Tom Faranda's Folly

Democrat activist Bill Press: Not appropriate for prayer and talk about God at "Sacred" Lincoln Memorial

A confused and confounded man -

Here's the campaign ad being run by Barney Frank's congressional opponent

His name is Sean Bielat. Young guy. Businessman. Marine. Barney Franks is in a very safe Democratic district. Too bad. But gotta love the ad.

Obama vs. Putin: Macho Time

From my correspondent Antoinette.

Go here - Mommy Life: Obama vs. Putin

Subhead: "Crap. We surrender." 

Time magazine as "The last man standing".

Washington Post media writer Howard Kurtz had a good column this morning -

With the roof having fallen in on Newsweek (which is being sold to a 92-year-old business mogul) and U.S. News & World Report (which has mostly moved online), Stengel isn't just boasting when he says, "We've become a category of one." Time is a smaller magazine than when he took over four years ago, but its survival is no mean feat in such a toxic environment for print publications.

What's more, the constant drumbeat about the imminent death of newsmagazines -- building "since we were in short pants," Stengel says -- made the challenge especially tricky. And Time has done it mainly with serious journalism, moving away from the celebrity covers that were once a staple of the genre.

A cover story still has an impact: Time's recent "Is America Islamophobic?" helped broaden the "mosque" debate, and last week's "The Case Against Homeownership" was both contrarian and well-timed, given plummeting housing sales. (It "hit the zeitgeist," Stengel proclaims -- a bull's-eye in magazine-speak.)

The impact of such covers may not be as great as when Time asked "Is God Dead?" in 1966, but then again, media audiences everywhere are shrinking.

******

After being locked for decades in a Coke-Pepsi race, Time and Newsweek both decided to downsize. Time has shrunk its circulation from 4 million to 3.25 million, shedding giveaway or discounted circulation.

Both abandoned weekly news summaries, which in the digital age felt like an irrelevant throwback to the days of Henry Luce. Time adopted what Stengel calls "reported analysis," stories with a clear point of view -- often left of center -- that were rooted in shoe-leather work. Newsweek, which moved more sharply left, bet the ranch last year on more opinionated essays and columns -- and lost.

******

Buoyed by Time's recent success, Stengel uses a word not generally associated with plain old journalism: "We have the nirvana that people are looking for. We have a product that people actually like and are willing to pay for."

Well, we'll see. I wouldn't start doing an end zone dance.

Disabled policeman Steven McDonald addresses the crowd at the Mother Teresa anniversary protest outside the Empire State building.

You may have heard of the protest, set off by the owner of the building refusing to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Mother Teresa's birthday by lightingthe building in blue and white.

It's quite sandard for groups and businesses to apply to the building to use a particular lighting arrangement at the top, to celebrate certain events. Among other things they have recognized - the anniversary of the Chinese communist revolution, and the release ofthe Simpsons movie on home DVD.

They gave specious reasons for turning down the request, which was honored by buildings and bridges throughout the country (and abroad).

So I went to the one hour protest rally at 6pm last Thursday. Here's a picture of the crowd - about a thousand people - and a video of Steven McDonald's remarks.

Here are McDonald's remarks, which explain the whole thing ... Sorry the video is a bit shaky - small, handheld, and in a crowd.

NY Times editorialists and op ed page gettin' worried about Obama under-performance

Here's their weekend editorial, which of course blames Bush and the obstructionist Republicans, but also asks Obama to get his act together.

The NYT suggestions to the President - no surprise - higher taxes and more government programs.  

If President Obama has a big economic initiative up his sleeve, as he hinted recently, now would be a good time to let the rest of us in on it.

And resident nobel prize winning economist (for work in international trade) and uber-democrat Paul Krugman, recognizes the reality of the situation, but also offers the same tired prescription.

This Is Not a Recovery

So, right diagnosis, wrong prescriptions.

Guest posting from my friend Theresa, attending yesterday's "Restoring Honor" rally

From Theresa.

Tom, I emailed you since I can send you a couple of -pictures of the crowd from one angle. There were definitely hundreds of thousands there...impressive.

 

Alveda was one of the best (and the singers) and of course the military who came up , did touched our hearts. The best part, I thought, was singing "Amazing Grace" together at the end.

