Average Joe's five minutes of fame

Shoot, if he capitalizes on that fame, maybe he *will* move on up to that $250,000 $200,000 $150,000 tax bracket!

Socialism's coming folks

Apparently we're selfish if we don't believe in handing over more money to the government so they can decide what to do with it.

Two hangings....one arrest.

Two men were arrested for hanging a life size image of Obama.

The Dude who hung Sarah from a noose was merely asked to take down his little "art" project.

Whatev...

Happy Halloween!!!

Obama Infomercial Spin

HERE.

EDIT: Looks like the donations Obama received from foreigners is enough to cover those costly infomericals. Taking that money is illegal, but what the hell. It's the Obamamessiah after all! Let's just overlook the endless evidence that should concern most citizens about his honesty, integrity and ethics.

EDIT 2: The McCain camp targets the infomercial.

EDIT 3: Michelle Malkin's play by play.

Scientific Imperialism

I love it when Voxy goes after the liberal scientific "elite" who are hell bent on turning science into a form of religion...

Some readers didn't understand why I included two chapters dealing with science in TIA. This endorsement of Obama should suffice to explain their relevance to those who didn't grasp the connection between science fetishism and the New Atheists. Read it and see if you don't agree that each and every individual who endorses it should be stripped of their science degrees and their intellectual pretensions:

Science is a way of governing, not just something to be governed. Science offers a methodology and philosophy rooted in evidence, kept in check by persistent inquiry, and bounded by the constraints of a self-critical and rigorous method. Science is a lens through which we can and should visualize and solve complex problems, organize government and multilateral bodies, establish international alliances, inspire national pride, restore positive feelings about America around the globe, embolden democracy, and ultimately, lead the world. More than anything, what this lens offers the next administration is a limitless capacity to handle all that comes its way, no matter how complex or unanticipated.

Science, is there anything it can't do? It sounds amazingly like the parody of the Corinthians-style ode to science I pointed out in the chapter entitled "Darwin's Judas". Even more amazing, these fetishists truly don't see how they have made a quasi-religion of the object of their adoration. On a closely related note, one of our more thoughtful critics, Dominic Saltarelli, emailed me yesterday:

While I'm sure there's plenty for us to disagree on in other matters, I just took a swim in some "secular, liberal, progressive" waters, and am still washing the sewage off. I tried talking a little sense into them regarding economics, because this is a crowd that sees the current economic situation as a fundamental failure of capitalism. So I tried injecting some facts into the discourse

It was like hitting vampires with sunlight. The venom some of these people resorted to in defense of just a damn economic model was, disheartening, to say the least. Having had this experience, whenever some refers to "Atheism as a religion" or to an "atheistic religion", I think I know exactly what they're talking about now, and it isn't pretty nor something I wish to be associated with.

Just wanted to let you know, that I feel your pain.

He does indeed. Science fetishists, economically vacuuous secularists, liberal progressives... they're not precisely the same, but there's certainly a significant amount of overlap. And in each and every case, there is a near complete inability to apply even the most rudimentary logic to the subject at hand as well as an intense, emotional reaction to having their ignorance punctured with the verifiable facts.

And all of this is setting aside the obvious absurdity of the idea that the scientific socialist Obama could possibly be a champion of Reason and Science.

Could. not. agree. more.

Hype the Obama Effect

HERE.

trailer...


"He's passing his hope bong around the drum circle of young America. He's inviting people to take deep tokes off of his bong packed with hope."

-Stephen Colbert



ROTFLMAO

More on Obama and Socialism

READ IT.

Side note: I didn't realize that Obama supports taxpayer funding for abortions. Boy oh boy is that going to raise a ruckus. I'd have a terrible time paying my taxes knowing that abortions are being funded by the feds.

Intelligent Design Conference from Oct. 26th

You can listen to the whole seminar on the audio provided at this site.

Great stuff....be SURE to listen to it in it's entirety. William Dembski speaks 30 minutes into the audio.

Obama's spiritual leader for **20** years...

Oh my....

This article has AtBC* written all over it.


*A forum overrun by rabid Darwinists

The N-word? Pfft...hardly

Have you heard the latest? Google if you haven't. Daily Kos et. al. are flippin' out because they believe the N-word was flung out during one of Palin's stump speeches.

Use the race card...Obama supporters love getting fired up about it.

Here's what was really said...

"He's a Nigger"????


...or "Redistributor"???


Sheesh....chill with the race card people.

HT: Michelle Malkin

Both sides of aisle rip MSNBC

From here...

In a room full of television industry executives, no one seemed inclined to defend MSNBC on Monday for what some were calling its lopsidedly liberal coverage of the presidential election.

The cable news channel is "completely out of control," said writer-producer Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, a self-proclaimed liberal Democrat.

She added that she would prefer a lunch date with right-leaning Fox News star Sean Hannity over left-leaning MSNBC star Keith Olbermann.

Olbermann was criticized by many who attended Monday's luncheon sponsored by the Caucus for Producers, Writers & Directors at the Beverly Hills Hotel. The event was dubbed "Hollywood, America and Election '08."

Bloodworth-Thomason and others seemed especially critical of the way MSNBC -- and other media -- has attacked Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin while demeaning her supporters.

"We should stop the demonizing," she said, adding that Democrats have been worse than Republicans as far as personal attacks on candidates are concerned. "It diminishes us," she said of her fellow Democrats. She stressed, though, that its Palin's small-town American roots she wishes to defend and not her politics or policies.

Bloodworth-Thomason even suggested a defense of Palin and her supporters should be written into TV programming, just as she went out of her way to portray Southern women as smart in her hit TV show "Designing Women."

Attendee Michael Reagan, the radio talk-show host and son of President Ronald Reagan, said he no longer will appear as a guest on MSNBC because "I actually get death threats."

"I'll stop sending them," joked Larry Gelbart, the writer, producer and director best known for the "M*A*S*H" television series and such movie screenplays as "Tootsie" and "Oh, God!"

Pollster Frank Luntz, a regular guest on the Fox News, joked that MSNBC is "the only network with more letters in its name than viewers."

Obama's 'Redistribution' Constitution

From here...

On the Supreme Court, six of the current nine justices will be 70 years old or older on January 20, 2009. There is a widespread expectation that the next president could make four appointments in just his first term, with maybe two more in a second term. Here too we are poised for heavy change.

These numbers ought to raise serious concern because of Mr. Obama's extreme left-wing views about the role of judges. He believes -- and he is quite open about this -- that judges ought to decide cases in light of the empathy they ought to feel for the little guy in any lawsuit.

Speaking in July 2007 at a conference of Planned Parenthood, he said: "[W]e need somebody who's got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it's like to be a young teenage mom. The empathy to understand what it's like to be poor, or African-American, or gay, or disabled, or old. And that's the criteria by which I'm going to be selecting my judges."

On this view, plaintiffs should usually win against defendants in civil cases; criminals in cases against the police; consumers, employees and stockholders in suits brought against corporations; and citizens in suits brought against the government. Empathy, not justice, ought to be the mission of the federal courts, and the redistribution of wealth should be their mantra.

