How far has the Middle Class come in 75 years in the industrialized USA?

On the eve of the New Year, an article appeared that cannot be ignored.


Americans believe their children are their legacy. I believe that is true of most people everywhere.

...On this day, (click title to entry - thank you) December 30th, in 1936 -- 75 years ago today -- hundreds of workers at the General Motors factories in Flint, Michigan, took over the facilities and occupied them for 44 days. My uncle was one of them.

The workers couldn't take the abuse from the corporation any longer. Their working conditions, the slave wages, no vacation, no health care, no overtime -- it was do as you're told or get tossed onto the curb....

Michael Moore has accepted the honor of being 'the people's voice' having grown up in the Rust Belt of the USA.  In order for him to wear this honor as well as he does one has to realize how much he loves and has loved his family.  He accepted his heritage with sincere love and respect for those that surrounded his life.  The nation today has a gratitude to him for never forgetting the great struggles of the past and the great struggle we all face today.

Why is it the great struggles of the Middle Class are always facing the oppression of Wall Street?  Why is it the oppression of Wall Street always enforced by the right wing political government of this country?  

There is no choice for those of the Middle Class, the mantle we are assigned as evidenced by the history of our struggle requires a union of people in the work place to bring justice to those that labor.

...The workers couldn't take the abuse from the corporation any longer. Their working conditions, the slave wages, no vacation, no health care, no overtime -- it was do as you're told or get tossed onto the curb....

In "The South" of the USA these conditions have existed for the entire seventy-five years when others have seen relief.

Why?

Because the southern culture never permitted unionization of their labor force.  

With the year of 2012 upon us, the Middle Class is struggling once again and an entire generation of Americans are without the promise of employment while what was once jobs to people are now shipped to places like Iraq, China and India.  Either we are loyal to ourselves enough to realize our heritage has presented itself full circle to realize our destiny or every historical struggle was for not. 

I recently saw a segment of a young woman that received employment after being a part of #Occupy.  I congratulate her and all those that are resolving the horrible existence of a generation plagued with this burden, but, they cannot set aside a reality that visited them just a short time ago.  They need to do well in their employment, but, when achieved to decision makers they need to remember the legacy that placed them there.

I am grateful to those that had the courage to stand the protest line to bring awareness and return to a resolve to never allow this to happen again.  Nearly four generations ago, I am quite certain the people of the Middle Class made the same pledge; this time it has to be different and sustained.

Under Cheney Influence, Wyoming’s Oil Ties Flooded MMS (click title to entry - thank you)

One might ask how an energy newspaper from Wyoming could make such outrageous statements regarding the coal, oil and gas industry in Wyoming.


The newspaper is a non-profit with focus on 'the truth.'


Higher grain prices on the commodities exchange doesn't mean farmers are doing better, if they don't have enough grain to sell.


June 3rd, 2010

In a speech last week on the disaster unfolding in the Gulf, President Obama told the nation that for decades, there existed a “scandalously close relationship between oil companies and the agency that regulates them,” and that he took responsibility for a culture that had “not fully changed” [1] under his administration.

On that subject—the culture of coziness between the Minerals Management Service and industry—a non-profit Wyoming news service WyoFile [2] published a report today that details some of the ties between MMS internal culture, the state of Wyoming, and the state’s native son, Dick Cheney. From WyoFile [3]:

The elite among Wyoming’s legal and engineering professions, including several governors (past and present), have worked for energy industry clients. As a result, presidential administrations seeking an appointee (an appointee lobbyist) sympathetic to the energy industry can find a plethora of candidates in Wyoming....

A link between climate change and extreme weather? Never.

Iowa suffers from late summer drought (click title to entry - thank you)

September 7, 2011

by bschweig

...But the continued dryness has prompted private forecasters to drop the projection for Iowa’s yields to as low as 164 bushels per acre, the number the Professional Farmers of America tour posted late last week.

Those numbers set off a fresh rally for corn prices on the Chicago Board of Trade, pushing the December contract for corn above $7 per bushel and generating predictions of continued tight supplies of corn for livestock feeders and ethanol plants going into 2012.

