History for February 21

History for February 21 - On-This-Day.com
Zachary Scott 1914, Sam Peckinpah 1925 - Director, Erma Bombeck 1927 - Humorist, columnist, writer 


Alan Rickman 1946, Kelsey Grammer 1955 - Actor ("Cheers", "Frazier"), William "Billy" Baldwin 1963 - Actor ("Backdraft") 


1842 - John J. Greenough patented the sewing machine. 


1848 - The Communist Manifesto was published by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. 


1866 - Lucy B. Hobbs became the first woman to graduate from a dental school. The school was the Ohio College of Dental Surgery in Cincinnati. 


1904 - The National Ski Association was formed in Ishpeming, MI. 


1916 - During World War I, the Battle of Verdun began in France. The battle ended on December 18, 1916 with a French victory over Germany. 


1932 - William N. Goodwin patented the camera exposure meter. 


1947 - Edwin Land demonstrated the Polaroid Land Camera to the Optical Society of America in New York City. It was the first camera to take, develop and print a picture on photo paper all in about 60 seconds. The photos were black and white. The camera went on sale the following year. 


1965 - Malcolm X was assassinated in New York City at the age of 39 by assassins identified as Black Muslims. 


1988 - In Baton Rouge, LA, TV evangelist Jimmy Swaggart confessed to his congregation that he was guilty of an unspecified sin. He announced that he was leaving the pulpit temporarily. Swaggart had been linked to an admitted prostitute. 

Obama Calls ‘Bridges of Communication’ the Key to Winning Against Terrorism | Video | TheBlaze.com

Obama Calls ‘Bridges of Communication’ the Key to Winning Against Terrorism | Video | TheBlaze.com:

"The president further said there should be more dialogue within countries and within faiths.

“We all recognize the need for more dialogues across countries and cultures; those efforts are indeed important, but what’s most needed today, perhaps, are more dialogues within countries, not just across faiths, but also within faiths,” Obama said. “Violent extremists and terrorists thrive when people of different religions or sects pull away from each other and are able to isolate each other and label them as ‘they’ as opposed to ‘us,’ something separate and apart. So we need to build and bolster bridges of communication and trust.”

Obama said that all governments have a role to play to curb the propaganda and announced that the government of the United Arab Emirates is joining the United States in the effort to connect youth."

The Bloom is Quickly Fading for Renewable Energy in America and Europe! Finally!

The Bloom is Quickly Fading for Renewable Energy in America and Europe! Finally! | Somewhat Reasonable:
A few of the tidbits are below

• A Government Accountability Office review of federal renewable energy-related initiatives for fiscal year 2010 discovered at least 345 different federal initiatives supporting solar energy. The programs are managed by nearly 20 agencies and support more than 1,500 individual projects.
• Over the past five years, the federal government spent an estimated $150 billion subsidizing solar power and other renewable energy projects.
• Preferable tax treatment given to solar and other alternative electricity initiatives cost Americans nearly $9 billion annually, according to the IRS.
• State and local governments increasingly subsidize solar energy. Personal tax credits related to solar products are available in 20 states, 18 states maintain corporate tax credit and deduction programs, and 14 states and Puerto Rico offer taxpayer-funded grants to support solar electricity.
  
  
  And what as all this largesse bought?
  Despite the subsidies and mandates solar will make up only 0.6 percent of total U.S. electricity generation in 2015, according to the Energy Information Administration.
  Worse still, government efforts to promote solar energy have resulted in waste and fraud and diverted public and private resources from energy resources that hold more promise.
  For instance, “Government-backed solar boondoggles are rampant and include such devastating examples as the Solyndra loan, which cost taxpayers $535 million and left 1,100 employees without a job, and the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System in California, which, despite reaping $1.6 billion in subsidies, produces electricity at a cost three times higher than traditional power and has requested $539 million in additional direct handouts from the federal government.”

