Monday, December 31, 2012

January 1, 2013




A new oath holds pretty well; but... when it is become old, and frayed out, and damaged by a dozen annual retryings of its remains, it ceases to be serviceable; any little strain will snap it. ~Mark Twain, speech in New York City, 31 March 1885
Happy New Year to each of you! 
A special note of acknowledgement and a thank you to Karen Peters for her years of diligent work and dedication in keeping us informed with the "real" news through her blog site “Conservative Corner”.   While I cannot begin to fill Karen’s shoes I am fortunate to have her mentor me while I continue her efforts through my blog site “The Elephant’s Trunk and More”   located at http://elephantstrunkandmore.blogspot.com/. 


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Employers in California and Illinois will be prohibited from demanding access to workers' password-protected social networking accounts and teachers in Oregon will be required to report suspected student bullies thanks to new laws taking effect in 2013.

In all, more than 400 measures were enacted at the state level during 2012 and will become law in the new year, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL).
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Just before Christmas, after only being able to watch it in bits and pieces during October and November, I finally had the chance to take in the documentary film Hating Breitbart in one sitting. What prompted me to do so was some unfortunate news, namely a lawsuit filed by the immensely talented Dana Loesch signifying that the late Andrew Breitbart’s nascent publishing empire may be imploding. (Snip) While viewing the film, I could not help but wonder whether November’s presidential election might have turned out differently if Andrew had not died on March 1.

Thanks to O’Keefe’s work and Breitbart’s strategy, ACORN went from being one of the most untouchable leftist front groups in the country to a defunded pariah in Washington forced to suspend its operations in less than ten days. A few months later, it was out of business as a national organization. At the same time, Breitbart and O’Keefe completely exposed the knee-jerk leftist instincts of the establishment press. I’m not naive enough to believe that ACORN’s demise meant the end of the left’s efforts to rig voting, but it slowed them down considerably. A full-blown entrenched ACORN juggernaut in 2012 would have made it difficult for even the second coming of Ronald Reagan to compete.http://pjmedia.com/blog/missing-breitbart/2/
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America is entering a new economic normal, a reality where almost everything that should be going up is going down, and everything that should be going down is going up.http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/12/31/Obama-s-New-Economic-Normal-Seven-
Devastating-Facts
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On Monday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Special Report,” Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer voiced his displeasure over President Barack Obama’s New Year’s Eve press conference, which came during intense fiscal cliff negotiations on Capitol Hill. “I found it astonishing,” Krauthammer said. “Here he is — coming out to speak to the nation at a crucial moment in very delicate negotiations — and he comes out there with incredible arrogance. He ridicules the Congress. He spikes the football on the Republicans.
http://dailycaller.com/2012/12/31/krauthammer-obama-showed-incredible-arrogance-in-astonishing-press-conference-video/
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A federal judge has ruled a property management company owned by the founder of Domino's Pizza doesn't have to immediately implement mandatory contraception coverage in theHEALTH CARE law.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CONTRACEPTION_MANDATE_DOMINOS_FOUNDER?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-12-31-13-34-01
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In an op-ed published in the New York Times Monday, Seidman, a constitutional law professor, claimed that the nation’s foundational document is the real impediment to progress and solutions to America’s troubles.

“As the nation teeters at the edge of fiscal chaos, observers are reaching the conclusion that the American system of government is broken,” Seidman wrote. “But almost no one blames the culprit: our insistence on obedience to the Constitution, with all its archaic, idiosyncratic and downright evil provisions.”

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/12/31/georgetown-law-professor-scrap-archaic-idiosyncratic-and-downright-evil-constitution/#ixzz2Gj2H0bm5
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President Barack Obama hopes – expects, really – that ’13 will be his lucky number, a year to cement his historical legacy and reap the benefits of an economy on the cusp of real revival.

That expectation, as much as anything, explains how Obama approached the fiscal cliff and why he opted for compromise over confrontation. The president, eyes fixed on history, always viewed the fight as an obstacle, not a destination, a thing to be gotten past on his way to breaking the historical pattern of weak, scandal-scarred and anti-climactic second-term presidencies.

But the endless battle over the budget — new fights over the debt ceiling and automatic spending cuts loom in a matter of weeks — could become a legacy trap for Obama, robbing him of precious leverage in redefining his relationship with Republicans on terms more favorable to an ambitious second-term agenda, they say.



Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/01/fiscal-cliff-obamas-legacy-trap-85636.html#ixzz2Gj5LS7mK

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The New York State Rifle & Pistol Association is calling for a nationwide boycott of the advertisers of the suburban New York newspaper that published online maps revealing names and addresses of people with pistol permits.
The association on Monday announced it was urging people to stop patronizing any business who advertises with Gannett — the White Plains-based Journal News’ parent company — until the map is removed. On Dec. 22, the Journal News published interactive maps showing the pistol permit holders in the state’s Westchester and Rockland counties. The decisionsparked an uproar among conservatives and gun rights advocates, but the paper says it willcontinue adding names to the map.
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The Obama administration has dropped a bombshell in the recent Hobby Lobby challenge to Obamacare. According to CNS News, the Obama administration claims that the 1st Amendment still allows them to force Christians to violate their religious beliefs, amazingly, even on the basis where the life and deaths of innocent human beings is at stake. Americans opposed to Obamacare and fond of the 1st Amendment should stand behind Hobby Lobby on this one. A couple of informative videos about Hobby Lobby’s fight against tyranny and Obamacare are down at the bottom of the story.

http://beforeitsnews.com/obama/2012/12/obama-can-and-will-force-christians-to-act-against-their-faith-obama-administration-drops-a-bombshell-2446608.html


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We are being played; it's time we learned the game.
Conservatives have their Constitution.  Progressives have their Narrative.  The current battle for America is between these two concepts, and each side uses different rules to fight it.
One set of rules is consistent with an unchanging objective: limited government and individual freedoms.  The other side's rules are as fickle as their goals, which are never fully disclosed beyond the equivocal references to fairness and hyphenated forms of justice.  They will have to remain vague and deny their true allegiances until a time when American voters will no longer squirm at the word "socialism."





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Monday December 31, 2012

bridges,falls,Fotolia,mist,nature,New York City,Niagara,Ontario,panoramas,Photographs,rivers,scenic,seasonal,seasons,snows,sprays,views,water,waterfalls,winter
« The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal. »
Aristotle

(Thank you Karen Peters for your tireless efforts in bringing news to us through your posts on the Conservative Corner and a special thank you for mentoring me while I attempt to carry forth your work.)
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[It bears repeating, the motivation of Margaret Sanger when she founded Planned Parenthood:] Margaret Sanger. The Pivot of Civilization,192 –Chapter on “The Cruelty of Charity,”pages 116,122,and 189. Swarthmore College Library Edition:
Today eugenics is suggested by the most diverse minds as the most adequate and thorough avenue to the solution of racial,political and social problems…. I think you must agree …that the campaign for birth control is not merely of eugenic value,but is practically identical with the final aims of eugenics …Birth control propaganda is thus the entering wedge for the eugenic educator.
Eugenicist Dr. Peter Singer is an adviser to President Obama. Michelle Obama is a strong supporter of partial birth abortion. Kathleen Sebelius believes that “reduced pregnancies compensate for the cost of contraception!” Other Czars like Ezekiel Emanuel want a drastic reduction in the human population to “save the planet.” Are they all nuts? Currency manipulator George Soros backs these efforts in order to achieve his one-world government “Open Society” under any law but the Constitution – read Sharia Law – which only the elite exempt themselves from. http://www.exposeobama.com/2012/12/29/are-you-a-sangerite-or-a-sorosian/
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Late yesterday afternoon, the Seventh Circuit granted an emergency injunction against the HHS mandate — preventing its enforcement against an Illinois business and its owners. My colleagues at the ACLJ represent Korte & Luitjohan Contractors, Inc., a family-owned, full-service construction contractor. The company is located in Highland, Ill., and employs about 90 workers.
The brief opinion is worth a read in its entirety, but two parts stand out. First, the court disagreed with the Tenth Circuit’s recent decision rejecting Hobby Lobby’s request for a similar injunction. In a key paragraph the court stated: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/336589/seventh-circuit-blocks-hhs-mandate-private-business-david-french#
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Americans are in a panic. Crowds throng gun shows and shops. Blue-chip companies fast-forward next year’s dividends to this year. Investors cash out profits, estate planners report a rush of people trying to beat higher inheritance taxes and lobbyists line up for favors.
What these people share is the goal of avoiding or benefitting from government actions. More than ever, the “invisible hand” of free markets is being replaced by the visible hand of bureaucrats. The political class is the new master of the universe. http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/cloud_over_us_all_nVIuDu7adkFX7DzQCEDtIK
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With rebels advancing on the capital city of the Central African Republic, the U.S. has deployed about 50 combat troops to neighboring Chad to support the evacuation of U.S. Embassy personnel and American private citizens, President Obama notified Congress in a letter Saturday.
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The city streets are teeming with thousands of mentally ill homeless people capable of psychotic acts of random violence if left untreated, experts warned yesterday.
As many as 11,000 of the city’s 33,000 homeless adults have some form of mental illness, said D.J. Jaffe, executive director of the Mental Illness Policy Organization.
“When untreated, they’re capable of horrific acts,” said Jaffe. “The danger is that they’re so sick that they don’t know they’re sick, and their brain is incapable of regulating their own behavior.”
He urged New Yorkers to be especially wary of people screaming at voices only they can hear, wearing tons of clothes in the summer or eating out of trash cans. http://www.nypost.com/Page/Uuid/9208d9d6-5247-11e2-9573-ce9227bc531d
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In an attempt to seize total control over national security and bypass congress, a frightening new step by the Obama Administration is coming into play. As noted in Friday’s Wall Street Journal in an op-ed by John Bolton and John Woo, a State Department advisory group that is run by former Secretary of Defense William Perry is advising that the U.S. and Russia both reduce nuclear weapons without a treaty, as a treaty would require ratification by Congress. This would allow Obama and his executive branch to unilaterally cut our nuclear weaponry and ignore the treaty clause of the
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/12/30/Obama-Seizing-Sole-Authority-for-US-Defense-Without-Congress
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As millions of Americans face smaller paychecks if the government fails to act to avoid the fiscal cliff, President Obama has raised the ire of some conservative critics by quietly handing over pay hikes — estimated to cost more than $1 billion a year — to Congress, high-ranking federal officials, judges and Vice President Joe Biden.

