Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Random Thoughts for May, 2014

Random Thoughts for May, 2014
Robert A. Hall

Killing entry level jobs through minimum wage hikes to please the unions. Increasing energy costs by blocking keystone, blocking drilling, blocking fracking, killing coal. Blocking trade agreements that increase jobs. Increasing healthcare costs through Obamacare. Taxing people because they can't afford health insurance. Taxing cigarettes $1 a pack more, used mostly by the poor. Killing school vouchers to help poor black families send their kids to good schools at the behest of teachers unions. All part of Obama's #WaronthePoor.

A civilized people has no moral obligation to be plunged into darkness by allowing civilization to be replaced by a barbarous tyranny rather than respond in kind to the savagery of the barbarians attacking it. The "Marquis of Queensbury" boxer is almost always going to be eviscerated by the eye-gouging, groin-kicking, ear-biting thug.

If you are going to hold innocent people in chains, or slaughter them, it's usually necessary to convince yourself and your followers that the "others" are somehow subhuman, or, in the Nazi's phrase for non-Aryans, untermensch, and do not have the right to be treated fully human as you should be. This is how Jews, Blacks, Asians, Gays and, of course, Whites in circumstances where they, to, are hated by other ethnic groups (try walking through a South Chicago black neighborhood at 1:00 AM), are demonized based on group memberships they have no control over (or, in the case of religion, was culturally inculcated at an early age and hard to resign from). Every society and tribe has had this in their DNA. Only western civilization and our maligned culture began to preach the "brotherhood of man," --and not that long ago historically speaking. Not that the climb from the mire has been easy or is over, but at least we have been trying. There are, however, adult individuals who voluntarily resign from decent humanity by joining groups or taking actions that are based on evil, using other people to gratify their lust for power and wealth. These would include Nazis, slave-holders, communists, Jihadists, serial killers, rapists, violent criminals, terrorist who murder the innocent, including children, to make political points, violent white (or other color) supremacists like the Aryan Nation thugs, drug cartel or drug dealers who destroy lives for profit and, alas, a host of others. It doesn't change the harm they do to the innocent to say their minds were warped as children, or make some other excuse to absolve them of personal responsibility. As we used to say, "Some people just need killing--that's why we have Marines."

I used to worry that I'd turn 70 and feel old. Now with my lung transplant challenge, I worry that I won't turn 70 and feel old.

I didn't think the Bundy Ranch standoff in Utah was over when the feds pulled out. The reported racist comments by Bundy reinforce that, though as usual the media edited out his positive comments about blacks and Hispanics, because they didn't fit the media's narrative to demonize him. Can't have people making up their own minds. Bundy should know when you cross the Big Government, you and your kids can end up dead. See Wako and Ruby Ridge. Big Government liberals automatically see the government as right in this case. There are arguments, especially that Bundy doesn't own that land and, like Obama buddy Congressman Charlie Rangel owes big bucks to the government. I think he's legally in the wrong. If Bundy's claim predates the Federal Government, then the Indians' claim predates his. Limited Government conservatives, like me, were likely to come down on the ranchers' side. There are arguments. The "protect the turtles" argument stinks when Senator Reid-connected lobbyists reportedly want the land for a solar project, which is no better for the turtles than, say Reid's home, which is also reportedly in tortoise (Yes, I know the difference) land. The lobbyist angle needs a full airing, let the chips fall where they may. May be just a rumor, but with Washington, also suspect there are hidden motives.

A recent study says that even casual use of marijuana causes brain abnormalities. Like, I suppose, confusing progressive visions with reality.

Conservatives believe in the individual worker bee. Liberals believe in the hive. As long as they have a favored place in it.

While I was in the VA hospital, several nurses I had met last time came by to visit me, just to say hi and see how I was doing, though not assigned to me. Don’t know if they think I’m a good guy or too old to be a bad guy.

Petty minded people are usually sticklers for rules

My friend and brother Marine John Payne tells the story of walking point for a patrol in Vietnam. He came to a rice paddy and jumped into the muck, wading through the excrement and mud. A couple of the new guys walked down the paddy dyke, staying dry and clean. And one lost a foot to a toe-popper mine. The lesson is that the easy way or short cuts not always the best or safest ways.

You don’t think the media is biased? I was listening to ABC News in the hospital, and the reporter said: “President Obama turns his attention to the most important issue of the 2014 midterms, voting rights and the people trying to suppress them,” thus framing the issue the liberal way, reporting opinion as fact. Who decided it was the most important issue—the public? I don't think polls show that. Only a few words could have made it unbiased: “President Obama turns his attention to what Democrats say is the most important issue of the 2014 midterms, voting rights and the people Obama claims are trying to suppress them. Republicans say they are trying to suppress voter fraud, not voting rights.” This tells the viewer there are two sides to the issue, and they can make up their own minds, not think what the media tells them to think.

I saw a TV show displaying fake circus sideshows and thought it was the Internet of its time

My first shower after my surgery on Aril 11, they decided I was too shaky to be in alone, so they assigned the Health Tech (CNA) to help. There are a lot of male techs, but she was 21 and cute. I understand she is now on disability for PTSD after seeing me naked.

Government bureaucrats: Killing fleas with hammers since at least the Roman Empire.

The NAACP is no longer a civil rights group, just another Democrat Party special interest group like teachers, trial lawyers or government union employees. They have, for example joined the Democrats condescending and racist view that blacks, not being as smart or competent as whites, can’t get photo IDs. Nothing is as ironic as NACC requiring blacks to have photo IDs to get into a rally in North Carolina to protest photo IDs for voting, because blacks can’t get photo IDs. (This is not to say Republicans don't have special interest groups as part of the base. We all belong to several.)

We could clear some large issues off the table in the 2014 midterms by letting the people vote on the Keystone Pipeline, late term abortion, affirmative action and repeal of Obamacare. But that would be too democratic for the Democratic party.

We complain that Democrats will toss away their principles to win elections and power, but Republicans do it was well. Republicans are supposed to believe in separation of powers and the right of states to decide what is best in their borders—but many would be happy to pass laws stopping states from approving gay marriage or from allowing late term abortions.

I read about a woman who killed her boyfriend by hitting him 25 times in the face with a stiletto. When shoes are outlawed, only criminals will wear stilettos.

Government that continues to grow eventually becomes the Gestapo. It is always the main threat to freedom, regardless if it headed by Mao, Hitler, Stalin, Obama, Saddam, or King George.

The White House says men there get paid more than women because they are more experienced and work more. Isn’t that the reason they get paid more in the private sector? The “Paycheck Fairness Act" will be used to extort money from companies, raising costs to everyone. You will pay higher prices for it and never know why.

If I was a business owner, I'd fire all the male workers and hire females. Liberals say there's no difference in work quality or output and they get only 77% of what males get in pay. So if that's all true, every business could boost its profits by using only women. Those who discriminated against women and kept men would be undersold by the women-only competitors and go under. Wonder why they haven't?

No matter how fortunate you are in life, you eventually roll Snake Eyes.

Have you noticed that compassionate liberals who believe the country can take in, feed, clothe, educate and provide health care for unlimited illegal immigrants rarely have a couple of them living in their homes and providing these goods at their personal expense?

Since the 1950s, there have been many liberal-driven changes in child rearing. It is no longer appropriate to strike a child or even lightly spank them, and yelling or displaying anger is out, as it hurts their self-esteem, which must be build up at all costs. Every child is special and must be taught that. Self-esteem is given by the parents, teachers and other care givers. It must be given freely, as requiring the child to do something worthy of being esteemed hurts the child. Parents should always be prepared to take the child's side against teachers and other outside authority figures in all cases, lest the child's psyche be damaged by feelings of lack of love and support. These are far more important than discipline. You can tell all this has worked well, because, compared to kids when my parents grew up in the 1930s or my wife and I grew up in the 1950s under the bad old ways, kids today are more well-behaved, more polite, more concerned about family and others than themselves, there are few teen pregnancies, teen drug abuse or teen crime, school dropouts, and kids finish school better prepared for college or a life of self-sufficiency and work. If this were not true, continuing to follow the liberal rules on parenting would be child abuse.

