Dick Lamm in immigration debate

Lamm stays tough in immigration debate

Excerpt:

Former Colorado Gov. Dick Lamm and a Boston economist offered vastly different views of the impact illegal immigrants have on U.S. workers and the economy during a debate today at Metro State College.

Lamm, who was a leader in the movement to strip nonessential services from illegal immigrants, said the flow of cheap labor provided by illegal workers depresses wages and drains tax revenues to cover the cost of benefits such as education and health care.

Lamm faced free-market economist Benjamin Powell, an assistant professor of economics at Boston's Suffolk University.

----

Lamm said illegal immigrants offer business a cheap labor source that depresses the wages of those who are here legally. Because illegal workers pay little in taxes, Americans bear the cost of educating their children and for other services, he added.

"You don't pay your own way — you are subsidized by the taxpayers. I don't mind doing it, but I can't do it for the whole world," said Lamm.

Comment: Dick Lamm is the former Governor of Colorado. He is famous for this quote: ""We've got a duty to die and get out of the way with all of our machines and artificial hearts and everything else like that and let the other society, our kids, build a reasonable life."

Indian ragpickers - 300,000 of them!

Picking Up Trash by Hand, and Yearning for Dignity

New Delhi Journal
Picking Up Trash by Hand, and Yearning for Dignity
By AMELIA GENTLEMAN
Published: September 27, 2007
An essential class of workers, garbage collectors in India’s capital are among the city’s poorest and most marginalized groups.

Excerpt:

A garbage collector in India’s capital, Ms. Begum is one of 300,000 little-seen workers who perform a vital role for the city: rifling through the detritus of modern life, recycling anything of worth and carefully disposing of the rest.

More than 95 percent of New Delhi has no formal system of house-to-house garbage collection, so it falls to the city’s ragpickers, one of India’s poorest and most marginalized groups, to provide this basic service. They are not paid by the state, relying instead on donations from the communities they serve and on meager profits from the sale of discarded items.

Comment: Interesting read. First I had heard of this! Image from toxicslink.blogspot.com

Technical read but interesting

ReiserFS bugs, 32-bit vs 64-bit kernels, cache vs inode memory

Comment: I use Fastmail as my email server. Because I work with servers regularly I found this article interesting.

More on inode and the Reiser File System

Fringe

6 Catholic nuns in Arkansas excommunicated for heresy

Excerpt:

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Six Catholic nuns have been excommunicated for heresy after refusing to give up membership in a Canadian sect whose founder claims to be possessed by the Virgin Mary, the Diocese of Little Rock announced Wednesday.

The Rev. J. Gaston Hebert, the diocese administrator, said he notified the nuns of the decision Tuesday night after they refused to recant the teachings of the Community of the Lady of All Nations, also known as the Army of Mary.

Finding your spouse on the Internet (anonymously)

Online couple cheated with each other

A married couple who didn't realise they were chatting each other up on the internet are divorcing.

Sana Klaric and husband Adnan, who used the names "Sweetie" and "Prince of Joy" in an online chatroom, spent hours telling each other about their marriage troubles, Metro.co.uk reported.

The truth emerged when the two turned up for a date. Now the pair, from Zenica in central Bosnia, are divorcing after accusing each other of being unfaithful.

"I was suddenly in love. It was amazing. We seemed to be stuck in the same kind of miserable marriage. How right that turned out to be," Sana, 27, said.

Adnan, 32, said: "I still find it hard to believe that Sweetie, who wrote such wonderful things, is actually the same woman I married and who has not said a nice word to me for years".


Several bloggers have commented:

Larry Rogier: I Love You ... Oops, No I Don't

Don Johnson: on a sad commentary on the modern world

Comment: Made me think of Johnny Cash: Frankie's Man. Best to Walk the Line!

