Armoring My Van In McAllen - With Blast rated Film!

http://armorglass.blogspot.com/2010/05/armoring-my-van-in-mcallen-with-blast.html

An Oil Spill + Hurricane season starts in 2 weeks!

I had an unpleasant thought this morning while shaving - Millions of barrels of oil in the Gulf and HURRICANE season starts in 2 weeks!

What happens if all that crude gets churned up and cast ashore in a storm? Until now, the oil has not hit the beaches in a major way. But if a storm blows in, the booms will blow away.

I attended a Seabrook hurricane preparedness program last night. The NOAA speaker said we are looking at an "above average" season. One bad sign: The Atlantic ocean temperature is already at a record high. He said that the Gulf of Mexico is cooler, but will heat up fast.

This means that an early hurricane combined with the millions of spilled crude in the Gulf could end up being flung on large sections of the Gulf Coast - from the U.S. to Mexico. If the Gulf stream is carrying it to the East Coast, they could also be affected by the Deepwater blow out.

Bottom line: We have the makings of an even greater environmental disaster.

And there's not a lot that can be done about it until the well is capped. And even that the volume of the spill is so large that a hurricane could reek hell on our coast in more ways than one.

Stay tuned.

From "Drill Baby, Drill" to "Spill, Baby, Spill"

"Drill, Baby, Drill" has been replaced. It's now "Spill, Baby, Spill" -

Where is America when it comes to solar and wind energy we can get for free and doesn't spoil our seafood?

"Behind, Baby, Behind"....

We need to pass a Renewable Energy bill NOW!

What? Obama has actually CUT taxes for bottom 95%

Russian billionaires doubled in the last year....Most of their wealth remains concentrated in a few at the top, like Mexico.

Our tax policy from 2000-2008 took wealth from the middle class and moved it to the top 5%...

Obama has actually CUT taxes for the bottom 95% of Americans, if you paid attention.

Introducing "Global American Values" blog - Why NASA Needs to Change

Introducing "Global American Values" blog:

Why NASA Needs to Change for America to Have a Chance in Space

http://globalamericanvalues.blogspot.com/

The Potential of a Nuclear Terrorist Attack – Real Even Before 9/11

In 1994, after the failed bombing the New York World Trade Center –which killed about six people – I produced a TV program about the potential for a nuclear terrorist attack on the United States (link to Part 1 can be found at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfRE-JkUSRg

Copies of this video were made available to VP-Elect Dick Cheney (and the next majority leader, Tom DeLay) in January 2001 – nine months before 9/11. Yet despite an August memo to the President warning of a possible terrorist attack, no action was taken. No one called and asked: "What the hell is THAT about?" No one asked anything. Yet everyone was "shocked, shocked" that 9/11 happened. For anyone with any global experience, it was obvious.

My theory of a nuclear terrorist attack was wrong only in that I assumed it would be Saddam Hussain who carried it out. It’ s now obvious that Al Qaida – which was forming the same year the video was made – is the most likely to seek, buy and trigger a nuclear terrorist bomb.

With President Obama’s Nuclear Terrorism Summit today, for the first time we have had a President call for global action on the worst possible scenario that has been largely ignored in the past decade – the threat of nuclear terrorism on U.S. soil.

My scenario involved a missile fired from a ship, but even more likely is a criminal gang stealing one and selling it to someone like AL Qaida, which uses it on a major U.S. city like Washington DC or New York as the President said today.

My book on the potential attack on the U.S. using a nuclear device was based on facts: thousands of nukes loose after the fall of the Soviet Union, unlocked uranium storage, etc. – but reality would be much worse.

We should feel better that a President is taking pre-emptive action to avoid the worst possible attacks than one who is surprised it could even happen. Pakistan’s real nukes are a more inviting target for Osama bin Laden living less than sixty miles away than the current zero nukes in Iran. Why would a terrorist care about Iran when Pakistan may have up to 200 or more existing nuclear weapons in its inventory – and an unstable government?

The less scattered nuclear material around the world equals more security for the United States and the rest of the world. The President should get a “thumbs up” even among the loyal opposition for addressing an issue that is No. 1 for our existence as a nation.

Even the horror of 9/11, a conventional attack, would be nothing compared to the devastation of a small band of lunatics using a suitcase nuke or similar device on an American, European, or any, city. You are talking about radiation zones that would last centuries and the potential loss of entire governments (on both sides of the aisle)…

If you don't think so, check out some of the facts bought out in my old 1994 TV video that didn't get a response even after I ran for Congress against Mr. DeLay in 2000 - I figured he'd at least look at the video of a competitor to see if it made me look like a fool or something...LOL.

