I am going to do very light blogging for the next week or so.
I have some finances to sort out, I'm doing some serious interstate networking, and my list of new cuss words is appallingly short given Jennifer Granholm's deserving and cavernous noggin.
I will jump in here and there when I have time and am led.
Until then folks, enjoy the peace and quiet.
At least my unemployment is not part of a massive permanent layoff like many of my friends and neighbors have been cursed with in the past year or so.
With any luck I will be back at work in a few months.
I plan on spending these weeks of idleness thinking of new curse words to throw at Lansing and Washington for their dunderheaded management of the largest, most efficient, and greatest wealth creating economy in the history of the planet.
Now we can be just like Europe!
I'm taking the rest of the week off just to get used to idleness. Is the View already over?
One has to wonder when the assault upon Christianity will end.
In the same UK educational system where many schools have stopped teaching large chunks of history because they might be found offensive to a particular religious sect, the powers that be have taken it upon themselves to reprimand a primary school student for discussing Jesus and heaven with her classmates. A solid education, it appears, can be a bit light on the history side of things as long as it contains a good solid dose of anti-Christian multiculturalism to serve as a counterbalance.
Jennie Cain, the mother of the five-year-old proselytizer, is employed at the school as a part-time receptionist. She waited until after the school day had ended to approach the teacher so that she could discuss it as a parent rather than an employee.
The next day Cain was called into the administrator's office and was told that he was upset at her daughter's behavior and all that icky Jesus stuff.
The woman then did the unthinkable. Over the weekend, from home, on her own time, and at her own home computer, Jennie emailed out a prayer request to ten trusted friends asking for prayer for her daughter and also the school at which she worked.
But the story does not end there.
A few days later she was called back into Mr Read's office.As Cranmer notes:
"I didn't think at this point I could be more stunned. He had in his hand a copy of my private, personal email and it was highlighted all the way through.
"He said that he was going to investigate me for professional misconduct because I had been making allegations about the school and staff to members of the public."
Mrs Cain, who was not suspended, said he refused to tell her where he had got the email but said two independent governors would be taking statements and calling witnesses.
"He said the investigation could be followed by disciplinary action up to and including dismissal because of this private email."
It seems that five-year olds may celebrate Diwali or Eid in their schools, but God forbid that they might talk about Jesus.Even among themselves.
I have nothing particularly insightful to say other than it makes me mad when people like Arlen Specter, Olympia Snowe, and Susan Collins forsake their so-called political party to join forces with progressives bent on the exponential growth of an already gargantuan government. 
Perhaps these three feel they are voting their constituents minds, but can they not do this from the safety of a more progressive political party? Don't the Democrats have a big-tent?
Michael Steele, kick these bozos out on the street. Let them caucus with whom their heart lies.
Tickets are sold out at the Binder Park Zoo for the zoo's Zoorotica Tour, a special event planned by park staff to help vivacious patrons celebrate Valentine's Day as never before. 
Tired of the same old dinner and a movie on Valentine’s Day? Do you want to surprise your special someone with a unique, exciting and educational experience that neither of you will ever forget? Then join Binder Park Zoo on February 14th for a special “ZOOROTICA” tour and learn about the love lives of the scaly and slimy, the furry and fanged, and the feathered and flighted. The tour runs from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. and includes a special presentation and hors d’oeuvres. Cost per couple is $50 and reservations must be made by February 10th, 2009 by calling the zoo office Monday thru Friday- 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.Seriously?
Experienced and unabashed staff will lead you on a tour exploring the sexual lives of animals. Biting, clawing, scratching and mid-air acrobatics, animals have a way of reproducing that can be beautiful and brutal at the same time! The love tour will end with hors d’oeuvres and a special DVD presentation. Each couple will receive a small gift to commemorate their experience! This is an adults only event and participants must be 21 years or older.Twenty one years old and a little goofy in the head I'd wager. It might be wise to fingerprint the guests, just in case.
Want to make the day even more memorial? Surprise your special someone with an animal adopt in their honor. Adoptions are just one way to help support the Zoo and a special way to remember your “ZOOROTICA” tour at the Zoo.Nothing on Earth could possibly launch a successful marriage with more substance and style than popping the big question in front of a couple animals making it in the dirt.
