joyfulchristian

Wish I had been that confident

Ted Cruz and Christopher Columbus - By Jay Nordlinger - The Corner - National Review Online

Ted always knew he could win. Not only could win, but would win. He told me so. I had some skeptical moments, I must admit. This was particularly true when Dewhurst entered the race, with all those millions to spend. I thought maybe we had bitten off more than we could chew. Not Ted — he was confident he would win.

He said, “I will win,” as though he were stating a matter of fact — like I say, “I’m going to have a big bowl of ice cream after I get home from the concert.” (I work as a music critic at night.) I mean, I know I’m going to have a big bowl of ice cream after I get home from the concert. In the same way, Ted knew he was going to win.

I hoped he'd win. I had my doubts. Honestly, Dewhurst's showing in the original primary was intimidating. Glad things worked out.

Now I need to go see if there's any ice cream left.

Luke 2:8-14

And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

 “Glory to God in the highest,

and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

(Luke 2:8-14 ESV)

Amen.

Hey ...

Bill Gates, just a friendly reminder that you didn't build that. 

Yes, they do exist

Ace notes an interesting point. The UK is preparing to destroy Iraq's chemical weapons. You know, the ones lots of people still claim never existed..

Should go without saying, but let's say it anyway

Fred Thompson explains why Rubio (and others) are eligible to be President. Here's the meat: 

In 2011 the Congressional Research Service accurately stated, “The weight of legal and historical authority indicates that the term “natural born” citizen would mean a person who is entitled to U.S. citizenship “by birth” or “at birth” …by being born in the United States and under its jurisdiction, even those born to alien parents…”

While the Supreme Court has never directly addressed the question of a specific presidential candidate’s eligibility as a NBC, it is inconceivable that the Court would depose a president who was born on American soil. Some people love to excite and stir us up but we have an election coming up, folks. May I suggest that we resist the temptation to chase every rabbit that comes down the trail and focus, instead, on that?

The same argument that is being aimed at Rubio has been aimed at Obama as well. While the most well known claims that question Obama's eligibility center around the idea that Obama was born out of the country (usually in Nigeria), others have claimed that he wasn't eligible because his father wasn't a citizen.

The Nigeria story is bogus. The parents need to be citizen's argument is specious.

The bloodletting theory of economics

Frank J does it again.

Heh

Spartacus the wimp.

Ouch

Cruz secures Senate lead in final hours | KXAN.com

The last hours before Tuesday's runoff had, no doubt, been tough for the Dewhurst campaign. A Politico article had all but declared Republican rival Ted Cruz the party's nominee for U.S. Senate, followed by a new survey from Public Policy Polling showing Cruz leading 52-42 .

That same poll showed just how far Gov. Rick Perry – one of Dewhurst's biggest supporters in the primary – has fallen in public opinion since his failed presidential bid. Thirty-five percent of respondents said that endorsement would make them less likely to vote for Dewhurst.

Last week, Sarah Palin made her own Chick-fil-A stop in Texas while stumping for Cruz. The poll showed 31 percent of voters were more likely to support a candidate if she endorsed him.

Ouch!

I quite like Perry actually and I still think he has potential. He sure hasn't been doing himself any favors lately though.

Helpful hint from the tax accountant

If you get a notice that the IRS or a state tax authority has frozen your bank account, don't fiddle around with it! Call your accountant right away!

Red Letter Edition

³³ And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. ³⁴ And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

It is extremely natural to feel despair. Even Christ felt despair as he hung on the cross. The question is what do you about it?

Of course, we've heard this before

This would be an excellent thing to do:

(CNN) - The American embassy in Israel, currently in Tel Aviv, should move to Jerusalem, presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney said in an interview Sunday.

"A nation has the capacity to choose its own capital city, and Jerusalem is Israel's capital," Romney told CNN's Wolf Blitzer in an interview set to air Monday. "I think it's long been the policy to ultimately have our embassy in the nation's capital of Jerusalem."

