Author Archives: Editor

Issue 3 : Should Out-of-State Bookies be Allowed to Operate Casinos in Ohio?

Posted on October 21, 2009 | Leave a comment

By Citizens For Community Values

Two out-of-state companies are attempting to write their business plan into Ohio’s constitution by creating a monopoly that would allow them to build four casinos in our state.

Penn National Gaming, which currently operates 32 gambling facilities in the U.S. and Canada, has partnered with Dan Gilbert, a billionaire from Michigan, who owns Quicken Loans and the Cleveland Cavaliers, to place ISSUE 3 before the voters on November 3, 2009.

During a recent ISSUE 3 debate at the Cleveland City Club Gilbert was asked a question about his 1981 arrest for illegal bookmaking. (Read the Columbus Dispatch article here.) (Listen to the debate on Podcast here.)

Unidentified Questioner: “I understand you were arrested in the past for illegal bookmaking. So if issue 3 passes can you tell me what crimes do you believe should preclude individuals from getting a gaming license, and specifically is bookmaking one of those crimes?”

Dan Gilbert’s Reply: “Yeah so when I was 18 years old in Michigan State when I was a freshman in the dorm room, we had those you know those little card NFL cards that you play. I don’t know, Bernie might have been playing, I don’t know, and somebody walked into some policeman on the corner, came in and they swept the dorms and they took out four, five, or seven I can’t remember the number, and then they dropped the case a few months later and no money was ever exchanged and that’s what happened to me at Michigan State. But so as far as what crimes, I don’t know, probably murder, rape, extortion of funds, larceny, things like that.”

FACT CHECK…Line by Line

Gilbert said: “Yeah so when I was 18 years old in Michigan State when I was a freshman in the dorm room, we had those you know those little card NFL cards that you play.”

USA Today describes it this way: “Gilbert was arrested with three other students in 1981 on charges of operating a bookmaking ring at Michigan State that handled $114,000 in bets on football and basketball games.’’

Gilbert said: “…somebody walked into some policeman on the corner came in and they swept the dorms…”

Forbes.com describes it this way: “One kid who couldn’t cover his debts panicked and called his father, who alerted the authorities. A wired undercover cop, posing as the kid’s dad, busted the ring. ‘It was a pretty sophisticated operation,’ says Jeffrey Patzer, who prosecuted the case, ‘way above average for what I knew of so-called organized crime.’ ”

Gilbert said: “…then they dropped the case a few months later…”

USA Today describes it this way: “Gilbert was accused of conspiring to violate state gambling laws. He was fined, given three years’ probation and ordered to do 100 hours of community service, the paper said. The felony was dropped after he completed the sentences.”

Anyone can understand the embarrassment of stupid youthful indiscretions, particularly when it has to do with violations of the law. If these are all of the facts, it sounds like Gilbert got off pretty easy.

But with today’s 24-hour newscycles and instant access to so much of the past with a click of the mouse, Gilbert should know that lying about something that is so easily discoverable and getting caught again may well say more about who he is today than who he was when a freshman in college.

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Alan King runs for Xenia Twp Trustee, Partly On 5 Acre Lots

Posted on October 20, 2009 | 3 comments

By Alan King

As many of you may already know, I’ve decided to take on another part time job around Xenia that I think needs doing. I am running for Xenia Township Trustee in this November’s election. I think that there are some things that need fixing and I think that I have some good thoughts about how to go about making them better. As part of my campaign, I would like to share a few of these thoughts with you. This will be the first of about 6 emails along these lines. The Township Trustee job is non-partisan and I am running with the hopes of serving all of the residents of Xenia Township.

Here’s what I think about 5 acre lots:

I love to live in the country. My home is on a little over 2 acres in Xenia Township. When I first moved here in 1973, there was a field next door that was so big that only one house was within a half mile of me on that side. There were other homes nearby, but if I wanted to go outside and see farmland, there it was. Corn or beans or cattle always alternated outside my windows. Then they built the 35 bypass and now I live next to a busy highway with the sound of semis so nearly constant that I only notice the silence when it arrives in the middle of the night.

