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Dove World Outreach Center, a small Evangelical church located in Gainsville, Florida is planning a Koran burning event for next Saturday on the 9th anniversary of 9-11. Pastor Terry Jones,a former hotel manager, has coined the big burn event the "International Burn A Koran Day."
Pastor Jones also has a website which suggests ten reasons to burn a Koran. The Obama White House has intervened to try and stop the church from burning copies of the Muslim Holy Book, and General Petreus says that such an act could endanger the lives of U.S. Troops in Afghanistan and around the world.
Not to be left out of the fray, Iran has issued stern warnings against the planned burn. The church with a membership of around 50 people has held similar intolerance services targeting abortionists and homosexuals. Reverend Jones is quoted as saying "We have firmly made up our mind , but at the same time we are definitely praying about it."
Jones admitted he has not really read very much of the Koran. The church was founded in 1986. Jones claims he has received more than 100 death threats and now carries/wears a handgun along with his Bible. If you can't convert'em, kill'em is the new Gospel being preached there in sunny Gainsville.
Ok, its not entirely paper. Whatever. We have dollar coins in the US. Have for a while now. Use them? I don't. I have a few in a box to save. Walking around like a pirate with a bag of coins sounds cool and all but, paper is easier.
[quote]Hundreds of Afghans have been trying to withdraw money from the country's largest bank, amid concerns that it could collapse.
The panic was sparked by reports that Kabul Bank has lent millions of dollars to members of the political elite, who used the money to make risky investments.
They apparently did more than that.
The bank, through which the military, teachers and the police are paid, is a private bank owned by it's shareholders. The two largest shareholders are also involved in running the bank.
The bank has been accused of fraud, in that it has taken depositor's money to help support its exec's 'rich and famous' life-styles.
Sound familiar?
Have we taught too well the ways of American capitalism?
Back in 2006, an Iranian woman, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, was found guilty of adultery. Seems she had sex with two men after her husband died. She was given 99 lashes for her crime. Oh, and she didn't just take a whipping and go on home, as if that would be ok. No. She's still in prison.
See, later in 2006, while a trial was going on against the man who was charged with murdering her husband, a different court charged her with adultery occurring before her husbands death. She signed a confession and later said she was coerced to do so. She was still found guilty.
The world community has expressed it's outrage and even the Vatican has stepped in. Iran has agreed to not stone her to death.
Alaska U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller says his campaign is funded by the Lord...and yep, the tea baggers sure know how to pick them...
The "good news" is that were Miller to win, Alaskans can forget the the $5 they get back for every $1 they pay to DC.....THAT will save all of us in the lower 48 some money...Alaska Natives are in full gear to vote against this "new" demagogue.
Just when you thought it couldn't get any freakier out there in the Colorado governor's race, it did...Dan Maes, the Tea Party's Republican choice for Guv is now backing off an earlier claim that he was some sort of undercover Secret Agent Man in tiny Liberal, Kansas where he was employed years ago while a police officer by the KBI (Kansas Bureau of Investigation). Maes had posted the bogus story on his website, initially saying it was a typo by a staffer, but then later admitting he had posted it there himself.
Bob Blecha, Director of the KBI said there was no record of Maes having worked undercover for the Bureau on any case, including the unsuccessful bookmaking one that Maes is referring to in his bogus claim to fame. The case allegedly involved some local bookies and illegal betting, oh, and the bookies were also dealing drugs, and Agent Maes got too close to some of the local big wheels (Democrats?) in the Liberal community who were involved in the criminal goings on, and so he was dismissed by his superiors. [Wasn't this an episode on Law and Order or that FBI show on CBS once?]
Rick Kistner, the former Chief of Police in Liberal when Maes worked there says he doesn't recall Maes working undercover on such a case either. Maes also said it was a period in his life when " I fought the machine.." ? Apparently this is not the only weird conspiratorial statement or outlandish claim that Maes has made in recent days. He also once claimed that a proposed Denver bicycle-sharing plan was part of an elaborate plan by a mysterious International Environmental group to control U.S. Cities under a U.N. (United Nations) treaty.
