A few items to clear the computer

VA Lung Transplant #212 is finally home from the hospital. If you've been following my health postings (since I haven't been able to get through the 1500 emails to post a political blog, and had to delete without reading any but the personal), I went in for outpatient surgery on 3/3 to have the new lung debrided through a bronchoscopy. They kept me. Three surgeries later and a stent, they decided to let me go on Wednesday, 3/12. But were unable to get me out on time to get the antibiotic IV that night, so held me until Thursday. I was ready to go Thursday noon, told only infectious medicine had to sign off. They came up at 5:00 pm ad did so--too late to get the IV until Friday morning. Begs the question if that was okay, why couldn't I leave Wednesday? The nursing staff was ready to go to war for me. They were all terrific, as before. Finger pointing, but first time I knew someone had dropped a ball.

 The questions are, will the slough come back and after three months has the stent strengthened the lung so the dynamic collapse stops? We shall see. Breathing better, coughing less, average FEV numbers on the spirometer I blow into & record twice a day up from 1.7 liters to 2.0 liters. All good, or now at least.

I have an IV running 24/7 for four days, so after my shower I put on a shirt, Bonnie starts the IV (she does a terrific job, I'm going to send her to nursing school) and I wear that shirt for 24 hours. Can't change clothes over the IV, including coats, etc.

They wanted a chest x-ray, so sent a wheelchair to take me down. I pointed at the white board. "Says I'm supposed to be walking four times a day. Why can't I walk?" "Good pint." I walked down.

For the surgery, they said wear loose clothes, like sweats. So I wore sweats. Which they had me take off, put on a gown, and wear home ten days later.

Meantime, I lost half of March, so buried with medical and personal stuff. Will get back to reading political stuff when I can.

But a few things hanging around the computer, linked below. ~Bob

Why Does Hollywood Ignore White Slavery? By Jim Goad

http://takimag.com/article/why_does_hollywood_ignore_white_slavery_jim_goad#axzz2w41N67MI

Excerpt: Yet I can’t recall ever seeing a film that deals with the fact that in 1775, George Washington offered a rewardfor the capture and return of eight runaway white servants who’d escaped his clutches. “One can’t forget—nor even remember—what you don’t know about in the first place.” And for all the countless movies that have been made about black slavery in America—even old ones such as Gone With the Wind and The Birth of a Nation that are now considered blasphemous—I can’t ever remember seeing a film about white slavery. And when I say “white slavery,” I don’t mean sex trafficking—I mean the literal enslavement of white Europeans who were transported against their will to both Africa and America.

The End of International Law. By Daniel Greenfield

http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/the-end-of-international-law/

Excerpt: “There has been no greater advance than this, gentlemen,” the President of the United States said. “It is a definite guarantee of peace. It is a definite guarantee by word against aggression.” The year was 1919. The speaker was President Woodrow Wilson and the tremendous advance in human history was the League of Nations. Then Japan seized Manchuria and turned it into a puppet regime. China turned to the League of Nations which ordered Japan to withdraw from Manchuria. Japan instead withdrew from the League of Nations. Five years later, Japan invaded China. China asked for help from the League of Nations. The League proved to be just as useless again.

A Change of Climate. By Mark Steyn

http://www.steynonline.com/6165/a-change-of-climate

Excerpt: "Climate Change Not A Top Worry In US," reports Gallup, deadpan. Washington's Potemkin parliament can hold as many pajama parties as it wants, but Big Climate absolutism is going nowhere, and the savvier scientists - the ones who haven't been seduced by political patrons and celebrity pals - are beginning to understand they need to figure out a different tack.

Miss (& Ms. & Mrs.) Direction(s) of the Marine Corps. By Andy Weddington

http://acoloneloftruth.blogspot.com/2014/03/miss-ms-mrs-directions-of-marine-corps.html

Excerpt: Still marveling over what I'd witnessed earlier in the day, last evening I received an email from a general officer. The content of that forwarded email (to me) - from the commandant - included instruction to share. So be it.

An Inspiring Day. By Mark Steyn

http://www.steynonline.com/6155/an-inspiring-day

Excerpt: I watched Ezra Levant's defamation trial in Toronto with an eye to my own defamation trial in Washington. Khurrum Awan, the Sole Surviving Sock from the original five Canadian Islamic Congress Sock Puppets who attempted to get my writing banned for life in Canada, is now suing Ezra for calling him a liar and an anti-Semite. Michael E Mann, the fake Nobel Laureate, is suing me, Rand Simberg and our respective publishers for calling his hockey stick "fraudulent" (that was me) and its creator a man who "tortured data" (that was Simberg). No two cases are entirely the same, but, as one defendant to another, I found Ezra's day in court on Friday rather inspiring.

From MacGuffin to MacNuffin. By Mark Steyn

http://www.steynonline.com/6163/from-macguffin-to-macnuffin

Excerpt: So it was a bit small potatoes after Taken, where he kills approximately 30 per cent of the population of Paris, and Taken 2, where he kills approximately 40 per cent of the population of Istanbul, and, between the two pictures, kills approximately 70 per cent of the population of Albania. My favorite line in Taken 2 was Liam Neeson's advice to his daughter in an emergency: Go to the US Embassy. You'll be safe there. It opened the week after Benghazi.

