Saturday, January 04, 2014

DEMOCRAT LOGIC COMIX: Reichstag Edition

Another one from Biff Spackle:



Hat tip: Liberal Logic 101.

Archdiocese of New York: Obamacare exemptions granted to any and all... except those with Judeo-Christian beliefs

Ed Mechmann of the Archdiocese of New York has some astute observations regarding faith and Obamacare.

How can you diagnose when somebody is suffering from ideological obsession?

Consider the case of the Affordable Care Act. This law was supposed to provide for universal health insurance for all Americans. Yet the law is filled with exemptions, and the Administration has granted even more exceptions and exemptions as the implementation date for the law approached on New Year’s Day.

Here are just a few of the exemptions that were incorporated in the law itself: people who can’t afford coverage, even with a subsidy; people with income levels too low to require filing a federal tax return; members of certain Indian tribes; people who can claim a hardship; people who will have a short gap in their coverage; members of certain religious groups that conscientiously oppose insurance benefit programs (e.g., the Amish); members of a “health care sharing ministry”; people in prison; and people who are not lawfully in the United States.

In the last few months, with all the mess associated with the new health exchange websites, and all the other chaos associated with the law, the Administration has granted new exemptions: people whose plans were cancelled can get a plan that is not compliant with the ACA; people who weren’t able to comply because of difficulties in signing up for a new plan won’t be penalized; and large businesses with over 50 employees will not be fined for failing to provide any health insurance.

Now, many of these exemptions make perfect sense, and reflect a healthy degree of flexibility in the implementation of a very complex law.

So, what does this have to do with ideology? Well, despite all those other exemptions, waivers and extensions, one group has not been able to obtain an exemption, despite repeatedly asking for it, petitioning for it, and finally suing for it — religious organizations that have a moral objection to facilitating contraception, sterilization, and abortion, as would be required under the so-called HHS Mandate.

For these groups, there is no flexibility at all. There is instead an adamant insistence that they will have to cooperate, regardless of their deeply-held religious beliefs. The Amish get out of the law entirely, but when it comes to Catholic dioceses, schools and charities agencies, the government offers nothing except artificial and unsatisfactory “accommodations”.

Consider the absurdity of the government’s position. As pointed out by Archbishop Kurtz, the president of the U.S. Bishops, under the Administration’s current policies, large businesses will be able to completely eliminate any health insurance for their employees, with no fine at all, but religious organizations that refuse to cooperate with moral evil will be subject to crippling fines of $100 per day per employee. The government won’t even grant temporary respite while legal challenges are working their way through the courts. They can’t even bring themselves to give a break to the Little Sisters of the Poor, who spend their entire lives caring for needy elderly people.

Why is this? It’s not that hard to understand. The current Administration is entirely beholden to an ideology of sexual liberationism that considers contraception, sterilization and abortion to be “sacred ground”. They consider this ideology to be so central to life that they will brook no opposition, and will do whatever it takes to bring to heel anyone who opposes them.

That is an ideological obsession. It is dangerous to the souls of those who suffer from it, and it is dangerous to any society in which they wield power.


Gee, I wonder why the Obama administration would be so dead-set against granting exemptions to those with Judeo-Christian beliefs?

And let me guess: the Archdiocese of New York will now be tarred as right-wing, racist, tea-bagging extremists by the kooks on the left and MSNBC. But I repeat myself.


Hat tip: Ace.

The New York Times Shreds Obama

Guest post by Caroline Glick

The New York Times just delivered a mortal blow to the Obama administration and its Middle East policy. Call it fratricide. It was clearly unintentional. Indeed, is far from clear that the paper realizes what it has done.

Last Saturday the Times published an 8,000-word account by David Kirkpatrick detailing the terrorist strike against the US Consulate and the CIA annex in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11, 2012. In it, Kirkpatrick tore to shreds the foundations of President Barack Obama’s counterterrorism strategy and his overall policy in the Middle East.

Obama first enunciated those foundations in his June 4, 2009, speech to the Muslim world at Cairo University. Ever since, they have been the rationale behind US counterterror strategy and US Middle East policy.

