Vaccines

On the topic of vaccines and autism. Pulled these randomly from the article.

The disease (autism) was unknown until 1943, when it was identified and diagnosed among 11 children born in the months after thimerosal was first added to baby vaccines in 1931.

Since 1991, when the CDC and the FDA had recommended that three additional vaccines laced with the preservative be given to extremely young infants -- in one case, within hours of birth -- the estimated number of cases of autism had increased fifteenfold, from one in every 2,500 children to one in 166 children.

In China, where the disease was virtually unknown prior to the introduction of thimerosal by U.S. drug manufacturers in 1999, news reports indicate that there are now more than 1.8 million autistics.

Infants who received all their vaccines, plus boosters, by the age of 6 months were being injected with levels of ethylmercury 187 times greater than the EPA's limit for daily exposure to methylmercury, a related neurotoxin.

In April, 2005 reporter Dan Olmsted of UPI undertook one of the more interesting studies himself. Searching for children who had not been exposed to mercury in vaccines -- the kind of population that scientists typically use as a "control" in experiments -- Olmsted scoured the Amish of Lancaster County, Penn., who refuse to immunize their infants. Given the national rate of autism, Olmsted calculated that there should be 130 autistics among the Amish. He found only four. One had been exposed to high levels of mercury from a power plant. The other three -- including one child adopted from outside the Amish community -- had received their vaccines.

"You couldn't even construct a study that shows thimerosal is safe," says Haley, who heads the chemistry department at the University of Kentucky. "It's just too darn toxic. If you inject thimerosal into an animal, its brain will sicken. If you apply it to living tissue, the cells die. If you put it in a petri dish, the culture dies. Knowing these things, it would be shocking if one could inject it into an infant without causing damage."

Suspect Wants $20 Million

Keith Clayton Brooks Jr. is looking for $20 Million and charges against him dropped. Brooks and an accomplice were burglarizing a home on the south end of town last October when deputies showed up on the scene. A shot was fired at the deputies who then returned fire, wounding Brooks. The article doesnt make clear if Brooks or his accomplice was the one doing the shooting. Brooks as much as admits his crime by his statement "I ultimately became a victim."

What is this? While I support clogging the court system (fight your traffic tickets people) this is ridiculous. No doubt it will be thrown out.

Cur Deus Homo

The text of Cur deus homo for those who care to read it.

Which Theologian Are You?

Anselm is the outstanding theologian of the medieval period.He sees man's primary problem as having failed to render unto God what we owe him, so God becomes man in Christ and gives God what he is due. You should read 'Cur Deus Homo?'

Anselm 100% Karl Barth 87% Martin Luther 80% John Calvin 67% Jonathan Edwards 67% Charles Finney 40% Friedrich Schleiermacher 33% J�rgen Moltmann 20% Augustine 20% Paul Tillich 0% Which theologian are you? created with QuizFarm.com

I am going to have to read up on this Anselm.

America: From Freedom To Fascism

Here is an article from the Glen Falls, New York Post Star. A reporter from the paper was at the local screening of Aaron Russo's film America: From Freedom To Fascism. The reporter leads off with an ex-IRS employee who thought to cash in on the $50,000 reward for anyone who can provide a copy of the law that give the FedGov the authority to impose an income tax on American workers (noting that 7 years later she still hasnt found it)then goes on to note that former IRS Commisioner Sheldon Cohen admits on camera that the current law only call for "voluntary compliance."

The word is getting out, and it isnt favorable to our Government.

A new study released by Nature shows a difference in brains in children of differing intelligence.

As a child grows the brain goes thru several enlargments and "cullings". What the study found is that in children of high intelligence (121 to 149) the enlargement process didnt finish until age 11. "Children who were just slightly less bright reached that point at age 9, and those with average intelligence at around 6. In all cases, the cortex later thinned as the children matured."

The study goes on to say "Nobody knows what's happening within the cortex to make it get thicker or thinner, Shaw said, so it's impossible to say why those changes would be related to intelligence. Brain development is influenced by intellectual stimulation, so that probably plays a role, he said."

As with most anything I would say it is part nurture and part nature. The building blocks neccessary for building the brain (and the rest of the body) start shortly after conception, and obviously higher quality materials result in a higher quality construction.

But what if you build a park and no one comes? Thus the nurture side comes into play. BabyCenter gives a list of 8 things that can be done to help boost a child's intelligence. These include reading and talking to your child, stimulating all his senses (toys/play/foods), encouraging new challenges and simply showing your love.

Jereme Lamberth: Cop-Killer?

According to news reports, Jereme Lamberth did not know that the person he shot was a cop. Lamberth was sitting at a bus stop when he was “approached by an unidentified white male,” according to the arrest affidavit. Jensen[cop] “grabbed ahold of his left arm” and told Lamberth he was “going with him” or he would break Lamberth’s arm, according to the affidavit. As Jensen used both hands to hold Lamberth’s arm, Lamberth said he “drew a .44 caliber revolver from his waistband and shot the individual once,” court records show. “He said he was trying to shoot the individual in the arm.” After Jensen was down, Lamberth told investigators he waited “for between one and two seconds” before shooting Jensen again. Lamberth “had indicated he did not want any more problems from this individual and that was the reason why he had fired the second shot,” according to court records. Lamberth “made no statements that he was aware this individual who had confronted him was a Colorado Springs Police Department officer.”

Well doesnt that put a difference spin on the whole cop-killer case? When some unidentified person comes and threatens bodily harm physical force IS justified. Plain and simple. This is very similar to these no-knock raids the police do. No announcement, an overt and obvious threat posed and when things go wrong the defendant is charged with and usually found guilty of murdering a cop.

Muslim Idiocy

What a wonderful religion and law. Apparently if a man falls asleep and utters the word divorce 3 times (while asleep!) then the divorce is in full affect. More than that they must separate for a minimum of 100 days before they can get remarried, during which the woman must spend at least one night with another man who must then divorce her in the same manner.

Beloved

Thought I'd put up a pic of my Beloved
We were playing with some of the effects in Paint Shop and came up with this.

Democracy

3 years of fighting, dying and all around kicking arse and what have we accomplished? We are bringing democracy to muslim nations. Fat lot of good that is doing anyone.

Has anyone been paying attention? Democracy is NOT a good form of government. It ALWAYS leads to despotism/tyranny. Always. Say it with me now... "Democracy is not my friend."

"Western-style democracy" and "democratic reforms" are condemning an Afghani Christian to death because he converted from Islam. If everyone had been paying attention in class they would have known this was coming. If the world was paying attention now they would know that such things are not long in coming to Iraq.

And then the class would come to the conclusion "Hmmm, America has been transformed into a democracy too, so maybe bad things will happen here as well?" Rather, the class would come to that conclusion were they not all alseep.

8th Grade Science

You Passed 8th Grade Science

Congratulations, you got 8/8 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Science?

The real question here is can the writer of this test pass 8th grade spelling? And just what IS the electrical charge of a neuron?

That Is What I Have Been Talking About!

Cop shoots and kills handcuffed man, people are asking for clemency/pardon.

Details of the case
2 cops arrive shortly after criminal kills his girlfriend, Cop 1 goes around to the back gets shot and is killed, Cop 2 in front of the house puts three bullets into criminal and then handcuffs him. Cop 2 finds Cop 1 dead then goes and executes wounded and handcuffed criminal. Cop 2 gets one year prison.

Clear case. Use of deadly force was in no way justified at the time of execution. Are we now to excuse him because he was acting for the state? Is "Executioner" part of the job description? Cop 2 knows the law, he has been a cop for 31 years. He knows quite well when use of force is justified and when it is not.