Some people think I'm cheap, but it's not true. I'm very generous--I'd give you the shirt off my back. But I am frugal--the shirt probably came from Goodwill.

From my friend Alison: Obama & Co. is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Father of Lies.

On the way home from rehab at the VA, I saw a pickup with a "Ted Cruz for President" bumper sticker. Brave man in Madison, WI--some tolerant liberal will key it, as they did our car with a Bush sticker in 2004.

Internet Joke going around: "Even duct tape can't fix stupid--but it can muffle the sound."

When a liberal like Obama discovers that the light at the end of the tunnel is the headlight of an on-coming train, he borrows billions of dollars from your grandkids and starts a government program to hire more union Democrat voters to build more tunnel.

Most things aren't dangerous unless you are stupid. Then everything is very dangerous.

I don't know what it is about a lot of old vets, but many days the VA looks like a retirement home for the Duck Dynasty cast.

It seems to me there are only two kinds of food: Tastes Good and Good for You. But I'm on a low salt, low sugar diet and supposed to be watching the weight too, so I'm biased by hunger.

When they say that "Birth Control is Free" under Obamacare, what they mean is, "You will get birth control at no cost because we will force other people who don't need it to pay for it for you out of the money they earned." Nothing is free in healthcare or anywhere else, the only question is who pays.

If they were honest, the Democrats' slogan would be, "Stand and Deliver!"

Since college football players want to unionize, I assume that players will get to chose their positions, and be selected to start, based on seniority rather than ability. And you won't be able to dismiss a player who breaks the rules or engages in criminal conduct without a grievance procedure and court action.

When my printer runs out of paper, I take it as a personal attempt to thwart my productivity.

I'm a get-it-done-now guy in an I'll-get-to-it-eventually world.

"Many of the tall tales that have been told about this law have been debunked," Barack Obama said of ObamaCare. They would be tall tales like you can keep your plan, it will save families $2,500 per year, you can keep your doctor, it will bend the healthcare cost curve downward, and it won't add a dime to the deficit.

Tee shirt at the VA: "Old warn-out veteran. Do not discard." And a Marine buddy, a retired prison psychologist, has a cap that says, "Dysfunctional Veteran: Leave me alone!" Too much fun.

If you do everything you can to fight "Islamophobia," never speak ill of Jihadists or Islamic Supremacists, take Muslims' side in every case of stoning or FMG as a "cultural issue," and ignore what they are doing, then out of gratitude they will likely kill you last. Unless a good chance to do so arises earlier.

Many people wish for God-like powers, but wouldn't want any part of God-like responsibilities.

If someone does you an injury, often the sweetest revenge is to do them a good turn. This is not biblical, but because, unless they are among the 2% of the population psychologists say are sociopaths, it will make them uncomfortable and perhaps ashamed. Doing them an injury makes them feel justified. Hard to do good when you are hurt, I know.

Businessmen are all rabid, free market capitalists, until they find themselves in an industry that is not now viable in the free market (like green energy), even if it once was. Then, like unions supporting featherbedding, they are desperate for laws, regulations and taxpayer subsidies to protect themselves from economically efficient competitors.

But it doesn't matter if it's labor, products or services, almost everyone wants free market competition when they are buying (except for economic illiterates who support price and rent controls), but most would like the protection of government laws, regulations and/or subsidies when they are selling.

A while back, a liberal friend of intellect and accomplishment I'd sent a book by Dr. Thomas Sowell disagreed with it and described Sowell, who is black, as an "asshole." Sowell, who grew up poor, earned a PhD in the history of economic thought, has taught at several major universities, and has several dozen books on economics, race, culture and politics in print. His Basic Economics has been translated into six languages and is widely used as a college textbook. A pretty accomplished "asshole." But let a conservative disagree with any policy of Obama, even absent profane name calling, and you are a racist. The left's double standard is so broad and breathtaking they don't notice it.

Protest all you want, but decency suggests that a public figure's home, church and family events should be off limits, regardless of what side he or she is on. Exception for editors who publish the home addresses of gun owners or others they disagree with to promote attacks on them.

I, being the frugal type, use a lot of generics, from diet shakes to vitamins. But I draw the line at generic Scotch.

With apologies to René Descartes, I learn, therefore I am. I read about a book a week, depending on the book and my circumstances. Mostly history, politics or economics, but a few novels and other non-fiction end in the net I cast. If I knew I was going to die tomorrow, I'd still want to learn something new today. I renew my recommendation of the terrific book below, by a liberal academic, a "Moral Psychologist," who has studied the different values held by liberals and conservatives. Neither group is evil or stupid, they just have different views on what is important. It has been praised by folks across the political spectrum.

The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion. By Jonathan Haidt

The list of things I think our stupid is growing in our culture. Face piercings. Ugly tattoos. Pants worn pulled down to show the guy's skivvies and butt. Expensive pre-torn jeans. Buying caps and tee shirts to advertise a business at your expense. Backwards base\ball caps. And I'm not crazy about waving my hands to get automatic toilets, sinks and towel dispensers to work. Yeah, I know, more sanitary. When they work. But I think the real reason is Americans are now too lazy to use the kind that takes a small effort.

Get the collection! My “Random Thoughts” from 2008 through July, 2013 are now collected in this book: The Old Jarhead's Journal: Random Thoughts on Life, Liberty, and Leadership by Robert A. Hall
The Old Jarhead’s Journal is a collection of Random Thoughts on politics and life and Conservative Political Essays, mostly published on the author’s blog, including the essay “I’m Tired” which went viral on the Internet in 2009, “The Hall Platform,” “This I Believe,” and “Why I’m a Republican.” While they will be of interest to conservative thinkers, they are collected here in book form as a service to readers who wish to give a copy to favorite liberals and watch their heads explode. All royalties are donated to the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund.

*****

Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam Veteran who served five terms in the Massachusetts State Senate. He is the author of The Coming Collapse of the American Republic.

http://tiny.cc/g02s4 For a free PDF of Collapse, e-mail him at tartanmarine(at)gmail.com. Hall’s eleven books are listed here: http://tartanmarine.blogspot.com/2010/07/new-book-published.html

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Lots of Political News

Short Health Update from Monday's Surgical Bronchoscopy--the news was neutral. ~Bob

Book Recommendation: Apache: Inside the Cockpit of the World's Most Deadly Fighting Machine. By Ed Macy
A terrific combat memoir by a Brit chopper pilot in Afghanistan. The details on the Apache and flying it are fascinating, but the combat scenes are riveting. I literally couldn't put it down for the last few chapters, read late into the night. Well written; military history buffs will love it. ~Bob

Must Read: Demonizing the Helpers. By Thomas Sowell 
Excerpt: It is not easy to demonize people who have spent hundreds of millions of dollars of their own money to help educate poor children. But some members of the education establishment are taking a shot at it. The Walton Family Foundation — created by the people who created Walmart — has given more than $300 million to charter schools, voucher programs and other educational enterprises concerned with the education of poor and minority students across the country. The Walton Family Foundation gave more than $58 million to the KIPP schools, which have had spectacular success in raising the test scores of children in ghettoes

Worth Reading: Risky Hydraulic Fracturing? By Terry Anderson (John and Jean De Nault Senior Fellow) and Carson Bruno (Research Fellow)
Excerpt: The nation is experiencing a natural gas and oil boom due in no small part to hydraulic fracturing. In many states, hydraulic fracturing has been the driver behind economic growth. But the process is among the environmentalist movement’s top targets. However, the scientific research on the water-related concerns associated with fracturing suggests environmentalists’ concerns are overblown: although the risks are real, their occurrences are rare. (Ban fracking--support the Democrats #WaronthePoor. ~Bob)

Worth Reading: The Myth of Economic Immobility: Americans are actually more mobile than we've ever been. By Greg Beato 
Excerpt: Yet a month after Obama's speech, two Harvard economists, two Berkeley economists, and one U.S. Treasury economist failed to find decreasing economic mobility in a working paper they jointly published via the nonpartisan National Bureau of Economic Research. "Contrary to the popular perception," the authors wrote, "we find that percentile rank-based measures of intergenerational mobility have remained extremely stable for the 1971-1993 birth cohorts." According to their research, a child born into the bottom quintile of income distribution in 1971 had an 8.4 percent chance to reach the top quintile as an adult. For a child born in 1986, that chance had risen to 9 percent. If anything, they concluded, "mobility may have increased slightly in recent cohorts."

where the other children are far behind in academic performance. D.C. Prep, in Washington, whose students are mostly poor and black, has also received grants from the Walton Family Foundation. Its test scores likewise exceed those of traditional neighborhood schools, as well as the test scores of other local charter schools. 

