GM Fish

The ability to genetically modify crops has been a blessing. Increase yields.  At times with with with increase vitamin content. Feeding a hungry world.

Now for the first time an animal, salmon. Doesn't get any better than that. Shouldn't take long now for the Brits to warm up to GM food.

Ready to eat: the first GM fish for the dinner table

US decision after 17-year battle over fast-growing salmon could pave way for same step in Britain

A GM salmon which grows twice as fast as ordinary fish could become the first genetically-modified animal in the world to be declared officially safe to eat, after America's powerful food-safety watchdog ruled it posed no major health or environmental risks.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said it could not find any valid scientific reasons to ban the production of GM Atlantic salmon engineered with extra genes from two other fish species – a decision that could soon lead to its commercial production.

The verdict clears one of the last remaining hurdles for GM salmon to be lawfully sold and eaten in the US and will put pressure on salmon producers in Britain and Europe to follow suit.

Successive chief scientists to the UK Government, as well as science institutions such as the Royal Society, have endorsed the concept of GM technology as a tool for increasing food production in the 21st Century, but consumer opposition has so far blocked the approval of GM food for the dinner table.

Several government bodies including the advisory committees on the release of GM organisms and on novel foods and processes would have to review the technology before it was approved in the UK.

Supporters of the technology believe the GM salmon will make it not only easier and cheaper to produce farmed salmon, but that it could also be better for the environment because they can be grown on land-based fish farms.

THE INDEPENDENT-FULL STORY

People's Daily believes Kim Jong Eun ‘Sexiest Man Alive’

It's happened to me, being fooled that is. With that in mind I am not going to go on and on as to how stupid the people are at China's newspaper, the People's Daily.

After all, anybody can be fooled, no? It is just I am not all that forgiving when it comes to the official newspaper of China's communist party.

My prejudice against that paper aside, how in the heck could they take such a story seriously? I mean really.  who do they think they are, the Los Angeles Times?

People’s Daily Quotes the Onion: Kim Jong Eun ‘Sexiest Man Alive’

The official voice of the Chinese Communist Party appears to have been had.

The People’s Daily newspaper, which for more than six decades has sternly spouted the party line, on Tuesday posted on its website a 55-photo slideshow dedicated to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Eun. The occasion: The satirical newspaper the Onion earlier this month declared the double-chinned Mr. Kim the “sexiest man alive for 2012.”

The slideshow – which begins with a photo of Mr. Kim astride a dappled gray, looking stoically into the distance – quotes liberally from the Onion and offers no evidence that a tongue is anywhere in the vicinity of a cheek. “With his devastatingly handsome, round face, his boyish charm, and his strong, sturdy frame, this Pyongyang-bred heartthrob is every woman’s dream come true,” the text below the slideshow says, citing the Onion.

STORY CONTINUES

Now from the The Onion.

Kim Jong-Un Named The Onion's Sexiest Man Alive For 2012 [UPDATE]

The Onion is proud to announce that North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong-un, 29, has officially been named the newspaper’s Sexiest Man Alive for the year 2012.

With his devastatingly handsome, round face, his boyish charm, and his strong, sturdy frame, this Pyongyang-bred heartthrob is every woman’s dream come true. Blessed with an air of power that masks an unmistakable cute, cuddly side, Kim made this newspaper’s editorial board swoon with his impeccable fashion sense, chic short hairstyle, and, of course, that famous smile.

“He has that rare ability to somehow be completely adorable and completely macho at the same time,” Onion Style and Entertainment editor Marissa Blake-Zweibel said. “And that’s the quality that makes him the sort of man women want, and men want to be. He’s a real hunk with real intensity who also knows how to cut loose and let his hair down.”

Added Blake-Zweibel, “Ri Sol-ju is one lucky lady, that’s for sure!”

With today’s announcement, Kim joins the ranks of The Onion’s prior “Sexiest Man Alive” winners, including:

•2011: Bashar al-Assad

•2010: Bernie Madoff

•2009: Charles and David Koch (co-winners)

•2008: Ted Kaczynski

•2007: T. Herman Zweibel

The Onion’s commemorative “Sexiest Man Alive” issue will be available on newsstands everywhere this Friday and contains a full 16-page spread on Kim.

