Saturday, February 2, 2013

The Right Lane Update 2.02.13



The pursuit of Constitutionally grounded governance, free markets and individual liberty
"There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily." --George Washington
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Obama Threatens Fox News and Rush Limbaugh
In a sycophantic interview with The New Republic, conducted by former campaign staffer Chris Hughes and leftist writer Franklin Foer, President Obama suggested that he had all the answers to the pressing issues facing America and therefore no compromise was necessary with Republicans. He added that Republicans should compromise. And if those Republicans don’t compromise, Obama suggested that the fault would lie at the feet of Fox News and Rush Limbaugh – and that the calculus had to be changed to force Fox News and Limbaugh to stop holding Republicans accountable to conservatism. Here’s Obama on how he’s going to fix the country:
“The truth is that most of the big issues that are going to make a difference in the life of this country for the next thirty or forty years are complicated and require tough decisions, but are not rocket science. We know that to fix our economy, we’ve got to make sure: that we have the most competitive workforce in the world, that we have a better education system, that we are investing in research and development, that we’ve got world-class infrastructure, that we’re reducing our health care costs, and that we’re expanding our exports. On issues like immigration, we have a pretty good sense of what’s broken in the system and how to fix it. On climate change, it’s a daunting task. But we know what releases carbon into the atmosphere, and we have tools right now that would start scaling that back, although we’d still need some big technological breakthrough. So the question is not, Do we have policies that might work? It is, Can we mobilize the political will to act?
So our dear leader has spoken, all is well, except for those darn people that disagree with me and don't believe I (and only I) have all the solutions!
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Kissinger: US on Brink of Nuclear Crisis with Iran
Former U.S. Secretary of State and Nobel Peace laureate Henry Kissinger is warning that the United States and Israel are very close to facing a crisis with a nuclear-arming Iran. The 89-year-old Kissinger told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that such a crisis — a full-fledged atomic war — would be "a turning point in human history," the BBC reported. "There has emerged in the region, the current and most urgent issue of nuclear proliferation. For 15 years, the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council [UNSC] have declared that a nuclear Iran is unacceptable, but it has been approaching," he said.  "In a few years, people will have to come to a determination of how to react, or the consequences of non-reaction. I believe this point will be reached in a very foreseeable future," he added.  Kissinger called for “serious” negotiations on both sides to avert the crisis. The most important thing, Kissinger said, was for the West to prevent letting things get so bad that Israel is forced to act alone.  "Unilateral intervention by Israel would be a desperate last resort, but the Iranians have to understand that if they keep using the negotiations to gain time to complete a nuclear program then the situation will become extremely dangerous," he said.  If Tehran gets nuclear weapons, regimes across the Middle East and Africa will want them, too, Kissinger said.  "The danger is that we could be reaching a point where nuclear weapons would become almost conventional, and there will be the possibility of a nuclear conflict at some point... that would be a turning point in human history," he said. "If Iran acts as a nation and not as a revolutionary cause, there is no reason for America or other permanent members of the UNSC [United Nations Security Council] to be in conflict with it, nor any countries in the region. On that basis I would hope that a negotiated solution would be found in a measurable time."
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Homeland Security Wants 7,000 AR-15s For “Personal Defense” by Philip Hodges
Just last Saturday, 7 people were murdered in Chicago, the gun control capital of the U.S. If we could just get rid of all the guns, people wouldn’t be able to shoot kill others. It is true that if we were to truly get rid of all the guns, people wouldn’t be able to shoot others. But they would just find other means of killing, something that people like Piers Morgan find completely irrelevant. The truth is, guns aren’t going anywhere as long as we have a government who demands them for themselves. While the feds are busy trying to find ways to ban semi-automatic weapons for civilian use, they’ve been buying them for themselves. New York State Senator Greg Hall, a Republican, issued a press release last week bringing this issue to light:
 “The Department of Homeland Security is the latest to find Governor Cuomo’s anti-Second Amendment agenda is at odds with reality. A report by Steve McGough of RadioViceOnline.com cites a General Service Administration (GSA) request for proposal (RFP) on behalf of the Department of Homeland Security and member components such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) seeking over 7,000 AR-15’s and matching 30 round clips.”
 So, what’s the feds’ excuse? Well, these AR-15s are for “personal defense,” particularly for “use in close quarters.” Apparently, they’re really good for that. So, why can’t American “civilians” have them for personal defense use in close quarters as well? Because although all people are equal, some are more equal than others.
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Obama's Jobs Council Shutting Down
President Barack Obama will let his jobs council expire this week without renewing its charter, winding down one source of input from the business community even as unemployment remains stubbornly high.
When Obama in January 2011 formed his Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, unemployment was hovering above 9 percent. Two years president later, more than 12 million people in the U.S. are out of work. The unemployment rate has improved to 7.9 percent, but both parties agree that's still too high. Officials said the president always intended for the council to fulfill its mission and then wind down, and said that Obama would continue to actively engage and seek input from business leaders about ways to accelerate job-creation and economic growth. Among the steps Obama plans to pursue are expedited permits for infrastructure projects, the White House said. Yes, when the dear leader has all the answers what does he need a council for?  Especially jobs?  The "Public sector is doing fine!"
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Another Cambrian Discovery Discredits Evolution by Jeffrey Tomkins, Ph.D.
A fossil creature from the phylum Entoprocta (invertebrate animals that have tentacles and lacking a mineralized skeleton) was found in marked abundance (over 400 individuals) in Burgess Shale. The Burgess is a sedimentary layer that’s purportedly part of the Cambrian period about a half-billion years ago, according to evolutionists. The problem for paleontologists is that the supposedly 520 million year old creature looks exactly like its living counterparts, only up to 8 eight times larger.  The Cambrian geologic system is an enigma for the evolutionary paradigm. If evolution is true, life would have started out simple and then evolved in complexity over time. The Cambrian system is one of the oldest geological layers containing billions of sophisticated fossils, supposedly formed after the Precambrian system. The Precambrian layers contain “simple” single-celled life, but also have jellyfish and annelids (worms). In the Cambrian system, the fossils represent an explosion of complex multi-cellular life forms—hence the term “Cambrian Explosion.” The problem for evolution is that the Cambrian explosion occurs suddenly with no transitional forms preceding it. Furthermore, many of the types of fossils found in the Cambrian layer are represented by modern organisms, such as entoprocts, that are alive and well today. For a summary of the Cambrian geological system and Burgess Shale, see the excellent review by Dr. John Morris in Acts & Facts.
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Evolutionists’ Storytelling Addiction By David Coppedge
For professionals who should be concerned with evidence, many evolutionists are given to rampant speculation.  The tipoff is usually a phrase like “may have,” “could have,” or “conceivably.”
Ritual storytelling:  Nature (23 Jan 2013) suggested the possibility that civilization evolved from rituals related to combat.  “Praying, fighting, dancing, chanting — human rituals could illuminate the growth of community and the origins of civilization.”  But then again, they might not.  Is author Dan Jones confusing cause with effect?  Does the intelligent choice in the minds of the instigators of rituals count for anything, or is Jones really implying that a genetic mutation caused someone to get on their knees and pray?
My dog’s spot:  The leading science sites jumped on a new suggestion that domestic dogs evolved from wolves dining on scrap heaps left by humans (BBC News, Live Science, PhysOrg

