Is the Department of Homeland Security building a mercenary unit?
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
November 5, 2013
The Department of Homeland Security is to spend $19 million dollars on a private security force in Wisconsin and Minnesota, an armed unit that must have a “Top Secret” security clearance according to an official solicitation.
According to a solicitation posted on the Federal Business Opportunities website, the Federal Protective Service, a sub-agency of the DHS, intends to hire “armed Protective Security Officer (PSO) services at various locations throughout the states of Minnesota and Wisconsin.”
“The project will have a requirement for the contractor to have a Top Secret facility clearance by the start of performance,” states the FPS notice.
Unlike previous solicitations, which normally detail how the guards will be deployed to protect government buildings, the document does not divulge what role the armed security force will undertake.
The fact that the contractors being hired must have a “Top Secret” security clearance clearly suggests that the DHS is not merely seeking to hire armed guards, but Blackwater-style mercenaries who will be engaged in some kind of clandestine activity.
The notion of an armed security force operating domestically under a “Top Secret” designation, something normally reserved for foreign spying and military operations, underscores how the DHS increasingly treats America like some kind of occupied territory.
The hiring of private mercenaries with Top Secret clearances also suggests the DHS may be planning on using the contractors as cutouts who will be involved in a variety of different operations outside the purview of public and Congressional scrutiny.
For some, the idea of an ever-expanding federal government turning to a private security force with a “Top Secret” clearance will stir memories of Barack Obama’s pre-election promise to build “a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded (as the US military).”
The DHS’ purchase of over 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition over the course of the last 12 months has also prompted concerns that the feds are gearing up for trouble.
As we previously reported, the federal agency has spent large sums of money in recent weeks hiring large numbers of armed guards to protect government buildings, a development some have connected to the likelihood of civil unrest in America which could arise from food shortages linked to welfare cuts.
Fox News’ Neil Cavuto suggested that the Department of Homeland Security’s recent $80 million dollar outlay on armed guards to protect government buildings in upstate New York was related to potential food stamp riots.
The federal agency is also seeking to acquire 723,000 hours of armed guard services to protect government buildings in Arkansas and other areas.
The DHS also recently purchased half a million dollars worth of fully automatic pepper spray launchers and projectiles that are designed to be used during riot control situations.
Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a host for Infowars Nightly News.
This article was posted: Tuesday, November 5, 2013 at 12:20 pm
Another federal police agency:
ReplyDeleteUS Attorney General Eric Holder weighed in on Monday, saying that the federal government would be launching an investigation as “a review of the security measures that were in place not only at LAX but, I think, a review of the security arrangements that exist in other airports as well.”
There are over 70 federal agencies with armed units. The DHS earlier this year bought 1.6 billion rounds of ammo for these units stating it was for target practice.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of police states
ReplyDeleteJERUSALEM — As Secretary of State John F. Kerry resumes talks here Wednesday in the quest to create “two states for two people,” a vocal faction in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is, more openly than ever, opposing the very idea of a Palestinian state — and putting forward its own plans to take, rather than give away, territory.
Ministers in Netanyahu’s ruling coalition and leaders of his party, the Likud, are in revolt against the international community’s long-held consensus that there should be two states between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. In the process, they are seeking to overturn the commitments of every U.S. president since Bill Clinton and at least four Israeli prime ministers, including the current one.
Despite its tech savvy, the country depends on a browser that has lost market share elsewhere.
While once content to simply voice their opposition to giving up what they see as Jewish land or rights in the West Bank, these two-state opponents have gone beyond shouting “no” and are preparing details of their own vision for how Israel should proceed unilaterally after the current round of peace talks fails — which they say is inevitable.
“The day after peace talks fail, we need to have Plan B,” said Knesset member Tzipi Hotovely, a rising star in the Likud party and deputy minister of transportation in Netanyahu’s government.
Instead of a sovereign Palestinian nation arising in the West Bank and Gaza, with East Jerusalem as its capital — which has been the focus of on-again, off-again peace negotiations since the Oslo Accords in 1993 — the two-state opponents envision Israel annexing large swaths of the West Bank.
As for the Gaza Strip and its 1.6 million inhabitants, which Palestinians consider central to any future nation, the Israeli expansionists say Gaza should be abandoned to its own fate — to be eventually absorbed by Egypt or left as a hostile semi-state, run by the Islamist militant organization Hamas and isolated from Israel by existing separation barriers.
As for the Palestinians living in the West Bank, depending on the ideas under discussion, the annexationists suggest that they be offered Israeli citizenship or residency or be made the responsibility of Jordan.
“I think we should no longer think of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, but Palestinian settlements in Israel,” Danny Danon, deputy defense minister, said in an interview.
You cannot negotiate a peace with someone who will be satisfied with nothing short of your death.
DeleteBut Allen, Deuce and others that delegitimize Israel really in the end will only be happy when the Jews are dead. Then "peace" can be had. The very idea that Jews should have self determination is a crime in their mind. That is why they can obsess about tents and shacks being "demolished" in Israel but IGNORE the hundreds of thousands, strike that, MILLIONS of arabs made homeless and the hundreds of thousands MURDERED at the hands of their fellow arabs.
DeleteAs for the Gaza strip? it's not part of Israel, it's egypt's. no cultural difference between the people of Gaza than of the Sinai. in fact, Rafah is a divided city...
DeleteTime to go back to 1955... Gaza was Egypt.
Freedom for Gaza. Egypt open your borders!!!!
“Netanyahu suggested to me that we relocate those Gazans to Sinai, but I refused and told him to forget it, neither I nor anyone bigger than me will be able to mess with the Egypt’s borders,”
DeleteRe: “Netanyahu suggested to me that we relocate those Gazans to Sinai, but I refused and told him to forget it, neither I nor anyone bigger than me will be able to mess with the Egypt’s borders,”
Delete...more unsourced Islamic media agitprop...
When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.
DeleteFirst Prime Minister Ben Gurion described a “‘partial Jewish state’” as just the beginning:
Delete“‘a powerful impetus in our historic efforts to redeem the land in its entirety.’”
In a meeting of the Jewish leadership in 1938, Ben Gurion shared his assumption that
“‘after we build up a strong force following the establishment of the state – we will abolish the partition of the country and we will expand to the whole Land of Israel.’”
No need to "relocate".
DeleteGazans IN Gaza are part and parcel of Egypt. Egypt, the world's largest Arab nation needs to grow up and become a responsible, moral nation and take control of it's land. Gaza included.
But wait... Egypt, which created the modern "Palestinian" national movement, doesn't care for the arabs of the strip, that tribe/clan are scum, trash, thieves, at least to the Arabs that sit in Cairo....
The question was posed to me yesterday: “Is Israel a legitimate state?”
ReplyDeleteMy answer is yes but it is also a lawless state. It is in many ways the least of the worst in its neighborhood. It is not a state that should be emulated or admired. It is a police state outside of acceptable western norms but gets away with it by intimidating western politicians by guilt association with European fascists from the past.
Far less "lawless" than America
DeleteHowever I will agree with you, ANY nation that will lower it's adherence to laws to release blood thirsty murdering savages that have been convicted of brutal murder beyond all doubt (in fact the murderers are PROUD of their slaying of women and kids) because of a bully nation (America) that threatens it's support if those savages are not released for a nonsensical concept of terrorists release for "peace" is lawless.
DeleteWestern norms?
DeleteWhat's that? Nazi Germany? America? remember the police state in Boston recently, forced house to house searches?
Western Norms? LOL
That's a good one. How many Indians did America murder? How many India Indians did England MURDER?
What is a "western norm"
This ideal that Israel is a police state is funny.... Written by one who has never been...
Take a trip, learn something...
“It was so much easier to blame it on Them.
DeleteIt was bleakly depressing to think that They were Us.
If it was Them, then nothing was anyone's fault. If it was us, what did that make Me?
After all, I'm one of Us. I must be. I've certainly never thought of myself as one of Them.
No one ever thinks of themselves as one of Them.
We're always one of Us.
It's Them that do the bad things.”
Israel, today, is far freer than the US, with one caveat: stay out of Ashkenazi fundamentalist neighborhoods - they be crazy - everyday is the 17th C in Kiev.
DeleteIsrael does not need the protection of the US. It needs the US to butt out. In EVERY struggle between Israel and its neighbors, the US has come in on the side of the Arabs, demanding a halt to Israeli military advances and peace talks. Islam has a friend in the US, a big brother who steps between the belligerents to save the little brother from a clock cleaning.
“If a citizen is legally forced to recognize the sovereignty of the state - there cannot be any speech about freedom.”
DeleteIt was America that gave the IDEA of nationhood to the Arabs. this concept was not a natural thought from a tribal society who's previous 600 years were that of being part of the "empire"
DeleteAny state, based on religion is bad to disastrous for those outside of the chosen religion. It is a political anachronism. Israel is not a state that deserves admiration or emulation. Think not, then visualize an African State, based on tribalism, religion, border aggression and repression of the occupants of their extraterritorial repression and expansion, states propped up militarily and politically by an aggressive superior foreign patron.
ReplyDeleteIsrael is a modern economy artificially sustained by force of arms, Israeli propaganda and American political support from the Christian Right who believe that their moral fate and eternal souls are entwined with the myths of ancient desert cults.
All nations are sustained by force of arms, nationalism.
DeleteGreat opinion from one who has NEVER been....
DeleteKeep up the objective head in the sand opinions...