This is something that has been promised many times. I have a lot of hesitation about Romney. If he did this shortly after taking office, I'd trust him a lot more.

The new bigot card?

The race card is losing its currency due to overuse. What will liberals do next?

As I pointed out yesterday there wasn't anything new or "hateful" to come out about Chick-fil-a in a recent interview that could really explain the venom spewing forth against the company.  The company has long supported charities that support a traditional view of marriage, so why did this all hit now?

Well, the truth is that many liberals have long seethed against the the company because of its support for such groups (much as they also hate Hobby Lobby). I've heard liberals agonize over whether they should eat there. It's just not something that's ever been on the national stage before.

So why did it blow up big time now? William Jacobson has an answer:

So long as Obama supported the traditional definition of marriage, Democratic politicians and support groups had to tread carefully in how far their rhetoric and actions went.  Once Obama came out in support of gay marriage, Democrats were freed to accuse anyone and everyone who supports the traditional definition of marriage as bigoted and unworthy of a place in their jurisdictions.

Now the “bigot card” is on full display as a centerpiece of Democratic politics.

And make no mistake, effectively banning the support of traditional marriage as “hate speech” is where the movement is heading.   It is impossible to have a discussion of the issue without supporters of traditional marriage being called bigoted.  “Bigot” is the new “racist” and the “bigot card” is the new “race card.”

He's got a point. This is really the way they've wanted to go after Chick-fil-a for a long time. Until recently, though, few Democrats with national recognition would publicly support gay marriage and for the last few years we've had a Democrat President who claimed to oppose it. No one really believed him, but it made the bigot and hater card harder to play because people could point out that by their rational, the leader of their own party must be a hater and bigot as well.

As far as I know, this interview with Dan Cathy was the first time Chick-fil-a had made news since the President announced his "evolution" on the subject a few months ago. Now, with the practical constraints of this approach removed, it's game on for the radical left.

Accusations of hate and bigotry are pretty common from the left against conservatives and holders of traditional values. Given that this often the entire way the argument is phrased, you'd think they'd be careful not to come across as hateful bigots themselves, woudn't you?

Heh

Cognitive dissonance.

Fascinating

An AP article about an Olympic athlete that discusses his career, whether he'll coach when he retires, how near he is to retirement, and how he's doing in this year's games. Despite all this information, the author never sees fit to mention what sport the athlete participates in. Apparently, everyone's supposed to know their table tennis players by heart.

So, I wonder

... would they get a different answer if they asked what religion Obama claims to follow rather than which one he actually follows? Maybe people know Obama says he's a Christian but have trouble believing that someone who followed this guy for 20 years actually is one?

I don't know that obviously, but Jeremiah Wright isn't exactly in the center of mainstream Christian teachings, is he?

As a follow up to my last post

Why is it that so many liberals accuse conservatives who oppose gay marriage of hating people will then turn right around and use accusations of homosexuality as an insult against said conservatives.

The Chick-fil-a thing

I've seen a lot of crazy things floating around about what Dan Cathy, the president of Chick-fil-a had to say about gay marriage (including one facebook post from someone who seems to have confused Chick-fil-a with the Westboro Baptist Church). Specifically, there have been a lot of claims that they are descriminating against gays or have said hateful things about homosexuals, etc.

I thought it might be useful to come back to what actually happened. As far as I know, the entire current hub-bub is a reaction to this wide-ranging interview in the Baptist Press. Only a small portion at the end of the article touches on marriage so here it is in all it's hateful glory:

It began as a college scholarship and expanded to a foster care program, an international ministry, and a conference and retreat center modeled after the Billy Graham Training Center at the Cove.

"That morphed into a marriage program in conjunction with national marriage ministries," Cathy added. 

Some have opposed the company's support of the traditional family. "Well, guilty as charged," said Cathy when asked about the company's position.

"We are very much supportive of the family -- the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that.

"We operate as a family business ... our restaurants are typically led by families; some are single. We want to do anything we possibly can to strengthen families. We are very much committed to that," Cathy emphasized.

