Thursday, May 17, 2012

Congress rejects Obama FY 2013 budget 513-0

Do you have a budget? President Obama submitted a budget to Congress for Fiscal Year 2013. In March it was rejected by the House of Representatives, and yesterday it was rejected by the U.S. Senate. The combined vote was 513-0. Did you hear about that on the evening news? How about your local newspaper? Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid does not look very happy about Republican Senators forcing a vote. From Powerline:
"Four different Republican budgets were taken up by the Senate. The House budget (commonly referred to as the Ryan budget) was voted down 41-58. The vote on Pat Toomey’s budget was 42-47; the vote on Rand Paul’s budget was 16-83; and the vote on Mike Lee’s budget was 17-82. The common denominator was that no Democrat had the courage to vote for any of them.
Has an American political party ever been so irresponsible? It is hard to think of an equally craven precedent. Today Jeff Sessions said:
Today, before the whole nation, the majority party running the Senate effectively declared that as long as they’re in charge this country will not have a budget.
Their message is simple: Send Washington more money. Don’t ask us what we’ll do with it. They’re determined to avoid public accountability as our nation spends its way to financial disaster."
Read more here:  http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2012/05/senate-democrats-achieve-a-new-standard-of-irresponsibility.php

Still the Best Hope

Are you sending your child to an American university? Dennis Prager says in this interview there are Christian seminaries, Jewish seminaries, and leftist seminaries. American universities are the leftist seminaries. Prager says that if they were honest, they would say right from the get-go that "It is our hope that when your son or daughter leaves our institution he/she will be a committed leftist." Instead, they proceed under the guise of "We're trying to open minds." Is it a freeing of the mind, or the closing of the mind that is the goal?

Many other subjects are covered in the interview, which is about Prager's book about American values Still the Best Hope.

Here is the PJTV interview with Dennis:

Wake up, you Ron Paul supporters!

Andrew McCarthy is urging the Tea Party to avoid being used by the Obama left in delegitimizing military responses to international terrorism. Crazy Ron Paul and other congressman are already being duped into supporting greater legal protection for terrorists.

Read more here: http://pjmedia.com/andrewmccarthy/2012/05/17/tea-party-should-oppose-latest-terrorist-bill-of-rights/?singlepage=true

Holder's outrageous lawlessness

I have just read two important posts by Christian Adams at Pajamas Media. The first is a recent one in which he tells us that Florida is about to announce that it has purged the names of 53,000 voters who are dead. The second is a post he wrote in 2010, telling about an experience he had while being a five-year member of the Justice Department's Voting Department. A Holder appointee told a room full of Voting Department employees, including Adams, in November 2009 that the Justice Department will not enforce that part of the newly passed "Motor Voter" law obliging states to ensure that no ineligible voters were on the rolls.

This brings back memories. As a foster parent, I frequently had to go to the Denver Department of Social Services to take children to visit with their birth parents. Every time I went there I saw a table prominently located and staffed by at least two people who aggressively stopped people to ask them if they were registered to vote. Though I never stopped to talk with them, I am certain, with what I now know, that these were ACORN people, lining up votes for Obama. The table was in the middle of the hallway at an important junction of the huge building. To the left were the welfare offices. To the right were the visitation offices.

As Adams says, welfare, social services and motor vehicle offices have been turned into voter registration places, but there has been no attempt by the Justice Department to ensure the integrity of the voting process by eliminating dead people, ineligible people such as felons or illegal immigrants, or people who have moved. Just another example of Fast and Furious Holder's outrageous lawlessness! It looks like the only way we can stop this is by our vote in November.

The Adams posts are here: http://pjmedia.com/blog/lawlessness-at-the-doj-voting-section-told-not-to-enforce-purging-the-dead-or-ineligible-from-voting-rolls/?singlepage=true
and here: http://pjmedia.com/jchristianadams/2012/05/16/53000-dead-voters-found-in-florida/

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

"A woman takes her life every three seconds"

Bridget Johnson gives us an update in PJ Media about the status of Chen Guangcheng. One quote from the story: "Another witness before the subcommittee told of the “systemic elimination of girls” in addition to the forced abortions that “show why Chinese women face a climate so oppressive that a woman takes her life every three seconds.” Could this be true?
Read much more here: http://pjmedia.com/blog/a-life-destroyed-by-chinas-forced-abortions-tells-all-to-congress/?singlepage=true

Wrong direction

http://pjmedia.com/rogerkimball/2012/05/16/obama-by-the-numbers/2/

Each one is smiling

Read much more at http://pjmedia.com/rogerkimball/2012/05/16/obama-by-the-numbers/

30 days for perjury!

From VW at One Happy Dog Speaks:
Russ and Sam, two friends, met in the park every day to feed the pigeons, watch the squirrels and discuss world problems.
One day Russ didn’t show up. Sam didn’t think much about it and figured maybe he had a cold or something.. But after Russ hadn’t shown up for a week or so, Sam really got worried. However, since the only time they ever got together was at the park, Sam didn’t know where Russ lived, so he was unable to find out what had happened to him.
A month had passed, and Sam figured he had seen the last of Russ, but one day, Sam approached the park and — lo and behold — there sat Russ! Sam was very excited and happy to see him and told him so. Then he said, ‘For crying out loud Russ, what in the world happened to you?’
Russ replied, ‘I have been in jail.’
‘Jail!’ cried Sam. What in the world for?’
‘Well,’ Russ said, ‘you know Sue, that cute little blonde waitress at the coffee shop where I sometimes go?’
‘Yeah,’ said Sam, ‘I remember her. What about her?
‘Well, one day she filed rape charges against me; and, at 89 years old, I was so proud that when I got into court, I pled ‘guilty’.
‘The damn judge gave me 30 days for perjury’.

 http://onehappydog.us/2012/05/humor-for-wednesday-183

"A transparently cunning will to power"

Dr. Bob at One Cosmos entitled yesterday's post "There is No Truth, and Only the Left Possesses It." Have you ever heard a better title for a blog post?

