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De Omnibus Dubitandum - Lux Veritas

Friday, May 31, 2013

Retailers Should Keep Consumers — Not Greens — In Mind

by Angela Logomasini on May 30, 2013
As part of its Culture of Alarmism project, the Independent Women’s Forum (IWF) has recently launched a coalition letter – which includes CEI — to retailers to combat the greens so-called “Mind the Store“ campaign. We (IWF, CEI, and 21 other groups) advise retailers to ignore radical greens’ advice to remove certain products from store shelves, and instead honor consumer freedom.
The greens’ effort, led by Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families, calls on the nation’s top 10 retailers — Walmart, Kroger, Target, Walgreens, Costco, Home Depot, CVS Caremark, Lowe’s, Best Buy, and Safeway –to remove a wide range of useful products from store shelves because they contain one of 101 so-called hazardous chemicals.
According to this group:
Since we began in 2009 the evidence that unregulated chemicals are having profound health impacts has only grown. The Presidents Cancer Panel report and the recent United Nations report are just two examples. (Our own report summarizes the state of the science linking chemicals and various health impacts here.) And yet the government is too slow to respond in the face of chemical industry opposition.
In reality, there is no compelling evidence that trace chemicals in consumer products pose significant risks, particularly when used as directed. As I noted in a recent IWF paper on cancer, the President’s Cancer Panel report is a political document, not a scientific study and its claims have been rebuked by reputable cancer researchers….To Read More…..

Government is addicted to crackpot scare tactics

By: Steven Greenhut  5/30/2013 11:44 AM
SACRAMENTO – “As many as 100,000 crack babies are born every year,” reported the Los Angeles Times in an overheated 1990 article echoing the results of a Department of Health and Human Services study. The feds were calling for a massive influx of tax dollars to fund social programs to help a new generation of Americans born to mothers who used so-called crack cocaine.
The article included a “must have” list for government agencies: more postnatal care and foster care, extra dollars for schools to deal with the disabilities these children reportedly would have, government-provided residential care, drug programs and more. “But absent those billions of additional dollars, what can state and local government do now to help those innocents?” the article asked, almost hopelessly. This was typical of news coverage of the time.
More than two decades later, we learn the truth. The hysteria – which led to new drug laws that imposed unreasonably harsh sentences on the mostly African-American people who used that particular kind of cocaine – was unwarranted. The numbers of crack babies were wildly exaggerated. As the New York Times now reports, “This supposed epidemic … was kicked off by a study of just 23 infants that the lead researcher now says was blown out of proportion.”…To Read More….

The Friedmanite Corruption of Capitalism

Mises Daily: Friday, May 31, 2013 by Thomas J. DiLorenzo
All throughout his new book, The Great Deformation: The Corruption of Capitalism in America, David A. Stockman is critical of the Chicago School, especially its intellectual leader during the last half of the twentieth century, Milton Friedman. He captures the irony of the so-called free-market Chicago School on the very first page of his introduction, where he writes of the “capture of the state, especially its central bank, the Federal Reserve, by crony capitalist forces deeply inimical to free markets and democracy.”
This was all good, solid, applied free-market economics, but at the same time the Chicago Schoolers ignored the biggest and most important regulatory capture of all — the creation of the Fed. The Chicago School simply ignored the obvious fact that the Fed was created as a governmental cartel enforcement mechanism for the banking industry — during an era when many other kinds of regulatory institutions were being created for the same purpose (i.e., “natural monopoly” regulation.  To Read More....

Thursday, May 30, 2013

Gas Myths

John Stossel | May 29, 2013

Editor's Note:  Today's links are filled with quotable quotes.  Here's another!
Plan to drive more this summer? Annoyed by the price of gas? Complaining that oil companies rip you off?   I say, shut up. Even if gas costs $4 per gallon, we should thank Big Oil. Think what they have to do to bring us gas.   Oil must be sucked out of the ground, sometimes from war zones or deep beneath oceans. The drills now bend and dig sideways through as much as 7 miles of earth. What they discover must be pumped through billion-dollar pipelines and often put in monstrously expensive tankers to ship across the ocean.
Then it's refined into several types of gasoline, transported in trucks that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Finally, your local gas station must spend a fortune on safety devices to make sure we don't blow ourselves up while filling the tank.  And it still costs less per ounce than the bottled water sold at gas stations. If government sold gas, it would cost $40 per gallon. And there would be shortages!
Another myth: Big Oil makes "excess" profit. Nonsense. The oil business is fiercely competitive. If one company charges a penny too much, other companies steal its business. Apple's profit margin is about 24 percent. McDonald's makes 20 percent. Oil companies make half that.  Per gallon, ExxonMobil makes about 7 cents. Governments, by contrast, grab about 27 cents per gallon. That's the average gas tax. If anyone takes too much, it's government.....To Read More....