"We intend to stay the course," he said. "We know that it might not be popular with everyone, but thank the Lord, we live in a country where we can share our values and operate on biblical principles."

Look, while people who aren't Christians aren't going to feel bound to a biblical definition of marriage, it's no secret that:

1. The Bible calls homosexuality a sin and 
2. The Bible always portrays marriage as between a man and a woman

Believing these things doesn't make you hateful; it just means that you believe this is how things are. I can certainly tell you that while I believe homosexual acts are a sin, I hold no ill will towards those who commit them.  We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. I don't believe any of us are defined by the specific sins they commit. 

When I read this interview, I see someone taking a stand for what he believes in. What I don't see is anger or hate. I'm not aware of anyone at Chick-fil-a saying they won't serve or hire homosexuals; just that they believe strong families organized under biblical principals are important. You may disagree with that position, but it doesn't make the people who hold it hateful people.

On a separate note, the interview ends with Cathy talking about how grateful he is to live in a country where he's free to operate on biblical principles. Apparently the left's irony detectors are still broken because the immediately decided to try to prove him wrong on that score.

Related articles, courtesy of Zemanta:

• Chick-fil-A and the Ironic Allegation of Bigotry

No wonder the Obama team

... thinks that his decision to order the Osama raid was such a heroic thing. For him, it was actually hard call.

At the urging of Valerie Jarrett, President Barack Obama canceled the operation to kill Osama bin Laden on three separate occasions before finally approving the May 2, 2011 Navy SEAL mission, according to an explosive new book scheduled for release August 21. The Daily Caller has seen a portion of the chapter in which the stunning revelation appears.

In “Leading From Behind: The Reluctant President and the Advisors Who Decide for Him,” Richard Miniter writes that Obama cancelled the “kill” mission in January 2011, again in February, and a third time in March. Obama’s close adviser Valerie Jarrett persuaded him to hold off each time, according to the book.

This should not have been a hard call.

Oh my

Someone had way too much time on their hands.

So can we talk about the death penalty now

Jonah Goldberg makes a great point.

But you know what debate seems conspicuously absent? Should we execute James Holmes?

Death-penalty opponents are fairly mercenary about when to express their outrage. When questions of guilt can be muddied in the media; when the facts are old and hard to look up; when the witnesses are dead; when statistics can be deployed to buttress the charge of institutional racism: These are just a few of the times when opponents loudly insist the death penalty must go.

But when the murderer is white or racist or his crimes so incomprehensibly ugly, the anti-death-penalty crowd stays silent. It’s the smart play. If your long-term goal is to abolish the death penalty, you want to pick your cases carefully.

 

But the simple fact is, if the death penalty is always wrong, it’s wrong in the politically inconvenient cases too.

What's often lost in the death penalty debate is that the criminal justice system is about meting out what is deserved. Some people do, in fact, deserve to die.

A good point

... but perhaps taken too far?

Donald Sensing makes the point that concealed carry proponents who argue that CCW permits can reliably prevent mass shootings. He makes some good points, but a sizeable part of his argument is based on the fact that lots of people with permits don't actually carry very often. This is, I think, self-evident. Apart from my wive's brothers (a sherrif's deputy and a prosecutor who are armed pretty much at all times including our wedding, their weddings, etc.) I know very few people who carry consistently.

However, I note that a lot of the reasons he brings up that people don't carry involve the fact that it's still illegal to carry in lots of places even if you have a permit. Due to the hassle involved, lots of people carry infrequently. 

It seems to me though that the people who believe CCW permitting will solve a lot of problems would also argue that people with CCW permits should be able to carry pretty much anywhere. 

Related articles, courtesy of Zemanta:

• WI Concealed carry applications reportedly up after CO shooting
• Let 'legal resident aliens' carry concealed weapons in Missouri, lawsuit says
• Personal Reasons To Have a Concealed Carry Permit

Obama carried you

This seems to pretty much summarize what the President thinks of himself.

Teaching kids that guns aren't toys?