 

It seemed to be a spiritual awakening event, which of course is good and it was certainly great to be there all together. The theme was "Faith, Hope & Charity" and the idea was that God is the center we all need to turn back to him both individually and as a nation whose principles were based on God. We all need to follow God's will no matte rhow how it is, and speak out for what is right etc...because America has core values and although we do not all agree on everything we should be together on that. Great theme..

 

They gave out awards for Faith, Hope & Charity. I guess maybe I would have like to have heard from the military that were there about their experience instead of some of the other stuff...or have a person give testimony to Faith, an other hope, another charity..I think it was too loose...I know Alcveda and I think her testimony to hope in healing would have moved and been a million times more powerful then what she did, but she was still one of the best. I (and I know a lot of others I spoke to) left feeling like something was missing...still, I am glad I went and certainly very grateful so many were there, and grateful to Glenn for doing it...hey, it was the 1st time..live and learn...and I am sure not everyone felt this way...

 

Here's video of Alveda King, who Theresa refenced at the rally yesterday - Martin Luther King's niece Alveda speaking at Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally today

 

Two takes on yesterday's Washington "Restoring Honor" rally

Here's the NY Times -

At the Lincoln Memorial, a Call for Religious Rebirth

and AOL news Politics Daily

 Glenn Beck 'Restoring Honor' Rally Draws Vast Crowd to National Mall

Martin Luther King's niece Alveda speaking at Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally today

I posted King's CS Monitor column earlier today here.

At the rally Alveda King introduced a number of people, and then spoke for five minutes.

Martin Luther King's niece, Alveda King, on why she'll be speaking today at Glenn Beck's "Rally to Restore Honor"

UPDATE: Here is Alveda King speaking at the "Restoring Honor" rally. Martin Luther King's niece Alveda speaking at Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally today

Today is the 47th anniversary of MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial.

"Americans are hungry to reclaim the symbols of our liberty ..."

Glenn Beck’s “Rally to Restore Honor” this Saturday will give us that chance, and that’s why I feel it’s important for me to be there.

Before the words were out of Mr. Beck’s mouth announcing the Aug. 28 rally, The New York Times noted that it would be at the same place and 47 years to the day since my Uncle Martin gave his “I Have a Dream Speech.” When asked why he chose that date in particular, Beck said he had not realized its significance, but in thinking about it, he saw it is an auspicious day to rally for the honor of the American people. He has said, and he’s right, that Martin Luther King didn’t speak only for African-Americans. He spoke for all Americans, and his words still ring true.

******

The rally will be a celebration of who we are as a nation and a chance to stop for a moment, reflect, reorganize, and re-energize. It’s a chance to think about character; both our character as a nation and our character as individuals.

Delineating ourselves as red state or blue, liberal or conservative, minority or majority, we have not quite reached the day when men and women are “judged not by the color of their skin but on the content of their character.” We are still marching toward that day. As Uncle Martin said, “we cannot turn back.”

The rally will also give America another chance to honor and thank the men and women in our armed forces for the dangers they face every day in our stead. Unless you have a loved one in Iraq or Afghanistan, it’s too easy to forget that tens of thousands of Americans are far from the comforts of home, are directly in harm’s way, facing an enemy who hates us precisely because we are free. And coming just days before the ninth anniversary of 9/11, the day that roused us from our complacency, we could use another wakeup call, one of our own devising.

Rasmussen poll: 57% oppose federal (taxpayer) funding of embryonic stem cell research

Only 33% of U.S. voters believe that taxpayer money should be spent on embryonic stem cell research, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

Seventy-eight percent (78%) of Republicans and 62% of voters not affiliated with either major party oppose taxpayer funding of embryonic stem cell research. Fifty-five percent (55%) of Democrats favor such funding.

The Political Class is even more supportive of government funding of this kind of research.  While 70% of Mainstream voters oppose taxpayer funding of stem cell research, 73% of the Political Class think it’s a good idea.

But then Political Class voters are twice as likely as those in the Mainstream to say such research is not morally wrong.