Irreplaceable farmland is vanishing slowly but inexorably from much of Xenia Township as our rural population grows. And I blame 5 acre lots for part of that loss. Sometime in the past it was decided that the best way to prevent farmers from selling off their land for houses would be to restrict Township lots to 5 acres or more. The reasoning was that the average new home buyer couldn’t pay for 5 acres, so he would just stay in town. This may have worked at one time, but as housing prices climbed into the 6 digits, the cost of 5 acres has become a smaller part of the investment. People still want to move to the country, so farmers are selling off long skinny lots stretching way back into their most fertile fields. A typical 5 acre lot in Xenia Township is 250 feet wide and almost two tenths of a mile deep.

Five acres is too much land to take care of, but not enough to do much with. Newcomers to the country often think that they will build a barn and keep a horse or two out back. This is a charming fantasy, but it soon becomes evident that 5 acres is enough to raise a horse, but not enough to go for a ride. After a few years of killing themselves mowing it all, many of these homeowners never venture into their “back three” and it devolves into useless scrub brush. And that is a terrific waste of good farmland! Wouldn’t it be better to allow smaller lots and leave more of the good land in crops?

If it is inevitable that we are going to have more people moving to the country, we need flexible zoning in Xenia Township based on intelligent land use, not one-size-fits-all lot sizes. Many of the older homes in the township, like mine, are on an acre or two and they have ample space for a nice country home and a well and a septic system. There is plenty of space for a garden and a barn and you can’t hear what your neighbors are watching on TV. Even a couple of acres is a lot to take care of. Rather than try to mow it all, my son Eric and I planted an acre of walnut trees on our lot back in 1976 and now we have a nice woods. An acre or two is plenty of room for real country living.

There is plenty of land in the township that is really unsuitable for farming. Some of it is too hilly, or the soil is poor, or it is too wet to farm. That land would be great for small country homes and should be zoned that way. The good, rich farmland should stay in farms and farmers should be encouraged to hold their land together. But if we are going to welcome 50 new families into the Township next year, wouldn’t it be better to put them all on a total of 50 or 60 acres than to use up 250 acres of our best farmland just to put them each on a 5 acre lot?

_____________________________________

Some of you are probably asking who is this guy, Alan King? He is a Xenia native. He and his partner of 24 years, Karen, are proprietors of Kiddie Kingdom Childcare and Express Yourself Coffeehouse. In case you haven’t guessed, he digs land ( BS in Geology), and likes working with children (MS Teaching). He is also an Army veteran.

Have you got questions? He can be reached at King1075@sbcglobal.net or 937-372-4986

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Semi-Annual Hydrant Flushing Week, Oct. 19-13

Posted on October 17, 2009 | Leave a comment

A few weeks ago I bought a bar of soap imported from Jordan. That is the foreign county Jordan, which also possesses a slice of the Jordan River. Actually, I didn’t buy the soap because of exotic origins. I bought it because it contain salt and mud from the Jordan River.

Why would anyone buy a soap with mud in it, you ask?

Well, out of curiosity. I wanted to know what it was like to wash with soap containing salt and mud from notorious Jordan River.

I quickly discovered that bathing with Jordan mud soap eventually began to smell and taste like … well … like salty mud.

Imagine that!

Xenia resident will get a change to see, feel and taste muddy water this week, October 19-23. Why? Because this is the semi-annual fire hydrant flushing week. Whenever the city flushes out the hydrants, the water turn muddy brown.

If you want to find out what water mixed with salt and mud from the Jordan River is like, just add some sea salt to your glass of water, cup of coffee, tea, or you bath and enjoy.

So that you’all won’t miss out on a muddy Jordan River like experience, I have included the city’s fire hydrant flushing schedule below. City workers will begin flushing hydrants at 8:30AM and end at 3:00 PM.