Strong Winds Carve Otherworldly Towers from Frozen Sand on the Shore of Lake Michigan

Strong Winds Carve Otherworldly Towers from Frozen Sand on the Shore of Lake Michigan | Colossal

The Obama Administration’s Arguments for Obamacare That Are Being Called ‘Laughably Unpersuasive’ | TheBlaze.com

The Obama Administration’s Arguments for Obamacare That Are Being Called ‘Laughably Unpersuasive’ | TheBlaze.com:

"The Obama administration is grasping at straws to defend its attempt to illegally give away billions of dollars in taxpayer funds under Obamacare, according to plaintiffs in a pending Supreme Court case that could significantly undermine the law.

Lawyers for plaintiffs in the King vs. Burwell case filed their closing brief in the case on Wednesday, the last brief to be filed before the Supreme Court hears oral arguments on March 4."

Almost Half The Uninsured Still Don't Know They Owe An Obamacare Penalty

Almost Half The Uninsured Still Don't Know They Owe An Obamacare Penalty | The Daily Caller
"Close to half of uninsured adults are still unaware that Obamacare’s individual mandate will fine them for not buying health insurance, according to a Thursday poll from the Urban Institute.
As of Dec. 2014, 25 percent of uninsured Americans above the poverty line said they’d heard “nothing at all” about the fine. 
Another 20 percent said they had heard “only a little.” 
A slight majority, 53 percent, reported hearing some or a lot about the tax (which the Obama administration calls the “individual shared responsibility payment”).
Americans who were uninsured last year will have to pay the penalty for the first time this tax season. The penalty for going uninsured in 2014 was $95 or 1 percent of income, whichever is greater — but this year, that penalty has grown to $325 or 2 percent of income..."

Our Dangerous Historical Moment

Our Dangerous Historical Moment | RealClearPolitics:
"World War II was the most destructive war in history. 
What caused it?
The panic from the ongoing and worldwide Depression in the 1930s had empowered extremist movements the world over.
Like-minded, violent dictators of otherwise quite different Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Imperial Japan, and the Communist Soviet Union all wanted to attack their neighbors.
Yet World War II could have been prevented had Western Europe united to deter Germany.
Instead, France, Britain, and the smaller European democracies appeased Hitler.
The United States turned isolationist.
The Soviet Union collaborated with the Third Reich.
And Italy and Japan eventually joined it.
The 1930s saw rampant anti-Semitism. Jews were blamed in fascist countries for the economic downturn.
They were scapegoated in democracies for stirring up the fascists.
The only safe havens for Jews from Europe were Jewish-settled Palestine and the United States.
Does all this sound depressingly familiar?"

Why not? Al Gore and the democrats did.-----Can the CIA weaponise the weather?

Can the CIA weaponise the weather? | US news | The Guardian:
Using the weather as a weapon to subjugate the globe sounds like the modus operandi of a James Bond villain, but a senior climate scientist has expressed concern over the US intelligence services’ apparent interest in geoengineering.
Geoengineering seeks to combat climate change by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere or by increasing the reflectivity of the earth – with clouds or even space dust – to reduce the sun’s warmth.
It is criticised by many environmental activists, including Naomi Klein, for suggesting that a simple techno-fix for global warming is just around the corner but geoengineering may have a more sinister side.
Alan Robock, who studied the potential impact of a nuclear winter in the 1980s, raised alarm over CIA’s part-funding of a National Academy of Sciences report on different approaches to combating climate change, and the fact that the CIA hasn’t explained its interest in geoengineering....
Read on!

10 Troubling Aspects of President Obama’s ‘Countering Violent Extremism’ Summit | TheBlaze.com

10 Troubling Aspects of President Obama’s ‘Countering Violent Extremism’ Summit | TheBlaze.com:

"The White House’s “Countering Violent Extremism” summit is barely underway, yet the message is already clear: the conference is politically correct — and far worse — a charade.

And that is a charitable interpretation.

