoned their earmarks. And the fact that Democrats cling to bureaucracy does not help their cause. Then there is the infamous trip which Senate Leader Harry Reid made to Latin America last November to counter what he saw as a faltering American economy.
The Democrats have also taken dead aim at an office established to monitor the labour unions of the United States by reducing the amount of oversight provided.

Clearly there is a need for better quality leadership...and it is time that we the people get up and find that leadership for ourselves. This is why we MUST start supporting candidates who really truly believe in reform, but also who exhibit it by their very actions. And we may have no choice but to support a softpedalling major political party with our wallets. As much as that party have done to betray their basic principles, the need to fund them against a powerful political machine aided and abetted by the establishment media is quite clear.
Consider this: The other party are heavily financed by organisations bent upon destroying our freedoms and our way of life. That political machine involves dirty monies including that heavily financed by one particular immigrant billionaire hellbent on imposing irrational partisan hatred in his agenda to steal what little power we the people have left.

There is no question that Nancy Pelosi is going to go down in history. Unfortunately, that distinction will be a very negative exhibition indeed.
The first female Speaker of the United States House of Representatives came from a political family; that said, there is no reason she has needed to block common-sense legislation nor to encourage greater amounts of pork barrel spending.
Then there are her efforts to undermine American allies in the War On Terror, like that nonbinding resolution to brand the Ottoman empire's massacre upon Armenians a genocide. Whilst Armenians were indeed savagely attacked by the Ottoman, bringing up this history was at a particularly bad time.
And with Mrs Pelosi banning cigaret smoking in the Speaker's Lobby, it was clearly evident that a massive cigaret tax hike would be looming.

...AND THE REPUBLICANS ARE NOT OFF THE HOOK EITHER...

Before one can assume that Democrats are completely to blame for the mess in the Media's Congress at present, let us also take a look at some other players in the Republican party.
It has come to America's attention that Republican Congressional representatives ALSO spent like drunken sailors. It has risen to the point where even President Bush has also announced his plans to clamp down on the more egregious spenders in his party.
And with California Representative Jerry Lewis, a San Diego-area Republican, facing ethics charges yet keeping his post, Idaho Senator Larry Craig being nailed on allegations of sexual impropriety in a men's lavatory, and longtime representative Duke Cunningham getting nailed over an old Rolls-Royce that would not even net $25 000, even the Congressional Republicans have their own ethics pecadillos to sort out.
The fact that it took the establishment media's theft of Congress from the people on 7 November 2006 to wake up the GOP is simply amazing. That said, GOP leaders have worked to stop earmarks, even as a few Republicans continue with their earmarking activity anyway. A prominent Republican Senator has even called rampant government spending a greater priority than an unborn baby's right to live --- and maybe not without good reason either.
Consider this: Government spending has increased faster in the 2000s under George W Bush than it did in the 1990s under Bill Clinton. However, President Bush does bear his own blame here by hardly ever vetoing a high spending tab like those passed earlier in the 2000s under the People's Congress.
Then there are the efforts of Republican senators and Congressmen working against the Border Fence that was promised in recent legislation, including one notable example from Texas senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. Even Arizona Democrat Governor Janet Napolitano has supported the original bill that was passed. THAT is how strong the measure is.
Also, Republicans have gotten too far from the basic conservative ideals that have gotten them into office in the past, most notably in 1994. With the growing demand from the populace for more libertarian values, it is high time for the GOP to get with the programme, unless of course they want even more losses like those in the recent special elections.

...EVEN PRESIDENT BUSH BEARS SOME OF THE BLAME

George Walker Bush certainly deserves some credit on his own: His efforts have successfully prevented any further terror attacks since 11 September 2001. We have seen his gameplan lead to the liberation of two countries from radical tyranny imposed in the name of the Islamic faith for the sake of perverting that great faith, enabling more than 50 million people in those countries to live a free life and even experience growing incomes. He has even implemented more economy-friendly measures to ensure economic growth that has continued for some six years after inheriting a recession from his predecessor.
That said, President Bush does have at least one major flaw in his plans: He does tend to have some globalist tendencies.
Take for instance the Law Of The Sea Treaty, AKA "LOST". His recent decision to sign on to that treaty has now put American interests in peril as a new globalist authority under the auspices of the United Nations assume control over the oceans and resources within. That now means that America has but one vote out of 155 and no veto, yet we are still expected to shoulder the brunt of the costs of that treaty. Evidently the American people are about to get soaked because we explore for varied resources in foreign waters.
Some people have found suspicion in his No Child Left Behind Act, which was designed to raise test scores of students nationwide, as a similar initiative had done in Texas. And even a number of conservatives and Republicans are finding some fault in the matter.
I think that he should have pursued a moderately different approach: He could have easily placed greater emphasis in implementing more objective curricula in schools, by defunding more left-of-centre propaganda like patently ribald sex education programmes that encourage underaged sexual activity and programmes that force an alarmist attitude toward the natural climatic changes that our earth experiences on a daily basis as it has from the beginning of time. You take out that propaganda which has an empty mental nutrient value and replace it with truly challenging courses --- geometry, forensics, biology, chemistry, and maybe even better-quality maths courses --- THEN you start seeing students' test scores rise.
Next comes his involvement in the Dubai Ports World deal --- a scheme that would have put the ports security of a number of American ports underneath the authority of a corporation operated by a foreign government. He found so much opposition, even Charles Schumer, the Democrat senior senator from New York, in a rare instance of common sense, stood up against the bill --- as did a large number of Democrats and Republicans and even larger number of Americans in general, coming together to an extent not seen commonly since the 11 September terrorist attacks.
Of course there are more recent examples like his eagerness to appeal to Hispanics by sabotaging plans to build the border fence as promised in recent legislation. And he has even pledged some support of guest worker programmes --- further alienating Americans who are overwhelmingly aggravated with illegal immigration and the associated costs, from overloaded social services programmes to closed hospitals to crowded schools. Some houses are dragged into increasingly decrepit conditions as people fail to assimilate to American culture. He has even pulled back from funding a fence for which he signed legislation.
I can guarantee you that THIS Hispanic voter is VERY disgusted by President Bush, by the Republicans, and certainly by the Democrats as well.

