Jessie Walker: United States of Paranoid
He tells us that conspiracy theories have been around since before the United States was the United States.
Are Americans more susceptible to conspiracy theories than people of other countries? What is our biggest, most widely believed conspiracy theory? Is it worthwhile to try to debunk a conspiracy theory? Where does conspiracy theory stop and folk-lore begin?
While other local blogs enjoy full time ragging on several local politicians and especially Prince William County Schools, it seems that the SOL test results tell another story.
From PWCS.edu:
New results from the Virginia Department of Education show the collective PWCS student body is meeting or exceeding state pass rates on almost all tests.
August 20, 2013
The Standards of Learning (SOL) and associated tests in mathematics, science and reading are more demanding than ever, but new results from the Virginia Department of Education show the collective PWCS student body is meeting or exceeding state pass rates on almost all tests.
Results reflect all students’ performance on SOL assessments administered during the 2012–13 school year. Analysis by student sub-groups will come later and be used in determining whether the Division and specific schools meet the Annual Measurable Objectives (AMO) identified by the state in their federal accountability system.
Seriously, I can’t make this stuff up. I wonder when the TEA party will cannibalize their favored son because he isn’t a real American! Right?
I mean, his mom is American, but he was BORN in Canada, he has, OMG, automatic duel Canadian citizenship. He IS a socialist for sure. It simply cannot be denied. Look, the facts cannot be ignored.
Surely, if President Obama is not an American in a “Birthers” eye, Ted Cruz is even more of an imposter! Obama was born to an American mother but Kenyan father in Hawaii. O.K., so he didn’t have dual Kenyan citizenship, but hey, does that really matter? Standards are standards right!
WASHINGTON — Born in Canada to an American mother, Ted Cruz became an instant U.S. citizen. But under Canadian law, he also became a citizen of that country the moment he was born.
Food stamps brings out a host of resentments from those not on food stamps. People seem to resent luxury items such as crab legs even more than they resent poor people using food stamps to buy junk food.
WASHINGTON — More Americans are annoyed by the idea of food stamp recipients using their benefits to buy expensive food than their using them to buy junk food, according to a new HuffPost/YouGov poll.
According to the survey, 54 percent of Americans think people should not be allowed to use food stamps to buy expensive items such as crab legs, while only 32 percent said that they should be allowed to do so.
By contrast, respondents were split on allowing those on food stamps to buy junk food, like potato chips, candy and soda. Forty-five percent said they should be allowed to buy those items and 42 percent said they should not.
Maureen McDonnell, the first lady of Virginia, twice purchased thousands of shares of stock in Star Scientific, a spokesman for McDonnell’s legal team confirmed Friday night. The stock was bought and held in the same time frame that she and Gov. Robert F. McDonnell were taking steps to promote the dietary supplement company.
Spokesman Rich Galen said the first lady did not inform the governor either time she purchased stock, which Galen said she bought for herself and her children.
Yea, right. So she buys $30,000 worth of stock in a company she and her husband are promoting to the state an elsewhere and she doesn’t tell him? I call BULLSHIT on that one. She’s so poor she can’t buy an acceptable wardrobe as first lady, yet she had $30k to dump in stocks? (stocks that just happen to be shares in a company they are promoting.)
For reasons unknown, the government finally has admitted that Area 51 — the Shangri-La of alien hunters and a sturdy trope of science-fiction movies — is a real place in the Mojave Desert about 100 miles north of Las Vegas.
It presumably does not house hideous squidlike ETs, but at least you can see the place on a map. Area 51 is confirmed in declassified CIA documents posted online Thursday by the National Security Archive at George Washington University. A dogged researcher pried from the CIA a report on the history of the U-2 spy plane, which was tested and operated at Area 51.
The military, which runs the base, always denied that Area 51 was called by its famous moniker, preferring a designation connected to the Groom Lake salt flat, a landing strip for the U-2 and other stealth aircraft.
“Your honor, there is no name,” an Air Force attorney told a federal judge in 1995. “There is no name for the operating location near Groom Lake.”
The hearing was part of an environmental poisoning case brought by Area 51 workers who said that they had been sickened by exposure to toxic chemicals — including anti-radar coatings and other classified materials — burned in open pits on the base.
Signs of August–the beautiful coneflower, also known as Echinacea. Echinacea is found in herbal medicines and is used for many things including treatment for the common cold. There is little medical evidence that medicinal values of this plant are anything but an old wives’ tale but a whole lot of people seem to think otherwise.
The coneflower comes in many colors. the most dramatic are the magentas and hot pinks. It sure is a favorite of mine.
Did everyone take advantage of the tax free weekend for back to school? The end of no tax on Amazon is looming…September 1 is the drop dead date on that one. To anyone who said they didn’t ever vote to increase taxes…well…yes they did if they voted to tax purchases from Amazon.
Since the 2012 election, Rachel Maddow has argued that conservative conspiracy theories that formerly existed on the fringe of the Republican Party have slowly made its way into mainstream GOP politics.
Previously, Maddow pointed to how politicians adopted narratives conceived and/or pushed out by conservatives including conspiracy theorist Alex Jones or talk radio host Rush Limbaugh. But on her Monday MSNBC show, Maddow tore into the GOP for allowing who she called “kooks” like Donald Trump and Rep. Steve King to tout such fringe views on mainstream television.
Are these people for real? These folks are tin foil hat wearers. When will the GOP shove these people back into the shadows? They are an embarrassment. What has become of mainstream conservatives? Why don’t they take their party back?
We only move forward as a country when people compromise on their ideas.
Virginia GOP gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli II unveiled a 12-point education plan Tuesday that would push for charter schools, offer voucher-like scholarships for preschoolers and empower a majority of parents to take over their children’s failing school, according to an outline of his K-12 education plan.
