Saturday, December 1, 2012
Germany to ban sex with animals: report
Via Knuckledraggin' My Life Away
The German government plans to ban zoophilia -- sex with animals --
as part of an amendment to the country's animal protection law, but
faces a backlash from the country's zoophile community, estimated to
number over 100,000.
Zoophilia was legalized in Germany in 1969 and animal protection groups have been lobbying for a ban in a campaign that has been fuelled by heated debate in Internet forums in recent years.
Now the center-right government wants to outlaw using animals "for personal sexual activities or making them available to third parties for sexual activities and thereby forcing them to behave in ways that are inappropriate to their species," said Hans-Michael Goldmann, chairman of the parliament's Agricultural Committee.
In the future, having sex with an animal could be punished with a fine of up to €25,000 ($32,400).
Zoophiles are up in arms. "We will take legal action against this," Michael Kiok, chairman of zoophile pressure group ZETA (Zoophile Engagement for Tolerance and Information), told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "We see animals as partners and not as a means of gratification. We don't force them to do anything."
He said sex with pets wasn't demeaning to the animals, and that they make it evident if they're not interested.
"People have tried to create the false impression that we hurt animals," said Kiok, who lives with an Alsatian called Cessie. He said he has had special feelings for animals ever since he was four or five and that the fascination took on erotic elements in his teens.
More @ Spiegel
Should be a parody.
Zoophilia was legalized in Germany in 1969 and animal protection groups have been lobbying for a ban in a campaign that has been fuelled by heated debate in Internet forums in recent years.
Now the center-right government wants to outlaw using animals "for personal sexual activities or making them available to third parties for sexual activities and thereby forcing them to behave in ways that are inappropriate to their species," said Hans-Michael Goldmann, chairman of the parliament's Agricultural Committee.
In the future, having sex with an animal could be punished with a fine of up to €25,000 ($32,400).
Zoophiles are up in arms. "We will take legal action against this," Michael Kiok, chairman of zoophile pressure group ZETA (Zoophile Engagement for Tolerance and Information), told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "We see animals as partners and not as a means of gratification. We don't force them to do anything."
He said sex with pets wasn't demeaning to the animals, and that they make it evident if they're not interested.
"People have tried to create the false impression that we hurt animals," said Kiok, who lives with an Alsatian called Cessie. He said he has had special feelings for animals ever since he was four or five and that the fascination took on erotic elements in his teens.
More @ Spiegel
Drone crashes mount at civilian airports
Via Knuckledraggin' My Life Away
The U.S. Air Force drone, on a classified spy mission over the Indian Ocean, was destined for disaster from the start.
An inexperienced military contractor in shorts and a T-shirt, flying by remote control from a trailer at Seychelles International Airport, committed blunder after blunder in six minutes on April 4.
He sent the unarmed MQ-9 Reaper
drone off without permission from the control tower. A minute later, he
yanked the wrong lever at his console, killing the engine without
realizing why.
As he tried to make an emergency landing, he forgot to put down the wheels. The $8.9 million aircraft belly-flopped on the runway, bounced and plunged into the tropical waters at the airport’s edge, according to a previously undisclosed Air Force accident investigation report.
The U.S. Air Force drone, on a classified spy mission over the Indian Ocean, was destined for disaster from the start.
An inexperienced military contractor in shorts and a T-shirt, flying by remote control from a trailer at Seychelles International Airport, committed blunder after blunder in six minutes on April 4.
Scrutinizing a much-discussed, little-understood, bloody video is
in some ways representative of how the outside world now watches the
war.
As he tried to make an emergency landing, he forgot to put down the wheels. The $8.9 million aircraft belly-flopped on the runway, bounced and plunged into the tropical waters at the airport’s edge, according to a previously undisclosed Air Force accident investigation report.
More @ WP
First same-sex marriage at West Point’s Cadet Chapel
Roundabout Via Carl
The first same-sex marriage at West Point’s Cadet Chapel will be celebrated Saturday – when a military veteran and her partner exchange vows roughly one year after President Obama ended the military policy banning openly gay people from serving in the military.
The ceremony will take place in the Military Academy's Cadet Chapel between Brenda Sue Fulton and Penelope Dara Gnesin.
Fulton is a military veteran and spokeswoman for Outserve – an advocacy group for actively serving gay, lesbian and bisexual military personnel, reported first by USA Today.
West Point hosted its first same-sex marriage last weekend, but it was a private ceremony at a smaller campus venue.
The first same-sex marriage at West Point’s Cadet Chapel will be celebrated Saturday – when a military veteran and her partner exchange vows roughly one year after President Obama ended the military policy banning openly gay people from serving in the military.
The ceremony will take place in the Military Academy's Cadet Chapel between Brenda Sue Fulton and Penelope Dara Gnesin.
Fulton is a military veteran and spokeswoman for Outserve – an advocacy group for actively serving gay, lesbian and bisexual military personnel, reported first by USA Today.
West Point hosted its first same-sex marriage last weekend, but it was a private ceremony at a smaller campus venue.
More @ Fox
WRSA Anti-Nazi/Anti-Communist/Anti-Race-Supremacist/Anti-Islam Policy
Heh!:)
VERBATIM
The WRSA policy on race/religion/ethnicity/gender/class is simple:
Fact-based discussion on controversial topics is encouraged.
Unsupported assertions regarding the Jewish people or any other religious or ethnic group as a whole will be mocked or deleted, at editorial discretion.
The only exception to the above rule is the totalitarian-political-system-of-pillage-and-rapine-masquerading-as-a-religion known as Islam.