BOTTOM LINE:

There is plenty of blame to go around for this Congress. It is now up to YOU to take charge.

HOW YOU CAN TAKE BACK CONGRESS

You need to inform the politicians that they need to respect our beliefs in freedom, in traditional values, and in the foundations that made our country great. This means you will need to support people who are truly freedom-minded and that means those who happen to be of the party that just lost power.
As hard as it is to vote for the GOP --- and believe me, I am not very fond of John McCain myself --- I feel as if I have no choice if I want to remain free, if I want to continue living the American standard of life, if I want to keep more of the money I earn.
Consider this: The Democrats have openly vowed to steal even more of your money. One recent presidential candidate has vowed, in Marxist fashion, to "take things away from you for the common good"...and she is just about to bow out of the Presidential race.
They have also vowed to steal even more of your freedoms, from what types of vehicles you can drive, to how you can protect yourself from criminals, to what kinds of foods you can eat.
Make sure that the people you support understand the need for building the correct kind of border fence, for securing our borders correctly, for correctly handling illegal aliens invading our borders, by removing them from our soil instead of pampering them with cushy prison cells and cushier housing projects and overprepared school lunches and letting them use our emergency rooms for something you and I can take care of with a simple $2 box of bandages and a $2 tube of Neosporin(TM). Make sure also that such cnadidates know that securing the border also reduces our terror risk as thousands of Other-Than-Mexican (OTM) aliens have been picked up at the borders, with Border Patrol agents finding a number of articles with Farsi and Arabic text being abandoned at the borders. It is even reported that Hugo Chavez has been found to be helping Middle Easterners and South Asians learn how to speak Spanish and act Mexican. After all, replace the beards and caftans and turbans and sandals with cowboy hats and handlebar mustaches and Western shirts and Wranglers (TM) and Acme(TM) boots and what do you have but a proper Norteño.
Make sure also that the candidate has at least SOME concern that overly risqué material is kept out of the hands of minors as much as possible, even if that means encouraging more family-friendly programming and entertainment. That said, it is also important not to infringe overly upon freedom of speech or of expression.
Make sure that the candidate understands WHY it is important to reduce taxation, even to the point of imposing either the Fair Tax or a Flat Tax.
Make sure that reduced spending in government is a MUST! Overspending on both sides of Congress has become unacceptable. This is why Arizona Republican Jeff Flake was such a popular candidate for Republican Leader in the House.
With street gangs in this country, some comprised of illegal aliens like MS13, are working alongside terrorist gangs like AlQaeda, AbuSayyaf, Islamic Jihad, and Jemaah Islamiyah (all of which have been found to be active on American soil), drugs cartels, and even nations hostile to the United States, like Bolivia, Venezuela, Cuba, Iran, and Syria. It is high time we had some quality leadership dedicated to cleaning up the morasses of our urban areas.
Make sure that candidates understand in no uncertain terms that activism on the bench is absolutely 100 percent contrary to traditional values and 180 degrees of wrong in general. Recent decisions like the California Supreme Court's unconstitutional ruling violating the California people's Tenth Amendment rights by forcing same-sex "marriage" upon the masses are completely unacceptable, and judicial nominees MUST ABSOLUTELY rule within the strictest construction of the United States Constitution.
Make sure that consistency is crucial, meaning that a duplicitous attitude of pandering to you before the election and turning their back to you is absolutely unacceptable and will guarantee that you will withhold further support.
Make sure also that the candidate you support understands that we need energy independence, and that means we need to keep ALL methods on the table. Technological innovation, not government regulation, will resolve our oil and coal and other energy supply problems. We need to start drilling for our own oil, harvesting our own oil, and building new refineries. After all, we have not had a new refinery built in the US since the Garyville refinery opened in Louisiana in 1976, though one is currently on the drawing boards in South Dakota.
Make sure that businesses are free to innovate, with lower tax burdens for them. A lower tax burden for them is a lower price for you. That way, we can see companies rebuild our manufacturing base in the USA.
Make sure that your candidate understands why it is important to make it easier for the common man and the common woman to afford their own solar panels and vertical axis wind turbines so they can generate their own electricity. Even a 4x8ft area of your garden can yield six turbines and generate 6000 kilowatts of electricity.
Make sure also that your candidate remains principled and unwavering in his or her beliefs in the things that matter most --- preserving traditional freedom, protecting traditional institutions, encouraging business, and limiting government.
That way, we CAN make the progress we need in repairing our great republic. And we must hold these people's feet to the fire. It is TIME we took back our Congress, time for government BY the people, FOR the people, OF the people...NOT THE MEDIA.
Who do you trust more to devise policies for America --- your neighbour, or Katie Couric? Your wise elderly uncle, or Keith Olbermann? Your favourite secondary school instructor, or Jack Cafferty?
And don't lose faith. We have precious little time to move...As in the words of Thomas Paine, Tis Time To Act. But we CAN mobilise. As in the words of the late great president Ronald Reagan...It CAN Be Done.

