Friday, October 31, 2014

The 2014 campaign brings a fresh focus on candidates with fervently held, evidence-free beliefs


The Top 10 Liberal Superstitions


A hallmark of progressive politics is the ability to hold fervent beliefs, in defiance of evidence, that explain how the world works—and why liberal solutions must be adopted. Such political superstitions take on a new prominence during campaign seasons as Democratic candidates trot out applause lines to rally their progressive base and as the electorate considers their voting records. Here’s a Top 10 list of liberal superstitions on prominent display during the midterm election campaign:
1. Spending more money improves education. The U.S. spent $12,608 per student in 2010—more than double the figure, in inflation-adjusted dollars, spent in 1970—and spending on public elementary and secondary schools has surpassed $600 billion. How’s that working out? Adjusted state SAT scores have declined on average 3% since the 1970s, as the Cato Institute’s Andrew Coulson found in a March report.
No better news in the international rankings: The Program for International Student Assessment reports that in 2012 American 15-year-olds placed in the middle of the pack, alongside peers from Slovakia—which shells out half as much money as the U.S. per student.
Someone might mention this to North Carolina Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan, who is knocking State House Speaker Thom Tillis for cutting $500 million from schools. Per-pupil K-12 spending has increased every year since Mr. Tillis became speaker in 2011, and most of what Ms. Hagan is selling as “cuts” came from community colleges and universities, not the local middle school. Mr. Coulson’s Cato study notes that North Carolina has about doubled per-pupil education spending since 1972, which has done precisely nothing for the state’s adjusted SAT scores.
2. Government spending stimulates the economy. Case in point is the $830 billion 2009 stimulus bill, touted by the Obama administration as necessary for keeping unemployment below 8%. Result: four years of average unemployment above 8%. Federal outlays soared in 2009 to $3.5 trillion—a big enough bump to do the Keynesian trick of boosting aggregate demand—but all we got was this lousy 2% growth and a new costume for Army Corps of Engineers mascot Bobber the Water Safety Dog. Every Senate Democrat voted for the blowout, including the 11 now up for re-election who were in Congress when it passed.
3. Republican candidates always have a big spending advantage over Democrats. Majority Leader Harry Reid took to the Senate floor recently to deride the Koch brothers as “radical billionaires” who are “attempting to buy our democracy.” Yet the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has raked in $127 million this cycle, about $30 million more than the National Republican Senatorial Committee, and Democrats have aired more TV ads than Republicans in several battleground states, according to analysis by the Center for Public Integrity. Meanwhile, Mr. Reid’s Senate Majority PAC has raised more than $50 million. As this newspaper has reported, between 2005 and 2011, labor unions—linchpins of the Democratic Party—spent $4.4 billion on politics, far outstripping any conservative rival.
4. Raising the minimum wage helps the poor. The president wants to increase the federal minimum wage to $10.10 from $7.25, with the tagline “Let’s give America a raise.” The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the hike would cost 500,000 jobs, one blow to the low-wage earners it claims to help. Employment aside, only 18% of the earnings benefits of a $10.10 hike would flow to people living below the poverty line, according to analysis from University of California-Irvine economist David Neumark. Nearly 30% of the benefits would go to families three times above the poverty line or higher, in part because half of America’s poor families have no wage earners. Minimum-wage increases help some poor families—at the expense of other poor families.

