Hey friends...I found something wonderful at the Dollar Tree this evening. As you know, Kindergarten Graduation is a first for my school so I'm over stressing. Anyways....hop over to My Fabulous Finds and check out what I picked up for a $1. For those of you not going all out with the caps and gowns, this find is a cheap alternative for FUN! Click the button below to visit!
One World Trade Center passes the Empire State Building to become the tallest building in New York City. AP Time Lapse photography shows the building rising from Oct. 2010 to April 2012.
Sarah Palin gave a very inspiring speech at the 2012 Extraordinary Womens Conference at the BJCC in Birmingham, AL. You can tell she is an authentic Christian woman by the way she speaks God's message with authority. The women in the audience loved her, and at the end of her message, all of the worship leaders signed the back of a guitar (or mandolin) and surprised her with it. She said she would learn to play "Sweet Home Alabama" by the next time she visits us :)
There's a budding war in the Twitterverse as liberals are evidently carrying out organized attacks on conservative Twitter users by reporting their tweets as "spam," thus triggering an automated block on their accounts.
Apparently, a threshold has to be crossed as far as the number of tweets for the system to kick in, as well as the number of spam reports in order to ban the user so not all conservative Twitter activists are vulnerable. But several high profile conservatives have had their accounts blocked and trying to get them reinstated is proving to be a difficult matter.
But Chris Loesch, husband of talk radio host Dana Loesch has been banned, reinstated, and banned again several times in the last 48 hours.
While Twitter executives sleep on the job, conservatives online are battling not only Loesch's suspension, but the suspension of more than a dozen -- and possibly dozens, if not hundreds more -- innocent conservative social-media users who appear to have been maliciously targeted by Twitter abusers. The system is obviously broken and being exploited by vigilantes who oppose everything the engagement-enhancing ethos of Twitter stands for (or is supposed to stand for, anyway).
The targets are not big-time conservative celebs with large followings (which seems to be why Chris Loesch was targeted instead of his fellow conservative activist wife -- Breitbart.com editor/CNN contributor Dana Loesch -- whose high-follower Twitter account may be more immune to flag-spam attacks).
The progressives never expect pushback. But with the back-to-back suspensions of @freemarket_us and @chrisloesch, the conservative activist community online is banding together to Flag the Flag-Spammers for Twitter to see all in one place -- no, not by abusing the flag-spam system, but by naming names and showing Twitter the extent of the problem.
Shane Wright, who himself was the victim of a temporary suspension, has compiled a list of conservatives suspended at some point on Twitter.
A tidal wave of Tweets from conservative activists are trying to keep pace with the organized attack on free speech from the left. If you've got a Twitter account, it might be a good idea to join with others and tweet like crazy - and retweeting banned users tweets -- until Twitter can figure out how to stop the abuse.
Friday on The O’Reilly Factor, Monica Novoa, a campaign coordinator for ‘Drop the I-Word,’ spoke out on the program’s new initiative to make the term ‘illegal alien’ morally on par with racial slurs., and her conversation with Bill O’Reilly quickly became heated.
O’Reilly argued that Novoa’s cause is misguided because it is, in fact, a federal crime to enter the U.S. illegally. “I’m not committing a hate crime by saying illegal aliens are just that.” he said.
When Novoa said that in the past laws have been changed in order to make for a more humane society, O’Reilly said, “Then work to change them. Don’t demonize people who are accurate in the description as using a slur or using a hate word because that’s not true.”
When Novoa was asked about whether she believes the U.S. should have open borders, she said, “I think that what we should be doing right now is looking at the reality and the reality is that people are here, and people are parts of families.” O’Reilly quickly interjected claiming that Novoa dodged the question and was filibustering, “two things we don’t allow on this program.” More
Jon Lovitz is learning the hard way it's news when a comedian criticizes the president in the Age of Obama.
Most comedians would rather talk about anything other than the President these days. And when they do, it's often to defend his administration, not hold it accountable for the last three-plus years.
