Month: July 2013

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Prayer Requests 7-24-13

Who has a request or praise to share?

And it Wednesday, so don’t forget Gambia. 🙂

Psalm 127

1 Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.

2 It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep.

3 Lo, children are a heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.

4 As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.

5 Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.

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News/Politics 7-24-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

As always, open thread. 🙂

Too late, you own it.

From TheWashingtonPost  “The landmark health-reform law passed in 2010 has never been very popular and always highly partisan, but a new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds that a group of once loyal Democrats has been steadily turning against Obamacare: Democrats who are ideologically moderate  or conservative.”

Meanwhile the majority of the public remains against it as well. And the public also believes healthcare will get worse because of it.

From Rasmussen  “Voters continue to give high marks to the health care they now receive but are more pessimistic than ever about the short-term future of the health care system in this country.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 24% of Likely U.S. Voters now expect the U.S. health care system to get better over the next couple of years. Sixty-one percent (61%) think that system will get worse. That’s up four points from a month ago and up 13 points since February.”

Repeal it, or shut ‘er down. Either works. 🙂

From TheHill  “ObamaCare is at the center of a rapidly escalating fight that threatens to  shut the government down this fall.

Senate Republicans, including two members of the leadership, are coalescing  around a proposal to block any government funding resolution that includes money  for the implementation of the 2010 Affordable Care Act.”

And an update to a previous story.

From NationalReview  “President Obama has had a poor record of job creation, but at least one small economic sector is doing well: community organizing.

The Department of Health and Human Services is about to hire an army of “patient navigators” to inform Americans about the subsidized insurance promised by Obamacare and assist them in enrolling. These organizers will be guided by the new Federal Data Hub, which will give them access to reams of personal information compiled by federal agencies ranging from the IRS to the Department of Defense and the Veterans Administration. “The federal government is planning to quietly enact what could be the largest consolidation of personal data in the history of the republic,” Paul Howard of the Manhattan Institute and Stephen T. Parente, a University of Minnesota finance professor, wrote in USA Today. No wonder that there are concerns about everything from identity theft to the ability of navigators to use the system to register Obamacare participants to vote.”

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Next we have a leftist caught with a racist sign at a George Zimmerman rally. She was pretending to be with them in order to make them look bad. Of course this is easy to accomplish when you have like-minded leftist in the media willing to run with a false story.

From GatewayPundit  “A photo from the Houston pro-Zimmerman counter-rally of the NBPP anti-Zimmerman rally picked up by the AP shows a woman holding a sign that read, “Racist & Proud.”

“Austin resident Renee Vaughan echoed the sign’s ugly sentiments by yelling, “We’re racist. We’re proud. We’re better because we’re white,” at the Martin group as they passed, according to the Chronicle.

The act to smear the Zimmerman supporters as racists with a leftist plant worked as the photo and comment was picked up and spread worldwide.“

She’s also a community organizer. What were the chances huh? 🙄

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And since we’re on the subject of leftist hacks pretending to be something they’re not, here’s one pretending she’s a journalist.

From CNSNews  “Noting the worldwide excitement surrounding Kate Middleton’s pregnancy, MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry compared the hoopla surrounding the British royal birth to Texas abortion politics, and then offered her own definition of viability:

“When does life begin? I submit the answer depends an awful lot on the feeling of the parents. A powerful feeling – but not science,” Harris-Perry said on her show Sunday. “The problem is that many of our policymakers want to base sweeping laws on those feelings.”

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Here’s a not shocking story.

From HotAir  “The analysis from Media Research Center comes as no shock to those of us keeping track of both stories as they unfolded, of course, but it’s noteworthy nonetheless. The broadcast networks created a new heroine in tennis shoes in Wendy Davis while barely mentioning Kermit Gosnell over a much longer period:

Davis, a previously unheard of Texas state senator, staged a filibuster last month in a successful bid to derail a late-term abortion bill. Cheered by rowdy pro-abortion activists, Davis spoke for 11 hours against a bill outlawing abortions after 20 months of pregnancy and mandating that abortion clinics meet the same sanitary and safety standards as any other Texas medical facility.”

“In the 19 days since her June 25 filibuster, ABC, CBS and NBC have devoted 40 minutes, 48 seconds of their morning and evening news programs to stories including Davis. That’s more than three times the 13 minutes 30 seconds they gave Gosnell during the entire 58 days of the murder trial.”

Well the media loves to push stories that promote their pro-abortion views. Stories that show the true horror of those views, not so much.

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Next up, some friendly fire for Anthony Weiner over his latest and continuing stupidity.

