Monday, December 21, 2015

FreedomWorks’ Digital Bill of Rights

As more and more of our activities move online and the internet plays an integral role in our day to day lives, it must be remembered that the rights we enjoy as American citizens do not stop at technology’s doorstep. It is important, therefore, to ensure that the protections established in the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights serve Americans in the digital world just as effectively as they do in the real world. With this in mind, we therefore propose a Digital Bill of Rights:

  1. The right to due process shall be preserved in the digital realm.
  2. The internet does not give government agencies the right to tax or regulate outside of their proper jurisdictions.
  3. The right to freedom of expression shall be preserved online.
  4. Government shall not erect barriers to prevent or control internet access.
  5. The right to secure data shall not be compromised.
[read more]

Monday, December 14, 2015

Lt. Col. Oliver North’s 10 Point Plan to Defeat ISIS

  1. Define the enemy: Radical Islam.
  2. Define Victory: No safe havens for radical Islamic groups anywhere.
  3. Deploy 2 US Carrier Strike Groups & Marines to the Med.
  4. Launch heavy strikes against radical Islamic terror groups in Syria, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, and the Sinai. 
  5. Put US JTACs & FACs with real anti-ISIS fighters/Pesh Merga. 
  6. Provide arms directly to the Kurds - not through Baghdad.
  7. Tell Putin to get out of the way.
  8. Stop all GITMO transfers.
  9. Support President Sisi in Egypt & King Abdullah in Amman to clear ISIS out of the Euphrates river valley.
  10. Resettle and support refugees in the region - Not in the US.
Source: North Points.

A pretty good plan. Obama won’t do anything close to this. The Republican candidates should look at these points for their platform.

Monday, November 30, 2015

More Questions about Islam from CNN

How do many Muslims feel right now?

According to the Pew Research Center (April 2013) 86% of Muslims in Malaysia, 77% in Thailand, 99% in Afghanistan, 84% in Pakistan, 82% in Bangladesh, and 91% in Iraq support sharia law as the official law of the country just to give examples.

Why is Mohammed so important to Muslims?

He is their prophet. According to alim.org: Muhammad was chosen by God to deliver His Message of Peace, namely Islam. The revelation that he received is called the Qur'an, while the message is called Islam. Muhammad is the very last Prophet of God to mankind. He is the final Messenger of God. His message was and is still to the Christians, the Jews and the rest of mankind. He was sent to those religious people to inform them about the true mission of Jesus, Moses, Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham.

Does Islam need a Reformation?

Yes, I believe it does. The Jewish and Christian faith had reformations. Why not Islam? There was a Protestant Reformation where Martin Luther nailed his 95 Thesis on a church. If a moderate or traditional Muslim nailed his “95 thesis” on a mosque he might want to go into hiding afterwards especially if he signed the thesis. There might be a fatwa on him. Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, a moderate Muslim, wants to reform Islam. In his book, A Battle for the Soul of Islam (2012) suggested these reforms:

  1. An Islamic narrative that does not constrain universal principles.
  2. Muslim leaders who support the separation of mosque and state, even as they take strands on social or political issues.
  3. The affirmation of an egalitarian approach to faith beyond the constraints of simple tolerance. Tolerance implies superiority, while pluralism implies equality.
  4. Recognition that if government enacts the literal laws of God rather than natural or human law, then government becomes God and abrogates religion and the personal nature of the relationship of God.
  5. Creation of movements and organizations that are specifically opposed to such radical or terrorism-supporting groups as Al Qaeda, Hamas, etc. by name, rather than simply being against undefined, generic  notions of terrorism.

Following these suggestions (there are ten in all) would be good start to reform Islam. But as long as the Islamists don’t respect women there probably will never be a reformation. The Jewish and Christianity religions are maternalistic by nature—that’s how they were to reform themselves.

Why have there been so many recent attacks by extremist Muslims?

It could be to bring back the Mahdi. When he comes back, according to Islamic theology, those will we be the last days. They want another world war. Add to the fact the Islamists feel emboldened by America having a weak president.

How can the extremists be stopped?

A much harder question to answer. We must destroy their bases and kill them much as possible. But this takes leadership. It would help if the NATO would go after the extremists too. I thought France invoke the “attack one, attack all” clause but they didn’t. Maybe because they are waiting for an adult to be leader of the America. Don’t know. It would also help if the moderate leaders in the Muslim community spoke out against the extremists but again that is wishful thinking.

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Does Islam Encourage Violence?

Here is what several passages from the Quran says:

You will find other hypocrites who wish to be safe from you as well as from their own people; but who would plunge into mischief whenever they get an opportunity. Therefore if they do not keep distance from you and neither offer you peace, nor cease their hostilities against you, you may seize them and kill them wherever you find them, against such people We give you absolute authority. (4.19)

Male or female, whoever is guilty of theft, cut off the hand (that was used in theft) of either of them as a punishment for their crime. This is exemplary punishment ordained by Allah. Allah is Mighty, Wise. (5.38)

The Jews say: "Uzair (Azra) is the son of Allah," and the Christians say: " Messiah (Christ) is the son of Allah." That is what they say with their mouths, imitating the sayings of the former unbelievers. May Allah destroy them! How perverted they are! (9.30)

The woman and the man guilty of adultery or fornication—flog each of them with hundred stripes: Let no compassion move you in their case, in a matter prescribed by God, if ye believe in God and the last day. (24.2)

Those who accuse a chaste woman of fornication and do not produce four witnesses to support their allegation, shall be flogged with eighty lashes and their testimony shall not be accepted ever after, for they are the ones who are wicked transgressors   - except those who repent thereafter and mend their conduct; for Allah is surely Forgiving, Merciful. (24.4)

Therefore, when you meet the unbelievers in the battlefield smite their necks and, when you have thoroughly subdued them, then take prisoners of war and bind them firmly. After the war lay down her burdens, then you have the choice whether you show them favor or accept ransom. Thus are you commanded. If Allah wanted, He Himself could have punished them; but He adopted this way so that He may test some of you by means of others. As for those who are slain in the cause of Allah, He will never let their deeds be lost. (47.4)

This was a question that CNN asked.

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Does Islam really ban all images of the Prophet Mohammed?

Another question from CNN. Let’s take a look at the Hadith this time:

We were with Masruq at the house of Yasar bin Numair. Masruq saw pictures on his terrace and said, "I heard 'Abdullah saying that he heard the Prophet saying, "The people who will receive the severest punishment from Allah will be the picture makers.' " (7.834)

Allah's Apostle returned from a journey when I had placed a curtain of mine having pictures over (the door of) a chamber of mine. When Allah's Apostle saw it, he tore it and said, "The people who will receive the severest punishment on the Day of Resurrection will be those who try to make the like of Allah's creations." So we turned it (i.e., the curtain) into one or two cushions. (7.838)

I purchased a cushion with pictures on it. The Prophet (came and) stood at the door but did not enter. I said (to him), "I repent to Allah for what (the guilt) I have done." He said, "What is this cushion?" I said, "It is for you to sit on and recline on." He said, "The makers of these pictures will be punished on the Day of Resurrection and it will be said to them, 'Make alive what you have created.' Moreover, the angels do not enter a house where there are pictures.'" (7.840)

According to a Wikipedia article, the Quran doesn’t strictly forbid pictures of Mohammed. Most Sunni Muslims believe that visual depictions of all the prophets of Islam should be prohibited. In Shia religion the depictions are common now. The only reference in the Quran that could be possible talk about images of Mohammed is the one about idolatry:

They set up equals with Allah to mislead people from His Way. Tell them: "Well, you may enjoy yourself for a while, but your final destination is going to be hellfire." (Quran 14:30)

Monday, November 23, 2015

Former Al Qaeda Terrorist Offers Chilling Warning: Another Attack Coming ‘Within the Next Two Weeks’

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From the Blaze.com (Nov. 17):

A former member of Al Qaeda in Yemen warned Tuesday that a terror attack is likely within the next two weeks.

Morten Storm, an ex-terrorist who later became a double agent for the CIA, told Fox News host Megyn Kelly that he believes an attack is imminent.

“I believe that within the next two weeks, we will have an attack,” he said.

Storm added, “The people who are on the run at the moment from ISIS in Europe are very desperate, and they know their time’s up, and they will need to do as much damage as possible.”

The ex-terrorist said an attack on American soil could happen, but would be a “bit different” because of the security precautions currently in place.

“And I also believe that copycats in America will do their best to do what their brothers have done in Europe,” Storm said.

