Update
I had an email glitch, so you may have gotten an earlier
blog post today that failed to send. Probably a PICNIC problem.
My FEV1 (liters of air I can expel in one second) average Monday
was 1.77, highest since March 30, down a little since. My all time high was
2.24, back in January. And I added speed on the treadmill, weight on two
exercise machines and another exercise in PT Rehab Wednesday. So I'm exhausted,
but all good.
Filled the gas tank Wednesday at $2.47/gal. Last three times
were $2.63, $2.82 and $3.02. A lady at a political function bet me $5 that it
will be $1.80 or lower the first week in January. I sure hope she wins. ~Bob
General News and Comment
Excerpt: Sony Pictures announced Tuesday it had scrapped the
Dec. 25 release of "The Interview" after a number of major movie
chains announced they would not show the film in the wake of threats from unknown
hackers implying the theaters were at risk. ... The U.S. government reportedly gave the
thumbs-up to the ending of the film in which North Korean leader Kim Jung-Un's
head blows up. ... The Sony hacking saga took a sinister turn on Tuesday when
hackers sent a message and threatening to target theaters showing “The
Interview” in a 9/11 type attack. (If they release the movie, I'm going, and
the commie dictator can get stuffed. Now international hackers get to censor
what you can see and hear. Having blocked you from seeing this film, expect
that similar attacks will hit books, newspapers, TV shows and other movies. I'd
bet $100 to a Prune Danish [which I don't like and am not allowed to eat] that North Korea is
behind this. But watch for similar attacks from ISIS, al Qaeda, Hamas and other
terrorists groups, plus domestic environmental and racial extremists. Do you
think that the KKK and the New Black Panthers [The Klan with a Tan] haven't
noticed? Neither group may have the G2 to pull this off, but I bet both try.
~Bob)
Excerpt: Gross’ release was accompanied by a separate spy
swap. CNN reported,
“The three Cubans released as a part of the deal belonged the so-called Cuban
Five, a quintet of Cuban intelligence officers convicted in 2001 for espionage.”
The New York Times reported that the Cubans also released a U.S. intelligence agent who had
been in a Cuban prison for nearly 20 years. (Have spies or murders in US
custody? Grab an American--Obama will deal. It's a get-out-of-jail-free card.
Obama never met a left-wing murder he didn't love. ~Bob)
"A Concession to a Tyranny": Marco Rubio
Absolutely Blasts Obama's New Cuba
Excerpt: “No commitment was made to allowing the
establishment of political parties or to even begin the semblance of a
transition to democracy,” he said about
the announcement. “In exchange for all of these concessions, the only thing
the Cuban government agreed to do is free 53 political prisoners – who could
wind up in jail tomorrow morning if they once again take up the cause of
freedom – and to allow the United Nations and the Red Cross to monitor
conditions on the island.” “This entire policy shift announced today is based
on an illusion, on a lie,” he continued. “The lie and the illusion that more
commerce and access to money and goods will translate to political freedom for
the Cuban people. All this is going to do is give the Castro regime – which
controls every aspect of Cuban life – the opportunity to manipulate these
changes to perpetuate its sovereign power.”
Excerpt: President Obama’s historic announcement that his
administration will pursue normalization of relations with Cuba — and his
suggestion that he will ask Congress to lift the embargo — all but ensures that
the Cuba question will become another issue around which Hillary Clinton and
the GOP 2016 presidential hopefuls square off, with Clinton embracing the Obama
position and Republicans lining up in opposition to it. The politics of Cuba , of
course, occupy a special place in presidential politics. As Ed
Kilgore puts it, one of the leading obstacles to normalization has been
“the 29 electoral votes of Florida, and the belief that a highly politically
engaged Cuban-American community would wreak vengeance on any president or party
who dared to refuse to repeat the stale pieties of Cold War anti-Castro
rhetoric.” (If anyone thought that Obama was a black JFK... ~Bob)
Excerpt: Critics and defenders of the harsh interrogation
methods applied to captured terrorists can argue forever over whether those
methods were "torture." But any serious discussion of a serious issue
-- and surely terrorism qualifies as serious -- has to move beyond semantics
and confront the ultimate question: "Compared to what alternative?"
If you knew that there was a hidden nuclear time bomb planted somewhere in New York City -- set to
go off today -- and you had a captured terrorist who knew where and when, would
you not do anything whatever to make him tell you where and when? Would you
pause to look up the definition of "torture"? Would you even care
what the definition of "torture" was, when the alternative was seeing
millions of innocent people murdered?