Members of the NSDAP, the Communist Party, global socialists, and their adherents, followers, or fellow travelers can and should each go stab themselves and at least one ideological ally in the eye with a bayonet.
Twice.
Unsupported assertions regarding the Jewish people or any other religious or ethnic group as a whole will be mocked or deleted, at editorial discretion.
The only exception to the above rule is the totalitarian-political-system-of-pillage-and-rapine-masquerading-as-a-religion known as Islam.
Members of the NSDAP, the Communist Party, global socialists, and their adherents, followers, or fellow travelers can and should each go stab themselves and at least one ideological ally in the eye with a bayonet.
Twice.
My Site Is Blocked Per Pentagon Source
2009 NamSouth re-post via comment by Hype And Fail on DumpDC calls it quits
To think my ancestors fought and died for this end result. Despicable, though I shall wear this as a badge of honour. Welcome to the soon to be Communist USA. My site isn't even blocked in Communist Vietnam! Now, John Q. Public, just keep your heads buried in the sand, so you can pretend you were not forewarned.
The writer (LTC) retired a few months later rather than put up with the PC there. His father was a general officer in WWII, and his son entered VMI last fall. A fierce Confederate.
01/02/09 at 06:12 PM
Brock:
"FYI...the Army blocks NamSouth (and in the months to come, I expect much more will get spiked) - are you surprised? Oddly, the Air Force did not block it, even though they tend to be more rigid in their application of Internet regulations."
Also, from someone who has lived under Communism.
"I don't know what's coming next. I might take a good guess. They, call them socialists, communist, whatever, are masters of psychology. It's really scary how they can calculate your reactions. It's like in Orwell's 1984. You aren't in danger, because the point is to target children at a very young age,and bring them up to be non-thinkers. It takes a generation or two. In my country it's easy to manipulate people. They are used to being told what to think. It's amazing that they play the same tricks again and again, and people buy it each time. We, the few, just stand there helpless and can't believe it. I don't know who said it, but it was in connection with the Hungarians, that 'take away their past and you can conquer them'.
Comment I
From FleursDuSud:
Dear Hedi:
Welcome to this Forum.
"I am also very new to this forum myself. Have you ever been to the South? My grandfather was from Beckov, Slovakia (formerly of Czechoslovakia). He and his family moved to the United States when he was 10 yrs. old in 1927. During that time, the communists who took over Russia in 1917 were starting to seep into Czech. That is the reason they left. He always loved to talk about Czechoslovakia and I know he wanted to go back very badly, but he did not while communists were in control. Unfortunately, he passed away in 1988, just a year before 1989 and the wall came down.
I am very sad to say that, Hedi, communism is definitely making a foothold in this country and has been for many years. They are doing it slowly, bit by bit. We are the frog in the pot of water that is being heated very slowly. Before we know it it will be too late. I have read the Gulag Archipelago several times and each time I read it, I am horrified at how much closer to communism we are getting."
Comment II
Brock,
Communism hates all basic human freedom rights, since only the freedom can expose all flaws of the Communists. If one made a decision without considering a rational argument that is based on freedom rights, he or she could be a Communist.
Quang
Quang's father spent 15 years in a Vietnamese Communist reeducation camp, since he was a General officer in the ARVN. He has visited my home and is an unassuming gentleman. He doesn't give a hint of what he went through.
To think my ancestors fought and died for this end result. Despicable, though I shall wear this as a badge of honour. Welcome to the soon to be Communist USA. My site isn't even blocked in Communist Vietnam! Now, John Q. Public, just keep your heads buried in the sand, so you can pretend you were not forewarned.
The writer (LTC) retired a few months later rather than put up with the PC there. His father was a general officer in WWII, and his son entered VMI last fall. A fierce Confederate.
01/02/09 at 06:12 PM
Brock:
"FYI...the Army blocks NamSouth (and in the months to come, I expect much more will get spiked) - are you surprised? Oddly, the Air Force did not block it, even though they tend to be more rigid in their application of Internet regulations."
Also, from someone who has lived under Communism.
"I don't know what's coming next. I might take a good guess. They, call them socialists, communist, whatever, are masters of psychology. It's really scary how they can calculate your reactions. It's like in Orwell's 1984. You aren't in danger, because the point is to target children at a very young age,and bring them up to be non-thinkers. It takes a generation or two. In my country it's easy to manipulate people. They are used to being told what to think. It's amazing that they play the same tricks again and again, and people buy it each time. We, the few, just stand there helpless and can't believe it. I don't know who said it, but it was in connection with the Hungarians, that 'take away their past and you can conquer them'.
Comment I
From FleursDuSud:
Dear Hedi:
Welcome to this Forum.
"I am also very new to this forum myself. Have you ever been to the South? My grandfather was from Beckov, Slovakia (formerly of Czechoslovakia). He and his family moved to the United States when he was 10 yrs. old in 1927. During that time, the communists who took over Russia in 1917 were starting to seep into Czech. That is the reason they left. He always loved to talk about Czechoslovakia and I know he wanted to go back very badly, but he did not while communists were in control. Unfortunately, he passed away in 1988, just a year before 1989 and the wall came down.
I am very sad to say that, Hedi, communism is definitely making a foothold in this country and has been for many years. They are doing it slowly, bit by bit. We are the frog in the pot of water that is being heated very slowly. Before we know it it will be too late. I have read the Gulag Archipelago several times and each time I read it, I am horrified at how much closer to communism we are getting."
Comment II
Brock,
Communism hates all basic human freedom rights, since only the freedom can expose all flaws of the Communists. If one made a decision without considering a rational argument that is based on freedom rights, he or she could be a Communist.
