Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Face of Defense: Wounded Airman Lives for Son, Hopes to Stay on Active Duty
Air Force Tech. Sgt. Israel Del Toro has made remarkable strides in his recovery in the three years and 102 surgeries since he and his team were ambushed by the Taliban in the mountains near Qalat, Afghanistan. [snip]
“They told me I was going to be in the hospital for another year, that I may or may not walk again, [and] that I was going to be stuck on a respirator for the rest of my life,” Del Toro said.
“I sat there for a few seconds and came back with, ‘You can kiss my ass,’” he said.
[in·dom·i·ta·ble (in-dom-it-bl) adj. : Incapable of being overcome, subdued, or vanquished; unconquerable. ]
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The Exquisite Difficulty of Preemption
Ever hear of an obscure German Chancellor by the name of Hitler? Probably not. He ruled for three years in the 1930s until he took an aggressive step too far, marching troops into the Rhineland against treaty commitments. The Wehrmacht was promptly ejected by the French Army, and an appalled and fearful German General Staff liquidated Hitler and called for new elections.
Of course, it didn't work that way.
Herr Hitler was not removed, because the pacific French and British democracies -- knowing only that any action would result in serious bloodshed, but not the then-future of the German Chancellor -- shrank from the challenge and hoped for the best.... [snip]
The past offers certainties, the future only probabilities. But it is probabilities on which humans have to act.
Accordingly, if diplomacy fails and with evidence of a threat as solid as it is with Iran, at the proper time the real statesman will discharge his most fundamental duty: to protect us from harm...
[Recommended > ]
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Fewer than one in three of Britain's Apache attack helicopters 'fit for purpose'
Fewer than one in three of the Army's billion pound fleet of Apache attack helicopters is "fit for purpose" for front line operations.
Of the 67 now in service with the Army Air Corps, just 20 are available for combat in Afghanistan or for training pilots in the United Kingdom.
The helicopter, which has proven to be a battle-winning asset in Afghanistan, where it provides close combat support to British troops, has become another victim of the perpetual defundnig and downsizing affecting the whole of Britain's armed forces.
"The vital work our troops are doing in Afghanistan is being undermined by this Government's inability to provide them with the equipment they need. The real problem was Labour's catastrophic £1.4 billion cut to the helicopter budget in 2004. Our troops are now paying the consequences for this decision."
[the next time someone points to Europe as a model for more socialistic government and how they still seem to be functioning, remind them of this little secret: they've 'spent' their ability to defend themselves to pay for their social programs. Only a hand full of European nations could put up more than a token resistance to a conventional invasion, and none can now project any real power to foreign shores to keep trouble off their own. That's why they harp so re: 'soft power' - it's the only kind they have left.]
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Jews get killed, but Muslims feel 'vulnerable'
[HT:YR]
Shortly after the London Tube bombings in 2005, a reader of Tim Blair, The Sydney Daily Telegraph's columnist wag, sent him a note-perfect parody of a typical newspaper headline:
"British Muslims Fear Repercussions Over Tomorrow's Train Bombing."Indeed. And so it goes. This time round – Mumbai – it was the Associated Press that filed a story about how Muslims "found themselves on the defensive once again about bloodshed linked to their religion"
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Were There Muslims in Mumbai?
At its annual convention in October 2001, the Society of Professional Journalists issued “Diversity Guidelines,” that instructed reporters and editors to, “Avoid using word combinations such as ‘Islamic terrorist’ or ‘Muslim extremist’ that are misleading because they link whole religions to criminal activity.”
Let’s see: In the past 30 years, the overwhelming majority of acts of terrorism were committed by Muslims. Most terrorist groups have names like jihad-this and Islamic-that. Terrorists regularly quote the Koran’s kill-the-infidels verses. (“O True Believers, when you encounter the unbeliever, strike off their heads!”) Al-Qaeda and company tell us that their goal is to advance the global jihad . Those inciting inter-religious violence have titles like sheikh, imam and mullah.
But linking Islam to terrorism is “misleading”? [snip]
And it's getting worse: if the U.N. has its way, soon, a commentary like the one you’re reading will be against international law...
[Recommended > ]
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Brisbane Islamic college bans Australian national anthem
A BRISBANE Islamic school has banned the national anthem at assemblies and sacked the teacher who asked for it to be played, The Courier-Mail can reveal. Australian International Islamic College teacher Pravin Chand was sacked after he proposed students sing Advance Australia Fair.
The song was ruled to be against the "Islamic view and ethos".
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A Sea Change In The Caribbean
A Russian warship passes through the Panama Canal for the first time since World War II. Is it a mere annoyance or the beginning of a challenge in America's backyard? Once, the Panama Canal was considered a triumph of American technology and a symbol of American power. Today it's a waterway managed by a Chinese company with links to the People's Liberation Army through which Russian warships pass...
