Courtesy of the Republican National Committee:
Note the small print on the bottom of the poster!
Monthly Archives: March 2012
Taking A Good Concept And Making It Unacceptable
We have all been hearing a lot lately about the Republican’s ‘war on women.’ I wondered about that since I am a Republican and I wasn’t aware of any war against me. Well, as usual, it is about an attempt by the current administration to run for re-election on any issue other than their record.
John Hinderaker at Power Line posted an article yesterday that helped me understand some of the issues. Hopefully it will be helpful to all of us. Please follow the link to read the entire article– I have just posted a few examples of what is going on.
Mr. Hinderaker states that the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) was supported by both political parties when it was introduced in 1994 and reauthorized in 2000 and 2006. So what changed? A few poison pills were added to change to bill to make it unacceptable so that it could be used as a political issue.
The article reports:
Last year, when the Judiciary Committee marked up the bill, it contained controversial provisions that were never included in earlier versions of the bill. It also lacked much needed fraud protection provisions regarding grant funds and immigration. …
Senator Grassley introduced an amendment that authorized aid for victims and also protected against fraud and misuse of funds. The Democrats refused to work with Republicans to write a bill that could enjoy bipartisan support in Committee.
…The Leahy bill creates 5K more U-visas annually, but lacks needed provisions to ensure that the purpose of the visa is fulfilled. The Democrats refused to support such provisions.
The Grassley amendment contained provisions that will ensure that the available 10K visas go to immigrants who actually qualify by:
* Requiring that the crime on which the visa is based be reported within 60 days of its occurrence;
* Requiring that the statute of limitations has not run on the crime, which would prevent prosecution; and
* Requiring that the crime be under active investigation or prosecution.
…Tribal Jurisdiction: In a dramatic break from legal precedent, the Leahy bill gave criminal jurisdiction over non-Indian individuals to Indian Tribes. A hearing was never held on this provision, so the consequences of such a drastic measure are unknown.
While the bill’s jurisdiction is limited to domestic violence offenses, once such an extension of jurisdiction is established, there would be no principled reason not to extend it to other offenses as well. A non-Indian subject to tribal jurisdiction would enjoy few meaningful civil-rights protections. Courts have held, for example, that tribal governments are not bound by the Constitution’s First, Fifth, or Fourteenth Amendments.
…Lack of Grant Oversight: The Leahy bill authorized over $600K [sic] for VAWA grant programs. While this was a reduction from the 2006 authorization, the bill lacked much needed oversight provisions for the spending of grant funds. There is overwhelming evidence that without oversight provisions, the funds given to grantees under VAWA may not be used to protect victims of domestic violence.
No, there isn’t a Republican war against women–there’s a Democrat war against voters.
Posted By A Friend On Facebook
It kind of says it all!
Pay Attention–You Are About To Be Spun
Today the Heritage Foundation posted an article about the coming effort to convince the American public that ObamaCare is a good thing. The Heritage Foundation managed to get their hands on a four-page memo which revealed how the Obama Administration plans to see the program.
The article reports the plans listed in the memo:
“Remind people that the law is already benefiting millions of Americans by providing health care coverage, reducing costs and providing access to healthcare coverage. This message will include the ideas that these are benefits that politicans/the Court art (sic) are trying to take away from average Americans.”
“Frame the Supreme Court oral arguments in terms of real people and real benefits that would be lost if the law were overturned. While lawyers will be talking about the individual responsibility piece of the law and the legal precedence, organizations on the ground should continue to focus on these more tangible results of the law.”
Unfortunately (as usual), feelings and sympathy are being played up instead of actual facts.
The article at the Heritage Foundation lists some inconvenient information:
…The latest news of Obamacare’s impact came from a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report released this week. In one of the CBO’s reported scenarios, 20 million Americans could lose their employer-sponsored health benefits, and 49 million more Americans could become dependent on government-sponsored health care. And it won’t come cheaply for American taxpayers. Projecting through 2022, Obamacare could cost as much as $2.134 trillion, and individual and employer mandate penalties could hit $221 billion.
Then there’s the issue of the unconstitutional individual mandate that forces Americans to buy government dictated health insurance or pay a penalty, as well as the anti-conscience mandate that religious employers, including schools, hospitals, and charities, must provide abortion-inducing drugs and contraception despite the fact that such services totally contradict many of these groups’ core religious beliefs.
Under Obamacare, costs will go up, people will lose the coverage they have, and quality of care will decline. Individuals and businesses will face penalties, seniors will feel the effects of Obamacare’s cuts to Medicare, doctors will suffer from increased regulation and lower government reimbursement for services, taxpayers will face new taxes, jobs will be lost, millions of Americans will remain uninsured and stuck in overcrowded emergency rooms, religious institutions and the faithful will suffer the loss of their religious liberties, and future generations will pay the costs.
