Good morning.

1. Chicago, home of our President, on top?
2. Perceptions and realities, part one.
3. Another here.
4. Somebody somewhere very confused as to how an infusion of hundreds of billions of (free) taxpayer dollars might help your company.
5. Child abuse and cover-up.
6. Faith healing.
7. Not a socialist … so what is someone who thinks controlling for excess profits is part of normal ordinary market methods?
8. FOX for racist lowlifes (on the right)? We’ll be waiting for his “MSNBC for bigoted lowlifes” link.
9. Speaking of bigots … I found this quote interesting ” Tebow is a theocrat, so reasonable people – even including other believers – find him to be an odious, thick-skulled ass” … uhm, exactly how/why do you come to the conclusion that Mr Tebow is a theocrat? Point to one quote actually from him that lends any credence to that statement, or perhaps “odious thick-skulled” might apply better to the blogger not the football player.
10. Oil and recession.
11. Pattern and predator.

‘God help anyone who would …get in the way of TBN’
This is truly scary stuff. From the OC Register,

We told you last week that the granddaughter of Trinity Broadcasting Network’s Paul and Jan Crouch has accused the world’s largest Christian broadcaster of unlawfully distributing charitable assets worth more than $50 million to the company’s directors.

…

On Thursday, Feb. 9 — the same day that our story ran online — Paul Crouch and his son, Matt, were having a live chat on TBN’s “Behind the Scenes.” Paul was reminiscing about how TBN began back in 1973 — God spoke to him as he was driving on MacArthur Boulevard — and the conversation took a turn that Koper’s attorney finds somewhat menacing.

“You know what’s funny Dad?” Matt said (at minute 8:38 on the video). “There have been a few attempts in the TBN history to upset TBN, to stop TBN, to — there have been a few fools in the 38, 39 year history, coming up on 40 years, and you know what, any attempt at stopping TBN — they have no idea who they’re actually pushing into the corner. You and Mom get pushed in a corner, God help you. That’s a lesson I’ve learned from you, seriously.”

Paul Crouch responded: “God help anyone who would try to get in the way of TBN, which was God’s plan. … I have attended the funerals of at least two people who tried….

I wonder what Crouch’s rationale was for attending the funerals of people who, supposedly, stood directly against God?

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Slab City
From the article,

Slab City…, is a squatters’ camp deep in the badlands of California’s poorest county, where the road ends and the sun reigns, about 190 miles southeast of Los Angeles and hour’s drive from the Mexican border. The vast state-owned property gets its name from the concrete slabs spread out across the desert floor, the last remnants of a World War II–era military base. In the decades since it was decommissioned, dropouts and fugitives of all stripes have swelled its winter population to close to a thousand, though no one’s really counting.

Flickr photos here.

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Entire school staff removed at Miramonte Elementary School
after two teachers arrested on suspicion of lewd conduct.

About three dozen parents and supporters protested in front of the main doors of the school earlier Monday, some carrying a banner that read, “We the parents demand our children be protected from lewd teacher acts.”

Sounds like a reasonable request to me.

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CORRECTION – It is still LEGAL to toss a frisbee on a beach in Los Angeles County

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Lesbian couple – basis for California’s Propostion 8 – are getting divorced
Well, gays and lesbians have stated that they are just like heterosexuals.