Thursday, December 31, 2009

Jumping the Gun on Rush Limbaugh


When the king of talk radio, Rush Limbaugh, was taken to Queen's Medical Center in Honolulu, HI after complaining of chest pains, one overzealous contributor announced that he was dead in Wikipedia [the entry has since been corrected]. At this time he appears to be on the road to recovery, and Ann Althouse, on her blog, has a few choice words to say about that.

UPDATE: "Elective Decisions" reports an outbreak of RLDD (Rush Limbaugh Derangement Disorder) in Baltimore!

The Deification of Obama

A World Net Daily article describes an unsigned Danish editorial that goes beyond the usual media glorification of our 44th President:

An editorial in a Danish newspaper, citing both foreign and domestic policies pursued by President Barack Obama, is deifying the American political leader.

"Obama is, of course, greater than Jesus – if we have to play that absurd Christmas game," opined the unsigned editorial yesterday in Politiken, which boasts of being Denmark's largest newspaper, in publication since 1884....

A Simple Solution

After Sen. Nelson of Nebraska sold his soul to the highest bidder, Dik Thurston of Colorado Springs, CO wrote the following letter to the [Colorado Springs] Gazette on Sunday, 27 December:

Letters: Sunday
Take one trip to Nebraska

When people on Medicaid presents themselves for treatment in Colorado the doctor should write a prescription for a bus ticket to Nebraska. Shouldn’t the citizens of Colorado be able to take advantage of Nebraska’s benefits for which we are taxed?

Dik Thurston

Colorado Springs

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Too Funny

The Media Research Center has come out with its list of "Best Notable Quotables for 2009." Here are just 3 juicy examples out of many:

Ed Schultz
“The Republicans lie! They want to see you dead! They’d rather make money off your dead corpse! They kind of like it when that woman has cancer and they don’t have anything for her.”
Ed Schultz, host of MSNBC’s The Ed Show, September 23.

Terry Moran
“I like to say that, in some ways, Barack Obama is the first President since George Washington to be taking a step down into the Oval Office. I mean, from visionary leader of a giant movement, now he’s got an executive position that he has to perform in, in a way.”
— ABC Nightline co-anchor Terry Moran to Media Bistro’s Steve Krakauer in a February 20 “Morning Media Menu” podcast.

Janeane Garofalo
“The type of female that does like Rush [Limbaugh] is the same type of woman that falls in love with prisoners. You know what I mean? They like Richard Ramirez or — Squeaky Fromme is a good example. I think Charles Manson’s — Eva Braun, Hitler’s girlfriend. That is exactly the type of woman that responds really well to Rush. And there will be some Eva Brauns, Squeaky Frommes out there that will respond really well to this cattle call right now.”
— Actress/activist Janeane Garofalo on MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann, February 26

Monday, December 28, 2009

More Where That Came From

Here's the beginning of an article from The Sun [U.K.]:

FAILED plane bomber Umar Abdulmutallab has bragged to FBI agents that there are more young men plotting to launch attacks on the West.
The 23-year-old Nigerian has told security chiefs of a sinister network in Yemen who are ready and waiting to strike.

The reports come after The Sun revealed that cops fear that 25 British-born Muslims are plotting to bomb Western airliners.

The fanatics, in five groups, are now training at secret terror camps in Yemen....

UPDATE: FOX News reports that al-Qaeda claims responsibility for the attempted bombing, which should not come as a surprise to anyone.

Why Stop at Ten When You're Counting Corrupt Politicians?

Judicial Watch has compiled a top ten list of corrupt politicians. You will see some of the usual suspects: Sen. Chris Dodd, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, etc., but one wishes they could have expanded the list to 25, at least. Hat tip: Free Republic.

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Subway Rises to the Occasion


Faced with the problem of how to feed construction workers building 1 World Trade Center (also known as "Freedom Tower"), Subway constructed a sandwich shop out of nine shipping containers, which will be raised as construction progresses, until a permanent Subway is built on the 105th floor, according to Newsmax. In addition to the usual menu, it will sell hamburgers, hot dogs, and New York pretzels.

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Merry Christmas, from Sheriff Arpaio

Saturday, December 19, 2009 2:03:44 PM ·
washingtontimes.com reports this story by Jerry Seper, dated today:

Sheriff Joe Arpaio - the self-proclaimed "toughest sheriff" in America - likes Christmas music, especially "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and anything by Alvin and the Chipmunks, and apparently he thinks the 8,000 inmates inside his Phoenix jail should, too. So it was with some glee that his Maricopa County office announced Thursday in a red-and-green press release that the "sixth and perhaps final lawsuit" brought by inmates to stop the sheriff from playing the holiday songs all day, every day, during the holidays had been dismissed in federal court.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Another One of Those End-of-Year Lists

The Globe and Mail of Canada has compiled the following top 10 list of irritating people for the year 2009:

1. Jon and Kate Gosselin (who else?)
2. David Letterman
3. The Grey Power Woman (depicted in a commercial on Canadian TV going bonkers in a car)
4. Jillian Harris (the "Canadian Bachelorette")
5. Kanye West (who rudely interrupted Taylor Swift's moment of triumph at the MTV Video Music Awards show)
6. Carrie Prejean (Evangelical Christian, anti-gay-marriage, sex-tape and topless-photo star)
7. Greg Gutfeld (Host of the late-night Fox News Channel chat show Red Eye)
8. Everyone on CBC's "The National"
9. Michael Ignatieff (sat in the woods and blinked at the sunlight in a Liberal Party commercial, like a furry little critter)
10. Don Cherry ("Shut up, already. A novel idea, we know. But you're barking mad. Yes, you are.")

Half of these people are better known in Canada than in the USA. What about the Heene family in Colorado and their "Balloon Boy" hoax? There are a number of American politicians we can name. Readers added the following suggestions:

Glenn Beck, Dog the Bounty Hunter's wife, Al Gore, Barack Obama, Sarah Palin, John McCain, Tiger Woods, Stephen Harper (Canadian Prime Minister), Lady Gaga, Ben Bernanke, financial planners (trolls of the earth), bankers, Dick Cheney, George W. Bush, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, Ann Coulter, Octomom Nadya Suleman, all Canadians, Bernie Madoff and his wife, Sasha Baron Cohen, Paris Hilton, and John Doyle (author of the column),

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Another Reason Why Newspapers are Speeding Their Own Extinction

CBS4Denver.com has a hot news item about Bob Berwyn, former journalist for the Summit Daily News, being fired from the paper for daring to criticize the way ski resorts calculate their daily snow totals. The newspaper was worried about losing advertising revenue from Vail Resorts.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Open Letter from Lou Pritchett to President Obama

Source:
http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/barackobama/a/lou_pritchett_letter.htm

Lou Pritchett, author, motivational speaker and former Vice-President of Sales and Customer Development for Procter & Gamble, has acknowledged writing the above opinion piece and submitting it to the New York Times for publication, though to date it has only been published on the Internet, including on various conservative blogs and the American Family Association's website.

AN OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA

Dear President Obama:

You are the thirteenth President under whom I have lived and unlike any of the others, you truly scare me.

You scare me because after months of exposure, I know nothing about you.

You scare me because I do not know how you paid for your expensive Ivy League education and your upscale lifestyle and housing with no visible signs of support.

You scare me because you did not spend the formative years of youth growing up in America and culturally you are not an American.

You scare me because you have never run a company or met a payroll.

You scare me because you have never had military experience, thus don't understand it at its core.

You scare me because you lack humility and 'class', always blaming others.

You scare me because for over half your life you have aligned yourself with radical extremists who hate America and you refuse to publicly denounce these radicals who wish to see America fail.