Sgt. Billy Anders stepped over the line from law enforcement to criminal. There can be no clemency for such an offender. Law enforcement is to be held to a higher standard or how else can the populace trust them. Anders faced a 7 year sentence but was given the lightest possible under New Mexico law of 1 year.

The world is a better place without Flippen (the criminal) but we slid right back and perhaps even worse when we allow those who are charged with upholding the law to cross it with no real consequence.

Fantastic Photography

Max Lyons the man who pioneered Gigabyte Photography with his photo of Bryce Canyon has some incredible photography available on his website. If you are looking for some art for the house this might be what you are looking for.

Check out the his galleries.

I can't decide which gallery is best, but I am leaning towards the Canadian Rockies


I set my background to this one

New WonderDrug

Apparently the FDA is stalling on this fantastic new wonder drug. It is an all-purpose drug to assist with psychologically influenced mental conditions and has no side effects.



Certainly a better deal than this drug.

Little Bear

I thought I would treat you all to a quick peak at my Little Bear. Here he is guarding his pacifier. The second pic is from his first day out of the womb, still at the hospital.

MPAA lawsuits coming to a town near you!

Movie Attendance down.

No doubt this is due to piracy and evil people downloading movies from the internet! It certainly has nothing to do with declining quality and overplayed storylines/plots. In fact this is very similar to declining sales for music. Again, nothing to do with declining quality.

MPAA lawsuits coming to a town near you!

Moon Landing a Hoax!

Google has this absolutely fantastic new tool. It is moon.google.com and with this tool you can prove there there never was a moon landing! Really. Check it out for yourselves. Just select any one of the selected points and then zoom in on that till it wont zoom anymore and you will see the proof for yourself!

Moon.Google.Com

Also available is Mars.Google.Com

P 86: Subject To Change

Relent, to the terror that distances you
Retreat, to the habitual grins
Regress to the deception, quiet and tame
Once was transformed, now exactly the same

Remember when you nearly plunged into embrace?
But instead you've chosen to keep it all at bay

it's tough to admit and admit and admit that
Your fate's still undecided

Return
Return
Return

From the latest album "...And The Rest Will Follow"

A good deal of their songs do call for us to "return" and, personally, I can't hear that message too much.

I've seen the face of redemption
And He isn't you
I'm through indulging the tastes of
My cruelest nature
So I think this blade better suits you [hinrance/heresy]

Since we're the ones
Who occupy this temple
We'll be the ones
Who'll show you out

Flesh Eating Bacteria

Last night I mentioned that I wanted to look this up and blog on it today. Lo and behold, here is a news article on it. Sharon Bishop died just three days after contracting an infection of the rare invasive form of group A streptococcal bacteria. Her initial wound was only a jammed thumb.

The diagnosis is Necrotizing Fasciitis and is usually caused by the invasive form of group A Strep but can be a combination of bacteria. Deadly in about 20% of the cases and tissue must always be removed, anything from skin to limbs and sometimes more.

What are the symptoms? The symptoms are varied, but often include:

EARLY SYMPTOMS (usually within 24 hours) :

1. Usually a minor trauma or other skin opening has occurred (the wound does not necessarily appear infected)
2. Some pain in the general area of the injury is present. Not necessarily at the site of the injury but in the same region or limb of the body
3. The pain is usually disproportionate to the injury and may start as something akin to a muscle pull, but becomes more and more painful
4. Flu like symptoms begin to occur, such as diarrhea, nausea, fever, confusion, dizziness, weakness, and general malaise
5. Intense thirst occurs as the body becomes dehydrated
6. The biggest symptom is all of these symptoms combined. In general you will probably feel worse than you've ever felt and not understand why.

When should I seek medical attention?

Any time all of the early symptoms are present, go to a doctor at once, and insist that this be ruled out. The vast majority of cases are misdiagnosed. People have been told that they had fallen, when they didn't, they have had casts put on bones that were not broken, have been given Tylenol for flu and been told to come back the next day; they have been told they have an ingrown toenail, they've been told they have arthritis; they've been accused of burning themselves...many of these people have gone back to the hospital two days later and died. Insist that this be ruled out if you have all of the early symptoms.

Why are so many cases of NF misdiagnosed?

Because the beginning symptoms look like so many other minor afflictions. None of the symptoms are exclusive to this, and until the patient is so ill that they are critical many health care workers don't consider NF. Although the disease is on the increase worldwide, it is still considered uncommon, so many emergency rooms may never have seen a case before.

More information can be found at the National Necrotizing Fasciitis Foundation. The info above is from there Facts Page

Living Fossils

Came across this site today. Lots of great info about the Coelacanth ("see-la-kanth") which is was once thought to have died out 65 million years ago. It was rediscovered in 1938 with the second sighting not until the 1950s.

Go visit www.Dinofish.com and before you leave dont forget to visit their souvenier shop here and here

Abortion Ramblings

Remember this picture? Little Samuel (a letter from his mother at the end of the page) was 21 weeks old when surgery was done to correct his Spina Bifida. Only halfway to birth and gripping the hand of the surgeon. This picture caused a ruckus when it came out as the Pro-Choice crowd wanted it supresses as it might push the undecided masses towards a pro-life stance.

The Pro-Choice (death) camp seems to make a fuss any time something like that comes up. The Laci Petersen Law comes to mind. Also the various attempts by the states to add laws that require information be given to a woman before an abortion or parental consent laws for minors (quick rant: Why is it the law allows a 16 year old girl to get an abortion but not to get her ears pierced? How ridiculous is that?) Anyways, no real point or coherent thoughts. Much too tired at the moment, I just felt that this pic should be posted.

*** Update ***
The Photographer of the Samuel pictures was Michael Clancy. He explains how this pic happened on this page. Mr. Clancy allows this picture to be reprinted for use "If the picture will be used in a respectful manner that does honor to the image" e.g. for counseling those seeking an abortion. Clancy continues by saying "[M]ake however many copies you want to hand out. [A]nd help me tell the story of how Samuel reached out of his mother's womb.

Project 86 Coming Back To Denver

They're back! Or well, they will be.
April 22nd at the Bluebird Theater.
Project 86 headlining with The Showdown and August Burns Red joining the show.

Can't imagine missing it, now to find a babysitter...

P.S. Heidi, P86 will be in Portland April 18th.

Brahminy Blind Snake

Came across this little critter in my wanderings. It looks like it is made of quicksilver. The snake is the only entirely female snake in the world (known I should say) and as such reproduces asexually (poor things)

Some pics here

Freedom To Fascism

Aaron Russo's new film is about to come out. In fact it is being previewed across the nation at the We The People's meetings. A trailer of the video can be found at the Freedom To Fascism site. If you are wanting to understand a bit more about the Tax Honesty movement this will give you an insight.

Sherry Jackson sums it up nicely with the question "Where is the law? Show me the law."

Bush Against Abortion Ban

Bush is against the abortion ban that South Dakota is now pushing in an attempt to topple the infamous Roe v. Wade. Bush is against it in part because he wants three exceptions to the ban, for 1) rape 2) incest and 3) life of the mother. The South Dakota ban gives an exception for the life of the Mother.

1) Rape
Arielle has posted on the issue of aborting the child of rape, as well as a letter she recieved from just such a child. She has done a fine job on those, so go read it.