 http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/us_politics/2012/12/obama_hikes_pay_select_officials
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Chicago has a long tradition of padding its vote totals by placing homeless and deceased persons on its voter registration list. Jim Laski, who once served as the City Clerk of Chicago, second in power only to the mayor, noted in his book My Fall From Grace that fraudulent voters were registered to addresses that included cemeteries, municipal buildings, and taverns. The taverns, at least, are understandable: politically connected city workers spent so much time on bar stools the Board of Elections thought they lived there
http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/12/how_chicago_and_obama_globalized_voter_id_fraud.html
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Friday, December 28, 2012

Friday December 28, 2012



« A sword never kills anybody; it is a tool in the killer’s hand. »
Seneca







Donna Kristofak was terrified and letting the court know it. John S. Kristofak, who was her husband for 19 years, had been arrested six months earlier as he chased her in a Wal-Mart parking lot. In his car were a butcher’s knife and what police called “a suicide note.” During a court hearing Oct. 12, Mrs. Kristofak begged a Cobb County judge not to release him from jail. “I fear for my life,” she told Superior Court Judge Adele Grubbs, telling the judge that a court-issued order of protection would not stop her crazed ex-spouse.

 http://www.ajc.com/news/news/crime-law/slain-woman-predicted-her-own-death/nTgj4/
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Craft store giant Hobby Lobby is bracing for a $1.3 million a day fine beginning January 1 for noncompliance with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, dubbed Obamacare.
"All they're asking for is a narrow exemption from the law that says they don't have to provide drugs they believe cause abortions," Hobby Lobby attorney Kyle Duncan, a general counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, told CNN affiliate KFOR in November. "Our basic point is the government can't put a corporation in the position of choosing between its faith and following the law."
http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/12/27/hobby-lobby-faces-millions-in-fines-for-bucking-obamacare/
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INDIANAPOLIS -Should the IRS be giving billions of dollars in tax credits to illegal immigrants? Many lawmakers say "no" after seeing an Eyewitness News investigationexposing massive fraud involving undocumented workers and child tax credits.
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The State Department has closed its embassy in the Central African Republic and ordered the ambassador and his diplomatic team to leave the country as rebels there continue to advance and violence escalates, U.S. officials said Thursday.
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Maybe it's a coincidence that Jackson, who attended Tulane University on a scholarship provided by Shell Oil, resigned only days after the Justice Department agreed to hand over 12,000 emails from Jackson's "Richard Windsor" account. But it looks like she's attempting to dodge an uncomfortable investigation.
Whatever the case, Jackson can't be allowed to simply walk away to spend more time with her family or move into academia, as some are suggesting. The probe must follow its course to wherever, and to whomever, it leads. If there is wrongdoing, appropriate penalties have to be meted out, or the government's pledge to do the business of the American people in the open is meaningless.


Read More At IBD: http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/122712-638555-lisa-jackson-resigns-while-inspector-general-investigates-emails.htm#ixzz2GLS7EbhC
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The rapid collapse of a U.S. diplomatic compound in Libya exposed the vulnerabilities of State Department facilities overseas. But the CIA’s ability to fend off a second attack that same night provided a glimpse of a key element in the agency’s defensive arsenal: a secret security force created after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Two of the Americans killed in Benghazi were members of the CIA’s Global Response Staff, an innocuously named organization that has recruited hundreds of former U.S. Special Forces operatives to serve as armed guards for the agency’s spies.
The increasingly conspicuous role of the GRS is part of a broader expansion of the CIA’s paramilitary capabilities over the past 10 years. Beyond hiring former U.S. military commandos, the agency has collaborated with U.S. Special Operations teams on missions including the raid that killed Osama bin Laden and has killed thousands of Islamist militants and civilians with its fleet of armed drones.
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The U.S. Labor Department has rustled up more taxpayer money to help "jobless workers" pay their health insurancepremiums.

