Best View

Non-union protesting non-union hiring?

2010-07-17T06:54:00.001-04:00

Veterans who apply for jobs on Capitol Hill aren’t receiving critical federal job-placement benefits because Congress has largely exempted itself from a law that aids post-military employment for vets, a new congressional report shows.

A groundbreaking report by the Office of Compliance on the state of the congressional workplace is now urging Congress to apply the Veterans Employment Opportunities Act to its own hiring habits.
"For a lot of our members, it's really difficult to have them come out, either because of parking or something else," explains Vincente Garcia, a union representative who is supervising the picketing.

So instead, the union hires unemployed people at the minimum wage—$8.25 an hour—to walk picket lines. Mr. Raye says he's grateful for the work, even though he's not sure why he's doing it. "I could care less," he says. "I am being paid to march around and sound off."

Not in this house

2010-07-14T07:12:00.000-04:00

Empty Gestures

2010-07-12T08:09:00.002-04:00

In the news this morning, Al Qaeda terrorists set off 2 bombs in Uganda which killed at least 64 people at a viewing of the World Cup. In response, Hillary Clinton condemned the bombing. Take that, Al Qaeda.

Black Hole Blowing Bubbles

2010-07-08T14:29:00.003-04:00

A relatively small black hole has been spotted blowing bubbles with diameters of more than 300-1500 light years.

Robert Soria of the University College London and colleagues pored over images and data from the European Southern Observatory and Chandra X-ray Observatory, zeroing in on an unusually large remnant from a supernova explosion. Its host galaxy appears in the Sculptor constellation of Earth's southern sky, around 12.7 million light years away.

They discovered three hot spots in the x-ray emissions, all in a row, and identified the central one as the core of a black hole a few times larger than the sun. The two spots flanking the core are produced by jets colliding with interstellar gas.

A nearby star feeds the black hole, giving it energy to shoot a flood of particles out each side at near the speed of light. These jets are much more powerful than expected for a black hole of this size, blowing bubbles that expand faster than the speed of sound. The finding suggests that more of the energy spent by a black hole goes into accelerating matter - rather than emitting x-rays - than previously supposed.

I don't understand any of this, but love knowing someone does.

The San Francisco earmark

2010-07-08T08:11:00.001-04:00

Nancy Pelosi has sneaked a $10 billion government-union bailout, and another $10 billion in domestic spending, into the supplemental military-spending bill.

The war supplemental was only supposed to be $37 billion as it was — that’s $20 billion in grease to pass $37 billion in war spending. Bad form, Nancy. Way to let the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan know exactly where they stand on the political totem pole back home!

Read it all here.

Post Office Logic

2010-07-07T06:37:00.002-04:00

The post office says that postal usage has dropped so much lately due to the use of online bill paying, e-mail, and companies like Fed-Ex that they need to raise the price of stamps to increase revenue. This suggests that they have adopted the premise that if they raise the price of something the public will consume more of it rather than less. Amazing.

World Cup

2010-07-06T20:09:00.002-04:00

Since the rest of the world seems to be engrossed with the World Cup being carried out in South Africa with horrible horns in the background, Best View has attempted to watch some of the games. The first thing I wonder is how in the world our game ever came to be called "football". The other thing I noticed is how much better the best teams control the ball with both feet and head. If there was more scoring, the game would probably catch on better here in the U.S.

Swimming in China

2010-07-05T10:00:00.002-04:00

The Gore Pass

2010-06-29T08:37:00.002-04:00

If Al Gore were a Republican he’d have an army of media tailing his every move. But since he’s a hero to the left he gets to avoid even having to respond to allegations he’s an out of control crazed sex poodle. The media probably think that since the woman's allegations of a sex assault by the National Enquirer. They thought the same thing when John Edward's affair was revealed by this magazine.

How True

2010-06-28T05:21:00.001-04:00

A reason for the “wealth or income gap”: Smart people keep on doing things that are smart and make them money while stupid people keep on doing things that are stupid and keep them from achieving.

People who get an education, stay off of drugs, apply themselves, and save and wisely invest their earnings do a lot better than people who drop out of school, become substance abusers, and buy fancy cars and houses that they can’t afford, only to lose them.

We don’t have an income gap. We have a stupid gap.

Anonymous

Ouch

2010-06-23T09:33:00.003-04:00

Richard Cohen is a pretty liberal columnist at the Washington Post. Here is his latest take on Obama. It seems the left is finally beginning to realize what the rest of us knew from the start. The man is an empty suit. READ IT ALL HERE.

It can seem that at the heart of Barack Obama's foreign policy is no heart at all. It consists instead of a series of challenges -- of problems that need fixing, not wrongs that need to be righted. As Winston Churchill once said of a certain pudding, Obama's approach to foreign affairs lacks theme. So, it seems, does the man himself.

For instance, it's not clear that Obama is appalled by China's appalling human rights record. He seems hardly stirred about continued repression in Russia. He treats the Israelis and their various enemies as pests of equal moral standing. The president seems to stand foursquare for nothing much

Just wondering

2010-06-13T09:12:00.002-04:00

Now and then the news carries stories about a gay pride parade being held somewhere and the objections associated with it. One thing I have often wondered about is the logic behind such demonstrations. Supposedly gays believe their gayness is genetic and since it is inherited it is unavoidable. If this is the case, why should you celebrate and take pride in your gayness any more than you would hair color or height?

Musings and Rants

2010-06-10T06:27:00.004-04:00

1)The Obama administration is so inept. It is becoming clear now that when they decided to halt all further drilling in the gulf they did not foresee the unemployment of thousands of oil workers and others who support their efforts. Now that it has become obvious to them, they are saying BP must pay the salaries for all the people who are losing their paychecks. So, now BP is going to make a stand against this insanity and all this is going to wind up in the courts and nobody will win but the lawyers.
2)In their continuing attack on private enterprise, Obama now says that BP should forgo paying dividends and give all the money to the gulf effort. There is absolutely no evidence that anyone in the Obama administration knows anything about how to run a business or anything else, but BP has many billions to devote to the obligations their negligence created and the payment of dividends is not a great percentage of their assets, but dividend revenue from BP is a large percentage of the British retirement system's income.The firm's dividend payments, which amount to more than £7 billion a year, account for £1 in every £6 paid out in dividends to British pension pots.
3)Islamic fundamentalists believe that homosexuals should either cure themselves or die. Given this, it is amusing to read that a delegation of gay residents of Tel Aviv has been banned from joining a gay pride march in Madrid because authorities in the Israeli city have not condemned the recent attack on the Gaza flotilla.
So, the gays in Spain are supporting those who kill any gay who permits sexual preferences (Palestinians) to become known. Strange mixing of ideas.
4)The proposed Arizona law which addresses the illegal immigrant problem in that state may be working prior to its actual effective date. Arizona's tough new immigration enforcement law is fueling an exodus of Hispanics from the state seven weeks before it goes into effect, according to officials and residents in the state.

Though no one has precise figures, reports from school officials, businesses and individuals indicate worried Hispanics — both legal and illegal — are leaving the state in anticipation of the law, which will go into effect July 29.

Schools in Hispanic areas report unusual drops in enrollment. The Balsz Elementary School District is 75% Hispanic, and within a month of the law's passage, the parents of 70 students pulled them out of school, said District Superintendent Jeffrey Smith. The district lost seven students over the same one-month period last year, and parents tell Smith the Arizona law is the reason for leaving.
5)Here in Georgia and across the country as I read the news, schools are facing severe money problems and there are teacher furloughs, increasing class sizes and other measures to save money. Rather than raise taxes what if schools spent available funds on educational efforts rather than non-academic matters. Football and other sports are nice, but not essential. Ditto for food service two meals a day. If you want a choir, pay for it. Bus service could be an option which parents pay for. Maybe some of the assistant and associate administrators could go back to teaching instead of pushing paper. The most effective move to save money is to simply dismiss any student who causes problems for the year and tell them to come back when they want to learn and study without causing problems. This would improve the learning environment and fewer teachers could teach larger classes more easily. Let the police deal with the problems on the streets rather than the teachers in the schools.