Storm’s warning comes just days after terrorists killed at least 129 in France in the deadliest violence the country had seen since World War II. [source]

God forbid this from happening. If it does happen I am blaming Obama for not taking the terrorists seriously—although he probably won’t accept the blame—just pass it on to someone else.

If America takes Syrian refugees without any kind of filtering to keep out the dangerous element then an attack becomes more probable. The Islamic State thugs will infiltrate the refugees population. The simplest way is just to filter out the Muslims in the refugee population. Some will say well Islamic State thugs will just pretend to be Christian or some other non-Muslim religion. I guess it is possible, but I don’t think so. The IS thugs believe Christians and Jews as inferior. If a refugee says he is a Christian ask that person if he believes Jesus is divine or the son of God. Then watch the reaction. Muslims believe Jesus is just a man not divine. So, a true Christian will answer yes without hesitation that He is divine.

You can also check to see what the refugees are carrying. If they are carrying a prayer rug and a Quran they are Muslim. They might also being carrying a Hadith.

If America feels it has to let Muslims in then filter out the fundamentalists. That’s going to be trickier. First, you need to filter out the 15-30 year olds single Muslims. The age range doesn’t have to that exact. I would have said 15-30 year old single male Muslims but woman are being radicalized too. One of the terrorists in France was a woman. Second, of those you filtered out, you could ask a Muslim what a country should do with homosexuals. Or what is their opinion about honor killings, Sharia law, drawings of Allah, dancing, etc. If they give extreme views then they are fundamentalist. Maybe a moderate or traditional Muslim could help in filtering process. If it is possible these questions would be asked in private so other refugees can’t prepare an answer.

Obviously, the best course of action is to have refugees put in a camp or safe zone somewhere in Syria or Egypt or somewhere not in America.

The lone wolf problem or sleeper cells in America are a different animal. America needs to put Muslim informants in Mosques in most major cities like Washington, New York, Wichita, KS, Los Angeles, etc to see what the Imams are preaching.  That would be a good start.

I agree with the cartoon. The Islamic State is a world problem. But until the world does something NATO can and should do something. France is a part of NATO and since an attack on a NATO country is an attack on all NATO countries—that’s in the by-laws—NATO has to start doing some butt-kicking. But that takes leadership from America which America doesn’t seem to have at the moment. I hope it doesn’t take another attack in this country before Obama starts caring. Hitler was taking over countries left and right before the world decided to do something. It seems history is repeating itself again. Is this the Fourth Turning that William Strauss and Neil Howe talked about in their book? The American Revolution, Civil War, The Great Depression and WWII were fourth turnings.

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Attacking Our Founders

An article by Walter E. Williams on Townhall.com (Nov. 11):

Many of my columns speak highly of the wisdom of our nation's founders. Every once in a while, I receive an ugly letter sarcastically asking what do I think of their wisdom declaring blacks "three-fifths of a human." It's difficult to tell whether such a question is prompted by ignorance or is the fruit of an ongoing agenda to undermine American greatness. Let's examine some facts about our founders and slavery.

At the time of the 1787 Constitutional Convention, slaves were 40 percent of the population of southern colonies. Apportionment in the House of Representatives and the number of electoral votes each state would have in presidential elections would be based upon population. Southern colonies wanted slaves to be counted as one person. Northern delegates to the convention, and those opposed to slavery, wanted to count only free persons of each state for the purposes of apportionment in the House of Representatives and the Electoral College. The compromise reached was that each slave would be counted as only three-fifths of a person.

If the convention delegates had not reached this compromise, the Constitution would have not been ratified and there would not have been a Union. My questions to those who criticize the three-fifths clause are twofold. Would it have been preferable for the southern states to be able to count slaves as whole persons, thereby giving southern states more political power? Would blacks have been better off without constitutional ratification and a Union made possible by the three-fifths compromise? In other words, would blacks have been better off with northern states having gone their way and southern states having gone theirs and, as a consequence, no U.S. Constitution and no Union? Abolitionist Frederick Douglass understood the compromise, saying that the three-fifths clause was "a downright disability laid upon the slaveholding states" that deprived them of "two-fifths of their natural basis of representation." [read more]

Mr. Williams goes on to say George Washington, John Adams, James Madison, and Benjamin Franklin to name a few were against slavery. It seemed to these Founders black lives matter. For example, Benjamin Franklin (my favorite Founder) said "Slavery is ... an atrocious debasement of human nature."

For those of you who don’t know, Mr. Williams is a black economist at George Mason University.

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Navy SEALs Reveal the One Thing That Will Cause You to Fail as a Leader ’99.9 Percent’ of the Time

From The Blaze.com (Nov. 10):

Two former Navy SEALs are revealing the one thing that causes people to fail as a leader “99.9 percent of the time,” and it has nothing to do one’s physical or mental abilities.

Jocko Willink and Leif Babin, who co-authored the book “Extreme Ownership,” explained in a Business Insider video recently that having success as a SEAL leader has nothing to do with one’s physical skills or even their mental toughness.

“What it has to do with is the fact that the person is not humble enough to accept responsibility when things go wrong, accept that there might be better ways to do things, and they just have a closed mind,” Willink said. ”They can’t change, and that’s what makes a person fail as a leader.”

[read more]

Good advice for anyone running for president and the current president—especially the current president.

Monday, November 16, 2015

Secrets Behind The USS Constitution

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From All That Is Interesting.com (Nov. 11):

During the War of 1812, the United States’ small and relatively new navy was taking a major beating at the hands of the powerful British. The U.S. needed a victory, and the USS Constitution would help provide one.

In August 1812, she met head on with Britain’s HMS Guerriere and astonished sailors on both sides with her resilience. When British cannonballs bounced off the Constitution’s hull, one British sailor was said to have exclaimed “Her sides are made of iron!” From there, it was more wartime heroics, battles with pirates, and the most venerated career of any U.S. warship.

Here are some of the secrets:

  1. The USS Constitution has never been defeated in battle.
  2. The first US Marine Corps officer to die in combat, Lt. William Bush, was killed on the USS Constitution in a battle with the HMS Guerriere.
  3. The ship’s copper fastenings were constructed by Paul Revere himself!
  4. The USS Constitution first launched in 1797, making her the world’s oldest commissioned warship.
  5. She’s actually made of wood—the original trees making up the Constitution’s frame were chopped down in 1795. It took more than 1,500 of them.
  6. The USS Constitution is 204-feet-long, 43-feet-wide and has a 21-inch-thick hull.
  7. Many people to believe the USS Constitution to be haunted.
  8. One of the ghosts said to haunt her is that of the unfortunate Neil Harvey, who fell asleep on watch in the 1880s. Commodore Thomas Truxton had him stabbed in the gut, tied over a canon, and blown to pieces.*
  9. Another popular ghost story claims that a 24-pound cannonball once rolled across the deck while the ship was completely still.
  10. The last night watchman of the USS Constitution was replaced by an alarm system in 1963. His spirit allegedly plays cards on the lower deck today, and gave a tour of the ship to a priest.

[read more]

*What a way to die! I guess that is what happens when you fall asleep during your duty. He won’t be doing that again!

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Are You a Buccaneer-Scholar?

You life for…

  • Firsthand knowledge instead of learning from an authority figure (like a lecture, rules, etc.)
  • Self-directed learning. Your methods are heuristic, not dogmatic.

You hunt ideas…

  • Curiosity drives you. You are driven by the power of novel and diverse ideas.
  • Puzzles intrigue you.
  • Complexity dares you. You know that if someone else has learned it, you can too.

You win your place in the thinking world…

  • You construct yourself. For you, learning is about ongoing personal transformation, not just fact accumulation. You see yourself as thinker-learner-teacher.
  • You earn reputation. You establish and maintain your reputation through the merit of your ideas. You want to earn the respect of people whom you respect.

Source: Secrets of a Buccaneer-Scholar. How Self-Education and the Pursuit of Passion Can Lead to a Lifetime of Success (2009) by James Marcus Bach.

Here are some of the author’s great secrets:

  • My [the author] education is the mind I have constructed and my process of constructing it.
  • My mind is free, even from me.
  • Most of my learning is a side effect.
  • What appears to be chaos is just a form of order I don’t yet understand.
  • At a distance, many fun things to learn look scary.
  • If I try to understand, but fail, that’s progress.
  • Few people out there want exactly what I’m offering, but a few is all I need.
  • Intelligence is just a tool. Love is the point.
  • Whenever I’m learning something difficult, I keep expectations low, and aspirations high.
  • To build my brand name, I must stand for something, even if many people won’t get it or don’t like it.
  • Anything I learn is a gateway to everything else I will ever know.

The author’s website is: Self Made Scholar.com.

