A December 17 Reuters article
was titled, “Obama’s Current Approval Rating Is The Ugliest Since Nixon.”
“President Barack Obama is
ending his fifth year in office with the lowest approval ratings at this point
in the presidency since President Richard Nixon, according to a new Washington
Post/ABC poll released Tuesday.”
Nixon was forced to resign
on April 22, 1974 after two long years that followed the revelations about
Watergate, a break-in of the Democratic Party offices in Washington, DC. The
backlash against the horrors of Obamacare, concerns about the “deal” with Iran,
and a succession of scandals from Fast and Furious to Benghazi, have raised
fear and anger over his judgment, competence, and behavior in office……
It is a great regret that
arrogant atheists attack Christmas at this time of year and that too many
institutions from schools to stores feel intimidated enough to remove mention
of it. It is one thing to deny the existence of God, but the attacks are
intended to undermine the faith of millions of Americans. The atheists forget
or neglect the fact that the pilgrims came here to freely practice their
interpretation of Christianity.
It is a habit of mine to
revisit the classic literature of the past and, with the advent of Christmas, I
picked up an excerpt from Edward Gibbon’s famed “The History of the Decline and
Fall of the Roman Empire” that addressed in part the role of Christianity.
Gibbon’s vast knowledge of
the Empire eventually filled six volumes. The first three volumes were
published in 1776 and became a bestseller. The final three volumes cemented his
reputation as a historian…….
The Obama administration’s
relentless war on the nation’s coal industry and on the electrical power
generation plants that depend upon it is one aspect of his war on America that
doesn’t receive the attention it deserves. There is literally no basis, no
justification for it, and yet the mainstream media tends to take little notice
or supports it.
It is far more than a “war
on coal”. It is a war on the nation’s capacity to meet its ever expanding
energy needs. You can’t build a power generation plant overnight. You can’t get
the enormous amount of electrical energy the nation needs from wind and solar
power. Even nuclear energy, touted as “clean” because it produces no carbon
emissions, has not seen any surge in new plants in decades.
As a Washington Times
editorial noted on November 20, the regulations being imposed by the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) “have forced more than 100 coal plants to
shut down and have made it all but impossible to construct new coal-fired
plants despite rising energy demand…Since coal-fired plants generate nearly
half of all the electricity used in the U.S., the EPA regulations add
significantly to other upward pressures on electricity rates across the
country.”……
In the same way Obamacare
was foisted on America by creating a 2,000-page law that Democrats in Congress
never even bothered to read, a new treaty about trade with Asia is going
through the same process and poses as great, if not greater, threat to our
economy, our judiciary, and our sovereignty.
Secrecy and outright
deception is the hallmark of the Obama administration and a proposed Asian
trade treaty must be stopped.
It is the Trans-Pacific
Partnership (TPP) and, writing on The Economic Collapse blog, Michael
Snyder, notes that “This treaty has 29 chapters, but only 5 of
them have to do with trade. Most Americans don’t realize this, but this
treaty will fundamentally change our laws regarding internet freedom, health
care, the trading of derivatives, copyright issues, food safety, environmental
standards, civil liberties, and so much more.”………
Barely a week goes by
these days without hearing of some new demand by the Environmental Protection
Agency that borders on the insane.
Increasingly, EPA
regulations are being challenged and now reach the Supreme Court for a final
judgment. This marks the failure of Congress to exercise any real oversight and
control of an agency that everyone agrees is now totally out of control.
Recently the EPA ruled
that New York City had to replace 1,300 fire hydrants because of their lead
content. The ruling was based on the Drinking Water Act passed by Congress in
2011. As Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) pointed out while lambasting the
agency, “I don’t know a single New Yorker who goes out to their fire hydrants
every morning, turns it on, and brushes their teeth using the water from these
hydrants. It makes no sense whatsoever.” Reportedly, the Senate is poised to
consider legislation exempting fire hydrants if the EPA does not revise its
ruling.
The EPA is not about
making sense. It is about over-interpreting laws passed by Congress in ways
that now continually lead to cases before the Supreme Court. The Court is
composed of lawyers, not scientists. In an earlier case, they ruled that carbon
dioxide (CO2) is a “pollutant” when it is the one gas that all
vegetation requires. Without it, nothing grows and all life on Earth dies……..
My memories of Christmas
as a child include a run down the stairs to find stockings hanging from the
fireplace and boxes of gifts. After the excitement of opening them, there was a
family dinner for myself, an older brother, and my parents. Since my Mother was
a teacher of haute cuisine, even the traditional turkey and other dishes were a
special treat, but the fact is that the family ate like royalty for all the
years we were together. An internationally honored authority on wine, it was a
daily part of our lives.
Since Mother had taught
many people how to cook and dine as a gourmet, her students sent cards and we
would festoon the living room by pinning them to ribbons as decoration for the
holiday. I knew early on that she was an extraordinary woman and much loved by
her students and others with whom she came in contact. She wrote two cookbooks.
My Father was her greatest fan and rarely left the dinner table without pausing
to give her a hug and a kiss…….
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