Saturday, August 16, 2014

Larwyn's Linx: The Collapse of the Liberal World Order

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

Nation

The Collapse of the Liberal World Order: Jeffrey Lord
Blame Obama, Not Bush, for Today's Bloodbath in Iraq: Timothy H. Lee
Photos: Suspect Michael Brown Robs Store Before Shooting: GWP

The Vacation Wars: Daniel Greenfield
15 Things I Hate About Politics: John Hawkins
Americans to Obama: Enforcement Not Amnesty: Joe Guzzardi

What A Sham: Charleston Thug Life
Teen in Ferguson Shooting Was Robbery Suspect: LawOfficer
Ride on, Ride on, Ride on! Be careful though...: MOTUS

Intolerance Behind Elizabeth Warren’s 11 Commandments of Progressivism: Mises
The Most Interesting Candidate in the World: WFB
Whose voice is on that anti-Charlie Crist robo call? It's Charlie Crist's: TampaBay

Economy

Owners: Liberty's Torch
20 Facts That Show How NAFTA Is Destroying The Economy: Michael Snyder
Does George Soros know something we don’t about the S&P 500?: MarketWatch

Scandal Central

Pelosi Subsidies Benefit Husband and Dem Mega-Donor: WFB
Obama Official Ordered Deletion of Emails with White House on Healthcare.gov: Lid
Obama Isn’t Having Much Fun On His Latest Vacation, You Guys: DC

Media

Lose the Camouflage, Please: Jack Dunphy
Meathead Still an Idiot: Rob Reiner Likens Tea Party to Hamas: Liberal Logic 101
Covering Almost as Much Ground as Isis: Mark Steyn

Corrupt Media Knew About Michael Brown Video: TLT
Washington Post Columnist Practices 'Political Bigotry' Against The Tea Party: Lid
Rick Perry Indicted For Vetoing Tax Dollars For Dangerous Drugged And Drunk Driving DA.: Rhymes

World

Obama Regime Is Training and Equipping Taliban to Take Over Afghanistan: MB
Obama and Osama Share the Same Goal in the Middle East: Garth Kant
Seven People Attend Code Pink Protest Against Obama Airstrikes in Iraq: Glob

Dozens of Yezidi Villagers Killed As Deadline to Convert to Islam Expires: BCF
Boko Haram Kidnaps Dozens Of Boys From Nigeria In Latest Raid: Hello Beautiful
US Jewish leaders' deafening silence: Hayom

Guess who was missing at funeral of highest ranking officer killed in combat since Vietnam War: LI
About That "N": CAMERA
An interview with a would-be Western jihadi: Hot Air

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

You Are Not Nearly Scared Enough About Ebola: Laurie Garrett
Huge asteroid that 'could end human life' defying gravity as it moves towards Earth, scientists say: Lizzie Dearden
Snowden: NSA Developing Cyber-Defense System Called MonsterMind: RedOrbit

Cornucopia

Pick One: Grand Poobah
Top Five True Medical Facts About a 0.238 Blood Alcohol Content: Ace
First-grade teacher retiring after 41 years gets send-off for the ages: Rare

Image: Michael Brown was a criminal>
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Defeat the Obamacare Six

QOTD: "...Ferguson is a reminder for both sides of the aisle: This is what Big Government looks like.

A state dedicated to ever-expanding rules requires ever-increasing enforcement. For years we’re seen SWAT-style raids over organic farming, zoning violations and minor drug infractions. We meekly accept “free-speech zones” on college campuses and at political conventions, in which dissent is corralled into cages and supervised by armed guards.

For those on the Left, who do you think ultimately enforces the mountains of rules you mandate? For those on the Right, can you not envision a Ferguson-style show of force at some future Tea Party protest?

In America, the citizens are supposed to be the masters and the government (elected or appointed) are the servants. That isn’t the case in Ferguson and it needs to be." --Jon Gabriel

Friday, August 15, 2014

SOMEONE PINCH ME: I can support Democrat Hank Johnson 100 percent on his latest bill

Under President Obama -- who famously claimed (twice) that America needed a "civilian national security force just as powerful as the military" -- law enforcement agencies around the country have become the paramilitary wings of local governments.

Nowhere has this fact become more obvious than in Ferguson, Missouri in the aftermath of the shooting of a young black man.


Now, Democrat Hank Johnson is calling for a demilitarization of law enforcement.

A Democratic congressman plans to introduce a bill to restrict a Defense Department program that provides machine guns and other surplus military equipment for free to local law enforcement agencies across the country.

Democratic Rep. Hank Johnson said Thursday that the death of an unarmed teenager who was shot by a police officer in a St. Louis suburb highlights the need for the legislation, which has been in the works for months. The bill comes as members of Congress have called for the Justice Department to investigate the shooting of a black teen by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri.

Police in riot gear and military garb have clashed nightly with protesters since Aug. 9 shooting of Michael Brown and at times have trained weapons on them from armored trucks.


A spokesman for the Defense Logistics Agency, the government's combat logistics support agency, said the Ferguson Police Department has been part of the surplus equipment program. It received two tactical vehicles — both Humvees — as well as a generator and a trailer and may have received other equipment, DLA spokesman Joe Yoswa said.

Johnson said city streets should be a place for businesses and families, "not tanks and M16s." He said a Pentagon program that transfers surplus military equipment to state and local law enforcement has led to police agencies resembling paramilitary forces.

Dear President Obama: American citizens are not ISIS. Save the impressive displays of force for the Islamonazis, okay?


Hat tip: BadBlue Gun News.

