A nasty GI infection goes down the toilet thanks to a great vaccine

Posted on June 10, 2015 by admin

Rotavirus, which causes severe gastroenteritis, doesn’t get the same degree of attention that others viruses like measles or chickenpox get, but it can be a troublesome infection especially for young children. The CDC lists a number of daunting statistics for children under 5. Rotavirus causes: 70,000 annual hospitalizations, more than 400,000 doctors visits and 200,000 emergency room visits. Furthermore, it is virtually certain that ALL children will have contracted a rotavirus infection before the age of 5. Worldwide, especially in areas where rehydration is not readily available, the story is much worse. The WHO estimates that the infection kills half a million kids a year.

However, with the advent of two vaccines, RotaTeq (co-invented by ACSH friend Dr. Paul Offit) in 2006 and Rotarix in 2008, these statistics have been rendered obsolete, this according to new data. A study funded by the CDC and published in JAMA this week, compared rotavirus and acute gastroenteritis hospitalizations numbers in children under 5 between two periods: pre-vaccine (2000-2006) with post-vaccine (2008-2012).

Most of the time, the source of acute gastroenteritis is not specifically identified because the treatment, fluid and electrolyte replacement, is the same regardless of the identity of the contagion. However, some estimates suggest that almost half of all acute gastroenteritis cases in children under 5 are caused by the rotavirus. This makes looking at the rates in acute gastroenteritis cases over these time periods a good metric of the effectiveness of the vaccine.

By analyzing patient discharge data across 26 states, the researchers identified 1.2 million cases of acute gastroenteritis, one-sixth of which had specifically identified rotavirus as the causative agent. The researchers found that in the pre-vaccine period, rotavirus cases had a frequency of 16 in 10,000 patients, however in the post-vaccine era the incidence dropped to just 1 in 10,000 patients. For acute gastroenteritis cases the incidence went from 76 cases per 10,000 children in the pre-vaccine era to 34 cases per 10,000 children in post-vaccine era.

The evidence is clear: the vaccines are working.

The RotaTeq vaccine is given in 3 doses bimonthly starting at 2 months of age, while the Rotarix vaccine is given twice, once at 2 months and again at 4 months. Both vaccines are given orally instead of being injected. The CDC highly recommends children receive the entire course of either vaccine before reaching 8 months of age.

Ohio Edition

John Kasich Is Not Running to "be" President

Erick Erickson 6/10/15

“This isn’t a Presidential campaign, it is John Wilkes Booth acting on a debate stage until he can take out another Republican. Metaphorically speaking, of course.”  Dan Balz at the Washington Post reports that John Kasich has hired John Weaver and Fred Davis to be his campaign consultants, strategists, pillagers of his bank account, and all around agents of a pseudo-Presidential campaign.  Kasich has, no doubt, looked in the mirror every day since he left Fox News calling himself “Mr. President.” But Kasich is not now running to be President. Surely, like the gorilla putting on a lion’s mane and calling himself Aslan, Kasich will put on the Brooks Brothers tie and call himself a presidential candidate, but that does not make him a White House contender.

One does not hire the Republican equivalent of Bob Shrum (see e.g. Presidents Gephardt, Dukaksis, Kerrey, Gore, and Kerry) — advisors to a host of “former Presidential candidates” including McCain and Huntsman — to be President. One hires them to knife other candidates in the back…….Put more bluntly, one does not run for President in the Republican Party by hiring consultants who hate the Republican base to run the campaign of a Republican who says publicly Jesus wants him to expand government. One runs that way to destroy others within the primary process……To Read More….

 

Matt Lynch Announces for Congress for 2016
 

Dear Friends,

My wife, Laura, and I have been praying for God's leading in how I might serve the people of Northeast Ohio. Eight years ago when Laura challenged me to get off our couch and do something to help our community, I had no idea where it might lead. From Bainbridge Trustee to the State House in Columbus, I did my best to always be open and transparent. I quickly learned that in politics, sticking to your principles was tough. The political elite have created a system that rewards those that just go along to get along. Too often our leaders in both Parties seek to punish those who put the people above Party politics.

The result is a nation in turmoil. . . runaway debt that will soon reach 20 trillion dollars, a fragile economy, social unrest, and moral decay. Meanwhile, the government insists it must violate our privacy to keep us safe, but then fails to

close our southern border! Congress refuses to defund Obamacare but then grants itself an exemption! The Federal Government spends more and more to take over education while our kids learn less and less. . . the President ignores any Constitutional limit on his authority, but Congress does nothing to stop him!

In the midst of this chaos I listen for the voices of those elected officials that will defend our way of life, our Constitution, and our Liberty. . . yet from the 14th Congressional District there is only silence. . . but I do hear the people. . . they get it. . . they know something is wrong in Washington and it will not be fixed by the same folks who are profiting from our corrupt political system. Big Government, Big Corporate welfare, and Big Party politics go hand in hand.! ….To Read More….

