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Israeli woman killed by Gaza rocket fire
A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip has killed an Israeli woman, hours after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert set conditions for a truce with Palestinian militants in the Hamas-ruled territory. The projectile slammed into a house in a small farming community near the Gaza border, killing an elderly woman, an Israeli army spokeswoman said, adding that the victim was around 70 years old. On Friday an Israeli man was killed in the same area by a mortar round...
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Israelis resume Gaza fuel delivery
Gaza City - Israel yesterday authorized the resumption of fuel deliveries to the besieged [?] Gaza Strip, where shortages caused the only power plant to shut down at the weekend, an Israeli security official said. The Nahal Oz border terminal, which supplies most of the territory's fuel, reopened yesterday morning, the official said. Gaza's only electricity plant had shut on Saturday due to lack of fuel, leaving thousands of Palestinians reliant on candles and gas lanterns...
[who's 'besieged'? who's firing the rockets and who's being murdered by them?]
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Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Moral equivalence twofer
Putin’s Power Reinforced with Kremlin Appointees
Moscow - Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin announced the formation of a new Russian government on Monday, reappointing several top ministers and maintaining the power and prominent roles of members of his inner circle. (Snip) In announcing the new cabinet, Mr. Putin sat at the same place at a table that he used as president for these performances. Mr. Medvedev, officially the president, sat in a chair viewers have come to regard as for subordinates...
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UN celebrates disability treaty
The UN is celebrating the coming into force of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) - a landmark agreement that aims to give the world's 650m disabled people full equality. Adopted in 2006, and opened for signature in March last year it took effect on 3 May a month after the 20th nation ratified it - in this case Ecuador. (Snip) Disabled women are said to be ''multiply disadvantaged'' because they experience exclusion on account of their gender and their impairment...
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California’s Potemkin Environmentalism
A celebrated green economy produces pollution elsewhere, ongoing power shortages, and business-crippling costs
... To understand better how California’s environmental policies have played out, however, consider what two of them—opposition to nuclear energy and promotion of solar power—have done to Clay Station, California, 25 miles outside Sacramento, where two gigantic cooling towers rise up over rolling fields and farmland. This facility was once the Rancho Seco Nuclear Generating Station, capable of generating over 900 megawatts (MW) of electricity, enough to power upward of 900,000 homes. Rancho Seco opened in 1975, when antinuclear fervor in California was just beginning to gain momentum, and at one point, it generated more electricity than any other nuclear plant in the world. [snip]
Today, Rancho Seco possesses one of the largest photovoltaic arrays in the world. Yet it provides less than 4 MW of electricity, or less than half of 1 percent of what the closed nuclear plant optimally offered. Total solar capacity for the Sacramento region is less than 50 MW, or about 6 percent of the nuclear plant’s output. In fact, after millions of dollars in subsidies and other support for solar power, the entire state of California has less than 250 MW of solar capacity.
The Rancho Seco story helps explain California’s infamous turn-of-the-millennium energy crisis. In 2000 and 2001, numerous rolling blackouts and power outages caused billions of dollars in damages in the state. California had insufficient power to meet demand because officials had let the state’s infrastructure for moving electrons become frayed and overloaded. [snip]
State senator Tom McClintock underscored the real problem, which went well beyond Rancho Seco, in a speech to a Silicon Valley group in 2001. “From 1979 to 1999, generating capacity of over 45,000 megawatts was proposed to the [California Energy] Commission,” he said. “Only 4,500 megawatts was approved. Nuclear power plants were forbidden, and Rancho Seco and San Onofre Unit One,” another nuclear reactor, “were shut down prematurely. . . . For 27 years, this state has actively discouraged the construction of new power plants, and the day finally arrived when we ran out of power.”
Indeed, California’s capability to generate electricity actually decreased slightly from 1990 through 1999...
[and they're still working only the consumption side: recall the recent fiasco trying to place state-controlled thermostats in our homes... MUST READ for Californians - you need know what's coming >>> ]
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Hydrogen Cars Won't Make a Difference for 40 Years
President Bush, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the big automakers agree on this much: They love hydrogen-powered fuel cell technology and its promise of a zero-emission, petroleum-free future. Unfortunately, experts say it will be 40 years or more before hydrogen has any meaningful impact on gasoline consumption and we can't afford to wait that long. In the meantime, fuel cells are diverting resources from more immediate solutions...
[another government boondoggle...]
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.
[Special Report had a Ben Liberman of the Heritage Foundation on last night that said ANWR had oil reserves equivalent to the entire state of Texas, but that our coasts were the thing: containing five times the amount of oil than is under the ground in all of the continental U.S.
- by all means lets keep sending our money to Saudi Arabia]
Recession, Recession, Where's the Recession?
"It's a recession," said former President Harry Truman, "when your neighbor loses his job; it's a depression when you lose yours."
For people facing home foreclosure, job loss or the struggle of paying high gas prices, the definition a recession seems immaterial and insignificant. True.
But during an election year, the media's constant use or expectation of "recession" does matter. Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic Party's likely nominee, already considers the U.S. economy "in a recession." So are we?
No -- not even close.
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ICE describes raid as 'largest in Iowa history'
Postville, Ia. - At least 300 people were arrested today at the Agriprocessors, Inc. meat packing plant, federal officials said. The operation, which targeted people who illegally used other persons Social Security numbers and were in the U.S. illegally, was the largest of its kind in Iowa, said Claude Arnold, a special agent with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement...
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[UPDATE: 2nd story =
As many as 700 arrested in Iowa illegal immigration raid
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Media Downplay Hawaii Uprising, Back Hawaiian Apartheid Bill
A real-life secessionist movement seizes a historic American landmark and major media outlets treat the uprising as a curiosity of mere passing interest. Meanwhile, that same media gives a thumbs-up to a seditious, balkanizing plan for Aloha State apartheid.
AP's Mark Niesse reported yesterday, "Native Hawaiian sovereignty advocates" who are members of the group known as the Hawaiian Kingdom Government occupied the grounds of the palace of Hawaii's final monarch, Queen Lili`uokalani. "Hawaiian activists have long used the palace as the site for protests of what they call the United States' occupation of the islands, but never before had they physically taken control," wrote Niesse.
