Judge Halts New York City Soda Ban

Wall Street Journal 

A state judge on Monday stopped Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration from banning the sale of large sugary drinks at New York City restaurants and other venues, a major defeat for a mayor who has made public-health initiatives a cornerstone of his tenure.

The city is "enjoined and permanently restrained from implementing or enforcing the new regulations," wrote New York Supreme Court Judge Milton Tingling, blocking the rules one day before they would have taken effect. The city's chief counsel, Michael Cardozo, pledged to quickly appeal the ruling.

Berkeley Democrat Proposes Taxing Email To Keep Post Office Afloat…

Weasel Zippers

Add email to the never ending list of things Democrats want to tax.

"Gordon Wozniak suggested that using email, which is partially responsible for killing off demand for letter-carrying services, could save “vital functions” of the post office, the news site Berkleyside reported.

"“There should be … a very tiny tax on email,” he told the City Council. “There should be something like a bit tax. I mean, a bit tax could be a cent per gigabit and they would still make, probably, billions of dollar a year.”

And we all know from experience how that "tiny tax" will metastasize over time, don't we?

"The problem is, such a levy wouldn’t be legal unless the Internet Tax Freedom Act is allowed to expire in 2014."
 

You may appreciate the comments accompanying the above article. Every day, we become less and less free.

 
 about.com

Our Indefensible Commander-in-Chief

By William Kristol in The Foreign Policy Initiative  "President Obama is an appalling commander in chief. In the last couple of months alone, he’s selected and muscled through the Senate the least qualified nominee for secretary of defense in a half century; forced out of his position early a superb combatant commander, General James Mattis, because Mattis took seriously the Iranian threat; [then Obama] blithely ordered women into combat arms units, with no pretense of serious consideration of the effect of this on the capability, discipline, and morale of our warfighters. "Before that, while growing every other part of the federal government, he cut defense. So we shouldn’t be surprised that he’s not doing anything serious about the further devastating cuts sequestration will impose on the military."

...."But the GOP is now saying: Yes. Which means the Republican party is complicit in the failure of political responsibility and national seriousness we’re now witnessing. Which means, unfortunately, that historians will say not just of the Obama administration but also of today’s Republican party: “They were weighed in the balance and found wanting.” "

 

Why Obama will be dead weight for Democrats in 2014

Rick Moran at American Thinker  "To net 17 seats and flip the chamber, Democrats have to win predominantly on GOP turf, in districts that Mitt Romney won and where Obama and his agenda are unpopular. A number of Democrats made clear in interviews that the more partisan posture Obama has adopted over the past few months -- particularly on cultural issues like gun control, and to a lesser extent on immigration and gay marriage -- is making an uphill slog that much steeper.
...."Republicans won't be in much better odor with the voters but will have the advantage of not being responsible for a weak economy and far left agenda that is going over so far like a lead pipe."

But complicating the mix is the one issue that is supposed to remain unspoken, yet Robert Babcock dares to speak it:
My Fear of a Black President 
"I don't know why I hadn't realized this before. Until now, I had believed that I have subjected Mr. Obama to the same standards of judgment I've applied to other presidents. I had believed that I have been critical of Mr. Obama for substantive reasons, such as infidelity to the Constitution, bad policies, screwed-up values, and rude and arrogant behavior unbefitting a U.S. president.
"Yet, according to Chris Matthews, it's all really just about my fear of color."  Read more.
 

Bad Science and Bad Journalism are a Bad Combination

Alan Caruba  "Instead, we continue to be the victims of global warming charlatans, some of whom are “scientists”, while other scientists with far more integrity have been engaged in debunking their lies since the 1980s. The only thing we know for sure is that the global warming “scientists” are destroying the public’s confidence in the integrity of climate science."

" “Such hysteria,” warned Dr. Lindzen, “simply represents the scientific illiteracy of much of the public, the susceptibility of the public to the substitution of repetition for truth, and the exploitation of these weaknesses by politicians, environmental promoters, and, after 20 years of media drum beating, many others as well. Climate is always changing.” "

JoNova; Tackling tribal groupthink

Transgender Restroom Signs

With liberals running this government expect to see these signs in military barracks someday.

The Toilet Book  Right: Sign for bathroom designated for transgender students at a Thai elementary school.

Mockazine

College Insurrection; maybe you want to bookmark this site

From College Insurrection; William A. Jacobson, Associate Clinical Professor, Cornell Law School (who also blogs at Legal Insurrection) enters this post on today's media:

St. Louis U. student takes on media bias   "Saint Louis University student Amy Lutz has some thoughts regarding the role leftist bias plays in the distorted reporting:"

The leftist bias in the main stream media further solidifies the denigration of the press as a check on government activity. During the 2012 election, the media went to bat for President Obama. Every statement Mitt Romney uttered was examined with a fine toothed comb and relentlessly criticized the former candidate while President Obama was seemingly outside the scope of media investigation. And don’t even get me started on the debate moderators (Here’s looking at you Candy Crowley).