2) Incest
What is incest? Sex between close familial relations. What is it about this that makes the child so monstrous? Is there a higher incidence of mutation/defect? yes. But realistically the risk isn't any higher than a (now common) 40 year old woman bearing children. And the other objection is that incest is forced, I mean, everyone knows that right? Where do people get that? Incest is either consensual or it isnt. If it isnt than it is rape. If it is rape then it falls under the rape argument which Arielle has already discredited. If it is consentual then who is to say that that child is unloved or unwanted? Or that the child of a consentual act deserves death? I am not sure a reasonable argument can be put forth for killing this child.

3) Life of Mother
Bush has this one right. Saying the "health" of the mother is simply to ambiguous. The way such things are interpreted today that could mean just about anything including the potential for post-partum depression. At the very least there needs to be a clear and compelling threat to the mother for any 'justification' of infanticide.

Thanks to Astrosmith for this item

Death and Rembrance of a Slain Cop

An observance. Officer killed midday Feb 22nd. The 6 following days, there are 8 articles on it, 6 of those on the front page the other two at the top of the Metro (News) section. To top it all off we had letters to the editor saying how it was a quasi-orgasmic "life-changing" event just to happen to see the funeral procession pass by. This of course has nothing to do with a different level of value being placed upon a cop's life.


Day 1: Three Front Page articles (Articles One, Two, Three)
Day 2: Front Page article
Day 3: Metro Page 1 article
Day 4: Metro Page 1 article
Day 5 Front Page article
Day 6 Front Page article

March 1st Letter to the editor (fourth down). In her words "I cannot fully describe how emotional, even life-changing, this experience was for me." Her experience? Watching the procession pass by.

Right to Petition Update and Primer

I have recieved quite a few hits so far today for the "Right to Petition For Redress of Grievance" so I figured I would add some more info on this site. Either there was a news article or broadcast I am not yet aware of, or Google moved me to the top of the search. Whatever the reason, I am posting a primer on the Right to Petition lawsuit.

The group leading the way is We the People. Spokesman Bob Schulz is a man dedicated to fighting to keep Government at all levels to their Constitutional bounds. Schulz has and is still fighting his local government and is a pro se litigant in the current RTP lawsuit at the Federal level. There are 1700+ other named litigants and literally thousands unnamed.

On November 8th, 2002, every single member of both the House and the Senate were served with four (4) Petitions For Redress of Grievance. On Nov. 12th the President (G.W. Bush) was served with these same four (4) Petitions. The Petitions address specific constitutional grievances relating to: 1) the War Powers Clauses of the Constitution and the Iraq Resolution; 2) the privacy, due process and free speech clauses of the Constitution and the USA Patriot Act; 3) the money clauses of the Constitution and the Federal Reserve System; and 4) the tax-related clauses of the Constitution and the federal Income Tax system.

As no substantive response has been recieved to date, the Petition that was furthest along, the Federal Income Tax Petition, has gone forward in the Courts. As of this writing this Petition is before the U.S. District Court of Appeals as case #04CV01211 (this was the case# at the District Court, I am assuming it stays the same for the Appeal.) WTP has already filed its Brief and the Department of Justice, representing the Government, has until March 24th to respond to the Brief. WTP will then have until April 7th to file a Reply Brief. From there the case will go forward. Regardless of who wins this case it will be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court so a resolution is still a ways off yet.

The four (4) petitions can be read and signed here
Here are the 537 Questions that the Goverment has refused to answer. (PDF File)

Full color full page ads that have been placed in both the New York Times and USA Today can be found here. As a bonus if you had the money and wanted to take action you could submit them to your local paper.

Sexchange Teacher To Teach Again

Lily McBeth, previously William McBeth, will be allowed to teach again after a 4-1 vote by an Eaglewood Township NJ school district. 'Ms.' McBeth will be substitute teaching at an elementary. Seeing as it is an elementary school there are parents who seem quite upset about this turn of events. I would ask this question... How many of the parents would go to the 'extreme' step of pulling their students out of the school and either put them in private school or homeschool them?

I am willing to bet that the elementary school will not see a noticable change in enrollment from this decision.

Don't Correct The Police

It seems that correcting the police can earn you a ticket and a day in court.

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) - A college student has been given a lesson from a judge after his day in court - don't correct the police.

Clay Palmer, a student at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, honked his car horn when he saw police stop their patrol car, turn on blue flashers to go through a red light and then turn the flashers off. He got a ticket for violating the city noise ordinance.

The charge was reduced to a warning Wednesday when he went before a judge who told him he acted wrongly.

"The horn blowing is not the real problem here, it's that you were trying to correct the police and they didn't need correcting," Judge Russell Bean said.

Palmer left traffic court saying he still believed officers were abusing their authority.

"I see this cop with his blue lights come screeching up beside me and I didn't know what was going on," Palmer said. "Before they got to the next light, I could see they turned their blue lights off."

Palmer said officer Matthew Puglise forced him onto the hood of his car and issued him a ticket for honking the horn when there was no reason.

Puglise said he was helping another officer track down a speeder when Palmer saw him pass through the red light.

Bean said Puglise was right and Palmer was wrong.

"I expect officers to follow the rules like everyone else," Bean said.

Nate Is Right

It's true. It pains me to say it as I have always been politically involved... From his post "Post Number 911: Time Well Wasted"

(BloggerBlaster)Its come to my attention that more than a few of you are still spending far to much time in some vain and pointless attempt to fix this country. This is more than a little disappointing. I sincerely thought we'd covered this already.

Listen carefully dammit... I don't want to have to type this up again.

The country will not be fixed. It's not going to happen. We've decended into a level of stupidity and self-destructive idiocy that has rarely been breached in the history of man. Well... at least outside of Africa.

Trackback

His solution?

Spring approaches. Better that we should feast up mostly raw meat, drink arcane concoctions from the dusky hills of Kentucky and Tennessee, Ride the trails unridden, and of course...

Rut!

Whatzit #1

Sorry for the delay, too much to do with Little Bear. Here is the full pic. The pic was the back of a Schick razor. I 've used them for years and just recently noticed the back looks like a skull. So there ya have it.

Worth: Cop vs. Citizen

Yesterday a cop was shot and killed in Colorado Springs. The officer, Jarred Jensen, was on duty and actually performing a duty that the citizenry expects from their police, apprehending someone who in the past month stabbed his own sister several times. The criminal, Jereme Lamberth AKA Jereme Scheinhardt, was apprehended later that day.

The failure of the system is for a later post, this one concerns the value that is placed on a cop's life vs the value that is placed upon a citizen's life. Just why is it that a cop's life is so sacred? Why is it that when a cop is shot the entire police force comes out and locks down businesses and schools and streets, but when a citizen is shot the response is to send a few cars and plot the crime scene? It isnt just this one incident. There are many examples, and I am sure that you can think of some yourselves.

Often people will say that it is because cops have one of the most dangerous jobs. That one falls to stats which show that the police are never even near the top 10 (with the exception of 2001 due to 9-11.)
Others will state that it is because cops are there to protect us. This is also not the case as I have posted on before, and the last police officer killed in Colorado Springs was back in 1982 so this is a very safe place to be a cop so it isnt like we hear of their deaths on a regular basis. In fact a citizen is 430 times more likely to be murdered than a cop in this city. (Latest stats carried back 24 years since that last cop was killed. OT, the pictures the city has chosen for these pages are rather entertaining)

So the question is this? What makes the life of a cop more valuable than that of a citizen?

George Made Another Funny

Good ol' George, always making us laugh. What did he joke about this time? He made a jest about actually vetoing a bill.

Haha, what a joker!!

