Posts
Like Fox News, I report; you decide.
· Should Christians celebrate Kwanzaa?
· Is it an authentic African harvest festival?
· Is it an anti-American, anti-Christian, and racist fraud?
· Is it another battleground in the culture war?
Kwanzaa was started around 1978 by a U.C.L.A. professor of Black Studies, Ron Karenga, a.k.a. Ron N. Everett. Everett was the founder of "United Slaves." Members were to follow "the path of blackness" which meant they were to "think black, talk black, act black, create black, buy black, vote black, and live black."
In 1971, Everett was tried and convicted of two felony counts of torture and one count of false imprisonment. These crimes were committed against two female members of United Slaves. Everett was sentenced to one to ten years; he served four.
Other United Slave members committed beatings, shootings, assaults, and robberies, including the 1969 murder of two Black Panther members who were professors of Black Studies at U.C.L.A.
In 1975, Everett was released from prison. He changed his name to Ron Karenga and gave himself the title "Maulana" or "Master Teacher." He also converted to Marxism.
Karenga/Everett was appointed head of the U.C.L.A. Department of Black Studies in 1979.
Kwanzaa was an invention of Karenga/Everett. According to the official website, the purpose of Kwanzaa is to "enhance the revolutionary social changes for the masses of Black Americans." Kwanzaa is celebrated from December 26th to January 1st. Karenga/Everett explained this choice of dates as "that's when a lot of bloods would be partying."
Although claiming it was an authentic African harvest festival, no culture anywhere celebrates the harvest in December. One of the important symbols of Kwanzaa is corn, which is not native to Africa. Corn was imported to Africa from Mexico and North America by European slave traders.
Like all Marxists, Karenga/Everett opposed religion. The 1977 book Kwanzaa: Origin, Concepts, Practice states, "Kwanzaa is...an oppositional alternative to the spookism, mysticism, and non-earth based practices which plague us as a people and encourage our withdrawal from social life rather than our bold confrontation with it." In 1980, in Kawaida Theory, he wrote in opposition to both "Christian and Jewish mythology as well as belief in God and other 'spooks' who threaten us if we don't worship them and demand we turn over our destiny and daily lives.
Marxism is the direct source of several of Kwanzaa's Seven Principles. These include "collective work and responsibility," "cooperative economics," "self-determination" and "collective vocation or purpose."
The official Kawanzaa flag is black, green, and red. It is "the symbol of devotion for African people in America to establish an independent African nation on the North American Continent." The red represents blood because, "we lost our land through blood; and we cannot gain it except through blood. We must redeem our lives through the blood. Without the shedding of blood there can be no redemption of this race." Of course, Karenga/Everett is not talking about the redemptive blood of Jesus Christ. Rather, he advocates guerrilla war and violence, as needed, to establish a separate African-American nation.
The Kwanzaa pledge to their flag is suppose to be part of every Kwanzaa celebration, according to their website. The pledge reads:
" We pledge allegiance to the red, black, and green, our flag, the symbol of our eternal struggle, and to the land we must obtain; one nation of black people, with one God of us all, totally united in the struggle, for black love, black freedom, and black self-determination."
As Scripture warns, "Our people are destroyed by lack of knowledge." The media masks the origins and agenda of Kwanzaa. President Clinton was the first president to give official recognition to Kwanzaa. President George W. Bush has continued it. The U.S. Postal Service issued its first Kwanzaa stamp in 1997. The taxpayer-supported Smithsonian Institute sponsors an annual Kwanzaa celebration.
James Coleman, an ex-Black Panther, wrote: "By only stressing the unity of black people, Kwanzaa separates black people from the rest of Americans."
I submit to you that Kwanzaa is:
· a festival founded by a black segregationist or racist
· with roots in violence and murder
· celebrates a phony or non-existent African history and culture
· advocates a failed economic system (communism).
As such, Christians and patriotic Americans should not celebrate Kwanzaa. Because of its opposition to other religions, it should not be endorsed by any branch of government, and taxpayer dollars should not be spent on it.
You decide.
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Thursday, August 23, 2007
More Global Warming Absurdity: Blame Belching Moose
The IPCC blamed mankind for global warming in its latest reports this Spring. We were told that pollution from excess CO2 emissions from coal-fired plants and auto emissions was wrecking havoc on the earth. Unless we wanted the oceans to rise and flood all our coastal areas, we had better make radical changes in our lifestyles.
Lo and behold, humans are not the only culprits. We may not even be the primary contributors. Other animals are polluters, too.
Norwegian researchers have reported that moose belching is contributing to global warming. According to Professor Odd Harstad at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, the average moose “emits about 100 kilograms of methane gas a year.” The estimate is based on the emissions from cattle, which are also notorious methane gas producers.
Harstad goes on to explain that methane is 21 times more potent than CO2 in its effect on global warming. “With an estimated 140,000 moose roaming Norway's forests, that is a total of 294,000,000 kilograms of CO2 per year” produced by Norwegian moose.
“Across the globe there are estimated to be over 2 million moose with the highest numbers in Canada, Russia, United States and Sweden” (http://www.unsolvedmysteries.com/usm414112.html). Therefore, 2,000,000 moose worldwide x 100 kilograms of methane per moose per year = 200,000,000 (200 million) kilograms of methane produced by moose annually. That is the equivalent of 4,200,000,000 (4.2 trillion) kilograms of CO2 produced by the world’s moose annually (200,000,000 x 21), using Professor Harstad's formula.
All ruminants (cows, deer, moose, etc.) produce methane. That is why George Will recently suggested we should give up our Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. Besides the fuel costs of raising and feeding cows and transporting their milk, the cows themselves are guilty of producing “eight gallons of methane” for every four gallons of milk (quoted in The Patriot Post, August 17, 2007). According to Mr. Will, “the world meat industry produces 18 percent of the world’s greenhouse-gas emissions, more than transportation produces.” Who knew?
Now, please excuse me. The temperature today in Jacksonville is in the nineties. I hear my Haagen Daz calling to me from the freezer: “Come to me, I will give you some cooling refreshment.”
Lo and behold, humans are not the only culprits. We may not even be the primary contributors. Other animals are polluters, too.
Norwegian researchers have reported that moose belching is contributing to global warming. According to Professor Odd Harstad at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, the average moose “emits about 100 kilograms of methane gas a year.” The estimate is based on the emissions from cattle, which are also notorious methane gas producers.
Harstad goes on to explain that methane is 21 times more potent than CO2 in its effect on global warming. “With an estimated 140,000 moose roaming Norway's forests, that is a total of 294,000,000 kilograms of CO2 per year” produced by Norwegian moose.
“Across the globe there are estimated to be over 2 million moose with the highest numbers in Canada, Russia, United States and Sweden” (http://www.unsolvedmysteries.com/usm414112.html). Therefore, 2,000,000 moose worldwide x 100 kilograms of methane per moose per year = 200,000,000 (200 million) kilograms of methane produced by moose annually. That is the equivalent of 4,200,000,000 (4.2 trillion) kilograms of CO2 produced by the world’s moose annually (200,000,000 x 21), using Professor Harstad's formula.
All ruminants (cows, deer, moose, etc.) produce methane. That is why George Will recently suggested we should give up our Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. Besides the fuel costs of raising and feeding cows and transporting their milk, the cows themselves are guilty of producing “eight gallons of methane” for every four gallons of milk (quoted in The Patriot Post, August 17, 2007). According to Mr. Will, “the world meat industry produces 18 percent of the world’s greenhouse-gas emissions, more than transportation produces.” Who knew?
Now, please excuse me. The temperature today in Jacksonville is in the nineties. I hear my Haagen Daz calling to me from the freezer: “Come to me, I will give you some cooling refreshment.”
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Don't Count 'em; Deport 'em!
The U.S. Census Bureau stepped in it big time when it suggested they might ask that enforcement efforts against illegal immigrants be suspended by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.) during the 2010 census count. This was reported by U.S.A. Today and others on Thursday, August 16, 2007.
"We're supposed to count every resident. If you go out and ask, 'Are you here illegally?' they are going to run," said Kenneth Prewitt, who directed the Census Bureau during the 2000 census. According to Deputy Director Preston Jay Waite, deportations were suspended during the 2000 count.
The reaction to this trial balloon was swift. Anti-illegal immigration activists were outraged that one government agency would ask another to violate the law. To quell the furor, I.C.E. spokesperson Kelly Nantel said on Friday, August 17th, "I don't want there to be any question in the American people's mind as to whether or not ICE would suspend enforcement efforts. The answer to that is emphatically no."
The Census Bureau backpedaled on Saturday, August 18th with a press release. In it, Census Bureau Director Louis Kincannon claimed media reports regarding interagency coordination were inaccurate. Her statement was:
"The Census Bureau has not requested that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency refrain from enforcing immigration laws. While previous Administrations sought to have law enforcement raids curtailed somewhat to help obtain greater accuracy, we respect ICE's statement that they will not suspend raids even if a decision were made to ask them to do so. The Census Bureau fully recognizes that times have changed, with new challenges facing immigration authorities, and Census will change with those times."
"For the Census Bureau to be successful in getting an accurate count of all residents (as mandated by Article I, Section 2, of the Constitution), the Census Bureau will rely heavily on trusted individuals and organizations within hard to count populations to partner with us to increase public awareness that it’s important and safe to participate in the 2010 Census."
"The Census Bureau will complete its mission to count everyone and regrets any misimpression we left."
Isn't that special? Although activists like Arturo Vargas, executive director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, would be horrified, I think it would be a wonderful idea if the census takers were accompanied by I.C.E. officials. It would satisfy constitutional requirements if illegal aliens were arrested and deported before they could be counted.
"We're supposed to count every resident. If you go out and ask, 'Are you here illegally?' they are going to run," said Kenneth Prewitt, who directed the Census Bureau during the 2000 census. According to Deputy Director Preston Jay Waite, deportations were suspended during the 2000 count.
The reaction to this trial balloon was swift. Anti-illegal immigration activists were outraged that one government agency would ask another to violate the law. To quell the furor, I.C.E. spokesperson Kelly Nantel said on Friday, August 17th, "I don't want there to be any question in the American people's mind as to whether or not ICE would suspend enforcement efforts. The answer to that is emphatically no."
The Census Bureau backpedaled on Saturday, August 18th with a press release. In it, Census Bureau Director Louis Kincannon claimed media reports regarding interagency coordination were inaccurate. Her statement was:
"The Census Bureau has not requested that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency refrain from enforcing immigration laws. While previous Administrations sought to have law enforcement raids curtailed somewhat to help obtain greater accuracy, we respect ICE's statement that they will not suspend raids even if a decision were made to ask them to do so. The Census Bureau fully recognizes that times have changed, with new challenges facing immigration authorities, and Census will change with those times."
"For the Census Bureau to be successful in getting an accurate count of all residents (as mandated by Article I, Section 2, of the Constitution), the Census Bureau will rely heavily on trusted individuals and organizations within hard to count populations to partner with us to increase public awareness that it’s important and safe to participate in the 2010 Census."
"The Census Bureau will complete its mission to count everyone and regrets any misimpression we left."
Isn't that special? Although activists like Arturo Vargas, executive director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, would be horrified, I think it would be a wonderful idea if the census takers were accompanied by I.C.E. officials. It would satisfy constitutional requirements if illegal aliens were arrested and deported before they could be counted.
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Attack on Yazidis: What Iraq Will Look Like if American Troops Withdraw Prematurely
Horrific suicide bomber attacks were made upon Yazidis in northern Iraq earlier this week. The Yazidis are "a small Kurdish-speaking sect that has been targeted by Muslim extremists who consider its members to be blasphemers." They live in a remote area where there are few American troops.
"This is an act of ethnic cleansing, if you will, almost genocide," Army Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon, commander of U.S. forces in northern Iraq, told CNN.
Those who are calling for immediate or near-term withdrawal of American troops from Iraq need to look closely at the pictures from these attacks. They are stomach-turning. Yet, this is what Iraq will look like if American troops are withdrawn prematurely, before Iraqi forces are ready to take over their country's security.
Do Americans want to see night after night of ethnic cleansing -- the results of civil war -- from Iraq on an unimaginable scale? I don't. Yes, we have seen many pictures and reports of suicide bombings and sectarian attacks on civilians for the past three years. They will look like a walk in the park compared to what will come if we withdraw early.
Do we remember the horrors of Rwandaa and Kosovo? Are we aware of what has been happening in the Sudan? Are those the kind of pictures we want with our dinner every night on the evening news or with our breakfast on the morning news shows? I believe that is exactly what we will see if we leave Iraq before the Iraqis are ready politically and militarily to secure their country and establish a viable democracy.
Our withdrawal would result in a bloodbath of ethnic cleansing: a holocaust. I agree there has been abundant mismanagement of the military efforts to establish the peace in Iraq after defeating Saddam Hussein. Donald Rumsfeld and his team served President Bush poorly in not planning effectively for the aftermath of the removal of Hussein. Nonetheless, I do not want us to be responsible for the deaths and injuries of millions of Iraqis in a civil war.
Hatred of President Bush has blinded many liberals to the raw reality of what would happen if Iraq descends into a full civil war. Ironically, these same liberals were quick to advocate our intervention into the Kosovo battles between ethnic Albanians and the Serbs. They have condemned our failure to intervene in Rwandaa, a bloodbath between ethnic tribes. These same anti-Iraq war protesters are critical that the U.S. has not rushed in to resolve the conflict in Darfur between Northern (Muslim) and Southern (Christian) Sudanese.