In making her case for the need to have independent media (which I like to think includes this blog) she observes that:

...the main stream media bias is self-imposed. Yes, they often face pressure from government officials to publish favorable stories, but there’s no law or regulation saying they must do so. The bias in the main stream media is perpetuated by peer pressure, intimidation, and a shocking lack of individual initiative.

Original article here: The (Un)Freedom of the Press

Other sources comment on this same issue:
Liberal Commentator Twists the Facts about ‘the Rich’
A Break from the Liberal Agenda

Obama Flails as Republicans Stand Firm on Sequester

Michael Barone   "But the Republicans didn't deal. They decided to take the sequester cuts and make them the basis for a continuing resolution funding the government for the rest of the fiscal year.
"Obama responded by threatening all sorts of dire consequences -- Head Start kids left out in the snow, airline security lines as far as the eye can see.
Republicans would take the blame, the Obama folks believed. Polls showed they were far less popular than the president.
"Then on Tuesday it was announced that White House tours were cancelled. "The sequester meant there wasn't enough money to host those high school kids from Waverly, Iowa." 

Health tip for you

Jimmy Kimmel Asks People About Obama Pardoning The Sequester -- Sending It to Portugal

How many of these people voted for Obama? Aside from the first one and the last one, that is.

The brain power of Obama supporters

"Jimmy Kimmel did a “Confusing Question of the Day” bit and scored truly hilarious answers. The question: What do you think about Obama pardoning the sequester and sending it to Portugal?
"Even though the comments are funny as all get-out, they do show how political correctness and blind partisanship can lead to wacky thinking. SHARE this with your friends and low-info voters!"
Hat tip to Danny Shouse at Conservative Bloggers on Facebook

Companion articles; Obama Fails Counterterrorism Diplomacy

In the titled article, Mr. Rubin begins by referring to this Max Boot column: Bin Laden’s Son-in-Law and U.S. Detention Policy
"That is a nonsensical state of affairs that could be fixed by the Obama administration availing itself of the facilities and procedures that already exist at Gitmo. This is not just a question of logistics–detainees held at Gitmo can be interrogated without being read their Miranda rights and can be held even if there is not proof beyond reasonable doubt of their guilt that can be presented in open court. These are important advantages in the war on terror that the Obama administration should not throw away."
But they are.

Michael Rubin "Strong leaders might curtail aid, withdraw the ambassador for consultations, demarche the Turkish ambassador in Washington, or restrict the flow of military equipment. President Obama, alas, seeks instead to offer Turkey state of the art weaponry and even give it warships. Perhaps it is time for the State Department to recognize that diplomacy is more complicated than ameliorating adversaries, and for Congress to ask some hard questions of Obama and Kerry regarding how they perceive U.S. interests and why, under their leadership, U.S. counter terrorism diplomacy has become laughable."

According to the ACLU, Terrorists Are Criminals and Should be Tried in Civilian Court

gatesofvienna 

Jim Rogers: We're Wiping Out The Savings Class Globally, To Terrible Consequence

Anybody out there remember "Mr. Bow Tie" from the Bob Brinker Moneytalk program? This is referring to him.
Basically, he says this is what you get with a do-nothing House and Senate led by a President who just votes "present".

Zerohedge via Peak Prosperity
"Jim Rogers decries the growing uncertainty and recklessness of global central planners as the world enters unchartered financial markets:"

....I own the dollar, not because I have any confidence in the dollar and not because it’s sound – it’s a terribly flawed currency – but I expect more currency turmoil, more financial turmoil. During periods like that, people, for whatever reason, flee to the U.S. dollar as a safe haven. It is not a safe haven, but it is perceived that way by some people. That’s why the dollar is going up. That’s why I own it. Will I own it in five years, ten years? I don't know. 

..."To Rogers, the bigger danger that concerns him is the hollowing out of the 'saving class' resulting from this situation. Central planners' policies are punishing the prudent in favor of rescuing the irresponsible. This has happened before in world history, and the aftermath has always had grievous economic, social -- and often human -- costs:"

....In America, many people saved their money, put it aside, and didn’t buy four or five houses with no job and no money down. They did what most people would consider the right thing, and what historically has been the right thing. But now, unfortunately, those people are being wiped out, because they are getting 0% return, or virtually no return, on their savings and their investments. We’re wiping them out at the expense of people who went deeply into debt, people who did what most people would consider the wrong thing at the expense of people who did the right thing. This, long-term, has terrible consequences for any nation, any society, any economy.