5 Quotes That Capture the Spirit of the Day

Selected by our summer intern, Biff Spackle (@BiffSpackle):

Timothy H. Lee:

After inheriting a stabilizing Iraq in the aftermath of a Bush Administration troop surge (which Obama claimed in 2007 couldn't succeed), Obama's decisions have resulted in today's ghoulish genocide and deepening chaos. Per habit, therefore, he now reverts to scapegoating others and pleading that he's little more than a helpless bystander to inconvenient world events. This from a man who in 2011 practically claimed to have fired the shot that felled Osama bin Laden.

David A. Lieb:

The unarmed teenager whose fatal shooting by police ignited days of heated protests in suburban St. Louis was suspected of stealing cigars and pushing a clerk at a nearby convenience store earlier that day, police said Friday... [Michael] Brown and his friend, Dorian Johnson, were suspected of taking a box of cigars from a store in Ferguson that morning. Jackson said Wilson, along with other officers, was called to the area after a 911 call reporting a "strong-arm" robbery just before noon.

Lachlan Markay:

The top Democrat in the House of Representatives [Nancy Pelosi] steered more than a billion dollars in subsidies to a light rail project that benefitted a company run by a high-dollar Democratic donor and in which her husband is a major investor... Pelosi’s tireless advocacy for federal support for San Francisco’s light rail system has come under scrutiny for potentially enriching another liberal billionaire, hedge fund manager Tom Steyer.

Jeffrey Lord:

What are Americans seeing here? What do the rise of ISIS in Iraq, the return of the squeegee men in New York, the murder numbers out of Chicago, the endless stories on health care losses, IRS bureaucrat Lois Lerner — what do all of these events have in common?

This is the fulfillment of the liberal worldview crashing in on itself. A view of utopia — all of it. Every last bit of it. It was never real — it could never be real.

Jim Treacher:

You think you’ve got problems? Put yourself in President Barack Obama’s shoes for a minute: Everybody’s mean to you, bad stuff keeps happening even though none of it is your fault, and you never get to do anything you want to do. It seriously sucks, dude! ... Has any other president in American history ever endured such suffering? That’s a rhetorical question. Of course not.

Hat tip: BadBlue News

Larwyn's Linx: The Republicans Have Decided To Run Against Amnesty

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

Nation

The Republicans Have Decided To Run Against Amnesty: S&L
You Had One Job: Ace
America’s selective libertarianism: Jonah Goldberg

Over-Militarized: Erick Erickson
My thoughts on Ferguson, Missouri: Allen West
White Chicago Communists Are Leading Riots In Missouri: ProgsToday

Took Obama Only 7 Minutes To Get On Golf Course After Remarks: WZ
Photo of Obama dancing as riot raged scrubbed from Internet: BPR
Protesters Shut Down Times Square, Demand Justice for Michael Brown: AmPower

Meet the Cops Who Gave Their Lives: Michelle Malkin
Let's (Properly) Rewrite A News Story: Karl Denninger
ICE: Cartels Now Using Grenades At The Border: WZ

Economy

Spare the Job, Wreck the Child: Gavin McInnes
Riots, Welfare, Racism: Obama’s Legacy of Hopelessness?: Clash
Gun Sales Skyrocket in St. Louis in Wake of Riots: AmmoLand

Scandal Central

Ferguson Is Big Government: Jon Gabriel
Postal Service Apologizes for Denying Mail Deliveries to Israel: Adam Kredo
Free societies require more of police than turning tough situations into militarized zones: Mary Katherine Ham

Climate & Energy

Out-of-control, rogue EPA blames Texas for Illinois air pollution: Events

Media

Today's Front-Page Wall Street Journal Story Lies About Israel: Lid
Hugh Hewitt Won’t Let Soledad O’Brien Off The Hook For Getting Paid by Islamist-Supporting Country: Sooper
Late Night Comic Shows He’s No Longer Afraid of Obama with Devastatingly Funny Bit: IJR

SNAP: Dr. Keith Ablow Claims Fattie FLOTUS Should Not Be Giving Nutrition Advice: Clash
Over 200 school age kids shot in Chicago so far this year – media silent: FAM
Some ‘Disgusted’ to Learn What President Obama Was Doing While Unrest Raged in Ferguson: Blaze

World

'Most pro-Israel administration ever' blocks missile shipment to Israel: Matzav
Washington said limiting arms transfers to Israel as ties fray: Times of Israel
Mission Accomplished! Obama admin declares Yazidi intervention a success, rescue unneeded: Scoop

The morality of Israel’s killing Palestinian civilians: Bookworm Room
The UNRWA is Hamas: Daniel Greenfield
Palestinian Authority Envoy Calls for Israel's Destruction: IPT

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

Gamescom: Shoot Racist Tea Partiers in ‘Battlefield Hardline’: Breitbart
Former Microsoft CEOs Gates, Ballmer Join Billionaires for Civilian Disarmament, Pro-Democide Club: TTAG
Why the 2015 Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat is So Special: MotorTrend

Cornucopia

Photographer Snaps Two Mimes in 1974, Realizes 35 Years Later that One Was Robin Williams: PetaPixel
Dancing Queens: Mama Mia!: MOTUS
Obama Busted: Birth Cert Contains Words/Places That Did Not Exist In 1961!: MinorityReport

Image: DailySignal
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Defeat the Obamacare Six

QOTD: "After months of worsening tensions, the US-Israeli diplomatic relationship has reached new lows, with the White House and State Department last month tightening the reins on arms transfers to Israel, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, and blocking the delivery of a batch of Hellfire precision missiles.

It also reported on a “particularly combative phone call on Wednesday” between President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and said administration officials consider Netanyahu and his team reckless and untrustworthy, while the Israel leadership considers the administration weak and naive.

The decision to evaluate every request by the Israeli military separately, including halting the transfer of Hellfire missiles, came after the White House and State Department discovered last month that the Pentagon was supplying Jerusalem with arms without their knowledge, the newspaper report said.

