History for January 31

History for January 31 - On-This-Day.com:

Birth anniversaries of Zane Grey (1872-1939), Jackie Robinson (1919-72) and Franz Schubert (1797-1828). 

Anniversary of Project Mercury space test (1961)—the first US recovery of a large animal from space (Ham the chimpanzee).

Happy Birthday! Ernie Banks, John Lydon (Johnny Rotten), Jessica Walter

1606 - Guy Fawkes was executed after being convicted for his role in the "Gunpowder Plot" against the English Parliament and King James I.


1865 - In America, General Robert E. Lee was named general-in-chief of the Confederate armies.


1865 - The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. It was ratified by the necessary number of states on December 6, 1865. The amendment abolished slavery in the United States.


1876 - All Native American Indians were ordered to move into reservations.


1893 - The trademark "Coca-Cola" was first registered in the United States Patent Office.


1929 - The USSR exiled Leon Trotsky. He found asylum in Mexico.


1940 - The first Social Security check was issued by the U.S. Government. to be executed for desertion.


1950 - U.S. President Truman announced that he had ordered development of the hydrogen bomb.



1958 - Explorer I was put into orbit around the earth. It was the first U.S. earth satellite.


1971 - Astronauts Alan B. Shepard Jr., Edgar D. Mitchell and Stuart A. Roosa blasted off aboard Apollo 14 on a mission to the moon. 

1990 - McDonald's Corp. opened its first fast-food restaurant in Moscow, Russia.


1995 - U.S. President Clinton invoked presidential emergency authority to provide a $20 billion loan to Mexico to stabilize its economy.
2000 - An Alaska Airlines jet crashed into the ocean off Southern California. All 88 people on board were killed. 

Lie Witness News - State of the Union Edition

OMG Raise The Minimum Wage Already

The IRS stole an election, still stonewalls an investigation and the liberal media is.........? ------No shield from scrutiny for the IRS in Christine O'Donnell case

EDITORIAL: No shield from scrutiny for the IRS in Christine O'Donnell case - Washington Times:
"There’s no mystery about why the three letters IRS strike fear into every heart.
As far back as 1819, nearly a century before the income tax was imposed by Congress, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall observed that the power to tax is the power to destroy.

The IRS has perfected and refined the power.

Christine O'Donnell, a Republican, ran for the U.S. Senate in Delaware in 2010, and her campaign was fatally damaged early on by leaks that she had “IRS problems.”
Nearly four years later, Miss O'Donnell is still trying to find out how the IRS wrongly issued a tax lien against a house that was said to be hers, but wasn’t, just as her campaign began.

The lien was widely publicized and used by foes to discredit the Tea Party favorite, and it turned out to be a deliberate and dirty trick. 
Miss O'Donnell had once owned the house, but sold it in 2008.
The IRS blamed a convenient “computer glitch” and withdrew the lien, but only after the damage was done.

The House and Senate committees that oversee the IRS want answers, and they’re not getting them."

Obama's "77 Cents on the Dollar" Claim Debunked

Obama's "77 Cents on the Dollar" Claim Debunked | The American Spectator:
 "Rosin wrote:
The official Bureau of Labor Department statistics show that the median earnings of full-time female workers is 77 percent of the median earnings of full-time male workers. But that is very different than “77 cents on the dollar for doing the same work as men.”

The statistic does not mean that the female factory worker standing next to a male factory worker is only making $7.25 an hour while he makes $8.02:

Women congregate in different professions than men do, and the largely male professions tend to be higher-paying. If you account for those differences, and then compare a woman and a man doing the same job, the pay gap narrows to 91 percent. So, you could accurately say in that Obama ad that, “women get paid 91 cents on the dollar for doing the same work as men.”

Many men tend to go into science and engineering fields which generally pay more. Women who stay at home with children are factored in as earning nothing. Therefore, the 77 cent stat is a misleading one."

Something smells here. Smells REAL Bad----DIA's $100M pledge to rescue fund helps clear path to bankruptcy resolution

$100 million from artsy-fartsies to bail out Detroit?
Yeah.
And I've got a sweet deal for you on a bridge in Mackinac.....
DIA's $100M pledge to rescue fund helps clear path to bankruptcy resolution | Detroit Free Press | freep.com:
 "The DIA said today that its board of directors approved a $100-million fund-raising campaign over 20 years with donations coming from companies and individuals.
The pledge comes after more than six weeks of delicate negotiations concerning how much cash the museum was willing and able to contribute to the plan and eight months after the museum was put on notice by Orr that the DIA’s collection could be sold to help pay down some of the city’s debt.

