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Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Marine Veteran Literally Locked Inside A VA Clinic And Forgotten About

Retired U.S. Marine Jeffrey Duck was locked inside a Veterans Affairs clinic and forgotten about when the clinic closed without telling him, WKMG reported Tuesday.

Duck, who had gone to the Orange City clinic in Florida to get a prescription, was taken to a small room where he waited for three hours before realizing everyone else in the building had left for the day and that he’d been locked inside.

Worried he’d be accused of breaking in, he filmed himself walking around the empty clinic on his cellphone and eventually called 911 to get someone to let him out. Duck says he arrived at 1 PM and that he didn’t notice the clinic was closed until 4, even though the stated hours on their website say they’re open until 4:30 every weekday.

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Pat Buchanan bets on Rand Paul to win the GOP nomination

'Their God Changes Path Of Rockets In Mid-Air'

As Israel continues to deal with the threat of terrorist rockets flying through its skies, a recent newspaper headline trumpeted the possibility of supernatural protection.

“Their God changes the path of our rockets in mid-air, said a terrorist,” was the headline in the July 18 edition of the Jewish Telegraph.

It was a partial quote from Barbara Ordman, who lives in Ma’ale Adumim on the West Bank.

Her exact quotation was: “As one of the terrorists from Gaza was reported to say when asked why they couldn’t aim their rockets more effectively: “We do aim them, but their God changes their path in mid-air.”

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WBOC Loses Fox on Direct TV

In one week WBOC will no longer be delivering FOX on Direct TV.

It's Time for Conservatives to Stop Defending Police

There is nothing conservative about government violating the rights of citizens.

Imagine if I were to tell you there is a large group of government employees, with generous salaries and ridiculously cushy retirement pensions covered by the taxpayer, who enjoy incredible job security and are rarely held accountable even for activities that would almost certainly earn the rest of us prison time. When there is proven misconduct, these government employees are merely reassigned and are rarely dismissed. The bill for any legal settlements concerning their errors? It, too, is covered by the taxpayers. Their unions are among the strongest in the country.

No, I’m not talking about public-school teachers.

I’m talking about the police.

We conservatives recoil at the former; yet routinely defend the latter — even though, unlike teachers, police officers enjoy an utter monopoly on force and can ruin — or end — one’s life in a millisecond.

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Achievement Redistribution: University Of Wisconsin To Distribute Grades Based On Race And Ethnicity

One time I was speaking at a local South Florida high school and explaining “wealth redistribution.” I used a football analogy, with the example of a team being ahead at halftime 28-7. However, when the team came back after halftime, the scoreboard read 21-14. I explained to the students that officials met in the press booth and decided to have equitable apportionment of touchdowns to make the game fairer. They believed the self-esteem of the other team was being adversely affected. When I asked the high school seniors if they agreed, they vehemently said no. They felt they’d earned their touchdowns. So I asked why? Shouldn’t they share their good fortune? I was met with a resounding no. They responded that the other team should have practiced more and played better.

Clearly the University of Wisconsin-Madison would have trouble understanding that analogy as the faculty has just adopted a new charter advocating “proportional participation of historically underrepresented racial-ethnic groups at all levels” including “the distribution of grades.”

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Lost Cat 7-23-14

Hey Joe.... I am looking for a missing cat. She has been missing since Thursday from the Mt Hermon area behind kmart. Her name is Bella. Unfortunately I lost all the pictures in my phone when I switched to a new one. Can you please post this on the site to see if anyone has found her. There is a cash reward if anyone can bring her home! We have two little boys who are missing her. Please have them call or text me at any time! 443-614-7117

Rep. Jared Polis' anti-fracking crusade riles Colorado

Multimillionaire draws ire of fellow Democrats, oil and gas industry

DENVERRep. Jared Polis and his personal fortune were instrumental in helping Democrats wrest control of Colorado from Republicans, but now Democrats fear that he may jeopardize everything they’ve worked for with his anti-fracking crusade.

The multimillionaire Democratic congressman from Boulder is sponsoring two ballot measures targeting hydraulic fracturing, and, in doing so, he’s awakened a powerful foe that has even more money than he does: the state’s oil and gas industry.

If Initiatives 88 and 89 gather enough signatures by Aug. 4 to qualify for the November ballot, analysts say the ensuing political bloodbath could wipe out the Democrats’ gains over the past decade by boosting pro-fracking Republicans and endangering the re-election bids of Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper and Sen. Mark Udall.

The situation worsened last week for Democrats after the pro-fracking Mr. Hickenlooper abandoned his push for a special legislative session, which was aimed at convincing Mr. Polis to drop his initiatives in exchange for a compromise bill giving localities more authority over the industry.

“If there’s no compromise coming, [Mr. Polis] is going to end up doing this,” said Denver pollster Floyd Ciruli. “He’s going to be the financier of a group of people who will spend every waking moment criticizing the governor. That is so utterly unbelievable for a person who is ambitious in the Democratic Party.”