Gore causing global warming!!!!

2010-06-02T10:35:00.003-04:00

News that Gore and Tipper are on the outs is going to just cause the globe to get hotter. How could that be? Well, just read the following: A teaser follows.

As if the burden of divorce weren't bad enough, people with failed marriages can be blamed for global warming, according to a study by Michigan State University.

Divorced couples use up more space in their respective homes, which amounts to to 38 million more rooms worldwide to light, heat and cool, noted the report.

And people who divorced used 73 billion kilowatt-hours more of electricity and 627 billion gallons of water than they would otherwise in 2005.

Dissolving a marriage also means doubling possessions, from the lowly can opener to the SUV. The report, however, did not estimate how many more natural resources the children of shared-custody parents consume by getting birthday and holiday gifts twice.

You can read more of this nonsense at the link given above.

How stupid are you?

2010-06-01T09:14:00.003-04:00

If you believe that Bill Clinton called Joe Sestak,"a longtime friend", spoke for 60 seconds, offered him a position he was not able to accept (on an intelligence board) as a Congressman to get out of the race against Specter, and this was the sum and substance of the 10 week stone wall of the subject by the White House, you are truly beyond stupid. In the first place, Bill Clinton can't talk to anyone about anything for only one minute.
If the matter was all that innocuous, the White House lawyer would not have to issue a 3 page memo detailing why the matter was not illegal. Of course, the White House says they were just doing what every President going back to George Washington did---even though the federal statute which clearly prohibits interference with federal elections was not extant when George was President.

Memorial Day

2010-05-31T05:54:00.001-04:00

President Obama will not be at Arlington National Cemetery honoring our military casualties today. He will not be there because he is in Chicago on vacation.

This will do it

2010-05-24T06:11:00.001-04:00

North Korea sinks a South Korean ship, kills 40 some odd sailors and the U.S. insists a powerful response is called for so Hillary Clinton says she is going to take the matter to the U.N.

The Pentagon Brownie Recipe

2010-05-21T09:17:00.002-04:00

Sure enough, the military has a recipe for making brownies. That may not be surprising, but the fact that it is 26 pages long might be.

Here is the link.

$234 Million and no jobs

2010-05-14T09:00:00.001-04:00

Detroiter Mark Brisker had high hopes of securing a future as a green-collar worker. Michigan officials had touted green energy as a fast-growing employment sector and part of a fix for the state’s economic woes. An influx of federal funding and the creation of training programs in green trades, such as weatherizing homes, were intended to quickly grow the industry.

But five months after completing weatherization training offered by Henry Ford Community College in Dearborn, Brisker remains out of work. And jobs in this specialization, which focuses on improving the energy efficiency of homes and buildings, have been slow to materialize.

“As of yet, very few — if any of the students — have found work,” said Brisker, 51, a former chemical plant worker. “Yet the schools are still cranking out graduates.”

Although the federal stimulus package earmarked $234 million to weatherize 3,000 low-income Michigan homes — about 10 times more than average — and create jobs, the money has been slow to trickle to contractors and other employers.

National Observer

The no health insurance option

2010-05-10T12:35:00.002-04:00

AT&T spends $2.4 billion a year on coverage for its almost 300,000 active employees, a number that would fall to $600 million if AT&T stopped providing health care coverage and paid the penalty option instead.

Other large companies face similar situations. The question is, therefore, will these companies be sorely tempted to just pay the fine and let the workers look for health insurance elsewhere? It could be a great financial boon to any company with more than 50 employees.

The European Solution

2010-05-10T06:29:00.003-04:00

There is great news coming out of Europe this morning. The world has been anxious about Greece because they owe so much money they may default on repayments of this debt. Well, other countries in Europe has come to their aid as of this weekend. The Euro countries will create a fund of billions of dollars (Euros) to back up Greece and other countries like Spain, Portugal, and Italy who owe so much that default on their debt may become a problem. Sounds good, doesn't it. Don't look too deeply into this great news, however. If you happen to wonder where the money being used to back this debt is coming from, look no further. They are borrowing it.

Our time is coming

2010-05-08T19:40:00.002-04:00

The most debilitating disease afflicting Greece is also present in every other western European country. They all have more and more people living off of an expansive social welfare structure, even as their workforce is aging, shrinking, and losing ground to global competitors.
Thus, the problem is now acute in Europe, but when the only one hiring now is our federal government with its gold-plated benefits and labor goodies, the U.S. is on the road to that we see in Greece. What will our government workers do when they lose the gravy train they are now on? It won't be pretty.

The true stripes of Obama

2010-05-03T06:07:00.000-04:00

Well this is what Barack Obama had to say to a crowd in Illinois, "I do think at a certain point you've made enough money."

And he wants to decide where that point is.

Gold prices

2010-05-03T05:46:00.001-04:00

Gold has rallied almost 6 percent in April, its biggest one-month rise since November, as credit ratings downgrades of Greece, Spain and Portugal unleashed a wave of risk aversion, channeling money into gold. This is just the start since tax and spend by every country will reduce all currency value.

It is the law

2010-05-03T05:14:00.001-04:00

Since 1952 federal law has said: "Every alien, eighteen years of age and over, shall at all times carry with him and have in his personal possession any certificate of alien registration or alien registration receipt card issued to him."

Now Obama and other liberals are claiming that if Arizona law enforcement officers ask for those papers they are somehow Nazis and anti-immigrant.

The Arizona Law

2010-04-26T05:54:00.002-04:00

The recently passed law out in Arizona which allows the state to reduce the illegal immigrants taxing its resources is being subjected to criticism on the basis of maybe allowing someone who is here legally being asked to provide confirming papers. One way to evaluate the validity and common sense behind this new law is to simply recognize that Al Sharpton is going to march in protest.

Mystery Solved

2010-04-19T16:48:00.000-04:00

Women who wear revealing clothing and behave promiscuously are to blame for earthquakes, a senior Iranian cleric has said.

Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi's comments follow a warning by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that a quake is certain to hit the capital Tehran and that many residents should relocate.

In a prayer sermon, the cleric said: 'Many women who do not dress modestly... lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which increases earthquakes.'

Read it here.

Tax Reminder

2010-04-14T09:21:00.001-04:00

Just heard that tomorrow is TAX DAY which means Treasury Secretary Geithner and Congressman Charlie Rangle only have one more day to not pay their taxes.

Obama at a soccer game or not?

2010-04-14T09:08:00.002-04:00

BestView finds the following interesting, but unsure what to make of it. Uncertainty really gets the conspiracy juices flowing in Washington, but Obama is so suspect in all things requiring believability in what he says that suspicion is justified.

Read it here.

It is us versus them

2010-04-14T09:00:00.001-04:00

New Hampshire Democrats are engaged in a statewide search for liberal activists willing to attend so-called tea parties on Thursday and carry signs expressing racist or fringe sentiments, a Democratic source with knowledge of the effort tells NowHampshire.com.

According to the source, who sought anonymity for fear of reprisals, the Dems’ last minute scramble reflects a growing obsession among party leaders that they need to discredit the tea party movement soon or it will overwhelm them come the November election.

Former Democratic State Party Chairman Kathy Sullivan is heading up the search, the source said. Sullivan has been calling and e-mailing liberal activists trying to get them to attend tea parties in different parts of the state and hold signs denying the authenticity of President Barack Obama’s birth certificate and make racially disparaging comments to reporters.