Monday, November 09, 2015

The Silicon Valley Entrepreneur

The Characteristics of the Silicon Valley entrepreneur:

  1. Passion- the deep desire to change the world—and the full experience that this will be achieved.
  2. Authenticity.
  3. Idea-driven- ideas are the commodity, produced and consumed in the way traditional goods are produced and consumed elsewhere.
  4. Risk-taking- they take risks to create disruptive innovations or take on the competition, actions that are central to receiving the ecosystem’s respect and encouragement.
  5. Trustworthiness- they operate in an open and collaborative environment, rarely shying away from sharing what they’re truly working on. This type of sharing drives the entrepreneurs to keep evolving, since the smallest bit of relevant information can allow one to keep pace with changing technologies or protect one from a fatal flaw in a business strategy or product.
  6. Resilience.

Four shades of entrepreneurship:

  1. Serial entrepreneur- love to start companies, and can’t imagine staying at any one company for too long. They find a formula that works and apply it over and over, often running several ventures concurrently.
  2. Transformational entrepreneur- tend to drive the Silicon Valley culture. They are perceived as focused, committed, and revolutionary in their thinking. They see themselves as agents of evolutionary change; they have a proposed solution to any question about the world’s problems.
  3. Acquisition entrepreneur- they acquire and develop technology.
  4. Visionary entrepreneur.

Source: Secrets of Silicon Valley. What Everyone Else Can Learn from the Innovation Capital of the World (2013) by Deborah Perry Piscione.

Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Scientists claim they can change your belief on immigrants and God – with MAGNETS

From Express.co.uk (Oct. 14):

ATTITUDES towards God and immigrants can be changed by beaming magnetic waves into the brain, scientists have claimed.

A bizarre experiment claims to be able to make Christians no longer believe in God and make Britons open their arms to migrants in experiments some may find a threat to their values.

Scientists looked at how the brain resolves abstract ideological problems.

Using a technique called transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), researchers safely shut down certain groups of neurones in the brains of volunteers.

Researchers found the technique radically altered religious perceptions and prejudice.

Belief in God was reduced almost by a third, while participants became 28.5 per cent less bothered by immigration numbers. [read more]

Talk about the brave new world. Isn’t this just brain washing? I suppose an unscrupulous scientist could a person believe a political leader loves his country and isn’t trying to radically transform it. Or a political candidate isn’t lying about her emails or Benghazi. Just about anything is possible.

The Nazis, Socialists and Communists and any other fascist group would love this technology.

Tuesday, October 06, 2015

Thoughts on Learning and Education

From the Founding Fathers:

Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.” - Thomas Jefferson

The only thing more expensive than education is ignorance.” - Benjamin Franklin

There are two educations. One should teach us how to make a living and the other how to live. - John Adams

The supreme end of education is expert discernment of all things- the power to tell the good from the bad, the genuine from the counterfeit, and to prefer the good and the genuine to the bad and the counterfeit.  - Samuel Johnson (1709 - 1784)

To other well known Americans:

The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically... Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education. - Martin Luther King Jr.

Never let formal education get in the way of your learning. - Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)

And finally a physicist, a philosopher, and a Christian writer:

Education is the progressive realization of our ignorance. - Albert Einstein

All who have meditated on the art of governing mankind have been convinced that the fate of empires depends on the education of youth. - Aristotle (384BC - 322BC)

Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil.  - C. S. Lewis (1898 - 1963)

A lot of wisdom in those quotes.

Monday, September 28, 2015

The Ancient Athenians and Democracy

After the Athenians had driven out the tyrant Hippias in 510 B.C., they tried to work out methods to prevent the establishment of another tyranny. Once a year they set up an opportunity for a vote that was aimed not at electing someone, but at exiling someone. Each Athenian could write down the name of the politician he felt was growing too dangerously powerful for the good of the state. If a total of 6000 votes were cast and one man received a majority, he was forced to remain away from Athens for ten years. It was not a disgraceful exile: his property was not confiscated, his family was not mistreated, and, when the decade was up, he was welcomed back. He understood that he had been sent away to be kept from the temptation of trying to upset the democracy.

Source: Isaac Asimov's Book of Facts (1991) by Isaac Asimov.

Interesting way to keep power in check. Although, the Left would call the Athenians mean and cruel and how dare they do that.

Monday, September 14, 2015

The Connection Between Property and Liberty

Conservative thinker Russell Kirk lays out one of this ten conservative principles which says: “conservatives are persuaded that freedom and property are closely linked.” or if you prefer: “Property and freedom are inseparably connected; economic leveling is not economic progress. “

So, what did the Founding Fathers think about the link between the two? They pretty much agreed with Kirk:

power over a man’s subsistence amounts to a power over his will. - Alexander Hamilton.

The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is no force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence. Property must be secured or liberty cannot exist – John Adams.

Freedom and Property Rights are inseparable. You can't have one without the other. – George Washington.

The right to procure property and to use it for one's own enjoyment is essential to the freedom of every person, and our other rights would mean little without these rights of property ownership. – Thomas Jefferson

That is not a just government, nor is property secure under it, where the property which a man has in his personal safety and personal liberty is violated by arbitrary seizures of one class of citizens for the service of the rest.  - James Madison

Basically, if you don’t think owning That is not a just government, nor is property secure under it, where the property which a man has in his personal safety and personal liberty is violated by arbitrary seizures of one class of citizens for the service of the rest.property is a God-given right then the gov’t can do whatever it wants with it—because big gov will then claim that right. That’s what socialists and communists believe. And that’s one of the reasons why socialists and communists don’t want God in the country because one of the commandments is “do not steal.” And that includes political leaders.

Wednesday, September 09, 2015

E = R3WCG

From World Mag.com (Aug. 21):

E=mc2 is a simple equation compared to the mystery of what goes into good education. But I’ll [Marvin Olasky] take a shot at proposing an education equation.

(1) Start with the three Rs, reading, ’riting, and ’rithmetic.

(2) Move quickly to the opening line of a great John Newton hymn repopularized by Jars of Clay: “Let us love and sing and wonder.” If children don’t develop a sense of wonder about this astounding, God-created world, they’ll miss a lifetime of excitement. Music, art, history, science, foreign languages, and more should all make school wonder-full.

Our new testing regime doesn’t leave much time for wonder, and educators pay attention to the W only if they answer accurately a basic question: Who are my students? Are they animals with above-average intelligence (compared to horses and caterpillars, but maybe not dolphins)? Are they low-grade computers with below-average memory and above-average weight (compared to a MacBook Air)? Or are they human beings created in the image of a God of wonder?

(3) Add a C for specifically Christian education, for only in Christ do all things hold together. If students don’t understand that God created us, they are likely to become practical atheists. If they don’t understand that God gives history meaning, they are likely to become nihilists. Schools cannot give kids faith in Christ—only God can—but they can help students recognize their need, yearn for meaning, and not be content with wasting their lives. [read more]

The ‘G’ stands for grit by the way. I like his idea but secular progs fanatics will object to the Christian part. Muslims might object too although they have their Madrasas.

This is something that probably isn’t part of Common Core but part of (or should be) of all Christian private schools.

Tuesday, September 08, 2015

The Contract the Islamic State Group Is Forcing Christians to Sign in Syria

From The Blaze.com (Sept. 6):

These were the 11 articles of the contract, as translated by Middle East Media Research Institute:

  1. Christians may not build churches, monasteries, or hermitages in the city or in the surrounding areas.
  2. They may not show the cross or any of their books in the Muslims’ streets or markets, and may not use amplifiers when worshiping or during prayer.
  3. They may not make Muslims hear the reciting of their books or the sounds of church bells, which must be rung only inside their churches.
  4. They may not make Muslims hear the reciting of their books or the sounds of church bells, which must be rung only inside their churches.
  5. They must not perform religious rituals in public.
  6. They must respect Muslims and not criticize their religion.
  7. Wealthy Christians must pay an annual jizya of four gold dinars; middle-class Christians must pay two gold dinars, and the poor must pay one. Christians must disclose their income, and may split the jizya into two payments.
  8. They may not own guns.
  9. They may not engage in commercial activity involving pigs or alcohol with Muslims or in Muslim markets, and may not drink alcohol in public.
  10. They may maintain their own cemeteries.
  11. They must abide by ISIS dress code and commerce guidelines.

[read more]

That’s pretty fascist I’d say. Just like the Soviet Union, the Islamic State thugs don’t allow other religions to practice either. Even though the articles refer to Christians they could apply to other non-Muslim religions too.

If the reader notices, most of the articles are “may not” or “must not.” Only three are “must”—well, they’re restrictive too. Only one “may”—# 10.  Kind of an odd one.