In a Sept. 6, 2001, interview with Chicago Public Radio station WBEZ-FM, Mr. Obama noted that the Supreme Court under Chief Justice Earl Warren "never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth and sort of more basic issues of political and economic justice in this society," and "to that extent as radical as I think people tried to characterize the Warren Court, it wasn't that radical."

He also noted that the Court "didn't break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution, at least as it has been interpreted." That is to say, he noted that the U.S. Constitution as written is only a guarantee of negative liberties from government -- and not an entitlement to a right to welfare or economic justice.

This raises the question of whether Mr. Obama can in good faith take the presidential oath to "preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution" as he must do if he is to take office. Does Mr. Obama support the Constitution as it is written, or does he support amendments to guarantee welfare? Is his provision of a "tax cut" to millions of Americans who currently pay no taxes merely a foreshadowing of constitutional rights to welfare, health care, Social Security, vacation time and the redistribution of wealth? Perhaps the candidate ought to be asked to answer these questions before the election rather than after.

...

A whole generation of Americans has come of age since the nation experienced the bad judicial appointments and foolish economic and regulatory policy of the Johnson and Carter administrations. If Mr. Obama wins we could possibly see any or all of the following: a federal constitutional right to welfare; a federal constitutional mandate of affirmative action wherever there are racial disparities, without regard to proof of discriminatory intent; a right for government-financed abortions through the third trimester of pregnancy; the abolition of capital punishment and the mass freeing of criminal defendants; ruinous shareholder suits against corporate officers and directors; and approval of huge punitive damage awards, like those imposed against tobacco companies, against many legitimate businesses such as those selling fattening food.

Nothing less than the very idea of liberty and the rule of law are at stake in this election. We should not let Mr. Obama replace justice with empathy in our nation's courtrooms.

Here's the deal. Yes, there are those who need help from the government, but there are many, many more who are taking advantage of the welfare system. They sit back and feel entitled to it. Some folks will not strive to better themselves when they can get what they need for free. What they need is EDUCATION folks! Put that welfare money into education, and make it more affordable for all students rather than just redistributing the wealth not knowing exactly how some families will use that extra money.

We have several social workers in my family, and believe me, folks work the welfare system....big time. If you give it away, there is no use working for it, and some people don't want to get ahead because that would mean they get less help from the government. Redistributing the wealth is enabling people to live life in the slum rather than pulling themselves out of it.

Also, empathy is a good thing to an extent. But, if you do the crime you do the time. If you break a law or make poor judgements, you suffer the consequences. Period. That is how you learn to be a decent citizen. Just like raising children, if you allow your child to get by with bad behavior, you enable them to continue that course throughout their lives. They feel that they'll get by with that inappropriate behavior that will utimately be harmful to themselves and/or others.

Liberal Obama Supporters, Heads Up...

...tell me this dude is off the mark.

Because, it looks to me like Obama is being a tad misleading [again] when he makes the same statement over and over that there will be "no tax increases" for those making under $250,000.

I simply don't trust the guy due to his dishonesty about his excessive connections to radicals, and what those radicals stand for.

So, please scan the article for me, and enlighten me as to how the author is off his rock. If we're going to be stuck with Obamamessiah, I'd like to at least hope that his tax strategy isn't based on a slight of tongue in order to get the vote.

EDIT: Houston, we have a problem...

Don't work on election day???

The Obama campaign urges people to take off work on election day...



Sure, why not? Hell, Obama's just going to take what you make and redistribute the wealth anyway. Why push yourself?

Ever heard of P.U.M.A.??

My Mom was telling me about a group of women who were Hillary supporters, but are now voting for the Republican ticket. Their group is called P.U.M.A.. It's an interesting site to peruse.

I also ran across an article written by a blogger who considers herself a P.U.M.A.. Take a looky at the reasons why she's voting McCain/Palin.

Let me be clear....

In my last post, I stated "when Obama becomes President".

Yes, I think he'll slide in as the victor for ONE reason only....the appalling bias displayed by the media. I just read another AP article so blatantly biased I could vomit.

Most of the so called "smears" against Obama are supported by facts, yet they are washed out by the mainstream media sources.

I believe that if more Americans did their own research on the candidates, they'd think twice before voting for Obama. But, most people get only as far as the evening news and their local newspapers, most of which hold to extreme liberal bias.

I was talking to a gal from Italy in second life the other day, and she was wondering why on earth I wasn't voting for Obama. During our brief discussion, I asked her where she gets her information about Obama, and she mentioned that she primarily bases her views on what she reads in the newspaper. I encouraged her to do some Internet searches on the guy or read my blog. There is so much about Obama that the media has chosen to lay low about. If McCain or Palin had the numerous radical friends that Obama does, they'd have that information plastered everywhere. They'd also be drilling them during press conferences, etc. in an attempt to get some answers for their radical connections. But, Obama is about as liberal as they come, and because of those liberal views, mainstream media deemed him the next President some time ago.

Of course, there are those who know everything about Obama's history and connections, yet they could care less.

Skinheads planned assassination of Obama

O.M.G.!!!!1111!!!!

I saw this on the Drudge report...but, I can't get Drudge loaded at the moment. I'll look around for the story.

When Obama takes the Presidency, we're going to have to remember to keep him in our prayers. These freaky skinheads and other racist factions might come crawling out of the woodwork. What in the bloody hell is wrong with people??

EDIT: HERE

Off the Charts

Can you freaking imagine if someone had hung Obama from that noose?????!!!!11111!!!!



Holy shit. Unbelievable.

Evolution News and Views

Be sure to keep up to date on the war against Intelligent Design. Darwinists want our students to bury their heads in the sand and comply to authority. They don't want them to think outside of the box for fear they'll discover how lame the Darwinian concept really is. It's based upon a philosophical worldview...NOT SCIENCE.

Read Evolution News and Views daily!

Obama Bombshell Redistribution of Wealth Audio Uncovered

HT: William Wallace

Obama / Odinga Connection

HERE.

Even more smack on Obama

Here ya go.

Vote for him at your peril...

Second Life Straight Talk Cafe makes the AP

That SL group I hang out with sometimes made the news!

Kinda cool...

*BLINK*


EDIT: More to *blink* about. HT: Jason

Another one of my favorites

Mr. FtK used to be a dead head...lol. I'm not kidding. I've learned to love some of Jerry's stuff.

This one in particular strikes a chord lately.

Just Cuz I Like It

HT: Maci's Twitter. She just finished her first half-marathon! She ran for a great cause...go donate if you can.

London humanist campaign

Dawkins et. al are raising money to put these banners on buses in London...



There's *PROBABLY* no god.

ROTFLMAO

Probably? Isn't that kinda weak guys??

HT: The Pearcey Report

Dawkins is a Dork....

Seriously.

HT: UD

Yeah, yeah, I know...

So much for my little break. I'm weaning myself from the addiction...hopefully. I've found it's better to vent via blogging versus driving my family nuts with this stuff.

