November 2, 2005
'View Tax' Triggers Revolt in Rural N.H.
Oct 31 ORFORD, N.H. The one-room cabin David Bischoff built in a cow pasture three years ago has no electricity, no running water, no phone service and no driveway. What it does have is a wide-open view of nearby hills and distant mountains _ which makes it seven times more valuable than if it had no view, according to the latest townwide property assessment. He expects his property taxes to shoot up accordingly.
Bischoff and other Orford residents bitterly call that a "view tax," and they are leading a revolt against it that has gained support in many rural towns in New Hampshire…State officials say there is no such thing as a "view tax"-- it is a "view factor...
...One big reason the reassessment has alarmed townspeople in Orford and beyond is that housing prices _ and consequently property taxes _ are shooting up in New England because of an influx of vacation-home buyers and retirees willing to pay top dollar for beautiful views.
...Critics complain, for example, that some town assessors assign fixed dollar values to certain types of views, while others multiply a home's base value by a "view factor."
...At a packed legislative hearing, Orford timberland owner Tom Thomson warned that unless the state acts, rising property taxes will force family farmers to sell to developers, permanently altering New Hampshire's rural character.
...Guy Petell, director of property appraisals for the state, is sympathetic. But real estate ads and sales prove that properties with views fetch a premium, and it would be unfair to homeowners without views to ignore that, Petell said.
...In Bischoff's case, the view added $140,000 to his property's underlying value of $22,900. As a result, he expects his property taxes to jump from less than $500 last year to more than $3,000 this year.
...Retired engineer John Chandler objected when a revaluation doubled the value of his property in Hill because of its view of the White Mountains in the distance. Chandler noted that he does not own the view and cannot control it, and said it is increasingly obscured by air pollution.
Besides, he is legally blind.
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/10/31/D8DJADN01.html
For some Americans, every day is Halloween
Bizarre sex, self-mutilation, 'love of death' becoming increasingly commonplace
November 1, 2005 Halloween is a time of the bizarre, of make-believe, of the dark and macabre – all in the spirit of fun, of course.
"But," says David Kupelian, author of the popular new book, "The Marketing of Evil: How Radicals, Elitists, and Pseudo-Experts Sell Us Corruption Disguised as Freedom," "as usual, truth is stranger than fiction. While Halloween party-goers and 'trick or treaters' dress up to look 'mutilated' or 'bizarre,' countless Americans are caught up with real-life mutilation and beyond – outlandish practices stranger and darker than the most imaginative Halloween costumes."
What sorts of practices?
*Sex- Kupelian exposes how "there seem to be neither boundaries nor taboos anymore when it comes to sex. Anything goes – from heterosexual to homosexual to bi, trans-, poly-, and you-don't-want-to-know sexual experiences." One such sexual experience that pushes the extreme end of the envelope is "bug-chasing." "Very simply," writes Kupelian, "bug-chasers are people for whom getting infected with the AIDS virus is the ultimate sexual experience..."
*Body piercing has "progressed from traditional earrings for females, to earrings for males, to multiple piercings for both males and females in literally every part of the body – the tongue, nose, eyebrow, lip, cheek, navel, breasts/nipples, genitals – again, things you really don't want to know."
Self-mutilation, or "cutting" as it is commonly referred to. Countless young Americans, mostly girls, purposely cut their own bodies with razors and knives to obtain relief from emotional conflict.
*Tattooing and piercing are just the tip of the "body modification" iceberg. "Ritual scarification and 3D-art implants are big. So are genital beading, stretching and cutting, transdermal implants, scrotal implants, tooth art, and facial sculpture."
*Hanging from your skin by hooks Kupelian says "It's called 'suspension.' In literally any other context, this would be considered gruesome torture. But to many people who frequent suspension parties, it's a spiritual experience."
*Tongue-splitting is also considered by some to be a positive, spiritual experience. According to Body Modification Ezine, a major online "body mod" site: "The tongue is one of the most immense nervous structures in your body...when you dramatically alter its structure and free yourself of the physical boundaries your biology imposes, in some people it triggers a larger freeing on a spiritual level."
Kupelian argues that America is becoming increasingly a culture in love with death. "Bug-chasing," suspension, tongue-splitting, radical piercings and the like allow people to feel that they "are moving, not toward death, but toward life and greater 'spirituality,' a more unique and authentic sense of self. Somehow the ritual of pain and mutilation – or in extreme cases, death – drives out their awareness of inner conflict, replacing it with an illusion of freedom and selfhood."
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=47150
For those who buy into the argument that our Supreme Court should consider International law...
Open Season on Muslim Women
November 1, 2005 Can wife-beating be justified under any circumstances? According to some in Australia, yes — if the couple is Muslim.
The Australasian Police Multicultural Advisory Bureau has published and distributed an 82-page handbook for Australian police officers, directing them on how to deal with people from all the unfamiliar cultures that an Australian policeman may encounter. A Sikh, for example, may receive a three-day reprieve from arrest if the arresting officer happens upon him while he is reading his holy scriptures — a practice that takes fifty hours, and must not be interrupted. And Muslim husbands who beat their wives must be treated differently from other domestic violence cases, as a matter of cultural sensitivity: “In incidents such as domestic violence,” says the handbook, “police need to have an understanding of the traditions, ways of life and habits of Muslims.”
This handbook has been issued, not surprisingly, in Australia’s Victoria state, where late last year two Christian pastors in Australia fell victim to new and treacherously elastic religious hatred laws. They were found guilty of vilification of Muslims for crimes such as quoting verses of the Qur’an that Victoria Muslims evidently preferred that non-Muslims not know about...