Black People Duped. By Walter Williams

http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/walter-williams/black-people-duped/

Excerpt: For several decades, blacks have held significant political power, in the form of being mayors and dominant forces on city councils in major cities such as Philadelphia, Detroit, Washington, Memphis, Tenn., Atlanta, Baltimore, New Orleans, Oakland, Calif., Newark, N.J., and Cincinnati. In these cities, blacks have held administrative offices such as school superintendent, school principal and chief of police. Plus, there’s the precedent-setting fact of there being 44 black members of Congress and a black president. What has this political power meant for the significant socio-economic problems faced by a large segment of the black community? Clearly, it has done little or nothing for academic achievement; the number of black students scoring proficient is far below the national average.

South Florida orthodontist takes on Obamacare executive orders in federal court. By William Patrick

http://watchdog.org/130044/executive-order-obamacare/

Excerpt: A South Florida orthodontist is taking on President Obama‘s penchant for unilaterally altering the Affordable Care Act without the approval of Congress. And he’s got a shot at winning. Larry Kawa took to Capitol Hill in Washington D.C., Wednesday morning to announce a lawsuit filed on his behalf with the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. It’s the only case of its kind against any of the 29 executive orders relating to Obamacare.

President Obama’s foreign policy is based on fantasy

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/president-obamas-foreign-policy-is-based-on-fantasy/2014/03/02/c7854436-a238-11e3-a5fa-55f0c77bf39c_story.html

Excerpt: FOR FIVE YEARS, President Obama has led a foreign policy based more on how he thinks the world should operate than on reality. It was a world in which “the tide of war is receding” and the United States could, without much risk, radically reduce the size of its armed forces. Other leaders, in this vision, would behave rationally and in the interest of their people and the world. Invasions, brute force, great-power games and shifting alliances — these were things of the past. Secretary of State John F. Kerry displayed this mindset on ABC’s “This Week” Sunday when he said, of Russia’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine, “It’s a 19th century act in the 21st century.” (The Washington Post is not Fox News, they are certainly not known for being a heavily conservative publication.  Here they have come out in clear language about what's going on in the world today and how our foreign policy is not working out too well at all. -Del)

One Week After Russia's Crimean Invasion, US Imposes Travel Sanctions...Against Israelis

http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/03/08/One-Week-After-Russia-s-Crimean-Invasion-US-Imposes-Travel-Sanctions-Against-Israelis

Excerpt: At the same time the US State Department is relaxing entry requirements to visa applicants with Islamist terrorist connections, and reassuring President Putin of Russia that any sanctions against travel to the US placed upon those responsible for Russia's invasion Ukraine will be limited to no more than a "few dozen" named individuals, it is dramatically increasing its rejection rate of Israelis seeking visas to visit the US.

Irony Alert: Union Report Charges ObamaCare with Worsening "Income Inequality"

Carol Platt Liebau

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/carolplattliebau/2014/03/10/irony-alert-union-report-charges-obamacare-with-worsening-income-inequality-n1806756?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl

Why Liberals Can’t Govern: Those who believe in the inherent goodness of government avert their eyes from its abuses. By Jim Geraghty

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/373152/why-liberals-cant-govern-jim-geraghty

"Green" Buildings Actually Use More Energy

http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=24197&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DPD

The Profligate Path to Servitude. Dr. Ben Carson

http://townhall.com/columnists/drbencarson/2014/03/12/the-profligate-path-to-servitude-n1807428?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl

The Left Versus Minorities. By Thomas Sowell

http://townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2014/03/11/the-left-versus-minorities-n1806660?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl

Iraqi women protest against proposed Islamic law in Iraq. By Suadad al-Salhy

http://news.yahoo.com/iraqi-women-protest-against-proposed-islamic-law-iraq-180932752.html

Excerpt:  About two dozen Iraqi women demonstrated on Saturday in Baghdad against a draft law approved by the Iraqi cabinet that would permit the marriage of nine-year-old girls and automatically give child custody to fathers.

Obamacare Just Keeps on Tanking

http://cnsnews.com/commentary/david-limbaugh/obamacare-just-keeps-tanking

Excerpt: First, Unite Here — a major union for the hotel, gaming, food service, manufacturing, textile, distribution, laundry and airport industries — has issued a report concluding that Obamacare will result in wages being reduced by up to $5 an hour, reduce worker hours and exacerbate income inequality. The report, titled "The Irony of ObamaCare: Making Inequality Worse," states: "Ironically, the Administration's own signature healthcare victory poses one of the most immediate challenges to redressing inequality. ... We take seriously the promise that 'if you like your health plan, you can keep it. Period.' UNITE HERE members like their health plans." (It seem clearer every week that this plan is a monster and a monstrosity all in one, and there will be no "fine tuning" it into something truly workable.  The only real answer is repeal it, defund it, do whatever and start over with a true bipartisan effort, taken over time with lots of help from real Health Care experts.  If it needs to be done, it needs to be done right. --Del)