While one US diplomat described the American reaction to the arms transfer as a feeling of being “blindsided,” another US defense official stressed the back channel transfers were legitimate and did not require a sign-off from President Barack Obama or the State Department.

“There was no intent to blindside anyone. The process for this transfer was followed precisely along the lines that it should have,” a US defense official told the paper." --Marissa Newman

Thursday, August 14, 2014

F.O.P. SLAMS OBAMA FOR FERGUSON REMARKS: "Discussing Police Tactics From Martha's Vineyard Is Not Helpful"

President Obama took 90 seconds away from golfing, vacationing and dancing* to issue a warning to Ferguson, Missouri police:

The executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police criticized President Obama Thursday for his remarks about law enforcement in Ferguson, Mo.

"I would contend that discussing police tactics from Martha's Vineyard is not helpful to ultimately calming the situation," director Jim Pasco said in an interview with The Hill.


"I think what he has to do as president and as a constitutional lawyer is remember that there is a process in the United States and the process is being followed, for good or for ill, by the police and by the county and by the city and by the prosecutors’ office," Pasco added.

Pasco harkened back to 2009, when Obama criticized a Massachusetts police officer for arresting Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, when he was attempting to break into his own home. Obama said the officer had “acted stupidly.”

"That is one where the president spoke precipitously without all the facts," Pasco said, adding that the current situation "is a much larger and more tragic incident."
Pasco said both police and members of the public are entitled to due process but said he is not convinced police have used excessive force in Ferguson.

"I'm not there, and neither is the president," Pasco said. "That is why we have due process in the United States. And this will all be sorted out over time. But right now, I haven't seen anything from afar — and maybe the president has — that would lead me to believe the police are doing anything except to restore order."

Someone acted stupidly, alright, but it ain't clear it's the po-po.


* Asterisk:

SCANDAL: Clinton Appointee Judge Catherine Blake Rules AR-15s Aren't Protected by Second Amendment

By Investor's Business Daily

Gun Control: A federal judge rules that the AR-15 and similar weapons commonly used in self-defense "fall outside Second Amendment protection as dangerous and unusual arms," and we have no right to keep or bear them.

Nobody looted the gun shop and tattoo parlor that share a storefront in a strip mall less than 10 minutes from Ferguson, Mo., where riots followed the police shooting of Michael Brown.

According to the local Riverfront Times, the owners of County Guns and Tattoo Studio arrived with friends to protect their businesses. One owner carried a rifle and pistol and wore a vest, while the other had his own rifle.

Their defensive use of firearms as rioters burned and looted other stores in the strip mall couldn't have occurred in Maryland. There, AR-15-style weapons are banned, more because of the rifles' "scary" appearance than their lethality. Maryland's Firearm Safety Act of 2013 makes their possession and open carry illegal.

As the Ferguson riots raged, U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Blake, appointed by President Clinton, issued a ruling that upheld the Maryland law, saying, "the court seriously doubts that the banned assault long guns are commonly possessed for lawful purposes . .. and is inclined to find the weapons fall outside Second Amendment protection as dangerous and unusual."

Now the Second Amendment, written in the era of muskets, does not mention what arms we have the right to keep and bear. But we have an idea, based on how they were used: to protect their owners' homes, businesses, farms and families, and to fight the tyranny of the British crown. It's been said that the Second Amendment was put in the Bill of Rights to protect the other nine.

Gun control advocates say, with some snarkiness, that the Second Amendment doesn't allow one to own nuclear weapons or tanks, so it's merely a question of where we draw the line. They would draw the line at the AR-15 and its counterparts — which, despite the judge's claim, are commonly used for legal, defensive purposes.

GOOD NEWS: Chicago Communist Organization Shipping Members to Ferguson to Foment "Revolution"

The News Commenter has the scoop.

There's a lot of buzz on the ground about a communist group that's bussing members into Ferguson from Chicago. The Revolution Club Chicago members provoked the police with Molotov cocktails the night of August 13th while the local protesters peacefully protested. That's when police then responded with gas and flash grenades. Their reported goal is to make the protests go super-violent, spread across the region, and spark a revolution. They are said to visibly stand out from the local protesters in how they respond to police and intimidate reporters when photos and video are taken of them...


Courthouse News Service offers additional detail about the community agitators who seek anarchy and violence.

The protestors have received reinforcements from around the country. On Tuesday, Black Panther members were spotted in the crowd. On Wednesday, members of the Revolution Club of Chicago took turns inciting the protestors with messages through a megaphone.

"This system is totally illegitimate and we are here to stand with the people who are rising up in the face of massive police terror," Revolution Club member Gregory Koger told Courthouse News. "This community is being terrorized by the police. These young men can't even walk down the street without being terrorized by the police."

Revolution Club Chicago, according to its Facebook Page, is a small collective of pro-genocide and pro-Islamonazi rabble-rousers. I'm guessing they're also big fans of Alinsky. Kinda like you-know-who.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

3 Blood-Boiling Examples of Income Inequality

1 This week, President Obama played his 184th round of golf and held his 401st fundraiser, all conducted on the taxpayer's dime.

2 This week, Vice President Joe Biden left for his third vacation this month; it was also recently revealed that the VP -- good old "Lunch bucket Joe" -- flies every week or so to Delaware to get his hair plugs cut. On the taxpayer's dime.

3 Also this week, it was revealed that Attorney General Eric Holder -- who claims that the United States is a "nation of cowards" for its abysmal treatment of non-whites -- flew himself, his daughters, their boyfriends, and his personal security detail to the Belmont Stakes, the third leg of the Triple Crown, in a U.S. government Gulfstream V. The multi-, multi-millionaire Holder generously reimbursed the U.S. taxpayer a grand total of $955 for the five seats (for you math-challenged progressive nutjobs out there, that's less than $200 a ticket for a flight that cost the taxpayer tens of thousands of dollars).

