Battle Hymn of the Republic -- Mormon Tabernacle Choir

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There Oughta Be a Law...Oh, Wait...There Is a Law

Cornell Law Library

Deserving of much reposting, this heads-up from The PJ Tatler about a lil' ol' section of the U.S. Code, namely:  Title 18 › Part I › Chapter 13 › § 241:

The story about the SWATTING and intimidation is shocking.  It might also be illegal.

18 USC 241 prohibits intimidation against Americans for exercising free speech rights.  The statute says:

If two or more persons conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or because of his having so exercised the same; They shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.

And there's more, way more, to be learned about "18 USC § 241 - Conspiracy against rights" at the Legal Information Institute at the Cornell University Law School.

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Streisand on $$$ She Gave "Speedway Bomber": "No Comment"

Watching the numbers, FrontPageMag.com, in an excellent article, published this bit of information about some of the financial backers of a tax-exempt organization directed by Brett Kimberlin, the convicted "Speedway Bomber":

The mission of the other Kimberlin-created group, the Justice Through Music Project, is to somehow pound political enlightenment into the skulls of young people through music. The group has received at least $70,000 in grants from the Tides Foundation since 2006. Barbra Streisand has given JTMP at least $10,000 through her foundation since 2006. Teresa Heinz Kerry, wife of Sen. John Kerry (D-Massachusetts), is CEO of the Heinz Family Foundation. That charity has given JTMP at least $20,000 since 2006.

From American Thinker: 

The Justice Through Music Project has collected $1.8 million from the usual suspects on the political left over the last eight years, including these grants. 

2005
Farview Foundation ..................................... $9,000

2006
Tides Foundation ........................................ $60,000
Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift ......... $45,000
HKH Foundation ...................................... $20,000
Heinz Family Foundation ......................... $20,000
Olive Branch Foundation ......................... $15,000
Farview Foundation ................................. $10,000
Barbra Streisand Foundation .....................$5,000

2007
Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift ......... $19,000

2008
Threshold Foundation ............................ $20,000
Tides Foundation .................................... $10,000
Nathan Cummings Foundation ............... $10,000
Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift ......... $20,000
Fred Gellert Family Foundation ................ $5,000
Silicon Valley Community Foundation ..... $5,000
Barbra Streisand Foundation .................... $5,000

2009
Schwab Charitable Fund ............................ $10,000
Silicon Valley Community Foundation .... $10,000
Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift ......... $6,000

TOTAL (2005-2009) ..................................$304,000

[That's leaves $1.5 million of donations unaccounted for. I wonder who gave Brett Kimberlin's organization that dough?]

Breitbart.com investigated:

A spokesperson for Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift, which is listed by JTMP over several years, explained to Breitbart News that the fund is donor-advised, meaning that it does not have discretion over donations made by individuals or organizations with accounts at the fund. Donors merely park their funds at Fidelity to receive an immediate charitable tax deduction, and direct those funds over time, as they wish, to any 501(c)3. 

Schwab Charitable Fund had this to say:

National donor advised funds like Schwab Charitable Fund are cause-neutral, and exist to facilitate the charitable giving of their clients.  Grants do not in any way reflect the views or perspectives of Schwab, Schwab Charitable or the management of either organization.   

Oh, and the response from the Barbra Streisand Foundation, which does have discretion over where they give money?

"No comment."

No surprise there.  Is there a PR guy in the house?

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ObamaCare Victory: 1st Catholic University Drops Student Health Insurance

If Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio did not drop its $600 per year student health insurance plan when it expires this coming August, they would have to double the cost of the policy to $1,200 next year, and triple it to $1,800 the year after that.

Thank you, Mr. Obama. "If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan." Isn't that what you promised?

And thank you to Ms. Sebelius, Ms. Fluke, and the Bradley University student who told Mitt Romney, "You're all for like 'yay freedom and all this stuff and yay pursuit of happiness.' You know what would make me happy? Free birth control."

Franciscan University leaders point out that to mandate that their students pay exorbitant health insurance costs would be immoral in itself, not to mention the immorality of teaching one thing in the classroom (the sacredness of life) and doing another (purchasing contraception and abortion-inducing drugs for students).

Obviously, as Investors Business Daily reminds us:

It's the first shoe to drop in what will be a cascade of such decisions. Franciscan University was able to drop its coverage, but as the U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops has warned, other institutions and charities may be forced to close, sell off their assets or turn them over to secular operators in the wake of ObamaCare's unacceptable mandates and costs.