Opinion Journal Video

Assistant Editorial Page Editor Kate Bachelder debunks the biggest liberal myths of this midterm election cycle. Photo: Getty Images
You won’t hear that from Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, who in September lived on $79 for a week to show his public-relations solidarity with minimum-wage earners. Keep in mind: Only 4.7% of minimum-wage earners are adults working full-timetrying to support a family, and nearly all would be eligible for the earned-income tax credit and other welfare programs.
5. Global warming is causing increasingly violent weather. Tell that to Floridians, who are enjoying the ninth consecutive season without a hurricane landfall. The Atlantic hurricane season in 2013 was the least active in 30 years. Oh, and global temperatures have not increased for 15 years.
Still, something must be done! On Monday, the Hill reported that an internal memo circulating among five environmental groups detailed plans for spending to support candidates “who want to act” to combat climate change. “We are on track to spend more than $85 million overall including more than $40 million in just six Senate races,” the memo said. The beneficiaries include Sen. Mark Udall (D., Colo.), who got $12.1 million, and Rep. Bruce Braley (D., Iowa) with $7.2 million.
6. Genetically modified food is dangerous. Farmers have been breeding crop seeds for 10,000 years, but the agricultural innovation known as genetic modification makes liberals shudder. Not a single documented illness has resulted from the trillions of meals containing “genetically modified organisms,” or GMOs, that humans have consumed since the mid-1990s. The technology has been declared safe by every regulatory agency from the Food and Drug Administration to the European Commission.
But insisting on labeling food containing GMOs has turned into a liberal cause. The California Democratic Party platform in 2012 added a demand for GMO labeling; more recently the Oregon Democratic Party climbed aboard. In May 2013, self-described socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont introduced a farm-bill amendment that would allow states to require GMO labeling for food; co-sponsors of the amendment, which failed, included Sens. Mark Begich (D., Ala.) and Jeff Merkley (D., Ore.).
7. Voter ID laws suppress minority turnout. More than 30 states have voter-ID laws, which the left decries as an attempt to disenfranchise minorities who don’t have identification and can’t pay for it. Yet of the 17 states with the strictest requirements, 16 offer free IDs. The Government Accountability Office this month released an analysis of 10 voter-ID studies: Five showed the laws had no statistically significant effect on turnout, four suggested a decrease in turnout (generally among all ethnic groups, though percentages varied), and one found an increase in turnout with voter ID laws in place.
The Democratic Senate candidate in Kentucky, Alison Lundergan Grimes, has nonetheless been running radio ads in urban areas claiming that “Mitch McConnell and the Republicans are trying to take away our right to vote,” based on a 2007 voter-ID amendment the minority leader introduced.
8. ObamaCare is gaining popularity. President Obama said in a speech earlier this month that fewer Republicans were running against ObamaCare because “it’s working pretty well in the real world.” Yet the law’s approval rating hovers around 40%, and 27% of people told Gallup this month that the law was hurting them, up from 19% in January, while only 16% reported it was helpful.
Don’t even ask doctors about it: 46% of physicians gave the Affordable Care Act a “D” or “F”, according to a recent survey by the Physicians Foundation, and less than 4% of respondents gave it an “A.” Yet some Democrats are die-hards: 36% of their House candidates have voiced support for ObamaCare on the campaign trail, according to a recent analysis by the Brookings Institution.
9. The Keystone XL pipeline would increase oil spills. Let’s check out what President Obama’s State Department had to say: In 2013 pipelines with a diameter larger than 12 inches spilled 910,000 gallons. Railroad tankers spilled 1.5 million gallons. Yet pipelines carry 25 times the oil that tankers do, as environmental analyst Terry Anderson has noted in these pages. Blocking Keystone and forcing more oil to be shipped by rail guarantees more harm to the environment. But on the campaign trail emotion often overrules the facts, and so we have Rick Weiland, the Democratic Senate candidate in South Dakota, adamantly opposing Keystone (“If I lose because of this issue, so be it,” he told the Nation magazine last week). Colorado Sen. Mark Udall is running for re-election after having voted against Keystone in the energy committee in June.
10. Women are paid 77 cents on the dollar compared with men. The mother of all liberal superstitions, this figure comes from shoddy math that divides the average earnings of all women working full-time by the average earnings of all full-time men, without considering career field, education or personal choices. When those factors are included, the wage gap disappears. A 2009 report commissioned by the Labor Department that analyzed more than 50 papers on the topic found that the so-called pay gap “may be almost entirely” the result of choices both men and women make.
Yet here’s Colorado’s Sen. Udall: “It is simply unacceptable for businesses to pay women less than men doing the same work,” citing his support for the Paycheck Fairness Act, which might be better titled the Trial Lawyer Paycheck Act. One irony: The Washington Free Beacon did a little number crunching and discovered that women in Sen. Udall’s office earn 86 cents on the dollar compared with men. Whoops.

Kate Bachelder

Assistant editorial features editor, The Wall Street Journal.

