Friday, February 08, 2013

Safest Big City in America Shatters Democrats' Rationale for Gun Control

The murder capital of the United States is Chicago, Illinois. Last year it tallied more than 500 murders despite a virtual ban on guns. Suffice it to say that only law-abiding citizens honor said ban.

David "Red Diaper Baby" Axelrod and other Leftists are quick to blame neighboring states for their ills, but fail to note that large cities in those states are infinitely safer than Chicago.

And if Axelrod possessed an ounce of intellectual honesty, he'd investigate the safest large city in America. That city, El Paso, has a true "neighbor problem".

Chicago, Ill., a city surrounded by the rural midwest, has tight guns laws. El Paso, Texas, has lax gun laws and neighbors one of the most violent cities in the world. Yet, El Paso is the safest big city in the U.S., whereas President Obama cites the murder rate in his hometown as a reason to implement his gun control agenda.

Gun violence isn’t much of an issue in El Paso, Texas, which is the safest city of its size in the country. “[T]his week, for the third year in a row, El Paso was ranked as the safest U.S. city with a population greater that 500,000 by CQ Press, which compiled FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports,” per Fox.El Paso has minimal gun control — “mostly due to gun-friendly state law,” Reason observes. It also neighbors one of the most dangerous cities in the world.

“This dusty desert city sits directly across the Mexican border from what has been widely labeled as one of the most dangerous cities in the world, Ciudad Juarez,” Fox noted. “The bloody drug war has claimed an estimated 10,000 lives in Juarez in the last five years.” Compare that to Chicago, which has very tight gun laws and city defenders who blame the violence their on the fact that the city is surrounded by rural areas that have less gun control. “We live in Chicago and one of the reasons we have such a huge problem is all around us are areas with weak laws and with very lax background checks and a lot of illegal guns flow into this city,” David Axelrod said on MSNBC last week, adding that the gang problem in the city also drives crime.

Yep: if I had a ten-spot for every time David Axelrod lied, I'd be a billionaire.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

California once again demonstrates that registration equals confiscation

History is replete with instances of gun registration leading to confiscation. California is only the latest example.

We’re told we’re paranoid and delusional for our tome that registration’s only purpose is to tell the government where they all are so they can be rounded up when a pretext presents itself. Well, here’s what’s happening in California:

The 10-bill package constitutes the single largest gun control push in decades in the Golden State, which already boasts some of the nation’s strictest gun laws. It joins equally controversial proposals from Assembly Democrats that would regulate and tax ammunition sales and consider taking the state’s 166,000 registered assault weapons from their owners.

...next time some gun control advocate tells you no one is talking about taking your guns, take a copy of Time, roll it up, and smack them with it (assault magazine).

When government has a monopoly on force, it tends to abuse it. Who was it that said, "Absolute power corrupts absolutely"?


THE ULTIMATE BENGHAZI TIMELINE: What was Barack Obama doing for 8 hours?

During his testimony yesterday before the House Armed Services Committee, Leon Panetta as much as admitted that Barack Obama lied to reporter Kyle Clark of KUSA-TV about the attack on the Libyan Consulate.

Thanks to Panetta's testimony, we now know that President Obama was told immediately of the attack and responded by doing... nothing. He didn't lift a finger to help. Nor did the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.

He knew that Ambassador Chris Stevens and other Americans were about to be slaughtered and -- for eight hours, highlighted below -- he didn't call, he didn't inquire, he didn't command, he did nothing!


Sen. Lindsey Graham says that he is "not going to stop [investigating] until the American people know what their commander-in-chief did for eight hours."

The president of the United States talking to the secretary of defense for 15 minutes, never talked to the secretary of state until after the attack was over, never made a phone call saying how close are we to help these people?

...Where is Chris Stevens? What did he do when he was told the ambassador was missing? We’ve had one ambassador killed in the last 30 years? The president of the United States has to account for his leadership here and I intend to hold him accountable. Thus far the White House has delayed, denied, deceived and stonewalled and this has to come to an end...

The secretary of State never once talked to the secretary of Defense. The president of the United States never made one phone call to find out how this operation was going?

Well, Mr. President, what did you do for eight hours? Who did you talk to? What kind of leadership did you exhibit? They made two movies about the Bin Laden raid... but you’ve had no accounting for the Benghazi attack and you’re going to have an accounting. I’m not going to stop until the American people know what their commander-in-chief did for eight hours and thus far, all we know is he had a 15 minute conversation.

This is a cover-up. This scandal is 1000 times worse than Watergate.

Call John Boehner now and demand a full investigation. Be polite, but firm. We want every single person related to the president's dereliction of duty subpoenaed. Every. Single. One.


