Unions Hate Cheap Food; Love Cheap Politicians.

Nick Gillespie of Reason.TV and Steven Malanga of City Journal can deconstruct a specious argument better than anyone, and they do just that in the above video. They easily expose the ridiculousness of the statements of New York politicians and union thugs who are doing their best to "save" the city of New York from the evil Walmart. Surely they're aware that there will be plenty of jobs created by a new Walmart (and the food bills of New York residents will decline), but the fortunate New York residents filling those new jobs will not be paying union dues, so there will be less money for union officials to fund the campaigns of their favorite politicians. It really is that simple.

Iditarod 2011: Race Review

Click below to see a complete race review of the 2011 Iditarod, The Last Great Race on Earth.

http://iditarodblogs.com/news/files/2011/04/11-Post-Race-e_Runner.pdf

Jimmy Carter is still a Useful Idiot

Watch this video from RealClearPolitics, and I'm sure you'll agree. The man is hopelessly naive.

Carter: U.S. Committing "Human Rights Violation" Against North Koreans

Andrew Klavan: How to Behave During an Islamic Massacre

Andrew Klavan of PJTV and City Journal loves to use satire to make his points, and he's good at it. His target in the below linked video is moral relativism, which just happens to be the thing against which Pope Benedict XVI has been preaching since he succeeded Pope John Paul II. Our current Pontiff has made it his primary battle, and often refers to the problem as "The Dictatorship of Relativism."

http://www.pjtv.com/?cmd=mpg&mpid=80&load=5298

Michael Ramirez: If Presidents Could Fly

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Trifecta: "Whittle's 6 Amendments to Fix America..."

Bill Whittle, Steve Green, and Scott Ott of PJTV give us their ideas to fix our declining country.

http://www.pjtv.com/?cmd=mpg&mpid=105&load=5329

Back on May 7, 2009, I posted on this Blog what I (stealing from Dean Swift) immodestly called a "Seven Step Modest Proposal to Improve Representation." Here they are again:

1. Members of the U. S. House of Representatives may serve only two (two year) terms in their lifetime, and those terms need not be served consecutively. They may thereafter serve in the U. S. Senate, but not in the term immediately succeeding their final term in the House.

2. Members of the U. S. Senate may serve only one six year term in their lifetime. They may thereafter serve two terms in the House of representatives but not in the term immediately succeeding their term in the Senate.

3. The House and the Senate will be modeled after the U. S. Military Reserve Force. Both Houses will meet in Washington D. C. one weekend each month, and for two weeks each summer. The weekend meetings, when possible, will be accomplished by way of telephone or video conferencing.

4. Each member of the House and Senate will have a full-time staff made up of two members in Washington D. C., and one in the home district. The Senate staff member may serve anywhere in the state, at the discretion of the Senator.

5. In order to be a candidate for either the House of Representatives or the Senate, the individual must have served in the U. S. Military. Those not eligible for active combat service must have served in some ancillary military capacity.

6. All candidates for seats in the House of Representatives and the Senate must pass an intelligence measuring test that demonstrates, at a minimum, competency in reading, writing, and balancing a checkbook.

7. All travel and living expenses of members of Congress in connection with their official duties will be reimbursed by the U. S. Treasury. Retirement and health insurance will not be provided, but a modest sum will be paid to each member, while serving, which can be used to contribute to any personal retirement or health insurance plan set up by the member.

They still sound good to me.

Vortex: President Obama and The Resurrection

Dear Friend in Christ,

Easter is the Supreme moment of all human history - it is THE moment! And the reason is very clear. But for the President of the United States, it's still kind of vague. Please watch this episode of The Vortex and pass it along to as many friends and family as possible.

http://www.youtube.com/user/RealCatholicTV?feature=mhum#p/u/0/qM_AtdIc7a0%3Cbr%20/%3E

GOD Bless you and your loved ones,

Michael Voris
~senior executive producer, RealCatholicTV.com

A Tea Party for Finland - the First in Europe

(Click to enlarge)

From The Hill's Pundits Blog:

The problem with globalization, aside from megalomania, is that it stretches the culture to its thinnest and brings it to its maximum least potential: everyone a John Lennon, everyone a Marx, everyone an Oprah, everyone an Obama. Then it snaps. What you had at the beginning was Lord Nelson. What you get at the end is "American Idol." At the beginning you get Jefferson. At the end you get Joe Biden.

