POST SCRIPTS

by Jack Lee

Last Friday while 93% of the news was focused on Michael Jackson a bill passed the House with little fanfare. It was called Cap and Trade and while many American's have probably heard of that name, far fewer have any idea what it means. Yet this bill will dramatically affect the lives of Americans for generation and there is a genuine risk that this one bill could move us of from a recession into a depression.

Do I have your attention now?

In order to fully understand the implications of Cap and Trade you have to turn to history, back to 1930 when two Republicans, Reed Smoot and Willis Hawley passed a bill that became known as Smoot - Hawley. These men saw a need to increase tax revenues and protect farmers from low cost imports. The need to raise revenues was obvious, the nation was in a severe recession and the cause was good, protecting American farmers and what better way to do than to shift the burden to foreigners!
Opponents decried the bill as economic stupidity. A petition signed by 1028 economists was sent to the White House asking President Hoover to veto the bill. Henry Ford spent an evening with Hoover trying to persuade him and J. P. Morgan's CEO almost went down on his knees begging Hoover...don't do it! But, Hoover had made campaign promises to help out farmers and the nation needed the revenue stream and he yielded to Republicans, even though he felt the bill would undermine an international partnership of nations who would be economically damaged by the new tariffs.

Once the bill was passed it didn't take long for the consortium of nations selling goods to the USA to retaliate. They passed similar tariff bills on American goods. This included our strongest ally, Canada who would go on to forge greater economic links with European nations and new trading partners.

It's arguable that Smoot - Hawley may not have single handedly plunged us from recession into depression, but it was certainly a strong economic factor and for that there is no argument.

NOTE TO LEGISLATORS: Hoover, Smoot and Hawley were defeated in their re-election bids.

Now enter the Cap and Trade bill - 2009: The USA is in the midst of the greatest recession since 1929. The federal government is seeking creative ways to bolster a reliable income stream due to lost tax revenues. To achieve this, Democrat legislators have invented the Cap and Trade (tax) bill which would allegedly provide a massive amount of revenue and it has a good purpose... to limit carbon emissions until emissions are reduced to 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.

Here's how it works: The cap - Businesses would have to obtain permits entitling them to emit a certain quantity of carbon dioxide or its equivalent in other greenhouse gases. All permits would be auctioned off by the government. Emissions permits in the near term would likely fall in the range of $10 to $15 per metric ton of carbon dioxide or its equivalent.

The trade: Companies unable to meet their emissions quotas could purchase allowances from other companies that have acquired more permits than they need to account for their emissions. The cost of buying and selling these credits would be determined by the marketplace, which over time would reduce the cost of trading the credits as trading becomes more widespread and efficient.

The profits: If the federal government auctions the emissions permits to the companies required to reduce their emissions, it would create a large and dependable revenue stream. These financial resources could be used to achieve critical public policy objectives related to climate change mitigation and economic development.

Posted by Jack Lee

The information noted below came from one of our frequent commenters, Dan and it seems almost too shocking to be true. So, I just checked with Snopes Urban Legends site to see if they had anything on it, but it didn't turn up. I'm going to go ahead and pass it along to you to evaluate. It alleges there is a clause in president's proposed healthcare program that will make it possible for non-citizens to get free healthcare benefits.

From the alleged La Raza letter...."If the American people find out that this bill is about giving health care to non-citizens, they will rise up against it."

It was La Raza, the Childrens Defense Fund and Senator Menendez from New Jersey, a representative from his office...

...Yes [they said they would get free health care for illegal aliens], these are my notes, Mark. They actually got up and said "Latino children need health care more than whites". And then they would say things like "you must go out into your communities, use words like 'streamline', use phrases like 'all workers' and 'all families'," because they said -- and I quote -- "If the American people find out that this bill is about giving health care to non-citizens, they will rise up against it."

...One of the quotes they said was, "We want to make sure we take care of barriers like verification, but we can streamline programs to the more affluent" and, quote, "Useless treatments for the elderly can be gone because we don't need to spend money for people who are going to die anyway."

