Laissez-faire

He’s not too bright - he watches The Three Stooges and takes notes.

- Unknown

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A nation with $100 Trillion in debt or unfunded liabilities ………. and THIS is who voters are supposed to turn to for fiscal sanity ?? THIS is supposed to be the “conservative” party ?? A party so addicted to pork that it can’t even agree to moratorium on earmarks. What would Goldwater or Reagan say ??

I’ll either be sitting home in November or considering voting libertarian to send a “I’m fed up” message.

– Smitty, 5-4-08

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Source: http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RobertDNovak/2008/05/03/gop_loves_earmarks

GOP Loves Earmarks

By Robert D. Novak
Saturday, May 3, 2008

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A recent secret survey of the House Republican minority by the party’s whip organization showed a two-to-one margin opposed to imposing a moratorium on earmarks.

House Republican John Boehner, who personally sponsors no earmarks, has indicated the party’s position should be based on what GOP House members want. That led to the whip check.

Reformers had contemplated calling for a vote on earmarks by a closed-door session of the House Republican Conference, assuming it would be difficult for many members to vote no. But the lopsided outcome of the whip check dissuaded reformers from requesting a vote.

“I may not have been the greatest president, but I’ve had the most fun eight years.”

– Bill Clinton

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Do you still want to see the cost of fuel go up and up and pay higher & higher taxes year after year so that we can “fight” global warming ??

Are you sure ???

– Smitty, 4-27-08

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Source: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23583376-5013480,00.html

Sorry to ruin the fun, but an ice age cometh

Phil Chapman | April 23, 2008

THE scariest photo I have seen on the internet is www.spaceweather.com, where you will find a real-time image of the sun from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, located in deep space at the equilibrium point between solar and terrestrial gravity.

What is scary about the picture is that there is only one tiny sunspot.

Disconcerting as it may be to true believers in global warming, the average temperature on Earth has remained steady or slowly declined during the past decade, despite the continued increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, and now the global temperature is falling precipitously.

All four agencies that track Earth’s temperature (the Hadley Climate Research Unit in Britain, the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, the Christy group at the University of Alabama, and Remote Sensing Systems Inc in California) report that it cooled by about 0.7C in 2007. This is the fastest temperature change in the instrumental record and it puts us back where we were in 1930. If the temperature does not soon recover, we will have to conclude that global warming is over.

There is also plenty of anecdotal evidence that 2007 was exceptionally cold. It snowed in Baghdad for the first time in centuries, the winter in China was simply terrible and the extent of Antarctic sea ice in the austral winter was the greatest on record since James Cook discovered the place in 1770.

It is generally not possible to draw conclusions about climatic trends from events in a single year, so I would normally dismiss this cold snap as transient, pending what happens in the next few years.

This is where SOHO comes in. The sunspot number follows a cycle of somewhat variable length, averaging 11 years. The most recent minimum was in March last year. The new cycle, No.24, was supposed to start soon after that, with a gradual build-up in sunspot numbers.

It didn’t happen. The first sunspot appeared in January this year and lasted only two days. A tiny spot appeared last Monday but vanished within 24 hours. Another little spot appeared this Monday. Pray that there will be many more, and soon.

The reason this matters is that there is a close correlation between variations in the sunspot cycle and Earth’s climate. The previous time a cycle was delayed like this was in the Dalton Minimum, an especially cold period that lasted several decades from 1790.

Northern winters became ferocious: in particular, the rout of Napoleon’s Grand Army during the retreat from Moscow in 1812 was at least partly due to the lack of sunspots.

That the rapid temperature decline in 2007 coincided with the failure of cycle No.24 to begin on schedule is not proof of a causal connection but it is cause for concern.

It is time to put aside the global warming dogma, at least to begin contingency planning about what to do if we are moving into another little ice age, similar to the one that lasted from 1100 to 1850.

There is no doubt that the next little ice age would be much worse than the previous one and much more harmful than anything warming may do. There are many more people now and we have become dependent on a few temperate agricultural areas, especially in the US and Canada. Global warming would increase agricultural output, but global cooling will decrease it.

Millions will starve if we do nothing to prepare for it (such as planning changes in agriculture to compensate), and millions more will die from cold-related diseases.

There is also another possibility, remote but much more serious. The Greenland and Antarctic ice cores and other evidence show that for the past several million years, severe glaciation has almost always afflicted our planet.

