I first reported more than a month ago on nothing short of an outright power grab in Michigan. The Democrats have by fiat created a shell corporation that forces union dues out of private babysitters to fill union coffers that will then be used to elect more puppet Democrats, rinse, repeat, etc. The need for the Democrats is clear as the Granholm administration has been an abject disaster putting the Dems on defense in 2010. Here is a telling video from the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation that brought suit against the Department of Human Services (DHS) that imposed the union dues:
In Michigan, a state that continues to face perpetual budget deficits, the two biggest expenses are DHS and corrections. The prison system needs to be privatized immediately, and DHS needs to be downsized as well. By a lot. The sad episode is now being noticed in the MSM, showing up recently in the Wall Street Journal: Michigan Forces Business Owners Into Public Sector Unions
Michelle Berry runs a private day-care service from her home on the outskirts of this city, the birthplace of General Motors. "The Berry Patch," as she calls the service, features overstuffed purple gorillas, giant cartoon murals, and a playroom covered in Astroturf. Her clients are mostly low-income parents who need child care to keep their jobs in a city that now has a 26% unemployment rate.
Ms. Berry owns her own business—yet the Michigan Department of Human Services claims she is a government employee and union member. The agency thus withholds union dues from the child-care subsidies it sends to her on behalf of her low-income clients. Those dues are funneled to a public-employee union that claims to represent her. The situation is crazy—and it's happening elsewhere in the country.
A year ago in December, Ms. Berry and more than 40,000 other home-based day care providers statewide were suddenly informed they were members of Child Care Providers Together Michigan—a union created in 2006 by the United Auto Workers and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. The union had won a certification election conducted by mail under the auspices of the Michigan Employment Relations Commission. In that election only 6,000 day-care providers voted. The pro-labor vote turned out.
Many of the state's other 34,000 day-care providers never even realized what was going on. Ms. Berry tells us she was "shocked" to find out she was suddenly in a union. The real dirty work, however, had been done when the state created an "employer" for the union to "organize" against.
Of course, Michigan's independent day-care providers don't work for anybody except the parents who were their customers. Nevertheless, because some of these parents qualified for public subsidies, the Child Care Providers "union" claimed the providers were "public employees."
Michigan's Department of Human Services then teamed with Flint-based Mott Community College to sign an "interlocal agreement" in 2006 establishing a separate government agency called the Michigan Home Based Child Care Council. This council was directed to recommend good child-care practices—and not coincidentally, to serve as a "public employer." Although the council had almost no staff, no control over the state subsidies and no supervision of the providers' daily activities, it became the shell corporation against which the union could organize.
Thus the state created an ersatz employer and an ersatz "bargaining unit" against which what was essentially an ersatz union could organize.
Today the Department of Human Services siphons about $3.7 million in annual dues to the union—from the child-care subsidies. The money should be going to home-based day-care providers—themselves not on the high end of the income scale. Ms. Berry now sees money once paid to her go to a union that does little for her. She says she is "self employed and wants nothing to do with the union."
The union claims it is working for Ms. Berry and others like her by pressing the legislature to increase child-care payments. But lobbying is not an activity that requires compulsory unionism.
There's also the question of constitutionality. Not in Michigan but in the U.S:
The larger question, not part of this lawsuit, is whether this sort of unionization violates the U.S. Constitution. The freedom of association clause prevents compulsory unionism except, courts have determined, when it is necessary for "labor peace." But in this case, whom would the day-care providers riot against? The parents?
The federal question may be raised soon, as other states have pursued similar unionization schemes over the past decade, primarily at the behest of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and the Service Employees International Union, better known as the SEIU. Fourteen states have now enabled home-based day-care providers to be organized into public-employee unions, affecting about 233,000 people. And nine have done so with home health-care providers. The idea to unionize in this way was hatched in California, though ironically Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has vetoed legislation to unionize child-care providers.
It's telling that in several states that have gone down this road, state and federal subsidies are the source of the union dues. In Michigan, the scheme is essentially throwing a cash lifeline to unions like the UAW, which are hemorrhaging members.