Teresa, a Franciscan University alum, published the University's new policy:

Campus Health Insurance Policy

The Obama Administration has mandated that all health insurance plans must cover “women’s health services” including contraception, sterilization, and abortion-causing medications as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). Up to this time, Franciscan University has specifically excluded these services and products from its student health insurance policy, and we will not participate in a plan that requires us to violate the consistent teachings of the Catholic Church on the sacredness of human life.

Additionally, the PPACA increased the mandated maximum coverage amount for student policies to $100,000 for the 2012-13 school year, which would effectively double your premium cost for the policy in fall 2012, with the expectation of further increases in the future.

Due to these changes in regulation by the federal government, beginning with the 2012-13 school year, the University 1) will no longer require that all full-time undergraduate students carry health insurance, 2) will no longer offer a student health insurance plan, and 3) will no longer bill those not covered under a parent/guardian plan or personal plan for student health insurance. The current student health insurance plan will expire on August 15, 2012.

We encourage you to decide how you are going to provide for accidents or illnesses requiring visits to physicians, health clinics, or the hospital emergency room while you are a student here. As always, our Health Center on campus will be staffed by a certified nurse practitioner Monday – Friday during normal business hours. No insurance is necessary to receive basic health-related services at the Health Center, and the visits cost only $5 at the time of service. However, if you are referred off campus for further lab testing, physician specialists, X-rays, etc., you will be responsible to pay for those services.

As Theresa points out, the idea is to force everyone into more Gov't "care."

Yeah, and we all feel so cared for. Particularly those of us who don't subscribe to Obama's version of "freedom." 
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Liberals Are Suckers: Obama Campaign Edition

 

Thank you, Stilton Jarlsberg.

I remember when a local Democrat ran for office citing as important experience having slipped out of the middle class into poverty.  Liberals elected that politician to handle their money. With predictable results.

And then they blamed Conservatives for those results.

Yep. Liberals prefer leaders who have no experience in creating wealth. They have enormous tolerance, however, for politicians who pick their pockets.

Suckers.
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Liberals are Suckers: Notre Dame Edition

In May of 2009, the decision makers of the Catholic University of Notre Dame went out of their way to award an honorary law degree President Barack Obama. This action, the University explained, was a "good thing for the president and for the causes we care about."

Suckers.

Before Notre Dame knew what hit them, said Honoree, who, not-so-incidentally, is an outspoken advocate of abortion and infanticide, a Democrat, and a socialist, determined that Notre Dame pick up the tab for the "abortion-inducing drugs, contraceptives and sterilization procedures" that he advocates.

Only Liberal academics wouldn't have seen that coming.

Next comes a legal battle featuring The Fighting Irish vs. Harvard.

And only a Liberal White House wouldn't have seen that coming.
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He's Still Working Miracles -- Sensational Nightingales

Regular readers of this blog know that I like to put first things first on the first day of the week. Yesterday, life being what it is, I missed my regular Sunday post.

Playing catch-up now. Enjoy!

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This Is "Science"?

Don't you love it when Big Nanny uses the latest technology and hired brains to tell you why you should be emptying your wallet to save the world? From Watts Up With That:

Its always important to remember what has been predicted by the elders of science, and to review those predictions when the time is right. In four months, just 132 days from now at the end of summer on the Autumnal Equinox September 22nd 2012, the Arctic will be “nearly ice free” according to a prominent NASA scientist in a National Geographic article on December 12, 2007.

Ahem:

Arctic Sea Ice Comparison, Then and Now: 5/12/07 to 5/12/12
Credit: Arctic Climate Research at the University of Illinois

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My Mother's Faith -- Cynthia Clawson

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Question of the Day

As posed by iOwnTheWorld:

Why Is Gay Marriage a State’s Right Issue But Abortion is a Federal One?

And that goes for Health Care and Health Care Reform, too.
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About That Doctored Obama/Situation Room Photo

Read about it at American Thinker.
H/t: About.com

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Obama's War on WV Mountain Mamas Hits Progressive Paradise

It's not just Mama Grizzlies that Obama has it out for.

As William Jacobson pointed out today, "Obama already had it out for West Virginia" well before  Democrats in at least 10 West Virginia counties demonstrated that, given their druthers, they'd prefer Keith Judd (aka federal prison inmate Number 11593-051) as their 2012 presidential candidate to that other guy. Way back in January of 2011, as part of Obama's Cap and Trade "investment," the EPA moved

to revoke the long-standing permits for a mammoth coal mine in West Virginia send[ing] a strong signal that President Obama plans to implement key parts of his agenda . . . .

