Leftist wants someone to loathe

Australian Leftist columnist Phillip Adams often writes in a rather ironic way but the article by him excerpted below does seem to be a clear confession of the hate that drives him -- as it does with so many Leftists. That they hail the slightest negativity emanating from conservatvies as "hate" shows how urgent is their need to project their own failings onto others. Adams is commenting on the likely defeat of Australia's conservative government at the next election -- due later this year. Adams is a millionaire so his hate is not born of "poverty". And, yes, that poster he has on his library wall is who you think it is



For God’s sake don’t tell Christopher Hitchens or Richard Dawkins, but despite a lifetime’s atheism I have, over the past decade, been driven to prayer. My increasingly desperate appeals have been addressed to Jehovah, Yahweh, Allah, Thor, Ra, Vulcan and sundry totems, jujus, graven images and idols - entreating one or more of them to end the Howard Government....

But nothing happened. To be perfectly frank the disappointing lack of response considerably added to my religious scepticism. But now, suddenly, the gods are acting! The various almighties are finally showing him the door! And I’m suddenly getting a bit worried. How will I get on without him? .... Just as Mum needed Kennett to give meaning to her existence, I may well be sustained by Howard hating. How will I get through the day without the prospect of the six o’clock news when I can, in the family tradition, yell at the screen?

The world faces a similar problem with George W. Bush. The most unpopular president since Harry Truman at his nadir - and as Jimmy Carter rightly says “the worst president in US history” - will soon be banished from the political stage. For nigh on seven years - though it seems almost an eternity - countless millions have loathed the man. He has increased the blood pressure of not only hapless Democrats but also a large majority of my fellow Australians and pretty much the entire population of Europe.... Where will all that hatred go when he’s gone? What will people do with it?

For 11 years John Winston Howard has been my central focus, my obsession, my bogeyman, my nemesis. To be without him might answer those prayers. But as has been wisely said “Beware the answered prayer”!

More here

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

BOB FELLER, AMERICAN HERO

BUMPED

Thanks to a link from Kathryn Lopez, I saw on the Bluey Blog that Bob Feller participated in today's Memorial Day Parade in Washington, D.C.

Bob Feller, the "Heater from Van Meter," was a childhood hero of mine. He was one of the Cleveland Indians' greatest pitchers, a key man in the rotation in 1954, along with greats Early Wynn, Bob Lemon, when the Tribe won 111 games -- 8 more than the Yankees had, in what turned out to be Casey Stengel's winningest year.

But clicking through to the Bob Feller museum's website, where a handy summary sheet of "Rapid Robert's" statistics is displayed, I noticed the following entry:

1942-43-44 In Military Service.

Bob Feller, the greatest pitcher of his time, enlisted in the Navy shortly after Pearl Harbor, and served as a gun crew chief on the U.S.S. Alabama (BB-60), a 35,000 ton South-Dakota-class battleship. While aboard, he earned 5 campaign ribbons and 8 battle stars during patrols that took the Alabama from island to island, all the way to Japan.

Feller's patriotism was not exceptional in his day, but it is no less admirable because of that. A pitcher's career is limited by time, and at the height of his powers, he accepted hazardous combat duty instead. Even though President Roosevelt had offered deferments to all Major League ballplayers.

America is the land of the free, because it is the home of the brave. We will always need men like Bob Feller, on and off the field, during times of peace and times of war.

CHAVEZ MOVES TO "NATIONALIZE" ANOTHER TV STATION

ANOTHER BLOW AGAINST FREE SPEECH. WHY? BECAUSE IT WAS CRITICAL OF HIM AND HIS POLICIES.

I GUESS HE FELT HE HAD TO IN ORDER TO PROTECT THE "REVOLUTION" - SOCIALISTS ALWAYS DO.

THIS IS A REAL ATTACK ON FREE SPEECH. WHY IS THE USA LEFT SILENT?

BECAUSE THEY EXCUSE ANYTHING DONE BY A SOCIALIST.

EXCEPT - AS BLAIR PROVES - IF THEY ALLY THEMSELVES WITH BUSH.

YA KNOW, IF DUBYA HADN'T CUT TAXES HE'D BE REGARDED AS THE BEST L-I-B-E-R-A-L PRESIDENT SINCE LBJ!

