op ed review 2/17
THIS WEEK’S NEWS
A Gallup poll shows that at
the end of 2012, self-identified conservatives still outnumbered liberals in
every state of the nation except for two -- Rhode Island
and Massachusetts.
But “..only four times in the
last hundred years has a Republican campaigned as an unabashed conservative.
Coolidge won big in 1924. Reagan
won two landslides. Only Goldwater, running with a divided Republican Party one
year after Kennedy was murdered, lost as a conservative. As for Reagan,
he won because he held conservative values and never apologized for them or
watered them down.”
It's time for the State of the Union address, which means
the president is pivoting back to jobs once more. It's an annual game where
President Obama pretends to be focused on employment and many in the media
pretend to believe him. “Obama takes 57
vacation days since vowing he 'Will Not Rest Until Anyone' can find a GOOD job”
Obama’s State of the Union address was filled with pledges
for new government spending, couched as investment in “broad-based growth”,
from infrastructure development to Executive measures to combat climate change,
designed to bypass Congressional opposition. There was no talk of tax cuts or
freeing businesses from red tape and suffocating regulation. Not a word about
advancing economic freedom, but acres of language about government
intervention, in the economy, the workplace, education system, and practically
every aspect of American life, plus a job-killing costly minimum wage hike.
Marco Rubio delivered the GOP response to President Obama’s
State of the Union last night. Did he talk
about the contracting economy, rising unemployment, immigration reform,
spiraling debt, and what we can do about it? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. And Yes. But
thanks to a unique moment of having to take a sip of water while publicly
speaking for a long stretch of time, the only thing talking heads are talking
about today is Rubio “watering down the Republican message.” Get it?
Hypocrisy: A Hispanic
Republican senator drinks water on TV, and the media demolish him. A Hispanic
Democratic senator is accused of having sex with underage prostitutes, and the
media ignores it.
Like Rubio, Bill Clinton was mulling a presidential run four
years in the future when something far worse happened during a speech: He got
booed off the stage of the 1988 Democratic National Convention. Somehow we
didn't get TV news replaying that clip over 200 times, as the Daily Caller
reports cable news did with Rubio's "Bottled Watergate." We didn't
get CNN asking if Clinton's
career was over, as it did with Rubio on Wednesday. "Bias" is not a
strong enough word. America's powerful establishment media are ever-dependable
shills…….And like the official press organ of a banana republic, they threaten
— on a daily basis — our freedom, bought with blood, to choose our leaders
while armed with accurate information.
The Fed’s Holdings of U.S. Gov't Debt Hit Record
$1,696,691,000,000; Up 257% Under Obama……entities in Mainland China owned about
$1,170,100,000,000 in U.S. government debt, making China the largest foreign
holder of U.S. government debt.
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/fed-s-holdings-us-govt-debt-hit-record-1696691000000-257-under-obama
China
surpassed the U.S.
to become the world’s biggest trading nation last year as measured by the sum
of exports and imports of goods, official figures from both countries show.
The U.S. Navy is unable to refuel the aircraft carrier USS Abraham
Lincoln (CVN-72) because of budget cuts.
After four years of Obama´s diplomatic ´leadership´ and
billions of dollars in attempted friendship aid, a new public opinion poll
reveals that 92% of Pakistanis now disapprove of the United States.
The U.S.
government spent about $2.2 billion last year to provide “Obamaphones” to
low-income Americans, but a Wall Street Journal review of the program shows
that a large number of those who received the phones haven't proved they are
eligible to receive them.
Should it be a federal crime for businesses to refuse to
hire ex-convicts? Yes, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission, which recently released 20,000 convoluted words of regulatory
"guidance" to direct businesses to hire more felons and other
ex-offenders.
Four California
high-school students were reportedly suspended for chanting “U.S.A! U.S.A!” and
wearing American flag bandanas during a basketball game. While their punishment
has since been rescinded, school administrators said “the incident is far from
over.” principal Glenn Lipman felt that the students’ actions might “have had
racist undertones since the schools have large Hispanic student populations.”
“A peer-reviewed
survey of 1077 geoscientists and engineers finds that "only 36 percent of
geoscientists and engineers believe that humans are creating a global warming
crisis." If there is a scientific consensus at all, it would have to be
skepticism toward anthropogenic global warming. Yet President Obama in his
State of the Union speech Tuesday cited the now-discredited notion of such a
consensus as the foundation of his green agenda. It is bunk.”