That's a direct quote from that meeting. They also said, "We are very concerned there will be an effort to include" the illegal immigrants in this argument, so "we must make sure that we focus this" to the American people that it's looking like we want "health care for everyone".

For more click this link

You might want to go to the next link shown below. This is Snopes and they provide some shocking, but true statements, by radical Hispanic groups bent on taking over American states. Click here. I warn you, this is pretty crazy stuff, but it is documented and verified as the truth.

by Jack Lee

North Korea is threatening to launch a missile at Hawaii on the 4th, California runs out of money in a couple of days, Iraqi's are cheering deliriously as skyrockets burst in brilliant colors overhead to celebrate US forces withdrawing from Baghdad (even Saddam didn't get that kind of send off) and there are a dozen other things of equal or greater concern, but instead we're going to spend hours of prime time watching the Michael Jackson funeral procession?

Michael Jackson, that pointy nose, bleached white, lipstick wearing, monkey adopting, child molesting, freakazoid, is being eulogized by Rev. Al Sharpton and others for virtually single handedly breaking down the color barrier for black entertainers and being a magnificent role model for millions of adoring fans who will now weep for days at the loss of this wonderful human being who does not even look black. He barely looks human.

In Congress, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. said with a straight face, "I come to the floor today on behalf of a generation to thank God for letting all of us live in his generation and in his era."

I should thank God letting me live in HIS generation? Un-be-lievable! Congressman Jackson is as nuts as MJ if he believes his own words. It's as if we're all supposed to conveniently wipe out the last 20 plus years of Michael Jackson's pedophilia and bizarreness and crown him a champion of truth, justice and the American way, because nothing else matters, except how good he could sing and dance!

This ladies and gentlemen is why we're in serious trouble of not being a society worthy of our inheritance, much less our continued existence.

And Barney Frank approves!

Posted by Tina

Exercising a MOB RULE mentality ACORN demonstrators hit the streets to pressure and harass lenders that are refusing to participate. Four lenders have refused to again make loans to unqualified buyers. The American Spectator reports:

ACORN Rent-A-Mob Thugs to Harass lenders in 14 Cities Tuesday," by Matthew Vadum - The American Spectator

** ACORN plans to hit Dallas, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, St. Louis, New York City, Wilmington (Del.), Columbus (Ohio), Houston, Little Rock, Boston, Los Angeles, Miami, San Francisco, and Seattle. *** ...let's not forget that ACORN helped to cause the mortgage bubble by strongarming banks into making loans they shouldn't have. And cheering them on was ACORN's lawyer, Barack Obama, who contributed to the increasingly hostile environment for banks when he represented plaintiffs in the 1995 class action lawsuit Buycks-Roberson v. Citibank. The suit demanded that Citibank grant mortgages to an equal percentage of minority and non-minority mortgage applicants. The bank settled the case three years later and reportedly agreed to beef up its lending to unqualified applicants. **

This story posted today, has anyone seen anything in the news regarding these scheduled protests?

Posted by Tina

Lest we forget:

"Men have been taught that the highest virtue is not to achieve, but to give. Yet one cannot give that which has not been created. Creation comes before distribution -- or there will be nothing to distribute. The need of the creator comes before the need of any possible beneficiary. Yet we are taught to admire the second-hander who dispenses gifts he has not produced above the man who made the gifts possible. We praise an act of charity. We shrug at an act of achievement." --novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand (1905-1982)

Hat tip: Patriot Post

by Jack Lee

The left has scored an historic victory! They've finally won the last battle and this means they've won the war. Just as they did to California's government, the left has taken complete control over the whole federal government. Congress is in their hands, now the Senate is in their hands and of course they own the white house. But, the real victory and the real power of the federal government is in the Senate and Congress and the Dems own those houses.

