Sunday, January 05, 2014

THE BENGHAZI WHITEWASH: The New York Times engages in outright journalistic malpractice

Guest post by Kenneth Timmerman

The New York Times has done excellent reporting on Libya. The newspaper was among the first to reveal that U.S.-approved arms for the Libyan rebels had fallen into the hands of jihadi groups and, more generally, on the rise of al Qaeda-affiliated groups in Libya and North Africa. So the paper’s Dec. 28 “investigation” that determined with utter certainty that the attacks of Sept. 11, 2012, in Benghazi were caused by a YouTube video would be baffling if it weren’t so obvious an attempt to exonerate the Obama administration and Hillary Clinton from responsibility for the deadly failures in Libya that cost the lives of four brave Americans.

The Times’ report misconstrues known facts and simply sweeps under the table mountains of evidence of al Qaeda’s ties to Libyan jihadi groups.

In June 2012, for example, more than a dozen different jihadi groups put the black flag of al Qaeda on parade in Benghazi in what they hoped would be a three-day show of force. Thousands of jihadi fighters, many of them in Pakistani and Afghan dress, paraded through the streets of Benghazi with hundreds of gun trucks.

For The New York Times, though, the black flags were merely “the black flags of militant Islam” and apparently bore no relation to al Qaeda. “Benghazi was not infiltrated by al Qaeda,” The Times flatly asserted.

In August, Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens put his name to a cable with the auspicious title, “The Guns of August,” that explicitly warned about the security vacuum in Benghazi and Tripoli. “What we have seen are not random crimes of opportunity, but rather targeted and discriminate attacks,” the cable warned.

It was one of dozens of cables detailing the growing chaos in Libya that were turned over to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee after repeated stonewalling by the State Department. My sources say it came on the heels of an alarming security briefing by the CIA chief of station for Stevens and the Embassy security team. But for The New York Times, the cable simply “struck an understanding tone about the absence of effective policing.”

Larwyn's Linx: Jim Rogers Warns "Bernanke Has Set The Stage For The Fed's Collapse"

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

Nation

Jim Rogers Warns "Bernanke Has Set The Stage For The Fed's Collapse": ZH
Secession Brought To You By The New Barbarians: Russell D. Longcore
A Call For Freedom: III Percent

The Denaturalization of America: Daren Jonescu
Good News: The NSA Spies on All U.S. Persons Equally: Nice Deb
Detroit police chief: Legal gun owners can deter crime: George Hunter

A World of Destitution: Christian Mercenary
New York’s Fact-Free Gun Ruling : John R. Lott Jr.
Management experts knock Obama: Politico

Economy

The Party of the Rich Flogs Income Inequality: Roger L. Simon
Did Inequality Make Dasani Homeless?: Kay S. Hymowitz
Obama: Republicans Went Home For Holidays While a Mother Suffers : GWP

The Big Puff: Obama’s Shrinking Deficit: Rick Jensen
Boeing Result: Everyone Wins: Mish
NLRB Acknowledges Overreach: NAM

Scandal Central

Moms Demand Action: Shannon Watts, the Plastic Gardener: Gun-Free Zone
Embarrassments Of The New York SAFE Act Gun Ban Legal Ruling: Captain's Journal
Man arrested for 5 knockout game attacks: Liberal Logic 101

Climate & Energy

German scientists predict a century of global cooling: Cliff Harris
The Labors of Hercules: Kevin D. Williamson
2 Below Honey: Moonbattery

As Temperatures Plunge, Experts Declare Global Warming Is Getting Worse: Dave Blount
UK Guardian Fascist Wonders If Aussie Papers Should Give Platforms To Skeptics: Cove
15 Items That Should Be In Your Vehicle During the Winter: Ready Nutrition

Media

Dangerous Times: The New York Times Goes the Full Pravda: James Lewis
Chris Hayes: Heartless Right-Wingers Laughing at Scientists Trying to Save the World: Ace
Monty Python Star Reveals Why Comics Won’t Lampoon Islam: Bryan Preston

Rolling Stone's Sad "5 Economic Reforms Millennials Should Be Fighting For": Nick Gillespie
She Lies! Original Video Indicates Melissa Harris-Perry’s Tearful Apology Is Bogus: Dan Riehl
Gun myths destroyed in five minutes… from ABC’s 20/20?: Bearing Arms