The penumbra of power

By: John Hayward  |  May 29th, 2013
Editor's Note:  This is an article full of quotable quotes. Please read the whole thing.
A few weeks ago, Apple executives were called on the Congressional carpet for… well, it’s not really clear, actually.  Congress was very angry at them for failing to haul international profits back to the United States so they could be taxed at confiscatory anti-growth American rates.  Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) countered by pointing out that everyone tries to legally minimize their tax liability.  Accountants who failed to take such opportunities would be failing in their duty to shareholders.
Today, the news broke that Apple has hired the scandal-plagued former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Lisa Jackson, to handle… well, it’s not really clear, actually.  She’ll be paid big bucks for offering “environmental advice” and making sure Apple data centers use “renewable wind and solar energy,” which means they’ll be paying far more than necessary for power that doesn’t work when it’s cloudy or the winds are calm.  And no one seems to care about windmills shredding birds, including bald eagles, so apparently birds aren’t really part of the environment any more.  It seems like only yesterday that Western liberals were consigning millions in the Third World to preventable death because pest-controlling chemicals were supposedly thinning the shells of bird eggs.  Now they don’t care about endangered birds getting sliced to ribbons in the quest for sustainable energy.  But I digress.  Let us return from environmentalist lunacy to Big Government lunacy,……To Read More…..

McAuliffe’s stalled electric car company salary raises funding scheme questions

Dan Spencer (Diary)  | 
At this point the failures and false promises of Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe’s electric car company, GreenTech, have been well documented.
For those who need a refresher, Clinton fundraiser and party insider McAuliffe re-christened himself a ‘Virginia businessman’ in his second quest for the Old Dominion governorship and touted several supposed job-creating ventures on the campaign trail, one being a wood pellet firm that has yet to become operational, and another was GreenTech Automotive, which he pledged would create thousands of jobs.
First, it was revealed that those promised jobs were to be created in Mississippi, not Virginia. Then, McAuliffe was caught fibbing about why the company chose to locate outside the state, claiming Virginia authorities had rejected their application before it was made clear that GreenTech had never completed its application materials. Then the revelation that Virginia officials were concerned that the company was “a visa-for-sale scheme” given its lack of a credible business plan and utilization of the EB-5 funding mechanism, which hands out U.S. visas to foreign investors (more on this later)……. To Read More....


Ted Cruz Takes Center Stage, Media Increases Attacks

By: Breeanne Howe (Diary)  |  May 29th, 2013
With news Wednesday morning that Michelle Bachmann won’t be running for re-election in 2014, the left has turned their sights quickly to another target: Ted Cruz.  Not that they weren’t already focused on him.  The left has been foaming at the mouth over Cruz since he boldly stepped on the scene and refused to play by their crooked rules.  Bachmann’s exit, however, has introduced a new fervor on the left against Cruz and they’ve taken no time to come at him from every angle.
Seemingly within minutes of Bachmann’s announcement, Washington Bureau Chief of the Houston Chronicle Richard Dunham posted a piece questioning the legality of Ted Cruz running for president.  If that doesn’t reveal how scared the left is of Cruz, I’m not sure what does.  Calling it “Birther 2.0,” Dunham stated:…..To Read More….

Lois Lerner Told Republican in 1996: “Promise me You Will Never Run Again, and We’ll Drop This (FEC) Case”

Posted by Jim Hoft on Wednesday, May 29, 2013  .....This Appeared Here.....
Lois Lerner, the controversial director of the tax-exempt organizations division at the Internal Revenue Service, has a long sordid history of targeting conservatives.
Under the direction of Lois Lerner, the Federal Election Commission sued the Christian Coalition in the 1990s. She harassed the Christian Coalition for three election cycles. Eventually, she lost her case. At one point Lerner even asked a conservative if Pat Robertson prayed over him. (Sound familiar?)

Then there’s this…Lois Lerner made this offer to Republican Senate candidate Al Salvi in 1996,  “Promise me you will never run for office again, and we’ll drop this case.”
USofArn reported:

In 1996 Lois Lerner, the IRS official at the center of the harassment of Tea Party groups seeking tax exempt status, was head of the enforcement division of the Federal Elections Commission(FEC). That year Al Salvi was the Republican nominee for the US Senate from Illinois, his Democrat opponent was then congressman Dick Durbin.

During the final weeks of the campaign Salvi loaned himself over a million dollars to buy ads in the Chicago media market. This in turn prompted the Democrat party’s campaign arms to file complaints with the FEC and in kind the FEC, specifically Lois Lerner, filed charges against Al Salvi.

That is when Mr. Salvi contends Lois Lerner made him the following offer, “Promise me you will never run for office again, and we’ll drop this case.”
Al Salvi refused that offer and would fight the FEC complaint against him for several more years before a Judge tossed out the complaint.

The Illinois Review has more on Lerner:          

Soon after the IRS story broke, Al Salvi told Illinois Review that it was IRS official Lois Lerner who represented the FEC in a Democrat complaint against him. According to Salvi, Lerner was, without question, politically motivated, and went so far as to make him an offer: “Promise me you will never run for office again, and we’ll drop this case.”