Quang
Quang's father spent 15 years in a Vietnamese Communist reeducation camp, since he was a General officer in the ARVN. He has visited my home and is an unassuming gentleman. He doesn't give a hint of what he went through.
| My Site Is Blocked Per Pentagon Source |
A Defense Of Freedom Versus Obamacare – A Letter To A Dissenter
VERBATIM
This must be a week for letters. Today I received an email from a fellow who read one of my posts here about Ayn Rand.
This post was previously published in 2009 on subject was Obamacare and
health insurance, but was updated, as at that point Obamacare was
merely a bill. For the sake of revealing how someone of Socialist
ideology thinks, I thought it might be educational to post his email and
my response to it for you.
His email:
His email:
Ms. Pass:
Having read your blog about Ayn Rand and the execrable parasites known as health insurance companies, I would appreciate it if you would kindly explain why we should mourn their demise.
The good capitalist steals the best ideas of competitors, and the rest of the world has proven beyond cavil that socialized health care is more efficient than our bloated system, producing equivalent outcomes for a third of the cost. Why is this such a bad thing? What value do these bureaucratic behemoths add?
The short definition of a modern Republican is a man who is more faithful to his dogma than his wife. I would counter with a line from one of my other favorite atheist authors, Isaac Asimov: “Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right.”
Regards,
Dissenter
My reply:Dissenter,
The piece re: Ayn Rand that you have just seen was republished recently by Freedom Outpost. I am assuming that is where you saw it.
From the tenor of your comments I am sure your question is not an honest one. From what you say in your email, your mind is made up and you have demonized not only insurance companies, but capitalism and Republicans as a monolithic group. Nevertheless, I will give you my best answers if you will take the time to read and study this issue.
Your statement here for instance: “The short definition of a modern Republican is a man who is more faithful to his dogma than his wife,”
would cause me to ask you if the same applies to FDR, Kennedy, and Clinton? Each of these men were Democrats with mistresses and peccadilloes.
You ask me to defend the insurance industry and then you proceed to defend socialism, which is responsible for the direct and indirect murders of millions of people throughout its history. Efficiency in killing people would be attributable to the purveyors of totalitarian control, not capitalism. Do you really need proof of this? If so, I will give you documentation to read.
The concept of the insurance industry is the creation of a “risk pool.” Replacing the private insurance industry with socialized insurance by government is, nonetheless, a “risk pool.” Whether or not you agree with a third-party payer system, you must decide if you wish the force of the government to control your healthcare providers or whether you would rather choose your own insurance and healthcare providers. Private insurance by choice? Or government insurance by force? I can only conclude from your email, your response is that you think force is better than choice.
You ask this: “What value do these bureaucratic behemoths add?” If bureaucracy is your objection, replacing one bureaucracy with an even larger, less personal, government bureaucracy cannot be your solution. In what universe does that make any logical sense?
Then there is this statement: “The rest of the world has proven beyond cavil that socialized health care is more efficient than our bloated system, producing equivalent outcomes for a third of the cost.” I’m assuming from that you must have been locked in a room watching Michael Moore’s movie “Sicko” in a repeating loop ad infinitum for you to say such a thing. A different question to ask yourself would be: Why do socialist government officials not have to live under the same health care laws that they have put in place for everyone else? If Obamacare is so great, why have our politicians exempted themselves from it?
To answer this presumption of yours, I refer you to several links which I hope you will take the time to read. The first one is regarding Ezekiel Emanuel, White House health care policy advisor to Barack Obama and author of much of Obamacare.
The typical wait for hip surgery in Canada is 14 months.
In Canada’s Province of Quebec, patients in need of a 30 minute procedure to cure urinary tract infections are on a three year waiting list!
Children with significant hearing problems are denied access to cochlear implants.
Arthritis treatment in the United Kingdom has a waiting period of up to nine months.
Also in the UK, a 22 year old man just passed away because the government refused to allow him to receive a liver transplant.
Patients across the spectrum are denied access to thousands of necessary medications, which are deemed “too costly” or “unnecessary” by non-doctor bureaucrats.Then there is this article by Ileana Johnson on Communist Health Care in Bucharest, Hungary.
In closing: Prior to Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society, the medical industry was providing adequate and accessible health care to all and at reasonable costs. Insurance was a catastrophic safety net, while normal health care was an out of pocket expense, affordable to most all Americans. Pro-bono work by hospitals and doctors took up the rest for the needy. Churches and community charities took care of those who could not pay. After Lyndon Johnson involved the government as a third party to the elderly and the poor, the entire situation devolved into a more corrupt money grab, which tells you exactly what government intervention does to pulverize reason and sanity, care and due diligence, compassion and charity.
Americans have been blessed with the best health care in the world which is now going to be degraded into the lowest common denominators due to socialism by those who think government is the answer, not the problem. I take the opposite view because I have lived through the success of a substantial amount of freedom. Moving toward totalitarian control over our every personal decision is not going to bring prosperity and happiness, or good health care to anyone but the political elitists who eliminate the inferior outcomes of socialism from their own lives. In case you haven’t noticed, they vote the best for themselves and the least for the society they govern. Not much different from the monarchical rulers of the past, eh?
So, Dissenter, march along to your masters’ drum beat. You contacted me with questions and statements. I hope you understand why I took the time to answer you.
Sincerely,
Cheryl Pass
P.S. I notice you quoted Isaac Asimov. I’m sorry to say your favorite “atheist,” also a Fabian Socialist, would only view you as a “useful idiot.” If you are trying to equate Ayn Rand with him and with Socialism due to atheism, that would be a canard. Rand lived in and saw the horrors of Socialism and hence decided to warn Americans of the possible harm that ideology would bring upon us.