Mon. 10/19: North of W. Church St., North of Market St. and North of W. Main St. and West of N. Detroit St. (Beverly Hills, Timber Ridge and Laynewood Plats)
Tues. 10/20: West of St. Rt. 35 and Northwest of Bellbrook Ave. (The Colorado Sections of Arrowhead, Sterling Green, Childers and the Reserve of Xenia)
Wed. 10/21: North of East Church St. and East of N. Detroit St. including Amlin
Heights and Old Springfield Pike. (Stadium Heights and Greene Memorial Hospital Areas)
Thur. 10/22: South of Main Street, East of US 35 and North of Bellbrook Ave. South of Church Street and North of Third Street, East to the Corporation Limit.
Fri. 10/23: South of E. Third Street and East of Cincinnati Ave. Also included is Wright Cycle Estates.

Warning: Washing clothes and other stainable materials is not recommended while water is muddy. Letting your water softener recycle could prolong the fabulously muddy experience. Too much of a strangely good thing could not turn out to be such a good thing.

The same can be said of washing with muddy Jordan soap–trust me.

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Congress Moves Closer to Health Care Takeover

Posted on October 15, 2009 | Leave a comment

Yesterday, the final Congressional committee approved a fifth “version” of health care reform legislation. The truth is: there wasn’t a single page of actual legislative language passed. The Senate Committee passed a list of non-binding concepts – not a real bill. All the projected costs were based on “estimates” from concepts.

This health care debate is so complicated that Senators cannot deal with the thousands of pages of legal construction. It is too big for them or any single government agency to handle. This whole process proves the federal government is not designed to run the nation’s health care. The current bills are an unconstitutional expansion of federal authority and a dangerous threat to your civil rights.

Here are the “concepts” the Senate Committee voted to make law yesterday:

  • New mandates to force Americans to purchase insurance with tax penalties imposed on individuals and employers, enforced by the IRS.
  • New powers for the HHS Secretary to define benefits for every private plan in America and redefine those benefits annually.
  • Health care premiums for millions will go up, not down, starting in 2010.
  • Largest expansion in Medicaid since 1965, enrolling 14 million more at an estimated cost of $345 billion.
  • Medicaid expansion will be paid for by cuts to Medicare ($404 billion).
  • Medicare cuts will include a 25% payment cut to physicians in 2011.
  • Medicare cuts will also include cuts to Medicare Advantage ($117 billion), which will result in a 70% reduction in benefits.
  • Premium insurance plans will be taxed at 40% above set limits (expected to raise $201 billion in new taxes).

Real legislative language won’t be available until after these “concepts” are merged behind closed doors with an earlier version passed by the Senate Health Committee.

Physician groups, such as the American Academy of Ophthalmology, have now “taken the gloves off” to oppose the Senate Finance Committee bill. The insurance industry is finally waking up to this grave threat. Docs, hospitals and insurers made a TERRIBLE strategic mistake trying to cut their own deals with Congress. Now the true dangers of this government takeover are being exposed and the future of private health care in America is under fatal attack.

Within a few weeks we will likely see a consolidated Senate bill, as well as a House bill (consolidating three different versions) brought to the floor for a vote. Contacting your Representatives and Senators more critical than ever!

Source: The American Policy Roundtable, October 15, 2009.

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The Constitution, Federal Legislation, and Ohio

Posted on October 14, 2009 | Leave a comment

By Matt Meyer

“First do no harm” should hang above the halls of Congress. Unfortunately, those four simple words aren’t a consideration in our nation’s capital. How else could you explain the budget-busting global warming and national health care bills currently dominating the public debate? Separately, each measure is fiscally irresponsible. Taken together, the bills will devastate Ohio’s weak economy and place enormous unfunded mandates on the state’s Swiss cheese budget.

First, there is the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill. With Ohio’s natural abundance of coal, almost 90% of Ohio’s energy is produced by CO2 producing coal-fired power plants. Those power plants feed electricity to what is left of Ohio’s manufacturing plants, which produce still more CO2 emissions. All of that production translates into jobs. On the renewable energy side of the fence, Ohio isn’t blessed with an abundance of sunshine, consistent wind, or powerful rivers to power solar panels, wind turbines, or hydro plants. Although Ohio currently has two nuclear power plants, there appears to be no political will to build additional nuclear power plants.