It will be interesting to see how this media campaign to promote the benefits of Obamacare will do. Americans are getting smarter–they are beginning to suspect that what they are being told in the major media may not be totally accurate.
Just in case you are interested–this is the organizational chart for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare):
I can’t figure out how to make it bigger, but here is the link (Senate.gov). In case you missed it, the patient is the star in the lower right corner–there is only one line that links to him. All the other lines are bureaucracy connections.
Things To Think About
Last night I had the privilege of hearing Marc Kahlberg speak at the Ahavath Torah Congregation in Stoughton, Massachusetts. Marc is from South Africa and has lived in Israel for the past 25 years. He spoke of his military service in South Africa and the transition to being involved with the Israeli military.
I have attended a number of lectures by various experts on terrorism and preventing terrorism in an effort to gather information that I could share on this website. Although all of the information is useful, after a while, much of it is repetitive. Last night was not.
Mr. Kahlberg spoke of what it is like living in Israel since the suicide bombings began in the 1990’s. He cited the 1994 Number 5 bus bombing as the turning point for Israelis in dealing with the problem of suicide bombers. The 1994 attack took 2 to 3 days to clean up. It was demoralizing to the citizens of Israel. Today, after a suicide bomber attack, the Israeli authorities can bring the area back to normal in a matter of hours. It is a useful skill, but it is tragic that they have had to develop it.
What is life like in Israel today? Since last Friday, there have been more than 200 missiles fired into Israel from Gaza. Thanks to the deployment of the Iron Dome (See March 12 rightwinggranny.com), there has not been nearly the devastation those who fired the rockets had hoped for. Why is the world standing quietly on the sidelines while rockets and suicide bombers attack Israel and while Iran pledges to destroy Israel? Where are the news stories in the media? Is the world willing the stand idly by as another holocaust is brewing?
Mr. Kahlberg talked about the coming war between Israel and Iran. He pointed out that the war has already begun. Iran is the biggest supporter of terrorism in the Middle East (and worldwide) and many of the rockets coming into Israel are Iranian.
What are the dangers of Israel attacking Iran in order to end its nuclear program? In a war with Iran, Israel will probably have 20,000 fatalities, 100,000 injured, and one and a half to two million people suffering from trauma. If Iran has nukes, it will probably totally destroy Israel. Great choice. The other thing that was pointed out was that in dealing with the leaders of Iran, we are not dealing with people we can depend on to act rationally. There is a martyrdom aspect of the Iranian regime that does not make them rational when it comes to dealing with nuclear weapons. A regime that sends twelve-year old boys with keys around their necks to march into minefields to clear the mines (keys that were supposed to assure them the instant entrance to paradise when they were killed by the mines) should not be considered rational.
Mr. Kahlberg ended the evening by pointing out to all of us in attendance how complacent we have become. All of us need to become more aware of our surroundings and the people around us in order to help prevent terrorist attacks. We will never be able to stop every person who wishes us ill, but by being more aware, we can help protect ourselves. When the Times Square bomber left his SUV in Times Square, it wasn’t the police who saw the threat, but a Viet Nam veteran who alerted the police to the danger. All of us need to learn from that man. If we see something out of place or unusual, we need to ask questions.
Doing The Right Thing And Then Paying The Price
I am not Roman Catholic, so I didn’t want to say too much about this incident, but DaTechGuy, who is Roman Catholic and understands these things wrote a terrific article about it. Recently, at a funeral Mass at St. John Neumann Parish in Gaithersburg, Md., a Priest very quietly refused communion to someone requesting it.
The incident involved Fr. Guarnizo, a priest of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Moscow, Russia—not of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., where he has been practicing his vocation in recent years. On March 9, the Archdiocese of Washington withdrew his “faculties” to administer the sacraments within its borders.
Fr. Guarnizo refused communion to a woman who minutes before the service had introduced him to another woman she described as her lover. His side of the story can be found at CNS News.
DaTechGuy reports:
So what did Fr. Guarnizo know and when did he know it concerning the lady in question? Funny you should ask…
A few minutes before the Mass began, Ms. Johnson came into the sacristy with another woman whom she announced as her “lover”. Her revelation was completely unsolicited.
and was not all that polite about it either:
As I attempted to follow Ms.Johnson, her lover stood in our narrow sacristy physically blocking my pathway to the door. I politely asked her to move and she refused.
It sounds to me like we have another Sandra Fluke, a person who was looking for confrontation and even worse, was using the occasion of a death of her mother to do so.
Fr. Guarnizo nails it here:
Ms. Johnson was a guest in our parish, not the arbitrer of how sacraments are dispensed in the Catholic Church.
Fr. Z in charity to the diocese says this:
Fr. G was subsequently put on administrative leave in that Archdiocese for reasons, so it seems, other than the lesbian/Communion event. More information is forthcoming and in justice I need to post it.