“You see these dictators on their pedestals, surrounded by the bayonets of their soldiers and the truncheons of their police ...
Deleteyet in their hearts there is unspoken fear.
They are afraid of words and thoughts: words spoken abroad, thoughts stirring at home --
- alll the more powerful because forbidden -- terrify them.
A little mouse of thought appears in the room, and even the mightiest potentates are thrown into panic.”
Winston speaks clearly of every arab nation without any exception...
Delete“The idea which tyrants find most useful is the idea of God.”
DeleteSpeaks of every country in the Middle East, without exception.
DeleteThey are all, as the French Ambassador said ...
"Shitty Little Countries"
Not worthy of expending our "Blood and Treasure" to sustain.
Re: StendhalWed Nov 06, 07:18:00 AM EST
Delete“The idea which tyrants find most useful is the idea of God.”
...more nonsense...It was nonsense even during Stendhal's lifetime (Napoleon an atheist)...Marxism and National Socialism both avowedly atheistic...
Some people talk of morality, and some of religion, but give me a little snug property.
DeleteThieves respect property. They merely wish the property to become their property that they may more perfectly respect it.
DeleteThe helped create the Modern State of Israel. If they had not expelled the Jews that had lived for a 1000 years before the arabs came out of arabia in 640 ce. 850,000 Jews driven like cattle into Israel.
DeleteOf course the Arabs fully expected the Jews would be corralled and then slaughtered. OPPS.... They were wrong.
Sorry Arabs you FAILED to murder us all, but you did drive 850,000 Sephardic Jews into Israel, you did really piss them off for stealing over 235,000 homes, businesses and land holdings...
Not penniless arabs, but Jews that had craftsmen and merchant communities for 2000 years....
These Jews, that number over 4 million Israelis today, tell us of the hatred the arabs are capable of. These Jews warn us of the folly of "land for peace" with arabs.
The arabs? are the cousins of the Jews. 2 brothers from one father.
the arabs? Now control 899/900th of the middle east. The Jews? 1/900th.
The Jews? have a society where arabs as citizens make up 20% of the population.
The Arabs? virtually Jew free, and soon? Christian free...
Israel such a wonderful place even the arabs that live there REFUSE to leave....
The Invention of the Jewish People is a book written by Shlomo Sand, an Israeli professor of history at the University of Tel Aviv.
DeleteThe author wasn’t probing a belief system but Zionist fabrications of a spurious common lineage for people of the Jewish faith.
Sand argues that the idea of Jews having a common ethnic identity is implausible because, as with Christianity and Islam, Judaism was originally a “proselytising religion”.
The notion of Judaism as a “race”, rather than a religion of various races, is without foundation.
The recent study by John Hopkins geneticist Dr Elhaik confirms that the common genome structure of the European Jew gravitated towards an origin in old Khazaria.
“The majority of Jews do not have Middle Eastern genetic component,” he told Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
Founded on a mélange of myths and manufactured historical tales, Israel has failed the archaeological test of time and is now exposed by DNA science.
Today’s genetics prove unequivocally that in 1948 “the children of the original Jews” were replaced by converts with no roots in the Middle East.
Sorry "end" Israel IS... The Jewish People ARE...
DeleteYour definitions mean nothing.
I'd suggest you VISIT Israel. Great restaurants, Great People. Great Roads. Great Art. A Land TEAMING with LIFE.
People of all colors, faiths, race and ideas.
Israel, so good even the Arabs won't leave...
The first recorded deed in history was that given to Abraham for the purchase of land for the cemetery at Macpelah. In modern times Jews have recorded deeds to hundreds of square miles of land in Roman Palestine. Once this land was brought into productive use at great expense, the Palestinians brought in as laborers, much like La Raza, wanted to seize it, murderously if necessary.
DeleteMaybe Whacky's 350 of stolen prime bottom land isn't so secure after all!
DeleteIsrael is a modern economy artificially sustained by force of arms, Israeli propaganda and American political support from the Christian Right who believe that their moral fate and eternal souls are entwined with the myths of ancient desert cults.
ReplyDeleteThis is one of the better sentences that you've ever written.
great BDS nonsense.
Deletebut this blog is committed to the delegitimization of Israel.
nothing new...
same shit, packaged different on a new day.
meanwhile the ONLY place in the middle east that arabs enjoy freedom? israel.
Home Demolitions: By the Numbers
DeleteSince 1967, Israel has destroyed approximately 27,000 Palestinian structures in the occupied territories (the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip), including more than 24,000 homes, according to ICAHD.
Since the renewal of negotiations in August 2013, Israel has destroyed approximately 25 Palestinian homes, in addition to dozens of other structures, leaving approximately 200 people homeless.
According to the UN, between January and September 2013, 862 Palestinians were displaced by Israeli demolitions, compared to 886 (including 468 children) in all of 2012.
In 2012, a total of 600 Palestinian structures were demolished by Israel in the occupied territories, including at least 189 homes, according to ICAHD. This figure doesn’t include “self-demolitions” whereby Palestinians destroy their own homes rather than have Israel do it and charge them an additional fine.
One Bedouin village, Al-Araqib, in the Negev desert in the south of Israel, has been destroyed more than 50 times by Israel since July 2010.
Between 2005 and 2012, Israel demolished approximately 1500 Palestinian homes due to owners lacking hard-to-obtain construction permits.
Between 1993 and 2000, when the Oslo Accords were being negotiated between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, Israel destroyed almost 1700 Palestinian homes in the occupied territories.
Immediately following Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza in 1967, approximately 6000 Palestinian homes were demolished, including four entire villages in the Latrun area, along with dozens of homes in the Mughrabi Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City, which were destroyed to make way for a plaza for the Western Wall. In 1971, between 2000 and 6000 Palestinian homes were destroyed in Gaza in an effort to pacify the newly occupied territory.
During Israel’s creation (1948-49), Zionist and then Israeli forces expelled approximately 750,000 Palestinian Arabs from their ancestral lands in order to create a Jewish majority state of Israel. In the process, more than 400 Palestinian population centers were systematically destroyed, including thousands of homes, businesses, and houses of worship.
wow, syria did more in 2 years than Israel did SINCE 1967...
DeleteWay to go Syria....
The search for moral equivalence by the Israeli is so .... charming.
DeleteNow the Israeli are trying to argue their equivalence with Assad.
No longer claiming moral superiority ...
But struggling to find moral justification for the ...
Three key features characterize of Israeli apartheid:
• Four million Palestinians in the Occupied Territories lack the right to vote for the government that controls their lives through a military occupation.
In addition to controlling the borders, air space, water, tax revenues, and other vital matters pertaining to the Occupied Territories,
Israel alone issues the identity cards that determine the ability of Palestinians to work and their freedom of movement.
• About 1.2 million Palestinian Israelis, who make up 20 percent, or one-fifth, of Israel’s population, have second-class citizenship within Israel, ...
... which defines itself as a Jewish state rather than a state for all its citizens.
More than 20 provisions of Israel’s principal laws discriminate, either directly or indirectly, against non-Jews, according to Adalah: The Legal Center for Minority Rights in Israel.
Millions of Palestinians remain refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and elsewhere, unable to return to their former homes ...
... and land in present-day Israel.
Even though the right of return for refugees is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
But life is no carousel,
Re: better sentences
Delete...unless you think about it...but no worry about that...
Re: but this blog is committed to the delegitimization of Israel.
DeleteWiO, don't get angry, it is a learning experience. Think of how much more you know than would have been the case without the research necessary to discredit automatons.
Yep, if a contributor did no research, he could post that China's 35 years worth of coal reserves, 12% of the global total, while mining 49% of annual global production, that would qualify as ...
Delete"Plenty"
Especially when compared to the 270 plus years of US capacity or the over 470 years that Russia has in the ground.
Research is king, little doubt of that
Absolutely correct.
DeleteIt's always good to see and understand the propaganda the enemy spouts and the weaknesses therein.. :)
Millions of Palestinians remain refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and elsewhere, unable to return to their former homes ...
Delete... and land in present-day Israel.
It's a sad fact... time has moved on.. but they can move to the west bank and gaza and help build a new Palestine. Just as the 4.5 MILLION Jews from the arab world cannot return to their homes, the arabs must accept the fact that time moves on.
The Native Americans cannot move back to their original homes. Cities exist now where it was meadows and fields.
There are ONLY 40,000 Palestinians in all of the world that are in fact original refugees. All the rest are "decedents".
Get over it...
The poles, germans, russians, indians, jews all did....
If only there was a weakness we could exploit, but after all these years, all of our failed attempts, it gets me depressed.
DeleteIt's like Vandal football, I really want to win, but we never do.
:(:(:(:(:(:(
Israel... So good the Arabs refuse to leave...
DeleteEver wonder why refugees don't flee INTO the arab world...
Deleteexcuse me while I wet myself with the very concept....
Arabs have FLED the arabs world moving by the millions into Europe and America to GET away from their homelands...
They fear going back as they would be killed for being too western.....
The Arabs of Israel? Love it so much they refuse to leave...
Re: artificially sustained by force of arms
DeleteWith few exceptions, every nation has understood the need to protect itself. One of the first acts of the Continental Congress was the creation of the Marine Corps and the USN to protect commerce. Artificiality with reference to the armed forces of nation states is just silly.
At last glance the President of the United States is also called the "Commander in Chief"
DeleteAllen, the REASON the Congress CREATED the Navy was to fight the moslem Barbary Pirates.