HUMAN VACCINE FOR BIRD FLU?

PROMISING NEWS FROM THE BBC.

PREDICTION: PELOSI'S BUDDY ASSAD WILL ONCE AGAIN WIN MORE THAN 97% OF THE "VOTE"

THE PENINSULA (QATAR):

Turnout in Syria’s referendum to endorse a second term in office for President Bashar Al Assad was unprecedented, the nation’s interior minister said before results were announced yesterday.

“The Syrian people spoke out yesterday. Participation in the referendum was enormous, never before seen in the country’s history,” Bassam Abdel Majid said in remarks carried by the press.

He gave no figures but his ministry is due to announce the results of Sunday’s vote at a press conference. Assad, who first took power in 2000 on the death of his father Hafez Al Assad, was standing unchallenged in the referendum, which was boycotted by the opposition and followed a crackdown on political dissidents.

In the last referendum, Assad won 97.29 per cent of the vote, according to official figures.

MORE:

The results of Syria's presidential referendum due to be released on Monday will instead be made public on Tuesday, Syrian interior minister Bassam Abd al-Majid has announced. He gave no reason for the delay in the results of the vote which featured a single candidate, current Syrian president Basher al-Assad. Polls on Sunday opened three hours after they were initially scheduled to do so because of what al-Majd said was "an exhuberant turnout of citizens wanting to cast their ballots".

Voters were called to either vote "yes" or a "no" for al-Assad who was nominated as the sole candidate by the Syrian parliament which is dominated by the ruling Baath Party and its allies.

Opposition groups boycotted the election alleging that it would be rigged in the president's favour.

NOW I KNOW WHY PELOSI ADMIRES ASSAD: SHE WANTS THAT KIND OF "ELECTORAL" VICTORY FOR THE DEMS!

AFTER SHE ENACTS A CHAVEZ-LIKE FAIRNESS DOCTRINE (SEE BELOW) SHE THINKS SHE'LL GET IT, TOO.

SARKOZY MOST POPULAR PREZ SINCE dE GAULLE

65%.

HE'LL NEED THIS GOOD WILL TO GET A WORKABLE MAJORITY IN THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY.

AND FOR WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH: WHEN THE STUDENTS, SLACKERS AND UNIONISTS GO ON STRIKE AND THEN TAKE TO THE STREETS, VIOLENTLY .

(ER UM.... AROUND CHRISTMAS TIME - IF SARLKOZY PLAYS HIS HANDS THE WAY I THINK HE WILL.)

Meanwhile... Royal and the Left sucks up to the Muslims. (The socialist parties of Europe NEED the Muslim vote - see HERE and HERE and HERE. And the Muslims know this. BIRDS OF A FEATHER!)

MARK LEVIN: "CHAVEZ IMPLEMENTS FAIRNESS DOCTRINE"

LEVIN'S A GENIUS. CHAVEZ IS JUST ANOTHER IN A LONG LINE OF LEFTIE TYRANTS.

Lubos Motl Looks At Sun Spots

Lubos sent me an e-mail thanking me for Clouds In Chambers and suggesting I have a look at Sunspots. He shows the correlations between sunspots and global temperatures.

Cross Posted at Power and Control and at Classical Values

IEC Fusion for Dummies

A short video that schematically shows how a Bussard Fusion Reactor works. The video was done by Foger Rox.

A short technical explanation can be found at Bussard Fusion Reactor. A more detailed look with social implications can be found at Easy Low Cost No Radiation Fusion.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

NATIONAL RELIGIOUS LEADERS LAUNCH SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN FOR SDEROT

A solidarity and support project now taking place for Sderot:

Last week, on the eve of Shavuot, a group of National Religious leaders convened a meeting in the bomb shelter of Sderot's hesder yeshiva to launch what they promised would be a nationwide campaign to support the beleaguered townspeople and to reclaim what they described as Israel's lost self-respect.

It appeared to be a last-minute affair in which flyers announcing the meeting were distributed haphazardly in downtown Sderot only an hour or two before the meeting was scheduled to begin. Perhaps as a result, virtually no one from the town showed up.

