New lung update: Not much to report. Feeling good,
exercising at rehab three times a week, and all my numbers look god. They are
giving me a bronchoscopy every week to clean out mucus and "slough"
(dead cells, they say once gone are gone--not everyone has it). ~Bob
Excerpt: Via CNBC, an appropriate companion story to Moody's
decision to downgrade health insurers' credit outlook to
"negative." At least one chief executive within the industry is
openly warning markets and consumers that actions -- and math -- have real-world consequences, no matter
how hard political actors spin:
Insurance Downgrade.
From The Patriot Post
Moody's Investor Service has downgraded the entire health
insurance industry from stable to negative. Guess what's to blame: ObamaCare.
Moody's says, "a new development and a key factor for the change in
outlook is the unstable and evolving regulatory environment under which the
sector is operating." Unstable is putting it mildly given the waivers and
unilateral changes made by the Obama administration. The ratings change was
inevitable because ObamaCare was designed to yield the results it's
getting. And it's just getting started.
Downgraded: Insurance Companies Taste Wrath of ObamaCare.
By Arnold Ahlert
Excerpt: Another day, another dose of bad news for
ObamaCare. On Thursday, Moody’s Investor Service announced it was downgrading its
outlook for America ’s
healthcare insurance sector from “stable” to “negative,” due to
ObamaCare. “While all of these issues had been on our radar screen as we
approached 2014, a new development and a key factor for the change in outlook
is the unstable and evolving regulatory environment under which the sector is
operating,” Moody’s said.
The ObamaCare
Carnival of Perverse Incentives. By John C. Goodman
Excerpt: With fewer glitches to deter them, millions of
Americans are now logging on to the ObamaCare health-insurance-exchange
websites. When they get there, many are discovering some unpleasant surprises: The
deductibles are higher than what most people are used to, the networks of
doctors and hospitals are skimpier (in some cases much skimpier), and
lifesaving drugs are often not on the insurers' formularies. Even after the
government's income-based subsidies are taken into account, the premiums are
often higher than what people previously paid.
More People On
Medicaid Does Nor Mean Obamacare Is A Success. By Andrew Quinn
Excerpt: Progressive policy wonks are rallying around one
feature of the law that they insist is proceeding wonderfully. Put aside all
the other issues, they say—we should still applaud Obamacare’s massive
expansion of Medicaid. (Compares Medicaid expansion to a blind date gone bad –
very funny and so sad – Bob M.)
New Gallup
Excerpt: According to Gallup ,
which has been measuring the percentage of uninsured Americans monthly since
2008, the current rate of uninsured Americans is stuck at 16.1%.
A quick look at the trends will show you that percentage is
almost the same as what it was when President Obama took office in January
2009, and nearly identical to the rate of uninsured in March 2010, when the
Democrats jammed ObamaCare through Congress on a strictly party line vote.
Little Sisters of the
Poor, 1, Obamacare, 0. By Trey Sanchez
Excerpt:
The Supreme Court on Friday delivered
an injunction that allows the group of nursing home nuns, along with other
religious organizations, to opt out of the Obamacare mandate that says
they must provide employees contraception, which includes abortion. The
injunction is quite a win for the nuns against the over-reaching arms
of Obamacare. (Who knew the Little Sisters were racists? ~Bob)
Chris Jennings, White
House adviser on health care, steps down
Excerpt: Chris Jennings, the White House’s coordinator of
health reform, has resigned six months after he was recruited to try to iron
out the implementation of major aspects of the Affordable Care Act.
Target to Drop Health
Insurance for Part-Time Workers. By Alex Wayne
Excerpt: Target Corp. (TGT) will
end health insurance for part-time employees in April, joining Trader Joe’s
Co., Home Depot Inc. and other U.S.
retailers that have scaled back benefits in response to changes from Obamacare.
Krauthammer: "The Purpose of O'care Was to Destroy the
Relationship Between the Employer & Employee." ByGreg Hengler
excerpt: Krauthammer: "The bill was written
deliberately to force employers to kick people off their plans.... None of this
[Target's new policy cancelling insurance for their part-time workers] is an
unintended side effect of the creation of Obamacare. The purpose of Obamacare
was to destroy the relationship between the employer and the employee in
getting healthcare."
