April 14, 2011

Free Botox | Hill staffers line up for free 'government shutdown' Botox injections | The Daily Caller : 

"More than a dozen Hill staffers got Botox injections this week after D.C.-area plastic surgeon Dr. Navin Singh offered the free treatment last Friday to the first 50 government employees who make an appointment as part of a “government shutdown” special. Singh kept the offer open even though Republicans and Democrats reached an agreement in the 11th hour to keep the government running. By Tuesday, Singh had already injected 15 staffers with the skin-smoothing chemical free of charge, with more appointments lining up."

Isn't it great to know our government is hard at work for the American people?  At least they'll look good for all their TV appearances. 

~~~~~

Santorum Announces Presidential Exploratory Committee | The Blaze: 

"Former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum announced Wednesday night that he will explore a run for the Republican presidential nomination, making him the second GOP contender in as many days to make his intentions official.

“It’s time for America to be America again — an America that rewards innovation and hard work, that stands by our allies instead of our enemies, that protects even the most vulnerable of our society, and an America that says every life is to be cherished,” he said. “That is what I believe in, and that’s why I’m taking this next step in a possible run for president.”

The announcement does not come as a surprise. Santorum has spent the past few months visiting early primary states and has committed to several GOP primary debates, including one in South Carolina on May 5.

Santorum, a favorite of social conservatives, is a staunch opponent of abortion rights and stem-cell research. He served in the U.S. Senate from 1995-2007, and was defeated for a third term by Democrat Bob Casey."

Santorum made his announcement on Fox News to Greta Van Susteren, who had an interesting exchange with him about a comment he supposedly made on a radio interview in New Hampshire.  The Huffington Post reported (I hesitate to use that word) that Santorum blames abortion for Social Security's insolvency.  Something like that.  When question about it by Greta,  Santorum said that a caller had actually made the statement that we have aborted so many children that we do not have enough people to support the baby boomers who are reaching retirement age.  Santorum agreed with the caller, saying it's a simple economic fact. He went on to say, however,  that he does not make that argument as the reason abortion should be outlawed - that it is not an economic "issue." 


What I thought was interesting about the exchange was that Santorum was able to dominate the interview and get his point across.  Greta said several times that she thought Santorum's comment was "odd."  Santorum kept at it and didn't stop until he had said his piece.  I've seen him exhibit this tenacity several times in the past few months, most notably in a debate on abortion with Al Sharpton.  Santorum was polite and rather pleasant, but he had the determination and grit of a bulldog.   I think he could do very well in a GOP debate and he would probably be smart to take every opportunity to engage in verbal sparring - but in a reasonable way.  People are flocking to Trump because he's a straight-talker and not afraid to confront the president and his destructive policies.  If Santorum could do the same thing without all the Trump weirdness, we might just have a candidate. 

~~~~~

Carrie Lukas: There Is No Male-Female Wage Gap - WSJ.com: 

"The unemployment rate is consistently higher among men than among women. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 9.3% of men over the age of 16 are currently out of work. The figure for women is 8.3%....

...Men have been hit harder by this recession because they tend to work in fields like construction, manufacturing and trucking, which are disproportionately affected by bad economic conditions. Women cluster in more insulated occupations, such as teaching, health care and service industries....

...The Department of Labor's Time Use survey shows that full-time working women spend an average of 8.01 hours per day on the job, compared to 8.75 hours for full-time working men. One would expect that someone who works 9% more would also earn more. This one fact alone accounts for more than a third of the wage gap....