Farmers said the rain that fell on Iowa last week didn’t help the corn crop.

“We got three-quarters of an inch of rain, which will help the soybeans, but it’s too late for the corn,” said John Heisdorffer, who farms west of Washington in what has been one of the driest areas of the state.

Heisdorffer said the cornfields in his area have shown the characteristic yellowing and drooping leaves associated with excess heat and lack of moisture.

“In a good year we expect to get 180 to 200 bushels per acre,” Heisdorffer said. “We won’t be close to that this year.”

In western Iowa, the situation is much the same. Brian Larson, whose Sunderman Farm Management of Fort Dodge manages farms in and around Webster County, pegged average yields at around 150 to 160 bushels per acre, well below the 200 bushels per acre Iowa can produce in a robust year.

“Six weeks ago this was looking like a really fine crop,” Larson said. “Now it will be only average, if that.”

The National Weather Service forecasts a chance of thunderstorms, with rainfalls totaling no more than a quarter-inch, through Saturday with clear weather through Labor Day. High temperatures will cool from the upper 90s Thursday to the mid-70s by Sunday.

Freedom And Opportunity for whom?

Romney's 'citizen's united' banks took it way from millions of Americans. He believes in the generations to come all right. He believes he can do the same thing over and over and over again. When are the CURRENT GENERATIONS going to have their lives returned to them that their parents ALREADY sacrificed for? He is a son of a bitch.

What does Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and George Walker Bush / Dick Cheney have in common?

This is not a trick question.


Promise.


No, not family.  At least I don't think so.


Yep, they all mutually hate each other.  Cheney is especially good at it.


But, the real 'genuine' hatred they hold for each other benefits all of them politically.


That wasn't that difficult to figure out, now was it?


What they don't have in common is that the hatred Bush/Cheney have for Ahmadinejad equates to profits on Wall Street and personal coffers greater than their salary while in office.

Somehow dead Kurds characterized as smugglers are equally justified as targets for drones?

...The incident threatens (click title to entry - thank you) to spoil efforts to forge Turkish-Kurdish consensus for a planned constitution expected to partly address the issue of rights for the Kurdish minority.

The Turkish military had said its jets launched air strikes overnight after drones spotted suspected rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' party (PKK). The military had denied there were civilians in the area.

But ruling AK Party spokesman Huseyin Celik said initial reports based on local government officials had found the victims were not militants and that most of the dead were cigarette smugglers under the age of 30....

Cigarette smugglers, diesel fuel smugglers are all about survival, either economic survival or finding a way through the winter.  The reason there is any kind of smuggling market place is because the demand exists and the government doesn't provide a legitimate economy.


There was no reason for what happened.  Innocent people were killed.  I am quite sure if they were working for Wall Street this would be an international incident or those controlling the drone would have been better paid.

Iran? They are simply testing their muscle after the USA leaves Iraq. Hello?

Does anyone actually believe Iran has the capacity to go to war?  Any war?  Iran is under the microscope globally and any war it started would be over before it began.  


Give me a break, the entire region is under Defcon 5 with Iran.  Iran can't sneeze without tensions rising.  If Ahmadinejad was EVER serious about Iran muscle; the 'ultimate war' against Israel should have been the last thing he should have done in verbalizing it and rewriting history.  Gadaffi used to make some really outrageous speeches at the UN, too.  


What was Iran saying today?  It was keeping a US Navy Aircraft Carrier within its surveillance?  Right?  Iran doesn't do that anyway?  OH!

The action of Prime Minister Maliki following the exit of USA forces is exactly why Ron Paul is correct about "It isn't our business" foreign policy.

There is no way anyone can make this up.  The facts are on the table.  Immediately after the last USA soldier was out of Iraq, Prime Minister Nouri-al-Maliki ordered the arrest of the Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi and accused the Kurds of hiding him to protect him.  Now, the USA is selling $11 Billion arms and training to Iraq to consolidate the government.  I thought the government was already consolidated.  


Ron Paul is exactly correct, 'It is none of our business."