The Left would like articles 7 and 8. Article seven sounds like a progressive tax system.

Monday, September 07, 2015

Self-Repairing Material Could Prevent Spaceship Catastrophes

From acs.org (Aug. 26):

For astronauts living in space with objects zooming around them at 22,000 miles per hour like rogue super-bullets, it’s good to have a backup plan. Although shields and fancy maneuvers could help protect space structures, scientists have to prepare for the possibility that debris could pierce a vessel. In the journal ACS [American Chemical Society] Macro Letters, one team reports on a new material that heals itself within seconds and could prevent structural penetration from being catastrophic.

The researchers made a new kind of self-healing material by sandwiching a reactive liquid in between two layers of a solid polymer. When they shot a bullet through it, the liquid quickly reacted with oxygen from the air to form a solid plug in under a second. The researchers say the technology could also apply to other more earthly structures including automobiles. [read more]

Cool. Hope it works as planned.

Wednesday, September 02, 2015

Goldman Sachs Analyst’s Unsettling Conclusion About This ‘Scary’ Chart

From The Blaze.com (Aug. 31):

When the VIX — an “index of volatility” in the S&P 500 stocks — hits “levels in the high-twenties to low-thirties” for extended periods of time, it’s usually an indicator that the U.S. economy is headed for a recession, according to a Goldman Sachs analyst.

Goldman Sachs released the graph below to put this issue into perspective — and as you can see, the index is currently at “scary” levels.

“VIX levels go back to January 1990. Since that time there have been three recessions. Average VIX levels in the first two recessions (1990-1991, 2001) were 25 and 26 respectively,” Goldman Sachs analyst Krag Gregory said. “The worst of the worst was of course the Great Financial Crisis. Average VIX levels in the 2008-2009 recession were 34.”

After a dramatic spike during last week’s turbulent period, the VIX landed at 26 at the end of the week. [read more]

Well, it looks like Congress and Administrator Obama have beaten the Islamic State in destroying the economy. Is this what Obama meant by the ‘new normal?’ Well, I guess it is better than a depression.

Tuesday, September 01, 2015

Scientists Finally Discover How To Turn Cancer Cells Into Normal Cells

From Elite Daily.com (Aug. 26):

Scientists possibly discovered the key to “turning off” cancer by reverting malignant cells back to their previous states.

Cells constantly divide to maintain their populations, and molecules called microRNAs stop cells from dividing by producing PLEKHA7 proteins.

When a cell turns cancerous, however, this protein production does not occur and the cells’ bonds continue to divide, according to The Telegraph.

But scientists at the Mayo Clinic in Florida found restoring PLEKHA7 levels in cancer cells turned those cancerous cells back into normal cells.

The team likened the reversal process to activating the brakes on a car.

[read more]

Well, that’s great to hear even though the success was in lab-grown cells, but still hopeful.

Monday, August 31, 2015

Islamic State Plotting ‘Second Blow’ to U.S. Financial System in Bid to ‘Purify the Earth of Corruption’

From The Blaze.com (Aug. 30):

The Islamic State group revealed over the weekend that at the centerpiece of its goal to bring down America is a concerted effort to weaken the U.S. dollar and replace it with gold currency.

A video posted Saturday warned of the “dawning of a new age” in which replacing the dollar with gold would deliver “the second blow to America’s capitalist financial system of enslavement … casting into ruins their fraudulent dollar note.”

The first blow, it said, was the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center.

The English-language video included archival footage from U.S. news channels, including a 2007 clip of Ron Paul sounding the alarm over the vulnerability of the dollar.

Produced by the Islamic State’s Al Hayat Media, the extremist Sunni group positioned itself as leading the fight against fiat currency by minting caliphate gold, silver and bronze coins. It named them after historical Islamic caliphate coins: the gold dinar, the silver dirham and the bronze fals (or the plural fulus).

Its dedication to gold – and opposition to paper notes – was grounded in the Quran, excerpts of which appeared onscreen in the video. [read more]

I wonder if this is what China is trying to do. Then again they are communists and really don’t embrace the free enterprise system. Well, Iranian gov’t and probably Russian gov’t wouldn’t mind the Islamic State thugs doing this. It would save them the trouble.

Yea, America shouldn’t have gone off the gold standard but we really can’t go back. What America needs is Congress that has self-control when it comes to spending and a strong president that has a back-bone and not appeasing our enemies. You know one that believes in American exceptionalism.

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

My Take on The Donald

1

Basically the above cartoons sums up my take.

Donald Trump says during an interview now he is not for universal health care because it wouldn’t work in America.  He should be against it because it is anti-freedom and never will work anywhere. Just ask any Canadian who actually has to use it.

He said he became pro-life on relationships with close personal friends who had children. Their pregnancy experiences, Trump maintains, allowed him to mature on the abortion issue to the point of now opposing abortion. So, he didn’t become pro-life when any of this children was born? Interesting. Then he won’t defund Planned Parenthood unless they abort babies.

Mr. Trump said he was for in the gov’t in the past a wealth tax and a balanced budget amendment to get the national debt down. Now, he is against that idea because the debt is too high and won’t matter anymore. Well, the balanced budget amendment is a good idea, but the former part is what Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders would recommend. And if he becomes president and gets the debt down lower will Mr. Trump then decide a wealth tax is a good idea? He said during the interview with Sean Hannity that a wealth tax is a conservative idea. I beg your pardon. No it is not. The debt isn’t huge because there isn’t enough money coming in, it’s huge because the president and congress has out-of-control spending. No discipline. That’s the problem.

He said in the past he was a democrat but like Ronald Reagan he evolved. The problem with that statement is Ronald Reagan changed over time—that’s what evolution is. Donald Trump seemed to change when he is running for president. Also, President Reagan talked about conservative ideas and how great America is. I don’t hear Donald Trump say those things. He talks about making America great again. America is great. It’s just not realizing its potential. For those of you who remember (like me) Ronald Reagan running for president, the country was in a downturn when Jimmy Carter was in office. But you sensed Reagan’s patriotism. I am not getting that from Donald Trump that much. Not saying Donald Trump isn’t patriotic but he’s always talking about himself and how great he is. Not that everyone running for president should be Ronald Reagan but he did create the template.

Also, when Donald Trump says he is no different from any other businesses man who pays for influence with politicians. Let’s call it for what it is: bribery. If politicians were officers of the court—businessmen would go to jail. But since Congress makes the rules—it’s legal because they benefit from the system too. Trump says this is the way the system works. Well, the system is corrupt. And he has a choice like other business leaders not to play the system. Glenn Beck says he doesn’t play the system and there is pressure put on him to play it. Good for him. I wonder if Mr. Trump, if he ever becomes president, to put a bill before Congress to ban political bribes. Or will he just keep the system in place so he can use it again when he leaves office. The bill might not pass but it would be nice if that was on his platform.

Now, his immigration reform position and my comments:

  1. A nation without borders is not a nation. There must be a wall across the southern border. True, and I agree a wall is a good idea.
  2. A nation without laws is not a nation. Laws passed in accordance with our Constitutional system of government must be enforced. Pretty much common sense.
  3. A nation that does not serve its own citizens is not a nation. Any immigration plan must improve jobs, wages and security for all Americans. Again nothing earth shaking.
  4. Make Mexico Pay For The Wall. [I]mpound all remittance payments derived from illegal wages; increase fees on all temporary visas issued to Mexican CEOs and diplomats (and if necessary cancel them); increase fees on all border crossing cards – of which we issue about 1 million to Mexican nationals each year (a major source of visa overstays); increase fees on all NAFTA worker visas from Mexico (another major source of overstays); and increase fees at ports of entry to the United States from Mexico [Tariffs and foreign aid cuts are also options].  We will not be taken advantage of anymore. Sounds good but I wonder if all that will be enough to pay for the wall.
  5. Triple the number of ICE officers. Good idea. But you have to give them the power to do their job.
  6. Nationwide e-verify. This has been suggested by others. Not a bad idea.
  7. Mandatory return of all criminal aliens. It will take a while since there is about 76,000 illegal aliens with criminal records.

The immigration reform plan is not a bad plan. The reader can look at more of it at his website. The most controversial part is ending birthright citizenship since that has to be upheld by the Supreme Court.

If this essay sounds like an attack on Donald Trump. It is not. I am just asking questions. Like is he really a conservative? Does he understand the connection between private property and liberty? Does he understand that political power ought to be kept in the hands of private persons and local institutions? Does he understand the role of the Constitution? Or does he thinks it is a obstacle like Obama and the rest of the Left? Does he get American exceptionalism? I know your rich Mr. Trump. Nothing wrong with that, but you don’t need to mention it every time. It’s getting old.