Obama Slaps States That Don't Comply With Obamacare
Just following the steps of his buddy, the Tyrant Lincoln.
Residents of states that refuse to set up health insurance exchanges
under Obamacare are set to be hit with higher premiums under new rules
announced by the Health and Human Services Department.
Insurance companies will be charged 3.5 percent of any premiums they sell through the federal exchanges, the department announced Friday.
And insurers are likely to pass that surcharge on to clients, leaading to higher premiums.
The only states to be affected are those that refuse to set up their own exchanges because of opposition to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. They are almost certain to be those under Republican control. In those states, HHS will set up the exchanges
GOP governors are taking a hard line against implementing any part of the healthcare law, which will mean insurers in their states will need to pay the monthly fee, The Hill reports.
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer announced this week that her state will not set up an exchange, calling the proposal "too expensive and too risky." Her decision brings the total of states refusing to comply with the act's provisions up to 17.
Insurance companies will be charged 3.5 percent of any premiums they sell through the federal exchanges, the department announced Friday.
And insurers are likely to pass that surcharge on to clients, leaading to higher premiums.
The only states to be affected are those that refuse to set up their own exchanges because of opposition to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. They are almost certain to be those under Republican control. In those states, HHS will set up the exchanges
GOP governors are taking a hard line against implementing any part of the healthcare law, which will mean insurers in their states will need to pay the monthly fee, The Hill reports.
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer announced this week that her state will not set up an exchange, calling the proposal "too expensive and too risky." Her decision brings the total of states refusing to comply with the act's provisions up to 17.
More @ Newsmax
Krauthammer: Obama's Fiscal Cliff Deal Worse than Robert E. Lee's Terms at Appomattox
Charles Krauthammer on Thursday called an offer to fix the fiscal cliff from the White House, presented to House Republicans by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, “not just a bad deal, this is really an insulting deal.”
“What Geithner offered, what you showed on the screen, Robert E. Lee was offered easier terms at Appomattox, and he lost the Civil War,” Krauthammer said on Fox News on Thursday. “There are not only no cuts in this, there's an increase in spending with a new stimulus. I mean, this is almost unheard of. What do they expect? They obviously expect the Republicans will cave on everything. I think the Republicans ought to simply walk away.”
More @ Newsmax
Before the midnight hour
That ($250,000) sounds like a lot of money. And it is. But, if someone or a small group of people are operating a small business it's not such a huge amount of money. $250,000, or more, may be the minimum that's needed to just stay in business and to keep workers employed. Having an annual income of $250,000, or more, certainly doesn't mean that the owner (or owners) is putting that much money in their pockets.
These small business operators may be doing business as sole proprietors, partnerships or small "S" corporations. This means they're filing their taxes as individuals. Whereas the $250,000 of income may seem large, most of the time the majority of this money is actually invested right back into the business in order to keep operating and to keep paying their employees' salaries.
With the President's tax plan these small business owners can expect to pay an average of $24,888 in additional taxes. This average can cost one job or more jobs. It has been estimated that the President's tax hike could put about 1.2 million jobs in jeopardy. It's almost like if someone wanted to actually ruin the economy of this nation then this would be the proposal to follow.
The President says that the Bush tax cuts would affect just 3 percent of small businesses, but he fails to explain that this 3 percent accounts for 50 percent of all business income. Something has to be done and it has to be done before midnight on December 31 this year. Raise taxes on small businesses and watch unemployment rise dramatically or use some common sense and get our economy back on track and increase employment.
Sadly, one of the more successful political strategies in our political history has been to create a class warfare situation. Most of us are naturally envious of those who have appreciably more money than we have.
From this natural assumption the politician creates class war by demonizing the rich and insists that they are the ones who are causing just about every problem that we face.
I have never been hired by a poor person and all of my employers happened to have worked themselves up from the bottom, too. I was only employed by the government once. That was when I served in the military. I didn't mind my military service. I believed that I owed that to my country.
And I thought that service would help keep our nation being a democracy with a free enterprise system. I still believe that.
I don't think it is a matter of whether we like, dislike, or don't care about the rich. It's a matter of going along with the President's tax increases and going into a deeper recession or creating more jobs and beginning to put this nation back on the road of prosperity.
Yes, there can be a compromise. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that if Congress takes the middle ground and extends the Bush tax cuts (over Obama's opposition) but cancels the automatic spending cuts, the result, in the short term, would be modest growth but no major economic hit.
However, the CBO also projects that if the current laws slated for 2013 go into effect they would cut gross domestic product (GDP) by 4 percentage points in 2013 and thus send our economy into a recession with a loss of about 2 million jobs.
Actually, this should not be a partisan issue. The very idea of raising taxes on our biggest job creators in a time like this is virtually insane.
But, our president seems to be begging for a gunfight at the OK corral. His position seems to be that his reelection has given him a mandate to do anything he pleases regardless of what the non-partisan CBO recommends or what the results may be.
I don't believe the President was given any such mandate by his reelection. He certainly did not receive anything close to the majority of small business owner's votes. He barely won the popular vote, but his victory was assured by 90 percent of one demographic and 70 percent of another demographic, both made up of many very good, hardworking people, but neither of which (as a group) create even a micro-percentage of jobs. Perhaps the 10 percent of the 90 percent of the demographic who did not vote for the President were the job creators in that demographic group.
It's not time for a gunfight at any place to feed someone's personal ego. It's time to work together and to do what's obviously best for the citizens of this country. The midnight hour is approaching and I have always liked to look at the moon, but not at someone trying to moon the nation because of an inflated ego.
(Bob Harper is a retired Tarboro businessman who writes a column of general interest.)