"It is difficult enough to find new employment, let alone do so without health insurance for you or your family," Labor Secretary Hilda Solissaid in a news release dated Dec. 26. "This funding will help eligible workers avoid that prospect by helping them pay for health insurance while they seek new jobs."

The money -- in the form of a $1,058,254 National Emergency Grant supplement -- will go to several thousand unemployed people in Alabama, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Mississippi, South Carolina and Virginia.
(below is a link to an article published last may but it is foretelling) b.g
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Who is Gabriel Sherman? Who is he, and what forces does he represent? Those are questions worth answering, because they speak to the tactics and methods of the left wing in America today.

In his too-brief life, Andrew Breitbart always emphasized the importance of understanding how the left operates--the better to combat it. So we at Breitbart News, who seek to carry on Andrew’s work, feel a continuing obligation to expose the left and its ever-evolving methods.

And so we return to Gabriel Sherman, because his career provides a window into the mechanisms of the contemporary left. In particular, we can see how mainstream media journalism--shoddy, gossipy, and liberal, all at the same time--has now combined with tax-deductible foundations to further shape our politics and culture. Once again, as Andrew always knew, the right can’t expect to win if it can’t analyze, and expose, how the left plays its tricks and works its will.
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There is good news and bad news about climate. The good news is that science evidence has made it quite clear that the human contribution to a possible global warming is minor; in fact it cannot even be identified in the data record.  The bad news is that the media and politicians pay no attention whatsoever to the science and are marching ahead full-speed with efforts to control CO2 emissions -- thereby hurting the economy, destroying jobs,  and stunting economic growth.  They are under the illusion that there is a nearly complete scientific consensus in support of catastrophic anthropogenic global warming (CAGW).

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/12/climate_science_vs_politics_the_road_ahead.html#ixzz2GLc94vuL 
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In many ways, 2012 will be remembered for what didn’t happen on energy.
President Barack Obama rejected the Keystone XL pipeline, but that merely set up yet another decision on the project in 2013. In Congress, lawmakers bickered over a slew of energy issues — but despite dozens of message votes in the House, never managed to send major energy legislation to Obama’s desk.
And though the Obama administration offered beefed-up fuel economy standards and proposed the first-ever climate change regulations for new power plants, federal policymakers neatly avoided having a robust debate on global warming.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2012/12/top-five-energy-issues-to-remember-in-2012-85538.html#ixzz2GLeWlUWM
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Computer hackers traced to China carried out an advanced cyberespionage attack against one of America’s most elite foreign policy web groups – the website of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).

According to private computer-security forensic specialists, the hacking incident involved a relatively new type of ploy called a “drive-by” website cyber attack that was detected around 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday.

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Thursday, December 27, 2012

Thursday December 27, 2012
















“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” 
― Aristotle





Utah lawmakers have reacted with contempt for a planned weapons training convention to be held for 200 Utah teachers tomorrow.
The Utah Shooting Sports Council has said they usually gather around a dozen teachers each year for training to carry concealed weapons but this year demand skyrocketed after the tuition was offered for free.
The powerful lobby claims that the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Connecticut has been the catalyst for the massive interest, but Carol Lear, a chief lawyer for the Utah Office of Education said that the move was a 'terrible idea.'


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2253497/Its-terrible-idea-Controversy-200-Utah-teachers-given-concealed-weapons-training-wake-Sandy-Hook.html#ixzz2GFihZl1T
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The employer "can only perform the background check after a conditional offer has been made and the employer makes a 'good faith determination' that the job position is of a sensitive nature." Sensitive nature is, however, not defined. In fact, if an employer is permitted to make a criminal history inquiry in connection with any employment decision, the employer first must provide the individual with written notice. The notice must advise: (1) that the employer will conduct the criminal history inquiry upon the written consent of the individual; and (2) if any adverse employment decision is made as a result of the information, the individual will have an opportunity to present rebuttal evidence.

