Thanks to blog feeders.
Thanks to everyone who sends me items for this blog. I couldn’t produce it without you. I especially appreciate those who send formatted items: title, URL, excerpt. If you don’t send a link, or just a link with no explanation, don’t expect to see it. With 300+ e-mails a day, and a job, and life, I don’t have time to search for items you don’t have time to send details on. And if it’s old, I’ve likely already seen it dozens of times, like the 2008 article I got today. Thanks. ~Bob.
Free PDF Copy of The Coming Collapse of the American Republic
A Vietnam
Short fiction. A repeat if you are a long-time blog follower. ~Bob.
Build it and they will come
Cartoon
Book Recommendation: The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story by Diane Ackerman
My wife and I like to use our drive time to listen to books on tape, but finding one we both like can be a challenge. We both loved The Zookeeper’s Wife. When the German’s invaded Poland
US - Taliban Talks Said to be at Critical Point…Really?!
Excerpt: Today, Stratfor reported that secret talks between US officials and the Taliban, which have purportedly been underway for sometime have now reached a critical juncture. According to the story, tentative agreements about the disposition of EPW Taliban at the Guantanamo Bay US US
Vaclav Havel, dissident playwright and former Czech president, dies
Excerpt: Vaclav Havel, a Czech writer who was imprisoned by his country’s communist rulers, only to become a symbol of freedom and his nation’s first president in the post-communist era, died Dec. 18 at his weekend home in the northern Czech Republic
Kim Jong Il, North Korean leader, is dead at age 69
The 24-hour news cycle now requires the cable news networks to talk endless about what this means, though no one has a clue. The best line was from NRO’s Morning Jolt with Jim Geraghty: “Kim Jong Il? No Kim Jong dead.”
Keystone climbdown leaves Obama supporters scratching their heads
Excerpt: Just a week after saying he would reject a payroll tax cut extension that included Keystone language, Obama backpedaled on both issues and won just a two-month extension of the payroll tax holiday, far less than the full-year extension he requested in his jobs bill. Millionaires won't pay higher taxes for the cost of the payroll cut, and House Republicans forced the White House to swallow language forcing Obama to make a decision in 60 days on approving development of the oil sands pipeline from Alberta , Canada , to the Gulf Coast
WaPo Fact Checker: Nancy Pelosi’s misfire on job and tax-cut claims
Excerpt: Pelosi gets some credit for at least referencing a specific report rather than simply asserting a figure. As we mentioned, we try not to play “gotcha” with politicians who slip up. But she made two major errors in a row. Moreover, in what seems to be a pattern we have noticed this year, whenever she “misspeaks,” she tends to make the numbers look even better for her side of the argument. Two Pinocchios
Boys in chains rescued from madrassa
Excerpt: Pakistani police have rescued 53 students, including children as young as seven, who had been chained in the basement of a madrassa in the port city of Karachi
Raising Money for "Lady Al-Qaida"
Excerpt: A Northeastern University Muslim chaplain, who also is a Roxbury, Mass. imam, hailed a terrorist convicted of attempting to murder Americans in Afghanistan as "brave," while painting the United States Afghanistan U.S. United States , along with a list of New York
Who‘s Footing the Bill for the Obama Family’s Estimated $4 Million Hawaii Vacation?
I’ve read that both Bushes spent Christmases at Camp David , so the White House staff could be with family for Christmas. ~Bob. Excerpt: So, just how much will President Barack Obama’s Hawaiian vacation cost this year? That‘s a question that can’t be definitively answered until the costs are in and the trip has concluded, but an assessment of the numbers shows that it will likely be the 44th president’s most expensive vacation to date.
30 U.S.
Excerpt: A Tulsa Lebanon
Oversight Panel Raises Concern of 'Possible Wrongdoing' in Borrowings From Countrywide Financial by Four in Congress
Excerpt: Four current members of the House of Representatives received loans through the controversial VIP program of Countrywide Financial Corp., according to the chairman of a congressional committee, raising new questions about possible efforts to curry political influence by the onetime mortgage giant whose troubles helped spark the 2008 financial meltdown. (Former Sen. Dodd was one of the “Friends of Angelo” got a sweetheart mortgage. ~Bob.)
The real outrage ---Does anyone besides the cops care about black victims of crime?