“This is Kathy’s [Sullivan] project,” the source told NowHampshire.com. “She is absolutely obsessed with painting the tea party people as racists.”

Read it all here.

Supreme Court

2010-04-12T08:30:00.002-04:00

The retirement of Justice Stevens from the Supreme Court has the political environment cluttered with speculation about whom Obama will nominate to replace him. Since confirmation is almost guaranteed, the most interesting name advanced so far is the one which emerged back during the campaign for President---Hillary.

Science of another order

2010-04-08T19:46:00.002-04:00

As a scientist, I spent my research career asking questions, designing experiments to answer those questions and then conducting the experiments. Finally, the results would be analyzed, conclusions would be made, and then published for others to consider.
Being retired, I often run across science which is asking questions I would never be able to even ask. Here is an example I ran across today in Science Daily.

Could our universe be located within the interior of a wormhole which itself is part of a black hole that lies within a much larger universe?

Such a scenario in which the universe is born from inside a wormhole (also called an Einstein-Rosen Bridge) is suggested in a paper from Indiana University theoretical physicist Nikodem Poplawski in Physics Letters B. The final version of the paper was available online March 29 and will be published in the journal edition April 12.

Poplawski takes advantage of the Euclidean-based coordinate system called isotropic coordinates to describe the gravitational field of a black hole and to model the radial geodesic motion of a massive particle into a black hole.

Topless equality anyone?

2010-04-05T16:40:00.002-04:00

PORTLAND - About two dozen women took a walk down Congress Street topless Saturday, attracting a large crowd as they tried to preach that partial female nudity is not worthy of attracting a crowd.

The point of the march was that a topless woman out in public should attract no more attention than a man walking around without a shirt on, said Ty MacDowell, 20, of Westbrook, who organized Saturday's event and promoted it on Facebook.

But as the event got under way in Longfellow Square, the marchers were soon outnumbered by scores of onlookers -- mostly young men eagerly snapping away with cameras and cell phones.

"I'm amazed," she said, and "enraged (at) the fact that there's a wall of men watching."

BestView is amazed that she is amazed.

Don't befriend this government

2010-04-05T16:25:00.002-04:00

Obama continues to create enemies where there once the U.S. had friends. First he and Hillary bash Israel for building condos where they have always constructed them and where the Palestinians had not previously complained---Jerusalem.

Now they are at odds with President Karzai who is saying if Obama doesn't quit meddling with internal affairs he might join the Taliban. Read it here.

So, our foreign policy continues to be straight from Alice in Wonderland. Obama bows and kow-tows to our declared enemies and insult and anagonize our allies.

This is all just sad and dangerous.

This is surprising

2010-04-02T06:42:00.000-04:00

Both Maine Senators declined the White House's invitation to attend President Obama's event in their home state today, according to White House spokesman Bill Burton.

Burton said the Maine Republicans decided not to attend Obama's healthcare speech in Portland, Maine.

A spokeswoman for Snowe said the senator "had a full day of events already planned today long before we learned of the President's trip to Maine last Friday."

Meanwhile, Collins is overseas visiting U.S. Central Command in Qatar, and her office says it's not clear she was invited in the first place.

Of course, both Snowe and Collins opposed the healthcare legislation that Obama will be touting in his speech, so its understandable they wouldn't want to appear alongside him.

Stop telling the truth

2010-03-30T06:46:00.001-04:00

On Capitol Hill and in the White House on Monday, Democrats were fuming over a series of announcements that started Friday from Fortune 500 firms saying their bottom lines will take huge negative hits because of changes in tax law mandated by Obamacare. That hit in turn means lower profit projections. Caterpillar estimates, for example, that Obamacare will cost it $100 million; John Deere faces expenses of $150 million; 3M, $90 million; AK Steel, $31 million; Valero, $20 million. And then there's AT&T, which is marking its balance sheet down by a whopping $1 billion. All in all, the Wall Street Journal estimated a $14 billion haircut for these corporations.

White House advisers reacted with angry phone calls to the corporations in question. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., issued harassing document requests and demanded that the chief executive officers appear before his committee next month to answer for their sins. These corporations, which legally owe an honest reckoning to their shareholders, are only doing their duty by restating projections. By contrast, Waxman and many of his fellow Democratic leaders in Congress have used every government accounting and budget gimmick at their disposal to deceive Americans for the last year about the true costs of Obamacare. These Washington politicians have no business lecturing CEOs on honesty in accounting.

Bring on the election

2010-03-26T07:03:00.002-04:00

BestView is excited about the coming elections this Fall. When the dems decided to resort to reconciliation to pass the health care bill, it was necessary to accept the changes imposed by the House of Representatives with no changes. The problem was the rules permitted Republicans to offer amendments. Since the dems had to vote them down, they had to take some painful, public opposition to these amendments. Here are some examples of things which were opposed by some of these senators who will be running for election:

1) eliminate the excise tax on children in wheelchairs
2) outlaw government buying erectile dysfunction drugs for rapists and sex offenders
3) exempt rural critical care hospitals from funding cuts
4) exempt pacemakers from the excise tax
They also had to vote in favor of gutting medicare advantage, taxing investment income (big deal in New York where Kirsten Gillibrand is running), and Arlen Specter had to deny Pennsylvania the right to opt out of the health care mandates.
Tighten restrictions on illegal aliens getting health care? Dems are against it. Criminal penalties for failing to buy health insurance? Yes.
The campaign ads are going to be just wonderful.

The Senate will defeat this

2010-03-24T06:12:00.001-04:00

As the Senate grinds through 20 hours of debate on the health care reconciliation bill, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, Tuesday night offered an amendment that would require the president, vice-president, members of Congress, political appointees and congressional staff to get their federal health benefits through the soon-to-be-created health insurance exchanges.

This group currently gets insurance through a system overseen by the Office of Management and Budget and under the health care bill signed into law today, some of the congressional staff would have to sign up for insurance through the exchanges. But some would be exempted. Politico filed a story Tuesday night pointing out that leadership and committee staff are exempt from having to use the exchanges. This has caused a bit of an uproar on Capitol Hill, with Republicans accusing top Democratic staff of writing a health care law that's not good enough for them to participate in.

"President Obama has publicly advertised that his reforms would give members of the public the same coverage available to Members of Congress," reads a GOP summary of the Grassley measure. "This amendment would ensure that he, his successors, and all his appointed political officials would also have the same coverage members of the public enrolled in the Exchange receive."

Another Lie?

2010-03-23T14:01:00.002-04:00

Back in the Bush era the liberals always said "Bush Lied". Back during the campaign, President Obama said the "public will have five days to look at every bill that lands on my desk" before he signs it into law. He waited all of 36 hours to sign the health insurance boondoggle, but I am sure that is not considered a lie by all of Bush's detractors.

Worry about the crazies now?

2010-03-23T06:50:00.002-04:00

The manner in which the liberals imposed this health care change on America has generated genuine anger and even hatred in a segment of our society which one can only hope will not express this feeling in ways which lead to violence toward our elected representatives.

Reflections on ObamaCare

2010-03-22T13:39:00.001-04:00

It is amazing to BestView that absolutely no Republican sold out and voted for the health insurance fiasco.

Can the Pope survive?

2010-03-22T08:05:00.002-04:00

The growing scandal in the Catholic church around pedophilia in the priesthood is threatening to take down the Pope himself according to many. For example:

While a cardinal at the Vatican, Joseph Ratzinger, now the pope, wrote a 2001 letter instructing bishops worldwide to report all cases of abuse to his office and keep church investigations secret under threat of excommunication. The Vatican insists the secrecy rules serve only to protect the integrity of the church's investigations, and should not be taken to mean the church should not tell police of their members' crimes.

But victims' advocates in Ireland and the United States said the pope again failed to make it clear whether the church considers the secular law a higher priority than canon law when seeking to stop a pedophile priest.