UPDATE: For more coverage on The Onion's Sexiest Man Alive 2012, Kim Jong-Un, please visit our friends at the People's Daily in China, a proud Communist subsidiary of The Onion, Inc. Exemplary reportage, comrades.


From the Peoples Daily it self.

U.S. website The Onion has named North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong Un as the "Sexiest Man Alive for the year 2012".

"With his devastatingly handsome, round face, his boyish charm, and his strong, sturdy frame, this Pyongyang-bred heartthrob is every woman's dream come true. Blessed with an air of power that masks an unmistakable cute, cuddly side, Kim made this newspaper's editorial board swoon with his impeccable fashion sense, chic short hairstyle, and, of course, that famous smile," it said.

"He has that rare ability to somehow be completely adorable and completely macho at the same time," said Marissa Blake-Zweiber, editor of The Onion Style and Entertainment. 

Story of Columbian Jews

Colombian Jews, who would've thought?

Not at all surprised to find Jews in Columbia as anywhere in the world.  To be spread out across the globe seems to be our fate, but this story I find particularly interesting.

I am not one to just accept that somehow it is in the soul of these people to rediscover a lost/stolen heritage. But who knows the whole story?

Colombian evangelical Christians convert to Judaism, embracing hidden past

BELLO, Colombia — They were committed evangelicals, devoted to Jesus Christ.

But what some here called a spark, an inescapable pull of their ancestors, led them in a different direction, to Judaism. There were the grandparents who wouldn’t eat pork, the fragments of a Jewish tongue from medieval Spain that spiced up the language, and puzzling family rituals such as the lighting of candles on Friday nights.

So, after a spiritual journey that began a decade ago, dozens of families that had once belonged to a fire-and-brimstone church became Jews, converting with the help of rabbis from Miami and Jerusalem. Though unusual in one of the most Catholic of nations, the small community in Bello joined a worldwide movement in which the descendants of Jews forced from Spain more than 500 years ago are discovering and embracing their Jewish heritage.


They have emerged in places as divergent as the American Southwest, Brazil and even India. In these mostly remote outposts, the so-called Anusim or Marranos, Jews from Spain who fled the Inquisition and converted to Christianity, had found refuge.

Historical record



With a void in the historical record, it’s hard to say for sure how the past unfolded for the converted Jews who arrived here centuries ago, establishing themselves as merchants and traders. But there is evidence that they played an important role in the founding of towns here and that their numbers were significant, which is largely unknown to most Colombians.
FULL STORY

Richard III bones bring new discussion

Old bones which bring back history causing discussion and controversy fascinate me.

My knowledge of British history, especially in regards to their kings is truly lacking. But then again, thanks to Shakespeare I have had the pleasure to have some knowledge of this Richard III dude.
Of course, the Bard's version may be flawed, as some real historians on the subject seem only to eager to point out.

 Unverified remains dig up the twisted legacy of England’s Richard III

 LONDON — Tyrant or hero? Rightful monarch or child-killer? Despotic hunchback or brave scoliosis sufferer? Now is the winter of our debate over one of England’s most notorious villains: Richard III.






Underneath a drab parking lot 90 miles northwest of London, archaeologists have unearthed what may become one of this nation’s finds of the century — half-a-millennium-old bones thought to be the remains of the long-lost monarch. But if the discovery has touched off a feverish round of DNA tests against his closest living descendants, it has also lurched to the surface a series of burning questions in a country where even arcane points of history are disputed with the gusto of modern-day politics.

Whether the bones prove to be Richard’s or not, the discovery in September has already set academic journals, Web sites, university lecture circuits and the mainstream media abuzz across Britain, sparking intense and occasionally impolite exchanges. On the floor of the House of Commons, members of Parliament are eloquently clashing, with representatives from York — for whom Richard was the last hope against rival Lancastrians in the War of the Roses — demanding the restoration of his tarnished image. One organization of die-hard Richard III supporters (there are at least two) is running a national ad campaign to clear the king’s name.

FULL STORY-Washington Post


I only posted three paragraphs to this story, follow the title link or the one just above for a very interesting read.

Lawless Pakistani Lawyers

Five years ago black suited lawyers in Pakistan marched the streets to protest the unconstitutional actions of General dictator General Pervez Musharraf.   

Who knew?  That wasn't going to be the last to be heard of them, the  Lawyers' Movement .