 

From Ohio Watchdog

 

Ohio’s budget $2.6 billion too large

By Tom Lampman | Watchdog Opinion
 

Ohio policymakers need to take a hard look at meaningful spending restraint if they hope to remain fiscally responsible in the long run. The massive increase of state resources in education and looming Medicaid expansion represent substantial spending growth. While the House of Representatives has proposed a more modest budget than Governor Kasich, there are still opportunities for more cuts. In the 2015 Ohio Piglet Book, The Buckeye Institute has identified nearly $2.6 billion in wasteful and excessive spending in the proposed FY 2016-2017 budget.

Ten percent of these savings come from eliminating special favors to private companies. Ohio spends close to $220 million on subsidies, grants, and other forms of corporate welfare. Some of these expenditures are presented as investments, such as the $157 million “Third Frontier” project. Research and innovation is desirable, but the government should not take the role of venture capitalists and crowd out investors’ dollars with taxpayer dollars. In other instances the spending is a straightforward grant to private interests, such as the $22.4 million in grants to racehorse breeders and racetracks.

Ending government involvement in the arts, culture, and advocacy would save an additional $55.7 million. Private philanthropy can and should fill this role, as state dollars diminish charity and create conflicts of interest. When advocacy groups are run as an arm of the state, their incentive is to advocate not only for their group’s interests but also for expanding the state’s role in said interests.

While some programs and even some departments can be eliminated, the largest savings will come from disciplined budgeting across the board. If policymakers commit to reasonable limits on spending growth, they can rein in growth in administrative and operating costs. The cost of operating a state should realistically grow with inflation and population, or about 3 percent per year. Limiting spending growth to 3 percent would save $1.9 billion, and would not impact the many departments that manage to stay within the reasonable 3 percent growth range. Going forward, this 3 percent rule should be the yardstick to prevent new wasteful programs from finding their way into future budgets.

Ohio Senate budget bill eliminates special elections

A proposal to eliminate special elections in February found its way into the state Senate’s version of the Ohio biennial budget bill.Read More →

Councilman faces lawsuit for his failure to support tax increases

The dueling lawsuits between elected officials in Maple Heights continues, but the latest filing may have taxpayers shaking their heads as one councilman is sued for not supporting tax increases. Read More →

Ohio’s cigarette tax proposal would light up a black market 

Cigarette smugglers, or “buttleggers,” will “load up a U-Haul” with cigarettes from a low-tax state and re-sell them in higher-tax states. The practice is little-known but highly lucrative—the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms estimates that smugglers can net up to $4 million from a single truckload. As states increase […] Read More →

E-cigarette tax would destroy Ohio small businesses
Central Ohio small business owner Alec Cardellino will be out of work if lawmakers pass Gov. John Kasich's steep e-cigarette tax. (Read more)

Reform could free workers from forced union representation

Union reformers have designed an escape hatch for millions of teachers and government workers forced to accept union representation.  Read More →

Reform could free workers from forced union representation

Union reformers have designed an escape hatch for millions of teachers and government workers forced to accept union representation. Read More →

Southeast Ohio businesses still fighting oil and gas tax hike

In Marietta, Ohio, business owners still have an oil and gas tax hike Gov. John Kasich has fought for since 2012 hanging over their heads. [continue reading]

School districts share spending data on Ohio's online checkbook
Transparency in spending is nothing new for the Toledo Public School district, which has published its monthly check register online since 2011. But as the first urban school district in Ohio to sign up for Ohio’s online checkbook, even more financial information will soon be just a click away. (Read more)
 

Racist comments as protected concerted activity (really!)

Racism at work cannot be tolerated, right? So here’s a quick quiz. Assume you hear a white employee yelling the following at black co-workers:

· “Hey, did you bring enough KFC for everyone?”and

· “I smell fried chicken and watermelon!”

Do you: a) fire the offending employee; or b) brush it off?

I’m going to lay pretty decent odds that most of you opted for choice “a.” Would you believe, though, that according to one NLRB judge, the answer depends on whether the racist employee is walking a picket line.

In Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. (6/5/15) [pdf], Administrative Law Judge Randazzo concluded that, while clearly racist, offensive, and inappropriate, the employer violated the NLRA when it fired the offending employee because he made the remarks in the context of a strike and there were no corresponding threats of violence:

Runion’s “KFC” and “fried chicken and watermelon”statements most certainly were racist, offensive, and reprehensible, but they were not violent in character, and they did not contain any overt or implied threats to replacement workers or their property. The statements were also unaccompanied by any threatening behavior or physical acts of intimidation by Runion towards the replacement workers in the vans.… The record evidence in this case does not establish that Runion’s statements were coercive or intimidating to the exercise of employees’ Section 7 rights, and it does not establish that the statements raised the likelihood of imminent physical confrontation.

Thus, an employee is justified, under the NLRA, to be as racist as he wants to be as long as:

1) the comments are made in the context of otherwise protected, concerted activity, and b) the comments are not accompanied by violence or overt threats of violence.

Although the breadth of the NLRB’s current iteration’s interpretation of “protected concerted activity” should surprise no one, I am stunned that this ALJ has gone this far.

No employee should be subjected to this type of abuse, picket line or no picket line, and it is shameful that this type of misconduct is condoned.