Its sponsors are engaging in intentional obfuscation (e.g., saying “violent extremism” is the enemy), as well as peddling ineffective and ill-considered policy proposals (more community “empowerment”). The conference will effectively aid and abet America’s increasingly ascendant jihadist foes."

Hmmmm. They approved this just AFTER the election---------Michigan Senate moving forward with plans to spend up to $70M on new office space

Michigan Senate moving forward with plans to spend up to $70M on new office space | MLive.com

LANSING, MI -- The Michigan Senate is moving forward with plans to move out of the aging Farnum Building and into a newer, larger building in downtown Lansing.

The pending move -- and associated price tag -- has been the subject of increased scrutiny in recent weeks, as lawmakers look to plug a looming budget shortfall by cutting funding for various state departments.

Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof, R-West Olive, said Tuesday that he is personally in favor of the move but noted that the process was started by former Sen. Randy Richardville, who was term-limited out of office.

"It's already a signed contract. The bonds have already been let and we are moving forward with the office change," Meekhof told reporters on Tuesday.

The Michigan Strategic Fund in November authorized up to $70 million in bonding to cover the $51 million purchase price of the Capitol View Building, located at 201 Townsend Street, along with any other unanticipated costs.

Michigan marijuana legalization proposals - and a potential race to the ballot - in the works for 2016

Michigan marijuana legalization proposals - and a potential race to the ballot - in the works for 2016 | MLive.com: 
"LANSING, MI -- Two separate -- and potentially competing -- groups are laying the groundwork for 2016 ballot proposals that would seek to legalize, regulate and tax marijuana in Michigan.
...While planning has only just begun, Hank said the new Michigan coalition will seek to protect and improve the state's medical marijuana law, create a legal system for taxable sales to adults and allow industrial hemp farming.
Marijuana activists from around the state are expected to gather this weekend to discuss more specifics about potential ballot language, petition circulation and fundraising efforts.
...Suzie Mitchell, President and CFO of the East Lansing-based Mitchell Research & Communications firm, filed paperwork with the state last month to create a new nonprofit corporation called the Michigan Responsibility Council.
...She confirmed the company is an "advocacy group for the cannabis industry" that will likely transition to a ballot committee later in the year.
"It's very preliminary at this point," she said. 
"All we can say is that the goal is full legalization for 2016.""

Student loan debt hits all-time high at $1.2 trillion

Student loan debt hits all-time high at $1.2 trillion | Circa News
Student loan debt continues to climb to new highs, concerning economists who say graduates are struggling to find jobs.

According to a Feb. 18 blog post by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, student loan debt amounted to a record $1.2 trillion in 2014. People are taking out larger loans and the average balance for each borrower has grown 74% in the last decade. The average borrower had $27,000 dollars in student loan debt in 2014.

In the last three months of 2014, the share of loans that were considered officially delinquent, with payments at least 90 days overdue, rose to 11.3%, up from 11.1% the previous quarter. Student loan debt is now higher than all other types of non-mortgage debt, which remains 69% of all Americans' total borrowing.

 The growth in student debt, with its monthly cost and high delinquency and default rate, seems to be reducing both household formation and homeownership.- The Federal Reserve Bank of New York

Because of defaulted payments and tarnished credit scores, people with student loan debt are increasingly less able to buy a home, the report says. A 2014 report suggested that student debt may have been responsible for the loss of $83 billion in home sales.

Scott Walker Powerfully Responds to Attacks on Lack of College Degree; Obots Won’t Like it

Scott Walker Powerfully Responds to Attacks on Lack of College Degree; Obots Won’t Like it:

"Wisconsin governor and probable 2016 Republican presidential candidate, Scott Walker, responded to criticism from nose-in-the-air elitist progressives, who have been attacking Walker because he pursued a career rather than finishing college."