You scare me because you are a cheerleader for the 'blame America' crowd and deliver this message abroad.

You scare me because you want to change America to a European style country where the government sector dominates instead of the private sector.

You scare me because you want to replace our health care system with a government controlled one.

You scare me because you prefer 'wind mills' to responsibly capitalizing on our own vast oil, coal and shale reserves.

You scare me because you want to kill the American capitalist goose that lays the golden egg which provides the highest standard of living in the world.

You scare me because you have begun to use 'extortion' tactics against certain banks and corporations.

You scare me because your own political party shrinks from challenging you on your wild and irresponsible spending proposals.

You scare me because you will not openly listen to or even consider opposing points of view from intelligent people.

You scare me because you falsely believe that you are both omnipotent and omniscient.

You scare me because the media gives you a free pass on everything you do.

You scare me because you demonize and want to silence the Limbaughs, Hannitys, O'Relllys and Becks who offer opposing, conservative points of view.

You scare me because you prefer controlling over governing.

Finally, you scare me because if you serve a second term I will probably not feel safe in writing a similar letter in 8 years.

Lou Pritchett

Monday, December 7, 2009

Eye Candy


Check out these award-winning photos from the National Geographic.

Here We Go Again: Enviros Leave Big Carbon Footprint in Copenhagen

The FOX News article starts thusly:

World leaders and VIPs began pouring into Copenhagen Monday morning for the city's long-awaited climate summit, arriving in style in a fleet of gas-guzzling limos and luxury cars.

Most delegates to the climate change conference haven't exactly been hoofing their way to Denmark's capital, swarming the city's airport with 140 private jets, 1,200 hired limousines and a carbon footprint the size of a small country.

Video shot on the scene Monday shows squads of new arrivals at the green gathering pulling up in BMWs, Mercedes Benzes, sleek Volvos and plush Jaguars. A bus reserved for the delegates rode along empty outside the conference center....

Friday, December 4, 2009

Ideas for You to Think About

1. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown compares climate-change skeptics to "flat-earthers." Story in the Telegraph.

2. Another sign of the end times: An abortion center in Michigan, according to Lifenews.com, is running a series of video ads claiming that what they're doing is "sacred work."

3. Right Wing News reports that Sen. Barbara Boxer is advocating going after the people who leaked the ClimateGate e-mails. This is known as punishing the messenger.

4. Genevieve S. Kineke compares the Judaeo-Christian God with Allah, and comes to the conclusion that they are not the same. Terminology may vary in different churches, but there is much that Christians can agree upon in this Catholic Exchange article.

5. This is enough to cause panic in the White House: Obama's job approval rating slipped below 50%, largely because the war in Afghanistan is perceived as being his rather than former President Bush's, according to a CNN poll.

Monday, November 30, 2009

And We Thought Politico.com Was Friendly to Liberals!


The Atlantic ran the following story:

Nov 30 2009, 8:24 pm by Marc Ambinder

The White House Takes On POLITICO

It's not just Fox News that's become subject of White House derision. The following is an excerpt from a joke e-mail that is circulating among White House staffers. It's a response, of sorts, to the analytical essay that POLITICO editor-in-chief John Harris wrote about the "seven stories that Barack Obama doesn't want told." It's fairly caustic -- and, truth be told, the White House maintains good relationships with POLITICO reporters and has been known to try and agenda-set by dishing out a few tips to the publication. But make no mistake: many on the White House senior staff dislike POLITICO's brand of journalism, and they do not like the effect that POLITICO's metabolism has on the rest of the press corps, including this (i.e., my own) corner of it. Still, don't read too much into this. There's been plenty of back-and-forth between the Whit House and the POLITICO, and the White House accepts the role -- which is often substantial -- that POLITICO plays in the newsgathering process.


7 narratives politico is fighting in their efforts to get an interview with the President

1. They are more interested in readers than accuracy

2. Its okay to be wrong everyonce in a while, if your are the first to break the news

3. More interested in gossip than news

4. A spouter of the worst sort of insider conventional wisdom

5. Their analysis about obama has been wrong more than any one

6. Click ... period

7. More obsessed with personality than policy

Sunday, November 29, 2009

We Are Now the Newsmakers

The eminently readable Mark Steyn, in the National Review, takes the dinosaur media to task for covering up "Climategate," the story we featured on 22 November about the inconvenient truth of incriminating documents suppressing data that contradicts the current "climate change" dogma. Blogs and Internet aggregators (such as the Drudge Report or Free Republic) are increasingly places that people turn to for news that the leftist media won't touch, such as positive news from Iraq and Afghanistan, toilet technology, and success stories of people with psychiatric disabilities.

Friday, November 27, 2009

Unknown Assailant TP's Colorado Governor's Mansion

The family of Gov. Bill Ritter was startled to learn that their residence and surrounding trees were covered with toilet paper on Thanksgiving morning! KOAA-TV (NewsFirst5.com) has a report. It is not known whether Republicans were behind this prank.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Navy SEALs in Trouble for Capturing Terrorist!

The FOX News article starts with these disturbing words:

Navy SEALs have secretly captured one of the most wanted terrorists in Iraq — the alleged mastermind of the murder and mutilation of four Blackwater USA security guards in Fallujah in 2004. And three of the SEALs who captured him are now facing criminal charges, sources told FoxNews.com.

The three, all members of the Navy's elite commando unit, have refused non-judicial punishment — called a captain's mast — and have requested a trial by court-martial.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

From the Slimy Depths: Hacked E-Mails May Reveal "Global Warming" Fraud

Officials at a key global warming research center in the United Kingdom have authenticated a series of e-mails and other documents apparently taken from their computer system by a hacker, but they cannot explain what scientists in internal exchanges meant by references to a "trick" that would "hide the decline" of global temperatures nor by instructions to delete contrary data.

Author James Delingpole writes in a London Telegraph column the most damaging revelations indicate climate-change scientists may have "manipulated or suppressed evidence in order to support their cause."

According to the Australian Investigate magazine, the 62 megabyte Zip file with documents, e-mail exchanges and other information from the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit apparently was posted by an unidentified hacker on a Russian web server.

Read the rest of the story at WorldNetDaily.

Eeewwww! Peruvian Gang Kills People for Their Fat

Here's the beginning of the article from the Guardian [U.K.]:

A Peruvian gang that allegedly killed people and drained fat from their corpses for use in cosmetics may have been inspired by a grisly Andean legend.

Hilarió Cudeña Simon, the alleged ringleader, linked the crimes to tales of demonic assassins, known as Pishtacos, who purportedly waylaid victims in pre-Columbian times, police said.

Peru reacted with revulsion and horror to reports that scores of peasants may have been butchered by the gang, which was said to have operated in Huánuco, a rural province dotted with Inca temples between the jungle and Andean peaks.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Are You Living in La-La Land?


He's a rare bird indeed, a Jewish conservative syndicated columnist, lawyer, executive director of Citizens for Limited Taxation, executive director of the Second Amendment Foundation, former opinion writer for the Boston Herald, and editorial director of WEEI Newsradio in Boston.

TRIGGER-HAPPY MUSLIMS AND DELUDED INFIDELS IN THE HAPPY LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE
GrassTopsUSA Exclusive Commentary
By Don Feder
11-19-09

Let me tell you about the Happy Land of Make-Believe. It’s a magical place where ideology trumps reality, evidence is irrelevant, and illusion reigns supreme.

Liberals are permanent residents of the Happy Land of Make-Believe. Some conservatives are not immune to its allure....

Read the rest of this column at GrasstopsUSA.com.

