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Sarah Palin continues her record setting blitz on television as the premiere of her Sarah Palin's Alaska shattered the record for viewers on the TLC cable network with about 5 million viewers for opening night. For comparison Conan O'Brien pulled about 2.7 million while Jay Leno, on a network, pulled about 3.6 million on the previous Friday night.
This comes on the heels of her election night contribution to Fox News channel which increased ratings 20% over the 2008 election and double the 2006 election as the Fox cable flagship stunned the network giants by beating all three national networks with Fox cable pulling 6.9 million, NBC 6.2 million, CBS 5.8 million and ABC 5.5 million during prime time.
Fox News with Sarah Palin continues to dominate cable news with average prime time viewers at 2.1 million while CNN has 575 thousand, MSNBC 820 thousand, CNBC 188 thousand and HLN 472 thousand. In all shows Fox continues to pull two or three times more than the nearest competitor.
Of course it took a Palin to beat a Palin as Bristol Palin on Dancing with the Stars drew 20 million viewers in the most recent show just as Sarah Palin predicted.
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On occasion we offer you glimpses of the world in hopes of broadening our understanding of the diversity of cultures and the character of people. In Asia there are few women prominent in fighting for freedom and opposing opressive rule. Aung San Sun Kyi of Burma is the exception to the rule and hearing her story should reassure you that people throughout the world share in our fierce determination to protect liberty and individual ights. The following is a particularly good article about her from the Guardian in the UK.
Aung San Suu Kyi: Burma's opposition leader is a new Mandela
Universal symbol of courage has endured years as a prisoner for heading the fight for democracy in her country
Jon Henley, guardian.co.uk, Friday 12 November 2010
In her own country she's an uncrowned queen; a slight, fragile but unbending figure glimpsed by few but known to all as The Lady. Beyond it, she has become an icon, a universal symbol of courage, endurance and peaceful resistance, a new Mandela.
The word's a commonplace but Aung San Suu Kyi really is a legend: daughter of the man who won Burma its independence from the British, but who was assassinated when she was barely two; a political leader herself who for the past 22 years has headed, with a delicate but compelling charisma and unimaginable determination, her nation's "second struggle for independence"; a prisoner of one kind or another for 15 of the past 20 years; and winner, in 1991, of the Nobel peace prize.
Those who have met her (which isn't many, recently) speak of a beauty every bit as striking as the photographs, a proud poise and a demure gentility acquired, certainly, at the Anglo-Indian finishing school she attended in New Delhi, where her mother was ambassador.
She apparently also has, though, a quick and by no means prim wit and an infectious giggle. Not, by all accounts – including her own – a born political strategist, she knows precisely the system her country needs, if not precisely how to get there. Her Nobel citation called her a shining example of "the power of the powerless".
Born on 19 June, 1945, two years before independence, Aung San Suu Kyi – the name means "a bright collection of strange victories" – left Burma with her mother in 1960. In 1964 she was at St Hugh's, Oxford, studying politics, philosophy and economics. A friend, Ann Pasternak Slater, recalls her "tight, trim lungi [Burmese sarong] and her upright carriage, her firm moral convictions and inherited social grace".
She worked as a research assistant at the University of London and then for the UN in New York. She got engaged to Michael Aris in 1971, and wrote to him every day before their marriage the following year: "I only ask one thing," she said: "That should my people need me, you would help me to do my duty by them." She added: "I am beset by fears that circumstances and national considerations might tear us apart."
It took 16 years for that need to arise. Michael and Aung San Suu Kyi's first son, Alexander, was born in London in 1973, followed by their second, Kim, in Oxford, where Michael had a junior fellowship. She resumed her own academic career, teaching Burmese studies and taking research assignments first in Japan, and then in India. One evening in Oxford in late March 1988, the boys in bed, Aung San Suu Kyi took the phone call that changed her life: her mother had suffered a severe stroke.
