I post articles because I think they are of interest. Doing so doesn’t mean that I necessarily agree (or disagree) with every—or any—opinion in the posted article. Help your friends and relatives stay informed by passing the digest on. In some cases I post things sent to me by readers I might not have posted on my own, to get ideas circulating.
Due to the Easter Holiday, family and healthcare appointments, posting may be erratic for a few days. Sorry. ~Bob.
Review of Old Jarhead Poems
Must-Read for all who know the Corps! By W. BEDDOE "Cpl. USMC 81-85"
In all my years of reading Marine Corps literature, never I have come across such a meaningful and reflective book of Marine poems. One or two I recognized from past editions of Leatherneck Magazine but most of the poems I had never read and Brother, how beautifully inspiring they were. Anyone who has served in our beloved Corps would thoroughly enjoy reading the outstanding heartfelt words of Marine Robert Hall.
The Fat Lady Sings
Excerpt: Rick Santorum has every right to continue his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, just as Edward Kennedy did when he carried his fight against President Carter to the Democratic convention in 1980, and just as Hillary Rodham Clinton did through the last of the primaries four years ago. But Santorum’s right to persevere doesn’t preclude our right to say, “Put a fork in it; this thing is done.” The Associated Press delegate count shows that Mitt Romney has won 655, or 59 percent of the delegates who have indicated a candidate preference.
Report: Osama bin Laden helped plan Mumbai attacks
Excerpt: Osama bin Laden was in close contact with Hafiz Saeed, the wanted chief of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), and helped plan the 2008 Mumbai attack, according to a report in the Hindustan Times. Citing Bruce Riedel, a former advisor to President Obama on Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Hindustan Times says that documents recovered in bin Laden's Pakistani safe house prove the extensive relationship between al Qaeda's deceased emir and LeT.
Investing in Diversitycrats: Colleges are skimping on science and spending on diversity. By Michael Barone
Excerpt: How many times have you heard Barack Obama talk about “investing” in education? Quite a few, if you’ve been listening to the president at all.
In fact, Americans have been investing more and more in education over the years, led by presidents Democratic and Republican. But it’s become glaringly clear that we’re getting a pretty lousy return on these investments.
Worth Reading: Walking Back the Trayvon Martin Hysteria By Victor Davis Hanson
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/295395/walking-back-trayvon-martin-hysteria-victor-davis-hanson
Excerpt: 1) If one suggests that there may not be, at least as yet, enough evidence to overturn the initial police decision of not charging Mr. Zimmerman with a crime, then one is a de facto racist. In other words, the liberal position of letting all the evidence be reexamined in a dispassionate fashion is now illiberal. And the illiberal one of charging someone with a felony without established probable cause is liberal.
U.K. confirms 6 soldiers dead in Afghan blast
Excerpt: Six British soldiers were killed after an explosion hit their armored vehicle in southwestern Afghanistan, Britain’s Ministry of Defense said Wednesday. It was the biggest loss of life for British forces in the country since a plane crash in 2006.
Excerpt: A Virginia elementary school teacher told her students that “Republicans are stupid” and “they don’t care about anyone but wealthy people and businesses.”
Kristin Martin said this to her 6th grade class as Republican voters were filing into the halls of Powell Elementary School in Fairfax County to vote on Super Tuesday.
Marine: Leadership most sought-after skill set today
Excerpt: He found that one helicopter was lacking inflatable life vests and said his Marines wouldn’t board the helicopter without them. Even though he had to fight both the crew chief and the pilot to get them, the vests were eventually added to the helicopter and the Marines left the island. Halfway to the destination the transmission in the second engine went out and the helicopter crashed into the Pacific Ocean.
March jobs report misses expectations http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/801-economy/220275-job-report-misses-expectations
Excerpt: The economy added 120,000 jobs in March, well below economists estimates, while the unemployment ticked down slightly to 8.2 percent. The number is nearly half of the 210,000 expected and ends the streak of three straight months when the economy added more than 200,000 jobs. The news isn't what the White House would want to see just as the labor market seemed to be improving at a faster pace.
