Here's a funny parody of Liberals

A liberal (also leftist) is someone who rejects logical and biblical standards, often for self-centered reasons. There are no coherent liberal standards; often a liberal is merely someone who craves attention, and who uses many words to say nothing. Liberalism began as a movement for individual liberties, but today is increasingly statist, and in Europe even socialistic.
A liberal generally supports many of the following political positions and practices:
Click here to read the rest at Conservapedia
grahic via ThePeople'sCube

Home prices increase from April to May

AP

6:24 AM PDT, July 28, 2009

A widely watched index shows home prices posted their first monthly increase since the summer of 2006, indicating prices may be stabilizing.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index of 20 major cities released today rose 0.5% from April, but was still 17.1% below May a year ago.

Click here for the rest of this article.

GOP Headache:
The birther issue:
My recent column on
Obama being my 11th
cousin stirred some
interesting feedback.
They came from so-called "Birthers" who wanted me to know I was wrong about saying Obama was born in the USA. Conspiracies and facts clash in this controversy:
By LISA LERER & DANIEL LIBIT
When lawmakers return home for recess in August, they can expect to hear tough questions from constituents on the economy, health care and government spending.

But Republicans are preparing for something else: the birthers.

As GOP Rep. Mike Castle learned the hard way back home in Delaware this month, there’s no easy way to deal with the small but vocal crowd of right-wing activists who refuse to believe that President Barack Obama was born in the United States.

Photo via AP of Rep. Mike Castle giving a speech during a press conference.

Read more of this article from Politico

Your Share of The National Debt

U.S. NATIONAL DEBT CLOCK

The Outstanding Public Debt as of 27 Jul 2009 at 04:06:54 PM GMT is:

The estimated population of the United States is 306,625,074
so each citizen's share of this debt is $37,897.13.

The National Debt has continued to increase an average of
$3.91 billion per day since September 28, 2007!
Concerned? Then tell Congress and the White House!

Squatters in paradise say it's job from hell!

Staking a claim on isolated Pagasa Island for the Philippine government, inhabitants eventually 'go crazy.'

Philippine air force personnel unload supplies for inhabitants of isolated Pagasa Island in the South China Sea.The happiest day on Pagasa is when the boat comes to take you off, says one former resident. (Jim Gomez / Associated Press)
By John M. Glionna

Reporting from Puerto Princesa, Philippines - Roel Robles had been on Pagasa Island for less than a week when he found himself wondering, with something like despair: Is it possible for one white-beached, palm-studded place to be both heaven and hell, paradise and prison?

"When you first get there, you see this little island resort," said the 30-year-old sergeant in the Philippine National Police. "Then after about five days, something snaps. You begin telling yourself, 'I have to get out of here -- now, today.' "

Pagasa plays tricks with your mind.

Its few dozen inhabitants can walk around the pint-sized perimeter in 30 minutes. From its highest point, nine feet above sea level, they gaze out at turquoise seas all around.
It's a stunning view. But it's the same view, day after day.

Click here to read the rest of this article in the Chicago Tribune today.

Sarah Palin's parting shots:

Criticism and advice for the media in the former Alaska governor's farewell speech

Best opinion: Financial Times, Scared Monkeys, Wash. Post

From The Week

Sarah Palin's farewell speech was "an astonishing performance," said Gideon Rachman in the Financial Times, "and not in a good way." Her "inarticulate," unscripted opening was bad enough, but then Palin scolded her media critics by saying, "In honor of the American soldier, you quit making things up." She was saying that reporters are abusing press freedom and therefore betraying troops fighting to protect the American way of life—that's twisted, and "faintly sinister."

"Not to disappoint," said the blog Scared Monkeys, the liberal media are lashing out at Sarah Palin for lashing out at them. Palin spoke from the heart when she asked reporters to "stop making things up." (watch Sarah Palin's parting criticism of journalists) Let's hope this is the end of the unfair coverage that has dogged Palin since she was nominated as the Republican vice presidential candidate.

This is definitely the end of a "tumultuous chapter" in Sarah Palin's life, said Dan Balz in The Washington Post. Now that she has voluntarily relinquished power as Alaska's governor—"in classic Palin style"—Palin is free to do what she wants, whether it's writing her memoirs, hitting the lecture circuit, or preparing for a 2012 presidential bid. The question is, "does she have a second act in her repertoire?"