Back in Burma, the military dictatorship that had run the country since 1962 was suppressing a student-led protest movement. On 8 August 1988, soldiers fired into a peaceful demonstration, killing up to 5,000 protesters. Barely two weeks later, Aung Sun Suu Kyi addressed 500,000 people at the great Schwedagon pagoda in Rangoon. As her father's daughter, she said, she could not stand by. "True," she said, "I have lived abroad. It is also true that I am married to a foreigner. These facts have never lessened my love and my devotion for my country." She demanded freedom and democracy, a multi-party government, and free and fair elections.
The rest is as sad as it is familiar. The National League for Democracy was formed with Aung San Suu Kyi as its general secretary.
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"We listened to the voice of the people, that our policies might be in harmony with their legitimate needs and aspirations," Aung San Suu Kyi wrote. "We explained why, in spite of its inevitable flaws, we considered democracy to be better than other political systems. Most important, we sought to make them understand why we believed political change was best achieved through non-violent means."
Despite detentions and intimidation, the NLD won 82% of the seats in Burma's parliament in the 1990 elections, whose results the dictatorship have never recognised. Aung San Suu Kyi was held under house arrest until 1995, and then banned from travelling. In 1999 her husband died of cancer in London; had she left the country to visit him, she would never have been allowed back in. Detained again in 2000, released again in 2002, she was rearrested once more in May 2003. Her phone line cut, her post blocked and her NLD colleagues banned from visiting her, she has lived under house arrest at her home on University Avenue, Rangoon, ever since, writing, reading, exercising and meditating. Not even the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, was allowed to meet her on a visit in 2009.
Then John Yettaw, a confused American, swam across the lake by her house to see her, ensuring she was charged and convicted with breaking the terms of her house arrest and sentenced to 18 months further house arrest – until tomorrow, a convenient six days after Burma's recent elections. "It is not power that corrupts, but fear," Aung San Suu Kyi once wrote. "Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it, and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it." But even under the "most crushing state machinery, courage rises up again and again. For fear is not the natural state of man."
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In the first post-election polls since the Midterms Sarah Palin has once again defied the liberal media and elitists and surged ahead of President Barack Obama in favorability and is in a dead heat in unfavorable ratings with Obama to the total chagrin of the reporters and pundits.
So terrorized are the liberals that they hailed the newest polls as a sign Palin is the most polarizing name in politics which of course is a blatant lie. What is the truth? In the latest AP GfK nationwide poll Sarah Palin has climbed to a 46% favorable and her unfavorable is 49% as of November 13.
In contrast, President Obama, according to today's RealClearPolitics Poll, stands at 45.4% favorable and 49.6% unfavorable. Bet you didn't hear the media report that our polarizing Palin is less polarizing than Obama.
The real truth is polls are all about trends and here the trend is real clear. Obama has been sinking in the polls for two years running as witnessed by the public revolt against Democratic leadership and the shellacking Obama took in the elections this month.
More ominous for the liberal media, the latest RealClearPolitics poll show an amazing 63.8% of the public believe our nation is on the wrong track under Obama's leadership. If 49.6% have an unfavorable opinion of Obama and 63.8% believe his policies are on the wrong track just who is the real polarizing figure in American politics? The numbers don't lie, it is clearly Obama. Just ask the 70 newly elected Republicans who won House and Senate seats November 2.
So Palin is gaining favorable ratings as Obama continues to slip. Is that enough? Well there is more. After two years of Obama blaming George Bush for every problem he faces, George Bush has gained 10% in favorable ratings and now is 44% favorable, again according to RealClearPolitics, while Obama is only 45.4% favorable, barely a 1% difference. In other words Obama has dropped over 20% since being elected while Bush has gained over 10%, a swing in the polls of over 30%.
Still that does not reflect the true trends because Obama faces a continuing string of challenges by the new Congress over his domestic agenda, while his international problems have continued to mount with every passing day. It appears that nothing will slow the difficulties of our president with the dragging economy and loss of international influence.
As for Sarah Palin, she has just started an eight week travel documentary on Alaska sharing with her television audience her love of the northern wilderness and she follows that with a 14 state tour promoting her next book which is certain to be a blockbuster like the last one.