As The New York Times reports, in the general election in Finland last weekend, “the nationalist and populist True Finn Party emerged from political obscurity after largely campaigning on the evils of the European Union and its bailouts of Greece and Ireland. It claimed 39 seats in Finland’s Parliament — almost eight times the number it won in the 2007 election — and it is likely to become a partner in any coalition government.”

For the Times, it is the new terror that dare not speak its name, but its name is Tea Party. And: “Finland is not alone. Anti-European Union and anti-immigration parties have been on the rise in Sweden, Italy, Hungary and the Netherlands in the past year, and more may follow. It is a worrisome trend for supporters of the union, and for efforts to safeguard the euro by offering emergency loans to the weakest member nations and to better coordinate budget and spending policies in the countries that use it.”

Not a surprise that the Finns turned first. They are said to be as tough as boiled owl and singularly held off Stalin in the Winter War. Now they hold off the mediocrity which is the EU.


Wonder what their version of our "Don't Tread on Me" flag looks like?

Michael Ramirez on Green Energy

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Vortex: Living the Faith Radically, Part 3

Dear Friend in Christ,

The recent talk in Scranton was a great success, and we've uploaded a video of it for you to watch. Please take about 20 minutes to watch this third part of the talk, and share it with your friends and family.

http://www.youtube.com/user/RealCatholicTV?feature=mhum#p/u/0/0c-3yb50MTE

To buy a copy of the talk on DVD, please use the link below;

http://www.realcatholictv.com/store/index.php?product=158&tag=37

GOD Bless you and your loved ones,

Michael Voris
~senior executive producer, RealCatholicTV.com

Bill Whittle: The Enigma, Part 1: Strange Bedfellows

Finally, someone had the courage to look closely into the background of Barack Obama, and report it truthfully. Bill Whittle has done the research that one would expect the mainstream media would have done during the last presidential campaign. They might, of course, have done the same research but decided it was not relevant - especially since it could possibly have hurt the chances of Obama's election.

http://youtu.be/aVgRRbDuZvY

Chip Bok on Redistribution of Wealth

Easter Sunday 2011

”You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified.

He has risen, he is not here” (Mk 16:6).


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAySvgsKcx8


Have a Beautiful Easter Sunday.

Word on Fire: The Eucharist

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Fr. Robert Barron of Word on Fire sent this message today with a short video of a homily in which he discusses the history (back to the Old Testament's Arc of the Covenant) of the Holy Eucharist.

For earlier posts on Father Barron and Word on Fire, please click Here and Here.

Vortex: Living the Faith Radically, Part 2

Dear Friend in Christ,

The recent talk in Scranton was a great success, and we've uploaded a video of it for you to watch. Please take about 20 minutes to watch this second part of the talk, and share it with your friends and family.

http://www.youtube.com/user/RealCatholicTV?feature=mhum#p/u/0/EhkMtPr65M0

To buy a copy of the talk on DVD, please use the link below;

http://www.realcatholictv.com/store/index.php?product=158&tag=37

GOD Bless you and your loved ones,

Michael Voris
~senior executive producer, RealCatholicTV.com

Vortex: Living the Faith Radically, Part 1

Dear Friend in Christ,

The recent talk in Scranton was a great success, and we've uploaded a video of it for you to watch. Please take about 20 minutes to watch this first part of the talk, and share it with your friends and family.

http://www.youtube.com/user/RealCatholicTV?feature=mhum#p/u/0/PzkMpIZc3ss

To buy a copy of the talk on DVD, please use the link below;

http://www.realcatholictv.com/store/index.php?product=158&tag=37

GOD Bless you and your loved ones,

Michael Voris
~senior executive producer, RealCatholicTV.com

Cancer Causing Light Bulbs?

The Telegraph published a piece today about the soon-to-be mandated compact fluorescent light bulbs, and how they could cause a series of maladies - including cancer. Just what we need in our homes: yet another cancer causing element.

Some clips:

Fears have been reignited about the safety of energy saving light bulbs after a group of scientists warned that they contain cancer causing chemicals.
Scientists claim that several carcinogenic chemicals are released when energy saving light bulbs are switched on.

