Filed on March 31, 2009 at 7:58 pm under by dcobranchi
Check out the poll on CNN:
Should drugs be legalized so they can be taxed?
Yes 60% 124379
No 40% 83835
Total Votes: 208214
Filed on March 30, 2009 at 6:52 pm under by dcobranchi
I swear that’s all I got out of this piece.
Filed on at 12:42 pm under by dcobranchi
I’m being overrun by folks who see nothing wrong with spanking, paddling, and tasering kids in schools.
Blogger down. Calling in for some backup.
Filed on March 29, 2009 at 10:16 am under by dcobranchi
And really, really foolish.
I have no idea what Bayer thinks they’re doing here, but it’s not good for the industry to attempt to hide behind anti-terror laws. I met with the Chemical Safety Board (forerunner to the current board) a long time ago when they were working to write some regs. They are NOT anti chemical industry.
Bayer needs to tell their lawyers to sit down and shut up
Filed on March 28, 2009 at 6:44 pm under by dcobranchi
Here’s a pretty decent write up of the recent NC divorce/homeschooling case.
Filed on March 27, 2009 at 3:30 pm under by dcobranchi
This tale just makes no sense at all. Life in Fayetteville can be interesting.
Filed on at 4:31 am under by dcobranchi
This guy routinely proves that Methodist University will allow anyone to teach there. Not exactly a ringing endorsement.
Filed on March 26, 2009 at 3:35 pm under by dcobranchi
But I (sort of) agree with the wackos that this is probably inappropriate.
A self-proclaimed bisexual male teacher in New York has invited his seventh-grade students and their parents to witness his commitment ceremony to another man.
Of course, I’d say the same thing about a hetero teacher inviting his class to his wedding. It’s crossing the line from a professional relationship to a personal relationship that I think is a mistake.
Filed on March 25, 2009 at 5:46 am under by dcobranchi
What’s going on in the chemical industry? Dow and DuPont are both up around 40% from their recent lows, far outpacing the S&P 500. The industry is highly cyclical with a strong positive correlation with the overall economy. Maybe institutional investors are seeing the beginning of the end?
Filed on March 24, 2009 at 3:19 pm under by dcobranchi
The hard Christian right is up in arms about a supposed 1st Amendment case in which a hgih school valedictorian was “censored” from giving her testimony at her graduation ceremony:
Attorneys for a high school valedictorian whose microphone was turned off when she began sharing her Christian faith say they’ll appeal her case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Rutherford Institute is representing Brittany McComb, whose lawsuit against school officials was dismissed Friday by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The appeals court stated that “by preventing her from making a proselytizing graduation speech,” McComb’s free speech and free exercise rights were not violated, nor was her right to equal protection.
In June 2006, McComb strayed from her school-approved script to tell how faith in Jesus had filled a void in her life. Her microphone was shut off in mid-sentence as she said, “God’s love is so great that he gave up — gave up his only Son…”
I’m pretty much a 1st Amendment purist, but this doesn’t pass muster with me. Graduation is an official school event and is subject to the same rules as other events concerning the Establishment Clause. On top of that, she intentionally strayed from her pre-approved speech. There’s a reason that the school reserves the right to reject graduation speeches and the school had every right to cut her off. I would be very surprised if the SCOTUS takes this one up.
UPDATE: The ACLU has declined to take the case. That’s not a good sign for her.
Filed on March 22, 2009 at 6:09 am under by dcobranchi
I blame the parents. They are spending thousands of dollars a year to send their kids to a private school and, most likely, providing the cellphones that their kids use to kill time in class.
Anthony (our oldest) has observed one of his good friends spending her whole time in class texting and ignoring the lecture. And her grades reflect the effort she’s putting in. He knows that his phone is to be turned off from the time he leaves for class until he gets home. He also knows that he’d lose his phone for a long time (months, years, decades) if he violates the rules.
Filed on March 21, 2009 at 9:39 am under by dcobranchi
Mark Sanford, like GWB, was the head cheerleader in college. Do y’all think that’s just a coincidence?
