Face of Defense: Former Giant Cheers Team from Afghanistan

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan, Feb. 4, 2008 – As millions of Americans gathered around their televisions to watch Super Bowl XLII last night, servicemembers here rolled out of beds, cots or sleeping bags to watch the big game in the early morning hours.

The New York Giants and New England Patriots each had plenty of rooters here, but one soldier assigned to Combined Joint Task Force 82 took special pride in the Giants’ stunning 17-14 upset of the previously unbeaten Patriots.

Before he joined the Army, Lt. Col. Nate Rivers, CJTF 82’s logistics maintenance chief, played in the National Football League in a career that included two years with the Giants...

READ MORE

Too Much America Bashing: Bad For World’s Security

Some critics of the American led war against terrorism still retort that the allies’ interventation has yet to achieve its goal in Iraq and Afghanistan. That is true but they must not forget the fact that the allies are patiently accumulating the fruits of successes. American troops have endured strategical mistakes in Iraq but the emerging semblance of order gives the world justifiable optimism and a new energy to the American troops in Iraq.

Though it was lambasted the world over, America kept its cool and never lashed out, but instead demonstrated patience, determination, and are now, at least smelling success in what was earlier doomed as the cavernous graveyard of the twenty first century. But the war is not finished yet, for all the recent successes in Iraq, America has no illusion that this war is over. The road looks uncertain as ever, but there certainly is a light at the end of the tunnel.

So when America is waging the global war against terror by putting its economy at stake, why are not we supporting America? Had the US done it for its own safety then it would have been different but it is fighting terrorism, the hydra headed monster, so why the heck are we, sitting in an arm chair complaining the America led war...

READ MORE

Reform of Islam is Necessary for Civilization

The greatest [physical] danger mankind faces is the smuggling of a nuclear weapon by an Islamic Terrorist into a major western city killing millions in the name of God. If the hateful teachings of the Koran are not removed from Islam this is the disaster that will destroy civilization as we know it. It will dramatically change human history forever. The stakes are that high.
[snip]
Nobody cares if Islam is a religion in which people pray 5 times a day, wash their feet, fast for one month, do not use alcohol etc. That would be wonderful. But it is not.. Islam is a declaration of war against infidels. Islam is an ideology of war and the Koran is a book of war. This war is permanent until all the infidels have converted, or paid a submission tax or have been murdered. This is the Law of God as set down in the Koran.
[snip]
How is it possible that such an evil ideology (not religion) invented by an evil man (Muhammad) who, raped slaves, beheaded prisoners, sold women and children into slavery and raped a child – be posing such a grave threat worldwide to democracy and freedom. Any normal person reading the Koran immediately realizes that the hate, terror, violence pouring from the pages is not the word of God but that of a mad man which needs to be expunged from civil societies.
[snip]
The biggest problem we face in our struggle is that the political, media, intellectual and political elites are making criticism of Islam off limits by labeling such criticism Islamophobia. These elites are contributing this crazy and insane situation...

READ MORE

Brussels warns France and Italy on spending plans

The European Commission has sent a warning to France, Italy, Romania and Slovakia over their spending plans for the coming years, with an extra heap of criticism for Paris and Rome for their reluctance to sign up to an EU-wide goal of fully slashing public deficit by 2010.

Presenting the regular reports on the four countries on Wednesday (30 January), EU economy commissioner Joaquin Almunia recommended cuts in budgetary expenditure and further structural reforms as key goals for all of them, suggesting they should be "more ambitious" in their planning.

Although the country managed to cut its budget deficit "well bellow 3% in 2007" - which is the EU's allowed ceiling – Brussels doubts the likelihood of Rome eliminating its deficit by 2011. It also warned about its public debt, currently at 106.8 percent of GDP.

READ MORE

Tax changes 'to drive out foreign super-rich'

More than half of Britain's wealthiest people plan to leave or scale back their UK investments after a tax clampdown on ''non-domiciled'' foreigners, a survey has found. The study, by the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners suggests the Government's plans to tax the foreign super-rich would be counter-productive, as tax revenues would fall and assets would be sold.

