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, or that I was able to verify the information present, which is the responsibility of the author. In some cases I post things sent to me by readers I might not have posted on my own, to get ideas circulating.
Now 25 reader reviews on Amazon for The Coming Collapse of the American Republic
But only 24 are five-star. (All royalties go to a charity to help wounded veterans.)
Minimum wage myths that keep our teens out of work. By Pamela Villarreal
Excerpt: Ironically, both EPI and President Obama have supported a higher minimum wage while simultaneously lamenting the current lack of employment opportunities for young adults. The evidence suggests that accomplishing that second goal means giving up on the first. (Alas, ever-increasing minimum wage laws are a major tenet in the progressive catechism of faith, and part of vote buying from unions, who want to keep non-union teens unemployed. The factual evidence or actual results for suffering real people matters no more to them than the death of flea in Africa does to you. ~Bob.)
Firms Pass up Tax Breaks, Citing Hassles, Complexity
Excerpt: For years, politicians have used targeted tax breaks to try to influence corporate behavior. But executives, particularly at small and medium-size companies, complain that many of the tax deductions are either too cumbersome or too confusing. In some cases, the cost of obtaining the tax benefit is greater than the benefit itself -- a wrinkle that has helped spawn a cottage industry of tax-credit consultants. Also problematic is the threat of pushback from the Internal Revenue Service, says the Wall Street Journal. The result: many companies are saying "no, thanks" and are likely paying more taxes than legally required. And corporate breaks that Washington hopes will boost the economy often prove ineffective. As a result, simplification of the corporate tax code has become a bipartisan rallying cry.
Unleashing the North American Energy Colossus: Hydrocarbons Can Fuel Growth and Prosperity. By Mark P. Mills
Excerpt: The United States, Canada, and Mexico are awash in hydrocarbon resources: oil, natural gas, and coal. The total North American hydrocarbon resource base is more than four times greater than all the resources extant in the Middle East. And the United States alone is now the fastest-growing producer of oil and natural gas in the world. The recent growth in hydrocarbons production has already generated hundreds of thousands of jobs and billions in local tax receipts by unlocking billions of barrels of oil and natural gas in the hydrocarbon-dense shales of North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and several other states, as well as the vast resources of Canada’s oil sands. (This could turn around our economy and perhaps save the Republic. Expect Progressives to fight it tooth and nail. ~Bob.)
The incredible shrinking — and increasingly valuable — undecided voter
Excerpt: President Obama, Mitt Romney and a slew of outside groups will spend hundreds of millions of dollars over the next three and a half months trying to convince 1/16th of the New polling from The Washington Post and ABC News shows there are fewer genuinely undecided voters during the 2012 election campaign than there have been in any of the last three elections. And less than one in five voters says there is any chance at all that he or she will change his or her mind.
People's minds are made up, unlikely to change. By Dave Helling
Excerpt: But a growing number of political scientists and campaign consultants - backed by the latest polling data - think the daily campaign back-and-forth is having no significant effect on voters. Most Americans have locked in their presidential decisions, polls released Thursday suggested, and the already small number of persuadable voters shrinks by the hour. Put another way: America could vote for president next week, and the outcome would probably be the same as it will be in November.
How super PACs are saving Mitt Romney
Excerpt: Republican-aligned super PACs and other outside conservative groups have spent more than $144 million on general election ads in swing presidential states, a huge outlay of cash that has allowed former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney to not only combat but exceed heavy early ad spending by President Obama.
The Cycle of Government: Subsidize the Living; Tax the Dead; Benefit the Corporate Cronies. By Daniel Horowitz
Excerpt: In recent weeks, we’ve been subjected to mellifluous pandering to our nation’s farmers by liberals in both parties. They admonish us about the need to provide farmers with a “safety net” and to protect them from catastrophic events. To that end, they are pushing a massive $1 trillion Ag subsidy, which happens to contain over $750 billion in food stamp spending.
