Look, with this sort of thing, you gotta go with your gut: when someone is trying to sell you something way too hard, the thing he?s selling ain?t good.

What, nothing about controlling costs?

In effect, what?s good for Michelle and Malia is not good for the rest of us.

Another day, another Obama infomercial.

President Barack Obama held a townhall style meeting today, one in which the audience was "hand-picked" by White House staffers.

It was conveniently "moderated" by White House domestic policy chief Valerie Jarrett.

Questioners included members from, gag, the SEIU (Service Employees International Union) and the group Health Care For America Now.

At one point, Obama just happened to pick a woman, named Debbie Smith, who, by pure coincidence, is a volunteer for Obamas "Organizing For America" group. She received tickets through the White House staff. Debbie proceeded to give a tear-jerker of a speech concerning her kidney cancer and how she cannot get health insurance, nor a job.

Obama, in an "I feel your pain" moment, hugged her, and told her she would receive help immediately. (Hallelujah! Can I git an "Amen"?!)

Just another example of honesty taking a back seat to Obamas agenda.

?You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass.? ? Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto WWII

You also bought 1,529,635,000 rounds of ammunition in just the month of December 2008. Yeah that is right, that is Billion with a ?B?. This number takes no accounting of reloading or reloaded ammunition.

This is an evaluation of overall firearms and ammunition purchases based on low end numbers per Federal NIC instacheck data base Statistics. The numbers presented are only PART of the overall numbers of arms and ammunition that have been sold. The actual numbers are much higher.

Catalyst Group Bing V. Google Usability Study

Our progressive friends have gotten off to an early start celebrating the Fourth of July. In normally civilized Far North Dallas:

When Ed Jordan hung two flags from his front porch, one for his country and one for the Marine Corps he once served in, he thought no one would take issue with his gesture to honor the troops during the Fourth of July.

He returned home from an errand Monday morning to find the flags burned, their cinders scattered amid his azaleas.

The 70-year-old veteran was shocked when police told him that a flag at another house in his quiet neighborhood just north of Valley View Mall was also incinerated. ?

You would think that putting a socialist punk in the White House ? the ultimate desecration of everything patriots hold sacred ? would leave moonbats satisfied. But a cancer isnt satisfied until the patient dies ? unless a way is found to cure it.

Existing laws have gradually accounted for more well-known and established faiths, such as Pentecostalism, Christian Science and Jehovahs Witnesses.

But recent cases in the news have judges and child care advocates dealing with parents who claim adherence to lesser-known faiths, such as the Minnesota family following an Internet-based groups American Indian beliefs, and an independent church in the western state of Oregon that has been investigated in the past for the deaths of members sick children.

Legal and religious scholars say its becoming more difficult for courts to decide when to honor the religious beliefs of parents and when to order conventional medical treatment for extremely sick children.

Mathew Reid Haver, 40, was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon after he allegedly tried to mow down James Canfield with a 1991 GMC sports utility vehicle, the Paradise Post reports.

Canfield avoided the SUV and was not seriously injured. However, Chico Police Lt. John Carrillo reported the man was clearly shaken by the experience. Canfield is a regular demonstrator at Planned Parenthood and also at the Women?s Health Center across the street from the Chico Police Department.

The Louisiana Legislature Is in Session

Hopey Change means having different expectations of government. A peek into the Louisiana House Chamber:

Thick in tha hips every nig want her call her Halle Berry, Halle Berry.

These immortal words capture the zeitgeist of a generation.

But so long as it doesnt seat Al Franken, Louisianas legislature is still more dignified than the US Senate.

The dust is a mixed blessing in the Western Hemisphere, alternately causing respiratory illness and coral bleaching, and yet providing soil to Caribbean islands and the Amazon Rainforest.

Earth?s crust is a collection of fractured plates that shift across the planet?s surface over millions of years. Two of the major plates meet at the coast of California; the Pacific Plate, under the ocean, is drifting slowly northwest, grinding along the margin of the North American Plate, to the east. Where they meet, the intense pressure of the collision creates an a 800-mile-long fracture zone called the San Andreas Fault.

