Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Russia Secures the Motherland

Via Carl

 Thousands of Ukrainian protesters gather for an opposition rally at Independence Square in Kiev on December 1. Outraged Ukrainians called for early elections meant to punish authorities for rejecting a historic EU pact.(SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP/Getty Images)

Russia is bullying Ukraine into submission, setting the stage for a more assertive Moscow.

To Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukraine isn’t a foreign country—Ukraine is part of Russia.
 
In his version of history, Russia traces its origins back to Kievan Rus—the first Slavic state that centered on Kiev, Ukraine’s capital. The Kievan Rus ruled Moscow and much of the area that is now Russia’s heartland.

Today, many Ukrainians reject the idea that they and the Russians are one people. They find Putin’s description of Ukraine as “little Russia” offensive. Much of Ukraine’s youth would love to be rid of their self-proclaimed big brother, but they’re weighed down with one major curse: Russia still needs Ukraine.

If Ukraine were to ally itself with an enemy nation, Russia can forget about being a world power. Ukraine is a dagger pointed at the Russian heartlands. There are no natural, defensible barriers to stop an invader from Ukraine.

More @ TheTrumpet

Obamacare Lawsuits Mount as Notre Dame Joins Scrum of Opponents

 

Hours after the University of Notre Dame filed a religious challenge to the U.S. health-care overhaul in Indiana federal court, a judge in Washington heard arguments in a lawsuit assailing tax provisions of the statute.

The cases underscore the persistent and diverse nature of legal attacks on the Affordable Care and Patient Protection Act even as the Obama administration struggles to fix bugs in HealthCare.gov, the online marketplace for health insurance created by the measure.

Obamacare litigation continues partly because questions about its legitimacy as a piece partisan legislation are unresolved, said Ilya Shapiro, a senior fellow in constitutional studies at the libertarian Cato Institute in Washington and an opponent of the act. The statute passed Congress without Republican support in either the House or Senate.

It doesn’t matter what motivates the plaintiffs bringing those challenges as long as “their legal arguments are sound, because that’s what the courts are looking at,” Shapiro said.

More @ Newsmax

This n' That








Victim stuns alleged robber with punch to face

 
 Stock photo

A Decatur man being held up early Monday with a pump-action shotgun pressed into his back managed to turn around and punch the robber in the face, police reports say.

The 35-year-old victim, a bread delivery driver, had been accosted at 1 a.m. in the 900 block of North Edward Street while preparing his truck for his rounds, according to the reports.

“Then he felt something which he realized to be the barrel of a shotgun in the small of his back,” the reports said. “And he heard the distinct sound of a pump-action shotgun being racked-up,” (the motion of loading a shell ready to be fired).

The robber told the victim not to move before rifling his pockets and taking a wallet and other personal property, which he passed to an accomplice standing nearby. It was when the robber reached over to search the victim’s front pockets that he spun around and hit the robber in the head, knocking the man off balance.

It's Official: MSNBC Host Martin Bashir Resigns


Gee, I'm sure he'll be missed.........

You know what he said. And now, it seems, he’s decided to tender his resignation.

Here’s the statement he emailed to Mediate:

After making an on-air apology, I asked for permission to take some additional time out around the Thanksgiving holiday.


Upon further reflection, and after meeting with the President of MSNBC, I have tendered my resignation.

More, if you must torture yourself, @ Townhall :)

Powers Push to Get In on Last Days of Obama Land Rush

 

The Obama Land Office is doing booming business these days. Strategic gains are being made by America’s enemies at a record clip.

Not since Roosevelt gave away Eastern Europe at Yalta, has an American president so disordered the strategic balance of power worldwide. Roosevelt we now know was dying when he attended the Yalta conference. Obama, on the other hand, has been dead from the neck up for a long time.

So it comes as little surprise that U.S.-Chinese relations have entered a new phase with hardliners behind the bamboo curtain directly challenging Japanese sovereignty and thereby directly challenging American power in the Far East.

More @ Townhall

Oklahoma Angler Smashes 47-year Rainbow Trout State Record

A joyous Mark Reed holds up his record rainbow trout.

Angler Mark Reed, 61, has much to be proud of after bringing in the first new Oklahoma record rainbow trout in nearly a half century. According to the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, Reed caught his 10-pound, 10.56-ounce trout at Lake Watonga in Blaine County on November 17. The record rainbow came in at 27-3/4 inches long and 17-1/2 inches in girth.

