The Path Less Traveled

The following statement is written by Congressman Paul about the pending financial disaster. He will introduce this statement as a special order and insert it into the Congressional Record next week.

Fortunately, we have the opportunity to debut it first on the Campaign for Liberty blog. It reads as follows:
I have, for the past 35 years, expressed my grave concern for the future of America. The course we have taken over the past century has threatened our liberties, security and prosperity. In spite of these long-held concerns, I have days—growing more frequent all the time—when I’m convinced the time is now upon us that some Big Events are about to occur. These fast-approaching events will not go unnoticed. They will affect all of us. They will not be limited to just some areas of our country. The world economy and political system will share in the chaos about to be unleashed.

Though the world has long suffered from the senselessness of wars that should have been avoided, my greatest fear is that the course on which we find ourselves will bring even greater conflict and economic suffering to the innocent people of the world—unless we quickly change our ways.

America, with her traditions of free markets and property rights, led the way toward great wealth and progress throughout the world as well as at home. Since we have lost our confidence in the principles of liberty, self reliance, hard work and frugality, and instead took on empire building, financed through inflation and debt, all this has changed. This is indeed frightening and an historic event.

The problem we face is not new in history. Authoritarianism has been around a long time. For centuries, inflation and debt have been used by tyrants to hold power, promote aggression, and provide “bread and circuses” for the people. The notion that a country can afford “guns and butter” with no significant penalty existed even before the 1960s when it became a popular slogan. It was then, though, we were told the Vietnam War and a massive expansion of the welfare state were not problems. The seventies proved that assumption wrong.

Today things are different from even ancient times or the 1970s. There is something to the argument that we are now a global economy. The world has more people and is more integrated due to modern technology, communications, and travel. If modern technology had been used to promote the ideas of liberty, free markets, sound money and trade, it would have ushered in a new golden age—a globalism we could accept.

Instead, the wealth and freedom we now enjoy are shrinking and rest upon a fragile philosophic infrastructure. It is not unlike the levies and bridges in our own country that our system of war and welfare has caused us to ignore.

I’m fearful that my concerns have been legitimate and may even be worse than I first thought. They are now at our doorstep. Time is short for making a course correction before this grand experiment in liberty goes into deep hibernation.

There are reasons to believe this coming crisis is different and bigger than the world has ever experienced. Instead of using globalism in a positive fashion, it’s been used to globalize all of the mistakes of the politicians, bureaucrats and central bankers.

Being an unchallenged sole superpower was never accepted by us with a sense of humility and respect. Our arrogance and aggressiveness have been used to promote a world empire backed by the most powerful army of history. This type of globalist intervention creates problems for all citizens of the world and fails to contribute to the well-being of the world’s populations. Just think how our personal liberties have been trashed here at home in the last decade.

The financial crisis, still in its early stages, is apparent to everyone: gasoline prices over $4 a gallon; skyrocketing education and medical-care costs; the collapse of the housing bubble; the bursting of the NASDAQ bubble; stockmarkets plunging; unemployment rising;, massive underemployment; excessive government debt; and unmanageable personal debt. Little doubt exists as to whether we’ll get stagflation. The question that will soon be asked is: When will the stagflation become an inflationary depression?
There are various reasons that the world economy has been globalized and the problems we face are worldwide. We cannot understand what we’re facing without understanding fiat money and the long-developing dollar bubble.

There were several stages. From the inception of the Federal Reserve System in 1913 to 1933, the Central Bank established itself as the official dollar manager. By 1933, Americans could no longer own gold, thus removing restraint on the Federal Reserve to inflate for war and welfare.

By 1945, further restraints were removed by creating the Bretton-Woods Monetary System making the dollar the reserve currency of the world. This system lasted up until 1971. During the period between 1945 and 1971, some restraints on the Fed remained in place. Foreigners, but not Americans, could convert dollars to gold at $35 an ounce. Due to the excessive dollars being created, that system came to an end in 1971.

It’s the post Bretton-Woods system that was responsible for globalizing inflation and markets and for generating a gigantic worldwide dollar bubble. That bubble is now bursting, and we’re seeing what it’s like to suffer the consequences of the many previous economic errors.

Ironically in these past 35 years, we have benefited from this very flawed system. Because the world accepted dollars as if they were gold, we only had to counterfeit more dollars, spend them overseas (indirectly encouraging our jobs to go overseas as well) and enjoy unearned prosperity. Those who took our dollars and gave us goods and services were only too anxious to loan those dollars back to us. This allowed us to export our inflation and delay the consequences we now are starting to see.

But it was never destined to last, and now we have to pay the piper. Our huge foreign debt must be paid or liquidated. Our entitlements are coming due just as the world has become more reluctant to hold dollars. The consequence of that decision is price inflation in this country—and that’s what we are witnessing today. Already price inflation overseas is even higher than here at home as a consequence of foreign central bank’s willingness to monetize our debt.

Printing dollars over long periods of time may not immediately push prices up–yet in time it always does. Now we’re seeing catch-up for past inflating of the monetary supply. As bad as it is today with $4 a gallon gasoline, this is just the beginning. It’s a gross distraction to hound away at “drill, drill, drill” as a solution to the dollar crisis and high gasoline prices. Its okay to let the market increase supplies and drill, but that issue is a gross distraction from the sins of deficits and Federal Reserve monetary shenanigans.