Pacific Business News reported that the "protesters" surrounded the Iolani Palace in Honolulu, chained palace gates, posted no-trespassing signs, and told "palace officials that the palace is their rightful seat of government." The PBN story noted that "Only those with Hawaiian blood, as well as news media, were initially allowed onto palace grounds."
The Honolulu Advertiser reported that the "sovereignty group" claimed its actions were "not a protest or demonstration but a reoccupying of its legitimate seat of government." CNN called the occupiers simply a "group of native Hawaiians."
Many mainstream media outlets have treated the pro-segregation, pro-secession bill, sponsored by Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), that would create a new government for "Native Hawaiians" in Hawaii, as just another bill. A sunny piece called "Freshman senators hold key to Native Hawaiian bill's hopes," appearing in The Hill, a Capitol Hill newspaper focused on Congress, noted cheerfully that "the bill has a fighting chance."
Both Honolulu papers, the Advertiser and the Star-Bulletin have editorialized in favor it.
[how nations die from within]
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The Union Police
Unions keep losing membership as a share of the national workforce, which explains why organized labor's main political focus is changing the rules to force more workers into unions. Witness a bill that Senate Democrats are pushing this week to require that hundreds of thousands of local police and firemen submit to collective bargaining...
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ADDITIONAL COLLECTIVE BARGAINING RIGHTS HURT TAXPAYERS
Taxpayers need to start questioning the financial stranglehold the collective bargaining process has on a budget. As governments cave to the high demands of big labor, there is less money available for states to operate, maintain current projects, and fix or repair failing infrastructure.
Indeed, collective bargaining has affected Washington State's budget drastically. Payroll expenses immediately began to skyrocket when Washington State Public-sector unions were granted the right to negotiate exclusively with the governor's office in 2004:
In 2007, general fund expenditures jumped to more than $14.1 billion dollars. Of that amount, $2.2 billion was spent on state employee salaries, while $330 million was spent directly on state employee health benefits -- these figures don't include K-12 education.
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Obama Says Teamsters Need Less Oversight
Sen. Barack Obama won the endorsement of the Teamsters earlier this year after privately telling the union he supported ending the strict federal oversight imposed to root out corruption, according to officials from the union and the Obama campaign. It's an unusual stance for a presidential candidate.
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Europe's New Pro-American Direction
Silvio Berlusconi’s re-election as Italy’s Prime Minister is more promising and more important for Italy and the United States, and for trans-Atlantic relations generally, than most commentators have admitted. President Bush’s critics have been quick to assign him blame for weakened trans-Atlantic relations, particularly because of the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.
But look today at Europe’s political leadership: Nicolas Sarkozy in France has replaced the bitterly anti-American Jacques Chirac. In Germany, Angela Merkel has replaced the dyspeptic and anti-Iraq war Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. Prime Minister Gordon Brown in Britain now once again speaks about the US-UK “special relationship.”
Europe’s new political configuration has already partially manifested itself in NATO’s decision in Bucharest to support deployment of U.S. missile defense assets in Poland and the Czech Republic. And now, Berlusconi will soon return to the Chigi Palace. How times change.
[I.e., there's a resurgence of conservative principles occurring in old-Europe (already well under way in 'new' Europe - and embarrassing the oldies) -- at exactly the same time America is running toward Socialism. How times do change.]
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New Offer: 57 State Lapel Pin
A few days ago we reported that Barack Obama was ever so proud to have visited all "57 states" on his campaign swing. But, we noticed that he still avoids wearing that U.S. flag lapel pin, just the same. Well, we have finally found out why Barack Obama won't wear that darned ol' U.S. flag pin. Until now he couldn't find one with all "57 States" on it. Well, the folks over at Suitably Flip blog have solved the problem for the junior Senator from Illinois.
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Monday, May 12, 2008
NC-IN Primary Data the Media Won't Emphasize
The New York Times's stories for tomorrow's print edition ("Support for Clinton Wanes as Obama Sees Finish Line" and "Pundits Declare the Race Over") clearly point in those directions. The first describes North Carolina as "a decisive loss" for Mrs. Clinton. The second shows how determined the Times appears to be to come up with evidence that Obama has the nomination in the bag, as it actually notes the despised Matt Drudge's headline link earier today to Tim Russert's "The Nominee" video.
Wait a minute.
Jim Geraghty at National Review online appears to be about the only person to have caught the obvious: Barack Obama's overwhelming support from African-Americans means that he performed miserably with the rest of the voters.
Did he ever: [snip: two graphs, basically showing the bellow contention...]
I contend that if this were almost any other candidate, the press would be asking him how he can possibly win the general election if he could get only 35% of the non-African-American vote in North Carolina, and just 41% of it in the state just east of his home state of Illinois.
[btw: if we must focus on the role of racism in this campaign, don't the numbers of 91% (NC) and 90% (IN) support of blacks for Obama suggestion that perhaps the preponderance of racial bias might not be among whites?][has any other candidate ever garnered ninety-percent of any demographic?]
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Quote of the week
.
“Operating outside public view, the House Democratic majority is taking extraordinary steps to maintain spending as usual while awaiting a Democrat as president. ...
For the second straight year, no appropriations bill other than defense is scheduled for passage. Instead, spending details are crafted in the Speaker's Office, negating President George W. Bush's veto strategy. In a little-noticed maneuver April 23, Pelosi won passage of a bill preventing Medicaid billions from being saved through Bush administration regulations. ... "
Military Spouses Earn Presidential Volunteer Service Award
– President Bush presented military spouses the Presidential Volunteer Service Award today for exceptional support to their communities and the nation. Bush made the presentation as 1,100 military spouses gathered for a Military Spouse Recognition Day celebration on the White House South Lawn.
“The six individuals we honor here today have earned the respect of our nation. They represent thousands of other military spouses that make significant contributions to our country,” Bush said. “So we honor six, but we say thanks to millions. Our country appreciates the service and devotion.”
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Markets, Schools, Businesses Demonstrate Peace, Prosperity in Iraqi City
Schools closed early as families from the Jameat district gathered with local dignitaries, investors and media to watch the ceremonial opening of the Jameat Market, Multinational Corps Iraq officials reported.
Operation Charge of the Knights, a citizens group that works to restore peace and security to Basra, was credited with opening the market...
