Wednesday, April 30, 2014

8 Things That Won't Get You Banned by the NBA

With the lifetime ban by the NBA of despicably racist Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling, the door is wide open to further sports bans on people who say offensive things in private.

That, of course, is why Sterling was ousted. Everyone knew for decades that Sterling was a disgusting pig racist – he had federal lawsuits led by the Department of Justice against him for discriminating against blacks, Hispanics, and Asians in housing (one allegation in the 2006 DOJ lawsuit: he said black people “smell”). That would have been an excellent reason for ousting Sterling years ago. The NBA did nothing. Neither did the NAACP, which gave him a lifetime achievement award. But now that his 31-year-old consort has released tape of him saying racist things, the thought police have sprung into action – and the NBA has followed.
Good riddance to Sterling. But let’s understand that ginning up the mob based on private feelings is a dangerous business. We now live in a world in which racial feelings are more important than racist acts (as Sterling’s housing discrimination non-ban shows), and in which bad thought trumps bad action.
Here, then, is a brief list of things that will not get you banned by a sports league for life. The good news: if we tape record all of these people and then hand the tape to Harvey Levin, presumably we can get them banned relatively quickly. Because privacy now extends only to comments with which we agree as a society.
1. Discriminating against black people in housing. Donald Sterling, as mentioned above, settled a lawsuit from the Department of Justice in 2009 in which the DOJ alleged that Sterling had discriminated against Hispanics, blacks, and families without children in housing. According to the lawsuit, Sterling said that “black tenants smell and attract vermin.” The NBA did not react. When specifically asked today, NBA commissioner Adam Silver explicitly said that the NBA’s ban on Sterling had nothing to do with past actions, only his nasty views. Because words speak louder than actions.
2. Strangling somebody. In 1997, Golden State Warriors All-Star Latrell Sprewell, playing for coach P.J. Carlesimo, decided to go berserk after Carlesimo asked him to “put a little mustard” on his passes. Sprewell then wrapped his hands around Carlesimo’s neck and dragged him across the floor for seven seconds. He then emerged later and punched Carlesimo. Two years earlier, he had accosted a teammate with a two-by-four. He was suspended for a grand total of 68 games.
3. Being a publicly vicious racist while black. Spike Lee has stated that white gentrification of Harlem has been horrible, has posted the address of George Zimmerman’s parents online to spur violence, has explained after visiting South Africa in the early 1990s, “I seriously wanted to pick up a gun and shoot whites. The only way to resolve matters is by bloodshed.” He, like Donald Sterling, is no fan of interracial dating: “I give interracial couples a look. Daggers. They get uncomfortable when they see me on the street.” He’s currently a host on NBA Radio on SiriusXM, stars in NBA commercials, and had a front-row seat to the Sterling announcement.
Then there’s Jay Z. Jay Z isn’t just fĂȘted by the President of the United States. He’s a former part-owner of the Brooklyn Nets and, as an agent, works closely with the league. He was spotted recently at an NBA game wearing a necklace medallion for the Five Percent Nation, which sees black men as gods and white people as devils.
4. Using anti-gay slurs. In 2011, Kobe Bryant called referee Bennie Adams a “faggot.” He received a $100,000 fine and no suspension. In 2012, current Clippers forward Matt Barnes called an officer a “f***ing faggot,” then made an attempt to handcuff him. There was no fine. He was suspended for one game. The suspension was unrelated to the slur. In 2012, Amare Stoudemire of the New York Knicks sent an anti-gay slur to a fan via Twitter. He was fined $50,000. There was no suspension. In 2013, Roy Hibbert of the Indiana Pacers used an anti-gay slur and was fined $75,000, without suspension. The Houston Rockets team is currently being sued by a gay waiter for their alleged use of anti-gay slurs. The NBA has taken no action.
5. Attacking patrons of your sport. In 2004, Stephen Jackson and Ron Artest of the Indiana Pacers leapt into the stands in Detroit to attack fans. Jermaine O’Neal fought fans on the court. A full-scale melee ensued with players fighting fans and fans fighting players. The result: Ron Artest was suspended the remainder of the season, Jackson was suspended for 30 games, and O’Neal was suspended for 15 games. In 1995, when Houston Rockets guard Vernon Maxwell didn’t like the comments of a fan, he charged into the stands and punched him. That resulted in a whopping 10 game suspension.
6. Pushing your girlfriend to have an abortion, then harassing her about it. In 2013, the press reported that current Clippers guard JJ Redick had an abortion contract with girlfriend Vanessa Lopez. When she became pregnant, the contract stipulated, she would have to have an abortion, and Redick would then have to “maintain a social and/or dating relationship” with her for a year or pay her $25,000. When she refused to have an abortion, he pressured her to do so. So far, there have been no repercussions.
7. Drawing your gun on a fellow player. Gilbert Arenas was suspended for 50 games, and his teammate Javaris Crittenton was suspended for 38 games after they drew firearms on each other while arguing over gambling debts. In the locker room.
8. Reckless driving resulting in a passenger’s death. In 2009, JR Smith, then of the Denver Nuggets, pled guilty to reckless driving. His reckless driving resulted in one of his passengers dying. He was suspended a total of 9 games.
None of this makes Donald Sterling’s repulsive and disgusting racism okay. None of it means that he shouldn’t have been tossed out of the NBA – for his racist activity. But it does demonstrate that for the NBA, the only reason Sterling is gone is media-driven hysteria over a private tape release. It certainly isn’t the NBA’s high moral standard with regard to language, race, or activity. And that is more of a commentary on the culture of the NBA and the lack of standards in the media than anything else.
Ben Shapiro is Senior Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News and author of the New York Times bestseller “Bullies: How the Left’s Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences America(Threshold Editions, January 8, 2013). He is also Editor-in-Chief of TruthRevolt.org. Follow Ben Shapiro on Twitter @benshapiro.