Bush is threatening to veto any bill looking to block the sale of ports to Bush's good buddies, the Arabs. Now of course, Bush hasn't vetoed a single bill in his two terms so the likelyhood of him vetoing this are miniscule. It is interesting to note that he says he is willing to exercise his power to push through something that many people feel would compromise our security.

Further evidence that this still undeclared "war" has nothing to do with terrorism and everything to do with a FedGov power grab.

Yahoo Banning Allah

Seems that Yahoo is involved in some self-censorship. They are banning usernames such as Allah, Osama, Binladen, and Raghead along with some sensible ones like yahoo, admin and security. Allowed are such names as god, jesus, jehovah, buddah, koran, nazi, priest, jihad, terrorist, and some fun ones like jewskilledjesus and pedophilepriest.

While Yahoo remains mum on the subject users with names such as Callahan are unable to get emails based upon their own name.

What Color Should Your Eyes Be?

Your Eyes Should Be Hazel

Your eyes reflect: Intellect and sensuality What's hidden behind your eyes: Subtle manipulation

What Color Should Your Eyes Be?

Well they ARE hazel so maybe there is something to this test...

Whazit Numero Uno

The first installment of what may become a regular feature...

So what is it?

Marijuana: Washington State's 8th Largest Cash Crop

Pot seizures have grown every year for the last 7 years. In 2005 some 135,323 plants were taken and presumably destroyed. Given an estimated street value of $270 million this places it above sweet cherries ($242M.) In the article they state they are lucky to get half which means an estimated street value of $540M.

The valuation is extremely flawed of course. If that pot made it to market the market would get flooded and it would drop the price but we'll let them pretend they are doing a good work. AP Article here.

Flying Car

Terrafugia is looking to create a car/plane hybrid. They expect it to be on the market by 2010, possibly earlier. Fantastic concept! Being able to leave the road and make it to a distant city in about half the time required by car would be great, not to mention just being able to drive away from the airport.

Fantastic mileage: 30 miles a gallon in the air, 40 on the highway. But this right here is the obvious downfall. You might not know how light a small 2 seater aircraft is but mileage like that should give you a clue. I do not have specifications on this new design but it IS smaller than the ubiquitous Cessna 172 which is a 4-seater so it is likely heavier than the hybrid will be.

The Cessna 172S weighs 1,663lbs when empty. The low end Chevy Aveo weighs 2,343+ empty with the Chevy Suburban weighing as much as 6,074 empty. Now in the case of a car that weight is centered almost entirely around the passengers and therefore all that weight helps to protect them in a crash with another vehicle. Planes are very different. A not insignifigant amount of weight is in flight surfaces which spread out away from the passengers and conveys no benefit in an accident. Some of this is mitigated by the flight surfaces being tucked right next to the hybrid while in car mode but there will still be the signifigant issue of being much lighter than the other vehicles on the road.

There is no question in my mind that this hybrid will fly and be safe in the air (pilot dependent of course) but it will be extremely dangerous to its passengers while on the road. That being said I like it, and as long as the dangers are known than I say bravo to anyone who decides to leave traffic behind.

Haggard for Congress

Just a guess here, but I am betting that tomorrow (2-19-06) Ted Haggard will announce he is running for the Colorado 5th Congressional District. In this very Republican district he stands a very good chance. I have some major differences of opinion politically with him but I do like Ted. He's been good to me. Certainly there are a great many men of lesser character that will be vying for this office, and if character is what you are voting for this is your man.

Dead Battery Recipe

Dead Car Battery Recipe
Prep Time 10+ days

Take:
one car
one O.E.M battery (aftermarket might not work with this recipe)
one and one half weeks of very cold weather

Combine and leave idle for 10+ days

Viola!
Dead Car Battery

Distributed Computing

What is it? Distributed Computing is a way of sharing a workload across multiple computers. DC allows for very large amounts of data to be sent over the internet to individual computers so they might take small chunks of that data and process it. Of course there are Super Computers which are incredibly fast and powerful but they are also very expensive and very difficult to get time on, but a home computer sits idle more often than it does anything else. The solution is to take the idle time on your PC and put it to use. In fact, there are so many clock cycles that are sitting unused at this very moment that in the time it takes you to read this post likely 20 years worth of computing could have been done. This is why more and more groups are starting to turn to Distributed Computing.

World Community Grid is analyzing potential drug combinations for AIDS and a Human Proteome Folding Project (the next step after mapping the DNA.) Seems they only have work for the AIDs project at the moment.

Distributed.net is working to show that our current level of (computer) security is insufficient at best and needs to be strengthened. Distributed also does an OGR (Optimal Golomb Ruler) which is useful for coding, communications and other tech such as X-ray crystallography and radio astronomy.

SETI@Home is attempting to analyze the incredible backlog of radio information in the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence.

Currently I am running the DC client for the WCG but I may dump that in favor of the Distributed.net client as that is simply more my interest and I have done that one in the past. I am sure there are other projects out there if one cares to look. If you know of one I overlooked post it in the comments. Oh yeah, if you join the WCG then choose team "User Friendly" and if you dont know what that is then follow the link on the left. UF is a great comic.

**Update**
Waterboy has skills! You know, like nunchuck skills, bowhunting skills, computer hacking skills... Girls only want boyfriends who have great skills. Waterboy brings DistributedComputing.info to our attention which is the motherlode when it comes to finding a DC project to be a part of.
You ever getting a blog Waterboy?

Easing The Burden Of Faith

It seems that everyone does it. Everyone skims thru the Scriptures of their choice and weeds out the things they either wont believe or dont want to affect their lives. This isnt a Muslim thing or a Christian thing. It is universal to all faiths. White or Black, Jew or Gentile, Protestant or Catholic. Throw any other group in there and you will find it.

The question is why? Why do we place so much importance upon some Scriptures (John 3:16) yet totally ignore so many others? Certainly there is room for simply not being aware of what the Scriptures say, but what of us that do know what it says? What of the pastors/priests/rabbis whose job it is to know the Scriptures inside and out? Why pick and choose?

In particular (because it is relevant to me) why do Christians ignore so much of the Scripture? Is there some passage that I am missing that says it is okay? Does Grace truly cover willful ingorance of what pleases G-d? How does one decide how to weight certain Scriptures above others? I have been struggling with this for some years and have yet to find an answer to my question.

I'm not looking to castigate any particular denomination or group of people. As I stated before there are very very few who stick to the whole of their Scriptures (Ultra-Orthodox (and perhaps Orthodox)Jews being the only ones that come to mind.

Still nothing but questions and doubts in my mind (Not Doubting G-d, simply the way we interpret and act out Scripture here, and how to justify those actions...)

Horrors Of Hyperinflation

I know no one really cares overly much about my Econ posts but take a moment to read this short article from the BBCNews. The article is basically just quotes from your average person living in a country where the inflation rate is expected to hit 1000% in two months. Already it 50,000 Zimbabwean dollars to but a loaf of bread (the largest bill is only Z$1,000 so special cheques must be used)

"Because my income hasn't risen as much as the prices in the shops, we have had to adjust quite a bit. The things that we buy - the groceries at home, the things we get for our two children - we have to buy immediately, as soon as we get the money. We know that if we wait a bit, the prices are going to go up again. If we wait another week, we will not be able to afford anything. "

Birth Announcement

Beloved gave birth yesterday morning to a beautiful baby boy! 7lbs 2oz of pure cuteness and joy! Both Mom and Son are going great. (Her short labor time is the envy of women everywhere) More later...

Conspiracy Wednesday

Filling in for Triton, who seems to have disappeared...