There's another, ironic twist to the story in the Great Lakes state. Last month the Michigan Economic Development Corporation granted a for-profit SEIU subsidiary, the SEIU Member Action Service Center, a $2 million refundable tax credit to locate a new business facility in the state that will provide administrative services for the union and other local labor organizations. The subsidy strikes us as inappropriate because it categorized the SEIU subsidiary as a business and occurred just before the 5,000 member SEIU local 517M granted the state wage concessions. Shamelessly, the SEIU requested the credit because Michigan has high labor costs.
Some states are redefining straightforward terms—a union as a business, an employer as an employee—primarily to aid organized labor. This highlights the need to re-examine public-sector collective bargaining. Shielded from market pressures, public employee unions have driven up taxpayer costs for decades. Now labor leaders are shanghaiing entrepreneurs such as Ms. Berry and Ms. Loar into government unions because their clients receive government aid. Who will be next? Grocers? Landlords? Doctors?
How about all of the above and then some. Michigan needs, as much as anything, to become a right to work state.
Her New Year’s wish list includes the reintroduction of stoning for “Climate change skeptics,” whom she defines thusly:
(Climate Change Skeptics (also known as morons) are people who don’t believe in science purely because they a) can’t bear to admit they couldn’t see it coming or may have contributed to it b) don’t care because they assume by the time the real catastrophe happens they’ll be old, dead or rich enough to buy their way out and or c) refuse to accept the evidence because if they do they will have to admit that it God doesn’t exist. Because if God existed wouldn’t we be special enough for him to spare us?)
Happy New Year.
And who knew that the Democrat party is in control of Sydney?
It was supposed to go into effect yesterday, but instead will not be put in place at all. Even in France it was deemed unconstitutional. Why? The usual with liberals - picking winners and losers. From Bloomberg:
France’s constitutional court rejected a proposed tax on carbon emissions, saying a web of exemptions violated the principal of equality and rendered efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions ineffective.
The government said it will make new proposals on Jan. 20.
The tax, which would have started on Jan. 1, was set at 17 euros ($24.38) per ton of carbon-dioxide emissions, President Nicolas Sarkozy said in September. To make the tax more palatable, he partially or fully exempted power plants, public transport, airlines, farming and fishing, as well as 1,018 older cement, steel and glass factories.
In all, 93 percent of all industrial carbon emissions in France would have avoided paying the full tax, the constitutional court said in a decision published on its Web site. The tax would have fallen disproportionately on fuel for heating and cars, it said.
“The court ruled that the system of exemptions, due to their extensive nature, were contrary to the objective of fighting global warming and contravene the principle of equality before the tax system,” the court said.
The court rejected all the articles relating to the carbon tax in the government’s 2010 budget.
So equal protection under the law is being respected in France, but not here in the U.S??? Recall that the cap-and-trade legislation that passed through the House did the same thing - picking winners and losers. Obama went even further threatening small businesses unless Congress played along: Obama to Congress: Pass cap-and-trade or the small business gets it! Exit question: when did the red pill become available in France???
THE PRESIDENT: I think one thing that's important to remember is that, even though there's a lot of fun at Christmas, you know, you got -- especially when it's snowy like this, so it's pretty outside, you got the Christmas tree, you got the Christmas cookies, you've got presents. You know, I think that the most important thing is just to remember why we celebrate Christmas.
CHILD: I know!
THE PRESIDENT: Do you know?
CHILD: The birth of baby Jesus.
THE PRESIDENT: The birth of baby Jesus, and what he symbolizes for people all around the world is the possibility of peace and people treating each other with respect. And so I just hope that spirit of giving that's so important at Christmas, I hope all of you guys remember that as well. You know, it's not just about getting gifts but it's also doing something for other people. So being nice to your mom and dad and grandma and aunties and showing respect to people -- that's really important too, that's part of the Christmas spirit, don't you think? Do you agree with me?
CHILDREN: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: You do? Do you have an interesting observation?
CHILD: I know why we give gifts to other people.
THE PRESIDENT: Why is that?
CHILD: Because the three wise men gave gifts to baby Jesus.
THE PRESIDENT: That's exactly right. But the three wise men -- the reason -- (sign falls off wall) -- uh-oh, I thought that was the cookies going down. We couldn't have that. You know, the three wise men, if you think about it, here are these guys, they have all this money, they've got all this wealth and power, and yet they took a long trip to a manger just to see a little baby. And it just shows you that just because you're powerful or you're wealthy, that's not what's important. What's important is what's -- the kind of spirit you have.
