Obamacare and Women

Nina Owcharenko of The Heritage Foundation responds to Michelle Obama on the effects of Obamacare on Women. Fifty percent of american women are opposed to the plan, and my guess is that most of the other fifty percent are unaware of what's in it.

Most Americans Prefer 'Merry Christmas' To 'Happy Holidays'

From Rasmussen Reports:

Perhaps inevitably as with much of what is polled by Rasmussen Reports, there is a partisan difference on the question.
Ninety-one percent (91%) of Republicans and 70% of adults not affiliated with either major political party like store signs that wish them a "Merry Christmas," compared to just 58% of Democrats.

Read the whole article here:
Most Americans Prefer 'Merry Christmas' To 'Happy Holidays'

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Sundays are for Beauty - Bing Crosby: White Christmas

That's Bing Crosby and Marjorie Reynolds (her voice was dubbed) in the 1942 film, Holiday Inn singing the most famous Christmas song ever: "White Christmas," written by Irving Berlin.

A Symposium on Climate Fraud

The University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit’s e-mail account was hacked earlier this month, exposing communications among CRU faculty members and researchers that reveal their willingness to distort climate-change data. Do those e-mails mark a sea-change moment in the global-warming debate? National Review Online asked environmentalism experts to weigh in.

An NRO Symposium on National Review Online

Here's what Political Math Blog had to say about the scandal.

http://politicalmath.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/climategate-free-the-data/

Trust and credibility were never hallmarks of the Al Gore Brigade.

It's a Government Takeover

Nick Schulz of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) shows us a chart indicating that the Obama administration turned its back on private sector experience to staff its cabinet. Most of these people never played the game, but now they're making the rules. Let's face it, this is a takeover of the government by the government.

Help Wanted, No Private Sector Experience Required

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Krauthammer: "Kill the Bills."

Charles Krauthammer on National Review Online

The better choice is targeted measures that attack the inefficiencies of the current system one by one — tort reform, interstate purchasing, and taxing employee benefits. It would take 20 pages to write such a bill, not 2,000 — and provide the funds to cover the uninsured without wrecking both U.S. health care and the U.S. Treasury.

Australia MPs Resign Over Climate Scam

This is from yesterday's UK Telegraph. Al Gore and company might have to look for something new - and true - to preach about.

Climategate: five Aussie MPs lead the way by resigning in disgust over carbon tax

Five Potential Presidential Possibilities (all start with "P")

1. GENERAL DAVID PETRAEUS. His biography shows him to be an acknowledged LEADER, something sorely missing in Washington today.


2. GOVERNOR SARAH PALIN. Unless you've been hiding under a rock since some time before the last presidential election, you are already very familiar with Sarah Palin

3. GOVERNOR TIM PAWLENTY. The 39th governor

4.GOVERNOR RICK PERRY. The 47th governor

5. REPRESENTATIVE MIKE PENCE.
This Indiana congressman describes himself as "a Christian, a Conservative and a Republican, in that order." Sounds good to me and, as soon as he gets a little better known ____________________
Although General Petraeus has publicly declared he will not run for public office, there is always hope. We have never, in my lifetime, experienced a greater dearth of political leadership, and may never have needed it more. He unconditionally loves his country and is the one man, at the moment, who could restore our nation to its rightful place in the world, just by being its president. He, along with any of the other four above mentioned candidates, could surely beat anyone in the other camp - assuming we will still be having free elections by the year 2012.

H/T: BMCK

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

...AND THANK YOU MR. PRESIDENT FOR KEEPING US SAFE FOR EIGHT YEARS. OUR PEACE PRIZE GOES TO YOU; YOU EARNED IT.

Christmas Dinner

Navy SEALs Face Assault Charges for Capturing Most-Wanted Terrorist

Navy SEALs Face Assault Charges for Capturing Most-Wanted Terrorist
Navy SEALs Face Assault Charges for Capturing Most-Wanted Terrorist
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
By Rowan Scarborough

AP

March 31, 2004: Iraqis chant anti-American slogans as the charred and mutilated bodies of U.S. contractors hang from a bridge over the Euphrates River in Fallujah, Iraq.
Navy SEALs have secretly captured one of the most wanted terrorists in Iraq — the alleged mastermind of the murder and mutilation of four Blackwater USA security guards in Fallujah in 2004. And for their trouble, three of the SEALs, members of the Navy's elite commando unit, are now facing criminal charges, sources told FoxNews.com.

The three have refused non-judicial punishment — called an admiral's mast — and requested a trial by court-martial.

Ahmed Hashim Abed, whom the military code-named "Objective Amber," told investigators he was punched by his captors — and he had the bloody lip to prove it.