Excerpt: At least, according to the New York Times: “The Obama administration has for now abandoned efforts for a diplomatic settlement to the conflict in Syria, and instead it is increasing aid to the rebels and redoubling efforts to rally a coalition of like-minded countries to forcibly bring down the government of President Bashar al-Assad, American officials say.” …..What I want to know is this: again, precisely who or what authorizes the executive branch to commit acts of war on other countries without the input of the legislative branch? – Because while the NYT article talks about how the administration is meeting with our allies’ various civilian defense apparatuses (one hopes that we’re at least going to get paid this time), and holding regular planning sessions in house on how to deal with Syria, and coordinating with the Syrian opposition itself… nowhere in this article is there any indication whatsoever that the President is meeting or planning or coordinating with, well, Congress.
Excerpt: On his Monday radio program, conservative talker Rush Limbaugh attacked Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain’s floor speech castigating Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and some of her colleagues for raising questions about top Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin, saying “there’s an effort by the Republican establishment to take Bachmann out.” Limbaugh cited a weekend National Review piece by former U.S. Attorney Andrew McCarthy that said there are legitimate questions about Abedin and her association with Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood. “The Muslim Brother is not a harmless little offshoot here,” Limbaugh said.
Excerpt: Pointing their fingers in part at regulations the Obama administration has imposed on their industry, two coal companies announced layoffs Friday. Pennsylvania’s PBS Coals Inc. and the affiliated RoxCoal Inc. announced that they would idle some of their deep and surface mines, laying off 225 employees in the process. “Both the foreign and domestic coal markets remain soft due to weak economic growth and activity,” PBS Coals president and CEO D. Lynn Shanks explained in a statement. “Additionally, the escalating costs and uncertainty generated by recently advanced EPA regulations and interpretations have created a challenging business climate for the entire coal industry.”
Excerpt: The use of unmanned aerial drones, whose deadly accuracy helped revolutionize modern warfare high above the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, is now spreading intrigue and worry across the plains of North Dakota. Amid 3,000 acres of corn and soybeans and miles from the closest town, a Predator drone led to the arrests of farmer Rodney Brossart and five members of his family last year after a dispute over a neighbor’s six lost cows on his property escalated into a 16-hour standoff with police.
Obama’s team slams Romney’s foreign trip. By Neil Munro http://dailycaller.com/2012/07/23/obamas-team-slams-romneys-foreign-trip/
Excerpt: President Barack Obama’s campaign team is throwing everything and the kitchen sink at Mitt Romney’s foreign-policy trip this week. Romney is being too political but also not political enough, too aggressive and but also too timid, and will visit too few countries while holding too many fundraisers, according to three of Obama’s supporters during a July 23 telephone press conference arranged by the president’s re-election campaign.
Excerpt: In their new book, Fool Me Twice: Obama’s Shocking Plans for the Next Four Years Exposed, Aaron Klein and Brenda J. Elliot delineate exactly how Barack Obama will implement radical plans to expedite the transformation of the United States into a socialist state, if he is reelected. ….Fool Me Twice doesn’t miss another salient aspect of the government-creates-jobs plans of the left: the empowerment of unions. ….The details of Obama’s plans are economically horrifying. And Fool Me Twice doesn’t sugarcoat the bitter pill Obama wants the American taxpayer to swallow.
In Fight Against Domestic Terror, DC Establishment Attacks The Real Enemy: Michelle Bachmann
Excerpt: The State Department official is accused of being connected to a vast foreign conspiracy, hostile to America. The official denies it, as the Establishment rallies around the accused official. Indeed, Establishmentarians not only dismiss any possibility of the official’s guilt or complicity, but they also ferociously denounce those who raise the possibility. After all, the official is a part of the in-group; it just isn’t possible to think that the official could do anything wrong
McCarthyism and Mohamed Elibiary: Patrick Poole’s disturbing findings about the Department of Homeland Security official, reported at PJ Media last year, have still not been refuted. By Robert Spencer
Excerpt: Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-MN) and four other representatives are now being accused of McCarthyism over the letter they sent to defense, diplomatic, intelligence, and law-enforcement agencies asking them to investigate Muslim Brotherhood infiltration in the U.S. government. The implication is that Bachmann, like McCarthy (at least according to liberal myth), hurled false accusations damaging to the careers and livelihoods of innocent people. What no one is bothering to establish, however, is that the allegations are actually false, much less that they will damage anyone’s career.
