Update
The Old Jarhead Blog--thanks for following!
I try to make this blog your one-stop-shop for political
news and conservative opinion. Founded
in October, 2008, it gets 5k to 7k page views a week, most from the US ,
but hundreds from many countries worldwide. Feel free to post or forward to
friends who need to be better informed. The news posts are created from several
news feeds, from US and international websites, from twitter when I have spare
time to follow it, and by many readers who send me items for inclusion, which I
would have often have missed or skipped. We owe them thanks and appreciation. I
try to include foreign sources and info you won’t get in the MSM, but I often
use links to pieces in the Washington
Post, New York Times, Politico, Reuters and other
left-of-center sources. No one is required to read the blog, or any of the
links. Trust me, no one reads everything posted, but scanning the headlines
will keep you informed, and you can click on stories you want to know more
about. I post articles because I think they are of interest and will stimulate
thought and discussion. Doing so doesn’t
mean that I necessarily agree (or disagree) with every—or any—opinion in the
posted article, or that I was able to verify the information presented, which
is the responsibility of the author. I try not to post things that are
false, too far a stretch, or viciously inflammatory, regardless of the view
point. I also try to avoid items that will turn off thoughtful centrists and
leftists or low-information independents, including “red meat” pieces with
intemperate language or wild speculation, conspiracy theories with no
supporting facts and silly distractions like the so-called “birther” issue
(which I correctly predicted years ago was going nowhere, and wasted time and
energy), but I don’t always succeed. I use maybe 50% of the conservative pieces
sent me, probably less than 5% of the liberal opinion sent, usually to
illustrate their views. Readers who don’t like that are welcome to start their
own blogs. Readers who send formatted pieces (title, link, and a fair-use
excerpt of no more than three sentences unless the piece is very short, than
fewer) to tartanmarine(at)gmail.com have a higher chance of my using them than
people who just send a link. A piece without a link has a much lower chance of being used—it depends on how interesting it is
and how much time I have right then to search for it, and my time is limited
right now due to managing the lung transplant I received on December 23, 2013,
which has developed complications. I understand if you don’t have the time to
format or even to find a link—please understand I don't either. I often include
thoughtful comments from contributors. (Tell me if you want your full name
used.) There are no ads on my blog, no fees and I receive no income from it.
Now that I've retired, that might need to change, though I hate the ads on most
blogs. For now, that’s how it is. I do promote my books, with the royalties
going to charity. As always on the Net, as in the legacy media, you must read
these posts critically and with skepticism.
General News and Comment
Election day is one week away. Wisconsin
voters have an important decision to make. Do we want more of the same or do we
want to return order to the Supreme Court? On April 7th, I encourage you to not
only support my effort to uphold the rule of law but also support the
constitutional amendment to allow the chief justice of the Supreme Court to be
elected. Together we can send common sense back to the Supreme Court. To find
out why I feel I am the right choice for Wisconsin
listen to my latest radio ad:
The right picks for
judge races
Excerpt: The highest-profile race is the challenge to
incumbent state Supreme Court Justice Ann Walsh Bradley by Rock County Judge
James Daley. It’s almost impossible to do worse than Bradley. She is not only
an unapologetic liberal who hasn’t met a conviction she didn’t want to
overturn, Bradley is also an abuser of the state Constitution who makes mockery
of that document when she votes to overturn legislation passed by Governor
Walker and the Legislature. If Bradley had three other justices as addled as
her, Walker
would essentially be powerless because the court would merely nullify every
bill he signs. ... Daley towers over Bradley. He’d be a far better justice and
he is a better human being.
Crossed Obama: New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez indicted
on corruption charges
Excerpt: Sen. Bob Menendez has been charged with using his
office to improperly benefit a Florida
eye doctor and political donor.
