Truth or Progressivism--take your pick

Study: Hot female reporters are distracting

Hey pal, eyes up here. She's trying to tell you about genocide and financial collapse. What's that you say? You missed the headlines again because the anchor babe was confusing your man brain? You're not alone – a much-forwarded study published this week from Indiana University researchers Maria Elizabeth Grabe and Lelia Samson in Communication Research found that the SEXIER A FEMALE NEWS REPORTER IS, THE LESS LIKELY MALE VIEWERS WERE TO REGARD HER AS QUALIFIED FOR WAR AND POLITICAL REPORTING – AND TO REMEMBER WHAT SHE SAID.

Researchers had a 24-year-old woman do a short newscast twice, one time wearing a shapeless outfit, and another dolled up in red lipstick and dressed to accentuate her waist-to-hip ratio. The more alluring the waist-to-hip ratio, the less credible the reporter appeared. But while a sexed up anchor might not make a dent into her male viewers' ears, the Indiana study found women viewers reported no such disconnect. The study also didn't mention whether all its subjects identified as straight, so who knows what results the researchers might have obtained if they'd throw a little Ron Corning into the mix? Who among us has not occasionally spaced out the fact that someone was a litany of bad news because said individual was also wicked hot?

http://www.salon.com/news/media_criticism/index.html?story=/mwt/feature/2011/01/27/men_ignore_hot_news_anchors


Hawaii bill would charge $100 for President Obama's birth records

FOR JUST $100, YOU TOO MIGHT BE ABLE TO OWN A COPY OF PRESIDENT OBAMA'S BIRTH RECORDS.

Democratic lawmakers in Hawaii introduced a bill this week that would allow anybody to obtain Obama's personal documents, an effort aimed to silence so-called “birthers" and CLOSE A PROJECTED $800 MILLION BUDGET DEFICIT OVER THE NEXT TWO YEARS.

The legislation would reverse a privacy law that bars the release birth records to anybody without a tangible interest, like family members.

"IF IT PASSES, IT WILL CALM THE BIRTHERS DOWN," THE BILL'S PRIMARY SPONSOR, REP. RIDA CABANILLA SAID. "All these people are still doubting it because they don't want the birth certificate from Obama. They want it from our state office."

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2011/01/28/2011-01-28_hawaii_bill_would_charge_100_for_president_obamas_birth_records_effort_to_silenc.html

This would answer a lot doubts. I think it’s a good idea, but I doubt it will pass.

What a surprise!

A PROGRAM THAT ALLOWS AIRPORTS TO REPLACE GOVERNMENT SCREENERS WITH PRIVATE SCREENERS IS BEING BROUGHT TO A STANDSTILL, JUST A MONTH AFTER THE TRANSPORTATION SECURITY ADMINISTRATION SAID IT WAS "NEUTRAL" ON THE PROGRAM.


TSA chief John Pistole said Friday he has decided not to expand the program beyond the current 16 airports, saying he does not see any advantage to it.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/TRAVEL/01/29/tsa.private/index.html?hpt=T2

Of course he doesn’t see any advantage to it. It makes TSA look bad. A government monopoly is still just a monopoly only they can simply ban competition.

Democrats Charged in 'Massive' Voter Fraud Case

TWO DEMOCRATIC POLITICIANS IN AN UPSTATE NEW YORK CITY HAVE BEEN CHARGED IN A "MASSIVE" VOTER FRAUD CASE first reported a year ago on Fox News.

A 59-page, 116-COUNT INDICTMENT CHARGES TROY DEMOCRATIC CITY COUNCILMAN MICHAEL LOPORTO AND EDWARD MCDONOUGH, DEMOCRATIC COMMISSIONER OF THE RENSSELAER COUNTY BOARD of Elections, with forgery and criminal possession of a forged instrument. The two men arrive in court in handcuffs on Friday and pleaded not guilty.

SEVEN OTHER PUBLIC OFFICIALS AND POLITICAL OPERATIVES ARE SAID TO BE TARGETS OF THE CONTINUING INVESTIGATION. The Fox News Voter Fraud unit first reported the brazen allegations just over a year ago, with reports that absentee ballots and applications were forged to try to stuff the ballot box and steal an election.