Obama’s first assertion is that radical Islam is not inherently hostile to the US. As a consequence, America can appease radical Islamists. Moreover, once radical Muslims are appeased, they will become US allies, (replacing the allies the US abandons to appease the radical Muslims).

Obama’s second strategic guidepost is his claim that the only Islamic group that is a bona fide terrorist organization is the faction of al-Qaida directly subordinate to Osama bin Laden’s successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri. Only this group cannot be appeased and must be destroyed through force.

The administration has dubbed the Zawahiri faction of al-Qaida “core al-Qaida.” And anyone who operates in the name of al-Qaida, or any other group that does not have courtroom-certified operational links to Zawahiri, is not really al-Qaida, and therefore, not really a terrorist group or a US enemy.

These foundations have led the US to negotiate with the Taliban in Afghanistan. They are the rationale for the US’s embrace of the Muslim Brotherhood worldwide. They are the basis for Obama’s allegiance to Turkey’s Islamist government, and his early support for the Muslim Brotherhood-dominated Syrian opposition.

They are the basis for the administration’s kneejerk support for the PLO against Israel.

Larwyn's Linx: Obamacare: Frustrated Patients Walk Out of Hospitals Without Treatment

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Nation

Frustrated Patients Walk Out of Hospitals Without Treatment: Tammy Bruce
Welcome To Reality, IDIOTS!: Market Ticker
Obamacare Has No Financial Controls Whatsoever: RS

11 state attorneys general say Obamacare fixes illegal: BPR
CA Lacks the Docs To Meet the Demand Of ObamaCare: S&L
Obamacare system fails to account for human reproduction: Moe Lane

ObamaCare Scam Collapsing as Uninsured Realize How Little it Offers: FPM
Make Obamacare Voluntary: Phil Kerpen
Your daily ObamaCare horror story: Protein Wisdom

Economy

An American Depression: Extreme Haircut Edition: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton
Stop the Bailout -- Now: Charles Krauthammer
Congress Throws Veterans Under The Bus For Illegal Immigrants: John Hawkins

Death, Taxes, and Obamacare: Erick Erickson
5 Ways Liberal Obsession With Income Inequality Hurts Poor: John Hawkins
10 Things to Watch in Congress in 2014: Bill Straub

Scandal Central

Washington’s “Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians” for 2013: JW
Rand Paul to Lead Class-Action Lawsuit Against Obama Administration: Breitbart
The DOJ is about to spend half a million on LinkedIn: NakedDC

Climate & Energy

U.S. Taxpayers Funded $7.45 Billion Helping Other Countries Deal With “Climate Change”: WZ
As Temperatures Plunge, Experts Declare Global Warming Is Getting Worse: MB
Polar Vortex – It’s colder in Canada than it is on Mars – But I thought Global Warming?: FAM

Media

Let us send our daughters to die in battle for the sake of gender neutrality!: Matt Walsh
J’Accuse the Ultimate Anti-Semite (Update): The “As a Jew” Meme Returns: Liberty's Spirit
Self-Esteem Begat the Selfie Generation: MOTUS

World

Heading South: Mark Steyn
This is called "quan jue", or execution by dogs: Blazing Cat Fur
Al Qaeda Captures Fallujah, Proclaims It An Islamic State: RWN

I’m glad my son’s murderers have not been found: Sherri Mandell
Allah Akbar and Ho, Ho, Ho: Blogmocracy
NYU Prof to Head ASA, Supports Israel Boycott: Joshua Levitt

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

Eye-Controlled Gaming May Be Closer Than It Appears: Richard Adhikari
Is Republic Wireless too good to be true?: Maguerite Reardon
New research on King Tut's genitals could point to ancient religious rift: Josh Lowensohn

Cornucopia

It's Up to Us: Adrienne
It's Thick: RWN
A&E spinoffs: Dyke Dynasty, Schmuck Dynasty, Lame Duck...: Cube

Image: A&E spinoffs: Dyke Dynasty, Schmuck Dynasty, Lame Duck...
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Please Support the Senate Conservatives Fund

QOTD: "First, it postponed the employer mandate. Then it exempted from the individual mandate people whose policies were canceled (by Obamacare). And for those who did join the exchanges, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is “strongly encouraging” insurers — during the “transition” — to cover doctors and drugs not included in their clients’ plans.

