Townhall.com The Blogspot for Political, Conservative and Republican Blogs and Bloggers
Sunday, November 29, 2009
|
|
Welcome to the Brave New Health Care World
|
|
Posted by:
Carol Platt Liebau at
10:35 PM
|
Understandably, elderly people are concerned because they even those with compromised immune systems have been told they're not eligible to receive the H1N1 shot, which is in short supply.
This is what's known as "rationing" -- and it's what we're all going to see lots more of if health care "reform" goes through Congress. When there are promises that health care coverage will be both cheaper and offered to more people, there will be shortages of everything, compared to what we have now. And so the laws of supply and demand dictate that rationing will occur. Presumably, a federal bureaucracy will have to decide who's entitled to what, and when.
If you're elderly, the linked piece should send a chill through you. Not just because it's unsettling to be denied a vaccine that may save your life -- but because if ObamaCare goes through, this is just the tip of the iceberg.
|
|
|
Sunday, November 29, 2009
|
|
And the Countdown Continues
|
|
Posted by:
Carol Platt Liebau at
4:35 PM
|
Iran has approved plans to build 10 more uranium enrichment facilities, in defiance of the UN, the IAEA and the "international community."
It's all very well for President Obama to assume a morally superior, "I'm-no-George-W" posture and assert his interest in "dialogue" with the Iranians, but what happens now? We all know that Iran has been flouting the threats and the carrots dangled by the world for years, and this is one of the most blatant proofs yet.
"The world" would have had a collective cow had the Bush administration tried to stop Iran. But at least with Bush in power, the Iranians were at least somewhat constrained by some level of concern about how our president would respond to their flouting of international collective will.
In contrast, Obama's indifference to the Iranian uprising and his signals of weakness around the world have been heard loud and clear by the mullahs, and they are responding accordingly. Does the Obama administration have a Plan B?
|
|
|
Sunday, November 29, 2009
|
|
'This isn't the Britain we fought for,' say the 'unknown warriors' of WWII
|
|
Posted by:
Greg Hengler at
1:34 PM
|
I wrote a great deal about this problem facing Britain in my thesis paper. No longer can they be called "Great" Britain or the "United" Kingdom: public drunkenness, disrespect, socialized medicine and welfare galore, PC culture, almost complete loss of Christianity/Catholicism, unending immigration and the subsequent spread of Islam and Islamic Sharia Law, loss of patriotism, powerful animal rights and environmental organizations, etc. All this is coming to a boiling point and it appears that very few are willing to fight for the Churchill/Thatcher Britain we loved and appreciated [BTW: One could argue that Thatcher tried to reverse or at least hold this inevitable "change" that was sweeping through her country -- Churchill too if you've studied England's support for cowardly Chamberlain and their apprehension towards electing Winston Churchill]. Although this specifically is a British paper, these winds of "change" have become a threat to all of Western Civilization.
|
|
|
Sunday, November 29, 2009
|
|
Only Global Warming Critics Can Save Climategate Scientists
|
|
Posted by:
Jillian Bandes at
10:50 AM
|
The emails uncovered at Britain’s Climate Research Unit bring into question climate research on everything from tree rings to global temperature readings. BCRU's climatologists have said that they'll be exculpated by peer reviews — when scientists get other scientists to check out their work and verify the results. Mark Steyn points out today that with these climatologists, the peer-review process may be totally corrupted:
The trouble with outsourcing your marbles to the peer-reviewed set is that, if you take away one single thing from the leaked documents, it’s that the global warm-mongers have wholly corrupted the “peer-review” process. When it comes to promoting the impending ecopalypse, the Climate Research Unit is the nerve-center of the operation. The “science” of the CRU dominates the “science” behind the UN’s IPCC, which dominates the “science” behind the Congressional cap-and-trade boondoggle, the upcoming Copenhagen shakindownen of the developed world, and the now routine phenomenon of leaders of advanced, prosperous societies talking like gibbering madmen escaped from the padded cell, whether it’s President Obama promising to end the rise of the oceans or the Prince of Wales saying we only have 96 months left to save the planet. If it's just IPCC and CRU playing footsie, something is very wrong. But the CRU insists it's not guilty, announcing this weekend that they plan on releasing every inch of their data (the leaked data represented only a small fraction of their research) to show their work is solid. This additional data, they say, will prove their science to be flawless beyond a shadow of a doubt.
