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What Country Drinks the Most Wine?
Something I never think about! What country drinks the most wine. I like wine but it is not the drink of choice on a daily or even weekly basis here. And being here in Iowa? Withing 25 mile radius of where we live must be about 8 vineyards. So quite a lot of wine produced around here.
Vino anyone? It seems we have been drinking up — and often — as the U.S. has become the world’s biggest consumer of wine.
Statistics released at by Vinexpo and International Wine and Spirit Research (ISWR) showed the United States consumed the equivalent of 3.7 billion bottles of wine in 2011. Americans surpassed the traditional wine-guzzling nations: France, Italy, Spain, Austria, and Germany. China, which is one of the fastest growing markets, knocked England out of fifth place.
According to the New York Daily News, the ISWR predicts that over the next four years, the U.S. will increase its wine consumption by 10 percent. The wine industry is also keeping a close eye on China and Hong Kong. It is forecast that their combined consumption growth over that same period will reach 54 percent. But despite China’s population, the U.S. will remain the main market.
Per capita consumption is expected to jump as well. “By 2015, US consumers are expected to be drinking 13 liters per adult per year, while in China they should be drinking an average of 1.9 to 2.0 liters per adult,” reports the New York Daily News.
Not only are we drinking more wine, we’re drinking better quality wines. According to the report, sales of wine over $10 per bottle grew 14.7 percent. Robert Beynat, CEO of Vinexpo, told the New York Daily News, “Globally speaking, the world is — on average — drinking more and better.”
From HERE.
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As someone who has been in hospitals for various ailments and operations, and knowing a heck of a lot of our family and friend who have been in a hospital, I know that it does cost! But damn, if I got a bill like this? I would be foaming at the mouth and possibly end back in the hospital with a heart attack or something.
Patients don’t normally get sick once they’ve returned home from the hospital, but one New York resident said he almost became ill when he received a whopping $44.8 million bill from the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center.
Read the STORY.
And who in the world would buy an action Steve Jobs doll? I mean really! Sure there is a market for this, but what sane person would still buy one?
Remember the incredibly realistic (and incredibly unofficial) Steve Jobs action figure that was supposed to become available in February? The one that Apple tried to ban by making legal threats?
That action figure has officially been canceled by its maker.
Read HERE.
…House Republicans on Wednesday are expected to vote to disapprove a request by President Obama to add $1.2 trillion to the $15.2 trillion federal debt, giving them a chance to highlight large deficits under the president’s tenure.
The fight against raising the debt limit — led by House conservatives this week — should be short but far from sweet.
The House Rules Committee is expected to start the festivities on Tuesday leading into what will likely be a heated debate by Republicans who are angry that their leadership didn’t extract deeper cuts in an August debt-ceiling deal.
Conservative GOP members such as Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) said they will take to the House floor to express dissatisfaction for making concessions in the summer debate.
Read the article here.
(but you and I know, the senate will go along with Obama as he will just take the damn money with or without congress approval. He and his liberal minions have said so!)
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This I have go to see!
Obama has signaled in recent weeks that he plans to run a populist reelection campaign. He will need to keep liberal activist and labor groups — important parts of the Democratic base — energized for his strategy to work.
In his first three years, Obama had a free hand to suggest spending levels for government programs in his annual budget blueprint. But that is not the case this year because the administration is constrained by the budget deal reached in August to raise the debt limit.
He must stick to the $1.047 trillion spending cap he agreed to with GOP leaders, which means he will call for less discretionary spending than he did last year.
Senior administration officials fear a backlash from the left and are trying to prepare their allies to expect a disappointing budget, sources say.
“A senior White House person said we weren’t going to be happy with the budget, but they’re doing the best they can” given the spending caps set by the 2011 Budget Control Act, said one source.
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Newsweek’s malicious smear of Mrs. Santorum
Another Hollywood Actress Flacks for Planned Parenthood
‘Occupy Congress’ protest planned as lawmakers return
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Something everyone should seriously think on:
And words of truth from Rep. Allen West, R-Fla. This is great stuff.
Rep. Allen West, R-Fla., charged President Obama with “fomenting racism” in his reelection efforts, noting also that Obama is a “literal manifestation” of how Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement succeeded.
“With all of this progress, why is it that we continue to hear charges of racism emanating from the left, and most disturbingly, from the White House itself?” West said in a statement today. “It seems anytime there is criticism of the President or any of his black members of his administration, such as Attorney General Eric Holder, that criticism is decried as racist.” West recalled, in particular, that Holder has claimed some of his critics following Operation Fast and Furious were motivated by racial animus.
