The blog of Jay Calderwood.

Lent starts tomorrow.... A somber reflection.

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 18:31:36 -0500

Ash Wednesday is tomorrow and it marks the First day of the Lenten season. A season of reflection, reflection on what the Lord and Savior sacrificed for humanity. He gave his life, so we as Christians and His flock can be washed of our sins and have a place in His Father’s Kingdom. We sometimes fall into a time where we forget this and we either consciously or unconsciously turn our backs on our Savior and walk away from Him.

I love my Savior but it seems like I have indeed walked away from the Lord. I am thankful for what I have and also for what I don’t have. I finally have a woman who loves me, kids that are healthy and a bundle of jay, and a job that I somewhat enjoy. However, I haven’t been in church since my Grandfather passed away…. Feb 22nd, 2010… Yes a huge reason why it’s going to be a tough day.

This Lenten season I am going to repair my relationship with the Lord. I am going to be going to church starting tomorrow Ash Wednesday, I will be going every Sunday and I will be praying more. I am also going to sacrifice all fast foods (except for Chic-Fil-A), soda and coffee, I am going to keep drinking some iced tea, but mostly water. I am also NOT going to be eating meat on Fridays as per Cannon Law. Most importantly I am going to do more reflection, and prayer during this time, and the prayer will indeed carry over past Lent and Easter. I am turning over a new leaf… Not only am I going to lose weight, I am going to be a better ~~(almost)~~ husband, and better father. Please pray for me in my voyage…. Which I will be blogging.

Do you enjoy paying so much for gas?

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 22:14:19 -0500

AAA national average is 3.56 / gallon. Why? We let criminals like OPEC control our oil and our Government control the oil. We do not pump our own oil, we are dependent on oil from the middle east. We have enough oil in our reserve to survive on for the next 300 years, we have areas like North Dakota, off the Gulf Coast of Texas, and Alaska that can be pumped for oil. If we did this our gas could be less than a dollar a gallon again.

The sad part is that the dependency of foreign oil will not stop, and that the development of alternative fuels are impeded by the bureaucrats’ lust for money. Every oil company has made a profit in 2011, as the American public who has a almost 10% unemployment rate, is suffering. We feel the prices of gas when ever we purchase anything. Our food prices for example have almost doubled, so the poor not only incurs the price at the pump, but a “gas tax” on goods as well.

Ron Paul on why gas is so high (From 2008, but still relevant 4 years later)

So this leads us to the question WHY are we paying so much? A few things. First the Federal Reserve is intentionally driving up gas prices. I know you are sitting there saying I am a conspiracy theorist. However, ask yourself this. What is a bank’s main purpose? Well keep in mind that the Federal Reserve Bank is a PRIVATE company, and NOT a government agency, so its main goal is to make a profit. How could they pull this off? By using a puppet and the perfect puppet to do this is Obama. With this said the government doesn’t want you to know what they are doing. In 2001 the government used the mask of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction to overthrow a country’s president for the simple reason that his daddy couldn’t do it 10 years before.

While we have a a big government nothing will change. Our gas prices will just keep going up. If we limit the strangle the government has on the people and then start in the meantime drilling in North Dakota and Alaska then the price of gas will become affordable again. This is an election year. As we weigh in the candidates on both sides, we have to think about which candidate will lower the gas prices. The only candidate who supports the lower and middle classes, understands what we are going through and the only one who supports Lesser Government is Ron Paul. The other 3 candidates are very rich and have some sort of investments in oil companies, so do you think that they will help lower the burden of high gas prices on us?

Welcome back Jim…. Great to have Good Ol’ 25 back.

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 16:46:37 -0500

Welcome back Jim…. Great to have Good Ol’ 25 back.

phuckyeahphils: Jose Reyes you are such an asshole. Luckily,...

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 13:11:37 -0500

phuckyeahphils:

Jose Reyes you are such an asshole. Luckily, you wear towels like turbans. For that I thank you because you are now probably a “Person of Interest” to the FBI.

cliftonphifer: Local Front Pages from October 30, 2008...

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 12:56:03 -0500

cliftonphifer:

Local Front Pages from October 30, 2008 - Phillies win the World Series

The End of Military Accountability

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 18:15:32 -0500

The End of Military Accountability:

baseballlibertarian:

To which there was already very little.