...In a 2010 study of single, childless urban workers between the ages of 22 and 30, the research firm Reach Advisors found that women earned an average of 8% more than their male counterparts. Given that women are outpacing men in educational attainment, and that our economy is increasingly geared toward knowledge-based jobs, it makes sense that women's earnings are going up compared to men's."

~~~~~ 

Baptist Press - Chinese church won't stop meeting, despite demands - News with a Christian Perspective: 

"The Beijing church that saw more than 160 of its members arrested April 10 for meeting illegally says it will continue to hold services outdoors in spite of the Chinese government's demands that it stop.

Shouwang Church, one of the thousands of illegal unregistered churches across China, has found itself in the spotlight as the world debates China's limits on religious freedom. Churches in China are legal only if they registered with the government, which then often puts limits on their ability to grow and evangelize. The government also has blocked attempts by Shouwang to meet indoors.

The church, which reportedly has around 1,000 members, saw its pastor, pastor's wife and other members arrested in broad daylight Sunday morning, April 10, when it attempted to hold an outdoor worship service on a public space in Beijing. The members were put on buses and taken to a local elementary school, where police took their personal information. Much of the incident was captured on video. It was one of the largest crackdowns in recent history, observers say, with upwards of 1,000 police involved....

...As of April 11, most of the members were released but Pastor Li Xiaobai and his wife were still being detained.

'The position of the church remains the same. We will persist in holding outdoor gatherings until the Lord finds a way out for us,' the church said in a statement posted on the website of ChinaAid, a group that monitors religious freedom in the country. '... We don't know how long the fight before us will last. We can only beg God to have mercy on our weakness. We call on brothers and sisters, whether from Shouwang Church or from churches throughout China and even from the rest of the world, to go before God with fervent prayers that He lift up His church.'...

...The statement also released new details about the arrests. Police, the church said, had sealed off the area with police tape the morning of the service.

'Police officers were deployed everywhere, and police vehicles were parked at many intersections,' the church said. 'Just before 8:30 a.m., the time set by the church, several dozen brothers and sisters at the southwestern side of the square tried to start their worship service, but they were quickly surrounded by a large number of police officers who put them on waiting buses that took them to the nearby Caihefang Elementary School. At the school, they were divided into groups according to their home addresses and the groups were put into different classrooms where they were interrogated and their personal details taken down.'...

..."We believe the church is Christ's church, and Christ is the head of the church. The church ought to honor only our Lord Jehovah as God. There is no other god besides Him. Therefore, the church will never be controlled or manipulated by any external forces; she belongs only to our Lord. What this outdoor worship expressed was our uncompromising position with regard to (the practice of) our faith. Furthermore, we believe that holding on to this faith position is itself a form of worship. Therefore, we believe our outdoor worship is pleasing to the Lord.'"

Pray for our brothers and sisters in China.  

~~~~~

Donald L. Luskin: Remembering the Real Ayn Rand - WSJ.com: 

"Tomorrow's release of the movie version of 'Atlas Shrugged' is focusing attention on Ayn Rand's 1957 opus and the free-market ideas it espouses. Book sales for 'Atlas' have always been brisk—and all the more so in the past few years, as actual events have mirrored Rand's nightmare vision of economic collapse amid massive government expansion. Conservatives are now hailing Rand as a tea party Nostradamus, hence the timing of the movie's premiere on tax day....

Today, Rand is celebrated among conservatives: Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) insists that all his staffers read 'Atlas Shrugged.' It wasn't always this way. During Rand's lifetime—she died in 1982—she was loathed by the mainstream conservative movement.

Rand was a devout atheist, which set her against the movement's Christian bent. She got off on the wrong foot with the movement's founder, William F. Buckley Jr., when she introduced herself to him in her thick Russian accent, saying 'You are too intelligent to believe in God!' The subsequent review of 'Atlas Shrugged' by Whittaker Chambers in Buckley's 'National Review' was nothing short of a smear, and it set the tone for her relationship with the movement ever since—at least until now.

Rand rankled conservatives by living her life as an exemplary feminist, even as she denied it by calling herself a 'male chauvinist.' She was the breadwinner throughout her lifelong marriage. The most sharply drawn hero in 'Atlas' is the extraordinarily capable female railroad executive Dagny Taggart, who is set in contrast with her boss, her incompetent brother James. She's the woman who deserves the man's job but doesn't have it; he's the man who has the job but doesn't deserve it.

