Update
The pup is better today and the weather is lovely, mid-50s.
I'm doing well, did usual at rehab, but a lot of mucus in the lung. Guess it's
the season's change. ~Bob
General News and Comment
Worth Reading
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/416151/hillary-democrats-nixon-john-fund
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/416151/hillary-democrats-nixon-john-fund
Excerpt: Ever since Hillary
Clinton’s e-mail scandal broke earlier this month, comparisons between her
secretive style and that of Richard Nixon, whom she ironically pursued as a
young lawyer on the House impeachment committee, have been frequent. But with
Friday’s revelation that she wiped her private e-mail server clean after her
records were requested by the State Department last year, the comparisons are
becoming more concrete. Washington
wags note that even Nixon never destroyed the tapes, but Hillary has
permanently erased her e-mails. Exactly what would a Hillary presidency look
like, and could it plunge the nation into another round of debilitating Clinton scandals? That’s
a question Democrats should ask themselves before they hand the nomination over
to her with barely a fight. Indeed, while a new CBS poll finds more than eight
out of ten Democrats want her to run, a surprising 66 percent want to see her
run with strong competition in the primaries.
The Most Transparent Administration in History: Administration sets record for withholding government
files. By Ted Bridis,
AP
Excerpt: The Obama administration set a record again for
censoring government files or outright denying access to them last year under
the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, according to a new analysis of federal
data by The Associated Press. The government took longer to turn over files
when it provided any, said more regularly that it couldn't find
documents and refused a record number of times to turn over files
quickly that might be especially newsworthy. It also acknowledged in nearly 1
in 3 cases that its initial decisions to withhold or censor records were
improper under the law — but only when it was challenged.
Worth Reading
Excerpt: The laws of war are intended to limit conflict and
minimize casualties. But what happens when terrorists use these same laws to
expand conflict and kill more people? This paradox is at the center of a new
report, "2014 Gaza War Assessment: The New Face of Conflict,"
commissioned by the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs. It is the
product of a study by senior retired U.S. military officers and academics,
using primary source documents and interviews with senior Israeli, Palestinian
and United Nations officials. ... The most important lesson for the United States
facing similar conflicts is to spend as much time and energy as the
adversary in shaping the images and messages flowing from the battlefield, both
in traditional and social media. Also, it is important for reporters to
understand the true limitations and implications of international law, even
before they arrive in the theater of war. Unconventional foes focus on the
information fight because it is the only one they can win. It will take careful
planning and foresight to make sure that they don't.
Excerpt: Even if your knowledge of the Vietnam War comes
exclusively from Hollywood films and Texan
textbooks that only refer to it as "that one the good guys lost,"
you've probably heard about the Viet Cong. They were a bunch of jungle-fighting
guerrilla warriors who killed American boys via night-time ambushes and
terrifying traps. Well, that's one side of the story. Here's another: They were
a bunch of scared (mostly) young kids fighting in a massive conflict for very
personal reasons. We sent a writer out to Vietnam to speak with Nguyen Hoa
Giai. He fought as a Viet Cong from the late 1950s to the end of the war in the
mid-'70s. Here's what he told us. (There's a bunch of stuff in here that
definitely sounds real to me, but a lot of the phrasing is not exactly the way
a Vietnamese would speak, so I assume the American reporter did a bunch of
editing on style. Interesting that the Vietnamese specifically mentions the
atrocities committed by the communist forces in or near battles, but doesn't
mention any of the atrocities committed by VC in villages to terrify the
inhabitants into submission. Overall, a contribution to some understanding of
how the committed communist VC thought. But they were always a minority,
sometimes a small minority, of those fighting, and he even alludes to that. --Del )
1 dead after driver
tries to ram gate at NSA headquarters
Excerpt: Two men dressed as women tried to ram the gate of the
National Security Agency headquarters in Fort Meade
After the gate was rammed around 9:30 local time, a guard
reportedly got into an argument with the men and gunfire erupted. It is
believed that the guard shot one or both of the men, sources told Fox News. The
NSA later said in a statement that one of the two people in the car is dead.
