Consent Of The Governed

Ron Paul Highlights From Arizona Debate

2012-02-23T05:00:00.002-05:00

Just in case you missed it:

Congressman Paul opposes bringing back the draft... the fact that he mentioned it must mean that Congress has it somewhere in the pipeline.

Overall, Paul's performance was terrific!

Plus... post debate interview:

Why Are Heads Of Banks Resigning?

2012-02-22T05:00:00.003-05:00

In the past two weeks there has been ten heads of banks stepping down from their posts! With all of these resignations happening in such a short time, is it possible that they know something big is coming? Some cite political disagreements, others personal reasons, others cite policy reasons... but it still makes one wonder what is going on behind the scenes.. especially after the resignation of Zellick from the World Bank.
No worries for them, they are cashing in their chips and heading out the door.
Sort of puts a different kind of spin on the term "bank run".

Check this out.

2-06-12: Dhanlaxmi Bank CEO Amitabh Chaturvedi quits

2-10-12: Tamilnad Mercantile Bank MD resigns

2-13-12: Kuwait central bank chief resigns amid political tensions

2-14-12: Nicaragua Central Bank Head Quits Amid Row

2-15-12: World Bank President Zoellick Resigns

2-15-12: Slovenia’s Two Biggest Banks’ CEOs Step Down as Woes Mount

2-16-12: CFO of ANZ Bank Resigns Amid Turmoil

2-16-12: Andrew Chick to lead Royal Bank of Scotland's Australian arm - Stephen Williams quits.

2-17-12: Credit Suisse’s Private Bank Chief Asian Economist Tan Resigns

as well as these two important changes:

2-17-12: Blankfein out as Goldman Sachs CEO by summer?

2-18-12: Embarrassment for Merkel as German president resigns in disgrace after trying to bag the press

Looks like the rats are deserting the ship... if you know what I mean.

... and in case you are wondering... here is why the Dow just passed 13,000.

it is entirely due to the nearly $7 trillion pumped by global central banks into the world stock markets just in the past 4 years.

Just remember... the US dollar has lost 1/3 of it's value since 2008,and 40% since 2007. In 2007 a 14,000 high market would be 23,300 in today's devalued dollars. 13,000 is 55.8% of the 2007 high. So the market is still down 44% (these numbers were provided by a commenter over at Zerohedge)

What we are seeing in the market is the effect of inflation... not an improving economy or an improving business environment.

Remember Weimar?

Just ask any remaining citizens of the Weimar Republic. They know all too well about exponential stock market rises. They also know absolutely everything about the self-delusion that comes with chasing NOMINAL numbers.

Fat Tuesday - Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler!

2012-02-21T05:00:00.001-05:00

Fat Tuesday is Mardi Gras, the festival New Orleans, Louisiana, is famous for.

"Mardi" is French for Tuesday and "Gras" is French for fat.
It's a pre-Lenten festival celebrated in Roman Catholic countries and communities and has its origin in pre-Christian spring fertility rites. Mardi Gras, or Shrove Tuesday occurs the day before the fast of Lent begins and is celebrated by the French as the last of the three days of Shrovetide.

Mardi Gras is considered the last opportunity for merrymaking and indulgence in food and drink before Lent and it is generally celebrated for one full week before Lent. There are elaborate parades featuring floats, pageants, outlandish costumes, masked balls, and people dancing in the streets. The parties and parades will continue until Lent begins at the stroke of midnight on Tuesday.

Mardi Gras is a legal holiday in New Orleans. It occurs 46 days before Easter. Since the actual date Easter occurs on changes yearly, Mardi Gras can happen on any Tuesday between February 3 and March 9.

The first American Mardi Gras was celebrated near modern-day New Orleans on March 3, 1699. Everyone packs the streets and watches the parades and joins in the revelry in New Orleans, as well as in other places in the world (Brazil, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy...).

The official colors of Mardi Gras are purple, green and gold (representing justice, faith and power).

So as they say in N'Orleans - Let The Good Times Roll!

Hmmm... Can I give up paying higher taxes in CT for Lent? (probably not)

Dear Washington And Lincoln - A Very Merry Unbirthday To YOU!

2012-02-20T05:00:00.004-05:00

A very merry Unbirthday!

Presidents Day? It's not Washington or Lincoln's birthday today! And there really is no statutory federal designation or holiday called "Presidents Day". But, the malls are having great sales, schools are closed and federal employees have the day off. Let me explain.

Up until 1971, February 22 was observed as a federal holiday to honor the birthday of George Washington. People used that day to remember a great man, and celebrate. Washington's Birthday was the first federal holiday to honor an American citizen, and was was celebrated on Washington's actual birthday according to the Gregorian calendar. It was originally implemented by the federal government in 1880 in the District of Columbia and expanded in 1885 to include all federal offices.

Lincoln's birthday was never made a federal holiday, however it is a legal holiday in the U.S. state of Illinois and in some other states. It is observed on the anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth on February 12, 1809. Again, this to is to pay homage to one of our important leaders.

In 1971, the Uniform Monday Holiday Bill of 1968 was enacted. It was legislation designed to give federal employees more three day weekends. In the case of what is called "Presidents Day"; Washington's birthday is still celebrated, but not now always on his actual birthday, and since Lincoln's birthday was nearby on the calendar, many took the opportunity to combine the two and just call the federal Monday holiday in honor of Washington's birthday in February, "Presidents Day". This of course, has worked quite well for retailers, and now we are used to thinking, that this holiday was meant to honor all presidents. According to federal Statute, that really wasn't the case.

There are lots of urban legends out there about this holiday, but the truth is that it really still is the celebration of Washington's birthday and has morphed into "Presidents Day" by popular observance, mostly pushed by retailers. The mythology of Presidents Day being a celebration of all presidents, is also unfortunately taught to our kids in school. I am sure they have absolutely no idea what the real meaning of this day off is all about.

Read the actual statute..
TITLE 5 > PART III > Subpart E > CHAPTER 61 > SUBCHAPTER I > § 6103

The following are legal public holidays:
New Year’s Day, January 1.
Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., the third Monday in January.
Washington’s Birthday, the third Monday in February.
Memorial Day, the last Monday in May.
Independence Day, July 4.
Labor Day, the first Monday in September.
Columbus Day, the second Monday in October.
Veterans Day, November 11.
Thanksgiving Day, the fourth Thursday in November.
Christmas Day, December 25.

An explanation of Federal Statute regarding holidays says this:

1968—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 90–363 added Columbus Day, the second Monday in October, to the enumerated legal public holidays, and substituted provisions that Washington’s Birthday, Memorial Day, and Veterans Day are to be celebrated on the third Monday in February, the last Monday in May, and the fourth Monday in October, respectively, for provisions that the above mentioned public holidays are to be celebrated on February 22, May 30, and November 11, respectively.

So happy Washington's un-birthday and I hope that you enjoy the day just the same.

Presidential Factfile has some great information and resources about our presidents.

Election 2012 - - Onion Style - - Plus Maine

2012-02-17T05:00:00.003-05:00

It's satire... are you laughing?

Meanwhile in Maine:

Even Rachel Maddow knows that Maine was stolen from Ron Paul.