Should come as no shock.  Beyond the headlines and immediate goals,  who outside the region really cared what they do?  My only interest is of curiosity, and what seems to be a lesson in human fault.

What seemed to be a noble group of men, we find out to be not much better than the Dictator they sought to overthrow.

Pakistani lawyers go from heroes to ‘gangsters’

LAHORE, Pakistan — The young police inspector came to court to present evidence in a beating case. He left with his head and lip bloodied and his uniform torn — assaulted, he said, by a gang of black-suited assailants.

The notorious lawyers of Lahore had struck again, police and witnesses said. It was chalked up as yet another episode of violence by lawyers that has become common here in this seat of justice in eastern Pakistan, where cases from throughout Punjab province are heard.

In a nation where the rule of law is already fragile on many levels, police officials, judges, litigants and witnesses say they have become increasingly fearful of marauding lawyers in their trademark black pants, coats and ties.


I am not going to copy the whole article, as interesting as it is, but rather paste some snippets.

“If police officers don’t submit to their pressure, they abuse and beat them,” said Sadaqat Ullah, the 28-year-old police investigator who alleged that a group of lawyers pummeled him

“Storm troopers,” Ayaz Amir, a politician and commentator, called them in a June column. “Time was when lawyers did most of their arguing with their tongues. Now they seem to do a better job with their fists.”


Judges, in particular, say lawyers have become drunk on power, unafraid to curse judicial officers, drag them from their courtrooms and padlock the doors

Courthouse violence appears infrequent elsewhere, but in Lahore, on a single day in May, three courtroom brawls were reported in the media. They included the pummeling of police inspector Zohaib Awan
In courtrooms, lawyers crowd insistently in front of the bench as opposed to sitting quietly at their places until the judge instructs them to appear.


Throughout Pakistan, neither the police, nor the lawyers, nor the courts — particularly the lower courts — are held in high regard. Police officers are poorly paid and augment their income by demanding payoffs to investigate crimes.

FULL STORY

America Lost

I can't think of another time an election result bothered me so much as last Tuesday when President Obama was reelected.

Before the campaign I didn't have a problem keeping my dislike for his policies separate from what I think of his as a man. That has all changed now, seeing how there was no low for him to go in  his quest to transform America.

This is a good editorial from the Washington Times which is more eloquent than anything I can say compose.

Lament for lost America

The American people have spoken. With the re-election of President Obama, America is on her way to complete conversion to a socialist country (“Election 2012: Obama re-elected without a mandate,” Web, Wednesday).

This will not be the kind of socialism of Greece, where the government foolishly has spent the country’s resources and the people are suffering greatly for it. Nor will it be like the former Soviet Union, where even an aspirin could not be found in the apothecaries and standing in line to buy bread was an everyday necessity. Mr. Obama’s socialist America will have the peasants dancing in the streets for joy, and why not? We will be taken care of from the womb to the tomb.

One of the cornerstones of Mr. Obama’s socialist country is the redistribution of wealth. Targeted for their wealth will be those “greedy” oil companies. In the words of Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. about America’s economy, “It’s all about a three-letter word, J-O-B-S, jobs.” Government jobs, that is.

Cry, the beloved country we once were.


STELLA L. JATRAS

H.M.S. Bounty-Rescue

I already posted about the tragic sinking of the H.M.S. Bounty, but now there is more information to share.

The heroic efforts of rescuers and the what is now known of the fate of the two aboard who did not make it back to safety.

HMS Bounty: A tall ship’s final hours in hurricane-ravaged seas

The tall ship began to die early Monday morning in the hurricane-ravaged waters off the North Carolina coast. One of the HMS Bounty’s generators failed. Water flooded everywhere. The 180-foot-long, three-masted tall ship was losing power and propulsion.

By about 3 a.m., the Bounty’s once-optimistic Facebook page, which on Sunday had posted “So far so good!” in its daily updates, had issued a new message for its followers: “Your Prayers are needed.”

“Rest assured that the Bounty is safe and in very capable hands,” the Facebook page’s administrator wrote. “Bounty’s current voyage is a calculated decision . . . NOT AT ALL . . . irresponsible or with a lack of foresight as some have suggested. The fact of the matter is . . . A SHIP IS SAFER AT SEA THAN IN PORT!”