Larwyn's Linx: Our last best hope: State resistance to rogue post-constitutional federal government

Send us tips! Bloggers: install a Larwyn's Linx widget. Get real-time news, 24/7, at BadBlue.

Nation

Last hope: State resistance to rogue post-constitutional federal government: Wisdom
"So God Made a Liberal" - Censored Superbowl Ad: Morlock
Boots on the Ground: Huffman

Why Americans Need Assault Rifles: Razor
ICE: Illegal Alien Groups Run ICE, Agents ‘Prohibited’ From Enforcing Laws: RS
ICE Is Not Allowed to Enforce Immigration Law: Sentinel

The Tipping Point: RS
Conservative Fury at Rove Erupts: AmSpec
Suspected LA Cop Killer Posted Pro-Obama, Pro-Gun Control, Leftist Rant: PJM

Economy

Obamacare Fail: CBO Predicts Drops in Health Coverage: Mead
Can you find the "savage" Sequester cuts?: Greenroom
Unemployment for government workers: 4.2%; Private sector: 8.6%: Peth

CBO: Obamacare to Cost $1.930 Trillion, Leave 30 Million Uninsured: WS
Obama's "Recovery" Weakest Since World War II: CNS
Shock: Greek Tax Hikes Backfire As Tax Revenues Plunge 16%: ZH

Scandal Central

Just an FYI: Last 6 mass shootings committed by progressives: NoisyRm
Obama Crony Awarded Huge Contract To Supply Ill-Equipped Smartphones To Low-Income Obama supporters: WZ
REPORT: Jesse Jackson, Jr. plea deal includes ‘significant jail time’: DC

GOP: Menendez Spending 87% of Wealth to Pay for Flights Raises Questions: Breitbart
Leftwing Domestic Terrorist Pleads Guilty in FRC Shooting; Used SPLC ‘Hate Map’: JWF
Flashback: NYT Report Says Obama Personally Approved Assassination Of 17-Year-Old American Citizen: WZ

Climate & Energy

Rand Paul for President: Says Uncle

Media

News Media Scrub Murderer’s Manifesto of Pro-Obama, Hillary, MSNBC, Gay, Anti-Gun Comments: Sooper
One honest blogger versus the entire media: LI
President Obama gives himself permission to kill: Napolitano

If It Will Save a Single Life, We Must Get Piers Morgan's Stupid Fat Face off the Television: Ace
NYT Ignores Leftist Website Connection to FRC Shooter, Yet Suggested Palin Map Inspired Giffords Shooter: MRC
Rove Attacks…Ashley Judd?: HayRide

Juan Williams tells Michelle Malkin to “calm down” after she smokes him on Obama’s lies about Obamacare: Scoop
#SweetKimGunPic: Glenn Beck and his followers share their favorite guns with Kim Kardashian: Twitchy
Jon Stewart Tears Into Obama Hypocrisy And Secrecy On Drones: Mediaite

World

Turns Out Both Obama AND Hillary Missed The 3 AM Phone Call On Benghazi: Glob
The worst thing about those drone strikes is Obama's moral preening and hypocrisy: Bookworm Room
Moonbattery: Obama Advisor Samantha Power Equates Waterboarding with Genocide: MB

Egypt in Economic Death Spiral?: Mead
Egypt tells its people to eat less: Matzav
HORROR! Sweet Syrian Girl Seen Singing Before Bomb Drops on Market (Disturbing Video): GWP

Sen. Paul Suggests Possible Gun-Running Op Cause of Benghazi Cover Up: Shark Tank
Obama “Absent” Night Of Benghazi Attack: Bruce
White House Reverses Course on Drone Document Ahead of Brennan Hearing: Roll Call

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue.com/Tech)

This Hackable Mini Drone Can Now Be Yours: Mashable
Microsoft SharePoint faces a challenging future: Forrester: PC World
The death of Firefox: ExtremeTech

Giant Asteroid Impact Dated--Precisely--To Dinosaurs' End: PopSci
Nearly a Million iOS Apps and Discovery Still Sucks: TNW
Google offers $3.14159 MILLION in prizes for hacking Chrome OS: Register

Cornucopia

Virtual Inaugural 2013: MVP
What Huxley Knew About Drones And When He Knew It: MOTUS
The Special Forces Community Letter Concerning The 2nd Amendment: JPFO

Image: DaleToons
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: The Problem With the U.S. Constitution

QOTD: "Obama is operating demonstrably outside of his Constitutional authority (cf., with regards to the Appointments Clause). Regulatory agencies have become a shadow legislature unanswerable to the people, with politicized bureaucratic appointees laying claim to civil service protections. And the Federal Reserve is actively devaluing the currency and manipulating interest rates in order to stave off an inevitable collapse.

