God Squad Logo Taken

MoonHowler

Father Luke who has the God Squad logo on the side of his car is being challenged by Best Buy and apparently he is caving. Best Buy is claiming they have the copyright on the logo because of their Geek Squad.

I hope the good father stands them down. I have been saying ‘God Squad’ (albeit somewhat disrespectfully) for decades–long before Best Buy was invented. I think he should keep the name and have the actual logo, the insignia part look different and be done with it.

Best Buy shouldn’t be able to trump God and they don’t own the word ‘squad.’

Glenn Beck Attacks the Jobless

MoonHowler

I don’t doubt for one second that there are people out there gold bricking, but to make sweeping generalizations? I know of several people who just haven’t been able to get a job. Perhaps there are better people to attack than the jobless.

Much of the unemployment situation depends on location. Those of us living in Northern Virginia are fortunate. We haven’t been hit as hard as other localities.

Was Beck lacking sensitivity? Is it fair to attack people for being unemployed after 99 weeks?

Why Little Johnny Can’t go to U.VA or Wm and Mary

MoonHowler

How come Johnny who had a straight A average in high school can’t get in to William and Mary or U.VA, Virginia’s two Ivy League-like premier universities?  Northern Virginia students are hit especially hard with this reality, since regardless of what is said, there is a quota.  If there weren’t, the premium northern Virginia schools would take up all the slots and the rest of the state would be out in the cold. 

Part of the problem has always been that out-of-state students take up slots that Virginia students would like to have.  Why are these spots give to out-of-staters?  MONEY.  The out-of-state students pay higher tuition.  The ratio of  out-of-state students to Virginia students crawls upward during hard times, like the ones we are in now.  According to the Richmond Times Dispatch:

Richmond, Va. —

The University of Virginia expects 3,246 first-year students to move in Saturday, among them 1,035 who are from out of state.

Of 1,404 freshmen who will arrive Aug. 25 at the College of William and Mary, 522 are non-Virginians.

Like their in-state peers, they’ll feel the impact of rising tuition costs — and then some.

The two schools more than comply with a state law that requires public colleges and universities to charge out-of-state students the full cost of their education.

U.Va. charges nonresidents 173 percent of the average per-student cost, while W&M charges 154 percent, according to a report last month by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia.

All the state’s public schools exceed the per-student cost by a statewide average of 151 percent, the report found.

But it’s the in-state, out-of-state numbers at Virginia’s two “public ivies” that draw the most attention.

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When Good Soldiers Go Bad

MoonHowler

 

My country-love it or leave it was an expression I heard a lot while growing up.  My politics evolved in the south during desegregation, the Kennedy assassination, the MLK assassination, RFK assassination, and the shooting of George Wallace, and Vietnam.  A lot was happening during those years.  I also witnessed the Vietnam POWs arrive home after years of incarceration.  One of those broken men who got off that plane was John McCain.  I witnessed Watergate and the resignation of Richard Nixon on my TV screen.  Much of what I grew up thinking gradually wore away.

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Social Security Turns 75

MoonHowler

Social Security turns 75 this year.  The following was taken from their first pamplet to Americans:

To Employees of Industrial and Business Establishments

FACTORIES-SHOPS-MINES-MILLS-STORES-OFFICES AND OTHER PLACES OF BUSINESS

The checks will come to you as a right. You will get them regardless of the amount of property or income you may have. They are what the law calls “Old-Age Benefits” under the Social Security Act. If you prefer to keep on working after you are 65, the monthly checks from the Government will begin coming to you whenever you decide to retire.
Beginning November 24, 1936, the United States Government will set up a Social Security account for you, if you are eligible. To understand your obligations, rights, and benefits you should read the following general explanation.THERE is now a law in this country which will give about 26 million working people something to live on when they are old and have stopped working. This law, which gives other benefits, too, was passed last year by Congress and is called the Social Security Act.Under this law the United States Government will send checks every month to retired workers, both men and women, after they have passed their 65th birthday and have met a few simple requirements of the law.

WHAT THIS MEANS TO YOU

THIS means that if you work in some factory, shop, mine, mill, store, office, or almost any other kind of business or industry, you will be earning benefits that will come to you later on. From the time you are 65 years old, or more, and stop working, you will get a Government check every month of your life, if you have worked some time (one day or more) in each of any 5 years after 1936, and have earned during that time a total of $2,000 or more.

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Deport Those Convicted of Drunk Driving?

MoonHowler

Senate Judicary ranking Republican  Lamar Smith (R- Texas) wants the Department of Homeland Security to start tracking the illegal immigrants who are convicted of drunk driving.   He then wants to  deport every last one of them, according to the Washington Times. 