From TheNYTimes  “At some point, the full story of Anthony Weiner and his sexual relationships and texting habits will finally be told. In the meantime, the serially evasive Mr. Weiner should take his marital troubles and personal compulsions out of the public eye, away from cameras, off the Web and out of the race for mayor of New York City.”

“That’s ridiculous and speaks to a familiar but repellent pattern of misleading and evasion. It’s up to Mr. Weiner if he wants to keep running, to count on voters to forgive and forget and hand him the keys to City Hall. But he has already disqualified himself.”

Sure it’s a Blind Squirrel moment for the NYT, but I’ll still give them credit for stating the obvious.

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Our Daily Thread 7-23-13

Good Morning!

On this day in 1829 William Burt patented the typographer, which was the first typewriter.

In 1904 the ice cream cone was invented by Charles E. Menches.

In 1938 the first federal game preserve was approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Utah.

In 1954 a law is passed that states that “The Secretary of the Navy is authorized to repair, equip, and restore the United States Ship Constitution, as far as may be practicable, to her original appearance, but not for active service.”

In 1958 the submarine Nautilus departed from Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, under orders to conduct “Operation Sunshine.”  The mission was to be the first vessel to cross the north pole by ship. The mission was completed on Aug. 3rd.

And in 1984 Miss America, Vanessa Williams, turned in her crown after a photo scandal. She was the first to resign the title.

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Quote of the Day

“The pitcher has to find out if the hitter is timid, and if he is timid, he has to remind the hitter he’s timid.”

Don Drysdale

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It’s Allison Krauss’ birthday. So here she is with a couple of friends doing a medley.

It’s also the birthday of Blair Thornton, from this group.

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Anyone have a QoD for us?

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Prayer Requests 7-23-13

Who can we pray for today?

Psalm 125

1 They that trust in the Lord shall be as mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever.

2 As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about his people from henceforth even for ever.

3 For the rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous; lest the righteous put forth their hands unto iniquity.

4 Do good, O Lord, unto those that be good, and to them that are upright in their hearts.

5 As for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways, the Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity: but peace shall be upon Israel.

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News/Politics 7-23-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

First up…

From RealClearPolitics  “A week after George Zimmerman’s acquittal in the fatal shooting of black  teenager Trayvon Martin, the backlash continues, with nationwide protests and  calls to boycott Florida. President Obama spoke some undeniable truths when he  noted that the African-American community’s reaction must be seen in the context  of a long, terrible history of racism. But there is another context too: that of  an ideology-based, media-driven false narrative that has distorted a tragedy  into a racist outrage.

This narrative has transformed Zimmerman, a man of racially mixed  heritage that included white, Hispanic and black roots (a grandmother who  helped raise him had an Afro-Peruvian father), into an honorary white male  steeped in white privilege. It has cast him as a virulent racist even though he  once had a black business partner, mentored African-American kids, lived in a  neighborhood about 20 percent black, and participated in complaints about a white police lieutenant’s son getting away with beating a homeless black man.”

Next up, I asked before, I’ll ask again. Assisting, or orchestrating?

From TheDailyCaller  “At CRS headquarters, we (meaning I) regularly had to warn or take corrective  action against career employees for acting as advocates instead of mediators,”  Ondray Harris, the former director of the DOJ’s Community Relations Service  (CRS), told The Daily Caller. CRS was the unit deployed to Sanford in 2012 to  oversee anti-Zimmerman protests.

“Some CRS employees come to the Agency with anti-law enforcement or anti-  what they would call the ‘white establishment’ [attitudes]” added Harris, an  African American who joined CRS during the administration of George W. Bush in  2007 and left in 2010.”

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And Obama supported “Stand Your Ground” laws, even co-sponsored it in Illinois. His flip-flop is recent. Again.

From TheIllinoisReview  “This past week President Obama publicly urged the reexamination of state self-defense laws (see remarks below). However, nine years ago then-State Sen. Barack Obama actually co-sponsored a bill that strengthened Illinois’ 1961 “stand your ground” law.

The Obama-sponsored bill (SB 2386) enlarged the state’s 1961 law by shielding the person who was attacked from being sued in civil court by perpetrators or their estates when a “stand your ground” defense is used in protecting his or her person, dwelling or other property.

The bill unanimously passed the Democrat-controlled Illinois Senate on March 25, 2004 with only one comment, and passed the Democrat-controlled Illinois House in May 2004 with only two votes in opposition. Then-Governor Rod Blagojevich (D) signed it into law.”

And the case for standing your ground on “Stand Your Ground”.