Bring Out the Champagne! Today Is World Toilet Day

WBBM has the story of why this unofficial holiday is so important:

"World Toilet Day is a day set aside to raise awareness of the world to the global sanitation crisis," said Ned Breslin," head of the group Water for People.

"Two-point-five billion people around the world do not have access to improved sanitation. Many people believe the number is even higher," he said.

Even the United Nations is involved, saying prison inmates around the world, including those in the United States, frequently have no access to clean toilets.

This is the 8th annual World Toilet Day.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Union Upset at Allentown, PA; Take It Out on Boy Scout

In pursuit of an Eagle Scout badge, Kevin Anderson, 17, has toiled for more than 200 hours hours over several weeks to clear a walking path in an east Allentown park.

Little did the do-gooder know that his altruistic act would put him in the cross hairs of the city's largest municipal union.

Nick Balzano, president of the local Service Employees International Union, told Allentown City Council Tuesday that the union is considering filing a grievance against the city for allowing Anderson to clear a 1,000-foot walking and biking path at Kimmets Lock Park.

Balzano said Saturday he isn't targeting Boy Scouts. But given the city's decision in July to lay off 39 SEIU members, Balzano said "there's to be no volunteers." No one except union members may pick up a hoe or shovel, plant a flower or clear a walking path.

Read here for the rest of the story.

UPDATE-1: Check out the following letter from Congressman Charlie Dent -

Dear Mr. Balzano:

I am deeply troubled by a story that appeared in the Sunday edition of the Morning Call titled, “Union Troubled by Eagle Scout Project in Allentown.” I read it twice, as I’m sure a number of other readers did, because I couldn’t believe that issue would be taken with the volunteer activity of a Boy Scout working to become an Eagle Scout.

For the last five years I have had the honor to support the Boy Scouts by chairing the Minsi Trails Council’s Lehigh Valley Leadership Dinner. The volunteer spirit of the young men who participate in Scouting should be valued and praised, not condemned or considered a grounds for a grievance.

Taxpayers pay my salary, your salary and the salaries of your Allentown members. As a taxpayer and Member of Congress, I can assure you that no one wants to hear about you or your union bothering and hassling young people trying to do right by their community.

Further, speaking as a taxpayer and resident of Allentown, I am astounded that you would threaten to file a grievance against the City of Allentown because the Administration wisely chooses to make volunteer opportunities available, especially when this type of frivolous grievance could add to the tax burden of the citizens. The vast majority of people would consider your actions in this matter outrageous, uncivil and wrong-headed.

I urge you to reexamine your decisions and actions in this matter and after doing so, that you drop it entirely.

An apology both to the Scout involved and to the public would be appropriate as well.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Gretchen Rubin on Loneliness

In an ongoing series of articles in Slate Magazine ("The Happiness Project") Gretchen has this to say about the effects of loneliness:

Some Counter-Intuitive Facts about Loneliness.
Posted Monday, November 16, 2009 6:18 AM | By Gretchen Rubin

Sometimes people ask, “If you had to pick just one thing, what would be the one secret to a happy life?” The answer is clear: strong bonds with other people. If I had to pick one thing, that’s it. The wisdom of the ages and the current scientific studies agree on this point.

On that subject, I just finished a fascinating book by John Cacioppo and William Patrick, Loneliness: Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection. The book underscores the conclusion that few things will challenge your happiness more than loneliness.

Without thinking it through, I’d assumed that being lonely would make people warmer, more eager for connection, and more accepting of differences in others. If you’re lonely, you’re going to be open to making friends and therefore more easy-going, right?

To the contrary! It turns out that being lonely has just the opposite effect....
Read the article for the rest of the story.

Words of Wisdom from John Stossel



"As an American, I am embarrassed that the U.S. House of Representatives has 220 members who actually believe the government can successfully centrally plan the medical and insurance industries. I'm embarrassed that my representatives think that government can subsidize the consumption of medical care without increasing the budget deficit or interfering with free choice. It's a triumph of mindless wishful thinking over logic and experience. The 1,990-page bill is breathtaking in its bone-headed audacity. The notion that a small group of politicians can know enough to design something so complex and so personal is astounding. That they were advised by 'experts' means nothing since no one is expert enough to do that. There are too many tradeoffs faced by unique individuals with infinitely varying needs. Government cannot do simple things efficiently. The bureaucrats struggle to count votes correctly. They give subsidized loans to 'homeowners' who turn out to be 4-year-olds. Yet congressmen want government to manage our medicine and insurance." --columnist John Stossel, quoted by Patriot Post

Sunday, November 15, 2009

KSM Trial Puts New York in Danger, Says Former Attorney General

If this Michelle Malkin column doesn't make you nervous, nothing will!!!

Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey said today that it is highly likely that terrorists will attack New York City as a consequence of the Obama administration’s decision to send five alleged Sept. 11 plotters there for trial in federal court.

During a question and answer period following a speech to a conservative legal group, Mukasey was asked about the possibility that there might be an escape by one or more prisoners.

“The [Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan] is a very secure place….Is it secure? Of course, it’s secure. They’re not going to escape,” Mukasey told a conference of the Federalist Society. “The question is not whether they’re going to escape. The question is whether, not only that particular facility, but the city [at] large, will then become the focus for mischief in the form of murder by adherents of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed–whether this raises the odds that it will. I would suggest to you that it raises them very high....”

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Just to Show We're Not Serious 100% of the Time


President Obama Bows to Emperor Akihito of Japan

Friday, November 13, 2009

Let 'Em Go to Jail If They Don't Pay Up!

Video: Pelosi Says Jail “Very Fair” Punishment For Not Buying Health Insurance

Heritage Foundation Posted November 13th, 2009 at 11.54am in Health Care.
According to the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT), the House health care bill passed last Friday empowers the federal government to imprison people for up to five years if they willfully refuse to buy federally regulated and approved health insurance....[video included at Heritage Foundation Web site.]

UPDATE: Dick Morris and Eileen McGann have a few choice words on the subject at The Hill's Pundit Blog.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Who Noticed the Red Flags?

For those mourning the loss of 14 (12 Soldiers, one civilian, one unborn baby) and the wounding of many others at Fort Hood, this Jewish World Review story based on a Washington Post article will raise your blood pressure:

"As a senior-year psychiatric resident at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Maj. Nidal M. Hasan was supposed to make a presentation on a medical topic of his choosing as a culminating exercise of the residency program," reports the Washington Post.

Hasan went a different way. He opted to give a bizarre PowerPoint presentation in which he defended suicide bombing and explained that nonbelievers should be beheaded, burned alive and have boiling oil poured down their throats (presumably not in that order). He argued that all Muslims should be discharged from the military.

One slide concluded: "We love death more then (sic) you love life!"

According to the Post, the medical staff in attendance was deeply disturbed by the incident. But there's apparently no record of anyone reporting it to authorities. That would have been insensitive and discriminatory.

But that's not all. The article goes on to describe Maj. Hasan's attempts to start a correspondence with al-Qaeda, and celebrating the murder of an Army recruiter in Arkansas.

Karma's a Bitch

The Supreme Court's 2005 decision in Kelo v. City of New London stands as one of the worst in recent years, handing local governments carte blanche to seize private property in the name of economic development. Now, four years after that decision gave Susette Kelo's land to private developers for a project including a hotel and offices intended to enhance Pfizer Inc.'s nearby corporate facility, the pharmaceutical giant has announced it will close its research and development headquarters in New London, Connecticut.