I believe those who support Donald Trump for president are those who like his passion and bluntness. Those qualities by themselves are not necessary bad. But if a candidate for office doesn’t have good decent principles to start off with then those other qualities don’t mean much. Voters need to look deeper. It’s their future and their children’s future. Not just him but for every candidate running for office. Maybe a candidate that has humility would be a good change for once.

I don’t know. Bill O’Reilly said Donald Trump isn’t a republican but a Trumplican. He could be right. But I think he is more of a populist.

Monday, August 24, 2015

Head of EPA Admits Climate Regulations Will Hit Low-Income Minority Families Hardest

From The Daily Signal.com (Aug. 19):

The chief environmental regulator in the United States had some blunt words of reality regarding the administration’s climate change regulations.

The Clean Power Plan that will require drastic cuts in 47 states’ carbon dioxide emissions – consequently shifting America’s energy economy away from affordable, reliable coal – will adversely impact poor, minority families the most.

When speaking about the higher energy prices caused by the administration’s climate regulations on power plants, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy said, “We know that low-income minority communities would be hardest hit.”

McCarthy downplayed that fact by saying any minimal higher prices would be offset by implementing energy efficiency measures that would save consumers money in the long run. [read more]

This is just another example of the war on the poor. But does the Left care? No because the global warming worship is more important than people. Then again maybe this is all part of the top-down, bottom-up, inside-out chaos that Van Jones was talking about. And Obama wanted to radically transform America. Hillary is no different.

As for saving consumers money in the long run—we’ll see. But I doubt it.

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

New Video Shows Hillary Meet With Black Lives Matter Activists — and Things Briefly Get Tense

From The Blaze.com (Aug. 17):

Newly-released video shows Hillary Clinton’s meeting with the Boston chapter of the Black Lives Matter movement earlier this month after the activists were initially denied entry to a campaign event.

The video shows Clinton meet backstage in New Hampshire with what appears to be a group of three activists. One of the activists compares the prison system in the U.S. to the plantation system.

“America’s first drug is free black labor. And turning black bodies into profit,” the activist tells Clinton as she nods her head, seemingly agreeing. “The mass incarceration system mirrors an awful lot like the prison. The prison plantation system. It’s a similar thread. And until someone takes that message and speaks that truth to white people in this country, so that we can actually take on anti-blackness as a founding problem in this problem.”

The activist suggested that the mass incarceration of individuals is motivated by money before asking Clinton a question about “what in your heart has changed that is going to change the direction of this country?”

“What in you, not your platform, not what you’re supposed to say, how do you actually feel that is different than you did before?” the activist asked.

Clinton said that it was a “very thoughtful question” that deserved a “thoughtful answer.”

“I can only tell you that I feel very committed to and responsible for doing whatever I can,” she said, before noting she has spent much of her career focused on kids.

. . . .

In a separate clip published online, things briefly got tense after the activist tells Clinton that this has always been a “white problem of violence.”

“There’s not much that we can do to stop the violence against us,” he told Clinton.

The Democratic frontrunner pushed back.

“Respectfully, if that is your position, then I will only talk to white people about how we are going to deal with these very real problems,” she shot back.

“That’s not what I mean,” the activist replied. “But, what you just said was a form of victim blaming. You were saying what the Black Lives Matter movement needs to do to change white hearts is to—.”

Clinton said that she doesn’t believe in changing all hearts, but instead changing laws and allocation of resources. [my emphasis]

“You change the way systems operate,” she said.   [read more]

Hillary Clinton “doesn’t believe in change all hearts, but instead changing laws and allocation of resources”? Hmm. Let’s analyze that statement. Basically what she is saying is she doesn’t have time to persuade people to her beliefs so she is going to bully them to her belief system. It’s just takes too much effort to persuade people to her beliefs so she is going to bully them to her system. After all she (and most of the Left) believes she knows what best for than the common man and so why go through the trouble and try to explain her position. In other words the Left’s elite are shepherds and the rest of the people are sheeple. So, just get in line you sheep and behave! Well, first the Elites will try to trick, bribe and coerce before they force the commoner to their will.

As for the “allocation of resources” part well that sounds like wealth redistribution. Then again I could be wrong.

In other related news, Governor Jeb Bush ended his town hall early when the Black Lives Matter (BLM) thugs activists interrupted his speech. If the gov cannot take confrontation from professional agitators (they are supported by uber rich Leftist George Soros) how is he going to deal with the Islamic State thugs and other Leftist agitators like the BLM group when he is president? When you are president you have groups that will cause you stress and yes, hate you. Just ask your brother W. You have to deal with them and not run away from them.

To be fair, a democratic runner Martin O'Malley was confronted by this group when he said “all lives matter.” They started shouting ‘black lives matter.’ Then he apologized. What?! All lives do matter. What a weenie. Socialist Bernie Sanders was also confronted by this group too. In both cases the group should have been escorted out by the police.

Then again BLM is like most of the Left: They are obsessed with race, gender, income, etc. They see people as part of a group not as an individuals which makes it easier to treat people as sheep.

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Shocking New Iranian Video Imagines Islamic Takeover of Jerusalem, Destruction of Israel

From algemeiner.com (Aug. 17):

A newly revealed video produced under the auspices of the Iranian regime in early August threatens and visualizes the destruction of Israel at the hands of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Iranian Middle East proxies, The Investigative Project on Terrorism reported on Monday.

The animated video, produced by the Islamic Revolution Design House, depicts soldiers preparing for battle. One dons the IRGC insignia on his left arm, another the emblem of the Iran-backed Iraqi Shia Badr Organization. Yet a third dons a headband bearing the Lebanese Hezbollah logo, and a fourth is seen clad in Hamas’ characteristic balaclava and the Qassam Brigades green headband.

Each brandishes a weapon, a helmet and a keffiyeh. They are shown poised on a hill overlooking the Israeli capital of Jerusalem, prepared for battle.

The video then pans out showing an ever-growing number of soldiers, presumably all members of Iran’s loyal proxies, like the fighters portrayed at the beginning of the footage.

The clip then transitions to a black screen with Persian script that says “Israel must be obliterated,” or literally, “erased from the annals of history,” a command first issued by Iran’s late Ayatollah Khomeini and famously repeated by former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as well as leaders of Iran’s proxies such as Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. [read more]

And the Obama regime is making a “treaty” with Iran. Really? I know this video shows Iranian soldiers invading Israel not America but two points to consider:

  1. Israel is and probably will always be America’s friend. They have consistently voted with us more than any other nation in the UN. Therefore they should always get our support. You don’t turn your back on your loyal friends.
  2. According to Iran’s leaders, America is the big Satan and Israel is the little Satan. So, eventually they will attack America unless they get a democratic peaceful regime again. At least one that doesn’t want to cause another holocaust.

Monday, August 10, 2015

Miscellaneous Thoughts Part 36

  • I wonder if the medical examiner said “Elvis has left his body” when declaring Elvis Presley dead. Probably not.
  • Why do teachers need unions? I mean who is oppressing them? The students? The parents?
  • If you are running for POTUS and won’t give your plan, your agenda, or your platform for the country because you are concerned that an opponent will steal your ideas then you are only thinking of yourself and not of the well-being of the country. What’s more important? Your ego or the country?
  • For the Left insanity loves company.
  • For OCBs measure 10X cut once.
  • A salad a day keeps constipation at bay.
  • I think there is inverse relationship between ego and intelligence. The higher your ego, the more you think you know-it-all and thus you stop learning.
  • Evil thrives on social chaos.
  • Maybe Congressional leaderships should be voted on every two years by members of the respective party. The incumbent can re-run if he/she wants to.
  • What Donald Trump should have said about John McCain is that yes, he is a war hero but it didn’t matter to the voter. He still lost the presidential election.

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Obama collecting personal data for a secret race database

From NYPost.com (July 18):

A key part of President Obama’s legacy will be the fed’s unprecedented collection of sensitive data on Americans by race. The government is prying into our most personal information at the most local levels, all for the purpose of “racial and economic justice.”

Unbeknown to most Americans, Obama’s racial bean counters are furiously mining data on their health, home loans, credit cards, places of work, neighborhoods, even how their kids are disciplined in school — all to document “inequalities” between minorities and whites.

This Orwellian-style stockpile of statistics includes a vast and permanent network of discrimination databases, which Obama already is using to make “disparate impact” cases against: banks that don’t make enough prime loans to minorities; schools that suspend too many blacks; cities that don’t offer enough Section 8 and other low-income housing for minorities; and employers who turn down African-Americans for jobs due to criminal backgrounds.