Liberalism is the philosophy of the Stupid

That's what Mark Levin says... and Mark Levin is right.

The reason I say that liberalism is the philosophy of the stupid is because we can look at what's going around in the country today. If, in your own lives, you were pursuing policies that were destroying your own home ownership, that were destroying your own job, that were creating a massive, impossible debt for your family and your children in particular, you'd stop it. You wouldn't keep doing it!

And yet for the liberal, if it's imposed on you -- and they feel that they can be immune from it -- they're for it.

They wouldn't do to themselves and their own family what they're doing to you, and your family, and the whole nation.

It's just like Peter Schweizer's great book documents: the country club Marxists running the federal government specialize in "Do As I Say (Not As I Do)."



Image: Baltimore Sun.

Around the World in Four Pictures

Via the invaluable Daily Signal:


Hat tips: 90 Miles From Tyranny and BB.


Larwyn's Linx: Mark Levin - "The world is on fire and Obama doesn’t seem to give a damn"

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

Nation

"The world is on fire and Obama doesn’t seem to give a damn": Scoop
‘The Inability Of Mankind To Act Until The Emergency Comes’: Camp o' the Saints
ISIS Terrorists Are on Their Way Here: MB

Daniel Halper Goes Inside Clinton, Inc.: Ed Driscoll
Hillary Clinton was for her own foreign policy, before she was against it: LI
Obama blames others for abandoning Iraq: Erick Erickson

Memo to Chris Christie: We are watching the Shaneen Allen case-and you: Virtucon
McConnell Has A Small Lead In Kentucky: OTB
Illegal Fined For Driving w/o License Before Allegedly Killing Boy With Machete: CNS

Rand Paul Not Sure Whether to Bomb Genocidal Islamist Terrorists in Iraq: WS
ISIS-ISIL and Turkish flag hang from home in Garwood New Jersey: FAM
1,000 National Guard members head to Texas-Mexico border: KHOU

Economy

HHS Promotes Welfare, Obamacare for Foreign Refugees: Kristin Tate
Immigrant children ‘swarm’ Atlanta-area school registration center: EAG
Who Got the Jobs in Florida?: CIS

Scandal Central

Obama VA Is Trolling Veteran Community For Gun Owners: ProgsToday
Obama Ignores Congress, Lifts Ban on Libyans Training in U.S. as Pilots, Nuke Scientists: JW
Man Frustrated by Ferguson Riots Goes on Legendary Rant: ‘It’s Time For Us to Change’: IJR

Climate & Energy

EPA is declared a ‘rogue agency’: Times
Shale Is America’s Answer to Russia’s Energy Weapon: AmInt
Steyn’s scorching new legal brief on the Michael Mann ‘defamation’ case: WUWT

Media

Meet the Jetstones: Mark Steyn
Obama: The Iraq ‘Bug Out’ Was Not My Idea: Larry Elder
Rift grows between Obama, media as press groups blast administration ‘spin’: Fox

Sue Me Again, You Evil Liar: R.S. McCain
Ron Paul: US Should Get Out Iraq and 'Let Them Deal' with ISIS: Breitbart
AFP’s anti-Mark Udall ad: ‘Unaffordable.’: Moe Lane

No, Rush Limbaugh Did Not Say That the Leftist Worldview Drove Robin Williams to Suicide: Ace
Busting the Media’s ISIS Myths: Daniel Greenfield
'When people are dying, you must come back from vacation': French foreign minister: Daily Mail

World

'Hamas fighters... holding 5-year-old children in front of them as human shields': Matzav
Lt Col Ralph Peters On ISIS: “We’re Dealing With a Death Cult” : Nice Deb
Harrowing Footage of Mount Sinjar Rescue: Nice Deb

Defense Secretary: 'The World is Exploding All Over': WS
Genocide In Iraq… John Kerry Flies To Solomon Islands To Talk About Global Warming: WZ
Is Something Seriously Wrong With John Kerry?: Tammy Bruce

A Short History of the Barbaric Terrorists of the Islamic State: DefenseOne
Occupation of Cyprus underscores hypocrisy of Gaza outrage: Victor Davis Hanson
Mission Creep? U.S. Has Nearly 1,000 Troops in Iraq Now: DefenseOne

Russian conducts military exercises in disputed islands: RS
Isis planned a terror attack against Carlsberg Brewing: TheLocal
Muslim cleric teaches students how to enjoy performing beheadings (GRAPHIC): BNI

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

Snowden reveals automated NSA cyberwarfare program: CompWorld
Report: Verizon will deliver cable TV over 4G LTE: FierceCable
Google wraps its trans-Pacific fiber cables in Kevlar to prevent against shark attacks: NetworkWorld

Cornucopia

No One Should Glorify The Terrible Mistake Robin Williams’ Made: John Hawkins
Hamas puts the FUN into Funeral!: Israpundit
ISIS Golf: Rick McKee

Image: ISIS-ISIL and Turkish flag hang from home in Garwood New Jersey
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Defeat the Obamacare Six

QOTD: "When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to assume that their president, hostile to the principles that formed the nation and determined to act with malice toward its inhabitants by suppressing their rights and enabling its enemies to prosper in their attempts to destroy it, must be confronted, a rational response for the nation is to encumber itself no more with such a president and reject his authority and the acolytes who carry out his wishes." --David Shapiro

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

NO CONFLICT OF INTEREST HERE: Mitch McConnell's Wife Working to Destroy Kentucky's Coal Industry

Gee, this seems rather a bizarre conflict of interest.

But I'm sure Mitch McConnell's completely unaware of his wife's activities and will work tirelessly to combat her environmental Marxist organization. And because Mitch is so brave, eloquent and charismatic, we can be sure he'll do everything he's promised to do if reelected to, what, his 408th term in Washington?