But some of the key rabbis in the religious Zionist movement were on hand, including former MK Rabbi Hanan Porat, former MK Rabbi Haim Drukman and the former rabbi of Gush Katif, Yigal Kaminetzky.

Although the subject of the meeting was Sderot, the searing memories of the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip were clearly present in the speakers' minds.

Porat, who has established a group called "Raising the Flag for Sderot," charged that by not taking effective measures against the Gaza terrorist groups that were firing Kassams at Sderot and the western Negev communities, the government was "desecrating God."

"It is our job," Porat declared, "to arouse the nation so that this disgrace will not continue. We must lead the nation into standing erect. We should not be afraid of talking about Jewishness and nationalism."

Kaminetzky charged that in its alleged failure to protect Sderot, the government was once again proving that "it has disengaged from the value of joint responsibility. Disengagement from our Jewish roots brings about disengagement from responsibility."

He declared that the terrorist attacks in Sderot and the surrounding communities were not the problem of the residents alone but everyone's problem. Like Porat, the former Gush Katif rabbi declared that it was a desecration of God to allow the terrorists to "shoot at Jews without responding."

They're right, it's everyone's problem, since it could happen in other places just as easily.

MEMORIAL DAY TRIBUTE

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.--Ronald Reagan

THE DEMOCRATS, THE LEFT, THE LINCOLN BRIGADES AND IRAQ

bumped

The penultimate line of the last verse of The Battle Hymn of the Republic - (written by Howe, pictured at left) - is:

" let us die to make men free, ...

- this is a noble cause, one history proves our armed forces have long been devoted too.

The men and women of the US armed forces have died to make men free in war after war, time after time - for centuries, securing our liberty and those of millions and MILLIONS of people all over the world.

We pay our respects to them all on this National Holiday. It is altogether fitting and proper that we do so. In fact, it is the least that we can do.

Our armed forces are once again deployed in war zones defending liberty.

Our troops are currently in Iraq pursuant to a request of the DEMOCRATICALLY elected Parliament of the constitutional government of the Republic of Iraq, AND a UN Security Resolution requiring we provide security as the legally recognized occupying force.



We are fighting factions which don't want that nascent democracy to survive.

If we leave too soon - before the democratic Iraqi government can defend itself, then this nascent democracy will die and be replaced by one or more tyrannical states inimical to the USA and the Free World. They will be allies of Iran and al Qaeda and enemies of democracy and freedom.

That is not in our national interest; it is not in the interest of the Free World, and it makes us and our children and our children's children less safe.

Nevertheless, every single solitary Democrat candidate for the presidency and the entire leadership of the Democrats in Congress are either pushing for a withdrawal of US forces by a date certain or regardless of how well the nascent democracy of Iraq is doing or whether they are in a position to defend themselves.

The utter moral bankruptcy of these positions is proven by the fact that they push HARDEST for withdrawal if Iraq is NOT meeting benchmarks. Well, if they're not meeting benchmarks then that's EXACTLY when they need us most of all. That is not the time dependable, trustworthy allies abandon a fight. But it's EXACTLY what the Democrats want. They have no shame.

The Democrats have staked out this shameless, defeatist position because they are once again the party of the Left, a party run by McGovernites - the doves who think it's okay to end a war by retreating, surrendering.

In the case of Iraq, these Democrats and their Democrat Party are willing to surrender it to Iran and al Qaeda.



There was once a time when people who self-identified themselves as Leftists VOLUNTEERED to fight on foreign soil in defense of a nascent democracy and against fascism.

The time was 1936; the nation was Spain, and those who went had to join the International brigades because FDR kept the USA officially on the sidelines.



[ASIDE: FDR did this and also set up concentration camps for US CITIZENS of Japanese heritage, and yet the Left - TO THIS DAY - idolizes him. GO FIGURE!]

I asked some old-time Lefties, who had friends in the Lincoln Brigades, (the international brigades for US citizens), if they thought FDR was wrong to stay on the sidelines, and if their friends were right and good and noble to go to Spain to fight fascism.

They answered that they felt that FDR was wrong and their friends were right, good and noble.

SO..... then I asked them... why they NOW feel that our continued efforts in Iraq are wrong, bad and ignoble!?