Those who count Palin out should check their math because the numbers don't lie and attempting to show she is more polarizing than Obama is quite a joke as the mood of the public has demonstrated.
In recent years our political pundits seem to have forgotten Richard Nixon (1968) and Bill Clinton (1992) both won the presidency with just 43% of the popular vote and in four of the last five elections the winner received 50% or less of the vote. Sarah Palin is far from out of it and the trends are much more in her favor.
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I confess, ever since I was in school I was hopelessly hooked on science and math among other things. Even moreso where the two disciplines came together in physics. Albert Einstein was one of my heroes, not just because of his pioneering work in physics but because of his interests, philosophy and views on the world.
When Einstein would say he did not know where the ideas for his major works came from it sent chills down my spine. If he didn't know, then he must have been inspired by a higher source. Of course I had to keep this interest hidden for the most part in high school in order to stay as "cool" as possible because dating girls and talking about Einstein might ruin my reputation.
Through a most peculiar set of circumstances I became close friends with Maggie Sanders, the outrageous daughter of Colonel Harlan Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame. Maggie was into many aspects of science in America and considered many prominent Nobel prize winners in science her friends. She had opersonally corresponded with Einstein through his fiend Dr. Otto Nathan, who was sole executor of Einstein's estate.
She shared with me her records with Einstein and Nathan. In addition she inroduced me to the author of the God Particle, Leon Max Lederman (born July 15, 1922), an American experimental physicist and Nobel Prize in Physics laureate for his work with neutrinos. He is Director Emeritus of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) in Batavia, Illinois, USA which is one of the subjects of this story.
So why am I trying to educate you in the particle accelerator atom smasher? To torture you? Not really. But history could be made when these incredible machines reach full power and if they achieve the full capacity believed possible they may forever change science and open doors to fascinating advancements.
Atom Smasher Ramps Up Chase for 'God Particle'
Reuters –
Clara Moskowitz, LiveScience Senior Writer
The world's largest atom smasher has been upping its game ever since it opened in 2008. Just last month it reached a new milestone - the particle accelerator is now smashing unprecedented numbers of protons into each other during each collision.
The Large Hadron Collider at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Switzerland is the world's most state-of-the-art physics experiment. Scientists are crashing matter's building blocks together in the hopes of revealing even smaller building blocks - new undiscovered particles that make up our universe, including the theoretical "God particle," which is thought to give other particles mass.
The accelerator consists of a 17-mile-long (27 kilometers) ring buried underground where powerful magnets guide particles along the circle to pick up speed. At a few points along the loop the beams of particles intersect, and when two particles collide, they convert their enormous kinetic energy into new matter via Einstein's equation E=mc2.
100,000 million protons
The machine started out sending one bunch of protons at a time around the ring in each direction. Now it sends 256 bunches at once. Each of these clusters now contains 100,000 million protons (that's 10^11 protons.)
While that's an improvement, it's only part of the ultimate goal.
"We've got a long way to go," said Mike Lamont, LHC's head of operations. "For this year, we hope to get up to 400 bunches."
The team also plans to boost the collision rate of particles in other ways.
"At the interaction point where bunches pass through each other, we can work on the number of protons in a bunch, the number of bunches, and also the actual size of the beam at that interaction point," Lamont told LiveScience. "At the moment it's focused down to 60 microns - about diameter of human hair. What we can do is reduce that size even more."
The smaller the beam is squashed, the less space the particles will have to move around, and the higher the chances they will run into each other at the collision point.
The more head-on crashes the accelerator creates, the better the chances of one of these events producing something unprecedented - like the Higgs boson, for example.
The 'God particle'
The Higgs, also known mystically as the "God particle," is a theoretical particle that gives other particles their mass. According to the concept, Higgs particles create a field throughout the universe, and when other particles pass through the field, they interact with it and acquire mass.
If LHC can create one of these Higgs particles, it would be a major coup for physicists and would go a long way toward explaining the fundamental nature of matter.
