Conservative Kids

McCain, ANWR, and the Grand Canyon

2008-06-12T06:51:00.000-04:00

John McCain has said he will not let drilling for oil start in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge because of it's pristine beauty: "As far as ANWR is concerned, I don’t want to drill in the Grand Canyon, and I don’t want to drill in the Everglades. This is one of the most pristine and beautiful parts of the world."

The "pristine beauty" part depends on what part of ANWR you are talking about. Pictured below is part of the coastal area that has been reserved for oil drilling. Of course, the environmentalist wackos have successfully blocked our country from drilling there and achieving any kind of energy independence.

The following pictures (from other parts of ANWR) are what environmentalists show the simple-minded people, like John McCain, when trying to convince them of the damage and loss of habitat that will occur when drilling eventually commences in ANWR:

As far as comparisons with the Grand Canyon, ANWR gets under 2,000 visitors annually. Why? "For most of the year, ANWR is unbearably cold and dark. For several weeks, the sun doesn't even rise and leaves the windswept landscape a very inhospitable environment. Only a few hundred people visit ANWR each year."

But the Grand Canyon, pictured below, gets an astounding 5 million visitors annually. I guess that our country's energy independence and national security will have to be set aside so that John McCain and the Marxist environmentalists can have their pristine ANWR that they never will visit.

Arctic ice traps "climate tour" icebreaker

2008-05-29T18:16:00.000-04:00

link to original source

This is an interesting article about a tour ship for those who want to see the Arctic ice cap before it melts as a result of man-made global warming. Things went awry when the icebreaker tour ship became trapped in the ice that is supposed to be disappearing.

I am on the bridge of the massive Russian icebreaker Kapitan Khlebnikov, and the tension is palpable. We have hit ice - thick ice.

We are travelling from the northeastern corner of Russia, across the Bering Sea and the top of Canada to Resolute Bay in Nunavut. At least that's the plan. We haven't even reached Canadian waters and we are already in trouble.

The ice master studies the mountains of white packed around the ship while the 24,000-horsepower diesel engines work at full throttle to open a path. The ship rises slowly onto the barrier of ice, crushes it and tosses aside blocks the size of small cars as if they were ice cubes in a glass. It creeps ahead a few metres, then comes to a halt, its bow firmly wedged in the ice. After doing this for two days, the ship can go no farther.

The ice master confers with the captain, who makes a call to the engine room. The engines are shut down. He turns to those of us watching the drama unfold, and we are shocked by his words: "Now, only nature can help this ship." We are doomed to drift.

What irony. I am a passenger on one of the most powerful icebreakers in the world, travelling through the Northwest Passage - which is supposed to become almost ice-free in a time of global warming, the next shipping route across the top of the world - and here we are, stuck in the ice, engines shut down, bridge deserted. Only time and tide can free us.

No apology necessary for Koran shooting

2008-05-20T18:26:00.004-04:00

Today, President Bush apologized for an incident in which an American soldier in Iraq used the Koran, the holy book of the Muslims, for target practice.

Although I wouldn't waste a perfectly good bullet on a Koran, for our government to treat the Koran as something sacred when we don't even guarantee that kind of respect for the Holy Bible is a spectacular display of weakness and political pandering. In some Muslim countries, even those considered to be our allies, our soldiers and citizens are not even allowed to bring a Bible with them.

Writers and cartoonists around the world who have "insulted" Islam have been killed or recieved death threats.

It is truly amazing that in the 6 1/2 years since 9/11 Islam and Muslims have become a special protected class in our country and that this special protection even extends beyond our borders. Islam and the Koran have been elevated by our politicians to a protected status that Christianity and Judaism have never attained. Muslims are given special consideration in airports, schools, and other government run institutions.

Our Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, not the politically-correct favoring of one religion over the other. It's time to elect leaders who will honor the Constitution and not a backward, misogynistic, hate-filled religion like Islam.

The truth about "climate change"

2008-05-15T21:41:00.000-04:00

On Mike Huckabee's website, Mike asked his readers and bloggers to comment on the following question: Should "climate change" be part of the GOP platform with issues such as less government, lower taxes, a strong national defense and real border security? The following is my response:

The earth has been warming and cooling in natural cycles for thousands of years, long before man ever had a chance to leave a "carbon" footprint.

To think that we are powerful enough to affect the global climate, particularly the temperature, is secularist in philosophy and is a tribute to the sinful man's ego as he tries to put himself on par with Almighty God, the maker of the sun, which drives temperature change, and the earth, that receives the sun's energy.

Stopping a hurricane or a volcanic eruption would be easier than trying raise or lower the temperature of the earth an iota.

I normally do not voice my Christian views in these political forums, but this issue of the climate boils down not to just political posturing, but also to very nature of man and the Creation.

The Bible is replete with examples of the Lord controlling the weather, using it to save His people, destroy His enemies, punish a wayward people, bring blessings to his faithful servants, or to demonstrate His awesome power, such as when the Lord spoke to Elijah as he hid in a cave.

When Jesus calmed the storm that frightened his disciples in their small boat, He demonstrated again that it is not man who influences the earth's weather, but it is under Almighty God's control.

Liberals, particularly socialists and Marxists, have been trying to supplant God with humanism. Man-made "climate change" is a part of that philosophy, as they indoctrinate our children in school and adults through the media with their secular "alternative" to God.

After all, if humans can control the earth's climate, then what can't they control? The liberals will have built their own environmental Tower of Babel, and unfortunately will have suckered many God-fearing people into their illusion that man has the power to affect the environment.

Add to this the political and economic implications, which we are just beginning to see with high food and energy prices, and we will have an even worse mess later if we do not get the government out of the subsidy, tariff, energy, and weather business.

In short, man has not changed the earth's temperature one bit, and to base government policy on a philosophy so short on science and out of harmony with God's laws will only lead to further ruin of our great country.

Unstoppable solar cycles

2008-05-05T18:00:00.001-04:00

This video is absolutely brilliant and should be seen by every person in America.

Scientist: Forget Global Warming, Prepare for New Ice Age

2008-04-27T08:41:00.000-04:00

link to original source

Sunspot activity has not resumed up after hitting an 11-year low in March last year, raising fears that — far from warming — the globe is about to return to an Ice Age, says an Australian-American scientist.

Physicist Phil Chapman, the first native-born Australian to become an astronaut with NASA [he became an American citizen to join up, though he never went into space], said pictures from the U.S. Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) showed no spots on the sun.

He said the world cooled quickly between January last year and January this year, by about 0.7 degrees Centigrade.

"This is the fastest temperature change in the instrumental record, and it puts us back to where we were in 1930," Chapman wrote in The Australian Wednesday. "If the temperature does not soon recover, we will have to conclude that global warming is over."

[Critics quickly pointed out that Chapman may have been "cherry-picking" the data. A strong La Nina formation in the Pacific pushed down January temperatures over much of the Northern Hemisphere from where they had been a year earlier, but average global temperatures are still much higher than the 20th-century average, and the NOAA said last week that last month was the warmest March on record.]

The Bureau of Meteorology says temperatures in Australia have been warmer than the 1960-90 average since the late 1970s, barring a couple of cooler years, and are now 0.3 degrees Centigrade higher than the long-term average.

A sunspot is a region on the sun that is cooler than the rest and appears dark.

An alternative theory of global warming is that a strong solar magnetic field, when there is plenty of sunspot activity, protects the Earth from cosmic rays, cutting cloud formation, but that when the field is weak — during low sunspot activity — the rays can penetrate into the lower atmosphere and cloud cover increases, cooling the surface.

But scientists from the U.S. National Centre for Atmospheric Research in Bolder, Colorado published a report in 2006 that showed the sun had a negligible effect on climate change.

The researchers wrote in the journal Nature that the sun's brightness varied by only 0.07 percent over 11-year sunspot cycles, and that that was far too little to account for the rise in temperatures since the Industrial Revolution.

Chapman proposes preventive, or delaying, moves to slow the cooling, such as bulldozing Siberian and Canadian snow to make it dirty and less reflective.

"My guess is that the odds are now at least 50:50 that we will see significant cooling rather than warming in coming decades," he writes.

Hurricane expert reconsiders global warming's impact

2008-04-21T18:41:00.001-04:00

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Editor's note: As you read this article, you willl notice how vague and contradictory many of the scientists statements are.

For instance: "The take-home message is that we've got a lot of work to do," Emanuel said. "There's still a lot of uncertainty in this problem. The bulk of the evidence is that hurricane power will go up, but in some places it will go down."

It reminds me of a psychic who once told the police that they would find a missing child "either alive or dead in a wet or dry place". To build economic and political policies based on such bad science as global warming alarmism is dangerous for not only our country, but the rest of the world as well.

Houston- One of the most influential scientists behind the theory that global warming has intensified recent hurricane activity says he will reconsider his stand.

The hurricane expert, Kerry Emanuel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, unveiled a novel technique for predicting future hurricane activity this week. The new work suggests that, even in a dramatically warming world, hurricane frequency and intensity may not substantially rise during the next two centuries.

The research, appearing in the March issue of Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, is all the more remarkable coming from Emanuel, a highly visible leader in his field and long an ardent proponent of a link between global warming and much stronger hurricanes.

His changing views could influence other scientists.

"The results surprised me," Emanuel said of his work, adding that global warming may still play a role in raising the intensity of hurricanes. What that role is, however, remains far from certain.

Emanuel's work uses a new method of computer modeling that did a reasonable job of simulating past hurricane fluctuations. He, therefore, believes the models may have predictive value for future activity.

During and after the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons, which were replete with mega-storms and U.S. landfalls, scientists dived into the question of whether rising ocean temperatures, attributed primarily to global warming, were causing stronger storms.

Among the first to publish was Emanuel, who — just three weeks before Hurricane Katrina's landfall — published a paper in Nature that concluded a key measurement of the power dissipated by a storm during its lifetime had risen dramatically since the mid-1970s.

In the future, he argued, incredibly active hurricane years such as 2005 would become the norm rather than flukes.

Other factors likely
This view, amplified by environmentalists and others concerned about global warming, helped establish in the public's mind that "super" hurricanes were one of climate change's most critical threats. A satellite image of a hurricane emanating from a smokestack featured prominently in promotions for Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth.

"Kerry had the good fortune, or maybe the bad fortune, to publish when the world's attention was focused on hurricanes in 2005," Roger Pielke Jr., who studies science and policy at the University of Colorado, said of Emanuel. "Kerry's work was seized upon in the debate."

After the 2005 hurricane season, a series of other papers were published that appeared to show, among other things, that the most intense hurricanes were becoming more frequent.

What has not been as broadly disseminated, say Pielke and some hurricane scientists, is that other research papers have emerged that suggest global warming has yet to leave an imprint on hurricane activity. One of them, published late last year in Nature, found that warming seas may not increase hurricane intensity.

That paper's co-author, Gabriel Vecchi, a research scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said Emanuel's new work highlights the great uncertainty that remains in hurricane science.

"While his results don't rule out the possibility that global warming has contributed to the recent increase in activity in the Atlantic, they suggest that other factors — possibly in addition to global warming — are likely to have been substantial contributors to the observed increase in activity," Vecchi said.

Scientists wrangling with the hurricane-global warming question have faced two primary difficulties. The first is that the hurricane record before 1970 is not entirely reliable, making it nearly impossible to assess with precision whether hurricane activity has increased during the last century.

The second problem comes through the use of computer models to predict hurricane activity. Most climate models, which simulate global atmospheric conditions for centuries to come, cannot detect individual tropical systems.

Emanuel's new research attempts to get around that by inserting "seeds" of tropical systems throughout the climate models and seeing which develop into tropical storms and hurricanes. The "seeds," bits of computer code, tend to develop when simulated atmospheric conditions, such as low wind shear, are ripe for hurricane formation.

'A lot of work to do'
In the new paper, Emanuel and his co-authors project activity nearly two centuries hence, finding an overall drop in the number of hurricanes around the world, while the intensity of storms in some regions does rise.

For example, with Atlantic hurricanes, two of the seven model simulations Emanuel ran suggested that the overall intensity of storms would decline. Five models suggested a modest increase.

"The take-home message is that we've got a lot of work to do," Emanuel said. "There's still a lot of uncertainty in this problem. The bulk of the evidence is that hurricane power will go up, but in some places it will go down."

The issue probably will not be resolved until better computer models are developed, said Judith Curry, of the Georgia Institute of Technology, a leading hurricane and climate scholar.

By publishing his new paper, and by the virtue of his high profile, Emanuel could be a catalyst for further agreement in the field of hurricanes and global warming, Curry said.

The generally emerging view, she said, seems to be that global warming may cause some increase in intensity, that this increase will develop slowly over time, and that it likely will lead to a few more Category 4 and Category 5 storms. How many? When? No one yet knows.

Former US president Jimmy Carter betrays victims of terrorism

2008-04-16T21:04:00.002-04:00

source for this story

Jimmy Carter, the former US president, visited the West Bank in Israel today and met with leaders of Hamas, a terrorist organization that is responsible for hundreds of deaths and is devoted to wiping out Israel as a country. Carter also visited the grave of terrorist Yasser Arafat and laid a wreath at his gravesite.

Carter did all this against the wishes of Israel and the US State Department. His involvement in having talks with a known terrorist organization that is currently fighting other Muslims for control of Palestine is beyond reproach and is a slap in the face to the victims of Hamas and their families. To this day, Hamas routinely fires rocket mortars into Israel in an attempt to extort more concessions from the Israeli government.

