Labels: misanthropy

Labels: politics, society and culture

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Labels: firearms, security, society and culture

Janice Okubo, Director of Communications of the State of Hawaii Department of Health, told Israel Insider: 'At this time there are no circumstances in which the State of Hawaii Department of Health would issue a birth certification or certification of live birth only electronically.' And, she added, 'In the State of Hawaii all certified copies of certificates of live birth have the embossed seal and registrar signature on the back of the document.'

Labels: politics

Frias, a personal trainer from Millbrae, and Giamoni have known each other for years, but their hike up Mount Shasta on Saturday was their first major outing together. They made it up a trail close to the top, but the weather got bad, they became disoriented and headed back - taking a wrong, perilous path.

Soon they were in trouble on Whitney Glacier. They put out calls for help and then picked their way down, in winds so strong that at one point Giamoni was blown off her feet. Rescuers who swarmed the mountain over the next two days never saw them.

Labels: minutiae, spiritual, women

Energy analysts testified to Congress yesterday that the price of gas could fall to about half of it's price in about 30 days if Congress could only commit itself to act now;

Testifying to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Michael Masters of Masters Capital Management said that the price of oil would quickly drop closer to its marginal cost of around $65 to $75 a barrel, about half the current $135.

Fadel Gheit of Oppenheimer & Co., Edward Krapels of Energy Security Analysis and Roger Diwan of PFC Energy Consultants agreed with Masters' assessment at a hearing on proposed legislation to limit speculation in futures markets.

Krapels said that it wouldn't even take 30 days to drive prices lower, as fund managers quickly liquidated their positions in futures markets.

"Record oil prices are inflated by speculation and not justified by market fundamentals," according to Gheit. "Based on supply and demand fundamentals, crude-oil prices should not be above $60 per barrel."

Of course, that's the problem - the Democrat Congress won't act while there's Republican President. Democrats figure that the more Americans suffer, the better chance they have of winning the election in November.

Labels: financial ponderings, politics, society and culture

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Labels: resources

Labels: resources

As you may know Mountain House has curtailed all shipment of their freeze dried foods in cans throughout the U.S. until at least October of this year. I repeat, the supply from Mountain House has been cut and I fully believe that when their food in #10 cans is available again, it will be at much higher prices.

Labels: preparedness

Labels: gardening, preparedness

Labels: resources

- Morgan Stanley warns of a 'catastrophic event'. The point of maximum stress could occur in coming months if the European Central Bank (ECB) starts to raise rates and the Fed backs away from expected tightening. The rates differential "could trigger a 'catastrophic' event".

- The Global Europe Anticipation (LEAP/E2020) team is now convinced that this period will consist for the whole world in a major plunge into the heart of the phase of impact of the global systemic crisis. The upcoming six months are in fact the core of the unfolding crisis. The troubles met in the past 12 months were mere harbingers.

- In its latest quarterly report, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) warns that the credit crisis could lead world economies into a crash on a scale not seen since the 1930s.

- The Royal Bank of Scotland has advised clients to brace for a full fledged crash in global stock and credit markets over the next three months as inflation paralyses major central banks.

- Paulson & Co. Says Writedowns May Reach $1.3 Trillion

Our researchers insisted on that many times in the last two years: any comparison with the previous crises of our modern economy would be fallacious. It is neither a "remake" of the 1929 crisis nor a repetition of the 1970s oil crises or 1987 stock market crisis. It is truly a global systemic crisis, that is to say a crisis affecting the entire planet and questioning the very foundations of the international system upon which the world was organised in the last decades.

Labels: preparedness, watching the skies

Labels: health and lifestyle, personal responsibility, society and culture

Labels: felicity and jocularity

An attempted bank robbery in Canton played out like a scene from a movie Monday when a man who police say claimed to have a bomb was stopped by a customer armed with a pistol."

Labels: armed citizen

As one reads the Commission’s blueprint, it is clear that they intend to "activate" an "evolutionary" process in which they will reckon with "pathologies" (individuals) whom they consider to be of a lower species (egocentric mind) and unite and transcend their more highly-evolved (universal mind) civilization. As found in history's not-too-distant past, the portrayal is of an advancement of a superhuman race. Although the blueprint's views are not isolated to any one individual commissioner, this identical theme may be found in Commissioner Barbara Marx Hubbard's writings. Hubbard's book Happy Birthday Planet Earth which is quite small yet filled with threats, provides an overview of the impending "selection process".

We are instructed that everyone on the planet is to be given a choice—either transcend with the collective or face personal extinction. This is a theology which Desmond Tutu ought, and still has the opportunity, to denounce.

5The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise his authority for forty-two months. 6He opened his mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven. 7He was given power to make war against the saints and to conquer them. And he was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation. 8All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world. Rev 13:5-8

13Then I heard a voice from heaven say, "Write: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on."
"Yes," says the Spirit, "they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them." Rev 14:13

9After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. 10And they cried out in a loud voice:
"Salvation belongs to our God,
who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb." Rev 7:9-10

13Then one of the elders asked me, "These in white robes—who are they, and where did they come from?"