Salvi declined her offer, and ran for Illinois Secretary of State in 1998.
But when he saw Lerner plead the Fifth Amendment before Congress last week, he recognized her. “That’s the woman,” Salvi said. “And I didn’t plead the Fifth like she did.”

These actions landed Lois Lerner at the IRS where she used the same tactics against conservatives and Christians – only on a much larger scale. 500 conservative and Christian groups were illegally targeted by the Obama IRS during her tenure. For twenty-seven months the Obama IRS refused to approve any Tea Party applications for tax-exempt status. At the same time the Obama IRS approved dozens of progressive applications. 

The Rise and Fall of the Dollar

Mises Daily: Thursday, May 30, 2013 by Mark Thornton

Over the last century America’s money—the dollar—has come to dominate the global monetary system. It is used not just by Americans, but in other countries, in the global black market, and by importers and exporters. And it is the primary reserve currency for central banks. This status is what Barry Eichengreen calls an “exorbitant privilege,” because it confers numerous benefits to individuals, companies, and governments. Collectively, it also confers the ability for Americans to consume beyond our ability to produce.

Professor Eichengreen in his book Exorbitant Privilege: The Rise and Fall of the Dollar and the Future of the International Monetary System, chronicles the rise of the dollar to world dominance, and what it means for the US. He then explores the possibilities of its demise and possible crash. The author should be commended for at times thinking outside the mainstream box, where such issues are often ignored.

He believes that the world is heading toward a state in which there are several reserve currencies, notably the euro and the Chinese renminbi. He maintains that a reserve currency status is based on economic strength: Europe has it and China and India are gaining it rapidly…To Read More….

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Environmentalists Claim Night Skies are Being Polluted by Light


By Audrey Hudson May 29, 2013

The National Park Service has created a federal agency to “conserve our heritage of starry skies.”….Environmentalists have seized upon a new weapon in their battle against energy development warning that bright lights from coal and fracking operations are polluting the darkness of night skies over national parks located several miles away.  The enthusiasm to protect dark nights as a “vanishing resource” has also captured the imagination of the National Park Service, which has created a relatively new federal agency to “conserve our heritage of starry skies.”

In fact, darkness is now part of the federal government’s mission in the park service’s “call to action” to move the agency into its second century of operations.  The “Starry Starry Night” program will “lead the way in protecting natural darkness as a precious resource and create a model for dark sky protection by establishing America’s first Dark Sky Cooperative on the Colorado Plateau …”Environmentalists and the federal government are using the light pollution argument in their attempts to limit the expansion of a Utah coal operation that provides one-quarter of the electricity used by the city of Los Angeles…..To Read More…..

‘My scientists made me shrink your car’

How government scientists plunder the till in the name of science
Patrick J. Michaels
Three years ago, I ran into former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd at a ritzy Northwest Washington restaurant. We exchanged pleasantries, but before long, our conversation became unpleasant.
Since climate science is my field, I felt compelled to point out that Mr. Rudd’s support for a cap-and-trade policy for carbon emissions had recently helped cost him his job as prime minister. “Well, what should I have done?” he replied. “My scientists, I say, my scientists, told me this is an important problem.”
Having closely followed implementation of Mr. Rudd’s cap-and-trade, my response was admittedly a little testy: “Your scientists said exactly what you paid them to tell you.” It took less than an hour for the daily newspaper The Australian to get wind of the encounter.
That brief interaction with Mr. Rudd is indicative of a widespread problem: The government of Australia, and pretty much every other nation, funds research scientists and then relies on them for policy guidance. It is in the best interest of these government-funded scientists to ensure their fields — and therefore their jobs — are deemed of great importance.
The problem is particularly costly when it comes to environmental science....To Read More....

Nadler on Stopping Future Gosnells: Fund 'a Planned Parenthood Clinic in Every Neighborhood’

By Penny Starr, May 24, 2013 - 11:40 AM
The way to prevent abortionists like convicted murderer Kermit Gosnell from occurring again is to build more Planned Parenthood clinics, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) said at a House Judiciary Subcommittee hearing on Thursday about legislation that would prevent abortion after 20 weeks nationwide.
“I would urge my colleagues to think about the extent to which he, Dr. Gosnell, represented the poor quality of health care services available in poorer communities,” Nadler said at the Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice hearing.  “We should be working to make sure that high quality health care is provided to the uninsured to make sure the full range of health care services, including family planning services that are available to people with money are available to the poor and uninsured as well,” Nadler said.
“If that means funding a Planned Parenthood clinic in every neighborhood to put guys like Gosnell out of business, so be it,” Nadler said…..To Read More….

Former Abortionist: 'If Anybody Thinks Ripping Off Arms and Legs ... Isn't Painful....'