Americans see Putin
as only slightly more imminent threat than Obama, poll says. By Peter Van
Buren
Excerpt: People in the United States feel under threat,
both from beyond our borders and within them. In fact, when asked about both
U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin, it was a
pretty darn close call — 20 percent saw Putin as an imminent threat compared to
18 percent who said the same about Obama. A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll asked
more than 3,000 Americans what they see as some of the biggest threats to
themselves and the country. You can slice and dice the information in literally
hundreds of different ways here.
People were shown a range of potential threats and then asked to rate how
dangerous they were with one being no threat and five meaning the threat is
imminent. (A well done article, displaying a lot of ways to look at what people
said when asked about what they were afraid of. Personally, I agree with being
afraid of our political parties. Both of them. One may be more harmful to the
Republic than the other, but neither one seems capable of acting like real statesmen
in office to fulfill responsibilities to give the people the best government
possible. And without good government and good leadership, all the other things
that worry us won't get dealt with very well. --Del )
The True Facts About
Religious Freedom Laws. By Sarah Torre
Excerpt: The mainstream media has launched an all-out blitz
over a new law that protects the fundamental freedom of Indiana citizens from unnecessary and
unreasonable government coercion. The media’s gross mischaracterizations of the
Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act ignore the truth: Religious Freedom
Restoration Acts prevent government discrimination against religious free exercise and
simply provide a way to balance religious liberty with compelling government
interests.
Conn. Governor To Ban
Travel To Indiana
Excerpt: Connecticut Gov. Dannell Malloy will issue an
executive order on Monday calling for a ban on state-funded travel to Indiana because of its
new law, which he believes is intended to discriminate against gays. Only problem:
Connecticut
has a similar law on the books.
4th Grader Gets
Standing Ovation After Shaming School Board Over Standardized Testing
Excerpt: This girl is definitely going places. Sydney Smoot,
a fourth grader at Brooksville Elementary in Florida, had some harsh words for
the Hernando County School Board earlier this month on the state’s restrictive
standardized testing program. She told the board: “This testing looks at me as
a number. One test defines me as either a failure or a success through a
numbered rubric. One test at the end of the year that the teacher or myself
will not even see the grade until after the school year is already over. I do
not feel that all this FSA testing is accurate to tell how successful I am. It
doesn’t take in account all of my knowledge and abilities, just a small
percentage.” Smoot even provided the board with suggestions for how to make the
testing process – known as The Florida Standards Assessment Test – more
productive, such as breaking the larger test up into smaller, more frequent
tests throughout the year.
Report: Chicago
Excerpt: A graphic sexual education curriculum
meant for Chicago Public Schools’ (CPS) fifth and sixth graders shocked
parents during a presentation given during “report card pickup” at the Andrew Jackson
Language Academy
Gun News
Shots that killed
robber at Miller Auto Sales 'justifiable'
Excerpt: Police say the fatal shots that 27-year-old Alan
Miller fired on Thursday afternoon were justifiable. Miller
shot a man twice in the chest as he attempted to rob Miller Auto Sales, located
at 4314 Rossville Blvd.
Police say the shots Miller fired were in self-defense, and charges will not be
filed against him.
Armed Marshall County
Excerpt: "Three people ran in and grabbed my
wife," Eddie Gilmore said. "She stood up." Eddie Gilmore says as
his screaming wife was taken to a back room by a masked intruder who was
holding a gun to her head, another intruder told him to get on the floor in the
living room. "And I got over between the couch and the coffee table and
when I did I went down and put my arm on the coffee table to kind of hide
myself and I pulled the drawer open because I had a gun in there," Gilmore
said. That's when, Gilmore says, he started shooting in every direction he
could, hitting two of the subjects. The suspects fired back, but neither Eddie
or Cindy were hurt.
