March 22, 2011

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty - T-Paw - makes it officially almost official - he's the first to throw his hat into the presidential campaign ring by announcing a presidential exploratory committee.  The announcement came in the form of a video that The Blaze called "epic."  I wouldn't go that far, but concede that it's professional and very well done.  This is no amateurish "I am not a witch" video:

American Thinker reports on Pawlenty's connection to the Evangelical community and support for Israel:


American Thinker Blog: Pawlenty, the Presidential Campaign, and the Evangelicals:

"Mary Pawlenty is an evangelical Christian and her husband joined her church in the mid-1980s when they married.  The evangelical Christian community are strong supporters of the America-Israel relationship for a wide variety of reasons (having nothing to do with end-time scenarios).

But the church they attend, Wooddale Church, is not your just-down the road church.  Wooddale is an influential evangelical mega church. The Pawlentys were married by Leith Anderson,  a senior pastor at the church since 1977. However, Anderson is far more than a senior pastor. He is also the long-time president of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), an organization that represents more than 30 million American evangelicals.

LifeNews shares some of Pawlenty's life-affirming policies:


Governor Tim Pawlenty Presses Pro-Life Issues in Iowa Speech | LifeNews.com: 

"Pawlenty crafted a strong pro-life record as governor of Minnesota that will appeal to GOP voters in early primary and caucus states like Iowa, South Carolina and Florida. He named Eric Magnuson, an attorney who has worked with pro-life groups, the Chief Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court and told Minnesota agencies to reject Obamacare, which could fund abortions.

Pawlenty also signed into law the Positive Alternatives program passed by the state legislature in 2005 with the support of pro-life groups. The law, which provides state funding for pregnancy centers that help women with pregnancy support and abortion alternatives, has already proven successful in lowering the number of abortions.

The Minnesota Department of Health shows 13,037 women received services from the Positive Alternatives grant during the second grant cycle of the program, running from July 2008 through June 2010. More than 12,000 pregnant women were helped during the first two-year grant cycle, July 2006-June 2008. The Pawlenty-supported positive alternatives program is credited with dropping Minnesota abortions, in 2009, to the lowest point since 1975.

In April 2010, Pawlenty declared the month as Abortion Recovery/Awareness Month to help women negatively affected by their abortions. Pawlenty also pleased pro-life advocates on bioethics issues by vetoing the Kahn-Cohen Cloning Bill in May 2008, which would have legalized human cloning and forced taxpayers to pay for the destruction of human life. He also signed, in May 2009, a bill to ban taxpayer funding of human cloning."

Newsweek asks, "How dumb are we?"  They gave 1000 people a citizenship test - 38% failed. 

"When NEWSWEEK recently asked 1,000 U.S. citizens to take America’s official citizenship test, 29 percent couldn’t name the vice president. Seventy-three percent couldn’t correctly say why we fought the Cold War. Forty-four percent were unable to define the Bill of Rights. And 6 percent couldn’t even circle Independence Day on a calendar."

 

How'd you do?  I was relieved to get 100%.  : )


UPDATE: I am smarter than a Hillsdale College student.  Just sayin' 

Arlington lawmaker's bill would protect questioners of evolution | Star Telegram:

 "An Arlington lawmaker has filed a bill aimed at protecting Texas college professors and students from discrimination because they question evolution.

The measure from Republican state Rep. Bill Zedler would block higher education institutions from discriminating against or penalizing teachers or students based on their research into intelligent design or other theories that disagree with evolution.
Zedler said he filed the bill because of cases in which colleges had been hostile to those who believe that certain features of life-forms are so complex that they must have originated from a higher power.

'We can have the academic freedom to have all kinds of ideas and philosophies but, lo and behold, even mention intelligent design and there are people that want to run you out of town on a rail,' Zedler said."

This should be entertaining to watch. Those who get their knickers in a twist and go to to Def-Con-4  when someone questions the doctrine of macro-evolution will be falling all over themselves to paint their opponents as knuckle-dragging morons - ironically, demonstrating the need for this bill.  At the Mother Jones blog an interview with Rep. Bill Zedler is recounted and then mocked and ridiculed in the combox.  Here are a couple comments from our "tolerant" friends: 

"We should discriminate against crazy ideas like these, and often. We used to. Not too long ago people like Zedler were viewed as nutcases, like the people in wool caps who stand on street corners drooling and shouting about UFOs."

"As for Creationism, it ends at its premise, as there is no evidence supporting Creationism, and we shouldn't be in the business of protecting the willfully ignorant or the blatantly stupid...regardless of whom they choose as their imaginary savior." 

Finally, on the heels of our annual county septic inspection....