All of these are civil wars between ethnic or sectarian rivals. Why, if it is a moral imperative for us to rescue the underdogs in the civil wars in Rwandaa, Kosovo, and the Sudan, would it not be so to prevent a bloodbath in an Iraq civil war?
President George Washington wisely warned us in his Farewell Address to avoid "foreign involvements." I would respect a viewpoint that says the United States should remain neutral and avoid involvement in civil strife in other countries. But, I believe it is pure hypocrisy to advocate intervention in these other cases and not in Iraq.
"This is an act of ethnic cleansing, if you will, almost genocide," Army Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon, commander of U.S. forces in northern Iraq, told CNN.
Those who are calling for immediate or near-term withdrawal of American troops from Iraq need to look closely at the pictures from these attacks. They are stomach-turning. Yet, this is what Iraq will look like if American troops are withdrawn prematurely, before Iraqi forces are ready to take over their country's security.
Do Americans want to see night after night of ethnic cleansing -- the results of civil war -- from Iraq on an unimaginable scale? I don't. Yes, we have seen many pictures and reports of suicide bombings and sectarian attacks on civilians for the past three years. They will look like a walk in the park compared to what will come if we withdraw early.
Do we remember the horrors of Rwandaa and Kosovo? Are we aware of what has been happening in the Sudan? Are those the kind of pictures we want with our dinner every night on the evening news or with our breakfast on the morning news shows? I believe that is exactly what we will see if we leave Iraq before the Iraqis are ready politically and militarily to secure their country and establish a viable democracy.
Our withdrawal would result in a bloodbath of ethnic cleansing: a holocaust. I agree there has been abundant mismanagement of the military efforts to establish the peace in Iraq after defeating Saddam Hussein. Donald Rumsfeld and his team served President Bush poorly in not planning effectively for the aftermath of the removal of Hussein. Nonetheless, I do not want us to be responsible for the deaths and injuries of millions of Iraqis in a civil war.
Hatred of President Bush has blinded many liberals to the raw reality of what would happen if Iraq descends into a full civil war. Ironically, these same liberals were quick to advocate our intervention into the Kosovo battles between ethnic Albanians and the Serbs. They have condemned our failure to intervene in Rwandaa, a bloodbath between ethnic tribes. These same anti-Iraq war protesters are critical that the U.S. has not rushed in to resolve the conflict in Darfur between Northern (Muslim) and Southern (Christian) Sudanese.
All of these are civil wars between ethnic or sectarian rivals. Why, if it is a moral imperative for us to rescue the underdogs in the civil wars in Rwandaa, Kosovo, and the Sudan, would it not be so to prevent a bloodbath in an Iraq civil war?
President George Washington wisely warned us in his Farewell Address to avoid "foreign involvements." I would respect a viewpoint that says the United States should remain neutral and avoid involvement in civil strife in other countries. But, I believe it is pure hypocrisy to advocate intervention in these other cases and not in Iraq.
Monday, August 13, 2007
How to Escape a Car in Water
Following the tragic bridge collapse in Minneapolis, many are more nervous crossing bridges. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates 600 people die yearly in immersed vehicles. According to the agency, 2,000 nonfatal crashes occurred in 2004 in which vehicles were immersed, and 282 fatal immersions occurred. Here is how to survive a car sinking in water.
It is a myth that one should wait until the car is completely submerged to open the door. Get out as quickly as possible. It takes from 30 seconds to up to 4 minutes for a vehicle to completely submerge.
Think S.O.S. GO:
S = stay calm
O = open window
S = release seatbelt
GO = Get Out
Panic is a natural reaction to an emergency, but it is important to get control of it. Try slowing your breathing as you open your windows and unbuckle your seatbelt.
It may seem counterintuitive to open your car windows when water is rising around you. However, your best chance of escaping your car will be through a window. If your car has electric windows, you will have a few seconds before the electrical system shorts out in water. You must break one out if you are unable to lower the windows. Keep a hammer or a special tool called "window punch" within reach (“velcroed” to the visor or in the center console).
The car will sink engine first. The best chance for an air pocket, therefore, will be in the backseat.
Swim for the surface as soon as you are free of the car. Look for light above or follow air bubbles if you are disoriented. Shed shoes and heavy clothing, if possible. Watch for obstacles in the water. If you are unable to swim to shore, look for something substantial to grab hold of and hang on until rescue arrives.
For more information, go to:
http://www.sos.state.il.us/publications/rules_of_the_road/rr_chap10.html
http://www.lsp.org/submerged.html
http://www.whynot.net/ideas/2491
http://www.wikihow.com/Escape-from-a-Sinking-Car
It is a myth that one should wait until the car is completely submerged to open the door. Get out as quickly as possible. It takes from 30 seconds to up to 4 minutes for a vehicle to completely submerge.
Think S.O.S. GO:
S = stay calm
O = open window
S = release seatbelt
GO = Get Out
Panic is a natural reaction to an emergency, but it is important to get control of it. Try slowing your breathing as you open your windows and unbuckle your seatbelt.
It may seem counterintuitive to open your car windows when water is rising around you. However, your best chance of escaping your car will be through a window. If your car has electric windows, you will have a few seconds before the electrical system shorts out in water. You must break one out if you are unable to lower the windows. Keep a hammer or a special tool called "window punch" within reach (“velcroed” to the visor or in the center console).
The car will sink engine first. The best chance for an air pocket, therefore, will be in the backseat.
Swim for the surface as soon as you are free of the car. Look for light above or follow air bubbles if you are disoriented. Shed shoes and heavy clothing, if possible. Watch for obstacles in the water. If you are unable to swim to shore, look for something substantial to grab hold of and hang on until rescue arrives.
For more information, go to:
http://www.sos.state.il.us/publications/rules_of_the_road/rr_chap10.html
http://www.lsp.org/submerged.html
http://www.whynot.net/ideas/2491
http://www.wikihow.com/Escape-from-a-Sinking-Car
Sunday, August 12, 2007
It's About Time: Chertoff Announces Tighter Enforcement of Laws that Prohibit Employing Illegal Aliens
Friday, August 10th, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced that his department would ramp up enforcement of laws that forbid employers from hiring illegal aliens. It is about time. "The changes, which would stiffen work-site enforcement, add border agents and increase penalties for rogue employers, could cause havoc in immigrant-dependent industries like agriculture, hospitality and healthcare, Chertoff acknowledged. 'There will be some unhappy consequences for the economy out of doing this,' he said in an interview with The [Los Angeles] Times." (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-immig11aug11,1,3189676.story?track=rss )
Does this mean that President Bush and his administration have had a change of heart regarding comprehensive immigration reform? Don't bet on it. In fact, the above article in the Los Angeles Times hints that this new enforcement crackdown may be a deliberate attempt to punish and threaten those who opposed the recently defeated immigration reform legislation. Bush may be hoping that the Congress will be pressured to reconsider his comprehensive immigration reform, including a "pathway" to citizenship for the 12-20 million illegal aliens already here by causing serious damage to the economy.
Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez remarked, "We do not have the workers our economy needs to keep growing each year. The demographics simply are not on our side. Ultimately, Congress will have to pass comprehensive immigration reform." He echoed Chertoff who said, "I'm not a lawmaker, but I presume, at some point, somebody's going to take a look and say, 'We've got to find a way to address this problem,' and that's probably going to require some legal changes."
Will this new enforcement effort cause economic hardships? Most likely, it will in the short-term. Industries and businesses who have become hooked on employing cheap illegal alien labor will have to adjust their employment practices. They may struggle to find enough new hires to replace their illegal employees. They will have training expenses that will impact productivity. They may have to increase wages to find qualified legal workers, which would require adjusting their prices or cutting their profit margins.
Consumers are equally addicted to the cheap prices that accompany the use of illegal aliens as employees. U.S. consumers may need to accept that prices will increase if they want to rid this country of illegal aliens. Stricter enforcement of these anti-illegal immigrant employment laws may result in some increase in the rate of inflation. However, this tendency will be modified by the laws of supply-and-demand if more illegal aliens self-deport, a trend that is increasing according to ALIPAC. It should be obvious that the presence of 12-20 million illegal aliens puts pressure on the supply of goods and services and that means pressure on prices, too.
However, the long-term impact on the economy and the country as a whole will be nothing but positive. The evidence is overwhelming that illegal immigration is costing us far more than it benefits us. I agree with Rep. Brian P. Bilbray (R-Solano Beach) who said, "If there's some pain, it's not because we didn't have amnesty. It's because we didn't enforce the law 20 years ago when we should have."
Those of us who oppose this administration's amnesty scams for illegal aliens must keep very vigilant. We need to closely watch that Congress does not waffle when unions, businesses and illegal immigrant supporters pressure them. The first thing to be on the alert for would be efforts to increase the number of temporary agricultural workers or skilled IT workers. Those need to be blocked by quick lobbying responses from those of us who want illegal immigration to stop.
Does this mean that President Bush and his administration have had a change of heart regarding comprehensive immigration reform? Don't bet on it. In fact, the above article in the Los Angeles Times hints that this new enforcement crackdown may be a deliberate attempt to punish and threaten those who opposed the recently defeated immigration reform legislation. Bush may be hoping that the Congress will be pressured to reconsider his comprehensive immigration reform, including a "pathway" to citizenship for the 12-20 million illegal aliens already here by causing serious damage to the economy.
Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez remarked, "We do not have the workers our economy needs to keep growing each year. The demographics simply are not on our side. Ultimately, Congress will have to pass comprehensive immigration reform." He echoed Chertoff who said, "I'm not a lawmaker, but I presume, at some point, somebody's going to take a look and say, 'We've got to find a way to address this problem,' and that's probably going to require some legal changes."
Will this new enforcement effort cause economic hardships? Most likely, it will in the short-term. Industries and businesses who have become hooked on employing cheap illegal alien labor will have to adjust their employment practices. They may struggle to find enough new hires to replace their illegal employees. They will have training expenses that will impact productivity. They may have to increase wages to find qualified legal workers, which would require adjusting their prices or cutting their profit margins.
Consumers are equally addicted to the cheap prices that accompany the use of illegal aliens as employees. U.S. consumers may need to accept that prices will increase if they want to rid this country of illegal aliens. Stricter enforcement of these anti-illegal immigrant employment laws may result in some increase in the rate of inflation. However, this tendency will be modified by the laws of supply-and-demand if more illegal aliens self-deport, a trend that is increasing according to ALIPAC. It should be obvious that the presence of 12-20 million illegal aliens puts pressure on the supply of goods and services and that means pressure on prices, too.
However, the long-term impact on the economy and the country as a whole will be nothing but positive. The evidence is overwhelming that illegal immigration is costing us far more than it benefits us. I agree with Rep. Brian P. Bilbray (R-Solano Beach) who said, "If there's some pain, it's not because we didn't have amnesty. It's because we didn't enforce the law 20 years ago when we should have."
Those of us who oppose this administration's amnesty scams for illegal aliens must keep very vigilant. We need to closely watch that Congress does not waffle when unions, businesses and illegal immigrant supporters pressure them. The first thing to be on the alert for would be efforts to increase the number of temporary agricultural workers or skilled IT workers. Those need to be blocked by quick lobbying responses from those of us who want illegal immigration to stop.
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Rasmussen Reports Poll: Real People Are Polled
In case you wonder if real people are polled by polling companies like Gallup, Zogby, and Rasmussen, the answer is "yes." I was polled by Rasmussen Reports on Thursday, August 9th. It was an automated telephone poll of "likely voters" that was quite lengthy. The questions ranged from my opinion of President George Bush to the presidential primary candidates to my political ideological bent to homeland security issues. It was fun to participate.
This is the second time I have been polled in a national political poll. Gallup called me a number of years ago. so, real people do answer these polls that the news media thrive on during political season.
Rasmussen Reports is one of the more reliable polls because of their methodology. They came closest to accurately predicting the outcome of the 2006 presidential race between Bush and Kerry. They survey "likely voters" with a balanced weighting to reflect the population. (See http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/about_us/methodology for details of their poll design )
The results of the Rasmussen poll I participated in were reported on Friday, August 10th. According to Yahoo! News, "this national telephone survey of 800 Likely Voters was conducted by Rasmussen Reports August 8-9, 2007. The margin of sampling error for the survey is +/- 3.5 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence." (http://news.yahoo.com/s/rasmussen/20070810/pl_rasmussen/wiretapping20070810_1 )
Here are the results of some of the questions I remember and how I answered them. Then, I note the results reported by Rasmussen. (Caution: The questions may not be the exact wording used in the poll; they are how I recall them. Nearly all the possible answers included the option "unsure," which I have not noted below since I did not select that for any of mine. When it comes to politics, I always have an opinion!)
This is the second time I have been polled in a national political poll. Gallup called me a number of years ago. so, real people do answer these polls that the news media thrive on during political season.
Rasmussen Reports is one of the more reliable polls because of their methodology. They came closest to accurately predicting the outcome of the 2006 presidential race between Bush and Kerry. They survey "likely voters" with a balanced weighting to reflect the population. (See http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/about_us/methodology for details of their poll design )
The results of the Rasmussen poll I participated in were reported on Friday, August 10th. According to Yahoo! News, "this national telephone survey of 800 Likely Voters was conducted by Rasmussen Reports August 8-9, 2007. The margin of sampling error for the survey is +/- 3.5 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence." (http://news.yahoo.com/s/rasmussen/20070810/pl_rasmussen/wiretapping20070810_1 )
Here are the results of some of the questions I remember and how I answered them. Then, I note the results reported by Rasmussen. (Caution: The questions may not be the exact wording used in the poll; they are how I recall them. Nearly all the possible answers included the option "unsure," which I have not noted below since I did not select that for any of mine. When it comes to politics, I always have an opinion!)