New Disappointing Jobs Report: Unemployment Falls But Hiring Slows
Excerpt: As expected, the pace of job creation slowed in March, even as the country's overall unemployment rate fell to a three-year low of 8.2 percent, down from February's 8.3 percent. Within minutes of the jobs report's release, labor-market watchers labeled the latest report "disappointing" even as some noted that the overall recovery in employment remains on track. (…) (As usual, the reason the unemployment rate has dropped is people whose benefits have run out “stopped looking for work.” Had the number counted not been adjusted, the rate would have gone up. Again. According to this article, 36.2% of available workers are not participating in the employment market. So, of every three people you know between the ages of 18 and 66, at least one of them is “not working,” yet we know they survive somehow. [I’m not surrounded by corpses; are you?] My, that seems like an awful lot of “rich people.” Ron P.)
Important: The big March jobs miss — and why the real unemployment rate sure ain’t 8.2%. By James Pethokoukis
Excerpt: 1. If the size of the U.S. labor force as a share of the total population was the same as it was when Barack Obama took office—65.7% then vs. 63.8% today down from last month—the U-3 unemployment rate would be 10.9%. 2. But what if you take into the account the aging of the Baby Boomers, which means the labor force participation (LFP) rate should be trending lower. Indeed, it has been doing just that since 2000. Before the Great Recession, the Congressional Budget Office predicted what the LFP would be in 2012, assuming such demographic changes. Using that number, the real unemployment rate would be 10.5%.
Obey: Obama still not satisfied with the lapdog presshttp://times247.com/articles/obama-wants-a-one-party-media
Excerpt: It is remarkable Mr. Obama even feels the need to lecture the mainstream media. They are already on his side. CNN, MSNBC, NBC News, ABC News, CBS News, the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Associated Press — all of them have been acting as the communications wing of the Democratic Party. They routinely mouth the administration line.
Energy Department prepares to approve more green loans
Excerpt: The Energy Department said Thursday it expects to begin tentatively approving new taxpayer-backed loans for renewable energy projects in the coming months. The announcement comes about seven months after Solyndra, the California solar firm that received a $535 million loan guarantee from the administration in 2009, went bankrupt, setting off a firestorm in Washington. (I’m sure they will vet the companies very carefully to be sure they made the proper contributions to the Obama Campaign, and that they have enough funds so they won’t go bankrupt until after November. ~Bob.)
Excerpt: Green energy firm Ecotality won plaudits from President Obama and Energy Secretary Steven Chu. It was supposed to build 15,000 electric-vehicle charging stations in 18 cities across America, a shining success of the economic stimulus and recipient of a Department of Energy grant. Ecotality collected roughly $115 million in stimulus funding to manufacture these charging stations for electric vehicles. It secured another $26.4 million from the Department of Energy last October as part of the agency’s “Advanced Vehicle Testing and Evaluation project.” (Another day, another fed 'green energy' loan recipient goes tits up & faces illegal trading investigation. –Iowa Hawk.)
I Support Secure Communities by Sen. Scott Brown
I always have supported legal immigration. I believe the arrival of new people to our shores has strengthened us as a country. But we are also a nation of laws and even as we say yes to legal immigration, we must take steps to end illegal immigration. Illegal immigration erodes respect for the law and it compromises our ability to maintain secure borders. One of the ways we can address the problem of illegal immigration is through programs like Secure Communities. Over the last year, our state has experienced a series of violent crimes committed by illegal immigrants who had no business being in the country in the first place.
Holder: Obama recognizes Supreme Court's authority
Excerpt: Attorney General Eric Holder made clear Thursday that the Obama administration recognizes the authority of federal courts, including the Supreme Court, to rule on whether the 2010 health care reform law or any other laws passed by Congress are constitutional. (…) Holder's letter affirmed the government's stance that federal judges indeed have the authority to decide the fate of the 2010 Affordable Care Act -- and any other law Congress passes. (How to back away very quickly from the Pres’s statement. What statement? Did he say something? Musta missed it. Ron P.)
Feral hogs at a crossroads in Oregon - by Gary Lewis, The Register-Guard
Excerpt: Boatner thinks it might be hard to eradicate the pigs in Southern Oregon. They come in from California, a state that boasts between 200,000 and 500,000 feral hogs. They gave up trying to control them long ago. “Now, California has pigs in every county but one,” he said. “In the 1950s they had about 5,000 pigs in eight counties.” (Assume they are talking about real pigs, not entitlement freeloaders. ~Bob.)