But Sunday night, the hurricane was proving too much for the Bounty. The ship sent out a distress signal at 9 p.m., according to the Coast Guard. Two hours later, the HMS organization called the Coast Guard, confirming that it had lost radio contact with the vessel.

A Coast Guard C-130 aircraft arrived at the scene an hour later to make direct contact with the Bounty and survey the scene, about 90 miles off Cape Hatteras.

When the captain ordered everyone off the ship about 4:30 a.m., three people struggled to climb into the two lifeboats and were smacked by a wave, the Coast Guard said. One man fell into the water, but others pulled him into one of the boats. Walbridge and Christian were thrown into the water and disappeared.

Christian’s body was recovered Monday night, but Walbridge remained unaccounted for.

While the HMS Bounty and its crew foundered in the dark, Steve Bonn was woken from a sound sleep in Camden, N.C., about 4:15 a.m. by his ringing cellphone. The 44-year-old Coast Guard helicopter pilot was needed for a mission: A big boat was sinking.


I left out a lot, for the whole story go the the

Washington Post Link

H.M.S. Bounty Sinks

This is a really interesting story. Hate to see such a ship go down, not to mention the loss of life.


I am curious how the decision was made to make the run to St. Petersburg, FL in the face of that approaching storm.

There will be an investigation to be sure.

ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. -- Coast Guard Vice Adm. Robert Parker, Operational Commander for the Atlantic Area, told "Good Morning America's" George Stephanopoulos Monday morning that a replica of the famous sailing ship the HMS Bounty had sunk and two crewmembers were unaccounted for.

The Coast Guard in Portsmouth initially received a call from the owner of the 180-foot, three- mast, tall ship late Sunday evening, saying she had lost communication with the vessel's 16-member crew. It was previously reported to be a 17-person crew.

An air crew from Elizabeth City, N.C., sent out an HC-130 Hercules aircraft to establish communications with the Bounty's crew. The vessel was taking on two feet of water an hour and had no propulsion before it sank approximately 90 miles southeast of Hatteras N.C., Monday.

Parker said the 16 crewmembers abandoned ship into canopied, rubber life rafts with about 10 feet of water on board.

Two MH-60 Jayhawk helicopters from Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, N.C., rescued 14 people from life rafts in winds of 40 mph and 18-foot Atlantic Ocean seas.

FULL STORY


This is an interesting video of that ship during another storm.

United Nation Monitors not Welcome in Texas

The United States has a Republican form of Government. We vote for our Representatives. We been doing that for a long time.

UN Affiliate Will Monitor U.S. Elections

The upcoming presidential elections will be observed by election monitors from countries that have their own issues with democracy.


The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), a group that has observed U.S. elections since 2002, is sending dozens of monitors from around the world to monitor the presidential and congressional elections in the United States this November.

As CNS News reports, 12 of those monitors come from countries that Freedom House ranks "not free," specifically Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, and six come from countries ranked "partly free."

FULL STORY

Can't say our electoral history has been all pure and simple. That is a fact. But then I am talking history, something we learned here as we strive  to fulfill the preamble to our Constitution,

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union

Well, some of us just don't like foreigners poking their noses in our business.  A great thing here is we have Texas.

Texas sparks international row with election observers

Texas authorities have threatened to arrest international election observers, prompting a furious response from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).


“The threat of criminal sanctions against [international] observers is unacceptable,” Janez Lenarčič, the Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), said in a statement. “The United States, like all countries in the OSCE, has an obligation to invite ODIHR observers to observe its elections.”

FULL STORY

U.S. World’s Top Oil Producer ! ?

How in the heck did my country come to this?

I mean really.

Our government mandates we put corn ethanol into our gas tanks, even though it is more expensive than gasoline. Meanwhile domestically producing record amounts of  gasoline.

All along gas prices at the pump climbed to, and remain unquestionably expensive.

Then to read an article which touch on a fact which we all should be cognizant of.

U.S. May Overtake Saudi Arabia As World’s Top Oil Producer

NEW YORK (AP) - U.S. oil output is surging so fast that the United States could soon overtake Saudi Arabia as the world's biggest producer.