Lesson #9?Dietrich Bonhoeffer (20^th century):  Beware of cheap grace.  Bonhoeffer was another Christian thinker who took part in an insurrection (a plot to kill Adolf Hitler).  Bonhoeffer, too, was sentenced to death.  In this case, however, the death sentence was not revoked and he was hung with his conspirators just prior to the end of World War II.  Fortunately, however, Bonhoeffer had already completed many great works of theology, including his classic book The Cost of Discipleship.  This work contains profound insights into the importance of self-denial and suffering for the Christian, thus echoing the same emphasis in Augustine, a?Kempis, Calvin, and Edwards.  Bonhoeffer distinguishes between cheap grace (preaching forgiveness without repentance) and costly grace (which is premised upon repentance).  There is no such thing as cheap grace, Bonhoeffer reminds us.  Jesus tells us to take up our cross and turn from sin.  If we don?t do so, then we are not truly under grace.

Lesson #10?Alvin Plantinga (21^st century):  Moral virtue is crucial for intellectual health.  Plantinga is one of the premier Christian thinkers of the last generation.  At a time when theists were retreating in the philosophical community, he had the temerity to suggest that belief in God is not only reasonable but is in fact a proper starting placefor knowledge.  This was, of course, axiomatic for the Reformers, but Plantinga made a persuasive philosophical case for the idea.  In light of this insight, he has developed a rich Christian psychology (especially in his Warranted Christian Belief), complete with an arresting account of how sin corrupts cognition and how, correlatively, right living is crucial for the proper function of our cognitive faculties.  Virtue, as it turns out, is as important for the mind as the mind is for the life of virtue.

A document filed in federal court this week by the Justice Department offers new evidence that former vice president Richard B. Cheney helped steer the Bush administrations public response to the disclosure of Valerie Plame Wilsons employment by the CIA and that he was at the center of many related administration deliberations.

The administrations discussion of Wilsons link to the CIA was meant to undermine criticism by her husband of administration allegations that Iraq attempted to acquire uranium, a matter that her husband had probed for the CIA, according to testimony presented in a 2007 trial.

A list of at least seven related conversations involving Cheney appears in a new court filing approved by Obama appointees at the Justice Department. In the filing, the officials argue that the substance of what Cheney told special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald in 2004 must remain secret.

?If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions.? ~ Calvin Coolidge

Win saw that the theory that Newtond invented

By Einsteins discovries had been badly dented.

What now? wailed his colleagues. Said Erwin, "Dont panic,

No grease monkey I, but a quantum mechanic.

Consider electrons. Now, these teeny articles

Are sometimes like waves, and then sometimes like particles.

If thats not confusing, the nuclear dance

Of electrons and suchlike is governed by chance!

No sweat, though--my theory permits us to judge

Where some of em is and the rest of em was."

Not everyone bought this. It threatened to wreck

The comforting linkage of cause and effect.

Een Einstein had doubts, and so Schroedinger tried

To tell him what quantum mechanics implied.

Said Win to Al, "Brother, suppose weve a cat,

And inside a tube we have put that cat at--

Along with a solitaire deck and some Fritos,

A bottle of Night Train, a couple mosquitoes

(Or something else rhyming) and, oh, if you got em,

One vial prussic acid, one decaying ottom

A willingness by the US government to end macroeconomic imbalances thus depends on its willingness to accept a much more plural world?one in which other centers of power in Europe, China, Japan, Latin America, and the Middle East assume responsibility for their own security, and in which the rules of the game for a world order that can preserve the peace while effectively tackling the challenges posed by terrorism, climate change, and abuse of human rights are negotiated and not imposed. Whether, even under Obama, the US is willing to accept such a political rebalancing of the world is far from obvious. It will require a huge mental realignment in the United States. The financial crash has disclosed the need for an economic realignment. But it will not happen until the US renounces its imperial mission.

During the run up to the Iraq war, people used to ask me why Tony Blair would lend his more liberal cred to the misbegotten adventure and join himself at the hip with Bush on such an obvious blunder. I would simply say" "BP."  

A BP-led group won a deal to develop Iraqs biggest oilfield but had to slash its fee as Baghdads tough terms put off other investors in the countrys first major energy auction since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

 

Other companies, including firms from resource-hungry China and India that are eager to get a share of the worlds third largest oil reserves, balked at the fees and Iraq failed to strike deals on most of the eight oil and gas fields on offer.