The case involves absentee ballots from the Working Families Party primary in September of 2009 for the Troy City Council and Rensselaer County legislature. It has been alleged the signatures and absentee excuses of unsuspecting voters were forged, all to ensure the Democratic candidates also won the Working Families Party line. Democratic candidates in New York State often run as Working Families Party hopefuls

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Old Rules Won’t Determine GOP Presidential Candidate Our politics have changed.

The weakest part of our political system, by a considerable margin, is the presidential nominating process. It tends to exclude from consideration those with the greatest experience in areas that are uniquely the president’s responsibility: foreign policy and military strategy.

It tends less strongly to exclude members of Congress, particularly House members but also senators, whose extensive voting records inevitably contain material that is politically damaging at some point in the process. The process has become so lengthy that candidates often come up with strategies and programs that are rendered obsolete by the time of the next presidential inauguration.

All that said, we are stuck with it — or stuck with the version of the schedule that the national Democratic and Republican parties, acting for once in concert, and the various state parties and state legislatures can agree on.

SO IT MAY BE WORTHWHILE, BEFORE TRYING TO ASSESS THE CHANCES OF LIKELY, PUTATIVE, AND POSSIBLE REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES IN THE 2012 CYCLE, TO DISMISS SOME OF THE RULES OF THUMB THAT HAVE ARISEN OVER THE YEARS.

The first is the notion that the Republican nomination always goes to the candidate next in line in seniority.

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/258070/old-rules-won-t-determine-gop-presidential-candidate-michael-barone

A good read as to what the new rules may be.

How to Get Rich from Liberal Delusions

The secret to instant wealth is to spot a mass delusion and bet against it. The Tulip Craze. Florida swamp land.

Getting the timing right is tricky, but we are blessed with an overload of mass delusions. You can pick your own favorite. Delusional bubbles have to pop at some point, because the people who are paying for them eventually figure out that they've been had.

GLOBAL WARMING FRAUD is now in the midst of a slow collapse. The Chicago Carbon Exchange just closed, because the investors figured out the scam. But the list of liberal crazes is long, and we can EXPECT THE MEDIA TO MAKE UP EVER-NEW HEADLINES TO KEEP THEIR BUSINESS MODEL ALIVE. For George Soros, it's not only profitable, but it's also a good cause, because socialist world government is his guiding fantasy. It was socialist Europe that made up global warming, and turned Mad Cow into a mass hysteria. You can bet that the big investors had it figured out long before things got rolling…..

THE ONE THING WE KNOW IS THAT THE LEFT WILL FIND ANOTHER SCARE STORY TO PANIC YOU WITH.

OUR MEDIA HYSTERIAS ARE SO DUMB -- THEY ARE SO ANTI-SCIENCE, ANTI-TECHNOLOGY, AND ANTI-COMMON SENSE -- that the only question is "When will the next balloon go up?"

BUT DON'T EXPECT THE LIBS TO FIGURE IT OUT. They will fall for it the way they always do. Mass delusion satisfies their need for a personal faith. THEY MAY NOT BELIEVE IN ANY ORGANIZED RELIGION, BUT THE MEDIA HAVE THEM BELIEVING IN ORGANIZED PANICS.

MAKING MONEY FROM LIBERAL DELUSIONS IS NOT NEW. Bernie Madoff ran his Ponzi scheme on liberal charities 'cause that's where the biggest suckers are. Starry-eyed college kids are now planning careers in "the nonprofit sector," meaning they expect to take their salaries and perks off the top. But they need good media sob stories, like Obama's and Bill Ayers's pitch to a foundation, getting 196 million bucks for inner-city schools with a "jazz-based curriculum." Then they took the money to buy political IOUs in Chicago.

OBAMA STARTED OFF AS A CON ARTIST, AND HE IS STILL DOING IT, BUT ON A MUCH GRANDER SCALE. Millions of liberals still bow down to their little home shrine of Obama today because they're terrified of being called "racists" if they don't. POLITICAL CORRECTNESS IS A GIANT GUILT TRIP TO BILK AMERICA. AL SHARPTON GOES FOR DIRECT EXTORTION, BUT THERE ARE MANY WAYS TO MILK THIS COW.

Barney Frank specialized in laws requiring empty mortgages backed by Fannie and Freddie….

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/01/how_to_get_rich_from_liberal_d.html

What is amazing to me is how the left accuses the right of ruling by fear.  It seems to be more than  a bit hypocritical.


