Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Re: Fwd: Yaron Brook on TV tonight!

just what we need ... input about our civil rights and middle east
policy from of another jew who would use the USA for israel's war with
the muzzies

Brook's positions might fool some Americans.

know the enemy

On Dec 13, 12:00 pm, Bruce Majors <majors.br...@gmail.com> wrote:
>  Yaron Brook on *Freedom Watch **tonight*!
>
> Dr. Yaron Brook, president of the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights, is
> scheduled to appear on *Freedom Watch *with Judge Andrew Napolitano on the
> Fox Business Network tonight, Tuesday, December 13, 2011. The program airs
> at 8 p.m., Eastern Time, and repeats at 11 p.m. Eastern. The topics are
> Obama vs. Gingrich and the entitlement state.
>
> ARC Media
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>
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>
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>
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>
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Fwd: Yaron Brook on TV tonight!




Yaron Brook on Freedom Watch tonight!

Dr. Yaron Brook, president of the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights, is scheduled to appear on Freedom Watch with Judge Andrew Napolitano on the Fox Business Network tonight, Tuesday, December 13, 2011. The program airs at 8 p.m., Eastern Time, and repeats at 11 p.m. Eastern. The topics are Obama vs. Gingrich and the entitlement state.

 
ARC Media

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Copyright © 2011 Ayn Rand® Institute. All rights reserved.

Op-eds, press releases and letters to the editor produced by the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights are submitted to hundreds of newspapers, radio stations and Web sites across the United States and abroad, and are made possible thanks to voluntary contributions.

If you would like to help support ARC's efforts, please make an online contribution at http://www.aynrandcenter.org/contribute.

ARC's media releases are solicitations sent to addresses obtained from individual subscription requests. You are subscribed as majors.bruce@gmail.com. If you prefer not to receive future releases, visit our Web site to change your e-mail preferences.

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Re: Cali lawmaker threatens legal action if Lowe’s doesn’t advertise on Muslim “reality” show

Lowe's should not be expected to advertise with anyone. Their ad
budget is their business.

On Dec 13, 11:38 am, Travis <baconl...@gmail.com> wrote:
> **
>            New post on *Creeping Sharia*
> <http://creepingsharia.wordpress.com/author/creeping/>  Cali lawmaker
> threatens legal action if Lowe's doesn't advertise on Muslim "reality"
> show<http://creepingsharia.wordpress.com/2011/12/13/cali-lawmaker-threaten...>by
> creeping <http://creepingsharia.wordpress.com/author/creeping/>
>
> Proving yet again that Islam is not a tolerant or peaceful religion but
> vindictive and an ever-present threat to our liberties. Support Lowe's and
> let them know you are the overwhelming majority. via Lawmakers Slam Lowe's
> For Pulling Ads From Muslim-American Reality Show | Fox News. Calling the
> Lowe's decision "un-American" and "naked religious bigotry," [...]
>
> Read more of this
> post<http://creepingsharia.wordpress.com/2011/12/13/cali-lawmaker-threaten...>
>  *creeping <http://creepingsharia.wordpress.com/author/creeping/>* |
> December 13, 2011 at 11:30 AM | Tags:
> cair<http://creepingsharia.wordpress.com/?tag=cair>,
> Creeping Sharia <http://creepingsharia.wordpress.com/?tag=creeping-sharia>,
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Cali lawmaker threatens legal action if Lowe’s doesn’t advertise on Muslim “reality” show




New post on Creeping Sharia

Cali lawmaker threatens legal action if Lowe's doesn't advertise on Muslim "reality" show

by creeping

Proving yet again that Islam is not a tolerant or peaceful religion but vindictive and an ever-present threat to our liberties. Support Lowe's and let them know you are the overwhelming majority. via Lawmakers Slam Lowe's For Pulling Ads From Muslim-American Reality Show | Fox News. Calling the Lowe's decision "un-American" and "naked religious bigotry," [...]

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so, god is The Higgs boson?

GENEVA - Scientists hunting for an elusive sub-atomic particle say
they've found "intriguing hints" that it exists, narrowing down the
search for what is believed to be a basic building block of the
universe.

