ontarget's 2 .. ... .. http://ontarget.intermod.net Staying OnTarget with points from the web posterous.com Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:19:00 -0800 Mr. Toyoda, Meet Mr. Occam http://ontarget.intermod.net/mr-toyoda-meet-mr-occam http://ontarget.intermod.net/mr-toyoda-meet-mr-occam

Mr. Toyoda, Meet Mr. Occam

 


    Time was when the Toyota corporate catch phrase was “Oh, What A Feeling!”  Presumably the marketing wonks were talking about the sublime, self-satisfied feeling of superiority over mere mortal automobiles, not the feeling of white-knuckled panic as your trusty Toyota barrels down the highway at a screaming wide open throttle thrill ride. In August of last year, Noriko Uno of California was killed when her Toyota unexpectedly went ballistic on the freeway. Eyewitnesses reported seeing her Toyota frantically passing other vehicles, desperately weaving in and out of lanes in excess of 100 miles an hour, just before her car became airborne and made a close encounter of the worst kind with a tree. This incident occurred before the current crop of throttle mayhem cases that have made Toyota’s engine control crisis rise to the apex of public and political discussion, and her family has wrongful death litigation pending in the California courts.


    The finger of blame for all of these throttle control malfunctions is currently jabbing at temperamental gas pedals or wandering floor mats- take your pick. When I first heard of the problems that Toyota was having my suspicions were directed to a system that I have had qualms about for a long time - namely the “divorced throttle” arrangement. For the uninitiated, divorced throttle describes a control system where there is no physical connection between the throttle pedal and the device on the engine that controls engine speed. Instead the throttle pedal is reduced to nothing more than a positioning sensor, it sends a graduating signal to the engine control module, which in turn precisely controls throttle opening in relation to pedal travel. (Well, except when Murphy’s Law takes over.)  My initial apprehensions were reinforced when I happened to see an account on television about an intrepid Toyota motorist who recently experienced an uncontrolled throttle event, he coolly bumped his Toyota into neutral after the engine started roaring like the Wabash Cannonball. He then managed to coax his car into a Toyota dealership that just happened to be located directly down the nearest off ramp. While his car sat there in the parking lot with the engine screaming in neutral like a Stuka Dive Bomber, he dragged the service manager out to the car so that all interested parties could see that this was not, in fact, a case of floor mats meandering where they shouldn’t be meandering.


    If divorced throttles seems to you to be a case of technology running rampant, if you're asking why such a basic function like throttle control is now dependent on software, you're not the only one asking these questions, my fellow Luddite. Coming to an automobile near you in the future is “Divorced Steering” and “Divorced Braking”. These systems are in prototype stage and there is discussion about incorporating these into vehicles in the future. That is unless, of course, we find out these divorced throttle system are to blame or even partially to blame for these runaway engine events. In that case the automotive industry will almost certainly get a “divorce” from these “divorced” control systems.


    Separating the vehicle operator from safety systems like throttles and steering with only software and electrons between the two is classic case of ignoring Occam’s Razor, the theorem that the simplest solution for a given problem is almost always the best solution. There is absolutely no substitute for safety and reliability of a cable connection between the vehicle driver and the throttle valve, the never fail mechanical link between the operator’s steering wheel and the wheels on the road. Divorced systems by their very nature require a much higher level of complexity and complex systems fail much more often than simple ones, no matter what level of redundancy is engineered into them in an effort to anticipate every conceivable failure scenario. And the real problem is simply this- failures of these critical automobile safety and control systems are frequently catastrophic and occasionally lethal.


    The good Friar Occam was referring to religious doctrines when he proposed his theorem, but it still lives in engineering. Engineering solutions achieve their highest order precisely when they reach their greatest simplicity.

 

 

 

Bob Sanders

Bob@KarmaKanic.com

Karma Kanic Inc 

Brewer, ME 04412 

207 989-1094

Here's the letter - its also on Google Docs here 
https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AUW0EitxoSdoZDVycXFnel80NGhydjZ6emM3&hl=en

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]]> http://posterous.com/images/profile/missing-user-75.png http://posterous.com/users/15WZV2FP7gt ontarget ontarget Fri, 15 Jan 2010 11:22:00 -0800 Is it just me, but .. .. http://ontarget.intermod.net/is-it-just-me-but http://ontarget.intermod.net/is-it-just-me-but

These headlines:

Dems 'Very Close' to Health Care Deal

Obama works late on health care -- final deal seems close

etc  etc

If Bush or just about anyone else was president, there would be major  outrage, news shows and articles about the nasty politics in DC, how corrupt they are, what are you going to do about it?