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/12/eeoc_protected_classes.html#ixzz2GFkGd2ZT 
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Big Labor hopes it’s a sign that Mr. Obama will step into the fray on behalf of union workers more openly during his second term, whether it’s stopping an expansion of right-to-work laws in states or working toward labor’s bigger dream of approving “card check,” which is federal legislation that would make it much easier for nonunion workplaces to organize.
“I am very confident that in his second term he will speak out a lot more forcefully on any number of issues,” said Fred D. Mason Jr., president of the Maryland and D.C. chapter of the AFL-CIO. “I would encourage the president to simply speak out more, use the bully pulpit of his office and be even more supportive when workers are actually engaging in those struggles.”


Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/dec/26/unions-dream-big-for-obamas-2nd-term/#ixzz2GFl1mjsb
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These seven simple commonsense steps are adapted from a post I published on my blog after the horrific Newtown massacre. Our hearts ache, but we are not completely helpless or hopeless in the face of evil and the unknown. And we are not alone. This Christmas, cherish life, keep faith, and practice self-empowerment.
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President Obama will return to Washington from Hawaii Thursday while First LadyMichelle Obama and her daughters plan to continue their vacation, adding at least $100,000 and probably more than $200,000 to taxpayer costs for the excursion.
Instead of accompanying her husband home on Air Force One, Mrs. Obama will fly on her own Air Force jet at a later date and require security and staff to remain in place in Hawaii for the length of her stay, which reportedly could extend until January 6.
The White House does not reveal the price tag for the Obamas’ vacations. But an estimate can be made given several known and likely expenses.
http://www.whitehousedossier.com/2012/12/26/michelle-remain-hawaii-costing-taxpayers-100k/
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Newark — Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, gave $100 million to the Newark public schools in hopes of encouraging contributions as small as $5 and $10 from everyday people, but that never happened. The City of Newark released dozens of emails to The Star-Ledger late on Christmas Eve to comply with a Superior Court order. Among the behind-the-scenes details never disclosed, the emails showed the Newark philanthropist Ray Chambers wanted to arrange a million-dollar donation, but a top aide to Mayor Cory Booker dismissed it as too small. Indeed, the heavily redacted emails provide a windowhttp://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2012/12/cory_booker_releases_secret_em.html
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The Federal Housing Administration (FHA), hit hard by the collapse of the housing bubble, is still making risky loans on the taxpayers' dime, and may need a bailout in 2013.
An exhaustive study of the subject by the American Enterprise Institute's Edward Pinto reveals some shocking statistics:
An estimated 40 percent of the FHA’s business consists of loans with either one or two subprime attributes—a FICO score below 660 or a debt ratio greater than or equal to 50 percent (based on loans insured during FY 2012). The FHA’s underwriting policies encourage low- and moderate-income families with low credit scores or high debt burdens to make risky financing decisions—combining a low credit score and/or a high debt ratio with a 30-year loan term and a low down payment. A substantial portion of these loans have an expected failure rate exceeding 10 percent.
Across the country, 9,000 zip codes with a median family income below the metro area median have projected foreclosure rates equal to or greater than 10 percent.These zips have an average projected foreclosure rate of 15 percent and account for 44 percent of all FHA loans in the low- and moderate-income zips.
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Reacting Tuesday to passage of Egypt’s divisive new constitution, the State Department chose not to directly criticize its Islamist character, noting only that “[m]any Egyptians have voiced deep concerns” and calling for peaceful dialogue.
“We hope those Egyptians disappointed by the result will seek more and deeper engagement,” department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said in a Christmas Day statement. “We look to those who welcome the result to engage in good faith. And we hope all sides will re-commit themselves to condemn and prevent violence.”
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The Social Security program ran a $47.8 billion deficit in fiscal 2012 as the program brought in $725.429 billion in cash and paid $773.247 for benefits and overhead expenses, according toofficial data published by SocialSecurity Administration.
The Social Security Administration also released new data revealing that the number of workers collectingdisability benefits hit a record 8,827,795 in December--up from 8,805,353 in November.
The overall number of Social Security program beneficiaries—including retired workers, dependent family members and survivors and disabled workers and their dependent family members—also hit a record in December, climbing from 56,658,978 in November to 56,758,185 in December.
In 2011, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there was an average of 112.556 million full-time workers in the United States, of whom 17.806 million worked full-time for local, state or federal government. That left an average of only 94.750 million full-time private sector workers in the country.
That means that for every 1.67 Americans who worked full-time in the private sector in 2011, there is now 1 person collecting benefits from the Social Security administration.
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Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Wednesday December 26, 2012