The Higgs boson — popularly referred to as the "God particle" — is
more likely to be found in the lower mass or energy ranges of the
massive atom smasher being used to track it down, physicists from two
independent research teams said Tuesday.

The researchers were careful to note they do not have enough data yet
to definitively say the particle exists, but also said the latest data
is strong enough that the question could be answered one way or
another by next year.

Researchers hope that the particle, if it exists, can help explain
many mysteries of the universe. British physicist Peter Higgs, a CND
activist while in London and later in Edinburgh, but resigned his
membership when the group extended its remit from campaigning against
nuclear weapons to campaigning against nuclear power too. He was a
Greenpeace member until the group opposed genetically modified
organisms.

Higgs and others theorized the particle's existence more than 40 years
ago to explain why atoms, and everything else in the universe, have
weight.

Note: Higgs was awarded the 2004 Wolf Prize in Physics, but refused to
fly to Jerusalem to receive the award because it was a state occasion
attended by the then President of Israel, Moshe Katsav, who Higgs is
opposed to because of Israel's actions in Palestine.

Both of the research teams are involved with CERN, the European
Organization for Nuclear Research near Geneva. CERN oversees the $10-
billion Large Hadron Collider under the Swiss-French border, a 17-mile
tunnel where high energy beams of protons are sent crashing into each
other at incredible speeds.

Fabiola Gianotti, an Italian physicist who heads the team running the
so-called ATLAS experiment, said "the hottest region" is in lower
energy ranges of the collider. She said there are indications of the
Higgs' existence and that with enough data it could be unambiguously
discovered or ruled out next year.

Several mass or energy ranges within the atom smasher are now excluded
to a "95% confidence level," Gianotti told other physicists at CERN.

Afterward, Guido Tonelli, lead physicist for the team running what's
called the CMS experiment, outlined findings similar to those of the
ATLAS team, saying the particle is most likely found "in the low mass
region" of the collider.

Rolf Heuer, director of the European particle physics laboratory near
Geneva, said in conclusion that "the window for the Higgs mass gets
smaller and smaller." "But be careful — it's intriguing hints," he
said. "We have not found it yet, we have not excluded it yet."
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.
-------
some men's search for a god never ends ... poor fellers

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**JP** Letter to Editor - Zardari ??

Dear Join Pakistan

 

LETTER TO EDITOR

December 13th, 2011

 

Zardari ????

 

Would some real insider please tell the nation as to what is exactly wrong with our President? The PM, the Dr. Rehman Malik, the Dr. Babar Awan, the Dr. Firdaus Ashiq Awan, the Madam Sharmila Farouqi, the Spokesman Farahat Ullah Khan Babar, the Governor Khosla, the ex-Governor Qaira etal all have different stories to tell and different ailments to attribute to the ailing president.  Surprisingly no reporter worth his/her salt has as yet been able to come up with any scoop about the health of the country’s head.  No TV channel has been able to air any footage of the ICU that he is/was in, or of  the doctors treating him or show him with the visitors calling upon him etc. etc.  Are our media men that nincompoop at snooping or are they being kept way by the generous currency cloaks that they are not reporting anything about the president, his illness, his tentative dates of return or his proceeding to the States or UK for further treatment ?&n bsp; Media owes it to the nation to keep it fully informed.

 

Col. Riaz Jafri (Retd)

    

Col. Riaz Jafri (Retd)
30 Westridge 1
Rawalpindi 46000
Pakistan
Tel: (051) 5158033
E.mail: jafri@rifiela.com

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BHO-Some good ones!

 



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U.S. Proposes Unmanned Border Entry With Mexico



New post on ACGR's "News with Attitude"

U.S. Proposes Unmanned Border Entry With Mexico

by Harold

Associated Press 12/11/2011 The bloody drug war in Mexico shows no sign of relenting. Neither do calls for tighter border security amid rising fears of spillover violence. This hardly seems a time the U.S. would be willing to allow people to cross the border legally from Mexico without a customs officer in sight. But in [...]

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Re: NMA Blog: CAFE Spells RIP For Trucks?

I'm a Ford F-150 Owner/Driver, and this is troublesome.....
 