...If Victoria police are to tolerate such behavior by Muslims on the grounds of multiculturalism, even though it contravenes Australian law, surely they must tolerate other behavior as well. After all, Islamic law also allows for polygamy. Western European governments already turn a blind eye to polygamous arrangements among Muslims, and the British have even considered legalizing polygamy for tax purposes.
...This backhanded endorsement of wife-beating in Australia has revealed in a harsh new light the bankruptcy of relativist multiculturalism. Is wife-beating intrinsically wrong? Evidently not in Victoria state. Indeed, it is doubtful that the learned members of the Australasian Police Multicultural Advisory Bureau think that moral categories have any relevance to the modern world. Yet if something that is endorsed by large numbers of people and ingrained in cultural habit cannot be condemned, then the Allies had no reason to oppose Nazi Germany or condemn Hitler. Murderous anti-Semitism? Well, yes, but you see, we need to have an understanding of the traditions, ways of life and habits of Nazis.
...the folly of Victoria state runs deeper also: it reveals a gaping weakness in the West’s defense against the global jihad: this is, or threatens to become, not so much a clash of civilizations as a clash of barbarisms. One side contends for certain values that are, in a word, monstrous: the subjugation of women and non-Muslims, the stifling of freedom of conscience, and so on. But the other contends for no values at all, and opposes this great maelstrom with nothing more than a moral and intellectual vacuum in which no behavior, no matter how heinous, is beyond the pale...
http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/Printable.asp?ID=20034
Remember Bonnie Prince Charlie lamenting how the U.S. is too hard on Islam and lacks understanding of Muslims?
Beheading of Christian Schoolgirls Sparks Concerns About Religious Strife
November 01, 2005 Indonesian security forces remained on high alert and religious leaders appealed for calm in the nation's Central Sulawesi province following the beheading of three Christian schoolgirls at the weekend...Saturday's grisly murders happened as a group of teenaged girls were walking through a cocoa plantation to their Christian high school near Poso...
Community leaders sought to downplay religion as a motivating factor in the crime, although observers noted that the severed head of one of the girls had been found several miles from the scene of the attack, outside a church...The timing of the attack may also be significant, coming just days before the end of Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month. Numerous previous attacks on Christians in Indonesia have occurred during Ramadan...
...Just last week a group called Indonesian Churches Together sent out an "SOS" message urging Christians around the world to pray for those in Indonesia facing an "escalation of terrorism, intimidation and persecution," the Assist news service reported.
...Another campaign group, International Christian Concern, argued that behind the violence in Indonesia lay the funding of radical mosques, imams and religious schools by Saudi Arabia.
"Although [Indonesian] Muslims and Christians had good relations for hundreds of years, since the advent of Saudi influence in Indonesian Islam there has been wave after wave of death and destruction," it said in a statement...http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewForeignBureaus.asp?Page=\ForeignBureaus\archive\200511\FOR20051101a.html
Factories keep growing; builders still enjoying boom
11/1/2005 The nation's manufacturing sector grew at a slightly slower pace during October, boosted by rising orders but feeling the strain of a continuing rise in raw materials prices.
Another report showed that construction spending set another record in September as the building industry continued to enjoy boom times.
The Institute for Supply Management said Tuesday that its manufacturing index was at 59.1, from September's 59.4.
The ISM's measure of costs, its prices index, rose to 84.0 in October from a reading of 78.0. New orders, a gauge of future activity, fell to 61.7 in October from 63.8, while employment rose to 55.0 from 53.1.
...The industry group said this was the 29th consecutive month in which manufacturing grew while the overall economy grew for the 48th consecutive month.
The Commerce Department said construction activity rose 0.5% to an all-time high of $1.12 trillion at a seasonally adjusted annual rate in September as builders took advantage of interest rates that are low by historical standards.
...The government reported Friday that the overall economy expanded at an annual rate of 3.8% in the July-September quarter. But analysts said growth would have been well above 4% without the drag caused by the hurricanes, which have cost more than a half-million jobs.
The 0.5% increase in construction spending in September followed strong gains of 0.6% in both August and July.
...Private construction rose by 0.6% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $871.5 billion with private residential building up an even stronger 1%, to $624.3 billion. Both the overall private construction figure and the residential activity were at all-time highs.
Both office construction and commercial buildings, a category that includes shopping centers, showed big gains in September...
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/production/2005-11-01-ism-construction_x.htm
Judge Removed From DeLay's Criminal Case
Nov 01 The judge in Rep. Tom DeLay's conspiracy case was removed at the congressman's request Tuesday because of his donations to Democratic candidates and causes (such as MoveOn.org). A new judge will be appointed to preside over the case.
DeLay's attorneys have cited 34 political contributions Perkins has made to Democrats since 2000, including donations to MoveOn.org, a liberal advocacy group that has waged a campaign against DeLay.
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/11/01/D8DJT11G1.html
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051101/ap_on_go_co/delay_indictment_4
The official U.S. government Web site for information on pandemic flu and avian influenza
http://pandemicflu.gov/
Smack the Penquin
Click to make the penguin jump and then click again in - time to make the guy swing the bat to hit the penguin across the ice! http://n.ethz.ch/student/mkos/pinguin.swf
Fishing License Indictment
By Thomas Sowell
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/Commentary/com-11_1_05_TS2.html
posted by David Bennett | 7:00 PM
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