Now, instead of being lauded for bringing to justice a high-value target, three of the SEAL commandos, all enlisted, face assault charges and have retained lawyers.

Matthew McCabe, a Special Operations Petty Officer Second Class (SO-2), is facing three charges: dereliction of performance of duty for willfully failing to safeguard a detainee, making a false official statement, and assault.

Petty Officer Jonathan Keefe, SO-2, is facing charges of dereliction of performance of duty and making a false official statement.

Petty Officer Julio Huertas, SO-1, faces those same charges and an additional charge of impediment of an investigation.

The three SEALs will be arraigned separately on Dec. 7. Another three SEALs — two officers and an enlisted sailor — have been identified by investigators as witnesses but have not been charged.

FoxNews.com obtained the official handwritten statement from one of the three witnesses given on Sept. 3, hours after Abed was captured and still being held at the SEAL base at Camp Baharia. He was later taken to a cell in the U.S.-operated Green Zone in Baghdad.

The SEAL told investigators he had showered after the mission, gone to the kitchen and then decided to look in on the detainee.

"I gave the detainee a glance over and then left," the SEAL wrote. "I did not notice anything wrong with the detainee and he appeared in good health."

Lt. Col. Holly Silkman, spokeswoman for the special operations component of U.S. Central Command, confirmed Tuesday to FoxNews.com that three SEALs have been charged in connection with the capture of a detainee. She said their court martial is scheduled for January.

United States Central Command declined to discuss the detainee, but a legal source told FoxNews.com that the detainee was turned over to Iraqi authorities, to whom he made the abuse complaints. He was then returned to American custody. The SEAL leader reported the charge up the chain of command, and an investigation ensued.

The source said intelligence briefings provided to the SEALs stated that "Objective Amber" planned the 2004 Fallujah ambush, and "they had been tracking this guy for some time."

The Fallujah atrocity came to symbolize the brutality of the enemy in Iraq and the degree to which a homegrown insurgency was extending its grip over Iraq.

The four Blackwater agents were transporting supplies for a catering company when they were ambushed and killed by gunfire and grenades. Insurgents burned the bodies and dragged them through the city. They hanged two of the bodies on a bridge over the Euphrates River for the world press to photograph (see above photo).

Intelligence sources identified Abed as the ringleader, but he had evaded capture until September.

The military is sensitive to charges of detainee abuse highlighted in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. The Navy charged four SEALs with abuse in 2004 in connection with detainee treatment.

___________________________
Isn't it nice to know that "the military is sensitive to charges of detainee abuse?" Somewhere a politically correct suck-up-senior officer made this decision, which should work wonders for the morale of the NAVY SEALs who put themselves in harms way every day to protect our freedom. Let's see: the administration has gone after the C.I.A. agents responsible more than anyone for preventing another 911, and now it is going after the NAVY SEALs, the most elite fighting force in our arsenal. One begins to see a pattern here - at least this one does. What to do? Might be time - especially in 2010 - to send a strong message to this administration that these outrageous decisions are unwelcome, and we would appreciate a little support for the men who keep us safe. Don't count on them listening, though.

Harold Estes - American Hero

WW II Battleship sailor tells Obama to shape up or ship out !

This venerable and much honored WW II vet is well known in Hawaii for his seventy-plus years of service to patriotic organizations and causes all over the country (that's him in the Hawaiian shirt). A humble man without a political bone in his body, he has never spoken out before about a government official, until now.

He dictated this letter to a friend, signed it and mailed it to the president.


Dear President Obama,

My name is Harold Estes, approaching 95 on December 13 of this year. People meeting me for the first time don't believe my age because I remain wrinkle free and pretty much mentally alert.

I enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1934 and served proudly before, during and after WW II retiring as a Master Chief Bos'n Mate. Now I live in a "rest home" located on the western end of Pearl Harbor, allowing me to keep alive the memories of 23 years of service to my country.

One of the benefits of my age, perhaps the only one, is to speak my mind, blunt and direct even to the head man.

So here goes.

I am amazed, angry and determined not to see my country die before I do, but you seem hell bent not to grant me that wish.

I can't figure out what country you are the president of.

You fly around the world telling our friends and enemies despicable lies like:

" We're no longer a Christian nation"

" America is arrogant" - (Your wife even

announced to the world,"America is mean-

spirited. " Please tell her to try preaching

that nonsense to 23 generations of our

war dead buried all over the globe who

died for no other reason than to free a

whole lot of strangers from tyranny and

hopelessness.)

