General News and Comment
Book Recommendation: The Washing Of The Spears: The Rise And Fall
Of The Zulu Nation. By Donald R. Morris
This well-researched history, presented in a very readable
style, will delight and military history buff. It is the story of not only the
Zulus, but all of the peoples of Southern Africa ,
and the back ground for much of today's troubles in that area. Full of fascinating
details, it is a story of towering personalities, on all sides, with all the
flaws of such people. It details great bravery--and great stupidity. Containing
the best accounts I have read of the British defeat as Isandlwana
and the heroic defense of Rorke's Drift, it also covers other, less well known
engagements. With rifles against spears the British defeats appear to be the
results of poor tactical leadership and judgment on the spot. If the British
were the aggressors, the Zulus had a lot of unappealing characteristics. Zulu kings
would have people selected at random for trivial offenses and executed on the
spot to impress visitors with their power. It's a long history, but well worth
reading.
Americans say Obama is the worst president since World War
II. That’s not his real problem. By Philip Bump
Excerpt: A new poll from Quinnipiac University America
would be better off if Republican Mitt Romney had won the 2012 presidential
election, 45 percent of voters say, while 38 percent say the country would be
worse off." (Oh, now they figure it out--too late smart. ~Bob)
Obama is the "Worst President Since WWII," Q-poll
Finds. By Daniel Doherty
Excerpt: The president’s second term has been marred by
humiliations and setbacks. From the IRS, VA,
and AP scandals
to the botched Obamacare website
rollout, the 44thpresident of the United States can’t seem to catch a
break. And as a consequence, the public has bestowed upon him the most uncharitable
of titles, ...
Quinnipiac: Plurality
of Public Now Says Obama Is An A------
Excerpt: "However, the subsequent development of
photography, sound recording, film, and mass production, as well as public
education and techniques used in commercial advertising, enabled political
leaders to project a positive image as never before. It was from these
circumstances in the 20th century that the best-known personality cults arose.
Often these cults are a form of political religion." Boy howdy, how true
that is, Wikipedia. ... So the Cult of Personality is well and truly dead.
Never again will we hear hoseannas about our Great Leader's supple mind,
erotically throbbing pectoral muscles, or literary genius, except perhaps from
our Great Leader himself or his whispering sycophant Valerie Jarrett. This is
good for America ,
as well: It is a stupid and frightening and shameful thing for a people to fall
so hard for a ridiculous, false-on-its-face fairy tale about a Crusading Hero
Who Will Deliver Us All. This is how nations die.
Excerpt: A couple of years ago, President Barack Obama,
speaking on the economy, told an audience in Osawatomie , Kansas
Putin Warns Again of
Force as Ukraine
Excerpt: The simmering standoff in eastern Ukraine exploded into warfare early Tuesday,
pushing the conflict to a dangerous new phase and prompting President Vladimir
V. Putin of Russia
to warn again that he reserves the right to use force to defend
Russian-speaking citizens.
Excerpt: On Sunday, Smith tweeted a picture of a vandalized
campaign sign, in which her face was covered in white spray paint: (Probably a
black supporter of Corrine Brown. I used to lobby her when she was in the
Florida House. Hardly the sharpest knife in the drawer. ~Bob)
Lois Lerner And
Fellow IRS Official Announced Targeting At 2010 Conference Before Both Of Their
Emails Went Missing
http://dailycaller.com/2014/07/01/lois-lerner-and-fellow-irs-official-announced-targeting-at-2010-conference-the-same-month-their-emails-went-missing/
http://dailycaller.com/2014/07/01/lois-lerner-and-fellow-irs-official-announced-targeting-at-2010-conference-the-same-month-their-emails-went-missing/
Excerpt: Both Lerner and Flax experienced “computer crashes”
that led to the permanent deletion of their emails, according to the IRS, which
said it cannot hand over their emails to congressional investigators on two
House committees. Both Lerner and Flax briefed fellow government bureaucrats on the new targeting at the conference, where
Lerner appeared at a workshop called
“Will the IRS Come Knocking?”