In California, a Fevered Rush for Gun Permits
Excerpt: Pete Alexander celebrated the news that a federal court in California had thrown out this state’s strict requirements for obtaining a concealed-handgun permit — among the toughest in the nation — by calling the Orange County Sheriff’s Department to apply for a permit he had long wanted. “I’m a gun enthusiast,” said Mr. Alexander, a construction contractor who lives in Fullerton. “Crime is encroaching on our neighborhood, and I don’t feel as safe as I used to. This is adding to the police force.” Mr. Alexander turned out to be the beginning of a flood. (Interesting... but this will be in courts for years. Meanwhile, in one place, the delay for getting interviewed for a permit is 30 months! But if you live in CA, now is the time to get your name out there for a permit. --Del)

The Democrats #WaronthePoor: The 'Unintended Effects' of Government-Mandated Ethanol
Excerpt: Moreover, the negative consequences of including corn ethanol in the fuel supply are enormous. In 2000, more than 90 percent of the corn grown in the United States went to feed people and livestock, including many people in undeveloped countries, and less than 5 percent was used to produce ethanol. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 dictated that gasoline contain a minimum volume of renewable fuels. By 2013, 40 percent of the corn crop went to produce ethanol, 45 percent fed livestock, and just 15 percent was used for foods and beverages, according to a report from Forbes. (Corn-derived ethanol has been a bad idea from Day One, but it SOUNDED so good to people and got sold by the environmental lobby, and the government made it a policy without ever really understanding what it meant. And it meant spending more energy to generate the alcohol than we get back from it, while raising the price of food all over the world. Another stupid move made on the basis of emotional response. And once in play, it makes the corn growers more money than corn for food does, so they have lobbied to keep it this wasteful way. And our politicians have mostly sold out to them. Now there are some congress people who are ready to kill the subsidy and void the rules requiring ethanol in fuel. Let's hope the rest of them climb out of the pockets of the lobbyists and finally do the right thing for the country. --Del)

Europeans detained in Ukraine, raising stakes
Excerpt: International negotiators rushed to eastern Ukraine on Saturday to seek the release of European military monitors who were captured Friday and promptly branded “spies” by the pro-Russia militia that seized them.

Ignorance And Cronyism Are The Only Settled Sciences. Derek Hunter
Excerpt: You’d have better luck getting a devout Scientologist to say L. Ron Hubbard was a horrible writer than you would to get a progressive to admit the “science” behind climate change is not all it’s cracked up to be. For one thing, it is based on models of what could happen in 100 years, even though those models are mostly unreliable when you use them to map what happened in the last 30. 

Janet Yellen is shocked that the Fed’s price models don’t work. By Nick Sorrentino
Excerpt: Ms. Yellen says doesn’t understand why inflation is running hotter in the US than her models say it should be and why it ran cooler in Japan recently than her models predicted. Models, it’s always the models with Keynesians.

Nancy Pelosi is a Power Hungry Monster
Excerpt: For many conservatives, one of the greatest problems in our country today isn’t necessarily a particular issue, but the people who make the decisions on those issues. Our politicians routinely push the country in directions that the majority of Americans disagree with. A few examples to provide evidence: Obamacare, abortion, gay marriage, raising taxes, sending money and aid to countries that hate us and so much more. In state after state, politicians prefer to legislate rather than to allow referendum or popular opinion to decide the many issues of our day. California Representative Nancy Pelosi is a perfect example of what so many of us hate about American politics today.

Some gun advocates are a bit more explicit about it than others. By Jim Geraghty, Morning Jolt
After beginning with the usual call for "common sense safety laws," Lucia McBath, national spokesperson for Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, writes: No one said this fight would be easy and I fully understand that changing the current gun culture across the nation will not take place overnight. It will be a slow and sometimes emotionally taxing campaign, a crusade that our opponents will often deride and say can't be won. But I also understand that it a fight on which we must not back down. They want to change the culture of gun owners, not just the laws they must obey. I'm sure you can imagine other communities that would not react with warmth if you appeared one day and announced, "Hi, I'm here to change your culture!" I'm sure most of these progressive gun control advocates think that one of history's greatest crimes was the way that European colonists changed and in some cases eradicated the cultures of native peoples… but in the here and now, they see absolutely nothing wrong with going forth, encountering people who live differently from them, and declaring, "these savages have to be civilized!" In short, these progressives are intolerant of diversity.

The homophobic left: Straight talk about gay Republican Congressional candidate Carl DeMaio
Excerpt: For instance, DeMaio has been the target of homophobic attacks. But where are those attacks coming from? It’s not always from the far right social conservatives you’d expect; rather, it’s been from DeMaio’s left – the liberal and Democrat-affiliated groups that you’d think would be proud that an openly gay successful businessman has decided to run for office. One false attack drew the attention of the San Diego Ethics Commission. An anonymous left-wing group funded a SuperPac and sent mailers of DeMaio Photoshopped next to a drag queen to neighborhoods with a majority of elderly and African-American voters, knowing that such a photo would depress support for DeMaio. (The Left will be openly homophobic when it suits their purposes. They have no principles other than winning. -- Jim Geraghty, Morning Jolt)

Excerpt: In the course of his evangelizing, Mann has shown little tolerance for heretics. A recent op-ed he penned for the New York Times is illustrative. “If You See Something, Say Something,” the headline blares, mimicking New York subway warnings and suggesting a not-so-subtle parallel between the dangers of global-warming “denial” and the murderous terrorism that brought down the Twin Towers. In the opening paragraph of the piece, Mann castigates his critics as “a fringe minority of our populace” who “cling[] to an irrational rejection of well-established science.” These aristarchs, Mann contends, represent a “virulent strain of anti-science [that] infects the halls of Congress, the pages of leading newspapers and what we see on TV, leading to the appearance of a debate where none should exist.” Alas, such comparisons are commonplace. In the rough and tumble of debate, climate-change skeptics are routinely recast as climate-change deniers, an insidious echo of the phrase “Holocaust deniers” and one that has been contrived with no purpose other than to exclude the speaker from polite society.

U.S., Philippines Sign Defense Pact Amid China Tensions
Excerpt: The Philippines and the U.S. signed an agreement that will boost the American troop presence in the Southeast Asian nation, as President Barack Obama said America’s strategic rebalancing to Asia isn’t aimed at combating a rising China.

How Now White Cowman? By Mark Steyn
Excerpt: Like everyone else, Gavin McInnes has weighed in on Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy's observations on "the Negro". Mr McInnes concludes: "This isn't about some old guy's views on slavery. It's about government control. We're not saying Bundy is the messiah and we accept him as our personal savior. We're saying the government is wrong." Let's stipulate that Cliven Bundy is a racist. Let's also assume, if only to save time, that he's Islamophobic, homophobic and transphobic. So what? Does that make criticizing the Bureau of Land Management "racist" or "homophobic"?