No worries though... apparently Maine will be recounting votes.

Judge Napolitano's Last Broadcast For Freedom Watch

2012-02-16T05:00:00.002-05:00

The Judge is spot on.

Unfortunately it appears as if the media is slowly silencing people like the Judge.

This week in CT, WDRC Talk Radio also fired Dan Lovallo - who happened to be a staunch small government Conservative like the Judge (he also supported ideas put forth by Ron Paul). Perhaps he also criticized our Governor, Dannel Malloy, and the State Legislature one too many times.

What a shame.
They will blame it on media budget cuts or some other lame reason... but we know the truth.

The powers that be do not appreciate educating the masses regarding their Constitutional rights... nor do they appreciate people who speak the truth.

The School Says: Let'em Eat Chicken Nuggets!

2012-02-15T05:00:00.003-05:00

It's the Nanny State on steroids!

In the land where ketchup is considered a vegetable, and heavily processed and breaded mystery meat is blessed by government school food Nazis, State agents at a pre-school inspected a home packed bagged lunch to see if it met USDA guidelines. It was determined that a 4-year old's lunch did not meet government guidelines and the little girl was told to eat chicken nuggets instead...because you know that pre-processed crap is so much better for growing/developing children!

Honestly - this is nuts!
(sorry for you folks with nut allergies)

The Carolina Journal reports:

RAEFORD — A preschooler at West Hoke Elementary School ate three chicken nuggets for lunch Jan. 30 because a state employee told her the lunch her mother packed was not nutritious.

The girl’s turkey and cheese sandwich, banana, potato chips, and apple juice did not meet U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines, according to the interpretation of the agent who was inspecting all lunch boxes in her More at Four classroom that day.

The Division of Child Development and Early Education at the Department of Health and Human Services requires all lunches served in pre-kindergarten programs — including in-home day care centers — to meet USDA guidelines. That means lunches must consist of one serving of meat, one serving of milk, one serving of grain, and two servings of fruit or vegetables, even if the lunches are brought from home.

When home-packed lunches do not include all of the required items, child care providers must supplement them with the missing ones.

The girl’s mother — who said she wishes to remain anonymous to protect her daughter from retaliation — said she received a note from the school stating that students who did not bring a “healthy lunch” would be offered the missing portions, which could result in a fee from the cafeteria, in her case $1.25.

“I don't feel that I should pay for a cafeteria lunch when I provide lunch for her from home,” the mother wrote in a complaint to her state representative, Republican G.L. Pridgen of Robeson County.

The girl’s grandmother, who sometimes helps pack her lunch, told Carolina Journal that she is a petite, picky 4-year-old who eats white whole wheat bread and is not big on vegetables.

“What got me so mad is, number one, don’t tell my kid I’m not packing her lunch box properly,” the girl’s mother told CJ. “I pack her lunchbox according to what she eats. It always consists of a fruit. It never consists of a vegetable. She eats vegetables at home because I have to watch her because she doesn’t really care for vegetables.”

When the girl came home with her lunch untouched, her mother wanted to know what she ate instead. Three chicken nuggets, the girl answered. Everything else on her cafeteria tray went to waste.

“She came home with her whole sandwich I had packed, because she chose to eat the nuggets on the lunch tray, because they put it in front of her,” her mother said. “You’re telling a 4-year-old. ‘oh. you’re lunch isn’t right,’ and she’s thinking there’s something wrong with her food.”

While the mother and grandmother thought the potato chips and lack of vegetable were what disqualified the lunch, a spokeswoman for the Division of Child Development said that should not have been a problem.

“With a turkey sandwich, that covers your protein, your grain, and if it had cheese on it, that’s the dairy,” said Jani Kozlowski, the fiscal and statutory policy manager for the division. “It sounds like the lunch itself would’ve met all of the standard.” The lunch has to include a fruit or vegetable, but not both, she said.

There are no clear restrictions about what additional items — like potato chips — can be included in preschoolers’ lunch boxes.

“If a parent sends their child with a Coke and a Twinkie, the child care provider is going to need to provide a balanced lunch for the child,” Kozlowski said.

Ultimately, the child care provider can’t take the Coke and Twinkie away from the child, but Kozlowski said she “would think the Pre-K provider would talk with the parent about that not being a healthy choice for their child.”

It is unclear whether the school was allowed to charge for the cafeteria lunches they gave to every preschooler in the class that day.

The state regulation reads:

“Sites must provide breakfast and/or snacks and lunch meeting USDA requirements during the regular school day. The partial/full cost of meals may be charged when families do not qualify for free/reduced price meals.

“When children bring their own food for meals and snacks to the center, if the food does not meet the specified nutritional requirements, the center must provide additional food necessary to meet those requirements.”

Still, Kozlowski said, the parents shouldn’t have been charged.

“The school may have interpreted [the rule] to mean they felt like the lunch wasn’t meeting the nutritional requirements and so they wanted the child to have the school lunch and then charged the parent,” she said. “It sounds like maybe a technical assistance need for that school.”

The school principal, Jackie Samuels, said he didn’t “know anything about” parents being charged for the meals that day. “I know they eat in the cafeteria. Whether they pay or not, they eat in the cafeteria.”

Pridgen’s office is looking into the issue.

Are you kidding me?

Nevermind complaining to the stupid school.. I would remove my child from this program faster than you could say chicken nugget!

It's not bad enough that schools have become feeding centers - now they are telling children what they can and cannot eat when they bring meals from home!

I am telling you people out there... homeschool your children.
Stop allowing the government school system to decide what is best for your child AND your family!

These early childhood programs are nothing more than intrusive government indoctrination programs which aim to do more than just teach colors, numbers and letters to pre-schoolers.

As far as I am concerned, this little girl's lunch from home sounded much better and much more nutritious than any tray of institutional crap put together by the USDA food Nazis.

P.S. - The USDA is a bloated Agency and desperately needs to go on a diet. Look at how many people head up stuff. I wonder what THEY eat for lunch.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2012-02-14T05:00:00.002-05:00

Roses are red

Violets are blue

COTG is happy and thankful

To have readers like you!

♥ Have a great day! ♥

Verses and Valentine greetings were popular as far back as the Middle Ages, when lovers said or sang their valentines. Written valentines began to appear after 1400. The oldest "valentine" in existence was made in the 1400's and is in the British Museum.

Gas Prices Trending Upward

2012-02-13T05:00:00.001-05:00

Zerohedge reports:

As the weekly Lundberg survey shows, in the week ended February 10, gas rose by 11.57 cents to $3.5101, the highest since September. The latest price is also 12% higher compared to a year earlier. What is troubling is that as the attached chart shows, the trend of gradual gas price declines has now firmly ended, having touched a low of $3.20, and has been replaced by a steady climb over the past 2 months. ... Expect the recent highs of $4.00/gallon to be taken out shortly, and to lead to yet another GDP roll over once again. Alas, none of this will be a consolation to European readers, who a few days ago just saw gas hit all time highs.

Here is Reuters with more:

The average price for a gallon of gasoline in the United States rose nearly 12 cents in the past three weeks to about $3.51, due in part to higher prices for North Sea crude oil, according to the nationwide Lundberg Survey.