Worth Reading : Epitaph for Hope
and Change: Obama has fundamentally transformed America
Excerpt: A perfect storm brought into power Barack
Obama, a previously little-known Illinois
community organizer. He had at best a mediocre record as a state legislator and
rookie senator. Yet he quickly dazzled the liberal establishment. Joe Biden and
Harry Reid were wowed by his sounding and behaving like a white liberal, while
retaining the ability to turn on his supposedly authentic black persona when needed.
That he had no record of achievement was seen as an advantageous clean slate. Teleprompted glibness
was preferred to ad hoc repartee, as if an entire presidency could be scripted
and Photoshopped with backdrops of Greek columns and Latin mottos.
Ready For Romney. By Matt Vespa
Excerpt: The Ready for Romney PAC launched last night, but
CNN’s Alexandra Jaffe noted that nothing is on paper yet–and that this effort
is in its “infancy.” Nevertheless, they did name an executive director
(via CNN):
If encouragement from major GOP donors and favorable polling isn't enough,
former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney now has a super PAC launched
by an unknown benefactor urging him to run.
Excerpt: Romney dominates the field for the 2016 Republican
nomination. He comes in at 19 percent among self-identified Republicans,
followed by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush at 10 percent. No other candidates
garner double-digit backing.
'Team Marco 2016' to Huddle With Major GOP Donors Next
Month. By Guy Benson
Excerpt: Senator Marco Rubio of Florida
will gather over 100 Republican donors, fund-raisers and other supporters at a
luxury hotel in Miami
next month for a two-day strategy session about Mr. Rubio’s political future,
according to an invitation obtained by The New York Times. The conference,
scheduled to begin Jan. 23 at the Delano hotel
in South Beach ,
will be hosted by Mr. Rubio’s leadership political action committee, Reclaim
America, and it is expected to draw supporters from Washington
and South Florida .
Jeb Bush "Actively" Exploring a 2016 Presidential
Run. By Christine
Rousselle
Excerpt: We also talked about the future of our nation. As a
result of these conversations and thoughtful consideration of the kind of
strong leadership I think America
needs, I have decided to actively explore the possibility of running for
President of the United
States . (I see things from conservatives
trashing this or that potential GOP candidate as a RINO. I have a few I'm not
crazy about but all are preferable to President Hillary or President Big Chief
Warren or President Biden. ~Bob"
Excerpt: Back in 2005, Peggy Noonan wrote about the
increasingly public friendship between George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton: What
bothers me about the fervid friendship of the Bushes and Mr. Clinton — and the
media celebration of it — is the faint whiff of superiority, a sense they
radiate that all those slightly icky little people running around wailing about
issues — tax reform, the relation of the individual to the state, the necessary
character of a president — and working the precincts are
somehow . . . a little below them.
Excerpt: Jeb Bush, who says he is considering running for
president, is a strong conservative. As governor of Florida from 1999 through 2007, he advanced
conservative goals on taxes, school choice, privatization, racial preferences,
the right to life, and many other issues. He did all this and left office
popular in a swing state — but one that became more conservative during his
time in its politics. And the state’s schools, by all accounts, got a lot
better thanks to his efforts.
Many conservatives disagree with Bush on various issues — we
certainly do — and have other reservations about his candidacy. None of that
should lead any conservative to doubt that he is a friend and ally, and an
extraordinarily accomplished one. He deserves a fair hearing,...
Excerpt: Martha McSally (R) has been officially declared
the winner in
Arizona 's
second congressional district by a razor-thin 167-vote margin over incumbent
Rep. Ron Barber (D). This was the final race of the 2014 election that was yet
to be decided, as Arizona
law mandates a recount if an election is decided by fewer than 200 votes.
(having won my state senate seat by 9 on election day and 126 after the recount
of paper ballots finished in December, I know how she feels. ~Bob)
Newly Released NSA
Documents Show That China
Excerpt: During the US
campaign in Vietnam ,
over a thousand service members were classified as prisoners or war (POW) or
missing in action (MIA). Generally, those who went missing were killed or
captured by the North Vietnamese. But in a few instances, as Robert Beckhusen recounts at War is Boring, Americans
were captured or went MIA when their planes were shot down in or near Chinese
airspace. Beijing 's role in the conflict is
becoming increasingly apparent as the NSA releases signals intelligence
(SIGINT) documents from Vietnam
and Southeast Asia . (Interesting for this
to be coming out. --Del )
Voters See A Sinking America
Excerpt: Just 27% of Likely U.S. Voters believe the United States
will still be the most powerful nation in the world by the end of the 21st
century, down from 37% in January 2009 shortly
after the Wall Street meltdown and just before President Obama took office. A
new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 48% disagree and
believe the United States
will not be the number one world power, a 14-point increase from 34% six years
ago. Twenty-four percent (24%) are not sure.