ObamaCare in the Supreme Court: A Guide to the Issues
Excerpt: In the challenge to President Obama’s signature health care law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) the Supreme Court faces a daunting series of challenges. The unprecedented schedule of oral arguments—a total of six hours—bespeaks the Court’s willingness to confront those issues squarely. The most historic decision since Roe v. Wade could well be in the works. The case comes as several trends in the Court’s constitutional jurisprudence are coming to a head, raising the possibility of a sea-change in its approach to federalism. From the 1930s to the 1980s, the Court virtually abdicated its role as guardian of the Constitution’s limits on federal power, leaving it up to the “national political process” to restrain federal expansion.
Obama’s stimulus delayed recovery
Excerpt: Thirty-three months since the “recovery” started in June 2009, the unemployment rate has yet to fall below 8.3 percent, far exceeding the previous post-World War II record of 13 months. Worse, most of the drop in recent months has occurred because people have given up looking for work and are thus no longer classified as unemployed. Today, there are 12.8 million unemployed and 43 percent have been out of a job for more than six months, almost twice as high as Americans have ever faced in the past.
Obama Economy Leaves Little Unchanged
Excerpt: America is at a crossroads. Today's jobs report shows that two years into recovery the U.S. economy is still woefully underperforming, adding only 120,000 new jobs in March, about half the rate of job growth of the previous three months which were, themselves, somewhat disappointing for this stage of recovery. Perhaps the most striking aspect of the jobs report is the extent to which the labor market was "little changed," an impression the report returns to repeatedly. For example, the unemployment rate at 8.2 percent, still two full percentage points higher than the peak during the 2001 recession, was "little changed."
Ranks of Working Poor Grow in Europe
Excerpt: Europe’s long-running euro crisis may be cooling. But the economic distress it has left in its wake is pushing a rising tide of workers into precarious straits in France and across the European Union. (The fruits of Europe’s Share-the-Misery Socialism, that Obama wants for us. ~Bob.)
Obama Energy Policy: Very Few of the Above
Excerpt: Coal! Oil! Natural gas! Solar! Wind! And, of course, algae, algae, algae! We're doing it all, Obama says. (…) Except that's simply not true. It's not remotely true. A new rule from the Obama administration's EPA will, according to an Associated Press analysis, force 32 mostly coal-fired power plants to shut down and threatens to close 36 others. Moreover, the new "blackout" rule will effectively prevent the creation of any new coal-fired plants in America unless they adopt new technologies that will make it unprofitable to burn coal at all.
Fla. Rep. Connie Mack launches Keystone XL pipeline petition
Excerpt: With a gas pump doubling as a campaign prop, Senate candidate Connie Mack launched a petition drive Thursday at a Miami gas station to call for the building of the politically charged Keystone XL pipeline. Mack, a Republican Congressman from Fort Myers, said the high cost of fuel at the Mobil gas station on Coral Way was, essentially, the fault of the president and Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson for opposing the pipeline.
Asia's balance of power: China’s military rise
Excerpt: NO MATTER how often China has emphasised the idea of a peaceful rise, the pace and nature of its military modernisation inevitably cause alarm. As America and the big European powers reduce their defence spending, China looks likely to maintain the past decade’s increases of about 12% a year. Even though its defence budget is less than a quarter the size of America’s today, China’s generals are ambitious. The country is on course to become the world’s largest military spender in just 20 years or so. (Excellent article overall. I think it is just assumed that China is spending only 2 percent of GDP on their defense budget. Wouldn't totally rely on that assumption since they are such a secretive Nation. In the meantime, the US DoD budget is on track for a reduction of almost a trillion dollars in the next 10 years. No doubt R&D will take a big hit! –GBH)
Coke withdraws from group that backs Stand Your Ground law
Excerpt: Coca-Cola Co is dropping its membership in a conservative national advocacy group that supports "Stand Your Ground" laws such as the one being used as a defense in the Florida killing of an unarmed black teenager, Trayvon Martin. The move by the world's biggest soft drink maker comes as corporate America faces increased scrutiny from consumers and shareholder activists over lobbying and political spending. PepsiCo Inc ended its relationship with the group - the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) - in January. (Throwing in with the side that hates corporations, but sees them as milch cows. I’m better off not drinking their products anyway. NY has no Stand Your Ground law but acquitted a homeowner who shot an unarmed teen. Of course, the shooter was black and the dead kid white, so not a big deal. ~Bob.)