- What is your opinion of the job President Bush is doing? Excellent? Good? Fair? Poor? I answered "Good" as did 21% of respondents. Overall, 39% approve of the President's job performance and 58% disapprove. (http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/political_updates/president_bush_job_approval )
- If the Republican primary were held today, who would you vote for? Thompson? Guiliani? Romney? McCain? Other? I answered "other." Then, I was given the names of the "second-tier" candidates. I voted for "Tom Tancredo." The results were Thompson, 19%; Guiliani, 28%; Romney, 12%, McCain, 10%, and 31% either Other or Unsure. (http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/election_2008__1/daily_presidential_tracking_polling_history )
- Do you believe Rudy Guiliani is Conservative? Moderate? Liberal? I answered "Liberal." The poll's results were 30% Conservative, 46% Moderate, and 12% Liberal. (http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/favorables/election_2008_republican_candidates_running_in_2008_presidential_election )
- Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of Rudy Guiliani? I hold an "unfavorable" opinion as do 42% of other likely Republican voters. Fifty percent are "favorable." (http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/favorables/election_2008_republican_candidates_running_in_2008_presidential_election )
- If the presidential election were held today, who would you vote for: John Edwards? Rudy Guiliani? Other? I answered "other" because I would vote third party if Guiliani gets the Republican nomination. I will never, ever vote for a pro-choice Republican. In that match-up, Edwards would win 49% to 42%, according to the poll. (http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/favorables/election_2008_republican_candidates_running_in_2008_presidential_election )
- If the presidential election were held today, who would you vote for: Fred Thompson? John Edwards? Other? I answered "Thompson" as did 39% of all polled. Edwards won 50% of likely voters. (http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/favorables/election_2008_republican_candidates_running_in_2008_presidential_election )
- Do you believe allowing the government to intercept phone calls from foreign suspected terrorists makes America safer? I was included in the 59% of all voters and 79% of Republicans who answered "Yes." (http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/59_say_intercepting_phone_calls_from_foreign_suspects_makes_usa_safer )
- Did Congress vote recently to allow the government to expand its ability to intercept phone calls of foreign terrorist suspects and other electronic communications without warrants? I was also among the 34% who were aware that Congress had approved the legislation allowing this without warrants. Thirty percent incorrectly said Congress rejected it and 36% were unsure. (http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/59_say_intercepting_phone_calls_from_foreign_suspects_makes_usa_safer )
- Does the government worry too much about individual rights or national security too much or is the balance about right? I answered "about right" as did 29% of those polled. Thirty-four percent said it worries too much about individual rights and 27% said it is too concerned about national security. There is marked differences between Republicans and Democrats on this question. Democrats line up 39% that the government is too worried about national security whereas only 12% Republicans said that. Fifty-two percent of Republicans believe that concern for individual rights is excessive versus 12% who say national security concerns are excessive. (http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/59_say_intercepting_phone_calls_from_foreign_suspects_makes_usa_safer )
- Who do you trust more to keep the balance between concerns regarding individual rights and national security needs? Democrats or the President? I said "the President" along with 41% of pollees. Forty-eight percent trust Democrats more. (http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/59_say_intercepting_phone_calls_from_foreign_suspects_makes_usa_safer )
Friday, August 3, 2007
Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor's Porch Night
August 8th is National Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor's Porch Night, according to allrecipes.com . The holiday was established by Pennsylvanian Tom Roy to encourage sharing of this prolific vegetable. Any hobby farmer or home gardener who has grown zucchini understands why this holiday was established.
The website http://allrecipes.com/HowTo/Sneak-Some-Zucchini-Onto-Your-Neighbors-Porch-Night/Detail.aspx?ARBMID=1174&ARFMTID=1 has a tongue-in-cheek list of unendorsed activities to engage in if you wish to celebrate this day.
By the way, allrecipes.com is an excellent website for food fans and cooking enthusiasts. Their email newsletter is an excellent source of food news and recipes. That's how I found out about this important food holiday.
The website http://allrecipes.com/HowTo/Sneak-Some-Zucchini-Onto-Your-Neighbors-Porch-Night/Detail.aspx?ARBMID=1174&ARFMTID=1 has a tongue-in-cheek list of unendorsed activities to engage in if you wish to celebrate this day.
By the way, allrecipes.com is an excellent website for food fans and cooking enthusiasts. Their email newsletter is an excellent source of food news and recipes. That's how I found out about this important food holiday.
Conversion on the Road to Des Moines: McCain Sponsors Border Security Only Bill
According to the Associated Press, Sen. McCain has converted. He is sponsoring new legislation that provides stronger border security without any path to citizenship for illegal aliens. The bill also includes "an electronic system for employers to check workers' citizenship status and requires illegal immigrants who commit a crime to be held in jail until they are deported."
Obviously, this is a political move on the part of Senator McCain. After years of sponsoring bills that included various amnesty schemes for illegals, no Republican should be fooled by McCain's sudden conversion on the road to Iowa's straw poll. Most anti-illegal immigration groups are dismissing it. I certainly hope no Iowa Republicans will switch their vote to McCain because of this.
However, as an opponent to illegal immigration, I urge all of us to get behind this bill. It contains the kind of provisions that are needed for our country to stop the invasion of illegal aliens. Yes, throw McCain overboard as far as his presidential aspirations, but keep this legislation.
Obviously, this is a political move on the part of Senator McCain. After years of sponsoring bills that included various amnesty schemes for illegals, no Republican should be fooled by McCain's sudden conversion on the road to Iowa's straw poll. Most anti-illegal immigration groups are dismissing it. I certainly hope no Iowa Republicans will switch their vote to McCain because of this.
However, as an opponent to illegal immigration, I urge all of us to get behind this bill. It contains the kind of provisions that are needed for our country to stop the invasion of illegal aliens. Yes, throw McCain overboard as far as his presidential aspirations, but keep this legislation.
Monday, July 30, 2007
More Global Warming Silliness: Chuck Those Neckties
Former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, in 2005, asked his "ministers to wear no ties and jackets this coming summer, as it will help save energy." Recently, the European Union's Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy recommended that his fellow E.U. Commissioners chuck their neckties after he returned from a trip to Japan. He told them, "I noted in Japan that Prime Minister [Shinzo] Abe has given the lead in telling his ministers and civil servants not to wear ties in summertime. This allows office temperatures to be set higher and so cut down on energy use for cooling of offices." McCreevey added that taking this step would be "a potential contribution from the Commission to reduce global warming."
Many men I know would cheer this idea. Instead of just "casual Fridays," we should have "casual Monday through Friday." Chucking neckties will save the Earth. Who knew?
Many men I know would cheer this idea. Instead of just "casual Fridays," we should have "casual Monday through Friday." Chucking neckties will save the Earth. Who knew?
Monday, July 23, 2007
Garbage Dumping in Space
The Today Show had a news item this morning that the space station is "taking out the trash." That means they dump their garbage into space. One of the items mentioned was an ammonia tank.
Who do we think we are to be dumping our trash into space? Have we learned no respect for God's creation? Why would we not bring our space garbage back to earth for disposal? The space shuttle hauls equipment up to space. Why could it not bring the trash back?
Every once in awhile, I read reports from N.A.S.A. that they are concerned about space junk. Even small items can orbit for years and pose a hazard to our satellites and shuttles. Why then would the same agency allow garbage dumping in space?
In many national parks and forests, hikers and campers are expected to carry out their trash. Is it too much to expect the federal government to practice what it preaches? Environmentalists, where are you on this issue?
Who do we think we are to be dumping our trash into space? Have we learned no respect for God's creation? Why would we not bring our space garbage back to earth for disposal? The space shuttle hauls equipment up to space. Why could it not bring the trash back?
Every once in awhile, I read reports from N.A.S.A. that they are concerned about space junk. Even small items can orbit for years and pose a hazard to our satellites and shuttles. Why then would the same agency allow garbage dumping in space?
In many national parks and forests, hikers and campers are expected to carry out their trash. Is it too much to expect the federal government to practice what it preaches? Environmentalists, where are you on this issue?
Friday, July 20, 2007
Denver Traffic Court Outrage Confirmed
On Saturday, June 30, 2007, I posted a blog about an incident of ethnic discrimination in Denver's Traffic Court. The report came via email. It claimed that a man's Anglo wife was told that "all non-English speaking persons with traffic violations would be taken care of first" because their interpreter "does not stay late." "They were also given payment terms" for their $35 fines for driving without a license or insurance, which were not offered to his wife who received a fine of $249 for speeding.
Besides what seemed to be unbelievable discrimination on the part of Denver's Traffic Court, there was another reason to be suspicious of the email's veracity. The email said this occurred on April 1, 2007. A check of a calendar showed this to be on a Sunday, when courts are not usually in session. I almost dismissed the email as an urban legend and sick April Fool's joke, except the email ended with the name and address of the man making the claim. That is rare in urban legend emails.
The address was the mailing address of a Denver country club. So, I decided to write a letter and send it via snail mail to verify the email. I promised to post the reply if one was received. Frankly, I didn't expect to receive one, but I did. Here it is, dated July 9, 2007, and it confirms the incident:
I received you (sic) letter over this past weekend and I thank you for your response.
Yes, the incident is true. I did, however, make a mistake on the date. The traffic court hearing was Thursday, March 29, 2007. I wrote the e mail on Sunday, April 1st. Thank your friend for catching the error in the date.
It is interesting that this letter I wrote has almost taken on a life of its own. I have received letters from individuals such as yours from all over the country.
This is a marvelous country and everyone is welcome. All that is asked is those coming to the United States do their respective parts as our ancestors did. Be accountable and responsible for your actions and participate by giving into the system that so graciously provides the freedoms we enjoy.
Best regards,
John DiNardo
14476 East Caley Ave
Aurora, CO 80016
So, there you have it. Blatant discrimination against native-born Americans is alive and well in the courts of Denver, Colorado. Are you as outraged as I am?
Besides what seemed to be unbelievable discrimination on the part of Denver's Traffic Court, there was another reason to be suspicious of the email's veracity. The email said this occurred on April 1, 2007. A check of a calendar showed this to be on a Sunday, when courts are not usually in session. I almost dismissed the email as an urban legend and sick April Fool's joke, except the email ended with the name and address of the man making the claim. That is rare in urban legend emails.
The address was the mailing address of a Denver country club. So, I decided to write a letter and send it via snail mail to verify the email. I promised to post the reply if one was received. Frankly, I didn't expect to receive one, but I did. Here it is, dated July 9, 2007, and it confirms the incident:
I received you (sic) letter over this past weekend and I thank you for your response.
Yes, the incident is true. I did, however, make a mistake on the date. The traffic court hearing was Thursday, March 29, 2007. I wrote the e mail on Sunday, April 1st. Thank your friend for catching the error in the date.
It is interesting that this letter I wrote has almost taken on a life of its own. I have received letters from individuals such as yours from all over the country.
This is a marvelous country and everyone is welcome. All that is asked is those coming to the United States do their respective parts as our ancestors did. Be accountable and responsible for your actions and participate by giving into the system that so graciously provides the freedoms we enjoy.
Best regards,
John DiNardo
14476 East Caley Ave
Aurora, CO 80016
So, there you have it. Blatant discrimination against native-born Americans is alive and well in the courts of Denver, Colorado. Are you as outraged as I am?
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Solving the Illegal Immigration Problem: A Start
City by city, state by state, citizens are taking action to stop illegal immigration. They know that the solution is not any type of amnesty. Rather, we must make it untenable to remain in this country illegally. If we do this with consistency, those who are here illegally will decide to voluntarily return to their home countries.
How can we do this? Cities and states across this country are passing legislation that does things like:
- Allow police to check on legal status during routine stops and arrest those they find who are here illegally.
- Require legal status to register students in schools
- Require proof of legal status to apply or enroll in universities and colleges
- Check legal status at admission to hospitals. (Give service in true emergencies but notify law enforcement for arrest upon discharge.)
- Require proof of legal status before receiving any social services.
- Require legal status to receive any form of official identification, including driver's licenses.
- Refuse to grant city or state contracts to employers who do not do background checks that include proof of legal status of their employees.
- Establish laws that allow landlords to refuse to rent to illegal aliens.
- Require proof of legal status to buy a house, apply for a mortgage, buy insurance, or open bank accounts.
These are just some of the things that cities like Jacksonville and states like Florida can and should be doing. It should be done at the federal level, but until then, local entities can and should do it. Our immigration laws must be enforced. We must make it so difficult or impossible for illegal aliens to live here that they will choose to return or not come here in the first place.
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Unequal, Biased Treatment in Denver Traffic Court?
The email below came over the transom this afternoon. It was sent to me by my pastor who knows I am a former Denverite. Two things make me believe it may be true. First, the writer has given his Aurora address; it is a valid street address there. Further research shows he is a partner in the Eagle Rock Partners, dba Bear Rock Cafe, at that address (see: http://www.gjcity.org/CityDeptWebPages/AdministrativeServices/CityClerk/PDF/LQAgendasAndMinutes/LQAgenda060607.pdf. Secondly, Denver is a so-called "sanctuary city" for illegal aliens with a heavy Hispanic population. It is run by Democrats, so politically correct discrimination against Anglos would not be surprising.