Filed on at 5:47 am under by dcobranchi
Oh, noes. Obama drank a beer! LOTD:
Obama set poor example at basketball game
As I watched the news recently, I couldn’t believe what I saw. Our president, Barack Obama, enjoying himself at a basketball game in Washington. Then, I saw him drinking beer. What people do on their own time should be their business, but when the president of the United States of America takes his oath, it becomes the world’s business.
The president is supposed to be a leader by example. What kind of example is he setting? A 5-year-old boy was sitting beside him during the game. That should be a memory for that child as long as he lives. What kind of memory will he have? He went to an NBA basketball game, sat beside the president, probably received an autograph and saw him drink beer while he was there. For any child or teenager observing this behavior, wouldn’t you think they saw it as acceptable? It is not!
With all the problems for young people of this world, especially underage drinking, what was he thinking? He wasn’t thinking at all. I was shocked and appalled at what I saw. You can call me old-fashioned, narrow-minded or whatever you want. I am a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. Our children learn by the examples that are put before them. This was very poor judgment on his part, or did it even matter to him? Apparently not!
It was Obama’s first presidential appearance at an NBA game. His team lost.
Mary L. Todd
Bladenboro
Filed on at 5:33 am under by dcobranchi
My “friends” at the AFA sent me the following email this a.m.:
Give this book to your pastor…
March 21, 2009
Dear Daryl,
Give this book to your pastor…
Click Here to order the book.
Nowhere in the email does it say what “this book” is. Hell! For all I know it could be some kind of subversive text like “The God Delusion.”
I have no doubt that thousands of books will be sold anyway.
Filed on March 20, 2009 at 4:45 pm under by dcobranchi
Michele Obama is breaking ground on the first White House vegetable garden since WWII. I think it’s an excellent idea, but the Obamas are kidding themselves if they think they’ll be able to plant an 1100 square foot raised bed garden for $200. The berry plants alone could easily set them back that much.
I’m getting ready for planting season down here. Hot peppers are germinating and almost ready to go in some soil. Indoors, of course.
Filed on at 5:19 am under by dcobranchi
I’m beginning to believe that there might be something to the socialization that one can only get in a g-school. It can lead to a rewarding career with the WWE.
The Dallas school system was rocked by allegations Thursday that staff members at an inner-city high school made students settle their differences by fighting bare-knuckle brawls inside a steel cage.
The principal and other employees at South Oak Cliff High knew about the cage fights and allowed the practice to continue, according to a 2008 report by school system investigators.
How many homeschool families have the wherewithal to build a full scale cage in order to provide this same level of socialization?
UPDATE: Can we please just allow to Texas to secede?
The allegations come about 10 days after law enforcement authorities reported that care workers at a Corpus Christi institution forced mentally disabled residents to fight each other and recorded the brawls for their entertainment.
Filed on March 19, 2009 at 5:51 am under by dcobranchi
Duke’s Coach K.
Filed on at 5:29 am under by dcobranchi
I just knew that this one wasn’t really a homeschooling story, which is why I ignored it completely. Now hsinjustice just needs to grow up.
Filed on March 17, 2009 at 6:09 am under by dcobranchi
Yeah, it’s a kid writing probably his first LttE. But it’s a really stupid LttE:
Be careful with language
I am writing regarding an article published on March 4. The article titled “A matter of values: feeding tax fears,” has two inappropriate words in it. The first is on Page 4A, paragraph 15. The second is on the first page, paragraph 3. I ask that if you come upon such words as this, that you replace them with less inappropriate words or, even better, take them out. Please keep in mind that not only adults, but children and teenagers read the paper for school or for fun.
I am a Christian and have non-cursing as a moral, so I ask that you do not put that language in the paper for me and other Christians, and for other people who dislike cursing. I also ask that you do not put these things in the paper because there are people like me who must read the paper every day for school and I do not think that the principal wants us to be reading this sort of language.