The insurers were stunned. Told to give free coverage. Deprived of their best customers. Forced to offer stripped-down “catastrophic” plans to people age 30 and over (contrary to the law). These dictates, complained an insurance industry spokesman, could “destabilize” the insurance market.

Translation: How are we going to survive this? Shrinking revenues and rising costs could bring on the “death spiral” — an unbalanced patient pool forcing huge premium increases (to restore revenue) that would further unbalance the patient pool as the young and healthy drop out.

End result? Insolvency — before which the insurance companies will pull out of Obamacare.

Solution? A huge government bailout. It’s Obamacare’s escape hatch. And — surprise, surprise — it’s already baked into the law.

Which is why the GOP needs to act [to ban any bailout of insurers]... Such a bill would be overwhelmingly popular because Americans hate fat-cat bailouts of any kind. Why should their tax dollars be spent not only saving giant insurers but also rescuing this unworkable, unbalanced, unstable, unpopular money-pit of a health-care scheme?" --Charles Krauthammer

Friday, January 03, 2014

Obama Administration Scandal Responses, Illustrated

I'm reminded of Sgt. Schultz:



Hat tip: Tom Fernandez

Al Gore Makes Himself Scarce

I have an APB out for fat boy.



Maybe someone nearby can visit Al Gore's mansion in California (one of at least three massive residences) and ask him.


GREAT JOB, ENVIRO-KOOKS: Derailment of Oil-Laden Train Confirms Need for Keystone Pipeline

Guest post by Investor's Business Daily

Energy Policy: An oil-laden train collides with another and bursts into flames in a small American town, proving why pipelines are safer and why environmentalist opposition to a pipeline from Canada is misguided.

Casselton, N.D., had a near brush with tragedy after a train of tank cars carrying crude oil derailed, resulting in fiery explosions and a call from the town's mayor for a re-examination of how such fuel is transported across the United States.

The railroad runs right through the middle of Casselton, a town of 2,400 people about 25 miles west of Fargo, and Mayor Ed McConnell said dozens of people could have been killed had the derailments had occurred in the town, not just outside.

It's time, he said, to "have a conversation" with federal lawmakers about the dangers of transporting oil by rail.

"There have been numerous derailments in this area," he told the Associated Press. "It's almost gotten to the point that it looks like not if we're going to have an accident, it's when. We dodged a bullet by having it out of town, but this is too close for comfort."

Thanks to a boom in oil production in the Bakken shale formation that runs underneath the state, North Dakota has become the No. 2 oil-producing state in the nation. It's creating a lot of the kind of high-paying jobs that the rest of America desperately wants — and needs.

An estimated 11 to 12 crude-oil unit trains depart daily from the oil region in western North Dakota. Due to lack of pipelines, some 69% of the state's oil is currently shipped to market by rail.

The state's top oil regulator has said as much as 90% of North Dakota's oil is to be carried by train in 2014.

THE ADVENTURES OF PAJAMABOY: Woof!

Another Biff Spackle exclusive.



Hat tip: Papa B.

Larwyn's Linx: Iowa man continues to go blind, thanks to Obamacare

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Nation

Iowa man continues to go blind, thanks to Obamacare: Moe Lane
Impervious To Evidence, Liberals Ride Again: Mona Charen
Karl Rove and the GOP Socialists: Jeffrey Lord

Becoming the New Barbarians: Western Rifles
The Unconstitutional State: David Codrea
Shocking no one with a brain, study shows CCW reduces murders: Bob Owens

Liberal black leaders wage “war on women” over judges: Allen West
We Need To Talk About Bill De Blasio: Glob
Question o' the day: Would you comply?: AWD

Obama Request To Release Radical Leftist Lawyer Lynne Stewart Granted: WZ
What 2014 Will Look Like Under Obama – Warning, It’s Not Pretty: Sara Noble
The Roberts Trap Is Sprung: Bill Dunne

Economy

Inflation, Illustrated: Outcast
Obama Admin Deported Fewer than 0.2% of Illegals in 2013: TPNN
OR Mother: I Can’t Afford Obamacare For Myself, 1-Year-Old: CBS Seattle