When the Obama administration decided to militarily intervene in Libya, they did so without approval from Congress. A UN resolution authorized a mission to protect the civilian population from Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi’s forces, but the mission quickly morphed into an extended military conflict aimed at regime change. Not only did Obama violate Constitutional requirements which give Congress the authority to authorize war, he also disregarded the applicability of the post-Vietnam War legislation – the War Power Resolution – which requires notifying Congress of military action and receiving formal authorization if it lasts more than 60 days.

At the time, this was viewed by many as a gratuitous expansion of Executive power plainly not in keeping with much lauded American principles like checks and balances. There was even opposition within Washington: there was a House vote on an amendment to stop funding the Libyan War, a formal letter by the Speaker to conform to the law, and ten legislators filed a lawsuit against the Obama administration for unlawfully taking the country to war.

This controversy was something of a nod to various antiquated notions of the rule of law in this country. As James Madison said: “The constitution supposes, what the History of all Governments demonstrates, that the Executive is the branch of power most interested in war, & most prone to it. It has accordingly with studied care, vested the question of war in the Legislature.” This is such a fundamental tenet of basic rule of law as initially conceived, that even in such a criminal and corrupt Congress as we now have, some opposition to Obama’s martial overreach was perhaps predictable.

But for the past decade, we’ve seen the rise of a secret, unaccountable U.S. military force with activities and implications far more pernicious than Obama’s criminal disregard for the rule of law for intervention in Libya. This rise has occurred without even a fraction of the feigned opposition to intervention in Libya. Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) is an unwieldy private army at the command of the President, and him only. And they conduct military and spy missions all over the world, never receiving formal congressional approval and never garnering even the limited scrutiny applied to the U.S.-led no-fly zone in Libya.

eltigrechico: ron paul > gop hacks

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 01:16:00 -0500

eltigrechico:

ron paul > gop hacks

Photo

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 20:01:31 -0500

Santorum was against war with Iran before he was for it

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 20:00:35 -0500

Santorum was against war with Iran before he was for it:

baseballlibertarian:

Guess running for president in the war monger party can change a person.

Free trade and an open and honest relationship with Iran would do much more good in the long run to insure peace.

During a New Year’s Day appearance on NBC’s “Meet The Press,” former Pennsylvania Republican Senator and come-from-behind GOP presidential frontrunner Rick Santorum threatened to attack Iran if he becomes President.

“I would be working openly with the state of Israel and I would be saying to the Iranians, you either open up those facilities, you begin to dismantle them and make them available to inspectors or we will degrade those facilities through air strikes – and make it very public that we are doing that,” Santorum told “Meet The Press” host David Gregory. The candidate went on to promise that under his administration, Iranian nuclear scientists “will be treated as an enemy combatant, like an Al Qaida member.”

Santorum’s belligerent rhetoric on the campaign trail presents a stark contrast to statements he made when he served in the Senate. In September 2006, Santorum hosted Reza Pahlavi (more on him later), the son of deposed Iranian monarch Mohammed-Reza Shah Pahlavi, for a meeting with his congressional colleagues. Pahlavi reportedly urged his audience to support a supposedly democratic movement inside Iran. He then emphasized that “the option of war must be taken off the table.”

According to a Yahoo News report on the event posted on Pahlavi’s personal website:

Agreeing that war was not an option, Senator Santorum said, of Reza Pahlavi: “He is a leading and enthusiastic advocate of the principals [sic] of freedom, democracy and human rights for his countrymen;” adding that “Reza Pahlavi has upheld the honor of his country in a time of upheaval and darkness.”

So Santorum was against going to war with Iran before he was for it. And he has yet to offer an explanation for his flip-flop.

Ten Years After Decriminalization, Drug Abuse Down by Half in Portugal

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 21:09:00 -0500

Ten Years After Decriminalization, Drug Abuse Down by Half in Portugal:

missdellaney:

“Drug warriors often contend that drug use would skyrocket if we were to legalize or decriminalize drugs in the United States. Fortunately, we have a real-world example of the actual effects of ending the violent, expensive War on Drugs and replacing it with a system of treatment for problem users and addicts…”

Iran is not a threat to the United States. The United States is a threat to Iran.

