Best older posts for new blog readers
Ted Cruz wins Republican runoff for Texas Senate seat
Excerpt: Former state solicitor general Ted Cruz, a tea party-aligned conservative once regarded as a long-shot candidate, has won the Republican runoff in Texas, where he will be the GOP nominee for the U.S. Senate in the November election. The Associated Press has called the race for Cruz over Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst. Cruz will be a heavy favorite over Democratic nominee Paul Sadler, who also won a runoff on Tuesday. Cruz, an emerging conservative star whose father emigrated to the United States from Cuba, has drawn comparisons to Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and has been lauded by national conservative political pundits and groups for over a year. (Cruz Cruises. Suggested headline in the MSM: “Racist Tea Party sends another Hispanic to the Senate.” ~Bob.)
Worth Reading: Tom Kratman's Afterword to Carnifex
This is the "Afterword" I mention in my review of Kratman's great sequel to A Desert Called Peace, the science fiction novelCarnifex. It is a discussion of "progressives," who feature in the novel. It is worth reading on it's own. But don't let that stop you from buying the books. ~Bob.
Worth Reading: Romney and the Palestinian Culture of Destruction. By Bruce Thornton
Excerpt: These reactions are drearily predictable, including the incoherent charge of “racism” against somebody making a cultural argument. More important, once again Palestinian revanchist obsessions, anti-Semitism, and the jihadist death cult are ignored, and the reasons for Israeli defensive measures passed over, while Western materialist obsessions like “racism” “colonialism,” and “national aspirations” are used to explain destructive behavior the origins of which lie in cultural and religious dysfunctions.
Worth Reading: Are There Too Many Guns? By John Goodman
Excerpt: Assault weapons are not usually the weapon of choice. Neither of the two worst shooting sprees in U.S. history involved assault weapons. James Huberty, who killed 20 people at a McDonald’s restaurant in San Ysidro, California, in 1984, used a shotgun, a pistol and a hunting rifle. George Hennard, who killed 22 people at a Luby’s Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas, in 1991, used two ordinary pistols. Still, gun opponents seem obsessed about them. So what exactly is an “assault weapon”? … You would think that the definition would hinge on a weapon’s fire power or its capacity to maim or kill. Not so. Assault weapons are mainly defined by their appearance. As Steve Chapman explained the other day: Assault weapons are functionally indistinguishable from ordinary semiautomatic hunting rifles. They don’t fire more rapidly, they don’t deliver more lethal rounds, and they don’t spray bullets. They only look like military arms.
Always Worth Reading: Milton Friedman's Centenary. By Thomas Sowell
http://townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2012/08/01/milton_friedmans_centenary
http://townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2012/08/01/milton_friedmans_centenary
Excerpt: No one converted Milton Friedman, either in economics or in his views on social policy. His own research, analysis and experience converted him.
As a professor, he did not attempt to convert students to his political views. I made no secret of the fact that I was a Marxist when I was a student in Professor Friedman's course, but he made no effort to change my views. He once said that anybody who was easily converted was not worth converting.
Chick-fil-A visit in Tulsa, Oklahoma on August 1, 2012
I just got back from Chick-fil-A. I got in line for the drive through at 11:12 am. I wanted to beat the lunch crowd, don't you know. There were cars as far as I could see in both directions. Hundreds upon hundreds of them. And people standing and waiting in line. KRMG said it was the same all over Tulsa. I went through the drive through, got served at 11:37 am, and headed for home. I didn't hear anyone yelling, or see anyone giving people the finger, either. I look for other restaurants coming out for traditional marriage soon. –Larry.
Occupy Blood in the Streets, the Town of Tampa
Excerpt: On August 27, organizations such as Code Pink, Students for a Democratic Society, various labor unions and Occupy movements are converging on Tampa, Florida for what they’re calling the “March on the RNC”.
