As 2014 Recedes in the Rearview Mirror

Cal Thomas writes an insightful article about the rise and fall of empires citing the late British diplomat Sir John Glubb and his book called The Fate of Empires and Search For Survival. Thomas writes:

"Glubb noted the average age of empires since the time of ancient Assyria (859-612 B.C.) is 250 years. Only the Mameluke Empire in Egypt and the Levant (1250-1517) made it as far as 267 years. America is 238 years old and is exhibiting signs of decline." 

He continues,
" 'All empires begin,' writes Glubb,' with the age of pioneers, followed by ages of conquest, commerce, affluence, intellect and decadence.' America appears to have reached the age of decadence, which Glubb defines as marked by 'defensiveness, pessimism, materialism, frivolity, an influx of foreigners, the welfare state, (and) a weakening of religion.' "

Decadence, he writes, "... is due to: Too long a period of wealth and power, selfishness, love of money (and) the loss of a sense of duty."

The final straw: "Glubb says the 250-year average of empires has not varied in 3,000 years." 

Well, that's not a very cheery message to look forward to in 2015! I hope it is not as inevitable as Glubb and Thomas seem to believe - God is still in charge and nothing is impossible for Him. Regardless, our job is to be faithful - not successful, and if we listen and follow Him in 2015, good things will happen. If that means manning lifeboats and picking up survivors while the Ship of State sinks, then so be it. Happy New Year anyhow!

townhall.com/columnists/calthomas/2014/12/30/america-interrupted-n1936742/page/2

Merry Christmas from West Jet!

WestJet Airlines from Canada has made a lot of people happy at Christmas the last several years with novel gift giving. 2014 was no exception with a trip to a little village in the Dominican Republic that made a lot of kids - and adults - very happy. Way to go WestJet! I like your spirit!

Merry Christmas!

Overcome Evil with Good

A shoplifter in Alabama, caught stealing 5 eggs because she was trying to feed her 2 kids and assorted nieces and grandchildren who hadn't eaten in 2 days, gets a big surprise when the police show up. It's a nice story about what's right with people and America.  

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Romans 12:21
www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/12/26595?spMailingID=10234854&spUserID=MTMyMjUyNjY4OAS2&spJobID=441920324&spReportId=NDQxOTIwMzI0S0

Yankees Foundation Sending Murdered NY Cops' Children to College

A foundation started by the late George Steinbrenner, owner of the NY Yankees, will cover the college costs of the children of the two NY policemen murdered over the weekend. Salud George!

www.sportingnews.com/mlb/story/2014-12-21/yankees-pay-for-education-nypd--police-officers-murder-rafael-ramos-wenjian-liu-brooklyn-silver-shield-foundation

The Intellectual Acuity of Earthworms

Campus Reform, as its name implies, is focused on bringing change to the anti-American and anti-intellectual atmosphere on American college campuses. Recently it conducted a faux poll at George Washington University in D.C. to see if they could come up with a position on immigration that even uber progressive students would choke on. They were unsuccessful. 

CR "petitioners" asked students to sign a faux "petition" to President Obama to deport one native American while importing one illegal alien, explaining thusly:

"Everyone must be allowed a shot at the ‘American Dream.’ Americans should not be greedy. Let us right the wrongs of our past and make another’s dreams come true."

No brainer, right? Right. The petition was happily signed by 2/3 of the GWU students that were approached. Sigh. 

Perhaps these students would volunteer to be the first to go. With their demonstrated lack

of intellectual ability they are not going to be of much use in this country.  One wonders why their parents are paying a bazillion dollars for their "education" at GWU. 

townhall.com/tipsheet/sarahjeanseman/2014/12/19/unbelievable-students-support-deporting-americans-to-make-room-for-illegal-immigrants-n1934123

Et Tu, Paramount?

Paramount reportedly has ordered a theater in Texas not to show its movie from a few years ago, Team America, which also trashes the Norks.  The spineless shall rule the movie industry! I can hardly wait for the next movie showing the evil and sadistic Tea Party boss as the uber-villain!

www.breitbart.com/texas/2014/12/18/paramount-orders-texas-theater-not-to-show-team-america/

The Proper Position When Confronted by Evil

A purported journalist from CNN, Sharon Waxman, opined on TV that we need to be sensitive and caring when it comes to foreign thug dictators when we make movies, write pieces, etc.:

"I also want to point out something else that does not seem to be part of the discussion which is, where are our responsibilities in our exercising of the First Amendment? And I mean both those of us in the media and those of us who are making movies and those of us who are writing about the community that makes movies which is to say what is the thought process behind making a movie in which we decide to depict the assassination of a living foreign leader," said Waxman, "I think common sense has to prevail when we express our artistic freedoms."