No problem. If we give more money to politicians, they'll fix it.... right?-------Muskegon County ranks No. 79 out of 82 counties in annual Kids Count wellbeing project

Muskegon County ranks No. 79 out of 82 counties in annual Kids Count wellbeing project | MLive.com:
"MUSKEGON, MI-- A new project examining key indicators of success among Michigan children suggests many Muskegon County families are struggling to have an enjoyable life and will continue to do so if lawmakers don't consider new policies.
The annual Kids Count in Michigan Data Book for 2015, released Thursday, Feb. 19 by the Michigan League for Public Policy advocacy group, placed the region at the No. 79 spot among 82 counties for overall child wellbeing.
Keweenaw County in the Upper Peninsula did not receive a ranking.
...Christine Robere, president of the United Way of the Lakeshore, which serves Muskegon, Newaygo and Oceana counties, said the poverty figure for the region was "astounding."
"We certainly have a lot of challenges and work to do in Muskegon County," Robere said. "As a whole, the community has been working so well together and there are so many resources aimed at linking people to education and employment opportunities.""

Ask Smithsonian: What Would Happen if a Solar Flare Hit the Earth?

Ask Smithsonian: What Would Happen if a Solar Flare Hit the Earth? | Smithsonian:

History for February 20

History for February 20 - On-This-Day.com:
William Prescott 1726 - American Revolutionary soldier, know for the quote "Don't fire until you see the white's of their eyes.", Sidney Poitier 1927 - Actor ("Lillies of the Field", "To Sir With Love"), Robert Altman 1925 - Director ("M*A*S*H") 


Bobby Unser 1934 - Race car driver, Roger Penske 1937 - Race car driver, Jennifer O'Neill 1948 - Actress ("Summer of '42") 


1792 - U.S. President George Washington signed the Postal Service Act thereby creating the U.S. Post Office.
 

1809 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled the power of the federal government was greater than that of any individual state. 


1839 - The U.S. Congress prohibited dueling in the District of Columbia. 


1872 - Luther Crowell received a patent for a machine that manufactured paper bags. 


1872 - Silas Noble and J.P. Cooley patented the toothpick manufacturing machine. 


1952 - "The African Queen" opened at the Capitol Theatre in New York City. 


1962 - John Glenn made space history when he orbited the world three times in 4 hours, 55 minutes. He was the first American to orbit the Earth. He was aboard the Friendship 7 Mercury capsule. 


1987 - A bomb exploded in a computer store in Salt Lake City, UT. The blast was blamed on the Unabomber. 













1993 - Two ten-year-old boys were charged by police in Liverpool, England, in the abduction and death of a toddler. The two boys were later convicted. 


1998 - American Tara Lipinski, at age 15, became the youngest gold medalist in winter Olympics history when she won the ladies' figure skating title at Nagano, Japan. 


2003 - In West Warwick, RI, 99 people were killed when fire destroyed the nightclub The Station. The fire started with sparks from a pyrotechnic display being used by Great White. Ty Longley, guitarist for Great White, was one of the victims in the fire.

http://libertyreview76.blogspot.com/2015/02/weedaphobic-by-tammy-derouin-natural.htm

Weedaphobic

By Tammy Derouin

History has proven time and time again that lies are the seeds, the building blocks, to control others.  The lies are carefully nurtured. The fertilizer gets a makeover and is repackaged.  The most intelligent specie always falls for the dressed up, pretty package.

If weeds are found growing, they threaten to choke off the life and destroy the rest of the garden.  The gardener will seek out and destroy that which threatens to destroy his land.  Unfortunately, in today’s world, the gardener becomes the target.  He dared to call a weed a weed.  He identified the enemy and attempted to destroy it.  The news will report the gardener was always the threat.  He took special care of what was rightfully his but he denied the enemy, the weed, equal access.  He is labeled a Weedaphobic and will be demonized for not allowing the enemy access, which would have destroyed his garden.

It’s amazing how many people will stand up and fight for the unalienable rights of plants and animals but will deceive, enslave and destroy their own people.  The tree has a right to live but the human is discarded.  The enemy has a right to invade and destroy our land while the citizens are condemned for protecting their rights.