CURRENTLY LISTENING:

Dance mixes
By EXPOSÉ
Release date: 31_01_2006

SATURDAY MORNING POST EDITION 100 FOR 31.05.2008

2008-09-06T22:12:00.000-07:00

IT TOOK A FEDERAL CASE TO WRITE THIS BLOG

I was on MySpace before in 2006 on two different occasions.
And then I had to deal with a rather discourteous interruption in my experience.
I am surprised that I am just now getting the bravery and the fortitude to express this now. Whilst I was away for the past 19 months I had a lot of new experiences come my way.
I have had a tree fall on my car during a horrible thunderstorm --- and it turn up on the local news. Fortunately, after three other body and fender repair shops dismissed it as a total loss, I found two shops willing to take a chance on it --- and one that actually repaired it and did a great job.
I have been on an extended road trip to Nebraska for work...and gotten another interesting appreciation for how the common man and the common woman live.
I have been through a number of road trips working support for an inventory team...and finally joined that team outright recently.
I have buried a cat, learnt more about the growing threat of certain antagonistic ideologies contrary to the protection of traditional freedoms, replaced computers, and revved up the one that I have now.
I have taken on the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation regarding the theft of my home in 2003 --- and lost.
But one big factor that weighed in is I expressed substantive disgust with how MySpace handled my last account.
I had been back for nary a month when I finally had started seeing more friends than I had had before, on another account that had just been dumped for no good reason.
And then I saw the message, telling me that my account had been deleted. I became very upset and started calling, emailing, even writing to MySpace headquarters to rectify the solution.
I quickly learnt that after a number of calls, letters, and emails, that they would not respond. That is when I took an unexpected route: On 13 November 2006 I filed a complaint with the United States District Court in Springfield, Missouri, to see about redressing this grievance, part of my First Amendment rights, to address ANOTHER part of my First Amendment rights, which I had seen as being violated.
At that time I filed a Motion to File In Forma Pauperis, which is used generally when people are in poverty or earning low incomes. That motion was denied, and later, when I was unable to pay the $350 filing fee, it was dismissed; I refiled that on 3 April 2007.
With my refiling I submitted a number of screenshots and printouts of emails showing how MySpace had refused to address the technical problems repeatedly. I finally had the matter served in Los Angeles last summer, but it took three attempts before we got everything just right.
My process server called me from LA County to tell me that I would need an additional document, which I obtained online and had notarised. Then having the matter re-served, it ultimately was not answered for a number of months, causing me to move for default judgment. That motion was ultimately denied when MySpace sent their counsel, who ultimately disregarded the evidence of their client's refusal to address my continued technical problems. Finally, the case was dismissed without prejudice in March 2008 and a subsequent motion to annul the dismissal or establish a date for a hearing was denied as well.
I came away thinking that the judge was negligent with his regard for my First Amendment Rights, but he cited a ruling in Colorado from 1996, in which he claimed that a state player could not intervene as I was requesting.
To me the judge came off rather ignorant, and I wonder if he is even fit to sit on the bench. But I don't want his career ruined. He could always teach at a law school, maybe even the one at Missouri State University.
I am certain that President George W Bush --- with whom I have a mixed relationship of, a combination of pride and angst --- had the right idea when appointing this judge. Maybe the judge will redeem himself in time with another case...we don't know.
And whilst you may think, This is karma for taking on Number One, or maybe even, That judge was a simpleton for ruling as he did, I cannot determine whether legal action is right for you or not if you experience something like this. It is entirely up to YOU to decide.
And if you are wondering if I ever had any ill will toward MySpace, then you will be pleased (?) to find that I NEVER had such poor sentiment toward the nice folks here at MySpace, and certainly NOT the nice folks at News Corporation, the parent company of this site. To the contrary they are wonderful people, and I have no ill will. I am pleased to see the success not to mention the ability for a number of us to connect and get closer to a number of interesting folks.
I come away with this thinking long and hard about the impact that this site has had on our society, and even world society as well. It is important to note that the world as we know it has changed, and I am sure for the better, as we gain better understanding of each other, including the sites that have cropped up in competition. I have been through a number of those and am on a number of them too, but as we all know, THIS is where so many folks wind up, meaning a greater opportunity to get to know a wide range of persepctives.
Certainly I have NO problem with the rules. I HAVE HAD occasional problems with the way some of them are enforced...and maybe so have some of you.

