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  • As mentioned in another thread, we've decided to sticky a thread up here for sharing links to whatever interesting articles posters want to share with the rest of the board.

    Please only post links to articles in this thread. You can copy&paste articles in other threads, but please don't inundate the board with multiple threads/articles. You should limit yourself to one new thread a day, and that limit shouldn't be misconstrued as a daily requirement to start another thread.

    We're trying to have more extended, substantive discussions on the board. So unless you think the article brings up a topic or issue not already discussed on this board, you should link to it in here instead.

  • I'll get things started with this article by Pakistani novelist and BBC correspondent Mohammed Hanif, titled My Country, Caving to the Taliban.

  • Since I don't know if anyone has read one of the most brilliant books I personally have

    studied and marveled at (ok, I think this book is a profoundly brilliant study of man and legends):

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hero_with_a_Thousand_Faces

    http://www.skepticfiles.org/atheist2/hero.htm

    I think anyone on the board would find this book amazing. I studied this book many, many years ago..

    only to re-read it every five years or so, if only to marvel at it's significance to current literature.

  • I think I may have referenced this recently, but it really, really merits a read if you're interested in political talk radio etc.

    Host by David Foster Wallace.

  • OK....I get it after reviewing a second time.....you are limiting people to 1 thread a day.

    Now i see why you have a trash can.

    Got it. Good idea,

    Maybe you should take it to the rest of the board.


  • Legislators Raid CCW Trust Fund - Try to Intimidate Governor


    DATE: May 11, 2009
    TO: USF & NRA Member and Friends
    FROM: Marion P. Hammer
    USF Executive Director
    NRA Past President

    In a last minute sneak attack on gun owners, the Florida Legislature raided the concealed weapons and firearms licensing trust fund. This not only effects resident CCW license holders, but non-resident Florida license holders as well!

    They took $6 million from the Division of Licensing Concealed Weapons and Firearm Trust Fund that is intended, by law, to be used solely for administering the concealed weapons and firearms licensing program. (Read background information below)

    Please Call, Fax, or Email Governor Charlie Crist IMMEDIATELY, and ask him to veto the $6 Million trust fund sweep from the Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services Division of Licensing authorized under Section 59 of the Conference Report of SB-2600.



    Please send your email today!!!!!

    And/or please contact the Governor's office by phone or fax ASAP.


    Phone number: (850) 488-4441 or (850) 488-7146
    Fax number: (850) 487-0801

    Send your email to the Governor at this address: [email protected]

    BACKGROUND:

    Right now, the concealed weapons and firearms licensing program is backlogged and overloaded, due in part, to the refusal of budget officials and the Legislature to allow the Division of Licensing to use its own trust fund money to hire more employees and expand/upgrade equipment.

    Crates of unopened mail containing license and license renewal applications sit in storage. The backlog of mail sitting unopened, at times, has extended beyond 90 days while existing licenses are expiring because renewal applications haven't been opened and processed.

    Currently (although the Division of Licensing has been working weekend shifts to clear the backlog), it is taking 13-14 weeks to process a "perfect" application once it has been opened. That is an unequivocal violation of the law that requires issuance or denial of a license by a specific time –– a violation of law that legislative leaders are condoning by their actions.

    THE LAW REQUIRES THE DIVISION OF LICENSING TO ISSUE A LICENSE WITHIN 90 DAYS OF RECEIPT OF THE APPLICATION -- or deny the license "for cause", based upon the criteria set forth in the law. Theft of operating funds by the Legislature is not "just cause" for failure to issue licenses or renewals within 90 days.

    While applications sit gathering dust, legislative leaders took $6 million of approximately $8 million held in the trust fund. That $6 million is supposed to be used to pay employees, buy upgraded equipment, upgrade or replace computers or software and to otherwise administer the concealed weapons and firearms licensing program.

    BUT, feigning a desperate need for funds for education and health care, legislative leaders recklessly and ruthlessly confiscated trust fund money. Why? Because they were building a so-called "working capital" fund for the 2010-12 legislative term, reported now to be in the neighborhood of $1.8 BILLION DOLLARS. This so-called "working capital fund" is for the use of future legislative leaders.

    They didn't take that money for education. They didn't take that money for health care. They didn't take that money to save jobs. They didn't take that money to avoid pay cuts, or budget cuts -- they took the money to help build their own fund.

    While Senate leadership reportedly fought to stop the ruthless raids on trust funds, in the end, they simply caved and let the House of Representatives prevail.



    The bad behavior doesn't end there.


    Obviously fearing the Governor would use his line-item veto to stop trust fund raids, proviso language was inserted in the bill in a clear attempt to intimidate the Governor.

    The proviso language, states that if any portion of the moneys swept from this and other trust funds does not become law (meaning it is vetoed), that portion of the money shall be deducted from the EDUCATION BUDGET. This is clearly designed to keep the Governor from vetoing trust fund sweeps, and prevent trust fund money from being taken back out the House leadership's so-called "working capital" fund.

    Money in the concealed weapons trust fund came from gun owners. No money to administer and run the concealed weapons and firearms licensing program has ever come from general revenue, or any other state fund or revenue source. The taking of these gun owner user fees is an unauthorized tax on the exercise of the Second Amendment.