Five Ways that Barack Obama has Decimated the American Economy by John Hawkins
Excerpt: If America's economy were a minority, Barack Obama would be guilty of a hate crime for the things he's done to it. If the economy were a kidnap victim, Barack Obama would be telling it to "put the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again." If this were the movie Saw, Obama would have the economy chained to a radiator and he’d demand that it cut off its own foot to escape. … John Hawkins is a professional blogger who runs Right Wing News. (Professional blogger. Hummmm. ~Bob.)
Mali Rebels Proclaim Independent State in North
Excerpt: Tuareg rebels who overran much of northern Mali after disaffected soldiers toppled the government in the south declared an independent state called Azawad on Friday, cementing the division of the former French colony as its neighbors began drawing up plans for military action to tackle the twin crises of the coup and the apparent secession. (Paging Mad Mike Hoare. Mike, please call your office. ~Bob.)
Islamists impose sharia in Mali’s Timbuktu Coup: More than 90 percent of the city’s roughly 300 Christians have fled.
Excerpt: "He had the meeting to make his message to the people known, that sharia law is now going to be applied," said the Mayor of Timbuktu Ousmane Halle, who was reached by telephone. "When there is a strongman in front of you, you listen to him. You can’t react," he said, when asked what the reaction was of the imams of a historic town known for its religious pluralism and its moderate interpretation of Islam. "Things are going to heat up here. Our women are not going to wear the veil just like that," said the mayor.
Bosco Ntaganda: Congo's 'Terminator' troops defect
Excerpt: Hundreds of Congolese troops have defected from the army, diplomats have told the BBC. The soldiers are loyal to former rebel leader Bosco Ntaganda, who is wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court. (Mad Mike, Congo on line two. ~Bob.)
Myanmar holds landmark political talks with Karen rebels
Excerpt: Myanmar's government started talks on Friday towards a political agreement with one of the world's oldest rebel armies, marking one of the biggest steps taken by the country's civilian rulers after decades of conflict with ethnic minority insurgents. … The KNU and its military wing, the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), have fought successive governments for greater autonomy since 1949, a year after Myanmar gained independence from Britain. (The Karens, who were on our side in WWII, have fought a brave and largely unheralded struggle for freedom. ~Bob.)
US Coast Guard sinks tsunami 'ghost ship'
Excerpt: The US Coast Guard has used cannon to sink a crewless Japanese ship that drifted to Alaska after the 2011 tsunami. (Not exactly Midway, but still a nice job. ~Bob.)
War On Children: Liberals Attack Scott Walker's Kids
Excerpt: The left seems to have a really hard time leaving the kids of Republican politicians out of their fits of rage. Yesterday, Governor Scott Walker gave an interview to David Brody of CBN News in which he talked about the anger directed at his teenage sons and also his elderly parents: (Obama’s 13-year-old daughter and 12 friends, 25 guards and two jets on Spring Break at taxpayer expense in Mexico is off limits. GOP kids, not so much. ~Bob.)
Excerpt: The city of Sanford is preparing for the outcome of the special prosecutor's decision about George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watchman who shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin but has not been charged. (Wonder why there were not riots in NY when a guy was acquitted after shooting an unarmed teen? Maybe race had something to do with it? ~Bob.
Surgery bans elderly patient over her carbon footprint
Excerpt: An elderly woman was ordered to find a new GP because the “carbon footprint” of her two-mile round trips to the surgery where she had been treated for 30 years was too large. (While I believe there simply has to be more to this than the article is telling, in a land where ALL healthcare is at the whim of government, the final paragraph is chilling. Ron P.)
Mitt hits bull’s-eye ---IDs the issue of the election
Excerpt: In his speech in Wisconsin, Romney finally found the right argument to use against Barack Obama — indeed, located the very specific dividing line between the president and his opposition that Republicans and conservatives have been trying to draw for four years now. The president, Romney said, has “spent the last four years laying the foundation for a new government-centered society.”
The real ‘pink slime’ agenda By Jeff Stier
Excerpt: Let’s be clear: The meat product known as “lean finely textured beef” does look gross. But so does just about every meat product — ever seen how they make pastrami? And this stuff is perfectly safe, and almost certainly healthier than its likely replacement.
The 50% tax on everything
Excerpt: Total energy costs are up 7 percent over the last 12 months while wages have gone stagnant. Gasoline has seen the largest push up in the last year moving up by 12.6 percent. Looking at food, the total cost of food has gone up by 3.9 percent over the last 12 months. Of course much of this is synergistic with the rise in energy given that food is transported and also produced with high levels of energy usage.
