Tag: government

Destroying polio: only three nations left to go.

1:02 pm

Destroying polio: only three nations left to go.

It is revealing that the only three nations where polio still survives — Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan — happen to be poor, corrupt, and heavily dominated or influenced by Islam. Moreover, the article notes that India just celebrated its first full year free from polio, even though it had been thought that the country would be a difficult challenge given its high population density and what the article calls “poor hygiene.” We shouldn’t be surprised, however. Since India abandoned socialism in the early 1990s and embraced capitalism and freedom, the country has thrived. And with increased wealth comes better education and better living conditions, both of which will aid in getting the population to cooperate in this effort.

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Four Princeton physicists received over $1.5 million in lodging subsidies from the Department of Energy while on “temporary” assignment to other labs, even after living at that assigment for as much as 14 years.

12:00 pm

The work is good if you can get it: Four Princeton physicists received over $1.5 million in lodging subsidies from the Department of Energy while on “temporary” assignment to other labs, even after living at that assignment for as much as 14 years.

The above story, from Science, takes a more sympathic view of this misuse of government funds. The Washington Post is more blunt:

Four high-ranking federal lab workers found a way to turn “per diem” funds for a temporary assignment into a steady flow of extra income — at taxpayers’ expense. The overpayments, discovered in an inspector general’s audit, boosted the annual pay of some of the employees by as much as $64,000.

The Department of Energy paid the four scientists roughly $1.8 million for daily lodging and “inconvenience” during assignments away from home. But these scientists were paid as if they were on temporary duty for up to 14 years — long after most had permanently relocated to job sites.

The problem with this story is that it isn’t an exception but the rule. Right now the wolves are guarding the chicken house, and they are raiding it routinely for as much cash as they can get. Consider for example last week’s story about the NIH study that has spent a billion dollars without even getting off the ground.

You give someone the equivalent of a blank check, and they will make no effort to do things efficiently, or even to do what you hired them for.

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Forty-three Catholic institutions today filed suit over the Obamacare mandate requiring them to pay for contraceptives.

9:12 am

We’ve only just begun: Forty-three Catholic institutions today filed suit over the Obamacare mandate requiring them to pay for contraceptives.

As stated in the complaint filed by the University of Notre Dame:

This lawsuit is about one of America’s most cherished freedoms: the freedom to practice one’s religion without government interference. It is not about whether people have a right to abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization, and contraception. Those services are, and will continue to be, freely available in the United States, and nothing prevents the Government itself from making them more widely available. But the right to such services does not authorize the Government to force the University of Notre Dame (“Notre Dame”) to violate its own conscience by making it provide, pay for, and/or facilitate those services to others, contrary to its sincerely held religious beliefs.

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The federal judges in the Ninth Circuit plan to hold a conference in Hawaii this August that could cost $1 million or more, and will include a golf tournament, a tennis tournament, an ice cream social, a garden tour, sport fishing, yoga, surfing lessons, and Zumba dancing lessons.

9:02 am

Our federal government at work: The federal judges in the Ninth Circuit plan to hold a conference in Hawaii this August that could cost $1 million or more, and will include a golf tournament, a tennis tournament, an ice cream social, a garden tour, sport fishing, yoga, surfing lessons, and Zumba dancing lessons.

Though many of these recreational events are supposingly not being paid for by government funds, there is something rotten here, without doubt. I’ve been to too many of these kinds of conferences as a journalist, and saw millions wasted for the entertainment of government employees. And in this case, the government is getting them to Hawaii.

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Only 65% of the political class and only 61% of Democrats are aware that federal spending has gone up in the past ten years.

1:58 pm

Pitiful: Only 65% of the political class and only 61% of Democrats are aware that federal spending has gone up in the past ten years.

Interestingly, 85% of the general public knows this basic fact, which might explain why the intellectual elites of our country — from both parties — are continually being blindsided by the rise of the tea party movement and its continued success in elections.

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California officials have confisicated two stuffed animals from a local bar, after being on display for about a half century.

5:01 pm

Theft by government: California officials have confiscated two stuffed animals from a local bar, after having been on display for about a half century.

Both animals, while now endangered, were not endangered when they were killed, stuffed, and placed in the bar. Their existence is completely irrelevant to saving either species. For the government to confiscate them is nothing more than a expression of naked power. Worse, if there was no payment for them it is illegal. The Bill of Rights has this clause that says government cannot take a citizen’s property without just compensation.

As I said, theft by government.

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The Democrats and the President publicly target a private citizen, merely for supporting Romney.

9:07 am

Building that enemies list: The Democrats and the President publicly target private citizens, merely for supporting Romney.

Three weeks ago, an Obama campaign website, “Keeping GOP Honest,” took the extraordinary step of publicly naming and assailing eight private citizens backing Mr. Romney. Titled “Behind the curtain: a brief history of Romney’s donors,” the post accused the eight of being “wealthy individuals with less-than-reputable records.”

One of those eight, CEO Frank VanderSloot of Melaleuca Inc., was described by the Obama campaign

as being “litigious, combative and a bitter foe of the gay rights movement.” About a week after that post, a man named Michael Wolf contacted the Bonneville County Courthouse in Idaho Falls in search of court records regarding Mr. VanderSloot. Specifically, Mr. Wolf wanted all the documents dealing with Mr. VanderSloot’s divorces, as well as a case involving a dispute with a former Melaleuca employee.

And it appears that Michael Wolf has ties to the Democratic Party and the Obama campaign.

Ah, civility! (as defined by Obama and the left.)

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Muslims are exempt from Obamacare’s insurance mandate.

8:30 am

Finding out what’s in it: Muslims are exempt from Obamacare’s insurance mandate.

ObamaCare uses the Social Security language of the Internal Revenue Code to determine who is eligible for “religious conscience” objection to the insurance mandate. Specifically, the law provides exemptions for adherents of “recognized religious sects” that are “conscientiously opposed” to accepting benefits from any insurance, public or private.

As a consequence of this provision, Muslims may claim a religious exemption that is denied Christians and Jews. Since Islam believes insurance is haraam (forbidden) and likens insurance to gambling, the religion is excluded from requirements, mandates, or penalties set forth in the bill. Others who fall into this category are the Amish, American Indians, and Christian Scientists. Although the U.S. Constitution grants all Americans equal protection of the law, some Americans are more equal than others.

Not only must this catastrophe of a law be repealed, we voters have got to remove as many as possible of the incompetent elected officials who wrote and voted for it.

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