This bubble is different and bigger for another reason. The central banks of the world secretly collude to centrally plan the world economy. I’m convinced that agreements among central banks to “monetize” U.S. debt these past 15 years have existed, although secretly and out of the reach of any oversight of anyone—especially the U.S. Congress that doesn’t care, or just flat doesn’t understand. As this “gift” to us comes to an end, our problems worsen. The central banks and the various governments are very powerful, but eventually the markets overwhelm when the people who get stuck holding the bag (of bad dollars) catch on and spend the dollars into the economy with emotional zeal, thus igniting inflationary fever.
This time—since there are so many dollars and so many countries involved—the Fed has been able to “paper” over every approaching crisis for the past 15 years, especially with Alan Greenspan as Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, which has allowed the bubble to become history’s greatest.

The mistakes made with excessive credit at artificially low rates are huge, and the market is demanding a correction. This involves excessive debt, misdirected investments, over-investments, and all the other problems caused by the government when spending the money they should never have had. Foreign militarism, welfare handouts and $80 trillion entitlement promises are all coming to an end. We don’t have the money or the wealth-creating capacity to catch up and care for all the needs that now exist because we rejected the market economy, sound money, self reliance and the principles of liberty.

Since the correction of all this misallocation of resources is necessary and must come, one can look for some good that may come as this “Big Even” unfolds.

There are two choices that people can make. The one choice that is unavailable to us is to limp along with the status quo and prop up the system with more debt, inflation and lies. That won’t happen.

One of the two choices, and the one chosen so often by government in the past is that of rejecting the principles of liberty and resorting to even bigger and more authoritarian government. Some argue that giving dictatorial powers to the President, just as we have allowed him to run the American empire, is what we should do. That’s the great danger, and in this post-911 atmosphere, too many Americans are seeking safety over freedom. We have already lost too many of our personal liberties already. Real fear of economic collapse could prompt central planners to act to such a degree that the New Deal of the 30’s might look like Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence.

The more the government is allowed to do in taking over and running the economy, the deeper the depression gets and the longer it lasts. That was the story of the 30ss and the early 40s, and the same mistakes are likely to be made again if we do not wake up.

But the good news is that it need not be so bad if we do the right thing. I saw “Something Big” happening in the past 18 months on the campaign trail. I was encouraged that we are capable of waking up and doing the right thing. I have literally met thousands of high school and college kids who are quite willing to accept the challenge and responsibility of a free society and reject the cradle-to-grave welfare that is promised them by so many do-good politicians.

If more hear the message of liberty, more will join in this effort. The failure of our foreign policy, welfare system, and monetary policies and virtually all government solutions are so readily apparent, it doesn’t take that much convincing. But the positive message of how freedom works and why it’s possible is what is urgently needed.

One of the best parts of accepting self reliance in a free society is that true personal satisfaction with one’s own life can be achieved. This doesn’t happen when the government assumes the role of guardian, parent or provider, because it eliminates a sense of pride. But the real problem is the government can’t provide the safety and economic security that it claims. The so-called good that government claims it can deliver is always achieved at the expense of someone else’s freedom. It’s a failed system and the young people know it.
Restoring a free society doesn’t eliminate the need to get our house in order and to pay for the extravagant spending. But the pain would not be long-lasting if we did the right things, and best of all the empire would have to end for financial reasons. Our wars would stop, the attack on civil liberties would cease, and prosperity would return. The choices are clear: it shouldn’t be difficult, but the big event now unfolding gives us a great opportunity to reverse the tide and resume the truly great American Revolution started in 1776. Opportunity knocks in spite of the urgency and the dangers we face.

Let’s make “Something Big is Happening” be the discovery that freedom works and is popular and the big economic and political event we’re witnessing is a blessing in disguise.

by Sheryl Walters

(NaturalNews) Sugar is sold abundantly in every food shop in the world and is often not acknowledged as the aging health criminal that it is. Sugar is responsible for an astonishing amount of physical and mental suffering. So many illnesses are caused by carbohydrates sugar overload, while many others are certainly made worse by it. Health problems that are associated with sugar intolerance include attention deficit disorder, mood swings, headaches, insomnia, emotional outbursts, cystitis, eczema, diabetes… and premature aging.

Sugary foods quickly elevate blood sugar which causes an insulin release that increases stored body fat and the release of pro-inflammatory, cell damaging chemicals that accelerate aging, as well as heart disease, some types of cancer, arthritis, Alzheimer’s, and many more diseases.

Sugar is Highly Aging

If you really want to look and feel young for as long as possible, then cutting out carbohydrates sugar, or at least limiting your intake is advisable.

Sugar causes free radicals that oxidize fats which form plaque deposits in our arteries, leading to disease and aging.

This toxic substance damages molecules and creates advanced glycation end-products, or AGEs. AGEs damage collagen in skin, cartilage, and ligaments and promote a loss of elasticity. In simple terms, sugar causes wrinkles and sagging skin in addition to what it does to the internal organs and all of the other negative side effects.

Sugar Addiction

Sugar is incredibly addictive. Many alcoholics trade their alcohol addiction for a sugar addiction.

Healthy Sugar Substitutes:

* Date syrup or date sugar (not sugar at all) is made from dates, so it contains all the vitamins, minerals and fiber of the fruit. It can be used in equal parts as a direct substitute for sugar, especially in baking. It is metabolized slowly so it does not cause energy highs and lows. Use this in your recipes for a detox diet.

* Agave nectar is a natural juice extracted from agave, the same plant that’s processed into tequila. Agave nectar does not cause dramatic blood sugar fluctuations so energy levels remain more consistent. It is 42 percent sweeter than white sugar, so less is needed in recipes. It goes beautiful with health enhancing super foods.