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Chinese petitioners forced into mental asylums, claims report
Beijing - Local officials in China have been accused of using forcible psychiatric treatment to silence critics, it emerged yesterday, amid reports that at least 18 people bringing complaints against authorities were held in a mental hospital in Shandong province against their will. Authorities in Xintai district committed people who had pursued grievances ranging from police brutality to property disputes, according to the Beijing News. Some were force-fed drugs.
[Where's Pelosi refusing to trade with China (vs. Columbia} due to human rights concerns?]
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Electric shock as sales of green cars go into reverse
[UK]
Sales of electric cars have fallen by more than half this year, according to figures released two days after the Government’s climate change advisory body predicted a huge increase.
Only 156 electric cars were sold from January to October, compared with 374 for the same period last year.
Nice Car Company, one of the two main British distributors of electric cars, went into administration yesterday. Set up in 2006, the company had been selling an all-electric version of the French-made Aixam Mega. It had also planned to bring a range of new models to market by the end of the year.
However, sales have dropped to fewer than one car a week...
["cars nobody wants"? These are they - and our government is about to force our auto makers to produce them regardless...]
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Democrat tied auto aid to conditions
Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said lawmakers will attach several conditions for Detroit automakers in return for $25 billion in federal aid. Frank said Sunday that automakers will be required to submit to Congress their plans for future economic viability and environmental efficiency...
[this new religion will lead to mass economic martyrdom...]
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Australians face $200 tax to fly home from UK
Australia-bound air passengers will be hit hard by the British government's environmental impact tax, with those taking long-haul flights to be slugged by a new departure tax system.
Those flying furthest and having the biggest environmental impact will pay more, with travellers going to Australia forking out nearly A$200 in passenger tax in two years' time...
[a mechanism to tax, and so control, all activity. If you're a 'social engineering' fan, it's brilliant. {if into personal choice and liberties, not so much}]
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Economists raise doubts about alternative-energy spending
Obama's new budget chief, Peter Orszag, has expressed doubts about Obama's plan to spend billions on alternative energy schemes. In his previous job as head of the Congressional Budget Office, Orszag wrote a report in January saying that some forms of alternative-energy spending "are totally impractical" for stimulating the economy and others "could end up making the economic situation worse" by adding to the federal debt.
The specifics of the spending are crucial. Orszag's report said that grants to develop alternative-energy sources — which were one part of a Democratic stimulus package blocked by Republicans this fall — won't help spur the economy. And research money "is a transfer (of funds) to Ph.D. students," Reinhart said... [snip]
At a meeting Tuesday on energy with business and environment groups, Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said an economic stimulus bill now being crafted could devote up to $100 billion to alternative-energy spending...
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NYT: Make The Mormons Walk To Wal-Mart
In the social circles of the New York Times editorialists, it's OK to have one kid. Two is pushing the envelope. Three or more is déclassé, and a threat to the survival of the planet.
That being so, there's really no reason to let any car bigger than a Prius be built. Doing so just encourages the unenlightened to overbreed. And so it is that in its editorial of today, the Grey-but-barren Lady suggests that as a condition of the Detroit bailout, "Congress could consider demanding that Detroit simply phase out S.U.V.’s and vans by a certain date."
[and that's the defining difference with the Green Religion; adherence is compulsory {come to think of it, I can think of a 2nd religion with the same mindset... maybe we should refer to it as the Green Global Caliphate ]
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End Run around Congress
During the Presidential campaign, then-Senator Obama executed a series of extraordinarily successful "stealth strategies," enabling him to secure the support of key core groups without alienating the larger public. There were others, but perhaps his greatest stealth strategy was his promise to lower taxes for 95 percent of Americans, while quietly assuring his more liberal supporters that he'd let the Bush tax cuts expire -- which, without fanfare, would amount to a huge tax increase for all tax-paying Americans.
However, none of these stealth strategies holds a candle to President-Elect Obama's most brilliant stealth strategy for implementing "change." This involves not just a change in laws, but a change in the way laws are made and passed. This "change" is as simple as it is revolutionary: capitalizing on the economic crisis, Obama has challenged Congress to enact his near-trillion-dollar package of social changes -- disguised as a comprehensive stimulus/jobs bill -- and to have that legislation waiting to be signed immediately after his January 20th inaugural.
In the name of stopping the economy's free-fall, through a traditionally-liberal massive infusion of jobs, President-Elect Obama is also adroitly side-stepping Congress's time-honored system of passing legislation. By lumping all of his major new-initiative programs into an omnibus stimulus/jobs bill which has virtually no chance of not passing, these sweeping new programs will immediately become part of the American system of governance. All 'without need' of further hearings -- ensuring that there will never be any chance for Americans to speak out against these changes...
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The Doctor Will See All of You Now
You are sitting in a doctor's waiting room with eight other sick patients, and the nurse announces: The doctor will see all of you now -- at the same time. That's how the Boston Globe recently described 'shared visits' that are being used to cope with the long waits now customary in Massachusetts.
