The Fruit Jar of the Gods

Mosque Mania

2010-08-16T16:39:00.000-07:00

my letter makes the Bee.....

In response to those demanding that the proposed Muslim community center be relocated from the ground zero area, I have one thing to say: Right on! A handful of Muslims killed thousands of Americans on 9/11.

And while we're at it, I think we should also call for all Catholic churches to be removed from areas where children gather, since they are responsible for ruining the lives of thousands of young boys.

Also, shouldn't we ban Mormon Temples from anywhere that African-Americans are likely to live, given the church's ugly history of discrimination toward them?

Finally, Timothy McVeigh, who bombed the Oklahoma federal building, was a Christian. Is there any possible justification for allowing a Christian church to be built where federal workers would have to see it each day on their way to work? Outrageous! Let's have no more churches near any federal facility.

Let's stop this mosque in its tracks and then get to work on these other ghastly offenses in our society before someone starts to take religious freedom seriously. Who's with me?

Read more: http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/08/16/2043010/stop-the-mosque.html#ixzz0wockjdQv

Rovin Speaks........

2010-04-04T08:50:00.000-07:00

Excellent letter in today's paper by local tennis whiz Bill Rovin........

When there was an initiative to establish gambling casinos in California, the Las Vegas casinos fought hard to prevent it. When we tried to ban cigarette smoking in public places, the tobacco companies fought hard to keep that from happening. Any bills to end the criminalization of marijuana usage are met head-on by the manufacturers of alcohol.

The insurance companies and pharmaceutical conglomerates spent tens of millions of dollars to convince the American people, and pressure Congress, to kill the health care reform bill. If you want to know who benefits from the passage or death of a bill or initiative, just follow the money.

Listening to political pundits, or even to so-called news programs, from any political spectrum, will most likely only give you a biased opinion. We need to take back our country from big business because their only goal is to generate more money for themselves, and they are extremely good at doing that.

Bill Rovin

Fresno

I'm Just Sayin....

2010-02-27T09:11:00.000-08:00

Hardly surprising.....

The study takes the American view of liberal vs. conservative. It defines "liberal" in terms of concern for genetically nonrelated people and support for private resources that help those people. It does not look at other factors that play into American political beliefs, such as abortion, gun control and gay rights.
"Liberals are more likely to be concerned about total strangers; conservatives are likely to be concerned with people they associate with," he said.
Given that human ancestors had a keen interest in the survival of their offspring and nearest kin, the conservative approach -- looking out for the people around you first -- fits with the evolutionary picture more than liberalism, Kanazawa said. "It's unnatural for humans to be concerned about total strangers." he said.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/02/26/liberals.atheists.sex.intelligence/index.html?hpt=C2

Gotta Give It Up To Roger Ebert

2010-02-19T19:59:00.000-08:00

Peace be with you Roger.....

Ebert is dying in increments, and he is aware of it.
I know it is coming, and I do not fear it, because I believe there is nothing on the other side of death to fear, he writes in a journal entry titled "Go Gently into That Good Night." I hope to be spared as much pain as possible on the approach path. I was perfectly content before I was born, and I think of death as the same state. What I am grateful for is the gift of intelligence, and for life, love, wonder, and laughter. You can't say it wasn't interesting. My lifetime's memories are what I have brought home from the trip. I will require them for eternity no more than that little souvenir of the Eiffel Tower I brought home from Paris.
There has been no death-row conversion. He has not found God. He has been beaten in some ways. But his other senses have picked up since he lost his sense of taste. He has tuned better into life. Some things aren't as important as they once were; some things are more important than ever. He has built for himself a new kind of universe. Roger Ebert is no mystic, but he knows things we don't know.
I believe that if, at the end of it all, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do. To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts. We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances. We must try. I didn't always know this, and am happy I lived long enough to find it out.

Now Here Is Somebody Doing Something Positive In Agfhanistan

2010-01-15T21:55:00.001-08:00

I watched Bill Moyers interview this guy tonite. An amazing approach that is sure to pay off better than 30,000 more American troops on the ground in Afghanistan.

Stones into Schools

Alan Speaks From the Mountain Top

2010-01-11T15:16:00.000-08:00

Great column Alan. The Sierra Star is now a tool for postive change!

Climate, economic impact

Is Rudy Getting Alzheimer's Already?

2010-01-08T07:52:00.000-08:00

What's up with this douchebag? For almost a decade 9/11 was the only thing he could talk about. Now he says there was no domestic terrorist attack during the Bush administration?? Is it really that easy to rewrite history? And what about Richard Reid, the show bomber? What about the anthrax attacks?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=If0PVzsZMqg&feature=player_embedded

I Think I Can Hear Osama Laughing

2010-01-06T09:20:00.000-08:00

All I can smell is fear after reading something like this.....

LOS ANGELES, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Authorities shut down a California airport on Tuesday after a suspicious amber liquid in a passenger's bag tested positive for explosives -- only to ultimately determine that the substance was honey.
Francisco Ramirez, a 31-year-old gardener who had been visiting family in the central California city of Bakersfield, was allowed to return home to Milwaukee.
"The substances in the bottles did turn out to be honey. They tested negative for all explosives and narcotics. It is nothing but honey," FBI spokesman Steve Dupre told Reuters.

Brit Hume Is An Asshole!

2010-01-04T11:05:00.000-08:00

What a jerk is Brit Hume. For all the poison he spits forth from his lair at Faux Newz, my guess that any church he walked in to would burst into flames automatically. Where does he get the audacity to tell Tiger Woods that his faith is not good enough?

Fox's Brit Hume says Tiger Woods' faith is inadequate, urges him to become a Christian:
"The extent to which he can recover seems to me depends on his faith," said Hume. "He is said to be a Buddhist. I don't think that faith offers the kind of redemption and forgiveness offered by the Christian faith. My message to Tiger is, 'Tiger turn to the Christian faith and you can make a total recovery and be a great example to the world."

Alan Coles Keeps Bringing The Truth

2009-12-20T08:09:00.000-08:00

Good letter Alan! Unfortunately, given the high number of dullards in our population who believe stupid things like the claim that the planet is only a few thousand years old, it is going to be an uphill climb to convince the masses that global warming is not something Al Gore invented to get rich, as that dumbass Sarah Palin keeps saying.

I would like to comment on the Dec. 13 from Gregory L. Bacchetti where he attempts to debunk global warming as snake oil science. Mr. Bacchetti never once addresses how he knows this is so. He only pontificates as one who is in the know.

His argument would have much more merit if he cited specific scientists who agree with him.

I believe that if we don't act now, we may not have another chance to ensure a safe world for our children of future generations. If you don't believe that global warming exists, just ask an Australian about their record drought, blinding sand storms in Sydney and mammoth ice bergs floating toward the coast of western Australia as I write this.

These must merely be pure coincidences according to Mr. Bacchetti. However, I don't agree and neither do most Australians.

Alan Coles

Yes, there is a santa claus.....My letter made the paper!

2009-12-17T08:55:00.001-08:00

I had totally given up on it getting printed.....

Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer says in a recent commentary that prisons cannot be seen as a burden or cost, but as an investment. Interestingly, The Bee’s own editorial on the same page bemoans the $2 billion cost of the new death row the state is trying to build.

The simple fact is that trying to execute prisoners is way more expensive than locking them up for life. I would like to hear Chief Dyer argue that we would all be dollars ahead by joining the rest of the civilized world by eliminating the death penalty.

Dyer also tries to scare Fresnans out of their wits with the threat of “career criminals” being released upon us next year. What he does not explain is that this is the result of the state providing inadequate health care to the people it chooses to incarcerate.

He needs to get real with us and either advocate higher taxes to provide mandated health care for inmates or suggest practical ways to reduce our prison population. Eliminating incarceration for marijuana possession would be a good start.

The next time the chief decides to address the people, he should lay off the scare tactics and talk to us like adults.

Jeffrey W. Eisinger

Fresno

Another Letter The Bee Refused To Print

2009-12-13T08:46:00.000-08:00

I sent this one in last week in response to a column the paper let the police chief publish about how we all need to be scared because the state is going to be releasing inmates early next year due to a court order because it can't provided decent health care for the people we choose to incarcerate. Of course, Chief Dyer's answer is to spend more money on more cops. I think there are better ideas....