So I hope everybody has a spirit of kindness and thoughtfulness, and everybody is really thinking about how can they do for other people -- treating them well, because that's really the spirit of Christmas.
Uh - Jesus didn't come to Earth to be a symbol. He is Emanuel - God with us. He came, he saved, and he will come again. Too bad Obama is focused on soaking the rich more than what Christmas really is - the celebration of the coming of the messiah. Although in Obama's case, I can kind of understand, since he thinks that HE is the messiah.
A viral video blasting liberals and organized labor for the downfall of Detroit is among the Top 100 most watched videos on YouTube this week.
The video, by comedian and self-proclaimed YouTube correspondent Steven Crowder, has been seen more than 300,000 times.
In the 13-minute clip, Crowder shows scenes of abandoned buildings while laying out his case that liberals, teachers unions and the UAW are to blame for Detroit's economic and social woes.
"Every single mayor of Detroit since 1961 has been a liberal," Crowder says in the video. "It is the city of entitlement programs. Leftists always tout their policies as a way to help the poor and give our fellow man a leg up.
"Well, how's that working out for them?"
Of course, the freep takes umbrage with the report, dismissing it since it came from a mere citizen:
The morning show, who did identify Crowder as a comedian, used the opportunity to portray the video as a citizen news report, straight from the streets of the Motor City.
"Don't adjust your TVs," said one co-host after a clip of the video played. "It looks like the aftermath of a war scene," said another.
In the interview, Crowder said he's not hopeful for Detroit's future as long as liberals control the city's policies.
"I weep for Detroit. It's really sad to go back to my hometown and see it that way," he said.
The morning show was Fox and Friends. Here's that clip:
I used to live in Detroit when I was a kid. My parents saw the writing on the wall and moved to the suburbs. That neighborhood that I grew up in is dilapidated and a bunch of houses are condemned. How does the freep not hold liberals accountable for what has happened to that city? They've been in charge of it for 50 years!
American Thinker: 2010 Will Be Worse. "The year 2010 is likely to be the pivotal year where pundits stop referring to the recession and begin openly talking about a depression."
Much of it is due to liberal policies in blue areas like Detroit that have been under Democrat hegemonic domination for the last 50 years if not longer. When will they be held accountable for dooming the black population to misery via corrupt and incompetent public schools and social programs that have done far more harm than good? At the public school level, just today I wrote about the official news that the successful DC voucher program that allowed minority students to get away from failing schools has been deep-sixed buy Democrats (It's official: Democrats kill successful DC voucher program, resegregate DC Public Schools). And yet, these people that populate the urban environment continue to vote for their own Demise by voting Democrats into office. Democrats have a vested interest in keeping those in poverty in poverty. I have wrotten about this many, many times in this blog, but it is always worth repeating. Detroit is the most liberal city in the U.S. if one goes by voting record:
2008 General Election results-DEM: 96.93% GOP: 2.65%
2006 General Election results-DEM: 95.05% GOP: 4.33%
2004 General Election results-DEM: 93.61% GOP: 5.93%
In essence, Detroit residents have been voting for their own doom. The Stockholm Syndrome on a massive scale. I have pointed this out manytimes before, but it's worth repeating yet again. One of my all-time favorite movies of all time is The Shawshank Redemption. In it, Morgan Freeman, aka "Red", coined the term when prisoners become dependent on the prison system and can no longer survive without it - institutionalized. One of the older prisoners, Brooks, was willing to kill to stay in the system as he knew nothing else after so many years. Yet they let him out and he promptly hung himself. He was institutionalized. The Democrats have institutionalizing the black population in this country, no different than slave masters did many decades ago. The same party that fought for slavery, not against it, segregated schools and filibustered the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 now has shackled the black population to another form of slavery - slavery to the state. Stripped naked of their dignity, their hope and their self-reliance.