Zachary Schmitz
Fayetteville
Here’s the article he’s complaining about. As near as I can determine the two grafs he’s bitching about:
“They’re raising hell,” said Jeannette Council, chairwoman of the Board of Commissioners.
“We want some damn answers, because we’re getting beat up by the citizens,” Bates said.
Total bullshit to complain to the paper, of course, as those are direct quotes from elected officials. And I don’t believe either qualifies as cursing. Hell! They’re both in the Bible, even!
Should I quote Jon Stewart to Wall St. to him?
Filed on March 16, 2009 at 5:52 pm under by dcobranchi
And I doubt this guy is any kind of engineer, let alone one who is studying climate change:
An engineer from Atlanta, Georgia, who attended the conference in New York City said the scientists featured at the event made it clear that manmade global warming does not exist.
“Truthful science is in favor of us scientists who are studying climate change that human activity has nothing to do with it,” he shared. “Those who are promoting this hypothesis — that human activity affects climate — have no scientific basis to what they are saying, so they can’t stand scrutiny from, say, true scientists.”
Filed on at 5:20 pm under by dcobranchi
It’s one of the more idiotic anti-homeschooling ones. We’re winning but not by a large enough margin, IMO. 🙂
Filed on at 4:15 am under by dcobranchi
Christianity is not a religion. Says so in my paper.
Filed on March 15, 2009 at 6:06 pm under by dcobranchi
I’m on the road again this week. Back (probably) on Thursday.
Filed on March 14, 2009 at 1:15 pm under by dcobranchi
Only 6 more years ’til the real one.
Filed on March 13, 2009 at 5:45 am under by dcobranchi
This one is just strange. Did they really think they could make 81 cars disappear?
Filed on at 5:07 am under by dcobranchi
But I believe this is a good example of why HSLDA and the conservative homeschoolers are so gung ho on having their kids join the military. The far-right fringe believes there’s a war coming and they intend to be “well regulated” when it does they start it.
Today’s right-wing letter-writer doesn’t even realize that he’s threatening to become the domestic enemy he’s sworn to defend against:
Democratic Congress taking away freedoms
Why are the Democrats in Congress so dead set on destroying the United States of America as a capitalistic nation and turning it into a democratic socialistic country? Is it because they want more power over the people? Yes.
Serving this great country for 21 years, protecting its great way of life, helping communistic and socialistic countries to become capitalistic countries, only to see the U.S. move to socialism, is not what I fought for. Why aren’t we protesting?
Democrats are pushing this country into slavery of the low-income and middle-income Americans. Is not every American a free man or woman today? Did not this country abolish slavery? Does Congress not realize that, “We the people,” the American voters, are whom they work for? Should we not be telling them what laws to pass to protect America? Was there not a revolution against Britain? Is there another revolution brewing? I’ve read that history repeats itself.
I took an oath to protect this country from foreign and domestic enemies. Will I have to spill my blood on American soil to protect our freedom as our forefathers did? I love my country more than I treasure my life. I am willing to fight and die to preserve my freedom. Are you willing to preserve our freedom, so that your children may live as free men and women?
If you are not for freedom, then you are against freedom. Therefore, I consider you an adversary.
Scott Manning
Stedman
He’s very confused. Socialism and capitalism are economic systems. Both are compatible with democracy, which I believe we claim to be in favor of. If the country ever voted for a socialist government, we would all be bound by that collective decision, and the military (including Scott Manning) would be obliged to defend the government against extremists who would attempt by force of arms to overthrow it.
NOTE: Obama and the Democrats are NOT working to bring socialism to the US. That’s a Limbaughesque lie.
Filed on March 12, 2009 at 12:39 am under by dcobranchi
The lede pretty much says it all:
Two junior high school teachers from Utah are accused of sexual assault after police say they individually had sex with the same 13-year-old student. Linda R. Nef, 46, and Valynne Bowers, 39, are both facing first-degree felony charges of rape and sodomy on a child.
And never forget that “schools are the safest place for students to be.”