The attached link shows the countries that have enriched uranium that could be a source for a nuke.

GOP Convention – Repeat of 2000-2008 Fairy Tale Economics

Their platform? Cut taxes and balance the budget at the same time!

Haven't we fallen for that fairy tale before? Like during 2000-2008 when Bush put everything on the credit card - two wars, Plan D, the tax cut for the top 5% which the little guys paid for.

How about a real platform of honesty? After Reagan's budget deficit disaster in the 80’s (candidate H.W. Bush I called it ‘voodoo economies), Bush I said “read my lips,” and then raised taxes to reverse the negative spiral.

President Clinton, who won in ’92 partly as a result of Bush I’s tax increase, kept those rates and restrained spending, handing Bush II a $200 billion SURPLUS.

Bush II handed Obama a $5 TRILLION DEFICIT (doubling our national debt accumulated over 200 years in 8 short years!)

In effect, Clinton handed “W” keys to the world’s fastest supertanker but “W” gave Obama the keys to a smoking supertanker, hung up on a reef leaking oil, with a frozen banking system and a $1.3 Trillion deficit from his last year in office.

We need more of this?

All Sarah Palin could talk about in her speech was OIL, OIL, OIL. She criticized Obama for picking on Afghanistan “President” Karzai, who won office by vote fraud yet accused the U.S. of committing the fraud! Then he says he is tempted to side with the Taliban! Palin feels sorry for Karzai? Yikes – pay attention to the news!

Did she propose the GOP candidate for Sen. Reid's seat come out in FAVOR of storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain? No, but she criticized Obama for closing it.

In 2010 we need to see some political reality and adults proposing some real solutions – our ship is still in recovery mode.

During 2000-2008, corporations were allowed to pretend to move offshore and stop paying their U.S. taxes (ordinary citizens can’t do that.) Companies were given no-bid billion dollar Iraq contracts. Revenues dwindled despite boom times. Naturally, deficit borrowing soared.

Billions of dollars were lost for our federal treasury, so Bush covered it with borrowed money (a lot from China) during a prolonged boom when people had lots of cash to pay a fair share. The government lost money so that a privileged few at the top of the economic ladder could pay less or nothing at all. Wall Street was allowed to drive drunk and collapse the world economy with credit default swaps while betting against their own customers. Your kids and grandkids were left with the bill.

Do you think that even John McCain, had he been elected, would have sat in office and done NOTHING to fix a wrecked ship on a reef?

TARP was actually started by the Bush administration – not Obama. Do you think McCain would not have asked for a stimulus when the entire economy had frozen up along with economies around the world?

Do you think people would be happier if our unemployment were up to twice as high because the government had, like President Hoover in the 30’s depression, done nothing? If a man is drowning, you either throw a lifeline or do nothing? If throwing a line is socialism and doing nothing is capitalism, someone is really confused. The right American thing should be throwing the line.

It’s easy to criticize and be an armchair quarterback, but we need to see some real proposals from the GOP to get America competing globally: green technology for renewables is one of the few areas that would do it. I didn’t hear that coming from the GOP convention. Drill baby drill won’t cut it when we have only 2% of the world’s oil and consume 20%! That is fuzzy math.

Calling people patriots and repeating “American is great” a hundred times is not a plan and won't make America great. Talk is not action. People need to hear some hard truths – fixing wrecked economies takes time and money. It doesn’t happen by doing nothing or ballooning the deficit even more.

All I heard yesterday was more fairy tale economics and “just say no” negative attitudes instead of some real solutions based on reality to help our country to compete with fast-growing, high-tech China, India, etc. in the 21^st Century.

Re-electing the same folks who got us into this mess based on the same platform from 2000-2008 is not a solution, its insanity because it will lead to the same result – more deficits and favoritism for the top 5% instead of the Obama administration focus on the middle class.

Palin’s plan would insure America stays focused on old technologies while countries like China are racing in front of us -- developing solar, wind, and renewable energy while buying up mineral rights worldwide. China has built a 350 mph Mag Lev train and their export base is global. The GOP focus is keeping the tax cuts for the top 5%.

Repeating past mistakes is not going to advance American interests. We need to return to people paying their fair share, like Bush 41 had the courage to do, to get our budget back in control and return to honest accounting instead of the 2000-2008 voodoo economics that didn’t even include the cost of the two wars in the Bush budgets.