The Supreme Court Is Not Our Benevolent Dictator

The clear and inherent constraints of the Constitution would, if applied with intellectual honesty, put an end to the expansionist vision of the federal government that IS ESSENTIAL TO THE LEFT'S PROGRAM OF STATISM.


The Left cannot abide applying the Constitution as it is written because this would upend its multipronged efforts to reshape American government and society at large. There is, for example, NOTHING IN THE CONSTITUTION ALLOWING FOR A FEDERAL MANDATE THAT ALL ADULTS PURCHASE HEALTH INSURANCE.


The Founders gave their political successors an amendment process so they might alter the text as the latter deemed wise (with, of course, the consent of voters in the states), and even included an amendment of their own (the 10th) clarifying that what is not delegated to the federal government is the province of the states. WHY WOULD THEY BOTHER WITH THESE THINGS IF THEY BELIEVED THE TEXT SHOULD BE OPEN TO CONTINUOUS, IDEOLOGICAL REINTERPRETATION?

These are chilling notions to the liberal ideologues who wish to impose their omni-beneficence on us plebian unwashed. Only a "living, breathing" Constitution affords the room to get around the text's obvious constrictions. Just so my meaning is sufficiently transparent: A person breathes. A document states.


THERE IS ANOTHER DIMENSION TO THIS NARRATIVE: A WILLINGNESS BY SOME ON THE LEFT TO CONSIGN TO THE SUPREME COURT ALL POWER OVER CONSTITUTIONAL INTERPRETATION.

"Anybody who knows anything about constitutional law knows it's up to nine men or women [to determine] what the Constitution says," said Rep. Steve Cohen (D.-Tenn.) in his attack on the reading of the charter's text on the House floor. …


IF COHEN IS CORRECT, NOTHING DONE BY ANY OTHER BRANCH OR LEVEL OF GOVERNMENT CAN BE VIEWED AS FIRM. All remains tentative until five Supreme Court justices decide its validity. And then only until another five decide whether their predecessors were correct.


Consider the wise words of Abraham Lincoln, given during his first inaugural. Reflecting on the exact attitude toward the Constitution portrayed by Cohen, Mr. Lincoln noted that "IF THE POLICY OF THE GOVERNMENT UPON VITAL QUESTIONS AFFECTING THE WHOLE PEOPLE IS TO BE IRREVOCABLY FIXED BY DECISIONS OF THE SUPREME COURT ... THE PEOPLE WILL HAVE CEASED TO BE THEIR OWN RULERS, having to that extent practically resigned their government into the hands of that eminent tribunal."

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=41473


I think the left is perfectly fine with the people ceasing to be their own rulers. They feel that a ruling elite could do the job better as they know what is good for everyone (read the book “What’s the matter with Kansas).

Advocating violence on the Left

Frances Fox Piven is a sociology professor who for four decades has advocated violent social upheaval as a means of effecting the radical change she believes in. HER NOTION OF APPROPRIATE CHANGE IS QUITE OBVIOUSLY THE DISPLACEMENT OF THE PRODUCTIVE CLASS AND ELECTED PUBLIC LEADERS IN FAVOR OF PEOPLE LIKE -- AHEM -- HERSELF.

This week, GLENN BECK CALLED PIVEN OUT ON HER ADVOCACY OF VIOLENCE. In response, the New York Times, a group that has amusingly chosen to call itself the Center for Constitutional Rights, and the American Sociological Association HAVE ATTACKED BECK FOR DARING TO TAKE HER AT HER WORD. Now, with Piven exposed to a broader audience than usual as a firebrand who holds views dangerous to democratic life, her friends have dolled her up in widow's weeds (her equally radical husband, Richard Cloward, died in 2001) and noted her age (78) to distract us from her work.

They want us to think, as did Psycho's Norman Bates channeling his long-dead mother, that "[t]hey'll see and they'll know and they'll say, 'WHY SHE WOULDN'T EVEN HARM A FLY.'"....

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/01/clarices_pieces_she_wouldnt_ev.html

Almost everything about this story is bad news for the left. The most recent article that Piven wrote came out January 10th right after the Gifford attack and the left’s accusation of the rights violent rhetoric. When Glenn Beck called her on it, the left who sees him as one of the worst offenders attacked him rather than disown Piven call for violence. They in effect doubled down and appear to be getting punished for it.