Photo: A frame grab of Sarah Palin's resignation speech

(STR/Reuters/Corbis)

Whistleblower tells of America's hidden nightmare for its sick poor

When an insurance firm boss saw a field hospital for the poor in Virginia, he knew he had to speak out.

By Paul Harris

Wendell Potter can remember exactly when he took the first steps on his journey to becoming a whistleblower and turning against one of the most powerful industries in America.

It was July 2007 and Potter, a senior executive at giant US healthcare firm Cigna, was visiting relatives in the poverty-ridden mountain districts of northeast Tennessee. He saw an advert in a local paper for a touring free medical clinic at a fairground just across the state border in Wise County, Virginia.

Potter, who had worked at Cigna for 15 years, decided to check it out. What he saw appalled him. Hundreds of desperate people, most without any medical insurance, descended on the clinic from out of the hills.

Potter resigned shortly afterwards. Last month he testified in Congress, becoming one of the few industry executives to admit that what its critics say is true: healthcare insurance firms push up costs, buy politicians and refuse to pay out when many patients actually get sick.

In chilling words he told a Senate committee: "I worked as a senior executive at health insurance companies and I saw how they confuse their customers and dump the sick: all so they can satisfy their Wall Street investors."

Click here to read the rest of the article at the Guardian

(Photo Above: Patients without health insurance get dental care at a free clinic in Wise, Virginia, held every July for the past three years. More than 25,000 were treated in a weekend Photograph: John Moore/Getty Images

Study says swearing helps reduce pain
By Dave Stancliff/For the Times-Standard

Posted: 07/26/2009 01:37:22 AM PDT

Did you know swearing is common in all cultures? OK, that might not be too surprising. Did you know swearing can help you withstand pain? Got your interest now?

Before you assume I had a revelation one day when I hurt myself, let me introduce you to a guy who spent a lot of hours on this subject: Dr. Richard Stephens. He recently conducted a study on the relationship between swearing and pain at Keele University's School of Psychology, U.K. He thinks he knows why swearing is so universal.

Results of his study were recently published in the journal NeuroReport. It involved 64 students who were willing to suffer pain in the name of science. Or maybe they wanted the opportunity to swear in front of a lot of people without repercussions!

Click here to read the rest in the Times-Standard

WHERE DID THE TERM BLUE DOG DEMOCRATS COME FROM?


First, you should know that Blue Dog Democrats are the ones who are tend to embrace some conservative ideology.

You might call them right of the center of the democratic party. Typically, they tend to be more universally conservative on fiscal issues and have less consensus on social issues.

So now that you know who the term refers to, let’s digg a little into exactly why the term “Blue Dog” is used to describe them. For starters, the term derived from the earlier reference to “Yellow Dog” Democrats. The term “Yellow Dog Democrat” arose in the 1800s to describe people in the South who would vote for a yellow dog before they voted for a Republican.

So the term “Blue Dog Democrats” was derived from this earlier usage, but why the term blue? Well, the idea is that conservative democrats for the longest time have been choked out of the party by the left extreme. When you get choked, you turn blue. So the idea is that the Blue Dog Democrats have been choked blue by the extreme left and have now formed a coalition to fight back.

Text and photo via Dog Reflections

'Organ trafficking': Rabbis arrested over massive crime ring

US agents have arrested 44 elected officials and Jewish rabbis in New Jersey in a huge anti-corruption sweep across the state.

Charges of extortion, bribery, money laundering and human organ trafficking were stunning even for a state long notorious for official corruption and organised crime.

Five rabbis were among suspects, along with the mayors of Hoboken, Secaucus and Ridgefield, the Jersey City deputy mayor and council president, two state assembly members, and numerous other politicians, prosecutors said.

Acting US Attorney for the district of New Jersey Ralph Marra told a press conference the sweep demonstrated "the pervasive nature of public corruption in this state".

"The politicians willingly put themselves up for sale," he said, while "clergymen cloak their extensive criminal activity behind a facade of rectitude."

Raids began shortly after dawn on Thursday, officials said, targeting a who's who of state leaders.

Click here to read the rest from The Age

Ten things you don’t know about the Earth

Here are ten facts about the Earth — They’re all real. But how many of them do you know? Be honest.

1) The Earth is smoother than a billiard ball.

Maybe you’ve heard this statement: if the Earth were shrunk down to the size of a billiard ball, it would actually be smoother than one. When I was in third grade, my teacher said basketball, but it’s the same concept. But is it true? Let’s see. Strap in, there’s a wee bit of math (like, a really wee bit).

Click here to read the other nine facts from Discover.