Looking for more? The Holiday Inn of Battle Creek is offering participants of the “ZOOROTICA” tour a special discounted overnight stay for $129. Other packages are available that include overnight room, late check out at 2:00pm, champagne or sparkling grape juice, rose petals on the bed, chocolate dipped strawberries, and dinner for 2 in the Cereal City Grill with a special Valentine’s menu. To make room reservations visit www.holidayinn.com / battlecreek or call (269) 979-0500.
For those celebrating a special anniversary or special engagements or marriage proposals let the Zoo staff know in advance and they can help to incorporate your special celebrations.
A gang raped (and now pregnant) 23 year old woman has been sentenced to one year in prison and will be flogged 100 times after she delivers. Her crime is adultery.
From Robert Spencer at Dhimmi Watch who adds:
The testimony of four male witnesses is the standard for establishing guilt in sexual offenses under Sharia law, per Qur'an 4:15, 24:4, 24:6, and 24:13. Four male Muslim witnesses who saw the act. The testimony of the woman involved is inadmissible. Therefore if those four male witnesses do not come forward and the victim becomes pregnant, her pregnancy becomes evidence that she has committed adultery.Where is the UN's Council on Human Rights?
This sentence is not something extreme. It's standard Islamic Sharia.
Despite a pledge she made before assuming the office of Detroit City Council President, Monica Conyers has once again opened up her cavernous mouth and launched some ear-burning insults at another human being. Monica Conyers is the trophy wife of US. Rep. John Conyers (D).
We all know that this is not rare behavior from the gentle Monica as she has a well documented history of high profile fisticuffs and confrontations that go back several years. If you have not sparred with Monica Conyers you have been keeping a pretty low profile in Detroit politics, have been staying away from the local bar scene, and are not employed within the Denver hospitality industry.
Monica's antics even earned her a good scolding last year by an elementary school student for being rude and somewhat of a bully. The girl miraculously escaped without having her hair pulled.
Now it is Kwame Kenyatta that is under fire from Mrs. Conyers.
Sources who described the incident on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter said the Feb. 4 argument escalated after Conyers called Kenyatta stupid, following his insistence that she submit in writing her request to cut his budget.Last year Conyers made similar attacks against then City Council President Ken Cockrell, Jr., who now sits in the mayor's office after the ouster of former mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.
When Kenyatta asked her what she said, Conyers responded he needed to learn how to talk to a woman.
Kenyatta shot back that when he was with a woman, he would do so. That prompted Conyers to yell at Kenyatta that he was stupid, citing his lack of a college degree, to tell him he "can't hear" -- a dig at his hearing aid -- and to try to rub in his face rumors that Kenyatta has cancer.
The Senate, with Sens. Snowe, Collins and Specter in tow, have passed their version of the spectacularly awful stimulus package. The measure passed 61-37 with one member not voting.
When the final bill becomes resolved between the House and Senate, we can expect it to be even worse with members of both branches trying to get a little extra gravy for the people back home.
Then they can all sit back, proud of themselves, for at least having done something, even if having done nothing at all would have been the better option.
and that is exactly why she wants to promote the trillion dollar pork fest that is our current economic stimulus package in "[...] more general language so it isn’t viewed as an earmark."
In other words, make it harder to pin the dollars down.
Sell it baby!
Congress must not make the mistake of defining the pork in precise terms that might make certain monies appear to be aimed a particular constituency, but rather in "general" language, so that it seems to be directed in ambiguity.
So the money that’s going to the Army Corp of Engineers for dredging and other waterways projects, includes language to help with rebuilding locks, but doesn’t specifically name the Soo locks that allows travel between Lake Superior and the lower Great Lakes.Nice.
A foster parent in the UK that has cared for 80 foster children has been erased from the foster parenting rolls because a teenage girl under her care converted to Christianity from Islam.
The unidentified girl has been returned to her family even though it was an attack by a family member that landed the girl in foster care to begin with.
From the Daily Mail:
The woman insisted that, although she was a Christian, she had put no pressure on the Muslim girl, who was 16 at the time, to be baptised.So, after the girl voluntarily converted to Christianity, state counselors jumped to the defense of Islam trying to convert the girl back to the religion of peace. Then, they sent the girl back to her home where there is a history of abuse, and where, incidentally, apostasy may be punishable by death.
But council officials allegedly accused her of failing to ‘respect and preserve’ the child’s faith and tried to persuade the girl to reconsider her decision.
The carer, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is now preparing to take legal action against the council with the support of the girl, now 17, who also cannot be named.