Hillary Clinton’s Problem Isn’t Age —- It’s Experience

Frontpagemag.com ^ | 4-30-2014 | Daniel Greenfield
The problem with Hillary Clinton’s candidacy isn’t that she would take office at the age of 69. An older and more mature president is not a bad thing. It’s how little she has done in that time. After 2008, when Hillary was beaten by an even more inexperienced candidate, most people forgot just how little experience she has holding elected office. Hillary Clinton only won one political office and she did so in her fifties. Despite winning two elections, her Senate career only covered the period from January 2001 to January 2009. It’s more time than Obama spent in the Senate, but that’s not saying much. JFK was considered young and inexperienced after spending 14 years in Congress. Hillary Clinton isn’t young, but her experience in elected office at the age of 69 will be less than his was at the age of 44. Hillary’s supporters will argue that she has plenty of experience in public life. Unfortunately it’s the wrong kind of experience. Like Elizabeth Warren, a slightly younger and more left-wing Hillary clone, she spent a good deal of time in the corrupt intersection between leftist non-profits, corporate boards and politically connected legal positions. The bad lessons those posts taught her are evident from Whitewater and HillaryCare. Hillary Clinton embodies the corrupt culture of Washington D.C. whose cronyism and nepotism she has far too much experience with as the other half of a power couple notorious for personal and political corruption. When they left, Bill and Hillary trailed illegal pardons and stolen property behind them. As recently as 2008, Bob Herbert of the New York Times wrote, “The Clintons should be ashamed of themselves. But they long ago proved to the world that they have no shame.” Back in 2001, he had suggested that the Clintons might one day be “led away in handcuffs.” That’s Hillary Clinton’s real experience and it’s not policy experience or foreign policy experience. It’s the politics of political corruption. Hillary Clinton’s track record doesn’t consist of policy achievements. It’s in the people she knows and owes favors to, the legion of corrupt associates of Clintonworld and the millionaires and billionaires who fund her unscrupulous political ambitions with their dirty money. If Hillary’s last name were still Rodham, no one would have even proposed her for Senate. There is absolutely nothing in her record or her ideas that recommends her for higher office. Not only is she inexperienced and inept, despite her many makeovers she is a colorless figure with the speaking style and fashion sense of a college registrar, and a bureaucrat’s cagey instinct for pre-emptive cover-ups that only make her look more suspicious even when she didn’t actually do anything wrong. Hillary Clinton did nothing of note either as Senator or Secretary of State. The reason why her time in the Senate is remembered on the left for her Iraq War vote and her time as Secretary of State is remembered on the right for Benghazi is that there isn’t anything else to remember her for. The high points of her national career are negative; terminated from Watergate after unethical behavior, a failure on government health care as First Lady, an Iraq War vote that she spent five years lying about and the abandonment of Americans in Benghazi as Secretary of State. And a track record of trying to blame her decisions on everyone else. Despite voting for the Iraq War, Hillary blamed Bush for a “rush to war” and for “triggering” the conflict. Few on the left have forgotten that she had even more positions on the Iraq War than John Kerry and that her positions changed completely based on what was going on in America and Iraq at the time. When it came to Benghazi, other people took the fall for a horrifying failure that she claimed to be accepting responsibility for, while her own pet committee shifted the blame onto others. Hillary Clinton accused Obama of being unready for a 3 A.M. phone call, but does anyone believe that she would take a 3 A.M. phone call and make a quick decision in a crisis? Is there anything in her track record in the Senate or as Secretary of State that suggests that she is bold and decisive? Anything at all? Hillary Clinton carefully avoided a track record. In the Senate, she invariably went with the least controversial position on every issue until she began overcompensating on Iraq to win back the left. In the Senate, she was for a ban on flag burning, Cap and Trade, nuclear power, for Israel, for Palestine, for abortion, against abortion, for harsh criminal penalties, against harsh criminal penalties, for No Child Left Behind, against No Child Left Behind, for gay marriage, against gay marriage, for medical marijuana and against medical