Dear Editor:
Simultaneously working and retired police chief Dyer says in his recent column that prisons cannot be seen as a burden or cost, but as an investment. Interestingly, the Bee's own editorial on the same page bemoans the 2 billion dollar cost of the new death row that the state is trying to build.
The simple fact is that trying to execute prisoners is way more expensive than locking them up for life. I would like to hear retired/current Chief Dyer argue that we would all be dollars ahead by joining the rest of the civilized world by eliminating the death penalty.
Dyer also tries to scare Fresnans out of their wits with the threat of "career criminals" being released upon us next year. What he does not explain is that this is the result of the state providing inadequate health care to the people it chooses to incarcerate. The Chief needs to get real with us and either advocate higher taxes to provide mandated health care for inmates or suggest practical ways to reduce our prison population. Eliminating incarceration for marijuana possession would be a good start.
I hope, when the retired/current chief gets his next chance to address the people of Fresno in the Bee, that he will lay off the scare tactics and talk to us like adults.

Jeffrey W. Eisinger

My Letter To The Bee (That Did Not Get Printed)

2009-12-07T07:37:00.000-08:00

Well, since the Bee did not see fit to print my letter, I guess the world can read it here.....

Dear Editor:
When I finished reading the recent editorial by Matthew Spalding, I did some research on his employer, The Heritage Foundation. Once I had an understanding of it's agenda, it all fell into place. Contrary to his claims, he is not as interested in the original intent of the founders of our country, as he is in twisting the constitution to suit his own political agenda.
Spalding takes the well-traveled, diversionary road of blaming university professors and elites for what he sees as our straying from the original intent of Jefferson and others. I think his definition of "elites" is other affluent, white men like himself who happen to disagree with him politically. And, in the style of Faux Newz, he makes the baseless claim that many regard the constitution as obsolete. Who are these "many"? I have yet to meet anyone who takes this position.
Hidden within the three long columns of print is one small paragraph that distills what he sees as the real threat to our country: too much domestic spending and not enough defense spending.
The fact is that a document written in the 1700's could not have specified how to deal with the problems of the 21st century. Interpretation is required to apply the constitution to issues like segregation, reproductive rights, and more. Spalding just wants to be the one doing the interpreting.

Jeffrey W. Eisinger

Need Your Virginity Back??

2009-11-18T09:38:00.000-08:00

For better or worse, it is obvious that men still pretty much run things around the world. Otherwise, there would never be a need for products like this.

The hymen, called the Virginity Hymen, consists of a tiny pouch that is inserted inside a woman’s vagina and contains a red substance, simulating blood, which leaks when the pouch is broken during sexual intercourse.

“People who bring the artificial hymen into the country should be severely penalized,” Bayoumi, who is also a former Deputy Chairman of the Religious Affairs Committee in parliament, stated in his fatwa.

“They spread vice and encourage girls to engage in illicit relationships as they know they can restore their virginity,” he warned.

What Happened To Our Country???

2009-11-05T11:25:00.000-08:00

Watch this video and then you too can wonder what the U.S. has become. Is Guantanamo going to become the birthplace of future terrorist acts against our country? Nobody should be surprised.

The ACLU produced this video about men who were held at Guantánamo for years without charge then, after being tasered, suffocated, raped, punched, blinded, and spat upon, were released without charge.

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/11/05/video-about-guantana.html

The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same

2009-10-31T17:51:00.000-07:00

Here is an unbelievable story about how we tried to reshape Afghanistan in our image 50 years ago. This story has a sad ending that we need to bear in mind as we now try to do the same thing all over again.

If you look beyond the soldiers, and into the distance, what you are really seeing are the ruins of one of the biggest technological projects the United States has ever undertaken. Its aim was to use science to try and change the course of history and produce a modern utopia in Afghanistan. The city of Lashkar Gah was built by the Americans as a model planned city, and the hundreds of miles of canals that the Taliban now hide in were constructed by the same company that built the San Francisco Bay Bridge and Cape Canaveral.

But almost immediately things started to go wrong......

My Letter Makes The Paper

2009-10-28T07:54:00.000-07:00

I hate to agree with myself, but I do seem to make good sense!

Circle of stupidity

Much was explained by a few articles in your Oct. 23 paper. On one page was a story about our government’s scientists expressing alarm over the manner in which global warming is impacting the arctic. Among other things, they are particularly shocked by the rapid loss of older ice that had been undisturbed for thousands of years.

Then, on another page, you report that the number of Americans believing in global warming has dropped 20 points in three years, even in the face of mounting scientific evidence.

Perhaps our willingness to turn a blind eye to legitimate science, to our own detriment, explains the third article about the huge market of suckers willing to buy bogus, often contaminated products to protect themselves from the flu.

The circle would have been complete if only you had included a story on the many fools who swallowed Glenn Beck’s swill that the flu shot is part of an Obama conspiracy of some sort. We have met the enemy and it is indeed us.

Jeffrey W. Eisinger

Alan Strikes Again!

2009-10-24T07:29:00.000-07:00

As usual, Alan has excellent insight into the conservative nonsense being foisted upon the public in the health care debate. (And who doesn't love a letter that uses the word "canard"?????)

Not a sure solution

Under the direction of the insurance industry, many talk shows, and as a result, their conservative audience, argue for tort reform and purchasing insurance across states lines as a major solution to health insurance reform.
The Sept. 29 Business Week article entitled “A Second Opinion on Malpractice” cites a Congressional Budget Office finding that malpractice premiums and awards to patients represent less than 2% of overall health care spending.
Purchasing insurance across state lines is also a canard. In the 1990s, banking deregulation allowing banks to operate across state lines resulted in bank consolidation, smaller banks going out of business, less competition and higher costs to consumers.
Banks began to issue credit cards from states with less stringent credit card regulation enabling them to charge usury fees and interest. The same will happen with insurance across state lines.
Recently, Anthem, owned by Wellpoint, requested from the Maine legislature, an 18% increase in premiums. The Maine legislature permitted an 11% increase. That wasn’t enough, so Anthem is suing the state.

If insurance could be purchased across state lines, Anthem would just transfer Maine members to a more favorable state and get whatever increase they wanted. Beware the insurance companies.

Alan Cheah
Oakhurst

Its My Birthday!

2009-10-16T07:41:00.000-07:00

And I happen to share it with the great Oscar Wilde. Here are some of his quotes that I enjoy...

"A man who moralizes is usually a hypocrite, and a woman who moralizes is invariably plain."-- “Lady Windermere's Fan”

"Women are meant to be loved, not to be understood."-- “The Sphinx Without a Secret”

"The more one analyses people, the more all reasons for analysis disappear. Sooner of later one comes to that dreadful universal thing called human nature."-- “The Decay of Lying”

"The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast."-- “Lord Arthur Savile's Crime”

Gotta Love That Einstein

2009-10-08T08:52:00.000-07:00

This is from a letter Einstein wrote to a friend a year or so before his death....

The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weakness, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still purely primitive, legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this.

The only thing I would disagree with is that many of the stories in the bible are far from honorable...like god sending two bears to slaughter a group of children because they made fun of a guy who was bald. WTF???

Double Standard??

2009-10-05T08:33:00.000-07:00

Exactly why is it that Israel gets to play by a different set of rules regarding nuclear weapons than other countries???

President Obama has reaffirmed a 4-decade-old secret understanding that has allowed Israel to keep a nuclear arsenal without opening it to international inspections, three officials familiar with the understanding said.

Under the understanding, the U.S. has not pressured Israel to disclose its nuclear weapons or to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which could require Israel to give up its estimated several hundred nuclear bombs.

the resulting policy was the equivalent of "don't ask, don't tell."

Probably A Sign Of Bad Things To Come

2009-09-27T07:26:00.000-07:00

Scalia needs to step down if he truly believes that honoring the Christian/Jewish god is keeping our country safe. It is scary to think of someone with his power making decisions with this type of superstitious reasoning. Time to impeach????

NEW YORK (AP) - Justice Antonin Scalia has defended the Supreme Court's accommodation of religion in the public sphere in recent rulings, saying the founding fathers would want it that way.

Scalia told the Jewish newspaper Hamodia that it was never U.S. constitutional, social, or legal tradition to exclude religion. He said the First Amendment "certainly does not mean that government cannot accommodate religion, and indeed favor religion."

