History for April 24

History for April 24 - On-This-Day.com:

Take Our Daughters and Sons To Work Day. 21st annual. See www.DaughtersandSonstoWork.org

Birth anniversary of American poet, novelist, critic Robert Penn Warren (1905-89). Warren was America’s first official poet laureate, 1986-88.

Birth anniversary of English novelist Anthony Trollope (1815-1882).

Happy Birthday! Kelly Clarkson, Richard M. Daley, Barbra Streisand

1805 - The U.S. Marines attacked and captured the town of Derna in Tripoli.


1833 - A patent was granted for first soda fountain.
 

1889 - The Edison General Electric Company was organized. 


1898 - Spain declared war on the U.S., rejecting America's ultimatum for Spain to withdraw from Cuba.





1948 - The Berlin airlift began to relieve the surrounded city. 


1953 - Winston Churchill was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. 


1961 - U.S. President Kennedy accepted "sole responsibility" following Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. 


1967 - Soviet astronaut Vladimir Komarov died when his craft crashed with a tangled parachute. 


1967 - The newest Greek regime banned miniskirts. 


2003 - A U.S. official reported the North Korea had claimed to have nuclear weapons. 

You Won’t Believe How Big Obama’s Earth Day ‘Carbon Footprint’ Is

You Won’t Believe How Big Obama’s Earth Day ‘Carbon Footprint’ Is:
"As America celebrated Earth Day Tuesday, Barack Obama marked the occasion by emitting about 15 times more carbon – in one trip – than the average American releases in an entire year.
According to reports, he began the day with a cross-country flight from the nation’s capital to Washington State. That trip sent out an estimated 568,032 pounds of carbon into the atmosphere. Ordinary citizens, on the other hand, are responsible for creating about 38,000 pounds of carbon each year.
That trip, however, was just the beginning of Obama’s pollution-heavy schedule. "

LIBERTY REVIEW

LIBERTY REVIEW:http://libertyreview76.blogspot.com/2014/04/pints-and-quarts-by-tammy-derouin.html

Well, it was too early for ale but we were discussing the Constitution and its original intent over coffee and eggs.  I couldn’t hold back the smile when questions were asked by some, answered by others and then checked by referring to the Constitution.  There were at least three people in our group checking the Constitution on cell phones.

A Billion for Your Thoughts: ‘Environmentalism’ is Costing Us | TheBlaze.com

A Billion for Your Thoughts: ‘Environmentalism’ is Costing Us | TheBlaze.com:
"IPCC official Ottmar Edenhofer, speaking in November 2010, advised that: “…one has to free oneself from the illusion that international climate policy is environmental policy. Instead, climate change policy is about how we redistribute de facto the world’s wealth…”"

9 Password Managers To Make Use Of

9 Password Managers To Make Use Of [We Ask You Results]:
"Creating and remembering passwords for every website you interact with is a real pain in the ass.
Unfortunately, it’s also an essential part of a life spent at least partially online.
We sought to find out your strategy when it comes to passwords, and the informative results are detailed below.

We asked you, How Do You Manage Your Passwords? 
It turns out that most of you don’t manage your passwords, or at least not alone.
Instead, the majority of people participating in the discussion let a password manager do the hard work of creating and/or storing passwords for their online adventures.
In total, nine password managers were named during the discussion, all of which are used by at least one commenter. The nine are LastPass, KeePass, Passpack, Dashlane, RoboForm, Sticky Password, 1Password, Norton Identity Safe, and aWallet Password Manager."

America's power grid at the limit: The road to electrical blackouts

America's power grid at the limit: The road to electrical blackouts | The Daily Caller

Americans take electricity for granted. It powers our lights, our computers, our offices, and our industries.
But misguided environmental policies are eroding the reliability of our power system.

Last winter, bitterly cold weather placed massive stress on the US electrical system ― and the system almost broke. On January 7 in the midst of the polar vortex, PJM Interconnection, the Regional Transmission Organization serving the heart of America from New Jersey to Illinois, experienced a new all-time peak winter load of almost 142,000 megawatts.

Eight of the top ten of PJM’s all-time winter peaks occurred in January 2014. Heroic efforts by grid operators saved large parts of the nation’s heartland from blackouts during record-cold temperature days. Nicholas Akins, CEO of American Electric Power, stated in Congressional testimony, “This country did not just dodge a bullet ― we dodged a cannon ball.”

Environmental policies established by Congress and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are moving us toward electrical grid failure. The capacity reserve margin for hot or cold weather events is shrinking in many regions. According to Philip Moeller, Commissioner of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, “the experience of this past winter indicates that the power grid is now already at the limit.