Hamas official policy towards Israel is this: "There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors." Obviously, there are no conditions under which Hamas will abandon it's Jihad (struggle) against Israel, including a face-to-face with Carter. Hamas is financed by dozens of countries and Muslim charities all over the world, including millions of dollars from Muslims inside the United States.

The organization's first mass attack was a car bomb that blew up at a bus stop in Afula in April 1994, murdering 8 and wounding 51. Among the most horrific Hamas attacks were the following:

* 22 people killed and 56 wounded in a suicide bombing attack on the No. 5 bus on Dizengoff St. in Tel Aviv, Oct. 1994
* 26 killed by suicide bomber on a #18 bus near the Jerusalem Central Bus Station, Feb. 1996
* 16 killed in the Mahane Yehuda open market in Jerusalem in a double suicide attack, July 1997
* 23 dead and 115 wounded when a Hamas suicide bomber blew himself up on a No. 2 bus line coming from the Western Wall
in Jerusalem, August 2003
* 45 murdered within the space of five days in March 2002: a suicide Hamas terrorist blew himself up in a Haifa restaurant,
killing 15, and another one did the same in the Park Hotel in in Netanya during a Passover Seder, murdering some 30 and
wounding 144.

The ten worst Oslo War Hamas attacks, in which a total of 186 were murdered, also included the following:
* June 1, 2001 - Dolphinarium in Tel Aviv, 21 killed - mostly new-immigrant teenagers from the former Soviet Union
* Aug. 9, 2001 - Sbarro's Pizzeria in Jerusalem, 15 killed, including the parents and three children of the Schijveschuurder family
* Dec. 2, 2001 - Haifa bus, 15 killed
* May 7, 2002 - Rishon Letzion hall, 16 killed
* June 18, 2002 - #32 bus from Gilo, Jerusalem, 19 killed
* March 5, 2003 - #37 bus in Haifa, 15 dead
* June 11, 2003 - #14 bus, Jerusalem, 17 murdered
click here for a full list of Hamas terrorist attacks

Jimmy Carter was an embarrassment as a US president, and is now an embarassment as he tries to build a legacy by reconciling the Palestinian/Israeli divide. The State Department should revoke his passport for giving aid and comfort to the enemy and refuse his re-entry into the United States

Marines help rebuild Islamic schools in Bangladesh

2008-04-15T19:09:00.001-04:00

link to original source

Four months after deadly storms struck Bangladesh, 40 Marines and sailors with 1st Engineer Platoon, Fuel Company, 9th Engineer Support Battalion, 3rd Marine Logistics Group, continued relief efforts alongside 100 Bangladesh Army and Navy service members by rebuilding two schools March 6 – 30.

The construction project was part of the III Marine Expeditionary Force Bangladesh Interoperability Program, a joint effort focused on helping Bangladeshi communities rebuild from the storm that killed an estimated 3,500 people and caused an estimated $450 million in damage.

The platoon was assign to the town of Mongla in the southwest corner of Bangladesh. In January, an advanced party of Marines was sent to survey the conditions of two Islamic schools, known as Madrasahs, which were identified for repair. The team found little to survey.

“The buildings were gone,” said Gunnery Sgt. David Dickens, platoon sergeant. “They were destroyed. So basically it was just two open lots.”

The engineers immediately went to work designing two new schools from the ground up. Instead of using their standard construction templates, the 9th ESB Marines modified the design to ensure the buildings could be maintained with materials readily available in Bangladesh after they left. They decided on using tin for the roofs and bamboo sheathing for walls instead of the plywood and shingles more common in Western construction.

Building the schools with unconventional materials required the assistance of a Bangladesh Army engineer platoon who worked alongside the U.S. service members.

“As Americans we don’t do a lot of tin roofing any more,” Dickens said. “We had to lean on the expertise of the Bangladesh Army for that.”

Members of the Bangladesh Navy provided security during the project.

Some platoon members found working with the Bangladeshi soldiers difficult at first due to the language barrier as communications were often reduced to hand signals.

“We were basically playing charades in order to construct a building,” said Cpl. Michael Spivey, a squad leader for the platoon.

Over time, both parties began to pick up on the other’s language, making communication smoother. A common phrase emerged as a constant on the job site - “Shu•muh•sha•ne”, a Bangladeshi phrase meaning “no problem”.

“That was the motto of the mission. Any time there was a debate over a problem it always ended with ‘Shu•muh•sha•ne,’ we’ll figure it out,” Dickens said.

The appreciation of the townspeople was evident each day as the Marines drove through town on their way to the construction site, said squad leader Cpl. Amanda Wilson.

“They were really, really grateful and excited when we came by,” she said. “They stood on the side of the streets just waving as we passed. I’ve always wanted to do something for a country like that, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”

Dickens shared the sentiment. “It’s probably one of the best projects I’ve ever done in my 16 years in the Marine Corps,” he said.

The "Real" Rainbow Fish Story

2008-04-13T16:23:00.002-04:00

By Burt Noyes

(click here for printable version)

Out in the countryside was a very large pond with all kinds of animals, fish, and plants. The smartest creatures were the fish, who had been there as long as anyone could remember.

Now most of the fish were pretty happy with the way things were. They swam around finding food to eat, going to school, talking about the weather, saying things like “Is it wet enough for you?”

Two fish that never seemed very happy though were Jimmy and Kyle.

What made them unhappy, very unhappy, was a fish named Bill.

Bill was different from all the other fish because he had scales that were very different from everyone else’s. Bill’s scales were all kinds of flashy colors, orange, blue, red, purple, yellow, bright green, just about every color you could imagine. All the other fish, including Jimmy and Kyle, had gray scales, some lighter or darker. Jimmy and Kyle would see Bill go by with his bright scales and get very jealous and angry.

Jimmy and Kyle started talking about Bill’s bright colorful scales with all the other gray fish in the pond.

“Don’t you all think Bill should share his scales with everyone else?” they asked their friends.

Their friends like Jane and Karl hadn’t really thought about Bill’s bright scales before, but now that they looked at him and then looked at themselves, they started to get jealous too.

The four fish decided to talk to Bill about sharing his scales. One evening as the warm sun was setting on the edge of the pond, they saw Bill coming back from the south end of the pond.

Jimmy decided to start off the conversation. “Bill, we have noticed how bright and colorful your scales are, and we would like you to give us some of them. Then we’ll be colorful too and finally be happy.”

Bill floated gracefully as he thought about what they were asking. “Well,” he said, “I don’t think the scales would last very long once I give them to you. But I can tell you how you can get some colorful scales of your own”.

“All you have to do is go down to the south end of the pond and find some plants that look like little trumpets growing in the deeper water. After you eat the plants for a few weeks, you’ll start to get more color in your scales, and after a year, you’ll look like me, if not better. My father taught me about this, and his father taught him also.”

The four jealous fish listened to his story, but it sounded like a lot of work and they didn’t want to wait for weeks, and certainly a year was too long. So they swam off together and tried to figure out a plan to get Bill’s scales.

Kyle was listening to the other three when he saw Big Sam swim by. Big Sam was the biggest, ugliest , meanest fish in the pond. Everyone was afraid of him, and even though he was slow, he was very scary.

Kyle told the other three “Hey, let’s get Big Sam to go over there and take Bill’s scales and give them to us.”

“Why would he help us?” Jane asked.

“Let’s make him the king of the pond,” said Karl. “We can tell him how nasty Bill is and that Bill stole all those scales from the other fish. Tell Big Sam that he would be doing a good thing by taking the scales from Bill and giving them equally to everyone else.” Everyone thought the plan was great, and decided to talk to Big Sam as soon as possible.

Early the next morning, the four jealous fish, Jimmy, Kyle, Karl, and Jane, along with some of their not-so-bright friends, found Big Sam floating on his back sleeping like a log.

They woke Big Sam up and told him their plan to make him king. When they told him how Bill had stolen the scales from everyone else, which was a lie, and that Big Sam would be a hero if he could take Bill’s scales and give them to everyone else, Big Sam readily agreed to be their king.

That evening, as the warm sun was setting on the edge of the pond, Bill came along as he usually does from the south end to go home. Big Sam and the jealous fish and their friends all swarmed around Bill, making Bill very afraid.

“I am now the King of the Pond,” declared Big Sam. “My first act as the good king that I am is to take your bright scales and give them to the less fortunate fish in the pond. You have plenty of scales, and we will not take them all, but everyone deserves to have bright scales. And besides that, you don’t deserve these scales, you stole them from the other fish.”

Before Bill could say a word, Big Sam was ripping the scales from Bill’s skin, leaving big colorless patches of gray like the other fish. The jealous fish cheered for Big Sam, who finally seemed to have found something he was good at.

When Big Sam finally finished taking Bill’s scales, Bill silently slipped away while Big Sam turned to other fish.

Big Sam had thousands of bright colorful scales, and started to hand them out a few at a time to the other fish. “Isn’t this great?” said Jimmy and Kyle to the others, as they put some of the colorful scales over their own gray scales. All the fish swam around looking at each other, admiring the new scales, and even happier now that Bill was not as beautiful as he used to be.

They all looked at Big Sam , and were surprised that instead of having a few scales like them, he had hundreds of the bright scales. When Big Sam saw them looking at all the scales he had kept to himself, he smirked “It’s good to be the king,” and swam off to his home.

The next morning, the fish of the pond went about their usual business. Jimmy saw Kyle swimming over his way when he noticed something was wrong with Kyle’s new scales.

“Your new scales are turning gray!” Jimmy shouted.

Kyle shouted back “Jimmy, your new scales are turning gray too!”

As the fish all came out to enjoy the day, they noticed that all the colorful scales were now gray, and that they all looked exactly like they did before they made Big Sam king. Even the hundreds of scales Big Sam had kept for himself were now gray and falling off.

They all were even more jealous and angry when they saw Bill swimming toward the south end of the pond with his patchy skin starting to turn bright and colorful again. And even more shocking than that, two other fish were following Bill to the south end of the pond.

This went on for several days. Each day, Bill and his two friends would come back from the south end of the pond, brighter and more colorful than the day before. Big Sam and the other fish were really angry now.

Big Sam caught them the next day, and took even more of their scales, giving some of them away to the other fish, but still keeping more of them for himself. For weeks this went on. Bill and his two friends kept having their scales taken, Big Sam got bigger and scarier, and the other fish would get a few scales once in a while, just to have them turn gray and fall off the next day.

Meanwhile, more fish were going to the south end of the pond and learning from Bill how to grow their own colorful scales. There were plenty of the trumpet-shaped plants for them to eat if they would just put forth some effort. The jealous fish were getting even more angry, calling them traitors, and demanding that Big Sam do something about the trend.

They told Big Sam that if all the fish got their own bright scales, then they wouldn’t need Big Sam to be king anymore. When Big Sam heard this, he was angry and started looking for a way to stop the colorful fish permanently.

The warm days in the pond had been growing longer and Jane noticed something unusual. The pond was getting lower!!!!!

Now the pond wasn’t very much lower at all. In fact, it had lowered so little that nobody had noticed it but Jane, since she was always measuring the pond.

Jane told Jimmy and Kyle that day how the pond had recently lowered. Jimmy and Kyle had heard of the pond lowering and raising before, but they had never seen it personally. But an idea came to them, an incredible, powerful, devious idea that would put and end to Bill and his friends and their colorful scales.

They called all the fish of the pond to a general meeting around the giant cat-tail plant. This was a very rare occasion, so all of the fish were interested in what was going on.

Jimmy opened the meeting. “We have found out some very alarming news. Jane discovered that the pond we live in is getting lower. Other fish have confirmed this fact. The pond is drying up and we have only one chance to stop it before we all end up dead!”

There was a huge gasp from the crowd. All the fish started yelling, talking, shouting, and crying. “What has caused this to happen?” they asked.

Jimmy slowly pointed his fin in the direction of Bill and his two almost fully-colored friends. “Ever since those three have been feeding at the south end of the pond, and getting more colorful, the pond has slowly been lowering. I propose that Big Sam be given the authority to stop them from going to the south end. Hopefully, we can stop the pond from drying up.”

The crowd heard a cough from the back of the crowd. It was Gerry, the oldest fish in the pond, and he asked for the opportunity to speak.

“I’ve lived in this pond for many seasons,” he said, “more than anyone here I suppose. I’ve seen the pond lower before, and I’ve seen it raise too. I suppose long after I die, the raising and lowering will still go on. I don’t see any evidence that Bill and his friends have caused this to happen, and I propose that they be left alone.”

The fish turned back to Jimmy. He shouted “This old fish is a Lowering denier, and anyone who denies this has to be silenced! Who will you believe, the old denier or Jane with her new scientific measuring stick?”

The crowd of fish roared in agreement, and passed a law giving Big Sam the power to stop Bill and his friends from going to the south end. They also passed a law stopping anyone from discussing the pond-lowering issue.

Bill and his friends did stop going to the south end of the pond. Slowly, their scales started to fade, turning paler and paler until they were as gray as the rest of the fish.

Jimmy and Kyle and the rest of the jealous fish were now very sad at their situation. They were still gray, just like before, but now they had Big Sam for a king, and he had gotten meaner and scarier. Not only did Big Sam not allow them to talk about the pond-lowering issue, they weren’t allowed to talk about anything, read anything, or do anything that Big Sam did not approve of.

The next spring, as the water warmed, and the snow on the banks of pond melted, the water did rise once again, just like the old fish Gerry had predicted. And all the gray fish swam around in misery, waiting for the day when Big Sam would finally float to the surface belly-up one last and final time.