Timeline Puts Lie To
Obama's Story About Bergdahl
Excerpt: The Obama regime still insists that releasing the
top command of our enemy was all about saving Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. But several
reports from 2012 reveal that it was secretly negotiating the Taliban Five's
release without Bergdahl. Now that the Army has filed desertion charges against
Bergdahl, the administration is under increasing pressure to justify the bad
deal. Astoundingly, it's sticking to its story that President Obama only freed
the high-risk Gitmo detainees to free a "POW." "This was about
bringing home an individual that had served his country," State Department
spokeswoman Jen Psaki said last week about the 2014 swap. But IBD has uncovered
a series of credible reports from 2012 — as well as a transcript of a candid
press conference by then-Afghan President Hamid Karzai — that show the White
House originally wanted to give up the Taliban commanders under just one condition:
that the Taliban open a political office in Qatar "to conduct peace
negotiations." It was Qatar
that ended up taking the prisoners. (Wow, isn't this interesting. So all along
it was a program to spring the Big Five as part of the strategy to empty out
Gitmo. And there were options to rescue Bergdahl that weren't exercised, so
that he could be the excuse to let these truly dangerous men go loose? Hard to
believe? With this Administration, not so much. --Del )
Excerpt: China
is building a “Great Wall of sand” through an unparalleled program of land
reclamation in the South China Sea , raising
concerns about the possibility of military confrontation in the disputed
waters, according to the commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.
In one of the strongest and highest-level criticisms of the
reclamation project to date, Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr. told a naval conference
in Australia late Tuesday
that competing territorial claims by several nations in the South
China Sea continue to stoke “regional tensions and the potential
for miscalculation.”
Worth Reading : America can't fight China U.S. wargame demonstrated that U.S.
Excerpt: In a wargame entitled “Pacific Vision,”
experts from the RAND Corporation joined U.S.
military leaders in 2008 to identify Air Force capabilities to defend U.S. interests
in the Asia-Pacific region. In an op-ed in The National Interest, Paul Scharre –
of the Center for a New American Security – analyzed the results of
the wargame. According to Scharre, “[The RAND study] analyzed a
U.S.-China air war over Taiwan made the bold assumption that every air-to-air
missile fired from a U.S. F-22 hit a Chinese fighter (100 percent kill rate)
and that every Chinese missile missed the U.S. F-22s (0 percent kill
rate). In their simulation, the United
States still lost the fight.”
Religious freedom
laws helped Muslims, Indians, Sikhs. By Valerie Richardson
Excerpt: So far the Religious Freedom Restoration Act has
never worked as a defense for Christian bakers embroiled in lawsuits over gay
weddings, but for a handful of Apache, Muslim and Sikh plaintiffs, it's been a
godsend. Critics of Indiana's newly signed RFRA - joined Tuesday by the
Arkansas legislature's passage of a similar bill - have warned that the law
provides a "license to discriminate" against gay and transgender
people, although that hasn't been the case in the 22 years since President Bill
Clinton signed the federal RFRA in 1993 or in 19 states that passed similar
laws before Indiana.
Gun News
President Of Group
Founded By MLK Calls On Blacks To ‘Advocate Their Second Amendment Rights’
[VIDEO]
Excerpt: The president of the Georgia chapter of the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference said Tuesday nonviolence is
not working and African-Americans should ”avail themselves” to their
Second Amendment rights.... “We’re going to have to do something in our
community to let the rest of America know
that we are not going to be victimized by just anybody whether it be police or
folks that decide that black people are thugs and we need to control that black
community.” When asked to explain what appeared to be a call to arms, Mosteller
backed off, saying that he was not advocating for members of the black
community to start carrying guns en masse. (Article notes this person is an
assistant pastor at a church in Atlanta , GA , Good
Shepherd Community Church
Suspect Shot, Killed
During Robbery Attempt
Excerpt: Sellars was wearing a black hoodie and
jeans. He started out by asking a question before lunging at him with the
box cutter.... The owner sustained a cut on his neck. Despite the
injury, the store owner reached for his gun and shot the Sellars one time.
