First we have the new "Green" Bible

then we have the "articles of Faith"

and we have hte Preachers:  Danny Glover channels Pat Robertson! Actor Danny Glover blames GLOBAL WARMING for Haitian Earthquake

we've been repeatedly told by The Left, and most recently by the current Congress and Administration, that we need to  be more like Europe regarding eceonomics, healthcare, etc.

Here's a little eye-opener ... The Super-Economy blog has some analysis about economic growth levels and rates worth contemplating on this point.

..

Theory and a mass of empirical evidence show that in general, richer countries grow slower and poorer countries grow faster....

The fact that America has not only kept its advantage over Europe but also even expanded the gap is extraordinary. The US is the exception, the only country in the top five 100 years ago that is still in the GDP top five (and yes, the snide remark aside, the US in 1900 had far more pro-market institutions than Germany or France). And even the gap between the US and Western Europe has closed in the last 100 years, it only stopped converging in the 1980s.

The pattern during the last 100 years has been for countries with functioning economies to grow faster the lower they start...

I pointed out yesterday that the E.U 15 has the same per capita GDP as Alabama. Being a poor American state, Alabama grow faster than the US average between 1990-2008. In fact it grew by 1.75% per year. During the same period the EU.15 managed to grew at 1.64%. (in other words Alabama per capita earnings grew by 37%, the E.U 15 by 34%). In the same period rich Maryland grew by only 1.39%. By Krugmans "logic", Maryland should be learning from Alabama.

Alabama has the same per capita income and slightly faster growth rate as the Social Democratic EU.15, which Krugman wants us to believe is a "Dynamic" region that the US should "learn from". Has Paul Krugman ever written a column asking us to learn from the economy of Alabama? Of course not. That would be simply idiotic. Alabama is poor, and has a lower standard of living, just like the E.U 15. It only manages to grow faster than others because it starts off at such a low level (the EU doesn't even manage to do that)....

So the Donks wanna turn us al into .... Alabama!

Ravens @ Colts ... upset!  Ravens are playing VERY good football right now on both sides of the ball, Colts haven't played in over a month ... can you say Big 1(1)0 Bowl results (except of course for this season) ... Ravens by a point

Jets @ Chargers ...  Chargers by 1 ..... The Jets can stop the ground game and make Rivers/Gates/Jackson win the game.

Cowboys @ Vikings .... Boys have NOBODY on the IR.  Rolling.  Barring an untimely turnover from Favre or AP though, Vikes in a squeaker.  Just wish it was an outdoor game.

Cards @ Saints .... Bias alert ... Cards tired from last weeks track meet ... Saints have had the opportunity to rest up , get healthy and find a replacement for Charles Grant .... Cards can't run with Nawlins like they did with the Packers ... this will be a double digit win for the Black & Gold.

I've been bad-mouthing the folks at Google for quite a while for two reasons: their "odd" selections of what dates to denote in their banner modifications and their aid to the government of Communist China, assisting it in oppressing the freedom movement.  My friends and family just roll their eyes at my rants but today I feel somewhat vindicated:

GOOGLE to consider withdrawing from China. “These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered–combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web–have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China. We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.” Good for Google, and quite a slap in the face to the Chinese government. 

My introduction to Ayn Rand was via this book in high school.  I loved it and it did a lot toward shaping my adult mindset.  So it was with great anticipation that I set aside this evening to watch the Gary Cooper movie version.

How sad that the move doesn't live up to the novel in any way shape or form, even with Rand herself writing the screenplay.  OK, Patricia Neal is hot and the only thing she's better is "In Harm's Way" but Cooper misses the mark.  Hell he misses the entire shooting range.  Rumor has it he didn't understand it ... and it shows.  

Sad really.

from the Instapundit

IN THE MIDST OF A DEEP FREEZE, the British Met Office insists it’s a warm winter:

A period of humility and even silence would be particularly welcome from the Met Office, our leading institutional advocate of the perils of man-made global warming, which had promised a “barbecue summer” in 2009 and one of the “warmest winters on record”. In fact, the Met still asserts we are in the midst of an unusually warm winter — as one of its staffers sniffily protested in an internet posting to a newspaper last week: “This will be the warmest winter in living memory, the data has already been recorded. For your information, we take the highest 15 readings between November and March and then produce an average. As November was a very seasonally warm month, then all the data will come from those readings.”

Well, that’s certainly going to enhance their credibility.

The 48 Hour Theater Project for Theater Daedalus has come and gone.  Quick rundown.  Deborah and Remy participated as actors and I was again priveledge to be a director.  Eleven writers met were given instructions at 8pm Thursday:  write a 10-15 minute play, cast of 4 (2 men, 2 women, one of each over 35 and one of each under 35.)  They had to include the following actions: one character told a lie, one tells the truth and one laughs inappropriately.  They also had to include at least one of three lines: "What kind of day has it been?". "It all comes down to good guys and bad guys" or the exchange "What do you hear?  Nothing but the rain."

