RUTHFULLY YOURS

America needs a change of direction domestically to cope with a dangerous and disorderly world.

The reports of Darrell Issa’s House Oversight and Government Reform Committee are a clinic on how government is really run. The latest on ObamaCare is no exception.

We see Chet Burrell, head of Maryland insurer CareFirst, emailing in alarm last April to White House aide Valerie Jarrett. The administration had just publicly stated its “risk corridor” plan would be revenue neutral—i.e., no extra taxpayer dollars would be available to cover insurer losses.

We see Mr. Burrell warning that sticking with this plan would mean politically “an unwelcome surprise,” namely premium hikes of 20% or more later this year as ObamaCare policies come up for renewal.

We see Ms. Jarrett emailing back in concern. We see her later assuring Mr. Burrell that insurers would get 80% of what they sought. After another program tweak in May, the figure would be closer to 100%.
Sure enough, this week came the fallout. Bob Laszewski, a policy wonk and former insurance executive whose bloggings are closely followed in the ObamaCare debate, writes that the administration has succeeded in temporarily suppressing incipient ObamaCare price hikes, contributing to an illusion of sustainability. He suggests that some insurers might even slash rates to “grab market share because they have nothing to lose with the now unlimited ObamaCare reinsurance program covering their losses.”

The non-surprise revealed here is that ObamaCare turns out to be just another subsidy program, throwing money at health care. In economics, you can’t subsidize everybody but we’re trying: 50 million Americans get help from Medicare, 65 million from Medicaid, nine million from the Department of Veterans Affairs, seven million (and counting) from ObamaCare, and a whopping 149 million from the giant tax handout for employer-provided health insurance.

Much of this money (which will total about $1.3 trillion in 2014) is shoveled out regardless of need, driving up prices and spurring production of services of dubious value. The spending is less effective at improving the nation’s health. An “Affordable Care Act” worth its title would have gotten us off this kamikaze mission. It didn’t.

http://unitedwithisrael.org/innovative-israeli-brain-procedure-broadcast-live-to-12000-american-doctors/

An Israeli medical team performed an innovative life-saving procedure while 12,000 American doctors watched via live broadcast.

A cutting-edge brain catheterization procedure was performed at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem while being broadcast live to 12,000 American doctors in Washington.

The procedure, another example of Israel’s important medical innovations, significantly diminishes the threat to the patient undergoing the operation. The revolutionary stent is covered with a microscopic net that opens up against the arterial wall and can prevent the passage of particles toward the brain, thus preventing cerebral-vascular accidents during its implantation.

The life-saving procedure was debuted in Israel and viewed by American clinicians attending the TCT (Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics) Conference, the world’s largest and most important educational meeting specializing in interventional cardiovascular medicine.
Shaare Zedek Medical Center

Shaare Zedek Medical Center. (Photo: Nati Shohat/Flash90)

Shaarei Zedek is one of 21 hospitals from around the world to participate in the conference and broadcast live medical procedures.
“This is a World Debut”

The medical team performing the procedure was rigged with audio and visual equipment so as to better present the technique to their audience. Two advanced broadcasting stations were set up at the entrance to the hospital to relay the event to the expectant spectators in the US. They received a step-by-step explanation of the ground-breaking treatment.

“This is a world début for this stent, which provides a first-rate solution to the problem,” says Dr. Yaron Almagor, director of the Invasive Cardiology Unit at Shaare Zedek. “There is no doubt that this is a world-class innovation which can revolutionize the treatment of the carotid arteries and will minimize cerebral damage in the future.”

http://unitedwithisrael.org/fda-approves-groundbreaking-israeli-lung-imaging-system/

The FDA recently approved a groundbreaking, non-invasive, radiation-free lung imaging system created by Deep Breeze an Israeli company.

Deep Breeze is an Israeli company based in Or Akiva in the Haifa District that has invented a non-invasive, radiation-free lung imaging system. Using Vibration Response Imaging, the system generates a real-time picture of the lungs.

