Update
Posting again today, as my cataract surgery is tomorrow and
I don't know when I'll be able to post again. ~Bob
General News and Comment
Movie Recommendation: American Sniper
I don't see that many movies, preferring books, but when
Michael Moore attacked this one, I put it on my must-see list. Moore has grown rich and
fat--literally--trashing the country that made him wealthy. He isn't fit to
have shined Chris Kyle's boots. It's a terrific movie and I thought pretty
realistic, though I and other vets can nitpick some Hollywood
things. I have trouble believing that Kyle took or made personal calls to his
wife in the middle of a fire fight. I didn't see the team put our security when
having dinner with an Iraqi in bad guy country. I thought the Marines were
bunched up too much on the street, and slow entering buildings after kicking in
the door. But this wasn't my war, and I wasn't a grunt, thank God, in Vietnam , so I'm
not really qualified to comment. I highly recommend seeing it, to spite Moore if nothing else.
‘American Sniper':
Same Leftists Defaming Chris Kyle As ‘Killer’ Wanted Every Iraqi Dead
Excerpt: Because they are freaked out over what the critical
and box office success ($105 million opening weekend) of
“American Sniper” might mean for our culture and on Oscar night, the very same
Hollywood Left (and Left in general) who poured their wicked hearts and souls
into a campaign that would have resulted in the murder of millions of innocent
Iraqis, are now falsely accusing American hero Chris Kyle of murdering Iraqis.
The Left’s freak out is for a very good reason: “American
Sniper” is “The Passion of the Christ” of war movies — a true game changer. (A
very nice summary about the response to the movie by those on the Left. The
article today in the Washington Post was extremely zingy about the movie and
Kyle's book and Kyle, which is part of the wave of attacking going on. Was Kyle
actually some kind of perfect hero, were there no exaggerations or
embellishments in his book? Probably no to both. But that's not the point of
the movie or of his life. If we can only admire those who are perfect in every
way, we're pretty much stuck with no one, ever. That people are flocking to
this movie and that most find good messages in it, is a fine thing. That it's
really upsetting to some fraction of people comes under the heading of
"get over it", or better yet, "don't go away mad, just go
away". --Del )
Clint Eastwood Sends
Michael Moore a Warning that would make Anyone Cr*p Their Pants
Excerpt: “Michael Moore and I actually have a lot in common,
we both appreciate living in a country where there’s free expression… But
Michael, if you ever show up at my front door with a camera – I’ll kill you”
The Return of the
War Hero: To the anti-war Left’s chagrin, Chris Kyle is a
cultural phenomenon. By Rich Lowry
Excerpt: Heroism on the battlefield had never gone away, of
course, far from it (witness the Medals of Honor awarded for acts of
extraordinary valor in Iraq
and Afghanistan ).
But the classic war hero is more than just brave or fierce. He is famous and
almost universally acclaimed. On top of his battlefield exploits, he is a
cultural phenomenon.
That is what American Sniper unquestionably makes
of Chris Kyle.
Voters Have a State
of the Union Message: No New Spending
Excerpt: Voters have a message of their own for President
Obama’s State of the Union address tonight: Don’t spend any more money. But
fewer than ever plan to follow the speech. Just 17% of Likely U.S. Voters think
the president should focus on new spending programs in his latest State of the
Union speech. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 68%
believe the president should focus instead on programs that can be accomplished
within current spending levels.
Other GOP Candidates
are Leery of a Romney Run in 2016. This New Poll Will Worry Them Even More.
Excerpt: A new CBS News poll shows that 6 out 10 Republicans do
want Romney to run – while only 26% do not. Jeb Bush comes in second, with 55%
supporting a run by the former Florida
governor, and 27% saying he should stay out. ... As for the other guys, only
29% want New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to run, while 44% want him to stay
in New Jersey .
Similarly, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul comes it at 27% for and 34% against,
while 26% favor a run by Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and 19% are opposed.
Fire guts Annapolis
Excerpt: A waterfront mansion in Annapolis was destroyed in a four-alarm fire
Monday morning, and officials said the cybersecurity executive who lived
there, his wife and four other relatives were unaccounted for that night.
Police: Man stole $1,200 in frozen seafood from New Haven
Excerpt: A 47-year-old man was
arrested Thursday after police allegedly found $1,200 worth of stolen
seafood in his motel room. ... “Mr. Rogers wasn’t wearing any pants so the
Officers asked his companion to retrieve a pair. When she did, a frozen fish
dropped to the floor,” Hartman said. “Mr. Rogers was caught – hook, line and
sinker.” The officers also found another frozen fish and two cases of calamari,
Hartman said. “The officers’ supervisor noted they were reel experts and can
tackle anything,” Hartman said. “As for the suspect, the evidence sealed his
fate. It’s unlikely he’ll get off the hook.”