Kate Bachelder is an assistant editorial features editor for The Wall Street Journal. She joined the Journal in 2013 as a Robert L. Bartley Fellow after graduating from Hillsdale College with a bachelor’s degree in Political Economy. She is a graduate of the college’s Herbert H. Dow II Program in American Journalism


Thursday, October 30, 2014

Marijuana Is Harmful: Debunking 7 Myths Arguing It’s Fine

Don’t believe the hype: marijuana legalization poses too many risks to public health and public safety. Based on almost two decades of research, community-based work, and policy practice across three presidential administrations, my new book “Reefer Sanity” discusses some widely held myths about marijuana:
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[Just think of the "Choomg Gang" ...and how great our country is doing right now...NOT!]

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF LIBERALISM

Written by John Hawkins:
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF LIBERALISM


1) It doesn’t matter whether you’re yelling at someone who never knew you existed five minutes ago, lying about a conservative because you don’t agree with him or even throwing a brick through a strore window, you are always the poor, oppressed victim.

2) By default, liberals can’t be racist, sexist, or homophobic by virtue of being liberal. In other words, if a socialist like Hitler were around today, not only would he deny he is anti-Semitic, he’d be calling OTHER PEOPLE anti-Semitic.

3) The only bad, wrong and immoral thing you can do is being judgmental enough to label an activity bad, wrong, or immoral. That makes you sound like Rick Santorum and even if you turn out to be right about a lot of things over the long term, is it worth it if you sound like Rick Santorum?

4) Women, blacks, Hispanics, Muslims, gays, Jews, Asians — pretty much everyone but straight white males — are weak, hapless, sad victims who are barely capable of tying their own shoes without a liberal writing a government policy that does it for them.

5) There is no such thing as the failure of a liberal policy; there are only well meaning left-wingers doing wonderful things. If they don’t turn out as expected, there must be evil, awful conservative Republicans causing it somehow — probably George W. Bush or alternately, if he’s busy planning new wars, Dick Cheney, Rush Limbaugh, Ted Cruz or Sarah Palin.

6) Liberalism is a jealous god and it will not tolerate anything, especially Christianity, being put before it. If Jesus wants to be a significant part of your life, He better call for gay marriage and a carbon tax first.

7) It’s better to bankrupt a city like Detroit, cause the deaths of millions in Africa by banning DDT, or destroy the American health care system with Obamacare than to be called “mean” for choosing policies based on whether they work or not.

8) Not only should you go ahead and covet your neighbor’s possessions, you should encourage other people to do it, too. Then, you should call for the government to take their possessions and redistribute them. After they get done, there may not be much of anything left, but then you’ll all be equally poor and miserable and there’s a lot to be said for that.

9) Disagreeing with a black Democrat? Racist. Opposing Affirmative Action? Racist. Think we pay out too much in welfare and food stamps? Racist. Don’t like the IRS? Racist. Republican? Racist. Wait, what are we talking about? Racist!

10) Money is no object — taxpayer money, of course, not your own. Your money, you want to keep. But, when other people’s money is on the line, it’s worth spending any amount, no matter how large, to achieve any good, no matter how small.

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Cringe-worthy Obamaisms

American Thinker: The Sayings of Barack Obama

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

HOW CONGRESS CAN STOP IRS VIOLATIONS OF FREEDOM AND THE LAW

HOW CONGRESS CAN STOP IRS VIOLATIONS OF FREEDOM AND THE LAWPrintE-mail
Written by Richard Rahn   
Tuesday, 28 October 2014

After last week's ruling wherein a federal court failed to permanently bar the Internal Revenue Service from targeting conservative groups, there can be no doubt that liberty and the IRS are incompatible.

The IRS continues to seize bank accounts of individuals and businesses without a court determination of wrongdoing.

The IRS is supporting the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) initiative to the automatic exchange of individual and business financial account information in tax matters between governments.

The IRS code is now so complex -- something like 77,000 pages no one can understand -- that everyone is at risk.

Officials of the Obama administration and the IRS have demonstrated time and time again that they are willing to misuse their powers for partisan political purposes. Now, in essence, the court has said it is OK, provided they promise not to do it again. If there are no consequences for bad behavior, one would be naive to believe it will not be repeated.

Congress has the power to correct the above-mentioned abuses. If Democrats continue to hold one or both houses of Congress, it is almost a certainty that no real reform will occur, because it is not in their political interest to do so.