14I answered, "Sir, you know."

And he said, "These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15Therefore,
"they are before the throne of God
and serve him day and night in his temple;
and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them.
16Never again will they hunger;
never again will they thirst.
The sun will not beat upon them,
nor any scorching heat.
17For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd;
he will lead them to springs of living water.
And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes." Rev 7:13-17

11I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. 12His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. 13He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. 14The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. 15Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. "He will rule them with an iron scepter." He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. 16On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written:
KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.

17And I saw an angel standing in the sun, who cried in a loud voice to all the birds flying in midair, "Come, gather together for the great supper of God, 18so that you may eat the flesh of kings, generals, and mighty men, of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, small and great."

19Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against the rider on the horse and his army. 20But the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who had performed the miraculous signs on his behalf. With these signs he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped his image. The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. 21The rest of them were killed with the sword that came out of the mouth of the rider on the horse, and all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh.
Rev 19:11-19

Third Day--Never Bow Down

Take me from my home
Drag me with the tether
Tell me it's all wrong
The things I've always known
Instill in me all that you think
Will make all of us better
Do just what you want
It matters not to me

I will never bow down
though I know I will be saved from the fire
I will never compromise
All that I have and everything I hold

Call us all around
To show us what you have made
Command us all to fall
When the music starts to play

And everyone from everywhere
Will show you their allegiance
Bu the child of God
Will faithfully stand tall

Labels: watching the skies

Labels: felicity and jocularity, politics

The researchers found that women who drank two or three cups of caffeinated coffee daily had a 25 percent lower risk of death from heart disease during the follow-up (from 1980 to 2004) than non-drinkers. Women also had an 18 percent lower death risk from a cause other than cancer or heart disease compared with non-coffee drinkers.

For men, drinking two to three cups of caffeinated coffee daily was a "wash" -- not associated with either an increased or a decreased risk of death during the follow up, from 1986 to 2004.

...

In the past, studies have come up with mixed results on the health effects of coffee, with some finding coffee increased the risk of death and others not.

More recently, research has found coffee drinking linked with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes and some cancers, and preventing the development of cardiovascular disease, Lopez-Garcia said.

Labels: health and lifestyle

Bakken could be huge. The Geological Survey's Leigh Price, a Denver geochemist who died of a heart attack in 2000, estimated that the Bakken might hold 413 billion barrels. If so, it would dwarf Saudi Arabia's Ghawar, the world's biggest field, which has produced about 55 billion barrels.

The challenge is getting the oil out. Bakken crude is locked 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) underground in a layer of dolomite, a dense mineral that doesn't surrender oil the way more porous limestone does. The dolomite band is narrow, too, averaging just 22 feet (7 meters) in North Dakota.

The USGS said in April that the Bakken holds as much as 4.3 billion barrels that can be recovered using today's engineering techniques. That's a fraction of the oil that Price said should be there, but it's still the largest accumulation of crude in the 48 contiguous U.S. states.

Labels: politics, society and culture

Labels: watching the skies

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Tim Russert, who became a household name in American political discourse as host of NBC's 'Meet the Press' Sunday talk show, died on the job of a heart attack on Friday, the television network said. He was 58.

"The Forex markets are hit with the reality that the Fed cannot raise rates to defend the dollar without bringing down the stock market and the multi-trillion dollar derivatives mess, thus the dollar sold off sharply. The stock market is beginning to grasp that the Fed cannot lower rates to help the rapidly deteriorating economy without sending the dollar into the tank and causing all commodities (and precious metals) to take their long awaited trip to the moon, cementing the dreaded increased 'inflation expectations' in the public psyche. Yet doing nothing is not an option either. The inflation that is already in the pipeline will continue to increase, choking off an economy on life support. What then is the Fed to do?

Labels: home projects, minutiae

Bloggers are raising questions about Illinois Sen. Barack Obama's qualifications to be U.S. president, because of the secrecy over his birth certificate and the requirement presidents be 'natural-born' U.S. citizens.

Jim Geraghty, reporting on the Campaign Spot, cited the 'unlikely' but still circulating rumor that Obama was born not within the United States, but elsewhere, possibly Kenya.

Geraghty defined the concerns most clearly, stating: 'If Obama were born outside the United States, one could argue that he would not meet the legal definition of natural-born citizen … because U.S. law at the time of his birth required his natural-born parent (his mother) to have resided in the United States for '10 years, at least [f]ive of which had to be after the age of 16.

He then points out Ann Dunham, Obama's mother, was 18 when Obama was born 'so she wouldn't have met the requirement of five years after the age of 16.'

Labels: politics

A suburban Kansas City man accidentally fired a 2.5-inch nail into the top of his head, but says he now feels fine after a doctor used a claw hammer to remove it.

