I post articles because I think they are of interest. Doing so doesn’t mean that I necessarily agree (or disagree) with every—or any—opinion in the posted article. Help your friends and relatives stay informed by passing the digest on.
Resources
For those who want further information about the topics covered in this blog, I recommend the following sites. I will add to this as I find additional good sources.
Saudi Intervention in Bahrain
Excerpt: Forces from Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries will enter Bahrain to help the Bahraini regime quell unrest, according to a number of media reports, including by Bahrain Manama Bahrain
Oil Price Shocks and the Recession of 2011?: Ten of the last 11 recessions were preceded by oil price hikes.
The disaster in Japan Saudi Arabia , Kuwait , and Iran U.S. Hamilton has also written a fascinating short history [PDF] of U.S. United States U.S. Pennsylvania
Excerpt: In 2006, the last full year in which the U.S. federal minimum wage was a constant value throughout the whole year, at least before 2010, approximately 6,595,383 individuals in the United States U.S. federal minimum wage was a constant value through the year since 2006, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that an average of just 4,361,000 individuals in the United States
Excerpt: Fortunately, the US South Africa is an example of what would happen if it were increased: If the more than 300 factories violating minimum wages ultimately close down, 20,000 more jobs could vanish…While officials wrangle, the unemployment crisis festers in places like Newcastle
Williams with Sowell - Minimum Wage
A discussion of why minimum wage law hurt poor black folks most, by two black economists. ~Bob.
Excerpt: President Obama has repeatedly given us his vision of how to lower the cost of health care and raise its quality: Find out what works; then get everyone else to copy it. Toward that end, the administration is making millions of dollars available for pilot programs and demonstration projects. Will any of this work? Ask yourself this question: Can you think of any other industry where low-cost, high-quality production has been achieved by the government running pilot programs? No? Well, if that approach doesn’t work anywhere else, why would you expect health care to be different? As I have previously noted, President Obama’s approach to health care is exactly the same as his approach to education. The only difference is that in education we have been trying to find out what works and then copy it with no success for decades. Here’s the problem. Both in health care and in education we have lots of examples of low-cost, high quality service. As in other bureaucratic systems around the world, excellence exists, and it’s often known about, acknowledged and even studied. It also tends to have three characteristics: (1) islands of excellence spring up in a sea of mediocrity and they tend to be distributed randomly—they’re not correlated with anything; (2) they almost always exist because of the effort, ingenuity, enthusiasm, energy, and vision of a few people involved in actual production, and almost never are the result of anything that’s happening on the demand side of the market; and (3) (most importantly) they tend not to have any objective characteristics that anyone else can copy. A study of high-performing hospital regions (by researchers connected to the Brookings Institution) was unable to find any characteristics that could be replicated in a straightforward manner. Some had doctors on staff and paid them a salary. Some paid fee-for-service. Some had electronic medical records. Some did not.
The Role of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the Subprime Mortgage Market
Excerpt: The recent financial crisis was characterized by losses in nearly every type of investment vehicle. Yet no product has attracted as much attention as the subprime mortgage. What is generally agreed is that subprime mortgages disproportionately contributed both to the severity of the crisis and to the size of losses imposed upon the taxpayer. What remains in dispute is the role of government -- specifically, that of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- in expanding the availability of subprime mortgage credit, says Mark Calabria, the director of financial regulation studies at the Cato Institute. Changes in the mortgage market, resulting largely from misguided monetary policy, drove a frenzy of refinancing activity in 2003. When that origination boom died out, mortgage industry participants looked elsewhere for profits. Fannie and Freddie, among others, found those illusionary profits in lowering credit quality. Foremost among the government-sponsored enterprises' deleterious activities was their vast direct purchases of loans that can only be characterized as subprime. Under reasonable definitions of subprime, almost 30 percent of Fannie and Freddie direct purchases could be considered subprime. In order to protect both the taxpayer and our broader economy, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should be abolished, along with other policies that transfer the risk of mortgage default from the lender to the taxpayer, says Calabria
The Role of Culture in State Failure
And we are busy importing failure-oriented cultures into the United States National Center Brazil , and Pedro H. C. Sant'Anna, of Universidad Carlos III, Madrid