Meanwhile, the national GOP has determined that the way forward is to adopt the left’s pandering and vote buying schemes — to adjust its rhetoric in order to “re-brand” itself as compassionately profligate at the very time it should be willing and able to stand up and tell the truth to the American people.

This is why I’ve said for years now that we have a de facto one party country, the rest being but Kabuki theater to keep the non-ruling class rubes who still believe they have a say in the trajectory of government riled up and committed to donating to a supposedly adversarial system. In truth, however, the GOP establishment is looking to defeat the Democrats only so that it can control the levers of power and influence and revenue — not to reestablish Constitutional government and individual or state sovereignty...

...The politicians and many in the political chattering classes don’t think this way: they either see the end coming, and are busy feathering their own nests before the collapse; or else they are but useful idiots playing party cheerleader in exchange for coinage, influence, and name recognition." --Jeff Goldstein, "State resistance to rogue post-constitutional federal government: the last best hope"

Thursday, February 07, 2013

LAWLESS: Head of Immigration Enforcement Union Says Illegal Alien Groups are Setting Border Policy

Chris Crane is the president of the Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) union council 118. Testifying today before the House Judiciary Committee, he leveled withering criticism at the lawless behavior of the Obama administration, Eric Holder, and Janet Napolitano.

In particular, he stated that ICE is "now guided in large part by the influences of powerful special interest groups that advocate on behalf of illegal aliens":

Crane further goes on to drop a bombshell:

"These influences have in large part eroded the order, stability and effectiveness of the agency, creating confusion among all ICE employees. For the last four years it has been a roller coaster for ICE officers with regard to who they can or cannot arrest, and which federal laws they will be permitted to enforce. Most of these directives restricting enforcement are given only verbally to prevent written evidence from reaching the public.

Most Americans would be surprised to know that immigration agents are regularly restricted from enforcing the two most fundamental sections of United States immigration law..."

Crane’s testimony is revealing in many ways, as he sites several disturbing examples on how ICE agents are demoralized and how they have been hamstrung due to the influence of amnesty advocates inside and outside the Obama administration.

I just wonder how many more laws have to be broken by this administration before the establishment Republicans start fighting back?


WOW: Secular Egyptian Liberals Slam Obama and the entire Democrat Party in Tahrir Square

And by "liberals", I mean classic liberals, not the Marxist-dominated Leftists that have subsumed the lifeless husk of the Democrat Party.

Translation: "Down with the American Democratic Party the ally of Morsi, down with Morsi the infiltrator of America."
President Obama is giving away F-16s to the Muslim Brotherhood-controlled Egyptian government, but withholding them from our longtime ally Taiwan.

At the same time, Egypt's "President" Morsi and Iran's Mahmoud Ahmedinejad are in the midst of forming an alliance that will target the "Great Satan" (the U.S.) and "Little Satan" (Israel) as surely as night follows day.

Make it stop, Mr. Wizard. Make it stop.


Hat tip: R.F.

Smart Car: Driver killed after her micro-sized vehicle hits a... motorcycle

"Smart" isn't the brand name I'd use to describe a vehicle like this.

A woman who died in hospital after a collision between her car and a motorcycle in Surrey has been named as Freda Lawry.

The crash between the Smart car and the bike happened on 27 January on the A245 Byfleet Road in Cobham...

The motorcyclist, a man in his 30s, was taken to George's Hospital in Tooting, where he remains in a serious, but stable condition, Surrey Police said.

President Obama's mandate for vehicles to reach 54 miles-per-gallon over the next few years means that more people will needlessly die. And that's not me guessing, that's the National Highway Transportation Safety Agency.

In order for auto makers to hit the government imposed mileage standards new cars will have to lose weight. Strong metals like steel will be replaced with light weight metals or plastics. But while these cars of the future will get great gas mileage they will also have less bulk to protect drivers and passengers from injury or death in a crash.

...The NHTSA, Brookings Institution, Harvard School of Public Health, National Academy of Sciences and USA Today discovered a shocking reality. Even past and current mileage standards have resulted in thousands of additional fatalities, and tens of thousands of serious injuries, every year – above what would have happened if the government had not imposed those standards.
They also learned that drivers in lightweight cars were up to twelve times more likely to die in a crash – and far more likely to suffer serious injury and permanent disabilities.

Increasing mileage requirements by a whopping 19 mpg above current rules will make nearly all cars even less safe than they are today
.

When President Obama says, in regards to gun control, "if we can only save one child," we know he's engaged in demagoguery.

Thousands die each year thanks to insane CAFE standards and Democrats could care less.


