Monday, March 28, 2016
Statist Arguments Are Especially Weak When Using Apples-to-Apples Comparisons
March 27, 2016 by Dan Mitchell
While there are many things I admire about Scandinavian nations, I’ve never understood why leftists such as Bernie Sanders think they are great role models.
Not only are income levels and living standards higher in the United States, but the data show that Americans of Swedish origin in America have much higher incomes than the Swedes who still live in Sweden. And the same is true for other Nordic nations.
The Nordics-to-Nordics comparisons seem especially persuasive because they’re based on apples-to-apples data. What other explanation can there be, after all, if the same people earn more and produce more when government is smaller?
The same point seems appropriate when examining how people of Chinese origin earn very high incomes in Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, and the United States (all places with reasonably high levels of economic liberty), but are relatively poor in China (where there is still far too much government control over economic affairs).
Again, what possible explanation is there other than the degree of economic freedom?
Let’s now look at two other examples of how leftist arguments fall apart when using apples-to-apples comparisons.
A few years ago, there was a major political fight in Wisconsin over the power of unionized government bureaucracies. State policy makers eventually succeeded in curtailing union privileges.
Some commentators groused that this would make Wisconsin more like non-union Texas. And the Lone Star States was not a good role model for educating children, according to Paul Krugman.
This led David Burge (a.k.a., Iowahawk) to take a close look at the numbers to see which state actually did a better job of educating students. And when you compare apples to apples, it turns out that Longhorns rule and Badgers drool.
Though Krugman routinely invites mockery, and I’ve enjoyed exposing his disingenuous, sloppy, and dishonest use of data on issues such as Obamanomics, California jobs, American fiscal policy, Greek economics, U.S. and U.K. austerity, German fiscal policy, Estonian economics, British fiscal policy, inflation, European austerity, the financial crisis, and the Heritage Foundation.
Gee, with all these examples, I wonder if there’s a pattern?
Our second example showing the value of apples-to-apples comparisons deals with gun control.
Writing for PJ Media, Clayton Cramer compares murder rates in adjoining American states and Canadian provinces. he starts by acknowledging that a generic US-v.-Canada comparison might lead people to think gun rights are somehow a factor in more deaths.
Other factors dominate.
P.S. Regarding the gun control data shared above, some leftists might be tempted to somehow argue that American states with cold weather somehow are less prone to violence. That doesn’t make sense since the Canadian provinces presumably are even colder. Moreover, that argument conflicts with this bit of satire comparing murder rates in chilly Chicago and steamy Houston.
P.P.S. In his role as Iowahawk, David Burge has produced some great political satire, including extortion by Obama’s teleprompter, the bible according to Obama, mockery of the Obama campaign’s life-of-Julia moocher, and (my favorite) the video about a government-designed car.
Not only are income levels and living standards higher in the United States, but the data show that Americans of Swedish origin in America have much higher incomes than the Swedes who still live in Sweden. And the same is true for other Nordic nations.The Nordics-to-Nordics comparisons seem especially persuasive because they’re based on apples-to-apples data. What other explanation can there be, after all, if the same people earn more and produce more when government is smaller?
The same point seems appropriate when examining how people of Chinese origin earn very high incomes in Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, and the United States (all places with reasonably high levels of economic liberty), but are relatively poor in China (where there is still far too much government control over economic affairs).
Again, what possible explanation is there other than the degree of economic freedom?
Let’s now look at two other examples of how leftist arguments fall apart when using apples-to-apples comparisons.
A few years ago, there was a major political fight in Wisconsin over the power of unionized government bureaucracies. State policy makers eventually succeeded in curtailing union privileges.Some commentators groused that this would make Wisconsin more like non-union Texas. And the Lone Star States was not a good role model for educating children, according to Paul Krugman.
This led David Burge (a.k.a., Iowahawk) to take a close look at the numbers to see which state actually did a better job of educating students. And when you compare apples to apples, it turns out that Longhorns rule and Badgers drool.
…white students in Texas perform better than white students in Wisconsin, black students in Texas perform better than black students in Wisconsin, Hispanic students in Texas perform better than Hispanic students in Wisconsin. In 18 separate ethnicity-controlled comparisons, the only one where Wisconsin students performed better than their peers in Texas was 4th grade science for Hispanic students (statistically insignificant), and this was reversed by 8th grade. Further, Texas students exceeded the national average for their ethnic cohort in all 18 comparisons; Wisconsinites were below the national average in 8… Not only did white Texas students outperform white Wisconsin students, the gap between white students and minority students in Texas was much less than the gap between white and minority students in Wisconsin. In other words, students are better off in Texas schools than in Wisconsin schools – especially minority students.This is what I call a devastating debunking.
Though Krugman routinely invites mockery, and I’ve enjoyed exposing his disingenuous, sloppy, and dishonest use of data on issues such as Obamanomics, California jobs, American fiscal policy, Greek economics, U.S. and U.K. austerity, German fiscal policy, Estonian economics, British fiscal policy, inflation, European austerity, the financial crisis, and the Heritage Foundation.
Gee, with all these examples, I wonder if there’s a pattern?
Our second example showing the value of apples-to-apples comparisons deals with gun control.
Writing for PJ Media, Clayton Cramer compares murder rates in adjoining American states and Canadian provinces. he starts by acknowledging that a generic US-v.-Canada comparison might lead people to think gun rights are somehow a factor in more deaths.
…for Canada as a whole, murder rates are still considerably lower than for the United States as a whole. For 2011, Canada had 1.73 homicides per 100,000 people; the United States had 4.8 murders and non-negligent homicides per 100,000 people.But he then makes comparisons that suggest guns are not a relevant factor.
…look at murder rates for Canadian provinces and compare them to their immediate American state neighbors. When you do that, you discover some very curious differences that show gun availability must be either a very minor factor in determining murder rates, or if it is a major factor, it is overwhelmed by factors that are vastly more important.Gun ownership is easy and widespread in Idaho, for instance, but murder rates are lower than in many otherwise similar Canadian provinces.
I live in Idaho. In 2011, our murder rate was 2.3 per 100,000 people. We have almost no gun-control laws here. You need a permit to carry concealed in cities, but nearly anyone who may legally own a firearm and is over 21 can get that permit. We are subject to the federal background check on firearms, but otherwise there are no restrictions. Do you want a machine gun? And yes, I mean a real machine gun, not a semiautomatic AR-15. There is the federal paperwork required, but the state imposes no licensing of its own. I have friends with completely legal full-automatic Thompson submachine guns. Surely with such lax gun-control laws, our murder rate must be much higher than our Canadian counterparts’ rate. But this is not the case: I was surprised to find that not only Nunavut (21.01) and the Northwest Territories (6.87) in Canada had much higher murder rates than Idaho, but even Nova Scotia (2.33), Manitoba (4.24), Saskatchewan (3.59), and Alberta (2.88) had higher murder rates.The same is true for other states (all with laws that favor gun ownership) that border Canada.
The takeaway from this evidence (as well as other evidence I have shared) is that availability of guns doesn’t cause murders.What about Minnesota? It had 1.4 murders per 100,000 in 2011, lower than not only all those prairie provinces, but even lower than Canada as a whole. Montana had 2.8 murders per 100,000, still better than four Canadian provinces and one Canadian territory. When you get to North Dakota, another one of these American states with far less gun control than Canada, the murder rate is 3.5 per 100,000, still lower than Manitoba, Saskatchewan, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut. And let me emphasize that Minnesota, Montana, and North Dakota, like Idaho, are all shall-issue concealed-weapon permit states: nearly any adult without a felony conviction or a domestic violence misdemeanor conviction can obtain a concealed weapon permit with little or no effort.
Other factors dominate.
P.S. Regarding the gun control data shared above, some leftists might be tempted to somehow argue that American states with cold weather somehow are less prone to violence. That doesn’t make sense since the Canadian provinces presumably are even colder. Moreover, that argument conflicts with this bit of satire comparing murder rates in chilly Chicago and steamy Houston.
P.P.S. In his role as Iowahawk, David Burge has produced some great political satire, including extortion by Obama’s teleprompter, the bible according to Obama, mockery of the Obama campaign’s life-of-Julia moocher, and (my favorite) the video about a government-designed car.
“Trudeau has chosen sides. He sides with Islam”
"I Was Only Good at Enjoying It"
By Mark Steyn
The War on the West:
Re the Brussels bloodbath, I mentioned on Tuesday that an attack on the section of the airport outside the security perimeter was entirely predictable. Yours truly in 2009:
The War on the West:
Re the Brussels bloodbath, I mentioned on Tuesday that an attack on the section of the airport outside the security perimeter was entirely predictable. Yours truly in 2009:
The second thought that strikes you is that the ever-longer lines to get into the "secure" area are now the least secure area in America. Why not blow up the security line? You could kill as many people as on an airplane, and inflict more long-term economic damage. But don't worry. The TSA has plans to expand the "secure" area, so the insecure perimeter will be somewhere else, with even more vulnerable people standing around waiting to get into it.As I added on Tuesday:
Clearly we need a secure zone outside the secure zone - maybe, say, outside the concourse. So everyone has to crowd on the sidewalk. And then when they blow that up we can move it back to the perimeter of the airport. And then...But you can't parody the reaction of a western ruling class determined to punish their own citizens for the consequences of the elite's lunatic immigration policies. And so inevitably........Europe would rather destroy itself than retreat from the delusions of multiculturalism. And so once free peoples must get used to ever more indignities and inconveniences, and ultimately a lot less of core liberties like freedom of expression and freedom of movement. The geniuses of the EU political class have decided not to solve the problem but to manage it, via ever more constraints on you........To Read More
Pamela Geller's Atlas Shrugs
German Railway Launches Gender Segregated Carriages In Wake Of Muslim Migrant Sex Attacks - This is surrender to Sharia. To protect women from being brutalized by Muslim migrants, Germany is adopting Sharia rules for the separation of the sexes. Europe seems determined to capitulate to Islamization.
Iran’s Supreme Court orders removal of man’s eye - It’s in the Quran: “And We ordained for them therein a life for a life, an eye for an eye, a nose for a nose, an ear for an ear, a tooth for a tooth, and for wounds is legal retribution.” (5:45) And Obama is enabling and enriching these savages.
Spare me about how this is in the Hebrew Bible also. Where do you see Jews or Christians putting out people’s eyes? Only in Islamic states such as Iran does this kind of thing happen.....
Muslim Journalist Charged With Terrorist Murder in Brussels Jihad Attacks - Little separates this mass murderer-journalist from the journalists who apologize, scrub and whitewash the ideology behind this war. They are the enemy in the information battle-space.Cheffou has also been charged with participation in a terrorist group and attempted terrorist killings, Belgian prosecutors said in a statement......