"The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts; therefore guard accordingly."
Marcus Aurelius
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Facts are being manufactured all of the time, and, as Arbesman shows, many of them turn out to be wrong. Checking each one is how the scientific process is supposed to work; experimental results need to be replicated by other researchers. So how many of the findings in 845,175 articles published in 2009 and recorded in PubMed, the free online medical database, were actually replicated? Not all that many. In 2011, a disquieting study in Naturereported that a team of researchers over 10 years was able to reproduce the results of only six out of 53 landmark papers in preclinical cancer research.
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The whole thing was white, and broken, that much was clear. A week after the presidential election, when the dreams of Republicans were dashed with President Barack Obama’s victory over Mitt Romney, we were snorkeling in the blue waters of the Caribbean. In the distance was a shipwreck. “You could make out the pieces of it,” said Ralph Reed, the right-wing political operator who had bolstered the Evangelical Christian vote for Romney. “It was deep and murky.” Jonah Goldberg, the National Review contributor and author of Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, (this is a long article but I found it engaging)

http://nymag.com/news/features/republican-caribbean-cruise-2012-12/index5.html
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“One of the biggest lies of the Obama narrative is the supposed commitment to transparency,” Mr. Fitton said. “It’s far less transparent than the Bush administration. Just to get a response, in terms of the initial request for documents, we have to sue. We have nearly 1,000 Freedom of Information Act requests, and we’re coming up on 100 Freedom of Information lawsuits against the administration. Everybody agrees that the federal government is doing more than ever, but the transparency hasn’t kept up with the increased activity.”

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/dec/24/court-filings-surge-in-foia-cases-during-obama-yea/?page=2#ixzz2G9n95K7z _________________________________________________________________________________

While it now seems to us to be Christmas 2012, somewhere behind us it is still Christmas 1941. Imagine you are paddling a canoe downstream. From God´s view above, he sees the bend in the stream you´ve already passed. He sees you now, paddling slowly next to the pines on the bank. He sees beyond the bend ahead, where a deer is lapping the tumbling water. (Snip) It´s December 6th, 1941. A little girl named Arlene is awaiting the arrival of guests for her 8th birthday party. She is growing up American,
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Merry Christmas to the Fourth Estate! Hope you´ve enjoyed your goose or turkey or whatever your family tradition includes (latkes for those who are Jewish). When you return to work, there are a few loose ends on which you might want to follow up. "Follow up." It´s a term that has gone out of style in the age of Obama. You members of the press have become remarkably uncurious since he´s been in the White House. A blanket of benevolent uncuriousness smothers news about Obama administration wrongdoing.
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After a six-month hiatus, the United States and other major powers are trying to resume negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program. Iran has been enriching uranium in defiance of United Nations Security Council resolutions for six years, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has threatened military strikes if these activities are not halted by next spring or early summer. It is imperative that all sides make every effort to reach a diplomatic solution. War, of course, would be disastrous. But so would an Iran with a nuclear weapon.
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Nicole Hawkins‘ three daughters have matching glittery boots, but none has the same father. Each has uniquely colored ties in her hair, but none has a dad present in her life. As another single mother on Sumner Road decked her row-house stoop with Christmas lights and a plastic Santa, Ms. Hawkins recalled that her middle child’s father has never spent a holiday or birthday with her. In her neighborhood in Southeast Washington, 1 in 10 children live with both parents, and 84 percent live with only their mother.
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In his Christmas message, the Pope said, “The faster we can move, the more efficient our time-saving appliances become, the less time we have." How we rush to fill our days with those time-saving appliances that soon become mere time-filling devices. Mobile phones, iPads, Facebook, tweeting--all, at their best, are staggeringly efficient things that produce extraordinary advances in our working lives.[Snip] Those same marvellous things then come along and devour our spare hours, destroying our capacity for spiritualism, for reading long books and for just thinking. We shouldn´t really blame the devices themselves, more our capacity for being waylaid 




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Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Monday December 24, 2012














Guy Wetmore Carryl
"O Christmas Sun! What holy task is thine! To fold a world in the embrace of God!"
With a looming dockworkers' strike that would force it to shutter its two container terminals, the Port of Houston Authority says it is working with Customs and Border Protection to arrange extended work hours in the days leading up to Dec. 30 so businesses can clear out cargo.
That day is when dockworkers represented by the International Longshoreman's Association could stop moving cargo carried in containers if union leadership and management do not reach a deal on a master contract covering 14,500 dockworkers at 14 East and Gulf Coast ports from Texas to Maine.
Prolonged strikes can have a significant economic impact as they disrupt the supply chain at all levels, although the Port Authority said it could not calculate the precise impact of a strike until after it occurs.
According to the National Retail Federation, a 10-day strike at West Coast ports in 2002 had a $1 billion per day economic impact.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________Signs are accumulating that re-election has aggravated an already serious ego problem for Barack Obama. His eulogy for Senator Daniel Inouye yesterday shocked even some people favorably inclined toward the president, for its focus not on the departed, but on Barack Obama himself. Emily Yoffe of Slate - far from a conservative outlet -- wrote with disgust:
Someone needs to tell Barack Obama-it must get particularly confusing this time of year-that his own birth is not Year One, the date around which all other events are understood. His much-noted, self-referential tic was on cringe-worthy display Friday when the president gave his eulogy for the late Sen. Daniel Inouye, who served in Congress for half a century representing Obama's birth state of Hawaii. (snip)
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A global activist group is targeting two large hotel chains because they give discounts to members of the National Rifle Association.
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/12/22/Protestors-Target-Hotels-That-Give-Discounts-To-NRA-Members
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Friday, December 21, 2012