DEALS - Are you kidding me .. DEALS and thats the level that you want in the WH !! OMG

Do we need to become a banana republic before the MSM (main stream media) folks WAKE up and resume their place as the 3rd estate?

I hope not, because if they wait until then, they have an example in Venezuela with Chavez (who has shut down all opposition media) what will happen to THEM.  The MSM are so holier than thou in this regard, but only if they are personally faced with annihilation will they see the light !

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]]> http://posterous.com/images/profile/missing-user-75.png http://posterous.com/users/15WZV2FP7gt ontarget ontarget Thu, 12 Nov 2009 10:20:00 -0800 And, One year later – understanding how very, very far it is to go… http://ontarget.intermod.net/and-one-year-later-understanding-how-very-ver http://ontarget.intermod.net/and-one-year-later-understanding-how-very-ver

Black Flag - http://standupforamerica.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/one-year-of-standing-up-for-america/#comment-44502

Do you think ideas don’t matter, that what people believe about themselves and their world has no real consequence?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/8347409.stm

This BBC poll finds that only 11 percent of people questioned around the world – and 29,000 people were asked their opinions – think that free-market capitalism is a good thing.

The rest believe in more government regulation.

Only a small percentage of the world’s population believes that capitalism works well and that more regulation will reduce efficiency.

One-quarter of those asked said that capitalism is “fatally flawed.”

In France, 43 percent believe this. In Mexico, it is 38 percent.

A majority believes that government should rob the rich to give money to poor countries. In only one country, Turkey, did a majority say that less government is better.

It gets even worse.

While most Europeans and Americans think it was a good thing for the Soviet Union to disintegrate, people in India, Indonesia, Ukraine, Pakistan, Russia, and Egypt mostly think it was a bad thing. Yes, you read that right: millions freed from socialist slavery = bad thing.

That news must lift the heart of every would-be despot the world over.

And it comes as something of a shock twenty years after the collapse of socialism in Russia and Eastern Europe revealed what this system had created: backward societies with citizens who lived short and miserable lives.

Then there is the China case, a country rescued from bloody barbarism under communism and transformed into a modern and prosperous country by capitalism.

What can we learn?

Far from not having learned anything, people have largely forgotten the experience and have developed a love for the ancient fairytale that all things can be fixed through collectivism and central planning.

As to those who would despair at this poll, consider that it might have been much worse had not the reality of examples of the collapse of Socialism did not exist.

It might have been 99% in support of socialist tyranny.

What, for example, is capitalism? Do people even know? Michael Moore doesn’t know, else he wouldn’t be calling bailouts for elite, Fed-connected financial firms a form of capitalism.

Many other people reduce the term capitalism to: “the system of economics in the U.S.” It is no more complicated than that. This is despite the reality that the U.S. has a comprehensive planning apparatus in place that is directly responsible for all our current economic troubles.

Now, let’s take this further.

Among the people around the world who do not like the U.S. empire, many believe they don’t like capitalism either. If the U.S. economy drags the world down into recession, that is a prime example of capitalism’s failure.

Even more preposterous, if you didn’t like George W. Bush, his ways and his cronies, and Obama is something of a relief, then you don’t like capitalism and you do like socialism.

Another point of view misunderstands the idea of capitalism itself.

It is not about creating economic structures that benefit capital at the expense of labor or culture or religion.

It is about a system that protects the rights of everyone and serves the common good. Capitalism is just the name that happened to be identified with this system. If you want to call freedom a banana, fine.

What matters is not words but ideas.

I do know that none of these messed-up definitions of capitalism follow. You know this too.

But for the world at large, serious ideological analytics are not the active force of daily life.

Many, if not most, people attach themselves to vague slogans.

All of which leaves true capitalism – a product of the voluntary society and the sum total of all the exchanges and cooperative acts of people all over the world – with few actual intellectual defenders.

We are growing, but the educational work we need to do is daunting, and we are facing the most powerful forces in the world.

But, there is nothing new in this.

In the history of the world, freedom is the exception, not the rule. It must be fought for anew in every generation. Its enemies are everywhere.

The fashion for socialism and the opposition to capitalism should alarm every lover of freedom the world over.