What a concept.

 

When I was a kid growing up in the midwest back in the 1950s, there were a lot of guns around, but very few actual gun safes.

Parents trained their kids from a very early age how to treat firearms, though. They did this weird thing called “taking responsibility for the safety of their children.” If toddlers too young to understand this training were present, firearms were usually kept unloaded. Toddlers don’t shoot themselves or others with unloaded firearms.

My parents didn't have guns when I was growing up, but my grandfather did. He didn't make a big deal about it, but it wasn't any secret either. I remember stumbling across his guns while playing in a closet one day. It never even occurred to me to pick them up or play with them. I'd been taught that guns were dangerous if you didn't know what you were doing and that I was too young to use them safely. Not only did I not pick them up that day, but after I found them I was never even tempted to go back and play with them later.

You may have thought you did

... but you didn't.

Hey, Gustave Eiffel, in Obama's eyes, you probably didn't build that either.

Not too shabby indeed

Soccer-U.S women into quarters after crushing Colombia | Reuters

(Reuters) - The United States women's team secured their place in the quarter-final stage of the Olympics soccer tournament in confident style on Saturday with a 3-0 win over Colombia. Goals from Megan Rapinoe, Abby Wambach and Carli Lloyd at Hampden Park earned the Americans victory after was a scrappy and at times physical clash. A superbly-struck 25 yard goal from Rapinoe put the U.S. ahead in the 33rd minute although Colombia keeper Sandra Sepulveda will be disappointed she didn't do better with a shot that was hit high but at the center of her goal

Realistically, the US women have a few players, including Wambach, who are probably approaching the end of their careers. The lack of a top tier women's league in the US after the fall of Women's Professional Soccer is going to leave fewer incentives to stretch those careers either. With the next world cup 3 years away, this may be the last chance the current crop has of winning one more big tournament. I hope they can pull it out.

I wish I could watch it too, but I'm having trouble convincing myself to upgrade enough to be able to watch the channels soccer's being carried on.

Red Letter Edition

Mark 14:60-64(World English Bible: Messianic Edition)

 

60 The high priest stood up in the middle, and asked Yeshua, “Have you no answer? What is it which these testify against you?” 61 But he stayed quiet, and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed?” 62 Yeshua said, “I am. You will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of the sky.” 63 The high priest tore his clothes, and said, “What further need have we of witnesses? 64 You have heard the blasphemy! What do you think?” They all condemned him to be worthy of death. 

I some times like to look at "Messianic" or "Hebrew Name" versions of translations. I find that it is a decent proxy, for someone who doesn't read the original languages the scriptures are written in, to help me understand the true intent. For a variety of reasons, the English translations or transliterations sometimes obsure what was really going on.

You will sometimes hear people advancing the "he was a good teacher, but he wasn't God" argument. A decent rejoinder is the "trilemna". This argument is that either Jesus was who he said he was, or he was not. If he was not, he either believed it or he didn't. If he believed the he was the Son of God, but wasn't than he was crazy. If he didn't believe it, he was a liar. (This is sometimes summarized as "Lord, Liar, or Lunatic. We do love our alliteration.")

The point here is that the "good teacher" argument doesn't really work. If he wasn't God, the he was either lying or crazy and neither is a good foundation for "good teaching". 

People will sometimes retort that Jesus never claimed he was God. To that, we should respond, then why did they kill him?

The high priest clearly understood Jesus's answer here as a direct claim to deity. Jesus was clearly claiming to be God and that's why they killed him; regardless of the Roman reasoning, he was executed for blasphemy. In this case, he was claiming for himself the glory and honor of God. We should make no mistake here; if Jesus wasn't really God, then was certainly guilt of blasphemy. Since the high priest refused to accept his deity, he had no choice but to execute him.

Likewise, if we reject Jesus's claim to deity (which he made many times), we have no choice but to reject him outright. If we accept this claim though, we have no choice but to accept him with all of our being.

Related articles, courtesy of Zemanta:

• Did Jesus Claim to Be God?