Despite deep worries (click title to entry - thank you) over the continuing stability of the Iraqi government, the U.S. is planning on selling $11 billion of arms and training to Iraq's military. The sale comes as Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki has attempted to marginalize Iraq's Sunni minority since the U.S. withdrew its forces earlier in the month, setting off concerns over civil war. The Obama administration hopes the sale, which includes tanks and fighter jets, will help Iraq build its military and secure its border with Iran. But some American officials worry Iraq's government will move to align itself with the Shiite theocracy in Tehran.


Maliki is on the road to returning war to Iraq, only this time he'll be the new Saddam that will call all the strikes against ethnic minorities a cause of democracy with the backing of the USA military.


Maliki is setting the stage for deaths to Sunnis and Kurds.  There is absolutely more concern for the 'regime' in Baghdad the USA left behind than for those being targeted.

...Last Thursday, (click here) there were 16 bomb blasts in Baghdad (72 people killed, 217 injured). On Friday, two big car bombs in Damascus killed 40 people and injured 150. Even for Iraq, where there are suicide bombs every week, that is impressive. For Syria, these were the first terrorist attacks after eight months of non-violent protests. In both cases, however, perfectly sane people suspect that the government itself was behind the attacks.

Iraq's Vice-President Tariq al-Hashemi accused Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of planning the attacks. "This style of terrorist attack, it's well beyond even al-Qaeda to do it," he said. "Those who were behind all these explosions and incidents [were] part of the [government] security forces. I'm sure about that."...


And the Union Leader in all its war mongering glory rather see further civilian deaths, escalated tensions throughout the region and increased military capacity of the USA. The only thing dangerous about Ron Paul is that he sounds a great deal like Dennis Kucinich when it comes to a 'military tail' waging the "American Dog."

...Ron Paul is a dangerous man.  (click here) While his domestic libertarian views are quite attractive to some voters fed up with politics as usual, it is Paul’s position on issues of our national security that are truly dangerous.

Those views have been largely overlooked by a news media more interested in the presidential “horse race” than in the candidates’ positions on issues. But we expect New Hampshire primary voters will examine the facts and act accordingly.

A Wall Street Journal columnist notes that Paul is “a leading spokesman for, and recycler of, the long and familiar litany of charges that point to the United States as a leading agent of evil and injustice, the militarist victimizer of millions who want only to live in peace.”

Perhaps this warped view is why Paul believes that al-Qaida terrorists caught in the United States ought to be treated as common criminals, not enemy combatants. He wants them read Miranda rights to which they are not entitled and he wants them tried and sentenced in civil courts rather than by military tribunals....

When is Monsanto going to be viewed by a dangerous monopoly?

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Jury selection (click title to entry - thank you)  in the class-action lawsuit against Monsanto will begin next week after no settlement was reached during about eight hours of mediation Tuesday, the lead plaintiffs' attorney confirmed.

Residents allege in a class-action case, filed in 2004, that Monsanto unsafely burned dioxin wastes and spread contaminated soot and dust across Nitro, polluting homes with unsafe levels of the chemical.

The lawsuit set to begin next week will seek medical monitoring for at least 5,000 - and perhaps as many as 80,000 - current and former Nitro residents....

And why is it these huge corporations always believe they 'can do better in court?'  When is mediation not really mediation?  When it is a stall tactic.

...Before Putnam Circuit Judge O.C. Spaulding recused himself from hearing the case after being diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease, he ruled that residents could not sue collectively to seek remediation of homes they allege are contaminated with dioxin.

On Tuesday, several hundred plaintiffs gathered at the Marriott hotel in Charleston for a court-ordered mediation. Circuit Judges Booker Stephens of McDowell County and Alan D. Moats of Taylor County attempted to resolve the case to avoid trial.

A mediation held in October also failed to produce a settlement....


GMO is genetically modified organism, sometimes known as GMO Foods or GEO, Genetically Engineered Organism.  Do you know what is on your kitchen and dining room tables this holiday season?  There is a very good chance the average consumer has no idea.

12/01/2011 @ 3:05PM 

With GMO Labels Still Missing, Look for the Opposite (click here)

...“The denial of food labeling is linked directly to a food dictatorship by Monsanto Corporation,” Vandana Shiva, an activist and the Right2Know keynote speaker said in a statement, voicing a common opinion.