Uttered in 2008, still haunting Obama in 2012
Excerpt: Here’s one line that President Barack Obama might want to rewind: “Under my plan … electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.” That quip from a January 2008 interview with the San Francisco Chronicle editorial board is making the rounds in conservative circles — even Mitt Romney referred to it last month – and it likely won’t go away anytime soon
It's finally coming: the great European gas market transformation
Not an excerpt, this article description is copied from the editor’s teaser to EER’s subscribers. You can subscribe for free, if interested. --Ron P. After working on this for many years, Europe is now on the point of finally breaking the hold that the big suppliers have on the market and instead putting in place what is hoped will be a number of interconnected regional wholesale markets, in which large numbers of buyers and sellers will carry on a thriving short-term gas trading business. The European market will, in fact, come to look much like the one in the US. So will this ambitious project free Europe from its gas chains? Not everyone is convinced. Some observers worry that rather than freeing the market, the liberalisation drive will end up putting in place a new form of top-down control - this time by bureaucrats rather than market players.
Tunisia: Muslims Threaten Church, Cover Its Cross with Garbage Bags
Excerpt: According to Al Quds, last Tuesday it was revealed that the Christian Orthodox Church in Tunis, one of very few churches in Tunisia, is being “abused” and receiving “threatening messages” from “Salafis.” Church members are described as "living in a state of terror,” so much so that the Russian ambassador in Tunis specifically requested the nation’s Ministry of Interior to “protect the church.” The abuse has gotten to the point where “Salafis covered the cross of the church with garbage bags, telling the church members that they do not wish to see the vision of the Cross anywhere in the Islamic state of Tunisia.”
Bowing to Muslim complaints, Michigan judge throws out assault charges against Muslim football players
Excerpt: "The quarterback for Lutheran planned to touch his knee to the ground to end the game, with Lutheran leading 48 to 6. Police said game officials knew this and instructed teams not to have contact after the snap. But players from Star Academy, according to police, went after the quarterback, knocking him to the ground and kicking him. The quarterback suffered a concussion." No, no assault there. At least not when the perpetrators are Muslims in Michigan. David Wood says it best: "Judge Mark Plawecki has sent a clear message to Muslim football players: If you're getting humiliated by a Christian football team (e.g., losing 47-6), feel free to punish the infidels. Of course, if four Christian players had attacked a Muslim quarterback, we'd have seen an entirely different reaction from CAIR, the media, and Judge Plawecki."
Book Review: Fast and Furious, Barack Obama’s Bloodiest Scandal and Its Shameless Cover-Up by J. Christian Adams
Excerpt: Fast and Furious is the story of Justice Department deception, ideological recklessness, and, above all, murderous indifference toward good government. Katie Pavlich’s new book, aptly titled Fast and Furious: Barack Obama’s Bloodiest Scandal and Its Shameless Cover-Up (Regnery), is an encyclopedia-style account of the scandal. If you want a single source for an objective and thorough chronology of the outlandish DOJ program, and the names of the guilty bureaucrats, this is the book.
President Obama Lies About Planned Parenthood Providing Mammograms by Stephen Gutowski
Excerpt: Planned Parenthood, as they've admitted themselves, does not provide mammograms. (Unfortunately, he can say whatever fits his narrative, because the media won’t call him on it, so uninformed voters believe him. ~Bob.)
Muslim author, Irshad Maji says, “The biggest problem with Islam is the Muslims”
Excerpt: What makes this woman remarkable is that she is an out-of-the-closet lesbian. I disagree with her belief that there is a peaceful Islam. There are peaceful Muslims but Islam is inherently violent and sooner or later one of her fellow Muslims will try to kill her. (If we eventually approve both Gay Marriage and Shari’a Law, can Lesbian Muslims have four wives? So confusing. ~Bob.)
Tweet from John Nolte
I'd like to wish my Jewish friends a Happy Passover, fellow Christians a Happy Easter, and you atheists the best of luck.
“Seasoned” NBC Producer Behind Edited Zimmerman Clip
You know, it would be nice if they identified this so-called “seasoned” producer. What are they hiding? An internal NBC News probe has determined a “seasoned” producer was to blame for a misleading clip of a 911 call that the network broadcast during its coverage of the Trayvon Martin shooting, according to two sources at the network. (Any bets who the “seasoned producer” is supporting in 2012? ~Bob.)
