Chuck Hagel for Defense Secretary; What Does it Mean?

Caroline Glick gives us her opinion as an Israeli  "Obama wants to hurt Israel. He does not like Israel. He is appointing anti-Israel advisors and cabinet members not despite their anti-Israel positions, but because of them.
"Some commentators said that Susan Rice would be bad because she was anti-Israel and they hoped that Obama would appoint someone pro-Israel. But John Kerry is no friend of Israel. And as far as I was concerned, we would have been better off with Rice on the job. "

Jennifer Rubin; EXCLUSIVE: ADL pans possible Chuck Hagel pick  Quoting Abe Foxman, the head of the Anti-Defamation League:

http://israelmatzav.blogspot.com/

“Chuck Hagel would not be the first, second, or third choice for the American Jewish community’s friends of Israel. His record relating to Israel and the U.S.-Israel relationship is, at best, disturbing, and at worst, very troubling. The sentiments he’s expressed about the Jewish lobby border on anti-Semitism in the genre of professors John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt and former president Jimmy Carter.”

Also from Rubin:

Six ways you know Chuck Hagel is in trouble
Senate Dems in a pickle if Hagel nominated

From the Wall Street Journal: Chuck Hagel's Jewish Problem;  " The would-be secretary of defense has some curious views."

 Politico: HAGEL ALLIES FIRE BACK   "Hagel's former aides yesterday released a fact sheet outlining his positions on national security, Israel and the Middle East. And separately, a group of nine former ambassadors signed a letter, obtained by POLITICO, calling Hagel "an impeccable choice" for Defense secretary. Signatories include Nicholas Burns, former undersecretary of State for political affairs, and Ryan Crocker, former ambassador to Iraq and Afghanistan."

Time Magazine's "Person of the Year"

http://terrellaftermath.com/

Forbes Magazine: President Barack Obama Is Time's Person of the Year, By Default  "Barack Obama survived a presidential election against a weak opponent despite an underwhelming legislative record and his own failure to define the choice in positive terms. In 2012, that’s good enough to earn you a Person of the Year nod from Time."

Big Journalism: "Kind of a no-brainer pick for "Time," but check out this slobbering love affair of purplish prose oozing from the pores of editor Rick Stengel."

Limbaugh: Obama TIME’s ‘Person Of The Year’ Because He Symbolizes New ‘Stupid People’ Demographic   "I wonder what these elite Democrats really think about that. So this guy’s Man of the Year because idiots love him? Because believe me, they think low-information voters are idiots. I guarantee you. They’ll be glad to take their votes. The new stupid America? That should have been Man of the Year. Person of the Year: Stupid people. The low-information voter should have been the Person of the Year.” "

It's Thursday; what are your kids doing now?

conservativedailynews.com

Lieberman: 'Rumors' CT Shooter Had 'Hypnotic Involvement' With Video Games  "Joe Lieberman I-Conn: “Very often these young men have an almost hypnotic involvement in some form of violence in our entertainment culture – particularly violent video games, and then they obtain guns and become not just troubled young men but mass murderers.” "

Have you bought your ‘abornament’ yet?

Conservative Daily News

"Yes, abortion rights activists have reached a new level of depravity. Apparently, as everyone indulges in the holiday spirit, the pro-choice camp decided to create abortion ornaments – or ‘abornaments’ – to be part of the commemoration of the birth of Christ. The fact that pro-choice Americans threw this in the face of those who practice religion, or hold pro-life beliefs, is offensive in the extreme. Steven Ertelt of Life News wrote on December 19:"....

Screen shot from Liberty Unyielding

We Know How to Stop School Shootings

Ann Coulter 

"None of these policies had any effect on the frequency of, or carnage from, multiple-victim shootings. (I note that they did not look at reforming our lax mental health laws, presumably because the ACLU is working to keep dangerous nuts on the street in all 50 states.)

"Only one public policy has ever been shown to reduce the death rate from such crimes: concealed-carry laws."
....Read the full article.

"By contrast, the shootings in gun-free zones invariably result in far higher casualty figures -- Sikh temple, Oak Creek, Wis. (six dead); Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va. (32 dead); Columbine High School, Columbine, Colo. (12 dead); Amish school, Lancaster County, Pa. (five little girls killed); public school, Craighead County, Ark. (five killed, including four little girls).

"All these took place in gun-free zones, resulting in lots of people getting killed -- and thereby warranting inclusion in the Mother Jones study.