This is indeed a historic moment for America and ironically it came down to the election of a far left candidate for the Senate, one Al Franken-D of Minnesota. An eight month long court battle is over and Republican Norm Coleman has conceded to Franken only moments ago. "The Supreme Court has made its decision and I will abide by the results," Coleman told reporters outside his St. Paul home. Franken won by a micro thin margin of less than 200 votes, but a win is win and this one catapults Democrats into total control!

Franken's presence in the Senate would give the Democrats unlimited control because they now hold 60 seats, enough to overcome any Republican filibuster if they stay united. A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the earliest Franken would be seated is next week, because the Senate is out of session for the July 4 holiday.

If there was ever a final straw that broke the elephant's back, this is it. The Republicans had desperately clung to the hope that somehow Norm Coleman would stop the Democrat onslaught and prevent the takeover, but it was not to be. The GOP is devastated by this insulting victory because it came from Franken. This is a person they considered the most rabid leftist on the Democratic ticket and ironically it had to be him that delt the death blow to the GOP.

I suppose now we can expect defections from at least a few moderate Republican's who will soon be fighting to save their careers in hotly contested re-election bids. This goes with the old adage, if you can beat em, might as well join them and the GOP has certainly proved...they can't beat em. California has once again set the stage for future national events, proving that as California goes - so goes the nation.

By the way, you do realize that California is broke and their legislature is either inept or corrupt. It's like a ship of state in a storm tossed ocean that has lost it's rudder, sails and anchor and they're taking on water faster than they can bail as the current pushes them ever closer to a rocky reef in shark infested waters! California is only days away from total disaster thanks to their liberal democrat crew. (But, I suppose it could be worse)

by OneVike

Does everyone remember the Duke Lacrosse rape incident where three white team members were accused accused of raping a black "exotic dancer", and there was absolutely no evidence to support her story? Remember the way the MSM got on board with Jesse Jackson Al Sharpton and the whole whole PC world came down upon the boys involved and the whole team was destroyed by the lies.

Well I will be most interesting to watch the Duke faculty respond to the recent allegations towards one of their own. Oh, you say you haven't heard anything about Frank Lombard, the associate director of the Center for Health Policy at Duke University charged with the crime of offering his adopted 5-year-old son for sex? I am sure ABC, NBC, CBS, NY Times, SF Chronicle, Sacramento Bee, CNBC, MSNBC, PBS, FOX, and all the other MSM outlets are still working on their final draft of the story. After all they would not want to jump the gun and accuse anyone of doing something they did not do, would they?

by Jack Lee

President Obama responded quickly to the right-wing military ouster of leftist Manuel Zelaya, President of Honduras. Unlike recent events in Iran where President Obama took a long "wait and see" approach before commenting on their civil unrest, he wasted no time demanding that socialist President Manuel Zelaya be reinstated immediately!

The Honduran Supreme Court had requested the Army to remove President Zelaya from office, accusing him of undermining the constitution and forcing their country deeper into socialism. Zelaya had angered his country's legislature and courts by pushing for presidential reelection after his four-year term ends in 2010, following a trend that has already spread through other members aligned with Venezuela's left-wing bloc, the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), which includes Ecuador, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Cuba.

The Supreme Court said they were acting according to the Constitution, an action which President Obama and El Presidente for Life Fidel Castro called completely illegal!

Zelaya ran on a populist ticket, denouncing the rich and demanding wealth be shifted to the poor, although he is from one of Honduras' most wealthy and powerful families. Earlier in his life he was not considered a radical leftist, but the tennor of his campaign rhetoric and events while in office turned many Honduran's against him. President Zelaya was a strong ally and supporter of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, an avowed communist. Chavez said today his government is ready to support a revolution in Honduras to return Zelaya to the Presidency.

Currently Barack Obama, Daniel Ortega, Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez have joined with other communist leaders to demand the return of Zelaya, the socialist dictator. Leftist leaders pulled their ambassadors from Honduras and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega said El Salvador, Nicaragua and Guatemala would cut trade with neighboring Honduras for at least 48 hours. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called for Hondurans to rise up against those who toppled his friend, Manuel Zelaya.