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U.S. Must Stay in Iraq Till Day is Done and Victory Won
The latte lefties in Congress really are pieces of work — intent, as they seem to be, on crippling the nation’s economy and judiciary, as well as its energy independence. Oh, and declaring defeat in the war on terror. [snip]
With House Speaker Nancy Pelosi now effectively running the appropriations process, the Democrats are loading an administration $178 billion supplemental measure for the troops in Iraq with $70 billion in domestic pork-barrel spending. Having tried and failed on dozens of votes during the past year to limit funding for Iraq, now the leftists’ goal is to force President Bush to accept their wacko domestic spending agenda — or, because of their add-ons, to veto his own Iraq supplemental funding bill.
In the process, of course, they cheapen the deaths of 4,000 American troops (islamofascism, they say, poses a threat vastly less than Nazism or Communism did) — and implicitly declare that the long war on global terror pales in importance against, for instance, the war on global warming...
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Out of Africa: a growing threat to Europe from al-Qaeda's new allies
Algiers - It is a vast expanse of desert where conditions are so inhospitable that almost no one lives there. But for al-Qaeda – on the run in Iraq and under attack in Pakistan and Afghanistan – this stretch of the Algerian Sahara has proved fertile ground in its quest to open a new front on Europe’s southern doorstep. (Snip) an Algerian group calling itself al-Qaeda in the Land of Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) – aims to create an arc of influence throughout North Africa by spreading Osama bin Laden’s “brand" through a fusion of disparate fundamentalist groupings...
[G.W.O.T.]
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China's next-generation nationalists
They're educated, richer and more aggressive toward the West.
As human rights protesters dogged the Beijing Olympics' torch relay around the world, as supporters of Tibet condemned the violent crackdown in Lhasa, and as Darfur activists demanded change in China's Sudan policy, Chinese young people worked themselves into a different form of righteous anger.
In online forums and chat rooms, they blasted Beijing's leaders for not being tougher in Tibet. They agitated for boycotts against Western businesses based in nations that object to Beijing's policies, and they directed venomous fury against anyone critical of China.
The anger has even spread to American college campuses. In April, Chinese students at USC blasted a visiting Tibetan monk by drowning him out with changs of "Stop lying! Stop lying!"
When one Chinese student at Duke University tried to mediate between pro-China and pro-Tibet protesters, her photo, labeled "traitor," was posted on the Internet, and her contact information and her parents' address in China were listed for all to see...
[another consequence of state run propaganda from birth. This is not a benign nation looking to join the modern world, but rather dominate it]
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Testing The Waters
When the United Nations World Meteorological Organization recently reported that global temperatures had not risen since 1998, the explanation given by WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud was that the cool spell was the effect of the Pacific Ocean's La Nina current, "part of what we call 'variability.' " Well, oops, the Earth will do it again.
According to the greenies, the Earth is supposed to warm continuously and disastrously without taking any rest breaks. Yet after taking actual data from the Labrador Sea where the Gulf Stream gives up its warmth before sinking and returning southward and projecting forward, the Kiel team says the Atlantic currents will keep rising temperatures in check around the world, much as the warming and cooling associated with El Nino and La Nina in the Pacific affect global temperatures.
Howard Hayden, physics professor emeritus at the University of Connecticut, has described the machinery of the computer models used by the IPCC and others to predict imminent and cataclysmic climate change as ones that take "garbage in" and spit "gospel out".
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The Biofuels Backlash
St. Jude is the patron saint of lost causes, and for 30 years we invoked his name as we opposed ethanol subsidies. So imagine our great, pleasant surprise to see that the world is suddenly awakening to the folly of subsidized biofuels. All it took was a mere global "food crisis." Last week chief economist Joseph Glauber of the USDA, which has been among Big Ethanol's best friends in Washington, blamed biofuels...
[watch how long it takes congress to admit error]
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Congress needs to get out of the way and let U.S. tap its oil supply
The nation's economy is totally geared to using oil, and unless Congress comes to its senses and allows ANWR and other abundant untapped domestic oil sources to be drilled, the U.S. will remain at the mercy of foreign oil suppliers for many years to come, despite all our conservation efforts and hoped-for but still-unrealized alternative energy and fuel plans.
Big oil companies aren't our enemy; they are the companies that supply and refine the oil and gasoline our economy must have. It's a mammoth, costly effort, and penalizing them financially for being successful makes no sense. It would be akin to the long-ago days when doctors thought they could heal patients by draining off some of their blood; exactly the wrong thing to do.
We're also left wondering how much higher than $100 a barrel the price of oil has to go before Congress ceases to be the cork that keeps America's untapped domestic oil supply bottled up underground. We've got the oil we need. Let's use it to bring down oil prices (and all other prices) and improve our national security...
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SCHOOL CHOICE OPPORTUNITY
Scarcely half of American children in our 50 largest cities will leave their public schools with a high-school diploma in hand. These children are disproportionately African-American, and their homes are disproportionately located in our largest public school districts. One of the few hopeful alternatives in these cities are Catholic schools, says the Wall Street Journal. [snip]
• Minority students at Catholic schools are 42 percent likelier to complete high school than their public school counterparts, according to a University of Chicago researcher.
• They are also 2 1/2 times more likely to earn a college degree.
The emphasis on faith-based schools is a reflection of practicality, because turning around a failing public school or starting up a new one is difficult - there are political problems when it comes to solving this crisis, says the Journal:
• Though polls show that African Americans generally favor school choice, they tend to vote for Democrats who don't due to huge teacher union 'contributions'.
• The teachers unions devote their considerable resources to fighting any measure that increases accountability or gives parents more options.
So when politicians have to choose between a teachers union and some African-American mom who would like to take her son out of a failing public school, guess who usually wins?
[you'll often hear an argument against vouchers along the 'state can't give money to religious institutions' line. Feel free to expose their subterfuge: vouchers would go to parents, who would award them as they see fit...]
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NBC Analyst Quits Due to Network's Move to the Left
Last February, NewsBusters reported the resignation of retired Col. Ken Allard from NBC News as a result of the military analyst's view the network was undergoing a "precipitous retreat from journalistic and ethical standards."
On Sunday, Allard was more specific, claiming, "I thought they really had moved very slowly to the left, and I also thought that when they had the chance to clarify to the fact that they were not moving to the left, they didn't do so."
CNN's Howard Kurtz set this up on "Reliable Sources"...
