A quick retell–John Kerry bumble-f***s his way into a diplomatic solution. War is averted. Who is pissed off? Fox News and other culture warriors. Too funny. I see nothing embarrassing about it at all. I would much rather get along with Russia than the alternative.
Speaking of bumble-f***king…what a totally great word. I wish I had thought of that! Blue bombs is pretty funny also.
I missed Jon Stewart so much this past summer. I am sure John Oliver did a great job. I just wasn’t interested.
Every year I put up a piece about the 9-11 attack on our country. I like to make sure I stoke that rage at least once a year. Complacency isn’t a good thing and every September 11th I just become enraged. This year, 12 years later, is no different.
How dare they!!
Feel free to share your thoughts. Some of our readers have some very personal stories. While I wish for healing for everyone, I also hope that each of us alive that day will serve as a living testimony to American survival and grit. The terrorist did not win. Not even close.
In the continuing saga of the “gift that just keeps on giving,” Virginians are again fleeced by the greedy behavior of Governor Bob McDonnell and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli. Now another law firm has billed the State of Virginia, and thus the people, for another $100,000 in legal fees surrounding the fired chef from the governor’s mansion.
Firing former executive mansion chef Todd Schneider was probably one of the most costly political decisions in Virginia history. Schneider has been accused and charged with stealing food from the executive mansion. Schneider maintains that he was directed to take food in exchange for services he performed at various private parties and catered functions hosted by the Governor. Schneider revealed just how far the blur between public and private services extended. The entire Jonnie Williams/McDonnell/Cuccinelli scandal has come to the forefront and has tainted the entire McDonnell administration.
Rush Limbaugh said:
“Let me ask you a question — when it comes to Syria, have you ever heard Obama talk about regime change as an objective?” he asked. “You have not, have you? You have not. And they’re reinforcing that today. No. In fact, this operation — Bush had ‘shock and awe.’ We’re looking at ‘shuck and jive’ here. That’s what I’m going to name this. The Obama operation in Syria — Operation: Shuck and jive — because that’s what this is. ‘No, we don’t do shock and awe because that’s too big. That’s too mean. No, no, no.”
Subtle, Rush. Very subtle. To anyone with southern roots, “shucking and jiving” is simply non-too subtle racist code. To someone like Palin, it is ignorance. She picked it up somewhere. However, America discussed the use of the term when she said it and enough was said in the public forum to determine that it really was an expression that needed to be avoided.
Make no mistake. When Limbaugh says “shucking and jiving” he knows exactly what he is doing.
Every time I turned on the TV last week, I heard how Americans are exhausted from a decade of war. What on earth are they exhausted from? I understand that military families are tired of the multiple deployments. I understand that any military family has got to be sick of war and especially tired of everything “middle east.”
Give me a break. Military families have absorbed the entire burden of war with little or no involvement of the American people. The general population has not had to inconvenience themselves one iota over our decade long wars. Any exhaustion the American people feel from war has to be from having a guilty conscience.
What sacrifices have the typical American family had to make because we were a nation at war? Have we had to give up goods and services and products? have we been asked to take heroic measures or grow victory gardens? Had anything been rationed? Have our sons and daughters been called up? Have we had to bury our spouses, siblings, sons, or daughters or parents?
Virginia Attorney General Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II says taxpayer funds can be used by localities to supply private and religious schools with armed law enforcement personnel.
Mr. Cuccinelli’s little-noticed official advisory opinion, which does not carry the force of law, was issued earlier this summer in response to an inquiry from Sheriff Michael W. Taylor of Pittsylvania County. The sheriff asked whether the local board of supervisors has the legal authority to provide school resource officers funded at county expense to local private schools.
The personnel are uniformed, armed and sworn officers and deputies of local police departments and sheriffs’ offices who are assigned primarily to Virginia’s middle and high schools.
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Great moon shot! I went out about 11:20 and looked to the south-southeast as directed. A few seconds after 11:27 I saw this orange ball rising in the sky, escaping the earth. I could only see it about a minute but it was great. Who would have ever thought Virginia would be launching a rocket to the moon! Go Old Dominion. I am very glad I saw it. I feel blessed.
Will Wallops Island become the next Cape Canaveral?
Washingtonpost.com:
RICHMOND — Virginia’s National Guard will provide health insurance and other benefits to same-sex couples, Gov. Robert F. McDonnell said Thursday, one day after a state delegate urged him to defy a new Pentagon directive to treat all marriages equally.
Anyone want to take a wild guess who that delegate crying for defiance is? You got it! Sideshow Bob.
In a letter to McDonnell this week, Del. Robert G. Marshall (R-Prince William) warned that providing the benefits would violate the state constitutional ban on gay marriage.