The controversial auction of Iraqs prized assets took place on the same day that the U.S. troops who toppled Saddam Hussein quit Iraqs cities and left security chiefly to the countrys own forces. The sale aims to raise funds for reconstruction as Iraq also takes greater charge of its economy.

Yesterday, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced that mandatory installation of the software, called Green Dam Youth Escort, would be delayed indefinitely. The software caused a torrent of protests from both Chinese computer users and global computer makers?. China has said the software is designed to filter out pornography and violence to protect minors, but many experts say it can also block any other content that the authorities deem subversive [The New York Times].

Super-colony of ants rivals human society as population stretches around the globe

Argentine ants from three huge colonies in Europe, America and Japan are actually part of one global super-colony, scientists have revealed.

The aggressive insects were first native to South America but humans have since spread them to the four corners of the globe by mistake. The ants have quickly become nuisance pests and attacked crops and even native animals.

But while they are usually highly territorial, researchers found billions of ants living on three different continents refused to fight each other, according to BBC Earth News.

Argentine ants work together to care for a larva. Scientists have discovered a mega-colony of this invasive insect species that stretches across the globe

Instead ants from the vast colonies along the Mediterranean coast, California and the west coast of Japan rubbed antennae when they were introduced to each other as if they were family.

This is the Enigma, the classic Battleship game turned into a simple to play (and fun) bar game.
It´s played just like the usual Battleship game with one addition. If you miss the target you drink a sip of water, and if you hit an enemy boat you opponent empties the corresponding shot glass.
The exterior design of the wood case was based on the enigma encrypting machine as well as the game´s name. The game also features a radar screen to mark the shots of each player and a list of the ships remaining.
Have fun, and drink responsibly!

K21st Futuristic Art Project

Creation on the Fly

Photo-editing, logos, web templates, filters, color palettes, screen capture & more at Aviary.com

Popular creations from the Aviary community

Ok, this one I didnt expect: yesterday, during my daily walkthrough various sites, I ran into something that I never paid any attention: underwater portraits. These are truly amazing and you should check them out.

Underwater photography in general is very interesting. Its somewhat misterious, since it is set somewhere no humans live in. Theres really not much to talk about, all we have to do is to look at these and imagine. They are really amazing. And by any chance, does any of you got underwater pictures, portraits, or whatever? If you do, share it with us! Wed love to see some more. Hope you like these... cheers! ;)

Jim Geraghty is trying to get to the bottom of the over-the-top hate the left feels for Sarah Palin, a hate that seems to intensified, rather than ebbed-away since the election.

It?s a thoughtful piece, and well-worth reading. I think Geraghty gets quite a lot right, particularly as to the left?s rather ignorant perceptions of who and what conservatives are, and he suggests that there is a great deal of complexity to the hate.

Although, even in that best-of circumstance, there may be something to the idea I wrote a while back, that they hate Sarah Palin because she is not a victim:

And no matter what, she?ll have to deal with a press fully intent on destroying her with a savagery we haven?t seen them use even against Reagan or Bush.

Dubbed the "Goddess of the North", Northumberlandia will be made from two million tonnes of earth dug out from an open cast mine in Cramlington, and tower 112ft into the northern sky.

The Goddess, designed by artist Charles Jencks, will recline over the Shotton open-cast mine and form the centre piece of a new public park at the site.

"It will take around 20 minutes just to walk all the way around her, and the design has been enhanced with more paths to allow visitors to the park to easily ascend the figure.

"As well as the artwork itself, the surrounding landform park will offer important nature conservation and public health benefits, giving both local people and visitors an ideal place to exercise, picnic and enjoy themselves."

One of our readers, Martino, posted this as a comment. I think it is terrific and wanted to make sure that everyone sees it:

?Obama Names Video Games as Health Concern in Speech to A.M.A.??headline, GamePolitics.com, June 15

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) has come out in support of the military coup in Honduras, chastising President Obama in a statement for what he calls "a slap in the face to the people" of that country.

The majority of world leaders have condemned the coup, confirmed by a resolution approved Tuesday approved by the United Nations General Assembly.