One I am sure you have all heard of, but perhaps havent gotten to see their case, I present to you the 9-11 cover up. The official story is that the attacks of 9-11 were masterminded and performed by terrorists, but the real story is quite different. The real story is that the Government performed these attacks themselves to get us to accept violations of our freedoms.

At Letsroll911.org is video of a missle hitting the towers before the second plane hit. Elsewhere is information about the controlled demolition of the Twin Towers, and a video confirming the demolition. Not to be left out is the Top 15 reasons to believe.

Have fun 'all

Jamie's New Business Venture

Looks like Jamie has struck up a new venture. 4 blokes, beer and a BBQ. This has Jamie stamped all over it.

Canberra (Reuters) While multi-million dollar bids have turned out to be fake, the current value of the company of these entrepreneurial young men stands at a healthy A$61,101 ($45,940).

The blokes, who have received 105 bids and more than 200 emails since the 10-day auction started on January 25, are offering themselves for the weekend of February 18-19 and are even promising a possible international guest.

"It's easier than chatting to randoms in a pub and you know we'll be your friend from the moment you arrive til the moment you leave. That's our promise to you!" they said.

Blog of the Beloved

My Beloved has a new blog. Or should I say this one is like the Pheonix, having arose from the ashes of a dead blog. Now if she can just keep it up this time...

Right To Petition For Redress Of Grievance

"I thought the feds usually ignored lawful petitions. I thought "Right to Petition" just meant one could hold a protest or something, but that there was no obligation on the part of the feds to 'provide satisfaction', so to speak.

Am I wrong? If you know anything different about the specifics of Right to Petition, please correct me." Triton

Yes, the Feds ignore the Citizens and yes the Feds want people to believe that a petition is nothing more than a protest. However that isn't why it was placed into the Constitution. It was a way of keeping the government from ignoring petitions. When our Founding Fathers were creating the Constitution, and subsequently the Bill of Rights, they were no doubt thinking upon immediate history as well as the Rights they had as Englishmen. So lets look at three of the more obvious documents.

Over the course of years many petitions from the Colonists to the King of England had been ignored. The reasons varied with taxation, trade, and trial by jury as well as other issues of law. Indeed, the King's ignoring the petitions was the reason we had separated from England. The Colonists Petitioned expecting Redress and, in their words, recieved injury. The following is from the Declaration of Independence.

"In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people."

They petitioned as they had been assured that Right by the British Bill of Rights, passed in 1689. This was passed because it was found that Parliment would ignore or even punish those who petitioned the government

"That it is the right of the subjects to petition the King, and all committments and prosecutions for such petitioning are illegal."

The origins of this Right goes back to the Magna Carta of 1215. As everyone should already know the Magna Carta is the basis for many of the Rights we have. Also Common Law dates back to this time which is where our Law and Rights were defined until the advent of "statutory" law which was created by merging Maritime and Equity. But I digress... The Magna Carta gave a rather specific and some would say drastic measure for enforcing the Right to Petition: seizure of "federal" property.

If we, our chief justice, our officials, or any of our servants offend in any respect against any man, or transgress any of the articles of the peace or of this security, and the offence is made known to four of the said twenty-five barons, they shall come to us - or in our absence from the kingdom to the chief justice - to declare it and claim immediate redress. If we, or in our absence abroad the chiefjustice, make no redress within forty days, reckoning from the day on which the offence was declared to us or to him, the four barons shall refer the matter to the rest of the twenty-five barons, who may distrain upon and assail us in every way possible, with the support of the whole community of the land, by seizing our castles, lands, possessions, or anything else saving only our own person and those of the queen and our children, until they have secured such redress as they have determined upon. Having secured the redress, they may then resume their normal obedience to us.
Any man who so desires may take an oath to obey the commands of the twenty-five barons for the achievement of these ends, and to join with them in assailing us to the utmost of his power. We give public and free permission to take this oath to any man who so desires, and at no time will we prohibit any man from taking it. Indeed, we will compel any of our subjects who are unwilling to take it to swear it at our command.

The Right to Petition is much more than simply the Right to make noise. The Founding Fathers intended for there to be teeth in this Right for it was they who wrote "If money is wanted by Rulers, who have in any manner oppressed the people, they may retain it, until their grievances are redressed; and thus peaceably procure relief, without trusting to despised petitions, or disturbing the public tranquillity."

Petitions Under Fire

St. Pete Beach in Florida is suing it's Citizens for petitioning the city government to place an faux-eminent-domain issue on the ballot.

From a WND article
According to the city's charter, citizens can call for a vote on "any adopted ordinance," but city officials decided to sue because they say the state won't allow citizens the right to vote on a redevelopment plan like the one under consideration.

What's more, they have denied they are using taxpayer funds to sue taxpayers.

We are going to see more and more of these eminent domain land grabs and more and more denied/ignored petitions in the coming years. Those petitions wont just about eminent domain either. Now that the FedGov has ignored a lawful petition it will trickle down to the states/counties/cities in short order. Keep an eye on the case We The People v. The United States to see how the higher courts will rule on the Right To Petition as their rulings affect every lower court beneath them.

John Effin Kerry And The Political Spectrum

"They say you can tell a lot by somebody's friends," Kerry said. "These three individuals [Coulter, Bork, Buchannan] are on the furthest side of the ideological spectrum."

Kerry listed three people to my left. Also he seems to think there is only one end to the spectrum. It seems Kerry is so far to the left that he can't even see the right end of the spectrum.

Baaaa

Feeling a bit sheepish this morning! Seems I didnt pay enough attention when I dressed this morning and grabbed a pair of pants that have a nice hole in the butt. I discovered this some 4 hours after arriving... Fortunately I sit on my butt all day and for those times I need to walk around I have a jacket that is juuust long enough!

Prayer Request

I am sure you all have seen this over at Dif's but if not... There are two young boys, twins, that were born very premature. They are both only about 2 pounds. Please pray for them and their families.

Whale Puke

An Australian couple came across a 32 pound lump of whale "puke" and not knowing what it was they decided to take it home. Their little bit of curiousity is going to "net" them at least $295,000.

France Goes Nuclear Part Deux

Triton not only writes a short story, he also connects his short story with his Conspiracy Wednesday! Great Stuff. Triton even remembered the leap days.

Got FatWallet?

I dont know about you guys, but I know I dont make enough. I know that it is good to be content with whatever I have and I believe that. But I also know that it is difficult to have a single income family these days. We do a number of things around our house to save money with a big thing being coupons and getting price-matches (Wal-Mart comes in beautifully for that) Recently a coworker showed me a website called Fatwallet.com. All sorts of good stuff on there, with links to free stuff, online contests, coupon codes and free shipping codes. These things are out there, might as well take advantage of them. I recommend using IE for it as there are contest sites that just wont work with Firefox.

www.fatwallet.com

We The People: Update

By Order of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Bob Schulz, representing himself, and Mark Lane, attorney for the other 1700 named Plaintiffs, have been directed to file their legal Briefs by February 22, 2006.

The single issue on appeal is whether the People can use the Petition Clause of the First Amendment to hold the government accountable for the protection of their Individual Rights as guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States of America.

The constitutional question before the Court is: “Whether the government is required to respond with specific answers to the questions contained in the Plaintiffs’ Petitions for Redress of Grievances and whether the People can retain their money until their grievances are redressed.”

