Is Net Neutrality Really An Internet Iron Curtain?

Opponents to the Federal Communications Commission’s controversial net neutrality rules are stepping up their efforts to nix the regs.

The rules, which were published in the Federal Register late last week, are slated to go into effect on Nov. 20. The news of publication prompted one leading critic, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), to reiterate that she intends to lead a legislative effort to override the rules.

Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) is pushing a similar measure in the House. “Net neutrality is a net loser,” she said in a statement last week. “The FCC is in essence building an Internet Iron Curtain that will restrict more of our freedom.”…………..

MORE…..

via Is Net Neutrality Really An Internet Iron Curtain?.

Federal Reserve wants to ‘spy’ on citizen ‘sentiment’

Ben Bernanke

Just as the Barack Obama campaign for the 2012 presidential race was launching its AttackWatch website to monitor what people say, a quasi-governmental agency with vast control over the nation’s economy revealed that it is doing the same thing.

The plan by the Federal Reserve came in the form of a “Request for Proposal” from the organization that dictates interest rates and other key parts of the U.S. economy, asking for contractors who could “continuously monitor conversations” as well as “reach out” to key “influencers.”

“The Federal Reserve Bank of New York wants you to friend it – or at least it wants to understand why you won’t friend it,” commented the Money & Company Los Angeles Times blog.

“Here comes FIATtackWatch: Ben ‘Big Brother’ Bernanke goes Watergate, prepares to eavesdrop on everything mentioning the Fed,” added Tyler Durden on the ZeroHedge blog.

“Two weeks ago, the media’s heart went aflutter when it learned that the president had borrowed a page right out of ole’ Joe McCarthy‘s communist witch hunt book with the launch of AttackWatch,” Durden continued. “The response by everyone, even fans of Obama, was immediate and brutal. Yet where Obama took about 24 hours to crash and burn, someone else has stepped in with a far stealthier method of ferreting out the traitors amongst us: none other than our old friends, the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States.”

The site posted a copy of the RFP document, which explained, “Social media platforms are changing the way organizations are communicating to the public Conversations are happening all the time and everywhere. There is need for the Communications Group to be timely and proactively aware of the reactions and opinions expressed by the general public as it relates to the Federal Reserve and its actions on a variety of subjects.”

(Story continues below)

via Federal Reserve wants to ‘spy’ on citizen ‘sentiment’.

PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM !!!!!

PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM !!!!!
http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=350585#ixzz1ZToGZjGt 
*****

Rush: ‘Barry Soetoro’ elected with ‘no identity documents’ Warns of president’s strategy to avoid defeat at polls by suspending election

2:26 pm Eastern

© 2011 WND

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via BLOGGER.GUNNY.G.1984+ NOW!: Rush: ‘Barry Soetoro’ elected with ‘no identity documents’ Warns of president’s strategy to avoid defeat at polls by suspending election.

Bank of America faces outrage over debit card charge (Blame the Rats, including Obama)

Bank of America got pummeled by investors and its customers Friday, a day after announcing that it would charge many debit card users a $5 monthly fee when they shop.

The troubled bank, already besieged by multibillion-dollar lawsuits and massive financial losses, saw its stock fall more than 2 percent in late-morning trading. The shares have plunged almost 44 percent for the quarter, the worst-performing in the Dow Jones industrial average by far. For the year, the stock is down 56 percent.

Now the bank faces a public relations backlash.

The debit card change has sparked fury on the Web and cable news channels. Consumers complained on message boards and in social media, vowing to take their business elsewhere.

Fox Business Network’s Gerri Willis went as far as to cut up her debit card on the air Thursday evening. “Right here, right now, I’m going to show Bank of America what I think of their fees,” she said before using a pair of scissors.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com …

via Bank of America faces outrage over debit card charge (Blame the Rats, including Obama).

Is Obama Intentionally Ratcheting Up the Racism?| The Post & Email

I believed that racism in America was largely dead until I watched the 2008 election turn from a contest to elect the most qualified leader for our nation into a circus based on “making history” by electing the country’s first black president. Then I watched 98% of black voters cast their votes strictly on that basis, the color of Obama’s skin, with no concern over whom and what Barack Obama really is.

It was that moment when I realized that racism was alive and well in America and that any notion of putting racism in our past was just plain silly. Obama is not the messiah of hope and change – he is the messiah of hate and division.

Since the 2008 election we have witnessed members of the Black Caucus telling white Tea Partiers to “go to hell…” – We witnessed leaders of the labor movement calling for “war in the streets,” against white non-union workers… – We heard Vice President Biden tell blacks and union thugs in Cincinnati that they are “at war” for the future of the black and labor union agendas in America, referring to anti-Marxism Americans against socialism as “barbarians at the gate…” – and Obama just told guest at the Black Caucus event to “stop crying and put on their marching shoes…”…..

MORE…..

via Is Obama Intentionally Ratcheting Up the Racism?| The Post & Email.

Bombshell: DOJ Considering Elimination of ATF (ATF? WTF?)

Multiple sources, including sources from ATF, DOJ and Congressional offices have said there is a white paper circulating within the Department of Justice, outlining the essential elimination of ATF. According to sources, the paper outlines the firing of at least 450 ATF agents in an effort to conduct damage control as Operation Fast and Furious gets uglier and as election day 2012 gets closer.

/snip

“It’s a serious white paper being circulated, how far they’d get with it I don’t know,” a confidential source said.

After a town hall meeting about Operation Fast and Furious in Tucson, Ariz. on Monday, ATF Whistleblower Vince Cefalu, who has been key in exposing details about Operation Fast and Furious, confirmed the elimination of ATF has been circulating as a serious idea for sometime now and that a white paper outlining the plan does exist.

Sounds great right? Eliminating ATF? But there is more to this story. Remember, low level ATF field agents, like ATF whistleblower John Dodson, were uncomfortable conducting Operation Fast and Furious from the beginning, but were told by high level officials within ATF that if they had a problem with the operation, they could find a job elsewhere.

“Allowing loads of weapons that we knew to be destined for criminals, this was the plan. It was so mandated,” ATF Whistleblower John Dodson said in testimony on Capitol Hill on June 15, 2011.

In fact, not only were the ATF agents forced to carry out the operation, they were told to go against what they had been taught in training.

/more on page 2

(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com …

via Bombshell: DOJ Considering Elimination of ATF (ATF? WTF?).

Dodd-Frank “Reform” Leads Banks to Hike Debit Card Fee

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: You remember, ladies and gentlemen, I can’t tell you the number of times it has become a major discussion topic for callers when banks have raised the ATM fee. People go nuts. They e-mailed me and called and talked about what a bunch of rotten creeps the banks were, “Why does there have to be a fee on the ATM anyway? I’m already paying this bank out the wazoo.” Well, sit tight because your bank is going to jack up your debit card fee. “Bank of America customers with basic checking accounts will be hit with a $5 monthly fee in order to use a debit card for purchases, the bank announced Thursday. Banks and card companies have been aggressively establishing and raising fees in recent weeks as banks plan for new rules taking effect Saturday that limit the amount they can charge retailers for each debit card purchase.” And credit card,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

MORE…..

via Dodd-Frank “Reform” Leads Banks to Hike Debit Card Fee.

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Citizen to “Conservative” Talk Show Host: You’re a “Huge Disappointment”| The Post & Email

I’m not writing to argue any of these views. You have heard them all. I long ago concluded that the more stringent AND criteria is the only right answer and is the one most in agreement with the thinking of our Framers. While we could have that debate, I think it is clear you are not interested. But I felt a pretty strong need to get this off my chest since I have been involved with this essentially from day one.

Besides my disappointment with you, I need to add that it is very clear any of the judges or justices could have taken any of the cases before them and used it to rule that Obama is a Natural Born Citizen. That would have disposed of all us “goofballs.” But you know full well that not a single case has been judged because they all know they cannot rule that Obama is a Natural Born Citizen.

As for the “birther” issue, you seem to want to turn a blind eye, for example, to the ten ex-CIA analysts who all agreed, UNANIMOUSLY, that the birth certificate image released on April 27, 2011 was a forgery, not to mention the several affidavits filed to that effect. You also want to turn a blind eye to the issues surrounding his social security number. Ironically, in Sen. Marco Rubio’s office, a test was run on E-Verify that showed no link exists between the name Obama and the 042-xx-xxxx number often cited. He is clearly in felonious possession of a social security number. But, to you, this is somehow irrelevant.

The “system” continues to………………

MORE…..

via Citizen to “Conservative” Talk Show Host: You’re a “Huge Disappointment”| The Post & Email.