DeleteThe Philadelphia and the Betsey were both hijacked and ransomed by the Islamists. ransoms of gold, silk and arms were paid, over and over again until finally America understood that the Islamic Jackals of North Africa, who threatened to burn baltimore to the ground, take our women and our kids as slaves and murder our men,that only a strong military can fight them.
From the Halls of Montezuma To the shores of Tripoli;
The arabs forced America's hand and forged the UNITED States to become UNITED.
Once again it is the Arabs that attacked us 1st. And thanks to their violence and criminal behaviors?
America became the power on the sea that it has become...
Without exception, every country in North and South America exists side by side with its neighbors for reasons not based on force of arms. The same applies within Europe. There is nothing natural about Israel’s relationship with its neighbors that can be sustained without overwhelming military power.
DeleteThe last major external war in the Americas was when the UK attacked Argentina.
DeleteIt's a sad fact... time has moved on.. but they can move to the west bank and gaza and help build a new Palestine. Just as the 4.5 MILLION Jews from the arab world cannot return to their homes, the arabs must accept the fact that time moves on.
DeleteA strange tortured argument for someone that talks incessantly about a natural homeland for the Jews based on events two thousand years ago. There is no moving on using the calendar of the Jews?
The last major external war in the Americas was when the UK attacked Argentina.
DeleteSure, and in 1991 the US "attacked" Kuwait, the 19th province of Iraq.
DeuceWed Nov 06, 09:11:00 AM EST
DeleteIt's a sad fact... time has moved on.. but they can move to the west bank and gaza and help build a new Palestine. Just as the 4.5 MILLION Jews from the arab world cannot return to their homes, the arabs must accept the fact that time moves on.
A strange tortured argument for someone that talks incessantly about a natural homeland for the Jews based on events two thousand years ago. There is no moving on using the calendar of the Jews?
nicely out of context...
I base my liberation on Israel on events from the last 60 years.
If we were talking 2000 years ago? I'd be demanding from the river to the sea and your deportation to your natural homeland rather than the lands you stolen from the Indians
Without exception, every country in North and South America exists side by side with its neighbors for reasons not based on force of arms. The same applies within Europe. There is nothing natural about Israel’s relationship with its neighbors that can be sustained without overwhelming military power.
DeleteLOL
I guess the last 100 years and the wars were all just a dream....
There is nothing natural about Israel’s relationship with its neighbors that can be sustained without overwhelming military power.
DeleteThe real message is: Israel just die. Jews die. Then we can have peace, Jews don't KNOW their place.
yes sir masser.... yes sir....
Sorry Deuce, NEVER AGAIN means just that.
The arabs have proven their thirst for Jewish BLOOD. We just will not give it up without a fight.
So SORRY (in my best chinese accent) So Sorry....
If you think it's unnatural that we, the Jews, refuse to be victims of savage, murder anymore...
SO SORRY....
New reality Deuce. Israel IS, no matter what shit is flung against it, we will fight back and we will cause those that try to murder us and our kids PAIN.
Embrace it.
The reality?
The arabs are savages. They are OUR cousins, WE KNOW them since we started this journey thru history. For thousands of years they have tortured us, murdered us and stole from us.
Deuce you now come in, because you have a girlfriend and think you are the savior of the palestinians.
Well the truth? You just don't KNOW shit...
The arabs want it all. They always have and I guess they always will. Until such time as the masses are taught not to hate and want to murder us....
This is why in Israel the arabs there will not leave, because they are treated equally.
The countries surrounding Israel? Want genocide.
DeuceWed Nov 06, 09:05:00 AM EST
DeleteWithout exception, every country in North and South America exists side by side with its neighbors for reasons not based on force of arms. The same applies within Europe. There is nothing natural about Israel’s relationship with its neighbors that can be sustained without overwhelming military power.
The Cenepa War (January 26 – February 28, 1995), also known as the Alto Cenepa War, was a brief and localized military conflict between Ecuador and Peru, fought over control of a disputed area on the border between the two countries. The two nations had signed a border treaty following the Ecuadorian–Peruvian War of 1941, but Ecuador later disagreed with the treaty as it applied to the Cenepa and Paquisha areas, and in 1960 Ecuador declared the treaty null and void.
So when Nicaragua was funneling weapons to marxist groups that was for reasons not based on force of arms?
DeleteCuba?
Central America has armies and borders. And at last check didn't have suicide bombers targeting it's kids...
Has Jamaica ever launched several thousand rockets at a neighbor?
DeuceWed Nov 06, 09:11:00 AM EST
DeleteIt's a sad fact... time has moved on.. but they can move to the west bank and gaza and help build a new Palestine. Just as the 4.5 MILLION Jews from the arab world cannot return to their homes, the arabs must accept the fact that time moves on.
A strange tortured argument for someone that talks incessantly about a natural homeland for the Jews based on events two thousand years ago. There is no moving on using the calendar of the Jews?
Also...
if we were obsessing about 2 thousand years ago? Damascus, Alexandria, Cairo, Medina, Baghdad and so many more major blocks of those cities would need to be returned...
A week ago, Dianne Barrette was the poster child for the harms of health reform. Barrette is a 56-year-old Floridian who found she wouldn't be able to keep her health insurance after Obamacare. From the the transcript:
ReplyDeleteLast month, [Barrette] received a letter from Blue Cross/Blue Shield informing her as of January 2014, she would lose her current plan. Barrette pays $54 a month. The new plan she’s being offered would run $591 a month, ten times more than what she currently pays. “What I have right now is what I’m happy with, and I just want to know why I can’t keep what I have. Why do I have to be forced into something else?”
Barrette's wrenching story quickly made Fox News, and then ricocheted through the rest of the media. Then the Washington Post's Erik Wemple called Barrette and got the details on her health-care plan.
Her current health insurance plan, she says, doesn’t cover “extended hospital stays; it’s not designed for that,” says Barrette. Well, does it cover any hospitalization? “Outpatient only,” responds Barrette. Nor does it cover ambulance service and some prenatal care. On the other hand, says Barrette, it does cover “most of my generic drugs that I need” and there’s a $50 co-pay for doctors’ appointments..A middling hospital stay could well have bankrupted Barrette under her current insurance.
Then the New Republic's Jonathan Cohn called Barrette and walked through the subsidies she'd qualify for and the precise plans she might be able to get. Her response? "I would jump at it," she told Cohn. "With my age, things can happen. I don’t want to have bills that could make me bankrupt. I don’t want to lose my house."
"Maybe," she said abut Obamacare, "it’s a blessing in disguise."
In the space of about a week, in other words, Barrette went from Obamacare victim to Obamacare beneficiary.
Call this the fog of health reform: We're in a period right now where the information coming out about the insurance people will get under Obamacare is often incomplete, wrong, or misleading. This is true for a few reasons:
1) People are getting cancellation notices from insurers, many of which include misleading quotes for how much replacement insurance will cost. (Read Dylan Scott's excellent investigation on this.) As Brian Beutler writes, "the media has fallen into a lazy habit of taking insurance companies at their word."
2) HealthCare.gov still isn't working that well, so people can't see their options under the new law.
3) The problems with the law's digital architecture have biased the media towards believing bad news about other parts of Obamacare.
Readers know that I think the problems with HealthCare.gov are real, and even . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Fog of Healthcare Reform
After Outside Pressure, Rebels in Congo Lay Down Their Arms
ReplyDeleteThe rebel surrender offered new hope for a region where conflict — and the failed international attempts to stop it — has gone on for so many years that it has often come to seem unresolvable, even inevitable.
“In a region that has suffered so much, this is obviously a significant positive step in the right direction,” Russ Feingold, the United States special envoy to the Great Lakes region of Africa, said at a news briefing.
Only a year ago, the rebels seized the provincial capital of Goma while the much-derided United Nations peacekeeping force, for years the largest and most expensive in the world, stood by and watched as the city was sacked.
But the stinging defeat helped bring about a change in strategy. On the battlefield, the United Nations Security Council tried something new, giving its peacekeepers orders to go on the offensive and hunt down the rebels, not just wait for civilians to come under threat, for the first time.
“If there is no peace, there is nothing to keep,” said the United Nations representative to Congo, Martin Kobler, expressing the philosophy behind the new United Nations intervention brigade.
On the diplomatic front, the United States, the European Union, Britain and other nations had already begun cutting aid to Rwanda — which has been accused of helping arm, coordinate and recruit fighters for the insurrection — in a move that appears to have shorn the rebels of badly needed support.
And within Congo itself, the embarrassing loss of a major city spurred the military to reorganize its ranks. It removed ineffective officers, raised morale with better equipment and more consistent pay, and quickly became a more effective fighting force that swept over the rebels.
“This is historic,” said Jason Stearns, an author, blogger and Congo expert. “This would be the first time since 1996 that the Congolese Army defeats a major armed group and that Rwanda has no armed ally in the eastern Congo.”
On Tuesday, the rebels, known as M23, announced that they were ending the 20-month rebellion that had brought renewed instability, uncertainty and conflict to the eastern part of Congo. After suffering a string of recent defeats, the group’s chairman, Bertrand Bisimwa, said that M23 had decided “to pursue by purely political means the search for solutions to the root causes which led to its creation.”
Barely a year ago, M23 occupied Goma, a city of roughly one million people and a major commercial center in the eastern part of the country. The occupation was M23’s high-water mark as a force in the area, but the seizure of the city may have also sown the seeds of its undoing.