How Blaming Bush Led to the Ukraine Crisis. By Daniel Greenfield 
Excerpt: For the Democratic Party, history began and ended with the election of George W. Bush. Nothing had happened before him. Every world crisis began with him and would only come to an end when the Democratic Party finally squeezed one of its own into the White House.
If there was a problem, Bush had caused it. If another country hated America, it was Bush’s fault. Bush alienated Europe, Russia, Asia, the Middle East and even parts of Antarctica.

New York Rep. Grimm arrested, facing federal charges
Excerpt: New York Rep. Michael Grimm was arrested Monday morning, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to Fox News, as federal prosecutors prepare to announce charges against the Republican congressman. 

What Fourth Amendment? Police Raids Go Beyond the War on Drugs. By Lucy Steigerwald
Excerpt: On April 15, seven police officers in Peoria, Illinois raided the home of Jon Daniel and his roommates. They took various electronics, and kept several residents of the house cuffed for hours. The reason for this raid? Any good student of the current state of American policing might have guesses – was it drug trafficking? Immigration issues? Terrorism? No. Nothing as disturbingly expected as all that. This particular raid was over a parody Twitter account made by Jon Daniel that mocked Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis, portraying him as a Rob Ford-esque party animal and user of recreational substances. Though Daniel eventually marked the account as fake, and then Twitter suspended the damn thing anyway, that wasn’t enough for Ardis, who filed a complaint with the police department. And three different judgessigned off on the search warrant that permitted seizing electronics, computer equipment, and mysteriously, "cocaine, heroin, [or] drug paraphernalia." (This article comes from a very passionate antiwar website, not exactly one of my favorite places to go. But the particular article is one that should concern us all. The reports of excessive use of SWAT teams and militarized police and even federal bureaucracies have been climbing for years now, and we should all be upset about it. --Del)

Excerpt: Watts had some fairly beefy looking people around too. Gun control advocates wouldn’t be using armed guards, would they? Well, if you were expecting a large amount of hypocrisy from a group funded by a global warming alarmist with eleven homes and a private jet, give your instincts a pat on the back.

Unhealthy Trends in Nation Beg for Conservative Leadership. By Star Parker 
Excerpt: And young Americans are far more likely to likely to embrace non-traditional values such as same-sex marriage and out-of-wedlock childbirth than older Americans. So it should come as no surprise that over time, conjugal marriage is disappearing as a core American institution and that increasing numbers – now over 40 percent – of babies are born today to unwed mothers.

SWAT-ing Used by Liberals to Target Conservatives
Excerpt: What would you do if you suddenly realized that your house was surrounded by a heavily armed SWAT unit and they were calling for your surrender? If you don’t think it could happen to you, then put yourself in the shoes of a 17 year old computer gaming teenager in Long Beach, New York. He had his earphones on while playing the video game ‘Call of Duty.’ According to police, if you lose at the online game, your opponent uses your personal information, obtained during the game to make a false report to local police, claiming that you just killed someone. (This happened to conservative blogger Erick Erickson of Red States, among others. Anyone who does this should be charged with attempted murder, regardless of party orientation. That said, blaming all liberals for the actions of a crazy few is like blaming all gun owners for the murders by a few nut jobs, or blaming all white people for the racism of a few unhinged fringe folks. Ethically wrong and counter-productive. Bob)

Excerpt: Until recently, I thought that the latter attitude had become completely disreputable. The idea that we should tear down the good just because they are good or the successful just because they are successful is bad economics, bad ethics and an embarrassingly childish form of envy. But it has recently re-emerged in large part because of Thomas Piketty's new book, Capital in the Twenty First Century. Piketty argues that we have been experiencing and will continue to experience growing inequality of income and wealth. To prevent this he argues for punitive taxes on high incomes and a worldwide tax on wealth. Piketty's book has created near ecstasy on the political left, where it is taken as an unquestioned article of faith that inequality of income and wealth is bad. ... What is more interesting than the book itself is that the left now seems free to say things they previously would have been embarrassed to say.

The Piketty Phenomenon. By David Brooks
Excerpt: You go to fund-raisers or school functions and there are always hedge fund managers and private equity people around. You get more attention than them at parties, but your whole apartment could fit in their dining room. You struggle with tuition, but their kids go off on ski weekends. You wait in line at the post office, but they have staff to do it for them. You see firsthand the explosion of wealth at the tippy-top. ... The situation is ripe for the sort of class conflict the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu used to describe: pitting those who are rich in cultural capital against those who are rich in financial capital.

Taking on Iowa. By Erick Erickson
Excerpt: I had the pleasure of moderating the forum. I hate debates and I made that clear to the candidates. The modern American political debate consists of reporters with a liberal worldview asking gotcha questions to conservatives that, by intention or otherwise, try to put them in a bad light. When the conversation shifts to policy, the candidates try to micro-nuance their agreements to make it sound like they disagree.

The Good News about Racism in America. By Bernard Goldberg
Excerpt: And that so many Americans – of all races — have turned against him and his bigotry is a good thing. That’s what’s missing from coverage of the Donald Sterling story. And if you want to know how seriously we take Sterling’s racist remarks, consider this: CNN has finally ended its non-stop coverage of the missing Malaysian jetliner and now is going all out on Sterling. In a country of more than 300 million people there are always going to be some bigots. But they’ve become outliers in our culture – outcasts, actually.

Filipino Protesters Burn Effigy Of Barack Obama To Protest New Defense Deal
Excerpt: According to NBC News, the crowd paraded through the streets with several figurines that appeared constructed with the full detail of a parade float. The centerpiece of the protest, however, was a large dog with the face of the President of the Philippines, Benigno Aquino III. The dog pulled a chariot controlled by a figurine of President Barack Obama, which was burned in effigy while floating through the streets. The activists, many members of the Philippines' left wing political party, also threw rotten tomatoes and eggs at the effigies before they were burned, according to the Philippine Star. (Think a left-wing party might be pro China versus their own country, just a left-wing Americans opposed fighting Hitler when he was allied with Stalin? ~Bob)

Rep. Tom Mcclintock: Legal Immigrants Most Angry About Illegal Immigration
Excerpt: Speaking at The New York Meeting on Monday, Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA) took a firm stance against illegal immigration, saying massive illegal immigration angers legal immigrants and threatens to balkanize America. ... "A lot of immigrants that I talk to... are the maddest about illegal immigration because they're the ones who stood patiently in line, and obeyed all of our laws, came here with a sincere desire to become Americans, and they are watching 11 million people trying to cut in line and flout our laws," McClintock said. "I have found that legal immigrants, those people who came here in order to become Americans, are the angriest about illegal immigration and we need to appeal to them as well." (I met a black waiter from West Africa in DC, citizen, very bright guy, working on his second college degree, came here legally after years of effort and jumping through hoops. he was livid about illegals going to the head of the line. ~Bob)

Juan Williams Wife Robbed, Wishes She Had Gun
Excerpt: Williams said his wife's response was, "I wish I had a gun." Larson responded by saying, "God bless Mrs. Juan Williams," and said Juan should buy her a gun "at the next opportunity." (As the old joke goes, a conservative is a liberal who was mugged last night. ~Bob)

Toyota Heads for Texas. From The Patriot Post
For three decades, Toyota has called Torrance, California, home in the U.S. -- but no more. The world's second largest automaker announced plans to take 5,000 jobs and head for the freer markets of Texas, putting it closer to its manufacturing facilities. The LA Times reports that this is becoming a trend: "Occidental Petroleum Corp. said in February that it was relocating from Los Angeles to Houston, making it one of around 60 companies that have moved to Texas since July 2012, according to Texas Gov. Rick Perry." Why the exodus? Under decades of Democrat rule, California has become a land of high taxes and burdensome regulation -- the perfect formula for chasing business away. Texas has done the opposite, and it should serve notice to leftists that the Lone Star State is wooing all the gold from the Golden State.

