pamibe

UFO filmed in Italy last year.

Reminds me of the scene in Independence Day where the clueless wait atop a tall building for the fuzzy wuzzy aliens to come get them. Or blow them to bits, which is what happened.

Why assume they love us?

Libraries are a critical part of any community. People visit the library not just to check out books but to go online. Check out movies. Read the paper. Research family or town genealogy. Look at maps. Story time!
The library was very much a part of my life while growing up; to cut all funding for such a public service is tantamount to burning books, IMO.

State Aid Funding For Public Libraries To Be Eliminated

Florida Library Association Press Release:

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. –

On March 10, appropriations committees in the Florida House and Senate adopted positions eliminating all funding for Florida’s State Aid to Public Libraries program. This devastating action will result in some Florida library branches closing and will seriously cripple libraries’ ability to serve Floridians. Libraries have already taken their share of local and state budget cuts. This will be especially damaging to libraries in Florida’s rural communities, as these libraries rely heavily on provisions in the program that help communities with lower tax bases.

This action comes at a particularly bad time for Floridians who are turning to their public libraries for help during these challenging times:

Job seekers turn to libraries to learn about and apply for jobs.

Floridians needing to apply for critical E-Government services and benefits are getting help from library staff, computers, and Internet service.

Florida families are relying on library books, cd’s, and dvd’s to stretch household budgets.

Families continue to rely on libraries to help children learn to read and help parents and caregivers learn to be children’s first teachers.

The library community knows that the state budget is seriously challenged, but library funding has already been cut by over a third, from $33.4 million in 2001 to $21.2 million today. Local library funding has been deeply cut in the last 3 years and more reductions are coming in 2010-11. Many libraries are reporting cuts exceeding 30%. If state funding is reduced below the current level critically needed federal funds will also be lost.

Library funding was saved last session when the program was threatened at the last minute and Florida residents rose up and legislators restored the funding. The Florida Library Association (FLA) is calling on Governor Charlie Crist and legislative leaders to find a way to fund this critical program, which has helped support public library service to Floridians since 1962.

I did a search and found that libraries all over the country are facing closure after losing their funding. If this were a case of too many branches, then consolidation would be in order… but funding simply cut off? It seems unreal that a cornerstone of our civilization would be treated in such a manner.

If you have seven minutes to spare, this is a very good explanation and overview of the different types of government… and why we are a Republic and not a Democracy.

Nah, not really. This is hilarious, though.

After many of the offices closed and reorganized under new names, Judge Nina Gershon has decided that federal funds to ACORN should continue. And as of two days ago the group was still under federal investigation.

NYC judge: Govt must stop blocking money to ACORN

A federal judge who found it unconstitutional that Congress tried to cut funding to the activist group ACORN has rejected a government request to change her mind and has ordered government agencies to make it clear the funding isn’t blocked.

In a written ruling Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Nina Gershon made permanent her conclusion last year that the cutoff of funding was unconstitutional. She ordered all federal agencies to put the word out about it.

The Brooklyn judge said ACORN was punished by Congress without the enactment of administrative processes to decide if money had been handled inappropriately. She said the harm to ACORN’s reputation continues because the government never rescinded its advice to withhold funding after it was distributed to “hundreds, if not thousands, of recipients.“

Ain’t about the money being handled ‘inappropriately’.

Ever feel like you’re being screwed by an unworthy, apathetic, useless partner? Taxpayer, meet Lucky, a.k.a. ‘Uncle Sam’.

The folks next door keep a little dog tied up outside during the day – and sometimes at night. A sweet little thing, she only barks to alert.

Today they added another, less patient pup. A young dog snubbed to the fence who feels it his solemn duty to scream bloody murder every few moments. My dogs are frazzled.

Taken from my bedroom window:

Poor little thing.

These people have obviously never heard of xpens, crates, gates or any other means of retention. And since this is *Blue House and they loathe me, I won’t be educating them. Might call the cops, though.

*Lost to the great archive swipe of 2009.