Excerpt: According to a bill recently introduced in Albany Suffolk County
Excerpt: Alabama
Maxine on the move by Mychal Massie
Excerpt: Her thirst for power is unabated, and with Barney Frank (D-MA) having announced he will retire at the end of this term, his position as the ranking Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee is about to open up. Without regard for appearance, Waters has made it known that she is laying the necessary groundwork to become the ranking Democrat on the very committee whose rules she is facing trial for breaking.
Behind Holder’s war on voter-ID laws
Excerpt: If you want to buy over-the-counter cold medicine at your local drugstore, chances are you have to show a photo ID to do it. Same if you want to get on a plane, rent a car or open a bank account. So why not to vote? But to Attorney General Eric Holder, the idea is an outrage. In the name of “civil rights,” he’s declared war on a nationwide movement to ensure the integrity of the electoral process. (Other things that require photo ID: Getting a replacement Social Security card; applying for WIC, SSA, or Food Stamps; buying any quantity of alcohol or tobacco; cashing any sort of check or money order; sending money via Moneygram (or any other sort of wire transfer); being hired for any job requiring the filing of an I-9 (which is practically all jobs, full or part time, other than self-employment); driving a vehicle; getting an adult “resident” hunting license or any hunting license that permits use of a firearm; buying the firearm itself or the ammunition for it; getting an adult “resident” fishing license in many states; operating—or working as an employee for—any sort of business that requires a permit or license, hairdresser, barber, or lawyer, for example; or even the simple paying of taxes in some cases. Surely minorities do many of these things. It is possible some tiny fraction of our population might be inconvenienced to have to visit a state agency to get a simple ID for a small—or no—fee to cover its production, but there won’t be any great rush to the DMV—or wherever—to get them because almost everybody already has one. This is an issue only to those ALREADY planning to commit fraud and are trying to protect their ability to do so undetected. Ron P.)
The EPA vs. the Constitution
Excerpt: The Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution declares that no person shall be “deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” This means that if the government infringes on your rights, you are entitled to mount a timely and meaningful defense of those rights in court. (…) Unfortunately, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) prefers a less venerable form of justice, as the Supreme Court will hear next month during oral arguments in the case of Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency. At issue is the EPA’s enforcement of the Clean Water Act through so-called administrative compliance orders, which are government commands that allow the agency to control the use of private property without the annoyance of having to subject its actions to judicial review. (Did you think you had a right to seek redress of grievances against the government? Think again if dealing with the beancounters at EPA. We need to rein in the regulators unless we want a tyranny of beancounters; they’re even worse than politicians—we can vote politicians out, but only God can recall a beancounter. Ron P.)
The Week That Was: 2011-12-17 (December 17, 2011)
Excerpt: In 2007 Congress passed and President Bush signed an energy bill mandating oil companies to blend 250 million gallons of cellulosic fuel into conventional gasoline by 2011. This year, the industry may produce 6.6 million gallons. Yet, the EPA is leveling fines on oil companies for not buying a fuel that does not exist in sufficient quantities. The belief that Congress can mandate technological advancements has long been a problem in Washington
Excerpt: The Obama administration is ignoring a petition forgery scandal unfolding in South Bend, Ind., a former top state elections official – now a U.S. congressman -- alleged Sunday, claiming he's still awaiting a response to a letter he's written to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder about the case. Republican Rep. Todd Rokita, who served eight years -- from 2002 to 2010 -- as Indiana
Excerpt: Whatever comes to pass in this election season — whatever scandals emerge, gaffes are gaffed, turns twisted, figures fudged, wars waged, etc. — what I would I most like to see, even if I don’t get to, is the Gingrich-Obama debates. Conventional modern liberalism (leftism, Keynesian economics, etc.) is dead in our country, indeed in the world, and yet a sizable portion of the populace clings to it. Like a massive cargo cult waiting for John Frum, these people cleave to an ideology that has been useless for years and is self-destructive even to them, most of them anyway, undermining the lives of the rest of us in the process. Newt Gingrich is the only person I can think of with the rhetorical skills to explain this in a manner in which at least some of these same people, perhaps even enough of them, would understand the situation and change. He could do so in debate with Barack Obama — those Lincoln-Douglas style debates he so assiduously seeks. (Actually, Keynesian Economics is like an “undead” zombie, still killing victims. ~Bob.)