She is referring, of course, to the new comedy movie by Seth Rogen and James Franco depicting Nork dictator Kim Jong Whatshisname getting taken out that Sony pulled this week after a cyber attack by the Norks. 

Normally "jounalists" are foaming at the mouth when it comes to defending the First Amendment but apparently that only now applies when they are whacking Republicans or conservatives. What is wrong with these people?  Seth Rogen's movies are typically self-indulgent crap and this one probably is too but justifying pulling it because of threats from some tinhorn nut-burger? Really? Be sure there is no shortage of such "leaders" and we can now expect the threats to escalate based on this type of response from the media and "journalists."  Where is the real America and when is it going to stand up and say, "Enough!"?

townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2014/12/19/journalist-first-amendment-rights-means-not-offending-the-north-korean-dictator-okay-n1934032

We Had to Destroy You to Save You

Here ya go - the effect of increasing the minimum wage in the real world. A new study found that increasing the minimum wage has so far cost 1.4 M jobs. Perhaps, but the warm and fuzzy feelings that progressives get when they take actions like this are worth it, don't you think? Unless of course you are one of the 1.4 M newly unemployed. 

www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/12/11/Minimum-Wage-Cost-Americans-1-4-Million-US-Jobs-Study-Finds

Beavers Lead to Global Warming

Look for the PC Police in Oregon to begin a push to eliminate Oregon's mascot. That's right, beavers have got to go because they are making a massive contribution to Global Warming - 800 M kg of methane annually to be exact. How? Magic I think - not sure -but they've gotta go along with SUVs, farting cows, coal, heated houses in the winter, Twinkies, sparkly things, and who knows what else. Save the planet - kill the Beavs! Duck fans should be happy.  

www.ibtimes.co.uk/climate-change-beavers-boost-emissions-800-million-kg-methane-every-year-1479809

SERVE Others

Ken Sande literally wrote the book for Christian peacemaking. Although no longer with Peacemaker Ministries, he has founded a new ministry called Relational Wisdom 360 designed to acquaint people with Biblical principles to "be a light" to the world and avoid the need for peacemaking. The link below is to a story about a young barista that he ran into at Washington's Dulles International and the SERVE principle that he used to help brighten her day. It's worth reading - and doing.

rw360.org/2013/08/04/serving-a-barista/

The Senate Intelligence Committee Report

The Senate Intelligence Committee's "report" on the CIA's post 9/11 interrogation activities was authored solely by the Committee's Democratic staff members and issued by its Democratic senators - so much for bipartisanship. In actuality it was a hit piece to position the Dems for 2016 and to draw attention from Jonathan "the American people are stupid" Gruber's testimony about how the Dems passed Obamacare, e.g. - they lied big time. 

Putting the lie to what they are trying to do with this "report" all previous CIA directors have publicly come out and said that much of the report simply isn't true and very valuable intelligence data was obtained from high-value prisoners that kept the U.S. from getting hit again by follow-on 9/11 attacks. Even President Obama's current CIA Director, John Brennan, agreed in an extraordinary press conference at the CIA that this was so:

"At the heart of Brennan's remarks was an exquisitely nuanced argument: That while today's CIA takes no position on whether the brutal interrogation tactics themselves led detainees to cooperate, there is no doubt that detainees subjected to the treatment offered "useful and valuable" information afterward."

www.oregonlive.com/today/index.ssf/2014/12/cia_director_acknowledges_brut.html#incart_river

I have been impressed in the past that Sen. Feinstein, head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has taken issue with the Obama Administration on national security issues when she believed that what was being proposed jeopardized American's security. This, however, is a cheap political stunt that ranks with the worst that this Administration has pulled and it has pulled a series of gigantic stinkers. It is easy to be armchair Monday-morning quarterbacks on intelligence matters, but when solid intelligence is coming in about a nuke hit on D.C., dropping 10 airliners in mid-flight over the Atlantic, or a CBW strike in the middle of the Las Vegas Strip or New York, I bet they will be the first to give a panicky go-ahead with "enhanced" interrogation techniques on any high-value prisoners who are connected - and then knife the intelligence community after the fact. Disgusting. We are being led by a bunch of pygmy weasels. 