Van Jones Warns Of A Progressive “October Offensive” Against Tea Party

Van Jones, president of the progressive organization Rebuild the Dream, joins The Last Word to discuss what Washington should be doing about jobs. Jones calls the US‘ deficit problem “phony” and made up. “Hold on to your hats, we’re going to have an October offensive to take back the American dream and rescue America’s middle class,” Jones told MSNBC‘s “The Last Word.” Jones warns of an “American Fall” like there was an Arab Spring. Jones was President Obama’s “green jobs czar” until he resigned in fall of 2009. Transcript below: Van Jones: “We are going to build a progressive counterbalance to the tea party. Eighty percent of Americans agree with everything that you say on this show, but we have no voice. We know that jobs are more important, and this phony, made-up deficit stuff they talk about. We know that people who have done well in America should do well by America and start paying America back in the form of more fair taxes.

(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com …

via Van Jones Warns Of A Progressive “October Offensive” Against Tea Party.

With historic losses looming, Postal Service launches new ad campaign (“safer than email”!)

READER RESPONSES: GunnyG…

…dump ‘em!now!!!!!…

via With historic losses looming, Postal Service launches new ad campaign (“safer than email”!).

Is Hillary The 1-2 Punch?

Is Hillary The 1-2 Punch?

A few months ago, I posed the idea that Obama won’t run for a second term. Yesterday Dick Morris floated the same idea. It got me wondering. Have the past three years been the “1″ of a 1-2 punch? Is Hillary the “2″?

Regarding Hillary Clinton, consider: — Hillary kept her pledge not to participate in the Florida primary; Obama didn’t; and those extra votes helped him get elected. But I found it unusual that Hillary really didn’t fight him tooth and nail over that. Both Clintons are go-for-the-throat fighters; so when Hillary seemed to give up with hardly a whimper, I was puzzled. — Hillary later endorsed Obama. When she got Sec. of State, just about everyone figured it was her reward for her support. But does it seem that she doesn’t get as much press coverage as you would expect? She’s a climber, and I would have thought – based upon her prior behavior and Clintonesque values — that she would have been on the front page of every major newspaper and all over TV. But she has been relatively quiet for most of her term. Why? — She is a visible unapologetic Marxist. From her college days through now, she has openly acted and voiced her support for Marxism. Old enough to remember Watergate? Google her part in it. Also check her connections to the UN…and consider her husband’s connections. Oh, she’s also a Democrat.

Among the Democrat Party today, no one is generally admired more than Hillary. When she last ran, lots of people I met were enthralled by her and were avid supporters. She would win a lot of Independents. Democrat leaders are openly voicing the view that someone should challenge Obama in the primary. Furthermore, the press and close advisors report that Obama is increasingly losing interest in the job. If you follow his daily schedule, he hardly works. He’s a bit busier now because he is fund raising; but his official duties comprise just a few hours each day – and a lot of it is briefings from staff (i.e., more coffee and doughnuts and gossip). The economy is in the tank; world events getting hotter. He appears not to want to deal with it anymore. Mentally, he appears to have checked out of Hotel D.C.

When you throw all of this together, you get: — A terrible president, the real true identity of whom we have no idea, who has implemented Marxist policies in the banking, auto, and health sectors; tanked the debt; presided over a Justice Department that doesn’t prosecute violations of the Civil Rights Act but does sue States that are doing its job for it while knowingly letting criminals buy guns illegally in the Southwest; is permitting U.S. world influence to drop off a cliff; and has the record number of golf rounds of any president. Oh, and he’s bored now. One wonders if it was ever intended that he run again. Perhaps Obama is more like a child at 2:30 who knows school is out at 3:00. — A much more popular Marxist Type A Hillary who is acting uncharacteristically shy – as though she is waiting just off stage for her cue? — People like George Soros openly funding Obama and Hillary, among others.

Is there a better way to set the U.S. up for a 1-2 punch than to 1) get an unknown person elected President and make sure he is terrible; then 2) have someone who is very popular and would be elected President come in at the eleventh hour and finish off the country and the Constitution. If Obama, sometime next year, announces he is not running for whatever reason and Hillary throws her hat in the ring, it could spell disaster in my view.

via Is Hillary The 1-2 Punch?.

Are you in Jail by Your Own Consent? – YouTube

Are you in Jail by Your Own Consent? – YouTube

Are you in Jail by Your Own Consent? – YouTube

Are you in Jail by Your Own Consent?

via BLOGGER.GUNNY.G.1984+ NOW!: Are you in Jail by Your Own Consent? – YouTube.

Chalking the Police.pdf (application/pdf Object)

Chalking the Police.pdf (application/pdf Object).

Man ordered to surrender guns – just for blogging!

An Arizona man has filed a federal lawsuit against some of the state’s top judges, claiming they’re taking away his freedom of speech and right to own firearms, all because someone didn’t like what he wrote on his blog.

“You can’t suspend someone’s constitutional rights [for blogging],” said Mike Palmer, who is bringing forth the legal action. “Everybody in America blogs or Twitters, so it’s a First and Second Amendment issue.”

The scenario started when Palmer, a 55-year-old Christian missionary from Phoenix, was online discussing “spiritual death” often referred to in the Bible.

Questions about guns? The ultimate searchable research guide to firearms and ammo is now on DVD …

But, according to the suit, a woman from Prescott, Ariz., Melody Thomas-Morgan, complained to authorities that Palmer was threatening her with “death,” keeping that word in quotes in her legal filings.

Palmer explains, “It is true that the blog, ‘That Woman Jezebel,’ talks about spiritual life and spiritual death. … Spiritual ‘death’ as in ‘The wages of sin is death.’ (Romans 6:23) … It is not true that the blog ever mentions the ‘death’ of Miss Thomas-Morgan.”

Judge Kenton Jones

Kenton Jones, superior court judge for Yavapai County, went along with the woman’s harassment complaint and ordered Palmer to surrender his guns.

“The order says that I am not allowed to possess firearms or ammunition, and directs me to turn over any weapons to the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office,” Palmer told WND.

Palmer indicated he does not own any weapons at this time, but when pressed on whether he had any guns previous to the order, he said, “No comment.”

“I certainly want my gun rights,” he added. “There is no law in Arizona which allows the courts to suspend any constitutional right, but in this instance, my Second Amendment right. And, of course, my life’s in danger now. I can’t defend myself, I can’t defend you. I can’t defend my fellow man.”

(Story continues below)

via Man ordered to surrender guns – just for blogging!.

WAYBACK MACHINE: Michelle Obama Loses Law License

 

Did you know that our First Lady Michelle Obama lost her law license back in 1993? Oh sure I knew that, “NOT.” Sure, I saw this on the front page of the New York Times during the elections of 2008, “NOT.” I’ve listed below from the State of Illinois’s website of the court action against Michelle forcing her to give up her license.

It’s understood that in the box attacked below under Malpractice Insurance – “No malpractice report required as attorney is under court order inactive status.”

In other words Michelle was under court order to give up her license and is not allowed to practice law in Illinois, period. I hate to use this word but its “rumored” that she was extorting clients. Again, it’s “rumored!” It’s also “rumored” that our President Barack Obama may have been disciplined for not divulging other names that he has used in the past. That really concerns me. He also has an inactive Illinois license to practice law (listed below).

This is so unfortunate for the Obama’s, after all they are our first family and he is the first black/white President of the United States but I can’t stop thinking that this guy and his wife are not who they say they are. They don’t seem to uphold the integrity of our past first families, yes, even Richard Nixon for all you lefties out there.

The more I find on the Obamas, the more I feel that the FBI when doing their background check must have been sleeping at the switch. My research is finding reputable sources disclosing many of their past discretion’s and questionable acquaintances.

Obamas background is questionable enough but do we now have to worry about his wife, also? My god do we have a den of thieves living in the White House?………………..

MORE,,,,,

via WATBACK MACHINE: Michelle Obama Loses Law License.

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• While Americans Suffer – Michelle Obama Sports $6,800 Jacket to London Soiree (thegatewaypundit.com)
• Wrestler picks up Michelle Obama (politico.com)
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• Michelle Obama in a $6,800 jacket at the London Olympics reception (examiner.com)
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• You Can’t See Michelle Obama Without Photo ID (powerlineblog.com)

 

Michelle Malkin: Mrs. Obama Goes “Incognito,” Lady Gaga-Style

The East and West Wings of the White House are guilty of more cheesy stage-managing than the Emmy, Oscar, and Tony Awards shows combined.

Last week, the glamour queen wore more than $40,000 worth of diamonds while partying with hubby at several high-priced fundraisers in New York. Her bling made international headlines and photos.

To counter the negative diva buzz as most Americans face hard economic times, Mrs Obama somehow managed to turn up at an Alexandria Va. Target (with her “shopping assistant” in tow).

And somehow, coincidence of coincidences, an Associated Press photographer just happened to be there to snap her.

