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Alaska Governor Sarah Palin made her own declaration of independence yesterday by announcing that she's resigning as governor of Alaska. It was another gutsy and smart move on her part that has confounded the experts and has many writing her political obituary. I believe it's just wishful thinking on their part and these folks have no clue what just hit them. Since Sen. John McCain chose her to run as his vice-president she, her family, and her staff have been through the wringer as opponents have turned over every rock in hopes of taking her down. Every time she sneezed...

Offering a new perspective on the reality of aging denominations, The United Methodist Church studied the death rates of Methodists and the general American population and found that the church is dying faster. The death rates for members of the nearly 8 million-member denomination are about a third higher than the national average, according to the "Pockets of 'Youthfulness' in an Aging Denomination" report. In 2005, the United Methodist death rate was 134 percent of the U.S. death rate among those 15 years and older. Among UMC's 62 annual conferences, or regional bodies, in the United States, 34 of them...

After years of discussion, the Baptist and Roman Catholic bodies in Italy signed an agreement on “interchurch” marriage this week. The agreement, called “A Common Document for a Pastoral Approach to Marriages between Catholics and Baptists in Italy,” addresses issues encountered by such mixed church couples. In Italy, there are only about 6,400 Baptists who are members of one of the 116 churches of the Christian Evangelical Baptist Union of Italy (UCEBI). By comparison, more than 87 percent of Italy’s 60 million population identify themselves as Roman Catholic. “As the number of Baptists in Italy is very small, only in...

BELEN, N.M. -- A Belen man is facing murder charges after deputies said he chased down two burglary suspects and then shot and killed one of them. The incident happened near Highway 314 and Gabaldon Road at about 10:30 p.m. Saturday. Authorities said 38-year-old Luke Sanchez somehow knew a business was getting robbed and took matters into his own hands. "As you can see, they had a good time," said Gerald Schell, manager of Enchanted Propane. When Schell showed up to his place of business Sunday morning, he said he found the place ransacked. Sheriff's deputies said two men are...

RUSH: Our official climatologist here, Dr. Roy Spencer, University of Alabama at Huntsville sent me a question after hearing my last dissertation: "Equality of outcomes. How can a senator or congressman, for example -- after working to achieve their station in life, how can a senator or congressman -- then argue that everybody else needs to be the same?" Now, Snerdley, you're acting in there like, "Yeah, right." What do you mean, "Yeah, right"? Do you think it's a good question? It is a good question. Do you know the answer? The answer is relatively simple. Do you know what...

Police arrested a man early Saturday who had a bomb in a backpack that he may have been preparing to use at a school in the area, officials said. The man, identified as Jason A. Babson, 29, of 13 School St., Hudson Falls, was found with an explosive device just before 3 a.m. Saturday, said Hudson Falls Police Chief Randy Diamond. The FBI was notified of the incident and is conducting its own investigation into the matter. Hudson Falls Police Detective Scott Gillis said residents of the area where Babson was walking believed he made a comment about using a...

Police authorities in Nashville are saying former NFL Quarterback Steve McNair was found dead, seated on a sofa, and shot multiple times. This video shows Nashville authorities updating the public on McNair's shooting. . . . . . (Watch Video)

When it was deciding where to build its new compact car, General Motors Corp. made a point of saying it would push politics aside and use strictly commercial criteria. So Tennessee's three top officials were astonished last month, in a meeting with GM, when they were told the first two criteria were "community impact" and "carbon footprint" -- or how the choice would affect unemployment rates and carbon-dioxide emissions. "Those didn't strike us as business criteria at all," said Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander, who was joined in the meeting by fellow Republican Sen. Bob Corker and the state's Democratic governor,...

It's not clear why Sarah Palin resigned her position as governor of Alaska, but it must have been for one of the following reasons: (1) there is a scandal that would have made her position as governor untenable, (2) she couldn't take the heat that was coming her way, or (3) she concluded that it was in her best interests to do something other than fulfill the duties associated with the position the voters of Alaska entrusted to her. In all three scenarios, Palin is unfit for high office, and certainly unfit to be the vice president or the president...

Rush Limbaugh Comments on Sarah Palin's Resignation  July 5, 2009  BEGIN TRANSCRIPTRUSH: This is Rush. I’m on a golf vacation, parts unknown, all week long. Six cities, six courses, starting today. On this Palin business, you know, one of the reasons I haven’t said anything to anybody is I don’t know what this means – and I think all of this is just speculation. We don’t know what her reasons for doing this are yet. The speculation here and the predictions here rival some of the irresponsibility I saw with people speculating on the cause of death of Michael Jackson when...