WHERE THE CITY ENDS---AND THE CORNSTALKS BEGIN

I have to go meet with fellow employees at a regional office a decent drive away from my home. Click here for my employer. This has become a part of life for me...and I don't particularly mind it.
It all started last June, during the last week of that month, when I was originally assigned to work with a Minnesota team counting the inventory at a major department store chain's stores. That would ultimately change to helping Nebraska teams handle a couple of inventories in Kearney.
And it was long, LONG, trip, particularly for me, unaccustomed to regular long trips for more than overnight, as was the general case. I have travelled throughout the state of Missouri, into Kansas, then Oklahoma, and quite a bit in Arkansas. Within the first year of my employment I had already worked a week with a team covering inventories for a major discount retailer.
I had already seen two state capitals whilst working for this company --- Jefferson City (Missouri) and Topeka (Kansas). I had already seen a number of miles of Interstates 44, 70, and 435, US66, US71, US60, US65, US54, and a number of other federal highways...in addition to a fairly sizable number of state highways, the gold and black Kansas sunflower / sawblade signs, the black and white state outline signs from Missouri and Arkansas and more recently, Oklahoma, after they abandoned the circle signs.
But the big trip to Kearney left me...well, somewhat prepared. I listened to Neal Boortz that morning and cooked a number of Philly Cheesesteak sandwiches to eat on the way into south-central Nebraska.
It proved to work as the only money I had spent from Joplin to Kearney was about $1 for a pop refill at a corner market in Fillmore --- along the I-29 north of Kansas City.
And what a trip it was, listening to a number of cassettes, I had yet to get a CD player, I would do that a few weeks later...and as we cruised up the I-435 around Kansas City, passing Worlds of Fun, crossing the Missouri River, and listening to Sean Hannity for as far as I could get a signal.
Soon after we stopped at an exit in the southwestern corner of Iowa, I was listening to the Yes album, Talk, which I highly recommend ... and then I would see a couple of blue and gold shields bearing the numbers of county routes, California-style. You have to understand, I grew up in California, where in a number of areas you would find blue-and-gold county route pentagons; some of you folks in other states also see those things, usually with a number, sometimes with a letter and number. I had already begun to see the cornstalks and corncobs rising above the fields of Missouri, Iowa, and then Nebraska, crossing the Missouri River again but this time on Highway 2, the Nebraska Highway. The Nebraska Highway is basically the Cornhusker equivalent to the El Camino Real, The Pacific Highway, or US1...a part of their identity, long cold winters spawning storms sometimes powerful enough to force the closure of the I-80, bright searing summers with almost endlessly late afternoons, miles upon miles of cornstalks, the occasional stand of trees. And with the growing interest in ethanol --- of which corn has become an increasing source of, and not without controversy at that --- Nebraska's identity appears to be quite strong.
After the long drive, in which my efforts to find Michael Savage and Mark Levin were unsuccessful on the AM radio stations, I tried to find a local station as the cities passed, that would hold my interest for very long...Lincoln, with its high-rise state capital, York, Grand Island...and finally to Kearney.
We pulled off the I-80 after passing under the Fort Kearney structure and I got out along with my six fellow employees. After the team leaders spoke with the front desk clerks regarding our reservations, we finally got our rooms. Mine turned out to be, well, all to myself. I wound up going just up the street to a Chinese restaurant, I am a sucker for Chinese restaurants with a buffet line, as this one clearly was, and then walked back, noting just how long the sun stayed up, with sunset hitting only at 10.00p.
I got back in to my room and learnt about the devastating story of the tragedy surrouding WWE wrestler Chris Benoit --- and was stunned. How could Benoit have passed away so suddenly? A number of news reports, including those on Fox News, would soon give me some clues.
I would later learn about his high dosages of steroids, his friends dying all around him --- he was visibly heartbroken when his good friend, Eddie Guerrero, passed away in November 2005 --- and even fell under such a bad case of "'roid rage" it boggles the mind. Then it all became clear, this was another good case AGAINST steroids abuse.
NEXT MORNING. We had a 9.00a meet time at the local Tractor Supply Company just across the road from our hotel. I headed to the dining area for the complimentary breakfast --- bagels, orange juice, yoghurt, cream cheese, apples, oranges, and milk --- You need a good breakfast to start the say if you are getting up that early.
At 9.00a we started counting varied items in the store inventory, I would go outside to count the larger implements, the lawn tractors, the go-carts, the stock feeders, the tanks, the loading chutes, the fenceposts, and then I wondered about how the weather would turn out. There were projections for 80 percent chance of thunderstorms, but I have lived back here in the South long enough to know that sometimes 80 percent chance of thunderstorms means not one drop on the ground.
Besides, the skies opened up with sunlight at about noon, when we took our break, and I grabbed a Vault, which I found I did not have to pay tax upon. That is because Nebraska do not charge state sales tax on groceries.
After lunch, everyone else went to Arbys. Not me, I chose to go back to the hotel and then go to a local Burger King nearby. And that sort of answers some of the things about my personality.
I do not always go with the flow. Sometimes I will choose something else. For example if everyone wants to eat at McDonalds I will go find a Burger King or a Hardees or even a Taco Bell. I used to enjoy Sonic but I can't stand their poor service anymore; a recent experience in Wichita turned me off to them for good when they fouled up my order TWICE. Arbys often sounds very good. In the past year I have discovered White Castle and rediscovered Del Taco and Jack In The Box --- all three of which are commonly found in the St Louis area. And lately, I have taken to grabbing bagels and cream cheese and ham or turkey or corned beef and frozen dinners from the local supermarket or even Supercentre.
After eating a Western Whopper or something like that, a large order of fries, and a large Dr Pepper, I walked downtown to get...A HAIRCUT?
That's right. A haircut.
But not before giving way to several freight trains crossing on a three-track Union Pacific mainline, witnessing a number of car carriers, I could make out some Chryslers through the slats on the carriers. Then I walked for a few blocks through the historical downtown.
Then I stopped at a local beauty college after passing a couple of barbershops...and found a great haircut for $7 from a student stylist. The instructor checked her work, touched my hair up, and even cut the hair growing on my ears, stating that some folks might be offended. I said, No, I am not offended, we all need a little help sometimes.
After going walkabout for a while I was back at the hotel, then a fellow employee and I walked just up the road to the local Runza restaurant.
I have to tell you about this peculiar name: It is a reference to a loaf-like sandwich, with ground beef and some sort of cheese baked inside. Runzas are to Nebraska what In-N-Out restaurants are to LA. I had a very tasty mushroom and swiss cheese Runza and fries...and I think I had some Sierra Mist.
Back at the hotel, I watched The O'Reilly Factor and Hannity & Colmes, and then I took a lengthy swim in the indoor pool. I kept bouncing from the pool --- which had an island in the centre and an elevated poolside bar --- to the hot tub. YES! those jets felt great...
Wednesday morning, 4.30a. I got up, dressed, then walked to the nearby Perkins restaurant. It's a terrific sit-down style restaurant in a number of Midwestern and Southern states, and I had to have biscuits and gravy, eggs, sausage, and iced tea.
At 6.00a we started counting the Kmart store, which I would learn was across the street from the local mall and next to the Target and Walmart. Not that those were great concerns --- they were too damn far away from the hotel. No way in hell I could walk that far...or could I?
After a long day which included lunch at Sonic, I wound up going on a long walkabout and ate dinner at Hardees --- two Big Twins (their version of a Big Mac but tastier) and a large Sprite. Then it was back to the hotel.
But on this long walk I got to see areas of town from a number of feet above the ground, where I could see from the bridges over the railway, where the city ended --- and the cornstalks began, you could literally walk from the city to the country in the next step. It felt all but surreal...and this is even for someone who is familiar with Los Angeles stretching for miles in one direction and going into a small town in another.
I even got to see a few impressive vehicles, including a very old Ford Model A Pickup in the backyard that I surmised would look fantastic when restored or customised. My father always used to work on some hot rod project when I was growing up and even before I was born. Nowadays he is a mechanic in LA.
On Thursday morning most of us went to the dining area for breakfast, and we watched what was going on with the local weather. At about 10.00a we went back on the road, cruising back the way we had come, stopping at the west edge of Lincoln, where we found ourselves on US6 --- the longest US highway in the system, stretching from Provincetown to Bishop, and at one point, until circa 1964 all the way to San Pedro. I announced that and my fellow employees were rather blasé about that tidbit of highway information. We pulled into a corner market where I loaded up on cherry limeade and then it was time to get back on the road. We would soon stop in Nebraska City --- where I gritted my teeth, grabbed a couple Quarter Pounders from Maccas --- and even bought a double cheeseburger and a Dr Pepper for a fellow employee who had run out of money.
As tight as finances get sometimes I would just as soon that even fellow employees have to eat too and it does not hurt to help them, even if it is very spartan.
After another stop at Kansas City off the I-435 for some stuffed breadsticks at QuikTrip --- you MUST grab some if you stop in one of those places --- we cruised back onto US71, where we encountered brutal traffic delays caused by the resurfacing of US71 and a number of offramps in and around its junction with the I-435 and the I-470 --- also known to locals as the "Grandview Triangle" or simply "The Triangle". I have tried to find a triangle in that area and never could figure that one out. Maybe if someone reading this is familiar with Kansas City...
Back on the long haul home we started getting closer to Joplin and I was finally able to tune in Savage Nation...I knew that this trip was done, but not without experiencing a number of visual elements that make you wonder more and more about the great world that God created for us.