We don’t believe we need to remind people of the importance of this case. No court has ever been asked to, nor has any U.S. court ever declared the meaning of the Petition Clause of the First Amendment

Soon now. We The People are one step closer to getting a ruling on this long forgotten Right. This is the Right that we must use to force our Government back into its pen, back to it's Constitutionally defined powers. If this Right is not upheld in the Courts (and it hasnt been yet) then our only non-violent option left is to retain our money.

Short Stories: France Goes Nuclear

As posted over at Triton's, the French Government reaffirmed their nuclear option for retalliating against any state that carried out a terrorist attack against it. So I thought perhaps if anyone is feeling creative they could post a short story about France actually using a nuke and its outcome. Would it galvanize the Muslim states? Cow them? Finally cause "moderate" Muslims to reign in the fundamentalist?

Post in the comments or if you post on your blog let me know and I will link to it.

War Drums a'Beatin

Seems that the war drums are out in full force again. This time for Iran. I knew this would be coming and it has been obvious who the FedGov's next target would be. Even my local paper is starting their drums with pieces such as this political cartoon.

This isnt going to be about simply taking out a power plant and sending them to ground zero like Israel did with Iraq some 20 years ago. This particular tune is to justify going into Iran and giving them hated democracy. Surely taking out their ability to create nukes or "nukaler" power will be something that is bandied about, but once that is accomplished or nearly accomplished we will then turn our troops into missionaries for the god called democracy as we have done in Iraq.

If we really feel that Iran would be a threat if they get nukes, then lets just take out any plant that they have. Israel can reach Iran, our planes are closer. Quit the posturing, take out the threat and get it over with. Dont send our boys in there to try to free a people that arent willing to work for freedom.

Three More Reasons To Homeschool

As you are all no doubt aware there has been a huge increase in the amount of teachers being thrown in the slammer for having sex with their students. Well just this week alone three (count it one, two, three) homosexual teachers have gotten away with assaulting/raping children with no jail time.

So now there isnt even a threat of punishment for raping our children. No learning going on and teachers raping students. Why do parents allow their kids to go to school?

Book Meme

Okay, this is a bit overdue. I have been trying to wait until I was a little less braindead but that time doesnt seem to be coming any time soon. So without further ado, my abreviated version.

Five favorite fiction authors:
Robert Jordan
Terry Goodkind
Anne McCafferey
Terry Brooks

Five favorite non-fiction authors:
Dietrich Bonhoffer
Henry David Thoreau

Five favorite children's writers:
Shel Silverstein,
the author of Romona Quimby,
The guy who wrote the Bunnicula books,
Bob Reese (of Huzzard Buzzard fame, I will be buying these books for my little one)


Favorite book read in 2005:
pretty much the whole Wheel Of Time series (read it again)

Five books on faith that you would recommend:
Cost of Discipleship
Other good stuff
The best book is of course the Bible.

A fictional character you would like to emulate: Captain Kirk was pretty darn cool!

Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character? If yes, which one? hmmm too many to even begin to list (that and I am brain dead lately!) Someone else mentioned 7of9 and I could go with that!

A book you love with a short review:
The whole entire Wheel of Time series! good stuff. Believable character, detailed world, lots of action and an author whose views ya just cant quite pin down (try as you might)

Welfare State: An Alternative Approach

Here is my alternative approach (with the actual approach being to abolish it).

If we must have a Welfare State, then lets have a welfare State. Lets declare a specific state to be the only place where one could live to collect welfare for a period of longer than one year. And not just have a mailbox there. Actually reside there for 10 months out of the year. All the businesses and doctors and non-welfare-collectors that wanted to move there could move there. Then we could still have a welfare state, but without the problems being spread out amongst the working.

Dog Crap and Government

The purpose of this post isnt to equate government and crap (why state the obvious?) but rather to point out why we have the Government that we have.

Beloved and I recently bought a townhome. In our unit there are 5 dogs. We make sure our dog does her business in a fairly confined area and clean it on a weekly basis, but everyone else seems to just use wherever. Without cleaning up. After all, why clean up when there is an HOA that will eventually get around to it(I assume some time in spring) Anyways, after about an 1 hour of cleaning up other peoples crap (and there is much more to clean), I realized this is simply a symptom of why we have the gov that we have. No one wants to take responsibility for their own crap. Leave it to someone else. "It's not my job" and "Someone should fix this."

Well let me tell you something people. Deal with your own crap! And while you are at it, go the extra mile and deal with someone else's! If you think something needs fixing, then fix it! Broken glass a problem in your area? buy a $10 shovel and clean it up! Graffiti a problem? paint over it, offer to paint over it on other's homes or fences. Neighbor's yard an eyesore? offer to mow it for them. 2000 years ago Jesus commanded us to go the extra mile, today with all our modern equipment we cant be bothered to go the extra 100 feet. We have a Nanny State because most of us need a Nanny.

Anderson for House

Ex-Sherrif John Anderson is going to take on 20 year incumbent Joel Hefley for his seat in the US House of Representatives. It seems that the Sherrif is not getting any support from the Repugnican establishment. Havent we seen this before? Someone who stands for Rights not getting support... now where did this happen last? Locally that would be maverick Douglas Bruce, author of the Taxpayers Bill Of Rights (TABOR.) TABOR has kept Colorado from the serious deficits other states have encountered after tha last recession. Nationally that was Pat Toomey, an actual conservative running against Arlen Specter for a Pensylvania Senate seat. The Bush Administration and Repugnican party enthusiastically backed the non-conservative Specter.

Not much of Anderson's platform is actually known, but what is known beyond the shadow of a doubt is that Anderson's work made it easier for all Coloradans to conceal carry. Anderson was the first to implement Shall Issue in Colorado, right here in El Paso County. Because the predicted "blood in the streets" never happened other counties followed suit. Denver, being naturally against personal Rights, did not like this situation and made it difficult for anyone who might have to either do business inside of it, or even pass thru Denver (no Safe Passage laws) This caused the issue to come to a head and was taken up by State Legislature, who passed laws making the entire state "Shall Issue."

Even with nothing else known about Anderson at this time (and I am solidly a Libertarian, never again a republican) I say Huzzah for Anderson! I will post later if I can find his platform/stance/views.

Twoferone

What Your Underwear Says About You

You tend to buy new underwear instead of doing laundry. You are childlike (or childish), and prone to run around in your underwear.

The Underwear Oracle

Your Brain's Pattern

You have a dreamy mind, full of fancy and fantasy. You have the ability to stay forever entertained with your thoughts. People may say you're hard to read, but that's because you're so internally focused. But when you do share what you're thinking, people are impressed with your imagination.

What Pattern Is Your Brain?

Tidbits

Sony has created a new record label. Apparently they feel there is a market for musicians whose sole qualification is that they are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. Whats next? separate labels for musicians who are democrats or republicans?


The FedGov now deems the act of annoying someone on the web as a crime. Mind you, "annoying" is the actual term. Two questions. Just who is it that defines "annoying" and how is that so bad as to be raised to the level of a federal crime?

too funny

Your Porn Star Name Is...

Sergeant Stiffy

What's Your Porn Star Name?

Found at Pebblechaser who found at Difster

A Whited Sepulchre

You have a Governor, it may be urged, vested with the executive powers, or the powers of administration: In him, and in your Council, is lodged the power of making laws. You have Judges, who are to decide every cause affecting your lives, liberty or property. Here is, indeed, an appearance of the several powers being separated and distributed into different hands, for checks one upon another, the only effectual mode ever invented by the wit of men, to promote their freedom and prosperity. But scorning to be illuded by a tinsel'd outside, and exerting the natural sagacity of Frenchmen, examine the specious device, and you will find it, to use an expression of holy writ, "a whited sepulchre," for burying your lives, liberty and property.
[all emphasis is original]

From our Founding Fathers in a letter from the Continental Congress to the Inhabitants of the Province of Quebec.