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 19:25:04 -0500

Iran is not a threat to the United States. The United States is a threat to Iran.:

No matter what anyone says, Iran is not a threat to the U.S. and not even close to being a threat to the U.S. The forces of the U.S. are so extensive and so overwhelming on so many dimensions that for Iran to attack the U.S. would be sheer madness. The Iranians know this. The U.S. knows this. Israel knows this.

We know for a fact that Iran was unable to defeat Iraq in the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988).

Anyone with access to the internet can easily determine that Iran doesn’t stand a chance in a war with the U.S. Anyone who says or thinks that Iran is a threat to the U.S. that should be taken seriously is talking nonsense.

The Iranians cannot want war and do not want war with the U.S. There are absolutely no signs that the Iranians want or intend a war against the U.S. In fact, they have already absorbed a number of aggressive acts from Israel and the U.S. without any kind of retaliation.

If war breaks out, it won’t be Iran that has brought it on. It will be the U.S. The firing of the first shots or the triggering incident in such hostilities is beside the point.

The Iranians do not threaten any aggression against the U.S. They are not building up forces to attack the U.S. This is impossible for them. The distance between Tehran and New York is 6,121 miles. Tehran has no missiles that can traverse this distance. Its air force is outmoded. It has no bombers worthy of the name. It has some F-5 fighter aircraft. Their range is 870 miles. Iran has no fleet of ships that can cross oceans.

Iran has no reason for attacking the U.S. It has nothing to gain and everything to lose. It has no national interest at stake.

By the same token, the U.S. has no justifiable reason for attacking Iran because Iran is not doing anything that can remotely be construed as aggression against the U.S. Of course, the U.S. can always create an incident to convince gullible Americans that the U.S. must attack Iran.

If war breaks out between Iran and the U.S., the blame will lie squarely on one side, and that side is the U.S. The U.S. is pressuring and threatening Iran.

The public statements by the U.S. on Israel do not unambiguously suggest that the U.S. is reining in Israel as it should. For Obama to say that he wants a diplomatic solution is all well and good, but the fact is that he is not acting diplomatically by serving up one threat after another and tightening the screws on Iran. For Obama to say that he is moving in lockstep with Israel can be taken to mean that he is in control or that Israel is in control or that whatever Israel does meets with U.S. approval. Obama’s language is too ambiguous to be reassuring.

It's pretty sad that the Republicans in Maine can't vote because of threat of snow but the Girl Scounts can still hold their even on the same day

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 19:19:08 -0500

It's pretty sad that the Republicans in Maine can't vote because of threat of snow but the Girl Scounts can still hold their even on the same day:

baseballlibertarian:

But there was no funny business going on, right?

Was Maine stolen from Ron Paul?

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 17:59:38 -0500

Was Maine stolen from Ron Paul?:

baseballlibertarian:

Voter fraud seems to be a common theme with the Republican elites.

The mass media have repeated the official results for the Maine GOP presidential caucuses that former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney narrowly beat Texas Congressman Ron Paul by a 39 percent to 36 percent margin. But the official results are incomplete. And postponement of the results from one of Ron Paul’s strongest counties, Washington County, because of a forecasted snowstorm may alone have tipped the balance in Romney’s favor.

Ron Paul’s campaign confidently predicted victory when the final votes are tallied. “Only 194 votes [statewide] stand between Paul and a first place victory,” RonPaul 2012 blogger Jack Hunter pointed out in a post after the media declared Romney the winner. “Washington County is a stronghold for Paul and has yet to report. It might be a week before we know the final outcome there and Washington County is expected to yield 200 votes or more.” Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum placed third with 18 percent of the vote in the official Maine caucus statewide vote tally, while former House Speaker Newt Gingrich placed fourth with six percent of the vote.

Hunter’s prediction is not just braggadocio. In south Washington County, Maine, Paul beat Romney by 132 votes in a February 7 Cottage Grove precinct-level caucus preceding the county “super-caucus” that was supposed to be held February 11 but will now be held February 18. Maine’s South Washington County Bulletin reported February 8: “In District 57 … Texas Congressman Ron Paul was the favorite among Republicans. Paul earned 237 votes in the non-binding poll, followed by Santorum’s 209 votes. Mitt Romney had 105 votes in the district, Newt Gingrich 61 votes.” The February 7 south Washington precinct-level caucus results, which were not reflected in the official statewide total, were alone sufficient to offset two-thirds of the difference between Romney and Paul in the official statewide totals.