Worth reading: Green Technology that Pollutes the Planet By Amy Oliver and Michael Sandoval
Excerpt: In previous columns, we’ve exposed that “renewable” technology is neither renewable, nor clean, nor green because it relies upon rare earth elements—it’s also neither cost effective nor efficient but that’s another column. Currently the Chinese have a stranglehold over all phases of rare earth production, including mining, processing, and refining. China
British Police Raid Climategate Blogger's Home by Timothy Birdnow
Excerpt: There is often a price to pay for miracles. Several years back a miracle occurred at Climate Audit, the website of Steve McIntyre (the man who debunked Michael Mann's Hockey Stick graph); a slew of e-mails hacked or leaked from the Climate Research Unit of the University of East Anglia were released via a Russian server, exposing the private plottings of the group now often called The Team to subvert the science of Global Warming, to intimidate editors of journals, to get alarmist papers peer-reviewed and ban papers from those who do not see Global Warming as a crisis. It was damning stuff. The person who posted the link on Climate Audit merely stated "a miracle has occurred".
Attorney General Holder Tied to OKC Bombers
I can’t believe this. But I couldn’t believe Gunwalker when it first came in either. ~Bob. Excerpt: Eric Holder, current attorney general of the United States , managed an FBI operation that provided explosives to Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols just prior to the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City
SEIU Job Description: Train & Lead Members to Occupy State Buildings
The Right to Rise - by Jeb Bush, Wall Street Journal
Excerpt: Congressman Paul Ryan recently coined a smart phrase to describe the core concept of economic freedom: "The right to rise." Think about it. We talk about the right to free speech, the right to bear arms, the right to assembly. The right to rise doesn't seem like something we should have to protect. But we do.
Eurozone: Failing Statists Prescribe…More Statism
Excerpt: Last week’s umpteenth deal to “save” the eurozone, the group of 17 European Union nations that use the single currency, paves the way for closer political integration between states; national budgets will henceforth be subject to scrutiny by eurozone officials, which rather undermines the whole idea of national politics and democratic elections. It provides a timely reminder that once you pass a certain point along the road to ever-bigger government it’s impossible to turn around, and the answer to every problem becomes more centralization, more bureaucracy, and less freedom.
Military Weapons in Gangsters' Hands
Excerpt: Gangs are acquiring highpowered, military-grade weapons more frequently, according to the latest National Gang Intelligence Center Report. And FBI and law enforcement officials suggest gang members -- both enlisted and those working at military bases as contract civilians -- may be funneling the firearms to their street-level counterparts. In late July, 27 AK-47s were stolen from a Fort Irwin
The Death of Doctor Evil - by Michael Hirsh, National Journal
Excerpt: Kim Jong Il was a real-life Dr. Evil, intent on being taken seriously and yet almost unfailingly laughed at. Strutting and pouf-haired, a self-described connoisseur of fine wine and cigars as well as (according to North Korea’s ever-inventive media) a brilliant inventor who shot 38 under par his first time playing golf, Kim would have been outright comical had one been able to get past the fact that he brought death and untold misery to millions of people. And that he endangered many more around the world with his reckless pursuit of a nuclear bomb and other weapons.
Mark Steyn: The Gingrich Gestaldt
Excerpt: I was wrong about Newt. Or, as Newt would say, I was fundamentally wrong. Fundamentally and profoundly wrong. I was as adverbially wrong about Newt as it’s possible to be. Back in the spring, during an analysis of the presidential field, I was asked by Sean Hannity what I thought of Gingrich. If memory serves, I guffawed. I suggested he was this season’s Alan Keyes — a guy running for president to boost his speaking fees but whose candidacy was otherwise irrelevant. I said I liked the cut of this Tim Pawlenty fellow, who promptly self-destructed. There would be a lot of that in the months ahead: Michele Bachmann ODing on Gardasil, Rick Perry floating the trial balloon of his candidacy all year long, only to puncture it with the jaunty swing of his spur ten minutes into the first debate. And when all the other Un-Romney of the Week candidates were gone, there was Newt, the last man standing, smirking, waddling to the debate podium. Unlike the niche candidates, he offers all the faults of his predecessors rolled into one...
Merry War on Christmas! by Mark Steyn
Excerpt: Christmas in America is a season of time-honored traditions — the sacred performance of the annual ACLU lawsuit over the presence of an insufficiently secular “holiday” tree; the ritual provocations of the atheist displays licensed by pitifully appeasing municipalities to sit between the menorah and the giant Frosty the Snowman; the familiar strains of every hack columnist’s “war on Christmas” column rolling off the keyboard as easily as Richard Clayderman playing “Winter Wonderland” . . . This year has been a choice year. A crucified skeleton Santa Claus was erected as part of the “holiday” display outside the Loudoun County courthouse in Virginia — because, let’s face it, nothing cheers the hearts of moppets in the Old Dominion like telling them, “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus — and he’s hanging lifeless in the town square.”