The United Nations, which had a significant number of peacekeeping troops in the city, soon authorized a new intervention brigade of 3,000 troops, with an aggressive new mandate.
Likewise, Congo recalled dozens of officers to the capital, Kinshasa, streamlining an army often best known for corruption and human rights abuses.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/06/world/africa/m23-rebels-democratic-republic-congo.html?hpw&rref=world&_r=0
Tesla Considers Building The World's Biggest Lithium-Ion Battery Factory
ReplyDeleteTesla Motors is looking at building a lithium-ion battery factory that will likely be the biggest in the world, said CEO Elon Musk on Tuesday.
“This will be a giant facility. We are talking about something that is comparable to all of the lithium-ion battery production in the world — in one factory,” Musk said during a conference call with analysts to discuss the third-quarter earnings. “It’s big.”
Securing enough battery cells has been the biggest challenge for the electric car maker, who announced an expanded purchase agreement with Panasonic on Tuesday that will see it buying three times more cells than it did previously. Tesla plans to get a minimum of 1.8 billion cells from the Japanese companies over four years.
Cell supply is crippling Tesla’s ambitious effort to expand its global reach. Musk repeatedly talked about the trouble of getting enough cells and how that has caused the company to not market its cars as aggressively as it would like.
In fact, the company has had to temper its Model S delivery in North America in order to please some of its European customers who have been waiting for their Model S deliveries for a few years. Tesla recently opened its Beijing store without much marketing efforts partly because it didn’t want to drum up demand it couldn’t meet
“It doesn’t make sense for us to amplify demand if we aren’t able to deliver on that demand,” said Musk, who discussed the supply trouble earlier in the year.
While Musk said he didn’t want to divulge too many details about the battery factory plan, he did have this much to say:
*The factory will most likely be in North America.
*It could be a “soup-to-nuts” factory that takes in raw materials and produces the finished battery packs (as opposed to producing only cells and hiring another company to assemble the packs off-site, for example).
* The factory will have eco-friendly features, such as the use of solar power and a recycling program that makes use of old battery packs to make new battery packs. Musk, incidentally, is the chairman of SolarCity , a solar panel installer in California.
*Tesla may tinker with the format of the battery cells. Or not. The current cells from Panasonic are the common cylindrical type. Musk said Tesla would likely stick with the same size and format. But if it does make design changes, then the cells wouldn’t be much bigger. “We have yet to see a situation where large format cells are actually cheaper on a cost per kilowatt-hour basis,” he said.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/uciliawang/2013/11/05/tesla-considers-building-the-worlds-biggest-lithium-ion-battery-factory/
this just in...
ReplyDeleteIran's semiofficial Mehr news agency says a commander in its powerful Revolutionary Guard has been killed in Syria.
The agency said Monday that Mohammad Jamali was killed by "terrorists" a few days ago but didn't provide details. It said his funeral will be held in Kerman in southeastern Iran on Tuesday.
Iran is one of Syrian President Bashar Assad's main allies. Tehran has provided his government with military and political backing for years and has kept up its support since the uprising there began in March 2011.
Last year, Guard chief commander Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari said the unit had high-level advisers in Syria but it has denied it has fighters there.
Assad is an Allawite, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, which is dominant in Iran. Syria's rebels are mostly Sunni.
LOL.....
Did I say it loud enough?
DeleteLAUGH OUT LOUD....
A real threat, those Iranians.
DeleteSo militarily potent ...
They cannot even keep their Commanding General safe
So, be afraid America, be very afraid ...
The Iranians are coming!
Th!e Iranians are coming!
One nuclear weapon exploded over the east coast, smuggled in to the USA or shot off the deck of a container ship could killed millions of people.
DeleteIf you want to smuggle a nuclear bomb into the USA? Put it in a container of POT......
So Mr Fudd, if you are so smart why does the USA spend BILLIONS and BILLIONS fighting that threat?
Because of ...
Delete"...the acquisition of unwarranted influence, ... by the military industrial complex.
The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We HAVE let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes.
We should take nothing for granted.
Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.” - Ike, who everyone liked
Delete“In most communities it is illegal to cry "fire" in a crowded assembly.
Should it not be considered serious international misconduct to manufacture a general war scare in an effort to achieve local political aims? ”
While this blog continually bitches like baby about the "police state" of Israel...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.iamsyria.org/october-2013.html
eriod covered: October 2013
Subject: death toll of civilians and FSA in October 2013
Prepared by Syrian Network for Human Rights
Killing 2829 victims Syrian citizens were killed; including 658 armed rebel, 2171 civilian, 307 children, and 122 tortured to death including 2 media activists and children.
The daily average of killing this month was 92 people a day, 4 people an hour
Among the 2171 civilians SNHR documented:
307 children victims with an average of 10 children a day , and the proportion of the children killed to the death toll is 14% ,which is a very high rate and strict evidence that the Government Forces targeting the civilians
181 female victims with an average of 5 women a day , and the proportion of the children killed to the death toll is 8% ,which is a very high rate and strict evidence that the Government Forces targeting the civilians
122 victims tortured to death with an average of 7 victims a day tortured to death in formal and informal detention centers.
The proportion of killed women, children and torturing to death victims is 28%, This clearly shows the invalidity of the Syrian government's claims that it is fighting al-Qaeda, extremists and terrorists.
So pardon me if your reposting of Israeli crimes on an hourly basis doesn't impress me.....
Your true agenda supersedes any rational discourse on real issues...
20,000 Jews Murder in Israel,
DeleteBy the Israeli Government!
As the Government of Israel has done every year of the 21st Century
So reported by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel.
He knows the combination of murder, Jews and Israel, better than any tourist visiting the country.
Yawn. Abortion is legal in most places in the world and is not legally murder.
DeleteYour focus proves that you really don't care about born, alive human beings...
But your actions in Guatemala, helping commit genocide says a lot...
Tell the Chief Rabbinate, don't complain to Fudd Busters International.
DeleteFudd Busters are not to blame Judaism is a religion that supports misogynists and resides in the midst of archaic values and principles.
Take it up with the Rabbi.
But until the Rabbinate changes its position, we'll be in the midst of it.
DeleteThe abortions in Israel are done by individuals to themselves. Not the state.
DeleteYou comparisons are sick. But then again? You prove again that the deaths of 115,000 human being in syria mean nothing to you.
Still not as many as you had a hand in directly murdering in Guatemala, what was that 200,000 indians?
I guess it's your way of coping with your hand in genocide.
I guess IF I had committed the crimes you had? I'd try to rationalize it too..
The abortions are performed in hospitals, not bathrooms in private apartments.
DeleteSocialized medicine ...
The hospitals are part of the Israeli government.
The hospitals, the doctors, the nurses, they are all part of the Israeli government.
The Israeli Government is murdering those Jews.
Go complain to the Chief Rabbinate, go tell 'em they're wrong.
It is the Rabbinate's position, we merely report it.
Because we love busting Fudds!
Re: 20,000 Jews Murder in Israel,
DeleteBy the Israeli Government!
And that got to be your business, how? And what has that to do with the cost of tea in China? Why don't you take that Jeremiad to church next Sunday.
It is our business because we in the United States subsidize it.
DeleteBecause it proves, positive, that the greatest threat to Jews in Israel emanates from the Israeli Government.
Who else murdered 20,000 Jews in 2012?
Who else has murdered 240,000 Jews in the 21st Century?
Little wonder the Chief Rabbinate of Israel is concerned.
We subsidize no such thing.
DeleteThe US subsidizes nothing of the sort. What the US does subsidize is millions of abortions per year within its borders.
Abortion is not a threat to Jews by their government, since none are mandatory. There are a group of genetic,fatal pediatric diseases known only to Jews; therefore, many of the abortions you bewail are acts of mercy to the fetus and the mother (1/5). Furthermore abortion is decreasing in Israel (1/10), Moreover, Israel has far fewer abortions than either the US (19.6%) or Wales (17.5%).
If abortion is something that troubles you, start in your own country, or head to Wales, where you can crusade and vacation in good conscience at the same time - it might do you a world of good to get out for awhile.
If you care so much about the so called Palestinians why have you not highlighted the numbers of Palestinians in Syria that have been killed, wounded, made homeless or that are starving?
ReplyDeleteWhy? Why the silence? And yes, it's aint MY problem, it's yours. Why the silence....
What have you DONE to HELP?
Anything?
No, just a constant thread after thread of Israeli crime bullshit....
What a man... What a man... What an obsessed man...
Who ever said that there was compassion for the Palestinians?
DeleteThe concrn is for the money the US is pouring into the sand, in Israel.
People and places that are not deserving of US aid.
No matter their ethnicity or religion.
You have never understood the core issue, probably never will.
Your concern it the 3 billion? then cut it...
DeleteTil then you pour more down the drain in Egypt and Palestine
That's what the effort is all about.
DeleteTo show the public where and for what their hard borrowed money is going to.
To build outrage and disgust towards the recipients.
All that aid money is packaged, Israel, Egypt, Jordon, and the Palestinian representatives of the Israeli Apartheid System. Canot kill one part, with killing it all. Just the nature of the beast.
And it is been $110 billion, not $3.
Just shows how little the Israeli appreciate it.
An idiot wrote :"The concrn is for the money the US is pouring into the sand, in Israel.
DeletePeople and places that are not deserving of US aid."
You clearly are unaware of the fact that the US has prepositioned in Israel about $1 Billion worth of military equipment. And that number grows each year. You are also clearly unaware of the agreement that releases that equipment to Israel "as needed". Israel is the largest aircraft carrier in the American fleet (attribution unknown).