Democratic Senator Bennett on the stimulus: "13 trillion in debt" and "nothing to show for it"

Of course, it did help to reconstruct the Appalachian Trail, going up Bear Mountain. Beautiful Walk up Bear Mountain yesterday

Here's the Senator, from Colorado:

“We have managed to acquire $13 trillion of debt on our balance sheet,” he said. “In my view we have nothing to show for it. We haven’t invested in our roads, our bridges, our waste-water systems, our sewer systems. We haven’t even maintained the assets that our parents and grandparents built for us.”

"The world's most interesting man" on rollerblading

I wish I had a job like his ...

Rugby: the last-second winning score from the New Zealand/South Africa match

I already posted highlights from this game here, but thought this was worth putting up. Notice that Ma Nonu, who set it up, lost his shoe in breaking a tackle.

NY Times on Alaska Republican Senate primary: " ... a staggering blow to the G.O.P. establishment in the Beltway"

Great! I love it. The above is from the online headline in the NYT morning email today ... That's what I want - anti-establishment insurgent reformers.

Lisa Murkowski is the sitting Republican incumbent senator.  The race is very close and if she does lose, she may go third party/independent.

In Alaska, Murkowski Trails Tea Party Upstart

Interview with Harvard 2010 valedictorian - as she enters a Dominican convent

Kathryn Jean Lopez of National Review conducts the interview. Coincidentally, they are both graduates of Dominican Academy in New York City.

The religious community Ms. Marks is joining is the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist in Ann Arbor Michigan.  Average age of the congregation is 26. they are an active/contemplative community - lots of prayer and work (teaching primarily).

Last February they were featured on Oprah and you can see a video here -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSa40PamMIU

Here's the interview -

God and Woman at Harvard

LOPEZ: Your call was not a sudden one. You explained to a Harvard publication that you’ve “always thought about being a nun.” You grew up in Queens at the turn of the 21st century. How would you ever think of such a thing?

MARKS: Religious life is an institution thriving in our time and in our nation; go figure.


LOPEZ: Did you ever worry that it was a weird impulse?

MARKS: No.

LOPEZ: Is the countercultural nature of your call important? Especially now, in this culture, in your generation?

MARKS: Absolutely. Religious are called to witness by their life and garb to supernatural realities: God’s existence, His immeasurable love for each person, and the fact that our duty and happiness lie in returning His love. This witness becomes increasingly important as a culture’s materialism and corresponding distaste for the supernatural increase.

This lady is the cultural and political advisor to a number of my friends

UPDATE: Hah! My friend Nancy emailed me saying "she's no Harvard valedictorian", referencing  the posting here.

Well, it only seems that way. This audio has been listened to on youtube about a million and a half times. Sent to me by my friend in the far west, Charlie.

And we all know people who think like this. Has to be heard to be believed. 

Tea Party and Republican Party incompatibility?

Michael Gerson (former Bush chief speechwriter) has a regular column in the Washington Post.

I disagree with some of his thoughts - who wants to repeal social security? - but worth a quick read.

Why the Tea Party is toxic for the GOP

So the "summer of recovery" swelters on, with Democrats sun-blistered, pestered by bottle flies, sand in their swimsuits, water in their ears. Jobless claims increase, Republicans lead the generic congressional ballot, and George W. Bush is six points more popular than President Obama in "front-line" Democratic districts that are most vulnerable to a Republican takeover. Still, Democrats hug the hope that Obama is really the liberal Ronald Reagan -- but without wit, humor, an explainable ideology or an effective economic plan. Other than that, the resemblance is uncanny.

Yet the Republican Party suffers its own difficulty -- an untested ideology at the core of its appeal.

In the normal course of events, political movements begin as intellectual arguments, often conducted for years in serious books and journals. To study the Tea Party movement, future scholars will sift through the collected tweets of Sarah Palin. Without a history of clarifying, refining debates, Republicans need to ask three questions of candidates rising on the Tea Party wave:

First, do you believe that Social Security and Medicare are unconstitutional? ...

More on the trapped Chilean miners

First posted about this here.

2nd bore hole reaches 33 trapped in Chile mine

More in the Judge's ruling blocking federal funds for embryonic stem cell research

I posted about this a couple of days ago here.

