News of the Week for June 21st, 2015
- Obama Scandals
- Gun Rights
- Hide the Decline
- Obamacare
- War & Terror
- National News
- Economy & Taxes
- International News
- Opinion
Obama Scandals
OPM Was Urged Last Year to Shut Down Systems Without a Valid Security Authorization but Refused
In 2014, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) urged the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to shut down computer systems which were operating without a current security authorization. OIG specifically warned the breach of some of the systems could have “national security implications.”
Obama wants to reengineer your neighborhood
This is what you get when you put a community organizer in the White House — he tries to reorganize your community from Washington.
Encryption “would not have helped” at OPM, says DHS official
Attackers had valid user credentials and run of network, bypassing security.
During European Tour, Michelle Obama Boasts of “Better Lunches in Our Schools”
As part of her European tour to promote “Let’s Move,” First Lady Michelle Obama boasted during a visit to Milan that American school children were eating better, thanks to her fight against obesity.
D.C. Officials Stole $110K From Children’s Program to Fund Obama Inaugural Ball
Neil S. Rodgers, a former D.C. government official, was sentenced Tuesday for his role in the misappropriation of $110,000 earmarked for D.C.’s Children at Risk and Drug Prevention Fund to cover a deficit for the 51st State Inaugural Ball for President Obama’s inauguration in 2009. Rodgers, found guilty of fraud in March, was sentenced to 36 days (served on weekends) plus two years of probation. Rodgers must also repay the entire $110,000 as restitution for his crime.
Gun Rights
Full 9th Circuit hears “Good Cause” 2A Ruling
During “en banc” hearing, one Circuit judge suggests permission to carry unloaded gun satisfies 2nd Amendment
Puerto Rico Goes Constitutional Carry
Most of us don’t think much about the US territories and commonwealths. Maybe we should.
Pope says weapons manufacturers can’t call themselves Christian
People who manufacture weapons or invest in weapons industries are hypocrites if they call themselves Christian, Pope Francis said on Sunday.
Karl Rove: Only Way To Stop The Violence Is To Repeal Second Amendment
Republican strategist Karl Rove said on “Fox News Sunday” the only way to stop gun-related violence, like the Wednesday massacre at Emmanuel African Methodist Church in Charleston S.C., was to repeal American citizens’ Second Amendment rights.
Hide the Decline
Environment &
“Green Energy”
America’s Most Advanced Climate Station Data Shows US In A 10-Year Cooling Trend
Data from America’s most advanced climate monitoring system shows the U.S. has undergone a cooling trend over the last decade, despite recent claims by government scientists that warming has accelerated worldwide during that time.
Obama Prepares More “Executive Actions” On Global Warming
President Barack Obama is preparing to unleash a series of “executive actions” aimed at boosting the green energy industry as part of the president’s global warming agenda.
Ecology Theology
I am not Catholic and I am not overly concerned about Pope Francis’s encyclical. But even us Protestants should remember that the Bible does have an ecology theology in it.
“Pope Francis Goes Off the Rails”
I wrote about the environmental encyclical today for Politico. Yes, there are beautiful and true things in it, but a lot of it is frankly bonkers
Someone Tell the Pope: Environmentalism Crushes the Poor
Yesterday the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity released a report that documents how the Obama administration’s war on coal (and on cheap energy generally) has hurt poor and middle-class Americans. While I can’t vouch for the calculations, the report is an impressive piece of work, based on energy consumption and price data from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration, along with data from the Census Bureau and the Congressional Budget Office.
Pope Francis Calls For “Cultural Revolution” To Fight Global Warming
The last “cultural revolution” killed millions.
“Stop eating Nutella” urges French environment minister
France’s environment minister, Segolene Royal, has rankled the company that makes Nutella by urging the public to stop eating its irresistible chocolate hazelnut spread, saying it contributes to deforestation.
Pope Francis Quotes Islamic Poet to Push Climate Change
Pope Francis I’s controversial climate change encyclical, which embodies redistributionist economic philosophy in the guise of environmentalism, and wraps all of that up in an eggshell-thin Biblical reinterpretation, doesn’t merely draw from secularist philosophy and environmentalist truisms: it draws from Muslim poet Ali al-Khawas.