Math mistakes lead government to pay contractors up to 3 times market rate under Davis-Bacon

Math mistakes lead government to pay contractors up to 3 times market rate under Davis-Bacon

Construction workers at companies doing work for the federal government are paid as much as three times what their peers outside of government get for the same work, a Washington Examiner review of federal statistics found.

Pipefitters in Laredo, Texas, for example, can usually expect to make around $11.47 hourly, but if working on a federal contract, they must be paid at least $36.49, plus benefits.

Window installers in New York City make $18.87 an hour in the market -- that's the median salary, including industry veterans -- yet the government requires those doing that work for it in the New York area to be paid at least $42, even if they're inexperienced.

While tradesmen known as lathers in Philadelphia usually make $19.26 an hour, the law requiresfederal contractors to be paid $39.90 with an additional $25 an hour in fringe benefits.

In Just 17 Seconds, S.E. Cupp Perfectly Explains Why Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns Group Has ‘Crumbled’

In Just 17 Seconds, S.E. Cupp Perfectly Explains Why Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns Group Has ‘Crumbled’ | Video | TheBlaze.com:
"As reported by NewsBusters, Cupp also said Bloomberg’s strategy to go after the National Rifle Association is a “very odd thing” because the gun rights group doesn’t represent criminal or even gun manufacturers.
“The NRA represents law-abiding gun owners, like myself, they don’t represent criminals. They don’t event represent gun manufacturers,” she said earlier in the segment. “So why Mayor Bloomberg is turning his figurative guns on people like me when there are criminals out there seems a very strange way to go about reducing gun crime. His efforts on this issue have been measurable failures.”"

4%?!!-----Hey, they told us there's NO inflation!------- MSU board increases room-and-board rates 3.95 percent

MSU board increases room-and-board rates 3.95 percent | Crain's Detroit Business:

"EAST LANSING — The Board of Trustees at Michigan State University has voted to raise room-and-board rates for its dorms by 3.95 percent next academic year.
With the rate change approved today by the board, the residence hall double-room rate for undergraduate students will increase $144, to $3,780 per year.
The school says their unlimited dining meal plan will increase $204, to $5,374 per year."

History for April 23

History for April 23 - On-This-Day.com:

450th birth anniversary of William Shakespeare (1564-1616).

Miguel de Cervantes: Death Anniversary (1616)

James Buchanan, 15^th President of the US: Birth Anniversary (1791-1868).

Birth anniversary of Shirley Temple Black (1928-2014)

Happy Birthday! Valerie Bertinelli, Joyce Dewitt, Lee Majors

1500 - Pedro Cabal claimed Brazil for Portugal. 





1900 - The word "hillbilly" was first used in print in an article in the "New York Journal." It was spelled "Hill-Billie". 


1950 - Chaing evacuated Hainan, leaving mainland China to Mao and the communists. 






1985 - The Coca-Cola Company announced that it was changing its 99-year-old secret formula. New Coke was not successful, which resulted in the resumption of selling the original version. 





1988 - A U.S. federal law took effect that banned smoking on flights that were under two hours. 


1997 - An infertility doctor in California announced that a 63-year-old woman had given birth in late 1996. The child was from a donor egg. The woman is the oldest known woman to give birth. 



2004 - U.S. President George W. Bush eased sanctions against Libya in return for Moammar Gadhafi's agreement to give up weapons of mass destruction. 





2005 - The first video was uploaded to YouTube.com. 

More on Obamacare’s “Bailout” for Health Insurers

More on Obamacare’s “Bailout” for Health Insurers | The Beacon:
"In other words, the Obama administration does not have the slightest idea how much taxpayers’ money is jeopardized by these risk corridors. 

This is a reckless way to manage our finances. 
The Congressional Research Service has suggested that payouts from the risk corridors require appropriations. Congress would do its duty by ensuring that the administration does not pay out any money from risk corridors without such legislative authority."

Award-Winning Song Writers Behind ‘Frozen’ Out With Giant Claim About Disney and God | Video | TheBlaze.com

Award-Winning Song Writers Behind ‘Frozen’ Out With Giant Claim About Disney and God | Video | TheBlaze.com:
"The Academy Award-winning husband and wife duo who wrote the songs for the popular animated film “Frozen” recently said that, while Disney is open to hiring staff who have worked on potentially off-color projects in the past, the company doesn’t welcome God and religious themes into its movies."

"...initially involve about 600 troops"?-------US troops arrive in Poland for exercises across Eastern Europe amid Ukraine crisis

US troops arrive in Poland for exercises across Eastern Europe amid Ukraine crisis | Fox News:
"WASHINGTON –  U.S. Army paratroopers are arriving in Poland to begin a series of military exercises in four countries across Eastern Europe to bolster allies in the wake of Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula last month.
Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby said Tuesday that the exercises will last about a month, and initially involve about 600 troops."