"If what we care about is saving the lives of innocent human beings by reducing the number of mass public shootings and the deaths they cause, only one policy has ever been shown to work: concealed-carry laws. On the other hand, if what we care about is self-indulgent grandstanding, and to hell with dozens of innocent children being murdered in cold blood, try the other policies."

Racism at the Times

John Steele Gordon  "Professor Reed writes about the appointment of Rep. Tim Scott(right) to replace the retiring Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina. Scott, in Reed’s view, is essentially an Uncle Tom because he does not agree with the politics of most black Americans:.

. . his politics, like those of the archconservative Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas, are utterly at odds with the preferences of most black Americans. Mr. Scott has been staunchly anti-tax, anti-union and anti-abortion.

...".Professor Reed calls his piece “The Puzzle of Black Republicans.” But the puzzle is easily solved. Tim Scott is not a black Republican. He’s a Republican who happens to be black. Professor Reed sees racism in everything. But if he’d like to see a real racist, he needs only to look in a mirror."

It’s Hard to Screw Up California — But We Try Our Best

Victor Davis Hanson   "...there are two Californias: a thin coastal strip where upscale, highly educated elites, in the manner of the DC/Virginia corridor, profit from managing the vast regulatory technocracy and big-government bureaus, the top universities (e.g., Berkeley, Cal Tech, Stanford, UCLA, USC, etc.) reside and draw in thousands of rich foreigners, Silicon Valley is flush with export cash, and where the climate, ocean, and boutique culture make for the good life — and the vast north, Sierra, inland south, and Central Valley that bear more directly the burdens of lousy schools, regulations on development of resources, illegal immigration, and flight out of state — all of which explains why a 1,500 square foot house in Santa Cruz or Menlo Park sells for about $800,000 to $1 million, while its similarly sized counterpart from Stockton to Fresno goes for around $125,000 to $150,000. A Bakersfield, Tulare, or Selma is simply in a different galaxy from a Palo Alto, Carmel, San Luis Obispo, or Santa Barbara.

calwatchdog.com

...."But until the state deals with its cumbersome regulations, record taxes, hostility to resource development — and supports closing the border and promotes ethnically blind assimilation rather than serial amnesties and ethnic chauvinism — we will continue to have the nation’s worst schools, worst infrastructure, worst business climate, and highest exoduses, as California plods on, coasting on the fumes of what nature and our ancestors so generously bequeathed to us."

California Political Review

Is this part of the "revenge" our divider-in-chief spoke of?

http://terrellaftermath.com/

Rush Limbaugh: Obama Wants The Republican Party To ‘Destroy Itself’  "With Democrats pressuring the GOP to agree to tax increases in the fiscal cliff negotiations, Limbaugh could reach no other conclusion than the Democrats are trying to facilitate the destruction of their opposition. It would be a confession by the GOP taxing the rich more would do a lot to improve the economy."

“If Obama succeeds and ends up getting a confession from Republicans that tax cuts are the problem, tax cuts are the cause, what happens to the next Republican who campaigns on tax cuts? Not going to have a prayer.”

Rush: Obama Wants Republican Party To Essentially Destroy Itself In Fiscal Cliff Deal:

Hey! Isn't that Elizabeth Warren's campaign bus?

Photo above from Legal Insurrection  "Using a sports team name which may be offensive to Native Americans, or ripping off their heritage and identity for your own professional gain?

"The team bus of the Liberal High School (KS) Redskins, in a photo take in early November:"

Professor,
On my way home this evening, I spotted Elizabeth Warren’s campaign/tour bus travelling on I-25 through Denver.
Also, if anyone cannot see the irony in this and get offended, I say “Tough.” The only thing to be offended at is the fraud imposed by a self-righteous liberal.

She could use this in her campaign for president. What? You sayin' it won't happen?

Chivalry Is Not Dead

The American Culture

"There was a time back in the day, as they say, when treating women with respect by opening doors for them or “women and children first” was de rigueur. There was no confusion about social custom when it came to how men treated women. The feminist movement that became popularized in the 1960s changed all that. By the 1980s a man didn’t know if he should open a door for a woman, carry her groceries, offer to pay for a meal, or help her in any number of ways without giving offense."....

...."But all is not lost. Not only does human nature very much like we find it described in the Bible still exist, the best of the Western tradition still exists in the hearts and minds of many Americans. Witness the tragic shooting at the Dark Knight showing at a movie theater in Colorado last summer. When the shooting started, three men instinctively jumped in front of their girlfriends and gave their lives that those women should live. I’m not sure what feminists could say against such manly and heroic examples, but I’m sure they’d find something."   Mike D'Virgilio; obviously a sexist male pig.