Given these irrefutable facts, it is hard to imagine a scenario in which Ohioans don’t suffer increased costs, job losses, and economic decline should the cap and trade bill pass. Unlike the future made-in-Hollywood catastrophes portrayed by the global warming crowd, those costs, losses, and decline will be immediate and real for Ohioans.

On health care, Medicaid spending already consumes 39% of the state budget. The Baucus national health care bill would restrict Ohio from setting eligibility requirements, which would increase the load on states by $37 billion according to the Congressional Budget Office. Because Ohio is the seventh largest state and possesses an anemic economy, a big slice of that $37 billion will fall on Ohio taxpayers.

With these enormous economic stakes, Ohio’s two senators must put aside partisan urges, resist trendy but illogical policy options, and work toward solutions that are in the state’s best interests. To do otherwise is not only bad for Ohioans, but would actually go against the Founders’ original intent for the Senate when it was first established in the Constitution.

For America’s first 126 years, U.S. senators were elected by state legislatures. The reason rests in the Founders use of checks and balances to keep the political system in harmony. With U.S. representatives elected by popular vote in apportioned districts based on each state’s share of the total U.S. population, the House served as the place where the “will of the people” ruled. In theory, if a handful of large states with a majority of representatives banded together, they could pass legislation harmful to the other states.

In the Senate, however, to check the tyranny of the majority, the Founders allocated each state only two senators, thereby structurally blocking large states from riding roughshod over the smaller states as could happen in the House. To further check the accumulation of power in the federal government, the Founders placed the election of senators in the hands of state legislatures who would ensure that those individuals elected to the Senate would protect the interests of the states regardless of what the passions of the people wanted. For example, a majority of people in a state may want a federal program that individually costs them very little in taxes, but would place large unfunded costs on the state.

In 1913, the passage of the 17th Amendment altered this finely tuned structure by placing the election of senators in the hands of the people. Not surprisingly, shortly after this structural change to the Constitution, the era of big government in Washington, D.C. unchecked by the states began its march. Congress went from the New Deal to the Great Society to the era of unfunded mandates to today when Washington simultaneously considers bills that would nationalize 17% of the U.S. economy, and imposes additional burdens on our energy production just months after exploding the federal deficit, nationalizing car companies and banks, and passing the largest single year budget in American history.

So, how could Ohio’s senators or senate candidates support legislation like the Waxman-Markey or Baucus bills? When they no longer have to be accountable to the state they represent because it has no power to check their votes (i.e., a legislative threat not to reelect them should they vote yea), they can place other special interests and even their own ideological views ahead of what is best for Ohio, its economy, and its citizens.

The irony, of course, is that these “reforms” will hit Ohioans regressively so that the very middle class workers and poor that they claim to fight for will be hit the hardest.

Source: Buckeye Institute Weekly News Digest, October 12, 2009.

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The Truth About the Flu Shot

Posted on October 13, 2009 | Leave a comment

By Sherri Tenpenny, DO

What’s in the regular flu shot?

 
  • Egg proteins: including avian contaminant viruses
  • Gelatin: can cause allergic reactions and anaphylaxis are usually associated with sensitivity to egg or gelatin
  • Polysorbate 80 (Tween80™): can cause severe allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis. Also associated with inferility in female mice.
  • Formaldehyde: known carcinogen
  • Triton X100: a strong detergent
  • Sucrose: table sugar
  • Resin: known to cause allergic reactions
  • Gentamycin: an antibiotic
  • Thimerosal: mercury is still in multidose flu shot vials

Do flu shots work?

Not in babies: In a review of more than 51 studies involving more than 294,000 children it was found there was “no evidence that injecting children 6-24 months of age with a flu shot was any more effective than placebo. In children over 2 yrs, it was only effective 33% of the time in preventing the flu.