The Republicans could and should make the necessary reforms, but even if they control both houses of Congress, they may be too timid to do so. Still, there is at least a chance they will do the right thing.

What is a voter to do -- if one wants to try to preserve what remains of liberty? One who votes for almost any Democrat for Congress is likely voting for continuing and perhaps expanding the IRS offenses -- so those who value economic liberty have no choice but to vote against the Democrat.

Congress needs to pass legislation that gives the right to taxpayers to hold individuals within the IRS personally accountable for political targeting or other improper uses of power.

That is, IRS employees must have their sovereign immunity protections taken away from them.

The potential problems an IRS employee might have with the loss of such protection is of far less danger to the republic than the danger that politically corrupted, irresponsible and renegade IRS employees pose to the public.

IRS employees should be no more protected than are people in the private sector who misbehave. Also, every IRS communication to any taxpayer should be signed by the individual in the IRS who is specifically responsible for the content and accuracy of the communication -- no more anonymous letters and phone calls.

Most IRS employees are very well paid, and thus it is not unreasonable that they should be expected to take personal responsibility for each of their actions.

The new Congress needs to take action regarding the abuse of asset forfeiture, particularly at the IRS, which has gone on far too long. No American should have his bank accounts or other assets seized without being convicted of wrongdoing in an appropriate court of law. The basic function of government is to protect person and property, not steal property from innocent citizens as the IRS and other government agencies have been doing for decades.

As noted above, the OECD has been pushing for automatic exchange of tax information between governments, and this proposed protocol has been enthusiastically supported by the Obama administration.

If the protocol is ratified by the Senate, it would be up to the administration to decide which countries would be privy to our private financial and tax information -- Russia, China, Venezuela or others.

This would subject American citizens to blackmail, extortion, identity theft and other injustices by foreign governments and individuals within those governments who may be hostile to Americans.

Officials in the administration assure us that they will protect the confidentially of our personal information and not share it with countries that will not protect it. Have they not heard of Edward Snowden?

Private companies and individuals can be held liable for not protecting confidential information. There should be no lesser standard for those in government. It is called being accountable for one's words and actions.

Congress could quickly get rid of many of the IRS outrages mentioned above if it would go to a territorial system of taxation (only taxing income earned inside the country's borders), which the vast majority of countries have done. It would eliminate the need for most cross-border information-sharing.

Congress should immediately prohibit the IRS from asset forfeiture before conviction of wrongdoing.

Nonprofit organization tax exemption or deduction should be automatic with the IRS only being allowed to take away exemptions after clear evidence of wrongdoing.

Finally, if the current tax code were replaced with a simple flat-rate income or consumption tax, most of the abuse problems would go away -- and much liberty would be restored.

Richard W. Rahn is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and chairman of the Institute for Global Economic Growth.

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MAJOR POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE SHAKES AMERICA

Published on Oct 27, 2014 www.RebelPundit.com Chicago activists Paul McKinley, Mark Carter, Joseph Watkins and Harold “Noonie” Ward recently went on the record with RebelPundit to deliver a message to black communities across the country.




Sunday, October 26, 2014

What is it with this administration and YouTube videos anyway?

Obama: 'The Future Must Not Belong To Those Who Slander The Prophet Of Islam'
http://youtu.be/oAwMpL7POyo 

High Ranking DOJ Official Refuses to Affirm 1st Amendment Rights
http://youtu.be/0wwv9l6W8yc

DoJ official refuses to denounce demands for Saudi-style blasphemy law
http://dailycaller.com/2012/07/27/doj-official-refuses-to-denounce-demands-for-saudi-style-blasphemy-law/

DOJ: Social Media Posts Trashing Muslims May Violate Civil Rights
http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2013/05/doj-social-media-posts-trashing-muslims-may-violate-civil-rights/


The Constitution is Sharia Compliant? But we shouldn't have free speech to criticize Islam or Mohammad?