I keep a close watch on this heart of mine
I keep my eyes wide open all the time
I keep the ends out for the tie that binds
Because you're mine, I walk the line

I find it very, very easy to be true
I find myself alone when each day is through
Yes, I'll admit that I'm a fool for you
Because you're mine, I walk the line

As sure as night is dark and day is light
I keep you on my mind both day and night
And happiness I've known proves that it's right
Because you're mine, I walk the line

You've got a way to keep me on your side
You give me cause for love that I can't hide
For you I know I'd even try to turn the tide
Because you're mine, I walk the line

I keep a close watch on this heart of mine
I keep my eyes wide open all the time
I keep the ends out for the tie that binds
Because you're mine, I walk the line

"This is going to cause pain"

Plan Uses Taxes to Fight Climate Change

Excerpt:

WASHINGTON -- Dealing with global warming will be painful, says one of the most powerful Democrats in Congress. To back up his claim he is proposing a recipe many people won't like _ a 50-cent gasoline tax, a carbon tax and scaling back tax breaks for some home owners.

"I'm trying to have everybody understand that this is going to cost and that it's going to have a measure of pain that you're not going to like," Rep. John Dingell, who is marking his 52nd year in Congress, said Wednesday in an interview with The Associated Press.

Dingell will offer a "discussion draft" outlining his tax proposals on Thursday, the same day that President Bush holds a two-day conference to discuss voluntary efforts to combat climate change.

But Dingell, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee that will craft climate legislation, is making it clear that he believes tackling global warming will require a lot more if it is to be taken seriously.

"This is going to cause pain," he said, adding that he wants to make certain "the pain is shared in a way that is fair, proper, acceptable and accomplishes the basic purpose" of reducing greenhouse gases, mainly carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels.

Dingell said he's not sure what the final climate package will include when the House takes it up for a vote. The taxes measures he's proposing, in fact, will be taken up by another House committee. And the Senate is considering a market-based system that would set an economy-wide ceiling on the amount of carbon dioxide that would be allowed to be released.

Dingell says he hasn't rule out such a so-called "cap-and-trade" system, either, but that at least for now he wants to float what he believes is a better idea. He will propose for discussion:

_A 50-cent-a-gallon tax on gasoline and jet fuel, phased in over five years, on top of existing taxes.

_A tax on carbon, at $50 a ton, released from burning coal, petroleum or natural gas.

_Phaseout of the interest tax deduction on home mortgages for homes over 3,000 square feet. Owners would keep most of the deduction for homes at the lower end of the scale, but it would be eliminated entirely for homes of 4,200 feet or more.

He estimates that would affect 10 percent of homeowners. He says "it's only fair" to tax those who buy large suburban houses and create urban sprawl. Historic and farm houses would be exempted.

Comment: This should come a no surprise to anyone with any knowledge of a history of the Democrats!

Are We Supposed to Be Surprised or Something???

Solomon Dedicates the Temple

Tonight's reading: 2 Chronicles 7, 8

When Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of the LORD filled the temple. And the priests could not enter the house of the LORD, because the glory of the LORD had filled the LORD’s house. When all the children of Israel saw how the fire came down, and the glory of the LORD on the temple, they bowed their faces to the ground on the pavement, and worshiped and praised the LORD, saying:

“For He is good,
For His mercy endures forever.”

Congressional Backbone redux

House condemns MoveOn.org attack on Petraeus, praises general

Excerpt:

By a 341-79 vote, the House passed a resolution praising the patriotism Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, and condemning a MoveOn.org ad that referred to Petraeus as "General Betray Us."

The liberal group's full-page ad appeared earlier this month in The New York Times and has served as a rallying point for Republicans. President Bush called the ad "disgusting" and criticized Democrats such as Sen. Hillary Clinton, the front-runner for the party's nomination, for being afraid of irritating the group.

"Such unwarranted attacks should be strongly condemned by Republicans and Democrats alike," said Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., during brief debate on the resolution.


Wisconsin Rep. David Obey, a veteran Democrat, recounted how he left the Republican Party during the era of Sen. Joseph McCarthy, R-Wis., and said that lawmakers have an obligation to criticize their allies as well as their enemies when they go too far.


CNN article

MSNBC article


Comment: I'm not sure which bill this was - I'm looking to see how Ellison voted (but I think I already know!). Image from MSNBC

If anyone can help with the bill # and the vote, please comment. Thanks

I think it is this bill: H J RES 52

Draft the old?