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Conservatism: Alive and Well in Western Europe
American liberals have to be frustrated by the rebirth of European conservatism. America’s liberal press hopes to perpetuate the myth of a solidly social democratic Europe by ignoring this transformation of European voter preference—at least until after the U.S. presidential election. So then, who will share this good news with the American electorate that despite liberal denial, conservatism is alive and well in Europe? It’s up to the new media, and time is of the essence.
Could it be that European voters are just as “bitter” as Americans about energy and food prices, open borders, radical Islam, the threat of terrorism and other issues that Barack Obama dismisses as “wedge” issues? Could it be that “bitter” Europeans are clinging to “wedge” issues because governments run by social democrats or democratic socialists have failed the European voters?
Europeans are sending Americans a message that the big government, social policies do not work, and that wedge issues are real issues. Those Americans who are paying attention to the conservative gains in Europe are encouraged, if not elated. If American voters hear the truth about Europe, they will be, too.
This is a conclusion that the old media will never even consider...
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Friday, May 9, 2008
Young Patriot Receives Defense Medal for Public Service
Last year, Rizzolo organized the first Freedom Walk in his community and also wrote a book, titled “20 Steps to a Freedom Walk,” that urges students nationwide to stage their own walks.
Rizzolo is donating the proceeds from his book to his community’s ASY-affiliated project Operation Goody Bag, which sends goods and other gifts to first responders and overseas-deployed servicemembers.
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The Truth In Sadr City
The AP article as headlined in the Houston Chronicle:
Not exactly.
Bill Roggio at The Long War Journal gives us the important details. The title of his article?
His story reports:
...a US soldier was wounded by gunfire and US forces began to evacuate the soldier, Lieutenant Colonel Steven Stover, the chief Public Affairs Officer for Multinational Division Baghdad said. “The fire came from the portion of Sadr City we are not in – the northern neighborhoods – and militants fired at our patrol in the southern neighborhoods,” Stover said in an email to The Long War Journal.In other words the title of the AP piece is completely wrong. The ambush did not "drive back" the US patrol. The ambush occurred while our forces were evacuating a wounded soldier. The US patrol counterattacked and killed 28 of Sadr's militiamen.
During the evacuation, Mahdi Army fighters triggered three roadside bombs and fired rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns at the US patrol. Five more soldiers were wounded in the attacks and two vehicles were damaged. None of the soldiers' injuries are reported as life-threatening.
I wonder why it is that the AP finds it necessary to title pieces that put our soldier's in the worst possible light?
[A: Stephen King syndrome]
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Gates: U.S. Military Ready to Help, Ships, Air Support Staged
The Navy is dispatching helicopters from the USS Essex strike group to a staging area in Thailand, where they will be able to reach Burma with relief supplies “in a matter of hours,” Gates said. In addition, six C-130 aircraft also are available to provide humanitarian support and could airdrop food and water if granted position, he said.
Gates said the United States will work with other countries, if necessary, to help. "Our interest here is totally nonpolitical," he said. "It's to try to help the people of Myanmar,” he said.
[I assumed as much from our military - and isn't that a blessing...]
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'Willful Blindness' to the Jihad
You might expect the lead prosecutor against the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing to tout the criminal justice system as the premier strategy to fight terrorism. If so, you're wrong.
It is precisely because of Andy McCarthy's experience in that capacity that he understands -- in a way others can't -- the crippling limitations of law enforcement and criminal prosecutions in combating global terrorism.
The entire orientation of the criminal justice system is to protect the rights of innocents, affording the accused due process and a litany of other constitutional protections. But we are at war with an enemy who doesn't fight wars according to conventional rules. If we continue to treat them as criminal suspects rather than enemy combatants, they'll always be many steps ahead of us in a war that only they are fighting.
While our government frets over their constitutional rights -- rights to which enemy combatants have never been historically entitled -- it abdicates its duty to protect American lives...
[Highly Recommended > ]
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Putin signals he intends to stay in charge of Russia
MOSCOW — When Boris Yeltsin left the Kremlin eight years ago, he gave Vladimir Putin the pen he had used to sign important documents and decrees, a gesture symbolizing the transfer of power to Russia's new president. When Putin left the Kremlin, he took the pen with him. Putin, who became prime minister Thursday, has signaled that he intends to remain Russia's principal leader...
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London's American Mayor
The most momentous political story of the hour is not what you might think...whatever you might think. It has to do with an American politician now living in London. His name is Boris Johnson. He, an exemplary conservative, has just beaten one of the most rebarbative left-wing reactionaries in the United Kingdom, to become mayor of London. Johnson ran a very fine campaign, an amalgam of high intelligence, sound principle, rollicking good humor, and energy that could be branded New Tory. Mind you, New Toryism will arrive on these shores in due course... [snip]
It is now faintly circulating through American media that he gave up his citizenship in 2006 after encountering passport problems. The report is in error. I can now reveal that The American Spectator in another of its world exclusives has discovered (see the June issue) that the newly elected mayor of London never terminated his citizenship. He is as American as Barack Obama...
[neo-Tory - or neory for short. {love it}]
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Brits offer a taste of Kyoto
Great Britain is a decade ahead of Canada in the global warming debate and what's happening there today is instructive for us. [snip]
Further, the British pay substantially more for gasoline than we do and while road tolls are controversial in Canada, London, England, has had one since 2003. Anyone driving into central London pays a daily toll of eight pounds (about $15.85 Canadian). [snip]
However, when you examine the views of the British people today, the news isn't good for climate hysterics or Britain's Labour government, now led by Gordon Brown, which suffered heavy losses in recent local elections.
A survey last month of 2,002 British adults by the respected polling firm Opinium Research found:
- 72% are unwilling to pay higher taxes to fight climate change.As Opinium's head of research, Mark Hodson, described the findings in the Daily Mail and Independent newspapers:
- 67% believe the government's green agenda is simply a ploy to raise taxes.
"Britain appears to be feeling increasingly negative about being more carbon neutral. We are questioning the truth behind being greener and many feel the government is creating a green fear for monetary gain."[monetary gain, government? how typically cynical of the British]
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[glad to see you're waking up SD - between this and your new American London Mayor we'll have you patched up in no time... ...........{I'll likely pay for that}]
Climate models miss mark
Armed with newly synthesized logs of Antarctica's temperature over the last century, scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research found that a computer simulation for the same time-period predicted a too-warm continent.