"The letter's underlying goal seems to have been to appease the outrage while keeping the church in control of its incriminating information," said Terry McKiernan, president of a Web-based pressure group, BishopAccountability.org, that chronicles Catholic abuse scandals worldwide.

Budget Nonsense

2010-03-22T07:16:00.003-04:00

Well, the so-called health care reform bill passed last night and America is on watch to reap the benefits promised. One such consequence is a promised reduction in the federal budget of $138 billion over the first 10 years. This will occur by raising taxes on such things as medical devices under a plan in which the taxes go on for 10 years while the "benefits" are only in play for 4 years. If you believe this, keep in mind this reduction in the federal budget over 10 years is smaller than the deficit the Obama administration inflicted on us last month----$220 billion. So, it will never happen and would not matter if it did.

Fiscal Smoke

2010-03-21T10:50:00.000-04:00

Under strict instructions from Democratic leaders, and over strong objections from Republicans, the CBO dutifully scored 2010 as the first year of the latest version of Obamacare. If the clock were started in 2011, the first full year that the bill could possibly be in effect, the CBO says that the bill’s ten-year costs would be $1.2 trillion.

But even that wouldn’t come close to reflecting the bill’s true costs. The CBO projects that over the next four years, less than two percent of the bill’s alleged “ten year” costs would hit: just $17 billion of the $940 billion in costs that the Democrats are claiming. In fact, the costs through President Obama’s entire presidency, should he be reelected, would be $336 billion. What would the president leave behind for his successor? According to the CBO, he would leave behind costs of $837 billion during his successor’s first term alone. If his successor were to serve a second term, he or she would inherit a cool $2.0 trillion in Obamacare costs — about six times its costs during Obama’s own tenure. This legislation is a ticking time-bomb.

Why we should just say, "No".

2010-03-16T06:19:00.001-04:00

A recent "Investor's Business Daily" article provided very interesting
statistics from a survey by the United Nations International Health
Organization.

Percentage of men and women who survived a cancer five years after diagnosis:
U.S. 65%
England 46%
Canada 42%

Percentage of patients diagnosed with diabetes who received treatment
within six months:
U.S. 93%
England 15%
Canada 43%

Percentage of seniors needing hip replacement who received it within six months:
U.S. 90%
England 15%
Canada 43%

Percentage referred to a medical specialist who see one within one month:
U.S. 77%
England 40%
Canada 43%

Number of MRI scanners (a prime diagnostic tool) per million people:
U.S. 71
England 14
Canada 18

Percentage of seniors (65+), with low income, who say they are in
"excellent health":
U.S. 12%
England 2%
Canada 6%

The percentage of each past president's cabinet who
had worked in the private business sector prior to their appointment
to the cabinet.

T. Roosevelt........ 38%
Taft................... 40%
Wilson ................. 52%
Harding...............49%
Coolidge.............. 48%
Hoover................. 42%
F. Roosevelt......... 50%
Truman................. 50%
Eisenhower.......... 57%
Kennedy.............. 30%
Johnson................ 47%
Nixon................... 53%
Ford..................... 42%
Carter.................. 32%
Reagan................. 56%
GH Bush.............. 51%
Clinton ................. 39%
GW Bush............ 55%

And the winner of the Chicken Dinner is..............Obama................8%!!!

Yep! That's right! Only Eight Percent! The least by far of the last 19
presidents!!

And these people are trying to tell our big corporations how to run
their business? They know what's best for GM...Chrysler...Wall
Street... and you and me?

How can the president of a major nation and society...the one with the
most successful economic system in world history... stand and talk
about business when he's never worked for one?. Or about jobs when he
has never really had one??!

And neither have 92% of his senior staff and closest advisers..!
They've spent most of their time in academia, government and/or
non-profit jobs....or as "community organizers"...When they should
have been in an employment line.

Why do they care?

2010-03-14T14:12:00.001-04:00

When the Washington Post columnist Jackson Diehl asked White House officials to name a foreign leader with whom Obama had forged a personal relationship, there was “a lot of hemming and hawing”, he said. To his astonishment, no one mentioned Gordon Brown. Instead the name proffered was Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president.

The British feel particularly miffed. Within days of becoming president, Obama removed the bust of Winston Churchill from the Oval Office. This, followed by Obama’s odd choice of gift to Brown — a box of DVDs including Psycho and Toy Story — prompted speculation of something deeper. In his memoir, Obama writes of how his grandfather was beaten by British troops in colonial Kenya.

Read the whole thing here.

Toyota Mystery Age Related?

2010-03-13T17:11:00.003-05:00

The Los Angeles Times recently did a story detailing all of the NHTSA reports of Toyota "sudden acceleration" fatalities, and, though the Times did not mention it, the ages of the drivers involved were striking.

In the 24 cases where driver age was reported or readily inferred, the drivers included those of the ages 60, 61, 63, 66, 68, 71, 72, 72, 77, 79, 83, 85, 89--and I'm leaving out the son whose age wasn't identified, but whose 94-year-old father died as a passenger.

This suggests that Toyota problems might be related to the fact that the U.S. government owns a competitor and the real problem might be driver error by some who are too old to drive skillfully.

Obama wants a different government

2010-03-12T08:57:00.000-05:00

Speaking to Katie Couric on Feb. 7, Obama said:

"I would have loved nothing better than to simply come up with some very elegant, academically approved approach to health care, and didn't have any kinds of legislative fingerprints on it, and just go ahead and have that passed. But that's not how it works in our democracy. Unfortunately, what we end up having to do is to do a lot of negotiations with a lot of different people."

Another Obituary

2010-03-11T08:07:00.002-05:00

Once again some guy dies of a drug overdose in Hollywood that the news media is widely reporting on and BestView never heard of the guy.

Dan Rather does it again

2010-03-09T07:27:00.001-05:00

DAN RATHER: Part of the undertow in the coming election is going to be President Obama's leadership. And the Republicans will make a case and a lot of independents will buy this argument. "Listen he just hasn't been, look at the health care bill. It was his number one priority. It took him forever to get it through and he had to compromise it to death." And a version of, "Listen he's a nice person, he's very articulate" this is what's been used against him, "but he couldn't sell watermelons if it, you gave him the state troopers to flag down the traffic."

Obama's Health Care Wagon

2010-03-08T05:53:00.003-05:00

Idiot of the month candidate

2010-03-06T07:13:00.001-05:00

From the mouth of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid:

"Today is a big day in America. Only 36,000 people lost their jobs today, which is really good," Reid said. "Unemployment rate around America has not changed. Prognosticators thought it would go up and it has not."

Why we need guns

2010-03-04T06:59:00.001-05:00

News item from Chile:

These and hundreds of other survivors of Chile’s devastating earthquake have organized neighborhood watch groups, arming themselves and barricading streets to protect their damaged homes from looters. The groups have stepped in as police were overwhelmed by looting and soldiers were slow to restore order after an earthquake and tsunami.

That was then and....

2010-03-03T16:33:00.002-05:00

In 2004, when then-Majority Leader Tom DeLay was admonished by the Ethics Committee, then-Minority Leader Pelosi demanded his ouster from the Republican leadership. With respect to Rangel, by contrast, her reaction is more nuanced. Here is an interview this week with Elizabet Vargas of ABC:

Vargas: The Ethics Committee on Charles Rangel said that he has violated the House gift rule.

Pelosi: Uh-huh.

Vargas: How can he remain in such a powerful position as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee?

Pelosi: Well, I think--

Vargas: Given the fact that there are further pending ethics investigations and this public admonishment has taken place.

Pelosi: Well, it is a public admonishment. It said he did not knowingly violate House rules. So that gives him some comfort. But the fact is that we have a--

Vargas: He should have known though, don't you think?