That the US has gifted that equipment to the Israeli, not in dispute.
DeleteThe French and British thought they had a great aircraft carrier in Israel, too.
Utilized as such in 1956, it FAILED.
Lost due to the threat posed by real air craft carriers.
DeleteNot saying that this is a great idea, but it Is the absolute truth:
" Israel is the largest aircraft carrier in the American fleet (attribution unknown)."
It is an obsolete carrier.
DeleteIt is as useful at a dreadnought at Jutland.
DeleteRe: It is an obsolete carrier
Delete...Right...
As I implied, I don't necessarily think it was a "great" plan in its inception (and, at present, it's looking like a downright dumb idea.) :)
DeleteThe French and Brits bugged out of the Suez crisis because President Eisenhower threatened a run on their currencies.
DeleteThere was never a US threat to make war on France and Britain because of Suez. Where do you come up with these ideas? Aircraft carriers had nothing to do with it. Precarious European currencies did. Good Grief!
Delete.
DeleteYour concern it the 3 billion? then cut it...
Til then you pour more down the drain in Egypt and Palestine
Israel would scream bloody murder if aid to Egypt gets cut. As I recall, they already have.
.
Quirk,
DeleteWhile little publicized, Israel and Egypt have been running joint operations around Gaza and the Sinai. Both countries have a mutual interest in preventing the spread of terrorism at the border. It is my understanding that Israel did go to bat for Egypt, begging for no reduction in American military aid. I believe Egypt will get the aid, but under the table. We could not have Mr. Obama going back on a promise.
Re: It is an obsolete carrier
Delete...Right...
In every war the US has engaged with in the ME, Israel has been a strategic liability. In Gulf War One, the US Air Force spent 25% of their sorties defending the Dreadnought. The Iron Dome is another example. of US assets having to protect an asset that isn’t.
Smarter than allen Wed Nov 06, 09:59:00 AM EST Hmm..
DeleteThis doesn't seem to be your day.
Provide a single shred of EVIDENCE that the US ever so much as imagined using aircraft carriers against our NATO partners, France and England. Good luck.
Of course, you won't try because you know nothing of the sort exists. You just made that idiotic comment up.
And, no, the US has NOT GIFTED its military hardware to Israel - another prevarication (a knowing misstatement of fact; I must admit, you may actually belief this bilge)..
WiO wrote: Why? Why the silence?
ReplyDelete...for the same reason you don't cheer for the other baseball team...
Both non-Christians and non-Protestant Christians lack traditions of Judeophilia comparable to that of most Protestants, whose Abrahamic, Scripturalist focus makes them more familiar with the Hebrew Bible and more sympathetic with the rhythms and lessons of Jewish history. The percentage of Americans who identify as Protestants fell from 53 percent in 2007 to 48 percent in 2012; sometime during those years the majority of Americans ceased being Protestant for the first time since the birth of the Republic. Given immigration statistics and birthrates, that trend will not only not be reversed, it will accelerate.
Deletehttp://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/151158/broken-triangle?all=1
You just don't appreciate a "good" play.
DeleteReal fans of baseball, they cheer for the game, not for the team.
Panama Ed said,
DeleteReal fans of baseball, they cheer for the game, not for the team.
...Right...on which planet...
Earth.
DeleteYou jest!
DeleteWiO: ...but this blog is committed to the delegitimization of Israel...
ReplyDeleteActually, it's committed to debunking you.
so says the fake lesbian catholic.
DeleteBy the way Israel is so good, the arabs refuse to leave...
DeleteWrong perspective, there above ...
DeleteBy the way Palestine is so good, the jews refuse to leave...
Is a much more ...shall we say ..
... Accurate a description of the situation.
In the Gaza Strip, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said any deal reached by Abbas, a rival of the Islamist group, "would not be binding on our people".
ReplyDeletehttp://news.yahoo.com/netanyahu-paints-grim-picture-peace-talks-kerry-092820472.html
You just know this has to work out well. If only Israel had not impetuously driven Fatah out of Gaza, it would be all good.
If Israel had returned it, in 1967, to the Egyptians, not tried to "Settle" there, it could have gone "better".
DeleteWell, End the Occupation, when you lose wars you have to pay the piper. There is not a Jew in Gaza today. Yet, the Arabs keep building tunnels into Israel and Egypt. So highly do the Egyptians think of the Palestinians that they are building a wall, like the one in Israel, to keep the Palestinians out.
DeleteYou seem to be surprised to hear that there are still problems of 1948 to be solved, the most important component of which is the right to return of Palestinian refugees.
DeleteThe Palestinian-Israeli conflict is not just an issue of military occupation and Israel is not a country that was established “normally” and happened to occupy another country in 1967.
Palestinians are not struggling for a “state” but for freedom, liberation and equality, just like we were struggling for freedom in South Africa.
Gaza is part of Israel, the Egyptian wall that is under construction illustrates that point, nicely.
DeleteThe walls the Israeli have built to segregate Gaza, to create a ghetto, well, just goes to show, further illustrate ...
The state of Israel controls the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, ruling over eight million rights-bearing citizens (75% of whom are Jews) and four million Palestinian subjects denied civil and political rights.
We are inching ever closer to agreement.
Stay the Course, allen, Stay the Course!
You'll get here soon enough.
Egypt occupied Gaza from 1949-1967, when they gladly washed their hands of the Palestinians. Consider:
Delete"The influx of over 200,000 refugees into Gaza during the 1948 war resulted in a dramatic decrease in the standard of living. Because the Egyptian government restricted movement to and from the Gaza Strip, its inhabitants could not look elsewhere for gainful employment. In 1955, one observer (a member of the United Nations Secretariat) noted that "For all practical purposes it would be true to say that for the last six years in Gaza over 300,000 poverty stricken people have been physically confined to an area the size of a large city park."
Re: Gaza is part of Israel
DeleteSay what? Where have you been for the past eight years? Gaza has seceded from the PA and is now run by terrorists. It most certainly not part of Israel. Jews set foot in Gaza only when necessary to keep these terrorists from harming Jews.
The bottom line is that Hamas will not allow a peace treaty. From the looks of things, they are also not likely to return Gaza to its elected government. If there is a problem with Gaza, take it up with Hamas.
Delete.
DeleteThe bottom line is that Hamas will not allow a peace treaty.
:)
There has been no chance for a peace treaty since the late 80's (if there ever was one). All that remains is the gradual absorption of the West Bank into Israel and the final status of the Palestinians that live there.
.
There has been no chance for a peace treaty, period. A cease fire, yes. The koran allows that. But the goal remains the same.
DeleteGenocide of the Jews.
"Hey, there's one behind that tree over there!"
from The Glorious Koran, but the translation may be a little sloppy.
Quirk wrote, "There has been no chance for a peace treaty since the late 80's"
DeleteWhy do you think the late 80's was pivotal?
.
DeleteI offered my opinion. I didn't say the late 80's were pivotal (as indicated by my comment, '...if there ever was one.')
I merely stated that in my opinion it was obvious starting around from the late 80's that there would be no two-state solution to the Palestinian issue. Subsequent events such as the Oslo Accords merely confirmed and solidified that opinion. The current 'peace talks' are merely another cynical delaying process leading ultimately to the absorption of the West Bank by Israel. While that absorption is already de facto eventually it will be obvious to even the most benighted.
.
Re: I offered an opinion.
DeleteThanks...just curious if something in particular had caught your attention...
Re: Palestinians are not struggling for a “state” but for freedom, liberation and equality, just like we were struggling for freedom in South Africa.
DeleteYes, of course! The PA is world renowned for liberty, freedom, and justice for all.
.
DeleteThanks...just curious if something in particular had caught your attention...
Back in the late 80's, I was much too busy trying to recover from a 20 year span of debauched living that started in the late 60's to worry about any of the dicks in the ME. And it wasn't until I came to this blog that, out of self-defense, I started paying attention to the shit going on there. Now, it's difficult to ignore what is going on there.
I only mentioned the late 80's because that was the beginning of George H. W. Bush/Yitzhak Shamir interaction on the Palestinian issue and the events that led to the Oslo Accords. And it was the Oslo Accords that cemented my opinions on the ultimate fate of the West Bank.
.
Good Lord, how aliases is Whacky using these days? Duh, it almost makes one think one is reading many opinions instead of one.
ReplyDeleteHe certainly works hard at it, I will say that.
He has his 'comments' all written up, then 'spins the wheel' to see which of his names he should use in the post.
The boy is bat shit crazy, just like Quirk maintained, after a thorough analysis.
The Moscow City Council is now electorally cleansed of The One World Cafe Folk, and the Mayor's Office is back in responsible hands!!!
ReplyDeleteNancy 'Pelosi of the Palouse' Chaney is set loose, sent packing.
Yippeeyippo
Hohoho
Happy Days
Are Here Again!
Did you folks know that Pullman, Washington is ranked the 10th most intelligent place in the USA?
ReplyDeleteNo, you didn't.
Moscow lags a little behind Pullman, but is quite high itself.
Phoenix, Arizona is way way down the chart.
Detroit, excluding an enclave known as Quirkville, which is quite high......Detroit was put in a "special category" of "emergency remedial work required".....and not given a ranking.