It seems as if there is a group of people who have taken upon themselves to target the Catholic Church. It matters how the Church handles this. I believe the Priest was Biblically correct in the way he handled the situation. It is a shame that the Church is not upholding its own rules.
Protecting The Rights Of Dead Voters
Cover via Amazon
As I mentioned on March 14th at rightwinggranny.com, James O’Keefe was in Vermont filming people getting ballots to vote after claiming to be people who were dead. No member of his crew who asked for a ballot actually voted, but they could have–that is the point.
So what is the Vermont Secretary of State James Condos going to do about this problem? Investigate James O’Keefe of course!
The article at Big Government reports:
“Same day voter registration is a major incentive to commit fraud. It allows you to register and vote on election day,” explains journalist John Fund, author of Stealing Elections: How Voter Fraud Threatens Our Democracy, which is something of a Bible for election fraud analysts. “Once your ballot is put in with all the others, detecting the fraud is almost impossible. In Vermont, the possibilities of voter fraud are so real that it almost sends the invitations in the mail.”
Condos is threatening O’Keefe for doing his job. “My next phone call is to [Attorney General] Bill Sorrell’s office,” Condos told the Burlington Free Press after learning about O’Keefe’s video.
Still, in the event that O’Keefe were to be arrested, prosecuted, and jailed in Vermont, he need not worry about casting a ballot to replace Condos. In Vermont and Maine, you can even vote from a jail cell.
It should not be news (based on the name of this website) that I am hoping for a new President to be sworn in next year. However, more than that, I am hoping for an honest election where each person’s vote is a legal vote and has equal value. I think voter identification laws are a part of that package.
This Really Bothers Me
I have supported the war in Afghanistan. I believed that we needed to go in and clean out the Taliban and Al Qaeda. I am disappointed that we have not been willing to commit the manpower to do so and that the rules of engagement have prevented us from doing so. I am now at the point where I think the only time we should send our military anywhere is when we arm them to the teeth and tell them to take no hostages. Well, I really must be in the minority on that one.
The UK Telegraph reported today that American soldiers were barred from bringing guns into a talk given by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta at Camp Leatherneck in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.
The article reports:
Around 200 troops who had gathered in a tent at Camp Leatherneck were told “something had come to light” and asked abruptly to file outside and lay down their automatic rifles and 9mm pistols.
“Somebody got itchy, that’s all I’ve got to say. Somebody got itchy – we just adjust,” said the sergeant who was told to clear the hall of weapons.
Major General Mark Gurganus later said he gave the order because Afghan troops attending the talk were unarmed and he wanted the policy to be consistent for all.
This is just not smart. What would have happened if there had been an attack on the base at that particular moment? Now we are sending our soldiers into harm’s way and taking their guns away. Whoever made that decision should immediately be relieved of his command.
Some Changes To RomneyCare You Might Have Missed
As the presidential campaign continues, there will be much discussion about the differences between RomneyCare and ObamaCare. The major difference, of course, is that the state has the power to try to deal with its healthcare challenges as it sees fit. It becomes a different issue when the government tries to take over the healthcare section of the American economy. However, there have been some subtle changes in RomneyCare that have occurred since Governor Patrick took office in Massachusetts.
On Monday night, I had a chance to see a presentation by Mike Stopa in Northborough on the subject of ObamaCare and the impact it will have on healthcare in America if it is not repealed. Mike Stopa is a Physicist specializing in computation and nanoscience in the Physics Department at Harvard University. He is the director of the National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network Computation Project and a recognized expert on nanoscale electronics and computation. He has over 75 publications and over a thousand citations to his work in the physics literature. His homepage at Harvard can be found here. Mike is a life-long, fiscally conservative Republican, which is not a popular ideology at Harvard. He was recently a first-time candidate for Congress in the third district of Massachusetts.
In the course of his discussion he repeated some aspects of the Massachusetts healthcare law that he had discussed in an article at the MetroWest Daily News in April of 2011.
This is a direct quote from his article:
“…because the terminally ill often are hospitalized and may be candidates for the intensive care unit (ICU), and because the ICU is particularly resource-intensive, reducing use of the ICU among such patients appears to present unique opportunities for cost reduction.”
Nevertheless, a recently released report by the Expert Panel on End of Life Care organized under Governor Patrick’s Health Care Quality and Cost Control Council emphasizes that many more of us would rather die at home; that we want that familiar view out our bedroom window instead of those cold, faceless hospital rooms with all those complicated machines. Many of us are willing, nay eager to let slip the mortal coil if we can only do so in a more caring, dignified environment. In short, in the words of panel co-chair Lachlan Forrow: “our expert commission actually wanted people not to think about cost. That’s not the point.”