70,000 Christians 'locked in concentration camps.' By Michael Carl
Excerpt: However, whatever secular benefits may have trickled down to residents of the isolated communist nation, there is no evidence of any improvement in the condition of the persecuted church there, he said. “We have not heard any reports of improvement for Christians in the country and have no reason to believe anything has changed,” Morgan said. “The regime still has up to 70,000 Christians locked away in virtual concentration camps.” (When you consider for a moment that no Western government, nor the EU nor the UN, has ever supported a "democracy" movement in N Korea where this barbarous and inhumane treatment of Christians is occurring -- even though Obama, Cameron, Sarkozy, NATO and the rest of the Western powers and media have ranted incessantly about the need to support the Arab Spring, supporting, as we now know, Islamists who in turn are completely wiping out indigenous Christianity in the Middle East in the name of "democracy," it ought to be crystal clear that one of the main goals of the Western elites is to eliminate Christianity and inflict as much damage upon Christians as they possibly can throughout the world. But they forget: Christianity has been watered by the blood of its martyrs for 20 centuries. Don Hank)
Obama, Romney In Florida Running Almost Neck And Neck, Poll Shows
Excerpt: President Barack Obama is now barely edging out Mitt Romney in Florida, making the state effectively a tossup, according to a poll released Thursday by the Democratic firm PPP. (Democrat poll, liberal outlet. ~Bob.)
Bitter Boundary Dispute Roils India, China Relations. By Walter Russell Mead
Excerpt: The boundary disputes unsettling the peace of Asia don’t just involve tiny islands in the South China Sea. Himalayan glaciers and valleys are also involved — and it’s not just India and Pakistan who are at daggers drawn in the Asian high country. India and China have never settled their disputed land border. They fought a war over it in 1962, but maps still show the entire province of Arunachal Pradesh as Chinese or Indian, depending on whose map it is.
Hillary Clinton Slams Bachmann for Investigation Call
Excerpt: On Monday Secretary of State Hillary Clinton slammed House Republicans Reps. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), Tom Rooney (R-Fla.), Lynn Westmoreland (R-Ga.) and Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) for the letters that they sent in which they called for a serious investigation into how deeply ties are within the U.S. government to the Muslim Brotherhood and specifically they called out Clinton’s deputy chief of staff Huma Abedin. Clinton tried to act as though she never plays politics like this, though this is not politics, it’s fact. She said that such suggestions about her aide has “no place in our politics” for such “assaults.”
Daily Presidential Tracking Poll
Excerpt: The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday shows Mitt Romney attracting 47% of the vote, while President Obama earns support from 44%. Five percent (5%) prefer some other candidate, and four percent (4%) are undecided. Romney has a 20-point advantage among white voters. Obama is supported by 91% of black voters and 57% of other minority voters.
Tweet from @derekahunter
Kudos to @RahmEmanuel for his fight to ensure none of Chicago's hundreds of murder victims will suffer the horror of Chick-Fil-A
Coalition of Black Pastors Slams Mayors For Wanting To Ban Chick-Fil-A, Say It's The "Same Thing" As Banning Blacks From Restaurants...
Excerpt: The President of the Coalition of African-American Pastors says supporters of traditional marriage are facing the same discrimination that blacks faced during the civil rights movement. “Some people are saying because of the position that Chick-fil-A has taken - they don’t want them in their cities,” Rev. William Owens said at the National Press Club on Tuesday. “It’s a disgrace. It’s the same thing that happened when I was marching for civil rights, when they didn’t want a black to come into their restaurant, they didn’t want us staying in their hotels.
Another company scraps US expansion plans due to Obamacare medical device tax
Excerpt: An Indiana company’s decision to scrap expansion plans due to a looming tax on medical devices has renewed pressure on the Senate to consider a House-passed bill repealing the tax.
Republicans: Obama administration hiding big job losses from sequester
Excerpt: Republicans accused the Obama administration Tuesday of intimidating defense contractors and seeking to hide job losses from pending cuts to the Pentagon’s budget in order to help the president’s reelection campaign.
US Entrepreneurship Dead?