More than 100 rifles stolen from Atlanta train car
Via Don
Federal authorities were hunting Friday for more than 100 rifles stolen from a boxcar parked in an Atlanta train yard.
Federal authorities were hunting Friday for more than 100 rifles stolen from a boxcar parked in an Atlanta train yard.
The weapons were taken from a CSX rail yard on the city's northwest side in mid-November, said Richard Coes, a spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The weapons include assault rifles that Coes described as "AK-style." He declined to discuss other aspects of the case.
More @ Yahoo
Senate strips ‘indefinite detention’ for Americans from 2012 NDAA
Via ojibwa
The
U.S. Senate approved an amendment on Thursday that strips a
controversial provision from the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act
that allows the “indefinite detention” of American citizens within the
U.S. by the military.
The amendment passed by a vote of 67 to 29. All but four of the Senators who voted against civilian trials for Americans were Republicans. Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV), Ben Nelson (D-NE) and Mark Pryor (D-AR) crossed over to oppose the amendment, and they were joined by Joe Lieberman (I-CT).
The amendment reads: “An authorization to use military force, a declaration of war, or any similar authority shall not authorize the detention without charge or trial of a citizen or lawful permanent resident of the United States apprehended in the United States, unless an Act of Congress expressly authorizes such detention.”
The amendment passed by a vote of 67 to 29. All but four of the Senators who voted against civilian trials for Americans were Republicans. Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV), Ben Nelson (D-NE) and Mark Pryor (D-AR) crossed over to oppose the amendment, and they were joined by Joe Lieberman (I-CT).
The amendment reads: “An authorization to use military force, a declaration of war, or any similar authority shall not authorize the detention without charge or trial of a citizen or lawful permanent resident of the United States apprehended in the United States, unless an Act of Congress expressly authorizes such detention.”
More @ The Raw Story
Cheetah - Super Slow Motion (HD)
Via Daily Timewaster
A National Geographic film crew captured stunning slow motion footage of cheetahs running in excess of 60 MPH using a Phantom high speed camera filming at 1200 frames per second. The camera was mounted to a high speed track.
The cheetah can run faster than any other land animal— as fast as 112 to 120 km/h (70 to 75 mph) in short bursts covering distances up to 500 m (1,600 ft), and has the ability to accelerate from 0 to over 100 km/h (62 mph) in three seconds.
As a boy I was fascinated by them and knew they could go 70 MPH briefly, but didn't know that they can go 0 to 62 in 3 seconds. The fastest car that I have read about is about 3.2 seconds as I remember.
A National Geographic film crew captured stunning slow motion footage of cheetahs running in excess of 60 MPH using a Phantom high speed camera filming at 1200 frames per second. The camera was mounted to a high speed track.
The cheetah can run faster than any other land animal— as fast as 112 to 120 km/h (70 to 75 mph) in short bursts covering distances up to 500 m (1,600 ft), and has the ability to accelerate from 0 to over 100 km/h (62 mph) in three seconds.
Congressman: Muslim Brotherhood advising Obama
Outspoken Republican congressman Louie Gohmert is continuing to press for investigation of the Muslim Brotherhood’s influence on the federal government, contending in an interview that a probe is necessary because of the Obama administration’s “horrendous decisions” in backing the so-called “Arab Spring” revolutions in the Middle East.
The East Texas lawmaker was one of five Republican Congress members who stirred bipartisan controversy in June by raising concern about Muslim Brotherhood infiltration in the nation’s capital.
“You look at the decisions [the Obama administration] made, especially in the last two years, in going through the revolutions in Northern Africa and across the Middle East and to the Far East,” said Gohmert, “and the only way you can explain the horrendous decisions that were so completely wrongheaded would be if the administration had a bunch of Muslim Brotherhood members giving them advice.”
In July, Gohmert, along with Rep. Michele Bachmann, R, Minn., and three other Republican House members, pointed to Hillary Clinton’s top aide, Huma Abedin, as a possible Muslim Brotherhood influence on U.S. policy. The lawmakers asked the inspector generals at the departments of Homeland Security, Justice and State to investigate, prompting Democrats and Republicans to rush to Abedin’s defense.
However, as WND reported, Abedin worked for an organization founded by her family that is effectively at the forefront of a grand Saudi plan to mobilize U.S. Muslim minorities to transform America into a strict Wahhabi-style Islamic state, according to an Arabic-language manifesto issued by the Saudi monarchy. Abedin also was a member of the executive board of the Muslim Student Association, which was identified as a Muslim Brotherhood front group in a 1991 document introduced into evidence during the terror-financing trial of the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation trial.
More @ WND
Why Are NY Teachers Getting Taxpayer-Funded Cosmetic Surgery?
A teacher’s union in a Buffalo, New York is fighting to preserve a decades-old health care plan that covers cosmetic surgery… and taxpayers are footing the bill. A new report shows that they spent nearly $3 million of taxpayer dollars on procedures like hair removal and liposuction.
Ralph Hernandez, vice president of the Buffalo school board, joined America Live to give an update on the negotiations. He said there are reassurances from the leadership of the unions that they would drop the issue before the next collective bargaining agreement.
But in a school district where only half of the kids are graduating, Megyn asked why this wasn’t re-negotiated before. He said that it’s been part of the Buffalo public school system for about 20 years, though he would like to see that money go toward the classroom.
In addition, Megyn pointed out that the school board went to the teachers with the news that 100 of them would have to be laid off. If the teachers gave up the health care plan with cosmetic procedures, they would not have to be let go, but they refused.