).  Proto-Fidos with the ability to digest starches became poodles.  And that, children, is why Muffy begs at the table.  It’s not clear what this tale adds to the corpus of scientific knowledge, since even ardent creationists would point out that some domestic dogs are capable of interbreeding with wolves.  Yet “evolution” was woven throughout the story, as in Erik Axelsson’s remark to the BBC, “So, we think our findings fit well with this theory that the dog evolved on the waste dump.”
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The Constitution Still Matters By Marta H. Mossburg
I wonder what Saeed Abedini thinks of the discussions circling at the highest level of American politics and society to scrap the Constitution. Abedini is the 34-year-old American pastor sentenced Jan. 27 to eight years in prison in Iran. His crime: evangelizing Christianity. Or what about all those who face constant persecution and imprisonment in China for not belonging to officially sanctioned churches? People say such injustice could not happen here. Without the religious protection guaranteed by the Constitution, however, why couldn't it? Even with the Constitution in place many of our fundamental rights have been usurped in the name of safety and tolerance. The use of drones to monitor people within the U.S. and campus speech codes are just two examples of how basic tenets of our founding document have been undermined. That is why it scares me to listen to those like Georgetown law professor Louis Michael Seidman who want to scrap the Constitution and forge a new document that more closely aligns with the popular will.  In a segment aired Sunday on CBS' "Sunday Morning" he said, "The Constitution has many important and inspiring provisions, but we should obey these because they are important and inspiring, not because a bunch of people who are now long-dead favored them two centuries ago."  He added, "Worse yet, talking about gun control in terms of constitutional obligation needlessly raises the temperature of political discussion. Instead of a question on policy, about which reasonable people can disagree, it becomes a test of one's commitment to our foundational document and, so, to America itself."  He is one of a long list of public figures who favor killing all or some of the document undergirding the republic that has inspired millions to risk their lives and fortunes to come here. Another example of the elitist left determining what is best for all - yet cannot get over the fact his is only one of many Points Of View!!
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GDP Goes Negative, Obama Blames Republicans by Tad Cronn
Like one of the kids on “Family Circus” blaming the broken cookie jar on Not Me and Ida Know, the Obama Administration is seriously hoping Americans will believe that Republicans are to blame for the gross domestic product shrinking by 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter. The White House’s Jay Carney went in front of the press corps today and blamed the economic plunge between October and December on Republicans in Congress not snapping to attention and obeying Obama’s will fast enough during the “fiscal cliff” talks.
I’m certain it had nothing to do with a wastrel president who let us get to that point.
It’s mystifying, really, what could have caused the economy to contract from 3.1 percent growth in the third quarter to negative 0.1 percent in the fourth. It’s almost as if American voters had elected some sort of radical, socialistic, anti-American, destructive dogmatist to office or something. Well, whatever happened, it’s the first time in about 40 months that the GDP has shrunk, or as the Associated Press put it, the first time since the recession ended, which if you missed it was about three and a half years ago, in June 2009. (We’ve all been living so high on the hog since then, it’s easy to forget. Excuse me, my Obamaphone is ringing.)  And the media have already suggested an obvious path for remedying our economic woes: more of the same. As AP said in its lead paragraph, the GDP drop was “defying expectations for slow growth and possibly providing incentive for more Federal Reserve stimulus.” Meanwhile, you can rest assured that the IRS at least is showing the bureaucracy how it’s done by hiring new employees in about half the time it took them in previous audits, according to another report released this week. That’s good to know because with all this negative economic growth, the government may have to stimulate us with more taxes soon, too, just to make up the loss in revenue. Right after the January tax increase, too. Such a shame. At least we can take comfort in having a competent president in office.
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Homeland Offers Advice for Confronting Mass Murderers: Scissors
Is your workplace getting shot up by a crazed gunman? No problem — just grab a pair of scissors and fight back! That’s some of the helpful advice in a new instructional video from the Department of Homeland Security that was posted on the agency’s Web site just a month after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. “If you are caught out in the open and cannot conceal yourself or take cover, you might consider trying to overpower the shooter with whatever means are available,” says the narrator in the video, which shows an office worker pulling scissors out of a desk drawer. This would be fine for the bad guy carrying a baseball bat...but guns?  Let's be real.  Watch here  Oh! yes, it only takes seconds to shoot you....so hide and simply wait....great idea!
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Unions Want Taxpayer Bailout From Obamacare