A TREE FELL ON MY CAR AND...

As you can see, this is what my car appeared like as of roughly one year ago. A thunderstorm ripped through the area, and either a thunderbolt or a microburst knocked half a very fragile tree down on top of my car.
A year earlier another storm had knocked a large branch onto the street below...but I was parked all the way down at the truck stop all night for a work assignment in Jefferson City.
But this time I would not be so fortunate: The storm knocked my tree down and I panicked upon seeing a camera from ABC-12 here in Joplin --- and the anchor, ALSO forenamed Brian, was on the scene, and I was discussing the matter. It would take daylight before I would see the full impact.
After raising hell with the City of Joplin and my insurance company for not removing the branches off my car, someone finally came out to cut the branches off my car on Saturday. I think it was my landlord who sent that person out...he had also told me not to worry about trying to cut the branches off myself.
When I saw the damage it looked rather rough, with the right rear quarterpanel heavily dented, the right front fender dented, the boot mildly scratched, and the bonnet dented as well. However, when I went to start the car, it DID start --- so it still ran well.
So off to a number of body shops I went, seeking estimates. Most of them claimed it would be a total loss, one of them rather sanctimoniously claimed that he had had so much experience evaluating auto body damage ... and that put me off.
A trip to a neighbouring community gave me some hope, but at a cost of some $3500. Back on the west side of Joplin I would find a more acceptable price for the repairs --- and with $2100 from the insurance company, I would arrange for the repairs to be made.
After almost two weeks I was finally back on the road...with a much more attractive-looking 1998 Chevy Monte Carlo, just short of 100 000 miles. The right rear quarterpanel was filled in, with the right front fender and the bonnet replaced.
To this day it still shows a few evident but minor markings of the night, day, and night where a number of metric tonnes of maple tree were leaning on the right side of the car. I will get those taken care of eventually, but not just yet.