Evolutionists surprised....AGAIN!

2008-04-11T19:17:00.001-04:00

link to original source

Editor's note: Evolutionists are always being "surprised" and "amazed" and "having to rethink how we evolved" whenever they discover something new in their field of study. Yet, those who believe in creation and Intelligent Design are mocked as ignorant simpletons, with many scientists, teachers and professors being fired for their belief that God was behind the amazing universe we call home.
In the following article, the evolutionists admit that they were wrong about how they structured the "animal tree of life". While creationists never have to revamp their belief system, evolutionists are constantly finding evidence contrary to their current theories and revamping their system to fit the new "evidence". But never call Darwinism and evolution a "theory", you might lose your job or get a failing grade from your science teacher.

find a theater showing "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed"

From LiveScience.com- Earth's first animal was the ocean-drifting comb jelly, not the simple sponge, according to a new find that has shocked scientists who didn't imagine the earliest critter could be so complex.
The mystery of the first animal denizen of the planet can only be inferred from fossils and by studying related animals today. To get to the bottom of that, scientists analyzed massive volumes of genetic data to define the earliest splits at the base of the animal tree of life.
The tree of life is a hierarchy of evolutionary relationships among species that shows which groups split off on their own evolutionary path first.
The new study surprisingly found that the comb jelly was the first animal to diverge from the base of the tree, not the less complex sponge, which had previously been given the honor.
"This was a complete shocker," said study team member Casey Dunn of Brown University in Rhode Island. "So shocking that we initially thought something had gone very wrong."

Dunn's team checked and re-checked their results and came up with the same result every time: the comb jelly came first. The results are detailed in the April 10 issue of the journal Nature, a journal that, like most respected journals, requires other scientists review a paper prior to publication.
Unlike sponges, comb jellies have connective tissues and a nervous system, and so are more complex. Though squishy and tentacled, they are not, however, true jellyfish as they lack the classic bell-shaped body and characteristic stinging cells.
The finding was unexpected because evolutionary biologists had thought that less complex animals split off and evolved separately first. Dunn says that two evolutionary scenarios can explain why the comb jellies would actually have been first among animals. The first is that the comb jelly evolved its complexity independent of other animals after branching off to forge its own path.
The second is that the sponge evolved its simpler form from the more complex form. This second possibility underscores the fact that "evolution is not necessarily just a march towards increased complexity," Dunn said.
Though scientists can say which animal branched off first, they can't date precisely when this early comb jelly diverged away. "Unfortunately, we don't have fossils of the oldest comb jelly," Dunn said. "Therefore, there is no way to date the earliest jelly and determine when it diverged."
Though comb jellies are a common creature in the seas today, these modern specimens likely look very different from their early ancestors.
Dunn and his team hope that their approach will fill other gaps in the tree of life, including where the branches of many of today's species belong.
Other researchers involved in the study, funded by the National Science Foundation: Gonzalo Giribet of Harvard University, Mark Martindale of the University of Hawaii and Ward Wheeler of the American Museum of Natural History.

Movie "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed"

2008-04-10T06:43:00.004-04:00

Ben Stein's movie "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" chronicles the Stalinist-type persecution that teachers in academia have experienced for not believing the Darwinist theory of evolution. These teachers dare to believe in creation and Intelligent Design.

The movie opens April 18, be sure to be there and support conservative values.

Bible passages for Easter weekend

2008-03-21T06:36:00.001-04:00

Romans 5:6-11

6For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

1 Peter 1:3-12
3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

10Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, 11inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. 12 It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.

Christianity, the Constitution, and Capitalism

2008-03-17T06:54:00.002-04:00

As our nation stands at the political crossroads of the 2008 election and a looming economic crisis, it is a good time to examine the bedrock principles upon which our country was founded and gather from them guidance for the future.

The three pillars which have supported our country from the beginning are Christianity, capitalism, and the Constitution, with Christianity being the center pillar that strengthened the other two.

In order to govern men (we'll use "men" in the Biblical sense of "all mankind") the political structure must be based on an understanding of the true nature of man and govern accordingly. Only the Christian faith declares the true nature of man to be fallen in sin and in need of salvation.

The structure of society, primarily the family and government, was ordained by God to curb that fallen nature through the discipline, education, and the threat and imposition of punishment, ranging from the rebuke of a loving parent to the deadly force of lawful authority.

The founding fathers were devout men of different denominations who held in common the basic precepts of the Christian faith. In declaring our independence from Britain and in the writing of our Constitution, they incorporated the truths found in Christianity to form the more perfect union. They recognized that the natural rights of all men, regardless of race or creed, were granted by God and that it was the obligation and duty of government to protect those rights.

Understanding that the government is as weak and imperfect as the men who run it, they incorporated into the Constitution the means of restraining and dividing federal power, protected the citizenry by empowering them to choose and replace their elected officials, and ensured through the Bill of Rights that they would have the means to expose and overthrow the government if it became tyrannical and broke faith with the people it governed.

Our capitalistic free-market system of economics also owes it's success to the Christian world-view.

All men inherently try to get the most they can with the least expenditure of work possible. Capitalism takes advantage of these two weaknesses, greed and sloth, to create a competition based economy that rewards hard work and diligence and punishes laziness.

People who want more "stuff" and discipline themselves to work hard and provide more or better products and services are rewarded with capital, while persons who have less or no ambition and are not willing to expend themselves in hard labor are punished with lower wages and a lower standard of living. Since a free-market capitalistic economy is not a zero-sum game, there is ample economic opportunity for everyone who is willing to do the hard work necessary to succeed. This opportunity has encouraged millions of people to leave their homeland and emigrate to the United States, bringing with them their desire to work and flourish as individuals and families.

In short, capitalism is the perfect economic system for imperfect men.

As time has gone on, however, all three pillars of our nation have been attacked and eroded by liberalism and secularism.

The family, which has been the stabilizing force throughout human history, is being attacked by the nanny-state Federal government, abortionists, and gay rights activists. As "separation of church and state" and Marxism maliciously found it's way into our government structure, the government began infringing on our God-given rights and replaced individualism and industriousness with entitlement programs and restrictions on freedom of speech, religion, and the right to bear arms.

Government regulation, excessive taxation, and environmental socialism has burdened our free-market capitalism to the point that we now are a quasi-fascist state. Hard work, diligence and achievement are punished while over half our population (that either can't or won't provide for themselves), is now supported by the minority through government hand-outs.

A society that ignores and impugns truth cannot survive indefinitely. As communist Russia collapsed of it's own immorality, so too will America collapse as it continues to replace God with State and disregard the values that made this country the greatest enterprise in freedom and liberty known to man.

Weather Channel Founder blasts Gore

2008-03-04T19:23:00.001-05:00

Illegal alien crashes into bus, kills four school kids

2008-02-25T06:32:00.003-05:00

The woman pictured on the left is an illegal alien that killed four school kids when her van crashed into their school bus Tuesday, Feb. 19.

She gave her name as Aliannis Morales, but the police say that is not her real name.

The accident occurred in Cottonwood, Minnesota when "Morales" ran a stop sign on her way to work. Her van crashed into the Lakeview school bus, killing four students and sending several students to area hospitals.

"Morales" had been working at Norcraft Cabinetry for a month before the crash. She told authorities through an interpreter that she is from Mexico.

Killed in the crash were two brothers, Hunter and Jesse Javens, ages 9 and 13, and Emily Olson, 9, and Reed Stevens, 12.

Why do we have illegal aliens killing American citizens on our roads and in other crimes on a daily basis?

The answer is that the US government has not enforced the laws controlling immigration into the country.

While the Bush Administration is busy putting US Border Patrol agents in jail for doing their job, thousands of illegal aliens like "Morales" cross our borders every day. Some are criminals and gang members, some are drug smugglers, while others are poor Mexicans and other nationals looking for better paying jobs.

While the legal citizens of the United States try to cope with the damage done to their communities and families by illegal aliens, Congress has been trying to give the illegal aliens amnesty in an effort to get more voters for their political parties. Senators Clinton, Obama, and McCain, all running for president, have voted in favor of amnesty for these criminals.

Another problem with our poor border control is that Islamic terrorists could come across the border by mixing in with the other aliens and pose an even greater danger to our national security.

The answer to the illegal immigration problem is simple. We need to build a fence across our southern border with Mexico, increase the number of Border patrol agents, and punish employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens, like the cabinet shop owner who employed "Morales". As illegal aliens are detected by the police, they should be arrested and deported along with their families back to their country of origin.

There should also be a guest worker program instituted that would let people in other countries like Mexico register for jobs and then come to work here legally. Such a program does not need to be run by the US government. There are plenty of employment agencies that could arrange such a program and administer it without increasing the size of our already bloated Federal government.

Only by making some hard political choices are the American people going to solve this illegal immigration problem. One of those choices has to defeating liberal presidential candidates like Clinton, Obama, and McCain.

The Un-American Candidate

2008-02-20T20:06:00.001-05:00

A lot of attention was paid to the photo on the left of Barack Obama "forgetting" to put his hand over his heart during the national anthem during a campaign event.

Not being one who looks for a conspiracy behind every fault, I didn't find it alarming and gave Mr. Obama the benefit of the doubt that he was probably nervous or distracted at the moment.

And when Mr. Obama said that he didn't wear a U.S. flag pin on his lapel because it wasn't necessary to prove one's patriotism, I again gave him the benefit of the doubt.

But I can't give him that benefit anymore.

During a campaign stop in Milwaukee his wife, Michelle Obama, said: “People in this country are ready for change and hungry for a different kind of politics and … for the first time in my adult life I am proud of my country because it feels like hope is finally making a comeback.”

Michelle Obama is only now "proud of her country"?

America is the country that advances freedom, liberty, and economic opportunity to the rest of the world.

America is the country that has freed hundreds of millions of people from Fascists, Nazis, Taliban, vicious dictators, malaria, AIDS, starvation, communism, Marxism, and slavery worldwide without asking for anything back.

America is the country that has willingly sacrificed the lives of hundreds of thousands of our best and bravest young men and women to help people of all religions, ethnic, and racial origins free themselves of tyranny without asking for anything back.

America is the country where Barack and Michelle Obama have lived the American dream. They are proof that in America "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" aren't just words on a paper but the essence of the American culture and way of life.

The Obama campaign has tried to deflect criticism of Michelle's comments with the usual political spin, but it rings hollow when you look at the track record of this couple.

The most alarming thing about this election cycle is not the lack of qualified candidates, but the willingness of the American public to support and elect people who loathe the country and the Constitution that gives them this opportunity to achieve the highest political office in the world.

The New Climate Trend: Global Cooling

2008-02-11T06:48:00.000-05:00

A few months ago, it was quietly reported in the media that in actuality the earth had stopped warming in the late 1990's and that the earth had maintained the same temperature ever since.

Now scientists who study the cycles of solar activity are telling us that the earth is probably going to enter a cooling phase that might last for over a century.

Here's a couple of excerpts from Investors Business Daily:

Kenneth Tapping, a solar researcher and project director for Canada's National Research Council, is among those looking at the sun for evidence of an increase in sunspot activity.
Solar activity fluctuates in an 11-year cycle. But so far in this cycle, the sun has been disturbingly quiet. The lack of increased activity could signal the beginning of what is known as a Maunder Minimum, an event which occurs every couple of centuries and can last as long as a century.
Such an event occurred in the 17th century. The observation of sunspots showed extraordinarily low levels of magnetism on the sun, with little or no 11-year cycle.
This solar hibernation corresponded with a period of bitter cold that began around 1650 and lasted, with intermittent spikes of warming, until 1715. Frigid winters and cold summers during that period led to massive crop failures, famine and death in Northern Europe.

Contrary to the claims of the global warming alarmists, scientists are finding no connection between increased CO2 in the atmosphere and global warming. Here's another excerpt from the same article:

As we have noted many times, perhaps the biggest impact on the Earth's climate over time has been the sun.
For instance, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Solar Research in Germany report the sun has been burning more brightly over the last 60 years, accounting for the 1 degree Celsius increase in Earth's temperature over the last 100 years.
R. Timothy Patterson, professor of geology and director of the Ottawa-Carleton Geoscience Center of Canada's Carleton University, says that "CO2 variations show little correlation with our planet's climate on long, medium and even short time scales."
Rather, he says, "I and the first-class scientists I work with are consistently finding excellent correlations between the regular fluctuations of the sun and earthly climate. This is not surprising. The sun and the stars are the ultimate source of energy on this planet."
Patterson, sharing Tapping's concern, says: "Solar scientists predict that, by 2020, the sun will be starting into its weakest Schwabe cycle of the past two centuries, likely leading to unusually cool conditions on Earth."
"Solar activity has overpowered any effect that CO2 has had before, and it most likely will again," Patterson says. "If we were to have even a medium-sized solar minimum, we could be looking at a lot more bad effects than 'global warming' would have had."

The evidence is growing that the earth's warming and cooling cycles are driven by solar activity, not by human activity such as burning fossil fuels.

Global warming activists are only using the issue of climate change to change human behavior, not to save the earth. Their goal is to suppress free-market capitalism and industry, cripple the United States economy, and grow government by introducing laws that tell us what kind of light bulbs to use, what kind of cars to drive, and how many children families should have.

Such laws and regulations not only result in less individual freedom and liberty, but also threaten the American way of life and it's culture.

