News of the Week for May. 12th, 2013
- Gun Rights
- Hide the Decline
- Obamacare
- War & Terror
- National News
- Economy & Taxes
- International News
- Opinion
Gun Rights
Constituent at town hall stands up against Senator Joe Manchin
Post-Newtown, NRA membership surges to 5 million
Efforts to pass gun-control legislation have only made the National Rifle Association stronger, as the membership rolls now surpass a record 5 million, NRA Vice President Wayne LaPierre told the gun rights group’s annual meeting Saturday.
Democratic Congresswoman admits she wants national gun registry: “It helps us find them for you”
Joining protestors outside the National Rifle Association’s annual conference in Houston on Saturday, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) told TheBlaze in an exclusive interview that she would support legislation that created a national registry of firearms.
Brewer signs bill authorizing volunteer state militia
Gov. Jan Brewer has signed a bill creating a state militia that she could deploy at any time, and for any reason.
Conn. Senator: NRA ‘Morphing Into a Paramilitary Group’
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), stinging over the defeat of gun-control legislation, called new NRA president Jim Porter “really kind of the wing nuts’ wing nut.”
Second Grader Suspended For Holding Pencil Like Gun
A Suffolk school suspended a second grader for pointing a pencil at another student and making gun noises. Seven-year-old Christopher Marshall says he was playing with another student in class Friday, when the teacher at Driver Elementary asked them to stop pointing pencils at each other. “When I asked him about it, he said, ‘Well I was being a Marine and the other guy was being a bad guy,’” said Paul Marshall, the boy’s father. “It’s as simple as that.”
Man Arrested For Allegedly Shooting Realistic Toy Gun With Kids In Queens Park
Suspect’s Wife: ‘I Feel Like A Victim’ Because Of Parents’ Overreaction
New Jersey legislators caught on tape talking about their true intentions regarding guns
“We needed a bill that was going to confiscate, confiscate, confiscate.”
Hide the Decline
Environment &
“Green Energy”
Benchmarking IPCC’s warming predictions
The IPCC’s forthcoming Fifth Assessment Report continues to suggest that the Earth will warm rapidly in the 21st century. How far are its projections short of observed reality?
EPA Methane Report: Is Fracking Greener Than Previously Thought?
The Environmental Protection Agency has dramatically lowered its estimate of how much of a potent heat-trapping gas leaks during natural gas production, in a shift with major implications for a debate that has divided environmentalists: Does the recent boom in fracking help or hurt the fight against climate change?
The anti-fracking indoctrination rap for middle-schoolers
At Evergreen Middle School in Colorado, just an academic exploration by the representatives of a political environmental group called the Earth Guardians, including a pretty pathetic anti-fracking rap, with a call-back section for your middle school student, for maximum creepy indoctrination effect
Boxer Blows Up on Senate GOP for Boycotting EPA Hearing
Environment and Public Works Committee chairwoman Barbara Boxer seethed over her Republican colleagues’ boycotting a hearing for President Obama’s nominee to head the EPA, Gina McCarthy, repeatedly calling them “fringe.” “This is outrageous,” Boxer said ”They’re fringe, they’re out of the mainstream, they’re trying to force their pro-pollution stance on the Obama administration.”
US Government Spent $11 Million Per ‘Green Job’ Created
Without much fanfare, the Department of Energy (DOE) recently updated the list of loan guarantee projects on its website. Unlike in 2008, when Barack Obama pledged to create 5 million jobs over 10 years by directing taxpayer funds toward renewable energy projects, there were no press conferences or stump speeches. But the data are nonetheless revealing: for the over $26 billion spent since 2009, DOE Section 1703 and 1705 loan guarantees have created only 2,298 permanent jobs for a cost of over $11.45 million per job.
Obamacare
Government in Healthcare
Budget request denied, Sebelius turns to health executives to finance Obamacare
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has gone hat in hand to health industry executives, asking them to make large financial donations to help with the effort to implement President Obama’s landmark health-care law.