Snortalicious headline: “Michelle Obama shops incognito at Target (Photo).” Her shirt and sunglasses are about as “incognito” as Lady Gaga’s outfit at her younger sister’s graduation. I bring “shopping assistants” with me when I go to Target, too! My daughter pushes the cart. My son hangs off it.

Celebrity first ladies…they’re just like us!

via Michelle Malkin: Mrs. Obama Goes “Incognito,” Lady Gaga-Style.

Ted Nugent farted, some thing his indicates he too is running for President

Honestly folks, these threads are getting absolutely rediculous. I’m damn near ready to vote for Obama again cause I’m sick of the Palinites, Chrisies, and now even as insane as it may sound, Huckabites ….

What a circus, I’m so glad it’s Friday, I wish Palin and Chris Christie would shut up, announce they aren’t running, cause they aren’t, and let us get on with defeating Obama.

I can’t believe Jim Rob hasn’t banned me today, I’m going bonkers !!!…………

via Ted Nugent farted, some thing his indicates he too is running for President.

How Your Brain Reacts To Mistakes Depends On Your Mindset

“Whether you think you can or think you can’t—you’re right,” said Henry Ford. A new study, to be published in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, finds that people who think they can learn from their mistakes have a different brain reaction to mistakes than people who think intelligence is fixed.

“One big difference between people who think intelligence is malleable and those who think intelligence is fixed is how they respond to mistakes,” says Jason S. Moser, of Michigan State University, who collaborated on the new study with Hans S. Schroder, Carrie Heeter, Tim P. Moran, and Yu-Hao Lee. Studies have found that people who think intelligence is malleable say things like, “When the going gets tough, I put in more effort” or “If I make a mistake, I try to learn and figure it out.” On the other hand, people who think that they can’t get smarter will not take opportunities to learn from their mistakes. This can be a problem in school, for example; a student who thinks her intelligence is fixed will think it’s not worth bothering to try harder after she fails a test.

(Excerpt) Read more at psychologicalscience.org …

via How Your Brain Reacts To Mistakes Depends On Your Mindset.

‘The Mormon Murders’ — the Mini-Series the Latter Day Saints Shut Down

The enormous success on Broadway of “Book of Mormon” brings to mind the longest and most difficult mini-series development in the then-William Morris Agency‘s history.

Feature agent and former New York colleague Fred Milstein called me one morning and spoke about a series of forgeries and murders by a 28-year-old elder of ths Mormon church against fellow Mormons.

I could try to explain the convolutions of this story, but the most incisive and coherent analysis comes from a former LDS elder who calls himself “Stray Mutt.” It is herein paraphrased.

Mark Hofmann [pictured left] was a gifted and masterful forger. Like any good con man, he knew part of his success manufacturing and selling fake historical documents depended on willing victims – people who wanted to believe. Growing up Mormon, Hofmann realized he was surrounded by the devout who were trained to trust authority. He also saw they were true believers about their sacred history and legends. This was a situation ripe for exploitation.

From his years of collecting, buying and selling old documents and studying church history, Mark Hofmann knew there were skeletons in the Mormon closet. He also knew the church was interested in acquiring potentially embarrassing documents so they could suppress them.

So Hofmann created the “Salamander Letter” [at right], a document by church founder Joseph Smith encountering a talking salamander that turned into an angel. The sale of this “document” to his brethren, created, penned and aged by Hoffmann, netted the son of the Mormons $40,000. Hofmann was on his way.

There were dozens of other “documents” only Hofmann could “discover.” Over a period of four years, Hofmann’s……………

MORE…..

via ‘The Mormon Murders’ — the Mini-Series the Latter Day Saints Shut Down.

GUNNY G: Dr Thomas DiLorenzo Says, “THE GENIE IS OUT OF THE BOTTLE”

“The genie is out of the bottle.”Can We Return To Our Roots?
What Can We Do?
What Really needs To Be Done?
*****
(Excerpts)

What will become of the Republicans?

The way I see it is that the Republican Party is returning to its Lincolnian roots. For the whole nineteenth century, the Republican Party was the party of big government! For the last half of the nineteenth century, the Jeffersonians were all Democrats. That’s why Southerners were all Democrats until about 20 years ago.

That all changed with Woodrow Wilson, when he became a hyper-interventionist. Then FDR, of course, totally destroyed the Democratic Party as the party of limited government.

*****
Right now, the people in charge of the government remind us every day that they are the Party of Lincoln. They’ve stretched Lincoln’s philosophy to say that not only should we wage war within our own country ostensibly for democracy, as Lincoln said in the Gettysburg Address, but we should wage war all around the world to force democracy on people, whether they want it or not. Not just in Iraq. They’re talking about invading the entire Middle East, for starters, to bring democracy there, as though it were any of our business.

That is empire. Any country that has had a big empire like that has always been bankrupted. If that’s the road we’re going on, I think it’s the road that Lincoln started us on. Look at what the same government did. Immediately after the War, they commenced a campaign of ethnic genocide against the Plains Indians. That was all part of this plan to have a continental empire.

Now, these people think we need to have a world empire. It’s un-American. The Founding Fathers would have fought another revolution over this.

What do you think will happen?

It seems to me that the American public has been dumbed down so much by the government schools that they’re just going to go along with this until it either bankrupts us all or we make enough enemies out there that September 11 will seem like child’s play. You can’t do this without making a lot of enemies in the world. That’s my biggest fear — that we won’t get rid of these Sons of Lincoln who run the Republican Party.

I agree with Clyde Wilson that America can’t be saved or returned to its roots until the Republican Party is destroyed.

*****
MUCH MORE…
http://gunnyg.wordpress.com/2010/06/23/the-real-dilorenzo-a-%E2%80%98southern-partisan%E2%80%99-interview/
*****
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Hey, See the Reader Responses on each article,
they are gems in themselves!
**********

**********
Gunny G: BLOGGER 1984 +
http://gunnyg.blogspot.com
and…
http://gunnyg.wordpress.com/
**********

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Posted by Gunny G

Major study: changing sexual orientation is possible (Being gay is a choice)

WHEATON, Illinois, September 29, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Therapists who favor normalizing homosexuality say that it is impossible to change sexual orientation, and that the attempt to change is inherently harmful. However, the final results of a long-term study published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy has joined hundreds of other studies in concluding that such therapy is both possible and potentially well-indicated for many individuals.

Psychologists Stanton L. Jones of Wheaton College and Mark A. Yarhouse of Regent University are the authors of the longitudinal study, which tracked individuals who sought sexual orientation change through involvement in a variety of Christian ministries affiliated with Exodus International.

The authors note that the study overcomes a primary criticism of same-sex attraction (SSA) therapy data – that the results are not adequately documented over a period of time – by assessing its 98 candidates over a period of six to seven years after therapy concluded.

Jones and Yarhouse’s results show the majority of candidates were successful in their goal of changing sexual orientation, and that the attempt was not harmful on average.

Of the original 98 subjects, 61 were successfully categorized for general outcome at the last assessment. Fifty-three percent were categorized as successful outcomes; specifically, 23 percent reported success in the form of an essential change to heterosexual orientation and functioning, while an additional 30 percent reported no longer identifying as homosexual while maintaining stable behavioral chastity. At the six-year mark, 20 percent reported fully embracing a gay self-identification.

Meanwhile, the authors say the measure of psychological distress did not, on average, reflect increases in psychological distress associated with the attempt to change.

“These results do not prove that categorical change in sexual orientation is possible for everyone or anyone, but rather that meaningful shifts along a continuum that constitute real changes appear possible for some,” states a press release announcing the study. The release also emphasizes, “the results do not prove that no one is harmed by the attempt to change, but rather that the attempt does not appear to be harmful on average or inherently harmful.”

Dr. Jones told LifeSiteNews.com that the study was likely skewed toward optimism towards therapy, as it wasn’t able to count candidates who dropped out early. However, he said, the study still stands out from the crowd for its value as a long-term assessment of the viability of same-sex attraction therapy.

“The ‘silver standard’ [of SSA therapy studies] is a longitudinal study that follows people repeatedly over multiple years and also a prospective study that assesses people from the beginning of change. To the best of our knowledge, ours is the first such study,” wrote Jones in an email Thursday.

“The ‘gold standard’ would be a completely experimental and longitudinal study that would also randomly assign participants to different treatment groups with highly defined treatments; we believe such study would actually be impossible to perform.”

A meta-analysis of over 100 years’ worth of research into therapy for unwanted same-sex attraction published in June 2009 concluded that homosexuality was not immutable, and that individuals seeking change could benefit from therapy. The report, published by NARTH, included 600 reports from clinicians, researchers, and former clients principally published in professional and peer-reviewed journals.