Labor unions, who were very active in pushing Obamacare, are now upset that the law is set to cost them big. So, of course, they want the taxpayers to bail them out: Labor unions enthusiastically backed the Obama administration’s health-care overhaul when it was up for debate. Now that the law is rolling out, some are turning sour. Union leaders say many of the law’s requirements will drive up the costs for their health-care plans and make unionized workers less competitive. Among other things, the law eliminates the caps on medical benefits and prescription drugs used as cost-containment measures in many health-care plans. It also allows children to stay on their parents’ plans until they turn 26. To offset that, the nation’s largest labor groups want their lower-paid members to be able to get federal insurance subsidies while remaining on their plans. In the law, these subsidies were designed only for low-income workers without employer coverage as a way to help them buy private insurance. Big labor will never stop!  They want it all and not have to pay anything!
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Police NOT Obligated to Protect Citizens…Supreme Court Rules ‘You’re On Your Own’
How many of you believe that the main purpose of your local police department is to protect and serve the people?  I don’t recall what TV program it was, but some years back there was a program about policeman and in the introduction it always had the words, ‘to protect and serve.’  We were taught from the time were small children that if we are threatened by anyone we were to call 911 and asked them to dispatch the police. But is that the real function of the police department? According to the US Supreme Court decision in Warren v. District of Columbia in 1981, the police do not have the duty to provide protection and services to individuals except under specific assignments.  In 1975 two men kicked in the back door of a rooming house in Washington DC. The men entered the second floor room the woman and her four-year-old daughter were. The men raped and sodomized the mother. Two women living on the third floor above heard the screams and call the police station. The dispatcher promised them that help would be on the way, and sent out a Code 2 call to officers in the area. The two women crawled out of the window onto the roof and watched as several police cars arrived. One car patrolled the alley and another car parked out front and the officer approached the front of the house and knocked on the door. When no one answered the second officer left the scene. All four police officers left the area five minutes after arriving. The two women crawled back into their room they could still hear the screams coming from the floor below and again call the police department. The dispatcher logged the call as ‘investigate the trouble’ which was never dispatched to any officers in the field.  Remember that the debate (according to liberal activists) is about hunting and not self defense!
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Strictest Gun Laws In The Land Couldn’t Stop Fatal Shots by Tim Brown
This city has arguably the strictest gun laws in America. Not a single gun shop can be found within its borders, because they are outlawed. For decades, handguns were banned, until the Supreme Court finally ruled in 2010 that the city gun control zealots were going just a bit too far in their agenda. This city resides in a state the remains the only state in America with no provision to allow private citizens to carry a firearm in public, in clear violation of the Second Amendment. It also was the murder capital of the United States last year. Where am I talking about? The land of Barack Obama, Chicago, Illinois. But hey, Chicago not only has the above in place legislatively but they also have an “assault weapons” ban and a “high capacity magazine” ban as well and yet they cannot stop their gun violence problem. Wait, I thought all those measures were suppose to solve the “problem.” Apparently, they don’t. Chicago is still combating gun violence that led to more than 500 homicides last year and at least 40 in this first month of 2013, with the latest involving 15-year-old victim Hadiya Pendleton, shot on Tuesday, just blocks from Barack Obama’s former home in an upscale neighborhood!  Thankfully, there are some competent people speaking out. Executive director of the Illinois State Rifle Association Richard A. Pearson. According to Pearson, “The gun laws in Chicago only restrict the law-abiding citizens and they’ve essentially made the citizens prey.”  So be careful not to be fooled.  The best gun laws man could envision will never stop the bad guy from blowing your brains out!
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Armed Guard Stops School Shooter After He Opened Fire at Atlanta Middle School  Jason Howerton
ATLANTA (AP) — A student opened fire at his middle school Thursday afternoon, wounding a 14-year-old in the neck before an armed officer working at the school was able to get the gun away, police said. Multiple shots were fired in the courtyard of Price Middle School just south of downtown about 1:50 p.m. and the one boy was hit, Atlanta Police Chief George Turner said. In the aftermath, a teacher received minor cuts, he said. The wounded boy was taken “alert, conscious and breathing” to Grady Memorial Hospital, said police spokesman Carlos Campos. Grady Heath System Spokeswoman Denise Simpson said the teen had been discharged from the hospital Thursday night. Campos said charges against the shooter were pending. Police swarmed the school of about 400 students after reports of the shooting while a crowd of anxious parents gathered in the streets, awaiting word on their children. Students were kept at the locked-down school for more than two hours before being dismissed. Investigators believe the shooting was not random and that something occurred between the two students that may have led to it. Schools Superintendent Erroll Davis said the school does have metal detectors.
“The obvious question is how did this get past a metal detector?” Davis asked about the gun. “That’s something we do not know yet.”  Missed this on the news?
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Bill Maher: ‘A Lot’ of The Constitution is Bullsh*t by Kyle Becker