For months, Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell has accused his Democratic opponent, Alison Lundergan Grimes, of engaging in a “war on coal,” casting her as an outright enemy of one of the state’s most vital industries.

But while McConnell presents himself as a defender of Kentucky coal mining, a member of his own family who serves as a key campaign surrogate is taking a role in an organization that funds one of the most aggressive anti-coal campaigns in the country.

McConnell’s wife, former Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, sits on the board of directors of Bloomberg Philanthropies, which has plunged $50 million into the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal initiative, an advocacy effort with the expressed goal of killing the coal industry.

In 2011, Bloomberg Philanthropies teamed up with the Sierra Club to target coal plants for closure in an effort to "end our nation’s reliance on dirty coal, plant-by-plant, community-by-community, and state-by-state," according to Bloomberg Philanthropies’ website. The Bloomberg Philanthropies-funded campaign has a stated goal of “retir[ing] a third of the nation’s 500 coal plants by 2020, replacing the majority of retired coal plants, and keep[ing] coal in the ground in Appalachia.” The organization boasts that it has “prevented 150 coal plants from being built” and has taken direct action against 16 plants in McConnell’s home state of Kentucky, arguing that coal production is a health hazard and is harmful to the environment. The website takes credit for retiring 172 “dirty power plants” with “351 to go.”

ICE BLUE STATES: New EPA Regulations Threaten Devastating Power Outages This Winter

Barack Obama’s unlawful new EPA regulations -- created in secret and orchestrated by what a Senate report calls "The Green Billionaires Club" -- threaten the integrity of the entire electric grid this winter.

An unstable electric grid combined with a winter that promises to be "colder and snowier" than prior years appear to be a true recipe for disaster, especially in the bluest of states like Illinois, New York, and Massachusetts.

Joe Bastardi: … It’s flowing along right now into the type of El Nino situation that is notorious for giving the United States cold, snowy winters, especially in the eastern part of the United States, relative to the averages. That would be significant because we were within one power plant last year of having the grid overload …

Question: This is sounding horrific. I know that in the first quarter, the weather was said to be to blame for the slow economic growth. Are we going to stop working, basically is what you’re saying?

Joe Bastardi: This year, if you get the kind of winter that we had in 2009-2010 or 2002-2003 with the nation’s grid on the ropes the way it is and some of these regulations that I hear about coming down that are supposed to close plants on January 1st – and what I know, because we’re involved in getting people ready to fight snow in cities around the country – this could be a very, very big economic impact on the winter. And we’re very concerned about that.

Under the bogus rubric of "protecting the environment", the Green Energy Billionaire's Club operates in secret while simultaneously enriching itself and undermining capitalism.

An explosive, 92-page Senate study entitled "How a Club of Billionaires and Their Foundations Control the Environmental Movement and Obama’s EPA”" has been largely ignored by vintage media. It reveals the truth behind the Marxist environmental movement and its goal of advancing fascism in the name of the environment.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

Gang Violence May Destroy Mexico's Shale Oil Bonanza

By Nick Cunningham

Violence in Mexico could thwart hopes of a budding shale boom, as oil and gas companies operating in Texas may think twice about moving south of the border.

Mexico holds an estimated 545 trillion cubic feet of technically recoverable shale gas and 13 billion barrels of shale oil, but progress in developing those resources has been slow.

The obstacles to kick-starting Mexico’s shale industry have dampened the once lively enthusiasm surrounding Mexico’s historic energy reform. Mexico passed legislation last year that opened up the country’s oil and gas sector to private investment, ending a 75-year monopoly by state-owned Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex).

But the secondary laws that the government must pass to actually implement the legal framework for oil and gas development are proving much more contentious.

Political disputes over what could be 21 separate laws have thus far delayed passage, threatening to push back Mexican President Enirque Pena Nieto’s goal of producing 3 million barrels of oil per day by 2018. That would be roughly a 25 percent increase from the current output level of 2.4 million barrels per day, but it is looking increasingly difficult to achieve.

“We can increase, of course, but not enough to arrive at 3 million [b/d],” Fluvio Ruiz Alarcon, an independent board member at Pemex, told Platts on June 24 at a Wilson Center event in Washington, D.C. “I'm sure we're going to produce over 3 million [b/d] but not by 2018. Maybe 2020, but not before,” he added.

Even if the country’s congress can reach an agreement and move forward with the energy reform, there are other obstacles.

In order to access the potentially abundant oil and gas from Mexican shale, the government will need to rely upon the private sector. Under the energy reform, Pemex is given first refusal over any projects – meaning that it can keep the assets it really wants, but allows the rest to go to bidding for private companies. Pemex will likely stick with its wells that are already producing, and leave drilling new shale wells to incoming private companies.

However, many areas in the Burgos Basin – which lies just south of the rich Eagle Ford formation in Texas – are suffering from intense gang violence. Bloomberg News reported on the conditions in Tamaulipas, a state in eastern Mexico, which at times resembles a “war zone.” A power vacuum left over by the arrest of the leaders of the Zetas and Gulf Cartels last year has the eastern coast dealing with heightened violence – shootings along highways and burned down buildings are commonplace as rival drug gangs jockey for territory.

Further north, shootings and kidnappings plague Highway 2, which runs parallel to the border with the United States.

The violence poses an immediate threat to the oil companies working there. The Mexican Army is now escorting workers of Weatherford International, an oilfield services firm, to and from their drill sites after a drug gang shot up a hotel where the workers were staying.

Aside from violence, theft of oil and gas by drug cartels poses another threat to companies. In 2013, Mexican gangs stole around $790 million worth of fuel, which is siphoned off from pipelines and smuggled.