 
On Tue, Dec 13, 2011 at 9:01 AM, Travis <baconlard@gmail.com> wrote:




NMA Blog: CAFE Spells RIP For Trucks?


CAFE Spells RIP For Trucks?

Posted: 12 Dec 2011 09:20 AM PST

CAFE Spells RIP For Trucks?
By Eric Peters, Automotive Columnist

The government's pending (2016) 35.5 MPG CAFE fuel efficiency requirements – which for the first time apply to trucks as well as passenger cars – are going to make it very difficult for any automaker to sell trucks in volume this country.

Ford has has just dropped the compact-size Ranger from its U.S. model lineup – making it the first CAFE casualty — and I predict that larger trucks are on the endangered species list now, too. Just as large V-8/RWD sedans were almost completely killed off as mass market vehicles by the original — and far less punitive — CAFE requirements that went into effect a quarter century ago.

Even a small truck with a four cylinder engine will have a hard time averaging 35.5 MPG. To get there, the truck would need to be capable of 40 MPG on the highway and 30 MPG in city driving. There are only a handful of economy cars that achieve 40 MPG on the highway right now. Trucks do worse, MPG-wise, because they're heavier (to be able to do work such as pull a trailer or carry a pallet of bricks in the bed), less aerodynamic, in part because they need to ride higher off the ground than a car — and often, ride on M/S-rated tires that have higher rolling resistance than standard passenger car radials. Fuel efficiency takes a back seat to capability.

The just-cancelled Ranger managed 23 city, 27 highway — so, about 25 MPG average. For a truck, that's not bad. But Ford would have had to get another 10 MPG out of Ranger to make the CAFE cut — and avoid CAFE fines. I suspect Ford dropped the Ranger from its U.S. product portfolio because it realizes that getting a truck (any truck) to achieve 40 on the highway and 30 in city-type driving will probably — almost certainly — require:

* A dramatic reduction in weight via the use of composites rather than steel while maintaining the same level of crashworthiness.
* Very high-efficiency turbodiesel engines or other advanced technology, such as a hybrid powertrain.
* Significant reduction in power/capability.

All of which will increase the cost of the vehicle, perhaps to the extent that it is no longer economically viable to manufacturer. The Ranger got nixed first in part because it's a lower-on-the-totem-pole model than the best-selling F-Series. But CAFE is gunning for the F-truck, too. It gets considerably poorer fuel economy than the Ranger, which will make it that much harder (read, economically untenable) to achieve compliance with the 35.5 MPG CAFE diktat.

Even the government's own estimates of the costs imposed by CAFE so far are startling high: $2.4 billion — and that was back in 2003, when the Congressional Budget Office issued its report, The Economic Costs of Fuel Economy Standards Versus a Gasoline Tax.

Mind, the $2.4 billion referenced by CBO assumed the old CAFE standard of 27.5 MPGs, not the recently enacted 35.5 MPG standard — which also for the first time applies to trucks. The old CAFE standard was much more lenient, with a separate — and higher — CAFE peg for "light trucks." The CBO study also noted, presciently, that "unit sales of light trucks would ultimately decline about twice as much as would those of cars."

So what will the new 35.5 MPG standard cost us?

Automotive Fleet Magazine, an industry journal, estimates it will add at least another $1,000 to the sticker price of every new vehicle sold and $52 billion cumulatively.

And don't forget : CAFE does not stop at 35.5 MPG by 2016. Chief Engineer Obama pushed for — and got — a further bump to between 47 and 62 MPG by 2025.

Want to take a guess what that will cost?

The Chevy Volt sort-of electric car gives us a clue.

It is capable of operating on electricity alone for 20 or 30 miles at a stretch and so uses very little gas. It also has a sticker price of $40,000. Even with a massive federal subsidy of $7,500 the thing still costs about as much to buy as a new BMW 3 series or similar entry luxury-vehicle. It's thus a toy, or at best, an engineering concept. Whatever you'd like to call it, it's not economical — and few people, other than than affluent people, can afford to buy one. It is doubtful GM would have even produced the Volt for retail sale absent the PR value — and, of course, government subsidies.