West said that “this [2012] campaign must be about ideas, policy and the direction of this country, and the President must not hide behind a curtain of so-called racial bias.”
He concluded by suggesting that Dr. King would be “devastated” by Obama’s handling of racial issues as president:
“My message to President Obama is this: ‘Mr. President, your very in office demonstrates Dr. King’s dream has indeed come true. But how devastated would Dr. King be to know the Americans who are still fomenting racism at the highest levels are the very people for whom he fought for and died?”
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YouTube censors Palestinian Media Watch. AGAIN!
At YouTube, truth is considered hate speech. In response to yesterday’s video bulletin which showed the Palestinian Authority Mufti’s speech that Muslims’ destiny is to kill Jews, YouTube has frozen PMW’s account for the next two weeks.
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And this is just sick! I wonder how much of our tax dollars goes to support this shit in other countries that Planned Parenthood is operating in?
In its strategic plan for the Africa Region for 2010 to 2015, the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) states that it is working toward an 82 percent increase in abortion services.
That number is in Figure 2, the “performance framework” of the plan (page 7), under “performance milestones/benchmarks” and notes its expectation of an “82 percent increase in abortion services: 212,021 services by 2013, and 273,656 by 2015.”
CNSNews.com asked Paul Bell, senior communication officer with IPPF based in the United Kingdom, a series of questions about the group’s strategic plan, including whether the 82 percent increase and the more than a quarter million “abortion services” projected by 2015 represent abortion specifically or abortion and other services.
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This is just a very idiotic and pathetic asshole….
Attorney General Eric Holder gave a speech ostensibly honoring Martin Luther King Jr., but Holder’s comments also echoed reelection themes that President Obama cites when he alludes to the civil rights leader.
“[Martin Luther King Jr.] proved that — here in America — large-scale, sweeping, righteous change is not impossible,” Holder told a South Carolina audience, according to prepared remarks. “It is not too audacious,” he added, in an apparent allusion to Obama’s campaign theme and book title. “It is not too ambitious. And it is not the province of God alone.”
Moments later, Holder praised Dr. King in terms that seemed to exhort Obama’s supporters not to be disappointed in the president. “But one of the most important lessons that Dr. King left to us is that it is acceptable to be frustrated,” he said. “It is fine to be impatient. And, when progress does not come quickly or fully, it is only natural to be dissatisfied. In fact, being frustrated, impatient and dissatisfied is fine — but only if those feelings compel us to take action.”
President Obama took a similar tack last year when asking supporters at a Congressional Black Caucus rally to keep faith in him. “Progress often takes time. . . It’s never easy,” the president said at the time. “And I never promised easy. Easy has never been promised to us. But we’ve had faith. We have had faith. We’ve had that good kind of crazy that says, you can’t stop marching.”
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MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow is the president’s favorite media hack, judging from official White House visitors log records.
The liberal talking head has been cleared to enter the White House seven times. During three of those visits, she met with President Barack Obama in his residence or in the West Wing, usually for TV interviews.
She was also cleared to attend a holiday reception, and to sit down for a discussion with Robert Gibbs while he was the White House press secretary.
Another record reflects her attendance at a “Biden Beach Boardwalk Bash” last September. The visitors logs offer no mention of whether she got to drive the Veep’s Camaro, however.
One of her personal visits with Obama was part of a December 2010 cattle call with other left-wing journalists including E.J. Dionne, Eugene Robinson, Ed Schultz, Frank Rich, Ezra Klein and Arianna Huffington.
But two solo visits with the president is impressive for an MSNBC host with a weeknight audience of 1 million people. That’s half as many as the number who watch Fox, but twice as many as the competing audience watching CNN.
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And this is what is wrong with all those flaming idiotic liberals in Europe! Britain should just tell the rest of Europe, “screw you, we are deporting this asshole to a country of your choosing, like say Germany.
A hate cleric described as Osama bin Laden’s right-hand man in Europe could be released in months after a court ruled he could not be deported from the UK.
In a blow to British government, radical Muslim, Abu Qatada was told by the European Court of Human Rights he would not have to go back to Jordan where he has been convicted of terror charges in his absence and may even walk free some time in the spring.
The UK now has three months in which to appeal against the ruling, but if the government does not do this, Qatada — once described as ‘a truly dangerous individual’ — could walk free.
This is because he is not currently facing trial in Britain and has not been convicted in accordance with UK law..
European judges ruled that he could not be deported because ‘there remains a real risk that evidence obtained by torture will be used against him’ and he would not receive a fair trial.
