Update
My health continues its slow improvement, with the amount
I've been doing on PT Rehab and my FEV numbers both ticking up, O2 usage
ticking down. Of course, I've gone up before. So I'm not out of the woods and
will likely never be. But I continue to fight the battles as they present
themselves. I've always been inspired by this great speech by Winston Churchill:
"We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France , we shall fight on the seas
and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the
air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on
the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the
fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender!" Yes,
indeed.
Lately so much interesting news
and comment that I've been posting daily and will do so as I have time. Trust me, no
one reads even 20% of the items--I scan most myself. Just scroll through, get
the gist and read those you want to know more about. ~Bob
General News and Comment
Good News: In 5-2 ruling, Supreme Court issues final
word on Act 10
http://host.madison.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/wisconsin-supreme-court-upholds-act-in---ruling/article_0d448a2d-dd28-5a57-abeb-f32e114d80c3.html
http://host.madison.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/wisconsin-supreme-court-upholds-act-in---ruling/article_0d448a2d-dd28-5a57-abeb-f32e114d80c3.html
Excerpt: More than three years after its passage sparked
massive protests that jammed the Capitol
Square , the state Supreme Court upheld the
constitutionality of a divisive state law that sharply curtailed the collective
bargaining rights of most public workers. In upholding Gov. Scott Walker's
signature piece of legislation, the court handed the governor a major victory
three months before he seeks re-election.
Excerpt: Blacks were not enslaved because they were black,
but because they were available at the time. Whites enslaved other whites in
Europe for centuries before the first black slave was brought to the Western Hemisphere . Only late in history were human
beings even capable of crossing an ocean to get millions of other human beings
of a different race. In the thousands of years before that, not only did
Europeans enslave other Europeans, Asians enslaved other Asians, Africans
enslaved other Africans, and the native peoples of the Western Hemisphere
enslaved other native peoples of the Western Hemisphere .
(From Barbarians Inside the Gates, an excellent 2001 collection of Dr. Sowell's
columns from the 1990s, all still very relevant and worth reading. ~Bob)
Excerpt: The Obama administration often denies any
responsibility for the current global chaos or claims that it erupted
spontaneously. Yet most of the mess was caused by, or made worse by, growing U.S.
indifference and paralysis. Over the last five and a half years, America has had
lots of clear choices, but the administration usually took the path of least
short-term trouble, which has ensured long-term hardship.
CIA director
apologizes to Senate leaders
Excerpt: CIA Director John Brennan apologized to Senate
intelligence committee leaders after his inspector general found that CIA
employees acted improperly when the CIA searched Senate computers earlier this
year. (Boy, will Obama be angry when he learns of this from the newspapers. But
if Bush was responsible for the failure of FEMA in New Orleans during his
administration, why isn't Obama responsible for the CIA, IRS, NSA, JOD's fast
and Furious guns to drug cartels program, the chaos in Libya following his war,
or the border crisis during his? Because he's black? Oh, those racist liberals.
~Bob)
Congress approves VA
reform bill
Excerpt: The Senate gave final approval Thursday to sweeping
legislation aimed at fixing the troubled Department of Veterans Affairs,
marking a rare moment of bipartisan accord triggered by the widespread
treatment delays veterans faced at agency facilities. The legislation passed
91-3 a day after the House overwhelmingly approved the package. It now goes to
President Obama’s desk.
Press release on
upcoming event regarding Viet
Nam
This is the short form press conference release for the
meeting to be held next Tuesday at the National Press Club in Washington , DC US
involvement in Viet Nam
into clear focus. Time is rolling along, and every year, it seems every month,
we are losing some of the witnesses and participants in that history, whose
testimonies must be recorded for the sake of real understanding of those
events. I hope some of the recipients of this will think of appropriate places
to forward this information. It would be very nice to see more veterans
represented in the room when this important discussion/debate begins. --Del
Lois Lerner's Vendetta: Toxic partisanship revealed in new
emails. By Arnold Ahlert
Excerpt: House Republicans have released a Lois
Lerner email exchange from November 2012 that “clearly
demonstrates why Ms. Lerner not only targeted conservatives, but denied such
groups their rights to due process and equal protection under the law,” wrote
House Ways and Means Committee Chair Dave Camp (R-MI) in a letter to
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. The emails were part of additional evidence
the Committee turned over to the Justice Department (DOJ) to support a thorough
investigation of the IRS’s criminal behavior. (If you think that Eric
(With)Holder's DOJ will seriously investigate Lerner for doing Obama's bidding,
and risk her singing, I have some future beachfront property in Nevada you might be
interested in. Meantime, how about a game of five card stud for small stakes?
