Senator Harry Reid (D-Nevada) was confronted in a supermarket on Saturday over his refusal to allow a vote on the repeal of Obamacare.
A monument to Boris Yeltsin was unveiled today in his hometown on the 80th anniversary of his birth.
In this week of memorials to American space tragedies, this event in Russia brings to mind the far more important and significant events, affecting millions of people worldwide, that unfolded in the Soviet Union during the late 1980s and mid-1990s. The communist superpower was collapsing, and there was the real possibility that that collapse could lead to worldwide war and violence.
Yeltsin, far more than any other man, helped shepherd the former Soviet Union out of that chaos, and he did it as a civilized man, with relatively little bloodshed. As he shouted defiantly as he stood on a tank in front of the Russian parliament building on the day of the August coup, “Terror and dictatorship . . . must not be allowed to bring eternal night!”
Unlike many former communist leaders, Yeltsin had the openness of mind to recognize that the state-run centralized command society that he had grown up in and had helped run for years simply did not work. “We have oppressed the human spirit,” he noted sadly during a press conference shortly after the coup. More importantly, he also had the courage to take action on this realization, and force the painful changes that were necessary to save his country.
Yeltsin was no saint, and the Russian transition from dictatorship to freedom was far from perfect. No one even knows if that transition is going to hold, today, twenty years later. Nonetheless, the world should remember Yeltsin for his success, and honor that memory.
More McCarthyism from the left: How a university professor was threatened, then lost his job, because he disagreed with the mayor of Chicago.
Want to know what the academic elite think is or is not politically correct? Make two different Freedom of Information Act requests at the same university for two scientists who just happen to be on opposite sides of the global warming debate and see how the university responds.
Not surprisingly, the university was glad to do whatever it could to hurt the global warming skeptic, while stonewalling any requests for information about the global warming advocate.
An intriguing idea: A Georgia lawmaker proposes doing away with driver’s licenses.
A proposal to bypass the effort of Egypt (or any government) to shut down the internet.
Here’s the right way to respond to the Tucson shootings: Less restrictions on gun use proposed in Arizona.
Big news! A Florida judge today has ruled the entire Obamacare law is unconstitutional. Key quote:
In his ruling, Judge Roger Vinson, a Republican appointee, said that the law’s requirement to carry insurance or pay a fee “is outside Congress’ Commerce Clause power, and it cannot be otherwise authorized by an assertion of power under the Necessary and Proper Clause. It is not constitutional.” The ruling also said that the entire law “must be declared void,” because the mandate to carry insurance is “not severable” from the rest of the law. [emphasis mine]
The Republicans in Congress are considering laws to force internet companies to record user data.
God damn it, that is not what they were sent there to do. We have an out-of-control federal budget issuing out-of-control regulations, and these turkeys want to expand their ability to pry into our private lives?
Hollywood: the land of intolerance.
Repeal it already! Another US judge is expected to rule on Obamacare today. Key quote:
The judge, Roger Vinson of the U.S. District Court in Pensacola, Florida, was expected to rule on a lawsuit brought by governors and attorneys general from 26 U.S. states, almost all of whom are Republicans. Obama is a Democrat. The plaintiffs represent more than half the U.S. states, so the Pensacola case has more prominence than some two dozen lawsuits filed in federal courts over the healthcare law.
Freedom of speech alert: As Egypt goes offline some members of the US Congress are getting their own internet ‘kill switch’ bill ready.
Repeal the damn bill! And even the White House agrees as it quietly exempts its political friends from Obamacare. Key quote:
How can you get your own free pass from Obamacare? Maybe you can just donate $27 million to President Obama‘s campaign efforts. That’s what Andy Stern did as president of SEIU in 2008. He has been the most frequent guest at Mr. Obama‘s White House.
It’s all about power and control: The TSA has announced that it will no longer approve private airport screeners.
Another 2nd amendment battle: A student is suing the University of Idaho for banning firearms from his university-owned apartment.
The triumph of freedom: Protests spread to Egypt and Jordan.
We should recognize that though the overthrow of these Middle East dictatorships is certainly not a bad thing, the regimes that replace them are very likely not going to be much better, and could very well be worse. However, the free flow of information in the Arab world can only be a good thing, and in the long run can only lead to freedom and peace between nations.
Today’s Dilbert strip says it all about the stupidity of the TSA.
The truimph of freedom: The Arab world, shaken by the power of the internet. Key quote:
On Dec. 17, in Sidi Bouzid, deep in the interior, Mohamed Bouazizi set himself aflame in front of a government building, in protest after police confiscated his produce stand. Horrible images of his act circulated lightning-fast on the Internet. Protests followed.
“Thanks to Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook, images of those first protests went around the world instantly, and everyone knew about it,” says Tlili. “Even 20 years ago, you could have had those uprisings in the interior and few would have known.”
Meanwhile, here’s another reason why everyone should be disgusted with the government we presently have: The former state official who illegally searched “Joe the Plumber’s” private records has now gotten another government job, working for the Montgomery County Drug Addiction & Mental Health Services Board in Ohio.
Freedom wins! A man who was arrested for refusing to give his ID to TSA agents and videotaping his arrest has been acquitted of all charges. You can watch the videotape at the link. Also, more here.
Repeal the damn bill! The number of companies who have received waivers from ObamaCare has jumped from 222 to 729, and now exempts over two million employees.
If the bill was so great, why are more and more companies trying to get out of participating?
More government foolishness: A New York city lawmaker wants to ban the use of cell phones or any electronic devices while walking on the street.
Liberal “civility” towards conservative women.
The difficulties of doing business in the socialist state of Berkeley. Key quote:
When a planner working in design review looked at Dalrymple’s plans, she told her she didn’t think a black and white awning would fit in with the neighborhood, said Dalrymple. The planner didn’t give her any specific recommendations for a different color, but just nixed her idea. . . . “Rules aren’t written down anywhere,” said [Dan Marks, director of the Planning and Development Department]. “But the planner has worked in the neighborhood a long time and she knows what the neighborhood likes.” [emphasis mine]
Ronald Reagan inspired Mongolia’s president to seek democracy and freedom for his own nation. Key quote:
As Mongolia’s democratically elected president, Elbegdorj has hung a portrait of Reagan and his frequent ally, former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, on the wall of his office in Ulaanbaatar, also known as Ulaanbaatar.
Behind the curtain, a dictator: Congressman John Lewis (D-Georgia) said yesterday that he not only thinks that Congress has the power to make people buy insurance according to the Constitution, it is his obligation to force them to do so. In his own words:
“I think people should be required to get health insurance. We require people to get insurance for their automobile state by state but the federal government has an obligation to encourage by law, moral persuasion, to get people to get health insurance,”
Climate scientists admit that a climate change study which claimed the Earth would warm by more than 4 degrees Fahrenheit in about a decade had “significant errors”. Key quote:
Scientist Scott Mandia forwarded to AFP an email he said he sent to Hisas ahead of publication explaining why her figures did not add up, and noting that it would take “quite a few decades” to reach a warming level of 2.4 degrees Celsius. “Even if we assume the higher end of the current warming rate, we should only be 0.2C warmer by 2020 than today,” Mandia wrote. “To get to +2.4C the current trend would have to immediately increase almost ten-fold.”
Progress! By a vote of 245-189, with three Democrats joining all 242 Republicans, ObamaCare has been repealed in the House.