Reference: “Vaccines for preventing influenza in healthy children.” The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2 (2008).

Not in children with asthma: A study 800 children with asthma, where one half were vaccinated and the other half did not receive the influenza vaccine. The two groups were compared with respect to clinic visits, emergency department (ED) visits, and hospitalizations for asthma. CONCLUSION: This study failed to provide evidence that the influenza vaccine prevents pediatric asthma exacerbations.

Reference: “Effectiveness of influenza vaccine for the prevention of asthma exacerbations.” Christly, C. et al. Arch Dis Child. 2004 Aug;89(8):734-5.

Not in children with asthma (2): “The inactivated flu vaccine, Flumist, does not prevent influenza-related hospitalizations in children, especially the ones with asthma…In fact, children who get the flu vaccine are more at risk for hospitalization than children who do not get the vaccine.”

Reference: The American Thoracic Society’s 105th International Conference, May 15-20, 2009, San Diego.

Not in adults: In a review of 48 reports including more than 66,000 adults, “Vaccination of healthy adults only reduced risk of influenza by 6% and reduced the number of missed work days by less than one day (0.16) days. It did not change the number of people needing to go to hospital or take time off work.”

Reference: “Vaccines for preventing influenza in healthy adults.” The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 1 (2006).

Not in the Elderly: In a review of 64 studies in 98 flu seasons, For elderly living in nursing homes, flu shots were non-significant for preventing the flu. For elderly living in the community, vaccines were not (significantly) effective against influenza, ILI or pneumonia.

Reference: “Vaccines for preventing influenza in the elderly.” The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.3 (2006).

What about the new Swine Flu shot?

Some of the new H1N1 (swine flu) vaccines are going to be made by Novartis. These shots will probably be made in PER.C6 cells (human retina cells) and contain MF59, a potentially debilitating adjuvant. MF-59 is an oil-based adjuvant primarily composed of squalene.

All rats injected with squalene (oil) adjuvants developed a disease that left them crippled, dragging their paralyzed hindquarters across their cages. Injected squalene can cause severe arthritis (3 on scale of 4) and severe immune responses, such as autoimmune arthritis and lupus.

Ref: (1): Kenney, RT. Edleman, R. “Survey of human-use adjuvants.” Expert Review of Vaccines. 2 (2003) p171.

Ref: (2): Matsumoto, Gary. Vaccine A: The Covert Government Experiment That’s Killing Our Soldiers and Why GI’s Are Only the First Victims of this Vaccine. New York: Basic Books. p54.

Federal health officials are starting to recommend that most Americans get three flu shots this fall: one regular flu shot and two doses of the vaccine made against the new swine flu strain. School children who have never had a flu shot are targeted for four shots in the fall – twice for seasonal flu, twice for pandemic swine flu. (July 15, 2009 news)

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has been talking to school superintendents around the country, urging them to make plans to use buildings for mass vaccinations and for vaccinating kids first. (CBS News, June 12, 2009.)

Is Mandatory Vaccination Possible?

1946: US Public Health Service was established and Executive Order (EO) 9708 was signed, listing the communicable diseases where quarantines could be used. 1946 and 2003, cholera, diphtheria, TB, typhoid, smallpox, yellow fever, & viral hemorrhagic fevers were added.

April 4, 2003: EO 13295 added SARS to the list.

April 1, 2005: EO 13295 added “Influenza caused by novel or re-emergent influenza viruses that are causing, or have the potential to cause, a pandemic.” EO 13295 also: The president gave the Sec. of HHS the power to quarantine, his or her discretion. Sec of HHS has the power to arrange for the “apprehension and examination of persons reasonably thought to be infected.” A cough or a fever could put a person at risk for being quarantined for an extended period of time without recourse.

January 28, 2003: Project BioShield was introduced during Bush’s State of the Union Address. This created permanent and indefinite funding authority to develop “medical countermeasures.”

The NIH was given authority to speed approval of drugs and vaccines. Emergency approval of a “fast tracked” drug and vaccine can be given without the regular course of safety testing.