Her case follows the controversy over Caroline Petrie, 45, the Christian nurse in Somerset suspended without pay in December for offering to pray for an elderly woman patient. She was reinstated this week.
Yesterday, Christians expressed outrage over the foster carer’s treatment, saying that it was a basic right for people to be able to change their religion and the woman should be praised, not punished.
Mike Judge, a spokesman for the Christian Institute, a pressure group which is funding her case, said: ‘I cannot imagine that an atheist foster carer would be struck off if a Christian child in her care stopped believing in God.
‘This is the sort of double standard which Christians are facing in modern Britain. In recent months, we have seen grandparents, a nurse, adoption agencies, firemen, registrars, elderly care homes and now a foster carer being punished because of the Christian beliefs they hold. It has got to stop.’
The carer, a mother-of-two in her 50s, has worked with young children for much of her life and became a foster parent for the local authority in the North of England in 1999. In 2007, she was asked to look after the girl, who had been assaulted by a family member.
The foster mother has also had a second young girl removed from her care, presumably to protect her from the potential abuse of ever hearing about Jesus, or of witnessing the sacrificial works of a loving mother. The Christian Institute observes that an atheist foster mother would not be struck off if a Christian child in her care stopped believing in God.
But Cranmer would go further. No Muslim (or Sikh or Hindu) foster carer would be struck off if a ‘Christian child’ in their care became sufficiently interested in these faiths to convert.
I will be out of town and mostly away from a computer until at least Sunday night. Believe me, if I do post anything it will fluffy and inconsequential, like most everything I write while in town and sitting behind a keyboard.
While I am gone this brutal winter is supposed to break a bit here and temperatures will be near freezing (from the positive side) for much of the weekend. This same weather is what drove that woolly coward Phil back into his dirty hole on Monday.
Everyone, please stay safe during the thaw. That is, everyone except you, Phil.
I did not watch the State of the State address. I did not listen to it. Sorry Nick, but I didn't even follow the live blogging on Right Michigan. None of this out of apathy but rather a head cold and the drowse that corrective over-the-counter medications can have on an old fart being recruited by every AARP outfit in the lower 48.
Early to bed and early to rise however, and I was blessed to hear one quote of Ms. Granholm's on NPR this morning.
The demand for wind and solar power in this country is about to explode. President Obama has announced ambitious plans to double our nation's use of these renewable energy sources in just three years. As the nation's demand for renewable energy goes up, so, too, does the demand for the technologies and products that are critical to the new energy industry. We will seize upon this surging demand for renewable energy to increase the supply of good-paying jobs in Michigan.This new energy industry is being completely driven at the behest of government. That is, lawyers, environmental advocates, and benevolent bureaucrats are creating a demand for product that the free market has not determined is necessary.
Islamic fascists started off the new year with a bang committing no fewer than nine separate acts of terrorism on New Year's Day alone. The month ended with at least 138 separate incidents that resulted in the killing of 566 people and the injuring of 846 more.
The bloodiest incident took place on January 10 in Hangu, Pakistan, after a Muslim sect attacked a rival sect at a funeral. When the dust settled 47 had been killed while another 60 were injured.
Separate attacks took place in Afghanistan, Gaza, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Pakistan, Russia, Somalia and Thailand.
h/t The Religion of Peace
In a related story, a moderate Muslim cleric wishes for a second Holocaust and prays Muslims will be the divine instrument.
Obviously the attitudes of mainstream Muslim clerics in the Mideast will have to be modified before Islam itself will be able to truthfully moderate. Even suggesting this moderation in the wrong circles however, is offense enough to have one's life threatened or taken.
The world's most common tactics for addressing Islamic terrorism are to cower at the feet of angry Muslims and to invoke misnamed "hate crime" legislation designed to silence the critics of Islam. These tactics do nothing to chip away at the most hateful tenets of Islam but rather strengthen them.
Oh, I'm feeling really sorry for Punxsutawney Phil, the pretentious groundhog employed to do but one simple thing a year, predict the end of winter. Word has it that it was near freezing today in eastern Pennsylvania when the self-important woodchuck decided he'd rather tuck tail and run back into his comfy underground hole than to wait out a continuing winter.
As far as I'm concerned, Phil, you are a disgrace to rodents.
Hey, I'm tired of winter too and I don't have thick fur to keep me warm and don't have a pair of gargantuan front teeth that allow me to gnaw nourishment from the hardened hulls of frozen winter plants. When I chew on things outside this time of year my tongue sticks. What am I, Phil, unimportant to you? Do my circumstances not matter?
