“Progressive thinking and the rise of the anti-science left.”
From a liberal: “Progressive thinking and the rise of the anti-science left.”
From a liberal: “Progressive thinking and the rise of the anti-science left.”
Tag: freedom
“Progressive thinking and the rise of the anti-science left.”
The federal budget deficit has exceeded one trillion dollars for the fourth year in a row.
The day of reckoning looms: The federal budget deficit has now exceeded one trillion dollars for the fourth year in a row.
The day of reckoning looms: The federal budget deficit has now exceeded one trillion dollars for the fourth year in a row.
Under the Obama administration regulations have increased by 7.4%, totaling 11,327 pages of new rules.
No wonder the economy is stalled: Under the Obama administration regulations have increased by 7.4%, totaling 11,327 pages of new rules.
I should add that these numbers were only slightly better under Bush or Clinton. In general, our federal government has done everything it can for the past two decades to stifle freedom and innovation.
No wonder the economy is stalled: Under the Obama administration regulations have increased by 7.4%, totaling 11,327 pages of new rules.
I should add that these numbers were only slightly better under Bush or Clinton. In general, our federal government has done everything it can for the past two decades to stifle freedom and innovation.
T-shirts being sold at a union event celebrate the future death of Margaret Thatcher.
Leftwing civility: T-shirts being sold at a union event celebrate the future death of Margaret Thatcher.
Leftwing civility: T-shirts being sold at a union event celebrate the future death of Margaret Thatcher.
Under just released language, the federal government required 18 pages of regulations to define the term “full time employee.”
Repeal it! New regulatory language under Obamacare and just released requires 18 pages of regulations just to define the term “full time employee.”
Repeal it! New regulatory language under Obamacare and just released requires 18 pages of regulations just to define the term “full time employee.”
“What the ‘blank’ could possibly go wrong?”
Children are refusing to eat the Obama administration’s lower calorie school lunches.
Losing the youth vote: In a boycott that began in Pennsylvania and has now spread to Minnesota, children are refusing to eat the Obama administration’s lower calorie school lunches.
Starting this year, there are strict limits on calories, sodium and meat portions. Whole milk is off the menu altogether, and kids are required to take a fruit or vegetable. As parents with fussy eaters might guess, some student’s aren’t salivating over those options.
In the halls of Rockford High School, a food fight over some simple things — cookies, condiments and milk — has started taking off after seniors Adam Anderson and Zach Guthrie set up a Facebook group encouraging a brown bag boycott. Bags were prepared in advance, bearing messages like, “Where’s the ranch?” and “We want our cookies.” By Thursday, the school served about 150 fewer lunches than it had the day before, and students promise the movement will only continue to grow even though there may be no resolution.
I think it a travesty that modern parents think the federal government should provide their kids lunch. This is the parent’s responsibility, not the government’s.
Losing the youth vote: In a boycott that began in Pennsylvania and has now spread to Minnesota, children are refusing to eat the Obama administration’s lower calorie school lunches.
Starting this year, there are strict limits on calories, sodium and meat portions. Whole milk is off the menu altogether, and kids are required to take a fruit or vegetable. As parents with fussy eaters might guess, some student’s aren’t salivating over those options.
In the halls of Rockford High School, a food fight over some simple things — cookies, condiments and milk — has started taking off after seniors Adam Anderson and Zach Guthrie set up a Facebook group encouraging a brown bag boycott. Bags were prepared in advance, bearing messages like, “Where’s the ranch?” and “We want our cookies.” By Thursday, the school served about 150 fewer lunches than it had the day before, and students promise the movement will only continue to grow even though there may be no resolution.
I think it a travesty that modern parents think the federal government should provide their kids lunch. This is the parent’s responsibility, not the government’s.
A reporter asks delegates if we should ban profits.
More reality from the Democratic convention: A reporter asks delegates if we should ban profits.
It is hilarious and frightening in the same breath. Video below the fold.
» Read more
More reality from the Democratic convention: A reporter asks delegates if we should ban profits.