~Bob)
WWI, the Not So Great War. By Cal Thomas
Excerpt: It is a truism that wars are started by old men who
send young men (and now women) to die. What was then called The Great War
turned out to be “great,” but only in its carnage. The figures, though still in
dispute, are staggering even to this day. According to figures compiled by the
U.S. Justice Department, there were more than 37 million casualties, including
dead, wounded and missing. Russia
and Germany lost the most
(1.7 million and 1.73 million respectively), followed by Austria-Hungary (1.2 million), France (1.35
million) and Britain
(908,371). The U.S. ,
because of its late entry into the conflict, suffered 116,516 dead, 204,002
wounded.
Satire: Plotting
Women. By Andy Weddington
Not political except to some far-left, perpetually-offended feminists),
but has a very funny video. ~Bob
Right Direction or
Wrong Track
Excerpt: Twenty-four percent (24%) of Likely U.S. Voters
think the country is heading in the right direction, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey for the
week ending July 27. This finding, down two points from last week,
is the lowest since the beginning of
November when the country was fresh off the temporary
government shutdown and in the midst of the disastrous rollout of the national
health care law.
Ebola outbreak may already be uncontrollable; Monsanto
invests in Ebola treatment drug company as pandemic spreads. By Mike Adams
Excerpt: A global outbreak of deadly Ebola is underway and
has crossed national borders. One infected victim of the horrifying disease
flew on international flights, vomiting on board and exposing hundreds of
people to the deadly virus which can be transmitted through airborne particles.
Ebola has an 8-10 day incubation period, meaning thousands of people could be
carrying it right now and spreading it across the cities of the world without
even knowing it. Passengers in Hong Kong and the UK have already shown symptoms of
the disease and are being tested, reports USA Today. (I haven't read any of
this guy's writings before this. I hope he's just a doomsday alarmist...~Bob.
News this am, Sanjay Gupta on CNN said Ebola is NOT airborne. M.O'C, MD)
Heroic American
doctor stricken with Ebola forgoes treatment for gravely ill colleague
Excerpt: Two gravely ill American medical workers in Nigeria who were infected with the Ebola virus
are said to be in stable condition as the humanitarian organization Samaritan’s
Purse works to bring them back to the U.S. for treatment. Dr. Kent
Brantly, the second American stricken by the disease, yesterday was offered an
experimental serum but only one dose was provided. “Dr. Brantly asked that it
be given to Nancy Writebol,” a nurse working with him who also infected, ...
(All societies are based on rules to protect pregnant women and young children.
All else is surplus age, excrescence, adornment, luxury or folly which can--and
must--be dumped in emergency to preserve this prime function. As racial
survival is the only universal morality, no other basic is possible. Attempts
to formulate a "perfect society," on any foundation other than
"women and children first!" is not only witless, it is automatically
genocidal. Nevertheless, starry-eyed idealists (all of them male) have tried
endlessly--and no doubt will keep on trying. --Robert A. Heinlein, "The
Note Books of Lazarus Long" in Time
Enough for Love. ~Bob)
...Security forces across Liberia have been ordered to
enforce the new measures, part of a new action plan that included placing all
nonessential government workers on 30-day compulsory leave, according to
Reuters. Ebola has a fatality rate of at least 60 percent and as high as 90
percent, although a patient's chances of survival increase when the disease is
spotted and treated early. The World Health Organization said the current
outbreak is the largest ever recorded.
Excerpt: African leaders are converging upon the White House
next week for a summit. “We’re working closely with regional governments to
stem the spread of the virus. We have no plans to change any elements of the
U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, as we believe all air travel continues to be safe
here,” Schultz said.
Call for 'radical
action' on drug-resistant malaria
Excerpt: Drug-resistant malaria is spreading in South East Asia , and has now reached the
Cambodia-Thailand border, according to a study. "Radical action" is
needed to prevent further spread of malaria parasites resistant to key drugs,
say scientists.