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2008-02-08T07:28:00.001-05:00

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2008-02-07T07:35:00.001-05:00

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2008-02-06T07:27:00.001-05:00

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2008-02-05T07:34:00.001-05:00

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2008-02-04T07:30:00.000-05:00

The Truth About the Civil War

2008-02-03T21:10:00.000-05:00

Causes of the Civil War

As we approach Presidents day on February 18 and Black History Month for 2008, it is a good time to deal with the real causes of the Civil War of 1860 which changed the political, economic, and social landscape of America forever.

Abraham Lincoln is often considered the greatest president because he "saved the Union", that is, he kept the southern states from successfully seceding and forming their own Confederate government, and he "freed the slaves" by signing the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863.

To understand the struggle between the North and South, we have to look at how both sides viewed the Federal government and States' rights. Remember that in 1860 the United States of America, commonly called "the Union" in those days, was only 84 years old. Most of the key political figures had parents who lived during the time of the American revolution, so the concept of "the Union" and a centralized Federal government as a permanent political structure was not as prevalent as it is today.

The dominant view in the North, which Lincoln shared, was that the states who had entered into the Union at the time of the Revolutionary War were bound to stay in the Union, by military force if necessary, and could not withdraw or secede from the Union.

The Southern states viewed their participation in the Union as voluntary and that secession was their right if the Federal government over-stepped it's Constitutional powers and encroached on the States' rights to self-rule.

In fact, the key issue in the presidential election which Lincoln won was not whether the South should give up slavery, but whether the Federal government could outlaw slavery in new states that were entering the Union. The Southern states felt that giving the Federal government this kind of power would weaken their own right to decide whether they would be slave states or free states.

As for Lincoln, he had made it clear during the election that although he was against slavery he would not use the Federal government to eliminate slavery in the South and would let slavery, which was already declining, die naturally due to free market forces.

Economic power was also at stake in the North/South divide. Contrary to what most history classes teach, the Panic of 1857 had devastated the Northern economy which was based on manufacturing and banking, while the Southern states, whose economy was primarily based on agriculture, were virtually untouched by the economic crisis gripping the North.

If the Southern states, which had the advantage of goods to export and good shipping facilities, withdrew from the Union and established free trade internationally it would further decimate the North financially.

To prevent this from happening, the Federal government used it's military forces to control the trade of the South, imposing taxes on cotton and tariffs on exports, leading to further division. The first battle of the Civil War, the attack on Union forces at Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, was in response to this kind of meddling in free trade by the Federal government.

The day after the Confederate forces captured Fort Sumter, Lincoln called up 75,000 militiamen from the states to suppress the Southern rebellion.

The conflict between North and South was now a full-fledged civil war. By the time the Union won the war four years later, more than 620,000 soldiers died in combat and over a million more died from disease.

How the Civil War changed America

The political consequences of the war were enormous. By virtue of it's victory, the Union had stopped the secession of the Confederacy and given the Federal government much more power over the States.

That Federal power kept growing and continues to grow to this day, threatening the freedoms and liberties that the founders of our country sought to guarantee to all citizens in the Constitution.

America now borders on becoming a Socialist state with the Federal government now in charge of the well-being of over half the population through it's entitlement programs like Welfare, Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare, the Prescription Drug Program, farm subsidies, earmarks, and Earned Income Credits. The near future probably includes universal health care insurance and child-care programs that will place all children in government run day cares from infancy and continue to indoctrinate them through graduation from high school and even into college.

The economic landscape also changed dramatically. The Northern states manufacturing based economy became dominant and the industrial revolution accelerated beyond anyone's imagination. As in most wars, research, development, and technology were instrumental in victory and now in the following peace time those talents were turned towards the market place and the expansion of America to the west.

Agricultural production started to shift away from the South and into the new states in the mid-west. New railroads made transporting agricultural and manufactured products easier and led to greater integration of the economies of the North, South, and West. As modern machinery entered the workplace and labor unions formed, people worked less hours and now turned their attention to education and leisure activities.

The social structure of America also changed forever after the Civil War. The most obvious change was the newly granted freedom to millions of slaves who could now vote, own land, start businesses, and hold political office. Although it was easy to legislate freedom, changing the way whites and blacks in America viewed each other would take another hundred and forty years of hard work and tolerance.

A subtle but dangerous change in our country also occurred as a result of the Union victory in the Civil War. As noted, Lincoln felt it was not the government's role to force and end to slavery, and that the free market would accomplish that eventually.

But now the government has become a vehicle for social change. Instead of individuals using education, the free market, and dialogue to elevate people from poverty and correct injustice, the government was now viewed as the instrument of change, whether it was addressing racial injustice, establishing wage controls, reducing gun ownership, restricting free speech in campaigns, saving the whales, stopping global warming, access to abortion, fighting AIDS, or the war on drugs.

Today America is at a political cross-roads as unlike any time since the election of 1860. We can choose to follow the liberals into a totally socialistic state like those found in Europe or we can fight for the conservative values of individual freedom and liberty with less government interference in our lives.

The choice is ours, for now.

Suggested reading...

Abraham Lincoln: Tyrant, Hypocrite, or Consummate Statesman?
Causes of the Civil War: A North Georgia Perspective
Causes of the Civil War
Top Five causes of the Civil War
Civil War Facts
The Panic of 1857

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2008-02-03T13:52:00.001-05:00

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2008-02-02T09:24:00.002-05:00

What's splitting the Reagan coalition?

2008-02-01T18:01:00.001-05:00

What's splitting the Reagan coalition?
How is it that a successful conservative governor who wants to eliminate the IRS, defend the sanctity of life and marriage, appoint judges like Scalia and Roberts, and fight Islamic fascism to the finish is running third in the Republican primaries?

Answer: Since mid-November of 2007, there has been a push by the conservative "new media" to destroy the Republican opponents of Mitt Romney.

The dominant conservative publication The National Review had set the tone for this by endorsing Mitt Romney. Around the same time, Rush Limbaugh was visiting his idol from childhood, William Buckley, the founder of The National Review and considered by many to be the founder of the modern conservative movement.
Within days, Rush Limbaugh and other "conservative" talk show hosts and columnists were excoriating Huckabee.

Instead of offering an honest analysis of Huckabee's political career, they sought to portray him as a hayseed born-againer who loved raising taxes and wanted to bring about an Orwellian Big Brother state.

In the meantime, Romney decided to go negative against Huckabee in Iowa, where Huckabee had grabbed the lead. Romney's attack ads were a blatantly dishonest attempt to portray Huckabee as a crime loving tax-raiser, and, coupled with the constant barrage of misinformation from the talk shows, alienated a core constituent group of social conservatives who correctly recognized the attacks on Huckabee as a slam against themselves and their values.

The rift that is now splitting the conservatives will not be healed during this election process. The Christian right and the FairTax activists now see that they are welcome just as long as they go along with the Republican establishment. To think that someone like Huckabee who represents these groups should be president is considered heresy by the elitists who want to control the nomination process.

The secular elitists who enjoy the posh lifestyle and rubbing elbows with political snobs are embarrassed that grass-roots activists like conservative Christians and FairTaxers are in their tent and are succeeding in driving them out, ensuring that a liberal, be it Romney, McCain, Clinton, or Obama will be in the White House next year.

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2008-02-01T07:33:00.001-05:00

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2008-01-30T07:34:00.001-05:00

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2008-01-29T06:21:00.000-05:00

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2008-01-28T07:26:00.000-05:00

Cost of Romney's Mass. Health-care Plan Skyrocketing

2008-01-28T06:16:00.000-05:00

According to recent reports, the cost of Massachusetts' health insurance mandate will rise 85 percent, or $400 million, in 2009. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R), meanwhile, has been on the presidential campaign trail praising the program he put into place.

According to The Boston Globe, the cost increase is largely due to an increase in the number of people signing up for state-subsidized health insurance. State and federal taxpayers are likely to shoulder the cost increase.

"Essentially, the people who signed up under the mandate were the people who were getting subsidies," said Michael Tanner, director of health and welfare studies at the libertarian Cato Institute.

Carmen Balber, a consumer advocate at Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, added, "What we've seen happen in Massachusetts is that lots of people are signing up for subsidized care," although "just 7 to 8 percent of the people who have newly signed up for health insurance have enrolled in a program they must pay full price for."

Tanner told Cybercast News Service that the state will likely need to raise taxes to cover the additional costs.

Romney, however, has been campaigning on the health insurance plan as a success.

"We put in place a plan that gets every citizen in our state health insurance, and it didn't cost us new money," he said during the Republican debate in New Hampshire on Jan. 5. "It didn't require us to raise taxes."

Mitt Romney likes to brag that he got universal coverage in Massachusetts without a tax increase," said Tanner. "I don't think that's going to be true for long."
Click here for full story...

Today's News...

2008-01-26T09:20:00.001-05:00

The Truth About The Economic Stimulus Package

2008-01-25T06:48:00.000-05:00

What a way to buy votes.

With the threat of a recession looming in the near future, President Bush and Congress agreed to an economic stimulus package of "tax rebates" for lower to middle class households.

People eligible would get anywhere from $300-$1200 in the hope that they will spend the money and restore the lost momentum in the U.S. economy.

The $150 billion package would also give businesses $50 billion in tax incentives.
The normally super-slow federal government displayed tremendous speed in developing this package, which proves that when it comes to buying votes, both parties can spend recklessly and without regard for sound economic principles.

Many of the recipients do not pay taxes, so to call it a "tax rebate" is foolish. It is really a welfare check.

No word yet on where the money for this package comes from.

It would have been better to just tell everyone that does pay taxes to deduct the allotted rebate from their next payment to the IRS, but that wouldn't buy as many votes for either party.

Better yet, the best way to stimulate the economy would be to pass H.R. 25, also known as the FairTax. The FairTax would unleash the economic power of individuals, small businesses, and large corporations.

With the FairTax, every person with a job or business pays no income tax, so they get a full paycheck instead of having deductions taken from their pay and sent to the government agencies like the IRS and Social Security Administration.

The income tax is then replaced with a national sales tax of about 23%, which replaces the embedded taxes that are found in every product or service.

The result is that the prices of products and services remains virtually unchanged while reducing the size of government, getting the IRS out of our lives, and giving the poorest of Americans a real economic boost.

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2008-01-25T06:46:00.000-05:00

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2008-01-24T07:21:00.001-05:00

Do we need another Reagan?

2008-01-23T19:38:00.000-05:00

The folly of the Republican establishment in looking for a Ronald Reagan clone borders on cultism.

Reagan was a fine man who led the conservative movement to prominence, not a Reagan movement.

But the Republican establishment and elitists have determined that the only way for the conservative movement to make progress is to have a Reagan clone as the presidential nominee.

Would we want a Reagan clone today? No way!

Reagan turned tail and ran when the terrorists struck in Beirut on Oct. 23, 1983, killing 241 American soldiers. His lack of backbone in this situation became the default policy on terrorism until we were struck on 9/11.

In 1986, Reagan signed into law the Immigration Reform and Control Act, also known as Simpson-Mizzoli. This law gave amnesty to millions of illegal aliens and laid the groundwork for the invasion of our country by millions more that has happened since.

Reagan was great at battling liberalism and Communism, but his national security policies made America a soft target, and we are paying a heavy price for that today.

The Reagan purists of today slam Mike Huckabee because he's not Reaganesque. I say that's fine with me.

We need a conservative leader who can bring solutions for the problems we face in 2008, not 1980.

That leader is Mike Huckabee.

ConservativeKids.net

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2008-01-23T07:23:00.000-05:00

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2008-01-22T06:06:00.000-05:00

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2008-01-21T06:24:00.001-05:00

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2008-01-20T10:39:00.001-05:00

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2008-01-19T10:50:00.001-05:00

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2008-01-18T06:28:00.000-05:00

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2008-01-16T06:01:00.001-05:00

Florida teen's story touched Huckabee

2008-01-15T07:18:00.000-05:00

from the Union Leader

Connie and Sarah Davis are with the bandwagon.

In town for a whirlwind weekend with their candidate of choice, the mother-daughter duo from Ormond Beach, Fla., found themselves screaming like a pair of political primary groupies Friday, watching as Republican Mike Huckabee rocked the campaign trail in Henniker.

"It was really cool," said Connie Davis. "I think they were playing 'Freebird,' or some Journey song. Anyway, at the end, Governor Huckabee was playing with the band and people were rushing the stage, and he looked over at us and nodded. He thanked us for coming."

Then the two tourists were whisked backstage to hang out with Huckabee and his roundhouse of roadies - most notably Chuck Norris and his wife, Gena.

"Oh, and a crew from 'Nightline' was interviewing him, too," said Davis, a conservative Christian who home-schools her four kids, including the oldest, 15-year-old Sarah.

She said their journey to New Hampshire for this pivotal moment in political history was an unexpected blessing.

"Sarah has been taking a government class this year and she has become more and more passionate about Huckabee," said Davis.

So much so, that the teen asked family members to contribute to Huckabee's campaign as her Christmas gift this year - a small request that triggered an unexpected chain of events

read the rest of the story...

Today's News...

2008-01-15T05:43:00.001-05:00

Why They Serve: Maj. Carter's Story

2008-01-14T05:54:00.000-05:00

Army Maj. Lisa L. Carter, a two-time Iraq veteran, wants to share her life’s success story with the American public.

Army Maj. Lisa L. Carter. Defense Department photo
(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available.

Carter recalled her days as a single mother working at a post office in Atlanta while caring for her 2-year-old daughter a few years after her 1984 graduation from Fulton High School there.

“I met a lot of retired military personnel” at the post office, Carter said, noting the veterans encouraged her to join the Army Reserve as a way to improve her life.