More @ Fox
Obama’s Now Borrowed More Than All Presidents from Washington to W
The federal government has now borrowed more money during Barack Obama’s time as president than it did in the period lasting from the time President George Washington took the oath office until July 2, 2001, more than five months into the first term of President George W. Bush.
At the close of business on Jan. 20, 2009, when President Barack Obama was inaugurated, the national debt stood at $10,626,877,048,913.08, according to the Treasury. At the close of business this Thursday, it stood at $16,323,083,449,604.98.
That means the debt has increased $5,696,206,400,691.90 during Obama’s presidency.
On July 2, 2001, more than five months after President George W. Bush entered office, the national debt was $5,693,220,327,798.14, according to the Treasury. By the close of business on July 3, 2001, it had risen to 5,698,195,769,465.40. Since then, the debt has never again dropped below $5,696,206,400,691.90—the amount it has increased in less than one full term of Obama.
More @ CNS News
Report: Security Clearances Revoked, Criminal Charges Pending For ATF Fast and Furious Officials
According to credible ATF sources, officials heavily involved in Operation Fast and Furious and named as partially responsible for the program's failure by Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz and the House Oversight Committee have been stripped of their government security clearances while some have been fired, demoted, and transferred. Criminal charges are also reportedly pending.
Former ATF Special Agent in Charge of the Phoenix Field Division Bill Newell, former ATF Special Agent in Charge of Operations in the West Bill McMahon and former Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Phoenix Field Division George Gillett have been fired while former Assistant Special Agent in Charge Jim Needles and Field Supervisor David Voth have been demoted. Hope McAllister, the lead case agent for Fast and Furious, has been put on leave and transferred out of Phoenix according to reports.
More @ Townhall
Nathaniel Macon bids farewell to his old friend the Constitution
He pegged it to a T 180 years ago. Makes us look like fools.
Born in Warren County in 1757, North Carolina
legislator Nathaniel Macon believed deeply that liberty, valor,
patriotism, industry, economy and frugality were the greatest virtues of
a nation; that each generation’s moral power might leave behind it, “a
long train of glory for the illumination of posterity.”
Bernhard Thuersam, Director
Cape Fear Historical Institute
"Documenting Cape Fear People, Places and History"
www.cfhi.net
Nathaniel Macon on Government Power:
“The Senate next took up the bill authorizing a subscription on behalf of the United States, of fifteen hundred shares of the capital stock of the Delaware and Chesapeake Canal. Upon which Mr. Macon said: “He rose with a heavy heart, to take his last farewell of an old friend that he had always admired and loved; he meant the Constitution of the United States.
On this occasion, he said, he had experienced a difficulty in expressing his feelings. Gentlemen say it is not necessary now to enter into the constitutional question in this measure. The first time he had ever known them to refuse to discuss the constitutional questions, involved by a proposition, was, when the act passed incorporating the present bank of thirty-five millions; from that time the Constitution had been asleep.
Every scheme that was proposed, was with the view of tying the people together….to make them one people from the Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains….by and by they would render this government as powerful and unlimited as the British government was. We go on deciding these things without looking at the Constitution; and I suppose we will, in a few years, do as was done in England – we shall appoint a committee to hunt for precedents.
My heart is full when I think of all this; and what is to become of us I cannot say. This government was intended to be a limited one; its great objects were war and peace, and now we are endeavoring to prove that these measures are necessary, both as war and peace measures.
Mr. Macon said he would beg leave to call the attention of the Senate to a celebrated report [by Thomas Jefferson], made in Virginia in 1799, for a true exposition of the constitutional powers of this government. If there was reason to be alarmed at the growing power of the general government, how much more has taken place since? Congress now stopped at nothing, which it deemed expedient, and the Constitution was construed to give power to any grand scheme. This change was brought about little by little….The end of them all would be in the vulgar tongue, taxation.
He had before expressed his belief that the public debt would never be paid off. They were following Great Britain, step by step, and the final result would be, they would cease to look to the debt itself, but think only of the interest. The history of the British government would prove that every war had increased the public debt and added to the burthens of the people; and what was the result in America?
His idea of internal improvement in this country was, to take from the people all unnecessary burdens. Let them have plenty of wholesome food and good clothing, and he doubted not they would continue to raise boys and girls who would become men and women. These were the sort of internal improvements he desired to see. It was vain to talk of any other internal improvements strengthening the country, when there was ninety millions of public debt, and above a hundred [millions] of private debt, owing.
When he was asked what measures he would adopt to make the people peaceable and submissive, he replied, “tax them heavily, and collect it rigidly; give them enough to do, and they would never plague the government.” This was the practice in Europe, and it had succeeded very well. As to the meaning of the Constitution, Mr. Macon said those who composed the convention that formed it, certainly must have known what they intended….but it seemed the people of the present day understood what the framers of the Constitution intended better than they did themselves.”
(Life of the Hon. Nathaniel Macon, of North Carolina: His Public Life, His Private Life, Edward R. Cotton, Lucas & Deaver, 1840, pp. 150-153)
Bernhard Thuersam, Director
Cape Fear Historical Institute
"Documenting Cape Fear People, Places and History"
www.cfhi.net
Nathaniel Macon on Government Power:
“The Senate next took up the bill authorizing a subscription on behalf of the United States, of fifteen hundred shares of the capital stock of the Delaware and Chesapeake Canal. Upon which Mr. Macon said: “He rose with a heavy heart, to take his last farewell of an old friend that he had always admired and loved; he meant the Constitution of the United States.
On this occasion, he said, he had experienced a difficulty in expressing his feelings. Gentlemen say it is not necessary now to enter into the constitutional question in this measure. The first time he had ever known them to refuse to discuss the constitutional questions, involved by a proposition, was, when the act passed incorporating the present bank of thirty-five millions; from that time the Constitution had been asleep.