Here's more on the ruling -

Stem cells, Life and the Law

In his ruling Monday, Judge Royce Lamberth of the U.S. District Court rejected the government’s reasoning. Embryonic-stem-cell research “is clearly research in which an embryo is destroyed,” since by definition it requires the destruction of human embryos. It makes no sense, the judge wrote, to claim that the destructive act and the experimentation on the resulting stem-cell lines are “separate and distinct ‘pieces of research.’” The fact that embryonic-stem-cell research “involves multiple steps does not mean that each step is a separate ‘piece of research’ that may be federally funded, provided the step does not result in the destruction of an embryo.” The judge issued a preliminary injunction halting all federal funding of embryonic-stem-cell research.

Judge Lamberth’s interpretation of the Dickey-Wicker Amendment is certainly in line with the original intent of the authors of that amendment, and with the understanding of the members of Congress who originally voted for it in 1996, even if the Clinton administration’s interpretation (which was then adopted by both the Bush and Obama administrations) is arguably reasonable in light of the meaning of the term “in which.” When the decision is appealed, the Obama administration will no doubt challenge the judge’s assertion of the unity of all stages of embryonic-stem-cell research. Is the judge right to conclude that any experimentation on embryonic stem cells is, in the eyes of the law, inseparable from a broader research project that implicates the destruction of an embryo? On the one hand, it is true that all research on embryonic stem cells was preceded by and is made possible by the destruction of an embryo; the two acts are morally entangled. It is certainly clear, moreover, that by offering taxpayer dollars for the research regardless of when the embryo was destroyed, the Obama policy (unlike the Bush policy) incentivizes new acts of embryo destruction.

Last laugh: Anti-semite, racist, Hitler had Jewish and African DNA

“Hitler's concern over his descent was not unjustified. He was apparently not "pure" or ‘Ayran’.”

It is not the first time that historians have suggested Hitler had Jewish ancestry.

His father, Alois, is thought to have been the illegitimate offspring of a maid called Maria Schickelgruber and a 19-year-old Jewish man called Frankenberger.

Well, that would explain it ...

Dos Equis "Most interesting man in the world" gives career advice

Wow, this guy is popular. I actually posted a spoof here three weeks ago.

Rugby: sixth Tri-nations match; South Africa vs. New Zealand

Played in South Africa in the same stadium the World Cup soccer final was playedi n - 94,000 spectators.

Two tries in the last three minutes

Chris Matthews hosts a little "discussion" about the Ground Zero mosque.

I saw a bit of this when I was in the gym last evening. As always on Matthews "Hardball" show, it's pretty much all about Chris Matthews. And if you watch all 8 minutes, you realize Matthews really hadn't done his homework on his two guests.

Who's the whacko here, the ex-policeman biker dude, or the self-proclaimed "lesbian, Jewish, socialist" (and why did she feel it necessary to bring up her sexual orientation and religion)?

Federal judge blocks government (taxpayer) funding of embryonic stem cell research

Every so often, a pleasant surprise ...

U.S. Chief District Court Judge Royce Lamberth in Washington ruled that government funding for embryonic stem-cell research was barred by a law that prohibits the use of federal money for research in which an embryo is destroyed.

A little Monday morning lightheartedness ...

From my friend Theresa, it's going around ...

Miners trapped for 33 days in Chile are found - but it may take months to get them out

But it may take months to rescue them

SANTIAGO, Chile (Aug. 22) -- Chile's president euphorically waved the note, written deep inside a collapsed mine, that his country waited 17 agonizing days to see: "All 33 of us are fine in the shelter," one of the trapped miners wrote in red letters.

The miners' survival after 17 days is very unusual, but now that they've made it this far, they should emerge OK, a leading U.S. mine safety expert told The Associated Press.

"The health risks in a copper and gold mine are pretty small if you have air, food and water," said Davitt McAteer, who was assistant secretary for mine safety and health at the U.S. Department of Labor under President Bill Clinton.

Awesome !

Beautiful walk up Bear Mountain yesterday

Having done the "approach work" a week ago, Quick walk - Bear Mountain Bridge and Park, Brigid and Jeanne Marie Gagnon joined me for the 1.6 mile walk up the newly laid out Appalachian Trail path to the top.