We have our jobs cut out for us, but with numbers this bad, we must do much better at educating and teaching and explaining freedom, because if we fail, it will be the end of human civilization.

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]]> http://posterous.com/images/profile/missing-user-75.png http://posterous.com/users/15WZV2FP7gt ontarget ontarget Sun, 27 Sep 2009 10:59:39 -0700 If a man yells.... http://ontarget.intermod.net/if-a-man-yells http://ontarget.intermod.net/if-a-man-yells
Youliejoke

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]]> http://posterous.com/images/profile/missing-user-75.png http://posterous.com/users/15WZV2FP7gt ontarget ontarget Mon, 13 Jul 2009 12:13:39 -0700 Supporters of Anthropogenic global warming (AGW) http://ontarget.intermod.net/supporters-of-anthropogenic-global-warming-ag http://ontarget.intermod.net/supporters-of-anthropogenic-global-warming-ag Look at some of the qualifications of people we keep listening to on AGW

Al Gore, B.A. Government (no science degree)
Alanis Morissette, High School Diploma
Bill Maher, B.A. English (no science degree)
Bono (Paul Hewson), High School Diploma
Daryl Hanna, B.F.A. Theater (no science degree)
Ed Begley Jr., High School Diploma
Jackson Browne, High School Diploma
Jon Bon Jovi (John Bongiovi), High School Diploma
Oprah Winfrey, B.A. Speech and Drama (no science degree)
Prince Charles of Whales, B.A. (no science degree)
Sheryl Crow, B.A. Music Education (no science degree)
Sienna Miller, High School Diploma

ABC - Sam Champion, B.A. Broadcast News (no science degree, not a meteorologist)
CBS - Harry Smith, B.A. Communications and Theater (no science degree)
CBS - Katie Couric, B.A. English (no science degree)
CBS - Scott Pelley, College Dropout
NBC - Ann Curry, B.A. Journalism (no science degree)
NBC - Anne Thompson, B.A. American studies (no science degree)
NBC - Matt Lauer. B.A. Communications (no science degree)
NBC - Meredith Vieira, B.A. English (no science degree)

Al Sharpton, College Dropout
Alicia Keys, College Dropout
Alicia Silverstone, High School Dropout
Art Bell, College Dropout
Ben Affleck, College Dropout
Ben Stiller, College Dropout
Billy Jean King, College Dropout
Brad Pitt, College Dropout
Britney Spears, High School Dropout
Bruce Springsteen, College Dropout
Cameron Diaz, High School Dropout
Cindy Crawford, College Dropout
Diane Keaton, College Dropout
Drew Barrymore, High School Dropout
George Clooney, College Dropout
Gwyneth Paltrow, College Dropout
Jason Biggs, College Dropout
Jennifer Connelly, College Dropout
Jessica Simpson, High School Dropout
John Travolta, High School Dropout
Joshua Jackson, High School Dropout
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, College Dropout
Julia Roberts, College Dropout
Kanye West, College Dropout
Keanu Reeves, High School Dropout
Kevin Bacon, High School Dropout
Kiefer Sutherland, High School Dropout
Leonardo DiCaprio, High School Dropout
Lindsay Lohan, High School Dropout
Ludacris (Christopher Bridges), College Dropout
Madonna (Madonna Ciccone), College Dropout
Matt Damon, College Dropout
Matthew Modine, College Dropout
Michael Moore, College Dropout
Nicole Richie, College Dropout
Neve Campbell, High School Dropout
Olivia Newton-John, High School Dropout
Orlando Bloom, High School Dropout
Paris Hilton, High School Dropout
Pierce Brosnan. High School Dropout
Queen Latifah (Dana Elaine Owens), College Dropout
Richard Branson, High School Dropout
Robert Redford, College Dropout
Rosie O'Donnell, College Dropout
Sarah Silverman, College Dropout
Sean Penn, College Dropout
Ted Turner, College Dropout
Tommy Lee (Thomas Lee Bass), High School Dropout
Uma Thurman, High School Dropout
Willie Nelson, High School Dropout

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]]> http://posterous.com/images/profile/missing-user-75.png http://posterous.com/users/15WZV2FP7gt ontarget ontarget Sat, 04 Jul 2009 12:10:51 -0700 Obama's campaign to erase individuality and ambition reminds me of my old life in communist Slovenia. http://ontarget.intermod.net/obamas-campaign-to-erase-individuality-and-am http://ontarget.intermod.net/obamas-campaign-to-erase-individuality-and-am

The End of Independence Day?