HBO know-it-all pundit Bill Maher had some really intelligent phraseology to describe The Constitution of the United States:
“I mean, a lot of it is bullsh*t. I mean, the Second Amendment is bullsh*t, the way they interpret the Second Amendment. The left completely forgot how to interpret that. I mean, it really is about militias at a time when, you know, there was a battle between the states and the government. It wasn’t really about private citizens owning a handgun.”
The left seems to think that a “modern interpretation” of the Constitution is whatever the latest egghead professor has to spout off about the subject. But actually taking the time to read the political debates that led to the drafting and ratification of the Constitution, as most leftists have not, shows that the Founders and Framers anticipated nearly every major modern issue. Why? Because they thought abstractly about political problems, and not in terms of particularities like the specific firearms that citizens should be “allowed” by the federal government to possess.
A brief survey of the literature finds that Maher is an abject ignoramus. Federalist No. 46, written by key Constitutional framer James Madison, for example, had the following to say:
It may well be doubted, whether a militia thus circumstanced could ever be conquered by such a proportion of regular troops. Those who are best acquainted with the last successful resistance of this country against the British arms, will be most inclined to deny the possibility of it. Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments, to which the people are attached, and by which the militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of. Notwithstanding the military establishments in the several kingdoms of Europe, which are carried as far as the public resources will bear, the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms. And it is not certain, that with this aid alone they would not be able to shake off their yokes.
In addition, there are the underlying rights, namely, the right to self-defense and the right of resistance. An article “Never Ask Who Should Rule: Karl Popper and Political Theory” written by scholar Andrea Pickel in 1989 described the theory of John Locke:
The theory of sovereignty in Locke’s constitutionalist formulation demonstrates, however, that it can provide a basis for an adequate and logically consistent solution to the problem of the institutional control of the rulers – in addition to the problems of order and legitimacy. [...] The specific problematic for which Locke developed his theory of sovereignty can be characterized as containing all three fundamental problems of political theory in a prominent and acute form. [The problems of institutional control of the sovereign, political order, and legitimacy. Ed.] In one sense, the problem of institutional control was perhaps the most fundamental of the three since Locke sought a solution to the problem of the right of resistance in a mixed constitution.
Locke’s mature philosophy can be interpreted that each individual has the inalienable right to defend his person, property, community, and country from theft, assault, tyranny and foreign invasion. This is not to mention the corresponding argument of The Declaration of Independence, one of the nation’s two most important founding documents, which assumes the citizenry possesses an inalienable right to bear arms:
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
None of the above is intended to be an argument for any action to be taken about perceived government abuses. But the notion that the Founders and Framers included the Second Amendment in the Constitution to protect musket-hunting and target-shooting is absurd at best and dangerously ignorant at worst.
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68 years after the 'liberation' of Auschwitz –lessons learned and unlearned
On January 27, 1945, Soviet troops liberated the Auschwitz Birkenau Death Camp. Actually “liberated” is the wrong word. Opened the gates of hell is more appropriate a term. The numbers of murdered are staggering:
·       According to the Encyclopedia of the Holocaust nearly a quarter of the 6 million Jews killed in Holocaust were mass murdered there, most in gas chambers.
·       Of the 400,000 political prisoners brought to Auschwitz, only 65,000 left alive;
·       Of the 16,000 Soviet POWs, 96 returned home.
Stalin was reported to have said, “One death is a tragedy, a million deaths a statistic.” But these statistics further illuminate the capacity of humankind to do evil:
·       Between Dec 1, 1944 and January 15th, 1945, 514,843 pieces of men, women’s and children’s clothing were shipped to Germany from Auschwitz.
·       In the warehouses, Soviet troops found over a million men’s suits, women’s dresses and baby clothing, thousands of pairs of shoes
·       and 7.7 tons of human hair.
All humans of us on this planet must dedicate themselves to this memory and to stand for it never happening again.  Or, it will, I promise you!