A Lesson in Efficient Dictatorship: R.S. McCain
“Shrugging It Off”– It’s a Game of the Throne: MOTUS
Every Boy Should Own A Knife: Ed That Matters

World

World In Chaos: Keith Koffler
'America does not lead the world in the area of morality': Lech Walesa: Rick Moran
We Don't Need Combat Troops Anymore -- Right?: Market Ticker

Thanks to Obama, Al Qaeda Retakes Fallujah: Pat Dollard
Obama’s Post-American Smart Power Leads To Middle East Power Vacuum: RWN
Hostage priest released by jihadists denies being freed for "compassion": JihadWatch

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

Navy sailors have radiation sickness after Japan rescue: Laura Italiano, Kerry Murtha
Revealed: Glock 41 & 42 Pistols: Guns & Ammo
Surviving Disaster: Home For Survival

Cornucopia

William Overstreet Jr. 1921-2014: Ace
A Lasting Peace: IMAO
The Weirdest Thing on the Internet Tonight: Symmetry: Gizmodo

Image: Because Obama Surrendered All Our Bases In Iraq To Please Iran, Al-Qaeda Retakes Fallujah
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Please Support the Senate Conservatives Fund

QOTD: "Record low temperatures and mountains of snow aren’t the only symptoms of the brutal winter much of the country has been having. Another is egg on the face of liberals, who even now are unwilling to relinquish their faith in global warming.

...On Tuesday, Winnipeg was as cold as the surface of Mars...

Why not scrap the obviously erroneous models and pay some attention to actual temperatures? Because bureaucrats don’t pass out grants for that.

Arctic ice has expanded by 50% since last year. Pseudo-scientific frauds searching for their lost global warming find themselves frozen in place. Yet we are asked to believe that the warming trend that has not actually existed since the previous century is accelerating." --Dave Blount

Saturday, January 04, 2014

They tried to protect the President by only showing one picture on the news. Here’s the rest of them.

Via Anita:

John Kerry's Tenuous Grasp on Reality Endangers the Entire World

Guest post by Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger

The value of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's assessments and proposed peace agreement, which would reduce Israel to a 9-to-15 mile waistline (the pre-1967 lines), in the increasingly raging Middle East, is consistent with Kerry's track record.

Kerry's Syrian track record

Until the eruption of the civil war in Syria, Kerry was a member of a tiny group of U.S. senators -- along with Chuck Hagel and Hillary Clinton -- who believed that President Bashar Assad was a generous, constructive leader, a reformer and a man of his word. Kerry was a frequent flyer to Damascus, dining with Assad and his wife at the Naranj restaurant in central Damascus. Following a motorcycle ride with Assad, he returned to Washington referring to the president as "my dear friend."

In September 2009, Kerry opined that "Syria is an essential player in bringing peace and stability to the region," while Assad was conducting hate-education, repressing his opposition, hosting and arming terrorist outfits like Hezbollah, cozying up to Iran, and facilitating the infiltration of jihadists into Iraq to kill U.S. soldiers. WikiLeaks disclosed that on February, 2010, Kerry told Qatari leaders that the Golan Heights should be returned to Syria and that a Palestinian capital should be established in east Jerusalem. "We know that for the Palestinians the control of Al-Aqsa mosque and the establishment of their capital in east Jerusalem are not negotiable."

According to the London Telegraph, Kerry was a fierce critic of the Bush administration's hardline against Assad, advocating a policy of engagement -- rather than sanctions -- against terror-sponsoring Syria. In March 2011, Kerry subordinated reality-driven hope to wishful-thinking-driven hope: "My judgment is that Syria will move; Syria will change, as it embraces a legitimate relationship with the United States and the West." However, more than 200,000 deaths and 2 million refugees later, Assad's Syria has certainly changed for the worst. In January 2005, following another meeting with Assad, Kerry said: "This is the moment of opportunity for the Middle East, for the U.S. and for the world. ... I think we found a great deal of areas of mutual interest ... strengthening the relationship between the U.S. and Syria."

On September 3, 2013, Kerry assured his colleagues that "the Syrian opposition has increasingly become more defined by its moderation." However, Assad's opposition consists, mainly, of anti-U.S., Islamic supremacists, Shariah-driven, anti-democracy, the violently intolerant Muslim Brotherhood and al-Qaida, whose subversive vision transcends Syria, encompassing the Abode of Islam as a prelude to the grand assault on the Abode of the Infidel.

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

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

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

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

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.