Although the American Psychological Association discourages mental health professionals from offering sexual reorientation therapy, the group’s official position on such therapy states that there is “insufficient evidence” to either approve or discredit the practice.

Homosexuality was declassified as a mental disorder in 1973 in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), the universal standard for classification of mental illness, after years of high-pressure lobbying by gay rights activists. The change sparked a policy shift in other top professional associations, which now uniformly oppose SSA therapy.

Dr. Robert Spitzer, who was in charge of the DSM change, reversed his position on therapy for unwanted same-sex attraction nearly 30 years later to support such therapy based on his own research.

via Major study: changing sexual orientation is possible (Being gay is a choice).

Warning: The threat of suspended elections is real

With absolutely no proof of any kind of who he really is, Barack Obama made it to the Oval Office in 2008. There was no media vetting of the largely absentee senator from Illinois, who even back then had the temerity to compare himself to Abraham Lincoln.

All anyone ever had to go on was an autobiographical book suspected of being ghost-written by an unrepentant domestic terrorist. We all know how it goes with politicians and autobiographical books.

(Excerpt) Read more at canadafreepress.com …

via Warning: The threat of suspended elections is real.

Liberalism is a Disroder – Antisocial personality traits

Antisocial personality traits predict utilitarian responses to moral dilemmas

A study conducted by Daniel Bartels, Columbia Business School, Marketing, and David Pizarro, Cornell University, Psychology found that people who endorse actions consistent with an ethic of utilitarianism—the view that what is the morally right thing to do is whatever produces the best overall consequences—tend to possess psychopathic and Machiavellian personality traits.

(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com …

via Liberalism is a Disroder – Antisocial personality traits.

FBI Plot to Blow Up Pentagon and Capitol with Model Planes

The homegrown terror narrative took a bizarre turn this week when the government arrested an American on charges he planned to blow up the Pentagon and the U.S. capitol with a model airplane.

Rezwan Ferdaus, a U.S. citizen from Ashland, Massachusetts, was duped into thinking a harmless substance provided by the FBI was C-4 plastic explosives. FBI agents also gave Ferdaus six AK-47 assault rifles and three grenades. None of the weapons worked.

Ferdaus bought a model airplane for $6,500 and kept it secreted away in a rented storage facility in Framingham, Massachusetts. The FBI gave their dupe the money to buy the toy. He had plans to buy other military-style model aircraft.

He also allegedly provided agents with cell phones rigged to act as electric switches for improvised explosive devices, intended to be used to kill U.S. soldiers.

“The person was never really a threat,” a nameless law enforcement official told CNN.

“There is no information to indicate he was connected to a foreign terrorist organization. It appears he was radicalized watching videos on the internet. He was given the opportunity to back down, but he never wavered” from his intention – thanks to FBI encouragement – to carry out the attacks, the unidentified source said.

Despite this, Ferdaus will be charged with attempting to provide material support and resources to al-Qaeda.

Ferdaus is another dupe in a long line of FBI patsies tricked into participating in absurd terror attacks cooked up by the federal government in order to propagandize a “homegrown” terror threat.

It does this because there is virtually no homegrown terror in the United States, even though the feds tell us there is and they hold hearings to scare us into supporting spending billions on Homeland Security and its tireless efforts to bring intrusive sexual molestation pat-downs to the local football stadium and mall.

* A d v e r t i s e m e n t

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Not long after the corporate media launched its predictable and lame homegrown terror mantra this week, civil liberties groups began complaining about FBI entrapment.

“It deeply concerns us. It is another in a pattern of high-profile cases. Would this person have conceived or executed this plot without the influence of the FBI?” asked Heidi Boghosian, president of the National Lawyers Guild.

“There is a big, big difference between a plot initiated by the FBI and a plot initiated by a suspect, and it seems this might have been initiated by the FBI,” said Ibrahim Hooper, director of communications for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

The government’s affidavit against Ferdaus mentions a person identified simply as “CW” who had a criminal record and served time in prison. CW met Ferdaus in December 2010 and began recording his conversations. After CW made contact with Ferdaus, the FBI stepped in and began goading him into committing a terrorist attack. They gave him money to scout targets and provided him with disabled weapons.

It is a familiar pattern. The FBI dispatched a criminal to hunt down a mentally deranged Muslim and get him talking about the fantasy of jihad and al-Qaeda. Next the FBI dispatched agents who posed as terrorists and they gave the mentally impaired person disabled weapons and fake explosives. It is not a stretch to assume they also thought up the crackpot model airplane idea and planted it in Ferdaus’ mind.

“The US has a vast and very expensive Homeland Security bureaucracy with nothing to do. There hasn’t been a terrorist attack in America since 2001,” writes Paul Craig Roberts. “As very few, if any, real terrorists have turned up, the FBI has resorted to creating terrorists by soliciting Muslim-Americans and appealing to them with schemes to aid ‘jihadists’… Like the police who find it easier to frame people than to convict them on the evidence, the FBI will find it easier to manufacture ‘terrorists’ with entrapment than to catch real terrorists.”

The Ferdaus case is anther example of this. Since there is virtually no terror threat in America, the government has to create it in order to keep their bogus and wasteful war against manufactured terrorism alive.

How else are they going to get our consent to invade small defenseless countries and roll out their high-tech surveillance grid in the homeland?

via Prison Planet.com » FBI Plot to Blow Up Pentagon and Capitol with Model Planes.

A Most Misunderstood Man (Ronald Reagan)

Over the years I have come to the conclusion that many of our political and social problems here in the U.S. and in Europe stem from the fact that over the last 250 years we have misunderstood, misinterpreted and misapplied the teachings of Adam Smith and Charles Darwin. These failings apply equally over the centuries to those who have purported to be their followers as well as to their critics. Moreover, these failings intertwined to fuel diabolical military, political and social misadventures that cursed the world from the 1930s and through the 1960s.

But this is not a post about either of these men or their teachings. It is about a third man—a man of the 20th Century—who, unfortunately, now is arguably among the most misunderstood of recent history: Ronald Reagan. As we head into a political season when his real ideas are needed as much as, if not more than ever, we need to address and correct the misunderstandings, misinterpretations and misapplications by both his followers and his critics, or else we could end up making matters far worse in the long run than they are today.

(Excerpt) Read more at usdailyreview.com …

via A Most Misunderstood Man (Ronald Reagan).

GUNNY G: HAS THE “R” PARTY LOST ITS WAY?

GUNNY G: HAS THE “R” PARTY LOST ITS WAY?
(EXCERPT)

Many patriots these days lament that the Republican Party has “lost its way” and “gone wrong.” It has “diverged” from the fiscally responsible, small government philosophy of Republican heroes like Robert Taft whom Eisenhower’s handlers finagled out of the nomination for President in 1952. 

We are told that is why today’s Republican Establishment hates Dr. Ron Paul with such a passion; that they hate him because, like Taft, he is the quintessential Republican. Patriots who say that are mistaken, of course.

The reason the Republican Establishment hates Dr. Paul is precisely that he is not a traditional, mainstream Republican, that his platform of freedom is an aberration.



The Republican Party didn’t “go wrong,” didn’t “go left.”

It has been wrong from the beginning, from the day it was founded. From the beginning, the Republican Party has worked without deviation for bigger, more imperial government, for higher taxes, for more wars, for more totalitarianism.

From the beginning, the Republican Party has been Red. 

Why? In 1848, Communists rose in revolution across Europe, united by a document prepared for the purpose, entitled Manifesto of the Communist Party. Its author was a degenerate parasite named Karl Marx, whom a small gang of wealthy Communists – the League of Just Men – hired for the purpose. The Manifesto told its adherents and its victims what the Communists would do………..

MORE…..
Alan Stang: red From The Start…..

http://gunnyg.wordpress.com/2010/05/18/republican-party-red-from-the-start-by-alan-stang-2/
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Hey, See the Reader Responses on each article,
they are gems in themselves!
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Gunny G: BLOGGER 1984 +
http://gunnyg.blogspot.com
and…
http://gunnyg.wordpress.com/
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Posted by Gunny G

Dems want probe of Justice Thomas as health law ruling looms

Twenty House Democrats are demanding a judicial ethics investigation into Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas just as the high court is poised to issue a ruling on the healthcare law that could make or break President Obama’s reelection.

The lawmakers on Thursday asked the U.S. Judicial Conference to formally request that the Department of Justice look into Thomas’s failure to disclose hundreds of thousands of dollars his wife has received from groups that want the healthcare law repealed. Their letter comes after 75 House Democrats in February asked Thomas to recuse himself from the case following reports that he’d failed to report his wife Virginia’s income since he joined the bench in 1991.

