John's Recommended Articles

An attempt to circumvent the Electoral College is really an urban power grab.
"Rather than trying to eviscerate the Electoral College, we should be embracing it. It was put in the Constitution to allow states to choose presidents, for we are a republic based on the separation of powers, not a direct democracy. And the Electoral College--just like the Senate--was intended to protect the residents of small states."

Proof that photo fraud is a common propaganda tool being used in Lebanon.

Dinky Pluto loses its status as planet
There are 9 - er... make that 8 planets in the solar system...

Forbes.com: "Guys: A word of advice. Marry pretty women or ugly ones. Short ones or tall ones. Blondes or brunettes. Just, whatever you do, don't marry a woman with a career.

Why? Because if many social scientists are to be believed, you run a higher risk of having a rocky marriage. While everyone knows that marriage can be stressful, recent studies have found professional women are more likely to get divorced, more likely to cheat, less likely to have children, and, if they do have kids, they are more likely to be unhappy about it. A recent study in Social Forces, a research journal, found that women--even those with a 'feminist' outlook--are happier when their husband is the primary breadwinner."

Rampant insecurity--and a detailed plan to combat it.
"The deterioration of security in Baghdad since February's attack on the Samara Mosque is the result of the competition between Sunni and Shiite extremists to expand their control and influence throughout the capital.... To combat this complex problem, Iraq's national unity government, led by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, has made securing Baghdad its top priority.

Moreover, as tragic and dangerous as the ongoing violence is to our shared vision of a free and prosperous Iraq, it is not representative of the Iraqi people's sentiments toward one another. In July, a poll by the International Republican Institute, a nonpartisan organization dedicated to democracy promotion, found that 94% of Iraqis said they support a 'unity' government representing all sects and ethnic communities, with only 2% opposed. Some 78% of Iraqis opposed Iraq being segregated by religion or ethnicity, with only 13% in favor. Even in Baghdad, where the worst of Iraq's sectarian violence has occurred, 76% of those surveyed opposed ethnic separation, with only 10% favoring it. The challenge of the Baghdad Security Plan and its accompanying effort at national reconciliation is to realize the overwhelming majority of Iraqis desire to live in peace with one another against the violent minority who seek to impose their vision of hatred and oppression."

A talk given by Joseph Fielding McConkie on November 5, 2005, at a Joseph Smith Symposium held in Palmyra, New York.: "In revelation both ancient and modern, the Lord refers to his own words as being "sharper than a two edged sword." In modern vernacular, much that he said is "politically incorrect." It is judgmental, divisive, rigid, closed-minded, and all too often just plain embarrassing. In many of our instructional meetings, the teaching of ethics prevails over the teaching of doctrine simply to avoid giving offense or to avoid disagreement. Everyone is pleased to speak of God's love; rare are the mentions of his wrath or displeasure.
I have chosen to consider three touchy or sensitive texts that stand at the very heart of our theology."

“The Great Man,” said Carlyle, “was always as lightning out of Heaven; the rest of men waited for him like fuel, and then they too would flame.”:
"The call to faith is a summons to engage the heart, to attune it to resonate in sympathy with principles and values and ideals that we devoutly hope are true and have reasonable, but not certain, grounds for believing to be true. I am convinced that there must be grounds for doubt as well as belief in order to render the choice more truly a choice, and, therefore, the more deliberate and laden with personal vulnerability and investment...

We are, it would seem, always provided with sufficient materials out of which to fashion a life of credible conviction or dismissive denial.... What we choose to embrace, to be responsive to, is the purest reflection of who we are and what we love. "

A MUST READ! - Way to go Ted! Ted is my candidate for Colorado State Senate, but everyone can find inspiration in this story:

"The cause of Gianna's cerebral palsy is not because of some biological freak of nature, but rather the choice of her mother. You see when her biological mother was 17 years old and 7 1/2 months pregnant she went to a Planned Parenthood clinic to seek a late term abortion....

Gianna Jessen is a human being. She was when she was in her mother’s womb and she was when she sang the National Anthem on the Floor of the Colorado House of Representatives.

"We need to discuss the humanity of it. I'm glad to be able to speak up for children in the womb," she said. "If abortion is about women's rights, where were my rights?" "

Maybe our very existence isn't threatened.
"Graciously, Gore tells consumers how to change their lives to curb their carbon-gobbling ways....But if Al Gore is the world's role model for ecology, the planet is doomed.

Public records reveal that as Gore lectures Americans on excessive consumption, he and his wife Tipper live in two properties: a 10,000-square-foot, 20-room, eight-bathroom home in Nashville, and a 4,000-square-foot home in Arlington, Va. (He also has a third home in Carthage, Tenn.) For someone rallying the planet to pursue a path of extreme personal sacrifice, Gore requires little from himself.