Top Jihadist : ‘Brussels, Paris attacks Are Rehearsals for ‘Big’ Attack Inside U.S’ - This, too, is a form of terror, whether they pull it off or not. But I predict they will, and Obama will continue to warn us that climate change presents the gravest threat to man. And the “JV” team continues its bloody march across the Middle East, Africa and Europe….. while the West chases its tail and confronts the myth of islamofauxbia.......
Iran’s Supreme Court orders removal of man’s eye - It’s in the Quran: “And We ordained for them therein a life for a life, an eye for an eye, a nose for a nose, an ear for an ear, a tooth for a tooth, and for wounds is legal retribution.” (5:45) And Obama is enabling and enriching these savages.
Spare me about how this is in the Hebrew Bible also. Where do you see Jews or Christians putting out people’s eyes? Only in Islamic states such as Iran does this kind of thing happen.....
Muslim Journalist Charged With Terrorist Murder in Brussels Jihad Attacks - Little separates this mass murderer-journalist from the journalists who apologize, scrub and whitewash the ideology behind this war. They are the enemy in the information battle-space.Cheffou has also been charged with participation in a terrorist group and attempted terrorist killings, Belgian prosecutors said in a statement......
Top Jihadist : ‘Brussels, Paris attacks Are Rehearsals for ‘Big’ Attack Inside U.S’ - This, too, is a form of terror, whether they pull it off or not. But I predict they will, and Obama will continue to warn us that climate change presents the gravest threat to man. And the “JV” team continues its bloody march across the Middle East, Africa and Europe….. while the West chases its tail and confronts the myth of islamofauxbia.......
Even with insurance, Mass. residents often can’t afford care
By Felice J. Freyer
Nearly all Massachusetts adults have health insurance, but being insured is no guarantee patients can afford health care or even find someone to provide it, according to a survey released Wednesday. Despite the state’s landmark health care overhaul, the report found, cost and access remain problems for a significant share of residents. The 2006 law, which became the model for the federal Affordable Care Act, quickly succeeded at its main goal: ensuring coverage for nearly all residents. But the survey by the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation shows access remains a concern, especially for those with low incomes or health problems.......To Read More
Nearly all Massachusetts adults have health insurance, but being insured is no guarantee patients can afford health care or even find someone to provide it, according to a survey released Wednesday. Despite the state’s landmark health care overhaul, the report found, cost and access remain problems for a significant share of residents. The 2006 law, which became the model for the federal Affordable Care Act, quickly succeeded at its main goal: ensuring coverage for nearly all residents. But the survey by the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation shows access remains a concern, especially for those with low incomes or health problems.......To Read More
Sunday, March 27, 2016
Mr. President, the only Thing We Can Learn from Communism Is that It Doesn’t Work
March 26, 2016 by Dan Mitchell
Over the years, Barack Obama has made some statements that indicate a very statist worldview.
Communism is a disgusting system that butchered more than 100,000,000 people.
It is a system that leads to starvation and suffering.
Communism produces Nazi-level horrors of brutality.
So what exactly “works” in that system, Mr. President? If you watch Obama’s speech, you’ll notice there’s not a lot of substance. There is a bit of praise for Cuba’s decrepit government-run healthcare system (you can click here, here, and here if you want to learn why the system is horrifying and terrible for ordinary citizens). And he also seems to think it’s some sort of achievement that Cuba has schools.
So let’s take a closer look at what Cuba actually has to offer. Natalie Morales is a Cuban-American actor, writer, and filmmaker. Here’s some of what she wrote about her country and her relatives still trapped on the island.
By the way, none of this means we shouldn’t normalize relations with Cuba. There’s no longer a Soviet Union, so Cuba doesn’t represent a strategic threat. So, yes, relax restrictions on trade and travel, just like we have for China, Zimbabwe, Vietnam, Russia, Venezuela, and other nations that have unsavory political systems.
But the opening of relations doesn’t mean we should pretend that other systems are somehow good or equivalent to capitalism and classical liberalism.
Let’s close by sharing some news from another garden spot of communism.
The bottom line is that there is zero moral equivalence between communism and capitalism. The former is based on servility to the state and the latter is based on liberty.
But if you’re amoral and simply want to know what works, compare the performance of North Korea and South Korea. Or look at the difference between Cuba and Hong Kong.
Very compelling evidence.
But this isn’t a matter for utilitarian comparisons. What should matter most is that communism is evil.
- In my video on class warfare, I noted that Obama said in 2008 that – for reasons of “fairness” – he wanted to raise the capital gains tax even if the government lost revenue.
- A couple of years ago, he arrogantly remarked that “at some point you have made enough money.”
- In 2011, the President was complaining about bank fees and asserted that, “you don’t have some inherent right just to, you know, get a certain amount of profit…”
- In 2012, Obama made his infamous “you didn’t build that” statement, which generated some very amusing political cartoons.
President Barack Obama downplayed the differences between capitalism and communism, claiming that they are just “intellectual arguments.” …Obama said…”I think for your generation, you should be practical and just choose from what works.”It’s hard to object to the notion that people should choose “what works,” so perhaps there’s not a specific quote that I can add to my collection. However, the President’s implication that there’s some kind of equivalence between capitalism and communism, which both systems having desirable features, is morally offensive. Sort of like saying that we should “choose from what works” in Hitler’s national socialism.
Communism is a disgusting system that butchered more than 100,000,000 people.
It is a system that leads to starvation and suffering.
Communism produces Nazi-level horrors of brutality.
So what exactly “works” in that system, Mr. President? If you watch Obama’s speech, you’ll notice there’s not a lot of substance. There is a bit of praise for Cuba’s decrepit government-run healthcare system (you can click here, here, and here if you want to learn why the system is horrifying and terrible for ordinary citizens). And he also seems to think it’s some sort of achievement that Cuba has schools.So let’s take a closer look at what Cuba actually has to offer. Natalie Morales is a Cuban-American actor, writer, and filmmaker. Here’s some of what she wrote about her country and her relatives still trapped on the island.
…we send money, medicine or syringes for the diabetic aunt (since the hospital doesn’t have any unused disposable ones), baby clothes, adult clothes, shoes, or food… a doctor, a lawyer, or another similar profession that is considered to be high-earning everywhere else in the world will make about twenty to thirty dollars per month in Cuba. Yet shampoo at the store still costs three dollars. This is because everything is supposed to be rationed out to you, but the reality is that they’re always out of most things, and your designated ration is always meager. …if you’re a farmer and you’ve raised a cow, and you’re starving, and your family is also starving, and you decide to kill that cow and eat it? You’ll be put in jail for life. Because it’s not “your” cow, it’s everyone’s cow. That’s good ol’ Communism in practice.Ms. Morales is especially irritated by Americans who fret that capitalism will “ruin” Cuba.
…picture me at any dinner party or Hollywood event or drugstore or press interview or pretty much any situation where someone who considers themselves “cultured” finds out I’m Cuban. I prepare myself for the seemingly unavoidable…“I have to go there before it’s ruined!”…I will say some version of this: “What exactly do you think will ruin Cuba? Running water? Available food? Freedom of speech? Uncontrolled media and Internet? Access to proper healthcare? You want to go to Cuba before the buildings get repaired? Before people can actually live off their wages? Or before the oppressive Communist regime is someday overthrown?”Here’s more about Cuba’s communist paradise, including her observations of the healthcare system that Obama admires.
The very, very young girls prostituting themselves are not doing it because they can’t get enough of old Canadian men, but because it pays more than being a doctor does. Hospitals for regular Cuban citizens are not what Michael Moore showed you in Sicko. …That was a Communist hospital for members of the Party and for tourists… There are no janitors in the hospitals because it pays more money to steal janitorial supplies and sell them on the street than it does to actually have a job there. Therefore, the halls and rooms are covered in blood, urine, and feces, and you need to bring your own sheets, blankets, pillows, towels, and mattresses when you are admitted. Doctors have to reuse needles on patients. My mom’s aunt had a stroke and the doctor’s course of treatment was to “put her feet up and let the blood rush back to her head.”She closes with a PG-13 request for idiotic westerners.
…for God’s sake, please don’t wear a fucking Che t-shirt.Very well said.
By the way, none of this means we shouldn’t normalize relations with Cuba. There’s no longer a Soviet Union, so Cuba doesn’t represent a strategic threat. So, yes, relax restrictions on trade and travel, just like we have for China, Zimbabwe, Vietnam, Russia, Venezuela, and other nations that have unsavory political systems.
But the opening of relations doesn’t mean we should pretend that other systems are somehow good or equivalent to capitalism and classical liberalism.
Let’s close by sharing some news from another garden spot of communism.
I’m not sure what American leftists will say we can learn from North Korea. Even PETA presumably won’t be happy that starving North Koreans are eating sparrows and grasshoppers.If North Korea’s reputation as a place of hunger, hardship and repression was not bad enough, scientists have now discovered that it is too grim even for vultures. …Eurasian black vultures are no longer bothering to stop over in North Korea as they fly from their breeding grounds in Mongolia to their winter homes in South Korea. They concluded that food is so short under the communist regime that even the world’s best-known carrion birds cannot feed themselves. …Lee Han Su, of the institute, said: “This seems to happen because in North Korea the vultures can barely find animal corpses, which are major food resources for them.” Under the draconian regime of Kim Jong Un the country is unable to feed itself. International aid agencies report chronic malnutrition in some regions. …wild animals face the risk of being eaten by people. Defectors describe how victims of the famine were driven to eat dogs, cats, rats, grasshoppers, dragonflies, sparrows and crows. Vultures, for the time being at least, are off the menu.
The bottom line is that there is zero moral equivalence between communism and capitalism. The former is based on servility to the state and the latter is based on liberty.
But if you’re amoral and simply want to know what works, compare the performance of North Korea and South Korea. Or look at the difference between Cuba and Hong Kong.
Very compelling evidence.
But this isn’t a matter for utilitarian comparisons. What should matter most is that communism is evil.
Happy Easter from the Religion of Peace: The War on the West
By Mark Steyn
In the spirit of the season, Asad Shah, a Glasgow newsagent and a "devout Muslim"*[see update at the foot of the page], decided to send out an Easter greeting on his Facebook page:
Men like Asad Shah's killers are everything the safe-space pansies accuse us "white privilege" types of being: It is Shah's co-religionists who cannot abide the other. They won't tolerate Christians, they won't tolerate Muslims who convert to Christianity, and they won't even tolerate a devout Muslim who commits the sin of offering neighborly greetings on a Christian holiday. And so they killed him by "stamping on his head"........To Read More.....