Here are some excerpts:
As we have discussed before, man is composed of intellect, of will, and of sentiment. To deny truth is to maim the intellect. But that doesn't kill the body. Rather, it seems that the will to power comes in to fill the vacuum. This perverse will
"has a violence and cruelty that go beyond the delight in masquerade and in the deception of others." It also "turns on the thinker himself and unmasks his thought as a cunning will to power."
Let's take another example from just last week, when President Obama decided to express his support for the redefinition of marriage. It is a matter of public record that this was merely a power play, in that wealthy donors were threatening to withhold funds if he didn't openly embrace their agenda.
For Newsweek to then proclaim Obama the "first gay president" is completely absurd, in light of the fact that he is just another statist with a transparently cunning will to power.
To believe otherwise one must want to believe otherwise, which is itself another instance of the will-to-power genre, except that it doesn't accrue to the power of the rank-and-foul self-deluder, only to the powerful. In reality it is but a "graceless disorder of the soul" rooted in a "demonic mendacity" (ibid).
(All quoted material from Science, Politics, And Gnosticism.)
 Read more here: http://onecosmos.blogspot.com/2012/05/there-is-no-truth-and-only-left.html

In the comments section Julie Cork nails Obama: "He is a BS artist, plain and simple."

Positive affirmations are powerful!

We can learn from a child the power of positive thinking!
http://odewire.com/168730/develop-the-power-of-positive-thinking.html

The strength and wisdom that come from a broken heart

When your heart is broken, you have an opportunity to "stabilize your heart in the open state." That is, instead of saying, "I want love in my life; I need someone to love me," you can move to a new perspective, in which you say, "I want love in my life; I am going to give love in every opportunity." Are you looking only to receive love, or are you someone who chooses to give love and not wait for love?
Read more here: http://odewire.com/heartbroken

Dueling shock value magazine covers

I agree with Neo-neocon who writes about this week's "dueling shock value" Newsweek and Time magazine covers. She finds the Time cover "very, very, very wrong," because the mother and magazine exploited an almost-four-year-old boy sucking on his mother's breast.
http://neoneocon.com/2012/05/14/cover-wars/

Seeing-eye-horses

I saw this story at the Neatorama blog:
"Miniature horse fans rejoice! Thanks to a Senate vote, miniature horses have now been approved for use as service animals in the state of Illinois.
Here’s why mini horses make awesome guides:
According to the Guide Horse Foundation, miniature horses can be useful for people with severe allergies or phobias to dogs, or people who want an animal likely to live longer than a dog. The horses are strong enough to provide support when handlers need to lean on them, and they are not easily distracted by crowds.
So, the next time you see a mini horse on a leash, sporting a fashionable vest and some oh-so-cute little shoes, don’t panic!
They’re here to help, and they’re not just in it for the free carrots."
 http://www.neatorama.com/2012/05/16/illinois-approves-the-use-of-mini-horses-as-service-animals/

Monday, May 14, 2012

Shriveled visions of freedom

Mark Steyn decides to share the risk: "I have no desire to end up living like Geert Wilders or Kurt Westergaard, never mind dead as Fortuyn and van Gogh. But I also wish to live in truth, as a free man, and I do not like the shriveled vision of freedom offered by the Dutch Openbaar Ministrie, the British immigration authorities, the Austrian courts, Canada’s “human rights” tribunals, and the other useful idiots of Islamic imperialism. So it is necessary for more of us to do what Ayaan Hirsi Ali recommends: share the risk. So that the next time a novel or a cartoon provokes a fatwa, it will be republished worldwide and send the Islamic enforcers a message: Killing one of us won’t do it. You’d better have a great credit line at the Bank of Jihad because you’ll have to kill us all."
 http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/299725/spirit-geert-wilders-mark-steyn

Real value

- Average wages in 1959 were $5,016 or 143oz of Gold
- Average wages in 1977 were $15,000 or 120oz of Gold
- Average wages in 1999 were $28,970 or 104oz of Gold
- Average wages in 2008 were $41,335 or 53oz of Gold
From Rico at Theo Spark's blog. Read more here:  http://www.theospark.net/2012/05/nominal-vs-realfrom-rico.html

The Gospel according to Barack Obama

Manhatten Infidel was there to record the words of the Messiah:
Barack said to him:  Thou shalt love the Federal government with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy mind.
This is the greatest and first duty in a Republic.
And the second is like to this:  Pay your fair share of taxes.
And no man was able to answer him a word: neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions for they are no match for Barack’s intellect and knowledge of the Constitution.
Read more here:  http://manhattaninfidel.com/2012/05/10/the-gospel-according-to-barack-obama-part-xv/

Would you wear this shirt?

Found here: http://kingshamus.wordpress.com/2012/05/01/best-item-of-clothing-ever/

Virtue vs. corruption and viciousness

PJ Media welcomes Andrew McCarthy to their stable of columnists: "Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom,” Benjamin Franklin observed. “As nations become more corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.” What is it that makes us virtuous? What slides us toward corruption and viciousness? I look forward to a long deliberation on those questions. It is a privilege to be able to explore them here at PJ Media, among friends and colleagues I so admire, and readers I feel like I already know — after all, I’ve been one for a long time!
 http://pjmedia.com/andrewmccarthy/2012/05/13/welcome-to-ordered-liberty/2/

Head Games

Click on image to enlarge.

Minimum wage from 1950 to 2010

http://www.theospark.net/2012/05/from-1950-to-2010-minimum-wagefrom-rico.html

Good Grief!

http://www.theospark.net/2012/05/cartoon-round-up_14.html

Drones, or fighter jets?