"Alleged"?------Alleged 100-person brawl, gun incident in city of Muskegon under investigation

Must read the comments!

Alleged 100-person brawl, gun incident in city of Muskegon under investigation | MLive.com:

"MUSKEGON, MI -- An incident where allegedly 100 people gathered to fight in Muskegon and three people reported having a gun pointed at them during the same brawl on Sunday, April 20 remains under investigation, police said.

 The investigation into the Easter evening incident, reported around 7:55 p.m., remained under investigation Tuesday, April 22, police said.

At the time of the call, the complainant reported that about 100 people were fighting in the 400 block of Catawba Street in the city of Muskegon.

 Police arrived to find about 20 people arguing in the area.

A group of those same individuals ran behind a home in the area, and officers pursuing them were advised that a subject had a gun."

What a "great" man.........Obama Skipped Aunt's Funeral; Went Golfing Instead

Obama Skipped Aunt's Funeral; Went Golfing Instead | The Weekly Standard:
"President Obama did not attend the funeral of his late aunt Zeituni Onyango.
Instead, he went golfing.
 The New York Times reports:
After Zeituni Onyango, the woman President Obama once called Auntie, died in a South Boston nursing home this month, her closest relatives gathered her belongings at her nearby apartment.
There, framed photographs of her with the president covered the wall.
Weeping before a polished wood coffin at her wake this past Saturday, they described Ms. Onyango, the half sister of the president’s father, as “the spirit of the Obama family” and talked about raising money to send her body back to Kenya.
Mr. Obama helped pay funeral expenses and sent a condolence note, Ms. Onyango’s family members said, but the president did not attend, as he was golfing."

HEY, WAIT, I THOUGHT THE SCIENCE WAS SETTLED!

Instapundit » Blog Archive » HEY, WAIT, I THOUGHT THE SCIENCE WAS SETTLED! Nutritional Folklore: Dr. Walter C. Willett

HEY, WAIT, I THOUGHT THE SCIENCE WAS SETTLED! Nutritional Folklore:

Dr. Walter C. Willett, a Harvard epidemiologist who has spent many years studying cancer and nutrition, sounded almost rueful as he gave a status report. Whatever is true for other diseases, when it comes to cancer there was little evidence that fruits and vegetables are protective or that fatty foods are bad.

About all that can be said with any assurance is that controlling obesity is important, as it also is for heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, hypertension, stroke and other threats to life. Avoiding an excess of alcohol has clear benefits. But unless a person is seriously malnourished, the influence of specific foods is so weak that the signal is easily swamped by noise. . . .

The hypothesis that fatty foods are a direct cause of cancer has also been crumbling, along with the case for eating more fiber. The idea that red meat causes colon cancer is shrouded in ambiguity. Two meta-analyses published in 2011 reached conflicting conclusions — one finding a small effect and the other no clear link at all. If hamburgers are carcinogenic, the effect appears to be mild. One study suggests that a 50-year-old man eating a hefty amount of red meat — about a third of a pound a day — raises his chance of getting colorectal cancer to 1.71 percent during the next decade, from 1.28 percent. Spread over a population of millions, that would have an impact. From the point of view of an individual, it barely seems to matter.

Yet all the nutritional commands — like the command to avoid sunlight — have been issued in the Voice Of Authority, with doubters and skeptics condemned as disrespecters of science.
There’s even the suggestion that the war on tobacco caused people who quit smoking to gain weight, with more cancers resulting from obesity than from cigarettes.
If that proves out, will the anti-smoking folks be targeted like the tobacco companies were?

Why Sports Fans are Sports Fans

Why Sports Fans are Sports Fans | Wait But Why:

To non-sports fans, caring about sports makes no sense.

If you’re a sports fan, here’s how non-sports fans view your love of your team:

A bunch of strangers in their 20s and 30s are paid to play games against each other that have no real world consequences, and you’ve decided that you care a ton about this. There are teams that must win and teams that must lose, and players that must play better than other players—and this is all critical.

Meanwhile, the players that must play well sometimes get traded to the teams that must lose, and now you want those players to play badly. In fact, the only thing you’re really rooting for is a certain set of jerseys, regardless of who happens to be wearing them.

Then there’s the fact that as you follow your team that must win, almost every season ends with them losing, leaving your face looking like this:

Or this:

Or this:

Then, every 30 years or so, this team you so badly want to win actually wins! 30 years and thousands of hours of time and dedication and finally, the ultimate goal is achieved—and then what happens? Some major change in your life? No, you go stand on the street and yell things, and then people start rioting, which makes no sense because they’re happy.

Then you spend a few days reading articles about the great victory, buy a t-shirt, and go on with your life. That’s it. That’s what it was all for.

Like I said, it’s an odd phenomenon.