The particle accelerator is probably not producing enough collisions yet to find the Higgs, but even at its current levels, scientific experiments are ongoing.
"All the experiments are working very well - we've certainly given them a good data set this year," Lamont said. "But to find the really interesting stuff like Higgs or supersymmetry, they're going to need a lot more data."
Supersymmetry - another big goal for LHC - is the theory that every particle has a partner particle that has similar properties but a different spin. (The supersymmetric partner of a quark would be a squark, and the partner of the electron is called the selectron - apparently physicists love silly names).
Many of these particles would be very massive and very difficult to detect, but the lightest of them could be created during the crashes in LHC, scientists predict.
Full throttle ahead
To get to the point where Higgs and supersymmetric particles might be discovered, the LHC will likely have to function at peak capacity.
"For us it really is a matter of increasing the amount of data we deliver to the experiments - they just need more, more, more," Lamont said. "They're looking for a very small needle in very large haystack."
The accelerator was designed to run at energy levels of 7 teraelectron volts (TeV), but right now it is only going at half that power - 3.5 TeV.
That's because the cables connecting the superconducting magnets that propel the particles around the LHC ring were built with a flaw that was revealed shortly after the machine was first turned on. In order to ramp up the power, LHC workers will have to shut down the accelerator and make significant repairs to the magnet connectors.
Once that's done and LHC is running at peak design parameters, particles will be colliding at mind-blowing rates.
"Our collision rate eventually will be enormous," Lamont said. "When we get to design, we're talking 600 million events per second."
For comparison, about 6 million particles currently collide per second.
That's still not too shabby. The machine is already more sensitive in some channels than the world's second-largest atom smasher, Fermilab's Tevatron in Batavia, Ill.
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As conference champions take shape and BCS bowl invitations are on the line there are some great match-ups this weekend. Here is what Mike Huguenin, Rivals.com College Football Editor has to say about the weekend line up.
The SEC East title will be decided when South Carolina visits Florida. Auburn can clinch the SEC West if it beats Georgia. Iowa, Wisconsin and Ohio State can stay tied atop the Big Ten with Michigan State (which is idle) is they win this week. Oklahoma State travels to reeling Texas trying to stay on top of the Big 12 South standings. There are numerous games in the ACC that will impact the division races. Oregon travels to play California, which is unbeaten at home this season. Boise State and TCU bid to remain unbeaten.
Big Ten Conf All
Michigan State (10) 5-1, 9-1
Wisconsin (6) 4-1, 8-1
Ohio State (8) 4-1, 8-1
Iowa (13) 4-1, 7-2
Penn State 3-2, 6-3
Illinois 3-3, 5-4
Purdue 2-3, 4-5
Michigan 2-3, 6-3
Northwestern 2-3, 6-3
Indiana 0-5, 4-5
Minnesota 0-6, 1-9
Iowa (7-2) at Northwestern (6-3), noon, ESPN
THE BUZZ: Iowa was lucky to come away with a win at Indiana last week and plays host to Ohio State next week. Thus, the Hawkeyes better beware of the Wildcats. Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz got his 100th career victory last week.
THE LINE: Iowa by 10. THE PICK: Iowa 28-23
Indiana (4-5) at Wisconsin (8-1), noon, ESPN2
THE BUZZ: The Badgers, who are looking good for a BCS bid, have won 11 of the past 13 in the series. In its past four meetings with Indiana, Wisconsin has averaged 305.8 rushing yards per game.
THE LINE: Wisconsin by 21.5. THE PICK: Wisconsin 44-20
Penn State (6-3) at Ohio State (8-1), 3:30 p.m., ABC regional/ESPN
THE BUZZ: The Buckeyes, who were off last week, begin a difficult final regular-season stretch; they are at Iowa next week and finish up with a home game against archrival Michigan. Buckeyes coach Jim Tressel is 6-3 against Penn State.