The national average for a gallon of regular gasoline rose 11.57 cents to $3.5101 as of Feb. 10, the survey of about 2,500 gasoline stations in the continental United States found.

That was a greater change than the 3.5-cent rise in the previous survey, which covered the two weeks that ended Jan. 20.

Survey editor Trilby Lundberg told Reuters that the higher prices came as the price for North Sea Brent crude rose more than $7 per barrel. Brent prices are more volatile and sensitive to changes in the Middle East than is U.S. crude.

Lundberg said U.S. pump prices will likely rise a few more cents in the short-term because retailers have yet to pass along all of the recent wholesale price increases.

Among cities covered by the survey, the lowest average price was in Denver at $3.01 per gallon. The price was highest in Long Island suburbs of New York, at $3.82. The price difference is largely because of taxes, Lundberg said.

This is sure to hit our already faltering economy very hard.
The price of gasoline is reflected in everything else. There will be higher shipping costs, higher food costs, higher clothing costs, and on and on.

States and some municipalities could be winners though, because higher fuel costs will mean higher revenues from tax on gasoline. The consumers will be the biggest loser.

Some say higher gasoline costs, and energy costs in general, will the start of a true inflationary depression and that it will eventually spark food and fuel riots in this country.

Have you thought of how this would impact you if gasoline goes above $4 a gallon?

The Onion Reports On Facebook And The CIA

2012-02-10T05:00:00.002-05:00

Heh... it's pretty funny and perhaps not too far from the truth.

Ahhh... gotta love The Onion.

Reporting Suspicious Activity - The New Salem Witch Hunt

2012-02-09T05:00:00.001-05:00

The FBI has put out a series of flyers to let you know how you can spot an insurgent/terrorist/extremist.

It's their handy dandy lists that citizens can refer to in case one needs help deciding whether to report their neighbor who seems to be buying an awful lot of groceries lately.

The "See Something/Say Something" campaign (AKA Communities Against Terrorism) has gone into Moronic Overdrive.

These flyers are really ridiculous....

One flyer alerts Internet Cafe owners to be on the look out for, and report, customers that always pay for their coffee with cash, as they could be terrorists! Really???? Don't most people pay with cash?

Another flyer for Owners of Dive/Boat Shops tells them that they should look out for people interested in becoming certified scuba divers or looking for accelerated diving courses, as they could be terrorists! Nah... they couldn't just be folks who are going on a vacation soon and need some quick instruction!

And don't even consider acting nervously or impatiently - this is a dead giveaway that you are a terrorist. So skip that extra cup of coffee and take a few chill pills.

The Shopping Mall flyer informs us that people wearing coats in warm weather are terrorists.. ummm.... that would include most old people in Florida, or Orthodox Jews.... and if you have missing limbs or fingers then you are definitely suspicious! (eyeroll)

If you go to a hobby shop - beware of persons interested in remote controlled aircraft... or exhibiting unusual interest or specific interest in rocket motors or igniters... so it looks like geeky teenage boys are to be reported for suspicious activity. Additionally, if you Possess little knowledge of the activity for which your purchase is intended then you are definitely a terrorist... because people should not try to learn anything or buy new and interesting items.

Don't even think of making purchases in a beauty supply store/drug store if you do not work at or own a salon. So, someone who buys empty jars and bottles for personal use ... well they are definitely suspicious.

And if you go to a Military Surplus store - don't even think of asking for MRE's (Meals Ready To Eat) or purchasing flashlights because you might be suspected to be a terrorist!

So folks - read each flyer carefully.
Look at what activities are now considered "suspicious"
and remember... this was compiled with the use of your tax dollars.

Speaker Boehner Moves To Halt Fast And Furious Investigations

2012-02-08T05:00:00.003-05:00

It is just unbelievable.
Crimes and treason were committed - people perjured themselves under oath and good border patrol people died over this - and yet deals are being cut to allow criminals to get off without penalty.
Shame on this government!

Coach Collins reports:

John Boehner to halt Fast and Furious investigation, sell out to Eric Holder and White House

... Congressman John Boehner, the House Speaker better known for displays of weeping than of courage, is reportedly cutting a deal with Eric Holder which would provide a “mutually satisfactory” outcome in Barack Obama’s criminal, gun running endeavor Operation Fast and Furious.

Months ago, Boehner prevented Darrell Issa filing a charge of perjury against Holder even after documents proved the Attorney General’s May 4th House testimony concerning the date of his first “acquaintance” with Fast and Furious to be an outright lie. And now the weepy Speaker will OFFICIALLY let the most corrupt Department of Justice head in the nation’s history off the hook for complicity in the Regime’s murderous scheme to savage the 2nd Amendment rights of the American people.

The terms of the betrayal John Boehner is currently putting together:

The Committee will accept the scalps of [Lanny] Breuer and [Jason] Wienstein, DOJ will release enough of the (documents) to condemn them, claim cooperation (thus giving the appearance of recognizing congress’s oversight authority), and Holder will survive – looking like a “leader” for offering them up (along with a few lower level ATF and DOJ folk). The Committee will chalk one in the “Win” column for oversight and holding people accountable. DOJ will have the same for cooperating and accountability. (1)

Lovely, isn’t it! Hundreds are dead, including two American agents. One of those dead, Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was literally set up for murder by an FBI INFORMANT who, on December 14th of 2010, accompanied and LED the drug cartel rip gang responsible for Terry’s death. The other victim, ICE Agent Jaime Zapata was NOT PERMITTED by LAW to even possess a weapon with which he might have defended himself from his killers!

Yet John Boehner will be pleased to sell them out in order to lay claim to the pathetically comic mantle of a tough-minded Republican leader who brought down 2 Obama Regime, Department of Justice higher-ups. That is, with the approval of the White House, of course.

But in point of fact Boehner will, as usual, simply be doing do what is politically safe and expedient rather than what is RIGHT. He will continue his customary role of bowing and scraping before leftist media and political types who allow useful idiots like himself to remain in positions of strictly limited authority only on condition they make no waves and create no embarrassment for the real ruling class in the nation’s capital.

Are the House committee sources of Mike Vanderboegh–the citizen journalist responsible for so much of what we know of the Fast and Furious scheme and its DOJ sponsored cover-up–right about the looming betrayal to be perpetrated by the Speaker?

We will know by the actions of House leadership and the designated sacrificial lambs in this little exercise of DC collusion. If Republican leadership demand NO prison time for any of the lambs, the fix is in. If any of those being sold down the river in return for the Regime’s continued ability to escape responsibility actually ARE on the way to jail, yet somehow unable to trade extremely damaging evidence against the DOJ or White House for protected status, we’ll ALSO know the fix is in.

Either way, allowing Eric Holder to stroll scot-free over the graves of Brian Terry and Jaime Zapata would place John Boehner among the most disgraceful and despicable traitors to the American public in our nation’s history. But don’t expect him to shed any tears over such a trifle. Little Johnny isn’t THAT sensitive.