It is hilarious and frightening in the same breath. Video below the fold.
» Read more
We have a choice
A website, ScienceDebate.org, submitted a wide range of questions to Barack Obama and Mitt Romney about their plans for science and technology, and the answers, shown in a side-by-side comparison, are interesting, though in general they demonstrate the ability of politicians to speak for a long time without saying much.
This ability to blather is especially apparent to their answers to the question 12: “What should America’s space exploration and utilization goals be in the 21st century and what steps should the government take to help achieve them?” Neither candidate adds much to what was said in the Republican and Democratic party platforms, making it obvious that neither really cares or knows that much about this subject.
Overall, however, the answers do reveal the basic and fundamental differences between the two candidates, which can be seen in their answers to the very first question about encouraging innovation:
» Read more
The makers of a documentary critical of the Occupy Wall Street movement have received threats of violence against themselves and their families
Leftwing civility: The makers of a documentary critical of the Occupy Wall Street movement have received threats of violence against themselves and their families in advance of the film’s premiere.
“We’ll be legitimately raping Brandon Darby and Lee Stranahan for the next several days while they are tied up with the movie premier at the RNC,” reads an email from occupyaunmasked2012@gmail.com. The email includes Darby’s and Stranahan’s cell phone numbers.
One tweet reads, “While @Shanahan is in Tampa this week, should Texas rapists be told where to find his wife since he supports the rape of everyone else?”
“My wife is home with our four kids and freaked out,” Stranahan told The Hollywood Reporter. “She’s sick to her stomach.” Stranahan and Darby each said their home addresses have been published online by those who claim sympathy to OWS.
Leftwing civility: The makers of a documentary critical of the Occupy Wall Street movement have received threats of violence against themselves and their families in advance of the film’s premiere.
“We’ll be legitimately raping Brandon Darby and Lee Stranahan for the next several days while they are tied up with the movie premier at the RNC,” reads an email from occupyaunmasked2012@gmail.com. The email includes Darby’s and Stranahan’s cell phone numbers.
One tweet reads, “While @Shanahan is in Tampa this week, should Texas rapists be told where to find his wife since he supports the rape of everyone else?”
“My wife is home with our four kids and freaked out,” Stranahan told The Hollywood Reporter. “She’s sick to her stomach.” Stranahan and Darby each said their home addresses have been published online by those who claim sympathy to OWS.
It’s the ideology, stupid.
It’s easy to forget, but Republicans swept the 2010 midterms not through a sweeping indictment of Obama’s economic stewardship, but by hammering Congressional Democrats over their support of the president’s health care law, the stimulus and Democrats’ pursuit of a cap-and-trade energy policy. Running on a firmly ideological agenda, House Republicans picked up 63 House seats – a larger pickup for Republicans than in any election since 1946.
What’s remarkable is that all the fundamental indicators from that historic moment have hardly changed – and in some ways, have worsened for the president. The 2010 midterm NBC/Wall Street Journal poll showed 32 percent believing the country was headed in the wrong direction; their latest poll shows that “right track” number exactly the same, with even more believing the country was on the wrong track. Obama’s job approval in the October before the midterm was at 47 percent; it’s only inched upwards to 48 percent in the most recent survey. [emphasis mine]
2010 wasn’t a fluke, it was a trend. And running on the “ideology” of fiscal responsibility, a balanced federal budget, and a smaller federal government does not seem to me to be very ideological. Rather, it is simple common sense, which is why it worked in 2010 and will work again in November.
It’s easy to forget, but Republicans swept the 2010 midterms not through a sweeping indictment of Obama’s economic stewardship, but by hammering Congressional Democrats over their support of the president’s health care law, the stimulus and Democrats’ pursuit of a cap-and-trade energy policy. Running on a firmly ideological agenda, House Republicans picked up 63 House seats – a larger pickup for Republicans than in any election since 1946.