I don't think Ayers is fond of America

Check out the flag under his feet...



The guy is still unrepentant.

Read through this article as well as this one and be sure to check out all the links. Ayers should be in jail. Period.

Obama held hands with Ayers (and other shady characters) frequently.

Poor, poor judgement.

Ayers and Dohrn clearly want to overthrow capitalism. What gets my goat is listening to Ayers stance on war and his want for "peace". It's difficult to listen to a guy talk about peace when he's responsible for numerous terrorist acts himself. Think about it...he makes a stand against war by commiting acts of terrorism!.

Bizarre logic there.

Obama has too many connections to this guy and other unsavory characters.

He's bad news...

Democrats are to blame for the housing crisis.

SPOT ON...

This housing crisis didn't come out of nowhere. It was not a vague emanation of the evil Bush administration.

It was a direct result of the political decision, back in the late 1990s, to loosen the rules of lending so that home loans would be more accessible to poor people. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were authorized to approve risky loans.

What is a risky loan? It's a loan that the recipient is likely not to be able to repay.

The goal of this rule change was to help the poor -- which especially would help members of minority groups. But how does it help these people to give them a loan that they can't repay? They get into a house, yes, but when they can't make the payments, they lose the house -- along with their credit rating.

They end up worse off than before.

This was completely foreseeable and in fact many people did foresee it. One political party, in Congress and in the executive branch, tried repeatedly to tighten up the rules. The other party blocked every such attempt and tried to loosen them.

Furthermore, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were making political contributions to the very members of Congress who were allowing them to make irresponsible loans. (Though why quasi-federal agencies were allowed to do so baffles me. It's as if the Pentagon were allowed to contribute to the political campaigns of congressmen who support increasing their budget.)

Isn't there a story here? Doesn't journalism require that you who produce our daily paper tell the truth about who brought us to a position where the only way to keep confidence in our economy was a $700 billion bailout? Aren't you supposed to follow the money and see which politicians were benefiting personally from the deregulation of mortgage lending?

I have no doubt that if these facts had pointed to the Republican Party or to John McCain as the guilty parties, you would be treating it as a vast scandal. "Housing-gate," no doubt. Or "Fannie-gate."

Instead, it was Sen. Christopher Dodd and Congressman Barney Frank, both Democrats, who denied that there were any problems, who refused Bush administration requests to set up a regulatory agency to watch over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and who were still pushing for these agencies to go even further in promoting subprime mortgage loans almost up to the minute they failed.

As Thomas Sowell points out in a TownHall.com essay entitled "Do Facts Matter?" (http://snipurl.com/457to): "Alan Greenspan warned them four years ago. So did the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers to the President. So did Bush's Secretary of the Treasury."

These are facts. This financial crisis was completely preventable. The party that blocked any attempt to prevent it was ... the Democratic Party. The party that tried to prevent it was ... the Republican Party.

Yet when Nancy Pelosi accused the Bush administration and Republican deregulation of causing the crisis, you in the press did not hold her to account for her lie. Instead, you criticized Republicans who took offense at this lie and refused to vote for the bailout!

What? It's not the liar, but the victims of the lie who are to blame?

Now let's follow the money ... right to the presidential candidate who is the number two recipient of campaign contributions from Fannie Mae.

And after Fred Raines, the CEO of Fannie Mae who made $90 million while running it into the ground, was fired for his incompetence, one presidential candidate's campaign actually consulted him for advice on housing.

If that presidential candidate had been John McCain, you would have called it a major scandal and we would be getting stories in your paper every day about how incompetent and corrupt he was.

But instead, that candidate was Barack Obama, and so you have buried this story, and when the McCain campaign dared to call Raines an "adviser" to the Obama campaign -- because that campaign had sought his advice -- you actually let Obama's people get away with accusing McCain of lying, merely because Raines wasn't listed as an official adviser to the Obama campaign.

You would never tolerate such weasely nit-picking from a Republican.

If you who produce our local daily paper actually had any principles, you would be pounding this story, because the prosperity of all Americans was put at risk by the foolish, short-sighted, politically selfish and possibly corrupt actions of leading Democrats, including Obama.

If you who produce our local daily paper had any personal honor, you would find it unbearable to let the American people believe that somehow Republicans were to blame for this crisis.

....

Your job, as journalists, is to tell the truth. That's what you claim you do, when you accept people's money to buy or subscribe to your paper.

But right now, you are consenting to or actively promoting a big fat lie -- that the housing crisis should somehow be blamed on Bush, McCain and the Republicans. You have trained the American people to blame everything bad -- even bad weather -- on Bush, and they are responding as you have taught them to.

If you had any personal honor, each reporter and editor would be insisting on telling the truth -- even if it hurts the election chances of your favorite candidate.

Because that's what honorable people do. Honest people tell the truth even when they don't like the probable consequences. That's what honesty means. That's how trust is earned.

Barack Obama is just another politician, and not a very wise one. He has revealed his ignorance and naivete time after time -- and you have swept it under the rug, treated it as nothing.

Meanwhile, you have participated in the borking of Sarah Palin, reporting savage attacks on her for the pregnancy of her unmarried daughter -- while you ignored the story of John Edwards' own adultery for many months.

So I ask you now: Do you have any standards at all? Do you even know what honesty means?

Is getting people to vote for Barack Obama so important that you will throw away everything that journalism is supposed to stand for?

You might want to remember the way the National Organization of Women (NOW) threw away their integrity by supporting Bill Clinton despite his well-known pattern of sexual exploitation of powerless women. Who listens to NOW anymore? We know they stand for nothing; they have no principles.

That's where you are right now.

Further evidence supporting the truth of this article.

HT: William Wallace

This is a hoot....

Like conspiracy theories?

Get a load of this one. Someone went to a lot of trouble to put that thing together...lol.

Can't stop myself...it's a sickness

FOR ALL OF YOU WHO TRULY BELIEVE ANYTHING THE CANDIDATES SAY ABOUT THEIR TAX PLANS (OR ANYTHING ELSE FOR THAT MATTER), DREAM ON...



Not that anyone should listen to Barney about anything, but Obama and McCain's hands are going to be tied because of the recent fall on wall street.

In other words, we're screwed. big. time. and no one can save us.

Also, Biden's a loon, and he's a scary loon at that...



He also said this (which is not on the recording):

"And he's [Obama] going to need help . . . to stand with him. Because it's not going to be apparent initially; it's not going to be apparent that we're right."

WTF???????!!!

Albright seems to agree with him...



What in the heck is Biden thinking when he says stuff like that???

[FtK starts stock piling canned goods, cleaning and collecting all the guns, and buying major amounts of ammo...../signing out (again)]

Taking a break

I've decided I'm going to take a bit of a break from blogging. I think getting away from all the political warfare for a while will do me a lot of good. My anxiety level has gone through the roof since the fall of wall street, and the upcoming election is a bit depressing as well. I honestly don't care who wins the election at this point. I just want our economy fixed, and I don't see that happening soon regardless of who takes the White House.