Congresswoman who
co-sponsored Bush impeachment bill said Democrats never tried to impeach Bush
Excerpt: 'She misspoke,' said a spokesman for Texas
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee. (This woman is the original recipient of the
"Dumber Than A Box Of Rocks" award, I have lost track of the times she
has embarrassed herself, her staff, and her whole Party. I have to wonder about
the staff that let her go on the floor of The House and baldly state that no
one had ever tried to impeach George Bush when she is on record as a sponsor of
the move to impeach President Bush not all that many years ago. Maybe she hires
incompetents, which would make sense given her lack of intelligence and common
sense. She really lives up to Mark Twain's characterization of congress people
as idiots. (The link will take you to the article and even a video of her going
on her rant about impeachment.) It's amusing as long as you don't think about
the fact that she gets a vote in Congress as valid as anyone else's. --Del )
Excerpt: Wow. “The Iron Dome has been a big reason why Israel has been able to withstand the terrorists
that have tried to tunnel their way in.” — Alison
Lundergan Grimes, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, Kentucky. The “Iron
Dome” is an anti-missile air-defense system that shoots down incoming
rockets, similar to the Patriot-missile batteries that the U.S. used in
the Persian Gulf War. It does not work underground. (By the way . . . we do
live in a world where Russian separatists shoot down airliners, Russia's firing
rockets into Ukraine, ISIS is on the march and enacting "religious
cleansing" in its territory, Hamas hides its rockets in schools, Boko
Haram still has the school girls, and Europe's exploding with anti-Semitism. So
if that caption outrages you . . . I hope it's not the preeminent outrage in
your life right now. It's a snarky caption, not the secret ingredient of
Soylent Green. --Jim Geraghty, Morning
Jolt
http://www.nationalreview.com/newsletters. Morning Jolt is
a free e-newsletter, well worth subscribing too. ~Bob)
Nato 'unprepared' for
Russia
Excerpt: Nato is poorly prepared for an attack on a member
state from Russia ,
an influential group of MPs has warned. The Commons Defence Committee said the
recent Ukraine
conflict showed "serious deficiencies" in Nato's preparedness to
counter threats - and "radical reform" was needed. (Napoleon with the
best Army in the world couldn't take Russia . Hitler with 100 divisions
couldn't. The west has steadily reduced its military to pay for the endless appetite
of the growing welfare state. We cannot project enough power into Easter Europe
to stop Russia ,
short of using nukes, which we are, shall we say, reluctant to do. Probably
couldn't at the height of the Reagan build up. Economic power is the only
hope--and it has not had good results against smaller states like Iraq and Iran . ~Bob)
Senior Fellow Larry
Kotlikoff Testifies on Social Security's Insolvency, Complexity
Excerpt: In testimony before the House Ways and Means
Subcommittee on Social Security, Larry Kotlikoff, NCPA Senior Fellow and
Director of the Tax Analysis Center, explained why the Social Security program
is insolvent and in need of reform. In order to pay full Social Security
benefits on time, as promised, Kotlikoff explains that the payroll tax would
need to rise by 32 percent immediately. If raising the payroll tax is not an
option, Social Security would have to cut all benefit payments by 22 percent in
order to keep the program afloat. But putting aside these financial realities,
Kotlikoff identifies another set of problems with the program: complexity. Even
the formulas used to calculate benefits are confusing! (It's worth subscribing
to the NCPA's free Daly policy Digest as well as Dr. Goodman's health policy
blog at www.ncpa.org. ~Bob
$1.4 Trillion
Medicare Cash Deficit Under Obama
Excerpt: On July 28, the Medicare Trustees issued
their annual
report on entitlement programs. Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Gordon Gray and
Conor Ryan of the American Action Forum delve into the details, explaining why
Medicare is in serious trouble. According to the Trustees, Medicare will go
bankrupt in 2030 and Social Security will follow just three years later, in
2033. Many were pleased that Medicare's bankruptcy date had been pushed to
2030, as previous projections had expected the program to run out by 2026. But
as the American Action Forum (AAF) report shows, there is no reason to be
anything other than concerned about Medicare's solvency:
Medicare took in only $283 billion in 2013 but spent $583
billion. That shortfall was 40 percent of the federal deficit in 2013. Since
1965, the Medicare program has had a cash shortfall every year, with the
exception of two years (1966 and 1974), totaling $3.4 trillion. The program
borrows tax revenue from other programs in order to cover the shortfalls. More
than one-fourth (29.3 percent) of the national debt is due to the Medicare
shortfall. The program is not sustainable: (Let's see, in 2030 I'll be 84,
unlike to have to worry about it. My wife will be 79, could be a problem for
her. And of course, my granddaughter will have to face the chaos created by the
collapse of the entitlement state. Unfortunately, I don't think we've got until
2030, too many other factors will likely put us over the tipping point long
before. I'd guess 2020 give or take a couple of years. See: The Coming Collapse of the American Republic
Doctors Spend More
Time in the Courtroom Than the Classroom
Excerpt: Medical malpractice suits are time consuming and
emotionally draining. The average physician spends more time—about 11 percent
of his or her career—embroiled in malpractice litigation than it takes to
complete medical school. Most claims consume two years prior to resolution, and
nearly twice that much time elapses since the event in question. (Gee, I wonder
why health care costs are soaring? ~Bob)
Obamacare News
BREAKING NEWS: Obama Union Endorser Slams Obamacare. By Wayne
Allyn Root
Excerpt: UNITE HERE—the first union to endorse Obama for
president—has released a scathing report on Obamacare. Entitled, “The Irony of
Obamacare: Making Inequality Worse,” UNITE HERE charges that the administration
is putting union health care into a “death spiral,” leading to the destruction
of healthcare plans we were promised we could keep.