The Light of the World Shines in the Darkness

During Advent every year the French city of Lyon famously celebrates a Festival of Lights to graphically illustrate God's arrival in this world at Christmas. The Archbishop of Lyon took it a step further this year by taking it on the road to Erbil, Iraq in support of embattled Iraqi Christians in that war-torn country. Bravo Messr. le Archbishop! That other Christians worldwide would have similar courage to stand with our persecuted brothers and sisters.

www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2014/12/10/French-Christians-Bring-Lyon-s-Festival-of-Lights-to-Erbil-in-Solidarity-with-Iraqi-Christians

Out-Marxing the Marxists

"... the maximum corporate income tax rate in Russia is just 20 percent, while the U.S. has the third-highest top marginal corporate income tax rate in the world at 39.1 percent."

And we wonder why our economy stinks?

townhall.com/columnists/rachelmarsden/2014/12/09/is-america-headed-for-a-sovietstyle-collapse-n1929599

Fight Against the Darkness

Columnist Bethany Blankley has an excellent piece today at Townhall about being resolute against evil and cites Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher as examples. Here is an interesting quote from Churchill in 1936 regarding then Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain that is just as apropos today:

“Virtuous motives, trammeled by inertia and timidity, are no match for armed and resolute wickedness. A sincere love of peace is no excuse for muddling hundreds of millions of humble folk into total war.”

This was followed 2 years later by Churchill's recognition after Chamberlain's meeting with Hitler at Munich that the end-game with the Nazis was at hand:

“You were given the choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor and you will have war.”

Think of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and a host of lesser lights when you read these quotes because they are trotting out today the same sort of wishful thinking as a substitute for resolutely confronting the evil of ISIS, Russia, Iran and a host of other evil actors on the world stage. Sadly, it will end up the same way and we will be presented with a major war not because we want it, but because the bad actors of the world do and we did not stop them when we could.
townhall.com/columnists/bethanyblankley/2014/12/08/british--american-christianity-denial-and-inertia-no-match-for-resolute-wickedness-n1929132

Observation Point

Christmas is the end of thinking you are better than someone else, because Christmas is telling you that you could never get to heaven on your own. God had to come to you. It is telling you that people who are saved are not those who have arisen through their own ability to be what God wants them to be. Salvation comes to those who are willing to admit how weak they are.  Tim Keller

Never Forget!

Unfortunately we are, both 1941 and 2001. 

Putin Has the Trots

That's right - his economy is leaking because world oil prices are down because of massive new oil competition from the U.S. and Canada. The Saudis have decided to keep prices down to effectively compete with the new North American oil colossus and this leaves place like Russia, Iran and Venezuela sucking air. Aw, too bad - couldn't happen to a nicer bunch. May they crash and burn! And incidentally, any U.S. politician that tries to interfere with this Western renaissance is either a fool or on the payroll of one of these bad guys and, knowing politicians, my guess would be the latter however they gussy it up with green trimmings. 

townhall.com/columnists/austinbay/2014/12/03/putins-kemlin-losing-the-oil-price-war--and-thats-good-n1926549

Keep Increasing the Minimum Wage

Robots. Yup, that's what will happen as is the case with Amazon which is phasing in 15,000 robots to fetch goods from its warehouses to fill customer orders. As the writer points out, Amazon has it all "wrong" as corporations exist to provide jobs for those who want to be at least occasionally employed, as opposed to fulfilling customer needs and repaying investors, but the net result will be lower costs to the consumer and that's a win in this economy.

townhall.com/columnists/michaelhausam/2014/12/03/amazons-latest-actions-are-a-clear-call-to-action-for-labor-leaders-n1926661

Here's Something for Oregonians to Unite On

The Coast Guard is planning to pull it's helicopter based at Newport in mid-December. Five guys pulled from the frigid North Pacific off Newport on Saturday by this very helicopter think that's a terrible idea. In fact, had it already occurred they probably wouldn't be saying anything at all because they would be dead. With all the crap in the Federal budget, not spending $6M per year for something that has saved lives again and again is asinine and Oregonians should write their Congressional delegates and tell them so in no uncertain terms. Keep the helo!

www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2014/12/oregon_fishermen_saved_by_coas.html

The Only True Peace

This really happened and even the commercial message is properly subordinate. This is an excellent way to begin Advent and begin to understand the Gift given to us all at Christmas. 