“Never in my wildest dreams I thought I would catch a fish that big,” Reed told The Oklahoman.

A truly plastic gun ban: Opposing view

1988 Undetectable Firearms Act was poorly written and shouldn't be reauthorized.

If you like your Second Amendment, you can keep it.

That seems to be the promise being put forward by many politicians on Capitol Hill, even while they are rushing headlong to renew a gun ban that is set to expire next week.

The gun ban supposedly outlaws "plastic guns," but it's so poorly drafted, it's potentially much broader.

Never mind that the Bill of Rights is pretty unequivocal when it guarantees that our gun rights "shall not be infringed." But for many congressmen, so-called mild "infringements" are merely an opportunity to get a foot in the door for greater mischief much later.

After all, who could have imagined that an Obamacare provision intended to bar doctors from asking their patients about legal gun ownership in the home would be twisted by President Obama to specifically allow doctors to collect such information?

More @ USA Today

 

Pew Poll: Support for Non-Interventionism Reaches Highest Point in Nearly Five Decades

Via avordvet

  photo pewintern_zpsda5af4a5.png

 Americans’ appraisal of what the U.S.’s role in the world should be has shifted dramatically since Pew first began conducting their surveys, most noticeably during the Vietnam War and after the invasion of Iraq commenced.

 According to Pew’s pollsters, however, the public hasn’t been this skeptical of foreign interventionism since they first started conducting the survey nearly a half century ago.

More @ Town Hall

Obamacare website finally works well enough to deliver long-expected sticker shock

Via Billy




So, the Obama administration says that healthcare.gov is fixed. Of course, it isn’t really fixed, but our expectations have been lowered so much that this is close enough:

 Even if it isn’t perfect, more people are finally able to get through and see quotes. And that’s Obamacare’s big problem — the one we all expected, as opposed to the unexpectedly bad website issues.

Now that the site is sort-of working, people are learning that practically all of their disposable income will soon go to pay for more expensive health insurance that is substantially worse than what they had before. And people with employee plans aren’t safe, either — know that you may be in this boat soon.

Take this guy — Dave Petno, an insurance broker in Ohio who had been trying to get through the system and apply since it opened October 1. His story was picked up by the Daily Caller this morning. Here’s what Petno has to say:

LEOs gone wild

 1203WH085-L
William Dong, 21 or 22, 1336 Stratfield Road, Fairfield, was arrested but not charged as of late Tuesday afternoon. A rifle was recovered in his car, a gray-blue Toyota RAV, which was parked in the ShopRite parking lot. The UNH campus was on lockdown for much of the day.
Sgt. David Tammaro said a 911 call came from the ShopRite lot reporting a man with a rifle. Police “confronted (Dong) within minutes” near the UNH campus and arrested him. In addition to the rifle, ammunition and magazines were found in the Toyota, Tammaro said. He said Dong was the only suspect.
If the New Haven Register is correct, Dong had two handguns and a rifle in his possession, and was arrested based upon the fact that someone saw the rifle. He had a valid handgun permit, and never apparently threatened anyone.

Whether he had any ill intentions is unclear. Dong was arrested by New Haven Police within minutes after the initial 911 call.

What is clear is that law enforcement agencies on every level completely over-reacted to the short-lived threat.

More @ Bearing Arms

This Republic will be transformed into one of the most oppressive and offensive oligarchies that has ever arisen amongst the civilized nations of the earth.

Via Bernhard

  http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f7/Jefferson_Davis_portrait.jpg

The Passing of President Jefferson Davis -- 6 December 1889

“When Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederate States, was seeking safety in flight, a fellow traveler remarked to him that the cause of the Confederates was lost. He replied:       “It appears so, but the principle for which we contended is bound to reassert itself, though it may be at another time and in another form.” (Southern History of the War, Pollard, page 582)



“The lamp of life waned low as the hour of midnight arrived; nor did it flicker into the brightness of consciousness at any time. Eagerly, yet tenderly, the watchers gazed at the face of the dying chieftain. His face, always calm and pale, gained additional pallor, and at a quarter to 1 o’clock of the morning of the 6th day of December death came to the venerable leader….