Use this site to contact your Congressional Representative:
https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

To read more - go here

It seems the corruption in D.C. is unending.
The roots of this are incredibly deep and like a cancer has spread to all levels of government. There must be justice!
We must have indictments, public trials and punishment of the guilty.
This type of high treason cannot be allowed to stand.
The actions of some of these Washington politicians have been appaling and dangerous to this Republic.
Treason - according to our laws - carries a penalty of not less than life in prison and up to a maximum penalty of death.
We need to find honest politicians who have the spine to file indictments and Articles of Impeachment and stop this abuse of power and this type of deal making which places certain people above the Law, once and for all.

Call Boehner's office. Tell him you won't put up with this type of deal making.
Men have died from this "Fast and Furious" operation and people need to be held accountable for it.
Eric Holder should be indicted, tried and put in prison if found guilty.
Call Rep. Issa's office and tell him NOT to stop the investigations.
Justice must prevail.

Rabbi Bendory Writes In Defense Of The Catholic Church

2012-02-07T05:00:00.002-05:00

King Obama fired the first shot at America's religious freedoms by attempting to dismantle Catholic Hospitals and Institutions under Obamacare.

It is outrageous that the federal government will be demanding that hospitals run by churches be required by law to adhere to government dictates which are totally counter Catholic belief.

Rabbi Dovid Bendory, Rabbinic Director, of Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership, wrote a brilliant letter in support of the Catholic Church. It is a "Must-Read".

In Defense of the Catholic Church

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. -- Bill of Rights, Article 1

I’m not a scholar of the United States Constitution, though like most citizens, I certainly have a basic understanding of the meaning and intentions of the Constitution and its Amendments. And like other patriots and defenders of the Second Amendment, I believe in the sanctity of this document and its integrity.

I’m no authority on Catholicism; with the exception of some comparative religion classes in college, my understanding of Catholic theology, ideology, and practice comes from growing up with a few Catholic friends and participating in interfaith dialogs among students studying for the clergy among various denominations.

But only a complete ignoramus of Catholic belief and Constitutional Law could fail to see hugely disturbing conflicts in a recent development in the executive branch of our federal government.

As reported in the Wall Street Journal ("A Battle the President Can’t Win", by Peggy Noonan, WSJ 2/3/12):

"The president signed off on a Health and Human Services ruling that says under ObamaCare Catholic institutions – including charities, hospitals and schools – will be required by law, for the first time ever, to provide and pay for insurance coverage that includes contraceptives, abortion-inducing drugs and sterilization procedures. If they do not, they will face ruinous fines in the millions of dollars. Or they can always go out of business.

In other words, the Catholic Church was told this week that its institutions can’t be Catholic anymore."

Whether you agree or disagree with the Catholic Church’s positions on abortion, sterilization, and birth control, this draconian maneuver by the Obama administration is simply untenable. This isn’t just about the federal government vs. the Catholic Church. It is about the federal government vs. religious autonomy in America.

Therefore, as a Rabbi, an Orthodox Jew, and an American, I stand with the Catholic Church and its right to freedom of conscience. If President Obama can force Catholics to pay for abortions, then no religious belief is safe in America, and an America in which religious beliefs are not sacrosanct is an America that is unsafe not only for Jews but for all people of conscience -- whether people of faith or secularists.

While JPFO’s main focus is on the Second Amendment, we have always stood for all of the Bill of Rights for All of the People. While Second Amendment is the "Guardian" of the Bill of Rights, all of the rights reserved for We the People must stand intact for any of them to have meaning.

With that in mind, I would remind Obama and his ilk that there are moral issues that decent men and women will fight for -- with pens and lawsuits at first, with arms if necessary. Freedom of religion and freedom of conscience are foremost among them. The Second Amendment preserves not only our right to take up arms in self-defense but also our right to defend against a tyrannical government. May it be a right we never need to exercise.

Shalom,

signature
Rabbi Dovid Bendory
Rabbinic Director
Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership
(http://jpfo.org)

I totally agree.. with Rabbi Bendory.
Religion is being targeted by this administration.
This move by King Obama amounts to persecution against religious belief and visibly reveals the secular and socialist nature of his administration.

You do realize what would happen if the Catholic Church closed its hospitals and institutions (either in protest or from financial ruin as a result of fines)... all of their institutions serve the people...there of course would be a huge vacuum to fill and guess who would fill it? The federal government - swooping in and thereby taking over (i.e. federalizing) the healthcare and social services industry. That, no doubt, is part of the Obama administration's overall game plan.

This type of Tyranny MUST STOP!

Lies And More Damned Lies

2012-02-06T05:00:00.002-05:00

I think the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) should just change it's acronym to BS.

Funny how they make the unemployment issue look so rosy - as if to imply the economy is improving. The number 8.3% unemployment is smoke and mirrors. They reported that 243,000 jobs were created but they failed to highlight that 112,000 of those were low paying jobs (surge in part-time workers). But there was also an adjustment on population, which was supposed to bump up the pool of labor, however 1.2 million people left the labor force because those people stopped looking for jobs. It wasn't because they found work. They are just no longer being counted. (See cartoon below)

So 1.2 million people who are available to work, no longer are being counted in the unemployment figures. Add this to a quirky "seasonal January adjustment" and throw in a rise in temporary workers (who by the way have little to no benefits) and voila! the government can turn survey data showing a loss of 2.7 million jobs into a BLS reported gain of 243,000 jobs!

It's just like magic!

Even Rick Santelli exposed it on MSNBC:

The unemployment figure should actually be somewhere around 11.5%

Great analysis here at Zerohedge.

And while one can try to say it is inconceivable to say that the US population jumped by 1.7 million in one month, we reply that this is coming from the BLS whose admission of the "population control effect" adjustment merely confirms that it has been misrepresenting the actual labor force participation rate for at least a year. In other words, while one may pander to semantics, and believe that a data series is not a data series because of one's mastery of sophistry and assumptions, this is totally irrelevant: the end result is that in January, those "not in the labor force" did in fact rise by 1.2 million (whether compared to December or to 2011 - please, go ahead and check as many times as needed), and the labor force participation rate dropped to a new 30 year low of 63.7%, a number which incidentally only has to drop by 5% more percent for the BLS to report zero, or even a negative, unemployment rate.

All you need to know about how the BLS really counts unemployment in one simple cartoon:

Magna Carta Copy Repaired

2012-02-03T05:00:00.004-05:00

A copy of the Magna Carta "Great Charter"

...here is a law which is above the King and which even he must not break. This reaffirmation of a supreme law and its expression in a general charter is the great work of Magna Carta; and this alone justifies the respect in which men have held it.

--Winston Churchill, 1956

Yahoo News reported an Associated Press story:

A 715-year old copy of Magna Carta will soon return to public view at the National Archives after a conservation effort removed old patches and repaired weak spots in the English declaration of human rights that inspired the United States' founding documents.

The National Archives unveiled the medieval document Thursday in a specially humidified glass and metal case. It is the only original Magna Carta in the United States and will return to public display Feb. 17.

A $13.5 million gift from philanthropist David Rubenstein funded the conservation, the custom-built case and a new gallery being renovated to host Magna Carta. Rubenstein bought the historic document at auction in 2007 for $21.3 million and sent it to the National Archives on a long-term loan.

Rubenstein, a co-founder of the private equity firm The Carlyle Group, said he sought the document previously owned by Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot because he wanted to keep it from leaving the country.