I have to hand it to West Virginia's Democrats for their clear appreciation of the disastrous effects that Obama's goal to bankrupt clean-coal power plants is having on their lives.

I wish the same were true here in Progressive Paradise, where Obama's war on clean coal recently shut down our local clean-coal power plant, AES Cayuga (formerly Milliken Station). This power supplier used to consume 80 to 100 railroad carloads of West Virginia and western Pennsylvania coal several times a week, back before Obama waged war on clean coal, clean-coal technologies, and the people whose livelihoods and energy use depend on it.

One of America's newly idle power stations. Brownouts, anyone?

AES Cayuga has not produced power since early March because it cannot compete with power plants using lower cost natural gas. . . . The company has sustained losses of tens of millions of dollars since 2010.

Way to go, Progressive Democrats.

But oops, what's this?

AES Cayuga [had] not only been the largest single entity tax payer for the Town of Lansing and the Lansing Central School District, but in better times they had also subsidized local charities, organizations, and facilities such as the YMCA.

Observed one county legislator here in Progressive Paradise:

AES Cayuga has been a major source of tax revenue for the past 50 years, and its downturn has had a major negative effect on Tompkins County and the Town of Lansing in particular.

In the twisty-turny landscape of Progressive Paradise, one of New York State's lonely Republicans has taken it upon himself to save the anti-coal, anti-fracking, anti-Constitution (i.e., pro-Obama) Democrats of Progressive Paradise from themselves.

Sen. Michael Nozzolio, a Republican state senator from a neighboring county, has proposed legislation to aid the plant. Which means, in layman's terms, a quick role reversal: Instead of profits from the power plant keeping local schools and charities running, New York State's Obama-lovin' Progressive moms will be emptying their "hope 'n change" purses to keep the power plant running. At Obama-inflated prices.

Pretty slick, eh?

Naturally, local Democrats are grateful: "Sen. Nozzolio learned of the difficulties facing AES in the fall of 2011 and has worked toward a positive outcome for all involved. We truly appreciate all of his efforts."

I won't count on that gratitude turning into votes on the Republican ticket come November.

I will count it as another opportunity for local Progressive Democrats to deny responsibility for the financial disasters caused by their own policies.
 
Update: For more on this issue, see South of 5 and 20 and One of Nine.
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Bwah ha ha: WH Warns Socialist Hollande Not to Raise Taxes or Spending

As usual, the Obama administration runs on the motto, "Do as I say, not as I do."

Today's belly laugh via The Washington Examiner:

President Obama's spokesman warned the new socialist president-elect of France not to implement his campaign agenda of ending austerity measures, indicating that such a reversal could damage the world economy.

Ya think?

"A balanced approach . . . Both fiscal consolidation and efforts to boost the recovery is the right approach for Europe," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters today. "That's an approach that he [Obama] thinks ensures that the recovery continues while putting our fiscal house in order."

Hollande campaigned on a no-austerity-for-Europe platform built with planks such as a 75% tax on incomes of the wealthy, lowering of manual worker retirement age from 62 to 60, raising of the minimum wage, and the hiring of 60,000 new teachers--all in a country burdened with 10% unemployment and a public debt equal to 86% of GDP.

It makes one wonder what Obama could possibly dislike about Hollande's plans, but a glance at the fine print reveals that Hollande intends to start his presidency with "a few quick symbolic measures" such as freezing the cost of fuel for three months and cutting his own presidential salary by 30%.

Oh.
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Tonight: There's a Super Moon on the Rise

Tonight's full moon will appear 14% larger and 30% brighter than usual. Although the moon reached fullness last night, tonight (weather permitting) we have the opportunity to see it rise above the horizon, when the moon appears largest to the naked eye.

You can find the moonrise time for your location here. In the USA, moonrise will be sometime between 9:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m., depending on altitude.

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I am the Vine -- Daniel Markoya

(From John 15:5)

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May Day: Occupy Cleveland Nuts Try to Blow Up Bridge (UPDATED)

Occupy Cleveland protester and alleged bomber
wanna-be, Brandon Baxter, reportedly
had been "living on the streets."
He turned 20 years old on Friday.
Photo credit: FBI.

Blogger Adrienne, an advocate of civilized discourse and behavior, remembers celebrations of May Day involving baskets of flowers and children's flights around a Maypole.

