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The Common Constitutionalist
Separated by 1200 miles and bordering Canada, one would not think that the state of Montana would have a problem with illegal aliens. However according to the Federation of Americans for Immigration Reform, illegal aliens cost the state of Montana about $32 million a year, which is the lowest of any state in the nation. In today’s struggling economy $32 million is a big chunk of change.
Since the federal government refuses to enforce all the immigration laws and take action to protect the United States from the invasion of millions of illegals, a number of states including Montana have found it necessary to take action themselves.
A year ago LR 121, a measure to deny all state services to illegal aliens, was passed by a 79.5% approval of the voters. This would include all those covered under Pres. Barack Obama’s illegal dream act which allowed 800,000 illegal aliens to remain in the US illegally and obtain work permits, drivers’ licenses, and other state benefits. Under LR 121 none of those illegals would be able to receive such benefits from the state of Montana.
LA QUINTA, Calif. (TheBlaze/AP) — Phil Mickelson said he will make “drastic changes” because of federal and California state tax increases.
“It’s been an interesting offseason,” Mickelson said Sunday after the final round of the Humana Challenge. “And I’m going to have to make some drastic changes. I’m not going to jump the gun and do it right away, but I will be making some drastic changes.”
The 42-year-old golfer said he would talk in more detail about his plans – possibly moving away from California or even retiring from golf – before his hometown Farmers Insurance Open, the San Diego-area event that starts Thursday at Torrey Pines.
“I’m not sure what exactly, you know, I’m going to do yet,” Mickelson said. “I’ll probably talk about it more in depth next week. I’m not going to jump the gun, but there are going to be some. There are going to be some drastic changes for me because I happen to be in that zone that has been targeted both federally and by the state and, you know, it doesn’t work for me right now. So I’m going to have to make some changes.” Continue Reading
A prototype inflatable module is to be tested aboard the International Space Station to give astronauts an extra bedroom, NASA has announced.
The inflatable module can be compressed into a 7ft tube for delivery, and is being heralded as a key component of future exploration and the development of commercial space travel and research.
It is designed by Bigelow Aerospace, based in Las Vegas, which has been awarded a $17.8 million (£11m) test project for the inflatable room – and hopes to develop space hotels and even planetary bases using the technology.
This artist’s impressions shows the Bigelow inflatable space station that can be compressed into a 7-foot tube for delivery to the International Space Station. NASA is expected to install the module by 2015
Bigelow Aerospace president Robert Bigelow, left, and NASA deputy administrator Lori Garver with a one third scale model of the inflatable roomAstronauts will test the ability of the bladder, known as the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, or BEAM, to withstand heat, radiation, debris and other assaults.
Some adventurous scientists might also try sleeping in the spare room, which is the first piece of private property to be blasted into space, NASA said.
Lori Garver, NASA’s deputy administrator, said as she unveiled the contract award that the inflatable module concept is simultaneously cutting edge technology and affordable.
‘This partnership agreement for the use of expandable habitats represents a step forward in cutting-edge technology that can allow humans to thrive in space safely and affordably, and heralds important progress in U.S. commercial space innovation,’ she said.
‘The International Space Station is a unique laboratory that enables important discoveries that benefit humanity and vastly increase understanding of how humans can live and work in space for long periods.’
Part of NASA’s interest in the inflatable technology is prompted by its potential for deep space missions.
If the module proves durable during two years at the space station, it could open the door to habitats on the moon and missions to Mars, Nasa engineer Glen Miller said.
The agency chose Bigelow for the contract because it was the only company working on inflatable technology, said NASA deputy administrator Lori Garver.
An artist’s rendering of Bigelow Aerospace’s balloon-like module attached to the International Space StationFounder and president Robert Bigelow, who made his fortune in the hotel industry before getting into the space business in 1999, framed the gambit as an out-of-this-world property venture.
He hopes to sell his spare-tire habitats to scientific companies and wealthy adventurers looking for space hotels.
NASA is expected to install the 13ft blimp-like module in a space station port by 2015.
Mr Bigelow plans to begin selling stand-alone space homes the next year.
The new technology provides three times as much room as the existing aluminium models, and is also easier and less costly to build, Mr Miller said.
Artist renderings of the module resemble a tin-foil clown nose grafted on to the main station. It is hardly big enough to be called a room.
Mr Miller described it as a large closet with padded white walls and gear and gizmos strung from two central beams.