Lovitz's now-famous anti-Obama rant did more than just go viral. It got picked up by most major news organizations and web sites. What a sad state of comic affairs when a comedian mocking the president makes headlines.
But Lovitz isn't backing down, even though it would likely help his career to do a quick mea culpa and pretend to blindly follow along with his comic peers.
Lovitz's Twitter account is clearly feeling the heat from Obama disciples. But Lovitz isn't back down.
NEW YORK – One World Trade Center, the giant monolith being built to replace the twin towers destroyed in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, will lay claim to the title of New York City's tallest skyscraper on Monday. Workers will erect steel columns that will make its unfinished skeleton a little over 1,250 feet high, just enough to peak over the roof of the observation deck on the Empire State Building.
The milestone is a preliminary one. Workers are still adding floors to the so-called "Freedom Tower" and it isn't expected to reach its full height for at least another year, at which point it is likely to be declared the tallest building in the U.S., and third tallest in the world.
Those bragging rights, though, will carry an asterisk.
Crowning the world's tallest buildings is a little like picking the heavyweight champion in boxing. There is often disagreement about who deserves the belt.
In this case, the issue involves the 408-foot-tall needle that will sit on the tower's roof.
Count it, and the World Trade Center is back on top. Otherwise, it will have to settle for No. 2, after the Willis Tower in Chicago.
"Height is complicated," said Nathaniel Hollister, a spokesman for The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitats, a Chicago-based organization considered an authority on such records.
Experts and architects have long disagreed about where to stop measuring super-tall buildings outfitted with masts, spires and antennas that extend far above the roof.
Consider the case of the Empire State Building: Measured from the sidewalk to the tip of its needle-like antenna, the granddaddy of all super-tall skyscrapers actually stands 1,454 feet high, well above the mark being surpassed by One World Trade Center on Monday.
Purists, though, say antennas shouldn't count when determining building height.
An antenna, they say, is more like furniture than a piece of architecture. Like a chair sitting on a rooftop, an antenna can be attached or removed. The Empire State Building didn't even get its distinctive antenna until 1952. The record books, as the argument goes, shouldn't change every time someone installs a new satellite dish.
Excluding the antenna brings the Empire State Building's total height to 1,250 feet. That was still high enough to make the skyscraper the world's tallest from 1931 until 1972.
From that height, the Empire State seems to tower over the second tallest completed building in New York, the Bank of America Tower.
Yet, in many record books, the two skyscrapers are separated by just 50 feet.
That's because the tall, thin mast on top of the Bank of America building isn't an antenna, but a decorative spire.
Unlike antennas, record-keepers like spires. It's a tradition that harkens back to a time when the tallest buildings in many European cities were cathedrals. Groups like the Council on Tall Buildings, and Emporis, a building data provider in Germany, both count spires when measuring the total height of a building, even if that spire happens to look exactly like an antenna.
This quirk in the record books has benefited buildings like Chicago's recently opened Trump International Hotel and Tower. It is routinely listed as being between 119 feet to 139 feet taller than the Empire State Building, thanks to the antenna-like mast that sits on its roof, even though the average person, looking at the two buildings side by side, would probably judge the New York skyscraper to be taller.
The same factors apply to measuring the height of One World Trade Center.
Designs call for the tower's roof to stand at 1,368 feet -- the same height as the north tower of the original World Trade Center. The building's roof will be topped with a 408-foot, cable-stayed mast, making the total height of the structure a symbolic 1,776 feet. The U.S. Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776.
AUSTIN, Texas – A federal judge on Monday stopped Texas from preventing Planned Parenthood from getting state funds through the Women's Health Program.
U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel in Austin ruled there is sufficient evidence that a law banning Planned Parenthood from the program is unconstitutional. He imposed an injunction against enforcing it until he can hear full arguments.