Excerpt: An interesting report was posted this morning…America may be going out of business when it comes to starting new businesses, according to a recent report. The study—from the non-profit New America Foundation—argues the U.S. is seriously in danger of losing its entrepreneurial spirit because the number of small business created has been declining since the 1970s. (I can identify with this. As soon as my from-scratch business started to grow, I discovered I was dad to my employees. I got by at first by non-hiring. I would let them come in at whatever time they liked so that they were considered contractors. But later I needed actual employees and had to pay their health insurance and pay them when they said they were sick I tried cutting back the hours of one guy, so he quit, went to a government agency and said I had "fired" him. I wrote a letter inviting him to come back on the old schedule, but he couldn't face me. The government let me off the hook when they saw the letter. A lady who came for a job interview ran across the lawn and fell and sprained her ankle. She tried to sue me but lost. I made about the same amount per hour as they did. As regulations got worse, and as new hires behaved more and more like political agitators, I saw the handwriting on the wall and let them all go. And that was before Obama, the union boss-in-chief. --Don Hank)
Las Vegas Oddsmaker Predicts Obama Will Have a Landslide Loss
Excerpt: Las Vegas Oddsmaker Wayne Allyn Root predicted that Barack Obama will suffer a massive loss in the General Election even though the current polls do not show Obama necessarily losing. (Hope this isn’t just wishful thinking. ~Bob.)
Corporate Welfare in the Federal Budget
Excerpt: Rising federal spending and huge deficits are pushing the nation toward a financial and economic crisis. Policymakers should find and eliminate wasteful, damaging and unneeded programs in the federal budget. One good way to save money would be to cut subsidies to businesses in the form of corporate welfare, says Tad DeHaven, a budget analyst on federal and state budget issues for the Cato Institute. Policymakers claim that business subsidies are needed to fix alleged market failures or to help American companies better compete in the global economy. However, corporate welfare often subsidizes failing and mismanaged businesses, and induces firms to spend more time on lobbying rather than on making better products. Instead of correcting market failures, federal subsidies misallocate resources and introduce government failures into the marketplace. According to analysis by the Cato Institute, corporate welfare in the federal budget costs taxpayers almost $100 billion a year. Of all the departments of the federal government, the Department of Agriculture is the greatest supplier of corporate welfare, laying out some $25 billion in the forms of farm aid, investment and risk mitigation. The Departments of Energy and Housing and Urban Development were also big spenders, handing out $17 billion and $16 billion, respectively.
Irrational infatuation with biofuels: Lawmakers drive up cost of food and energy. By Richard Rahn
Excerpt: Are you upset about rapidly rising food costs and high gas prices? You can thank members of Congress and the administration for this situation. Much of the United States is in the midst of a major drought. That’s not the fault of the political class, but those folks have made the consequences of the drought far worse for the entire world.
The End of Teachers Unions. By Terry M. Moe
Excerpt: Unbeknownst to almost everyone at the time, however, the American education system of 2012 was in the early stages of a revolution. The ingredients of change were barely visible, and the revolution would unfold slowly over a period of decades. By 2030, though, it was virtually complete: radically changing the education system and shattering the structure of political power that had long preserved a failing status quo. It was a revolution in education. But it was also a revolution in politics—without which the revolution in education could never have succeeded.
Worth Reading: Myth Vs. Fact - Internet Taxes. By John Nothdurft
Excerpt: For instance, Rhode Island has seen no additional sales tax revenue from its Amazon tax, and because Amazon reacted by discontinuing its affiliate program, Rhode Islanders are earning less income and paying less income tax."
Budget officials: Navy’s 30-year shipbuilding plan underfunded by $94 billion. By Cristina Silva
Excerpt: The Navy’s most recent 30-year construction plan underestimates the cost of growing and maintaining its fleet by more than $3 billion annually over the next three decades, according to a recent analysis by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. According to the report, the Navy faces a $94 billion funding gap from 2013 through 2042 as it looks to build roughly 268 ships for its aging inventory.
Russia to get stronger nuclear navy, Putin says. By Gleb Bryanski
Excerpt: President Vladimir Putin oversaw the start of construction of one of Russia's newest generation submarines on Monday and vowed to boost nuclear naval forces to safeguard the country's position as a leading sea power. Warning that its navy would protect top energy producer Russia's interests in the oil-rich Arctic, Putin led the ceremony to begin building the submarine Prince Vladimir, named after the ruler who founded a precursor state to modern Russia. (Wonder who he really thinks it’s named after? ~Bob.)