Prayer for the Celebrity’s Purgatory There are no eyes that watch me in this place. Did I not spend my earthly life in faith that when the people saw me and adored, their adulation brought its own reward? But truth be told, that faith was never sure. I was bound up, I know - could not break free. The whole of life, from youth, was on a stage. The habits of the child live into age and tempter’s lies so sweet are hard to leave. At least I grew suspicious of the scripts: all different in detail, all ends the...

Workers at C.F Martin & Co. are putting finishing touches on the solid-wood 1 Series model, so named for its simplicity. It lacks inlay, as did the company's stripped-down 1930s model, and is expected to sell for less than $1,000, breaking a key price point and far less than its $100,000 limited-edition guitars made of Brazilian rosewood. More popular Martins generally sell for $2,000 to $3,000. Initial reaction is promising. The company, which had sales of $93 million last year, introduced the 1 Series in April and promptly sold out its first year's output of 8,000 guitars. "We needed something...

Nouriel Roubini | Jul 2, 2009 The June employment report suggests that the alleged ‘green shoots’ are mostly yellow weeds that may eventually turn into brown manure. The employment report shows that conditions in the labor market continue to be extremely weak, with job losses in June of over 460,000. With the current rate of job losses, it is very clear that the unemployment rate could reach 10 percent by later this summer, around August or September, and will be closer to 10.5 percent if not 11 percent by year-end. I expect the unemployment rate is going to peak at...

Here he goes again on his own. Going down the only road he’s ever known. OK, David Coverdale isn’t totally on his own. The 57-year-old singer has a new Whitesnake lineup behind him. But he is going down the only road he’s ever known on an old-fashioned, heavy-metal double bill: Whitesnake and Judas Priest play the Comcast Center on Tuesday. As Coverdale pointed out in a phone interview from his Lake Tahoe home, “You’re not going to listen to Whitesnake for environmental songs or to change your life. You’re going to listen to Whitesnake for hard rock.”

In his landmark 1942 book, "Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy," economist Joseph Schumpeter emphasized the key role that creative destruction plays in generating long-run economic growth. It is the driving force of capitalism.

Socialism is just Feudalism of the New Dark Ages by Fred Jake As I read an article on the Reformation, I was struck by the way the Muslim in the White House and his socialist buddies in congress are trying to return us back to the feudal days, where everything including the people are owned by the government. As good serfs, we are to just shut up and follow the rules and regulations set in place by today's church (which is the church of environmentalism ie..global warming and other earth worshiping entities), the nobles (Democrat politicians treated like royalty),...

If you haven't read Matt Taibbi's recent Rolling Stone piece on Goldman Sachs, make sure to get your hands on it ASAP. It's a must read on how Goldman Sachs and the U.S. government work hand in glove to produce giant investment bubbles... bubbles that allow Goldman to work over investors for hundreds of billions of dollars. We don't think you can lay all the blame for the housing bubble and the tech bubble at Goldman's feet... but we do find it suspicious that a ton of high level government posts are staffed by Goldman employees. It's close to a...

When I was about 5 years old, my best friend’s house burned to the ground. Our family was awakened in the middle of the night and I remember looking out the window in my sister’s bedroom watching as my friend’s house was burning. Mother and my sister were both crying while Daddy went to see if he could help our neighbors. I asked my mother why it had happened. I remember her answer as clearly today over 50 years later; she said, “Nobody really knows why bad things happen to good people, but it always seems that it works out...

BEIJING, July 6 (AP) - (Kyodo)—"A number of civilians and one armed police officer" died in violence in Urumqi, the capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, on Sunday, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported Monday. Some ordinary people and armed police officers were also injured, and many motor vehicles and shops were smashed and burned, Xinhua quoted sources with the regional government as saying.

Ousted President Manuel Zelaya says he can't land at the main Honduras airport because soldiers are blocking the runway with several military vehicles. The pilot of his Venezuelan plane circled around the airport and decided that landing is "totally impossible" because of the trucks in the way. Groups of police and soldiers also are stationed around the runway and the perimeter of the airfield, facing off against thousands of Zelaya supporters outside. Zelaya says he'll announce later where they'll land. A crew of the Venezuelan network Telesur is on the plane. He told them Sunday that the pilots won't risk...