 By Penny Starr May 24, 2013
A former abortionist who said he had performed some 1,200 abortions before his conversion to pro-life activist, said Thursday at a House subcommittee hearing that abortion causes pain to unborn babies.
“If anybody thinks that ripping off arms and legs and crushing these children the way we’re doing during these procedures isn’t painful, they’re just kidding themselves ... badly kidding themselves,” Dr. Anthony Levatino said at a hearing on the District of Columbia Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.
Levantino was one of four witnesses at the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice hearing to discuss fetal pain and the bill, H.R. 1797, which would ban abortion after 20 weeks across the nation…..To Read More…..

Trayvon Martin Update: Judge blocks Zimmerman's defense from discussing Martin's alleged fighting, marijuana use


A Florida judge ruled Tuesday that the defense at George Zimmerman's murder trial may not bring up Trayvon Martin's past marijuana use, school suspensions or fighting without clearing a number of additional legal hurdles and a subsequent ruling granting them permission, the Orlando Sentinel reports.  The ruling comes during a pre-trial hearing two weeks ahead of Zimmerman's murder trial. He is charged with fatally shooting the unarmed 17-year-old Martin last year during a confrontation at a gated community in Sanford.
The text messages about Martin's smoking marijuana and trouble at school were released by attorneys for Zimmerman last week, and are among several subjects being considered at Tuesday's pre-trial hearing in Sanford, Fla. The photos released by the defense team also show Martin blowing smoke and making an obscene gesture toward a camera. The judge also will consider whether a voice analysis expert can be called by prosecutors to determine who was making cries for help on 911 calls, and a defense request for a trial delay….To Read More…..

Battle over gun rights shifts to state courthouses; challenges to new laws mounting

 By David Sherfinski, Monday, May 27, 2013
The gun control battle has shifted from Capitol Hill to the states, where both sides have gone to court to challenge laws passed in the wake of December’s school shooting in Connecticut.  Most recently, a coalition of gun rights groups and supporters filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport against Connecticut’s new bans on military-style, semi-automatic rifles and high-capacity magazines — about 20 miles from Newtown, where the deaths of 20 first-graders and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary helped reignite the national debate over guns.
The suit argues that the laws violate their Second Amendment rights and says that Hiller Sports, a retailer and one of the plaintiffs in the suit, has had to refund about $60,000 worth of back orders on “AR”-type firearms to its customers because wholesalers wouldn’t ship them…….To Read More…..

As Islamic Terror Attacks Escalate At Home & Abroad, Obama Says Muslims are “Fundamental Part of American Family”

May 24, 2013 by Ann-Marie Murrell
Refusing to acknowledge the 2009 Ft. Hood Islamic terrorist attack, the attempted Islamic Time Square attack, the Benghazi Islamic terrorist attack, the recent April 2013 Islamic terrorist attack in Boston and many more, Barack Obama claimed in a press conference Thursday that there have been ‘no large-scale attacks’ on America since 9/11.
John Mueller, the chair of National Security Studies at Ohio State’s Mershon Center for International Security Studies, disagrees with Obama and has collected a list of 52 such plans since 9/11, as chronicled in Mueller’s book, Terrorism Since 9/11:  The American Cases
Despite the overwhelming facts, Obama remains steadfast in his position that if only America would embrace the Muslim community all would be well with the world.
“The best way to prevent violent extremism is to work with the Muslim American community — which has consistently rejected terrorism — to identify signs of radicalization and partner with law enforcement when an individual is drifting towards violence,” Obama said. “And these partnerships can only work when we recognize that Muslims are a fundamental part of the American family.” (Get it?  It’s our fault for not integrating better with them, and not their fault for repeatedly attacking us…)…To Read More….

Sharia Law: America’s Feminists? Chillingly Silent

By Pete Parker,  27 May 2013
Islamic law is a brutally misogynistic ordinance that categorizes all women as subhuman. It is an evil decree (that if violated) carries a host of penalties ranging from multiple whippings to genital mutilation to gang rape to stoning.  Women in global Islamic community have been subjected to this archaically medieval law since the 7th century. Their plight is one of highly disturbing and egregious proportions.
Yet, American feminists have been chillingly silent about this most poignant issue. So silent, in fact — that if you have ever listened to uber-feminist Nancy Pelosi blather on endlessly about the so-called “War on Women” she never comes remotely close to mentioning the real war that has savaged scores of women around the world: Sharia.
Perhaps the reason for Pelosi’s reticence on this issue is a direct manifestation of Botox Brain? An irreversible condition caused by abnormal amounts of Botox injections to both the face and forehead resulting in cognitive paralyses.   Hmm — that explains a lot.
American Fems whine incessantly about their “plight” as they do battle against those taxpayers who refuse to pony up every time a Sandra Fluke decides to spread her legs.  These so-called brave and iconic women shrill endlessly about their right to “free access” — which includes such things as KY-Jelly, birth control pills and dyno-vibrators — while young women under Sharia are getting their vaginas mutilated by Koran toting Imams....To Read More... 