Excerpt: As we close out observances of the life of Martin
Luther King, Jr., we should again be reminded that the arguments used by the
pro-kid killers in America
mirror the arguments of slaveholders in the Confederacy. See, for example this gem.
"All life is not equal. That’s a difficult thing for liberals like me to
talk about, lest we wind up looking like death-panel-loving,
kill-your-grandma-and-your-precious-baby storm troopers. Yet a fetus can be a
human life without having the same rights as the woman in whose body it
resides. She’s the boss. Her life and what is right for her circumstances and
her health should automatically trump the rights of the non-autonomous entity
inside of her. Always." That is one of many and they all sound like
something Simon Legree would
say. So many of the arguments are premised in the selfishness of the
slaveholder and the killer. Both echo control over body and property and put
the value of one life ahead of the value of another.
Stop the Scandimania:
Nordic nations aren’t the utopias they’re made out to be. By Michael Boot
Excerpt: I live in Denmark ,
and although it appears to have been surpassed as the happiest country in the
world by Panama , Costa Rica or Fiji (depending on which list you
believe), it is still a pretty great country, especially in which to raise
kids. But Scandinavia is not the utopia that American liberals or the 11
million Americans of Nordic descent often make it out to be, just as it is not
the quasi-commie, statist gulag that those on the right would often have us
believe.
And global and domestic events are conspiring to make life a
little more uncertain for these former high achievers. (Here's a nice article
that many people might benefit from understanding. The author does a very nice,
fair and balanced job of describing a lot of things about life in the
Scandinavian countries. He alludes only once to one of the key facts in their
prosperity, which was the discovery of North Sea
oil several decades ago, that brought in so many millions to their economy from
relatively minor investment on their part. I look at our society here in the USA
and have no trouble finding a zillion things that bother me or even worry me a
good deal. Many of us live under way too much stress, all kinds of industry,
media, and the entertainment industry cater to materialistic, shallow values,
we see the spread of "prolonged adolescence" among both young men and
women, and we have the continuing growth of PC thinking sapping our culture. (I
could go on, but enough, already.) I hope we find leaders in the near future
who will somehow bring better thinking and practices to the fore in the nation.
But in the meantime I think it's good to have people realize that there are
utopias elsewhere that are just fantastically superior to life here in all ways
is in fact a myth. It seems modern life has challenges everywhere, just as life
has always had. --Del )
Sign of the Apocalypse - Vagina Monologues Attacked for Not
Being Liberal Enough. By Onan Coca
Excerpt: Once the most popular iconoclastic liberal play
that money could buy, the Vagina Monologues is now coming under fire for not
being liberal enough. A recent production was canceled because some were
worried that the play was “not inclusive” enough. And no, they weren’t worried
about straight, white men… they were worried about “women without vaginas.”
(Which I think is an interesting code for transgender men…) I kid you not. What
is this world coming to?
SgtMaj Ronald Green
Selected as 18th SMMC
Excerpt: "His dynamic leadership is well known
throughout the ranks of our Corps. His wide range of experience in both
peacetime and combat, and his record of performance make him extraordinarily
well-qualified to serve as our senior enlisted leader," Dunford said in a
Marine Corps release.(Plenty of armchair quarterbacks on social media
questioning the Commandant's decision because SgtMaj Green doesn't wear the
CAR, which in their mind equates him to be a POG and not qualified to lead
Marines. In my mind, that is questioning the leadership and integrity of the
CMC. I will defer to his selection, salute sharply, say "Aye, aye
sir", take two steps back, do an about face and continue the mission. Which
is what all Marines should do. --MasterGuns. Let's see, being awarded a CAR is
largely being in the right unit at the right time and in the right place (if
that's how one wants to look at meeting the qualifications - a sick mindset as
I see it). As such, many outstanding Marines, including combat arms, do not
wear one. Does that make them any less a Marine? Any less qualified to lead
Marines? Thus wearing a CAR and leading Marines are, in fact, not
interdependent but mutually exclusive. General Dunford is no dummy (he well
knows the aforementioned). Sergeant Major Green, whom I do not know, will prove
himself. Bet on it. --Andy.)
Growing Numbers of
Americans Are Receiving Means-Tested Benefits
Excerpt: There has been a huge change in the size of the
American welfare state over the last three decades, and Nicholas Eberstadt of
the American Enterprise Institute says America 's anti-poverty programs
have become more about redistributing wealth than combating actual poverty.