I spent Saturday morning chipping ice from my eaves because of this whole winter thing. The troughs are ready to come tumbling down. Do you have ice building up on your stump? Do you burn wood heat in that little den of yours? How many times this year have you been stuck in a snowdrift while heading out to the grocery store? Oh wait, that is right, your handlers jammed you so full of rich nuts and berries in the fall that you've been able to sleep through most of this mess without even having to hit Kroger.
In case you are wondering Phil, my feet have been cold and wet since the beginning of November. We have the sniffles and headaches here, and our lips are chapped. Do you care, Phil? Do woodchuck lips even get chapped? Do you even have lips?
It is several degrees below freezing right now in Michigan, and it's after freaking 1:00 in the afternoon! Yesterday was the first day in nearly a month that we even broke freezing. A bolder variety of groundhog, one raised in the difficult climate of northern Michigan, would be sunning himself here today, maybe resting comfortably atop one of those huge snow drifts that appeared with a western gale over the weekend. He certainly would not be running scared for cover because of his own shadow. Who knows, he might actually straddle that very snow drift and flip off that brood of woosie cousins he has living in Punxsutawney (if you can even call that living.)
That is because Michigan is a land of continuous shadow in winter, shadow caused when sunlight has difficulty penetrating thick banks of snow producing clouds.
Phil, you get a little sunlight in Pennsylvania and retreat in a panic over your own bulbous shadow. I hate to be the one to break it to you Phil, but it might not be throes of winter at all that has you so skittish, it just might be that you simply like to gorge yourself and are ashamed of your body. And, honestly, it sort of cheeses me off to think I've got to suffer another few weeks of this crap simply because you lack the will power to push your pathetic lard ass away from the table.
In any case, next year I hope you either develop some inner fortitude or get yourself on a stair master starting no later than mid-January. Al Gore will certainly need the hysteria and my feet might still be wet.
While many centrists have moved farther to the left of the ideological divide, the far left has continued to move even farther left leaving them sitting intellectually beside an abyss of morality so dark they are openly willing to advocate the advancement of diseases alongside abortion to stunt human population growth.
Managing the human population the same way the Department of Natural Resources would a deer herd is the goal of Jonathan Porritt, a former chairman of the UK's Green Party and current chairman of the UK's Sustainable Development Commission.
From the Times.online:
COUPLES who have more than two children are being “irresponsible” by creating an unbearable burden on the environment, the government’s green adviser has warned.Despite his claims, his advocacy ignores personal responsibility altogether and quickly leaps to government funding and nannystate intrusion, conveniently ignoring any need for personal responsibility. He isn't engaging in activity that asks for compliance, but instead is seeking control over individuals' lives to force them to do what he wants them to do--for our own good.
Jonathon Porritt, who chairs the government’s Sustainable Development Commission, says curbing population growth through contraception and abortion must be at the heart of policies to fight global warming. He says political leaders and green campaigners should stop dodging the issue of environmental harm caused by an expanding population.
A report by the commission, to be published next month, will say that governments must reduce population growth through better family planning.
“I am unapologetic about asking people to connect up their own responsibility for their total environmental footprint and how they decide to procreate and how many children they think are appropriate,” Porritt said.
Porritt, a former chairman of the Green party, says the government must improve family planning, even if it means shifting money from curing illness to increasing contraception and abortion.How is this "asking people to connect up their responsibility for their total environment footprint and how they decide to procreate and how many children they think are appropriate?" It seems quite obvious the sheep in the UK need not think at all because Mr. Porritt has already done all the thinking that is necessary.
I cannot wait until this occurs in America, the adoption of European style government provided health care for all citizens. (Except the rich who will go overseas and the bureaucrats who will find loopholes.)
I think adopting a bureaucracy that extends the waiting periods for critical tests and surgeries is a very reasonable cost when the benefits are so high. Like, for instance, a national health care system where sanitary concerns can be allowed to lapse in order to meet the criteria of one particular religion, and one in which benevolent officials can suspend Christians workers who have the nerve to ask if they can pray for a patient.
Sure, it would be great if the health of the patient could also be involved, but given the option, I would gladly adopt substandard health care for the option of being used as a tool for government officials to guarantee that the great melting pot of America is tossed out the window in preference for multiculturalism.
I'm unselfish that way.