The cancellation of the Washington County super-caucus alone among Maine caucuses scheduled for February 11 has led many Paul supporters to suspect electoral shenanigans by the Republican establishment to deny Paul a state victory. That Washington County would vote heavily in favor of Paul was well-known, and Paul was widely seen as the only credible threat to Romney.

Maine state GOP Chairman Charlie Webster vowed that later caucuses would not be counted in the vote totals. “Some caucuses decided not to participate in this poll and will caucus after this announcement,” Webster told the Associated Press February 11. “Their results will not be factored in. The absent votes will not be factored into this announcement after the fact.”

The Washington County super-caucus was the only one to have been postponed because of an anticipated snowstorm. But while some media forecast six or more inches of snow, the Washington County forecast from the National Weather Service for February 11 was for a total of 3-5 inches of accumulation during the day, hardly out-of-the-ordinary for the Maine climate in February. Moreover, the Portland area was forecast to have almost as much snow, 1-3 inches, while nearby Hancock County had an identical forecast as Washington County. Yet caucuses were not cancelled in those areas.

Ron Paul 2012 national campaign chairman Jesse Benton predicted victory when the delegate process is completed in a website statement. “We are confident that we will control the Maine delegation for the convention in August. Our campaign is so thankful to all of our supporters in Maine, and all over the nation, and we want them to know that we plan to take this message all the way to the White House.”

Rep. Paul’s campaign has stressed that the establishment is desperate to get Romney a couple of state wins after losing Minnesota, Colorado and Missouri to former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum earlier last week. “Maine is a state in Romney’s backyard that he should’ve been able to walk away with easily. That Mitt almost lost to Ron tonight–and that Mitt still may lose to Ron in the days to come–does not bode well for the establishment candidate,” Ron Paul campaign blogger Jack Hunter argued as the caucus results emerged.

voteformickeymouse:

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 01:59:50 -0500

voteformickeymouse:

"The People United Will Never Be Defeated": Ron Paul campaign implies foul play in Romney victory in Maine

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:23:43 -0500

"The People United Will Never Be Defeated": Ron Paul campaign implies foul play in Romney victory in Maine:

spread24:

In the wake of would-be Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s victory in Saturday’s Maine caucuses, the Ron Paul campaign is raising implications of foul play.

According to the official tally, with 84% of the votes counted, Romney took 39% of that vote, defeating Paul by a narrow…

ronpaulrevolution: Ron Paul’s interview from earlier today.

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 23:31:44 -0500

ronpaulrevolution:

Ron Paul’s interview from earlier today.

santorgy: Rick Santorum is doing this for you, America…

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 23:30:53 -0500

santorgy:

Rick Santorum is doing this for you, America…

Guess who? Ha-ha-ha-HA-haa!: Arrested Development Rapper Speech: "I'm Disillusioned With Obama and I Would Vote Ron Paul for President"

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 20:41:00 -0500

Guess who? Ha-ha-ha-HA-haa!: Arrested Development Rapper Speech: "I'm Disillusioned With Obama and I Would Vote Ron Paul for President":

macousticboy:

http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/crossfade/2012/02/arrested_development_rapper_speech_obama_ron_paul.php

By S. Pajot Thu., Feb. 9 2012 at 5:00 PM

There was a time, circa 1991, when hip-hop wasn’t all about bling and bitches.

Back in the day, the beat dropped and…

eltigrechico: That’s because, to the U.S. Government at least,...

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 20:40:33 -0500

eltigrechico:

That’s because, to the U.S. Government at least, Ron Paul is worth than the Nazis.

Strich Law Firm, P.C.: Bill Advances in NJ Legislature for Reductions in Child and Spousal Support due to Unemployment

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 16:39:21 -0500

Strich Law Firm, P.C.: Bill Advances in NJ Legislature for Reductions in Child and Spousal Support due to Unemployment :

strichlaw:

The New Jersey Assembly Judiciary Committee voted unanimously to recommend passage of a bill that would allow a reduction in alimony or child support if the payor demonstrates a reduction in income due to unemployment or disability. While Family Part Judges have already had the power to grant such…