CALIFORNIA BUCKS

California is printing its own money.

The legislature and the governor can't agree on a budget. The state is officially broke. So it's paying its bills with I.O.U.s.

Call them California Bucks.

But good luck trying to spend them. Some banks will take them. Some won't. And some banks are talking about charging a discount -- meaning you'll get fewer than 100 pennies to the dollar -- even though the banks will be able eventually to redeem them from the state plus 3.75% interest.

And, no, California Bucks don't carry a picture of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

QUOTATION OF THE DAY

"Life is one long process of getting tired."

-- Samuel Butler

WHEREAS...

Republican Oklahoma State Representative Sally Kern, who once famously claimed that homosexuality is more dangerous that terrorism, now wants all Oklahomans to sign her "Oklahoma Citizen's Proclamation for Morality." The proclamation goes like this:

We the People of Oklahoma, Invoking the guidance of Almighty God, in order to secure and perpetuate the blessing of Liberty; to secure just and rightful Government; to promote our mutual Welfare and Happiness, do establish this proclamation and call upon the people of the great State of Oklahoma, and our fellow Patriots in these United States of America who look to the Lord for guidance, to acknowledge the need for a national awakening of righteousness in our land.

WHEREAS, "It is Religion and Morality alone, which can establish the Principles upon which Freedom can securely stand" (John Adams); and

WHEREAS, "We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by Religion and Morality" (John Adams); and

WHEREAS, "Our Constitution was made only for a Moral and Religious people" (John Adams); and

WHEREAS, "We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government...but upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God" (James Madison); and

WHEREAS, "Freedom is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God (Benjamin Franklin); and

WHEREAS, "God who gave us life gave us liberty and can the liberties of a nation be thought
secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the Gift of God" (Thomas Jefferson); and

WHEREAS, "Whether any free government can be permanent, where the public worship of God, and the support of Religion, constitute no part of the policy or duty of the state" (Joseph Story); and

WHEREAS, "We hold sacred the rights of conscience, and promise to the people...the free and undisturbed exercise of their religion" (Roger Sherman); and

WHEREAS, "This great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians" (Patrick Henry); and

WHEREAS, "When you...exercise the right of voting for public officers, let it be impressed upon your mind that God commands you to choose just men who will rule in the fear of God" (Noah Webster); and

WHEREAS, "The principles of genuine Liberty and of wise laws and administrations are to be drawn from the Bible" (Noah Webster); and

WHEREAS, the people of Oklahoma have a strong tradition of reliance upon the Creator of the Universe; and

WHEREAS, we believe our economic woes are consequences of our greater national moral crisis; and

WHEREAS, this nation has become a world leader in promoting abortion, pornography, same sex marriage, sex trafficking, divorce, illegitimate births, child abuse, and many other forms of debauchery; and

WHEREAS, alarmed that the Government of the United States of America is forsaking the rich Christian heritage upon which this nation was built; and

WHEREAS, grieved that the Office of the president of these United States has refused to uphold the long held tradition of past presidents in giving recognition to our National Day of Prayer; and

WHEREAS, deeply disturbed that the Office of the president of these United States disregards the biblical admonitions to live clean and pure lives by proclaiming an entire month to an immoral behavior;

NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that we the undersigned elected officials of the people of Oklahoma, religious leaders and citizens of the State of Oklahoma, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world, solemnly declare that the HOPE of the great State of Oklahoma and of these United States, rests upon the Principles of Religion and Morality as put forth in the HOLY BIBLE; and

BE IT RESOLVED that we, the undersigned, believers in the One True God and His only Son, call upon all to join with us in recognizing that "Blessed is the Nation whose God is the Lord," and humbly implore all who love Truth and Virtue to live above reproach in the sight of God and man with a firm reliance on the leadership and protection of Almighty God; and

BE IT RESOLVED that we, the undersigned, humbly call upon Holy God, our Creator, Sustainer, and Redeemer, to have mercy on this nation, to stay His hand of judgment, and grant a national awakening of righteousness and Christian renewal as we repent of our great sin. Signed on the second day of July in the year of our Lord Christ Two Thousand and Nine.

By Rep. Sally Kern, R-Oklahoma City

If you're from Oklahoma you can just go print out the above and sign it. If you're not from Oklahoma you don't have to sign.

QUOTATION OF THE DAY

"Two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the universe."