Uncle Sam Wants You, Gramps - How come "national service" proponents never talk about drafting the old?

Excerpt:

One of the most interesting (and in my view sinister) aspects of proposals for mandatory "national service" is that they virtually always target only the young, usually 18- to 21-year-olds. This might be understandable if the proposals were limited to military service. But most current proposals (including those by Rep. Charles Rangel, Sen. John McCain, Bill Buckley, the Democratic Leadership Conference and Rep. Rahm Emanuel), incorporate civilian service as well. When it comes to office work and light menial labor, there are many elderly and middle-aged people who can do the job just as well as 18-21 year olds can, if not better.

Indeed, the moral case for conscripting the elderly for civilian service is arguably stronger than that for drafting the young. Many elderly people are healthy enough to perform nonstrenuous forms of "national service." Unlike the young, the elderly usually won't have to postpone careers, marriage and educational opportunities to fulfill their forced-labor obligations. Moreover, the elderly, to a far greater extent than the young, are beneficiaries of massive government redistributive programs, such as Social Security and Medicare--programs that transfer enormous amounts of wealth from other age groups to themselves. Nonelderly poor people who receive welfare benefits are required to work (or at least be looking for work) under the 1996 welfare reform law; it stands to reason that the elderly (most of whom are far from poor) can be required to work for the vastly larger government benefits that they receive.

Middle-aged people are also not obviously inferior candidates for civilian "national service" than the young. I know I could do most kinds of service better today than when I was 18. To be clear, I am not arguing for imposing forced labor on the elderly or the middle-aged; but I do believe that doing so would be no worse than imposing that burden on the young.


Comment: If the Marines would take a 58 year old guy who walked with crutches, I would go! I could serve in some IT function! But the purpose of the article is to highlight the inconsistencies in the idea of a national draft for "national service"!

* Ball

Verdict in: Bonds ball headed for Cooperstown

Excerpt:

The verdict of baseball fans is in: The ball Barry Bonds hit for his historic 756th home run will be branded with an asterisk and donated to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y.


Comment: Seems appropriate!

Ryan Martin on corporate worship

The church assembles for worship, part 1

Excerpt:

For millennia, the church understood the purpose of its gathering to be for worship. Today some scholars argue that “Christians worship everywhere,” that there “was no chapter and verse” (so to speak) that indicated that the early church thought of its assembly as a time for worship.

This should be a warning to us on the dangers of exegesis. Sometimes we want the Scriptures to affirm certain theological themes that are true in a way that satisfies our own strict requirements, but failing to allow the Scriptures to affirm those themes in its way.

I believe that there are several passages in the New Testament that point to the assembly as worship. Here I want to highlight a few of them off and on over the next few days.

The first is the phrase “house of God.” While this phrase undoubtedly meant to give the church the nuance of the meaning of the Graeco-Roman household, I do not believe that it can be so easily divorced from its Old Testament referent, traces of which we see in the Gospels.

In 1 Timothy 3:15, Paul says that he wants Timothy to know how to behave in the “household of God,” clearly equating this phrase with the church, as we see in the following phrase, “the church of the living God.”


Comment: I only excerpted a small portion of his article. Read the whole! Thanks Ryan!

French (Sarkozy) Backbone!

Sarkozy says letting Iran go nuclear could cause war

Excerpt:

In his maiden speech to the U.N. General Assembly, Sarkozy said: "There will be no peace in the world if the international community falters in the face of nuclear arms proliferation."

Iran was entitled to nuclear power for civilian purposes, he said, "but if we allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons, we would incur an unacceptable risk to stability in the region and in the world".

In a broader warning against the dangers of appeasement, the new French leader said: "Weakness and renunciation do not lead to peace. They lead to war."

Comment: Wow a breath of fresh air! What a change (improvement!) from Jacques Chirac!

A rare display of congressional backbone!

Congress Denounces Iran's Ahmadinejad

Excerpt:

Congress signaled its disapproval of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with a vote Tuesday to tighten sanctions against his government and a call to designate his army a terrorist group.