Every scheme that was proposed, was with the view of tying the people together….to make them one people from the Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains….by and by they would render this government as powerful and unlimited as the British government was. We go on deciding these things without looking at the Constitution; and I suppose we will, in a few years, do as was done in England – we shall appoint a committee to hunt for precedents.
My heart is full when I think of all this; and what is to become of us I cannot say. This government was intended to be a limited one; its great objects were war and peace, and now we are endeavoring to prove that these measures are necessary, both as war and peace measures.
Mr. Macon said he would beg leave to call the attention of the Senate to a celebrated report [by Thomas Jefferson], made in Virginia in 1799, for a true exposition of the constitutional powers of this government. If there was reason to be alarmed at the growing power of the general government, how much more has taken place since? Congress now stopped at nothing, which it deemed expedient, and the Constitution was construed to give power to any grand scheme. This change was brought about little by little….The end of them all would be in the vulgar tongue, taxation.
He had before expressed his belief that the public debt would never be paid off. They were following Great Britain, step by step, and the final result would be, they would cease to look to the debt itself, but think only of the interest. The history of the British government would prove that every war had increased the public debt and added to the burthens of the people; and what was the result in America?
His idea of internal improvement in this country was, to take from the people all unnecessary burdens. Let them have plenty of wholesome food and good clothing, and he doubted not they would continue to raise boys and girls who would become men and women. These were the sort of internal improvements he desired to see. It was vain to talk of any other internal improvements strengthening the country, when there was ninety millions of public debt, and above a hundred [millions] of private debt, owing.
When he was asked what measures he would adopt to make the people peaceable and submissive, he replied, “tax them heavily, and collect it rigidly; give them enough to do, and they would never plague the government.” This was the practice in Europe, and it had succeeded very well. As to the meaning of the Constitution, Mr. Macon said those who composed the convention that formed it, certainly must have known what they intended….but it seemed the people of the present day understood what the framers of the Constitution intended better than they did themselves.”
(Life of the Hon. Nathaniel Macon, of North Carolina: His Public Life, His Private Life, Edward R. Cotton, Lucas & Deaver, 1840, pp. 150-153)
Details on wild interstate shooting involving Birmingham's mayor and his security detail
Via Billy
More details emerged today following a bizarre Friday night shooting on a Birmingham interstate that involved Mayor William Bell and his security detail.
Sources close to the investigation provided this account of what led to the gunfire that left a man and a woman wounded, a third person in police custody, a badly shaken mayor and the shutdown of busy I-59/20 for hours.
Bell was on his way home from a YMCA fundraiser at the Wine Loft downtown. He was being driven by his security detail, which consists of two sworn Birmingham police officers, a long-standing city practice.
The mayor's vehicle, a Chevrolet Suburban, stopped at a traffic light in the 300 block of Eight Avenue North, an area known as Little Five Points, as the entourage headed toward the mayor's College Hills home. Bell and the officers then noticed a Lincoln Town Car across the intersection from their car, facing the mayor's vehicle. It was just before 8 p.m.
A man was sitting on the sill of the opened passenger's widow, brandishing a handgun. That man then opened fire, flashes of light coming from the muzzle of his gun. He was dressed in dark clothing, and wearing gloves and a skull cap. Two or three shots were fired in the direction of the mayor's car. Its not clear whether the gunman was shooting at the mayor's vehicle, or a nearby Tahoe.
The mayor's security officers continued down Eight Avenue North, calling in a report of shots fired in the area to the city's police dispatchers and giving them a description of the suspect vehicle. As the mayor's vehicle continued on, the Town Car looped back around and was now back in front of the mayor's vehicle once again, near Ninth Avenue and Arkadelphia.
Gunfire erupted again, in the direction of the mayor's vehicle. The mayor's security officers continued to follow the vehicle, which made its way up onto the interstate. They following at a distance while in communication with marked patrol units and dispatch.
At some point, the security detail officers turned on their emergency blue lights and sirens and continued to follow the Town Car on I-59/20 as it drove increasingly erratically down the roadway.
The Town Car then crashed into the interstate's concrete guardrail near the 22nd Street exit. The officers told the mayor to duck, take cover and stay in the car, which he did. The security detail officers got out of the car and repeatedly told the suspects to get out of the car and show their hands, but to no avail.
The suspects then opened fire again, and the mayor's security officers returned fire and wounded two of the three suspects. North Precinct officers arrived close behind, and took control of the scene. Below the bridge, officers stood guard over a handgun and a small bag of white powder, possibly drugs, that fell or was thrown from the bridge.
Birmingham police have not released the names of any of the suspects, or the specific conditions of those wounded. One is life-threatening, the other isn't. Police officials said the Alabama Bureau of Investigation is handling the probe, and referred all additional questions to that agency.
ABI has not released any additional information this morning. ABI investigators have asked those involved not to comment pending the ongoing probe.
AL
VERBATIM
VERBATIM
More details emerged today following a bizarre Friday night shooting on a Birmingham interstate that involved Mayor William Bell and his security detail.
Sources close to the investigation provided this account of what led to the gunfire that left a man and a woman wounded, a third person in police custody, a badly shaken mayor and the shutdown of busy I-59/20 for hours.
Bell was on his way home from a YMCA fundraiser at the Wine Loft downtown. He was being driven by his security detail, which consists of two sworn Birmingham police officers, a long-standing city practice.