Rand was strongly pro-choice, speaking out for abortion rights even before Roe v. Wade. In late middle age, she became enamored of a much younger man and made up her mind to have an affair with him, having duly informed her husband and the younger man's wife in advance. Conservatives don't do things like that—or at least they say they don't."

~~~~~ 

Oh yes he did.....during the president's big 'let's raise taxes on the rich' speech yesterday:

What he was thinking?  Turns out it was this:

7am, waking up in the morning
Gotta be fresh, gotta go downstairs
Gotta have my bowl, gotta have cereal
Seein’ everything, the time is goin’
Tickin’ on and on, everybody’s rushin’
Gotta get down to the bus train stop
Gotta catch my bus, train I see my friends (My friends)

Kickin’ in the front seat
Sittin’ in the back seat
Gotta make my mind up
Which seat can I take?

It’s Friday, Friday
Gotta get down on Friday
Everybody’s lookin’ forward to the weekend, weekend
Friday, Friday
Gettin’ down on Friday
Everybody’s lookin’ forward to the weekend

[Has anyone asked why Rebecca Black is singing about getting to the bus stop and then she gets into a convertible after debating about whether to get into the front or back seat? Something fishy going on there.] 

March 29, 2011

Judge Orders More Spending on New Jersey’s Education-Industrial Complex: 

"New Jersey spends more money on education than almost any state, resulting in the nation’s highest property taxes (and arguably the highest taxes overall). But to some New Jersey judges, the skyrocketing spending is never enough.

A New Jersey trial judge Tuesday declared unconstitutional the state’s recent attempts to scale back rapidly-rising education spending, “effectively tying Republican Governor Chris Christie’s hands on budget and education reform. Superior Court Judge Peter Doyne ruled that Christie’s budget cuts to school aid left public schools unable to provide a ‘thorough and efficient’ education to New Jersey children.”

In his ruling, “Doyne even wrote that despite the ‘significant increase in spending levels from 2000 to 2008,’ some New Jersey districts are moving even further from adequate proficiency. His solution?” Force the state government to give them even “more money.”

 For the last 30 years, the New Jersey courts have been using the New Jersey State Constitution’s goal of a “thorough and efficient” educational system to force the state to increase education spending in ways that are anything but efficient. They have ordered that school systems in underperforming urban areas (often run by corrupt Democratic political machines) be given extra money — which has led to huge amounts of waste without increasing student achievement."

For the record, Ohio's Constitution says that taxes are to be collected to "secure a thorough and efficient system of common schools throughout the state."  Could this decision give rise to similar lawsuits in Ohio? 

 China’s CO2 Emissions Confirm Kyoto Critics’ Fears - Greensburg, KS - Kiowa County Signal: 

"Carbon dioxide emissions in the United States, which is not a signatory of the Kyoto Protocol, actually declined by 6 percent in 2009, and are now 8 percent below 2000 levels, according to the EPA.

Global emissions, however, have risen more than 25 percent since 2000, and developing nations accounted for virtually all of the increase. China alone accounted for about half.

“A closer look at global emissions trends show how futile it would be for the U.S to impose economically punitive self-restrictions on carbon dioxide,” James M. Taylor, senior fellow for environmental policy at The Heartland Institute, writes in Forbes magazine.

By 2009, China was the largest emitter, accounting for 24 percent of global emissions, while the United States was responsible for 17 percent. China will likely account for 26 percent when 2010 figures are released, with the U.S. contributing about 15 percent, according to Taylor.

China’s emissions have been increasing by nearly 10 percent a year, and in 2010 probably surpassed the emissions of the entire Western Hemisphere."

And still, there are those who think the best way to save the planet is to punish the United States by shaming us into these punitive protocols and accords. 

New York's Bronx Zoo closes reptile house after cobra disappears | News.com.au: 

"A poisonous cobra has vanished from an enclosure outside public view at the Bronx Zoo, and its Reptile House remained closed today as a precaution while zoo workers searched for the missing reptile.

While the roughly 50cm-long Egyptian cobra - a highly venomous species of snake - has been unaccounted for since Friday afternoon, zoo officials say they're confident it hasn't gone far and isn't in a public area. Its enclosure was in an isolation area not open to visitors."

Bronx Zoo Cobra Still on the Loose, Now Tweeting -- Daily Intel:

 "As zoo officials continue to look for the Egyptian cobra that somehow escaped on Sunday, the reptile has decided to taunt his would-be captors via Twitter. For example, 'Holding very still in the snake exhibit at the Museum of Natural History. This is gonna be hilarious!' one tweet reads. Oh, the fun we have on Twitter. [Bronx Zoo's Cobra/Twitter]"