2 Dead After West
Philly Triple Shooting
http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2015/03/27/police-investigate-triple-shooting-in-west-philadelphia/
Excerpt: Police say two men in their twenties got off the
trolley at 56th and Lansdowne
Avenue and headed toward Media and Conestoga when
two other men approached and announced a robbery. One of the victims then
reportedly pulled out a gun and shot those two robbers. ... All three people
who were shot were rushed to the hospital in critical condition. One of the
robbers and the friend of the armed victim were later pronounced dead.
Race Card News
“Empire” actress says
her son was “racially profiled” – Police release footage telling VERY different
story
Excerpt: Taraji P. Henson is a star on the popular TV
show Empire, an Academy Award- and Emmy-nominated actress, and also a
liar. She told
Uptown Magazine that her son was racially profiled by the Glendale
Police. She also claimed that police searched his car illegally,
another egregious lie. Fortunately, we have video evidence. A dashcam
video was released by
the L.A. Times and not only did it not show the cop behaving as described, but
it clearly shows the officer go out of his way to be polite and
kind to a 20-year old Marcel Johnson, who had committed multiple
infractions.
Obamacare/Government Healthcare News
Obamacare At Five
Years Old: A Disappointment. By Sally Pipes
Excerpt: In September 2009, President Obama addressed
Congress, vowing
that his healthcare plan would “slow the growth of healthcare costs
for our families, our businesses, and our government.” But costs for all three
have actually grown. During the campaign in 2008, Obama
repeatedly said that his health reform plan would save the average
family $2,500 a year in premiums. But this year, almost half of those surveyed
by CBS and the New York Times characterized “the affordability of
basic medical care as a hardship.” That’s a quarter more people than said so
last year.
Undocumented Democrat News
Democrat Leader
Releases “Toolkit” to Help Illegal Criminals Not get Deported
Excerpt: Rep. Gutierrez has become the leader of the amnesty
faction in Congress. In fact, Gutierrez has become so pro-illegal that he is
now publishing books to teach people how to break our laws! This is an example
of where a liberal who wants to do “good” has lost sight of what is “good” and
has settled in on success by “any means necessary.” Sadly, the truth of the
matter is that the “ends” don’t always “justify the means.” Rep. Gutierrez has
gone too far in his support of illegal immigrants and has begun to openly tutor
them on the best means of flouting our laws and escaping prosecution
"You're Greener than Gore" News
Religion of Peace News
Worth Reading
Excerpt: If you’re confused about the Saudi Arabia-led air
attacks against Islamist rebels in Yemen
and can’t tell one group of head-choppers in Iraq
and Syria
from another, don’t despair. All you need is imagination. Close your eyes and
imagine that those countries and terrorists have nuclear weapons. Imagine their
barbarism going nuclear as they blow up cities, wipe out ethnic and religious
groups and turn the region into cinders. Now open your eyes and realize you’ve
seen the future, thanks to President Obama’s policies. It is a future that will
be defined by Obama’s Wars. Yes, plural. (This writer is a well known
Conservative, and has always been very critical of Mr. Obama. However, even
considering that, is his vision of a possible horrible future just something to
be dismissed? I don't think so. There IS craziness in that part of the world,
with people who believe in various levels of myth about how the world can be
conquered and they can bring into being the perfect new world. In those myths
it doesn't matter that the use of nuclear weapons could bring on total,
horrendous disaster for the entire region, because they "know" that
in the end, they will prevail. Up to now, everyone possessing nukes has been at
least sane, and understand that in a nuclear war there can be no real winners. But
imagine Bin Laden or his successors with nukes- would they hesitate to use
them? Not at all. And the Iranian ayatollahs are just as insane about nukes,
which they would aim first at Israel ,
a nation that cannot afford to absorb even 2 or 3 small nuclear blasts. The
Shia-Sunni conflict goes back many centuries, and remains bitter enough in some
quarters that it too is a place where nukes would go into use. The bottom line
is that it was US power and
domination of nuclear weaponry that stopped a race to nukes in the Middle East . Even when Israel got nukes so long ago, no
one worried, because the Israelis are sane, and don't want to ever start a
nuclear exchange. But with insane zealots having nukes, all bets are off. No
matter what the Iranians say or promise about nuclear weapon development, they
have been total liars and deceivers since the takeover from the Shah. Accepting
them as good faith negotiators now is just as smart as believing Hitler was in
1937. All the evidence says that Mr. Obama does believe he can deal with the
Iranians and ignore all the past deceit and the daily calls for Death to America .