The group session consists mostly of hearing other people's complaints, while the doctor dishes out advice in front of all the patients. Privacy and modesty are gone, but you can pick up the germs of the other sick patients in the room with you. One doctor observed that
"this is not the type of medical care anyone with a modicum of intelligence would want."Ted Kennedy and Barack Obama are planning that the new Democratic Congress' first order of business will be to extend the Massachusetts health-care mistake to all 50 states. Like other legislative rush-acts (i.e., the 2007 amnesty bill and the 2008 bailouts), details are currently withheld to avoid giving members of Congress and the public adequate time to analyze the bill before the vote is called. [sound familiar {prior Brief}]
The Massachusetts plan is a fiscal disaster, costing far more than estimated, with no end in sight. Massachusetts is wealthier than most states, but this plan threatens to bankrupt even it. [meaning rationing is near]
Obama is planning to use his giant campaign database to pressure Congress into speedy action. Americans will have to protest quickly if they want to prevent the mandatory and expensive Massachusetts plan from being forced on the country.
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"Oppose government run healthcare"
Obama transition http://www.change.gov/page/s/contact
Your Congressman https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml
Your Senator http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
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Homeowners re-defaulting after getting aid
WASHINGTON - Recent data suggests that many borrowers who received help with mortgage modifications earlier this year tended to re-default on their payments, a top U.S. banking regulator said on Monday. "The results, I confess, were somewhat surprising, and not in a good way," said John Dugan, head of the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, in prepared remarks for a U.S. housing forum.
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Bernanke Opposes Fed Loans for GM, Ford, Chrysler
Washington - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke signaled opposition to extending central bank loans to automakers, saying that would fall outside its traditional duties and suggesting options including a bankruptcy reorganization. [that's what it's for]
(Snip) It’s ''unclear'' whether the companies have strong enough collateral for the Fed to lend to them,
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OUR FADING HERITAGE
More than 2,500 randomly selected Americans took ISI's basic 33-question test on civic literacy and more than 1,700 people failed, with the average score 49 percent, or an "F." Elected officials scored even lower than the general public with an average score of 44 percent and only 0.8 percent (or 21) of all surveyed earned an "A."
Even more startling is the fact that over twice as many people know Paula Abdul was a judge on American Idol than know that the phrase "government of the people, by the people, for the people" comes from Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. Other results from several basic survey questions:
• Some 30 percent of elected officials do not know that "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" are the inalienable rights referred to in the Declaration of Independence.
• Almost 40 percent of all respondents falsely believe the president has the power to declare war.
• Some 40 percent of those with a bachelor's degree do not know business profit equals revenue minus expenses.
• Only 54 percent with a bachelor's degree correctly define free enterprise as a system in which individuals create, exchange and control goods and resources.
• About 21 percent of Americans falsely believe that the Federal Reserve can increase or decrease government spending.
The new study follows up two previous reports from ISI's National Civic Literacy Board that revealed a major void in civic knowledge among the nation's college students. This report goes beyond the college crowd however, examining the civic literacy of everyday citizens, including self-identified elected officials. But according to ISI, the blame and solution again lie at the doorstep of the nation's colleges.
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"There is an epidemic of economic, political and historical ignorance in our country," says Josiah Bunting, III, chairman of ISI's National Civic Literacy Board. "It is disturbing enough that the general public failed ISI's civic literacy test, but when you consider the even more dismal scores of elected officials, you have to be concerned. How can political leaders make informed decisions if they don't understand the American experience? Colleges can, and should play an important role in curing this national epidemic of ignorance."
Big labor unions have destroyed countless American industries, including the Detroit automakers who are now begging Congress for a bailout. But these unions don't just control factories and assembly lines. Our public education system is a slow-motion car crash, driven the same union special interests that brought the auto companies to the brink of bankruptcy.
Compared to other developed countries, the United States has the worst educational quality per dollar spent on schools, ranking 18th in reading and 28th in math. Millions of American children are being shortchanged by dysfunctional schools, but efforts for education reform are invariably stopped by powerful union interests.
This insightful new video shows how teachers unions protect bad and incompetent teachers, block school reform efforts, and use their members' dues money to support a radical left-wing agenda.
These unions fight tooth and nail against any meaningful change to their comfortable status quo - while students and taxpayers pay the price.
After decades of denial, there is a growing realization around the country that teachers unions' defense of the status quo cannot continue. A new generation of reformers, including Michelle Rhee, the chief of public schools in Washington DC, are fighting those unions and pushing for renewed accountability and an end to the broken tenure system.
TeachersUnionFacts.com is a project of the non-profit Center for Union Facts. With your support, we can fix our public schools and expel these special interest groups. Your tax-deductible donation will help us show Americans the truth about today's teachers unions.
Please make a contribution today, and forward this message to your friends, family, and anyone interested in helping take back our schools.
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