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.
No sweat. Iran Russia would veto any action against Iran
Allied strikes pummel Libya
The Marine Corps Gazette used to (and may still) carry interesting “tactical decision games, in which you were presented with a military situation and had to issue orders in real time to cope with it. They usually convinced me that I wasn’t ready to lead a platoon or company in combat. They often ended with, “What now, Lieutenant? So, if the killing continues, “What now, Student Prince?” ~Bob. Excerpt: Four days of allied strikes have battered Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi’s air force and largely destroyed his long-range air defense systems, a top U.S. Zintan southwest of Tripoli , the capital, and fired artillery to hold at bay rebels attempting to regroup outside the strategic eastern town of Ajdabiya
Excerpt: The expectation of the world's lone superpower in a major military operation is "stalemate." Welcome to the era of the Obama "smart war." Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen has been warning that he is unclear of the "endgame," as the Daily Telegraph describes it, in Libya U.S. Tripoli U.S.
The damning contradictions of Obama's attack on Libya
Excerpt: Obama's policy is reminiscent of the old saying that a camel is a horse designed by committee. The policy satisfies advocates of humanitarian intervention, like the National Security Council's Samantha Power, who remember Bill Clinton's regret that he didn't intervene to stop the slaughter in Rwanda
Marines rescue downed pilot after fighter jet crashes in Libya
Excerpt: Marines from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit rescued a U.S. Air Force pilot downed in Libya Libya Camp Lejeune
Excerpt: The American military has categorically denied reports that US forces shot and wounded civilians during a rescue operation near Benghazi Libya Libya
Obama administration struggles to define American mission in Libya
We are not going to get rid of Gaddafi. We are going to bomb his forces so the rebels, er, sorry CNN, the “brave freedom fighters” can get rid of him. ~Bob. Excerpt: The Obama administration scrambled to define the U.S. mission in Libya U.S. Clinton
CAIR Officials Sought Gaddafi Money
Probably CAIR was too extreme for him. ~Bob. Excerpt: Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), asked Muammar Gaddafi to underwrite CAIR's efforts in the United States
Too funny: Al-Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Gaddafi_International_Prize_for_Human_RightsExcerpt: Excerpt: The Al-Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights is an annual prize founded by and named after Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi. (Now we know why Obama is bombing him. Farrakhan, Castro and Chavez win it, and not “The One”? Fix! Fix! ~Bob.
The Wimp Goes to War
Excerpt: When Egypt happened, it was all about Egypt Tunisia Libya Libya Somalia to the Persian Gulf, from Sudan into Egypt , and thence to Israel , Lebanon , Syria , Iraq , Iran and Turkey , and across North Africa . It reaches South and Central America , and some of its footsoldiers are undoubtedly on our soil. The tensions and passions involved in that war have turned many of those countries into battlefields, and since we have refused to see the war for what it is, we do not have a clear picture of the fighters, nor even a reliable way to anticipate future events. And the hell of it is that we have been in a position to benefit enormously from this war, but instead we find that we might “win” in Libya (topple Qadaffi, empower the “rebels,” launch the usual cycle of new constitution, new elections and new government) and utterly lose the day, as enemies even more virulent than the colorful colonel of Tripoli take over. (…) The battlefields that will determine the outcome of the big war are Tehran and Damascus
Could Obama be Impeached over Libya
Hoist by his own petard. Extra credit if you know what a “petard” was. ~Bob.
The Triumph of the Loons
Excerpt: I opened up a conservative opinion website this morning — I don’t want to embarrass it by naming it — expecting to find a refreshing change from the MSM, but alas! ’Twas not to be. I kept scrolling and scrolling, and everybody more or less agreed: “Obama has finally done something right. Maybe for the wrong reasons, but at least he’s going to get rid of that evil sumbitch Khaddafi.” Their position wasn’t fundamentally different from that held by many of the opinionators at Huffington Post and Daily Kos, whose knee-jerk pacifism has mysteriously gone into remission. I took a look through their op-eds — there weren’t many; most of them weren’t discussing it — and the general attitude seemed to be, “Well, I’m not sure this is the best idea in the world, but, gee, it’s for a good cause…” There were occasional voices of sanity on the right, of course. Frank Gaffney, for example, and Diana West, who described the Libyan action with meticulous accuracy as “making the world safe for jihad.”
