The father of Rand Paul, the man who wants to be our next president in 2016, is proving his love of America and Americans by giving away a weapon of mass destruction – a semi automatic Colt LE6920MP-B AR-15 . Paul’s give away is actually a chance to get people to donate to his website, but in the letter posted on his website, he claims that the giveaway is all about FREEDOM! Cause, you know, Obama is somehow using jedi mind tricks and taking away all our guns and… FREEDOM!
Did I say FREEDOM?
Here’s his letter!
Dear Friend of Liberty,
There can be no freedom without the ability to defend it.
C4L is standing up for freedom every day by fighting to Audit the Fed, repeal ObamaCare, stop NSA spying, and reclaim our Republic.
But each and every one of us has a God-given right – and duty – to defend freedom.
That’s why C4L is giving away a brand new Colt LE6920MP-B AR-15 equipped with a red dot sight.
The AR-15 will come with Magpul stock, pistol grip, handguard, and vertical grip and back-up sight. All you have to do is sign up for free below for your chance to win!
All entries must be submitted by 5 PM EDT on Thursday, July 3, 2014. We will notify the winner via email.
Once again, Jon Stewart of The Daily Show is leading the way, pointing out a simple fact that the rest of the so-called main stream media is missing – the same Iraq failures that lied us into war in Iraq, are the same ones beating the drums for more troops to re-invade Iraq, and they’re blaming Obama for withdrawing the troops in the first place.
Failures like John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Bill Krystal, Paul Wolfowitz and the rest of the Republican caucus have piled on the president at a time of foreign conflict, and they are dragging the president through the mud because he chose to carry out Bush’s original plan in bringing all American troops out of Iraq.
Stewart pointed out their backwards thinking when he said, “four wrongs make a right.”
Stewart showed John McCain doing what he does best – lying, saying that “the decision was made by the Obama administration to not have a residual force in Iraq.”
Of course that was a lie and McCain knows it. But like the rest of his Republican buddies, blaming Obama is the way to go!
Asking “why did Obama snatch defeat from the jaws of victory,” Stewart played a clip of Fred Kaplin explaining that the decision to bring the troops home was in fact, made by the Bush administration before Obama was even elected in 2008.
“President Bush signed a treaty at the end of 2008, The Status of Force Agreement,” Kaplin said in the clip, “which said that all US forces, not just combat forces, but all US forces would be out of Iraq by the end of 2011!”
So they are blaming Obama for a treaty that was already signed before Obama even took office. These liars are amazing!
All the speculations surrounding Hillary Clinton’s political aspirations in 2016 should stop now. Hillary Clinton is running for president and she knows it.
In a recent interview a Canadian network CBC, the former Secretary of State said that she recognizes the fact that the American women are more than ready for a female president, but she admits that although there are many possible female candidates, she is more qualified because she has “gone through the fire.”
“I’m incredibly touched by it and feel responsible because of it,” she said. “And I know that it’s important that we break that highest and hardest glass ceiling. I also believe there are quite a few women who are eminently qualified but may not have the profile.”
She said that there are other women in the Democratic party capable of running for president, but explained that she is more qualified.
“We have a good bench, so to speak. But they haven’t gone through the fire. Part of the reason why there’s a big drumbeat for me to run is because I’ve done it,” she said.
The U.S. government has captured what it’s calling “a key figure” in the attacks two years ago on U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya, which killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.
American military and law enforcement personnel operating in Libya captured Ahmed Abu Khatallah, who has secretly been indicted in the United States for his alleged role in the attacks.
Khattalah, who was captured Sunday, is now in “a secure location outside of Libya,” and no civilians or U.S. personnel were harmed in the operation, according to a statement today from a Pentagon spokesman. One source said he is being held on a US Navy ship in the Mediterranean.
Costco is apparently the place to meet, and especially if you’re trying to meet politicians.
Hillary Clinton was at a Costco in Arlington VA., signing copies of net new book when Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor walked by. Pleasantries and a handshake were exchanged and the justice was quickly on her way.
Maybe he’s auditioning for a role on Fox, maybe this is a late edition of a midlife crisis. Whatever it is, Chris Matthews of MSNBC is losing his political grounds and others are beginning to take notice.
In a show last week, Matthews asked Liberals to stop “looking down our noses at teaparty people.”