It was great. In my post last week, I was wrong in saying the southwest side of the A.T. was also being re-done. It is only the northeast portion, and it is still not completed. But what is done is marvelous. 

Herewith, lots of pictures - the walk up starts on the paved path next to the sign and rises over 1,100 feet - so pretty steep.

 

 

A cool mushroom!

About halfway up, we came to a little assembly/construction area, and Brigid took this picture of some carved steps, waiting to be put down ...

A few yards away, I started chatting to this fellow - who asked me what I thought of the Trail. I said "I think it's amazing". Turns out I was talking to Ed Walsh, the Project Manager for the entire upgrade to the Trail, including carving and installing the steps, etc. Everything we had walked over had been laid down in the past four years. There had been an article in the A.T. Journal, in the May-June 2009 issue which I had read, about the upgrade and about Ed Walsh.

We had a nice ten minute chat. It seems to me there ought to be a Discovery Channel or National Geographic special about all of this great work ...

At this point we'd covered a little over half the distance, and about two-thirds of the rise.The rest of the Trail to the top has not been re-configured. Note Jeanne Marie's garbage bag. I had started moaning a few minutes earlier about litter, so she and Brigid started policing the Trail!

 

At the top! Brigid took all of these - don't know any of the people.

 

Appropriate; me next to a garbage bin.

 

The whole walk, including dawdling around, and talking to Ed Walsh, took less then 90 minutes. We had craftily pre-planted Jeanne Marie's SUV at the top, so we then drove down, picked up our car, and were home just after 12 noon.

More to follow; I took a little video and will post it.

In Poland, they take strength-training pretty seriously

Good heavens! Check this out.

Can't embed the six minute video, so hit the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SPRtIImYJg

The vice president assures Democrats that they'll do well in the coming election

I suppose Biden has to put a sunny face on things, in the same way that Karl Rove did in 2006 before those elections.

"On November 3 . . . there will be in Washington, D.C., a Democratic majority in the House and a Democratic majority in the Senate," Biden said to the Democratic National Committee. And, he said, Democrats will do better than expected in gubernatorial races, too.

"If it weren't illegal, I'd make book on it," Biden quipped.

The vice president said voters' anger and frustration was understandable, given persistently high unemployment and a sluggish recovery. But he also expressed confidence that they would stick with President Obama because "the choice is between Democrats and the Republican tea party. It's between Democrats and the party of repeal and repeat."

Can you imagine ... a world without lawyers?

How would we get by?

Krauthammer on the Ground Zero mosque

The title is "Moral myopia at Ground Zero". I've already posted his prior column  here Krauthammer on the Ground Zero Mosque: "America is a free country where you can build whatever you want -- but not anywhere."  

Here's the latest and it's exactly right.

No one disputes the right to build; the whole debate is about the propriety, the decency of doing so. 

It takes no courage whatsoever to bask in the applause of a Muslim audience as you promise to stand stoutly for their right to build a mosque, giving the unmistakable impression that you endorse the idea. What takes courage is to then respectfully ask that audience to reflect upon the wisdom of the project and to consider whether the imam's alleged goal of interfaith understanding might not be better achieved by accepting the New York governor's offer to help find another site.

Where the president flagged, however, the liberal intelligentsia stepped in with gusto, penning dozens of pro-mosque articles characterized by a frenzied unanimity, little resort to argument and a singular difficulty dealing with analogies.

Archbishop Dolan on the Ground Zero mosque

He offers to mediate.

“My major prayer is that what has turned into somewhat of a divisive issue might develop into an occasion of very civil, rational, loving, respectful discussion,” he stressed. 

“I think the governor’s initiative is welcome," Archbishop Dolan said. "Both of what they (he and Mayor Bloomberg) are trying to do is bring people together to look into this problem.”

The prelate then cited the example of Pope John Paul II, who advised a group of sisters in 1993 to move from their convent at the former Auschwitz death camp after protests from Jewish leaders.

“He’s the one who said, ‘Let’s keep the idea, and maybe move the address,’ ” the archbishop said. “It worked there; might work here.”

“Those who wonder about the wisdom of the situation of the mosque, near such a wounded site, ask what I think are some legitimate questions that I think deserve attention,” he added.