However, some skepticism is in order because April 1, 2007, was on a Sunday. Few, if any, courts are open on Sundays. April 1st is also April Fools' Day. I will send a letter by snail mail to this address to see what happens. I'll post the results, if any are received back.
If this account is true, it is indeed outrageous.
Outrageous -- I am hoping you have the opportunity to read this e mail regarding the utter frustration we as English-speaking Americans experience on a daily basis. Hopefully, this will go beyond just an e-mail. This is an experience that happened to my wife today, April 1, 2007, in Denver County Traffic Court, Denver, Colorado. She had to appear in traffic court as a result of a speeding ticket. She was speeding and knew she would have a fine to pay. We have no problem with that. The rest of the court experience, however, is something we should all stand up and take exception to and ask what is happening to the United States?
She was asked to be in court by 4:30 PM today, with which she complied. However, when she got there, it was announced that all non-English speaking persons with traffic violations would be taken care of first. The reasoning was that the interpreter leaves every day at the same time and does not stay late. So a reward for not speaking English is one gets to go the front of the line.
Next, the non-English speaking individuals do not have driver's licenses or insurance. Never was it asked why they did not have licenses, or what they were doing to get licenses or insurance. What they were given for driving without a license was a $35 fine. Since many of them did not have $35, they were also given payment terms. So, they are granted another reward for not having the money to pay the fines.
My wife, who was born in Denver, Colorado, raised here, and lived here all her life, was given a $249 fine for her speeding ticket, was not given payment terms, and had to wait until all the non-speaking, aliens were treated first. If I understand this correctly:
However, some skepticism is in order because April 1, 2007, was on a Sunday. Few, if any, courts are open on Sundays. April 1st is also April Fools' Day. I will send a letter by snail mail to this address to see what happens. I'll post the results, if any are received back.
If this account is true, it is indeed outrageous.
Outrageous -- I am hoping you have the opportunity to read this e mail regarding the utter frustration we as English-speaking Americans experience on a daily basis. Hopefully, this will go beyond just an e-mail. This is an experience that happened to my wife today, April 1, 2007, in Denver County Traffic Court, Denver, Colorado. She had to appear in traffic court as a result of a speeding ticket. She was speeding and knew she would have a fine to pay. We have no problem with that. The rest of the court experience, however, is something we should all stand up and take exception to and ask what is happening to the United States?
She was asked to be in court by 4:30 PM today, with which she complied. However, when she got there, it was announced that all non-English speaking persons with traffic violations would be taken care of first. The reasoning was that the interpreter leaves every day at the same time and does not stay late. So a reward for not speaking English is one gets to go the front of the line.
Next, the non-English speaking individuals do not have driver's licenses or insurance. Never was it asked why they did not have licenses, or what they were doing to get licenses or insurance. What they were given for driving without a license was a $35 fine. Since many of them did not have $35, they were also given payment terms. So, they are granted another reward for not having the money to pay the fines.
My wife, who was born in Denver, Colorado, raised here, and lived here all her life, was given a $249 fine for her speeding ticket, was not given payment terms, and had to wait until all the non-speaking, aliens were treated first. If I understand this correctly:
- Let's never require the non -English speaking individuals who live in this country to learn English.
- Let's never require they become citizens of this United States of America.
- Let's never require them to ever get driver's licenses and pray they never kill someone on the road with their driving.
- Let's never require they get automobile insurance, so that all of us who do will pay higher and higher premiums.
- Let's make sure that those of us who do get injured by these individuals pay higher and higher health insurance premiums.
- Let's make sure those who can pay their fines, pay big ones to subsidize all those $35 fines on payment plans.
- Let's make sure we never inconvenience them and let's never inconvenience the interpreters in this country who may have to work late.
Our Country is eroding every day right before our eyes. No country in the world has ever survived having 2 major languages. We are heading down that path.
Respectfully,
John DiNardo
14476 East Caley Ave., Aurora, Colorado 80016
Friday, June 29, 2007
Duval County Schools Fail While School Board Fiddles
Duval County in Florida has eleven failing schools. When reporters for two local TV stations went to the School Board building to get comments today, they found the doors locked tight. Why? Duval County School Board employees get every Friday off during the summer.
Excuse me, but maybe -- just maybe -- we would have fewer failing schools if these employees were spending those Fridays figuring out how to improve these schools. I know we all like our beach time in the summer, but our kids need a decent education.
Their excuse will be that this is the first year that Science education was tested. Supposedly, the Duval County School Board and administration anticipated more failing schools as a result. That is a sorry state in an age when science/technology education is so critical.
None of the surrounding counties -- St. Johns, Nassau, Baker, and Clay -- had any failing schools. Their students were able to deal with a new Science test. I wonder if their employees are doing their job of providing excellence in education five days a week throughout the year.
Can there be any clearer evidence that Duval County desperately needs a new Superintendent and School Board? How much longer are Duval County voters going to accept so many failing schools?
Excuse me, but maybe -- just maybe -- we would have fewer failing schools if these employees were spending those Fridays figuring out how to improve these schools. I know we all like our beach time in the summer, but our kids need a decent education.
Their excuse will be that this is the first year that Science education was tested. Supposedly, the Duval County School Board and administration anticipated more failing schools as a result. That is a sorry state in an age when science/technology education is so critical.
None of the surrounding counties -- St. Johns, Nassau, Baker, and Clay -- had any failing schools. Their students were able to deal with a new Science test. I wonder if their employees are doing their job of providing excellence in education five days a week throughout the year.
Can there be any clearer evidence that Duval County desperately needs a new Superintendent and School Board? How much longer are Duval County voters going to accept so many failing schools?
Friday, June 1, 2007
It's That Time of Year Again: Hurricane Season
The 2007 hurricane season began Friday, June 1st. In an updated forecast, Dr. William Gray, a researcher based at Colorado State University, "predicted a 74 percent chance of a major hurricane hitting the U.S. coast" this season. He has predicted seventeen named storms and nine hurricanes, five of them intense. The National Hurricane Center has made similar predictions for a more active than normal season this year.[1]
According to a recent Mason-Dixon poll, an alarming:
· “53 percent of people surveyed in 18 Atlantic and Gulf coast states said they don't feel that they are vulnerable to a hurricane, or to related tornadoes and flooding.
· “61 percent of poll respondents had no hurricane survival kit. Of those who did, 82 percent packed a fire hazard -- candles or kerosene lamps.
· “78 percent did not know that storm surge posed the greatest potential for a large loss of life, and can cause deaths as far as 20 miles inland.
· “25 percent did not know that standard homeowners’ or renters’ insurance policies do not cover flooding.
· “54 percent believed tornadoes only occur within three miles of a hurricane's eye. A hurricane can spawn tornadoes hundreds of miles from its eye.
· “79 percent did not know that storm intensity is the hardest part of a storm to predict, so they may not understand that a Category 1 storm can strengthen to a major hurricane by landfall.”[2]
The organizers of the 2007 National Hurricane Survival Initiative commissioned the poll. Sponsors included the National Hurricane Center, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the National Emergency Management Association, and the Salvation Army.
Do you have your hurricane kit assembled? It is time. "Public safety officials tell residents to stockpile at least a three-day supply of bottled water, nonperishable food and medicine.”[3]
According to a recent Mason-Dixon poll, an alarming:
· “53 percent of people surveyed in 18 Atlantic and Gulf coast states said they don't feel that they are vulnerable to a hurricane, or to related tornadoes and flooding.
· “61 percent of poll respondents had no hurricane survival kit. Of those who did, 82 percent packed a fire hazard -- candles or kerosene lamps.
· “78 percent did not know that storm surge posed the greatest potential for a large loss of life, and can cause deaths as far as 20 miles inland.
· “25 percent did not know that standard homeowners’ or renters’ insurance policies do not cover flooding.
· “54 percent believed tornadoes only occur within three miles of a hurricane's eye. A hurricane can spawn tornadoes hundreds of miles from its eye.
· “79 percent did not know that storm intensity is the hardest part of a storm to predict, so they may not understand that a Category 1 storm can strengthen to a major hurricane by landfall.”[2]
The organizers of the 2007 National Hurricane Survival Initiative commissioned the poll. Sponsors included the National Hurricane Center, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the National Emergency Management Association, and the Salvation Army.
Do you have your hurricane kit assembled? It is time. "Public safety officials tell residents to stockpile at least a three-day supply of bottled water, nonperishable food and medicine.”[3]
You can save money by doing it now because the Florida Legislature made purchases of hurricane survival supplies and equipment tax-free until June 12th. These include:
Flashlights and other portable, self-powered light sources - $20 or less
Portable radios, two-way radios and weather-band radios - $75 or less
Batteries - $30 or less (AAA, AA, C and D cell, and 6 and 9 volt batteries)
Non-electrical food storage coolers - $30 or less[4]
"There are six basics you should stock for your home: water, food, first aid supplies, clothing and bedding, tools and emergency supplies, and special items.” The American Red Cross recommends:
Keep at least a three-day supply of water per person. Each person requires one gallon per day for drinking, food preparation and sanitation or 3 gallons for 3 days for each person.
Store at least a three-day supply of non-perishable food. Select foods that require no refrigeration, preparation or cooking, and little or no water.
Assemble a first aid kit for your home and one for each car. Do not forget your prescription drugs or specialized medical equipment or supplies.
Include other necessary tools and supplies for daily living, sanitation, and clean-up during recovery in your evacuation kit. This should include cash since ATMs will not work without electricity, and banks will be closed. Include at least one complete change of clothing and footwear per person. Also, take bedding or sleeping bags if you must evacuate to a shelter.
Assess the special needs of family members with special requirements, such as infants and elderly or disabled persons. Plan ahead, especially if they will need specialized care or continuous electricity for medical equipment.
Include entertainment items to pass the time and provide psychological relief during the storm. Board games and other games that don’t require batteries or electricity,
Books, and a deck of cards are good choices.
Keep important financial and personal records in a waterproof, portable container. Take these with you if you have to evacuate. Before the storm, make copies or scan them onto a computer disk and send them to a trusted friend or family member who lives in another part of the country. Make a list of important phone numbers, including friends and family members.
Remember your pets. Do not leave your pets behind. Plan ahead as to where your pet will be sheltered. This may include accompanying you to a pet-friendly shelter; most require advanced registration and proof of vaccinations. Kennels outside evacuation zones are another option; make reservations early. Make reservations early if you hope to stay at pet-friendly hotels or motels. Arrange foster care of your pets with friends or family members, if needed. Make sure your pet has current tags on its collar and carry a recent photograph of your pet. Put the phone number of a friend or family member on the tag, too, in case your pet gets loose and is found by someone. This can be avoided by keeping pets in sturdy, secure pet carriers throughout the storm. Keep them on leashes or harnesses when they are out of the carrier. Pack a minimum of a week's supply of food, water, and other provisions, such as medication or cat litter.
Store your kit in a convenient place known to all family members. Keep a smaller version of the supplies kit in the trunk of your car. Keep items in airtight plastic bags. Change your stored water supply every six months so it stays fresh. Replace your stored food every six months. Review your kit and family needs at least once a year. Keep the items that you would most likely need during an evacuation in an easy-to carry container," such as a covered trash container, a camping backpack, or a duffle bag.[5]
[1] "AP finds 5 vulnerable hurricane areas," The Associated Press, May 31, 2007
[2] "Officials: Take Advantage Of Storm Supply Tax Break," http://www.news4jax.com/weather/13420022/detail.html
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] "Hurricane Safety Checklists," http://www.hurricanesafety.org/hurricanesafetychecklists.shtml
Sunday, May 6, 2007
Florida Legislature Quietly Gambles on Florida's Future
Did you know your legislators quietly passed a major expansion of gambling in Florida, including Jacksonville? They did.
Below are descriptions of the two bills that will impact Northeast Florida and how House members of the Duval delegation voted. Both measures passed the Senate and will go into effect on 7/1/07 unless vetoed by Governor Crist. However, they passed by overwhelming majorities, enough to overturn a veto.
Note that some of the most "conservative" Republican House members, including several Baptists, voted "Yes."
CS/CS/SB 500 - Instant Bingo [EPCC] The Senate passed it on 5-1-07 by a vote of 29 to 6; individual Senators' votes are not available.
GENERAL BILL by General Government Appropriations and Regulated Industries and Saunders
Instant Bingo [EPCC]: cites act as "Evelyn Wiesman-Price Act"; defines terms "deal", "flare" & "instant bingo"; exempts instant bingo from specified prohibitions; provides requirements for operation of instant bingo games & use of proceeds & prize payout; provides requirements for manufacture & sale of instant bingo tickets; provides penalties, etc. Amends 849.0931; reenacts 718.114, 723.079(8).
CS/CS/CS/SB 752 - Cardrooms [EPCC] The Senate approved it on 4/27/07.
GENERAL BILL by General Government Appropriations and Finance and Tax and Regulated Industries and Geller and Fasano
Cardrooms [EPCC]: (THIS BILL COMBINES CS/CS/S752 & CS/S1192) defines term "tournament"; revises license fees; revises hours of operation; authorizes award of certain prizes; revises betting limits; authorizes tournaments; provides tournament requirements; authorizes additional positions. Amends 849.086.