marijuana. If the polls opposed gay marriage, she was against it. If the polls supported it, she was for it. The same went for everything else. As Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton staked out a bold position in favor of visiting other countries and shaking hands with their leaders. This is not a woman who takes 3 A.M. phone calls. Not without polling them first and issuing a non-definitive statement in the vaguest possible language that she can’t be held accountable for in any way. This isn’t a record that speaks of experience. It’s the record of a woman working hard to avoid ever having an experience, a position or a conscience. JFK came into the White House having seen combat and having come close to dying many times. He had spent almost a decade and a half in Congress and taken positions on important issues. Hillary Clinton may be almost 70 at that same point, but without a fraction of his experience, and she has tried to make up for it with childish lies like claiming to have come under sniper fire in Bosnia, claiming to have negotiated open borders for refugees in Kosovo and claiming to have been instrumental in the Irish peace process. It’s no wonder that the chief counsel to the House Judiciary Committee in Watergate said of her, “She was a liar.” Hillary’s experience is as imaginary as her work bringing peace to Northern Ireland. The issue isn’t her age; it’s her lack of principles and her lack of courage. Hillary Clinton compensates for a mediocre career of political cronyism with ridiculous lies in an act of neurotic insecurity. Hillary Clinton isn’t too old to be president. She’s too adolescent, untried and immature. She has made too few decisions that matter, taken too few risks and even less responsibility and lives an imaginary Walter Mitty life of death-defying adventures that only exist in her mind and her press releases. Hillary isn’t just incompetent, corrupt or a liar. Like too many of her peers, she’s a 66-year-old child.

Republican War on Women

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First The Cows!

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Will they be found?

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Hot Potateos

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The Dissenting Opinion

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Useless Invented Rights

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Bonus Time!

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Oh, those pesky facts!

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You're Upset?

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Right to vote

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Stalling?

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Support

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BURY!

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Heaven & Hell

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The Exception

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Democrats want Bush!

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Freeloaders

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14th Amendment

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LOGICAL!

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You Racist!

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DOPE!

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POWER?

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Cultural Marxism

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Wrapped

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Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Indiana Gov. Pence as potential 2016 GOP candidate?

FoxNews.com ^ | April 28, 2014 | By Mike Emanuel
There’s plenty of talk about possible Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush campaigns for the White House in 2016, but what about Indiana Republican Gov. Mike Pence? “I'm always humbled and flattered any time I'm mentioned for the highest office in the land,” Pence told Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday." "Much of that talk is the result of the progress the people of Indiana have been making,” Pence told Wallace. “I mean the fact is we have the lowest unemployment rate in the Midwest, we demonstrated the ability to balance our budget, cut taxes even while we invest in expanded educational opportunities and infrastructure." Pence also has also received some attention for Indiana being the first state in the nation to withdraw from Common Core to write its own academic standards. He makes the case education is a state and local function, and decisions about textbooks and curriculum should be made by parents, teachers, and Indiana schools.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...