Pelosi: Well, I don't know. You understand that the Ethics Committee is an independent, bipartisan committee in the House. They act independent of us. And that's exactly the way it should be. I, though, when I became speaker, instituted an outside ethics panel which makes recommendations in so that we have a double way to receive information, although the ethics committee can self initiate, as well as take recommendations from the outside panel. So we're going to look forward to seeing what else they have to say about what they have before him regarding Chairman Rangel.

Vargas: If there are further admonishments, though, should he remain in this position?

Pelosi: Well, let's why don't we just give him a chance to hear what the independent, bipartisan--they work very hard to reach their conclusions and we obviously there's more to come here.

Vargas: And but you don't--you understand this is why so many Americans think Congress is corrupt. It just doesn't--it doesn't look good. It doesn't pass the smell test.

Pelosi: No, it doesn't. No, it doesn't. I served for seven years on the Ethics Committee and the last thing I would have wanted would be for the Speaker of the House to interfere in a political way in what was going on there. That just should never happen. But the fact is, is that what Mr. Rangel has been admonished for is not good. It was a violation of the rules of the House. It was not a--something that jeopardized our country in any way.

Congressional Swamp

2010-03-03T06:59:00.002-05:00

From Boortz.

This is not breaking news: Charlie Rangel is a tax cheat. The guy in charge of writing tax laws in this country is a tax cheat. Until now, the House ethics committee didn't seem all that interested. Not an eyebrow raised in Rangel's general direction. But the House ethics committee finally "admonished" Rangel for accepting two trips to the Caribbean that were paid for by corporations. The committee's report said that Rangel "violated the House gift rule by accepting payment and reimbursement for travel to 2007 and 2008 conferences." As we know, this is just another bullet point on the list of the unethical failures of Charlie Rangel. Here is one that we recently compiled:

Failure to report over $1 million in outside income and $3 million in business transactions as required by the House,

Failure to disclose at least $650,000 in assets he had previously failed to list on his House financial disclosure forms,

Failure to disclose to the IRS or on his financial disclosure forms $75,000 in rental income for a beach villa in the Dominican Republic,

Violation of state laws by claiming three primary residences and breaking New York City regulations by maintaining four rent-controlled apartments,

Violation of House rules by using congressional letterhead to solicit donations for an education center bearing his name at City College of New York, and

Delinquency in paying his property taxes on two New Jersey parcels and failure to report the sale of a $1.3 million brownstone.

Charlie Rangel is among that elite class of Congress who believes that they are entitled to their position of power in Washington. He is part of some special class, which places him and his actions above the rule of law. Some might call that arrogance.

Charlie Rangel's biggest supporter in the House seems to be Nancy Pelosi. Princess Nancy says that it is not her place to interfere and "It was not a--something that jeopardized our country in any way." There you have it. The norm used to be that if a member ran afoul of the ethics committee you lost your committee chairmanship ... period. Now, according to Pelosi, you're ethical violation had to have been something that jeopardized our country. What is she saying? Unethical behavior on the part of one of the most powerful committee chairman in Washington doesn't, in and of itself, jeopardize our country?

What can be done? Well, today in Congress the Republicans are moving to trip Rangel of his chairmanship. The Republicans have tried this stunt before, as recently as September 2009, with no luck. Don't expect much this time. At least the Democrats refusal to punish one of their own will be displayed however.

BestView doesn't find much difference in Democrat and Republican ethics, but there seems to be a difference in tolerance. Republicans throw them out faster, but then most of their problems aren't black members.

Let the markets work

2010-03-01T06:00:00.002-05:00

Obama went to Nevada and announced a $1.5 billion effort to prevent foreclosures in five states hard-hit by the housing bust — Nevada, Arizona, California, Florida and Michigan — by feeding money into programs that would be developed and carried out by the housing agencies in the targeted states. This feel-good gesture may be good politics, but if the U.S. is ever to see its housing market return to normal, prices need to find their own level and some folks who should not own a house should be allowed to return to renting. Unfortunately, neither Dems or Republicans have the courage to allow this.

Antibiotic Resistance

2010-02-28T19:53:00.002-05:00

I published my first paper dealing with and warning about antibiotic resistance in Staphylococcus aureus over 40 years ago. The problem is getting worse it seems. An interesting article on this problem was published in the New York Times recently.

Interesting Finding on Reconciliation

2010-02-28T07:38:00.001-05:00

Another interesting wrinkle results from their using reconciliation to pass this thing. As I understand it, reconciliation bills have limits on them because they're passed as part of the budget. So if this health care bill gets passed through reconciliation, it would only be for five years. The Democrats have set up the first decade of the bill by having the tax increases and Medicare cuts start now, but the benefits would only kick in after four years in order to get a good rating from the CBO. So just as the benefits were beginning, we'll be bogged down in a massive debate over whether or not to extend this thing. And who knows what the composition of the Congress will be five years from now even if Obama is still in the White House. So if you're planning now to have Obamacare, remember that you have to wait four years and it might only be in place, in this form, for one year before we get the fun of enduring this debate one more year.

Thanks to Betsy

Congressman Paul Ryan Boils Health Bill Down

2010-02-25T21:52:00.001-05:00

RYAN: Thank you. Look, we agree on the problem here. And the problem is health inflation is driving us off of a fiscal cliff.

Mr. President, you said health care reform is budget reform. You're right. We agree with that. Medicare, right now, has a $38 trillion unfunded liability. That's $38 trillion in empty promises to my parents' generation, our generation, our kids' generation. Medicaid's growing at 21 percent each year. It's suffocating states' budgets. It's adding trillions in obligations that we have no means to pay for it.

Now, you're right to frame the debate on cost and health inflation. And in September, when you spoke to us in the well of the House, you basically said -- and I totally agree with this -- I will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits either now or in the future.

Since the Congressional Budget Office can't score your bill, because it doesn't have sufficient detail, but it tracks very similar to the Senate bill, I want to unpack the Senate score a little bit.

And if you take a look at the CBO analysis, analysis from your chief actuary, I think it's very revealing. This bill does not control costs. This bill does not reduce deficits. Instead, this bill adds a new health care entitlement at a time when we have no idea how to pay for the entitlements we already have.

Now, let me go through why I say that. The majority leader said the bill scores as reducing the deficit $131 billion over the next 10 years. First, a little bit about CBO. I work with them every single day -- very good people, great professionals. They do their jobs well. But their job is to score what is placed in front of them. And what has been placed in front of them is a bill that is full of gimmicks and smoke-and-mirrors. Now, what do I mean when I say that?

Well, first off, the bill has 10 years of tax increases, about half a trillion dollars, with 10 years of Medicare cuts, about half a trillion dollars, to pay for six years of spending.
Now, what's the true 10-year cost of this bill in 10 years? That's $2.3 trillion.

It does couple of other things. It takes $52 billion in higher Social Security tax revenues and counts them as offsets. But that's really reserved for Social Security. So either we're double-counting them or we don't intend on paying those Social Security benefits.

It takes $72 billion and claims money from the CLASS Act. That's the long-term care insurance program. It takes the money from premiums that are designed for that benefit and instead counts them as offsets.

The Senate Budget Committee chairman said that this is a Ponzi scheme that would make Bernie Madoff proud.

Now, when you take a look at the Medicare cuts, what this bill essentially does -- it treats Medicare like a piggy bank. It raids a half a trillion dollars out of Medicare, not to shore up Medicare solvency, but to spend on this new government program.

Now, when you take a look at what this does, is, according to the chief actuary of Medicare, he's saying as much as 20 percent of Medicare's providers will either go out of business or will have to stop seeing Medicare beneficiaries. Millions of seniors who are on -- who have chosen Medicare Advantage will lose the coverage that they now enjoy.