The aftermath of Kelo is the latest example of the futility of using eminent domain as corporate welfare. While Ms. Kelo and her neighbors lost their homes, the city and the state spent some $78 million to bulldoze private property for high-end condos and other "desirable" elements. Instead, the wrecked and condemned neighborhood still stands vacant, without any of the touted tax benefits or job creation.

Read the rest of the story in the Wall Street Journal.

Monday, November 9, 2009

Celebrating 20 Years of German Reunification


We are happy to report that today is the 20th anniversary of the day the Berlin Wall came down, with the collapse of the Soviet Empire following soon thereafter. FOX News has a slideshow. President Obama sent Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to represent the United States.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Massacre at Fort Hood!

An Associated Press article reports that 12 people have been killed and another 31 wounded at the Fort Hood Soldier Readiness Center. One shooter was killed and two others arrested. This is the worst case of mass murder in that part of Texas since the Luby's Cafeteria massacre in Killeen on 16 October 1991. "Bloodthirsty Warmonger" does not hesitate to call it a terrorist incident.

UPDATE: Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a suspect, was shot 4 times but not killed, as earlier reported.

UPDATE2: The death toll has risen to 13. An Associated Press article has short bios of some of the victims.

UPDATE3: CNN has a list of all 13 people who lost their lives in the Fort Hood Massacre.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

You Might Be a Racist...

Neal Boortz clued me in on this flowchart at Missourah.com, which should settle all questions as to whether you are or not.

Prophetic Statement, or Premature Confession?


This story comes out of Mexico:

Mauricio Fernandez was being sworn in again as mayor of San Pedro Garza Garcia, one of northern Mexico's most exclusive communities, when he announced to his cheering supporters: "Black Saldana, who apparently is the one who was asking for my head, was found dead today in Mexico City." However, speculation that Mr Fernandez might have had something to do with the death of Hector Saldana arose when it emerged that the barefoot, blindfolded corpse of "Black Saldana" had not been found until three and a half hours after the mayor's speech, according to Mexico City prosecutors....

Monday, November 2, 2009

Gates and Shinseki in Mental Health Summit


Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Secretary of Veterans' Affairs Eric Shinseki got together at a Mental Health Summit in Washington, DC on 26 October to declare that more should be done to cut red tape and help combat veterans with PTSD, other mental disorders, and traumatic brain injury.

A DefenseLink article quotes Gen. Shinseki:

“Our collaboration with [the Defense Department] is mission-critical, because we share the same clients, the same population, at different stages in their lives,” Shinseki said. “There can be no ‘seamless transition’ or ‘continuum of care’ without serious and high-quality collaboration between both departments.”

Monday, October 26, 2009

A Timely Death


Many people are said to die "untimely" deaths, but Jeffry Picower, a billionaire who profited immensely from his friend Bernie Madoff's scam, escaped prosecution by having a massive heart attack and falling into his swimming pool. His body was found by his wife around noon on Sunday, according to ABC News.

Friday, October 23, 2009

The Color of His Skin Doesn't Matter, but the Thinness Does

More disturbing reports on the Obama Administration's hypersensitivity to journalists who refuse to toe the party line and ask too many probing questions.

At the end of a Rich Lowry article in the National Review we see the following comment: "their problem is not that Fox isn't a real news organization, their problem is that it is."

Donald Sensing in the "Sense of Events" blog declares:

FoxNews Channel is not the real target, and the rest of the media need to wake up to the crosshairs on them, too

Here's a thought about the White House's attack on FNC that I have not seen other commentators offer. The attack is directly out of the Saul Alinsky playbook, who in his work, Rules for Radicals, wrote that one of the rules of "power tactics" is to,

Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it. In conflict tactics there are certain rules that [should be regarded] as universalities. One is that the opposition must be singled out as the target and 'frozen.'...

Thursday, October 22, 2009

"Not Evil Just Wrong" Slams Environmentalists

The Washington Independent published an article about a movie that made a big splash in conservative circles last Sunday, when it was premiered on over 7,000 screens in all 50 states. Some of the venues were small, of course, but in Colorado Springs, promoters used the Pikes Peak Center auditorium, attracting a healthy crowd of around 1500. The producers of this documentary did amazingly well, considering the fact that Hollywood refused to touch (or distribute) this film, and that they had a budget of under $1 million to work with. For more information, and to order the video, visit www.noteviljustwrong.com.

Sheep of Amherst, MA Propose Inviting Guantanamo Wolves to Live Among Them

Check out the beginning portion of this Boston Globe article:

The western Massachusetts university town of Amherst is mulling a resolution urging the Congress to release cleared Guantanamo Bay detainees into the United States and calling for the town to welcome those detainees into the community.

The town's Select Board voted 2-1 Monday night to endorse a warrant article titled, "Resolution to Assist in the Safe Resettlement of Cleared Guantanamo Detainees."

"The United States has a long history of being a place of refuge and asylum for persecuted people. There's nothing new about this," said Gerry Weiss, one of the two selectmen supporting the resolution. "This is the tradition of the United States...."

10 Worst Places to Live (Update)

The bottom line is, it depends on who is compiling the list.

The Christian Post has a list of 10 worst places for persecution, with North Korea being #1 for the sixth year in a row. Saudi Arabia, Iran, the Maldives, Bhutan, Yemen, Afghanistan, Laos, Uzbekistan, and China (in that order) round out this list.

TheStar.com of Canada has a list of worst cities/countries in specific categories:

Pollution: Urumqi, China
Corruption: Somalia
Dictatorship: North Korea
Personal security: Iraq
Homicide rate: El Salvador
Inflation: Zimbabwe
Gender gap: Yemen
Life expectancy: Swaziland
Literacy: Mali
Freedom of speech: Eritrea

BBC compiled this list of bottom 10 cities:
Tehran, Iran
Douala, Cameroon
Harare, Zimbabwe
Abidjan, Ivory Coast
Phnom Penh,Cambodia
Lagos, Nigeria
Karachi, Pakistan
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Algiers, Algeria
Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

"First They Came for Fox News..."

Claudia Rosett provides food for thought on Pajamas Media, which makes you wonder about the Big Media's instinct for self-preservation:

The Sunday morning talk shows just brought us White House Senior Adviser David Axelrod opining to George Stephanopoulos, on ABC’s “This Week,” that Fox is “Really – not news — it’s pushing a point of view.” Axelrod advised that ABC and other non-Fox outlets take his cue and expunge Fox from the brethren of news services: “And the bigger thing is that other news organizations like yours ought not to treat them that way, and we’re not going to treat them that way.” Meanwhile, on CNN’s “State of the Union,” White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel was hammering home the same message, that Fox “is not a news organization so much as it has a perspective,” and urging “More importantly is not have [sic] the CNNs and the others in the world basically be led in following Fox, as if what they’re trying to do is a legitimate news organization… .”

This would be a very good moment for all those other news organizations — CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, the newspapers and the news web sites – to offer President Obama the perspective that it is utterly inappropriate for White House personnel to be opining publicly on the overall fitness of specific news outlets. The president has sworn to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” That includes protecting free speech, not dispatching White House staff and advisers to hold forth publicly as media critics denouncing news outlets they don’t like...

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

October 21 is Babbling Day

This is what the Holiday Insights Web site has to say:

What's all the chatter about over this special day? Well, on Babbling Day, we celebrate those of us with a glib tongue. You know them when you hear them. They're talking gibberish. They never stop talking. They babble on and on. They can turn a simple one sentence statement into an endless dissertation.