President Obama is one of them.

The United States will "stand on the side of democracy," he said, and work with other nations and international groups to resolve the matter peacefully.

"We believe that the coup was not legal and that President Zelaya remains the democratically elected president there," he continued.

"Concerns or doubts about the wisdom of [Zelayas] actions relating to his proposed non-binding referendum are independent of the unconstitutional act taken against him," an administration official added.

1917 Constitution of Mexico

Courses for Women Taught by men, for women.

101
Avoiding Walking in Front of the TV

102
Doing Housework Without Complaining

106
Exercise: How it Keeps You from Looking Like Your Mother

113
?The Weekend? and ?Long Boring Walks? Are Not Synonymous

120
Fishing: Being Able to Bait Your Own Hook

125

Gallery: July 1, 2009 sunrise

Three new dinosaurs found in western Queensland

The bones of Australovenator Wintonensis, nicknamed "Banjo" by paleantologists, are among the remains of three new species found in the outback near Winton.

Fossilised bones of two new species of giant plant-eating sauropods, nicknamed "Matilda" and "Clancy" were also found on the dig, Premier Anna Bligh announced today.

Ever seen Salon?s ?Ask a Wingnut? column? In it, a right-winger tries to calmly explain conservative opinions to liberals. If you look at the comments, though, you can see the problem. Liberals squeal like stuck pigs if even exposed to a counter viewpoint.

But with liberals, they understand conservative opinions about as well as the monkeys in 2001 understood the obelisk. They shriek and get angry and want to smash it with blunt things. They try to reduce conservative opinions down to their own myopic values, but when unable they just conclude that conservative must be stupid and evil since liberals are incapable of understanding them.

I don?t know about you, but the idea of anyone in Washington fuming about fine print while they ram thousand-page bills through Congress that no one bothers to read is, well, triple-snort-worthy:

President Barack Obama asked Congress on Tuesday to create a new agency to police the fine print on consumer products like credit cards and mortgages and determine what fees, penalties and interest rates are fair.

?Those ridiculous contracts with pages of fine print that no one can figure out?those things will be a thing of the past,? the president said in a statement accompanying the 152-page draft bill. ?And enforcement will be the rule, not the exception.?

They?re going to require companies to be ?up front about their products? while they themselves continue to defy transparency, cut backroom deals, and stuff middle-of-the-night amendments into their fraudulent legislative packages.

Ha. Ha. Ha.

We used not to be like this. We had lives. We did not guard every single bureaucratic regulation with a jealous fury. Once, we might have seen someone jumping a queue and smiled at his brass neck or just thought that perhaps he faced some urgent circumstance.

Once, Ireland was world famous for being a place where everything was not reduced to ?ethics? and ?equality? and rules.

At the heart of this fundamental change in us, I believe, is the way, over the past decade in particular, the State has begun to bear down on citizens in previously inconceivable ways and dip deeper into our pockets to pay for its incompetent attentions. Gradually, this is driving us mad.

This is just one of the subtle and barely comprehended tyrannies that replaced the old kinds ? turning us into moralistic bloodhounds who sniff the air for the scent of sinners.

Moralistic tyranny bedevils our society

Operation KHANJAR

By Brig. Gen. Larry D. Nicholson, USMC

Today, nearly 4,000 U.S. Marines and Sailors of Task Force Leatherneck, partnered with Afghan National Security Forces and supported by Task Force Pegasus, the Combat Aviation Brigade of the U.S. Armys 82nd Airborne Division, conducted a near-simultaneous heliborne and surface insert into the central and southern Helmand River valley. These efforts, combined with closely coordinated UK and Danish operations to our immediate north, will dramatically change and positively impact the security of the Afghan people living in this long-held Taliban heartland.

The Paradox of Evangelicals

By invoking the story of King David and Hebrew rather than Christian Scripture to discuss his infidelity, Governor Sanford is consciously identifying with Jewish rather than Christian notions of righteousness.

The paradox of American evangelicals is that they are Christian on the one hand and political conservatives on the other with utterly opposing views of redemption. Christians believe that no one is blameless and all must therefore ride the coattails of a perfect being into heaven. But conservatives espouse the gospel of personal accountability. The state cannot save them. Man must earn his bread by the sweat of his brow and not by welfare alone.