Scalia noted that the Supreme Court allowed the Ten Commandments to remain on the grounds of the Texas State Capitol, and suggested that the United States may enjoy God's protection "because we honor Him as a nation. We invoke Him in our country."

Everytime I See One Of These Bumperstickers...

2009-09-26T20:10:00.000-07:00

I will laugh that the fool driving the car spent $30 on it.

As Seen On TV! Birthermercial Asks, Where Was Obama Really Born? TPMMuckraker

Maybe It Would Be Better If Texas Seceded??

2009-09-23T09:32:00.000-07:00

It is not a problem for the prosecutor to be banging the judge during a murder trial?? Give me a break!! Here is a quote from the article that pretty much sums it up.....

If you want to know what I really think about the injustice Texas is currently perpetuating upon the person of one Charles Dean Hood, let me put it to you this way: even if Osama bin Laden himself were on trial for mass murder, with Hitler, Stalin and Timothy James McVeigh as his co-defendants, I still would think it was wrong to allow a capital trial where the judge and the prosecutor were or had been lovers.

How Long Can This Continue?

2009-09-16T08:08:00.000-07:00

The inflation rate over the past 10 years has been 28%. However, insurance premiums have gone up 131% over that same period. In another ten years, coverage will cost about $30,000.
Do we need insurance reform now? Nawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. Lets just keep talking about it for a few more years.

This Boob Needs A Tight Angora Sweater!

2009-09-15T08:10:00.000-07:00

Looks like god has finally wised up and found a more effective way to communicate with us. I am sure this will be much more effective than having the face of jesus appear in tree branches, or the virgin's face show up on a bagel...

Click on the title to read the amazing story of the woman who found a boob-shaped mushroom. (The comments are hilarious by the way!)

My Letter Makes The Bee

2009-09-10T21:55:00.000-07:00

And even the comments that people posted on the Bee's website were generally positive!

The city of Fresno may be within the law in seeking injunctions against marijuana dispensaries [story Sept. 5]. However, the city is out of step with popular opinion. California law permits medical marijuana use, and the federal government has stopped raiding medical marijuana dispensaries that comply with state law. What part of this is so hard for our mayor to understand?

In a time of budget constraints, why is the city wasting tax dollars on this folly? Does the mayor have any evidence that these dispensaries are anywhere close to the nuisance posed by the liquor stores that populate almost every intersection in Fresno? People are being helped by medical marijuana with no apparent downside. Why does Fresno keep marching backward toward prohibition when the rest of the country is moving forward?

Jeffrey W. Eisinger

Fresno

Recovery Talk Appears To Be Just That...Talk

2009-09-08T08:32:00.001-07:00

This is a pretty sobering figure....

Employers’ hiring plans for the upcoming fourth quarter dropped to their lowest level in the history of Manpower’s Employment Outlook Survey, which started in 1962.

A net -3% of employers said they’ll hire in the fourth quarter, down from -2% in the third quarter, on a seasonally adjusted basis…. Before this year, the survey’s previous low point was a net 1% hiring outlook for the third quarter of 1982…

A year ago, a seasonally adjusted net 9% of firms said they would hire in the fourth quarter.

Sould We Start To Impose A Voter IQ Test???

2009-09-05T10:48:00.000-07:00

Scary that people like this are allowed out by themselves in public! President Wilson prolonged the depression??? OMG!!!!

And The Beat Goes On...

2009-08-29T06:41:00.000-07:00

Another example of the sad trend of Obama continuing on with highly questionable practices of the Bush administration.....

The Obama administration will largely preserve Bush-era procedures allowing the government to search -- without suspicion of wrongdoing -- the contents of a traveler's laptop computer, cellphone or other electronic device, although officials said new policies would expand oversight of such inspections.

"It's a disappointing ratification of the suspicionless search policy put in place by the Bush administration," said Catherine Crump, staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union. "It provides a lot of procedural safeguards, but it doesn't deal with the fundamental problem, which is that under the policy, government officials are free to search people's laptops and cellphones for any reason whatsoever."

Nothing Fails Like Prayer

2009-08-29T06:27:00.000-07:00

I will be happy when these parents go to prison for a good long time....although apparently some parents are allowed to murder their children in this fashion under Washington law....

CARLTON — Zachery Swezey lay in his parents' bed, his breathing labored.
When he fell ill March 15, the 17-year-old Carlton boy's parents, Greg and JaLea Swezey, thought he had food poisoning. But over the next three days, they realized it was something else, perhaps the flu. He'd had a fever, and was vomiting with severe diarrhea.
During those three days, aunts, uncles and grandparents came to his bedside to pray. On March 17, his father did not call a doctor or an ambulance. Instead, he called elders from their church. They came to the house and anointed Zakk with olive oil, and prayed for him as Zakk's family waited outside in the hall. Members of the Church of the First Born, the Swezeys believe in faith healing.
At midday on March 18, Zakk told his mother he loved her, and asked for his father to come to his bedside.
Shortly before 1 p.m, his breathing slowed. His hands got cold and turned a bluish color. With both of his parents at his bedside, Zakk Swezey died.
An autopsy later revealed the Pateros High School student died of a ruptured appendix.

When Will California Wake Up And Follow Suit?

2009-08-27T22:50:00.000-07:00

Denver reduced its fine for marijuana possession to $1.00. Here is the key part of the story....

"By setting the fine at just $1, we are sending a message to Denver officials that the era of citing adults for using a less harmful drug than alcohol is over. It's simply not worth the city's time or resources,"

Lets Start At The Top.....

2009-08-24T07:21:00.000-07:00

When people start talking about waste in the health care system, I say this is the place to look first....

The top five executives of the half dozen of the largest health insurance companies took home $169,837,696 in 2008. And that was a bad year for executives, with the collapsing stock market.

yummmmmmy......

2009-08-22T18:04:00.000-07:00

who wants sausage????

Somewhere in Iowa, a pig is being raised in a confined pen, packed in so tightly with other swine that their curly tails have been chopped off so they won't bite one another. To prevent him from getting sick in such close quarters, he is dosed with antibiotics. The waste produced by the pig and his thousands of pen mates on the factory farm where they live goes into manure lagoons that blanket neighboring communities with air pollution and a stomach-churning stench. He's fed on American corn that was grown with the help of government subsidies and millions of tons of chemical fertilizer. When the pig is slaughtered, at about 5 months of age, he'll become sausage or bacon that will sell cheap, feeding an American addiction to meat that has contributed to an obesity epidemic currently afflicting more than two-thirds of the population. And when the rains come, the excess fertilizer that coaxed so much corn from the ground will be washed into the Mississippi River and down into the Gulf of Mexico, where it will help kill fish for miles and miles around. That's the state of your bacon — circa 2009.

Not Surprising

2009-08-20T07:48:00.000-07:00

Using terror alerts to scare us....did that make the administration terrorists themselves??

Former Bush Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge reveals that he considered resigning because he was urged to issue a politically-motivated security alert on the eve of Bush’s re-election. Playing politics with terror was a relatively frequent occurrence in the Bush administration. In August 2004, the AP reported that even “some senior Republicans” privately questioned Ridge’s timing of a terror alert that came just three days after the Democratic National Convention.

Doctors In Favor Of A National Health Program!!!

2009-08-19T11:18:00.000-07:00

Who knew there were thousands of doctors advocating for a national health care system? If only it were hundreds of thousands!

"We endorse a fundamental change in America's health care - the creation of a comprehensive National Health Insurance (NHI) Program. Such a program - which in essence would be an expanded and improved version of Medicare - would cover every American for all necessary medical care."

I am done with Whole Foods

2009-08-19T08:36:00.000-07:00

Not only is the company anti-union, but the CEO has now come out against health care reform. I would note that the company does provide pretty decent coverage for its employees, but most small businesses are not in a position to do that and the bigger picture is that we have to get away from basing health care on employment status.

More Der Manouel Nonsense

2009-08-14T09:47:00.000-07:00

An anonymous comment was posted by someone with regard to the picture of Mr. Der Manouel which I originally used for this posting. The commenter suggested I remove the picture as a possible copyright violation. Not wanting to spend time debating the intricacies of copyright law, I am simply replacing his photo, which was quite nice in my opinion, with something a little more appropriate for the substance of his writings.