Will: If Labor Force Rate at '07 Levels, Unemployment's Really at 11.3%: RCP
Obamacare Goes Live: Here Is The Next Big Problem: ZH
Showtime for Obamacare: Ellison Barber

Scandal Central

Ten 2013 stories that should make news in 2014: Sharyl Attkisson
White House slams Daily Caller report on Obamacare enrollment: Neil Munro
Will the Supreme Court Review the NSA’s Telephony Metadata Program?: Orin Kerr

Climate & Energy

Climate Change, Theory vs Reality in One Image: DTG
HuffPo: Global Warming To Make Earth “Unlivable” By 2050: WZ
Global Warming 2014: Massive Blizzards, Winnipeg Colder Than Mars: Daily Mail

Media

Girl Scouts Suggest Abortion Activist Wendy Davis for “Woman of the Year”: Steven Ertelt
Obama and Oprah: Two that Aren’t Kind: David Lawrence
Homosexuality: The Straight Dope (via Taki Magazine): SaberPoint

It Begins: Michael Moore Says Obamacare is Awful, Calls for Single Payer: AllAm
New Ads Target Senators: ‘It’s Time to Be Honest: ObamaCare Doesn’t Work’: R.S. McCain
WABC Throws Down the Gauntlet in NYC Talk Radio War: Leather Penguin

Answering Liberal Race Exploitation: David Limbaugh
Professor: Obamacare Failed Only Because of Racist "Southern White Radicals": Ace
Intervention to Cure Black Friend's Addiction -- to Liberalism: Larry Elder

World

Obama’s Afghanistan Mess: Michelle Malkin
Britain wants its guns back: Commentator
What Does the Bahrain Weapons Seizure Mean?: Michael Rubin

2014 = 1914?: Bring the heat
Democracy And Peace Pushed Farther Away: Michael Barone
White House Treats Obama’s Golf Summit Like Oval Office Meeting: Bridget Johnson

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

Latest NSA Leak Nears Science Fiction Levels: Brian Resnick, Marina Koren
Facebook sued for allegedly intercepting private messages: Jennifer Van Grove
FireEye buys Mandiant for nearly $1 billion to stamp out cyber attacks: Zach Miners

Cornucopia

How About a Little Sugar?: EBL
Progress notes on my "plywood gun," an ar-15 which holds a .308 winchester mag: Winter Soldier
Secret Service Leaks: A Look at The Presidents Behind The Façade, Pictures, and Videos: Angle

Image: Northeast Weather Radar
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Please Support the Senate Conservatives Fund

QOTD: "The real reason [the establishment GOP] will be out there trying to defeat Reaganite conservatives/Tea Partier candidates is precisely because these candidates in victory have shown themselves to be a direct threat to the Washington way of doing business. So job one for the GOP Establishment is to deliberately pick Republican socialist candidates — candidates who are perfectly happy to talk the talk but once in Washington will refuse flatly to do what they promised to do.

As the 2014 election year proceeds, we will have many opportunities to spot these Republican Socialist candidates and their backers at work out there, just as our friends at Breitbart put a spotlight on the behind-the-scenes machinations of American Crossroads in the Kentucky Senate race.

The 2014 elections should be a bumper year for the GOP.

But it will quickly turn to disaster if those who are intent on making this year a victory for Republican Socialism get their way — and in turn drive the Reagan conservative base away from the polls." --Jeffrey Lord

Thursday, January 02, 2014

The Greatest Threat to the Nation

Guest post by Richard Larsen

Our economy, and personal liberty, are under assault in America, The threat to the country is much more stealthy and incremental than that faced by our nation’s founders two centuries ago. According to a Gallup poll this past week, 72% of Americans see the burgeoning power of the federal government as our greatest threat. This should serve as a wakeup call to the statists in Washington who are continuously expanding the role of government in micromanaging our lives.

Much of this expanded control comes in the form of regulation. Since 1993, over 1.43 million pages have been added to the Federal Register that includes all new regulations, regulatory revisions, and presidential documents. The passage and implementation of the “Affordable Care Act” alone has added 10,516 pages to the Federal Register; that’s more than eight times the length of the Bible.

