The ◊ Pantheon ◊ Journal

Norman Borlaug - the greatest hero you've never heard of.

noreply@blogger.com (Baker Family) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 18:06:00 +0000

How many people have saved 1 billion lives and have NOT become a household name?

Read about this amazing American who spent his life teaching the world to grow better crops, thus feeding themselves, thus circumventing the scenario where places like India wouldn't be able to feed themselves.

Read the full article at the WSJ.

Highlights:

The very personification of human goodness, Borlaug saved more lives than anyone who has ever lived. He was America's Albert Schweitzer: a brilliant man who forsook privilege and riches in order to help the dispossessed of distant lands. That this great man and benefactor to humanity died little-known in his own country speaks volumes about the superficiality of modern American culture.

In 1999, the Atlantic Monthly estimated that Borlaug's efforts combined with those of the many developing-world agriculture-extension agents he trained and the crop-research facilities he founded in poor nations saved the lives of one billion human beings.

Borlaug told me a decade ago that most Western environmentalists "have never experienced the physical sensation of hunger. They do their lobbying from comfortable office suites in Washington or Brussels. If they lived just one month amid the misery of the developing world, as I have for 50 years, they'd be crying out for tractors and fertilizer and irrigation canals and be outraged that fashionable elitists in wealthy nations were trying to deny them these things."

"Without high-yield agriculture," Borlaug said, "increases in food output would have been realized through drastic expansion of acres under cultivation, losses of pristine land a hundred times greater than all losses to urban and suburban expansion."

Caught Lying About His True Goals

noreply@blogger.com (Baker Family) — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 16:42:00 +0000

Random Map Posting: Europe

noreply@blogger.com (Baker Family) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 06:27:00 +0000

Another random map posting. Just cuz' I feels like it...

Quote of The Day: VDH on BHO

noreply@blogger.com (Baker Family) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 05:35:00 +0000

President Obama apparently cannot say, “Americans — each time you have a child out of wedlock, each time you take an illicit drug, each time you break the law or go to jail, each time you romanticize brutality rather than honor scholarship, each time you allege the racism of the others rather than look into your own soul, you do your own small part in ensuring that we might not educate your child as we should — no matter how many thousands of dollars we lavish upon him.”
- Victor Davis Hanson

Full article here.

Mount Porkulus: Ode To A Trillion Dollars

noreply@blogger.com (Baker Family) — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 07:20:00 +0000

$1,000,000,000,000.00

In Honor of the new "stimulus" bill, we hereby dedicate Mount Porkulus to the 111th congress.

The picture above, Mount Porkulus, is the great big pile of money your great-grandkids owe the federal government.

Here is an interesting link, when NPR cared much more about how much a trillion actually is (during the Bush years). Now that their man is in office, I'm thinking they're not as interested in the subject...
It's an interview with David Schwartz, whoever that is. He likes numbers.

From the interview:
- A trillion seconds is 32,000 years.
- A trillion dollars worth of One-Hundred-dollar bills compressed and stacked up on top of each other is about 789 miles high (144 Mount Everests)
- 10 to the 73rd power is the estimated number of atoms in the universe. Not sure how to use that one. But I will type out 10 with 73 zeros here for you:
100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
- A"googol" is a 1 with 100 zeros behind it. I'm not going to type that out for you.

Lastly, here at The Pantheon Journal we decided to make it easier for you to print your own cash, just like the government will do to manage this new debt load. And what a load it is.
Get a head start and print your own inflating currency, while a buck still buys something...

Reading from right to left...

noreply@blogger.com (Baker Family) — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 06:58:00 +0000

Whoa, Hebrew web sites are a trip to look at.

This is the home page of the far-right political party in Israel, "Israel Beytenu", which means, "Israel is our home."
This party may have won 15 seats in the recent elections, making them the third most powerful party in Israel, and likely catapulting them to a place of critical importance, since coalitions have to be formed in Israel's government.