With trucks, it's even worse, because to a great extent the market for such vehicles is middle and working class. There are people in San Francisco and Washington with $200k annually incomes who will buy the Volt. But how many $40k-per-year electricians will be willing or even able to plunk down $30,000 for a "high efficiency" compact truck, as outlined above? Hence Ford's decision to pull the Ranger from its U.S. model lineup — while continuing to sell it in other countries where there is no CAFE law.

It's an impossible situation for the car companies. You can't have both very high fuel economy and the capability people expect at a reasonable cost, while also meeting all the government's existing crashworthiness standards, too.

The latter is especially interesting because, for the first time, two mutually exclusive government edicts — one relating to fuel economy, the other relating to crashworthiness — are coming into obvious conflict. It would be relatively easy to chop a few hundred pounds off the typical truck and without doing anything else, score a significant increase in fuel economy. It would also be possible, with a lower curb weight, to use a smaller (or less powerful) engine and still maintain approximately the same performance while further increasing fuel economy (by dint of the fact that a smaller, less powerful engine would use less fuel). This would also have the happy effect of lowering the price of the vehicle since it costs nothing to remove weight, or equipment that adds weight, such as the now-mandatory multiple air bags that all vehicles come equipped with.

But maintaining the vehicle's compliance with existing and pending federal crashworthiness requirements while also significantly reducing its curb weight won't be easily or cheaply done. It will probably require wholesale re-engineering of the vehicle, not merely replacing steel with high-strength, lightweight (and very expensive) composites. Major R&D will be involved and the end result, though possibly both "safe" and "efficient" will also cost a small fortune, just like the Chevy Volt.

The people on the top floor of the Ford building are not idiots. They've crunched the numbers. They see the future. There is none for the Ranger — and soon, bigger trucks, too. Bet your bippie GM and Chrysler are hip, too.

I predict it's all over for trucks as mass-market vehicles.

We just don't realize it yet.

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CAFE Spells RIP For Trucks?

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romney-once-drove-canada-with-the-family-dog-on-the-roof-of-of-the-car

It is supposed to be the wife on he roof and the dog in the front seat.



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The Stop Online Piracy Act: Yet Another Stealth Maneuver to Control the Internet



New post on ACGR's "News with Attitude"

The Stop Online Piracy Act: Yet Another Stealth Maneuver to Control the Internet

by Harold

John W. Whitehead, Canada Free Press 12/12/2011 "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busy bodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; [...]

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NMA Blog: CAFE Spells RIP For Trucks?





NMA Blog: CAFE Spells RIP For Trucks?


CAFE Spells RIP For Trucks?

Posted: 12 Dec 2011 09:20 AM PST

CAFE Spells RIP For Trucks?
By Eric Peters, Automotive Columnist

The government's pending (2016) 35.5 MPG CAFE fuel efficiency requirements – which for the first time apply to trucks as well as passenger cars – are going to make it very difficult for any automaker to sell trucks in volume this country.

Ford has has just dropped the compact-size Ranger from its U.S. model lineup – making it the first CAFE casualty — and I predict that larger trucks are on the endangered species list now, too. Just as large V-8/RWD sedans were almost completely killed off as mass market vehicles by the original — and far less punitive — CAFE requirements that went into effect a quarter century ago.

Even a small truck with a four cylinder engine will have a hard time averaging 35.5 MPG. To get there, the truck would need to be capable of 40 MPG on the highway and 30 MPG in city driving. There are only a handful of economy cars that achieve 40 MPG on the highway right now. Trucks do worse, MPG-wise, because they're heavier (to be able to do work such as pull a trailer or carry a pallet of bricks in the bed), less aerodynamic, in part because they need to ride higher off the ground than a car — and often, ride on M/S-rated tires that have higher rolling resistance than standard passenger car radials. Fuel efficiency takes a back seat to capability.

The just-cancelled Ranger managed 23 city, 27 highway — so, about 25 MPG average. For a truck, that's not bad. But Ford would have had to get another 10 MPG out of Ranger to make the CAFE cut — and avoid CAFE fines. I suspect Ford dropped the Ranger from its U.S. product portfolio because it realizes that getting a truck (any truck) to achieve 40 on the highway and 30 in city-type driving will probably — almost certainly — require:

* A dramatic reduction in weight via the use of composites rather than steel while maintaining the same level of crashworthiness.
* Very high-efficiency turbodiesel engines or other advanced technology, such as a hybrid powertrain.
* Significant reduction in power/capability.

