Hat tip to fellow Marine; Cpl Robert Hope
Sunday, April 20, 2014
Obamacare Should Remind Us We Are Not 'Subjects,' We Are People
Prof. Laura Hollis
"The President, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid (with no small help from Justice John Roberts) take away our health care, and we allow it. They take away our insurance, and we allow it. They take away our doctors, and we allow it. They charge us thousands of dollars more a year, and we allow it. They make legal products illegal, and we allow it. They cripple our businesses, and we allow it. They announce by fiat that we must ignore our most deeply held beliefs – and we allow it.
"Where is your spine, America?" ...
Laura Hollis is an attorney and teaches entrepreneurship and business law at the University of Notre Dame. She resides in Indiana with her husband and two children.
He is Risen!
He is risen, indeed!
Happy Easter.
"Easter is not about bunnies or chicks or colored eggs or plastic grass.
Easter is about the jubilation of this."
Easter is about the jubilation of this."
From Lucianne
You lie! Reporters accuse Obama of deception, demagoguery so he can get attention
Washington Examiner
"Prominent Washington correspondents are accusing President Obama and his aides of knowingly stretching the truth on issues like the so-called women's pay gap just to create controversy and keep issues -- and the president -- relevant."
...
"Basically, it’s an effort of creating a controversy for the sake of having a controversy to put an issue before the public and make the president’s position prominent. He wrote that the administration’s made-up claim that women earn 77-cents for every man was “stray voltage in action” because it created a food fight over the 77-cent figure, allowing the White House to strike at GOP foes."
Slate: The refined cynicism of the president. "How do I get you to pay attention to this story? I could type out a balanced tale about an incremental change in White House spin and message control, relying on they probably wouldn't stay on the page very long. The second would excite the emotions. Conservatives would approve. Liberals would denounce it and point out the exaggerations. My editor would smile because the controversy would attract more readers."
your discernment, patience, and kindness toward all the creatures of the Earth. Or, I could say that Barack Obama is a cynical and manipulative liar. The first approach would get a modest number of thoughtful readers, but they probably wouldn't stay on the page very long. The second would excite the emotions. Conservatives would approve. Liberals would denounce it and point out the exaggerations. My editor would smile because the controversy would attract more readers.
"This is trolling. I've decided against it, but the White House has not."
your discernment, patience, and kindness toward all the creatures of the Earth. Or, I could say that Barack Obama is a cynical and manipulative liar. The first approach would get a modest number of thoughtful readers, but they probably wouldn't stay on the page very long. The second would excite the emotions. Conservatives would approve. Liberals would denounce it and point out the exaggerations. My editor would smile because the controversy would attract more readers.
"This is trolling. I've decided against it, but the White House has not."
First the Green Gestapo Came For our Lightbulbs, Then our Iced Drinks and Hot Showers. Now They're After Our Meatballs...
Breitbart London
"A truly emetic announcement from the grim but indispensable Swedish flatpack furniture emporium IKEA: they are considering changing the recipe of their most popular food line - meatballs - in order to help save the world from global warming."
...
"What's worse, though, is that IKEA actually admits to allowing the kind of food it serves in its restaurants to be dictated not by the needs of its customers - who order 150 million plates of meatballs every year - but by activists from a hard-left environmental NGO like the World Wildlife Fund. That's not capitalism. That's not customer service. That's eco fascism."..
Cherokee women want to meet Elizabeth Warren on book tour
Legal Insurrection
"In Elizabeth Warren’s new book, A Fighting Chance, Warren claims to be “hurt and angry” that people criticized her claim to be Native American, specifically Cherokee. Warren blamed the Scott Brown campaign, the local Republican Party, and “some blogger.”
"In fact, Warren has no one to blame but herself for her false claim to be Cherokee. Read Elizabeth Warren Wiki, and these posts responding to the claims in her book:
Polly's Granddaughter "A little Cherokee history and genealogy mixed in with a whole lot of truth."
"Elizabeth Warren is a candidate for the U.S. Senate from the state of Massachusetts. She claims she is of Cherokee descent. She has come under fire for possibly using that claim to give her career a boost at a time when Harvard Law was under pressure to hire more minority professors. We have done extensive research on her ancestry and on the stories she has told trying to back up her claim. There is absolutely no evidence to suggest she actually had a Cherokee or American Indian ancestor. Despite repeated requests for her to release her personnel records from the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard Law School, she refuses to do so."