Doctor's Staff in Florida May Have Committed Murder

noreply@blogger.com (Baker Family) — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 06:42:00 +0000

We incessantly hear about "back alley abortions" and "coat hanger" whenever there is an article on the legality of abortion.

But how often does Big Media trumpet the other side of that equation? The lives lost in botched abortions already.

This story is so sickening I can scarcely believe it's even true. If this indeed did happen, it is murder, pure and simple.

Buffalo News reports on Florida Dr. whose office allegedly killed baby after botched abortion.

Awe and Sadness: Fire in Victoria

noreply@blogger.com (Baker Family) — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 06:18:00 +0000

Some pics from the incredible and ravaging fire in Victoria, Australia...

Click on any pic to make it bigger.

Some astonishing pics here as well, at The Boston Globe.

World Map

noreply@blogger.com (Baker Family) — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 05:33:00 +0000

I just feel like posting a world map...

Warning: This is a 1:1 scale drawing. Do Not Print. Unless you have a lot of paper.

Tekapo, New Zealand

noreply@blogger.com (Baker Family) — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 05:15:00 +0000

Wow, is this place amazingly beautiful...

Tekapo New Zealand...

No lights nearby means lots of stars at night...

And the same Church of the Good Shepherd during the day....

And, one of the best Porsche pictures you'll ever see, taken near the same place...

Click on the map below to go to the Wiki site:

And lastly, some very nice photos on Flickr, here.

And Now A Word From Our Sponsor

noreply@blogger.com (Baker Family) — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 07:43:00 +0000

Well, not "sponsor" so much as "butt kicker".

I actually had no idea that the F22 Raptor was combat-ready, in production, and deployed (well only a few of them it seems).

This is the next-generation fighter-bomber aircraft...

Length 62 ft / 18.90 m
Height 16.7 ft / 5.09 m
Wingspan 44.5 ft / 13.56 m
Wing area 840 sq ft / 78.04 sq m
Horizontal tail span 29 ft / 8.84 m
Weight empty 43,340 lb /19,700 kg
Maximum take-off weight 83,500 lb / 38,000 kg
Internal fuel 18,000 lb / 8,200 kg
with two external wing tanks 26,000 lb / 11,900 kg
Speed Mach 2 class
Range* > 1,600 n. mi
Power plant Two F119-PW-100 turbofan engines with two-dimensional thrust vectoring nozzles
Engine thrust 35,000 lb / 15,876 kg

Geek out here, at the F22 website. Probably that first military aircraft to have its own website.

Your Tax Dollars At Work: Aborting Babies Overseas...

noreply@blogger.com (Baker Family) — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 07:23:00 +0000

Almost two thirds of Americans don't want their tax dollars given to overseas organizations that provide abortions.

Yet that's what "centrists" presidents Clinton and now Obama have done and are doing, respectively.

That's right - the government takes a small percentage of what we all pay in taxes and that goes to abort babies in foreign countries. Just one of the many consequences of voting this man into office. I'll let you think about that one if you voted for him. I didn't.

Quotes from Gallup:

Further, Obama's decision to reverse the prohibition on funding for overseas family-planning providers may be the least popular thing he has done so far. This was an executive order that forbade federal government money from going to overseas family-planning groups that provide abortions or offer abortion counseling. Fifty-eight percent of Americans disapprove of Obama's decision to lift this ban, while only 35% approve of it. The ban on federal funds to these groups was put in place by Ronald Reagan, but lifted by Bill Clinton. George W. Bush re-instituted the ban after taking office in 2001, but Obama has once again lifted it.

Full story here.

The Daschle For The Exits

noreply@blogger.com (Baker Family) — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 06:34:00 +0000

Those nominees of the Obama administration are dropping like flies. Democrats excel at creating massive burdens of tax laws. Less so talented are they at following the laws they create.

This is a great quote that says it all, from Breibart (full story here)...

In a letter released Monday, Daschle sought to explain how he overlooked taxes on income for consulting work and the use of a car service. He also deducted more in charitable contributions than he should have. He also met with Senate Finance Committee members behind closed doors.