What’s remarkable is that all the fundamental indicators from that historic moment have hardly changed – and in some ways, have worsened for the president. The 2010 midterm NBC/Wall Street Journal poll showed 32 percent believing the country was headed in the wrong direction; their latest poll shows that “right track” number exactly the same, with even more believing the country was on the wrong track. Obama’s job approval in the October before the midterm was at 47 percent; it’s only inched upwards to 48 percent in the most recent survey. [emphasis mine]
2010 wasn’t a fluke, it was a trend. And running on the “ideology” of fiscal responsibility, a balanced federal budget, and a smaller federal government does not seem to me to be very ideological. Rather, it is simple common sense, which is why it worked in 2010 and will work again in November.
The first five minutes in Marine boot camp.
An evening pause: A taste of what every man and woman in the military has experienced and lived through.
But only a taste.
The ex-Marine, arrested and placed in a psychiatric ward because government officials didn’t like his Facebook postings, has announced he is suing the officials involved.
Go for it: Brandon Raub, the ex-Marine who was arrested and placed in a psychiatric ward because government officials didn’t like his Facebook postings, has announced he is suing the officials involved.
Go for it: Brandon Raub, the ex-Marine who was arrested and placed in a psychiatric ward because government officials didn’t like his Facebook postings, has announced he is suing the officials involved.
Two more evangelical colleges have joined the lawsuit against the Obama administrations’ contraceptive drug mandate under Obamacare.
We’ve only just begun: Two more evangelical colleges have joined the lawsuit against the Obama administrations’ contraceptive drug mandate under Obamacare.
We’ve only just begun: Two more evangelical colleges have joined the lawsuit against the Obama administrations’ contraceptive drug mandate under Obamacare.
An aide to Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren threatened and pushed a reporter this weekend, knocking his video camera to the ground.
Leftwing civility: An aide to Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren threatened and pushed a reporter this weekend, knocking his video camera to the ground.
I like the aide’s comment at the end of the video: “You’re messing with the wrong people.” Video below the fold.
» Read more
Leftwing civility: An aide to Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren threatened and pushed a reporter this weekend, knocking his video camera to the ground.
I like the aide’s comment at the end of the video: “You’re messing with the wrong people.” Video below the fold.
» Read more
More than 2,200 hospitals face penalties under Obamacare for how they decide to treat patients.
Finding out what’s in it: More than 2,200 hospitals face penalties under Obamacare for how they decide to treat patients.
Starting in October, Medicare will reduce reimbursements to hospitals with high 30-day readmission rates — which refers to patients who return within a month — by as much as 1 percent. The maximum penalty increases to 2 percent the following year and 3 percent in 2014. Doctors are concerned the penalty is unfair, since sometimes they have to accept patients more than once in a brief period of time but could be penalized for doing so — even for accepting seniors who are sick.
The penalties are bureaucratic and statistical in nature, and have no relationship to the actual treatment of patients. Thus, they illustrate in one bold sweep the idiocy of Obamacare and why it must be repealed.
Finding out what’s in it: More than 2,200 hospitals face penalties under Obamacare for how they decide to treat patients.
Starting in October, Medicare will reduce reimbursements to hospitals with high 30-day readmission rates — which refers to patients who return within a month — by as much as 1 percent. The maximum penalty increases to 2 percent the following year and 3 percent in 2014. Doctors are concerned the penalty is unfair, since sometimes they have to accept patients more than once in a brief period of time but could be penalized for doing so — even for accepting seniors who are sick.
The penalties are bureaucratic and statistical in nature, and have no relationship to the actual treatment of patients. Thus, they illustrate in one bold sweep the idiocy of Obamacare and why it must be repealed.
A Virginia veteran who was arrested because of writings on Facebook has been ordered released by a judge.
A Virginia veteran who was arrested because of his writings on Facebook has been ordered released by a judge.
CBS 6 News’ Catie Beck said the judge dismissed the case Thursday against Brandon Raub. The judge said the original petition for Raub’s detention contained no facts. In other words, there was no information on why Raub was being held — and the judge deemed this violated his civil liberties. As a result, the judge ruled law enforcement has no grounds to hold Raub.