“Due to the simplicity of the disclosure requirements, along with Justice Thomas’s high level of legal training and experience, it is reasonable to infer that his failure to disclose his wife’s income for two decades was willful, and the Judicial Conference has a non-discretionary duty to refer this case to the Department of Justice,” the Democrats wrote in the letter, which was spearheaded by Rep. Louise Slaughter (N.Y.), the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee.

The letter comes just a day after the Obama administration and 26 states challenging the Democrats’ healthcare reform law asked the Supreme Court to take up the case, all but assuring that the high court will render a decision by next summer.

Many legal experts believe the court will end up with a split 5-4 ruling on the law — with Justice Anthony Kennedy filling his customary swing-vote role — so pressure on justices to recuse themselves is only expected to increase.

(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com …

via Dems want probe of Justice Thomas as health law ruling looms.

Dr. King Assassination | ATLAH Media Network

Dr. King Assassination

via Dr. King Assassination | ATLAH Media Network.

Dr James Manning…

Is The War On Terror A Hoax?

In the past decade, Washington has killed, maimed, dislocated, and made widows and orphans millions of Muslims in six countries, all in the name of the “war on terror.” Washington’s attacks on the countries constitute naked aggression and impact primarily civilian populations and infrastructure and, thereby, constitute war crimes under law. Nazis were executed precisely for what Washington is doing today.

Moreover the wars and military attacks have cost American taxpayers in out-of-pocket and already-incurred future costs at least $4,000 billion dollars–one third of the accumulated public debt–resulting in a US deficit crisis that threatens the social safety net, the value of the US dollar and its reserve currency role, while enriching beyond all previous history the military/security complex and its apologists.

Perhaps the highest cost of Washington’s “war on terror” has been paid by the US Constitution and civil liberties. Any US citizen that Washington accuses is deprived of all legal and constitutional rights. The Bush-Cheney-Obama regimes have overturned humanity’s greatest achievement–the accountability of government to law.

If we look around for the terror that the police state and a decade of war has allegedly protected us from, the terror is hard to find. Except for 9/11 itself, assuming we accept the government’s improbable conspiracy theory explanation, there have been no terror attacks on the US. Indeed, as RT pointed out………………………….

MORE…..

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via Prison Planet.com » Is The War On Terror A Hoax?.

“If Obama is exposed before the 2012 election, it will not be the cowardly Republicans who do so, but the Democrats, who don’t want to go down with his sinking ship.”

“If Obama is exposed before the 2012 election, it will not be the cowardly Republicans who do so, but the Democrats, who don’t want to go down with his sinking ship.”

Excerpt…

Republicans Cancel the Constitution

“THROUGH A “BACKROOM POLITICAL DEAL”

If Obama is exposed before the 2012 election, it will not be the cowardly Republicans who do so, but the Democrats, who don’t want to go down with his sinking ship.

The country is facing the greatest Constitutional crisis since the Civil War, yet the Republicans do nothing.

If Congressional Republicans are not willing to fulfill even the most basic of public responsibilities, that is, to respect their oath of office to support and defend the Constitution, then what’s the point?

I see no reason to vote for any of them.

If the Republicans want to protect Obama and hide their complicity, while undermining the Constitution and the rule of law, then they can have him for a second term as their illegal President.

Sometimes it is better just to let a structure collapse and rebuild it, rather than try to maintain it on top of a rotten foundation……

MORE…..

http://www.thepostemail.com/2011/09/29/republicans-cancel-the-constitution/#respond

via BLOGGER.GUNNY.G.1984+ NOW!: “If Obama is exposed before the 2012 election, it will not be the cowardly Republicans who do so, but the Democrats, who don’t want to go down with his sinking ship.”.

Code 7: Now We Know Why Obama Is In Denver! | Before It’s News

Torino Impact Hazard Scale Condition Code 7: “A very close encounter by a large object, which if occuring this century, poses an unprecedented but still uncertain threat of a global catastrophe.” Further, “For such a threat in this century, international contingency planning is warranted, especially to determine urgently and conclusively whether or not a collision will occur.”

YouTube reporter Mary Greeley shares some very relevant information regarding,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

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via Code 7: Now We Know Why Obama Is In Denver! | Before It’s News.

The Myth of American Freedom by Andrew P. Napolitano

Here is Judge Napolitano’s closing argument yesterday on his FreedomWatch.

Does the government work for us or do we work for the government? Is freedom in America a myth or a reality? Tonight, what if we didn’t live in a free country?

What if the Constitution were written not to limit government, but to expand it? What if the Constitution didn’t fulfill the promise of the Declaration of Independence, but betrayed it? What if the Constitution actually permitted the government to limit and constrict freedom? What if the Bill of Rights was just a paper promise, that the government could avoid whenever it claimed the need to do so? What if the same generation – in some cases the same people – that drafted the U.S. Constitution enacted laws that violated it? What if the merchants and bankers who financed the American Revolution bought their way into the new government and got it to enact laws that stifled their competition? What if the civil war that was fought in the name of freedom actually advanced the cause of tyranny?

What if the federal government were the product of 150 years of stealing power and liberty and property from the people and the states? What if our political elites spent the 20th century importing the socialist ideas of big government Statism from Europe? What if our political class was adopting the European political culture from which our founding fathers fought so hard to break free?…………….

MORE…..

via The Myth of American Freedom by Andrew P. Napolitano.

Was the Justice Department FORCED to make the “Fast and Furious” tapes public? « Coach is Right

By Doug Book, staff writer

Did a threat to “go public” by the man who did the recording–Lone Wolf gun store owner Andre Howard–force the US Justice Department to provide the previously “secret” Fast and Furious tapes to CBS News?

Andre Howard was in a tough spot. For two years he had provided valuable Operation Fast and Furious assistance to the ATF, the FBI and the Phoenix office of the US Attorney, selling nearly 1000 firearms–at the insistence of these agencies–to some pretty unsavory characters.

But Howard knew many of the buyers should not have been approved by the FBI for the purchase of guns.

On December 17th of 2009, Howard met with Assistant US Attorney Emory Hurley, ATF case agent Hope Macallister and ATF Group Supervisor David Voth.

According to an email Hurley sent his boss, US Attorney Dennis Burke a YEAR LATER in January of 2011, Howard “…expressed concern about the cooperation he was providing and whether he was endangering himself or implicating himself in a criminal investigation.”

According to his email, Hurley told Howard to simply comply with the law when selling weapons. That is, “as long as the required forms are properly filled out and [Howard] did not know or have reason to know that the firearms were part of a straw purchase or intended to be used in a crime, that he could complete the transfer.”

Whether this was really what Hurley related to Howard in that 2009 meeting, we can’t know. But…………………

MORE,,,,,

via Was the Justice Department FORCED to make the “Fast and Furious” tapes public? « Coach is Right.

THE REAL INTERVIEWS: STATEMENT FROM 911 FAMILY MEMBER ON PBS MOSQUE MOCKUMENTARY

Last night, PBS ran the grotesque and dishonest mockumentary I described here on Ground Zero mosque grifter Sharif El-Gamal.

Rosaleen Tallon, brave voice and sister to hero, firefighter and 911 murder victim, Sean Tallon, had this to say about the PBS propaganda piece:

Nothing El-Gamal said throughout this whole documentary could erase how Mr. Hanson described that he can still sometimes feel his little granddaughter sitting into the crook of his elbow on his lap, although she was murdered ten years ago, along with his son and daughter-in-law on one of the hijacked planes. No matter what El-Gamal said, those faces of the murdered that smiled out from those family pictures in the beginning, kept coming back into my mind. I could not get the picture of my brother out of my mind as I watched El Gamal feeling sorry for himself.

El-Gamal can turn on and off those fake tears. But yesterday, September 27, 2011 was my brother’s birthday and he would have turned 37. Yesterday, my mom shed a tear for Sean and all the possibilities that died with him 10 years ago. Her tears are real.

It is still so painfully obvious that building a giant mosque and islamic cultural center at Ground Zero is like forcing a square peg into a round hole. You may have the right to do it, but it is not the right thing to do. That is why, Mr. El Gamal, it is all so hard for you. It is just plain “not right”.

Here is the real story. PBS posted some real interviews:

We spoke with Rosaleen Tallon, Charles Wolfe and Lee Hanson about their views on the project. Click on the name of each individual to read more about their loss and their perspective on the controversy.

She is the sister of firefighter Sean Tallon, who died on duty in the north tower.

“Don’t they realize that this is a very sensitive thing, that Sean was murdered down here by Islamic terrorists? He was murdered because some Islamic terrorists felt that Sean was an infidel. … I think that the people proposing to build this are being very intolerant of American traditions, the American tradition of honoring her hero dead.”

Read the rest here.(Click Source URL link)

via THE REAL INTERVIEWS: STATEMENT FROM 911 FAMILY MEMBER ON PBS MOSQUE MOCKUMENTARY.

