Diggapedia

What if the terrorist threats at Sochi are just a ruse?  Is it beyond the realm of possibility that Putin and Russian authorities are using a fabricated threat to advance a hidden agenda?  I wouldn’t consider myself a conspiracy theorist.  Yes decades ago I read all of the conspiracy books about the Kennedy assassination, but the one thing about conspiracists:  they never have to prove anything, but just ask questions.  Whether it was the aforementioned JFK assassination, TWA Flight 800, Pearl Harbor attack, and off course 9/11, conspiracists charge the government with nefarious deeds often without motive.  But just because 9/11 truthers may be off base, we know governments have been known to use real or imagined threats as justification: the invasion of Iraq, the Alien-Sedition Acts, Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, and the sinking of the USS Maine.  Would we expect less from the Russians?  What would be their motive? Firstly, the Russians h...

  Sunday’s NFC Championship was a gripping battle of two tough teams known for their physical play, especially on the defensive side of the ball.   The game was not perfect.   San Francisco committed three turnovers in the 4 th quarter, Seattle fumbled at the San Francisco goal line, there were 15 penalties, and some serious officiating lapses including a critical missed call on a roughing the kicker penalty by Seattle.   The game had drama, excitement, and guts:   Russell Wilson’s 35 yard TD to Jermaine Kearse on a 4 th and 7, Colin Kaepernick’s 58 yard scramble, Marshawn Lynch going full beast mode on a 40 yard TD run, and NaVorro Bowman’s 14 tackle, 1 sack, and hanging onto a fumble as his knee is being blown up performance.    It was the good and the bad. And then there was the ugly. Richard Sherman, arguably the best cornerback in the NFL, allowed himself to get overly excited at the end of the game.   Up until the climactic in...

  1)       Each week 72,000 jobless Americans will lose their unemployment benefits unless Congress acts.   These people will stop seeking work and will could drive the unemployment rate down by 0.2% in January. 2)       The New England Patriots and Coach Bill Belichick are about to play in their 8 th AFC Championship in the last 13 years.   The closest team to that run is the Pittsburgh Steelers with five AFC Championship appearances.   That’s dominance. 3)       According to Crime & Delinquency journal, by the age of 23 49% of black males, 44% of Hispanic males, and 38% of white males have been arrested.   Incarceration nation. 4)       You can’t blame the violence in Iraq because the Obama administration removed all of the troops while ignoring the fact we shouldn’t have been there to begin with in the first place. 5)    ...

Prayer is back in the news, but should it in the school. Don’t know much about history Don’t know much biology Don’t know much about a science book   Turns out Sam Cooke wasn’t the only one with a problem with school. First a little history.   In 1962’s Engel v Vitale , the Supreme Court ruled New York’s practice of opening the school day with prayer violated the Establishment Clause.   Justice Black wrote the Establishment Clause was violated when school put "indirect coercive pressure upon religious minorities to conform to the officially approved religion."   In 1985’s Wallace v Jaffree the state of Alabama tried to skirt Engel by calling for a "period of silence for meditation or silent prayer ."   Believing that making the “period” optional and not mandatory, Alabama thought it could escape the coercive claim.   But the court ruled 5-4 against Alabama on the grounds it failed the Lemon Test: Government action violates the Estab...

Concerns about education in the United States are not new.   And as the latest PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) scores of 15 year old students placed the US 36 th in math, 28 th in science, and 24 th in reading, there seems to be no shortage of opinions, causes, and solutions. We lost our way when we took out school prayer, it’s because of the federal government, teachers’ union, poverty, No Child Left Behind, standardized testing, bad parenting, etc.   With so many factors to choose from, how do you really know why we have fallen so far behind in educating our next generations?   Does it matter?   Should we be upset that Vietnam, Slovenia, Poland, Macau, Estonia, Belgium and others routinely kick our ass?   “The educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a nation and a people…If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the med...