Spend this day babbling like a baby, if you must. As for me, I will spend it by a babbling brook.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Rep. Lamborn Holds Town Hall Meeting in Colo. Springs

Congressman Lamborn addressed a standing-room only crowd at the Stargazers Theater today, and finally got it right. This time there was enough room to accommodate everyone who wished to attend. According to a Colorado Springs Gazette article, around 450 people were present, and of these, around 10 percent consisted of hecklers more interested in drowning out Lamborn than presenting any compelling arguments in favor of the poorly-named "single-payer option." There is nothing optional about the socialized healthcare scheme that the Obama Administration is trying to ram through Congress, as failing to sign up for it could result in imprisonment of up to one year and a hefty fine. Moreover, Republican efforts to include tort reform have been shot down in flames.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Was Rush Shafted, or Delivered from Disaster?

The Left, as Diana West at Townhall.com reminds us, NEVER lets slip an opportunity to slime the king of talk radio, Rush Limbaugh. Everyone knows that he is keenly interested in sports, and one would think that he should have the right to invest in any athletic team he desires. And yet he has been rebuffed in his efforts to enter into a partnership that is interested in buying the St. Louis Rams. That may not be altogether a bad thing, if the investors are trying to move the team to Los Angeles, the largest major city in the United States without a professional football team. L.A. has not had a good track record of supporting and holding on to their teams, so I consider bringing another one in to be a gamble of the first magnitude.

UPDATE: Rush Limbaugh has a chance to explain his position in the Wall Street Journal.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Think Twice Before Sending Your Gold Jewelry to Cash4Gold

The Consumerist Web site has this sad tale to report:

A class action lawsuit (PDF) was filed against Cash4Gold in California federal court last Friday, accusing the company of a "massive scheme to defraud tens of thousands of consumers throughout the nation," and racketeering.

The lawsuit says there are two specific promises that Cash4Gold makes and breaks: 1) that there is a 12-day return policy and 2) items sent in will be handled with the highest care. Cash4Gold breaks the first, claims the lawsuit, when checks are received by customers either after the return period is over or close to it, or when the company melts the jewelry before the expiration of the return period - allegedly a frequent occurrence.

Cash4Gold breaks the second when it "repeatedly 'loses' the items sent," frequently blaming the mail service for "an absurdly high number of 'lost' items," according to the suit.

The lawsuit says, "These promises are lies. In a massive scheme to defraud tens of thousands of consumers throughout the nation, Cash4gold breaks both of its well-publicized promises with abandon, all the while committing a series of other frauds and misconduct, including attempts to silence former employees who dare to expose this fraud...."

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Hit Broadway Musical Breaks New Ground


“Next to Normal,” winner of 3 Tony Awards, was the subject of the following rave review in the New York Times:

No show on Broadway right now makes as direct a grab for the heart — or wrings it as thoroughly — as “Next to Normal” does. This brave, breathtaking musical, which opened Wednesday night at the Booth Theater, focuses squarely on the pain that cripples the members of a suburban family, and never for a minute does it let you escape the anguish at the core of their lives.

“Next to Normal” does not, in other words, qualify as your standard feel-good musical. Instead this portrait of a manic-depressive mother and the people she loves and damages is something much more: a feel-everything musical, which asks you, with operatic force, to discover the liberation in knowing where it hurts.

Such emotional rigor is a point of honor for “Next to Normal,” sensitively directed by Michael Greif and featuring a surging tidal score by Tom Kitt, with a book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey. With an astounding central performance from Alice Ripley as Diana Goodman, a housewife with bipolar disorder, this production assesses the losses that occur when wounded people are anesthetized — and not just by the battery of pharmaceutical and medical treatments to which Diana is subjected, but by recreational drugs, alcohol and that good old American virtue, denial with a smile….

A description of the numerous changes that were made to the play is followed by this statement: “…the creators of “Next to Normal” realized they had something of authentic and original value beneath the formulaic flourishes. For the retooled version, first seen at the Arena Stage in Washington in November, they made the decision to toughen up and to cast off the last traces of cuteness. This meant never releasing the audience from the captivity of its characters’ minds. That decision has transformed a small, stumbling musical curiosity into a work of muscular grace and power.”

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Five Catholics Elevated to Sainthood, Including Father Damien


VOA News reports that "19th century Polish archbishop Zygmunt Felinski, two Spanish monks, a Dominican, Francisco Coll y Guitart, and a Trappist, Rafael Arnaiz Baron, a woman, Jeanne Jugan of France, who founded the order of the Little Sisters of the Poor in the 18th century, and Father Damien" were all declared saints in a canonization Mass celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI before an audience of tens of thousands.

The Belgian priest Jozef De Veuster, better known as Father Damien, was elevated to sainthood for his work with leprosy patients on the Hawaiian island of Molokai in the 19th century. His work was described during the ceremony.

Father Damien, said a Vatican official, was unanimously recognized for his work despite abuse by the civilian authorities and withering public opinion. He died of leprosy in 1889.

A large delegation of some 500 people from Hawaii, including the bishop of Honolulu Richard Silva, traveled to Rome to take part in the ceremony. Among those present in the basilica was a group of elderly Hawaiian leprosy patients, sitting on wheelchairs.

Friday, October 9, 2009

President Obama Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize!

The Norwegian Nobel committee announced that Barack Obama will receive this year's Nobel Peace Prize for his "vision" and "inspiring hope" at the beginning of his presidency. Read CNN for one account. Nancy Gibbs in a TIME/Yahoo article says this recognition is the last thing he needs.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

When in Doubt, Suspect a Conspiracy

Conspiracy theories are great for people with too much time on their hands (and entertaining enough for the rest of us. LiveScience.com has 10 of 'em.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Selective Morality at Work Again

US funds dry up for Iran rights watchdog
Obama White House less confrontational

The Boston Globe has this sad tale to relate:

WASHINGTON - For the past five years, researchers in a modest office overlooking the New Haven green have carefully documented cases of assassination and torture of democracy activists in Iran. With more than $3 million in grants from the US State Department, they have pored over thousands of documents and Persian-language press reports and interviewed scores of witnesses and survivors to build dossiers on those they say are Iran’s most infamous human-rights abusers.

But just as the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center was ramping up to investigate abuses of protesters after this summer’s disputed presidential election, the group received word that - for the first time since it was formed - its federal funding request had been denied.

"If there is one time that I expected to get funding, this was it," said Rene Redman, the group’s executive director, who had asked for $2.7 million in funding for the next two years. “I was sur prised, because the world was watching human rights violations right there on television...."

Sunday, October 4, 2009

One of the Last Tests of Manhood: Super-Concentrated Hot Sauce


The Sunday Times (U.K.) has the full story by Jeremy Clarkson:

..." It’s an American chilli sauce that was bought by my wife as a joky Christmas present. And, like all joky Christmas presents, it was put in a drawer and forgotten about. It’s called limited-edition Insanity private reserve and it came in a little wooden box, along with various warning notices. “Use this product one drop at a time,” it said. “Keep away from eyes, pets and children. Not for people with heart or respiratory problems. Use extreme caution....

"The pain started out mildly, but I knew from past experience that this would build to a delightful fiery sensation. I was even looking forward to it. But the moment soon passed. In a matter of seconds I was in agony. After maybe a minute I was frightened that I might die. After five I was frightened that I might not.

"The searing fire had surged throughout my head. My eyes were streaming. Molten lava was flooding out of my nose. My mouth was a shattered ruin. Even my hair hurt.

"And all the time, I was thinking: 'If it’s doing this to my head, what in the name of all that's holy is it doing to my innards?' I felt certain that at any moment my stomach would open and everything — my intestines, my liver, my heart, even — would simply splosh onto the floor. This is not an exaggeration. I really did think I was dissolving from the inside out....