Stop The Silent Killer

Came across this letter from the Stop the Silent Killer Foundation. Please take immediate action on this important issue. Children are dying!

"Dear Mr. xxxxxx: You have been identified as a person who cares deeply about the future of our fragile planet, the health of our children and the quality of our nation’s leadership. If we are right, we need your help, and we need it immediately. As you have undoubtedly read, dihydrogen oxide has been found to be a major threat to the environment and to human and animal health. Here are the facts:

In 2003, the most recent year for which statistics are available, 4,100 Americans— many of them under the age of 10— died from excessive dosages of dihydrogen oxide commonly found in many homes and recreation sites. Our polluted lakes, rivers and oceans are known to contain vast quantities of dihydrogen oxide. On this, there is no controversy! Contaminated ground water? Same tragic situation. In California, Missouri and Georgia families have lost their homes to dihydrogen oxide contamination. In some applications, dihydrogen oxide is a major contributor to injuries from falls. In other applications dihydrogen oxide is a major cause of burns.

Why does America endure this wasteful destruction of our planet, our children and ourselves? Greed. Simple greed and stupidity. We need your help now. In the next 24 hours, we need you to demand an end to the production and use of dihydrogen oxide. Please write: The Dihydrogen Oxide Institute, P.O. Box 7178, Washington, D.C. 20044-7178. On behalf of our future generations, I thank you. Sincerely, John Alan Waterman."

Consumer Price Index

This shows the CPI from 1665 to 2005. You can view the link here if you have IE, if you are using Firefox (and you should be!) you are just gonna have to open IE. Sorry, it cant be helped. What you will see is a graph of the CPI, or Consumer Price Index, from 1665 to 2005. Note how in 1913, 1933 and 1973 is where the spikes begin.

What happened?
1913 = Creation of the Fed. Still on Gold Standard
1933 = Gold outlawed by Citizens. Dollar still attached to Gold, value is floating
1973 = Completely off Gold standard. Value of dollar not tied to anything.
The fun thing to remember is that the CPI #s are cooked and have been for many years now. If the true CPI (TCPI) values were used then the graph would be even steeper.

The research is by Oregon State

Baby-Ticker

I saw this over at Birdie's blog and figured I just had to have one! umm, the ticker at the top of the page that is!

Dissenting Opinions

You see, I dont mind if people disagree with me. In fact I expect it. Why? Because the majority of people have not put any effort in deciding what they believe and instead parrot their favorite group(s) or speaker(s). This is a problem that is common to the entire political spectrum (or any other issue where reasonable people might disagree.)

If you have reasons for believing what you do and have something other than your own opinion to back it up then I am willing to hear it. If you care to post on this blog be ready to back up what you say. Or you can continue to post odd things that will simply give me a chuckle, as laughter is appreciated too.

IP Addresses

Heidi asked a question about IP Addresses and how to tell if similar addresses are the same user. Well I tried to fit an answer in the comments section but it is bigger than will really fit so I am going to post it.

The current addressing scheme is called IP4. It has 4 groups (octets) of 8 bits. Those 8 bits can equal 000 to 255. In theory then, an address can be between 000.000.000.000 and 255.255.255.255 Thus one might have an address that looks like this. 12.93.27.195 Theory is nice and all, reality is pretty much always different.

Reserved Numbers
There are several ranges of Addresses that are reserved. the whole 000.x.x.x and 001.x.x.x ranges are reserved for the military. 10.x.x.x and 192.168.x.x are reserved for private use. 240.x.x.x to 255.x.x.x are all reserved for expirementation (what a HUGE waste!) The remaining addresses are Public addresses

With the above ranges taken out there are still a lot of addresses left. But today, need for physical addresses far exceeds actual addresses. This causes us to use various methods of tweaking to get addresses to each computer, and those methods may be covered in a later post, and cause what is seen by an IP tracker (such as Sitemeter) to only see one IP address for an entire business or even an entire ISP. For example, I may have 200 or 2000 computers at my business but only one Public IP address. So if John and Sally from BigEvilCorp comes to see your blog they will show up as the same IP address even if they are on different computers.

So if you see an address that is similar, say 11.111.123.32 and 11.111.123.64 you are seeing two different companies/ISPs that could actually be half a world apart.

Not Groking The Subject At Hand

Found: a blog whose sole purpose is (apparently) to discuss global warming. Oddly enough, she doesnt understand how plants work.

Although I have studied sciences since I was young, I never quite understood why it is that trees are supposed to be good for the environment. As far as I know, they absorb CO2 during the day and release Oxygen, and do the opposite at night. If that is true, wouldn't these two processes cancel each other out? And, wouldn't the amount of O2 and CO2 vary depending on how many hours of day light there are? (i.e. there would be lots of O2 released in the summer- because of more daylight hours-, and more CO2 released in the winter- because of more night hours).

It is quite well known that plants take in CO2 and metabolize it and "breathe out" oxygen (O2.) Now it is true that plants will respire at night (put out CO2) but they put out far more oxygen than carbon dioxide. They also "scrub" the air by taking in extra carbon and use that as food/fuel thereby removing emissions from cars and industry and volcanoes.

A much bigger concern in regards to global warming isnt what man is doing, it is what our sun is doing. Other planets are heating up (Mars) but we ignore that in favor of blaming America for all the worlds ills

Liberty Dollars

Why Liberty Dollars? Why use a different form of currency when everyone already takes greenbacks? Whats the point?

First of all, what IS a Liberty Dollar? a Liberty is fully backed by a specific amount of Silver. As the price of Silver in Greenbacks (hereafter "GB") goes up, the value of the Liberty goes up. Currently the $10 Liberty is backed by 1 ounce. Should the GB price go over $10 than the Liberty will "float" to a value of $20, this keeps the bill slightly ahead of inflation.

So inflation is really the primary reason to use the Liberty over the GB. Another reason is that it raises awareness that the FED isnt the only player in currency. The other, perhaps more compelling reason to use them is that you can get them at a discount over their face value. An Associate gets them for 20% less than face value. So a $10 bill would cost you $8. Then you spend that $10 and have made a $2 GreenBack profit.

Becoming an Associate is a total of $250, you get $100 in Libertys (yes that is the correct spelling) $100 goes to the person who signed you up, and $50 is for the mint (paperwork + profit.) Now at a 20% profit it would take a total of $750 Libertys spent to make up that difference. Now I dont know about you, but I go through an awful lot of money each month and getting 20% could be a huge bonus, and even if you have a fantastic deal on your credit card you would only be geting 5% back.

Blogosphere Tidbits

In perusing the web I have come across some things that might interest you all.

A new blog to check out, the Haiku Movie Review you just might find yourself something to watch there.

Ian has a revelation about how we treat other believers, and how our Lord and Savior views that treatment.

Arielle makes an interesting comparison between Squatter's Rights and the Right of the Unborn.

Birdie writes of a day in the life of a homeschooling mom.

If one is needing to brush up on their Calculus, or even learn it, Triton University is now open (sidenote: Triton, you should put up some permanent links to your more scholarly stuff like Calc and "Nukaler" reactors)

I stumled across the blog of Dadasays. He is decidedly a gold bug. Lots of good info on the current happenings of the gold market (FYI it is $523 as of this writing, up $4 from this morning.)

Also of interest and likely something I will be blogging on soon, is NORFED and their currency which is fully backed by gold and silver.