The bleak truth is that, under normal conditions, most of North America and Europe are buried under about 1.5km of ice. This bitterly frigid climate is interrupted occasionally by brief warm interglacials, typically lasting less than 10,000 years.

The interglacial we have enjoyed throughout recorded human history, called the Holocene, began 11,000 years ago, so the ice is overdue. We also know that glaciation can occur quickly: the required decline in global temperature is about 12C and it can happen in 20 years.

The next descent into an ice age is inevitable but may not happen for another 1000 years. On the other hand, it must be noted that the cooling in 2007 was even faster than in typical glacial transitions. If it continued for 20 years, the temperature would be 14C cooler in 2027.

By then, most of the advanced nations would have ceased to exist, vanishing under the ice, and the rest of the world would be faced with a catastrophe beyond imagining.

Australia may escape total annihilation but would surely be overrun by millions of refugees. Once the glaciation starts, it will last 1000 centuries, an incomprehensible stretch of time.

If the ice age is coming, there is a small chance that we could prevent or at least delay the transition, if we are prepared to take action soon enough and on a large enough scale.

For example: We could gather all the bulldozers in the world and use them to dirty the snow in Canada and Siberia in the hope of reducing the reflectance so as to absorb more warmth from the sun.

We also may be able to release enormous floods of methane (a potent greenhouse gas) from the hydrates under the Arctic permafrost and on the continental shelves, perhaps using nuclear weapons to destabilise the deposits.

We cannot really know, but my guess is that the odds are at least 50-50 that we will see significant cooling rather than warming in coming decades.

The probability that we are witnessing the onset of a real ice age is much less, perhaps one in 500, but not totally negligible.

All those urging action to curb global warming need to take off the blinkers and give some thought to what we should do if we are facing global cooling instead.

It will be difficult for people to face the truth when their reputations, careers, government grants or hopes for social change depend on global warming, but the fate of civilisation may be at stake.

In the famous words of Oliver Cromwell, “I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken.”

Phil Chapman is a geophysicist and astronautical engineer who lives in San Francisco. He was the first Australian to become a NASA astronaut.

ATTORNEY: What gear were you in at the moment of impact?
WITNESS: Gucci sweats and Reeboks.

– From the Book “Disorder in the American Courts” (a collection of things people have actually said in court)

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More proof the Stupid Party made a massive mistake selecting the Capital of the People’s Republic of MN as the site for their convention in September: Local leftist lawyers are giving free legal advice to the demonstrators who plan the trash the convention (which the taxpayer will have to clean up). They’re being advised as to what to do if they are “questioned, detained or arrested” during the chaos they hope to incite.

I have some top notch “double-secret” advice far superior to anything they’ll hear from the local brownshirt-enablers: Avoid being questioned, detained or arrested” in the first place. It’s really very easy. All you have to do is ………….

1) If you want to take time away from your 9-5 job to protest (giggle), do so peacefully (THAT is a constitutional right)

2) Act your age instead of your political IQ (inciting anarchy is NOT a constitutional right)

3) Set a goal of trying to bathe at least once a week (optional)

4) Get a job (optional)

If you do the above it will minimize the adult supervision required. The police and taxpayer won’t have to babysit you.

Thank you for your cooperation.

– Smitty, 4-27-08

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Source: http://www.twincities.com/ci_9018927

Demonstrators get legal briefing

Peace activists, students and others who plan to demonstrate during the Republican National Convention learned Tuesday what they can do if they run into problems.

A group called the Coldsnap Legal Collective told about 30 people at St. Paul’s Macalester College what they should do if they are questioned, detained or arrested. The group was formed in January to create a network of legal support for protesters.

Among other things, Coldsnap trains people on legal rights, jail solidarity and consequences in the event of an arrest.

The Republican National Convention will be at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul from Sept. 1 through Sept. 4.

— Associated Press

Now they say that coffee is habit forming. Hey, I’ve been drinking coffee every morning for the past 30 years and haven’t found it habit forming !!

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Starbucks has made a ton of $$$ in the US selling their product in what essentially is a free-market economy (at least when it comes to coffee). Yet they apparently find the phrase ‘Laissez Faire’ offensive (either due to economic illiteracy or to stupidity).

How’s that for hypocrisy ??