In the spirit of the season, Asad Shah, a Glasgow newsagent and a "devout Muslim"*[see update at the foot of the page], decided to send out an Easter greeting on his Facebook page:
Good Friday and very happy Easter to my bleoved Christian nation X? Besmillah..... Let's Follow The Real Footstep Of Beloved Holy Jesus Christ (PBUH) And Get The Real Success In Both Worlds xxxxLess than four hours after this ecumenical greeting, Mr Shah was savagely murdered outside his shop by his co-religionists:.........A 32-year-old Muslim man has been arrested......Scotland is not much of a "Christian nation" these days. Instead, it is "tolerant", "diverse" and "multicultural". But a "tolerant" society determined to tolerate the avowedly intolerant won't be in business for long.
Men like Asad Shah's killers are everything the safe-space pansies accuse us "white privilege" types of being: It is Shah's co-religionists who cannot abide the other. They won't tolerate Christians, they won't tolerate Muslims who convert to Christianity, and they won't even tolerate a devout Muslim who commits the sin of offering neighborly greetings on a Christian holiday. And so they killed him by "stamping on his head"........To Read More.....
Pamela Geller's Atlas Shrugs
Pope didn’t just WASH THE FEET of Muslim migrants, he KISSED THEM - What did you get when you oppress, subjugate and slaughter members of the Pope’s flock — your feet washed and kissed. There is a genocide of Christians in the Middle East — what will the Pope kiss next?....
Mosque leader who condemned Brussels attacks sent messages calling extremist ‘true Muslim’- This is how they roll. They say one thing to the enemedia and the opposite to their community. During our Ground Zero mosque fight, Imam Rauf played the moderate while the media danced to his tune. But if you read his books, he was a sharia extremist who supported terrorist groups like Hamas. Terror-tied Muslim groups in the US make weak, generic statements after jihad slaughter, but unfailingly support terror groups and the jihad doctrine. Two sides — one mouth. They say one thing to appease the filthy kuffar, while advancing their dead Islamic supremacist agenda. This is a religious imperative in Islam. Lie to advance Islam.....
Swedish women show support for Islam by taking selfies in hijabs after #BrusselsAttacks - Sharpening the swords of the their executioners. It’s no wonder that Stockholm Syndrome is named after a Swedish city. These women want to show solidarity? Why not offer themselves as sex slaves to the Islamic State? Sweden’s goose (or is that goat?) is cooked...
Belgian Police PLEADED For Help From Muslims to Find Jihadis, Were IGNORED - This should be instructive to our own police and intel authorities. They should stop conducting “outreach” to Muslim communities and realize that they aren’t going to get any help from them against jihad terrorists......
Iranians Hacked DOZENS of U.S. Banks, NYSE — TENS OF MILLIONS in Losses - Just over two weeks ago I posted here at Atlas about the Iranian government-backed hacking attack on the New York dam. Now it has been revealed that Iranian government hackers also targeted major U.S. banks, including Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Citibank, and HSBC, as well as the New York Stock Exchange. This further exposes the treachery behind Obama’s nuclear pact with the world’s leading state sponsor of Islamic terrorism.
Devout Muslim who committed jihad murder in Brussels had been on US terror watchlist - This shows how effective these watchlists are — not at all. They give the appearance that law enforcement officials are on top of the situation, when they aren’t. Probably those who were in charge of keeping track of the Muslims on this watchlist was too busy doing outreach at the local mosque to watch El Bakraoui closely.
Muslim shopkeeper who wished his ‘beloved Christian nation’ a Happy Easter is stabbed 30 times by a FELLOW MUSLIM who sat laughing on his dying victim’s chest -
Before his vicious murder, this truly moderate Muslim had wished his friends a “Good Friday and a very happy Easter, especially to my beloved Christian nation.” But such behavior is in violation of the sharia. And this poor man suffered the penalty for hypocrisy under Islam — death.
Such behavior is unislamic......
Nuclear jihad: Guard at terror target Belgian nuclear site killed, access badge stolen - There’s more to the Muslim nuclear bomb plot story.....Charleroi is located 50 km from the Belgian capital.
A security guard, who was walking his dog, was shot dead in the early evening on Thursday, the paper....—Related: Brussels jihadis plotting a NUCLEAR BOMB ATTACK - Belgium: Nuclear power plants evacuated after Brussels jihad attack
Mosque leader who condemned Brussels attacks sent messages calling extremist ‘true Muslim’- This is how they roll. They say one thing to the enemedia and the opposite to their community. During our Ground Zero mosque fight, Imam Rauf played the moderate while the media danced to his tune. But if you read his books, he was a sharia extremist who supported terrorist groups like Hamas. Terror-tied Muslim groups in the US make weak, generic statements after jihad slaughter, but unfailingly support terror groups and the jihad doctrine. Two sides — one mouth. They say one thing to appease the filthy kuffar, while advancing their dead Islamic supremacist agenda. This is a religious imperative in Islam. Lie to advance Islam.....
Swedish women show support for Islam by taking selfies in hijabs after #BrusselsAttacks - Sharpening the swords of the their executioners. It’s no wonder that Stockholm Syndrome is named after a Swedish city. These women want to show solidarity? Why not offer themselves as sex slaves to the Islamic State? Sweden’s goose (or is that goat?) is cooked...
Belgian Police PLEADED For Help From Muslims to Find Jihadis, Were IGNORED - This should be instructive to our own police and intel authorities. They should stop conducting “outreach” to Muslim communities and realize that they aren’t going to get any help from them against jihad terrorists......
Iranians Hacked DOZENS of U.S. Banks, NYSE — TENS OF MILLIONS in Losses - Just over two weeks ago I posted here at Atlas about the Iranian government-backed hacking attack on the New York dam. Now it has been revealed that Iranian government hackers also targeted major U.S. banks, including Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Citibank, and HSBC, as well as the New York Stock Exchange. This further exposes the treachery behind Obama’s nuclear pact with the world’s leading state sponsor of Islamic terrorism.
Devout Muslim who committed jihad murder in Brussels had been on US terror watchlist - This shows how effective these watchlists are — not at all. They give the appearance that law enforcement officials are on top of the situation, when they aren’t. Probably those who were in charge of keeping track of the Muslims on this watchlist was too busy doing outreach at the local mosque to watch El Bakraoui closely.
Muslim shopkeeper who wished his ‘beloved Christian nation’ a Happy Easter is stabbed 30 times by a FELLOW MUSLIM who sat laughing on his dying victim’s chest -
Before his vicious murder, this truly moderate Muslim had wished his friends a “Good Friday and a very happy Easter, especially to my beloved Christian nation.” But such behavior is in violation of the sharia. And this poor man suffered the penalty for hypocrisy under Islam — death.
Such behavior is unislamic......
Nuclear jihad: Guard at terror target Belgian nuclear site killed, access badge stolen - There’s more to the Muslim nuclear bomb plot story.....Charleroi is located 50 km from the Belgian capital.
A security guard, who was walking his dog, was shot dead in the early evening on Thursday, the paper....—Related: Brussels jihadis plotting a NUCLEAR BOMB ATTACK - Belgium: Nuclear power plants evacuated after Brussels jihad attack
Saturday, March 26, 2016
GOPUSA
Colorado resembles a foreign 'drug cartel' - If Colorado were Mexico, Gov. John Hickenlooper and the Legislature might get locked up. Here's how attorneys general for Nebraska and Oklahoma explained it, in a case filed directly with the Supreme Court of the United States......
Cross-border tunnel extends length of 4 football fields - U.S. authorities on Wednesday seized a cross-border tunnel that ran the length of four football fields from a restaurant in Mexicali, Mexico, to a newly built house in Calexico, California, following an investigation that netted more than a ton of marijuana and resulted in four arrests.....
British man charged with race crime after anti-Muslim tweets - A British man has been charged with using social media to incite racial hatred after posting anti-Muslim tweets in the days after the Brussels attacks.......
Judicial Watch: Undisclosed emails from Clinton server found - A conservative legal watchdog group said it found emails from former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's private server that had been previously undisclosed.
Trump Mocks Appearance of Cruz's Wife in Second Twitter Attack - Ted Cruz branded Donald Trump a "sniveling coward" Thursday as the feud between the Republican presidential contenders over their wives took a nastier turn.........
Love racing? Join GOPUSA in sponsoring Bobby Eberle - Bobby Eberle is working his way up the Mazda Road to Indy, but he needs your help. Please join GOPUSA in supporting Bobby. With your organization as a partner, you can bring together your love of racing and conservative politics....
Rudy Guiliani: Hillary Clinton 'founding member' of Islamic State - Guiliani said Clinton's role as secretary of state in the Obama administration when the Islamic State rose to prominence in the Middle East made her complicit in the reign of the terror group -- also identified as ISIS, ISIL and Daesh.....
Cross-border tunnel extends length of 4 football fields - U.S. authorities on Wednesday seized a cross-border tunnel that ran the length of four football fields from a restaurant in Mexicali, Mexico, to a newly built house in Calexico, California, following an investigation that netted more than a ton of marijuana and resulted in four arrests.....
British man charged with race crime after anti-Muslim tweets - A British man has been charged with using social media to incite racial hatred after posting anti-Muslim tweets in the days after the Brussels attacks.......
Judicial Watch: Undisclosed emails from Clinton server found - A conservative legal watchdog group said it found emails from former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's private server that had been previously undisclosed.
Trump Mocks Appearance of Cruz's Wife in Second Twitter Attack - Ted Cruz branded Donald Trump a "sniveling coward" Thursday as the feud between the Republican presidential contenders over their wives took a nastier turn.........
Love racing? Join GOPUSA in sponsoring Bobby Eberle - Bobby Eberle is working his way up the Mazda Road to Indy, but he needs your help. Please join GOPUSA in supporting Bobby. With your organization as a partner, you can bring together your love of racing and conservative politics....
Rudy Guiliani: Hillary Clinton 'founding member' of Islamic State - Guiliani said Clinton's role as secretary of state in the Obama administration when the Islamic State rose to prominence in the Middle East made her complicit in the reign of the terror group -- also identified as ISIS, ISIL and Daesh.....
P&D Today!