Zelaya's adminstration was drawing increasing criticism as his campaign promises went largely unfulfilled. Corruption has dogged his government with several officials accused of taking kickbacks. He arbitrarily doubled the minimum wage, but most businesses have refused to pay it, saying they can't afford it amid a global financial crisis. And violence has surged, rising 25 percent from 2007 to 2008 to make Honduras one of Latin America's deadliest countries.

Zelaya became active in the Liberal Party in the 1980s and went on to serve in Congress three times, becoming a vocal supporter of decentralizing the government and giving more power to communities (this part changed when he became president). His bid for the presidency came out of nowhere, but Zelaya quickly gained support by painting himself as a man from the countryside who understood the rural poor and would combat crime by fighting poverty like Karl Marx.

Posted by Jack

How's your memory?

Does anybody out there have any memory of the reason given for the establishment of the DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY during the Carter Administration?

Anybody? Anything? No? Didn't think so!

Bottom line ... we've spent several hundred billion dollars in support of an agency ... the reason for which not one person who reads this can remember. Ready??????? It was very simple .. and at the time everybody thought it very appropriate...

The 'Department of Energy' was instituted on 8-04-1977 TO LESSEN OUR DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN OIL! How are they doing?????

AND NOW IT'S 2009, 32 YEARS LATER ... AND THE BUDGET FOR THIS SO-CALLED NECESSARY DEPARTMENT IS AT $24.2 BILLION A YEAR. IT HAS 16,000 FEDERAL EMPLOYEES AND APPROXIMATELY 100,000 CONTRACT EMPLOYEES AND LOOK AT THE JOB IT HAS DONE! THIS IS WHERE YOU SLAP YOUR FOREHEAD AND SAY 'WHAT WAS I THINKING?'

Ah, yes, good old bureaucracy... And NOW _ we are going to turn the Banking System, Health Care & the Auto Industry over to government?

Posted by Tina

Justice is served up as a life sentence for Bernie:

NEW YORK - Bernard Madoff has been sentenced to 150 years in prison for his multibillion-dollar fraud scheme. U.S. District Judge Denny Chin handed down the sentenced in New York on Monday. The 71-year-old former Nasdaq chairman was arrested late last year after confessing to his sons... - NYT

In a statement issued by her attorneys Ruth Madoff is says she is "embarrassed and ashamed" and that many of the victims were her friends. She did not attend the sentencing.

WALL STREET CHEERED

by Jack Lee

The year is 2059 and in order to save our State dramatic election reforms were necessary. The election rules over the past 5 years were changed for candidates running for the State Office to stop the growing corruption and incompetence in office. Similar federal laws were also enacted because the quality of their elections were also under seige. The following is a brief summary of what it took to finally restore the integrity of the election process:

These are not magic bullet reforms, just simple, no non-sense reforms that in a way make elections almost boring, but boring is good because this means they are absent scandals.

We start with a token gesture that sets the mood. The filing fee. There is no longer a candidate filing fee. Money or a lack thereof, was held to be a poor determining factor for who runs and who doesn't. We found it was only necessary to qualify candidates to run by having them personally obtain 1000 signatures from his/her district in a 60 day filing period.

Once qualified, the candidates must attend at least 8 town hall meetings across their district or be disqualified. These appearances are open to the public and free of charge.

Only one ad, a mass mailer, is now allowed and it goes out in the 4th week before the election day. The timing of this was to allow the opposition to respond to any personal accusations in a rebuttal mailer in 3rd week. Too many elections were being scandalized by devious 11th hour hit pieces, mass mailers and ad blitzes and that low tactic had to go! At first candidates shreeked this was a violation of the 1st Ammendment, but the people said their false ads and mailers were an abuse of the 1st Ammendment and they won. The people said they wanted to see more of the candidates in person, and they did not want to be subjected to an inundation of mass mailers. This made sense and to protect the integrity of the election process the Supreme Court agree the ads of mass deception had to go. Common sense prevailed!