As a history buff, Rubenstein has become an expert on Magna Carta's legacy dating to 1215. That's when noblemen came together to declare their rights to King John, including the first limits on arbitrary taxation that led to the principle of "no taxation without representation" and the right to a trial by jury.

"This became something that set the trend for common law" in Britain and later in the United States as founding fathers referred back to Magna Carta, Rubenstein said. "If you read the early writings of Hamilton and Jefferson and Adams and Madison, many times they say it's because of the Magna Carta that we're doing this."

There are 17 surviving copies of Magna Carta. Fifteen are in Britain, and one is displayed at Australia's parliament.

The U.S. copy was one of four reissued in the year 1297. It still carries the wax seal of King Edward I of England, which is attached by a ribbon under the document. The 1297 document became the law of the land in England.

It's central to the founding of the United States because the colonists argued they were entitled to the rights under Magna Carta as Englishmen, Rubenstein said. But King George disagreed, so the colonists chose to break away.

Magna Carta was far ahead of its time in opening the door to principles for government based on law and the role of the people, said American University law professor Stephen Vladeck.

"It's really the first example, at least in Western history, of a monarch agreeing to abide by legal rules written by others," Vladeck said. "So we really have the Magna Carta to thank for the legacy of what we could call in American law due process — the idea that the government should act fairly and should act at least rationally in all cases."

Rubenstein's gift is funding an exhibit that will open in 2013. There, Magna Carta will be shown as a forerunner to the freedoms envisioned in the U.S. Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights and will be paired with other documents declaring human rights for African Americans, women, immigrants and others.

Remarkably, this Magna Carta is in better condition than the much younger Declaration of Independence from 1776. The ink is dark and legible, though written in medieval Latin, while the handwritten words of the Declaration of Independence faded badly years ago.

That's because the Declaration of Independence was rolled up frequently for travels and for decades was exposed to sunlight while on public display near a window, according to National Archives records.

This Magna Carta was folded up for centuries, likely in a cool, dark place at a family home in England. It was also written on parchment — a specially prepared animal skin — rather than on paper.

"It's in remarkably good condition," said Kitty Nicholson, the Magna Carta's lead conservator at the National Archives.

Still, the document required repairs.

Over the past year, conservators removed old patches and adhesive that had caused it to contract. They repaired small holes and tares with handmade long-fiber papers from Japan and Korea that were toned to match the parchment. Those patches were applied with a mixture of gelatin and wheat starch paste, Nicholson said.

Now the document is sealed in a 225-pound case filled with humidified argon gas to prevent degradation from oxygen and will be lit with filtered light, removing ultra-violet rays and some radiation. The document rests on cotton paper produced at the University of Iowa Center for the Book to give it a soft, acid-free surface.

"Once it's sealed in this encasement, we want it to rest in a relaxed format and not contract or do anything to change," Nicholson said.

A new interactive display will allow visitors to zoom in on an image of the parchment and see areas that were repaired. Some words had been hidden by water damage in the past. But an ultraviolet photograph taken during the conservation work reveals the words are still there, though invisible to the naked eye.

Visitors can read an English translation of Magna Carta's Latin words and compare it with language in the Constitution and Declaration of Independence.

Rubenstein said he became interested in the ideas behind the Constitution while working for the Senate in his 20s, which led him to study the Magna Carta. He has purchased other historical documents, including a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation on loan to the Oval Office.

"Everybody in life has certain things that they like, and I guess one of the things I like is buying these documents and owning them," Rubenstein said.

But he said he has no interest in displaying the documents in his own home, adding he hopes Americans will learn more about history from such public displays.

Magna Carta will likely remain at the National Archives permanently, added Rubenstein, now 62.

"You can't be buried with these documents as far as I know."

Well, it was very nice of Mr. Rubenstein to do all of this... now if we could just rein in government and have them respect the Rule of Law and the precepts that this document represents we'll really make some progress!

I hope in their repairs they did not change any of the words!

You'll find the translation of the Magna Carta here.
If you've never actually read it - then please make some time to do so.
It is a document that changed the course of history.

Abuses by King John caused a revolt by nobles who compelled him to execute this recognition of rights for both noblemen and ordinary Englishmen. It established the principle that no one, including the king or a lawmaker, is above the law.

Wherefore we will and firmly order that the English Church be free, and that the men in our kingdom have and hold all the aforesaid liberties, rights, and concessions, well and peaceably, freely and quietly, fully and wholly, for themselves and their heirs, of us and our heirs, in all respects and in all places forever, as is aforesaid. An oath, moreover, has been taken, as well on our part as on the art of the barons, that all these conditions aforesaid shall be kept in good faith and without evil intent.

Happy Groundhog Day! And Happy Randsday!

2012-02-02T05:00:00.002-05:00

From the Official Punxsutawney Phil website:

On February 2, Phil comes out of his burrow on Gobbler's Knob - in front of thousands of followers from all over the world - to predict the weather for the rest of the winter.

The groundhog legend has European Roots.

(Adapted from "Groundhog Day: 1886 to 1992" by Bill Anderson)

Groundhog Day, February 2nd, is a popular tradition in the United States. It is also a legend that traverses centuries, its origins clouded in the mists of time with ethnic cultures and animals awakening on specific dates. Myths such as this tie our present to the distant past when nature did, indeed, influence our lives. It is the day that the Groundhog comes out of his hole after a long winter sleep to look for his shadow.

If he sees it, he regards it as an omen of six more weeks of bad weather and returns to his hole.

If the day is cloudy and, hence, shadowless, he takes it as a sign of spring and stays above ground.

The Groundhog History website says:

The name Punxsutawney comes from the Indian name for the location "ponksad-uteney" which means "the town of the sandflies."
The name woodchuck comes from the Indian legend of "Wojak,
the groundhog" considered by them to be their ancestral grandfather.

The earliest American reference to Groundhog Day can be found at the Pennsylvania Dutch Folklore Center at Franklin and Marshall College: February 4, 1841 - from Morgantown, Berks County (Pennsylvania) storekeeper James Morris' diary..."Last Tuesday, the 2nd, was Candlemas day, the day on which, according to the Germans, the Groundhog peeps out of his winter quarters and if he sees his shadow he pops back for another six weeks nap, but if the day be cloudy he remains out, as the weather is to be moderate."

Well.. no matter what the weather..enjoy the day!

By the way - today is also "Randsday"....

By Harry Binswanger
February 2nd is the birthday of Ayn Rand, the author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead. Ayn Rand developed and defended Objectivism, a philosophy that advocates “rational selfishness.”
To celebrate Randsday, you do something not done on any other holiday: you give yourself a present. Randsday is for getting that longed-for luxury you ordinarily would not buy for yourself. Or for doing that long-postponed, self-pampering activity you cannot seem to fit into your chore-packed schedule.
Randsday is for reminding ourselves that pleasure is an actual need, a psychological requirement for a human consciousness. For man, motivation, energy, enthusiasm are not givens. Pathological depression is not only possible but rampant in our duty-preaching, self-denigrating culture. The alternative is not short-range, superficial “fun,” but real, self-rewarding pleasure. On Randsday, if you do something that you ordinarily would think of as “fun,” you do it on a different premise and with a deeper meaning: that you need pleasure, you are entitled to it, and that the purpose and justification of your existence is: getting what you want—what you really want, with full consciousness and dedication.
...
Randsday is the time to challenge any duty-premise, re-affirm your love of your values, and honor the principle that joy in living is an end in itself.
Have a selfish Randsday!