THE LINE: Ohio State by 18. THE PICK: Ohio State 33-17
Southeastern Conf All
East
Florida (24) 4-3, 6-3
South Carolina (22) 4-3, 6-3
Georgia 3-4, 5-5
Kentucky 1-5, 5-5
Vanderbilt 1-5, 2-7
Tennessee 0-5, 3-6
West
Auburn (2) 6-0, 10-0
LSU (5) 5-1, 8-1
Alabama (11) 4-2, 7-2
Arkansas (14) 4-2, 7-2
Mississippi State (17) 3-2, 7-2
Mississippi 1-4, 4-5
Georgia (5-5) at Auburn (10-0), 3:30 p.m., CBS
THE BUZZ: This is the 114th meeting in the Deep South's most-played rivalry. Get this: Through 113 games, the teams are separated by just 56 points (Georgia 1,778, Auburn 1,722). Georgia has won on five of its past seven trips to "The Loveliest Village on the Plains." Meanwhile, everyone in that Village is on pins and needles waiting to hear the next report concerning Cameron Newton.
THE LINE: Auburn by 8.5. THE PICK: Auburn 38-27
Mississippi State (7-2) at Alabama (7-2), 7:15 p.m., ESPN2
THE BUZZ: This will be the 94th meeting in the series -- the campuses are just 75 miles apart -- and the Tide leads 73-18-3, including 39-9-1 in Tuscaloosa. The Tide is coming off a loss to LSU that knocked them out of the running for the national title and also for the SEC West crown.
THE LINE: Alabama by 13.5. THE PICK: Alabama 23-14
South Carolina (6-3) at Florida (6-3), 7:15 p.m., ESPN
THE BUZZ: This is for the SEC East title. Florida leads the series 23-4-3, and the Gators are looking to finish 5-0 against division foes for the third season in a row and for the 11th time since the SEC expanded in 1992. The Gators are going for their 12th SEC East title, the Gamecocks their first.
THE LINE: Florida by 6.5. THE PICK: South Carolina 20-17
Louisiana-Monroe (4-5) at LSU (8-1), 7 p.m., ESPN GamePlan
THE BUZZ: This is just the second meeting all-time between the schools, which are about 150 miles apart. LSU is 33-0 all-time against current members of the Sun Belt Conference. This is ULM's third SEC West opponent of the season; it already has lost to Arkansas and Auburn.
THE LINE: LSU by 32.5. THE PICK: LSU 35-7
Big 12 Conf All
North Division
Nebraska (9) 4-1, 8-1
Missouri (20) 3-2, 7-2
Kansas State 3-3, 6-3
Iowa State 3-3, 5-5
Kansas 1-4, 3-6
Colorado 0-5, 3-6
South Division
Oklahoma State (12) 4-1, 8-1
Baylor 4-2, 7-3
Texas A&M (23) 3-2, 6-3
Oklahoma (19) 3-2, 7-2
Texas Tech 3-4, 5-4
Texas 2-4, 4-5
Texas Tech (5-4) at Oklahoma (7-2), 3:30 p.m., ABC regional/ESPN GamePlan
THE BUZZ: The Sooners didn't play well on either side of the ball in losing at Texas A&M last week, and they need to rebound quickly to remain in the hunt for the Big 12 South title. Tech's pass defense has been sieve-like, which should mean a big day for OU QB Landry Jones and WR Ryan Broyles.
THE LINE: Oklahoma by 14.5. THE PICK: Oklahoma 40-24
Kansas (3-6) at Nebraska (8-1), 7 p.m.
THE BUZZ: Nebraska owns KU, holding a 90-23-2 series lead. The Huskers expect starting QB Taylor Martinez to be back in the lineup. Kansas has been bad against the run, which means the Huskers should be able to run wild. This is KU coach Turner Gill's first game against his alma mater.
THE LINE: Nebraska by 35. THE PICK: Nebraska 56-17
Oklahoma State (8-1) at Texas (4-5), 8 p.m., ABC regional/ESPN GamePlan
THE BUZZ: Texas has lost five of its past six, and a dispirited bunch now has to face a high-powered Oklahoma State offense. The Cowboys are in the driver's seat in the Big 12 South, but they are 2-22 against Texas all-time. Oklahoma State QB Brandon Weeden has 26 TD passes and nine picks; Texas QB Garrett Gilbert has seven TD passes and 14 picks.