...But according to public records, there is no evidence that Gore has signed up to use green energy in either of his large residences.

...The issue here is not simply Gore's hypocrisy; it's a question of credibility. If he genuinely believes the apocalyptic vision he has put forth and calls for radical changes in the way other people live, why hasn't he made any radical change in his life? Giving up the zinc mine or one of his homes is not asking much, given that he wants the rest of us to radically change our lives."

"Windfall" profits tax?? One thing we know for sure is that the government, unlike the oil companies, wouldn't use the money to drill for oil.

"Big Oil's record profits attract attention and outrage, but an independent study has found that oil companies do exactly what economic textbooks say they should do with all that money: They invest it in oil exploration and development efforts that eventually should relieve pressure on prices.

The top 20 U.S. and Canadian oil companies actually invested 50 percent more than they earned in the past 10 years in efforts to produce more oil..."

An excellent reason to increase U.S. energy supplies:
"Opponents of opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil drilling have long argued that the supply wouldn't make a difference to prices. Well, that claim took a spill yesterday with BP's announcement that it is shutting down its operations at Prudhoe Bay due to a damaged pipeline that could take months to patch.

U.S. crude soared $2.25 on the news, taking oil to nearly $77 a barrel, with experts predicting another five- or 10-cent a gallon price increase at the retail gasoline pump -- possibly to a new high. This market reaction came as some surprise to various newspaper scribes and politicians, given that Prudhoe Bay 'only' supplies about 400,000 barrels a day, or less than 2% of daily U.S. oil consumption.

These are the same folks who've delighted in informing Americans in recent years that opening up nearby ANWR to drilling would 'only' result in an extra one million barrels a day. This argument -- that ANWR isn't worth the effort -- might have some currency if oil were plentiful and gas prices were still 'only' $1.50 a gallon. But with the margin between global oil supply and demand so thin, any supply counts. ANWR is exactly the sort of home-grown oil cushion that would help smooth out supply disruptions from the likes of Katrina or the BP leak, if 'only' Congress could get a clue."

Trying to make sense of a world in turmoil - Isreal vs. Hezbollah
Can you distinguish the difference??

YouTube - Al Gore's Penguin Army
Short video spoof of Gore's "truth"

Republicans need not fear the hard edges of their ideas.:
"Republican discontent is driven by a growing sense of philosophical malaise--a sense that the party has become unmoored from its most basic philosophical commitments, and that elected Republicans no longer seek power to advance their principles but for its own sake. For Republicans, this transformation is potentially devastating.
***
Since the beginning of the Republican ascendancy, no Republican presidential candidate has won without successfully appealing to social conservatives alongside economic conservatives. By de-emphasizing the themes of limited government and economic freedom, compassionate conservatism arguably threatens the Republican coalition at its most basic level. Mr. Bush has upset the coalition's balance by allowing limited-government conservatism to atrophy relative to social conservatism. Well aware of his father's tale of woe, he has given great attention to cutting taxes, but he has underestimated the importance of spending control, deficit control, and limited government rhetoric to economic conservatives, as well as to self-described moderates. "

"'The Right Minimum Wage: $0.00.' So read an editorial headline in one of the most respected newspapers in America. The editorial stated: 'There's a virtual consensus among economists that the minimum wage is an idea whose time has passed. Raising the minimum wage by a substantial amount would price working poor people out of the job market.' Can you guess the newspaper? The Wall Street Journal, perhaps? Right city; wrong paper. This editorial appeared on Jan. 14, 1987, in the New York Times.

More recently, the Times has called for further increases in the minimum wage. At the federal level, many Democrats and some Republicans are pushing to raise the minimum wage from its current level of $5.15 an hour. Moreover, initiatives on the ballot in 10 states would increase the minimum wage.

Most people see the issue as a no-brainer. Wouldn't it be nice to raise the wages of the lowest-earning people? Even if they understand that this will cause them to pay higher prices on goods and services, they see that as a worthwhile price to pay. But economists of various political stripes tend to oppose the minimum wage. We understand that it will help only a subset of the people it is thought to help, and will help them only a little -- while hurting some of them a lot.

The reason goes back to the second sentence quoted in the above Times editorial. In raising the minimum wage, the government doesn't guarantee jobs. It guarantees only that those who get jobs will be paid at least that minimum. But precisely by requiring this, the government destroys jobs. Someone to whom an employer was willing to pay only the current minimum wage of $5.15 might not produce enough to be worth paying, say, $7.25."