Big Brother Barack wants the databases operational before he leaves office, and much of the data in them will be posted online.  [read more]

Great more databases that hackers can break into. You know those databases won’t be secure. If you didn’t catch it, I said databases. According to the article, there are five collection of databases all related to race: Housing, mortgage, credit-card transactions, employment and finally school. Yes, that’s right big brother wants to know about your kids.

What? No database about guns? I guess the regime doesn’t care if minorities have guns or not. Notice that the databases don’t include stats about gender. Hmm…

These databases just like any created bureaucracy will still be in existence long after the Emperor is out of office.

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Obama’s Newest Gun Control Scheme Involves Social Security Benefits

From The LaTimes.com (July 18):

Seeking tighter controls over firearm purchases, the Obama administration is pushing to ban Social Security beneficiaries from owning guns if they lack the mental capacity to manage their own affairs, a move that could affect millions whose monthly disability payments are handled by others.

The push is intended to bring the Social Security Administration in line with laws regulating who gets reported to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS, which is used to prevent gun sales to felons, drug addicts, immigrants in the country illegally and others.

A potentially large group within Social Security are people who, in the language of federal gun laws, are unable to manage their own affairs due to "marked subnormal intelligence, or mental illness, incompetency, condition, or disease."  [read more]

Well, Congress can’t manage the financial affairs of the country (they can’t control their spending), and Obama can’t manage foreign affairs maybe they shouldn't be allowed to own guns either. This is just a war on the disabled and veterans.

Monday, July 20, 2015

The Safety Truck Could Revolutionize Road Safety

From global.Samsungtomorrow.com (June 18):

Have you ever found yourself driving behind a semi-trailer truck? If you’re on a single-lane highway or road, it can be a nightmare. Even though the truck is driving relatively slowly, you cannot overtake it due to its size, and because you cannot see what is happening in front of the truck.

However, Samsung has developed a solution that may make this problem a thing of the past.

How Does it Work?

The Safety Truck consists of a wireless camera attached to the front of the truck, which is connected to a video wall made out of four exterior monitors located on the back of the truck. The monitors give drivers behind the truck a view of what is going on ahead, even in the dark of night.  [read more]

Cool. Hope it does prevent accidents. But how would the truck driver open up the back of the truck without breaking the monitors unless they are really durable. Probably made of some tough plastic material.

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

'Mini ice age' coming in next fifteen years

From Independent.co.UK (July 12):

There will be a "mini ice age" in 2030, solar scientists have said.

We are now able to predict solar cycles with far greater accuracy than ever before thanks to a new model which shows irregularities in the sun’s 11-year heartbeat.

The model shows that solar activity will fall by 60 per cent between 2030 and 2040 causing a "mini ice age".

The conditions predicted have not been experienced since the last "mini ice age" which lasted from 1645 to 1715, called the Maunder Minimum. [read more]

What happened to global warming or its new name ‘climate change?’ Oh, that’s right. It’s a hoax. I mean if climate change computer models never use the sun as a factor to calculate global temperature something is not right. I mean the sun is the main factor in the equation! Or it should be. Look at the dwarf (shouldn’t that be little person?) planet Pluto. Since it is farthest from the sun it can be as cold as -387 degrees Fahrenheit. The warmest it can be is -369 degrees Fahrenheit when it’s closest to the sun. Oh by the way, Pluto has methane (a green-house gas) in its atmosphere. Someone tell Al Gore so he can lecture the Plutonians about creating Plutonian-made climate change.

So, a ten year range is now considered ‘mini?’ That’s seems more like major or semi-major to me. And the Left will still find a way to blame people using too much green-house gases for the ice age.

I always thought the sun has a role in any global climate. It just makes sense.

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

The New Totalitarians Are Here

From The Federalist.com (July 6):

There’s a basic difference in the traditions of political science between “authoritarians” and “totalitarians.” People throw both of these words around, but as is so often the case, they’re using words they may not always understand. They have real meaning, however, and the difference between them is important.

Simply put, authoritarians merely want obedience, while totalitarians, whose rule is rooted in an ideology, want obedience and conversion. Authoritarians are a dime a dozen; totalitarians are rare.  The authoritarians are the guys in charge who want to stay in charge, and don’t much care about you, or what you’re doing, so long as you stay out of their way. They are the jefe and his thugs in a brutal regime that want you to shut up, go to work, and look the other way when your loudmouthed neighbor gets his lights punched out by goons in black jackets. Live or die. It’s all the same to the regime.

Totalitarians are a different breed. These are the people who have a plan, who think they see the future more clearly than you or who are convinced they grasp reality in a way that you do not. They don’t serve themselves—or, they don’t serve themselves exclusively—they serve History, or The People, or The Idea, or some other ideological totem that justifies their actions. [read more]

In the past the totalitarians, were the Communists, the Fascists,and the Nazis. Kings and emperors were for the most part authoritarians.

Now, you have the far Left ideology and Muslim theocracies like Iran. Although the Ottoman Empire was a Muslim theocracy in the past. It’s basically what ISIS wants to recreate.

Socialists have always been around.

Cults are totalitarians in principle.

The big difference between authoritarians and totalitarians is the latter have manifestos to spell out their grand vision and philosophy of life. Marx, Mao, and Hitler had manifestos. Cult leaders have manifestos. Jim Jones was a Communist. The Progressives manifesto is the Humanist Manifesto. It’s the manifesto that the totalitarians want people to believe with their hearts and minds. In certain totalitarian societies the leader wants to be omnipotent and omniscience. In other words, God-like.

Monday, July 13, 2015

New Alzheimer’s treatment fully restores memory function

From Science Alert.com (Mar. 18):

Australian researchers have come up with a non-invasive ultrasound technology that clears the brain of neurotoxic amyloid plaques - structures that are responsible for memory loss and a decline in cognitive function in Alzheimer’s patients.

If a person has Alzheimer’s disease, it’s usually the result of a build-up of two types of lesions - amyloid plaques, and neurofibrillary tangles. Amyloid plaques sit between the neurons and end up as dense clusters of beta-amyloid molecules, a sticky type of protein that clumps together and forms plaques.

Neurofibrillary tangles are found inside the neurons of the brain, and they’re caused by defective tau proteins that clump up into a thick, insoluble mass. This causes tiny filaments called microtubules to get all twisted, which disrupts the transportation of essential materials such as nutrients and organelles along them, just like when you twist up the vacuum cleaner tube. [read more]

Sounds promising. The article states that of the mice that received the treatment, 75 percent got their memory function back. That’s quite a bit.

Tuesday, July 07, 2015

Progressive Educational Philosophy

For John Dewey, there are three aspects to human nature: instinct, habit, and intelligence.

John Dewey believed that education is the deliberate process by which human beings take responsibility for their future.

John Dewey argued that it is not possible for principles or ideals to attain eternal and unchanging authority.

In the Progressive educational program, the social and political ideal is both cause and effect of what takes place in the classroom.

Historicism posits that any understanding of the true and the good is a product of prevailing circumstances.

Dr. Fennell notes that in the Progressive school, teachers leave education to chance.

The success of the Progressive school consists explicitly in the extinction of the conservative [my emphasis] mind.

William Kilpatrick, a protégé of John Dewey, believed that mathematics education should focus on direct practical value.

According to Dr. Treloar, the new math movement never grounded itself in concrete mathematics at an early grade.

Grammar is considered impractical according to the Progressive philosophy of education.

One problem with grammar instruction today is that grammar is taught implicitly and quickly.

Modern education policy views the study of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) as a pathway to jobs for the 21st century.

Source: A Proper Understanding of K-12 Education: Theory and Practice online course from Hillsdale College.

Monday, July 06, 2015

Classical Education Philosophy

Reading instruction begins as soon as a child is born.

Cursive writing instruction is beneficial to the student in that it improves fine motor skills, increases writing speed, and gives the student a chance to create something beautiful.

Dr. Coupland notes that if a child has had a wonderful language-rich experience, they should be ready to learn how to read by the time they get to kindergarten.

Dr. Calvert argues that, first and foremost, parents should be teaching students the stories of the past.

Classical education values knowledge for its own sake.

The study of science should be placed in historical context because it's a human endeavor.

Learning about science is part of what elevates students to self-government.

When science is studied properly, students begin to see that the universe is orderly, complicated, and intelligible.

Since antiquity, grammar has been viewed as one of the foundational liberal arts.

Dr. Jackson notes that teaching literature properly will shape a student’s habit of mind.

When students open a great book and study it seriously, they will grapple with philosophical ideas, learn something about themselves, encounter theological ideas.

