Judge Orders Starbucks to Pay More Than $100 Million in Back Tips

 

Don't know that I'm buying into it, but this certainly bears reading and pondering. . . . . .
How Long Does the USA Have??

This is the most interesting thing I've read in a long time. The sad thing about it, you can see it coming.  I have always heard about this democracy countdown. It is interesting to see it in print.

How Long Do We Have?
About the time our original thirteen states adopted their new constitution in 1787, Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years earlier:

'A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government.'

'A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury.'

'From that moment on, the majority always vote for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.'

'The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years'

'During those 200 years, those nations always progressed through the following sequence:
1.From bondage to spiritual faith;
2.From spiritual faith to great courage;
3.From courage to liberty;
4.From liberty to abundance;
5.From abundance to complacency;
6.From complacency to apathy;
7.From apathy to dependence; and
8.From dependence back into bondage.

Professor Joseph Olson of Hemline University School of Law, St. Paul, Minnesota, points out some interesting facts concerning the 2000 Presidential election:

Number of States won by: Gore: 19 Bush: 29

Square miles of land won by: Gore: 580,000 Bush: 2,427,000

Population of counties won by: Gore: 127 million Bush: 143 million

Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by: Gore: 13.2 Bush: 2.1

Professor Olson adds: 'In aggregate, the map of the territory Bush won was mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens of this great country. Gore's territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in government-owned tenements and living off various forms of government welfare...' Olson believes the United States is now somewhere between the 'complacency and apathy' phase of Professor Tyler's definition of democracy, with some forty percent of the nation's population already having reached the 'governmental dependency' phase.

If Congress grants amnesty and citizenship to twenty million criminal invaders
called illegal and they vote, then we can say goodbye to the USA in fewer than five years.

If you are in favor of this happening, then delete this message. If you are not then Pass this along to help everyone realize just how much is at stake, knowing that apathy is the greatest danger to our freedom.

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed -- and
hence clamorous to be led to safety -- by menacing it with an endless
series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.  -H.L. Mencken, writer, editor, and critic (1880-1956)

Word Nerd

I confess: I’m a word nerd. I found it fascinating that when I asked you in the last post to describe yourself in one word, the following were typical of the non-joke responses: Complicated

Energy Dept. Gives Up Plan to Build Clean-Coal Power Plant

By: ClimateBiz.com WASHINGTON, Feb. 1, 2008 -- Facing ever-increasing costs to build what would have been the world's largest clean-coal power plant and carbon sequestration facility led the U.S. Department of Energy to scrap its plans for the Mattoon, Ill., site.

 

The Detroit Auto Show is full of all the "vaporware" plug-in hybrid cars from the not so "big three" automakers this year. This is probably what they will end up offering for sale, and then voice oh so loudly that "Americans don't want to purchase fuel efficient vehicles, they want the (much safer) gas guzzling SUVs that we make.

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I ran into this the other day, and just thought I would share it :-)

 

(You don't have to be a Summit County resident to accept this challenge!!!!) This winter, Metro Parks is challenging your family, friends and neighbors to make green changes at home that will reduce impacts on the environment.

By Chuck Squatriglia
December 17, 2007 We doubt this came up last week at the United Nation's conference on global warming in Bali, but
Britain's top government scientist says the best thing women can do to ease global warming is "stop admiring young men in Ferraris."

 

BE HAPPY (A True Story)
Davy Jones            
    

To My Democrat Friends............

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2008, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere. Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wish recipient.

 

A Very Merry Christmas To You All, And A Very Happy New Year Too!!!

Dedications Welcomed....

I am told that I need ten words here...

Now, how about offering a caption?

 

November 14, 2007,  1:16 pm

By Ryan Hagen

South Africa has had, for the last dozen years, what may be the world’s most difficult driver’s license exam.