Obama's campaign to erase individuality and ambition reminds me of my old life in communist Slovenia.

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/the-end-of-independence-day/

Posted By Mary Grabar On July 4, 2009 @ 12:00 am In . Column1 01, . Positioning, Culture, History, Opinion, Politics, US News | 39 Comments

Back when I was in graduate school, on the last day of a seminar on Eastern European literature, the professor asked us what we thought characterized literature from that part of the world. We concluded that it was a sense of fatalism.

In fact, I think I was the one to first suggest that answer, for I recognized the fear and sense of futility. As an immigrant who came here at a young age with my parents from [1] Slovenia, then part of communist Yugoslavia, I knew firsthand the difference in attitudes that marks the American character. It provided a source of conflict between me and my parents, who, like many immigrants, doggedly clung to security and obscurity — while I read and dreamed of becoming a famous writer, and in the American way studied for a Ph.D. in spite of my age and early educational track.

But this was not uncommon. The parents of my Ukrainian friends carried a look of worried fear. The mother of one of my friends made it a policy to sign no “papers.” Her refusal to sign a form denied my friend a scholarship to become a dental hygienist — her dream. My Polish friend [2] Anthony Bukoski writes superb [3] short stories that capture the sense of a proud and brave people brutalized by totalitarian regimes and then made refugees. [4] Metod Milač, a Slovene, has written a riveting [5] account of his experiences of imprisonment by the Italian Fascists and German Nazis. A friend, whose late father had been a member of the [6] Slovenian Home Guard that had resisted the takeover by the communist Partisans, literally looked over his shoulder on the streets of Cleveland.

But those streets, once havens for [7] displaced persons, soon were destroyed by the utopian plans of collectivists and their agitators who urged the mobs to violence. The neighbors of my working-class neighborhood in Rochester, New York, complained from their front porches of increasing taxes, as they watched their property values deteriorate from the urban “renewal” and social decay of Johnson’s Great Society program. While a job at Kodak or a stint at the community college was the aspiration for the graduates of Benjamin Franklin High School in the mid-seventies, we believed that nonetheless it was possible for someone of talent to make it big. Like the [8] Partridge Family, they could take to the road, or at least enjoy owning a Camaro or Firebird — before the burdens of suburban family life took precedence.

We are seeing even those small marks of personal pride and independence — the freedom to rev up the engine on a Friday night — taken away. The muscle cars, under the diktat of the president and head of General Motors, are simply being eliminated and replaced by Yugo-style cars. The common retort to my lament is that such a boost to the male ego is silly in light of global warming and the greater good. What I find alarming, though, is that today’s generation submits to such authority.

And what about those from the upper-middle classes who had dreams of becoming doctors, executives, or entrepreneurs? As our president defies history and the Constitution by firing executives, citizens applaud.

Perhaps the most disturbing sight for me during the campaign — even more than Obama before the [9] mobs in Berlin — was the corn-fed Midwestern couple starring on one of Obama’s commercials. Those were the people that I grew up with — salt of the earth. But I winced as I heard them tell Obama about their personal problems with bills and health care while soft music played in the background creepily.

They wanted him to take care of them. True to form, while North Korea conducted [10] nuclear tests, Obama hailed his [11] credit card reform — as if we are incapable of reading the fine print or making a phone call on our own. While young [12] protesters longing for fair elections died in the streets of Tehran, Obama signed [13] a bill to protect us from cigarettes. Now Obama wants to tell us what medical procedures we should have, how much we should earn, and what kinds of cars we should drive.

What are the responses to complaints about such violations of our “unalienable right” to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”? Frequent proclamations by the White House [14] press secretary, by the secretary of state, and by the [15] president himself of “we won.” And during his June 23 press conference, when presented with criticisms about his response to Iranian protests, Obama royally [16] proclaimed twice, “I’m president.” So much for “of the people, by the people, and for the people.” Now it’s only the “people” who voted for Obama.

Perhaps what is most disturbing is the president’s unprecedented ridicule and dismissal of citizens — even for such things as their radio programs, by telling Republicans not to “[17] listen to” Rush Limbaugh. And apparently “open communication” from the White House is only for Democrats, for I received only two emails when I signed up for the list before I was dropped. In light of such developments, the Department of Homeland Security’s right-wing extremist [18] memo, with its unfounded warnings about those who disagree with the administration, portends ill for those who don’t march lockstep with Obama’s dictates.