And yet, one of the few things nearly every country in the world has in common is sports fandom. When something is both odd and universal, there’s gotta be something deeper going on.
As a big sports fan from a city full of frightening sports fan lunatics (Boston), I feel the need to take a shot at getting to the bottom of this.

click link to read the rest

Top 10 handguns in the U.S

Top 10 handguns in the U.S. - Photos - Washington Times:

Criticize ‘gays,’ get sued for ‘crime against humanity’

Criticize ‘gays,’ get sued for ‘crime against humanity’:
"U.S. District Judge Michael Posner has allowed to proceed a case brought against Lively by an African group called Sexual Minorities Uganda, or SMUG.
SMUG demands Lively be punished for criticizing homosexuality, calling his speech a “crime against humanity” in violation of “international law.” The plaintiffs allege the Alien Tort Statute in the United States allows them to make the charge in a U.S. court.
But Lively’s attorney, Horatio Mihet of Liberty Counsel, says his client’s preaching is protected by the Constitution."

This MSNBC Host has Some Choice Words for Those Upset about Obamacare

This MSNBC Host has Some Choice Words for Those Upset about Obamacare:

"Not surprisingly, she completely agrees with Obama that Democrats should proudly brag about Obamacare and campaign on it for the mid-term elections. In going back to the progressive Democrat mantra that some plans were eliminated because they were ‘substandard’ or ‘junk plans,’ Harris had this to say to the victims of Obama’s lie along with some praise for the Democrats. "





WOW!  When did we get affordable health care?

Mortgage Standards Are Plunging – It’s Muppet Fleecing Time All Over Again

Mortgage Standards Are Plunging – It’s Muppet Fleecing Time All Over Again | Zero Hedge

Submitted by Mike Krieger of Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,

In February, I highlighted the fact that subprime loans were about to make a return in my piece: Subprime Mortgages are Back…This Time Marketed as “Second Chance Purchase Programs.” 
In that article, I posited that with the “all cash” private equity shops and hedge funds no longer able to make good returns through buying new homes to rent, these investors would need some sucker to sell to in order to realize a return.
...That sucker, as always, will be the retail muppets, and those muppets will be lured in through subprime. 
This is now starting to happen in earnest.

The following article from the Wall Street Journal is both depressing and disturbing.
Rather than allowing home prices to reset at a lower level after the 2008 crash where normal buyers could afford a sane 20% mortgage, our central planners decided to do “whatever it takes” to re-inflate the housing bubble.
This was achieved through wealthy investment pools buying properties for all cash.
The trouble is, with home prices now inflated by these financial buyers and no real increase in wages, homes are simply unaffordable. 
So what do you do? 
You bring back subprime and get the peasants long real estate with essentially zero money down all over again. 
Truly remarkable.

From the Wall Street Journal:

While standards remain tight by historical measures, lenders have started to accept lower credit scores and to reduce down-payment requirements.

One such lender is TD Bank, Toronto-Dominion Bank’s U.S. unit, which on Friday began accepting down payments as low as 3% through an initiative called “Right Step,” geared toward first-time buyers and low- and moderate-income buyers. TD initially launched the program last year with a 5% down payment. It keeps the product on its books and doesn’t charge for insurance. Borrowers also don’t need to put down any of their own cash if a family, state or nonprofit group provides a down-payment gift.

So a measly 5% downpayment wasn’t good enough. They had to drop it to 3%. Frightening.

Professor: Republicans are ‘Racist, Misogynist, Money-Grubbing People’

Professor: Republicans are ‘Racist, Misogynist, Money-Grubbing People’ | Washington Free Beacon

Brent Terry, a professor at Eastern Connecticut State University was caught on audio telling his Introduction to Creative Writing class that Republicans will close colleges if they prevail in 2014 and that they are “racist, misogynist, money-grubbing people” who want to suppress the liberal vote.

Campus Reform reports:

In a four-minute recording of a classroom lecture obtained by Campus Reform, Professor Brent Terry is heard strongly suggesting that conservatives are greedy racists who want to suppress the vote of anyone who might vote liberal.

“…racist, misogynist, money-grubbing people have so much power over the rest of us. And want things to go back—not to 1955, but to 1855,” Terry said to his Introduction to Creative Writing class Monday morning.

“There are a lot of people out there that do not want black people to vote, do not want Latinos to vote. Do not want old people to vote, or young people to vote. Because generally, people like you are liberal.”

The audio, captured by a current student who wishes to remain anonymous, also claims that if Republicans win the senate in 2014, colleges will start “closing up.”

“It’s absolutely possible that the Republicans will take over the Senate as well as the House. And we will live in a very, very, very different kind of country if that happens. I mean, colleges will start closing up if they, if these people have their way.”