Signs that the Apocalypse is Upon Us

The Statesman Journal has endorsed Romney, The Oregonian declined to endorse anybody, and polling shows Romney within 5 points in Oregon. Oregon! I'm going outside to watch from the deck and see if the sky is opening up. 

Grilled or Fried?

I am not making this up. PETA wants Irvine, California to erect a highway memorial to hundreds of sea bass that were killed when the truck that they were riding to market crashed, spilling the poor unfortunate piscine citizens of the sea on to the roadway. After all, they are our brothers and sisters. Grilled with butter and lemon please.

www.ocregister.com/news/sign-376051-fish-letter.html

Save the Fish!

Taking fish oil for omega-3 fatty acids like I am? The AMA says based on a new large-scale study - don't bother. The new study throws cold water on the idea that taking these supplements does anything for you. Oh well, easy come; easy go. Now maybe the cod can live in peace.

health.lifegoesstrong.com/article/fish-oil-pills-dont-help-heart-health-study-says

Hope Denied

A new revelation on Libya - an AC-130 gunship was on station in Benghazi. Now it makes perfect sense that one of the CIA guys on the ground had a laser on the mortar crew that was targeting the CIA annex. He knew the aircraft was there and could probably even hear it circling overhead. Who said "stand down" and why?

www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2012/10/27/U-S-Had-Two-Drones-AC-130-Gunship-and-Targets-Painted-In-Benghazi-But-Obama-Didn-t-Pull-The-Trigger

They Left Our Guys to Die

I hope that the American people are paying attention, but I fear they are not, aided and abetted by the former mainstream media (FMSM) who are doing their best to bury this story.

Jennifer Griffin from Fox News/Washington Post broke the Libya story wide open yesterday with sources who were on the ground during the 7 HOUR attack. We learned that the secret CIA station a mile from the American Consulate heard the shooting and immediately sent a flash traffic message to headquarters and were then told twice to "stand down." We know that the two former Navy SEALS who were killed disobeyed these orders and went to the Consulate to help where they fought the attackers and successfully evacuated 30 people to the CIA facility. We know that the bad guys followed and they fought an extended battle for 5 hours or so, calling for military support multiple times, specifically AC-130 gunships. They were denied multiple times, even though we had these gunships 480 miles away on Sicily on standby. 

The Obama Administration let our guys die. They could have saved at least some of them by ordering our assets into the air and sorting things out in the 1-2 hours it would have taken them to arrive. Apparently this did not fit their campaign narrative that the bad guys were in retreat and was therefore very politically inconvenient. They would cover it later with references to videos as the cause or some other lame story. 

These leaks will continue and expand as to what actually happened. You are witnessing a full-blown mutiny from the military and the intelligence community at Obama's handling of this tragic affair. Essentially they are saying that if you think you can send us in harm's way and abandon us when things go in the tank; think again. 

Yesterday, a local TV reporter in Denver directly asked the President the question that the FMSM have refused to ask - did you ignore the cries for help from our people in Benghazi? The President said that this wasn't what this election was about and changed the subject. No Mr. President - this is what this election is all about. This is a shameful episode the likes of which I cannot remember in my lifetime. Americans do not abandon Americans. Never!

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2012/10/26/report_us_officials_denied_three_requests_for_reinforcements_during_benghazi_attack

All Hail Apple!

Here's a good one. A Canadian anthropologist says that Apple is now a religion complete with a messianic figure, sacred texts, and rituals. Who knew? I think it's a little over the top, but certainly gets the anthropologist recognition in and beyond her field. Well, excuse me - I have to go light the incense around my MacBook.

www.zdnet.com/anthropologist-confirms-apple-is-a-religion-7000006377/?s_cid=e589

Day Late and a Dollar Short

This is probably the "smoking gun" in the whole Libya mess. If there was a drone overhead in Benghazi, and I suspect there was, then Washington had real-time coverage of the attack. This report says that it took 7 hours for the attack to finish, more than enough time to send in the commando team. The key question is why wasn't it done? I suspect that the answer will wreck two political careers - Obama's and Hillary's. I just hope that the truth comes out before the election. N.B. - Bill Clinton hasn't said bupkis about this, which may well speak just as loudly as his normal overwhelming volume.