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Maryland Department of Natural Resources Links Watermen With Chefs

It is a refreshing June morning as the sun shines down on Solomons, Maryland, causing the Patuxent River to sparkle in its reflection. A crew of four Washington, D.C., area chefs stands on a wooden dock alongside Steve Vilnit, the Director of Fisheries Marketing at the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR), eagerly awaiting the arrival of our captain, Bruce Abbott, and his fishing vessel.

Vilnit coordinates educational trips intended to connect local chefs with living resources. By creating these experiences, he is able to spread the word about the importance of buying local seafood and illustrate the hard work that goes into moving fresh seafood from the ocean to the dinner table.

The O’Dark Thirty appears in the distance and sidles up to the dock for the crew and guests to climb aboard. Once everyone is situated, Abbott heads east, out of the mouth of the Patuxent and into the main stem of the Chesapeake Bay. About 20 minutes go by before the boat comes to a halt next to one of roughly 1,500 pound nets in the Bay. Pound nets are used by watermen to harvest large quantities of a specific fish species, like perch, menhaden, croaker or striped bass. Vilnit describes the net and why it is so popular: “The way a pound net works is by playing off of a fish’s natural instinct to head to deeper water when they feel threatened. The net funnels them into the center where they are trapped,” he said.
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Rand Paul: Less Government, More Sharing Economy

Who will be the GOP nominee in 2016? I don't know, but I have a pretty good idea who the running mate will be: Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky. Unless Paul is the nominee.

A new NBC News/Marist poll found that Paul would be the top GOP vote-getter against Hillary Clinton in critically important Iowa and New Hampshire; political reporter Chuck Todd duly has proclaimed Paul the Republican front-runner.

So I had to see the libertarian-leaning darling Saturday. He delivered a keynote speech to the LincolnLabs' "Reboot 2014" confab of libertarian-leaning techies, also known as "conservatarians."

You'd expect the audience to be simpatico. Tech geeks and libertarians have so much in common. Both tend to be male, young and much impressed with their own intelligence.

Though libertarian thinking may seem sink-or-swim, Paul showed how less government is good for the hip and trendy sharing economy. He hailed companies such as Uber and Lyft as "so popular you can't stop them."

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I Blamed My Wife For Our Messy House, I Was Wrong For Many Reasons

I was building shelves in my garage when a neighbor girl, one of my 4-year-old daughter’s friends, approached me and said, “I just saw in your house. It’s pretty dirty. Norah’s mommy needs to clean more.”

“Some people find comments like that rude,” I said.

The little girl looked at me with a snarky smile and said, “yup!”

What really sucks about what 5-year-olds say is that they are 100 percent honest. And indeed, our house was a mess. At the time, I could probably have listed a million reasons to explain our clutter piles, random installments of underwear, laundry baskets full of clean laundry sitting precariously in the middle of the living room, and so on. There always seems to be a bracelet loom, a couple dolls, a play dough kit, and a few dirty dishes on the table.

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Obama sets out on Dem fundraising sprint amid mounting crises

President Obama set out Tuesday on a three-day West Coast fundraising tour, despite mounting domestic and global crises -- and criticism from Republicans that the administration is not taking them seriously enough.

The president already has taken heat for making time for a burger stop and fundraisers last week shortly after Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was downed over Ukraine, killing hundreds. While the president repeatedly has addressed the tragedy in public, he also spent his Sunday playing golf at Fort Belvoir.

Later Tuesday, Obama will attend a Democratic Party fundraiser in Seattle, before catching Air Force One to San Francisco. He'll end the three-day swing later this week in Los Angeles.

The White House has defended the president's busy political schedule, which the president's team largely has not changed in response to world events.

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Dover Police Crime Unit’s Clearance Rate Strong

DOVER — Dover Police Department’s Criminal Investigations Unit is on track to set its best clearance rate in five years, according to a report recently released by the department.

Through Tuesday, the Criminal Investigations Unit handled 36 total burglaries with 26 of those being cleared for a clearance rate of 72 percent.

The national clearance average for all of 2012 was 13.6 percent,

Dover police are 14 percent over the 2013 clearance rate of 58.1 percent when the unit investigated 98 burglaries.

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Congressman exposes truth behind illegal kids

Fact-finding mission finds children definitely NOT 'refugees'

WASHINGTON –
As the only member of Congress to serve in both Vietnam and Iraq, Rep. Kerry Bentivolio, R-Mich., knows what a dysfunctional country looks like.

He has seen his share of suffering and squalor during 27 years of service in the U.S. Army and National Guard, and after evacuating from the surge in Iraq in 2007 with a neck wound.

On Monday, Bentivolio had just returned from a three-day fact-finding trip to Central America to see the source of the immigration crisis for himself.

The congressman told WND that conditions in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador are certainly not great and there is much hardship, but they are not war zones.