The Competitive Enterprise Institute’s (CEI) 20th edition of “Ten Thousand Commandments,” which explicates the impact of the mountainous stacks of regulation on the country, estimates the cost burden of all this regulation at $1.8 trillion per year. To put that figure in perspective, that’s more than half the size of the federal budget, and nearly 12% of the entire U.S. economy.

The cost to the government in enforcing regulation is not that great, a relatively paltry $55.4 billion in 2010, according to the CEI. That allocation of the federal budget covers most of the cost of federal agencies and regulatory enforcement. By far, the greater cost is to the economy, and in abrogated liberty, whittling incrementally away at our individual freedom.

Kim Jong-Fun Comix

With a tip o' the fur hat to People's Cube:



Extremely rare photo of Obama found

Via the exceptional Andrew Malcolm of Investor's Business Daily:


BUT I THOUGHT WE WERE IN A RECOVERY: Chart illustrates cruel, draconian proposed cuts to food stamps

Spotted at the invaluable Heritage Foundation:

Food stamp spending is at historic highs—it has doubled twice since 2000. Now some on Capitol Hill say the House is trying to make major cuts to the program, but they’re really making some much-needed policy reforms that would achieve modest savings.


The House bill proposes a small 5 percent reduction, while the Senate proposes a mere one-half of 1 percent. Even if the House’s reforms are accepted, food stamp spending is projected to be nearly double 2008 levels. It is also projected to remain at or near historical highs into the foreseeable future.

The House’s savings come from closing loopholes and ending policies that are currently undermining the integrity of the program. These policies have allowed states to artificially boost food stamp levels and expand the program beyond its intended population. While the House takes steps in the right direction to reform food stamps, the Senate does [almost nothing].

Food stamps should be reformed to ensure that the program is serving those it is intended to serve. It should also be reformed to promote self-sufficiency through work, thus helping those who are able by encouraging self-sufficiency.

Let me put this in terms even progressives can understand: either the economy is recovering, in which case we can slash food stamps... or we're still in the Obama Depression.

Which is it, dimwits?


Hat tip: Liberal Logic 101.

Female Israeli Soldiers Who Shattered Barriers in 2013

I'm only interested because, uhm, of my, eh, research into various military forces of the world:


See the complete list at the IDF Blog.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

Larwyn's Linx: The Enigma of Barack Obama

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

Nation

The Enigma of Barack Obama: Michael Walsh
No, 2.1 million haven't enrolled in Obamacare plans: Philip Klein
WH Now Pretending Obamacare Enrollment Goal Never Existed: Noah Rothman

‘Checks and balances’ is now called ‘obstructionism’: Renee Nal
The Republican ‘Agenda’ — and the Youth Vote: Larry Elder
That Dude DiBlasio Got Inaugurated As Mayor Of NYC Today: HayRide

Bet This Will P!ss Ya Off: This Ain't Hell
Judge Upholds Most of NY SAFE Act: Bob Owens
The irony: Chicago cops ordered to register all their guns: GSL

Economy

The War On Poverty At 50: Cal Thomas
Common Core: John Stossel
Obama To Americans: You Don’t Deserve To Be Free: Instapundit

Scandal Central

Two Most Admired People of 2013: Onan Coca
It's official: Obamacare caused more cancelled plans than enrollments: Rick Moran
NYT Tries to Clean up Benghazi for Hillary: “What Difference Does it Make Now?”: MagNote

Climate & Energy

Fossil Fuels To The Rescue Of The Climate Alarmists: LoneCon
IPCC silently slashes its global warming predictions in the AR5 final draft: WUWT
Economist Blames Global Warming For Ice Trapping Climate Change Fanatics In Antarctica: WZ

Letter Re: The Bakken Oil Development has Ended the Peak Oil Debate: SurvivalBlog
President Obie: Daniel Greenfield
Wondering how stupid 2014 is already? This stupid.: Twitchy

Media

The five worst op-eds of 2013: Gene Healy
Hollywood's War On Religion Rages On with Kevin Smith's 'Christzilla' Movie: Yehuda Remer
Ya Gotta Love Matt Drudge: Instapundit

Readers Picks for The Top Ten Stories of the Year 2013: The Lid
‘The Central Prob. of Obamacare Will Not Yield to Technical or Rhetorical Solutions’: R.S. McCain
Libs furious that Obama names black woman Republican as federal judge: BPR