Construction workers say they won't work on Ground Zero mosque

From the NY Daily News

They won't build it! Hardhats vow not to work on controversial mosque near Ground Zero

The grass-roots movement is gaining momentum on the Internet. One construction worker created the "Hard Hat Pledge" on his blog and asked others to vow not to work on the project if it stays on Park Place.

"Thousands of people are signing up from all over the country," said creator Andy Sullivan, a construction worker from Brooklyn. "People who sell glass, steel, lumber, insurance. They are all refusing to do work if they build there."

"Hopefully, this will be a tool to get them to move it," he said. "I got a problem with this ostentatious building looming over Ground Zero."

******

L.V. Spina, a Manhattan construction worker who created anti-mosque stickers that some workers are slapping on their hardhats, said he would "rather pick cans and bottles out of trash cans" than build the Islamic center near Ground Zero.

"But if they moved it somewhere else, we would put up a prime building for these people," he said. "Hell, you could do it next to my house in Rockaway Beach, I would be fine with it. But I'm not fine with it where blood has been spilled."

Best-selling t-shirt on Martha's Vineyard

As the President vacation's there ...

When my son saw my payslip

Got this response.

Americans who think Obama is a Christian: 34%

Who cares?

10% of DEMOCRATS think he's Islamic.

The WaPo article - all over the news yesterday -

...results, from a new Pew Research Center survey, were drawn from interviews done before the president's comments about the construction of an Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero, and they suggest that there could be serious political danger for the White House as the debate continues.

Again, who cares? Obama thinks HE'S God anyway.

The latest on Alzheimer's research and treatment

A good article from the NY Times health section.

... over the years, researchers say, what has become known as the amyloid hypothesis — the notion that overproduction or reduced clearance of amyloid beta is a cause of the disease and blocking amyloid beta could stop it — dominated their thinking.

“It is a conundrum,” Dr. Katz said. “We all hope to get to the point in our understanding of the disease process where everyone in the field says: ‘Look. We know it now. Amyloid causes Alzheimer’s, and we have drugs that decrease amyloid.’ But we are not there yet.”

******

“If you think Bristol-Myers Squibb is going out on a limb, this is going farther,” Dr. Aisen said. If blocking amyloid beta and slowing brain atrophy are not accepted as sufficient evidence that a drug works, a study with normal 70-year-olds could end up taking 10 to 15 years to show an effect on the actual symptoms of Alzheimer’s.

The last U.S. combat unit leaves Iraq

UPDATE: The Washington Post has really excellent coverage - Operation Iraqi Freedom ends as last combat soldiers leave Baghdad

Silver remembrance bracelets to honor fallen comrades and tattoos that speak of loss and sacrifice are among the visible signs of the toll this conflict has taken on a generation of volunteer warriors.

His fourth and final deployment was cathartic, Hitchcock said, because he believes he is leaving behind a safer country with a large and proficient army. "I think the fact that we stuck it out a few extra years to help their forces take control of their country" is important, he said. "That helps you hold your head up high as you leave and know that you made a difference."

From the Wall St. Journal -

For these troops of the 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, it was a moment of relief fraught with symbolism. Seven years and five months after the U.S.-led invasion, the last American combat brigade was leaving Iraq, as President Obama's Aug. 31 deadline for ending U.S. combat operations there neared.

When 18-year-old Spc. Luke Dill first rolled into Iraq as part of the U.S. invasion, his Humvee was so vulnerable to bombs that the troops lined its floor with flak jackets.

Now 25 and a staff sergeant after two tours of duty, he rode out of Iraq this week in a Stryker, an eight-wheeled behemoth encrusted with armor and add-ons to ward off grenades and other projectiles.

"It's something I'm going to be proud of for the rest of my life — the fact that I came in on the initial push and now I'm leaving with the last of the combat units," he said.

There are still 50,000 American troops in support roles in Iraq.

The NY Times had this -

Civilians to Take U.S. Lead After Military Leaves Iraq

By October 2011, the State Department will assume responsibility for training the Iraqi police, a task that will largely be carried out by contractors. With no American soldiers to defuse sectarian tensions in northern Iraq, it will be up to American diplomats in two new $100 million outposts to head off potential confrontations between the Iraqi Army and Kurdish pesh merga forces.