Today, Carter is an active-duty Army officer. She also is among 12 servicemembers participating in the sixth quarterly iteration of the Defense Department’s “Why We Serve” public-outreach program. Carter will tell her story to community, business and veterans group audiences, and at other gatherings.

Carter said she enjoys her career as an Army officer and wants the public to know military people have the same dreams and aspirations as their civilian counterparts. “We are human beings just as they are,” Carter observed.

And although wartime deployments may be hard on servicemembers’ personal lives, military members remain dedicated to their pledge to defend the nation, she said.

“It is stressful to be deployed. It is stressful to be away from your family. But servicemembers know that this is their job and responsibility -- to serve,” Carter said.

Following the advice of her post office co-workers, Carter enlisted in the Army Reserve in 1987 as an administrative specialist. During her initial training at Fort Jackson, S.C., she said, she experienced a revelation that jolted her mind.

“I saw a black female officer,” Carter recalled. “I looked at her and thought: ‘If she can do it, surely I can do it.’”

Then and there, Carter set a personal goal to obtain a college degree and a commission. In 1996, she graduated from Georgia State University with a bachelor’s degree in social work and earned an Army lieutenant’s gold bars through the school’s ROTC program.

read the rest of her story on conservativekids.net

Today's News...

2008-01-14T05:53:00.001-05:00

Today's News...

2008-01-13T11:18:00.001-05:00

The Truth About Income Taxes

2008-01-12T08:17:00.000-05:00

One thing you will constantly hear from liberals is that the rich people in America don't pay their fair share of income taxes while the middle class and "working poor" shoulder a larger share of the tax burden in our country.

In the 2008 presidential race, the Democrats are promising to repeal the "Bush tax cuts for the rich". What they are referring to are the cuts in the rate of income taxes that occurred during President Bush's first administration, which appeared to reduce the amount of tax paid by the richest Americans.

Income taxes are taxes that individuals pay to the government based on the money (income) that they earn, whether from a job or from the profits of their business. It may also include income from pensions, social security, interest earned on investments, and other income sources.

But how much do the richest of Americans pay in taxes compared to the average person? Are the liberals and Democrats right, or are they using class envy to gain political power?

The truth is that the richest 1% of Americans pay more than 39.38% of the total income taxes, even though they only earn 18% of the income. Since President Bush took office, the top 1% of earners have gone from paying 37.42% to 39.38%, carrying more of the tax burden than ever.

In fact, the top 50% of income earners actually pay 96.93% of the total income tax burden in our country. (Click here to see the charts from the IRS)

That means that the bottom 50% pay only 3.7% of the total income tax burden.

Since the poor pay no income taxes*, why do liberals lie about it to the people?

First of all, they know that it's human nature for people who have less to be jealous of those who have more. Whether it's a nicer skateboard or a bigger house or a new car, children and adults usually want bigger or better things and can become jealous of people who have those bigger and better things.

The same thing happens with money. People with less money are often jealous of people with more money. Because they make less money, they feel that people who they consider rich should pay more money than them in taxes.

After all, if the rich have so much money, they can afford to give more of it to the government, right?

This kind of taxation, where the more you earn, the higher percentage you pay in taxes, is called progressive taxation. Progressive taxation is one of the foundations of communism, socialism and Marxism.

Unfortunately, our American economic system has been infected with this kind of Marxism: progressive taxation, the welfare system, food stamp programs, Social Security and Medicare; and now the liberals are proposing some form of universal health care, which is socialized medicine.

People who are successful through hard work and smart money management are punished by having more of their money confiscated by the government (taxes), while those who don't work and don't achieve are rewarded with government freebies at the expense of those who do.

The true power of government is it's ability to take people's money away from them and give it to someone who will vote for them. Liberals use this power to buy the votes of the poor, who are essentially voting themselves government benefits when they put liberals and Democrats in public office.

Only by educating the public and using the power of the vote can we reverse this trend.

First, people need to learn that by hard work, smart money management, and better education, they can achieve financial success without the help of government.

Next, we need to make sure that conservative political candidates who understand and promote the free market, individual liberty and responsibility, and smaller, less intrusive government get our support and votes.

* Even though the poorest people may have income tax deductions from their paychecks during the year, the Earned Income Credit and other credits gives them that money and more back during tax season, which amounts to welfare.

If you liked this article, there are more like it on conservativekids.net

Today's News...

2008-01-12T08:15:00.001-05:00

Today's News...

2008-01-11T06:10:00.001-05:00

Today's News...

2008-01-10T06:51:00.001-05:00

Today's News...

2008-01-09T20:32:00.001-05:00

SWAT Team Invades Home, Seizes Boy for Medical Treatment

2008-01-08T07:19:00.000-05:00

Comment: The story below is a good example of what happens when government violates it's constitutional limits. In most states, child welfare agencies have authority that is unconstitutional. Child welfare agencies do not have to meet the constitutional requirements of "probable cause" and are allowed to violate the "unreasonable searches and seizures" clause of the 4th Amendment. You'll also notice that the father of the family is described as a "self-proclaimed constitutionalist" by the Sheriff, as if that's a bad thing.

original story on World Net Daily
Nearly a dozen members of a police SWAT team in western Colorado punched a hole in the front door and invaded a family's home with guns drawn, demanding that an 11-year-old boy who had had an accidental fall accompany them to the hospital, on the order of Garfield County Magistrate Lain Leoniak.

The boy's parents and siblings were thrown to the floor at gunpoint and the parents were handcuffed in the weekend assault, and the boy's father told WND it was all because a paramedic was upset the family preferred to care for their son themselves.

Someone, apparently the unidentified paramedic, called police, the sheriff's office and social services, eventually providing Leoniak with a report that generated the magistrate's court order to the sheriff's office for the SWAT team assault on the family's home in a mobile home development outside of Glenwood Springs, the father, Tom Shiflett, told WND.

WND calls and e-mails to Garfield County Social Services were not returned, and Leoniak, who earlier served as a water court clerk/referee, also was not available.

Sheriff Lou Vallario, however, did call back, and told WND he ordered his officers to do exactly what the magistrate demanded.

"I was given a court order by the magistrate to seize the child, and arrange for medical evaluation, and that's what we did," he said.

According to friends of the family, Tom Shiflett, who has 10 children including six still at home, and served with paramedics in Vietnam, was monitoring his son's condition himself.

The paramedic and magistrate, however, ruled that that wasn't adequate, and dispatched the officers to take the boy, John, to a hospital, where a doctor evaluated him and released him immediately.

read the rest of the story here...

Two Cool Videos: Glowing Cats, Ultra-low Skating

2008-01-06T11:40:00.000-05:00

Iraqi Soldier Deliberately Kills Two American Soldiers

2008-01-05T15:14:00.000-05:00

An Iraqi soldier has shot and killed two American soldiers and wounded three others, it has emerged.

The two American soldiers are pictured to the left, Captian Rowdy Inman to the far left, and Sergeant Bejamin Portell to the right.

The incident - thought to be the first of its kind since the US-led invasion of 2003 - happened on Dec 26 but details have only just been disclosed by US and Iraqi military officials.

The soldier was out on a joint US and Iraqi patrol in the northern city of Mosul when he opened fire. A civilian interpreter was also wounded in the attack.

The US military said it was not clear why the soldier had shot members of his own patrol.

But one Iraqi general said the soldier was "an insurgent infiltrator" with links to Sunni militant groups.

Record Snows Hit U.S.

2008-01-02T07:40:00.000-05:00

To see how much you know about global warming, take the Global Warming Test

All across the northern United States, cities and states are reporting record snowfall.

Cities reporting record or near-record snowfall are: Detroit, Michigan; Aspen, CO; Boston, Mass; Oshkosh,Wisconsin; Laconia, NH; Rochester, NY; Salem, Mass; and Madison, Wisconsin.

The northern chill is even reaching into Florida, where the overnight low in sunny Daytona Beach is expected to be 30ºF.

Although this is all anecdotal evidence, it very clear that weather records (whether for record low temps or high temps, snowfalls, drought, or rain) are made to be broken.

Anecdotal evidence is not scientific. It's very small amounts of information based on what the observer can gain through their senses of sight, sound, feel, etc. Because our bodies and viewpoints can change minute by minute, anecdotal evidence like this is not reliable for coming to valid conclusions.

Just as being in the middle of a record snowfall does not mean there is no global warming, being in the middle of a drought or heat wave does not mean that global warming is occurring.

What's needed is reliable scientific data without any political or social biases. This is sorely lacking in the global warming debate today.

To see how much you know about global warming, take the Global Warming Test

Pro-Life Video: From Conception to Birth

2007-12-31T09:45:00.000-05:00

2007: A Great Year in Iraq

2007-12-30T13:47:00.000-05:00

Al-Qaeda out, troop deaths down as "Surge" works

The Iraqi interior ministry lauded its achievements over the past year on Saturday, saying that 75 percent of Al-Qaeda's networks in the country had been destroyed in 12 months.

Ministry spokesman Abdul Karim Khalaf also outlined sharp falls in the numbers of assassinations, kidnappings and death squad murders.

He told a news conference that increased patrols along the borders with Saudi Arabia and Syria had slowed infiltration by militants and played a key role in Iraq's improved security situation.

"We have destroyed 75 percent of Al-Qaeda hide-outs, and we broke up major criminal networks that supported Al-Qaeda in Baghdad," he said.

"After eliminating safe houses in Anbar province, which used to be Al-Qaeda's base, we moved into areas surrounding Baghdad and into Diyala province. Al-Qaeda headed north and we are pursuing them," he said.

Khalaf said kidnappings were down 70 percent and that an average of three to five people killed by death squads were being found each day in Baghdad compared with 15 to 20 a day in February.

Personnel with militant or criminal links had been weeded out from Iraqi security forces, he said, adding that Sunni-US alliances against Al-Qaeda had also significantly contributed to the drop in violence.

The dropping death toll of American soldiers also gives proof that the surge started in the summer of 2007 has worked spectacularly.

According to icasualty.org there were 14 American soldiers killed in hostile action in Iraq, down from 120 earlier in March of 2007.

“Every trend we watch is down roughly about 60 percent: civilian deaths, numbers of attacks, and thankfully our casualties are down as well,” Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of Multinational Force Iraq, said on “Fox News Sunday.” “As we go into the new year, we clearly want to build on the momentum that has been achieved by our forces working closely together with Iraqi forces.”

Petraeus said Iraqi forces also had a surge this year, with 110,000 new Iraqi soldiers and police.

Petraeus appeared on the morning news program to discuss the release of this week’s quarterly report, “Measuring Stability and Security in Iraq.” With the success of the surges comes the question of reducing the number of U.S. forces in Iraq while maintaining the positive trends, he said.

“We want to reduce the strain on our ground forces as much as we can while recognizing that what has been achieved here remains tenuous and is still fragile in a number of areas,” the general said. “We have laid out a plan that will take us through the end of July, and it will result in the reduction without replacement of about one-quarter of our combat forces.”

Petraeus was cautious about committing to further troop reductions and reiterated that al Qaeda remains a significant threat. “Al Qaeda remains a very dangerous and very lethal organization, and it is one that will continually try to reconstitute and one that we must pursue tenaciously and relentlessly, and that is what we and our Iraqi partners are doing,” Petraeus said.

Huckabee Rally in Orlando

2007-12-28T20:46:00.000-05:00

Republican presidential front-runner Mike Huckabee was in Orlando December 27 at a rally attended by about 200 supporters from central Florida.

One of the highlights of the rally happened before Huckabee's arrival, when Florida state senator Dick Langley, a campaign chairman for Mitt Romney in Lake County, tore off his Romney lapel sticker and replaced it with a Huckabee sticker.

"I wanted a candidate who stood where I stood on the issues," Langley said later. "And I couldn't figure out where Mitt stood."

There was also a pre-event skirmish when a hoard of Ron Paul supporters tried to crash the Huckabee rally. After a confrontation between Huckabee supporters and the Paul supporters, airport security ran off the party crashers and peace and harmony was restored.

Huckabee and his wife Janet arrived later to an energetic crowd and Van Halen's "Right Now" blaring from some speakers. He spoke for about 20 minutes, took some questions from the press, and then hung out for several minutes before leaving on his jet to Destin, FL.

See the only pictures of the Orlando rally here

Bhutto Dies, Pakistan in Uproar

2007-12-27T16:52:00.000-05:00

Photos from AP

It may be shocking, but take a good look at the photo to the the left.

This is what Islam, the "Religion of Peace", looks like.

The suicide bomber who caused this damage killed Pakistan's opposition leader Benazir Bhutto (also pictured to the left) and around 20 others.

Now the already turbulent situation in Pakistan is quickly worsening and threatening the promised January elections.

Add to this situation that Pakistan has nuclear weapons that could fall into terrorist hands if a full-scale breakdown of law and order occurs and you have a recipe for a disaster of international scale.

What's happening in Pakistan should remind everyone of why Islamic countries should not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons.

Stopping Iran and Syria from developing nuclear weapons has to be a top priority of the United States and the rest of the free world, even if it means keeping the option of using military force on the table.

The free world depends on a large part on nuclear-free Islamic countries.

Christmas Eve... The Story of Christ's Birth

2007-12-24T16:31:00.000-05:00

Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth.

This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria.

And everyone was on his way to register for the census, each to his own city.

Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David,in order to register along with Mary, who was engaged to him, and was with child.

While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth.

And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night.

And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened.

But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
"Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace among men
with whom He is pleased."

When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying to one another, "Let us go straight to Bethlehem then, and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us."