The report by the End of Life Experts suggests many carrots to entice the terminally ill to get out of the hospital, but it also contains one simple, all-encompassing stick. Specifically, the Experts recommend that “any Commonwealth payment reform initiative should be designed to ensure that, for all patients with serious advancing illness…payment for medical services requires adequate documentation that they are based on the well-informed wishes of patients (or appropriate surrogates), including understanding of life-prolonging and palliative care or hospice alternatives.”
As ObamaCare is implemented, one of the things that will occur is that younger Americans will be asked to subsidize the healthcare costs of older Americans. It is a pretty safe bet that once they figure out what is going on, younger Americans are not going to be thrilled with that concept. Add to that the fact that a large part of the generation they will be asked to subsidize will be the generation that legalized abortion–the killing of their generation. Because of legalized abortion, there will not be enough of the younger generation to shoulder comfortably the burden of caring for their elderly parents. The irony of this is amazing. At some point, our younger generation will become the first generation to kill their parents legally (euthanasia) just as their parents were the first generation to kill their children legally (abortion).
What’s A Few Billion Amoung Friends ?
The Washington Examiner reported yesterday that according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), Obamacare will cost $1.76 trillion over the next ten years. Originally, the program was projected to cost $940 billion.
The article reports:
Today, the CBO released new projections from 2013 extending through 2022, and the results are as critics expected: the ten-year cost of the law’s core provisions to expand health insurance coverage has now ballooned to $1.76 trillion. That’s because we now have estimates for Obamacare’s first nine years of full implementation, rather than the mere six when it was signed into law. Only next year will we get a true ten-year cost estimate, if the law isn’t overturned by the Supreme Court or repealed by then. Given that in 2022, the last year available, the gross cost of the coverage expansions are $265 billion, we’re likely looking at about $2 trillion over the first decade, or more than double what Obama advertised.
It’s time to repeal this awful law before it totally bankrupts us!
Fact Checking Some Of The President’s Recent Statements On Energy
CNS News posted an article posted a story yesterday about the President’s recent statements about his administration’s energy policy:
The article reports:
In his March 10, 2012, Weekly Address, President Obama said that “[u]nder my Administration, oil production in America is at an eight-year high. We’ve quadrupled the number of operating oil rigs, and opened up millions of acres for drilling.”
He continued: “But you and I both know that with only 2% of the world’s oil reserves, we can’t just drill our way to lower gas prices – not when we consume 20 percent of the world’s oil. We need an all-of-the-above strategy that relies less on foreign oil and more on American-made energy – solar, wind, natural gas, biofuels, and more.”
Well, he seems to have conviently overlooked a few things.
Some inconvenient facts reported in the article:
As CNSNews.com has reported, oil production on federal lands declined in fiscal year 2011 from fiscal year 2010 by 11 percent, and natural gas production on federal lands dropped by 6 percent during the same timeframe.
In contrast, oil production on private and state lands accounted for the entire increase, reported the IER, as production was up 14 percent from 2010 to 2011. Natural gas also was up 12 percent from 2010 to 2011.
The article also reported that the reason America is producing more oil has to do with permits issued in the two year period before President Obama took office. It takes about three to five years to bring on production in oil fields.
Please follow the link to CNS News to read the entire article. There is an awful lot of smoke and mirrors in what the President is saying about his energy policies, and the article explains what the facts actually are and how the President is skewing the information.
Meanwhile, Back At The Ranch
At the risk of tooting my own horn, I started this website to report on some of the things that seem to be overlooked in the mainstream media. Well, sometimes it seems as if I am reporting things that seem to be purposefully overlooked by the Obama Administration. Sometimes when I read reports of the actions of this administration and compare them with obvious facts, I wonder if I have entered an alternate universe. This article represents one of those times.
In March 2001, I posted an article about voter fraud in Texas (rightwinggranny.com). The article reported that out of 25,000 voters registered by a group called Houston Votes, only 1,793 of those voters were actually people who existed and were eligible to vote. Texas is now in the process of putting a voter ID law in place that will prevent that sort of thing in the future.
CNN reported on March 12 of this year:
A controversial new Texas law requiring voters to present personal identification before going to the polls has been blocked by the Obama administration.
In a letter Monday to state officials, the Justice Department said the legislation could have a discriminatory effect on Hispanics and other minorities.
…The department concluded there is little evidence of voter fraud in Texas warranting the legislative changes.
Meanwhile, James O’Keefe is at it again in Vermont. Big Government posted a video yesterday showing evidence of voter fraud in Vermont. As he did in New Hampshire, James went into the polls and attempted to vote using the names of various dead people. As in New Hampshire, he was successful.
Why is the Obama Administration unwilling to protect the integrity of the ballot box?
Smoke And Mirrors In ObamaCare
The Daily Caller is reporting today that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has finalized its policies governing state health care exchanges under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Included in these policies are the laws governing abortion coverage.
Section 1303 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act requires enrollees in the health care exchanges to pay a separate monthly surcharge for abortion coverage. Well, HHS has set those guidelines–the surcharge will be one dollar.