I'm going to turn a blind eye to everything for a while and focus on my family, friends and those in my own community. All the bickering and debate on the Internet is a waste of time, as opinions will never change. I agree with Dennis Prager...that there are two irreconcilable Americas. Our nation is becoming increasingly divided every day. Red and Blue. McCain and Obama. ID and evolution. Religion and Secularism.

Americans are very anxious about where our nation is heading, and unfortunately I'm not very optimistic at the moment myself.

Later folks....

Dear Grandpa

Your 100th birthday was something we'll never forget, nor will we forget all of our visits to the farm and the wonderful stories you told about your past. We have always been so proud to be part of your legacy which will be passed on to our children and our children's children.

I am standing upon the seashore.
A ship at my side spreads her white
sails to the morning breeze and starts
for the blue ocean.

She is an object of beauty and strength.
I stand and watch her until at length
she hangs like a speck of white cloud
just where the sea and sky come
to mingle with each other.

Then, someone at my side says;
"There, she is gone!"

"Gone where?"

Gone from my sight. That is all.
She is just as large in mast and hull
and spar as she was when she left my side
and she is just as able to bear her
load of living freight to her destined port.
Her diminished size is in me, not in her.

And just at the moment when someone
at my side says, "There, she is gone!"
There are other eyes watching her coming,
and other voices ready to take up the glad
shout; "Here she comes!"

And that is dying.

-Henry Van Dyke

[My Grandfather died this morning at 11:55am. One of the last things he said was that he wanted to go to sleep and be with Jesus. He was still working on his farm until about a month ago when his heart, after 100 years, finally grew weary.]

Gag

Per TD blog, this post has been removed because it could not be verified.

I give up

Here I was trying to make a nice Saturday lunch for a change, and the whole thing went up in smoke.

We're rarely home Saturday afternoons, but my husband had to go in to work today so I thought I'd bake a chicken and some potatoes.

So, I put everything in the oven, fired it up and then went to bed and snuggled up with a good book. Nothing heavy....no ID/evolution, no politics....just a nice romantic love story for a change.

I heard my boys out in the kitchen milling around, and there was a beeping noise that I thought was the microwave being turned on and off.

I WAS WRONG.

About 15 minutes later all the fire detectors in the house started howling. I jumped up out of bed and ran to the oven and the thing was spitting out smoke. The oven door was jammed, or at least I thought it was. I couldn't detect any actual fire, but the smoke was pretty nasty. I was trying to figure out why in the heck I couldn't get the door open, and then it dawned on me what had happened. One of my kiddos must have accidentally turned off the oven and that was the beeping noise I'd heard earlier. They must have tried to reset it, but hit the oven cleaning button. That would have locked down the oven until it cooled down after the heating cycle.

Sigh...

So much for a nice lunch. The house stinks to high heaven and I'm in no mood to start over. I couldn't even if I wanted to because the stove won't unlock for a while yet.

Bologna anyone???

Crap.

Sarah's Special Fans

I love Joe the Plumber

This dude has it going on...

"Everything starts at home..um, they [Obama/liberals et. al] want the government to take care of it. I believe wholeheartedly that everything starts in the house, from education to responsibility for ones self, ones actions, to eventually when your parents get older, taking care of them...you know, as they took care of you. You know, a sense of family needs to be brought back to American as opposed to a, ah, sense of entitlement".

-Joe the Plumber

Amen brother...another reason why I like Sarah Palin.



HT: Dave again.

Looks like they already have a t-shirt out in honor of 'ol Joe.



More Joe:

The Case Against Obama Part 1

Find it at Townhall. The comments are quite interesting as well.

EDIT: From the comment section...

Tax Cuts for dummys

I did not write this. I wish I had. The source is T. Davies, Professor of Accounting at the University Of South Dakota School Of Business, who got it from a student. So, the real author remains unknown. Here’s the article:

“Let’s put [income] tax cuts in terms everyone can understand. Suppose that every day, ten men go out for dinner. The bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

“The first four men—the poorest—would pay nothing; the fifth would pay $1, the sixth would pay $3, the seventh $7, the eighth $12, the ninth $18 and the tenth man—the richest—would pay $59. That’s what they decided to do. The ten men ate dinner in the restaurant every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day the owner threw them a curve (in tax language, a tax cut).

‘Since you are all such good customers,’ he said, ‘I’m going to reduce the cost of your daily meal by $20.’ So now dinner for the ten only cost $80. “The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes, so the first four men were unaffected. They would still eat for free. But what about the other six—the paying customers? How could they divvy up the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his ‘fair share?’ The six men realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. If they subtracted that from everybody’s share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would end up being paid to eat their meals.

“So the restaurant owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man’s bill by the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay. The fifth man now paid nothing, the sixth paid $2, the seventh paid $5, the eight paid $9, the ninth paid $12, leaving the tenth man with a bill of $52 instead of his earlier $59. Each of the six was better off than before, and the first four continued to eat for free."

Subject: Tax Cuts for dummys (pt2)
“However, once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings. ‘I only got a dollar out of the $20!’ declared the sixth man, pointing to the tenth. ‘But he got $7!’

‘Yeah, that’s right!’ exclaimed the fifth man. ‘I only saved a dollar, too. It’s unfair that he got seven times more than me!’ ‘That’s true!’ shouted the seventh man, ‘Why should he get $7 back when I got only $2? The wealthy get all the breaks!’ ‘Wait a minute,’ yelled the first four men in unison. ‘We didn’t get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!’

“The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up. The next night he didn’t show up for dinner (or, in the real world, he took his business out of the country), so the nine sat down and ate without him. When it came time to pay the bill, they discovered, a little late, what was very important. They were $52 short of paying the bill. Imagine that!

“…And that, boys and girls, journalists and college instructors, is how the tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much or attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up at the table anymore. Where would that leave the rest? Unfortunately, most taxing authorities anywhere cannot seem to grasp this rather straightforward logic!”

The end!

Interesting.

What a sweet story...

I wish we'd get more media stories like this one. It's a nice distraction from the insanity of the campaign.

Watching the Early Show

One sided as it could possibly be. I saw an interview with Biden, and an interview with Michelle Obama...then I gave up and turned it off.

I did find an interesting debate fact check. Old Coot, you might check out the facts on health care. I'm not sure one plan is much better than the other.

Edit: More on the health care comparisons. Old Coot, I can see why your friends are voting Obama since he promises to make sure everyone gets health care even if you have a preexisting condition. I wonder if he can pull all that off. It's pretty apparant that the government will get bigger under Obama leadership.

Reasons Why I Could Vote Democrat

HT: A Conservative Teacher...


If I wanted to, I could vote Democrat because...

...English has no place being the official language in America.

...it's better to turn corn into fuel than it is to eat.

...I'd rather pay $4 for a gallon of gas than allow drilling for oil off the coasts of America.

..when we pull out of Afghanistan and Iraq, I know that the Islamic terrorists will stop trying to kill us because this will show that we are a good and decent country.