A pair of ravens have successfully bred in Kent for the first recorded time in more than 100 years.

The National Trust confirmed the pair reared at least three fledglings this spring from a nest on the White Cliffs of Dover.

The last known recording of successful breeding in Kent was in 1890.

A National Trust spokesperson said they kept news of the breeding pair quiet until the fledglings were confident away from the nest.

The precise location of the nest site along the 12-mile stretch of cliffs has not been revealed in case the birds return to breed next year.

Six are kept at the Tower of London by a royal decree issued by Charles II.

Legend has it that if the birds leave the site, its White Tower will crumble and the Kingdom of England will fall.

Gallery: Sears Tower, dont look down

Brave young man (9 pics + 1 video)

Ubuntu: brought to you by Microsoft

...or at least so says Dell on their website. This neat little netbook apparently comes with a 1.6GHz Atom CPU, 8GB of disk space, and the, er, well-known Microsoft operating system Ubuntu 8.04.

Before I saw my first Pina Bausch piece, I was convinced Id hate it. At the time, I was heavily into cool, modernist contemporary dance, and I figured Bausch would be pretty much the opposite (I wasnt wrong). Plus, the piece was three hours long, with no interval. And I had terrible flu. Still, it was billed as a must-see, so I hauled myself along thinking, "This had better be a big deal."

Bausch could do that to you: take you to a higher place that you didnt even know existed. Not all the time and not every time, but she could do it. How? One way was by demanding that her performers dig deep within their own memories and feelings; famously, Bausch said that she was not interested in how people move, but in what moves them.

JAKARTA, Indonesia ? The three parties competing in Indonesia?s presidential election next week have plastered this city with campaign billboards and posters depicting, predictably, their presidential and vice presidential choices looking self-confident.

Nice selection of 3D wallpapers (45 pics)

Have a great day!

Today is no special day and I have no particular reason for writing to you...

I have no news to tell you....

nor any problems to discuss with you.

or gossip to tell you...

Its only one of those happy moments...

when I thought of you...

and I would like to share these thoughts with you...

MANY SMILES BEGIN BECAUSE OF ANOTHER SMILE...

Always have good self esteem...

Take care of your friends, especially those dearest to you...

Take care of your body...

But most of all find time to relax...

A Big Hug

from your friend...

Photos: Inside Cheyenne Mountain, Americas Fortress

Photos: Inside Cheyenne Mountain, Americas Fortress

Photos: Inside Cheyenne Mountain, Americas Fortress

Photos: Inside Cheyenne Mountain, Americas Fortress

1. Always put her first - before work, friends, even basketball. Act as if shes the best thing that ever happened to you, because we all know she is.

2. Keep no secrets. Pool your money. Allow nothing and no one to come between you.

3. Pick your fights with care. Play fair. Show some class. Hurtful words can be forgiven, but theyre hard to forget.

4. Fall in love again every day. Kiss her in taxis. Flirt with her at parties. Tell her shes beautiful. Then tell her again.

5. Never miss an anniversary or a birthday or a chance to make a memory. Memories may not seem important now, but one day theyll be gold.

6. Never give her a practical gift. If she really wants a Shop-Vac, let her pick it out herself.

7. Go to church together, and pray every day for each other and your marriage.

Sharon Randall can be contacted at P.O. Box 777394, Henderson NV 89077 or at sharonrandall.com.

UNITED NATIONS -- The global crisis for endangered species is more serious than the financial meltdown, with numbers of imperiled animals and plants rising at record rates, scientists are warning in a report released today.

The report, "Wildlife in a Changing World," estimates that 22 percent of known mammals are either facing the threat of extinction or are already extinct. It also found great stress for amphibians, with more than 30 percent classified as threatened or extinct.

"We now know that nearly one quarter of the worlds mammals, nearly one third of amphibians and more than 1 in 8 of all bird species are at risk of extinction," IUCN warns. "This allows us to come to the stark conclusion that wildlife ... is in trouble."

Recent additions to the list of extinctions are large marine mammals.