Filed on at 12:27 am under by dcobranchi
Chuck Norris apparently missed US History class when they were discussing the Civil War:
(CNN) – Actor Chuck Norris has his eyes on the presidency, but not the White House.
Norris wrote that he would be interested in becoming the president of Texas, if the state were ever to secede from the Union.
“I may run for president of Texas,” Norris wrote Monday in a column posted at WorldNetDaily. “That need may be a reality sooner than we think. If not me, someone someday may again be running for president of the Lone Star state, if the state of the union continues to turn into the enemy of the state.”
The actor claimed “thousands of cell groups will be united around the country in solidarity over the concerns for our nation” and said that if states decide to secede from the union, that Texas would lead the way.
Cell groups? Isn’t that usually preceded by the word “terrorist”?
Filed on March 11, 2009 at 8:26 pm under by dcobranchi
I knew SC’s governor Mark Sanford in college, as his dorm room was a few doors down the hall from mine. He always struck me as a not-that-bright rich kid. I think I may have overestimated his smarts.
South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R) has completed his review of the recently enacted stimulus package and will be sending President Obama a letter in the next few days asking for permission to apply a quarter of South Carolina’s stimulus money, approximately $700 million, to paying down state debt rather than using the money to fund government programs.
I have no doubt that Obama will tell Sanford to pound sand. Whether Sanford really is this dumb or is positioning himself for 2012 is irrelevant. It’s a stupid play no matter what. SC voters are watching.
Filed on at 6:01 am under by dcobranchi
QOTD from the Brazilian Minister of Health:
“The question posed is very simple. There is a Brazilian law which states that a pregnancy can be interrupted in case of rape,” Temporao said.
“It is legitimate for the church to have its dogmas, but these dogmas must not be imposed on society as a whole,” he added.
Filed on March 10, 2009 at 3:56 pm under by dcobranchi
Obama had a lot to say about g-schools today, according to TAPPED. No mention of mandatory volunteerism, apparently.
Filed on at 3:33 pm under by dcobranchi
Check the results of their latest poll.
How ’bout the fact that the presidency of the EU doesn’t exist? Or that the President of the Council has no powers and only holds the position on a six-month rotating basis?
UPDATE: I overestimated.
Filed on at 6:11 am under by dcobranchi
If the newspaper has summarized the bill correctly, this proposed law seems to be slightly flawed:
The Senate version makes it a crime for a high school teacher to have sex with any student who is under the age of 21 at any school — private, home school or public.
Any school? Like, say, a university? So, a young married couple, one of whom teaches high school while the other is still finishing their undergraduate degree would be in jeopardy unless they abstain?
Filed on March 9, 2009 at 7:17 pm under by dcobranchi
This time the hunters decide to deny reality.
“A man convinced against his will…”
Filed on at 2:55 pm under by dcobranchi
I really can’t believe that Billy Graham’s editors let this one slip by:
DEAR BILLY GRAHAM: Why do people get involved in cults? My cousin has gotten involved in one, and no matter what we say to him, he refuses to listen. He says we are the ones who are in the dark, and he alone in our family has found the truth. — S. McM.
DEAR S. McM: One characteristic of cults is that they strongly believe they alone are right in their beliefs and everyone else is wrong. Thus they reject the central truths of the Bible that Christians have held in common for almost 2,000 years and substitute their own beliefs for the clear teaching of Scripture.
Filed on March 6, 2009 at 6:48 pm under by dcobranchi
that schools are the safest place for students to be.
RED SPRINGS — A Red Springs student who was cut in the neck this week during a fight with another student has been released from the hospital.
Police Chief Troy McDuffie said the 15-year-old was treated and released from Southeastern Regional Medical Center on Wednesday evening.
The teen’s name was not released because she is a juvenile.
The girl was injured during an altercation with another girl about noon Wednesday, according to authorities. The 15-year-old threw a punch at Cierra James, 17, of Red Springs. James pulled a box cutter and cut the 15-year-old across the neck, according to authorities.