In any case, from Robert Smith Jr over at his Detroit News blog: Divided and unequal
A TimeCNN.com story will surprise most Americans. According to this story, Americans live in more segregation now then they did more than 40 years ago:
"Talk about a dream deferred. African-American and Latino schoolchildren are more segregated, according to a January report from UCLA's Civil Rights Project, than they were at the time of Martin Luther King Jr.'s death, in 1968. Nearly 39% of blacks and 40% of Latinos attended schools composed of 90% to 100% students of color in the 2006-07 school year, the report found, and blacks and Latinos are far more likely than their white peers to attend high-poverty schools and 'dropout factories' where huge numbers of students don't graduate.
With the segment of nonwhite American students at 44% and climbing, the potential economic consequences are dire. 'In a world economy where success is dependent on knowledge,' the report said, 'major sections of the U.S. face the threat of declining average educational levels as the proportion of children attending inferior segregated schools continues to rise.' "
Americans must ask what can be done to change the direction the country is going in today. This is clearly a train wreck waiting to happen. If America stands on the sideline and does nothing, generations to come will suffer as they are more and more dependent on people from other cultures to lead them in business and government. America cannot hope its way, America must fight its way and make things work for the minorities of this country.
I'll answer Smith's question regarding what can be done: STOP VOTING FOR LIBERALS! Yet, he instead looks to the very liberals that have been heaping misery on top the black population for solutions:
The president must use the bully pulpit and encourage integration. America must not be afraid of being accused of being racist when demanding affirmative action to help bring African-Americans and Latinos into the mainstream. Having an African-American president in the White House and a Latino judge on the Supreme Court should not stop the righteous people of the nation from demanding justice.
Didn't Obama just kill the DC voucher program that helped inner city black kids? Why yes he did! And affirmative action as a solution? The answer to discrimination is more discrimination? Please Smith! That's been going on since the 60's. How's that been working out so far? And we need more of it because... ???
Drew Brees is enjoying another remarkable season. At 70.6%, he leads the entire NFL in completion percentage, and he tops the league in touchdown passes with 34. His 109.6 QB Rating is also an NFL best, and his Saints just secured home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs.
In April the TV show "Sports Science" decided to see just how accurate Brees is. They had him throw footballs at an archery target and compared his accuracy to Olympic archers. According to the show's measurements, Brees was far more accurate than the archers. Additionally, all of Brees' passes were thrown at 52 mph and released at a 6-degree angle, with an RPM comparable to a NASCAR air wrench.
I still believe that the San Diego Chargers made perhaps their biggest mistake (other than drafting Ryan Leaf) in letting Drew Brees go. Yes Phillip Rivers is good, but Drew Brees is great. The Chargers may already have at least one Super Bowl title had Brees stayed.
18The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
21For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.- Romans 1 (NIV)
Can you imagine trading the creator of the universe for a liar who supports the murder of even born babies? Well, that's exactly what many have been doing for some time now with our community organizer-in-chief. This story is just one of many along the lines of deifying a man of not even good intentions. From HotAir:
Despite all the compromises, it has finally been possible to ensure something so fundamental, as the right of every American not to be financially shipwrecked when their health fails them. Add to that the biggest ever financial support package in America’s history, a major disarmament agreement and the quickest-ever re-establishment of American reputation.
On the other hand, we have Jesus’ miracles that everyone still remembers, but which only benefitted a few. At the same time, we have the wonderful parables about his life and deeds that we know from the New Testament, but which have been interpreted so differently over the past 2000 years that it is impossible to give an unequivocal result of his work.
Obama is, of course, greater than Jesus – if we have to play that absurd Christmas game. But it is probably more meaningful to insist that with today’s domestic triumph, that he has already assured himself a place in the history books – a space he has good chances of expanding considerably in coming years.
Not the first time this comparison’s been made, needless to say. Exit question one: Are they for real or is this just the, er, Danish sense of humor at work?
Good grief man! These people have totally lost their minds! How absurd is this? Will they now actually carve a wooden image of Obama to pray to? Speaking of: Exodus 20: (NIV)
3 "You shall have no other gods before me. 4 "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5You shall not bow down to them or worship them; ...