Effective Date: 07/01/2007
Duval County Delegation's Votes on both bills:
NO: Aaron Bean
YES: Jennifer Carroll, Terry Fields, Audrey Gibson, Mark Mahon, Stan Jordan, Dick Kravitz
ABSENT, NO VOTE RECORDED: Don Davis
Below are descriptions of the two bills that will impact Northeast Florida and how House members of the Duval delegation voted. Both measures passed the Senate and will go into effect on 7/1/07 unless vetoed by Governor Crist. However, they passed by overwhelming majorities, enough to overturn a veto.
Note that some of the most "conservative" Republican House members, including several Baptists, voted "Yes."
CS/CS/SB 500 - Instant Bingo [EPCC] The Senate passed it on 5-1-07 by a vote of 29 to 6; individual Senators' votes are not available.
GENERAL BILL by General Government Appropriations and Regulated Industries and Saunders
Instant Bingo [EPCC]: cites act as "Evelyn Wiesman-Price Act"; defines terms "deal", "flare" & "instant bingo"; exempts instant bingo from specified prohibitions; provides requirements for operation of instant bingo games & use of proceeds & prize payout; provides requirements for manufacture & sale of instant bingo tickets; provides penalties, etc. Amends 849.0931; reenacts 718.114, 723.079(8).
CS/CS/CS/SB 752 - Cardrooms [EPCC] The Senate approved it on 4/27/07.
GENERAL BILL by General Government Appropriations and Finance and Tax and Regulated Industries and Geller and Fasano
Cardrooms [EPCC]: (THIS BILL COMBINES CS/CS/S752 & CS/S1192) defines term "tournament"; revises license fees; revises hours of operation; authorizes award of certain prizes; revises betting limits; authorizes tournaments; provides tournament requirements; authorizes additional positions. Amends 849.086.
Effective Date: 07/01/2007
Duval County Delegation's Votes on both bills:
NO: Aaron Bean
YES: Jennifer Carroll, Terry Fields, Audrey Gibson, Mark Mahon, Stan Jordan, Dick Kravitz
ABSENT, NO VOTE RECORDED: Don Davis
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Hang Onto Your Wallets, Jacksonville
Jacksonville, hold onto your wallets. Mayor Peyton was on Week in Review (PBS Channel 7 WJCT) last night. (The show repeats Sunday at 11:30 a.m., if you missed it.) One of the topics was the new courthouse.
Mayor Peyton stated that his Commission for the new courthouse is planning to build a complete courthouse. In other words, they have abandoned the idea of doing the criminal half now and waiting to do the civil courts until later. Additionally, he expects that they will build "up, not out" to save costs, which it would. He said they are planning from the "inside out," meaning function will override decoration.
Although the courthouse will not be an architectural wonder as with the previous design, Mayor Peyton admitted whatever we build will cost more than what "half" a courthouse would cost. He stated that the goal is to have the building finished by 2010.
Now, one of the promises made to voters to get the original bond issue approved was that the old courthouse's property would go back onto the tax rolls when it is sold to private developers. (Of course, we were promised the same thing with the old City Hall when the new City Hall was remodelled. We are still waiting for that to happen.)
On last night's show, Mayor Peyton hinted that other possibilities are under consideration. The current courthouse's property might be turned into a park or be the site for a "new convention center," conveniently located "next to the Hyatt."
So, we poor Jacksonville taxpayers in the next four years will get the bloated bill for a new courthouse, probably lose the revenue opportunities from the current courthouse's property, and likely be put further into hock for a convention center.
Why, oh why, couldn't the Democrats in this time given us someone besides Aunt Jemima to run against Peyton? We have four more years before both parties have another chance to find financially responsible and experienced candidates for mayor. Like I said, hang onto your wallets.
Mayor Peyton stated that his Commission for the new courthouse is planning to build a complete courthouse. In other words, they have abandoned the idea of doing the criminal half now and waiting to do the civil courts until later. Additionally, he expects that they will build "up, not out" to save costs, which it would. He said they are planning from the "inside out," meaning function will override decoration.
Although the courthouse will not be an architectural wonder as with the previous design, Mayor Peyton admitted whatever we build will cost more than what "half" a courthouse would cost. He stated that the goal is to have the building finished by 2010.
Now, one of the promises made to voters to get the original bond issue approved was that the old courthouse's property would go back onto the tax rolls when it is sold to private developers. (Of course, we were promised the same thing with the old City Hall when the new City Hall was remodelled. We are still waiting for that to happen.)
On last night's show, Mayor Peyton hinted that other possibilities are under consideration. The current courthouse's property might be turned into a park or be the site for a "new convention center," conveniently located "next to the Hyatt."
So, we poor Jacksonville taxpayers in the next four years will get the bloated bill for a new courthouse, probably lose the revenue opportunities from the current courthouse's property, and likely be put further into hock for a convention center.
Why, oh why, couldn't the Democrats in this time given us someone besides Aunt Jemima to run against Peyton? We have four more years before both parties have another chance to find financially responsible and experienced candidates for mayor. Like I said, hang onto your wallets.
Friday, March 30, 2007
Melamine in Petfood: Thanks, China
Here's the text of a letter I sent to the President, both my Senators, and my Representative:
Congress needs to investigate how melamine and/or rat poison could contaminate so many brands of pet food without detection. It seems obvious that there is not enough inspection requirements or the FDA failed in their responsibilities. The result is much heartbreak for many families, especially young children.
It is my understanding the toxic materials were in wheat gluten imported from China. China and many other countries do not have the same agricultural safety regulations regarding fertilizers and other chemicals applied to food products. U.S. farmers must follow much more stringent rules. Current trade policies hurt our farmers financially by allowing cheaper agricultural products into our food supplies from growers who do not have to follow those rules. This is not only unfair to our farmers, but it is a hazard to American consumers, including our beloved pets. Food exporters should be required to follow our rules for food safety or be barred from shipping their products to the U.S.
Personally, I do not knowingly allow foreign-grown foods on my table. The problem is food processors do not have to label most foods with the countries of origin of the products in the food. Legislation should require this. As a concerned consumer and cat owner, I want to know the sources of the food I bring into my home.
Congress needs to investigate how melamine and/or rat poison could contaminate so many brands of pet food without detection. It seems obvious that there is not enough inspection requirements or the FDA failed in their responsibilities. The result is much heartbreak for many families, especially young children.
It is my understanding the toxic materials were in wheat gluten imported from China. China and many other countries do not have the same agricultural safety regulations regarding fertilizers and other chemicals applied to food products. U.S. farmers must follow much more stringent rules. Current trade policies hurt our farmers financially by allowing cheaper agricultural products into our food supplies from growers who do not have to follow those rules. This is not only unfair to our farmers, but it is a hazard to American consumers, including our beloved pets. Food exporters should be required to follow our rules for food safety or be barred from shipping their products to the U.S.
Personally, I do not knowingly allow foreign-grown foods on my table. The problem is food processors do not have to label most foods with the countries of origin of the products in the food. Legislation should require this. As a concerned consumer and cat owner, I want to know the sources of the food I bring into my home.
Global Warming Quiz
Take this Global Warming Quiz: http://www.geocraft.com:80/WVFossils/GlobWarmTest/start.html
See how you do. I missed two out of ten, which in school would have been a "B." That's what I usually earned in science. It was never my best subject. This test, though, is fun. After you answer each question, there is an interesting explanation of the topic. Even on the questions I answered correctly, I learned things I didn't know. Have fun & good luck.
See how you do. I missed two out of ten, which in school would have been a "B." That's what I usually earned in science. It was never my best subject. This test, though, is fun. After you answer each question, there is an interesting explanation of the topic. Even on the questions I answered correctly, I learned things I didn't know. Have fun & good luck.
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Letter-to-the-Editor Published 2-28-07
I just learned that my letter-to-the-editor to the Florida Times-Union was published on February 28th. The subject was the "slow bleed" proposals of House and Senate Democrats and the jeopardy they would cause our troops in Iraq. Here's the link to the letter: http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/022807/opl_8240671.shtml
Jacksonville & Duval County (Florida) Elections: March 20th
Once again, I am getting calls about how I am voting in the city elections. Well, it happens occasionally: I vote for a Democrat. This is one of those times. I have voted for Dale Carson, Jr. for Duval County Sheriff. There are a number of reasons I made this decision. Number one, of course, is the city's murder rate. Although I agree we cannot arrest our way out of the problem, I believe Sheriff Rutherford's approach as been too defensive and reactive, not pro-active. The tipping point for me was when he left a meeting of angry victim's families and neighbors last weekend to go to a campaign fund-raising appearance. That told me that Rutherford does not have his priorities straight or he cannot take the heat of legitimately upset constituents. Dale Carson, Jr., has the requisite background to be sheriff. Often, a department outsider is the best way to get the kind of reform and fresh ideas that our Sheriff's Department needs.
If almost anyone else besides Suzanne Jenkins had run against Jerry Holland for Supervisor of Elections, I would have voted for another Democrat. Jerry Holland's performance in his first term has been a total disappointment. Many times, I've wished my friend Andy Johnson would have won last go-around or was running again. However, Suzanne Jenkins will never get my vote. She has been my councilwoman for the last two years. She has been as unresponsive as any council person I've ever encountered, and she regularly votes completely contrary to what her constituents desire. Jenkins could be the poster child for why term limits are a great idea. So, reluctantly, I voted to give Jerry Holland a second term as Supervisor of Elections.
For Mayor, I voted for John Peyton. "Aunt Jemima" Jackie Brown would be a joke as mayor, a very bad joke. For Councilman-at-large from Group 2, Jay Jabour won my vote. Remember, that all Duval County voters vote in the Council-at-Large races. Group 2 is the only one that has a competitive race. For Council District 4, I voted for George Banks who has served previously on City Council when I found him to be a good listener to his constituents.
Early voting is going on right now until March 18th. Election day is Tuesday, March 20th from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Absentee ballots are available and must be turned into the Supervisor of Elections office by 7 p.m. on Tuesday, March 20th. Whether you agree with my selections or not, please take time to vote for your city's future.
If almost anyone else besides Suzanne Jenkins had run against Jerry Holland for Supervisor of Elections, I would have voted for another Democrat. Jerry Holland's performance in his first term has been a total disappointment. Many times, I've wished my friend Andy Johnson would have won last go-around or was running again. However, Suzanne Jenkins will never get my vote. She has been my councilwoman for the last two years. She has been as unresponsive as any council person I've ever encountered, and she regularly votes completely contrary to what her constituents desire. Jenkins could be the poster child for why term limits are a great idea. So, reluctantly, I voted to give Jerry Holland a second term as Supervisor of Elections.
For Mayor, I voted for John Peyton. "Aunt Jemima" Jackie Brown would be a joke as mayor, a very bad joke. For Councilman-at-large from Group 2, Jay Jabour won my vote. Remember, that all Duval County voters vote in the Council-at-Large races. Group 2 is the only one that has a competitive race. For Council District 4, I voted for George Banks who has served previously on City Council when I found him to be a good listener to his constituents.
Early voting is going on right now until March 18th. Election day is Tuesday, March 20th from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Absentee ballots are available and must be turned into the Supervisor of Elections office by 7 p.m. on Tuesday, March 20th. Whether you agree with my selections or not, please take time to vote for your city's future.
Sunday, February 25, 2007
What Should the Republican Party Do to Win in 2008?
The GOP sent an e-mail to me, asking me to share my ideas as to what they should do to win in 2008. Here's what I wrote them at :
http://www.GOP.com/YourIdeas
"The number one issue that could destroy the Republican coalition and drive conservative Democrats away from us is illegal immigration. If we want to win in 2008, we will stand firmly for border control and against any form of amnesty for illegals already here, such as President Bush's proposed citizenship track, etc. Republican lawmakers at both State and federal levels need to sponsor and pass legislation that will make illegal immigrants want to return voluntarily to their homelands. This would include barring them from healthcare, education, housing, employment, driver's licenses, social security, welfare, etc. There should be absolutely no rewards for breaking our immigration laws.
"Additionally, we must adhere to our conservative principles: low taxes, fiscal responsibility (balanced budget), line-item veto, anti-abortion, and limited federal government."
Feel free to go to the website above and share your ideas with them. Place a copy of what you send on the comments here, if you like.
http://www.GOP.com/YourIdeas
"The number one issue that could destroy the Republican coalition and drive conservative Democrats away from us is illegal immigration. If we want to win in 2008, we will stand firmly for border control and against any form of amnesty for illegals already here, such as President Bush's proposed citizenship track, etc. Republican lawmakers at both State and federal levels need to sponsor and pass legislation that will make illegal immigrants want to return voluntarily to their homelands. This would include barring them from healthcare, education, housing, employment, driver's licenses, social security, welfare, etc. There should be absolutely no rewards for breaking our immigration laws.
"Additionally, we must adhere to our conservative principles: low taxes, fiscal responsibility (balanced budget), line-item veto, anti-abortion, and limited federal government."
Feel free to go to the website above and share your ideas with them. Place a copy of what you send on the comments here, if you like.
A Fun Website
Here's a fun website to try. Go to http://howmanyofme.com and find out how many people in the U.S. share your name. There are 1,190,875 who share my first name, and 71,992 with the same last name. Only 286 of us share both. What are your results?
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Fearless Forecasts for 2007
How time flies when we’re having fun, and even when we’re not. Here it is mid-February, and I still hadn’t posted my “Fearless Forecasts” for 2007. These were completed during the first week of January. I do these every year to prove that psychics are no better prognosticators than the average person. (See the entry for January 5, 2007 for how this New Year’s tradition began.) They are in no particular order.