My letter makes today Bee in response to their monthly dose of unreality from Mr. Der Manouel....

More often than not these days, The Bee can be mistaken for one of those small ads wrapped up with a stone inside that are thrown into the driveway to solicit landscaping work. And yet, there is still room for column upon column of Michael Der Manouel Jr.’s drivel.

His recent diatribe [column Aug. 7] should send shivers down the back of any junior high history teacher as he misrepresents the intentions of “The Founders” of our country. Maybe Mike was sick the day they taught about George Washington and the national bank. There were two sides to the states’ rights debate, and for him to say that the founders of our country, as a group, were against a strong central government is probably making Alexander Hamilton spin in his grave.

As for the swastikas at health care forums, anyone can see them all over the Internet. For Mike to imply that they are the imaginings of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is just rubbish.

If The Bee wants to pay someone to fill space every few weeks, they should at least find someone who is not from the Victor Davis Hanson school of revisionist history. We already get enough of that!

Jeffrey W. Eisinger

More on Gog and Magog

2009-08-07T16:04:00.000-07:00

Can this really be what was behind the Iraq war?

Incredibly, President George W. Bush told French President Jacques Chirac in early 2003 that Iraq must be invaded to thwart Gog and Magog, the Bible’s satanic agents of the Apocalypse.

Honest. This isn’t a joke. The president of the United States, in a top-secret phone call to a major European ally, asked for French troops to join American soldiers in attacking Iraq as a mission from God.

Now out of office, Chirac recounts that the American leader appealed to their “common faith” (Christianity) and told him: “Gog and Magog are at work in the Middle East…. The biblical prophecies are being fulfilled…. This confrontation is willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase his people’s enemies before a New Age begins.”

The Bee Still Publishes Some Wisdom From Time to Time

2009-07-22T16:14:00.000-07:00

Clarity when we most need it....

Just six months ago, Goldman Sachs was on the verge of bankruptcy. Now it announces a quarterly profit of $3.4 billion and an $11 billion bonus to employees [story July 15]. How did that happen?

Thanks to Hank Paulson, former Goldman CEO and then treasury secretary, $128 billion of your money was used to bail out AIG to insure that Goldman got the $20 billion it was owed from AIG. Goldman Sachs then converted to a bank holding company to qualify for the $28 billion in low-interest loans from the government (basically free money from us).

They then loaned the $28 billion at higher interest rates, allowing them to reap $3.4 billion in profits from using taxpayer money.

Is this genius and does it merit $11 billion in bonuses? Or is it corporations infiltrating government and then using it to rob taxpayers?

Next time you blame government for something, scratch a little more and see who is pulling the strings. Inevitably you will find a big corporation behind it. Governments are merely puppets of the corporation. We don’t have free market capitalism. We do have socialized capitalism.

In other words, we have a systematic trickle up or, more accurately, a flood of wealth transfer upward.

Alan Cheah

Oakhurst

Congratulations Al Franken

2009-06-30T13:18:00.000-07:00

Coleman finally drops his nonsensical appeals. Now the Democrats need to start getting some shit done.....universal health care, out of Iraq now, close Guantanamo, etc.

GOP's Coleman concedes, sending Franken to SenateBy BRIAN BAKST – 15 minutes ago

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Republican Norm Coleman has conceded to Democrat Al Franken in Minnesota's contested Senate race, ending a nearly eight-month recount and court fight.

Coleman conceded at a news conference in St. Paul, a few hours after a unanimous Minnesota Supreme Court ruled Tuesday the former "Saturday Night Live" comedian and liberal commentator should be certified the winner.

Franken's presence in the Senate would give the Democrats control of 60 seats, enough to overcome any Republican filibuster if they stay united.

As I Was Saying To A Friend The Other Day...

2009-06-16T15:44:00.000-07:00

Once the executive branch (in the form of Bush) grabbed power, it is difficult for his follower (Obama) to let that power go......

The Obama administration is fighting to block access to names of visitors to the White House, taking up the Bush administration argument that a president doesn’t have to reveal who comes calling to influence policy decisions. Despite President Barack Obama’s pledge to introduce a new era of transparency to Washington, and despite two rulings by a federal judge that the records are public, the Secret Service has denied msnbc.com’s request for the names of all White House visitors from Jan. 20 to the present.

A Good Reason For Texas To Leave The Union Afterall

2009-06-11T10:43:00.000-07:00

I thought this had to be a parody, but sadly, it is for real....

KINGSVILLE, Texas (AP) — In this friendly little ranching town, “hello” is wearing out its welcome. And Leonso Canales Jr. is happy as heck.
At his urging, the Kleberg County commissioners on Monday unanimously designated “heaven-o” as the county’s official greeting. The reason: “hello” contains the word “hell.”
“When you go to school and church, they tell you ‘hell’ is negative and ‘heaven’ is positive,’” said the 56-year-old Canales, who owns the Kingsville Flea Market. “I think it’s time that we set a new precedent, to tell our kids that we are positive adults.”
The new salutation, according to the county resolution, is a “symbol of peace, friendship and welcome” in this “age of anxiety.”
On Thursday, courthouse employees were answering the phones, “heaven-o.” And the chamber of commerce was working on a campaign promoting Kingsville, a Rio Grande Valley town of 25,000, as a “heavenly” place to visit.

Oh, but's its okay for white males to talk this way...

2009-05-28T06:29:00.000-07:00

Heaven forbid a minority woman talk in this manner, but apparently its okay for a white guy. I guess the difference, like the article says, is that conservatives know he is bullshitting when he says it and they are afraid the Hispanic woman might be serious when she says shit like this...

Here is a passage quoting Sam Alito at his confirmation:

Because when a case comes before me involving, let's say, someone who is an immigrant -- and we get an awful lot of immigration cases and naturalization cases -- I can't help but think of my own ancestors, because it wasn't that long ago when they were in that position.
[...]
When I get a case about discrimination, I have to think about people in my own family who suffered discrimination because of their ethnic background or because of religion or because of gender. And I do take that into account.

Could This REALLY Be Why Bush Took Us To War In Iraq?

2009-05-25T12:39:00.000-07:00

Can we go back and impeach him for this even though he is not in office any more???

In 2003 while lobbying leaders to put together the Coalition of the Willing, President Bush spoke to France's President Jacques Chirac. Bush wove a story about how the Biblical creatures Gog and Magog were at work in the Middle East and how they must be defeated.
In Genesis and Ezekiel Gog and Magog are forces of the Apocalypse who are prophesied to come out of the north and destroy Israel unless stopped. The Book of Revelation took up the Old Testament prophesy:
"And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them."
Bush believed the time had now come for that battle, telling Chirac:
"This confrontation is willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase his people's enemies before a New Age begins".

Any Other Volunteers??

2009-05-24T07:04:00.000-07:00

This time it was a famous Chicago radio show host offering to prove that waterboarding is NOT torture:

Mancow Waterboarded, Admits It's Torture "It is way worse than I thought it would be."

"I want to find out if it's torture," Mancow told his listeners Friday morning, adding that he hoped his on-air test would help prove that waterboarding did not, in fact, constitute torture.

Turns out the stunt wasn't so funny. Witnesses said Muller thrashed on the table, and even instantly threw the toy cow he was holding as his emergency tool to signify when he wanted the experiment to stop. He only lasted 6 or 7 seconds. "It is way worse than I thought it would be, and that's no joke,"Mancow said, likening it to a time when he nearly drowned as a child. "It is such an odd feeling to have water poured down your nose with your head back...It was instantaneous...and I don't want to say this: absolutely torture."
"I wanted to prove it wasn't torture," Mancow said. "They cut off our heads, we put water on their face...I got voted to do this but I really thought 'I'm going to laugh this off.' "

NOT The Change I Voted For

2009-05-22T17:55:00.000-07:00

So sad.......

Rachel Maddow points out that in Obama's national security speech yesterday, he proposes to replace Guantanamo-style detention without trial with his own detention without trial, a system he calls "Indefinite Preventative Detention" through which people who are believed to be likely to commit a crime at some point in the future can be locked up forever without charge, trial, jury or appeal.
Change I don't believe in.

Will Sean Hannity Volunteer For This, Just As He Volunteered To Be Waterboarded?

