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The Rev. Terry Jones caved. We did not. Here's what happens when one pound of Tannerite meets the Quran. One shot from an AR15 sends this hate manual straight to Allah. After the smoke cleared, we celebrated by eating a delicious pulled pork BBQ sandwich. MMMMM PORK. This is how we do it in the hills of North Georgia, USA. Florida, not so much.

You know that when the Wall Street Journal uses the word "thuggish", to describe a letter from HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius that the contents must be serious. Normally the WSJ prefers terms like "political hard ball" and "aggressive tactics". We have another more straightforward name for this type of Chicago style politics - extortion.   The Government has heaped a massive amount of regulation onto insurance companies and that has driven their costs up. This fact is understandingly unpopular with the consumers that purchase health insurance, as they were promised that healthcare reform would lower costs. Many consumers and employers...

The commission set up by ex-UK Prime Minister Tony Blair to find solutions to poverty in Africa says the continent needs billions more dollars in aid. The Commission for Africa says the world's poorest continent has made "extraordinary progress" since 2005. But poverty reduction has also become more challenging in many parts of Africa, it says. The commission's report has been published ahead of a global poverty summit in New York later this month. Africa, this report argues, has changed a great deal in five years. There has been what the commission calls "dramatic" economic growth and a surge in...

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is trying to gain the support of birthers by suggesting that President Obama subscribes to "Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Monday. "I don't even have -- quite frankly, George -- the slightest idea what he's talking about," Gibbs told George Stephanopoulos. "I think Newt Gingrich knows that he's trying to appeal to the fringe of people that don't believe the president was born in this country. You would normally expect better from somebody who held the position of speaker of the House."

John Hussman: The Recent "Good" Jobs Reports Have Been Among The Worst Ever Recorded Joe Weisenthal Sep. 13, 2010, 12:01 PM First off, John Hussman is still bearish. Okay, now that we've gotten that out of the way, his latest weekly letter takes a look at some of the supposedly "good" jobs data we've gotten lately -- both on the monthly jobs number, and with the weekly initial claims reports. In his note, he introduces readers to the notion of an impulse response -- basically the tendency of economic data to echo down the road: To provide some perspective on...

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President Obama has a drilling moratorium preventing U.S. companies from deepwater drilling. At the same time the U.S. is loaning money to PEMEX, the Mexican state owned oil company, to help boost its drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. From Fox News: "Despite President Obama's moratorium on U.S. deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, the U.S. Export-Import Bank intends to guarantee $1 billion in loans to PEMEX, the Mexican state oil company, to bolster the company's oil drilling in the region." "The bank, which is the official American export credit agency, loaned more than $1 billion to PEMEX in...

OFFICIAL HEARING NOTICE / WITNESS LIST: September 13, 2010 NOTICE OF COMMITTEE HEARING POSTPONEMENT The Senate Committee on the Judiciary hearing on "Firearms in Commerce: Assessing the Need for Reform in the Federal Regulatory Process" scheduled for Tuesday, September 14, 2010 at 10:00 a.m. in Room 226 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building has been postponed. By order of the Chairman.

A color composite image of the June 3, 2010, Jupiter impact flash. Credit: Anthony Wesley observing from Broken Hill, Australia. In a paper published Thursday in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, a group of professional and amateur astronomers announced that Jupiter is getting hit surprisingly often by small asteroids, lighting up the giant planet's atmosphere with frequent fireballs. "Jupiter is a big gravitational vacuum cleaner," said co-author and JPL astronomer Glenn Orton. "It is clear now that relatively small objects left over from the formation of the solar system 4.5 billion years ago still hit Jupiter frequently." The impacts are...

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama celebrated the opening of an advanced battery plant in Michigan on Monday as a critical boost for hybrid and electric cars — and a success for his administration's economic stimulus program. But even as mass-produced advanced batteries start rolling off assembly lines, costs are high for consumers, and hurdles remain. "This is about the birth of an entire new industry in America, an industry that's going to be central to the next generation of cars," Obama said Monday in a phone call broadcast at the opening of A123 Systems Inc.'s lithium ion battery plant in...

Firm targeted customers in Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade, authorities say BOCA RATON — The kingpin of a Boca Raton-based scheme police say defrauded more than 40 people out of more than $600,000 is now in custody. Lamothe Mildort, 28, was booked into the Palm Beach County Jail on Tuesday and remains there in lieu of $30,000 bail. He's charged with grand larceny of more than $100,000 and fraud of more than $50,000. In March, Boca Raton police said they'd broken up Midwest Holding Capital after an investigation lasting nearly a year that also involved the state Bureau of Financial Investigations....