Nobody Has Any Idea What’s Going on in Our Health Care System
The federal government has just released new data about Medicare reimbursement rates showing that the price of treatments vary widely from hospital to hospital. The data, drawn from 3,300 hospitals across the country, looked at how much each facility charged for the hundred most common treatments.
War & Terror
‘Activist’ Bill Ayers: ‘I’m against violence’
Amazingly some 40-plus years after his days as a terrorist people still invite this loser to speak at a college campus. But hey, all he did was some property damage or some, unlike that murderer John McCain.
Domestic Terrorists Teaching At Colleges?
Controversy ensued when the news broke that Kathy Boudin, former member of the Weather Underground who was convicted in 1984 of felony murder, received the position of adjunct professor at Columbia University. While it may be ironic that Boudin received a teaching position at a university she was plotted to bomb, she is not the only former domestic terrorist to receive such a position.
Five Key Points from Today’s Benghazi Hearing
Criminal Charges Aside, the Air Force’s Sexual Assault Prevention Program Advises Victims To Submit
In a bit of news that brings to mind, “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?” it seems that an Air Force brochure offering advice on “Sexual Assault Prevention & Response” offers nuggets of wisdom that are … umm … just a bit awkward, in light of the arrest, for sexual assault, of the guy in charge of the Air Force’s sexual assault prevention program.
What Cover-Up? Benghazi Talking Points Underwent 12 Revisions, Scrubbed of Terror Reference
We could see a revision here or there to clarify things, but when you have to revise your cover-up story 12 times, we’re starting to thing you have something to hide. Time to get all involved under oath. At some point they’ll start turning on each other.
Benghazi Hall of Shame
Remembering the officials and commentators who inaccurately blamed a murderous attack at least in part on an obscure YouTube trailer.
National
IRS knew tea party targeted in 2011
Senior Internal Revenue Service officials knew agents were targeting tea party groups as early as 2011, according to a draft of an inspector general’s report obtained by The Associated Press that seemingly contradicts public statements by the IRS commissioner.
10 crazy things the IRS asked Tea Party groups
The Internal Revenue Service admitted Friday to improperly targeting conservative groups for aggressive applications processes for tax exempt status in 2012, using the terms “Tea Party” and “patriot” as flags. Here are some of the things they wanted to know about those groups.
In Minnesota, Dems gone wild
Marc Thiessen recently recalled that after he was defeated for reelection in 1989, New York Mayor Ed Koch was asked if he would ever run for office again. “No,” Koch replied. “The people have spoken…and they must be punished.”
Heritage Study: Gang of Eight’s Legalization to Cost Taxpayers a Net $6.3 Trillion
Legalizing the current population of illegal immigrants would cost American taxpayers a minimum of $6.3 trillion over the lifetimes of those immigrants, according to a Heritage Foundation study released Monday
Richardson on Cruz: ‘I Don’t Think He Should Be Defined as a Hispanic’
Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson joined ABC News for a web interview after his appearance on the “This Week” roundtable on Sunday, answering viewer questions about his time as governor, his experience meeting with the Taliban, and his thoughts on Korean ruler Kim Jong-Un. When asked about Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Richardson expressed his distaste for the senator.
PC Word Police Update: New Law in Washington State Bans Words ‘Fisherman,’ ‘Penmanship,’ ‘Freshman,’ ‘Journeyman,’ Calling Them ‘Sexist’ Words
Political correctness has reared its statist, reactionary head again in Washington state, this time over words used in its written laws that Democrat lawmakers consider to be “sexist.”
Lauryn Hill Blames Slavery as She’s Jailed for $500,000 Unpaid Tax Bill
Reclusive soul superstar Lauryn Hill has been jailed over an enormous unpaid tax bill.
Illinois’ GOP chief resigns – effective immediately
Embattled Illinois Republican Party chairman Pat Brady has resigned.
Rise of the Republican Governors
A new liberal era? Not according to these reformers.
Occupy Mic Check!: Communism Is Good And I Have A Flag To Prove It!