Why do they feel that Bush should put the USA military on the sidelines of this fight and let the ISLAMO-FASCISTS - WHO ARE MUCH WORSE THAN FRANCO EVER WAS - take over Iraq, home of 20% of the world's oil!?!?

I'm still waiting for a good answer.

I'm afraid that the REAL answer is that FDR was a socialist, so whatever else he did which was bad - like staying on the sidelines during Spain's Civil War - is forgiven, even though they think that intervention to stop fascism was right.

Because "Bush cut taxes on the rich" he must therefore be opposed NO MATTER WHAT ELSE HE DOES.


This figures: the Left has ALWAYS excused the crimes of socialists and socialism.

And they have always put socialism ahead of liberty.

This figures too: collectivism is intrinsically opposed to personal liberty.

The ONLY way the West can lose in Iraq - and to islamo-fascists anywhere - is if the Left gets control of the USG.


Iran and Al Qaeda are counting on this. These enemies are dying and killing to make men and women subservient to them and their totalitarian islamo-fascist ideologies.

We must not let them win. To defeat the islamo-fascists we must defeat the Left and the Democrat Party they control.

The stakes are high. In Iraq and the Middle East now, and throughout the world for generations to come.

We have been up to this challenge in the past. We have met this type of challenge in the past and won. We can win again.

We must be willing to die to make others free. And to protect our freedom. As so many members of the US armed forces have - from 1776 on these very shores, too 2007 in Mesopotamia.

I pray there is never a time or a place that the USA will not go the full distance in order to secure our liberty and the liberty of people everywhere who yearn to be free.

We should especially remember this on Memorial Day.

God Bless Our Troops.

The latest from Britain's "National Health"

Private medical treatment saves British woman

Under NHS rules she would have died

Sarah Burnell was 43 when breast cancer was diagnosed in November 2005. Despite having had the all-clear after a mammogram a year earlier, she had developed 11 tumours and had to have a mastectomy and chemotherapy. Because of a family history of breast cancer – her mother had the diagnosis at 51 – she had insisted on annual mammograms from the age of 38. They probably saved her life.

Her mother had been perimenopausal when her diagnosis was made, Ms Burnell, a radiologist, said, so she would not have been screened by the NHS until she was 46. “It was only because of my work as a radiologist that I was able to get screening before this age,” she said. “This meant that I caught the cancer early, before it had a chance to spread to my lymph nodes.”

A colleague at the private Princess Grace Hospital in Central London did the mammogram, and showed Ms Burnell the results. “I only saw the largest tumour. It was only when I went for ultrasound that I found out I had 11 tumours,” she said. “Thankfully, they were all very small.”

Ms Burnell, of Battersea, had a mastectomy, reconstructive surgery and chemotherapy. A year later her aunt, 70, was told that cancer was present in both breasts, indicating an even stronger genetic link.

Ms Burnell’s daughter, Xanthe, 9, is now worried that she will develop the disease and wants to have genetic testing. “Xanthe is concerned, but we are glad at this breakthrough in research,” Ms Burnell said. “We hope it will help her decide when to start screening. If she has the gene, I think she should start being screened at the age of 25. “I would hate her to go through what I went through. It’s been a very tough time.”

Source






NHS dentistry: Splendid British bureaucratic logic at work

They only treat you if you have GOOD teeth! Don't you love it?

DENTISTS on the National Health Service are turning away people with bad teeth because they say they are only paid enough to treat patients with a good dental health record. One surgery admitted that people who have not had a dental appointment for three years will be refused treatment. Others are employing more subtle methods to reject patients.

Dentists' leaders say the NHS dental contract, introduced in April last year, has had a perverse effect because dentists earn the same for giving a patient one filling or 10. The Oakwood Dental Centre in Derby, for instance, says on Derby City Primary Care Trust's website that it "will only accept patients who have visited a dental surgery within the last three years". Aneu Sood, who runs the practice, said it had no time to treat those who "need a tremendous amount of work".

According to dentists' leaders, potentially unprofitable patients are screened out by giving preference to those patients who have recently been dropped by an NHS practice which has gone private. This sort of patient is likely to have had recent and regular treatment and therefore is unlikely to need extensive new surgery. Dentists will also take on the relatives of existing patients with healthy teeth in the expectation that family members will need little treatment as well.