Presidential busts: The worst of all: Barack Obama (2009-?) By U-T San Diego Editorial Board
Editor's note: It's a presidential election year, so we thought we'd weigh in with our list of the five worst presidents. We start with, yes, the current incumbent. See our other choices at U-T Opinion online. He took office at a time when the U.S. economy was on its worst slide in 75 years, but pushed policies using borrowed money that were more meant to preserve government jobs than broadly help the private sector where the great majority of Americans work, ensuring the jobs crisis continued.
Excerpt: On May 23, President Barack Obama told more than 1,000 jubilant, uniform-prepped-and-polished graduates of the U.S. Air Force Academy that the world has a "new feeling about America." He declared: "I see it everywhere I go, from London and Prague to Tokyo and Seoul to Rio and Jakarta. There's a new confidence in our leadership." If only it were true.
The RNC offers a new video this morning, entitled, “These aren’t gaffes.”
Top Democrat Says Intel Leaks Came from the Obama White House
Excerpt: Now the Obama White House has a new accuser: Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California. On Monday, The Hill reports that Feinstein said “I think the White House has to understand that some of this is coming from their ranks.” Feinstein added that she does not believe the president himself leaked, but that some of his administration officials are the sources of the leaks.
Feinstein backtracks on statement that White House leaked secrets http://thehill.com/blogs/defcon-hill/policy-and-strategy/239783-feinstein-backtracks-on-statement-that-white-house-leaked-secrets
Looks like they took her to the woodshed for the Cory Booker STFU treatment. ~Bob. Excerpt: Senate Intelligence Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) backtracked from her comments Monday that the White House was responsible for some of the national security leaks, saying she did not know the source of the leaks. “I stated that I did not believe the president leaked classified information,” Feinstein said in the statement on Tuesday. “I shouldn’t have speculated beyond that, because the fact of the matter is I don’t know the source of the leaks.”
"Boo Hoo Generation" motto "I hate my parents and I'm running away from home"
Once you get past the boo hoo drivel from someone who obliviously grew up privileged, there are some fairly strong words on economic collapse:
Why I'm Leaving America
Why I'm Leaving America
http://sailboatdiaries.com/wordpress/2012/07/20/why-im-leaving-america
Love it when someone can just rip apart the fabric of their existence and stand on a moral pillar of hot air. Where is this guy's answer to our problem or example of where is thinks "freedom exists?" Sounds like his boat leads to nowhere. Have a great day, --Chris
Love it when someone can just rip apart the fabric of their existence and stand on a moral pillar of hot air. Where is this guy's answer to our problem or example of where is thinks "freedom exists?" Sounds like his boat leads to nowhere. Have a great day, --Chris
Top U.S. Islamic Group Calls for ‘Gun Control’
Excerpt: The same action alert states that ISNA is part of the Brady Center’s “Faiths United to Oppose Gun Violence,” and the Islamic group signed onto the Brady Center’s “Faith” group letter to Reid demanding he block the legislation. This is not the first time that ISNA and the Brady Center have united to oppose the Second Amendment. As noted by The Truth About Guns in February 2011, ISNA was one of the original founding groups of the “Faiths United to Oppose Gun Violence” when it was rolled out by the Brady Center. Nor is the Second Amendment the only constitutional freedom under assault by ISNA and its leaders.
U.N. Commission Calls for Legalizing Prostitution Worldwide. By Amanda Swysgood July 23, 2012
Excerpt: A report issued by the United Nations-backed Global Commission on HIV and the Law; recommends that nations around the world get rid of “punitive” laws against prostitution – or what it calls “consensual sex work” -- and decriminalize the voluntary use of illegal injection drugs in order to combat the HIV epidemic.