Employers should not be forced into a Hobson’s Choice between the NLRA and Title VII. Retaining the offender may save the employer from liability under the NLRA, but it won’t do the employer any favors if the victim pushes the issue under Title VII.

If nothing else, this case is a scary reminder of how far the NLRB and its judges will go to fine protected concerted activity. Employers, you are warned.

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The Eight Pillars of Islam. Anything Else is "taqiyya" – righteous deception to advance Islam.

The sustainability case for “industrial agriculture”

Ted Nordhaus | June 9, 2015 | Genetic Literacy Project

What they [anti-GMO advocates] are really after, many will tell you, is the “food system” itself –– globalization, Monsanto, corporate agriculture, pesticides, synthetic fertilizer, monoculture, and the rest.

GMO advocates have been less clear about this. Outside the corridors of Monsanto and Archer Daniels Midland, there hasn’t been a lot of stomach for defending industrial agriculture. As I will argue to you today, this is a problem. For at the bottom of contemporary debates about food and agriculture lay a series of fundamental misconceptions about agriculture that have become an obstacle to improving our food system.

Agriculture involves harvesting some portion of the earth’s primary productivity, the processes though which energy is converted into organic material via photosynthesis in order to sustain us. Early human populations began to find ways to do this more efficiently and at greater scales long before the invention of agriculture, mostly by burning forests to create open meadows and grasslands that were better for hunting and supported larger mammal populations and hence more protein on each hectare of land.....To Read More.....

Ohio Employer’s Law Blog

 

Defining the three-headed associational disability claim

You likely know that the ADA protects employees from discrimination “because of the known disability of an individual with whom the qualified individual is known to have a relationship or association.” But did you know that the ADA has three different theories to define this associational disability?

Expense (the cost of insuring the associated disabled person under the employer’s health plan);

Disability by association (a fear by the employer that the employee may contract the disability, or the employee is genetically predisposed to develop a disability that his or her relatives have); and

Distraction (the employee is inattentive at work because of the disability of the associated person).

In Williams v. Union Underwear Co., (6th Cir. 6/5/15) [pdf], the court rejected the plaintiff’s attempt to use each of these theories to challenge his termination after his wife was diagnosed with Wagner’s Vascular Disease, which weakened her immune system. Other than the coincidental timing between the the wife’s diagnosis and the alleged beginning of Williams’s adverse treatment at work, the court could not find any other evidence of disability discrimination. Absent something in addition to timing, the court could not conclude that Williams had presented sufficient evidence to get his discrimination claim to a jury.

We, as employers, often treat employee’s with family medical issues with kid gloves. We not only worry about potential liability under the ADA, but also the FMLA. Yet, these employees are not bulletproof. In Williams, the plaintiff had suffered years of marginal performance, and the employer had enough. Without something in addition to the mere fact that his wife suffered from a rare disease, this court was unsympathetic to his claim, which should provide hope to employers that want to hold all employees accountable to reasonable performance standards.

Related Stories

• A lesson on the importance of uniformity in performance standards
• “You’re late again!” Talk to my lawyer.”
• NLRB judge strikes down termination based on HIPAA violation

DOL set to publish guidance on independent-contractor status

Later this morning, I’ll board a flight for New York City to tape a segment for John Stossel’s Fox News show, to air Friday at 8 pm on Fox Business. We’ll be discussing the over-complexity of labor and employment laws, and their over-regulation of American businesses.

 

I’m certain one topic to be covered is our wage-and-hour laws. Serendipitously,

according to Employment Law 360 [subscription required], Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division administrator David Weil recently announced that he will shortly publish an “administrator interpretation” to clarify who qualifies as an independent contractor.

 

The distinction between employee and contractor continues to beguile employers, and is ripe for problems under both wage-and-hour laws (among other legal entanglements).

Individuals continue to file multi-million dollar class-action lawsuits claiming mis-classification as contractors cost them years of unpaid overtime. And, courts continue to take a hard line against companies that try to skirt their legal responsibilities via these mis-classifications.

 

Is it too much to hope for a reasonable interpretation from administrator Weil that permits bona fide contractors to remain classified as such? He speaks of a "holistic," as opposed to "mechanical" approach, which "requires a careful consideration of the economic realities and multiple aspects of the relationship." Expect a fuzzy standard with lots of gray area, which will continue to cause employers fits. Or, in other words, expect the status quo to continue, with employers who classify all but the clearest of workers as employees taking a huge wage-and-hour gamble.

 

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• Did the 6th Circuit just guarantee jury trials in off-the-clock wage/hour cases?
• Putting together the puzzle on off-duty emails and overtime
• Let’s start treating salaried workers like salaried workers

 

The Sublime Convergence of History and Reality - Truth!