Friday December 21, 2012

















"There is a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood leads on to fortune; omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and miseries." -Julius Caesar Act IV Scene III

As Republicans sift through the wreckage of the presidential election and Democrats brace for the 2014 midterms, there is one clear point of agreement between them: Independent voters no longer decide elections.
http://www.politico.com/story/2012/12/the-disappearing-independent-85340.html?hp=t1
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Even more damning, in its absence, was the report’s failure to step back and question whether the Obama administration, at its highest levels (starting with the president), created the conditions for Benghazi by overstating the decimation of al-Qaida and playing down the significance of the extremist elements, possibly al-Qaida-linked, that have reemerged in the aftermath of the Arab Spring in Libya and elsewhere. Unless this reckoning is made, it is easy to imagine a similar disaster happening in post-Assad Syria, or elsewhere in the region. This has been a chief Republican talking point against Obama since the Benghazi attacks occurred on Sept. 11.   
http://www.nationaljournal.com/where-s-obama-in-the-benghazi-report-20121219
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What you will witness today during the Democratic-led Senate Intelligence Committeeinvestigating the Benghazi terrorist attack, spearheaded by Hillary Clinton’s expected replacement, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass), will be nothing more than a dog and pony show. Sen. Kerry will toe-the-line. This is the same John Kerry, who after he left Vietnam, accused his military brothers of war crimes without evidence, wants Hillary’s job, and to keep his future boss President Obama very happy.
We were warned these times would come: when men called evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter. Take heed. Those with eyes to see and ears to hear are mourning America today.
http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/51899
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If the 2nd Amendment is responsible for Newtown, Conn. then let's have a look at what really kills Americans. Guilty and innocents alike. Let's legislatively ban the obviously responsible parties in each category of unnecessary death. (using Left-think)
Smoking related deaths - 434,000+
Obesity related deaths - 300,000+
Medical mistake-related deaths - 225,000+
Poor or non-existent health care-related deaths - 100,000+

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/12/as_long_as_we_are_banning_stuff.html#ixzz2FfxyqFW1 
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I haven’t written much about the Newtown shooting. I did write my first column of the week about it because I felt I had to chime in. But I resented it. Maybe it’s because I’m becoming too sentimental about kids. Maybe it’s because I’m sick to death of death. Maybe it’s some other personal failing on my part, but I nonetheless resent being dragged into the political maw so quickly after a bunch of little kids were picked off by a madman with a gun. I agree with 90 percent of the things written by my colleagues about guns and gun control and the Second Amendment over the last week, but I nonetheless find it a bit grotesque that it’s necessary for anyone to be celebrating or defending guns before these little, little, kids have even been buried. It feels indecent to me.
The human need to “do something” is primal after moments like this, not just for those in mourning but for those who want to help those in mourning. Most of us who’ve lost a loved one know someone — or perhaps ourselves — who had to cook, or organize, or clean, or plan or do anything that lets us grasp the handrail of sanity or hold at bay the uncompromising vacuum of grief, if only temporarily. Likewise, we’ve known people who’ve implored us: What can I do? Is there anything I can do? But, often, trying to translate human impulses into government responses is the source of great folly. 
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/336172/rush-impose-reason-horror-jonah-goldberg#
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The worst mass-murder in a school in American history did not involve guns or shooters; it involved a bomb in an elementary school.It didn't take place in Connecticut; it took place in a rural community in Michigan called Bath.The perpetrator wasn't a young man - he was 55 years old.And the attack did not occur this year or last year - or even this decade.
The year was 1927.
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In the 21st century, are we returning to the racial labyrinth of the19th-century Old Confederacy, where we measure our supposed racial DNA to the nth degree? Apparently yes. ESPN sports commentator Rob Parker blasted Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III last week for admirably stating that he did not wish to be defined by his race rather than by his character: "He's black, he does his thing, but he's not really down with the cause." Parker added: "He's not one of us. He's kind of black, but he's not really like the kind of guy you really want to hang out with." (ESPN suspended Parker for his remarks.)
http://townhall.com/columnists/victordavishanson/2012/12/20/the-new-racial-derangement-syndrome-n1470329/page/full/
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Democrats and the media insist the Community Reinvestment Act, the anti-redlining law beefed up by President Clinton, had nothing to do with the subprime mortgage crisis and recession.
But a new study by the respected National Bureau of Economic Research finds, "Yes, it did. We find that adherence to that act led to riskier lending by banks."
Added NBER: "There is a clear pattern of increased defaults for loans made by these banks in quarters around the (CRA) exam. Moreover, the effects are larger for loans made within CRA tracts," or predominantly low-income and minority areas.