Cops in gun-free England getting ambushed, shot, bombed with grenades: Piers Morgan unavailable for comment

Looks like Piers Morgan is right: there's no gun-crime in England:

A fugitive lured police officers to him before shooting them repeatedly and then throwing a grenade at his victims, a court has heard... Dale Cregan, 29, had evaded a nationwide manhunt when he set the trap, Preston Crown Court heard.

Mr Cregan denies killing PCs Nicola Hughes, 23, and Fiona Bone, 32, in Hattersley, Greater Manchester last September. He also denies the murders of David Short, 46, and his son, Mark, 23... Mr Cregan appeared in court wearing a false left eye made of black onyx.

Mr Nicholas Clarke QC, prosecuting, said PCs Hughes and Bone were killed as they responded to a report of a burglary on the morning of 18 September.

Mr Clarke said: "[Cregan] lay in wait with a Glock firearm with an extended magazine that was fully loaded.

"PC Fiona Bone and PC Nicola Hughes attended. As soon as they arrived Cregan, who was on the run, shot the officers repeatedly, until his magazine was empty.

"As he left the scene he again threw a grenade towards the victims."

The ludicrous, clownish hack Piers Morgan hardest hit.


Larwyn's Linx: Hagel Refuses To Disclose Foreign Funding To Senate

Send us tips! Bloggers: install a Larwyn's Linx widget. Get real-time news, 24/7, at BadBlue.

Nation

Hagel Refuses To Disclose Foreign Funding To Senate: Joshua
Is it okay to pour water on a terrorist if it’s dropped from a drone?: DC
Waters: We Have 'Database That Has 'Everything On Everyone': Breitbart

Yes, he is a tyrant, just like the Founders warned us against: Owens
Time to Call the SPLC a Hate Group?: Nice Deb
Hate Kills: Left’s Demonization of Conservative Group Drove Shooter: RSM

Incoherent immigration reform: Hanson
Worse Than Waterboarding: RWN
Official: The Guns Used in Newtown Shooting: TAG

Economy

Privatize the Postal Service: Save Money, Improve Service: ObjStd
Michigan Teamster Boss Busted Over Double Dipping: LUR
Obamacare Exchange Costs Up 29% Before Program Starts!: Reason

Levin on Kasich: “He has thrown away his career as a conservative”: Scoop
US to cut carrier fleet in Persian Gulf to 1: AP
S&P Analyst Joked of Bringing Down the House Before Crash: Bloomberg

Scandal Central

Leak of top secret Stuxnet program: grounds for impeachment?: Knight
Bad: Memo Shows Weak Justification for Killing People. Worse: It's Not Even the Classified Version: Reason
Democrats In Brokeifornia Offer Legislation Requiring Insurance For Gun Owners To Protect The Taxpayer: Cove

Climate & Energy

Warrmists Blame Heavy Snow In Russia On “Climate Change”: STACLU
Forward! People cringe at rising gas prices; Ask Obama ‘why is gas so much?’: Twitchy

Media

Pundits: “If Bush Were President, There Would be Impeachment Hearings Over the Drone Strikes": Nice Deb
Levin: Obama defies federal courts and federal law; states should defy Obama’s unconstitutional actions: Scoop
Left Wing Terrorist Pleads Guilty To Shooting, Liberal Media Ignores: Glob

Karl Rove responds to accusations of him being at war with the Tea Party: Scoop
New York Times Explains Chicago’s Stratospheric Gun Violence: MB
Robert Gibbs Confirms Existence of Obamacare Death Panels: Lid

‘Farmer’ Ad Makers Left Out Harvey Reference To ‘Church’: B&R
Ray LaHood is Officially Shovel-Ready: Driscoll
The Frog, the Scorpion, and Marco Rubio: Driscoll

Karl Rove vs. the 'Far Right': NB
Krugman: was he lying then or is he lying now?: Q&O
Obama's Israel-hating, Muslim Brotherhood cheerleader: the shrill radical cultist, Taylor Marsh: Levin

World

Is Turkey Leaving the West?: Pipes
U.S. Terror History Map: IPT
The 'Palestinians' show their appreciation to the United States: Matzav

Media Confirms Barack Obama Called For Drone Bombing of 16 Year-Old Denver Boy: GWP
Yawn: CBS Evening News Skips Obama Memo on Drone Strikes Against U.S. Citizens: NB
Adolf Hitler – Progressive Pioneer: NoisyRm

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue.com/Tech)

Which Linux distro is best? Survey says: Slackware: PC World
Do the math: Facebook is not a buy: Fortune
Weird Underwater Waves Spotted From Space: Mashable

Cornucopia

LOOK WHO'S SPORTING A MOLON LABE T SHIRT!: AWD
BREAKING: Obama Administration Building ‘Death Star’: SHN
Top 3 Best Improvised Defensive Weapons: TheModernSurvivalist

Image: Weird Underwater Waves Spotted From Space
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: New member of Larwyn's Linx - Reaganite Republican

QOTD: "Every American has the right to know when their government believes that it is allowed to kill them." --Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR)

Wednesday, February 06, 2013

THE FUTURE OF OUR PROGRESSIVE UTOPIA: Wood-Burning Trucks

The Democrat Party's incessant drive to centralize more and more power in Washington, DC seems to have no limits.