www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57539738/u.s-military-poised-for-rescue-in-benghazi/?tag=AverageHero;leadHed

Navy Cutbacks - Part Deux

As a follow-up to my earlier post, here is a story that goes into more depth on just what the Obama Administration is forcing the Navy to decommission. The ships include the nuclear aircraft carrier USS Enterprise and 6 Ticonderoga-class cruisers. All of them still have years left on their useful service lives. All are important to U.S. force projection. The Big E is one of those "ships that can land planes on their decks" that Obama was sneering about to Romney. The cruisers direct fleet air and submarine defense and can track 1000 targets in a radius of 250+ miles. Without them the vulnerability of our carriers goes up geometrically, as does the inability of this nation to deal with threats wherever they arise. We are not going to have the time to ramp up ships if things go in the dumper. I am all for walking softly, but I darn sure want to carry the biggest stick possible. This must stop.

www.nationalreview.com/articles/331448/obama-s-unready-navy-harold-hutchison

A Well Deserved Nobel Prize

Dr. Shinya Yamanaka just won the Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology for his pioneering work in stem cell research. He discovered a way to take adult skin cells and genetically alter them so they were identical to embryonic stem cells. It is his motivation that is moving. He was looking at human embryos at a friend's lab and realized that there was little difference between them and his own daughters. This inspired his research to find an adult stem cell source that could take the place of embryonic stem cells in scientific research. Adult stem cells are easily obtainable and his work has made the whole battle over destroying embryos for this purpose completely moot. Thank you Lord and thank you Dr. Yamanaka.

www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/20593

The Fleet of 1917

In the last Presidential debate, Mitt Romney was justifiably concerned that the U.S. Navy in the next few years will have the fewest number of ships in its fleet since 1917. This drew a snarky response from President Obama that Mitt hadn't kept up on things like planes landing on the deck of ships and vessels that go underwater. Snark all you want, but our attack carriers have been cut back already and if you don't have enough well-equipped destroyers to screen them, then the "vessels that can submerge" will sink the carriers at will. There are some other facts that people should know about why we need a sizeable and modern Navy.

Did you know that much of the world's internet traffic funnels through a couple of ocean choke points? Much of the world's oil and trade do likewise. Since these are all at sea, it takes a robust Navy to keep them open in the face of an unfriendly nation intent on doing the U.S. - or much of the rest of the world - harm. It's too bad Mitt didn't throw this right back in Obama's face and outline the strategic reasons a weak Navy endangers the U.S. I am quite sure that Obama would not have been prepared to participate in such a discussion. Somebody needs to, and soon.

townhall.com/columnists/austinbay/2012/10/24/barack_and_mitt_the_war_for_the_us_navy_has_just_begun

Debate: I Did Not Apologize to That Man

Corporate Fat Cats and Government Treats

This is a thought-provoking thesis by Dennis Prager that is in large part true: big business isn't conservative. Obviously, this runs counter to President Obama's pronouncements about Big Business, but if you look at what he does, as opposed to what he says, you know Prager is right. Specifically, the Obama Administration rewards those companies that play ball and punishes those companies that do not. Most companies play ball because they want the government treats. The result is a bland corporate political correctness, risk averseness, mediocre products, and gazillion dollar executive salaries. Prager gives an interesting example.

Jeff Flake is the Republican nominee for a U.S. Senate seat in Arizona. He was asked to come to a meeting of two big Arizona corporate types, a real estate developer from Phoenix and Jerry Colangelo who owns the Phoenix Suns. They asked him if he was going to be an Arizona Senator or a U.S. Senator. Translation: they want a new highway built from Phoenix to Las Vegas that goes through their property so that they can build a luxury destination hotel/vacation home development. Will you play ball? Flake answered that we need to deal with the $16 trillion national deficit. As Prager dryly commented: right answer; wrong audience. 