You can't say that you're using this money to either extend Medicare solvency and also offset the cost of this new program. That's double counting.

And so when you take a look at all of this; when you strip out the double-counting and what I would call these gimmicks, the full 10- year cost of the bill has a $460 billion deficit. The second 10-year cost of this bill has a $1.4 trillion deficit.

And I think, probably, the most cynical gimmick in this bill is something that we all probably agree on. We don't think we should cut doctors 21 percent next year. We've stopped those cuts from occurring every year for the last seven years. We all call this, here in Washington, the doc fix. Well, the doc fix, according to your numbers, costs $371 billion. It was in the first iteration of all of these bills, but because it was a big price tag and it made the score look bad, made it look like a deficit, that bill was -- that provision was taken out, and it's been going on in stand-alone legislation. But ignoring these costs does not remove them from the backs of taxpayers. Hiding spending does not reduce spending. And so when you take a look at all of this, it just doesn't add up.

And so let's just -- I'll finish with the cost curve. Are we bending the cost curve down or are we bending the cost curve up?

Well, if you look at your own chief actuary at Medicare, we're bending it up. He's claiming that we're going up $222 billion, adding more to the unsustainable fiscal situation we have.

And so, when you take a look at this, it's really deeper than the deficits or the budget gimmicks or the actuarial analysis. There really is a difference between us.

And we've been talking about how much we agree on different issues, but there really is a difference between us. And it's basically this. We don't think the government should be in control of all of this. We want people to be in control. And that, at the end of the day, is the big difference.

Now, we've offered lots of ideas all last year, all this year. Because we agree the status quo is unsustainable. It's got to get fixed. It's bankrupting families. It's bankrupting our government. It's hurting families with pre-existing conditions. We all want to fix this.
But we don't think that this is the answer to the solution. And all of the analysis we get proves that point.

Now, I'll just simply say this. And I respectfully disagree with the vice president about what the American people are or are not saying or whether we're qualified to speak on their behalf. So...
(LAUGHTER)
... we are all representatives of the American people. We all do town hall meetings. We all talk to our constituents. And I've got to tell you, the American people are engaged. And if you think they want a government takeover of health care, I would respectfully submit you're not listening to them.

So what we simply want to do is start over, work on a clean-sheeted paper, move through these issues, step by step, and fix them, and bring down health care costs and not raise them. And that's basically the point.

Old Age and Regrets

2010-02-13T07:48:00.002-05:00

When you move to the other side of 70 it is inevitable that one reflects on where one has been and where the limited future leads. There are always regrets about things not a part of one's youth and about things coming that will not be experienced. One thing currently in vogue, if what I read is accurate, is something that doesn't fall into either regret column. I am sure there are other things which could be mentioned, but genital piercings stand out for me in this regard.

Snow in Georgia

2010-02-13T07:01:00.004-05:00

It is deeper after more snow fell last night, but this view of the backyard from my deck is pretty unusual here in Georgia. iPhone pictures not that great, but I am still fascinated you can take a picture with your cell phone of any quality.

Liberals are a little slow it seems

2010-02-12T14:19:00.001-05:00

Rockefeller gets the message on Obama:

He says 'I'm for clean coal,' and then he says it in his speeches, but he doesn't say it in here," said Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia. "And he doesn't say it in the minds of my own people. And he's beginning to not be believable to me."

You can hear it here.

Liberal Fascism

2010-02-12T09:41:00.004-05:00

This book by Jonah Goldberg is the latest purchase for my Kindle. I recommend it highly if you are interested in the historical relationship of fascism to current political matters. Here are a couple of passages which have an interesting application of fascism to today's political atmosphere.

The National Socialist German Workers' Party was in every respect a grassroots populist party. Party leaders spouted all sorts of socialist prattle about seizing the wealth of the rich. Mein Kampf is replete with attacks on "dividend-hungry businessmen" whose "greed," "ruthlessness," and "short-sighted narrow-mindedness" were ruining the country. Hitler adamantly took the side of the trade union movement over "dishonorable employers."

When you read the following, think back to the recent history in America and the school children singing in class following Obama's election.

In 1935 mandatory prayer in (German) school was abolished, and in 1938 carols and nativity plays were banned entirely. By 1941 religious instruction for children fourteen years and up had been abolished altogether and Jacobinism reigned supreme. A Hitler Youth song rang out from the campfires:

We are the happy Hitler Youth;
We have no need for Christian virtue;
For Adolf Hitler is our intercessor
And our redeemer.
No priest, no evil one
Can keep us
From feeling like Hitler's children.
No Christ do we follow, but Horst Wessel!
Away with incense and holy water pots.

Glad we didn't have to read his lips

2010-02-12T06:57:00.001-05:00

Then:

“And I can make a firm pledge: under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase.

Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.”

Now:

President Barack Obama said he is “agnostic” about raising taxes on households making less than $250,000 as part of a broad effort to rein in the budget deficit.

http://polipundit.com/

Who is surprised

2010-02-11T09:10:00.000-05:00

Despite all the talk of green jobs, the overwhelming majority of stimulus money spent on wind power has gone to foreign companies, according to a new report by the Investigative Reporting Workshop at the American University's School of Communication in Washington, D.C.

Nearly $2 billion in money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has been spent on wind power, funding the creation of enough new wind farms to power 2.4 million homes over the past year. But the study found that nearly 80 percent of that money has gone to foreign manufacturers of wind turbines.

So Where Are the Jobs?

"Most of the jobs are going overseas," said Russ Choma at the Investigative Reporting Workshop. He analyzed which foreign firms had accepted the most stimulus money. "According to our estimates, about 6,000 jobs have been created overseas, and maybe a couple hundred have been created in the U.S."

Even with the infusion of so much stimulus money, a recent report by American Wind Energy Association showed a drop in U.S. wind manufacturing jobs last year.

Winter Olympics

2010-02-11T07:31:00.002-05:00

The winter olympics start tomorrow and the big concern is a downhill skier named Lindsay Vonn who is injured and may not be able to compete. BestView was not aware of this young lady, but in the press concern over her participation, there was publication of her bikini-clad picture from the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition which just came out. It seem to me that her future will be just fine whether she ever skis again or not.

The dollar calculator

2010-02-10T20:04:00.003-05:00

This is a fun site to play around with. If you put in a dollar amount and the year, the calculator will tell what the comparable value is today. For example, when I got out of high school and went to work in the oil fields out in Odessa, Texas, I made $1.10/hour. Today, the pay would be $8.00/hour. Minimum wage then, minimum wage now.

http://www.dollartimes.com/calculators/inflation.htm

Murtha and Obamacare

2010-02-10T07:13:00.002-05:00

The death this week of Congressman Murtha who went in for a minimally invasive gall bladder operation and through surgical error experience a perforated intestine which, through infection, led to his demise. The fact that this occurred in a government-run hospital is drawing comment with respect to how much this might diminish enthusiasm for changing our health care system in the U.S. which would expose all of us to government health care.
Read an example here.

Beware Chinese Fish

2010-02-10T06:57:00.002-05:00

BestView has commented previously on the subject of China's water quality problems. As shown in the article below which was published in the Wall Street Journal today, even the Chinese are now admitting their water is polluted. Keep this in mind when you consider buying talapia grown in the water there and shipped here. Just read the packages and country of origin on these fish.

BEIJING—China's government said its water is far more polluted and its industry is producing far more waste than previously realized, in a major study that environmentalists welcomed as a step toward greater transparency.

China's first official nationwide census of pollution sources, issued Tuesday, found that the amount of pollution discharged into the water totaled 30.3 million metric tons in 2007—more than double the 13.8 million tons reported for that year in a report two years ago, where the government claimed water pollution had declined 3% from a year earlier.