THE LINE: Oklahoma State by 5.5. THE PICK: Oklahoma State 34-24
Pacific-10 Conf All
Oregon (1) 6-0, 9-0
Stanford (7) 5-1, 8-1
Arizona (18) 4-2, 7-2
Oregon State 3-2, 4-4
USC 3-3, 6-3
California 3-3, 5-4
Arizona State 2-4, 4-5
UCLA 2-4, 4-5
Washington 2-4, 3-6
Washington State 0-7, 1-9
Oregon (9-0) at California (5-4), 7:30 p.m., Versus
THE BUZZ: Cal is 4-0 at home and has played much better in Berkeley than on the road. Oregon has outscored opponents 215-48 in the second half and has allowed just seven fourth-quarter points.
THE LINE: Oregon by 20. THE PICK: Oregon 58-28
Stanford (8-1) at Arizona State (4-5), 7:30 p.m., Fox Sports Arizona/Fox College Sports
THE BUZZ: Stanford has scored at least 30 points in each game this season, the longest such streak in school history. Stanford has outscored foes 226-71 in the first half and hasn't trailed at halftime this season. Arizona State has to win to become bowl-eligible; the Sun Devils have two FCS victories, meaning they need to get to seven to be eligible for a bowl bid.
THE LINE: Stanford by 5.5. THE PICK: Stanford 40-28
USC (6-3) at Arizona (7-2), 8 p.m., ABC regional/ESPN GamePlan
THE BUZZ: The Trojans lead the series 26-7, and Arizona's victory last season snapped USC's seven-game winning streak in the series. USC beat Arizona State last week and now goes for the sweep of the Pac-10's Arizona schools. This is the last Saturday game of the season for Arizona, which has a Friday game and a Thursday game left on the schedule.
THE LINE: Arizona by 4. THE PICK: Arizona 37-31
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Now that the dust has settled, the political pundits have responded, and the world has watched in wonder at our strange democratic system of government, where do we go from here? As for me, I don't believe the politicians from either party nor the national news media and their preoccupation with generating revenue.
The Republicans didn't win, and the Democrats didn't lose. Obama might have been stung by the results and the Tea party certainly did rock the Obama agenda to it's core. Yet as the couple of hundred newly elected officials take office, what does the scorecard show?
On the domestic front
We still have the unfunded Obama agenda with up to $3 trillion in unanticipated cost
The deficit is still $1.4 trillion a year
The debt ceiling will pass $14 trillion this year and $15 trillion next year
The housing and foreclosure crisis remains untouched and unresolved
Financial reform forgot to crack down on hedge funds that brought about the economic collapse
Campaign reform is forgotten as record campaign costs passed $2.5 billion in 2010
Our aging infrastructure needs about $2 trillion to fix what is broken
Health care and insurance premiums continue to spiral up in costs
The more we spend on education the dumber our kids get
We still have no energy independence or alternative energy policy
In foreign affairs
The world economy continues to struggle because of US dominance
In Iraq 50,000 troops can't stop the bloodshed
The new Iraq government was influenced more by Iran than the USA
Sanctions did not stop Iran's nuclear program
Afghanistan remains loyal to Iran in spite of over 100,000 troops and billions a week cost
Obama embraced India while shunning Pakistan our other ally
The Federal Reserve infuriated the world with the $1 trillion "quantitative easing" policy
Germany, UK and France all condemned the Obama backed Fed policy
With the Fed driving down the value of the dollar, America gains at everyone else's expense
Israel and the Palestinians are light years from peace
Israel continues to build settlements
Over 2 million American troops remain overseas but only 150,000 are fighting
China and America remain at odds over currency valuations
America can't even get a trade agreement with our strongest ally in Asia, South Korea
Mexico lost 30,000 lives to America's drug war
South America feels more ignored than ever by the USA
As you see, we have a huge and largely unfulfilled agenda and where action was taken the result was not what we sought. However, you will never be informed of the true problems we face if you do not understand the issues and if you rely on the media and their news in a nutshell attitude. The problems we face require a lot more than 30 second sound bites to solve.