Obamacare
Government in Healthcare
House GOP Plan To Save ObamaCare
The Supreme Court is expected to release it’s opinion in King vs. Burwell by the end of the month. At stake is the status of ObamaCare subsidies in the 36 states that did not elect to set up a state based exchange. If the Court rules for the plaintiffs it’s likely millions of people would have to pay the actual cost of their ObamaCare policies.
War & Terror
German tanks roll back into Poland
THE tiny Polish town of Swietoszow did not officially exist during the Cold War; as home to a massive but secret Soviet tank force ready to strike at the West, it was removed from all public maps and records.
China’s Military Practices Invading Taiwan
In a new analysis by Richard Fisher and James Hardy, IHS Jane’s reports that “A series of Chinese military exercises between late May and early June showcased the ability of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to project land, air, and naval power into the area around Taiwan.”
$50billion canal in Nicaragua could allow Chinese submarines to cross from the Atlantic to the Pacific undetected
Could be backed by Chinese government that wants foothold in the region
National
English teacher: why study Shakespeare? He’s a dead white guy
One of the bywords of the cultural revolution of the late 1960s when it his college campuses was “relevance.”
Ferguson Riots Were a Coordinated Astroturf Movement – Its Leaders Were Trained in Soros-Funded Agitation
The Ferguson protests and riots were never a grassroots movement. The mob action was a carefully coordinated Soros-funded astroturf movement bent on destruction.
Did Phony Sexual Harassment Allegations Sink Carl DeMaio? (#CA52)
Ex-Campaign Staffer Admits He Made Up Key Evidence
About Those Transgender Numbers
I’ve mentioned before that the number pushed by trans activists is that 0.3 percent of the population is transgendered. This seems high–incredibly high–because it would mean that there’s one trans person for every five homosexuals in America, and I’m not sure that comports with anyone’s anecdotal experience.
Las Vegas City Councilman Bob Beers drops bid for U.S. Senate
Now that Harry Reid has announced his retirement from the U.S. Senate, there’s no shortage of elected officials interested in the job. But Las Vegas City Councilman Bob Beers won’t be one of them.
Teacher suspended after saying she hates “white people,” outing lesbian student
Some teachers will just say the darndest things.
US Prosecutor Now Sending Criminal DNA Testing In DC To Lab Run By His Girlfriend
The Assistant U.S. attorney who handles DNA and forensics litigation in the District of Columbia stopped sending cases to the city’s independent forensics lab in January, in favor of a private lab run by his girlfriend.
Studies Show: Conservatives are More Tolerant Than Liberals
We are often told, usually by liberals, that liberals are exceedingly tolerant. “Tolerance” is one of their buzzwords but, in practice, that can be awfully hard to see. While they are exceedingly tolerant of their own viewpoints, they tend to get a little upset when confronted by opinions which differ from their own.
Geraldo Rivera Declares White Jeb Bush “At Least As Latino” As Marco Rubio And “Far More Latino” Than Ted Cruz…
While Geraldo is “nearly as” pompous as Barack Obama and “one of the biggest” douchebags in the world.
Titan Has More Oil Than Earth
Saturn’s smoggy moon Titan has hundreds of times more natural gas and other liquid hydrocarbons than all the known oil and natural gas reserves on Earth, scientists said today.
Why The Trans Fat Ban Is Worse Than You Think
Food fascists ban a perfectly benign ingredient
71% of MSNBC Viewers Agree — You Can Be Black if You Want
It’s okay, do what feels right.
“Heterosexual Privilege” Bulletin Board in University of Wisconsin Dorm Creates Controversy
If you’re one of the 600+ students living in Ogg Hall at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, you’ve noticed a bulletin board near the first floor elevators. It wasn’t the board’s colorful design and cutouts that has caused a stir the campus community, it was one of the flaps on the interactive educational piece which defined the term “heterosexual privilege” as “benefits automatically derived from being or being perceived as being heterosexual.”
Listen to Donna Shalala Call Hillary Clinton Paranoid
In previously unreleased audio recordings, current Clinton Foundation CEO Donna Shalala said the Clintons became “paranoid” about “right-wing conspiracies” shortly after they moved into the White House in 1993.