...I believe people who can't tell us accurately if it will rain in two or three days can now tell us with certainty that the polar ice caps will disappear in ten years if I don't start riding a bicycle, build a windmill, or inflate my tires to proper levels.

...I believe businesses in America should not be allowed to make profits. Businesses should just break even and give the rest to the government so politicians and bureaucrats can redistribute the money the way they think it should be redistributed.

...I believe guns, and not the people misusing them, are the cause of crimes and killings.

...when someone with a weapon threatens my family or me, I know the government can respond faster through a call to 911 than I can with a gun in my hand.

Lastly, I'm could vote Democrat, because I might think that the 5% profit that oil companies make on a gallon of gas is obscene, but government taxes of 18% (federal and state) on the same gallon of gas are not high enough.

Just can't do it....

I'm not watching the debate tonight...I just can't bear listening to the BS again. I'm curious how it's going, but I'm afraid I'd suffer from a massive coronary if I tried to actually sit through it.

I did visit the Second Life Straight Talk Cafe and read the comments made by the folks watching the debate, but I can't get myself to peek at the television.

I think it will be much better for my health if I just read about it tomorrow.

Remember the Martyr for Darwinism???

Seems that good 'ol Christine Comer wasn't the best choice for the role.

Good grief...

Introducing Obama's Wealthspread (TM)

While canvassing neighborhoods in Ohio this Sunday, Barack Obama advised a tax-burdened plumber not to worry about money because under his presidency money will disappear since it will no longer have any meaning anyway. Instead, all Americans will be living off Obama's highly nutritive WealthSpread™ formula that is surprisingly low in effort and is being promoted by a group of leading nutritionists known as the Cook Fringe of the Democrat Party under the brand name "I Can't Believe It's Not Earned!"

"Your new tax plan is going to tax me more, isn't it?" the plumber asked, complaining that he was being taxed "more and more for fulfilling the American dream."

"So instead of cutting taxes with a kitchen knife we'll butter it up with wealth and spread it around like we earned it," the Democratic candidate continued. "It's a patented foreign blend that is guaranteed to help improve my standing in the polls, but it's made with 100% pure American taxpayer sweat, which once again shows how taxes can be patriotic."

HT: The People's Cube.

Clinton supporters aid Palin

I heard some gal on the news this morning mention that Palin wasn't pulling in any of the women who supported Clinton. She claims that independent white men and the Republican base are the only ones impressed by her.

Oops!!!

More Scary Obama Stuff...

I really hope all this stuff being dug up lately about Obama isn't accurate, because it looks like he's going to be our next President.

Sigh...

I'd like to think that Dave's instincts are wrong this time around, but he seems to be spot on about many things...ie. global warming which is obviously something the liberals pulled out of their a$*es for whatever reasons.

Big Government Ahead

This is, no doubt, where we're headed.

Are you buying this?

Boy, I certainly hope this little report is accurate.

A University of California Los Angeles team found searching the web stimulates centres in the brain that control decision-making and complex reasoning.

The researchers say this might even help to counter-act the age-related physiological changes that cause the brain to slow down.

Hell, as much as I surf the net, my brain function and complex reasoning skills should be top notch by now! LOL. Either that or the constant surfing has me teetering on the verge of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

Voter fraud? How about poll fraud...

PZ Myers, atheist evangelist and associate professor of biology at the University of MN, really gets off on sending his minions to various polls that aren't tilting the way he'd prefer for them to. He's screws with poll, after poll, after poll. Just type the word "poll" in his search link. Sheesh...who knows how many polls PZ and "The Pharynguloid hordes" have skewed.

I know, I know, right and wrong are highly debatable these days. Although probably not illegal, I'd certainly consider his little hobby unethical. Can you imagine how the minions would howl if they weren't the ones messing with the polls?

ACORN and Voter Fraud

Extremely irritating, and totally disgusting.

Here's another...How to steal Ohio.

"McCain-Palin Tradition"

I've never been a big Hank Williams Junior fan, but he wrote a cute little ditty for the campaign trail...



...and, check out this little four year old singing with Hank at one of his concerts. TOO CUTE!

The coming liberal thugocracy

From here...

Once upon a time, liberals prided themselves, with considerable reason, as the staunchest defenders of free speech. Union organizers in the 1930s and 1940s made the case that they should have access to employees to speak freely to them, and union leaders like George Meany and Walter Reuther were ardent defenders of the First Amendment.

Today's liberals seem to be taking their marching orders from other quarters. Specifically, from the college and university campuses where administrators, armed with speech codes, have for years been disciplining and subjecting to sensitivity training any students who dare to utter thoughts that liberals find offensive. The campuses that once prided themselves as zones of free expression are now the least free part of our society.

Obama supporters who found the campuses congenial and Mr. Obama himself, who has chosen to live all his adult life in university communities, seem to find it entirely natural to suppress speech they don't like and seem utterly oblivious to claims this violates the letter and spirit of the First Amendment. In this campaign, we have seen the coming of the Obama thugocracy, suppressing free speech, and we may see its flourishing in the four or eight years ahead.

[does her best Palin impression...]

Say it ain't so, Joe!!!!

[/Palin]


Does this sound vaguely familiar from an ID/evo standpoint???

Don't question evolution, don't speak of the controversial issues, don't mention ID unless it's brought up with negative connotations. If you do, they'll sue...remember the 4 paragraphs that were going to be read before students in Dover?

Yeah, 4 paragraphs = a million dollar lawsuit.

The college professors I speak with about the issues in this debate are adamant that ID will *never* be taught in universities when discussing origins. Do not question dogmatic authoritarians at our universities. Period.

Going back to the election, all we ever hear about in mainstream media is how horrible those McCain supporters are and how they're "sowing seeds of hatred". Give me a break. Neither side is innocent in that regard...

Levi answers a few questions for the record

Bristol's cutie patootie fiance, Levi, answered a few questions for reporters.

Levi Johnston, who's having a baby with Gov. Sarah Palin's daughter, can't believe all the things he's hearing.

No, he wasn't held against his will on the campaign trail. No, he's not being forced into a shotgun wedding with 17-year-old Bristol Palin.

"None of that's true," Johnston, 18, said in a rare interview with The Associated Press. "We both love each other. We both want to marry each other. And that's what we are going to do."

...

Not surprisingly, Johnston was a little shocked when he learned about Bristol's pregnancy, but he says he quickly embraced the prospects of fatherhood. The baby is due Dec. 18. Johnston has dropped out of high school to take a job on the North Slope oil fields as an apprentice electrician.

Johnston hinted he's expecting a boy, but he declined to discuss baby names.

"I'm looking forward to having him," he said. "I'm going to take him hunting and fishing. He'll be everywhere with me."

Johnston, a Wasilla heartthrob, said he wanted to set the record straight.

......

Johnston is an avid hunter. He's dark haired, tall and muscular, sports a bit of stubble and drives a red Chevy Silverado truck. He'd be the perfect cover for Field & Stream.