New Study: It’s Cheaper for Young People to Opt Out of
Obamacare than to Enroll
Excerpt: Some House
Democrats believe
Obamacare is fundamentally sound. But if so, why has another study concluded
that the individual mandate provision is seemingly
flawed? In short, the law stipulates that those who do not have
health insurance must sign-up for Obamacare or pay a penalty. But unfortunately
for this administration, young people are already discovering that it’s
cheaper for them to pay the fine than sign-up for an insurance plan they can
ill-afford.
White
Food. By Steve Sailer
Excerpt: In 2014, “transparency”
is a popular buzzword used in the fight against corruption. The Turkish Gülen cult that runs all those charter schools in America , for
example, is frequently upbraided for not being transparent in its finances. Similarly, a century
ago demanding whiteness was a way to fight corruption and adulteration in
purchased food. Today a fashionable diet item such as South American quinoa may look like ground-up bugs, but we trust that supermarkets couldn’t get
away with selling us ground-up bugs. (They can’t, can they?) Back then ,
however, people didn’t put much faith in grocery stores and restaurants,
especially when they were traveling—and often with good reason.
Hand guns should be
legalised and licensed, Nigel Farage has said
Excerpt: The Ukip leader has said it is party policy for
hand guns to be legalised and licensed in the UK
despite being banned in the UK
for the last 18 years.
Mr Farage said the current ban on the guns, which were made
illegal following the school shooting at Dunblane in 1996, was “ludicrous.”
Excerpt: United Nations human
rights experts called on Wednesday for an urgent halt to a surge in executions
in Iran in recent weeks,
observing that the more moderate tone adopted on human rights since President
Hassan Rouhani’s election last year has yet to yield any moderation in the
country’s punitive practices. Iran
reportedly hanged 40 people in the first two weeks of January, 33 of them in
the last week, Ahmed Shaheed, the United Nations expert monitoring human rights
in Iran , and Christof Heyns,
the organization’s expert dealing with summary executions, said in a joint
statement released in Geneva .
The hangings carried out by Iran since the start of the year follow the
execution of 625 people, including 28 women, and a number of political
detainees in 2013, an increase of more than 100 over the number of recorded
executions the previous year, Mr. Shaheed said.
Excerpt: Egyptians are bracing themselves for civil unrest
tonight after Cairo was shaken by a series of explosions on the eve of third
anniversary of the Tahrir Square uprising. A suspected suicide bomber detonated
a truck bomb outside the headquarters of Egypt ’s security directorate,
killing four people – including three policeman – and wounding dozens of
others.
Excerpt: In a statement released to jihadist forums this
evening, Sinai-based Ansar Jerusalem (Ansar Bayt al Maqdis) claimed
responsibility for four attacks today in the Cairo area, including a car
bombing outside the Cairo Security Directorate. The attacks, the first by the
group outside North Sinai since Dec. 24,
left six people dead and over 70 wounded.
Motorcycle gunmen
kill five Egyptian police, government says
Excerpt: The attack in the province
of Beni Suef , 100 km (62 miles) south
of Cairo , was
carried out by men riding two motorcycles, a ministry statement said.
Book Review: Tramps
Like Them. Charles Murray Examines the White Working Class in ‘Coming Apart’
The book is worth reading. ~Bob. Excerpt: Charles Murray,
the influential conservative scholar and provocateur, believes this story is
wrong. In his new book, “Coming Apart,” Murray
flips the script that has energized Republican politics and campaigns since
Richard Nixon: the white working class, he argues, is no longer part of a
virtuous silent majority. Instead, beginning in the early 1960s, it has become
increasingly alienated from what Murray
calls “the founding virtues” of civic life. “Our nation is coming apart at the
seams,” Murray
warns — “not ethnic seams, but the seams of class.”
In Their Own Words: Lenin, Stalin, Obama, and Hillary.