A homicidal maniac blames racism in
the Los Angeles Police Department for his killing rampage against cops and
civilians and the New York Times responds, “You know, he just may have a
point.”
“True to form, CNN, Reuters, and other media outlets used
the announcement of Pope Benedict XVI´s retirement to dwell on ancient sex
scandals, opposition to gay marriage, and a host of other things the media have
never liked about a Pope who would not hew to whatever worldview the chattering
classes embraced at the moment "
_____________________________________________________________________________
THIS WEEK’S FEATURED COLUMN
William Sullivan
2/10
Contrast can bring clarity. And I do not think that the two
warring political ideologies in America
have never been personified, juxtaposed, and as clearly defined as the contrast
we witnessed at this week's National Prayer Breakfast. Dr. Benjamin Carson, the famed director of
pediatric neurosurgery at Johns
Hopkins University,
was given the unique opportunity to share his beliefs before a distinguished
audience, including President Barack Obama. He did not waste the opportunity,
and courageously expressed his beliefs with conviction, contrary though they are to
those of the president.
Much has been made of Dr. Carson's alternative solution to
make healthcare more efficient:….In two paragraphs, Ben Carson has offered a
free market solution to create competition and reduce healthcare costs that is
feasible, understandable, and compassionate. (And one that has already been
tested -- it is very similar to the system used in Singapore. ) Its relative
simplicity alone stands in stark contrast to Obama's healthcare solution pitch,
the mechanics of which were so confusing that after two years of explaining it,
Democrats entreated Americans to not even try to understand it. Just accept it
and see what happens, as Nancy Pelosi suggested..
……..Dr. Carson went on to destroy the notion of the
progressive income tax, arguing that "God has given us a system" that
would work. He argued that because God requires tithing regardless of outcome: “There must be something inherently fair in
proportionality. If you make ten billion dollars, you put in one billion. If
you make ten dollars, you put in one. Of course you gotta get rid of the
loopholes. [Laughter] But, now some people say, "Well that's not fair,
because it doesn't hurt the guy who made ten billion dollars as much as the guy
who made ten." Where does it say you have to hurt the guy? He just put a
billion dollars in the pot! We don't need to hurt him. It's that kind of
thinking that has resulted in 602 banks in the Cayman
Islands. That money needs to be back here building our
infrastructure and creating jobs."”
Is it possible to say anything more contrary to Barack
Obama's insistence on the moral imperative to take disproportionately more from
the wealthy to redistribute among the collective?
And this is where the contrast between the two men becomes
most apparent. Barack Obama rejects the notion of fairness presented by God,
because his devotion to God, if it was ever a driving motivation in his life,
has become supplanted by his devotion to the government administration of
fairness. That much is abundantly clear. Consider that Dr. Carson carries
himself with a pious humility, crediting God and family for giving him the
strength of will to succeed. President Obama, whose name would rarely collide
with humility in a sentence, insists that the government is responsible for
people's success.
The revelation here is not that Barack Obama is a PC thug
who intends to transform the fabric of America, or that he makes victims
of women rather than empowering them, or that he subscribes to a Marxist's
notion of fairness by coercion, or that his healthcare solution is a muddled,
hopeless mess sold on Utopian dreams. We already knew all that.
No, the real revelation is that at this year's prayer
breakfast, so often only a pious ritual, his exact opposite stood and spoke in
sharp contrast to our president. And Dr. Ben Carson owns a legacy as an
innovative pioneer of his field and philanthropist whose life and work have
personally touched, and even saved, countless others. Barack Obama, on the
other hand, despite all his celebrity, owns a legacy that amounts to little
more than stirring fear and outrage on the premise that others are not doing enough to help
people.
Which ideology has produced the more effective, positive
outcome?
_____________________________________________________________________________
FROM OTHER COLUMNS
"[Obama's] speech gave every indication that he remains
a hostage to the superstition that we can spend our way to national
prosperity... In reality, the state of our union is this: The United States is
today $6 trillion deeper in debt than it was before Barack Obama was first
sworn in as president……Out of every dollar the country owes in government debt,
36 cents was acquired under the Obama administration. The state of our union is this: Today there
are more than 4 million fewer Americans working than there were when Barack
Obama was first sworn in as president -- not including those who have retired.