Source

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

Free Trade for Colombia

Excerpt:

The recent deal between Congress and the White House clears the way for the ratification of free-trade agreements with Panama and Peru, two American allies in Latin America. But what about Colombia?

Colombia has risked the lives of its police and military and sustained huge casualties in an effort to do us a favor by keeping drugs off our streets. Our military aid to Colombia has not been frittered away on useless hardware or used to line some general's pockets, but has paid for a military that has disarmed the drug dealers' personal armies - 30,000 have been disarmed - and driven the leftist drug-linked guerillas into hiding in a remote jungle portion of the country. Unable to come out or mount operations in major urban areas, they are just trying to survive, to stay one step ahead of the American helicopters manned by brave Colombian soldiers that pursue them.

I recently visited Medell¡n, Colombia, once the heartland of the Medell¡n Cartel, the main drug ring in the hemisphere. Drug lords have been driven out of the area and there have been no kidnappings, once a staple of Medell¡n life, in the past three years.

But Colombia is entitled to ask a basic question: If you don't want us to sell drugs to your children, why won't you at least let us sell you bananas, sugar, flowers, textiles and other products without imposing tariffs on us? Peru and Panama are both loyal allies, but their soldiers are not conducting daily drug sweeps through the mountains trying to stop drugs before they reach our schools. And Colombia is.

If the Democrats in Congress scuttle the Colombia free-trade deal, they will undermine and undercut Colombia's successful war on drugs. The troops in Colombia who risk their lives daily to smash labs, defoliate cocoa plants, and arrest drug lords will find themselves swimming against the economic tide. If the United States does not reward Colombia by making its exports - other than cocaine - profitable, it will leave the poor of that South American ally no choice but to go back to the drug labs.

More here

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

AH! WHAT A LAUGH! VITAMINS AND WEIGHT LOSS

The American Journal of Epidemiology is usually at the top of my list for amusing absurdities but I think I am going to have to add "Archives of Internal Medicine" to my list of guffaw-provoking reading. One of their latest articles is a real lulu. I will reproduce below first the Abstract and then a media summary. See if you can spot the absurdity:

Calcium Plus Vitamin D Supplementation and the Risk of Postmenopausal Weight Gain

By: Bette Caan et al

Abstract:

Background: Obesity in the United States has increased significantly during the past several decades. The role of calcium in the maintenance of a healthy body weight remains controversial.

Methods: A randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial was performed with 36 282 postmenopausal women, aged 50 to 79 years, who were already enrolled in the dietary modification and/or hormone therapy arms of the Women's Health Initiative clinical trial. Women were randomized at their first or second annual visit to receive a dose of 1000 mg of elemental calcium plus 400 IU of cholecalciferol (vitamin D) or placebo daily. Change in body weight was ascertained annually for an average of 7 years.

Results: Women receiving calcium plus cholecalciferol supplements vs women receiving placebo had a minimal but consistent favorable difference in weight change (mean difference, -0.13 kg; 95% confidence interval, -0.21 to -0.05; P = .001). After 3 years of follow-up, women with daily calcium intakes less than 1200 mg at baseline who were randomized to supplements were 11% less likely to experience small weight gains (1-3 kg) and 11% less likely to gain more moderate amounts of weight (>3 kg) (P for interaction for baseline calcium intake = .008).

Conclusion: Calcium plus cholecalciferol supplementation has a small effect on the prevention of weight gain, which was observed primarily in women who reported inadequate calcium intakes.

A Media summary below:

CALCIUM and vitamin D supplements could help postmenopausal women to control their weight, according to research in the latest issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine . The study included 36,282 women aged 50 to 79 who were randomly assigned to receive either 1000 milligrams of calcium plus 400 international units of vitamin D each day, or an inactive placebo. Participants were weighed each year for approximately seven years. At the end of the study, women who took the supplements weighed an average of 130 grams less than those who did not. The benefits were greatest in women who were not previously getting their recommended daily intake of calcium, with those in the supplement group weighing an average of 190 grams less than those in the placebo group by the end of the study. The authors suggest that calcium and vitamin D may help to break down existing fat cells and prevent the development of new fat.