This is big government at its finest hour. The Democrats have officially killed a successful private school voucher program banishing more than 3,300 low-income children back to the DC schools they so desperately wanted to escape. The Heartland Institute reports:
The leaders of D.C.’s school choice movement, Kevin P. Chavous (former D.C. Councilman) and Virginia Walden Ford (executive director of D.C. Parents for School Choice), today issued the following statement:
“House and Senate Appropriators this week ignored the wishes of D.C.’s mayor, D.C.’s public schools chancellor, a majority of D.C.’s city council, and more than 70 percent of D.C. residents and have mandated the slow death of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. This successful school voucher program—for D.C.’s poorest families—has allowed more than 3,300 children to attend the best schools they have ever known.
The decision to end the program, a decision buried in a thousand-page spending bill and announced right before the holidays, destroys the hopes and dreams of thousands of D.C. families. Parents and children have rallied countless times over the past year in support of reauthorization and in favor of strengthening the OSP.
Yet, despite the clearly positive results and the proven success of this program, Sen. Dick Durbin, Rep. Jose Serrano, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, and Secretary Arne Duncan worked together to kill the OSP. Funding the program only for existing children shrinks the program each year, compromises the federal evaluation of the program, denies entry to the siblings of existing participants, and punishes those children waiting in line by sentencing them to failing and often unsafe schools.
[emphasis mine]
The Democrats have effectively ended the voucher program. Obama only extended it into the 2009-2010 school year. He could have done more. He didn’t. Underpriveleged children–whom the Democrats oppress “protect” from the greed and injustices of the Right had a chance to gain the social justice and fairness Obama continuously touts in his speeches.
The Democrats have spent trillions of our tax dollars so carelessly with failed stimulus pork payouts, cash for clunkers, auto bailouts, bank bailouts, and additional Fannie and Freddie bailouts, you would think they could spare an extra $50 million over five years to continue to educate poor children–especially minority children.
What the MSM has done its best to do is to lose this down the memory hole, as it is an utterly shameful act by Obama and Congressional Democrats in deep-sixing the successful voucher program in D.C., dooming 1,800 low-income mostly black students to one of the worst educational systems in the country (the worst is DPS -Detroit Public Schools, which I have bogged about ad infinitum here).
Education secretary Arne Duncan referred to DC public schools as a district with “more money than God.” More than $28,000 per student. Failing miserably. The only success in that district was a voucher program that Obama attacked, even though vouchers cost a quarter (that's right - 25%) of the $28,000 number and helped the students. Should Obama get his head screwed on straight (good luck with that one), he will announce today to all students that since vouchers have been a smashing success in D.C., proved by concrete educational data, they should be a smashing success elsewhere. I mean -wouldn't that be a move to "restore scientific integrity in governmental decision making?" Especially since vouchers are proven to help students and drive down costs?
But that is not what anyone will hear. That's because Obama and his administration hid data indicating the program's successful educational results as they pushed Congressional Democrats to scrap the program. After all, they have the teachers unions to protect. The WSJ published an article a while back about the shenanigans:
It's bad enough that Democrats are killing a program that parents love and is closing the achievement gap between poor minorities and whites. But as scandalous is that the Education Department almost certainly knew the results of this evaluation for months.
Voucher recipients were tested last spring. The scores were analyzed in the late summer and early fall, and in November preliminary results were presented to a team of advisers who work with the Education Department to produce the annual evaluation. Since Education officials are intimately involved in this process, they had to know what was in this evaluation even as Democrats passed (and Mr. Obama signed) language that ends the program after next year.
Opponents of school choice for poor children have long claimed they'd support vouchers if there was evidence that they work. While running for President last year, Mr. Obama told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel that if he saw more proof that they were successful, he would "not allow my predisposition to stand in the way of making sure that our kids can learn . . . You do what works for the kids." Except, apparently, when what works is opposed by unions.
Mr. Duncan's office spurned our repeated calls and emails asking what and when he and his aides knew about these results. We do know the Administration prohibited anyone involved with the evaluation from discussing it publicly. You'd think we were talking about nuclear secrets, not about a taxpayer-funded pilot program. A reasonable conclusion is that Mr. Duncan's department didn't want proof of voucher success to interfere with Senator Dick Durbin's campaign to kill vouchers at the behest of the teachers unions.