Say what you want and ridicule me the way our president does, but this naturalized citizen is looking over her shoulder on this Independence Day.

Article printed from Pajamas Media: http://pajamasmedia.com

URL to article: http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/the-end-of-independence-day/

URLs in this post:
[1] Slovenia: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/SI.html
[2] Anthony Bukoski: http://www.uwsuper.edu/acaddept/engl/employees/bukoski-anthony_employee88492
[3] short stories: http://www.tamu.edu/upress/BOOKS/2008/bukoski.htm
[4] Metod Milač:
[5] account: http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FResistance
-Imprisonment-Forced-Labor-European%2Fdp%2F0820457817&tag=pajamasmedia-20&linkCode=ur2&c
amp=1789&creative=9325

[6] Slovenian Home Guard: http://www.arts.ualberta.ca/%7Eljubljan/bookreviews/Corsellis_Ferrar.pdf
[7] displaced persons: http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FDps-Europe
s-Displaced-Persons-1945-1951%2Fdp%2F0801485428%2F&tag=pajamasmedia-20&linkCode=ur2&camp
=1789&creative=9325

[8] Partridge Family: http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/P/htmlP/partridgefam/partridgefam.htm
[9] mobs in Berlin: http://www.spiegel.de/international/index.rss
[10] nuclear tests: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-north-korea-missile2-2009jun02,0,4799191.story
[11] credit card reform: http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/obamaforamerica/gGxSb3
[12] protesters: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iran16-2009jun16,0,5600560.story
[13] a bill: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0609/24029.html
[14] press secretary: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2009/06/18/white_house_responds_to_bush_we_won.html
[15] president:
[16] proclaimed:
[17] listen to:
[18] memo: http://pajamasmedia.com../../../../../blog/yes-the-government-is-out-to-get-us-right-wing-extremists

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]]> http://posterous.com/images/profile/missing-user-75.png http://posterous.com/users/15WZV2FP7gt ontarget ontarget Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:08:27 -0700 Untitled http://ontarget.intermod.net/1027037 http://ontarget.intermod.net/1027037
Smells-like-bullshit

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]]> http://posterous.com/images/profile/missing-user-75.png http://posterous.com/users/15WZV2FP7gt ontarget ontarget Sun, 28 Jun 2009 18:19:07 -0700 Cap and Trade Doesn't Work Obama can learn a thing or two from Europe's scheme. http://ontarget.intermod.net/cap-and-trade-doesnt-work-obama-can-learn-a-t http://ontarget.intermod.net/cap-and-trade-doesnt-work-obama-can-learn-a-t

Cap and Trade Doesn't Work

Obama can learn a thing or two from Europe's scheme.

No patriotic and informed American can support the ACES Act (global warming/cap and trade scam), a huge Ponzy scheme that will kill the U.S. economy.

Cap and Trade “would be the equivalent of an atomic bomb directed at the U.S. economy—all without any scientific justification,” says famed climatologist Dr. S. Fred Singer. It would significantly increase taxes and the cost of energy, forcing many companies to close, thus increasing unemployment, poverty and dependence.

Cap and trade represents huge taxes and cost increases, which will hurt mostly the poor and the middle class. Cap and trade will give dictatorial powers to Obama and will further enrich his billionaire friends (Gore, Soros, Goldman Sachs, Obama’s Chicago Climate Exchange friends, GE, the United Nations, etc.) -- all at our expense and at the expense of our children and grandchildren.

Those brainwashed to the point of wanting to destroy the economy to "prevent global warming" are behaving like the most primitive human beings who were duped into believing that human sacrifices would ensure them good weather. Human beings don't have the power to control climate! And killing the economy will not help the environment. Poor countries can’t protect the environment. Just look at Haiti!

More than 700 international scientists dissent over man-made global warming claims. They are now more than 13 times the number of UN scientists (52) who authored the media-hyped IPCC 2007 Summary for Policymakers. http://www.climatechangefraud.com/content/view/3562/218/

Additionally, more than 30,000 American scientists have signed onto a petition that states, "There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth's atmosphere and disruption of the Earth's climate." http://www.petitionproject.org

Please do what you can to defend your family and your country. Write to your Representative -- https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml




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]]> http://posterous.com/images/profile/missing-user-75.png http://posterous.com/users/15WZV2FP7gt ontarget ontarget Tue, 23 Jun 2009 12:00:57 -0700 Todays articles .. ... http://ontarget.intermod.net/todays-articles http://ontarget.intermod.net/todays-articles Todays articles ..  ...