OK, fine. It’s time for some ‘Laissez Faire’ Economics 101: From now on I will voluntarily refuse to give Starbucks a dime; I will take my business elsewhere and encourage everyone who loves liberty to do likewise.

Make sense now ??

– Smitty, 4-20-08

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Source: http://s.wsj.net/article/SB120752454414093553.html

Starbucks and ‘Laissez Faire’
By DAVID BOAZ
April 7, 2008; Page A12

Laissez-faire. It’s a policy that made Starbucks vastly successful. But don’t try to put that phrase on a customized Starbucks Card.

The cards are supposed be personalized to reflect customers’ tastes and uniqueness. They are available in a range of colors, often given as gifts and used by regular customers who prefer to prepay for their java.

But when my friend Roger Ream, president of the Fund for American Studies, received a Starbucks gift card for Christmas, he found there was a limit to how personalized a card could be. His card required him to customize it on the company’s Web site. So he went to the site and requested that the phrase “Laissez Faire” be printed on his card. A few days later he was informed that the company couldn’t issue such a card because the wording violated company policy.

Starbucks’s company policy is this: “We review each Card before printing it to make sure it meets our personalization policy. We accept most personalization requests, but we can’t honor every one. Some requests may contain trademarks that we don’t have the right to use. Others may contain material that we consider inappropriate (such as threatening remarks, derogatory terms, or overtly political commentary) or wouldn’t want to see on Starbucks-branded products.”

Is the phrase “laissez-faire” threatening? Only to officious bureaucracy, I would think. So, it must be that the phrase is considered to be “inappropriate” by corporate Starbucks.

But why should it be considered inappropriate? The phrase itself is an imperative. It’s French for “leave us alone,” more or less. And it comes to us through history as advice offered to Jean Baptiste Colbert, finance minister under the French King Louis XIV in the 17th century. Colbert is best known for his statement: “The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest possible amount of feathers with the smallest possible amount of hissing.” When Colbert asked a group of merchants, “What do you want from us?,” the answer was, “laisser nous faire.” “Laissez-faire” is, then, an old piece of economic advice with an impeccable French heritage.

Maybe Starbucks considers the phrase inappropriate because it’s “overtly political commentary”? Certainly my friend regards it as a firm statement of political philosophy.

And so, at my suggestion, my friend went back to the Web site and asked that his card be issued with the phrase “People Not Profits.” Bingo! Starbucks had no problem with that phrase, and the card arrived in a few days.

I wondered just what the company’s standards were. If “laissez-faire” is unacceptably political, how could the socialist slogan “people not profits” be acceptable?

My assistant and I tried to get the company to explain its policy. We started by trying to purchase a card with the phrase “Laissez Faire,” and were rejected as my friend had been. We then asked a company spokesperson why. He suggested that it might be because “laissez-faire” is a foreign phrase. That seemed possible and a reasonable precaution.

So we tried another foreign phrase – “Si Se Puede,” or “Yes we can.” It’s the United Farm Workers slogan, now adopted by Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. That sailed right through. The senator’s political campaign slogan was acceptable.

We called again. Several spokespeople at Starbucks and at Arroweye, the company that actually creates personalized cards for Starbucks and other retailers, said that they couldn’t be sure, but that the phrase was probably rejected because it is political. They explained that they would not allow a customer to print “McCain for President” or “Support the Democratic Party” on a Starbucks card. And they noted that they had rejected a request for “My coffee is a weapon.” But fewer than 1% of card requests are rejected.

They had no explanation as to how “People Not Profits” and “Si Se Puede” could be regarded as less political than “Laissez Faire.”

I’m still hoping that it was all a computer glitch, and that some day my latte-drinking, non-tax-hiking friends will be able to get their very own customized Starbucks gift card with “Laissez Faire” emblazoned on it – even if it does risk a sneer from the barista.

Starbucks has prospered mightily in a free economy. For the most recent fiscal year, the company earned $672.6 million on revenue of $9.4 billion, a very healthy profit. And these days, in the wake of a California Superior Court judge’s order that the company repay $100 million in back tips that were shared by shift supervisors, Starbucks honchos just might like a little less government intervention in their affairs and a little more laissez-faire.

Mr. Boaz is executive vice president of the Cato Institute and the author of “The Politics of Freedom” (Cato Institute, 2008).

Lou Gehrig died of Lou Gehrig’s disease….. how come he didn’t see it coming ????