December 17, 2006: Division E: The Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREPA) was added as an addendum to Defense Appropriations Bill HR 2863 at 11:20p on Saturday night, long after House Committee members had signed off on the bill and gone home for the holidays.

Section (b)(1) states: The Sec of HHS can make a determination that a “disease, health condition or threat” constitutes a public health emergency. He or she may then recommend “the manufacture, testing, development, administration, or use of one or more covered counter measures…” A covered countermeasure defined as a “pandemic product, vaccine or drug.”

Division E also provides complete liability protection for all drugs, vaccines or biological products deemed a “covered countermeasure” and used for an outbreak of any kind. In July, 2009, complete liability protection was extened to drug companies that included any product used for any public health emergency declared by Sec of HHS.

Pharma is now protected from all accountability, unless “criminal intent to do harm” can be proven by the injured party. They are protected from liability even if they know the drug will be harmful.

“By 1853, Parliament began passing laws to make the untested vaccine compulsory throughout the British Empire. Other countries of Europe followed suit. Once the economic implications of compulsory vaccinations were realized, few dared to disagree. Then, as now, the media were controlled by the vaccine manufacturers and the government, who stood to make huge money from the sale of these spurious vaccines.”… Tim O’Shea, D.C.

For more info, visit Dr. Tenpenny’s website at www.drtenpenny.com

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Strickland’s Tax Proposal Not the Answer

Posted on October 8, 2009 | Leave a comment

By Marc Kilmer

Months after a contentious legislative session that struggled over balancing the state budget, Ohio is still facing a deficit. To deal with this, Governor Ted Strickland has proposed postponing scheduled tax cuts. He says the only other option is to cut spending. But what if there was a better way of dealing with these budget problems? If state policymakers would have taken steps to reform the bloated state bureaucracy, Ohioans would not be faced with this ongoing budget mess.

There were over 182,000 people employed by the Ohio state government in 2007, the last year for which numbers are available from the Census Bureau. Another 546,000 were employed by local governments. Your taxes pay the salaries of each of them. On the whole, these are hard-working people who do a good job and help provide necessary services. They are well-compensated for these services, though, and they receive good fringe benefits. No one is saying these government employees should not be paid for their services. But if their compensation was more in line with the private sector, taxpayers would see significant savings.

For instance, state employee salaries have risen faster than salaries for other Ohio workers. From 2001 to 2007, Ohioans’ per capita income rose 21%. State employee income, however, rose 27%. If state employees’ income would have risen at the rate of the rest of Ohioans, the state government would have spent $413 million less this year. And if the number of state employees remained at its 2001 level, the state would have spent $648 million less this year.

Considering that Governor Strickland is talking about $844 million in reduced education spending if the proposed income tax cuts take effect, it’s clear that the growth in state government employment is a significant contribution to the present budget problems. If state policymakers would have applied the brakes to state hiring over the past eight years, there would be no need for the governor to be discussing raising taxes.

Of course, if the number of state employees remained at its 2001 level and their compensation grew only as much as the rest of Ohioans’ compensation, this would translate to even more than $648 million in reduced spending. There would also be savings from the fringe benefits these employees receive, such as health insurance and pensions. And if these benefits were more in line with the private sector, state taxpayers would see even larger savings.

Take state employee health insurance, for instance. Government workers receive good health insurance coverage and they only pay an average of 15% of their premiums. In the private sector, employees pay closer to 30% of their premiums. If state employees were more like private sector employees, that would save taxpayers around $150 million this year.

Government employees should certainly be compensated for their services. But there is no reason why they should have better pay and benefits than they would receive in the private sector. When there is such a large gap between the state government’s spending and revenue, state policymakers need to review the generous compensation and benefits received by state employees and look for ways to rein it in. A hiring freeze, reducing the rate of salary increases, and paring back benefits to private sector levels are not radical propositions. In fact, it’s just common sense.

Source: Buckeye Institute Weekly News Digest, October 5, 2009.