As for the recent avalanche of immigrants?

“I really wouldn’t call them refugees,” said Bentivolio, while also expressing great sympathy for their plight.

He noted, “Our kids are facing similar problems. We have to put our own house in order first.”

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Baltimore's Goods for Guns trade-off this weekend

BALTIMORE —Baltimore City gun owners can get free groceries by handing over their pistols and shotguns this weekend.

ShopRite Supermarkets is teaming up with city officials and police for the second Goods for Guns collection.

Those interested in taking part can bring their guns to New All Saints Catholic Church in the 4400 block of Liberty Heights Avenue from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday to get a $100 gift card to ShopRite. Officials said no questions will be asked upon the exchange.

"Violence in our communities makes any positive strides more challenging, and it affects us all, particularly during difficult economic times. The Goods for Guns program creates a tremendous opportunity to help the communities that we are committed to," said Marshall Klein, the chief operations officer of Klein’s Family Markets, which runs ShopRite.

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Ray Stevens - Come to the USA

Maryland Health Care Policy Change Covers Transgender Surgical Procedures

Maryland will now cover procedures and other transition-related health care of its transgender state employees under a new policy the Free State Legal Project announced on Tuesday.

Jer Welter, Managing Attorney for FreeState Legal, joins News Now to explain the change.

Welter says transgender state employees now have equal health care coverage. The policy change came about through the settlement of a case involving Governor O'Malley's executive order in 2007 which prohibited discrimination on the basis of gender identity.

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N.Korea Furious About Kim Jong-un Dance Video

North Korea has asked China to stop the spread of a video clip lampooning leader Kim Jong-un.

According to a source in China on Tuesday, the North feels the clip, which shows Kim dancing and Kung-Fu fighting, "seriously compromises Kim's dignity and authority."

Beijng was unable to oblige.

The viral video is a Chinese-language techno track that features various dance and fight scenes in which Kim's head has been magicked on the body of a participant. In one scene, the eternally smiling Kim is knocked out by U.S. President Barack Obama, while in another he has a bucket upturned on his head and is pushed into a swimming pool.

In a third he dances through a field hand in hand with Osama Bin Laden.
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Strange Bedfellows: Silicon Valley Techies ‘Like’ Conservative Senator Rand Paul

SAN JOSE (KPIX 5) — There’s a new app in Silicon Valley — conservatarianism.

It’s the app that conservative Senator Rand Paul is pushing. He wants to join forces with local techies.

But how can technology and liberty flourish side by side? Paul’s answer, “shrink government.”

“Is government inherently stupid?” the Kentucky Republican the audience at the Lincoln Labs Reboot 2014. “I say no, but it’s a debatable question.”

Since Paul’s visit a new political term is being coded — the conservatarian… part conservative, part libertarian.

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Tree Planted In Memory Of George Harrison Felled ... By Beetles

Beatles vs. beetles!

In a case of unbelievable coincidence, a pine tree planted in memory of the late Beatle George Harrison was killed by a beetle infestation.

The tree, planted in a Los Angeles park, was overrun with bark beetles, LA Councilman Tom La Bonge said over the weekend, adding that a new tree will be planted in its place, the LA Times reported.

The memorial tree was planted in Griffith Park in 2004 and had risen to more than 10 feet high. Harrison spent his final days in LA.

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Tenn. man, 76, arrested for telling board members to speak up — we can't hear you

A 76-year-old military veteran who was attending a county board meeting in Greeneville, Tennessee, was taken from the room in handcuffs after interrupting proceedings to tell county government officials to speak up — the audience can’t hear you.

The Development Board members were discussing a controversial nitrogen plant in Greene County and company plans to construct a pipeline that would deposit water into the Nolichucky River, WATE-TV said.

Eddie Overholt, 76, couldn’t hear what board members were saying, so he asked them to speak louder.

“The board met up at the front of the room at a big table, had us roped off, and they were talking so low nobody could hear,” Mr. Overholt said, CNN reported.

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SFD Calls For Service 7-22-14

  • Tuesday July, 22 2014 @ 21:07Nature: Medical EmergencyCity:Salisbury
  • Tuesday July, 22 2014 @ 20:07Nature: Medical EmergencyCity:Salisbury
  • Tuesday July, 22 2014 @ 17:15 Nature: Vehicle Accident w/InjuriesAddress: 1729 N Salisbury Blvd Salisbury, MD 21801
  • Tuesday July, 22 2014 @ 17:15 Nature: Vehicle Accident w/InjuriesAddress: 1729 N Salisbury Blvd Salisbury, MD 21801
  • Tuesday July, 22 2014 @ 13:38Nature: Medical EmergencyCity:Salisbury

TWO CHARGED WITH SOMERSET CO. ATTEMPTED MURDER

Maryland State Police Press Release
07/23/2014
(PRINCESS ANNE, MD) – Two teenagers have been charged in connection with the attempted murder, robberies and assaults of two men in Somerset County last night. 

