Monday, June 29, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
Arizona Cools as the Globe Warms?
June hasn't been this nice since ... 1913
The Arizona Republic
Meteorologists are reluctant to call a month "nice." They have their data and their science and typically do not describe the weather in such subjective terms.
Except now, because the data prove it.
"It's probably the best June since I've been here, and I've been here most of my life," said the National Weather Service's Valerie Meyers, who is in her late 40s. "It's been really nice."
Possibly the nicest June ever.
It's that type of thing that is fun to say but hard to quantify.
Thursday, however, was the 14th consecutive day to stay below 100 degrees. That's the longest stretch of its kind in any June since 1913.
The lower temperatures have allowed people to sleep with windows open and drive with their arms out vehicle windows. Evenings, too, have been spent chatting with neighbors while children or grandchildren play. Those events are not life-changing, but they are, well, nice.
Typically in June, high-pressure systems begin to form above the Valley. High pressure means clear skies and little wind. And, in June, clear skies let in the sunshine, sending the temperatures soaring.
This June, though, has remained cool because of what Meyers called "a persistent area of low pressure off the West Coast."
The low pressure has prevented the high-pressure systems from getting into place.
Alas, all good things must come to an end. This weekend, the days will heat up. Temperatures are expected to be back in the 104-105 range by the middle of next week.
The Arizona Republic
Meteorologists are reluctant to call a month "nice." They have their data and their science and typically do not describe the weather in such subjective terms.
Except now, because the data prove it.
"It's probably the best June since I've been here, and I've been here most of my life," said the National Weather Service's Valerie Meyers, who is in her late 40s. "It's been really nice."
Possibly the nicest June ever.
It's that type of thing that is fun to say but hard to quantify.
Thursday, however, was the 14th consecutive day to stay below 100 degrees. That's the longest stretch of its kind in any June since 1913.
The lower temperatures have allowed people to sleep with windows open and drive with their arms out vehicle windows. Evenings, too, have been spent chatting with neighbors while children or grandchildren play. Those events are not life-changing, but they are, well, nice.
Typically in June, high-pressure systems begin to form above the Valley. High pressure means clear skies and little wind. And, in June, clear skies let in the sunshine, sending the temperatures soaring.
This June, though, has remained cool because of what Meyers called "a persistent area of low pressure off the West Coast."
The low pressure has prevented the high-pressure systems from getting into place.
Alas, all good things must come to an end. This weekend, the days will heat up. Temperatures are expected to be back in the 104-105 range by the middle of next week.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Monday, June 8, 2009
Stopping Obamacare
Stopping Obamacare's Government Option Via The Blue Dogs: The List and Contact Information
Posted by: Hugh Hewitt at 6:45 AM
It is possible to stop the destruction of American medicine, but individual voters are going to have to get involved, led by doctors and other health care professionals who see what President Obama is pushing when it comes to health care. I am going to leave this post up at the top of this site until Monday in order to get the list it contains of contact information as widely disseminated as possible.
The Obama/Pelosi/Reid "government option" in their proposed radical restructuring of American medicine means a shift to a single payer-Canada style system of health care, which in turns means rationing and loss of the ability to pick your own doctors and plan your own treatments. This huge lurch left will be attempted in the next three months, and the passivity of the AMA, the hospitals, and the insurance companies has been astounding as the Beltway elites have concluded there is no way to defeat the large Democratic majorities in the House and Senate. In essence, the groups that should have been fighting with all their resources to preserve quality health care are negotiating terms of surrender.
Or they were until recently when it began to become obvious even to the most Obama-dazzled that the president intends to do to American medicine what he has done to GM: Take it over. The means to that end is the so-called "government option," alone or in combination with various proposed "mandates."
The only way to defeat the "government option" and the worst of the mandates is through the collection of the votes of moderate House Democrats who fear losing their seats in the 2010 election when the backlash against the president's huge expansion of government combines with disappointment over high unemployment to produce the traditional off-year gains for the party-out-of-power. Democrats in center-to-right leaning districts have to survive 2010 in order to get some redistricting help in 2012, but they know what history predicts.