"To get Warren to understand why they are hurt and angry that she assumed, then discarded, Native American identity."
"In fact, Warren has no one to blame but herself for her false claim to be Cherokee. Read Elizabeth Warren Wiki, and these posts responding to the claims in her book:
- Twila Barnes, No Pity for Warren
- Michael Patrick Leahy, Elizabeth Warren Repeats Her False Claims of Native American Ancestry in New Book and Elizabeth Warren History Of ‘Minority Status’ Listings At Odds With New Book’s Claims
Polly's Granddaughter "A little Cherokee history and genealogy mixed in with a whole lot of truth."
"Elizabeth Warren is a candidate for the U.S. Senate from the state of Massachusetts. She claims she is of Cherokee descent. She has come under fire for possibly using that claim to give her career a boost at a time when Harvard Law was under pressure to hire more minority professors. We have done extensive research on her ancestry and on the stories she has told trying to back up her claim. There is absolutely no evidence to suggest she actually had a Cherokee or American Indian ancestor. Despite repeated requests for her to release her personnel records from the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard Law School, she refuses to do so."
Saturday, April 19, 2014
Anti-Bullying Bill Could Jail People Who Criticize Politicians
Reason.com "School’s out for summer and Nanny of the Month is taking the opportunity to salute the zealots within the otherwise laudable anti-bullying movement. They take a real problem--few things are more loathsome than picking on the vulnerable--and bungle the response, as has been done with most every “get tough!” effort from D.A.R.E., the failed anti-drug program, to all the idiotic iterations of the “zero tolerance” fad."
Hat tip to Thomas Anderson, formerly of the 82nd Airborne Division
"Not only did this month’s top nanny introduce a bill that would criminalize speech deemed to be bullying--up to a year in the clink!--she introduced a bill that, according to UCLA First Amendment scholar Eugene Volokh, is not limited to speech about children (despite it being touted with the typical “for the children!” justifications). Volokh notes that the bill, if passed, could punish harsh speech directed at journalists, academics, celebrities, politicians, and the like, if the speech results in “substantial emotional distress.”
"Presenting the Nanny of the Month for June 2013: New Mexico State Rep. Mary Helen Garcia!"
The Slow Death of Free Speech
A small language advisory here.
Mark Steyn "These days, pretty much every story is really the same story:
Mark Steyn "These days, pretty much every story is really the same story:
- In Galway, at the National University of Ireland, a speaker who attempts to argue against the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) programme against Israel is shouted down with cries of ‘Fucking Zionist, fucking pricks… Get the fuck off our campus.’
- In California, Mozilla’s chief executive is forced to resign because he once made a political donation in support of the pre-revisionist definition of marriage.
- At Westminster, the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee declares that the BBC should seek ‘special clearance’ before it interviews climate sceptics, such as fringe wacko extremists like former Chancellor Nigel Lawson.
- In Massachusetts, Brandeis University withdraws its offer of an honorary degree to a black feminist atheist human rights campaigner from Somalia.
- In London, a multitude of liberal journalists and artists responsible for everything from Monty Python to Downton Abbey sign an open letter in favour of the first state restraints on the British press in three and a quarter centuries.
Universities are no longer institutions of inquiry but ‘safe spaces’ where delicate flowers of diversity of race, sex, orientation, ‘gender fluidity’ and everything else except diversity of thought have to be protected from exposure to any unsafe ideas.
"As it happens, the biggest ‘safe space’ on the planet is the Muslim world." ...
Megyn Kelly exposes Obama’s embarrassing hypocrisy on something he did today…
The Right Scoop
"Today Obama signed Ted Cruz’s bill that banned Iran’s terrorist UN Ambassador from coming into the United States, a bill that passed the Senate and the House without a single nay vote. But Obama apparently also issued a signing statement to the new law that said he would take the legislation as guidance, suggesting he may not enforce it.
"She talks to J. Christopher Adams about it and plays some footage of Obama that Adams called ‘embarrassingly hypocritical’."
Kelley then showed this video: Obama on Presidential Signing Statements
"Today Obama signed Ted Cruz’s bill that banned Iran’s terrorist UN Ambassador from coming into the United States, a bill that passed the Senate and the House without a single nay vote. But Obama apparently also issued a signing statement to the new law that said he would take the legislation as guidance, suggesting he may not enforce it.