Btw, Liberal, Kansas is also home to the Wizard of Oz Museum, but thus far no credible connection has been found between either the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion, the Scarecrow, or the Wizard and GOP Candidate Dan Maes...and Dorothy isn't talking.
It has been reported by various media sources that a spokesperson for the Tea Party has called for Maes to drop out of the running, but Maes says he will stay in the race. Apparently the wheels of "the machine" are not turning fast enough to eject Colorado's Secret Agent Governor Man.
You may have noticed that when the unemployment is fairly high, Wall Street also takes a jump. This factor is a bit more than mere coincidence.
Companies are hiring (or sticking with) those CEOs who can lay-off thousands of employees...which, in turn, rewards the companies with additional investments by traders (because the companies' bottom-line looks brighter)...and ALSO, in turn, rewards these CEOs as "hatchet men/women" with outrageous bonuses for having thrown families into economic chaos, contributed to mortgage defaults, etc.
Most smart right and left wingers realize that these practices (call them free-markets run amok) will only create an ultra wealthy class, erode the middle class and cause increases in poverty...But, it seems, most ignore the problem. Why? I guess it is much easier to discuss Glenn Beck.
Last night I was in a particularly surly mood (again), and so I resorted to a bit of therapeutic channel surfing to possibly cheer myself up, and I saw they had this report on MSNBC's Rachael Maddow news and commentary program about former congressman Tom Tancredo who is a third party candidate for some political office out there in Colorado. So this Tancredo guy is claiming that Michelle Obama at some point in time issued some type of statement banning Christian symbols/ornaments/imagery from the White House.
So I did a little swivel chair research into the matter and discovered that the so-called Obama plans to ban Christmas is basically an urban legend which is apparently still circulating via the internet in the form of an e-mail which starts out with one of those "Hello alls..." You know, one of those kinds of silly sympathy drippy form letter style e-mails that friends and relatives send to you to clutter up your e-mail box.
I also discovered that the whole thing is centered around a couple of letters sent out pertaining to the handmade ornament campaign back during the *George W. Bush administration* These handmade ornaments from around the nation (all 50 states) would be used on the White House Christmas tree, and, according to the letters, could not reflect a religious or political theme. So it was George and Laura Bush who actually did ban Christian ornaments at the White House in both 2007 and 2008 and apparently got away with it.
But back to the Puritans, who as I mentioned in the beginning were probably the MOST CONSERVATIVE of all groups religious or otherwise in our nation's history. According to historian Stephen Nissenbaum (Univ. of Mass.) in "The Battle for Christmas"....
"In New England, for the first two centuries of white settlement, most people did not celebrate Christmas. In fact, the holiday was systematically suppressed by Puritans during the Colonial period and largely ignored by their descendants. It was actually illegal to celebrate Christmas in Massachusetts between 1659 and 1681..."
Seems the Puritans believed rightly or wrongly that December 25th was the date of a feast to the Roman Pagan sun god Mithra.
So if it was George and Laura Bush who reinstated the evil ban on Christian Christmas tree ornaments a-hanging from the White House tree, then why is Michelle Obama and the liberals being blamed for it? Fox News TV host John Gibson even wrote a book about the subject sub-titled (believe it or not) " How the Liberal Plot to ban the Sacred Holiday is Worse Than You Thought"
Oooooooooooo de liberals is out to git us again, Ma, and it's worser than we ever imagined it would be (cower cower cower)... What are we gonna doooooooooooooooooooooooo?
I keep reading about the "amazing military ploy" called the surge in Iraq....and I sincerely have a question about that...
Is it really any wonder that when you place thousands of additional soldiers into a theatre of war that such would lessen the violence ? When you place additional police in a neighborhood, isn't it logical that the crime rate would lessen?