Fearless Forecasts for 2007
How time flies when we’re having fun, and even when we’re not. Here it is mid-February, and I still haven’t posted my “Fearless Forecasts” for 2007. These were completed during the first week of January. I do these every year to prove that psychics are no better prognosticators than the average person. (See the entry for January 5, 2007 for how this New Year’s tradition began.) They are in no particular order. So, here goes:
1. Mayor John Peyton will win re-election as Mayor of Jacksonville (FL) handily.
2. Now that Saddam Hussein is dead, things will start to settle down in Iraq. However, U.S. troops will not be withdrawn.
3. We will be engaged militarily with Iran to prevent their further development of nuclear weapons and to keep Israel from acting on it.
4. Osama bin Laden will be captured alive.
5. California, especially San Francisco, will have a very damaging earthquake.
6. Jacksonville (FL) will continue to be hurricane-free. El Nino will continue to suppress hurricane activity, although not as well as in 2006.
7. An F3 or stronger tornado will hit a major American city’s central or downtown area.
8. At least one new case of Mad Cow disease will surface in the U.S.
9. The Jacksonville Jaguars will replace both its head coach and quarterback.
10. There will be a major announcement of a new recreational or tourist attraction, possibly an aquarium or amusement park, for Jacksonville (FL).
11. Construction of the new courthouse in Jacksonville (FL) will still be stalled.
12. With Democrats in charge of revenues and spending, the economy will flat-line unless President Bush finds his veto pen. This year will be the prelude to a recession in 2008.
13. After brief stabilization, housing prices will continue down as unemployment heads up.
14. Nancy Pelosi will find it difficult to manage upstart congressmen with more conservative positions. The Democratic caucus will be more divided than most expected.
15. There will be an accident of some kind (car, plane, something or someone falling) that will really rattle everyone in the White House. It will involve or affect the President, Vice President, or members of their immediate family or closest staffers. No one will be killed or seriously hurt, however.
16. The St. Louis Cardinals will disappoint me this year. (Of course, anything less than another World Championship will disappoint.)
Monday, January 15, 2007
Answers to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Test
1. What is Martin Luther King Jr.’s, real name?
Michael King, Jr. His father, Michael King, Sr. appropriated the name of Protestant reformer Martin Luther for himself and his son in 1935. The name change was never made legal.
2. What did President Lyndon B. Johnson call Martin Luther King, Jr. after receiving J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI report?
“A hypocrite preacher.” See if you agree after reading the answers to the rest of this test.
3. How much of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s doctoral dissertation for Boston University was plagiarized?
At least 45% of the first half and 21% of the second half was plagiarized. The faculty investigation reported on October 11, 1991, that 49% of the sentences in the first part on Tillich had five or more words that could be attributed to Martin Luther King, Jr. That means 51% of the sentences had four or fewer words. Fifty sentences were completely plagiarized from the doctoral dissertation of Dr. Jack Boozer.
4. Was Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dissertation the only incident of his plagiarism?
No, there are numerous other examples. His first sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church was lifted from a homily entitled “Life Is What You Make It” by Harry Emerson Fosdick. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s first book Stride Toward Freedom, largely ghost-written by his mentor Stanley Levinson, had many passages lifted from several sources. He took verbatim passages from “The Finding of God” by Edgar S. Brightman for a paper submitted at Crozer Theological Seminary titled “The Place of Reason & Experience in Finding God.” Martin Luther King, Jr. lifted another paper handed in at Boston University, “Contemporary Continental Theology,” from a book by Walter Marshall Horton. The final section of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s most famous speech, “I Have a Dream,” was from a speech given by Archibald Carey at the 1956 Republican National Convention.
5. Who attempted to suppress knowledge of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s plagiarism?
Lynn Cheney, wife of Vice President Richard Cheney. Ms. Cheney is an author of children’s books and former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
6. After delivering his famous “I’ve Seen the Promised Land” speech, how did Martin Luther King, Jr. spend his last night on earth?
In an all-night sex orgy with three white prostitute “friends,” one of whom he brutally beat. This was revealed by King’s closest associate, the man who cradled him in his arms when he died, the Rev. Ralph Abernathy.
7. What was Martin Luther King, Jr. heard to exclaim at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C., on FBI recordings?
“I’m f - - king for God,” and “I’m not a Negro tonight,” according to Newsweek magazine, page 62, published January 19, 1998. The Willard Hotel room bug yielded nineteen reels of tape detailing Martin Luther King, Jr.’s extra-marital and inter-racial sexual escapades.
8. Who paid for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s prostitutes?
Some funds from both Ebenezer Baptist Church and the Southern Christian Leadership Council (S.C.L.C.) were used to pay for some of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s sexual liaisons as well as for the food and liquor consumed at his orgies.
9. What was the Highlander Folk School, which was attended by both Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks?
Myles Horton and Don West founded the Highlander Folk School, originally named Commonwealth College, in 1932. Both were Communist Party organizers. Besides recruiting future members, the Highlander Folk School was used as a way “to infiltrate the African-American community by, among other techniques, comparing the texts of the New Testament to those of Karl Marx.” Many civil rights’ groups, including the Southern Christian Leadership Council (S.C.L.C.), used it for training leaders. In 1962, Horton with Martin Luther King, Jr. as a sponsor, opened a satellite school in Knoxville, Tennessee. The Julius Rosenwald Fund financed it. Rosenwald’s daughter, Edith Stern, continued donations after her husband Alfred was indicted on spy charges and fled to Russia to escape arrest.
10. With whom and why did Martin Luther King, Jr. meet at the Highlander Folk School in Monteagle, Tennessee, over Labor Day, 1957?
Martin Luther King, Jr. attended a meeting at the Highlander Folk School with the purpose to formulate plans and strategies for racial demonstrations and riots throughout the South. He met with:
· Myles Horton, organizer of the Communist Party of Tennessee and co-founder of the Highlander Folk School;
· Don West, organizer of the Communist Party of North Carolina and co-founder of the Highlander Folk School;
· Abner Berry, Communist Party Central Committee member and Daily Worker writer;
· James Dumbrowski, Communist Party member and director of the Southern Conference Education Fund (S.C.E.F.), a communist front organization.
· Aubrey Williams, President of the Southern Conference Education Fund (S.C.E.F.), a communist front organization.
11. Who was Martin Luther King, Jr.’s chief mentor and benefactor who prepared King’s taxes and raised funds for him?
Stanley Levinson. He was best known for laundering Soviet funds from KGB agent Isidore Needleman to the Communist Party USA via Canadian banks. Later, Levinson became the treasurer for the Communist Party USA.
12. Who was Martin Luther King, Jr.’s personal secretary from 1955 to 1960?
Bayard Rustin was his personal secretary from 1955 to 1960 and was the organizer of the Washington marches. Rustin was a member of the Young Communist League. He attended the 1957 Convention of the Communist Party USA in February 1957. One month later, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (S.C.L.C.) was formed. Before organizing the first March on Washington held in March 1958, Rustin went to Moscow. Rustin, then affiliated with the War Resisters League, also organized the second Washington March held on August 28, 1963. He served prison and jail sentences “for draft-dodging, lewd vagrancy, and homosexual perversion.”
13. Who was Jack O’Dell and what was his relationship to Martin Luther King, Jr.?
Jack O’Dell, a.k.a. Hunter Pitts O’Dell, became Martin Luther King, Jr.’s secretary in 1961. As of 1962, O’Dell was a member of the National Committee of the Communist Party, USA, having been a member of the party since 1956. He was made Acting Director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (S.C.L.C.) on October 26, 1962. When the St. Louis Globe-Democrat revealed O’Dell’s communist affiliation, Martin Luther King, Jr. made a grand pretext of firing O’Dell. King, then, quietly rehired O’Dell as director of the New York office of the S.C.L.C.
14. What did the Communist Party USA’s official newspaper The Worker say about Martin Luther King, Jr. and his efforts?
The Worker called the first March on Washington in 1958 “a Communist project.” Benjamin J. Davis, in an article published in The Worker on November 10, 1963, praised Martin Luther King, Jr. as “a brilliant and practical leader.”
15. Who helped fund Martin Luther King, Jr.’s activities?
Karl Prussian, an FBI counterspy to the Communist Party USA, swore in testimony to Congress on March 30, 1965, that Martin Luther King, Jr. “willingly accepted support from over sixty Communist fronts” as well as individuals acknowledged and well-known to be avowed Communists. King held a financial conference with Communist Party representatives, unaware that one was an FBI infiltrator. A black member of the Communist Party USA of Cleveland and an FBI informant testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1979 that “we [the cells of the Communist Party USA] were continually being asked to raise money for Martin Luther King’s activities and to support his movement…I knew Martin Luther King to be closely connected with the Communist Party…” King received at least one check signed by a registered foreign agent of Fidel Castro, Benjamin Smith.
16. Was Martin Luther King, Jr. a communist?
No, Martin Luther King, Jr. was not a card-carrying member of the Communist Party. However, he described himself as a Marxist to his biographer, David Garrow who wrote The FBI and Martin Luther King, Jr. King told Southern Christian Leadership Conference (S.C.L.C.) staffers at a meeting, “We have moved into a new era, which must be an era of revolution…We are engaged in the class struggle.” One of King’s more radical causes in his later years was a call for a government-quaranteed “minimum – and livable – income for every American family,” whether people were working or not as “a radical reconstruction of society itself.” He told a friend, “If we [Negroes] are to achieve real equality, the United States will have to adopt a modified form of socialism.” King preached at a retreat for civil rights’ movement leaders, “Something is wrong with capitalism.” In his sermon to the Clergy and Laity Concerned on April 4, 1967, King ridiculed Western culture as “arrogant,” called for the abandonment of “nationalism,” compared U.S. troops in Vietnam to Nazis, and warned, “We must not engage in a negative anti-communism.”
17. What book did Martin Luther King, Jr. write the forward to, despite his espousal of non-violence?
Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote the forward to the book Negroes with Guns by Robert Williams, a black from Monroe, North Carolina, who moved to Cuba. Williams is best known for his “Radio Free Dixie” broadcasts from Havana over Fidel Castro’s high-powered AM transmitters. These radio shows, broadcasted three times a week, called for blacks to violently attack whites in the United States. The book’s editors and publisher were supporters of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, a Communist front. Presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald belonged to the group, also.
18. What liberal Martin Luther King, Jr. supporter and FBI Assistant Director was assigned to investigate him by J. Edgar Hoover?
William C. Sullivan wrote, at the beginning of his assignment, “I was one hundred percent for King…because I saw him as an effective and badly needed leader for the Black people in their desire for civil rights.” Sullivan’s view changed over the years as he came to know the details of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s life and work. Sullivan, a thirty-year veteran of the FBI, concluded that King was “one of only seven people he had ever encountered who was a total degenerate.” In his official report to J. Edgar Hoover, Sullivan wrote that King “is the most dangerous Negro of the future in this Nation from the standpoint of Communism, the Negro, and national security.”
19. Why are the FBI files on Martin Luther King, Jr. authorized by Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, sealed until 2027?
Because the sealed FBI files reveal Martin Luther King, Jr.’s conduct in numerous “orgiastic and adulterous escapades, some of which indicated that King could be bestial in his sexual abuse of women,” according to Assistant FBI Director Charles D. Brennan in a letter to North Carolina Senator John P. East. Coretta Scott King, widow of Martin Luther King, Jr. requested the sealing of these files because its release "would destroy his reputation.”
20. Why won’t the media or educators reveal the whole truth about Martin Luther King, Jr. and his movement?
Because the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday has become a profitable “feel-good lie” in the words of writer Geov Parrish. One unnamed veteran of the civil rights’ movement admitted, “Everybody was out getting laid.” In “Remembering Martin Luther King, Jr.,” his friend Richard John Neuhaus reluctantly admitted “The movement…contained moral ingredients that would later become the libertine ‘counterculture’ of drugs and sexual license.” Furthermore, he admitted there would be no approval of the King holiday today if the truth were known. David Lewis wrote in his 1970 book King: A Critical Biography, “In the nation’s canonization of Martin King…we have sought to remember him by forgetting him.” Gerard Eisterhold designed the display of the Lorraine Motel rooms, where King was shot, at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis. Eisterhold refused to include any depiction of the rooms’ occupants because it would be “close to blasphemy.”
To learn more about the truth regarding Martin Luther King, Jr., read:
· The FBI and Martin Luther King, Jr. by David J. Garrow (W. W. Norton & Co.: New York), 1981
· And the Walls Came Tumbling Down by Rev. Ralph Abernathy (Harper Collins: New York), 1991
· Plagiarism and the Culture War: The Writings of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Other Prominent Americans by Theodore Pappas Halberg (Hallberg Publishing Corp.: Tampa), 1998
· Martin Luther King, Jr. by Marshall Frady (Viking Penguin, Inc.: New York), 2002
· I May Not Get There with You: The True Martin Luther King, Jr. by Michael Eric Dyson (Simon & Schuster: New York), 2001
· Why the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Should Be Repealed: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Life and the Aftereffects (The Creativity Movement) available in PDF format at http://www.martinlutherking.org/articles/the_king_holiday.pdf
The King Holiday and Its Meaning by Senator Jesse Helms (Council of Conservative Citizens: St. Louis), 1990s.