Dja geddit? Popping all those pills over all those years helped the ladies lose all of one quarter of one pound! Wotta laugh!

A more honest conclusion to the study would have been something like: "Calcium and vitamin D supplements were found to be unimportant to weight control in this study".

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

KHALID SHEIKH MOHAMMED'S SISTER FOUND!

Just in case you haven't seen this yet.

It provides great entertainment for conservatives and probably caused Rosie to trash yet another room.

NEW DEMOCRAT VIDEO EXPLAINS NEW LIBERAL IMMIGRATION POLICY

HEH.

GATHERING OF EAGLES 2

Gathering of Eagles had another event yesterday in the nation's capitol where they joined forces with Rolling Thunder. Rolling Thunder was celebrating their 20th Anniversary.

Here is some testimony from a friend that was there on the "ground" at the event:

The sunshine and heat were a welcome change from the cold of March. The Mall was much quieter today without the loony moonbats who made such a scene this past March. The Mall was decorated in the colors of Red, White and Blue as families and veterans traveled from all over to spend the day at the Mall enjoying the sunshine and remembering who made this day possible. I had the opportunity to talk briefly with some of the participants in this event and expressed my gratitude to those who served or are serving this beautiful country.

I cannot express in mere words my admiration of the quality and commitment of the Americans I met today. All were here to honor our soldiers on this day. Whether we came from big cities or country towns we all shared a common love of country and profound respect for those who serve to protect this nation.

RAPE VICTIMS IN DARFUR DESCRIBE HORROR THEY WENT THROUGH

A new report/interview on the plight of rape victims in Sudan at the hands of the janjaweed militia. Too scary to post any quotes of here, but I want to note that it was startling to learn that one of the victims was named Aisha, the same name as that of the six to nine-year-old girl whom Muhammed took as a concubine in the 7th century.

Respect those who died for their country? Forget it in Gwinnett County, Georgia

Sikhs are allowed to drive buses wearing their turbans in a lot of places but ... No exceptions for the most deserving people of all

A Gwinnett County bus driver wanted to show support for veterans who lost their lives fighting for our country. So today, the last day before Memorial Day, he wore a patriotic hat. Gary Rolley, who's a vet himself, said he was ordered to take the hat off. A supervisor told him it wasn't part of his uniform.

Rolley is proud of the four years he served in the Navy. He is proud to be an American. "I love my country," he said. Rolley said he is paying tribute to all veterans by wearing his American Legion hat, but the he said that didn't' go over well with his bosses at the Gwinnett County Transit Authority. "The supervisor said, 'You are you have uniform; you have to take that hat off.' I explained this was a hat I wear for the holiday."

Rolley said he continued to wear the hat on his bus route. "As we were going down the road, a second supervisor radioed me. He said, 'What do you have on your head?' I said, "Why are you asking me that?" And he said 'Take that hat off now,'" Rolley explained.

Rolley said he turned the bus around and went back to headquarters. "I said 'I'm sorry, I got sick over this. I'm sick to my stomach, and I'm going home sick'," Rolley said. "I turned around and I left." Rolley said patriotic hats have been allowed in the past, and Santa hats are allowed at Christmastime, so he doesn't understand why the rules have changed. "It's just to me a slap in the face to our veterans," Rolley said. He said he wore the hat on Friday because he has the day off on Monday -- Memorial Day. He said he plans to spend Monday honoring American veterans.

Source

Religious Expression gets Extra Protection in Texas

It is rather deplorable that this was needed. One would have hoped that the First Amendment alone would have sufficed:

"Texas students would have greater freedom to express their religious views on school campuses under a bill passed Saturday by the House and sent to Gov. Rick Perry, who has publicly supported the measure.

Under the legislation, religious beliefs expressed in homework, artwork and other assignments would be judged by traditional academic standards. Students couldn't be penalized or rewarded because of the religious content of their work.

Supporters say the bill is needed to protect students from censorship and school districts from lawsuits. But opponents argue it will lead to religious discrimination among students. "We are allowing our young people to express their faith, whatever that faith is," said Rep. Larry Phillips, a Sherman Republican.