The Adventures of Barry Munchausen

All through last year, the Democrats insisted that the economy was tanking as a result of “tax cuts” and “deregulation,” though there’s not a single instance in the history of the world in which reducing tax rates caused a recession.

http://pajamasmedia.com/eddriscoll/2009/06/22/the-adventures-of-barry-munchausen/

====================================================

Persian ParanoiaIranian leaders will always believe Anglo-Saxons are plotting against them.

By Christopher Hitchens

http://www.slate.com/id/2221020/?from=rss

====================================================


SHERMAN FREDERICK: Why I dumped Obama's party

I was on political easy street as a Democrat.

President Obama, the party head, is a political rock star in America and a near-god in Amsterdam and Cairo.

http://www.lvrj.com/opinion/48721992.html

====================================================

Iran's Revolutionary Guard threatens protesters

The Basij, a plainclothes militia under the command of the Revolutionary Guard, have been used to quell streets protests that erupted after the election result was announced. At least 17 protesters have been killed, according to an official Iranian toll.

http://rawstory.com/blog/2009/06/iran-admits-possibly-discrepancy-in-3-million-votes/


====================================================

Hugh Hewitt: Support Iranian protestors by watching Soraya


Much more to the point, though, is the fundamental evil of a law code that consigns all women to a second-class status and through which the worst sorts of cruelty are not merely not punished but even endorsed.

http://hotair.com/archives/2009/06/22/hugh-hewitt-support-iranian-protestors-by-watching-soraya/

====================================================

Iran updates

Note from Tehran, 22 June 2009 (8:00 am Eastern):

tell the Europeans, stop posturing, wasn’t human rights supposed to be so important to you?
you’re all full of empty slogans, aren’t you?

http://tehranbureau.com/iran-updates/

====================================================

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]]> http://posterous.com/images/profile/missing-user-75.png http://posterous.com/users/15WZV2FP7gt ontarget ontarget Thu, 14 May 2009 13:38:00 -0700 Hating What's Right: How the Modern Liberal Winds Up on the Wrong Side of Every Issue http://ontarget.intermod.net/hating-whats-right-how-the-modern-liberal-win http://ontarget.intermod.net/hating-whats-right-how-the-modern-liberal-win

Hating What's Right: How the Modern Liberal Winds Up on the Wrong Side of Every Issue

Or direct link to video Video:
ev030309a
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid13746676001?bclid=0&bctid=14624345001

Date:

 March 3, 2009
Time: 12:00 noon
Speaker(s):

Featuring:

Evan Sayet
Writer, Lecturer and Pundit
Host(s): John Edward Hilboldt
Director, Lectures and Seminars,
The Heritage Foundation


Details:

Location: The Heritage Foundation's Lehrman Auditorium

Evan Sayet has been a top Hollywood writer and producer for more than 20 years. His credits range from “The Arsenio Hall Show” to “Politically Incorrect.” After the September 11 attacks, Sayet decided to step from behind the camera and speak out in his own voice – that of one of the nation’s top political satirists. At Heritage, his entertaining yet quite serious lecture will examine the modern liberal “mindset” and how it can lead to siding with evil over good and behaviors that produce failure rather than success.

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]]> http://posterous.com/images/profile/missing-user-75.png http://posterous.com/users/15WZV2FP7gt ontarget ontarget Fri, 08 May 2009 10:52:00 -0700 Howard Dean on CNBC's Power Lunch saying, "I think we've had quite enough capitalism in the last eight years." http://ontarget.intermod.net/howard-dean-on-cnbcs-power-lunch-saying-i-thi http://ontarget.intermod.net/howard-dean-on-cnbcs-power-lunch-saying-i-thi
I live in the wealthiest nation in the history of civiliation. I live in a society where the average person has a better standard of living than royalty of past ages. All thanks to captialism. But Howard Dean has had enough of Capitalism. Clearly, living in some socialist hell hole like Cuba or Venezuala or Zimbabwe is preferable to the evil USA. How do people as congenitally stupid as Dean rise in public life? What is wrong with our system that it allows such people to thrive?

