I pulled some more news together for you. It goes slow as
the Prednisone makes me shake so bad, that clicking the mouse on the right
thing is at best 50-50. But stronger every day. Managed to travel to Chicago
They just cut my Prednisone from 30mg a day to 15mg.
(Started at 40mg.) Hopefully this will reduce the insomnia and the
shaking--you could have sold tickets to watch me try to eat with chopsticks
recently. ~Bob
Must Read Book Recommendation:
Race & Economics: How Much Can Be
Blamed on Discrimination? By Walter E. Williams
Dr. Williams, like Dr. Thomas Sowell, grew up poor and black
(Williams in the Philadelphia
projects) to become a nationally-known economist. They both have put a lot of
focus on the intersection of economics, race and culture. This well researched
and documented book contains his data-driven conclusions on the subject, and
details how government interventions, sold as benign, have too often
disadvantaged blacks and other minorities, while protecting white racists in
unions and in the trades and professions. It also offers alternate
possibilities for what is seen as racism which are thought provoking. I highly
recommend it. See an article by Williams, below. ~Bob Hall
OK to Feel Sorry. By Walter E.
Williams
Excerpt: The widespread and open criticism of Rodman shows
that there's been considerable progress and that I don't have to feel as sorry
for white people. But what about the weak media response to Rep. Henry C.
Johnson, D-Ga., who, during a 2010 House Armed Services Committee hearing
concerning U.S. military buildup on Guam, told Adm. Robert F. Willard, the then
commander of U.S. Pacific Command, “My fear is that the whole island will
become so overly populated that it will tip over and capsize”? Adm. Willard
replied, with all sincerity, “We don't anticipate that.” I'd pay serious money
to know what the admiral and his white staff said about Johnson after they left
the hearing room. Then there's Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, who asked NASA
scientists whether they could drive the Mars rover to where Neil Armstrong
placed the American flag.
Excerpt: One of the things that attracted me to the
political left, as a young man, was a belief that leftists were for “the
people.” Fortunately, I was also very interested in the history of ideas — and
years of research in that field repeatedly brought out the inescapable fact
that many leading thinkers on the left had only contempt for “the people.” That
has been true from the 18th century to the present moment. Even more
surprising, I discovered over the years that leading thinkers on the opposite
side of the ideological spectrum had more respect for ordinary people than
people on the left who spoke in their name.
Fact-Free Liberals.
By Thomas Sowell
Excerpt: Someone summarized Barack Obama in three words —
"educated," "smart" and "ignorant."
Unfortunately, those same three words would describe all too many of the people
who come out of our most prestigious colleges and universities today. President
Obama seems completely unaware of how many of the policies he is trying to
impose have been tried before, in many times and places around the world, and
have failed time and again.
Fact-Free Liberals: Part II. By Thomas
Sowell
Excerpt: Words seem to carry far more weight than facts
among those liberals who argue as if rent control laws actually control rents
and gun control laws actually control guns. It does no good to point out to
them that the two American cities where rent control laws have existed longest
and strongest -- New York and San Francisco -- are also
the two cities with the highest average rents.
Excerpt: Iran started to shut down its most sensitive
nuclear work on Monday, part of a landmark deal struck with world powers that
ease international concerns over the country's nuclear program and clearing the
way for a partial lifting of sanctions, the state media said.
Suicide Bombing Near
Pakistani Military Headquarters Kills at Least 13. By Salman Masood
Excerpt: The attack came a day after a bombing in
Bannu, in the country’s northwest, killed 20 members of a Pakistani
paramilitary unit. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for both
attacks.