Just Kidding

GOP, Rediscover Your Backbone

Townhall.com ^ | April 29, 2014 | David Limbaugh
Please explain this: Obama is incredibly unpopular, and Obamacare is one of the main reasons, yet some Republicans are now saying it's here to stay. That is flat-out unacceptable. GOP -- heal thyself.  You don't have to be a radical to understand that the GOP is afraid of its own shadow half the time, that it is suffering from an identity crisis and that it often lacks the courage of its convictions. We've learned that it's not enough for Obama to be the worst president in the past billion years. Republicans have to give the voters a reason to vote for them and not just against his party. Don't assume I'm being inconsistent because I have previously rejected the claim that Republicans don't have any plans to offer on health care, the economy and the rest. They definitely do, and they have offered numerous concrete ideas to reform health care, restructure entitlements, reverse our reckless course on taxing and spending, deregulate our administrative leviathan, and rebuild our national defenses. What I'm saying -- and I've said this before -- is that they have to start acting as if they passionately believe in their ideas and they believe they must be adopted soon. They must make clear their urgency about our dire national situation and quit downplaying it because they're afraid of looking extreme or afraid of receiving an electoral spanking from a growing percentage of voters who are dependent on government. Let's have more faith in the electorate. Let's have more faith in Americans. Let's not write everyone off because the Obama economy has placed so many in desperate economic straits and on some kind of government assistance. Republicans have a duty to sell their ideas and to quit running from them. Those who want to grovel to the voters as a lesser version of the Democratic Party ought to be kicked to the curb. This country will not be saved by liberal lite. We must have a 180-degree reversal of our present course. It has taken a while, but finally the public is waking up to Obama's destructive effect on this country. Even with a conspiratorially dishonest liberal media downplaying every negative bit of news concerning Obama and his policies, the public is still catching on. Many of Obama's formerly die-hard supporters are obviously grasping that he can no longer credibly blame his predecessor for his litany of policy disasters. The latest Allstate/National Journal Heartland Monitor poll shows Obama's approval at 41 percent, "near the lowest level ever recorded in the 20 Heartland Monitor Polls since April 2009." Also: "Only one in four adults say his actions are increasing economic opportunity for people like them, also among his worst showings in the polls." Obama's numbers are particularly bad "in the seven red-leaning states" where Democrats are trying to defend their Senate seats in November. Democrats can derive no comfort from polls showing that Congress is even less popular. These generic congressional polls always show Congress in disfavor with the public, but they have little correlation to congressional elections, especially compared with presidential approval ratings. As I've recently written, Obama is pushing his income inequality meme as the latest iteration of his divide-and-conquer electoral strategy, but this poll suggests it's falling flat. Voters are wising to the disconnect between Obama's rhetoric and his results. They know you don't expand opportunity by beating up the rich. Even if they don't know that, they know that his policies are not remedying the problems of which he constantly complains. This poll shows that Obama's no longer escaping blame for the state of the economy. Further, the poll reveals that only 27 percent said they believe the country is moving in the right direction, and a whopping 62 percent said it is on the wrong track. Think about that for a moment. Finally, people are awakening to the reality that Obama -- not George W. Bush -- "built this" economy. It's on him. As such, it's time for Republican members of Congress such as Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers to dispense with this talk about Obamacare's being here to stay. There is no room for fatalism in a party that needs to recapture the imagination and support of the American people. Obamacare is not here to stay. Thoughts to the contrary are noxious to the republic. Do not let this president succeed in completing his destruction of the best health care system in the history of the world just because it might be difficult to disentangle ourselves from Obamacare's poisonous tentacles. Republicans, quit looking over your shoulders; believe in yourselves. Rediscover your backbone. Full repeal. Full reversal of Obamanomics. Pro-growth policies. Reinvigoration of the free market. Full restoration of America's strength and greatness.