Monaghan found the models consistently predicted that the continent warmed more than it actually did. The tough part is dissecting the model to figure out why. The culprit this time? Water vapor...
[key phrase: 'the culprit this time'. We literally lack the computing power to fully model climate, even if we were smart enough to know how to set the parameters. The fact they learn something ever time they review the models is a) good in itself, that's how science is supposed to work, and b) proof that no one's any business 'predicting' future climate based upon them, to say nothing of spending trillions]
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Fact: Polar Bears are not going extinct because of the supposedly melting ice, according to a biologist Dr. Mitchell Taylor from the arctic government of Nunavut. “Of the 13 populations of polar bears in Canada, 11 are stable or increasing in number. They are not going extinct, or even appear to be affected at present,” Taylor wrote on May 1, 2006. See here: http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1146433819696&call_pageid=970599119419
.
Polar Bear Politics
[meanwhile, the beat goes on...]
Talk about bad timing. Gas prices are spiking and U.S. energy policy is contributing to skyrocketing food costs, yet environmentalists apparently want to make it even more expensive to live in America. And they’re trying to use the polar bear to do it.
A federal judge in California ruled last week that the Bush administration must decide by May 15 whether to list the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act because of global warming. The upcoming deadline is fueling fears that Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne could cave to left-wing environmentalists
Listing the polar bear as a threatened species would be a devastating blow for U.S. energy exploration and a boon to global-warming alarmists...
Bush > mailto:president@whitehouse.gov
YOUR Senator > http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
YOUR House Representative >
https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml
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Wait times for chemo in Ontario unchanged despite more spending
Toronto - Wait times for chemotherapy in Ontario haven't improved even though the province has more than doubled its spending for the cancer treatment, according to a new report released Thursday. Chemotherapy wait times remained steady for the past four years, according to the report by Ontario's Cancer Quality Council. Its annual cancer system quality index found that median wait times for intravenous chemotherapy ranged from 25 to 38 days last year...
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Why business is fleeing the state
It's like watching a car wreck in slow motion. What the Democrats are doing to the state's economy, I mean. Pieces are flying off in all directions. In terms of taxes and regulation, New Jersey was once a relative haven, a cheap place to do business. (Snip) The primary source of job growth in recent years has been in government, not private industry. And that represents a death spiral. Public employment creates higher taxes, which in turn discourage private employers from locating or expanding in New Jersey...
[lesson will be repeated until learned]
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Jobless claims post sharp decline
WASHINGTON -- The number of newly laid off workers seeking unemployment benefits dropped much more than expected last week. The Labor Department reported Thursday that applications for unemployment benefits fell to 365,000, a decline of 18,000 from the previous week. Economists has been looking for a much smaller decrease of around 5,000.
[thing are horrible. I mean, when even a recession can't show up on time - what the heck is the country coming to?]
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Islamic Divorce Ruled Not Valid in Maryland
After his wife of more than two decades filed for divorce in Montgomery County Circuit Court, Irfan Aleem responded in writing in 2003, and not just in court.
Aleem went to the Pakistani Embassy in the District, where he executed a written document that asserted he was divorcing Farah Aleem. He performed "talaq," exercising a provision of Islamic religious and Pakistani secular law that allows husbands to divorce their wives by declaring "I divorce thee" three times. In Muslim countries, men have used talaq to leave their wives for centuries.
But they can't use it in Maryland, the state's highest court decided this week. The state Court of Appeals issued a unanimous 21-page opinion Tuesday declaring that talaq is contrary to Maryland's constitutional provisions providing equal rights to men and women.
[praise Allah]
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[HT:GC]:
Thanks to the Italians!
A Greek and an Italian were sitting in a Starbuck's one day discussing who
had the superior culture.
Over triple lattes the Greek guy says, "Well, we have the Parthenon."
Arching his eyebrows, the Italian replies, "We have the Coliseum."
The Greek retorts, "We Greeks gave birth to advanced mathematics."
The Italian, nodding agreement, says, "But we built the Roman Empire."
And so on and so on until the Greek comes up with what he thinks will end
the discussion.
With a flourish of finality he says, "We invented sex!"
The Italian replies, "That is true, but it was the Italians who introduced
it to women."
.
[wasn't me... GC did it...]
.
Thursday, May 8, 2008
The Half-Won, Half-Lost War
Victor Davis Hanson
... First, the good news. For all the talk of a recent Tet-like offensive in Basra, the Mahdi Army of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr suffered an ignominious setback when his gunmen were routed from their enclaves. This rout helped the constitutional government of Prime Minister Maliki renew its authority, and has encouraged Sunnis to re-enter government. Two great threats to Iraqi autonomy — Iranian-backed Shiite militiamen and Sunni-supported al-Qaida terrorists — have both now been repulsed by an elected government and its supporters.
And that brings us to the bad news. We still censor ourselves in fears of terrorist threats, mortgaging the Enlightenment tradition of free and unfettered speech. Our State Department is advising its officials to avoid perfectly descriptive terms for our enemies like “jihadist” and “Islamo-fascist” in favor of vague terms like “violent extremist” or “terrorist” -- as if we could just as easily be fighting Basque separatists.
Even more worrying, Americans cannot find a substitute for imported oil. The result is that $110[124$]-a-barrel petroleum is slowing our economy, weakening our international financial clout -- and sending billions in capital into the hands of our otherwise unproductive enemies.
The way to shut down Iran's reactor or its subsidies for Hezbollah is not necessarily through bombing but by getting oil back down below $50 a barrel, which would cut the value of Iranian petroleum production by nearly $100 billion a year and weaken an already weak economy...
[our insane energy policy effects virtually everything - all to our detriment - as usual with VDH, Recommended > ]
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So vilified, yet so deserving of praise
As Israel celebrates 60 years of nationhood this Thursday, and looks ahead to the next 60 years, the world should appreciate what the Jewish state has accomplished. Built on the ashes of the Holocaust, Israel's birth was followed by a massive attack from all sides by the surrounding Arab nations. Threatening another genocide, they managed to kill 1 percent of Israel's population, but Israel survived – and even thrived. [snip]
"Israel is, by almost any measure, an astonishing success. It has a large, sophisticated, and growing economy ... the finest universities and medical centers in the Middle East. Israel has shown itself, with notable exceptions, to be adept at self-defense, and capable (albeit imperfectly) of protecting civil liberties during wartime.... Zionism may actually be the most successful national liberation movement of the 20th century... [snip]
Name a country, faced with comparable threats to its own citizens, that has ever tried harder to comply with the rule of law or human rights than Israel. No one has ever named such a country, nor could they. [snip] Imagine how much more Israel could contribute to the welfare of the world during the next 60 years if it were blessed with peace and were allowed to turn its swords into plowshares...