The article reports:
“Obamacare nearly collapsed under the allegations that the law would use taxpayer dollars to pay for abortions. Because of a useless executive order, which was supposed to forbid tax dollars from paying for abortions, that swayed self-professed pro-life Members of Congress to vote for the monstrosity, the bill passed,” Kristan Hawkins, executive director of Students for Life of America, told TheDC.
“Now final rules from HHS could not be clearer: taxpayers, whether they are pro-life or pro-choice, will certainly be paying for abortions,” said Hawkins.
If you value the lives of the elderly, the terminally ill, or the unborn, you need to vote Republican in November so that ObamaCare will be repealed and the lives of the people you love will be protected.
The Complexities Of Syria
The slaughter that is taking place in Syria should be unacceptable to all civilized nations. Unfortunately it is not–the United Nations has commented on it a few times, sent people to see it, but has not really done anything. I have mixed emotions about any role America should play for two reasons–we don’t know who the opposition in Syria is (we could be enabling the Muslim Brotherhood to take over another nation) and also if we decided to intervene in Syria it would get very messy very quickly. Syria is well-armed and has a formidable military. Syria is not Libya. The reason Europe was so willing to help in Libya is that Europe gets most of its oil from Libya. The only country truly interested in Syria is Iran–it is their gateway to Lebanon, Israel and the surrounding of Iraq.
Reza Kahlili posted an article at World Net Daily detailing some of Iran’s involvement in Syria.
The article reports:
The commander of the Quds Forces, Qassem Soleimani, and 15,000 of his fighters have entered Syria with the mission of assisting in the suppression of the Syrian protesters, it was reported last month.
The Quds Forces are acting as a firewall for the Assad regime, because many officers in the Syrian army are joining the opposition over the mass killings of civilians, which so far number more than 7,000.
The article further states that any action against Syria by the United States will be followed by a counterattack by Syria, Iran and Hezbollah on Israel and on American resources in the region.
The situation in Syria is awful. It is probably going to continue to be awful. I am not sure America’s intervening in that situation will make it any less awful.
I Guess It All Depends On What You Consider Middle Class
I love Joe Biden. He provides a perspective on things that just seems to be unique. Ed Morrissey at Hot Air posted an article today quoting some of the Vice-President’s recent statements at a Democratic fundraiser.
The article reports:
Biden told attendees that he is confident about Obama’s reelection because Republicans are being open about their intent to cut programs important to a large swatch of the electorate — the middle class.
“These guys don’t have a sense of the average folks out there,” he said. “They don’t know what it means to be middle class.”
Ok. So let’s take a closer look at the fundraiser where these statements were made. It was held at the Georgetown home of Senator John Kerry. Couples paid $10,000 to attend. The menu was char-grilled grass-fed New York strip steaks and white truffle mashed potatoes. I’m not sure I have ever even seen white truffle mashed potatoes. I am pretty sure they don’t serve them at my local steakhouse.
The article mentioned some of the guests:
Pool reporter Tracy Jan of The Boston Globe noted some high-profile guests at the fundraiser, including “Elizabeth Bagley, former ambassador to Portugal and attorney specializing in trade and international law; Matthew Barzun, former Ambassador to Sweden who Obama has tapped to be his 2012 campaign finance chairman; Steven Green, former ambassador to Singapore; Bob Barnett, a Washington attorney who’s worked on eight national presidential campaigns helping candidates prepare for debates; Tom McMillen, former Maryland congressman; and Jack Manning, co-founder of Boston Capital.”
Ed Morrissey rather wryly comments at the end of the article:
But don’t worry — these folks know the middle class. They hire them to clean up afterwards.
Meanwhile, I just want to know what white truffle mashed potatoes look like.
A Surefire Way To Increase The Price Of Gas
Yesterday CNS News posted an article about the White House’s plan to end the tax breaks oil companies currently receive. Obviously, this will increase the tax burden on the oil companies. As I have previously stated–corporations don’t pay taxes–they simply pass them on to the consumer. Guess what? This is a recipe for even higher gas prices at the pump.
The article reports:
“From our perspective, it’s a fairness issue,” Zichal (Heather Zichal, deputy assistant to the president for energy and climate change) said. “At a time when we’re making difficult decisions about the budget and where to make investments and where to cut, the fact that oil and gas companies are making record profits and at the same time getting $4 billion in subsidies annually, those subsidies should be repealed. The president has called for that, and I believe the Senate will be acting to vote on this as well.”
What about fairness to the consumers who need to gas to get to work?
Being Willing To Change
Nicky Larkin, an Irish artist, posted an article in The Independent on Sunday. Nicky is a young man in his late twenties who believed the politically-correct line he was fed about the Israel-Palestine conflict. He applied for funding from the Irish Arts Council to make a film in Israel and Palestine, and headed off to show the world how badly behaved Israel was.
