Find out what got pro-abortion advocates all in a whirling frenzy.

Ah, the beauty of life and family.

Here is the pre-game Tim Tebow commercial. Family and the celebration of life is a good thing – isn’t it?

Check out the movie, The 13th Day

Newspaper reporting the Great Sun Miracle of 1917.

The story of Christopher Columbus is an inspiring story of faith and courage. Quite frankly, he is a great guy. His discovery of the Americas insured that the New World would be a Christian New World and the center of the greatest freedoms known to mankind.

If you went to school when I went to school (I am 52), this statement is a gimme. But in classrooms today, Christopher Columbus is a bad guy and actually one of the greatest bad guys of history. Why? The liberal retelling of history in the name of multiculturalism.

Check out Dinesh D’Souza in his debunking of the dribble levied against Mr. Columbus.

Have some fun with the kids and your friends by sharing some Columbus Mythbusters by Joseph M. Laufer

MYTH: Columbus set out to prove the earth was round.

FACT: At the end of the 15th Century, most everyone knew the
earth was a sphere. What was in question, however, was the size
of the earth–its circumference. Columbus underestimated the
size of the earth by one-fourth.

MYTH: Queen Isabella sold the crown jewels to pay for Columbus’
voyage.

FACT: The queen may have suggested this at some point, but her
financial advisers assured her that there were other ways to
finance the enterprise. One way was to make the city of Palos
pay back a debt to the crown by providing two of the ships.
Another way was to get Italian financial backing for part of the
expenses. The crown had to put up very little money from the
treasury.

MYTH: The crew of the three ships on the voyage of discovery was
made up mainly of criminals and nare-do-goods.

FACT: The crew was primarily comprised of seasoned sailors from
the towns of Palos and Moguer, Spain, thanks to the efforts of
the Pinzon brothers. Just in case Columbus might have had
trouble attracting a crew, the crown did offer amnesty to
criminals. However, only four criminals were on board: one a
convicted murderer (he killed a man in a quarrel); the other
three, accused of freeing him from prison.

MYTH: The initial voyage from Spain to the new world was
perilous–fraught with bad weather and lack of food. Several
sailors died on the way.

FACT: No one died on the maiden voyage. There was enough food
aboard for one year. The weather was almost ideal–no storms
were encountered. However, on the return trip to Spain there was
a major hurricane which almost destroyed the two remaining ships.

MYTH: There was a priest on board the Santa Maria in 1492.

FACT: There were no friars or priests on the first voyage in
1492, despite Columbus’ deep religious fervor. Many of the
paintings of the first landfall in the new world on San Salvador
show a priest with Columbus–contrary to the facts. There were
five priests on the second voyage: Benedictine Father Buil; the
Jeronymite Father Ramon Pane; and three Franciscans.

MYTH: Several hundred sailors were aboard the three caravels on
the initial voyage in 1492. The ships were relatively large for
the anticipated long journey on an unpredictable sea.

FACT: Only 90 men made the first voyage of discovery. The ships
were quite tiny by modern standards–no longer than a tennis
court, and less than 30 feet wide. The Santa Maria had 40 men
aboard, the Pinta, 26, and the Ni$a, 24. Only the Ni$a and the
Pinta returned to Spain, as the Santa Maria was shipwrecked on
Christmas Day, 1492. 39 men volunteered to stay behind at the
fortress called “La Navidad” on the northern coast of present-day
Haiti (they all perished at the hands of the Indians prior to the
return of Columbus the following year).

MYTH: There is no doubt that Columbus was of Italian descent.

FACT: Much controversy surrounds the origins of Columbus. Some
say he was a “converso”–a converted Jew. Others say he was born
on Corsica, and there is even a theory that traces him to Viking
ancestors. The prevailing theory is that he was a Genoese, born
and raised in that seaport city in what is now Italy.

MYTH: Columbus suffered from syphilis and probably died from it.

FACT: Columbus suffered in later life from a form of gout–an
arthritic condition in his joints caused by the rigors of the
sea. His eyesight was also declining. While syphilis was
introduced into Europe after 1492, probably by the Indians
Columbus brought back to Spain or by the sailors who had contact
with them in the new world, Columbus was not infected by it.

MYTH: Columbus died a pauper, in chains, in a Spanish prison.

FACT: Despite the fact that the Spanish crown retracted some of
the privileges promised to Columbus, he was a relatively rich man
at the time of his death. Although he returned to Spain in
chains in 1500 after his third voyage, the King and Queen
apologized for the misunderstanding and had them removed.
Columbus died quietly at the age of 55 in Valladolid, Spain, on
May 20, 1506 in his own apartment attended by family and friends.