Drones are "where it's at:" http://maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com/archives/19746-The-F-35-Debacle.html

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Exposing grocery store customers and employees to dangerous viruses and bacteria

The L.A. city council is voting on May 23 to force its citizens to bring their own bags to the grocery store. If the bill passes, here are some of the viruses people will be exposed to: http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2012/05/09/ban-the-bag-get-the-runs/

Seven myths the left propagates about terror and terrorists

Ralph Peters expounds on seven myths about terror and terrorists propagated by the left:
One: Killing terrorists only turns them into martyrs.
Two: We can't kill our way out of this.
Three: Terrorists have rights.
Four: Formal trials will show them the superiority of our system of justice.
Five: The only path to peace is negotiations
Six: It's not about religion.
Seven: It's about us.
Go here to read how he expounds on each of these points: http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/the-lefts-seven-tragic-terror-lies?f=must_reads#ixzz1uaXNVNen

I might try this

Here is an idea that might improve your home security system. Post this note on the front door:
Bubba,
Me, Jethro and  Jimmie Earl have gone out get more ammo.
The pitbulls are locked inside -- they got the mailman  good this morning. There was so much blood  around that it was impossible to tell which  of the four dogs was  involved. Stay out on the porch, and  we'll be back soon. -- Caleb.
 http://laughingconservative.blogspot.com/2012/05/southern-security-system.html

Gays have NO rights in Iran

According to Iranian human rights campaigners, over 4,000 gay men and lesbians have
been executed since the Ayatollahs seized power in 1979. An Iranian court has sentenced four men from the town of Choram, in the Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province, to death by hanging for sodomy.
 http://www.jihadwatch.org/2012/05/iran-four-men-sentenced-to-death-by-hanging-for-sodomy-in-accord-with-sharia-law.html

You call these people doctors?

Al-Qaeda doctors have been trained to implant bombs inside human bodies. Airport scanners cannot detect the bombs. Read more here: http://www.jihadwatch.org/2012/05/can-we-shut-down-the-tsa-now-al-qaeda-doctors-trained-to-implant-bombs-in-humans.html

Are you Churchill, or Chamberlain?

Ann Barnhardt takes Obama seriously. She explains why here:

Why the NDRP E.O. of 3/16/2012 is Different
Posted by Ann Barnhardt - March 18, AD 2012 8:46 PM MST
I'm getting really, really sick of these pundits and talking heads on the so-called "right" clucking their tongues at the unwashed masses and telling us that we're crazy and paranoid to be the least bit concerned each and every time the Obama regime takes another stride toward totalitarianism. And it is EACH AND EVERY TIME.

Let me break it down for Ed Morrissey, and all of the other pundits in that social circle so that you can get your heads around this. We are concerned and even, dare I say it, panicked, because we can see the big picture of the Obama regime for what it is. We can take the totality of the dataset and draw not just a logical, reasoned conclusion, but a conclusion that is supported by centuries - nay millenia - of past precedent. We are, as Patrick Henry put it, "willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it."
 
Why is the 3/16/2012 Executive Order worthy of grave concern? Simply put, because of the man and the regime who issued it. This is a man, and a regime that has done the following:
-Sent the Secretary of Defense (Leon Panetta) to Congress to put them on notice that despite the explicitness of the Constitution, the consent of the Congress to wage war will neither be solicited nor required by the Commander in Chief or his regime. The CiC and SECDEF may, if they feel like it and can find the time, MAY inform the Congress of "kinetic military actions" henceforth.
-Declared the First Amendment null and void by mandating that every American must, as a condition of legal residency in the United States, pay for abortions. Mr. Morrissey, being a Catholic, you should understand that what the Obama regime has done is demand your very soul. In order to remain corporeally "free" in the United States of America, you must enter into mortal sin, reject Jesus Christ in totality, turn your back on your Crucified Savior, excommunicate yourself from the Church, and consign your immortal soul to eternal hell. If that isn't the prohibiting of the free exercise of religion, then nothing is or ever could be.

-Committed acts of war upon the sovereign nation of Mexico and her people, willfully arming narco-terrorists with the intent of using the optics of hundreds if not thousands of brutally murdered Mexicans in order to stir up and justify the overthrow of the Second Amendment to the Constitution. This is textbook sedition.

-Has coordinated with regime cronies in the Legislative Branch to enable the Obama regime to operate for an entire term WITH NO BUDGET WHATSOEVER. In this time, the Obama regime has looted the United States Treasury and debased the currency of the United States to the tune of SEVEN TRILLION DOLLARS, or roughly one-half the gross domestic product.
This is just a very, very, very short list. Additionally, with each passing day it is being further revealed that EVERY SINGLE PERSON Barack Obama has ever associated with has been not merely a Marxist, not merely a Socialist, not merely a Communist, but a TOTALITARIAN hellbent on the destruction of the United States of America.

I'll concede the point that if this Executive Order was issued by - get this - Jimmy Carter or even Bill Clinton, I could buy the idea that it was merely an emergency protocol housekeeping item of some sort geared toward the reaction of the Federal Government after a nuclear attack. I'd be skeptical, but I would be open to the argument.

Not so now. These people are totalitarian tyrants who are no longer even trying to hide their intentions. See the bulleted items above. There comes a point where you have to pull your head out of the sand, synthesize a massive dataset into its obvious, coherent output, and be willing to know the worst, and to provide for it.
 
Denying the obvious, even when the obvious is horrific, is not some sort of virtue. Keeping people numb to reality and drunk on a sugary treacle of distraction and reassurance that "everything's okay" even when every iota of data and experience tells us that everything is NOT OKAY is not a virtuous public service. It is a massive failure in charity, both towards those who are misled and falsely-consoled by your assurances, and toward those whose intellects and intentions you backhandedly insult.

Remember, people exactly like Ed Morrissey and his ilk were calling everyone warning of Hitler's danger to mankind "alarmist", "conspiracy theorists" and "paranoid" up until 4:40 am on September 1, 1939 when the Luftwaffe attacked Weilun. And before that mess was over, 70 million human beings were dead. The hell that the Obama regime is determined to unleash on the world will make World War II look like a mere bar fight.

Yeah, I'm sorry I can't tell you the day, hour and minute that open war is going to break out, both overseas and here in the homeland, or the exact date, time and high-tick in the markets before the entire system implodes. There is a name for people who claim to know exact dates of future events - they're called CHARLATANS. If that failure makes me non-credible and paranoid, then I wear that sash with pride, and am consoled and flattered by the caliber of the company of Jeremiahs and Cassandras throughout history that I join. But I do know that it is coming, and that the NDRP Executive Order of 3/16/2012 is, WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF THE DAY AND THE REGIME THAT ISSUED IT, entirely ominous and certainly tactical.