Video Of The Day
- Progressivism: Empire of Lies Firewall by Bill Whittle
- What Happened on Oahu Didn’t Stay on Oahu by Paul Driessen
- Highly-Resistant ‘Super Lice’ Requires Stronger Treatment By American Council on Science and Health
- The Cover-Up of Wolves and What They DO! by Jim Beers
- By Jim Beers
- Wolf Predation by Jim Beers
- Is ISIS faithful to Islam? by Pat Buchannan
- Don't Trust Europe the Risk is Too Great! by Stephen Bryen
- World War III by Sol W. Sanders
What Happened on Oahu Didn’t Stay on Oahu
Posted by Paul Driessen | Mar 26, 2016 @Townhall.com
If modern activist groups held sway in the mid-nineteenth century, countless multitudes would have died from typhoid fever and cholera. The “miasma” paradigm held that the diseases were caused by foul air arising from putrid matter – and only dogged scientific work by William Budd, John Snow and others finally convinced medical and health authorities that the agent was lethal organisms in drinking water.
Ultimately, the investigators’ persistence led to discoveries of Vibrio and Salmonella bacteria, the use of chlorine-based disinfectants for drains, water purification and hand washing, programs that kept sewage away from drinking water supplies, and steady advances in germ and virus theories of medicine.
Parallels exist today, with activist politics driving the science, rather than solid science guiding informed public policy decisions. One such arena is neonicotinoid pesticides and large-scale bee deaths.
Europeans introduced domesticated honeybees to North America in the early 1600s. They helped foster phenomenal growth in important food crops like tomatoes and almonds. Indeed, over 60% of all U.S. beehives are needed each spring just to pollinate California’s extensive almond groves. By contrast, staples like wheat, rice, corn and most citrus fruits do not require animal pollination at all (by bees, hummingbirds, hover flies, butterflies and bats); these crops are self-pollinating or wind-pollinated.
Commercial beekeeping grew steadily, and today about 1% of all beekeepers manage nearly 80% of the 2.7 million U.S. honeybee colonies. The system generally functioned well until 1987, when a vicious new pest arrived. As the appropriately named Varroa destructor mite spread, beekeepers began reporting major to total losses of bees in Iowa, Michigan and Wisconsin hives in spring 2006, and later in Florida, the Dakotas, southern states, both U.S. coasts, Europe and elsewhere.
Dubbed “colony collapse disorder” (CCD), the problem led to scarifying news stories about a “bee-pocalypse” and the imminent demise of modern agriculture. However, inexplicable bee colony losses had been reported in 1898, 1903, the 1960s and 1970s – even as far back as 940 AD in Ireland!
Explanations included an undefined “disappearing disease,” organophosphate pesticides, cell phone towers, GM crops that embed Bt insect killers in their genetic makeup, and even a lack of “moral fiber” in bees, Paradigms and Demographics blogspot editor Rich Kozlovich notes. A psychic, he adds, claimed she was communicating with domesticated bees, who told her they were tired of being enslaved by humans and were leaving their hives to protest their crowded, inhumane conditions!
Mounting evidence suggests that today’s die-offs are primarily due to Varroa mites, along with parasitic phorid flies, Nosema fungal parasites, the tobacco ringspot virus – and even beekeepers misusing or over-using pesticides in hives to control disease outbreaks, by killing tiny bugs on little bees.
However, anti-pesticide activists and some news stories continue to blame colony deaths and other bee problems on neonicotinoid insecticides. This new class of chemicals protects crops primarily (97% of the time) by coating seeds, letting plants incorporate the pesticide into their leaves and stems, to target insects that feed on them, without harming beneficial bugs. The regular rotation of different neonic products is also the only means currently available to kill the Asian psyllids that spread “citrus greening disease” (HLB), which is decimating citrus groves in Florida and is now spreading to Texas and California groves.
This is where solid scientific detective work becomes vital. Without it, the wrong conclusions are drawn, the wrong “solutions” are applied, and the unintended consequences can be serious. For example, banning neonics will likely mean farmers are forced to use insecticides that truly are dangerous for bees.
Over the past 50 years, Varroa mites have killed off millions of honeybee colonies around the world, scientists note. Among the diseases the mites carry is deformed wing virus, which results in short, twisted or otherwise deformed and useless wings. Like many other viral infections, DWV had long been present in hives, but was generally considered harmless before Varroa became ubiquitous. Disease-carrying mites bite through the bees’ hard shell (exoskeleton) and inject viruses and infections directly into the bee blood (hemolymph). The mites’ saliva also carries an enzyme that compromises the bees’ immune systems, making the diseases far more toxic.
Making the beekeepers’ challenge even more daunting, female Varroas often lay eggs in the same hexagonal beehive cells where the queen lays newly fertilized eggs, before worker bees “cap” the incubator cells. New honeybees then emerge with an infected mite already attached. And to top it off:
Trying to kill vicious bugs you can’t even see, in a box filled with some 40,000 buzzing bees that you don’t want to hurt, using chemicals that could easily become toxic – and that the Varroa mites quickly become resistant to – is a devilishly complicated business, beekeepers like Randy Oliver attest. In fact, they are already on their third generation of miticides, and Varroa have become resistant to all of them. So the battle rages on, as pesticide companies again try to gain the upper hand against the crafty pests.
Varroa was discovered on Oahu in August 2007. By spring 2008, 274 of 419 honeybee colonies on Oahu had collapsed, and wild bees had disappeared from its urban areas. Despite quarantine measures, by late 2010 the mite spread throughout the island of Hawaii. Now even effective Varroa control cannot eradicate DWV, since the disease is in their hemolymph and transmitted through feeding and sexual activity.
Studies in the United Kingdom and New Zealand found similar mite, DWV infection and CCD patterns.
Another nasty plague on honeybee houses involves parasitic phorid flies, which have now been found in California, Vermont and South Dakota hives. The flies stab bee abdomens and lay their eggs inside. When they hatch, fly larvae attack the bees’ bodies and brains, disorienting them and causing them to fly in circles and at night – giving rise to stories about zombie bees, or “zombees.” As the larvae mature into new flies, they exit the bees at their necks, decapitating them. Not surprisingly, phorid flies also carry DWV, Nosema parasites and other bee diseases.
Meanwhile, in the real world where bees interact with nature, agriculture and pesticides (rather than with artificial laboratory conditions and egregious over-exposure to those pesticides), multiple studies in Canadian and other countries’ canola and corn fields have concluded that neonicotinoids do not harm bees when used properly. And in equally good news, U.S. Department of Agriculture, StatsCanada, EU and UN data show that bee populations have been increasing over the past several years, with American and Canadian colony totals reaching their highest levels in a decade or more.
And yet, news stories still say neonics threaten domesticated and wild bees with zombee-ism and extinction. That’s partly because anti-pesticide groups are well funded, well organized, sophisticated in public relations, and aided by journalists who are lazy, gullible, believe the activist claims and support their cause, or simply live by the mantra “if it bleeds, it leads.” A phony bee-pocalypse sells papers.
The activists employ Saul Alinsky tactics to achieve political goals by manipulating science. They select and vilify a target. Devise a “scientific study” that predicts a public health disaster. Release it to the media, before honest scientists can analyze and criticize it. Generate “news” stories featuring emotional headlines and public consternation. Develop a Bigger Government “solution,” and intimidate legislators and regulators until they impose it. Pressure manufacturers to stop making and selling the product.
Too often, the campaigns are accompanied by callous attitudes about the unintended consequences. If banning neonics means older, more toxic pesticides kill millions of bees, so be it. If a DDT ban gives environmentalists more power and influence, millions of children and parents dying from malaria might be an acceptable price; at least they won’t be exposed to exaggerated or fabricated risks from DDT.
When activism and politics drives science, both science and society pay dearly. The stakes are too high, for wildlife and people, to let this continue. The perpetrators must be outed and defanged.
Paul Driessen is senior policy adviser for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT), which is sponsoring the All Pain No Gain petition against global-warming hype. He also is a senior policy adviser to the Congress of Racial Equality and author of Eco-Imperialism: Green Power - Black Death.
If modern activist groups held sway in the mid-nineteenth century, countless multitudes would have died from typhoid fever and cholera. The “miasma” paradigm held that the diseases were caused by foul air arising from putrid matter – and only dogged scientific work by William Budd, John Snow and others finally convinced medical and health authorities that the agent was lethal organisms in drinking water.
Ultimately, the investigators’ persistence led to discoveries of Vibrio and Salmonella bacteria, the use of chlorine-based disinfectants for drains, water purification and hand washing, programs that kept sewage away from drinking water supplies, and steady advances in germ and virus theories of medicine.
Parallels exist today, with activist politics driving the science, rather than solid science guiding informed public policy decisions. One such arena is neonicotinoid pesticides and large-scale bee deaths.
Europeans introduced domesticated honeybees to North America in the early 1600s. They helped foster phenomenal growth in important food crops like tomatoes and almonds. Indeed, over 60% of all U.S. beehives are needed each spring just to pollinate California’s extensive almond groves. By contrast, staples like wheat, rice, corn and most citrus fruits do not require animal pollination at all (by bees, hummingbirds, hover flies, butterflies and bats); these crops are self-pollinating or wind-pollinated.
Commercial beekeeping grew steadily, and today about 1% of all beekeepers manage nearly 80% of the 2.7 million U.S. honeybee colonies. The system generally functioned well until 1987, when a vicious new pest arrived. As the appropriately named Varroa destructor mite spread, beekeepers began reporting major to total losses of bees in Iowa, Michigan and Wisconsin hives in spring 2006, and later in Florida, the Dakotas, southern states, both U.S. coasts, Europe and elsewhere.
Dubbed “colony collapse disorder” (CCD), the problem led to scarifying news stories about a “bee-pocalypse” and the imminent demise of modern agriculture. However, inexplicable bee colony losses had been reported in 1898, 1903, the 1960s and 1970s – even as far back as 940 AD in Ireland!
Explanations included an undefined “disappearing disease,” organophosphate pesticides, cell phone towers, GM crops that embed Bt insect killers in their genetic makeup, and even a lack of “moral fiber” in bees, Paradigms and Demographics blogspot editor Rich Kozlovich notes. A psychic, he adds, claimed she was communicating with domesticated bees, who told her they were tired of being enslaved by humans and were leaving their hives to protest their crowded, inhumane conditions!
Mounting evidence suggests that today’s die-offs are primarily due to Varroa mites, along with parasitic phorid flies, Nosema fungal parasites, the tobacco ringspot virus – and even beekeepers misusing or over-using pesticides in hives to control disease outbreaks, by killing tiny bugs on little bees.
However, anti-pesticide activists and some news stories continue to blame colony deaths and other bee problems on neonicotinoid insecticides. This new class of chemicals protects crops primarily (97% of the time) by coating seeds, letting plants incorporate the pesticide into their leaves and stems, to target insects that feed on them, without harming beneficial bugs. The regular rotation of different neonic products is also the only means currently available to kill the Asian psyllids that spread “citrus greening disease” (HLB), which is decimating citrus groves in Florida and is now spreading to Texas and California groves.