All of which will increase the cost of the vehicle, perhaps to the extent that it is no longer economically viable to manufacturer. The Ranger got nixed first in part because it's a lower-on-the-totem-pole model than the best-selling F-Series. But CAFE is gunning for the F-truck, too. It gets considerably poorer fuel economy than the Ranger, which will make it that much harder (read, economically untenable) to achieve compliance with the 35.5 MPG CAFE diktat.

Even the government's own estimates of the costs imposed by CAFE so far are startling high: $2.4 billion — and that was back in 2003, when the Congressional Budget Office issued its report, The Economic Costs of Fuel Economy Standards Versus a Gasoline Tax.

Mind, the $2.4 billion referenced by CBO assumed the old CAFE standard of 27.5 MPGs, not the recently enacted 35.5 MPG standard — which also for the first time applies to trucks. The old CAFE standard was much more lenient, with a separate — and higher — CAFE peg for "light trucks." The CBO study also noted, presciently, that "unit sales of light trucks would ultimately decline about twice as much as would those of cars."

So what will the new 35.5 MPG standard cost us?

Automotive Fleet Magazine, an industry journal, estimates it will add at least another $1,000 to the sticker price of every new vehicle sold and $52 billion cumulatively.

And don't forget : CAFE does not stop at 35.5 MPG by 2016. Chief Engineer Obama pushed for — and got — a further bump to between 47 and 62 MPG by 2025.

Want to take a guess what that will cost?

The Chevy Volt sort-of electric car gives us a clue.

It is capable of operating on electricity alone for 20 or 30 miles at a stretch and so uses very little gas. It also has a sticker price of $40,000. Even with a massive federal subsidy of $7,500 the thing still costs about as much to buy as a new BMW 3 series or similar entry luxury-vehicle. It's thus a toy, or at best, an engineering concept. Whatever you'd like to call it, it's not economical — and few people, other than than affluent people, can afford to buy one. It is doubtful GM would have even produced the Volt for retail sale absent the PR value — and, of course, government subsidies.

With trucks, it's even worse, because to a great extent the market for such vehicles is middle and working class. There are people in San Francisco and Washington with $200k annually incomes who will buy the Volt. But how many $40k-per-year electricians will be willing or even able to plunk down $30,000 for a "high efficiency" compact truck, as outlined above? Hence Ford's decision to pull the Ranger from its U.S. model lineup — while continuing to sell it in other countries where there is no CAFE law.

It's an impossible situation for the car companies. You can't have both very high fuel economy and the capability people expect at a reasonable cost, while also meeting all the government's existing crashworthiness standards, too.

The latter is especially interesting because, for the first time, two mutually exclusive government edicts — one relating to fuel economy, the other relating to crashworthiness — are coming into obvious conflict. It would be relatively easy to chop a few hundred pounds off the typical truck and without doing anything else, score a significant increase in fuel economy. It would also be possible, with a lower curb weight, to use a smaller (or less powerful) engine and still maintain approximately the same performance while further increasing fuel economy (by dint of the fact that a smaller, less powerful engine would use less fuel). This would also have the happy effect of lowering the price of the vehicle since it costs nothing to remove weight, or equipment that adds weight, such as the now-mandatory multiple air bags that all vehicles come equipped with.

But maintaining the vehicle's compliance with existing and pending federal crashworthiness requirements while also significantly reducing its curb weight won't be easily or cheaply done. It will probably require wholesale re-engineering of the vehicle, not merely replacing steel with high-strength, lightweight (and very expensive) composites. Major R&D will be involved and the end result, though possibly both "safe" and "efficient" will also cost a small fortune, just like the Chevy Volt.

The people on the top floor of the Ford building are not idiots. They've crunched the numbers. They see the future. There is none for the Ranger — and soon, bigger trucks, too. Bet your bippie GM and Chrysler are hip, too.

I predict it's all over for trucks as mass-market vehicles.

We just don't realize it yet.

Comments?
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CAFE Spells RIP For Trucks?

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