I'll leave you with the video of Larry Grathwohl, which can never, ever be posted, spread and publicized too much. Recorded in 1980, when Barack Obama was nothing more than a drug-addled foreign student at Occidental College and not yet even a glimmer in the eye of the Totalitarians who would later adopt him as their public persona, Grathwohl recounts conversations led by Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, the founders and leaders of the Weather Underground, the Marxist-Communist-Totalitarian terrorist group that Grathwohl was tasked to infiltrate, and the eventual intimates, ghostwriter and political handlers of Barack and Michelle Obama. The Totalitarian cabal that runs the Obama regime has intended, for decades, to collapse the United States, overthrow it, establish a Totalitarian oligarchy, and as a necessary corollary to that, murder at least ten percent of the population as "die-hard, unreformable capitalists." In 1980, that 10% worked out to 25 million human beings. Today, it would be 31 million - but heck, what's another Holocaust (6 million) give or take?
Today, you are either Churchill or you are Chamberlain."

Do U.S. troops have a right to free speech?

"If you believe so, then their rights are not limited or exclusive.  They are free to say whatever any other American has a right to say.  If you believe they do not, then you have relegated the troops to the position of second class citizens, or even property of the state.  There is NO in-between.  Discipline and military coherence be damned.  Either these men and women have First Amendment protections and are full citizens or they are mechanisms of the government whose civil liberties have been erased."

"What I have seen in a number of the reactions to the honest activism of Sgt. Gary Stein is a knee-jerk bias that reeks of the slave mentality, but it offers us a window in gauging the leanings of the general public.  Now that the once theoretical dangers of federal fascism are breaking the surface of the water and circling the American sinking ship, the great test is to watch closely where the masses place their priorities.  Will they take the path of the individual, admit to the laboratory mutation that our government has become, and try to make things right again?  Or, will they take the path of the slave, forget their past follies and empty arguments, and jump on the totalitarian bandwagon?  Certainly, it is not as if the cheerleaders of the state usually get out of the tumult with all their limbs intact.  In most cases, they are lucky to get out alive once the smoke clears.  One might think that the lessons of history would be guide enough, but then again, the average slave has taken every conceivable measure to ensure that his particular fantasy land is magical enough to withstand substantial examination.  The system is their drug, and the upheaval that free thought brings is such a buzz-kill…"
Read more here:  http://www.alt-market.com/articles/670-understanding-the-slave-mentality

On love, laziness, and evil

M. Scott Peck distinguishes between love, laziness and evil. “There really are people and institutions made up of people, who respond with hatred in the presence of goodness and would destroy the good insofar as it is in their power to do so. They do this not with conscious malice but blindly, lacking awareness of their own evil — indeed, seeking to avoid any such awareness. As has been described of the devil in religious literature, they hate the light and instinctively will do anything to avoid it, including attempting to extinguish it. They will destroy the light in their own children and in all other beings subject to their power.

Evil people hate the light because it reveals themselves to themselves. They hate goodness because it reveals their badness; they hate love because it reveals their laziness. They will destroy the light, the goodness, the love in order to avoid the pain of such self-awareness. My second conclusion, then, is that evil is laziness carried to its ultimate, extraordinary extreme. As I have defined it, love is the antithesis of laziness. Ordinary laziness is a passive failure to love. Some ordinarily lazy people may not lift a finger to extend themselves unless they are compelled to do so. Their being is a manifestation of nonlove; still, they are not evil.

Truly evil people, on the other hand, actively rather than passively avoid extending themselves. They will take any action in their power to protect their own laziness, to preserve the integrity of their sick self. Rather than nurturing others, they will actually destroy others in this cause. If necessary, they will even kill to escape the pain of their own spiritual growth. As the integrity of their sick self is threatened by the spiritual health of those around them, they will seek by all manner of means to crush and demolish the spiritual health that may exist near them.

I define evil, then, as the exercise of political power — that is, the imposition of one’s will upon others by overt or covert coercion — in order to avoid extending one’s self for the purpose of nurturing spiritual growth. Ordinary laziness is nonlove; evil is antilove.”
From “The People of the Lie”
M. Scott Peck
I found this at  http://barnhardt.biz/

At one with nature


I found this at Jaded Haven: http://jadedhaven.wordpress.com/2012/04/22/go-north/

This is the kind of math my boys would really enjoy!

Be sure to click on this cartoon to see it better. I found it in the comments section at Jaded Haven: http://jadedhaven.wordpress.com/2012/04/25/small-furies/#comment-18843

Six-year-old plays with gusto

Autism may not be such a handicap, especially when there is a loving adult nearby.

Happy Mothers Day!

Read more here: http://abcnews.go.com/US/mothers-inspiring-video-blind-baby-viral/story?id=16335288#.T6_weFJvfz4

Saturday, May 12, 2012

"The last ride of my shift"

I found this on Google+ http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=11546739#editor/target=post;postID=4329699425661676291 in a post by Aaron Manley Smith
A sweet lesson on patience.

A NYC Taxi driver wrote:

I arrived at the address and honked the horn. After waiting a few minutes I honked again. Since this was going to be my last ride of my shift I thought about just driving away, but instead I put the car in park and walked up to the door and knocked.. 'Just a minute', answered a frail, elderly voice. I could hear something being dragged across the floor.

After a long pause, the door opened. A small woman in her 90's stood before me. She was wearing a print dress and a pillbox hat with a veil pinned on it, like somebody out of a 1940's movie.

By her side was a small nylon suitcase. The apartment looked as if no one had lived in it for years. All the furniture was covered with sheets.

There were no clocks on the walls, no knickknacks or utensils on the counters. In the corner was a cardboard
box filled with photos and glassware.

'Would you carry my bag out to the car?' she said. I took the suitcase to the cab, then returned to assist the woman.

She took my arm and we walked slowly toward the curb.

She kept thanking me for my kindness. 'It's nothing', I told her.. 'I just try to treat my passengers the way I would want my mother to be treated.'

'Oh, you're such a good boy, she said. When we got in the cab, she gave me an address and then asked, 'Could you drive
through downtown?'

'It's not the shortest way,' I answered quickly..

'Oh, I don't mind,' she said. 'I'm in no hurry. I'm on my way to a hospice.