To protect the civilians in a country that is still home to insurgents with Al Qaeda and Iranian-backed militias, the State Department is planning to more than double its private security guards, up to as many as 7,000, according to administration officials who disclosed new details of the plan. Defending five fortified compounds across the country, the security contractors would operate radars to warn of enemy rocket attacks, search for roadside bombs, fly reconnaissance drones and even staff quick reaction forces to aid civilians in distress, the officials said.

Hearing loss among teenagers is getting worse

Music + earbuds?

From the Washington Post -

The prevalence of hearing loss increased from 14.9 percent in the 1988-94 period to 19.5 percent in the 2005-06 period, a rise of about 31 percent, the researchers reported Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The majority of hearing loss was slight, but the prevalence of mild or worse hearing loss increased 77 percent. One in 20 children in this age group had mild or worse hearing loss, according to the most recent survey. High-frequency hearing loss was more common than that in low frequencies. Most of the time the loss was in one ear. Girls were much less likely than boys to have lost some hearing.  

Church in Sayville, traces it's roots back to one of my namesakes, the Apostle Thomas

Let's here it for Thomas!

WEST SAYVILLE, N.Y. — Without doubt, many more people line the sidewalks to see the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Manhattan than to watch the St. Mary Malankara Indian Orthodox Church’s annual Assumption Day Parade, which began here on Sunday with the usual blowing of the kumbu horn and the dancing of the koladi by the congregation’s teenage girls, dressed in saris and banging sticks

Howard Dean gets it right about the Ground Zero mosque.

The former head of the Democratic National Committee and governor of Vermont. 

From WABC radio:

...former Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean is calling the Ground Zero mosque proposal a “real affront to people who lost their lives” in the 9/11 terror attack.  Supporting efforts to move the Islamic community center, Dean tells 77 WABC’s David Goodman, “That site doesn’t belong to any particular religion; it belongs to all Americans and all faiths.”

Go here for audio - Howard Dean: Mosque 'an affront'

Yes we can! But should we?

Jon Stewart on the President and the mosque -

After eight decades, and an abuse lawsuit, a man returns to the Catholic church

The Louisville native has reconciled with the Roman Catholic Church after being away from it for more than 80 years.

In the end, O'Bryan reconciled with the church because of the actions of a priest — the same reason he said he left in the first place.

O'Bryan, now 89 and living in northern California, was one of three plaintiffs who sued the Vatican in 2004, alleging that the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church had orchestrated a cover-up of sexual abuse through centuries of secret policies. He said he was sexually abused by a Louisville priest in 1928.

That lawsuit effectively ended on Monday when the plaintiffs asked the court to dismiss their case. They conceded they faced insurmountable legal obstacles, including the Vatican's status as a sovereign nation, which made it immune to most lawsuits, and the limited evidence on how bishops handled abuse cases decades ago.

But even as that lawsuit proceeded, O'Bryan was finding his way back to church.

In January, his wife of 52 years, Grace, was dying, he said. She was an Irish-American from Boston's deeply Catholic culture, but had herself been long estranged from the church. However, she asked for last rites. the Rev. Louis Nichols, a local priest, came and performed them, then did the funeral Mass.

“I saw how compassionate he was and how caring he was,” O'Bryan said. So O'Bryan called Nichols for a follow-up appointment, and “I've been going to church ever since.”

Avoiding health problems at the gym

Some of this is obvious - but worth a read. With a couple of examples - things can go bad fast.

Recreational athletes as well as participants in organized sports are prone to fungal, viral and bacterial skin infections. Sweat, abrasion and direct or indirect contact with the lesions and secretions of others combine to make every athlete’s skin vulnerable to a host of problems. While MRSA may be the most serious skin infection, athlete’s foot, jock itch, boils, impetigo, herpes simplex and ringworm, among others, are not exactly fun or attractive.

Tuesday morning wake-up item: Hottest toy of 2010

With thanks to my friend Bernadette for enlightening me on this -

When it comes to college education, is the adage "you get what you pay for", true?

Here's a Washington Post column that says, not really. And in fact, as the Faranda college search has been underway for a year (Joe will be a senior at Fordham Prep), I agree.