We have finally learned elections should be only about recruiting the best possible candidates to represent the people. We do that by encouraging more people to step forward to run, and in-turn this brings voters more choices and injects more ideas into the race. By enacting these no cost reforms we have a more level playing field for candidates to get their REAL message out... it is both fair and prudent to operate this way. The voters are finally free from all the manipulations by professional campaign consultants! Voters were disgusted with those increasingly aggressive fake slate mailers, the fake polls, the fake endorsements, and the big money influence that bought elections for special interests.

Under the new rules whatever is said in the election must come from the candidates mouth; then its on the record and there is no deniability.

Today's candidates have been freed from raising vast sums of money and all the unhealthy obligations that came with it. This has had a dramatic effect in the quality of legislation and California government is now among the best run in the nation.

In 2059 candidates are left to run on their own abilities and that is exactly how it should be. Elections have been returned to the people! If it isn't, the current course of corruption says that by 2059 we won't have elections, we will morely have selections.

Posted by Tina

"The Black Liquor War," - Wall Street Journal

** Congress's unrelenting efforts to rid the world of fossil fuel have now produced a North American trade war over an obscure substance called "black liquor." Let us explain. *** This story begins with Congress's 2005 highway bill. It included a subsidy to encourage businesses to power their motor vehicles with "alternative fuels" such as ethanol, rather than fossil fuels such as diesel. Congress said businesses could receive a 50-cent tax credit for every gallon of gasoline if they used a blend of a traditional fossil fuel and an alternative fuel. *** Then in 2007, Congress extended this largesse beyond highway vehicles to a wider range of alternative fuel users. Enter "black liquor," a carbon-rich substance the paper industry has used for decades to power its mills. It also qualifies as an alternative fuel. All the paper industry had to do was blend some fossil fuel in with their alternative fuel and -- voila! -- billions of dollars in federal subsidies were within reach. So they did. *** Adding diesel to the paper production process might not be in the anti-fossil fuel spirit of Congress's tax credit, but it was legal, and lucrative. The American paper industry is on pace to pocket some $6 billion in tax credits this year, enough to cut production costs by 60% and reduce the price of some U.S. paper goods by 25%. *** Not surprisingly, Canadian paper companies are miffed at this subsidized windfall to their competition. Now they've gotten their Parliament to do something about it. Following the two-wrongs-make-a-right logic of trade wars, Canadian lawmakers recently passed a subsidy worth $882 million for their domestic paper industry. **

Posted by Tina

Don Carey of Ohio has had it! The latest round of tobacco taxes raised the retail price of his "roll your own" tobacco by a whopping 2,153%, a price ol' Don just could not abide. So he's decided to grow his own and has begun the process of determining which seeds will produce the best crop from the plot of ground available to him. Out of work and with plenty of time on his hands he's reading and studying to learn the ups and downs of tobacco farming and curing.

Apparently tobacco, the finished product, is quite a challenge to produce but Don is determined to get er done. The Food and Drug Administration says the new law allows individuals to produce tobacco for their own use without being taxed. I expect a few more enterprising Americans will follow Dons excellent example.

Post by Jack Lee

Billy Mays, the television pitchman best known for his lively advertising of products such as Orange Glo and OxiClean, has died at the age of 50.

"Tampa area media reported that Mays was a passenger on a U.S. Airways flight that made a rough landing on Saturday afternoon at Tampa International Airport, apparently blowing its front tires in an incident that left debris on the runway." -MSNBC

None of the 138 passengers and five crew members were reported to be seriously injured immediately following the incident, but several passengers reported having bumps and bruises from falling objects.

Tampa Bay's Fox television affiliate interviewed Mays after the incident.