Declaration Of Independence, II

The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refuted his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. Assent to Laws is allowing self-governance, the Crown was in effect reserving the right to overrule any law they tried to pass. Take a look at what is happening in our nation. Are the Several States allowed to create their own laws? Or does the FedGov override them at its pleasure?

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. What we have now is a system of activist judges and a Congress that believes their laws to be the highest and will overrule any State that passes legislation against their will.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. The "right" or representation in our current Legislature is a joke. It doesnt exist if you arent well-heeled

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. No need for this as the FedGov simply forces or blackmails the States to do its bidding.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. Today such groups are simply ignored, partly because what passes for "rights" these days is nothing more than libertinism.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. The dangers we see now are terrorism against which the only defense, as proven by Israel, is an armed populace. We are denied that by some 20,000 laws against various firearms and their carriers.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands. Today we simply invite them over by lack of a border. No need to naturalize them, simply put them to workat the lowest pay possible and then pretend the problem doesnt exist.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers. Really now, who needs judges when they simply rubberstamp what the Gov wants? Or better yet, create new powers by penumbras.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. Somehow activists judges are able to retain their positions, but rule against the gov and you will find yourself without a job or a prospect of getting one elsewhere.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance. Can anyone even begin to name all the different government departments there are? There are some 40 Million such jobs in the U.S.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures. Standing armies are expressly prohibited in the Constitution. This is why their budget is never more than 4 years out even tho the remainder of the budget is 10 years.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power. Hasnt happened in a widespread way, but every year a poll is done to determine the attitude of our Military and whether or not they would act against Citizens. Each year that poll goes more and more against us, the Citizens

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation: How many treaties? Uncountable. The U.N., LOST, Carnivore, etc etc.

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: Again, standing armies. Could also be construed as local police.

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States: Wow, can a cop ever be tried? 99 out of 100 walk with paid leave even.

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world: Idiotic protective tariffs. Steel, Cotton, Sugar. We pay three times the world average for sugar because of our Gov. We also pay extra for milk for the same reason.

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: IRS anyone? Amendment 16 did not pass, and even if it did it didnt confer any new power on the Gov to tax. Yet it continually attempts to tax us.

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury: Now we have a system wherewith most Citizens get to appear in front of a District Attorney, or a fake court like the US Tax Court.

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences: We just transport them now in an attempt to keep prisoners from having any Rights.

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies The FedGov has created a "Federal Territory" that resides in the exact same boundaries as does the State. The Territory also happens to have the same name, only spelled in all Caps. i.e. Colorado becomes COLORADO, or the proper abbreviation Colo. to CO

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments: We are now a democracy. The Constitution demands that we have a representative republic. It is this no longer.

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. Not suspended, it again comes down to coersion and blackmail

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us. The USA PATRIOT ACT (I &II), Carnivore, the IRS. Against these we have no protection. The courts side with the Government, Congress sides with the Government and so does ourPresident

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. While the LOST treaty could cover for #1, #s 2&3 our pretty much out tho we should remember WACO and Ruby Ridge. The destroying of lives is ongoing. Onerous regulation, back-breaking taxation, the recent Kelo decision by SCOTUS...

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation. Not too many mercs inside this country and if they are here they sure are quiet.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands. Really inapplicable at this time. The FedGov is not openly fighting against its Citizenry.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions. Not the "savage" Indians but rather the savage Muslims who also kill all ages sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. We The People has been petitioning for Redress for years now. I am one of those petitioning. We have recieved no answer back, altho we have been lied to on several occasions. What we get instead, is silence at best, or illegal tricks in the Courts.

A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. I dare say that a government so marked is unfit to be ruler of a free people, not just a prince.

Declaration Of Independence

The document that got us on the road to freedom from British tyranny was the Declaration Of Independence. Most all of us have read it but few remember anything past the opening of the second paragraph. I encourage you all to read it here. I wanted to update it just a bit, or rather to tie it to modern events.


We hold these truths to be self-evident,
These truths are pre-existing and do not depend upon a government granting or upholding them

that all men are created equal,
This has been changed to uphold the Rights of certain classes/groups of people above others

that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,
Our Government believes they are the grantor of these Rights

that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Life and Liberty are now both rutinely denied while Happiness is contsrued as libertine-ism

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men,
Governments are to "secure" Rights,

deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,
It has rightly been said that ALL governments are consented to, even dictatorships, this does not imply that our Gov' has actual consent. Consent under duress is not consent.

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government,
Is there any doubt that our own Government is destructive to these ends? Perhaps the only Right the Gov now allows us is the Right to not quarter soldiers, perhaps simply because it has never suited the needs of the Gov to abbrogate that one.

laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Obviously we see with the so-called Civil War that our Gov doesnt abide by this either.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
Think tyranny. No tyrant could rule if the people found the evil too much to bear, they would rise up and overthrow him.

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
Our Founding Fathers viewed it as our Moral Imperative to stand against such acts.

Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.
Now was their time to rise up, having endured the overbearing British rule

The Road to Revolution

I came across a little quiz on the PBS site called The Road to Revolution

It gives a brief history of the events of the revolution. The quiz itself is not very detailed but it has plenty of links to keep you occupied for a bit.

dream

I found myself flying a small 4 seater plane (actually one seat removed so three, also it was a high-wing so it looked somewhat like a Cessna 172 but with open cargo aren behind the seats) trying to find the right radio band for ATC (Air Traffic Control) for this particular airport in Canada. There were two ladies on the flight with me and the girl in the co-pilot seat was trying to show me the map and help me find the proper air field. Well we were heading for this open airport that was totally deserted. Not a plane, car or person to be seen. Still looking for the correct radio band while coming in for a landing. One should never be looking at a map when landing but here I was... Found that darn radio, it is 1540, we were on 1530A. Change the radio and we start hearing ATC but then the dream pans out to distant 3rd person and the plane is landed, in roughly 20-30 feet (Talk about short field!)

Next thing I remember clearly is being out in the mountains somewhere in Ontario, Canada, somwhere in the same time zone as Toronto (Ok, I realize that in THIS world there are no mountains in Ontario) Here I am, at someone's house out in some seriously gorgeous country, sandwiched between some foothills. And I have to be at work. So I am awake at about 3:50 AM cuz I have to be at work for a 6AM-6PM shift for the holiday (this one matches our reality as I do indeed need to be here) but the problem is my plane is no where near and I need to load up stuff into the plane and have someone else (the owner of the house?) fly us back.

Now my mom is apologizing and saying she is sorry and that it is her fault I am late to work and I am trying to get some cell phone reception so I walk over to the split-rail fence. I call in to work but cant really get reception and the 800# for work isnt working cuz I am in Canada. When I do get into work using the toll # they cant transfer me to my department cuz I was the only person scheduled and so there isnt anyone to take my call! GRRR. I had royally screwed things up at this point.

My Beloved had left me a note in the bathroom to make sure that some baby something or other was loaded into the plane (Beloved was now with me, maybe had been the whole dream?) Well for the plane ride back we also had to get some stuff ready for the baby, just in case. So here we were discussing the best method for storing milk on the flight and preparing bottles for baby... yeah. This plane happened to be a low wing (beech?) that carried smoke (not skywriting smoke, more the stuff used during airshows) Sometime during the flight the pilots son (sitting in the last seat back) asked him to turn it on. They then began a discussion on air flow. Fun stuff.


All this to say I didnt sleep very well for worrying I wasnt going to get to work on time. But I did enjoy the flying.