By Andrew Thomas
http://www.americanthinker.com/2014/01/in_their_own_words_lenin_stalin_obama_and_hillary.html#.UuEibvDkxMo.gmail#ixzz2rQKpl8HA
Excerpt: It is beneficial to remind ourselves periodicallyof the realities in the struggle between Constitutionalism / Capitalism and Marxism-Leninism. It is a continual struggle, whether we acknowledge it or not. And the enemy ofAmerica
as a constitutional republic with a capitalistic economic
system is Marxism-Leninism, whether it be characterized as communism,
socialism, progressivism, leftism, statism, or liberalism (in its current
state).
http://www.americanthinker.com/2014/01/in_their_own_words_lenin_stalin_obama_and_hillary.html#.UuEibvDkxMo.gmail#ixzz2rQKpl8HA
Excerpt: It is beneficial to remind ourselves periodicallyof the realities in the struggle between Constitutionalism / Capitalism and Marxism-Leninism. It is a continual struggle, whether we acknowledge it or not. And the enemy of
Outrage
is the New Identity Politics. By Daniel Greenfield
http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2014/01/outrage-is-new-identity-politics.html
Excerpt: The internet has few limits. The only meaningful hard limit on the internet is the human attention span. Content isn't quite infinite, but it easily surpasses what any single person could even begin to take in. The sheer amount of options alone exceed the available time to enumerate them at any given moment. Technological limits have been proven to be soft limits. But there's only so much human attention to go around.
Excerpt: The internet has few limits. The only meaningful hard limit on the internet is the human attention span. Content isn't quite infinite, but it easily surpasses what any single person could even begin to take in. The sheer amount of options alone exceed the available time to enumerate them at any given moment. Technological limits have been proven to be soft limits. But there's only so much human attention to go around.
Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis: Two Sisters Lung Transplant from Same Donor
Excerpt: For months, 71-year-old Irma Myers-Santana and her
younger sister, Anna Williamson, 69, had been debating who more urgently needed
a lung transplant, each wanting the other to go first. Earlier this month,
though, the sisters ended up in the same operating room, each getting one lung
from the same donor in what doctors at Houston Methodist
Hospital
State Department
spokesperson mischaracterizes al Qaeda
Excerpt: Yesterday, State Department Spokesperson Marie Harf
made two ridiculous claims about al Qaeda during a briefing with reporters.
First, she claimed that there are no "operational" links between al
Qaeda emir Ayman al Zawahiri and jihadist groups in Syria . And second, she said that
Zawahiri is the only remaining member of "core" al Qaeda. From
the briefing [emphasis ours]:
Excerpt: Sixty percent of voters blame Clinton for what happened, according to a Fox
News poll released Thursday. That includes 28 percent who blame her “a great
deal” and another 32 percent who say she deserves “some” blame. Essentially
the same number -- 59 percent -- blames Obama (26 percent “a great deal” and 33
percent “some”).
A woman’s thoughts on Lone Survivor. And a message to
candy-ass liberals. By Michele Hickford, Editor-in-Chief
Excerpt: I saw Lone Survivor today. I wept. I’m a female, I
can do that sort of thing in public. Here’s why I wept. In the first few
minutes of the film, watching the Navy SEALS train, I turned to my friends and
said what a travesty it would be if the physical requirements were ever
adjusted downwards to accommodate women – or anyone who could not meet them for
that matter, regardless of gender or orientation. These men, these warriors,
are elite for a reason. They are capable of doing things very few can. That’s
the way we want and need them to be. (This lady has it right, and my hat is off
to her. --Del )
Excerpt: The unprovoked verbal attack this week on a black
U.S. Senator by a senior official of the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) shows that negative stereotyping and the
prejudice of low expectations – precisely what Martin Luther King fought
against –lives on. Unfortunately, it is being perpetuated by the some of the
very people who have appointed themselves the guardians of his ideals.
Newspaper chain plans 'state-by-state' concealed weapon
databases. By Joshua Rhett
Miller
Excerpt: A national newspaper chain with nearly 100
publications and 1.6 million readers is considering building “state-by-state
databases” on concealed weapons permit holders, according to an internal
e-mail. (A public service to thugs and thieves. ~Bob)
Military Dress Policy
Allows for Turbans, Beards Worn for Religious Reasons
Excerpt: The Pentagon is expected to announce changes today
to rules governing religious items and uniform regulations, NBC News is reporting.