Driven by high prices and new drilling methods, U.S. production of crude and other liquid hydrocarbons is on track to rise 7 percent this year to an average of 10.9 million barrels per day. This will be the fourth straight year of crude increases and the biggest single-year gain since 1951


The Energy Department forecasts that U.S. production of crude and other liquid hydrocarbons, which includes biofuels, will average 11.4 million barrels per day next year. That would be a record for the U.S. and just below Saudi Arabia's output of 11.6 million barrels. Citibank forecasts U.S. production could reach 13 million to 15 million barrels per day by 2020, helping to make North America "the new Middle East."

CNS NEWS

U.S.A.F. Flying Saucer

No surprise here. Back in the '50s the U.S.A.F. trying to make a flying saucer. Also, no shock it didn't work out.  

Boys and their toys.

Declassified docs show Air Force flying saucer

Recently declassified documents from the U.S. Air Force reveal a Cold War-era plan to build a round, vertical take-off and landing aircraft that can only be described as a flying saucer.

The truth isn’t out there … it’s been stored in a warehouse for 56 years.

The National Declassification Center in College Park, Md., opened one of more than 100 cardboard boxes from the Air Force recently and came across a 114-page document from 1956 sure to interest the tin-foil-hat crowd: a document describing a secret program by the Air Force to build a flying saucer.

"These records have been classified probably since their creation during the '50s," Neil Carmichael, director of the declassification review division at NDC, told Popular Mechanics, which first posted news of the complete document. "It’s like somebody went into somebody’s office, emptied out a filing cabinet, stuck it in a box, sealed it, and sent it off to the federal records center. It was deemed permanently valuable at some point in its life and that’s why we have it today."

Last week, the group posted a few images and a brief blog entry on the program, which was estimated to cost just $3.2 million, the report said. But an NDC representative told FoxNews.com that the group is “in the process of digitizing” the entire document and has not yet released it onto its website.
Carmichael told FoxNews.com this document is just a drop in the agency’s bucket

“We have about 400 million pages to get through the executive order President Obama signed in 2009,” he said. “I tell my techs, 'If you find anything interesting, let us know.'”

FOX NEWS

Candy Crowley, Liberal Moderator

I didn't keep a stop watch, but not surprised that Obama was given more time.

Didn't keep notes, so lost track of how much Obama got away with. But I am glad somebody did.

Crowley Interrupts Romney 28 Times, Obama Just 9

Candy Crowley, who was suspected of being one more liberal moderator in the tank for Barack Obama, was more than just in the tank for him; she dove in and sucked all the water out for him so he could pretend he walked on water.

In the Vice-Presidential debate, Martha Raddatz, no slouch at shilling for the Democratic Party, interrupted Paul Ryan 15 times and Joe Biden only five.

Crowley made Raddatz look like an amateur. She interrupted Obama nine times, (although four of those were when he wouldn’t respect the time limit when discussing assault weapons; he went over his time limit all night long), but when it came to Mitt Romney, she was utterly beyond the pale.

Crowley interrupted Romney 28 times. 28 times. Her desperation to keep Romney from scoring points was so patently obvious that it wasn’t really a surprise when she had her infamous moment: the moment when she interrupted and falsely claimed Romney was incorrect in accusing Obama of refusing to call the Benghazi attack an act of terror.

And even beyond the interruptions, there were numerous instances where Crowley’s obvious partisanship prompted her to treat Romney with great disrespect:

1. She wouldn’t let him respond when Obama lied about the auto industry. First she called him Mr. Romney instead of governor, then protested, “there'll be plenty of chances here to go on, but I want to... We have all these folks. I will let you absolutely... OK. Will - will - you certainly will have lots of time here coming up.” Romney never did get the chance to respond.

2. After the question asking whether gas prices as they stand now are the new normal, Obama got 2 chances to respond. When Romney asked for his second chance, Crowley shut him off by saying, “ … in the follow up, it doesn't quite work like that. But I'm going to give you a chance here. I promise you, I'm going to.” She didn’t.

3. When discussing how he would deal with deductions, just as Romney was about to destroy Obama with statistics, Crowley jumped in to save her man not only by denying the value of statistics, but changing the narrative to say Romney’s numbers couldn’t possibly add up:

“And Governor, let's - before we get into a vast array of who says - what study says what, if it shouldn't add up. If somehow when you get in there, there isn't enough tax revenue coming in. If somehow the numbers don't add up, would you be willing to look again …”

4. When Romney was trying to make a point of Obama’s pension investing in China, Crowley cut him off by insinuating people were tired of him talking:

“Governor Romney, you can make it short. See all these people? They've been waiting for you. Make it short.”