"...Nothing was working. And such was my desperation, I downed two litres of skimmed milk — something I would never normally touch with a barge pole. I was sweating profusely as my body frenziedly sought to realign its internal thermostat. I felt sick but didn’t dare regurgitate the poison for fear of the damage it would cause on the way out.

"Even now, the following morning, I feel weak, shell-shocked, like I may die at any moment. And all I’d ingested was a drop.

"Limited-edition Insanity sauce is ridiculous. It’s made in Costa Rica, from hot pepper extract, crushed red savina peppers, red tabasco pepper pulp, green tabasco pepper pulp, crushed red habanero peppers, crushed green habanero peppers, red habanero pepper powder and fruit juice.

"Well, that’s what it says on the tin. But I don’t believe it. I think it’s made from uranium, plutonium, fertiliser, sulphuric acid, nitric acid, hydrochloric acid and ammonia, with a splash of mace. I do not believe it’s a foodstuff. It’s a weapon...."

Friday, October 2, 2009

Which Story Deserves Top Billing?


Seems like Susan G. Komen for the Cure has the more important announcement: October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Although heart disease is deadlier, breast cancer concerns all women, as they provide most of the patients of this disease.

The summer Olympics will make its first appearance in South America, as Rio de Janeiro, Brazil is selected as host for the 2016 games, according to this article in Politico.com.

Chicago was wiped out in the first-round of balloting, making Obama’s trip to Copenhagen seem not just unsuccessful but entirely ineffective. Rio grabbed the Games.

A few Democrats were glum, some conservative commentators were downright gleeful and the White House went into high gear trying to explain that Obama had no regrets about making the trip – despite the fact that it exposed that his high-wattage international popularity could only take him so far.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Heroism from an Unlikely Source


It gives us great satisfaction to run a feel-good story like this from KDVR.com.

Cameron Aulner doesn't think of himself as a hero. The wheelchair-bound Colorado resident says he just did what anyone else would do when he saved a little girl from a child molester right in the Walmart where he works.

Witnesses say a man sexually assaulted a young girl inside a Walmart in Westminster on Sept. 19, picked her up and then tried to flee the store, KDVR FOX 31 TV reported.

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Sarah Palin Has a Best-Seller Even Before It's Published!


Politico.com has the following story:

Two days after the release date of Sarah Palin’s book was announced, it's already become the top seller at both Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com.


Palin’s publisher announced Monday that the former governor of Alaska and Republican vice presidential candidate had finished her memoir, "Going Rogue: An American Life," early and was moving the release date up from the spring to November 17.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0909/27773.html#ixzz0SdXIdkZ8

Tired of Being Abducted by Aliens? Buy Some Protection for Under $30!

ALIEN ABDUCTEE FROM AUSTRIA WEARING A THOUGHT SCREEN HELMET SHE MADE FROM DIRECTIONS ON THIS WEB SITE. "I have been abducted by aliens for years and found stopabductions.com by a happy coincidence. The Thought Screen Helmet, invented by an expert, has stopped the unwelcome visitations and has raised me and my family`s quality of life. Therefore I highly recommend it." IF YOU ARE ABDUCTED BY ALIENS THE HELMET WILL WORK FOR YOU.

Not All Chicagoans Welcome the Summer Olympics

NBC Sports ran a story that starts like this:

"The mayor, the president and Oprah Winfrey may hope to return to Chicago from Copenhagen with the 2016 Olympic Games, but some around town hope the International Olympic Committee deems the Second City the second city.

"As in second to Rio de Janeiro. Or Tokyo. Or Madrid...."

Count on Michelle Malkin to write a few choice words of her own about cities prostituting themselves for the honor of hosting the Olympics.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

NOAA Issues Tsunami Watch for Hawaii [Cancelled]

Tsunami Watch for Hawaii [Update: tsunami confirmed, 8.3 quake]
NOAA | 09-29-09 | USGS

Posted on Tuesday, September 29, 2009 12:52:37 PM by Right_Handed_Writer

BULLETIN TSUNAMI MESSAGE NUMBER 1 NWS PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER EWA BEACH HI 805 AM HST TUE SEP 29 2009

TO - CIVIL DEFENSE IN THE STATE OF HAWAII

SUBJECT - TSUNAMI WATCH

A TSUNAMI WATCH IS ISSUED FOR THE STATE OF HAWAII EFFECTIVE AT 0805 AM HST.

AN EARTHQUAKE HAS OCCURRED WITH THESE PRELIMINARY PARAMETERS

ORIGIN TIME - 0748 AM HST 29 SEP 2009 COORDINATES - 15.3 SOUTH 171.0 WEST LOCATION - SAMOA ISLANDS REGION MAGNITUDE - 7.9 MOMENT

EVALUATION

BASED ON ALL AVAILABLE DATA A TSUNAMI MAY HAVE BEEN GENERATED BY THIS EARTHQUAKE THAT COULD BE DESTRUCTIVE ON COASTAL AREAS EVEN FAR FROM THE EPICENTER. AN INVESTIGATION IS UNDERWAY TO DETERMINE IF THERE IS A TSUNAMI THREAT TO HAWAII.

IF TSUNAMI WAVES IMPACT HAWAII THE ESTIMATED EARLIEST ARRIVAL OF THE FIRST TSUNAMI WAVE IS

0111 PM HST TUE 29 SEP 2009

MESSAGES WILL BE ISSUED HOURLY OR SOONER AS CONDITIONS WARRANT.

Tsunami Warning as follows:

TSUNAMI BULLETIN NUMBER 001 PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER/NOAA/NWS ISSUED AT 1804Z 29 SEP 2009

THIS BULLETIN APPLIES TO AREAS WITHIN AND BORDERING THE PACIFIC OCEAN AND ADJACENT SEAS...EXCEPT ALASKA...BRITISH COLUMBIA... WASHINGTON...OREGON AND CALIFORNIA.

... A TSUNAMI WARNING AND WATCH ARE IN EFFECT ...

A TSUNAMI WARNING IS IN EFFECT FOR

AMERICAN SAMOA / SAMOA / NIUE / WALLIS-FUTUNA / TOKELAU / COOK ISLANDS / TONGA / TUVALU / KIRIBATI / KERMADEC IS / FIJI / HOWLAND-BAKER / JARVIS IS. / NEW ZEALAND / FR. POLYNESIA / PALMYRA IS.

UPDATE: The tsunami watche was cancelled about 11:00 a.m., HST.

More Political Cartoons for Our Time


I recognize that I'm taking a big gamble running the cartoon below, as any material critical of President Obama is considered treasonous, or at least racist.

Monday, September 28, 2009

2007 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) Discredited at Last

Ron Rosenbaum blurts out the ugly truth about a piece of disinformation that the leftist media used to clobber the Bush Administration with:

"Will all the pundits who relied on the discredited 2007 NIE on Iran now admit that they were wrong? That they bought into and kept citing, without any serious questioning, the now clearly politically skewed analysis in the so-called National Intelligence Estimate of that year? You remember: the considered consensus wisdom of the entire U.S. intelligence community, which misled the world into believing there was nothing to worry about Iran’s nuclear program, that it had virtually ceased. When, in fact, out of the three components of a nuclear weapons program, at most one might have been suspended, if that.

"Will the congressional intelligence committees demand to know how such a deliberately misleading report was being leaked and fed to the public by half-baked pundits even after (we now learn) they knew that some part of the “intelligence community” knew — before the the NIE was issued — about the secret nuclear fuel facility we’re now reading about? ..."