Benny Peiser's Global Warming Policy Foundation Reports there's a Reality Check: UN Climate Talks Stall Despite G7 Posturing and G7 Leaders Shift Decarbonisation Goal To End Of Century

Reality Check: UN Climate Talks Stall Despite G7 Posturing - Calls by the Group of Seven (G7) Monday to slash world carbon emissions did little to boost UN climate talks in Bonn, where frustration mounted over the snail-­like progress. Due to end on Friday, the 11­day Bonn talks are tasked with shaping a draft text for the November 30 ­December 11 UN conference in Paris, which must yield a global agreement. But after a week of wrangling, just about five percent had been shaved off a sprawling near ­90 ­page draft, mostly by removing glaring duplications, said delegates. --Agence France-Press, 9 June 2015

Delayed Until Further Notice: G7 Leaders Shift Decarbonisation Goal To End Of Century - In a joint declaration from the G7 summit, leaders of the world’s richest countries called for a global phase-out of fossil fuels for the first time on Monday. That sounds great, but unfortunately, they’re talking about a lax timescale — “over the course of this century.” The leaders also committed to “doing our part to achieve a low-carbon global economy in the long-term,” though they didn’t announce any increased ambitions in cutting carbon in their own economies. --Eric Holthaus, Slate, 8 June 2015

My Take – Wow!  Can we now assume their claims of disastrous “tipping points” was wrong?   Or perhaps they weren’t wrong....perhaps they were just....well....you know.....lying?  Well we’ve reached the “tipping point” that counts.  The majority of world has “tipped” past believing anything the Warmists, the IPCC, academia, or the politicians have to say about catastrophic anthropogenic climate change.  This is the beginning of the end for this insane policy, and hopefully the beginning of the end for the most irrational, misanthropic, morally defective secular religion the world has ever known – environmentalism! Five years from now the world will gaze back and be outraged at the hundreds of billions that have been spent on policies based on climate change scare mongering.  It’s my fondest hope people like Hansen and Mann end up in jail for it. 

G7 Business As Usual: Plus Ça Change, plus C'est La même Chose - Already in 2009 (L’Aquila summit), G8 made a similar announcement. How did it influence the Copenhagen climate summit? To sum up: G7 repeating UNFCCC + IPCC language and promising to go carbon neutral by 2099. --Oliver Geden, 8 June 2015

Exploiting Shale Gas & Oil Is A 'Moral Obligation', Says British Trade Union - Trade union GMB has signed a landmark agreement with the fracking industry in a bid to accelerate the exploitation of shale gas and oil resources in the UK and boost local supply chains as the sector develops. In a move that is likely to anger environmental groups, GMB signed a joint charter with UK Oil and Gas (UKOOG) which argues that gas is "essential" to British industry and households and will continue to play a key role in the UK's future energy mix. Gary Smith, GMB national secretary, said gas was a matter of national security. "Our homes and large parts of British industry need gas; any suggestion to the contrary is just not real world," he said in a statement. --Jessica Shankleman, BusinessGreen, 9 June 2015

Guess What? Europe Is Against Cheap Green Energy - The lunatics have escaped their asylum and have taken over the entirety of this lovely and beauteous continent. They’re imposing import tariffs on cheap Chinese solar cells. This at the same time as vast swathes of public policy are devoted to the idea that we’ve got to have cheap renewable power in order to save our entire species from boiling itself. We’re also spending hundreds of billions to make such cheap renewables a reality. So, when someone comes knocking at the door asking if we’d like to purchase some cheap our answer is to try and tax them for their temerity? Seriously people, how did we end up with an entire continent, the cradle of modern civilisation, adopting such an insane public policy? --Tim Worstall, Forbes, 7 June 2015

 My Take – The answer is the “cradle of civilization” is filled with gutless corrupt swine as leaders who will do anything to feather their own nest, even if it means destroying all around them.  The rest are leftists and this is what we should expect from leftists – all of whom claim they do and promote all these misanthropic policies for our own good - and because “it’s for the children”!  Let’s try and get this right once and for all.  What they do isn’t “for” the children it’s “to” the children.  Being loved by the left is a death sentence.  Just ask the Israelis what they think of leftist Jews who want to embrace the terrorists who want destroy the Israeli state – because it’s for their own good!   As Daniel Greenfield recently stated in his article Barack Obama: Born Again Jew: “ The left’s values are self-nullifying. They destroy whatever they touch. The American left must destroy America for the sake of “American values”. The Catholic left must destroy the Catholic Church. The Jewish left must destroy Jews. Its idea of Jewish values is unmaking Jews, Judaism and the Jewish State.”

Barack Obama: Born Again Jew

Posted by Daniel Greenfield@ the Sultan Knish blog 14 Comments

Obama introduced himself to the nation as the son of black and white parents. He has gone back and forth between Christianity and Islam like a philanderer in a bar.

Now he has added a third religion and race to complete his identity politics trinity.

At the last White House Chanukah dinner, he claimed to have a Jewish soul. At a synagogue speech last month, he called himself “an honorary member of the tribe”. Now his former senior advisor has quoted him as saying, “I think I am the closest thing to a Jew that has ever sat in this office.”

Of course Barack Obama has also been Irish. He stated, “I consider myself an honorary Italian, because I love all things Italian”. Newsweek dubbed him “The First Woman President” in 2008 for “bending gender conventions” and promoted him to “The First Gay President” four years later. Cabinet Secretary Lu and Congressman Honda argued that he was “The First Asian American President”.