Qatada is an iconic figure for many supporters of Jihad and today’s ECHR decision flies in the face of UK law Lords who ruled almost three years ago that he could be sent back to Jordan.
It is the first time the Strasbourg-based court has found that an expulsion would be in violation of the right to a fair trial.
Home Secretary Theresa May said she was ‘disappointed’ but it was ‘not the end of the road’ and Qatada would remain in prison while ‘all the legal options’ are considered.
Justice Dept. rejects South Carolina voter ID law, calling it discriminatory
One would think that these two liberal nuts would go with the majority of Americans when it comes to vote id. But no, they are on a mission to ruin our country to allow all illegals to vote, drive, get money from the government, and more. The two men above should be removed from office ASAP!
The Justice Department on Friday entered the divisive national debate over new state voting laws, rejecting South Carolina’s measure requiring photo-identification at the polls as discriminatory against minority voters.
The decision by Justice’s Civil Rights Division could heighten political tensions over the new laws, which critics say could depress turnout among minorities and others who helped elect President Obama in 2008. A dozen states this year passed laws requiring voters to present state-issued photo identification, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Although Democratic governors vetoed four of the measures, liberal and civil rights groups have raised alarms about the remaining laws. Opponents of the laws say they would discriminate against minorities and others, such as low-income voters, because some don’t have the necessary photo identification and lack the means to easily obtain ID cards.
Under the 1965 Voting Rights Act, several of the states that enacted voter-identification laws are required to receive federal “pre-clearance” to ensure that the changes don’t affect minority political power.
In its first decision on one of those new measures, the Justice Department said Friday that South Carolina’s law will discriminate against minority voters, though the department declined to take a position on whether the alleged discrimination was intentional. The law, passed in May and signed by Gov. Nikki Haley (R), requires voters to show a driver’s license or one of several other forms of photo identification.
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UNESCO says won’t fund Palestinian magazine praising Hitler
After children’s magazine publishes article on girl’s dream in which Hitler tells her ‘Jews spread destruction all over the world,’ cultural agency’s director tells Abbas membership means ‘sharing values of tolerance, respect for others’
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization announced it would pull funding for a Palestinian children’s magazine due to anti-Semitic content.
The magazine, Zayzafouna, published an article in February written by a teenage girl who presented four role models: a medieval Persian mathematician, a modern Egyptian novelist, the Muslim warrior Saladin, and Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
In the article, the author has Hitler telling her in a dream that he killed Jews “so you would all know that they are a nation which spreads destruction all over the world.” He advises her to be “resilient and patient concerning the suffering that Palestine is experiencing at their hands.”
“Thanks for the advice,” the narrator responds.
UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that “membership of UNESCO goes beyond raising the flag” at the organization’s headquarters. “It means sharing values – the values of tolerance, respect for others,” she said. UNESCO member states voted to accept the PA as a member in October.
Read it all HERE.
(hey, this is the UN, so I am sure some part of it will continue giving the magazine money)
One of the perks of being Santa.
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The Christmas story offers important lessons about Christian motherhood and vital lessons on fatherhood.
The Christmas narratives of Jesus’ conception, birth and infancy found in the Books of Matthew and Luke are generally read in church and Sunday school lessons each season. Joseph Parker, who pastors African Methodist Episcopal (AME) churches in the South, points to Matthew 1 and 2 for insight into fatherhood, then and now.
The man appointed as the human father of Jesus was Joseph, who Parker notes was in a difficult position for a father in his time because of his betrothal to Mary, who was carrying the baby Jesus, the Son of God. However, Parker points out that Joseph’s role was very meaningful and crucial to God’s plan.
“God is able to use Joseph in some very powerful ways,” Parker explains. “Joseph listens to God for himself and on behalf of his family — and as he hears from God, he obeys. He guides his family. He protects his family. He watches over his family. He’s a role model for his family as well.
“And so God didn’t need to send a million angels to protect Jesus,” the pastor comments. “All he needed was one faithful father who would hear from God and do what God told him. That’s all God needed to protect the Messiah of the world.”
In just these two chapters out of the entire Bible, Parker believes this aspect of the Christmas story details vital lessons to guide today’s fathers.
As for a model of motherhood, Parker suggests people read Luke 1 and 2 with the understanding that Luke is a doctor. So the details with which Luke shares about pregnancy for both Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, and Mary, the mother of Jesus, come alive from that perspective.
Read the article here.