I'd say shame on the both of you, but I don't think you like America, nor do I see an ounce of gratefulness in anything you do, for the obvious gifts this country has given you. To be without shame or gratefulness is a dangerous thing for a man sitting in the White House.

After 9/11 you said," America hasn't lived up to her ideals."

Which ones did you mean? Was it the notion of personal liberty that 11,000 farmers and shopkeepers died for to win independence from the British? Or maybe the ideal that no man should be a slave to another man, that 500,000 men died for in the Civil War? I hope you didn't mean the ideal 470,000 fathers, brothers, husbands, and a lot of fellas I knew personally died for in WWII, because we felt real strongly about not letting any nation push us around, because we stand for freedom.

I don't think you mean the ideal that says equality is better than discrimination. You know the one that a whole lot of white people understood when they helped to get you elected.

Take a little advice from a very old geezer, young man.

Shape up and start acting like an American. If you don't, I'll do what I can to see you get shipped out of that fancy rental on Pennsylvania Avenue. You were elected to lead not to bow, apologize and kiss the hands of murderers and corrupt leaders who still treat their people like slaves.

And just who do you think you are telling the American people not to jump to conclusions and condemn that Muslim major who killed 13 of his fellow soldiers and wounded dozens more. You mean you don't want us to do what you did when that white cop used force to subdue that black college professor in Massachusetts, who was putting up a fight? You don't mind offending the police calling them stupid but you don't want us to offend Muslim fanatics by calling them what they are, terrorists.

One more thing. I realize you never served in the military and never had to defend your country with your life, but you're the Commander-in-Chief now, son. Do your job. When your battle-hardened field General asks you for 40,000 more troops to complete the mission, give them to him. But if you're not in this fight to win, then get out. The life of one American soldier is not worth the best political strategy you're thinking of.

You could be our greatest president because you face the greatest challenge ever presented to any president.

You're not going to restore American greatness by bringing back our bloated economy. That's not our greatest threat. Losing the heart and soul of who we are as Americans is our big fight now.

And I sure as hell don't want to think my president is the enemy in this final battle.


Sincerely,

Harold B. Estes

Sundays are for Beauty - Bach

That's the Freiburg (Germany) Baroque Orchestra performing J. S. Bach's first of his six Brandenburg Concerti. The six concerti by Bach are widely regarded as among the finest musical compositions of the Baroque era. The third concerto was featured in Sundays are for Beauty, Part 22.

The Freiburg Baroque Orchestra has been in existence since 1987, and performs around the world. Notice the instruments being played in the video. They're restored or replica versions of the instruments of the Baroque era.

Listening to the music of J. S. Bach can make any day more beautiful. It's bound to make today a beautiful Sunday.

Krauthammer: Medicalizing Mass Murder

What a surprise — that someone who shouts “Allahu Akbar” (the “God is great” jihadist battle cry) as he is shooting up a room of American soldiers might have Islamist motives. It certainly was a surprise to the mainstream media, which spent the weekend after the Fort Hood massacre downplaying Nidal Hasan’s religious beliefs.  Read the whole article:

Medicalizing Mass Murder by Charles Krauthammer on National Review Online

CATO on Obamacare

Land of the Free Because of the Brave

TO ALL THOSE WHO SERVED, ARE SERVING, OR ARE ABOUT TO SERVE:  THANK YOU!

HAPPY 234th Birthday U.S.M.C.

November 10, 1775 - November 10, 2009

SEMPER FIDELIS

He said: "Tear Down This Wall" - and it came down, twenty years ago today...

...and the cold war was over.  
Thanks to:
President Ronald Reagan,
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and
Pope John Paul II.
The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 
1990 was, of course,
Mikhail Gorbachev.

Sundays are for Beauty - Biebl Ave Maria

In 1964, when the Cornell University Glee Club was performing in Germany, Franz Biebl asked them to perform his Ave Maria.  They did so, and then brought the piece back home with them, where it has become a favorite of the San Francisco choral group, Chanticleer. The piece is a combination of Gregorian chants and portions of the Angelus and the Ave Maria.

That’s a more recent incarnation of the Cornell University Glee Club in the video performing the piece, which music critic Jay Nordlinger calls “one of the most beautiful pieces of music of the twentieth century.” The performance was spontaneous and was performed prior to the start of the actual production, which was to be a performance of another German piece.

Most of us familiar with Franz Schubert’s rendition of Ave Maria may never have heard the Biebl version, but hearing it sung by a chorus (as in the above video) I have to agree with Mr. Nordlinger.   I can think of nothing more ethereal, more sacred, or more beautiful.


Have a beautiful Sunday.

Why they call Illegal Immigrants Undocumented Aliens

The Spending and Tax Increases of the House Health Bill

Click on chart to enlarge.