Special Rules for Democrats


Townhall.com ^ | April 29, 2014 | Mona Charen
Remember poverty? It was once a chief preoccupation of the Democratic Party. Lyndon Johnson made war on it. An entire ecosystem of federal, state and local programs has been created over the course of the past half-century to combat it, costing taxpayers more than $1 trillion annually. Yet the Democratic Party seems to have forgotten the poor. The proposal to increase the minimum wage by a few dollars is trifling compared with the vaunting ambitions of the War on Poverty. Sargent Shriver, Johnson's poverty czar, predicted that welfare state programs would eliminate poverty by 1976. Throughout the post-Great Society era, Democrats proclaimed that the persistence of poverty was a moral stain on the nation. What happened to that spirit? Every other sentence out of the mouths of President Barack Obama and other progressive Democrats seems to invoke the "middle class," and when they're not promising to help the middle class, they're obsessing about how to humble the rich. In the past two weeks, the left's preoccupation with confiscating thy neighbor's goods has been highlighted by two things: The reception of Thomas Piketty's new book, "Capital in the Twenty-First Century," and the response to rumors that Sen. Elizabeth ("Occupy Wall Street") Warren might run for president. Both have received the full secular saint treatment, reflecting the progressives' almost mob-like eagerness to lay hands on more of the property of the rich. Not for the poor, mind you, but for the "middle class" (translation: themselves). The great advantage of being a liberal/progressive in America is that you are always judged on your intentions (or stated intentions) and not on results. While the pundits are swooning for Piketty and Warren, may we have even a moment's pause to consider how well Obama's brand of progressivism has done for the poor and middle class? Poverty has increased under Obama's watch. It ticked up during the recession, which is to be expected and was obviously not a result of Obama's policies. But after the recession ended and after the first much-vaunted "recovery summer" in 2010 and then the second in 2011, poverty continued to climb. The poverty rate has now been stuck at 15 percent for three consecutive years. This is a 50-year high. Enrollment in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps) has increased by 39 percent. So there are more Americans living in poverty under Obama than under his predecessor. If he were a Republican, this reality would be widely acknowledged. It's better to be a Democrat. Now how is the class to whom the president so frequently panders doing? Jeffrey Anderson of The Weekly Standard looked at Census Bureau data and found that typical American household income has not only dropped during Obama's tenure, but has declined more since the end of the Great Recession than it did during the downturn. Real inflation-adjusted income for the median household fell 1.8 percent during the recession. It fell 4.4 percent during the recovery. Democrats know only one song and it goes: Let's make more people dependent upon government. They're crooning it vapidly now in anticipation of a Warren candidacy or a Piketty tax in which the treasures of the George Soroses and Warren Buffetts of the world (oh, sorry, my mistake, they're actually drooling over the fortunes of the Koch brothers and Sheldon Adelson) will be widely distributed. But redistribution doesn't bring prosperity. Look around you. Obama has raised taxes on the rich several times (some taxes are buried in Obamacare). In terms of federal dollars, we spend $7 of every $10 on sending checks to the poor and the middle class. Under Obama, the disability rolls have exploded, removing people from the world of work. Labor force participation rates have declined steeply, and while the administration has blamed baby boom retirements, the percentage of adults aged 25-54 in the workforce has declined as well. More than twice as many people have joined the ranks of the disabled under Social Security Disability Insurance as have gotten jobs since 2009. According to the 2012 Social Security trustees report, SSDI may be out of funds as early as 2015. About 25 percent of the poor in America are working. Only about 2.9 percent work full time. Government largesse can keep people from destitution but it cannot provide a ladder out of poverty. Only jobs can do that. A Republican Party alert to its own interests, as well as those of the nation, would pick up the cause of the poor that the Democrats have abandoned. Instead of a disability, welfare or unemployment check, they should find a way to offer a job.

Watters' World vs. Earth Day: 'I Don’t Really Know What It Is…I Just Believe In Global Warming'

Fox Nation ^ | April 28 | Staff
Forty-four years after its first commemoration on the Belmont Plateau in West Philadelphia and in Central Park, New York City, a large group of activists and interested citizens alike came together in Lower Manhattan to celebrate Earth Day. "What is global warming?" Watters asked one man. "I don't really know what it is," he said, "I just believe in global warming." When asked at what rate the Earth's average temperature had increased over the last fifteen years, respondents' answers were widespread: "35 degrees", "3.75 degrees," "100-and-something degrees…" Many were shocked learn from Watters that the earth had warmed only 0.11 degrees Fahrenheit.
(Excerpt) Read more at nation.foxnews.com ...

Michelle Obama 2-Day Hotel Stay in China Costs $222K



Weekly Standard | 4/29/14 | JERYL BIER
Michelle Obama wrapped up her March visit to China with a stop in Chengdu, arriving on March 25 and departing for the United States on the following day. But that one leg of the trip alone required about 900 room nights, ranging from 21 rooms beginning on March 13 for the advance team to a peak of 144 rooms when the first lady herself was at the hotel.