Too Late: Vivek Murthy shouldn't be confirmed as
surgeon general. Dr. Richard Carmona
Excerpt: This is not meant to be personal; in fact, I have
never met Murthy. However, at just 36 years of age, Murthy is only a few years
out of his residency and has very limited public health education and experience.
I believe he is unqualified to effectively serve as the nation's doctor. (Obama
figured that ideology substituted for experience and accomplishment in his
case, would be okay in every case. ~Bob)
Best-Selling Author
Brad Thor: 'If Jeb Bush Is The Nominee, I Will Never Vote Republican Again'
Excerpt: "The whole of idea of a Jeb Bush candidacy and
potential Presidency is managing the country’s decline, not fixing it, not
repairing it," Thor told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview on
Tuesday, shortly after his tweet exploded across the conservative blogosphere.
(I respect Thor for his views and his writing, but what's the alternative? If
the GOP voters in the primaries give Bush the delegates, you can vote for him,
vote for Hillary/Biden/Warren, or stay home, thus helping Hillary/Biden/Warren.
A conservative not voting is like giving half a vote to the most liberal
candidate. ~Bob)
Democrat makes Rape
Joke – Media Silent
Excerpt: Congressman Steve
Cohen (D-TN) is no stranger to saying ridiculous and controversial things. (See
the time he called Republicans Nazis or the time he told a female reporter that she was very attractive… and there
are other examples.)
The Right on Hillary.
By Jim Geraghty, Morning Jolt
Over the past six years, we on the right -- and in
particular, the previous Republican nominee -- have been proven right time and
again. Russia
is indeed behaving like our preeminent geopolitical foe. Negotiating with the Taliban was a stupid idea. We knew
leaving absolutely no U.S.
military presence in Iraq
was a formula for trouble. We never dismissed ISIS
as a “jayvee team.” Democrats didn’t need to pass Obamacare for us to know what
was in it. The Obama team scoffed at Romney’s idea of giving veterans vouchers
for care at private hospitals, assuring us that the Department of Veterans
Affairs was reducing the backlog and giving our veterans the care they
deserved. We talked about the need for a secure border decades before Central America decided to turn our border into a giant
open-air day care center. We do not like Hillary Clinton. We do not like her
philosophies, her decisions, or the weapons-grade pabulum that she stuffs in her books and
offers for six figures per speech. Perhaps in person she is warm and funny and
all of those things her hagiographic media fans insist. But her record in
public life -- and that of her allies, and her party -- has been an absolute
disaster for the country for the past six years, and the 2016 Republican
nominee needs to be able to make that case and win that argument six days a
week and twice on Sundays.
It cost 1.7 cents to
make a penny this year, and 8 cents to make a nickel
Excerpt: Production costs for all four major coin types fell
in fiscal year 2014 due to the falling price of copper, one of the primary
metals used to make coins. The Mint estimates it saved $29 million this year
compared to last year on account of lower copper prices.
But it continues to lose money on pennies and nickels.
Excerpt: The Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC)
crews and 21 Navy SEALs on board to protect the operation had been told they
were flying into a “permissive environment.” Gunfire had brought down a U.N.
helicopter the day before in the same area, but the U.N. compound was under the
control of Indian peacekeeping troops. Then Shea heard what sounded
like “popcorn popping.” Suddenly, a bullet smacked into Shea’s chest and
knocked him flat on his back in the cabin, one of at least 119 rounds that
struck the three Ospreys as they came in.
Gun News
Burglars Regret
Returning to This ‘Hood After Heat-Packing Alabama
Excerpt: How did this Alabama
family handle it when they saw the people who broke into their house and
stole their Christmas presents? They drew their pistols,
followed the suspected bad guys and stopped them at gunpoint
until police got there.
Excerpt: George said the incident allegedly began after
Randall Dale Gaddy — who apparently lived in the house next door, the captain
said — and the homeowner got into an argument. At some point, Johnson went
inside his house and locked the door, George said. "Our preliminary
investigation indicates that Gaddy then had taken a cinder block and smashed in
some windows," George said. "The homeowner then fired two or three
rounds through the front door." Gaddy’s body will be sent to the
Department of Forensic Sciences in Huntsville
for an autopsy.