The “Other” Pension Crisis: Options for Avoiding a Taxpayer Bailout of the PBGC
Excerpt: In recent months, there has appropriately been substantial and growing attention to underfunding in state and local government pension plans. Best available estimates are that such underfunding equals roughly $3 trillion dollars in present value, creating an unsustainable situation that must compel corrective action by elected officials. At the state and local levels of government, those in office will need to effect measures to bridge the significant gap between these plans’ projected assets and benefits. Adequate legislative reforms are, however, unlikely to occur at the state and local levels unless federal officials convincingly clarify that no federal taxpayer bailout will be forthcoming. This predicament is the basis for pending federal legislation such as the Public Employee Pension Transparency Act, 2 which requires fuller disclosure of state/local pension-plan obligations and would withhold certain federal tax benefits from states that fail to comply. Closing off the avenue of a federal bailout will not by itself force states and localities to eliminate unfunded pension liabilities. Yet at the same time, the existence of these liabilities is already creating pressure for direct federal support to states. In any event, the current policy focus with respect to these public plans is on ameliorating their underfunding, as well as on limiting momentum for a general taxpayer-financed bailout. At the same time, there exists a similar (though smaller) set of financing risks in the employer sponsored pension plans covered by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), the federally chartered corporation established to insure employer-provided pension benefits.
Parting ways: President’s path is diverging from Senate Dems
Excerpt: The political fortunes of Senate Democrats and President Obama are moving in opposite directions, complicating their efforts to win a titanic battle against Republicans over federal spending. Obama’s reelection forecast has improved since the midterms, when he looked like a one-term president. Senate Democrats, meanwhile, must defend 23 seats next year, handing Republicans a strong chance to win back the upper chamber even if Obama cruises to a second term. The dynamic opens the door to intra-party tension that has already broken through the surface unity. What’s political hay for the president and White House, after all, isn’t necessarily good for his party’s majority in the Senate. That’s one reason Obama has left much of the work of dealing with Republicans on spending cuts to party leaders in the House and Senate.
Should the US
It wouldn’t be a real crisis without members following the old USMC adage, “When in fear, when in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout.” (There’s a bit about “Green Side Out” that only Old Corps Marines will get.) But most of our electricity is coal generated. Coals kills a lot of folks through mining accidents and repertory diseases, but they are spread around the globe and the calendar, so don’t make headlines like what is happening in Japan U.S. United States U.S. naturally – not to stop building nuclear power plants – but to put the brakes on right now until we understand the ramifications of what's happened in Japan
Nuclear Power in Perspective
There is no question that the events in Japan Three Mile Island incident? 100? 10,000? 100,000? Answer? None. None of the plant workers were killed and no one in the surrounding area. But, Chernobyl United States Three Mile Island to deliver lead and protective equipment during the 1979 incident, and made several trips. Although scary at the time, not only is he alive and in good health, so are all three of his daughters. And, since all of them at least lean conservative, their brains are still functioning, too. Ron P.)
Nuclear Facts to Remember While Following Japan
Excerpt: The true scope of the devastation in Japan Miyagi Prefecture Japan Japan to Chernobyl Japan right now is nothing like Chernobyl Japan
Excerpt: I am writing this text (Mar 12) to give you some peace of mind regarding some of the troubles in Japan , that is the safety of Japan
Stalled U.S.
Excerpt: If 351 stalled U.S.
Quote
Luxury ruins republics; poverty, monarchies. -- Charles De Montesquieu
The Put-Off, Postpone and Procrastinate Generation
Excerpt: The Obama administration figures that it has read the national mood well. This therapeutic generation of Americans loves to talk and worry about problems and then assumes that either someone else will solve them or they will go away on their own. And why not, since we have had periodic "energy crises" since 1974, have run budget deficits in most years since World War II, and have been warned about a looming Social Security meltdown for the last decade -- and yet remain wealthy and affluent. But now gasoline costs more than $4 a gallon in many places in California Middle East . Yet the reserve depot was not designed to alleviate periodic gas-price spikes, but to ensure our very survival during a global catastrophe that might result in a cutoff of most petroleum imports from overseas. There are now more than 700 million barrels of stored oil in the reserve. In times of near-Armageddon, even that huge supply would provide for all of the nation's oil needs for only a single month. It would make up for all imported oil cutoffs for only two months.