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf on Free Speech (Ground Zero Mosque Imam)
http://youtu.be/aZHVlSQX2T8

Infamous Obama Admin - State Dept - Pakistani TV Ad Apologizing For Mohammed Video 
http://youtu.be/ogk2dgSQETA


Obama’s FEC Wants to Criminalize Political YouTube Videos
Posted By Daniel Greenfield On October 26, 2014 @ 8:03 am


Saturday, October 25, 2014

10/25/14: Letter from Orly Taitz

From Orly Taitz

I would like to thank everyone who supported me over the years. It is a very tough battle. Some critics attacked me in the past, saying that I might have not done enough in the case of Obama’s lack of eligibility and his use of bogus IDs. I know that if for some reason Judge Hanen would not rule in my favor on Wednesday in regards to Ebola ban, some jerks will attack me saying that I did not do enough.
However, I would like to bring a couple of examples to illustrate that there is an enormous pressure on judges to rule for the regime and it is extremely hard to get a ruling against the regime.
Firstly, 46 attorneys and hundreds of prose litigants filed legal actions challenging Obama’s legitimacy and bringing forward undeniable evidence that he is using bogus IDs. None of these cases were heard on the merits. So, it was not the fact that Attorney Taitz did not do enough, it is our rulling oligarchy pushing the strings to dismiss all cases against their puppet, regardless of how good the attorneys are and how good the argument is.
Secondly, recently DC judge Reggie Walton dismissed most of the complaints against the IRS filed by Tea party groups. These cases were filed by Cleta Mitchell and I believe someone working with the judicial watch. Cleta Mitchell is 64 years old, she’s been around for a while, she is experienced. I had nothing to do with these cases. I never filed any cases against the IRS, and even jerks criticizing me, cannot state that a negative decision in my case somehow influenced these cases, yet it was a major loss for the citizens of this country and a major win or major lawlessness triumph for the ruling oligarchy . In my opinion the decision by Judge Walton was totally unconscionable and he is paving the way to persecution of dissidents and opponents of the regime. He claimed that because IRS granted these Tea Party groups non-profit status 4 years late, after these groups lost donations for 4 years, it was somehow ok and nobody at IRS should be penalized. There was a clear case of the deprivation of civil rights of the members of these Tea party groups, there was clearly a violation of equal protection. Lois Lerner granted a non-profit status to Obama’s half brother in Africa only 2-3 weeks after he filed a request, even though he did not even have a proper mailing address for his group, yet Lerner harassed Tea party groups for 4 years and dragged her feet in not granting the Tax Exempt status. Judge Walton thought it was ok.
I brought these examples to illustrate, how hard it is to fight the regime and a few jerks, who attack me misrepresenting these attacks, as if they came from others, need to get a life and do something productive with their lives instead of being a pest.

Mike Rowe: "What you do, who you’re with, and how you feel about the world around you, is completely up to you."

Man Asks Mike Rowe for “Life Advice” – His Response is the Best Thing You’ll Read Today

Thursday, October 23, 2014

VERY BAD NEWS!!!

A doctor (Craig Spencer) who was recently treating Ebola patients in Guinea has tested positive for Ebola!!!

But that's not the bad news (except for him and his fiance), it's the fact that he went all over New York AFTER he became symptomatic: he rode the subway for hours, hired cabs, went to a bowling alley...WTF was this DOCTOR thinking???

Drudge has the story as his featured story.

G-d help us all!

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Natural cures for the Ebola virus?

Interestingly, there may are some nutritional sources that can seriously help!
If there were a drug that worked to eradicate Ebola virus one should use it. However, there is no such drug or vaccine. It is a proven fact that malnutrition is linked to viral infections like Ebola. The typical seasonal shortage of food running from June through September in central Africa is a possible reason why the current Ebola virus outbreak has reached unprecedented levels. [Washington Post Sept 16, 2014]

In the midst of this Ebola outbreak public health authorities should be thinking “nutrition.” Instead they are thinking “vaccine deficiency,” “drug deficiency,” and how to raise the stock price of developmental drug and vaccine companies.
Please scroll more than halfway down this article to the section starting with "Nutraceuticals."

There were several more of these types of solutions discussed in a previous post including this scientific paper: REVIEW ARTICLE: Ebola virus disease: potential use of melatonin as a treatment

Here's an easy way to tell who to vote for!

Just read this...ALL of it.

No brainer, right?

And for 2016, just stock up on these!

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

YOUR "WAKE-UP" CALL IS HERE


Vote all you want. The secret government won’t change.

The people we elect aren’t the ones calling the shots, says Tufts University’s Michael Glennon.