[an appropriate perspective to Israel's dramatic history and current circumstance - Recommended > ]
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Israel: Iran could have nukes by '09
With Iran racing forward with its nuclear program, Israel now believes the Islamic Republic will master centrifuge technology and be able to begin enriching uranium on a military scale this year, The Jerusalem Post has learned. The new assessment moves up Israel's forecasts on Teheran's nuclear program by almost a full year - from 2009 to the end of 2008. According to the new timeline, Iran could have a nuclear weapon by the middle of next year.
[Israel can't survive a single strike - it will cease to exist, and still the world does nothing]
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Arms dealer offered weapons to kill Americans in Colombia
The U.S. government has charged an international arms dealer with conspiring to sell a rebel group millions of dollars in weapons ''to be used to kill Americans in Colombia,'' federal prosecutors announced Tuesday. Viktor Bout, who was recently captured in Thailand, had agreed to sell the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) surface-to-air missiles, armor-piercing rocket launchers, ''ultralight'' airplanes, unmanned aerial vehicles, and other weapons...
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Schwab blasts Pelosi
U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab this afternoon condemned House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her scuttling of a trade pact with Colombia, saying she is hurting U.S. workers over nothing more than partisan politics. "Delaying the vote on the Colombia [Free Trade Agreement] does not create one American job, it does not put one more dollar in anyones pocket, does not save one life, does not help one union to organize, or protect one endangered species"
[but if Pelosi lets the House vote on it it's passage will be (correctly) seen as a 'Bush win'. can't have that; party before nation]
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At the Turn of The Cycle
In climate, as in politics, ther are natural cycles. We may be seeing some new ones starting these days in both spheres. For those of you worried about the start of solar Cycle 24, good news. A small sunspot recently appeared in the sun's southern hemisphere. So it looks like the next sunspot cycle has well and truly started.
Meanwhile scientist Don J Easterbrook reports that the northern Pacific Decadal Oscillation has flipped, threatening 30 years of colder weather, and the American Thinker's Marc Sheppard wonders what happens as the global warming community admits that there are factors other than anthropogenic warming that affect the planet's climate...
[wait a minute WAIT A MINUTE...: weather changes?]
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LOSS OF FUEL ECONOMY
... in E-85, a blend containing 85 percent ethanol that can be used in specially equipped vehicles, the energy loss soars and more than offsets its lower cost, even though E-85 is about 60 cents per gallon less at retail than conventional gas:
• Mileage can suffer by about 25 percent with E-85, according to AAA.
• Over the course of a year, that amounts to an extra 300 gallons of E-85 to go the same distance as when using conventional gas.
• That means an average household, when the total cost of conventional gas and E-85 are compared, would spend nearly $100 more per year for E-85.
To those that have the flex-fuel vehicles that can use the fuel, it's tempting to purchase E-85 because at first glance it appears to be a great deal compared with conventional gasoline. But at least for now, it isn't.
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There v Here...
[there...]
Petrobras Hiring 14,000 Geologists, Oil Rig Workers
Petroleo Brasileiro SA, Brazil's state- controlled oil company, plans to add 14,000 engineers, geologists and drillers within three years as it develops the biggest crude discovery in the Western Hemisphere since 1976. Petrobras, as the company is known, plans to expand its workforce 23 percent to about 74,000, surpassing Chevron Corp., the second-largest U.S. oil producer. The hiring binge is part of a $112.7 billion expansion that may allow Brazil to overtake the output of all OPEC members except Saudi Arabia...
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[here...]
Senate Democrats seek to tax oil companies
Senate Democrats on Wednesday called for a windfall profits tax on oil companies and a rollback of $17 billion in oil industry tax breaks as part of an energy package. The proposal also would impose federal penalties on energy price gouging and calls for stopping oil deliveries into the government's emergency reserve.
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Canadian Invasion
The United States and Canada share the longest unprotected border in the world, and Toronto's Globe and Mail has a story illustrating why that is so dangerous: More than 100 Canadian women with high-risk pregnancies have been sent to United States hospitals over the past year--in what a doctors' group attributes to the lack of a national birthing plan. The problem has peaked, with British Columbia and Ontario each sending a record number of women to U.S. neonatal intensive care units (NICUs).
[but why? health care is 'free' there...]
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Naming the cause of medicine's failures
The trouble with making government the solution for our medical system’s failures is that government is without a doubt the chief cause of those failures.
Several months ago Greg Blankenship, founder and president of the Illinois Policy Institute, gave us a good name for one governmental cause of health care failure. In a fascinating column, Blankenship looked at the regulations that beset planning for medical care in his state, Illinois, and gave it a name: Protectionism.
And, like nationwide protectionism, special-interest influences come to play as a matter of course, with one or two businesses reaping most of the rewards. Blankenship likened the practice to a (fictional) fast food restaurant regulatory board getting captured by McDonald’s. Suddenly, Burger King outlets can’t get permission to expand. Economists have been writing on this for 50 years or more. Regulatory capture, it’s called . . . but here applied to the business of medicine.
And medicine is a business. Calling it a “service” and pretending it’s like government doesn’t make it any less a business. It only helps run the business into the ground...
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The Housing Crisis Is Over
The dire headlines coming fast and furious in the financial and popular press suggest that the housing crisis is intensifying. Yet it is very likely that April 2008 will mark the bottom of the U.S. housing market. Yes, the housing market is bottoming right now.
How can this be? For starters, most people forget that the current housing bust is nearly three years old. Secondly, a bottom does not mean that prices are about to return to the heady days of 2005. That probably won't happen for another 15 years. [crap]
It just means that the trend is no longer getting worse, which is the critical factor...
[offered as an alternate opinion to the 'we're still all doomed' MSM mantra. who knows]
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Groups Struggle to Clean Up Mess Illegal Immigrants Leave Behind
The latest battle in the war on illegal immigration isn't over the smuggling of undocumented workers, it's over the trash they leave behind. Government officials and border activists say the garbage dumped in the desert by illegal immigrants and their smugglers is staggering. And the cleanup is costing taxpayers millions. In 2006 alone, more than 1.18 million pounds of trash was collected along southern Arizona border, many in the meeting spots where immigrants rest, change clothes and wait to hitch a ride further north with a smuggler...
