To remember America's fallen warriors, let's grow poppies between the rows at Arlington Cemetery and in front of our homes
Let’s scatter poppy seeds — and water them so they live — in memory of those in the military who died or were wounded in body, soul or mind defending America. What say you? This poem says it best:
The Great War 1914-1918
In Flanders Fields
Poppy photographed on the First World War battlefield of the Somme near the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing.
by John McCrae, May 1915
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields. crosses
Dad gets two tickets after saves son for failure to apply emergency brake as he ran to save son
Frank Roder, a construction worker from the town of Winfield Park, had taken his son, Aidan, down to the Rahway River to feed ducks Thursday. But when he stopped briefly before settling on a parking space, the impatient boy jumped out and took off — straight toward a ledge 35 feet above the river, Roder recalled.
The panic-stricken father jumped out of the cab of his 2006 Jeep Commander and raced after the errant boy, catching him just feet from the edge.
That’s when Aidan, eyes as big as saucers, looked behind Roder and said, “Um, Daddy …”
Roder turned in time to see the Jeep nosedive down the embankment and land in the muddy water.
Roder hugged the boy and waited as Union County police converged on the scene over the next few hours. A crane pulled the Jeep out, and amazingly, it started right up, though Roder is pretty sure his insurance company will count it as totaled.
He was counting his blessings when a young cop approached him and handed him two tickets. One was for failure to produce the insurance card, which was somewhere in the waterlogged cab. The other was for failing to use his emergency brake.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Roder said. “The cop said, ‘If you would have taken the five seconds to apply the brake, this never would have happened!’
“I say, ‘Really? And if I did and my boy stepped over the edge and fell instead of the Jeep, then were would I be?’ He says, ‘Jail, for child endangerment.'”
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You simply cannot teach common sense. But you can fire for lack of it. JAJ48@aol.com
Obama understands all Asians based on his early eating habits? That Obama ate dog as a boy in Indonesia explains his special affinity and understanding of all Asians? That’s a stretch.
President Obama, born in Hawaii, raised in Indonesia and dubbed by some “the first Asian American president,” looks to be embracing that label with an exclusive, $40,000-a-head Bay Area business roundtable for Asian American and Pacific Islander supporters Thursday.
The diverse swath, also known as Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, includes large communities of Chinese, Korean,
Japanese and Vietnamese; as well as South Asians such as Indians and Pakistanis; and Pacific Islanders such as Polynesians, Samoans and Tongans.
Pan said Obama feels comfortable with outreach to those groups because the president has lived in Asia and the Pacific Islands. “He has a natural relationship with those communities. He understands the model: that we have a lot of strengths and we have a lot of needs, too.”
_______________ What we know for sure is that you cannot lump all of Asia together and claim to know it especially when your knowledge comes from a few years as a small dog eating boy in one country.
Mount Everest crowded with climbersIt’s time to protect Mt. Everest from overcrowding?
Scores of climbers were headed for the summit of Mount Everest on Friday in what is expected to another busy weekend on the top of the world.
Last weekend, four climbers died on their way down from the summit amid a traffic jam of more than 200 people scrambling to conquer the world’s highest peak as the weather worsened. A similar crowd is expected this weekend, but there have been no reports of climbers in trouble and the weather is good.
Gyanendra Shrestha, an official with Nepal’s Tourism Ministry, said he had reports that 82 climbers reached the 8,850-meter (29,035-foot) summit on Friday morning.
The deaths last weekend raised concerns about overcrowding above the highest trail on the mountain. The area above the South Col is nicknamed the “death zone” because of the steep, icy slope, treacherous conditions and low oxygen level.
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Is there no place left where one can be alone?
JAJ48@aol.com
personal phone calls & Twitter access expected perks colllege grads expect When you got your first job after college did you assume that personal phone calls and access to social media and shopping online were part of the perks?
Having read the survey of college graduates that found nearly one in four would not take a job that didn’t allow them to make or receive personal calls at work makes you wonder if they live in the real world.
According to Adecco’s 2012 Graduation survey, 12 percent of new college grads also said they would not work for an employer that wouldn’t let them check Twitter or Facebook.
Five percent of Generation I (that’s I as in Internet) would not work for an employer that would not let them shop online or check sports scores.
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Working conditions sure have changed.
JAJ48@aol.com
government union pays $65 K a year compared to $15 K for private sector Social Security
The average public sector retiree gets $65 K a year compared to the average private sector social security benefit of $15 K. It’s an accurate statement to say that taxpayers are enslaved to the public sector unions and why collective bargaining by government employees must be limited. See article that appeared on the web site.