* Xylitol is a widely approved sweetener; even people with diabetes can put this on their healthy food list since it doesn’t create for people with diabetes a sugar intolerance. It is extracted from natural sources such as fruits and vegetables. Xylitol is a great tasting bulk sweetener with 40% less calories than sugar. The best part is that it is actually known to reduce the incidence of tooth decay and offer protection against cavities.

* Stevia is a South American herb that has been used as a sweetener by the Guarani Indians of Paraguay for hundreds of years. It has a delicious and refreshing taste that can be 30 times sweeter than sugar. Stevia is calorie-free and doesn’t upset blood sugar levels. In fact, it can actually assist in regulating blood-sugar levels.

About the author:

Sheryl is a kinesiologist, nutritionist and holistic practitioner.

Her website www.younglivingguide.com provides the latest research on preventing disease, looking naturally gorgeous, and feeling emotionally and physically fabulous.

And her latest website www.raiselibido.com offers a vast quantity of information on how increase sex drive and enjoy a vibrant sex life.

By Charles S. LiMandri

A friend recently asked: “How long do we have left as a society?” In answer to that question I informed her about an interesting and comprehensive study that a renowned British anthropologist, Joseph Unwin, PhD., presented to the British Psychological Society in 1935. Unwin sought to prove that the traditional monogamous model for marriage was not essential to the maintenance of a healthy society. After studying 86 different cultures, across time and continents –and much to his surprise — he came to the inescapable conclusion that the traditional male-female monogamous model for marriage was indeed the best foundation for a healthy and productive society.

Unwin found that societies that adopted this model typically took about three generations to reach their peak of productivity and progress. After that, frequently, a gradual development of complacency and licentiousness would take place and what he described as an ”outburst of homosexuality” would sometimes occur. When that happened, and the society started to move away from the traditional model of male-female monogamous marriage as its foundation, it would begin to unravel. It would then take another three generations of deterioration from that point for the society to collapse.

It is my opinion that between the end of the American Civil War and the Reconstruction of the South, proceeding through the Industrial Revolution, and continuing up until about the end of World War II in 1945, the U.S. reached its zenith. Then came the U.S. Supreme Court’s Everson decision in 1947 which imposed an unconstitutional “Wall of Separation” between Church and State. This directly contradicted the vision of the founding fathers. Upon his farewell address to the nation, George Washington tried to impress upon his fellow countrymen that it was “Religion and Morality” that served as the foundation for our young nation.

Our thinking about human sexuality was transformed in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s by Alfred Kinsey, using false and fraudulent statistics — including the 10% myth concerning the number of homosexuals in the population. His work was based largely on the deviant sexual practices reported by those in prison. His flawed conclusions were not surprising since 86% of convicted child molesters against males describe themselves as being either homosexual or bisexual. A young college student at the time, Hugh Hefner, was influenced by Kinsey’s work and started what was to become the Playboy empire which in turn helped launch the sexual revolution of the 1960’s.

The U.S. Supreme Court decision in Griswold in 1965 (which found a new constituitional “right to privacy” for contraception) was the next big judicial construct. This in turn helped fuel the feminist revolution of the 1970’s since women were no longer “chained to their homes” by babies to raise. But, since contraception does not always work, the U.S. Supreme Court had to find a new application for the constitutional right to privacy, which it did in Roe v. Wade in 1973. This travesty of a judicial decision allowed for abortion on-demand. With the new influx of contracepting and “liberated” women in the workplace, having more extramarital affairs than ever, it was of course necessary to adopt liberal No-Fault Divorce laws. In this way, the cheating spouses could easily get out of their lifelong marital commitments with little or no legal penalty or social stigma.

This in turn created the situation where there were far more little boys growing up with no strong male role models at home and far more little girls being raised with no father or by step-fathers more likely to sexually abuse them (e.g. Ellen DeGeneres). In either event, we increased the number of male and female homosexuals by enhancing the risk factors for developmental gender confusion and the psycho-social deficits which eventually lead to the same-sex attraction. Hence, the need for yet another constitutional right to privacy to be announced by the U.S. Supreme Court in the horrific Lawrence decision in 2003 — this time for homosexual sodomy. Thus, what started with the uncoupling of sexuality and procreation in the Griswold (contraception) case has now reached its unnatural conclusion with the legalization and normalization of homosexual sodomy in the Lawrence case. After all, if sex is only about adult emotional attachments, and not procreation, then why not homosexuality?

Of course, the downward slide of our society has been greatly accelerated by the explosion of pornography on the Internet which has weakened the natural romantic attraction between young people and replaced it with unbridled selfish sexual gratification. This has further lessened the natural resistance and even revulsion to various sexual perversions. Indeed, just this past week we have witnessed the sitting Chief Appellate Justice of the largest federal judicial district in the nation, posting disgusting sexual images on his website (involving people and animals) while presiding over a pornography trial involving beastiality and extreme fetishes. Where does all of this lead us — to same-sex “marriage,” of course. And how much time do we have left by Unwin’s standards — I would say that we are at least at the end of the second generation of deterioration, if not already well into the final third generation before the collapse.

Can we stop this societal suicide — possibly, but not if we can’t stop same-sex “marriage” in California in November 2008, and not without supernatural help. Without the foundation of Religion and Morality that George Washingoton and the other founding fathers provided for us, there is simply no real hope for the future of this country.