Eberstadt offers a staggering look at the growth of entitlement spending: From
1963 to 2013, government transfers from entitlements were the fastest growing
source of personal income. Entitlement transfers were just one of every 15
personal income dollars in 1963, but in 2013, they were responsible for one out
of every six personal income dollars. As of 2012, more than 49 percent of the
American public lived in households receiving at least one government
entitlement.
Gun News
Prosecutor, Police
Release New Details about Intruder Death
Excerpt: At approximately 3:15 a.m., the Lower Township
Police received a call from a resident in the 700 block of Route 109, saying
that they were awakened by the sound of someone attempting to gain entry into
the residence. While the wife was on the phone with police, the husband, who
has limited mobility, got into his wheelchair and armed himself with a handgun.
Weaver ultimately smashed the glass door in an attempt to force his way into
the residence. The homeowner warned Weaver not to enter and that he was armed
with a gun. Weaver continued to make entry into the residence at which time the
homeowner shot Weaver one time. (Might be in a wheelchair, but needed only one
shot--to the head--to stop the nut. "God mad man. Sam Colt made him
equal." ~Bob)
Video: Watch What Happens When This Would-Be Intruder
Brings a Machete to a Gun Fight
Excerpt: The incident occurred last February, in Pocatello , ID.
Race Card News
The Democrat Party Killed the Conservative Dream of MLK Jr.
By Michael Schaus
Excerpt: People’s perception of freedom never ceases to
amaze me. French revolutionaries sent the ruling class to the guillotine, only
to enslave themselves to the class structure of socialism. The Russian Tsars
were chased out of their own country so that “freedom fighters” could live
under the tyranny of communism. And, after more than a century of civil liberty
battles and triumphs, African-Americans are flocking to the party that opposed
every measurable civil rights initiative since the Emancipation Proclamation.
It should stun historians that the party of the Ku Klux Klan and segregation
now has an undeniable stranglehold on black America .
Excerpt: Explain to me why we should even let them
be credentialed for Republican events from now on. It’s fairly clear
from this that MSNBC has worked out that they can make any kind of outrageous
statement that they like about a Republican and/or conservative, provided that
they can find a suitable minority shill that will be happy to make the
outrageous statements in exchange for some television time. Which is what
happened here, and it was detestably filthy of the network. There’s no need to
reward them for it.
Obamacare/Government Healthcare News
Important: Retiree Health Care Benefits Massively
Underfunded
Excerpt: Public pension funds in states across the country
are in trouble, as states struggle to fund their retirement plans at
financially sustainable levels. But there's another part of this problem that's
even worse: health care benefits for public employee retirees. ... Sometimes,
it doesn't take much to qualify for these benefits -- according to Pozen,
public employees with just 10 years of part-time work qualify for health care
benefits in Massachusetts .
That these are wildly expensive promises is evident when one looks at how
states are struggling to find the money to meet their obligations: Just 11
states in the country have funded more than 10 percent of these health care
liabilities. Of the 30 largest cities in the country, only eight have funded
more than 5 percent of these benefits. New
York City 's unfunded liabilities amount to nearly
$23,000 per household. A 2009 government report estimates that unfunded health
care liabilities in the United States is more than $530 billion, but a 2014
study from the National Bureau of Economic Research says the number could be as
much as $1 trillion. (Have I mentioned that a fiscal collapse is coming? http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Collapse-American-Republic-prevent/dp/1461122538/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304815980&sr=1-5
~Bob)
Death Panels -- Alive and Well. By Brian C. Joondeph
Excerpt: If the rationing board decides to not pay for a
particular treatment or drug, patients are out of luck. If the denied treatment
is lifesaving, guess what follows? Hence the characterization of these
rationing boards as “death
panels.” Sarah Palin warned of “death panels” within ObamaCare but as
usual was
ridiculed by the media. Yet in the UK , their National Health Service
(NHS), the model for ObamaCare, just demonstrated another example of their
death panels. “Six breast cancer drugs are to be banned from use by NHS
patients,” according
to the Daily Mail. How’s that for “war on women”?
Undocumented Democrat News
When Illegals Kill Cops. By Lloyd Billingsley
Excerpt: Rep. Ami Bera, a northern California Democrat, has
invited Susan Oliver, 46, to President Obama’s State of the Union Speech. The
White House is aware of the invitation, and Mrs. Oliver has a message of her
own for the chief executive. “Build unity between citizens and law
enforcement,” she
told Richard Chang of the Sacramento Bee. “The damage is tearing
people apart.” Activists, she said, try to “excite people who don’t know all
the facts” and “people will do negative things just because there’s an
opportunity.” Mrs. Oliver, an African American, can speak to the issue with
some authority. She can also address another issue the president and his
handlers prefer to avoid: the murder of American law enforcement officers by
people who are not supposed to be in the country.