DROWSY DRIVING

I would like to talk about something very serious for a moment.
I was driving home from work after a VERY, VERY long day that had started at about 4.00a in Lawrence KS, the home of the University of Kansas (KU), where I was counting inventory at the local Home Depot.
After a long drive through Kansas City and Clinton back to Springfield I finally started heading home, and it was also rather late in the day, somewhere near 7.00p.
After a drive down Old Route 66 through Halltown and Paris Springs and Carthage, I was cruising down the 171 Freeway when I approached a construction zone where there is currently a three-point junction between 171 and 249 (*the latter being a bypass round the east side of Joplin, to relieve the consistently-congested Range Line Road --- if you have driven the I-405 in Los Angeles you know what I am talking about).
So I slowed down from the normal speed limit of 70mi/h down to 45mi/h and as I was crossing under the Carterville junction overcrossing I must have lost consciousness for a brief moment.
Suddenly I heard a loud WHUMP...then another WHUMP...then I hit the brakes. I would pull over to the side of the road to find that I had run over two construction zone barrels with my 2003 Ford Ranger. The silver pickup had sustained a broken headlamp and a couple of minor dents in the bonnet, whereas it could have sustained far worse, when I ran over those barrels at roughly 35 miles an hour.
I picked the barrels up --- they were large plastic barrels that were only mildly to moderately dented --- and placed them back upright.
I then realised that I had fallen asleep behind the wheel for a brief moment, with about 16 hours of daytime behind me.
So let me educate you about the growing problems with drowsy drivers --- the folks who drive whilst sleepy or otherwise exhausted to the point that they risk losing consciousness on the highways.
According to the website Drowsydriving.org, Unlike alcohol-related crashes, no blood, breath, or other objective test for sleepiness behind the wheel currently exists that investigators could give to a driver at the scene of a crash. This makes police training in identifying drowsiness as a crash factor very difficult.
So if you get tired duing a long drive especially at the end of a very long day you should consider doing the following:
Pull off onto the hard shoulder, at a junction from a motorway if possible, either onto the hard shoulder of a sliproad or onto a nearby surface street or road.
(ADVISORY: Some states may limit your ability to perform this task by statute, like Arkansas who now prohibit parking along the hard shoulders of carriageways, dual carriageways, and motorways; if a trooper or other policeman should arrive, however, the most s/he can do is direct you to the nearest junction, or even to a car park, whether at a supermarket, corner market, big box store, strip mall, or even an abandoned filling station.)
If you can find a rest area --- USE IT! Pull over and take a short nap or even go to sleep for a few hours.
If you can find a place to park --- USE IT! A supermarket, a corner market, a filling station, a mall, even an abandoned business --- all of those can improvise for a proper place to rest on a long drive.
Failing all of that, if YOU MUST stay awake and drive, drink something with caffeine, like coffee (regular, espresso, cappucino), maybe cola, a citrus beverage like Mountain Dew, Mello Yello, Vault, or even an energy drink, like Rockstar, Full Throttle, Red Bull, or Amp. The caffeine will have less effect on those who drink it regularly however. Eat a light or moderate snack or meal, like a hot ham and cheese sandwich.
Something else I just discovered: If you are awake for 18 hours you are exhibiting an equivalent of a blood alcohol content of eight one-hundredths of one percent --- enough to trigger the drink driving laws. And my wreck is typical of the 100 000 that occur due to drowsy driving, with 55 percent caused by drivers younger than 25. Younger folks who pull long hours often need to keep this in mind especially when driving late in their days!
From the Drowsydriving.org WEBSITE, Here are some signs that should tell a driver to stop and rest:
* Difficulty focusing, frequent blinking, or heavy eyelids
* Daydreaming; wandering/disconnected thoughts
* Trouble remembering the last few miles driven; missing exits or traffic signs
* Yawning repeatedly or rubbing your eyes
* Trouble keeping your head up
* Drifting from your lane, tailgating, or hitting a shoulder rumble strip
* Feeling restless and irritable
Before you drive, check to see if you are:
* Sleep-deprived or fatigued (6 hours of sleep or less triples your risk)
* Suffering from sleep loss (insomnia), poor quality sleep, or a sleep debt
* Driving long distances without proper rest breaks
* Driving through the night, midafternoon or when you would normally be asleep
* Taking sedating medications (antidepressants, cold tablets, antihistamines)
* Working more than 60 hours a week (increases your risk by 40%)
* Working more than one job and your main job involves shift work
* Drinking even small amounts of alcohol
* Driving alone or on a long, rural, dark or boring road
So what's the solution? Exercise due caution especially when tired and you have to drive. Fortunately for me, my financial liability is limited to replacing a headlamp and maybe banging out a couple of dents in the bonnet --- all inside the cost of $100. With the location of those barrels next to a Jersey barrier --- a concrete barricade used commonly along a number of turnpikes and urban motorways --- it could very easily have been worse.
I hope that you will come away with a sober understanding of driving whilst drowsy...and that you will educate others to the dangers of drowsy driving.