"She talks to J. Christopher Adams about it and plays some footage of Obama that Adams called ‘embarrassingly hypocritical’."
Kelley then showed this video: Obama on Presidential Signing Statements
...This bill is a first step toward making it equally clear to Iran’s leaders that if they wish to enter into better relations with us, they should at the very least stop doing things like nominating one of the 1979 hostage takers to be their representative at the U.N...
Good Friday and Easter: Walk Jesus's Steps Through Via Dolorosa From Your PC
Yahoo Business
"The route from the Antonia Fortress west of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which happens to be a distance of about 600 metres, has been a famous and celebrated place of Christian pilgrimage for a long time now.
"How to Explore Via Dolorosa Via PC
"Thanks to Google's Street View technology, this most painful path, also called the 'Way of Sorrows' or 'Way of Suffering,' can be explored fully. Click here to explore the path from your PC.
"After you're done walking along the Via Dolorosa, Google's technology also allows you to see the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, visit the Western Wall and the Mount of Olives.
"Apart from all this, Google also says that users "can explore the narrow streets of Jerusalem's Old City and each of its four quarters, walk along the Via Dolorosa and see the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, visit the Western Wall and the Mount of Olives. You can stop by the Biblical Zoo, then visit the Israel Museum and the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum — and explore more with the Art Project and the Yad Vashem photo archive. Or you can stroll through Tel Aviv's bohemian Neve Tzedek neighbourhood and the ancient port of Jaffa, and take a virtual trip to some of Tel Aviv's scenic beaches or to Haifa's Baha'i Gardens."
"As Christians around the world prepare themselves for Easter, here's an opportunity for people to retrace the steps of Jesus as he walked through Via Dolorosa. It happens to be a street in the Old City of Jerusalem, through which Jesus walked, carrying his cross, on the way to his crucifixion.
"The route from the Antonia Fortress west of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which happens to be a distance of about 600 metres, has been a famous and celebrated place of Christian pilgrimage for a long time now.
"How to Explore Via Dolorosa Via PC
"Thanks to Google's Street View technology, this most painful path, also called the 'Way of Sorrows' or 'Way of Suffering,' can be explored fully. Click here to explore the path from your PC.
"After you're done walking along the Via Dolorosa, Google's technology also allows you to see the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, visit the Western Wall and the Mount of Olives.
"Apart from all this, Google also says that users "can explore the narrow streets of Jerusalem's Old City and each of its four quarters, walk along the Via Dolorosa and see the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, visit the Western Wall and the Mount of Olives. You can stop by the Biblical Zoo, then visit the Israel Museum and the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum — and explore more with the Art Project and the Yad Vashem photo archive. Or you can stroll through Tel Aviv's bohemian Neve Tzedek neighbourhood and the ancient port of Jaffa, and take a virtual trip to some of Tel Aviv's scenic beaches or to Haifa's Baha'i Gardens."
Friday, April 18, 2014
From NRO:The import of rancher Bundy vs. the Obama administration
The Problem with Cliven Bundy; "His plight is sympathetic; his actions are indefensible."
Could this not have been said about the original Tea Party as well? What of the lawlessness of the "Occupy" movement? Their actions were indefensible as well, were they not? Had the ranchers been Democrats opposing actions of a Republican administration, you can be sure that Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid would have rallied to their support. Can you convince us otherwise? Anyway; here are excerpts from the article:
... "Forged in revolution, informed by soaring sentiment, and defined by acts of variously prudent dissidence, Americans of all sorts fancy themselves to be fighting the good fight. Judging by the rapturous reception that he has received from conservatives of late, Cliven Bundy is one of these sorts, and protests such as his, it seems, are how the West was won. After a longtime dispute with the federal government, the rebellious cattle rancher has forced the government to back down. Hooray?"
....
"These grievances serve as an indictment of the regulatory state, yes. But they do not serve as an executioner for our ailing rule of law. If Cliven Bundy’s behavior is legitimized by the gravity of his circumstances, how many others may follow suit, singing his name as they go?"... By Charles C. W. Cooke at NRO
Bindy: He’s an unapologetic freeloader, but the BLM and the feds are appallingly bad landlords. ..."Testing Bundy’s claim is simple. If he has a right to do what he is doing on public land to which he does not have title, then so should you and I. What would happen if a hundred other people each put a hundred head of cattle on the same property? The grass would run out; every animal would, eventually, starve.