– Anonymous

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Thanks John - couldn’t have said it better myself.

– Smitty, 4-13-08

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Source: http://www.townhall.com/columnists/JohnHawkins/2008/03/14/why_i_am_a_conservative

Why I Am A Conservative

By John Hawkins
Friday, March 14, 2008

Long ago, when I was a mushy headed moderate, I studied conservatism and liberalism to try to figure out what the best philosophy was for my life and for my country. After doing that, I became a conservative because…

* I don’t think some politician in Washington who has never held a job outside of politics in his entire life, has a better handle on what to do with my money than I do.

* We have a moral obligation to leave a better America to our children than our parents left to us.

John Hawkins is a professional blogger who runs Conservative Grapevine and Right Wing News.

“In elementary school, in case of fire you have to line up quietly in a single file line from smallest to tallest. What is the logic? Do tall people burn slower?”

– Warren Hutcherson

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A religious school in Inver Grove Heights, MN paid for by taxpayers !! …….. er wait, it must be OK since it’s Islamic and not Christian. Never mind.

In the meantime, don’t forget …………. YOU need to open your wallet even more ………. YOU’RE not paying enough for our “underfunded” MN schools according to the “Education MN” teacher union mouthpiece.

Since this is not a “Christian” school, here is what the ACLU has done about this to date: ______________

So, the “People’s Republic of MN” continues it’s slide into the sewer of political correctness. If you hate America, or if you want to sponge off of the working class taxpayer, come to MN - - - this state will welcome you with open arms.

What an outrage.

– Smitty, 4-13-08
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Source: http://www.startribune.com/local/17406054.html

Wall of silence broken at state’s Muslim public school

By KATHERINE KERSTEN, Star Tribune

April 9, 2008

Recently, I wrote about Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy (TIZA), a K-8 charter school in Inver Grove Heights. Charter schools are public schools and by law must not endorse or promote religion.

Evidence suggests, however, that TIZA is an Islamic school, funded by Minnesota taxpayers.

TIZA has many characteristics that suggest a religious school. It shares the headquarters building of the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, whose mission is “establishing Islam in Minnesota.” The building also houses a mosque. TIZA’s executive director, Asad Zaman, is a Muslim imam, or religious leader, and its sponsor is an organization called Islamic Relief.

Students pray daily, the cafeteria serves halal food - permissible under Islamic law — and “Islamic Studies” is offered at the end of the school day.

Zaman maintains that TIZA is not a religious school. He declined, however, to allow me to visit the school to see for myself, “due to the hectic schedule for statewide testing.” But after I e-mailed him that the Minnesota Department of Education had told me that testing would not begin for several weeks, Zaman did not respond — even to urgent calls and e-mails seeking comment before my first column on TIZA.

Now, however, an eyewitness has stepped forward. Amanda Getz of Bloomington is a substitute teacher. She worked as a substitute in two fifth-grade classrooms at TIZA on Friday, March 14. Her experience suggests that school-sponsored religious activity plays an integral role at TIZA.

Arriving on a Friday, the Muslim holy day, she says she was told that the day’s schedule included a “school assembly” in the gym after lunch.

Before the assembly, she says she was told, her duties would include taking her fifth-grade students to the bathroom, four at a time, to perform “their ritual washing.”

Afterward, Getz said, “teachers led the kids into the gym, where a man dressed in white with a white cap, who had been at the school all day,” was preparing to lead prayer. Beside him, another man “was prostrating himself in prayer on a carpet as the students entered.”

“The prayer I saw was not voluntary,” Getz said. “The kids were corralled by adults and required to go to the assembly where prayer occurred.”

Islamic Studies was also incorporated into the school day. “When I arrived, I was told ‘after school we have Islamic Studies,’ and I might have to stay for hall duty,” Getz said. “The teachers had written assignments on the blackboard for classes like math and social studies. Islamic Studies was the last one — the board said the kids were studying the Qu’ran. The students were told to copy it into their planner, along with everything else. That gave me the impression that Islamic Studies was a subject like any other.”

After school, Getz’s fifth-graders stayed in their classroom and the man in white who had led prayer in the gym came in to teach Islamic Studies. TIZA has in effect extended the school day — buses leave only after Islamic Studies is over. Getz did not see evidence of other extra-curricular activity, except for a group of small children playing outside. Significantly, 77 percent of TIZA parents say that their “main reason for choosing TIZA … was because of after-school programs conducted by various non-profit organizations at the end of the school period in the school building,” according to a TIZA report. TIZA may be the only school in Minnesota with this distinction.