If you make up an ethnic group or race, by tomorrow Barack Obama will be a member of it. By next week, he will be lecturing it on why it isn’t living up to their shared values.

Obama’s Jewish toadies, like his multicultural frog pond toadies of all races and ethnicities, have been trying to sell Barack Obama as a “Born-Again Jew” for seven years.

His left-wing mentor Abner Mikva claimed during the original campaign, "When this all is over, people are going to say that Barack Obama is the first Jewish president.” But Abner hedged his bets, baptizing Obama in a Mikvah by urging him to study the speaking patterns of Baptist preachers instead.

New York Magazine put Obama on the cover under a photoshopped Kippah as “The First Jewish President” and whined inside that, “Barack Obama is the best thing Israel has going for it right now. Why is that so difficult for Netanyahu and his American Jewish allies to understand?”

And that’s always the conclusion. Photoshop a Kippah on Obama’s head, dub him an honorary Jew and then use that to excuse his attacks on Israel.

Jerry Seinfeld accused his dentist of converting to Judaism to be able to tell Jewish jokes. Obama undergoes an honorary conversion to be able to bash Israel.

As an “honorary member of the tribe” he is entitled to all the anti-Semitic jokes and all the anti-Semitic policies he wants. When he signs off on nukes for Iran and a PLO state cut through the heart of Jerusalem accompanied by demands for the ethnic cleansing of half-a-million Jews, it’s as “The First Jewish Anti-Israel President” who cares about the Jewish State so much that he has to destroy it.

When Peter Beinart switched his career from the New Republic hawk who after September 11 wrote “The left has proved remarkably creative over the years at blaming virtually any Middle Eastern malfeasance...on the Jewish State” to the Daily Beast’s Israel basher who could blame bad weather or a lost sock in a dryer on Israel, he declared that he was bashing Israel because he was a “Liberal Zionist”.

Beinart, among others, has argued that Obama only bashes Israel because he too is a liberal Zionist.

 

Jeffrey Goldberg, the White House’s choice for heading up its media anti-Israel campaign to relay vital tidbits like the fact that the administration thinks Netanyahu is “Chickens__t” has been pushing the “Jewish Obama” meme the hardest. After his latest agonized interview with Obama featuring the kind of journalism usually only found when teen girls interview their movie idols for Tiger Beat, he explained that “The First Jewish President” only hated Israel because he was “The First Woody Allen President”.

Or as he put it, “Obama’s impatience with Israel, and his dislike of Netanyahu, is rooted in the fact that he is a very specific kind of Jew – an intellectual, Upper West Side, social action-oriented, anguished-about-Israel liberal values Jew.”

Not the bad kind of Jew who peers through a rifle scope on the Golan or pores over a Bible.

Obama’s finest Jewish toady was reassuring liberal Jewish tribals that the man in the White House didn’t hate Israel because he was one of “them”, but because he was one of “us”. Obama’s hatred of Israel is in the finest tradition of neurotic Manhattan liberals who can’t decide whether to bemoan Israel’s descent into nationalistic warmongering or take nude photos of their adopted Asian stepdaughters.

Or, as Woody Allen preferred it in the late nineties, both.

In his synagogue speech, Obama made the pitch that he embodies Israel’s classic leftist values of the Kibbutz and its Labor politicians. His disagreements with Israel are based on “our shared values”. He was turning the language of values commonality so often used by American politicians into appropriation.

Not only was Obama the country’s first Jewish president, but he is also its first Israeli president. He can’t be anti-Israel, because he represents Jewish and Israeli values better than Netanyahu.

The correct Jewish term for Obama contending that he is more Jewish than the Jews is “Chutzpah”.

Goldberg foresees a “civil war” between the Woody Allens and the Benjamin Netanyahus. “A civil war… between an American Jewry that has been nurtured on the values of the Civil Rights Movement, and an Israeli Jewry that has been taught, harshly, that the Middle East is not a place of mercy."

 

As entertaining as it might be to watch a boxing match between Woody Allen and Netanyahu, he has missed the real civil war. Obama does embody the Jewish values of a Goldberg or a Beinart because their Jewish identity is synonymous with the left. He equally embodies the Catholic values of Irish or Italian leftists or the Cherokee values of Elizabeth Warren. When your religious values have no religion in them, when your culture is a punchline and you want to sacrifice your heritage for an inspiring speech, then why not?

While Goldberg claims that the “anguished-about-Israel liberal values Jew” is the dominant Jewish archetype, demographics are reducing it to a minority in New York within a generation.

Even the Upper West Side is turning Modern Orthodox. And Woody Allen, whom I witnessed yelling at a white-bearded Orthodox Rabbi over the Palestinians a few decades ago, came out in defense of Israel during the last war and suggested that a lot of the criticism of Israel is disguised anti-Semitism.

When you’ve lost Woody Allen, then you’ve lost your “anguished-about-Israel liberal values Jew” vote.