Are we to believe that folks around the Pentagon were walking around smacking their own foreheads stating, "Wow, McCain and Bush have suggested to pour more troops in Iraq to squash the insurgency...that is truly military genius"?
BTW, keep in mind that ONE of the so-called "surge's" objectives (at least based on what we were told) was to ensure a stable Iraqi government...and to this day, the Iraqis still don't have one...So, I'm not stating that the surge has failed, but neither can anyone in fairness state that it has been a success.
Is it working? For some small manufacturers it isn't. (When I find my reference, I'll post it. In the meantime, believe me.)
Small manufacturers are finding out-sourcing off-shore is actually becoming more expensive as workers start to demand more and as cultures clash. And it seems it is a cultural clash.
The US feels that contracts are binding--Asian manufacturers seem to feel that contracts are only binding at first. After the first run, everything is open to bargaining.
Then there's the cost of building new factories and training non-English speakers vs. the cost of retooling and re-training English speakers. Which will lead to greater profit for the investors?
This 'greater profit for the investors' seems to be the new 'tag line' line for lots of corps today. When we withdrew our money from Chase today we were told they 'hated to lose us.' Why? Because we were taking away from the assets the bank could use--while paying a service fee for that privilege. Seems to me 'greater profit for the investors' could have been achieved through less squandering of investment money and giving more to the people who hold accounts. It's our money, after all.
This is becoming a rant--I apologize.
The benefits of off-shore out-sourcing may be starting to crumble, given hidden 'rules' of the cultures to which our manufacturing has been out-sourced.
Siemens and OCC have teamed up to make an electric chopper. Check out this thing.
DC electric motor, 27-hp, 72-96 volts peak electrical output Single-speed, clutch-less transmission 72-volt DieHard AGM batteries (96 12-volt cells) Total weight about 700 lbs 60-mile range 100 mph top speed On board charging unit can be plugged into any 110-volt socket to charge the bike in five hours and as little as one hour when plugged into a higher-voltage station.
It probably doesn't go 60 miles at 100mph, but the speed limit is 70 anyway.
The one of a kind chopper also has Sylvania LED lights and will be auctioned off this year.
47 years ago, Dr. King made his famous "I Have A Dream" speech on August 28th at the Lincoln Memorial. Glenn Beck has chosen the same venue and date to hold a rally. Tomorrow. Sarah Palin among other well known conservatives will be joining him on stage. He swears he has no idea of the date of Dr. King's speech and it is only a coincidence.
Bull.
From a man who calls our president a racist and claims that he also has "deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture" this is hard to believe.
They say this will be a non-political rally to honor our US Troops and encourage restoration of "the values that founded this great nation". Yeah. Right. If it is non-political, I'll eat my shoe.
In addition to being on fire, Russia's wheat land is in a drought. This year's harvest will be short a few billion tons from last.
The government has banned most export sales of Russian wheat saying that if they did not, so much may still have been sold, at the raised price caused by the shortage, that Russia wouldn't have enough to feeds its cows. Russia was the third largest wheat exporter last year. The bulk of it's grain went to Egypt and Asia.
No cow feed would lead to a mass slaughter of cows, which might lower beef prices but then certainly would have closed some cow ranches and lead to increased unemployment down the line.
Corn Salad, Valerianella locusta. So says it's called that because it used to grow as a weed in farm fields. It's an edible green, like spinach and collards. Once upon a time, the Euros used to gather it from the woods. The plant is high in vitamin C, B6, B9, E, and omega-3 fatty acids. It's cold hardy to USDA zone 5.
I bring this up because I've become interested in plants we used to eat. We used to eat Rocket. I've had it once. At The Hobbit in Houston. They serve it on the burgers instead of Iceberg lettuce. It's not the same taste as lettuce but it's good. It's not just one of those survival guide edible plants. It actually tastes good.
Those survival guides, especially military ones from the 60s-80s, those are good sources of plants we used to eat. Those plants are in the guides because those are the plants we used to eat.
