Supporting Homespun Bloggers

In an effort to support my fellow Homespun Bloggers I clicked the top 5 listed and will link to and post about something from thier blogs below. First up is Mover Mike. From KTRK Houston, Deadline looms for free furniture program Hurricane Katrina survivors have another opportunity to get back on their feet. This time, there's a program to get free furniture. The Hurricane Housing Task Force says this is the last call for evacuees to take part and get new furniture for their apartments and homes. Friday, February 17 is the last day officials will accept calls from evacuees living in the city voucher units. So far, they have made 15,000 furniture deliveries. The city says they have had a great response from families who are very emotional about how this program has helped them get back on their feet. Furniture program director Lindsay Davis said, "It's double beds. It's twin-sized beds. It's dinette sets, couches, coffee tables, dressers. It's a good starting package to get their lives back together." "This particular program, we call it last-minute because we started it in November and we delivered hundreds of packages of furniture a day to people because people were sleeping on air mattresses," said Cindy Gabriel with the Joint Hurricane Housing Task Force. If you are an evacuee and would still like to participate in this program, call the evacuee furniture hotline at 713-715-4100. You must have your FEMA number and your voucher number ready. To date, the city has spent $20 million on this furniture, but officials are hoping they will be reimbursed by FEMA. (Copyright © 2006, KTRK-TV) This is a good program but I don't think FEMA should reimburse the city. It is my strong belief that private individuals and companies should contribute if they feel lead to do so. It's not the governments place to provide you with your needs. There once was a time in this country when if you where in need your family, friends, neighbors, church and community helped you out and no one expected anything from the feds. Then we had the great depression and the federal government decided to help people in need. Did they really help, no. Things only got worse and what started over 50 years ago has created the welfare state we have today. I'ld better stop there or I'll be ranting for a long time. Next up is The Royal Flush Dr. Sanity: BRAVELY RUNNING AWAY "The Anchoress creates a playlet in honor of the 'courage' of the New York Times in deciding to illustrate a report on the so-called Cartoon Wars with an image which is offensive to some with religious sensibilities. The courageous editors selected the portrait of the Virgin Mary painted with elephant dung to demonstrate their dedication to truth, justice, and free speech. Did I mention how brave they were?..." Let's see here, The Royal Flush links to Dr. Sanity who links to The Anchoress who links to the NY Times which of course talks about the cartoons published 5 months ago in Denmark of Muhammad. Got that? Good. Third on the list is Peace Like A River This from the IRNA today: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said here Saturday that the real holocaust should be sought in Palestine, where the blood of the oppressed nation is shed every day and Iraq, where the defenseless Muslim people are killed daily. Stressing that these crimes mark western liberalism, he noted that the Zionists are about to be annihilated and that the era of occupation of Palestine is over. The chief executive added that meanwhile, the destruction of colonial and Zionist culture is quite obvious. Jeff at Peace Like A River responed with this You can bet Israel takes very seriously Iran's statements that Israel is about to be destroyed. Why is the West so reluctant to confront Iran over such statements? Yes, there is the usual diplomatic knee twitch to shy away from aggressive rhetoric. But are the nations of the West willing to dismiss this kind of rhetoric as hyperbole? Especially when it comes from an oppressive regime who is aggressively pursuing nuclear weapons? What I found amusing was the opening paragragh where it stated this :"Iraq, where the defenseless Muslim people are killed daily." Ahmadinejad is saying that America is killing Iraqis daily but I don't know of a single American GI suicide bomber nor have I heard of the US using IEDs on public roads. So after reading that you can guess that this is mindless rhetoric along the lines of what Howard Dean may say. Our forth link takes us to fellow North Carolinian Ogres Politics and Views The USA team has it's first gold of the 2006 Winter Olympics. Chad Hedrick won gold in the men's 5000m speed skating. Damn, those guys are fast. I went ice skating (in Florida -- don't ask) a few months back. I could stay on my feet without a problem, but speed was nowhere in my thoughts... His last several post are all Olympic related just after his triade about NC House Majority Leader Jim Black. The Black piece is funny and a fair satire of the dirty politics of NC. Remember Jim Black Must Go! And last but not least we visit Free Constitution Freedom of speech, of religion, of the press; the pursuit of happiness, the freedom to acquire property --our whole country was fought and founded on those very ideals. Yet they potentially mean nothing, in fact they are worth nothing on the wrong side of a government gone bad. Our Liberty is worthless without the means to defend it ourselves. "We the people" have "A Republic, only if [we] can keep it." How does one keep a Republic? I would not suggest the disarmament of the citizenry. Hence our Second Amendment, which did not grant us the right, it recognizes and defends that unalienable right, for good reasons. Our Second Amendment will continue to do so despite radical interpretations of plain English, so long as it is written. It is written in plain English, that such right of the People, as in "We" to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. This confirmed and supplemented by numerous documents of numerous founders and signatories of the Constitution. If Original Intent does not satisfy those skeptical of the plainly written guarantee of our unalienable right, perhaps a look at the consequences of a disarmed populace will provide enlightenment. This was my first visit here and I have bookmarked it, blogrolled it and will return. Great stuff Stan.