Libyan army chief of
staff killed in clashes with Tripoli
Excerpt: Mohamed Karah died on Sunday from a gunshot wound
to the head, after participating in an offensive against gangs who had been
stealing cars and blocking roads in the Rishfana area on the outskirts of the
capital. (More fruit from Obama's unauthorized, lea-from-behind war. ~Bob)
John Kerry’s Flying Circus. By Daniel Greenfield
Excerpt: On the State Department website there is a section
titled “Travels with the Secretary” that lists all the places that the
Secretary of State has been to. In an atmosphere where Hillary Clinton received
the Liberty Medal because she “traveled to more countries than any other
Secretary of State” mileage is almost as good as accomplishment… at least to
the latest senator to squat in the Truman
Building
ObamaCare’s Attack on the Elderly. By Arnold Ahlert
Excerpt: As healthcare expert
Besty McCaughey reveals,
a similar horror show is occurring on this side of the Atlantic ,
courtesy of ObamaCare. Beginning the the same time the LCP scandal was being
exposed, the Obama administration began awarding hospitals bonus points
for spending the least amount of money on elderly patients. Even worse, the
idea was sold to
the elderly as a good thing during the 2012 presidential election campaign.
Affording the Affordable Care Act. By Michael Ollove
Excerpt: The promise of the Affordable Care Act is right
there in its title: Affordable.Yet, anti-poverty agencies across the
country fear that even with the federal financial assistance available under
the law, health insurance will remain unaffordable for significant numbers of
low-income Americans.
British experience with NHS reveals ills of government
health care programs like Obamacare. By Cal
Thomas
Excerpt: For many years, the British media have carried
stories that not only bode ill for the future of government-run health care,
but also continue to serve as a “code blue” warning to the U.S. as to what might be in our
future if we decide to go down that road. Writing in the Daily Telegraph under
the headline “It's time to make difficult decisions about the NHS,” columnist Judith Woods said, “The NHS, dying on its feet
for decades, is in a critical state. The promised injection of cash may
stabilize it temporarily, but the chances of a full recovery are nil.” ... Already,
according to the Daily Mail, citing a report by the European Commission, “Britain has
fewer doctors per person than nearly all other European countries.”
The Eternal Darkness of the Progressive Mind. By Bruce Thornton
Excerpt: The attacks on Lone Survivor, the movie about 4 Navy Seals caught in an operation
gone lethally wrong in Afghanistan ,
illustrate once again the fossilized orthodoxy of the left. The L.A. Weekly’s
Amy Nicholson called the movie a “jingoistic snuff film” that “bleeds blood
red, bone-fracture white, and bruise blue” and assumes “brown people bad,
American people good.”
Fiscal Condition of
the 50 States
Excerpt: Alaska , South Dakota and North Dakota
are in the best overall fiscal condition of the 50 states, says Sarah Arnett of
the Mercatus Center Alaska ,
Ohio , South Dakota ,
Florida and Montana . The least solvent states are Maine , Pennsylvania , Connecticut , California
and Illinois .
Excerpt: She stated earlier
this week that democracy is a poor political system for fighting global
warming. She also said that communist China is instead the best model. Even
though China is the world’s top emitter of carbon dioxide and struggles with
major pollution issues of their own, apparently Ms. Figueres thinks that means
they are “doing it right” when it comes to fighting global warming.
The News in Zingers.
By Argus Hamilton
Excerpt: The NFL revealed the Super Bowl will be guarded by
four thousand federal and local cops . Everyone entering the stadium must pass
through a facial scanner that identifies known and suspected criminals. We will
be lucky if we end up with two teams out on the field.
Melissa Harris-Perry
Pronounces Marine Corps Motto Semper 'Fee'
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/mark-finkelstein/2014/01/19/melissa-harris-perry-pronounces-marine-corps-motto-semper-fee#ixzz2quaGUvzI
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/mark-finkelstein/2014/01/19/melissa-harris-perry-pronounces-marine-corps-motto-semper-fee#ixzz2quaGUvzI
Yup, and our Corpse-men are all included in Semper Fee. ~Bob
Google now has the technology to control
your thermostat
Excerpt:….”Google reach expands into your home. They just
bought Nest for $3.2 billion,” Glenn said on radio this morning. “What is Nest?
Oh, they are the ones that make your smart thermostats and fire alarms.” (Watched
Hawaiian Life on HGTV via Direct TV the other night. Got an add for it on
Google Chrome 2 days later. --Barb)
Excerpt: Labour’s Member of Parliament for Easington in the
north of England
has provoked outrage today after insinuating that the Israeli flag in some way
had a link to Nazism.