I looked in the rear-view mirror. Her eyes were glistening. 'I don't have any family left,' she continued in a soft voice..'The doctor says I don't have very long.' I quietly reached over and shut off the meter.

'What route would you like me to take?' I asked.

For the next two hours, we drove through the city. She showed me the building where she had once worked as an elevator operator.

We drove through the neighborhood where she and her husband had lived when they were newlyweds She had me pull up in front of a furniture warehouse that had once been a ballroom where she had gone dancing as a girl.

Sometimes she'd ask me to slow in front of a particular building or corner and would sit staring into the darkness, saying nothing.

As the first hint of sun was creasing the horizon, she suddenly said, 'I'm tired.Let's go now'.
We drove in silence to the address she had given me. It was a low building, like a small convalescent home, with a driveway that passed under a portico.

Two orderlies came out to the cab as soon as we pulled up. They were solicitous and intent, watching her every move.
They must have been expecting her.

I opened the trunk and took the small suitcase to the door. The woman was already seated in a wheelchair.

'How much do I owe you?' She asked, reaching into her purse.

'Nothing,' I said

'You have to make a living,' she answered.

'There are other passengers,' I responded.

Almost without thinking, I bent and gave her a hug.She held onto me tightly.

'You gave an old woman a little moment of joy,' she said. 'Thank you.'

I squeezed her hand, and then walked into the dim morning light.. Behind me, a door shut.It was the sound of the closing of a life..

I didn't pick up any more passengers that shift. I drove aimlessly lost in thought. For the rest of that day,I could hardly talk.What if that woman had gotten an angry driver,or one who was impatient to end his shift? What if I had refused to take the run, or had honked once, then driven away?

On a quick review, I don't think that I have done anything more important in my life.

We're conditioned to think that our lives revolve around great moments.

But great moments often catch us unaware-beautifully wrapped in what others may consider a small one.
I found this at Daphne's wonderful Jaded Haven blog:  http://jadedhaven.wordpress.com/

They can't contain their excitement!

Wouldn't it be exciting to get to sit near the president while he is giving a speech?

Read more here: http://invinciblearmor.blogspot.com/2012/04/obama-loses-racist-you-black-old-white.html

You have no CHOICE!

Are you pregnant and planning a visit to the Wite House? You MUST register your child with White House security before entering. You have no CHOICE!
Read more here: http://freebeacon.com/no-birth-certificate-required/
I found this while perusing the Invincible Armor blog: http://invinciblearmor.blogspot.com/2012/05/obamas-white-house-demands-unborn.html

"Teamness"

Since the Nuggets have no superstar for them to "go-to" in tonight's deciding game of the playoff series with the Lakers, I'll post this photo of their coach, George Karl. It is Karl who has preached "teamness," and this year's team has bought into the concept completely. Unselfish hustle on both ends of the court has brought them to this point. It is a team (and coach) Coloradans and basketball fans everywhere can be proud of and enjoy.
Read more here: http://www.denverpost.com/nuggets/ci_20606789/george-karl-love-beat-lakers-series-finale

Facebook co-founder gives up U.S. citizenship to avoid taxes

Singapore suits him just fine. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-11/facebook-co-founder-saverin-gives-up-u-s-citizenship-before-ipo.html

Don't let the left define the terms of the debate!

Dr. Sanity thinks it is crazy to let the left define the terms of the debate.
Read the whole thing here: http://drsanity.blogspot.com/2012/05/countering-postmodern-political.html

"As much recoverable oil as all the rest of the world's proven resources combined"

(CNSNews.com) - The Green River Formation, a largely vacant area of mostly federal land that covers the territory where Colorado, Utah and Wyoming come together, contains about as much recoverable oil as all the rest the world’s proven reserves combined, an auditor from the Government Accountability Office told Congress on Thursday.
Read the whole thing here:  http://cnsnews.com/news/article/gao-recoverable-oil-colorado-utah-wyoming-about-equal-entire-world-s-proven-oil

Highest number of people ever (not in the labor force)

From Zero Hedge. Click on the graphs to see them clearly.
Read the whole thing here: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/people-not-labor-force-soar-522000-labor-force-participation-rate-lowest-1981

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Ode to Joy

What do you know about Croatia? Nothing, if you're like me. What do you know about joy? Hopefully, it is a regular part of your life. Here is Beethoven's Ode to Joy, performed as a way to attract people to visit Croatia. Works for me!
Thanks to Grim here: http://grimbeorn.blogspot.com/2012/05/croatia.html

Child welcomes home his Marine father

A child suffering from cerebral palsy has been learning to walk. He learned well enough to welcome home his Marine father in this video.

Oikophobia!

Are you ready for the word of the day? Oikophobia! Xenophobia is fear of the alien; oikophobia is fear of the familiar: "the disposition, in any conflict, to side with 'them' against 'us', and the felt need to denigrate the customs, culture and institutions that are identifiably 'ours.' This definition was from a 2010 article in the Wall Street Journal by James Taranto, in which he points out that British philosopher Roger Scruton coined the term. Taranto also quotes from Charles Krauthammer:
Promiscuous charges of bigotry are precisely how our current rulers and their vast media auxiliary react to an obstreperous citizenry that insists on incorrect thinking.
-- Resistance to the vast expansion of government power, intrusiveness and debt, as represented by the Tea Party movement? Why, racist resentment toward a black president.
-- Disgust and alarm with the federal government's unwillingness to curb illegal immigration, as crystallized in the Arizona law? Nativism.
-- Opposition to the most radical redefinition of marriage in human history, as expressed in Proposition 8 in California? Homophobia.
-- Opposition to a 15-story Islamic center and mosque near Ground Zero? Islamophobia.
Now we know why the country has become "ungovernable," last year's excuse for the Democrats' failure of governance: Who can possibly govern a nation of racist, nativist, homophobic Islamophobes?
Ed Driscoll brought these ideas to my attention today with a post at Instapundit. He recommends we pay attention to this phenomena as a predictor of what may happen in November.