It is no accident that the vast majority of jobs and much of the innovation comes from small and medium sized businesses. They are hungry and always looking for the next new breakthrough to get ahead. Big Business instead looks to Big Government for handouts and protection from having to compete in such a déclassé'  way. Thus, you should not be surprised when you see leaders of large American companies leading the cheering for Obama. Think bad for the country, but good for GM.

townhall.com/columnists/dennisprager/2012/10/23/big_business_is_not_conservative

Joe Didn't Get It Quite Right

It was an odd moment during the VP debate when Joe Biden was laughing as Paul Ryan was talking about Iran getting nuclear weapons. He then went on to say in his best know-it-all Eddie Haskell voice that even if Iran manufactured enough fissile material, they had nothing to deliver it with so DON'T WORRY; BE HAPPY. Well, as is usually the case with Joe, there really is something to worry about after all, as set out below. Please note the letter writer 's credentials at the end of his letter.

"Regarding your editorial "Biden's Intelligence" (Oct. 13): I'm writing to clear up the nuclear misinformation spouted by Vice President Joe Biden which was not rebutted during the Oct. 11 debate. Iran's nuclear program is going critical.

Mr. Biden said, in effect: Don't worry. Even if Iran gets fissile material, it needs something to put it in.

But the facts are quite different. Once any nuclear wannabe gets 160 pounds of uranium enriched to 80% U-235 (the enrichment level of the Hiroshima bomb and of South Africa's Melba) he has a weapon. "Little Boy," the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, did not need to be tested; we knew it would work. The design is now in the open literature: It is 1940s technology, easy to build.

Iran's first nuke will not be fired at a target, any more than was India's, Pakistan's or North Korea's. A confirmed Iranian nuclear detonation within a mountain or in the desert will let the world know the game has changed.

The Hiroshima design can be carried by air, of course. Even easier, it can be delivered by boat, truck or train."

Thomas C. Reed

Healdsburg, Calif.

Mr. Reed, a former secretary of the Air Force, designed thermonuclear devices while at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444734804578063090369915764.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADSecond

October Surprise?

Maybe. Dick Morris and some off-the-record intelligence sources say that Obama is going to unveil a deal with Iran, perhaps as early as tomorrow night's Presidential debate. The rough outlines of the deal are that Iran temporarily (November 7?) put the brakes on its uranium enrichment program and the U.S. in turn pulls way back on the economic sanctions in place against the mullahs and recognizes Iran's right to pursue a "peaceful" nuclear program. Right. What could possibly go wrong?

Good Samaritan

One of the rules of boating that one learns early on is that if another mariner is in trouble you go and lend assistance. A heartening example of this occurred off Australia last week when an Air Canada flight inbound for Australia was asked by ATC to divert and search for a sail boat that was squawking an emergency distress code. Air Canada diverted and dropped to 6000' looking for the mariner in trouble and found him. Once they had a position fix transmitted on him, they continued the flight to Sydney arriving 90 minutes late. The sailor was later rescued by the Australian military. Nice job Air Canada! Nice story amongst all the nastiness in the world.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-19970274

No Photo Voter ID? Think Again.

Happy Days Are Here ... Wait...What?

Do you remember the cheers last week over the unemployment numbers and jobless claims being down? Sing with me - Happy Days are here again! Well, it was a mite premature.

Come to find out all the hoorah was due to California "forgetting" to process and report all of its new unemployment claims. The Golden State folks have now done so and claims are up, up and away to a 4-month high. This is matched by Oregon's own unemployment staying even at 8.4%.

Hold the balloons, hold the confetti, it's still grim in River City. And I haven't heard one new thing in 3 debates that Obama/Biden plan to do about it. It's time for a change alright.

www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2012/10/18/Media-Suddenly-Muted-on-Jobless-Claims

Hide and Seek

On the radio today it was reported that the Special Ops forces that were on the move  two weeks ago (see my post 10/2/12) have now arrived off Libya. Drones are patrolling Libya's skies looking for bad guys and if any can be found, we will erase them. Ahem, are there any bad guys around?  I say, if any can be found we will erase them. Heckuva way to run a search and destroy mission.

