Naomi Wolf Thinks the Tea Parties Help Fight Fascism

AlterNet Investigates

Car-eating dog set free

Winston, who attacked a police car and other vehicles, now must go to obedience school

Directly From the Healthcare Bill

IRS agents verify if you have “acceptable” health care coverage;

IRS has the authority to fine you up to $2,250 or 2 percent of your income (whichever is greater) for failure to prove that you have purchased “minimum essential coverage;”

IRS can confiscate your tax refund;

IRS audits are likely to increase;

IRS will need up to $10 billion to administer the new health care program this decade;

IRS may need to hire as many as 16,500 additional auditors, agents and other employees to investigate and collect billions in new taxes from Americans; and

Nearly half of all these new individual mandate taxes will be paid by Americans earning less than 300 percent of poverty ($66,150 for a family of four.)

from Dan Riehl

TRANSPARENCY UPDATE

Federal Reserve must disclose bank bailout records. “The Federal Reserve Board must disclose documents identifying financial firms that might have collapsed without the largest U.S. government bailout ever, a federal appeals court said. The U.S. Court of Appeals in Manhattan ruled today that the Fed must release records of the unprecedented $2 trillion U.S. loan program launched primarily after the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. The ruling upholds a decision of a lower-court judge, who in August ordered that the information be released.”

Instapundit

More Malcolm X

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

It's OK to put a little Jameson's in your coffee this morning. :)

Thomas Woods to speak at Trinity

American historian and best selling author Thomas Woods will be speaking at Trinity
College tomorrow. At 4pm he'll talk about Catholic social teaching and the market
economy, and then at 8pm he'll talk about Austrian business cycle
theory, the financial crisis, and issues like that. Both events take
place in Rittenberg Lounge, Mather Hall.

Thomas Woods' website

Sid Caesar defines jazz

via
Terry Teachout

Archaeologists find crucifixion-style nail from the time of Christ

A 4-inch crucifixion-style nail dating from the time of Christ has been discovered in an ornate box at a fort that may have been a stronghold of knights who occupied Jerusalem during the Crusades, The Daily Mirror reports.

[...]

The newspaper quotes Christopher Macklin of the Knights Templar of Britannia as calling last summer's find "momentous."

He said evidence the nail had been handled a lot "indicates it was of great interest to many people" and that he believes the original Knights Templar thought it was a genuine artifact from Christ's crucifixion.

USA Today

Barry Goldwater and Malcolm X

Claudia Acuña

Hebrew University archaeologist discovers Jerusalem city wall from tenth century B.C.

Jerusalem, February 22, 2010 – A section of an ancient city wall of Jerusalem from the tenth century B.C.E. – possibly built by King Solomon -- has been revealed in archaeological excavations directed by Dr. Eilat Mazar and conducted under the auspices of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The section of the city wall revealed, 70 meters long and six meters high, is located in the area known as the Ophel, between the City of David and the southern wall of the Temple Mount.

Uncovered in the city wall complex are: an inner gatehouse for access into the royal quarter of the city, a royal structure adjacent to the gatehouse, and a corner tower that overlooks a substantial section of the adjacent Kidron valley.

[...]

"The city wall that has been uncovered testifies to a ruling presence. Its strength and form of construction indicate a high level of engineering", Mazar said. The city wall is at the eastern end of the Ophel area in a high, strategic location atop the western slop of the Kidron valley.

"A comparison of this latest finding with city walls and gates from the period of the First Temple, as well as pottery found at the site, enable us to postulate with a great degree of assurance that the wall that has been revealed is that which was built by King Solomon in Jerusalem in the latter part of the tenth century B.C.E.," said Mazar

"This is the first time that a structure from that time has been found that may correlate with written descriptions of Solomon's building in Jerusalem," she added. "The Bible tells us that Solomon built -- with the assistance of the Phoenicians, who were outstanding builders -- the Temple and his new palace and surrounded them with a city, most probably connected to the more ancient wall of the City of David." Mazar specifically cites the third chapter of the First Books of Kings where it refers to "until he (Solomon) had made an end of building his own house, and the house of the Lord, and the wall of Jerusalem round about."

[...]

"The jars that were found are the largest ever found in Jerusalem," said Mazar, adding that "the inscription that was found on one of them shows that it belonged to a government official, apparently the person responsible for overseeing the provision of baked goods to the royal court."