Government Employees – The True “1%â€
By Wayne Allen Root, on March 6th, 2012
Editor’s Note: The claims made in this commentary by Wayne Allen Root are incendiary. But they are true. We are on track in the United States to pay more money to 20 million public sector retirees – at an average pension of $65,000 we will pay these retirees $1.3 trillion per year, then we will be paying in social security to 80 million private sector retirees – at an average social security benefit of $15,000 per year that will cost less, about $1.2 trillion per year. Providing a level of retirement security to government workers that only the wealthiest 1% can enjoy in the private sector is not “protecting the middle class,†it is economic enslavement by government unions over the taxpayer. This article originally appeared on FoxNews.com and is republished with permission by the author.
How did America become broke and insolvent? How did we build up an unimaginable $115 trillion in debt and unfunded liabilities? How did we allow the American Dream to become a nightmare?
All we need do is look at the primary demand the Eurozone and IMF are placing on hopelessly bankrupt Greece to get their new $170 Billion bailout — Greece has agreed to cut 150,000 government employees. Even Cuba’s leader Raul Castro recognizes too many government employees are at the root of economic destruction, as he is cutting over 2 million of them to save Cuba from bankruptcy.
The truth is that government employees are the true 1%. We have far too many of them (21 million), many of them are paid too much, and their union demands are straining taxpayers to the breaking point.
They have become a privileged class that expects to be treated superior to the taxpayers — the same folks who pay their salaries and pensions. But it is their obscene pensions that are the big problem moving forward for America.
How would you like to retire with $6 million? $8 million? $10 million? All you have to do is become a government employee to hit the jackpot.
You don’t believe me? Do the math.
I recently talked with a retired New York City toll taker. His salary averaged about $70,000 per year over 20 years. But in his last few years he worked loads of overtime and added in accumulated sick days to get his salary in those final years up to $150,000.
His pension is based on his final years’ salary. This is a common pension-padding ploy.
He bragged that he will now get a taxpayer funded pension of $120,000 a year for the rest of his life. He’s only 50 years old.
The average 50-year old male has a life expectancy of almost 80. With automatic cost of living increases, that’s a bill to taxpayers of $5 million for the next 30 years –for not working. THREE TIMES WHAT HE EARNED WHILE WORKING.
And, of course, we’re also paying his medical bills.
No country, no budget, and no taxpayers anywhere in the world can afford this. Ask Greece.
But here’s a frightening question- what if he lives to 90? Or 100? His pension could rise to $8 million or higher.
Multiply this times 21 million government employees (on the federal, state and local level) and you now get a sense of what is bankrupting America.
Are these stories the exception, rather than the rule? Over 77,000 federal government employees earned more than the governor of their state.
On the federal level, it was just reported by USA Today that the average federal civil servant compensation is $123,049 per year.
That’s more than double what private sector workers earn (average of $61,051). Since 2000, federal government employee compensation has grown by 36.9% versus 8.8% for private sector employees.
In Las Vegas (Clark County) the average firefighter earns $199,678 per year.
When he retires at age 45 or 50, we owe his pension based on that obscene salary. But here’s the clincher –when he finally dies, the taxpayer has to continue paying the pension to his spouse. Add up the damage to the economy. It is catastrophic. Talk about a 1 per center — a single firefighter could retire with $8 to $10 million for not working for the rest of his life.
This is madness.
Now it’s true that policemen and firefighters are heroes. But they make up a small portion of government employees.
Recent studies prove the average janitor that works for government makes over $600,000 more in his career than a private sector janitor. Are janitors heroes too?
Again, this is madness.
Three stories on the same day in this past Sunday’s Las Vegas newspapers sum up this national outrage.
Let’s start with the Las Vegas teachers union. It was reported that more than a third of the union’s entire $4.1 million annual budget went to pay just nine union leaders.
The Teachers Union Executive Director received $632,546, while the CEO of the union-created Teachers Health Trust was paid $546,133.
So next time you hear educators scream that we must spend more money on education, because “it’s for the kids,†you’ll know the truth. It’s for the unions.
It’s always been for the unions.
Bernie Madoff has nothing on the government employee union scam.
Article number two in Sunday’s Las Vegas Review Journal was about those highly paid Las Vegas firefighters.
It turns out they weren’t satisfied with making almost $200,000 per year. They also abused sick leave, rigged work schedules to pump up their pensions, and appear to have engaged in widespread disability fraud.
About half of all Clark County firefighters retired with work-related injuries in recent years- garnering bonus payments averaging $320,000 apiece. That’s in addition to their obscene pensions for life.
Is this also “for the kids?â€
Article number three in Sunday’s paper was about a now retired Las Vegas homicide detective and possible police brutality. It had nothing to do with pensions. But interestingly, the retired homicide detective they quote in the story is 47 years old.
He’s 47 and already retired?
Want to bet that you and I are on the hook for $5 to $10 million in pension and health benefits from now until the day he dies- for not working. Is this also “for the kids?â€
I’ll say it one more time… this is madness.