The decision to let 1,700 poor kids get tossed from private schools is a moral disgrace. It also exposes the ugly politics that lies beneath union and liberal efforts across the country to undermine mayoral control, charter schools, vouchers or any reform that threatens their monopoly over public education dollars and jobs. The Sheldon Silver-Dick Durbin Democrats aren't worried that school choice doesn't work. They're worried that it does, and if Messrs. Obama and Duncan want to succeed as reformers they need to say so consistently.
Ouch. What an absolutely devastating piece. Read the whole thing as it is a very worthy read. There's more and it is equally devastating. There is not enough shame to be heaped on the heads of Democrats for this obscenity of a decision.
On Christmas Eve, an expectant Colorado mom went into cardiac arrest during labor and died, along with her baby. But miraculously, both managed to revive.
Also, car dealerships must post signs saying that they don't sell motorcycles, hardware stores must post that they don't sell condoms, grocery stores must post that they don't sell marijuana, and dentists must post sign saying they don't do brain surgery. All of those make as much sense as the new Baltimore law that forces crisis pregnancy centers to post that they do not perform abortions. Yet that is exactly what the law requires. From CNS News:Baltimore Law Aims to Undermine Charitable Work of Pregnancy Resource Centers, Say Pro-life Activists
A bill passed by the Baltimore City Council in November and signed into law on Dec. 4 will require pregnancy resource centers operating within the city to post signs stating what services the facilities do not offer. Signs -- to be posted outside the centers -- must state that they do not provide or give referrals for abortion or contraceptives.
Pro-life activists say this is the first time in the United States that a nonprofit service provider has been required to post such signage. They believe the law is intended to undermine their efforts to help women make an informed decision about an unplanned pregnancy. The signs will turn more women to Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers, they say.
“The passage of this piece of legislation may serve as serious encouragement to those who would like to see our organizations saddled with more laws and restrictions,” Carol Clews, executive director of the Center for Pregnancy Concerns in Baltimore, told the Baltimore Sun after the council passed the bill by a 12-3 vote in November.
“I cannot think of a single situation where a non-profit organization or for-profit business is required to post a sign that states what it does not do,” Peggy Harnshorn, president of Heartbeat International said in a statement submitted at a hearing held prior to the vote on the bill.
The strategy here is clear - regulate crisis pregnancy centers into oblivion. Think this can't happen in Michigan? Think again. Last year, HB 5158 was introduced. From MichiganVotes.org:
Introduced by Rep. Mark Meadows (D) on June 25, 2009, to require a “crisis pregnancy” organization, defined as a non-profit organization that provides services and counseling to women with unplanned or unwanted pregnancies, to give women a “medically accurate and objective explanation of the full range of options, including abortion, parenting, and adoption”.
Referred to the House Judiciary Committee on June 25, 2009.
Reported in the House on September 9, 2009, with the recommendation that the substitute (H-2) be adopted and that the bill then pass.
House Bill 5158 would create a new act. Specifically, the bill would define a "crisis pregnancy organization" as a nongovernmental, not-for-profit agency or organization that provides services and counseling to women who have unplanned or unwanted pregnancies. The new act would require an employee, volunteer, or other person affiliated with an organization to provide a pregnant woman with medically accurate information.
"Medically accurate" would mean material verified or supported by research conducted in compliance with scientific methods and published in peer-review journals, where appropriate, and recognized as accurate and objective by professional organizations and agencies with relevant expertise in the field, such as the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists or the American Gynecological and Obstetrical Society.
In response to an inquiry by a pregnant woman regarding pregnancy termination, the location of pregnancy termination services, or birth control information, a crisis pregnancy organization that did not provide such information would have to inform her, orally or in writing, that the organization did not provide information that would lead to a pregnancy termination, location of pregnancy termination services, or birth control information.
Further, the organization would have to distribute the prenatal care and parenting pamphlet prepared by the Department of Community Health.
Not exactly the same as a sign outside the facility, but it has a similar effect, no? I'm sure if I were to search around, I would find such efforts in most of the 50 states. Almost as if there were a council of ghouls out there thinking up of new ways to perpetrate evil. Maybe we should demand Lansing post a sign in front of the Capitol building: we don't solve problems, we only create them.
