U.S. military fatalities in Iraq continued to drop

While we stand in awe of the willingness of our troops in Iraq to sacrifice themselves for the Nation, the fewer that are required to do so, the better. And the news on that front is good. As can be seen in the chart below, our military deaths are down over 80% (82%) from May's peak this year of 126. What is no unquestionable a trend (with future fluctuations of course), reflects a tremendous achievement on the part of General Petraeus, since this is the result not of retreating from our objectives in Iraq but of advancing toward them - of executing the mission.



http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2008/01/us_military_fatalities_in_iraq.html

Authorization Act Impasse Poses Challenge to Recruiters

WASHINGTON, Jan. 3, 2008 – Recruiters, particularly in the Army, have a new challenge to deal with because the enlistment bonuses they count on to attract new recruits won’t apply until the legislation that authorizes them passes into law.

As a result, recruiters find themselves having to tell prospective recruits they may be able to offer enlistment bonuses, but can’t make any promises. So recruits end up signing contingency contracts that acknowledge they could feasibly get no bonus.

“That can have a chilling impact on the propensity of a person to sign one of those contracts,” he said. “That might affect their willingness to enter into a contract that conditionally promises a bonus.”

Another downside of the authorization act impasse is its impact on servicemembers’ paychecks. The 2008 Defense Authorization Act had called for a 3.5 percent pay raise for military members.

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=48569

A Global Assessment of the Confrontation

Walid Phares, Ph.D.

The conflict we call the War on Terror still continues at the end of 2007 and all indications are that its battlefields are expected to spread further, and escalate, in the upcoming year.

The following is a global assessment of the confrontation that has taken place since 2001, though the systematic war waged by the Jihadi forces against democracies and the free world began at least a decade before 9/11. This evaluation isn't comprehensive or definitive, but a collection of observations related to major benchmarks, directions and projections.
[snip]
The main powers and allies involved in the War on Terror still lack global cohesion. While the US integrates its efforts in the ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq with its efforts globally to defeat al Qaeda and contain nuclear proliferation of rogue regimes like Iran, other powers and blocs of countries have different plans...

[Recommended > http://www.globalpolitician.com/articledes.asp?ID=3951&cid=11&sid=63 ]

'Nanny state' cramps Europe's style

BERLIN - Europe started 2008 with a raft of new laws against smoking, air pollution and even junk food adverts, but some grumbled that the New Year's resolutions from the "nanny state" cramped their style. (Snip) While many accepted the new rules as reasonable*, some bristled at what they called the state's overreach and the creeping end of the Euroean way of life.

[reasonable: other people should be forced to act as I would. This is the model some Americans want to emulate?]

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,23002134-5001028,00.html?from=public_rss

China does not allow democracy

Taipei - A senior Taiwanese official said that Beijing's move to delay any direct election for Hong Kong's leader until 2017 underlined why Taiwan could not accept reunification with China. Tung Chen-yuan, a deputy chief of Taiwan's China policy-making body, known as the Mainland Affairs Council, said the decision sent a clear signal ''that the Chinese Communist Party does not allow genuine democracy''

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22987836-12335,00.html

Top Russian scientist: global cooling coming

For the remainder of this century, it will be global cooling we'll have to worry about, according to highly credentialed Russian scientist, Dr. Oleg Sorokhtin.

Dr. Sorokhtin, Merited Scientist of Russia and fellow of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, is staff researcher of the Oceanology Institute. He explains the recent warming as a natural trend.

"Earth is now at the peak of one of its passing warm spells. It started in the 17th century when there was no industrial influence on the climate to speak of and no such thing as the hothouse effect. The current warming is evidently a natural process and utterly independent of hothouse gases."

So what will happen in the future?

"The latest data, obtained by Habibullah Abdusamatov, head of the Pulkovo Observatory space research laboratory, say that Earth has passed the peak of its warmer period, and a fairly cold spell will set in quite soon, by 2012. Real cold will come when solar activity reaches its minimum, by 2041, and will last for 50-60 years or even longer."

The high standing of Dr. Sorkhtin and the inherent plausibility of his argument that climate will continue to follow the same basic causal factor, solar activity, make this another heavy blow to the global warming alarmists, who insist there is no argument at all.

http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20080103/94768732.html

New Nebraska bill would target benefits for illegal immigrants

LINCOLN - Gov. Dave Heineman unveiled a legislative proposal today aimed at ensuring that illegal immigrants do not get state or local government benefits in Nebraska. The plan, backed by Attorney General Jon Bruning and State Sen. Mike Friend of Omaha, would require state and local agencies to verify that people are legal U.S. residents before extending benefits.

http://www.lavistasun.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19170115&BRD=2712&PAG=461&dept_id=556239&rfi=6

Guns in the cockpit

"Do airline pilots still need to be armed?" The answer is, "Absolutely — now more than ever."