Those charged are identified as Gregory I. Boyd, 17, of the 11000-block of Bratten Ave., and Carlos D. Briddell Jr., 18, of the 30000-block of Antioch Ave., both in Princess Anne, Md. Boyd and Briddell are each charged with attempted second degree murder, armed robbery, first degree assault, second degree assault and reckless endangerment. Boyd is charged as an adult. 

The victims are 26 and 27-year-old men who live in separate residences in the 11000-block of Brockett Square, Princess Anne. Both victims were transported to the Peninsula Regional Medical Center for treatment of what appeared to be blunt force trauma injuries. 

Shortly before 10:30 p.m. yesterday, Maryland State Police at the Princess Anne Barrack responded to a 911 call reporting a shooting in the area of the 11000-block of Brockett Square in Princess Anne. Upon arrival, troopers found the 27-year-old victim lying in the street with multiple injuries. Soon after, the other victim was located and it was determined he had also been assaulted and injured. 

The preliminary Maryland State Police investigation by troopers from the Princess Anne Barrack and the Criminal Enforcement Division determined the 26-year-old victim had been unloading his vehicle when he was approached by a man holding a handgun and demanding money. A second suspect appeared and the victim said he had no money. He was then hit by both suspects, who used the pistol and their fists. 

About five minutes later, the 27-year-old suspect confronted two males he saw looking inside his vehicle. One suspect held a gun on him and demanded money. He too said he had none and was assaulted by the suspects who used the pistol and their fists. When he was on the ground, a witness saw the suspect with the handgun fire it at the victim. The victim was not struck by the round. 

The investigation by troopers developed evidence and information that led to the identity of the two suspects. Boyd was arrested overnight at a Princess Anne apartment complex. Briddell turned himself in at the Princess Anne Barrack about 8:00 a.m. today. 

The investigation is continuing. Troopers believe others were with the two suspects, so additional arrests are possible. 

Anyone with information about these attempted robberies and assaults is urged to contact Maryland State Police at the Princess Anne Barrack at 443-260-3700. Callers may remain confidential.

SPD Press Release 7-23-14


Summer Wine Dinner

We hope you will join us for a wonderful dinner event...
 
Next Tuesday, July 29th...
"SoBo's Summer Wine Dinner"
3 Courses, Paired w/ 3 Glasses of Wine
Only $40 per person (plus tax & tip)
Reservations are required... 410.219.1117
Dinner starts at 6:30pm.
Presented by ~ Southern Wine & Spirits

McAuliffe in 2007: ‘We Have Got To Shut These Borders Down’

(CNSNews.com) -- Despite repeated requests for comment, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat, has so far remained silent on the federal government’s quiet transfer of an unknown number of illegal immigrant children from the Texas border to Prince William County in Virginia last week, a move that was highly criticized by local government officials and Virginia residents, CNSNews.com reported.

But McAuliffe has not always been quiet on the issues of illegal immigration and border security. In a 2007 radio interview, the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee demanded the federal government “shut the borders down.”

“I don’t care if you’re a Democrat or a Republican, we all agree you’ve got to shut the borders down,” McAuliffe said during the California public radio interview, reported Politico.

“People who are coming into this nation, taking our jobs,” he added.

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Feds to Methodist charity: Prep for illegals

Youth home receiving HUD grant to provide shelter, services

(PENN LIVE)
A local home for children has been asked by the federal government to prepare itself to take in unaccompanied immigrant children from Central America who continue to cross over into the United States.

The United Methodist Home for Children in Mechanicsburg has not taken in any children from Central America yet, and it continues to assist children sent to it from the local county courts systems, the group’s Board of Trustees Chairwoman Karen Best said Monday. But the agency has been contacted to prepare itself to provide shelter and care for unaccompanied minors, she said.

The home has been approved to receive an Urgent and Compelling Grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to provide temporary shelter services to unaccompanied children beginning in August, according to the home’s President and CEO David Reed.

Source

The Rot Within, Part I: Our Ponzi Economy

Depending on blowing the next bubble to temporarily prop up the economy is the height of foolhardy shortsightedness.

All the conventional policy fixes proposed by Demopublican politicos, technocrats and the vast army of academic/think-tank apparatchiks are the equivalent of slapping a coat of paint on a fragile facade riddled with dryrot. All these fake-fixes share a few key characteristics:

1. They focus on effects and symptoms rather than address the underlying causes, i.e. the dryrot at the heart of our government, society and economy.

2. They maintain and protect the Status Quo Powers That Be--no vested interests, protected fiefdoms or Financial Elites ever lose power as a result of these policy tweaks.

3. They are politically expedient, meaning they assuage the demands of vested interests rather than tackle the rot undermining the nation.

4. They ignore the perverse incentives built into current systems and the incentives of complicity, i.e. to cheer another coat of paint on the dryrot rather than face the costs of real reform.