For those who might be wondering how one goes about finding a snake that has "gone missing," you can read expert herper Melissa Kaplan's tips here. 

Having been through this with an AWOL egg-eating snake (which we later found after we moved the stove - apparently she was curled up near the warm pilot light), it's nice to keep these tips handy.  Clearly the Bronx Zoo has been through the searching phase and they've come up empty. I am rather surprised that they are so confident this snake is still confined to the reptile house.  While animal escapes at zoos are extremely rare, they do happen occasionally, almost always when a staff member disregards the strict protocols the zoo has in place. 


AZA accredited zoos, like the Bronx Zoo,  have strict regulations for handling dangerous animals, including venomous snakes.  Ongoing training is required and the zoo is required to hold regular animal escape drills.  These drills include not only securing the animals, but also moving zoo guests to designated safe areas. 


Snakes are tricky because they don't have to eat every day - or even every week.  A snake's metabolism slows down if  it's temp drops (which would happen when the snake left its enclosure and the hot room), so trying to lure this snake out with food will probably not be successful until it's nearly starving, which could take weeks.  


One of the tried and true methods for recovering a lost snake is lining the walls of the suspected hide-out area with plastic grocery bags (snakes will usually travel along the walls and baseboards), then waiting for nightfall.  If and when the snake comes out to show-boat to the other reptiles behind glass in the herp house, the keeper, lying in wait in the dark, can nab the escapee.  A (slower) variation of this is to line the walls with flour or cornstarch.  The creative cobra will leave a trail in the white powder and can then be tracked to his hideout. 


So now you know.




Is Microsoft promoting homeschooling?  Sure seems like it.  Though it's probably unintentional, we'll take it!  Ah, I miss the days when the couch was our classroom!

Mirror of Justice: Here we go! The Court grants cert. in the ministerial-exception case:

"Today, the Supreme Court agreed to hear (what I think is) the most important religious-freedom case in 20 years.  The Supreme Court this morning granted cert in Hosanna Tabor Church v. EEOC...

...The question in the case is whether antidiscrimination laws – like, for example, the Americans with Disabilities Act – allow courts to review hiring-and-firing decisions involving “ministerial employees.”  In this particular case, a lower federal court had ruled that parochial-school teachers who teach primarily secular subjects are not “ministerial employees”, and therefore are covered by the Act.

...The Supreme Court should reverse this decision.  Although there are many difficult questions to be asked, and many fine lines to be drawn, when it comes to interpreting and applying the First Amendment’s religious-freedom guarantees, it cannot be the role of secular government to second-guess the decisions of religious communities and institutions about who should be their ministers, leaders, and teachers, any more than they should review their decisions about the content of religious doctrines."

Ayn Rand's classic apologetic on capitalism and laissez-faire government, Atlas Shrugged, has now been turned into a movie of the same name.  It will make its debut in a limited number of theaters on April 15th (tax day!).  Seems like showing it in union battleground states like Ohio and Wisconsin would have been a good marketing strategy, but they're not on the list.  We may have to wait for the DVD.  


Morton Blackwell from the Leadership Institute describes Atlas Shrugged this way:

 "It is one of the most devastating critiques ever written of big government and the liberal media.  Rand's moral indignation is contagious; after reading her, most readers are forever immune to the enticements of socialism.

It must also be said, however, that the militantly atheistic Rand had an unrealistic view of human nature and little appreciation for cultural values.  Most people, however mesmerized by her they may be in their youth, outgrow Rand's philosophy, which Burke might have described as a theoretical construct rather than an application of the accumulated wisdom of mankind.

After reading Atlas Shrugged, read also The Fatal Conceit, by F.A. Hayek.  Hayek once told me, 'I am not religious, but I have a great respect for religion.'  Hayek, along with Burke, who was a Christian, possessed an understanding of human nature much deeper and more realistic than Ayn Rand's."

Watch the trailer:

The antidote, of course, to Rand's hopeless atheism, is the gospel.  This animation of the story of the Prodigal Son (from Luke 15) is a beautiful expression of God's love and forgiveness (HT: Sola Sisters).

B8MDF779425E