Neither America’s, nor the world’s, future will be advanced on fairy tales and platitudes.

How Bacteria from a Sneeze Lived on the Moon for 3 years - Life Beyond the Bubble

Photo: Apollo 12 (background). Astronaut pulling camera off surveyor...that had a surprise in it.

I was just watching a TV program on which Pete Conrad, Commander of the Apollo 12 mission, which deliberately landed on the moon near the site where the moon surveyor had landed nearly three years before. The idea was that the astronauts would cut a piece off the earlier lander to take back and test - to see what happened to something stuck on the hostile moon for years.

They cut off the surveyor's camera. When they brought it back to earth and disassembled it, they discovered that someone had sneezed into it during its construction. The bacteria from that earthly sneeze had been in the airless radiation on the moon's surface for 33 months - nearly 3 years.

Yet when the scientists put the bacteria in a Petri dish, they returned to life as if nothing had happened!

In the day, the temperature of the Moon averages 107⁰ C, although it rises as high as 123⁰ C (250^o F). The night cools the surface to an average of -153^o C, or -233⁰ C in the permanently shaded south polar basin. A typical non-polar minimum temperature is -181⁰ C (at the Apollo 15 site). That's over a 500 degree difference from day to night temperatures.

Yet -- despite these temperatures and living in a vacuum -- the bacteria that produce the 'common cold' survived when brought back to earth.

If the bacteria had died, then it would make life as we know it outside our planet seem difficult or impossible to survive deep space conditions. But since ordinary human bacteria lived in space for years without air or water, then it shows that life beyond Earth is entirely possible, lurking perhaps beneath the ice on Mars or Europa.

We seem to live in our own fishbowl, looking at only our town, our State or country. If we looked beyond our community fishbowl, we'd find that people are pretty much alike all over the world - most of them looking for a job, security and education for their kids. They are also focused pretty much on their own fishbowls.

Taliban teach hate because they have never been anywhere outside their bubble. Catholic church leaders remain detached from the secular world outside an insular institution. Lack of vision beyond the bubble usually leads to a poor vision of reality and that always leads to trouble.

But if we look beyond even our planet, a trip to the moon made long ago on Apollo 12 gave us solid proof and evidence that life can exist beyond our own earthly fishbowl.

We need to look beyond our bubbles, because only then do we see true reality. When I see our so-called experts with their radio shows, it amazes me how little they really know. I was lucky to get beyond the Midwest and Texas and did business in over 50 countries. You have no clue about the world and its reality until you have seen life in countless other places, and seen both the differences and similarities.

All of us need to get beyond our bubble worlds, because without it we aren't seeing reality. And if we don't live in reality that always leads to being blindsided by trouble...(remember Pearl Harbor, 9/11?)

After Apollo 12, if you don't think life can live beyond our Earth bubble, well, get prepared for another shock of reality.

Maybe that is what it will take to get humans to work together--finally.

Want a Job? Get a GREEN One…(Available Now)

So, you need a job? Right now? Then get a GREEN job. They are Available Now. They will only GROW in number and size the next couple of decades.

I was unemployed in the 80’s after being laid off from a Fortune 500 company, so I know what it is like for a lot of Americans today. I learned some valuable lessons on how to beat a bum economy.

After looking for another corporate job for years (and getting older) I finally saw reality, gave up sending resumes and became an entrepreneur. That is when I discovered you don’t have to wait for someone to give you a job to make a comfortable living. If I had continued waiting for someone to give me a job I’d still be waiting (and broke).

Today GREEN JOBS are where the action is. And they are available now and represent our fastest and best growth market. My company, for example, is a green company. It sells and installs an energy efficiency product.

When everyone had sales plummeting last year, our sales went UP 500%! We were hiring people and generating economic activity while others were cutting back. This year looks even better. We are getting calls from everywhere, inside and outside of the U.S.

Why? Because SUV’s that get 10 mpg don’t make much sense, but a product that cuts energy use (by cutting solar heat 50-70% and cancer-causing UV 99%) while also protecting windows from bricks hurled at them by burglars (or protesters) or from a bomb blast or a Hurricane IKE breaking glass (costing $40 million in damage to one building in downtown Houston alone) DOES make a lot of sense. It makes sense for our economy, our energy independence and our job creation! This is only one product example of the thousands of new efficiency products that are available that can pay for themselves -- and are creating the new jobs of the 21st Century.