Labels: misanthropy

Labels: San Pedro homestead

Search the Internet for "Bush Lied" products, and you will find sites that offer more than a thousand designs. The basic "Bush Lied, People Died" bumper sticker is only the beginning.

Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence, set out to provide the official foundation for what has become not only a thriving business but, more important, an article of faith among millions of Americans. And in releasing a committee report Thursday, he claimed to have accomplished his mission, though he did not use the L-word.

"In making the case for war, the administration repeatedly presented intelligence as fact when it was unsubstantiated, contradicted or even nonexistent," he said.

There's no question that the administration, and particularly Vice President Cheney, spoke with too much certainty at times and failed to anticipate or prepare the American people for the enormous undertaking in Iraq.

But dive into Rockefeller's report, in search of where exactly President Bush lied about what his intelligence agencies were telling him about the threat posed by Saddam Hussein, and you may be surprised by what you find.

On Iraq's nuclear weapons program? The president's statements "were generally substantiated by intelligence community estimates."

On biological weapons, production capability and those infamous mobile laboratories? The president's statements "were substantiated by intelligence information."

On chemical weapons, then? "Substantiated by intelligence information."

On weapons of mass destruction overall (a separate section of the intelligence committee report)? "Generally substantiated by intelligence information." Delivery vehicles such as ballistic missiles? "Generally substantiated by available intelligence." Unmanned aerial vehicles that could be used to deliver WMDs? "Generally substantiated by intelligence information."

As you read through the report, you begin to think maybe you've mistakenly picked up the minority dissent. But, no, this is the Rockefeller indictment.

Labels: politics

EFFORTS TO PREPARE THE MEDIA BATTLESPACE:

The Left is very invested in both preemptively delegitimizing criticism of Obama and framing opponents as de facto bigots.

I can think of no better reason to vote against Obama than the prospect of an administration where any criticism of the President is treated as racism.

Labels: politics

Labels: heart

Labels: felicity and jocularity, politics

Labels: blogospheric navel-gazing

Labels: cats, felicity and jocularity

Labels: felicity and jocularity, politics

Dear Mr. Cat,
It's been 4 days since I atteneded the Obama rally in Portland. Last night, my dad couldnt get his bbq to light I think the igniter thing is broken, so I stared real hard at the brickets and imagined fire and boom! They lit right up. I've noticed lots of other wierd things I can do now - like this girl in third period who I like but who never talks to me - now I can just sit behind her and imagine her and me at the beach and I'm thirsty for a soda and she jumps up off the beach towel and gets me one, well, the yesterday morning she sits down with two Diet Dr. Peppers and turns around and asks me if I want one! She never even talks to me. I've started imagineing other things with her too.

OK, last thing that is pretty strange, I was skating with Snake and Bolthead down at the Mormon church parking lot and we were grinding off the handrails and all of a sudden I popped a triple Sparkdog with a upper Nut Twister McSwirly and as I came off the end of the rail instead of crashing like I always do I started elavating really high into the air and like Bolthead was freaking out and I squirted a Super Jimmy in the middle of the ride and landed on some dude's Prius. Snake was cussing because his cellphone cam wasn't working he said I was a pro now.

Obama has changed my life for the better. Its pretty audacieous.

Labels: felicity and jocularity, politics

Labels: San Pedro homestead

Is it OK to cheat on your taxes? A total of 57 percent of those who described themselves as "very liberal" said yes in response to the World Values Survey, compared with only 20 percent of those who are "very conservative." When Pew Research asked whether it was “morally wrong” to cheat Uncle Sam, 86 percent of conservatives agreed, compared with only 68 percent of liberals.

Ponder this scenario, offered by the National Cultural Values Survey: "You lose your job. Your friend’s company is looking for someone to do temporary work. They are willing to pay the person in cash to avoid taxes and allow the person to still collect unemployment. What would you do?"

Almost half, or 49 percent, of self-described progressives would go along with the scheme, but only 21 percent of conservatives said they would.

When the World Values Survey asked a similar question, the results were largely the same: Those who were very liberal were much more likely to say it was all right to get welfare benefits you didn’t deserve.

The World Values Survey found that those on the left were also much more likely to say it is OK to buy goods that you know are stolen. Studies have also found that those on the left were more likely to say it was OK to drink a can of soda in a store without paying for it and to avoid the truth while negotiating the price of a car.

The honesty gap is also not a result of "bad people" becoming liberals and "good people" becoming conservatives. In my mind, a more likely explanation is bad ideas. Modern liberalism is infused with idea that truth is relative. Surveys consistently show this. And if truth is relative, it also must follow that honesty is subjective.

Sixties organizer Saul Alinsky, who both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton say inspired and influenced them, once said the effective political advocate "doesn't have a fixed truth; truth to him is relative and changing, everything to him is relative and changing. He is a political relativist."

During this political season, honesty is often in short supply. But at least we can improve things by accepting the idea that truth and honesty exist. As the late scholar Sidney Hook put it, "the easiest rationalization for the refusal to seek the truth is the denial that truth exists."

Labels: San Pedro homestead