Then she really tried to humiliate him with this: “If I could have you sit down, Governor Romney. Thank you.” She never asked Obama to sit down.

5. The infamous incident when she interrupted Romney’s claim about Obama’s refusal to call the Benghazi murders a terror attack:

“It - it - it - he did in fact, sir. So let me - let me call it an act of terror...

Prompted by Obama to say it a little louder, Crowley obliged:

“He - he did call it an act of terror. It did as well take - it did as well take two weeks or so for the whole idea there being a riot out there about this tape to come out. You are correct about that.”

6. 6. Just as egregiously, when the question was about assault weapons and Romney naturally started to discuss fast and furious, Crowley quickly shifted him away from that and turned it into an attack on Romney’s assault ban position:

“Governor, Governor, if I could, the question was about these assault weapons that once were once banned and are no longer banned. I know that you signed an assault weapons ban when you were in Massachusetts, obviously, with this question, you no longer do support that. Why is that, given the kind of violence that we see sometimes with these mass killings? Why is it that you have changed your mind?’

The fact that Obama escaped all night long by lie after lie didn’t seem to disturb Crowley in the slightest. She had her shadowy agenda, and she stuck to it fiercely. Now it is our job to throw her out into the sun where every American can see exactly how dirty she is.

BREITBART-by William Bigelow

Texas College Race Quotas, Supreme Court

When are government sanctioned racial preferences going to end?

The whole concept of affirmative action was an afterbirth of the struggle for equal rights, mainly by black folk in Southern States.

OK fine, we been doing that experiment, affirmative action for what, 50 years?

To me,  two full generations are enough to continue screwing young folk for injustices committed well before their birth.

Supreme Court skeptical of University of Texas affirmative action


Conservative justices hint they will throw out the school's admissions policy, but it's unclear whether they will reverse the court's 2003 ruling on the issue.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court's conservative justices signaled Wednesday they were likely to strike down a University of Texas affirmative action policy, but did not make clear how far they might go in outlawing the use of race in admissions at colleges and universities.


From his opening question, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said he was troubled by having students "check a box" to designate race or ethnicity and by allowing officials to decide who is admitted based on this factor.

"Should someone who is one-quarter Hispanic check the Hispanic box?" he asked. When the lawyer for the university said it was up to the student to decide, Roberts tried again: "What about one-eighth?"


The case, brought by a white student who was rejected, could lead to a ruling requiring top colleges and universities to use "race neutral" policies to achieve campus diversity. Texas, for example, has required its universities, including the Austin campus where the case originated, to admit students who graduate at the top of their high school class, without regard to race or ethnicity.

Los Angeles Times

When a Bribe is not big enough for conviction!

When was a bribe not enough to be illegal? I mean really. One cannot even give a cop a free donut without some pedestrian claiming foul. Appearance of impropriety.

So we learn that  Chicago, Illinois is a place which Rod Serling wrote about, The Twight Zone.

Court: Bribes not high enough for conviction

An appeals court has reversed the bribery conviction of a Chicago zoning inspector on grounds the value of two $600 payoffs he received weren't high enough.


The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago issued the ruling Thursday.

Dominick Owens was arrested in 2009 for allegedly accepting $1,200 to issue certificates permitting owners to occupy their homes after construction. He allegedly issued them without inspections.

His 2011 conviction stemmed from an investigation of inspectors dubbed “Operation Crooked Code.” It led to more than a dozen arrests.

An FBI affidavit said Owens accepted thousands of dollars from a cooperating witness.

But the court found prosecutors failed to prove the value of the bribes was $5,000 or more as required under the law used to convict Owens.

Chicago Tribune

Iran/Hezbollah drone shot down over Israel

Should not come as any surprise, Iran gives their puppet terrorists, Hezbollah an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle.

Oh well, got some target practice for the Israel Air Force.

Downed drone: Iran testing Israel's capabilities

Unmanned aircraft shot down by F-16 jets in south Israel was apparently launched from Lebanon by Hezbollah, or perhaps even by the Iranians themselves; IDF looking into possibility aircraft was supposed to photograph Dimona reactor


IDF choppers in area where drone was
 intercepted (Photo: Haim Horenstein)


A few hours after two fighter jets shot down a small unmanned aircraft that penetrated Israeli airspace in the south Saturday morning, it is safe to say that an element operating in Lebanon under the auspices of Iran and with its support, apparently Hezbollah, activated the drone. The drone itself, which was downed in the south Mount Hebron area, was apparently made in Iran.