Excerpt: Great men (and women) can't change a nation, even
if they are supremely ruthless and cynical. Not in a constitutional republic
like ours. It can only be accomplished when the people fall silent and give up
their freedoms willingly. It happens when their governments are corrupted and
they say nothing, because to complain might mean they'd lose an opportunity to
win a perk or an advantage over their neighbor.
Obama: 'So Sue Me.
From The
Patriot Post
In yet another presidential stump speech, Barack Obama
taunted Republicans Tuesday to "sue me" if they don't like
his unilateral executive actions. House Speaker John Boehner has threatened
to do just
that. "As long as [Republicans] insist on taking no action whatsoever
that will help anybody," Obama said. "I'm going to keep on taking
actions on my own that can help the middle class." As if to turn the
knife, he added, "Middle-class families can't wait for Republicans in
Congress to do stuff. So sue me. As long as they're doing nothing, I'm not
going to apologize for trying to do something." Obama's actions
are harming the middle class. The economy has been stagnant for his
entire tenure because he's more concerned with class warfare than anything
else. On top of that, his actions are also frequently unconstitutional. . ( “I
taught constitutional law for ten years. I take the Constitution very
seriously. The biggest problems that were facing right now have to do with
George Bush trying to bring more and more power into the executive branch and
not go through Congress at all, and that’s what I intend to reverse when
I’m President of the United States of America.” --Barack Obama, 2008)
The Jew-Hating Obama Administration. By Ben Shapiro
Excerpt: On Monday, three Jewish boys were found dead,
murdered by the terrorist group Hamas: Eyal Yifrach, 19; Gilad Shaar, 16; and
Naftali Frenkel, 16. Frenkel was an American citizen. ... Presumably Frenkel
did not look enough like Barack Obama’s imaginary son for him to give a damn.
Or perhaps Frenkel hadn’t deserted his duty in the American military, and
therefore his parents didn’t deserve a White House press conference. Maybe
Michelle Obama was too busy worrying about children’s fat thighs to spend a
moment tweeting out a selfie to raise awareness.
Proud to be an American? You’re probably not a true
liberal. By Aaron Blake
Excerpt: Michelle Obama took some heat in 2008 for saying that, "for the first time
in my adult life I am proud of my country..." As it turns out,
that sentiment isn't all that unusual on the far left of American
politics. According to a new Pew Research
Center study, only 40 percent of consistently liberal Americans say
they often feel proud to be
Americans.
Do you remember me?
By Lizzie Palmer
Tribute to the Troops reportedly made by a 15-year-old girl.
Excerpt: Hong Kong police
have arrested over 500 protesters who staged a pro-democracy sit-in at the
city's business district. The demonstrators were arrested for illegal assembly
and obstructing police officers, police said. The sit-in came after tens of
thousands of protesters marched on Tuesday in what was described as the city's
largest democracy rally in a decade.
Liberals’ Hobby
Lobby Doublethink: If birth control is “not your boss’s
business,” why do you expect him to pay for it? By Jonah Goldberg
Excerpt: Abortion-rights protesters gathered outside the
Supreme Court building on Monday holding signs that read “Birth Control: Not My
Boss’s Business.” Much to their chagrin, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito
agreed in his ruling in the Hobby Lobby case. ( Nothing is being denied to
anyone because of the Hobby Lobby decision...unless you truly expected to be
given something for nothing. Similarly, while I think abortion is abhorrent, I
don't see it as my place to deny it to you...but it is a great leap to accuse
me of denying you the right to an abortion because I don't think tax dollars
should be used for it. --George)
Full Hobby Lobby
Decision
I believe strongly that no one should comment about a
Supreme Court case unless he/she has read it in chief. For those interested in
the full story, and not just the slanted partial reporting coming out of the
news media, here is the cite for the Hobby Lobby case. --BW
The Bill and Hillary
Clinton Money Machine Taps Corporate Cash. Couple Has Raised More Than $1
Billion in Two Decades; Republicans Worry of Early Lead in 2016
Excerpt: Bill and Hillary Clinton helped
raise more than $1 billion from U.S.
companies and industry donors during two decades on the national stage
through campaigns, paid speeches and a network of organizations advancing their
political and policy goals, The Wall Street Journal found. Those deep ties
potentially give Mrs. Clinton a financial advantage in the 2016 presidential
election, if she runs, and could bring industry donors back to the Democratic
Party for the first time since Mr. Clinton left the White House.