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"Strangers are welcome because there is room enough for them all, and therefore the old inhabitants are not jealous of them; the laws protect them sufficiently so that they have no need of the patronage of great men; and every one will enjoy securely the profits of his industry. But if he does not bring a fortune with him, he must work and be industrious to live." --Benjamin Franklin, "Those Who Would Remove to America", 1784

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Morally Straight? The Transformation of the Boy Scouts of America
The comprehensive scope of the moral revolution America is currently experiencing is likely to surprise many Americans when they realize that the Boy Scouts are now swept up in the revolutionary tide. Word came yesterday that the Boy Scouts of America is poised to change its policy preventing the participation of openly homosexual scouts and leaders. According to a spokesman for the Boy Scouts, the group may make the formal decision to end the policy as early as next week. This announcement comes just six months after the B.S.A. board declared that it would not reconsider the policy. Deron Smith, B.S.A. national spokesman, said last July that a special committee established by the B.S.A. board had unanimously recommended keeping the policy. Smith said that the committee “came to the conclusion that this policy is absolutely the best policy for the Boy Scouts.”
Boy Scout Phones Won’t Stop Ringing  by Gary DeMar
I received the following from Tony Perkins at the Family Research Council:
“If you’ve tried to get through to the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), you know it’s been tough. If you’ve wanted to express your concern about the BSA abandoning their longstanding policy of safeguarding Scouts by restricting openly homosexual Scout leaders from holding leadership positions, you may have been greeted by an endlessly ringing phone. This may be one instance in which the Boy Scouts were not prepared.
The BSA national leadership were not prepared for the thousands of Americans who were shocked to hear that an organization that could always be counted on for standing for what’s right was about to cave-in to homosexual activists and corporations which have been threatening the organization’s funding. For generations, the BSA has shaped our nation’s moral character by teaching young men to do their duty to God and country. This is why, when the BSA board begins its annual meeting on Monday of next week, it is so important that you keep the pressure on, to show them how devastating this moral collapse will be for the Scouts and the country. “Please call the members of the BSA Board of Directors (sample call script below) and kindly urge them to stand strong and true to their timeless values:
“Select BSA Board Members:

Gun Control and Political Theater



Gun Control and Political Theater
I've been waiting for someone to call the current "political drama" for what it is, but I can't wait any longer.  First, I want to say that everyone without exception is likely deeply saddened by what happened to Gabby Gifford and those killed around her as well as the children of Sandy Hook and any number of other "mass violence" horrors.  That said, this has nothing to do with the victims of the tragic events.