... The state of our union is this: Economic growth is weaker than it has been
during any recovery in recent memory; in fact, the economy shrank in the last
quarter. ... The state of our union is this: Incomes are lower today than they
were when Barack Obama was first sworn in as president. ... He boasted that
al-Qaeda is decimated, but that news has not reached Benghazi
or most of North Africa. So the state of our
union also is this: North
Korea sets off nuclear weapons with
impunity. Iran
seeks them without fear. Islamists slaughter our diplomatic personnel while the
president's national-defense team keeps bankers' hours. ... The president's
confrontational, hectoring, and highly ideological speech ought to be a wake-up
call to the country. The Republican majority in the House is the only real
check on his power. Supplementing that check with a Republican majority in the
Senate is imperative. Even through all of President Obama's obfuscations, that
much is clear."
-National Review
__________________________________________________________________________
LEFTIST WATCH
Therein are the basic personality parameters of the entity
known as the modern American left.
Membership in
the American left is, thus, easily attained. All one needs to do is
believe and accept the following……(long list)……None of these character traits
are dominant among the left in the many countries of Europe
or elsewhere who have socialist leaning governments or citizenry.
Dependence on government is a common trait but the spoiled child approach to
ideology and the opposition is not. It appears to be the sole preserve of
the American left.
“Occupy LA Honors Chris Dorner, Copkiller
Who Killed Minority Officers”
“Chris Dorner: A Mass Shooter
Leftists Can Love”
“Liberalism is what evil is masquerading as in our time. I
won't go into the labyrinthine details of the matter here, but it was a
life-changing epiphany that ultimately led to a transition from
secular-conservative/libertarian to man of faith and walking, talking
anachronism. And it made me realize that liberals aren't just misguided,
which they are -- they're also in bed with evil. This is apparent in much of
what they do, and the support that murdering fugitive Christopher Dorner is receiving
from the left is a good example.”
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/02/killer_dorners_supporters_are_par_for_the_lefts_course.html#ixzz2KW7CQcXX
____________________________________________________________________________
ISLAM
An Egyptian court ordered a one-month ban on YouTube, after
it said the video-sharing Web site had failed to remove an American-made
anti-Islam video.
________________________________________________________________________
GUN CONTROL
Out of the flurry of ambitious gun control proposals in the
wake of December’s school shooting in Connecticut, expanded background checks
on gun sales are fast emerging as the “sweet spot” — as one Senate Democratic
leader put it — between what gun control advocates seek and what can actually
attract bipartisan support in Congress.
Wayne LaPierre: “It seems so reasonable. In the minds of
many, "universal background checks" for firearms transactions sounds
like a good idea. But is it really? No. No idea is good if it doesn´t work. No
legislation is reasonable if it fails to accomplish its purported goal — to
prevent violent criminals and the mentally ill from acquiring firearms.
Criminals won´t participate in a "universal" system. They´ll always
steal or get their guns, and everything else they want, on the black market.
Reasonable people know that criminals will never be part of the
"universe."
In less than four weeks since President
Obama proposed sweeping new gun control laws and a ban on assault-style
weapons, the backlash from law enforcement groups that strongly support the
Second Amendment has surged and now there are 10 state sheriffs associations
opposed to the president. The Illinois Sheriffs
Association became the last to join the growing crowd of police opposed to
Obama, arguing this week that the president should instead be focused on mental
health, not gun hardware.
A school board in western Colorado has decided to allow the district
superintendent and a principal to carry firearms onto school grounds.
Hollywood action star
Steven Seagal guided members of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s volunteer posse
through a simulated school shooting. Members of the volunteer posse, some of
them armed, began patrolling areas surrounding schools in Arizona’s
most populous county. Seagal’s involvement was called a “mockery” by an Arizona state legislator
(guess which party). “Anybody who has criticized
me or the sheriff for standing up to help the children, in my opinion, is an
embarrassment to the human race.”
________________________________________________________________________
ARTICLES
Every job has a minimum requirement. The absolute very least
that anyone can do without being considered a complete and utter failure. The
minimum requirement for a Commander-in-Chief is to stick around when an
American diplomatic mission is under fire. Obama flunked even this minimal
requirement by going to sleep and then flying off for a fundraiser in Vegas.