Not everyone in the "intelligence community" supported this particular NIE. I, for one, suspected all along that it was a thinly disguised political tract, and that Iran had never abandoned its nuclear ambitions.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Dr. Paul's Diagnosis: All of the Czars are Unconstitutional

"With 28 remaining czars in the Obama administration after the departure of Van Jones, there has been a new call to bring transparency to shed light on the secretive nature of this group of individuals that operate outside the watch of government. Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas) takes that sentiment a step further. In an interview with Dan Mangru of Newsmax TV, Paul said he believes that the czars are unconstitutional. 'They are not authorized (by the constitution), and not approved by the Senate, but Obama’s not the only guilty party.'” Read the rest of the story in Newsmax.com.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

What’s Next? Two-Ply Need Not Apply

This alarming news item appeared on my Facebook page today, courtesy of the Heritage Foundation.
Today at 12:11pm
First they came for your car. Then for your cheeseburger. Now those crazy environmentalists want to control how you wipe. No really. The Washington Post reports:

There is a battle for America’s behinds.

It is a fight over toilet paper: the kind that is blanket-fluffy and getting fluffier so fast that manufacturers are running out of synonyms for “soft” (Quilted Northern Ultra Plush is the first big brand to go three-ply and three-adjective).

It’s a menace, environmental groups say — and a dark-comedy example of American excess.

The reason, they say, is that plush U.S. toilet paper is usually made by chopping down and grinding up trees that were decades or even a century old. They want Americans, like Europeans, to wipe with tissue made from recycled paper goods.

So stock up while you can America, because Al Gore and Nancy Pelosi are coming after your bathroom. Again.

Not All Who Suffer from OCD Are Mentally Ill


This newly-published book was featured on NBC's "Today" show:

"What would you do if your previously normal child suddenly refused to bathe, burst into fits of rage, slithered along walls and wouldn’t walk out the front door? When Beth Maloney was faced with that situation she fought tooth and nail to reclaim her son, taking on members of the medical establishment who were too quick to label and treat him in a way that only made the symptoms worse. 'Saving Sammy: Curing the Boy Who Caught OCD' is her account of her remarkable and ultimately triumphant journey."

The boy, Sammy Maloney, was finally diagnosed with a strep infection, which attacked his brain (which is not common), and recovered after being treated with antibiotics.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Online Mental Health Counseling Is Convenient, but...

U.S. News and World Report has an article about telemental health counseling that mentions both the promises and pitfalls of a technique that is still in early stages of development.

"Therapy from afar. While the very notion of it makes some queasy, a growing number of people are seeking—and providing—mental-health help through nontraditional means, such as by telephone or videoconferencing or via E-mail or online chat. E-therapy petered out somewhat after the dot-com bubble burst, when several online "clinics" went bankrupt, but there's been a resurgence as technology has advanced, says John Grohol, a psychologist who is an expert in online mental health and founder of Psychcentral.com, a comprehensive website that features informational articles, support groups, professional blogs, self-help quizzes, and other resources for patients and professionals...."

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Yarr! We Almost Forgot Talk Like a Pirate Day!!!

The 19th of September is Talk Like a Pirate Day. UPI has the story.

Warning to Fellow Vets: Beware of This Scam!

Patient Care Group Scam

The Department of Veterans Affairs has received reports that veterans are being contacted by a "Patient Care Group" that is claiming they are helping to administer the VA's prescription medicine program. The "Patient Care Group" is saying the VA recently changed its pharmacy billing procedures, therefore a personal credit card number is now required for prescription payments in advance of filling those prescriptions. This is a scam! Do not provide credit card information over the phone to anyone who claims they represent the VA! The VA has not changed their pharmacy procedures, and they do not call and ask veterans to disclose personal financial information over the phone. If you should receive such a call, do not give them any information. Tell them you are busy and try to get a name and callback number. Report that information to your local police.

This advisory appeared on the VFW Arkansas Web site, but is being circulated through many other outlets.

The Least We Can Do

In keeping with our policy of being a military-friendly blog, we run the following story out of Missouri:

HIGH RIDGE, MO (KTVI - FOX2now.com) - An angry letter from a driver complaining about having to stop as a military funeral passed by has been met with dozens of even angrier responses. And the one written by the Jefferson County Sheriff has people cheering. That story begins near the intersection of I-270 and Gravois. On August 28th about 70 Patriot Guard riders were escorting the body of a local soldier from Lambert Airport to a funeral home in Cedar Hill.

The soldier was Sgt. Brian Woods, 32, who was shot and killed in Afghanistan. As has become a custom, the Patriot Guard motorcyclists helped law enforcement block intersections along the route for a few minutes so the casket and family could pass by.

But apparently one driver unhappy to be stopped, got into a loud argument with one of the motorcyclists blocking the way. And it did not stop there.

The next day the woman went on to send a complaining e-mail to Jefferson County Sheriff Glenn Boyer, even though it appears the incident actually happened in St. Louis County.

Among the things that driver wrote in the email, "this procession should never have been held during rush hour traffic!"

She went on to say, "I am proud of our country and sorry for the family, but they had no idea where I was going or anything else."

Sheriff Boyer, who is also a Vietnam veteran, promptly e-mailed a heartfelt response, which included this passage:

"My mother recently passed away. She was a World War II veteran, serving in the US Army. She would say 'Maybe you should pick up Sergeant Woods' ruck sack and carry on where he left off. Then you could see first hand what it really is to be inconvenienced.'"

Sheriff Boyer wanted employees of the county to know how he felt as well so he released copies of both emails.

And now they have hit the Internet.

By lunchtime Thursday, the sheriff already had about 150 emails thanking him for his response. The sheriff says he finds all the sudden attention embarrassing, and reminds us the real hero here was Sgt. Woods.

He is not disclosing what little information he has about the driver in part he says, "for her own safety," as you can imagine this is really getting people fired up.

Exchange of letters between complainant & Sheriff Boyer.

378 reader comments.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Carter on the Wrong Side of History (Again)


Here we go again! Ex-President Jimmy Carter has announced that resistance to Obama's health plan is a sure sign of racism, according to Colorado's own Stephen Green.

...Funny how the American people weren’t racists when we elected him. We weren’t racists when he Rahmed his $780 billion special-interest payoff through Congress. We weren’t racists when the polls supported the non-specific, hopey-changey version of his health care reform.

But when Americans pushed back — against having their heating bills doubled, against having their health care plans usurped — suddenly, now, yes, we’re racists. No less an authority than Jimmy Carter (and his peanut heads from Kos and HuffPo on down to Garofalo and other, even less successful, hangers-on) has said so.

So. Has the America which elected President Obama by a comfortable majority not even one year ago, become suddenly more racist than it was on November 8, 2008? Or, implausible as it may seem, has a center-right country unsurprisingly soured on a left-left President and his left-left-left-left-left enablers on Capital Hill and in the Washington press corps?

And could it be just barely possible, that even some center-left folks here in America be a little put off by their Commander-in-Cheif telling them to knock off all that oh-so-inconvenient “bickering” and back-talking?

It doesn’t take Occam’s razor to slice this one, does it?

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

News About ACORN That the Leftist Media Won't Touch

Yesterday I got this eyebrow-raising report from Free Republic:

Is ACORN Intentionally Structured As a Criminal Enterprise?
U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform July 20th 2009 | Committee Staff
Posted on Tuesday, September 15, 2009 7:39:45 PM by rob777
Here is a July 2009 congressional report -- titled "Is ACORN Intentionally Structured As a Criminal Enterprise?" -- that accused ACORN of massive fraud, money laundering, and racketeering directed from the highest levels of the organization's management.

It appears that they have been investigated, but nothing seems to have been done until the light got shined on the corruption.