[so it has exactly the opposite effect than desired - but it feels good to 'soak the rich', so they'll do it anyway. I'm just grateful us Americans are smarter than to fall for that class warfare stuff...]

READ MORE

Reality Check on the Costs of Unhealthy Living

Dutch researchers simulated lifetime costs, starting at age 20, for smokers, the obese, and a "healthy living" cohort that maintained a healthy weight and didn't smoke:

> Healthy living 20 year olds could expect to live to about age 84, compared with age 77 for the smokers and 80 for the obese.
> Those additional years can be expensive: For healthy 20 year olds, the remaining lifetime health care costs over $400,000 [in the Dutch system], nearly a third more than their 'unhealthy' brethren.

Perversely, reducing obesity and the burden of disease it causes may wind up costing the nation more, not less - and in American scale. Hillary Clinton, for example, notes that "had the prevalence of obesity remained the same today as it was in 1987, we would spend 10 percent less per person -- approximately $200 billion -- on health care today."

Change that equation to 30% more, and we're talking 600 billion dollars. Living healthier is a noble goal - but when conducting our cost-benefit analysis, let's start by using fact-based math.

[This data is not new, its been consistently shown to be the case through several like studies. It's the healthy on their long slide to 'natural' death that accumulate the highest health costs. What part does this data play in the ongoing debate on the government's role in mandating life style choices? I'd hope none. Except to say that should proponents of the nanny state insist on injecting claimed (erroneously, according to the data) 'social costs' as justification for stripping us of personal choice, should not social savings be used to counter? I'll eagerly await a 60 Minutes special on that angle...]

READ MORE

Just How Crazy Is Al Gore?

Just how crazy is Al Gore? That was the question that popped, once again, into my brain as I read a January 24 Agency France Press news story out of the Davos meeting of business and political elite. Gore asserted that, “the North Pole ice caps may disappear entirely during summer months within five years…”

I was instantly reminded of the story that ran in The New York Times in August 2000 claiming that the Pole was free of ice for the first time in 50 million years. It wasn’t, of course - the Times retracted it three weeks later. This kind of apocalyptic nonsense has been ratcheting upward ever since the new century began and my theory is that lunatics like Al Gore know that they are running out of time when it comes to imposing draconian restrictions on the use of every form of energy known to mankind. [because they're past 'predictions' are coming due - and will be shown false, one after the other]
[snip]
The problem with this latest ploy is that the polar bear population has risen from approximately 5,000 in 1950 to around 25,000 today as documented by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It is the same agency being asked to declare the bears endangered and, for good measure, a species of loon as well. [typical government: wrong loon]

Dr. Singer stated that “It is warmer now than it was 100 years ago” at the end of the last mini-Ice Age and that “This has had an influence on polar ice, which has been slowly thinning, as it melts from beneath. And the ice will continue to thin for some time to come even though the climate is no longer warming. Moral: It takes a lot of time to melt ice.”

No longer warming? Yes, that’s another inconvenient truth that Al Gore ignores. When you add in the fact that the earth is at the end of a well-known interglacial cycle of 11,500 years, large portions of the planet are likely to get a lot cooler with the advent of a new Ice Age.

[the real story here {if only we could find an investigative journalist} is why so many claim to take Mr. Gore seriously]

READ MORE

How Crazy are we?

Bill Delays Oil Exploration for Polar Bear Listing
Environmentalists welcomed a bill introduced by a House Democrat last week that would delay the sale of land in Alaska for oil exploration. Environmentalists believe the Interior Department wants to avoid classifying the polar bear as an endangered species until the land -- which is polar bear habitat -- is sold.
[despite...>]
"Sale 193 was originally scheduled for June 2007, but we delayed the sale until February 2008 to provide sufficient time to complete the environmental analyses," he said in his testimony for the select committee on Thursday.
[snip]
According to Randall Luthi, director of the Minerals Management Service, "the Chukchi Sea Planning Area could hold 15 billion barrels of oil and 76 trillion cubic feet of natural gas ... thus providing potentially significant future production of oil and gas from Northern Alaska."
[snip]
"Rep. Markey and too many other members of Congress are willing to use any tools available to stop oil production in this country," he said. "Then they complain about high gasoline prices and importing oil from countries they don't like."