From HotAir  “If you need a weekend reading assignment on an important topic, I will definitely suggest  Charles C. W. Cooke’s essential read, Stand Your Ground on Stand Your Ground Laws at National Review. This is a subject which I’d thought was pretty much settled law, but has recently been brought back into the spotlight by Eric Holder, as well as his boss. Some of the opinions being expressed by our nation’s top cops fly directly in the face of the principles underlying current law in many areas. In fact, as Cooke points out, this concept is one which has found a comfortable home in many more places than you might think. For proof, he cites Eugene Volokh.

The substantial majority view among the states, by a 31-19 margin, is no duty to retreat. Florida is thus part of this substantial majority on this point. And most of these states took this view even before the recent spate of “stand your ground” statutes, including the Florida statute.”

Clueless about the law, or willfully ignoring it? Either way, that seems to be their M.O.

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This next one is just a coincidence I’m sure. 🙄

From TheDailyCaller  “Former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman and two other IRS officials met with  a top official at the White House one day before the agency issued new  guidelines on how to scrutinize tea party and conservative groups applying for  tax-exempt status.

Shulman — joined by his chief of staff and political aide Jonathan Davis and  IRS spokesman Frank Keith —  met with then-Office of Management and Budget  (OMB) Director Jeffrey Zients at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the  White House complex on April 24, 2012.”

“The very next day, April 25, the IRS’s chief counsel’s office — led by William  Wilkins, who  met with Obama at the White House that same week – sent  Washington-based IRS officials “additional comments on the draft guidance” for  approving or denying tea party tax-exempt applications, according to a report on  the IRS scandal compiled by Treasury Inspector General J. Russell George.”

Top down.

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More waste, fraud, and abuse in the nations many food programs.

From WatchDog.org  “Since Illinois has seen an explosion in the number of people receiving food stamps, even a slight error costs taxpayers millions.

In this instance, a mistake rate of less than 2 percent means $50 million is misspent.

That’s the hard truth behind the press release lauding Illinois for having a 98.3 percent accuracy rate for its Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program.

Illinois’ error rate, from either overspending on food stamps or not spending enough, is 1.74 percent, according to Januari Smith, a spokeswoman for the state’s Department of Human Services.“

So the Feds have rewarded the state for their errors because hey, 50 mil in errors isn’t that bad. And what’s 50 million when you have 3 billion to play with?

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Next up, more ObamaCare problems.

From HotAir  “Earlier this summer, three of California’s largest insurance companies announced that they were disinclined to participate in the state’s ObamaCare health insurance exchange system, and it didn’t take long for both Aetna and United Health to decide to stop offering plans through the individual insurance market altogether and instead opt to focus their activities on offering insurance through employers only.

Now, Anthem Blue Cross — California’s largest insurer for small businesses — is announcing that they have no intention of getting involved in the exchanges that ObamaCare plans to set up for the use of small business, and would much rather stick to going it alone. Via the LA Times.”

Let me guess, it’s ‘cuz they’re evil, profit chasing meanies right? 🙄

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And it begins……

From FoxSports  “The first star to fall in baseball’s latest drug investigation is one of its biggest: Ryan Braun.

The 2011 National League MVP was suspended without pay for the rest of the season and the postseason Monday, the start of sanctions involving players reportedly tied to a Florida clinic accused of distributing performance-enhancing drugs.“

Hopefully A-Rod is next.

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And last today, the rise of the religious left?

From Salon  “While politicians like Rick Perry and pundits like Bill O’Reilly may clog up a lot of media airtime, the proportion of religious conservatives in the United States is shrinking with each successive generation, and close to 20 percent of Americans today are religious progressives, according to a new survey conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute and the Brookings Institution.”

“Religious progressives are significantly younger and more diverse than their conservative counterparts. The mean age of the religious progressive population is 44 – just under the mean age in the general population of 47 – while the mean age of religious conservatives is 53. Twenty-three percent of Millennials (ages 18-33) are religious progressives, while 17 percent are religious conservatives. Among Millennials, there are also nearly as many nonreligious (22 percent) as religious progressives.”

“They also tend to value different things in their faith:”

Yep. They value things like abortion and the “social gospel” instead of The Gospel.

No thanks, I’m good where I’m at.

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Our Daily Thread 7-22-13

Good Morning!

It is said that the legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin leading rats out of town occurred on this date in 1376.

In 1587 a second English colony was established on Roanoke Island off North Carolina.  The first colony is said to have vanished under mysterious circumstances. 😯 

In 1798 the USS Constitution was underway and out to sea for the first time since being launched on October 21, 1797.