2009-05-21T06:48:00.001-07:00

Is there any end to this national embarassment????? And can anybody guess what this guy will be telling his friends and neighbors at home about how the US treated him during his time in custody....and whether this will be one more story convincing someone else to resort to violence against our country???

The Raw Story reports that a military attorney who represented a suspected member of Al Qaeda (who was later freed) says her client received genital torture in a Moroccan CIA prison.
Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Yvonne Bradley, the lawyer for Binyam Mohamed, said "They started this monthly treatment where they would come in with a scalpel or a razor type of instrument and they would slash his genitals, just with small cuts."
Bradley told CNN that when she was first assigned to represent Mohamed, she did not question he was a hardened terrorist, because "my government was saying these were the worst of the worst." However, she now says, "There’s no reliable evidence that Mr. Mohamed was going to do anything to the United States."

Catholic Church Says Atheists Are Less Than Human

2009-05-19T06:01:00.000-07:00

Amazing! According to these men wearing fancy dresses, anyone who does not share their belief in an invisible person living in the clouds somewhere is not fully human.

"Some of these fools know they’ve wasted their lives praying to a statue or a fictional character in a book, but it’s too late for them to change now. It is their ego that keeps them in the priesthood. Others lash out at us because we are growing and they are losing, and this trend will continue. They are hurling insults, because they have nothing else to say. Poor old fool."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xbrfz1DIq9Q&feature=player_embedded

Rumsfeld = Idiot

2009-05-18T05:44:00.000-07:00

Check out this slideshow showing the covers of reports form Defense Secretary Rumsfeld delivered to the White House. Where does he get off inserting these ridiculous bible verses on government documents to glorify the unjust war in Iraq??? I hope some country has the balls to try these clown as a war criminal, since it is obvious the US is not going to do it1

http://men.style.com/gq/features/topsecret

This Ain't The Boy Scouts That I Was A Member Of

2009-05-15T06:46:00.000-07:00

Makes me kind of sick to see the scouts twisted into something like this. Note the stereotyping of Arabs as terrorists.....

The Explorers program, a coeducational affiliate of the Boy Scouts of America that began 60 years ago, is training thousands of young people in skills used to confront terrorism, illegal immigration and escalating border violence — an intense ratcheting up of one of the group’s longtime missions to prepare youths for more traditional jobs as police officers and firefighters.

In a simulation here of a raid on a marijuana field, several Explorers were instructed on how to quiet an obstreperous lookout.

“Put him on his face and put a knee in his back,” a Border Patrol agent explained. “I guarantee that he’ll shut up.”

In their training, the would-be law-enforcement officers do not mess around, as revealed at a recent competition on the state fairgrounds here, where a Ferris wheel sat next to the police cars set up for a felony investigation.

Their hearts pounding, Explorers moved down alleys where there were hidden paper targets of people pointing guns, and made split-second decisions about when to shoot. In rescuing hostages from a bus taken over by terrorists, a baby-faced young girl screamed, “Separate your feet!” as she moved to handcuff her suspect.

In a competition in Arizona that he did not oversee, Deputy Lowenthal said, one role-player wore traditional Arab dress. “If we’re looking at 9/11 and what a Middle Eastern terrorist would be like,” he said, “then maybe your role-player would look like that. I don’t know, would you call that politically incorrect?”

Flip Flop

2009-05-14T06:36:00.000-07:00

Sad.....

President Obama announced today that he will move to block the release of photos documenting American military personnel torturing detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan, saying the images could "further inflame anti-American opinion."
What BS. You know what will help dampen those flames? An end to war crimes impunity, and the dawn of that true transparency he promised America during his presidential campaign. Instead, we're dealt yet another civil liberties disappointment.

Obama isn't just "Bush Lite" with regard to these issues, he's continuing the exact same policies of the Bush administration and in some matters, expanding those powers further. Nothing "lite" about that.

Another Example of Dogma Making People Crazy

2009-05-08T06:25:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe that a judge and prosecutor bought into this horseshit.....

BALTIMORE -- A Baltimore mother accused of being part of a cult pleaded guilty Monday to starving her baby to death.

Prosecutors claimed during the trial of Ria Ramkissoon that her 16-month-old son, Javon Thompson, was denied food and water because he stopped saying amen at meal times and had a rebellious spirit. He later died.

Ramkissoon, 22, admitted her guilt in one of the strangest plea agreements reached in a Maryland court, 11 News reporter Barry Simms said.

Under the plea agreement, Ramkissoon would get 20 years behind bars with a judge suspending all but time served. She must also undergo treatment, including the process of deprogramming and five years of probation.

But the plea agreement also included that the murder charges against her be dropped if her son was resurrected.

The More Things Change, The More We Stay The Same

2009-05-05T06:14:00.000-07:00

Since people started conquering each other thousands of years ago, one essential element has been to force your religion on the people you now dominate. Fast forward to the 21st century, and we are still doing it! This time in Afghanistan.

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/05/04/soldiers-hunt-for-jesus/

A report by Al Jazeera English shows soldiers in Afghanistan passing around Bibles in Pashto and Dari, the languages of Afghanistan, presumably to be distributed. The chaplain leading the discussion acknowledges that “proselytizing” is against military rules, but one soldier says, “you can give gifts“:

Foreclosures Aren't Done Yet

2009-05-02T17:19:00.000-07:00

Would Jesus Torture?

2009-05-02T10:14:00.000-07:00

Why am I not surprised by this????

The more often Americans go to church, the more likely they are to support the torture of suspected terrorists, according to a new survey.

White evangelical Protestants were the religious group most likely to say torture is often or sometimes justified -- more than six in 10 supported it. People unaffiliated with any religious organization were least likely to back it. Only four in 10 of them did.

Swine Flu

2009-05-02T07:14:00.001-07:00

My Letter On Fresno's Water Crisis Makes The Bee

2009-04-28T06:56:00.000-07:00

I see your story [April 24] about the city of Fresno's tightened watering rules as another example of city government failing to lead by example. For starters, take a look at City Hall. The expanse of lawn around the building is immense. What is the purpose of such a huge amount of grass, other than outdated aesthetics?
Also, next time you are driving around some of the newer commercial developments, notice all the grass that is never walked on except by those pushing a mower.
Fresno should be leading by example with drought-tolerant landscaping at City Hall. And, the city planning department should have long ago stopped approving commercial developments that feature the lush landscaping we can no longer pretend is natural to our local environment.
City government needs to be a better model of the change it wants to foster in its citizens.

Jeffrey W. Eisinger

Fresno

I would also like to mention that my wife and I are doing our part by removing our front lawn and replacing it with drought tolerant landsccaping!

Democrats Fiddled As Bush Tortured

2009-04-25T06:30:00.000-07:00

And the difference between these two parties is what again?????

Democratic complicity in Bush's torture regimen

The Washington Post reports today that the Bush administration, beginning in 2002, repeatedly briefed leading Congressional Democrats on the Senate and House Intelligence Committees -- including, at various times, Jay Rockefeller, Nancy Pelosi, and Jane Harman -- regarding the CIA's "enhanced interrogation methods," including details about waterboarding and other torture measures. With one exception (Harman, who vaguely claims to have sent a letter to the CIA), these lawmakers not only failed to object to these policies, but affirmatively supported them.

Maybe It Would Be Better If Texas Seceded??

2009-04-21T18:22:00.000-07:00

The comments below the story are great, especially the one about taking a piece of brass or copper with you the next time you go to Texas to smite someone.

A Texas man killed his victim by shooting him and beating him with the barrel of a gun. During deliberations, the jury consulted the Bible and found this passage:
35:16 And if he smite him with an instrument of iron, so that he die, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death.The murderer said his Constitutional rights were challenged, and took it to the Supreme Court, which turned away the challenge.
Does this mean that you can be executed for working on Sunday?
Exodus 35:2 Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you an holy day, a sabbath of rest to the LORD: whosoever doeth work therein shall be put to death.

Waterboarding Gone Wild

2009-04-20T06:14:00.000-07:00

I like one of the comments after this horrendous story about whether they were hoping these guys would confess to withcraft. This is so sad that our country stooped to this level! If a person has not confessed after having this done 100 times, when exactly do you think they are going to confess???????

The CIA waterboarded two al-Qaida terror suspects a total of 266 times, according to a report that suggests the use of the torture technique was much more extensive than previously thought.