Excerpt: Gun enthusiasts who showed up at the Sandy Springs
Gun Club and Range got to pose for a photo with Santa Claus while holding an
AK-47, AR-15 or FN-SCAR-17. (Love the photo. ~Bob)
Race Card News
Worth Reading: Another incident involving a white cop
and a black woman in Alabama
Excerpt: And it couldn’t be more different from what you’ve been
seeing lately. Office William Stacy was dispatched to a Dollar General Store in
Tarrant Alabama for
a shoplifting complaint. What happened next is wonderful: The holiday spirit is definitely in the air in
one town in Alabama .
Excerpt: In the 1992 movie "A Few Good Men," a
heated courtroom exchange occurred between two main characters-Tom Cruise
playing Navy JAG Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee and Jack Nicholson playing hardened
Marine Colonel Nathan Jessep-as Kaffee questioned Jessep on the death of an
enlisted Marine. Colonel Jessep's response to Lt. Kaffee's demand, "I want
the truth," became legendary-voted one of the top 100 most memorable
quotes in movie history.
Black Sheriff: Race
Relations are Worse under Obama
http://freedomoutpost.com/2014/12/black-sheriff-race-relations-worse-obama-built/
http://freedomoutpost.com/2014/12/black-sheriff-race-relations-worse-obama-built/
Excerpt: Milwaukee County
Sheriff David Clarke recently blasted the Obama administration's divide races
and conquer strategy as being "destructive for America ."
Video: Open season on cops: Black on cop assaults, 5
cases in few days. #CopsMatter
Excerpt: Last week, the Obama administration announced new
curbs on racial profiling by federal law enforcement. Before deciding whether
this is good or bad policy, we might try to develop a description/definition of
racial profiling or any other kind of profiling. A good definition of profiling
in general is the use of an easily observed physical characteristic as a guess
for some other, difficult-to-observe characteristic. The reason people profile
is that information is costly and they seek methods to economize on information
costs. One way to do that is through profiling. Imagine a chief of police in a
city where there has been a rash of automobile hubcap thefts and he’s trying to
capture the culprits. Should he have his officers stake out and investigate
residents of senior citizen homes? What about spending resources investigating
men and women 40 or older? (Dr. Williams is a brilliant black economist. His
book Race and Economics is a must
read. ~Bob)
‘We Don’t Mind if It
Takes Martial Law to Get This in Order’ — Another Innocent Teen Murdered in Chicago
Excerpt: A 15-year-old Chicago
boy was reportedly shot and killed when he attempted to protect his twin
brother during an armed robbery. The tragic killing has further shaken the
violence-stricken city — one fed-up principal even floated the idea of “martial
law” to gain control over the violence.
Worth Reading
Excerpt: Acting a fool has never affected change for the
better. Eric Garner is dead, due in part, to excessive liberal regulations.
Michael Brown is dead because he beat down a cop, attempted to take his gun and
then charged the officer like he was trying out for the NFL. Berkeley students burdened and trained in the
art of "white privilege" are incensed because their professors tell
them they should be, and though Al Sharpton has lost a lot of weight, his
pockets continue to grow fat despite his irrelevancy. In the end, with the
exception of more regulation to spark more protest, the riots and picket signs
will all be for naught.
Obamacare/Government Healthcare News
A Lull Before the
ObamaCare Rate Storm. Premiums this year are a nice surprise. It’s 2017 when
hikes will kick in—‘bronze’ family plans alone could rocket 45%.
By Stephen T. Parente, professor of health finance, associate dean,
Carlson School
of Management at the University
of Minnesota
Excerpt: Americans visiting Healthcare.gov to purchase 2015
health-insurance plans are finding a nice surprise: Average premiums for the
cheap “bronze” plans have increased only by 3.4% and premiums for the
middle-of-the-road “silver” plans are rising by 5.8%, according to the American
Action Forum. Where are the double-digit premium increases that so many
predicted? Check back around this time in 2016. That’s when you’ll see the real
spikes. (Google the title if you can't get to the story. ~Bob)
Undocumented Democrat News
Obama opens
fraud-ridden benefits program to illegals. By Byron York
Excerpt: President Obama's unilateral executive action on
immigration will make hundreds of thousands, perhaps more than a million,
illegal immigrants eligible for federal transfer payments. That will be done
primarily through two widely used programs -- the Earned Income Tax Credit, or
EITC, and the Additional Child Tax Credit, or ACTC. As it turns out, those two
programs are already among the most corrupt and fraud-ridden in the entire
federal government.