The mayor's vehicle, a Chevrolet Suburban, stopped at a traffic light in the 300 block of Eight Avenue North, an area known as Little Five Points, as the entourage headed toward the mayor's College Hills home. Bell and the officers then noticed a Lincoln Town Car across the intersection from their car, facing the mayor's vehicle. It was just before 8 p.m.
A man was sitting on the sill of the opened passenger's widow, brandishing a handgun. That man then opened fire, flashes of light coming from the muzzle of his gun. He was dressed in dark clothing, and wearing gloves and a skull cap. Two or three shots were fired in the direction of the mayor's car. Its not clear whether the gunman was shooting at the mayor's vehicle, or a nearby Tahoe.
The mayor's security officers continued down Eight Avenue North, calling in a report of shots fired in the area to the city's police dispatchers and giving them a description of the suspect vehicle. As the mayor's vehicle continued on, the Town Car looped back around and was now back in front of the mayor's vehicle once again, near Ninth Avenue and Arkadelphia.
Gunfire erupted again, in the direction of the mayor's vehicle. The mayor's security officers continued to follow the vehicle, which made its way up onto the interstate. They following at a distance while in communication with marked patrol units and dispatch.
At some point, the security detail officers turned on their emergency blue lights and sirens and continued to follow the Town Car on I-59/20 as it drove increasingly erratically down the roadway.
The Town Car then crashed into the interstate's concrete guardrail near the 22nd Street exit. The officers told the mayor to duck, take cover and stay in the car, which he did. The security detail officers got out of the car and repeatedly told the suspects to get out of the car and show their hands, but to no avail.
The suspects then opened fire again, and the mayor's security officers returned fire and wounded two of the three suspects. North Precinct officers arrived close behind, and took control of the scene. Below the bridge, officers stood guard over a handgun and a small bag of white powder, possibly drugs, that fell or was thrown from the bridge.
Birmingham police have not released the names of any of the suspects, or the specific conditions of those wounded. One is life-threatening, the other isn't. Police officials said the Alabama Bureau of Investigation is handling the probe, and referred all additional questions to that agency.
ABI has not released any additional information this morning. ABI investigators have asked those involved not to comment pending the ongoing probe.
The Slave Trade
Via Jimmy L. Shirley Jr.
Resistance to lifetime servitude began with the first Africans forcibly brought to the Western Hemisphere in the 1500s, and resistance continued until the last emancipations in the Americas. For the former British colonies which became the United States, colonial-era resistance and early antislavery activities are the base on which the Underground Railroad was built. Without resistance, there would have been no need for the extensive legal codes which upheld property rights in human beings or for the brutal intimidation which always existed just beneath the surface of this coercive social system.
More @ NPS
The Myth of American Meritocracy
Via Matthew
But should we really be so surprised at this behavior among the
students at America’s most prestigious academic institution? In the last
generation or two, the funnel of opportunity in American society has
drastically narrowed, with a greater and greater proportion of our
financial, media, business, and political elites being drawn from a
relatively small number of our leading universities, together with their
professional schools. The rise of a Henry Ford, from farm boy mechanic
to world business tycoon, seems virtually impossible today, as even
America’s most successful college dropouts such as Bill Gates and Mark
Zuckerberg often turn out to be extremely well-connected former Harvard
students. Indeed, the early success of Facebook was largely due to the
powerful imprimatur it enjoyed from its exclusive availability first
only at Harvard and later restricted to just the Ivy League.
During this period, we have witnessed a huge national decline in well-paid middle class jobs in the manufacturing sector and other sources of employment for those lacking college degrees, with median American wages having been stagnant or declining for the last forty years. Meanwhile, there has been an astonishing concentration of wealth at the top, with America’s richest 1 percent now possessing nearly as much net wealth as the bottom 95 percent.2 This situation, sometimes described as a “winner take all society,” leaves families desperate to maximize the chances that their children will reach the winners’ circle, rather than risk failure and poverty or even merely a spot in the rapidly deteriorating middle class. And the best single means of becoming such an economic winner is to gain admission to a top university, which provides an easy ticket to the wealth of Wall Street or similar venues, whose leading firms increasingly restrict their hiring to graduates of the Ivy League or a tiny handful of other top colleges.3 On the other side, finance remains the favored employment choice for Harvard, Yale or Princeton students after the diplomas are handed out.4
The Battle for Elite College Admissions
How corrupt are Ivy League admissions?
Just before the Labor Day weekend, a front page New York Times
story broke the news of the largest cheating scandal in Harvard
University history, in which nearly half the students taking a
Government course on the role of Congress had plagiarized or otherwise
illegally collaborated on their final exam.1
Each year, Harvard admits just 1600 freshmen while almost 125 Harvard
students now face possible suspension over this single incident. A
Harvard dean described the situation as “unprecedented.”
During this period, we have witnessed a huge national decline in well-paid middle class jobs in the manufacturing sector and other sources of employment for those lacking college degrees, with median American wages having been stagnant or declining for the last forty years. Meanwhile, there has been an astonishing concentration of wealth at the top, with America’s richest 1 percent now possessing nearly as much net wealth as the bottom 95 percent.2 This situation, sometimes described as a “winner take all society,” leaves families desperate to maximize the chances that their children will reach the winners’ circle, rather than risk failure and poverty or even merely a spot in the rapidly deteriorating middle class. And the best single means of becoming such an economic winner is to gain admission to a top university, which provides an easy ticket to the wealth of Wall Street or similar venues, whose leading firms increasingly restrict their hiring to graduates of the Ivy League or a tiny handful of other top colleges.3 On the other side, finance remains the favored employment choice for Harvard, Yale or Princeton students after the diplomas are handed out.4
The Battle for Elite College Admissions
More @ American Conservative