The CRU can't release any of this new data until they get permissions from different publishing companies and other research institutions that they've worked with because of copyright laws, but the fact that they declared they will do it is a heckuvah lot more transparency than ACORN has ever offered. And when the data is released, it will be pounced upon by climate change scientists and skeptics alike.
The data that has been released is already pretty damning. But if you want to really put one of the final nails in the coffin for global warming, checking out this additional mountain of evidence (when it is released) seems like the best bet.
The President heading to Copenhagen to declare the US is prepared to dramatically reduce their emissions is another issue...
|
|
|
Saturday, November 28, 2009
|
|
ACORN and "Journalistic Standards"
|
|
Posted by:
Carol Platt Liebau at
4:58 PM
|
The LA Times' James Rainey writes in his "On Media" column about how the reporting of Hannah Giles and James O'Keefe doesn't stand up to the "standards of journalism."
That may be true -- but it takes a lot of nerve to make that claim with a straight face. Especially if you work for the LA Times, which wears its left-wing politics on its sleeve and frequently pays the price for it in reduced credibility.
Rainey castigates Giles and O'Keefe for failing to get ACORN's side of the story. But what does he have to say -- just to take one example -- of the LA Times' decision to run a story alleging mistreatment of women by Arnold Schwarzenegger right before the gubernatorial election in 2003? Democrat Susan Estrich (a professor of law and expert on gender law) pointed out that "Anonymous charges from years ago made in the closing days of a campaign undermine fair politics." That strikes me as a violation of "journalistic standards," too. Yet the Times never apologized.
There are so many examples of misreporting and bias that it would take an eternity to lay it all out. But just to get a little closer to home, how 'bout The New York Times' decision to "cut bait" on a story about Obama's links to ACORN? Anyone think a story that might have damaged, say, Sarah Palin would have been abandoned so readily? (Not if the AP has anything to say about it!)
At the moment, the real journalistic scandal surrounding the press and ACORN has nothing to do with Giles and O'Keefe. Rather, it's how the mainstream press allowed an obviously corrupt organization to continue to operate in the political arena, accepting taxpayer money, with virtually no reporting on its routine illegalities.
This ACORN story that Giles and O'Keefe got was out in the open for every big MSM organization to see. They could have embedded an undercover reporter as a member of ACORN, or done any other countless number of things. And it's hard to believe that, if, say, Operation Rescue had been accused of the kinds of corruption and law-breaking that have longbeen linked with ACORN, the MSM would have politely looked away.
Rainey needs to understand that if he's worried about hard-hitting stories been reported in conformity with "journalistic standards," well, maybe then the press had better start doing some investigative work of its own -- and not just directed against one side of the political spectrum. Nature abhors a vacuum; now that the internet allows regular people to publicize the stories that the MSM conveniently overlooks, this is going to happen more and more.
|
|
|
Friday, November 27, 2009
|
|
Here Comes the Judge?
|
|
Posted by:
Carol Platt Liebau at
12:19 PM
|
Given Hillary Clinton's stated regret that the United States is not a signatory to the International Criminal Court, there is a real possibility that the Obama administration intends to allow American soldiers in Afghanistan to be tried in the in the Hague.
This is not only terribly wrong, it is gravely dangerous to US security. If America -- which has some of the world's strictest rules of engagement, and already punishes those who trangress them -- agrees to subject its soldiers to inherently selective international prosecution, no one could blame young people for declining to join the military. What's more, it allows a bunch of international judges effectively to define the permissible limits of the warfare conducted by Americans, and offers an opportunity for them to wield enormous (and unjustified) authority over our troops, our strategy and our defenses -- a clear violation of our sovereignty.
Soldiers' hands are already being tied enough -- and their ability to defend themselves constrained enough -- by the new, PC era in the Obama armed forces. Subjecting them to international jurisdiction would be the last straw.
