The president of Sudan wants to ban Danes from entering his country because of cartoon drawings of Mohammad. Now ask yourself, what would the reaction be in the Muslim world if Denmark, or any country in the West for that matter, wanted to ban all Muslims because of the actions of radical Islamofascist terrorists? Just a hunch, but I predict there would be ‘outrage.’
President Omar al-Bashir said Wednesday that he would bar Danes from Sudan and told tens of thousands of people at a government-backed rally that the Muslim world should boycott Denmark because of a reprinted cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad.
“We urge all Muslims around the world to boycott Danish commodities, goods, companies, institutions, organizations and personalities,” al- Bashir told the crowd outside the Republic Palace in downtown Khartoum.
“Down, down, Denmark!” shouted the crowd. Al-Bashir vowed that “not a single Danish foot will from now on desecrate the land of Sudan.”
Government spending on health care could nearly double by 2017 to more than $2 trillion, according to a new federal study, reflecting a surge that promises to complicate the campaign debate about health care.
Driven by the aging of the baby-boom generation and rising costs of new drugs and medical technology, Medicare, the big federal health program for the elderly, will take up 20.7% of national health spending by 2017, according to the report.
Overall, the report projects health-care spending in the U.S. will hit $4.3 trillion by 2017, nearly double the 2007 amount. That would equate to nearly 20% of gross domestic product. In 2007, health-care spending accounted for 16.3% of GDP, according to the study. But more of that cost is expected to shift to government agencies — even as the federal government struggles to shrink huge deficits.
The Bush administration has proposed various steps to curb Medicare spending in its latest budget, but it isn’t clear whether those cuts will win approval from Congress.
“The impact of the population aging is expected … to have a substantial influence on the public share of spending growth, as the leading edge of the baby-boom generation becomes eligible for Medicare,” wrote Sean Keehan and his co-authors of the study, economists at the federal agency that runs Medicare and Medicaid. The study expects aging baby boomers to account for a relatively small share of future health-care spending growth on a per enrollee basis…
And this isn’t even taking into consideration the total expenditures of any sort of nationalized socialized medicine, such as Hillary and Obama both want. Just who in the heck do they expect to pay for this? These kind of programs will tax us into oblivion and bankrupt us as a country unless something is seriously done to fix it. Unfortunately, when the leading presidential contenders are only talking about expanding it, I see absolutely no fix on the horizon. So, hold onto your wallets…
A 16 year old kid had consensual sex with a girl who had told him she was 16 but then later turned out to only be 13. Although the girl lied to him, he’s now a registered sex offender. I just don’t believe that situations like this fit the purpose of sex offender registration and I fail to see how this serves the best interest of public safety. If you want to really get down to it, it could be argued that he was honest and she lied just to have sex…so who’s the real ‘offender?’
To put this boy in the same category as true pedophiles and child rapists, for life, is just dumb. Zero tolerance often means zero common sense, and this is a perfect example.
When Ricky was 16, he went to a teen club and met a girl named Amanda, who said she was the same age. They hit it off and were eventually having sex. At the time Ricky thought it was a pretty normal high school romance.
Two years later, Ricky is a registered sex offender, and his life is destroyed.
Amanda turned out to be 13. Ricky was arrested, tried as an adult, and pleaded guilty to the charge of lascivious acts with a child, which is a class D felony in Iowa. It is not disputed that the sex was consensual, but intercourse with a 13-year-old is illegal in Iowa.
Ricky was sentenced to two years probation and 10 years on the Iowa online sex offender registry. Ricky and his family have since moved to Oklahoma, where he will remain on the state’s public registry for life.
Being labeled a sex offender has completely changed Ricky’s life, leading him to be kicked out of high school, thrown out of parks, taunted by neighbors, harassed by strangers, and unable to live within 2,000 feet of a school, day-care center or park. He is prohibited from going to the movies or mall with friends because it would require crossing state borders, which he cannot do without permission from his probation officer. One of Ricky’s neighbors called the cops on him, yelled and cursed at him, and videotaped him every time he stepped outside, Ricky said.
Don’t count on your typical teenager to nod knowingly the next time you drop a reference to any of these. A study out today finds that about half of 17-year-olds can’t identify the books or historical events associated with them.
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“If you think it matters whether or not kids have common historical touchstones and whether, at some level, we feel like members of a common culture, then familiarity with this knowledge matters a lot,” says American Enterprise Institute researcher Rick Hess, who wrote the study.
Among 1,200 students surveyed:
•43% knew the Civil War was fought between 1850 and 1900.
•52% could identify the theme of 1984.
•51% knew that the controversy surrounding Sen. Joseph McCarthy focused on communism.
In all, students earned a C in history and an F in literature, though the survey suggests students do well on topics schools cover. For instance, 88% knew the bombing of Pearl Harbor led the USA into World War II, and 97% could identify Martin Luther King Jr. as author of the “I Have a Dream” speech.