Twelve hours later the scripts were delivered to the five directors.  We read (and reread) the scripts, then ranked them 1-11 and submitted our results to our Stage Manager.  We ALSO ranked the 5 shows we'd most like to direct top to bottom.  After doing much math the top 5 shows were selected and assigned to the directors.  We met at 6pm to give our evaluations to the authors and to "draft" our casts.  

A couple hours of table work were followed by a rousing few hours of comraderie at Dirty Franks on S High Street (HIGHLY recommended for GREAT dogs and even greater prices.)   The REAL work began thenext day at 8am.  Warmups then blocking and serious workof developing and producing this scripts - creating new works and breathing live into previously non-existant characters.Lunch break at noon.  Twenty minutes of tech work on the stage.  A little more work on the "rough spots" ... a dry run, giving us a chance to see each other's work ... a dinner break ... curtain at 7pm... GREAT house of almost 100 ... and finally retreating to Planks on S High for much winding down and reverie.

What GREAT work.  Words can really not descrive the excellance that is brought to bear on this weekend.  Authors from Maint to Alaska ... mainly Ohio actors but a few returning from New York or Chicago to grace out Central Ohio stage again.  Directors from two states.

I can't begin to tell you how small and insignificant I feel in this program.  My thanks to all for your love and dedication to the project.  And for those of you stumbling across this missive, go to the site, http://www.theatredaedalus.com/ , see what they're doing, and become a part of it

of Democrat Party though on race ... covering the last oh 50 years or so ...

"I have never seen very many white people who felt they were being imposed upon or being subjected to any second-class citizenship if they were directed to a waiting room or to any other public facility to wait or to eat with other white people. Only the Negroes, of all the races which are in this land, publicly proclaim they are being mistreated, imposed upon, and declared second-class citizens because they must go to public facilities with members of their own race."

"I did not lie awake at night worrying about the problems of Negroes."

"I'm not going to use the federal government's authority deliberately to circumvent the natural inclination of people to live in ethnically homogeneous neighborhoods. . . . I have nothing against a community that's made up of people who are Polish or Czechoslovakian or French-Canadian or blacks who are trying to maintain the ethnic purity of their neighborhoods."

"The Confederate Memorial has had a special place in my life for many years. . . . There were many, many times that I found myself drawn to this deeply inspiring memorial, to contemplate the sacrifices of others, several of whom were my ancestors, whose enormous suffering and collective gallantry are to this day still misunderstood by most Americans."

"Everybody likes to go to Geneva. I used to do it for the Law of the Sea conferences and you'd find these potentates from down in Africa, you know, rather than eating each other, they'd just come up and get a good square meal in Geneva."

"I do not think it is an exaggeration at all to say to my friend from West Virginia [Sen. Robert C. Byrd, a former Ku Klux Klan recruiter] that he would have been a great senator at any moment. . . . He would have been right during the great conflict of civil war in this nation."

• "You cannot go into a Dunkin' Donuts or a 7-Eleven unless you have a slight Indian accent."
  
  
• "My state was a slave state. My state is a border state. My state has the eighth largest black population in the country. My state is anything [but] a Northeastern liberal state."
  
  
• "I mean, you got the first mainstream African American [Barack Obama] who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice looking guy."
  
  
• "There's less than 1% of the population of Iowa that is African American. There is probably less than 4% or 5% that is, are minorities. What is it in Washington? So look, it goes back to what you start off with, what you're dealing with."

Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) in 2002 agreed with former Sen. Trent Lott's (R-Miss.) decision to resign his leadership role after Lott made what some felt were racist remarks at former Sen. Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party.

"He had no alternative," said Reid at the time claiming, "If you tell ethnic jokes in the backroom, it's that much easier to say ethnic things publicly. I've always practiced how I play."

a few random observations

Musberger seemed amazed that the Bama line hadn't been called for holding in over 38 quarters.  Did he not SEE any games this season?  SEC officials were swallowing their whistles for Bama and the Gators.  Hell I'm surprised they had ANY calls against em.

Can the SEC win a Bowl Game w/o injuring a major opponent?

Why couldn't ABC find the Bama clarinet player at the half?

Nice musical selection by the marching Longhorns.

TWO blown defensive PI calls late in the 3rd qtr.  Texas is NOT gonna get a break.  And then an AWFUL call FOR Bama on an overthrown pass.  Are these SEC officials?  (ok, i know they aren't)

Gilbert has issues but when he DOES get the ball to a rec they need to catch the damned thing.

three point game - up to the TX D to continue what they've done the whole 2nd half

3:21 ... tick tock Clarice

fumble ... game over dude

Congrats to the Crimson Tide