Excerpt: I read a sad thing last week. Someone was doing a
survey of Black urban youth and what they knew about Martin Luther King. Sadly,
when asked, many referred to a Martin
Luther King Boulevard that exists in nearly every
major city in the nation. Others answered "he be the dude the honky's
killed." While some knew who King was, few could correlate King with his
great "I Have A Dream" speech, or the historical "Letter From A
Birmingham Jail."
Excerpt: I’ve never seen an intelligible argument for
community rating. I think I know why. I’m afraid there isn’t any. Don’t believe
me? I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I let you pick any recognized ethical system in
the entire history of Western philosophy (Only Western? Yeah, we’re not
cultural relativists here at the NCPA). Altruism, Egoism, Nietzschean ethics,
Nicomachean (Aristotelian) ethics, Kantian ethics, Thomism (Christian ethics),
Utilitarianism, Rawlsian ethics, etc. ― pick any one you like. Then at the
other end, I won’t even confine you to health care. You can pick any good or
service you like. Your task: to show how you can logically go from the chosen
ethical system to the conclusion that the “just” amount a person should pay is
the same for everybody, regardless of expected consumption.
Excerpt: Most of the commentators on the exchange roll out
caution against the “death
spiral,” in which failing to attract the young and healthy raises overall
premiums. This further deters low-cost people from enrolling, resulting in even
higher premiums. This is absolutely true in a normal market. But a new
report from the actuarial consulting firm Milliman shows how the
Affordable Care Act has turned normal market principles on their head. Here is
the problem. Because health insurers are no longer allowed to ask any questions
about an applicant’s health, they have absolutely no way of knowing who they
are enrolling in terms of past or present illnesses or health conditions. They
might attract a group of pretty healthy people or a group of pretty sick
people, but they won’t know until people start filing claims. So it is
impossible to accurately set premiums, at least for the first few years.
Obamanomics Is Killing Jobs. By David Limbaugh
Excerpt: If it weren't for a shamelessly dishonest,
hyper-protective liberal media, the American people would know, unanimously and
without doubt, that Obamanomics is killing American jobs. There is no silver
lining in the December jobs numbers. Experts and analysts were expecting this
latest jobs report, released Friday, to show 200,000 new payroll jobs in
December, but there were only 74,000, which is 37 percent of the goal. Not 90
percent, not 80, not 70, not even 50 percent. Just 37 percent. (So the great
news is that finally, the joblessness rate has dropped from 8% all the way
down under 7%, after these years of waiting for the economic recovery to kick
in, as Mr. Obama promised it would. Yep, just wonderful, that finally all the
various adjustments to our system have borne fruit, and we can feel good about
the reversal of the increasing number of people without jobs. Just great. Indeed.
Well, except for just one tiny detail. Just read on, and that minor little
deviation from the legend of more jobs being created will become clear. Not
that you'll ever have to worry about hearing about it again from any of the
media, and most certainly not from anyone in the Administration. But read
on.....Del )
Obama’s Recessional:
There is nothing accidental about the president’s apparent foreign-policy
blunders. By Victor Davis Hanson
Excerpt: Collate the following: large defense cuts, the
president’s suspicions that he is being gamed by the military, the pullout from
the anti-missile defense pact in Eastern Europe, the pressure on Israel to give
new concessions to its neighbors, the sudden warming up with an increasingly
Islamist Turkey, the failed reset with Russia, radical nuclear-arms-reduction
talks, the abject withdrawal of all U.S. peacekeeping forces in Iraq, the
timetable withdrawals in Afghanistan, the new worries of our Asian and Middle
Eastern allies, the constant euphemisms on the war on terror, the stepped-up
drone attacks, the lead-from-behind removal of Moammar Qaddafi, the pullaway
from Mubarak in Egypt, the support for Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood, the
pink lines in Syria, the Iranian missile deal, the declaration that al-Qaeda
was on the run and the war on terror essentially ending, the Benghazi coverup,
and on and on.
Excerpt: Turkish counterterrorism forces reportedly arrested
Ibrahim Sen, a former Guantanamo
detainee, during raids against suspected al Qaeda members in six
different provinces on Jan. 14.
Former Va. Gov.