Nullifying 2nd Amendment: Smith & Wesson Victim Of California
http://politicaloutcast.com/2014/01/nuillifying-2nd-amendment-smith-wesson-victim-california-regs/#7Odd2mtzdglAe0f2.99
http://politicaloutcast.com/2014/01/nuillifying-2nd-amendment-smith-wesson-victim-california-regs/#7Odd2mtzdglAe0f2.99
Excerpt: It seems the California
government has launched a much more effective version of this strategy. Their
regulations are so burdensome that, not only are guns more expensive, but gun
sellers are giving up on the market.
Watch what happens
when Obama picks a top donor as ambassador
Excerpt: This is why a
future president might finally do away with the practice of nominating a top
political donor to be an ambassador. Here’s how the White House described
wealthy executive George Tsunis when President Barack Obama nominated him to be
the top U.S. diplomat in Norway in
September 2013:
Excerpt: Fixated as we Americans are on Canada ’s three most attention-getting exports —
polar vortexes, Alberta clippers, and the
antics of Toronto ’s addled mayor — we’ve
somewhat overlooked a major feature of Canada ’s
current relations with the United
States : extreme annoyance. (If Canada was a Muslim country or had made a large
contribution to Organizing for America ,
construction--with subsidies--would be underway. ~Bob)
Company that vetted
Snowden accused of faulty reviews
Excerpt: Federal authorities have accused the company that
vetted former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden and Navy Yard
shooter Aaron Alexis of conducting 665,000 incomplete reviews in exchange for
millions of dollars in bonus payments, according to court documents. (But the
government is competent and should run healthcare and the economy. ~Bob)
Blasphemy case:
Briton in Pakistan
Excerpt: A court in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi has sentenced a 70-year-old
British man to death after convicting him of blasphemy. Muhammad Asghar was
arrested in 2010 after writing letters to various people claiming to be a
prophet, reports say.
Obama’s Middle East Fantasies. By P. David Hornik
Excerpt: Obama adduces the Palestinian issue and Arab
anti-Semitism going back “decades” as the factors preventing an “informal
alliance” and “diplomatic relations.” The implication is that these
problems—along with Israeli “anti-Arab sentiment”—can be overcome. The
administration, spearheaded by Secretary of State Kerry, has indeed thrown
itself headlong into another round of the “Israeli-Palestinian peace process.” The
problems with Obama’s take on the matter, however, begin with the word
“decades.”
Excerpt: In real life, terrorists are almost always Muslim.
In the movie theater, they are anything but. America ’s fictional secret agents,
covert operatives and rogue cops who play by their own rules have spent more
time battling Serbian terrorists than Muslim terrorists.
Look, You Don't Know
What You're Missing. By Andy Weddington
Excerpt: Painting. What to paint? How to paint it? Those are
the two questions that ever haunt painters - beginners and accomplished
alike. But painting is not about things. And painting is not
about the brush.
Excerpt: Pakistani officials have reportedly used a secret
counter-terrorism fund to buy wedding gifts, luxury carpets and gold jewellery
for relatives of ministers and visiting dignitaries.
Documents seen by the AFP news agency cast a spotlight on
high-level corruption in Pakistan
as the impoverished but nuclear-armed country battles a surge in Taliban
violence.
Protesters throw
stones, disrupt Nigeria
Excerpt: Thousands of protesters threw stones into the
Shariah court in a north Nigerian city Wednesday, urging the speedy convictions
and executions of 11 men arrested for belonging to gay organizations.
Unbelievable! Media
Blames Chris Stevens for His Own Murder – New Talking Points to Clear Clinton
Excerpt: In a move that can only be considered so low as not
to be believed, the liberal media has decided that Ambassador Chris Stevens is
to blame for his own death at the hands of terrorists. That’s right folks, they
are blaming Chris Stevens as the cause of his own death! T.V. talk show host
and staunch liberal Bill Maher begins by essentially suggesting that the latest
intelligence committee report all but exonerates everyone stateside of any
incompetence, wrongdoing, or cover up.
Excerpt: The emir of al Qaeda, Ayman al Zawahiri, has
released a new audio message addressing the infighting between jihadist groups in Syria .
Zawahiri does not mention any specific groups or individuals by name, but much
of his message is clearly aimed at the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham
(ISIS), a branch of al Qaeda that has been the main source of the internecine
conflict.