My Stimulus Cheque --- And How Did Yours Go?

Chances are you have been hearing a lot in the media about the US federal government sending out stimulus cheques to most working-class Americans of middle and lower economic classes.
No doubt you are aware that some of those cheques have already been sent out.
Well, let me tell you about my day out shopping with the stimulus cheque I just received.
Yesterday night I came home from my mother's house to find that my cheque had just been sent out, a total of $300. Not quite what I had hoped for; I had anticipated $600, but anyway, it's great that that cheque was even issued at all, thanks in part to President Bush (1) and thanks in part to the Media's Congress (2) who in a rare sign of sobriety and commom sense noted that the Government were stealing too much of our pay cheques.

At about 12.30 I drove over to the bank to cash that cheque and then took off in my silver 2003 Ford Ranger to Best Buy where I started checking out the car stereos. After meeting with someone from Home Theatre who called in someone from Geek Squad I finally chose a Sony CDX GT320 which is ready for IPods, HD Radios, WMA, and MP3 players...and even comes with a REMOTE CONTROL! (How in the HELL would I NEED a remote control when the bench seat in my pickup TAKES UP half the damn cab! LOL!)
At 13.25 I paid for my stereo, an adaptor for the wiring in my pickup, a mounting kit, and the installation --- a total of $198. I then wheeled the truck around to the installation bay and had my stereo installed, being told to expect to wait 45 minutes, and signed some paperwork.I spent that time walking round the store, thinking about something else I could buy after this were done. I checked out CD players (for the home), CDs (I even found a 'Freestyle Forever' compilation), video games (including Family Guy games for two different video game systems), computer peripherals, computer memory cards, cameras, MP3 players and IPods...
At about 14.05 I went back to the shop and found my pickup parked outside. I examined the interior --- where I found my new stereo installed.I walked into the shop, was advised of a few details, and signed different parts of the paper work. Then it was on to the manual where I checked for instructions --- and figured out how to set radio stations.So I started setting some of the FM stations, then set up a couple of AM station presets for the local talk radio stations. I tuned in to KQYX-AM, our local affiliate for Sean Hannity, Michael Savage, Mark Levin, and Neal Boortz. If you want Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Dennis Miller, or even that loudmouthed "Howard Dean" Dave "I'M DEBT FREEEEE!" Ramsey --- you tune in to KZRG-AM.

I started cruising the always-infernally congested Range Line Road in my truck, now with a decent stereo. I had to deal with a few robots and the usual traffic jams, but then I pulled into Walmart on East 15th, checking for shoes. I would find a number of shoes that failed to meet all of my criteria: steel toe, slip-on, size 13.
That is because I have to use those at WORK!
And work for me involves taking inventory at Home Depot stores in Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky.But this week is an off week due to Memorial Day, so now I am waiting for a phone call for my next assignment. As in the plaintive words of Exposé, "I wish the phone would ring". (LOL!)

Then it was off on a goose chase up and down Range Line, down to Academy, where I found shoes just like them, but not the size I needed.Up to Target, where I found nothing that I needed. Then on to the mall --- Sears: I came VERY close to what I needed, even found a good pair of Roebuck steel toed shoes but with laces, that I ALMOST bought. JCPenney: Nothing came close. Journeys: Nothing came close. TradeHome: Not even close. Dryers Shoes: Nothing came close. Same story at both Payless Shoe Sources, Steve & Barrys, TJMaxx, Goodys, Shoe Carnival...WalMart in Webb City, even Name Brand Clothing...So it was time to go back to Academy, where I found the same style of shoes I had checked out before. I suddenly remembered from my last Academy inventory that Academy stack their shoes two stacks deep, so I removed a stack of mostly 11s and found a couple of pairs of 13s hidden away.

I grabbed a pair of 13s then took them up front to pay for them. I considered a Guava Rockstar, put it back, then moved from register to register, then picked out another Guava Rockstar anyway, then paid for my purchase, there goes $29 all told.
Back to the truck, where I put Hannity back on, then pulled into the local Dollar Tree, then the local Deal$, to get a new mobile phone case because the old one had had a broken clasp. After paying $1 for the case, it was back into the truck, where by now Sean Hannity had given way to Michael Savage.

Then it was back to Best Buy to buy a memory card for my computer. Another $38 were spent at Best Buy, my second purchase from that store in the same day. Then it was off to the local "Gasco" filling station and corner market, a former Texaco station run by a Pakistani family who always kept Pakistani and Indian programming (MEANING Asian Indian) on the television --- except maybe for the one time I saw CNBC on there. I had no time for that, just paying $20 for petrol and bringing my tank back to just over half full.

Then it was back to my apartment and on to open my computer for a couple of minutes, just long enough to install the new memory card, then closed it back up, then started it up. I turned on the home stereo receiver and tuned in The Savage Nation, with Michael Savage.

I went into my Maxthon Browser and clicked open the tabs for my email, the Sweet Sensation forum, and the Mark Levin Fan Forum.After a short burst of activity on the computer I checked the clock in the lower right hand corner and grabbed my case of CDs which I normally take on the road with me. Then I placed them in the truck, inserted the Exposé Greatest Dance Mixes CD, and cranked up the original Point of no return. (Don't worry --- I took the Sweet Sensation double disc with me too, I should be putting that in later on.)