David Kirkpatrick of the New York Times Doubles Down on Bogus: Power Line
Year of the Dud: Victor Davis Hanson
Ready or not, Obamacare coverage begins: RedAlert

World

Revealed, the U.S. hate preacher who inspired murderer of Lee Rigby: Exposing
UN declares 2014 the ‘Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People’: RT
"Palestinian" Ambassador Reportedly Killed by Own Explosives: Atlas

Hagel Deployed to Press Egypt on Being ‘Inclusive’ Toward Muslim Brotherhood: Bridget Johnson
Hamas-linked CAIR to hold symposium on "Islamophobia": JihadWatch
Legendary Anti-Communist Lech Walesa: Obama Failed, “America No Longer Leads The World”: WZ

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

Skype Social Media Accounts Hacked by Syrian Electronic Army: WSJ
Apple Denies NSA Backdoor For iPhone: Appy-Geek
New MIT Technology Allows 3D Image Interaction: ABC

Cornucopia

Ten Years of Nonsense: Asylum Movie Pitches: Ace
Happy New Year! And a brief review of 2013’s Dark Energy: MOTUS
Hostility to Truth-Telling: Gates of Vienna

Image: The Viral Photo out of CT that's given some gun owners chills
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Please Support the Senate Conservatives Fund

QOTD: "Gregory Hicks hearing the last words of Ambassador Stevens to the outside world was told, ‘We’re under attack.”‘And under oath when asked, if you — if the ambassador had seen a protest or anything else earlier, would he have reported it, he said ‘Of course, yes.

The fact is people from this administration, career professionals, have said under oath there was no evidence of any kind of a reaction to a video and, in fact, this was a planned attack that came quickly. That’s the evidence we have by people who work for the U.S. government and were under oath.” --Rep. Darrell Issa

Wednesday, January 01, 2014

HILARITY: Global Cooling Deniers Trapped in Arctic Ice That They Said Didn't Exist; Al Gore Hardest Hit

Guest post by Investor's Business Daily

Cold Climate: In an event chock-full of bitterly cold irony, perhaps even Al Gore has noticed that multiple icebreakers couldn't free a boat stuck in Antarctic ice that global warming was supposed to have melted.

Few of the media reports on the plight of the Russian-flagged research vessel MV Akademik Schokalskiy have noted the irony of a ship full of climate scientists getting stuck in an Antarctic ice sheet so thick that early attempts at breaking through the ice to free them were failures.

"We're stuck in our own experiment," the Australasian Antarctic Expedition said in a statement. "We came to Antarctica to study how one of the biggest icebergs in the world has altered the system by trapping ice. We ... are now ourselves trapped by ice surrounding our ship."

In a statement only climate-change die-hards could make, the group said, "Sea ice is disappearing due to climate change, but here ice is building up."

A Chinese icebreaker was unable to reach the ship, and another vessel, the Australian icebreaker Aurora Australis, got within 10 nautical miles of the stranded ship but couldn't see it through a driving blizzard and had to turn back to open water, Fox News reported.

A makeshift helicopter pad on the ice sheet was being readied for a helicopter rescue.

Concealed Carry: Through the Eyes of a Criminal

Immutable truths, illustrated by Biff Spackle:



Hat tip: BadBlue Gun News.

Commander-In-Chief Comix

Biff Spackle illustrates a comment by Atlas reader Walt:


I wonder what Melissa Harris-Tampon-Perry thinks about pointing these kinds of facts out?


Larwyn's Linx: Where Do We Go From Here America?       Will There Be Anything Left?