Think of the irony: If this treaty went through, in Obamaland, terrorists who attack our country would be entitled to all the protections of American justice in our homeland; the brave men and women who defend us would be handed over to the tender mercies of the (often anti-American) international bureaucrats in the Hague. Outrageous.
|
|
|
Thursday, November 26, 2009
|
|
This Day in American History...
|
|
Posted by:
Meredith Jessup at
10:24 AM
|
On this day in 1789, a national Thanksgiving Day is observed in the United States following the recommendation of President George Washington and approved by Congress. The First Proclamation of Thanksgiving, however, was given by the Continental Congress in 1777 honoring the victory of American forces over the British in the Battle of Saratoga:
FOR AS MUCH as it is the indispensable Duty of all Men to adore the superintending Providence of Almighty God; to acknowledge with Gratitude their Obligation to him for Benefits received, and to implore such farther Blessings as they stand in Need of: And it having pleased him in his abundant Mercy, not only to continue to us the innumerable Bounties of his common Providence; but also to smile upon us in the Prosecution of a just and necessary War, for the Defense and Establishment of our unalienable Rights and Liberties; particularly in that he hath been pleased, in so great a Measure, to prosper the Means used for the Support of our Troops, and to crown our Arms with most signal success: It is therefore recommended to the legislative or executive Powers of these UNITED STATES to set apart THURSDAY, the eighteenth Day of December next, for SOLEMN THANKSGIVING and PRAISE: That at one Time and with one Voice, the good People may express the grateful Feelings of their Hearts, and consecrate themselves to the Service of their Divine Benefactor; and that, together with their sincere Acknowledgments and Offerings, they may join the penitent Confession of their manifold Sins, whereby they had forfeited every Favor; and their humble and earnest Supplication that it may please GOD through the Merits of JESUS CHRIST, mercifully to forgive and blot them out of Remembrance; That it may please him graciously to afford his Blessing on the Governments of these States respectively, and prosper the public Council of the whole: To inspire our Commanders, both by Land and Sea, and all under them, with that Wisdom and Fortitude which may render them fit Instruments, under the Providence of Almighty GOD, to secure for these United States, the greatest of all human Blessings, INDEPENDENCE and PEACE: That it may please him, to prosper the Trade and Manufactures of the People, and the Labor of the Husbandman, that our Land may yield its Increase: To take Schools and Seminaries of Education, so necessary for cultivating the Principles of true Liberty, Virtue and Piety, under his nurturing Hand; and to prosper the Means of Religion, for the promotion and enlargement of that Kingdom, which consisteth "in Righteousness, Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost. And it is further recommended, That servile Labor, and such Recreation, as, though at other Times innocent, may be unbecoming the Purpose of this Appointment, be omitted on so solemn an Occasion.
And finally in 1941, Thanksgiving Day in United States was officially recognized as a federal holiday.
Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at Townhall.com!
|
|
|
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
|
|
So Much for Transcending Race
|
|
Posted by:
Carol Platt Liebau at
10:23 PM
|
Given how high the hopes were for Barack Obama -- and how many of those hopes were pinned on the candidate's supposed ability to bridge America's racial divide -- it is sobering to analyze this linked Gallup survey.
The President's approval has slid to 39% among whites; the only reason it remains in the high 40's overall is because he enjoys a 73% approval among non-whites (and even higher, understandably, in the African American community alone). Apparently, the racial divide remains with us for the foreseeable future -- perhaps, ironically, worse than ever, to the extent that African Americans perceive any unfairness in the critiques of the President that they attribute, rightly or wrongly, to his race.
But even if the President has proved unable to transcend race, he has done a great favor for America, especially its young, albeit unwittingly. Every generation must be reminded anew about how precious freedom is, and how insidiously government can begin to take over -- and how destructive (to our liberties, to our economy, to our culture, even) an overweening, hyperactive, steroidal government can be.
Jimmy Carter taught an earlier generation about the disaster that lefty economics and soft foreign policy creates. Perhaps it may be that Barack Obama and his "Big Government knows best" agenda is doing the same thing. And if that's the case, I'm thankful -- for that and so much more.