MYTH: Columbus is buried in Santo Domingo, the Dominican
Republic.

FACT: There is much controversy surrounding the whereabouts of
the remains of Columbus. There are records of the transferral of
his remains on different occasions, so that it is possible that
parts of his remains are in several locations. The prevailing
belief, however, is that his primary burial place is in the
Cathedral of Seville, Spain, with some of his bones or ashes in
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and some in Genoa, Italy. At
one time they were in Cuba.

MYTH: Columbus set foot on North American soil at some point now
a part of mainland United States.

FACT: Columbus never saw North America. His first landfall was
in the Bahamas, probably the current San Salvador (Watlings
Island), although even this is disputed (Samana Cay, an island 65
miles south of San Salvador is a strong contender). There are
proponents for seven other possible island landing sites. The
only current U.S. territories either sighted or visited by
Columbus are the U.S. Virgin Islands, which Columbus named on his
second voyage, and Puerto Rico. While in anchor of St. Croix
(USVI) on November 14, 1493, some of Columbus’ crew experienced
the first hostile encounter with the Indians. Five days later he
landed at San Juan Bautista, now Puerto Rico. Later he would
visit the northeastern tip of South America and the eastern coast
of Central America, but never mainland U.S.A. The fact is that
Columbus never admitted that he had discovered a new continent.

Check out more about Christopher Columbus.

The idiot box – Economist.com

It’s been a long time in coming – finally!

Plumber with shattered arm left horrifically bent out of shape has operation ‘cancelled four times’

From the Free To Choose Network Youtube page:

“The Power of the Poor” coming to PBS October 8, 2009.

To those who watch television in the developed world, there doesn’t seem to be a better system on earth than the capitalist system. We are experiencing the longest economic expansion in modern history. Soviet Communism has been defeated.

But make no mistake, as we will demonstrate in this program, capitalism is surprisingly vulnerable. The moment of capitalism’s greatest triumph is the moment of its greatest crisis, its Moment of Truth. In fact, capitalism is not working for the vast majority of humanity that lives on the planet. Two thirds of the world’s population has been locked out of the global economy, forced to operate outside the rule of law, they have no legal identity, no credit, no capital, and thus no way to prosper. To unlock The Power of the Poor is to change the world. If we fail, these people will turn against capitalism as they have turned against other failed economic systems, and that could make for a very difficult, violent time.

Filmed on location from Latin America to Africa, The Power of the Poor will demonstrate how free markets, individual freedom and especially the right to property can transform the poor into the most powerful resource in the world. At its heart is the potential triumph of capitalism as a system.

Astrophotographer takes 200 hours to create picture of galaxy

Oh, the Progressives! The progressive dream of a man-made Utopian society will kill our prosperity and our culture. This is illustrated by it’s ideological war against energy sources such as oil, coal and natural gas. Of course we should explore “green” alternatives, but without making ourselves slaves to foreign oil. President Obama reinstated the ban on off-shore oil drilling, endangering our national security for the “Green Dream.”

But the economic policies of an expansion of government and uncontrolled debt by the Obama administration will also effect our energy independence. Sarah Palin explains why.

The British newspaper The Independent reported today that Gulf oil producers were negotiating with Russia, China, Japan and France to replace the dollar in pricing oil with a basket of currencies.[1] According to the Wall Street Journal, Arab oil officials have denied the story, but even the possibility of such a talk weakens the dollar and renews fears about its continued viability as an international reserve currency.[2] In fact, today a United Nations official called for a new global reserve currency to replace the dollar and end our “privilege” to run up huge deficits.[3] We can see the effect of this in the price of gold, which hit a record high today in response to fears about the weakened dollar.[4]

All of this is a result of our out-of-control debt. This is why we need to rein in spending, and this is also why we need energy independence. A weakened dollar means higher commodity prices. This will make it more difficult to pay our bills – including the bill to import oil.

In his book Architects of Ruin, Peter Schweizer points out that the Obama administration is focusing primarily on “green energy,” while ignoring our need to develop our domestic conventional energy resources.[5] We’re ignoring the looming crisis caused by our dependence on foreign oil. Because we’re dependent on foreign nations for our oil, we’re also at their mercy if they decide to dump the dollar as their trade currency. We can’t allow ourselves to be so vulnerable to the whims of foreign nations. That’s why we must develop our own domestic supplies of oil and gas.

Though the chant of “Drill, baby, drill” was much derided, it expressed the need to confront this issue head-on before it reaches a crisis point.

Bottom line: let’s stop digging ourselves into debt and start drilling for energy independence.