Why? Because according to Matthews, the Teaparty people are are angry “about the failure of our system.” Matthews then goes on explaining what those “failures” of government are, you know, the things about our government that give the Teaparty people the right to be angry. These governmental failure, according to Matthews, are failure to “control the deficit, the debt and the border. Then the man who sometimes call himself a Democrat asked; “What good is government good at?”
Here is his reasoning;
This looking down our noses at tea party people has got to stop. They have a message. They’re as American as any liberal is. And they’re really angry about the failure of our system. I was over covering Eastern Europe when the wall came down. You know what people didn’t like? It wasn’t the philosophy of communism they didn’t like — it was the complete corruption of it, the failure of it to deliver to working people. That’s what this system is doing right now: We can’t control the deficit, we can’t control the debt, we can’t control the border. What good is government good at?”
If Chris Matthews cannot figure out “what good is government good at,” then I cannot figure out what good his show is good at. There are times when his vast knowledge of politics is apparent, and then there are other times when he ask these dumb questions and have us all wondering, and the dumb questions phase is becoming too unbearable!
Asking what good is the government is the founding principle of the teaparty movement. Those fools would like to abolish everything the government has achieved over the last 65 years, including Civil Rights, Voting, Taxes, FEMA, the Board of Education, to name a few. And they will be more than satisfied running around the streets with their Ozzie and Semi Automatic Second Amendment rights slung over their shoulders, blasting anyone they consider threatening because that person is in a car playing music at a gas station.
Yea, Chris Matthews cannot see the importance of government. “What good is government good at?”
Tony Gwynn passed away today at the age of 54, thus ending a battle with cancer dating back to 2010.
Gwynn was very private about his medical struggles but he had attributed them to years of chewing tobacco use.
Gwynn was a player of legendary proportion. A 15 time all-star, 5 time gold glove winner, 7 time silver slugger and an insane 8 time NL batting champ. Tony played the game like few could.
He was also an amazing ambassador to the game and his work off the field truly showed what a great person he was. Tony received the Roberto Clemente Award in 1999 for best exemplifying the game of baseball, sportsmanship, community involvement and the individual’s contribution to his team.
Gwynn’s number 19 was retired with the padres and in 2007 he was elected the National Baseball Hall of Fame on his very first ballot with a whopping 97.6 percent of the vote.
If you’re like many and cannot figure out what all the fuss about this Soccer thing and The World Cup, then have no worries. John Oliver has explained everything.
The recent decision in California regarding teacher tenure is causing a great deal of anxiety in public education and in those states where teacher tenure still has some meaning. The ruling that tenure is unconstitutional because it denies students the right to a decent education is an interesting take on the subject, but it obscures the truth about how tenure works and why it’s still needed.
I’ve already visited the subject, but it’s worth repeating that tenure is NOT, I repeat, NOT a guarantee of lifetime employment, no matter how many times the know-nothing reformers repeat that it is. Earning tenure merely means that after four years in one district, a teacher must get a due process hearing if a school district wants to fire them. In New Jersey, the tenure laws were changed in 2012 to streamline the process so it didn’t take years and a lot of money in order to fire a teacher. Now, an arbitrator hears the case and generally rules within five months, and their decision is final.
Opponents of tenure, and these are the people who want to privatize all government functions in the United States except the military, say that tenure, and unions, protects bad teachers and makes it almost impossible to fire them. They also say that seniority rules that protect experienced educators at the expense of newer teachers when there are layoffs are outmoded and result in many young, energetic educators being let go before they can even begin their careers. I will admit that there are teachers in classrooms right now who do not belong there and who should not be teaching. There are also middling teachers for whom a younger replacement might mean an improvement in children’s education.
But blaming teacher’s unions is not the answer. No, the real reform in teacher retention, training and development rests with the administrators who run the school districts and schools. They are the ones who have the ultimate power to evaluate and make hiring decisions about their staffs. If these administrators keep teachers who should not be in the classroom, then they will be the ones responsible when those teachers do not turn out to be effective educators.