The issue is how cold and calculated the use of Gabby in the staging of an event where she spoke and the event was used for pure unadulterated political gain.  Pop quiz: 
a) Was she there only to express her personal feelings about gun control and protecting children?
b) Was she there for political theater to further a political agenda?

If you answered b), then you are correct and go to the head of the class!  Political theater is old as politics itself.  However, in the last decade we have seen staged political events become something that co-opt and appropriate victims for political gain. Wait you say! I have not been duped by political theater. I can understand that, however  research over many years would prove you wrong1.  Staged events that evoke powerful emotions, will cause people to become "emotionally hi-jacked" and cause them to stop thinking rationally.  As humans, we are caught up in the moment (emotionally) and do not apply "critical thinking" about the topic.  This results in enabling politicians to push through new policy that otherwise would be thought of as irrational policy.  Think "hate crimes"; where murder became more than murder.  Regardless of intent, a person is dead.

Don't be fooled by political theater!  Stop and ask yourself; "What do I think about the policies under consideration?  Do I THINK we are doing something useful that will make a difference?"  And more importantly "Does this persuade me to believe it is worth giving away a sacred right?"
1 "When championing a cause, people do not value lives consistently," write Small and her co-authors, George Loewenstein of Carnegie Mellon University and Paul Slovic of Decision Research, a non-profit research firm in Eugene, Ore. "Attention is often concentrated on a single victim or event even though more people would be helped if more critical thinking were applied to a specific issue in order to protect future victims."
In many cases, society "would be better off if actions taken will do the most good," according to the paper, titled "Sympathy and Callousness: The Impact of Deliberative Thought.  However, we are co-opted to act upon emotions and not with our head.

Friday, February 1, 2013

The Right Lane Update 2.01.13



The pursuit of Constitutionally grounded governance, free markets and individual liberty
"There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily." --George Washington
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Immigration reform is coming by Charles Krauthammer
Let’s get it right. What counts as getting it wrong? The 1986 Simpson-Mazzoli Act, signed by President Reagan. It granted amnesty to the then 3 million illegal immigrants and promised border enforcement. Amnesty came. Enforcement never did. Reagan was swindled. Americans are a generous people. They don’t want 11 million souls living in fear among them. They would willingly, indeed overwhelmingly, support amnesty – as long as it is the last. They don’t want another Simpson-Mazzoli, another bait-and-switch that lets in another 11 million illegal immigrants – and brings us back where we began.

There is an obvious solution: enforcement first. Hence the attraction of the bipartisan Senate deal reached by the Gang of Eight, led by Democrat Chuck Schumer and Republicans John McCain and Marco Rubio. It is said to feature border enforcement first, then legalization.  Not quite. It is true that only after some commission deems the border under control do illegal immigrants become eligible for green cards and, ultimately, citizenship. But this is misleading because on the day the president signs the reform – long before enforcement even begins – the 11 million are immediately subject to instant legalization.

It is cleverly called “probationary” legal status. But the adjective is meaningless. It grants the right to live and work here openly. Once granted, it will never be revoked. True, they must await the “enforcement trigger” before they can apply for green cards. But they already have the functional equivalent of a green card. They got that on Day One. That matters more than anything to those living here illegally: the right to continue living here without fear. Forever. That’s the very essence of amnesty.  And all this happens before the first scintilla of extra enforcement takes place.