"It was completely inadvertent..."

I'm not so offended by a Democrat like Daschle - who led the democrats in the Senate, and was therefore one of the most powerful men on earth - would abuse the public trust by writing complicated and punitive tax laws, and then turning around and breaking those laws.

I'm more offended by the "oh, it was inadvertent" crap. And the red glasses. Those just have to go. Red glasses???? Were they a prize from that morning's breakfast cereal?

Apple's GarageBand

noreply@blogger.com (Baker Family) — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 07:34:00 +0000

We've reported on the new Wheel, tongue-in-cheeky-cheek...
Apple's New Wheel - you'll love it.

But this, this is actually a real product we're reporting here...

Or go to Apple's site and check out all of the iLife tutorial videos.
Very cool!

Cal Politics

noreply@blogger.com (Baker Family) — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 07:30:00 +0000

What can ya say....

From..
http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/ramirez/ramirez.htm

Israeli Defense Video: Hamas Intelligence Map

noreply@blogger.com (Baker Family) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 07:48:00 +0000

Very interesting video. I love this kind of stuff, because Big Media here in the states will never explain or expose much. This way, you can get direct info.

Still, it's so strange, this PR War. Always the PR War. This guy in the video is obviously a perfect-english-speaking PR guy. A little to animated about this whole thing.

Still, the video shows you the craven nature of these terrorists...

Apple's New Wheel

noreply@blogger.com (Baker Family) — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 06:47:00 +0000

This is just too funny not to post....

Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard

Gaza Rockets Slam Into Israeli Kindergarten...

noreply@blogger.com (Baker Family) — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 05:18:00 +0000

Could there be a clearer example of the differences between Israel and the psychos that control the Gaza strip?

The JPost reports that rockets launched by the terrorists of Hamas, from Gaza, landed on an Israeli kindergarten school.

The school was empty, due to a directive to keep the kids out of school - either from the Gaza rocket attacks, of which there have been thousands, or the Israeli military action in the strip.

So take note of something the media will not point out to you - Israel protects their kids and moves them away from danger. And today that saved the lives of who knows how many little ones from this random rocket attack.

But in Gaza, Hamas intentionally uses children as shields and sacrifices for propaganda. A dead child is worth a lot when world media will broadcast the image unceasingly around the globe. One of the top Hamas leaders who was recently killed had turned his home into a bomb and rocket-making factory. With all his wives and children still there in the house, apparently.

Israel aims their advanced weapons at Hamas targets. Hamas wantonly blasts rockets into Israeli territory hoping for any kill.

So think of that when you hear all the moral equivalence regarding Hamas and Israel and all the "disproportionate response" talk. If random rockets were raining down on your own city - on your own kids - how would you respond?

And we close with those wonderful, brave men of Hamas, launching rockets right in front of a boy's school...

The English Know How To Party

noreply@blogger.com (Baker Family) — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 04:12:00 +0000

Welcome to 2009!!!!

Let's kick it off with those crazy brits, who simply drank and fought way too much for their new year's celebration...

At points in the night, an emergency call was received every 7 seconds. I love this quote:

"Booze contributed to time-wasting calls to 999 operators too, with one man calling to ask if New York was in America, and what time it was there."

Full story here: Boozy Britain's bloody New Year: A 999 call every seven seconds in alcohol-induced mayhem

Not Your Average Rockets Red Glare

noreply@blogger.com (Baker Family) — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 06:00:00 +0000

Rocket launch from Gaza, aimed at Israeli civilians.

Imagine living in a tiny strip of land, where some parts are only about 10 miles wide.

Then imagine in the part where you do have a lot of space, raving lunatics shoot off randomly targeted semi-pro rockets at you. One or two of you might die every once in a while. But you'll have to head inside in case there is a barrage coming.

How long would you put up with that? For those psychos that are bombing you - would you want to provide them with electricity? Water? Imports to let their economy run so they can build more rockets and buy more machine guns? Again, these madmen live only miles away from you, sometimes not even behind a big cement wall. (Israel does just that - provides electricity, water, and allows Gaza to carry on commerce with the outside.)