Wisconsin recall: Labor trains fire on Democrat
Excerpt: Democrats want the Wisconsin recall election to be all about getting rid of Scott Walker, the polarizing governor who instituted controversial collective bargaining laws.
But right now, a number of prominent labor unions are training their fire not on Walker but on Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, one of the Democrats who hopes to replace him. (That’s because the other Democrat, Faulk, has given the public unions a blank check, payable by Wisconsin taxpayers after the recall election. Any non-government employee voting to recall Walker should save time by putting his back account info in the box with his vote. ~Bob.)
Dem Senatorial Candidate Calls Opponent ‘Whore’ On Live TV
Excerpt: The contest for Connecticut’s US Senate seat got ugly Thursday when one candidate called another a “whore” during a debate on live television. Lee Whitnum ripped Congressman Chris Murphy over his pro-Israel stance. “I’m dealing with a whore here who sells his soul to AIPAC [The American Israel Public Affairs Committee], who will say anything for the job,” Whitnum said. She also referred to state representative William Tong as “ignorant.” (If she wins the nomination, will be it okay for the GOP candidate to call her a whore? Not so much. ~Bob.)
Book Review: Civilization: The Six Ways the West Beat the Rest
Excerpt: The way we evaluate Western civilization is deeply influenced by our political views. Niall Ferguson is known in leftist circles as a ‘right winger,’ even a ‘super-conservative'. He has always resisted this characterization: ‘I'm just a doctrinaire liberal at heart. Quite why I keep getting called rightwing is only mysterious to me’. True; he is not a conservative. He is a liberal right winger, a neoconservative. (Personally, I thought Civilization was one of the two best books I’ve read this year. I’m currently reading Ferguson’s The War of the World and finding it fascinating.
Denver 911 Apologizes for Deadly Instructions
excerpt: A Denver man who called 911 to report a threatening road-rage encounter reluctantly followed a 911 dispatcher's order to return to the scene of the crime, where he was fatally shot while waiting for police.
Funny Craig’s list Ad
Fifty-year old manure spreader. Not sure of brand. Said to have been produced in Kenya . Used for a few years in Indonesia before being smuggled into the US via Hawaii . Of questionable pedigree. Does not appear to have ever been worked very hard. Apparently it was pampered by various owners over the years. It doesn't work very often, but when it does it can really spread the manure and sling it for amazing distances. I am hoping to retire this manure spreader next November. But I really don't want it hanging around getting in the way. I would prefer a foreign buyer that is willing to relocate this manure spreader out of the country. I would be willing to trade this manure spreader for a nicely framed copy of the United States Constitution.
Shrewsbury Man Accused Of Killing Wife, Cannibalism
Excerpt: In court Friday, prosecutors said the flesh was missing from her left forearm and her husband had been eating it. … Liu told police he acted in self-defense, but no other details were released about a motive.
Israel's Resilient Democracy: Like the United States, we have our flaws. But to say Israel is undemocratic is just dead wrong.
Excerpt: At 64, Israel is older than more than half of the democracies in the world. The Jewish state, moreover, belongs to a tiny group of countries -- the United States, Britain, and Canada among them -- never to have suffered intervals of non-democratic governance. Since its inception, Israel has been threatened ceaselessly with destruction. Yet it never once succumbed to the wartime pressures that often crush democracies. On the contrary, conflict has only tempered an Israeli democracy that affords equal rights even to those Arabs and Jews who deny the state's legitimacy. (The Left prefers anti-American despots to pro-American democrats. Small “d.” ~Bob.
Excerpt: Over at Investors Business Daily, the essential John Merline puts the Paul Ryan/GOP budget plan - the one being castigated as the second coming of Herod's babykilling hit squad and worse by spendthrift critics - into the awful perspective it deserves. (Interesting chart. ~Bob.)
Quango Wars Escalate
Excerpt: Last weekend we predicted a sea of trouble for the democracy quangos—quasi-NGOs that support democracy in foreign countries and receive a significant portion of their funding from the federal government. Understandably, many foreign governments, particularly those not favorably disposed to American-style democracy, have taken umbrage at these groups’ close ties with domestic opposition, characterizing them as foreign interference in domestic politics. The war on quangos seems to be escalating.
--
Robert A. Hall
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