Why does the Minnesota Department of Education allow this sort of religious activity at a public school? According to Zaman, the department inspects TIZA regularly — and has done so “numerous times” — to ensure that it is not a religious school.

But the department’s records document only three site visits to TIZA in five years — two in 2003-04 and one in 2007, according to Assistant Commissioner Morgan Brown. None of the visits focused specifically on religious practices.

The department is set up to operate on a “complaint basis,” and “since 2004, we haven’t gotten a single complaint about TIZA,” Brown said. In 2004, he sent two letters to the school inquiring about religious activity reported by visiting department staffers and in a news article. Brown was satisfied with Zaman’s assurance that prayer is “voluntary” and “student-led,” he said. The department did not attempt to confirm this independently, and did not ask how 5- to 11-year-olds could be initiating prayer. (At the time, TIZA was a K-5 school.)

Zaman agreed to respond by e-mail to concerns raised about the school’s practices. Student “prayer is not mandated by TIZA,” he wrote, and so is legal. On Friday afternoons, “students are released … to either join a parent-led service or for study hall.” Islamic Studies is provided by the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, and other “nonsectarian” after-school options are available, he added.

Yet prayer at TIZA does not appear to be spontaneously initiated by students, but rather scheduled, organized and promoted by school authorities.

Request for volunteers

Until recently, TIZA’s website included a request for volunteers to help with “Friday prayers.” In an e-mail, Zaman explained this as an attempt to ensure that “no TIZA staff members were involved in organizing the Friday prayers.”

But an end run of this kind cannot remove the fact of school sponsorship of prayer services, which take place in the school building during school hours. Zaman does not deny that “some” Muslim teachers “probably” attend. According to federal guidelines on prayer in schools, teachers at a public school cannot participate in prayer with students.

In addition, schools cannot favor one religion by offering services for only its adherents, or promote after-school religious instruction for only one group. The ACLU of Minnesota has launched an investigation of TIZA, and the Minnesota Department of Education has also begun a review.

TIZA’s operation as a public, taxpayer-funded school is troubling on several fronts. TIZA is skirting the law by operating what is essentially an Islamic school at taxpayer expense. The Department of Education has failed to provide the oversight necessary to catch these illegalities, and appears to lack the tools to do so. In addition, there’s a double standard at work here — if TIZA were a Christian school, it would likely be gone in a heartbeat.

TIZA is now being held up as a national model for a new kind of charter school. If it passes legal muster, Minnesota taxpayers may soon find themselves footing the bill for a separate system of education for Muslims.

Katherine Kersten • kkersten@startribune.com

Peter Marshall: If you’re going to make a parachute jump, you should be at least how high?

Charley Weaver: Three days of steady drinking should do it.

- The Hollywood Squares

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Against all logic and common sense, the Stupid Party selected the “People’s Republic of MN” as the location for their National Convention. Well they’re getting their just reward ……….. St. Paul is refusing to extend their drinking hours in order to prevent “puking Republican lobbyists” in the streets. How’s that for a warm welcome ??

In the meantime, the same leftist city is doing triple-back flips welcoming the anarchist vermin who will be taking time away from their 9-5 jobs (giggle) in order to come here and trash the convention (with the taxpayers picking up to tab to baby-sit and clean up after these degenerates).

– Smitty, 4-8-08

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Source: Source: http://www.startribune.com/local/stpaul/17239419.html

St. Paul: Thumbs down to late bar hours for GOP convention

By CHRIS HAVENS, Star Tribune
April 2, 2008

St. Paul isn’t Las Vegas, so if you want to toss one back at the bar at 3 a.m., you better get on a plane.
That was the message the St. Paul City Council delivered Wednesday in opposing a proposal in the Legislature that would extend bar closing time from 2 a.m. to 4 a.m. during the Republican National Convention.

Council members — many miffed that they weren’t consulted beforehand — voted 4-3 for a resolution asking that the proposal not be enacted and citing potential for neighborhood disturbances and a strain on police.

“It would be nothing short of a nightmare,” said Council Member Dave Thune, whose Second Ward includes downtown. He said he wants to spare downtown residents the sight of “puking Republican lobbyists” in the streets.
The legislative proposal would allow cities within 10 miles of the Xcel Energy Center, where the convention will be held, to push closing time back during the 11 days around the Sept. 1-4 event.