Virtually every aspect of our lives is controlled within the Beltway, from the kinds of light-bulbs we can buy, the mileage our cars must get, how much electricity our washing machines can consume, and how much water can pass through our shower-heads. Worse yet, Democrats can't point to any blueprint that tells us when they'll be done centralizing power and authority.

If we need a model for where they're headed, it's got to be North Korea. All governmental power and industrial policy is centralized in one man. There are no separation of powers, there are no individual liberties, there are no checks and balances, and there's nothing protecting the individual from a lawless government.

Which leads me to this, the inevitable result of the EPA's warmal colding scam and its attendant war on oil:

...North Koreans [must] power their vehicles using gasifiers, which produce immense heat and break down biomatter, like wood, into a usable fuel. North Korea is just crawling with these mostly-wood-powered pickups and equipment haulers.


For decades, North Korea relied heavily on the USSR, China, and Iran to keep the cheap oil flowing. However, the USSR no longer exists, China seems increasingly displeased with North Korea’s behavior, and new sanctions have put the squeeze on Iranian crude. This has meant that many North Koreans must improvise when it comes to getting their old-school trucks moving. Wood is one of the few resources available in abundance in North Korea, and so it wasn’t long before the resourceful citizens (inspired by Dear Leader, of course) figured out that gasification was their only real solution.

Gasification has been around for a long, long time, first gaining widespread use after World War II. There are still people out there (and we do mean “out there”) who use gasifiers to power their rides, though it is far from an ideal situation as the burner must be feed a steady diet of wood in order to operate. They’re also loud, unreliable, and inefficient, but they work most of the time, and in North Korea, that is all that really matters

...It seems as though gasification will remain at the fringes of society for the foreseeable future, unless some worldwide calamity depletes our oil supplies overnight. Then all those wackjobs who predicted the end of the world might have something to celebrate, though one look at North Korea is a glimpse at just what such a world might look like.

And if the EPA has its way, gasifiers may be the only way to get around.

Like I said, the modern Left's endgame looks a lot like North Korea to me. Because the Democrat Party won't tell us when they'll have taxed enough, spent enough or regulated enough.

Which is precisely why you and I revere the Constitution and the strict limits it sets on government. And that is why the Left despises the Constitution; adherence to our nation's highest law prevents them from seizing all of the powers they desperately crave.


GREAT NEWS: Costs of Obamacare Exchanges Spike 29%... Before the Program Even Starts!

Unexpectedly, of course.

The CBO's new baseline estimate shows that ObamaCare subsidies offered through the insurance exchanges — which are supposed to be up and running by next January — will total more than $1 trillion through 2022, up from $814 billion over those same years in its budget forecast made a year ago.

That's an increase of nearly 29%...

Last year, the CBO said the average exchange subsidy for those getting federal help when ObamaCare goes into effect next year would be $4,780. Its latest estimate raised that to $5,510 — a 15% increase. All these numbers are up even more from the CBO's original forecast made in 2010, which had the first-year subsidy average at $3,970.

The CBO also expects 7 million workers will lose their employer coverage due to ObamaCare, almost twice as many as it had previously said would be dumped. It expects tax penalties on individuals and companies who don't buy insurance to be $36 billion higher from 2014 to 2019 than it originally forecast...

[And a] report out this week by the American Action Forum concluded that ObamaCare could nearly triple the cost of a relatively bare-bones insurance policy for younger workers. Should that occur, it would raise costs to those not eligible for subsidies and further inflate the taxpayer cost of the insurance exchanges.

The lunacy of passing an enormous new entitlement when Social Security and Medicare are headed for immediate collapse should be self-evident.

That said, over the last month, we've also found the following salient facts about Obamacare:

• According to Robert Gibbs and Paul Krugman, there really are Death Panels.

• If you like your health care plans, 7 million of you won't be able to keep your health care plans.

• And up to 500,000 children will be dropped from their current health insurance plans because of a "glitch" in Obamacare itself.

And to think: the law really hasn't even kicked in yet and it's already collapsing under its own weight.

Perhaps next time, the would-be dictators and tyrants on the Left could actually allow Americans to read the damn bill before passing it. Or is that too much to ask?