A significant contribution from the DIA has been considered key to garnering political support in Lansing and to satisfying Orr, who said he believes that he won’t be able to get court approval for a final restructuring plan without accounting for the value of DIA art.
But the size of the museum’s contribution comes as a surprise.
In recent weeks, sources close to the negotiations told the Free Press that Orr considered $100 million over 20 years a reasonable target, but DIA officials had previously rejected this as impossible."

Congress, Who Do You Think Is Going to Pay Off The $17 Trillion Debt?

Congress, Who Do You Think Is Going to Pay Off The $17 Trillion Debt?:
"Our nation is $17 trillion in debt.
Each citizen’s share of the debt is $54,391.10.
 Based on my birthday, December 24, 1988, my lifetime share of the national debt is $600,800, according a personal debt calculator on the Senate Republicans’ Budget Committee website.  
A baby born December 24, 2013 has a $1,532,026 lifetime share of the national debt.

See how the picture gets increasingly grimmer for the children of today and future generations?
 To borrow a phrase from our liberal counterparts, that’s not fair!  
This has to stop."

But they've got lots of time, money and resources to investigate the media and political opponents (republicans)-----IRS customer service leaves millions of calls unanswered

IRS customer service leaves millions of calls unanswered | Fox News:
"Have a question on your tax returns?
Don't ask the IRS.
As tax day looms, an annual watchdog report to Congress finds that the agency is falling short when it comes to answering Americans' questions about the convoluted tax code.
The National Taxpayer Advocate found only 61 percent of people seeking to speak with a customer service representative last year got through to anybody -- leaving nearly 20 million calls unanswered. "

Four words in the ACA could spell its doom

George F. Will: Four words in the ACA could spell its doom - The Washington Post

The four words that threaten disaster for the ACA say the subsidies shall be available to persons who purchase health insurance inan exchange “established by the state.” But34 states have chosen not to establish exchanges.

So the IRS, which is charged with enforcing the ACA, has ridden to the rescue of Barack Obama’s pride and joy. Taking time off from writing regulations to restrict the political speech of Obama’s critics, the IRS has said, with its breezy indifference to legality, that subsidies shall also be dispensed to those who purchase insurance through federal exchanges the government has established in those 34 states. Pruitt is challenging the IRS in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, and there are similar challenges in Indiana, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

The IRS says its “interpretation” — it actually is a revision — of the law is “consistent with,” and justified by, the “structure of” the ACA. The IRS means that without its rule, the ACA would be unworkable and that Congress could not have meant to allow this. The ACA’s legislative history, however, demonstrates that Congress clearly — and, one might say, with malice aforethought — wanted subsidies available only through state exchanges.

OUT OF CONTROL!!!!!!!!!---------------Government shuts down 11-year-old's cupcake business

Government shuts down 11-year-old's cupcake business | The Daily Caller:

Officials told Stirling Chloe could continue selling cupcakes on the condition that the family “buy a bakery or build her a kitchen separate from the one we have.”
“Obviously, we can’t do that,” Heather Stirling told reporters.
“We’ve already given her a little refrigerator to keep her things in, and her grandparents bought her a stand mixer.”
The elder Stirling said that she was willing to get her daughter any necessary licenses or permits to operate a business, but could not meet the health department’s other demands.
“But a separate kitchen? Who can do that?” asked an astonished Stirling.
When reporters approached Amy Yeager, a health department spokeswoman, about the county’s decision to shut down Chloe’s business, she said that she was doing it for the sake of the public.
"The rules are the rules. It’s for the protection of the public health,” Yeager said, according to the Post-Dispatch. “The guidelines apply to everyone.”
“People will react how they choose to react,” she added. “But it is our job.”
Chloe originally started selling the frosted cakes under the name “Hey, Cupcake” to save up for a car when she turns sixteen.
And before the government took her oven mitts, the sixth grader charged $10 for a dozen cupcakes and $2 for each specialty cupcake.
However, she was also known to donate her time and sprinkles to charity.