Finally, since it is only in our maleness and femaleness that we are made in the image and likeness of God, the destruction of the concept of gender is perhaps Satan’s greatest accomplishment. Moreover, since the sacramental marriage of a husband and wife is used to image the relationship of Christ and His Church, even the idea of same-sex ”marriage” is a sacrilege. Therefore, separate and apart from the seemingly accurate prognastications of Professor Unwin, I just don’t see how a God of Justice can tolerate such a diabolical mockery of His divinely ordained instituion of marriage for very long. Indeed, the same man to whom our Lord entrusted the Keys to the Kingdom warned us that: “…in the last days there shall come deceitful scoffers, walking after their own lusts… ” (2 Peter 3:3). In conclusion, I informed my friend that although we have had the privilege of living in the greatest nation in the history of the world, based on the foregoing, we may very well be seeing it in its waning years. May the God of our fathers have mercy on us and our beloved country. More news by category Topic -: Buy phentermine saturday delivery ohio Tramadol hydrochloride tablets Picture of xanax pills Free shipping cheap phentermine Buying phentermine without prescription Safety of phentermine Pyridium Generic viagra cialis Cialis generic india Pink oval pill 17 xanax identification Buy free phentermine shipping Best price for generic viagra Information about street drugs or xanax bars Ordering viagra Snorting phentermine Hydrocodone overdose Lithium Amiodarone Get online viagra Order viagra prescription Order xanax paying cod Cheap phentermine free shipping Imiquimod Tramadol next day Linkdomain buy online viagra info domain buy onlin Pfizer viagra sperm Vidarabine Cheapest viagra price Prevacid Viagra cialis levitra comparison Dutasteride Lisinopril Thiotepa Female spray viagra Black market phentermine Betamethasone Cialis forums What does xanax look like Loss phentermine story success weight Order xanax overnight Viagra alternative uk Diet online phentermine pill Order xanax cod Mecamylamine Eulexin Cheap hydrocodone Buy cheapest viagra Viagra xenical Phentermine with no prior prescription Xanax in urine Macrodantin Cheap phentermine with online consultation Epivir Buy phentermine epharmacist Ditropan Woman use viagra Cialis erectile dysfunction Xanax withdrawl message boards Viagra online store Atorvastatin Generic ambien Is phentermine addictive Next day delivery on phentermine Buy online viagra Ethanol Natural phentermine Avandamet Xanax long term use Diet page phentermine pill yellow 5 cheap Cheapest secure delivery cialis uk Information medical phentermine Cialis experience Phentermine no perscription Compare ionamin phentermine Viagra cialis levivia dose comparison Noroxin Effects of viagra on women Buy cheap cialis Viagra shelf life Hydroxyurea Phentermine discount no prescription Buy cheap online viagra Dog xanax Online cialis Viagra class action Viagra price Phentermine without prescription and energy pill Hydrocodone cod only Nicoumalone Cheapest viagra Cheap ambien Vicodin without prescription Phentermine prescription online Phentermine snorting Mirtazapine Quazepam Isradipine Buy generic viagra online Xanax look alike Moxifloxacin Viagra experiences Piroxicam Nicorette Free try viagra Sotalol Cash on delivery shipping of phentermine How do i stop taking phentermine Xanax prescriptions Cheapest phentermine 90 day order Niacinamide Phentermine weight loss Phentermine

There was once a time when I trusted police officers. “They’re here to protect us.” However, as the laws and ordnances and oppression grows in our country, they have become less our “protectors” and more our oppressors.

In the movie Transformers, one of the evil Decepticons morphs into a police car and has painted on its side, “To Punish and Enslave” (instead of the “To Protect and Serve”).

That is what our nation is becoming: a police state.

We are losing our freedoms. We are giving up our rights. We are accepting the police as our masters–now armed with military weapons and hardware (even though crime rates were falling long before they received this stuff).

Here is another example of a situation where citizens trusted the police–who were nothing more than criminals with badges:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25352805

Case against fake police officer upends Mo. town

By ALAN SCHER ZAGIER

GERALD, Mo. - Bill Jakob arrived in this small town with an offer to help police curb the community’s methamphetamine problem. He had a badge and a gun and told officials he had previously worked as an anti-drug agent in Illinois. He even drove a fully equipped Ford Crown Victoria, which he said was for undercover work.

There was just one problem: Jakob was no cop. He was an unemployed truck driver with a criminal record and had recently filed for bankruptcy.

Now this village of 1,200 people southwest of St. Louis is confronting allegations that Jakob and other officers mistreated and robbed many of the people they arrested.

At least 17 people have sued, including an elderly woman who was involuntarily committed to a psychiatric ward because she didn’t cooperate with the police and a man who said Jakob held a gun to his head and threatened to shoot while the man’s child watched.

“Not only did they break in and threaten to kill people and violate their civil rights, they stole money, prescription drugs and legally owned weapons. It’s crazy that this could happen in 2008,” said attorney Dan Briegel, who represents the woman who was placed in the psychiatric ward for a week.

No one really knows what motivated Jakob, and his lawyer offered little explanation.

Complaints about Jakob’s rough treatment of suspects led a reporter from the Gasconade County Republican newspaper to ask the sheriff about the new officer. That’s when Jakob’s story unraveled.

Jakob claimed he had been a federal agent attached to an anti-drug task force in an Illinois town. But the community he named dissolved a decade ago. And it turned out that Jakob bought the police vehicle from a used car dealer.

“He had credentials. He had a badge. He had a phone number to call for verification,” said Gerald Mayor Otis Schulte. “I don’t know what else we could have done.”

When police called the number Jakob provided, the woman who answered verified he had worked for the task force. The mayor and other authorities now suspect the person at the other end of the phone was Jakob’s wife.

Jakob, 36, was arrested in mid-May but has not yet been charged with a crime. His attorney expects a federal indictment later this month. Jakob did not respond to a written request for an interview left at his home 30 miles away in Washington, Mo.