Why Embarrass
Journalists? By Hugh Hewitt
Excerpt: “Why do you embarrass journalists the way you do?” I
get some form of this question –or a more direct condemnation– after every
interview like the one I conducted Monday with The Huffington Post’s “Senior
Political Economy Reporter” Zach Carter. ... I assumed…well, there’s the rub. I
always assume that young journalists would not dare opine on the war without a
basic knowledge of the existential threat at its core, and the origins of that
threat.
Excerpt: HB 60, signed into law by Governor Nathan Deal (R)
on April 23, enacts the following pro-gun reforms for law-abiding gun owners in
Georgia :
Male-female pay gap remains entrenched at White House.
By Zachary A.
Goldfarb
Excerpt: The White House has not narrowed the gap between
the average pay of male and female employees since President Obama’s first year
in office, according to a Washington Post analysis of new salary data.
The White House gave out $1.3 million in raises in the last
year. By Philip Bump
Excerpt: The White House released its 2014
salary list Tuesday, allowing those Americans interested in such things a
window into the lives of people in the Obama administration.
In Praise of Mexican Inventors. By Jim Goad http://takimag.com/article/in_praise_of_mexican_inventors_jim_goad/print#ixzz36G0fPMr1
Excerpt: Wikipedia is hardly the final word on anything, but how doMexico ’s
seven inventors stack up to other countries’ output? Wikipedia lists 374 inventors
from England , a country with
less than half of Mexico ’s
population. It lists 200 Russian
inventors, although the modern Russian Federation ’s
population edges out Mexico ’s
by 23 million or so. It features182 French
inventors in a country of 67 million, at least 100 German inventors in a notoriously intolerant nation of 80
million, and 93 Italian
inventors (Italy ’s
population is half of Mexico ’s).
Excerpt: Wikipedia is hardly the final word on anything, but how do
I Heart Fossil Fuels.
By James Delingpole
http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/06/30/How-to-troll-Glastonbury-festival-Part-One
Excerpt: I really do heart them. Not as much as I heart my kids, perhaps; or Skrillex; or Metallica (they ROCKED); but definitely a lot more than I heart renewable energy which I loathe in almost all its manifestations because it is expensive, environmentally damaging, ugly, pointless and useless. At one point, a man with a beard came up to confront me. He accused me - no really - of being in the pay of Big Oil, assured me - again, no really - that 97 per cent of the world's scientists believe in "climate change" and said that people like me had no business being atGlastonbury festival.
http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/06/30/How-to-troll-Glastonbury-festival-Part-One
Excerpt: I really do heart them. Not as much as I heart my kids, perhaps; or Skrillex; or Metallica (they ROCKED); but definitely a lot more than I heart renewable energy which I loathe in almost all its manifestations because it is expensive, environmentally damaging, ugly, pointless and useless. At one point, a man with a beard came up to confront me. He accused me - no really - of being in the pay of Big Oil, assured me - again, no really - that 97 per cent of the world's scientists believe in "climate change" and said that people like me had no business being at
The Underappreciated
Eric Cantor. By Stephen Moore
Excerpt: Federal spending has fallen over the three years
Mr. Cantor has been the House leader. That’s the first time it’s dropped since
the 1950s. Here’s the point: No one on Capitol Hill is singularly more responsible
for that remarkable improvement than Eric Cantor.
America
http://www.dineshdsouza.com/feature/?gclid=CKPTyISLpb8CFQOSaQodW64AhQ
Excerpt: How badly we need right now, a Washington, a Lincoln, a Reagan. Well, we don't have them. But we do have us. Opening July 2.
http://www.dineshdsouza.com/feature/?gclid=CKPTyISLpb8CFQOSaQodW64AhQ
Excerpt: How badly we need right now, a Washington, a Lincoln, a Reagan. Well, we don't have them. But we do have us. Opening July 2.