Iran to Chair U.N. Agency’s Budget Committee

Iran to Chair U.N. Agency’s Budget Committee
By Patrick Goodenough May 28, 2013
Six months after a U.S. foreign policy advocacy group urged a United Nations agency to stop cooperating with the Iranian regime, the agency’s members have appointed Tehran to head a body overseeing its budget and work program for the year ahead.
Meeting in Vienna, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) last week named Iran to succeed Austria as chairman of its Program and Budget Committee. The step was taken “by acclamation,” meaning no member-state objected or called for a vote.  The post will be held by Ali-Asghar Soltanieh, Iran’s representative to international organizations based in Vienna. Those organizations include with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which for years has been tracking and reporting on Iran’s controversial nuclear program…..To Read More….

The Facts about Food Stamps Everyone Should Hear

A recent US News & World Report article set out to unveil the “facts” about food stamps.  What are the so-called “facts”?  For one, the article claims that the food stamps program is not “bloated,” but rather, the surge in participation and spending is a result of the program “doing what it’s supposed to do.” But what is it “supposed to do”?
Food stamps (or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), as it is now called) were designed to ensure that Americans without the ability to provide for themselves are able to receive basic nutrition. However, application loopholes and policy changes over the past decade or so have allowed recipients to bypass income and asset tests, meaning many people are receiving food stamps who would not have been eligible under the program’s original purposes.
One of the changes in eligibility requirements is “broad-based categorical eligibility.” This type of eligibility means that an individual who receives any service under another welfare program, such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)—even something as small as a TANF brochure—can be deemed eligible for food stamps. A full 50 percent of all food stamp recipients now enroll in the program through this broad-based categorical eligibility procedure. As Heritage welfare experts Robert Rector and Kiki Bradley write:….To Read More…. .

Sequester is fed speak for Now Hiring; government posts 27,000 high-paying job openings

 By Luke RosiakMonday, May 27, 2013
The budget cuts known as sequestration were supposed to wreak havoc, forcing the shrinking of critical workforces including airport security officers and food inspectors.  But since sequestration kicked in March 4, the government has posted openings for 4,300 federal job titles to hire some 10,300 people.
The median position has a salary topping out at $76,000, and one-fourth of positions pay $113,000 or more, according to an analysis by The Washington Times of federal job listings. Altogether, the jobs will pay up to $792 million per year. Including job postings that have been open since before sequestration, the government is in the market for 27,000 employees who will make up to $1.8 billion a year….To Read More….

Iowa buzes over Scott Walker

By Cameron Joseph - 05/27/13
Iowa insiders say don’t sleep on Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) as a possible 2016 presidential contender. Walker gave a well-received speech to the Iowa Republican Party Thursday night, and many in the state say he would bring some strong assets to a presidential run.   While the beltway presidential buzz has focused on Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Walker’s admirers say his record as a conservative warrior, folksy Midwestern demeanor and big fundraising connections could make him a contender…..To Read More…..

Tea Party gets a bump after being targeted by IRS

FoxNews.com Published May 26, 2013
The Tea Party movement is showing signs of a resurgence following the revelation that the IRS targeted groups and other politically conservative organizations for the past several years.
A recent poll shows Americans have a more favorable opinion of the less-government, anti-tax groups. And one of the biggest groups in the grassroots movement told FoxNews.com this weekend that fundraising and donations have increased since news of the IRS targeting broke earlier this month.  However, one of the biggest remaining questions is whether the Tea Party can take the momentum in the 2014 elections.
The movement started in 2009 as a reaction to the federal government’s multibillion-dollar bank bailouts in the recession and played a major role in the 2010 midterm elections by backing conservative candidates who helped Republicans take control of the House. However, critics during the 2012 election cycle repeatedly argued the movement had become less relevant.
“We’re definitely seeing a spike in both interest and contributions,” Sal Russo, co-founder of the California-based Tea Party Express, told Fox on Saturday……To Read More…

IRS to Tea Party: 'State the Reasons You Did Not Have a Candidate Rally for Lone Democratic Candidate'

 By Curtis Houck May 28, 2013 - 10:23 AM
The Internal Revenue Service, in a letter dated November 16, 2011, asked the Albuquerque Tea Party why it didn’t host a "candidate rally" in 2010 for the lone Democratic gubernatorial candidate in New Mexico after it had hosted a "question and answer forum" for the Republican candidates. On the Democrat side, then-Lt. Gov. Diane Denish was running for New Mexico governor unopposed, but five Republicans were running in the primary for the opportunity to face Denish in November.
On page four of the IRS letter, question 8 asked the Albuquerque Tea Party:
"In describing your Event Rallies you stated that you hosted a question and answer forum with the GOP Primary Candidates for Governor of the state, and that not all GOP candidates attended. You stated that since there was only one candidate in the Democratic primary, there was no comparison to be made in the primary." …To Read More……