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Arab Muslims claiming to be "Palestinians" is no different than if they migrated to the US and claimed to be "American Indians"

A little history lesson from Kurt Vangsness:
Canaanites go back many years before the time of Christ.

The term "Palestine" had not been invented yet.

No such thing as a "Palestinian" and if there was, the Jews were called "Palestinians" long before Arab Muslims were.

The name "Palestine" was derived from the word "Philistia" and the Philistines were originally from the Aegean and were closely related to the Greeks. Also, the Philistines only occupied a small area in the region of Gaza. The Arab Muslims who now call themselves "Palestinians" are obviously NOT Greek.

Arab Muslims claiming to be "Palestinians" is no different than if they migrated to the US and claimed to be "American Indians" in order to claim that they had a superior right to land in North America. They can't even pronounce the word "Palestine" correctly because there is no "P" sound in Arabic. They say "Falesteen" or "Balestine".

Roman Emporer Hadrian renamed the Kingdom of Judah (from which the word “Jew” was derived), Syria Palaestina ("Palestine") and Jerusalem, Aeolia Capitolina, in an attempt to eradicate Judaism after the Romans put down a Jewish Uprising in ~136AD. This happened long before Arab Muslims conquered the Holy Land.

The first mention of the expression "the people of Palestine" in a UN Document was in 1969, in UN General Assembly Resolution 2535 and the first mention of the term "the Palestinian people", in a UN Document was in 1970 in UNGA Resolution 2628.

Thursday, October 16, 2014

HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM EBOLA

Let's take a break from Ebola politics and talk about how to actually protect yourself from it - from Ebola specifically and from any other viral contagion.
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Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Panic time?

MEDICAL RESEARCH ORG CIDRAP: EBOLA TRANSMITTABLE BY AIR

The highly respected Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) at the University of Minnesota just advised the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and World Health Organization (WHO) that “there is scientific and epidemiologic evidence that Ebola virus has the potential to be transmitted via infectious aerosol particles,” including exhaled breath. 

CIDRAP is warning that surgical facemasks do not prevent transmission of Ebola, and healthcare professionals (HCP) must immediately be outfitted with full-hooded protective gear and powered air-purifying respirators.
CIDRAP since 2001 has been a global leader in addressing public health preparedness regarding emerging infectious diseases and bio-security responses. CIDRAP’s opinion on Ebola virus is there are “No proven pre- or post-exposure treatment modalities;” “A high case-fatality rate;” and “Unclear modes of transmission.”
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Gay fascism: Imagine what they'll be like when they're more than 2% of the population!

The city of Houston has issued subpoenas demanding a group of pastors turn over any sermons dealing with homosexuality, gender identity or Annise Parker, the city's first openly lesbian mayor.
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Sunday, October 12, 2014

THIS ALABAMA JUDGE HAS FIGURED OUT HOW TO DISMANTLE ROE v. WADE

His writings fuel the biggest threat to abortion rights in a generation.
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What if we could confiscate 100% of CEO compensation for all S&P 500 companies and redistribute to average workers?

Each of the 94.5 million workers would have seen an increase in their annual pay of less than $26, and their hourly pay would have gone up by less than 2 cents, before tax...
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Ebola crisis: Epidemiologist advises ban on flights, quarantine

Press release: Examiner and other publications report on the affidavit by epidemiologist in Taitz case, on recommended ban on travel from Ebola affected nations. Nearly 900 websites link to WWW.OrlyTaitzESQ.com
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Drug-crazed ISIS savages rape, slaughter and behead children

“We stayed as long as we could, hoping for help, but little came. Last week my neighbour, a university professor, asked me to help bury his sister, two brothers and son.

“He was distraught as they had been beheaded and pleaded with me to help find their heads so they could be buried whole.