John | May 8, 2009, 10:27am | #
via reason.com


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]]> http://posterous.com/images/profile/missing-user-75.png http://posterous.com/users/15WZV2FP7gt ontarget ontarget Thu, 07 May 2009 21:36:05 -0700 Quotes http://ontarget.intermod.net/quotes-28 http://ontarget.intermod.net/quotes-28
If there were no God, there would be no Atheists. - G. K. Chesterton
via twitter.com

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]]> http://posterous.com/images/profile/missing-user-75.png http://posterous.com/users/15WZV2FP7gt ontarget ontarget Thu, 07 May 2009 18:38:00 -0700 Dear Black Americans: Democrats Deliberately Hold your Children Down http://ontarget.intermod.net/politics-general-google-notebook http://ontarget.intermod.net/politics-general-google-notebook
Dear Black Americans: Democrats Deliberately Hold your Children Down - E_Pluribus_Unum’s blog -
www.redstate.com/e_pluribus_unum/2009/05/06/dea...
Note created May 6, 2009 • Last edited May 6, 2009 by tegwek

Dear Black Americans: Democrats Deliberately Hold your Children Down


Intentionally crushing the hopes and dreams of your next generation's brightest and best is a gratuitous act of cruelty

Posted by E Pluribus Unum (Profile)

Wednesday, May 6th at 1:05PM EDT

3 Comments

Today, in fact right as I post this, D.C. Parents for School Choice and DC Children First, in a city where the student population is 90% black, are holding the DC School Choice Rally in the Freedom Plaza of Washington, DC (details here). Perhaps you should know why it was necessary…..

Says the Black Alliance for Educational Options:

Congress is poised to do away with one of former President George W. Bush’s signature initiatives in education: the taxpayer-funded vouchers that enable students from low-income families in the District of Columbia to attend private schools. About 1,700 children in kindergarten through 12th grade receive the $7,500 annual scholarships. Four times as many apply.

The District of Columbia spends more per pupil than any school district in the nation, but still is plagued by low test scores, high dropout rates and underperforming schools. The voucher program was passed by Congress as a five-year pilot program. But it has been on House Democrats’ hit list for some time……

White House spokesman Thomas Vietor said Tuesday that Obama supports allowing the current students to remain in the program until they graduate from high school but not permitting the addition of new students.

How would you like your daughter to be the student number 1701? The one who will never escape the underperforming public schools, who was not permitted to pursue her dreams for which she is perfectly willing to work hard for?

Dear American Blacks:

Sometimes the very best act of friendship I could do is tell you that the person you think is your best friend actually works against you behind your back, laughing at you, mocking your hardships, secure in the knowledge that you need him too much to ever leave him.

Sometimes — no, actually always — the true friend is the one who tells you what you don’t want to hear. The one who does not indulge you, the one who will neither promise you nor give you candy and other bennies. Instead he tells you to sit down and eat your green beans and spinach — and if you want that nice car, then quit whining, get an education, earn a good job, and earn that nice car.

The really ironic thing is that the slick, good-time “friend” will tell you what a jerk your true friend is. And you will believe him. You will believe him, that is, until you grow up, or until your good-time friend sells you up the river so far that your life is wrecked, and your future is ruined. Your wisdom will have been gained at a steep price.

But your true friend will still be there. And eating your green beans, securing an education, and working hard are still the path to success.

American Blacks, the Democratic Party is that good-time, lying, back-stabbing excuse for a “friend”. The DC Voucher story is an illustration — hardly a unique story — of how Democrats continually seek to set you up as a permanent underclass, so that you’ll depend on them to throw you scraps and believe their lies, in order to secure your votes to keep them in power.

In Jan 2004, the Republican-run Congress passed the DC School Voucher program as part of the fiscal year 2004 budget. The measure was proposed by Democrat DC Mayor Anthony Williams, and championed by President George W Bush. It included money for the school district itself to dedicate to more teacher training and recruitment (i.e., it was designed to improve the district as well, not just punish them). The entire 5-year program cost $40 million - 1/20,000th the size of the Democrat-passed “stimulus” bill passed 2 months ago.