"This “tragedy of the commons” — the depletion of resources that occurs when ranching, farming, timbering, or drilling happen on the same public land without a means to restrict and compensate for that access — is something that grazing rules on BLM property are meant to address. And it works pretty well. Most ranchers who lease BLM land pay a per-head fee (this year, $1.35 per animal unit month) and live a life with no armed standoffs."...
.... There is a "however" coming:
"Sadly, buried in the fine print of these bureaucratic tomes are real inhibitions to making productive use of the federal estate. Most recently, the BLM has put the brakes on oil-and-gas drilling in the energy-rich West due to the possibility that it might disturb the breeding habitat of the greater sage grouse, which is just the latest in a long list of species used as an excuse to stymie America’s nominal commitment to energy independence. Then there are bars on developing wind energy (also a bird thing) and solar energy (a tortoise thing); unrealistic mandates to put electric transmission lines underground; and the perennial threat that a bureaucrat in Washington will one day wake up and, in a sweeping vision, decree that cows are out and wild bison are in..."
... "Forged in revolution, informed by soaring sentiment, and defined by acts of variously prudent dissidence, Americans of all sorts fancy themselves to be fighting the good fight. Judging by the rapturous reception that he has received from conservatives of late, Cliven Bundy is one of these sorts, and protests such as his, it seems, are how the West was won. After a longtime dispute with the federal government, the rebellious cattle rancher has forced the government to back down. Hooray?"
....
"These grievances serve as an indictment of the regulatory state, yes. But they do not serve as an executioner for our ailing rule of law. If Cliven Bundy’s behavior is legitimized by the gravity of his circumstances, how many others may follow suit, singing his name as they go?"... By Charles C. W. Cooke at NRO
Bindy: He’s an unapologetic freeloader, but the BLM and the feds are appallingly bad landlords. ..."Testing Bundy’s claim is simple. If he has a right to do what he is doing on public land to which he does not have title, then so should you and I. What would happen if a hundred other people each put a hundred head of cattle on the same property? The grass would run out; every animal would, eventually, starve.
"This “tragedy of the commons” — the depletion of resources that occurs when ranching, farming, timbering, or drilling happen on the same public land without a means to restrict and compensate for that access — is something that grazing rules on BLM property are meant to address. And it works pretty well. Most ranchers who lease BLM land pay a per-head fee (this year, $1.35 per animal unit month) and live a life with no armed standoffs."...
.... There is a "however" coming:
"Sadly, buried in the fine print of these bureaucratic tomes are real inhibitions to making productive use of the federal estate. Most recently, the BLM has put the brakes on oil-and-gas drilling in the energy-rich West due to the possibility that it might disturb the breeding habitat of the greater sage grouse, which is just the latest in a long list of species used as an excuse to stymie America’s nominal commitment to energy independence. Then there are bars on developing wind energy (also a bird thing) and solar energy (a tortoise thing); unrealistic mandates to put electric transmission lines underground; and the perennial threat that a bureaucrat in Washington will one day wake up and, in a sweeping vision, decree that cows are out and wild bison are in..."
Armed federal agents defend turtle habitat but fail to secure our national borders. ... "Cliven Bundy’s cattle are treated as trespassers, and federal agents have been dispatched to rectify that trespass; at the same time, millions of illegal aliens present within our borders are treated as an inevitability that must be accommodated."
John Fund: The United States of SWAT? "Military-style units from government agencies are wreaking havoc on non-violent citizens."
...
Alan Caruba: Declaring War on Americans
One has to appreciate this well-balanced look at the incident that just transpired between the Nevada rancher and the forces of this government. TD
" 'If the U.S. didn’t own most of Nevada, Bundy would not need to pay grazing fees. Most certainly, his ancestors didn’t. The other excuse, that the government is trying to protect an endangered tortoise, is just part of the environmental movement’s efforts to keep energy sources from being available to all of us. Endangered species is pure fiction.' "
...
... "But what about the Department of Agriculture, the Railroad Retirement Board, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Office of Personnel Management, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service? All of these have their own SWAT units and are part of a worrying trend towards the militarization of federal agencies — not to mention local police forces."...
Plus this one from earlier:Alan Caruba: Declaring War on Americans
One has to appreciate this well-balanced look at the incident that just transpired between the Nevada rancher and the forces of this government. TD
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