These aren’t CEO types. These are average government employees retiring with the equivalent of $5 to $10 million. These are the true 1% privileged class that are bankrupting our country and destroying the once great U.S. economy.
Something is very wrong here.
No one has a right to complain about the high incomes of business owners in the private sector (the 1%). We rarely have pensions and our compensation doesn’t cost taxpayers a dime. We risk our own money to start our businesses and often work 16 hour days, weekends and holidays.
Yet for all that risk and hard work, do you know any small business owners who retire with $5 to $10 million? They are few and far between. But that’s exactly what a private sector employee would need in the bank on the day of his or her retirement to match the $100,000 per year pensions (plus health care benefits and cost of living increases) of government employees paid out over 30 to 50 years.
Keep in mind that government employees never risk a dollar of their own money. They have lifetime job security. And they rarely work beyond 9 to 5, let alone weekends or holidays.
Yet government employees are paid millions by taxpayers to retire early, often on pensions fattened by gaming the corrupt system.
They are the true 1%.
This is a national disgrace that is bankrupting America. The gall of this scam would make Bernie Madoff blush.
But hey…â€It’s for the kids!â€
Wayne Allyn Root is a former Libertarian Vice Presidential nominee. He now serves as Chairman of the Libertarian National Congressional Committee. He is the best-selling author of “The Conscience of a Libertarian: Empowering the Citizen Revolution with God, Guns, Gold & Tax Cuts.†His web site: www.ROOTforAmerica.com. This article originally appeared on FoxNews.com and is republished with permission from the author.
National Organization for Women (NOW)  has a long list of links– not updated since 2005– to various left wind organizations including Color of Pink and Common Cause.
NOW in addition to Color of Pink and Common Cause are organizations which oppose ALEC and want to shut ALEC down. ALEC is pro free markets and has provided legislation that is pro-business.
Advocacy: If you want an insight into today’s left, look at its multifront war against the American Legislative Exchange Council for committing the grave sin of pushing free-market bills in state legislatures.
At a recent meeting in Washington, Aniello Alioto of ProgressNow Colorado summed up the left-wing’s campaign against ALEC: “Never relent, never let up pressure, and always increase.”
According to the Washington Free Beacon, ProgressNow was one of several left-wing groups meeting at AFL-CIO headquarters earlier this month to plot their ongoing campaign against ALEC. Other groups included Common Cause and the Color of Change.
So what’s got the left so agitated? Is ALEC involved in organized crime? Has it stolen money from state treasuries? Bribed officials? Polluted the environment? Clubbed baby seals?
Nope. The left is targeting ALEC for the simple reason that it’s been effective in promoting pro-business, free-market ideas and policies, mainly by drafting model legislation that lawmakers can use as a template in their own legislatures.
Those bills, mind you, still have to make it through their states’ representative bodies, and then get signed by their governors.
In other words, it’s democracy at work.
But the mere fact that ALEC has succeeded in pushing back on the liberal state has the left in a state of apoplexy.
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Instead of debating the group, or working to counter it with their own liberal legislative efforts, they’re trying to shut it down.
For a while, the left had little success, until the Trayvon Martin shooting, which it dubiously tied to ALEC’s advocacy of state “stand your ground” laws.
As a Common Cause spokeswoman told Businessweek, “The Trayvon Martin thing was like a gift.”
Since then, the left has mounted a fierce campaign to target companies that donate to ALEC, acting like reverse extortionists who threaten a PR nightmare unless the companies stop paying up.
They don’t even bother to deny it. Color of Change talks about flooding targeted companies with “thousands of phone calls” and how it will “escalate pressure” with radio ads and threats of public action, the Free Beacon reports.
And the Center for Media and Democracy’s Lisa Graves boasted to the Washington Post a while back about the “enormous work and preparation behind the scenes by numerous public interest organizations and researchers and writers and journalists across the country,” and how it was finally paying off.
As ALEC’s Ron Scheberle correctly described it, “this is an all-out intimidation campaign.”
Unfortunately, more than a dozen risk-averse corporations have since capitulated, severing ties with ALEC.
Meanwhile, Common Cause has filed an IRS whistle-blower complaint claiming ALEC violated lobbying rules, and it’s asking state AGs to investigate the group.
If it all seems out of proportion, it’s because this campaign isn’t about ALEC. It’s about the left’s desire to silence voices with which it doesn’t agree, and it’s about bullying companies into giving only to left-wing causes.
As ALEC’s experience shows, the left doesn’t want open debate and dialogue or freedom of speech. It wants forced conformity.