So they came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the baby as He lay in the manger.

When they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them about this Child.

And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds.

But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart.

The shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had been told them.

from the Gospel of Luke 2:1-20 (NASB)

Global Warming "Consensus" Debunked by U.S. Senate Report

2007-12-21T06:57:00.000-05:00

read the full U.S. Senate report here

The U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works has released a startling study debunking the "consensus" doctrine that has gripped the global warming religion.

Hundreds of accredited scientists, many of whom were part of the U.N.'s IPCC report on global warming last year, have now officially become deniers of man-made global warming and are urging the governments of the world to spend their time and money on other more important issues.

Here's a few excerpts:

Dr. Nathan Paldor, Professor of Dynamical Meteorology and Physical Oceanography at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem: "First, temperature changes, as well as rates of temperature changes (both increase and decrease) of magnitudes similar to that reported by IPCC to have occurred since the Industrial revolution (about 0.8C in 150 years or even 0.4C in the last 35 years) have occurred in Earth's climatic history. There's nothing special about the recent rise!" Paldor told EPW on December 4, 2007. "Second, our ability to make realizable (or even sensible) future forecasts are greatly exaggerated relied upon by the IPCC."

Physicist Dr. Gerhard Gerlich, of the Institute of Mathematical Physics at the Technical University Carolo-Wilhelmina in Braunschweig in Germany, and Dr. Ralf D. Tscheuschner: "The horror visions of a risen sea level, melting pole caps and developing deserts in North America and in Europe are fictitious consequences of fictitious physical mechanisms as they cannot be seen even in the climate model computations. The emergence of hurricanes and tornados cannot be predicted by climate models, because all of these deviations are ruled out. The main strategy of modern CO2-greenhouse gas defenders seems to hide themselves behind more and more pseudo explanations, which are not part of the academic education or even of the physics training."

Dr. Boris Winterhalter, retired Senior Marine Researcher of the Geological Survey of Finland and former professor of marine geology at University of Helsinki: "To state that sea level rises or falls due to global change is completely out of proportion. There are far too many factors affecting this planet from the inside and the outside to warrant the idea that man is capable of influencing these natural processes..."

The U.S. Senate report is very lengthy and has links to all the research papers done by the 400+ scientists who have declared the man-made global warming crisis a myth, pure fiction, and falsification.

The global warming bubble is going to pop soon; let's hope it does before the liberals do serious damage to our economy, our country, and our way of life.

City Hall Christmas Display

2007-12-18T22:03:00.001-05:00

more pictures from Holly Hill

The city of Holly Hill, FL is bucking the politically correct trend and still puts up a great Christmas display every year.

There have been protests from liberals and others in Holly Hill who do not understand the concept of religious freedom in our country and who mistakenly believe that the First Amendment somehow prohibits the display of Christian symbols on public property.

The nearby cities of Daytona Beach and Ormond Beach have given in to the politically correct crowd and now have "Holiday Parades" and "holiday decorations" throughout their towns. They snubbed their noses at the traditions and culture of America that are grounded in Christianity.

Thank God that there are still towns and cities like Holly Hill around to keep Christmas safe for another year!

Video: It's Called "Christmas" With a Capital "C"

2007-12-18T18:03:00.000-05:00

Don't settle for "Happy Holidays" it's Christmas!

More Alarmism: UN Warns of Food Shortages

2007-12-18T06:03:00.000-05:00

The United Nations is at it again, this time warning of dangerous food shortages because of global warming and rising oil prices.

There is "a very serious risk that fewer people will be able to get food," particularly in the developing world, said Jacques Diouf, head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.

The source article for this story cites all kinds of statistics to prove that we are in danger of a global disaster that will of course hit the poor nations the hardest.

Besides global warming and high oil prices, they blame the tightening food supply on the increasing number of "upwardly mobile meat-eaters" and the diversion of grains from the food supply into bio-fuel production, such as ethanol.

Over the years the UN and other liberal and Marxist groups have warned of global starvation and wars over food supplies in an effort to get the prosperous countries of the world to give money to poor countries.

What those poor countries need isn't food, it's freedom. The people need to be free to work, farm, start businesses, and trade their goods and services without the tyranny of high taxes and government interference.

But the poor countries are run by dictators, military thugs, and Marxists who only use their power to make themselves wealthy and are not accountable to the people they rule with an iron fist.

Because of their love for big government, the UN and other liberals try to address the symptoms of liberalism (poverty, racism, poor health, etc.) instead of the cause: big government, high taxes, lack of economic opportunity, and lack of personal freedom and liberty.

Climate Change Conference Ends; End of World Near

2007-12-16T13:59:00.001-05:00

The UN conference on climate change, hosted in Bali, is thankfully over and the only accomplishment to speak of was the emitting of hundreds of thousands of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere.

According to the AP story, there were no major agreements or breakthroughs, and the 200+ participants were bitterly divided and acrimonious. At one point, Dutch representative Yvo de Boer (a real Alan Alda type), pictured on the left, actually broke down in tears because of the bitter wrangling over minor details in reaching a consensus deal.

According to the AP: "The new deal does not commit countries to specific actions against global warming. It simply sets an agenda and schedule for negotiators to find ways to reduce pollution and help poor countries adapt to environmental changes by speeding up the transfer of technology and financial assistance."

The AP story tried to put their best spin on the overly-hyped climate change conference in it's lead paragraph: "World leaders overcame bitter divisions Saturday and agreed to reach a new deal on fighting global warming by 2009, turning a corner in mankind's race to stave off environmental disaster caused by rising temperatures."

So the basic consensus deal reached by these liberals, Marxists, dictators, and fascists is to keep negotiating until industrialized countries like the US, Japan, China, and Australia submit themselves to the "global warming" religion and give up the economic freedom that drives their prosperous countries.

Just like the internet bubble of the 90's, the global warming bubble is ready to burst and these goof balls are trying to get as much out of it for themselves as possible at the expense of the USA and other industrialized countries.

Do You Remember 9/11?

2007-12-13T17:22:00.000-05:00

The attacks on our country on 9/11 seem like a long time ago, but it is still the pivotal point in modern American history.

Most young people may not remember the events of 9/11 very well, and many kids may have never seen actual footage of the attack on the World Trade Center.

The public education system and the liberals in America would rather that 9/11 be forgotten and minimized. They would like the next generation to think of 9/11 as an isolated incident- just 19 guys who got through airport security and hijacked four planes.

But the reality is that 9/11 was part of a global war on America and western culture by Islam that had started in the 1970's and was ignored by the world, even ignored by great conservative leaders like Reagan and Thatcher.

This war on America by Islamic fundamentalists is going to last for at least the next two generations, so we will keep reminding our citizens of how horrible a price we have paid and will have to pay again if we give up this fight!

Support Our Troops!

Mother of Heisman Trophy Winner Refused Abortion Recommendation

2007-12-13T06:04:00.000-05:00

original story source

University of Florida quarterback Tim Tebow became the first sophomore in the history of the NCAA to win the coveted Heisman Trophy as the best football player in the nation.

However, Tebow's accomplishments may never have been supported had his mother followed a doctor's recommendation to have an abortion. With 29 passing touchdowns and 22 rushing touchdowns, Tebow displayed the kind of versatility that has become more valued at the quarterback position.

Pam Tebow and her husband were Christian missionaries in the Philippines in 1985 and they prayed for "Timmy" before she became pregnant.

Unfortunately, as the Gainesville Sun reports, Pam entered into a coma after she contracted amoebic dysentery, an infection of the intestine caused by a parasite found in a contaminated food or drink.

The treatment for the medical condition would require strong medications that doctors told Pam had caused irreversible damage to Tim -- so they advised her to have an abortion.

As the Sun reported, Pam Tebow refused the abortion and cited her Christian faith as the reason for her hope that her son would be born without the devastating disabilities physicians predicted.

Pam ultimately spent the last two months of her pregnancy in bed and, eventually, gave birth to a health baby boy in August 1987.

As she told the newspaper, Pam was not surprised that her son would be up for the Heisman despite no underclassman receiving the award since its inception in 1933.

"The combination of Timmy's God-given talent, hard work, character and leadership have made a mark on and off the football field," she said.

As prominent researcher Joel Brind writes in a new LifeNews.com editorial, doctors are frequently telling women they should consider abortions when confronted with various medical situations affecting their health.

Yet, as he notes, physicians can successfully treat both mother and child without suggesting that the baby be killed to spare a mother's life.

Because Tim Tebow was spared, he's wowed a nation by his athletic skill and, at his younger age, has an opportunity to become the second person to win two Heisman awards.

Muslim Girl Killed by Father for Not Wearing Head Scarf

2007-12-12T06:42:00.000-05:00

A 16 year old Canadian girl, Aqsa Parvez, was strangled to death by her father Monday for not wearing the hijab, the traditional Islamic head scarf. To the left are pictured two Muslim girls wearing hijabs.

According to her friends, Aqsa was having trouble at home because she did not conform to the family's religious beliefs, which included wearing hijabs, which the Muslims consider a sign of modesty for women.

"She wanted to go different ways than her family wanted to go, and she wanted to make her own path, but he (her father) wouldn't let her," one of her classmates told public broadcaster CBC.

"She loved clothes," another of her friends, Dominiquia Holmes-Thompson, told the daily Toronto Star. "She just wanted to show her beauty ... She just wanted to dress like us, just like a normal person."

According to her friends, Aqsa had worn the hijab at school last year, but rebelled in recent months.

They said she would leave home wearing a hijab and loose-fitting clothes, but would take off her head scarf and change into tighter garments at school, then change back before going home at the end of the day.

Aqsa's father has been arrested for murder and her brother charged with obstruction of justice.

This is another example of the hatred of the Islamic religion for women and children.

Islamic fundamentalists have no respect for the life, rights, or dignity of women and children.

To the left is a picture of women being beaten in Iran for wearing western clothing.

Interestingly, you can clearly see that most men in these situations wear modern western clothing, such as the man in the lower right of the same picture.

Tribute to a Soldier: Sgt. Donnie Dixon

2007-12-10T05:43:00.000-05:00

Our military is making incredible progress bringing security and democracy to the people of Iraq, but there is still a lot of work to be done and the danger to our troops is not over.

This article is about Staff Sgt. Donnie Dixon, one of our soldiers who died recently.

(To the left are three photos: Top photo- Sgt. Donnie Dixon pulls security while on patrol in Aug 14, 2007; Middle photo- Sgt. Donnie Dixon; Bottom photo- Unveiling of dedication sign to Sgt. Dixon in Baqouba, Iraq)

Soldiers from the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, gathered in what was known as the "Grey Wolf" Square at Forward Operating Base Warhorse, outside of Baqouba, Iraq, for a dedication ceremony and renaming of the square to honor a fallen friend and Soldier, Staff Sgt. Donnie Dixon.

Dixon died of wounds received in combat Sept. 29, 2007. Those who proudly served with him during the brigade's deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom 06-08 gathered to render one last salute and unveil the dedication sign which bears Dixon's gleaming smile at the newly-named square, Nov. 22.

"Today we dedicated the Grey Wolf Square and renamed it to the Dixon Square after Staff Sgt. Donnie Dixon, for his contributions to the Army and to his service in Iraq," said friend and fellow Soldier, Staff Sgt. Mario Whitaker, non-commissioned officer in charge of the commander's Personal Security Detachment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division.

The Dixon Square is used by the Soldiers stationed at Warhorse as a hang-out spot - a place where they can call their families, get online or grab some well-deserved coffee or pizza. With new Soldiers coming and going from Warhorse everyday, Whitaker said he hopes those coming in will take notice of the efforts and achievements Dixon made for his unit, his country and his family.

"I hope that when the new Soldiers coming to Warhorse look at the sign of Staff Sgt. Dixon, they see that joyful smile on his face," Whitaker said. "He was always happy, no matter what the situation or circumstances were. Even though we are in Iraq, ducking bullets and dodging [improvised explosive devices], he always had that smile on his face.

"This dedication was very important because Staff Sgt. Dixon was a great guy, father, leader and friend," said Whitaker. "He sacrificed everything he was known for to come over here and try and make Iraq a better place.

"He never griped or complained about anything; he always accomplished every mission that was placed before him," he continued.

Original source for this article

Coast Guard Announces Record Drug Seizures

2007-12-08T10:15:00.000-05:00

The Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard announced today a record year for cocaine seizures with 355,755 pounds seized, worth more than $4.7 billion.

"From piracy to rum runners to illegal migrant smugglers, the Coast Guard has been continuously guarding our coasts and securing our borders since 1790," said Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thad Allen. "Today, drug smugglers are resorting to riskier, more desperate tactics in an attempt to evade detection and interdiction at sea. More and more, we are seeing that they can run but cannot hide"

* In September, the Coast Guard and its partners interdicted a vessel loaded with 3,600 gallons of cocaine dissolved in diesel fuel, a technique used by smugglers to avoid detection. The liquid cocaine could be converted into 15,800 pounds of pure cocaine.
* In August, Coast Guard, Navy and Customs and Border Protection crews interdicted and boarded a self-propelled, semi-submersible vessel loaded with an estimated $352 million of cocaine.
* The Coast Guard made its largest maritime cocaine seizure when it intercepted the Panamanian vessel Gatun carrying more than 33,500 pounds of the narcotic -- or approximately 20 tons -- in March 2007.

"With successful maritime interdiction efforts, drug smugglers are forced to resort to more dangerous and expensive tactics," said Cmdr. Robert Watts, chief, Coast Guard drug and migrant interdiction. "The more we push them to adopt extreme measures, the more difficult we make it for them to succeed."