“Like Democrats, Congressional Republicans consider the Constitution an inconvenient obstacle to their exercise of power” ~ Republicans Cancel the Constitution| The Post & Email

“Like Democrats, Congressional Republicans consider the Constitution an inconvenient obstacle to their exercise of power” ~ Republicans Cancel the Constitution| The Post & Email

Republicans Cancel the Constitution| The Post & Email:

Like Democrats, Congressional Republicans consider the Constitution an inconvenient obstacle to their exercise of power.

They have long wanted a “flexible” and “living” Constitution, which can be reinterpreted according to their own whims or adjusted to whatever political winds might be blowing at the moment.

For years both Democrats and Republicans have attempted through Constitutional amendments to dilute Article II, Section I, Clause 5 of the Constitution, which requires candidates for President and Vice President to be natural born citizens, that is, US citizens born to citizen parents at the time of birth.

Up until 2008, all such efforts failed………………

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MORE…..

Posted by Gunny G

via BLOGGER.GUNNY.G.1984+ NOW!: “Like Democrats, Congressional Republicans consider the Constitution an inconvenient obstacle to their exercise of power” ~ Republicans Cancel the Constitution| The Post & Email.

Poll: Ron Paul v Obama a dead heat in Fla.

Public Policy Polling, a Democratic-leaning polling firm, shows Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, and former Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass., trailing President Obama by a mere one point in their latest poll of Florida voters. Obama has a 56 percent disapproval rating in the swing state.

PPP shows Paul trailing Obama 45-44 in a hypothetical general election match-up, while Romney lags Obama by the same margin, 46-45. Gov. Rick Perry, R-Texas, has a 7 point deficit on the president, 50-43 – likely because 63% of voters polled disagree with his characterization of Social Security as a Ponzi scheme.

That said, PPP made a point of noting that Perry’s deficit to Obama recalls Dewey’s loss to President Truman, which might say as much about how PPP wants Republican voters to see Perry as it does about Perry’s chances in this election.

You can see the full poll results below, with crosstabs.

PPP Release FL 0929925

via Prison Planet.com » Poll: Ron Paul v Obama a dead heat in Fla..

Clinton Adviser: ‘Very Possible’ Obama Will Bow Out of Presidential Race – For Now

In an interview with conservative radio icon Sean Hannity, former President Clinton adviser and campaign manager Dick Morris stated that, after speaking with a Democratic strategist, he thinks it is “very possible” that President Obama might acquiesce to requests from the Democratic leadership in Congress and bow out of the 2012 race, leaving the door open for him to return sometime in the future.

“I asked a top Democratic strategist the other day and he thought that it was possible that, in January, Harry Reid comes to Obama and says, ‘Look you cost us control of the House last year, you’re going to cost us control of the Senate this year. For the good of the party you have to step aside’” said Morris.

“And, then, (Obama) pulls a Lyndon Johnson, he says ‘I’m fighting to solve the recession, and problem is because of partisanship and my re-election people reject everything I say because of partisanship, so I’m going to not run for president and focus my full time attention on solving this recession’ and then go out popular,” Morris added.

The strategy proposed here is an interesting one. With his approval ratings at an all time low, Obama is looking at a very high likelihood of a defeat in the 2012 elections and forecasters, using the examples of the 2011 special elections in New York City and Nevada, have forecast a very high probability of losses across the nation for the Democratic Party because of Obama.

Full article here

via Prison Planet.com » Fmr. Clinton Adviser: ‘Very Possible’ Obama Will Bow Out of Presidential Race – For Now.

Governor Palin: “The More Remote, the Larger Government Becomes…”

Governor Palin: “The More Remote, the Larger Government Becomes, the More Dismissive the Government Bureaucrats Are of the People and Of What Their Will Is”

via Governor Palin: “The More Remote, the Larger Government Becomes…”.

Obama the Great Divider

According to the latest Rasmussen poll, 75% of the country believes America is headed in the wrong direction. Our nation is clearly in turmoil and there is no way Obama can run on his record. So what is his strategy to win re-election? It appears he’s taking a two pronged approach: class warfare and race warfare……

MORE…..

via Obama the Great Divider.

Banks Plan New Fees for Using Debit Cards

The nation’s beleaguered banking industry, which has been raising fees and doing away with free services, has a new target: debit-card users.

Bank of America Corp. is laying plans to charge millions of customers a $5 monthly fee to use their debit cards, and other big banks are expected to follow suit. The industry says it needs the fees to recoup revenue it will lose because of new government regulations taking effect Saturday that cap what they can charge merchants for debit-card transactions.

Bank of America, the largest U.S. bank by assets, disclosed the plan on Thursday in a memo to its senior staff. It intends to begin collecting the fees nationwide early next year.

Several other large banks, including J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co., are testing or plan to test similar fees in some states. Regions Financial Corp., a Birmingham, Ala.-based lender, has said it will start charging a $4 monthly debit-card usage fee on certain accounts on Oct. 1

New federal limits on debit-card “swipe fees” are expected to cost U.S. banks an estimated $6.6 billion a year in lost revenue.

To offset that lost revenue, many banks have eliminated or scaled back debit-rewards programs, added monthly fees for checking accounts and raised minimum balance requirements for customers to avoid certain fees.

…Citigroup Inc. said last week it was raising fees on certain checking accounts but would not charge fees for using debit cards.

Norma Garcia, a lawyer for advocacy group Consumers Union, said she urges consumers to read their bank statements and shop around for account options if they are unhappy with new fees.

“I’m not making business decisions for BofA, but I can only say from a consumer perspective, consumers are tired of being nickel and dimed,” she said.

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com …

via Banks Plan New Fees for Using Debit Cards.

Today’s Toons 9/30/11

Today’s Toons 9/30/11

Today’s Toons 9/30/11: Today’s Toons 9/30/11

The Right Reasons ^ | 9/30/11 | pookie18

Posted on 09/30/2011 2:28:50 AM PDT by pookie18

Click on link.

Posted by Gunny G

via BLOGGER.GUNNY.G.1984+ NOW!: Today’s Toons 9/30/11.

Reader Responses: The Right Wingers’ Oath…..

READER RESPONSE…..

—So, do we need to pledge our allegiance to ourselves? As Judge Andrew Napolitano asked on his Freedom Watch show last week, “Does the government work for us or do we work for the government? Are true patriots guided by symbolism such as flag waving and pledges or by their commitment to personal freedoms?”

Perhaps it doesn’t matter. Most folks reciting the Pledge surely don’t view themselves as feudal serfs. But words matter, and actions and rituals matter as well. Tomorrow we celebrate Independence Day not simply as a method to get out of work, but as a way to remind ourselves and our children that this country was conceived in liberty, in the hope we can continue to live in freedom. (That’s why I say “Independence Day” rather than the “Fourth of July,” since what happened is much more important than the date it happened.) The Founders who signed the Declaration of Independence — pledging their lives, fortunes and sacred honor — didn’t see fit to establish a pledge for citizens to recite.

Rather, the Pledge of Allegiance was written by an admitted socialist, Francis Bellamy, in 1892. In addition to the Pledge, Mr. Bellamy also came up with a salute for school children and others to make toward the flag. To prove that truth is stranger than fiction, what came to be known as the Bellamy salute was very similar to the salute adopted by Mussolini and the Italian fascists as well as Hitler and the Nazis.

In 1942, after U.S. entry into World War II, Congress amended the Flag Code to advise folks to place their hand over their heart, instead of giving the Nazi — er, Bellamy salute.–

excerpted from a “Townhall” article of July 3—

via The Right Wingers’ Oath.

Republicans Cancel the Constitution…..

Republicans Cancel the Constitution

Republicans Cancel the Constitution:

(Sep. 29, 2011) — Supporting and defending the Constitution and upholding the rule of law are no longer items on the Republican agenda.

According to Article II, Section I, Clause 5 of the Constitution and the Supreme Court binding precedent in Minor vs. Happersett (1874), Barack Hussein Obama has never been eligible to be President of the United States.

To hide his ineligibility, Obama has produced a forged Certificate of Live Birth, uses a Social Security number not issued to him and condoned the distribution of a forged Selective Service registration.

Despite being fully aware of the overwhelming evidence corroborating Obama’s guilt, the Republican leadership has ordered its Congress members to ignore constituents’ requests for investigations.

The Republican strategy is to use the Big Stall to cover up the Big Lie.

Political expediency, complicity and fear are the drivers for Republican malfeasance.

Like Democrats, Congressional Republicans consider the Constitution an inconvenient obstacle to their exercise of power. They have long wanted a “flexible” and “living” Constitution, which can be reinterpreted according to their own whims or adjusted to whatever political winds might be blowing at the moment.