Federal prosecutors
subpoena Christie's campaign, NJ GOP committee
Excerpt: Federal prosecutors have subpoenaed New Jersey Gov.
Chris Christie's campaign and a state Republican Party committee, escalating
their probe into allegations that his aides created traffic jams as political
payback. (Chgristie has handled this scandal far better than Obama has his
many, but he doesn't have the media carrying water for him. I'm not a Christie
fan. I think he's done. ~Bob.)
Judge: ‘Let’s Burn
the Jew’ not Racism, Even if you Burn a Jew
Excerpt: A Canadian judge ruled that grabbing a Jewish girl,
flicking a lighter next to her hair and saying "let's burn the Jew"
is apparently not a racially motivated act in Winnipeg . A high school student grabbed a
Jewish female classmate, held a lighter to her hair and said out loud,
"let's burn the Jew," but a Canadian judge concluded that the
incident was "not racially motivated." The lawyer for the defendant
claimed, essentially, it was the girl's fault her hair caught on
fire. (Would this judge have come to the same conclusion if the same was
done by a Jew to a Christian or Muslim? What would be the reaction of the
world? --Harry)
Global Warming
Scientist To Be Cross-examined Under Oath [2nd Amendment Texan] Posted by
Ace of Spades
Excerpt: It appears from the complaint that Mr. [Michael
'Hockey Stick'] Mann is demanding a jury trial. He might get it yet – after 18 months of
procedural absurdity the judge refused to dismiss the case. For
1st Amendment legal observers, this is the cue to get the popcorn because
there is a smack down coming.
Excerpt:
It was the Arab use of the oil weapon after the 1973 Yom Kippur War that
convinced Western Europe to end its diplomatic support for Israel Israel
that has eroded Israel ’s
diplomatic standing over the past two generations and transformed the only
human rights respecting democracy in the Middle East
into an international pariah. And yet, under Stephen Harper, as the noose of
international isolation is drawn around Israel ’s
neck more tightly every day, Canada
PHOTOS:
Kiev "reminiscent of revolutionary Paris
Excerpt: Tom Coburn’s decision to retire prematurely from
the Senate is a major loss to both the upper chamber and his constituents in Oklahoma . Coburn, who is
yet again battling cancer, has been one of the Senate’s most vocal fiscal
conservatives, earning a reputation for fighting against cronyism,
earmarks, and out-of-control entitlement spending in Washington . One pundit stated that he was
Tea Party long before the movement was even conceived. But like any
retirement, the ink has barely dried on the press release before possible
successors start throwing their hats (or Stetsons) into the ring.
Almost
Everything in "Dr. Strangelove" Was True. By Eric Schlosser
Excerpt:
The first casualty of every war is the truth—and the Cold War was no exception
to that dictum. Half a century after Kubrick’s mad general, Jack D. Ripper,
launched a nuclear strike on the Soviets to defend the purity of “our precious
bodily fluids” from Communist subversion, we now know that American officers
did indeed have the ability to start a Third World War on their own. And
despite the introduction of rigorous safeguards in the years since then, the
risk of an accidental or unauthorized nuclear detonation hasn’t been completely
eliminated.
Extreme
Excessive Spending in the Diocese of Camden ,
New Jersey
http://vatican.com/questions/5201/extreme_excessive_spending_in_the_diocese_of_camden_new_jersey_usa
Excerpt:
Last week in the newspaper it was reported that the Diocese of Camden purchased
a mansion in Woodbury , New Jersey
Dinesh D'Souza
Released on $500,000 Bond
Excerpt: Dinesh D'Souza pleaded "not
guilty" Friday in New
York during his arraignment on federal charges that
he violated campaign finance laws by donating $20,000 to a friend who
unsuccessfully ran for Hillary Clinton's U.S. Senate seat in 2012. (More
IRS targeting Conservatives? --JB).
Excerpt: There are two ways of looking at any major city; as
a mechanical problem of buildings, streets and sewers whose infrastructures
need to be maintained or as a social problem of misbehaving people. The mayors
of the mechanical problem understand that they need to clean the streets, but
the mayors of the social problem think that they have to fix the people.
Mayor Bloomberg flubbed the snow challenge badly. Instead of
preparing road salt, he banned salt in restaurants. Instead of having a snow
strategy for the winter, he had a Global Warming strategy for the next fifty
years. Instead of doing his job, he kept trying to transform the people.