OBAMA AND THE DEMOCRATS: Endangering the Lives of Millions to Achieve a Permanent Majority

By James Simpson

With reports that illegal immigrants bring the risk of Ebola and other viral illnesses, Association of American Physicians and Surgeons representative, Dr. Elizabeth Lee Vliet, has noted that, “Border Patrol sources repeatedly warn that we do not know who is coming across our southern borders, all the countries of origin, what diseases they may carry, or where they go after being released with a summons to appear months later in court.”

An investigation by the Accuracy in Media Center for Investigative Journalism shows that American religious groups, using federal money, are facilitating this growing crisis and trying to keep the media in the dark about the nature of the threat.

Importing Dangerous Diseases

As Dr. Vliet indicated, many illegals are bringing in diseases and parasites. They have been shipped around the country under a veil of secrecy. But word is getting out:

  • A Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) facility in Artesia, New Mexico used to house illegals has been locked down following an outbreak of chicken pox.
  • A week earlier the same facility found that 89 of its 603 detainees tested positive for tuberculosis, though none had contracted the disease.
  • Reported infections among illegals include chicken pox, TB, swine flu, pneumonia, other respiratory illnesses and epidemics of scabies and lice.
  • The deadly Chagas disease, formerly limited to Central and South America, is now spreading to the U.S. with an estimated 300,000 cases nationwide. Northern Virginia has been described as “ground zero” for the disease. Its vector, the kissing bug, has been found in Texas, Arizona and California.
  • A DHS Office of Inspector General report states that border agents and their families are contracting the diseases and parasites brought in by illegals. A border agent and others in Texas have contracted TB.

On July 31, President Obama revised a Bush-era executive order allowing for apprehension, detention or conditional release of people with severe respiratory diseases. Was this a coincidence?

A leaked copy of an official Customs and Border Protection (CBP) confidential report was published on August 4th by Brandon Darby of Breitbart Texas. It reveals that, in addition to the flood of illegals from Central America, the border is being penetrated by tens of thousands of illegals from almost every country on the planet. The table below provides a sampling of apprehended Third Country Nationals (TCN) that should be of concern to security officials as well as all Americans.

Larwyn's Linx: The Left are hiding from the horrors of Islam

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

Nation

The Left are hiding from the horrors of Islam: Miranda DeVine
The K Street President: Michelle Malkin
When Obama Beat Hillary, We All Lost: Megan McArdle

Suspect Illegal Alien Kills Six, Including Family of Four... For Love: Breitbart
Four illegals kidnap woman in Los Angeles... For Love: FAM
Illegal from El Salvador allegedly kills boy with machete... For Love: FAM

Get Ready for Denials: Walter Williams
How I’m Preparing if ISIS Comes to America: Godfather
Obama Released Over 600 Illegal Immigrants With Criminal Convictions: Signal

Rand Paul's Foreign Policy: Obama's Bluster Without Substance: MagFarm
Suckers! Lamar Alexander Embraces Amnesty Again: VDARE
Ferguson As America: "There Is A Brewing Problem... Extremely Dangerous": ZH

Economy

What Did You Expect?: Karl Denninger
Public Theft of Private Assets Always Precedes An Economic Collapse: Outpost
Why the debate over Keystone and emissions comes down to rail: MacLean's

Scandal Central

What Taxpayers Pay When Eric Holder Uses Government Jets For Personal Trips: DC
IRS Scandal: Lies, Damned Lies, and Missing Hard Drives: Ken Connor
This Is The Terrifying Result Of The Militarization Of Police: Paul Szoldra

Climate & Energy

Real Nobel Laureate Takes Pity on Fake Nobel Laureate: Mark Steyn
Obama Complains To Dem Donors About Ocean Being Too Cold Off Martha’s Vineyard: WZ
The Lie That Won't Die: Mark Steyn

Media

More Ebullient Positivity: Ann Barnhardt
Oh, so *now* Richard Cohen wants to be a neoconservative. Because Obama.: Moe Lane
Poll: Obama hurting mid-term Dem chances: The Hill

Trial Begins Today: R.S. McCain
ONE Tweet From The NAACP About The Ferguson Riots Has Many African Americans Outraged: Sooper
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means: Cold Fury

Liberals Urge Southern Secession on Gamechanger Salon: RS
Obama Calls Death Of Michael Brown ‘Heartbreaking’: WZ
Low off-lease Volt values slammed in editorial by long-time GM critic: Jeff Cobb

World

Obama’s new plan for Hamas: Caroline Glick
Wanted: a leader for the free world: Douglas Murray
Knowledge of How to Use Toilets Lacking Among Invading Illegal Alien Horde: MB

So Begins World War IV?: Jeffrey Lord
Obama lifts ban on Libyans in U.S. flight schools, training in nuke science: JihadWatch
Thinking From a True Premise on Iraq: Ann Barnhardt

Islamic State supporters give out leaflets in London hailing the caliphate: JihadWatch
Britain: If hostilities break out in Gaza again, we’re cutting Israel off: Hot Air
Public Pressure for French Hamlet to Change Its Name from "La-Mort-aux-Juifs" ("Death to Jews"): Ace

Hillary Clinton Attacks Foreign Policy She Helped Create And Implement: OTB
Video: U.S. F-18 Airstrike Vaporizes More Than A Dozen Islamic State Jihadists: WZ
Good News: White House Says We're Not at War With ISIL: WZ

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

How You Know You’ve Got the Right Startup Model?: Mark Suster
Google's Satellites Could Soon See Your Face from Space: Vice
Mindless Drones: John Stossel

Cornucopia

"You do know how to whistle, don't you?": American Digest
The Death of Mork and Mearth: MOTUS
St. Louis cops use ‘beanbag rounds’ after reports of protesters throwing rocks: Fox

Image: “Cold hearted Orb that rules the night…butt we decide which is “right” and which is illusion.”
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Defeat the Obamacare Six

QOTD: "there’s a certain amount of absurdity in Clinton criticizing the foreign policy of an Administration that she was not only a part of, but in which she played a key role in shaping that very foreign policy. No doubt, when she runs for office she will be relying heavily on her experience at Foggy Bottom to make the argument that she is ready to be President, indeed it would be extraordinary if she didn’t.