So if you want to get to work now, go get a Green Job – such as designing green buildings, or selling solar Ppnels, installing wind turbines and radiant barriers, selling Security Window Film to cut energy waste or learning how to install it, designing and building new nano-tube high efficiency transmission lines, building factories to produce magnets for a MagLev 300+ mph train in the NY – DC corridor (no rails needed) to compete with China’s, build a space solar collector to feed our power grid with the sun (which would develop our private space transport business) –all these jobs are possible or AVAILABLE NOW.

But it will happen only if you decide to make it happen -- and government keeps (and makes) the right incentives to let it happen.

Being laid off is not the end, but the beginning of personal experience that yes, is painful, but can also open fantastic new doors to unimagined opportunities and results.

When a road ends, change is all that you have left if you want to get back on track. I struggled for many years after being laid off, waiting for someone to give me the job I knew I deserved. It didn’t happen. Only when I created my own job/s did my world improve.

Today I am riding a growing six figure business and we haven’t touched the tip of the iceberg yet.

Tired of not working? Go get your own Green Job today. Build yourself a green future that puts money in your pocket and cuts our energy waste at the same time.

You’ll thank yourself in the future many times over. And it will make America less dependent on foreign sources of energy at the same time. It’s a win-win.

10 Future Jobs You Can Get NOW - Plus Private Space Jobs

Photo: Space based solar collector

I'm attaching a link to an article about 10 "future" jobs you can get right now. These include:

1. Undersea Welder (Pays $17/$20hour if you live)

2. Zero-Energy Home Architect (Pays between $45,000 - $100,000/yr).

3. Combined Heat and Power Mechanic (Pays $30,000 - $75,000/yr.)

4. Energy Engineer (Pays $50,000 - $100,000/yr.)

5. Digital Detective (Pays $60,000 to $100,000+)

6. 3D Sports Tech (Pays $50,000 - $150,000/yr.)

7. Wind Explorer (Pays $35,000 - $55,000/yr.)

8. Fabricator of Carbon-Fiber Spaceships and Planes (Up to $20/hour)

9. Battery Engineer (Pays $50,000 - $95,000/yr)

10. Independent Video-Game Designer (Pay averages $62,000/yr.)

Note that skills needed for these jobs are engineering, not the Wall Street financial fine art of inventing fake assets like credit default swaps that your Wall Street firm sells to people while at the same time taking bets against the same instruments they are selling (that didn't work so well as we found out in the 2000's)!

We could also develop space technology that addresses our energy needs and gets us more involved in space with a purpose instead of just joyriding back to the Moon to plant a flag.

For example, we could develop the technology to put into orbit solar collectors in space to direct the sun's energy to ground-based stations - that would create thousands of jobs assembling and designing the equipment and maintaining and operating the ground stations.

It's obvious that we will need to continue to advance to new technologies and new jobs instead of just flipping burgers and selling junk bonds to "stay ahead of the curve."

World's First Solar City - in the Middle East?

Photo: Masdar, Abu Dhabi's Solar City Using "lunar" technology.

Yep, the world's first solar city is being built in the Middle East of all places, in oil poor Abu Dhabi - What is unique is that they are using lunar type technology (see link) and pushing the "green envelop" in their design of a modern city.

America, even the Middle East is getting ahead of us in this inventive with our own technology.

China now leads us in investing in 'green' technology. We are now No. 2.

We need to kick in the afterburners on "green" technology --or lose the global tech race.

Breaking Glass to Demand Right to Have Insurance Canceled - Really?

When I hear people protesting the passage of the healthcare reform bill, here is what I hear:

"I DEMAND THE RIGHT TO HAVE MY INSURANCE COMPANY CANCEL ME!"

You want that? You really want the right to have your insurance company cancel your insurance when you find out you or a family member has cancer -- or when your arrive at the hospital?

"I DEMAND the RIGHT to BE DENIED INSURANCE for a PRE-EXISTING CONDITION!"

(of which I have many due to eating too much fried food).

Do you really demand to be turned down for insurance because you have a risky condition or a disease like diabetes or cancer and an insurance companies don't want you because you will cost too much?

This is was the protesters are really saying if they think about it. Kinda crazy isn't it - to demand the right of some stranger to cancel your policy at the worst possible time?

Makes me wonder if logical reasoning is still alive and well in America - throwing bricks through windows, mad that they can't now be denied insurance or get canceled when they get sick.

That is sick! LOL.

SpaceShipTwo's First Flight - Buy Your Space Ticket Here!

Check out SpaceShipTwo's First Flight - PRIVATE companies going into Space makes a lot of sense.

They do it quicker and cheaper.