Their report advises that the bulbs should not be left on for extended periods, particularly near someone’s head, as they emit poisonous materials when switched on.
Peter Braun, who carried out the tests at the Berlin's Alab Laboratory, said: “For such carcinogenic substances it is important they are kept as far away as possible from the human environment.”

The latest report follows claims by Abraham Haim, a professor of biology at Haifa University in Israel, that the bulbs could result in higher breast cancer rates if used late at night.
He said that the bluer light that CFLs emitted closely mimicked daylight, disrupting the body's production of the hormone melatonin more than older-style filament bulbs, which cast a yellower light.
The Migraine Action Association has warned that they could trigger migraines and skin care specialists have claimed that their intense light could exacerbate a range of existing skin problems.

Click below to read the whole article.

Energy saving light bulbs 'contain cancer causing chemicals'

What's The Independent Payment Advisory Board? It's a Death Panel!

Stanley Kurtz, writing on The Corner on National Review Online:

They’re back. Rationing, death panels, socialism, all those nasty old words that helped bring Republicans victory in 2010, and that came to seem so impolite after November of that year. They’re back because of IPAB. Remember that acronym. It stand for The Independent Payment Advisory Board. IPAB is the real death panel, the true seat of rationing, and the royal road to health-care socialism. President Obama won’t admit to any of that, but his speech in response to Paul Ryan’s plan did push IPAB out of the shadows and into public view, however briefly.

In his speech on the deficit, Obama pointed to IPAB as an answer to Paul Ryan’s plan. In Ryan’s vision, competition among insurers will force efficiencies and lower prices. Under Obama’s plan, in contrast, health-care prices for the elderly would be controlled by IPAB. Ryan’s plan puts consumers in the driver’s seat, but also exposes them to the risk of bad choices and limited subsidies. While Obama’s plan offers government-guaranteed care, IPAB’s price controls will lead to one-size-fits-all rationing. As IPAB caps Medicare payments for various services, the elderly will be unable to obtain many kinds of care, or will experience de facto rationing via long treatment delays and sharp declines in the quality of care. And by the way, IPAB rationing will hit many current seniors, whereas Ryan’s reform of Medicare will never affect anyone now 55 or older.
Rationing, death panels, socialism, and deception. It’s all there. When Sarah Palin first raised the “death panel” issue, she was referring to end-of-life counseling. But IPAB is the real death panel (as Palin herself later noted), a body of unelected bureaucrats with the power to cut off care through arbitrary rules based on one-size-fits-all cost calculations, just as in Britain. IPAB is the key to socialized, single-payer health-care, which is and has always been Obama’s ultimate goal.
Click below to read the entire post by Stanley Kurtz.

IPAB, Obama, and Socialism - By Stanley Kurtz - The Corner - National Review Online

Michael Ramirez on Alternative Fuels

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Sandy Springs, Georgia: A New Paradigm

That's Eva Galambos, PhD. She's a retired economist who specialized in urban finance and labor economics. The people who live (and pay taxes) in Sandy Springs, Georgia call her Mayor, and they're extremely lucky to have her. What she, with the help of other like-minded civic heroes, accomplished in Sandy Springs in the past five years would make Ayn Rand proud. The Heritage Foundation featured Sandy Springs on their Blog, The Foundry yesterday. Don't miss the terrific video on the site produced by Reason.Com.

Reason.com explains:

While cities across the country are cutting services, raising taxes and contemplating bankruptcy, something extraordinary is happening in a suburban community just north of Atlanta, Georgia.

Since incorporating in 2005, Sandy Springs has improved its services, invested tens of millions of dollars in infrastructure and kept taxes flat. And get this: Sandy Springs has no long-term liabilities.

The Heritage Foundation adds:

How’d they do it? Privatizing city services like paving streets, picking up trash and maintaining parks, doing for $25 million what would cost $50 million under a traditional city system. And, as Sandy Springs’ mayor Eva Galambo (sic) says, ”In comparison to all these other cities and counties that are having to furlough and having these terrible pension problems, our situation is excellent.”