Source: http://www.capitalresearch.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/7-23-09-ogr-acorn-report.pdf

Another juicy item from the Wall Street Journal's "Best of the Web Today":

The Wall Street Journal urges the U.S. Justice Department to undertake a criminal investigation of Acorn. This column echoes that call, although we wonder if the Obama administration is compromised here. The president, who as a candidate touted his background as a "community organizer," has extensive ties to Acorn. In February 2008, the Acorn Political Action Committee endorsed Obama over Hillary Clinton, and Obama's campaign Web site, Organizing for America, boasted of the candidate's support for the group:

When Obama met with ACORN leaders in November, he reminded them of his history with ACORN and his beginnings in Illinois as a Project Vote organizer, a nonprofit focused on voter rights and education. Senator Obama said, "I come out of a grassroots organizing background. That's what I did for three and half years before I went to law school. That's the reason I moved to Chicago was to organize. So this is something that I know personally, the work you do, the importance of it. I've been fighting alongside ACORN on issues you care about my entire career. Even before I was an elected official, when I ran Project Vote voter registration drive in Illinois, ACORN was smack dab in the middle of it, and we appreciate your work."

Monday, September 14, 2009

Patrick Swayze, 57, Succumbs to Pancreatic Cancer!


Here's a picture of Patrick Swayze in healthier days, when he starred in "Ghost" with Whoopi Goldberg. MSNBC.com has an obituary.

Monday, September 7, 2009

Running the Printing Presses Has Consequences, Part 1

This is only the beginning of something that will not end well. The Telegraph (U.K.) has this story:

China alarmed by US money printing(china to buy gold)
06 Sep 2009 | Ambrose Evans-Pritchard,

China alarmed by US money printing The US Federal Reserve's policy of printing money to buy Treasury debt threatens to set off a serious decline of the dollar and compel China to redesign its foreign reserve policy, according to a top member of the Communist hierarchy

By Comment on this article Working for the Yankee dollar: Beijing is said to be dismayed by the Fed's recourse to 'credit easing' Photo: Reuters Cheng Siwei, former vice-chairman of the Standing Committee and now head of China's green energy drive, said Beijing was dismayed by the Fed's recourse to "credit easing". "We hope there will be a change in monetary policy as soon as they have positive growth again..."

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Know Thy Enemy



Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals" can work for anyone, not just leftists, and some "right-wing extremists" are giving the Obamaphiliacs a taste of their own medicine. Some of these rules are ruthless, but they work. Here are the rules to be aware of:

RULE 1: "Power is not only what you have, but what the enemy thinks you have." Power is derived from 2 main sources - money and people. "Have-Nots" must build power from flesh and blood. (These are two things of which there is a plentiful supply. Government and corporations always have a difficult time appealing to people, and usually do so almost exclusively with economic arguments.)

RULE 2: "Never go outside the expertise of your people." It results in confusion, fear and retreat. Feeling secure adds to the backbone of anyone. (Organizations under attack wonder why radicals don't address the "real" issues. This is why. They avoid things with which they have no knowledge.)

RULE 3: "Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy." Look for ways to increase insecurity, anxiety and uncertainty. (This happens all the time. Watch how many organizations under attack are blind-sided by seemingly irrelevant arguments that they are then forced to address.)

RULE 4: "Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules." If the rule is that every letter gets a reply, send 30,000 letters. You can kill them with this because no one can possibly obey all of their own rules. (This is a serious rule. The besieged entity's very credibility and reputation is at stake, because if activists catch it lying or not living up to its commitments, they can continue to chip away at the damage.)

RULE 5: "Ridicule is man's most potent weapon." There is no defense. It's irrational. It's infuriating. It also works as a key pressure point to force the enemy into concessions. (Pretty crude, rude and mean, huh? They want to create anger and fear.)

RULE 6: "A good tactic is one your people enjoy." They'll keep doing it without urging and come back to do more. They're doing their thing, and will even suggest better ones. (Radical activists, in this sense, are no different that any other human being. We all avoid "un-fun" activities, and but we revel at and enjoy the ones that work and bring results.)

RULE 7: "A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag." Don't become old news. (Even radical activists get bored. So to keep them excited and involved, organizers are constantly coming up with new tactics.)

RULE 8: "Keep the pressure on. Never let up." Keep trying new things to keep the opposition off balance. As the opposition masters one approach, hit them from the flank with something new. (Attack, attack, attack from all sides, never giving the reeling organization a chance to rest, regroup, recover and re-strategize.)

RULE 9: "The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself." Imagination and ego can dream up many more consequences than any activist. (Perception is reality. Large organizations always prepare a worst-case scenario, something that may be furthest from the activists' minds. The upshot is that the organization will expend enormous time and energy, creating in its own collective mind the direst of conclusions. The possibilities can easily poison the mind and result in demoralization.)

RULE 10: "If you push a negative hard enough, it will push through and become a positive." Violence from the other side can win the public to your side because the public sympathizes with the underdog. (Unions used this tactic. Peaceful [albeit loud] demonstrations during the heyday of unions in the early to mid-20th Century incurred management's wrath, often in the form of violence that eventually brought public sympathy to their side.)

RULE 11: "The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative." Never let the enemy score points because you're caught without a solution to the problem. (Old saw: If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. Activist organizations have an agenda, and their strategy is to hold a place at the table, to be given a forum to wield their power. So, they have to have a compromise solution.)

RULE 12: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it." Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions. (This is cruel, but very effective. Direct, personalized criticism and ridicule works.)

A Thoughtful Blog Post in "Eternity Road"

Francis W. Porretto wrote the following essay, "Relief: A Sunday Rumination," that should resonate with many believers in the Christian world.

"..Anti-theists scoff at the idea that a benevolent God would countenance any degree of suffering among His creatures. Their usual argument is that an omnipotent, benevolent God could achieve any end He seeks without inflicting suffering or sorrow on anyone. Therefore, if He allows pain or sorrow, it's because He wills it -- which makes Him at least contextually malevolent, and therefore unworthy of worship.

"The argument is founded on a questionable premise: that omnipotence allows God to contradict Himself within the temporal realm. That is, that He could make proposition A and proposition not-A simultaneously true within our material, time-bound realm. But that's as impossible for God as it is for Man..."

More Czars Than Russia Ever Had

Glenn Beck made the following statement on the resignation of Van Jones:

"The American people stood up and demanded answers. Instead of providing them, the Administration had Jones resign under cover of darkness. I continue to be amazed by the power of everyday Americans to initiate change in our government through honest questioning, and judging by the other radicals in the administration, I expect that questioning to continue for the foreseeable future."

One down, 31 to go (list of Obama's czars).

Saturday, September 5, 2009

Where Is the Equality of Sacrifice?


It never ceases to amaze me how many sacrifices people are willing to make, as long as they perceive that these demands on their time, talents, and resources are distributed fairly. Hugh Hewitt, in his latest Townhall.com column, brings up the ugly fact that tort reform is not on the table at this time, and that trial lawyers (who are among the most generous contributors to Democratic candidates and causes) are still a protected class.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Have Some Kimchi - It's Good for You

This Breitbart article sings the praises of Korean pickled vegetables.

"You know why there are so many beautiful women in Korea and Korean women have such smooth skin? It's because they have been grown on kimchi," claims Kim Sung-Hoon, who chairs an upcoming Gwangju Kimchi Festival.

Ultra-Cool: Color Photos from Russia in the Early 1900's


This is an intriguing set of pictures from a country that hasn't progressed that much in the past century. From Newsweek. The photo on the left (St. Nil Monastery) is not part of the collection, but was taken during the pre-Bolshevik era.