Rep. Phyllis Kahn, DFL-Minneapolis, who has supported the proposal, said Wednesday night that lawmakers need to repeal the law to give cities the option of longer hours. She predicted that proposal language would change and that St. Paul would have a chance to vote again. “They don’t have to do it,” she said. “Maybe St. Paul doesn’t want to be a big city.”

Council Member Lee Helgen, who brought the resolution forward and offered the Las Vegas reference, said later that bar hours weren’t part of the proposal to lure the convention here. He said an analysis of some Fifth Ward bars shows a spike in police calls after midnight.

Council President Kathy Lantry said she understood the arguments opposing later bar hours and expressed concerns herself, but suggested postponing the vote to see whether something could be worked out. Council members Dan Bostrom and Pat Harris sided with her.

The cost for extending security has been estimated at about $500,000.

Mayor Chris Coleman said he has serious concerns about that cost. “However, I believe strongly that we need to work on this issue with other cities that would be affected,” he said. “I am deeply concerned about putting St. Paul’s restaurant and bar owners at a competitive disadvantage with other entertainment venues in the area.”

Minneapolis city officials on Tuesday gave a generally cool reception to the proposal but decided against outright opposition. They’re seeking changes to give them more control.

Chris Havens • 651-298-1542

I can’t believe some of the cool secret gadgets my new car has. Why, with just a flick of a button on the mirror, I can get all the cars behind me to dim their lights

- Spud Anderson

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To counter the story below, I have personally designated 8 PM EDT on 3/29 as “light up the sky” hour in an effort to combat global warming hysteria and nonsense. Please support this effort by turning all your household indoor & outdoor lights on. The use of available flood lights is especially encouraged.

Our goal should be to light up the planet to a great enough extent such that any intelligent beings passing by our planet would see that the majority of us have made a decision to embrace science and technology instead of regressing to the dark ages.

Why? Because I personally find the idea that a “lights out” evening is somehow “noble” is beyond grotesque. Good grief - - we’re emulating North Korea. What the hell is noble about that ????

On the contrary, I see a sinister intent behind “Earth Hour.” Given the fact that environmental lunacy is intentionally driving us into perpetual energy scarcity (ANWR and off-shore drillings are off limits, coal is “bad”, nuclear power is “bad, global warming nonsense has become a religion, etc.), rolling blackouts will soon be commonplace throughout much of the US. In other words, “Earth Hour” is about preparing the serfs for what is to become commonplace.

Do you really want to “celebrate” that ??

Smitty, 3-26-08

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Source: http://www.eponline.com/articles/60073?recipid%3B=

Don’t Forget to Turn Off the Lights on March 29
March 24, 2008

World Wildlife Fund has named HP as the official U.S. technology partner for Earth Hour, the global climate change event taking place at 8 p.m. EDT on March 29 (www.earthhour.org) in cities around the world.

During Earth Hour, millions of individuals and businesses will turn off their lights for one hour, demonstrating that by working together, we can all make a difference in the fight against climate change.

“We can’t stop climate change in a single hour, but through Earth Hour 2008 we hope to raise awareness and encourage people to make energy reduction a priority long after the lights come back on,” said Richard Moss, vice president of WWF’s Climate Change program. “We are pleased HP has shown such strong leadership among companies in the technology sector and is developing models for the entire industry on how companies can reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and promote energy efficiency.”

“Collaboration is key when it comes to addressing the effects of climate change,” said Pat Tiernan, vice president of Social and Environmental Responsibility at HP. “Furthering our alliance with WWF supports our goal to educate others about climate change and energy efficiency.”

During Earth Hour, some of the world’s most iconic skylines, including those in Atlanta, Chicago, Phoenix, and San Francisco, will go dark for one hour in this dramatic call for action on climate change. With a total of 25 cities participating in 10 countries, Earth Hour will be the largest voluntary power down in history.

HP is committing financial and technical support to Earth Hour as the national technology partner for the event. This effort builds on the company’s pioneering relationship with WWF to address the causes and consequences of climate change. HP is promoting the event to its employees around the world, providing technology at events in each of the four U.S. cities and, most importantly, joining millions around the globe by turning off the lights at its facilities.