US Government Proposes "Sugary-Food Tax" To Curb Obesity

US Government Proposes "Sugary-Food Tax" To Curb Obesity | Zero Hedge:
The totalitarian arm of the ever-growing government appears to know no limit. In today's "oh no they didn't" moment, the US Government's diet panel has dictated proposed one more oppression of American's freedom to choose:

• *GOV'T PANEL PROPOSES SUGARY-FOOD TAX TO FUND NUTRITION PROGRAMS, CURB OBESITY

On the bright side, the government approves of "lean meat" as compatible with healthy eating. The bill, introduced by Rep. Juan Candelaria, D-New Haven, would impose a tax of 1 cent per ounce on soft drinks - including sweetened teas, energy drinks and soda - and candies that are high in sugar and calories.

As Bloomberg reports,

Americans should pay taxes on sugary sodas and snacks as a way to cut down on sweets, though they no longer need to worry about cholesterol, according to scientists helping to revamp dietary guidelines as U.S. obesity levels surge.

The recommendations Thursday from the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee also call for Americans to reduce meat consumption and to take sustainability into account when dining.

The panel released its report as the Obama administration seeks ways to fight obesity, which now affects more than one-third of American adults and 17 percent of children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Seattle Physics Teacher to Require His Students Learn About White Privilege

Seattle Physics Teacher to Require His Students Learn About White Privilege | The Gateway Pundit
Seattle high school teacher Moses Rifkin is going to make sure his students learn all about white privilege this year in his physics class.

Unreal.

Moses Rifkin of University Prep in Seattle has decided that his Physics students do not know enough about white privilege.

Mr. Rifkin’s lesson will ask students to look at African American scientists of the past. The assignment asks the question, “Why, percentage-wise, are there dramatically fewer black physicists than black Americans? Is it because black students are not interested in physics? Not capable? Something else?”

Oddly, Rifkin’s curriculum specifically bans studying any other minorities but African Americans.

“We do this,” the lesson explains, “because it’s a particularly illustrative example; we aren’t going to directly address other scientific minorities, and there are many: women, other races, the economically disadvantaged, the physically disabled, etc.”…

…Students will also be required to read, “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” later in the course.

Watch Ed Henry Grill WH Spokesman on Islamic State: ‘Why Did You Not Say 21 Christians Were Killed?’ | Video | TheBlaze.com

Watch Ed Henry Grill WH Spokesman on Islamic State: ‘Why Did You Not Say 21 Christians Were Killed?’ | Video | TheBlaze.com:

"White House press secretary Josh Earnest was pressed on Wednesday as to why he did not identify the 21 victims of an Islamic State beheading as Coptic Christians, as opposed to just Egyptian citizens.

At one point, Earnest said, “I can’t account for that specific line of the statement.” However, he asserted the Egyptians were killed because they were Christians."

‘Activism’ class at University of Michigan teaches capitalism should be ‘overthrown’

‘Activism’ class at University of Michigan teaches capitalism should be ‘overthrown’:
"A textbook used for an “activism” class at the University of Michigan teaches that capitalism should be “overthrown” – claiming “capitalism means waste, poverty, ecological degradation, dispossession, inequality, exploitation, imperialism, war and violence.”
The textbook, “Beautiful Trouble: A Toolbox for Revolution,” is assigned as mandatory reading for “Organizational Studies 203: Activism,” a class at the public university that pledges to teach students about the “struggles of movements past, as well as hands-on engagement with the struggles of today.”
The course is unbiased on paper, with its description stating “neither this course, nor its instructional staff, embraces or rejects any ideology, movement, or political project. We will not preach social change from any particular point of view.”
But the book blames the “global slump we are living through” on capitalism, adding it “is the predictable manifestation of a crisis-prone economic system rooted in production for profit rather than for human need. … [F]or the sake of human development and ecological sanity it needs to be overthrown.”
It describes capitalism as morally perverse, and defines it as “a profit-driven economic system rooted in inequality, exploitation, dispossession and environmental destruction.”"