Then it was off to Cicis Pizza, where I tucked into a number of pizzas, including their new "Pepperoni Flip", which is similar to a Calzone...and what a great way to spend $7. I watched basketball as I ate pizza, salads, and a cinnamon roll and an apple pizza...and even noted an advert from a local Chevrolet agency where a promotion offering to double stimulus cheques as down payments was presented; I chuckled, noting that I had two perfectly good vehicles, a 10-year-old Chevrolet Monte Carlo and a five-year-old Ford Ranger, and I had no need for that promotion, because I had just gotten one of the most important things --- a working radio in my pickup. My father had sent a JVC head unit that ultimately did not work --- so it was over to the professionals who knew what they were doing.

Now of course it is plain to see I have shot through that money, but I guess in a way the President's aims to boost the economy are working. They certainly are on my end, as I took care of a number of things I needed --- a new stereo, new work shoes, and more memory for my computer. All of those things, I won't have to spend out of my hard-earned pay cheques...which have gotten a little meatier because of my now month-old stint with my employers' Home Depot inventory team. Future drives to and from Springfield will NO LONGER be silent --- they may even be fairly noisy with freestyle, dance, techno, and anything else I can find to put in there...Let's see how YOU spent YOUR stimulus cheques...IF you are comfortable doing that sort of thing.

IS IT TIME TO START PROSECUTING SCHOOL BULLIES WHOSE VICTIMS DIE AS A RESULT OF BULLYING FOR MURDER?

I will be the first to admit that this is a rather rough topic to address.
That said, it is time to consider the grave threat that school bullying brings about.
To understand the full impact of the cruelty of school bullying, we need look no further than the tragic example of Tempest Smith, a Michigan girl who was basically killed by the constant harassment of ill-minded children perverting the message of the Lord Jesus Christ, simply because of her Wiccan beliefs. As a Christian myself --- I am a card-carrying member of the United Pentecostal Church --- I was disgusted and horrified at her tragic death.
And the uncaring school authorities ignored the problem until it was too late, until they had learnt of Tempest's death.
Twelve-year-old children DO NOT choose to kill themselves, folks: There IS an underlying undercurrent here --- and in this case it is bullying.
And Tempest is not the only victim: A number of folks have been the victim of school bullying, some with a stronger will to fight back than others, but oftentimes schools tend to ignore the problem, telling someone to buck up and grow a pair or whatever. The problem has been noted by psychologists in increasing amounts in recent years. As a result we fail to acknowledge the victims, until someone is injured or turns up dead...and maybe the schools are not the only one who need to take notice.
Maybe it is time for law enforcement to take a stand --- and they have had new assistance in that matter.
Take for instance a recent case in my home state of Missouri, where someone started a fake profile for the sake of bullying a young girl who is now deceased because of this bullying. There is now a new state law that prohibits this practise.
And it couldn't come too soon. If anything, we need to understand the grievous nature of bullying, that can cause substantive psychological damage that can make it harder for someone to function properly.
Young Tempest should be in university today, living on her own, or EVEN in the United States military. Instead she is lying six feet under, all because vicious little children chose to abuse the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, which in addition to the usual admonitions against sin, also offer a number of admonitions against hatred and bigotry. They can be found not only in Matthew, Mark, and the First Book of Corinthians, but also in the Old Testament, specifically Isaiah, Chapter 59, Verses 4 through 8, which read:
4 None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.
5 They hatch cockatrice' eggs, and weave the spider's web: he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper.
6 Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works: their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands.
7 Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths.
8 The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace.
I think it is safe to conclude that there is a strong case for countering the vengeful bullying that needlessly targets innocent children --- but also for parents to teach children NOT to behave in such a fashion either. If I can understand that as a non-parent --- How hard is that for a parent to understand? I think parents need to teach children how to take care of themselves, put them in martial arts classes, karate, kung fu, judo, jiujitsu, Taekwondo, kickboxing, and the like...but also they need to teach children not to bully someone just because of their beliefs or anything else.
And with that bullying in mind, prosecutors may have to start getting involved in school bullying, particularly if people wind up dead as a result of bullying. This may mean time to prosecute the bullies whose actions drive their victims to their deaths for homicide, even murder if need be.
Something needs to be done with regard to bullying, and though meaningful solutions such as Bullies-To-Buddies are helpful for most of them, what can be done to deter the most extreme cases of bullying?
The answer: Use the law as a deterrent. Virtually every jurisdiction has a statute forbidding murder. Some of these cases cause such psychological damage that death may result --- and if it means putting a schoolyard bully on trial for homicide so be it.
One good example made of a school bully will discourage others. They might not get the death penalty but if a couple of bullies wind up in lockup for lethal bullying, either the state reformatory or the state penitentiary, for long periods of time, others will be deterred, knowing that on lockdown, you don't get to ride your bicycle down the street, you don't get to go to Maccas or Hardees or Jack In The Box or Del Taco or White Castle or Sonic with your parents or friends, you don't get to play XBOX or PSP whenever you like, you don't get to stay up and watch the late movies, you don't get to listen to your IPOD anytime you want.
The law may have to be used in this case in order to stop school bullying. It is not the ONLY solution, but it needs to be A useful solution.

Currently listening :

Cydonia
By The Orb
Release date: 2001-02-27