DeleteHere's a guy that claims he was treated like an asshole -
ReplyDeleteMan Claims He Was Anally Probed 8 Times Following Traffic Stop For Drugs
November 6, 2013 7:13 AM
Share on email 172
View CommentsFile photo of a courtroom. (credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
File photo of a courtroom. (credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
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News
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anal probe, David Eckert, Deming Police Department, Gila Regional Medical Center, Shannon Kennedy
DEMING, N.M. (CBS Las Vegas) — A New Mexico man claims he was anally probed several times by police and medical officials following a traffic stop.
The victim, David Eckert, claims in a federal lawsuit that officers from the Deming Police Department pulled him over after he failed to make a complete stop at a stop sign outside a Walmart this past January.
When Eckert got out of his car, officers indicated that they believed he was in possession of drugs – in his anal cavity.
“They say when he stepped out of his car he was standing in a manner that looked as if he was clinching his buttocks,” Shannon Kennedy, Eckert’s attorney, told KOB-TV.
A judge granted a search warrant to perform an anal cavity search on Eckert shortly after he was taken into custody. KOB reports that a doctor refused to perform the anal cavity search at a Deming emergency room, saying it was “unethical.” Eckert was then transported to Gila Regional Medical Center, where his alleged trauma began.
According to the lawsuit and medical records, Eckert’s abdominal area was x-rayed twice, doctors stuck fingers in his anus twice, he had three enemas inserted anally and had a colonoscopy performed. No drugs were ever found during the search.
“This is like something out of a science fiction film,” Kennedy told KOB. “Anal probing by government officials and public employees?”
Eckert did not consent to any of the searches.
Kennedy said her client has been “absolutely terrified” since the January incident.
“I mean it’s absolutely unimaginable that this could happen in America,” Kennedy told KOB.
Deming Police Chief Brandan Gigante told KOB that his department follows the law.
“We follow the law in every aspect and follow procedures and protocols we have in place,” Gigante said.
Eckert is suing the City of Deming, the Deming Police Department, the Gila Regional Medical Center and deputies from the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Department.
.........
And he didn't even claim he was a professional asshole.
Democrats! -
ReplyDeleteimage
Dear RedState Reader,
There is some breaking news in Texas I wanted to make sure got on your radar quickly.
The Democrats intent on taking back Texas were so desperate for a hero, they turned to pink clad Wendy Davis with, as Vogue described her, “Barbie-doll looks”. They might live to regret that.
Back in 1996, Wendy Davis lost an election for the Fort Worth, TX City Council. After the election, she sued the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the local newspaper, for defamation. In short, Davis did not like being criticized by the media (something she won’t have to worry about this go round), so she sued for those criticisms claiming they defamed her.
The Texas Court of Appeals and then the Texas Supreme Court both threw out her case. But it is worth noting that Davis, in making her case, claimed that the nasty newspaper, by virtue of criticizing her, damaged her “mental health.”
More worrisome regarding her mental stability, Davis sued the newspaper months after losing her city council and claimed that she “ha[d] suffered and [was] continuing to suffer damages to her mental health.”
Think about that. The best candidate the Texas Democrats could find to run is a lady who admits in open court that a newspaper editorial caused her mental health to be damaged.
You can see Wendy Davis’s lawsuit, responses to it, and court orders here.
Sincerely yours,
Erick Erickson
Editor-in-Chief, RedState
Will Whacky be filing against the Libertarian and the majority of its commentators one of these days?
Delete“It's all you think about, all you talk about,
Deleteand all you want us to talk about.
What in the world would we call something like that?
Oh, yeah!
An obsession!”
The President may have laid it on a little thick again.
ReplyDeleteThe US wants to modernize nuclear bombs stationed in Europe in a way many experts call the equivalent of creating a new weapon. Critics believe the move violates pledges by President Obama he would not develop new nukes.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/us-modernizing-its-nuclear-arsenal-despite-criticism-over-weapons-a-932188.html
Now I have two items for which to praise the President - he also took the wolves off the endangered species act.
ReplyDelete.
DeleteWhich is worse?
Administration riddled with scandals or taking the wolves off the endangered species list so that Idaho jackholes can poison them?
Hmmmn, it's a toughy.
.
Increasing number of hospitals treating 'internet addiction'.....drudge
ReplyDelete:(
Internet addiction at least keeps people off the streets, probably saves fuel use, must be other advantages too.....
The first recorded deed in history was that given to Abraham for the purchase of land for the cemetery at Macpelah
ReplyDeleteIn later years, history records that Paul Bunyan received a deed for some pasture land for Babe the Blue Ox.
Kal-El, or Superman, received a deed for the land in Canada where he built his Fortress of Solitude.
All this goes to show that the County Recorder's Office came late to the mind of mankind.
DeleteIf there is no truth to the torah?
Deletethen there is no truth to any of christian or moslem claims as well.
Then it's all a matter of who holds the property.
then the arabs? own 899/900th of the middle east and the non-historical folks who call themselves Jews? own their 1/900th.
Don't like it? Try to take and and please when the Jews kick your ass again don't bitch.
1/900th against the 899/900th and the 1/900th wins... again.
DeleteNo, the torah is not a factual document.
It is a collection of transcribed Sumerian myths
Then I suggest you not read it, follow it. Since it was not, nor has it ever been for you it really should not concern you as to who wrote it, whether it is factual, myth, metaphor or everything in between and which parts are which.
DeleteQuite frankly? It's none of your fucking business.... :)
You asked the question.
DeleteYou got an answer, an accurate answer.
My business is none of your concern.
But, knock yourself out.
Whine, bitch, moan.
It' all good
;-)
What is a Semite? wrote: No, the torah is not a factual document.
DeleteIt is a collection of transcribed Sumerian myths
Where are the originals, if you please?
“One would go mad if one took the Bible seriously; but to take it seriously one must be already mad.”
DeleteThe Sumerians developed a form of writing called cuneiform around 3000 BC
DeleteThis script began as pictographic writing but eventually developed into a "purely phonetic system of writing in which each sign stood for one or more syllables" (Wolkstein and Kramer 125).
This writing is called cuneiform because it consists of wedge-shaped marks which were inscribed into wet clay tablets with a reed stylus.
The tablets were then baked, thus preserving a brittle and heavy, but rather permanent record of a very old civilization.
For more on the Sumerians, read S. N. Kramer's "Sumerian History, Culture, and Literature" (Wolkstein and Kramer 115-126).
Sounds a lot like "The Garden of Eden"...
DeleteThe myth begins with a description of the island of Dilmun (probably modern Bahrain), a pure and clean place, a "land of the living," which knows no sickness, death or strife:
In Dilmun the raven uttered no cries,
The kite uttered not the cry of the kite,
The lion killed not,
The wolf snatched not the lamb,
Unknown was the kid-killing dog . . . (Kramer, Sumerian Mythology 55)
Compare / contrast this story of water and fertility with the story of Adam and Eve.
DeleteIn what ways is Eve like / unlike the mother goddess?
Compare / contrast Enki's eating of the plants with the eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge.
The Sumerian Flood Story
DeleteThe Sumerian flood story comes down to us in a single fragmentary tablet, which was not published until 1914. The poem begins with the mother goddess Nintur ("Lady birth-house" or "Lady womb") recalling that her creatures, mankind, have no place in the world and are apparently wandering around:
Enki speaks to the flood-hero Ziusudra through a wall, perhaps to avoid breaking an oath not to tell the people what the gods planned. He tells Ziusudra that the gods have commanded that "a flood will sweep over the cult centers; / To destroy the seed of mankind" (Kramer, History Begins 153). No doubt the text continues with Enki's advice on how to build a boat and fill it with living creatures, but here another gap ensues. After the gap comes a description of the flood itself:
All the windstorms, exceedingly powerful, attacked as one,
At the same time, the flood sweeps over the cult centers. (History Begins 153)
After seven days and nights, the sun god Utu comes out and shines his light on the heaven and earth. Ziusudra either drills a hole in the boat or opens a window to let the sun's rays in. Then he kisses the ground before Utu (prostrating himself) and sacrifices sheep and oxen in thanksgiving for his deliverance. After another gap in the text, we find Enki (?) noting that the gods have sworn "by the life's breath of heaven / the life's breath of earth" that Ziusudra is "allied with all of you" (Harps 149). Ziusudra kisses the ground again, this time before An and Enlil, who reward him with "life like a god's . . . lasting breath of life, like a god's" (Harps 150). Then the gods transport Ziusudra, now called preserver of "the seed of mankind," to the land of Dilmun, in the east.
Generic Flood Questions
Delete1. Why do you suppose flood stories are so popular? What events or religious tenets might flood stories explain?
2. Floods may cleanse but they also destroy. Why do you think flood stories often occur shortly after the creation?
3. Why are humans destroyed in each story? Why are the flood heroes picked to survive? What do your answers reveal about each culture's concerns, and its view of the relations between men and gods?
http://faculty.gvsu.edu/websterm/SumerianMyth.htm
DeleteCritics believe the move violates pledges by President Obama he would not develop new nukes.
ReplyDeleteLet me be perfectly clear. If you like your old nukes, you can keep your old nukes.
:)
DeleteUnless your old nukes have.......
Picture of the Day from Hot Air -
ReplyDeletehttp://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2013/11/05/photo-of-the-day-the-biden-mullet/
To me it looks like Biden may have put his on backwards.