And who are these administrators? They are self-selected people who decide on their own to become principals and superintendents. There is no national or state organization that recognizes and encourages people who would be excellent administrators and sets them on a path to effective leadership. It’s the luck of the draw, and the deck is thinning in New Jersey due to Governor Christie’s support and signature on a law that limits pay for superintendents and other upper echelon school management. Yes, yes; I’ve heard the false argument that money doesn’t matter in education, at least where pay is concerned, because the false common wisdom is that teachers do not enter their field for the money. If you don’t pay people enough, though, then you don’t get good people to fill those jobs whose charge is to maintain and grow excellent teaching staffs.
It’s a terrible cycle and the California ruling will unfortunately reinforce the idea that if we could only fire incompetent teachers that our schools would improve. Of course, that would be true, but the problem is that schools wouldn’t only fire incompetent teachers. They would fire expensive teachers, union leadership members, teachers who cross administrators or don’t fit the boss’s vision of what a successful teacher looks like. It would also open the floodgates for purely nepotistic and corruptive practices that would make the schools worse. Facebook gave the Newark school system $100 million dollars; don’t you think that any corporation would love to make hiring and firing decisions?
There is far more to this reality than what the know-nothings are saying in response to the California ruling. Only time will tell if the political winds indeed do blow eastward in this country.
Aniruddh Chaturvedi came from Mumbai to Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Penn., where he is majoring in computer science. This past summer he interned at a tech company in Silicon Valley.
During two years in the U.S., Chaturvedi has been surprised by various aspects of society, as he explained last year in a post on Quora.
Chaturvedi offered his latest thoughts on America in an email to Business Insider.
The most surprising things about America:
Nobody talks about grades here.
Everyone is highly private about their accomplishments and failures. Someone’s performance in any field is their performance alone. This is different compared to India where people flaunt their riches and share their accomplishments with everybody else.
The retail experience is nowhere near as fun/nice as it is in India. Because labor is cheap in India, there is always someone who will act as a “personal shopper” to assist you with holding your clothes, giving suggestions, etc. In America, on the other hand, even if you go to a Nordstrom or Bloomingdales, there is almost nobody to help you out while you’re shopping. Shopping in America is more of a commodity / chore than it is a pleasurable activity
This may be biased/wrong because I was an intern, but at least in the tech world, nobody wants to put you under the bus for something that you didn’t do correctly or didn’t understand how to do. People will sit with you patiently till you get it. If you aren’t able to finish something within the stipulated deadline, a person on your team would graciously offer to take it off your plate.
The same applies to school. Before I came to the United States, I heard stories about how students at Johns Hopkins were so competitive with each other that they used to tear important pages from books in the library just so other students didn’t have access to it. In reality, I experienced the complete opposite. Students were highly collaborative, formed study groups, and studied / did assignments till everyone in the group “got it”. I think the reason for this is that the classes are / material is so hard that it makes sense to work collaboratively to the point that students learn from each other.
Strong ethics — everyone has a lot of integrity. If someone cannot submit their completed assignment in time, they will turn in the assignment incomplete rather than asking for answers at the last minute. People take pride in their hard work and usually do not cheat. This is different from students from India and China as well as back home in India, where everyone collaborates to the extent that it can be categorized as cheating.
Rich people are thin/ well maintained, poor people are fat. This stems from the fact that cheap food is fatty, rich people don’t eat cheap food — they tend to eat either home-cooked food which is expensive or eat at expensive / healthy places. Unfortunately, it is expensive to be healthy in America.
Fat people are not respected much in society. Being fat often has the same connotations as being irresponsible towards your body. If you’re thin (and tall, but not as much), people will respect you a lot more and treat you better. You will also receive better customer service if you’re well maintained. This extends my previous point which mentioned that if you’re thin, you’re statistically likely to be rich. Reason why I know this is that I went down from being 210lbs to 148-150lbs. The way people started treating me when I was thin was generally way better than the way I was treated when I was fat. As a small example, the Starbucks baristas were much nicer to me and made me drinks with more care / love.
Girls are not very promiscuous, contrary to most Hollywood films
Almost every single person in America has access to basic food, clothing, water and sanitation. I haven’t been to states like Louisiana and cities like Detroit, but from what I can tell, nobody is scrambling for the basic necessities required for sustenance.
Dearth of African Americans in technical fields. This probably stems from the fact that they aren’t given enough opportunity, broken families, etc. I’m pretty sure you can extend upon this if you’d like.