With a darker view of society, Occupy Whatever members view May Day as a worker rights holiday featuring celebrations of anarchy and revolution (livestream via Adrienne's Corner and here).

Today, Cleveland area FBI agents observed May Day by escorting to court a trio of Occupy-connected, self-proclaimed anarchists who attempted to blow up a bridge on state Route 82 in Cuyahoga Valley National Park:


Arrested yesterday in connection with the bomb plot were Brandon L. Baxter, 20, Connor C. Stevens, 20, Joshua S. Stafford, 23, Douglas L. Wright, 26, and Anthony Hayne, 35. Three of these men, Baxter, Wright, and Hayne "are being charged with conspiracy and attempted use of explosive materials to damage physical property affecting interstate commerce."

Occupy Cleveland organizer Anthony Hayne. 
Photo credit: Cory Shaffer

Charges against Stevens and Stafford are pending.

Not being held accountable are the Occupiers and Occupier fans who glamorize socialism, communism, anarchy, street violence, and revolution.

Update: 5/2/12:

Via CBS Chicago, the Occupy Cleveland anarchists who planned to blow up a Cleveland area bridge "also talked about plotting acts of terror in Chicago during the NATO summit":

Douglas Wright, age 26

Wright said it would be “crazy” in Cleveland after the group blew up the bridge, but “crazier in Chicago with people coming from everywhere to Chicago to protest the NATO summit. Wright also “predicted a ‘s**t load’ of people going to Chicago to protest the summit would first come to Cleveland, presumably drawn by the destruction of the bridge.

He predicted that anarchists ultimately headed to Chicago would riot in Cleveland for a week, “then everyone will leave and downtown Cleveland will ‘be a pile of rubble and ashes,’ as anarchists in every major city in the country will ultimately be ‘rioting and destroying each city,’” the criminal complaint said.

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How Great Thou Art -- Susan Boyle

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Happy Birthday, Israel

Today is Independence Day in Israel.

Yom Ha'atzmaut is celebrated on the 5th day of Iyar (ה' באייר) in the Hebrew calendar, the anniversary of the day in which Israel independence was proclaimed, when David Ben-Gurion publicly read the Israeli Declaration of Independence. The corresponding Gregorian date was 14 May 1948.

   

    

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Al Gore Effect Visits Earth Day in Progressive Paradise

Photo by Rachel Burkholder

I did feel sorry for the bundled-up-against-the-cold-wind-and-rain folks celebrating Earth Day yesterday here in Progressive Paradise, where one group gamely set about making smoothies with a bicycle-powered blender.

Despite hope for change (as long as the change is not a warmer globe), Progressive Paradise did not turn into a tropical paradise where heating is unnecessary, air conditioning is undesirable, and raw materials for smoothies are available for plucking off the nearest tree.

Mother Earth, a realist if ever there was one, offered her wanna-be protectors a lesson in reality when the wet chill she supplied for the Earth's Day celebration deteriorated into a late-night snow and ice storm that bent trees to the ground, closed area schools, and left about 4,000 (so far) local people without power. 

In other words, Earth Day celebrants got their wish, sort of. Right on cue, school buses stopped guzzling gas, as did the automobiles of parents who otherwise would have driven to gainful employment or on errands utilizing the services goods provided by the gainfully employed.

Bike paths were uncongested, leaving home-bound Earth Day celebrants who happen to own a bicycle-powered blender with an available bicycle with which to churn up tasty smoothies, provided that they are able bodied and had on hand fruits and vegetables grown in a more southern clime and transported north to their local health-food store, presumably by bicycle cart. Unless, of course, they still had in storage in their not-yet bicycle-powered home freezer some of the home-grown fruits and vegetables they harvested about eight months ago.

Like most days when Mother Nature's personal calendar reads: "snow day in Progressive Paradise," today plenty of burning logs in fireplaces and wood stoves (a favorite heating source of Earth Day celebrants) are pumping quantities of CO2 into the atmosphere at rates far surpassing other fuels, particularly the natural gas that Earth Day groups urged others to refrain from using (except when home-canning local foods with that bicycle-powered pressure canner manufactured from metal ores hand-shoveled from the Earth, refined by bicycle power, and manufactured in a garage somewhere in California).

I know, I know, it's science in its infancy. Well, maybe toddlerhood. Here's a design that was used in 1881, before the development of 58 ferad ultracapacitors and 1000 watt power inverters:

I think we should send one to BO to operate in the White House garden. Pending approval by PETA and the Department of Energy.

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Standing on the Promises of God -- The Sensational Nightingales

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