This is where solid scientific detective work becomes vital. Without it, the wrong conclusions are drawn, the wrong “solutions” are applied, and the unintended consequences can be serious. For example, banning neonics will likely mean farmers are forced to use insecticides that truly are dangerous for bees.
Over the past 50 years, Varroa mites have killed off millions of honeybee colonies around the world, scientists note. Among the diseases the mites carry is deformed wing virus, which results in short, twisted or otherwise deformed and useless wings. Like many other viral infections, DWV had long been present in hives, but was generally considered harmless before Varroa became ubiquitous. Disease-carrying mites bite through the bees’ hard shell (exoskeleton) and inject viruses and infections directly into the bee blood (hemolymph). The mites’ saliva also carries an enzyme that compromises the bees’ immune systems, making the diseases far more toxic.
Making the beekeepers’ challenge even more daunting, female Varroas often lay eggs in the same hexagonal beehive cells where the queen lays newly fertilized eggs, before worker bees “cap” the incubator cells. New honeybees then emerge with an infected mite already attached. And to top it off:
Trying to kill vicious bugs you can’t even see, in a box filled with some 40,000 buzzing bees that you don’t want to hurt, using chemicals that could easily become toxic – and that the Varroa mites quickly become resistant to – is a devilishly complicated business, beekeepers like Randy Oliver attest. In fact, they are already on their third generation of miticides, and Varroa have become resistant to all of them. So the battle rages on, as pesticide companies again try to gain the upper hand against the crafty pests.
Varroa was discovered on Oahu in August 2007. By spring 2008, 274 of 419 honeybee colonies on Oahu had collapsed, and wild bees had disappeared from its urban areas. Despite quarantine measures, by late 2010 the mite spread throughout the island of Hawaii. Now even effective Varroa control cannot eradicate DWV, since the disease is in their hemolymph and transmitted through feeding and sexual activity.
Studies in the United Kingdom and New Zealand found similar mite, DWV infection and CCD patterns.
Another nasty plague on honeybee houses involves parasitic phorid flies, which have now been found in California, Vermont and South Dakota hives. The flies stab bee abdomens and lay their eggs inside. When they hatch, fly larvae attack the bees’ bodies and brains, disorienting them and causing them to fly in circles and at night – giving rise to stories about zombie bees, or “zombees.” As the larvae mature into new flies, they exit the bees at their necks, decapitating them. Not surprisingly, phorid flies also carry DWV, Nosema parasites and other bee diseases.
Meanwhile, in the real world where bees interact with nature, agriculture and pesticides (rather than with artificial laboratory conditions and egregious over-exposure to those pesticides), multiple studies in Canadian and other countries’ canola and corn fields have concluded that neonicotinoids do not harm bees when used properly. And in equally good news, U.S. Department of Agriculture, StatsCanada, EU and UN data show that bee populations have been increasing over the past several years, with American and Canadian colony totals reaching their highest levels in a decade or more.
And yet, news stories still say neonics threaten domesticated and wild bees with zombee-ism and extinction. That’s partly because anti-pesticide groups are well funded, well organized, sophisticated in public relations, and aided by journalists who are lazy, gullible, believe the activist claims and support their cause, or simply live by the mantra “if it bleeds, it leads.” A phony bee-pocalypse sells papers.
The activists employ Saul Alinsky tactics to achieve political goals by manipulating science. They select and vilify a target. Devise a “scientific study” that predicts a public health disaster. Release it to the media, before honest scientists can analyze and criticize it. Generate “news” stories featuring emotional headlines and public consternation. Develop a Bigger Government “solution,” and intimidate legislators and regulators until they impose it. Pressure manufacturers to stop making and selling the product.
Too often, the campaigns are accompanied by callous attitudes about the unintended consequences. If banning neonics means older, more toxic pesticides kill millions of bees, so be it. If a DDT ban gives environmentalists more power and influence, millions of children and parents dying from malaria might be an acceptable price; at least they won’t be exposed to exaggerated or fabricated risks from DDT.
When activism and politics drives science, both science and society pay dearly. The stakes are too high, for wildlife and people, to let this continue. The perpetrators must be outed and defanged.
Paul Driessen is senior policy adviser for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT), which is sponsoring the All Pain No Gain petition against global-warming hype. He also is a senior policy adviser to the Congress of Racial Equality and author of Eco-Imperialism: Green Power - Black Death.
Is ISIS faithful to Islam?
Halt immigration from places where 'deadly virus' is rampant
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2016/03/is-isis-faithful-to-islam/#yeMBBrLR8ftKZz49.99 “We are not at war with Islam,” said John Kasich after the Brussels massacre, “We’re at war with radical Islam.” Kasich’s point raises a question: Does the Islamic faith in any way sanction or condone what those suicide bombers did? For surely the brothers and their accomplice who ignited the bombs in the airport and set off the explosion on the subway did not do so believing they were blasting themselves to hell for all eternity. One has to assume they hoped to be martyrs to their faith if they slaughtered infidels to terrify and expel such as these from the Islamic world and advance the coming of the caliphate of which the Prophet preached.
And where might they have gotten such ideas?
Kasich’s word, radical, comes from the Latin “radix,” or root. And if one returns to the roots of Islam, to the Quran, does one find condemnation of what the brothers did – or justification? Andrew McCarthy was the prosecutor of “the Blind Sheikh” whose terrorist cell tried to bring down a World Trade Center tower in 1993 and plotted bombings in the Holland and Lincoln tunnels.
The U.S. government depicted the sheikh as a wanton killer who distorted the teachings of his faith. Yet, McCarthy discovered that Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman was no imposter-imam, but “a globally renowned scholar – a doctor of Islamic jurisprudence who graduated from al-Azhar University in Cairo, the seat of Sunni Islamic learning for over a millennium.” Seeking to expose the sheikh as a fraud who had led his gullible followers into terrorism, against the tenets of their faith, McCarthy discovered that “Abdel Rahman was not lying about Islam.”.
“When he said the scriptures command that Muslims strike terror into the hearts of Islam’s enemies, the scriptures backed him up. When he said Allah enjoined all Muslims to wage jihad until Islamic law was established throughout the world, the scriptures backed him up.”..... “Liberalism is the ideology of Western suicide.”
Read more
My Take - Well, the more we learn about Kasich the less impressed we must become. I've met him and I think he suffers from a serious case of weird compounded by a massive infection of hubris.
From his past performances to promote Obamacare as a mandate from God we know he's a bad theologian.
From his position on gay marriage and God's love, we know he's a heretic.
From his position on Islam we know he's a bad historian.
From his position on illegal immigration we know he's not a conservative.
From his position that he balanced the budget and cut taxes we know he's a liar.
In fact, he's clearly demonstrated one thing for sure. He's demonstrated all the qualities that would have made him an excellent candidate for the Democratic nomination as President of the United States this year, except he doesn't accept abortion. But, neither did Dennis Kucinch until he ran for President in his party - the party of treason and infantacide. I wonder how far left Kasich would go in his heresy?
I wouldn't be surprised if Hillary offered him a spot on the ticket as her Vice President he accepted. After all - if she should die in office she would have someone just like her to take over.
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2016/03/is-isis-faithful-to-islam/#yeMBBrLR8ftKZz49.99 “We are not at war with Islam,” said John Kasich after the Brussels massacre, “We’re at war with radical Islam.” Kasich’s point raises a question: Does the Islamic faith in any way sanction or condone what those suicide bombers did? For surely the brothers and their accomplice who ignited the bombs in the airport and set off the explosion on the subway did not do so believing they were blasting themselves to hell for all eternity. One has to assume they hoped to be martyrs to their faith if they slaughtered infidels to terrify and expel such as these from the Islamic world and advance the coming of the caliphate of which the Prophet preached.
And where might they have gotten such ideas?
Kasich’s word, radical, comes from the Latin “radix,” or root. And if one returns to the roots of Islam, to the Quran, does one find condemnation of what the brothers did – or justification? Andrew McCarthy was the prosecutor of “the Blind Sheikh” whose terrorist cell tried to bring down a World Trade Center tower in 1993 and plotted bombings in the Holland and Lincoln tunnels.
The U.S. government depicted the sheikh as a wanton killer who distorted the teachings of his faith. Yet, McCarthy discovered that Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman was no imposter-imam, but “a globally renowned scholar – a doctor of Islamic jurisprudence who graduated from al-Azhar University in Cairo, the seat of Sunni Islamic learning for over a millennium.” Seeking to expose the sheikh as a fraud who had led his gullible followers into terrorism, against the tenets of their faith, McCarthy discovered that “Abdel Rahman was not lying about Islam.”.
“When he said the scriptures command that Muslims strike terror into the hearts of Islam’s enemies, the scriptures backed him up. When he said Allah enjoined all Muslims to wage jihad until Islamic law was established throughout the world, the scriptures backed him up.”..... “Liberalism is the ideology of Western suicide.”
Read more
My Take - Well, the more we learn about Kasich the less impressed we must become. I've met him and I think he suffers from a serious case of weird compounded by a massive infection of hubris.
From his past performances to promote Obamacare as a mandate from God we know he's a bad theologian.
From his position on gay marriage and God's love, we know he's a heretic.
From his position on Islam we know he's a bad historian.
From his position on illegal immigration we know he's not a conservative.
From his position that he balanced the budget and cut taxes we know he's a liar.
In fact, he's clearly demonstrated one thing for sure. He's demonstrated all the qualities that would have made him an excellent candidate for the Democratic nomination as President of the United States this year, except he doesn't accept abortion. But, neither did Dennis Kucinch until he ran for President in his party - the party of treason and infantacide. I wonder how far left Kasich would go in his heresy?
I wouldn't be surprised if Hillary offered him a spot on the ticket as her Vice President he accepted. After all - if she should die in office she would have someone just like her to take over.
Don't Trust Europe the Risk is Too Great!
by Stephen Bryen
There is no reason to any longer trust Europe. Europe is a collection of incompetent and dangerous nation-states with reduced sovereignty that are incapable of defending their borders and inept at ferreting out the terrorists in their midst. Typically greedy and stupid, Europe’s police and military are all but emasculated, and Europe’s tolerance for domestic and imported terrorism is outright frightening.
With all the refugees pouring in, what are they doing to screen out terrorists? Nothing. They have failed to allocate money to buy minimal equipment. Their security authorities are “detached” keeping their distance from densely populated Muslim communities and the refugees. Madness? You bet.
