Update
Skipped Rehab Friday, as my back sill painful with muscle
spasms and I didn't want to aggravate the problem. Thursday I had the highest
FEV average in four months, but Friday I was coughing when I tried, which
caused a lot of back pain, and the numbers were way down. So it goes. O2 sats
still good on room air; 96% to 00% around the house. ~Bob
General News and Comment
Click on graphic to enlarge.
DOJ To Give Money
From Bank Of America
Excerpt: Judicial Watch reports that the Department of Justice is
giving liberal activist groups money from a $16.6 billion settlement with Bank
of America. The groups benefitting from the lawsuit, according to Investor’s Business Daily, are the National Council of La
Raza, Operation Hope, National Community Reinvestment Coalition,
and Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America . The money also went to
“delinquent borrowers” in Chicago , Oakland , Detroit , Philadelphia , and other
major “Democrat strongholds.”
Tweet from Chad Jay Mahoney @CJayMahoney
Obama could bite the head off a live kitten, and his
approval rating would stay at 40%. And MSNBC would find something wrong w/ the
kitten.
Landrieu claims
parents’ home as her own, raising questions of Louisiana
Excerpt: In Washington ,
Sen. Mary Landrieu lives in a stately, $2.5 million brick manse she and her
husband built on Capitol Hill. Here in Louisiana ,
however, the Democrat does not have a home of her own. She is registered to
vote at a large bungalow in New
Orleans that her parents have lived in for many
decades, according to a Washington Post review of Landrieu’s federal financial
disclosures and local property and voting records. (You can find her home in
DC--look for the "we are the 99%" sign. ~Bob)
Excerpt: We learn this from Jim Downey, the longtime
"Saturday Night Live" specialist in political japery. "If I
had to describe Obama as a comedy project, I would say, 'Degree of difficulty,
10 point 10,'" the writer says in the expanded new edition of the
"SNL" oral history book, "Live from New York ." ... Got that? The charter
Choom Ganger, confessed eater of dog and snorter of coke. The doofus who thinks
the language spoken by Austrians is "Austrian," that you pronounce
the p in "corpsman" and that ATMs are the reason why job growth is
sluggish. The egomaniac who gave the queen of England an iPod loaded with his own
speeches and said he was better at everything than the people who work for him.
The empty suit with so little real-world knowledge that he referred to his
brief stint working for an ordinary profit-seeking company as time "behind
enemy lines..."
Americans Pessimistic
about U.S.
Excerpt: Americans are not optimistic about economic
recovery in the United
States . The recession officially ended in
June 2009, yet the majority of Americans do not see the economy as having
improved. A study from researchers at Rutgers University U.S.
economy during the last four years, and the official unemployment rate has
reached 80 percent of pre-recession levels. Yet, the researchers note that the
job growth the United States
has not created enough full-time jobs, and a deeper look at the economy reveals
some not-so-positive statistics:
Using Life Expectancy
to Measure Inequality
Excerpt: American political discourse is rife with talk of
inequality, but Nicholas Eberstadt, resident scholar at the American Enterprise
Institute, writes that focusing on economic inequality obscures real gains that
have taken place across the globe. Economic inequality is a misleading figure,
because the degree of alleged inequality changes depending upon whether the
measure is one of income or consumption, and whether it looks at a person's
economic position over a single year or inequality over a lifetime. There are
better ways to assess equality across the world, writes Eberstadt, and he
offers two means of measuring it: life expectancy and the distribution of
education. (Yes, but using intelligent measures doesn't interest them--it
doesn't stir up low-info voters through class warfare. ~Bob)
Grade Inflation
Rampant on College Campuses
Excerpt: Grade inflation is a serious problem in colleges
and universities, contends Thomas Lindsay in a new report for the Texas Public
Policy Foundation. The numbers are stark: In the first half of the 1960s, 15
percent of college grades were As. Today, 43 percent of all college grades are
As. An A is the most common grade given in colleges across the country. Seventy-three
percent of all college grades given today are As or Bs.
Excerpt: In Utah ,
it is no
longer illegal for someone to cohabitate with someone with whom they
are not married, following a decision in the lawsuit Brown v.