Moderate-to-conservative Democrats in the House are grouped in the so-called "Blue Dog Coalition." Below you will find all the contact information for each of the "Blue Dogs," arranged by state. If you are serious about stopping the "government option" and blocking rationing and the ruin of the leading position of American medicine in the world, you will contact each of these Blue Dogs by phone and e-mail and fax, beginning with those in your state if there are any, and telling them that if they support the government option or burdensome mandates, you will contribute to their 2010 opponent and work to make sure everyone in their district knows that they voted to bring Canadian-style, single payer health care to the U.S. Doctors and health care professionals especially have to weigh in directly by phone and e-mail with these Blue Dogs, and to do so repeatedly. Call their D.C. offices, but also call their district offices. Be specific: If they vote for the "government option" or "mandates," you will work to defeat them. Hard. With cash to their opponents.
I encourage you to send this link to your family, friends, and fellow workers, with a note encouraging them to get involved as well. Not even very loyal House Democrats will vote for the massive and radical overhaul of American medicine if they believe it will be an issue 18 months from now when they face the electorate which will lead to their defeat.
The list is available at the link which is right here: http://hughhewitt.townhall.com/blog/g/995e4df7-b73c-4cb2-8c1b-70b910986d3d
Posted by: Hugh Hewitt at 6:45 AM
It is possible to stop the destruction of American medicine, but individual voters are going to have to get involved, led by doctors and other health care professionals who see what President Obama is pushing when it comes to health care. I am going to leave this post up at the top of this site until Monday in order to get the list it contains of contact information as widely disseminated as possible.
The Obama/Pelosi/Reid "government option" in their proposed radical restructuring of American medicine means a shift to a single payer-Canada style system of health care, which in turns means rationing and loss of the ability to pick your own doctors and plan your own treatments. This huge lurch left will be attempted in the next three months, and the passivity of the AMA, the hospitals, and the insurance companies has been astounding as the Beltway elites have concluded there is no way to defeat the large Democratic majorities in the House and Senate. In essence, the groups that should have been fighting with all their resources to preserve quality health care are negotiating terms of surrender.
Or they were until recently when it began to become obvious even to the most Obama-dazzled that the president intends to do to American medicine what he has done to GM: Take it over. The means to that end is the so-called "government option," alone or in combination with various proposed "mandates."
The only way to defeat the "government option" and the worst of the mandates is through the collection of the votes of moderate House Democrats who fear losing their seats in the 2010 election when the backlash against the president's huge expansion of government combines with disappointment over high unemployment to produce the traditional off-year gains for the party-out-of-power. Democrats in center-to-right leaning districts have to survive 2010 in order to get some redistricting help in 2012, but they know what history predicts.
Moderate-to-conservative Democrats in the House are grouped in the so-called "Blue Dog Coalition." Below you will find all the contact information for each of the "Blue Dogs," arranged by state. If you are serious about stopping the "government option" and blocking rationing and the ruin of the leading position of American medicine in the world, you will contact each of these Blue Dogs by phone and e-mail and fax, beginning with those in your state if there are any, and telling them that if they support the government option or burdensome mandates, you will contribute to their 2010 opponent and work to make sure everyone in their district knows that they voted to bring Canadian-style, single payer health care to the U.S. Doctors and health care professionals especially have to weigh in directly by phone and e-mail with these Blue Dogs, and to do so repeatedly. Call their D.C. offices, but also call their district offices. Be specific: If they vote for the "government option" or "mandates," you will work to defeat them. Hard. With cash to their opponents.
I encourage you to send this link to your family, friends, and fellow workers, with a note encouraging them to get involved as well. Not even very loyal House Democrats will vote for the massive and radical overhaul of American medicine if they believe it will be an issue 18 months from now when they face the electorate which will lead to their defeat.