www.wnd.com/2014/11/famous-christmas-story-ad-stirs-controversy/

The Way Progressives Play the Game

Jonah Goldberg in National Review pens as concise a description of progressive tactics as I have ever read. It explains why Republicans always look like Charlie Brown in his annual Fall kick-the-football fiasco - they keep playing by the rules. Rules, schmules - rules are for chumps. Hence President Obama on immigration, Obamacare and the actions of lesser minions like Jonathan Gruber who made the huge faux pas of explaining the truth behind his actions. Thus saith Goldberg:

"... the story of the progressive movement can best be understood as activists going wherever the field is open. If the people are on your side, expand democracy. If the people are against you, use the courts. If the courts are against you, run down the field with the bureaucrats, or the Congress, or the presidency. Procedural niceties — the filibuster, precedent, the law, custom, the Constitution, truth — only matter if they can be enlisted to advance the cause. If they can’t, they suddenly become outdated, irrelevant, vestigial organs of racism, elitism, sexism, whatever. Obstruction, or even inconvenience in the path of progressive ends is prima facie proof of illegitimacy. The river of history must carry forward. If History hits a rock, the rock must be swept up with the current or be circumvented. Nothing can hold back the Hegelian tide, no one may Stand Athwart History. If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem. This is the liberal gleichschaltung; get with the program or be flattened by it."

www.nationalreview.com/article/393246/obama-congress-its-my-way-or-my-way-jonah-goldberg

The sooner that Americans realize that nothing coming from a progressive's mouth can be trusted, that everything is tactical and geared toward accomplishing their strategic goals which they will never reveal (except by mistake like Herr Gruber) because they know that a vast majority of Americans will never agree with them, the better off will we be as a nation. 

Lying Through His Teeth

In my lifetime, a lot of politicians have lied but usually made a pretense at the truth. Not any more. The President goes on TV and lies that he has legal authority to unilaterally grant amnesty to 5M illegals in this country when on multiple occasions in the past he has made a big show about saying that it would be nice but he simply does not have that power under the Constitution. He was right then, but now ... 

Jonathan Gruber spilled the beans on this whole approach when he candidly and publicly said that getting Obamacare into law was so important that they wrote a deliberately obtuse bill and then lied and lied again about its impact. I mean really lied - not little white lies but big fat whoppers like the President saying you can keep your doctor or your health insurance costs will go down $2,500/year. They knew none of this was true but the end justified the means and if the "stupid American people" would swallow this stuff, they deserve what they got.

It's now more of the same from the President. A standard jury instruction is that if a jury finds a witness's testimony false in part, then they are entitled to disbelieve the whole of that testimony. Since pretty much everything this Administration says is a lie and they have admitted they have and will do it solely for political gain, the American people should not believe anything they say. The President is no longer entitled to the benefit of the doubt. We have to assume that political expediency dictates what he will say and the heck with the law, trust, honor, or the unbelievably corrosive effect on the Body Politic. Welcome to the Banana Republic of the United States. 

Apple Pie and Chevrolet

Make mine a a small piece please. Interesting stat on cars - the 2-car family is receding into history. As people become more concentrated in cities, car ownership is more and more difficult and that's just one car, never mind two. Hence a statistically significant trend that may signal the end of the 2-car family. Time to sell the GM and Ford stock I guess.

www.cnbc.com/id/102193080?trknav=homestack:topnews:1

Some People Get It

CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, is all over the U.S. airwaves and at the White House decrying supposed Islamophobia. The United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.), however, has just plunked them on its terrorist organization watchlist. Since the President and John Kerry at State seem to think that Iran is going to keep its nuclear promises, I won't be holding my breath for CAIR to hit the U.S. watchlist. Now that I'm thinking about it, weren't these guys in Alicia Silverstone's movie Clueless?

www.foxnews.com/us/2014/11/17/us-group-cair-added-to-terror-list-by-united-arab-emirates/?intcmp=latestnews

What the Frack?!

Fracking is the process where a liquid is injected under high pressure into a deep oil or natural gas well to crack the underground rock layers that then release large quantities of oil or gas. Environmentalists have been warning that the fracking liquid is poisoning our underground water table and we're going to all die, DIE I tell you! Well, deep breath, settle down - not so says the University of Colorado, Boulder.

A new study says that the fracking liquid is pretty harmless. In fact, it compares it to such dangerous liquids in our houses as toothpaste, laxatives, detergent and (shriek!) ice cream! Not good news for the Greenies. 

