Focused like a laser on the country’s real problems: Six northeast senators have introduced legislation that would make it a felony to sell fake maple syrup.
When Elon Musk gave his speech at the National Press Club on September 29, he was asked one question to which he really did not know the answer. He faked it, but his response illustrated how completely forgotten is one fundamental fact about American society — even though this fact is the very reason the United States became the world’s most wealthy and powerful nation less than two centuries after its founding.
To explain this fundamental fact I think I need to take a step back and talk about the ongoing war taking place right now over how the United States should get its astronauts into space. On one side we have NASA and Congress, who want NASA to build a new heavy-lift rocket to carry its Orion capsule beyond Earth orbit. On the other side we have a host of independent new space companies, all vying for the chance to launch humans and cargo into space for fun and profit.
Which is right? What system should the United State choose?
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How NASA’s bureaucracy intends to maintain control over space exploration. More here.
Gilad Shalit has been released for 1000 Palestinians convicted prisoners. And who were these Palestinians? Some examples:
They include the perpetrators of some of the most ghastly terrorist attacks of recent years: Brutal killers like Abd al-Aziz Salehi, who gleefully displayed his blood-soaked hands to a cheering Ramallah crowd in 2000 after lynching two Israelis and mutilating their bodies. Like Ibrahim Yunis, mastermind of a 2003 cafe bombing that left seven innocents dead, including an American-born doctor and his 20-year-old daughter on the eve of her wedding. Like Ahlam Tamimi, a Palestinian television personality who boasts of her role in organizing the 2001 bombing of a pizzeria in downtown Jerusalem, in which 15 people were killed, seven of them children.
Gilad Shalit freed: Israel agrees to swap a thousand Palestinian prisoners for him.
I wonder how many of those Palestinian prisoners, many imprisoned for terrorist acts, will come back to do more harm.
The tolerance of Islam: Jews banned at Jewish holy site in Egypt.
The abuse of power: A Louisiana man has won a $1.7 million lawsuit from the EPA for malicious prosecution.
The judge wrote that [government prosecutor Keith] Phillips, “set out with intent and reckless and callous disregard for anyone’s rights other than his own, and reckless disregard for the processes and power which had been bestowed on him, to effectively destroy another man’s life.” Furthermore, Judge Doherty railed against the complete absence of evidence against Mr. Vidrine and ordered the U.S. government to pay Mr. Vidrine $127,000 in defense fees, $50,000 in lost income, and $900,000 in loss of earning capacity.
For the third year in a row — all Obama years — the federal government ran a deficit exceeding $1.3 trillion.
We’re to help you: The first recommendations for a “basic essential health package,” as determined by the federal government under Obamacare, were released today.
Until now, designing benefits has been the job of insurers, employers and state officials. But the new health care law requires insurance companies to provide at least the federally approved package if they want to sell to small businesses, families and individuals through new state markets set to open in 2014.
Isn’t it nice that a handful of Washington apparatchiks are going to dictate the health plans that all of us must have? Doesn’t this feature of Obamacare make you feel happy and secure?
NOT. Repeal the damn thing, and throw as many of the bums who voted for it out of office, as fast as possible.
A Florida judge has ruled that NASA has the right to sue for the camera former Apollo astronaut Edgar Mitchell says was given to him by NASA forty years ago.
Surprise, surprise! The crime rates plummeted in Chicago and Washington after the Supreme Court ruled their gun laws were unconstitutional.
An American scientist trapped in China.
Verizon has now sued the FCC over its attempt to regulate the internet.
What could go wrong? Scientists push for a monitoring network to collect environmental and socioeconomic data from around the world.
Sandy Andelman, an ecologist with Conservation International in Arlington, Virginia, discussed her work setting up a pilot project that began two years ago in southern Tanzania. In addition to basic environmental data about soils, nutrients and land cover, the project tracks agricultural practices. It also incorporates data about income, health and education that is maintained by the government. Andelman says that all the data she collects can be broken down to the level of individual households, and that initial results from the project have already prompted the Tanzanian government to adjust the way it zones agricultural land in the area. [emphasis mine]
Lord help the farmers whose lives will be tracked by this network.
The Republican-controlled House has proposed a budget for National Institutes of Health (NIH) that is one billion more than last year’s budget, an increase from $30.7 to $31.7 billion.
What evil budget-cutters these Republicans are! Their mean-spirited budget increase has the nerve to reduce Obama’s budget request by about $120 million, equivalent to a whopping one third of one percent!
This is all shameful. For context, in 2008 NIH’s budget was $29.2 billion. Considering the state of the budget it seems unconscionable for the House to agree to any increase over $30.7 billion. In truth, it is perfectly reasonable to reduce NIH’S budget back to its 2008 number.
Too bad our present Congress, both Democratic and Republican, isn’t reasonable.
A new report from the EPA Office of the Inspector General has said that EPA violated its own peer review process in determining that greenhouse gases endanger “the public health and welfare.”
Islamic tolerance: A Christian pastor in Iran has been ordered to recant his faith in court or face execution.
Facing outraged criticism, General Motors’ OnStar division has dropped its plans to track and record the personal driving information of both former and current subscribers.
Sounds good, but I wouldn’t assume this story is over. I also wouldn’t be surprised if they try again later to sneak this data grab by everyone.
Repeal it! Obamacare sent health premiums up 9% in the past year.
North Carolina Democratic governor Beverly Perdue suggested that the next Congressional election should be suspended.
I think we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years and just tell them we won’t hold it against them, whatever decisions they make, to just let them help this country recover.
I wonder why she really suggests this? Could it be because the Democrats are unpopular and risk losing more seats in 2012 than they lost in 2010?
A victory for freedom: The Veterans Administration has settled the lawsuit filed against it by veteran’s groups at Houston National Cemetery over the VA’s attempt to stifle prayer at funerals. The key terms of the settlement:
That it took a court suit to make the First Amendment clear to the VA is beyond sad.
Want to repeal Obamacare? Well, someone has posted a petition to repeal the law on the White House’s own website.
Essentially, the new White House petition website allows anyone to create a petition. Once it reaches 150 signers it becomes public. Once it reaches 5,000 the administration promises an official response.
What will the White House say if their own website is overwhelmed with signatories to a petition calling for the repeal of Obamacare? To find out I’ve added my name. You should to!
On a 3-2 partisan vote, the FCC voted to regulate the internet on Thursday, despite a court ruling that says it has no right to do so.
Finding out what’s in it: Obamacare requires that everyone’s private medical records be made available to the federal government.
We’re here to help you! The Obama Administration is banning the only over-the-counter asthma inhaler because of environmental concerns.
A California couple has been hit with fines for holding a Bible study session in their home.
Freedom of speech alert: A high school suspended a student earlier this week for merely saying “I’m a Christian. I think being a homosexual is wrong.”