At an April news conference, Perry was surrounded by children and parents who said their religious speech was quashed at public school. Supporters of the bill have cited examples of students being prohibited from wishing troops overseas a "Merry Christmas" or told they couldn't distribute religious bracelets at recess.

Source

No doubt the ACLU will be mounting a court challenge the minute the bill is signed.

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

WHAT WILL HAPPEN WHEN THE AGW BUBBLE BURSTS?

QUESTION: WHAT WILL HAPPEN WHEN THE CO2 BUBBLE BURSTS?

Seriously. The UN and the EU are passing all kinds of laws - and passing all kinds or rules, regulations and TAXES - for the sole purpose of getting people, businesses and states to decrease the amount of CO2 they put into the atmosphere.

These laws and taxes have the effect of STEERING capital investment into activities and enterprises whose SOLE UNIQUE purpose is to reduce the size of that activity's CO2 "footprint."

WHAT IF - as I believe the facts show - anthropogenic CO2 turns out NOT TO BE A FACTOR AT ALL, then... won't the monetary value of ALL those investments COLLAPSE?

Yes. That's why anthropogenic global warming - AGW - (or so called "man-made global warming") is NOT just a hoax fomented by the Left to shackle industrialization and globalization; it's a BUBBLE waiting to burst.

And when bubbles burst people get hurt. I think this one will be worse than the Japanese real estate bubble-burst and the Asian Flu and nearly as bad as "Bubba's Bubbles", the so-called "New Economy" Bubble which led to the huge run up of the NASDAQ.

Brace yourself. Proof that AGW is bogus and that ALL the investment in CO2 controls an utter COLOSSAL waste is only a year or so away. And when that hap[pens the BS of AGW will be undeniable. The AGW CO2 Bubble will burst. And a lot of enterprises will go bust, takin g with it a lot of people's "investments" - people who were convince that AGW was real and that therefore investing in alternative energy "a lock".

The companies (HUCKSTERS really) which specialize in trading carbon credits are merely the tip of the iceberg.

The capital investment which many nations - especially in the EU - are making will be a total WIPE OUT, and have to be written off. The nations and companies who are now seen by the AGW crowd as laggards will have a HUGE edge over those companies which WASTED resources on reducing their "carbon footprint."

Some nations are wising up - and rebelling AGAINST the "sky is falling" charade:

IHT:

The Czech Republic said Friday it will sue the European Commission over the cuts it made to how much carbon dioxide the country can release from 2008 to 2012.

Spokesman for the Czech Industry and Trade Ministry, Tomas Bartovsky, said the Czech government agreed to take legal action against the European Union's executive arm at its session Friday.

The European Commission reduced the Czech yearly limit by 14.8 percent below what the Czech Republic asked for — from 102 million metric tons to 86.6 million metric tons of carbon dioxide a year.

The Czech government says the commission underestimated the country's economic growth and wrongly included emissions by households and transport in its calculations.

The government also said the reductions may damage the Czech economy. However, in 2005 and 2006, the Czech Republic produced 82.5 million metric tons and 83.7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide respectively, well below the limit of 97.6 million metric tons.

The Czech Republic is the second EU nation after Slovakia to threaten court action over the emission plan.

AGAIN I ASK: WHAT HAPPENS IF AND WHEN IT'S PROVEN THAT TRACKING THE "METRIC TONS OF CO2" A NATION PUT INTO THE ATMOSPHERE IS MEANINGLESS?

BTW: The Czechs are not alone - the Poles and the Slovaks are with them:

Poland and the Czech Republic said Friday they would appeal an EU decision sharply cutting their carbon dioxide emission quotas for 2008-2012 for industries with high energy consumption. The two former members of the Soviet bloc, now both in the EU, decided to follow their fellow EU member Slovakia, which announced in February it would appeal to the European Court of Justice against the ruling. Slovakia lodged a complaint against a European Commission decision to cut its emissions allocation of carbon dioxide by a quarter between 2008 and 2012.

BIG QUESTION: WHEN THE AGW BUBBLE BURSTS, WILL THE CO2 IT EMITS RAISE GLOBAL TEMPS!?!?

Maybe, but the net effect will be lost fortunes, and not an increase in average global temperatures.