This Is What a School District’s $100K-Per-Year White-Privilege Conference Teaches
Youre racist and everything is all your fault.
Profiles in Surgically Applied Social Engineering: Caden Boone
The ick factor isn’t the worst aspect of the recent establishment push to promote transsexuality particularly among youth. Vulnerable kids are getting hurt in horrific and permanent ways.
Mexico Deports More Immigrants Back to Central America than the U.S. Does
Mexico now deports more Central American migrants than the United States, a dramatic shift since the U.S. asked Mexico for help a year ago with a spike in illegal migration, especially among unaccompanied minors.
Revealed: Dylann Roof named Charleston as his target in twisted online “manifesto” where he rants that black people are “stupid and violent” and how he wanted to turn every Jew BLUE for 24 hours
Wished he could “turn every Jew blue” to emphasize that they are different
Yet Another Student Stopped From Handing Out U.S. Constitutions on Campus
It’s astounding that this has happened more than once at an American college.
Anti-capitalist professor makes students buy his book, then ignores it in class
“A socialist who is truly a capitalist feeding on the naivetés of college students”
Burbank High School teacher’s Shakespeare aversion draws national attention
Most high school English teachers adore William Shakespeare’s works. Dana Dusbiber does not.
Walker wows social conservatives with attacks on Obama, puts GOP rivals on notice
Just weeks away from possibly joining the 2016 race, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker thrilled a crowd of social conservatives Saturday night with a withering attack on President Obama’s record while putting his potential GOP rivals on notice that he plans to run on his record as a get-it-done governor.
Republicans lag behind on voter information
The Republican National Committee’s plans for the 2014 midterm election went far beyond taking control of Congress: They were to put in motion a massive technology push aimed at capturing the White House in 2016.
Flashback: As Governor, Bill Clinton Honored Confederacy On Arkansas Flag
As the fight to remove the Confederate flag from the state House grounds in South Carolina heats up, politicians are weighing in on the debate.
Guess the Political Party: AP Photo Lines Pistol Up with Senator, 2016 Candidate Ted Cruz’s Brain
That puts him in proximity with guns and gun posters, as seen in this picture from Associated Press photog Charlie Neibergall, more often than Democrats.
Economy & Taxes
House Passes Trade Promotion Authority Bill
The House narrowly passed Trade Promotion Authority Thursday — the first step of many to resurrect President Barack Obama’s trade agenda after his own party torpedoed a combined bill last week.
ECB not sure if Greek banks would open on Monday- officials
The European Central Bank told a meeting of euro zone finance ministers on Thursday that it was not sure if Greek banks, which have been suffering large daily deposit outflows, would be able to open on Monday, officials with knowledge of the talks said.
Venezuela’s Economy Spirals
U.S. company PBF is buying the Chalmette oil refinery, a “joint venture” between Exxon Mobil and Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA), Venezuela’s state-owned oil company. The sale appears to be, at least in part, an attempt by Venezuela to round up some cash quickly, after the country spent large amounts of its reserves in recent months.
International
Whoa! RED FRANCIS Calls for New Global Authority to Redistribute Wealth in Name of Global Warming
Commie Pope Francis called for a NEW GLOBAL AUTHORITY to redistribute wealth in the name of global warming in his papal encyclical that was leaked to the press.
Huge Loss For Free Speech In Europe: Human Rights Court Says Sites Liable For User Comments
Last year we wrote about a very dangerous case going to the European Court of Human Rights: Delfi AS v. Estonia, which threatened free expression across Europe. Today, the ruling came out and it’s a disaster. In short, websites can be declared liable for things people post in comments.
Boris Johnson “could be breaching sex discrimination laws” for defending Sir Tim Hunt over sexism row
Boris Johnson could be breaching gender discrimination laws after he came to the defence of Sir Tim Hunt, the Nobel laureate who resigned over comments about women in science, an MP has claimed.
Animal rights group claims responsibility for setting two truck fires at Toronto-area research lab
Police are investigating claims that an animal rights group is responsible for setting fire to two trucks in Mississauga last Sunday morning.