“If you can read this, you must be a Republican”

– Protest sign seen in Florida

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“Peace” protesters at the upcoming Republican National Convention in St. Paul have hitched their wagon to ANSWER, a Stalinist group, which has a colorful history of “supporting “peace” and “pacifist” groups:

- It lead rallies in support of Saddam Hussein and his Baathist torture-state in 2003
- It supported the butchers of Beijing after the slaughter of Tiananmen Square
- It supports the last official Stalinist state, North Korea, in the mass starvation of its citizens
- It supported Slobodan Milosevic after the massacre at Srebrenica
- It supports the mullahs of Iran, the narco-gangsters of Colombia and the bus-bombers of Hamas. ”

Source: http://www.timeswatch.org/articles/2006/20060814121904.aspx

Do ya supposed all the modern-day hippies participating have a clue (or even care) who they are enabling ???

– Smitty, 3-23-08

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Source: http://www.startribune.com/business/15481531.html

Activists unite at U meeting in planning GOP protests
By CHRIS SERRES, Star Tribune

February 9, 2008

The nation’s three largest antiwar coalitions appear to have cast aside their differences and agreed to support a mass antiwar march on the Republican National Convention in September.

On Saturday, United for Peace and Justice, which played a key role in organizing the anti-war march that drew an estimated 500,000 people at the 2004 Republican convention in New York, and two other large groups — International ANSWER and the Troops out Now Coalition — formally announced their support of a mass antiwar march at a planning conference at the University of Minnesota.

In recent years, these three large coalitions - which represent thousands of smaller antiwar groups nationally — have not endorsed each other’s national demonstrations, due to differences over policy focus and personalities.

But those differences, if they still exist, have taken a back seat to political expediency, and the broader cause of removing the Republicans from the White House, activists said Saturday

The show of unity signifies a level of cooperation that has not existed in the recent past and likely will enhance turnout at the march, which organizers predict will draw at least 50,000 people and upwards of 100,000.

“Because of their signing on, this will truly be a national demonstration, not just a regional or local demonstration,” said Meredith Aby, a local antiwar activist working on the conference.

Pressing police for a permit

However, logistical obstacles remain. The Coalition to March on the RNC and Stop the War, which was formed locally last year, has been pressing St. Paul police for months for permits to nail down a march route that will take protesters near the Xcel Energy Center, where the convention will be held.

The police have cited a city ordinance saying that demonstration permits are issued no more than 180 days in advance.

Some activists said they fear a repeat of the 2004 GOP convention in New York, when the permit process dragged on until days before the event.

The weekend conference at the U was an opportunity for the activists to discuss strategy and ways to increase participation.

With the Iraq war recently taking a back seat to the economy as a central campaign issue, there was talk among participants about broadening the message to address the economic impact of the war, including the military budget’s drain on domestic programs

“There is an economic crisis that’s like a steamroller rolling forth,” said Sara Flounders, a representative from Troops Out Now Coalition, speaking before an auditorium of more than 150 activists. “We don’t know how that will look in six months … but it’s important to remember that war and years and years of militarism is coming home.”

Chris Serres • 612-673-4308

Does anyone know anything about “Utilitarianism” ?? I’d never heard of it before, but it must be the richest religion around, because they collect “donations” monthly from everyone I know or threaten to cut off their water, phone, gas or electricity !!

– Unknown

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Hello MN ACLU Chapter ?? Is anyone home ???

MN liberals would be screaming to high heaven if the below story were about a MN Taxpayer-financed Christian school.

Here is their reaction to the below story: _______________

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Source: http://www.startribune.com/featuredColumns/16404541.html

Are taxpayers footing bill for Islamic school in Minnesota?
By KATHERINE KERSTEN, Star Tribune

March 9, 2008

Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy (TIZA) — named for the Muslim general who conquered medieval Spain — is a K-8 charter school in Inver Grove Heights. Its approximately 300 students are mostly the children of low-income Muslim immigrant families, many of them Somalis.

The school is in huge demand, with a waiting list of 1,500. Last fall, it opened a second campus in Blaine.

TIZA uses the language of culture rather than religion to describe its program in public documents. According to its mission statement, the school “recognizes and appreciates the traditions, histories, civilizations and accomplishments of the eastern world (Africa, Asia and Middle East).”