In the days ahead I will review the pros and cons of these issues. Where I can I will offer solutions to the problems or attempt to identify the path to success. If we do not embrace this agenda we will never be the shining light to the world we should be and that the world so desperately needs to survive.
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Did you ever wonder how a nation as powerful as America could be dependent on only two political parties to the exclusion of anyone who disagrees with them? Well it was not always that way. In fact there were no political parties back when we tossed out the English. Perhaps this history of the two party system will help you understand why it evolved and how it might have failed to meet the needs of today.
Following the publication of the Declaration of Independence (1776) and before the successful resolution of the War for Independence (1783), the American colonies decided it would be best to "confederate," at least for the purposes of entering into strategic alliances with European powers and perhaps waging war again with the mother country. This gave the U.S. the Articles of Confederation (1781), the first constitution of the "United States.” But the Articles were soon deemed inadequate and another Constitutional Convention was called (1787) which resulted in the U.S. Constitution (1789). But not without a fight.
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| Victims of Church attack |
UN Condemns Attacks
The United Nations has condemned the brutal attacks against Iraqi Christians by Islamic militants.
In the past 10 days, the Christian community has been targeted by a series of bombings and an attack on a Baghdad Catholic church. More than 60 people have been killed.
The U.N. Security Council said it's appalled by the acts of violence, calling them a blow against religious diversity and democracy.
The council added that it condemned all attacks in Iraq, "particularly those motivated by religious hatred."
French ambassador Gerard Araud also told reporters that Iraq's Christians are "on the frontline of the fight for democracy."
Meanwhile, 37 survivors of October's deadly Baghdad church attack and their families arrived in France on Thursday. The French government has offered them asylum and will also welcome another 90 Iraqi Christians to their country in the next few days.
"France supports their desire to remain and live in peace on their land, where they have lived for centuries," French Immigration Minister Eric Besson said.
Bessen explained that the move is part of France's program for Iraqis belonging to "vulnerable religious minorities."
Pakistan Court Sentences Christian woman to death for blasphemy
LAHORE, Pakistan (AFP) – A Pakistani court has sentenced to death a Christian mother of five for blasphemy, the first such conviction of a woman and sparking protests from rights group Thursday.
Asia Bibi, 45, was sentenced Monday by a local court in Nankana district in Pakistan's central province Punjab, about 75 kilometres (47 miles) west of the country's cultural capital of Lahore.
Pakistan has yet to execute anyone for blasphemy, but the case spotlights the Muslim country's controversial laws on the subject which rights activists say encourages Islamist extremism in a nation wracked by Taliban attacks.
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Move over college football jocks and fans, because after decades of outright bias against those who are too smart to play football fisticuffs, we at the Coltons Point Times are calling for the establishment of the NCAA BCS National Digital Football Championship to be fought out among the top two colleges or universities in America in terms of the combined poll standings in computer science, engineering and overall quality of education.
Today we are prepared to release the first BCS National Digital Football top 25 Poll of those hallowed academic institutions whose brains far outweigh their brawn. Our poll is loaded with the most scientifically revered colleges in America whose endowment funds exceed that of the top jock shops. No one else can make such a claim.
Now, I do have a confession to make. Ever since I realized as a child that a terrible mistake had been made when I was dropped off by the stork in Iowa City, Iowa and not Boston, Massachusetts where I was supposed to go, I have suffered greatly. You see, I was created with Ivy League or MIT DNA and the corn fields of the Midwest are no place to create Microsoft or Facebook like I was bred to achieve.
I mean you know you are in the wrong place when your family laughs at your genetic tendencies. Like when I ordered lobster at the local cafe, put an Italian opera on the stereo, declared the Yankees (New York) and Red Sox (Boston) instead of the Cardinals (St. Louis) or Cubs (Chicago) my favorite team.