What’s worse is the fact that “journalists across the country” — including those at the Washington Post and New York Times — who normally pride themselves as champions of free speech, have decided to play along with this campaign rather than call it out.
government freebie fantasy time from NASA
If you don’t already get some freebie from government here’s a way for all to receive:
James Hansen, head of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies says:We should impose a gradually rising carbon fee, collected from fossil fuel companies, then distribute 100 percent of the collections to all Americans on a per-capita basis every month.
The government would not get a penny. This market-based approach would stimulate innovation, jobs and economic growth, avoid enlarging government or having it pick winners or losers. Most Americans, except the heaviest energy users, would get more back than they paid in increased prices.
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The American doyen of global warming hot air wanders from fantasy to fantasy. He expands now to social engineering in the name of fighting global warming.
A CA judge was in bed with wife of the Zodiac killer? Really? Come on now.
It’s been 40 years in the making, but ex-California Highway Patrol Officer Lyndon Lafferty’s book about the man he believes is the Zodiac killer has been released.
Lafferty’s book — “The Zodiac Killer Cover-Up, AKA The Silenced Badge†— uses a pseudonym for his suspect, but in 442 pages, he lays out quite the case. The man who fatally shot or stabbed five people in the Bay Area in 1968 and 1969, and who sent nearly two dozen cryptic, taunting letters to The Chronicle and others until 1974, is a 91-year-old alcoholic living in Solano County, Lafferty writes.
Lafferty calls his suspect George Russell Tucker, and he told The Chronicle he didn’t use the man’s real name because of privacy and safety concerns. The 79-year-old ex-CHP officer maintains he encountered the man in Vallejo in 1970 and developed clues with the late Solano County sheriff’s Sgt. Leslie Lundblad, but that the case was squelched by power-brokers in the county — including a judge who was having an affair with the suspect’s wife.
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If you kill 5 people do you get a pass because some judge is bedding Zodiac’s wife? This is a really dumb judge who plays rumpy pumpy with a serial killer’s wife. Or it’s just another conspiracy theory.
Intriguing as a possible early sign of autism: Lag in motor development (control of head and neck) found in infants who are more likely to develop autism. This study needs to be replicated before the public puts much weight on this finding.
This is a simple test that any mother can do at home. Any suspected delays can lead to early intervention by Early Start services. Parents who suspect motor delays can seek assistance from the Early Start program funded by the federal government.
“Typically, red flags that might lead to an autism diagnosis are issues with social and communicative traits, such as avoiding eye contact or not playing with others. But Dr. Rebecca Landa, the study’s author and director of the Center for Autism and Related Disorders at Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, says certain disruptions in a child’s motor development may provide important clues.
“For the study, researchers assessed infants in a simple “pull-to-sit” task that measures posture control by firmly – yet carefully – pulling a child’s arms from a position of lying flat on his/her side back into a sitting position (as seen in the videos below). Typically infants achieve this type of posture control by the time they are four months old.
“In one experiment, researchers gave this task to 40 infants who were considered to be genetically high-risk for the disorder because a sibling has autism. They researchers were looking specifically at “head lag” – the inability to control head posture – at 6, 14, 24 and 30 months of age.
“The researchers found 90 percent of subjects eventually diagnosed with autism exhibited head lags as infants, and 54 percent of kids who met social and communication delays criteria exhibited head lag, while 35 percent of children who did not meet that criteria exhibited the lag.
“In a second experiment, Landa and her team examined only six month olds at a single point in time to check for head lag, and found 75 percent of the high risk infants displayed head lag compared with 33 percent of low-risk infants, further emphasizing that head lag is more common in infants that may develop autism.
Landa’s study is to be presented at the International Meeting for Autism Research on May 17 in Toronto.
“While previous research shows that motor impairments are linked to social and communication deficits in older children with autism, the field is just starting to examine this in younger children,” she said in an Institute news release. “Our initial research suggests that motor delays may have an important impact on child development.”
“If some parents try the test at home and are worried, Landa emphasized to The Baltimore Sun that a head lag at six months does not mean a child is definitely going to have autism, but rather is a potential sign that a pediatrician should explore further. http://www.baltimoresun.com/health/blog/bal-poh-autism-test-for-infants,0,1502094.story
“We don’t want to scare parents,” she said. “If I go to the doctor because I’m having problems with balance, he’s not going to assume I have a brain tumor. When a baby shows a head lag there are so many other things it can be. But this is a very real indicator of something wrong with development and easy things can be done to help.”
Dr. Alycia Halladay, director of environmental research for the advocacy and research group Autism Speaks, told WebMD that the findings are “intriguing” but a head lag’s diagnostic value remains uncertain.
“The first step is to replicate these outcomes in larger studies in multiple sites,” she said.
The study adds to recent research aimed at diagnosing autism at an early age. A recent study found differences in nerve connections seen in infants’ brain scans might signal autism, CBS News medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook reported.
About 1 in 88 children has autism, according to recent government estimates.