The Democrats #WaronthePoor: Special Rules for Democrats. By Mona Charen 
Excerpt: Remember poverty? It was once a chief preoccupation of the Democratic Party. Lyndon Johnson made war on it. An entire ecosystem of federal, state and local programs has been created over the course of the past half-century to combat it, costing taxpayers more than $1 trillion annually. Yet the Democratic Party seems to have forgotten the poor.

Worth Reading: Foreign Policy: From Bad to None: Our enemies are gloating, and our allies are grimly deciding where to go from here. By Victor Davis Hanson
Excerpt: B arack Obama had a foreign policy for about five years, and now he has none. The first-term foreign policy’s assumptions went something like this. Obama was to assure the world that he was not George W. Bush. Whatever the latter was for, Obama was mostly against. Given that Bush had left office with polls similar to Harry Truman’s final numbers, this seemed to Obama a wise political approach.

Worth Reading. must be more Racists every day. ~Bob. ABC: Public Preference for a GOP Congress Marks a New Low in Obama’s Approval
Excerpt: Weary of waiting for an economic recovery worth its name, a frustrated American public has sent Barack Obama’s job approval rating to a career low – with a majority in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll favoring a Republican Congress to act as a check on his policies. Registered voters by 53-39 percent in the national survey say they’d rather see the Republicans in control of Congress as a counterbalance to Obama’s policies than a Democratic-led Congress to help support him. 

Worth Reading: Saving the System. By David Brooks
Excerpt: All around, the fabric of peace and order is fraying. The leaders of Russia and Ukraine escalate their apocalyptic rhetoric. The Sunni-Shiite split worsens as Syria and Iraq slide into chaos. China pushes its weight around in the Pacific. (apparently "leading from behind" works better in community organizing than in foreign policy. ~Bob)

Obamacare News

ObamaCare Provides Insurance, Not Care
Excerpt: New ObamaCare enrollees are going to find it difficult to access many prescription drugs, says Sally Pipes, president of the Pacific Research Institute.Those who enrolled in the health care exchanges may be in for a surprise once they start looking at their policies. Placing limits on drug coverage is seen as a way to keep insurance costs down. But if drug coverage is stingy, patients may simply forgo treatment altogether, turning treatable conditions into expensive problems that ultimately mean higher costs, for the individual as well as the entire health care system. According to the Journal of Clinical Oncology, cancer patients facing higher copayments were 70 percent more likely to simply stop taking their cancer treatment and 42 percent more likely to skip doses. This is not only a problem for patient health, but for health care spending as a whole. According to Frank Lichtenberg, professor at Columbia University, for every $1.00 spent on drugs, hospital spending is reduced by $3.65. All exchange plans must cover prescription drugs, and the average plan covers more than 50 percent of all medicines. However, prescription drug "coverage" does not mean that the drugs are affordable.

Much of Healthcare.gov is Still Under Construction. By Heather Ginsberg 
Excerpt: Behind the scenes the website’s system is made up of a tangle of workarounds moving billions of taxpayer dollars and premiums between the government and insurers. One of the major parts that still isn’t working properly is the function that accurately pays insurers. Experts say that the longer they lag the more likely they will see serious accounting problems that could lead the public to pay for higher premium subsidies or higher health care costs.

Religion of Peace News

Excerpt: Today Paul Weston, chairman of the party Liberty GB and candidate in the 22 May European Elections in the South East, has been arrested in Winchester. At around 2pm Mr Weston was standing on the steps of Winchester Guildhall, addressing the passers-by in the street with a megaphone. He quoted the following excerpt about Islam from the book The River War by Winston Churchill:

Liberty, human rights are godless and faithless ideologies, says Isma chief. By Syed Jaymal Zahiid
Excerpt: Equality, liberty and human rights are “godless” and “faithless” ideologies created by atheists to destroy Islam, hardline Islamic group Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (ISMA) said today.

Lethal bombing hits Karachi amid Pakistan’s Taliban talks
Excerpt: A powerful bomb exploded Friday in an upscale residential area of southern Pakistan, killing at least four people and wounding 25, authorities said.

Bombing at southern Thai beach kills 3 policemen
Excerpt: An explosion at a fishing competition Friday in Thailand's insurgency-plagued south has killed three policemen and wounded 17 other people, police said. Police Col. Panya Karawanun said Muslim separatist insurgents are suspected of detonating a homemade bomb at a beach in Pattani province's Saiburi district.

Egyptian court seeks death sentence for Brotherhood leader, 682 supporters. By Yasmine Saleh
Excerpt: An Egyptian court sentenced the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and 682 supporters to death on Monday, intensifying a crackdown on the movement that could trigger protests and political violence ahead of an election next month.

Central African Republic crisis: MSF aid workers killed
Excerpt: Three aid workers are among 22 people killed in a rebel attack on a clinic in northern Central African Republic, officials have said. Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has confirmed that three of its local staff were killed but has not given any further details. Fifteen of the dead were local chiefs, according to the area's former MP. The attack has been blamed on the mainly Muslim Seleka rebels, whose 2013 seizure of power sparked the crisis.

Yemen begins southern offensive against AQAP
Excerpt: Yemeni media reported yesterday that the country's military is preparing for a new offensive against al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula on the heels of the three successful US drone strikes last week that killed over 60 militants from the terrorist organization. Yemeni Popular Committees, local armed resistance groups who played a large role alongside the military in pushing out al Qaeda and its local affiliate Ansar al Shariah from Abyan province in 2011, claimed yesterday that this new offensive comes in response to information they received suggesting an AQAP attempt to filter into Lawdar district in Abyan and seize control of it.

Pakistani serial killer 'wanted to teach gays a lesson.' By Waqar Hussain, Issam Ahmed

Excerpt: The 28-year-old father-of-two was arrested last week and confessed to three brutal murders, saying he wanted to send out a message about the "evils" of homosexuality, though police insist he had sex with his victims first. The killings have sent shockwaves through the underground gay community of the eastern city of Lahore, which fears Ejaz could be lionised as a hero in a conservative Islamic society where homosexuality is stigmatised and sodomy is punishable by up to 10 years in jail.

Monday, April 28, 2014

Short update: Neutral news from today's surgical bronchoscopy.

In the event, today's surgical bronchoscopy was not dramatic. We reported at 1200, but I had nothing to eat or drink since midnight. As I was an "add on," I didn't go in until after 1500 (3 pm for civilians). The procedure was short, but with the recovery period I didn't get out of the VA until 1800, home at 2000, as we stopped for chow.

The surgeon talked to Bonnie while I was still under. He did very little debriding today, but took out the stent and hoovered out the rubbish, said that let him see deeper in the lower lung, which is good. He wants me back for another to see how it is doing sans stent, with debriding and stretching various areas with balloons, in about two weeks.

My O2 use has gone down lately. and my FEV numbers up, but I had a lot of coughing tonight and they were way down. We'll see about it in the morning.

They have set up a meeting for us with the Palliative Care Team on May 14, to talk about "end of life" issues. They think it's good to make my desires known before needed, in case. Huh--my desire is to postpone it! All I can think is about the Monty Python bit below. Meanwhile, I fight on. Holding the line now, but we will see what no stent does to things. ~Bob

Large Man: Here's one.
Dead Collector: Nine pence.
"Dead" Man: I'm not dead.
Dead Collector: What?
Large Man: Nothing. [hands the collector his money] There's your nine pence.
"Dead" Man: I'm not dead!
Dead Collector: 'Ere, he says he's not dead.
Large Man: Yes he is.
"Dead" Man: I'm not.
Dead Collector: He isn't.
Large Man: Well, he will be soon, he's very ill.
"Dead" Man: I'm getting better.
Large Man: No you're not, you'll be stone dead in a moment.
Dead Collector: Well, I can't take him like that. It's against regulations.
"Dead" Man: I don't want to go on the cart.
Large Man:' Oh, don't be such a baby.
Dead Collector: I can't take him.
"Dead" Man: I feel fine.
Large Man with Dead Body: Oh, do me a favor.
Dead Collector: I can't.
Large Man: Well, can you hang around for a couple of minutes? He won't be long.
Dead Collector: I promised I'd be at the Robinsons'. They've lost nine today.
Large Man: Well, when's your next round?
Dead Collector: Thursday.
"Dead" Man: I think I'll go for a walk.
Large Man: You're not fooling anyone, you know. Isn't there anything you could do?