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There v Here...
[there...]
Japanese Envy India’s Schools
MITAKA, Japan — Japan is suffering a crisis of confidence these days about its ability to compete with its emerging Asian rivals, China and India. But even in this fad-obsessed nation, one result was never expected: a growing craze for Indian education. (Snip) many people here are lessons from India, the country the Japanese see as the world’s ascendant education superpower.
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[here...]
Detroit schools grad rate: 32%
Just 31.9 percent of Detroit students graduate in four years, according to the first major study in Michigan conducted using a method now mandated by the federal government. The study, by the Education Policy Center at Michigan State University, looked at how many ninth-graders in Detroit and the state as a whole left high school with diplomas after four years.
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NYT: Constitution? Schmonstitution!
Mr. McCain predictably criticized liberal judges, vowed strict adherence to the Founders’ views and promised to appoint more judges in the mold of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito. That is just what the country does not need.[Q: if the Constitution is just a quaint historical artifact of how the founders thought 'back then', which now has to be translated to a 'current' meaning, why were they so explicit in stating within it how The People could change it in the future?
The whole 'modernization' argument is a dangerous canard]
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Patriotism was in full gear at the Chrysler headquarters today, as hundreds gathered inside the star-spangled atrium of the automaker’s main hub to honor America’s men and women in uniform.
On the tiered floors of the glass-enclosed plaza here, employees hung over railings to watch while their chief executive kicked off Military Appreciation Month by signing an agreement strengthening Chrysler’s ties to Reserve and National Guard troops, and recognizing past and present servicemembers on the automaker’s roster.
“I just want to thank all the men and women who give of themselves, who are apart from their families, who are enduring tremendous hardship to maintain the freedom the democracy on which this country was founded,” said Robert Nardelli, Chrysler’s chairman and chief executive officer. “We are truly blessed.”
As an expression of Chrysler’s gratitude to servicemembers’ sacrifice, Nardelli today signed a 5-Star Military Support Agreement. The document promises Chrysler’s commitment to continue supporting employees who are called into active military service.
“A lot of times people ask, ‘Gee Bob, isn’t that an expense?’” Nardelli said of the pledge. “But I think it’s an investment. People say, ‘Well, isn’t this a burden?’ I say, ‘It’s a responsibility.’
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Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Face of Defense: Marine Becomes Jack of All Trades
Szczerba, 22, a rifleman from Shingle Springs, Calif., has found himself filling multiple billets at Combat Outpost Haditha. He is the assistant camp commandant, police sergeant and a sergeant of the guard. He also helps with the supply drops and maintenance on the combat outpost.
“This COP would not function without Corporal Szczerba,” said Marine the Company’s executive officer [snip]
Helping others with his knowledge in craftsmanship is nothing new to Szczerba. Before he joined the Marine Corps, he made mission trips with his church to other countries to build houses for the less fortunate. He has a quiet humility about him and said he knows the feeling of accomplishment in knowing he is helping his fellow Marines.
This is all Szczerba looks for from his work. He said he doesn’t look to garner praise for his labors. “The work I do helps raise morale,” Szczerba said. “I like doing what I can to help people; I always have.”
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Judges Return to Salman Pak
“I’ve seen a big difference on the streets today,” he said. “There are lots of people moving around on the streets. It looks better. ”[snip]
“We talk about heroes all the time, but it is very rare that we get to meet one,” Kuhn said. “You honor us by being here. Your bravery will inspire many in this area. ”
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"Hostile" Iran Sparks U.S. Attack Plan
... CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports that the planning is being driven by what one officer called the "increasingly hostile role" Iran is playing in Iraq - smuggling weapons into Iraq for use against American troops.
"What the Iranians are doing is killing American servicemen and -women inside Iraq," said Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.
U.S. officials are also concerned by Iranian harassment of U.S. ships in the Persian Gulf as well as Iran's still growing nuclear program. New pictures of Iran's uranium enrichment plant show the country's defense minister in the background, as if deliberately mocking a recent finding by U.S. intelligence that Iran had ceased work on a nuclear weapon.
No attacks are imminent and the last thing the Pentagon wants is another war, but Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen has warned Iran not to assume the U.S. military can't strike.
"I have reserve capability, in particular our Navy and our Air Force so it would be a mistake to think that we are out of combat capability," Mullen said.
[about time]
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China mounts cyber attacks on Indian sites
NEW DELHI: China’s cyber warfare army is marching on, and India is suffering silently. Over the past one and a half years, officials said, China has mounted almost daily attacks on Indian computer networks, both government and private, showing its intent and capability. ( Watch: ‘China's cyber intrusion a threat’ )
According to senior government officials, these attacks are not isolated incidents of something so generic or basic as "hacking" — they are far more sophisticated and complete — and there is a method behind the madness. The core of the assault is that the Chinese are constantly scanning and mapping India’s official networks. This gives them a very good idea of not only the content but also of how to disable the networks or distract them during a conflict.
This, officials say, is China’s way of gaining "an asymmetrical advantage" over a potential adversary.
The big attacks that were sourced to China over the last few months included an attack on NIC (National Infomatics Centre), which was aimed at the National Security Council, and on the MEA..
[we must never forget that China is a totalitarian nation preparing for war. doubt? > READ MORE]
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Gaza headmaster was Islamic Jihad ''rocket-maker''
RAFAH, Gaza Strip - By day, Awad al-Qiq was a respected science teacher and headmaster at a United Nations school in the Gaza Strip. By night, Palestinian militants say, he built rockets for Islamic Jihad.
The Israeli air strike that killed the 33-year-old last week also laid bare his apparent double life and embarrassed a U.N. agency which has long had to rebuff Israeli accusations that it has aided and abetted guerrillas fighting the Jewish state...