While Europeans amuse themselves by beating up on Israel and practicing snarky antisemitism, they have voluntarily surrendered their countries (such as they are) to domestic and imported Muslim terrorists who are steadily taking control of key neighborhoods, importing large quantities of weapons and explosives, and building close-knit, difficult to penetrate networks. The fact that most law-enforcement and security members speak no Arabic doesn’t help......
Daily Signal
Science Agency Eyes Climate Change Professor's Use of Millions From Taxpayers A federal science agency is "seriously" interested in reviewing tens of millions in taxpayer-funded grants awarded to a university professor who wants President Obama to prosecute those who don’t share the administration's view that mankind is changing the world's climate. Read More |
NewsHas Europe Blinked on Defeating ISIS in the Middle East? The terrorist attacks in Brussels so far have produced an internal evaluation of Belgium's intelligence and law enforcement missteps, rather than the escalated airstrikes on Islamist targets in Syria that quickly followed the deadly attacks in Paris. Read More |
CommentaryWhat Obama Can Learn From French President on Terrorist Attack Responses There was a stark difference between French President François Hollande's response to the terrorist attacks in Belgium on Tuesday and Obama's. Read More |
CommentaryA Fight for British Freedom and Sovereignty For the first time in over four decades, British voters will finally be able to shape their own destiny. Read More |
CommentaryLawmakers in Both Parties Are Addicted to Spending The debt is at $19 trillion. This needs to stop. Watch the Video |
NewsIndiana Governor Signs Bill Banning Abortions of Babies With Down Syndrome "Every life has value. Every life is a gift," says Carissa Carroll, a mom of a toddler with Down syndrome, who backed legislation, signed Thursday by Republican Gov. Mike Pence, that banned aborting babies over genetic causes. Read More |
World War III
March 23, 2016 By Sol W. Sanders 4 Comments
Everyone but the President of the United States seems to understand that the civilized world is in an all-out struggle with evil as represented by the Islamic terrorists. Nor is it less clear that Daesh [ISIS or ISIL] is gaining ground and consolidating the various Islamic terrorist groups around the world into an increasingly formidable foe.
Pres. Obama’s speech on Tuesday March 22nd was directed, he said, to the Cuban people as well as their Communist leadership and the American public. Well and good; it was a call for a new era of communication and hoped for collaboration with the Castro regime which remains in power. Most of us who know the history of U.S.-Cuban relations object to his innuendo that before 1969 the U.S. tried “to control Cuba”, something he charged in a throwaway line in his continued apology for world leadership. In fact, the U.S. after the Spanish-American war was critical with the venerated revolution leader Jose Marti in setting up Cuban independence, even at a time when some Cubans wanted amalgamation into the U.S.....To Read More
Everyone but the President of the United States seems to understand that the civilized world is in an all-out struggle with evil as represented by the Islamic terrorists. Nor is it less clear that Daesh [ISIS or ISIL] is gaining ground and consolidating the various Islamic terrorist groups around the world into an increasingly formidable foe.
Pres. Obama’s speech on Tuesday March 22nd was directed, he said, to the Cuban people as well as their Communist leadership and the American public. Well and good; it was a call for a new era of communication and hoped for collaboration with the Castro regime which remains in power. Most of us who know the history of U.S.-Cuban relations object to his innuendo that before 1969 the U.S. tried “to control Cuba”, something he charged in a throwaway line in his continued apology for world leadership. In fact, the U.S. after the Spanish-American war was critical with the venerated revolution leader Jose Marti in setting up Cuban independence, even at a time when some Cubans wanted amalgamation into the U.S.....To Read More
Highly-Resistant ‘Super Lice’ Requires Stronger Treatment
March 22, 2016
Scientists acknowledged a few months ago that the United States was witnessing a lice resurgence, with a new strain of the irritating bug making the scene. And these critters have staying power, mainly, because they evolved by becoming immune to typical over-the-counter medicines commonly used over the last couple decades.
In light of this most recent outbreak and its continuance — which has affected at least 25 states — the first thing you need to know is this: Today’s lice are not what they used to be, and if your child’s head becomes the temporary home of an infestation, a much more vigorous approach, which includes prescription antidotes, will be needed to dispatch these unwelcome guests.
Secondly, if you think the case confronting you won’t be the worst kind, think again. Data suggests that these pests, now being referred to as “super lice,” are the cause of nearly 100 percent of all cases being reported.
Some background: Last August, Kyong Yoon, Ph.D, a researcher from Souther Illinois University, presented his findings at the National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society. He confirmed that lice populations in half of the U.S. — mainly in midwestern states, but not exclusively — have developed resistance to common treatments. These adaptive hair-dwellers, which are usually but not exclusively passed from one child to another in school, have undergone alterations of their genes.
“We are the first group to collect lice samples from a large number of populations across the U.S.,” Dr. Yoon told the ACS. “What we found was that 104 out of 109 lice populations we tested had high levels of gene mutations, which have been linked to resistance to pyrethroids.”
Pyrethroids are organic compounds that constitute insecticides. They are typically used to combat mosquitos and other insects, and they include a substance called permethrim. Permethrim is the active ingredient in some of the most commonly used lice treatments —treatments in these trouble spots that are proving to be less and less effective.
Dr. Yoon tested the lice for the genetic mutation “triad” known as “knock down resistance” or kdr, for short. Many of the lice did, in fact, exhibit all three kdr mutations, which affects the insects’ nervous system.
An affected nervous system is what desensitizes them to pyrethroids.
California, Texas, Florida and Maine are states where lice seem to have all three mutations — making them the most resistant to typical over-the-counter (OTC) treatments.
Lice found in New York, New Jersey, New Mexico and Oregon were somewhat less resistant.
And fortunately for Michigan, lice found there showed no mutations and it was the only state where lice could still be defeated using OTC treatments. Researchers remain unclear as to why this might be.
In 2014, the University of Massachusetts, Amherst published a study that looked at lice between 2007 and 2009 from 32 sites in the U.S. and Canada. They found that 99.6 percent of those tested were genetically resistant to pyrethroids. But it wasn’t until Dr. Yoon’s discovery of the genetic mutation triad, and compromised nervous system as a result of our over-reliance on permethrin, did it become clear as to why these lice became resistant to typical OTC treatments.
This stronger strain of lice can still be eradicated by using applied treatments, but it’s no longer as simple as getting them from your local drug store. These stronger chemicals are available by prescription only and include benzyl alcohol, ivermectin or malathion lotion.
Still, one should be cautious when using any chemical to treat them.
“If you use a chemical over and over, these little creatures will eventually develop resistance,” Dr. Yoon added. “So, we have to think before we use a treatment.”
Super lice are not harmful, as they do not carry diseases. But they are terribly annoying, as any kid or parent will tell you. And when the Centers for Disease Control reports that an estimated 6-to-12 million lice infestations occur each year, it is no surprise how these little critters can become a big nuisance.
Scientists acknowledged a few months ago that the United States was witnessing a lice resurgence, with a new strain of the irritating bug making the scene. And these critters have staying power, mainly, because they evolved by becoming immune to typical over-the-counter medicines commonly used over the last couple decades.
In light of this most recent outbreak and its continuance — which has affected at least 25 states — the first thing you need to know is this: Today’s lice are not what they used to be, and if your child’s head becomes the temporary home of an infestation, a much more vigorous approach, which includes prescription antidotes, will be needed to dispatch these unwelcome guests.
Secondly, if you think the case confronting you won’t be the worst kind, think again. Data suggests that these pests, now being referred to as “super lice,” are the cause of nearly 100 percent of all cases being reported.
Some background: Last August, Kyong Yoon, Ph.D, a researcher from Souther Illinois University, presented his findings at the National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society. He confirmed that lice populations in half of the U.S. — mainly in midwestern states, but not exclusively — have developed resistance to common treatments. These adaptive hair-dwellers, which are usually but not exclusively passed from one child to another in school, have undergone alterations of their genes.
“We are the first group to collect lice samples from a large number of populations across the U.S.,” Dr. Yoon told the ACS. “What we found was that 104 out of 109 lice populations we tested had high levels of gene mutations, which have been linked to resistance to pyrethroids.”
Pyrethroids are organic compounds that constitute insecticides. They are typically used to combat mosquitos and other insects, and they include a substance called permethrim. Permethrim is the active ingredient in some of the most commonly used lice treatments —treatments in these trouble spots that are proving to be less and less effective.
Dr. Yoon tested the lice for the genetic mutation “triad” known as “knock down resistance” or kdr, for short. Many of the lice did, in fact, exhibit all three kdr mutations, which affects the insects’ nervous system.
An affected nervous system is what desensitizes them to pyrethroids.
California, Texas, Florida and Maine are states where lice seem to have all three mutations — making them the most resistant to typical over-the-counter (OTC) treatments.
Lice found in New York, New Jersey, New Mexico and Oregon were somewhat less resistant.
And fortunately for Michigan, lice found there showed no mutations and it was the only state where lice could still be defeated using OTC treatments. Researchers remain unclear as to why this might be.
In 2014, the University of Massachusetts, Amherst published a study that looked at lice between 2007 and 2009 from 32 sites in the U.S. and Canada. They found that 99.6 percent of those tested were genetically resistant to pyrethroids. But it wasn’t until Dr. Yoon’s discovery of the genetic mutation triad, and compromised nervous system as a result of our over-reliance on permethrin, did it become clear as to why these lice became resistant to typical OTC treatments.
This stronger strain of lice can still be eradicated by using applied treatments, but it’s no longer as simple as getting them from your local drug store. These stronger chemicals are available by prescription only and include benzyl alcohol, ivermectin or malathion lotion.
Still, one should be cautious when using any chemical to treat them.
“If you use a chemical over and over, these little creatures will eventually develop resistance,” Dr. Yoon added. “So, we have to think before we use a treatment.”
Super lice are not harmful, as they do not carry diseases. But they are terribly annoying, as any kid or parent will tell you. And when the Centers for Disease Control reports that an estimated 6-to-12 million lice infestations occur each year, it is no surprise how these little critters can become a big nuisance.
Wolf Predation
“We had 18 elk slaughtered by wolves on our elk winter feeding grounds in one night this week. 16 were calves that were not eaten at all. Killed and left for dead. The others were two pregnant cow elk. The wolves ripped the fetuses from the elk most likely from signs while they were still alive, to later die. Again they did not eat the cows. This makes nearly 70 elk slaughtered by wolves on our elk winter feeding grounds alone this winter. That doesn't include any elk or other wildlife in the area surrounding these feeding grounds.”