Attribution: Lewis Smith and Mark Prigg
A 92 year-old man went to the Doctor to get a physical. A few days later the Dr. saw the man walking down the street with a gorgeous young lady on his arm.
A couple of days later the Dr. talked to the man and said, “You’re really doing great, aren’t you?”
The man replied, “Just doing what you said Doctor, ‘Get a hot mamma and be cheerful.”
The Doctor said, “I didn’t say that. I said you got a heart murmur. Be careful.”
from: MinuteMen News.com
Even after the 2012 election in which Americans re-elected most of the sitting members of the U.S. House and Senate — as is typical in national elections — three-quarters of Americans say that, given the opportunity, they would vote “for” term limits for members of both houses of Congress.
Republicans and independents are slightly more likely than Democrats to favor term limits; nevertheless, the vast majority of all party groups agree on the issue. Further, Gallup finds no generational differences in support for the proposal.
These findings, from Gallup Daily tracking conducted Jan. 8-9, are similar to those from 1994 to 1996 Gallup polls, in which between two-thirds and three-quarters of Americans said they would vote for a constitutional amendment to limit the number of terms that members of Congress and the U.S. Senate can serve.
More Than Six in 10 Would Abolish Electoral College
Americans are nearly as open to major electoral reform when it comes to doing away with the Electoral College. Sixty-three percent would abolish this unique, but sometimes controversial, mechanism for electing presidents that was devised by the framers of the Constitution. While constitutional and statutory revisions have been made to the Electoral College since the nation’s founding, numerous efforts to abolish it over the last 200+ years have met with little success.
There is even less partisan variation in support for this proposal than there is for term limits, with between 61% and 66% of all major party groups saying they would vote to do away with the Electoral College if they could. Similarly, between 60% and 69% of all major age groups take this position.
The Common Constitutionalist adds: This is what Rush Limbaugh means by the “Low Information Voter”. I agree wholeheartedly with term limits. This is not what the founders meant by a citizen legislature; get elected, go to Washington for a term or two or three and then go home. No one should spend 20, 30, 40 years in that cesspool. Given enough time in DC, insulated from the real world, even Jesus could be corrupted.
The Electoral College, however, is absolutely essential. Without the balance of the Electoral College system, all would have been lost decades ago. We would already be full-blown socialist, rapidly approaching despotisim. A candidate (democrat) would only have to campaign in about 12 major urban areas in the country to win a landslide victory. Any state without a major city would be avoided and the candidate need only to concentrate his or her efforts on major population centers. It would effectively lock out all small states, the midwest, the south (save a few states) and the mountain west. In other words, the northeast, the DC hub and the west coast would decide every election. Not a good plan, unless you are a radical leftist.
Ancient artifacts thought to be early gaming pieces will have to be reclassified after new research which claims they were actually used to wipe bottoms.
The flat, disc-shaped Roman relics have been in the collection at Fishbourne Roman Palace in Chichester, West Sussex, UK, since the Sixties.
Up until now museum experts thought the items were used for early games like draughts, but an article in the British Medical Journal has now proposed that they have a very different function.
‘Now they are suddenly engaging items’: Dr Robert Symmons, curator of the Fishbourne Roman Palace reserve collection, said he thinks the new ‘hilarious’ explanation of the disks will help people better relate to them
These are the ancient Roman artefacts thought to be gaming chips that experts now believe were an early equivalent to toilet paperIt is well publicized that Romans used sponges mounted on sticks and dipped in vinegar as an alternative to toilet paper.
Yet the idea these ceramic discs might also have been used for such personal hygiene is a revelation.
The broken pieces – known as ‘pessoi’, meaning pebbles – range in size from 1in to 4in in diameter and were excavated near to the museum in 1960.
It had been thought that they were chips used to play an ancient game, also known as ‘pessoi’, but research published last month in the BMJ drew from classical sources to present evidence that they were also used to clean up after going to the toilet.
Noting the ancient Greek proverb ‘three stones are enough to wipe one’s a***’, Philippe Charlier, assistant professor in forensic medicine at the Raymond Poincaré University Hospital in Paris, points to archaeological excavations which have uncovered pessoi inside the pits of Greek and Roman latrines across the Mediterranean.