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If nothing else, Joe Biden got the attention of the Afghan insurgents. “Look,” the U.S. vice president tells Newsweek’s Leslie H. Gelb in the magazine’s latest issue, “the Taliban per se is not our enemy“. That’s critical. There is not a single statement that the president has ever made in any of our policy assertions that the Taliban is our enemy because it threatens U.S. interests.” Active and former members of the group’s senior leadership have one question: why didn’t the White House say so sooner?
Even now, after a decade of fighting the Americans, the group’s leaders tend to say they have nothing against the United States as a country—although they remain as committed as ever to resisting the U.S. occupation of their homeland. “We are not natural enemies of each other,” says Khazi Habibullah Fauzi, who served as the Taliban’s charge d’affaires in Saudi Arabia before the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. “We became enemies because of an external factor—namely Osama bin Laden, who was not an Afghan. Now he is gone, and the Taliban have little or nothing to do with Al Qaeda.” [...]
But not surprisingly the Taliban are also deeply embittered by Biden’s statement. “Biden is talking both sense and nonsense — if we are not your enemies, then what are you doing in Afghanistan?” the operative complains. “Is this some kind of joke, to say we are not your enemy after you occupy our country, imprison us in cages and kill tens of thousands of our people? We didn’t invite you here, and we never wanted to become your enemy.”
Taliban fighters in the field take an even tougher stance. “When I first heard the statement I laughed,” says a 30ish Taliban subcommander from southern Afghanistan. “I wondered if this was an American joke.” He and others are far from ready to forgive and forget. “You are only saying we are not enemies now because we have put up such a strong and unbeatable resistance,” the subcommander says. “Before 9/11, I didn’t hate America, But after ten years of war, after the bombings and atrocities, I now think the U.S. is enemy No. 1. And I’m proud to say that.”
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Now what is going on here? Raffles, illegal donations, what? Is this even legal by federal law? How come the Justice Dept. is not investigating this? Oh, that is so dumb, the DOJ is linked to Obama’s asshole. He farts, they yell Racism!
(Fox News) — Actress Eva Longoria says she will have dinner and an “intimate conversation” on how to help U.S. President Barack Obama win reelection in 2012 with the winners of a raffle which people can enter by making at least a small contribution to his reelection campaign.
Longoria discussed her dinner pledge in an email sent out on Thursday by Obama’s reelection campaign to millions of Democratic voters nationwide within the framework of the president’s fundraising drive for the 2012 contest.
“In 2008, like so many of you, I dedicated a lot of my time to help Barack Obama win the presidency,” the message begins.
“Now, with 2012 around the corner, I wanted to get ready for the next election by sitting down for an intimate conversation with supporters like you to talk politics and the role we’ll play to win the 2012 election,” Longoria says.
The only condition for qualifying to be in the running to win the dinner with the star of the popular television series “Desperate Housewives” is to donate $3 or “whatever you can” to Obama’s reelection campaign.
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So what are the brits going to do about these people?
LONDON (AP) — Britain’s international development minister says there are now more people from the UK training for terrorism in camps in Somalia than anywhere else in the world.
Andrew Mitchell said Thursday that Somalia poses a major threat, which may now be greater than the risks once posed by camps in Pakistan’s border regions.
Mitchell said “there are probably more British passport-holders engaged in terrorist training in Somalia than in any other country in the world.”
It follows warnings from the heads of Britain’s spy agencies about Britons training alongside Al-Shabab militants in Somalia.
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WTF? Spend our tax dollars overseas to fund abortions? This is wrong on so many levels! These democrats are stupid and should be voted out!
Democrats in the House have written a new letter to pro-abortion President Barack Obama urging him to do more to spend taxpayer funds on paying for abortions in foreign countries and promoting abortion counseling.
The Democrats say they believe the Obama administration is too literally applying the Helms Amendment, which prohibits direct taxpayer funding of abortions in foreign countries using taxpayer-funded foreign aid. The liberal members of the House want the Obama administration to review the amendment and funding to determine if abortion counseling, information and abortions themselves can be legally paid for under a looser interpretation of the law.
“We are concerned that improper implementation of current foreign-assistance restrictions may be impeding our ability to provide even more effective and life-saving information and services,” they wrote in the letter, which The Hill obtained. “In particular, we are concerned that the Helms Amendment — which restricts but does not prohibit abortion funding — is being implemented as though it were an absolute ban.”
Note to all: Do not watch television programs that show you from start to finish how sausage, lunch meat, cat food and dog food, and other food items are made. Watching one now where they take WHOLE FISH of all sorts. Then puree the entire mess. Geesh….and then it ends up in various food products we eat.