Monsanto, a biotech company whose products have included saccharin, Agent Orange, DDT, nuclear weapons, aspartame and Roundup weed killer, controls the majority of the world’s seeds and reportedly 90% of the world’s GM crops. It alters its seeds so that fields can be sprayed with its Roundup herbicide, killing weeds and bugs but leaving the farmer’s crop standing. The vast majority of corn, soy beans, milk, canola and cotton for cotton seed oil are now GM, and it’s estimated that 75% to 80% of foods in grocery stores are currently GM as a result....

The Arab League are once again bringing stability and this time to Syria.

(AP)  

BEIRUT - The Arab League sent monitors to Syria Monday even though President Bashar Assad's regime has only intensified its crackdown on dissent in the week since agreeing to the Arab plan to stop the bloodshed.

Activists say government forces have killed several hundred civilians in the past week. At least 23 more deaths were reported Monday from intense shelling in the center of the country, just hours before the first 60 monitors were to arrive. The opposition says thousands of government troops have been besieging the Baba Amr district of in the central city of Homs for days and the government is preparing a massive assault on the area.

France expressed strong concerns about the continued deterioration of the situation in Homs. Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero demanded Syrian authorities allow the Arab League observers immediate access to the city....

France does have clout.  The French connected to NATO is a plus and their 'lead' with Libya brings greater respect.  Well done.


It is all too easy to be 'across the pond' while passing judgement, but, it is something quite different to live in shouting distance of the unrest, poverty and pain of oppression.  

Turkey states unmanned drone was reason for "Oops, 35 dead Kurds." (click title for video - thank you)

...The attack, on Wednesday night, took place near the village of Uludere in Sirnak province in south-eastern Turkey, according to Dogan news agency.

The Turkish military said it had targeted suspected Kurdish militants.

In a statement, Turkey's general staff said the area attacked on Wednesday night was inside northern Iraq and had no civilian population. It added that the raid was launched following information that the group planned to attack Turkish security bases.

Provincial governor Vahdettin Ozkan said initially that more than 20 people had lost their lives but his office later clarified that 35 had been killed and one wounded.

"A crisis centre is being formed at the scene and prosecutors and security officers were sent there," he told Anatolia news agency.

The mayor of Uludere was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying that all the victims had suffered from burns....

Burns?  What the heck?

...Local officials said drums of diesel carried by the group had exploded.

Those killed had been using mules to cross the border when the incident happened, they said. It was also reported that they had been smugglers returning to Turkey from Iraq.

"We were on our way back when the jets began to bomb us," a survivor, Servet Encu, told the pro-Kurdish Firat news agency.

Smuggling of fuel and cigarettes is said to be commonplace between villages along the Iraqi border. But rebels from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) have crossed the border into Turkey to stage attacks on Turkish forces.

After 24 Turkish soldiers were killed in PKK raids in October, Turkish forces responded with a series of air and ground attacks....

It would seem as though Northern Iraq still needs an economy and consistent fuel source.  Diesel smuggled to other Kurds.  Oh, well.  The attack was deliberate.  They were able to discern the containers of fuel and lit it up.  I sincerely believe the drones are becoming a profound issue of human rights.  They deliver attacks on unidentified targets in mass numbers, it reminds me of carpet bombs, white phosphorus and land mines.

Just to clarify why drones are now a threat to human rights; the Geneva convention states civilian deaths in war is a crime.  Any 'mechanism' allowing civilian deaths for the sake of victory is a human rights violation.  The drones are now noted to have a consistent misuse of the technology and provides for frequent 'mistakes.'  Nuclear weapons are such a technology as well.

This sums it up well.  Genocide in war is not to be a directive of the conflict.