FAA Stops Beer Drone Delivery

FAA Stops Beer Drone Delivery:
 "The Lakemaid micro brewery started delivering beer to ice fishers using drones, at least until the FAA coldly shut their operation down.
The FAA is currently reviewing their policies.
According to the beer company’s president, Jack Supple,“They think it’s a great idea, though they’re telling me to stop.”

 Here is a video of the drone delivering the beer: "

This column really nails it!-------Wisconsin Versus Detroit-LIBERTY REVIEW

Read the whole column!
LIBERTY REVIEW:
"Wisconsin versus Detroit.
Road trip! 
Remember Governor Scott Walker?
He’s the Republican governor of Wisconsin, a very blue, very democratic state.
There were two failed attempts to remove him from office.
The unions, as well as many liberals, tried to destroy his life.
He didn’t back down from his beliefs. 
 Governor Walker not only survived but continued to fight for conservative policies.
The union thugs didn’t beat him.
In fact, he weakened the death grip they had on the state.
The result; less government in the State of Wisconsin. 
Unemployment has gone down and there is a $912 million surplus.  
Governor Walker plans to return the surplus to the people of Wisconsin by way of tax rebates.  
Property and income taxes are being cut.

Where’s the media? 
 Governor Walker’s belief in less government resulted in attempts to remove him from office.
Those beliefs have turned the state around with a surplus. 
So where are the headlines? 
This story isn’t being reported in mainstream media.
It doesn’t fit the progressive agenda so the liberal media doesn’t cover it. 
I think such a story would be scaring the propaganda out of them, and it should.
Conservative policies bring about prosperity. 
 Progressive policies lead to Detroit."

School seizes lunches from students and throws them away

School seizes lunches from students and throws them away - New York News:
"The district says that the problem is that children are served lunch before they get to the computer for payment. 
The children who didn’t have enough money in their accounts had their normal food trays seized from them and were given the fruit and milk.
The food was thrown away because once it has been served it can not be served to someone else."

Rachel Maddow boils over GOP Rep’s insult: ‘Did you just call me a cheerleader?’

Rachel Maddow boils over GOP Rep’s insult: ‘Did you just call me a cheerleader?’ - BizPac Review:
"“We need more answers there. We need answers about a lot of things. This administration promised to be the most transparent in history, Rachel, and I think if you would stop being a cheerleader and be a journalist, you’d recognize we’re not getting those answers.”

Maddow looked at him in disbelief and said, “Did you just call me a cheerleader?”

“I don’t know, maybe you had that history,” Huelskamp responded.

Maddow was not amused, but Huelskamp continued.

“You’re a cheerleader for the administration,” he said. “You’re not being a journalist when you’re not willing to look at the facts. If it was Bush, you would be jumping and screaming.”

Watch the short clip here via Real Clear Politics:"

Remember the Panama Canal?

Remember the Panama Canal?
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the canal’s opening, and you would be forgiven if you were unaware that billions of dollars in U.S. business is riding on its expansion.

Control of the canal was turned over to the Panamanians under a 1979 treaty signed by President Jimmy Carter, and until recently, nobody seemed to care very much about what was going on there.  

Now, however, there is good reason to pay attention. The canal holds the key to the export of U.S. natural gas – and possibly crude oil -- to markets in Asia.  This is a big deal, with a lot at stake for U.S. energy companies.
The point, of course, is that as the export of U.S. energy resources goes, so goes America – only even more so, a point driven home by the latest data showing that the United States is already the world’s biggest producer of natural gas and is expected to surpass Saudi Arabia as the world’s top producer of crude oil by next year.  

Because it cannot accommodate large tankers, the Panama Canal is being expanded to about three times its present capacity. This involves widening and deepening channels along the 50-mile canal route and creating new sets of locks on both the Atlantic and Pacific ends.

The expansion is about three-quarters complete, but the cost of the project has increased from $5.2 billion to more than $7 billion, and construction has fallen behind schedule. An international consortium led by a Spanish construction company is building the new locks, and it says it won’t continue work unless the Panama Canal Authority pays about $1.6 billion in cost overruns. The dispute is now in arbitration.