If I was this Marine, I sue everyone I could find for false arrest and a violation of his First Amendment rights.
A Virginia veteran who was arrested because of his writings on Facebook has been ordered released by a judge.
CBS 6 News’ Catie Beck said the judge dismissed the case Thursday against Brandon Raub. The judge said the original petition for Raub’s detention contained no facts. In other words, there was no information on why Raub was being held — and the judge deemed this violated his civil liberties. As a result, the judge ruled law enforcement has no grounds to hold Raub.
If I was this Marine, I sue everyone I could find for false arrest and a violation of his First Amendment rights.
Hundreds of Homeland Security employees arrested last year.
Does this make you feel safer? Hundreds of Homeland Security employees were arrested last year, for crimes ranging from child porn to aiding the drug cartels in Mexico.
Does this make you feel safer? Hundreds of Homeland Security employees were arrested last year, for crimes ranging from child porn to aiding the drug cartels in Mexico.
A 5-year-old Oklahoma kindergarten student was banned from wearing a University of Michigan t-shirt because it violated a state law banning any apparel that didn’t support the state’s college teams.
Saving the day for freedom: A 5-year-old Oklahoma kindergarten student was banned from wearing a University of Michigan t-shirt because it violated a city ordinance banning any apparel that didn’t support the state’s college teams.
Update: I have corrected the post, as I initially called this a state law, which it is not. Thank you Blair.
Saving the day for freedom: A 5-year-old Oklahoma kindergarten student was banned from wearing a University of Michigan t-shirt because it violated a city ordinance banning any apparel that didn’t support the state’s college teams.
Update: I have corrected the post, as I initially called this a state law, which it is not. Thank you Blair.
Criminal charges have been filed against a German rabbi for performing circumcisions.
Criminal charges have been filed against a German rabbi for performing circumcisions.
A doctor from Hesse filed a criminal complaint against Rabbi David Goldberg, who serves in the community of Hof, in Upper Franconia (northern Bavaria), according to the Juedische Allgemeine weekly newspaper. The chief prosecutor of Hof confirmed that charges had been filed against the rabbi. The charges are based on the controversial decision of a Cologne district court, which ruled in June that circumcisions for religious reasons constitute illegal bodily harm to newborn babies.
The article does not tell us anything about the doctor who filed the complaint. I wonder what that doctor’s motives are.
Criminal charges have been filed against a German rabbi for performing circumcisions.
A doctor from Hesse filed a criminal complaint against Rabbi David Goldberg, who serves in the community of Hof, in Upper Franconia (northern Bavaria), according to the Juedische Allgemeine weekly newspaper. The chief prosecutor of Hof confirmed that charges had been filed against the rabbi. The charges are based on the controversial decision of a Cologne district court, which ruled in June that circumcisions for religious reasons constitute illegal bodily harm to newborn babies.
The article does not tell us anything about the doctor who filed the complaint. I wonder what that doctor’s motives are.
Massachusetts has passed a law that places the state in control of every doctor and everything they do.
Coming soon to a country near you! In order to control the out-of-control costs of RomneyCare, Massachusetts has just passed a law that places the state in control of every doctor and everything they do in the practice of medicine.
It’s worse than you think:
» Read more
Coming soon to a country near you! In order to control the out-of-control costs of RomneyCare, Massachusetts has just passed a law that places the state in control of every doctor and everything they do in the practice of medicine.
It’s worse than you think:
» Read more
The man who invented the first programmable computer.
The man who invented the first programmable computer.
The man who invented the first programmable computer.
This Ohio newspaper editorial about the Presidential race and the choices it offers us might be the most forcefully blunt I have ever read.
This Ohio newspaper editorial about the Presidential race and the choices it offers us might be the most forcefully blunt I have ever read.
Read it and then return. Back yet? Okay, two comments:
» Read more
This Ohio newspaper editorial about the Presidential race and the choices it offers us might be the most forcefully blunt I have ever read.