In one such dig in Athens, American archaeologists found a range of such pessoi 1.2-4in in diameter and 0.2-0.8in thick which, Professor Charlier wrote, were ‘re-cut from old broken ceramics to give smooth angles that would minimize anal trauma’.
Ancient Roman householders revelled in having graffiti on their walls, especially if an election was coming up, researchers believe.
Hundreds of political slogans have been found in Pompeii and the walls of the wealthiest voters offered prime advertising space for candidates.
It would have been the Roman equivalent of posting a Facebook message, hiring an advertising hoarding or sticking a campaign poster in a front window.
The discovery of slogans on the walls of the homes of Pompeii’s riches inhabitants would have meant that homeowners gave their active approval to whoever scrawled the messages, archaeologist Eeva-Maria Viitanen said.‘The facades of the private houses and even the streetwalks in front of them were controlled and maintained by the owner of the house, and in that respect, the idea that the wall space could be appropriated by anyone who wanted to do it seems unlikely,’ she told LiveScience.
Other evidence from the classical world has been passed down to us in the form of ceramics painted with representations of figures using pessoi to clean their buttocks.
According to Professor Charlier’s article, the Greeks and Romans even inscribed some of their pessoi with the names of their enemies or others they didn’t like.
Thus everytime they went to the toilet they would literally be wiping their faecal matter on the names of hated individuals.
Examples of such stones have been found by archaeologists bearing the names of such noted historical figures as Socrates, Themisthocles and Pericles, Professor Charlier reported.
Museum curator Dr Rob Symmons said: ‘When pottery like this is excavated it is someone’s job to wash it clean.’
‘So, some poor and unsuspecting archaeologist has probably had the delight of scrubbing some Roman waste off of these pieces.’
‘It is not beyond the realms of possibility that we could still find some further signs of waste or residue.
‘However, these pottery pieces have no monetary value because we are essentially talking about items once used as toilet roll.’
‘The pieces had always been catalogued as as broken gaming pieces but I was never particularly happy with that explanation.’
‘But when the article produced the theory they were used to wipe people’s bums I thought it was hilarious and it just appealed to me.’
‘I love the idea we’ve had these in the museum for 50 years being largely ignored and now they are suddenly engaging items you can relate to.’
An article in the British Medical Journal by a noted French pathologist said that examples of the stones – known as ‘pessoi’ – had been unearthed in excavations of latrines across the classical world
Study author Philippe Charlier suggests the abrasive texture of the pessoi could have led to skin irritation, mucosal damage, or complications of external haemorrhoidsDr Charlier’s research indicates that the use of such stones would have probably been rather hard on the rear ends of the ancients, and could have caused a variety of medical issues.
He suggests the abrasive texture of the pessoi could have led to skin irritation, mucosal damage, or complications of external haemorrhoids.
He wrote: ‘Maybe this crude and satiric description by Horace in his 8th epode (1st century BC) — “an a*** at the centre of dry and old buttocks mimicking that of a defecating cow”— refers to complications arising from such anal irritation.’
Dr Symmons, who has been at the Fishbourne Roman Palace museum for seven years, added: ‘We will obviously have to think about re-classifying these objects on our catalogue.
‘But we hope the pieces will make people smile when they learn what they were used for.
‘They would have probably been quite scratchy to use and I doubt they would be as comfortable as using toilet roll.
‘But in the Roman era it was that or very little else.’
Attribution: Damien Gayle
I am in the midst of tranferring my site to a new self hosted format. I am not exactly tech-savvy and am trying to do most myself. I will continue to provide as much content as I can during the transition, so forgive me if it falls off a bit. This ain’t easy for a dope like me.
I’ll keep everyone up to date of my progress any redirects of my site.
Thanks
Representative Rosa L. DeLauro (D-CT) introduced HR 226 in the House of Representatives. What does the bill seek to do? I looks to amend the 1986 Internal Revenue code and allow a credit if taxpayers “surrender” their guns to the government. The Act is said to be cited as the “Support Assault Firearms Elimination and Reduction for our Streets Act.”
According to the text of the bill, the allowance of the credit is:
(1) In general.–In the case of an individual who surrenders a specified assault weapon to the United States or a State or local government (or political subdivision thereof) as part of a Federal, State, or local public safety program to reduce the number of privately owned weapons, on the election of the taxpayer there shall be allowed as a credit against the tax imposed by this chapter an amount equal to $2,000. Continue Reading
the Common Constitutionalist 