-- Albert Einstein

A LESSON

A Tulsan who attacked his neighbor with a hatchet was shot when his neighbor pulled a handgun.

The lesson here is, never bring a hatchet to a gunfight.

QUOTATION OF THE DAY

"Jews killed Jesus! Yes, the Jews killed the Lord Jesus. Now they're carrying water for the fags; that's what they do best: sin in God's face every day, with unprecedented and disproportionate amounts of sodomy, fornication, adultery, abortion and idolatry! God hates these dark-hearted rebellious disobedient Jews.”

And --

“Men, take the covering off your heads. While you are doing that, you need to repent of the fact that you killed Christ! All the remainder can sit and stew in your own filth, remain filthy until the day God spews you out of the land and punishes you for never repenting from having killed Jesus. You will be destroyed at the hand of Antichrist Obama, and you will eat your little cute, chubby, Kosher babies.”

-- Pastor Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas.

A BOY AND HIS RIFLE

Arcata and and Eureka, California, tried to ban the military recruitment of minors in those cities.

But a federal judge struck down the ordinances after the U.S. Justice Department argued that it would interfere with the government's ability to protect the country.

After all, how can we protect this nation without child soldiers?

Or as a retired Marine sergeant once told me, "There is no more dangerous force in this world than a teenager with a gun."

QUOTATION OF THE DAY

"The two biggest names are Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin... But they are bound by the fact that neither one of them is actually ever going to be nominated for president even if we have another Ice Age and the only Americans left alive are them, Dennis Kucinich and that woman who was Miss California until Donald Trump fired her."

-- Gail Collins writing in The New York Times.

PHONE HOME

For decades, Earth scientists have been using radio telescopes to listen for messages from outer space. For decades we haven't gotten any messages. But that's no reason to stop trying.

And what if we do get a call? What do we answer? The SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) Institute is soliciting ideas. Here are some of the suggestions so far.

• "This is Earth speaking. We would like to know you. Please reply."
• "Down here we are all confused."
• "Don't kidnap us and poke us. We hate that."
• "We've got guns and we know how to use them."
• "If we discover intelligent life beyond Earth we should not reply -- we should freeze and play dead."
• "There's nothing to see here. Move along."

My own suggestion would be, "Let's have a beer and talk about life."

QUOTATION OF THE DAY

"I have total recall. I remember being born. I remember being in the womb. I remember being inside. Coming out was great.

-- Ray Bradbury.

FEELIN' GROOVY

Are the sixties coming back? Let's go to the tape:

• Macy's is marketing clothing to young men and women in a campaign called "Summer of Love."
• Ameriprise Financial ads feature Dennis Hopper.
• The copy for ABCs "The Bachelorette read, "One lucky girl's summer of love begins."
• Clothing ads for Children's Place feature peace symbols.
• Brooks Brothers is rerunning a newspaper ad from the sixties.
• Luvs ads show children riding in a VW micro bus and carrying protest signs.
• Volkswagen commercials feature the micro bus and classic beetle -- neither of which they make anymore.
• The musical "Hair" is back on Broadway.
• The "Woodstock" movie is out on Blue-Ray with additional footage and added features.

Now if they'd just bring back cheap gasoline and good acid. And the Volkswagen micro bus.

FEELIN' GROOVIER

Another relic of the sixties was "Magic Fingers."

Literally millions of motel and hotel beds had them. Drop a quarter in the coin box and the bed vibrated for 15 minutes.

Jimmy Buffet sang about it in the Steve Goodman song "This Hotel Room."

"Put in a quarter,
turn out the light,
Magic Fingers makes you
feel all right."

John Houghtaling, the inventor of Magic Fingers, died last week. He leaves behind five children. The New York Times obit notes that most of his children have Magic Fingers in their homes.

One of my life's regrets is that I never tried Magic Fingers. I saved my quarters for the coin operated motel TV -- yet another relic of the sixties.

QUOTATIONS FROM THE LUNATIC FRINGE

"America, we have a Muslim president. This is a sin against the lord!”
-- Pastor Mark Holick of the Spirit One Church in Kansas.

"I'm of the opinion -- and now everybody's going to say 'There goes Wiley down the conspiracy-theory road' -- I'm of the opinion that somebody in the Obama camp had this guy killed."
-- Wiley Drake, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Buena Park, California, and former running mate of American Independent Party presidential candidate Alan Keyes, on the murder of George Tiller.