Examiner Editorial: Obama's TARP team helped banks, betrayed homeowners
Excerpt: Neil Barofsky, the former special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, has published a new book, "Bailout: An Inside Account of How Washington Abandoned Main Street While Rescuing Wall Street." It presents a damning indictment of the Obama administration's execution of the TARP program generally, and of HAMP in particular.
Excerpt: Solar-cell manufacturer Solyndra became a household name when it collapsed, taking $627 million in American taxpayer dollars with it. It’s the poster company for the government picking winners and losers—or really, just losers—in the energy market. But there are 12 more “green energy” losers that have declared bankruptcy despite attempts to prop them up with taxpayer money—and the list is growing. There’s a reason why these companies could not rely solely on private financing and needed help from the government. They couldn’t make it on their own; they couldn’t even make it with extra taxpayer help.
Probably to the “Ministry of Truth.” ~Bob. Excerpt: There was a rather low-key confession made in the New York Times last week that deserves to be blared throughout this country so that every American understands what they are reading in the establishment’s ultra-controlled, government-managed “press” – and I use that last word loosely indeed.
Excerpt: In an effort to make good on President Barack Obama’s commitment to “green energy,” the United States Air Force spent $639,000 on 11,000 gallons of alcohol-to-jet fuel from Gevo Inc., a Colorado biofuels company, at $59 a gallon. The cost of petroleum is presently $3.60 a gallon. Similarly, in preparation for last week's "Green Fleet Demonstration,” the U.S. Navy purchased $12 million in biofuels to prove that a carrier strike group could be run on biofuels for the day.
Excerpt: ABC “newsman” Brian Ross slandered an innocent man in the hope of using the killings to perpetuate the media lie that the Tea Party movement is violent. Lefty politicians like Senator Frank Lautenberg and Mayor Michael Bloomberg began to beat the drum for anti-gun laws, despite the fact that Aurora already has stringent gun control. Brain-dead celebrities like Bill Maher and Cher found in the shattering grief of their neighbors a tremendous chance to insult America and Mitt Romney.
Marine Buddy from Vietnam: “I need help”
I'm trying to think of something that has gotten better since Obama was elected. Unemployment? The federal deficit? The national debt? Race relations? The situation in the Middle East? Bipartisanship in congress? Border control? And what about all the stuff that was supposed to go away after he became president? Floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, drought, forest fires...the sea level? And wasn't the rest of the world supposed to love us? --Larry. Well, good for whom? Let’s see. Federal employment went up and lots of government workers, especially in the White House, got big raises. Lots of Democrat donors made money off Green Energy like taxpayer-funded contributions to Solyndra. Mexican Drag Cartels are far better armed, making slaughter of Mexicans more efficient. Islamists have benefited by his support in their rise to power in the “Arab Spring.” The next GOP president will be able to ignore Congress through Executive Orders and appointing Czars without confirmation. Citizens can be forced to buy guns or anything else declared for the “public good,” by imposing a large “tax” on them if they don’t. I’m sure there’s more. ~Bob.
What Me Worry? YES! By Bernard Goldberg
Excerpt: Forgive me for going over old terrain, but I’m still bewitched, bothered and bewildered by the latest presidential poll results. First, let’s review the state of the economy, which everyone agrees is the single biggest issue that will decide who wins the election.
Huma Tied To Al-Qaida Front: Michelle Bachmann’s letter missed what could be most troubling connection. By Aaron Klein
Excerpt: Charges made in a 16-page letter by Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn. against longtime Clinton aide Huma Abedin miss what may be one of the most troubling radical connections – Abedin’s family is directly tied to the Muslim World League.
Why Are Entitlements Growing? Your Budget Questions Answered. By David Wessel
You particularly want to examine the chart that's provided. It says a great deal with that simple picture. –Del
He’s everywhere: Debut of Dashboard (Obama's Online Organizing effort) http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/48289
Excerpt: The omnipotent Obama campaign continues to set eerie precedents. Filling every nook, cranny and crack of the lifestyle of the masses, there’s no escaping ‘The One’. Controlling practically all of the mainstream media, with some even sending their stories for approval to the White House, breaking new ground in social media outlets, now it’s the debut of Dashboard.
