An Ol’ Broad’s Ramblings
Morning Coffee 04/21/08
Carter outlines Hamas’ terms for peace deal
Former President Jimmy Carter said Monday that Hamas is prepared to accept peace with Israel if the Palestinians approve any agreement negotiated with Israel.
Carter’s comments came after controversial meetings Friday and Saturday in Damascus, Syria, with exiled militant Hamas leader Khalid Meshaal.
“If President (Mahmoud) Abbas of the Palestinians and Prime Minister (Ehud) Olmert reach an agreement for peace, and if it is submitted to the Palestinians and the Palestinians approve it… Hamas will accept it,” Carter said in a Monday interview with CNN.
In yet another display of over inflated ego….. The world laughs at him, and his own country wishes he would sit down and shut up. Every time he opens his mouth, he makes things worse!
Shari’a-Compliant Financing Described As New Islamist Threat
The finance method involves investments or transactions that have been structured to conform with the 7th century code of Islamic law, which is known as shari’a. Prohibitions include financial transactions involving interest, excessive uncertainty, or assets such as alcohol, tobacco, pork or gambling.
Gaffney said shari’a-compliant financing “legitimizes and institutionalizes” repressive Islamic law that conflicts with Western values.
If they want Shari’a laws, they should go back to where they came from, it does not fit in the Western world, and I for one, and not going to follow any sort of Muslim laws! First it’s the freakin’ footbaths, then it’s prayer time in public schools, all the while Christians are prohibited from praying. The stifling of the 1st Amendment is big on their list too. Islam and democracy do NOT mix!
4.5-Magnitude Aftershocks Rumble Illinois, Indiana
The U.S. Geological Survey says it has recorded one of the strongest aftershocks so far from Friday’s Illinois earthquake.
Geologists say the temblor just before 12:40 a.m. Monday registered at 4.5 magnitude at its epicenter about 5 miles northwest of Mount Carmel. The location is in the same area as Friday’s early-morning 5.2-magnitude earthquake, which was followed by a 4.5 magnitude aftershock about 5 1/2 hours later.
The Monday morning aftershock was at least the 15th since Friday’s quake.
Did anyone feel that one? Or the previous aftershocks?
Open-container bill could jeopardize DUI prosecutions
A legislative proposal to expand Tennessee’s ban on open alcohol containers in cars could have the unintended consequence of cutting funding for specialized drunken-driving prosecutors and police overtime for enhanced DUI enforcement.
The Tennessee Department of Transportation is losing out on road-building money because the current open container ban — which applies to drivers but not to passengers — is out of compliance with federal standards.
Tennessee still has an open container law? Who knew?
Obama? Clinton? Superdelegates say electability trumps primary results
Many of the Democratic superdelegates who are still undecided say the most important factor in their decision is simple — they just want a winner in November.
Problem is, after nearly four months of primaries and caucuses in 46 states, territories and the District of Columbia, they still aren’t sure who that is, don’t seem to be in any hurry to make up their minds and aren’t interested in any artificial process that might force them to choose between Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Neither of them are actually QUALIFIED to run a large country, but hey, let’s not that little FACTOID get in the way.
Police chief blames smoking ban and cheap alcohol for rise in domestic violence
A police chief has said the smoking ban and cheap alcohol sold in supermarkets are to blame for an increase in domestic violence.
Chief Superintendent Peter White, based in Preston, Lancashire believes a change in people’s social drinking habits following the implementation of the smoking ban last year, and some supermarkets selling alcohol for as little as 23p per can, is to blame for the increase in certain areas.
But gee whiz, as long as no one is smoking in a privately owned business, what difference does it make if spouses are getting the crap beat out of them, right? (feel free to insert the appropriate amount of sarcasm, and disgust, here)
US warplanes bomb Iraq’s Sadr City: residents
US warplanes dropped bombs overnight in the east Baghdad district of Sadr City where Shia militiamen are battling security forces, residents said on Monday, as the American military reported another five people killed in the embattled township.
Residents said low flying jets dropped bombs in sectors 22 and 24 of Sadr City, stronghold of the Mahdi Army militia of Shia radical leader Moqtada al-Sadr, around midnight (2100 GMT Sunday).
About two hours later, according to witnesses, helicopters fired missiles at four targets in Sadr City, where hundreds of people have died since Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered a crackdown on militias across Iraq in late March.
I’m trying to muster up some sympathy, and I just can’t. If you are willing to be a human shield, then be prepared to die. Hopefully, only bad guys were killed.
Amendments ‘decimate’ open records bill
The Tennessee legislature appeared headed toward the biggest expansion of the public records law in three decades, with a compromise bill negotiated by media and open-government advocates and associations representing cities, counties, school boards and other government agencies.
And then the City of Memphis weighed in.
The result was amendments to the negotiated bill that “are horrendous,” said Frank Gibson, head of the Tennessee Coalition on Open Government. The amended bill is scheduled for review Tuesday in the House State & Local Government Committee, chaired by Rep. Ulysses Jones, D-Memphis.
I see Memphis as a wart on the hind end of Tennessee, with high crime and whining politicians,
Ohio public school teacher ordered to remove Bible from classroom desk
John Freshwater has taught science at Mount Vernon Middle School for 20 years and last year was named “Teacher of the Year.” For the past 18 years, Freshwater has kept his personal Bible on his desk in order to provide strength and encouragement.
Administrators recently ordered Freshwater to remove the Bible, citing a violation of separation of church and state. But Freshwater’s spokesman, Dave Daubenmire of Pass the Salt Ministries, says the First Amendment gives Freshwater the right to keep his Bible on his personal desk.
“The issue is his own personal faith, and whether or not … a teacher become[s] a second-class citizen,” argues Daubenmire. “Does a teacher forfeit all of his constitutional rights, all of his God-given rights, when he becomes a school teacher?”
Once more, educators need to be educated. There is NOT “separation of church and state” in the Constitution!
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