First Direct Evidence Of Lightning On Mars Detected

ScienceDaily (July 1, 2009) ? For the first time, direct evidence of lightning has been detected on Mars, say University of Michigan researchers who found signs of electrical discharges during dust storms on the Red Planet.

On Tuesday afternoon, 100-year-old J.C. Cox and his and 96-year-old wife Josie were buried together.

The couple ? married for 75 years ? died within five hours of each other.

Their story begins on Christmas Day in 1932.

"They stayed together the whole time," Williamson said, pointing out the bed they had shared.

Mrs. Cox insisted on being the sole person to care for J.C., even up until the moment they entered a nursing home last month.

"She was still ironing his clothes three weeks ago," Williamson said.

"She was going to make sure ? even though he never went anywhere ? his clothes were going to be starched," Grimm said.

Persistence never left them. They kept their wedding vows for 75 years, through the deaths of their own children, the lives of three new generations and the inevitable changes in each other.

"Holding hands ? and thats how they died," Williamson said, with tears in her eyes. "Pa died holding onto Granny."

Biologist sees human morality evolving from the sociality of primates

Some animals are surprisingly sensitive to the plight of others. Chimpanzees, who cannot swim, have drowned in zoo moats trying to save others. Given the chance to get food by pulling a chain that would also deliver an electric shock to a companion, rhesus monkeys will starve themselves for several days.

Many philosophers find it hard to think of animals as moral beings, and indeed de Waal does not contend that even chimpanzees possess morality. But he argues that human morality would be impossible without certain emotional building blocks that are clearly at work in chimp and monkey societies.

They describe how the fossils soft tissues were spared from decay by fine sediments that formed a mineral cast.

Tests have shown that the fossil still holds cell-like structures - but their constituent proteins have decayed.

The team says the cellular structure of the dinosaurs skin was similar to that of dinosaurs modern-day descendants.

A member of the duck-billed hadrosaur family, the fossil was found in North Dakota in the US and has been nicknamed "Dakota".

Phil Manning of the University of Manchester and his collaborators have been employing a number of techniques to tease out as much information as they can from the fossil.

Whereas, the net result of these acts by government, is that all American citizens have lost most if not all of their freedoms, their liberty, their property rights and American sovereignty, to the corrupt, unconscionable and unconstitutional violations of the supreme law of the land, at the hands of federal, state and local politicians, lawmakers and bureaucrats.

NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that I, the undersigned, an independent, natural born, or naturalized, sovereign and free citizen of the United States of America, being of sound mind and body, do hereby decree, ordain and affirm that I am not a slave of the federal, state or local government, in any respect, or in any regard, and I will only be bound by the federal and state constitutions, or under my historical right of jury nullification and my interpretation of that right and I shall be bound by only such laws that I interpret to not be in violation of said constitutions, and

Encounters in the Wild: Spirit Rattler

Share Your Encounters in the Wild!

Climate change is causing a breed of wild sheep in Scotland to shrink, according to researchers.

Scientists say milder winters are helping smaller sheep to survive, reports the BBC.

Researchers first began studying Soay sheep, on the island of Hirta in the St Kilda archipelago, in 1985.

Since then, the sheep have decreased in size by 5% - their legs getting steadily shorter and their body weight decreasing.

Lead researcher Tim Coulson, from Imperial College London, said: "The island is almost like a natural laboratory - there are only the sheep and the vegetation there.

"In the past, only the big, healthy sheep and large lambs that had piled on weight in their first summer could survive the harsh winters on Hirta."

But because of climate change, grass for food was now available for more months of the year on the island.

Pulsating blobs filmed in a North Carolina sewer prompting speculation they were an alien lifeform have been identified as worms.

The slimy sacs were filmed clinging to the crevices of a sewer and shying away from the light as a camera was passed along the pipes.

Footage of the creatures was posted on YouTube leading to speculation that an alien creature was living in the sewers of Raleigh, reports the Daily Telegraph.

The clip has attracted more than four million hits but now biolgists have confirmed the blobs are a colony of worms coiled together.

Ed Buchan, environmental coordinator at the Raleigh Public Utilities Department, confirmed the creature was actually a colony of worms.

The colonies attach themselves to roots that gradually work themselves into weak points in the pipes.

"They seem to respond to the light from the camera," he said. "That light is pretty hot."