A pair of interesting articles that I came across today that add considerably to the scientific fact that any global warming that may have happened outside of the ClimateGate fraud was not man-made. In fact, it wasn't even CO2-made. First, from RealCO2 via Climate Depot, is this graphic that reveals what's been happening with CO2 levels for the last 150 years or so:
Most of the carbon dioxide emitted by human activity does not remain in the atmosphere, but is instead absorbed by the oceans and terrestrial ecosystems. In fact, only about 45 percent of emitted carbon dioxide stays in the atmosphere.
However, some studies have suggested that the ability of oceans and plants to absorb carbon dioxide recently may have begun to decline and that the airborne fraction of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions is therefore beginning to increase.
Many climate models also assume that the airborne fraction will increase. Because understanding of the airborne fraction of carbon dioxide is important for predicting future climate change, it is essential to have accurate knowledge of whether that fraction is changing or will change as emissions increase.
To assess whether the airborne fraction is indeed increasing, Wolfgang Knorr of the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol reanalyzed available atmospheric carbon dioxide and emissions data since 1850 and considers the uncertainties in the data.
In contradiction to some recent studies, he finds that the airborne fraction of carbon dioxide has not increased either during the past 150 years or during the most recent five decades.
The research is published in Geophysical Research Letters.
That being said, I have always thought that man-made CO2 emissions were negligible in the big picture anyway. Which leads me to an assertion that I have made many times in this blog:
"If all human activity were to disappear tomorrow, the atmosphere wouldn't even notice..."
At this time, Obama is trying to regilate man-made CO2 emissions via the EPA. There's a big problem with this though. It is a scientific fact that all known greenhouse gases comprise only about 2% of our atmosphere (the majority of our atmosphere is oxygen and nitrogen). Out of all the greenhouse gases, water vapor is more than 90% of that 2%, while CO2 is is only about 3.6% of that. Out of all the CO2, 96% is produced naturally (oceans, forrests, etc), while only 3.4% is man-made. So mankind is responsible for only 3.4% of CO2, which is only 3.6% of greenhouse gases, which are only 3% of our atmosphere. So 3.4% of 3.6% of 2% is... well - not much. (.002% of CO2 and 0.28% overall)
Just so you know what a small percentage of our atmosphere is comprised of CO2, the compound is measured in units of parts per million! So if you gather 1 million people and pick out 385 of them, you have jack squat of the whole, and that jack squat represents the CO2 proportion produced by man, that doesn't even stay in the atmosphere!
The Colts have been so good with Peyton Manning at the helm, that they should be 3-time Superbowl Champions by now. Except for one problem - themselves. So good are the Colts that they have wrapped up their place in the playoffs well before the season ends many times. And therein lay their fatal flaw - they give up the rest of the season. They don't play to win anymore, get rusty, and then begin the playoffs about as rusty as the Titanic is right now. The only time that didn't happen is the season they won their Super Bowl, where they couldn't relax at the end of the season because their record wasn't good enough.
Which brings me to this past Sunday when the Colts, 14-0 and up by 5 points in the 3rd quarter against the Jets, pulled their starters and gave up the game and the perfect season. Gave up. Folded their tent. Went home. They'll do the same this week. Their season is over. They lost their heart, and will be beaten in the playoffs by hungrier teams like the Patriots or Chargers. I predict they'll go 1-1 in the playoffs in what is their normal disappointing post-season.
A few years ago, I was very critical of th Patriots and their perfect season, but not for winning the games. Rather, for running up the score. When Tom Brady is throwing touchdowns in the 4th quarter on 4th down when the Pats are up by 40, that's not football any more. And they paid for it. By going pass happy and running up the score, their defense got soft and they never developed their running game. Thus, it was poetic justice for them to lose in the Super Bowl as they weren't accustomed to pulling out the tough games.
But back to the Colts. As a fan, I wanted to see them keep their hunger, go 16-0 and get a Super Bowl. Such things are extremely rare, and spitting in the face of perfection is simply bad karma. Yet everyone in the Colts organization is making excuses for it. Even the owner, Jim Irsay, says that he approved of the starters getting pulled. From ESPN: Irsay approved pulling of starters
Pulling their starters that early in the game will lead to one thing - a loss of heart. You just don't throw games away. Especially if you are the Colts where that tactic has backfired on them in the playoffs a number of times already. Bad Karma. Ace of Spades took note: Football Analysis For Morons
Not because I enjoy gloating at Peyton Manning's misfortune, or laughing at the misguided fans who thought that when they bought tickets to a Colts game they were going to get full value for their dollar. And not because I want to add insult to injury to the poor taxpayers who had to fund Indy's "home field = 2 and one half quarters advantage" stadium.
