Displaying posts published in

September 2013

ALAN CARUBA: MY COLD WAR AND NOW YOURS

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/my-cold-war-and-now-yours?f=puball

I spent the better part of my life during the Cold War that began at the end of World War Two in 1945 and did not end until the collapse of the Soviet Union in December 1991. It was replaced by the Russian Federation and the competition continues.

On February 22, 1946, George F. Kennan, a junior Foreign Service officer serving in the American embassy in Moscow sent the first of a long series of dispatches to the State Department regarding Soviet intransigence, recommending a policy of “containment” of its expansive tendencies. It became the U.S. policy throughout the whole of the Cold War. Nine Presidents maintained it.

The war wasn’t always “cold.” The U.S. and Russia had fought proxy wars in Korea and Vietnam, faced off over the installation of missiles in Cuba, and then carefully avoided Mutually Assured Destruction by nuclear weapons.

The historian, John Lewis Gaddis, author of “The Cold War”, noted that “By the end of the Cold War, there was little left to hope for from communism, and nothing left to fear.” Now it’s America’s turn to be governed by a president other nations do not fear and who is increasingly mocked by bad actors throughout the world.

Barack Obama has sought to “fundamentally transform” America by way of the communist ideology of a strong central government, a people stripped of their weapons to defend against it, extensive surveillance of their communications with each other, control of their healthcare system, and the dependency on government welfare programs that widespread unemployment produces. When you add in a huge national debt, the prospect of collapse is great.

Mentored in his youth in Hawaii by Frank Marshall Davis, a card-carrying member of the Communist Party USA, it doesn’t take a Ph.D. to figure out why Barack Obama has brought this to pass. When that is combined with his raging narcissism, pathological lying, and incompetence, you can begin to understand the events surrounding the Syrian crisis.

FAMILY SECURITY MATTERS EDITORIAL: ENEMIES BOTH FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC CAROL TABER

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/enemies-both-foreign-and-domestic?f=puball

The President of the United States, as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, is sworn to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

Yet, it seems that President Obama has time and time again, through both word and deed, done everything in his power to do the exact opposite – to undermine the Constitution.

This President – more than any other in our lifetime – has weakened America, opening us to attacks from enemies both foreign and domestic.

From growing the nanny-state, creating more and more citizens dependent directly on the government, to increasingly relying on foreign powers such as China to finance our staggering debt… from pushing through job-killing legislation such as ObamaCare, to ongoing, blatant attacks on both the family and religion… this administration has intentionally and systematically “sold our nation’s soul” to further their own radical agenda.

The result? A weakened America prone to attack and the future of our children and grandchildren at risk.

Don’t be fooled. Our enemies around the world are emboldened because of this administration. From Iran and Russia, to North Korea and China, they all increasingly see America as vulnerable, and the risks for us as a people are very real and very dire. Just consider the following:

ARMING TERRORISTS BUT NOT OUR WORKERS ON US BASES: ALAN KORNMAN….

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/president-obama-arms-terrorists-not-our-men-and-women-on-us-bases

Who’s to blame for the Navy Yard massacre? Aaron Alexis. Alexis followed the religion of Buddhism but he wasn’t yelling ‘Buddha is Greatest’ as he murdered our servicemen and women.

Aaron Alexis was outspoken about his mental condition long before his Navy Yard massacre. Alexis sought treatment for insomnia, hearing voices, and feeling vibrations from microwave antennas before his murderous rampage.

It is near impossible to defend oneself against the violent acts of a lone psychotic when mental health professionals can no longer easily institutionalize violent patients. That is where the story of Aaron Alexis ends and Military Base security begins.

America Is Desensitized to Mass Shootings

America is officially desensitized to mass shootings like at the Navy Yard, Ft. Hood, Sandy Hook, Columbine, Virginia Tech, and the Aurora Theatre, etc…. and there are many more you never heard about as listed in this article.

Military Base Safety Solution

The easy solution is you allow military men and women with concealed weapons permits to carry on base. An armed man or woman inside the target facility can kill the shooter long before the police can analyze the situation and send in tactical teams to kill or capture the shooter. An armed victim is never a victim.