Americans Deserve the IRS

By Walter E. Williams May 28, 2013
Individually, Americans do not deserve to be subservient to such a fear-mongering, intimidating and powerful agency as the Internal Revenue Service; but collectively, we do……Since the 1791 ratification of our Constitution, until well into the 1920s, federal spending as a percentage of gross domestic product never exceeded 5 percent, except during war. Today federal spending is 25 percent of our GDP. State and local government spending is about 15 percent of the GDP. That means government spends more than 40 cents of each dollar we earn. If we add government's regulatory burden, which is simply a disguised form of taxation, the government take is more than 50 percent of what we produce.…… Congress has given it powers that would be deemed criminal if used by others. For example, the Constitution's Fifth Amendment protects Americans against self-incrimination and being forced to bear witness against oneself……However, a Fifth Amendment argument can't be used as a defense in a court of law. The IRS will counter that you voluntarily provided the information on your tax return…… Congress need such a ruthless tax collection agency as the IRS because of the charge we Americans have given them. We want what the IRS does -- namely, to take the earnings of one American so Congress can create a benefit for some other American. Don't get angry with IRS agents. They are just following orders….To Read More……

Frack-ture: Obama tries to kill U.S. energy

WND
The Interior Department is proposing new federal rules for hydraulic fracturing, but the chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee warns they’re unnecessary and will only limit energy production and economic growth.
Hydraulic fracturing, known more commonly as fracking, is an increasingly effective method by which oil and gas are extracted from rock formations. Estimates suggest the energy production potential in fracking is massive, and states like North Dakota and Pennsylvania have already enjoyed significant economic benefits. While the concept is somewhat new to many Americans, it has actually been in practice for decades.
Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., who is the House natural resources chairman, said new rules from Washington are not needed.  “For a long time, 60-70 years, the states have regulated hydraulic fracturing,” he told WND. “So there hasn’t been a nationwide rule. “For a long time, 60-70 years, the states have regulated hydraulic fracturing,” he told WND. “So there hasn’t been a nationwide rule. Frankly, it’s for that reason that I think that this proposed regulation is a solution in search of a problem, because the states have done it very, very successfully for a number of years.”….To Read More…..

MP George Eustice says climate sceptics should be heard

By Graeme Demianyk Monday, May 27, 2013
Science questioning climate change should not be "rubbished or ridiculed", a Westcountry MP charged with devising energy policy for David Cameron has said.
George Eustice, Conservative MP for Camborne and Redruth, says he believes there is a link between carbon emissions and warming the planet, but argues "all perspectives" should be heard
Climate change sceptics, such as former Chancellor Nigel Lawson, have raised a series of concerns over man-made climate change arguments and its impact, from claiming warming has stopped to contending governments are adopting punishing polices to adapt to and mitigate the threat….To Read More….  

Why I think we're wasting billions on global warming, by top British climate scientist

By Professor Myles Allen
The MoS has campaigned tirelessly against the folly of Britain’s eco-obsessed energy policy. Now comes a game-changing intervention... from an expert respected by the green fanatics themselves Last week, I was part of a group of academics who published a paper saying that the faster, more alarming, projections of the rate at which the globe is warming look less likely than previously thought.
That may mean we can afford to reduce carbon dioxide emissions slightly slower than some previously feared – but as almost everyone agrees, they still have to come down.  So the time has come to focus on something just as important: that 90 per cent of the measures adopted in Britain and elsewhere since the 1997 Kyoto agreement to cut global emissions are a waste of time and money – including wind farms in Scotland, carbon taxes and Byzantine carbon trading systems….To Read More…

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

MUST READ ARTICLE: To The Horror Of Global Warming Alarmists, Global Cooling Is Here

By Peter Ferrara, Contributor
Around 1250 A.D., historical records show, ice packs began showing up farther south in the North Atlantic. Glaciers also began expanding on Greenland, soon to threaten Norse settlements on the island. From 1275 to 1300 A.D., glaciers began expanding more broadly, according to radiocarbon dating of plants killed by the glacier growth. The period known today as the Little Ice Age was just starting to poke through.

Summers began cooling in Northern Europe after 1300 A.D., negatively impacting growing seasons, as reflected in the Great Famine of 1315 to 1317. Expanding glaciers and ice cover spreading across Greenland began driving the Norse settlers out. The last, surviving, written records of the Norse Greenland settlements, which had persisted for centuries, concern a marriage in 1408 A.D. in the church of Hvalsey, today the best preserved Norse ruin....To Read More...

Are You Ready For a Tea Party Comeback?