The Cover-Up of Wolves and What They DO!
By Jim Beers
Please note the picture above. It is a late-March of 2016 picture from Wyoming and you will probably never see it again nor even hear of it.
You see:
Organizations that raise millions from such folks will do whatever they must to keep reporting of and especially such pictures of wolf carnage from being published or circulated.
Federal politicians that passed the unjust laws that began the wolf introductions and protections do not want such publicity to unmask the perfidy of what they have done.
Current federal politicians that ignore this issue and refuse to give any more than lip service (tsk, tsk, etc.) to solving what their predecessors wrought do not want such publicity about their ongoing cowardly betrayal of rural Americans.
Federal bureaucrats utilizing the wolf carnage and the un-Constitutional laws that give them powers superior to states and the Constitution simply lie, shrug and blame others like a professional boxer jokingly “sparring” with amateurs. The increased power and salary and retirement this gives them; makes them ruthless in suppressing photos and reporting about such carnage.
State bureaucrats, likewise bob and weave with a “me-too” alibi that mimics their federal “partners” malarkey about “wolves never”, “wolves always”, “global warming”, phony “counts”, etc. Like the drivers of the “getaway car” they are complicit up to their ears in the whole scam for their own benefit camouflaged as “ecosystem beneficence”.
The media (TV News, Newspapers, Documentaries, Magazines, etc.) have all bought in to the kindly wolf myths for reasons as diverse as; “it sells”, “we get money to do so”, “our staffs are all urban ideologues”, “our political ideology/Party supports this for votes”, to “our teachers filled our heads with so much mush in school that we are incapable of seeing the truth of the matter.”
A few facts you won’t hear elsewhere:
As big game goes in the West, so goes ranching and rural communities.
Wolves are spreading down through Illinois and Indiana and Missouri to infest Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee from which they are expected to “hook up with” (to coin a modern expression) government wolves and coyotes and dogs (making puppies along the way) in the Carolinas and in Oklahoma and Texas rolling Eastward from New Mexico.
The same things are happening in Europe. As Europeans do their minuets with Islamic terrorists, wolves are all over now for the first time in a few hundred years and they are increasing in numbers and densities. Formerly efficient use of suburban/rural forage by sheep and shepherds has been and is being violently and terminally (?) ended as wolf predation, mostly unarmed shepherds, and insane wolf protections combines to kill thousands of sheep annually and put many shepherds “on the dole”. Rural life is, as in US “wolf country”, less profitable and more dangerous for unarmed citizens, children and the elderly. When the Lufthansa pilot flew his airplane into the Alps, one of the policemen guarding the site for several days opined, “Our biggest worry was ALL THE WOLVES scavenging the site and consuming human body parts!” Ask yourself; where else have you heard or will you hear any of this?
If you found this worthwhile, please share it with others. Thanks.
Please note the picture above. It is a late-March of 2016 picture from Wyoming and you will probably never see it again nor even hear of it.
You see:
- Wolves don’t do such things.
- Elk, like Minnesota moose, are disappearing due to global warming and ticks and definitely not wolf predation.
- It is a Myth (like the time Kermit the Frog yelled, “it’s a Myth, Myth” and Miss Piggy comes on stage saying, “Yeth, Yeth”) that wolves eradicate game animals and hunting.
- Protecting livestock like sheep and cattle from wolves means simply exerting a Little Effort like 24/27 shepherds and guard dogs and electric fences and fladry and noise makers and taste aversion and tank traps (I just made that one up) –none of which work more than temporarily.
- Wolves are good for “the ecosystem” (which is whatever you want to make of “it” from the ecosystem in your yard to the North American Continent).
- Wolves are wonderful to hear howling, it is a sign of “wilderness”. (Please note, everywhere wolves now occur in the Lower 48 States, coyotes were or are present. Coyotes once howled and yipped in the evenings but in the presence of wolves they quickly learn to remain silent because when wolves hear them they zero in on them and kill them at every opportunity.)
Organizations that raise millions from such folks will do whatever they must to keep reporting of and especially such pictures of wolf carnage from being published or circulated.
Federal politicians that passed the unjust laws that began the wolf introductions and protections do not want such publicity to unmask the perfidy of what they have done.
Current federal politicians that ignore this issue and refuse to give any more than lip service (tsk, tsk, etc.) to solving what their predecessors wrought do not want such publicity about their ongoing cowardly betrayal of rural Americans.
Federal bureaucrats utilizing the wolf carnage and the un-Constitutional laws that give them powers superior to states and the Constitution simply lie, shrug and blame others like a professional boxer jokingly “sparring” with amateurs. The increased power and salary and retirement this gives them; makes them ruthless in suppressing photos and reporting about such carnage.
State bureaucrats, likewise bob and weave with a “me-too” alibi that mimics their federal “partners” malarkey about “wolves never”, “wolves always”, “global warming”, phony “counts”, etc. Like the drivers of the “getaway car” they are complicit up to their ears in the whole scam for their own benefit camouflaged as “ecosystem beneficence”.
The media (TV News, Newspapers, Documentaries, Magazines, etc.) have all bought in to the kindly wolf myths for reasons as diverse as; “it sells”, “we get money to do so”, “our staffs are all urban ideologues”, “our political ideology/Party supports this for votes”, to “our teachers filled our heads with so much mush in school that we are incapable of seeing the truth of the matter.”
A few facts you won’t hear elsewhere:
- Wolves frequently kill wintering deer or elk in large numbers without eating them just like a pack of domestic dogs that get loose will kill chickens or sheep they encounter for what we mistakenly call “fun” but is in reality the same thing Indians did when they drove buffalo over cliffs in numbers far exceeding what they could or ever eat or otherwise utilize.
- A couple of years ago on the Wyoming/Idaho border a wolf pack killed a hundred and some sheep for “fun” one dark night.
- Wolves have destroyed Minnesota moose hunting by depleting Minnesota moose.
- Wolves have all but destroyed the once 20,000 elk in the Northern Yellowstone elk herd just as they are doing to moose, elk and deer in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Oregon, Washington, Wisconsin, and will do in Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado and Texas if the federal government forces them into those states.
As big game goes in the West, so goes ranching and rural communities.
Wolves are spreading down through Illinois and Indiana and Missouri to infest Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee from which they are expected to “hook up with” (to coin a modern expression) government wolves and coyotes and dogs (making puppies along the way) in the Carolinas and in Oklahoma and Texas rolling Eastward from New Mexico.
The same things are happening in Europe. As Europeans do their minuets with Islamic terrorists, wolves are all over now for the first time in a few hundred years and they are increasing in numbers and densities. Formerly efficient use of suburban/rural forage by sheep and shepherds has been and is being violently and terminally (?) ended as wolf predation, mostly unarmed shepherds, and insane wolf protections combines to kill thousands of sheep annually and put many shepherds “on the dole”. Rural life is, as in US “wolf country”, less profitable and more dangerous for unarmed citizens, children and the elderly. When the Lufthansa pilot flew his airplane into the Alps, one of the policemen guarding the site for several days opined, “Our biggest worry was ALL THE WOLVES scavenging the site and consuming human body parts!” Ask yourself; where else have you heard or will you hear any of this?
If you found this worthwhile, please share it with others. Thanks.
- Jim Beers is a retired US Fish and Wildlife Service Wildlife Biologist, Special Agent, Refuge Manager, Wetlands Biologist, and Congressional Fellow. He was stationed in North Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York City, and Washington DC. He also served as a US Navy Line Officer in the western Pacific and on Adak, Alaska in the Aleutian Islands. He has worked for the Utah Fish & Game, Minneapolis Police Department, and as a Security Supervisor in Washington, DC. He testified three times before Congress; twice regarding the theft by the US Fish and Wildlife Service of $45 to 60 Million from State fish and wildlife funds and once in opposition to expanding Federal Invasive Species authority. He resides in Eagan, Minnesota with his wife of many decades.
- Jim Beers is available to speak or for consulting. You can receive future articles by sending a request with your e-mail address to: jimbeers7@comcast.net
Friday, March 25, 2016
P&D Today and Yesterday
Thought For the Day
Commentaries
Commentaries
- When Local Governments Are Greedy and Corrupt, Don’t Expect Honest and Efficient Law Enforcement by Dan Mitchell
- The Endless Ages of Purim by Daniel Greenfield
- An Endless Conspiracy of Lies By Jim Beers
- Brain Damaged People Can Still Get a Job: In Politics!
- Islamic Terrorism Is Over If You Want It by Daniel Greenfield
- Irena Sendler: Died - May 12, 2008 (aged 98), Warsaw, Poland by Jean Eckerman
- Cop ordered to holster gun, then shot dead by Cheryl Chumley
- Seventh Circuit Reverses Forfeiture Of $271,000 Seized From Brothers Who Were Never Charged With A Crime
- Pamela Geller's Atlas Shrugs
- American Council on Science and Health
- Daily Signal
- The Battle For Free Speech In Science Has Begun
- Britain Strikes Black Gold
- Burussels: The Failure of Western Leadership!
When Local Governments Are Greedy and Corrupt, Don’t Expect Honest and Efficient Law Enforcement
March 24, 2016 by Dan Mitchell
While I’m a big fan of federalism, this isn’t because I have a starry-eyed view of non-Washington politicians. Of course there is plenty of grotesque misbehavior by state and local governments.
And it’s most troubling when it involves law enforcement and the legal system.
David French of National Review has a very powerful and compelling article about thuggery at the local level.
Speaking of mistreatment and abuse, Debra Saunders has a must-read account of California’s immoral system for pillaging drivers.
I’m about as far from an advocate of class warfare as is possible, but I can’t help but be sympathetic to the notion that traffic fines should be tied to income. Maybe if the middle class and the rich had to pay fines that confiscated huge chunks of their disposable income, there would be pressure to fix this horrid system.
And what’s really outrageous is how the government adds all sorts of fees to the cost of a ticket.
But there’s a catch. You have to pay a hidden fee!
Low-income communities also bear the brunt of dubious police tactics.
The Washington Post has an in-depth report on how cops are conducting raids against residences even in the absence of any evidence of criminal wrongdoing.
I suspect America’s Founding Fathers would not be pleased with this reinterpretation of the Constitution.
This is similar to the argument I made that it’s especially important to monitor and resist government wrongdoing when “the good guys” are in power.
In other words, calling for the elimination of the Department of Education or the Department of Housing and Urban Development while Obama is in office is (or should be) the easy part.
By contrast, fighting against such wasteful programs when Bush was in the White House was much harder. Many supposed fiscal conservatives suddenly went silent, and that sin of omission helps to explain why the burden of federal spending increased so rapidly.