Why Liberals Will Become Extinct
Excerpt: What do the destruction of the traditional family, abortion-on-demand, homosexual rights, and the sexual revolution have in common? Aside from being pet projects of the liberal agenda, they are also driving the biggest (and least publicized) crisis of Western civilization: below replacement fertility rates. A fairly recent documentary film, Demographic Winter, outlines the causes and civilization-destroying effects of the precipitous downturn in fertility among Western nations. (As long as starry-eyed people believe in Tinker Bell and Fairy Dust to solve problems, we will have liberals. ~Bob.)
True, worth reading: The Ten Fundamentals of Modern Statism
Excerpt: The following list first appeared in the April 1985 issue of the Chalcedon Report written by Rousas J. Rushdoony. 1. The first duty of every state is to protect the state, not the people.
News Versus Propaganda. By Thomas Sowell
Excerpt: Since so many in the media cannot resist turning every tragedy into a political talking point, it was perhaps inevitable that (1) someone would try to link the shooting rampage at the Batman movie in Colorado to the Tea Party, and that (2) some would try to make it a reason to impose more gun control laws. Too many people in the media cannot seem to tell the difference between reporting the news and creating propaganda.
Worth Reading: Of massacres & media myths. By Gabriel Malor
Excerpt: Media assumptions that violence is right-wing are routine — and routinely wrong.
Comment on: Two Classes, Divided by ‘I Do.’ By Jason Deparle
This article from the bastion of liberal ideology, has at last come to print a critique of an "alternative lifestyle." One of the essential functions of a culture is the raising and educating of children who will themselves be self-supporting net contributors to society when they become adults. This has traditionally been achieved because families with two parents have been better able to provide for the children economically, morally and emotionally, than single-parent families. Since World War II this outcome has best been accomplished by families whose two parents have finished school, gotten jobs and gotten married as antecedents to having children. Over the last generation however, acceptance or tolerance of alternative lifestyles in has culturally morphed into the point where single-parent families are considered "normal." The virtual disappearance of social opprobrium for shacking up once, or worse, serially, has proved to be disastrous for the single mom and the children involved in terms of education, quality of life and future opportunities. And for the rest of society that has to pay to support and remediate what has historically been the responsibility of the classic nuclear family, it is a redistribution of income from those who are responsible to those who live much less so. Cordially, Larry Greenberg.
After Recent Gaffes, Obama Looks Vulnerable In Polls
Excerpt: By nearly any objective measure, President Barack Obama has failed. Yet, until recently, he showed surprising resilience in the polls. Now, after last week's extraordinary gaffe, that may be coming to an end.
Filmmaker Michael Moore couldn't wait to share his thoughts on the tragic theater shooting earlier today in Aurora, Colo.
Excerpt: Filmmaker Michael Moore couldn't wait to share his thoughts on the tragic theater shooting earlier today in Aurora, Colo.
Worth Reading: Media Underplays Successful Defensive Gun Use: Burying the lede when a law-abiding gun owner is the hero.
Excerpt: On February 28, 2012, an angry 28-year-old gunman entered a medical office building in Colorado Springs and took three women hostage. After a three-hour standoff, the police shot him, and he died later that evening at a local hospital. The hostages were unharmed. Yet the two largest newspapers in the state took two very different approaches in reporting the heroic actions of one of the clinic physicians, Dr. Jeff Ferguson, a legally armed civilian.
Purse Stolen From (Julia) at Residence
Excerpt: The purse was valued at $400, her wallet was valued at $200 and she said there was $800 in cash in the purse, according to the police report. … Also missing were the woman's food stamp cards. . .
Worth Reading: You Know Something, Barack? You’re an Ass.
Excerpt: On December 17th, 1943, my Dad was, in his words “all shot up”.