Innovative White House Re-branding Efforts Yield Wide Acceptance of Assassination Drones by Progressive Left

The White House has successfully rebranded the drones flying over theaters of war and the United States itself.


The administration has positioned the drones as a "women's rights" issue.

That's right.

The drones are now called "Plan A", and the White House says they simply deliver extremely late-term abortions with surgical precision.

Which makes all of this okay in the eyes of the Democrat-federal leviathan-media complex.


FIREARMS UPDATE: New Mags Starting to Trickle In

In December, anticipating the frenzy that has become the great gun-grab of 2013, I ordered 10 high-cap mags of varying sizes I needed. I guess I didn't anticipate quickly enough. As of today, I've now received exactly half of the 10. These three arrived today (5.56-30, 92FS-15 and G19-15). The good news is that these were ordered before the frenzy began, thus the prices weren't jacked.


One would hope that manufacturers are starting to catch up, but I'm not convinced yet.


*Note gratuitous product placements of books by Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, and Trevor Loudon, to name but a few.

Look, I'm no designer...

...but here's my attempt at a T-shirt design.


Recognize the shape?

Larwyn's Linx: How Do You Spell ‘Retaliation’?

Send us tips! Bloggers: install a Larwyn's Linx widget. Get real-time news, 24/7, at BadBlue.

Nation

How Do You Spell ‘Retaliation’?: Kimball
WH: Drones can target Americans based on one official's opinion: HA
Holder: Half of U.S. Rating Agencies Accountable for Financial Crisis: ZH

Waterboarding Bad, Assassination Good: NRO
Who Were the Geniuses Who Came Up With That One?: Knish
Rove vs. the Tea Party: Shapiro

Economy

Let the Sequester Stand: Virtuous
HHS Mandate ‘remains unnecessary, coercive, and gravely flawed’: Lopez
Obamacare: 7 million will lose job-based health care insurance: GWP

More Welfare Abuse: EBT Still Being Used In Bars, for Lap Dances: MenRec
Is Government Eyeing 401(k) and IRAs?: MagNote
CBO Releases Latest Budget Forecast: Hilarity Ensues: ZH

Unions Want Taxpayer Subsidies for Obamacare Costs: Foundry
Argentina's "Anti-Inflation" Price Controls a Preview for America: ZH
Big Government Is Coming for Your Retirement Savings: Sentinel

Scandal Central

The Company Sen. Sleaze-Bob Menendez Keeps: Malkin
The Menendez Dilemma: AmSpec
Stuxnet Leak Came From Obamas Inner Circle – a Tiny Universe of Individuals: FBI Investigating: MagNote

Gun Owners We Are In The Fight of Our Lives – Right to Carry Rally & March: Ammoland
Obama's Three Cover-Ups: Morris
Colorado: The Assault on the Second Amendment Commences: NRAILA

Climate & Energy

Imagination Adventures with the EPA: NRO
GOP lawmaker threatens battle over EPA regulation: Hill

Media

Why Are We Discussing Skeet Shooting While the Government Seeks to Disarm Us?: Humphries
Here's That Video of Touré Defending Obama's 'License to Kill' Drone Strike Memo: AmPower
Ban This! Ban That! Ban This and That!: Stossel

Coulter's Warning: GWP
Washington Post: Critics of Michelle’s Oversized Posterior are Racist: Dossier
As Andrew Cuomo's Poll Numbers 'Crumble,' Chris Matthews Frets: 'Is Anybody Safe from the NRA?': MRC

Let's Organize a Search Party and Find WaPo's Greg Sargent: Owens
Ron Paul Clarifies: I Meant What I Said About Chris Kyle and Yes That Was Me: Ace
Lie of the Decade: Sexton

Enemies of the Constitution – Progressives, Liberals, & Marxists: Ammoland
Disgusting… Leftists Teach Three Year-Olds to Chant “Union Power” and “Transgender Rights”: GWP
Court: NYTimes's Request for New York City Gun Owners Violates Law: WS

World

Charlottesville, VA Becomes First City to Pass Anti-Drone Resolution: Marfdrat
How Obama Decides to Kill American Citizens in the War on Terror: AtlWire
North Korea video shows US city in flames after missile attack: Guardian

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue.com/Tech)

Microsoft's CEO is wrong about Office for iOS: Here's why: PC World
‘Radio Buy Buttons’ found in iOS 6.1 via newly jailbroken iPads, could mean new functionality coming: 9to5Mac
It's official: Dell's going private in $24.4B deal: CNet