    AGAIN, Please call, fax and email Governor Crist IMMEDIATELY, and ask him to veto the $6 Million raid on the Concealed Weapons & Firearms Trust Fund!

    Send your email to the Governor at this address: [email protected]



    Please send your email today!!!!!


    You may also call the Executive Office of the Governor at: (850) 488-7146.

  • So THIS is where NRA emails get posted now...

  • I have no interest in having T or cal removed from this board and never ever have.

  • Gun,Germs and steel

    jared diamond

  • Cal, the idea is to post links here, not copy&paste long e-mails or articles.

    Here's an interesting read:

    Is the Conservative Movement Losing Steam? by Richard Posner

  • The New York Fed is the most powerful financial institution you've never heard of. Look who's running it.

    http://www.slate.com/id/2217811/

  • Well, Al, some will find what I posted interesting. But,

    silly me, I forgot you and mz the pussy are the "interesting or not" judges.

    And, mz the pussy's fav mod,

    you enlighten me how I can link to an email, and I will ever so gladly edit it

    quick, like a little bunny rabbit.

    And, I am sorry it aggravated your little buddy.

    I know just once is way, way too many times

    for mz the pussy. I'll try ever so hard not to make him cry with

    another cut and paste of an email. k ?

    ********************************

    Cal, the idea is to post links here, not copy&paste long e-mails or articles.

    Here's an interesting read:

    Is the Conservative Movement Losing Steam? by Richard Posner

    *****************************************************

  • Well, Al, some will find what I posted interesting. But,

    silly me, I forgot you and mz the pussy are the "interesting or not" judges.

    And, mz the pussy's fav mod,

    you enlighten me how I can link to an email, and I will ever so gladly edit it

    quick, like a little bunny rabbit.

    And, I am sorry it aggravated your little buddy.

    I know just once is way, way too many times

    for mz the pussy. I'll try ever so hard not to make him cry with

    another cut and paste of an email. k ?

    ********************************

    Cal, the idea is to post links here, not copy&paste long e-mails or articles.

    Here's an interesting read:

    Is the Conservative Movement Losing Steam? by Richard Posner

    *****************************************************

    @calfoxwc said:

    you enlighten me how I can link to an email, and I will ever so gladly edit it

    quick, like a little bunny rabbit.

    Everything the NRA e-mails also goes up on its website. I wouldn't be surprised if the e-mail you received actually included a link to the online alert, which can be found here.

  • 1. I hate you, Al.

    2. Not really.

    3. If you'd find the time to come drive my tractor for a while,

    I'd have time to go gallavanting round the net to find an eensy

    weensy little link instead.

    4. But, I do know what you mean, and my lofty opinion of you hasn't

    changed, to be reaffirmed here:

  • But, do you not think that all the anti-Palin articles are negative advertising?

    Oh, I'm guilty here and there of just posting an NRA ad alarm or something.... true.

    But, I desire to counter the constant cherry picked negative advertising.

    For once and for all, serious discussions are great, and most of us would like

    more of that.

    But, like Heck's simple post about Rush, to see what others had to say, I have

    also done the same.

    It would be pointless to give my opinion, and the personal attacks start.

    If we all called off the nonsensical personal attacks, and started simply letting

    others differ in their outlook and opinions, we could actually discuss things constructively.

    See? I didn't even make a joke about anybody at the end.

  • Something worth reading...........

    True Story

  • "You cannot bring prosperity by discouraging thrift.

    You cannot help small men by tearing down big men.

    You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.

    You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.

    You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich.

    You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income.

    You cannot further brotherhood of men by inciting class hatred.

    You cannot establish security on borrowed money.

    You cannot build character and courage by taking away man's initiative and independence.

    You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves."

    -- Rev. William J. H. Boetcker*

  • Trillions in Financial Bailouts: After 2 years, the major Beneficiaries are Banks and Wall Street. What other Proof do you need that we are Focusing on Bailing out the Banking Oligarchy? Foreclosure Filings at All-Time Record High.

    6-nationwide-foreclosures1.png

    Banks, take the blue pill. Public, please take the red pill. If I had to characterize the current economic environment, it would have to consist of two completely different sets of beliefs. On one hand, you have banks and Wall Street receiving massive bailouts from the U.S. Treasury and the Federal Reserve, bailouts of the magnitude that would gear up for a Great Depression and imply that the banking system of our country is insolvent. Then on the other hand, you have Wall Street and the crony banks trying to convince the public that this is a minor recession and all will be well in Q3 and Q4 of 2009. The problem of course is that this is not your typical recession yet the public is being led to believe that all is well while bailouts are being dolled out by the truckload to the wrong locations. The actions we are taking keeps in place the banking oligarchy and sacrifices the public under the guise that this is good medicine for the general economy.

    Nothing proves this point better than the current nationwide foreclosure issue:

    http://www.doctorhousingbubble.com/trillio...hy-foreclosure/

  • Clive Crook on Education:

    http://www.ft.com/cms/s/636d553e-3d8d-11de...;nclick_check=1

    Leszek Balcerowicz, "This has not been a pure failure of markets":

    http://blogs.ft.com/capitalismblog/2009/05...ure-of-markets/