The law passed last year by the Republican-controlled Legislature forbids state agencies from providing funds to an organization affiliated with abortion providers. Eight Planned Parenthood clinics that do not provide abortions sued the state. The clinics say the law unconstitutionally restricts their freedom of speech and association.
"The court is particularly influenced by the potential for immediate loss of access to necessary medical services by several thousand Texas women," Yeakel wrote in his ruling. "The record before the court at this juncture reflects uncertainty as to the continued viability of the Texas Women's Health Program."
Texas officials have said that if the state is forced to include Planned Parenthood, they will likely shut down the program that serves basic health care and contraception to 130,000 poor women.
Obama is doubling down on his history of eating dogs. At the White House Correspondent’s Dinner Obama joked with the audience, “a pit bull is delicious.” (1:01 mark)
Hey ya'll! We're gearing up for Kindergarten graduation at our school. May 17th to be exact. This will be the first year we've done anything like this. Normally, we just have a little presentation and students read a poem or perform a cute song for parents, we invite them to our room for snacks, and call it a day. But this year, we're going ALL out. Diplomas and all. Needless to say, I'm scouring the internet for ideas and wondering what to do. Here are some of my favorite pinterest finds.
Love the paper plate faces. I'm debating on making this....
I got crafty and put together these letters with my Cricut. I'm gonna hang them from my clothesline in my room and then hang the kinders' pictures around it! It's going to be my focal point for the little open house we plan on having after the ceremony.
I may even make these yummy things, too. We'll see?? Look out Martha.
Yup, we are definitely learning First Grade! First Grade! and singing it. It makes my heart smile. What other songs would you recommend?
Here is a fun little keepsake I plan on doing for parents. Just click on the picture to grab it from google docs! I'll fill out the top part (name, age, grade, teacher) and let my students fill out the rest. Then, I'll paint their hand and do a little hand print on the right side, mount on fun scrapbook paper, and laminate. These will be laying at their desks along with a few other items for parents to take home after the graduation ceremony. I'm sure they'll love them! Do you all have any other ideas? This is a first for us at the Springs so I could use some help! Happy Saturday!
Jones College Prep -- a Chicago Public Schools "selective enrollment" school -- recently held "Social Justice Week" in March, a collection of events geared towards turning students into activist. More
OKMULGEE COUNTY, Okla. -- A portable meth lab exploded in an Oklahoma man's pants Friday during a scuffle with a state trooper.
David Williams ran from a police officer who noticed a chemical smell as he was issuing a speeding ticket to the driver of the SUV Williams was a passenger in, KOTV reported.
The officer caught up with Williams and in the ensuing struggle, an "active meth lab" he had been hiding in his pants burst, Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper Shiloh Hall told the station.
Police closed 221st Street in Okmulgee County, about 90 miles (150km) east of Oklahoma City, to clean up the scene.
Although meth was dripping down Williams' leg, he was uninjured. He was arrested on a complaint of manufacturing a controlled and dangerous substance.
He rehashed his favorite “gene pool” line, which he seems to think is worth repeating over and over again.
“How about the first lady, Michelle Obama? Hooah!” She is a tough act to follow.Gentlemen, for the gentlemen out there, who are not yet married, let me just explain to you, your goal is to improve your gene pool by marrying somebody who is superior to you.”
I join commonsense conservatives in endorsing Richard Mourdock to be the next Senator from Indiana. Conservatives of all stripes are uniting behind Richard Mourdock. It’s not just Indiana that benefits from sending the right Senator to serve for the right reasons; the nation as a whole benefits, and that is one reason why the eyes of so many around the nation are focused on the Indiana race.
Indiana deserves a conservative in the Senate who will fight for the Hoosier State, uphold our Constitution, and not just go along to get along with the vested interests of the permanent political class in D.C.
Richard Mourdock is the conservative choice for Indiana. Senator Lugar’s 36 years of service as a Senator are appreciated, but it’s time for the torch to pass to conservative leadership in Washington that promises to rein in government spending now.