In order to teach literature well, teachers must dedicate themselves to reading the texts along with their students.

To read well, students must be able to employ both listening and contemplation.

The fundamentals of writing include logic, organization, and focus.

After returning graded papers, teachers should help guide students in reflecting on grading comments.

To improve writing, teachers should help students find a crux for their papers.

Teachers should remember that the main goal of writing education is to get students to undertake the writing process.

Dr. Garnjobst notes that the chief reason for studying Latin is to engage in a conversation with the great thinkers of the Western tradition.

Source: A Proper Understanding of K–12 Education: Theory and Practice online course by Hillsdale College.

Saturday, July 04, 2015

Happy Birthday, America!

4th of july

So, then, to every man his chance -- to every man, regardless of his birth, his shining golden opportunity -- to every man his right to live, to work, to be himself, to become whatever his manhood and his vision can combine to make him -- this, seeker, is the promise of America.
        - Thomas Wolfe

The American Trinity by Dennis Prager. The American Trinity is: E Pluribus Unum, In God We Trust, and Liberty.

Driven from every other corner of the earth, freedom of thought and the right of private judgment in matters of conscience, direct their course to this happy country as their last asylum. – Samuel Adams

May the foundation of our new constitution, be justice, Truth and Righteousness. Like the wise Mans house may it be founded upon those Rocks and then neither storms or tempests will overthrow it. – Abigail Adams

I have said that the Declaration of Independence is the ring-bolt to the chain of your nation’s destiny; so, indeed, I regard it. The principles contained in that instrument are saving principles. Stand by those principles, be true to them on all occasions, in all places, against all foes, and at whatever cost. - Frederick Douglass

The happy union of these states is a wonder; their Constitution a miracle; their example the hope of liberty throughout the world.  - James Madison

Wednesday, July 01, 2015

Scientists Develop Self-Healing Airplane Wing

From IFLScience.com (June 25):

We’ve already had self-healing concrete, now welcome to the world of self-healing airplane wings. After having worked quietly on the project for the past three years, a team of British scientists has now announced a new carbon fiber technology that, when damaged, can fix itself.

Drawing inspiration from how the body heals wounds, the idea started as all good ones do: as a doodle on the back on an envelope. Since then, the team of researchers at the University of Bristol has been working with aerospace engineers to develop the material. The product they've come up with is able to patch over small, almost undetectable cracks in the wings of planes. The new technology represents an important step in self-healing products becoming more commonplace, with possible uses in bike frames, sports equipment, and even cracked smartphone screens.

It works in a similar way to the aforementioned concrete, with the carbon fiber material being infused with microbeads so small they look like dust to the human eye. But rather than filling the spheres with microbes, they contain a liquid healing agent which, when released during damage, reacts with a catalyst and consequently hardens. How long the setting process takes, however, depends on temperature. So cracks in the wing of a plane in Dubai might harden in hours compared to one in Reykjavik that could take days, according to the researchers.  [read more]

Interesting. If scientists can do this on airplanes why not cars? If a car gets scratched then it can make the scratch go away. Maybe even make small dents disappear too.

Didn’t evil androids on the Terminator movie have this ability?

Monday, June 29, 2015

Supreme Court: Marriage is between ‘two persons’

5

From WorldMag.com (June 26):

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Supreme Court today legalized same-sex marriage nationwide in a sweeping, moralizing opinion written by Justice Anthony Kennedy. He delivered the ruling softly and without much expression, but outside the courtroom, huge crowds swarmed the Supreme Court plaza in celebration, singing the national anthem.

As anticipated since the high court first took up the case, the ruling was 5-4, with Kennedy joining the court’s liberals: Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan. The dissenters—Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, and Samuel Alito—each penned separate dissents, an expression of profound frustration. Scalia opened his apoplectic dissent, concurring with Roberts’ dissent, by saying, “I write separately to call attention to this court’s threat to American democracy.”

“Just who do we think we are?” Roberts asked in the courtroom. “This is a court, not a legislature.”  [read more]

Is this what Obama meant by radically transforming the country?

Here are a couple more questions I have:

Do all religions institutions (like Islam) have to marry gay couples if it is against their religious beliefs? Or is this only for Christian churches?

What about group marriage, triads, polygamy (which devote Muslims like), and polyandry? If you redefine what marriage is then basically any kind of adult relationship can be made legal. The Supreme Court didn’t exempt any of the above groups. I wouldn’t be surprised if the above groups don’t start making their case. After all triads just love each other too and want to be happy.  And if you don’t believe in these alternative forms of marriage then you are a bigot.

If this age where a white woman can identify as a black woman and be considered normal why don’t one of the gay partners identify as a member of the opposite sex. Problem solved. The gay couple then can identify as a male-female marriage. Okay, that was a joke.

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Will your self-driving car be programmed to kill you if it means saving more strangers?

From ScienceDaily.com (June 15):

Imagine you are in charge of the switch on a trolley track. The express is due any minute; but as you glance down the line you see a school bus, filled with children, stalled at the level crossing. No problem; that's why you have this switch. But on the alternate track there's more trouble: Your child, who has come to work with you, has fallen down on the rails and can't get up. That switch can save your child or a bus-full of others, but not both. What do you do?

Death in the driver's seat

So should your self-driving car be programmed to kill you in order to save others? There are two philosophical approaches to this type of question, Barghi says. "Utilitarianism tells us that we should always do what will produce the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people," he explained. In other words, if it comes down to a choice between sending you into a concrete wall or swerving into the path of an oncoming bus, your car should be programmed to do the former.

Deontology, on the other hand, argues that "some values are simply categorically always true," Barghi continued. "For example, murder is always wrong, and we should never do it." Going back to the trolley problem, "even if shifting the trolley will save five lives, we shouldn't do it because we would be actively killing one," Barghi said. And, despite the odds, a self-driving car shouldn't be programmed to choose to sacrifice its driver to keep others out of harm's way.

Every variation of the trolley problem -- and there are many: What if the one person is your child? Your only child? What if the five people are murderers? -- simply "asks the user to pick whether he has chosen to stick with deontology or utilitarianism," Barghi continued. If the answer is utilitarianism, then there is another decision to be made, Barghi adds: rule or act utilitarianism.  [read more]

Something to think about. Keep in mind with self-driving cars the “driver” (I put driver in quotes because is he/she actually driving if the car is self-autonomous? Isn’t the person actually a passenger? Anyway…) isn’t making the decisions. It’s the programmer who wrote the code who works for the car manufacturer that makes the decisions. It’s his/her ethics the car will follow. And if the programmer has to follow gov’t regulations from National Highway Traffic Safety Admin. then who knows what will happen.

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

6 things you need to know about virtual reality (from the guy who’s doing it right)

From Ideas.Ted.com (June 12):

For all the hoo-hah and fanfare around next-generation technologies like Oculus Rift and Google Cardboard, it’s still early days for virtual reality. Sure, we’ve come a long way from clunky simulators (even ones with wind machines that blew back your hair), but the field is still pretty much open for all comers. Filmmaker Chris Milk (TED Talk: How virtual reality can create the ultimate empathy machine) is bullish about the possibilities. Here, the man who melted the Internet with “have you seen it yet?” projects blending technology and music for the likes of Arcade Fire and Johnny Cash mulls the possibilities of the medium he’s betting on in a big way.

The key to VR? It’s the sound. When you think of virtual reality, you probably picture it: a 360-degree environment full of immersive vistas. But it’s the sound that makes it real, Milk says. He first grasped this while watching Hunger in Los Angeles, an early VR film by Nonny de la Peña, which places the audience in the middle of a street scene. It grabbed him immediately, but not for the reasons he expected: “The visuals were not photorealistic; she’d recreated the scene with blocky CGI characters,” he says. “But what really affected me the most was the audio, because it was real. Basically, she’d recorded a food bank line where somebody had a diabetic seizure and everybody was talking. You could walk around the characters and the scene, and it was really affecting.”

The old rules don’t apply. Like many VR pioneers, Milk has brought years of filmmaking experience to his work inside the goggles — and now he’s setting it all aside. “As a director, the main tools I use are framing, performance and editing,” Milk explains. “Through framing I show you exactly what I want you to see in the screen; I capture the performances using different angles of framing, and then I edit it all together into something. Those tools go completely out the window with virtual reality.” One by one, all the long-held rules of filmmaking fall away. “Everything’s a total experiment,” he says.  [read more]

Interesting article.

The New Congressional Plan to Repeal and Replace Obamacare

From Daily Signal.com (June 5):

A group of House Republicans unveiled a 192-page health care plan that fully repeals Obamacare and replaces it with “patient-centered reforms” and “free-market solutions.”

