By Mike Appleton (Guest Blogger)
When Byron York asked Michelle Bachmann last week whether, if elected President, she would be “submissive” to her husband, the audience reacted with a collective gasp, followed by scattered boos. After a brief pause, Rep. Bachmann calmly replied that her relationship with her husband is one of mutual love and respect. Continue reading “Michele Bachman, Christian Reconstructionism and the Law”
Submitted by Lawrence Rafferty-Guest Blogger
With the recent news of an appeals court decision that struck down the individual mandate portion of the Health Care Reform act, the problems with our Health Care system is on the front page again. While we hear politicians claim that the market place should decide all health care cost and access issues, millions are without coverage and the costs Americans pay for health insurance is staggering. Continue reading “An Example of Why We Need Health Care Reform”
-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
The Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK/MKO) has been designated a terrorist organization since 1997 when the Clinton administration put the MEK on the State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations. The Bush administration added two alleged MEK front organizations to the State Department’s terrorist list in 2003.
Continue reading “Buying Your Way Off The US Terrorist List”
In a major victory for opponents to President Barack Obama’s healthcare law, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta has ruled that the individual mandate provision is unconstitutional. The decision affirmed part of a January ruling by U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson of Florida.
Continue reading “Court of Appeals Strikes Down Individual Mandate As Unconstitutional”
We have seen the gradual dependence of the United States on China, which holds a huge amount of our debt. The result has been foreign policies designed to appease the Chinese government, including near silence on human rights abuses by that country. Now, academia has its own scandal of kowtowing to the Chinese, which have become equally dominant in research and education. Schools like Georgetown and Massachusetts Institute of Technology have said virtually nothing after their faculty were barred from entering China or flying on Chinese airlines due to objections to their writings. They are called the “Xinjiang 13” and their virtual abandonment by leading universities shows how academic freedom values have been sacrificed to maintain our dependence on Chinese funding.
Texas Governor Rick Perry appears to be out doing his opponents who have made the curtailment or actual elimination of the EPA a major part of the Republican presidential election (here and here). While Newt Gingrich wants to disband the EPA, Perry has brought in the big guns and announced that he actually prays to God to seek divine intervention in curtailing pollution laws.
Continue reading “Perry Prays For Pollution? Perry Tells CBN That He Asks God To Intervene With The EPA”
Call me a skeptic. For years, the world has been fed a constant stream of images of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin engaged in what may be the longest running mid-life crisis in history. Putin has been shown as a race car driver, great white hunter, jet pilot, oceanologist, martial artist and other action hero outfits. Each appearance has been accompanied by some fawning account of his aides on how he is superhuman. Now, Putin’s macho action series has turned to scuba diving. While only having dived three times, Putin was shown at an ancient Greek Black sea site and . . . you guessed it . . . he “discovered” two sixth century urns under the water. What is really amazing is that the urn were less than seven feet from the surface, together, and just lying exposed for thousands of years waiting for Putin. It was almost like someone put them there and directed Putin who was only in the water for a brief time when he added world-class archeologist to this action hero box.
Continue reading “Now Putin The Archeologist: Russian Strongman “Discovers” Ancient Jars At Ancient Site”
There is an interesting story in Kentucky about a series of generous tax breaks given to a Bible-themed amusement park, Ark Encounter. The creationist museum is evolving into a heavily subsidized endeavor despite the absence of any independent study to support its projected profits and employment figures.
Here is today’s column in the Los Angeles Times on the announcement that the House Page Program would be shutdown. After almost 200 years of loyal service, the pages deserve better and many former pages are asking the leadership to meet with us to consider alternatives.
Remember the worldwide violence over a cartoon showing Muhammad with a bomb in his turban? Well, Afghan President Hamid Karzai met recently the country’s religious leaders to ask them to kindly ask militants to stop hiding bombs in turbans and other religious garments. It is a curious appeal since one would have thought the clerics could go a little further and say that hiding bombs in terrorist acts anywhere is immoral.
The United Stats Olympic Committee has issued a formal letter stating its intent to sue the “Redneck Olympics” over the use of the word “Olympic.” The Committee insists that it owns the word Olympic — despite the fact that it refers to an ancient sporting event from Greece that preceded both the United States and copyright/trademark laws. (It turns out that this early depiction of the Greek Olympics had been long misinterpreted as a race. It is actually early Greek lawyers serving an organizer with a complaint over the use of the word Olympic in 776 BC).
Continue reading “United States Olympic Committee Threatens To Sue The Redneck Olympics”
It appears that if they just stayed put Texans would be living seal steak and penguin chili. Just 1.1 billion years ago, rocks show that Texas was part of a remote part of the Antarctic continent south of the Atlantic Ocean basin.
In an important symbolic victory for soldiers who are atheist, agnostic, or non-theist, Fort Bragg has approved a concert called “Rock Beyond Belief.” While journalist Ernie Pyle may have said that “there are no atheists in foxholes,” we know that to be untrue. We have brave men and women fighting for their country without a belief in God or any specific God. They have faced open hostility in the military, so this is a major victory of sheer recognition.
Continue reading “Army Approves Concert For Agnostics and Atheists At Fort Bragg”
It is one of the oldest institution in our government and stretches back to the founding of our Republic. Yet, in a decision made without consulting other members, former pages, or historians, Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) snuffed out the program to save just $5 million. As a former House leadership page in the 1970s (and here), I have written repeatedly in columns to propose page alumni taking over the program and even funding most or all of the program. The problems in the past have been entirely due to the pedophiles among the members and poor administration. Instead of allowing some discussion of alternatives, the House leadership moved to kill a program that has been a cherished and powerful symbol in our government.
Continue reading “House Leadership Moves To End Page Program After Roughly 200 Years — To Save $5 Million”
The Taliban appear to have been responsible for the killing of 38 — mainly Navy Seals — this weekend in taking down a CH-47 Chinook. Our stalwart ally Afghan President Hamid Karzai — who previously expressed a lingering desire to fight with the Taliban — expressed regrets for the deaths.
Continue reading “Taliban Kills 30 Navy Seals and Seven Afghans in Operation in Afghanistan”