The Trouble With Elections. By Burt Prelutsky
Excerpt: The drawback to elections, no matter where they take place, is that all sorts of people get to vote. Just look around and you’ll see the disastrous results of democratic elections. In Gaza, the people elected terrorists who owe their allegiance to Hamas. In Egypt, they elected Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, who gave a victory speech in which he announced that the future capital of Egypt would be Jerusalem, of all places, and put out a call to his people, saying, “You are all Hamas. Come forward, you lovers of martyrdom.”
Gaffe quote from NRO’s Morning Jolt with Jim Geraghty
But to judge from the coverage of the past week or so, Romney makes a "gaffe" every time he speaks -- and the media, obsessed with advancing a "narrative," now applies the word "gaffe" to very deliberate statements. What the term gaffe now means is, "a statement that someone, somewhere, doesn't like.” (The whole piece is worth reading. No link—you have to subscribe. ~Bobhttp://visitor.r20.constantcontact.com/manage/optin/ea?v=001RgvbKVLa7a5BY3s-bMhqwQ%3D%3D)
Good Piece: The smallness of the new Obama. By Charles Hurt
Excerpt: It has become the disappearing presidency. He went from peddling the “audacity of hope” to sheer hopelessness. From promising change to — literally — begging for change. Any spare change.
Obama Undermines the Law on Immigration. By Tom Tancredo
Excerpt: In July of 2011, Obama spoke before the National Council of La Raza. Addressing the demands by Hispanic leaders that he simply grant an administrative amnesty, he said “I know some people want me to bypass Congress and change the laws on my own.” La Raza’s audience broke out in applause and one audience member repeatedly yelled “Yes you can!” While acknowledging “the idea of doing things on my own is very tempting” and “not just on immigration reform,” he told La Raza “that’s not how the system works.”
White House pressuring defense industry not to warn of layoffs
Excerpt: Republicans on Tuesday accused the White House of trying to “intimidate” defense companies into keeping silent about major job losses if automatic military spending cuts take effect early next year, after the administration said Monday that it would be “inappropriate” for employers to warn workers of layoffs. Defense industry officials were caught in the middle, trying to weigh the requirements of a federal law that says they must give employees 60 days’ notice before major layoffs versus the Labor Department, which said Monday that it doesn’t believe the law applies in this case.
Heckling Romney Abroad. By Brent Bozell
Excerpt: Mitt Romney might have thought it was eminently sensible in an NBC interview in London to repeat exactly what the TV networks had already reported on security at the London Olympics, namely, that there was room for concern. Romney succeeded only in demonstrating how unbelievably shameless and partisan our "objective" media can be. The networks and national newspapers aggressively declared Romney had committed a diplomatic fiasco overseas and repeated London tabloid headlines heckling Romney with insults, such as "Mitt the Twit." (Why would you be concerned that Pakistani officials were selling Olympic Visas to all comers? Everyone there belongs to the “Religion of Peace,” thus no threat. ~Bob.)
Iran significantly 'speeds up nuclear enrichment'
Excerpt: "Iran has broken new records in terms of the pace at which it has been enriching uranium, and it has continued to race ahead so as to create as short a 'storming distance' as possible between it and the bomb," the Maariv daily said. (So much for sanctions! May still be time to stop this rogue nation from developing nuclear weapons should Romney win the Presidency! GBH)
First, the ‘fast & furious’ small fry. By Michael A. Walsh
Excerpt: Yesterday’s report on the Fast and Furious fiasco was just the first shoe. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), whose House Oversight Committee has been spearheading the investigation, promises two more. Shoe No. 1 blames five employees of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) for the botched “gunwalking” operation, which sent some 2,000 guns to the Mexican drug cartels — guns later used to kill hundreds of Mexicans and at least two Americans.
Obama asks public schools to ignore bad behavior by black students. By Kyle Rogers
Excerpt: Back in 2007, I had two white female public school teachers tell me why Barack Obama was desperately needed as president. They said that black male students have no male role models. If only Obama was elected, black male students would improve their behavior and academic performance, they claimed. In many major cities, black academic performance has actually gotten worse since Obama took office. We have also seen the dramatic nationwide rise of black teen mob violence under the Obama administration. (This wouldn’t be possible in a country with a Constitution that guaranteed equal protect of the law, regardless of race. Or, as MLK should have said, “I have a dream that one day a black kid will be able to beat the crap out of a white kid and not be punished for it.” ~Bob.)