After yesterday’s post, this updated take from the Christian Science Monitor:

Fishermen’s fear: Public’s ‘right to fish’ shifting under Obama?
By Patrik Jonsson Patrik Jonsson – Tue Mar 9, 6:17 pm ET

Atlanta – The Obama administration has proposed using United Nations-guided principles to expand a type of zoning to coastal and even some inland waters. That’s raising concerns among fishermen that their favorite fishing holes may soon be off-limits for bait-casting. In the battle of incremental change that epitomizes the American conservation movement, many weekend anglers fear that the Obama administration’s promise to “fundamentally change” water management in the US will erode what they call the public’s “right to fish,” in turn creating economic losses for the $82 billion recreational fishing industry and a further deterioration of the American outdoorsman’s legacy. Proponents say the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force established by President Obama last June will ultimately benefit the fishing public by managing ecosystems in their entirety rather than by individual uses such as fishing, shipping, or oil exploration. “It’s not an environmentalist manifesto,” says Larry Crowder, a marine biologist at Duke University in North Carolina. “It’s multiple-use planning for the environment, and making sure various uses … are sustainable.” (Amateur outdoorsmen have been fighting for their rights for years, as the Monitor reports here.)

New way to manage marine resources Faced with the prospect of further industrialization along America’s coasts and the Great Lakes (wind turbines and natural-gas exploration, for example), the task force is charged with putting in place a new ecosystem management process called marine spatial planning. Marine spatial planning (MSP), according to the United Nations, is “a public process of analyzing and allocating the spatial and temporal distribution of human activities in marine areas to achieve ecological, economic, and social objectives that usually have been specified through a political process.” That kind of government-speak scares Phil Morlock, director of environmental affairs at the reel-and-rod maker Shimano. Mr. Morlock points to references by the ocean task force to “one global sea” as evidence that what’s really being proposed are broad changes to America’s user-funded conservation strategy, potentially affecting even inland waters. “I suggest that the task force recommend our model to the United Nations rather than us adopting the United Nations model,” he says in a phone interview. “The American model is the best in the world, so our question is: Why seek the lowest common denominator?”

Protections for recreational fishermen Mr. Obama has said he will not override protections put in place by Presidents Clinton and Bush that established recreational fishermen as a special class.

But critics still worry about the Obama administration’s ties to environmental groups that espouse “anti-use” policies that put some habitats out of reach even for rod and reel fishermen, who take only 3 percent of America’s landed catch every year. “Angling advocates point out that senior policy officials on the task force seem inclined to ally themselves with preservationists and environmental extremists who want to create ‘no fishing’ preserves, with no scientific justification,” writes ESPN.com’s Robert Montgomery. On the other hand, nonpartisan experts say the task force has already made strides in better recognizing various stakeholder groups, including recreational fishermen, and that it doesn’t intend to undermine the ability of states to manage their natural resources, as many fishermen fear. “There’s been huge progress by the task force in terms of being more inclusive in thinking about economic, ecological, social, and political concerns,” says Mr. Crowder at Duke. “The paranoia – and there is paranoia on all sides – is that the process will be captured. My hope is that mutual concern gets people to the table.” The final report of the task force is expected in late March. Congress will decide its fate, unless Obama issues an executive order establishing MSP as the law of the water.

We received a form letter from Uncle Sam yesterday, its sole purpose to inform our household that the official census form would show up in a week.

I’ve seen a lot of stupidity my life, but this takes the cake. Mows the lawn. Buys me a Hershey bar. Flogs the trapeze swinging midget. Well, you get the idea.

Of course, this begs the question: what if I don’t want to tell the cretins in D.C. everything they want to know? I understand the need for the census… and it’s constitutional. But other than persons residing, which questions must we answer under penalty of law?

And what about the GPS coordinates?

Why is the Census Bureau using Global Positioning Systems (GPS)?