In 1926 Babe Ruth caught a baseball at Mitchell Field in New York. The ball had been dropped from an airplane flying at 250 feet.

In 1943 American forces led by Gen. George S. Patton captured Palermo, Sicily.

In 1975 Confederate General Robert E. Lee had his U.S. citizenship restored by the U.S. Congress.

And in 2003 Saddam Hussein’s sons Odai and Qusai died after a gunfight with U.S. forces in northern Iraq.

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Quote of the Day

“I’m curious about everything. Even subjects that don’t interest  me.”

Alex Trebek

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Today is Bobby Sherman’s birthday.

This one’s for no apparent reason.

And any day’s a good day for Mr. Shea. 🙂

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Anyone have a QoD for us today?

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Prayer Requests 7-22-13

Who has a request or praise to share today?

Psalm 124

1  If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, now may Israel say;

2 If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when men rose up against us:

3 Then they had swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us:

4 Then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul:

5 Then the proud waters had gone over our soul.

6 Blessed be the Lord, who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth.

7 Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped.

8 Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

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News/Politics 7-22-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

UPDATE!

From ABCNews  “George Zimmerman, who has been in hiding since he was acquitted of murder in the death of Trayvon Martin, emerged to help rescue someone who was trapped in an overturned truck, police said today.

Sanford Police Department Capt. Jim McAuliffe told ABC News that Zimmerman “pulled an individual from a truck that had rolled over” at the intersection of a Florida highway last week.”

No word yet on the race of the victim, or if he was profiling the driver. But the DoJ is investigating. 🙄

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First up, 2 guys who wanted to be President.

The first, finally someone points out the obvious, and a few inconvenient truths about the effects of liberal policies on inner cities.

From RealClearPolitics  “NEWT GINGRICH: This fits perfectly with what I was going to say earlier. You have a congressman — and I respect Bobby Rush. You have a congressman who represents the most violent city in America. You have a congressman who represents the city in which over 500 people were killed last year, 74 percent of them African-American. You have a congressman who represents the city which is 80 percent of the killings, according to police, are by gangs. Gangs have increased — let me finish. Gangs have increased by 40 percent since this president was elected. There is no federal program to stop it. No one wants to have an honest conversation about it. And so you have a congressman whose own district is bleeding, who puts on a hoodie as a symbolic act, but he doesn’t do anything about the gangs in his own district.”

Next up, the always useful (to Democrats) Senator from Arizona.

From TheHill  “Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Sunday urged states to review their “stand your  ground” laws amid a widening debate over the Trayvon Martin verdict and racial  profiling.”

🙄

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Next up, think the NSA is invasive in snooping? Wait ’til you get a look at this. And remember folks, the people who will have access to your private info are the community organizing ACORN types that the Obama admin has hired for the job.

From Rare.com  “As the Obamacare train-wreck begins to gather steam, there is increasing concern in Congress over something called the Federal Data Services Hub. The Data Hub is a comprehensive database of personal information being established by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to implement the federally facilitated health insurance exchanges. The purpose of the Data Hub, according to a June 2013 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, is to provide “electronic, near real-time access to federal data” and “access to state and third party data sources needed to verify consumer-eligibility information.” In these days of secret domestic surveillance by the intelligence community, rogue IRS officials and state tax agencies using private information for political purposes, and police electronically logging every license plate that passes by, the idea of the centralized Data Hub is making lawmakers and citizens nervous.

They certainly should be; the potential for abuse is enormous. The massive, centralized database will include comprehensive personal information such as income and financial data, family size, citizenship and immigration status, incarceration status, social security numbers, and private health information. It will compile dossiers based on information obtained from the IRS, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, the Veterans Administration, the Office of Personnel Management, the Social Security Administration, state Medicaid databases, and for some reason the Peace Corps. The Data Hub will provide web-based, one-stop shopping for prying into people’s personal affairs.”

“However, the hacker threat is the least of the Data Hub worries. The hub will be used on a daily basis by so-called Navigators, which according to the GAO are “community and consumer-focused nonprofit groups, to which exchanges award grants to provide fair and impartial public education” and “refer consumers as appropriate for further assistance.” Thousands of such people will have unfettered access to the Data Hub, but there are only sketchy guidelines on how they will be hired, trained and monitored.”

Yeah. Great. 🙄

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In other overreaches by this administration……..

From TheNYTimes  ” A federal judge on Friday sharply and repeatedly challenged the Obama administration’s claim that courts have no power over targeted drone killings of American citizens overseas.”

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Another food program scam to go with last week’s school lunch story.