Sellars was able to leave the store, but did not get far.
Excerpt: A St. Paul man
had been walking outside when two men approached and tried to rob him, police
have said. The man, who had a permit to carry, pulled his gun and exchanged
gunfire with the suspects, according to police. ... Police have said the
24-year-old man got into his own car and pursued the suspects. A second
gunfight followed in the 900 block of Thomas
Avenue . (Chasing after them puts the victim in
legal jeopardy, as his life was no longer in danger. ~Bob)
Race Card News
Self-Enforcing Discrimination. By Walter E. Williams
Excerpt: Black politicians, civil rights organizations and
others who say they are concerned with the welfare of poor black people often
support harmful measures. One of the most effective tools for disadvantaged
people is to be able to charge a lower price for what they sell and pay a
higher price for what they buy. Let’s look at this principle first using a
couple of nonracial examples.
Public School Principal says that "Being
Colorblind" is Just Another Way of Saying "Being Racist." By Onan Coca
Excerpt: To many, Harvey ’s
defense of North High would appear well-aligned with the traditional liberal
principles of treating all races equally. But to Harvey ’s own boss, principal Lisa Dyer, it
actually reveals insidious racism. On Sunday night, several days after Harvey’s
column was published, Dyer sent an email to the entire staff of the school
blasting her employee for calling her school colorblind, saying it ignored the
right of students to honor their particular “complexions.”
Group calls for disarming NYPD, removing officers from neighborhoods
Excerpt: A group calling itself “Disarm NYPD” wants the
nation’s largest city to create cop-free zones and eventually prohibit New York
City Police Department officers from carrying firearms.
According to the website “Waging Nonviolence,” the activists plan to team up
with local activists and police watchdogs to pressure the NYPD to pull officers
“from over-policed neighborhoods and then maintain these cop-free zones with
alternative, community-based forms of conflict resolution.” (Try it. But pull
the cops from the neighborhoods where these activists live. Make them beg to
get the cops back--the survivors that is. ~Bob)
"You're Greener than Gore" News
Study: Fracking Doesn’t Mess With Your Drinking Water. By Matt Vespa
Excerpt: The new study of 11,309 drinking water wells in
northeastern Pennsylvania
concludes that background levels of methane in the water are unrelated to the
location of hundreds of oil and gas wells that tap hydraulically fractured, or
fracked, rock formations. The finding suggests that fracking operations are not
significantly contributing to the leakage of methane from deep rock formations,
where oil and gas are extracted, up to the shallower aquifers where well water
is drawn. The result also calls into question prominent studies in 2011 and 2013
that did find a correlation in a nearby part of Pennsylvania . There, wells closer to
fracking sites had higher levels of methane. Those studies, however, were based
on just 60 and 141 domestic well samples, respectively.
Kerry Gets Eight
Out of Four Pinocchios. From The Patriot Post
John Kerry has a long history of phony "seared
memories." From Christmas 1968 in Cambodia to the "very first
climate hearings in the Senate," Kerry just makes stuff up. The Washington
Post "fact checker" took on the claim about the Senate climate hearings
only to discover that "Kerry was not even a participant in the most
important hearing of that time; he simply spoke at a hearing that took place
the following year. And yet, like Brian Williams claiming to have come under
fire in Iraq ,
Kerry has repeatedly placed himself at the center of the action -- and the
narrative." Not only that, a follow-up article reveals that the hearing was not, as
Kerry at another time asserted, deliberately scheduled on the summer's hottest
day, nor was it "sweltering" in the hearing room. Leftists regularly
assert that weather isn't proof of climate -- unless they need it to be. The
fact checker concluded, "Frankly, this now puts Kerry's statements in an
even a worse light. Not only did he place himself at a hearing he did not
organize and attend, but he described witnessing events that did not
happen." That's par for the course with Kerry.