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Why Darwin’s propagandists oppose the book The Mystery of Life’s Origin

Posted on October 6, 2009 | 1 comment

Propagandists for Darwin’s theory often claim their opponents are unscientific. They claim their opponents never offer science an alternative theory. They criticize their critics for their continual criticism. This is true of Eugenie Scott, PZ Meyer, Richard Dawkins, and the like.

I have noticed one so-called creationist work often mentioned and criticized by Darwinian propagandists. That work is The Mystery of Life Origins: Reassessing Current Theories by Charles B. Thaxton, Walter L. Bradley, and Roger L. Olson. Therefore, I bought that book and have been reading it.

While reading the first chapter, I began to realize why this book is a problem to Darwin’s propagandists. First, a better sub-title for the book would be Reassessing the Current Theories of Chemical Evolution. That is the actual subject of the book and for good reason: its authors are all professional chemists, evangelists or philosophers. Second, these authors identify the scientific community’s problems with chemical evolution, the statistical improbability of the evolution of cellular life by random chance, the lack of evidence for evolutionary predestination based on finding life on other planets, and the most troubling problem is with the nature of information available to and present by origin science theories.

Quoting preeminent scientists like George Gaylord Simpson, philosophers of science like Karl Pooper, and the prestigious scientific journal like Nature, the authors demonstrates the evolutionary theory of origins is mere speculation, which is exactly the claim made by Darwin’s propagandists against Intelligent Design. If you have watched the documentary Expelled, then you know they also admit they do not know how life actually began.

Consequently, the theories of Creation Science and Intelligent Design are as scientific as is the theory of Evolution to the extent the scientific community (meaning academia, big business, and government) produces and allows observational research by which to verify various theories. To test the plausibility of any theory and its inferences, real scientific research and publication of findings is required; but if it is prevented by the status quo in academia and society, academic and intellectual freedom is denied.

That is the underlying issue of the Evolution v Creation debate. It’s about philosophical views and the suppression of intellectual freedom. It’s bad politics as the many court cases hindering academic and freedom. According to Darwinian propagandists like Eugenie Scott, these cases presumably prove that the Creation Science and Intelligent Design theories are just religious theologies pretending to be science. Decisions of judges are not scientific judgments either.

The belief in a Creator of the material world and that the Creator intervenes in nature to direct or repair it is not illogical. To the members the Continental Congress of this nation, it was self-evidently rational. For a magnificently complex universe and life in it to come about by random accidents was self-evidently irrational. The proposition of Darwinian evolution that life developed by random chance mutations is still illogical as well as unproven. Complex machines do not just assemble themselves by accident. They are purposefully made according to a predetermined design according to ability and knowledge (information).

I have also noticed that all Origin theories, even the Genesis account, always assume preexisting material, organism, or universe from which our world and life in it came into existence. Both name elements and components, describe processes, identify sources, and employ reason and observation. Prior to Darwin and the rise of atheistic secularism, scientific discoveries were expected to give scientists and society a greater understanding of the Creator and his purpose(s) for creation. That is why religion is not a hindrance to science. On the contrary, it is only a hindrance to unethical scientific agendas.

If as David Bohm theorizes, the entire blueprint of the universe and all forms of life exist in every part of nature. Then, its source must have been very intelligent and skillful. Evolutionists like Richard Dawkins speculate that an intelligent being or being could have been the source. Others called that being God. For still others, their personal experience of God verifies their belief. Seeing that millions of people around the world for two millenniums have repeatedly have experienced the same verification, should not God then be regarded as an empirical fact?

Sources: Eugenie C. Scott, “American Antievolutionism: Retrospect and Prospect” in Evolution: The First Four Billion Years, Michael Ruse and Joseph Travis, eds., Cambridge, MA: Belnap Press, 2009): pp. 370-399; Expelled, No Intelligence Allowed, DVD, directed by Nathan Frankowski (Universal City, CA: Vivendi Entertainment, 2008); The Mystery of Life’s Origin (Dallas, TX: Lewis & Stanley,: 1984): pp. 1-7.