"Obama is a long-legged mack daddy. I haven’t trashed Obama. His African-in-heat father went a-whoring after a trashy white woman. He was born trash. I said he was born trash. I didn’t trash him. I’m speaking the truth about him."
-- Reverend James David Manning, of the ATLAH Worldwide Church in Harlem.

IS OBAMA JEWISH?

This just in...

A Pew Research Center poll finds that 11 percent of Americans "know' that President Barack Obama is Muslim.

48 percent say he's Christian.

One percent think he's Jewish.

EXPLODING HORSES

Palestinian terrorists in Gaza have a new weapon in their war with Israel.

Suicide horses.

Several horses blew up during a firefight with Israeli forces at the Israeli border.

The riders were also killed.

ON THE SHOALS OF OKLAHOMA

A Tulsa man crashed his SUV into the Jenks lighthouse.

In explanation: The city of Jenks is landlocked, as is all of Oklahoma. The lighthouse sits by the side of the road to welcome drivers to Jenks.

The driver was killed, but I'm sure he felt welcomed.

ANDROID DREAMS

PR2 can open doors and and plug itself in to regular AC outlets for recharging.

Willow Garage in Silicon Valley invented the robot. Opening doors isn't new. robots have done this before. And Johns Hopkins University in the1960s developed a robot that could plug itself in. But never before has one robot been able to do both of these things.

It's a giant step for PR2. Or as one scientist put it, "Now they can escape and fend for themselves."

(NYT)

QUOTATION OF THE DAY

"The homosexual agenda is destroying this nation, okay. It’s just a fact.

"Not everybody’s lifestyle is equal. Just like not all religions are equal. The very fact that I’m talking to you like this today puts me in jeopardy, okay.

"I’m not anti, I’m not gay-bashing, but according to God’s word that is not the right kind of lifestyle. It has deadly consequences for those people involved in it. It has more suicides. They’re more discouraged. There’s more illness. Their lifespans are shorter. You know, it’s not a lifestyle that is good for this nation.

"It’s a matter of fact, studies show that no society that has totally embraced homosexuality has lasted more than, you know, a few decades. So it’s the death nail for this country. I honestly think it’s the biggest threat, even in our nation. Even more so than terrorists, or Islam, okay.

"Cause, what’s happening now, they’re going after, err, in schools, two year olds! You know why they’re trying to get early childhood education? They want to get our young children into the government schools so they can indoctrinate them. I taught school for close to 20 years and we’re not teaching facts and knowledge anymore, folks, we’re teaching indoctrination, okay. And they’re going after our young children, as young as 2 year of age, to try to teach them that the homosexual lifestyle is an acceptable lifestyle.

"You know, gays are infiltrating city capitals. Did you know, Eureka Springs, anybody been there? Have you heard that the city council of Eureka Springs is now controlled by gays? There are some others, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Kensington Maryland, Vermont, Oregon, West Palm Beach, Florida and lots of other places in Florida. What’s happening? They are winning elections.

"One of the things I deal with in our legislature, I tried to introduce a bill last year that would notify parents, err, schools had to let parents know what clubs their students were involved in and the reason I did that bill, primarily, was this: we had the gay-straight alliance coming into our schools. Kids are getting involved in these groups, their lives are being ruined, the parents don’t know about it.

"So I introduced a bill that said you have to notify all the clubs participants’ parents. A colleague said: we don’t have a gay problem in my community, that’s why I’m not going to release that bill. You know what, to me, that’s so dumb, if you’ve got cancer or something in your little toe, do you say I’m just going to forget about it because the rest of you is fine? It spreads, okay.

"And this stuff is deadly and it’s spreading and it will destroy our young people and it will destroy this nation."

-- Oklahoma State Representative Sally Kern in a January, 2008, speech she gave to a meeting of Republicans.

QUOTATION OF THE DAY

"Think about it. I'm on a last-place network, I moved to a state that's bankrupt, and 'The Tonight show' is sponsored by General Motors."

-- Conan O'Brien on NBC's "The Tonight Show."

QUOTATION OF THE DAY

"I think this is one of the most critical moments in American history. We are living in a period where we are surrounded by paganism."

And...

"I am not a citizen of the world. I am a citizen of the United States because only in the United States does citizenship start with our creator."

...Newt Gingrich speaking at the "Rediscovering God in America," forum at the Rock Church in Virginia.