This is good news

Catholic business owners score win against ObamaCare mandate | Fox News

The Catholic family that owns a Colorado-based company won a court victory in their battle to stop the Obama administration from requiring them to provide insurance coverage for abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization and contraception, a mandate they say violates their religious beliefs and First Amendment rights.

Hercules Industries, a Denver-based heating ventilation and air conditioning manufacturer that employs nearly 300 full-time workers, got an injunction in federal court which stops enforcement of the controversial ObamaCare mandate. The company's lawyers said they needed the injunction immediately because if the mandate is enforced, it must begin immediately making changes to its health plan, which renews on Nov. 1.

My understanding is that stays like this generally aren't granted unless the judge considers you to have a fair chance of succeeding on the merits at trial. Of course, if they win the government will appeal and this will get dragged out for years unless Romney wins and the government reverses course. 

Still, this is good news.

Related articles, courtesy of Zemanta:

• Advocacy group asks federal judge to block controversial employer insurance mandate
• Baptist College Vows to Defy Obama
• Evangelical college joins suit against ObamaCare contraception mandate

Heh

Harvey has a good one. The real reason the North Korean soccer team walked off the Olympic pitch.

Related articles, courtesy of Zemanta:

• North Korean Soccer Match Delayed

More on "It worked"

Jeff Emanuel tears into the President's claim that his ecomomic policies have worked.

Well, maybe they did work. Glenn Beck was going on for quite some time about the possibility Obama was trying to implement the Cloward-Piven strategy. Honestly, if Obama was trying to destroy the economy, what would he be doing differently?

Related articles, courtesy of Zemanta:

• Obama, Acorn, and Cloward-Piven Strategy-CONNECT THESE DOTS!

Red Letter Edition

Mark 13:32-37 (ESV)

 

“But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. Therefore stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning—lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.”

I'm sure many people know someone who's lived in the world their whole lives and, just at the end, converts to Christianity or comes back to Christ after being long gone. Impending death has that impact on some. (This happened with a great-uncle of mine.)

However, it shouldn't be anyone's game plan. As Christ reminds us here, we never know when the end will come and it will be too late. We should always live as if he's coming back any minute. 

Related articles, courtesy of Zemanta:

• Only Christ Can Cleanse Your Sin

It worked?

This new Romney ad has been floating around today. It's quite good.

It's getting to the point where it almost seems like Obama is intentionally giving Romney soundbites to use.

Is this the best conflict of interest disclosure ever?

It just may be.

So ...

... is it safe to assume the President would have told da Vinci that he didn't paint that?

Red Letter Edition

Mark 12:28-34 (Hebrew Names Version)

28 One of the Sofrim came, and heard them questioning together. Knowing that he had answered them well, asked him, "What mitzvah is the greatest of all?" 29 Yeshua answered, "The greatest is, 'Hear, Yisra'el, the Lord our God, the Lord is one: 30 you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.' This is the primary mitzvah. 31 The second is like this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other mitzvah greater than these." 32 The Sofer said to him, "Truly, teacher, you have said well that he is one, and there is none other but he, 33 and to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbor as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices." 34 When Yeshua saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." No one dared ask him any question after that.

I find it interesting that this scribe appears to have closer to "getting it" than pretty much anyone else mentioned in the Gospels. He certainly has a better understanding of God than any other Jewish leaders mentioned in the Gospels. He seems to understand better than most, if not all, of the apostles. 

While a central focus of the Sermon on the Mount was the importance of our heart and our relationship with God, very few people seemed to grasp that. There was an intense legalism that Christ was constantly fighting (and that we still fight).

If only we could maintain our focus on the two greatest commands, life as a Christian would be so much better.

Related articles, courtesy of Zemanta:

• Sermon Manuscript: Romans 2:6 (Part 8)

I do believe

... that this about sums up our President's world view.

Glad to be wrong

MLS All-Stars prevail.

Strangest part of this story

... yet no one dwells on it at all. A stray dog has his own lawyer.