His attorney, Joel Schwartz, said his client’s involvement in drug raids was the result of Jakob’s poor decisions, but also those of Gerald police.

“We are not saying for one moment that Bill Jakob didn’t make serious errors in judgment,” he said. “I am strongly suggesting the responsibility needs to be shared.”

Jakob first showed up in Gerald in February in hopes of speaking about a job with then-police Chief Ryan McCrary, Schwartz said.

When Jakob’s deception came to light, agents from the FBI and the Missouri Highway Patrol descended on Gerald’s tiny City Hall. Because he was never a police officer, all the arrests he made without warrants were illegal.

The city fired McCrary — who had sought reserve deputy status for Jakob — along with two other officers in the five-officer department. A sheriff’s deputy who accompanied Jakob on two trips to pick up extradited inmates was also dismissed.

A cursory check of public records would have revealed that the mysterious lawman had a checkered past.

In 1994, at age 22, he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor sex abuse in St. Clair County, Ill., and paid a $100 fine for having sex with an underage girl.

In 2003, Jakob and his wife filed for bankruptcy, listing debts in excess of $180,000. And in 2007, a jury found Jakob liable for $600,000 in damages in the death of a 6-year-old boy who ran onto a rural highway and was hit by Jakob’s pickup truck.

The verdict was overturned on appeal. Jakob and the child’s mother have since tentatively agreed to a $50,000 insurance settlement.

Seventeen people who were either arrested by Jakob or whose homes were raided by him came forward to file two separate federal lawsuits alleging civil rights violations and excessive force. Another attorney plans to file a third lawsuit on behalf of at least 12 other town residents.

Both lawsuits name the mayor as a defendant. The suit brought by Briegel, who is seeking $11 million for each of his 11 clients, also names the town’s four aldermen.

A petition seeking to oust Schulte as mayor is also being circulated.

“The town is angry,” the mayor said.

The mayor compared his town’s predicament — and Jakob’s deception — to the story of con artist Frank Abagnale Jr., who in the 1960s impersonated a police officer, lawyer and airline pilot. His story was portrayed in the 2002 movie “Catch Me if You Can.”

“He was very adamant about not telling anyone anything,” Schulte said. “He said, ‘I’m here. I’m undercover.’ That’s it.”

The mayor hopes Jakob’s case will be a cautionary tale to other communities.

“There’s one good thing to come out of it,” he said. “Every small town that hears about it is going to be more careful now.”

A young woman was about to finish her first year of college. Like so many others her age, she considered herself to be a very liberal Democrat, and among other liberal ideals, was very much in favor of higher taxes to support more government programs, in other words redistribution of wealth.

She was deeply ashamed that her father was a rather staunch Republican, a feeling she openly expressed. Based on the lectures that she had participated in, and the occasional chat with a professor, she felt that her father had for years harbored an evil, selfish desire to keep what he thought should be his.

One day she was challenging her father on his opposition to higher taxes on the rich and the need for more government programs. The self-professed objectivity proclaimed by her professors had to be the truth and she indicated so to her father. He responded by asking how she was doing in school.

Taken aback, she answered rather haughtily that she had a 4.0 GPA, and let him know that it was tough to maintain, insisting that she was taking a very difficult course load and was constantly studying, which left her no time to go out and party like other people she knew. She didn’t even have time for a boyfriend, and didn’t really have many college friends because she spent all her time studying.

Her father listened and then asked, ‘How is your friend Audrey doing?’ She replied, ‘Audrey is barely getting by. All she takes are easy classes, she never studies, and she barely has a 2.0 GPA. She is so popular on campus; college for her is a blast. She’s always invited to all the parties and lots of times she doesn’t even show up for classes because she’s too hung over.’

Her wise father asked his daughter, ‘Why don’t you go to the Dean’s office and ask him to deduct 1.0 off your GPA and give it to your friend who only has a 2.0. That way you will both have a 3.0 GPA and certainly that would be a fair and equal distribution of GPA.’

The daughter, visibly shocked by her father’s suggestion, angrily fired back, ‘That’s a crazy idea, and how would that be fair! I’ve worked really hard for my grades! I’ve invested a lot of time, and a lot of hard work! Audrey has done next to nothing toward her degree. She played while I worked my tail off!’

The father slowly smiled, winked and said gently, ‘Welcome to the Republican party.

News from Missouri Midwife Supporters

CONTACT: Mary Ueland (417) 543-4258, grassroots@friendsofmomidwives.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, June 26, 2008

In a Desperate Attempt, Play the ‘Abortion Card’

JEFFERSON CITY, MO (June 26, 2008)—Just hours after the Missouri Supreme Court ruling that declares Missouri families now have legal access to professional midwives to help deliver babies in the state, the coalition of physician groups that tried to fight the law in question have launched a misinformation campaign seemingly designed to cast doubt among citizens, and based on false claims that the new law will permit Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs) to perform abortions.

“To suggest that CPMs are trained to do abortions—or that they would even want to—is beyond the pale. CPMs are all about delivering babies—abortion is not within their scope of practice. Abortions are performed by obstetricians, not by midwives,” said Mary Ueland, Grassroots Coordinator for Friends of Missouri Midwives (FOMM). “But considering that the Missouri physicians association told their own members last year that this legislation would allow bricklayers and crane operators to deliver babies, I’m not surprised at this new attempt to distort the truth.”

Certified Nurse-Midwives (CNMs), who are licensed and regulated in all 50 states, are trained to deliver babies in the hospital and to provide family planning and well-woman care. Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs), by contrast, limit their scope of practice to the management and care of healthy women experiencing normal pregnancies. They also undergo specialized training to qualify as experts in the provision of out-of-hospital maternity care.