Hello! Today I have Orly Green With Envy. A lovely lovely shade of green! I don't quite agree with the name. When I think of the phrase Green With Envy, I think of something dark. This green is so light and pretty and springy! I love it! What you see here is 3 coats. I don't know if I would call this a jelly or a creme, it's in between. Enjoy!
I added this last one because I thought it was fun!
The Supreme Court signaled Wednesday that it might uphold a key element of Arizona's immigration law, as justices across the board suggested the state has a serious problem on its hands and should have some level of sovereignty to address illegal immigration.
The justices appeared ready to allow a provision requiring police officers to check the immigration status of people they think are in the U.S. illegally.
The justices strongly suggested Wednesday they are not buying the Obama administration's argument that the state exceeded its authority, with Chief Justice John Roberts at one point saying he doesn't think the federal government even wants to know how many illegal immigrants are in the country.
"You can see it's not selling very well," Justice Sonia Sotomayor told Obama administration Solicitor General Donald Verrilli.
The Republican National Committee filed a formal complaint with the Government Accountability OfficeWednesday, accusing the Obama administration of using taxpayer funds to campaign on President Obama's recent trip to three swing states, despite White House claims President Obama was giving speeches at official events.
"Throughout his administration, but particularly in recent weeks, President Obama has been passing off campaign travel as "official events," thereby allowing taxpayers, rather than his campaign, to pay for his reelection efforts," the complaint letter by RNC Chairman Reince Priebus read.
The president gave speeches on college campuses in North Carolina, Colorado and Iowa in front of large crowds of students in which he called on Congress to prevent a hike in federal student loan interest rates. The RNC noted the location of the speeches, the large boisterous crowds and some of the president's recent rhetoric in its complaint, saying they created a campaign-like atmosphere.
"The most recent example of such misuse came yesterday in North Carolina and Colorado. President Obama traveled to the two states at taxpayer expense to deliver speeches to cheering crowds of college students, events widely reported to be equivalent to campaign rallies," the letter read. "The same can be said of the president's trip to Florida two weeks ago. President Obama scheduled three fundraisers in the state and added one short "official event" on his Buffett Tax to his itinerary, once again allowing his reelection campaign to save on fuel for Air Force One."
A White House spokesman stresses the administration complies with all rules regulating presidential travel and campaigning. He also points to a planned trip later this week to meet with military members in Georgia--a consistently Republican-voting state-as proof election politics don't play into the president's official schedule.
"This week's travel has been part of the president's official responsibility to get outside of Washington, D.C., hear from students, and discuss stopping interest rates on their loans from doubling in July -- just like Friday's trip to Fort Stewart in Hinesville, Georgia, to meet with troops, veterans, and military families is likewise part of the president's official responsibilities," White House spokesman Eric Schultz said in an email to Fox News. "When there is political travel, we follow all rules and regulations that all other administrations have followed." More
Former President Jimmy Carter said he expects President Obama to win reelection, but Mitt Romney would be his top choice on the Republican side.
"I think of all the Republican candidates who are prominent, I think Romney would be the one I would rather see have a slight possibility to be president," on MSNBC's "Jansing & Co" in an interview that aired Wednesday.
When pressed on whether he would be "comfortable" with a Romney presidency, Carter responded, "I would rather have a Democrat, but I would be comfortable."
"I think Romney has shown in his past, in his previous years as a moderate, a progressive that he was fairly competent as a governor and also running the Olympics. As you know, he has a good solid family," Carter said. Carter accused Romney of going to the "extreme right wing" to win in the GOP primary, but said he believes candidates on both sides of the aisle tend to move toward the middle during the general election.
"I think he's gone too far in the conservative positions to suit the average American, that's why I think President Obama is going to be reelected," he said. More
President Barack Obama's much talked about appearance on Jimmy Fallon's late night TV talk show is being used against the president by a major Republican group that says it's going up with an online ad that criticizes Obama as a "celebrity president."