...after the Second World War, (click here) in 1949, with a third and fourth Geneva Convention. The latter regulate the protection of civilian populations in war areas. All member nations ratified the fourth Geneva treaty. The Geneva treaties contain the obligation to penalize severe violations of humanitarian international law. The fourth Geneva treaty was drawn up in particular because the number of civilian casualties in World War II surpassed the number of soldiers killed in action. In the case of a nuclear strike, which can develop into a nuclear war, the civilian population will be the primary target and to an extent that is completely out of relation with the casualties of any previous war. In such a situation the number of immediate casualties, as well as of subsequent victims among the civilian population defies imagination. The Protocol I, Additional of June 1977 to the Geneva Conventions, forbids amongst other things any attack on an atomic power station...

Currently, Hamas is running into problems with a textbook definition of genocide in Gaza as they target Fatah members living in Gaza; yet they act with impunity in global dynamics.  I mean what the heck is Hamas trying to do, first have Fatah assist in defining Palestine as a sovereign nation on the international stage and then kill off all their members?  This is not a sovereign state of government whereby a specific political group is the focus of assassinations and at the very least prison, if Gaza has a prison.

Hamas security officials using batons to detain Fatah supporters during clashes in Gaza City on Sept. 7, 2007.

...An independent Palestinian rights group (click here) says the militant Hamas rulers in Gaza are targeting members of the rival Fatah group, questioning them and searching homes.

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights said in its report on Thursday that Hamas summoned a total of 50 former members of Fatah security forces this week....

Oh, well it is only detentions to see if they can get away with the real thing.  Fifty party members are not detentions, it is a strategy to go forward. Ya know, Hamas is impressive, now the rest of the world has to figure out if they are acting out of pure ignorance to understand what winning an election means or was this suppose to happen after the election as promised.  And of course, Israel is suppose to understand every bit of the dynamics here.  I don't know why that is the case, Israeli elections are brutal, but, do not result in torture or imprisonment for losing.

Here we go again. The USA no sooner leaves Iraq with its mercenary terrorists and the arms start to flow.

On December 19, (click title to entry - thank you) the day after the last U.S. troops left Iraq, Prime Minister Nouri al- Maliki announced an arrest warrant for Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, a Sunni leader. With the departure of U.S. troops, "leaders like Maliki are seeing how far they can push their power," says Ned Parker, CFR's Edward R. Murrow press fellow. Parker, who recently served as the Baghdad bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times, warns of political chaos ahead in Iraq. The political battle between Maliki and Hashimi, he says, underscores how the different sides have failed to agree on a new social contract. Parker adds that even though the United States still has influence in Iraq, it appears loath to use it. "The only thing that, perhaps, will push all sides to compromise is the fear of chaos," he says....


Sending arms into Iraq is nothing short of ethnic cleansing.  In recent statements, Maliki accused the Kurds of giving protection to Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi.  To begin, the Kurds are members of Iraq's citizens, they may try to bring the Vice President to justice for all Maliki knows, but, that is not what Maliki stated.  He stated the Kurds were providing the Vice President with protection.


In one act of aggression, Iraq's Maliki estranged the Sunnis by attempting to arrest the Vice President immediately after that last American soldier was out of Iraq's Borders and then imperiled the Kurds as treasonists for harboring a state criminal.  A state criminal that was never given the benefit of due process or representation by attorneys and judged through impeachment for his crimes before his legislative peers.


The entire scenario reeks of a coupe by Maliki and the beginnings of ethnic cleansing, but, the USA turns a blind eye to the fact and allows for national forces to be better armed.  It is setting the Iraqis people up for violence for a long time and Maliki another Saddam.


Already the Iraq constitution and elections means nothing and the only item of importance for the USA post exit are the Wall Street dividends.  The sales of arms are legislated by CONGRESS.


We don't belong in Iraq, we never did!


BUSINESS  AS  USUAL !!!!!!!

UNITED STATES ARMS SALES TO IRAQ: EXCERPTS OF RECENT CBS `60 MINUTES' BROADCAST 
(House of Representatives - January 31, 1991)

The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Owens of Utah). Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Wisconsin [Mr. Moody] is recognized for 5 minutes.

Mr. MOODY. Mr. Speaker, on Sunday, January 20, the CBS television network program `60 Minutes' broadcast an extraordinary interview with an international arms dealer, Sarkis Soghanalian, who lives in Miami. I am placing in the Record a transcript of key excerpts from that interview.