So why did the Democrats kill the DC Voucher Program, a year before the 5-year pilot program expired, over the loud objections of Republicans? It’s not because the Democrats don’t enjoy spending money! Good Lord. In this year’s Democrat-passed spending bill, they found room for $5.8 million for the “Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the Senate, Boston, MA” and $6.6 million for “Formosan Subterranean Termites Research” (and over 9000 other special earmarked projects)

Why has the school voucher program been on the House Democrat hit list? I suppose it’s subject to interpretation, but I’ll offer these notes:

  • Teacher unions, the NEA and the AFT, detest voucher programs.
  • Teacher unions are a very powerful Democrat Party constituent, donating many millions in campaign contributions to Democrat candidates, not to mention spending more money on lobbying than the top 4 oil companies combined.
  • Meanwhile, the DC Mayor and the DC School Superintendent lobbied for the program, and lobbied to keep it.
  • The voucher program accepts 1700 students, while about 7,000 students applied.
  • over 60% of the private schools in DC cost less than $7500 per year, meaning the families of the 1700 students are not burdened with paying any tuition at all.

I leave it to you to decide why the Democrats would cancel a wildly successful, much sought after program that merely seeks to give children a chance at success. In a school district so rife with corruption and waste that the per-pupil spending is the highest in the nation, while producing some of the lowest test scores, some parents want better for their kids.

Democrats stripped spending from the program this year. Republican Senator John Ensign brought Amendment 615 to the spending bill to restore the spending. It was voted down 58-39, with 2 Democrats voting for it,and 56 voting against it. Not only that, but Democrats withheld this official report (executive summary, and full report) showing the success of the program until after debate was over.

A Proposal

So while the Democrats toss your children’s hopes and dreams aside, secure in the knowledge that you’ll always vote for them, remember that your true friend is still here.

I ask you to consider, why is it that you hate Republicans so much? This DC School Voucher was brought in 2004 by Republicans at the request of a Democratic mayor who desperately cared about the future of DC students. It was killed in 2009 by Democrats for reasons that appear cynical and political.

Republicans do not know how to approach you. Democrats and the Democrat-dominated press have misled you and stoked up your wrath to the point that you will not listen to us.

So I propose this: how about listening? How about listening to what Republicans have to say, instead of what the Democrats say we say? How about listening to what we have to say before booing us out of the building?

You may find that we make sense, not just for rich white people, but for everybody. To wit:

  • Republicans stand, as much as anything, for freedom of opportunity. We do NOT stand for freedom of outcome.
  • Want a good job? Get an education.
  • Want special treatment? Tough.
  • Want the opportunity to escape poverty, crime, and poor schools? Then quit voting for the Democrats that put you there.
  • Tired of 15% unemployment in your areas? Then quit supporting the Democrats who raise taxes and force increase regulations on employers. [oh yeah, the Democrats call them the 'rich', but when was the last time a poor man gave you a job?]

It’s tough love, but I assure you, friend, it’s love. That’s why we fought like hell to restore the DC School Vouchers. That’s why we fought like hell to lower taxes on businesses, so employers could hire more people and create more success for everybody.

We received not one ounce of gratitude from you, but we did it anyway. And we will continue to do what is right for America, for whites, for blacks, for Latinos, for Republicans, for Democrats, for today, and for the future.

Join us. Consider it, anyway.

Sincerely,E Pluribus Unum

via google.com


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]]> http://posterous.com/images/profile/missing-user-75.png http://posterous.com/users/15WZV2FP7gt ontarget ontarget Thu, 07 May 2009 14:32:00 -0700 WCSH6.com | Portland, ME | Maine Ban On Patio Smoking Headed For Enactment http://ontarget.intermod.net/wcsh6com-portland-me-maine-ban-on-patio-smoki http://ontarget.intermod.net/wcsh6com-portland-me-maine-ban-on-patio-smoki
A bill modeled after a Portland ordinance that limits smoking on restaurant decks and patios is facing its final vote in the Maine Senate.
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RicksCafe wrote:
Imagine if we could legalize marijuana in Maine. Then, gay gamblers could come to Maine, get married, get stoned, give all their money to the Las Vegas company behind the casino, get divorced, and move back to Mass!Maine! The way life should be according to Barney Frank.
via wcsh6.com


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]]> http://posterous.com/images/profile/missing-user-75.png http://posterous.com/users/15WZV2FP7gt ontarget ontarget Thu, 07 May 2009 14:16:04 -0700 Misc http://ontarget.intermod.net/misc-26 http://ontarget.intermod.net/misc-26 "Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean that they're not after me".

I always err on the side of caution. If it looks like a fascist, walks like a fascist,
legislates like a fascist, lies like a fascist, it's probably a fascist.

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