Excerpt: Former fugitive and still unrepentant
domestic-terrorist-turned-government-paid-professor Bill Ayers co-writes a
proposal to the Annenberg Foundation. It brings a $49.2 million education award
to “improve” Chicago
public schools. Just three years out of law school, Obama is asked to chair the
newly formed Chicago Annenberg Challenge board. Money spent includes hundreds
of thousands of dollars given in grants to Ayers' Cross City Campaign for Urban
School Reform and Chicago School Reform Collaborative projects. By their own
admission, the Annenberg project group failed.
Definition
O·ba·ma: \ō-ˈbä-mə\
verb. To make a promise you have no idea how to keep. Jim Geraghty, Morning Jolt
We’re No. 1?
Americans increasingly don’t think so.
Excerpt: A new Pew Research Center
poll shows that the number of Americans who think the United States "stands above
all other countries" has declined from 38 percent three years ago to 28
percent today. A strong majority of Americans (58 percent) say the U.S. is merely
"one of the greatest countries."
Will Harry Reid Tell This 100% Navajo Indian High School
Their ‘Redskins’ Mascot is Racist? By Matthew Burke
Excerpt: Red
Mesa High
School
Obama Civilian Security Force Takes Control of Immigrant
Internment Camps: “Abide By Brown Shirts Law.” B y Mac Slavo
Excerpt: Because of the sheer number of people heading to
the U.S. and the
complete failure, whether by chance or by design, of the Obama
administration to secure the border, America is now faced with housing,
feeding, clothing and providing medical care for more people than it was prepared to handle. In response, rather than deploy
Homeland Security or the National Guard to stop the migration at its source,
the Administration has instead set up makeshift internment camps,
some of which put scores of people in a room the size of a studio apartment. As
a result,disease has spread and
civilian emergency personnel have been tasked with providing care.
Obamacare News
Excerpt: A couple of months ago, I noted that the only thing
growing in the stagnant economy in the first quarter
was health spending.
Further, another source suggested that most of that
spending was from Medicaid, a welfare program. Such “growth” is not
really good for the economy. The final estimate of
real first quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has thrown
everyone for a loop, reporting an annualized decline of 2.9 percent. It was a
huge revision: The previous estimate was that first quarter GDP had declined by
only one percent.
The huge error in the earlier
figure was almost entirely driven by a poor estimate of the effect of ObamaCare
by the Bureau of Economic
Analysis (BEA):
Report: 1,295,571
Obamacare Enrollees May Or May Not Be Legal Citizens. By wynton Hall
Excerpt: A devastating new Health and Human Services (HHS)
Inspector General report released on Tuesday reveals that the Obama
administration has yet to determine whether 1,295,571 of the over 8 million
Obamacare enrollees are U.S.
citizens lawfully in the country.
Former Colorado
Obamacare Director Pleads Guilty To Stealing Public Funds
http://dailycaller.com/2014/06/30/former-colorado-obamacare-director-pleads-guilty-to-stealing-public-funds/
http://dailycaller.com/2014/06/30/former-colorado-obamacare-director-pleads-guilty-to-stealing-public-funds/
Excerpt: A former director of Colorado ’s
state-run health-care exchange pleaded guilty last week to defrauding taxpayers
while she was running a nonprofit housing agency in Montana . Christa Ann McClure, who now lives
in Denver , was supposedly fully vetted by her Colorado employers before being hired as the director of
partner engagement at Connect for Health Colorado ,
the state Obamacare exchange. The job paid $130,000, according to the Denver Post.
Rising Healthcare
Premiums
Excerpt: In nine of the 10 states that have filed their
proposed 2015 insurance rates, the largest health insurers are increasing
premiums between 8.5 percent and 22.8 percent for next year, reports the Wall
Street Journal.