His naïveté is far, far too dangerous for everyone. The future is very scary
now. --Del )
Graduation Picture of Saudi Female Doctors
(according to the Internet.)
Can Saudi Arabia
Excerpt: In 2007, almost thirty years after setting out on
an ambitious agricultural project, Saudi Arabia announced it would be
phasing out government handouts to the agricultural sector, which would end in
their entirety in 2016. Outsiders criticized the project from its beginnings,
emphasizing the burden it would place on the economy and the damage it would
inflict on the country's water assets. Critics were particularly scathing of
the decision to subsidize the project and its detrimental effects on the Saudi
economy as a whole. (Let them eat ethanol. ~Bob)
No Let-Up in Attacks
On Europe 's Jews. By Abigail R. Esman
Excerpt: Seventy years ago this month, Anne Frank died in
the concentration camps of Bergen-Belsen, leaving behind, stashed in the rooms
where she and her family hid from the Nazis in Amsterdam, one of the most
valuable historic documents of our time: her diary. But try telling this story
in a Dutch classroom today. "Holocaust Classes? Bulls**t! Say the
Students" declared a headline of Dutch newspaper AD. Indeed,
large numbers of Dutch students, all of them Muslim, refuse to listen to
lessons about the Shoah [the Holocaust], denouncing them as exaggerations and
lies, and threatening their teachers. It is a capital example of the kind of
exploitation one finds increasingly among radicalized and even non-radicalized
Muslim youth in Europe : for even as many
question the existence of the concentration camps, the efforts at genocide,
they demonstrate in pro-ISIS and anti-Israel rallies chanting "All Jews to
the gas" and "Hitler was right."
Kerry on Iran
Excerpt: Secretary of State John Kerry
allegedly responded in a most unusual way to a reporter’s
question Friday whether a nuclear arms deal could be
reached with Iran
before the March 31 deadline. “Allah willing,” Kerry replied — in
Arabic, according to Laura Rozen, a reporter covering the Iran nuclear talks in Lausanne , Switzerland
Interesting: Understanding the Islamic State. By
Philip Jenkins
Excerpt: ISIS is not just
an Islamic movement, and not just a Sunni Muslim movement. To understand that,
look at the religious statistics for the nation of Iraq (insofar as that “nation”
still exists). Our best estimate is that the whole nation has around 36 million
people. Of these, Shi’ites compose around 60-66 percent, say 20-24 million
people. Christians, Yezidis and other minorities represent less than two
percent, or at least that was the figure before the current catastrophe –
around one million. That leaves Sunni Muslims as the remainder, some twelve to
fourteen million Iraqis. (Let’s not quibble about a million here or there).
WorthReading
Worth
Excerpt: It was the summer of 2014.
Hamas rockets had pounded Tel Aviv and Jerusalem .
The rockets were stored in schools. They were launched from mosques and
churches. The dead included Daniel Tregerman, a 4-year-old Israeli
boy killed
by shrapnel. Another Hamas massacre of Jewish children was narrowly averted
when a father managed to
get kindergarteners inside before a rocket hit. At the beginning of
August, even the White House spokesman had
called Hamas’ actions “barbaric”. ... A Jewish professor was being
forced to deny that he had dehumanized a violently racist terrorist group that
calls Jews “Brothers
of apes and pigs”. (Once again I defer to Maslow. It's ok to threaten
and kill, and support those who do...but threaten their self esteem??? Go
figure. --George)
*****
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://www.amazon.com/Coming-Collapse-American-Republic-prevent/dp/1461122538/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304815980&sr=1-5
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.
His blog of political news and conservative comment is www.tartanmarine.blogspot.com.
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