So be like the groundhog and go out today, and celebrate Randsday by doing something nice for yourself today too!

US Cattle Heard Drops To 1958 Lows

2012-02-01T05:00:00.005-05:00

We have a looming beef shortage.
The cattle herd in the U.S. may be the smallest since 1958!

Bloomberg reports:

Ranchers held 91.24 million head of cattle as of Jan. 1, down 1.5 percent from a year earlier, according to the average estimate of 10 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News. That would be the smallest since Dwight Eisenhower was president. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is set to release its herd report at 3 p.m. in Washington.

A record drought in Texas last year and rising feed costs prompted ranchers to cull herds, even as beef exports surged from the U.S., the world’s largest producer. Cattle futures are up 15 percent since the end of June, reaching a record seven times this month, and the Livestock Marketing Information Center says retail-beef prices that reached an all-time high on an annual basis in 2011 will keep rising through next year.

“The drought certainly was the game changer of 2011,” Jim Robb, the director of the Livestock Marketing Information Center, a Denver-based researcher, said in a telephone interview. “Feedstuffs were record-high costs. The herd on a national basis declined.”

and so prepare for beef prices to rise dramatically:

The herd of beef cows held for breeding probably shrank to 30.05 million head as of Jan. 1, the lowest since 1962, according to the average of 10 estimates in the Bloomberg survey. The calf crop should be smaller than last year, marking the 17th consecutive year of declines, said Ron Plain, a livestock economist at the University of Missouri at Columbia.

“Fewer calves being born means ultimately fewer cattle will be slaughtered,” Plain, who has studied the industry for three decades, said in a telephone interview. “That means the tight beef supply is going to get tighter as we go through 2012 and 2013 and 2014.”

Inflation will make the problem even worse.
We are already seeing higher prices in the market.

Maybe that's why Obama signed the bill that lifted the ban on slaughtering horses for human consumption. America needs to be able to export that meat to Asia and beyond.

For all you Primal Blueprinters out there... you better get all your meat eating done now... you may have to resort to Vegetarianism before too long.

European Debt Crisis

2012-01-31T05:00:00.003-05:00

From Demonocracy.com

It's bad.
Really bad.
Europe is in a deep crisis.

The bankrupt nations, PIIGS = Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain, are so incredibly in debt, and Greece is likely to default on its obligations.

The Banks are propping them up (American banks as well - financed by YOU - the taxpayer) - and when they don't get repaid then things are going to unravel fast.

Check out the infographics at demonocracy.com... it shows how much money must be repaid, in terms of a superhighway of debt.
Truckloads of money.

Zerohedge writes:

Our friends at demonocracy.info have been kind enough to put together an infographic that explains the European bailout in simple, visual terms, that even the most innocent of FTL truckers can grasp without much exertion, for the simple reason that it shows all the bailouts amounts in terms of trucks of cash. And here is the kicker: one would need a 13 lane highway, filled with trucks bumper to bumper, stretching for about 3 kilometers to represent the €2.91 trillion in total amounts owed by the PIIGS and their citizens (whether voluntarily or not... actually make that involuntarily) to Europe's largest banks. What is most frightening is what is not shown: just how it is that the world's central banks are keeping all of these banks propped up. Because sooner or later all this money will be discovered to have been fatally misallocated. Then the real bailout cost will become all too evident, and just like in the US, it will be in the double digit trillions. Which means the metaphorical highway of trucks full of cash will stretch on for kilometers and kilometers and so on (or miles, for the naive US-based truckers). But since that day is in the future, there is no reason to worry about it.

With debt like this teetering on default the EU is not looking good at all... and that will no doubt ripple across the pond.

"Bankers own the earth. Take it away from them, but leave
them the power to create money and control credit, and
with a flick of a pen they will create enough to buy it back."
-Sir Josiah Stamp, former President, Bank of England

"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies...The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the Government, to whom it properly belongs."
- Thomas Jefferson

Rest assured - this monetary crisis will be what ushers in a Global currency.. another fiat currency... that you and I will have no choice but to accept.

- and then it will be adios to American sovereignty.

Eric Holder Exposed

2012-01-30T05:00:00.003-05:00

A Friday night document dump had some very damaging items with regard to AG Holder and the "Fast and Furious" scandal. This article is worth a read and here is an excerpt of what was exposed.

The email messages show the former top federal prosecutor in Arizona, Dennis Burke, notifying an aide to Holder via email on Dec. 15, 2010 that agent Brian Terry had been wounded and died. "Tragic," responds the aide, Monty Wilkinson. "I've alerted the AG, the acting Deputy Attorney General..."

Only a few minutes later, Wilkinson emailed again, saying, "Please provide any additional details as they become available to you."

Burke then delivered another piece of bad news: "The guns found in the desert near the murder [sic] ... officer connect back to the investigation we were going to talk about — they were AK-47s purchased at a Phoenix gun store."

Those emails were exchanged within 24 hours after Terry's murder.

In sworn testimony to Congress Holder has stated that neither he nor anyone in the Justice Department were aware of the facts involving the murder of Agent Terry. Holder further denied knowledge of Fast and Furious until early in 2011 when he was called to testify before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

According to NPR, the new information is sure to 'stoke the fires' among Congressional Republicans who have insisted all along that Holder knew much more about Fast and Furious, and Agent Terry's murder, than he disclosed.

The fact that the White House must approve the release of DOJ documents to the media indicates two key developments in the cover up of the scandal: one, that protecting Holder from damaging information is no longer a top priority, and two, the Obama White House is aware that the investigation into Fast and Furious has reached a new level, threatening the very core of the Administration, including the President himself.

NPR has the documents/emails mentioned in their own report.

Justice officials sent the documents to Congress late Friday evening, only a few days before Attorney General Eric Holder is set to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

The email messages show the former top federal prosecutor in Arizona, Dennis Burke, notifying an aide to Holder via email on Dec. 15, 2010 that agent Brian Terry had been wounded and died. "Tragic," responds the aide, Monty Wilkinson. "I've alerted the AG, the acting Deputy Attorney General..."

Looks like the Obama administration is sacrificing one of their lambs.
In my opinion, Holder and his crew should go to jail for a very, very long time over this "Fast and Furious" scandal.

They Are Coming For Your Internet! - Stop ACTA!!!

2012-01-27T05:00:00.002-05:00

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is a dangerous international treaty... we need to fight this just as the Polish members of parliament did:

After Poland's January 19 announcement that it would sign the treaty on January 26, a number of Polish government websites, including that of the President and Polish Parliament, were shut down by denial of service attacks that started January 21. Websites included the Sejm, the lower Chamber of the Polish Parliament, the Chancellery of the PM, the President, and the Polish Ministry of Culture. Over thousand people protested in front of the European Parliament office in Warsaw on January 24. Several thousands protested in the streets of major Polish towns on January 25.