Hillary Compares Islamic Violence to Christianity
Excerpt: “Religions against one another, it is even within religions, within Christianity, within Judaism within, oh, Islam, within Hinduism there are people who believe their version of that religion is the only right way to believe. And so in some of the countries that we are concerned about that are majority Muslim countries it’s the intimidation and violence against Muslims who are in minority sects that we most worry about.” (After every Allahmurder, the left and the media warn about the possible “backlash” against Muslims. It never seems to happen. ~Bob.)
Amtrak, America's government-owned passenger rail corporation, plans to spend $151 billion it doesn't currently have.
Excerpt: Earlier this month, Amtrak, America's government-owned passenger rail corporation, released a plan outlining how it's going to spend $151 billion it doesn't currently have (and has no prospect of receiving anytime soon) to bring true high-speed trains to America's crucial Boston-New York-Washington rail axis. .... The more you delve into the details of the plans, the sillier they appear. (Full speed ahead on the high-speed road to ruins. –Chris)
Pentagon warns lawmakers: Sequester cuts would lead to 'unready, hollow' military force http://thehill.com/blogs/defcon-hill/budget-appropriations/241551-pentagon-sequestration-major-step-to-hollow-force
Excerpt: Deputy Defense Secretary Ash Carter on Wednesday warned that sequestration would be a “major step” to “an unready, hollow” military force. Testifying at a House Armed Services Committee hearing on sequestration, Carter began laying out some of the impacts of the $55-billion cut facing the Pentagon in 2013 if sequestration is not reversed.
US aircrew's remains found in sunken WWII aircraft
Excerpt: The remains and personal belongings of five American airmen have been recovered from the wreck of a US Air Forceplane, almost 70 years after it sank in Canadian waters, a diplomat said Tuesday. (Spare a thought and a prayer for the tens of thousands of US and allied servicemen and women who have died of disease or accidents in the military since 1775. They died in our service, doing our bidding, in freedom’s cause, as surely as those killed in combat. ~Bob.)
Eat Chicken and Speak Up For Freedom
Excerpt: I probably eat fast food once a month. But today I'm joining millions of other Americans and going to Chick-fil-A to have chicken sandwich. I have always held contempt for the radicalism of the Liberal Left, whether it was spitting in the face of Vietnam vets or demanding that religious folks accept what they deem immoral, or forcing churches to fund abortions and birth control. (I personally don’t have a concern about gay marriage. I wish it was the biggest problem facing America. Not in the top ten IMHO. But I have a huge problem with politicians and government punishing people for exercising their First Amendment Free Speech rights. ~Bob.)
Egypt all-veiled TV aims to cover women's needs
The “Arab Spring,” celebrated by all right-thinking multiculturalists, transnational progressives and their media sycophants, is doing a great job keeping women in their rightful, Allah-ordained subservient place. ~Bob.
Halal Games and Anti-Jihad War Apparatus in Islamized London: Halal Games and Anti-Jihad War Apparatus in Islamized London. By Enza Ferreri
Excerpt: London is the most Islamic city to have hosted the Olympic Games ever. There are at least 1 million Muslims thought to live in London, although the figure is likely to be higher. And these Olympics will be dominated by Islam in more than one way.
Excerpt: Nine Christian trainee nurses at the Civil Hospital Karachi fell ill Sunday night allegedly after drinking poisoned tea prepared at their hostel. They were claimed to have been deliberately poisoned because of their faith. 9Don’t drink the tea at the “Arab Spring.” ~Bob.)
Ethics panel finds Rep. Laura Richardson guilty on seven counts http://thehill.com/homenews/house/241573-ethics-panel-finds-rep-laura-richardson-guilty-on-seven-counts
Excerpt: The House Ethics Committee issued a report on Wednesday finding Rep. Laura Richardson (D-Calif.) guilty on seven counts of violating the chamber’s rules by improperly pressuring her staff to campaign for her, destroying evidence and tampering with witness testimony. Richardson agreed to pay a fine of $10,000 within four months and promised to require staffers who work on her campaign to sign a waiver stating that they haven’t been pressured to do so. (Political staff understands, usually, that if the member gets fired, they get fired, so are happy to campaign. Must not have liked her. ~Bob.)