The civil war has already been fought and won. Jews in the UK are voting conservative and support Netanyahu. So do the majority of Canadian and Australian Jews. Being anguished about values is a luxury for those whose synagogues aren’t being bombed and whose children aren’t being beaten.

When you have something to really agonize about, then you stop agonizing about your values.

The liberal Jews “nurtured on the values of the Civil Rights Movement” are dying out and are being replaced by Jews nurtured on the values of the Bible. They see no contradiction between Jewish values and a Jewish State because their values come not from the Torah of Tikkun Olam, but the Torah of Moses and Joshua, of King David and King Solomon, of Maimonides and the Maccabees.

Obama appears confident that American Jews will accept him as more Jewish than the Jewish State, but Romney picked up the most Jewish votes since Reagan and Jewish midterm support for Democrats fell 21 percent in eight years. As his pal Bill Ayers, who recently called for a boycott of Israel, could tell him, “You don't need a Weatherman. To know which way the wind blows.”

Goldberg insists that “Obama is asking Israel (pleading with Israel, in fact) to be… more Jewish.”

And Obama’s way of trying to make Israel more Jewish is by denouncing Jews for building houses in Jerusalem. Similarly “Liberal Zionists” denounce Netanyahu for wanting Israel to be a “Jewish State” because they want it to live up to the Jewish values of Barack Obama, Bill Ayers and Jeremiah Wright.

It’s all a matter of definitions.

 

To the Goldbergs, making Israel more Jewish means making it less Jewish. By surrendering land to terrorists, expelling Jews from their homes, dividing up Jerusalem and giving up on a Jewish State, Israel will become more “Jewish”. And when its last Jewish Prime Minister, Mohammed Hussein Osama, informs them that Jewish values demand the end of Israel, they will applaud him for his Jewishness.

The other way of being Jewish is by having Jews live in a Jewish State where they speak the Jewish language and live lives based on thousands of years of Jewish tradition, heritage and religion.

The left’s values are self-nullifying. They destroy whatever they touch. The American left must destroy America for the sake of “American values”. The Catholic left must destroy the Catholic Church. The Jewish left must destroy Jews. Its idea of Jewish values is unmaking Jews, Judaism and the Jewish State.

The left has boldly appropriated Jewish values and identity. It has tried to pass off its politics as Tikkun Olam and the Democratic Party as the new synagogue. The Judaization of Obama is the last effort by a discredited ideology to fool its followers into believing that its anti-Jewishness is Jewish.

The Yiddish description of a hypocritical fraud is “As Kosher as a pig's foot.” Obama supporters who partake of his particular set of Jewish values are unlikely to be familiar enough with the Bible to understand the significance of a pig’s split hoof, the Midrashic tale of the pig that stretches out its cloven hooves and squeals, “See how Kosher I am” or even the Kosher status of a pig.

But those Jews who do, recognize “The First Jewish President” for the Kosher pig hoof that he is.

 

The Ex-Im Bank: By doing nothing, Congress sides with taxpayers and basic market principles

Posted by Marita Noon @ Breitbart

The Ex-Im Bank has become a key talking point in the 2016 presidential campaign, but most people don’t even know what it is or why it exists. They surely don’t know that it is a New-Deal era government program that takes our tax dollars and gives them to big businesses—like Boeing, ExxonMobil, and General Electric—to make it easier to sell their products overseas.

This little-known entity is making news because it is about to go away—but Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) don’t want it to, while most Republican presidential candidates do.

Ex-Im, or the Export Import Bank, was created by Executive Order in 1934 by Franklin D. Roosevelt to make loans to the Soviet Union and aid trade with Cuba. With the Export-Import Bank Act of 1945, Congress made Ex-Im an independent agency and required that Ex-Im be reauthorized every 4-5 years. Ex-Im’s current authorization expires on June 30.

Ex-Im has historically enjoyed bipartisan support, however the need to cut spending—coupled with watchdog reporting—brings reauthorization into question. Under the Obama Administration, Ex-Im lending has increased 248 percent. Taxpayers now hold nearly $140 billion in Ex-Im exposure.

The Ex-Im website states: “EXIM Bank is more critical than ever to small businesses.” A few weeks ago, while at the Smuttynose Brewery campaign stop in New Hampshire, Hillary Clinton bragged that she wants to be “the small business president.”Pushing for Ex-Im reauthorization, she said: “The idea that we would remove this relatively small but vital source of funding for businesses to compete is absolutely backwards.” “Embarrassing” is how she described Republican candidates who oppose reauthorization.

While Clinton wanted her small audience at Smuttynose to believe that Ex-Im is, as the website says, critical to small business, a recent report from American Transparency (AT), validates “corporate welfare”claims. The Federal Transfer Report – Export- Import Bank analyzed the $172 billion in Ex-Im loans, guarantees, and activity since 2007.

The AT report, released on May 30, found that while 90 percent of Ex-Im loans do go to small businesses, 85 percent of the money goes to big business—10 percent of the transactions get 85 percent of the money.

Boeing is Ex-Im’s number one customer.