Cuccinelli wants to double the number of female students who focus on science and technology, expand virtual schooling and build on the commonwealth’s nearly two-year-old law that gives tax credits to donors who provide voucher-like scholarships for low-income students to attend private schools. He also would seek two amendments to Virginia’s constitution, including one that would clear the way for government funds to flow to religious schools.
The package of reforms contained in Cuccinelli’s K-12 education plan include several that have become popular in recent years, especially among conservatives, although the efficacy of some of the initiatives has been disputed. The proposals would generally push Virginia in the direction of so-called school choice and private or community-based solutions to the problem of public education.
Washingtonpost.com:
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A clown wearing a President Barack Obama mask appeared at a Missouri State Fair rodeo this weekend and the announcer asked the enthusiastic spectators if they wanted to see “Obama run down by a bull.”
The antics led the state’s second highest-ranking official, Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, to denounce the performance in a tweet Sunday. He said it was “disrespectful” to the president.
“We are better than this,” the Republican tweeted.
State Fair officials said the show in Sedalia was “inappropriate” and “does not reflect the opinions or standards” of the fair. “We strive to be a family friendly event and regret that Saturday’s rodeo badly missed that mark,” they said in a statement Sunday.
It wasn’t clear if any action will be taken against the performers.
Perry Beam, who was among the spectators, said “everybody screamed” and “just went wild” as the announcer talked about having the bull run down the clown with the Obama mask.
Women for Choice my ass! What choice? Lies Lies Lies. Judging from the door in the video, that CPC is right here in Manassas. They have been pulling this crap for over 20 years. The lies and judgemental statements in the video were actually recorded and the film was presented by NARAL Pro-Choice America.
The entire ruse is deceitful. Just the name tricks scared young women into going to the ‘wrong clinic’ since its location is very close to a real medical facility. Private information is solicited from the women before they realize they are not in a medical facility. Pregnancy tests are even given. One young woman I know who was sent in, got phone calls at home and hymns were sung to her. Incidentally, she was not pregnant.
We aren’t quite sure if the peak will be Sunday/Monday night or Monday/Tuesday night. I am betting on the former rather than the latter, just because it suits me better.
The moon is around 30% waxing but shouldn’t pose a problem. Cloud cover might be a problem. Several meteors a minute might be a possibility. The Perseids are associated with more fireballs than the average meteor shower. Fireballs are huge streaks of light that seem to graze the surface of the earth, caused by larger than average debris particles from the comet Tuttle-Swift.
The most important thing is to get out of town. Manassas is a high light pollution area. The Battlefield used to be a great place to view, right around the old picnic area. That is no more. There is probably too much light pollution now anyway. Another alternative would be Silver Lake. I was told that an astronomy group would have to hire its own cop if the gates were to be left open for a celestial event. (My tax dollars at work.) The Skyline Drive is open at night for the really adventuresome. I might hit the gates of Silver Lake with the grandchildren and see how things look from that vantage point. If all else fails, I will go lurk outside Elena’s house.
Recommended apps: ipad or iphone: Star Walk
Just when we thought American women had been probed enough, the war on women calls for another government probing of Planned Parenthood. Some of the legislators calling for the most recent probing are sort of known for doing some ‘probing’ of their own if you get my drift (wink wink).
Spurred by a group of anti-abortion lawmakers, the Government Accountability Office is investigating how Planned Parenthood, the Guttmacher Institute, and other prominent family planning-related organizations spend public funds, the GAO confirmed Friday.
More than 50 members of Congress had written in February to Comptroller General and GAO head Gene Dodaro asking the office to follow up on a 2010 GAO report that detailed federal monies provided to the groups.
On Friday, the GAO confirmed to POLITICO that the request from the lawmakers was accepted and an investigation opened. No press release or pubic statement was put out by the office at the time.
Chuck Young, GAO managing director of public affairs, said the scope of the investigation was still being determined, and no completion date had been set.
A new Public Policy Polling (PPP) poll finds that a majority of Georgians believe in creationism over evolution.
Entitled “Georgia Miscellany,” the Thursday item surveyed a pool of 520 voters on 32 questions. On the issue of creationism vs. evolution, 53 percent believe more in the former, compared to 29 percent choosing the latter, and 18 percent voting not sure.
When that question was transferred over to party lines, Republicans had a staggering split — 70 percent for creationism, 17 percent for evolution and 13 percent not sure. Democrats split along closer lines — 43 percent for creationism, 33 percent for evolution and 24 percent not sure. Independents held an even narrower divide — 46 percent for creationism, 40 percent for evolution and 14 percent not sure.
Back in June 2012, a Gallup poll recorded some national growth among Americans believing in creationism. Among a sample of 1,012 adults, 46 percent said that they were believers, marking a two percent jump over the past three decades.
UFB! Surely this many people don’t still think that Darwin is a bad word? I can’t believe that many people in Georgia missed science class. I went to school in Georgia a few years and I am pretty sure we studied the origins of the earth and man from a scientific point of view.
A Virginia Beach radiologist lent $50,000 to a real estate corporation owned by Gov. Robert F. McDonnell and his sister in 2010 — the same year the doctor was offered an appointment to a state medical board.
Paul Davis, who said he met McDonnell in church and has been friends with the governor for about 12 years, said he believes the appointment offer was unrelated to the financial assistance he provided the governor.
Davis said he declined the appointment because he believed it would take him away from his lucrative medical practice.
But the loan offers a new example of how McDonnell’s personal finances became entangled with his public role as the governor struggled to keep up with payments on property investments he and his family made during the height of the real estate boom.Read More