Buhman. The case was filed by Kody Brown, who is the patriarch of the
polygamous Brown family featured on the TLC show "Sister Wives." While
this technically means living a polygamous lifestyle is now effectively
decriminalized in Utah ,
a person is still prohibited from having multiple marriage licenses. (When I
was single, I used to say that you didn't have to be a polygamist to have one
wife too many...~Bob)
Race Card News
Breaking: Michael
Brown Allegedly Involved in Second Degree Murder Case
Excerpt: As relayed by the website YoungCons.com, Johnson claims that he has “confirmed”
Michael Brown was arrested in a case involving second-degree murder:
USC RB Anthony Brown
quits team, calls coach Steve Sarkisian ‘racist’
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/college/usc-rb-anthony-brown-quits-team-calls-coach-steve-sarkisian-racist-article-1.1920564
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/college/usc-rb-anthony-brown-quits-team-calls-coach-steve-sarkisian-racist-article-1.1920564
Excerpt: A day after Trojans star cornerback Josh Shaw was suspended indefinitely for making up a heroic
pool rescue story to explain an injury, senior running back Anthony Brown
quit the team while accusing head coach Steve Sarkisian of being a racist.
Tweet from Political Humor @PoliticalLaughs
Race Hustlers Care About Only One Color: Green
Tweet from Dinesh D'Souza @DineshDSouza
Why won't the media hold Obama accountable? They desperately
want to prevent our first African American president from being a failure.
Worth Seeing: VIDEO: Marine to Black Community: Want
to Really Make a Difference? Accept this Challenge
Excerpt: The challenge started with Charles Johnson, and was
expounded upon by Marine Malik King. When King made his challenge video, he did
more than demonstrate what it would look like to take the “Pull Up Your Pants
Challenge.” He shared why he believes it is critical for the black community to
take this challenge to heart and accept it.
Obamacare/ Government
Healthcare News
CBO Report Shows
Impact of Obamacare
Excerpt: The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is out with
a new economic outlook
report for the next decade. One of its projections, reports Kevin
Glass at Townhall.com, concerns the number of Americans in the labor force. The
CBO expects that the labor force participation rate (the ratio of Americans who
are employed or are seeking a job, compared to the total number of working-age
people in the country) will continue to fall over the next few years. The
agency expects an 0.5 percentage point drop in the participation rate due
largely to baby-boomer retirements but also due to "federal tax and
spending policies." More
specifically, the CBO points to Obamacare as one of the reasons behind the
falling labor force participation rate: "[C]ertain aspects of the
Affordable Care Act will tend to reduce labor force participation, with the
largest effect stemming from the subsidies that reduce the cost of purchasing
health insurance through the exchanges." The report explains that
subsidies rise as incomes fall, and fall as incomes rise, meaning that some
people will be incentivized to work less, in order to obtain or retain the
health care subsidies. The report continued, "[T]he structure of the tax
code -- in which rising income pushes some people into higher tax brackets --
will reduce labor force participation slightly."
Cost of
Healthcare.gov Nearing $2 Billion
Excerpt: Ow. Ow. My head hurts. How is it possible for one
website’s costs to come anywhere near $2 billion? But a recent report by the
Department of Health and Human Resources (HHS) indicates that Healthcare.gov,
the troubled online market for Obamacare, is going to end up costing the
federal government about 1.7 billion dollars: (Not too worry. The can print
more. ~Bob)
Government Healthcare: Kids As Young As 12 Receiving
Govt-Funded Contraceptive Implants
Excerpt: Children as young as 12 are being given
contraceptive implants by government health boards in Scotland , many without their
parents’ knowledge, raising concerns over their vulnerability to sexual
exploitation. The drugs have not been tested on minors, and the long term
health effects of using these drugs on children are not known. But still almost
3,500 minors have received the long term contraceptive implant since 2010,
the Daily Mail today reported.
Coburn: Did feds
illegally skirt Obamacare employer mandate?
Excerpt: Sen. Tom
Coburn wants to know whether the Obama
administration violated the law by making it easier for seasonal
and temporary workers in the federal government to get health coverage —
perhaps so the feds would not be penalized under Obamacare’s “employer
mandate.”
Tax refunds may get hit due to health law credits
Tax refunds may get hit due to health law credits
Excerpt: If your income for 2014 is going to be higher than
you estimated when you applied for health insurance, then complex connections
between the health law and taxes can reduce or even eliminate your tax refund
next year.
"You're Greener Than Gore" News
Democrats More Afraid
of Global Warming Than ISIS
Excerpt: Democrats are more afraid of global warming than
the threat posed by the Islamic State terrorists, according to a new
Pew Research Center poll.