 

Current law doesn’t require DUI suspects to be detained, thanks to a 2004 Supreme Court interpretation, but Mr. Smith said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement can detain illegal immigrants in such cases anyway, and he wants that to become the policy.

“Doing so will prevent these aliens from again getting behind the wheel of a car and killing or maiming innocent Americans,” he said in his letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Times. “Sadly, such a new policy would come too late for Sister Mosier. However, many other lives can be saved.”

Matt Chandler, a spokesman for Ms. Napolitano, said Homeland Security would not respond to Mr. Smith through the press, though he said the department is conducting a review into why Mr. Montano was not detained in 2008.

 

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The Ground Zero Mosque Controversy

MoonHowler

Obviously many people living far outside of New York City feel that they have a dog in the Ground Zero/Mosque controversy.  Actually, they probably don’t.  Ground Zero doesn’t really belong to America–not yet. 

Rather than taking a position, how about our contributors weighing in on the subject.   Can New Yorkers legally prevent an Islamic center from being built in the shadow of Ground Zero?   Next question is obvously, should they try to prevent the center from being built at this location?

And how about that rascally first amendment?

Hats off to a few good supervisors

MoonHowler

From News & Messenger:

Prince William County, Va. – Individual supervisor budgets have become a hot topic among the board since a 5-to-3 vote in favor of a $712,000 increase to the supervisors’ office budgets last week.

That breaks down to approximately $89,000 per office.

The budget item was passed as part of a much larger carryover budget, in which items from the previous fiscal year get carried over to the new fiscal year. According to county spokesman Jason Grant, the $712,000 increase should have been included in the fiscal 2011 budget process, but was accidentally omit-ted.

The intent of the additional money was to allow the supervisors the opportunity to hire a third full-time staffer. According to Grant, hiring a third assistant was “based on the growth of citizens being served by each magisterial district and the complexity of issues being resolved.”

“The supervisors have seen an 83 percent increase in the number of citizens served per district since 1990, from 30,812 per district to 56,497 today,” Grant said.

Supervisors Michael C. May, R-Occoquan, Martin Nohe, R-Coles and Maureen S. Caddigan, D-Dumfries, voted against the budget increase.  The three agreed that this wasn’t the time to add money to the budget when county employees haven’t received a cost of living adjustment the last two years.

Suerpvisors May, Nohe and Caddigan are aware of how things look.  When did regular county employees last receive a raise?  How much overtime to they all get when there is some emergency or when one of the supervisors makes demands?  

Meanwhile, the chairman, Corey Stewart has gone $7500 over budget.  He complains that one of his staffers needed a raise.  Probably everyone needs a raise who works for Prince William County.  Many county employees work long hours that extend beyond the regular day.  Those same employees often take work home over the weekend or go back in to the office to get things done. 

When everyone can get a little bit more of the pie, then the budget should increase to include the supervisors budgets.  Until then, everyone needs to make due with tightening their belts–even the chairman.

Enough of the S-Word

MoonHowler

From the Huffington Post:

Rep. Bob Inglis (R-S.C.) says he knows firsthand the risky business of refusing to call President Obama a “socialist” from his primary election defeat earlier this summer.

Inglis was quoted reflecting back on his loss by the New York Daily News on Monday.

“I figured out early in the race I was taking a risk by being unwilling to call the President a socialist,” explained the outgoing congressman. “I’d get asked a question and they’d all wait to see if I’d use the word – socialist – they were throwing around. I wouldn’t. Because I don’t think that’s what he is.”

Inglis elaborated, “To call him a socialist is to demean the office and stir up a passion that we need to be calming, rather than constantly stirring up.”

I have no idea if Bob Inglis is correct or not.  I don’t know if that is why he lost his bid for re-election in the primary held earlier in the summer.  He makes a good point though.  What I do know is that the word ‘socialist’ is mighty old and might tiresome.   I got tired of hearing Nazi and Hitler also.  I think I will add ‘socialist‘ to the ‘down the rabbit hole’ list of words that will get one thrown in to moderation so we can take a break.

It is just time to find another word.  Not everything you don’t like is socialist.  That is too 50’s for me.   Recycled politics.  Next thing we know we will slide into saying ‘communist.’  Then we will have to drag out McCarthy.  At least on this blog, please find another word.   It really is getting old, boring, and recycled.

Furthermore, calling someone a socialist is simply libelous and defamatory unless the individual has identified themselves as such.  Spreading rumors and lies and printing unsubstantiated material without identifying it as such is much the same.  Regardless of what is done on other blogs, it isn’t going to be done here.