On January 26, Polish politicians expressed disapproval of the treaty by holding up Guy Fawkes masks during parliamentary proceedings.

and...

Kader Arif, European rapporteur for ACTA, resigned from his position on January 26, denouncing the treaty "in the strongest possible manner" for having "no inclusion of civil society organisations, a lack of transparency from the start of the negotiations, repeated postponing of the signature of the text without an explanation being ever given, [and] exclusion of the EU Parliament's demands that were expressed on several occasions in [the] assembly.

Ladies and Gents... something very evil is afoot... this business of controlling the Internet under the guise of piracy protection, as well as anti-pornography and any other "noble reason" is just an excuse to control information that you or I can see and pass to others.

Governments do not want the populace to share information or to use the Internet to organize.
They do not want you to photograph, or document, shed any light or make their policies transparent. We must therefore do those things to remain free.

ACTA MUST BE STOPPED!
Call Washington - Call your Senators and tell them to reject this Treaty.

Google ACTA and find out more.

Big Brother Seeks To Widen Surveillance On YOU!

2012-01-26T05:00:00.002-05:00

Wired recently had an article posted about Big Sis's plans to widen surveillance capabilities - It gives the term "Four-Square" a whole new meaning. It appears that "war technology" is coming to a street near you, designed to treat you like some sort of insurgent. If you live in Nogales, Arizona then you'd better be wary - they plan to begin testing of "uber-surveillance" systems there. Read on:

It’s not just for the Afghanistan and Iraq wars anymore. The Department of Homeland Security is interested in a camera package that can peek in on almost four square miles of (constitutionally protected) American territory for long, long stretches of time.

Homeland Security doesn’t have a particular system in mind. Right now, it’s just soliciting “industry feedback” on what a formal call for such a “Wide Area Surveillance System” might look like. But it’s the latest indication of how powerful military surveillance technology, developed to find foreign insurgents and terrorists, is migrating to the home front.

The Department of Homeland Security says it’s interested in a system that can see between five to 10 square kilometers — that’s between two and four square miles, roughly the size of Brooklyn, New York’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood — in its “persistent mode.” By “persistent,” it means the cameras should stare at the area in question for an unspecified number of hours to collect what the military likes to call “pattern of life” data — that is, what “normal” activity looks like for a given area. Persistence typically depends on how long the vehicle carrying the camera suite can stay aloft; DHS wants something that can fit into a manned P-3 Orion spy plane or a Predator drone — of which it has a couple. When not in “persistent mode,” the cameras ought to be able to see much, much further: “long linear areas, tens to hundreds of kilometers in extent, such as open, remote borders.”

If it’s starting to sound reminiscent of the spy tools the military has used in Iraq and Afghanistan, it should. Homeland Security wants the video collected by the system to beam down in “near real time” — 12 seconds or quicker — to a “control room (T) or to a control room and beyond line of sight (BLOS) ruggedized mobile receiver on the ground,” just as military spy gear does. The camera should shift to infrared mode for nighttime snooping, and contain “automated, real time, motion detection capability that cues a spotter imager for target identification.” Tests for the system will take place in Nogales, Arizona.

The range of this system isn’t as vast as the newest, latest cameras that the military either has or is developing. The Army’s super-powerful ARGUS camera, heading to Afghanistan, can look out at 36 square miles at a time; the Air Force’s Gorgon Stare looks out on an entire city at once. On deck are the military’s fleet of spy blimps, which will will generate 274 terabytes of information every hour. Compared to that, the Department of Homeland Security is positively myopic.

But. Those systems are used against insurgents, who are not protected by the Fourth Amendment’s prohibitions on unreasonable searches. Even if the wide-area surveillance DHS is after is just used at borders or airports, those are still places where Americans go about their business, under the presumption that they’re not living in a government panopticon.

It’s also ironic: the Department of Homeland Security actually isn’t so hot on its own drone fleet. When Danger Room asked an official at the department’s science directorate about using spy drones to spot bombs inside the U.S., she replied, “A case has to be made that they’re economically feasible, not intrusive and acceptable to the public.”

Still, what’s military technology one day is law-enforcement tech the next. As I reported for Playboy last month, more and more cop shops are buying spy drones, and increasingly, the Federal Aviation Administration is approving their use for domestic flights.

That also means that federal and local police can expect to replicate some of the military’s more frustrating aspects of persistent spying — namely, the constant, massive backlog of real-time video they’ll need to analyze. It’s gotten so bad that the Pentagon’s mad scientist shop, Darpa, is trying to automate cameras so human analysts aren’t constantly drinking from a fire hose of spy data.

Still, privacy advocates might soon have a whole new tech-driven battle with the Department of Homeland Security on their hands. It’s hardly clear from the pre-solicitation that the department only expects to operate the cameras after getting a court order — or if it thinks it needs one in the first place. And even if the department isn’t necessarily after the uber-powerful ARGUS or Gorgon Stare cameras, that might only be a matter of time. The wars will end; the spy tech won’t. And it might be keeping tabs on your neighborhood next.

Pretty sick stuff if you ask me.
With regard to these community spy cameras, they say "A case has to be made that they’re economically feasible, not intrusive and acceptable to the public."
I'd say a case has to be made as to why they are doing this in the first place... and how this is not a violation of our privacy rights, and why is it necessary for the government to know everyone's comings and goings?

What's next?

More than ever, this Department of Homeland Security needs to be defunded and disbanded. They are becoming very dangerous and a real threat to our liberty. They are truly becoming the US version of the Gestapo.

4th Amendment - GONE- Poof!

Chinese Cyber Attack

2012-01-25T05:00:00.002-05:00

I didn't watch the State of the Union.
I hear it was a waste of time.
Same old Washington rhetoric.

What caught my eye today was this report:
China-based Cyber Attack Targets DoD Access Cards

Basically, a computer hacking virus was discovered and traced back to its origination in China (based on Chinese characters found within the virus’ coding). How it works is that members of the military receive an official looking email that has a PDF file attached to it. The virus in the PDF file records keystrokes and collects the military person's identification number which is associated with a Common Access Card (called “CAC cards”) and is used when he logs into a government computer. This allows the hackers a way to gain access to government computers.

The virus is called "Sykipot" and government officials are reportedly investigating it. Alien Vault has tracked the virus for three months.

Apparently, the only way to protect against this Sykipot virus is for service members not to open the PDF attachment. The hackers often disguise their poisoned email attachments, such as this PDF file, to seem like they are some sort of official government correspondence.

The really sad thing is that people are claiming that much of a Department of Defense "secure" computer is actually manufactured in China, as well as other countries. If that's the case then we have some real problems to deal with. We ought to be making our own computer equipment and components. That would at least give us some assurance that there are no built-in back doors, "Trojan horses" or other clever software tactics to compromise our nation's data security.

Hmmm... you didn't hear anything about that in the State of the Union Address.

Sen. Rand Paul Responds To Obama's State Of The Union Address

2012-01-25T00:01:00.002-05:00

That was the REAL Tea Party response!

No Child's Data Left Behind

2012-01-24T05:00:00.004-05:00

If your child is - or ever was - in a government school, then their data (i.e.permanent record) is being controlled by the state that collects them and being shared too!