Teabaggers now make it acceptable to hate our country

2009-04-15T17:46:00.000-07:00

WTF??????

Here is a quote from the dumbass governor of Texas at his local teabag party today...

We got a great Union. There's absolutely no reason to dissolve it, but if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, you know, who knows what may come out of that.

Happy Easter

2009-04-12T07:05:00.001-07:00

Must see radio........

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/04/how_to_frustrate_an_evangelica.php

Priest With Too Much Time On His Hands

2009-04-08T07:45:00.000-07:00

You can't make this shit up.......

http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=32971238

Obama Disappoints Again

2009-04-08T06:20:00.000-07:00

Not the change I voted for.....

The Obama administration has filed a brief in EFF's lawsuit against the government for its program of illegal, mass wiretapping of Americans, defending the practice, arguing that the lawsuit should be dismissed, endorsing the Bush administration's invented "State Secret" theory, and augmenting it with a new theory, that "the Patriot Act bars any lawsuits of any kind for illegal government surveillance unless there is "willful disclosure" of the illegally intercepted communications." This brief was not written by Bush cronies left behind by the outgoing administration: this is an invention of the Obama administration.

As the say....Dogma Makes Me Crazy

2009-04-06T06:33:00.000-07:00

I find it simply amazing that grown-ups are involved in this kind of thinking. Its a story I might expect my 4 year old granddaughter to tell me....but an adult????? [BTW, I know the cartoon does not exactly match the story, but it makes up for my failure to comment earlier on this nonsense from a week or so ago from the latest pope.]

The Vatican is champing at the bit to turn Pope John Paul II into a saint, and central to their case is the story of Jory Aebly. Aebly was a young man who was mugged, shot in the head, and expected to die…but he recovered, fortunately. What's the connection to a dead pope? Well, there isn't much of one. In the hospital, he was given a rosary that had supposedly been blessed by the pope, and his religious family now credits John Paul II for his recovery. Never mind that the pope had been dead for four years.
What also isn't mentioned is that Aebly's friend, Jeremy Pechanec, who was also mugged and shot, died of his injuries. Was he an atheist or something? Does the pope's magic only extend to people who hold this one particular rosary?
Why isn't this magic rosary being used regularly for all brain injury victims in the hospital right now? Sometimes people can recover from horrific injuries, so one case isn't at all persuasive…now if the hospital were slapping the super-duper magic beads into every victim's hands as they were being rushed through the emergency room door, and they were all getting better, then I'd say there is something worth investigating going on.
I also want to know how many other people the hospital chaplain used his ju-ju beads on, and how many of them died. You'd think he'd be bragging a lot more about his success rate if they worked, but all we hear about is this one incredibly lucky fellow.
This is the world of Catholicism, though. Reason has no role in it, sense doesn't matter, and statistics? What's that? Dead man's beads are going to get the credit, but not the surgery and care that contributed more to the recovery than superstition.

And This Guy Is On TV For What Exactly????

2009-04-05T15:41:00.000-07:00

Glenn Beck, 2005 - You know, it took me about a year to start hating the 9/11 victims' families. . . When I see a 9/11 victim family on television of whatever, I'm just like, 'Oh, shut up!' I'm so sick of them because they're always complaining

Freedom (In Iraq) Is On The March

2009-04-04T07:04:00.000-07:00

So this is the "freedom" our military is dying for???? Please don't say that this war had ANYTHING to do with protecting me or anything I, as an American, value!

More than 100 prisoners in Iraq are facing execution - and many of them are believed to have been convicted of the 'crime' of being gay, the UK-based Iraqi-LGBT group revealed this afternoon.
According to Ali Hili of Iraqi-LGBT, the Iraqi authorities plan to start executing them in batches of 20 from this week. There is, said Mr. Hili, at least one member of Iraqi-LGBT who are among those to be put to death.
And the London-based group, which believes that a total of 128 executions are imminent, is calling on the UK Government, international human rights groups and the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva to intervene "with due speed" to prevent "this tragic miscarriage of justice" from going ahead.

Crazy TSA Antics

2009-04-03T05:41:00.000-07:00

Check out the audio of this encounter with TSA dopes who think they are entitled to know why a plane passenger is carrying less than $5,000 in cash. Unbelievable!

http://www.theagitator.com/2009/04/02/detained-by-tsa/

Glad I Am Not A Woman In The Congo

2009-04-01T07:52:00.000-07:00

Makes Fresno sound almost bearable......

Rejected by their husbands or chased away by their families, this is what often happens to women victims of rape in the Kivus. Often, these women will not perceive themselves as victims, but believe they are guilty. As for the rapists, they do encounter much risk. Impunity reigns and justice does not exist.

http://www.condition-critical.org/the-penalties-of-rape/

Gotta Love This Quote

2009-03-29T05:18:00.000-07:00

Science flies men to the moon....religion flies planes into buildings.

And Now A Quote From One Of My Favorite Films

2009-03-29T05:13:00.000-07:00

Well, maybe it's like Casey says: A fella ain't got a soul of his own, just a piece of a big soul, the one big soul that belongs to everybody. And then it don't matter, I'll be around. In the dark. I'll be everywhere. Wherever you can look. Whenever there's a fight so hungry people can eat, I'll be there. Whenever there's a cop beaten' up on a guy, I'll be there. I'll be in the way guys yell when they're mad, and I'll be in the way kids laugh when they're hungry and they know suppers ready. And when people are eaten' stuff they raise, and livin' in the houses they build, I'll be there, too!!!" --- Tom Joad in "The Grapes of Wrath"

The company you keep.....

2009-03-26T06:25:00.000-07:00

Remember your mom telling you that you would be known by the company you keep????

The five nations with the most executions last year:
China

Iran

Saudi

Arabia

United States

Pakistan

The No Fly List Needs To Be Abolished

2009-03-25T06:55:00.000-07:00

Aside from the fact that the public has no right to found out if or why they are on the list, the thing is filled with inaccuracies...but let's not let that stop us from using it as a basis to take people's rights away.....

EMANUEL WANTS DENIAL OF 2ND AMENDMENT RIGHTS TO THOSE ON NO FLY LIST

Despite its notorious inaccuracy and total lack of constitutional procedure, Rahm Emanuel in a speech two years ago called for the denial of 2nd Amendment rights - specifically the right to own a hand gun - to anyone on the no fly list.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=an8Moh3xuUs

Pious Fight Death the Hardest

2009-03-21T07:13:00.000-07:00

If people are sooooooo looking forward to spending eternity with their god, then why should this be the case.......

People with strong religious beliefs appear to want doctors to do everything they can to keep them alive as death approaches, a US study suggests.
Researchers followed 345 patients with terminal cancer up until their deaths.
Those who regularly prayed were more than three times more likely to receive intensive life-prolonging care than those who relied least on religion.

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine found that treatments such as ventilator support, resuscitation, having a feeding tube and non-palliative chemotherapy were associated with more psychological and physical distress.
The patients' chances of dying in their preferred place were also reduced.

Meet The New Boss, Not Much Different From the Old Boss

2009-03-20T07:09:00.000-07:00

I agree with the comments of NY Times columnist Paul Krugman.....

At every stage, Geithner et al have made it clear that they still have faith in the people who created the financial crisis — that they believe that all we have is a liquidity crisis that can be undone with a bit of financial engineering, that “governments do a bad job of running banks” (as opposed, presumably, to the wonderful job the private bankers have done), that financial bailouts and guarantees should come with no strings attached.
This was bad analysis, bad policy, and terrible politics. This administration, elected on the promise of change, has already managed, in an astonishingly short time, to create the impression that it’s owned by the wheeler-dealers.

Golly, Who Ever Thought THAT Would Have Happened?

2009-03-16T06:42:00.000-07:00

Gotta love that Sooner state!!!!

Attorney Bill Smith worked out a plea agreement six years ago so Paul Duran Jr. would be young enough to enjoy life after he got out of prison. Smith said he’s sad and disappointed Duran will never have that chance.
Duran, 23, was beaten and found dead Wednesday night just 15 minutes after being put in a cell at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary with a man he testified against, a state prisons spokesman said.
Duran was in an altercation with Jessie James Dalton, 32, authorities said.

New Openess Same As The Old Openess!

2009-03-14T06:30:00.000-07:00

Sadly, it appears the new openess promised by the Obama administration is falling way short of what many expected. Here is an example where activists are kept in the dark, but the elite from corporate America are not....