The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.: Volumes I-V (The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute: Stanford), 1992 to 2005.
“Abolish the King Holiday: King’s Record Has Been Sealed by Court Order Until the Year 2027—Why???” by Dr. Ed Fields (Truth Tract No. 3: The Truth at Last, P.O. Box 1211, Marietta, GA 30061)
Michael King, Jr. His father, Michael King, Sr. appropriated the name of Protestant reformer Martin Luther for himself and his son in 1935. The name change was never made legal.
2. What did President Lyndon B. Johnson call Martin Luther King, Jr. after receiving J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI report?
“A hypocrite preacher.” See if you agree after reading the answers to the rest of this test.
3. How much of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s doctoral dissertation for Boston University was plagiarized?
At least 45% of the first half and 21% of the second half was plagiarized. The faculty investigation reported on October 11, 1991, that 49% of the sentences in the first part on Tillich had five or more words that could be attributed to Martin Luther King, Jr. That means 51% of the sentences had four or fewer words. Fifty sentences were completely plagiarized from the doctoral dissertation of Dr. Jack Boozer.
4. Was Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dissertation the only incident of his plagiarism?
No, there are numerous other examples. His first sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church was lifted from a homily entitled “Life Is What You Make It” by Harry Emerson Fosdick. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s first book Stride Toward Freedom, largely ghost-written by his mentor Stanley Levinson, had many passages lifted from several sources. He took verbatim passages from “The Finding of God” by Edgar S. Brightman for a paper submitted at Crozer Theological Seminary titled “The Place of Reason & Experience in Finding God.” Martin Luther King, Jr. lifted another paper handed in at Boston University, “Contemporary Continental Theology,” from a book by Walter Marshall Horton. The final section of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s most famous speech, “I Have a Dream,” was from a speech given by Archibald Carey at the 1956 Republican National Convention.
5. Who attempted to suppress knowledge of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s plagiarism?
Lynn Cheney, wife of Vice President Richard Cheney. Ms. Cheney is an author of children’s books and former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
6. After delivering his famous “I’ve Seen the Promised Land” speech, how did Martin Luther King, Jr. spend his last night on earth?
In an all-night sex orgy with three white prostitute “friends,” one of whom he brutally beat. This was revealed by King’s closest associate, the man who cradled him in his arms when he died, the Rev. Ralph Abernathy.
7. What was Martin Luther King, Jr. heard to exclaim at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C., on FBI recordings?
“I’m f - - king for God,” and “I’m not a Negro tonight,” according to Newsweek magazine, page 62, published January 19, 1998. The Willard Hotel room bug yielded nineteen reels of tape detailing Martin Luther King, Jr.’s extra-marital and inter-racial sexual escapades.
8. Who paid for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s prostitutes?
Some funds from both Ebenezer Baptist Church and the Southern Christian Leadership Council (S.C.L.C.) were used to pay for some of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s sexual liaisons as well as for the food and liquor consumed at his orgies.
9. What was the Highlander Folk School, which was attended by both Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks?
Myles Horton and Don West founded the Highlander Folk School, originally named Commonwealth College, in 1932. Both were Communist Party organizers. Besides recruiting future members, the Highlander Folk School was used as a way “to infiltrate the African-American community by, among other techniques, comparing the texts of the New Testament to those of Karl Marx.” Many civil rights’ groups, including the Southern Christian Leadership Council (S.C.L.C.), used it for training leaders. In 1962, Horton with Martin Luther King, Jr. as a sponsor, opened a satellite school in Knoxville, Tennessee. The Julius Rosenwald Fund financed it. Rosenwald’s daughter, Edith Stern, continued donations after her husband Alfred was indicted on spy charges and fled to Russia to escape arrest.
10. With whom and why did Martin Luther King, Jr. meet at the Highlander Folk School in Monteagle, Tennessee, over Labor Day, 1957?
Martin Luther King, Jr. attended a meeting at the Highlander Folk School with the purpose to formulate plans and strategies for racial demonstrations and riots throughout the South. He met with:
· Myles Horton, organizer of the Communist Party of Tennessee and co-founder of the Highlander Folk School;
· Don West, organizer of the Communist Party of North Carolina and co-founder of the Highlander Folk School;
· Abner Berry, Communist Party Central Committee member and Daily Worker writer;
· James Dumbrowski, Communist Party member and director of the Southern Conference Education Fund (S.C.E.F.), a communist front organization.
· Aubrey Williams, President of the Southern Conference Education Fund (S.C.E.F.), a communist front organization.
11. Who was Martin Luther King, Jr.’s chief mentor and benefactor who prepared King’s taxes and raised funds for him?
Stanley Levinson. He was best known for laundering Soviet funds from KGB agent Isidore Needleman to the Communist Party USA via Canadian banks. Later, Levinson became the treasurer for the Communist Party USA.
12. Who was Martin Luther King, Jr.’s personal secretary from 1955 to 1960?
Bayard Rustin was his personal secretary from 1955 to 1960 and was the organizer of the Washington marches. Rustin was a member of the Young Communist League. He attended the 1957 Convention of the Communist Party USA in February 1957. One month later, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (S.C.L.C.) was formed. Before organizing the first March on Washington held in March 1958, Rustin went to Moscow. Rustin, then affiliated with the War Resisters League, also organized the second Washington March held on August 28, 1963. He served prison and jail sentences “for draft-dodging, lewd vagrancy, and homosexual perversion.”
13. Who was Jack O’Dell and what was his relationship to Martin Luther King, Jr.?
Jack O’Dell, a.k.a. Hunter Pitts O’Dell, became Martin Luther King, Jr.’s secretary in 1961. As of 1962, O’Dell was a member of the National Committee of the Communist Party, USA, having been a member of the party since 1956. He was made Acting Director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (S.C.L.C.) on October 26, 1962. When the St. Louis Globe-Democrat revealed O’Dell’s communist affiliation, Martin Luther King, Jr. made a grand pretext of firing O’Dell. King, then, quietly rehired O’Dell as director of the New York office of the S.C.L.C.
14. What did the Communist Party USA’s official newspaper The Worker say about Martin Luther King, Jr. and his efforts?
The Worker called the first March on Washington in 1958 “a Communist project.” Benjamin J. Davis, in an article published in The Worker on November 10, 1963, praised Martin Luther King, Jr. as “a brilliant and practical leader.”
15. Who helped fund Martin Luther King, Jr.’s activities?
Karl Prussian, an FBI counterspy to the Communist Party USA, swore in testimony to Congress on March 30, 1965, that Martin Luther King, Jr. “willingly accepted support from over sixty Communist fronts” as well as individuals acknowledged and well-known to be avowed Communists. King held a financial conference with Communist Party representatives, unaware that one was an FBI infiltrator. A black member of the Communist Party USA of Cleveland and an FBI informant testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1979 that “we [the cells of the Communist Party USA] were continually being asked to raise money for Martin Luther King’s activities and to support his movement…I knew Martin Luther King to be closely connected with the Communist Party…” King received at least one check signed by a registered foreign agent of Fidel Castro, Benjamin Smith.
16. Was Martin Luther King, Jr. a communist?
No, Martin Luther King, Jr. was not a card-carrying member of the Communist Party. However, he described himself as a Marxist to his biographer, David Garrow who wrote The FBI and Martin Luther King, Jr. King told Southern Christian Leadership Conference (S.C.L.C.) staffers at a meeting, “We have moved into a new era, which must be an era of revolution…We are engaged in the class struggle.” One of King’s more radical causes in his later years was a call for a government-quaranteed “minimum – and livable – income for every American family,” whether people were working or not as “a radical reconstruction of society itself.” He told a friend, “If we [Negroes] are to achieve real equality, the United States will have to adopt a modified form of socialism.” King preached at a retreat for civil rights’ movement leaders, “Something is wrong with capitalism.” In his sermon to the Clergy and Laity Concerned on April 4, 1967, King ridiculed Western culture as “arrogant,” called for the abandonment of “nationalism,” compared U.S. troops in Vietnam to Nazis, and warned, “We must not engage in a negative anti-communism.”
17. What book did Martin Luther King, Jr. write the forward to, despite his espousal of non-violence?
Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote the forward to the book Negroes with Guns by Robert Williams, a black from Monroe, North Carolina, who moved to Cuba. Williams is best known for his “Radio Free Dixie” broadcasts from Havana over Fidel Castro’s high-powered AM transmitters. These radio shows, broadcasted three times a week, called for blacks to violently attack whites in the United States. The book’s editors and publisher were supporters of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, a Communist front. Presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald belonged to the group, also.
18. What liberal Martin Luther King, Jr. supporter and FBI Assistant Director was assigned to investigate him by J. Edgar Hoover?
William C. Sullivan wrote, at the beginning of his assignment, “I was one hundred percent for King…because I saw him as an effective and badly needed leader for the Black people in their desire for civil rights.” Sullivan’s view changed over the years as he came to know the details of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s life and work. Sullivan, a thirty-year veteran of the FBI, concluded that King was “one of only seven people he had ever encountered who was a total degenerate.” In his official report to J. Edgar Hoover, Sullivan wrote that King “is the most dangerous Negro of the future in this Nation from the standpoint of Communism, the Negro, and national security.”
19. Why are the FBI files on Martin Luther King, Jr. authorized by Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, sealed until 2027?
Because the sealed FBI files reveal Martin Luther King, Jr.’s conduct in numerous “orgiastic and adulterous escapades, some of which indicated that King could be bestial in his sexual abuse of women,” according to Assistant FBI Director Charles D. Brennan in a letter to North Carolina Senator John P. East. Coretta Scott King, widow of Martin Luther King, Jr. requested the sealing of these files because its release "would destroy his reputation.”
20. Why won’t the media or educators reveal the whole truth about Martin Luther King, Jr. and his movement?
Because the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday has become a profitable “feel-good lie” in the words of writer Geov Parrish. One unnamed veteran of the civil rights’ movement admitted, “Everybody was out getting laid.” In “Remembering Martin Luther King, Jr.,” his friend Richard John Neuhaus reluctantly admitted “The movement…contained moral ingredients that would later become the libertine ‘counterculture’ of drugs and sexual license.” Furthermore, he admitted there would be no approval of the King holiday today if the truth were known. David Lewis wrote in his 1970 book King: A Critical Biography, “In the nation’s canonization of Martin King…we have sought to remember him by forgetting him.” Gerard Eisterhold designed the display of the Lorraine Motel rooms, where King was shot, at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis. Eisterhold refused to include any depiction of the rooms’ occupants because it would be “close to blasphemy.”
To learn more about the truth regarding Martin Luther King, Jr., read:
· The FBI and Martin Luther King, Jr. by David J. Garrow (W. W. Norton & Co.: New York), 1981
· And the Walls Came Tumbling Down by Rev. Ralph Abernathy (Harper Collins: New York), 1991
· Plagiarism and the Culture War: The Writings of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Other Prominent Americans by Theodore Pappas Halberg (Hallberg Publishing Corp.: Tampa), 1998
· Martin Luther King, Jr. by Marshall Frady (Viking Penguin, Inc.: New York), 2002
· I May Not Get There with You: The True Martin Luther King, Jr. by Michael Eric Dyson (Simon & Schuster: New York), 2001
· Why the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Should Be Repealed: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Life and the Aftereffects (The Creativity Movement) available in PDF format at http://www.martinlutherking.org/articles/the_king_holiday.pdf
The King Holiday and Its Meaning by Senator Jesse Helms (Council of Conservative Citizens: St. Louis), 1990s.
The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.: Volumes I-V (The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute: Stanford), 1992 to 2005.
“Abolish the King Holiday: King’s Record Has Been Sealed by Court Order Until the Year 2027—Why???” by Dr. Ed Fields (Truth Tract No. 3: The Truth at Last, P.O. Box 1211, Marietta, GA 30061)
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Martin Luther King, Jr. Test
1. What is Martin Luther King Jr.’s, real name?
2. What did President Lyndon B. Johnson call Martin Luther King, Jr., after receiving J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI report?
3. How much of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, doctoral dissertation for Boston University was plagiarized?
4. Was Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, dissertation the only incident of his plagiarism?
5. Who attempted to suppress knowledge of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, plagiarism?
6. After delivering his famous “I’ve Seen the Promised Land” speech, how did Martin Luther King, Jr., spend his last night on earth?
7. What was Martin Luther King, Jr., heard to exclaim at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C., on FBI recordings?
8. Who paid for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, prostitutes?
9. What was the Highlander Folk School School, which was attended by both Martin Luther King, Jr., and Rosa Parks?
10. With whom and why did Martin Luther King, Jr., meet at the Highlander Folk School in Monteagle, Tennessee, over Labor Day, 1957?
11. Who was Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, chief mentor and benefactor who prepared King’s taxes and raised funds for him?
12. Who was Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, personal secretary from 1955 to 1960?
13. Who was Jack O’Dell and what was his relationship to Martin Luther King, Jr.?
14. What did the Communist Party USA’s official newspaper The Worker say about Martin Luther King, Jr., and his efforts?
15. Who helped fund Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, activities?
16. Was Martin Luther King, Jr., a communist?
17. What book did Martin Luther King, Jr., write the forward to, despite his espousal of non-violence?
18. What liberal Martin Luther King, Jr., supporter and FBI Assistant Director was assigned to investigate him by J. Edgar Hoover?
19. Why are the FBI tapes on Martin Luther King, Jr., authorized by Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, sealed until 2027?