Central African
Republic children forced to commit atrocities: U.N.
Excerpt: As many as 6,000 children in Central African Republic
have been recruited by armed groups and forced to commit atrocities along
religious lines in a conflict that is at high risk of spiraling into genocide,
U.N. envoys said on Wednesday.
Rights group says
Muslims massacred in Myanmar
Excerpt: Security forces in western Myanmar massacred
at least 40 Rohingya Muslims last week, including women and children, a human
rights group said on Thursday, quoting witness accounts, despite official
denials of the killings.
Iran’s Foreign
Minister on nuke deal: White House downplays U.S. concessions, “we did not
agree to dismantle anything.” By Robert Spencer
Excerpt: Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif
insisted Wednesday that the Obama administration mischaracterizes concessions
by his side in the six-month nuclear deal with Iran , telling CNN in an exclusive
interview that “we did not agree to dismantle anything.”
Excerpt: Iran
has been granted absolute control over more than $4 billion that will be
unfrozen and returned to Tehran
under the recently enacted nuclear accord, causing concern that the cash will
be used to fund terrorism.
Al-Qaeda training
British and European 'jihadists' in Syria
Excerpt: British people fighting in Syria are
being trained as “jihadists” and then encouraged to return to the UK to
launch attacks on home soil, an al-Qaeda defector and western security sources
have told the Telegraph.
Excerpt: Don’t believe the happy talk coming out of the
White House, Federal Reserve and Treasury Department when it comes to the real
unemployment rate and the true “Misery Index.” Because, according to an
influential Wall Street advisor, the figures are a fraud. In a memo to clients
provided to Secrets, David John Marotta calculates the actual unemployment rate
of those not working at a sky-high 37.2 percent, not the 6.7 percent advertised
by the Fed, and the Misery Index at over 14, not the 8 claimed by the
government.
Obama's NSA 'reforms' are little more than a PR attempt to
mollify the public
Excerpt: The crux of this tactic is that US political
leaders pretend to validate and even channel public anger by acknowledging that
there are "serious questions that have been raised". They vow changes
to fix the system and ensure these problems never happen again. And they then
set out, with their actions, to do exactly the opposite: to make the system
prettier and more politically palatable with empty, cosmetic
"reforms" so as to placate public anger while leaving the system
fundamentally unchanged, even more immune than before to serious challenge.
A blues singer spent
10 years in a North Vietnam
Excerpt: During its war with the United
States , North Vietnam
wasn't just concerned with how the frontline battles were going, or the US air
raids on its capital city. The communist leaders were also worried about
what its citizens were singing. The North Vietnamese government only wanted
songs that encouraged people to fight for the nation. So most other music was
banned, especially love songs. (What they believe in is hatred and fear of
anyone opposing them, and their own fanatic passion for power. Nothing else
matters, so songs about love do not mean anything to them. --Del )
White House
Petitioned to Have Muslim Holidays Recognized in School Year
Excerpt: OK, for all those people out there who think there
can be religious neutrality, I’m just making it clear, there cannot be such a thing (It’s called the myth of
neutrality). Everyone falls under some religious ideology, whether it be
Christianity, Islam, secular humanism or even atheism (and yes it is a
religious ideology). With that said, there is a petition posted at the
WhiteHouse.gov site calling for recognizing Muslim holidays during the school
year by the government education system. (And, of course, BHO will see to it
that it is pushed through, maybe even by another executive order. --JB).
Blankets to armored
vehicles: Military gives it, Utah
Excerpt: Utah police
also received four grenade launchers, 17 .45-caliber
pistols and a handful of magazines and weapon accessories. Click here to see a map of where in Utah the weapons went. The
Defense Department has provided the weaponry and equipment through what
it calls the 1033 Program. …While there’s no available documentation that
anyone in Utah has
been shot or killed with weapons from the 1033 Program, civil libertarians have
taken note and are voicing concern over what they call the
"militarization" of local police.
Michelle Obama: Hanoi
Excerpt: First Lady Michelle Obama says Jane Fonda is one of
her role models, and that she admires her political savviness. (Are we
surprised? --JB).
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