(Excerpt) Read more at thepostemail.com …

Posted by Gunny G

via BLOGGER.GUNNY.G.1984+ NOW!: Republicans Cancel the Constitution.

Solar Energy School Propaganda 101

The Obama administration’s crony green subsidy scandal is erupting like a solar flare in Washington. But do you know what your kids are learning in their environmental education classes about this red-hot taxpayer eco-scam? Chances are: not much.

Instead, the U.S. Department of Energy and the Democratic apparatchiks at the National Education Association are disseminating solar power propaganda masquerading as math and science curricula.

Titled “Solar Power and Me: The Inherent Advantages,” the lesson plan for middle-school and high-school students directs them to “take note of how solar energy is incorporated into the infrastructure of various cities nationwide and write a short essay about how they would encourage solar energy use in their own town.”

A worksheet labeled “All About Solar!” makes the blanket assertion that solar technologies are “a sound economical choice as they can reduce or eliminate exposure to rising electricity rates, or even eliminate one’s need to pay an electrical bill! In addition, solar panels can be a smart long-term investment, with many solar vendors offering 20-30 year warranties on their products.”

The only warranties worth anything from bankrupt, half-billion-dollar solar company Solyndra Inc. are the warranties on the Disney whistling robots and saunas that adorned its Taj Mahal headquarters. But I digress.

Another worksheet cheerleads the “financial savings” of “solar power and me” and coaches students to “imagine you live in amazing and sunny Anaheim, CA, where the combination of local and federal rebates covers 74 percent of your total cost of a solar panel system!” The exercise then entices the student to take out a 20-year loan on a new solar panel system to produce even greater illusory savings.

Yet another question-and-answer key reads: “How would switching to solar energy affect energy use at your home and school?” Answer: “In general, switching to solar energy would lower your home’s electrical costs and reduce your emissions, thus saving money and improving the environment.”

But as Brian McGraw of the free-market Competitive Enterprise Institute points out: “There might be a small niche market, but solar energy is still largely incapable of producing reliable electricity at rates that are even in the ballpark of cost competitiveness compared to coal or natural gas.” Energy Secretary Steven Chu, the force behind billions of dollars’ worth of rushed green energy loans overseen by deep-pocketed Obama bundlers, himself acknowledged that solar tech will need to improve five-fold before it even begins to have a cost-competitive shot.

After examining decades’ worth of failed subsidized solar efforts at home and around the world, the Institute for Energy Research concludes: “Although stand-alone solar power has a certain free-market niche and does not need government favor, using solar power for grid electricity has been and will be an economic loser for ratepayers and a burden to taxpayers.”

The DOE/NEA curriculum encourages students to pressure politicians to pour more money into supposedly underfunded green energy schemes. But the House Budget Committee reported last week: “The president’s stimulus law alone included tens of billions in new government subsidies for politically favored renewable-energy interests: $6 billion in loan guarantees for renewable energy investments; $17 billion for the Department of Energy’s energy efficiency and renewable energy programs; $2 billion for energy-efficient battery manufacturing; and billions more on other ‘clean-energy’ programs for a total of $80 billion. Two years later, the president’s promise of millions of jobs stands in stark contrast with reality.”

A more useful homework assignment would be to have these future taxpayers calculate how much their moms and dads are spending to prop up Obama’s green jobs industry and its elite Democratic campaign finance donors/investors. The White House projected 65,000 new jobs from nearly $40 billion in green job stimulus spending. Instead, fewer than 3,600 jobs were created. Get out your calculators, kids: That’s $4.85 million per job. Investor’s Business Daily crunches the numbers further on the taxpayers’ return on its DOE green loan guarantee “investments” and finds that the program will cost a whopping $23 million per job.

A separate NEA solar energy lesson plan marketed with Dow Corning teaches 5th- through 8th-graders “how solar panels work.” A more apt, real-world lesson would teach them how they don’t work. The myth that this alternative energy source “pays for itself” is busted with just a cursory glance at the Denver Museum of Science and Nature.

President Obama staged a photo-op on the facility’s solar panel roof in 2009 when he signed the green jobs goodie-stuffed stimulus law. The museum refused to disclose electric bills before and after installation of the solar array. But after digging into the lavishly taxpayer-funded project, the Colorado-based Independence Institute discovered that the panels — which only last 25 years — wouldn’t “pay for themselves” until the year 2118, more than a century from now.

It’s elementary. The government shouldn’t be in the business of picking any eco-winners or losers. “Too Green To Fail” redistributes wealth from viable private projects to pipe dreams, forces higher taxes and energy costs on everyone, and rewards partisan funders at public expense. Teach your children well. They’re inheriting the bill.

via Solar Energy School Propaganda 101.

Unzipping The Male ‘X Factor’

Back in the 1970s, there was a lot of discussion about the way TV executives were grabbing ratings with female jiggle. “T and A,” it was called. The jiggle continues, but now it’s coming from somewhere else. So far, the hot new trend of the 2011 TV season is … dangling male genitalia. That’s full-frontal male nudity… hidden behind graphic effects.

CBS was thrilled the Sept. 19 premiere of its reboot of the sleazy “Two and a Half Men” drew gonzo ratings. After all the Charlie Sheen drama, how could his TV character’s funeral not attract a crowd? But that wasn’t enough for Chuck Lorre and Co. They had to debut actor Ashton Kutcher in the nude. First, Kutcher pulled the pixilated-nudie stunt Monday afternoon on the season debut of the Ellen DeGeneres show. Then they repeated it on CBS Monday night — twice. The opening gag of the season is that Kutcher’s character has a stunning endowment.

On Fox’s “The X Factor,” the network is ripping off its own “American Idol” formula, complete with former “Idol” judges Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul. But the “X” could stand for X-rated content. On the Sept. 21 premiere, the second hour began with what should be called an obscene five-minute prank.

“Idol” always airs wacky and untalented oddballs in its audition phase, but has featured nothing like the contestant named Geo Godley at the “X Factor” auditions in Seattle. As he began performing his own ridiculous song called “I’m a Stud,” he dropped his pants and displayed his male parts for the studio audience. Fox playfully covered his crotch with the show’s red X logo.

If this were an actual, unwelcome surprise, Godley would have been escorted off the stage in seconds by security staff like the human garbage he is. Instead, Fox milked the entire stunt for five minutes. First, he started singing the stupidly awful song. Then he dropped his pants. Fox even showed a close-up with the X. We saw revolted crowd shots. We saw appalled judge takes. Then he pulled up his pants and kept singing.

Then he dropped his pants again. Paula Abdul acted sick to her stomach and cameras tracked her all the way to a bathroom. On and on … and on it went. We got to hear Paula puking. Then the remaining judges, one by one, denounced the performance.

Nicole Scherzinger of the Pussycat Dolls said, “I’m a little traumatized.” Soul music producer L.A. Reid said it was “offensive, disgusting, distasteful, upsetting.” Cowell put on his angry face: “What the bloody hell was that? I came here and I put 5 million dollars on the line, and … that appeared. I don’t know what you were thinking.”

Oh, come on. This was expected — and milked by Fox. The better question is: What was Fox thinking? The network that’s supposed to be airing a show trying to attract a family audience with millions of children watching is expected to edit this garbage out of the show. Fox did the opposite. It exploited the scene to grab eyeballs and ad revenue.

The segment ended with Abdul returning to the stage to applause for her apparent disgust. She looked into the camera and said, “I just witnessed a nightmare on stage. It literally got me sick.” So why is Fox sickening the public?

This is not atypical of Cowell’s “X Factor” folks. A similar publicity ploy emerged in the U.K. The flasher in this case was a fan, reported The Sun newspaper: “The incident took place on Wednesday as the panel introduced the first episode of the new series, to be screened on ITV1 tomorrow. A massive 200,000 fans applied to be in the audience…and the flasher was one of only 700 who won tickets. …The fan’s shocking behavior was seen by several audience members sitting nearby — including children.” Notice the flasher conveniently pulled this stunt right around the series premiere.

When the Parents Television Council filed a complaint against Fox with the FCC, a new line of defense emerged. The blog Reality Blurred claimed Godley wasn’t even naked. An audience member reported he was wearing a leopard-print thong. The blogger also noted Godley wore a thong in his YouTube audition video, further removing the idea that anyone at Fox didn’t know what kind of indigestion they were manufacturing for the folks at home.

So now Fox is elaborately (set ital) faking (end ital) male nudity? That’s going to be their defense? They will do anything, including sending Abdul to fake-vomit over the fake-flasher.

The show’s host, Steve Jones, told The Sun the real story about Godley: “I spoke to Simon backstage after and asked him what he thought. He said it was probably his favorite audition ever — and I agreed.”

via Unzipping The Male ‘X Factor’.