It is generally true that you get what you pay for, but not necessarily when it comes to higher education. A study scheduled for release Monday about the value of a college education, at least when it comes to the basics, has found the opposite to be true in most cases. Forget Harvard and think Lamar.

Indeed, the Texas university, where tuition runs about $7,000 per year (Harvard's is $38,000) earns an A to Harvard's D based on an analysis of the universities' commitment to core subjects deemed essential to a well-rounded, competitive education.

In other words, Lamar requires courses that Harvard apparently considers of lesser value. These include six of the seven subject areas used in the study to gauge an institution's commitment to general education: composition, literature, foreign language at the intermediate level, U.S. government or history, economics, mathematics, and natural or physical science.

Harvard has comprehensive requirements for only two of these subjects -- composition and science.

The study was conducted by the nonprofit American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) to help parents and students determine where they might get the best bang for their buck. It was timed to coincide with the release of U.S. News and World Report's annual evaluation of the "best" colleges and universities, which is based primarily on various statistical data, reputation and prestige.

ACTA focused its efforts on requirements as a measure of what an institution actually delivers.

Hit the link above and read the whole, very interesting article. 

Limousine liberal Mort Zuckerman on "The End of American Optimism"

Zuckerman - big Obama supporter in the last election - can't bring himself to actually place the blame for the "New Normal" and other excuses for the woeful economic policies of the Administration.

I've posted other regrets Zuckerman has expressed, like this one Another major Obama supporter dismayed: "He's Done Everything Wrong" and this one "Never get on the wrong side of a billionaire"

So where's the dismay for the woeful healthcare reform, or the phoney "stimulus?" Not in this WSJ op ed. just a bunch of platitudes.

Zuckerman should man up and admit that he, Mort Zuckerman, was wrong.

The End of American Optimism

Good start to Monday - "Asking for Directions"

From humor consultant Ellen

Very funny ...

"Taxpayers don't look at taxes the way the people who spend the tax money do."

That's the first line of a good, sensible essay by Debra Saunders -

Take the battle over the extension of the "Bush tax cuts." Americans to Washington: They were tax cuts in 2001 and 2003. If Washington allows all or parts of the "Bush tax cuts" to expire at the end of the year, the result won't be to not cut taxes, as Beltway lingo and President Obama suggest, but to raise taxes.

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman laid out the situation as a choice between (a) "asking the richest 2 percent or so of Americans to go back to paying the tax rates they paid during the Clinton-era boom" and (b) "allowing the nation's foundations to crumble."

But I think Karl Rove got it right when he wrote in his recent book, "Courage and Consequence," that many Democrats "would rather have high taxes and a lower standard of living than low taxes and a higher standard of living."

******

I don't have the knee-jerk reaction against ending some of the Bush tax cuts that many Republicans have. For one thing, rich people elected Obama, so let them pay higher taxes. Besides, elections have consequences, and voters need to feel those consequences. (The Bush-era deficits, with increased government spending and lower taxes, allowed people to have it both ways for too long.)

But this is no time to be pure. With the new jobless numbers out and the economic recovery teetering, this is simply the wrong time to raise taxes. The smart move for Obama would be to announce that he'll start raising taxes when the economy shapes up, stop proposing stimulus packages because they don't create private-sector jobs and stick to that plan. That would rally the country.

And while he's at it and Democrats are talking about the need for sacrifice, maybe when the economy's strength revives, they could look beyond squeezing the rich and instead begin trimming some of those odious "Bush tax cuts" for the middle class. Geithner says it's irresponsible to let the Bush tax rates continue, as that adds $700 billion to the deficit over 10 years. Well, what about the middle-class part of the package? It adds $2.4 trillion to the deficit.

Meanwhile, Republican talk-show hosts are in la-la land. They keep talking about the magic of the Reagan tax cuts. It's time to start living in the present, guys. Last year's annual deficit was $1.4 trillion. If you cut taxes but you don't cut spending, you make the debt bigger.

For my part, I don't want to hear another conservative pundit call for more tax cuts until there's a closure of the gap between what Washington takes in and what it promises and spends. If that day never comes, well, someone has to pay for the party.