Note: I found “Evolution” at the Xenia Library but I could not find “Mystery,” but I did find it at the downtown Montgomery County Library. Other Greene County Libraries have “Expelled,” but the Xenia Library seems to prefer to spend tax dollars on Evolution.

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Good News-Ohio Unemployment Rate Drops 10.8%; Bad News-It’s still Above 10%

Posted on September 28, 2009 | Leave a comment

According to a 20 September report in the Dayton Business Journal, the Ohio economy faces some positive development in the labor market. Ohio unemployment dropped a whopping 0.4% from 11.2% in July to 10.8% in August.

That’s the good news.

The bad news is the unemployment rate is still well over last year’s rate of a mere 6.7%.

The multiple million dollar question (that represents loss of income) is whatever happened to full employment? That is the employment of all able-bodied citizens. I would include domestic labor such as stay -at-home moms and homemakers as among the employed. Could it be that the welfare state needs unemployment for its beneficent rule?

What scares me is the possibility that the devil really is in the details. As reported by the Dayton Business Journal, “Nonfarm payroll fell about 30,100 jobs to 5.1 million employees from 5.13 million in July, while the ranks of Ohio’s unemployed – those without jobs and actively looking for work – fell to 641,000 from 666,000.” See, 666 x 1,000 probably means there are a thousand devils ruining Ohio jobs. Some people seem to think that if you add up all politicians including lobbyists the number equals about the same.

I’m not blaming the Dayton Business Journal for preaching this bad news in a positive way for one simple reason: they were simply reporting what the Jobs and Family Department of Ohio reported. For example:

“A decrease in Ohio’s labor force was a primary factor in the drop of the August unemployment rate,” department Director Douglas Lumpkin said in a release. “The unemployment rate declined as the number of service-providing and goods-producing jobs decreased and fewer Ohioans were actively seeking work.”

Did you notice the double-speak oozing out of that statement?

I always thought a reduction in the labor force resulted in an increase in the unemployment rate, but not in Ohio. If you get depressed or otherwise sick of trying to find work, it means you are non-existent. It implies that members in the non-labor force are no longer independent citizens. They are nobodies in the statistical world of imperial politics. Such no-bodies may become some-bodies if they submit the imperial paternalism of the welfare state, which by the way, is run mostly by rich politicians and quasi-state institutions called national corporations.

The poor saps who have stopped looking for work are ba-a-a-d people. I can’t understand why anyone could quit looking for work in a society run by rich people who have intentionally worked to put people out of work by their wonderfully increasing debt producing policies that is making it nearly impossible for all but those bailed out by Chinese government loans to continue employing non-labor force people–go figure.

The government should thank those non-labor force people for making the unemployment rate look better than it is. Maybe it will assist political bureaucrats to convince foreign investors to continue loaning them more money.

The unemployed and the state’s economic dependents, however, will be unable to help pay back all of that beneficial debt that will continue to tax Ohio and American citizens’ economic prosperity without their full knowledge and approval.

Source: Dayton Business Journal, September 18, 2009

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Congressman Austria Co-Sponsors Czar Accountability & Reform Act

Posted on September 24, 2009 | Leave a comment

As you may know, recent attention has been drawn to the administration’s appointment of new czars. While the position of the czar has existed in past administrations, the present concern is focused on the number of czars President Obama has appointed in his short time in office, as well as the amount of power these individuals are given. It has been estimated that there are currently 34 czars in the administration. Questions of constitutionality have arisen because czars are not required to go through the regular confirmation process as, for example, is required for a cabinet secretary. With sweeping new policies that have extensive ramifications, like the stimulus bill, it is important that these individuals are kept accountable to the public.

That is why Rep. Austria became a cosponsor of the Czar Accountability and Reform Act (H.R. 3226), which would prohibit the use of tax dollars to pay the salaries and expenses of these “czars” without the advice and consent of the Senate. There must be complete disclosure, transparency and accountability for those appointed to these important positions.

— From Congressman Steve Austria’s E-Mail Updates.

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