Currently only about 6 percent of the world’s LNG tankers can pass through the canal.  After the expansion, it will accommodate about 90 percent of the tankers.

Without the canal expansion, LNG tankers from the US would have to pass around the Cape of Horn at the bottom of South America for deliveries to Asia, adding thousands of miles and increased shipping costs to the journey. 

Costs for LNG matter.  U.S. natural gas is cheap when used for domestic purposes, but has to be frozen to a liquid, then piped onto tankers and transported across the ocean to international markets – all of which costs more than the gas itself.

Unless the dispute is resolved soon, America’s gas-export plans might well take a hit. As matters now stand, there is a very real possibility that Japan, India and other Asian countries will look elsewhere for their natural gas supplies – at least in the near term, if LNG tankers carrying natural gas from U.S. ports are forced to take the longer route around the Cape of Horn. 

The dispute over the canal’s expansion is likely a contributing factor in the slow pace of the Department of Energy’s licensing of new LNG export terminals.  All of which suggests that the Obama Administration’s failure to help resolve the dispute could have big negative consequences for U.S. commerce.

There are potentially many big losers if the completion of the canal is delayed, namely U.S. businesses that are counting on export markets to sustain domestic drilling and pay for the construction of LNG terminals and tankers. If the Administration doesn’t move quickly, the consequences would extend to thousands of American families whose jobs are tied to energy production.

Something else: Japan is in urgent need of natural gas supplies. Since the Fukushima nuclear disaster three years ago, Japan has been importing large amounts of energy at high prices and is desperate for U.S. natural gas. 

The Panama Canal’s importance isn’t limited to its role in sustaining world trade.  Without access to natural gas, Japan, India and other energy-consuming countries will need to burn more coal for electricity production, which will increase carbon emissions globally. 

So a lot hinges on the Panama Canal expansion.  America’s interest clearly lies in an expansion of the canal, and we should not sit on the sidelines while the dispute over the project’s cost continues. The Obama Administration should help resolve the dispute. The time for action is now.

Man catches state-record white perch in Muskegon Lake

Man catches state-record white perch in Muskegon Lake | Detroit Free Press | freep.com:
"The Michigan Department of Natural Resources has confirmed the catch of a new state-record white perch.
Aaron Slagh of Holland caught the fish at 11 a.m. Jan. 21 on Muskegon Lake in Muskegon County.
The fish weighed 1.93 pounds and measured 13.25 inches. Slagh was ice fishing with a spoon.
... The previous state-record white perch was caught by Kyle Ryan of Reese on Lake Huron in Tuscola County on July 13, 2002. That fish weighed 1.88 pounds and measured 13.25 inches."

Lake Macatawa (Holland, MI)

11 Facts About The Minimum Wage That President Obama Forgot To Mention

11 Facts About The Minimum Wage That President Obama Forgot To Mention:

During his annual State of the Union address before Congress, President Barack Obama made a big deal about the need to increase the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. The move followed months of promises and rhetoric from the White House about how important it was to the economy to increase the minimum wage.

Back in August, the White House Twitter account even posted an infographic claiming that 15 million workers would “directly benefit” from a minimum wage increase and that “nobody who works full-time should live in poverty.”
And in December, both the White House and the president’s labor secretary publicly expressed support for nationwide strikes by hourly workers demanding higher pay (because nothing says “I deserve a raise” like refusing to show up to work).

Unfortunately for the White House, many of its claims about the minimum wage are divorced from reality. Here are 11 facts about the minimum wage that Barack Obama forgot to mention during his State of the Union address.

1) Only 1 Percent Of The U.S. Labor Force Earns The Minimum Wage

Cop Comped- Pepper sprayer hits the jackpot

Cop Comped - Reason.com:

In November 2011, Lt. John Pike, a police officer at the University of California, Davis, was caught on video pepper spraying nonviolent protesters in the face. In October 2013, the Division of Workers' Compensation awarded him $38,055 for the suffering he is said to have endured following the incident.
The footage of Pike attacking the protesters, who were sitting on a sidewalk during a demonstration against tuition increases, quickly went viral, serving as fodder for many memes and parodies. Following the incident, Pike reportedly lived at various locations. He received thousands of angry emails and text messages after the hacking group Anonymous leaked his contact information. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Pike was suspended with pay and earned $119,067 in 2011. He left the force in July 2012.