The revelations and allegations made by Mr. Soghanalian are, and must be, extremely disturbing to every American. They are disturbing to Mr. Soghanalian. He gives a first-hand description of official and unofficial American involvement in the enormous buildup of arms to Saddam Hussein. Much of this buildup occurred after the end of the Iran-Iraq war in 1988. He gives chilling accounts of the cozy relationship among high past and present U.S. Government officials who permitted, and in some cases, actually assisted his sales of many of the lethal weapons Saddam Hussein is now using to bring death to American military personnel and civilians throughout the Middle East region.

I congratulate the staff of `60 Minutes' for bringing this explosive matter to the attention of the American public. Executive producer Don Hewitt, producer Lowell Bergman, and on-air reporter Steve Kroft have raised profound questions in this piece that demand further investigation....


The end of the Iran-Iraq war in 1988 was overseen by then President Ronald Reagan.  The 1988 elections placed George H. W. Bush in office.

President Ronald Reagan - Address on Iran-Contra

Guilford County in North Carolina does not believe registering marriage licenses is a government activity.

Recently, County Register of Deeds, Jeff Thigpen stated the government does not have the right to deny marriages based on religious preference.


Mr. Thigpen has been the Register of Deeds in Guilford County for as long as I can remember. He stated clearly to the media last week, the government has no right to interrupt any marriage and to do so illustrates religious preference.


GREENSBORO, N.C. (click title to entry - thank you) — North Carolina has no constitutional duty to be in the marriage licensing business and should get out of it immediately, according to a lawsuit filed by a Guilford County elected official and other residents.

County Register of Deeds Jeff Thigpen, whose office is responsible for recording marriage licenses, is the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit that says the state should not be involved in that activity — or deny marriages to same-sex couples, according to The News & Record of Greensboro.

State laws essentially make members of the clergy agents of the state by requiring them to oversee the marriage licensing process, the complaint argues, and they improperly deny marriage rights to same-sex couples.

"In order adequately and fully to protect the personal liberty and religious freedom of citizens in North Carolina and the United States, there must be a de-coupling and disentanglement of the state from the personal and religious institution of marriage," the complaint reads....

To the right is a map of estimates to when states may enact gay marriage laws.  (click here)   On this map it is estimated North Carolina won't have the political will to move their legislature until between 2017 to 2020.  That might be true, but, what Mr. Thigpen is clearly stating is that the government has no role in granting or denying marriage. 

He believes that by granting rights to heterosexual couples only sets a precedent that is over reaching by the government and if there is legislation to change that to include same sex marriage then the law could also be passed to prohibit heterosexual marriage as well.  To the best of my knowledge Mr. Thigpen is not gay and is a devout man.  I don't know him personally.  I do know he is well qualified to do his job and has been for a long time.

THIGPEN WANTS TO TAKE ON MORTGAGE GIANTS:  (click here)


SEEKS INVESTIGATION OF “MERS” FOR REIMBURSEMENT OF $1.3 MILLION IN LOST 
REVENUE TO GUILFORD COUNTY


Guilford County Register of Deeds Jeff Thigpen announced today that he will be conferring with County Attorney Mark Payne, NC Attorney General and Secretary of State as to whether the Mortgage Electronic Registration Service (MERS) owes Guilford County fees estimated at $1.3 million in lost revenue from mortgage assignments.  Thigpen also wants to review pending legal actions against MERS and consider options to protect the integrity of public land recordation offices....


Mr. Thigpen's approach is how to best define government to serve the citizen.  He is not dismantling anything, he is simply trying to clear up his role in registering a marriage license.  After all, it isn't as though a marriage license has deeded property rights, or, does it?

Local elected official joins lawsuit over state marriage license requirements (click here)

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2011 

(Updated 5:05 pm)

By MORGAN JOSEY GLOVER Staff Writer

GREENSBORO -- Guilford County Register of Deeds Jeff Thigpen and 10 other people filed a lawsuit last week that challenges a requirement that marrying couples in North Carolina obtain a state-issued license....