Lawmakers released the plan Thursday as the GOP-led Congress prepares to attack the Affordable Care Act. Both houses of Congress have already signaled their intentions to repeal Obamacare by a simple majority vote using the reconciliation process—just as the law was passed in 2010.

The new GOP plan, American Health Care Reform Act, was written by Reps. Phil Roe of Tennessee and Austin Scott of Georgia. It has the backing of the Republican Study Committee, a caucus made up of nearly 170 members of the House of Representatives.

The American Health Care Reform Act covers four broad areas:

  1. Encouraging Competition in the Health Care Market. The proposed legislation addresses this issue by allowing Americans to purchase health insurance products across state lines. Small businesses also are permitted to merge together to coordinate better rates.
  2. Improving Access for Vulnerable Americans. Under the bill, premiums would be capped at 200 percent of the state’s premium average. Additionally, those with pre-existing conditions can alternate between health insurance markets, provided they maintain “continuous coverage.”
  3. Supporting Medical Breakthroughs. The bill provides funding for an eight-year, $15 billion Medical Breakthrough Fund at the National Institutes of Health to develop cures for the top five causes of death in the United States: heart disease, cancer, strokes, Alzheimer’s, and diabetes. These conditions kill more than 1.5 million people each year.
  4. Reforming Medical Liability Laws. Solutions include requiring review by an independent panel prior to malpractice discovery and a “voluntary right of removal to federal court so long as there is a federal payer or a federal statute.” Barr said that this reform increases the quality of care by establishing national guidelines for physicians to follow and helps reduce “frivolous lawsuits.”

[read more]

Well, it’s a good start. The lawmakers could add that if a person wants he/she can pay out-of-pocket their medical bills. Especially if the patient is rich, then they don’t need to or even want to purchase insurance. 

Buy why 192 pages? That’s still less than the 1,000 page boondoggle knows as Obamacare. Couldn’t the lawmakers get it down to 20 – 50 pages?

The question is if the bill passes Congress will Obama veto it? Probably. Obamacare is his baby and he doesn’t want his baby to go away. That’s why we really need a president that will sign into law this bill or a bill similar to it.

By the way, the pdf  link on the Daily Signal website is just a 9-page summary of the bill. The pdf link on this page is the full text.

Monday, June 15, 2015

The Coming of the Islamic State was Foretold 10 Years Ago. And No One Listened.

From The Blaze.com (June 8):

Although the birth of the Islamic State and the herald of the caliphate are often regarded as some of 2014’s “big shockers,” they were foretold in striking detail and with an accurate timeline by an Al Qaeda insider nearly one decade ago.

On August 12, 2005, Spiegel Online International published an article titled “The Future of Terrorism: What Al Qaeda Really Wants.” Written by Yassin Musharbash, the article was essentially a review of a book written by Fouad Hussein, a Jordanian journalist with close access to Al Qaeda and its affiliates, including the late Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who pioneered the videotaping of beheadings “to strike terror into the hearts” of infidels (Koran 3:151).

As Hussein explained in the introduction of his book “Al Zarqawi: Al Qaeda’s Second Generation”: “I interviewed a whole range of Al Qaeda members with different ideologies to get an idea of how the war between the terrorists and Washington would develop in the future.”

In what follows, I [Raymond Ibrahim] reproduce the seven phases of Al Qaeda’s master plan as presented in Musharbash’s nearly 10-year-old article, (emphasis added in bold) with my commentary interspersed for context. Phases four and five are of particular importance as they describe the goals for recent times, much of which have come to fruition according to plan.

The First Phase. Known as “the awakening”—this has already been carried out and was supposed to have lasted from 2000 to 2003, or more precisely from the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 in New York and Washington to the fall of Baghdad in 2003. The aim of the attacks of 9/11 was to provoke the U.S. into declaring war on the Islamic world and thereby “awakening” Muslims. “The first phase was judged by the strategists and masterminds behind al-Qaeda as very successful,” writes Hussein. “The battle field was opened up and the Americans and their allies became a closer and easier target.” The terrorist network is also reported as being satisfied that its message can now be heard “everywhere.”

The Second Phase. “Opening Eyes” is, according to Hussein’s definition, the period we are now in [writing in 2005] and should last until 2006. Hussein says the terrorists hope to make the western conspiracy aware of the “Islamic community.” Hussein believes this is a phase in which al-Qaeda wants an organization to develop into a movement. The network is banking on recruiting young men during this period. Iraq should become the center for all global operations, with an “army” set up there and bases established in other Arabic states.

The Third Phase. This is described as “Arising and Standing Up” and should last from 2007 to 2010. “There will be a focus on Syria,” prophesies Hussein, based on what his sources told him. The fighting cadres are supposedly already prepared and some are in Iraq. Attacks on Turkey and—even more explosive— in Israel are predicted. Al Qaeda’s masterminds hope that attacks on Israel will help the terrorist group become a recognized organization. The author also believes that countries neighboring Iraq, such as Jordan, are also in danger.

The Fourth Phase. Between 2010 and 2013, Hussein writes that Al Qaeda will aim to bring about the collapse of the hated Arabic governments. The estimate is that “the creeping loss of the regimes’ power will lead to a steady growth in strength within Al Qaeda.” At the same time attacks will be carried out against oil suppliers and the US economy will be targeted using cyber terrorism.

The Fifth Phase. This will be the point at which an Islamic state, or caliphate, can be declared. The plan is that by this time, between 2013 and 2016, Western influence in the Islamic world will be so reduced and Israel weakened so much, that resistance will not be feared. Al Qaeda hopes that by then the Islamic state will be able to bring about a new world order. [read more]

Yea, all of the stages are pretty prophetic. The last two stages doesn’t get any better.

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

ISIS and the Sykes-Picot Agreement

From Glenn Beck.com (Sept. 9, 2014):

“I think this hour will change your perspective. It will also help you understand what’s really happening with ISIS and ISIL… What is the real objective,” Glenn said. “Out of all of the peace accords and the cease-fires and the nonviolent pledges, none of them ever get to the root of the problem, and that is the ‘why.’ Until the why is addressed, the cycle of violence and hate is just going to continue.”

So how do get to the root of the why? Glenn started with a timeline that many have probably seen before. It included the 2014 Israeli/Hamas conflict, the 2012 Gaza conflict, the Second Intifada (2000), the First Intifada, the 1968 Six Day War, and the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. While most timelines documented the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would end there, Glenn took it a step further – all the way to the beginning of World War I.

“The world is at war for the first time, and it is divided,” Glenn said. “You have the Allied Powers… and then you have in the purple the Central Powers. The Allies: U.S., Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Romania, Serbia. And then the Central Powers, the bad guys, if you will, of World War I: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire.”

“This is the last time the Arab world had a united Islamic state led by a religious leader, the Ottoman Empire, the caliphate,” he explained. “The Allies knew the Ottoman Empire could shut down key shipping routes effectively and then cripple Britain’s economy, France. So they knew the Ottoman Empire was going to be a problem. They had to neutralize it.”

Neutralizing the power of the Ottoman Empire was at the center of western strategy at this point in time. Great Britain sent an army officer by the name of T.E. Lawrence to the Middle East to convince Arab leaders to fight against the Ottomans.  [read more]

Lawrence promised the Arab leaders the moon and the stars including rule over a new united Arab kingdom of Greater Syria.

But Lawrence never kept his promise. He never intended to keep it.  Then enter the Sykes-Picot Agreement between Britain, France and Russia which divided up the area. Ever heard the strategy divide-and-conquer? That’s exactly what this agreement did that the Arabs agreed to.

Here the key points when considering the history of the conflict:

  1. The Sykes-Picot agreement
  2. The desire for a united Arab kingdom
  3. The western desire to maintain economic control of the Middle East
  4. The quest to regain control of ‘Greater Syria’
  5. The Jewish and Palestinian people are nothing more than pawns in this larger game

The Arab leaders new the only way to consolidate power (read: caliphate) once again was to unite around a common enemy, and that enemy was the Jews.

And to kill off the leaders of the countries in the region and have a Islamic revolution is also part of the strategy. Which is what ISIS is trying to do.  They know about the promise even if Americans including Obama don’t

So, what is President Obama doing about this crisis? Nothing. And what’s worse he admits he doesn’t have a strategy. Which is what he said back in 2014. He is either incompetent or doesn’t care. Maybe both.

In other news: Islamic State Working to Develop Chemical Weapons.

So, we have ISIS committing acts against humanity. And there is Russia acting aggressive. Can you say WWIII? Add China into the mix…