Thanks to The Heritage Foundation for providing the truth in pictures.

The Spending and Tax Increases of the House Health Bill in Pictures » The Foundry

Jobs Saved Math

Political Math exposes the prevarication behind the numbers provided by the Obama administration on the number of jobs "created or saved" by the stimulus.  Here's the link:

http://politicalmath.wordpress.com/2009/11/05/dirty-stimulus-jobs-data-exaggerates-stimulus-impact/

Obamacare: Not really funny (5)

Click on photo to enlarge.

Dismantling Missile Defense

A Year of Living Dangerously: Dismantling Missile Defense » The Foundry

If you were beginning to think Obamacare was our biggest worry, read what The Heritage Foundation just released on the Obama administration's efforts toward the dismantling our missile defense systems. Have to fund those social programs you know.

Less Is Not More: Thomas Sowell on Obamacare

Less Is Not More by Thomas Sowell on National Review Online

Obamacare: Not really funny (4)

Click on the blimp to enlarge.

Bad Omen for the Yankees in Game Six Tonight

We just call it Afghanistan, Mr. President.

Click on map to enlarge.

Was I the only one bothered by President Obama, when he congratulated Hamid Karzai the other day for being "elected" for a second term as president of (as Obama called it) the "Islamic Republic of Afghanistan?" I hate to be picky, but has anyone ever heard him refer to the U.K, our top ally, as the Parliamentary Democracy of the United Kingdom, or to our good neighbor to the north as the Constitutional Democracy of Canada?

Not only has he never referred to our county as the Christian Republic of the United States of America; he went out of his way, when speaking in the Republican Parliamentary Democracy of Turkey (he did not refer to it that way, but just wait until they adopt Sharia Law and become the Islamic Republic of Turkey), to declare that we do not consider ourselves to be a Christian nation. He better not be counting me in that we.

It gets worse. How does our president refer to that country in Western Asia, the rogue exporter of terrorism throughout the world, determined, in the face of world-wide opposition, to acquire a nuclear bomb with which to obliterate Israel from the face of the earth? That's right: he refers to it as the Islamic Republic of Iran.

I don't think he likes US much. Our former Ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, was right when he referred to Barack Obama as our First Post-American President.

Obamacare: Not really funny (3)

Click to enlarge.

Thomas Sowell: The ‘Costs’ of Medical Care

The ‘Costs’ of Medical Care by Thomas Sowell on National Review Online

As the "debate" about health care reform winds down to a possible catastrophe, one should read everything available on the subject by economists such as Thomas Sowell. Additional articles by Dr. Sowell can be found by clicking on "Thomas Sowell" listed as one of the Labels for this post.

Obamacare: Not really funny (2)

Decline is a Choice - Krauthammer at his Best

Everything Charles Krauthammer writes is as important as it is insightful, but this article of his from the Weekly Standard tops the Must Read list. It may be the most important thing you read this year.

For America today, decline is not a condition. Decline is a choice. Two decades into the unipolar world that came about with the fall of the Soviet Union, America is in the position of deciding whether to abdicate or retain its dominance. Decline--or continued ascendancy--is in our hands.

Facing the choice of whether to maintain our dominance or to gradually, deliberately, willingly, and indeed relievedly give it up, we are currently on a course towards the latter. The current liberal ascendancy in the United States--controlling the executive and both houses of Congress, dominating the media and elite culture--has set us on a course for decline. And this is true for both foreign and domestic policies. Indeed, they work synergistically to ensure that outcome.

Please read the entire piece here:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/017/056lfnpr.asp?pg=1

Rasmussen Reports Big Dip for BHO

In October, for the third straight month, 39% Strongly Disapproved of the president’s performance. The number who Strongly Approved fell two percentage points to 29%, the president’s lowest full-month total to date. That leads to a Presidential Approval Index rating of -10, also a new low for Obama.

Meanwhile, our troops in Afghanistan are still waiting to hear how many, if any, of their fellow warriors are on the way to help.

Obamacare: Not really funny (1)

Click on it to enlarge.

Sundays are for Beauty - Kermit

Kermit's version of "Rainbow Connection" reached #25 on the Billboard Hot 100 in November 1979; it remained in the Top 40 for seven weeks. The song was also nominated for an Oscar that year.


Jim Henson (September 24, 1936 – May 16, 1990) was the man who gave us Kermit, Miss Piggy, many other Muppets - and more. He died suddenly, of Streptococcal Toxic Syndrome, at the age of 53. In those fifty-three years, he brought more joy and beauty into the lives of others than any man in his profession. R.I.P.