This new technology is already being heralded by experts as the biggest breakthrough since ultrasound. It will be used to help diagnose cancer, asthma and other pulmonary diseases. Sales of the system will begin in the US shortly.

WATCH THIS AMAZING VIDEO AND SHARE WITH YOUR FRIENDS!

For four decades genetically modified organisms (GMO) have been vilified and caricatured as “Frankenfoods,” the abominations of mad scientists meddling with nature and putting the human race at risk. Currently, over sixty bills have been introduced in over twenty states that will require food labels indicating if the product contains GMO. Globally, over sixty countries restrict or ban GMO outright, including eight E.U. nations and countries in Africa suffering from famine and malnutrition that could be alleviated by genetically modified crops.

Critics accuse GMO of being unhealthy, increasing chemical pollution, threatening other species, causing dangerous side effects, and harming the environment. But as plant molecular biologist Robert Goldberg of UCLA points out, “In spite of hundreds of millions of genetic experiments involving every type of organism on earth, and people eating billions of meals without a problem, we’ve gone back to being ignorant.”

In fact, no one has yet documented a single case of illness from GM foods, even as about 3,000 people a year in the U.S. die of food-borne illnesses, many of them contracted from “organic” foods. All the dangers of GMO that worry critics are speculations of what might happen in the distant future. Mixing genes from different species, critics contend, will create alterations in the organism that will in the long term produce destructive effects, or genetic material from an engineered crop someday may transfer into the human genome.

There were few modern democrats among the armed opposition to Assad two years ago. There are far fewer now. So who can Obama trust not to turn Western-supplied weapons against us later?

The young rebels and opposition activists gathered in a school to discuss how the northern Syrian town of Al Bab should be governed after the departure of Bashar al Assad’s soldiers were taken aback by the question: “Why aren’t there any women here?” It was the summer of 2012, more than 12 months into the uprising against the Syrian president, and more than a year before Abu Bakr al Baghdadi announced the formation of his al Qaeda breakaway, the Islamic State of Syria and Sham, or ISIS.

Initial surprise at my question was followed by smirks. The young men who had talked about ushering in a new era of modern democracy and freedom in Syria pushed forward a nervous young imam to explain. “It is not in our tradition for men and women to mix,” he said. “They can have their own meeting, if they want. And if we need advice on some issues, we can ask them.” There were some chuckles at this. So much for democracy, at least in its Western guise.

Later that night I sat with two local sheikhs who explained how they were forming a court to adjudicate civil disputes and rule on criminal cases. “We will use Sharia law,” said Abdulbaset Kuredy. “What else is there? After Assad, the whole country will be governed by Sharia.” Then he launched into a condemnation of the corrupt West and its acceptance of homosexuality and same-sex marriage. The sheikhs were aligned with the Free Syrian Army, the rebel group now touted in Washington as the “moderates” to support in the fight against Assad on the one hand, ISIS on the other.

There was nothing I saw in Al Bab in August 2012—still early days in the insurrection that is now halfway through its fourth year—that led me to feel that if the Syrian uprising toppled Assad, it would lead to an inclusive, minority-respecting, and more or less democratic outcome. Like other countries convulsed by Arab Spring insurrections, there was a mismatch between Western expectations and perceptions and the thinking and religious views of the majority involved in the fighting, and that was a year before the emergence of ISIS. The war back then was clearly becoming more sectarian and Islamic—the trajectory was obvious.

According to the media the diplomatic wunderkinds of Obama Inc. have assembled a coalition that is “broader and more committed” than the one that Bush put together against Saddam Hussein.

Bush couldn’t get France and Germany on board. Obama got France.

Unfortunately France is also about the only country in Obama’s coalition against ISIS. At least France appears to be the only country willing to commit militarily. Possibly the UK will join it, but after parliament turned down Cameron’s air strikes on Syria the last time around, that may be unlikely.