Worth Reading
Excerpt: Assuming Michael Moore & Company decide that $200,000.00 per year is sufficient for any household, then in 2008 (the latest IRS statistics) the 6.9 million filers that had adjusted gross income above $200,000.00 would have forfeited all their income above that ceiling to the government. The one-time gain to Washington D.C.
Handouts, Morality and Common Sense by Dr. Walter Williams
Excerpt: There is a distinct group of Americans who bear a large burden for today's runaway government. You ask, "Who are they?" It's the so-called "greatest generation." When those Americans were born, federal spending as a percentage of GDP was about 3 percent, as it was from 1787 to 1920 except during war. No one denies the sacrifices made and the true greatness of a generation of Americans who suffered through our worst depression, conquered the meanest tyrants during World War II and later managed to produce a level of wealth and prosperity heretofore unknown to mankind. But this generation of Americans also laid the political foundation for the greatest betrayal of our nation's core founding principle: limited federal government exercising only constitutionally enumerated powers. It was on their watch that the foundation was laid for today's massive federal spending that tops 25 percent of GDP.
The Mandate Muddle
If the mandate is constitutional, then a conservative majority can mandate all adult citizens who are not felons to buy a firearm and ammo for it, to protect public safety. ~Bob. Excerpt: When the Supreme Court considers whether Congress has the constitutional power to compel individuals to buy health insurance, the argument supporting Congress may rest on a non sequitur and a semantic fiat. A judge's recent ruling argues that the insurance mandate must be constitutional because Obamacare would collapse without it. A forthcoming law review article agrees with this and with the judge's idea that, regarding commerce, being inactive is an activity. Obamacare does indeed require the mandate: Because the law requires insurance companies to sell coverage to people regardless of their pre-existing conditions, many people might delay buying insurance until they become sick. But is the fact that the mandate is crucial to the law's functioning dispositive? U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler's ruling that the mandate is constitutional conflates moral, policy and constitutional considerations. She says people who choose "not to purchase health insurance will benefit greatly when they become ill, as they surely will, from the free health care which must be provided by emergency rooms and hospitals to the sick and dying who show up on their doorstep." So "those who choose not to purchase health insurance will ultimately get a 'free ride' on the backs of those Americans who have made responsible choices to provide for the illness we all must face."
Global warming down under: 10 little facts
Excerpt: …[M]ost of the statements below, self-evidently, were crafted as slogans, and all conform with the obnoxious and dishonest practice of political spin – in which, of course, the citizens of Australia Australia
Women's Online Jihad magazine martyr bomb tips: Glossy 'Jihad Cosmo' combines beauty tips with suicide bombing advice
Affirmative Action among folks who didn’t get the memo. ~Bob. Excerpt: Al-Qaeda has launched a women's magazine that mixes beauty and fashion tips with advice on suicide bombings. Dubbed 'Jihad Cosmo', the glossy magazine's front cover features the barrel of a sub-machine gun next to a picture a woman in a veil. There are exclusive interviews with martyrs' wives, who praise their husbands' decisions to die in suicide attacks.
“Homeless” Man Hussain Hashem al-Hussaini is “John Doe #2 in Oklahoma
Excerpt: On Wednesday, a “homeless man” was arrested in the Boston suburb of Quincy , Massachusetts Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City Beirut Beirut Logan International Airport , Boston , MA
Important: The Real Battle
Excerpt: The recent Bureau of Labor Statistics report citing systemic high unemployment for the past two years shows that of the approximately 300 million Americans, only 47% of adults have full-time jobs. It's a mind-boggling statistic: 53%-- or a majority -- of American adults do not work. The repercussions for our country are dire, despite the White House proclaiming the recent Labor report as good news. Meanwhile Dems in Congress are relying on an elaborate Ponzi-scheme of increased taxes and hide-the-budget-pickle to justify spending increases on a bevy of social re-engineering programs while the White House continues to champion an expansion of the regulatory straight jacket hobbling entrepreneurs. (…) GOP mostly represents the "makers"--the entrepreneurs who create the pies that the White House wants to tax and regulate to death. Increasingly, the Dems represent the "takers"--the folks on the dole, receiving entitlement support, government subsidies and those deriving power from government protectionism. The battle lines between these two groups, the Makers and the Takers, has never been more apparent. Takers, dependent upon government and their union allies, argue that in these rough economic times, they need to preserve or increase their slice of the pie. Makers are worried whether, given the increase in government regulatory handcuffs and increased tax knee-capping, they can even make a pie.
