Rest Andrew

Fiery the angels rose,

and as they rose deep thunder rolled

around their shores:

indignance, burning with the fires of Hell

and Bostons Angel cried aloud,

"Why trembles honesty

and like a murderer, seeks refuge?

Why do the generous tremble
and leave their joy to the idle,

to the pestilence that mocks them?"

So cried he, rending off his robe

and throwing down his scepter,

and all thirteen Angels

descended down on the land of America,

flame folded roaring fierce.

- William Blake

The STRIP Act

In the dead of night, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) administratively reclassified airport security screeners as Transportation Security Officers. The TSA then moved to administratively upgrade TSO's uniforms to resemble those of a federal law enforcement officer. They further completed the makeover with metal law enforcement badges. Not surprisingly, government bureaucrats at the TSA left out one crucial component during the artificial makeover – actual federal law enforcement training as is required of Federal Air Marshalls.

In order to help rein in the TSA I introduced H.R. 3608, the Stop TSA's Reach in Policy Act aka the STRIP Act. This bill will simply overturn the TSA's administrative decision by prohibiting any TSA employee who has not received federal law enforcement training from using the title "officer," wearing a police like uniform or a metal police badge. At its most basic level the STRIP Act is about truth in advertising.

Though their heart is in the right place with the STRIP act, if passed it will probably just end up costing more money by forcing TSA to recruit and train tens of thousands agents.  The whole thing should be removed from federal hands and replaced with a set of guidelines for State and Local authorities to handle. 

President Karzai answers President Obama

Live on national television yesterday in Afghanistan, Afghani President Karzai responded to President Obama's hand-delivered note of apology for U.S. soldiers burning some Korans that had been used by prisoners to pass information.  "We call on the US government to bring the perpetrators of the act to justice and put them on trial and punish them."

President Obama's letter to President Karzai has not been released, but in Karzai's televised response, he said, ""The US government says that such an act was carried out because of ignorance and lack of knowledge.  This incident happened as a result of the ignorance of the US military officer about our vision about Islam and not recognizing the Koran. It was not deliberate."

Sounds like the Commander in Chief really has the backs of our enlisted men, doesn't it.  

Where are we headed?

Pennsylvania Judge, after letting off an immigrant who attacked a man for insulting the Prophet Muhammad:

Before you start mocking someone else's religion you may want to find out a little bit more about it it makes you look like a dufus and Mr. (Defendant) is correct. In many Arabic speaking countries something like this is definitely against the law there. In their society in fact it can be punishable by death and it frequently is in their society. ... What you have done is you have completely trashed their essence, their being. They find it very very very offensive. I'm a Muslim, I find it offensive. But you have that right, but you're way outside your boundaries or first amendment rights. This is what, and I said I spent about 7 and a half years living in other countries. when we go to other countries it's not uncommon for people to refer to us as ugly Americans this is why we are referred to as ugly Americans, because we are so concerned about our own rights we don't care about other people's rights as long as we get our say but we don't care about the other people's say

The attack was caught on video (included here), which the judge also disallowed into evidence.

The Obvious Untruths in the President's Energy Speech

The Five Biggest Whoppers in President Obama's Energy Speech

The price of gas is not rising

Louis Woodhill points out that it's the Dollar that's falling, not the price of gas that's rising.

And that's really bad news.

The Washington Post: The President's Power Grab

Obama's decision [to force Catholic and other religious institutions to provide birth control and early abortion drugs or else drop insurance for their employees altogether] also reflects a certain view of liberalism. Classical liberalism was concerned with the freedom to hold and practice beliefs at odds with a public consensus. Modern liberalism uses the power of the state to impose liberal values on institutions it regards as backward. 

The President's Power Grab, by Michael Gerson

Clark Judge: 21 Points

Thoughts On the State of the Union

Trickle down control over everything.

15 Questions

John Hawkins lists 15 Questions the Press would ask the President if he were a Republican, covering Fast and Furious, Solyndra, Union money, Health Cost 'miscalculations,' the Price of Gas vs Jobs vs the Keystone Pipeline decision, etc.

And regarding the questions being asked of Republicans in the recent debates, there was a great comment on Instapundit about that:

Reader John Williams writes regarding why the moderators are asking such pointless questions: "Because a serious moderator asking intelligent questions would make the candidates seem serious and intelligent. Add to that, it would connote that the presidential election is important and who we choose is a serious, if not vital, decision that must be carefully considered. As long as they can make the Republican debates look like a circus and the candidate chosen seem irrelevant, the better chance theircandidate has of squeaking out a second term."

Exactly.

Michael O'Leary at the Innovation Convention 2011 - Brussels

Large Areas of Mars could Sustain Life

Scientists from the Australian National University modeled conditions on Mars on a global scale and found that large regions could be capable of sustaining life – three percent of the planet actually, albeit mostly underground. By comparison, just one percent of Earth's volume, from the central core to the upper atmosphere, is inhabited by some kind of life.

We need some global cooperation to open up this new frontier.  Are there any countries in a cooperative mood these days?

Khan!

A very nice article on the Khan Academy and how it is a revolution for students and online education.

Note:  If you have a Roku box, it has a Khan Channel.