Operating a drone by remote control from such a long distance requires advanced capabilities, which Israel was not aware Hezbollah had acquired.

Hezbollah's drones have infiltrated Israeli airspace in the past, from the north, but their activation did not require any navigation system. The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that infiltrated Israel on Saturday did require such a system. The incident showed that the Air Force has the ability to detect and intercept drones at any stage of their flight.

Ynet News

Bar Rescue

As much as I try to avoid watching to much television, I do. With all that said, not often am I sucked into a show I get such enjoyment from as this, Bar Rescue.

A lot of it has to do with showing how some small businesses serving food are actually dangerous to its patrons.

It just interests me an thought I would share it with ya all.

SPIKE
On the Rocks Sneak Peek
www.spike.com
Spike Full Episodes Spike Video Clips Spike on Facebook

NAACP, Cries to United Nations

All my life the American news media used words like "revered", respected or maybe highly regarded when referring to the NAACP (National Association of Colored People).

OK, a lot of times they get it right, but mostly I wonder what just what they are all about.

NAACP Urges U.N. to Investigate U.S. for ‘Racially Discriminatory Election Laws’

I cant remember the last time I made a comment on the Headline of a story before before presenting the story.

I mean really. Except for headline value, and getting attention from bloggers like me, what do they expect to accomplish?

To me, it is one thing to have a complaint, but go to the United Nations, as if they have any authority in our internal affairs.

I really wonder, does the average NAACP member have a clue?

(CNSNews.com) – Charging that millions of citizens, two-fifths of them black, have been denied the right to vote because of felony convictions, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People called on the United Nations this week to investigate America’s “racially discriminatory election laws.”


“Today, nearly 5.3 million U.S. citizens have been stripped of their voting rights on a temporary or permanent basis, including more than 4.4 million citizens who are no longer incarcerated,” said Lorraine Miller, who chairs the NAACP national board’s advocacy and policy committee.

NAACP Senior Vice President for Advocacy Hilary Shelton told the panel that the restrictions on voting “prevent those most in need of an advocate from the ability to elect someone who will represent their concerns: the need for a decent public education, for a health care system that addresses their specific demographic needs, as well as the creation of decent jobs, a functional criminal justice system and other basic human needs.”

CNSNEWS

Thank you Senior Vice President for Advocacy Hilary Shelton for that succinct argument in behalf of rapists, murderers and other violent felons.

I just don't buy it.

When it comes to violent crime, I am color blind. 

ACLU Loves Voter fraud, Michigan

The ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) is at it again.

Going all hog wild over an check mark on Michigan ballot affirming they are a CITIZEN!!

 OH THE HUMANITY!!

Seems the leftist lawyer group (ACLU) believes fraudulently checking that box may cause a person wanting to vote Democrat  his/her choice might be intimidating.

Well, duh, it should.

As a taxpaying CITIZEN, Army Vet, I most certainly resent non-citizens violating our laws to potentially voiding my vote.


Secretary of state defends citizenship question on ballots

Secretary of State Ruth Johnson's office said Tuesday implementation of a new citizenship affirmation at the polls has gone "relatively smoothly" in response to a federal lawsuit challenging the ballot application question.

Johnson, a Republican, responded Tuesday to a federal lawsuit filed last week by the ACLU of Michigan, SEIU, the Ingham County clerk and others challenging her authority to ask voters to affirm their citizenship before they vote.

SEIU, Service Employees International Union

Anybody paying attention, know the connecion. Not the first time SEIU more than donated money to President Obama.

In the middle of the August primary, Johnson's office backed away from its previous instructions to deny people ballots for refusing to answer the question amid confusion about her authority to impose the question — one month after Gov. Rick Snyder vetoed a bill Johnson sought to add the citizenship question to state law.

The Detroit News

We are a nation of laws. 

With that said, I have no idea if in Michigan a law must be past for  the Secretary of State to require a a check mark on a ballot asserting citizenship.

That is all neither here or there.

Not a citizen, try to vote, deportation is in order.