“The ACA [Affordable Care Act] threatens the middle class
with higher premiums, loss of hours, and a shift to part-time work and less
comprehensive coverage,” the report points out. It also argues that the ACA
will transfer a billion dollars in wealth to insurance companies, create an
uneven playing field in the market, and force employers to slash hours and cut
back on pay. ("You'd have to have a heart of stone not to laugh at the
unraveling of Obamacare." --Jonah Goldberg)
Undocumented Democrat News
54% Believe Obama
Wants Most New Illegal Immigrants to Stay
Excerpt: Voters think President Obama is doing a poor job
handling the latest immigration crisis and believe he wants to let most of the
new illegal immigrants stay here despite majority support for their quick
deportation.
You're-Greener-Than-Gore News
The Ethanol
Boondoggle: But Won't Ethanol Help Stop Global Warming? By Mark Alexander
Excerpt: Here in the mountains of east Tennessee , we distill corn mash to produce a
product provincially known as Moonshine – because it is often produced and
transported under cover of darkness. Arguably, it is a more useful and beneficial
product than that toxic form of distilled alcohol from corn mandated for fuel
blends by the Environmental Protection Agency’s so-called “Renewable Fuel”
Standard.
Religion of Peace News
Left Hopes for
Cease-Fire as Israel
The sound bites this week about the Israeli conflict show
exactly what's at stake. In a video clip released
by the Middle East Media Research Institute, a unnamed Islamic cleric in Gaza giving a sermon on
the Hamas television channel Al-Aqsa TV shared the ultimate goal of Hamas:
total extermination of the Jews. "Our doctrine in fighting you [the Jews]
is that we will totally exterminate you," the cleric said. "We will not leave a single one of you alive, because you
are alien usurpers of the land and eternal mercenaries." Meanwhile,
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel will
destroy the tunnels of Hamas, regardless of anything else. "I won't agree
to any proposal that will not enable the Israeli military to complete this
important task for the sake of Israel 's
security," he said. And back in the states, the Democrat challenger to
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Alison Lundergan Grimes, told a Kentucky newspaper,
"The Iron Dome has been a big reason why Israel has been able to withstand
the terrorists that have tried to tunnel their way in." Um, we don't think
that's how the Iron Dome works, or that Netanyahu can declare "mission
accomplished" just yet.
Woman Used As Human
Shield in ‘70s: ‘Palestinians Have Perfected Propaganda War’ (Video)
Excerpt: Brigitte Gabriel, who was used as a human shield
when she was a child, was on “The Kelly File” tonight to discuss the
Israel-Hamas conflict.
MB Cleric Qaradawi Still Loving Hamas and Hating Jews
Excerpt: A good contrast between pragmatism and raw
religious hatred came in recent statements from prominent Sunni voices.
Egyptian cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a prominent Muslim Brotherhood spiritual
guide and popular Al-Jazeera program host, appeared on the network earlier this
month to defend Hamas as "nothing but a group that is
defending itself, defending its country, defending its brethren, defending its
honor, defending its (Muslim) Ummah." It is not, he added, a terrorist
group.
Excerpt: After years in which Israel ’s prevailing approach to the
Gaza Strip was a simple “quiet for quiet” demand, there is growing momentum
around a new formula, “reconstruction for demilitarization.” Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu is only the latest in a string of Israeli leaders who saw Gaza mainly as an
irritant to be controlled with periodic crackdowns and as a roadblock to
resolving the nation’s broader conflict with the Palestinians. (Hamas does not
want reconstruction and a better life for the people of Gaza . They want Israel and the Jews dead or gone.