"Dead" Man: I feel happy. I feel happy.

Saturday, April 26, 2014

Some Weekend Political News

When I was about to get out of the VA Hospital on April 14, the internal medicine doc told me the IV and antibiotics would fix the short term problem of the infection, but that the long term problem of the slough and blockage of the airways was still a challenge. Both were true. My O2 needs have dropped to 2 lpm for walking around. But my breathing is getting more labored, and I'm not coughing up as much mucus. I think it's collecting on the stent, plus coughing hurts due to my back muscle pain, though that is much better. And the last few days I've felt very tired moving around, though I feel fine sitting reading or at the computer. So another surgical bronchoscopy Monday, 4/28 to debride the slough, clean out the junk and remove to stent to see how it goes. It will be Monday afternoon, but nothing to eat or drink after midnight, so a long day. I can take my meds, but I found out they don't consider Scotch a "med"--go figure! I don't know when they reach the point of diminishing returns on this process. Maybe God will cut me a Hus. I will update my readers when I know more.

Meanwhile, some interesting news and comment captured below. ~Bob

Liberal Compassion for Little Leeches
Dixon Diaz has a page called "The Libtard Show." I disapprove of using the term "libtard," as name calling makes us no better than them. In this case, it is also offensive to many people who wish to stop use of the word "retarded" (which once was the word of choice to replace the offensive "feeble minded" in use before retarded). Nevertheless, there is a report, posted on my blog at the link above, that Diaz wrote a piece on Chelsea's baby which she posted on her Facebook page. A troll named Anne de Devine posted this comment: "At least it won't be a little leech with Down's Syndrome." Doubtless a reference that Sarah Palin didn't abort Trig, as liberals, supporting planned parenthood's goal of reducing the "unfit" (minorities and the mentally challenged) think proper. Now that's offensive. I once danced with a teenage dancer in Glasgow who had Down's Syndrome. She was a lovely, happy person and a better dancer than most--she was not a leech to be destroyed before birth. ~Bob

Ala. Dem Offers $100K for Proof of White Families Adopting Black Kids; Families Show Up. Lawmaker previously lashed out against Clarence Thomas by referencing his interracial marriage. By Andrew Johnson
Excerpt: Mixed-race families from across Alabama rallied outside the state capitol recently to demand $100,000 in cash — or at least an apology — from a state representative. Earlier this month, Alvin Holmes, who has represented the Montgomery-area 78th District for 39 years, bet a substantial purse on his claim that Alabama whites were incapable of tolerating black children. “I will bring you $100,000 cash tomorrow if you show me a whole bunch of whites that adopted blacks in Alabama,” Holmes said. “I will go down there and mortgage my house and get it in cash in $20 bills and bring it to you in a little briefcase.”

Excerpt: The controversy over Cliven Bundy’s “racist” remarks has taken a new turn after longer unedited footage emerged showing the Nevada cattle rancher making pro-black and pro-Mexican comments that were excised out of media reports. ... We’ve progressed quite a bit from that day until now, and sure don’t want to go back; we sure don’t want the colored people to go back to that point; we sure don’t want the Mexican people to go back to that point; and we can make a difference right now by taking care of some of these bureaucracies, and do it in a peaceful way. ... Now, let me talk about the Spanish people. You know I understand that they come over here against our constitution and cross our borders. But they’re here and they’re people – and I’ve worked side-by-side a lot of them. Don’t tell me they don’t work, and don’t tell me they don’t pay taxes. And don’t tell me they don’t have better family structure than most of us white people. When you see those Mexican families, they’re together, they picnic together, they’re spending their time together, and I’ll tell you in my way of thinking they’re awful nice people. (Well, in my book, Bundy is still ignorant. And he doesn't get an excuse for not paying the fees he owes--he's not Obama budge Charlie Rangel, after all. But as many conservatives pointed out, while he may be legally in the wrong, there were better ways to handle it, and the stench of big lobbyist money wanting that land needs to be fully explored and made public, to clear the charge or stop the grabbers. And the media editing out stuff that doesn't fit their narrative has become standard on outlets like MSNBC, as they did with the George Zimmerman 911 call. ~Bob)

CNN Talks To Black Bundy Bodyguard: ‘He Is Not A Racist. He’s Pretty Much Treating Me Just Like His Own Family’

More Tea Party Racists?

Global Warming and Settled Science. By Andre Lofthus
Excerpt: As a professional scientist, a physicist with 40 years experience in aerospace and extensive knowledge of atmospheric physics, I can tell you that, indeed, the science is settled, but not the way the AGW extremists would have you believe. ... A basic principle of science is that correlation does not prove causation. Climate scientists are working overtime fudging temperature related data showing global warming over many decades that correlates with the industrial revolution and increasing use of carbon-based fuels. Climate scientists are boldly asserting that this correlation proves global warming is caused by increased CO2 in the atmosphere. Real scientists would demand to know the physics of how increased CO2 in the atmosphere causes global warming. 

More Than 20,000 NC Voters Have Fake Registration Addresses
Excerpt: The Voter Integrity Project of North Carolina, today, submitted data to the NC State Board of Elections that show 20,532 NC voters were registered at street addresses that do not exist and 13,027 (or 63.4%) of them listed a post office box as their alternative mailing address.
“We are amazed that counties allow people to vote with a non-existent registration address,” said Jay DeLancy, “and wonder how election officials can correctly assign these voters to a precinct when they give a PO Box as their secondary address.”

Worth Reading: Obama’s Approach to Foreign Policy: He either doesn’t care about it, or he’s afraid of it. By Jonah Goldberg
Excerpt: It all seems very strange now in retrospect, but in his defense, you can understand how seductive this notion must have been. The whole world — at least the parts of it that Obama listens to — was telling him that replacing George W. Bush with Barack Obama was just the ticket for what ailed the planet. The fervor was all so detached from facts on the ground that the Nobel Committee even gave Obama a Peace Prize for the stuff they were sure he was going to do, eventually.

It’s Hard to See Racism When You’re a Collectivist. By Daniel Greenfield
Excerpt: It’s not that the left believes that affirmative action isn’t racist. It’s that it believes that there is no such thing as racism against white people. Like the Knockout Game or white students who qualify on merit but can’t get into college because of racial diversity quotas; it’s an invalid category. A myth. And if it’s a myth, then there’s nothing wrong with a little racial violence or a few racial preferences.

Obama’s dirty watchdogs. By Michelle Malkin
Excerpt: The Obama administration doesn’t have watchdogs. It has whitewash puppies. The president’s Chicago bullies have defanged true advocates for integrity in government in D.C. from day one. So the latest report by the Senate Homeland Security and Government Operations Committee oncorruptocrat Charles K. Edwards, the former Department of Homeland Security inspector general, isn’t a revelation. It’s confirmation.

Mexico and Guatemala free victims of human trafficking
Excerpt: Migrants from Central America often pay smugglers to enter the US illegally, but are frequently abused by their traffickers. They can hold migrants in captivity to extort more money from the victims' relatives.

Republicans distance selves from Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy over racial remarks
Excerpt: But Bundy’s GOP defenders, including Sens. Dean Heller (Nev.) and Rand Paul (Ky.), rapidly abandoned him on Thursday following reports of incendiary remarks that the white rancher made about minorities. Bundy wondered aloud whether blacks would be better off as slaves picking cotton, and alleged that people of color are “against us.”