Moonbat Teacher Paid $85,000 for Stomping on American Flag in Front of Class
Remember Scott Compton, the English teacher who entertained his class by taking down the US flag and theatrically stomping on it? Since this occurred in deep red South Carolina, people didn’t like it. So Compton got a lawyer
Leroy Carhart, the most well-known doctor performing late-term abortions in the United States, is on video comparing a poisoned, dead baby in a womb to a piece of meat in a Crock-Pot.
Carhart has claimed, as the conventional rhetoric of the abortion industry goes, that the late-term abortions he does in Maryland involve babies with “anomalies.” But in Nebraska, as we see on the video, he is willing to schedule elective late-term abortions, and he certainly makes it sound routine
(Now-Republican) Alabaman legislature strikes blow for individual liberty
Legalizing homebrewing, of course.
The College Bubble Has Popped
With the cost of tuition exploding higher, student loan delinquency rates on the rise, and wages for college grads going nowhere, young people are increasingly asking themselves if higher education is really worth it.
Federal Government mandates unconstitutional speech codes at colleges and universities nationwide
In a shocking affront to the United States Constitution, the U.S. Departments of Justice and Education have joined together to mandate that virtually every college and university in the United States establish unconstitutional speech codes that violate the First Amendment and decades of legal precedent.
Syracuse University Expels Student Over Facebook Comments
Syracuse University School of Education graduate student Matthew Werenczak was just trying to finish his masters degree early when he decided to take a summer course that involved tutoring at a local middle school. But after a comment he posted on Facebook about an experience he had at the school caught the attention of the Syracuse administration, Werenczak would be lucky if he graduated at all.
IRS apologizes for targeting conservative groups
The Internal Revenue Service inappropriately flagged conservative political groups for additional reviews during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax-exempt status, a top IRS official said Friday.
IRS apologizes for targeting conservative groups
The Internal Revenue Service apologized Friday for inappropriately flagging conservative political groups for additional reviews during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax-exempt status.
IRS apologizes for targeting conservative groupsFredreka Schouten, USA TODAY and Stephen Ohlemacher, Associated Press
The Internal Revenue Service apologized Friday for inappropriately flagging conservative political groups for additional reviews during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax-exempt status.
Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert Downplay Benghazi Response, Attack Critics Instead
One of the unwritten rules of comedy is to always attack the people in power. Apparently, that concept has mostly eluded Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, who have staunchly defended the reaction by President Barack Obama and his administration to the death of four Americans in the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, 2012.
Spontaneous Order Experiments Take Hold in Detroit
As Detroit’s call-it-anything-but-bankruptcy budget crisis drags on and the city government is unable to provide the most basic of services, residents have discovered an alternative to lawless anarchy: cooperative anarchy!
World Web Consortium warms HTML bed for forced DRM snuggle
Web fragmentation argument beaten by web fragmentation defence
Elizabeth Warren finds way to inflate Higher Ed bubble even more
Warren’s first bill should be called the “Harvard Tuition Subsidization Act of 2013”
New York City Council to discuss allowing non-citizens to vote in city elections
An effort in 2004 to allow non-citizen voting in city elections failed; deciding who can vote has been seen as a power held by the state Legislature
FBI Was Tracking Nine NY Democrats in Corruption Probe
Federal investigators were tracking nine Democrats in a probe involving State Senator Shirley Huntley, who wore a wire to record conversations with her colleagues.
Economy
& Taxes
Businesses Hightail It out of Argentina
A huge Argentine agribusiness has just fled the country for Brazil. The FT reports that high inflation and skyrocketing land costs have pushed El Tejar to move to land the company bought in São Paulo
New York pays more police in retirement than to patrol our streets — yet pols do nothing to address our skyrocketing pension costs
Last week, Mayor Bloomberg scolded the NYPD’s critics, from The New York Times to the Democratic mayoral candidates. The mayor said that “the attacks most often come from those who play no constructive role in keeping our city safe.”