Filed on at 6:31 pm under by dcobranchi
is the hobgoblin of very sick fucks.
H/T Nan
Filed on at 6:02 pm under by dcobranchi
I finally got some Naga Jolokia pepper seeds. The pepper is so hot, it’s known as the “Ghost Chili.” As in if you eat one, you’ll end up a ghost.
Filed on March 5, 2009 at 7:03 pm under by dcobranchi
that extreme right wing talk radio hosts must try to out-rageous each other in their moronic anti-Obama rhetoric? Hannity out-landishes Rush and is in turn out-landished by Phil Valentine.
Dumb. Dumber. Dumbest.
Filed on March 4, 2009 at 6:15 pm under by dcobranchi
If this happens to you, don’t call 911.
FORT PIERCE, Fla. — A Fort Pierce woman called 911 three times to report an emergency after McDonald’s had run out of McNuggets, according to a police report obtained Tuesday.
Filed on at 5:44 am under by dcobranchi
Another creationist in my paper. Nonsense, of course. But at least it’s mostly well-written nonsense.
We need a more critical look at Darwin
Gene Smith’s column regaling Darwin (“Here be dragons,” Feb. 14) accomplished little in convincing most of us that Darwin and the effects of his teachings are anything but dead on arrival in the imagination of the educated public as we enter the 21st century.
Darwinism has been largely seized upon by atheists who were “humbled” after their interviews with Ben Stein in Stein’s award-winning movie “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed.” None of them have been faring well of late in debates on YouTube either, so they are running bus ad campaigns in a desperate effort at damage control.
The truth is that Darwin’s follow-up book to his “Origin,” “The Descent of Man” revealingly fleshed out the logic of his theory of animal-to-man evolution with such racist musings as that the break between primates and humans came “between the Negro or Australian and the gorilla,” thus making blacks the closest human beings to apes.
Discovery Institute in Seattle has separate lists of some 800 PhDs and about 900 MDs worldwide who now publicly proclaim their dissent from neo-Darwinian theory and call for teaching its weaknesses in our schools as well as its strengths. A recent Zogby poll confirms this is how 78 percent of the American public wants the subject taught.
Creation scientists at www.icr.org have a wonderful daily update and commentary on discoveries in all branches of science and how they relate to evolution vs. creation.
Jeffrey Long
Fayetteville
Filed on March 3, 2009 at 6:19 am under by dcobranchi
The morans at World Net Daily are still banging the drum about President Obama’s supposed ineligibility to be president due to his allegedly not being born in the US. That birth certificate we’ve all seen and the birth announcement in the Hawaiian newspaper must have been clever forgeries, I guess.
UPDATE: OTOH, I completely agree with one of the plaintiffs.
“The whole idea is that America cannot allow an individual to serve as president who isn’t qualified. It destroys our Constitution. It’s the bedrock of our nation,” he said.
I just wish we’d have come to that conclusion about 8 years ago.
Filed on March 2, 2009 at 7:25 am under by dcobranchi
Take that, L.A.
LOS ANGELES – If you notice things are a little quieter this week in L.A. County, there’s a simple explanation. It’s all because it’s “No Cussing Week” in Los Angeles.
It all started with 15 year old McKay Hatch of South Pasadena who founded the “No Cussing Club” at his school. He hopes his effort to clear the air will catch on and it just might.
On Tuesday, the Los Angeles board of Supervisors is scheduled to issue a proclamation by Supervisor Michael Antonovich making the first week in March “No Cussing Week”.
Filed on March 1, 2009 at 4:55 am under by dcobranchi
What’s wrong with this statement by Rush Limbaugh?
“We want every American to be the best he or she chooses to be. We recognize that we are all individuals. We love and revere our founding documents, the Constitution and the Declaration of Independent. We believe that the preamble of the Constitution contains an inarguable truth, that we are all endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights, among them life, liberty, freedom. And the pursuit of happiness,” he said, pausing several times for enthusiastic applause.