In search of the 'Obama doctrine'
Excerpt: Yet after 800 words, the eloquent Rhodes offered nothing as compact or pithy as the “Bush doctrine” Obama ran against in 2008, a black-and-white commitment to supporting democratic movements and using unilateral American firepower to back them when necessary. That difficulty in succinctly describing the intellectual framework for Obama’s approach to U.S.
Deadly New Anti-Government Clashes Erupt in Southern Syria
Excerpt: New violence in a restive southern Syrian city left as many as six people dead Wednesday, an activist said, making it the deadliest single day since anti-government protests inspired by uprisings across the Arab world reached this country last week. (It’s as if the entire Arab world was catching fire. I hope the ayatollahs in Teheran are as confused about where it’s coming from and where it’s going to as we are, but that seems too much to hope for. Ron P.)
Excerpt: The single most important feature of the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) is the establishment of a health insurance exchange where people will be required to buy health insurance if they are not insured by their employer or a government plan. As envisioned by Stanford professor Alain Enthoven, an early proponent of the idea, the exchange will be a model of competition… well…make that managed competition. (More on the “managed” part in a future Alert). But rather than move toward a competitive world, we seem to be moving toward the opposite extreme: monopoly. Major consolidation is underway both on the provider and insurer sides of the market. And while this trend was already underway before Barack Obama became president, without doubt it is accelerating because of ObamaCare. The graph below shows what things look like in the market for commercial insurance in major Texas
Elizabeth Taylor dies; screen legend was 79
A sad life, crippled by fame, wealth and privilege. A fate of too many entertainers, sports stars and politicians who cannot stay grounded. Whom the gods would destroy, they first give a sense of entitlement. ~Bob.
The health care stalemate
Excerpt: One full year after President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act (aka the health care bill) into law, public opinion on it has been remarkably unaffected by the massive amounts of spin put out by both sides over the last 365 days. A Kaiser Family Foundation survey taken this month found the numbers on health care basically unchanged. Gallup
Where are the health care all-stars?
Excerpt: Democrats are under siege as they mark the first anniversary of health care reform Wednesday — and they won't get much help from the star-studded, $125 million support group they were once promised. Wal-Mart Watch founder Andrew Grossman unveiled the Health Information Campaign with great fanfare last June. Tom Daschle and Ted Kennedy's widow, Vicki, were expected to lead the effort. They'd have help from former White House Communications Director Anita Dunn. They'd have an office in Washington
Obamacare’s Failed First Year
Excerpt: “I think that health care, over time, is going to become more popular,” then-White House senior advisor David Axelrod promised David Gregory about Obamacare last September. That same month, the Health Information Campaign, founded by high-profile leftist activists including former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and former White House Communications Director Anita Dunn, spent $2 million on a national television ad campaign touting Obamcare’s first insurance mandates. Now, six months after Axelrod’s promise, and a full year after the bill was signed into law, the results are in: Obamacare is more unpopular than ever. Look at any poll and you’ll see that Obamacare has only gotten less legitimate. Last year at this time Newsweek showed 40 percent of Americans supporting Obamacare and 49 percent opposing it. Today, only 37 percent support it while 56 percent oppose. According to Quinnipiac, after Obamacare passed last year, 44 percent of Americans approved of President Obama’s handling of health care while 50 percent opposed. Today, only 44 percent approve while opposition has grown to 56 percent.
Worth Reading
Excerpt: On September 9, 2009, President Obama spoke to Congress on the topic of health care reform and said that, "I am not the first President to take up this cause, but I am determined to be the last." Although the president was later successful in signing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law in March 2010, virtually no serious observer of America
The Complex Origins of Food Safety Rules--Yes, You Are Overcooking Your Food
Excerpt: You might think that scientific evidence would constitute the “last word” when food safety rules are made, but in fact it’s only the beginning. Policy makers take many other factors into consideration, including tradition, cultural trends, political expediency, and pressure from industry. To some extent, it’s reasonable to apply these modifiers because public health, not scientific purity, is the ultimate goal of food safety regulations. But this approach sometimes imposes arbitrary and scientifically indefensible restrictions that limit food choices, confuse the public, and prevent cooks from preparing the highest-quality meals.