[1] See The Independent

[2] See WSJ

[3] See Breitbart

[4] See Yahoo

[5] See peterschweizer.com

As progressives dance in the fields of Utopian dreams to our destruction, we need to reverse Obama policies of weakening the dollar and the refusal to drill for energy independence.

Hopefully we will start making changes in November 2010.

Are we about to see – the death of the light bulb?

In September, the European Union banned the sale of 100-watt incandescent light bulbs, with lawbreakers facing up to $70,000 in fines. Over the next few years, bans on lower-wattage bulbs kick in. In the United States, similar legislation comes into play in 2012. The idea is to kickstart the market for compact fluorescent lights (CFLs), which use less energy than conventional incandescents. Although CFLs present any number of problems (even beyond a much higher initial cost), governments all over the globe are determined to make them the new standard.

Invented in its modern form by Thomas Edison in 1879, the light bulb became synonymous with a brilliant idea. Now, it seems, it’s just one more symbol of a nanny state that increasingly dictates more choices in our public and private lives.reason.tv

Oh, the joy when the national government gets involved in legislating the incandescent bulb, all because of global warming hysteria. Ed Morrissey shares:

What happens when an incandescent bulb hits the floor? Simple: sweep it up, and try not to step on a shard of glass with bare feet. Here’s how people need to handle a broken CFL:

1. Open a window and leave the room for 15 minutes or more.
2. Shut off the central forced-air heating/air conditioning system, if you have one.
3. Carefully scoop up glass fragments and powder using stiff paper or cardboard and place them in a glass jar with metal lid (such as a canning jar) or in a sealed plastic bag.
4. Use sticky tape, such as duct tape, to pick up any remaining small glass fragments and powder.
5. Wipe the area clean with damp paper towels or disposable wet wipes and place them in the glass jar or plastic bag.
6. Do not use a vacuum or broom to clean up the broken bulb on hard surfaces.
7. Immediately place all cleanup materials outside the building in a trash container or outdoor protected area for the next normal trash.
8. Wash your hands after disposing of the jars or plastic bags containing cleanup materials.
9. Check with your local or state government about disposal requirements in your specific area. Some states prohibit such trash disposal and require that broken and unbroken lamps be taken to a recycling center.
10. For at least the next few times you vacuum, shut off the central forced-air heating/air conditioning system and open a window prior to vacuuming.
11. Keep the central heating/air conditioning system shut off and the window open for at least 15 minutes after vacuuming is completed.

Now that’s progress!

White House’s botched ‘op’

Spin doctors for Obamacare

John Nolte from Big Hollywood made an astute observation about two movies that opened this past weekend:

Tough times for leftie Hollywood. Nothing’s gone right this week. None of this is their fault, of course. In order to understand that it might not be a good idea to rally around a child rapist, bash religion in a religious country or trash capitalism in a capitalist country you have to live in the real world…

Steve Mason:

Michael Moore’s CAPITALISM tanks!

Ricky Gervais has launched his second consecutive box office bomb as The Invention of Lying (Warner Bros) only mustered $2.2M or so to start the 3-day. The comedy should finish #5 with approximately $6.5M for the weekend. …

[B]ut the biggest disappointment of the weekend is Michael Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story (Overture). After a $57K per theatre average on 4 screens last weekend, the picture broke to a wider 962 locations with terrible results. The “documentary” only sold an estimated $1.3M in tickets to start the weekend, and it will finish at about $3.9M for a PTA of less than $4,000. That soft opening will almost certainly make Capitalism Moore’s weakest-grossing movie since 2002’s Bowling for Columbine ($21.5M domestic gross). Socialism and Christian-Bashing Crash at Box Office

Here is some info for each movie:

After a couple of weeks of unsubstantiated rumors, it has been confirmed that the forthcoming film The Invention of Lying is indeed intended to satirize religion and religious believers.

New York Post critic Kyle Smith has seen the film and describes it as “a full-on attack on religion in general and Christianity in particular. It might be the most blatantly, one-sidedly atheist movie ever released by a major studio, in this case Warner Bros.” Read more

Last weekend, Michael Phillips and A.O. Scott reviewed, among other films, Michael Moore’s latest farce, “Capitalism: A Love Story.” I don’t know their track records or political leanings, but Phillips for one noticed that Michael Moore is growing tiresome. He didn’t mention the blatant hypocrisy of a multi-millionaire who has reaped the benefits of capitalism calling for its demise, but still, he’s getting tired of the schtick, which leaves me hopeful. Read more

Ice, Ice Baby: Perfectly Frozen Mammoth