Fewer (77%) knew Uncle Tom’s Cabin helped end slavery a century earlier.
“School has emphasized Martin Luther King, and everybody teaches it, and people are learning it,” says Chester Finn of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, an education think tank. “What a better thing it would be if people also had the Civil War part and the civil rights part, and the Harriet Tubman part and the Uncle Tom’s Cabin part.”
Hmm, wonder what Owlgore will have to say about this? Think it’d be some sort of alarmist crap along the lines of ‘global warming is causing global cooling?’ I’m just sayin…
Snow cover over North America and much of Siberia, Mongolia and China is greater than at any time since 1966.
The U.S. National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) reported that many American cities and towns suffered record cold temperatures in January and early February. According to the NCDC, the average temperature in January “was -0.3 F cooler than the 1901-2000 (20th century) average.”
China is surviving its most brutal winter in a century.
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In just the first two weeks of February, Toronto received 70 cm of snow, smashing the record of 66.6 cm for the entire month set back in the pre-SUV, pre-Kyoto, pre-carbon footprint days of 1950.
And remember the Arctic Sea ice? The ice we were told so hysterically last fall had melted to its “lowest levels on record? Never mind that those records only date back as far as 1972 and that there is anthropological and geological evidence of much greater melts in the past.
The ice is back.
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OK, so one winter does not a climate make. It would be premature to claim an Ice Age is looming just because we have had one of our most brutal winters in decades.
But if environmentalists and environment reporters can run around shrieking about the manmade destruction of the natural order every time a robin shows up on Georgian Bay two weeks early, then it is at least fair game to use this winter’s weather stories to wonder whether the alarmist are being a tad premature.
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The last time the sun was this inactive, Earth suffered the Little Ice Age that lasted about five centuries and ended in 1850. Crops failed through killer frosts and drought. Famine, plague and war were widespread. Harbours froze, so did rivers, and trade ceased.
It’s way too early to claim the same is about to happen again, but then it’s way too early for the hysteria of the global warmers, too.
Warm, serene, loving, open-minded to the idea of free speech, tolerant practitioners of the Religion of Peace™ in Pakistan have banned Youtube over ‘un-Islamic’ content, allegedly for airing videos which contained cartoons of Muhammad.
The Pakistani government has blocked access to leading internet video website YouTube until further notice over content deemed offensive to Islam, reportedly including the controversial Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.
The BBC reports that under government instructions, the Association of Pakistan Internet Service Providers (APISP) has ordered internet service providers to block the site immediately until further notice.
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Reports said the content included the Danish cartoons that sparked violent protests around the world after a Danish newspaper published them in 2005, but one report said a trailer for a forthcoming film by Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders, which portrays Islam in a negative light, was behind the ban.
Many on the far-left in this country praise Chavez as some sort of hero. Yet these same folks would deride anyone in the US for daring to want people to speak English here. They’re quick to label anyone who wanted to emphasize English as racists, xenophobes, etc. Hmm, I wonder what their reaction to Chavez’ plans will be? Odds are, nothing. They probably won’t utter a peep. Gotta love hypocrisy. (hat tip: Astute Blogger)
President Hugo Chavez’s government is taking its battle against U.S. “imperialism” into Venezuelans’ vocabulary, urging state phone company workers to eschew English-language business and tech terms that have crept into the local vernacular.
Through a campaign launched Monday, newly nationalized CANTV hopes to wean employees and others from words like “staff” (”equipo”), “marketing” (”mercadeo”) and “password” (”contrasena”).
Stickers and banners printed up by the company exhort Venezuelans to “Say it in Spanish. Say it with pride.”
The Communications and Information Ministry said in a statement that Venezuelans must recover Spanish words that are “threatened by sectors that have started a battle for the cultural domination of our nations.”
Other English words targeted include “mouse” (”raton”), “meeting” (”reunion”) and “sponsor” (”patrocinador”) — all of which have become acceptable in business circles in various Latin American countries.
Just imagine the outrage from the open-borders multicultural left if people here wanted to print stickers and banners stating ‘Say it in English. Say it with pride.’
I’m no fan of Barack Obama. At all. Not one bit. However, a photograph of him wearing traditional Somali elder’s garb while visiting Kenya was leaked to the media and appeared on Drudge today. It’s been alleged that the Hillary Clinton campaign was behind it, and it was circulated among her staffers, but who knows? Personally, I think this photo is much-ado about nothing. At face value, just seems that he’s respecting a local culture and tradition while traveling abroad.
I’d much rather someone be pointing out his hideous policies (’change,’ with no substance, massive new growth of government and entitlements, and billions in new spending and tax increases) and I can’t say that I really care one iota about this photo.
And, while we’re at it, if Hillary’s campaign is behind it and trying to insinuate he’s pandering to Muslims or something… well, they’ve got no place to talk.