The Ten Commandments Of Liberalism

Townhall.com ^ | April 29, 2014 | John Hawkins
1) It doesn't matter whether you're yelling at someone who never knew you existed five minutes ago, lying about a conservative because you don't agree with him or even throwing a brick through a strore window, you are always the poor, oppressed victim. 2) By default, liberals can't be racist, sexist, or homophobic by virtue of being liberal. In other words, if a socialist like Hitler were around today, not only would he deny he is anti-Semitic, he'd be calling OTHER PEOPLE anti-Semitic. 3) The only bad, wrong and immoral thing you can do is being judgmental enough to label an activity bad, wrong, or immoral. That makes you sound like Rick Santorum and even if you turn out to be right about a lot of things over the long term, is it worth it if you sound like Rick Santorum? 4) Women, blacks, Hispanics, Muslims, gays, Jews, Asians -- pretty much everyone but straight white males -- are weak, hapless, sad victims who are barely capable of tying their own shoes without a liberal writing a government policy that does it for them. 5) There is no such thing as the failure of a liberal policy; there are only well meaning left-wingers doing wonderful things. If they don't turn out as expected, there must be evil, awful conservative Republicans causing it somehow -- probably George W. Bush or alternately, if he's busy planning new wars, Dick Cheney, Rush Limbaugh, Ted Cruz or Sarah Palin. 6) Liberalism is a jealous god and it will not tolerate anything, especially Christianity, being put before it. If Jesus wants to be a significant part of your life, He better call for gay marriage and a carbon tax first. 7) It's better to bankrupt a city like Detroit, cause the deaths of millions in Africa by banning DDT, or destroy the American health care system with Obamacare than to be called "mean" for choosing policies based on whether they work or not. 8) Not only should you go ahead and covet your neighbor's possessions, you should encourage other people to do it, too. Then, you should call for the government to take their possessions and redistribute them. After they get done, there may not be much of anything left, but then you'll all be equally poor and miserable and there's a lot to be said for that. 9) Disagreeing with a black Democrat? Racist. Opposing Affirmative Action? Racist. Think we pay out too much in welfare and food stamps? Racist. Don't like the IRS? Racist. Republican? Racist. Wait, what are we talking about? Racist! 10) Money is no object -- taxpayer money, of course, not your own. Your money, you want to keep. But, when other people's money is on the line, it's worth spending any amount, no matter how large, to achieve any good, no matter how small.

How long?

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Defibrillator

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Bucket List

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Scandal Responses

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Dropped?

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Goodies

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If you have a problem...

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Reid & Bush

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You are not alone

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At Least...

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LOOK!

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Keystone Delay

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Voluminous Laws

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PayPal

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Trojan

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A Doctor's Declaration of Independence

The Wall Street Journal ^ | April 28, 2014 | Daniel F. Craviotto Jr.
It's time to defy health-care mandates issued by bureaucrats not in the healing profession.  In my 23 years as a practicing physician, I've learned that the only thing that matters is the doctor-patient relationship. How we interact and treat our patients is the practice of medicine. I acknowledge that there is a problem with the rising cost of health care, but there is also a problem when the individual physician in the trenches does not have a voice in the debate and is being told what to do and how to do it. As a group, the nearly 880,000 licensed physicians in the U.S. are, for the most part, well-intentioned. We strive to do our best even while we sometimes contend with unrealistic expectations. The demands are great, and many of our families pay a huge price for our not being around. We do the things we do because it is right and our patients expect us to.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...

Monday, April 28, 2014

Palin: If I were president, 'Waterboarding is how we'd baptize terrorists'

Yahoo News ^ | 4/28/14 | Dylan Stableford
Sarah Palin would like all terrorists to know that if she were in charge, waterboarding is how the United States would baptize them. At least that's what the former Alaskan governor and ex-vice presidential nominee told thousands of attendees this weekend at the National Rifle Association's annual convention in Indianapolis. "If I were in charge," Palin said Saturday during a Stand And Fight rally at Lucas Oil Stadium, "[our enemies] would know that waterboarding is how we'd baptize terrorists." Palin mocked what she called the Obama administration's coddling of suspected terrorists
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...

Latest Obamacare worry for Dems: Where's My $2,500 Savings?