Earlier in 2013, after settling a federal lawsuit, the university paid a total of $1 million to the 36 people who were sprayed. Pike therefore received more compensation than each of the protesters he assaulted.

The era of the textbook cartel and $300 textbooks is ending, as the ‘college textbook bubble’ shows signs of deflating

The era of the textbook cartel and $300 textbooks is ending, as the ‘college textbook bubble’ shows signs of deflating | AEIdeas:

World risks deflationary shock as BRICS puncture credit bubbles

World risks deflationary shock as BRICS puncture credit bubbles - Telegraph:

World risks deflationary shock as BRICS puncture credit bubbles

As matters stand, the next recession will push the Western economic system over the edge into deflation"Half the world economy is one accident away from a deflation trap.

The International Monetary Fund says the probability may now be as high as 20pc.
It is a remarkable state of affairs that the G2 monetary superpowers - the US and China - should both be tightening into such a 20pc risk, though no doubt they have concluded that asset bubbles are becoming an even bigger danger."

WeMOG-Palmer Park, Monday Feb 3

Monday, February 3 ski Palmer Park.   (about 15 minutes south of downtown Grand Rapids)

Palmer Park has beautiful groomed trails. Half in the woods and half on a gentle rolling golf course.   There is a heated lodge with modern clean bathrooms.  You can buy hot drinks and snacks.  Trail fee is $2.00

Meet at 1:30 pm at the lodge where we pay our trail fee.  Ski about 1.5 to 2 hours, afterwards gather in lodge for drinks and snacks.     

Directions: 

In Grand Rapids, take 131 South and exit at 44^th street.  Turn right and immediately left onto Clyde Park.  Drive south about one mile  on Clyde Park.  Look for sign “KAUFMAN GOLF COURSE”  (4807 Clyde Park, Wyoming)  Go down the drive way and turn left for the parking lot.    Meet in the lodge.

Ski rental is available in the lodge.

http://www.accesskent.com/Parks/Directory/palmer.htm

--

History for January 30 - On-This-Day.com

History for January 30 - On-This-Day.com

Birth anniversary of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945).

Happy Birthday!  Dick Cheney, Gene Hackman, Boris Spassky

1862 - The U.S. Navy's first ironclad warship, the "Monitor", was launched. 


1894 - C.B. King received a patent for the pneumatic hammer. 


1933 - Adolf Hitler was named the German Chancellor. 


1948 - Indian political and spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi was murdered by a Hindu extremist. 


1960 - The women’s singles U.S. figure skating championship was won by Carol Heiss. 


1962 - Two members of the "Flying Wallendas" high-wire act were killed when their seven-person pyramid collapsed during a performance in Detroit, MI. 


1968 - The Tet Offensive began as Communist forces launched surprise attacks against South Vietnamese provincial capitals. 


1995 - The U.N. Security Council authorized the deployment of a 6,000-member U.N. peace-keeping contingent to assume security responsibilities in Haiti from U.S. forces. 


2002 - Slobodan Milosevic accused the U.N. war crimes tribunal of an "evil and hostile attack" against him. Milosevic was defending his actions during the Balkan wars. 

In case you missed the SOTU last night

Post by Ken K. Green.

How to Easily Find Full-Length Movies on YouTube

How to Easily Find Full-Length Movies on YouTube:

"Itroducing Zero Dollar Movies, a new site for movie buffs that will help you find and discover movies that are available on YouTube for free.
These are full-length movies and there are no trailers or partial uploads.
 The catalog includes a collection of 15,000+ movies, organized by their year of release, and new titles are getting added every day.
You can find movies in English, Hindi (Bollywood) and few other regional languages."

Pension Costs Mean Tighter Budgets For Classrooms, Taxpayers

Pension Costs Mean Tighter Budgets For Classrooms, Taxpayers [Michigan Capitol Confidential]:

"Livonia Public Schools Superintendent Randy Liepa says his district will pay just under $30 million for its employee retirement pension and health care costs this year.

The district has to spend the money to cover the costs of the state retirement benefits plan, which has an estimated unfunded liability of $24.3 billion."

Time to Sequester Air Force One Vacation Flights