The 10 families who are costing us an astonishing £1m a year between them just in housing benefits

TEN FAMILIES IN ENGLAND ARE SHARING AN ASTONISHING £1MILLION A YEAR IN HOUSING BENEFITS, IT EMERGED LAST NIGHT.

The huge sums being lavished on the families by the taxpayer are allowing them to live in streets normally reserved for millionaires.

FIVE OF THE FAMILIES ARE RECEIVING THE MAXIMUM PAYMENT OF £2,000 PER WEEK.

It is the first proof that George Osborne was correct when he claimed some households were receiving sums in excess of £100,000 a year.

Last night, the Chancellor told the Daily Mail: ‘It is precisely this kind of shocking waste of public money under the previous Labour government that led to Britain’s debt problems.

‘We are bringing an end to this by putting a cap on the total amount of benefit that a family can receive so the days of £100,000 housing benefit claims are gone.’

THE COALITION TRIGGERED A FURIOUS REACTION LAST YEAR WHEN IT UNVEILED PLANS TO CUT THE TOP RATE OF HOUSING BENEFIT TO £400 A WEEK. Chris Bryant, the Labour justice spokesman, said the cuts would lead to ‘social cleansing’, with 200,000 people forced out of the capital.

THE MAYOR OF LONDON, BORIS JOHNSON, ALSO SPOKE OF A ‘KOSOVO-STYLE’ EXODUS.

Critics even questioned whether Mr Osborne could back his claim that some families were in receipt of six-figure annual sums......

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1351537/The-10-families-costing-1m-state-handouts.html#ixzz1CRJJsCx9


Well if you are progressive you can understand why the taxpayer should have to pay over $150,000 per year for someone on the dole to be able to stay in London.

Obamacare and Death Panels

About Those Death Panels . . .

The very real threat of government health care rationing.

When Sarah Palin warned that Obamacare could lead to medical rationing and “death panels,” supporters were outraged. ALARMISM! THEY ROARED. A LIE! RIGHT-WING PROPAGANDA! Alas for supporters of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, PALIN’S PROVOCATIVE SOUND BITE WAS AT LEAST PARTLY GROUNDED IN REALITY—WHICH IS WHY THE TERM ENTERED THE POLITICAL LEXICON….

…..Oregon, a decidedly liberal state, provides an unequivocal example. IN 1993, THE CLINTON ADMINISTRATION GAVE PERMISSION TO THE OREGON HEALTH PLAN, THE STATE’S MEDICAID PROGRAM, TO INTRODUCE RATIONING. The system involves a treatment schedule that lists 649 potentially covered procedures. THE STATE PEGS THE NUMBER OF PROCEDURES THE STATE WILL COVER TO THE AVAILABLE FUNDS. PATIENTS REQUIRING PROCEDURES ABOVE THE CUTOFF LINE ARE OUT OF LUCK.

As of October 2010, only the first 502 treatments were covered. But even that low number doesn’t tell the full story of rationing in Oregon. The Oregon Health Plan also rations covered procedures under certain circumstances. CHEMOTHERAPY, FOR INSTANCE, IS NOT PROVIDED IF IT IS DEEMED TO HAVE A 5 PERCENT OR LESS CHANCE OF EXTENDING THE PATIENT’S LIFE FOR FIVE YEARS, MEANING THAT A PATIENT WHOSE LIFE MIGHT BE EXTENDED A YEAR OR TWO WITH CHEMO MAY NOT RECEIVE IT.

Worse, even though it is not a formally ranked procedure, ASSISTED SUICIDE IS COVERED UNDER STATE LAW. Thus, when two RECURRENT CANCER PATIENTS WERE RATIONED OUT OF RECEIVING POTENTIALLY LIFE-EXTENDING CHEMOTHERAPY IN 2008, AN ADMINISTRATOR WROTE A LETTER ASSURING THEM THAT THE STATE WOULD PAY FOR THE COSTS ASSOCIATED WITH THEIR ASSISTED SUICIDES. TALK ABOUT A DEATH PANEL!

http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/about-those-death-panels_536874.html?page=1


Given a red headline, because this is certainly something you want to read. Much more information that will demonstrate where we are going with Obamacare. Mean while overseas where they do have single payer healthcare….