You most certainly would have agreed that I was odd. Don't get me wrong, I was a pretty good jock in all sports and that ran contrary to my DNA but I did get good at chess and croquet. In school I did most everything from get good to bad grades, being a jock yet a member of the speech and debate teams, playing in a rock 'n roll band and the school non-marching band.
If I had been delivered safely back at birth to the Rothschild family my name would have been a lot longer, I would have the name suffix III I fully expected to have, and in time I would have possessed all the alphabetical scholastic titles like B.A., M.B.A., J.D. & Ph.D. Knowing you were switched at birth and being helpless to correct this huge celestial mistake is a terrible cross to bear.
So I hung out with the freaks, geeks and misfits so I could at least assimilate my lost breeding if not experience it up close and personal. Thankfully I was well received. And later in life it helped me in understanding and relating to the powerful East Coast establishment who were products of the Ivy League and other educational institutions of higher learning than the other schools.
It even helped me survive working for people from Harvard, Yale and Princeton and working with people from MIT, Stanford and Carnegie Mellon. In spite of being part of groups like Marvin Minsky's Society of the Mind (MIT Media Lab) and other intellectually challenging groups, without the proper breeding you are never really one of them.
I never got to make my supreme contribution to the elite and I hope this BCS National Digital Football Championship helps pay back what I felt I owed. Perhaps I can get the ascot out of storage if we are a huge success?
As for the BCS NDFC it is time we make a statement, show the world that eggheads and geeks have as much to offer to Main Street as we (oops, a Freudian slip) you do to Wall Street and Washington. We want a playoff of the top 8 BCS NDFC teams at year end, meaning New Year's Eve, for the right to be the first of many future national champions of the National Digital Football playoffs.
Teams of four players with two alternates will be eligible from each school in the top 8 standing at year end. They will collectively agree as to the version of digital football to be played throughout the competition. The winner will be crowned, a trophy presented for the school, and whatever other prizes we can get from sponsors will be given. Oh yes, we are searching for a title sponsor like Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Microsoft or whoever.
Now, for the official unveiling of the first BCS NDFC poll, here are the standings.
1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology--Cambridge, MA
2. Stanford University--Palo Alto, CA
3. University of California, Berkeley, CA
4. Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
5. University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign, IL
6. Cornell University--Ithaca, NY
7. University of Texas--Austin (Cockrell) Austin, TX
8. Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
9. California Institute of Technology--Pasadena, CA
10. University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI
11. Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech)--Atlanta, GA
12. University of California--Los Angeles (Samueli) Los Angeles, CA (UCLA)
13. University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI
14. University of Maryland-College Park, MD
15. University of California--San Diego (Jacobs) La Jolla, CA
16. Harvard University Cambridge, MA
17. Columbia University (Fu Foundation) New York, NY
18. Purdue University--West Lafayette West Lafayette, IN
19. University of Washington--Seattle, WA
20. University of Southern California (Viterbi)--Los Angeles, CA
21. Brown University--Providence, RI
22. University of Massachusetts--Amherst, MA
23. Rice University--Houston, TX
24. University of Pennsylvania--Philadelphia, PA
25. University of North Carolina--Chapel Hill, NC
That's it folks. We have a Beaver, Tree, Bear, Scottish Terrier, Abe Lincoln, Big Red Bear, Longhorn, Tiger, another Beaver and Badger for mascots for the top ten. It gets better down the list.
If you know any students at these schools you should let them know they are in the top 25 poll of computer scientists, geeks and engineering freaks and we will be tracking the hits from each college town because in two weeks the number of hits from each college will be factored into the poll. Until the end of the season, year end, it will be the only way a college can move up through the ranks.
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| Marvin again? |
The top 8, if sponsorship can be found, will play for the 2010 BSC National Digital Football Championship and full bragging rights to being the Other BCS National Football Champion. I want to see if anyone can knock off MIT and their Media Lab where Marvin Minsky should be coach.
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