It's funny!

I've seen several stories now about the "mix-up" at the Olympics that led to the North Korean Women's soccer club being introduced while the South Korean flag was displayed in a video package.

First, let's just say that either the person who put the video package together for the Olympics is mind-boggingly ignorant about the countries they're dealing with, or they did this on purpose. 

Second, well, just look:

When asked if he thought it was an accident, North Korea coach Sin Ui-gun was not so sure and said he would ask the organisers the same question.

 

"We were angry because our players were introduced as if they were from South Korea, which may affect us greatly as you may know," he said.

"Our team was not going to participate unless the problem was solved perfectly and fortunately some time later, the broadcasting was corrected and shown again live so we made up our mind to participate and go on with the match," he added.

"If this matter cannot be solved, we thought going on was nonsense. Winning the game cannot compensate for that thing."

Talk about melodramatic reactions!

 

C.J. Box explains

... why the "You didn't build that" comment struck him so hard.

You want to approach him and ask what his problem is with you, but it's uncomfortable to do that.  After all, it's a party.  You didn't come there for a fight.  You were just minding your own business.

That's how I felt when I heard President Obama say, "I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there.  It must be because I worked harder than everybody else... If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help...  If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”

I realized, for the first time I can recall, that the President doesn't like me, or people who share my values.  Not that he has simple differences, or thinks I'm misguided.  He doesn't like me, and if you're reading this post on Ricochet he probably doesn't like you, either.  And it isn't mild dislike: it's utter contempt.

I do believe he's nailed it.

Not at all an irrational fear

Bill Quick looks at news that Russia is deploying forces to prop up the Syrian regime and worries that the whole thing could erupt into the next global conflict.

 

The end result is this witch’s brew of unforeseeable events and unintended consequences. I think there is a strong chance that the next global war, the one I think will climax this Fourth Turning, will start right here. It is the one place I see that involves all the major powers – the U.S., China, Russia, England, France – as well as volatile regional actors like Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Lebanon, and Israel. Six of the nations involved are primary nuclear powers with sophisticated delivery systems, and a seventh, Iran, is working toward that end.

Frankly, the whole thing keeps me awake at night sometimes.

World War I was fought over far less.

Related articles, courtesy of Zemanta:

• Syria: At the Epicenter of Regional Fault Lines
• Scenarios flowing from a Syrian outcome
• Saudi Arabia keeps oil tap on; Iran, Russia hurt
• Syria crisis: western troops 'increasingly likely' to intervene
• Iran warns Arabs on Syria intervention
• Russia Wants Iran And Saudi Arabia In Syria Talks - eurasiareview.com
• Buoyed in Syria, al-Qaeda turns to Iraq?

If you believe this is a coincidence

... I've got a bridge to sell you.

Well, that's encouraging

Olympic security firm so far understaffed that they're not even being used at the soccer matches in Newcastle.

Related articles, courtesy of Zemanta:

• Women's soccer team in tough for opener
• Britain gets the ball rolling at Olympic Games
• G4S replaced for Newcastle Olympic security
• North Korean Women's Soccer Team Refuses to Start Olympics Match After South Korean Flag Shown (Photo)

Liberals keep telling

... that voter fraud isn't a problem.

"When it comes to vote buying, it’s an everyday thing. ... It’s pretty much like jaywalking," admits former Breathitt County magistrate candidate Michael Salyers, who is now serving time in jail for buying votes in his 2010 race. While the funds in his case did not involve drug money, he describes how he was given $500 and ended up buying about 10 votes. He would meet people seeking to sell their votes in the back room of a local store.

"The sellers in this situation would come to me and ask how much was I paying for votes, and ask me if I was buying votes or whatever, and I told them the most I could pay is $25," Salyers described to Fox News. "They would go into the machine and cast their vote...They were supposed to vote for me. They would come back to me and I would pay them for going to vote.  I had one gentleman come to me and say 'Mike, I have four votes,' so he took them to vote and I gave him $100, $25 a vote."