“As Commander of the Virginia National Guard[,] what will you do to secure that the spirit and letter of the [state] Constitution regarding marriage will be upheld?” Marshall wrote.
A recent Washington Post story explored Cuccinelli’s relationship with the fathers’ rights movement, which seeks to influence state and federal laws to give men a better position in divorce and custody cases. Many fathers’ rights groups have pushed to end or reform no-fault divorce laws, and Cuccinelli did the same during his time in the state Senate.
“2008. Ken Cuccinelli writes a bill to give Virginia among the most extreme divorce laws in America,” says the announcer in McAuliffe’s (D) new ad. “If Cuccinelli had it his way, a mom trying to get out of a bad marriage, over her husband’s objections, could only get divorced if she could prove adultery or physical abuse or her spouse had abandoned her or was sentenced to jail. Why is Ken Cuccinelli interfering in our private lives? He’s focused on his own agenda. Not us.”
Cuccinelli spokeswoman Anna Nix said her boss was proud of his record.
At Potomac High, this year marks the completion of a major 3-year renovation to the 32-year-old school that brought the addition of 30 new classrooms, the conversion of old outdoor courtyards to a new culinary arts center, a newly expanded gymnasium — now the largest of any high school in Prince William County, a new turf football field, and a newly renovated dining hall and cafeteria.
While enrollment numbers at the high school remain below capacity, that is expected to change. Construction has just begun nearby on a new neighborhood, Potomac Shores, where some 4,000 homes and a new town center will be built along the Potomac River.
“We expect our enrollment to increase to as many as 2,300 once Potomac Shores is built,” said Principal Michael Wright, 53, who is returning to the school for a second year as it’s top administrator. “We’re not at capacity yet, but we’re pretty sure we’ll get there.” –
How nice to have one of our schools under-capacity. That means kids can go through the halls easier, scheduling is easier, students can get the classes they want, classrooms aren’t bulging at the seams. The under-capacity status will all come to a screeching halt as soon as new homes are completed in Potomac Shores and families start moving in.
It took two years of conflict in Syria for the refugee figure to reach one million, but only six more months to reach two million, Mr. Guterres noted. In addition, at least 4.5 million people have been driven from their homes inside Syria by the destruction and violence, meaning that close to one-third of the country’s population has been displaced by the civil war, and about half the population has needed humanitarian aid, Mr. Guterres said, putting Syria’s crisis at a level unseen in recent decades.
About 40,000 Syrians fled to Iraq in the last two weeks of August, and 13,000 arrived in Lebanon in the past week. Over all, close to 5,000 Syrians are leaving every day.
Imagine if this number of people flowed into the United States, unauthorized. What would we do with the people? Many Americans complain about illegal immigration. Hmmm…what’s the difference?
Schools open again today and across the nation, millions of kids will be reciting the Pledge of Allegiance:
“I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
It sounds harmless enough. However, to some parents, the phrase “under God” is unacceptable in schools. The parents feel that the Pledge tears down the wall of separation between church and state because it contains the words, “under God.”. The Pledge heads back to court in the very near future. How does it hurt anyone to say two little bitty words?
That isn’t the point. Kids are a captive audience forced to recite something their parents find objectionable. Can kids be pulled out? Of course. However, pulling a student out of the pledge makes them stand out–opt out programs always call attention to those who dare to be different.
Artist Thomas Moran 1837-1926 painted many scenes from the early National Parks. He was a prolific American painter who captured scenery from the West.
What national parks and monuments do you like? Are they worth protecting and if so, how much? Since 2000 parks and monuments have had a mighty restricted budget. We can’t afford to let these national treasures deteriorate.
As Yosemite National Park stands in grave danger of fire, it is time again to enjoy Ken Burns’ The National Parks: America’s Best Idea. I never tire of the National Parks and the genius of making America own them. How many countries have these kinds of parks available to the common man? Most beautiful spots are owned by the rich and elite in other spots around the world. Yellowstone National Park was the very first (1872)and it just happens to be my favorite. It isn’t the prettiest by far but the animals and geysers and geological uniqueness make up for what it lacks in beauty. Perhaps the best thing about it is that the American buffalo was preserved and kept from extinction.
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) weighed in on the situation in Syria, attacking President Barack Obama and saying he should “let Allah sort it out.”
Palin said it’s “bull” to compare Obama to President George W. Bush
“Our Nobel Peace Prize winning President needs to seek Congressional approval before taking us to war. It’s nonsense to argue that, ‘Well, Bush did it.’ Bull,” Palin said in a Facebook post Friday night. “President Bush received support from both Congress and a coalition of our allies for ‘his wars,’ ironically the same wars Obama says he vehemently opposed because of lack of proof of America’s vital interests being at stake.”