Deletehis wig on backwards, like I did my head today
DeleteI'm going to take a pass on Ender's Game. I'm not much interested in Hollywood versions of classic books, ever since Peter Jackson took a book that is much shorter than any of the books in the Lord of the Rings trilogy and stretched it out to what promises to be a trilogy in it's own right. The Will Smith "I, Robot" has almost nothing to do with Asimov's stories. If Hollywood brought the notoriously talky Foundation Trilogy to the screen it would have nine films, be crammed with CGI fleets slamming into one another, the Mule would be more physically intimidating than Sauron and Arcadia Darrell would have bigger tits and ass than Beyonce.
ReplyDeleteThankfully - I think _ I don't have a clue what you are talking about except this - "Arcadia Darrell would have bigger tits and ass than Beyonce" - sounds intriguing.
Delete.
DeleteOne only has to mention Dune the movie.
.
"Purple Peckers Of The Pockmarked Prairies" is, has been, and always will be my favorite movie no matter what comes out.
ReplyDeleteThe recipe for perpetual ignorance is: Be satisfied with your opinions and content with your knowledge.
DeleteYou are subscribed to USDA Office of Communications.
ReplyDeleteRelease No. 0206.13
Contact:
USDA Office of Communications (202) 720-4623
USDA Invests in Research to Convert Beetle-Killed Trees into Renewable Energy
WASHINGTON, Nov. 6, 2013 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today announced it has awarded nearly $10 million to a consortium of academic, industry and government organizations led by Colorado State University (CSU) and their partners to research using insect-killed trees in the Rockies as a sustainable feedstock for bioenergy. The award, provided under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI), is part of USDA's effort to develop modern solutions for climate challenges in agriculture and natural resource management. AFRI is provided under the Farm Bill, and Secretary Vilsack highlighted the need for passage of a comprehensive, long-term Food, Farm and Jobs Bill to continue groundbreaking agricultural research across the nation.
"Infestations of pine and spruce bark beetles have impacted over 42 million acres of U.S. forests since 1996, and a changing climate threatens to expand the threat from bark beetle on our forest lands," said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. "As we take steps to fight the bark beetle, this innovative research will help take the biomass that results from bark beetle infestation and create clean, renewable energy that holds potential for job creation and promises a cleaner future for America. This is yet another reminder of the critical investments provided by the Farm Bill for agricultural research, and I urge Congress to achieve passage of a new, long term Food, Farm and Jobs Bill as soon as possible."
Vilsack noted that the funding for this research is provided by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) – a 2008 Farm Bill program – and reiterated the critical need for passage of a new Food, Farm and Jobs Bill that adequately invests in groundbreaking agricultural research.
DeleteThere are many benefits to using beetle-killed wood for renewable fuel production. It requires no cultivation, circumvents food-versus-fuel concerns and likely has a highly favorable carbon balance. However, there are some challenges that have been a barrier to its widespread use. The wood is typically located far from urban industrial centers, often in relatively inaccessible areas with challenging topography, which increases harvest and transportation costs. In addition to technical barriers, environmental impacts, social issues and local policy constraints to using beetle-killed wood and other forest residues remain largely unexplored.
CSU researchers, together with other scientists from universities, government and private industry in the region, created the Bioenergy Alliance Network of the Rockies (BANR) to address these challenges. The project will undertake comprehensive economic, environmental and social/policy assessment, and integrate research results into a web-based, user-friendly decision support system. CSU will collaborate with partners across four states to complete the project. Partners include: University of Idaho, University of Montana, Montana State University and the University of Wyoming, U.S. Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station, National Renewable Energy Lab and Cool Planet Energy Systems. More information is available on the project website at banr.colostate.edu.
DeleteSpecifically, the team will explore recent advances in scalable thermochemical conversion technologies, which enable the production of advanced liquid biofuel and co-products on-site. The project is working with Cool Planet Energy Systems, which is based out of Greenwood Village, Colorado. The company's prototype pyrolysis system can be tailored to the amount of feedstock available and thus can be deployed in close proximity to stands of beetle-killed timber. This localized production leads to significantly lower costs related to wood harvest and transportation. Their distributed scalable biorefinery approach is a key element in making the use of insect-damaged trees as feedstock plausible.
As a NIFA Coordinated Agricultural Project (CAP), this grant brings together teams of researchers that represent various geographic areas to support discovery, applications and promote communication leading to innovative, science-based solutions to critical and emerging national priorities and needs. This year's awards broaden NIFA's CAP bioenergy portfolio, which includes six projects awarded since 2010 focusing on woody biomass, switchgrass and perennial grasses, energy cane and sorghum.
NIFA made the awards through The AFRI Sustainable Bioenergy challenge area, which targets the development of regional systems for the sustainable production of bioenergy and biobased products that contribute significantly to reducing dependence on foreign oil; have net positive social, environmental, and rural economic impacts; and are compatible with existing agricultural and forest production systems. All grants are awarded over a period of five years, with continued funding contingent on annual project success.
AFRI is NIFA's flagship competitive grant program and was established under the 2008 Farm Bill. AFRI supports work in six priority areas: 1) plant health and production and plant products; 2) animal health and production and animal products; 3) food safety, nutrition and health; 4) renewable energy, natural resources and environment; 5) agriculture systems and technology; and 6) agriculture economics and rural communities.
Through federal funding and leadership for research, education and extension programs, NIFA focuses on investing in science and solving critical issues impacting people's daily lives and the nation's future. More information is available at: www.nifa.usda.gov.
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What might an ambitious fellow, full of himself do with his own Schutzstaffel, Protective Echelon or the leader's private body guard?
ReplyDelete"In the days surrounding Nov. 9, 1938, the Nazis committed the worst pogrom Germany had seen since the Middle Ages. To mark the incident's 75th anniversary, an exhibition in Berlin gathers previously unknown reports by foreign diplomats, revealing how the shocking events prompted little more than hollow condemnation"
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/berlin-exhibit-gathers-1938-diplomatic-accounts-of-nazi-kristallnacht-a-931733.html.
Rich industrialists (Soros) paid for the help initially.
DeleteNo, it was not George Soros.
DeleteIt was Fritz Thyssen, with the assistance of Prescott Bush and Averill Harriman.
The bank was set up by Harriman and Bush's father-in-law to provide a US bank for the Thyssens, Germany's most powerful industrial family.
August Thyssen, the founder of the dynasty had been a major contributor to Germany's first world war effort and in the 1920s, he and his sons Fritz and Heinrich established a network of overseas banks and companies so their assets and money could be whisked offshore if threatened again.
By the time Fritz Thyssen inherited the business empire in 1926, Germany's economic recovery was faltering. After hearing Adolf Hitler speak, Thyssen became mesmerised by the young firebrand. He joined the Nazi party in December 1931 and admits backing Hitler in his autobiography, I Paid Hitler, when the National Socialists were still a radical fringe party. He stepped in several times to bail out the struggling party: in 1928 Thyssen had bought the Barlow Palace on Briennerstrasse, in Munich, which Hitler converted into the Brown House, the headquarters of the Nazi party. The money came from another Thyssen overseas institution, the Bank voor Handel en Scheepvarrt in Rotterdam.
By the late 1930s, Brown Brothers Harriman, which claimed to be the world's largest private investment bank, and UBC had bought and shipped millions of dollars of gold, fuel, steel, coal and US treasury bonds to Germany, both feeding and financing Hitler's build-up to war.
Between 1931 and 1933 UBC bought more than $8m worth of gold, of which $3m was shipped abroad. According to documents seen by the Guardian, after UBC was set up it transferred $2m to BBH accounts and between 1924 and 1940 the assets of UBC hovered around $3m, dropping to $1m only on a few occasions.
In 1941, Thyssen fled Germany after falling out with Hitler but he was captured in France and detained for the remainder of the war.
There was nothing illegal in doing business with the Thyssens throughout the 1930s and many of America's best-known business names invested heavily in the German economic recovery. However, everything changed after Germany invaded Poland in 1939. Even then it could be argued that BBH was within its rights continuing business relations with the Thyssens until the end of 1941 as the US was still technically neutral until the attack on Pearl Harbor.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar
It was simply a metaphort. Soros just worked for the NAZIs as a teenager.
DeleteI'll be more careful next time, so you can keep up - NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND :-D))
Facts are so much more convenient and accurate than libelous and misleading metaphors.
DeletePuts the responsibility where it actually lays.
Reveals the "bloodlines" of those that would finance coup attempts and the like.
The fact is there is ample evidence that many Jews collaborated with the NAZI.
DeleteMore proof of Jewish collaboration in the mass murders perpetrated by the NAZI than there are of your allegations against the Palestinian Grand Mufti, Mohammad Amin Al-Husayni.
Research just a tad, and the truth becomes clear.
Thousands of Jews assisted the NAZI in their despicable actions in Europe during WWII.
No charges were brought against the Grand Mufti Mohammad Amin Al-Husayni, after an extensive investigation by the Allies, in preparation for the Nuremberg Trials.
Such a fine feisty fellow and a fan of f sounds might form his own Posse Comitatus declare himself friend of the Constitution and fire up his fuckin' fascist friends and have a full blown felony field day.
ReplyDeleteMy Goodness, that Christy guy is a lard ass, and didn't he just have liposuction?
ReplyDeleteout
He's had lap band surgery too.
DeleteAn appetite is a terrible thing to waist.
...er, waste.
Deuce, Wed Nov 06, 04:56:00 AM EST:
ReplyDelete"There are over 70 federal agencies with armed units. The DHS earlier this year bought 1.6 billion rounds of ammo for these units stating it was for target practice."
And?
...nobody said they wouldn't use civilians as targets.