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Maryland Gun Control Law Debated In Federal Court

The debate over Maryland’s newest gun law moves to federal court. A US judge in Baltimore heard arguments Tuesday calling the state’s ban on the sale of assault rifles unconstitutional.

Derek Valcourt has more on the effort to have the judge throw out parts of the law.

Gun rights advocates couldn’t stop the General Assembly from passing the Firearms Safety Act. They failed to get enough signatures to overturn it by voter referendum and now they’re asking the courts to stop it.

The Sandy Hook School Massacre propelled Maryland lawmakers to ban the purchase of 45 different types of assault weapons and put a 10 round limit on magazines, all over the vocal objections of gun rights advocates. Those advocates took their legal beef with the law to federal court Tuesday, arguing that limiting access to certain rifles and large capacity magazines infringes on second amendment rights and does not help prevent crime.

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It’s the Chaos, Stupid

Disorder at home and abroad, not the economy, is hurting Obama and his party.

‘Why do you think President Obama’s job rating is falling, even though the economy is recovering?” the interviewer asked.

It’s a fair question, even though the economy declined 2.9 percent in the first quarter, even though most jobs created in June were part-time, and even though labor-force participation remains low.

The fact is that the economy is growing, however slowly; jobs are being created, and the unemployment rate is heading down toward what economists consider full employment. And still the president’s job rating languishes.

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There Are Two Americas

I WISH EVERYONE IN AMERICA WOULD READ THIS AND LET IT SINK IN........THE LESSON THAT AMERICA NEEDS TO LEARN AND THEN PUT TO USE!

In early January 2014, Bob Lonsberry, a Rochester talk radio personality on WHAM 1180 AM, said this in response to Obama's "income inequality speech":

Two Americas
The Democrats are right, there are two Americas.
The America that works, and the America that doesn’t.
The America that contributes, and the America that doesn’t.
It’s not the haves and the have nots, it’s the dos and the don’ts.
Some people do their duty as Americans, obey the law, support themselves, contribute to society, and others don’t.  That’s the divide in America.
It’s not about income inequality, it’s about civic irresponsibility.
It’s about a political party that preaches hatred, greed and victimization in order to win elective office.

It’s about a political party that loves power more than it loves its country.  That’s not invective, that’s truth, and it’s about time someone said it.
The politics of envy was on proud display a couple weeks ago when President Obama pledged the rest of his term to fighting “income inequality.”   He noted that some people make more than other people, that some people have higher incomes than others, and he says that’s not just.

That is the rationale of thievery.  The other guy has it, you want it, Obama will take it for you.  Vote Democrat.
That is the philosophy that produced Detroit.   It is the electoral philosophy that is destroying America.

It conceals a fundamental deviation from American values and common sense because it ends up not benefiting the people who support it, but a betrayal.

The Democrats have not empowered their followers, they have enslaved them in a culture of dependence and entitlement, of victim-hood and anger instead of ability and hope.
The president’s premise – that you reduce income inequality by debasing the successful – seeks to deny the successful the consequences of their choices and spare the unsuccessful the consequences of their choices.

Because, by and large, income variations in society is a result of different choices leading to different consequences. Those who choose wisely and responsibility have a far greater likelihood of success, while those who choose foolishly and irresponsibly have a far greater likelihood of failure.   Success and failure usually manifest themselves in personal and family income.

You choose to drop out of high school or to skip college – and you are apt to have a different outcome than someone who gets a diploma and pushes on with purposeful education and/or employment.

You have your children out of wedlock and life is apt to take one course;  you have them within a marriage and life is apt to take another course.

Most often in life our destination is determined by the course we take.
My doctor, for example, makes far more than I do.  There is significant income inequality between us.  Our lives have had an inequality of outcome, but, our lives also have had an in equality of effort.   While my doctor went to college and then devoted his young adulthood to medical school and residency, I got a job in a restaurant.
He made a choice, I made a choice, and our choices led us to different outcomes.  His outcome pays a lot better than mine.

Does that mean he cheated and Barack Obama needs to take away his wealth?  No, it means we are both free men in a free society where free choices lead to different outcomes.

It is not inequality Barack Obama intends to take away, it is freedom.  The freedom to succeed, and the freedom to fail.

There is no true option for success if there is no true option for failure.
The pursuit of happiness means a whole lot less when you face the punitive hand of government if your pursuit brings you more happiness than the other guy.
Even if the other guy sat on his arse and did nothing.  Even if the other guy made a lifetime’s worth of asinine and shortsighted decisions.

Barack Obama and the Democrats preach equality of outcome as a right, while completely ignoring inequality of effort.

The simple Law of the Harvest – as ye sow, so shall ye reap – is sometimes applied as, “The harder you work, the more you get."  Obama would turn that upside down. Those who achieve are to be punished as enemies of society and those who fail are to be rewarded as wards of society.