Correcting the Record

A common statistic that has been making the rounds for some time is that Christians get divorced at or above the overall national rate. I have used this statistic myself in talks to Christian group. As it turns out, however, it's not true. 

In a recent Breakpoint commentary John Stonestreet reported that:

"As Bradford Wilcox, a leading sociologist at the University of Virginia and Director of the National Marriage Project found in 2007, active, conservative members of both Protestant and Catholic churches are significantly less likely to divorce—by 35 and 31 percent, respectively—than Americans who are religiously unaffiliated.

The numbers often get skewed, says Stanton, because most studies fail to take into account the level of religious commitment and practice among those who identify themselves as Christians. Those who claim to be Christian but rarely darken the door of a church divorce at a rate 20% higher than secular Americans.

So contrary to popular wisdom, most of those who take seriously God’s pronouncement, “I hate divorce,” in Malachi 2:16 really do seem to—well—hate divorce. "

And that's a good thing. I appreciate the correction.
www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/20460

Biden's Debate Strategy

Firsthand Reporting

Some journalists like CBS's Lara Logan get it right. She said in a recent speech that stories coming out of the Obama Administration about a kinder and gentler Taliban are just that - stories. She went on to say that:

"... if we don't exact justice on those who killed Ambassador Stevens, we will have finally sent the signal that the U.S. can be "attacked on its own soil" and there will be no ramifications."

www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2012/10/08/CBS-Lara-Logan-Claim-That-American-Military-Has-Tamed-Taliban-Is-A-Lie

Logan should know. She was brutalized sexually in Cairo in February while reporting on the "kinder and gentler" thugs who were "celebrating" in Cairo's streets during Arab Spring. 

www.nypost.com/p/news/international/hunt_for_cairo_maniacs_VEeDflrbOX6uZBtKNXlpOI

Oh the Pathos!

It is generally conceded that President Obama did a resounding bellyflop off the high board with all the girls watching at the debate last week. I thoroughly enjoyed watching the professional leftists at MSNBC melt down afterwards, If you haven't seen the Saturday Night Live send-up of this, it is a serious hoot. But what of the run-of-the-mill journalists and others for whom the thrill is gone? Like Mark Morford. Here is a piece that he wrote in June 2008: 

"Dismiss it all you like, but I've heard from far too many enormously smart, wise, spiritually attuned people who've been intuitively blown away by Obama's presence--not speeches, not policies, but sheer presence--to say it's just a clever marketing ploy, a slick gambit carefully orchestrated by hotshot campaign organizers who, once Obama gets into office, will suddenly turn from perky optimists to vile soul-sucking lobbyist whores, with Obama as their suddenly evil, cackling overlord.

Here's where it gets gooey. Many spiritually advanced people I know (not coweringly religious, mind you, but deeply spiritual) identify Obama as a Lightworker, that rare kind of attuned being who has the ability to lead us not merely to new foreign policies or health care plans or whatnot, but who can actually help usher in a new way of being on the planet, of relating and connecting and engaging with this bizarre earthly experiment. These kinds of people actually help usevolve. They are philosophers and peacemakers of a very high order, and they speak not just to reason or emotion, but to the soul."

online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443982904578046711790216092.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_MIDDLETopOpinion

Poor guy - why so downcast oh my soul?! When you put someone on a pedestal, the fall can be traumatic.

Joe Prepping for VP Debate

We Don't Want to Offend

Both Romney and Ryan have a target-rich environment in the upcoming debates with Messrs. Obama and Biden. Here is one that needs to be addressed and should infuriate all Americans:

"The former head of a Special Forces "Site Security Team" in Libya tells CBS News that in spite of multiple pleas from himself and other U.S. security officials on the ground for "more, not less" security personnel, the State Department removed as many as 34 people from the country in the six months before a terrorist attack in Benghazi that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others. Lt. Col. Andy Wood will appear this week at a House Oversight Committee hearing that will examine security decisions leading up to the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the U.S. compound in Benghazi. Speaking to CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson, Wood said when he found out that his own 16-member team and a six-member State Department elite force were being pulled from Tripoli in August - about a month before the assault in Benghazi - he felt, "like we were being asked to play the piano with two fingers. There was concern amongst the entire embassy staff."