Daniel Doherty | May 26, 2013
Blaming America’s woes on the Tea Party is par for the course these days, but after the IRS begrudgingly admitted they targeted conservative political organizations for ideologically purposes, it seems the Tea Party is undergoing something of a political revival. In fact, a new Rasmussen poll shows that a plurality of respondents have a favorable opinion of the grassroots movement -- up 14 percentage points since earlier this year.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 44% of Likely U.S. Voters now have a favorable opinion of the Tea Party. That's up 14 points from Januarybut still down from April 2009's high of 51% when the Tea Party protests against President Obama’s spending policies first erupted.
Forty-four percent (44%) also now view the Tea Party unfavorably, although that's down five points from earlier this year. The latest findings include 18% with a Very Favorable opinion of the movement and 25% with a Very Unfavorable one. Thirteen percent (13%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.) …….Eighty percent (80%) of Republicans now view the Tea Party favorably, up from 61% in January. Forty-two percent (42%) of voters not affiliated with either major party share that view, compared to 29% at the beginning of the year. Just 14% of Democrats hold a favorable impression of the movement, but that’s still double the level measured in the previous survey. …..To Read More….

A Crisis in Exceptionalism

 Written on Thursday, May 23, 2013 by Nick Adams
Attitude, as the old saying offers, determines altitude. Self-belief; the most powerful asset in the pursuit of objectives.
Those seeking the expedition of an American renaissance (an inevitability, as far as I am concerned) often overlook the psychology of American exceptionalism.
For American exceptionalism is more than an opinion or moral judgment. It is even more than a falsifiable, testable hypothesis. More than a fact, with its proof lining the pages of history.   It is a way of life; a mindset with bottomless impact on morale, achievement and culture.   A nation can demonstrate exceptionalism in five areas: economically, militarily, culturally, scientifically and spiritually……Exceptionalism also has at its back a strongly individualist wind. It is gravely harmed by the trend toward nanny-state stagnation and the inexorable erosion of the very freedoms that have put the US into the position of global leadership. It is a fair assessment that America for some time now is suffering the slow erosion of self-reliance, self-confidence, self-determination and self-control in its people…..America is imperfect, but it is the model to which every other nation should and must aspire….To Read More…….

What the Government Could Learn From the Marine Corps

Written on Saturday, May 25, 2013 by David L. Goetsch
In the aftermath of Barack Obama’s re-election, many mainstream Republicans are undergoing a crisis of conscience. Having lost two presidential elections in a row, the Republican Party is questioning the validity of its traditional values and principles. Some party professionals are even recommending a shift to the left in an attempt to appeal to what they view as the new American electorate. Some key decision makers in the Republican Party think the time has come to cast aside their opposition to same-sex marriage, abortion, gun-control, and the immigration policies of the left. In other words, instead of changing how they do things some Republicans think they should change who they are. ……Fortunately, cooler heads eventually prevailed and the Marine Corps decided to change how it did what it did rather than who it was and what it stood for. Recruiting, training, and discipline standards were increased, not decreased. The Marine Corps focused on doing a better job of choosing its leaders and preparing them for the challenges they would face. Finally, they did a better job of communicating why their values, principles, and traditions were so important to America’s on-going national defense. As a result of these decisions, the Marine Corps emerged from the 1970s a better and stronger Corp. There is a lesson in this for the Republican Party of today….To Read More….

Ruling Against ‘Sheriff Joe’ Pushes U.S. Closer to Brink

by Tad Cronn, May 26, 2013
The Left has always been destructive, of itself and the communities around it. Drugs, abortion, homosexuality, welfare state … if it takes the human being a notch closer to the animals, the Left is all for it.  One other thing the Left is good at, though, is an irritating talent for the most mind-bending rationalizations of its abberant behavior, rationalizations that have become institutionalized.
A prime example is the concept of racial profiling, which a court on Friday ruled Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio and deputies had committed by virtue of checking the citizenship of Latinos with whom they came in contact.
To the Left, this is a great sin and proof that Arpaio is a scoundrel….”The ruling marks a thorough repudiation of the immigration patrols that made Arpaio a national political figure, and it represents a victory for those who pushed the lawsuit.”……In other words, the Left set up a situation where Arpaio could only choose between ignoring the problem and letting criminals run roughshod over the people under his protection or doing the right thing…….Other sheriffs are finding themselves at odds with the federal government as well. The Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association is holding its convention this month, at which members will discuss ways they can protect their communities from federal overreach and defend citizens’ constitutional rights……..Some liberals have labeled the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers (CSPOA) “insurrectionists” and “traitors.” …To Read More….