Another major trend has drug smugglers increasingly turning to Pacific routes to traffic cocaine, as effective and aggressive enforcement efforts have all but shut down major routes in the Caribbean.

In the face of new routes and new tactics by smugglers, partnerships are a critical component of the Coast Guard's interdiction successes. New tools are extending the Coast Guard's law enforcement authority to targets that were previously out of reach. Bilateral agreements negotiated with 26 Caribbean and South American nations allow the service to conduct operations and stop illegal smuggling far outside U. S. territorial waters with suspected smugglers operating on foreign-flag vessels. Dramatic improvements in intelligence and information sharing among international and interagency partners have also strengthened anti-smuggling efforts.

"On behalf of the President and the American people, I commend the Coast Guard and its interagency partners for a record-breaking rate of seizures on the high seas," said John Walters, Director of National Drug Control Policy. "Every load of drugs seized represents that much less that can be used to poison our young people and harm our nation. Thanks to the brave efforts of these men and women, the cocaine market in the United States has been significantly disrupted and lives are being saved as a result."

While the Coast Guard is the nation's leading maritime law enforcement agency, drug interdiction is an interagency effort. Through federal partnerships the Coast Guard is able to make significant gains in keeping illegal drugs out of our country and the profits out of the drug dealers' hands.

Find out more about this article and the Coast Guard

Remember Pearl Harbor Day

2007-12-06T18:11:00.000-05:00

Detailed time line leading to Pearl Harbor

Photos from Pearl Harbor

Video: Pearl Harbor Survivors

Sixty-six years ago the Japanese navy struck the American Navy at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii in a sneak attack that severely damaged America's naval power in the Pacific.

The Japanese attack started just before 8 AM, catching the Naval base off guard and virtually defenseless.

Within a short time five of eight battleships at Pearl Harbor were sunk or sinking, with the rest damaged. Several other ships and most Hawaii-based combat planes were also knocked out and over 2400 Americans were dead.

Soon after, Japanese planes eliminated much of the American air force in the Philippines, and a Japanese Army was ashore in Malaya.

On December 8, the USA declared war on Japan. Within days, the USA was a full participant in World War II.

How did the United States and it's Navy become such an easy target for a long-range naval attack?

Isolationism

One of the main reasons is that the driving philosophy in foreign relations at that time was isolationism.

The USA, still reeling from the Depression of the Thirties, felt that what was happening in Europe with Germany and Italy, and in the Pacific with Japan, was not it's concern.

Just as darkness cannot tolerate light, evil governments like Germany, Italy, and Japan could not let the USA, still a world power and bastion of liberty and freedom, remain as it was.

From Pearl Harbor, and later the attack 60 years later on 9/11 by Islamic fascists, we learn that the world is too small for us to tolerate evil.

The New Direction

We do not live in a bubble. The loss of freedom and respect for life anywhere in the world affects everyone and diminishes our humanity.

Our foreign policy today has to come from our respect for life and the extension of liberty and freedom to all.

Despite what the liberals say, we have the moral high ground, and an obligation to do what is necessary to spread freedom and liberty and stand up to the dark evil forces that are trying to destroy our way of life.

This means that we must win the current war on Islamic fascism that was brought to our shores even before 9/11. Unlike WWII, this is a war that will take decades to win.

Not fighting this war will result the spread of the hateful Islamic ideology throughout the world and the loss of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness that God has endowed on all his creation.

Just as it was at Pearl Harbor, the USA today is the last and greatest firewall in stopping the flames of evil that seek to destroy all that is good.

Record Snow in US While Bali Hosts Global Warming Conference

2007-12-06T07:20:00.000-05:00

Portland, Maine tied a 1890 record for snow Monday, receiving 8.5 inches while Marshfield in Washington County had 18 inches of snow, Lakeville in Penobscot County 17 inches, Island Falls in Aroostook County 16, Brassau Lake near Moosehead 15.7, Farmington 14.7 inches and Andover 13, the weather service said.

Meanwhile, The National Weather Service says the Grand Forks airport had 8.1 inches of snow yesterday, setting a record for the date. And Fargo set a record with 5.9 inches.

The previous mark in both cities was set back in 1926.

Grand Forks and Fargo also had record snowfall last Saturday.

All this record snow is falling while the UN hosts a global warming in Bali, Indonesia.

The conference will primarily focus on the USA and China as the biggest global warming contributors. The international community, led by the UN, is trying to strong-arm the USA into signing treaties that will force our country into meeting deadlines for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Ironically, in order to put on the conference, thousands of people have had to take jets to the remote Bali location, which has added hundreds of thousands of tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.

Such treaties will only hurt our economy, weaken our world-power status, and will do nothing to reduce "global warming", which is a natural process that is not influenced by human activity.

Global Warming Activists Want $80 Billion

2007-12-05T06:55:00.000-05:00

In its recent Human Development Report, the United Nations has suggested that industrialized countries should give poor countries $80 billion to help the poorer nations cope with global warming.

Of this $80 billion, they want the USA to pay about $40 billion.

Columnist Cliff Kincaid explains it this way: "In order to provide the “new and additional” foreign aid, the report calls for exploring a range of “innovative financing options.” This is U.N.-speak for global taxes. Indeed, the report openly calls for carbon taxes and aviation taxes. It proposes a “Climate Change Mitigation Facility” to mobilize the $25 - $50 billion “needed annually” for developing countries."

The true goal of the global warming activists is to promote one world government through the United Nations.

As I stated months ago on conservativekids.net: "Since global warming is a "global issue", it will take a "global government" to fix the problem."

If the next president of the United States is a liberal, they will undermine the sovereignty of our country by handing over more power to UN and it's Marxist agencies.

As a result, our citizens, military, and economy will all be under the control of the UN to some degree.

Of course, it is starting out with small steps, like the pressure to sign the Kyoto Protocol, the Law of the Sea Treaty, or giving the UN $40 billion for the poor nations affected by global warming.

But these small steps are designed to weaken our country and make it easier to bring the USA under the control of the UN.

The next president of the USA has to have the resolve to strengthen our country, not weaken it. The sovereignty of the United States of America is at stake in the next election.

Conservatives have to win this battle for president, not only for the sake of the USA, but for the ability of any country to maintain its sovereignty and identity.

Marines Bring School Supplies to Iraqi Kids

2007-12-03T19:04:00.000-05:00

This is the kind of news you won't see on your TV or in your newspaper.

As the surge continues to provide better security in Iraq and daily life gets better, the Marines are building relationships with future generations of Iraqi's by supplying school kids with notebooks, pens, and even soccer balls.

The school supplies were donated by friends and families of the Marines, as well as church groups back home.

Capt. T.J. Owens, the commanding officer of Company I said: “When the kids see Americans doing good deeds like this, they grow up with that impression of Americans in their minds. The actions Marines take now have endearing implications for the future.”

He continued: "Some people are still recovering from the early portions of the war and what the terrorists did,” said Owens. “This can’t just be putting a band-aid on. What we’re doing is part of a campaign that coalition forces all over Iraq are taking part in.”

For more photos of our soldiers and Marines in action, visit our website.

Boy Survives Deer Antler in Brain

2007-12-02T13:12:00.000-05:00

5 year old Connor Schick survived a freak accident, when he fell on an antler he was carrying and it penetrated his eye socket and went into his brain.

Connor had found the antler in the wood while he and his family were on a camping trip.

While carrying the antler back to show his family, he tripped and it went through his eye socket and into the frontal lobe of his brain.

He pulled the antler out himself but his family didn't realize how severe his injury was. A couple days later, he developed a bad infection and was taken to the hospital.

The doctors gave Connor an MRI and discovered that the antler had penetrated his brain and caused a severe infection to develop.
To the left is an graphic depicting how the antler entered his brain.

They treated his infection with high doses of antibiotics and he fully recovered.

Amazingly, he had no permanent brain damage and can see fine through the injured eye.

Connor's mom, Melissa, said this about the incident: “It makes you appreciate your children even more,” she said. “You want to hug and hold them every day and kiss them, because in a second, it can change.”

You can read the full story and watch a video of Connor on the Today show.

Update On Muhammad the Teddy Bear

2007-11-30T16:06:00.000-05:00

Thankfully, the authorities in Sudan are reducing Gillian Gibbons (read previous post) punishment from the 40 lashes with a bamboo cane to 15 days in jail and deportation.

In response, thousands of Sudanese took to the streets in an armed mob and demanded Gibbons' death. The picture to the left and the following report are from the Associated Press:

Thousands of Sudanese, many armed with clubs and knives, rallied Friday in a central square and demanded the execution of a British teacher convicted of insulting Islam for allowing her students to name a teddy bear "Muhammad."

In response to the demonstration, teacher Gillian Gibbons was moved from the women's prison near Khartoum to a secret location for her safety, her lawyer said.

The protesters streamed out of mosques after Friday sermons, as pickup trucks with loudspeakers blared messages against Gibbons, who was sentenced Thursday to 15 days in prison and deportation. She avoided the more serious punishment of 40 lashes.

British Woman Faces Lashing for Teddy bear Named Muhammad

2007-11-29T07:15:00.000-05:00

Gillian Gibbons, a British woman who teaches kids in Sudan, is facing severe punishment for allowing her class to name a teddy bear "Muhammad".

The controversy began when Gibbons asked the kids in her class to suggest names for the class teddy bear. The class chose "Muhammad" , naming the teddy bear after one of the students.

Islamic fundamentalists took the naming of the teddy bear as an insult to the prophet of Islam, Muhammad. As a punishment, they have determined that Gibbons should receive 40 lashes with a bamboo cane, a punishment common in their religion for "blasphemy" against the prophet.

Despite an international outcry, including moderate Muslims, the authorities are going ahead with this outrageous punishment.

Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said he was "appalled" at the decision. He said: "This is a disgraceful decision and defies common sense."

"There was clearly no intention on the part of the teacher to deliberately insult the Islamic faith."

You can see what a lashing looks like in the picture at the left. This is another example of the irrationality of the religion of Islam, which is more interested in beating and killing innocent women and children than in justice, peace, and love.

Don't believe all the people who say Islam is a religion of peace. Wherever you find Islam, you find terrorism, torture, hate, war, the denial of human dignity, and no value for human life.

Pakistan's Musharraf Leaves Military Post

2007-11-28T07:31:00.000-05:00

Under extreme pressure from the USA and other allies, and with mounting political turmoil in his own country, General Musharraf turned over the military command of Pakistan and will now be sworn in as a civilian president.

Musharraf had suspended the Pakistan's constitution earlier this month, had imprisoned thousands of political protesters, and replaced the supreme court with his own judges in an attempt to hold onto power.

With the return of former heads-of-state Bhutto and Sharif, and with major pressure from the Bush administration, Musharraf had no choice but to hold to his original promise of relinquishing his military leadership and assuming the role of a civilian president.

How much control of the military Musharraf has really given up remains to be seen. He will most likely have a strong hand in military affairs until the next election, when a possible coalition government headed by either Bhutto or Sharif could see Musharraf out of power and possibly defending himself from prosecution on military or civil crimes.

Meanwhile, the Bush administration has to give whatever aid is necessary to make sure that Pakistan's nuclear weapons do not fall into the hands of terrorists.

The turmoil in Pakistan should be a lesson that no Islamic country should be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons. With terrorist organizations like al Qaeda having the ability to cause tremendous instability and the lack of respect the leaders in Islamic countries have for the rule of law, countries dominated by Muslims should be denied the development and possession of nuclear weapons.

The US should take the lead in blocking countries like Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. If preemptive military action is required to keep these Islamic countries from going nuclear, it is a small price to pay for a world free of nuclear terrorism.

Mike Huckabee Explains the War on Terror

2007-11-25T11:54:00.001-05:00

In this video, Mike Huckabee spells out exactly what the USA is up against in our war with Islamic fascists.

2007-11-22T10:33:00.001-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Thank the Lord for He is good!

Wednesday's Hero: Cpl. Jordan M. Moehnle

2007-11-21T06:35:00.000-05:00

Cpl. Jordan M. Moehnle takes time out of leading his squad in a patrol through Fallujah's Nazaal district to spend some time interacting with local children. Moehnle, who is on his second tour in Iraq, said the changes he has witnessed since he was last here in 2006 have been dramatic. "The city was like the Wild West, we'd put our heads and and drive down (the middle of Fallujah) and hope not to get shot," he said. "Since we've been here (this year), we can stop and shoot the breeze."

You can read more here.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.

We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your blog, you can go here.

Flawed Temperature Data Used to Support Global Warming

2007-11-19T06:35:00.000-05:00

Did you ever wonder where they get the recorded data that scientists use to measure the earth's temperature?

This is an important question because they are using the "rise" in earth's temperature to prove that global warming is man-made and then use global warming as a political weapon against the USA and other industrialized countries.

If you live in the USA, your liberty and freedom is in danger from the global warming hysteria. Already, the Federal, State, and local governments are making small assaults on our freedom because they feel that our lifestyle in America is leading to global warming.

But the data that is being used to prove this global warming myth is flawed. Temperature recording stations such as the one pictured here are part of the formula that gives scientists the overall temperature of the earth.

Some of the temperature recording stations are near barbecue pits, trash burn barrels, airplane engines, tennis courts, parking lots, air conditioners, and other environments that distort the temperature being recorded in the station.

This results in inaccurate data, which leads to inaccurate conclusions about the real state of the earth's temperature.