He's bagged bears, sheep, elk, and caribou. Some of the antlers are scattered about his yard. Last July on a caribou hunt he lost a "promise" ring that Palin had given him. He said he decided to tattoo her name on the finger and not bother with more rings because he'd just lose them anyway.

There is so much about this family that reminds me of my own. I think the ring tattoo idea is really cute. My husband should have done that years ago. He was always setting down his ring when he worked because it would get in the way when using various tools. He'd also get it absolutely filthy when he went hunting, but he didn't want to take it off. I finally took it from him and put it away in safe keeping so he wouldn't lose a finger or something at work. My name tattooed on his finger would have been cute. We should have both done that on our honeymoon.

Mr. FtK said the same thing about our boys when they were born...that he'd take them everywhere with him...especially hunting and fishing. True to his word, they were out fishing with him as soon as they could walk, and they were in the hunting boat by the age of three. They love it.

Oh, and my husband and Todd Palin are both the same age and have Native American heritage. My husband's grandmother was Native American. It appears that the Palin women have the same taste in men as I do. Mr. FtK seems to favor both of them to an extent...tall, dark, and handsome outdoors men. Check it out...

Maci's pretty much spot on...

From here...

How many Christians are hoping and have hoped in the past that if we elect the right president, if we elect a godly person, "by golly, we'll get our morals and values legislated. Abortion will end . . . etc, etc, etc." Its also very easy to write your representatives to let them know where you stand on the issues, its relatively easy to vote for someone you feel to hold your same values.

But--in our own lives do we reflect these values? Do we work for the values we desire our leaders to share and work towards? What are you doing to help a young pregnant woman struggling with her pregnancy? How are you fighting poverty?

I'm just as guilty . . . I find myself lacking. But . . .

Imagine if the "Moral Majority" came out in massive numbers and started affecting people's lives around them (not that they don't, I'm speaking from my perceptions of my own faith life and that which I see around me). Imagine if Christ powerfully lived through each of us--one by one lives would be changed.

We'd live in a whole different world if we really practised what we preach. I'm probably more guilty than most of not doing all I can for those around me. The word self centered comes to mind.

Not even a moment

The intolerance is staggering.

Our Brokenness

My Pastor gave a powerful sermon today...very relevant to the problems our nation is facing. You can listen in by clicking on the 10/12/08 message in the green box.

Along the same line as the message...

October Surprise...

HT: Dave@UD

Let's talk ethics, shall we????

Yeah, Palin's just a beast. She had a hand in the firing of a public safety commissioner due, in part, to his refusal to fire a state trooper for unlawful behavior. Bad, bad Sarah.

Yet, looky here at what I ran across...

Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has obtained documents detailing earmarks submitted by Barack Obama on behalf of his family and political supporters during his time in the Illinois State Senate. The documents were obtained under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act. Among the projects detailed in the documents uncovered by Judicial Watch:

·Blue Gargoyle: Barack Obama helped secure a $25,000 grant for the Blue Gargoyle in August 2000, an organization that was headed by Capers C. Funnye, Jr., Michelle Obama’s first cousin once removed.

·Garden to Nowhere: Judicial Watch uncovered evidence of a $100,000 grant obtained by Obama for a garden project in Englewood, Illinois, spearheaded by Obama’s former campaign volunteer Kenny Smith. The “Englewood Botanical Garden” project never happened. In fact, according to the Chicago Sun Times, “today the garden site is a mess of weeds, chunks of concrete and garbage.” State records show that $65,000 of the grant money obtained by Obama went directly to Smith’s wife Karen. Smith also wrote an additional $20,000 check to a construction company owned by Karen D. Smith, K.D. Contractors which is no longer in business.

·Community of St. Sabina: In July, 2000, Obama helped secure a $100,000 grant for the Community of St. Sabina, a church headed by Father Michael Pfleger, a controversial and radical Catholic priest and Obama campaign contributor. Pfleger made news in March, 2008, for mocking then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton from the pulpit of Trinity United Church of Christ, formerly run by Obama’s personal pastor the Reverend Jeremiah Wright.

·FORUM: Run by Yesse Yehudah, Barack Obama gave a $75,000 grant to the organization in 2000. Although Yehudah ran against Obama in a 1998 election, five people from FORUM donated $1000 to Obama’s campaign after receiving the grant. FORUM also contributed another $5,000 to help pay Obama’s debt after failing to be elected to congress in 2000. In 2002, the State sued Yehudah for failure to account for hundreds of thousands of dollars he received from Obama’s grant.

“Barack Obama’s earmark for his wife’s cousin, Rabbi Funnye, raises ethical questions. Some of these earmarks show that Barack Obama may have abused his office in the Illinois State Senate,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.

In addition to documents regarding Obama’s state senate earmarks, Judicial Watch also recently obtained records detailing the nature of Obama’s controversial relationships with domestic terrorist William Ayers and convicted felon Antoin “Tony” Rezko. To access all Obama-related documents uncovered by Judicial Watch, visit http://www.judicialwatch.org.

YA THINK WE'LL SEE ANY OF THAT ON NBC?????

McCain sought action on Fannie & Freddie in 2006

From here:

Sen. John McCain's 2006 demand for regulatory action on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could have prevented current financial crisis, as HUMAN EVENTS learned from the letter shown in full text below.

McCain's letter -- signed by nineteen other senators -- said that it was "...vitally important that Congress take the necessary steps to ensure that [Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac]...operate in a safe and sound manner.[and]..More importantly, Congress must ensure that the American taxpayer is protected in the event that either...should fail."

Sen. Obama did not sign the letter, nor did any other Democrat.

Another sentence in that letter is nothing less than prophetic...

With the fiscal challenges facing us today (deficits, entitlements, pensions and flood insurance), Congress must ask itself who would actually pay this debt if Fannie and Freddie could not?

All the while, Obama knew of the problems Fannie and Freddie were facing and did nothing.

Watch this...



This Fannie/Freddie travesty could have been stopped if Democrats in congress had allowed for legislation to pass that would have protected all of us.

It's so irritating it keeps me awake at night thinking about it. My family has been directly hit by this mess, and my husband had to close his business of 10 years due to what Fannie & Freddie did to the housing market. We're still not in the clear because we have his last house to sell, and who knows how far that will put us in debt before we find a buyer.

What I want to know is why we don't hear about Obama's unsavory connections on the major news channels? All we ever hear is how unfair and negative the McCain camp is for bringing up Ayers. What about all the other skeletons in his closet????? I wonder if FOX is doing a better job of alerting the public to the facts behind the fall of wall street. We don't have cable, so FOX doesn't come in clearly. I certainly hope they're getting the truth out.

Troopergate

If a state trooper, a person whose job is to help uphold the law, is caught illegally shooting a moose, drinking beer in a patrol car, using a Taser on his stepson, and making threats against your family, don't you think that, as governor, it is your duty to see that that person is fired?

I guess not.

And, who in their right mind, can seriously compare this incident to all the skeletons in Obama's closet?