Buoyed by Recovery, Migrants Send Home More Money
Excerpt: Immigrants from most Latin American countries sent home substantially more money at the beginning of 2011 than they did a year earlier, signaling the economic recovery in the U.S. Guatemala , Honduras , El Salvador and Mexico Brazil
U.S. Pulls Back from Push for Women’s Rights in Afghanistan
No way to help women in traditional Muslim societies, under Shari’a Law. The beauty of multiculturalism some want to allow here. ~Bob. Excerpt: Saying it’s time to be realistic about foreign policy goals, U.S. officials are downgrading the importance of achieving certain benchmarks for women’s rights in Afghanistan Afghanistan U.S.
Islamic radicalism: The questions that Rep. Peter King is right to ask
Excerpt: One of the odder exchanges I've ever seen during a congressional hearing involved Attorney General Eric Holder, Texas Republican Rep. Lamar Smith and the phrase "radical Islam." Smith, at a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee last May, cited three recent terrorist incidents: the Fort Hood shooting rampage, the underwear bomber and the Times Square bomber. "Do you feel that these individuals might have been incited to take the actions that they did because of radical Islam?" he asked Holder. The attorney general did his best not to go there. "There are a variety of reasons why I think people have taken these actions," he said. "I think you have to look at each individual case." Smith tried again - and again. Holder repeatedly resisted, before grudgingly acknowledging the obvious. "I certainly think that it's possible that people who espouse a radical version of Islam have had an ability to have an impact on people like" the accused Times Square bomber, he said.
Senator Rubio Comments On Senate's Failure To Rein In Spending "I Did Not Come To The U.S.
Excerpt: U.S. Senator Marco Rubio today commented after his vote in favor of H.R. 1, the continuing resolution to finance the government, which failed in the Senate. The House-passed measure would have made $57 billion in spending reductions for the remaining fiscal year ending on September 30, while also defunding the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) enforcement of job-destroying numeric nutrient regulations for Florida
Col. West forms federal 'leadership PAC'
Excerpt: He's already a platinum YouTube star, Internet traffic generator and cable TV mainstay. Now freshman U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Plantation, has formed a federal "leadership PAC" that could come in handy if he wants to lift his national profile any higher. Leadership PACs allow members of Congress - including the three other members of Palm Beach County
Libyan rebels' ragtag army left in disarray
If we don’t help them, they will hate us. Of course, if we do help them, they will still hate us. ~Bob. Excerpt: The idealistic protesters-turned-soldiers grew overconfident and inattentive after two swift triumphs. Then they retreated in chaos when Gadhafi unleashed his professional army and its punishing heavy weapons and warplanes. That resurgent army is now pushing eastward relentlessly, scattering the outgunned rebels. All that stands between Gadhafi and rebel headquarters in Benghazi Benghazi
Al Qaeda commander calls for Islamic rule in Libya
Excerpt: A top Libyan al Qaeda commander has urged his countrymen to overthrow Col. Moammar Gadhafi’s regime and establish Islamic rule, expanding the terror network’s attempts to capitalize on the wave of unrest sweeping the region. Abu Yahia al-Libi, al Qaeda’s Afghanistan commander, said in a video posted on a militant website that after the fall of the regimes in Tunisia and Egypt, it is now Col. Gadhafi’s turn, as rebel fighters there press a nearly monthlong campaign to oust him. Those nation’s autocratic governments — enemies of Islamic militants — practiced “the worst kind of oppression” with the backing of the West and failed to heed the lessons of history, he said. “Now it is the turn of Gadhafi after he made the people of Libya suffer for more than 40 years,” he said, adding that it would bring shame to the Libyan people if the strongman were allowed to die a peaceful death.