NewsMax ^ | 27 Apr 2014 | Greg Richter
As the midterm election approaches, vulnerable Democrats have a new worry that may be difficult to spin: Where did the promised $2,500 savings in health insurance premiums go?

As a candidate in 2008, Barack Obama repeatedly said his healthcare plan would reduce the typical family's annual premiums by up to $2,500 per year. Often, he did not include the caveat "up to," simply saying the "typical" family would save about $2,500 a year on premiums.

But now, a month past the signup deadline for coverage, comparisons for the typical family's then and now premium costs are difficult to come by. The Obama administration isn't issuing such numbers. At best, it has said the costs are "lower than projected," reported most recently by the Los Angeles Times.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...

ObamaCare Exchanges at Risk

Townhall.com ^ | April 28, 2014 | Michael F. Cannon
President Barack Obama says he has enrolled 7.1 million Americans through his new health insurance exchanges. If so, that may prove to be the easy part: the Affordable Care Act creates so many incentives for enrollees to drop their coverage that maintaining those enrollment numbers may start to resemble something like pushing millions of people up a greased poll.

For Obamacare to work, people must enroll and stay enrolled. An estimated 20 percent of those who signed up have yet to pay their first premium, and as many as 5 percent stopped paying after the first month. If too many drop out, premiums could climb until the exchanges collapse.

Unfortunately, those numbers may rise as Americans learn about the financial incentives Obamacare creates for healthy people to drop their coverage, save their money and wait until they get sick to re-enroll.
For most healthy people, going uninsured before Obamacare, at least for a time, was already a safe bet. They saved thousands of dollars per year. The odds that they would have to deal with unmet medical needs or unpaid medical bills were low. Obamacare makes going uninsured an even safer bet. It increases premiums for healthy people and the penalty for not buying health insurance is largely toothless. So if you earn too much to qualify for subsidies or you take steps to avoid paying the penalty, going uninsured will save you even more money than before. Obamacare even more dramatically reduces the downside of going uninsured. For example, suppose the day after you cancel your health insurance, you receive a serious diagnosis like diabetes, or cancer. Pre-Obamacare, you would not be able to buy coverage for that illness. Under Obamacare, however, insurers are required to cover you at the same premium they charged when you were healthy. You may have to wait until January for that coverage to take effect, but even so the downside risk of going uninsured is much smaller. And in many cases, you can get coverage before January. There are even ways to enroll in Obamacare coverage immediately:
  • If you live in one of the 25 or so states implementing Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion, you can get coverage immediately by reducing your income below 138 percent of the federal poverty level ($16,102 for a single adult). You can then restore your income when you enroll in an exchange plan in January — or even earlier, depending on how often your state verifies eligibility.
  • If you don’t live in a Medicaid-expansion state, you can move to one, as this Idaho family did.
  • If you’re pregnant, you can use one of these Medicaid options for immediate prenatal care, and/or enroll in exchange coverage effective the day your child is born.
I get viscerally anxious when I hear from intelligent, responsible people that they have dropped their family’s health insurance because Obamacare so significantly increased their premiums. But I cannot dispute that Obamacare has made that choice safer and more rational than ever before.
Keeping people at the top of a greased pole is hard enough when they want to be there. It’s a lot harder when they don’t.

Sarah Palin soldiers on as a diminished figure in the Republican Party

Wash Post ^ | 04/28/2014 | Robert Costa
Inspired by the possibility of a Sarah Palin presidential run, Peter Singleton moved to this suburban community from California in November 2010 and booked an extended stay at the Days Inn on 114th Street. Palin was a tea party queen-maker at the time, and true believers like Singleton could sense a bid for the White House. For the next 10 months, he traversed his adopted state on her behalf, rallying Iowans to the cause. But there would be no second political act for Palin, and these days many followers like Singleton have moved on. He said Friday at an ice cream social at nearby Faith Baptist Bible College that he still admires the former Alaska governor and follows her on Facebook, but, politically, she holds little sway over him. Singleton didn’t even bother to attend Palin’s Sunday afternoon speech a short drive from here because he disagreed with her endorsement in Iowa’s Republican Senate primary. “It’s one of those things,” Singleton said, sticking his hands into the pockets of his leather jacket. “I have great respect for her, but this isn’t about a person, it’s about a set of principles and values.”
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