Federal judge rules Obama amnesty order unconstitutional power grab
Excerpt: A federal judge Tuesday ruled parts of President
Obama’s deportation amnesty to be unconstitutional, with a scathing memo
dismantling the White House’s legal reasoning and arguing that Mr. Obama tried
to steal Congress’ lawmaking powers.
"You're Greener than Gore" News
Study Finds
All-Electric Cars Aren't Very Green At All\. By Leah Barkoukis
Excerpt: Researcher and former electric car enthusiast Ozzie
Zehner put it best when he said,
“moving from petroleum-fueled vehicles to electric cars starts to appear
tantamount to shifting from one brand of cigarettes to another." Zehner is
not alone in his assessment. A new
study published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
echoes his finding that green cars aren’t very green at all.
Despite Steady
Temperatures, Policymakers Plow Forward with Climate Change Agenda
Excerpt: While pundits continue to talk about the dangers of
global warming, the globe actually hasn't seen warming since 1998, says
Institute for Energy Research CEO Robert Bradley. Despite increases in carbon
dioxide emissions, Bradley notes that the world has not seen the explosion in
extreme weather events, famine or loss of ice forecast by warming activists. In
fact, he cites research from scientist Roy Spencer who analyzed 90 different
climate models and found that 95 percent of climate simulations have
overestimated warming since 1979.
Religion of Peace News
Pakistani forces
reclaim school after ‘horrific’ Taliban attack kills at least 141
Excerpt: Taliban gunmen stormed an elite army high school
Tuesday in a killing spree that claimed at least 141 lives — nearly all
students — and turned the streets into a frenzy of grieving, anger and calls to
strike back harder against militants. After a nearly nine-hour battle in Peshawar — in northwest Pakistan near the Afghan border —
police officials said all seven militants had been killed. (As usual, most of
the victims of Allah-murder are Muslims, in this case more children. ~Bob)
Excerpt: A suicide assault team from the Movement of the
Taliban in Pakistan (or
Pakistani Taliban) stormed a military high school in Peshawar today. It is one of the deadliest
jihadist attacks in the country's history. According to initial reporting, the
attackers have killed more than 140 people, including scores of children. At
least nine Taliban fighters armed with assault weapons and suicide vests
entered the Army Public
School in Peshawar , the capital
of the northwestern province
of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Pakistani Army and Intelligence Chiefs Ask Afghans to Help
Find Taliban Commanders Behind Massacre. By Ismail Khan and Azam Ahmed
Excerpt: But Pakistani officials have been increasingly
assertive about protesting operations by Afghan-based militants. And after the
school attack, in which 132 of the 148 people killed by a group of Taliban
gunmen were young students, officials were quick to blame Afghan-based elements
of the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan .
Excerpt: He also announced an end to the moratorium on the
death penalty for terrorism cases, which correspondents say is a move aimed at
countering a view held by many Pakistanis that many terror suspects end up
evading justice. (Or he could follow Hillary's advice to have empathy and
respect for the child murderers. ~Bob)
Again? African leaders: West should intervene in Libya
Excerpt: African leaders are calling on Western countries to
intervene in Libya to stem a
flow of arms to militant groups in the Sahel
region. Libya
is mired in the worst fighting since dictator Moammar Gadhafi was overthrown in
2011, leaving the country with two rival governments. In the chaos, arms have
flowed from Libya into
Africa’s Sahel region, home to several
militant groups. (We intervened once already. Obama, unauthorized by Congress,
led us from behind to create the current mess and terrorist haven. ~Bob)
Obama Marks End of
Afghanistan Combat. From The
Patriot Post
Barack Obama addressed U.S.
troops at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst (a.k.a. Fort
Dix ) in New
Jersey , saying, "Our combat mission in Afghanistan will be over this month, and our war
in Afghanistan
will come to a responsible end." Except it won't. Thousands of U.S. troops will remain in Afghanistan to
continue operations against al-Qaida and the Taliban. Obama talked tough on
al-Qaida, promising, "[M]ake no mistake, our coalition isn't just going to
degrade this barbaric terrorist organization -- we're going to destroy
it." But he also wants you to remember his success in "decimating
al-Qaida's core" by killing Osama bin Laden. The best we can say is
leaving a contingent of U.S.