I’d sooner let a Tesco butcher fix my toe than ask the NHS

For three weeks I’ve been limping around on a broken toe. The horse stamped on it and I’m in agony, but I’M NOT GOING TO GET IT SEEN TO BECAUSE I DO NOT WANT TO GO ANYWHERE NEAR MY LOCAL HOSPITAL. I’m sorry, I know I will get complaints from doctors and nurses about how hard they work. I know the NHS is a sacred institution that must not be criticised. But I have been to St George’s Hospital in Tooting in London, and my nearest alternative, King’s College in Denmark Hill, and HELL AND HIGH WATER WOULDN’T DRAG ME BACK TO EITHER.

I consider a little toe the size of a big toe far preferable to the horrors that might await me at either of those emporiums of state-sponsored, one-size-fits-all, “SIT DOWN AND DO AS YOU’RE TOLD” TOTALITARIANISM.

The last time I went to St George’s, THEY MADE ME FILL IN A QUESTIONNAIRE ABOUT MY DRINKING HABITS BEFORE THEY WOULD EVEN LOOK AT MY INJURY, which was a hole through the middle of my hand where I had got it stuck in my horse’s mouth. I told them I had been teetotal for most of my adult life, but that didn’t put them off. THEY MERCILESSLY INSISTED I TICK ABOUT 30 BOXES WITH A “NO” OR “NEVER”, WHILE GRIPPING AND WRITING WITH ONE HAND, BEFORE I QUALIFIED FOR ANYTHING APPROACHING CARE.

And all the while, I could see people being admitted for emergency dental work. This is not my NHS, I thought. It’s someone else’s. I just pay for it. It quite likes my tax money but is not the least bit concerned about me. If it does care, it cares only in so much as I am fodder for its next risk assessment......

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/8277821/Id-sooner-let-a-Tesco-butcher-fix-my-toe-than-ask-the-NHS.html


Death panels, poor service, intrusive questioning are all hallmarks of government run healthcare.

The Obama Code

“INVESTMENT,” SENATE REPUBLICAN LEADER MITCH MCCONNELL NOTED, IS A CODE WORD when uttered by President Obama and Democrats. It means, he said on Fox News Sunday, “WE WANT TO SPEND.” Indeed, that’s what Obama and Democrats most want to do.


But “investment” isn’t the only code word you’re likely to hear from Obama in his State of the Union address tonight on Capitol Hill. He’s sure to use other words designed to mask what he and Democrats are up to. More often than not, THE CODE WORDS ARE INVOKED TO HIDE ONE THING: MORE AND MORE GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION IN THE ECONOMY.


OBAMA’S FAVORITE NEW WORD IS “COMPETITIVENESS.” This doesn’t mean he wants to enact free market reforms to increase competition in the private sector. Perish the thought. HE WANTS TO FUND PROGRAMS THAT AID OR SUBSIDIZE INDUSTRIES INVOLVED INTO GLOBAL MARKETS. Once again, it points to more spending, more intervention.


The president ALSO WANTS TO “WIN THE FUTURE,” as he put it in a 4-minute video he sent last week to followers from his 2008 campaign. Who takes the lead in achieving this? Not the private economy unleashed by tax cuts and deregulation. FREE MARKETS AND FREE INDIVIDUALS CAN’T BE TRUSTED WITH THIS TASK. THE GOVERNMENT MUST BE IN CHARGE.


Both winning the future and competitiveness have another role. Properly understood, they’re a diversion from the present, with its weak economy and high unemployment. You’re supposed to ignore what’s happening today and look to the future, when competitiveness has kicked in a few years down the road and the American economy is victorious.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/ryan-v-obama-round-4_537206.html



Here are some code words from the Republicans: Responsibility, Fiscal Sanity, Unsustainability and unleashing the free market. All these mean less spending, investments, government sponsored competitiveness and government directed “wins in the future.”


Mortgage Giants Leave Legal Bills to the Taxpayers

SINCE THE GOVERNMENT TOOK OVER FANNIE MAE AND FREDDIE MAC, TAXPAYERS HAVE SPENT MORE THAN $160 MILLION DEFENDING THE MORTGAGE FINANCE COMPANIES AND THEIR FORMER TOP EXECUTIVES IN CIVIL LAWSUITS ACCUSING THEM OF FRAUD. The cost was a closely guarded secret until last week, when the companies and their regulator produced an accounting at the request of Congress.