Salyers says vote buying has been so blatant that, "you used to be able to go behind the voting machine with voters, to make sure that if you bought their vote, that they would vote the way you wanted to." But the laws were strengthened, and now vote buyers have to trust that the people they pay to cast their ballots vote as they say they will.

It's a good thing it's not really a problem. I was worried there for a bit.

Sorry US Women's National Team

But I'm pretty sure the President would tell you that you didn't win that.

GLASGOW — Four years ago in Beijing, Carli Lloyd provided the climax to the women’s soccer tournament at the Olympics with a wicked shot that was, for the United States at least, a truly golden goal. On Wednesday, Lloyd produced another dazzling finish that the Americans can only hope will send them along a similar path.

An enterprising YouTube savant might find the shots suitable for a mash-up, as they were virtually mirror images: In China, Lloyd’s strike came off her left foot from outside the left edge of the penalty arc in the final against Brazil; here it was her right foot, from the right side, in the first match of the London Games, a wondrous dart that pushed the Americans ahead in a 4-2 comeback victory over France.

But if they had done it, I'd be proud of them.

Related articles, courtesy of Zemanta:

• United States 4, France 2: U.S. Women's Soccer Team Rallies to Beat France
• Morgan leads U.S. women's soccer team over France in Olympic opener
• Olympic soccer: U.S. women's soccer team defeats France 4-2; Alex Morgan scores two
• US women's soccer team opens Olympics with a win

This fire is a few miles north of my house.

Pray that those fighting it and in its path are safe.

Update: It sounds like things are improving. I understand the highway has reopend and so far I haven't heard of any injuries.

Go big or go home

... or not. Woman gets a fraudulent tax refund of more than $2 million dollars. Here's what she did with the money.

Before her June 6 arrest, Reyes' spending spree included about $1,800 in cash to buy a 1999 Dodge Caravan and spending $851 on tires and wheels.

The affidavit says other purchases included a queen-sized air mattress, a deep fryer, an air conditioner and a cream and gray floral rug. She bought a sofa and recliner with brown leather trim.

A 1999 Dodge caravan?

Michael Moore's real problem with the Constitution

Say Anything Michael Moore: "This Must Seem Odd To People In Other Countries That We View Our Constitution As If It Was Written By God Himself" » Say Anything

Moore’s problem isn’t that the Constitution is out of date. It’s that the Constitution doesn’t say what he wants it to say, and there aren’t nearly enough people who agree with him to change that.

That is, of course, what most people's real problem is when they complain about the Constitution being old and out of date.

Alaska Representative Don Young forgets what party he belongs to

Again.

Linda Lingle may enjoy the broad and hopeful support of the Republican Party in her bid to fill an open Senate seat in Hawaii, but she can count out Representative Don Young of Alaska, a Republican who is not only supporting Ms. Lingle’s Democratic opponent, Representative Mazie K. Hirono, but went out of his way to make an ad with his House colleague.

It doesn't even shock me when this type of stuff happens anymore. 

Related articles, courtesy of Zemanta:

• Republicans Back Dems in Senate Races
• Great news: GOP Rep. Don Young endorses Democrat in totally winnable Hawaii Senate race

Good read

Right now, Canada's doing it better in many ways.

With President Barack Obama claiming the government builds success, not individuals, Mitt Romney should look north to a story Obama would rather Americans didn’t notice. Canada is outperforming the U.S. on every economic front and they’re doing it with policies Republicans say they’d like to implement.

Related articles, courtesy of Zemanta:

• Oh Brother. Obama Says Romney "Twisted My Words" By Quoting His Actual Words
• Obama leads Romney by six points, 49%-43%

News you can use

IMAO » Blog Archive » Could a Flashlight Have Stopped the Batman Shooter?

Personally, I’ll add that if you’re using a flashlight to blind an assailant, you’ll probably want to hold it at arms length, off to the side, using your non-dominant hand, on the off chance that it’s not bright enough to disorient your assailant and he shoots at it.