Musings

2010-02-07T07:38:00.002-05:00

One advantage of old age is the ability to see things that once were become current again. As I watch the Sarah Palin phenomenon I am reminded of the days when the liberals called Ronald Reagan an idiot who was going nowhere.

A consumer report

2010-02-05T15:56:00.003-05:00

On a recent trip we rented a Ford Fusion and were really impressed. It had a comfortable drive and several nice features like easy to use heating and cooling controls. When we turned the car in a winter storm prevented us from flying and we had to rent another car which turned out to be a Chevrolet of the same size. It was absolutely shabby by comparison. I came home and bought Ford stock.

Rahm's Apology

2010-02-05T09:04:00.003-05:00

The Obama chief of staff called the liberal democrats in Congress f###ing retarded. Then he apologized to the retarded rather than the democrats. This was appropriate in my opinion since they were obviously the wronged party.

Scientific Malpractice

2010-02-05T07:44:00.002-05:00

There is an article in today's Wall Street Journal which points out how corrupt science can be. We are seeing daily evidence of this in the absurd global warming situation, but also in other areas like the equally ridiculous, and easily refuted, idea that vaccines caused such problems as autism. The ability of scientists to affect what gets printed is described in this article, but from my experience in research back in the day, there is also a genuine problem with grant reviews which largely determine which projects get the funds to be conducted. This is a more corrupt process than the publication game.

Read it here.

Now we must convince Obama

2010-02-03T07:25:00.001-05:00

"The global warming movement as we have known it is dead," writes Walter Russell Mead of the Council on Foreign Relations in The American Interest. "The movement died from two causes: bad science and bad politics."

Some decades hence, I suspect, people will look back and wonder why so many government, corporate and media elites were taken in by propaganda that was based on such shoddy and dishonest evidence. And taken in to the point that they advocated devoting trillions of dollars to a cause that was based on flagrant dishonesty and dissembling.

Read it all here.

Canadian Premier comes to U.S. for Surgery

2010-02-02T10:45:00.000-05:00

Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams will undergo heart surgery later this week in the United States.

Deputy premier Kathy Dunderdale confirmed the treatment at a news conference Tuesday, but would not reveal the location of the operation or how it would be paid for.

"He has gone to a renowned expert in the procedure that he needs to have done," said Ms. Dunderdale, who will become acting premier while Mr. Williams is away for three to 12 weeks.

The Bush excuse

2010-02-02T08:15:00.004-05:00

It is amusing to watch how the liberals from Obama on down use the Bush administration as various matters arise. There is a daily whine about how everything bad about our current situation is the result of some Bush legacy. When they are criticized about some idiotic decisions like holding terrorist's trials in downtown New York, they are quick to point out that Bush tried some terrorists in the U.S. As if some idiotic, wrong-headed Bush decision makes theirs less idiotic. The one thing that keeps this from being amusing is the suspicion that the voters may not be able to see through their blather....at least that must be their calculation

The liberals never learn

2010-02-02T07:43:00.002-05:00

Obama and other liberals think that they can raise the tax rate on "the rich" and collect some amount of money which is extrapolated from the current baseline. This amount is then put in the budget and counted as money with which a given spending plan can be supported. Of course, the rich got that way by being smarter than idiotic politicians. They will adapt their activities to avoid the added taxes, the income will not be there and the liberals will impose more of a deficit and debt problem on the rest of us. It never fails because they will never learn.

Air Force Academy creates a circle for Druids

2010-02-01T14:58:00.003-05:00

In a marvelous display of the government's toleration of all religions, the Air Force is constructing a circle so that Wiccans and Druids in the Air Force can have a place to gather and worship.

The Air Force Academy chapel will add a worship area for followers of Earth-centered religions during a dedication ceremony, which is tentatively scheduled to be held at the circle March 10.

The circle, located atop the hill overlooking the Cadet Chapel and Visitor Center, will be the latest addition to a collection of worship areas that includes Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist sacred spaces.

Tech. Sgt. Brandon Longcrier, NCO in charge of the Academy's Astronautics laboratories, worked with the chapel to create the official worship area for both cadets and other service members in the Colorado Springs area who practice Earth-centered spirituality.

"Feel free to check the site out, but treat it as you would any other religious structure," he said.

The stones that now form the inner and outer rings of the circle once sat near the Visitor Center, where the chance of erosion made the rocks a safety hazard. The 10th Civil Engineer Squadron moved the rocks to the top of the hill in spring and early summer. Once finished, the circle will also include materials from a smaller circle that Sergeant Longcrier briefly set up in Jacks Valley.

"We used the (Jacks Valley) circle during Basic Cadet Training, and it was great," he said. However, the new circle offers significant advantages.

"The circle that we secured in December is much bigger, better and closer to the cadet area," he explained. "This will allow cadets to use the circle anytime they feel the need."

BestView didn't know the Wiccans worshiped in a circle of stones, but to each his own. At least their site of worship is not too expensive.

Mark Steyn found this jewel

2010-02-01T08:31:00.002-05:00

In Britain, a research team at King's College, London, has declared that the female "G-spot" doesn't exist.

In France, a group of top gynecologists dismissed the findings, asking, "What do you expect if you ask Englishmen to find a woman's erogenous zone?"

Read it all here and read every thing he writes when you run across something.

Osama Bin Laden and Obama agree it is Bush's fault

2010-02-01T08:25:00.001-05:00

The following is a message from Osama bin Ladin:

“The talk about climate change is not an intellectual indulgence. Rather, it is a reality. All of the industrialized countries, and especially the large ones, bear the responsibility for the crisis of the greenhouse effect. Most of them, though, rallied around the Kyoto accords, and agreed to limits on emissions of harmful gases. However Bush Jr., and Congress before him, rejected this accord in order to please the large corporations, which are themselves the ones responsible for [market] speculation, monopolies, and the rise in the cost of living. And they are behind globalization and its tragic consequences. Then, when these criminals’ own evil deeds did them in, the heads of state rush to rescue them with public funds.

A Really Mediocre President

2010-01-29T07:00:00.000-05:00

On nearly every major issue, the president's policy has proved unpopular once it has been explained clearly. This is why Obama so often engages in secrecy and obfuscation. It is why his party in Congress conducts secret negotiations and passes major legislation on Thanksgiving or just before Santa's arrival on Christmas Eve. It is why bills are passed without having been read even by their sponsors. Obama's party is legislating in the dark because it does not want the American people to know what it is doing.

Read it all here.

Just wondering

2010-01-28T21:31:00.001-05:00

This Obama train wreck has me wondering how long it will be until Hillary resigns from the State Department and starts making trips to Iowa.

John Edwards

2010-01-27T17:43:00.000-05:00

It is surprising and disappointing to me that anyone could watch John Edwards for 5 minutes and not realize he is the biggest phony on earth.

This makes Bush look good.

2010-01-25T08:26:00.003-05:00

Believe it or not, our President used teleprompters to speak to a class of 6th graders. This photo has been authenticated.

Be worried, be very, very worried

2010-01-24T08:01:00.003-05:00

With the liberals in Congress running up massive deficits and debt, they are going to be forced to find money wherever they can. Keep going to the Chinese? That is looking iffy since the Chinese seem to be coming to the realization that our T-bonds and the dollar backing them is getting shakier and shakier. Raising taxes? Of course, they will do that and it will hit everyone--even those whom Obama swore would not be affected by tax increases. What else? One fear is they will look at our retirement savings (401k and IRA accounts) and make some excuse to tap into this huge reservoir of funds. One plan is to simply tax all of them 15% to "protect" social security. This is fallacious, of course since once money hits Washington, it gets spent and social security gets an IOU.
Another idea is to force all of us to cash out a portion of our savings (and pay taxes on the withdrawal) and then invest the residue in government bonds where the money would have to stay.
We need to hope and pray that the results of the Massachusetts election will stave off the thieves.