“We searched as best we could but were told IS had taken them as trophies.
READ MORE

Thursday, October 09, 2014

When wishful thinking replaces common sense

It’s a sad day when wishful thinking replaces common sense, but beyond that, regarding some misconceptions:

Top Federal Income Tax Rate Was Once Over 90 Percent

GREEN ENERGY IS NOT DOING WELL IN EUROPE:

Renewable energy losing its shine in Europe

Green Energy: Still Short of Puff

THE GERMAN ECONOMY IS NOT THAT GREAT:

The Analyst Who Predicted Germany's Horrible Industrial Numbers Has Another Terrifying Forecast

Germany is killing its economy – and Europe’s, too

A WORD TO THE WISE:

European Socialism: Why America Doesn't Want It


Wednesday, October 08, 2014

Sentaor Ted Cruz, The Supreme Court, and Gay Marriage

POSTED ON TO THE POINT NEWS

THE TRAGIC AND INDEFENSIBLE SUPREME COURTPrintE-mail
Written by Senator Ted Cruz   
Wednesday, 08 October 2014

The Supreme Court's decision on Monday (10/06) to let rulings by lower court judges stand that redefine marriage is both tragic and indefensible.

By refusing to rule if the States can define marriage, the Supreme Court is abdicating its duty to uphold the Constitution. The fact that the Supreme Court Justices, without providing any explanation whatsoever, have permitted lower courts to strike down so many state marriage laws is astonishing.

This is judicial activism at its worst. The Constitution entrusts state legislatures, elected by the People, to define marriage consistent with the values and mores of their citizens.  Unelected judges should not be imposing their policy preferences to subvert the considered judgments of democratically elected legislatures.

The Supreme Court is, de facto, applying an extremely broad interpretation to the 14th Amendment without saying a word - an action that is likely to have far-reaching consequences.

Because of the Court's decision, 11 States will likely now be forced to legalize same-sex marriage: Virginia, Indiana, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Utah, North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia, Kansas, Colorado, and Wyoming. And this action paves the way for laws prohibiting same-sex marriage to be overturned in any state.

It is beyond dispute that when the 14th Amendment was adopted 146 years ago, as a necessary post-Civil War era reform, it was not imagined to also mandate same-sex marriage -- but that is what the Supreme Court is implying.


The Court is making the preposterous assumption that the People of the United States somehow silently redefined marriage in 1868 when they ratified the 14th Amendment.

Nothing in the text, logic, structure, or original understanding of the 14th Amendment or any other constitutional provision authorizes judges to redefine marriage for the Nation. It is for the elected representatives of the People to make the laws of marriage, acting on the basis of their own constitutional authority, and protecting it, if necessary, from usurpation by the courts.

Marriage is a question for the States.  That is why I have introduced legislation, S. 2024, to protect the authority of state legislatures to define marriage.

And that is why, when Congress returns to session, I will be introducing a constitutional amendment to prevent the federal government or the courts from attacking or striking down state marriage laws.

Traditional marriage is an institution whose integrity and vitality are critical to the health of any society. We should remain faithful to our moral heritage and never hesitate to defend it.

Ted Cruz 

[Note by JW:  The Findings section of Senator Cruz's bill S.2024 states:
"Despite striking down section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act, the Supreme Court ruling in United States v. Windsor, 133 S. Ct. 2675 (2013) did not institute a new Federal definition of marriage that includes same sex marriage. Instead,United States v. Windsor specifically required the Federal Government to defer to `state sovereign choices about who may be married' in determining marital status for Federal purposes."
In other words, the Supreme Court on Oct. 6, with no overturning decision disobeyed its own ruling in Windsor.]

Tuesday, October 07, 2014

Open borders means a constantly shifting menu of diseases and terrorist threats that never go away because the door is open.

Leprosy cases really took off after Ted Kennedy’s Immigration and Nationality Act did to public health what he had done to Mary Jo Kopechne. The top source countries for the disease are Mexico, Vietnam and Cuba.

So much for socialized medicine.

Open borders means a constantly shifting menu of diseases and terrorist threats that never go away because the door is open. It’s as open to an Ebola patient as it is to an ISIS Jihadist. AIDS is as welcome as the next Anwar Al-Awlaki. They are all part of the great multicultural future of the Democratic Party in which Islamic terrorists and Third World diseases battle it out for the opportunity to destroy America.

If an Ebola outbreak does happen, this disastrous administration and its leader may go down in history as President Ebola. But even if it doesn’t, there’s always President Swine Flu or President B68.

And there are always the classics. Three years after Obama took down the HIV travel ban, foreign-born Latinos AIDS cases in New York had risen to 31%. There’s a lot of talk about the importance of spreading awareness of the disease, but we could start by spreading awareness of the fact that allowing people with infectious diseases into the United States has deadly consequences.
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Monday, October 06, 2014

Free college tuition, anyone?