7 Reasons Nothing Should Stand in the Way of the Keystone XL Pipeline
http://blog.heritage.org/2014/04/25/7-reasons-nothing-stand-way-keystone-xl-pipeline/?utm_source=heritagefoundation&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=morningbell
Excerpt: The Washington Post slammed the administration’s continued delay of a Keystone XL decision, calling it “absurd” and “embarrassing.” And for good reason – in fact, many good reasons. We have compiled 7 of the most compelling.

Federal prosecutors plan to file charges against Rep. Grimm, attorney says
Excerpt: New York Republican Rep. Michael Grimm's attorney confirmed late Friday that federal prosecutors plan to file criminal charges against the congressman. The decision follows a two-year FBI investigation into various aspects of Grimm's business and campaign history. 

Army Chaplain’s Impassioned Speech on Gun Rights Silences Every Liberal In The Room
http://conservativevideos.com/2014/04/army-chaplains-impassioned-speech-gun-rights-silences-every-liberal-room/
Excerpt: His impassioned speech was incredible. He emphasized lawmakers’ lack of knowledge on the subject of firearms, and berated them for their willingness to let let off those who abuse guns in crimes so that the criminals can offend again.

Women's Median Income Declines. From The Patriot Post
According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the last recession ended in June 2009. (You can stop laughing now.) Barack Obama has spent the last five years waging class, race and sex warfare, with the latest push being to dupe women voters with his phony "war on women." Yet the real war on women is being waged by his economic policies. Since Obama was elected, the median income of women is down more than 4% in constant dollars. Furthermore, the highest median income for women 15 and older was $23,169 in 2007. We can't remember who was president then, but it wasn't Obama.

1.5B More Hours of Paperwork. From The Patriot Post
One-and-a-half billion hours of burdensome paperwork has been added by the regulatory state since 2010, according to an analysis by American Action Forum, which pegs the additional economic cost at $43.8 billion. The report finds, "In 2010, the nation's total paperwork burden was 8.8 billion hours; today, it's more than 10.3 billion hours, an increase of 1.5 billion hours, despite the attempt at regulatory reform. For perspective, it would take 786,000 individuals working full-time to complete the new paperwork added since 2010." Recall that Obama tasked agencies with reducing this workload via executive order, though the results have evidently gone backward like the rest of his agenda. Two EPA proposals alone are estimated to cost $12.3 billion, wiping out the $10 billion purportedly "saved" in other areas.

From Greatness to Whiteness. By Dennis Prager
Excerpt: When Americans over the age of, let us say, 45, look at any of the iconic paintings of America's Founders – the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the signing of the Constitution, George Washington crossing the Delaware, any of the individual portraits the Founders – what do they see? They see great men founding a great country. If you ask recent graduates of almost any American university what they see when they look at these paintings, chances are that they see something entirely different. They are apt to see rich, white males who are not great and who did not found a great country. And it then allows that those who are nonWhite and not from some obvious upper middle class background are therefore more empowered, and are permitted the kinds of actions that would be instantly rejected if some White person did them. It says the values of the minority culture are somehow automatically superior and can be imposed on everyone else whenever desired. Of course, none of this really helps anyone progress or solves social problems, but hey, PC on a roll never has to say its sorry. --Del)

Driver Suing Boy She Killed for Emotional Distress. She's also suing other teen bicyclists she hit. By Evann Gastaldo
Excerpt: On a rainy October night in 2012, 17-year-old Brandon Majewski and two of his friends were riding their bikes to get hot dogs when they were hit from behind by an SUV. Majewski was killed; the other teen boys were injured. Now the 42-year-old woman driving the SUV, Sharlene Simon, is suing all three—plus Majewski's parents and brother, who has since died, the Toronto Star reports. Simon says she suffered emotional trauma in the accident, which happened about 55 miles north of Toronto, and is claiming $1.35 million in damages. "They did not apply their brakes properly," her lawsuit states. "They were incompetent bicyclists. (Here's a new record. The driver who couldn't see the boys on bikes on the road ahead of her and could not hit her brakes at all before plowing into them, wants to sue them and their families for her emotional distress. It doesn't get any stupider or more self-obsessed than this. Hopefully the court will bounce her case right out the door. Still, the emotional distress she has put the families in is reprehensible. What an arrogant, self-important witch. [use a w, use a b, take your pick.] --Del)

It is time for the West to move ahead without Russia. By John McCain, John Barrasso, John Hoeven and Ron Johnson
Excerpt: John McCain, John Barrasso, John Hoeven and Ron Johnson, all Republicans, represent Arizona, Wyoming, North Dakota and Wisconsin, respectively, in the Senate. We recently visited Norway, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Moldova. In each country, our allies want a stronger immediate response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its ongoing subversion of Ukraine. They also believe, as we do, that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s latest acts of aggression require an enduring strategic response from the United States, Europe and NATO. It should be clear to all that Putin’s Russia has taken a dark turn. There is no resetting this relationship. We cannot return to business as usual.

In a tangle over euphemisms for affirmative action. By George F. Will
Excerpt: Anodyne euphemisms often indicate an uneasy conscience or a political anxiety. Or both, as when the 1976 Democratic platform chose “compensatory opportunity” as a way of blurring the fact that the party favored racial discrimination in the form of preferences and quotas for certain government-favored minorities in such matters as government hiring, contracting and college admissions. Since then, “affirmative action” has become the ubiquitous semantic evasion. (I loath euphemisms. If I don't survive this lung thing, please tell people I died, not that I "passed away." Croaked, bought the farm, got a mole for a mailman, etc. are all okay too, because they are not attempts, like "passed away," to make it sound not so bad. ~Bob)

Sixth grader suspended for taking razor blade away from suicidal student, throwing it away
http://dailycaller.com/2014/03/20/sixth-grader-suspended-for-taking-razor-blade-away-from-suicidal-student-throwing-it-away/#ixzz300FVaszg
And they wonder why people think educators are idiots. ~Bob. Excerpt: A Virginia beach middle school suspended sixth grader Adrionna Harris for ten days — and recommended expulsion — because she was briefly in possession of a razor blade after she confiscated it from a friend who was trying to kill himself. (After the local media got involved, they cleared her record. ~Bob)

Obama's War on the Poor: U.S. electricity prices may be going up for good: Experts warn of a growing fragility as coal-fired plants are shut down, nuclear power is reduced and consumers switch to renewable energy.
Excerpt: As temperatures plunged to 16 below zero in Chicago in early January and set record lows across the eastern U.S., electrical system managers implored the public to turn off stoves, dryers and even lights or risk blackouts. A fifth of all power-generating capacity in a grid serving 60 million people went suddenly offline, as coal piles froze, sensitive electrical equipment went haywire and utility operators had trouble finding enough natural gas to keep power plants running. The wholesale price of electricity skyrocketed to nearly $2 per kilowatt hour, more than 40 times the normal rate. The price hikes cascaded quickly down to consumers. Robert Thompson, who lives in the suburbs of Allentown, Pa., got a $1,250 bill for January. (Gee, who could have predicted this? Actually, a whole bunch of people could, and did, but no one was listening. All the green idealism is great, but it comes with a high cost, and that little rascal is just now starting to show his ugly head. A little forward thinking might have been nice, and maybe some real attention to replacing the aging nuclear power plants, in fact, build at least two new ones to hedge your bets. But it's late now, it'll take years just to get plans drawn up, if you can get anyone to pay to have that done, since no smart businessman is going to invest maybe $5 million and 3-4 years minimum to just get the door open a crack in the process for permitting a new plant. As it is, yep, the price of power is going up now and will continue to do so. Good luck with that, all you environmental enthusiasts. But you have dragged everyone into this brave new world of higher energy costs. And remember, no matter how many laws the idiots pass in the legislatures about having 30% of energy come from wind and sun and tide, etc, the system must still have the back-up capacity in regular generation methods. Those clean sources can't be trusted to generate the power consistently, every hour of every day, so you must be prepared to run as if they aren't there at all. Or you have to be ready to live with regular power outages, take your pick. --Del)

Obamacare News

Competence: WH Has Missed More Than Half of Own Obamacare Deadlines. By Guy Benson
Excerpt: The administration has failed to meet 44 statutory deadlines required under Obamacare, according to a new report by the Congressional Research Service (CRS). The report, released on Monday, documents every provision with a specific deadline within the health care law and the administration’s actions taken as of April 15, 2014. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has missed more than half of the 83 deadlines mandated since March 2011. 