Well, it didn’t turn out quite that way. He made the film ‘Forty Shades of Grey’ after spending seven weeks dividing my time evenly between Israel and the West Bank.
He reports on the outcome of his efforts:
The problem began when I resolved to come back with a film that showed both sides of the coin. Actually there are many more than two. Which is why my film is called Forty Shades of Grey. But only one side was wanted back in Dublin. My peers expected me to come back with an attack on Israel. No grey areas were acceptable.
An Irish artist is supposed to sign boycotts, wear a PLO scarf, and remonstrate loudly about The Occupation. But it’s not just artists who are supposed to hate Israel. Being anti-Israel is supposed to be part of our Irish identity, the same way we are supposed to resent the English.
But hating Israel is not part of my personal national identity. Neither is hating the English. I hold an Irish passport, but nowhere upon this document does it say I am a republican, or a Palestinian.
Every now and then you have to sit down and compare what you have been told with what you see before your eyes. I can relate–I used to be a liberal Democrat–I voted for George McGovern! Kudos to this young man for being willing to investigate and draw his own conclusions.
Nicky Larkin’s ‘Forty Shades of Grey’ will premiere in Dublin in May;
www.facebook.com/ fortyshades;
www.nickylarkin.com
How Come It’s Only Called Awful When We Do It ?
This morning most of us woke up to horrible news about an American soldier who went on a rampage and killed a number of Afghan civilians. It was a horrible incident, and that soldier will be dealt with by the American military. The purposeful killing of civilians is never acceptable. There are some doubts as to the details of what actually happened–there was an awful lot of killing for one person, why wasn’t he stopped after the first house or so, etc. However, it was an awful incident, and those responsible for it will be dealt with.
But wait a minute. Robert Spencer posted an article at Front Page Magazine today pointing out a rather obvious double standard. In regard to this incident President Karzai has stated, “This is an assassination, an intentional killing of innocent civilians and cannot be forgiven.”
The article points out:
It is noteworthy, however, that in the riots and rage that followed the discovery of the burned Qur’ans at Bagram Airfield, Afghan Muslims have murdered numerous civilians. Just last Monday, a jihad-martyrdom suicide bomber murdered at least two civilians at the gates of the airfield. Thirty people have now been killed in protests over the burning of the Qur’ans, despite (or perhaps because of) the fact that Obama and other American officials have apologized repeatedly, profusely, and abjectly for the burning of the Muslim holy book.
There was no call for the arrest and prosecution of those who murdered Americans and civilians after the Koran-burning incident.
The article further points out:
The U.S. soldier’s mass murder of Afghan civilians Sunday was an enormous crime. But so was the murder of American civilians by Qur’an-Rage rioters. So also is the ongoing phenomenon of Afghan military trainees turning on the U.S. and NATO military personnel who are training them and murdering them – which in recent months has been happening with increasing frequency in Afghanistan, with no murmur of apology from Karzai or anyone else.
It’s time to hold the Afghan soldiers who turn their guns on Americans to the same standard as the American soldier who murdered Afghans over the weekend.
The Proper Use Of Technology
Image via Wikipedia
Yesterday Arutz Sheva posted an article about the Iron Dome Israel has deployed to deal with the Kassam rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip aimed at southern Israel. So far, the Iron Dome has stopped 90 percent of the rockets from getting through. Unfortunately, each Iron Dome anti-missile missile costs Israel $50,000. The Kassam rockets only cost the terrorists a few hundred dollars.
The article further reports:
In addition to the defensive action of deploying the Iron Dome, the IDF also has taken the offensive against terrorists.
It targeted two members of the Popular Resistance Committee terror organization on Friday. The squad was responsible for planning a combined terror attack that was to take place via the Sinai Peninsula and the Israel-Egypt border.
In response to the ensuing rocket and missile bombardment from Gaza, the Israel Air Force targeted several weapons manufacturing facilitates and terrorist cells preparing to launch missiles.
Where is the outcry from the United Nations about the rocket barrages aimed at Israel?
Another interesting fact from the article:
Its (the Iron Dome) deployment this past weekend appears to have defeated Hamas, at least for the time being. The terrorist organization has been talking with the new regime in Egypt for another ceasefire after failing to inflict mass casualties or property damage on Israel.
This is ridiculous. Israel gave up ‘land for peace’ and kept the agreements made with the Palestinians. All Israel got in return was that Hamas had closer places to launch rockets. It’s time for the world to stand together and tell the Palestinians that they cannot have a state until they learn to behave like a civilized nation. Admittedly, a lot of the so-called civilized nations are not acting like civilized nations, but the constant terrorist and rocket attacks on Israel are not something that a supposedly civilized world should allow to continue.