“With so many unintended negative consequences, it is important to ask whether free education is the best use for public German funds:”

In the USA:

22 Colleges Where You Can Earn a Degree for Free. Seriously.


11 Tuitition-Free Colleges


Eight Tuitition-Free Colleges


Colleges Free Tuitition


The Colleges Where Tuitition Is Still Free


Starbucks offers workers free college tuition:




Sunday, October 05, 2014

TWO SHOCKING REVELATIONS ABOUT THE EBOLA CRISIS IN THE U.S.

"That a major government supplier of emergency equipment has come out in the open to claim that their sources had foreknowledge of an emergency Disaster Response mobilization to occur in the United States in October of this year is an astonishing development considering what has transpired in the last 72 hours."


"The fact that the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) is involved suggests that either the Ebola virus, or the vaccine, or both, have been weaponized."


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Saturday, October 04, 2014

The Loch Ness Monster of Politics

Progressives, to be fair, say that the history of socialism isn’t just the Great Terror of the French Revolution, the purges and enforced famine of the of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; the mass starvation of maybe fifty million Chinese peasants in the People’s Republic of China; seven, eight, ten million more teachers, doctors, and musicians murdered in the progressive socialist takeovers in Vietnam and Cambodia; plus throw in a couple more million murdered by socialists – but progressive socialists! – in Cuba, El Salvador, Nicauragua and Venezuela, etc. and so on. They say Socialism can work without killing hundreds of millions of people, and to prove it, they point to places like Sweden. . .
First, Sweden can afford to pay all of these benefits –“free” health care, “free” maternity leave, and so on – because the cost of defending Sweden is paid by American capitalist taxpayers. I don’t want to hear about the few jets or token troops Sweden might have.  ALL of the money made by ALL of the Swedes could not pay for Sweden’s defense against the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Good socialism only exists because capitalists pay to defend the good socialists from the bad socialists.  

And Sweden, and the rest of the socialist states, is a fraud for a second reason: All of the European socialist states – ALL of them – are dying. 
Socialism is a Ponzi scheme. In order to pay for someone from cradle to grave, someone else has to do the work to come up with the tax money. As long as you have a pyramid – enough young people working – then you can afford these kind of benefits. And sure enough, that was the case for several decades after World War 2. 
But…

A stable society – not a pyramid but just a column – requires about 2.1 births per woman: one to replace the man, one to replace the woman and point 1 to take the fire challenge on Facebook. That .1 belongs to Darwin – they’re not going to live long enough to have kids. 
Sweden’s birthrate is 1.9. There are fewer Swedes every year. Norway is 1.9; Denmark is 1.7; Canada is 1.6; Japan is 1.4, and Spain and Greece are all 1.3. These social welfare states are dying. Turns out if the government gives people everything they need to live, they don’t seem to want to live anymore – not as a culture, anyway. They’re all dying – all of them – and their welfare states are propped up by importing workers from places like Yemen – where the birthrate is a robust 4.2. Unfortunately, these imported workers – many of them from Muslim countries, where they still do want to live – aren’t Swedes, no matter how hard Sweden tried to make them Swedes. So blonde Swedish women no longer feel safe going out in a mini-skirt. And for at least five years in Neighboring Oslo, Norway, the percentage of rapes caused by the Muslim minority was – 100%. All of them. As the brilliant mark Steyn said: demographics is destiny.  
Bad socialists murdered at least 200 million people. Good socialists are committing suicide, and would have been extinct long ago without American capitalism to protect them from the bad socialists.


Thursday, October 02, 2014

Who is responsible for letting America's first Ebola patient into the U.S.?

President Barack Obama, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, and Secretary of State John Kerry are directly responsible for allowing Ebola into the United States, the Center for Immigration Studies Director of Policy Studies Jessica Vaughan told Breitbart News.

Vaughan points to federal law--the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA)--which she notes gives the administration “broad authority” to bar non-citizens like Thomas Eric Duncan, the first Ebola patient allowed into the U.S., from entering the country. The administration took no steps pursuant to that federal law, however, to block people like him from potentially endangering Americans.
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