The Census Bureau uses Global Positioning Systems (GPS) to help locate addresses. A handheld computer is equipped with GPS and is used during our address canvassing operation. Address canvassing is a field operation where census workers systematically travel all known and new streets and roads to identify every structure where people live or could potentially live and update our address list and maps. For the 2010 Census, we attempted to collect GPS coordinates for each structure to make sure it is recorded in the correct location. The census workers also confirmed, added and deleted addresses using a GPS-equipped handheld computer. All this work was done to ensure a complete and accurate address list for delivering the 2010 Census questionnaires next year.

Are the GPS coordinates collected during the 2010 Census operation kept confidential?

Yes. All address information, including GPS coordinates, is protected by the confidentiality requirements of Title 13 of the United States Code. All Census Bureau employees take an oath for life to protect identifiable information about individuals and businesses gathered by the agency. By law, the Census Bureau cannot share respondents’ answers with the IRS, FBI, CIA or any other government agency. The penalty for unlawful disclosure is a fine of up to $250,000 or imprisonment of up to 5 years, or both.

You can be sure that I’ll fill out the form because I will not open my front door to census workers. And there will be 1.2 million of them crawling our streets…

Across the country, the 2010 census will require 1.2 million temporary workers to conduct the decennial head count, which begins this month.

Most of the jobs, about 700,000, will require knocking on doors for six to 10 weeks from May to July to find people who didn’t mail in their census questionnaires. Hiring is going on now.

“We want to encourage people to get in the system now,” said Jenna Steormann Arnold, media specialist for the U.S. Census Bureau in Central Texas, adding that some workers can start much sooner than May.

“The majority of the work and training will start in the beginning of April,” she said.

The massive hiring effort will require more than 3 million job applicants, and the U.S. Census Bureau is targeting unemployed workers to find them.

At a news briefing recently, Census Bureau Director Robert Groves said that his agency would advertise the job openings in unemployment offices as well as in the local media so that “everyone who needs a job knows about the job opportunities.”

“We want to hire people in the neighborhoods where they’ll work,”

The Better Business Bureau cautions us to be cooperative, but cautious regarding census workers.

• If a U.S. Census worker knocks on your door, they will have a badge, a handheld device, a Census Bureau canvas bag and a confidentiality notice. Ask to see their identification and their badge before answering their questions. However, you should never invite anyone you don’t know into your home.

• Census workers are currently only knocking on doors to verify address information. Do not give your Social Security number, credit card or banking information to anyone, even if they claim they need it for the U.S. Census. While the Census Bureau might ask for basic financial information, such as a salary range, it will not ask for Social Security, bank account or credit card numbers nor will employees solicit donations.

• Eventually, Census workers may contact you by telephone, mail or in person at home. However, they will not contact you by e-mail, so be on the look out for e-mail scams impersonating the Census. Never click on a link or open any attachments in an e-mail that are supposedly from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The environmental zealots have tugged on obama’s nose ring and now new regulations could ban fishing and further decimate the economy. Not to mention piss off 60,000,000 people.

ESPN: Culled Out

The Obama administration will accept no more public input for a federal strategy that could prohibit U.S. citizens from fishing the nation’s oceans, coastal areas, Great Lakes, and even inland waters.

“When the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) completed their successful campaign to convince the Ontario government to end one of the best scientifically managed big game hunts in North America (spring bear), the results of their agenda had severe economic impacts on small family businesses and the tourism economy of communities across northern and central Ontario,” said Phil Morlock, director of environmental affairs for Shimano.

“Now we see NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and the administration planning the future of recreational fishing access in America based on a similar agenda of these same groups and other Big Green anti-use organizations, through an Executive Order by the President. The current U.S. direction with fishing is a direct parallel to what happened in Canada with hunting: The negative economic impacts on hard working American families and small businesses are being ignored.

WWF, Greenpeace, Defenders of Wildlife, Pew Environment Group and others produced a document entitled “Transition Green” shortly after Obama was elected in 2008. What has happened since suggests that the task force has been in lockstep with that position paper.

Then in late summer, just after he created the task force, these groups produced “Recommendations for the Adoption and Implementation of an Oceans, Coasts, and Great Lakes National Policy.” This document makes repeated references to “overfishing,” but doesn’t once reference recreational angling, its importance, and its benefits, both to participants and the resource.