Visualize this - you are the small blue part below inside California.

And all of the rest of California wants you out of that blue part.
And, even inside the blue part there are vast swaths where those enemies live.
In the rest of the blue part, one in five or so of the citizens are friends with those who want to kick you out. Not exactly comfy. And all that yellow California part are states controlled by dictators, proxies for Iran (who wants you wiped off the map), and outright terrorist-controlled countries. 30 years ago they tried to wipe you out - not politically. Really. As in all of you dead, and all of 'we' take your land.

Such is the state of Israel today.

Zippy The Foregin Minister Speaks

noreply@blogger.com (Baker Family) — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 05:40:00 +0000

And she's livid...

actually, she's so boring you don't even need to watch it.

Sorry for the stupid name puns.

But why is it liberal governments, like that which currently runs Israel, just love bombing? Sending in the troops they can't stand - but bombs? You betcha. Remember Clinton and his bomb-lobbing at Al-Qeada camps? Several donkeys were injured. Then he bombed Sarajevo in the Balkans war.

Israel in 2006 bombed everything in sight during their war against Hezbollah. They crippled Lebanon but not Hezbollah, turning world opinion radically against them. Then the Olmert government lamely and belatedly sent in ground troops - a few miles or so into Lebanon.

Troops, no. Bombs, yes.

How many more targets can there possibly be in the backwards and tiny Gaza strip?

I'm all for Israel defending itself. But I seem to recall that when Israel actually occupied the Gaza strip and regularly conducted ground raids, there were no suicide bombers, nor Hamas, the terrorist organization that rules Gaza, nor the need to bomb everything.

Let's get the real men and women back in control in Israel, the ones who can deal with terror as it warrants.

Terrorists in Gaza have been shooting rockets nonstop for years. Why all the bombing now? Could it be their upcoming election, with political opponent Bibi Netanyahu knocking at the door? This massive bombing right before an election smacks of cowardice and craven politics over real action.

You Know...

noreply@blogger.com (Baker Family) — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 05:01:00 +0000

This is, you know, that Kennedy, who wants Hillary's, you know, Senate seat. I say auction to the highest bidder in that great, you know, Democratic Party tradition.

"I'm really coming into this as somebody who isn't, you know, part of the system, who obviously, you know, stands for the values of, you know, the Democratic Party," Kennedy told the Daily News Saturday during a wide-ranging interview.
"I know how important it is to, you know, to be my own person. And, you know, and that would be obviously true with my relationship with the mayor."
- Caroline, You Know, Kennedy

Full, you know, story, uh, you know, here.

Huge Raid In Gaza Strip: Israel Rains Down Bombs

noreply@blogger.com (Baker Family) — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 17:29:00 +0000

Full story here at the Jerusalem Post....

Funny how when Israel decides, once in a while, to defend itself, suddenly there calls for "restraint". And no one in the press can figure out who actually "broke the truce". You, know that 6-month cease-fire kind of truce where the Gazans rained down rockets in southern Israel every week. You, know, that kind of truce. That's the "truce" that the Israelis let expire.
And now the bombs begin.

It's very sad, because a lot of lives are in hell right now.

But this problem is easily solvable if all the Palestinian Arabs want is some land. But they don't, they want the annihilation of Israel. That one's pretty much impossible to solve. Even if Iran puts a nuke off the coast of Israel they won't cease to exist and just go away.

It seems we'll just continue in this cycle of violence, then fake peace talks, until the Arabs decide that peace is the only route and Israel has right to exist. Sad.

Awesome Weather Pix

noreply@blogger.com (Baker Family) — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 07:18:00 +0000

From Weather Underground...

... no, not that Bill Ayers' terrorist friend-of-Obama thing..

The Pelosi Man's Kind of Car...

noreply@blogger.com (Baker Family) — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 05:45:00 +0000

From the inimitable Iohawk...

Congressional Motors brings you...