Excerpt: The decision follows months of severe technical issues that have made Oregon's marketplace one of the worst in the country.
About $130 million has been spent on Cover Oregon, but it is the only ObamaCare enrollment system that won't let registrants buy coverage and qualify for tax credits in one sitting. 

If you like your health plan, you might lose it. Again.
Excerpt: The Obama administration is quietly trying to stamp out some of the skimpiest health plans, a decision that industry officials say could trigger yet another wave of cancellation notices.
The administration is targeting a type of coverage called fixed benefit or indemnity insurance, which give patients a fixed sum of money whenever they visit the doctor or land in a hospital.

ObamaCare is Hurting Business, General Electric Says
Excerpt: General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt today doubled-down on acknowledgements by his company that ObamaCare is hurting the business sector, saying in response to a question posed by the National Center for Public Policy Research, "there is still a lot of uncertainty in health care." Immelt's statement followed a report by GE Senior Vice President and CFO Jeffrey S. Bornstein that a decline in the profitability of GE's previously-solid health care division over the last two quarters came about because "Hospitals and clinics appear to be delaying purchases and responses to the Affordable Care Act." (Thought Immelt was an Obama guy... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/21/obama-picks-jeffrey-immel-ge-jobs-overseas_n_812502.html. ~Bob)

5 Lives Wrecked By Obamacare. By John Hawkins
Excerpt: Liberals support cruel policies that decimate people's lives; yet they like to think of themselves as compassionate and kind. So, they judge programs based on the good intentions they claim to have had, not the actual results. Liberals started out by telling everyone that, "If you like your plan, you can keep your plan." They said, "If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor." They said it would "save the average family $2,500 on its premiums."

Chinese Invasion Mexican Border - YouTube
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vtAAUegOz28

Religion of Peace News

Suspect in custody after bomb scare at Kemah Walmart
Excerpt: A man with a knife and several suspicious devices was arrested Saturday in a Walmart parking lot, after a four-hour stand-off that kept customers and employees trapped inside the Kemah store. Mehrzad Malekzadeh, 35, of Sugar Land has been arrested and charged with making terroristic threats and displaying a hoax bomb, which are both class A misdemeanor charges.

Jihadists Now Control Secretive U.S. Base in Libya
Excerpt: A key jihadist leader and longtime member of al Qaeda has taken control of a secretive training facility set up by U.S. special operations forces on the Libyan coastline to help hunt down Islamic militants, according to local media reports, Jihadist web forums, and U.S. officials. (More fruit from Obama's non-congressionally-authorized, lead-from-behind war. Do you feel safe? ~Bob)

Experts Warn More European Muslim Youth Are Radicalizing. By Abigail R. Esman
Excerpt: So violent, so bloodthirsty, is the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a Syria-based jihadist group, that even al-Qaida will have nothing to do with them. But young European Muslims will – and do.

Punjab: clan gang rapes seven year old Christian and kidnaps father to stop him reporting them. By Jibran Khan
http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Punjab:-clan-gang-rapes-seven-year-old-Christian-and-kidnaps-father-to-stop-him-reporting-them-30906.html
Excerpt: Sara was raped by four men in a Muslim village in Sialkot . The little girl is hospitalized in a "critical condition". The rapists kidnapped her father, Iqbal Masih, forcing the family to not press charges. Activists and human rights organizations demand justice.

Declaration Signals Growing Split in Al-Qaida. By John Rossomando
Excerpt: A pledge signed by nine al-Qaida commanders from Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and Iran is the latest example of how the terrorist movement's once monolithic structure has begun to crumble under stress from Syria's civil war. The "Khorasan pledge," which was signed April 9, announces a shift in loyalty from al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahiri to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, head of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

‘A Direct Affront’ to Kerry: With ‘Little Fear’ of Washington, Fatah-Hamas Pact Crushes Peace Process. State Department insists Israel shares the blame as Netanyahu's cabinet vows to not negotiate with terrorists. By Bridget Johnson
Exerpt: President Obama’s relentless push for some sort of first-stage Mideast peace deal by the end of this month was dealt a strong blow by Fatah and Hamas deciding to put aside their differences and unite. Hamas’ information office said the pact between Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas political bureau leader Khaled Mashal was simply implementing the previous unity agreements signed years ago in Doha and Cairo — pacts followed by years of vicious fighting between the parties. (Here's a major kick in the head for any "peace process". --Del. John Kerry's chase of the Peace Process is like the 70-year-old guy in the back row at a topless bar winking at the stripper. Only he thinks he's got a chance. ~Bob)

The double threat for gay men in Syria
Excerpt: In Syria’s savage war, it seems incongruous to single out the experiences of one group. Yet many gay men there face a double threat: They’re being persecuted by the Syrian army and by militant groups while their families often reject them, or worse. (Liberals: Opposing gay marriage in the US? Disgusting homophobia. Murdering gays in Islamic lands? It's their culture, who are we to condemn. ~Bob)

Why Iranian Women Can’t Have Any of It
Excerpt: Regardless of whether Yazdi’s remarks that women cannot run for president of the Islamic Republic can be attributed as an official pronouncement of the Guardian Council—the 12-member body that Yazdi is a member of and which is charged with vetting election candidates according to their Islamic credentials—it matters precious little for the women that make up more than half of Iran’s total population of around 77 million people.
The real issue is that hijab—or proper Islamic dress—is still compulsory for women in Iran’s streets and public places and failure to cover accordingly can result in imprisonment or a hefty fine.
The real issue is that in today’s Iran divorce is a husband’s unilateral right but if a woman seeks to divorce her husband she must prove he has either abandoned her or is mentally ill, abusive, or a drug addict. The real issue is that...

U.S. Doesn't Object, So Iran Gets a Seat on U.N. Women's Rights Body
Excerpt: The Obama administration on Wednesday criticized Iran’s election to the U.N.’s Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) – but neither the U.S. nor any other delegation objected when given the opportunity to do so, thus allowing Iran to get the seat “by acclamation.” Iran will now serve on the CSW, a body dealing with gender equality and the advancement of women, for another four-year term, having already been a member since 2011. (Their idea of women's rights is to control the size of the stones used to kill women, including rape victims, accused of adultery, all to the silence of the "war on women" crowd. ~Bob)

Egypt: Stop Mutilating Little Girls! After the death of a little girl, the doctor who mutilated her genitals is being taken to court. In Egypt, that’s a first. By Bel Trew
Excerpt: It was supposed to be a routine “operation.” The parents of 13-year-old Soheir al-Batea, from a village in Egypt’s Nile Delta, took her to be circumcised at the local clinic that had been recommended by friends. They had done the same with her older sister a year before. A doctor typically cuts off the whole clitoris or a part of it, sometimes in extreme cases removing the labia as well, in a procedure that is now illegal but still deemed necessary by many Egyptians to preserve the purity of the child and control sexual desire. (But it's their culture and liberals say all cultures are equally valid...~Bob)

Vow of Freedom of Religion Goes Unkept in Egypt

Excerpt: Nine months later, though, Egypt’s freethinkers and religious minorities are still waiting for the new leadership to deliver on that promise. Having suppressed Mr. Morsi’s Islamist supporters, the new military-backed government has fallen back into patterns of sectarianism that have prevailed here for decades. (I know, you're shocked. ~Bob)