BTW, no laws were broken on Palin's part.

Obama & ACORN

Go ahead, vote Obama, and watch the nation plummet even further. He already has his fingerprints all over the economic collapse.

WAKE UP PEOPLE!!!!

From the mouth of an Obama supporter....

Letter and response found here...

Although nothing will sway my vote for Obama, I continue to enjoy Sarah Palin’s performance on the national stage. During her vice-presidential debate last week with Joe Biden (whose conspiratorial smiles with moderator Gwen Ifill were outrageous and condescending toward his opponent), I laughed heartily at Palin’s digs and slams and marveled at the way she slowly took over the entire event. I was sorry when it ended! But Biden wasn’t — judging by his Gore-like sighs and his slow sinking like a punctured blimp. Of course Biden won on points, but TV (a visual medium) never cares about that.

The mountain of rubbish poured out about Palin over the past month would rival Everest. What a disgrace for our jabbering army of liberal journalists and commentators, too many of whom behaved like snippy jackasses. The bourgeois conventionalism and rank snobbery of these alleged humanitarians stank up the place. As for Palin’s brutally edited interviews with Charlie Gibson and that viper, Katie Couric, don’t we all know that the best bits ended up on the cutting-room floor? Something has gone seriously wrong with Democratic ideology, which seems to have become a candied set of holier-than-thou bromides attached like tutti-frutti to a quivering green Jell-O mold of adolescent sentimentality.

Obama's lack of judgment is the issue

From here:

Writes Murtagh: "Nobody should hold the junior senator from Illinois responsible for his friends' and supporters' violent terrorist acts. But it is fair to hold him responsible for a startling lack of judgment in his choice of mentors, associates, and friends, and for showing a callous disregard for the lives they damaged and the hatred they have demonstrated for this country."

You think Murtagh is wrong?

Me, neither.

CEO's who cashed in while banks collapsed

It makes me physically ill to think about these CEOs raking in millions at our expense.

I've got to stop watching the news...it's scaring the crap out of me.

Obama's connection to Socialism

This one doesn't surprise me at all, as I've always pegged Obama for a socialist. With the economical problems we're currently experiencing, he'd certainly have ample opportunity to try to push socialist policies.

Egads.

Vote Experience vs. Hype

Expelled coming to DVD Oct. 21

Get a copy...share it with friends.

Still having problems with an Internet stalker

You may have noticed that I changed to a third party comment manager. I simply haven't been able to shake Blipey the stalker, and he posts from 3-10 comments per day with the intention of starting flame wars.

Unfortunately, even after changing comment managers, he has managed to get through that system by changing his IP address with every comment. I've even been blocking whole IP ranges, and I'm still unable to get rid of him. The clown is seriously unstable, and this is not the first time he has stalked certain individuals on the Internet. He had a fixation on DaveScot from UD for quite some time, and went as far as trying to get Dave to meet with him personally at Dave's own home. Dave told him that if he showed up on his property, he'd send his dogs after him. Blipey has also mentioned in the past that he'd like to meet with me at my home to talk about the debate issues. That's really creepy coming from a guy who is harassing you on the Internet.

Getting freaked out by him only feeds his mental disorder, and he's probably getting a troll fix with this particular post, so this will be the last time I mention the problem. Stalker trolls seem to thrive on attention. Unfortunately, I've been putting up with this for over a year, and it seems to be getting worse lately. So, moderation will remain on, and although I like the blogger comment manager better than this new one, I'll continue using it in order to keep a running total of all of his IP address changes along with his comments in case I need them for evidence in the future.

Here is a description of the kind of stalker I'm dealing with...

Hate, Revenge, Vendettas (Flame Wars Out Of Hand)

What is a flame war? Well a flame war is basically an argument that is online. Someone voices an opinion that another disagrees with and the fight is on. Name calling, threatening from both sides.

How does it differ from harassment and stalking? Well the key factor is that a flame war is two sided. Both parties are involved in the flaming and arguing. Both respond to each others mails, posts etc. Flame wars are easy to get into and often difficult to get out of. You want to express your opinion, you want the person to understand your side. You "want" to win the argument. But as is the case in real life often "turning the other cheek" and walking away is absolutely the best path to take. You really don't "know" the person your arguing with and can not predict how seriously this person will take the argument. Do you want this person to trace you to your home in order to win your point of view? Of course not. So be the bigger person and walk away.

What happens when you want to walk away and the other person won't let you? This is when a flame war becomes harassment and perhaps stalking. They may post continuously about you in a defamatory manner. Create a Web site about you or your group or go as far as tracing you and calling you at home or work or even coming to see you offline.

When anger fuels the harassment and someone can't let go of that anger you are dealing with a potentially dangerous situation and you need to take action. Stop posting on the site of the flame war. Don't respond to provoking posts or e-mails. Block the person from messaging you and from sending you e-mails. Disappear online by changing your identity and if necessary your Internet Provider. Your safety is more important than the inconvenience of having to change your online identity.

Because this particular troll participates in a forum I frequent, unfortunately I'll have to refrain from that venue as well so that I'm able to completely sever all contact with him.* If this doesn't work, I do know his real name so that will be helpful when reporting him to the authorities.

I regret having to moderate because I've enjoyed open moderation, but unfortunately I don't have a choice. I know getting me to moderate comments is part of his objective because then he can claim that I won't let folks who disagree with my views comment at my blog. Unfortunately, I have no choice other than to moderate when I'm inundated with his constant flame throwers.

Again, if anyone has any other suggestions as to how to rid myself of this troll, let me know. But, at this point, it looks as if moderation will be on indefinitely.


[*Those of you from AtBC who read this will claim that I'm using blipey as an excuse to end the continuing conversation in regard to common descent vs. common design. That is not the case, and I will address relevant comments to my last lengthy post on the subject in a post from my blog in the near future.]

Palin's Computer Hacker

Looks like the guy who hacked Sarah Palin's computer a few weeks ago was the 20-year-old the son of Democratic Tennessee state lawmaker Rep. Mike Kernell. He's pleading not guilty.

Halloween's gonna suck this year...

I just hope the house we're trying to sell doesn't end up with one of those signs in front of it...

When it rains it pours

We still haven't sold the last house my husband built, and winter is drawing near which means we may be stuck paying on it until next spring. There's a 3 acre plot of land next to it that we've been trying to sell as well. We had planned to build another house on it, but since my husband's given up the business, we're trying to sell it.

We almost had the land sold, but the percolation test we did turned out to be a negative 8. Shit. That means the land will need an aerator for it's septic system which is an added expense for the buyer. That may definitely stop the sale from going through.

We did have a decent bite on the house the other day, but the way our luck has been going lately, who knows how that will pan out.

Prayers are welcome.

I'm Skeerd...

The next four years should be an...um...interesting experience...

Was Skilling misled by Dawkins?

From here...

Even before receiving his 24-year jail sentence yesterday for his part in the Enron scandal, former chief executive officer Jeffrey Skilling made clear he views his tribulations as a Darwinian challenge. For him, it is "something to do, something to accomplish" - in short, an opportunity to demonstrate the survival of the fittest.