From TheNYPost  “Food stamps are paying for trans-Atlantic takeout — with New Yorkers using taxpayer-funded benefits to ship food to relatives in Jamaica, Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

Welfare recipients are buying groceries with their Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards and packing them in giant barrels for the trip overseas, The Post found.

The practice is so common that hundreds of 45- to 55-gallon cardboard and plastic barrels line the walls of supermarkets in almost every Caribbean corner of the city.”

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More stupidity from the atheists.

From TheColumbusDispatch  “The Freedom from Religion Foundation wants the proposed Statehouse Holocaust memorial changed by removing what it sees as the Jewish religious symbolism of the Star of David.

In a June 14 letter to Richard H. Finan, chairman of the Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board, two foundation officials said they have no objections to a Holocaust memorial at the Statehouse. However, architect Daniel Libeskind’s design includes a cut-out version of a 6-pointed star, usually interepreted as the Star of David, a symbol associated with Judiasm. Arguably, that would be a violation of the separation of church and state set out in the U.S. Constitution, the foundation said.”

Why ignore the obvious? Since the star was used by Nazi’s to identify Jews, does it not have relevant historical value here?

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Next up, 2 stories involving police work. And privacy where both are concerned as well.

First, from TheWallStJournal   “The police tactics at issue in the Stewart case are no anomaly. Since the 1960s, in response to a range of perceived threats, law-enforcement agencies across the U.S., at every level of government, have been blurring the line between police officer and soldier. Driven by martial rhetoric and the availability of military-style equipment—from bayonets and M-16 rifles to armored personnel carriers—American police forces have often adopted a mind-set previously reserved for the battlefield. The war on drugs and, more recently, post-9/11 antiterrorism efforts have created a new figure on the U.S. scene: the warrior cop—armed to the teeth, ready to deal harshly with targeted wrongdoers, and a growing threat to familiar American liberties.”

“A number of federal agencies also now have their own SWAT teams, including the Fish & Wildlife Service, NASA and the Department of the Interior. In 2011, the Department of Education’s SWAT team bungled a raid on a woman who was initially reported to be under investigation for not paying her student loans, though the agency later said she was suspected of defrauding the federal student loan program.”

And lastly, this one, from TheNYTimes  “The case put Mr. Murray at the center of a growing debate over a little-known but increasingly important piece of equipment buried deep inside a car: the event data recorder, more commonly known as the black box.       

About 96 percent of all new vehicles sold in the United States have the boxes, and in September 2014, if the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has its way, all will have them.       

The boxes have long been used by car companies to assess the performance of their vehicles. But data stored in the devices is increasingly being used to identify safety problems in cars and as evidence in traffic accidents and criminal cases. And the trove of data inside the boxes has raised privacy concerns, including questions about who owns the information, and what it can be used for, even as critics have raised questions about its reliability.”

Given the way the govt currently abuses technology to stomp on people’s rights, I’m skeptical of it’s use.

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Our Daily Thread 7-20-13

Good Morning!

And Happy Saturday! 🙂

On this day in 1801 a 1,235 pound cheese ball was pressed at the farm of Elisha Brown, Jr.  The ball of cheese was later loaded on a horse-driven wagon and presented to U.S. President Thomas Jefferson at the White House. 

In 1861 the Congress of the Confederate States began holding sessions in Richmond, VA.

In 1881 Sioux Indian leader Sitting Bull, a fugitive since the Battle of the Little Big Horn, surrendered to federal troops.

In 1917 the draft lottery in World War I went into operation.

In 1942 the first detachment of the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps, (WACS) began basic training at Fort Des Moines, Iowa.

In 1944 an attempt by a group of German officials to assassinate Adolf Hitler failed. The bomb exploded at Hitler’s Rastenburg headquarters. Hitler was only wounded.

In 1944 U.S. President Roosevelt was nominated for an unprecedented fourth term of office at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. He still votes in Chicago to this day. 😯  Kidding, mostly.

In 1969 Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr. became the first men to walk on the moon.

And in 1976 America’s Viking I robot spacecraft made a successful landing on Mars.

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Quote of the Day

“A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has  earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities.”

Thomas Jefferson

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First up today, in honor of Mr. Armstrong and Aldrin’s accomplishment……

Next, one of my favorites has a birthday today. A master of his craft, Mr. Santana.

And Chris Cornell has a birthday today as well. 

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Anyone have a QoD for us?

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Prayer Requests 7-20-13

Who can we pray for today?

Psalm 123

1 Unto thee I lift up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens.

2 Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until that he have mercy upon us.

3 Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us: for we are exceedingly filled with contempt.

4 Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scorning of those that are at ease, and with the contempt of the proud.