America Gives US Infrastructure Projects to Chinese State-Owned Firms

My dad sent me this link to an ABC News clip claiming that US cities are hiring Chinese instead of American workers for building projects. I’m pretty moderate in most ways, but in this one I’m a hard liner and I can’t believe the citizens are allowing this kind of pathetic decision making to take place.

YES! I blame the citizens! It is our own apathy that allows this to occur. Some decision maker somewhere is thinking about how to cover his ass and asking questions like:

  • How fast can we get this job done? Because if it drags on and on, people are going to have my ass!
  • How much is this going to cost? Because it it’s too much, people are going to have my ass!

It’s no wonder they choose a cheaper, faster workforce that is state-owned, who don’t pay workers very much, and without as much regard for their workforce’s safety! In every way the decision maker will be judged, it saves their ass!

Except one…
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Police at UC Davis Pepper Spray Non-Violent Students

I’m neither for or against the “Occupy” movement, but I am definitely a supporter of the US Constitution which guarantees:

…the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances…

Yesterday, police at UC Davis demonstrated that they don’t value that particular edict established by the people when they turned a can of riot control pepper spray on a peaceful group of students sitting on the ground. The entire event was captured on video and in photos.

The man responsible for the attack on these citizens is UC Davis Police Lt. John Pike.
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John P. Chats with Heather Hays on Fox News About Facebook Hack

I went and had a little chat with Heather Hays on the Fox 4 news last night about the latest news that Facebook was hacked. Occasionally the Fox team also shares segments on the Web, and this happened to be one of them. So here’s my little explanation (in layperson terms) of what happened.

What do you think? Do you have a better way of explaining it so that even your grandmother could understand what happened? If so, please share!
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NEVER Pay to be “On The News”!

Today I got this random call from God-knows-who claiming to be a PR agent looking for “people in my industry”. Here is Google Voice’s translation of the message:

Steve. Hello. Just give me this is Riley (815) 633-3375 and I’m calling it’s fox news and ABC News are looking to do an interview and I need someone in your industry and I did happen to come across your name and number, see if you’d be interested in being in on Fox News at ABC, but we don’t work for the of the stations. But we are, P R firm and we charge $900. If you choose to do the story in at a it doesn’t hear that you don’t pay. Please call me today (815) 633-3375.

The translation is terrible, but the point is that this was a random cold call from someone who clearly didn’t even know who I was offering to get me on TV news. And if you ever, ever get a call like this you should NOT do it. Let’s talk about why…
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Crowd Lifts Burning Car – Saves Motorcyclist Who Was Under It!

Saving Man Under Burning Car

Saving Man Under Burning Car

This is amazing folks, and it demonstrates what a motivated group of people can do when action needs to be taken, and taken quickly. (Thanks to Brian Clark for finding this one.)

On Monday in Logan, Utah a motorcycle accident left one man laying underneath a car, with the motorcycle and front end of the car in flames. Witnesses to the accident quickly rushed forward to try to help, but clearly no one could save the man by themselves.
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Christians Openly Advocate Killing Atheists on FOX News Facebook Page

About a week ago, a group of people filed a lawsuit in New York to prevent a cross from being erected within the World Trade Center memorial without equal opportunity for other religions who wish to have memorials there as well.

According to the lawsuit, among the 2,792 people killed in the twin towers, 31 were Muslim Americans, approximately 400 to 500 were Jewish Americans, approximately 500 were non-religious Americans, and an unknown number were Americans of other faiths. (So, about half of the people who died were not Christian.)

Additionally:

No other religious or non-religious group has been permitted a memorial.

Fox News had some discussions about this event including this one.

Fox News on the WTC Cross Lawsuit

Clearly Christians are angry. They later had Blair Scott, Communications Director for American Atheists, on a show to talk about the lawsuit and immediately the Fox News Facebook page was flooded with thousands of comments. I would link to the post, but apparently Fox removed it. Not before several comments were screen captured though.
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President Barack Obama’s “Official” Birth Certificate Proven to be Faked (or at Least Edited)

President Barack Obama's Birth Certificate

President Barack Obama's Birth Certificate

I got a tip off about this controversy from my friend Chris Henning.

About a week ago President Barack Obama had his birth certificate shared on the White House blog. In addition, he went before the press to talk about the release of evidence regarding “the site of my birth”.

This following video is of President Obama addressing the nation regarding the release of his birth certificate. This preceded the blog post, but was presumably right around the same time.

This link is to the direct download of the PDF from the official WhiteHouse.GOV site:
http://whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/rss_viewer/birth-certificate-long-form.pdf
And in case it gets taken down eventually, here is a copy of the file which I personally downloaded and then uploaded to my own server:
President Obama’s Birth Certificate.
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Osama bin Laden is Dead, US Troops Have His Body

Osama bin Laden is Dead

Osama bin Laden is Dead

Just a few hours ago President Obama went on TV to tell the world that the US finally got Osama bin Laden.

After a 10 year hunt spanning two Presidents, Obama is finally able to lay claim to the death of America’s public enemy number one. The predictions about how this will change things have already begun.

People are already speculating that:

Whether or not hunting down bin Laden will really have these effects is yet to be seen…

President Obama’s Report of Osama bin Laden’s Death


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A Summary of News From Japan: After the Earthquake and Tsunami

Oil Refinery Burning in Japan After 2011 Earthquake

Oil Refinery Burning in Japan After 2011 Earthquake

I was trying to read up on all the latest updates in Japan as a result of the recent earthquake and tsunami, so I thought I would combine my findings into a blog post to save everyone else a little time surfing around.

Let me know if you find this helpful and I’ll try and do it more often in the future. As for now, on to the updates…

Tsunami Wave Height

Here’s a good look at the tsunami that did all the damage. The following image from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) illustrates the expected wave heights and location after the March 11, 2011 Japanese earthquake. Note that the deep purple color is 120cm in height, or about 4 feet.

NOAA 2011 Japanese Tsunami Wave Height

NOAA 2011 Japanese Tsunami Wave Height


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