There was nothing remarkable about the death-bed scene. The departure of the spirit was gentle and utterly painless. There were no dry eyes in the little assembly about the bed, and every heart bled with the anguish which found vent in Mrs. Davis’s sobs and cries.” 

The Times-Democrat gave the following account of the closing scene: “At 12:45 o’clock this morning Hon. Jefferson Davis, ex-President of the Confederate States, passed away at the residence of Associate Justice Charles E. Fenner. Only once did he waver in his belief that his case showed no improvement, and that was at an early hour yesterday morning, when he playfully remarked to Mr. Payne: “I am afraid that I shall be compelled to agree with the doctors for once, and admit that I am a little better.”

At 7 o’clock Mrs. Davis administered some medicine, but the ex-President declined to receive the whole dose. She urged upon his the necessity of taking the remainder, but putting it aside, with the gentlest of gestures whispered, “Pray, excuse me.” These were his last words.”




The [New Orleans] Daily States said in its editorial:

“Throughout all the South there are lamentations and tears; in every country on the globe where there are lovers of liberty there is mourning; wherever there are men who admire heroic patriotism, dauntless resolution, fortitude, or intellectual power and supremacy, there is sincere sorrowing. The beloved of our land, the unfaltering upholder of constitutional liberty…is no more…” “Jefferson Davis is dead; but the principles for which he struggled, for the vindication of which he devoted his life, for which he suffered defeat, and unto which he clung unto death, still live. 

The fanatical howlings of the abolitionists, the tumult and thunders of civil war, the fierce mouthings of the organizers of reconstruction, and reconstruction itself, that black and foul disgrace of humanity, are all departed, sunk into silence like a tavern brawl, but the constitutional principles upon which the Confederacy was founded and for which Jefferson Davis spoke and struggled, for which he gave life and fortune, still survive in all their living power; and when they shall have been, if ever, really destroyed, this Republic will be transformed into one of the most oppressive and offensive oligarchies that has ever arisen amongst the civilized nations of the earth.”




The Times-Democrat of the 10th had this editorial:

“If there was ever the shadow of doubt in the minds of the people of the United States of the hold of Jefferson Davis upon the hearts of the Southern people that doubt has been removed. From city and country, from every nook and hamlet, have come expressions of profoundest sorrow over his death; of grief at the passing away of the great Confederate chieftain. They turned to him as the Mussulman to his Mecca---the shrine at which all true Southern-born should worship. 

There has never been any division of sentiment as to the greatness of Jefferson Davis. He has always been the hero of his people---their best beloved. From the day that Lee laid down his arms at Appomattox to the hour of Jefferson Davis’s death the Southern people look upon the ex-President of the Confederacy as the embodiment of all that was grand and glorious in the Lost Cause. Standing alone as a citizen without the power to exercise his citizenship, the last surviving victim of sectional hate and malevolence, he was an exile while on the soil of his native land and in the midst of his own people. Jefferson Davis will go to the grave bathed in a people’s tears.”

(The Memorial Volume of Jefferson Davis, J.W. Jones, 1889, pp. 473-509


Is this Christmas message offensive?

 

The holiday message on a church sign in this Atlantic coastal community has raised some eyebrows, at least at the local NBC television station which thought a news story on it was necessary.

The inspirational sign in front of the Lighthouse Baptist Church is changed weekly, and for the past 15 years, there has been no objection to the slogans.

But a recent message stated, “Christmas easier to spell than Hanukkah.”

That, according to WPTV reporter Christina Noce, prompted some people to call the church demanding the sign be removed.

More @  WND

Confederate Crosses reported taken from cemetery

Via Carl

 http://vanishingsouthgeorgia.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/emmaus-baptist-church-saint-st-george-charlton-county-ga-confederate-private-henry-e-gainey-jr-headstone-iron-cross-confederate-flag-csa-civil-war-picture-image-photograph-vanishing-sou.jpg

VERBATIM

Two metal, Confederate grave markers were removed from grave sites at Flat Rock Cemetery in Union County.

According to a Union County Sheriff's Office incident report, the markers were reported missing on Nov. 22 after a woman who helps take care of the cemetery noticed they were missing. The woman told deputies the last time she knew for certain the markers were there was almost a year ago.
The markers are cross-shaped, made of metal and estimated to be worth $200.