The minimum requirement for a Secretary of State is to at least pretend to care
why such an attack took place. Hillary Clinton failed that minimum requirement
by declaring that it didn’t matter why the attack happened.
“It is difficult to say with certainty which of the many
whoppers President Obama told tonight took the most crust to utter, but my
money is going on this assertion, made a few minutes into the speech: “Already,
the Affordable Care Act is helping to slow the growth of health care costs.” I
know “Orwellian” has now become rather hackneyed, but there is simply no other
adjective that better describes this statement. It is not merely a lie. It is
the precise opposite of the truth. It is just as absurd as “war is peace” or
“freedom is slavery.”
While Barack Hussein Obama is firing 20,000 Marines as part
of his massive purge of the United
States military to “save money”, he’s also
fighting to send $700 million to the terrorists of the Palestinian Authority.
Rush: “It Finally Hit
Me: Barack Obama Will Never Be Held Responsible for Anything”
We heard many bad and tired ideas
during last night’s State of the Union address, and one of them was the promise
to raise the minimum wage, to $9 dollar an hour. While on the surface it may
seem like a way to increase the standard of living for lower-income Americans,
in reality the policy is likely to backfire. For instance, research by
economists David Neumark of the University of California, Irvine, William
Wascher of the Federal Reserve Board, and Mark Schweitzer of the Cleveland Fed
shows that that minimum wages increase poverty and hence poverty reduction
“Contrast can bring
clarity. And I do not think that the two warring political ideologies in
America have never been personified, juxtaposed, and as clearly defined as the
contrast we witnessed at this week´s National Prayer Breakfast……nearly
everything Ben Carson said was a perfect contradiction of the values expressed
by Barack Obama.”
Liberals continue their hysteria over remarks made by Dr.
Ben Carson at the National Prayer Breakfast last week. Carson, a prominent
pediatric surgeon from Johns
Hopkins University,
dared to weigh in on healthcare — something he knows something about, and
certainly knows better than Barack Obama. In the liberal mind, Carson committed a grave
transgression; he had dared to disagree with Obama, and in Obama’s presence. In
a discussion of Carson’s moral effrontery, Candy
Crowley, host of CNN’s State of the Union, asked her panelists whether they
were offended by Carson’s
comments.
Wall Street Journal:
“Ben Carson for President.”
Here come the "Ben Carson for President" t-shirts
http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/watercooler/2013/feb/15/here-come-ben-carson-president-t-shirts/
Dr. Ben Carson at the National
Prayer Breakfast (27 min)
"Amnesty, amnesty, amnesty, the trap has been cleverly
laid for us and the question is will we fall for it again."
With their attacks on tea party conservatives, Karl Rove and
his cohorts have fired the first salvo in the Great GOP War of 2013. The
strangest aspect of this is that even as Rove denounces conservatism in favor
of his unique brand of watered-down compromise, he appears to be looking to
capitalize on conservatism itself. While he may call his latest super PAC the
“Conservative Victory Project,” Rove most decidedly does not wish for
conservative victory. The aim of his group is to push moderate candidates while
posturing as the savior of the embattled Republican Party.
_________________________________________________________________________
NOTEWORTHY WEBSITES
Startling picture of lightning striking the Vatican - hours
after Pope Benedict XVI´s bolt-from-the-blue resignation.
Musical leaf flute:
_______________________________________________________________________
LATE NITE
Leno: President
Obama wants Congress to increase the minimum wage. Believe me, when it comes to
doing the minimum for their wage, Congress knows what it’s talking about.....
Argus Hamilton……..President Obama allowed his Jobs Council
to expire without renewing its charter despite high unemployment and a
contracting economy. The members never met anyway. The Jobs Council was only
intended to save one job, and now its work is done.
______________________________________________________________________
WISE WORDS
"Any system that penalizes success and accomplishment
is wrong. Any system that discourages work, discourages productivity,
discourages economic progress, is wrong. If, on the other hand, you reduce tax
rates and allow people to spend or save more of what they earn, they'll be more
industrious; they'll have more incentive to work hard, and money they earn will
add fuel to the great economic machine that energizes our national progress. The
result: more prosperity for all -- and more revenue for government. A few
economists call this principle supply-side economics. I just call it common
sense."
-Ronald Reagan
"The arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and
controlled, and assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed, lest Rome fall.”
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home