If she’s going to claim her time as Secretary of State as an argument in her favor, though, then it seems to me as though she is going to have a hard time criticizing the Administration for policies that she played a role in developing. Even accepting the argument that she makes regarding the connections between the Obama Administration’s decision to not intervene directly in the Syrian civil war and the rise of ISIS/the Islamic State, the idea that it was merely the one thing she disagreed with the President about that led to the events we see unfolding today is simply absurd.

There were a number of events that contributed to today’s state of affairs, many of which involve policies that Clinton favored, and if you’re going to make the argument that one failure by this Administration is responsible then you have to look at all of them, including the ones that Mrs. Clinton played a role in. You can’t claim the credit without accepting at least some of the blame, but that seems to be exactly what Hillary Clinton wants to do when it comes to the foreign policy of the Obama Administration." --Doug 'Paragraph' Mataconis

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

SORRY, PROGRESSIVES: Not All Viewpoints are Equally Valid

By Oleg Atbashian. First published in The American Thinker

There is a reason why the question below, from a Hong Kong elementary school test, is making the rounds on the internet. Most adults can't solve it – not for want of math skills, but because most of them have lost the child's ability of unconventional thinking. Instead, they have acquired the debilitating unwillingness to try a different perspective.




The answer to the problem is provided at the bottom, but before you give up, here are some clues.

This problem is not mathematical, but rather philosophical. It proves that, in spite of what the modern "progressive" philosophers tell us, not all viewpoints are equally valid; in most cases, there is only one point of view that leads to the right answer.

This may cause objections from proponents of moral relativity, who believe that everyone's viewpoint is correct in its own way. Moral relativity is merely a nice-sounding cover for intellectual laziness; it relieves one of guilt for not trying to find the right solution. It's a lot easier to presume that one's viewpoint is always correct: wherever one happens to be at any given moment, that must be the correct position. By this logic, any position one had yesterday or will have tomorrow must also be correct. Therefore, all such positions must be equally valid, and anyone else's conflicting positions at different points of time must be equally valid, too. This is a way to madness.

GREAT NEWS: Obama Administration Says We're Not at War With ISIL!

Denial: it's not just a river in Egypt. Here's the feckless nincompoop and national security "adviser" Ben Rhodes writing at the White House website.

7. Is ISIL more dangerous than al-Qaeda right now?

While both are terrorist forces, they have different ambitions. Al-Qaeda’s principal ambition is to launch attacks against the west and U.S. homeland. That’s the direct threat that we have taken direct action against for many years. Right now, ISIL’s primary focus is consolidating territory in the Middle East region to establish their own Islamic State. So they’re different organizations with different objectives.

8. Are we at war with ISIL? Will we be sending troops back to Iraq?

No. There is no U.S. military solution to the larger situation in Iraq. The United States’ chief goals are to protect our personnel and facilities, and to prevent a potential act of genocide. That is the scope of these operations. As the President said, we will support Iraqis as they take the fight to these terrorists, but no American combat troops will be returning to fight in Iraq.

Both answers are flatly untrue. ISIL has stated unequivocally that it is coming for Americans in America.


As for the second assertion, gee, Ben, while the White House may not be at war with ISIL, I can assure you that ISIL is at war with us.


Yes, that's the White House.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

HUGE DEMOCRAT DONOR AND AMBULANCE-CHASER PERMANENTLY DISBARRED: Ordered to Pay $42 Million in Restitution

The Democrats' massive, economy-destroying trial lawyer constituency is down one.

Onetime superlawyer and heavy Democratic Party contributor Stanley Chesley has been ordered to pay $42 million for his role in a scandal over fen-phen litigation that already cost him his law licenses in Ohio and Kentucky.

The husband of a federal judge and a $50,000 contributor to President Obama’s 2009 Inaugural ball, Chesley was last year found guilty of violating multiple ethics rules in Kentucky as part of a scheme in which lawyers took half the money they won for clients in lawsuits over the diet drug despite contracts that specified much lower fees.

The summary judgment order by Boone County Judge James R. Schrand represents an ironic turn for a plaintiff lawyer like Chesley, who earned the nickname “master of disaster” for his role in lawsuits over airplane crashes and other tragedies. Schrand applied the doctrine of joint and several liability, typically used by plaintiff lawyers to tap the deepest pockets in a case, to hold Chesley liable for the entire $42 million awarded to 382 former clients in a 2007 judgement. Two other lawyers went to jail over the scandal and the judge who awarded the excessive fees to Chesley and his co-counsel — and was rewarded with a post-retirement job at a foundation they set up with some of the proceeds — was disbarred.

Forbes reports that Chesley basically invented the mass tort approach to class-actions using the concept of "enterprise liability" (e.g., blaming the entire aluminum electrical wire industry for a devastating nightclub fire).

...The Kentucky Supreme Court today permanently disbarred lawyer Stanley Chesley, the prominent tort lawyer and Democratic Party kingmaker who got entangled in a scandal over fen-phen litigation that sent two other lawyers to jail and ended the legal career of the judge who approved the settlement.

The disbarment is a professional fiasco for Chesley, who rose to prominence as a mass-tort litigator and is married to U.S. District Judge Susan Diott. Under a reciprocal agreement with Kentucky, he might also lose his license to practice law in Ohio.

Chesley was found guilty of accepting $20 million in fees, compared with $46 million that was paid to the actual plaintiffs in the cases, and helping other lawyers cover up their excessive fees in the case. Chesley argued he didn’t really represent the 431 clients in the case because he was brought in merely to negotiate a settlement with fen-phen producer American Home Products.