But the line between religion and culture is often blurry. There are strong indications that religion plays a central role at TIZA, which is a public school financed by Minnesota taxpayers. Under the U.S. and state constitutions, a public school can accommodate students’ religious beliefs but cannot encourage or endorse religion.

TIZA raises troubling issues about taxpayer funding of schools that cross that line.

Asad Zaman, TIZA’s principal, declined to allow me to visit the school or grant me an interview. He did not respond to e-mails seeking written replies.

TIZA’s strong religious connections date from its founding in 2003. Its co-founders, Zaman and Hesham Hussein, were both imams, or Muslim religious leaders, as well as leaders of the Muslim American Society of Minnesota (MAS-MN).

Since then, they have played dual roles: Zaman as TIZA’s principal and the current vice-president of MAS-MN, and Hussein as TIZA’s school board chair and president of MAS-MN until his death in a car accident in Saudi Arabia in January.

TIZA shares MAS-MN’s headquarters building, along with a mosque.

MAS-MN came to Minnesotans’ attention in 2006, when it issued a “fatwa,” warning Muslim taxi drivers at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport that transporting passengers with alcohol in their baggage is a violation of Islamic law.

Journalists whom Zaman has permitted to visit TIZA have described the school’s Islamic atmosphere and practices.

“A visitor might well mistake Tarek ibn Ziyad for an Islamic school,” reported Minnesota Monthly in 2007. “Head scarves are voluntary, but virtually all the girls wear them.” The school has a central carpeted prayer space, and “vaguely religious-sounding language” is used.

According to the Pioneer Press, TIZA’s student body prays daily and the school’s cafeteria serves halal food (permissible under Islamic law). During Ramadan, all students fast from dawn to dusk, according to a parent quoted in the article.

In fact, TIZA was originally envisioned as a private Islamic school. In 2001, MAS-MN negotiated to buy the current TIZA/MAS-MN building for Al-Amal School, a private religious institution in Fridley, according to Bruce Rimstad of the Inver Grove Heights School District. But many immigrant families can’t afford Al-Amal. In 2002, Islamic Relief — headquartered in California — agreed to sponsor a publicly funded charter school, TIZA, at the same location.

TIZA claims to be non-sectarian, as Minnesota law requires charters to be. But “after-school Islamic learning” takes place on weekdays in the same building under MAS-MN’s auspices, according to the program for MAS-MN’s 2007 convention. At that convention, a TIZA representative at the school’s booth told me that students go directly to “Islamic studies” classes at 3:30, when TIZA’s day ends. There, they learn “Qur’anic recitation, the Sunnah of the Prophet” and other religious subjects, he said.

TIZA’s 2006 Contract Performance Review Report states that students engage in unspecified “electives” after school or do homework.

Publicly, TIZA emphasizes that it uses standard curricular materials like those found in other public schools. But when addressing Muslim audiences, school officials make the link to Islam clear. At MAS-MN’s 2007 convention, for example, the program featured an advertisement for the “Muslim American Society of Minnesota,” superimposed on a picture of a mosque. Under the motto “Establishing Islam in Minnesota,” it asked: “Did you know that MAS-MN … houses a full-time elementary school”? On the adjacent page was an application for TIZA.

In addition to the issues raised by TIZA’s religious elements, there are reasons to be concerned about the organizations with which it is connected.

Group linked to Hamas

Islamic Relief-USA, the school’s sponsor, is compared to the Red Cross in several TIZA documents. In 2006, however, the Israeli government announced that Islamic Relief Worldwide, the organization’s parent group, “provides support and assistance” to Hamas, designated by the U.S. government as a terrorist group.

Meanwhile, MAS-MN offers on its web site “beneficial and enlightening information” about Islam, which includes statements like “Regularly make the intention to go on jihad with the ambition to die as a martyr.”

At its 2007 convention, MAS-MN featured the notorious Shayk Khalid Yasin, who is well-known in Britain and Australia for teaching that husbands can beat disobedient wives, that gays should be executed and that the United States spreads the AIDS virus in Africa through vaccines for tropical diseases.

Yasin’s topic? “Building a Successful Muslim Community in Minnesota.”

TIZA has improved the reading and math performance of its mostly low-income students. That’s commendable, but should Minnesota taxpayers be funding an Islamic public school?

Katherine Kersten • kkersten@startribune.com Join the conversation at my blog, Think Again, which can be found at www.startribune.com/thinkagain.

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– Smitty, 3-16-08