But then protecting the environment isn't rally the agenda for many of them, it's really about the end of the market-based economy where people make their own economic decisions and its replacement with the rule of the Enlightened Ones to make those decisions for us, like President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Dr. Gruber of MIT, the architect of Obamacare. They know better than we do. Of course they do, unaffected by the weaknesses of human nature like most of us; Philosopher Kings as Plato might say. As my grandson Henry politely says with some frequency, no thank you.

townhall.com/columnists/thomasmiller/2014/11/17/liberal-university-destroys-antifracking-talking-point-n1918979

Correction Alert

I ran a piece on 10/31/14 about the remains of Pharaoh's army being found at the bottom of the Red Sea, thus validating the Biblical story of Moses leading the Israelis out of Egypt. Kelly Jamieson pointed out that several sources (Snopes, for example) rate this as "False" and other are not so categorical but definitely do not consider the evidence totally substantiated. Until there is more definitive evidence, I will have to rate this story as "unsubstantiated" and retract the above post. Sorry for the slip up.

Agreed

"After this repudiation, acting on #immigration by fiat would be the political equivalent of literally flipping the country the bird,"  Ron Fournier, The National Journal.

And you think that will stop him?

www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/11/05/MSM-Obama-Exec-Amnesty-Would-Be-Flipping-the-Country-The-Bird

A Very Good Night

It was a good night just about everywhere but Oregon. For those Republicans just elected, get down to business and do what's best for this country!

A Couple of Champions

A couple of cross country runners in Minnesota were leading the race and nearing the finish line when one of the girls behind them fell to the ground exhausted. The two leaders instead of battling it out for a photo finish went back and helped the girl who fell to her feet and supported her across the finish line together. They were disqualified for their efforts.

Not to worry, ladies - you showed more about your character than winning a race could ever do. Nicely done. 

www.foxnews.com/sports/2014/11/04/high-school-runners-disqualified-for-helping-girl-finish-race/

Observation Point

If freedom is worth dying for, it is certainly worth voting for.

                                                                    Chuck Colson

                                  Vote tomorrow!

Dreamweaver

The CMA Church has a number of missions in the Middle East. Over the last 10 or so years our people there have been hearing an increasing number of Muslims tell about dreams where Jesus came to them. Typically, they are both moved and curious, seeking help in understanding what they have seen from the missionaries. 

This article gives some history of the phenomena and a number of anecdotes to illustrate what some of the dreams look like and how the Muslims having them reacted. Clearly, God is doing something very interesting amongst Muslims and on a widening scale. I wonder if He does it with Westerners and we are too plugged in to the Net or elsewhere to notice or understand. 

www.wnd.com/2014/11/rising-number-of-muslims-reporting-dreams-about-jesus/

Z-z-z-z-z-z

A funny piece from Jonah Goldberg at National Review:

"Obama fatigue is setting in. Indeed, I’ve gone from Obama fatigue through full-on Obama Epstein-Barr to end-stage Obama narcolepsy. I hear him talking, or hear some MSNBC-type rhapsodizing about how misunderstood he is, and I start dozing off like a truck driver who took the drowsy-formula Nyquil by mistake. “Gotta stay awake! This is my job!” But then 20 seconds later, Jonathan Alter starts telling me how misunderstood the president is, and suddenly orange traffic cones are bouncing off my truck’s grill as I somnolently drift into a highway work zone. You could fill a cereal bowl with broken glass and barbed-wire shards drenched in hot sauce right below my face. All it would take for me to use it as a pillow is a 30-second loop of Obama saying “Let me be clear.” His speeches are like whale sounds, but with less substance. I’d say they’re all white noise, but I don’t want to get called a racist."

My sentiments exactly. I write a longer blog on it but I'm getting sleepy. 

www.nationalreview.com/article/391620/its-not-obama-its-you-jonah-goldberg/page/0/1

The Obama Way Spreading Like Ebola

Voting is a privilege of citizenship, right? Nah - it's your DUTY AND YOU BETTER GET IT RIGHT! So sayeth the commissars of the Democratic Central Committees in New York and Connecticut. Breitbart reports that:

"Both the New York State and Connecticut Democratic Committees are threatening people into voting on Tuesday by sending bullying letters that claim they can easily determine which potential voters failed to cast ballots."