"All of a sudden as we hit you know it was just the hardest hit, all the things from the ceiling started dropping," Mays told Tampa Bay FOX. "It hit me on the head, but I got a hard head."

Mays also wrote on his Twitter last night: "Just had a close call landing in Tampa. The tires blew out upon landing. Stuck in the plane on the runway. You can always count on US Air."

Tampa police said Mays was discovered unresponsive by his wife Sunday morning. The local fire rescue crew pronounced him dead at 7:45 am this morning June 28, 2009.

"There were no signs of a break-in, and investigators do not suspect foul play," stated Lt. Brian Dugan of the Tampa Police Department. The coroner's office expects to have an autopsy done by tomorrow afternoon.

Note from the Post Scripts On-Call Doctor: It is possible May's suffered either a lesion on his brain, unlikely, but possible or a traumatically induced vertebral artery occlusion (A lesion to the vertebral artery) from being struck in the head during the planes landing. My guess is the later.

Often times a blow to the head, even a minor blow, will cause the brain to move just enough to tear the vertebral artery. We call this a hyperextension injury. Previously most doctors accepted this as the most common mechanism of vertebral artery injury. However, recent reports have identified distractive flexion injury as the main cause of this lesion.

In such cases victims can die within hours or few days, depending on the severity of bleeding. Victims experience little or no pain, but become drowsey and unresponsive. Death follows fairly quickly once they are unconscious.

It's always a good idea to monitor crash victims with head injuries very closely for 24 hours after injury. A brain concusion (bruising) sometimes be can detected by unequal pupils.

Any person with head injury that has symptoms of dizziness, pain, drowseyness, vision problems should be checked out immediately by a medical professional, it could be a matter of life or death.

THE SUNDAY SERMON

by OneVike

In lieu of my sermon this week, I have decided to present the first part in a series of five articles about the great Protestant Reformation. In this series I will present various historical aspects I believe worked together to create the atmosphere needed for the Reformation to take place. I do not mean to diminish the contributions of any of the many individuals or events that will be left out of my series, but in order to be as concise as possible I will inevitably fail to give proper credit to some. I believe the six areas I have settled upon cover most of what is needed to make my point. The five part series will include:

1.) An Introduction and Overview of the Renaissance
2.) The Political and Social changes of the times
3.) Literature
4.) Art, Exploration, and Inventions
5.) Conclusion

An introduction and Overview of the Renaissance

Never in history has one man's thesis so rattled the powers that be than did Martin Luther's when he nailed his ninety-five grievances to the Church door at Wittenberg. It was an act of defiance that would eventually topple a church state organization that held sway over kings and paupers alike for a thousand years. And while every history class that covers the reformation will tell you that it was Johann Tetzel's selling of indulgences that pushed Luther into action that day, Tetzel's action was only the final straw, not the cause of the revolution. At the time the Reformation began, there were many factors that enabled and emboldened the common man into action but none was more profound in it's influence then was the Renaissance.

Encyclopedias and history books all seem to point out that the word Renaissance is French for "rebirth". However, the Italian painter Giorgio Vasari was probably the first person to describe this era as the "Renaissance" when he used the word rinascità. In 1568 he authored a book called, "Le vita de' più eccellenti architetti, pittori, ed scultori italiani" ("The Lives of the Most Eminent Italian Architects, Painters, and Sculptors") the title more commonly used is, "Lives of the Artists". Vasari applied this concept specifically to a "revival", or "rebirth". In the chapter titled "Andrea di Cione, Spinello, Dello, and Paolo Uccello" he wrote, "In the year 1350 was formed the Company and Fraternity of the Painters in Florence, for the masters were there in great numbers, and they considered that the arts of design had been born again in Tuscany, and indeed in Florence itself."