It's funny and downright strange to see the GOP opposing the privatization of space flight!

Get this. We have Democrat President pushing for private companies to enter space! And Republicans are OPPOSING that?

The world has flipped upside down! LOL.

Buy your space ticket here!

America's Real Nazis - Mistreating a sick man is sick

You call these people patriots?

People "at a Tea Party rally in Columbus, Ohio, last week taunted and humiliated a man who was sitting on the ground with a sign that said he had Parkinson’s disease." You can get more details at Mr. Herbert's article at this link.

Using the N word and spitting on our Congressional reps? What kind of American behavior is that? Calling a Congressman "faggot" is the same.

Mr. Herbert is too nice. I call them unAmerican Nazi thugs to treat any person like that, especially someone with a disease.

It's not any better than Congressmen shouting "Liar!" and "Baby Killer" in Congress - or egging on more violent abusive behavior. I've heard Republicans in my own Rotary Club refer to the President with the N-word right after he took office and inherited a $1.3 billion deficit mess from the prior administration! Like it was his fault?

It's time for a white guy to stand up and say that I've had enough of the white racism. I'm tired of the spitting and abusive behavior that would get you arrested in a domestic dispute. I've had enough of white racists like Glenn Beck falsely claiming the President is racist and hates white people.

It's time for decent white people to protest bigotry by its own members -- and support another group being abused. Before now, it was Hispanics being put down. Before that, it was Jews. Now they are abusing sick people who attended their rallies. Who's next?

Any party that encourages such low life behavior has lost its moral compass....

America: Losing Globally If We Don't Reduce Partisanship

This article on partisanship should be read by all Americans concerned about our future as a country.

To Reduce Partisanship, Get Rid of Partisans

The more extreme each side gets, the more America loses - we need common middle ground to stay ahead of the global competition, instead of primaries with who can be right of right or left of left.

The Taliban are so conservative they blow up girls' schools. Is that how far we have to go to get back to the common sense center?

We need to quit being narcissist (and staring only at our internal political battles) and start playing a smarter global game to stay winners in the 21st century.

Pearl Harbor and 9/11 should be proof that being partisan and self-absorbed is not a good thing for America...

A Unique Day Even on Clear Lake - Revealing What Lies Below

Today the lake was showing something seldom seen. It seems the same is happening in Washington DC.

This day could go down in history as one of those pivotal moments - like the passage of social security certainly was in the 1930's when millions reached old age with nothing, and Medicare in the 1960's, when seniors faced old age with no medical care.

It was also unique on Clear Lake today - strong winds from the west peeled back several feet of lake bottom that normally is covered. It was fascinating to see what was lurking there just five feet below, the potential hazards.

In the same way, this year-long conversation on health care has also revealed a lot of hidden hazards below the water - people losing their insurance because they were sick, or denied because they had prior health issues - so they had no coverage. Either they went bankrupt, paid out of pocket or were denied medical treatment. Neither of those choices seems to me to be very American, or humane, or even civilized for a great country to treat its own people.

But the sight of those 'tea party' people standing in our capitol and screaming the "N word" and spitting on black and gay Members of Congress yesterday was disgusting. It tells me that they are racists that don't represent true American values. Tea Party people are MAD that people won't be denied insurance anymore? What kind of value is that?

Today, where water once was, is beachfront - revealing what has been hiding below: a discarded scooter, some tires, a lawn chair --JUNK we need to get rid of before someone steps on them --like a cancellation of your insurance after you get sick.

Let's face some reality and facts. Our American people have an obesity problem. We have an obesity epidemic. We have too many people who are walking heart attacks from too many high-fat meals. They are high health risks who any insurance company in their right mind would want to drop if they could.

Why would anyone in their right mind want to keep a system that lets insurance companies do that to people? Congressional reps don't get denied insurance or dropped (insurance companies aren't stupid), but ordinary citizens? They get dropped or denied every day.

Tomorrow, the water will probably cover the hidden hazards on Clear Lake. Let's hope that in terms of healthcare, we have eliminated some for Americans.

Keeping the status quo only guarantees we stay at No. 37 in the world in healthcare.

Check this Link to See How HealthCare Reform Would Affect Your District

Here is a link that shows what would happen in your Congressional district if healthcare refrom passes. For example, in my TX CD22 district it would:

Improve coverage for 578,000 residents with health insurance.

Give tax credits and other assistance to up to 143,000 families and 13,400 small businesses to help them afford coverage.

Improve Medicare for 76,000 beneficiaries, including closing the donut hole.