Read it and then return. Back yet? Okay, two comments:
» Read more
A Philadelphia woman faces a $600 per day fine for feeding hungry children
We’re here to help you: A Philadelphia woman faces a $600 per day fine from her local township for feeding needy children on her private property.
We’re here to help you: A Philadelphia woman faces a $600 per day fine from her local township for feeding needy children on her private property.
The Obamacare Quagmire
Faced with these unappetizing choices [offered by Obamacare], the federal government has chosen to adopt a course of action that I have previously called, in a National Affairs article, “government by waiver.” Quite simply, the federal government has already told key plan operators—more democratic than republican, more labor than business—that they need not meet these requirements. These waivers have already been offered to more than 1,000 employers covering over three million employees. It could well be that the path of least resistance in these cases is to continue a waiver policy to avoid a massive institutional breakdown.
None of this should come as a surprise. The ACA was sold with a set of promises that were not sustainable.
Any law that can be “waived” at the whim of a politician isn’t a law but a ticket to corruption, blackmail, and payoffs. And that the Obama administration has played favorites (labor and Democrats) in who it has given its waivers illustrates this point.
No politician should have this power. Obamacare has got to be repealed.
Faced with these unappetizing choices [offered by Obamacare], the federal government has chosen to adopt a course of action that I have previously called, in a National Affairs article, “government by waiver.” Quite simply, the federal government has already told key plan operators—more democratic than republican, more labor than business—that they need not meet these requirements. These waivers have already been offered to more than 1,000 employers covering over three million employees. It could well be that the path of least resistance in these cases is to continue a waiver policy to avoid a massive institutional breakdown.
None of this should come as a surprise. The ACA was sold with a set of promises that were not sustainable.
Any law that can be “waived” at the whim of a politician isn’t a law but a ticket to corruption, blackmail, and payoffs. And that the Obama administration has played favorites (labor and Democrats) in who it has given its waivers illustrates this point.
No politician should have this power. Obamacare has got to be repealed.
The Wall
An evening pause: Fifty-one years ago today the Soviet Union and East Germany — in the name of ideology and communism — cut Berlin in half, putting a wall between neighbors, friends, and families. The documentary below was made in 1962 and will give you a sense of the evil of that wall, as felt by the people who were oppressed by it.
I think it a reasonable thing to remind ourselves again and again that the use of force in the name of any ideology, no matter how well intentioned, is always wrong.
The boy whose hot dog stand was shut down by a local government ten minutes after it opened is now homeless.
We’re here to help you! The boy whose hot dog stand was shut down by a local government ten minutes after it opened is now homeless.
We’re here to help you! The boy whose hot dog stand was shut down by a local government ten minutes after it opened is now homeless.
“Ignore the political prophets of doom – this is a golden age for the world.”
“Ignore the prophets of doom – this is a golden age for the world.”
Take global poverty, a subject we have heard plenty about from ministers justifying the £9 billion overseas aid budget. Britain has signed up to the so-called Millennium Development Goals, set in 2000 and accompanied by sermons from Gordon Brown about the “arc of the moral universe” bending towards justice. It was the beginning of boom times for the overseas aid industry, despite its woeful track record. The first goal was to halve the proportion of the world’s population living on a dollar a day by 2015 – an undeniably noble aim.
Earlier this year, the World Bank made an astonishing discovery: the target had actually been met in 2008, seven years ahead of schedule. This staggering achievement received no fanfare, perhaps because the miracle had not been created by Western governments but by the economic progress of China and India. Their embrace of capitalism had invited a flow of trade and investment, which was not halted by the crash. Capitalism meant that houses replaced mud huts and vast swathes of the Third World rose from their agrarian knees. British consumers buying cheap shirts in Asda were, in a very real sense, helping to make poverty history. [emphasis mine]
In other words, poor countries became wealthy by embracing freedom, not centralized government rule.