Tuesday, May 08, 2012

Aurora borealis (northern lights) explained

This is a very well done video, using humor, but nevertheless teaching us about the aurora borealis.

http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2012/05/08/do-you-understand-the-northern-lights/

Nevada licenses Google to operate driverless cars


"The license covers a modified Toyota Prius that uses cameras, radar and sensors. It’s also hooked up to Google map and live traffic data to take care of navigation and will always keep within local speed limits.
Nevada also changed its laws such that the occupants of an autonomous vehicle is exempt from bans on text messaging. However, there must be a designated “driver” in the car who has a valid license and is subject to drink driving restrictions.
The cars still have the usual manual controls and a human can take over at any time. The testing license means that not only must there be a human in the driver seat, but there must be at least one other person in the vehicle. It’s also likely that once the vehicles are approved for public use, the driver will need a special license endorsement."
 http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2012/05/08/driverless-cars-legal-on-las-vegas-strip/

What you want versus what you need

Found here: http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2012/05/08/want-vs-need-pic/

Black hole swallows star

Scientists in Hawaii have observed a black hole swallowing up a star. "The gases from the star were sucked into the bottomless gravity pit and the friction gave it heat, creating a glow – the flare that astrophysicists are on the constant lookout for."
 http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2012/05/07/black-hole-eats-star-astrophysicists-salivate/

Obama losing delegates to a prison inmate!

There are primary elections tonight. The biggest story may be in West Virginia, where an inmate of a federal prison in Texas is holding steady with 40% of the vote in the Democrat primary, where Obama is garnering 60%! The inmate, Keith Russell Judd, 49, is serving a 210 month sentence for extortion and making threats at the University of New Mexico in 1999. Here is the photo of the man who is taking delegates from Obama. 
http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/obama-loses-west-virginia-delegates-to-prison-inma

Help these poor, innocent, helpless young people


via  http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/faces_of_innocence/

Lock-down drills

Tonight Sara (second grade) told me she had a "lock-down drill" at school. "What's that?" I asked.
"It's if someone comes into the school with a gun or a knife, or if there is a leopard outside. We lock the door and hide along the wall, but if the person is trying to kill children, he would probably just break the window in the door, and there wouldn't be anything that could be done about it!" Sara has had these lock-downs each year: preschool, kindergarten, first grade. It is good that the schools are trying to be prepared, but it is a sad commentary on our world today that they have to have these preparations.
Update: I asked Jon (sixth grade) about his lock-down experience today. "The teacher told us all to go to the corner of the room. I told the teacher that does not make sense, because the shooter could kill 20 kids with one clip! I think the teacher should keep a Golden Eagle on her desk." I asked Jon, "What's a Golden Eagle?" "It's like the king of semi-automatic pistols."
Update 2: I asked Greg (fifth grade) about his lock-down experience today. First, he reminded me that when he went to school in Colorado (home of Columbine High School) he had lots of lock-down drills, and this is "only" his second one this year in New Mexico. "The teacher told us to be completely quiet, and get really low, and go in the corner behind the round table, so the shooter might not see you when looking through the door window. I think the teacher should be armed with a revolver, and shoot him when he puts his hand through the door window to open the locked door. If you are going to be a teacher, you should have to go through Special Ops training." Greg was disappointed that the drill was conducted during his recess. "They should have had it during math!"

99% jerks

Thomas Sowell, in a few words, can say volumes. In this case he nails it regarding the Occupy mobs.
"But just when did the 99% elect them as their representatives? If in fact 99% of the people in the country were like these "Occupy" mobs, we would not have a country. We would have anarchy.
Democracy does not mean mob rule. It means majority rule. If the "Occupy" movement, or any other mob, actually represents a majority, then they already have the votes to accomplish legally whatever they are trying to accomplish by illegal means.
Mob rule means imposing what the mob wants, regardless of what the majority of voters want. It is the antithesis of democracy."

I was in downtown Denver the other day, and I noticed that the parks that were Occupied are torn up and being re-seeded.  In my humble opinion this is one of Sowell's best pieces: http://news.investors.com/article/610550/201205071832/democracy-does-not-mean-mob-rule.htm

Be careful what you wish for, Dems

This is interesting. If Ron Paul runs as a third party candidate, he pulls votes from Obama, not Romney!
Romney 44%, Obama 39%, Paul 13%: http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/elections/election_2012/election_2012_presidential_election/may_2012/three_way_race_romney_44_obama_39_ron_paul_13

World War II paratrooper and wife murdered

Bob Strait, a 90-year-old Tulsa resident, died on Friday, and a medical  examiner is determining his cause of death, News On 6 reports.
He was injured March 13 when, police say, Tyrone Woodfork, 20, entered the  house and attacked, allegedly beating and sexually assaulted Strait’s  85-year-old wife, Nancy Strait, who died two days later. The couple had been  married for 65 years.
Bob Strait was a World War II paratrooper who took part in the D-Day invasion as  part of the 101st Airborne Division, where he was awarded a Bronze Star.
 http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2012/05/07/d-day-paratrooper-and-wife-murdered-in-oklahoma/

Before and after communism

 


Striking photo gallery of east German buildings before and after communism. http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/fotostrecke-59943-28.html
via Instapundit

China takes another step backward

China has expelled Melissa Chan, a Chinese American journalist. "Chan, based in Beijing since 2007, has an excellent reputation as a journalist, reporting hard-hitting stories on black jails, the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, and Chinese land grabs." Read more here: http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/05/08/why_china_expelled_al_jazeeras_melissa_chan

Food Stamps: Government spending has doubled since 2008

http://floppingaces.net/2012/05/08/say-what-may-8th-2012-edition-reader-post/

Audrey Hepburns's beauty tips

Do you know who was Audrey Hepburn? She was a beautiful movie star, who did humanitarian work in Africa. Someone asked her to give beauty tips. She gave these tips, which were read at her funeral.
For attractive lips, speak words of kindness.

For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.

For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry. 

For beautiful hair, let a child run his/her fingers through it once a day.

For poise, walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone.

People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone..

Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you will find one at the end of each of your arms.  As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands; one for helping yourself, and the other for helping others.
 Read more here: http://fkclinic.blogspot.com/2012/05/beauty-is-only-skin-deep.html

Massive explosions on sun sending charged particles our way

A massive explosion on the sun's surface has triggered the largest solar radiation storm since 2005, hurling charged particles at Earth. (NASA / May 4, 2012) They arrive here in eight minutes! Read more here: http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-solar-storms-20120505,0,5374082,full.story
via http://fkclinic.blogspot.com/2012/05/wagd-headline-of-day.html

What killed the dinosaurs?