The swift rebuke was a rare display of bipartisan cooperation in a Congress bitterly divided on the Iraq war. It reflected lawmakers' long-standing nervousness about Tehran's intentions in the region, particularly toward Israel—a sentiment fueled by the pro-Israeli lobby whose influence reaches across party lines in Congress.

"Iran faces a choice between a very big carrot and a very sharp stick," said Rep. Tom Lantos, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. "It is my hope that they will take the carrot. But today, we are putting the stick in place."

The House passed, by a 397-16 vote, a proposal by Lantos, D-Calif., aimed at blocking foreign investment in Iran, in particular its lucrative energy sector. The bill would specifically bar the president from waiving U.S. sanctions.

Current law imposes sanctions against any foreign company that invests $20 million or more in Iran's energy industry, although the U.S. has waived or ignored sanction laws in exchange for European support on nonproliferation issues.

In the Senate, Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., proposed a nonbinding resolution urging the State Department to label Iran's military—the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps—a terrorist organization.


Comment: Who are the 16 that voted "no"? (Democrats in roman; Republicans in italic; Independents underlined)

One of the No's: Keith Ellison (DFL-MN) This is the guy who said Bush is like Hitler!

Man Rules

(From my Sister-in-Law)

The Man Rules­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ At last a guy has taken the time to write this all down

We always hear 'the rules' From the female side.

Now here are the rules from the male side.

These are our rules! Please note.. these are all numbered '1 ' ON PURPOSE!

1. Men are NOT mind readers.

1. Learn to work the toilet seat. You're a big girl. If it's up, put it down. We need it up, you need it down. You don't hear us complaining about you leaving it down.

1. Sunday sports It's like the full moon or the changing of the tides. Let it be.

1. Crying is blackmail.

1. Ask for what you want. Let us be clear on this one: Subtle hints do not work! Strong hints do not work! Obvious hints do not work! Just say it!

1. Yes and No are perfectly acceptable answers to almost every question.

1. Come to us with a problem only if you want help solving it. That's what we do. Sympathy is what your girlfriends are for.

1. Anything we said 6 months ago is inadmissible in an argument. In fact, all comments become Null and void after 7 Days.

1. If you think you're fat, you probably are. Don't ask us.

1. If something we said can be interpreted two ways and one of the ways makes you sad or angry, we meant the other one

1. You can either ask us to do something Or tell us how you want it done. Not both. If you already know best how to do it, just do it yourself.

1. Whenever possible, Please say whatever you have to say during commercials..

1. Christopher Columbus did NOT need directions and neither do we.

1. ALL men see in only 16 colors, like Windows default settings. Peach, for example, is a fruit, not A color. Pumpkin is also a fruit. We have no idea what mauve is.

1. If it itches, it will be scratched. We do that.

1. If we ask what is wrong and you say 'nothing,' We will act like nothing's wrong. We know you are lying, but it is just not worth the hassle.

1. If you ask a question you don't want an answer to, Expect an answer you don't want to hear.

1. When we have to go somewhere, absolutely anything you wear is fine... Really .

1. Don't ask us what we're thinking about unless you are prepared to discuss such topics as football OR bASEBALL.

1. You have enough clothes.

1. You have too many shoes.

1. I am in shape. Round IS a shape!

1. Thank you for reading this. Yes, I know, I have to sleep on the couch tonight;


But did you know men really don't mind that? It's like camping.

Pass this to as many men as you can - to give them a laugh.

Pass this to as many women as you can -

to give them a bigger laugh.

The gold of Parvaim

From our reading in 2 Chronicles 3 & 4 last night:

2 Chronicles 3:6, "He adorned the temple with precious stones. And the gold he used was gold of Parvaim" (NASB)

2 Chronicles 3:6 in 5 versions

Kathee and I stopped and looked for a marginal note to explain. Finding none, I looked up Parvaim in the ISBE (The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia):

PARVAIM - par-va'-im (parwayim; Septuagint Pharouaim):

The word occurs only in 2 Chronicles 3:6, as the place from which Solomon obtained gold for the decoration of his Temple. A derivation is given from the Sanskrit purva, "eastern," so that the name might be a vague term for the East (Gesenius, Thesaurus, 1125). Whether there was such a place in arabia is doubtful. Farwa in Yemen has been suggested, and also Saq el Farwain in Yemamah. Some have considered the name a shortened form of Cepharvayim which occurs in the Syriac and Targum Jonathan for the "Sephar" of Genesis 10:30.