Scientists Say New
Study Is A ‘Death Blow’ To Global Warming Hysteria. By Michael Bastasch
Excerpt: A new study out
of Germany
casts further doubt on the so-called global warming “consensus” by suggesting
the atmosphere may be less sensitive to increases in carbon dioxide emissions
than most scientists think. A study by scientists at Germany ’s Max Planck Institute for
Meteorology found that man-made aerosols had a much smaller cooling effect on
the atmosphere during the 20th Century than was previously thought. Why is this
big news? It means increases in carbon dioxide emissions likely cause less
warming than most climate models suggest.
Religion of Peace News
Excerpt: According to some White House defenders' simplistic
and demagogic formulation, skeptics of the Iran deal are beating the drums of
war. This ignores a range of alternative options,
including the imposition of crippling sanctions, but that's not the point. The
point is to pretend that Obama's permissive deal is the only thing standing
between the US and a ground
war in Iran .
Via NRO, say hello to Howard Dean, warmonger:
Dean dutifully gets in his shots at Republicans and the "discredited"
Israeli Prime Minister (whose people just handed a smashing victory), but
he ultimately confesses that he's "worried about the way these
negotiations have gone." He counsels the American delegation to pack up
and leave, and perhaps return to the table at a later date when additional
pressure has been ratcheted up against the regime.
14 Reasons Iran
Excerpt: Iran
and six world powers announced a further extension of talks on the country's
nuclear program on Tuesday, with hopes of reaching a final agreement by
the end of June. But regardless of whether a deal is ultimately reached, and
despite the Obama administration's insistence on striking an accord with Iran , there are
significant reasons why the Islamic Republic cannot be trusted. (The ayatollahs
can be trusted just as far as Herr Hitler, Comrade Stalin, and Prince Osama Bin
Laden. Anyone who doesn't see that is either not paying attention to the
history of the past 30 years, or is indulging in fantasy. --Del )
Excerpt: he commander of the Basij militia of Iran ’s Revolutionary Guards said that “erasing Israel
off the map” is “nonnegotiable,” according to an Israel Radio report Tuesday.
Militia chief Mohammad Reza Naqdi also threatened Saudi
Arabia , saying that the offensive it is leading in Yemen
“will have a fate like the fate of Saddam Hussein.”
Worth Reading : Editorial:
President Obama Must Not Complete a Disastrous Deal With Iran
Excerpt: With the US
on the brink of signing an agreement that will lift the crippling economic
sanctions on Iran in
exchange for alleged guarantees that Iran
will limit its nuclear ambitions to peaceful means, the Observer urges
President Obama not to place his personal hunger for a legacy issue ahead of
his most solemn duty – protecting America ’s national security.
Barack Obama has been compared to British Prime Minister
Neville Chamberlain , who concluded the ill-fated Munich Pact with Hitler in
1938. But Chamberlain acted out of a sincere belief that he was avoiding a
greater evil. Chamberlain was not thinking of his place in history. He was
thinking only of the Britain
that he loved, a Britain
that was all but disarmed, exhausted, and vulnerable. He was dealing with a
nation that had been decimated by the Great War, a nation whose “best and
brightest” five years earlier had declared in the infamous Oxford Oath that
they would not fight for king or country, and a nation that was as materially
unprepared for war as Germany was prepared to fight.
Sisi Wins! Obama Removes Weapons Freeze Against Egypt
Excerpt: Seeking to repair relations with a longtime ally at
a time of spreading war in the Middle East, President Obama on Tuesday
lifted an arms freeze against Egypt that he had first
imposed after the military overthrow of the country’s democratically elected
government nearly two years ago. Mr. Obama cleared the way for the delivery of
F-16 aircraft, Harpoon missiles and M1A1 Abrams tanks, weapons prized by
Egyptian leaders, who have smoldered at the suspension. In a telephone call,
Mr. Obama assured President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt
that he would support the full $1.3 billion in annual military assistance the Cairo government traditionally
receives, even as others seek to cut it, the White House said.