VIDEO: Retired Lt. Col.: ‘The Only Religion this President is Willing to Come Out and Publicly Defend is Islam!’

VIDEO: Retired Lt. Col.: ‘The Only Religion this President is Willing to Come Out and Publicly Defend is Islam!’:

"Peters noted that President Obama’s lack of urgency in his response to the growing barbarism of ISIS is only spurring on further violence and increasing the strength of the terrorist organization that is wreaking havoc.

“The only religion this president is willing to come out and publicly defend is Islam,” Peters stated “He clearly romanticizes Islam and treats it as if Islam is above all criticism.”

“We’ve got this problem where everybody on the left in the United States romanticizes Islam. They’re always scolding us, ‘Beware of Islamophobia, you can’t indulge in Islamophobia,’” Peters continued."

The Real Threat to Europe

The Real Threat to Europe:
"The late Libyan leader, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, predicted that Islam would conquer Europe without even firing a shot.
To understand and explain the fate awaiting Europe, it is necessary to listen seriously to what the upper echelons of Islam say to each about their own intentions -- in Arabic.
These messages are quite different from those on Western television.
What they say to one another is that the mission of Islam is to lead the whole world and eradicate all other religions, as they have been made irrelevant by the Qur'an.
Their doctrine appears openly and without reservation in books and on websites. It is spread in local languages in mosques by the imams in their communities throughout Europe.
These communities operate according to an ancient Islamic code: 
They command immigration; then the forming of enclaves in the host country, then the eventual violent takeover of the host.
Once this process is complete, all the Islamic communities will unite to form the Islamic Caliphate.
It will have no borders and no other identity.
Then there will be Peace.
This, they say, was the state of affairs under Muhammad and this will be the state of affairs in the future.
It is markedly apparent to us, however, that the world refuses to listen to what the Islamists are saying. 
Anyone who dares to issue a warning is called, among other names, an alarmist or a racist."

Mike Rowe Was Asked If a College Degree Should Be Required for Elected Office. His Educated Response Is a Breath of Fresh Air.

Mike Rowe Was Asked If a College Degree Should Be Required for Elected Office. His Educated Response Is a Breath of Fresh Air. | TheBlaze.com:
“Howard Dean recently criticized Gov Scott Walker for never finishing college, stating that he was ‘unknowledgeable,’” Rowe follower Kyle Smith wrote. “What would your response be on college as a requirement for elected office?”
Rowe’s response — like others he’s penned to Facebook readers — was flat-out brilliant.
First he described how he got his job at QVC in 1990 “with no qualifications to speak of” after an audition where a man rolled a pencil across a desk and told Rowe to spend the next eight minutes on camera doing a sales pitch for the pencil."

Proponents hope to see Ann Arbor to Traverse City train service happen by 2025

Proponents hope to see Ann Arbor to Traverse City train service happen by 2025 | MLive.com:
"The report from 9and10news.com indicates there are talks of a pilot run from Ann Arbor to Traverse City next summer, and then MDOT is expected to conduct a formal feasibility study for the service next year, though it's unclear if that's funded yet."

How Obama is allowing a union to hold the economy hostage

How Obama is allowing a union to hold the economy hostage | Fox News
If you hold a person hostage, you’re a kidnapper.

But if you’re a labor union and you hold a company, or even a nation, hostage, your actions are sanctioned and protected by the United States government.

Take, for example, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), currently sabotaging West Coast shipping operations.
Last July, the ILWU’s contract with the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) expired..... 

"PMA made a comprehensive contract offer designed to bring these talks to conclusion.  The ILWU responded with demands they knew we could not meet, and continued slowdowns that will soon bring West Coast ports to gridlock. What they’re doing amounts to a strike with pay."

It’s not just the shipping companies that the union is hurting -- a shutdown of these ports costs the U.S. economy an estimated $2 billion per day; 70 percent of our trade with Asia flows through these ports, according to Reuters.