In addition to the pottery shards, cult figurines were also found in the area, as were seal impressions on jar handles with the word "to the king," testifying to their usage within the monarchy. Also found were seal impressions (bullae) with Hebrew names, also indicating the royal nature of the structure. Most of the tiny fragments uncovered came from intricate wet sifting done with the help of the salvaging Temple Mount Sifting Project, directed by Dr. Gabriel Barkai and Zachi Zweig, under the auspice of the Nature and Parks Authority and the Ir David Foundation.

full article at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's website

h/t
Jungle Trader

Dalai Lama visits White House, gets hustled out the back door

Will someone please call housekeeping?
h/t
Brumar89

Shrove Tuesday

On St. Valentine's Day

For most people, St. Valentine's Day is a day of affection and confectionary, a day of kisses, candy and flowers. But just as Christmas is about more than gifts, so too does Valentine's Day have a deeper meaning.

The true romance of the celebration begins with the legend of St. Valentine in roughly 270 A.D.

St. Valentine was a holy priest who was arrested and imprisoned for marrying Christian couples and for aiding Christians who were being persecuted during the reign of Claudius the Goth (Claudius II).

He was brought to prison where he was tortured in an attempt to make him renounce his Christian faith. When Valentine instead tried to convert Claudius, he was executed outside the Flaminian Gate on Feb. 14, in about the year 270 A.D.

One legend says, while awaiting his execution, couples for whom he had conducted marriages brought him flowers and gifts to show their respect and admiration.

This led to today's tradition of presenting your Valentine with gifts. It is also said that, while imprisoned, he restored the sight of his jailer's blind daughter and that this miracle led to his eventual canonization.

In 496 A.D., Pope Gelasius marked Feb. 14 as a celebration in honor of his martyrdom. The legend of St. Valentine is a tale of true love that transcends mere sentiment.

From a letter to the editor written by Paul Kokoski

Obama's Advisor on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships Sparks Controversy

Petition for Harry Knox to resign at the Saint Michael Society

h/t
Jan W

Lech Walesa at Chicago Tea Party

The man is a giant. The two individuals most instrumental in tearing down The Wall were him and Pope John Paul II. Walesa set the table, when John Paul II kissed the ground in Poland it was over.

William Casey sent Lane Kirkland to Poland to help Walesa get the Solidarity movement up and running. These two men deserve credit for helping to tear down The Wall as well.

image courtesy of Founding Bloggers
Video at the
link
h/t
Brumar89

Salmon Farming Can Be Sustainable

Seafood Watch–whose guidelines are gospel to the sustainable seafood crowd–announced its support for a new salmon-farming technique, the first it has ever endorsed. Most fish farms raise salmon in vast ocean net pens; the fish can escape and spread disease to wild populations. But at AquaSeed Corp., an aquaculture company based in Rochester, Washington, salmon are bred to be kept in freshwater tanks on land, which reduces pollution and the spread of sea lice and other maladies. The fish receive special feed, requiring less wild-caught fishmeal than the salmon at traditional farms. Furthermore, their meat contains plentiful omega-3 fatty acids and low enough levels of PCBs to land it squarely–cue the heavenly chorus!—on the Seafood Watch’s “Best Choices” and “Super Green” lists.

Smithsonian

Smokestack Lightning

Deep Thoughts with Carl Sagan

"I can remember one occasion, taking a shower with my wife while high, in which I had an idea on the origins and invalidities of racism in terms of gaussian distribution curves,'' wrote the former Cornell University professor. "I wrote the curves in soap on the shower wall, and went to write the idea down."

Schaffer Library of Drug Policy

Murray Rothbard on the founding of the Federal Reserve

Paul's Letter to the Americans

Eddie Biebel, the best guitar player I'd never heard of

Cattlemen fight EPA with 'Climategate'

The National Cattlemen's Beef Association has filed a petition to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. to overturn the EPA's recent greenhouse gas "endangerment" ruling.

The ruling states that gases believed to cause global warming pose a human health risk and is the first step toward their regulation by the EPA under the Clean Air Act. The NCBA and other producer groups fear the ruling could lead to lawsuits and new restrictions on the nation's livestock industries.

The NCBA plans to argue the government's finding is based on faulty and incomplete science and that the Clean Air Act is the improper vehicle for regulating greenhouse gases, said Tamara Thies, the organization's chief environmental counsel.

"We are taking a position that we do not believe the science with regard to alleged manmade climate change is there," Thies said. "The EPA has a responsibility to conduct a rigorous scientific analysis and look at all the science out there instead of just cherry-picking certain studies that agree with its position about manmade climate change."

Capital Press

Trailer from a new documentary on Walker Percy