Dinosaur farts.

the bad news:

The team calculated the animals would have collectively produced more than 520m tons of methane a year - more than all today's modern sources put together.
It is thought these huge amounts could easily have been enough to warm the planet.
It is even possible that the climate change was so catastrophic that it caused the dinosaurs eventual demise.
The good news? It only took 100 million years for this to happen.
 http://fkclinic.blogspot.com/2012/05/what-really-killed-dinosaurs.html

Just sayin'


Monday, May 07, 2012

Just the facts, Ma'am

Which executive has the best fiscal record? It appears to be Sarah Palin, hands down. The graph below was included in an article on Breitbart's Big Government site by Whitney Pitcher. No wonder the left went bonkers when McCain selected her as his running mate! There is another graph in the article which shows Romney had the best record when it comes to reducing unemployment. Read the whole thing here: http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/05/07/who-is-the-real-sarah-palin?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
Governor/President (tenure)
Beginning Debt Outstanding
Ending Debt Outstanding
Cumulative Increase/Decrease
Average Annual Increase/Decrease
Palin (FY07-FY10)
$2.246 billion
$2.531 billion
12.7%
4.2%
Romney (FY03-FY07)
$15.963 billion
$23.026 billion
44.3%
11.1%
Pawlenty (FY03-FY10)
$3.474 billion
$5.768 billion
66.0%
9.4%
Perry (FY01-FY10)
$12.561 billion
$35.692 billion
184.2%
20.5%
Christie  (FY10-present)
$33.878 billion
$65.049 billion
92%
46%
Obama (2009-present)
$10.627 trillion
(on 1/20/2009)
$15.624 trillion
(as of 4/26/2012)
47%
15.6%

Sunday, May 06, 2012

Ron Paul piling up delegates

Has anyone noticed that Ron Paul supporters are doing very well in collecting delegates to Tampa? In this blog post there is additional information in the comments section about how Paul is doing it in states like Colorado: http://datechguyblog.com/2012/04/29/the-silent-ron-paul-campaign/

Romney Rubio?

 

Is Marco Rubio going to be Romney's choice for his running mate? I like what he had to say in this interview with Chris Wallace today, as reported by Newsmax: http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Rubio-Obama-re-election-chance/2012/05/06/id/438133?s=al&promo_code=ED53-1

Saturday, May 05, 2012

Falling bear now road kill

Boulder, Colorado's falling bear, whose picture went viral recently, is now road kill. This blog has the story: http://www.dailycamera.com/news/boulder/ci_20545090/boulders-famous-bear-killed-u-s-36

Coming to America?

Here is Chen and his wife and one of their two sons. I don't know what the story is about their other son. Anyway, the Chinese Communist government has said that they will allow Chen to apply for a passport to accept a fellowship to study at an American university. That university may be New York University, where a friend of Chen is on the faculty and has been helping with the negotiations.

Another courageous Chinese man steps forward, is beaten

The Epoch Times reports that while attempting to visit Chen Guangcheng in hospital, this courageous man, Jiang Tianyong, a civil rights lawyer who defended Chen in 2005, was seized and beaten by domestic security police.

Friday, May 04, 2012

Introspection

How do conservatives become the Republican establishment? By winning the majority of elections for positions large and small.
This writer at Big Government seems confident: "Yes, if Romney wins, expect the GOP Establishment to decide that it didn’t need us. And if it loses, expect it to blame us. Who cares? Let it revise history all it likes; its denial and smugness will only keep it from undertaking the kind of serious introspection that might save it.

The GOP Establishment is a zombie, a dead power structure walking. It will get a few punches in before it goes down – Exhibit A is Mitt, Exhibit B the pile of bodies that were the Not-Mitts – but go down it will."
I don't know. Introspection is a good thing, but I don't see much of it from this writer, either.
Read the whole thing here: http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/02/04/Political-Moneyball--The-Conservative-Strategy-for-Winning-the-Fight-Coming-After-the-Election

Not even fit to sharpen his pencils for him

Here are a couple of thank notes to Newt Gingrich. "Seeing him blast Ogabe and the Democrat Socialists in his no-holds-barred style looks like being one of very few bright spots in an otherwise dreary campaign, and I have to say I look forward to it–although I’d bet the liberal media will be avoiding him like the plague from here on out, recognizing as they do that their tin god isn’t intellectually fit to even sharpen Newt’s pencils for him, and in any honest comparison would be made to look like the fraudulent, incoherent nitwit he is."
 and this:
"Newt made the likelihood of defeating Barack Obama all the greater. Newt and Newt alone forced Romney to become a better candidate, to stop hiding from the media, to hone his message — and yes, to perfect his ability to attack.
As Newt turns the page, he deserves our praise and thanks. I hope that we as a party are big enough for that."
 http://coldfury.com/2012/04/27/a-simple-thank-you/

California's collapse

In the last twenty years, despite large influxes of immigrants from Mexico, California has had a net loss of four million people. Many have come here to Colorado. Here is an interesting piece comparing California unfavorably to Texas:  http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/04/27/as-california-collapses-obama-follows-its-lead.html

Some truths about energy

Click on this chart to enlarge it for easy viewing. This chart is just one of many interesting facts about energy that is available to Americans, if we just had a president who wanted to be on the side of the little guy, instead of pitting victim groups against each other. http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2012/04/a-primer-on-energy.php

Inciting to riot

Have you got it?

The person on the left is George Zimmerman. The person on the right is Elizabeth Warren, U.S. Senate candidate in Massachusets, who claimed minority status at Harvard because she is 1/32 American Indian.

Where the golden rule does not apply

This police officer is being disciplined for treating people as she would want to be treated: http://www.freedominourtime.blogspot.com/2012/04/officer-regina-tasca-goes-rogue.html

Absurd hypocrisy!

The Department of Justice and other leftist organizations seek to block states from requiring voter i.d. in this year's election. What happens when you try to enter the buildings that house these organizations? You have to show your photo i.d.!