Kerry claims that some Arab countries might be willing to bomb ISIS, he just isn’t willing to say which ones, and meanwhile the standard for participating in the military campaign has been lowered to mean providing training and weapons to Sunni Jihadists in Syria. That means Qatar and Turkey, ISIS’ backers, can be in our anti-ISIS coalition.

Or maybe we’re in their ISIS coalition.

You would have thought that a Nobel Peace Prize winner and famous multilateralist (except when it comes to Congress or the Supreme Court) could assemble a bigger coalition than the crazed cowboy who alienated the French, but it turns out that while Bush could get multiple countries to commit actual troops to securing Iraq, Obama can’t even get anyone to do a flyby of ISIS.

Except the French.

What the multilateralists failed to understand during the Cold War was that countries join international coalitions for their own security. International law only matters when it is backed by iron and steel as a mutual defense pact, not when it wafts words of empty rhetoric at the podium of the General Assembly.

Poland wasn’t sending troops to Iraq because it was worried about Saddam Hussein. It made the commitment because it wanted to be part of a partnership with the United States that would also provide security in its own backyard.

That’s what NATO was originally for.

FOR OBAMA: “IS YOU IS OR IS YOU AIN’T MY BABY?

Co-written by Louis Jordan and Billy Austin. Austin (March 6, 1896 – July 24, 1964) was a songwriter and author, born in Denver, Colorado. The phrase “Is you is or is you ain’t” is dialect, apparently first recorded in a 1921 story by Octavus Roy Cohen, a Jewish writer from South Carolina who wrote humorous black dialect fiction. Glenn Miller recorded this song on a radio broadcast from Europe during World War II.

FOR THE CLINTON STATE DEPARTMENT: “AIN’T NOBODY HERE BUT US CHICKENS”

“Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens” is a 1946 song, with music and lyrics by Alex Kramer and Joan Whitney. It was recorded by Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five. The single hit number one on the US Billboard Rhythm and blues Juke Box chart and number six on the pop chart.

he terrorist group ISIS, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (or Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, for those who prefer the acronym ISIL) can be traced at least as far back as 2004, when founder Abu Musab al-Zarqawi pledged his allegiance to the infamous al Qaeda group and its then-leader, Osama bin Laden. The two organizations found themselves compatible, as both were devoted to Salafist Sunni Islam, which preaches a return to traditional Islamic values and practices. Originally known as “Jamat al-Tawhid wal-Jihad”, Zarqawi changed the group’s name to “al Qaeda in Iraq” when ties with bin Laden were solidified. Zarqawi himself was killed in 2006, his successors meeting their own fate later in 2010, and today the group is led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

In the aftermath of the United States’ ill-advised troop withdrawal from Iraq, the group prospered, eventually divorcing itself from al Qaeda and declaring itself an Islamic caliphate, so that it is now most commonly known as ISIS. The growth of ISIS has been as impressive as it has been alarming, with well-armed militants spreading across Iraq (where even that nation’s second largest city, Mosul, has fallen to the power of ISIS and is now administered by them) and into Syria, sustaining themselves with funding from captured financial institutions, oil fields, and sympathetic radical Muslims in other Arab countries. They are brutally totalitarian in their adherence to their flavor of Islamic doctrine, having instituted flogging as punishment for the sale of alcohol or tobacco, hand amputation for stealing, and death for failure to convert to the “true” Muslim faith. What is perhaps most terrifying of all is the fact that blame for the rise of ISIS can be laid squarely at the feet of United States President Barack Obama.