Addressing Ex-Im, Clinton, and the AT report, the Washington Examiner says: “As secretary of state, she admittedly gave a ‘shameless pitch’ in 2009 for Boeing aircraft to the Russian Airline Rosavia, encouraging them to apply for financing from Ex-Im. Seven months later, in June 2010, Russia purchased 50 Boeing 737s. Two months after that, Boeing made its first-ever donation to the Clinton Foundation in the sum of $900,000. Since 2010, Boeing has contributed $1.1 million to the foundation. General Electric, the second largest beneficiary of bank assistance, is also a Clinton Foundation donor.” It continues: “Also unsurprisingly, Ex-Im Chairman Fred Hochberg himself is no stranger to ‘Clinton World.’ He’s listed in the foundation's $10,001-$25,000 donor range and previously served as a campaign bundler for Hillary’s failed 2008 presidential campaign.”

Obviously, there is no shortage of crony corruption at Ex-Im.

However, a just released addendum to the AT report highlights Ex-Im’s involvement in funding many of the green-energy projects I’ve covered in the past few years.

Recipients of Ex-Im support in the energy space are both large and small; successful corporations and dismal failures.

The addendum highlights the $3 billion green energy companies received from Ex-Im. There are more than $140 million worth of failures within the financial transaction portfolio—though “additional time, resources and further research would turn up much more.” It states: “We consider this addendum a limited subset of a much larger whole.”

As expected, Solyndra is on the list. Just six months before its infamous bankruptcy, Ex-Im, in February 2011, approved $10.3 million in long-term credit to Solyndra’s exports to Belgium.

I frequently address the Spanish solar company Abengoa—which is under investigation for a variety of violations. It has an interesting connection to Ex-Im: Former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson is an advisory board member to Ex-Im and sits on Abengoa’s advisory board. The addendum states: “Abengoa has obligations of over $225 million in Ex-Im support.”

Other examples include Amonix, Evergreen Solar, Abound Solar, SolFocus, Calisolar/Silicor Materials and Willard & Kelsey Solar Group—all received Ex-Im support and failed.

But, our taxpayer dollars didn’t just go to failing green-energy projects, they also went to foreign companies. In addition to Spain-based Abengoa, Germany-based Siemens Energy has been the recipient of $709.53 million in Ex-Im financing. France-based Areva Solar North America received nearly $54 million in Ex-Im support. Switzerland-based ABB: $89.22 million. China’s troubled Hanergy owns MiaSole, which received $9 million in “working capital” funding from Ex-Im.

Remember, the small business support touted on the Ex-Im website and by Clinton? The AT addendum points out that Ex-Im chose Siemens Energy—one of the largest and most influential companies in Europe—as its “2015 Renewable exporter of the year”and “2015 Renewable deal of the year.” The awards were given out at its lavish annual conference.

Speaking of big business, GE, the addendum states, “has been able to create billions of dollars in corporate assets through utilization of cheap Ex-Im financing.” One example is long-term loans for three solar photovoltaic power projects in Canada.

Green-energy companies are not the only ones in the energy sector to take advantage of the low-cost, taxpayer-funded financing. Multinational oil company Exxon Mobil and oil industry service companies Halliburton and Schlumberger also received billions.

It is tough to chastise these companies for making wise business decisions in finding low-cost funding—but we can criticize Congress for allowing our taxpayer dollars to be given to them.

Clinton’s claim that failure to reauthorize Ex-Im would “threaten the livelihood of those 164,000 jobs” is laughable. Siemens, GE, ExxonMobil, Halliburton and Schlumberger—just to mention some of the big businesses in the energy sector—should all be able to self-fund or seek private financing. The Washington Examiner points out: “Only 2 percent of all U.S. exports are actually financed by the bank.”

Adam Andrzejewski, Chairman of American Transparency and the author of the AT report, calls Ex-Im a “political bank”—while Politico calls it a “political football.” In a piece titled “Ex-Im Bank expiration ‘inevitable’ amid the 2016 GOP fight,” Politico states: “The Export Import Bank is almost certain to close its doors for the first time in history,” but, it points out, “supporters are sure to try to revive the bank later this summer.”

Addressing Ex-Im’s future, Andrzejewski says: “The fate of the bank is an important test that will show whether Congress is on the side of taxpayers, and basic market principles, or special interests that are capable of bending markets in their direction.”

Ex-Im is one case where a “do-nothing Congress” is a good thing. If they do nothing, Ex-Im’s authorization expires on June 30 and we, the taxpayers, will no longer be responsible for funding this corporate welfare.

The author of Energy Freedom, Marita Noon serves as the executive director for Energy Makes America Great Inc. and the companion educational organization, the Citizens’ Alliance for Responsible Energy (CARE). She hosts a weekly radio program: America’s Voice for Energy—which expands on the content of her weekly column.

The Price of Energy Was the Beginning of Wisdom. The Price of Energy Will Perpetuate That Enlightenment!