McDonnell, wife indicted on federal corruption charges
Excerpt: Former Virginia Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell and
wife Maureen were indicted Tuesday on federal corruption charges for allegedly
accepting gifts, vacations and loans from a businessman seeking special
treatment from the state for his fledgling business. (Yes, "innocent until
proven guilty," but conservatives and Republicans should be harder on one
of our own who turns out to be a bum than on liberal or Democrat bums. they
discredit the movement and set back the good wrk. ~Bob)
Excerpt: Expect Sen. Angus King, a
Democrat-aligned Senator from Maine ,
to get a less-than-pleasant phone call from Team Hillary over this remark on CNN. Time to add Sen. King
to the enemies list?
Stewart Skewers
Obama’s NSA Speech: Privacy Is Important!… Unless We Decide It Isn’t!
Excerpt: Jon Stewart opened Monday night’s Daily
Show with a stinging takedown of President Obama‘s NSA speech;
a delicate tightrope act involving Obama trying to assuage privacy advocates
while actually not doing anything that would upset the people with actual say
and power in this debate.
The Super Bowl and Sex Trafficking. By Michael
Reagan
Excerpt: Sex trafficking has become a stealth parasite that
attaches itself to major sporting events, taking advantage of a large number of
fans and the demand for illicit sex. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott echoed
the stunning revelation, gripping so many with his statement about the 2011
Super Bowl in Dallas : “It's commonly known as
the single largest human trafficking incident in the United States .” Dallas
police and federal authorities arrested 133 minors for prostitution during the
2011 Super Bowl, and according to Forbes Magazine 10,000 prostitutes were
transported to Miami
for the Super Bowl in 2010.
Excerpt: After nodding to the fact that, historically, the
New York state Republican Party has been the most ideologically gelded of the
breed (it is the birthplace of Rockefeller Republicanism, after all), Cuomo
proclaimed that “extreme conservatives” have “no place in the state of New
York. Who are extreme conservatives? People who are “right-to-life, pro-assault
weapon, anti-gay. It's an interesting – and repugnant – tautology: Extremists
hold extreme views, and we can identify extreme views by the fact they are held
by extremists.
Who Is ‘Boo’ Burnham?
By Peggy Noonan
Excerpt: I suppose I should note here, especially for
those who haven’t yet Googled Frank “Boo” Burnham and Mississippi , that there is no such person. I
made him up to make a point. The governor who made the harshly divisive and
dismissive comments about those who disagree with him politically is Andrew
Cuomo of New York ,
who of course is a liberal, not a conservative, and who has not faced anything
near the criticism ol’ fictitious Frank “Boo” Burnham would have received if
he’d said the equivalent of what Cuomo said.
American Blood on Iranian Hands. By Daniel Greenfield
Excerpt: “The worst part for me is that nobody remembers,”
Mark Nevells said
last year on the anniversary of the Hezbollah bombing of the Marine
barracks in Beirut .
A Marine had thrown his body in front of the truck to try stop the vehicle and afterward for five days, Nevells and other Marines had
dug through the rubble for the bodies of the men they had served with.
Russian police kill
Islamist militant leader before Olympics
Excerpt: Police have killed a senior Islamist militant in Russia 's North Caucasus ahead of the
Winter Olympics in
Sochi , where
security forces searched on Tuesday for a woman they fear is planning an attack
during the games.
Obama 'Threatens Fox
News Reporter's Career'
Excerpt: Fox News anchor Greta Van Susteren charges that the
Obama administration tried to press her to shut down a colleague’s reporting on
the jihadist attack in Benghazi , Libya , that cost the lives of a U.S. ambassador
and three other Americans.
Islamic Extremists in
Nigeria
Excerpt: Islamic extremists have attacked villages in three
states in Nigeria
every Sunday this month, killing at least 15 Christians.
The Four Great Waves of Defense Neglect: The Dangers of a
Hollow Military. By Peter Huessy
Excerpt: America 's
fourth wave of neglect of its military since the end of World War II may have
disastrous geostrategic consequences. While Congress has passed a temporary
slowdown in the decline in American defense spending with a two-year budget
framework, the Ryan-Murray budget agreement, which restores $32 billion to the
Department of Defense, the projected defense resources available for the next
eight years will not allow the United States to protect its own security, let
alone that of its allies.
