An Ol' Broad's Ramblings
Morning Coffee – 11/28/08
Metro values could rise 10% in reappraisal
The upcoming reappraisal of all Davidson County property could yield an overall increase in value of 10 percent or more, opening up an array of revenue-generating possibilities for Metro Nashville.
Mayor Karl Dean and the Metro Council could use the results to bring in as much as $70 million — a tantalizing possibility for a city that wants to keep moving forward as much as possible in an economic downturn.
Only a bunch of morons would think that increasing appraisals would be a good idea when the prices of homes and property have been slashed. They migh want to consider going in the opposite direction. the only thing they’ll move ‘forward’ is the line at the bancruptcy courts. Idjits!
Putin’s Intentions Debated After Shift on 4-Year Term
Now, months after leaving office and becoming prime minister, Putin is helping another relatively young, newly elected Russian president do exactly what he promised never to do himself — rewrite the constitution to extend the presidential term. The abrupt reversal has sparked speculation in Moscow about whether Putin is preparing to take back his old job as president, and why.
Why not just call himself Czar? I’m not sure how Bush saw his soul, cuz I’m questioning whether he’s actually got one, or if it’s black as tar, in which case, it’d be hard to see anyway when “looking into his eyes”.
Texas officials warn parents of babies dying while ‘co-sleeping’ with adults
Nearly every other day, a baby dies in Texas while sleeping with an adult or older child, marking an alarming phenomenon that causes more child deaths than accidental drownings, state officials said Wednesday.
The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services found that 170 children, nearly all younger than 6 months old, died while “co-sleeping” with a parent, sibling or older caregiver in the 2008 fiscal year. Authorities did not release the causes of death, but experts say suffocation is the most common cause of such fatalities.
“Co-sleep”? What kind of stupid term is that? If you don’t have a bed to put the kid in to sleep, use blankets and a laundry basket. Or a drawer. I know it sounds almost ‘abusive’, but tell me, which is worse….letting the kid sleep in a padded drawer, or rolling over on him/her and suffocating him/her? Seriously! I had to do it with Brat (laundry basket) and Brat Jr (drawer). They survived just fine. Being poor is not a sin, but being stupid……??
SIEGE AS JEWISH CENTER IN MUMBAI SAID TO BE OVER
A fresh battle raged at the luxury Taj Mahal hotel Friday as commandos fired grenades at that Mumbai landmark while other forces ended a siege at another five-star hotel.
Meanwhile, Indian commandos emerged from a besieged Jewish center with rifles raised in an apparent sign of victory after a daylong siege that saw a team rappel from helicopters and a series of explosions and fire rock the building and blow gaping holes in the wall. The fighting comes two days after a chain of militant attacks across India’s financial center that began Wednesday night left at least 143 people dead.
An Israeli rescue service run by Orthodox Jews said that staff it had sent to Mumbai to help at a siege of a Jewish religious center believed that hostages in the Chabad Centre had died, Reuters reported.
The pigs who would do this to innocents have NO right to live. Justice will be served! Maybe not in this life, but surely in the next.
5 Dead in Mumbai Chabad House Terror Attack
After more than 40 hours and a day-long siege by Indian commandos against Islamist terrorists holed up in the Mumbai Chabad House, the operation ended with the discovery that five of the Jewish hostages had been murdered by their captors, including Chabad-Lubavitch emissary, Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivka.
My most sincere prayers with the families, of ALL the victims of these animals.
Tax-exempt benefit disputed in Prop. 8 campaign
In the wake of Proposition 8′s passage, opponents are railing that churches that supported the ballot measure violated their tax-exempt status.
It’s a common accusation at the now-weekly protests, gaining enough traction that Geoff Kors, a member of the No on 8 executive committee, said lawyers are investigating the issue.
“The Mormon church overstepped its boundaries by being a tax-exempt organization,” said Sharone Negev, 54, of San Francisco, who has gone to protests in San Francisco and the Mormon temple in Oakland. “They clearly are not supposed to be involved in political activities.”
Because decent God fearing people took their information straight from the Bible, it’s ‘political’? No, you twit….it’s MORAL, and that’s where churches MUST step in. Haven’t y’all already dragged this country down far enough into the cesspool?
U.K. takes over Royal Bank of Scotland
The British government took control of Royal Bank of Scotland on Friday after investors shunned the lender’s share sale, paving the way for a larger government role in Britain’s banking sector.
Investors only signed up for 0.24 percent of the shares, which were offered as part of a plan to bolster the bank’s capital, and the government had to take up the rest, leaving it with a 57.9 percent stake in RBS. The government agreed to buy a separate block of preferred shares bringing its investment in RBS to about $31 billion. The investment leaves taxpayers already with a paper loss of more than $3 billion, based on Thursday’s closing share price.
I told the Mr he needed to sell his stock, but did he listen???? sigh…
City schools could train police
Supt. Kriner Cash intends to turn either Manassas High or Hamilton High into a four-year public safety academy, annually turning out 200 potential Memphis police recruits as early as 2013.
“You don’t come out ready to be a police officer, but you are ready to pursue postsecondary training,” Cash told The Commercial Appeal’s editorial board this week.
Memphis schools can barely teach these kids to read and write. They haven’t even bothered with the concept of ‘personal responsibility’. What on earth makes them think they could take them through the first step to become a police officer?
Israel wants to ‘corner’ Hizbullah in EU
Hizbullah’s foreign relations officer, Nawwaf al-Moussawi, accused Israel on Thursday of launching “a political and diplomatic campaign to corner Hizbullah in Europe.” “This campaign aims to shackle the European role in Lebanon and the region, to impose the Israeli logic and cover up continued Israeli crimes and aggressions, as well as deform the image of the resistance,” he said after a visit to the Italian Embassy. Moussawi met with Italian Ambassador Gabriele Checchia and discussed recent developments in Lebanon and the region. Moussawi called on European states to “break the inhumane [Israeli] siege against Gaza.” He described the siege as “collective punishment against a political choice.” He questioned why the process of starving Palestinians is “met with silence and complicity.” “This fosters the belief among the Lebanese that what protects them from Israeli aggression is their own capability of resistance,” he added.
They should be ‘cornered’ somewhere, other than right next to Israel where they could do more damage. As for that ‘imposing Israeli logic’? Well, wanting to survive, without the constant threat of Hizbullah hanging over their shoulder, seems pretty flippin’ logical to me.
Russia seeks new missiles due to U.S. shield plans
Russia has intensified efforts to develop new ballistic missiles in response to U.S. plans to deploy an anti-missile system in Europe, Interfax news agency quoted a top Russian general as saying on Friday.
The decision by the United States to deploy interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar system in the Czech Republic has angered Moscow, which says Russia’s national security will be compromised by the U.S. anti-missile system.
Perhaps if Russia wasn’t such close pals with folks who want to destroy, like Iran and Venezuela for example, there would be no need for the defense shields. The fact they want bigger and better missiles just proves the point that they are NOT the peaceful types they’d like people to believe.
Putin is indeed peaceful. Why object if he wishes to impose that peace on others?
@Soothsayer:
That would be the same kind of peace that they had under the old Soviet rule?