Read a more complete and better account of this here.

This looks promising

2010-01-24T07:49:00.001-05:00

CARACAS, Venezuela — Tens of thousands of Venezuelans opposed to President Hugo Chavez took to the streets Saturday, blaming him for rolling blackouts, water rationing, widespread crime and other problems they say are making daily life increasingly difficult.

Maybe Massachusetts is not alone in being fed up with socialism. Old Hugo will probably follow Obama and blame Bush, however.

Mark Steyn's Obama Appraisal

2010-01-23T15:47:00.002-05:00

The most striking aspect of his performance was how unhappy he looked, as if he doesn’t enjoy the job. You can understand why. He ran as something he’s not, and never has been: a post-partisan, centrist, transformative healer. That’d be a difficult trick to pull off even for somebody with any prior executive experience, someone who’d actually run something, like a state, or even a town, or even a commercial fishing operation, like that poor chillbilly boob Sarah Palin. At one point late in the 2008 campaign, when someone suggested that if Governor Palin was “unqualified” then surely he was too, Obama pointed out as evidence to the contrary his ability to run such an effective campaign. In other words, running for president was his main qualification for being president.

Read it all here. It is all good and spot on.

Ouch!

2010-01-23T07:46:00.000-05:00

The president has three principal problems. He is well to the left of the public and of what he promised the voters in 2008, and it is an old, passe leftism, that is authoritarian, deviously presented and was discredited in this country decades ago; the sort of nostrums that caused Bill Clinton and others to become 'New Democrats.' He is increasingly perceived as having credibility problems and of being cold, cocksure, narcissistic and intoxicated by what he modestly called 'the gift' of his own articulation. And as president, he has been quite, and quite surprisingly, incompetent.

Read it all unless you drank the liberal Kool-Aid.

Liberals on the attack

2010-01-23T07:15:00.001-05:00

While the nation was suffering through the worst economy since the Depression, the Democrats wasted a year squabbling like unruly toddlers over health insurance legislation. No one in his or her right mind could have believed that a workable, efficient, cost-effective system could come out of the monstrously ugly plan that finally emerged from the Senate after long months of shady alliances, disgraceful back-room deals, outlandish payoffs and abject capitulation to the insurance companies and giant pharmaceutical outfits.

This is from an op-ed in the New York Times by the uber-liberal Bob Herbert. Read it all here.

Mixed Message?

2010-01-23T07:14:00.001-05:00

Barack Obama’s former Senate seat is on the line and the leading Democratic contender is a 33-year-old who spent almost all of his adult life working for the bank that his family owns. Perhaps the president forgot that last week when he told Massachusetts voters that “bankers don’t need another vote in the Senate.”

Obama takes on banks

2010-01-22T06:30:00.002-05:00

Reform of health insurance proved too tough so BO is now going to take on the banks and big investment houses. He says we need to limit their activities so the tax payers will no longer be on the hook for their failed investments. Even us conservatives can agree with some of that, but our man, the anointed one, may look back on the good old days when he was trying to take over our health care system. Just wait until he goes up against the New York money fronted by Chuck Schumer, Mayor Bloomberg, and the fat cats who are associated with all his advisers and cabinet members like Geithner.
Fact of the matter is our dear leader is in way over his head and doesn't look like he can swim very well.

More Climate Lies from U.N.

2010-01-21T18:38:00.001-05:00

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the U.N. body tasked with scaring us to death about global warming, has admitted that the claim in its 2007 report about the Himalayan glaciers disappearing was not based on any scientific study or research. It was instead based on one scientist's speculation in a telephone interview with a reporter.

The IPCC claimed: "Glaciers in the Himalayas are receding faster than in any other part of the world and, if the present rate continues, the likelihood of their disappearing by the year 2035 and perhaps sooner is very high if the earth keeps warming at the current rate."

As it turns out, the earth hasn't been warming at all, at least not in the last decade, and reputable scientists have said it may continue to cool for decades to come. Even if it was warming, glaciologists insist, the sheer mass of Himalayan glaciers made such a prediction laughable.

Professor Julian Dowdeswell, director of the Scott Polar Research Institute at Cambridge University, notes: "Even a small glacier, such as the Dokriani glacier, is up to 120 meters (394 feet) thick. A big one would be several hundred meters thick and tens of kilometers long."

Read it all here.

They just won't ever get it!!!

2010-01-21T15:01:00.001-05:00

Over at the Boston Globe, which was the only organization to have a worse showing in the election than the Coakley campaign, editorial writers pretended that Republican Scott Brown’s election had been a certainty for some time. If they thought so, they certainly hadn’t shared it with their readers.

If you relied only on the Globe for your news, the last poll you read about before Election Day was the one from Jan. 6 from the paper and the University of New Hampshire that showed Coakley winning in a 17-point walk over Republican Scott Brown.

Pelosi can't cut it

2010-01-21T14:56:00.001-05:00

"If you’re wondering why Speaker Pelosi, who currently has something like a seventy vote majority in the House, is incapable of shepherding through a bill deemed critical to her caucus - well, one could go into great detail in describing why, but really: “not very good at her job” will do just fine."

Read it all here.

Just wondering

2010-01-21T14:31:00.004-05:00

Isn't it interesting how perfectly Haiti and its problems with nature are reflected in California with its fires, floods, mud slides, and even earth quakes? Both are also financial basket cases with no obvious, functional government.

Or What????

2010-01-21T14:10:00.001-05:00

The United Nations will hold President Obama to his promise that the United States will reduce carbon emissions even if the Senate cannot pass climate legislation, U.N. climate chief Yvo de Boer said this morning.

In his first public comments since the Copenhagen climate summit last month that produced a nonbinding promise from major-emitting countries to cut greenhouse gases, de Boer noted that Obama vowed the United States will slash carbon about 17 percent below 2005 levels in the coming decade.

"Whatever route is taken, the president of the United States committed to a 17 percent emissions reduction in Copenhagen," de Boer said. "The president of the United States committed to more ambitious emissions reductions for 2030 and 2050. And it is those statements to which the international community will hold the government of the United States accountable

How sweet it is

2010-01-21T09:27:00.002-05:00

Just read that Obama will go to Nevada next month to support the re-election of Harry Reid. Maybe old Harry ought to ask how that worked out in Copenhagen, Virginia, New Jersey and Massachussets.

This about sums it up

2010-01-20T17:46:00.000-05:00

From NRO

We went from a Republican “culture of corruption” to a liberal cesspool of corruption. Sen. Chris Dodd lectures Wall Street while he gets sweetheart loans and vacation-home deals. Few could make up a story that the nation’s top tax lawmaker, House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel, is a tax dodger, and the nation’s top tax enforcer, Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner, is an even more egregious tax dodger. When the Democratic Senate leadership started buying health-care votes at $300 million a clip, our Congress became little more than the praetorian guard, auctioning off its support to any wannabe late Roman emperor. The idea of a muckraking Obama nominating Tom Daschle as his Health Secretary — the liberal populist who skips out of thousands of dollars in taxes on his free corporate limousine service — was the stuff of satire.

More New York Times Claptrap

2010-01-19T06:09:00.003-05:00

Senator Lisa Murkowski’s home state of Alaska is ever so slowly melting away, courtesy of a warming planet. Yet few elected officials seem more determined than she to throw sand in the Obama administration’s efforts to do something about climate change.

This is the lead paragraph of an editorial today in the New York Times complaining about a senator who has not bought into their climate change nonsense. It is almost laughable that Alaska would melt away, but the idea that Alaskans would be upset if it were warmer up there is...... Amazing.

Read it all here.

Regarding the Health Care Reform Legislation

2010-01-18T08:26:00.000-05:00

"When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty"
-Thomas Jefferson