20. Why won’t the media or educators reveal the whole truth about Martin Luther King, Jr., and his movement?
The answers to this Martin Luther King, Jr., test will be posted tomorrow at http://yankeereb.blogspot.com/ ?
2. What did President Lyndon B. Johnson call Martin Luther King, Jr., after receiving J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI report?
3. How much of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, doctoral dissertation for Boston University was plagiarized?
4. Was Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, dissertation the only incident of his plagiarism?
5. Who attempted to suppress knowledge of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, plagiarism?
6. After delivering his famous “I’ve Seen the Promised Land” speech, how did Martin Luther King, Jr., spend his last night on earth?
7. What was Martin Luther King, Jr., heard to exclaim at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C., on FBI recordings?
8. Who paid for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, prostitutes?
9. What was the Highlander Folk School School, which was attended by both Martin Luther King, Jr., and Rosa Parks?
10. With whom and why did Martin Luther King, Jr., meet at the Highlander Folk School in Monteagle, Tennessee, over Labor Day, 1957?
11. Who was Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, chief mentor and benefactor who prepared King’s taxes and raised funds for him?
12. Who was Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, personal secretary from 1955 to 1960?
13. Who was Jack O’Dell and what was his relationship to Martin Luther King, Jr.?
14. What did the Communist Party USA’s official newspaper The Worker say about Martin Luther King, Jr., and his efforts?
15. Who helped fund Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, activities?
16. Was Martin Luther King, Jr., a communist?
17. What book did Martin Luther King, Jr., write the forward to, despite his espousal of non-violence?
18. What liberal Martin Luther King, Jr., supporter and FBI Assistant Director was assigned to investigate him by J. Edgar Hoover?
19. Why are the FBI tapes on Martin Luther King, Jr., authorized by Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, sealed until 2027?
20. Why won’t the media or educators reveal the whole truth about Martin Luther King, Jr., and his movement?
The answers to this Martin Luther King, Jr., test will be posted tomorrow at http://yankeereb.blogspot.com/ ?
Why Should the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Be Abolished?
The entire country has been brainwashed. All fifty states have been conned into recognizing the Martin Luther King holiday. New Hampshire was the last to succumb; its legislature voted in 1999 to begin observing the holiday in 2000. Sadly, Hitler's P.R. guy Goebbels was right: Repeat a lie often enough and it will become the truth.
The Martin Luther King, Jr., holiday should be abolished. Only historical distortion, amnesia, and revisionism keep this holiday on the calendar. Heck, if modern historians and politicians cared a twit for historical accuracy, the holiday would be known by a different name. Not only was Martin Luther King, Jr., not a saint, he was not even a hero. He should not be emulated or held up to our young people as someone to admire or follow.
Martin Luther King, Jr., was a phony, a liar, a pervert, and an enemy of the United States, in my opinion. I curse his assassin because had Martin Luther King, Jr., lived longer, Americans would know the truth about this man. Instead, white guilt has shrouded the truth and cloaked this devil in pseudo-sainthood.
Take the Martin Luther King, Jr., Test to understand why I believe this holiday should be abolished. The answers will be posted tomorrow.
The Martin Luther King, Jr., holiday should be abolished. Only historical distortion, amnesia, and revisionism keep this holiday on the calendar. Heck, if modern historians and politicians cared a twit for historical accuracy, the holiday would be known by a different name. Not only was Martin Luther King, Jr., not a saint, he was not even a hero. He should not be emulated or held up to our young people as someone to admire or follow.
Martin Luther King, Jr., was a phony, a liar, a pervert, and an enemy of the United States, in my opinion. I curse his assassin because had Martin Luther King, Jr., lived longer, Americans would know the truth about this man. Instead, white guilt has shrouded the truth and cloaked this devil in pseudo-sainthood.
Take the Martin Luther King, Jr., Test to understand why I believe this holiday should be abolished. The answers will be posted tomorrow.
Friday, January 5, 2007
Pat Robertson Predicts Terrorist Attack in 2007
From the Associated Press, Jan. 3, 2007: Pat Robertson, on a 700 Club broadcast, predicted a "mass killing" terrorist attack "sometime after September." Robertson claimed God had "told him" this attack would happen. However, he admitted that he sometimes misses on his annual predictions. (See http://www.beliefnet.com/story/208/story_20853_1.html for full details.)
Now, I have no problem with Rev. Robertson or anyone speculating on what may happen in the future. In college and afterwards, my friends and I enjoyed an annual parlor game of predicting the new year's events. One of us would record and save the list of everyone's predictions, which would be read at the next New Year's Eve party.
This tradition began, to the best of my recollection, when one of us (I forget who but it wasn't me) became fascinated by tabloid prognostications. Our college chaplain, Fr. Anton J. Borer, SMB, challenged our gullibility about these so-called psychics by having us make our own forecasts. We predicted things that would happen worldwide or to the nation or more locally. We also forecast things in our own and our family's or friends' lives. He carefully recorded all our predictions. His theory was we would be just as accurate as then-famous forecasters such as Jeanne Dixon.
That is exactly what happened that first year. We found we were right about fifty percent of the time, which meant we were wrong fifty percent. That batting average continued to hold more or less true every year. After that first year, none of us took any such predictions seriously and joked about our "fearless forecasts" made as a way to pass the time before midnight on New Year's Eve.
In later years, I continued this tradition with my Mom and now do it by myself. Each year, a few predictions are right on the money. Others are partially true; others are completely wrong. In no way to I consider even the accurate ones some kind of psychic ability. I believe that anyone will get lucky on a few if they make enough predictions.
Pat Robertson crosses the bar, though, when he states that "God told him during a recent prayer retreat that major cities and possibly millions of people will be affected by the attack..." (emphasis added). The words "God told" makes Robertson's prediction a prophecy. That means it must happen. If it does not, then there are only two conclusions. Either God is a liar or Robertson is a false prophet. Robertson digs himself a deeper hole when he cautions, "Sometimes I miss" on these predictions given to him by God. Jeremiah 23: 31-32 (New International Version) warns:
Now, I have no problem with Rev. Robertson or anyone speculating on what may happen in the future. In college and afterwards, my friends and I enjoyed an annual parlor game of predicting the new year's events. One of us would record and save the list of everyone's predictions, which would be read at the next New Year's Eve party.
This tradition began, to the best of my recollection, when one of us (I forget who but it wasn't me) became fascinated by tabloid prognostications. Our college chaplain, Fr. Anton J. Borer, SMB, challenged our gullibility about these so-called psychics by having us make our own forecasts. We predicted things that would happen worldwide or to the nation or more locally. We also forecast things in our own and our family's or friends' lives. He carefully recorded all our predictions. His theory was we would be just as accurate as then-famous forecasters such as Jeanne Dixon.
That is exactly what happened that first year. We found we were right about fifty percent of the time, which meant we were wrong fifty percent. That batting average continued to hold more or less true every year. After that first year, none of us took any such predictions seriously and joked about our "fearless forecasts" made as a way to pass the time before midnight on New Year's Eve.
In later years, I continued this tradition with my Mom and now do it by myself. Each year, a few predictions are right on the money. Others are partially true; others are completely wrong. In no way to I consider even the accurate ones some kind of psychic ability. I believe that anyone will get lucky on a few if they make enough predictions.
Pat Robertson crosses the bar, though, when he states that "God told him during a recent prayer retreat that major cities and possibly millions of people will be affected by the attack..." (emphasis added). The words "God told" makes Robertson's prediction a prophecy. That means it must happen. If it does not, then there are only two conclusions. Either God is a liar or Robertson is a false prophet. Robertson digs himself a deeper hole when he cautions, "Sometimes I miss" on these predictions given to him by God. Jeremiah 23: 31-32 (New International Version) warns:
According to John 8:44, Satan, not God, is the father of lies. Prophecies from God will occur precisely as predicted down to the minutest detail. Anyone, including Pat Robertson, who claims an event will happen because God said it would must be 100 percent accurate. Deuteronomy 18:21-22 (NIV) provides the way to discern prophecy:"Yes," declares the LORD, "I am against the prophets who wag their own tongues and yet declare, 'The LORD declares.' Indeed, I am against those who prophesy false dreams," declares the LORD. "They tell them and lead my people astray with their reckless lies, yet I did not send or appoint them. They do not benefit these people in the least," declares the LORD.
You may say to yourselves, "How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the Lord?" If what a prophet proclaims in the ame of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.God does not "miss." If the event does not happen, then believers can know that the forecast was authored by Satan, and the forecaster is a false prophet. It is a good thing that Robertson did not live during Old Testament times. The penalty for "misses" in prophecy was death.
Tuesday, January 2, 2007
Goodbye, President Ford
I watched the funeral for President Gerald R. Ford, this morning. It was moving and fitting for the former President. The dignity and ceremony of these national rituals, I believe, are helpful and healing to us as a nation. They remind me of what is important in life: family, relationships, faith in God. As a political activist, it is easy to forget these values in the heat of partisan advocacy.
President Ford was a good example of political civility. President Ford was a loyal Republican. As a leader in the House and as President of the Senate, he "loved a good fight." At the end of the day, though, he could slap Democratic Speaker Tip O'Neill on the back and join him in a drink. President Ford understood that good men (and women) could disagree without being disagreeable. He realized bad ideas could come from good people.
Presidential funerals also give us review lessons in history. I remember being very upset, like most Americans, when President Ford pardoned President Nixon. At the time, I could not understand taking that action before a trial and conviction. Looking back, I can see President Ford's wisdom in quickly ending the "national nightmare" of Watergate. President Nixon resigned in disgrace, a punishment probably worse than prison to that prideful man. It reminds me to be cautious in being too quick to judge the presidencies of Carter and Clinton, whom I did not like, or today's President Bush, whom I do. Good historical analysis requires the perspective that only comes with the passage of time.
Watching the coverage of these funerals also supplies some good trivia, too. I don't think I ever knew that President Ford's middle name was "Rudolph." I didn't know that the casket stand used in the Capitol was originally built for President Abraham Lincoln's coffin. The fabric has been replaced but is draped exactly as it was when Lincoln laid in state. I had forgotten that President Ford had two assassination attempts. I remembered the one by Streaky Fromm, probably because a woman was the perpetrator which made it unusual. Does anyone remember who made the other attempt?
President Ford was a good example of political civility. President Ford was a loyal Republican. As a leader in the House and as President of the Senate, he "loved a good fight." At the end of the day, though, he could slap Democratic Speaker Tip O'Neill on the back and join him in a drink. President Ford understood that good men (and women) could disagree without being disagreeable. He realized bad ideas could come from good people.
Presidential funerals also give us review lessons in history. I remember being very upset, like most Americans, when President Ford pardoned President Nixon. At the time, I could not understand taking that action before a trial and conviction. Looking back, I can see President Ford's wisdom in quickly ending the "national nightmare" of Watergate. President Nixon resigned in disgrace, a punishment probably worse than prison to that prideful man. It reminds me to be cautious in being too quick to judge the presidencies of Carter and Clinton, whom I did not like, or today's President Bush, whom I do. Good historical analysis requires the perspective that only comes with the passage of time.
Watching the coverage of these funerals also supplies some good trivia, too. I don't think I ever knew that President Ford's middle name was "Rudolph." I didn't know that the casket stand used in the Capitol was originally built for President Abraham Lincoln's coffin. The fabric has been replaced but is draped exactly as it was when Lincoln laid in state. I had forgotten that President Ford had two assassination attempts. I remembered the one by Streaky Fromm, probably because a woman was the perpetrator which made it unusual. Does anyone remember who made the other attempt?
Monday, January 1, 2007
Getting Started
This fulfills my first resolution of 2007. I resolved to start a blog. Does this make me part of the "you" generation, honored by Time magazine as "Man of the Year"?
The second resolution I made was to do more writing and journalling. I've kept a journal in one form or another since I was sixteen. That was more than forty years ago. I'm halfway through Volume 31 of my hand-written journals. Blogging seems to be a natural next step.
Journalling has been the way I have formed, developed, refined, affirmed and sometimes changed my views and beliefs over the years. It has helped me work through crises at a cost much lower than therapy. The older I get, the more I use my diaries as a way to record and preserve contemporary history and my reactions to those events. Journals are a place to remember.
This is why I chose to call my blog "Recordor et Credo" (I Remember & Believe). It will be a compilation of one middle-aged woman's memories, experiences, and beliefs. In it, I will use "I-statements:" "I believe," "I should," "I think," etc. I am not here to impose my beliefs, ideas, etc., on others with statements like "you should" or "you must" or "you ought to." I hope those who choose to leave comments will do the same.
The second resolution I made was to do more writing and journalling. I've kept a journal in one form or another since I was sixteen. That was more than forty years ago. I'm halfway through Volume 31 of my hand-written journals. Blogging seems to be a natural next step.
Journalling has been the way I have formed, developed, refined, affirmed and sometimes changed my views and beliefs over the years. It has helped me work through crises at a cost much lower than therapy. The older I get, the more I use my diaries as a way to record and preserve contemporary history and my reactions to those events. Journals are a place to remember.
This is why I chose to call my blog "Recordor et Credo" (I Remember & Believe). It will be a compilation of one middle-aged woman's memories, experiences, and beliefs. In it, I will use "I-statements:" "I believe," "I should," "I think," etc. I am not here to impose my beliefs, ideas, etc., on others with statements like "you should" or "you must" or "you ought to." I hope those who choose to leave comments will do the same.
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