|
|
|
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
|
|
Christmas Outlawed
|
|
Posted by:
Townhall.com Staff at
8:28 PM
|
From New Jersey:Singing "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" might be okay in Maplewood-South Orange schools. But "Silent Night" and "Oh Come All Ye Faithful" are still out.A board of education policy that prohibits celebratory religious music in district schools was upheld today by the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. The three-judge panel said there was "no constitutional violation" in the policy because other constitutional principles require public schools to remain strictly secular environments. "Those of us who were educated in the public schools remember holiday celebrations replete with Christmas carols, and possibly even Chanukah songs, to which no objections had been raised. Since then, the governing principles have been examined and defined with more particularity," Judge Dolores Korman Sloviter wrote for the court. The judges said public school administrations can discern which songs are most appropriate according to those constitutional guidelines because schools already are charged with the responsibility of creating a secular "inclusive environment" for students every day.
|
|
|
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
|
|
Blackwell Calls for Gen. Casey to be Fired
|
|
Posted by:
Townhall.com Staff at
8:14 PM
|
|
Guest blog post by Ken Klukowski In today’s American Thinker, former Ohio Sec. of State and U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Human Rights Commission Ken Blackwell calls for Gen. George Casey to be fired. Sec. Blackwell’s beef with Gen. Casey is that in the aftermath of the Ft. Hood shooting, Casey emphasized the need for diversity and that this must shape how the Army responds, because if diversity suffered it would be an even worse tragedy. Blackwell sharply disagrees. He makes the point that people who are colorblind or have heart murmurs cannot serve in uniform, no matter how patriotic they are. If these Americans cannot serve, then the military should have a zero-tolerance policy toward those making anti-American statements.
Read More...
|
|
|
|
|
|
Your Blog Postings:
|
|
Last updated 19 Minutes 19 Seconds Ago
|
|
Last updated 25 Minutes 9 Seconds Ago
|
|
Last updated 30 Minutes 55 Seconds Ago
|
|
Last updated 40 Minutes 57 Seconds Ago
|
|
Last updated 55 Minutes 41 Seconds Ago
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Archives of our Conservative, Republican, Political Blogs
|
|
|
|
Advertisement
|
Comments Comments
•Last post tonight, Bob
Re:
Only Global Warming Critics Can Save Climategate Scientists
By
Riders on the Storm
•Beware
Re:
Only Global Warming Critics Can Save Climategate Scientists
By
Dose of Reality
•The Bush Doctrine
Re:
And the Countdown Continues
By
grace
•Munck
Re:
Only Global Warming Critics Can Save Climategate Scientists
By
Col Bat Guano
•Riders on the Storm 11:09 PM
Re:
Only Global Warming Critics Can Save Climategate Scientists
By
Bob Munck
•Carol falls back on fearmongering
Re:
Welcome to the Brave New Health Care World
By
grace
•Ever see the movie
Re:
Welcome to the Brave New Health Care World
By
Riders on the Storm
•Axeman
Re:
And the Countdown Continues
By
NOTW
•Eugene
Re:
'This isn't the Britain we fought for,' say the 'unknown warriors' of WWII
By
Jo
•Maybe yes, maybe no, Bob
Re:
Only Global Warming Critics Can Save Climategate Scientists
By
Riders on the Storm
•stalkinghorse 10:48 PM
Re:
Only Global Warming Critics Can Save Climategate Scientists
By
Bob Munck
•NeoZIonist
Re:
And the Countdown Continues
By
Careful with that axe, Eugene
•Riders on the Storm 10:45 PM
Re:
Only Global Warming Critics Can Save Climategate Scientists
By
Bob Munck
•No it won't, Bob
Re:
Only Global Warming Critics Can Save Climategate Scientists
By
Riders on the Storm
•Global Cooling, Global Warming...
Re:
Only Global Warming Critics Can Save Climategate Scientists
By
stalkinghorse
•K.G. 10:33 PM
Re:
Only Global Warming Critics Can Save Climategate Scientists
By
Bob Munck
•Bob
Re:
Only Global Warming Critics Can Save Climategate Scientists
By
Riders on the Storm
•mike 10:27 PM
Re:
Only Global Warming Critics Can Save Climategate Scientists
By
Bob Munck
•Not really, Mikey
Re:
Twenty lessons your teenage daughter will learn from the Twilight movies
By
Careful with that axe, Eugene
•Sloan
Re:
'This isn't the Britain we fought for,' say the 'unknown warriors' of WWII
By
Careful with that axe, Eugene
|
|
|
|
The Latest on Town HallThe Latest on Town Hall
|
|
|
|
|
|
|