When I heard McCain talk about (among other measures) new high-tech border control with advanced radar and drones, my heart sank. In 2006, Congress threw a ton of money at a high-tech fence. Five years, $1 billion and a pathetic 53 (out of 2,000) miles later, Janet Napolitano canceled the program as a complete failure.  That was predictable. And some of us predicting it were pleading for something infinitely cheaper and simpler: a prosaic, low-tech fence. Of the kind built near San Diego (triple-layered) that resulted in an astounding 92 percent drop in apprehensions. The current Senate proposal must be improved, either in the Senate or by the House. It’s not complicated. Build the damn fence. And give “probationary legal status” to the 11 million – not on the day the bill is signed but on the day the fence is completed.  With the sequencing – and thus the incentives – so properly aligned, I assure you the fence will go up with amazing alacrity. As it should. The point is not to punish anyone or to make things harder, but to ensure we don’t have to do this again – agonizing over the next 11 million cruelly living here in the shadows. I know many Republicans are coming over to immigration reform because of the 2012 election results. Fine. I’ve been advocating this for seven years (”First a wall – then amnesty,” April 7, 2006). Welcome aboard.  Enforcement followed by legalization is not just the political thing to do. It is the right thing to do. It has long been the best answer to the immigration conundrum. It remains so.
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Shocking! Cheapest Obamacare Plan Will Be $20,000 Per Family
In a final regulation issued Wednesday, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) assumed that under Obamacare the cheapest health insurance plan available in 2016 for a family will cost $20,000 for the year.
Under Obamacare, Americans will be required to buy health insurance or pay a penalty to the IRS. The IRS’s assumption that the cheapest plan for a family will cost $20,000 per year is found in examples the IRS gives to help people understand how to calculate the penalty they will need to pay the government if they do not buy a mandated health plan. The examples point to families of four and families of five, both of which the IRS expects in its assumptions to pay a minimum of $20,000 per year for a bronze plan.
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Tax on Medical Devices Trickles Down to Hospitals and Patients
Small medical-device makers have little choice but to pass their new 2.3% excise tax— meant to pay for the health law —on to hospitals and other customers, said the chief executive of one manufacturer that began surcharging hospitals for its wares on Jan. 1. “The government thinks we’re just going to absorb these costs, but for a company like us, it’s a lot of money,” said Kevin Rudolph, the chief executive of the family-run respiratory valve maker, Hans Rudolph Inc. Instead, he said, device makers will be raising prices or adding surcharges to bills— just like other companies that faced excise taxes in the past. In a December letter to several thousand hospital customers, Mr. Rudolph told hospitals his company would add a new line item for the tax beginning on Jan. 1. Hospitals and group-purchasing organizations began protesting last week as similar warnings from other device makers began piling up, the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday. The tax is meant to raise $30 billion to help cover the health law. The device industry has lobbied to repeal the tax, which applies to sales, rather than profits. Obama "We are going to rescue middle class Amercica" - while picking their pockets!?
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Obamacare Glitch: Some Families to be Priced out of Health Coverage
Some families could get priced out of health insurance due to what's being called a glitch in President Barack Obama's overhaul law. [ see above]IRS regulations issued Wednesday failed to fix the problem as liberal backers of the president's plan had hoped.  As a result, some families that can't afford the employer coverage that they are offered on the job will not be able to get financial assistance from the government to buy private health insurance on their own. How many people will be affected is unclear. The Obama administration says its hands were tied by the way Congress wrote the law. Officials said the administration tried to mitigate the impact. Families that can't get coverage because of the glitch will not face a tax penalty for remaining uninsured, the IRS rules said.  Duh!  This was the Affordable Health Care Act - that of course will never work.  So the millions of uninsured will be joined by millions more that are being forced out!!
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DC Power Plant Continues to Burn Coal, Environmentalists Fume by Kerry Picket
The plant, which was completely coal fired for almost one hundred years, exclusively heats the capitol. However, since 2007, according to the Architect of the Capitol (AOC), the plant began to move from burning primarily coal to burning mostly natural gas--but not entirely. Coal is still burned at the plant, but the rate of its reduction is not fast enough for local environmentalists and lawmakers.
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NBC News Caught Using Deceptive Edits to Tarnish 2nd Amendment Advocates
NBC News just can’t stop with its ongoing crusade to deliberately and maliciously manipulate content in order to push Obama’s agenda. Just how shamelessly and desperately dishonest is the Peacock Network? Let us count the ways:
1. During last year’s presidential election Andrea Mitchell was caught manufacturing a Romney gaffe where none existed.
2. During last year’s GOP primary, Ed Schultz edited video of Texas Governor Rick Perry to make him look racist.
3.  In April of last year, the “Today Show” was caught editing audio of a 9-1-1 call to make George Zimmerman look racist.
4. In August of 2009, Contessa Brewer sliced and diced a photograph so it wouldn’t look like a black man attended a Tea Party carrying a firearm.
And just today, NBC was caught in yet another malicious edit, this time to make Second Amendment advocates look as though they did something as heinous as heckling the heartsick father of a child who lost his six-year-old son in the Sandy Hook massacre. You can watch the full video and NBC’s science fiction adaptation side-by-side here.
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Economy Stalls: U.S. Growth Halted as Federal Spending Fell in 4th Quarter
Disappointing data released Wednesday underscore how tighter fiscal policy may continue to weigh on growth in the future as government spending, which increased steadily in recent decades and expanded hugely during the recession, plays a diminished role in the United States economy. Significant federal spending cuts are scheduled to take effect March 1, and most Americans are also now paying higher payroll taxes with the expiration of a temporary cut in early January.
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Delusional Harry Reid: We are in a Recovery
From another elected Idiot!  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Thursday said the American economy is “in a recovery” despite the decline in the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP). Reid made the remark after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) blamed the White House for the unexpected contraction in the economy. “[McConnell] continues bad mouthing the recovery,” Reid said on the Senate floor. “We are in a recovery.” On Wednesday, the Commerce Department announced that the nation’s economy unexpectedly shrank by 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012. Echoing the White House, Reid blamed the GOP’s “austerity and brinkmanship” for the plunge.
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Clinton Blames Bush for Benghazi Disaster
In an “exit” interview with Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren, outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton continued the theme that, during the Bush administration, requests for monies from Congress to secure embassies and consulates were rejected. When asked by Van Susteren whether, in the wake of the Benghazi attack in which four American diplomats were murdered, Americans could now feel safe or satisfied that our consulates, embassies, and diplomats are secure, Clinton responded:
Well, as to the first question, you know, the accountability review board made a set of recommendations. We are embracing and implementing all of them, and making sure that we apply them.
Now, it’s not all a question of money. I am the first to say that. You know, you have to have the right people and the right job, making the right decisions. But money is a factor. And ever since the Bush administration, our requests for security monies from Congress have not been met. So you’ve had to make priority decisions. And it’s been difficult. So I am determined to leave the State Department safer and stronger when I walk out the door. And I know that John Kerry will just pick up the ball and run with it.
For a reaction the above, see below!