Hidden In The Small Print…
Big Government is reporting today on some aspects of ObamaCare that I don’t think any of us had considered. Your cell phone is about to become a medical device (yes, you read that right) and your own stem cells are drugs. Good grief!
The article reports:
And because your phone has on it the two dollar blood pressure app – the Obama FDA asserts that they can thusly regulate your entire phone. Because according to them that one app has turned your phone into a “medical device.”
Under the FDA’s expansive parameters, almost any device on which you do almost anything regarding your health – your smartphones, your tablets, your desktop and laptop computers – will be regulated.
Did you use your smartphone/tablet/computer camera or microphone to monitor something health-related? It just became an Obama FDA-regulated medical device.
Did you save your health care data on any smartphone/tablet/computer? That too is now regulated.
Did you send an email containing any health care information to your doctor? The device from which you sent said missive is too now regulated.
…Obama’s FDA is concurrently asserting that the adult stem cells in your body are a “drug” – and that therefore your body is now government regulatory property.
In another outrageous power-grab, FDA says your own stem cells are drugs—and stem cell therapy is interstate commerce because it affects the bottom line of FDA-approved drugs in other states!…
We have entered the Twilight Zone. If you care to leave the zone, please vote Republican in November.
When Was The American Media Going To Tell Us This ?
Image via Wikipedia
On March 5, DEBKAfile posted an article confirming an article in the German Der Spiegel and Welt am Sonntag that Western intelligence had known for eleven months that at least one of North Korea’s covert nuclear tests in 2010 was carried out on an Iranian radioactive bomb or nuclear warhead.
The article lists five facts that we are sure of:
1. In April and May North Korea conducted two covert underground nuclear explosions equivalent to 50- 200 tonnes of TNT.
2. The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBOTO) monitoring stations in South Korea, Japan and Russia detected highly lethal heavy hydrogen isotopes, deuterium and tritium.
The third fact according to the article:
3. The presence of tritium in one of the tests led several intelligence agencies watching North Korea’s nuclear program and its longstanding links with Iran and Syria to examine the possibility that Pyongyang had tested the internal mechanism of a nuclear warhead on Iran’s behalf. This strongly indicated to German and Japanese intelligence that Iran had already developed the nuclear warhead’s outer shell and attained its weaponization.
4. There was also a possibility that North Korea had tested a ‘dirty bomb.’
5. There were three events that lead to the conclusion that this was testing of an Iranian device.
a. A group of Iranian nuclear scientists arrived in Pyongyang shortly after the first test in April, seemingly to be involved in setting up the second test.
b. Near the end of April Tehran shipped to Pyongyang a large quantity of uranium enriched to 20+ percent, apparently for the second test.
c. Right after the test in May Central Bank of Iran transferred $55 million to the account of the North Korean Atomic Energy Commission.
The article concludes:
It is not by chance that this incriminating disclosure about Iran’s nuclear achievements sees the light Monday, just hours before US Barack Obama receives Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in the White house for an argument over an expeditious military action to stop Iran going all the way to a nuclear weapon.
The disclosure invalidates the main point the US President made in his speech Sunday to the pro-Israeli lobby AIPAC convention in Washington that there was still time for diplomatic pressure and sanctions to bring Iran’s leaders to a decision to halt their nuclear momentum before military action was called for, whether by the US or Israel.
It now appears that Western intelligence has known about the North Korean tests for Iran for eleven months. Therefore, it is too late for him to try and persuade the Israeli prime minister that there is still time to spare for cutting short a nuclear Iran.
It was announced in Washington Monday that no joint American-Israeli communiqué would be issued at the end of their talks, meaning they will have agreed to disagree: Obama, to stand by his opposition to military action against Iran; Netanyahu, to decide what Israel must do in the interests of its security.
There is no doubt he would have preferred an American initiative for – or partnership in – an operation for curtailing the Iranian nuclear threat. But that is not part of Obama’s policy.
When was the American Media going to get around to mentioning this? It does seem rather important.
Free ObamaCare Seminar March 12
Free Seminar
ObamaCare
an American Catastrophe
Monday, March 12, 2012, 7:00 p.m.
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Forcing ObamaCare (OC) on Americans
Losing Your Choice of Doctors
Infringement on Religious Freedom
“Death Panels”
Collapse of the R&D for Life-Saving Drugs
What if the Supreme Court Upholds OC?
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Presented by Mike Stopa, Harvard University
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Public Welcome ~ Free Admission
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www.northboroughteaparty.com
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is
for good men to do nothing” – Edmund Burke
The Cost Of Taking The Politically Incorrect Stand
Big Government posted an article yesterday about a program in Texas to aid low-income women that has been defunded by the Obama Administration. Remember that this is happening at a time when the Republicans are accused of waging a ‘war on women.’ Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), stated Friday that a Texas health program for low-income women will no longer receive federal funding because Planned Parenthood has been banned from the program.