The Government Is
Controlling Private Property to Save Frog Species Not Seen in 50 Years. By Scott Blakeman
Excerpt: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) is
seeking to protect the dusky gopher frog on the Endangered Species List by
designating over 1,500 acres of private property in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana as a “critical
habitat” for the embattled amphibian. But here’s the kicker: The frog hasn’t
been seen on the land in question for over 50 years. The federal government has
the ability through the Endangered Species Act (ESA) to designate land as
“critical habitat” subjecting it to additional regulations.
Religion of Peace News
Funny: Breaking... President Obama's 'Strategy 18.' By Andy Weddington
Excerpt:
Earlier today United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron held a press
conference delivering, with conviction, remarks and answering media
questions about the urgent and growing terrorism, ISIS, threat.
I can help: Obama: White House still working on ISIL
plan
Excerpt:
President Barack Obama is working on strategies to fight Islamic State of Iraq
and the Levant, and to continue to dissuade Russia
from military involvement in Ukraine ,
he said Thursday from the White House. Obama said he has directed Defense
Secretary Chuck Hegel to prepare a range of options to counter ISIL and has
instructed Secretary of State John Kerry to travel to the region to build a
coalition in opposition to the group. Though there have been reports suggesting
that broader military action in the region is imminent, the president said he
will take his time. (You can bet ISIS has a
strategy for us. -- Tweet from GLENN @GCGATOR24. It
should surprise no one that an Administration who calls the Fort Hood
shooting “workplace violence” is clueless about dealing with ISIS .
Tweet from Ken Gardner @kesgardner. Putin
has a plan, ISIS has a plan, Hamas has a plan,
Obama has a fund raiser scheduled. -- Tweet from RockPrincess @Rockprincess818. Dear
Mr. President: Here's a plan. You call a meeting with Kerry, Hegel and the joint
Chiefs and tell them, "I do not want 'proportional response.' I want only
options that leave ISIS annihilated. I want
them killed, their vehicles destroyed. I want an outline of that tomorrow, for
action to start Monday and build from there, until nothing moves on the ground
in their areas and there are no targets left. Dismissed." ~Bob)
Excerpt: But while the White House went into damage-control
mode, emphasizing that it was a reference to the lack
of decisions about increasing military action in Iraq and/or Syria and not a lack of a broader
strategy there, the damage was already done. As with all gaffes, the worst ones
are the ones that confirm people's preexisting suspicions or fit into an easy
narrative. ... Polls have increasingly shown that Americans view Obama as
a weak commander in chief without much direction or heft to his foreign
policy.
Excerpt: British Prime Minister David Cameron raised Friday
the nation’s terrorism threat level to “severe,” saying bluntly that “poisonous”
Islamic extremism is causing widespread problems that are spreading from the Middle East to other parts of the world.
Marched to their
deaths: Sickening ISIS slaughter continues as
250 soldiers captured at Syrian airbase are stripped then led to the desert for
mass execution
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2736764/Marched-deaths-Sickening-ISIS-slaughter-continues-250-soldiers-captured-Syrian-airbase-stripped-led-desert-mass-execution.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2736764/Marched-deaths-Sickening-ISIS-slaughter-continues-250-soldiers-captured-Syrian-airbase-stripped-led-desert-mass-execution.html
Excerpt: Sickening footage appears to show Islamic State
militants parading around 250 captured soldiers through the desert in their
underwear before they are killed and their bodies piled on the bare earth. An
Islamic State fighter claimed the men were from the Syrian
government's Tabqa air base which extremists seized on Sunday, potentially
handing them warplanes, tanks, artillery and ammunition. (The message from the ISIS is clear: If you are opposing them, die fighting,
never surrender. ~Bob)
Found: The Islamic
State's Terror Laptop of Doom: Buried in a Dell computer captured in Syria are
lessons for making bubonic plague bombs and missives on using weapons of mass
destruction. BY Harald Doornbos, Jenan Moussa
Excerpt: Abu Ali, a commander of a moderate Syrian rebel
group in northern Syria ,
proudly shows a black laptop partly covered in dust. "We took it this year
from an ISIS hideout," he says.Abu Ali says the fighters from the Islamic
State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), which have since rebranded themselves as the
Islamic State, all fled before he and his men attacked the building. The attack
occurred in January in a village in the Syrian province
of Idlib , close to the border with Turkey , as part
of a larger anti-ISIS offensive occurring at the time. "We found the
laptop and the power cord in a room," he continued, "I took it with
me. But I have no clue if it still works or if it contains anything
interesting." Now this is the kind of thing that tends to increase
people's nervousness about ISIS . No, they
don't have the super nasty stuff right now, but they sure would like to get
some and are eager to use it. And given enough time and money, they will get
some smart, trained people to help them and get some really nasty stuff. Why
would anyone doubt it, and certainly no one would doubt their eagerness to
inflict as much horror on others as they possibly can. I believe in smashing
them to nothingness, no survivors. Yeah, that makes me an extremist. But
destroying Pol Pot's group when they were still small and vulnerable would have
saved literally millions of lives. Not being ready to destroy the rabid
dog or the aggressive poisonous snake is just foolish, at a level that is
too costly in the long run. --Del )
New ISIS
Video, Photo Show Beheading of Kurd & Lebanese
Excerpt: The Islamic State (IS), more commonly known as the
Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), has just released a video showing a
Kurdish fighter being beheaded and other Kurdish prisoners and photos of a
Lebanese soldier it beheaded. It has also announced that Ansar al-Islam, an
Al-Qaeda affiliate, has pledged allegiance to the IS leader.