This was confirmed by tweets obtained by the NY Post which showed such homespun humor as:

“ 'Who you vote for is your secret,” the letter reads. 'But whether or not you vote is public record.' " 

Or knee-slappers like:

“ 'We will be reviewing voting records… to determine whether you joined your neighbors who voted in 2014,' it continues. 'If you do not vote this year, we will be interested to hear why not.' ”

Yessiree, the Party of the People! Well, at least a few people, who celebrate May Day every year, like the color red, and think Stalin was a misunderstood historical figure. 

www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/10/31/Bullying-Democrats-Send-Letters-Threatening-People-To-Vote-Or-Else

Kudos to the SF Giants!

Congrats to the Giants for winning the World Series. They fought for it all the way and Madison Bumgarner is a pitcher for the Ages. Randy Johnson's pitching performance in the World Series against the Yankees when he played for the Diamondbacks has been my previous gold standard of athletic excellence, but Bumgarner raised the bar substantially. Well done Giants! 

There's No WMDs in Iraq!

Might want to re-think Bush lied; people died. This very interesting piece is written by the head of a company who says that he personally supervised the removal of 5500 metric tons of yellowcake uranium from Iraq in 2008. He also notes the 5,500 live warheads filled with nerve and chemical agents that the New York Times (what?!) just reported were also removed from Iraq. The Times writer tried to minimize the disclosure by saying that these warheads were "antiques" left over from the Iran-Iraq war from the 1980s, but be assured that one of these "antiques" can kill a bunch of people just as dead in a very horrible way as a shiny new one, as shown by the dead Kurds in the picture that Saddam gassed.

There ain't no WMDs in Iraq! It was bunk then and bunk now. I just hope that the bulk of them that were moved under Russian guard to northern Syria are not now in the hands of ISIS. Fortunately, I think the Israelis took care of that problem several years ago with a mysterious air strike ordered by Chickens*#t Netanyahu, who has more courage in his little finger than El Jefe of the United States in his whole body. 

townhall.com/columnists/carterandress/2014/11/01/we-drove-saddams-yellowcake-to-baghdad-airport-n1912824

The Bible as Myth

Well, maybe not so much. Think Moses, Red Sea, etc., etc.:

"Suez| Egypt’s Antiquities Ministry announced this morning that a team of underwater archaeologists had discovered that remains of a large Egyptian army from the 14th century BC, at the bottom of the Gulf of Suez, 1.5 kilometers offshore from the modern city of Ras Gharib. The team was searching for the remains of ancient ships and artefacts related to Stone Age and Bronze Age trade in the Red Sea area, when they stumbled upon a gigantic mass of human bones darkened by age."

"The scientists lead by Professor Abdel Muhammad Gader and associated with Cairo University’s Faculty of Archaeology, have already recovered a total of more than 400 different skeletons, as well as hundreds of weapons and pieces of armor, also the remains of two war chariots, scattered over an area of approximately 200 square meters. They estimate that more than 5000 other bodies could be dispersed over a wider area, suggesting that an army of large size who have perished on the site."

A coincidence I'm sure.

worldnewsdailyreport.com/red-sea-archaeologists-discover-remains-of-egyptian-army-from-the-biblical-exodus/

(Tip o' the hat to Al Lyons)

Move Along - Nothing to See Here!

Oh the Evil Koch Brothers! Watch out for the Blood-Sucking Capitalists! Well, how about watching out for convicted Lefties?

Donny Deutsch is a multi-millionaire (est. $200M) who hangs out on one of my least favorite networks, MSNBC, whose daily party line is about the same as the Party line in Moscow. While MSNBC is expounding on the evils of the bourgeois oppressor running dogs of Capitalism, one of their own was found liable for scamming a realtor out of a $1.2M commission on his $30M house sale. The trial judge had these nice things to say about Mr. Deutsch:

“This court considers that and refusal to acknowledge [Petrie] as the broker to be marks of dishonesty and greed,”

“Both characteristics are particularly unbecoming when exhibited by those blessed with great wealth.”