The article reports:
Two weeks ago, Texas state officials announced plans to prevent Planned Parenthood from participating in the Medicaid Women’s Health Program, which provides health screenings and contraceptive services. The state has made the decision to exclude clinics from the program that are affiliated with abortion providers, even though the clinics themselves do not provide abortions.
Ms. Sebelius said that the federal government, which has covered about 90% of the cost of the program, will gradually end the program over the next few months. “The waiver will not be extended,” she said. “We’ve put them on notice.”
Federal requirements stipulate that the state is not permitted to exclude qualified providers from the women’s program, and Texas has not received a waiver from those regulations.
Texas Governor Rick Perry has made the appropriate response, “We’re going to fund this program. Listen, we’ll find the money. The state is committed to this program…This program is not going away.”
Governor Perry has directed his state’s secretary of the Health and Human Services Commission to work with the Texas legislature to locate funding for the program. Approximately 130,000 women are enrolled in the program.
Planned Parenthood is a major source of funding for Democrat Party campaigns. Much of the money they make on Medicaid patients eventually finds its way into Democrat campaign coffers. That is one of the things that makes the battle about Planned Parenthood and anything that threatens their income so intense–you are not only taking on Planned Parenthood–you are taking on the funding of the Democrat Party.
The article concludes:
Yet, speaking of her warning to the state that their law would end funding for the program, the secretary said, “”They knew … they are not allowed to deny women the right to choose.”
First, when did something being “illegal” ever stop this administration before?
Second, is Kathleen Sebelius really hoping we haven’t noticed that, while she is telling us “it is illegal to spend any federal money on abortion,” the Obama administration is also forcing the Catholic Church and other religious groups to provide abortion-inducing drugs to their employees, free of charge?
It is illegal for federal funds to be used to pay for abortions directly, but the millions of dollars the federal government gives to Planned Parenthood provide the infrastructure so that abortion is a profitable business for Planned Parenthood. Thank you, Rick Perry, for taking a stand against this.
It May Already Be Too Late To Deal With The Problem Of Iran
Reza Kahlili posted an article at the Daily Caller today about some recent comments in the Iranian newspaper Kayhan. Reza Kahlili is the pseudonym of a former Iranian Revolutionary Guard member who worked undercover as a CIA agent for several years in the ’80s and ’90s.
The article at the Daily Caller reports:
The newspaper, which is under the supervision of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ran the story under the headline “11,000 Missiles Ready to Launch.”
And on Saturday, Tehran’s ambassador to Lebanon, Qazanfar Roknabadi, confirmed during a public roundtable event that the Islamic regime is prepared to attack both Israel and U.S. bases in the region if its nuclear facilities are attacked.
Citing comments from Gen. Zakaraia Hossein, the former head of the superior academy of Egypt, the Kayhan report added that “America fully knows that Iran is not Iraq” and that “a war with Iran would jeopardize all its interests in the region.”
One of the things to remember in dealing with Iran is that this is the country that put keys around the necks of twelve-year-old boys (the keys were supposed to be the keys to paradise) and told them to walk through minefields during the Iran-Iraq War to clear the way for the Iranian tanks. The leaders of the country are truly irrational.
In December of 2011, Fox News reported that Iran was buying weapons from China. It was reported that China sold Iran $11 billion worth of advanced DF-31 ICBMs which are capable of reaching U.S. soil with nuclear warheads. North Korean engineers are helping to get the missile system up and running. Stopping Iran’s nuclear program is not only about the destruction of Israel.
Whether we attack Iran or Israel attacks Iran, the results are going to be messy and a lot of people are going to die. The only hope we have is regime change, and that seems to be a very slim hope right now. The Israelis have tried everything short of war to stop Iran’s nuclear program, and I fear that we are rapidly reaching the point where attacking the nuclear facilities of Iran will be the only solution, as awful as that solution will be.
If You Don’t Like The Results–Hide The Study
Image via Wikipedia
Scott Johnson at Power Line published an article yesterday about some research done after the ‘driving while black’ controversy of the 1990’s. It seems there was some research done a few years ago that proved that ‘driving while black’ did not make someone more likely to be stopped–but exceeding the speed limit did!
The article reports:
According to the study commissioned by the New Jersey Attorney General (and leaked to The New York Times), blacks make up 16 percent of the drivers on the turnpike, and 25 percent of the speeders in the 65-mph zones, where profiling complaints are most common.
They speed twice as much as whites, and speed at reckless levels even more. Yet blacks are stopped less than their speeding behavior would predict — 23 percent of all stops.
The devastation wrought by this study to the anti-police agenda is catastrophic. It turns out that the police stop blacks more for speeding because they speed more. Race has nothing to do with it….
The article goes on the chronicle the request that this study and the follow-up studies be released. Please follow the link to Power LIne to read the entire story. Meanwhile, don’t hold your breath waiting for the study to be released.