Child Is Family’s
Sole Survivor as ISIS Terrorists Target Iraqi Town
Excerpt: After escaping a terrorist-besieged Iraqi town with
his family, 2-year-old Hassan was wounded when a suicide bomb went off near a
mosque. The blast in the Kurdistan-controlled Kirkuk province, set off by terrorists from
the group Islamic State, killed the boy’s entire immediate family.
Mahmoud Abbas: Blame
Hamas for Gaza
Excerpt: Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas may
not be fond of Israel and
its political leadership, but he's clear-eyed about one thing: Hamas initiated
and prolonged an unnecessary fight with Israel that directly led to
Palestinian deaths.
Excerpt: The convicted shooter in the Fort
Hood massacre has written a letter to
the leader of the Islamic State saying he wants to become a "citizen"
of the caliphate, in the latest example of the terror group's reach inside the U.S. The letter
from Nidal Hasan, obtained by Fox News, comes after two Americans reportedly
died fighting for ISIS in Syria . (Workplace
violence always ends up with the shooter wanting to become a citizen of a
caliphate. -- Tweet from Andy
Lancaster @andylancaster )
Exclusive:
Excerpt: The U.S.
government is considering using a powerful national security law to halt a
private lawsuit against a non-profit group, United Against A Nuclear Iran, according to
a source familiar with the case. Greek businessman and ship owner Victor Restis
last year sued UANI for defamation after the New York-based group, whose
advisors include former intelligence officials from the United States , Europe and Israel, accused
him of violating sanctions on Iran by
exporting oil from the country.
U.N. says 43 Golan
peacekeepers seized by Syria militants, 81 trapped
Excerpt: "During a period of increased fighting
beginning yesterday between armed elements and Syrian Arab Armed Forces within
the area of separation in the Golan Heights ,
43 peacekeepers from the United
Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) were detained early this
morning by an armed group in the vicinity of Al Qunaytirah," the U.N.
press office said in a statement.
Excerpt: Here is a snapshot of a series of truly ridiculous
things that happened in a small New England
town this week, followed by an extended examination of how it represents a deep
societal pathology. In Winooski , Vermont , a small town northeast of Burlington , a restaurant was awarded a sign
placement for its participation in a beautification project. Proud of its bacon
(among other things, I’m sure), Sneakers Bistro chose a sign that said “Yield
for Sneakers Bacon.” A Muslim woman, fond of neither pork nor free speech,
complained online, garnering a sufficient contingent of busybodies to pressure
the restaurant to take down the sign. (Appeasement doesn't work. They will
always find something else to be offended by--walking dogs in public, crosses
in cemeteries, women without hijabs--to force their beliefs on society. ~Bob)
Excerpt: Ansar Jerusalem, (also known as Ansar Bayt
al-Maqdis), has released a video displaying the graphic beheadings of four
Egyptian civilians the group accused of being "spies" for Israel .
According to Ansar Jerusalem ,
Israel
Man with ISIS flag on vehicle threatens cops with bomb
Excerpt: A man who had an ISIS
flag waving from his vehicle is facing several charges after he threatened
police with a bomb Wednesday morning when he was pulled over on the Southwest
Side. Emad Karakrah, 49, was charged with felony counts of disorderly conduct
and aggravated fleeing; and a misdemeanor count of driving on a never-issued
license, according to Chicago Police.
Posts