Optimal Monetary and Fiscal Policy during Economic Decline
Excerpt: A new research paper by N. Gregory Mankiw, a professor of economics at Harvard University , and Matthew Weinzierl, an assistant professor at Harvard University
State Variation in Primary Care Physician Supply: Implications for Health Reform Medicaid Expansions
Excerpt: Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), Medicaid enrollment is expected to grow by 16 million people by 2019, an increase of more than 25 percent. Given the unwillingness of many primary care physicians (PCPs) to treat new Medicaid patients, policy makers and others are concerned about adequate primary care capacity to meet the increased demand. States with the smallest number of PCPs per capita overall—generally in the South and Mountain West—potentially will see the largest percentage increases in Medicaid enrollment, according to a new national study by the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC). In contrast, states with the largest number of PCPs per capita—primarily in the Northeast—will see more modest increases in Medicaid enrollment. Moreover, geographic differences in PCP acceptance of new Medicaid patients reflect differences in overall PCP supply, not geographic differences in PCPs’ willingness to treat Medicaid patients.
The Case against Raising the Social Security Tax Max
Excerpt: With Social Security deficits increasing and the US
Quotes from The Patriot Post www.patriotpost.us/subscribe/
"The U.S. Border Patrol in Arizona was ordered to fire only beanbags at Mexican drug runners. No one's happy. Arizonans want a wall, the cops say beanbags stop nothing, and Mexicans are demanding they use live ammunition because beans are an offensive racial stereotype." --comedian Argus Hamilton.
"One plus for Obama in all this [situation in Libya]: The Press Trust of India reports that Moammar Gadhafi wrote a letter to Obama in which he addressed the president as 'our son.' Gadhafi's claim of paternity is one more bit of evidence -- not that any is needed -- that the claim Obama was born in Kenya is a flat-out lie." --WSJ columnist James Taranto
Economic Lunacy by Walter E. Williams
So we should be praying for a big one to help California? ~Bob. Excerpt: Economic lunacy abounds, and often the most learned, including Nobel Laureates, are its primary victims. The most recent example of economic lunacy is found in a Huffington Post article titled "The Silver Lining of Japan's Quake" written by Nathan Gardels, editor of New Perspectives Quarterly, who has also written articles for The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, New York Times and Washington Post. Mr. Gardels says, "No one -- least of all someone like myself who has experienced the existential terror of California's regular tremors and knows the big one is coming here next -- would minimize the grief, suffering and disruption caused by Japan's massive earthquake and tsunami. But if one can look past the devastation, there is a silver lining. The need to rebuild a large swath of Japan will create huge opportunities for domestic economic growth, particularly in energy-efficient technologies, while also stimulating global demand and hastening the integration of East Asia. ... By taking Japan's mature economy down a notch, Mother Nature has accomplished what fiscal policy and the central bank could not." Gardels is not alone in seeing silver linings in disasters.
Chavez says capitalism may have ended life on Mars
Excerpt: Capitalism may be to blame for the lack of life on the planet Mars, Venezuela's socialist President Hugo Chavez said on Tuesday. "I have always said, heard, that it would not be strange that there had been civilization on Mars, but maybe capitalism arrived there, imperialism arrived and finished off the planet," Chavez said in speech to mark World Water Day.
It’s nuclear power or it’s climate change
Excerpt: ...[W]e can burn more coal and gas. It’s nuclear power, or it’s climate change. What of the solar and wind dream? I sure hope they work out, and can provide a lot more energy for us in the future. But history is not on their side. No country has displaced its fossil fuel fleet in the past by using these energy sources, for a number of practical engineering and economic reasons. One has to be an extreme optimist to imagine that this reality – this lesson of history – is going to miraculously change in the coming decades. (I’ve known many optimists over the years; I’m often guilty of it myself. Not long ago, one drew two cards to K-Q-J of diamonds and came up with a King-high straight flush to beat my pat Aces-full. But it doesn’t happen often. Ron P.)