It’s Finally Over –65 years later

MoonHowler

Saturday there was a huge kiss-in in Times Square to commemorate the 65 anniversary of V-J Day which marked the end of WWII.  Couples came to the famous spot and recreated this special kiss seen below.  The kiss not only marked the end of the war with Japan but also signified the end of all hostilities in WWII since victory had been achieved in Europe several months early with the surrender of Germany. 

kiss

Perhaps the most famous picture of the end of The War, The Kiss, offers a glimpse into a world that the rest of us are closed off to.  It was a world that believed that total surrender was possible.  It was a world that didn’t know what an atomic blast did to others, And it was a world that knew nothing of the cold war that loomed on our horizon.  It was a world where the word ‘over’ meant OVER.

The lady in the kiss was Edith Shain who died at the age of 91 last June.  The couple didn’t know each other.  It was kiss to celebrate the past 4 years being over. Done.  The American people had suffered.  They had been rationed.  They had grown victory gardens.  They had done without.  They had lived with the constant fear that they could be invaded.  Their loved ones had been lost, maimed, killed. 

Approximately 417,000 American service men (and women) were killed in WWII.  That number is out of a national population of approximately 131 million.  

 

While our number killed looks staggering, other countries dwarf ours.  Japan lost over 2 million military men.  China 3-4 million.  The Soviet Union  lost as many as 10 million.  German lost 5.5 million.  After watching series like Pacific,  Flags of our Fathers and Wind Talkers  it is truly amazing that anyone survived.  There were 20,00 Americans casualties  in the battle of Iwo Jima alone which just looked like a rock pile to most folks.

A permanent statue 25 feet tall  of the kiss was erected in Times Square.  There are just some things that cannot be recreated.  And there will probably never be another time when Americans pull together towards a common cause like WWII.

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McDonnell Applies for 287(g) for State Troopers

MoonHowler

From the Richmond Times Dispatch:

Gov. Bob McDonnell this week formally requested that the Department of Homeland Security authorize some Virginia State Police troopers to perform functions of federal immigration officers.

The request, which was sent in a letter dated Aug. 10 to Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, follows conversations since February on the subject between McDonnell’s administration and federal authorities.

McDonnell is requesting that homeland security enters into a so-called 287g agreement with the state, a pact that at least seven jurisdictions in Virginia already have in some form.

“The [memorandum of understanding] would include how participating State Police personnel will be nominated, trained, authorized and supervised in performing the immigration enforcement functions specified in the agreement,” McDonnell writes in the letter released today by his office.

“We contemplate addressing those aliens who are engaged in major drug offenses or violent offenses such as murder, manslaughter, rape, robbery and kidnapping, as well as DUI offenses.”

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Upcoming VCU rap concert raises some eyebrows

MoonHowler

From the Richmond Times Dispatch:

Richmond, Va. —
Rap artist Asher Roth loves college, but it’s the reasons why that are causing controversy ahead of his performance at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Welcome Week for incoming freshmen.

Along with fellow hip-hop artist B.o.B., Roth — whose hit single “I Love College” was all the rage last year — is set to perform at a Back to School Jam concert Aug. 28 at the Siegel Center.

In keeping with the themes of Roth’s other work, “I Love College” extols certain nonacademic portions of the collegiate experience, such as excessive beer consumption, marijuana use and casual sex. At one point, the song devolves into the chanting of the words “chug” and “freshmen.”

Event price tag: $100,000, to be paid for through student activity fees from Monroe Park Campus students.

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Virginia schools fall short of new benchmarks, but scores rise slightly

MoonHowler

They (test scores) rose slightly, yet they still failed. I am somewhat amused. Firebrands like Ken Cuccinelli went nuclear on the new health care plan because Virginians might be forced to buy a product. Yet, at the same time, no one has even raised an eyebrow over the federal government usurping the state’s power over education and mandating a dramatic educational overhaul that is costing localities literally millions of dollars.

From the Washington Post:

Average scores on Virginia’s Standards of Learning math exams rose slightly and reading performance remained static in the 2009-10 school year, but the vast majority of public schools across the state failed to meet new performance benchmarks for graduation rates and for students with disabilities, according to results released Thursday by the state Department of Education.

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Open Thread Mid-week August 11, 2010

adultgirl

Time for another open thread.  There are too many topics floating about out there. 

There is a Jobs Bill, Charlie Rangel fighting for his political life, the death of Senator Ted Stevens, the injury of former NASA chief O’Keefe and his son who are in critical condition following that plane crash that killed Sen. Stevens, the fed is buying back some US debt, and a host of primary elections that pretty much mean nothing to me.   The local politicians seem quiet for a change.

I hope that Wolverine will bring us up to speed on this serial killer type in Leesburg.  That is all very mysterious.