Obviously this poor trial judge doesn't get it. When a Lefty is blessed with great wealth he is part of the Ruling Class and can ignore the law like say Tim Geithner, the former Wall Street big wig and Secretary of the Treasury who, ahem, forgot to file a few years of taxes. An oversight I'm sure - perhaps he thought the receipt box was just one of his shoe boxes. And BTW, how did Harry Reid amass his fortune while being a humble public servant all these years? The question that dares not speak its name! Well, the trial judge did in Mr. Deutsch's case did and its name is "Dishonesty and Greed." Over to you Rachel Maddow. 

www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2014/10/30/dishonesty-greed-judge-finds-msnbcs-deutsch-guilty-of-scamming-realtor

New Warnings on Abortion-Breast Cancer Link

A second new medical study has been released documenting a strong link between abortions and breast cancer. Researchers included the University of Kentucky and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and their findings documented that:

“A history of abortion before 8 weeks gestation in women younger than 18 years (girls) increased the risk of breast cancer by 30 percent. However, if a pregnancy lasting more than 8 weeks was terminated when a girl was younger than 18 years, the risk increased 800 percent.” (Emphasis added)

But wait - there's more:

“In women with a positive family history (defined as a sister, mother, aunt or grandmother with breast cancer), the overall risk was 1.8 (80 percent increased, but ‘was particularly strong for a first abortion that occurred prior to age 18 years.’ In fact, the risk was infinity, as breast cancer developed in 100 percent of these girls – 12 of 12 cases, but in none of the controls.” 

The study pushes for informed consent since women and girls need to know that this procedure is setting them up for a huge fight for their lives in the future at the very least. If anything else - say tobacco - was producing stats like this, it would simply be banned as extremely hazardous to human health, but "Noooo!" we don't want to infringe on their "freedom." The question is "freedom" to do what - die?

www.wnd.com/2014/10/again-study-demands-warnings-on-abortion-breast-cancer-link/

The Wages of ... Raising the Minimum Wage

Minimum wage jobs were never intended to be lifetime billets with a "living wage," whatever that means. These jobs are typically low-skill and designed to be part-time in most cases. In the past, you started in such jobs as you were introduced to the workforce and, if you had your wits about you, quickly decided that you needed to get whatever training necessary to move up the ladder. High schoolers used to find plenty of such jobs in the summer but they have become more and more scarce as politicians have intervened to mandate "living wages" and unions have tried to organize the ranks of the low-skilled.

The result of this is a continuing push to automate jobs. Robots always show up, don't whine, don't cop an attitude with customers, won't talk on their cell phones to their significant other during working hours, and never agitate for higher and unsustainable wages. As the politicians vote for things like a higher minimum wage, paid sick leave, paid vacation, health insurance, etc., etc. for low-skilled workers as a way to buy votes, expect business to put more and more humans on the unemployment lines and turn to Al and Alice the Robots to serve you your next burger. 

www.usatoday.com/longform/news/nation/2014/10/28/low-skill-workers-face-mechanization-challenge/16392981/

Giving Bill Maher a Close Shave ISIS-Style

The French Revolution began to consume itself after first killing off all kinds of other people. The guillotine began whacking heads off of the revolutionaries who were insufficiently zealous. The result was that the movement eventually died for lack of supporters, thank God. 

Somewhat the same thing is happening on the Left at the moment. Bill Maher, the Uber Lefty who holds court on his own show at HBO, finally figured out that jihadists are not good company and has recently begun saying so. Mais non, Monsieur!  It is sacrilege! 

Maher's fleeting moment of reality has triggered a movement at UC Berkeley to disinvite him as the the 2015 Commencement speaker by all the little Brownshirts who cannot stand anything that challenges their alternate reality. At this point the Chancellor has said that Maher will speak, as this is a free speech issue. True, but as we get closer to the date, stay tuned for further developments. How's the blade on the guillotine?   

townhall.com/columnists/debrajsaunders/2014/10/30/trying-to-silence-bill-maher-in-the-cradle-of-free-speech-n1911776

Will Ya Look at That!

The Washington Examiner reports that: 

"A new and massive poll of 2,029 18- to 29-year-olds from Harvard’s Institute of Politics just released found that of those who say they will “definitely be voting,” 51 percent want the GOP in charge, 47 percent favoring Democratic control."

I'd better sit down - I feel faint. Harvard? Millennials? The Apocalypse is upon us!

www.washingtonexaminer.com/shock-harvard-poll-millennial-voters-want-gop-in-charge-abandon-obama/article/2555411

Why Kitzhaber Should Not Be Elected - Reason #103

According to Oregon Live:

"... Oregon had the nation's highest percentage of vacant homes going through the foreclosure process, according to RealtyTrac, the real estate data firm."