Farmer in Vermont is sitting in the car with his wife, and his wife, sitting by the window, says:
ReplyDelete"You know 40 years ago when we were in the car, you'd be driving with one arm, and your other arm would be around me."
Farmer looks at her and says:
"I ain't moved!"
A guy walks into a bar with his pet monkey. He orders a drink and while he's drinking it the monkey is running wild. The monkey jumps up on the pool table and grabs the cue ball, sticks it in his mouth and swallows it whole. The bartender is livid and says to the guy, "Did you see what your monkey just did?" "No. What did that stupid monkey do this time?" says the patron. "Well, he just swallowed the cue ball off the pool table, whole" says the bartender. "Yeah, well I hope it kills him because he's been driving me nuts," says the patron. The guy finishes his drink and leaves.
ReplyDeleteTwo weeks later he comes back with the monkey. He orders a drink and the monkey starts running wild around the bar again. While the man is drinking his drink, the monkey finds some peanuts on the bar. He grabs one, sticks it up his butt, then pulls it out and eats it. The bartender is disgusted. "Did you see what your monkey did now?" he asks. "What now?" responds the patron. "Well, he stuck a peanut up his butt, then pulled it out and ate it" says the bartender. "Well, what do you expect?" replied the patron. "Ever since he ate that darn cue ball he measures everything first!"
When you criticize your wife's choices don't forget she chose YOU.
ReplyDeleteAsked whether Wednesday's bombing and last week's Tiananmen Square attacks were signs of social unrest ahead the coming party conclave, China Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hong Lei said police were investigating the bombing and had already identified last week's attackers.
ReplyDeleteHe added, "The Chinese Communist Party is going to hold an important meeting soon. It is of great significance to the deepening of reform and China's opening up.
We wish this conference full success."
On this day in 2001, Michael Bloomberg was elected mayor of New York City. Late Tuesday, Democrat Bill de Blasio was elected to replace Mr. Bloomberg.
ReplyDeleteGOP Spent 3 Million in VA last time for Govs Race.
ReplyDelete1 Million this time for Cuccinelli.
The Chamber of Commerce spent 1 Million last time, ZERO for Cuccinelli.
GOP and Chamber are allergic to Tea, we can conclude.
Well now Christie is their Golden Boy, like Romney and McCain before him.
Delete"Let them threaten us with a third intifada – we cannot give up our rights to Muslim intolerance."
ReplyDeleteTensions continue to escalate over prayer rights at Temple Mount
http://www.jpost.com/National-News/Tensions-continue-to-escalate-over-prayer-rights-at-Temple-Mount-330826
I prefer the Christian idea where you just talk to the Creator anywhere, maybe in the car during the commute, hopefully not taking the Name in vain.
ReplyDeleteThe "Creator" being Jesus Christ?
DeleteYeshua said he got all his ideas from his Father, Yahweh.
DeleteMy Baptist friends tell me they are one and the same.
DeleteNo, the torah is not a factual document.
ReplyDeleteIt is a collection of transcribed Sumerian myths
You don't believe a wind can evaporate away 1.1 billion cubic miles of water in just a few months? Tsk tsk.
49-State Analysis: Obamacare To Increase Individual-Market Premiums By Average Of 41%
ReplyDeletehttp://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2013/11/04/49-state-analysis-obamacare-to-increase-individual-market-premiums-by-avg-of-41-subsidies-flow-to-elderly/
According to the report, Georgia can expect a 92% increase in premiums.
King Tut DNA 99.6% Western European
ReplyDeleteKing Tut was white, Joe Smith was right.
Ms T,
DeleteEver heard of Joseph Campbell, THE POWER OF MYTH et al? Apparently not given your belief that the Torah is a bunch of Sumerian stories. Well, Ms. T, Campbell is considered the world's foremost authority on mythologies, being the recipient of a score of PhD's for his 60 years of research and publishing (I know, nothing to compare to your nuggets of wisdom, but listen for another minute). Dr. Campbell, when asked by Bill Moyers, on one of the most watched PBS series of all time, if there was to be found any mythology comparable to Judaism, Dr. Campbell said, "No. Judaism is totally unique." (as I recall)
Carry on with your babbling Dr. Redinger.
Torah is not solely of Sumerian origin. There was the J document from the Southern Kingdom, the Elohist one from up North Sechem way, the Priestly document which includes the synagogue litany everyone knows as Genesis 1 (which was used sort of in the same way the Rosary is prayed before Mass in many parishes), and the Deuteronomist stuff from the time of King Hezekiah's reforms. All of this compiled by Ezra during the Exile. Moshe didn't write it. Certainly not the part where he says "The man Moses was more meek than anyone living on the Earth" or the part where he was buried.
DeleteJoe Campbell is dead, his "Truths" died with him.
Delete'What is "' set that standard.
I find it faulty, how about you?
The "Flood" is not a story unique to the torah, but is that story the essence of Judaism?
DeleteJudaism can be unique, but still plagiarized the Sumerian myths.
Judaism may be unique but that does not validate the claim that the torah is true or even the truth.
Some things in Torah are true, like plants coming before animals, or that in the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of nations made war with Bera king of Sodom, and with Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, and Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela, which is Zoar. But some things in Torah are definitely not true. Jacob didn't increase the numbers of spotted livestock by letting them look at notched sticks during mating season. Nope, nope, nopenopenope.
DeleteOr the torah an original work
DeleteTHE POWER OF MYTH
ReplyDeleteChapter IV Sacrifice and Bliss
MOYERS: Is the idea "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" purely a Hebraic idea?
CAMPBELL: I've not found it anywhere else.
MOYERS: Why only one god?
CAMPBELL: This I do not understand...
But not the subject we were discussing.
DeleteWe were not discussing the "idea", but the stories.
We were speaking of the origins of the stories in the torah, not a single, particular idea plucked from it.
It would be childish to conflate the two subjects.
DeleteMOYERS: Is the idea "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" purely a Hebraic idea?
DeleteYou see that this is not monotheism but henotheism, the idea that other gods exist (otherwise one could not put them before Yahweh), but Yahweh is king of the hill. True monotheism didn't come along until late, late, maybe 2nd Century BCE.
Campbell said, "This I do not understand", quite a humble confession for a man so highly regarded.
DeleteWe need not see such humility here, to be sure.
Yes, Campbell is dead. So is Newton, but his calculus is still used everyday, the world over. Marx is dead; nevertheless, his pseudo-Hegelian system of history lives on.
Jews have never taken the Torah as literal truth; that was a Christian fixation for which Jews were severely punished. Jews take the messages conveyed as truth. Adam and Eve, for example, are not the names of two real people (and Eve is not Eve in the Torah). What message(s) are conveyed: among others, 1) there is "A" G-d and G-d is not transcendent and oblivious to is creation, 2) human beings have free will, 3) behaviors have consequences, even if G-d's love is unconditional, etc etc etc.
It is my belief that "THE" truth of the physical universe (not metaphysical) is set with G-d saying, "Light be". As Einstein's work was to initiate, everything in the universe is a play on light. Matter itself is light. No other mythology ever came close to grasping this scientific truth. How it came to be that some prehistoric "philosopher" came to convey in a simple sentence the reality of the make up of the universe shall remain a mystery, but an intriguing one.
Since time without beginning, Jews have prayed at least twice a day the Shema. The Shema makes a simple statement of philosophical and numerical fact: "Here O Israel! The LORD our G-d, the LORD is ONE." This monotheistic affirmation is made, if possible as the last words of a dying Jew.
DeleteYou and an entire world may encumber yourselves with mumbo-jumbo. We have not been confused these thousands of years. There is ONE G-d. Period. As Joshua said succinctly, "As for me and my house, we shall worship THE LORD."
Then the Standard set by 'What is "" is a false one, in your opinion.
DeleteGood we agree on that.
Again the rest of your post, while enlightening, does not address the issue we were discussing.
The origin of the stories, not the physical truths you seek through metaphors.
As noted above in the thread, metaphors do not convey an accurate reality, but provide for an opportunity to view reality from a skewed perspective, one easily misinterpreted.
This is my precinct.
ReplyDeleteDES MOINES, Washington — A candidate who died in August won election Tuesday to a water district commission in Des Moines with 71 percent of the vote.
King County election results show 318 votes for John Rosentangle and 129 votes for write-in candidates.
Virginia G.O.P. Asks Why It Lost to Rival Deemed Weak
ReplyDelete... for the party’s moderate wing, the loss of what it considered a winnable race was a lesson in how a candidate known mainly for promoting conservative social policies could not appeal in a state whose population was increasingly diverse.
“McAuliffe was probably the weakest Democratic nominee in a generation,” said Tom Davis, a former Republican congressman from northern Virginia, noting that the Democrat had never held elective office and had an often controversial business career. “You have to ask yourself, maybe we did something wrong.”
To him, the “something wrong” was nominating a candidate whose calling card was a social conservatism that pushed away mainstream business-oriented Republicans.
Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, a Republican who pointedly withheld his endorsement from Mr. Cuccinelli, said the party needed to do better at reaching out to a more diverse and moderate population.
“Virginia is changing,” Mr. Bolling said. “Clearly an issue that hurt us very badly was the issue of abortion. We are a pro-life party, but if we’re going to be the party of fetal ultrasounds, we’re going to have a problem.” He was referring to measures the party promoted in the General Assembly that failed, and that abortion-rights groups seized on in the campaign.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/07/us/politics/virginia-gop-asks-why-it-lost-to-rival-deemed-weak.html?_r=0