Yes, police protection is a legitimate function of government, so the issue isn’t whether police forces should be abolished (though Camden, New Jersey, got good results by doing exactly that). But skepticism of police budgets and police behavior is still very appropriate. Indeed, one obvious takeaway from Kevin’s article is that it’s especially important for “law and order” conservatives to be vigilant to make sure police forces operate honestly and efficiently (thus making life easier for the majority of cops who simply want to do a good job and protect their communities).
And that also means getting rid of laws that don’t make sense.
Just as defense hawks should be the ones most critical of wasteful spending by the Pentagon or misguided military commitments by politicians.
P.S. You can enjoy some police-related humor here, here, and here.
P.P.S. And don’t forget cops generally are on the right side on guns.
While I’m a big fan of federalism, this isn’t because I have a starry-eyed view of non-Washington politicians. Of course there is plenty of grotesque misbehavior by state and local governments.
And it’s most troubling when it involves law enforcement and the legal system.
David French of National Review has a very powerful and compelling article about thuggery at the local level.
…my experience with small-town government…pushed me in a libertarian direction before I even knew what a libertarian was. The public schools were dreadful. Focused on patronage more than education, the school system was a public jobs program… Our local government’s core mission was dispensing favors. If you were part of the local elite, the normal rules of life simply didn’t apply. Speeding tickets? No problem. You need a conditional use permit? You got it! …if you were poor or lacked connections, “the rules” applied to you with a vengeance. After all, someone had to pay the city’s bills. There was no escaping speeding tickets, zoning officials were ruthless, and each interaction with the unyielding authorities carried with it the threat of immediate escalation, sometimes without justification.Some of the folks who protest police mistreatment see the issue through the prism of race, but maybe the real problem is that cops are expected to generate revenue for local politicians.
…It is entirely possible to believe (as I do) that the evidence indicates that “hands up, don’t shoot” is a fiction, even a malicious fiction, while also believing that the evidence indicates that Ferguson’s government was corrupt in exactly the way that government is typically corrupt. We often take for granted the rule of law. If you are blessed to live in a town where the officials are relatively clean, or if you’re among the class of people that officials fear to cross, then public institutions seem benign — helpful, even. But there are millions of our fellow citizens who live a different reality, under the authority of different kinds of public officials — officials who view them as virtual ATMs, regardless of their ability to pay. And when the government imposes that mindset on police officers, forcing men and women who are trained to respond to (and anticipate) the most violent incidents to essentially become the armed tax collectors of a corrupt system, then that government is unjust.Amen. Eric Garner is dead today because New York City has cops act as deputy tax collectors.
Speaking of mistreatment and abuse, Debra Saunders has a must-read account of California’s immoral system for pillaging drivers.
California is filled with people who are one traffic ticket away from losing their means of independent transportation. They get a ticket for a busted tail light or a small-change moving violation. On paper, the fine is $100, but with surcharges, it’s more like $490. People who cannot pay often do not show up in court — which drives up the cost. According to the Judicial Council of California, about 612,000 Californians have suspended driver’s licenses because they didn’t pay fines. In 2013, more people — 510,811 — had their licenses suspended for not paying fines than the 150,366 who lost their licenses for drunken driving. “For a lot of people, the car is the only asset they own in this whole damn world,” noted Mike Herald of the Western Center on Law and Poverty. …“We’ve turned too many of the police into tax collectors and wonder why they don’t have strong relations with the community,” Norquist said.This is disgusting, particularly because of how the system is a nightmare for poor people.
I’m about as far from an advocate of class warfare as is possible, but I can’t help but be sympathetic to the notion that traffic fines should be tied to income. Maybe if the middle class and the rich had to pay fines that confiscated huge chunks of their disposable income, there would be pressure to fix this horrid system.
And what’s really outrageous is how the government adds all sorts of fees to the cost of a ticket.
It’s deceptive advertising: a $100 fine fronts for an extra $390 in add-ons. The price tag can grow exponentially if unpaid and lead to losing one’s license. The penalty is harsh and crushing on the poor, but these fees also are undeserved for the middle class. If Sacramento wants to levy a $490 fine for moving violations, let lawmakers put honest numbers on their legislation — instead of pretending that the fine is $100. Alas, the Legislature has found that hidden fees are a handy way to finance the court system without voting to raise tax revenue. …If a private corporation advertised a $100 payment for something that really cost $500, California Attorney General Kamala Harris probably would go after the corporation for false advertising. If a credit card company boosted its fees the way the courts do, activists would call those practices usury. If the police yanked people’s driver’s licenses because they didn’t pay a $100 fine, the public would regard such a harsh penalty as excessive force. Yet Sacramento has codified a system that commits all three sins and it’s perfectly legal. Really, is there anything more brutal than government.The good news is that the state is offering an amnesty, allowing some drivers the ability to clean up their record at a reduced cost.
But there’s a catch. You have to pay a hidden fee!
…there is a $50 amnesty program fee. That’s right — if you want to pay off unpaid traffic fines that have ballooned because of hidden fees, first you have to pay another…hidden fee.I guess coughing up $50 is a good deal if that can reduce other fines by a greater amount, but isn’t this typical of government. Making you give them some money in order to give them more money.
Low-income communities also bear the brunt of dubious police tactics.
The Washington Post has an in-depth report on how cops are conducting raids against residences even in the absence of any evidence of criminal wrongdoing.
Sallie Taylor was sitting in her apartment in Northeast Washington one evening in January 2015 watching “Bible Talk” when…D.C. police officers smashed through her door, a shotgun was pointed at her face and she was ordered to the floor. …Taylor, a soft-spoken 63-year-old grandmother who was dressed in a white nightgown and said she has never had even a speeding ticket. The heavily armed squad thought they were searching the residence of a woman arrested two miles away the previous night for carrying a half-ounce vial of PCP. …The search warrant executed at Taylor’s apartment cited no evidence of criminal activity there. Instead, in an affidavit to a judge, police argued that they should be able to search for drugs there based on their “training and experience” investigating the drug trade. They relied on an address they found in a court-records system for the woman arrested with PCP.In other words, the government can bust into someone’s home, notwithstanding the lack of any evidence, simply because some cop has a hunch based on “training and experience’?
I suspect America’s Founding Fathers would not be pleased with this reinterpretation of the Constitution.The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects citizens from “unreasonable searches,” generally requiring government agents to obtain a warrant from a judge by showing they have probable cause to think that they will find a specific item at a specific location. In recent decades, police have been given wide latitude by the courts… Attorney Alec Karakatsanis, of the nonprofit group D.C.-based Equal Justice Under Law, said warrants that rely on training and experience as justification for a search subject the black community to abusive police intrusion based on flimsy investigative work.To make matters worse, the government oftentimes doesn’t bother to confirm addresses before launching these raids.
Failure to properly verify an address led police to the home of Patricia Dandridge on Jan. 27, 2015. She returned from work to find her apartment in Southeast ransacked. The door was beaten in and her bed frame was broken, she said. Clothes and personal papers were strewn across the floor. “I thought I’d been robbed, but my neighbor told me it was the police,” said Dandridge, 45. …Three officers had forced their way in to look for firearms. They left empty-handed. The warrant was based on a drug complaint at a housing complex in Southeast more than five miles from Dandridge’s apartment, according to the affidavit police used to justify the search. …Palmer lived down the hall with his parents in Apartment 103. Dandridge lives in 102. “103 does not look like 102,” Dandridge said. The apartments are on opposite ends of the building.Last but not least, Kevin Williamson weighs in at National Review with a withering look at police misconduct and corruption.
Is it really so difficult to believe that there is widespread wrongdoing, and widespread lying about it, among U.S. law-enforcement agencies, particularly those in big, Democrat-run cities infamous for the corruption of their other municipal institutions? Why do conservatives find it so plausible — obvious, even — that the IRS and the EPA and the Atlanta public schools are corrupt and self-serving, but somehow believe that the Baltimore police department isn’t?He has lots of examples.
There are a great many investigations of police misconduct in Baltimore, where the local police behave more like the militia of a third-world warlord than a police agency. …Today, it is the Los Angeles sheriff. Before that, it was the Los Angeles Police Department, whose anti-gang task force became a rolling crime wave of its own, with 70 officers eventually implicated in unlawful shootings, bank robbery, drug dealing, theft, planting false evidence, framing suspects, destroying evidence of their wrongdoing and the usual perjury, perjury, and perjury. Then came Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa, NYPD detectives convicted in 2006 on a raft of charges — racketeering, extortion, drug-dealing, murder and conspiracy to commit murder, running an illegal gambling ring, obstruction of justice — as part of a 20-year crime spree that ranged from New York to Las Vegas. …In Fairview, Tenn., a new police detective was just fired after responding to a prostitution ad. An NYPD officer was awarded $15 million in damages for being kidnapped and beaten inside his own home by other NYPD officers with a score to settle. Honolulu announced that in 2015 it fired a record number of officers for misconduct.Corruption, malfeasance, and misbehavior seem to be a natural part of the system.
…facts suggest that our police departments have the same problems as our other government agencies, exacerbated by the fact that police are, inevitably, in the business of violence. It isn’t a few scattered misdeeds when it’s the NYPD, the LAPD, the Baltimore PD, the Los Angeles sheriff’s department, and more. That’s not a few bad apples — that’s the orchard. And it needs pruning.Kevin’s argument is very compelling, particularly his appeal to conservatives about being skeptical of all parts of government at all times.
This is similar to the argument I made that it’s especially important to monitor and resist government wrongdoing when “the good guys” are in power.
In other words, calling for the elimination of the Department of Education or the Department of Housing and Urban Development while Obama is in office is (or should be) the easy part.
By contrast, fighting against such wasteful programs when Bush was in the White House was much harder. Many supposed fiscal conservatives suddenly went silent, and that sin of omission helps to explain why the burden of federal spending increased so rapidly.Yes, police protection is a legitimate function of government, so the issue isn’t whether police forces should be abolished (though Camden, New Jersey, got good results by doing exactly that). But skepticism of police budgets and police behavior is still very appropriate. Indeed, one obvious takeaway from Kevin’s article is that it’s especially important for “law and order” conservatives to be vigilant to make sure police forces operate honestly and efficiently (thus making life easier for the majority of cops who simply want to do a good job and protect their communities).
And that also means getting rid of laws that don’t make sense.
Just as defense hawks should be the ones most critical of wasteful spending by the Pentagon or misguided military commitments by politicians.
P.S. You can enjoy some police-related humor here, here, and here.
P.P.S. And don’t forget cops generally are on the right side on guns.
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