‘Centrists’ Are Abandoning Ship

President Obama’s failure to fully achieve the liberal agenda and remain popular in the process is fueling dangerous radicalization in the oddest of places: the media establishment, which considers itself the guardian of the political center.

I should say “the so-called center,” because one of those most tedious — yet meticulously maintained — fictions is the claim that the establishment is, in fact, “centrist.”

If you’ve ever met these people and talked to them about how they see the world, heard them give a college commencement address, read their books or endeavored to find out the political views of their spouses, you’d have all the evidence you need to learn that the establishment’s centrist facade is so much Potemkin poster board.

For example, remember the media obsession with the cockeyed fantasy that Obama was the next FDR? Go back and watch some of those late-2008 and early-2009 episodes of “Meet the Press.” The guests were so giddy about the prospect they looked like 6-year-olds at a birthday party ordered to sit still while the clown got ready to make balloon animals.

But Obama is no FDR, nor a Lincoln, nor a liberal Reagan. At this point he’s simply hoping to not be a Carter. And that’s fomented establishment despair. Tina Brown editor of both the Daily Beast and Newsweek, recently let it slip on MSNBC (a trifecta of establishmentarian liberal media outlets!) that she thinks Obama “wasn’t ready” for the job in 2008.

The establishment can’t bring itself to blame liberalism (or themselves). So instead they blame the system. Obama’s own re-election theme of running against “Washington” — a town he had near total control over for two years and in which he is still the most powerful figure — is a variant of the same argument. Obama can’t blame the party he leads, so he blames the “system.” That idea — that the system itself is to blame — has now gone viral.

New York Times columnist Tom Friedman, who’s been pushing and predicting a “geo-green third party” since 2006, is convinced there will be something like that in 2012. Why? Because his gut tells him so.

Friedman’s gut is a terrifying thing. During the fight over “Obamacare,” he didn’t just think the political system “sucks” (to borrow Democratic wise man Tony Podesta’s term), he found it demonstrably inferior to China’s authoritarian regime.

Just last week, Bev Purdue, Democratic governor of North Carolina, declared, “I think we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years and just tell them we won’t hold it against them, whatever decisions they make.” She now says she was joking, an interpretation hard to square with the audio recording.

Similarly, former Obama aide Peter Orszag (now of Citibank, of course) also pinpoints democracy as the real problem. In the latest New Republic, he proposes that we empower more “depoliticized commissions” to make the important decisions.

Friedman likes “depoliticized commissions” too, like the Chinese politburo. That’s why he’s written how he wishes we could be just like “China for a day,” so we could simply impose all the policies he likes.

At least Matt Miller, an avowed radical centrist, doesn’t want to scrap democracy. He just wants to scrap the two-party system. Now, this isn’t undemocratic. It’s not even necessarily a terrible idea (though I don’t endorse it).

But what’s interesting about Miller’s argument is how un-centrist it is. Writing for the Washington Post, Miller explains how he wants a new third party that will reject “the Democrats’ timid half-measures and the Republicans’ mindless anti-government creed.”

The new centrism: No more half-measures, just full-blown liberalism.

As you go through Miller’s platform, you can tell he’s serious. He wants to spend vastly more money over “a couple years” to “fix the economy.” Ever more taxpayer dollars will be poured into infrastructure, make-work service jobs and education. Once unemployment is lower, he wants to tax “dirty energy” and impose trade tariffs.

That’s pretty much Friedman’s ideal agenda too.

Come to think of it, it’s also Barack Obama’s! Perhaps not in every particular, but as several left-wing bloggers have noted, Miller’s third party sounds an awful lot like the Democratic Party with a new coat of paint.

6This is a fascinating departure from the usual pabulum from centrists who insist that they are neither right nor left. This is nothing less than a desperate abandonment of Obama and the Democratic Party in order to preserve the credibility of the ideas driving Obama and the Democratic Party.

There are few things more pathetic than rats deserting a sinking ship while claiming they’re a superior breed of rat.

via ‘Centrists’ Are Abandoning Ship.

Who Owns History? ~ “The Southern Poverty Law Center is appalled by the results of a new study finding that states are not teaching the history of the civil rights era”

The Southern Poverty Law Center is appalled by the results of a new study finding that states are not teaching the history of the civil rights era. The SPLC, which commissioned the study of state curricula, concludes that students in at least 35 states are missing out on important facts about our history. And even in states that include units on civil rights, “their civil rights education boils down to two people and four words: Rosa Parks, Dr. King and ‘I have a dream.’”

On one hand, you want to welcome disgruntled liberals to the club of those worried about historical amnesia among the young. We conservatives have been worrying about it for decades. On the other hand, it’s tough to believe that American students are being cheated of knowledge about civil rights, compared with say, knowledge about World War II, or the progressive movement or the nullification crisis. One of my sons, who has been educated in public schools most of his life, offered that in his experience, American history is taught as “the Revolution, the internment of the Japanese during World War II and the civil rights movement.”

When Common Core, an advocacy group for educational standards, surveyed American teenagers in 2008, they found that nearly a quarter were not able to correctly identify Adolf Hitler, but 97 percent knew who delivered the “I have a dream” speech. Care to speculate about how many would know who Joseph Stalin was?

Teaching history is inevitably a somewhat political act — which is why an effort during the 1990s to establish national standards foundered in acrimony and bitterness. Some textbooks in wide use in America devote pages and pages to the so-called “McCarthy era” while neglecting much else and are written in a tone of condescension toward our forebears. Fights over textbook content in leading states like Texas have become protracted tugs of war between competing visions of our nation.

One suspects that only Howard Zinn‘s version of history would meet with the approval of the SPLC, and there are perhaps some on the right who might want to airbrush Joe McCarthy out altogether. But if we cannot come to some meeting of the minds on teaching the fundamentals of our history, we will have a drastically diminished future. The National Assessment of Educational Progress found in 2010 that only 12 percent of high school seniors were proficient in history.

The founders believed that special skills were necessary for free, self-governing individuals. Our second president, John Adams, said, “Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom.” Thomas Jefferson proposed a system of public schools to instill the necessary knowledge and attitudes, saying memorably “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.”

When Ronald Reagan reflected on his eight years as president in his farewell address, he mentioned that one of the things he was proudest of was the renewed spirit of patriotism in the country. “This national feeling is good,” he said, “but it won’t count for much, and it won’t last unless it’s grounded in thoughtfulness and knowledge.” Recalling that his generation had absorbed “almost in the air, a love of country and an appreciation for its institutions,” he noted that “Younger parents aren’t sure that an unambivalent appreciation of America is the right thing to teach modern children.” And in what may have been the understatement of the decade, he said “. . . As for those who create the popular culture, well-grounded patriotism is no longer the style.”

“We’ve got to do a better job,” Reagan warned, “of getting across that America is freedom — freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of enterprise. And freedom is special and rare. It’s fragile; it needs protection.”

When liberals tell the story of America — and they overwhelmingly dominate the education establishment — they tend to focus excessively on our flaws and sins. By all means, our kids need to know about the civil rights movement, just as they should know all about slavery and Jim Crow. But they should also be taught that this country overcame an ugly history of slavery and racism to a degree unequaled by any other nation on Earth. Nations that have practiced slavery (some still do) and racism are in legion. Those that have managed to transform themselves — to listen to the “better angels of their nature” — are incredibly rare.

In this, as in so much else, the U.S. is exemplary. If the public schools could convey just that much, it would be progress……

MORE…..

via Who Owns History?.

Facebook tracking prompts calls for FTC investigation (tracks you even when logged off)

Facebook tracking prompts calls for FTC investigation (tracks you even when logged off)

Facebook tracking prompts calls for FTC investigation (tracks you even when logged off):

Facebook’s use of software that enables it to track users’ online activity after they log off of the social-networking site came under scrutiny in Washington this week, with lawmakers and consumer advocacy groups demanding a federal investigation.

In a letter to the Federal Trade Commission, Reps. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Joe Barton (R-Tex.) wrote that Facebook’s use of “cookie” software should be investigated under the “unfair and deceptive acts” clause of the agency’s mandate.

“When people log out of Facebook, they are under the expectation that Facebook is no longer monitoring their activities,” wrote the congressmen, who chair the bipartisan Congressional Privacy Caucus. “We believe this impression should be the reality.”

On Thursday, the Electronic Privacy Information Center and nine other consumer and privacy groups made a similar request, voicing concerns about whether the company’s privacy policies cover new Facebook features that highlight user information on profiles and put real-time activity in the spotlight.

(Excerpt) Read more

via BLOGGER.GUNNY.G.1984+ NOW!: Facebook tracking prompts calls for FTC investigation (tracks you even when logged off).