Sadly, the United States still faces economic disaster, and that is because, in the past half century, our culture abandoned its principles of freedom and capitalism and instead put our faith in big government. The result: we now face bankruptcy and economic collapse.
“Ignore the prophets of doom – this is a golden age for the world.”
Take global poverty, a subject we have heard plenty about from ministers justifying the £9 billion overseas aid budget. Britain has signed up to the so-called Millennium Development Goals, set in 2000 and accompanied by sermons from Gordon Brown about the “arc of the moral universe” bending towards justice. It was the beginning of boom times for the overseas aid industry, despite its woeful track record. The first goal was to halve the proportion of the world’s population living on a dollar a day by 2015 – an undeniably noble aim.
Earlier this year, the World Bank made an astonishing discovery: the target had actually been met in 2008, seven years ahead of schedule. This staggering achievement received no fanfare, perhaps because the miracle had not been created by Western governments but by the economic progress of China and India. Their embrace of capitalism had invited a flow of trade and investment, which was not halted by the crash. Capitalism meant that houses replaced mud huts and vast swathes of the Third World rose from their agrarian knees. British consumers buying cheap shirts in Asda were, in a very real sense, helping to make poverty history. [emphasis mine]
In other words, poor countries became wealthy by embracing freedom, not centralized government rule.
Sadly, the United States still faces economic disaster, and that is because, in the past half century, our culture abandoned its principles of freedom and capitalism and instead put our faith in big government. The result: we now face bankruptcy and economic collapse.
After mandating the sale of 15% ethanol gasoline — that can damage engines and lower fuel efficiency — the EPA is now going to require that you buy at least 4 gallons in order to reduce the damage.
How nice of them: After mandating the sale of 15% ethanol gasoline — which can damage engines and lower fuel efficiency — the EPA is now going to require that you buy at least 4 gallons when you fill your tank in order to reduce the damage.
The entire auto industry has made it very clear its opposition to 15% ethanol because that mixture is harmful to vehicle engines. So, does the EPA back off? No, it instead doubles down, increasing its regulatory control in a manner that is complex, unenforceable, and impractical.
And when this new regulation doesn’t work and vehicles begin to fail, don’t expect the EPA to pay for the repair. Instead, I expect we will soon have EPA regulators standing at every gas station, checking to make sure we use the right gasoline in the right amounts, ready to fine or arrest us if we dare to do something different.
How nice of them: After mandating the sale of 15% ethanol gasoline — which can damage engines and lower fuel efficiency — the EPA is now going to require that you buy at least 4 gallons when you fill your tank in order to reduce the damage.
The entire auto industry has made it very clear its opposition to 15% ethanol because that mixture is harmful to vehicle engines. So, does the EPA back off? No, it instead doubles down, increasing its regulatory control in a manner that is complex, unenforceable, and impractical.
And when this new regulation doesn’t work and vehicles begin to fail, don’t expect the EPA to pay for the repair. Instead, I expect we will soon have EPA regulators standing at every gas station, checking to make sure we use the right gasoline in the right amounts, ready to fine or arrest us if we dare to do something different.
Despite a 3x increase in the use of gasoline and diesel fuel since the 1960s, the amount of vehicle-related pollution in the Los Angeles area has declined by 98 percent during that same time.
Good news: Despite a 3x increase in the use of gasoline and diesel fuel since the 1960s, the amount of vehicle-related pollution in the Los Angeles area has declined by 98 percent during that same time.
While many on the left will argue that this proves the validity of government regulation, I only see it as evidence that the initial regulations imposed in the 1970s did their job, and that there is no reason for stricter regulation now, something that the EPA, the Obama administration, and the left continue to demand.
Good news: Despite a 3x increase in the use of gasoline and diesel fuel since the 1960s, the amount of vehicle-related pollution in the Los Angeles area has declined by 98 percent during that same time.
While many on the left will argue that this proves the validity of government regulation, I only see it as evidence that the initial regulations imposed in the 1970s did their job, and that there is no reason for stricter regulation now, something that the EPA, the Obama administration, and the left continue to demand.