In the aftermath of the American invasion of Iraq, conducted under then-President George W Bush, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was toppled and a power vacuum was created in the nation. This is significant, because it was precisely Hussein’s brutality and repression that kept radicals like those driving ISIS in check, and allowed a secular government to function. Without this apparatus, only the presence of armed US soldiers carrying out anti-insurgency operations was able to restrain a beast that would otherwise break its leash. Sadly, that leash was broken when Barack Obama made the decision to call back American troops and abandon the nation of Iraq, leaving to its own devices a country fundamentally destabilized by American action, and ignoring the United States’ moral responsibility there. Of course, claims were made that the newly instituted democratic government under Nouri al-Maliki would now step up and hold back the insurgents, but in reality this young administration, still finding its legs as a governing force, had no hope of standing up to the well-oiled machine of ISIS. Alarming – and, frankly, embarrassing – stories of regular Iraqi military units being routed and sent fleeing by terrorist bands hit the headlines, and the stage was set for ISIS to enter primacy. And now, sadly, Iraq and Syria are only the beginning. ISIS is ambitious indeed, aiming to capture Turkey, Jordan, Israel, and Palestine. The potential nightmare which the Middle East now faces cannot be overstated.

It appears that reality is not cooperating with the myth that man-made CO2 is causing global warming. Recent satellite images show that both the Arctic and the Antarctic sea ice have dramatically increased in size and thickness.

Despite Al Gore’s 2007 apocalyptic predictions that in just 7 more years the Arctic ice cap will be “completely gone,” it has instead dramatically increased by 43% in size since 2012. The North Pole ice cap grew by 1.715 million square kilometers, an area the size of Alaska, in the last two years. In solidarity, the South Pole ice cap has also reached record-breaking levels, and not stands at 20 million square kilometers, the highest level since records began.

Al Gore (2007): “The [Arctic] ice cap is falling off a cliff. It could be completely gone in summer in as little as 7 years from now.”

Reality (2014):

ARCTIC Ice Cap: Ice sheet growth has been dramatic. The North Pole ice cover has reached 5.62 million square kilometers. “This was the highest level recorded on that date since 2006 and represents an increase of 1.71 million square kilometres over the past two years” an impressive 43 percent.

ANTARCTIC Sea Ice Cap: “Scientists have declared a new record has been set for the extent of Antarctic sea ice since records began. Satellite imagery reveals an area of about 20 million square kilometers covered by sea ice around the Antarctic continent. That is roughly double the size of the Antarctic continent and about three times the size of Australia.”

Elizabeth Warren says it is ‘fair’ to compare Israel’s actions in Gaza to Holocaust By Thomas Lifson
Speaking at Tufts University yesterday, Senator Elizabeth Warren cemented her position on the hard left by agreeing with a questioner that it is “fair” to compare Israel’s actions in Gaza to the Holocaust. Daniel Harper of The Weekly Standard picked up on the startling analogy and provided video:

“Eva Moseley, I’m not a student, I’m not an alumnae, but was in faculty life. I was also a Holocaust refugee and I’m extremely concerned that Jews don’t do to another people what was done to them,” said the activist.

“I think that’s fair,” Senator Warren responded.

Gee, I don’t remember the Jews of Germany promising to drive the Germans into the sea, nor do I remember them shelling Germans randomly. One hundred percent of the aggression came from the Nazis, and the Jews, having been disarmed by Hitler’s gun control laws, were completely unable to fight back. So how on earth can any comparison be made with Israel attempting to halt the rocket attacks emanating from Gaza? It is so insane that it defies the imagination.

But Warren continued digging her hole, as Ms. Mosely continued her question:

“You recently said that you believe that Israel has the right to self-defense,” the activist continued. “Do you also believe that the Palestinians have a right to self-defense?”

“Of course. So, and the answer is yes. The direction we ought to be moving is not toward more war. The direction we need to be moving, as I said, I believe we need to move to a two-state solution where both peoples can be secure and safe within their own borders. So, I’m there,” responded the senator from Massachusetts.

One side, Israel, wishes to live in peace, and would happily do so if Hamas (and Hezb’allah and the Palestinian Authority) would give up their mission to eradicate Israel. But the other side does not wish to live in peace with Jews. The stated goal is elimination of Israel. Until that changes, no peaceful coexistence is possible. That is the funadmanetal reality that Warren is oblivious to.

Warren continues to be the darling of the left wing of the Democratic Party, and although she has denied interest in running for president, is often spoken of as the great hope of the left. The idea that someone with such a twisted view of the Middle East could even be thought of for the office is appalling.