Danish prime minister concedes defeat and resigns as party leader
Danish voters have ousted the centre-left government of Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt, and have today voted for an opposition in which the anti-immigration Danish People’s Party has emerged as the biggest force.
South Africa’s long walk to decline
The end of apartheid was signalled 25 years ago today – but South Africa’s dreams lie in tatters
Belgian Doctors Are Euthanizing Patients Without Their Consent
A study published this month in the Journal of Medical Ethics examined the “deliberate” euthanasia of patients in Belgium without their explicit, voluntary consent as required by law.
Give children under 12 the right to die, say Dutch paediatricians
Proposal to expand some of world’s most liberal euthanasia laws to allow terminally ill children in unbearable suffering right to die
Girl murdered by soldiers because they could not decide who would rape her first as Sudan’s troops slaughter 129 children by castrating boys and throwing families into burning houses
Children have been raped and murdered during the 18-month civil war
At least three killed in Austria after man drives into crowd before “stabbing passers-by” in Graz
A seven-year-old boy is reportedly among the three people killed in Austria by a man who ploughed his car into crowds in the country’s second-largest city and then reportedly started stabbing people.
Opinion
The Nation is Not Your Extended Family
Nobel laureate economist F.A.Hayek first revolutionized economists’ understanding of markets, and then profoundly challenged the public’s understanding of government.
Why the Magna Carta Wasn’t Enough to Secure Limits on Government
Americans should light 800 candles for the birthday of the document that began paving the meandering path to limited government. Magna Carta laid down the law about “fish weirs” on English rivers, “assizes of darrein presentment,” people being “distrained to make bridges,” and other “liberties . . . to hold in our realm of England in perpetuity.” But what King John accepted at Runnymede meadow on June 15, 1215, matters to Americans because of something that happened 588 years later in the living room of Stelle’s Hotel in Washington, where the Library of Congress now sits.
America’s Progressive Autoimmune Crisis Continues Apace
If I’ve made one point over the last 20 years, it’s that you can never put too much cheese on anything involving meat. Coming in a close second is that the reason I’m a conservative is that I believe conservatism and libertarianism are only partial philosophies of life. Obviously, this is even more the case for libertarianism than it is for conservatism, but both schools of thought set relatively clear boundaries for what politics should touch. Not so for what we call liberalism.
You Will Be Assimilated
The same-sex marriage bait-and-switch
The True Myth of Magna Carta
Today, Britain, America, and other Anglosphere countries celebrate the 800th Anniversary of the sealing of Magna Carta. In that meadow, tranquil to today (at least when Her Majesty the Queen isn’t there) occurred a tumult so momentous that its echoes still reverberate today. Others have written about those echoes in America. But it shouldn’t just be Anglosphere nations celebrating today — Magna Carta’s idea of constitutional government can be seen in Hungary (just a few years later), Denmark, Aragon (the Privileges of the Union under King Alfonso III), Scotland, the low countries, and even Poland.
Happy Birthday, Magna Carta
Today is the 800th anniversary of the signing of the first Magna Carta. There was more than one “Magna Carta” from those olden times, with later versions being perhaps more legally significant—I once got to see an original King Edward Magna Carta owned privately by a collector in Australia—but the first one was the most politically important.
800 years on, why Magna Carta still matters
The document that built a “brazen wall” to guard the individual from the state.
Has the federal government ever had sex?
The act of sex is not illegal. But if two members of the American Law Institute have their way, it will be — unless you follow their rules.
The Magna Carta and the “800-Year Struggle for Liberty”
The signing of the Magna Carta, 800 years ago, was one of the most monumental events in human history. Originally created as a compromise between British nobles and King John at Runnymede, near London, on June 15, 1215, this compact assured that the basic rights of British citizens could not be violated. It would move the English-speaking world in a direction of putting law above men, even kings.
Male and female are different: hardly earth-shattering news
Recognising that boys and girls differ but are also equal might unlock the talents of both sexes
Why Hollywood Censors Your Summer Blockbusters
For generations, the movie industry was on the front lines battling censorship. These days, studios prefer Chinese money to free expression.
Sexism and Racism Are Leftism
In our time, sexism and racism have become the province of the rich.