Gingrich’s Virtues: It is too early to rule out candidates.
Excerpt:
Newt Gingrich: 15 Things You Don’t Know About Him
Excerpt: Newt Gingrich has delivered more policy statements, campaign speeches, press appearances, course teachings, newspaper op-eds, and books (24 at last count) than any of his opponents seeking the Republican presidential nomination. So you’d think all this transparency would provide a clear picture of how Gingrich would govern if he were president. But the GOP presidential hopeful is still full of surprises.
VIDEO: God, I'm brilliant! - by James Delingpole
Excerpt: Like my esteemed colleague Dan Hannan, I have a pathological aversion to posting up videos of myself on my blogs. In this case, however, I feel I must make an exception. It's not often you get to appear on Uncommon Knowledge being interviewed by the mighty Peter Robinson. (Our subjects: Climategate; Watermelons; the imminent collapse of Europe)
New EPA Pollution Rules May Force Shutdown of Dozens of Coal-Fired Power Plants
Excerpt: The estimate also was based in part on EPA computer models that predict which fossil-fuel generating units are likely to be retired early to comply with the rules, and which were likely to be retired anyway. The agency has estimated that 14.7 gigawatts, enough power for more than 11 million households, will be retired from the power grid in the 2014-15 period when the two new rules take effect. The first rule curbs air pollution in states downwind from dirty power plants. The second, expected to be announced Monday, would set the first standards for mercury and other toxic pollutants from power plant smokestacks. Combined, the rules could do away with more than 8 percent of the coal-fired generation nationwide, the AP found. (The headline should read WILL force shutdowns, not "may" force shutdowns. Apparently written by AP to refute critics of the EPA, I think this actually reinforces the critics. Either the author is of two minds about this prospect or there is more than one author. The information is actually balanced, but the attitude in the beginning is clearly favorable to the new rules. BUT...notice that some of EPA’s findings are based on “computer models.” If climate-change research has taught us anything at all, it’s that computer models are inherently unreliable if there are too many variables or if the input data are massaged to fit the outcome desired. This initial phase of Rule 1 and Rule 2 will retire about 8% of coal generating capacity in the USA according to this article(which would impact about 7% of the populace, more than 20,000,000 people). And, ADDITIONAL “other rules are in the works” that will also retire generation stations. How many stations? Unknown, because the rules aren’t written yet. Furthermore, many additional plants will have to be “modified” to comply, taking them off-line for uncertain periods of time. Ron P. the poor and workers will pay more, to fund the green dreams of Obama and Gore. ~Bob.)
Church of England Warns of Disastrous European Union Policy - by Archbishop Cranmer
Excerpt: We are, to coin a phrase, associated with Europe but not absorbed. Perhaps Bishop Christopher has forgotten his history, not least because ‘in the long term’ it was very much in Britain’s interest to be isolated from ‘the rest of Europe’. Our economic might and global influence came as a direct consequence of the Reformation: it was the Protestant faith and a Reformed Church which permitted England to run her affairs, without recourse to Rome.
Fallen Heroes Deserve Dignity
Excerpt: The initial results of federal investigations into care for fallen American military personnel at the Dover AFB mortuary were shocking. Whistleblowers had informed officials about allegations of mismanagement, including instances in which the body parts of troops were improperly handled or lost. The investigations confirmed those allegations.
Fallen Heroes Deserve Dignity
Excerpt: The initial results of federal investigations into care for fallen American military personnel at the Dover AFB mortuary were shocking. Whistleblowers had informed officials about allegations of mismanagement, including instances in which the body parts of troops were improperly handled or lost. The investigations confirmed those allegations.
When Did Atheists Become Persnickety, Litigious Anti-Christmas Whiners? by Doug Giles, Townhall
Excerpt: Dan and his ilk represent the “we will sue you” nuevo atheists who go after our nation’s Christian holidays and symbolism—but not Islam’s—because it bashes their ideas. Waah. Frickety. Waah. Yep, according to the 21st century metrosexual atheist motif, anything that offends them should now be banned. That makes me scratch my head because I thought the atheists were the tough-minded ones who could stare death in the face and mock God and His dictates, but now a silicone statue of Yeshua in diapers puts them in a tailspin.
Thanking Our Troops by Star Parker, Townhall
Excerpt: That virtue, readily observable in Lt Col Sam, and in those who choose to put on the uniform our country and fight, is the conviction that the struggle for human freedom must move forward without cessation. It is the thread that bonds us with them. We cannot lose perspective that the main arena where Americans must fight this battle is within our own country and borders.