The Renaissance started in southern Europe or the Italian city-states while the Reformation started in northern Europe or Germany. There is a debate as to whether the Renaissance ended when the Reformation started, or continued up to the Age of Enlightenment. To make things even more interesting the Renaissance started at different times in various parts of Europe. There are also numerous dates given as to when the Renaissance took place, and depending on your source it started anywhere from 1300 to 1450. I believe the Renaissance originally began around 1350 in the Italian city-states of Florence, Genoa, Milan, Venice, Verona, and Siena. Although through different means and sometimes with ulterior motives, it would spread to France, Germany, England, Spain, and other parts of Europe.

After many centuries of what they considered intellectual and cultural decline, Europeans thought they had rediscovered the superiority of Greek and Roman culture and came to the conclusion that their own cultural achievements rivaled those of antiquity. This thinking was influenced by the concept of humanism, which emphasizes the worth of the individual. The Renaissance humanists believed it was possible to improve human society through classical education that relied on teachings from ancient texts and emphasized a range of disciplines including poetry, history, and moral philosophy. This period of history is marked by great achievements in art, literature, inventions, explorations, and an increase of trade from the eastern Mediterranean lands that led to a rebirth of knowledge and understanding of foreign lands and cultures. While the Renaissance man's hunger for understanding his world led some to engage in self satisfaction that set him free from the churches morals, others searched for a deeper understanding of the scriptures to get closer to what the gospels taught. All this took place during a time of social and political upheaval that would lead to the end of the state bowing to the pressure of the church.

My next article will show how the political and social changes of the Renaissance led to the end of the feudal system, triggered a capitalist-based society, and set the stage for a revolution that would ultimately create new religious, political, geographical boundaries in Europe.

To conserve space, I am not posting documentation of my research. If someone desires documentation for any of my claims, I will gladly give you a copy of my complete Bibliography.

Posted by Jack Lee

Lovers of the English language might enjoy this. It is yet another example of why people learning English have trouble with the language. Learning the nuances of English makes it a difficult language. (But then, that's probably true of many languages.)

There is a two-letter word in English that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that word is 'UP.' It is listed in the dictionary as being used as an [adv], [prep], [adj], [n] or [v].

It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP?

At a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP, and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report? We call UP our friends and we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver, we warm UP the leftovers, put on make UP and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car.

At other times the little word has a real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses.

To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special. And this up is confusing: A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP. We open UP a store in the morning, but we close it UP at night. We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP !

To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP , look the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4 of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions. If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more. Elvis had contributed one, he was "All shook up!"

When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP . When the sun comes out we
say it is clearing UP. When it rains, it wets UP the earth. When it does not rain for awhile, things dry UP.

One could go on & on, but I'll wrap it UP , for now......my time is UP , so time to
shut UP!

Oh...one more thing: What is the first thing you do in the morning & the last thing you do at night?

U
P

Don't screw up.

Now I'll shut up, besides I'm thirsty, I need a 7-UP!

by Tina Grazier

History is replete with gentlemen familiar with the con. Bernie Madoff recently made a name for himself as one of the top ten all time con men. His name will go down in infamy with Charles Ponzi who fashioned the scheme that bears his name. These men and others pop to the surface from time to time to remind us that we need to be smart about how we spend and invest our money. They also remind us that people can be incredibly bad even when they look good, are well known, or seem to be doing something positive. Things aren't always what they seem.

And speaking of crooks and liars, Al Gore comes to mind. The Global Warming guru has much to celebrate. The legislation he desperately needs to cash in on the GW scam passed in the House yesterday. The Waxman/Markey bill squeaked through with a 219-212 vote. Gore has worked tirelessly for years as the front man for this grand scheme. Global political will has been his life' mission winning him awards from the elite crowd and kudos from a mass following of compromised scientists and well meaning dupes. Yesterday marked a major victory. The New York Times reports him as saying, "This bill doesn't solve every problem but passage today means that we build momentum for the debate coming up in the Senate and negotiations for the treaty talks in December which will put in place a global solution to the climate crisis. There is no backup plan."

Well gee, Al, maybe that's because there's no real need for a backup plan.