Report: California governments could be $1.1 trillion in debt
California’s state and local governments are at least $648 billion in debt and the total could surpass $1.1 trillion — depending on how pension liabilities are calculated — according to a data compilation by a conservative think tank.
The Real Cypriot “Blueprint” – How To Confiscate $32 Trillion In “Offshore Wealth”
The Cypriot deposit confiscation has come and gone (and in a parallel world in which the global Bernanke-put never existed and in which bank shareholders were not untouchable, this is precisely how real-time bank restructurings should have taken place), but fears remain that the country’s “resolution” mechanism will be the template for future instances of “resolving” insolvent banks. That may or may not be the case: the only way to know for sure is during the next European bank bailout, but one thing is certain – Cyprus was certainly a template when it comes to how a world full of insolvent sovereigns (all engaged in currency warfare), where easing, quantitative or otherwise no longer works to boost the economy, will approach what is the last chance for monetary replenishment – taxation of financial assets, just as we warned first back in 2011.
Sen. Ted Cruz Speaks in Opposition to the Internet Sales Tax
10,962,532: U.S. Disability Beneficiaries Exceed Population of Greece
The total number of people in the United States now receiving federal disability benefits hit a record 10,962,532 million in April, which exceeds the 10,815,197 people who live in the nation of Greece.
The IRS Explains Its Targeting Of Conservatives
Courtesy of WaPo’s Zachary Goldfarb, it appears the IRS, just like its former tax-challenged head Tim “TurboTax” Geithner, has some problems with simple math.
Colorado Lawmakers Set Taxes And Rules For Marijuana Sales
Colorado is set to become the first U.S. state to regulate and tax sales of recreational marijuana, after lawmakers approved several bills that set business standards and rules. Legislators expect enforcement of the rules to be paid for by two taxes on marijuana — a 15 percent excise tax, and a 10 percent sales tax.
Kevyn Orr: Detroit Is In Worse Shape Than I Thought
Detroit’s emergency manager says the city is bleeding much more red ink than originally thought. That’s what Kevyn Orr told WWJ City Beat Reporter Vickie Thomas in an exclusive one-on-one interview.
China may not overtake America this century after all
Doubts are growing about whether China can pass the US to become the world’s biggest economy this century amid warnings that the country’s 30-year miracle is nearing exhaustion.
Argentina’s Modest Proposal: Buy Bonds Or Go To Jail
While Argentina’s recent extraordinary attempts at central planning have been widely documented, ranging from freezing supermarket prices in a (failed) attempt to control inflation, to banning advertising in a (failed) attempt to weaken the private media, so far nothing has worked at stabilizing the economy and preventing the collapse in the domestic currency (if leading to such humorous viral videos as #mequieroir).
A third of Americans would shun a Chinese brand
A third of Americans would not buy a brand if they knew it to be Chinese-owned, according to a latest survey from HD Trade Services Inc, a US marketing and brand development company.
International
How rise of ‘white flight’ is creating a segregated UK: Study reveals white Britons are ‘retreating’ from areas dominated by ethnic minorities
Census figures show white Britons are leaving areas where they are minority
Think-tank says survey reveals ‘spiral of white British demographic decline’
A Conservative-Ukip coalition might come sooner than you think
The prospect of a Tory-Ukip coalition is no longer theoretical. A blue-purple pact – which I think this blog may have been the first to propose – is now at least a mathematical possibility in Cambridgeshire, East Sussex, Gloucestershire and Lincolnshire.
Teacher posts sexually explicit brochures in Grade 7 and 8 classroom
A public school teacher has been ordered to work from home after posting explicit sex-education brochures in his Grade 7 and 8 classroom.
European Commission to criminalize nearly all seeds and plants not registered with government
A new law proposed by the European Commission would make it illegal to “grow, reproduce or trade” any vegetable seeds that have not been “tested, approved and accepted” by a new EU bureaucracy named the “EU Plant Variety Agency.”
Japanese claim on Okinawa challenged in China
China’s leading newspaper has upped the ante in the country’s intensifying territorial dispute with Japan, claiming its high time both sides “re-examine” who has sovereignty over Okinawa – which hosts a massive US military contingent.