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

Nation

Where Do We Go From Here America? Will There Be Anything Left?: Sher Zieve
Parting Company: Walter Williams
NSA Spying: Herschel Smith

The Viral Photo out of CT that's given some gun owners chills: Blaze
There Ain’t No More Middle-Ground: Daniel Greenfield
"The state police (are) investigating.": SSI

The Year Washington Fled Reality: Sen. Tom Coburn
Bush Approach to Government – Noise Based on Ignorance: Jen Kuznicki
Bloomberg leaves office today, protected by firearms: Chris Cox

Economy

Hit Piece Journalism: Thomas Sowell
Chicago: The Next Detroit: Ushanka
What to expect in 2014: Ben Shapiro

The Progressive Agenda Crashes into Complexity: J.R. Dunn
Obamacare's Biggest Whopper: Betsy McCaughey
Obama notes buying a second dog as an accomplishment for 2013: BPR

Scandal Central

Yet Another Eric Holder, Fast & Furious Gun Turns up at Deadly Shooting: Blaze
Obama's Knockout Game: Crockett Lives
Newark mayoral hopeful Ras Baraka wrote letters on behalf of notorious gang boss: WyBlog

Climate & Energy

A Few Easy Tests to Debunk Global Warming Hysteria: Chet Richards
Media cover-up: warmist scientists trapped by ice are just “tourists”: Blazing Cat Fur
That's A Lot Of Quid Pro Quo Going Up In Smoke: SDA

WUWT, WeatherBell help KUSI-TV with weather forecast for ice-trapped ship in Antarctica: WUWT

Media

New York Times Attempts to Blur Benghazi Scandal: AIM
Failure: Defense Expert Tells WSJ-NY Times Benghazi Piece Backfired on The Paper: Jeff Dunetz
Rapist Logic: Juliette Ochieng

Profiles in Hypocrisy: Rhymes with Right
A Stimulus Plan That Is Too Good To Be True: Cosmocon
Obamacare is a Noble Effort: American and Proud

Attention Joy Reid: The Knockout Game Is A Real Trend That Deserves Our Attention: Nice Deb
Because @Deanofcomedy Isn’t Funny: R.S. McCain
CAMERA Prompts Washington Post Correction on Israel's Christians: CAMERA

World

Moscow Mayor Says No More Mosques Will Be Built in the City: RWN
Xi Jinping preparing the PLA for war: Xinhua commentary: WantChinaTimes
France: The Looming Battle over Muslim Integration: Soeren Kern

New U.S. Tax Regime is "Devastating," Experts Say: NewAm
Operation Empty Chair: SDA
Spot the Dictator: Western Rifles

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

Bitcoin Takes On Gold: RWN
I, Glasshole: My Year With Google Glass: Mat Honan
One of a Kind Holiday Gifts: Woman Honor Thyself

Cornucopia

Thanks to the Affordable Care Act…: Bluebird of Bitterness
Reflections: Fix Bayonets
Resignation Speech of George Washington: WWTFT

Image: BeHoLD THe GRiM MaRKeT ReaPeR...
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Please Support the Senate Conservatives Fund

QOTD: "All battles for the soul begin with culture. And while the battle against Obama’s unprecedented growth of government started with the tea party victories of 2010, the cultural battle against the left didn’t truly take until 2013. The seeds were planted for this cultural battle in earnest in 2012, when Obama and his Democratic Party allies put race, sexual orientation and abortion at the core of his reelection campaign. Americans were told by the media that Obama’s competence mattered less than the fact that half the country was mean, nasty, racist and homophobic. Todd Akin’s absurd comments on conception via rape were the issue, Americans were told, not the imminent takeover of the health care system; Obama’s sudden support for same-sex marriage was the issue, not his devastating regulatory state; George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin were the issue, not the destruction of entire swaths of the United States via leftist governance.

And it worked. Conservative Americans, bludgeoned into silence on cultural battles, decided to focus entirely on Obama’s economic buffoonery. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t work; culture, as my friend Andrew Breitbart was fond of stating, is upstream of politics.

2013 marked a turning point. From Chick-fil-A to “Duck Dynasty,” conservative religious Americans found their footing: Whether you are for or against same-sex marriage, it is plainly un-American to override someone’s religious beliefs in the name of your politics. Conservative Americans seemed to realize, for the first time in a long time, that the battle over same-sex marriage came wrapped in a larger battle over religious freedom. And they fought back, and won." --Ben Shapiro

Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Two Politifacts in One!

The indefatigable Avik Roy of Forbes offers us this scandalous dichotomy (hat tip: Sondrakistan):

Politifact, October 2008:


Politifact, December 2013:


As noted earlier, Politifact has already completed its transition from embarrassment to laughingstock.