Entitlement will replace effort as the key to upward mobility in American society if Barack Obama gets his way.   He seeks a lowest common denominator society in which the government besieges the successful and productive to foster equality through mediocrity.
He and his party speak of two Americas, and their grip on power is based on using the votes of one to sap the productivity of the other.  

America is not divided by the differences in our outcomes, it is divided by the differences in our efforts.   It is a false philosophy to say one man’s success comes about unavoidably as the result of another man’s victimization.

What Obama offered was not a solution, but a separatism.  He fomented division and strife, pitted one set of Americans against another for his own political benefit.  That’s what socialists offer.  Marxist class warfare wrapped up with a bow.

Two Americas, coming closer each day to proving the truth to Lincoln’s maxim that a house divided against itself cannot stand.

SNAP Overpaid $2B in Benefits; Program Dollars Up 146% in 6 Years

(CNSNews.com) - The nation's food stamp program, formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), provided a record $74.6 billion in benefits to needy Americans in Fiscal Year 2012 -- paying out $2 billion too much, according to the annual quality control report for FY 2012, the most recent year for which data is available.

And only in Washington could that $2 billion in overpayments be viewed as a good thing.

Combining the $2,069,402,427 in overpayments with the $484,885,314 in underpayments for fiscal 2012 yields a "payment error rate" of 3.42 percent. "This remains the lowest national payment error rate in the history of SNAP,"the report noted. (The 3.42 percent payment error rate is the sum of the FY 2012 overpayment rate -- 2.77 percent -- and the underpayment rate --0.65 percent.)

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PRESS RELEASE DELMAR POLICE DEPARTMENT

Incident: Armed Robbery

Location: Gordy Tiger Mart, Delmar MD

Date: 07/21/2014

On 07/21/14 at approx. 11:23 PM officers of the Delmar Police Department responded to an armed robbery located at Gordy Tiger Mart, Delmar MD. Further investigation revealed that a white female, early to mid 20’s in age, 5’6” tall, 120 lbs., light complexion, dark hair, dark eyes, wearing a gray “zip up” hoodie sweatshirt, with black pants, and black shoes produce what appeared to be a silver colored revolver on the counter and demanded money. The white female obtained an undisclosed amount of money from the clerk and fled the store on foot.

Anyone with information is urged to contact the Delmar Police Department at 410-896-3131.

Educator: The Many Reasons ‘I Am Ashamed To Be Part Of The System’

Back in May I published a post by a veteran elementary school teacher named Ralph Ratto with this headline: ‘Today was the first day I was ever ashamed to be a teacher.’ What prompted him to write it was his experience administering controversial new Common Core-aligned standardized tests to his students in New York. I just received an e-mail that takes off from where Ratto’s piece ends, written by from someone who has worked in two public school systems in Maryland and in private schools for some 25 years as a teacher, counselor, administrator at the school and district levels and in other positions. This person, who is still working, wishes to remain anonymous out of fear of reprisal.

Here is what the educator wrote (with minor spelling and syntax changes):
I have worked in education all my professional life — 25 years and counting. I have been a teacher, a counselor, a school-level administrator, a district-level administrator, a coach and a program manager. I have worked in two public school systems in Maryland, and I have worked in independent schools. Ralph Ratto was ashamed to be part of Common Core testing? Heck, I have been ashamed to work in education lots of times!

Yes, I am ashamed to be part of the system when I see burnt-out teachers who have no business being around kids and who should have retired long ago get removed from their classrooms to receive promotions with higher salaries and transferred to the central office because the Board does not want to spend money to get them fired.
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Friend Says Hillary Clinton Was 'an Enthusiastic Pot User' in Her Youth

Asked last month for her opinion of marijuana, Hillary Clinton told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, “I didn’t do it when I was young, I’m not going to start now.”

Not so fast, says Daniel Halper. In his new book Clinton, Inc., which hits bookshelves today, Halper quotes a friend and law-school classmate of the former first lady and New York senator who says: “I think she’s acknowledged it, and if she hasn’t acknowledged it everybody else will tell you: She was an enthusiastic pot user.”

A taste for THC seems to be a prerequisite for Democratic presidential contenders. As the Democrats’ nominee for president in 1992, Bill Clinton famously told reporters that he had “experimented with marijuana a time or two” but “didn’t inhale,” and David Maraniss’s biography Barack Obama: The Story, which chronicled the current president’s early years, revealed that the young Barack Obama was a ringleader of the self-styled “Choom Gang.” The youngsters “lit up some ‘sweet-sticky Hawaiian buds,’ and washed it down with ‘green bottle beer,’” wrote Maraniss, often inside an old Volkswagen bus they christened the “Choomwagon.”

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Daddy's Home From Work. Time To Dance!

Bubblenomics And The Future Of Real Estate

Behold the Monet

? Economics is like a Monet painting. Stand too close and all you see is a bunch of seemingly random paint strokes. Back up a few steps and an image emerges.