Seeking an effective argument FOR gun control

Here, two respected writers discuss the case against taking away individual firearms from Americans. Yes, it is true that if guns did not exist everywhere in this nation those little children in Sandy Hook would be living right now and I only wish that were the case. But it is not and there are violent people out there in their thousands and they are armed; willing and lusting to watch innocent people die in bunches by their hands. How, exactly do you gun-control advocates plan to remove those weapons from their blood-thirsty hands?
I will honestly look for a reasoned argument FOR gun control that contains effective means for keeping us safe from those who carry weapons illegally and are willing to do us harm. Cartoons showing crazed, wild-eyed gun owners don't wash.
As yet, I have seen only politically correct, emotional responses to the issue that have no value other than simply making a politician look as if they are doing something. TD

http://2ndlook.wordpress.com/2009/01/06/crime-gun-ownership-and-india/

Alan Caruba in Warning Signs:  "Among gun owners, the cliché is that “A gun in the hand is quicker than a cop on the phone.” "
" “This means that, each year, firearms are used 60 times more often to protect the lives of honest citizens than to take lives. Furthermore, of the 2.4 million self-defense cases, more than 192,000 are by women defending themselves against sexual assault. And in less than eight percent of those occasions is a shot actually fired. The vast majority of the time (92%), the mere presence of a firearm helps to avert a major crime from occurring. That is what Congressman Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD) concluded after extensive research. According to Rep. Bartlett, the number of defensive uses is four times the number of crimes reported committed with guns.” "

OC Register....

Thomas Sowell in National Review Online: "How many times do the same arguments need to be refuted?"
"Gun ownership has been three times as high in Switzerland as in Germany, but the Swiss have had lower murder rates. Other countries with high rates of gun ownership and low murder rates include Israel, New Zealand, and Finland.
"Guns are not the problem. People are the problem — including people who are determined to push gun-control laws, either in ignorance of the facts or in defiance of the facts.
"There is innocent ignorance and there is invincible, dogmatic, and self-righteous ignorance. Every tragic mass shooting seems to bring out examples of both among gun-control advocates."

http://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/category/gun-control/

Fiscal Cliff and Potential 2013 Tax Changes

Charles Schwab;

   Key Points:

• Barring Congressional agreement, a wide range of tax rates should increase in 2013.
• New Medicare taxes on net investment income and wages will impact high earners in 2013, regardless of a fiscal cliff agreement.
• Do the math before you sell off securities to lock in current tax rates.

"Both parties in Congress support some form of extension of current rates. Most Democrats want a temporary extension, and only for certain taxpayers, while most Republicans support making current rates permanent for everyone across the board. When or if either of those plans gets enacted will depend a lot on who controls Congress and the presidency after the fall election—but the new Congress won't be sworn in until January 3, 2013, so it will be up to our current elected leaders to either take action before then or kick the can into next year. What, if anything, should the average investor do to prepare?"

 

Read the charts and tables here. 
 
Health Care Taxes

cartoonaday.com

"The new health care law imposes a number of new taxes on individuals, employers, and insurance companies. Here are some of the more noteworthy changes for individual taxpayers.

In 2013:

"Increased Medicare tax. An additional 0.9% Medicare tax will be added to earned income over $200,000 for single filers and over $250,000 for married couples filing jointly.

Surtax on unearned income. A 3.8% surtax will be imposed on net investment income for high earners.

Modified threshold for claiming medical expense deductions. The adjusted gross income (AGI) threshold for claiming an itemized deduction for medical expenses will rise from 7.5% to 10%. However, the 7.5% threshold will continue to apply through 2016 to individuals age 65 and older (and their spouses).

$2,500 limit on Health Care FSA contributions. The new law limits contributions to health care flexible spending accounts (HCFSAs) to $2,500 per year. The dollar amount would be inflation-indexed after 2013."

In 2014:
"Penalty for failing to have insurance. The penalty for people who choose to remain uninsured starts at $95 in 2014 and eventually increases to $695 in 2016 (or 2.5% of income, whichever is greater). The penalty for failure to insure would be indexed to inflation, and subsidies will be made available for those who can't afford it. "

Daniel J. Mitchell

By Rande Spiegelman; CPA, CFP®, Vice President of Financial Planning, Schwab Center for Financial Research. Read the disclosures at the bottom of the page linked .