The bulk of those expenditures — $132 million — went to defend Fannie Mae and its officials in various securities suits and government investigations into accounting irregularities that occurred years before the subprime lending crisis erupted. THE LEGAL PAYMENTS SHOW NO SIGN OF ABATING.

Documents reviewed by The New York Times indicate that taxpayers have paid $24.2 million to law firms defending three of Fannie’s former top executives: Franklin D. Raines, its former chief executive; Timothy Howard, its former chief financial officer; and Leanne Spencer, the former controller.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/24/business/24fees.html?_r=2&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha2


The left continues to ignore the role of Fannie and Freddie in the economic crisis we had. Barney Frank was reelected and whenever F&F or the CRA are mentioned as drivers of the global crisis, the left pretends that they’ve never heard anything so foolish.

Why a Liberal is glad to say goodbye to Keith Olbermann

.....The show began in 2003, when large swathes of the journalistic profession appeared to have been cowed -- not just by the Bush administration per se but by a jingoistic atmosphere that lingered too long after 9/11 and took many unwise forms.

IN THAT ENVIRONMENT, OLBERMANN WAS FRESH, EVEN DARING. The show’s increasingly forceful liberalism through its early years made for some riveting TV moments, the best-known perhaps his 2006 takedown of then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

THE FRESHNESS CURDLED SOON ENOUGH.

In his farewell remarks on Friday, OLBERMANN PROUDLY PROCLAIMED THAT HIS SHOW WAS "ANTI-ESTABLISHMENT." IN RECENT YEARS, THAT DESCRIPTION WAS A STRETCH, AT BEST.

Everything from the increasingly contrived "Worst Person in the World" segments to the host’s persona -- a kind of an ersatz version of Walter Cronkite, with infinitely more "attitude" but infinitely less real authority -- had settled into a rut. PREDICTABILITY AND SELF-IMPORTANCE WERE THE MAIN FEATURES.

"Countdown" had a niche -- a profitable one for both the network and its host, who was rumored to have negotiated a $30 million four-year contract in 2008 -- and Olbermann apparently saw little need for change......

But, more importantly, THERE WAS A YEARS-LONG PROCESSION OF PUNDITS WHOSE ONLY APPARENT PURPOSE WAS TO CONFIRM THE CORRECTNESS AND BRILLIANCE OF THE HOST’S EVERY UTTERANCE. The spectacle was one in which purportedly respectable journalists seemed to fall over themselves to play courtier to King Smug.....

http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/01/22/stanage_olbermann/index.html


Olbermann’s departure is causing the gnashing of teeth over at the Huffington Post, but I think this liberal has it correct.


Here’s another look at the Olbermann’s departure.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-01-23/keith-olbermann-how-anger-fueled-his-rise-and-fall-at-msnbc/?cid=hp:mainpromo2



Tucson, Piven, and the Left

DREIER’S DEFENSE OF PIVEN IS COMPLETELY AT ODDS WITH THE UPSHOT OF HER WRITINGS, WHICH LOVINGLY CHRONICLE EFFORTS BY COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS TO INTENSIFY RIOTS AND VIOLENT PROTESTS. I explain Piven’s strategy on NRO’s homepage today in “Frances Fox Piven’s Violent Agenda.” DREIER’S EFFORTS TO TURN PIVEN INTO A LATTER-DAY INCARNATION OF MARTIN LUTHER KING ARE ABSURD. Piven looks forward to rioting and urges community organizers not to waste time channeling violent protests into conventional politics but to escalate disruptions for maximum leverage. Dreier’s defense of Piven’s latest controversial editorial in the Nation leaves out the crucial passage where she calls for Euro-style protest riots in the United States.

THE HOPE OF SILENCING BECK IN THE WAKE OF TUCSON HAS LURED THE LEFT INTO A STRATEGIC BLUNDER. They’ve decided to turn Piven into a martyr. Yet in doing so THE LEFT HAS TIED ITSELF TO PIVEN’S WILD WRITINGS AND OVER-THE-TOP RADICALISM. Dreier acts as though Piven’s scholarly work is somehow different from the calls for rioting, crisis, and polarization in her two notorious Nation articles. Actually, Piven’s scholarly writings are worse. READ POOR PEOPLE’S MOVEMENTS AND YOU’LL SEE WHAT I MEAN. The left could and should have disowned Piven’s extremism long ago. Jack Beatty’s 1977 review of Poor People’s Movements in the Nation was actually negative, calling Piven to account for her counterproductive and intentionally polarizing tactics. A QUARTER CENTURY LATER THE NATION HAS EMBRACED PIVEN’S CALL FOR EURO-STYLE RIOTING IN AMERICA, allowing her to speak with the magazine’s editorial voice. It’s not Beck who’s tarring the left with the Brush of Piven’s radicalism. They’re doing it to themselves.