“This interpretation is incorrect and obviously so,” stated Susan Jenkins, Legal Counsel for the National Birth Policy Coalition and a member of the legal team for the Friends of Missouri Midwives. “The new law clearly references the federal Medicaid statutes to define the scope of practice for which CPMs are certified and, as everyone knows, the federal Medicaid program does not cover abortion, except under rare circumstances as defined by the Hyde Amendment. More importantly, CPMs are not certified to provide abortions by their certifying body, the North American Registry of Midwives, and this statute is directly linked to CPMs certified scope of practice. The basic certification of CNMs does not include abortion either.”

In a 5 to 2 ruling Tuesday, the Missouri Supreme Court upheld a law that legalizes Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs) who practice in the state. The Court determined that the physician groups that brought the suit to overturn the law lacked standing because their only interest in the case was economic. The decision makes legal Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs) and removes the threat of prosecution to professional midwives who assist families who choose out-of-hospital birth. State and national birth and midwives advocates hailed the ruling as a triumphant and historic moment in Missouri’s history and evidence of a tipping point at hand on the national scale.

The Court’s summary is posted online. With this ruling, Missouri joins the majority of other states where Certified Professional Midwives are legal. There are only nine remaining states where they are prohibited. Twenty-four states license CPMs.
Missouri is a priority of The Big Push for Midwives Campaign < http://www.TheBigPushforMidwives.org>, a nationally coordinated campaign to advocate for regulation and licensure of Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs) in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, and to push back against the attempts of the American Medical Association Scope of Practice Partnership to deny American families access to legal midwifery care. The Big Push for Midwives Campaign is the first initiative of the National Birth Policy Coalition (NBPC). Through our work, we are building a new model of U.S. maternity care delivery at the local and regional levels. At the heart of this new model is the Midwives Model of Care, which is based on the fact that pregnancy and birth are normal life processes.

Friends of Missouri Midwives www.friendsofMOmidwives.org
Missouri Midwives Association www.missourimidwivesassociation.org
Show-Me Freedom in Healthcare www.showmefreedompac.org
Free the Midwives www.freethemidwives.org
The Big Push for Midwives www.TheBigPushforMidwives.org

Supreme Court finds individuals have constitutional right to own handguns

By Pete Williams of NBC News and Alex Johnson of msnbc.com with Brian Mooar of NBC News. NBC affiliates WRC of Washington and WMAQ of Chicago and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court’s ruling that Americans have a right to own guns for self-defense and hunting was the opening shot in what will be a long legal and legislative battle over exactly how strictly cities and states can regulate firearms, advocates and elected officials said Thursday.

The court’s 5-4 ruling, its first ever addressing the core ambiguity of the Second Amendment, upheld an appeals court ruling that struck down the District of Columbia’s 32-year-old ban on handguns.

The decision went further than even the Bush administration had sought, but it probably leaves most firearms laws intact. It also struck down Washington’s requirement that firearms be equipped with trigger locks or kept disassembled, but it left intact the licensing of guns, and it upheld longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons or the mentally ill.

It will take several weeks for the court’s opinion to work its way into local and state laws. Until then, Washington’s ban remains on the books, and city officials promised swift action to rework their law to strictly regulate handguns while complying with the ruling.

“Unfortunately and disappointingly, the Supreme Court opted not to uphold the three-decade-old handgun ban in the District of Columbia,” Mayor Adrian Fenty said.

“More handguns in the District of Columbia will only lead to more handgun violence,” he said. “It is important to both respect the court’s authority and then to act quickly.”

Fenty gave the police department 21 days to develop a system for citizens to register lawful handguns in their homes. The city’s attorney general said rules on who could apply for gun licenses would not change — applicants would still be required to be mentally competent adults, and they would still be fingerprinted.

Pro-gun activists claim major victory
Advocates for gun rights quickly declared the ruling a landmark victory and said they would seek to strike down gun regulations across the country.

“This is a great moment in American history,” said Wayne LaPierre, chief executive of the National Rifle Association.

In a statement, the White House said: “The president strongly agrees with the Supreme Court’s historic decision today that the Second Amendment protects the individual right of Americans to keep and bear arms. This has been the administration’s long-held view. The president is also pleased that the Court concluded that the D.C. firearm laws violate that right.”

Gun-control advocates, acknowledging the decision as a defeat, pointed to language in the 5-to-4 ruling, written by Justice Antonin Scalia, upholding “reasonable” restrictions as their basis for defending gun laws wherever they could.

“After the … ruling, as before, approximately 80 Americans will continue to die from guns every day,” said Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. “Our weak or nonexistent gun laws contribute to the thousands of senseless gun deaths and injuries in this country that occur each year.”

But, Helmke said, “it’s clear that what the court did today is they limited the extremes. You can no longer have near-total prohibitions on guns, but reasonable restrictions on guns.”

NRA to take battle to states
LaPierre said the NRA would use decision as “the opening salvo in a step-by-step process” to dismantle gun regulations in cities across the country. He said the NRA would begin with lawsuits in San Francisco and in Chicago and several of its suburbs.

Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago, which has suffered a recent spate of gun violence affecting everyone from schoolchildren and teachers to the elderly, fervently criticized the ruling, calling it “a very frightening decision” that was incongruent with the Supreme Court’s own security policies.

“You can’t carry a gun into the Supreme Court,” Daley said. “You can’t carry a gun in and around the Capitol building. You can’t get into a capital building without being searched,” Daley said. “So why should the streets of our American cities be open to someone carrying a gun?