I mean, I could do it for all those reasons, I suppose.
But, really, its all about the quote. It's football analysis put in terms that every moron can relate to easily.
“The perfect season has never been one of our goals,” Caldwell claimed after the game. “It’s never been anything we focused on or anything we talked about.” Knocking boots with Beyonce has never been one of my goals, but if presented the opportunity, you best believe I won’t labor through 20 minutes of foreplay and signal for Curtis Painter to finish the job.
There are stated goals and there are once-in-a-lifetime opportunities only fools pass up. You put Beyonce on your resume and it opens unforeseen doors. Tom Brady is married to Gisele because he dated Bridget Moynahan first.
Yeah, yeah, I know the author is a flake. And I know that some of you ladies will probably resent being thought of as "resume enhancers". But has any other story about the Indy-Jets game been so spot-on about the royal screwing that occurred yesterday?...
Nope. That about does it. Heck - even our own liberal sportswriter Mitch Albom dedicated an entire column to the stupidity that I witnessed first hand on live television: Colts' latest 'safe' move an insult to the game. A few snippets:
Here was the saddest picture of the football season. Peyton Manning, Dallas Clark, Reggie Wayne and other starters for the Indianapolis Colts, standing on the sidelines, arms folded, like kids locked out of gym, watching their perfect season come to an end.
It was sad and bad and wrong on a thousand levels. Sad because it was avoidable. Bad because it was deliberate. Wrong because it went against everything we teach about sports: that you try your hardest, that you give your all. The Colts did none of that. They reached a designated point in the game -- third quarter, five-point lead -- and then they pulled the battery pack. Yanked the tablecloth. Out came the stars. In came the subs.
And almost that fast, there went the game, the perfect season, and any reason to root for the Colts to win the Super Bowl.
"The perfect season was never an issue with us," Colts president Bill Polian told the media after Sunday's game had been lost, 29-15, the Colts unable to score a point once the starters left. "It's somebody else's issue, but not ours."
Hmm. Who would that "somebody else" be? The fans who deserve -- and wanted -- to see their team's best effort? The players who deserve -- and wanted -- a chance to finish what they started?
Take away the players and the fans, who's left? Oh, right. Management. Well, yay, let's make sure they're happy.
The excuse that Caldwell played his starters to keep them sharp but pulled them to keep them healthy makes no sense. The Colts weren't sharp. Peyton just missed on several throws including one to Dallas Clark that would have went for 6. Thus, why play the starters at all? Manning, by the way, wasn't even getting touched by the pass rush. As a fan, I am as disappointed by the Colts throwing the game as I was with Barry Sanders when he retired.
The decade has one year to go but anyway. From the U.K. Telegraph via Hot Air, here is the list:
1. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (Peter Weir, 2003) 2. Black Hawk Down (Ridley Scott, 2001) 3. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (Peter Jackson, 2001, 2002, 2003) 4. Gladiator (Ridley Scott, 2000) 5. The Pursuit of Happyness (Gabriele Muccino, 2006) 6. The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan, 2008) 7. The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow, 2009) 8. Hotel Rwanda (Terry George, 2004) 9. The Lives of Others (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, 2006) 10. 300 (Zack Snyder, 2007)
I didn't see 5, 7, 8 or 9, but I reckon I'd put #10 as #1. I'd have LOTR up to #2 as well. And then there were the honorable mentions most of which I have not seen:
These films didn’t make the final list, but would be strong contenders for a top 20. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (Andrew Adamson, 2005); Cinderella Man (Ron Howard, 2005); Gran Torino (Clint Eastwood, 2008); Juno (Jason Reitman, 2007); The Passion of the Christ (Mel Gibson, 2004); Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone, 2006); Tears of the Sun (Antoine Fuqua, 2003); United 93 (Paul Greengrass, 2006); We Were Soldiers (Randall Wallace, 2002).
I am a Christian, a husband, a father of seven and a competitive natural bodybuilder.
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