An abortion raises risk of breast cancer by 44 percent

breast_cancer_cells

Professor Joel Brind, a science adviser for the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer who reached a similar conclusion in 1996, called the finding a “real game-changer” in the controversy over the link between abortion and breast cancer.

The new study’s conclusion comes amid legal battles against Obamcare’s requirement that employers pay for abortifacients and steroid drugs, commonly known as birth control pills.

More @ WND

Overruled: Government Invasion of your Parental Rights (Official Movie)


Media Ripped Over Obama ID Fraud; To Those Masquerading As Media

Via Jeffery

 

To the 39 “media” outlets protesting lack of access to the Obama White House in a hand-delivered letter on November 21, 2013:


Your missive to putative White House spokesman Jay Carney will fall on deaf ears.

You wonder why Obama’s handlers will not allow you access to “the President while he is performing his official duties.”  You question why only sanitized, poised photos released by the White House are allowed to circulate in the public arena.  In order to obtain answers, however, you need to look at yourselves and admit what you, not Obama, did to your profession.

Had you researched Obama’s background in 2007 and 2008, you would have found out that he is a communist.  “Communist,” you say?  Oh, you believed that communists were a thing of the past, something railed about by that crazy Sen. Joseph McCarthy back in the 1950s while more sophisticated members of the Congress and the “media” laughed behind his back or ridiculed him openly.  Yes, ridicule is a thing you “journalists” do quite well when you see something that is simply below your elevated stature to investigate.

An example is the questions about Obama’s constitutional eligibility which arose in 2008.

Wartime bomber hero and the radio operator who guided him home from bombing mission over Germany celebrate 70 YEARS of marriage

Via WiscoDave


The couple got married in her home city of Norwich at the height of the Second World WarA wartime bomber hero was today celebrating 70 years of marriage to the radio operator whose voice he fell in love with as she guided him home from a bombing mission over Germany


A wartime bomber hero was today celebrating 70 years of marriage to the radio operator whose voice he fell in love with as she guided him home from a bombing mission over Germany.

Flt Lt Steve Stevens, 91, first heard Maureen's calming voice as she guided him back to RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire following the mission in 1943.

The 21-year-old Lancaster pilot was so intrigued by hearing a female's voice from the tower, he went to have a look after landing.

More @ Daily Mail

1970 Plymouth Hemi Cuda 426/425 HP

 S137 1970 Plymouth Hemi Cuda  426/425 HP, Automatic Photo 1

- Matching numbers R-Code Hemi 426/425 HP engine
- Two 4-barrel carburetors, numbers correct
- Aluminum intake, numbers correct
- D32 A727 Torqueflite transmission
- A32 9.75 Dana 60 Super Performance axle
- Original Alpine White color, code EW1
- N96 Shaker hood
- B51 power disc brakes
- N41 dual exhaust with N42 chrome tips
- Hemi suspension with heavy duty torsion and sway bars
- Space saver spare, jack and canister
- Only 368 Hemi automatics built
- Rotisserie restoration photos
- Complete in person visual inspection by Galen Govier, report included

More @ MECUM

Precedent set by Obama could lead to armed revolt


The Once Great City of Havana

Via WRSA


“Havana is like Pompeii and Castro is its Vesuvius.”Anthony Daniels

Almost every picture I’ve ever seen of Cuba’s capital shows the city in ruins. Una Noche, the 2012 gut punch of a film directed by Lucy Mulloy, captures in nearly every shot the savage decay of what was once the Western Hemisphere’s most beautiful city.

So I was stunned when I saw the restored portion of Old Havana for the first time.

It is magnificent. And it covers a rather large area. A person could wander around there all day, and I did. At first glance you could easily mistake it for Europe and could kid yourself into thinking Cuba is doing just fine.

And yet, photographers largely ignore it. Filmmakers, too. It must drive Cuba’s ministers of tourism nuts. Why do you people only photograph the decay? We spent so much time, effort, and money cleaning up before you got here.

Perhaps the wrecked part of the city—which is to say, most of it—strikes more people as photogenic. But I don’t think that’s it. The reason restored Old Havana is ignored by photographers, I believe, is because it looks and feels fake.

It was fixed up just for tourists. Only communist true believers would go to Cuba on holiday if the entire capital were still a vast ruinscape. And since hardly anyone is a communist anymore, something had to be done.