Scandalpalooza, Part II: The Encroachment of Tyranny

You know, I’m just so glad the President reassured me that tyranny isn’t around the corner back on the 5th of this month.    I mean, sure, as I mentioned (in passing) earlier this week, he was busy prying into the lives of journalists and their parents, but that’s small potatoes, water under the bridge.  Having remembered his reassurance, I can go back to completely trusting the government to not abuse its power.  I mean, it’s not like the government was using its most powerful agency to target conservatives.
Wait, what was that?  …Ah.  I see.
On some level, I understand the impulse some people have to recoil at “extreme” descriptions of actions taken by the administration or the government.  It may very well drive away some from our side.  The question is, is it better to cater to people’s weakness, hyper-sensitivity and ignorance, or is it better to tell the truth?
I choose the latter when I call this administration’s tactics fascistic….To Read More…

IRS's Lerner Signed Tea Party Letters

Lois Lerner, the IRS Director of Exempt Organizations, signed letters that were sent to targeted groups asking them to turn over an extensive amount of information to the IRS.  Earlier this week Lerner refused to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, but not before proclaiming that she had "done nothing wrong" or "broken any laws."
Lerner has been placed on administrative leave, reportedly after she refused to resign from the agency.
American Center for Law and Justice chief counsel Jay Sekulow, who represents more that a dozen Tea Party groups, released a sample of the IRS letters sent to Tea Party type groups. 
"It appears Lerner did nothing to stop the abusive conduct. And our evidence suggests she was actively participating in the improper targeting in March 2012," he said in a statement. 
The Inspector General's timeline shows that Lerner was briefed in June of 2011.  According to the IG report, Lerner had ordered the criteria to be changed in June 2011 but it was  "then broadened, but somehow it was changed again in January 2012 'without executive approval.' "
Sekulow said their records show Lerner sent 14 other letters to 14 of his group's clients in March and April of that year. He said it's unclear why her signature is on some letters but not others. …To Read More….

Dems want more time before weighing need for IRS special prosecutor

By Bernie Becker and Peter Schroeder -
Leading congressional Democrats say they don’t believe the investigation into the IRS’s targeting of conservative groups needs a special prosecutor – at least not yet.
Democrats on Capitol Hill, like their colleagues across the aisle, have expressed deep anger about how the IRS handled applications from Tea Party groups.
But like Republicans, top Democrats also want to give their own probe into the issue more time, two weeks after news first broke and following three hearings left many questions unanswered.
“I think it’s too soon,” said Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), whose committee held one of those three hearings. “I don’t think there’s enough evidence to warrant a special prosecutor.”
Of course, Democrats don’t agree with every reason why Republicans aren’t on board with a special counsel. GOP lawmakers, for instance, are troubled that Attorney General Eric Holder, with whom they’ve sparred on more than a couple occasions, would be in charge of appointing the prosecutor..... To Read More…

Walmart, Boeing, Lockheed Fund Center for American Progress

by John Sexton 25 May 2013
Andrew Stuttaford at National Review highlights an interesting report on The Center for American Progress (CAP), the progressive think tank most closely associated with President Obama's administration. Among other things, they publish the progressive blog Think Progress.
CAP is partly funded by a "business alliance" which offers perks to large corporate donors for a given level of annual donation. Unlike most think tanks, CAP does not issue annual reports disclosing any of these big business donors, but an investigation published by the Nation found that CAP's business alliance contains many familiar names:
CAP’s donors included Comcast, Walmart, General Motors, Pacific Gas and Electric, General Electric, Boeing and Lockheed. Though it doesn’t appear on the lists, the University of Phoenix was also a donor.
You have to savor the irony that CAP has volunteered to join the military-industrial complex. In fact, the Nation piece points out the ties are more than just financial:
Scott Lilly, a Hill veteran who joined CAP in 2004 as a senior fellow covering national security, simultaneously served as a registered lobbyist for Lockheed between 2005 and 2011. Rudy deLeon, CAP’s senior vice president for national security and international policy, was a Boeing executive and directed the company’s lobbying operations between 2001 and 2006, before joining the think tank the following year.
Perks given out to big corporations for funding CAP include "roundtable discussions with CAP experts, business, Hill and national leaders." CAP also promises "VIP events with leaders from government, business and academia." In short, members of the business alliance gain special access to power….To Read More….
My Take – They point out in the article that it is a mistake to believe big business is conservative.  Small business is conservative and big business is merely opportunistic and will jump on any bandwagon that they think will garner them more profits and crush the smaller competition.  We really do need to get that!

Religion of Peace Alert: Lebanese Man Gets 300 Lashes For Helping Convert Girl to Christianity

 By Jeremy Reynalds Senior Correspondent for ASSIST News Service, 26 May 2013
SAUDI ARABIA (ANS) – A Lebanese man was sentenced to 300 lashes with a whip and six years in prison for his role in helping a Saudi woman convert to Christianity and flee the Saudi kingdom.
According to a story by Benjamin Weinthal for FoxNews.com, the court in the Eastern Saudi city of Khobar — located on the coast of the Persian Gulf — also sentenced a Saudi man to two years in prison and 200 lashes. He had helped the young woman named Maryam — dubbed “the girl of Khobar” — in her escape to Sweden to secure asylum.
Maryam, whose case has been closely followed in Saudi Arabia, criticized Saudi Arabia’s Sunni monarchy for instilling in her a hatred of Judaism and Christianity, according to the English-language Saudi Gazette. The Jeddah-based paper wrote that she “fell in love with the religions after she found peace in Christianity.” To Read More.....