Cornucopia

Taliban to Send Peace-Keeping Advisers to Chicago: Cube
FOREWARD! All aboard Obama’s high speed intercontinental train.: MOTUS
Bats*** Crazy Love: Zilla

Manly Soaps (NSFW): Knuckledraggin
Seems Legit: American Digest
Here's the guy responsible for the Superbowl power outage: Wizbang

Image: The Morlock Revolt
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Hugging Michael Moore - Help Fund the Movie

QOTD: "Melgen has been a generous political contributor to Menendez’s campaign, and reportedly donated more than $60,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee during Menendez’s tenure as DSCC chairman. Melgen is an affluent eye doctor and businessman whose friendship with Menendez dates back to the 1990s, and the New Jersey senator has admitted that he flew to the Dominican Republic aboard Melgen’s private jet. Exactly what Menendez did during his stays at Melgen’s mansion at Casa de Campo, a seaside luxury resort development, is a matter of dispute. At least one Dominican prostitute reportedly said last year that Menendez participated in a series of sex parties arranged by Melgen. “That senator also likes the youngest and newest girls,” the woman said in an April e-mail forwarded by the tipster and translated by the Daily Caller. The woman, whose services were reportedly acquired through an escort service called “The Doll Palace,” wrote that she had three trysts with Menendez in 2009: “The first one in February, and then in May and June. I recall his visit in June so well because that month was my 17th birthday.”

This is certainly a serious allegation because, while prostitution is legal in the Dominican Republic, having sex with 16-year-olds is definitely against the law. Yet Menendez insists that he never had sex with anyone at any time during his Dominican trips. “Now, nobody can find [the prostitutes],” Menendez told CNN’s Bash in their Monday interview. “No one ever met them. No one ever talked to them, but that’s where we’re at. So the bottom line is all of those smears are absolutely false and, you know, that’s the bottom line.”

Again, however, the Menendez denial is false. Matthew Boyle says he interviewed two of the women last year, and Boyle is adamant in his belief that these accusers were telling the truth. This presents a rather tricky dilemma for any journalist: Who is more trustworthy, a Dominican prostitute or a New Jersey Democrat?" --Robert Stacy McCain

Tuesday, February 05, 2013

MASSACHUSETTS EMULATES CHICAGO: 1998 Gun-Ban Law Made It Safe For Criminals, Spiking Murders and Violent Crime

Democrats like to say "If we can only save one life." In that case, they should support concealed carry everywhere.

Massachusetts' murder rate has risen much faster than that of its neighbors or the US rate since the 1998 firearms licensing bill


Massachusetts has a national reputation as a bastion of gun control, but crimes and injuries related to firearms have risen — sometimes dramatically — since the state passed a comprehensive package of gun laws in 1998.

Murders committed with firearms have increased significantly, aggravated assaults and robberies involving guns have risen, and gunshot injuries are up, according to FBI and state data.

...In 2011, Massachusetts recorded 122 murders committed with firearms, a striking increase from the 65 in 1998, said Fox, the Northeastern professor. Nationwide, such murders increased only 3 percent from 1999 to 2010, the CDC says.

There were increases in other crimes involving guns in Massachusetts, too. From 1998 to 2011, aggravated assaults with guns rose 26.7 percent. Robberies with firearms increased 20.7 percent during that period, according to an FBI analysis conducted for the Globe...

The pointy-head academics like to blame neighboring states on their totalitarian failures. In that case, I would ask, why is Indianapolis significantly less violent than Chicago? And why are New Hampshire and Vermont safer than Massachusetts?


Hat tip: BadBlue Guns.

WHEN MEN WERE MEN: And Democrats Were Americans

Remember when American legislators actually read and understood the Constitution?

Photo from the May 1940 weapons testing at Fort Belvoir. From left to right, Senator Lundeen (MN, Farmer-Labor) with a Johnson rifle, Rep. Snyder (PA, Democrat) with an M1928A1 Thompson, and Senator Thomas (OK, Democrat) with an M1 Garand.

Yeah, I know. I don't remember that era of patriotic Democrats either.


Quantitative Easing for Dummies. And Paul Krugman.

When asked to describe "quantitative easing" (or QE) to novice investors, Chris Martenson offers a simplified definition: a few clicks on a computer keyboard, and the Federal Reserve has (*poof*!) created billions of dollars with which to purchase Treasury debt and mortgage-backed securities.

His summary, however, should send chills down your spine.

...we are living through the largest and most outlandish monetary experiment ever conducted by humans upon themselves. These are extraordinary times, and no matter how many times the mainstream press tries to convince you that a rising stock market or a rebounding housing market implies that we are returning to healthy economic balance, don't fall for it.