Healthcare: A few key
and obvious points that keep nagging me:
1. Health care isn't free. Hospitals need to be built, equipped, and staffed; doctors need to be paid. Speaking of which, if I sacrificed my youth for the betterment of society, accumulating incredible debt in the process, not to mention the responsibility of ensuring patient lives, damn straight I expect to live the rest of my life in relative comfort, or at least earn enough to make my own decisions. 2. Health insurance is a means of minimizing the risk of extreme health costs. It also isn't free, and possession of insurance doesn't mean your health care is now free...unless you can afford a $40000 policy...but that's kind of foolish. 3. Services covered by insurance are reflected in your premium. You want birth control, experimental treatment, or a deluxe room, be prepared to pay for it up front. In this case, birth control was mandated as part of ACA...and premiums were increased because of it. Once again, nothing is free...unless you don't understand the basics of free market and profits. --George
1. Health care isn't free. Hospitals need to be built, equipped, and staffed; doctors need to be paid. Speaking of which, if I sacrificed my youth for the betterment of society, accumulating incredible debt in the process, not to mention the responsibility of ensuring patient lives, damn straight I expect to live the rest of my life in relative comfort, or at least earn enough to make my own decisions. 2. Health insurance is a means of minimizing the risk of extreme health costs. It also isn't free, and possession of insurance doesn't mean your health care is now free...unless you can afford a $40000 policy...but that's kind of foolish. 3. Services covered by insurance are reflected in your premium. You want birth control, experimental treatment, or a deluxe room, be prepared to pay for it up front. In this case, birth control was mandated as part of ACA...and premiums were increased because of it. Once again, nothing is free...unless you don't understand the basics of free market and profits. --George
CMS Unable to Resolve
Nearly 2.89 Million Obamacare Application Inconsistencies:
Audit: Government
resolved less than one percent of ‘inconsistencies’ in applications
Excerpt: The federal Obamacare marketplace was unable to
verify nearly 3 million irregularities in the applications for enrollment,
according to a new audit by the Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the
Inspector General (OIG).
Religion of Peace News
Worth Reading : How Obama Lost the
Middle East: The president put politics and ideology ahead of
preserving hard-won gains in the region. By Victor Davis
Hanson
Excerpt: But what exactly was the new Obama strategy that supposedly
had all but achieved a victory in the larger War on Terror amid Middle East hostility? Fuzzy euphemisms replaced
supposedly hurtful terms such as “terrorism,” “jihadist,” and “Islamist.” The
administration gave well-meaning speeches exaggerating Islamic achievement
while citing past American culpability. We tilted toward Turkey and the Palestinians while sternly
lecturing Israel .
Military victory was caricatured as an obsolete concept. Leading from behind
was a clever substitute.
If We
Want to Beat Al Qaeda, We Have to Stop Arming It. By Daniel Greenfield
http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/if-we-want-to-beat-al-qaeda-we-have-to-stop-arming-it/
Excerpt: This year it’s the Syrian Civil War that turned its local Al Qaeda affiliates into breakout Jihadi stars seizing entire cities and terrorizing the region. Obama’s solution is to direct money intended for counterterrorism partnerships to terrorists inSyria Benghazi
http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/if-we-want-to-beat-al-qaeda-we-have-to-stop-arming-it/
Excerpt: This year it’s the Syrian Civil War that turned its local Al Qaeda affiliates into breakout Jihadi stars seizing entire cities and terrorizing the region. Obama’s solution is to direct money intended for counterterrorism partnerships to terrorists in
Israelis clash with
Palestinians after Arab youth reported kidnapped, murdered
Excerpt: Israeli security forces and Palestinian residents
of East Jerusalem engaged in intense clashes
Wednesday morning after reports circulated that an Arab youth was kidnapped and
murdered, possibly in an attack meant to avenge the recent abduction and
killing of three Israeli teenagers. Although Israeli police had yet to confirm
the circumstances of 16-year-old Mohammad Abu Khieder’s disappearance, the
incident stoked already soaring tensions in the region, raising the specter of
wider violence between Palestinians and Israelis.
Palestinian
teenager's funeral delayed by post-mortem
Excerpt: The 17-year-old's murder raised tensions amid
claims it was in revenge for the killing of three Israeli youths. (There is no
excuse for killing the innocent in retaliation for the evil deeds of others.
Not only is it evil in itself, but it feeds the evil. I do, however, believe
that if the enemy executes your POWs you are justified in shooting theirs as a
deterrent. ~Bob)
Excerpt: Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), one of al
Qaeda's official branches, posted a statement on jihadist forums on July 1
praising the Islamic State's recent military gains in Iraq . AQIM also
calls for reconciliation between the ISIS and rival jihadist groups in Syria . The
message was first obtained and translated by the SITE Intelligence Group.