CNN/MSNBC Commentator Vandalize Posters

I suppose this columnist, CNN & MSNBC commentator got tired of the power of the pen, so she took to spray paint. Vandalism is always a persuasive method to get ones point across.

No really, just had to try and get into her thought process, or lack of it.

Commentator Arrested for Defacing Anti-Jihad Subway Poster

An Egyptian-American columnist, who rose to prominence on social media last year for her commentary during the revolution in Egypt, was arrested in the Times Square subway station on Tuesday for spraying pink paint on a pro-Israel poster that calls Islamist opponents of the Jewish state “savage.”

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority had initially rejected the ads, citing their “demeaning” language. The group behind the ads, the American Freedom Defense Initiative, sued, and in July won a federal court ruling on First Amendment grounds.

New York Times

Significant Taliban Attack

I really like the angle the report takes in pointing out the historic proportions of that attack, The significance was never widely reported. 


The U.S. Suffered Its Worst Airpower Loss Since Vietnam Last Week and No One Really Noticed

The Taliban attack on an air base in southern Afghanistan on Friday drew coverage for the way the insurgents cloaked themselves in U.S. army uniforms to gain a tactical advantage, but few have taken note of the historical proportions of the damage inflicted. John Gresham, at the Defense Media Network, has published a detailed account of the attack on Camp Bastion, in which two Marines were killed, six U.S. Marine Corps jet fighters were destroyed, and two more "significantly" damaged. Those facts were all carried in most reports, but if that just sounds like a typical damage report from a decade-long war, you're wrong. Gresham explains the devastating damage done to VMA-211, the name of the Marine Corps attack squadron that was most affected last week, noting that it is "arguably the worst day in [U.S. Marine Corps] aviation history since the Tet Offensive of 1968." Or you could go back even further. "The last time VMA-211 was combat ineffective was in December 1941, when the squadron was wiped out during the 13-day defense of Wake Island against the Japanese."



The Atlantic

George Zimmmerman, Screwed

The first eight minutes or so are great. Maybe because I already seen George Zmmerman's father on that Hannity interview and it got real boring. Nontheless, it may interest some folk.

Favored Rights vs. The Rest of Our Rights

It is an interesting game when government decides to strip some citizens of their rights in favor of a "protected" class of citizens.

This is an interesting story which was brought to my attention by commentator George F. Will whose commentary follows the news report.

Snippets from the news report.

A right to discriminate against gay couples?

WASHINGTON — Attorneys for a Christian wedding photographer say they will appeal a New Mexico court decision that ruled she violated anti-discrimination laws by refusing to photograph a lesbian commitment ceremony.

The controversy began in 2006 when Elaine Huguenin, co-owner of Elane Photography, refused to photograph a “commitment ceremony” for Vanessa Willock and her partner. Huguenin claims her refusal was rooted in her Christian faith that views marriage as a sacred union between one man and one woman.

The Thursday (May 31) decision by the New Mexico Court of Appeals upholds a 2008 ruling by the New Mexico Civil Rights Commission in favor of the same-sex couple that was subsequently upheld in district court.

New Mexico law does not recognize same-sex marriages or civil unions for same-sex couples, but its Human Rights Act requires that places of public accommodation not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation.

Washington Post

The tangled web of conflicting rights

Elaine Huguenin, who with her husband operates Elane Photography in New Mexico, asks only to be let alone.


But instead of being allowed a reasonable zone of sovereignty in which to live her life in accordance with her beliefs, she is being bullied by people wielding government power.


The Huguenin case demonstrates how advocates of tolerance become tyrannical. First, a disputed behavior, such as sexual activities between people of the same sex, is declared so personal and intimate that government should have no jurisdiction over it. Then, having won recognition of what Louis Brandeis, a pioneer of the privacy right, called “the right to be let alone,” some who have benefited from this achievement assert a right not to let other people alone. It is the right to coerce anyone who disapproves of the now-protected behavior into acting as though they approve of it, or at least into not acting on their disapproval.

So, in the name of tolerance, government declares intolerable individuals such as the Huguenins, who disapprove of a certain behavior but ask only to be let alone in their quiet disapproval. Perhaps advocates of gay rights should begin to restrain the bullies in their ranks.

FULL COMMENTARY

The FULL COMMENTARY is well worth reading.