"You're Greener than Gore" News
Worth Reading
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2915061/Nasa-climate-scientists-said-2014-warmest-year-record-38-sure-right.html?ito=social-twitter_mailonline
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2915061/Nasa-climate-scientists-said-2014-warmest-year-record-38-sure-right.html?ito=social-twitter_mailonline
Excerpt: The Nasa climate scientists who claimed 2014 set a
new record for global warmth last night admitted they were only 38 per cent
sure this was true. In a press release on Friday, Nasa’s Goddard Institute for
Space Studies (GISS) claimed its analysis of world temperatures showed ‘2014
was the warmest year on record’. The claim made headlines around the world, but
yesterday it emerged that GISS’s analysis – based on readings from more than
3,000 measuring stations worldwide – is subject to a margin of error. Nasa
admits this means it is far from certain that 2014 set a record at all. Yet the
Nasa press release failed to mention this, as well as the fact that the alleged
‘record’ amounted to an increase over 2010, the previous ‘warmest year’, of
just two-hundredths of a degree – or 0.02C. The margin of error is said by
scientists to be approximately 0.1C – several times as much.
http://lastresistance.com/9686/1700-private-jets-descend-switzerland-global-warming-summit/
Excerpt: What better way to show your fight against global
warming and carbon footprints than jet-setting in your own fossil fuel burning
private jet? Or 1,700 of them:
A squadron of 1,700 private jets are rumbling into Davos , Switzerland
Religion of Peace News
Worth Reading
Excerpt: It is the best of faiths, it is the worst of
faiths. It is the faith of tolerance, it is the faith of hate. Opinions of
Islam in the world could hardly be more diverse or more opposed. However many
times one hears it said that Islam is not a unitary phenomenon - that the Sufis
are as different from the Salafists as chalk is from cheese - almost everyone,
after pronouncing this caveat, proceeds to speak or to write as if Islam were a
unitary phenomenon. ... Professor Stora was an Algerian Jew who moved to France at
independence in 1962. In his beautiful book, he recounts both his family
history and that of the Jews in Algeria ,
whose two thousand year presence in the country (or perhaps I should say part
of the world) ended definitively in the year that the author himself left.
(Interesting discussion of the history of Jews in Algeria . ~Bob)
Excerpt: Islamic terrorist attacks in Europe ,
and European governments' counter-attacks are more than just a passing news
story. Europe is currently in the process of
paying the price for years of importing millions of people from a culture
hostile to the fundamental values of Western culture. And this is by no means
the last of the installments of that price, to be paid in blood and lives, for
smug elites' Utopian self-indulgences in moral preening and gushing with the
magic word "diversity." Generations yet unborn will still be paying
the price, whether in large or small installments, depending on how long it
takes for the West to jettison Utopianism and come to grips with reality.
Muslims and
Islamists - How do extremists relate to the population in
which they live? By Victor Davis
Hanson
Excerpt: The terrorism in Paris is yet another bad chapter in an ongoing
Western debate over a seeming paradox. Almost all recent global terrorism is
attributable to Islamic-inspired violence — much of it directed against
Muslims. And yet the vast majority of the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims do not
directly aid and abet the spate of Islamic extremism. How then to focus on the
Islamic terrorists without polluting the surrounding sea in which these sharks
swim?
Je Suis Charlie? Group sets meeting to increase
tolerance of Muslims, culture
Excerpt: Sponsor of the event is the American Muslim
Advisory Council of Tennessee — a 15-member board formed two years ago when the
General Assembly was considering passing legislation that would restrict those who worship Sharia Law, which is followed by
Muslims.
Killian and Moore
will provide input on how civil rights can be violated by those who post
inflammatory documents targeted at Muslims on social media. “This is an
educational effort with civil rights laws as they play into freedom of religion
and exercising freedom of religion,” Killian told The News Monday. “This is also to inform the public what
federal laws are in effect and what the consequences are.” (In other words,
they will use Civil Rights law to silence free speech, such as speaking out
against Shari'a Law, which allows polygamy, restricts woman's rights, allows
husbands to beat wives, allows child marriages, orders gays and apostates
executed and requires stoning women for adultery, including rape victims who
lack four male Muslim witnesses to prove rape as required by the Qur'an. ~Bob)
6 Ways to Keep
Terrorists From Ruining the World. By David Wong, Cracked.com
Excerpt: I have a question, and this is mainly for
those of you old enough to vividly remember the 9/11 attacks. Let's say the
Navy SEALs had found and shot bin Laden just a couple of days after -- say, on
the 13th. Would we still have gone to war? We'll come back to that; it's pretty
important. (This is painful to read...let's just say that I have a solution to
both terrorism and world hunger, but it requires accepting a few social taboos...