The list is available at the link which is right here: http://hughhewitt.townhall.com/blog/g/995e4df7-b73c-4cb2-8c1b-70b910986d3d
Sunday, June 7, 2009
The New Operation Overlord
A quick survey of my 17-year old’s bedroom reveals the following artifacts strewn across the floor of this most inhospitable terrain: “The Portable Dante”, ESPN magazine, The Communist Manifesto, College application from Fordham, Harvard, American University and other such places that are beyond my budget comfort zone. My child is steering his small ship into the world of ideas. It is all new, fresh and exciting. He’s even thrown his hat into the ring, most passionately for certain causes that he would go to the wall for: civil rights and economic equality to name two. He has a good (bleeding) heart. So far so good. Oddly missing from his repertoire of causes to fight and lions to tame was anything on the pro-life movement. And the silence is deafening…
Yesterday, the world recognized the 65th anniversary of Operation Overlord, known today simply as the D-Day invasion of the beaches of Normandy, France. Allied troops departed England on planes and ships, made the trip across the English Channel and attacked the beaches of Normandy in an attempt to break through Hitler’s “Atlantic Wall” and break his grip on Europe. Some 215,000 Allied soldiers, and roughly as many Germans, were killed or wounded during D-Day and the ensuing nearly three months it took to secure the Allied capture of Normandy. This bloody conquest, one could say, was to emancipate Europe from a totalitarian hold by a dictator who’s corrupt social system was designed to annihilate certain members of our society that were not ‘acceptable’ to his way of thinking. Hitler would not have stopped his bloody assault on Europe and on the rest of the world unless he were stopped by outside forces.
In our day, there are more Normandy beaches that require our storming. The assault on human life in our culture is become radically and profoundly disordered. 40 million deaths have occurred in the name of “medicine” since 1973. That is over six times the amount of Jews who were murdered in the holocaust. This is worse than the holocaust, this is worse than slavery, this is worse than not getting the right to vote. This is a very clear and present evil among us and we need to call it out. It is not enough anymore to stand on the sidelines and lament. We must elect pro-life leaders who will stand in the gap and change our legislative habits. We must stand on the sidewalk and face the calamity of mothers in crisis with love and tenderness. We need to be eager to provide solutions (yes, with our wallets) to those among us who are struggling to make the choice for life. We need to embrace adoption enthusiastically and bring to our media the light of a new way, a new day that affects the way each and every human being thinks about life and death. There is a role for every one of us on the pro-life side.
Yesterday, the world recognized the 65th anniversary of Operation Overlord, known today simply as the D-Day invasion of the beaches of Normandy, France. Allied troops departed England on planes and ships, made the trip across the English Channel and attacked the beaches of Normandy in an attempt to break through Hitler’s “Atlantic Wall” and break his grip on Europe. Some 215,000 Allied soldiers, and roughly as many Germans, were killed or wounded during D-Day and the ensuing nearly three months it took to secure the Allied capture of Normandy. This bloody conquest, one could say, was to emancipate Europe from a totalitarian hold by a dictator who’s corrupt social system was designed to annihilate certain members of our society that were not ‘acceptable’ to his way of thinking. Hitler would not have stopped his bloody assault on Europe and on the rest of the world unless he were stopped by outside forces.
In our day, there are more Normandy beaches that require our storming. The assault on human life in our culture is become radically and profoundly disordered. 40 million deaths have occurred in the name of “medicine” since 1973. That is over six times the amount of Jews who were murdered in the holocaust. This is worse than the holocaust, this is worse than slavery, this is worse than not getting the right to vote. This is a very clear and present evil among us and we need to call it out. It is not enough anymore to stand on the sidelines and lament. We must elect pro-life leaders who will stand in the gap and change our legislative habits. We must stand on the sidewalk and face the calamity of mothers in crisis with love and tenderness. We need to be eager to provide solutions (yes, with our wallets) to those among us who are struggling to make the choice for life. We need to embrace adoption enthusiastically and bring to our media the light of a new way, a new day that affects the way each and every human being thinks about life and death. There is a role for every one of us on the pro-life side.
My sons read about D-Day from their history books something that they reckon will never happen again in our time. I have another feeling. So long as there is an ever-widening chasm between that day 65 years ago and now, I have a very real fear that history will once again reveal that we have not done a thorough enough job of supporting and maintaining that which our forefathers said was so easy to be evidenced: simply that the truths that our creator endowed us with – the unalienable Rights of LIFE Liberty and pursuit of happiness - are not being upheld. They are fading away on our watch. In the words of Father Pavone: “The biggest danger is the enemy within. It is the fear and self-doubt to which we can all too easily fall victim. It is the voice inside that makes us feel guilty for saying “Abortion is murder” or “Abortion is a holocaust” or “The babies who are being killed need to be defended now.” It is the fear inside that keeps us from going out to the abortion mills and intervening to save the children scheduled to be killed there each day.
The world of ideas does not need to be as complex as the floor of my son’s room. There is still a beach to be stormed. Let us never lose our resolve to defend the most precious gift that God has endowed to us. Let us link arms and steel ourselves to continue to fight on. Simply and unapologetically.