The painting of bubblenomics started with the Plaza Accord, September 1985, where five nations agreed to manipulate the dominant currencies at the time. Japan enjoyed a 50% devaluation of the US$ vs the yen, artificially enriching its citizens so they could travel the world in busloads with eighty pounds of cameras around their necks.

The consequences of that bubble have yet to be corrected. Twentyfour years of fiscal and monetary accommodation led Japan to sport the world's largest public debt-to-GDP ratio.

? The next big one was the US dotcom bubble, which was generating great wealth during the 1990s. More importantly, it started the era during which income and savings became “old school”. Everyone could live off and retire on never ending asset appreciation. When that bubble burst, in came Greenspan with the mother of all bubbles – the sub-prime bubble.

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Ben Carson on 2nd Amendment: People Can ‘Protect Themselves From an Overly Aggressive Gov’t’

Dr. Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon and the author of six best-selling books, said the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution was put there so Americans could support the military, if needed, during a domestic invasion but “more importantly, so that people could protect themselves from an overly aggressive government, if that ever happened.”

Carson added that gun rights under the 2nd Amendment are “vitally important,” that he “would never compromise the 2nd Amendment in any way,” and that one of the first things dictators do is confiscate people’s weapons, which “we don’t ever want to allow” in America.

Carson, awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2008, made his remarks on July 19 at the three-day Western Conservative Summit 2014, held at Colorado Christian University in Denver, Colo.

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Pittsville Water STINKS

Yesterday morning I stopped by a friends house in Pittsville. They came out of the house with a jar of water and said, "smell this". I opened the lid and OMG, the stench of chlorine was extremely overpowering. 

They told me they cannot take showers in the morning because they cannot breathe in the shower. 

After leaving I started heading towards Rt. 50. As I drove down the road with my window open I could again smell the overpowering odor of chlorine. I thought, where the heck is that coming from. It turns out someone was using their sprinkler on the front yard.

Now, people have to PAY for City/Town water, yet they CANNOT use it. HOW STUPID IS THAT!

Paying People Not to Work

DC Activists to Complain About Rats and Potholes to Congressman Who’s Trying to Stop Marijuana Decriminalization

A few weeks ago, Representative Andy Harris—the Maryland Republican who’s trying to strike down the District’s newly enacted marijuana decriminalization law—told WAMU that for people who live “in the federal enclave, then Congress is your local legislature.”

But now a group of DC activists, miffed by Harris’s outright dismissal of the DC Council, intend to make him pay for that remark by taking their municipal complaints to his Capitol Hill office. DC Vote, a group that lobbies for statehood, is asking its members to visit Harris in the Longworth House Office Building with their concerns about potholes, rats, building permits, parking tickets, and other things that DC residents ask their legislators on the council to deal with on a daily basis.

“Since Harris clearly takes our well-being to heart, let’s bring our community concerns to him,” the group says in a press release. “Be creative! Feel free to bring props, but keep in mind that firearms, explosives, and other dangerous materials are prohibited.”

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‘Teens off streets by 9pm or parents get $500 fine’: Baltimore Mayor

PARENTS OUTRAGED AS NEW CURFEW LAW SWEEPS BALTIMORE

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has managed to set the toughest curfew laws in America, cracking down on unruly teens who like to stay out past 9 pm.

In total police state fashion, kids under 14-years of age will need to be inside their homes no later than 9pm, while kids 14 to 16-years of age can indulge in outdoor activities for an hour later and even two during the summer months when school is not in session.

Although the mayor is proud of the new law, expected to rake in record revenue for the city once fully enforced, parents seem to have a different point of view and in some cases are downright angry. In fact, some have even heard rumors of youth camps/jails. But rest assured, the loving mayor dispelled the hearsay.

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CRAB OLYMPICS - Saturday!

We hope you and you're family will join us THIS SATURDAY, JULY 26th...

Our CRAB OLYMPICS is always a great time! The kids will enjoy the CRAB RACES, BOUNCY HOUSE, KIDS CRAFTS, COOL GAMES & PRIZES and especially SUNSHINE ENTERTAINMENT!! And if the kids are happy, the adults are usually happy too! Grown-ups can take part in the CRAB PICKIN' CONTEST and if you think you've got what it takes, enter our CRAB DISH CONTEST! Prizes for all the winners! Enjoy great food and drink specials... the fun starts at NOON and special event activities end at 4:00pm.

Don't miss this fun event! Call for reservations are more information!
410-546-5443

A Better Prepared Maryland

Last week, I made a second call on our Maryland FiRST statewide radio communications system to mark the successful implementation of the system’s expansion to the Eastern Shore. The State’s first-ever statewide radio communications system puts first responders on the entire Eastern Shore and parts of Central Maryland on the same radio channel so they can communicate more effectively and better coordinate resources in the event of an emergency. These emergency personnel are responsible for 55 percent of our population and key critical infrastructure sites, including the northern I-95 corridor, Port of Baltimore, and BWI-Thurgood Marshall Airport. By 2017, the Maryland FiRST system will serve all of our state’s citizens, from Ocean City to Oakland.