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Weather Channel Founder's Letter to Environmentalists Re: Global Warming
Although readers are strongly encouraged to review the entire piece, here are some of the highlights:
• You have vigorously embraced the Global Warming predictions of the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and are using the warning of uncontrollable warming and a resulting environmental calamity to campaign for elimination of fossil fuels. Your environmentally conscious friends in politics and in the media have united with you to create a barrage of news reports, documentaries, TV feature reports, movies, books, concerts and protest events to build support for your goals. The war against fossil fuels has become a massive scare campaign that is giving children nightmares
• The science behind your global warming scare is bad and no anthropogenic global warming is happening. Dissenting scientists have now produced convincing evidence that the cornerstone of your scientific argument, increased atmospheric carbon dioxide forcing a rapid, irreversible rise in temperature, is invalid. All of the various "signs of global warming" you have so widely publicized have been proven wrong. They are normal variations in climate that result mostly from the cycles of the Sun. As the Sun cycle has changed in the last three or four years, they have reversed themselves.
• Campaign for your environmental goals on the basis of their own merit. Let go of the global warming frenzy before it leaves you discredited and embarrassed. Stop screaming, "The sky is falling." It is not.
[Full letter > http://www.kusi.com/weather/colemanscorner/12661711.html ]
Gore: Deadly Cyclone a 'Consequence of Global Warming
It was bound to happen eventually - someone from the global warming movement tying the recent Myanmar cyclone to the so-called climate change phenomenon. Former Vice President Al Gore in an interview on NPR's May 6 "Fresh Air" broadcast did just that. He was interviewed by "Fresh Air" host Terry Gross (Snip) Gore claimed global warming is forcing ocean temperatures to rise, which is causing storms, including cyclones and hurricanes, to intensify - despite the fact meteorologists have explained otherwise...
[but were the scientists on NPR? No.]
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Health provider predicts big loss
Cambridge Health Alliance, a key part of the Boston area's healthcare network, is facing a potentially ''catastrophic'' loss this year and is looking to eliminate up to 300 jobs, or about 9 percent of its workforce, in an effort to stabilize finances. The alliance, which includes Cambridge Hospital, Somerville Hospital, and Whidden Hospital in Everett, says it is being hit hard by the state's new healthcare reform law, which has left it responsible for providing free care for those without insurance...
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WHAT NAFTA TRADE DEFICIT?
Some presidential candidates seem to believe that a substantial part of the three million manufacturing jobs lost since 2000 resulted from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and that outsourcing to Mexico and Canada resulted in a huge trade deficit.
Too bad they don't know that the growth in the deficit isn't due to manufactured goods, but to oil and gas imports, says John Engler, president of the National Association of Manufacturers.
There is no question that the imbalance of trade within NAFTA has grown since 2000, but almost all of the increase in our NAFTA deficit since 2000 has been in increased U.S. imports of energy from Canada and Mexico:
In fact, $58 billion of the $62 billion increase in our NAFTA deficit has been in energy imports.
That's 95 percent of the total increase.
Except for energy, our trade deficit within NAFTA has hardly grown at all -- only $3.5 billion from 2000-2007. Our agricultural and manufactured goods sales to NAFTA countries have just about kept pace with our imports. That's a lot more than one can say about the rest of our foreign trade.
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US service economy expands in April
Data showing an unexpected expansion in the service sector in April raised hopes that the U.S. economy will be spared a sharp downturn. Some analysts saw the report, coupled with Friday's better-than-expected job-loss numbers, as a sign the economy could muddle along, neither growing or declining dramatically.
[no bread lines?]
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Fence fiasco: Or Feliz ano nuevo
... recently, we learned that Congress — that hallmark of American integrity — had pulled a fast one on the voting public by undermining the border fence which it had so ostentatiously supported before the 2006 midterm elections.[snip]
“Nothing in this paragraph shall require the Secretary of Homeland Security to install fencing, physical barriers, roads, lighting, cameras, and sensors in a particular location along an international border of the United States, if the Secretary determines that the use or placement of such resources is not the most appropriate means to achieve and maintain operational control over the international border at such location.”[snip]
In other words, it leaves total discretion for whether to build the fence or not to the administration that opposed the fence in the first place. Way to go, Congress, and feliz ano nuevo.
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The world's most dangerous gang
But among the hard-working families lurks a darker shadow. Vicious street gangs, committed to violence, have spread throughout the Americas and are now a significant threat in the US...
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"Bad Dads" a Bad Idea
"Bad Dads," redundant in these male-bashing times, is the name of a new reality show Fox is considering... [snip]
More to the point, "Bad Dads" reinforces a stereotype that is neither accurate nor fair. [snip] The more accurate picture of a deadbeat dad is an unemployed or underemployed bloke who sees more jail cells than golf courses. A common sequence of events for the poorest deadbeat dads goes something like this: Fall behind in child support, get arrested and put in jail, lose your job, fall further behind in child support... [snip]
"Bad Dads" is just the latest insult to men and especially fathers who feel, appropriately, that they've been maligned and minimized through television programming and advertising. In sitcoms, men are typically buffoons. And fathers, if they exist, are inept and unreliable, while Mom is a paragon of virtue and competence. Television executives and advertisers may profit from such "entertainment," but who's having fun? Apparently, women are. Four out of five network sitcom viewers are female.
[and the beat goes on...]
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Newspapers likely to be free in the future: survey
LONDON - Newspapers seeking to compete with the Internet are likely to become free and place greater emphasis on comment and opinion in the future, a survey of the world's editors showed on Tuesday.
[still overpriced]
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We're (Still) No. 1
Newsweek thinks the U.S. is fading in a "post-American world." We beg to differ. As in earlier times, reports of our impending demise are greatly exaggerated. The Soviets were going to bury us, remember? We buried them.
OK, maybe we no longer have 'the world's largest shopping mall' or 'the world's largest Ferris wheel' {Newsweek's indicators}, but that's not what the millions who sail past Lady Liberty are looking for.
They are looking for freedom, the freedom to live out their lives and dreams as they, not their governments or feudal masters, see fit. They seek better lives for their children knowing that hard work and ambition in this new land will be rewarded.
Newsweek notes the world's largest refinery is being built in India. The nation that put men on the moon hasn't built one in more than three decades. Government and environmentalism run amok have made us afraid of our own shadow. That can change and must.
Newsweek says "the facts on the ground — unemployment numbers, foreclosure rates, deaths from terror attacks — are simply not dire enough to explain the present atmosphere of malaise" in which [it says] most Americans are stuck.
Perhaps it's the constant barrage of cover stories such as Newsweek's that explain it.
[Recommended]
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