READ MORE

[meanwhile...]

U.S. mayors chide Washington for failing to tackle immigration issue

At a press conference, the visibly frustrated mayors of Albuquerque, Phoenix, Denver, and Richmond told of the immigration-related problems rending their cities. Public schools and medical services strained by unlawful residents who don't pay taxes. A serial rapist in the country illegally who was deported twice only to walk right back over the border to continue his crimes.

The mayors met recently with members of Congress and President Bush to make the case for swift action, but were told the issue was unlikely to come up again until 2009 or 2010.

``We can't wait another year,'' said Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon. ``We can't wait another day.''

[Doing nothing for a few years ok with you? Told 'em that?]

READ MORE

WHY IT'S NOT THE ECONOMY

We have a $14 trillion economy. The idea that presidents can control it lies between an exaggeration and an illusion. Our presidential preferences ought to reflect judgments on issues where what they think counts -- forget the business cycle, says columnist Robert Samuelson. True, presidents try to manipulate it:

In 1971, President Richard Nixon imposed wage and price controls -- the economy boomed in 1972, but the controls were a time-delayed disaster; when they were removed, inflation exploded to 12 percent in 1974.

In 1980, the Carter administration adopted credit controls to squelch raging inflation; the result was a short recession -- a complete surprise.

History's long view teaches the same lesson. No president tried harder, with good reason, to influence the business cycle than Franklin Roosevelt:

When he took office in 1933, unemployment was roughly 25 percent.

By executive order and congressional legislation, FDR effectively abandoned the gold standard, adopted deposit insurance, tried to prop up falling farm and factory prices, regulated the stock market and embarked on massive public works.

With what result? Economic research suggests that New Deal measures likely only frustrated revival. In any case, all of them together didn't end the Great Depression. World War II did that. In 1939 [6 years] unemployment was still 17 percent.

READ MORE

David Hicks courts highest bidders for his story

David Hicks is fielding lucrative offers for his story as his key advisers harden their resolve to defy Australian law and sell the white-hot interview rights. The race to sign up the convicted terrorism supporter involves television networks in Australia, in the US and as far afield as Italy (Snip) Television, book and magazine rights could reap 32-year-old Hicks up to $1 million, media analysts say...

[what moral decline in the West?]

READ MORE

NYT: McCain 2007 Summer Slump Caused by Moves to Right

Former New York Times White House reporter Elisabeth Bumiller is on the campaign trail after writing a book on Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, but Monday's "Once a Thorn, McCain Now Courts a Wary Party" betrayed some ignorance about the nature of past opposition to McCain.

Mr. McCain learned that the hard way: The maverick who ran against George W. Bush in 2000 headed into the 2008 race with all the expensive accouterments of the front-runner, only to lose some of his political identity when he embraced evangelicals and the Republican orthodoxy of tax cuts, not to mention an unpopular war. By last summer Mr. McCain's campaign had all but collapsed and he was flying into New Hampshire alone to meet with small clutches of voters.

Bumiller is trying to suggest McCain's support collapsed in the summer when he began appealing to conservatives on taxes -- but it was his strong support of amnesty for illegal immigrantion that cost him dearly among Republicans.

[a frequent ploy employed by the MSM: 'steal the message', whereby you take facts (McCain's loss) and attach a completely wrong 'analysis' of its cause...]

READ MORE

Report busts the myths on cancer risks

Breast implants, deodorant and coffee are extremely unlikely to cause cancer, says a new risk report designed to allay panic that everything can be carcinogenic. The risk assessment developed by an Australian cancer specialist puts in perspective the chance of getting the disease from a range of agents, including dental fillings, marijuana and cured meats. (Snip) Professor Stewart all but ruled out risk for a range of other rumoured carcinogens, including artificial sweeteners, coffee, deodorant, dental fillings, breast implants and fluoridated water.

[hey implants are back! {what?}]

READ MORE