“Why can’t you stand outside the Supreme Court with a gun and say, ‘This is my constitutional right?’” he asked.

Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the other likely target state of the NRA’s first efforts, also criticized the ruling.

“I believe the people of this great country will be less safe because of it,” she said.

Court addresses historical ambiguity
At the heart of the decision was the court’s intention to clarify an amendment that has sown confusion since it was ratified in 1791.

The amendment reads: “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”

NOTE: The framers of the constitution did not think this was ambiguous at all. Here is what they said:

The basic issue for the justices was to decide exactly what those commas mean: Does the amendment protect an individual’s right to own guns no matter what, or is that right somehow tied to service in a state militia?

Scalia said an individual right to bear arms was supported by “the historical narrative” both before and after the Second Amendment was adopted.

The Constitution does not permit “the absolute prohibition of handguns held and used for self-defense in the home,” Scalia said.

In a dissent he summarized from the bench, Justice John Paul Stevens wrote that the majority “would have us believe that over 200 years ago, the Framers made a choice to limit the tools available to elected officials wishing to regulate civilian uses of weapons.”

He said such evidence “is nowhere to be found.”

McCain, Obama spar over ruling
The ruling quickly became fodder for the presidential race. Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the Republican nominee, called it a “landmark victory for Second Amendment freedom in the United States.”

McCain criticized Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, the Democratic nominee, for refusing to sign a statement calling for Thursday’s ruling.

“Unlike the elitist view that believes Americans cling to guns out of bitterness, today’s ruling recognizes that gun ownership is a fundamental right — sacred, just as the right to free speech and assembly,” McCain said.

Obama said the decision “will provide much-needed guidance to local jurisdictions across the country.”

“As president, I will uphold the constitutional rights of law-abiding gun-owners, hunters and sportsmen,” Obama said. “We can work together to enact common-sense laws, like closing the gun show loophole and improving our background check system, so that guns do not fall into the hands of terrorists or criminals.”

Dissenters vs. supporters
The issue had caused a split within the Bush administration. Vice President Dick Cheney supported the appeals court ruling, but others in the administration feared it could lead to the undoing of other gun regulations, including a federal law restricting sales of machine guns. Other laws keep felons from buying guns and provide for an instant background check.

The administration’s divisions mirrored those of the closely divided court.

In a concluding paragraph to his 64-page opinion, Scalia said the justices in the majority “are aware of the problem of handgun violence in this country” and believe the Constitution “leaves the District of Columbia a variety of tools for combating that problem, including some measures regulating handguns.”

But in a separate dissent, Justice Stephen Breyer wrote, “In my view, there simply is no untouchable constitutional right guaranteed by the Second Amendment to keep loaded handguns in the house in crime-ridden urban areas.”

Joining Scalia were Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Anthony Kennedy and Clarence Thomas. The other dissenters were Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David Souter.

The last Supreme Court ruling on the topic came in 1939 in U.S. v. Miller, which involved a sawed-off shotgun. Constitutional scholars disagree over what that case means but agree it did not squarely answer the question of individual versus collective rights.

Forty-four state constitutions include some form of gun rights, which are not affected by the court’s consideration of Washington’s restrictions.

The case is District of Columbia v. Heller, 07-290.

By Tom Leonard

Environment campaigner Al Gore is using more electricity than ever despite pledging to cut consumption more than a year ago, a libertarian research group claims.

According to the Tennessee Centre for Policy Research, the annual electricity usage at the former US Vice President’s large home in Nashville has risen by 10 per cent.

Mr Gore’s environmental activism inspired the Oscar-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth.

But the TCPR branded him a “hypocrite” in February 2007 after discovering that his eight-bathroom house in the Tennessee city consumed nearly 221,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity in the previous year – more than 20 times the national average.

Mr Gore responded by saying that he was in the process of giving the house a major energy-efficient makeover, fitting solar panels, low energy lightbulbs, and a geothermal heating and cooling system.

However, the TPCR has got hold of his electricity bill again, this time comparing electricity consumption between the 12 months before June 2007, when it says he installed his new technology, and the year since then.

It says the figures show the Gore residence uses an average of 17,768 kWh per month –1,638 kWh more energy per month than before the renovations.

By comparison, the average American household consumes 11,040 kWh in an entire year, according to the Energy Information Administration.

Drew Johnson, the TCPR’s president, said: “A man’s commitment to his beliefs is best measured by what he does behind the closed doors of his own home.”

A spokesman for Mr Gore disputed the claims, saying his total utility bills had gone down by 40 per cent since the “green” refit, much of that down to the new heating system.

Explaining the electricity consumption, she said the three-year renovation of the house wasn’t finished until November so it was too early to draw a before-and-after comparison.

She also stressed that the Gores participate in a local “green power switch” programme which allows them to buy electricity from renewable resources such as wind power and methane gas.

Linkage

Dark spots, some as large as 50,000 miles in diameter, typically move across the surface of the sun, contracting and expanding as they go. These strange and powerful phenomena are known as sunspots, but now they are all gone. Not even solar physicists know why it’s happening and what this odd solar silence might be indicating for our future.

Although periods of inactivity are normal for the sun, this current period has gone on much longer than usual and scientists are starting to worry—at least a little bit. Recently 100 scientists from Europe, Asia, Latin America, Africa and North America gathered to discuss the issue at an international solar conference at Montana State University. Today’s sun is as inactive as it was two years ago, and solar physicists don’t have a clue as to why.

“It continues to be dead,” said Saku Tsuneta with the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, program manager for the Hinode solar mission, noting that it is at least a little bit worrisome for scientists.