Ambassador Stevens won't have to worry any more.

townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2012/10/08/bombshell_us_security_team_removed_from_benghazi_prior_to_attack_over_stevens_objections

First Few Notes?

As absentee voting gets under way in several states, the University of Colorado professors that I posted about on August 24 have upped their model's prediction of a Romney/Ryan victory to 330 electoral votes vs. 208 for Obama/Biden. They haven't been wrong since their first prediction in 1980. I hope they don't start now.

news.yahoo.com/university-colorado-professors-continue-predict-romney-win-165000060.html

China Contributing to Obama Campaign?

Obama.com is not owned by the Obama campaign, but by a big fund raiser who lives in Shanghai and has ties to state-owned banks. A big report being released today apparently will implicate this site as a delivery vehicle for Chinese government cash to the Obama campaign. Stay tuned.

www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/10/08/Obama-com-Owned-by-Bundler-in-China-with-Business-Ties-to-Chinese-Government

Cooking the Unemployment Numbers

Jack Welch, the retired CEO of GE, and CNBC are jumping on the just released unemployment numbers because they're smelling something not quite right. To start with, it's the biggest drop in unemployment in 29 years. Why this is tough to swallow is because:

"What this .03% drop means (per Ed Morrissey) is that the number of unemployed people dropped by 456,000 when only 114k jobs were created--well below the monthly average, and below population growth. Where did 342k people go to lower the number so dramatically just 31 days before a presidential election? Did they retire, leave the planet, die of old age in the unemployment office?"

Good point. I'm sure this Administration, though, would not play craven political games with the election 30 days away. Surely not.

www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/10/05/Fuzz-Math-CNBC-questions-unemployment-drop

Really?

"Al Gore Blames Obama's Poor Debate Performance on High Altitude"--headline, Twitchy.com, Oct. 4

Does that mean the President was high?

Reasons to Vote for Romney/Ryan

• They believe that America has always been an exceptional country and we should not voluntarily relinquish that heritage. 
• They believe there is a debt crisis.
• They believe the Feds spend way too much.
• They believe that a President should submit a budget that deals with both of the above.
• They believe that Social Security and Medicare are going broke and we had better fix them before there is nothing left for anybody.
• They believe that the world is not a nice place and that we need a strong military to protect America.
• They believe that Israel is our best ally in the Middle East. 
• They believe that while a safety net should be there for people who need it, if you can work, you should before receiving public benefits. 
• They believe that religious freedom is a core American value.
• They believe that we must secure our borders.
• They believe it's time to roll up our sleeves and get to work putting America back to work.

What more do you need?

Somebody is About to Have a Bad Day

Perhaps it is just a training exercise, but odds are it means business is about to be done. An unusually large number of special ops troops and aircraft are moving east from the U.S. to places unknown. The article speculates that a payback in Libya is their target. Maybe. I'm thinking maybe the Israelis weren't kidding and the balloon in Iraq is about to go up. Time will tell - perhaps.

www.wnd.com/2012/10/whats-up-special-ops-on-move/?cat_orig=world

We got Gas

And the Russians are worried. Good. Russia has been selling natural gas to the Europeans at $10/unit while we are now selling it at $3/unit. Not surprisingly Europe is shopping at the U.S. store for gas supplies for the coming winter and the Russkies are worried. Since this could not only significantly reduce their income, but their political influence as well, and that is a very good thing for the U.S.

www.kgw.com/news/business/171994961.html

Homecoming Queen

I would like to introduce you to Lisa Harder. She was just elected homecoming queen at West Salem High School and she is dying from osteosarcoma. Her king, Tyler Prosser, is also probably terminal from the same disease. We have prayed for her as a church for 5 years from the time she was first stricken as an 8th grader. She has kept the faith throughout this ordeal. I salute her classmates for honoring her with the homecoming crown. The crown she is about to receive is even better. Well done Lisa!

www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20121001/NEWS/310010023/Touched-by-fate-Cluster-bone-cancer-cases-among-West-Salem-children-raises-concerns?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Home