Bloc Party: The Far Left Stages a Coup
Something happened last month that mostly went unnoticed among rank-and-file politicos. The ground shifted underneath their feet, under the weight of a barrage of leaked email stories, foundation donation revelations and rehearsed campaign appearances. Hillary Clinton made her official announcement for President and embarked on a hard-of-hearing tour across America that went so well that the only thing people remember from it is her turning up on grainy security camera footage looking more like a fugitive on “America’s Most Wanted” than the all-but-assured Democrat nominee.
We Need a Magna Carta for the Regulatory State
It’s been 800 years since England’s King John signed the Magna Carta and acknowledged that a sovereign’s authority was limited.
Obama wants to reengineer your neighborhood
This is what you get when you put a community organizer in the White House — he tries to reorganize your community from Washington.
Yeah, I wouldn’t be pushing the progressive model on families just yet
Both blue state and red state family models have positive and negative aspects. In the blue states, marriage is typically delayed; it has a more egalitarian approach (women in breadwinning positions, more participation in childrearing from the husbands); and as a result–the divorce rate is low. The New York Times’ Ross Douthat has explored this cultural landscape of marriage and economics in his piece, where he often points to the progressive masses that they haven’t truly won the redefining of marriage in post-sexual revolution America just yet.
UC teaching faculty members not to criticize race-based affirmative action, call America “melting pot,” and more
One of the latest things in universities, including at University of California (where I teach) is condemning “microaggressions,” supposed “brief, subtle verbal or non-verbal exchanges that send denigrating messages to the recipient because of his or her group membership (such as race, gender, age or socio-economic status).” Such microaggressions, the argument goes, can lead to a “hostile learning environment,” which UC — and the federal government – views as legally actionable. This is stuff you could get disciplined or fired for, especially if you aren’t a tenured faculty member.
Alexander Hamilton: Immigrant, Bastard, Patriot
Alexander Hamilton was a bastard, but he was a righteous bastard.
Europe’s Intolerable “Tolerance”
Former Prime Minister Tony Blair has accepted an invitation to become chairman of the European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation (ECTR). The ECTR boasts an advisory board comprising a dozen European presidents and prime ministers. It describes itself as a non-governmental body that “fosters understanding and tolerance among peoples of various ethnic origin; educates on techniques of reconciliation; facilitates post-conflict social apprehensions; monitors chauvinistic behaviours, proposes protolerance initiatives and legal solutions.”
Title IX needs reform
The anti-discrimination law known as Title IX is meant to protect students from gender-based discrimination, but it has been used over the years to perpetuate it.
Celebrating Juneteenth
To reflect on freedom
To Stop Mass Killers, We Have To Stop Drugging Our Young Boys
As America comes to terms with a monstrous shooting in Charleston that has left nine churchgoers dead, bewildered members of the public are seeking rationality in apparently wanton and inscrutable crimes.
The “don’t you dare say that” drive for campus “diversity”
Faculty leaders at a top US university system are being told to avoid such offensive statements as “America is the land of opportunity,” “Everyone can succeed in this society, if they work hard enough” and “There is only one race, the human race.”
Fundamental Concepts – E pluribus unum
Last week a waste of human skin with the unlikely named of Dylann Storm Roof walked into an historically black church in SC and opened fire. When he was finished 9 people were dead. While many things are still unclear about the atrocity, it does seem pretty clear that Roof’s primary motivation was racial hate. Predictable, the left has reacted with reasoned calls not to overreact to the actions of one lone lunatic, reminding us that we must remember that Roof is representative of no one except Roof.
Reading Tea Leaves on the 2015 Supreme Court Term
For What It Is Worth
Anti-bullying law may have widespread unintended consequences
In his latest book, “The Rule of Nobody: Saving America from Dead Laws and Senseless Bureaucracy,” Philip K. Howard writes about how American lawmakers have abandoned all pretext of common sense and letting people just work things out. For any ill that could possibly befall anyone, there has to be a law.
The Marquess de Queensbury Rules
Terry Pratchett, famously tuckerizing the Marquess de Queensbury as the Marquis de Fantailer said the Marquis was a small and timid man who made rules about all the places people weren’t allowed to hit him.