“All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, duty, mercy, hope.” (Winston Churchill)
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Inspiration for the Pro-Life Community...Fight On
"When the time comes, as it surely will, when we face that awesome moment, the final judgment, I've often thought, as Fulton Sheen wrote, that it is a terrible moment of loneliness. You have no advocates, you are there alone standing before God -- and a terror will rip your soul like nothing you can imagine. But I really think that those in the pro-life movement will not be alone. I think there'll be a chorus of voices that have never been heard in this world but are heard beautifully and clearly in the next world -- and they will plead for everyone who has been in this movement. They will say to God, 'Spare him, because he loved us!'"
Congressman Henry Hyde
Congressman Henry Hyde
Monday, June 1, 2009
Love your Enemies & other profoundly important concepts
Tiller Quotes from Around the CountryPosted on June 01, 2009, 5:45 PM Joseph Susanka
As we begin to digest the consequences of Dr. George Tiller's death yesterday morning, especially the way in which this indefensible, violent act will be spun (unfairly, mostly) against the pro-life movement in the coming weeks, I've pulled out a couple of quotes and news articles that seem particularly timely. (They are presented largely without commentary; I'm always a bit leary of the heightened emotions surrounding a time like this.)
As we begin to digest the consequences of Dr. George Tiller's death yesterday morning, especially the way in which this indefensible, violent act will be spun (unfairly, mostly) against the pro-life movement in the coming weeks, I've pulled out a couple of quotes and news articles that seem particularly timely. (They are presented largely without commentary; I'm always a bit leary of the heightened emotions surrounding a time like this.)
However profound our differences as Americans over difficult issues such as
abortion, they cannot be resolved by heinous acts of violence. -- President Barack ObamaI feel sorrow for the Tiller family. I respect the sanctity of life and the tragedy that took place today in Kansas clearly violates respect for life. This murder also damages the positive message of life, for the unborn, and for those living. Ask yourself, 'What will those who have not yet decided personally where they stand on this issue take away from today's event in Kansas?' Regardless of my strong objection to Dr. Tiller's abortion practices, violence is never an answer in advancing the pro-life message. -- Governor Sarah Palin
As with any church community, there are folks on all different ends of the spectrum, but there was a sense here that our lives of faith are bigger and deeper than those issues. -- Rev. Lowell Michelson, Dr. Tiller's pastor
Whoever murdered George Tiller has done a gravely wicked thing. The evil of this action is in no way diminished by the blood George Tiller had on his own hands. No private individual had the right to execute judgment against him. We are a nation of laws. Lawless violence breeds only more lawless violence. Rightly or wrongly, George Tilller was acquitted by a jury of his peers. "Vengeance is mine, says the Lord." For the sake of justice and right, the perpetrator of this evil deed must be prosecuted, convicted, and punished. By word and deed, let us teach that violence against abortionists is not the answer to the violence of abortion. Every human life is precious. George Tiller's life was precious. We do not teach the wrongness of taking human life by wrongfully taking a human life. Let our "weapons" in the fight to defend the lives of abortion's tiny victims, be chaste weapons of the spirit. -- Robert P. George
I think it's the inevitable consequence of more than 35 years of constant anti-abortion terrorism, harassment and violence...They want the doctors dead, and they invite people to assassinate us. No wonder that this happens. I am next on the list. -- Dr. Warren Hern, self-described as "now, the only doctor in the world who performs very-late-term abortions," and a close friend of Dr. Tiller
Tiller is the concentration camp ‘Mengele' of our day and needs to be stopped before he and those who protect him bring judgment upon our nation. -- posted on the Operation Rescue discussion boards by "Scott Roeder," the name of the man who has been charged with Tiller's death
I hope his soul is saved by the prayers of the children he aborted. -- InsideCatholic commenter "Mark"
And while this is not directly applicable to yesterday's killing, I thought it was powerfully relevant none the less:
If anyone has an urge to kill someone at an abortion clinic, they should shoot me. ... It's madness. It discredits the right-to-life movement. Murder is murder. It's madness. You cannot prevent killing by killing. -- John Cardinal O'ConnorSo where to we go from here?
And something I heard not long ago which I love: "We have to love our enemies, but in order to do that, we have to have some." Killing them off just doesn't work.
pax
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