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Anti-Gun Advocates Heckle Woman Wanting to Defend Her Children
During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday on Capitol Hill about how to prevent gun violence, Senior Fellow of the Independent Women’s Forum Gayle Trotter was loudly heckled by anti-gun advocates in the crowd after she suggested women need firearms to protect young children in their homes. “An assault weapon in the hands of a young woman defending her babies at her home becomes a defense weapon,” Trotter said as jeers erupted. “Guns are the great equalizer during a violent confrontation.”  One more in a long list of the left virtual towards anyone that does not follow their version of the truth!
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Hillary Clinton warns GOP lawmakers not to act like North Africa terrorists by Joel Gehrke
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, while lamenting the partisanship of congressional Republicans who grilled her about the Benghazi attack, encouraged Republicans not to imitate the unwillingness to compromise evinced by terrorists in North Africa. “It has been increasingly partisan,” Clinton said today at the Newseum when asked to comment on the questioning she faced from Republicans last week.  “You can be partisan, you can have a strong sense of the rightness of your position, but democracy and certainly legislative bodies require compromise. And you can’t let compromise become a dirty word because then you veer toward fanaticism.” “I mean, we were just talking about extremists who think it’s only their way, they are the ones who have the truth, none of the rest of us have any kind of claim on what is real in their views,” she continued. “And so it’s important in our democracies – like Australia, like the United States – that yes, be passionate, be intense about your feelings, but at the end of the day you’ve got to serve the people who sent you there, and that requires compromise.” -  So hypocritical: for the left is to think like "I think".
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OWS is exposed: Rich, white, educated and working By BETH DEFALCO
It seems those Occupy Wall Streeter's were a lot closer to the 1 percent than they would like to admit.  A new study of the OWS movement in New York found that many of the protesters were highly educated and not nearly as down on their luck as they portrayed. A third of protesters in the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York lived in households earning more than $100,000 and more than two- thirds were employed professionals, according to the study from CUNY’s Joseph A. Murphy Institute for Worker Education and Labor Studies. The study also showed the movement was mostly organized by experienced political operatives and nearly all of those involved — 76 percent — were college educated.  Of those, half had graduate degrees and among those with bachelor’s degrees, and 28 percent had attended elite universities.  “Occupy Wall Street was not a spontaneous eruption but rather an action carefully planned by committed activists,” the study concluded.
Additionally, the study found that the protesters were also disproportionately men — 55 percent — and many were white. “It’s a pretty affluent demographic and highly educated,” said Professor Ruth Milkman, one of the study’s authors. “Many were the children of the elite, if you will.” While they weren’t all homeless, many of the under-30 crowd who participated in the movement were recently laid off or underemployed, with nearly a quarter saying they work fewer than 35 hours a week. “Most OWS activists and supporters were deeply skeptical of the mainstream political system as an effective vehicle for social change,” the study found.  About 750 protesters were surveyed for the study, which took about six months.
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