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/257747/tucson-piven-and-lefts-strategic-blunder-stanley-kurtz


This is worth reading. The left’s radical agenda as exemplified by Frances Fox Piven is a violent one. Calling for civility in speech even while their members call for violence in the streets is simply disingenuous. Dreier defends her and attacks the right. Here’s a link to Kurtz’s article Frances Fox Piven’s Violent Agenda.


http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/257733/frances-fox-piven-s-violent-agenda-stanley-kurtz


And here’s another one giving you more information of Piven and how the MSM is playing the story

http://bigjournalism.com/dloesch/2011/01/24/suddenly-radical-frances-fox-piven-is-old-widowed-college-professor/


Bury Lenin: Majority of Russians say

TWO-THIRDS OF RUSSIANS WANT VLADIMIR LENIN TO BE REMOVED FROM HIS RED SQUARE MAUSOLEUM IN CENTRAL MOSCOW, A NEW POLL HAS SHOWN. The poll, organised by Vladimir Putin’s ruling United Russia party, comes after a senior figure in the party sparked a lively debate on the issue, saying THE TIME HAD COME TO RESPECT LENIN’S LAST WISHES AND BURY HIM IN ST PETERSBURG ALONGSIDE HIS MOTHER.

“Lenin was an extremely controversial political figure and his presence as the main figure in a necropolis in the heart of our country is absurd,” Anatoly Medinsky, an MP and member of the party’s governing committee, said.

Only 10 per cent of Lenin’s corpse remained, he said, alleging that the rest had been “ripped out and replaced a long time ago”. The body’s presence in a purpose-built mausoleum on Red Square had turned the country’s central square into a cemetery and was “blasphemous”, Mr Medinsky added. Lenin’s waxy corpse remains a popular tourist attraction and is regularly treated with a special cocktail of chemicals to stop it from degrading. But with a parliamentary election looming later this year and a presidential poll next year, analysts believe that the ruling United Russia party may be considering closing the Red Square mausoleum in order to show the world it is serious about modernising the country

.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/8276991/Russians-want-Lenin-removed-from-Red-Square.html


This is better than what they did to unpopular rulers in ancient Rome. They would throw their bodies in the Tiber River like a common criminal. The horror Lenin brought to Russia might make people consider a similar fate.


Waiting For Betelgeuse To Explode: 2012? Second Sun?

Either we won't live to see it or Betelgeuse could do a supernova explosion at any time and for a couple of weeks it'll be much brighter out.

THE SECOND BIGGEST STAR IN THE UNIVERSE IS LOSING MASS, A TYPICAL INDICATION THAT A GRAVITATION COLLAPSE IS OCCURRING.

When that happens, WE'LL GET OUR SECOND SUN, ACCORDING TO DR BRAD CARTER, Senior Lecturer of Physics at the University of Southern Queensland.

I think this means it will be bright at night if Earth is at the right point in its orbit. Anyone know the direction of Betelgeuse as compared the plain of our solar system? Do we have the Sun between us and Betelgeuse during some part of the year?

If it is bright enough to appear as a second sun then won't it heat up the atmosphere? What fraction of the Sun's radiation would that supernova provide?

BUT SINCE BETELGEUSE MIGHT NOT EXPLODE FOR A MILLION YEARS SOME ASTRONOMERS THINK THE ARTICLE ABOVE MAKES TOO MUCH OF THE POSSIBILITY. One astronomer says it will only get as bright as the moon. I guess I'll go back to worrying about VEI 7 (volcanic explosivity index 7) and VEI 8 eruptions. A VEI 7 would repeat the 1816 Year Without Summer. A VEI 8 would probably cause an ice age. Billions would die.

http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/007846.html


So it might be as bright as our sun, or perhaps the moon. It might fry us or not and we might plunge us into an ice age. It might happen in a few months or it might be a million years from now. Sometime science is not only not precise, but it's unknown.