Dana Longcope, a solar physicist at MSU, said the sun usually operates on an 11-year cycle with maximum activity occurring in the middle of the cycle. The last cycle reached its peak in 2001 and is believed to be just ending now, Longcope said. The next cycle is just beginning and is expected to reach its peak sometime around 2012. But so far nothing is happening.

“It’s a dead face,” Tsuneta said of the sun’s appearance.

Tsuneta said solar physicists aren’t weather forecasters and they can’t predict the future. They do have the ability to observe, however, and they have observed a longer-than-normal period of solar inactivity. In the past, they observed that the sun once went 50 years without producing sunspots. That period coincided with a little ice age on Earth that lasted from 1650 to 1700. Coincidence? Some scientists say it was, but many worry that it wasn’t.

Geophysicist Phil Chapman, the first Australian to become an astronaut with NASA, said pictures from the US Solar and Heliospheric Observatory also show that there are currently no spots on the sun. He also noted that the world cooled quickly between January last year and January this year, by about 0.7C.

“This is the fastest temperature change in the instrumental record, and it puts us back to where we were in 1930,” Dr Chapman noted in The Australian recently.

If the world does face another mini Ice Age, it could come without warning. Evidence for abrupt climate change is readily found in ice cores taken from Greenland and Antarctica. One of the best known examples of such an event is the Younger Dryas cooling, which occurred about 12,000 years ago, named after the arctic wildflower found in northern European sediments. This event began and ended rather abruptly, and for its entire 1000 year duration the North Atlantic region was about 5°C colder. Could something like this happen again? There’s no way to tell, and because the changes can happen all within one decade—we might not even see it coming.

The Younger Dryas occurred at a time when orbital forcing should have continued to drive climate to the present warm state. The unexplained phenomenon has been the topic of much intense scientific debate, as well as other millennial scale events.

Now this 11-year low in Sunspot activity has raised fears among a small but growing number of scientists that rather than getting warmer, the Earth could possibly be about to return to another cooling period. The idea is especially intriguing considering that most of the world is in preparation for global warming.

Canadian scientist Kenneth Tapping of the National Research Council has also noted that solar activity has entered into an unusually inactive phase, but what that means—if anything—is still anyone’s guess. Another solar scientist, Oleg Sorokhtin, a fellow of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, however, is certain that it’s an indication of a coming cooling period.

Sorokhtin believes that a lack of sunspots does indicate a coming cooling period based on certain past trends and early records. In fact, he calls manmade climate change “a drop in the bucket” compared to the fierce and abrupt cold that can potentially be brought on by inactive solar phases.

Sorokhtin’s advice: “Stock up on fur coats”…just in case.

Source: Rogue Government - Lee Rogers

The terrorists in the federal government are continuing their push to have a fully functioning martial law apparatus. The city of Denver was recently invaded by a large number of military helicopters without any sort of warning given to the general public. It was originally speculated that this training exercise had something to do with the upcoming Democratic National Convention, but a spokesman with Special Operations said that it wasn’t related and that the exercises would last all week. It is interesting that this spokesman said it had nothing to do with the upcoming DNC. If that’s the case, than what is the real purpose of this exercise? They are selling this exercise as an anti-terror drill, but in reality it has nothing to do with stopping terrorism. The terror war has been proven to be a fraud time and time again so it certainly isn’t about fighting the terrorists. As painful as it is to say, the true purpose of the federal government flying military helicopters around Denver without any sort of notification to the public is part of a plan to socially engineer people to the reality of a militarized police state.

The Denver Daily News reported on this situation and asked why the public wasn’t informed in advance that these military helicopters would be flying around. The article is largely a white wash of the situation, but it is incredible how the local government spins this military exercise as something that will actually benefit the local community. Below is a statement from the local government on this urban warfare exercise.

“The federal agencies sponsoring the ongoing multi-agency training in Denver agreed to make the proper notifications regarding the exercises to prevent surprise and inconvenience to Denver residents. There seems to have been a misunderstanding about the reach and scope of these notifications, and they did not occur in the manner expected by the city.

“Although these exercises are in no way connected to the upcoming Democratic National Convention, Denver officials were well aware that there would be heightened sensitivity to an exercise such as this because of its proximity to the convention..

“Denver recognizes that these are our federal partners, and we are fortunate that they have chosen Denver for their training exercises. Should there ever be an emergency here that would require federal assistance, they will be familiar with our city and how best to navigate it.”

So according to the local government it is good for the federal government to come in without any announcement to the public and conduct week long training exercises with military helicopters flying around. Needless to say, these types of exercises are not good because the terror war is a fraud and there’s no reason to have military helicopters flying around in a heavily populated area under the guise of this false war.

Unfortunately, what is happening in Denver is just part and parcel to other martial law oriented exercises that we’ve seen in recent weeks and months. Just recently, U.S. Marines invaded Indianapolis to conduct martial law training, we have unlawful police checkpoints being setup in Iowa under the guise of protecting people from the flooding, there was also a FEMA camp exercise in Iowa prior to the flooding and finally we have additional reports of black helicopters in Florida. There is no question that these training exercises are simply meant to desensitize the American people to this draconian police state.

It is funny that the stooges in the mainstream press paint anyone who talks about black helicopters as a tinfoil hat wearing nut when there are now mainstream news reports of black helicopters flying around in Denver and in Florida. Mainstream news organizations are not in the business of reporting news, but instead are in the business of ensuring the status quo remains the status quo. Martial law exercises are bad enough, but unannounced martial law exercises are even worse. These types of drills that we are seeing in Denver is yet more proof that the federal government is nothing more than a fascist crime syndicate that wants to enslave the American people.