That was part of the job that day, I guess. He was a soldier, a simple private in General Mark Clark’s Fifth Army Group, a grunt in 143rd Infantry Regiment. Like most World War Two vets, Dad never (and I mean never) talked about his army experiences, until well into retirement. … President Obama: All the Federal Government ever did for my father was ship him half-way across the Globe, where he was used (by his own declaration) as “cannon fodder”.
Justice Department opens investigation into Pennsylvania voter ID law
Excerpt: The Department of Justice is investigating whether Pennsylvania’s new voter ID law is discriminatory, according to a letter released Monday. Specifically, the department is reviewing Pennsylvania Act No. 18 (2012), which establishes the requirement to show proof of identity to be able to vote, according to the document. The Justice Department requested data on the state’s registered voters in an effort to analyze whether those who lack the proper identification are disproportionately minorities. (Eric Withholder feels that illegal immigrants should have the same right to vote as many times in an election as they wish, as dead people do in Chicago. ~Bob.)
Excerpt: The media commentary about “executive privilege” makes your eyes glaze over. That’s intentional: When you are throwing sand in the public’s eyes, as the administration is in the Fast and Furious scandal, you want the talking heads droning on about the jurisprudence of “presidential communications” and “deliberative process.”
One Sweden to Rule Them All. By Baron Bodisseyhttp://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2012/07/one-sweden-to-rule-them-all.html
Excerpt: The good, kind, thoughtful, well-educated people who run the Nation Formerly Known as Sweden have decided, using their advanced powers of ratiocination and deduction, that Sweden would be a better place if it resembled Malaysia. Before we get into the details of this fascinating new scheme, let’s compare and contrast Malaysia and Sweden.
Excerpt: The good, kind, thoughtful, well-educated people who run the Nation Formerly Known as Sweden have decided, using their advanced powers of ratiocination and deduction, that Sweden would be a better place if it resembled Malaysia. Before we get into the details of this fascinating new scheme, let’s compare and contrast Malaysia and Sweden.
VIDEO: The 13-year-old girl who tried to save the life of the six-year-old who died in Aurora.http://althouse.blogspot.com/2012/07/the-13-year-old-girl-who-tried-to-save.html
From The Howe and Hutton Report
NOT WHAT YOU MIGHT EXPECT – Take those tales of greedy business owners with a grain of salt, especially when applied to small businesses. According to a recent Citibank survey, more than half of small business owners have had to go without one or more paychecks in lieu of laying off staff or reducing staff pay or benefits. They also dealt with lower profits (if there were profits) and worked longer hours.
A Back Door into the Olympics. By Baron Bodisseyhttp://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2012/07/a-back-door-into-olympics.html
Excerpt: The Sun, a British tabloid, has done the kind of investigative reporting that the larger papers can’t seem to manage: it busted a ring of corrupt Pakistani officials who were selling passports and visas that would allow buyers to enter Britain along with Pakistan’s Olympic team, and perhaps even gain access to the Olympic stadium.
Excerpt: The Sun, a British tabloid, has done the kind of investigative reporting that the larger papers can’t seem to manage: it busted a ring of corrupt Pakistani officials who were selling passports and visas that would allow buyers to enter Britain along with Pakistan’s Olympic team, and perhaps even gain access to the Olympic stadium.
Israel's War of Words. By Daniel Greenfieldhttp://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2012/07/israels-war-of-words.html
Excerpt: Until recently, the Israeli left was feverishly complaining about the surplus of Religious Nationalist Jews in the army and the threat of religious fanaticism. Now it's back to complaining that there aren't enough Ultra-Orthodox religious fanatics in the army, after spending last year complaining that the ones in the army were too fanatical and the ones on buses were even worse.
Excerpt: Until recently, the Israeli left was feverishly complaining about the surplus of Religious Nationalist Jews in the army and the threat of religious fanaticism. Now it's back to complaining that there aren't enough Ultra-Orthodox religious fanatics in the army, after spending last year complaining that the ones in the army were too fanatical and the ones on buses were even worse.
--
Robert A. Hall
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