"There will be zero tolerance for this type of misinformation and unjustified rate increases." That sounds like a stern headmistress dressing down some sophomores who have been misbehaving. But it's actually from a letter sent Thursday from Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to Karen Ignagni, president of America's Health Insurance Plans -- the chief lobbyist for private health insurance companies. Secretary Sebelius objects to claims by health insurers that they are raising premiums because of increased costs imposed by the Obamacare law passed by Congress last March. She acknowledges that many of the law's "key protections" take effect...

China is on course to build a record number of cinemas this year in a burst of movie infrastructure development that is partly aimed at rivalling the "soft power" of Hollywood. Following the state-backed expansion of China's TV and newspaper industries since 2009, the government is promoting a major push of film production and distribution. The state council, China's cabinet, has issued new guidelines for the booming industry that have helped film-makers secure bank loans and reach a wider audience. Qiang Zhongyuan, a director with Beijing Forbidden City Film Company, says the measures have helped him to double his budget...

Cardinal O’Brien accuses BBC of attempting to 'humiliate' Pope London, England, Sep 6, 2010 / 09:02 am (EWTN News/CNA)   Cardinal Keith O’Brien Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the senior Catholic authority in Scotland, accused the BBC on Sunday  of  being contaminated by “a radically secular and socially liberal mindset.” Then prelate added that the public corporation headed by Mark Thompson, a 52-year-old Jesuit educated Catholic, should appoint a religion editor immediately.Cardinal O'Brien, who is Archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh also accused the BBC of plotting a “hatchet job” on the Vatican in a documentary about clerical sex abuse on...

In her farewell season premiere today, Oprah gave away hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts and prizes to a mostly white woman audience that probably could easily do without. She also gave the audience of 300 a trip to Australia in a plane piloted by John Travolta. Maybe on the way she can stop in Iran to pick up its latest hostage. From ABC News: Price of Freedom for American Hiker in Iran: $500K Bail in CashI wonder if any of the screaming audience members would ever say, "Hey, Oprah. I'd like to donate my portion of the money...

Leaders of the influential FreedomWorks group -- one the largest and most powerful tea party forces in the country -- publicly distanced themselves from the latest tea party political star, Delaware Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell, at a breakfast with reporters this morning. "We stay out of that race because we're not convinced O'Donnell can win," FreedomWorks president and CEO Matt Kibbe said at the Christian Science Monitor-sponsored event. FreedomWorks chair Dick Armey shared the ambivalence toward O'Donnell, who's sparked a kind of GOP breakdown with her fast-rising candidacy against party stalwart Mike Castle, who most view as a shoo-in for...

Seven weeks is a long time in politics, and seven weeks is a long time until the November mid-term election, but at this point things look bad for Democrats. Recent polls show potential voters prefer generic Republican candidates to generic Democrat candidates for the House of Representatives in their district. Three surveys show Republicans with a significant lead, topping Democrats by five points, 42-37, in a Quinnipiac University Poll from August 31 through September 7. A CNN/Opinion Research poll on September 1 and 2 reflects a seven-point margin for Republicans, 52–45. Read More

VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI will break his own rule this weekend when he beatifies Cardinal John Henry Newman, the renowned 19th Century Anglican convert who greatly influenced the Roman Catholic Church. Newman remains a complicated figure within the Anglican church he abandoned, and the pope's glorification of him during a state visit to Britain could unleash new tensions between churches already divided over issues like the ordination of women and gay bishops. Benedict will move Newman a step closer to possible sainthood when he presides over his beatification Sept. 19, the main reason for his four-day trip. It's...

In the wake of the health care law passed earlier this year, insurers have been notifying their customers that new mandates for coverage will boost costs and premiums. In response, Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of Health and Human Services, issued a stern warning to the health insurance industry, vowing to “put them out of business” for what she termed “unjustified” rate increases. Arguing that the new law has “fundamentally transformed the health insurance industry,” Sebelius asserted that “all critical decisions on prices, coverage, and therapies have been transferred to my Department. We will decide who must be covered. We will decide...

College graduates who inhaled the exotic curricula their alma maters offer up are learning a hard lesson: Nobody really cares about them off campus. “If you major in accounting or engineering, you’re pretty likely to get a return on your investment,” economist Richard Vedder told Sarah Kaufman of the Washington Post. “If you’re majoring in anthropology or social work or education, the rate on return is going to be a good deal lower, on average.” “I’ve talked to some of my own students who’ve graduated and who are working in grocery stores or Wal-Mart,” he said. “The fellow who cut...