Under President George W. Bush Sr., Feb 25, 1992, Defense Directive 5210.56 limited the control and carrying of firearms by Department of Defense Military and civilian personnel.

President Bill Clinton, March 12, 1993, doubled down on Defense Directive 5210.56 by prohibiting the carrying of non-government owned or issued weapons or ammunition.

DAVID HORNIK: ROUHANI LAUNCHES HIS CHARM OFFENSIVE

http://frontpagemag.com/2013/davidhornik/rouhani-launches-charm-offensive/ It doesn’t take a genius to game the West. The West—and particularly its elite people who make or influence policy—wants to be gamed, to be convinced that there is never a need for military operations and one’s easy, luxurious life can continue undisturbed. So the Rouhani charm offensive has begun. Hassan Rouhani, Iran’s president […]

MUST READ:What Cochlear Implants Did for My Son : Lydia Denworth

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324492604579082911107374876.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTTopOpinion

Researchers who were just awarded the ‘American Nobel’ have opened up the world of sound to the deaf.

There was a time when almost no respectable scientist would have anything to do with cochlear implants. In the 1970s, pioneering researchers who thought they could create a device that would allow the deaf to hear and speak were shouted down at professional conferences. The National Institutes of Health refused funding on “moral grounds”: The idea was so improbable it was deemed a “cruel incentive” for parents and possibly harmful for children.

Soon after the scientific community began to acknowledge the possibilities of implants in the 1980s, members of the deaf community rose up to protest this medical approach to deafness. They argued the prosthesis was deeply offensive because it was designed to “fix” something they didn’t believe was broken.

Things have changed dramatically. Last week, three pioneering researchers—Graeme Clark, Ingeborg Hochmair and Blake Wilson—shared the prestigious Lasker-DeBakey Award for Clinical Medical Research for their work in developing the implant. They will accept the award often called the American Nobel on Friday afternoon in New York City. The award citation says the devices have “for the first time, substantially restored a human sense with medical intervention” and directly transformed the lives of hundreds of thousands.

I’ve seen this up close. My 10-year-old son, Alex, is one of the 320,000 people with a cochlear implant.

A few days before the Lasker announcement, Alex, who got his implant when he was two, started fifth grade in his mainstream school and was nearly indistinguishable from the other children. He moves “fluently” in the hearing world, as researchers put it. The only obvious difference is the piece of brown plastic he wears on his ear and the magnet that attaches it to his head. The work of the Lasker honorees and their many colleagues enabled my child to learn to talk and read. This year he’ll even be studying Spanish.

INJUSTICE: TOM DE LAY CLEARED OF CHARGES…….SEE NOTE PLEASE

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323308504579085581894576184.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_AboveLEFTTop

HYPOCRISY WRIT LARGE…SCOUNDRELS AND LAW BREAKERS LIKE TED KENNEDY AND BARNEY FRANK KEPT GETTING RE-ELECTED WHILE TOM DE LAY WAS FORCED OUT …..RSK

An appeals court all but says he never should have been prosecuted.

After Tom DeLay was convicted of money laundering in 2010, these columns said prosecutors had abused state campaign finance law to exact political retribution against the former GOP leader, and on Thursday a Texas appeals court agreed.

Setting aside the verdict for the 2-1 majority, Justice Melissa Goodwin writes that the evidence was “legally insufficient,” which is a mild way of saying the case never should have been brought. Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle ginned up charges by stretching beyond recognition a money-laundering statute meant for drug dealers.

Mr. Earle homed in on Mr. DeLay’s political action committee, which was allowed to accept corporate donations. The outside fund donated to the Republican National Committee, which then independently cut checks to seven Republicans running for the Texas legislature in 2002. Candidates are only supposed to accept money from parties and individuals under the state election code.

The RNC kept segregated accounts for business and individual donations, and such transactions were routine at the time, but Mr. Earle alleged that Mr. DeLay structured the transfers to “launder” the dirty proceeds of a conspiracy. But Justice Goodwin notes that since all the donations were legal, “The fundamental problem with the state’s case was its failure to prove proceeds of criminal activity.”