It’s expensive to have brick houses in America, contrary to India where brick houses are the norm
Emphasis on physical fitness / being outdoorsy — this is more of a California thing but I noticed families going on biking trips, boat trips, hiking, camping, barbecuing, etc. Americans take pride in the natural beauty of their surroundings and tend to make the most of it
Americans waste a lot of food. It is very easy to buy in bulk because it’s so much cheaper and as a result a lot of wastage occurs.
Obsession with coffee — Starbucks, Dunkin’ etc is crowded with office-goers and students every morning. I don’t understand why they can’t drink or make coffee before leaving for work. Such a waste of money! ($5/day * 5days / week * 52weeks/year)!
Split families, not having married parents, etc is not seen differently than the contrary.
Support towards the LGBT community — it’s fairly normal to be part of the LGBT community; it’s not considered a mortal sin if you like someone in your own gender or if you aren’t comfortable being male/female/etc. Proof of this is the LGBT Pride Day held in every city etc.
Smoking weed is seen the same as smoking cigarettes.
The way that stores price their products makes no apparent economic sense, and is not linear at all.
For example, at a typical store:
– 1 can of coke : $1.00
– 12 cans of coke : $3.00
– 1 Häagen-Dazs ice cream bar : $3.00
– 12 Häagen-Dazs ice cream bars : $7.00
The return policy on almost everything: None of my friends back in India believed me when I told them that you can literally buy anything, including food, and return it within ninety days for a full refund even if you don’t have a specific reason for doing so (most stores actually have a “Buyer’s Remorse” category under Reason for Return options while returning the product).
The pervasiveness of fast food and the sheer variety of products available: The typical supermarket has at least a hundred varieties of frozen pizza, 50 brands of trail mix, etc. I was just astounded by the different kinds of products available even at small gas station convenience stores.
Soda being cheaper than bottled water: It makes no sense that carbonated and flavored water with HFCS are cheaper than regular water, but hey, that’s just how it is.
The fact that there are full service rest stops with decent chain restaurants and big supermarkets every couple of miles on interstate highways
Fruit and vegetable prices, as compared to fast food prices:
– Bag of grapes : $6.00
– Box of strawberries : $5.00
– 1 lb tomatoes : $3.00
– McChicken : $1.00
– [McDouble] : $1.00
Unlimited soda refills:
The first time (and one of the last times…) I visited McDonalds in 2007, the cashier gave me an empty cup when I ordered soda. The concept of virtually unlimited soda refills was alien to me, and I thought there was a catch to it, but apparently not.
Slightly digressing, I’ve noticed that the typical fountain machine has a huge selection, including Pepsi, Pepsi Max, Sprite, Sprite Zero, Hi-C, Powerade, Lemonade, Raspberry Lemonade (and/or their coca-cola counterparts)… The list goes on. This may not seem like much, but it is actually a lot more compared to the 3-4 options (coca-cola, sprite, fanta, limca) that most Indian soda fountain machines have.
Serving Sizes: American serving sizes are HUGE! I’ve noticed that entree sizes are huge as well. I am by no means a small eater, but it usually takes me at least 1.5 meals to finish the entree.
US Flag displayed everywhere: I was surprised to see that the US flag is displayed in schools, on rooftops of houses, etc. India has very strict rules governing the display and use of the national flag. Also, something that struck out to me was how it was completely normal to wear the US flag or a US flag-like pattern as a bikini.
Over-commercialization of festivals: I’m not denying that festivals like Diwali and Eid aren’t extremely commercialized in India, but America takes it to a whole new level. Black Friday, Cyber Monday, etc., and an almost year-round sale of Christmas, Halloween, Easter, etc. items.
An almost-classless society: I’ve noticed that most Americans roughly have the same standard of living. Everybody has access to ample food, everybody shops at the same supermarkets, malls, stores, etc. I’ve seen plumbers, construction workers and janitors driving their own sedans, which was quite difficult for me to digest at first since I came from a country where construction workers and plumbers lived hand to mouth.
Also, (almost) all sections of society are roughly equal. You’ll see service professionals owning iPhones, etc. as well. This may be wrong but part of it has to do with the fact that obtaining credit in this country is extremely easy. Anybody can buy anything, for the most part, except for something like a Maserati, obviously. As a result, most monetary possessions aren’t really status symbols. I believe that the only status symbol in America is your job, and possibly your educational qualifications.
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