Why keep it a secret?

What if there were documents that showed that Soviet Communists were callous monsters? Should those documents be translated and put in a reputable library for scholars to examine? Communism killed over 150 million human beings during the twentieth century. Should the truth about them be told?
Read more here: http://city-journal.org/2010/20_2_soviet-archives.html

Which National Review writer does this bring to mind?

The crime: two white employees of the local newspaper stopped at a red light at night in a black neighborhood. They were beaten by "wave after wave of young black teens." The newspaper did not report the incident for two weeks, and even today have not reported it as a crime, but as an opinion piece. Yesterday the publisher of the newspaper was approved as Deputy HUD Secretary. His picture is the one you see above this post.
Read more here: http://chicagoboyz.net/archives/29631.html

Forward!

The Obama campaign has decided on this year's slogan: Forward! Cartoonist Rick McKee has captured it well. http://laughingconservative.blogspot.com/2012/05/cartoon-rick-mckee_03.html

Kowtowing to the Chinese Communists

Pundit and Pundette have this very good compilation of information about the trials of Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng: http://www.punditandpundette.com/2012/05/chens-fervent-hope-is-to-leave-china-on.html
Update: Romney weighs in:http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/romney-chinese-dissident-chen-departure-american-embassy-dark-184056059.html
Update 2: Joe Biden (remember him?) whispers a solution to Barack: "Here's an idea: We fly Chen out and leave Hillary in China!"
http://laughingconservative.blogspot.com/2012/05/chen-ultimate-solution.html
Update 3: An agreement has been reached whereby Chen and his family are coming to the United States, where he has been given a fellowship at an unnamed American university. Congratulations to Hillary, Barack, Chinese Commies, and the Chen family!

Osama not a fan of Fox News

The Army has released some of the "treasure trove" of information seized by the Seals when they invaded Osama Bin Laden's compound in Pakistan. When considering which American media outlets to use to disseminate propaganda, Osama saw all the t.v. news outlets as pretty much the same, except for Fox News, which he didn't trust! Read more here: http://www.brutallyhonest.org/brutally_honest/2012/05/al-qaedas-plans-to-use-american-media-as-propagandists.html

More bad pub for Chinese Communists

 In a series of dramatically conflicting developments on Wednesday, the Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng left American custody under disputed circumstances, and what briefly looked like a deft diplomatic achievement for Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton turned into a potential debacle.
Mr. Chen, who was inside the American Embassy compound here for six days as the Chinese and American governments negotiated over his fate, left Wednesday afternoon in a deal that American officials hailed as a breakthrough because it would fulfill his wish to live safely in China.
But even as Americans were releasing photographs of a celebratory send-off of Mr. Chen from the embassy, his friends questioned the reliability of any Chinese promises to allow him to live openly in China, and Mr. Chen later said his decision to give up American protection had not been fully voluntary.
In a telephone interview Thursday morning from his bed at Chaoyang Hospital here, where he was receiving treatment as part of the deal between the Americans and Chinese, Mr. Chen, a lawyer who is blind, said he had left the embassy on his own volition after the Chinese government guaranteed that his rights would be protected. But he also said he had felt some pressure because he was told that Chinese officials had threatened to beat his wife to death if he remained under American protection.
Asked if American officials had encouraged him to leave, he said, “To a certain degree.” While he was treated well there, he said, “the U.S. government was not proactive enough.”
He said American officials contacted him Thursday morning and said they would visit later in the day.
Mr. Chen said he wanted to leave China, preferably for the United States, because “guaranteeing citizens’ rights in China is empty talk,” an assertion that sharply undermines the American rationale for releasing him from diplomatic protection.
“My safety and my family’s safety are not guaranteed even now,” he said. “Their promises have not been fulfilled.”



This is the second time in 3 months that a Chinese asylum seeker has not been helped (as I covered in an update to a post put up yesterday morning):
The office of Vice President Joe Biden overruled State and Justice Department officials in denying the political asylum request of a senior Chinese communist officiallast February over fears the high-level defection would upset the U.S. visit of China’s vice president, according to U.S. officials.
The defector, Wang Lijun, was turned away after 30 hours inside the U.S. Consulate Chengdu and given over to China’s Ministry of State Security, the political police and intelligence service.
Wang has not been seen since Feb. 7 and remains under investigation. His attempt to flee China set off a major power struggle within the ruling Communist Party and led to the ouster of leftist Politburo member Bo Xilai and the arrest of his wife on murder charges.
Sad times for those looking to the United States as they seek freedom.
 http://www.brutallyhonest.org/brutally_honest/2012/05/the-beacon-of-hope-and-freedom-dims-under-the-obama-administration.html

Falun Gong

What is Falun Gong? From Wikipedia: "It combines the practice of meditation and slow-moving qigong exercises with a moral philosophy. Falun Gong emphasizes morality and the cultivation of virtue in its central tenets of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance." Why do I ask? Because, since 1999, the Chinese Communist Party has sought to eradicate anyone practicing Falun Gong. Morality? Truthfulness? Compassion? Forbearance? We can't have any of those things now, can we? Here is a brief summary of what has been happening in China since the Communists came to power. Over 80 million Chinese dead from "unnatural causes:" http://sn133w.snt133.mail.live.com/mail/InboxLight.aspx?n=43473935#n=2015697773&fid=1&fav=1&mid=cd27f4fe-95c2-11e1-8641-00215ad9bd2e&fv=1

Thursday, May 03, 2012

"The love of theory is the root of all evil"

The gift of serenity

George Will writes a tribute to his son Jon, who turns 40 tomorrow. Jon has Down Syndrome. The story is here, with photos: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/jon-will-40-years-and-going-with-down-syndrome/2012/05/02/gIQAdGiNxT_story.html

One of Osama's wives revealed his whereabouts?

Who knew? One of Bin Laden's wives may have tipped us off as to his whereabouts. It seems that she was pissed that he was living on the third floor with one of his younger wives. I'm telling you, OBL, it happens every time. Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy, though. http://openchannel.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/03/11525086-security-conscious-bin-ladens-methods-for-undetected-travel-revealed?lite