The Obama administration had refused to release the details of a secret copyright treaty because doing so would compromise "national security?" Well, it turns out that there are plenty of people who are cleared to be privy to this "sensitive" document -- strangely, they all seem to work for giant copyright companies!
Of course, they're allowed to know what's in the treaty -- but the public, activist groups, consumer rights groups, and the artists whom this treaty is supposed to protect are all forbidden from knowing what it says.
What an embarrassment for an administration that holds itself out as an end to the corrupt, business-as-usual beltway fandango.

Jon Stewart Puts the Beatdown on Jim Cramer

2009-03-13T15:02:00.001-07:00

What more can be said?????

http://crooksandliars.com/media/play/qt/7552/26630

Catholic Church Wants 9 Year Old To Risk Death Giving Birth After She Was Raped

2009-03-10T06:41:00.000-07:00

More from the wonderful world of religion.......

The regional archbishop, Jose Cardoso Sobrinho, pronounced excommunication for the mother for authorising the operation and doctors who carried it out for fear that the slim girl would not survive carrying the foetuses to term.
"God's law is above any human law. So when a human law ... is contrary to God's law, this human law has no value," Cardoso had said.
He also said the accused stepfather would not be expelled from the church. Although the man allegedly committed "a heinous crime ... the abortion - the elimination of an innocent life - was more serious".
Battista Re agreed, saying: "Excommunication for those who carried out the abortion is just" as a pregnancy termination always meant ending an innocent life.

And Here I Was Getting Upset About Obama Following Bush Policy In Pending Court Cases....

2009-03-10T06:16:00.001-07:00

When I should have been more alarmed about the news that we are close to destroying the Ph balance of the oceans as an offshoot of global warming!

Since 1800, humans have generated 240 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide, half of which has been absorbed by the sea. On average, each person on Earth contributes a tonne of carbon to the oceans every year. The result is a rapid rise in acidity — or a reduction in pH, as the scientists prefer to express it — which, as it intensifies, will mean that marine animals will be unable to grow shells, and that many sea plants will not survive. With these crucial links removed, and the ecological balance fatally disrupted, death could flow all the way up the food chain, through tuna and cod to marine mammals and Homo sapiens. As more than half the world’s population depends on food from the sea for its survival, this is no exaggeration.

Why Can't God Control These People?

2009-03-08T20:31:00.000-07:00

Speechless.....

MARYVILLE, Ill. — Police removed gun cases and a computer late Sunday afternoon from the Troy, Ill., home of a man who may be linked to the shooting of Pastor Fred Winters at a church about two miles away.

Officials would not comment at the scene, but vehicle records show the home in the first block of Zachary Court is the address of a Terry Joe Sedlacek, a 27-year-old man who co-owns a Jeep Wrangler parked outside the crime scene.

Alan Does It Again

2009-03-04T14:56:00.000-08:00

Somehow I seem to know it is going to be an Alan Cheah letter before I get to the end of it......

Listening to conservative responses to President Barack Obama's bold stimulus and budget plan brings to mind the expression, "penny wise and pound foolish."

Curiously, for the past eight years, when deficits rose from President Clinton's $18 billion deficit in his last year to President Bush's $1 trillion deficit in his last year, you never heard Republicans utter the words "generational theft." Only now, spending is unprecedented. Yes, it is -- only because President Obama has been handed an unprecedented economic calamity.

President Obama is making sweeping changes to health, education, energy and tax policies. Conservatives say he is trying to do too much, too quickly. Imagine if Google's founders constrained themselves to that criticism.

Prior to this implosion, if you look at the debt successful companies carry, you will realize they don't make spending decisions based on the size of spending, but on projected return on investment. A good capitalist executive would spend (invest) any amount on capital equipment, labor and infrastructure to either save his company or make it even more profitable.

Isn't President Obama the chief executive of America and isn't he proposing exactly what a CEO would? Is this the action of a socialist? Think!

Alan Cheah

Oakhurst

How Far Bush Would Have Gone

2009-03-04T07:35:00.000-08:00

Apparently, Bush's minions even advised that he would be justified in restricting first amendment rights to fight the dubious war on terror:

In perhaps the most surprising assertion, the Oct. 23, 2001, memo suggested the president could even suspend press freedoms if he concluded it was necessary to wage the war on terror. "First Amendment speech and press rights may also be subordinated to the overriding need to wage war successfully," Yoo wrote in the memo entitled "Authority for Use of Military Force to Combat Terrorist Activity Within the United States."

Rush Limbaugh Spouts Wisdom for GOP

2009-03-02T12:41:00.000-08:00

Check out this funny video of Rush telling the GOP how to get back on top. What a dingbat!!

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/3/1/184454/4181/322/703436

Good Visualization of the Problem of Political Financiing

2009-02-22T07:47:00.000-08:00

How helpful it would be if our politicians did in fact dress like NASCAR drivers...

Click on the title (above) or go to this link:

http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=32971238

Obama Continues To Pour Troops Down Rathole

2009-02-18T07:22:00.000-08:00

When are we going to learn the lessons of the Russians that Afghanistan will not be turned into a little version of ourselves. It is a backwards country that really has no desire to embrace democratic practices. If Obama wants to go catch Bin Laden, I think that could be done in a week or two if he was serious about it. Otherwise, we are just wasting the lives of more troops. Disgusting!

Reporting from Washington -- President Obama ordered his first major deployment of U.S. combat troops Tuesday, authorizing 17,000 additional soldiers and Marines for Afghanistan in what he described as an urgent bid to stabilize a deteriorating and neglected country.

The deployment will double the number of American combat brigades in the nation at a time of tension with Afghanistan's weak government over civilian casualties of the campaign against the increasingly bold Taliban, and concern over neighboring Pakistan's ability to fight Islamic militants based there.

Military Guard Admits Guantanamo Torture

2009-02-15T21:21:00.000-08:00

This is an amazing story of firsthand personal experience in the abuse of prisoners by our military. It is a long story, but here is some of the closing portion that illustrates the damage done to our own military by compelling them to behave like monsters....

came home in March of 2004 from a year tour in Iraq to a wife and three beautiful children I did not even know and who didn't even know the man I came home as. It was--and continues to be--a struggle every day of our lives. I went through many times of deep depression which turned into me turning to alcohol to comfort me. It was easier to do this than to deal with what I was feeling inside. I was destroying not only myself but my family as well. I woke up one morning and realized I needed to get my life back in order not just for myself, but my family as well. I left the Army in August of 2005 and was ready to start my new life; just leave the Army and all the good and bad times I had went through behind me. That is easier said than done. There has not been a day that goes by I have not re-lived what I did or saw in Guantanamo or Iraq. It does not get any easier; it just eats you up inside day by day.

My Letter Makes the Bee....

2009-02-15T20:10:00.000-08:00

Not one of my most controversial, but still an important issue......

Too much vacation
Sunday, Feb. 15, 2009

I am in complete agreement with your commentary about lengthy school breaks over winter holidays. With three elementary school children living in my house, I can attest to the fact that three weeks off at Christmas is too much!

This is a huge inconvenience for parents who depend on child care, and the children simply do not need this much vacation. The regression that takes place during the summer months is bad enough. Frankly, given our slipping educational standing among other developed countries, I am hard-pressed to understand why our children are not in school for all but a few weeks each year.

The Fresno Unified School District is charged with equipping our children to compete in the 21st century. Giving children longer vacations is not in keeping with that responsibility.

Jeffrey W. Eisinger

Fresno

Who Really Racked Up The Federal Debt?????

2009-02-15T20:07:00.000-08:00

Check out the chart at this website by clicking on the title above or cutting and pasting this link:

http://www.lafn.org/gvdc/Natl_Debt_Chart.html

Needless to say, the single year record was set by our former war criminal president, George Bush.

On Darwin's birthday, 4 in 10 believe in evolution

2009-02-13T07:15:00.000-08:00

This is tragic for a country that has any hope of being a world leader in the 21st century.....

Gallup poll shows that 39% of people in the U.S. believe in the theory of evolution. Other graphs on the page show that level of education is correlated with a belief in evolution (belief drops to 24% among frequent church attenders), and 44% of people don't know which scientific theory Charles Darwin is associated with.