Personal information, including test scores, economic status, grades, and even disciplinary problems and student pregnancies, are tracked and stored in a kind of virtual “permanent record” for each student.

But parents and students have very little access to that data, according to a report released Wednesday by the Data Quality Campaign, an organization that advocates for expanded data use.

All 50 states and Washington, D.C. collect long term, individualized data on students performance, but just eight states allow parents to access their child’s permanent record. Forty allow principals to access the data and 28 provide student-level info to teachers. ...

Privacy experts say the problem is that states collect far more information than parents expect, and it can be shared with more than just a student’s teacher or principal.“When you have a system that’s secret [from parents] and you can put whatever you want into it, you can have things going in that’ll be very damaging,” says Lillie Coney, associate director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. “When you put something into digital form, you can’t control where that’ll end up.”

According to a 2009 report by the Fordham University Center on Law and Information Policy, some states store student’s social security numbers, family financial information, and student pregnancy data. Nearly half of states track students’ mental health issues, illnesses, and jail sentences.Without access to their child’s data, parents have no way of knowing what teachers and others are learning about them.

The federal government is taking steps to make the data more secure, however. In December, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act was revised to give parents more control over their children’s records. According to a parent information sheet released by the government, the revisions give parents “certain rights with regard to their children’s education records, such as the right to inspect and review [their] child’s education records.” But it also allows student information to be shared without parental consent.

“Your child’s information may be disclosed to another school in which your child is enrolling, or to local emergency responders in connection with a health or safety emergency,” it says.

Regardless of privacy concerns, education data is not going away. “The best thing we can do is continue to fund states that are taking this on in a holistic way,” Ed Secretary Duncan says.

Beware the information you give to your local school - who knows where it may end up.

NHELD wrote a wonderful article about giving information to the schools ... it is definitely worth a read. Here is an excerpt:

What will the government do with the information collected?

Before you voluntarily provide the information to the government official, is he willing to fully inform you about what exactly the government will do with the information it is seeking? If not, why not? If he has informed you, do you agree to allow your child’s information to be used in such a manner? It might be nice to have answers to those questions before you decide to provide the information.
...
You may voluntarily provide information to one government official, perhaps to your local superintendent of schools, thinking that’s where it will remain. But, especially today, you have absolutely no guarantee that your information will remain in your local community. In fact, it is far more likely that your information will be sent not only to your State Education agency, but ultimately to the federal Education Department, and perhaps even to an international agency in some foreign country. Your information may wind up in the hands of the United Nations. You may think that’s farfetched. Unfortunately, it is becoming more of a reality every day. If you have some time on your hands, it might be worth your while to look up the statutes in your state, and then the statutes adopted by Congress at the federal level. You may be surprised to learn that there are an ever-increasing number of statutes that talk about implementing “compacts” or “agreements” with other states, and other countries, for all sorts of wonderful sounding reasons. Some compacts are made so that states and countries can “assist” each other in times of emergencies. Other compacts are made for the sake of the children, to make it easier to obtain child support. Still other compacts are made in the name of educating children about the international global community. If compacts are made, the chances are good that information is being exchanged in order to further the goals of the compact. Information today is exchanged fairly easily electronically. Today also, the government is seeking to establish even more central databases to make it even easier to exchange information. Do you know what databases the information about your child will go into eventually? Again, once you “voluntarily” provide information to the government, the government likely will be free to use that information in whatever manner it deems appropriate. Is that really what you want to happen to information concerning your child?

Beware.
Be aware.

Gong Hei Fat Choi - Happy Chinese New Year !

2012-01-23T05:00:00.003-05:00

Chinese New Year begins today.

It is the Year of the Dragon - specifically the water dragon. Water is considered to be one of nature’s strongest forces. The Dragon breathes out fire and the same way those born under this sign are known to have a sharp and biting tongue that can hurt others easily.

Those that were born in 1904, 1916, 1928, 1940, 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988, 2000, and 2012 are the lucky people that are born in the year of the dragon. The dragon is equivalent to a Leo. They can be considered arrogant but have so much charisma that they get away with it. The dragon always brings good fortune wherever he goes. So if you have any dragon friends, for the year of 2012, keep them close!

16 February 1904 – 3 February 1905: Wood Dragon
3 February 1916 – 22 January 1917: Fire Dragon
23 January 1928 – 9 February 1929: Earth Dragon
8 February 1940 – 26 January 1941: Metal Dragon
27 January 1952 – 13 February 1953: Water Dragon
13 February 1964 – 1 February 1965: Wood Dragon
31 January 1976 – 17 February 1977: Fire Dragon
17 February 1988 – 5 February 1989: Earth Dragon
1 January 2000 – 23 January 2001: Metal Dragon
23 January 2012 – 9 February 2013: Water Dragon
10 February 2024 – 28 January 2025: Wood Dragon

Crystalinks offers this:

The Dragon person is self confident and impulsive and consequently does not always listen to the advice of others. He is also a perfectionist and he sets high standards for himself. Although strong and decisive the Dragon is not manipulative or sly. He refuses to deceive or compromise and fails to spot subversive intent. He enjoys being in command and like an emperor holding court he eliminates obstacles until success is his.

Occupying the 5th position in the Chinese Zodiac, the Dragon is the mightiest of the signs. Dragons symbolize such character traits as dominance and ambition. Dragons prefer to live by their own rules and if left on their own, are usually successful. They¹re driven, unafraid of challenges, and willing to take risks. They are passionate in all they do and they do things in grand fashion. Unfortunately, this passion and enthusiasm can leave Dragons feeling exhausted and interestingly, unfulfilled.

While Dragons frequently help others, rarely will they ask for help. Others are attracted to Dragons, especially their colorful personalities, but deep down, Dragons prefer to be alone. Perhaps that is because they're most successful when working alone. Their preference to be alone can come across as arrogance or conceitedness, but these qualities aren't applicable. Dragons have tempers that can flare fast.

Health

Considering their hard-working nature, Dragons are healthy overall. They do get stressed and suffer from periodic tension/headaches, likely because they take so many risks. Dragons could benefit from incorporating mild activity into their lives. Yoga or walking would be good as these activities can work both their minds and their bodies.

Career

Dragons prefer leading to being led. Jobs that allow them to express their creativity are good choices. Some good careers include: inventor, manager, computer analyst, lawyer, engineer, architect, broker, and sales person.

Relationships

Dragons will give into love, but won't give up their independence. Because they have quick, sometimes vengeful tempers, their partners need to be tough-skinned. Dragons enjoy others who are intriguing, and when they find the right partners, they'll usually commit to that person for life.

Many people in China wait to conceive children in the year of the dragon. It's supposed to be a very good zodiac sign to be born under.

The animals in the 12 year cycle are (not in order): Pig, Rat, Monkey, Ox, Snake, Dragon, Horse, Goat, Rabbit, Dog, Tiger and Rooster.

This blogger was born in the year of the Monkey. For the Monkey, 2012 will be very productive, and monkeys will gladly flow into a high pace of work, and will feel at ease in the most intense affairs of 2012.
Sounds good to me :)

Find out how you will do in 2012 here based on your Chinese Zodiac sign.