As more evidence of collusion, the green groups began clamoring for an Executive Order to implement the task force’s recommendations even before the public comment period ended in February. Fishing advocates had no idea that this was coming.

Perhaps not so coincidentally, the New York Times reported on Feb. 12 that “President Obama and his team are preparing an array of actions using his executive power to advance energy, environmental, fiscal and other domestic policy priorities.”

Gateway Pundit: Obama’s Latest Assault on Freedom– New Regulations Will Ban Sport Fishing

Barack Obama has a message for America’s 60,000,000 anglers– We don’t need you.

The American Sportfishing Association reported back in October about the sweeping changes proposed by the Obama Administration in regards to the sport fishing industry:

A sweeping oceans and Great Lakes management policy document proposed by the Obama Administration will have a significant impact on the sportfishing industry, America’s saltwater anglers and the nation’s coastal communities. The draft policy, the Interim Report of the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force, issued on September 17, will govern federal Pacific and Atlantic Ocean waters and Great Lakes resource conservation and management and will coordinate these efforts among federal, state and local agencies. This past June, President Obama created the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force, led by the Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), to develop a draft national policy and implementation strategy for conserving and managing the United States ocean territory and the Great Lakes.

Now it looks like the Obama Administration is going to move ahead with these restrictions.

Owing to Patti’s generosity I’m currently reading Exodus by Leon Uris.

Exodus by American novelist Leon Uris is about the founding of the State of Israel. Published in 1958, it is based on the name of the 1947 immigration ship Exodus.

In 1956, Uris covered the Arab-Israeli fighting as a war correspondent. Two years later, Exodus was published by Doubleday. Exodus became an international publishing phenomenon, the biggest bestseller in the United States since Gone with the Wind. Uris had sold the film rights in advance.

The story unfolds with the protagonist, Ari Ben Canaan, hatching a plot to transport Jewish refugees from a British detention camp in Cyprus to Palestine. The operation is carried out under the auspices of the Mossad Le’aliyah Bet. The book then goes on to trace the histories of the various main characters and the ties of their personal lives to the birth of the new Jewish state.

A film based on the novel was directed by Otto Preminger in 1960 featuring Paul Newman as Ari Ben Canaan. It focused mainly on the escape from Cyprus and subsequent events in Palestine.

The old adage ‘the more I learn the more I realize how little I actually know’ applies here.

Only vaguely aware of the book Exodus, I certainly didn’t know that it told the true story of the British run Jewish detention camps in Cyprus post WWII.

Friends of Cyprus has more:

We came to learn that the British authorities held Jewish “illegal” immigrants in detention camps on Cyprus from 1946 to 1949. This policy was part of an effort to deter Jewish immigration to Palestine, under British control, as was Cyprus. During that time over 53,000 Jews passed through the barbed wire camps, held against their will, with a quota of only 1,500 per month permitted to leave Cyprus for Palestine.

The Jews considered illegal immigrants by the British were intercepted by British naval forces and turned back from the shores of Palestine and escorted to Cyprus or temporarily imprisoned in Palestine (Atlit) before being deposited in the camps of Cyprus.

The two major camps were Caraolos, north of Famagusta, and in Dekhelia, outside of Larnaca. The compounds stretched for several miles.

Anecdotes tell of Cypriots working in the camps, smuggling in potatoes to the undernourished internees, assisting in escapes from the camps through underground tunnels. Local Cypriots from laborers to doctors worked in the camps. Translators were British employees. The Jews were prisoners living in overcrowded tents and barracks under harsh conditions with inadequate food supply. The barbed wire camp was also a vibrant community with marriages, illness, deaths, and celebrations. 2,200 children were born in the camps during this period – pregnancy moved the family up on the Palestine waiting list.

Mind boggling. So some Jews went from the hellholes of German concentration camps to the hellholes of British camps…

The book is well written, the characters believable and the story engrossing; I highly recommend it, even though I’m not even halfway through yet… and who knows what else I’ll learn along the way…?