But then, what else should we expect from the man whose favourite book is The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins? Skilling (right) certainly had no compunction in doing the bidding of his own selfish genes, weeding out "weaklings" that threatened his own success with snap staff appraisals and automatic sackings for laggards.

As he ponders how to while away the years ahead, Skilling may consider having another flick through Dawkins' celebrated work. If he does, he will discover - as have countless readers before him - that he has been misled by a scientist carried away with his own prose.

According to Dawkins, humans are mere "robot vehicles" doing the bidding of our selfish genes. But by the end of the book, Dawkins has performed a backflip, claiming we humans have the unique ability to defy our selfish genes.

So which is it? In an uncharacteristic bout of hand-wringing, Dawkins has recently conceded that his choice of words - and especially the title of his book - has misled many. He insists he has always believed humans are capable of decidedly unrobotic actions, and are all the better for it.

This will doubtless come as an almighty shock to the likes of Skilling, but not to his nemesis, former Enron vice-president Sherron Watkins. It was she who blew the whistle on the Enron scandal. And in a wonderful irony, she has made clear she was driven to act by that most un-Dawkinian of motives: a need to do the right thing by Almighty God.

HT: Young Cosmos

Obama's experience vs. Palin's

Here are some interesting links posing Palin's experience against Obama's...

Here, here, and here.

Biden blew it 14 times during VP debate

See the list at this link.

Dazzle 'em, Girlfriend

Via Rich Lowry: National Review On Line...

Projecting through the Screen [Rich Lowry]

A very wise TV executive once told me that the key to TV is projecting through the screen. It's one of the keys to the success of, say, a Bill O'Reilly, who comes through the screen and grabs you by the throat. Palin too projects through the screen like crazy. I'm sure I'm not the only male in America who, when Palin dropped her first wink, sat up a little straighter on the couch and said, "Hey, I think she just winked at me." And her smile. By the end, when she clearly knew she was doing well, it was so sparkling it was almost mesmerizing. It sent little starbursts through the screen and ricocheting around the living rooms of America. This is a quality that can't be learned; it's either something you have or you don't, and man, she's got it.

Brains and beauty...makes a great package.

Love her enthusiasm...

Tee Hee

Focus group nearly unanimous: Palin won

Beauty and The Biden

WOW!!!!! I was VERY PLEASANTLY SURPRISED by the debate tonight. My gosh, Sarah looked like a completely different person than she did in her interview with Couric...so much more confident and knowledgeable. I'm glad she had the chance to speak directly to the American voters at both the convention and the debate without the media doing their clip and snip job on her.

It was fun hanging out with my sister and a bunch of other McCain/Palin supporters in Second Life. We were cheering her on the entire time, and we were all thrilled with her debating skills.

Biden was very much the gentleman and didn't talk down to her at all, and I'll certainly give Gwen Ifill credit for being a fair moderator. The whole debate was a very fun to watch.

I love Sarah...I really do. I hope she gets a chance to show us her stuff in the white house. Shoot, she could probably charm our foreign leaders into doing her bidding! All power to her...

A Confession

I'm *not* looking forward to the VP debate tonight. Honestly, I don't think Sarah is going to fare well...

1. She doesn't have *near* the experience with nationally televised debates at this level like Biden does. He's been doing this crap since Palin was in second grade.

2. Moderator, Gwen Ifill, is writing a book titled "The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama". Gosh, can't imagine that she's biased in any way...*eyes rolling*.

3. If I was Sarah, I'd be scared shit less to even open my mouth fearing that any slip will be splashed all over the media *forever*.

She's definently the underdog *big time*. Sigh...

I predict she stumbles all over herself. Ah well.

I think I'll join a group of Republicans in Second Life who will be watching the event and discussing how the candidates do. My sister and brother-in-law lured me in to this avatar rich environment. Very long story. At first the whole atomosphere freaked me out, but I've run across some interesting political groups and there are science museums and other sciencey type places to visit. There's even a Noah's ark exhibit! LOL. I swear you can find anything in this place. I've never been a gamer at all, but it's kinda fun talking to people from all over the world in there.

My son knows how to run my avatar, and he bought her cars, jeeps, jets, a freaking batmobile, army paraphernalia and all kinds of crazy stuff. It's a hoot. I was shooting a bunch of zombies one day in my pink Nike outfit with machine guns hanging off me everywhere. I was a tad out of place as the rest of the players were men completely covered in armor. LOL.

One morning I checked in on the game and my son had turned me into a triceratops!!! It took me two days to try to get out of that transformation and back to my regular avatar.

My sister's husband is a pilot who is working out of the country a lot. So, it's fun for them to meet up in Second Life where they can talk and explore when he's not around in real life. I like logging on when I know they'll be in there. It's a lot like hanging out in real life.

So, I'll probably sit in with the Second Life Republicans for moral support while Sarah hangs herself......

Artist Builds Temple of Science

No kidding...



Dawkins has to be doing a tap dance over this latest architectural feat. I guess they had to one up the Creationist Museum in Kentucky by building a Temple of Science. Good grief...can it get any crazier?

Jonathon Keats, designer of the petri dish God, built The Atheon to get people thinking about what a scientific religion (or religious science?) would look and feel like.

Keats' conception of that idea took shape as a two-story building complete with stained-glass windows patterned after cosmic microwave background radiation and a liturgy based on the sounds of the Big Bang. The Atheon opened Sept. 27 at the Judah L. Magnes Museum in Berkeley, California.

But, could science replace religion?

Some scientists surely hope so. Remember the conversations at the Salk Institute in 2006? Keats, the builder of the temple, sure does...

Jonathon Keats: I heard about the Beyond Belief conference in 2006. Richard Dawkins was there, and Steven Weinberg, and Neil Degrasse Tyson. They were trying to figure out what science might do to provide an alternative to religion. There wasn't a consensus, but there was momentum towards the idea that science could do everything religion could, that it could be everything religion had been.

What would the form be, I wondered, of a church to science? What would happen within that church, in the most literal terms? And what would the fallout be if religion became scientific, and science a surrogate for religion?

For some folks, science is *obviously* a form of religion. They evangelize like members of any other church body, they join humanist organizations, they hallow natural selection, they write manifestos. What is repugnant to me is that they can push their religion (Scientific and Social Darwinism) in the public schools and deem it acceptable because they claim it doesn't pose a problem as far as separation of church and state. Well, I say...keep these temples coming!!!! Build them all over the nation, and elect Dawkins as the Pope of Scientific Atheism, with Darwin playing the role equivalent to Jesus. Then we'll slap them for not complying with the separation of church and state.

Fireproof

Be sure to get to the theatres to see the new flick "Fireproof". I've been hearing about this one for a while now, and it seems to be doing well at the box office. It's a film about the struggles a couple go through in their marriage and how their Christian faith pulls them through tough times.

For more information about the movie, head over to Coincidence Theories.