The Fed is in uncharted territory, having created a monster it can no longer control. In the process, it is blowing new asset bubbles that are benefitting those with first access to the newly-printed money (banks and corporations) at the expense of savers, pensioners, and anyone exercising fiscal prudence. This, of course, is creating a vast and growing inequality between the top 1% and everyone else.

When this misadventure in monetary policy ends, as both math and history says it must, it will be messy, uncontrolled, and very painful for holders of just about every sort of finanical instrument out there (stocks, bonds, derivatives, etc). That's why understanding the root causes and risks of QE is so important, in order to identify the best shelters for protecting the purchasing power of your wealth through this transition...

Martenson has five key takeaways:

• Money-printing by the Fed has created new bubbles in certain asset classes, like stocks;

• Excess reserves on banks' balance sheets hold a significant risk of triggering "explosive inflation"

• The Fed may be powerless to stop the QE spigot without risk to the system

• The mathematics will trump political considerations: a correction will occur and, with it, "massive financial dislocation"

• Hard currency assets (like gold) will, in Martenson's view, help alleviate some of the risks.

The people have spoken! Hope! Change!


Hat tip: BadBlue Money.

The Top 10 Innovations of All Time?

Innovation Excellence's Braden Kelley ranks his top 10 innovations of all time and I don't disagree with either his rankings or the rationale behind them.

Accelerating Innovation Requires Accelerating Knowledge and Insight

...It is my contention that the pace of innovation accelerates when the speed of knowledge sharing accelerates, that knowledge acceleration leads to innovation acceleration. As we have developed more efficient ways of accelerating the pace of knowledge sharing, our pace of innovation has sped up.

It is shocking to think that if you go back only two hundred years as a species we had no idea how disease was transmitted, couldn’t send a message from one side of an ocean to another without using a ship, and that most human beings on this planet would not travel farther than 50 miles from the place of their birth during their lifetime.
Now we can travel to outer space, levitate objects using sound or magnetism, create life, destroy whole cities in an instant, build things smaller than the width of a human hair, and do some other things that even twenty years ago would have seemed impossible...

...We are inventing and innovating today at an astonishing rate, and for companies or nations that want to outpace their competition, they should be laser-focused on accelerating the pace of knowledge sharing if they are intent on being faster and more efficient than their competition at innovation... It is because of these important linkages that I believe the below ten items are the Top 10 Innovations of All Time:

  1. Paper (105AD – Europe 10th century – Germany 1400)
  2. Printing Press (1450)
  3. Telegraph (1837)
  4. Telephone (1876)
  5. Modern Public Library (1850-1945 depending on country)
  6. Commercial Radio (1920)
  7. Commercial Television (1936 UK, 1948 US)
  8. World Wide Web (1991)
  9. Wikipedia (2001)
  10. YouTube (2005)

Kelley includes some cautionary notes about over-reliance on technology. But the theme is clear.

"Information diffusion" -- transforming the methods by which ideas are disseminated and thereby accelerating human collaboration -- is the meta-innovation that facilitates nearly all other useful inventions.


Hat tip: BadBlue Tech News.

Paul Krugman channels Sarah Palin, admits Death Panels will be required to keep Obamacare solvent

I'm guessing that Sparky McEnron didn't realize he was being videotaped:

Eventually we do have a problem. That the population is getting older, health care costs are rising... there is this question of how we’re going to pay for the programs. The year 2025, the year 2030, something is going to have to give...

We’re going to need more revenue... Surely it will require some sort of middle class taxes as well... We won’t be able to pay for the kind of government the society will want without some increase in taxes... on the middle class, maybe a value added tax...

And we’re also going to have to make decisions about health care, doc pay for health care that has no demonstrated medical benefits.

So the snarky version... which I shouldn’t even say because it will get me in trouble is death panels and sales taxes is how we do this.

"Death panels and sales taxes is how we do this"?

Say, I wonder if the ill-named "Politifact" will formally apologize for calling Sarah Palin's reference to Obamamcare's death panels its 2009 "Lie of the Year", when it's now been verified by President Obama's favorite economist?

Or if The Chicago Tribune, which also called Palin's assertions "lies", will issue a formal retraction?

Or if Obama apologist Glenn Kessler, the Washington Post's error-prone "Fact Checker", will change his "Four Pinocchio" rating to "Fact"?

Or whether the Huffington Post, Politico, Jezebel, Forbes' Peter Ubel, the execrable New Republic and Mediaite (to name but a few) will issue written statements of regret to Palin for their incessant denials of provable fact?

Krugman's not the only Obama apparatchik to admit that death panels exist; Steven Rattner, former Obama czar, has also confirmed that Obamacare will require Death Panels to ration care as the population ages.

Death Panels are real and everyone -- including Obama's advisers -- know it.