Afghan suicide bomber
attacks military bus in Kabul
Excerpt: A suicide bomber has killed at least eight military
officers in an attack on an Air Force bus in the Afghan capital Kabul , officials say. Another
13 people, including civilians, were wounded in the attack near Kabul university in the
west of the city.
A Short History of
Stupidity in the Middle East . By Taki
Theodoracopulos
http://takimag.com/article/a_short_history_of_stupidity_in_the_middle_east_taki/page_2#axzz36FyRXzWt
Excerpt: The 9/11 outrage has been tainted by the attack carried out deceitfully in its name againstIraq , a country
that was not involved and had no weapons of mass destruction. Iraq was the
biggest blunder of them all and we frivolously sleepwalked into it while the
neocons played us like harmonicas. Now there will be Kurdish, Sunni, and Shiite
republics emerging from the rubble that the war against the pro-Christian Assad
created, and after close to one hundred years the Sykes-Picot plan will have
come full circle. And one day soon, I hope, people will wake up and tell the
Kuwaitis, Saudis, and Qataris to stop funding hate preachers and terrorists or
no more hookers or western goodies.
http://takimag.com/article/a_short_history_of_stupidity_in_the_middle_east_taki/page_2#axzz36FyRXzWt
Excerpt: The 9/11 outrage has been tainted by the attack carried out deceitfully in its name against
Indictment of suspect
in Benghazi
Excerpt: The Justice Department’s indictment spells out a
calculated conspiracy by Ahmed Abu Khatallah and associates to attack the U.S. diplomatic
mission and CIA annex,
which killed four Americans. The indictment might be viewed as a death knell
for a theory that the attack resulted from a spontaneous protest against a
U.S.-produced video. ... “The administration knew
it was a conspiracy from the start due to all-source intelligence and the
warning from al Qaeda to avenge the death of al-Libi in June 2012,” Gen.
McInerney said. (They knew it was a lie from day one, but as Obamacare proved,
Obama is always willing to lie for political advantage, and the media gives him
a pass. ~Bob)
Rome and whole world will be conquered, says leader of Islamic State. By Robert Spencer http://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/07/rome-and-whole-world-will-be-conquered-says-leader-of-islamic-state?utm_source=Jihad+Watch+Daily+Digest&utm_campaign=289641d5ea-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ffcbf57bbb-289641d5ea-97564174
Rome and whole world will be conquered, says leader of Islamic State. By Robert Spencer http://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/07/rome-and-whole-world-will-be-conquered-says-leader-of-islamic-state?utm_source=Jihad+Watch+Daily+Digest&utm_campaign=289641d5ea-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ffcbf57bbb-289641d5ea-97564174
“Imam Ahmad reported in his Musnad that Abdullah
bin ‘Amr bin Al-‘As (may God be pleased with him) reports, Whilst we were
around the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) writing down, he was
asked, ‘Which of the two cities is to be opened first, Constantinople or Rome ?’ He (the Prophet)
answered, ‘The city of Heraclius
will be opened first!’” (Imam Ahmad, and Al-Albany) Sheikh Yousef
Al-Qaradawi quoted this hadith a few years ago and
added: “This means that Islam will return to Europe as a conqueror and
victor, after being expelled from it twice – once from the South, from
Andalusia, and a second time from the East, when it knocked several times on
the door of Athens .”
Car Bombing Kills 56
People In Nigeria
Excerpt: A car bomb in a marketplace in Maiduguri , the northeast Nigerian city that
is the birthplace of Boko Haram extremism, killed at least 56 people on
Tuesday, the leader of a civilian group that recovered the bodies said.
Islamic State
fighter: “Spain is the land of our forefathers, and, Allah willing, we are
going to liberate it, with the might of Allah.” By Robert Spencer
Excerpt: “And kill them wherever you overtake them and expel
them from wherever they have expelled you,” says the Qur’an (2:191), and so
Islamic holds that any land that was once governed under Islamic law belongs by
right to Muslims forever. The imperative to reconquer and re-Islamize Spain springs from the same Islamic wellsprings
as the jihad against Israel .
Posts
An informative post which will help the concern people. Thanks very much.
ReplyDelete