Indulgences Making A Comeback!

2009-02-12T06:53:00.000-08:00

Are there people out there really believing this line of.....I want to say "horseshit", but will instead say "baloney".....

In recent months, dioceses around the world have been offering Catholics a spiritual benefit that fell out of favor decades ago — the indulgence, a sort of amnesty from punishment in the afterlife — and reminding them of the church’s clout in mitigating the wages of sin.

The fact that many Catholics under 50 have never sought one, and never heard of indulgences except in high school European history (Martin Luther denounced the selling of them in 1517 while igniting the Protestant Reformation), simply makes their reintroduction more urgent among church leaders bent on restoring fading traditions of penance in what they see as a self-satisfied world.

According to church teaching, even after sinners are absolved in the confessional and say their Our Fathers or Hail Marys as penance, they still face punishment after death, in Purgatory, before they can enter heaven. In exchange for certain prayers, devotions or pilgrimages in special years, a Catholic can receive an indulgence, which reduces or erases that punishment instantly, with no formal ceremony or sacrament.

There are partial indulgences, which reduce purgatorial time by a certain number of days or years, and plenary indulgences, which eliminate all of it, until another sin is committed. You can get one for yourself, or for someone who is dead. You cannot buy one — the church outlawed the sale of indulgences in 1567 — but charitable contributions, combined with other acts, can help you earn one. There is a limit of one plenary indulgence per sinner per day.

Obama Disappoints Again!

2009-02-07T15:55:00.000-08:00

At this rate, pretty soon I expect he will start talking about invading Iraq!

LA Times - It seemed like a firm campaign promise. Barack Obama pledged to continue President Bush's faith-based office in the White House, but with a key change: Groups receiving federal money would no longer be allowed to discriminate in hiring on the basis of religion.

On Thursday, however, as President Obama disclosed the details of his faith-based program, he left the controversial Bush policy in place.

The decision angered Democrats and civil libertarians who thought Obama had agreed with their view that Bush's 2002 executive order went too far.

"Based on what he said, we thought the issue had been resolved," said Rep. Robert C. Scott (D-Va.).

"You'll have to ask them why they think it's all right to discriminate," Scott said. He added that administration officials are "either offended by the idea of discrimination, or they're not."

But Thursday's announcement surprised and pleased some religious leaders, particularly religious conservatives, who had a strong ally in Bush and had been pressing the Democratic president to revoke his earlier promise.

Torture Proves Hard To Give Up

2009-02-06T07:32:00.000-08:00

Here is another depressing story about Obama helping to keep our torture secret....

After the British High Court ruled that evidence of a British resident's rendition and harsh interrogation at the Pentagon's Guantanamo Bay prison must remain secret because of threats made by the Bush administration to halt intelligence sharing, the Obama Administration offered a terse statement seemingly expressing support to the BBC.

"The United States thanks the UK government for its continued commitment to protect sensitive national security information and preserve the long-standing intelligence sharing relationship that enables both countries to protect their citizens," a spokesman said.

In response, the ACLU's executive director, Anthony Romero, shot off a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asking the Obama Administration to clarify their position. Romero also issued a sharply-worded three sentence statement to the press, saying Obama has now offered "more of the same."

"Hope is flickering," Romero said in a statement. "The Obama administration's position is not change. It is more of the same. This represents a complete turn-around and undermining of the restoration of the rule of law. The new American administration shouldn't be complicit in hiding the abuses of its predecessors."

Why Placate These People???

2009-02-05T06:40:00.000-08:00

Obama wanted to make this show of reaching out to the out of touch GOP...and now look how we get screwed for it.....

think it's understandable, though unfortunate in terms of the future of the country and the interests of justice, that Sen. Gregg (R-NH) made it a condition of his accepting the Commerce appointment that he'd be replaced by a Republican. But now comes word that he's recusing himself from any votes on the Stimulus Bill.
Note that in this case a recusal amounts to a no vote since the Dems will likely need 60 votes to overcome a Republican filibuster. And now he's unavailable to provide one.

Makes Me Glad I Will Be Dead By 2050!

2009-02-04T13:23:00.000-08:00

Things are going to get depressing around the Golden State just about the time I am checking out....at least I hope the worst holds off until then!

Global Warming Could Erase California's Farms
Obama's Energy Secretary minces no words in first interview. By the end of the century, the nation's "salad bowl" could be a dust bowl.

In another sign that change has indeed come to the White House, President Obama's Energy Secretary, Stephen Chu, is discussing the threat of global warming in new, stark and -- frankly -- frightening terms. This is not the kind of warning we ever heard from the Bush Administration.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, his first since being confirmed as Energy Secretary, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist said that all agriculture in California could be undermined by global warming by the end of this century. In other words, within the space of one lifetime, the nation's largest farm producer -- known as the "salad bowl" because it provides about half of the nation's veggies -- could quickly become more like barren a dust bowl.

Not only that, but California's cities are in jeopardy, too, Chu said. The reason? Mountain snowpack in the Sierras is dwindling, as warmer temperatures prevent snow accumulation and lead to greater evaporation. It's the runoff from those mountain snows that irrigate land and keep thirsty people alive in the valleys below.

Nice To See Things Like This Happen.....

2009-02-03T21:21:00.000-08:00

Obama Justice Department Re-Hires Attorney Fired By Goodling Because Of Lesbian Rumor»

In October 2006, Leslie Hagen, who was working as the liaison between the Justice Department and the U.S. attorneys’ committee on Native American issues, was informed that despite her “outstanding” job performance reviews, her contract would not be renewed. In April 2008, NPR reported that the Justice Department was investigating whether Hagen was fired after a rumor reached former Justice Department official Monica Goodling that she was a lesbian.

When the DoJ Inspector General report on Goodling was released in July 2008, it concluded that Goodling was motivated by Hagen’s perceived sexual orientation and “that Goodling’s actions violated Department policy and federal law, and constituted misconduct.”

Last night, however, NPR reported the good news that Obama Justice Department has re-hired Hagen for old position:

Last year, the Justice Department posted Hagen’s old job again. The department conducted a national search. Applications came in from around the country. After several rounds of interviews, Hagen eventually won the job.

The paperwork makes it official as of Monday, Feb. 2. Hagen now has her old position back, but this time it’s a little different. Her contract no longer comes up for renewal every year. Now, the job is permanent.

[The picture is of Monica Goodling....one of the biggest clowns of the Bush (in)justice department.]

Obama Lets CIA Keep Controversial Renditions Tool

2009-02-02T15:16:00.000-08:00

And here we have another installment of "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss..."

Under executive orders issued by Obama last week, the CIA still has authority to carry out what are known as renditions, or the secret abductions and transfers of prisoners to countries that cooperate with the U.S.

The rendition program became a source of embarrassment for the CIA, and a target of international scorn, as details emerged in recent years of botched captures, mistaken identities and allegations that prisoners were turned over to countries where they were tortured.

The European Parliament condemned renditions as an "illegal instrument used by the United States." Prisoners swept up in the program have sued the CIA as well as a subsidiary of Boeing Corp., which is accused of working with the agency on dozens of rendition flights.

But the Obama administration appears to have determined that the rendition program was one component of the Bush administration's war on terrorism that it could not afford to discard.

Although Obama says that torture will no longer be part of the rendition program, how exactly that will be insured is puzzling to me....given the countries that are involved.

Judges jailed for taking bribes from private juvie prisons to send kids to jail

2009-02-02T11:19:00.000-08:00

The prison/industrial complex at work I guess....

Two senior Pennsylvania judges have been sentenced to seven years in prison for taking bribes from juvenile detention centers -- in exchange for the bribes, the judges turned in guilty verdicts for the teens who appeared before them and sent them to juvie, thus enriching the operators of the kiddy gulag. For this, the judges received $2.6 million in kickbacks.

First, the judges helped the detention centers land a county contract worth $58 million. Then their alleged scheme was to guarantee the operators a steady income by detaining juveniles, often on petty stuff.
Many of the kids were railroaded, according to allegations lodged with the state Supreme Court last year by the Philadelphia-based Juvenile Law Center, an advocacy group.

Interesting Blog You Should Check Out

2009-01-29T06:40:00.000-08:00

Here is a cool blog that was brought to my attention by one of the "many" commenters on my own blog. Check it out!

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/