Benny Peiser’s Global Warming Policy Foundation Reprots Britain’s New Energy & Climate Minister Sets Up Meeting With Nigel Lawson andUN Climate Talks Deadlocked Again

Britain’s New Energy and Climate Minister Sets Up Meeting With Nigel Lawson - Amber Rudd, [the new Energy and Climate Change Secretary], pledged to keep pressuring the Big Six energy suppliers to cut their bills and to do her best to win over climate change sceptics – both in and outside her party. Ms Rudd admits the Conservative Party has an issue with climate change sceptics – although she insists that Labour harbours just as many MPs who are sceptical. She has set up a meeting with Lord Lawson, Britain’s most high-profile climate-change sceptic, as the first part of her campaign to win over the doubters. “I will be having a conversation with him. I’m hoping to win him over, so great is my ambition. But we will see.” --Tom Bawden, The Independent, 5 June 2015-

(My Take - This girl is delusional!  These people are at the center of the information world.  There's no excuse for the world's leaders believing in anthropogenic climate change, unless their delusional, dumb as dirt or both!  Either way they should be washing dishes in a restaurant, not running government. )

UK Government Winds Down Green Energy Schemes, Trims DECC - In order to save money it is being proposed that the controversial Green Deal home improvement plan should be mothballed while some spending on nuclear decommissioning would be delayed. Overall, DECC’s £3.3bn annual budget is expected to be one of the biggest casualties in percentage terms of George Osborne’s latest austerity drive. The department has already lost the equivalent of one full-time minister following last month’s reshuffle and there are expected to be significant staff cuts as big projects such as the Green Deal and Electricity Market Reform are wound down. --Oliver Wright and Tom Bawden, Independent on Sunday, 7 June 2015

Surprise: UN Climate Talks Deadlocked Again - The European Union (EU) has said it is unlikely to enhance before 2020 its commitment to reducing emissions linked to climate change. The statement at the ongoing climate change negotiations in Bonn, Germany, has led to a war of words between the EU and the developing countries under the G77+ China grouping. India and China are taking the lead. --Nitin Sethi, Business Standard, 7 June 2015

US Congress Bill Drops Funding For IPCC, Green Climate Fund - Just months before the most important U.N. climate conference in years, Republican appropriators in the House of Representatives are taking aim at one of the Obama administration’s most cherished priorities – international climate change funding. An appropriations bill for the State Department and foreign operations, released Tuesday, excludes funding for three major climate initiatives – the Green Climate Fund, the Clean Technology Fund, and the Strategic Climate Fund – and also removes funding for the U.N.-backed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). --Patrick Goodenough, CNS News, 4 June 2015

(My Take - No matter what the outcome is in the final budget - this is the beginning of the end for the warmists.  Chicken Little has run her course and the public's no longer so easily intmidated by the leftists or the greenies.  These radicals are going to find things are going to get worse for them thanks to the internet.  The written word gave credibility to the environmental movement with the public.  That was the driving force behind this misanthropic movement and that is now the driving force that's dismantling them.  If the public can't be convinced via articles and books the green movement is irrational, misanthropic, morally defective and insane, then no amount of lobbying will change anything.  We have to start with education, and the first and foremost thing the public has to be made aware of is they've been lied to for over fifty years starting the book that can easily be credited with the formation of the modern environmental movement - Rachel Carson's work of science fiction - Silent Spring!)

And Finally: 'Green' G7 Nations Increased Their Coal Use Over A Five-Year Period - Five of the world’s seven richest countries have increased their coal use in the last five years despite demanding that poor countries slash their carbon emissions to avoid catastrophic climate change, new research shows. Britain, Germany, Italy, Japan and France together burned 16% more coal in 2013 than 2009 and are planning to further increase construction of coal-fired power stations. Only the US and Canada of the G7 countries meeting on Monday in Berlin have reduced coal consumption since the Copenhagen climate summit in 2009. -John Vidal, The Guardian, 8 June 2015

Global Warming Policy Foundation Press Release of 08/06/15

Polar Bear Scientists ‘Willfully Blind To The Facts’

 

Leading biologist accuses polar bear scientists of systematically misleading the public

London 8 June 2015 - A new paper from the Global Warming Policy Foundation accuses scientists of systematically misleading the public, saying that they are blaming changes in polar bear populations on global warming despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

In the paper `The Arctic Fallacy’, Dr Susan Crockford, an expert in Arctic mammals, notes that reductions in polar bear populations are clearly linked to thick spring ice, which reduces the availability of the bears’ prey. Despite this, scientists routinely blame reductions in summer ice, despite there being little evidence to support the idea: in fact years of low summer ice extent are often accompanied by big increases in bear populations. According to Dr Crockford, polar bear scientists are being `willfully blind to the facts’.

Professor Matthew Cronin of the University of Alaska, the author of the paper’s Foreword said: `The constant chorus declaring crises for high-profile wildlife is dangerous, not only to science and economics, but because we might not pay attention when real threats arise’.

Full paper (pdf)

Dr Susan Crockford is an evolutionary biologist and has been working for 35 years in archaeozoology, paleozoology and forensic zoology. She is an adjunct professor at the University of Victoria.

Dr Matthew Cronin is Professor of Animal Genetics at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Contact
Dr Susan Crockford
University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
e: sjcrock@shaw.ca