Shocking: Belgian Holocaust education teaches children to hate Israel By Guido Joris, Joods

http://tundratabloids.com/2013/09/belgian-holocaust-education-teaching-hatred-of-the-jewish-state-publishes-antisemitic-cartoon-on-its-website.html   This picture was seen on the website of ‘Klascement’ as part of education about the holocaust and was removed after Joods Actueel published this article. (This cartoon first appeared during the holocaust denial conference in Teheran in 2009). A visit to the site of remembrance education shows that the commemoration of the Holocaust […]

RICH BAEHR: ANTICIPATE OBAMACARE’S EFFECT ON YOUR HEALTH CARE COSTS

http://pjmedia.com/blog/obamacare-the-effects-on-your-health-care-costs/?print=1

Obamacare: The Effects on Your Health Care Costs

This is the third part in a series of articles on the rollout of Obamacare, and how the law will change our health care system. Each week, we will publish two articles — one on the changes in medicine and medical care, and one on changes in the insurance industry. We hope this series of articles will help you make better decisions when it comes to your health care and how you buy insurance.

When fully implemented over the next few years, the Affordable Care Act promises to provide insurance for 30 million Americans currently without health insurance coverage.

Those 30 million Americans were receiving health care, though they did not have insurance. In many cases, people without coverage never used hospitals nor had any expensive diagnostic tests during a given year. When they needed to see a doctor, they paid out-of-pocket. Some of the uninsured who did make use of inpatient hospital services were admitted through the emergency room; others received outpatient services in this setting. In either case, the patient at best paid a small portion of the bill, and in some cases met the standard for free care established by the institution and was never charged. In most cases, the hospital charges were eventually written off as uncollectible bad debts.

It is inevitable that those among the uninsured who will now receive health insurance coverage under Obamacare will make greater use of health care services than they did before.

The extent of the increase in utilization — doctors visits, lab tests, outpatient surgeries, diagnostic tests, inpatient care — is difficult to predict. But there is reason to expect that average utilization levels for the previously uninsured who will now get coverage through the exchanges or the expanded Medicaid program will soon approach, if not equal, those of similar age people who have historically had health insurance coverage already.

In various studies I have performed for clients, I have conservatively estimated the increase in utilization at between 30% and 50% over previous utilization levels for the uninsured. Assuming no change in prices, the 30% to 50% increase in utilization for about 10% of the population will increase overall health care costs by a few percentage points per year.

Since this population is in most cases below the age of 65, utilization rates are generally lower than for the Medicare population (over age 65 and disabled people), which can be 3 to 4 times that of the under 65 population. Whatever else happens as a result of the Affordable Care Act, the cost of providing services to the newly insured will increase health care costs. The total cost of insurance to pay for these services will, of course, rise even more, since there was no insurance cost previously (other than the bad debt cost that providers absorbed and included in their prices to insurers). The new insurance costs will also include administrative costs and the insurers’ profit margin.

This new increment to health care utilization and expense will occur in a country where health care costs, by any comparative measure, are already far beyond those of any other developed nation. Costs are much higher here whether measured by percentage of GDP devoted to health care, or by health care costs per resident. [2] In 2010, the U.S. spent 17.6% of GDP on health care. The Netherlands was second at 12%. The average for OECD countries, including the United States, was 9.5% of GDP for health care.

DEFUND OBAMACARE!! ANDREW McCARTHY

http://pjmedia.com/andrewmccarthy/2013/09/19/defund-obamacare/ Grassroots pressure from conservatives has induced the House Republican leadership to permit a vote on a continuing resolution that defunds Obamacare. That is excellent news. For spearheading the move to defund the (Not Remotely) Affordable Care Act, intrepid Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Mike Lee (R-UT) have been scalded by the usual ruling class […]

KATIE PAVLICH:Spitting on Their Graves: Democrats Leave Benghazi Hearing Before Testimony From Families of Victims

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2013/09/19/spitting-on-their-graves-democrats-leave-benghazi-hearing-before-testimony-from-benghazi-families-n1704732

During the second portion of a House Oversight and Government Reform hearing about Benghazi Thursday on Capitol Hill, the majority of Democrats on the Committee left the room and refused to listen to the testimony of Patricia Smith and Charles Woods. Ms. Smith is the mother of Sean Smith, an information management officer killed in the 9/11 Benghazi attack. Charles Woods is the father of Navy SEAL Tyrone Woods, who was also killed.