For already existing cities about to go bankrupt, there is a way out. The city employees who have been counting on retiring at a young age and living off the taxpayers for the rest of their lives, have to face a choice: lose everything, or agree to convert those unsustainable pensions into some type of defined contribution plan as opposed to the defined benefits plan they had been promised by politicians who were simply buying their votes and allegiance with pie in the sky rhetoric. It shouldn't take someone with an advanced degree in Economics to understand why so many cities (not to mention a former world leading country) are going broke.

Why Ladies Love 'Atlas Shrugged' the Movie

That's Amy Holmes, who apparently is no longer with CNN since she's making videos for PJTV. In the below video she talks with Katie Pavlich and Kristen Soltis about part 1 of the just released movie "Atlas Shrugged." They're in agreement that this is a film that women (especially women of strength) will love.

http://www.pjtv.com/?cmd=mpg&mpid=174&load=5269

Sundays are for Beauty: Capital Children's Choir

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUqexzxj8Vk

"Who Is It"

His embrace, a fortress
It fuels me
And places
A skeleton of trust
Right beneath us
Bone by bone
Stone by stone
If you ask yourself patiently and carefully:
Who is it ?
Who is it that never lets you down ?
Who is it that gave you back your crown ?
And the ornaments are going around
Now they're handing it over
Handing it over

He demands a closeness
We all have earned a lightness
Carry my joy on the left
Carry my pain on the right

If you ask yourself patiently and carefully:
Who is it ?
Who is it that never lets you down ?
Who is it that gave you back your crown ?
And the ornaments are going around
Now they're handing it over
Handing it over


Have a Beautiful Sunday.

Ryan’s Budget Passes House: W/Not One Democrat Vote

Paul Ryan on the House Floor today: "We have a president who is unwilling to lead; we have too many politicians worried about the next election and not worried about the next generation."

Please watch the video of Rep. Ryan's remarks on the floor today. His budget passed by a vote of 235 - 193 with not one Democrat having the courage to vote for it.

Ryan’s Budget Passes House - By Daniel Foster - The Corner - National Review Online

Paul Ryan 3; Barack Obama 0

Joel B. Pollak was keeping score in the three debates between Barack Obama and Paul Ryan this year, and posted the results today on BigGovernment.Com.

First, he won the health care debate handily. President Obama had no answer to Paul Ryan’s charge that ObamaCare double-counted the $500 billion “savings” it had cut from Medicare to spend elsewhere. Later, even Obama’s own head of Health and Human Services had to admit that Ryan was right.

Then Ryan won the debate over the budget and the economy. His 2012 budget, which was the first in modern political history to tackle the fundamental causes of America’s long-term public debt, was so much better than Obama’s that the President asked for a “do-over.” Yesterday, he flubbed that chance.

In the foreign policy debate, Ryan has won by forfeit. (To be fair, almost anyone, aside from the tiny isolationist minority inside both parties, would defeat the President’s policy of appeasement and incoherence, which has drastically reduced American power and strengthened our enemies.)

What is even more remarkable about Rep. Ryan’s victories in these debates is that he has been able to bring the rest of the country along with him on some of the most controversial and consequential issues facing our Republic, arguing from conservative principles that the left had once dared the GOP to try.

You can read Pollak's whole post by clicking here. Be sure to watch the video of Ryan at "The Bipartisan White House Summit on Deficit Reduction."

St. Giuseppe Moscati: Doctor to the Poor

Giuseppe Moscati (1880-1927) was an Italian doctor and university professor noted for his piety as well as his pioneering work as a medical doctor. He devoted his professional life to treating the poor, and was canonized a saint by Pope John Paul II on October 25, 1987.

"St. Giuseppe Moscati - Doctor of the Poor" is a 2007 biographical movie, made in Italy, that chronicles his life between 1903 and 1927, the year of his death.

The movie is available at Amazon.com.

You can watch a trailer of the movie by clicking on the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0S2v7fkrGM0&feature=related

Bishop Chaput: Politics and the Devil

Most Reverend Charles Chaput, Archbishop of Denver, delivered a lecture to a Pro-Life Student Group at Notre Dame University (the university infamous for inviting the most pro-abortion president in history to deliver the commencement address in 2009). Bishop Chaput wrote an essay based on that lecture in which he addresses the influence of the devil in the fight for the life of the unborn.

The Cardinal Newman Society reported on Bishop Chaput's lecture and subsequent essay, and published some clips from the essay here.

You can read the whole essay by clicking here.