Slavery In the Quran, Traditions, and Classical Law: What Does Modern Islam Practice? By James M. Arlandson, Ph.D.
Excerpt: This series of articles is intended for educators, journalists, legislators, city council members, judges, government bureaucrats, think tank fellows, TV and radio talk show hosts, and others who occupy “check points” in society. They initiate dialogues and shape (not to say control) the flow of the conversation. They are the policy and decision makers. They seem to believe that shariah has no problems; it’s just misunderstood. Its critics exaggerate (and maybe they have been guilty of that in some cases). The critics are probably just “Islamophobic.” Islam, after all, is a world religion, so it deserves respect. (Christianity and Judaism are also world religions, but these “thought leaders” don’t seem to think they deserve “respect.” Maybe because there is little to fear from their adherents. ~Bob.)
‘You Didn’t Build That’ and the Darkness of Collective Punishment: The fallacy of collective achievement led directly to last century's murderous scapegoating. By Oleg Atbashian
Excerpt: As Obama’s “you didn’t build that” quote is probed and analyzed, note that the idea of redistributing other people’s achievements is only the tip of an ideological iceberg.
ICNA Embraces America's Favorite Salafi Preacher
Excerpt: Yasir Qadhi, billed by the New York Times as "one of the most influential conservative clerics in American Islam," recently told one of the nation's largest Islamic conferences that the Quran "destroys" American capitalism. "Who amongst us would have predicted five years ago that this nation would despise and hate the very [economic] system that they used to claim was the reason for their success?" he asked hundreds at a session of the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA)'s national conference in late May.
Don’t Give Up on the USA
New song.
Attacks on Christianity are Designed to Silence Christians and Keep them Home on Election Day. By Gary DeMar
Excerpt: We have that freedom and right. We can “petition the government for a redress of grievances.” It’s written right in the Constitution. God through His mercy has established the United States as a civil society in which we can through our voice and vote make changes for the betterment of all. To remain silent in the face of evil is a grave sin.
Video: Syrian rebels execute militiamen
Excerpt: Graphic footage from Aleppo shows four militiamen loyal to Assad at close range while crowd chants 'Allahu Akbar'. (Multiculturalism in action. Enjoy. ~Bob.)
GOP wants investigation of Obama administration meetings outside White House. By Alex Pappas
Excerpt: The chairman of the Republican National Committee said Wednesday there should be an investigation to determine whether Obama administration officials are breaking the law by intentionally holding meetings outside the White House to keep them off visitor logs. “We need to have a full-scale investigation so that we can in fact determine whether or not, under the facts and circumstances, that we have a crime,” RNC chairman Reince Priebus said in an afternoon conference call with reporters. Priebus also said officials may have broken the law by using a personal email account to conduct business.
Source: Iran readies attacks against Saudi Arabia, Qatar. By Reza Kahlili
Excerpt: Iran is preparing for a direct attack on Saudi Arabia should Syria’s Bashar Assad be in danger of falling to rebel forces that the Islamic regime believes are being supported by the Arab kingdom, according to a source within Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. Iran also blames the Saudis for unrest in two of its provinces. (Hard to believe they’d be this dumb, though they do a lot of dumb things. ~Bob.)
The Navalny charges illustrate the failure of Obama’s Russian reset. By Tom Rogan
Regardless, it is now evident that President Obama’s attempted détente with Putin’s Russia has been a dismal failure. In both Russia’s international and domestic actions, while cloaking himself in the false visage of an enlightened strong man, Putin has engaged in a brutal pursuit of power. This week, Alexey Navalny, a leading Russian anti-corruption campaigner, was arrested and charged with embezzlement.
Americans flock to support Chick-fil-A
Excerpt: Across the country today, Americans are flocking to Chick-fil-A restaurants in a national show of support for the eatery after the company’s president publicly stated his support for the biblical definition of marriage between one man and one woman. (Pictures of the mob scenes. I think it’s as much to support the right of people to speak their views without having politicians use power of the government to punish them for their views. It’s possible to support gay marriage and freedom of speech. ~Bob.)
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Robert A. Hall
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