Consider this: Arming pilots is not a new idea. In fact, airline pilots flew armed in large numbers from the dawn of commercial aviation to 1987 with no record of incident. When the federal government disarmed pilots in 1987, many pilots predicted cockpit takeover attempts — including the late Captain Victor Saracini, who, in horrible irony, was the captain of United flight 175 on September 11, 2001 when his Boeing 767 was hijacked and crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center. It was the disarming of pilots in 1987 that inevitably led to the September 11 cockpit takeovers...

http://washingtontimes.com/article/20080103/EDITORIAL/583177106/1013

Infantilism Of the Left

.
[the bad news...]
A former liberal turned conservative comedian, Evan Sayet, also puzzled over whether those on the left side of issues were evil or stupid, and he came to the conclusion that they were instead suspended in a childhood frame of mind. In a speech at the Heritage Foundation last year, Mr. Sayet said: "So what you're left with after 10, 12, 14, 20 years in the leftist indoctrination centers that our schools have become are citizens of voting age who are utterly unwilling and incapable of critically judging the merits of the positions they hold and have held unquestioned since they were 5 years old and first entered the leftist indoctrination process."

[the good news...]
But thanks to the Internet, this time our military is getting the respect it richly deserves. There's no Walter Cronkite on the air distorting our victories as defeats, as he did in 1968, when he called the Tet offensive a victory for the North Vietnamese army, when it was a defeat. There's no Dan Rather pushing fake documents to influence an election. Thanks to bloggers, innumerable groups are organizing care packages for those serving abroad. There's also professional help available when soldiers come home to a grateful nation...

[I'd say those forces of disinformation still strive to distort - think of Reid, Murtha, the Marine 'murderers' of Haditha and AP's photo-shopped photos -- but they've no longer a media monopoly and so those weaned from TV can learn 'off message' facts...]

http://www.nysun.com/article/68931

A Recession Shouldn't Be in Your 2008 Forecast

Some analysts were predicting a recession would hit the U.S. economy in the fourth quarter as consumers, hurt by falling house prices and the high cost of gasoline, cut spending. It didn't happen, and there's no reason to think it's going to this year either. Economic growth will be slow in the first half of 2008, and the unemployment rate, which was still a low 4.7 percent in November, is likely to rise. (Snip) On the other hand, economic growth should accelerate in the second half of the year as financial-market conditions and the U.S. trade deficit improve...

[I've no idea. Point is, neither do the doom & gloomers in the MSM so I thought I'd 'balance' a little here.]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&refer=columnist_berry&sid=aeV7.rn.uMDM

Preserving ballot integrity

There's a showdown at the O.K Corral, otherwise known as the U.S. Supreme Court, over an issue most of us think about only once a year, if that. The ballot box.

On one side are Indiana election officials; on the other is the American Civil Liberties Union and the Indiana Democratic Party. The fight is over an Indiana law requiring people to show photo ID when they go to vote. Sounds like a common-sense requirement, right? According to a Wall Street Journal poll, more than 80 percent of Americans think so, but evidently we need the black robe society to decide the what's best for us...

http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071231/COMMENTARY/127201184

Who Will Control Your Thermostat?

California
Californians may lose ultimate control of their thermostats, if proposed revisions to state building regulations are approved. All in the name of the greater good, of course.

A proposed revisions to Title 24 [state-mandated energy standards] is the requirement for what is called a "programmable communicating thermostat" or PCT. Every new home and every change to existing homes' central heating and air conditioning systems will required to be fitted with a PCT beginning next year following the issuance of the revision. Each PCT will be fitted with a "non-removable " FM receiver that will allow the power authorities to increase your air conditioning temperature setpoint or decrease your heater temperature setpoint to any value they chose. During "emergency events" the new setpoints can be whatever the power authority desires and you would not be able to alter them.

In other words, the temperature of your home will no longer be yours to control.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/01/who_will_control_your_thermost.html

Sacked for sheep sex prank

Two British oil workers have been sacked after simulating sex with sheep due to be slaughtered for a Muslim festival. The animals were being killed for 30 foreign workers to celebrate Eid Al Adhha in the Algerian oil town Hassi Messaoud. The men, who have not been named, were reported by stunned restaurant workers and guards — then sacked by their employer, US industrial giant Schlumberger. They were accused of ''sheep violation''.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article639408.ece