Need a Last Minute Gift? How About a Gun? - by Katie Pavlich, Townhall
Excerpt: Still need a last minute Christmas gift for someone you love? How about for yourself? Firearms are flying off the shelves this season and have become the gift of choice. It doesn't get much better than celebrating Christmas and the Second Amendment at the same time.
VIDEO: Don't Mess With Texas: Nativity Rally Crowd - Moonbattery
Excerpt: The Grinches from Wisconsin demand that the nativity scene be removed because they regard anything anywhere not in compliance with their ideology to be offensive. Apparently the locals regard meddling moonbats to be offensive. Looks like the good guys have numbers on their side:
Government statistical agency helping NC Democrat
Excerpt: The Carolina Journal, published by the Raleigh-based John Locke Foundation (for which I’ve given paid speeches on occasion) reports that staffers in North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue’s office have been getting advance word on monthly unemployment statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is highly illegal under federal law and violates what I have understood to be a strong tradition in the BLS and other government statistics that no one—no one at all, not even in the White House—gets advanced word ahead of the public announcement of government statistics.
VIDEO: Prominent Socialist Leader Dies. This is how we will remember him - by Damian Thompson, Telegraph UK
Excerpt: Say what you like about Kim Jong-il, but at least he took his socialism seriously. No one could complain about public-sector cuts in North Korea. (Or, indeed, complain about anything.) Anyway, I think this is how many of us in the West will be remembering the homicidal little freak this morning.
Health Care Law Will Let States Tailor Benefits
Excerpt: In a major surprise on the politically charged new health care law, the Obama administration said Friday that it would not define a single uniform set of “essential health benefits” that must be provided by insurers for tens of millions of Americans. Instead, it will allow each state to specify the benefits within broad categories. The move would allow significant variations in benefits from state to state, much like the current differences in state Medicaid programs and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. By giving states the discretion to specify essential benefits, the Obama administration sought to deflect one of the most powerful arguments made by Republican critics of President Obama’s health care overhaul — that it was imposing a rigid, bureaucrat-controlled health system on Americans and threatening the quality of care. (As little as this administration cares what laws actually say, can they legally do this by administrative fiat? Don’t they have to enforce the laws Congress actually passes and the President signs? They must really be worried about the Supreme Court overturning the law unless they can claim it doesn’t mean what it says it means. Ron P.)
Muslim husband cuts off wife's fingers because she pursued college
Excerpt: Spousal abuse is universal across all cultures, but only in Islam is it given divine sanction, both in the Qur'an and in Muhammad's example: "Good women are obedient....As for those from whom you fear disobedience, admonish them and send them to beds apart and beat them." -- Qur'an 4:34 Muhammad "struck me on the chest which caused me pain, and then said: Did you think that Allah and His Apostle would deal unjustly with you?" -- Aisha (Sahih Muslim 2127) Rafiqul Islam went farther than is Islamically sanctioned by these quotations, but he was working within a culture that sanctions murdering a spouse when she gets out of line (Muslims commit 91% of honor killings worldwide). All he did was cut off his wife's fingers, which must make him a moderate.
Michele gains, Ron Paul slides
Excerpt: The runner up was Michele Bachmann. She is, obviously, the truest of the conservatives. She always makes the right choice on issues and stands by her principles. She is articulate, forceful, factual, well informed, cerebral, and able. She deserves more than a fifth place finish in Iowa. She's right on the debt limit. She was right on TARP. She was right on health care. She's a solid reliable social conservative. And she's the only candidate up there about whom all that can be said (except perhaps for Santorum).
Keystone Blue-Collar Blues By Lawrence Kudlow
Excerpt: The payroll-tax-cut debate is not really about the payroll tax, which is a very weak-kneed economic stimulant and a lackluster job creator because of its temporary nature. Without permanent incentives at lower tax rates, these rebates don't do anything for growth and jobs. Instead, the key to understanding the payroll-tax debate is to grasp President Barack Obama's leftist vision of taxing successful earners (the millionaire surtax) and his obsession with clean energy at the expense of fossil fuels.
Commandant addresses news article regarding Medal of Honor
Excerpt: In the final analysis, I did not find cause to question any single fact, nor minor discrepancy that may be buried in descriptions of a battle that lasted for hours and evoked such bravery in our troops. My only question is - where do we find such men?
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