That of course, is only the start. Like other Islamists, they want all
non-Muslims in the world dead, subjugated or converted. Israel is the front line, but we
are the eventual targets. So, of course, are other Muslims, who have even a
slightly different interpretation of Islam--by far the most victims of
Allahmurder are Muslims. ~Bob
Excerpt: Battling Palestinian militants in Gaza
two years ago, Israel
found itself pressed from all sides by unfriendly Arab neighbors to end the
fighting. Not this time. After the military ouster of the Islamist government
in Cairo last year, Egypt
has led a new coalition of Arab states — including Jordan ,
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — that has effectively
lined up with Israel
in its fight against Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls the Gaza Strip.
That, in turn, may have contributed to the failure of the antagonists to reach
a negotiated cease-fire even after more than three weeks of bloodshed.
Million Ceasefires.
By Daniel Greenfield
Excerpt: If you like cease-fires, then this is a great time
to be alive. Those Israelis who weren’t shot in the head by Hamas
terrorists (whom Andrew Sullivan insists weren’t real Hamas terrorist, trading
in his obsession with Sarah Palin’s rogue pregnancy for a new conspiracy
theory) or killed by a Hamas rocket, encounter almost as many cease-fires in a
given day as terrorist attacks. A cease-fire comes along every few minutes and
it can last anywhere from a minute to an hour to a few hours until Hamas once
again begins firing rockets or swarming through tunnels to attack Israelis.
The US embassy
in Tel Aviv has cancelled tourist visa applications for Israelis,
according to a statement on its official website, in a move it claims is a
matter of staffing and security. ...The statement surfaces in the midst of
both souring US-Israel relations and an already-pressured visa crisis, which has
seen the visa process for Israelis grow more and more difficult over the past
year. In April, US Secretary
of State John Kerry announced an
internal review into claims that hundreds of young Israelis were being
barred from entering the US for
political reasons. (Should come through Southern border with the Other Than
Mexicans; would get jetted/bussed to any of the
continental US states, furnished food, clothing, medical care, schooling...all
anonymously, no ID required; that would be discriminating. --Barb)
IDF Soldiers Killed
in Booby-Trapped UN Building
The three IDF soldiers who were killed on
Wednesday in Gaza ,
were killed when explosives detonated within a booby-trapped UN building
inKhan Younis, Breitbart reports. An elite IDF tunnel unit was
in the process of uncovering an opening to a Hamas tunnel
located at an UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) health clinic when
all of a sudden the explosives detonated, causing the entirety of the building
to fall on top of the soldiers. Neither the UN nor UNRWA have commented on
the incident that resulted in the deaths of three Israeli soldiers, according
to Breitbart.
Watch: IDF Finds
Terror Tunnel in Gaza
Excerpt: Gaza ’s Hamas
terrorist rulers do not only use
schools to store weapons and launch rockets towards Israel . On
Wednesday, a joint IDF task force uncovered a tunnel entrance on the ground
floor of a mosque that had been used by Hamas terrorists to attack Israeli
soldiers.
Excerpt: The U.S. Embassy in Tripoli , Libya
'Dozens of bodies' at
captured base in Benghazi , Libya
Excerpt: At least 35 bodies have been recovered from a
Libyan military base that was overrun by Islamist-led militias, the Libyan Red
Crescent says. The special forces base in Benghazi
was captured on Tuesday, after two days of intense fighting. Libya has been
gripped by a wave of violence involving the militias that spearheaded the 2011
uprising against Muammar Gaddafi. (Heck of a job getting rid of Gaddafi, Bammy!
~Bob)
Important: Bill Clinton
Told Businessmen On 9/10/2001 That He Passed On Killing Osama Bin Laden. By Christine Rousselle
Excerpt: Newly-discovered audio from a September 10, 2001
meeting in Melbourne
confirms that former President Bill Clinton could have killed
Osama Bin Laden in the 1990s, but chose not to do so as hundreds of
civilians would have also been killed. The audio was forgotten about until
recently and was released on
Australian television on Wednesday. (And how many thousands of American civilians
and troops died because our "respected elder statesman" choked? Not
to mention tens of thousands of Muslims. ~Bob)
Bill Whittle: Losing
the Peace in Iraq
From the email forward: This is a chilling but extremely
informative 6 minute video that actually will tell you the truth about who the
real American enemies are. Some of you already know this, but this guy explains
it so very well that you need to send this to everyone you know. (Compares Iraq to Vietnam . ~Bob)
Excerpt: A 12 year old girl in Australia was married off by her
father to a 26 yr old Lebanese student and told that she had to comply due to
sharia.
Pakistani Mob Lynches
Grandmother & Two Girls Due to Faith
Excerpt: A Pakistani Muslim mob raging against Ahmadi Muslims, who they view as heretical, set upon an
Ahmadi community, killing a grandmother and her two small granddaughters and
injuring others.
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