--GS)
Reframing the Enemy
after France
Excerpt: The familiar denunciations of American
"imperialism" and the habits of sympathy for "national
liberation movements" that had emerged in the protest against the war in Vietnam in the
1960s did not fit the realities of September 11, 2001. For on that day,
Mohammed Atta and his associates attacked our country in the name of profoundly
reactionary ideas, ideas more closely linked to Nazism than to Communism or the
traditions of the left. Al Qaeda had abandoned the euphemisms of leftist
anti-Zionism and spoke openly about hatred of "crusaders," that is,
Americans and Jews.
Funny: Jesus Vs. Muhammad Video Leads to Thousands of
Death Threats for Comedian
Excerpt: Jurgen Todenhofer, who is believed to be the first Western
reporter to live among Islamic State fighters and survive to
share the tale, told al-Jazeera that he was surprised by the violence
of ISIS . ... “Something that I don’t
understand at all is the enthusiasm in their plan of religious cleansing,
planning to kill the non-believers. … They also will kill Muslim democrats
because they believe that non-ISIL-Muslims put the laws of human beings above
the commandments of God,” he said. “… They were talking about (killing)
hundreds of millions. They were enthusiastic about it, and I just cannot
understand that.” For people who aren’t naive liberal journalists, it’s easy to
understand what so confuses Todenhofer: ISIS
is evil.
Excerpt: Shiite insurgents stormed Yemen ’s
presidential palace Tuesday in a stunning blow to the Western-allied government
that appeared pushed to the brink after months of rebel gains.
The coup-style
strikes by the Houthi rebel faction — believed backed by Iran — marked a major setback for President Abed
Rabbo Mansour Hadi, a staunch ally of the United
States in the fight against al-Qaeda’s powerful branch in
Yemen .
Islamic State demands
$200 million ransom for two Japanese hostages
Excerpt: Three days after Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
pledged $200 million to countries battling the Islamic State, the terrorist
group Tuesday demanded the same amount to spare the lives of two Japanese men
it holds hostage.
Generals Conclude
Obama Backed Al-Qaida
Excerpt: The Obama White House and the State Department
under the management of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton “changed sides in
the war on terror” in 2011 by implementing a policy of facilitating the
delivery of weapons to the al-Qaida-dominated rebel militias in Libya
attempting to oust Moammar Gadhafi from power, the Citizens Commission on
Benghazi concluded in its interim report
Excerpt: Ali Saleh Kahlah al Marri, an admitted former al
Qaeda operative, has been released from a American jail and permitted to return
home to Qatar .
No formal statement has been released yet by either government, but it is
being reported that al Marri's release was the result of a
bilateral agreement between the Qatari and American governments. According to
the US Bureau of
Prisons, a prisoner with the same name and estimated age (ID number
12194-026) was freed on Friday.
Excerpt: The attack placed Israel in a direct
battlefield confrontation on Syrian soil with its longtime enemies Iran and Hezbollah. And it put pressure on
Hezbollah to respond militarily, risking further escalation on the outskirts of
Syria’s chaotic civil war.
The death of the general, Mohammad Ali Allahdadi, added to the evidence of Iran ’s deep
military involvement across the Syrian conflict.
The Jihadist Next Door. By Katie Pavlich
Excerpt: Last week, an Ohio
man with sympathies to ISIS was arrested for
plotting to blow up the Capitol building. Just three years ago, Amine El
Khalifi was arrested and charged on similar counts after planning to use a
suicide vest to carry out an attack on the Capitol. At the time, Khalifi lived
in the same apartment complex as I did in Northern Virginia just outside of Washington D.C. U.S. as an
illegal immigrant after living on an expired visa for years and frequently attended
a mosque in Falls Church .
*****
Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam Veteran who served five
terms in the Massachusetts State Senate. He is the author of The Coming Collapse of the American Republic.
http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Collapse-American-Republic-prevent/dp/1461122538/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304815980&sr=1-5
For a free PDF of Collapse, e-mail him at tartanmarine(at)gmail.com. Hall’s
eleven books are listed here:
http://tartanmarine.blogspot.com/2010/07/new-book-published.html.
His blog of political news and conservative comment is www.tartanmarine.blogspot.com.
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