Excerpt: Iraqi troops and Iranian-backed Shiite militias
entered central Tikrit alongside Iraqi troops today after days of US airstrikes
weakened Islamic State forces holed up in the city. The militias entered Tikrit
despite US military officials’ claims that the groups had disengaged from the
fight. The militias and Iraqi troops took control of the governor’s compound
and the hospital in the city center, Reuters
reported.
ISIS Conquers
Palestinian Refugee Camp in Damascus
Excerpt: Islamic State terrorists conquered large areas of the Yarmouk Palestinian
refugee camp in the Syrian capital Wednesday and are battling
Palestinian faction Aknaf Beit al-Maqdis for control, media reports indicate. "Fighters from ISIS launched an assault this morning on Yarmouk and they
took over the majority of the camp," said Anwar Abdel Hadi, Damascus-based
director of political affairs for the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
Islamic State Ebooks
Advise Jihadis on Evading Detection. By John Rossomando
Excerpt: Islamic State supporters published two
English-language ebooks online last weekend, advising potential recruits how to
evade detection. One, How to Survive in the West: A Mujahid Guide (2015),
advises potential jihadis in Europe how to
form sleeper cells. Hijrah to the Islamic State: What to Pickup, Who to
Contact, Where to Go, Stories and More! targets potential recruits seeking
to join them in Syria .
The Obama Administration’s Slavery Disgrace. By Stephen Brown
Excerpt: As uplifting as these words may sound, President
Obama’s “motivation” and vigilance “in defense of human rights around the
world,” at least in regard to the enslavement of black Africans, apparently
ends with the now defunct Trans-Atlantic slave trade. For once again, the Obama
administration has shamefully failed to raise a loud voice against the
persecution and imprisonment of anti-slavery activists in the world’s worst
slave state, the Islamic Republic of Mauritania. The United Nations (UN) human
rights office earlier this month called for a review of the conviction of a
remarkable and fearless Mauritanian anti-slavery activist, Biram Ould Dah
Abeid, who, like Obama’s Kenyan relatives, is black African. Biram and two
others were sentenced to two years in prison last January, according to Amnesty
International (AI), for having staged a demonstration last November “to raise
the awareness about land rights for people of slave descent (land slavery).”
Dozens of churches
burned in Niger
Excerpt: At least 68 churches, two of which were Baptist,
have been burned in the West African country of Niger . Panlieba Tchalieni,
president of the Union of Evangelical Baptist
Churches of Niger ,
reported that the church burnings, carried out by Muslim extremist group Boko
Haram, occurred in the Zinder region and Niamey .
British Muslim women
abused under Sharia courts – report
Excerpt: A Peer is calling for a judge-led inquiry into
Sharia courts, in a revealing new report on discrimination against Muslim women
across Britain .
In the report, Baroness Cox also outlines the provisions of her Private
Members’ Bill, which would curb the growth of quasi-legal systems such as
Sharia courts, in England
and Wales .
She is seeking to re-introduce the Bill in the next session of Parliament.
Worth Hearing: Admiral (Ret) James Lyons on Islam as
a threat doctrine
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=bc0_1423721020
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=bc0_1423721020
Excerpt: We are often
told that Islam is “peaceful,” but few know about the long practice of slavery
within Islam, which continues to this day. “Slavery is a part of Islam… Slavery
is part of jihad, and jihad will remain as long there is Islam… [Those who
argue that slavery has been abolished are] ignorant, not scholars. They are
merely writers. Whoever says such things is an infidel.” --Sheikh Saleh
Al-Fawzan, member of
Senior Council of Clerics, Saudi Arabia’s highest religious body (2003)
Excerpt: Tehran says a U.S. drone strike killed two Iranian advisers in
Iraq last week, but the United States
says it has only struck Islamic State (IS) militants in its campaign.
*****
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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