Another absolutely horrible story that didn’t have to happen, if our spineless politicos would actually secure the borders. Stuff like this just makes me sick.
I know, I know…illegal aliens are just here to work…yadda, yadda…
Meanwhile, four innocent children are dead as a result of our failed border and immigration policies.
Authorities have confirmed that the the driver of the van that struck the school bus that killed 4 students [last] Tuesday is an illegal alien.
Officials at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement are checking to see where she came from and how long she’s been in Minnesota. FOX 9 has also learned that the name she gave to police, Alainiss Morales, is an alias.
23-year-old Alainiss N. Morales was taken into custody on suspicion of criminal vehicular operation.
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STUDENTS KILLED IN CRASH IDENTIFIED
Hunter Javens, 9, Cottonwood.
Jesse Javens, 13, Cottonwood (Hunter & Jesse were brothers)
Emilee Olson, 9, Cottonwood
Reed Stevens, 12, Marshall.
My sincerest condolences to the families and friends of the children who lost their lives and others who may have been injured.
Federal immigration investigator Claude Arnold said this morning that Morales is not the woman’s name, and she is not revealing her real name. He added that she is in this country illegally, probably from Mexico.
Federal immigration spokesman Tim Counts said that the woman has been of “minimal helpfulness” to investigators, but “we will get to the bottom of matters.”
Welp, it looks like Ralph Nader is running for president again on a third-party ticket. Many Democrats are still mad at him because they blame him for taking enough votes from OwlGore to allow George Bush to win in 2000. *chuckle* Personally, I hope there’s another meltdown and fits of hysterics by the far-left in reaction to Nader’s announcement.
Ralph Nader said Sunday he will run for president as a third-party candidate, criticizing the top White House contenders as too close to big business and pledging to repeat a bid that will “shift the power from the few to the many.”
Nader, 73, said most people are disenchanted with the Democratic and Republican parties due to a prolonged Iraq war and a shaky economy. The consumer advocate also blamed tax and other corporate-friendly policies under the Bush administration that he said have left many lower- and middle-class people in debt.
“You take that framework of people feeling locked out, shut out, marginalized and disrespected,” he said. “You go from Iraq, to Palestine to Israel, from Enron to Wall Street, from Katrina to the bumbling of the Bush administration, to the complicity of the Democrats in not stopping him on the war, stopping him on the tax cuts.”
Eh, every little bit helps. Punishing employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens is certainly a key to stopping the problem. Eliminate the draw and rewards of coming here and they’ll have to go home. Attrition through enforcement, with no mass deportations.
The government will raise by 25 percent the fines it levies against employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants, officials said Friday.
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Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal agency responsible for investigating illegal hirings, has stepped up its enforcement of the employer sanctions law in the past year, leading to a dozen major busts. Currently, fines range from $275 to $11,000 depending on the offense. The agency says some penalties could include at least six months in jail.
I wonder how much alcohol was involved when Ted Kennedy performed a hideous version of ‘Ay Jalisco No Te Rajes’ in Spanish at a recent rally in Texas to support of Barack Obama?
Gotta warn you though, it’s bad singing. Bad. Very bad. Like, real bad.
The State Security Forces (SSF) arrested a woman for not wearing socks. When her sister attempted to get her detained sister released by taking a pair of socks to the SSF local station where the woman was held, both women were beaten up by male agents and imprisoned until next morning.
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Wearing boots with short pants, hats or scarves which do not fully cover hair and neck instead of the proper head veil and putting on unusual make-up that contradicts public chastity is forbidden.
Polar bears could become the first species to be recognized as threatened by global warming…even though there are more now than that at any other time in the 20th century. If this action occurs, I see this as pandering to the eco-religionist global warming alarmists and nothing more.
In early March, the polar bear could become the first species officially recognized by the U.S. government as threatened by global warming. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has proposed to list the polar bear as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) — even though U.S. polar bear populations aren’t declining.
Fortunately, says H. Sterling Burnett, a senior fellow with the National Center for Policy Analysis, comprehensive research demonstrates that since the 1970s — while much of the world was warming — polar bear numbers increased dramatically to approximately 25,000 today (higher than at any time in the 20th century).
Obviously, as an American, this inherently pisses me off. However, if we really think about it, what would our reaction be if a foreign country decided part of our nation could declare independence and break away? In a hypothetical way, it’s not really much different than if Germany recognized California as an independent state.
Serb protesters ransacked and set fire to the U.S. embassy in Belgrade on Thursday, venting anger at U.S. support for Kosovo’s declaration of independence.
A charred body was later found inside, but all American personnel had been accounted for and nothing suggested it was an embassy employee, U.S. officials said.
Riot police — nowhere to be seen when the attack began — eventually moved in to disperse the rampaging protesters but Washington was furious.
At U.S. request, the U.N. Security Council condemned “mob attacks” on the embassy in Belgrade.
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