Politically Incorrect
without Trying: The Left can’t stand Lone Survivor's depictions of heroic
American warriors.By Rich Lowry
Excerpt: None of this is remotely controversial material.
How could anyone be offended by a movie about a Navy SEAL fighting with
everything he has to save himself and his buddies and improbably surviving an
epic ordeal? Yet the brickbats have been flying from the snotty left:
Propaganda. Simplistic. Racist. Lone Survivor has run up against part
of the culture that can’t stand the most straightforward depictions of American
heroism and the warrior ethic. A reviewer in The Atlantic worries
that movies like Lone Survivor “resemble multi-million dollar
recruitment videos — tools of military indoctrination geared toward the young
and the impressionable.”
Excerpt: Israeli authorities today announced the arrest of
three global jihadists who were allegedly preparing to carry out terror attacks
after being recruited by an al-Qaeda-linked operative in the Gaza Strip. The
three terrorists were identified as Iyad Mahmoud Khalil Abu Sara, Rubin Abu
Nagma, and Ala Yasin Mohammed Anam.
Excerpt: Gunmen killed three health workers taking part in a
polio vaccination drive in Karachi on Tuesday,
police said, in the latest blow to efforts to stamp out the disease in Pakistan .
After the attacks, the latest in a series of deadly assaults
on vaccination teams, the provincial polio workers' association said it was
halting operations across Sindh province.
Nigerian Islamists kill 18, burn houses in northeast
Excerpt: The latest Boko Haram assault, on Sunday night,
came hours before Nigeria 's
four top military chiefs handed over to fresh commanders in a ceremony on
Monday.
As Wendy Davis touts
life story in race for governor, key facts blurred
Excerpt: The basic elements of the narrative are true, but
the full story of Davis ’
life is more complicated, as often happens when public figures aim to define
themselves. In the shorthand version that has developed, some facts have been
blurred.
http://washingtonexaminer.com/a-conservative-case-for-universal-coverage/article/2542091
Excerpt: The good news is that we don’t have to theorize
about unproven solutions to our health care problems. Two wealthy countries
have health care systems that, if we could substitute them for our own, would
exceed the wildest dreams of American conservative reformers. Switzerland and Singapore achieve universal
coverage while spending a fraction of what we spend, and they ensure broad
access to high-quality doctors and the latest technology. (I'd be willing to
trade Obamacare for the Swiss system. All must have coverage, but private
insurance companies. Limited bureaucracy to fund it for those who can't afford
it. ~Bob)
White House imposes secrecy rules on first lady's lavish,
celebrity-filled birthday party. By Byron
York
Excerpt: Why the secrecy, especially for an event involving
so many well-known people? Maybe the Obamas just wanted a little privacy for an
important occasion in the first lady's life, although having 500 guests,
including some of the most famous people on the planet, is perhaps not the best
way to achieve that goal. Or maybe, since the president has announced he is
devoting the rest of his time in office to an "inequality agenda,"
the White House felt photos of a champagne-soaked, star-studded party would be
somewhat off-message.
Why Slower Healthcare Cost Inflation Isn’t Fixing Medicare
Finances. By Charles Blahous
Excerpt: Closely related to this discussion is another
ongoing one: specifically, whether the health cost slowdown will improve
Medicare’s long-term financial picture relative to current projections. Today
the Mercatus Center
6 major hurdles to implementing Obamacare - Expect employer
and voter backlash. By Diana Furchtgott-Roth
Excerpt: Despite the ruling, it seems clear that the
Affordable Care Act is not working as intended. If the courts do not change it,
it will surely need to be changed by Congress because of voter dissatisfaction.
Enrollment is low, and only a quarter of enrollees are young people whose
premiums are needed to subsidize the old and sick. When people get through on
the website, many are finding that premiums and deductibles are higher than
before, and that they do not have access to the doctors they saw previously.
Posts
Reading you for the past 5 or 6 years, can't help but notice your positive attitude on life. Your recent surgery and healing process tells me that you are one tough SOB. I am a Nam vet also, you do us all proud, I would like to think of us as the "second greatest generation". I salute you!
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