American Crossroads, the independent super PAC co-founded by Karl Rove that backs GOP causes and candidates, says their spot will run online starting as early as Thursday in the three university towns the president visited during his two day, three battleground state tour Tuesday and Wednesday. Obama held events at the University of North Carolina, the University of Colorado and the University of Iowa as part of his push for the extension of a measure that would hold down federal student loan rates, an important issue for many younger voters. MORE
In a piece at Townhall, Maggie Gallagher discusses Sarah Palin’s prescience in instinctively opposing Obama’s federal education mandates as an encroachment on state sovereignty before it was fashionable to do so:
Sarah Palin was the first to recognize the problem: By participating in President Obama’s signature education initiative, the Common Core Standards, Alaska would lose control over its own curriculum.
On May 31, 2009, then-Gov. Palin announced Alaska would adopt a “watch and wait” attitude:
“If this initiative produces useful results, Alaska will remain free to incorporate them,” Gov. Palin said, adding that “high expectations are not always created by new, mandated federal standards written on paper. They are created in the home, the community and the classroom.”
Texas Gov. Rick Perry, to his credit, was the next to recognize a federal boondoggle when he saw one: “I will not commit Texas taxpayers to unfunded federal obligations or to the adoption of unproven, cost-prohibitive national standards and tests,” Gov. Perry wrote in a Jan. 13, 2010, letter to U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan.
In the ensuing two years, it’s become clear that Perry and Palin — two core conservative figures whose intelligence is routinely mocked by liberal “sophisticates” — were brilliantly prescient, indeed prophetic.
Common Core Standards turn out to be like Obamacare — you don’t really know what’s in it until after you pass it and are mired in its tentacles.
Today, even more states are waking up to discover that they have lost control of both curriculum and costs for a program that is untested and unlikely to improve student performance. A February study by the Pioneer Institute conservatively estimates that Obama’s Common Core Standards will costs the states at least $16 billion — money that could be used to promote education in other ways (pioneerinstitute.org/pdf/120222_CCSSICost.pdf).
Clinton Eugene Curtis, a computer programmer from Florida, testified before a congressional panel that there are computer programs that can be used to secretly fix elections. He explains how he created a prototype for Florida Congressman Tom Feeny that would flip the vote 51%-49% in favor of a specified candidate. More
Last night, President Obama appeared on Jimmy Fallon’s unwatchable show to “slow-jam the news.” By this, Fallon meant that Obama would read a campaign speech about student loans, Fallon would utter a few lines to back him up every so often, and his lead band singer would warble in support of Obama’s propaganda.
Only one problem, aside from the fact that this was possibly the worst “comedy” segment in the history of mankind: it violated campaign finance law.
The equal time rule states that if a licensee permits a person “who is a legally qualified candidate for any public office to use a broadcasting station, he shall afford equal opportunities to all other such candidates for that office in the use of such broadcasting station.”
There are exceptions to the rule: appearances on (1) a bona fide newscast, (2) a bona fide news interview, (3) a bona fide news documentary, or (4) on-the-spot coverage of bona fide news events.
Only the second provision could be construed as saving NBC from giving Mitt Romney equal time. But this was not a bona fide news interview. In fact, it wasn’t an interview at all – no questions were asked, no answers were given. It was literally Obama reading a campaign speech over a guitar, a horn, a keyboard, and some drums. More
Hello! Quick post for the moment. I bought some supplies and made a few more polish rings. I haven't decided if I am going to add them to the Etsy store yet, but I thought I would share!
If you would like to know which polish I used, just leave me a comment and I will let you know!
The U.S. Department of Agriculture today confirmed a case of mad cow disease found in a dairy cow in central California.
In a press briefing Tuesday afternoon, John Clifford, the USDA’s chief veterinary officer, said the cow’s meat did not enter the food supply and the carcass will be destroyed. The animal was found at a rendering facility.