Don't let liberals who want to use global warming as a way to take away our freedoms get away with this.

Share this information with your friends and family. Showing them the truth is the best weapon against the lie of man-made global warming.

For more pictures of temperature recording stations, visit our website conservativekids.net

Support Our Troops

2007-11-15T19:50:00.000-05:00

We must never forget those who serve and defend our country!

Asian "Sun Bear" Facing Extinction

2007-11-13T19:09:00.000-05:00

What's killing the sun bears?

The Asian sun bear, the smallest of the bear species, is facing extinction because of deforestation and poaching. Only about 10,000 of these little bears are left.

The habitat of the sun bear stretches from India to Indonesia; the only area that the sun bear population appears to be stable is in Thailand, where they have a logging ban.

Meanwhile, the bear populations in the Mexico, the USA, and Canada continue to grow.

Although deforestation and poaching are to blame in the declining numbers of sun bears, Asiatic black bears, and giant pandas, what creates the deforestation and poaching in the first place?

The simple answer is the lack of free-market capitalism in the countries of the southeast Asia.

In the USA, logging companies in the free market have to plant trees to replace the ones they cut down or they would eventually run out of trees and go out of business. This is the reason that there continue to be plenty of forests for our bears to live in and increase in numbers.

In southeast Asia, people legally (logging)and illegally (poaching) strip their country of it's natural resources, like bears and trees, without bothering to replace them. Without the responsibilities that pressure both producer and consumer in the free market, people living under socialist and communist governments get what profit they can for now and don't plan for the future, which is inherently bleak.

What's killing the sun bears' future is oppressed people without a future of their own.

Another Great Video Tribute to Our Veterans

2007-11-12T18:58:00.000-05:00

I saw this on Backyard Conservative and had to put it here for you to enjoy

Video Tribute to Our Veterans

2007-11-11T20:08:00.000-05:00

Check out this video at military.com...

Veteran's Day: Correcting The Shame of the VA

2007-11-11T14:31:00.000-05:00

Today is the day that we honor our veterans who have served our country defending America and protecting our rights and liberties.

Our rights and liberties are under attack in the USA from within and without. While our military fights the physical enemy that seeks to destroy America, the citizens of the USA who value their freedoms must fight a war of ideas and propaganda in their schools, town halls, State and Federal government, and the media.

The veterans of our armed services need to be treated better also. Ever since our Republic was established, the veterans who fought the good fight have been neglected and the promise and duty we have to them has been ignored.

It's time that we step up to the plate as our military has done and make new efforts to take care of their medical, psychological, and rehabilitative needs. The short-changing has to stop!

The solution is for the Federal government to set up a fund that provides these soldiers with the care they need from the private sector. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) must be abolished since it has proven woefully inadequate to care for the needs of the bravest and most deserving among us.

If there is any government agency that demonstrates the inadequacy of Federal bureaucracy in comparison to the proficiency of the private sector, the Department of Veterans Affairs is it. From bureaucratic waste to outright neglect of our veterans, the VA is an abomination and must be eradicated.

The scandal surrounding the conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center is just the tip of the iceberg; politics coupled with apathy has created a bloated vestigial structure that must be removed like an inflamed appendix (although you wouldn't want it removed by the VA!).

The measure of our gratitude for our veterans should not be parades, observances, or speeches. The greatest measure of our gratitude is seen in how we take care of those who have shown the courage and devotion to our country and are the "True Heroes" of our generation.

Write your senators and congressmen and demand that they rectify the deplorable way our government treats our veterans.

US National Debt Tops $9.1 Trillion

2007-11-10T20:47:00.000-05:00

The United States national debt now tops $9.1 trillion dollars, which means each citizen, including the kids of America, owes $30,030.29 as their part of the debt.

Over 40% of the money is owed to the Federal Reserve Bank, over 30% to foreign and international investors, and other significant chunks are owed to government agencies that had cash built up, like the Social Security fund.

The liberal spending policies of the last 40 years have left our government in a debt that will not be paid back in the current system of tax collection and economic planning. Much of the problem is that the Federal government has abandoned the economic principles which were originally mandated in our Constitution.

Presidential candidate Ron Paul wants to return to a monetary policy very similar to the one described in the original Constitution, which would be great if that was possible. Another solution is the Fair Tax, which would remove all income taxes and impose something similar to a national sales tax.

The Fair Tax has a more realistic chance of being implemented and would not only help us wipe out the national debt, but would also address other concerns like the bankruptcy of the Social security system.

Learn more about the Fair Tax here...

Dolphins Save Surfer from Shark Attack

2007-11-10T12:06:00.000-05:00

This is an incredible story about a surfer in California who was protected by a pod of dolphins after being attacked by a great white shark. The video is from The Today Show...

Weather Channel Founder: Global Warming ‘Greatest Scam in History’

2007-11-08T18:21:00.000-05:00

John Coleman, the founder of The Weather Channel, says that the global warming fears are a "manufactured crisis" and the "greatest scam in history" according to a article he wrote on ICECAP's website.

Describing the alarmism surrounding global warming as being politically motivated, he added: "Now their ridiculous manipulated science has been accepted as fact and become a cornerstone issue for CNN, CBS, NBC, the Democratic Political Party, the Governor of California, school teachers and, in many cases, well informed but very gullible environmentally conscientious citizens."

He also downplays the drastic effects that global warming critics warn will happen: " There is no run away climate change. The impact of humans on climate is not catastrophic. Our planet is not in peril.... As the temperature rises, polar ice cap melting, coastal flooding and super storm pattern all fail to occur as predicted."

Coleman is currently the weatherman at KUSI News 6 in San Diego, California.

Iran Advances Nuclear Program

2007-11-07T18:58:00.000-05:00

Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced today that his country now has 3,000 fully functional centrifuges used to enrich uranium.

Enriching uranium is a key process to building nuclear bombs, which Ahmadinejad says is not the purpose of his country's nuclear program.

The world community is concerned about the growing threat of Iran building nuclear weapons, but so far only economic sanctions have been imposed.

The rulers of Iran, who are Islamic fundamentalists waiting for the end of the world, are very hostile to the United States and particularly Israel.

Ahmadinejad has repeatedly threatened to wipe out Israel in the past and already has missiles capable of reaching Israel. Iran is also getting more advanced military equipment from Russia and China.

Iran is also supplying the terrorists in Iraq with advanced explosives that are killing dozens of US soldiers every month. There is no doubt that Iran presents the biggest security challenge the world faces today.

Either the USA or Israel is going to have to step up to the plate and destroy Iran's nuclear development facilities or face the possibility of a nuclear attack on Israel or the USA; or that Iran will blackmail it's enemies and neighbors by holding the threat of nuclear war over their heads.

Pakistan In Trouble

2007-11-06T19:58:00.000-05:00

Pakistan's President Musharraf, pictured on the left, declared martial law and suspended the country's constitution three days ago in an attempt to maintain his political power. Thousands of protesters have been arrested, many severely beaten.

Musharraf claims he is trying to control the Islamic militants that threaten his government, but his army is arresting lawyers, judges and political activists and seizing control of the media. Musharraf is establishing a military dictatorship, which will lead to a revolution in his country.

Pakistan under Musharraf's rule has supposedly been an ally in the "war on terror", but the lack of progress in fighting the Taliban and other Islamic militants in the country shows that Musharraf has been trying to appease the terrorists and keep friendly with the USA for the $10 billion in foreign aid we have given him.

The Bush administration should let Musharraf be overthrown and replaced by Benazir Bhutto, pictured on the right, who is more moderate and would work much better with the USA as an ally.

GI Joe: A Sign of Things to Come?

2007-10-29T19:10:00.000-04:00

Paramount is looking to make a GI Joe movie, but instead of being a U.S. Marine, GI Joe will be part of an international military force.

This is just part of a liberal trend to undermine America's sovereignty and make the USA just another country.

"Sovereignty" is defined as "having political independence", and there are people and organizations here and worldwide that would like America to give up it's independence and submit to the will of international organizations, like the U.N.

This would weaken our country and help end the freedoms and liberties we enjoy today.

We need to elect conservative leaders who will stand up to this pressure and put America first. Mike Huckabee is just such a leader.

If you want to read the story of Mitchell Paige, the real Marine who inspired the GI Joe doll, click here. His story will make you proud of our armed forces and remind you of why we need to preserve our American sovereignty.

The DREAM Act and Immigration

2007-10-27T11:24:00.000-04:00

Last week, the U.S. Senate tried to bring a bill called the DREAM Act to cloture.

Cloture is a procedure that takes a bill proposed by a senator and ends the discussion of the bill. The cloture vote must get 60 "yes" votes to end the discussion of the bill, and if it gets the 60 "yes" votes, the Senate is then allowed to vote later on whether to pass the bill or not.

The DREAM Act was a bill that would grant amnesty to illegal aliens and provide them with with benefits (like education) that only legal citizens of this country enjoy.

Conservatives bombarded their senators with faxes, emails, and phone calls asking them to vote "no" on cloture and it was a success.

The good news is that only 52 senators voted "yes" for cloture, ending the chances of it passing; the bad news is that several liberal Republicans voted "yes" also.

How did your senator vote:

Alabama: Sessions (R-AL), Nay Shelby (R-AL), Nay
Alaska: Murkowski (R-AK), Nay Stevens (R-AK), Nay
Arizona: Kyl (R-AZ), Nay McCain (R-AZ), Not Voting
Arkansas: Lincoln (D-AR), Yea Pryor (D-AR), Nay
California: Boxer (D-CA), Not Voting Feinstein (D-CA), Yea
Colorado: Allard (R-CO), Nay Salazar (D-CO), Yea
Connecticut: Dodd (D-CT), Not Voting Lieberman (ID-CT), Yea
Delaware: Biden (D-DE), Yea Carper (D-DE), Yea
Florida: Martinez (R-FL), Yea Nelson (D-FL), Yea
Georgia: Chambliss (R-GA), Nay Isakson (R-GA), Nay
Hawaii: Akaka (D-HI), Yea Inouye (D-HI), Yea
Idaho: Craig (R-ID), Yea Crapo (R-ID), Nay
Illinois: Durbin (D-IL), Yea Obama (D-IL), Yea
Indiana: Bayh (D-IN), Yea Lugar (R-IN), Yea
Iowa: Grassley (R-IA), Nay Harkin (D-IA), Yea
Kansas: Brownback (R-KS), Yea Roberts (R-KS), Nay
Kentucky: Bunning (R-KY), Nay McConnell (R-KY), Nay
Louisiana: Landrieu (D-LA), Nay Vitter (R-LA), Nay
Maine: Collins (R-ME), Yea Snowe (R-ME), Yea
Maryland: Cardin (D-MD), Yea Mikulski (D-MD), Yea
Massachusetts: Kennedy (D-MA),Not Voting Kerry (D-MA), Yea
Michigan: Levin (D-MI), Yea Stabenow (D-MI), Yea
Minnesota: Coleman (R-MN), Yea Klobuchar (D-MN), Yea
Mississippi: Cochran (R-MS), Nay Lott (R-MS), Yea
Missouri: Bond (R-MO), Nay McCaskill (D-MO), Nay
Montana: Baucus (D-MT), Nay Tester (D-MT), Nay
Nebraska: Hagel (R-NE), Yea Nelson (D-NE), Yea
Nevada: Ensign (R-NV), Nay Reid (D-NV), Yea
New Hampshire: Gregg (R-NH), Nay Sununu (R-NH), Nay
New Jersey: Lautenberg (D-NJ), Yea Menendez (D-NJ), Yea
New Mexico: Bingaman (D-NM), Yea Domenici (R-NM), Nay
New York: Clinton (D-NY), Yea Schumer (D-NY), Yea
North Carolina: Burr (R-NC), Nay Dole (R-NC), Nay
North Dakota: Conrad (D-ND), Nay Dorgan (D-ND), Nay
Ohio: Brown (D-OH), Yea Voinovich (R-OH), Nay
Oklahoma: Coburn (R-OK), Nay Inhofe (R-OK), Nay
Oregon: Smith (R-OR), Nay Wyden (D-OR), Yea
Pennsylvania: Casey (D-PA), Yea Specter (R-PA), Nay
Rhode Island: Reed (D-RI), Yea Whitehouse (D-RI), Yea
South Carolina: DeMint (R-SC), Nay Graham (R-SC), Nay
South Dakota: Johnson (D-SD), Yea Thune (R-SD), Nay
Tennessee: Alexander (R-TN), Nay Corker (R-TN), Nay
Texas: Cornyn (R-TX), Nay Hutchison (R-TX), Yea
Utah: Bennett (R-UT), Yea Hatch (R-UT), Yea
Vermont: Leahy (D-VT), Yea Sanders (I-VT), Yea
Virginia: Warner (R-VA), Nay Webb (D-VA), Yea
Washington: Cantwell (D-WA), Yea Murray (D-WA), Yea
West Virginia: Byrd (D-WV), Nay Rockefeller (D-WV), Yea
Wisconsin: Feingold (D-WI), Yea Kohl (D-WI), Yea
Wyoming: Barrasso (R-WY), Nay Enzi (R-WY), Nay

California Fires- History Repeats Itself

2007-10-25T19:55:00.000-04:00

Harry Reid thinks that the California fires are caused by global warming.

Maybe he should re-think his position.

"It's a natural phenomenon, just part of Mother Nature's way of cleaning out the forest," California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman Daniel Berlant said. "Sometimes we hear, 'This is the worst fire season ever.' But its really an ongoing thing."

Read more...