Read More At IBD: http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials-perspective/122012-637924-faults-community-reinvestment-act-cra-mortgage-defaults.htm#ixzz2Fg6KmX7f
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We live in an entertainment culture soaked in graphic, often sadistic, violence. Older folks find themselves stunned by what a desensitized youth finds routine, often amusing. It’s not just movies. Young men sit for hours pulling video-game triggers, mowing down human beings en masse without pain or consequence. And we profess shock when a small cadre of unstable, deeply deranged, dangerously isolated young men go out and enact the overlearned narrative.

If we’re serious about curtailing future Columbines and Newtowns, everything — guns, commitment, culture — must be on the table. It’s not hard for President Obama to call out the NRA. But will he call out the ACLU? And will he call out his Hollywood friends?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/charles-krauthammer-the-roots-of-mass-murder/2012/12/20/e4d99594-4ae3-11e2-b709-667035ff9029_story.html
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The chairman and the vice chairman of the State Department Accountability Review Board (ARB) that investigated the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya, made dramatically different statements on Wednesday about the duration of those attacks that resulted in the deaths of four Americans.
The relevant duration of the event shrunk from "almost eight hours" to "only about 20 or 30 minutes" when a reporter asked this "accountability" team why the U.S. military had not been sent to Benghazi to help that night.
During his opening statement at a State Department briefing, Ambassador Thomas Pickering, who chaired the ARB, said the terrorist attacks occurred over a span of almost eight hours.
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Many forms of violence and hardship have befallen Syria’s people as the country’s civil war has escalated this year. But the Syrian government’s attack here on Dec. 12 pointed to one of the war’s irrefutable patterns: the deliberate targeting of civilians by President Bashar al-Assad’s military, in this case with a weapon that is impossible to use precisely.

Syrians on both sides in this fight have suffered from the bloodshed and sectarian furies given dark license by the war. The victims of the cluster bomb attacks describe the tactic as collective punishment, a mass reprisal against populations that are with the rebels.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/21/world/middleeast/syria-uses-cluster-bombs-to-attack-as-many-civilians-as-possible.html?hp&_r=0
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China’s government provided goods and expertise for Iran’s nuclear program in the past and also gave Tehran’s Islamist regime missiles and other arms as part of the nations’ anti-United States policies, according to a congressional commission report made public Thursday.
“The authoritarian governments centered in Beijing and Tehran share an animus towards ‘hegemonism’ and a fear of internal instability,” the report prepared for the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission states.
“In recent decades the United States, supported by regional allies and security partners, has represented the principal hegemonic threat to Iran and China in two different regional contexts: the Persian Gulf and the Western Pacific.”
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In August 2011, five months after Syria erupted into violence over government repression, President Obama declaredthat Bashar Assad should resign from office. Though Obama didn’t use the words “regime change,” he was effectively making that the goal of U.S. policy.
Sixteen months have passed since the president issued his statement. Over that period, the United States did very little to strengthen the relatively moderate, pro-Western Syrian rebels who are competing for arms and influence with extremist, anti-Western rebels tied to al-Qaeda. Instead, the Obama administration relied on the United Nations to broker a diplomatic solution. This strategy was always destined to fail, and it did, with Russia and China vetoing three separate Security Council resolutions. As a result, the situation in Syria is far worse and far more dangerous in December 2012 than it was in August 2011.
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“There were giants in the earth in those days.” The death on December 19 of Robert Bork—superb legal scholar, preeminent constitutional thinker, principled public servant—calls to mind the other giants of American conservatism who have left us in the last decade: Bill Buckley and Irving Kristol, Milton Friedman and James Q. Wilson, Richard John Neuhaus and Jeane Kirkpatrick, Ronald Reagan and Jack Kemp. They were the greatest conservative generation. They rode into the valley of liberal orthodoxies and emerged sometimes triumphant, always unbowed. When can their glory fade? They left our nation stronger and better for their efforts.
robert bork
Those who knew them do their best to carry on the fight. Inspired by their example and effort, by their boldness and wisdom, remembering the uphill struggles of the early years, they do their best to keep the banner aloft and moving forward. But what of the next generation?


http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/greatest-conservative-generation_690824.html

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