Extend coverage to 99,500 uninsured residents.

Guarantee that 19,700 residents with pre-existing conditions can obtain coverage.

Protect 600 families from bankruptcy due to unaffordable health care costs.

Allow 72,000 young adults to obtain coverage on their parents’ insurance plans.

Reduce the cost of uncompensated care for hospitals and other health care providers by $50 million annually.

Hit the link and see what would happen in your district (unless of course you are so crazy that you WANT to have your insurance denied for a pre-existing condition or your insurance canceled after you get a serious illness like cancer)....!

What is THAT Swimming in Clear Lake?

WHAT is THAT Swimming in Clear Lake?

Lately, sitting on the balcony overlooking the lake, my eye was caught by ripples from a strange creature that came into view. Most of it is below the surface b,ut you can tell it is a big creature compared to what you usually see on the water (where kids where sledding behind a boat yesterday).

Only a small part protrudes above the water. It doesn't dive or look like a duck or anything else I've seen on the lake.

It slowly swims along the shore of Clear Lake. An eel? A gator? Just WHAT is that thing?

This morning I ran and got some video of it (the sun wasn't up yet so it is dark). Notice how the water forms a curve when it turns in the second video as it neared some docks.

We used to have small ducklings (actually Cormorants?) of over 30 swimming together in a group. Now I see about 5 or 6 in a group.

It's enough to give one a pre-existing condition. Hope the ducks don't get their policies cancelled for reaching their policy cap!

WHAT is that thing? Umm.

"I have been Mugged in England and Need $$$ to Get Home" Scam

While I was out on a job yesterday I read a disturbing email from a friend which said the following:

"Sorry I didn't inform you about my trip to the UK England for a program,I am presently in England,something extremely dreadful happened to me,I was mugged at gun point on my way to the Hotel by some Hoodlums and they made away with my Bag and other valuables. I called my bank for a wire transfer but it has proven almost Impossible to operate my account from here as they made me understand international transactions take 7 working days to be effective which i can't wait.

I feel so devastated,now my passport and other belongings are been retained by the hotel management pending the time I pay my Hotel bills.This is shameful,I need you to help me with a loan of (2,150 pounds= $3,250) to pay my hotel bills and get my self home.I will reimburse you soon as I get back Home.I will appreciate whatever you can assist me with.Can you help?"

That message was followed by the following (I have deleted the person's name for privacy reasons):

"I'm really happy to hear from you and thanks for your concern, at the moment am not my self and I cant even think straight but I will like you to loan me the money and will refund it back to you as soon as I get back.You can help me wire the money through western union money Transfer to my personal details and to the Hotel address bellow.I will be receiving it here with an ID and was also told that you can send it online on the western union website www.westernunion.com or go to any Walmart around you and get it sent from there. You can call on the Hotel receptionist number +447035930781

Name: Barbara XXXXXX
Address:12 London Road, Guildford
Surrey.England
United Kingdom

As soon you get it done,send me the Transfer details Including the (money Transfer Control Number).Get back to me as soon as you can.

All hopes on you."

Getting that kind of message is a wake up call. It was sent with what appeared to be her legitimate email address.

It turned out to be a scam by someone who somehow had used her email address. But before it was discovered to be a phony, her friends (many of whom are members of the League of Women Voters) were scrambling to raise money with some even thinking of hocking their jewelry etc to come up with money to help her out.

When she found out what was going on, the alleged victim sent out an email saying "I have NOT been mugged, and I am not in England."

This a NEW twist to the scam machine. If you get a strange message from someone you know claiming they have been mugged on a quick trip overseas and need money to get home, check it out before you panic and wire off funds. Try to contact the person through their cell phone and family first.

If that doesn't work, try contacting the FBI who should be informed of it even if it turns out to be a scam.

Texas GOP Chair believes that the Earth is only 6,000 years old

By the way, the current Chair of the Texas GOP believes that the Earth is only 6,000 years old! (Nor did she deny it when I asked if it was true she believed that).

If that isn't proof of failure of our (TX) Education system, nothing is...(The charts on climate change, taken from ice core drilling samples, show climate changes going back over 800,000 years! (not 6,000!)

That is the same kind of ignorance that would support dropping Thomas Jefferson, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, from our history books --which our TX School board just did.

This is the same kind of mindless narrowness exhibited by the Taliban who oppose secular education. Dropping Thomas Jefferson from our books (after 200+ years of being a key figure) because he espoused "separation of church and state" fits with that kind of thinking.