Keeping Marylanders safe and secure is the most sacred responsibility of our government, and the Maryland FiRST system is helping to ensure that we carry out that responsibility efficiently and effectively.

We’ve also invested in ESSENCE (Electronic Surveillance System for the Early Notification of Community-Based Epidemics), a web-based system designed for early detection of disease outbreaks. Every hospital in the state uses this system to protect Marylanders from infectious disease outbreaks and public health emergencies.

And we’ve increased traffic management video feeds available to our first responders from 266 feeds in 2009 to 1,657 video feeds now available, an expansion of over 520 percent.

These innovative investments are essential in helping us meet Maryland’s homeland security goals as part of the O’Malley-Brown Administration’s 16 strategic goals.

When Marylanders unite to achieve our goals, we are unstoppable. Together, we can continue to build on our homeland security successes as we work to create a more secure One Maryland.

Click here to view a video of Governor O’Malley’s second call on the Maryland FiRST system.

So True


Gov. Martin O'Malley Headed Back To Iowa For Fundraisers

ANNAPOLIS, Md. —Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley is returning to Iowa for fundraisers this weekend.

The Democratic governor, who is considering running for president, is scheduled to attend a fundraiser on Saturday morning and another early Saturday afternoon for two Iowa state Senate candidates.

Then O'Malley is headed to Omaha, Nebraska, on Saturday night to be the keynote speaker at the Nebraska Democratic Party's annual Morrison Exon Dinner.

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St. Paul's Episcopal Church In Hebron Destroyed By Fire

The St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Hebron that was destroyed by fire yesterday had celebrated their 240th anniversary in September 2013. I have included pictures from their facebook page that were taken during their 240th anniversary celebration. (click READ MORE below to see the pictures).

If you are interested in the complete history of this church along with the memorial for the 4 chaplains you can find information by clicking HERE

Caption This Photo 7-23-14


Perdue finally admits hexane's “environmental factor” by Ray Wallace

For over four years Perdue has been encouraging Pennsylvanians to ignore its publicly-opposed, soybean-to-oil factory plans to daily and permanently release large amounts of the deadly neurotoxin hexane into the air of The Garden Spot of America.
Now the following, long-overdue admission appears, of all places, in an out-of-state Perdue Farms job description:
     The environmental factors and/or physical requirements of this position include the following....
     Exposed to air born dust, chemicals such as hexane [and] ethanol.

Artist at work

An old guy with a chain saw. Click on the "video" link below. Don't try this at home...

Artist at work – If you like to chop down trees you should watch this one.

video

The Rand Paul pile-on

If you had any doubts about how seriously some Republicans are taking the notion of a Rand Paul presidency, look at how far they’re going to shut down his views on foreign policy.

In the past three days alone, Texas Gov. Rick Perry used a Washington Post op-ed to warn about the dangers of “isolationism” and describe Paul as “curiously blind” to growing threats in Iraq. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) accused the Kentucky senator on CNN of wanting a “withdrawal to fortress America.” And former Vice President Dick Cheney declared at a POLITICO Playbook luncheon on Monday that “isolationism is crazy,” while his daughter, Liz Cheney, said Paul “leaves something to be desired, in terms of national security policy.”

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Rand Paul is the 2016 Republican frontrunner

Cool Pic


Deadline to Sponsor LARGEST Cornhole Tournament on the Shore is Approaching Fast!
 Jubilant Cadista Pharmaceuticals is presenting the first
"Lower Eastern Shore Cornament" to benefit United Way.
This CORNHOLE TOURNAMENT will be much more than "healthy" competition among Eastern Shore businesses & organizations, food & drinks, PRIZES & "bragging rights"...it will be a great event to further support your United Way! 
CALLING ALL CEO'S!!!
Your company can be one of the inaugural "CORNAMENT" SPONSORS! 

GOLD LEVEL SPONSOR- $1500
Personalized Cornhole Set 
Registration for 6 Teams
T-shirts
Signage & Significant Media Exposure
Company Logo featured on Event T- Shirt

SILVER LEVEL SPONSOR- $1000
Personalized Cornhole Set  
Registration for 3 Teams   
T-shirts
Signage & Significant Media Exposure

BRONZE LEVEL SPONSOR- $600
Registration for 3 Teams
T-shirts
Significant Media Exposure   
   
UNABLE TO SPONSOR,YET 
WANT TO REGISTER A TEAM
FOR YOUR COMPANY?
Teams of 2 can register for $50
LIMITED Sponsorship Opportunities Left...   
DEADLINE to register is THURSDAY, July 31st!     

Contact United Way Donor Relations Coordinator Natalie Costello at 410-742-5143 ornatalie@unitedway4us.org OR click the LINK BELOW to REGISTER ONLINE