Chesley was a huge Clinton fundraiser and would have been one of Hillary's favorite bundlers, we would assume. "Would have" being the operative phrase.


Hat tip: BdaBlue Money News.

Larwyn's Linx: As Obama Golfs and Campaigns, Tanks Roll in Baghdad and a Country Unravels

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

Nation

As Obama Golfs, Tanks Roll in Baghdad and a Country Unravels: AmInt
WH Responds to Hillary Foreign Policy Criticism: 'She Was Fully On Board': WS
GOP Rep. Ros-Lehtinen: Paul Ryan Works 'Every Day' for Amnesty: Breitbart

Holder loses big in North Carolina Voter I.D. case: LI
Total Breakdown In Less Than 24 Hours: Missouri Riots: Mac Slavo
WH implores lawyer allies to provide free services to illegals: Daily Mail

Just Devastating: Scoop
OMG: Obama tries to blame Bush for withdrawal from Iraq: Matzav
How Obama's Leadership Cripples America: Chuck Norris

Democrats of Unknown Party Affiliation: Leon Wolf
Chicago Police Chief: Law-Abiding Gun Owners are a Menace: Exam
"ISIS, you will never raise your flag in America": RightPlanet

Economy

The Cost of New York: Steven Malanga
Democrats paying their minority staffers around 60% of what whites are paid: Moe Lane
Study Finds Cash For Clunkers Decreased Industry Revenue By $3 Billion: LoneCon

Scandal Central

OPEN BORDERS: O'Keefe Crosses The TX-Mexico Border Dressed As Bin Laden: DC
Team Pant Suits Warned White House Hillary Was About To Trash Obama In The Press: WZ
Company That Built Country’s Worst Obamacare State Exchange Suing For “Slander”: WZ

Tavenner’s Missing E-Mails : Jillian Kay Melchior
Boston Globe unintentionally proves Elizabeth Warren’s ethnic fraud: LI
6 Years, $1.7 Bil Later DHS Visa System Deemed Failure: JW

Climate & Energy

How Nancy Pelosi Helped This Top Democrat Donor Nab Millions in Taxpayer Money: Kevin Mooney
Cooperation or Coercion on Climate: Is the EPA Trying to Deputize the States?: Federalist
Aussie Warmist: Hey, Let’s Just Ban Stuff: Cove

Media

Do Huckabee’s Endorsements Hinge On Nepotism?: Jen Kuznicki
Not the response the RNC wanted: Dedicated Tenther
QOTD — Experience Matters: Economic Noise

Family Of Mike Brown Furious Over Rioting, Looting: We Didn’t Ask For This, Please Stop: WZ
TL Davis: Remarks At Yapfest: WRSA
Former NFL player: Democrat party is destroying black communities: Allen West

Obama Golfing Relentlessly on Martha’s Vineyard: Keith Koffler
FLASHBACK: Obama Vows Not To Take Vacations If Elected President: WZ
ABC and NBC Use False Talking Points to Counter Criticism of Obama's Vacation: MRC

World

Emboldened ISIS Threatens Americans: IPT
ISIS Threatens Holocaust Against Jews: IPT
Obama’s Evil Reason For Not Hitting ISIS/ISIL: Sara Noble

ISIS Not As Fond of Death As They Advertise: Jawa
Does Obama Still Believe ISIS Is A Junior Varsity Team?: S&L
Confronting ISIS — ‘It takes an army to defeat an army’: Cal Thomas

What went wrong in Iraq?: Rottweiler
US Sending Arms to Kurds in Iraq: ABC
Lawsuit Accuses Arab Bank of Rewarding Suicide Bombers: Daily Signal

Al Qaeda Said ISIS Was Too Brutal-->21-Page Letter Found In Bin Laden Hide Out: Lid
Jihadists Systematically Behead Christian Children in Iraq: MB
The Islamic State (Part 3): Vice

Random Thoughts: Power, Hamas, and Obamacare: IMAO
Who is Sister Christine? Brave Nun, 77, Rips Down Isis Flag in Tower Hamlets: Dominic Gover
Barbier, Beelzebuth, and Anti-Semitism: The French Socialists’ Conundrum: Michel Gurfinkel

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

Top 10 Reasons Drones are Disruptive: Peter Diamandis, Singularity Hub
I Liked Everything I Saw on Facebook for Two Days. Here’s What It Did to Me: Mat Honan, Wired
Drones Join Fighter Jets in Striking Targets in Iraq: DefTech

Cornucopia

Police officers aren’t the ones destroying the black community: Matt Walsh
“Cold hearted Orb that rules the night…butt we decide which is “right” and which is illusion.”: MOTUS
Actor Robin Williams Found Dead in Apparent Suicide, Says Sheriff: Tatler

Image: Robin Williams, Oscar-Winning Actor, Dead at 63 of Suicide
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Defeat the Obamacare Six

QOTD: "Iraq is unraveling fast. If reports of fighting between Maliki’s forces and troops loyal to President Masoum turn out to be correct, it means that the factional fighting that has torn apart the provinces has now spread to the capital—even as ISIS waits outside, licking its chops.

The fact that President Obama thought that the day of an Iraqi coup was a good time to hang on the Vineyard and get on the links is bad news. Either the President blew off warnings from his advisors, or the intel community got blindsided again. Both possibilities reflect badly on the management of the nation’s affairs.

The unraveling of Iraq under the grimmest of circumstances is a major policy challenge for this president and for the United States as a whole. There’s nothing wrong with a president wanting some down time with the kids, but President Obama needs to be and be seen to be taking control of events. Going on vacation as the tanks roll in Baghdad and as Americans fly back into combat over Iraq is not where a leader needs to be." --Walter Russell Mead