Armed Beauty Queen Fatally Shoots Intruder in Florida Home Invasion
Excerpt: When a burly ex-convict forced his way into a posh Florida home last week, he had no idea what awaited him -- a 25-year-old beauty queen with a pink .38-caliber handgun. Meghan Brown, a former Florida pageant queen, shot and killed 42-year-old Albert Franklin Hill during a home invasion March 12 at the 2,732-square-foot house she shares with her fiance in Tierra Verde, Fla.
The ruling on building and repairing churches for Christians in the lands of Muslims
Excerpt: Peace be upon you, as well as the mercy and blessings of Allah. Our eminent shaykh, I read in one of your fatwas on this good and blessed website that it is not permissible for Christians to build or repair churches.
The White House Guess List: How Obama Pulled a Fast One on the American People – in the Name of ‘Transparency’
Excerpt: President Barack Obama has won praise from the media — and from himself — for putting the White House visitor logs online. Yet the visitor logs may hide more than they reveal. The White House is still holding back “tens of thousands” of visitor logs, according to congressional testimony last week by Tom Fitton, President of Judicial Watch, who also added that “the Obama administration is less transparent than the Bush administration.”
Judge who ruled against Wisconsin Law has a son who is an SEIU Official?
Excerpt: Jake Sinderbrand, son of Judge Maryann Sumi, poses a bit of a problem for his mother. He has developed his professional political experience serving as a lead field manager with the AFL-CIO and as data manager for the SEIU State Council through the 2008 election cycle.
Heightened discharges as pump truck arrives
Excerpt: Tokyo Electric Power Company released the results of a half-litre sample of water taken 100 metres south of the discharge channel from damaged units 1 to 4. Testing for a range of radionuclides showed amounts below regulatory limits for cobalt-58, iodine-132 and caesium-136. Detections were far above limits, however, for caesium-137, caesium-134 and iodine-131. (…) Iodine-131 has a half-life of eight days, so its potential danger reduces relatively quickly. Caesium-137 has a half life of 30 years, whereas the other isotope, caesium-134, has a half-life of two years. Additional monitoring at eight locations is to be carried out by the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology in conjunction with the Japan Atomic Energy Agency. Results from this are expected on 24 March. (The iodine and caesium isotopes are likely products of partially melted cladding on the fuel rods. It will take about 3 - 4 weeks for the iodine-131 to decay to background levels; the caesium will take longer. Also, see the second article, Warning on Tokyo tap water, for better understanding of the amounts involved and what they mean--which is very, very little at this time. All the warnings are precautionary. Ron P.)
Warning on Tokyo tap water
Excerpt: These remain below the Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan's indices for emergency situations, at present enforced as regulation in Japan. The body has set 300 becquerels per kilogram from iodine-131 or 200 becquerels per kilogram from caesium-137 as the current standards for drinking water that would not cause health effects if consumed for one year. However, there is a separate level of 100 becquerels per kilogram for milk to be used in baby formula. (…) An infant could receive a radiation dose of about 10 microsieverts from drinking one litre of the tap water, meaning one would have to drink a litre per day for a year to receive a dose of between 1 and 10 millisieverts. This would be an elevated level relative to normal doses of about 2.4 millisieverts per year from background radiation, but meaningful comparisons cannot be made because the emergency situation is not expected to continue for a such a period.
Is the House in play in 2012?
Excerpt: After three straight wave elections in the House over the past five years, there is already considerable debate among party strategists whether 2012 will be a status quo election with few changes or another wholesale swap of seats that could give Democrats a shot at reclaiming the majority. New polling from Democracy Corps, a Democratic-aligned polling consortium, in 50 Republican-held House districts likely to be targeted in 2012 suggests the “new Republican majority is very much in play”, according to pollster Stan Greenberg. (Obama re-elected with a Democrat majority in Congress and we can turn out the lights—it’s over. ~Bob.)
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I've seen a liberal column comparing Mr. Obama to Eisenhower. I think that, as a military leader, he compares most closely to the Roman general Varus, who blithely marched his three legions off to deal with a barbarian revolt - and was annihilated.
ReplyDeleteHe could also be compared to Marcus Lucinius Crassus, who sought glory by attacking the Parthians, but Crassus at least had the dignity to pay for that war out of his own pocket and to lead it in person.