While this pleading for relief from the Register of Deeds to the  state seems kind of strange, the way I interpret it that marriage is a contract.  Marriage is more contract law then a responsibility of government.  When one examines a marriage license as it is submitted after the ceremony there are the participants and witnesses.  That is very much the way a contract is agreed to and written.  It isn't as though Mr. Thigpen and the other plaintiffs are trying to weaken marriage, quite the contrary, it would strengthen it.  

The "Jumping the Broom" (click here) is a ceremony in which the bride and groom, either at the ceremony or at the reception, signify their entrance into a new life and their creation of a new family by symbolically "sweeping away" their former single lives, former problems and concerns, and jumping over the broom to enter upon a new adventure as wife and husband.

Today there are already marriage contracts separate from the ceremonial license. Marriage contracts have been used for a long time and are sought to protect one partner against financial loss to the other partner should the marriage fail.  The Marriage Contract today is legal and binding.  Why does the State or any other government entity have to provide the same service when a couple can simply go to "Contracts 'R' Us" and fill it out at the time they are wed?  Does the State have the right to define marriage?  If the State has that right, then who is to shape the definition and what prevents any changes in the future?  I sincerely believe the lawsuit is correct.  Heck, at one time births were recorded on the inside covers of Bibles. That wasn't so long ago. 

...There is another meaning of the word mazel (click here) that is more relevant to the phrase Mazel Tov. Mazel is the term used in Jewish mysticism to describe the root of the soul. The mystics say that only a ray of our soul actually inhabits our body. The main part of the soul, our mazel, remains above, shining down on us from a distance....


When does marriage happen for you, at the alter or when a clerk asks for blood tests? There are many ways of handling marriage as an institution, not just through government consent.  A marriage license has taken on less meaning as time has gone by, with palimony and children born without the benefit of a marriage license.  It is a curiosity that so many on the political right in the USA complain about government being involved with privacy rights, yet they see no problem with government overseeing the most personal contract a citizen can have.  Odd.  Marriage licenses have nothing to do with birth certificates.  They are separate topics, both socially and legally.

No retribution for freedom of expression.

This is exactly the problem with Christian Hubris. They get carried away in their expression to CAUSE INFLUENCE. When others feel on the defense because of it there are words of unkindness exchanged. If Bill Mayer believes he had to point out that every move by Mr. Tebow is not an act of god, then so be it!


I thought Christians were suppose to be humble without bring over zealous attention to themselves.  No?  My mistake.

There are conflicts within the international waters that Iran claims as their sovereign territory.

...While passing through straits, (click title to entry - thank you) such as the Strait of Hormuz, that run through territorial waters, ships in transit have more rights. In particular, warships can maintain an appropriate degree of combat-readiness.

Seems reasonable? Unfortunately in the Strait of Hormuz and the waters to the west of it, shipping lanes run close to and in some areas through Iranian territorial waters. Under international maritime law the Iranians are entitled to monitor this traffic but the traffic, including warships, is entitled to unimpeded transit. As the US and Iran view each other with great mistrust, the potential for conflict is high.

Two things complicate the matter further. The first is that the USA has not ratified (formally agreed to abide by) the relevant legislation on international maritime law: the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The second is that, according to UNCLOS, if there are islands lying off a nation’s coast then the 12 miles extend from the outermost island.

The area of sea around the Strait of Hormuz contains several islands, for many of which the ownership is claimed by both Iran and the United Arab Emirates, a pro-western country.Whoever owns the islands will own the territorial waters around them, according to international maritime law as it is usually interpreted.

Law of the Sea Briefing Book (click here)

...Admiral Thad Allen, Commandant of the Coast Guard: " (click here)

The convention greatly enhances our ability to protect the American public as well as our efforts to protect and manage fishery resources and to protect the marine environment. From the Coast Guard's perspective, we can best maintain a public order of the oceans through a universally accepted law of the sea treaty that preserves and promotes critical U.S. national interests."

General Richard Myers, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: “The Convention remains a top national security priority…It supports efforts in the War on Terrorism by providing much-needed stability and operational maneuver space, codifying essential navigational and overflight freedoms.” (2004)...

Oceans and Law of the Sea (click here)