Opposition rallies against Hezbollah
Brave people. Hezbollah has never shown any humanitarian restraint. They will slaughter anyone opposed to them, in the name of Allah. ~Bob. Excerpt: Tens of thousands of Lebanese opposition supporters on Sunday demanded Hezbollah be disarmed as they rallied to mark the sixth anniversary of a popular uprising against Syrian troops in the country. "It is impossible that any of us here accept tutelage over Lebanon again, whether foreign domination or the domination of arms within Lebanon working for foreign interests," said outgoing prime minister Saad Hariri, in reference to the arsenal of the Iranian-backed Shiite militant group. "It is impossible to accept that these weapons ... continue to be turned against the democratic will of the people," said Western-backed Hariri, son of ex-premier Rafiq Hariri whose 2005 assassination sparked the uprising that led to the departure of the Syrians. A massive crowd thronged Martyrs' Square in central Beirut
Clueless Clapper
Excerpt: Nothing epitomizes more perfectly the Obama Administration’s abject failure to come to grips with the reality of the global jihad and a rapidly shifting international situation than the embarrassing tenure of James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence. Last week, Clapper again demonstrated how wholly unequipped he is for the job he holds, telling Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) that Russia and China represented the greatest “mortal threat” to the United States. Russia and China North Korea and Iran
Just 17% Believe American Muslims Are Treated Unfairly
Excerpt: Most voters don’t believe their fellow citizens are unfair to Muslim Americans. They also think Muslims in this country should be louder in their criticism of potential domestic terrorist attacks. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 17% of Likely U.S. Voters believe that most Muslims in America United States
Excerpt: Perhaps the most controversial document to surface was one that purports to lay out State Security's involvement in a church bombing on New Year's Day in Alexandria Egypt Cairo Alexandria
Fixing Our Education Problem
Excerpt: The message starts by listing America America
Pirate threatens
Captured pirates should be tried and executed at sea. Immediately. ~Bob. Excerpt: Five dozen pirates living on a hijacked ship serving as a roving pirate base jumped into the Arabian Sea on Monday after the Indian navy fired on the vessel in self-defense, the navy said Monday. The navy captured 61 pirates fleeing the battle and the fire that broke out aboard the hijacked vessel. The battle is the latest example of the piracy trade's turn toward increased violence. A pirate in Somalia
Hispanics Are A Prime Demographic For Conservatives
Excerpt: New Census data show that Hispanics in California California Washington
Republicans push English-only bill, requires language tests
This would benefit Hispanics the most, as learning English would help them integrate into the culture and economy, earning better livings, and thus be less dependent on government. Which is why Democrats, who reply on the government-dependent for votes, will fight it tooth and nail. ~Bob. Excerpt: Republicans introduce legislation in the House and Senate to make English the official language of the U.S. Republicans in both the House and Senate have introduced legislation that would declare English the official language of the United States and require the development of English language testing guidelines for those applying for U.S. U.S. code that imposes an obligation on U.S.
Freudian Slip: Chris Matthews Calls Obama 'President Carter'
I was saying on my blog in November, 2008, that Obama would be the next Carter. But I now think I was naively optimistic. ~Bob. Excerpt: With civil unrest breaking out all over the Middle East and Africa sending oil and gas prices through the roof, one could make the case that Barack Obama more and more is looking like Jimmy Carter. On this weekend's "Chris Matthews Show," the liberal host made it seem that this is even on his mind as he made a rather telling slip of the tongue (video follows with transcript and commentary): CHRIS MATTHEWS: If the Republicans get a real opportunity next year because President Carter, President - there's a mistake - President uh, uh, Obama doesn't seem to have a grip on it, he doesn’t seem to be able to pull the economy back. He’s not, it’s not working. Who would be the best to exploit that situation? Because that’s the person who would win.
This is a good blog
Obamaisms: http://barackobamaisms.blogspot.com/
The Global Warming Scam: http://theglobalwarmingscam.blogspot.com/
Liberal Bile: http://liberalbile.blogspot.com/
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment