Bob, Thanks a heap for your very kind words about WAR SHOTS and me. They are deeply appreciated. I think that any success I had in the Corps, during war, or at the Pentagon was because I never asked permission to do something if I felt it was right to do. To operate that way in the strict configuration of the military mind was a huge gamble. Fortunately my kudos outshone my need for apologies. It was a pleasure in meeting you and having nice conversations with Bonnie. I saw something that reinforced my own attitude when reading General Peter Pace's comment to young officers. He said that in his first tour as a young officer in Vietnam he questioned his CO, three times on the phone on how that officer wanted him to accomplish the assigned mission. On the third call the CO in no uncertain terms said that is your responsibility, as a unit commander, and using a word such as contemplate suggested that he do so before he made his movement. Pace said the he called his Sgt. Major and said that any time the Skipper called for him to tell the CO he was contemplating. That was the way he played his whole life in the Corps and he did pretty well by becoming the first Marine Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He said he had to apologize once in a while but it was all for a good cause. In Pace's reason for telling the new officers his story there is another part that is always very important and that is you give your superiors your plan of action and then he will decide what and how to attack the problem! Just don't ask him how to do it. Semper Fi --Norm. (A rare treat to get a response from the subject of a book I review. One reader pointed out a typo in my review, in that in one place I missed the second "I" and put WWI. Maj. Hatch is "Old Corps"--but not quite that Old Corps! Between the job, the blog which doesn't generate any revenue, the family, reading, writing and coping with pulmonary fibrosis, I need a proof reader! Not enough hours. ~Bob.)
Good Kass Column: This election, being Obama is bad, but being the non-Obama won't help Romney. By John Kass
Excerpt: So if the 2012 presidential race is on Obama's ground, if it's about government subsidies for business versus government subsidies for select demographic voting constituencies, and if all of us in America keep our hands extended, waiting for government plums, then Obama wins. It's Chicago machine politics writ large. But there are problems for the president.
No Surprise: Kerry: Don’t ‘Prejudge’ the Muslim Brotherhood
The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee warned against “prejudging” the Muslim Brotherhood as Mohammed Morsi became Egypt’s first Islamist president today. “During my recent visits to Cairo, I’ve had two candid discussions with the new president. ..“In our discussions, Mr. Morsi committed to protecting fundamental freedoms, including women’s rights, minority rights, the right to free expression and assembly, and he said he understood the importance of Egypt’s post-revolutionary relationships with America and Israel,” he added. (Most folks know that “Arab Spring” equals MB = Sharia = Radical Islamist State= Caliphate. Democracy? Nyet. Fool me twice….Barb. Ah ,yet, pronouncements on "rights" from Hanoi John Kerry, why cut his political teeth working to ensure the Communist Genocide in Southeast Asia from 1975 to 1978, the on-going extermination of the Hill Tribes, the Boat People, the Reeducation Camps, and the continuing denial of freedom of speech, freedom of association and freedom of religion in Vietnam. He has much to be proud of beyond betraying the people he served alongside. One would like to see his full military record, which he often promised to release, but never signed the form to release everything, or have a recording of his meeting in France with the Communist leaders we were fighting while still an officer in the reserves. No surprise here. ~Bob.)
Egyptian secular forces condemn US support for Muslim Brotherhood candidate
Excerpt: Egyptian secular and liberal parties sounded dissatisfaction over the reported support of the US for Muslim Brotherhood's presidential candidate, Mohamed Mursi, but affirmed they would accept the results of the elections due to be announced Sunday.
Supporters Slow to Grasp Health Law’s Legal Risks. By Peter Baker
With the Supreme Court likely to render judgment on President Obama’s health care law this week, the White House and Congress find themselves in a position that many advocates of the legislation once considered almost unimaginable. In passing the law two years ago, Democrats entertained little doubt that it was constitutional. The White House held a conference call to tell reporters that any legal challenge, as one Obama aide put it, “will eventually fail and shouldn’t be given too much credence in the press.”
Top Syria cleric threatens attacks on U.S., EU
Excerpt: Syria's top Sunni Muslim cleric has warned Western countries against military intervention in Syria and threatened to retaliate with suicide bombings in the United States and Europe if his country comes under attack.
Officials say they have put Jerry Sandusky on suicide watch. I say give the man some space.
Iran and the Bomb. By Walter Russell Mead
Excerpt: Via Meadia has often made clear our supreme confidence that Iran would use the bomb responsibly, if at all, should the peace-loving mullahs manage to develop it. The Guardian reports more news of a confidence-building nature: A multinational investigation into bomb plots targeting Israeli diplomats earlier this year has produced the clearest evidence yet that Iran was involved, illustrating the risks to the west if it fails to reach detente with Tehran over its nuclear weapons programme…
Obama Twists Romney’s Economic Record: Obama campaign ad takes aim at Romney's time as Massachusetts governor.
Excerpt: A new ad from the Obama campaign takes aim at Mitt Romney’s performance as governor of Massachusetts, claiming he had “one of the worst economic records in the country.” But the ad overreaches with several of its claims.
'A Perfect and Beautiful Machine': What Darwin's Theory of Evolution Reveals about Artificial Intelligence. By Daniel C. Dennet
Excerpt: In order to be a perfect and beautiful computing machine, it is not requisite to know what arithmetic is. What Darwin and Turing had both discovered, in their different ways, was the existence of competence without comprehension. This inverted the deeply plausible assumption that comprehension is in fact the source of all advanced competence.
Why Women Still Can't Have It All. By Anne-Marie Slaughter
Excerpt: What she meant was that such a statement, coming from a high-profile career woman—a role model—would be a terrible signal to younger generations of women. By the end of the evening, she had talked me out of it, but for the remainder of my stint in Washington, I was increasingly aware that the feminist beliefs on which I had built my entire career were shifting under my feet.
The Measured Man: Larry Smarr, an astrophysicist turned computer scientist charts his every bodily function in minute detail, By Mark Bowden
Excerpt: Larry is in the vanguard of what some call the “quantified life,” which envisions replacing the guesswork and supposition presently guiding individual health decisions with specific guidance tailored to the particular details of each person’s body. Because of his accomplishments and stature in his field, Larry cannot easily be dismissed as a kook.
America’s Plan to Cut Carbon: Frack Now. By Walter Russell Mead
Excerpt: As activists in Rio and around the world mourned the failure of yet another useless summit to do anything about climate change, good news on the CO2 front was coming from the country greens love to hate: the US. While Europe has adopted a plethora of expensive laws without any significant effect on CO2 emissions, the US is substantially reducing its emissions even as air pollution levels drop.
Soldier who killed Afghan civilian says he felt threat to his men
Excerpt: A platoon sergeant charged in the shooting death of an Afghan civilian said Friday he believed his platoon was seconds away from a car bomb attack when he fired his weapon. Sgt. 1st Class Walter Taylor is charged with negligent homicide and dereliction of duty for the shooting death of an Afghan civilian who drove with her family into the middle of a firefight and abruptly exited the car as soldiers neared.
Fast and Furious and OCDETF
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.” Blather about the legal contours diverts your attention from the only question that really matters: Why?
European Bailouts May Lead to Another World War
Excerpt: A continuation of bailouts in Europe could ultimately spark another world war, says international investor Jim Rogers. “This is how we got into World War II,” Rogers tells Yahoo, referring to Europe’s handling of its financial crisis. “If you wait two years from now, five years from now, when no government has any credibility and nobody will give you any more money, then it's finished. You better get yourself a rifle and head to Asia."
The federal green jobs agenda
Excerpt: But evidence suggests government is a very poor venture capitalist when it comes to investing in applied R&D, and even worse in trying to help self-proclaimed “technologies of tomorrow,” cross over the so-called “Valley of Death.” The landscape is positively littered with the debris of the President’s “green technology” investment programs, with billions of dollars of taxpayer money thrown into businesses that were of dubious potential from the start.
A Note on ‘Fast and Furious,’ Executive Privilege, and the End of the Obama Administration. By Roger Kimball
Excerpt: “You can’t hear the phrase “executive privilege” without thinking “Watergate,” a word you can’t hear without thinking “cover-up,” “Nixon,” “impeachment.” In fact, Fast and Furious is far worse than Watergate. No one died in Watergate.
William Hazlitt on Barack Obama, Or: Why the Ridiculous Is no Laughing Matter. By Roger Kimball
Excerpt: The skies are filled with chickens coming home to roost. The scent of panic among Democrats is palpable as the gaffes multiply, the economy lurches, and the money-machine dries up. We can expect greater and greater exhibitionist spectacles, orgies of moral browbeating, and Chicago-style gutter ad hominem attacks. (Excerpt: What is obvious and unsaid dialectically is the Marxist premise that O is more deserving of income than we are; that he knows what to do with our money better than we or our friends/relatives do; that he deserves praise and laud and gifts like Mao and N. Korea leaders; and that the small celebrations in our daily lives should be discarded for his concepts of good ,reducing those of us that used to strive for betterment to squalor—all equal in misery, licking the regime hand for any dole. --Barb.)
Exclusive Update: NC Student Who Videotaped Pro-Obama Screaming
Teacher Faces Harassment
Excerpt: According to the video-taper’s sister, not only did the school authorities reject the appeal for home-schooling, they gave him a suspension on his school record for videotaping in the classroom -- the first suspension ever issued for such an action, despite the fact that other students have also videotaped on school grounds. The young man’s sister stated that assistant principal Antoine Brisbon said to her brother, “That was a very stupid thing you did." (Looks like the school would rather support the teacher than the Constitution and/or nonbiased education. Not sure colleges/universities encouraging contemplative, broad-minded education, either. An individual who thinks for him/herself is a threat to a dictator. --Barb.)
Egypt 'Another Gaza’ with Obama Administration Backing. By David P. Goldman
Excerpt: Egypt's newly-elected Muslim Brotherhood president Mohammed Mursi may cement his victory with a coup against the Egyptian army, according to an analyst at Egypt's Al-Ahram Institute quoted in today's Gulf News:.....On Thursday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on Egypt's ruling military council to fulfill its promise and hand overpower to the “legitimate election winner.” Some interpreted that statement as a US endorsement of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Mursi who is competing against Hosni Mubarak's ex-prime minister Ahmed Shafiq. (Clinton’s Secretary has ties to Muslim Sisterhood; infiltration evident, nurtured by regime. We fed Brotherhood on tax payer's dime at White House. --Barb.)
How is Huma Abedin connected to Egypt’s new President? By Walid Shoebat and Ben Barrack
Excerpt: It was encouraging to see five sitting US Congressmen – led by Rep. Michele Bachmann – send a letter to the Office of the Inspector General at the State Department recently; it made reference to the familial relationships Huma Abedin – Hillary Clinton’s Deputy Chief of Staff and closest advisor – has to the Muslim Brotherhood. Abedin has much fewer than six degrees of separation (1 or 2 depending on your interpretation) from Egypt’s newly elected Muslim Brotherhood president – Mohammed Mursi.
Catholic Bishops Begin National Campaign For Religious Liberty. By Dr. Susan Berry
Excerpt: A mass at Baltimore's Basilica of the Assumption on Thursday night was the setting for the start of what U.S. Catholic bishops are calling a “Fortnight for Freedom,” a campaign "of teaching and witness for religious liberty.” The initiative is in response primarily to the HHS mandate, part of ObamaCare, which forces Catholic and other religious institutions such as schools, hospitals, and charities, to provide free contraception, abortion-inducing drugs, and sterilization procedures for its employees in their health insurance plans. The mandate is set to go into effect on August 1st.
Going around the net, author unknown: A lesson in irony
The Food Stamp Program, administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is actually proud of the fact it is distributing the greatest amount of free meals and food stamps ever. Meanwhile, the National Park Service, administered by the U.S. Department of the Interior, asks us to "Please Do Not Feed the Animals." Their stated reason for the policy is because the animals will grow dependent on handouts and will not learn to take care of themselves. This concludes today's lesson.
Did the US launch a drone strike on AQIM in northern Mali?
Excerpt: According to Magharebia, a "mystery airstrike" targeted a convoy of the "Yahya About al Hammam Brigade," a unit of al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb operating in northern Mali, and killed seven fighters. An excerpt of the article is reproduced below, but read the whole thing. Two US intelligence officials contacted by The Long War Journal who are involved in the targeting of al Qaeda operatives worldwide would neither confirm nor deny the reported strike. (Imagine the media publishing, "Is the US getting ready to land in Normandy" in May, 1944. ~Bob.)
Dollars and Dentists
Excerpt: For adults with dental disease, the situation can be as dire — and bankrupting. While millions of Americans use emergency rooms for dental care, at a cost of more than half a billion dollars, corporate dental chains are filling the gaps in care, in some cases allegedly overcharging patients or loading them with high priced credit card debt. Correspondent Miles O’Brien investigates the flaws in our dental system and nascent proposals to fix them. (Another entitlement waiting in the wings? ~Bob.)
Fined by EPA for not using nonexistent material
If anyone still doesn't understand the dangers and idiocy of growing government bureaucracies, here a story in the New York Times about the EPA fining oil refineries for not blending into diesel fuel a special product for cleaner burning, etc, which is presumably great stuff- if it actually were available. Which it is not, and won't be any time soon. The EPA hotshots want the stuff blended into diesel fuel, and won't take no for an answer. Or even Yes As Soon As We Can Buy Some. So they are fining the industry for not complying with the letter of their law. This is crazy on the face of it, and you'd think some upper level EPA hotshot would send down a memo exempting people from the rule until such time as the material is actually on the market. But there's no oversight to the EPA, nobody to tell their boss to get people's heads out of their butts, so they just go along, feeling good about the money they're extracting from the industry. And the industry will, of course, make that part of the diesel cost to the consumers. Which means in the end, all of us will be subsidizing this fine. Sure, makes great sense to me. Tell me again that it's all OK and we should all just relax and have faith in everything that comes out of DC. Please, tell me again, and again, and again.....Del
14-Year-Old Shoots Armed Intruder While Babysitting His Younger Siblings in Phoenix
Excerpt: A 14-year-old boy shot and nearly killed an intruder who broke into his Phoenix home and pulled a gun on him while he was watching his three younger siblings, police said Saturday. The teen and his siblings, ages 8, 10 and 12, were at home alone when a woman rang the doorbell on Friday.
The Union Bailout. By Ed Feulner
Excerpt: We all know how the Obama administration likes to portray the auto bailout: A generous infusion of money enabled the government to save General Motors and Chrysler. Jobs that would otherwise have disappeared were rescued by this taxpayer-funded largesse. It was expensive, but we had no choice. The reality is far less uplifting: Administration officials could have ensured that the bailout didn’t cost you and me a dime.
Why ‘Fast and Furious’ matters. By Michael A. Walsh
Excerpt: Pssst — heard the one about the lethal scandal that reaches to the upper levels of the Obama administration and may turn out to be bigger than Watergate? A crime in which two American agents have been killed, and which the Justice Department has been furiously trying to cover up for more than 18 months?
Vote Tuesday could send Stockton to bankruptcy court. By Peter Hecht
http://www.sacbee.com/2012/06/24/4584857/vote-tuesday-could-send-stockton.html Excerpt: Now Stockton is broke. After years of bad budget decisions based on an overly rosy reading of the economy, Stockton – population 292,000 in 2010 – this week faces the ignominy of becoming the largest city in America ever to file for bankruptcy. (Biggest so far. It won't be the last. There is not enough money in the solar system to bail out every government that has over spent. ~Bob.)
Excerpt: Four Spanish mothers have written a letter denouncing the goings-on at a school in Tarrasa, Catalonia, where, they say, indigenous pupils are routinely harassed by their Muslim classmates and the school authorities always seem to take the side of the aliens. According to the letter, the nursery school does not meet the legally-mandated minimum of having at least 20% of the class speaking the native language as their mother tongue! Arabic has become the dominant language in the corridors and playgrounds.
The "Hope & Change" That Has Turned Out To Be But Despair And Change For The Worse
Excerpt: Every now and then I'm so overwhelmed with disgust over the actions, policies, and agenda of the present occupant in the White House, I just can't hold back from letting loose a rant ... and today is one of those days! After three-and-a-half years of his failed policies, and of his dysfunctional Administration, which have been an abysmal disaster in all fronts - the economy, unemployment, health-care, social issues, domestic policy, and, critically, in his cowering, inept, and amateurish, handling of Foreign Policy, Obama's so much touted "Hope & Change" have rather turned out to be but dismal despair and a turn for the worse, for this nation, and the world….
Soldier trades cigarettes for maimed, hungry dog
Excerpt: Army Sergeant Nick B. took unusual action against cruelty he witnessed serving in Afghanistan. When he encountered a tied-up, skinny Shepherd mix covered in mud, ears and tail hacked away, Nick asked the people living nearby if he could have him. But the owners, who were planning to use the dog for gruesome "entertainment" purposes, were only willing to give him up in return for cigarettes. The soldier happily traded. (Tell me again why we must celebrate all cultures as equally valid? ~Bob.)
Obama Looks Overseas For Campaign Cash
Excerpt: The all-consuming hunt for donors has led President Barack Obama’s campaign to England. And France. And China. Obama is tapping the network of American citizens living outside the 50 states more than any other presidential campaign has before, with more than a dozen bundlers who have pledged to raise as much as $4.5 million. 9well, Clinton/Gore took money from China, and not from Americans living there. ~bob.)
Members of Congress trade in companies while making laws that affect those same firms
Excerpt: One-hundred-thirty members of Congress or their families have traded stocks collectively worth hundreds of millions of dollars in companies lobbying on bills that came before their committees, a practice that is permitted under current ethics rules, a Washington Post analysis has found.
NU Qatar Students Outraged Over Enforcement of Harem Law
Satire, I assume. But things are so weird in some places, who knows? ~Bob. Excerpt: Students at Northwestern University in Qatar have been up in arms over the city’s claims that they will be stepping up enforcement of the infamous harem law. ... He claims that he will do everything he can to support the students and end enforcement of the harem law, including bribing officials if necessary. “It should work” he said. “I mean, that’s how we won the World Cup bid for 2022.”
Excerpt: Americans' net worth collapsed in recent years, but don't blame the housing market for it all.
The most amazing Supreme Court chart. Maybe ever.
Excerpt: So, yeah. A majority of people don’t know the name of the Chief Justice of the United States. (Those people who think Obama can't win are not talking to the large percentage, probably a majority of people, who are ignorant of the most basic details of American government. ~Bob.)
Mother Dies Who Spared Her Baby From Abortion When Cancer Struck
Excerpt: 28 year-old Chiara Corbella has died and at her funeral in Rome, there was joy amid the sorrow. In fact, there was a kind of triumph, of love over life and life over death — one of those contradictory signs that makes no sense to an efficient world but is transcendently reasonable to the mind of faith:
Wealthy Americans Jumping Obama’s Ship
Excerpt: Wealthy Americans aren’t just leaving tax-heavy states like New York and California, they’re leaving the country. U.S. citizens are defecting at record levels in order to escape high taxes, the New York Post reported.
Obama’s Magical Prescription Slips
Excerpt: In the past three and a half years, there is nothing President Obama has accomplished that has instilled in me a sense of trust, about his domestic or foreign policies. This may seem impossible to believe for some people…but it is true. I justify my feelings not by those who do not agree with the president’s decisions. Instead, I base my feelings on his promises to the American People that remain unfulfilled.
News you can use: Two glasses of wine a day improves quality of life for middle-aged: A couple of glasses of wine each day improves your quality of life, researchers say.
Excerpt: A study finds that those who drink in moderation - no more than 14 drinks a week and no more than three a day for women and four a day for men - have better overall scores than those who abstain completely. The quality of life was measured using the Health Utilities index, which looks at factors including dexterity, emotion, cognition and mobility.
Excerpt: Families USA, a pro-Obamacare activist group, has done its part by publishing a report that claims that 26,100 people died in 2010 due to a lack of health insurance. “If [the health care] law is struck down,” they conclude, “the effects would be catastrophic…many will die prematurely.” Unfortunately, the study that supplies Families USA’s figures is statistical hogwash.
Occupy Movement’s Price Tag Tops $20 Million …Much Higher Than the $13 Million That Was Previously Reported
Excerpt: Earlier this week the liberal media reported that the Occupy protests cost taxpayers over$13,000,000.
--
Robert A. Hall