What's it going to take Oregon to make a change? 

www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2014/10/oregon_leads_nation_in_percent_1.html#incart_river

The Definition of Irony

(NEW YORK TIMES) WASHINGTON — The investigator who led the Department of Homeland Security’s internal review of the Secret Service’s 2012 prostitution scandal quietly resigned in August after he was implicated in his own incident involving a prostitute, according to current and former department officials.

www.wnd.com/2014/10/prostitution-sting-nabs-secret-service-prostitution-investigator/?cat_orig=us

The Natives are Restless

WND reports a flood of vitriol directed at the President - by Dems! Here are just a few to get the flavor of how the rank and file is feeling:

Bill Clinton reportedly said, “I hate that man Obama more than any man I’ve ever met, more than any man who ever lived.”

Jimmy Carter's droll commentary on the President's foreign policy: “It changes from time to time.”  Indeed. 

 “Too often, in my view, the president relies on the logic of the law professor rather than the passion of a leader.” Leon Panetta, Obama's former Secretary of Defense and CIA Director, discussing Obama's approach to foreign policy. 

Be sure and read the rest - serious angst. My inclination is to say, "Sleep in the bed you made!" but there is too much at stake for the country. Harry Reid has been a major accomplice in the Senate. I hope Democrats will wake up and act on this at the ballot box next week. Probably too much to hope for. 

www.wnd.com/2014/10/flood-of-democrats-unleashes-against-obama/

Hillary Economics 101

Hillary was stumping for Martha Coakley for Governor in Massachusetts and dropped the following stunner:

"Don't let anybody tell you that, uh, you know, that it's corporations and businesses that create jobs."

Really? Jobs - real jobs - are a function of wealth creation and government simply doesn't create wealth. The now defunct Soviet Union tried it for 70 years and ended up on the dust heap of history. Even "kinder and gentler" socialist countries like France, Greece and others are headed for the rocks for the same reason. 

No, what government does is take private wealth and put it to its own purposes, which all too often translates into worthless pork projects intended to get politicians re-elected. (See blog 10/25/14).  If it takes too much, then a society begins to decline, sort of like the U.S. is doing right now. 

Hillary is telling us that she will address this situation by, yup - having government "create" more jobs. Yah sure. Are you better off today than in 2009? Consider:

Real hourly wages have seen virtually no noticeable increase; real median household income is down almost four percent; and basic life necessities have seen an average of 10 percent price inflation. (In fact, milk is 25 percent more expensive, meat prices are 27 percent higher, and gasoline has jumped in price roughly 40 percent since 2009.)

finance.townhall.com/columnists/michaelschaus/2014/07/23/the-brilliance-of-obamanomics-n1864881

As Abraham Lincoln observed, you can fool some of the people all of the time. Unfortunately, that number seems to keep growing and Hillary is going to do her best to prey on their ignorance. Democrat politics as usual. 

townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2014/10/26/hillary-dont-let-anyone-tell-you-that-businesses-create-jobs-n1910023

Observation Point

"No one will really understand politics until they understand that politicians are not trying to solve our problems. They are trying to solve their own problems — of which getting elected and re-elected are number one and number two. Whatever is number three is far behind."

Thomas Sowell       (As quoted by John Hawkins)    

                                                                        townhall.com/columnists/johnhawkins/2014/10/25/everything-millennials-need-to-know-about-politics-and-economics-in-25-quotes-n1909779

A Refreshing Candor

First Jennifer Garner and now Rene Zellweger. A couple of weeks ago Jennifer Garner (42) was fielding press questions and one particularly galling reporter asked if she were again expecting as her "baby bump" would seem to indicate. She fixed the putz with an icy stare and said basically, "I've had 3 kids, that's part of me - deal with it!" Hoo-ah Jennifer!

Now Zellweger, who is 45, recently had her picture taken and is taking brick bats for the fact that she doesn't look like she's 25. Say what? Why should she look like a anorexic, eager-to-please, just trying to-make-it starlet lemon tart when she is an adult 45 year old woman? What she did say was that she is happy and her face reflects it. Hoo-ah Rene!

These are both beautiful women and very good actresses and the fact that they are happy with who they are and where they are in life is a good thing - and their faces do reflect it. I look forward to seeing them again in films and respect them for being happy with themselves and their lives. Deal with it Hollywood! 

New Memory Enhancer

Drinking beer after age 60 may improve memory. Boy I hope so, so pass me another por favor!

www.foxnews.com/health/2014/10/23/drinking-alcohol-after-age-60-can-boost-your-memory-study-suggests/?intcmp=features