A. S. Fulton

2 funny photos

Note her right hand!

Note hair color and what end of the camera she is looking into!

My Sister, Nancy, sent these to me!

Moneydance

Moneydance

I installed Moneydance on the MacBook tonight. I've been using this personal financial manager for 2 years on my Suse 9.2 desktop. I had an earlier version and took advantage of this opportunity (new computer) to upgrade and import the files from Linux.

It was straightforward:

1. I exported 2 years of finances to a QIF file
   
2. I emailed said file to self and shut down the Linux box
   
3. I downloaded Moneydance to the Mac and registered the product
   
4. I imported the QIF file
   
5. And set up the on-line banking (Wells Fargo)
   
6. It went smoothly and all is well.
   

Moneydance is a cross platform financial product: Windows / Linux / Mac. I like it because it performs faster than Quicken. It does not have all of the functionality of Quicken but has more than I need. Moneydance uses the OFX (Open Financial Exchange) format for financial institution connectivity. Pretty slick .... check it out! Here's a nice comparison of financial packages

Ahmadinejad at Columbia

Iran leader condemned by university host

Quotes:

On Iran's intent: "We are a peace-loving nation"

On the Holocaust: "Why is it that the Palestinian people are paying the price for an event they had nothing to do with?" ... "Granted this happened, what does it have to do with the Palestian people?"

On the destruction of Israel: "We love all nations. We are friends with the Jewish people"

On human rights: "People in Iran are very joyous, happy people ... They’re very free in expressing what they think.” ... [women in Iran were] “the freest women in the world ... They’re active in every level of society"

Earlier CFG posts on Ahmadinejad

Below are previous Ahmadinejad quotes on Israel (Source):

1. "Anybody who recognizes Israel will burn in the fire of the Islamic nation's fury."
   
2. "Remove Israel before it is too late and save yourself from the fury of regional nations."
   
3. "The skirmishes in the occupied land are part of a war of destiny. The outcome of hundreds of years of war will be defined in Palestinian land. As the Imam said, Israel must be wiped off the map."
   
4. "If the West does not support Israel, this regime will be toppled. As it has lost its raison d' tre, Israel will be annihilated."
   
5. "Israel is a tyrannical regime that will one day will be destroyed."
   
6. "Israel is a rotten, dried tree that will be annihilated in one storm."
   

Baptist business meeting gone bad!

Baptist pastor arrested during meeting

Excerpt:

An organizational meeting between divided members of St. Mary Primitive Baptist Church became heated today and ended up with the arrest of the church's pastor.

The Rev. Victor Broadenax, pastor of the church at 454 W. Call St. since 2003, was arrested on a charge of battery.

The incident occurred during a meeting of about 100 church members, Sgt. Annaliese Wierenga of the Leon County Sheriff's Office said.

Sheriff's deputies had been called to the church as members tried to meet to discuss Broadenax's continued role with the church. His supporters were in attendance as well as Primitive Baptist Church leaders who say he is no longer the church's leader.

Wierenga said members were told that the church's business needed to be decided with legal counsel, not law enforcement. But because of the size of the crowd and the tension, a deputy remained on the property to secure the peace, she said.

At one point during the meeting, a Primitive Baptist Church leader was addressing the crowd at the microphone when Broadenax reportedly walked up and grabbed the elder around the neck in an attempt to remove the microphone.


Comment: A gentle reminder that all things must be done "be done decently and in order" (1 Corinthians 14:40) and that the Pastor is to be "not violent ... gentle, not quarrelsome" (1 Timothy 3:3). Interesting church name: "St. Mary Primitive Baptist Church"!

Ten Commandments - Branson

Comment: Not my photo. In a prominent park (I think private) - visible as you enter town.

Photo from www.godandcountrybranson.com