Minorities in Pakistan not safe even outside jails
For the minorities in Pakistan, life outside prison is just one degree less suffocating than that behind bars, as evidenced by the accounts of refugees, around 6,000, living in Indore.
UK Study Shines Light on Men’s Struggles
We’ve already seen how American men are falling behind in college education and how the evaporation of industries geared toward male workers has left many men unemployed. But the problems aren’t limited to the United States. The UK’s Guardian compiled statistics that show how British men are struggling in a six other areas: prison sentencing, employment, education, homelessness, and suicide. Obviously, the results are specific to Brtiain, but there are a number of parallels to things happening here.
Professor Farage Teaches
Everything you wanted to know about the EU but were afraid to ask. Don’t be: Here’s an excellent presentation by the UKIP leader on what is fundamentally wrong with the European Union.
Boy suspended after sandwich thrown, but students mob Prime Minister Julia Gillard at Marsden High
PRIME Minister Julia Gillard says she’s treating a sandwich attack at a Queensland school as a laughing matter – but won’t be offering a Prime Ministerial pardon.
Boris Johnson: leaving Europe a shot in the arm for democracy
British democracy would receive “a shot in the arm” if the UK left the European Union, Boris Johnson has said.
Tutu: I won’t vote for the ANC
Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu will not vote for the ANC, he wrote in an opinion piece carried by the Mail&Guardian on Friday.
Opinion
In Obama we trust
The Founders warned against the tyranny of the majority. They knew that unconstrained majorities were the bane of liberty. Up through their time, history had shown all known democracies to be “incompatible with personal security or the rights of property.” They formulated the Constitution to protect the rights of citizens against the tyranny of the majority. Publius put it this way in Federalist 10
PC Dictatorships and Double Standards
“Dictatorships and Double Standards” is of course the title of Jeane Kirkpatrick’s famous Commentary article about how “human rights” liberals of the time were hard on our allies who had less than stellar human rights records, but supine in the face of totalitarians like the Soviet Union and its allies such as Cuba. (Because, as we all know, Cuba’s literacy and universal health care are more important than bourgeois rights like free speech, etc.)
How The GOP Must Restore The Republic
We Can Be The Alternative To The Coming Big Government Chernobyl
When Will America Burst D.C.’s Bubble?
Eighteen Starbucks shops can be found in the three-mile walk from DuPont Circle to the U.S. Capitol. Not one of them had a line less than seven people deep on a recent Wednesday afternoon.
Victor Davis Hanson: The Great California Land Rush
I have lived on the same farm for 59 years and seen at least three boom-and-bust farm cycles — one in the late 1960s, another in the early 1980s, and a third right now. I’ve witnessed raisins, for example, at $1,420 a ton 35 years ago, then $410 a ton, then $700 a ton — and now almost $2,000. The old wisdom insisted that almond acreage could never exceed 200,000 acres without a crash, that prices would never go over $1 pound to the farmer, that production could not go much over 3,000 lbs. per acre.
The New Nixon
This time, the press cheered as the IRS investigated the president’s opponents.
Teaching Your Kids to Hate You
Donald Douglas calls attention to an interesting argument by Bruce Thornton about the “trickle-down” of leftism in education
Multiculti U.
The budget-strapped University of California squanders millions on mindless diversity programs.
‘Stop Being a Baby’
Infanticide and the infantilization of women.
Why the Right Is Growing Cynical About the ‘Common Good’
We’ve always been a diverse country, but I suspect that a lot of conservatives click on the television or web or look at the morning paper or magazine and see a country they just don’t recognize anymore.
Commies and their friends
Two of my all-time favorite books on historical subjects unraveled the fraught controversies deriving from cases involving Communist spies. In Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case, first published in 1978, Allen Weinstein settled the case referred to in the subtitle. Random House published an updated edition in 1997 and the Hoover Institution has just issued a third edition (the one linked above) in honor of the thirty-fifth anniversary of the book’s publication.