forces in Afghanistan shows
he perhaps learned a little something after abandoning Iraq to
the Islamic State. On a final note, it's worth remembering that Fort Dix
Kill the Jews--Satire
Too much truth in this. ~Bob
The Terrorist Attack
in Australia
Excerpt: There should be no doubt that this was a pure act
of Islamic terrorism despite ludicrous assertions by some commentators that his
"motivations" were unknown. We will see all sorts of
"explanations" that because his rap sheet included indictments for
sexual assault and murder, he was not really an Islamic terrorist but someone
who was simply mentally unstable. Well, the same rationale could be said for
all terrorists. After all, who in their right mind would want to kill innocent
civilians because of their religious beliefs? Islamic extremists do. And to
deny their radical Islamic motivation—as our own government has done repeatedly
in refusing to classify Islamic terrorist attacks as such as in the case of the
massacre carried out by Major Nidal Hassan—is a guarantee that such acts will
continue to be perpetuated especially by lone wolf terrorists.
Excerpt: Lindt cafe manager Tori Johnson was wrestling a gun
from hostage taker Man Haron Monis when he was killed. Mother-of-three Katrina
Dawson, who had stopped at the cafe for a morning coffee, died while trying to
defend her pregnant friend.
U.N. Sending
Thousands Of Muslims To America
Excerpt: The U.S. State Department announced this week that
the first major contingent of Syrian refugees, 9,000 of them, have been
hand-selected by the United Nations for resettlement into communities across
the United States .
... “The United States
accepts the majority of all UNHCR referrals from around the world. Last year,
we reached our goal of resettling nearly 70,000 refugees from nearly 70
countries. And we plan to lead in resettling Syrians as well,” the statement
reads. “We are reviewing some 9,000 recent UNHCR referrals from Syria . We are receiving
roughly a thousand new ones each month, and we expect admissions from Syria to surge
in 2015 and beyond.” The United
States , with its commitment to accepting
70,000 displaced people a year, absorbs more refugees than all other countries
combined. ... The State Department announcement was careful to explain that the
U.S.
will take in only those Syrians who are “persecuted by their government.”
Christians in Syria
are being killed by ISIS and other Muslim rebels, not by “their government,”
but the Sunni Muslims are being killed by the Shiite-led government. (Well, we
can't expect Australia
to give asylum to all the terrorists. ~Bob)
Muslim 'Reformers' Are All Talk. By Raymond Ibrahim
Excerpt: Due to its rarity, it's always notable whenever a
top Islamic leader publicly acknowledges the threat of Islamic radicalism and
terror. And yet, such denunciations never seem to go beyond words—and sometimes
not even that. Thus, in "An Arab Prince Denounces Islamism," Daniel Pipes
highlights "a remarkable but thus-far unnoticed address on
Dec. 5" by Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifa, the crown prince of Bahrain .
In his address, the prince "candidly analyzed the Islamist enemy and suggested
important ways to fight it."
European Court Orders Hamas' Removal from Terror List
Excerpt: Hamas must be taken off the European Union's
terrorist list, ordered Wednesday, finding that it was not based on direct
evidence of Hamas action. EU officials downplayed the ruling, with a statement from the EU
External Action Service saying it "is clearly based on procedural grounds
and it does not imply an assessment by the Court of the substantive reasons for
the designation of Hamas as a terrorist organization." (It's not like
murdering Jews and vowing to murder the rest is considered unacceptable in Europe . ~Bob)
What if the Military Has Been Focusing on the Wrong Thing
the Whole Time? By Yinon Weiss
Excerpt: Going back to my time training Iraqi Commandos as a
US Special Forces officer, I have had one question that always lingered in the
back of my mind: “We are investing hundreds of billions of dollars in training
our allies, so how is our enemy able to achieve so much success when no major
power is training them?” In other words, despite the seemingly successful
training of the Iraqi Army, why are they unable to stand up to forces like
ISIS, who are not trained by any major power? Similarly, why is training the
Afghan Army considered the yardstick of success, when there is no major power
similarly training the Taliban? If training is the key to success, how is the
other side surviving and even thriving when we have been training our allies
for over a decade? (The people we are training are fighting for a paycheck. The
other side is fighting for their warped view of God. ~Bob)
*****
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://tinyurl.com/o4nu65u. His blog of
political news and conservative comment is www.tartanmarine.blogspot.com.
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