“There is really no concern for alarm here with regards to this animal,” Clifford said. “Both human health and animal health are protected with regards to this issue.”
This is the fourth case of mad cow disease in the U.S. cattle supply since December 2003. The most recent case occurred in 2006, when officials discovered an infected cow on an Alabama farm.
The case was discovered as part of the USDA’s regular surveillance program of U.S. cattle. No other cases have been reported yet, and Dr. William Schaffner, chair of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University, said it’s unlikely that more cows will be infected.
“Mad cow occurs in animals as it does in humans — rarely and sporadically. At this point, I would not expect there to be another cow to be found,” he said. More
Of all the many complaints about airport security and the TSA, one of the most common is that they make little distinction between plausible security threats and passengers unlikely to be doing anything wrong.
And a recent incident in Wichita, Kansas has reinforced that argument, as a four-year-old girl was apparently subjected to a humiliating ordeal after she hugged her grandmother while she was waiting in line.
The girl was accused of having a gun and declared a 'high security threat', while agents threatened to shut down the whole airport if she could not be calmed down.
When asked about the overbearing treatment the girl received, a TSA spokesman did not apologise and insisted that correct procedures had been followed.
Terror threat? Four-year-old Isabella was subjected to a full body pat-down and accused of carrying a gun in an airport
Four-year-old Isabella's horrific experience in Wichita earlier this month was recounted on Facebook by her furious mother Michelle Brademeyer.
The family was in Kansas for a wedding, and was travelling home to Montana with Ms Brademeyer's mother.
Ms Brademeyer and her two children had passed through security when the grandmother was detained after triggering an alarm on the scanners.
Isabella then, according to her mother, 'excitedly ran over to give her a hug, as children often do. They made very brief contact, no longer than a few seconds.'
The young girl was immediately detained by security agents, who apparently shouted at her that she would have to be frisked too, and refused to let her mother explain what has happening.
Ms Brademeyer wrote: 'It was implied, several times, that my mother, in their brief two-second embrace, had passed a handgun to my daughter.'
Nightmare: The TSA has been criticised for being over-zealous (file photo)
In her terror, Isabella tried to run away rather than face a full body pat-down, which unsurprisingly enraged the TSA officers further.
One officer even told the girl's mother that the airport would have to be shut down and every flight cancelled if the four-year-old did not co-operate.
They also apparently described the little girl as a 'high security threat'.
As Isabella was taken into a side room for a pat-down, accompanied by her mother, she could not stop crying and refused to let the agents touch her.
An officer repeatedly said she had 'seen a gun in a teddy bear' in the past, in an apparent attempt to justify the situation.
Ms Brademeyer continued: 'The TSO loomed over my daughter, with an angry grimace on her face, and ordered her to stop crying.
'When my scared child could not do so, two TSOs called for backup saying, "The suspect is not cooperating." The suspect, of course, being a frightened child. They treated my daughter no better than if she had been a terrorist.'
Airport: Isabella's family was flying out of Wichita at the time of the incident
Isabella continued to cry, and officers said the family would have to leave the airport as the TSA was unable to frisk the four-year-old.
When a manager was called, he decided that the distraught Isabella could be checked alongside her mother, and let the family pass through security at last.
But their nightmare was not yet over, as on a connecting flight in Denver, an airport employee demanded to know which of the family was Isabella - and 'looked really confused' when the girl was pointed out to her.
Ms Brademeyer concluded her Facebook post by drawing attention to TSA rules against separating children from their parents, and added: 'I feel compelled to share this story in the hope that no other child will have to share in this experience.'
When The Consumerist approached the TSA for comment on the bizarre incident, a spokesman said: 'TSA has reviewed the incident and determined that our officers followed proper current screening procedures in conducting a modified pat-down on the child.'
Last month the agency came in for criticism when a video of a three-year-old boy in wheelchair having a full pat-down and being swabbed for explosives circulated on the internet.
