An Sionnach

You know I am proud to be an American.  I love the fact that we are a strong people and that within such a short time we have come so far.  But when I see Greed as one of our main pillars I have to admit it’s appalling. No wonder why so many countries despise us.

So your probably wondering what brings this up.

Well the other day I was ordering a Celtic FC Football (Soccer) Jersey for this season.  With shipping, for an official kit jersey, I spent $68 (with the shipping).  It’s still a bit much, particularly since I am such an anti Nike fan, and knowing that the jersey was probably made in some place like Honduras, China, Brazil or some outsourced country for 10% of that if not less.  But when I was looking through the MLS (Major League Soccer) stores wanting to purchase a jersey for the Rapids upcoming first game, I have to say I was appalled by the fact that they were charging $110 for a SHIRT.  Soccer isn’t even big in the US.  Yes, the Rapids won the Cup last year, but ALL the clubs are charging the same amount.  So I am wondering, why would I want to pay $110 for a jersey that advertises for a club, shouldn’t you be paying me.  Afterall, marketing is a companies largest expense, well that is unless the fan is willing to pay the expense for you, at the same time driving a huge profit.  Chances are these jerseys probably cost any where from $5-$20 to produce, if that, which means a $90-105 profit.  INSANE!!  I am all for promoting the world sport, and would love to see it continue to grow in the US, but honestly… your heading down the same road as MLB, NFL, and the NHL  Along with this I find that the largest fans of these clubs are on the end of the field instead of the middle where corporate organizations buy seats yet hardly ever fill them and are as boring as hell during the game, and probably don’t even understand it.  I left going to baseball games, just because of this, and chances are the same will probably happen with soccer.  But HEY, you have your money, that’s all that counts, RIGHT?. I had high hopes in the MLS, but I find myself greatly disappointed.

The problem with illegal immigration is that eventually it leads to big government, particularly when the people decide they don’t want them here for whatever reason, particularly that they are in fact illegal.  So how do we catch them, easy, get every State to embrace a Federalized Immigration Fingerprinting program.  Does this mean that only immigrants are fingerprinted, no this will mean that we are all fingerprinted, and this fingerprinting may in fact may be needed in requirement for work.

Now I am not against fingerprinting as a whole, I have had it done numerous times on the State level for work, particularly considering the work that I do.  But I am against the Federalization of it, thereby requiring both, instead of inter-State cooperation, like many States do with Drivers License records.

This goes back to a previous post of mine in which State in cooperation with Federal TSA are now patting down customers in bus stations.  Security is slowly replacing Freedom, the Socialism we fought so hard against is slowly taking hold.  In so many ways, the terrorists have won already, they don’t need another 9/11, they already have us running scared.

http://www.ice.gov/about/offices/enforcement-removal-operations/secure-communities/index.htm

http://www.kdvr.com/news/kdvr-fingerprint-txt,0,4742737.story

Just took this very quick and easy test to see what side of the political gamut I fell on. I have to say it’s pretty close to what longer tests have brought me to, and may be a ‘small’ groundwork to gaining a bit of an understanding to your own political compass.

The Army has let slip one of the worst-kept secrets in the world — that Israel has the bomb.

Officially, the United States has a policy of ?ambiguity? regarding Israel?s nuclear capability. Essentially, it has played a game by which it neither acknowledges nor denies that Israel is a nuclear power.

But a Defense Department study completed last year offers what may be the first time in a unclassified report that Israel is a nuclear power. On page 37 of the U.S. Joint Forces Command report, the Army includes Israel within “a growing arc of nuclear powers running from Israel in the west through an emerging Iran to Pakistan, India, and on to China, North Korea, and Russia in the east.”

The single reference is far more than the U.S. usually would state publicly about Israel, even though the world knew Israel to be a nuclear power years before former nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu went public with facts on its weapons program in 1986.

Several years later investigative reporter Seymour Hersh published “The Samson Option,” detailing Israel?s strategy of massive nuclear retaliation against Arab states in the event it felt its very existence was threatened. Israel?s nuclear arsenal has been estimated to range from 200 to 400 warheads.

Yet Israel has refused to confirm or deny it?s nuclear capabilities, and the U.S. has gone along with the charade.

As recently as Feb. 9 President Barack Obama ducked the question when asked pointedly by White House correspondent Helen Thomas whether he knew of any country in the Middle East that has nuclear weapons. Keeping the blinders on is necessary politically in order to avoid a policy confrontation with Israel.

By law, the U.S. would have to cease providing billions of dollars in foreign aid to Israel if it determined the country had a nuclear weapons program. That?s because the so-called Symington Amendment, passed in 1976, bars assistance to countries developing technology for nuclear weapons proliferation.

Given the U.S.?s long history of selective blindness when it comes to Israeli nukes, it?s unlikely that the Joint Operating Environment 2008 report compiled by the Army amount to much more than a minor faux pas.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz, in a March 8 article on the report, observed: “It is virtually unheard of for a senior military commander, while in office, to refer to Israel?s nuclear status. In December 2006, during his confirmation hearings as Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates referred to Israel as one of the powers seen by Iran as surrounding it with nuclear weapons. But once in office, Gates refused to repeat this allusion to Israel, noting that when he used it he was ‘a private citizen.’”

– Bryant Jordan

[From US Army Confirms Israeli Nukes; Israeli Aid At Stake]

A good look at how Religulous we can look, interested in the response.

I little late for me coming by this news, but Woot Woot!!

By Hesham Hassaballa, July 20, 2007

Suicide terrorism is a relatively new phenomenon. Although most commonly associated with Muslims, it has been well documented that many non-Muslim terrorist groups have utilized the tactic of the suicide attack. Still, it is hard for most people – including the author – to understand how someone could resolve to strap a bomb on his chest and detonate it among innocent people in order to commit mass murder. For the terrorists of the Muslim flavor, they justify such action by claiming that being a suicide bomber is an act of “holy war,” and in traditional Muslim theology, the one who dies in “holy war” will become a martyr that instantly goes to Heaven.

I have thought long and hard over their religious justifications. They make absolutely no sense. First of all, murder is strictly forbidden in Islam:

“And do not take a life that God has made sacred, except for just cause.” (17:33)

Continue reading here

Sigh!!!

LOL, so in with our capitalists .. ehem environmental interests at heart, many months ago, congress opted to move Daylight Savings Time up a month. So many of us are wondering how this is going to effect us. Well the first thing you are going to need to do is go out an by a new watch, well all of you who have those watches that automatically adjust to DST. Not so serious. The VR community has also received a small impact due to the time change, once again not so serious. But what about medical equipment that works on timers, what about the many payrolls that are going to go foul, the list can go on. Well it’s day one after the new time change, I wonder what treats await us after Congress once again sets their priorities in the wrong direction.