What’s interesting in the news today?
1. This one isn’t all that surprising considering this administration’s over-regulation and constant rule changing.
From TheWallStJournal “World economic freedom has reached record levels, according to the 2014 Index of Economic Freedom, released Tuesday by the Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal. But after seven straight years of decline, the U.S. has dropped out of the top 10 most economically free countries.
For 20 years, the index has measured a nation’s commitment to free enterprise on a scale of 0 to 100 by evaluating 10 categories, including fiscal soundness, government size and property rights. These commitments have powerful effects: Countries achieving higher levels of economic freedom consistently and measurably outperform others in economic growth, long-term prosperity and social progress. Botswana, for example, has made gains through low tax rates and political stability.”
“It’s not hard to see why the U.S. is losing ground. Even marginal tax rates exceeding 43% cannot finance runaway government spending, which has caused the national debt to skyrocket. The Obama administration continues to shackle entire sectors of the economy with regulation, including health care, finance and energy. The intervention impedes both personal freedom and national prosperity.
But as the U.S. economy languishes, many countries are leaping ahead, thanks to policies that enhance economic freedom—the same ones that made the U.S. economy the most powerful in the world. Governments in 114 countries have taken steps in the past year to increase the economic freedom of their citizens. Forty-three countries, from every part of the world, have now reached their highest economic freedom ranking in the index’s history.”
Obamanomics at work. Or not…
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2. I sure hope the Supreme Court is about to reel them in, because they seem intent on continuing with this over-regulation and overstepping their authority trend.
From TheWashingtonExaminer “President Obama has a resolution for 2014: That this will be a year of action,” Pfeiffer said in the e-mail, pointing out that Obama would no longer be waiting around for Congress to get things done.
“Instead, the president will use his executive authority, both his pen and his phone, to work with anyone to get things done — whether they be leaders in business, education, Congress, states, or local communities,” he said.”
And if you don’t have the authority, just pretend you do. It’s worked so far.
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3. In other non-shocking news….
No one will be held accountable for the IRS targeting of the Tea Party. Like always with Obama scandals.
From MarketWatch “The Federal Bureau of Investigation doesn’t plan to file criminal charges over the Internal Revenue Service’s heightened scrutiny of conservative groups, according to law-enforcement officials, a move that likely will only intensify debate over the politically charged scandal.
The officials said investigators didn’t find the kind of political bias or “enemy hunting” that would amount to a violation of criminal law. Instead, what emerged during the probe was evidence of a mismanaged bureaucracy enforcing rules about tax-exemption applications it didn’t understand, according to the law-enforcement officials.
While the case is still being investigated and could remain open for months, officials familiar with its progress said it is increasingly unlikely any criminal charges will result. That could change, the officials cautioned, if unexpected evidence is discovered that alters their thinking.”
So their defense it that it wasn’t criminal behavior, just government incompetence. 🙄
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4. More fuzzy math.
From CNNMoney “Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a blog post Monday that “More than 6 million Americans have now either signed up for a private health insurance plan through the Marketplace or for Medicaid coverage.”
But the numbers are somewhat misleading.”
“The squishiness lies in the Medicaid number. The 3.9 million figure includes people who were already on Medicaid and are just renewing, as Marilyn Tavenner, the administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services noted in a blog post late last month. So not all of these folks have coverage due to Obamacare.”
“”It’s a mushy number,” Dubay said. “Everyone’s saying the numbers are not quite right. Nobody knows how not quite right they are.”
It’s a squishy, mushy, and fuzzy number.
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5. This is probably helping/hurting the numbers, depending on your perspective. I say good.
From NBCNews “States whose governments are hostile to Obamacare are hindering efforts to get people signed up for health insurance, according to a study released Tuesday.
Laws restricting outreach and enrollment efforts have handicapped community health centers that are a key component of plans to get health insurance to millions of Americans who lack it, researchers at George Washington University found.
“This is the first study to attempt to measure the impact of restrictive state policies,” said Sara Rosenbaum, who led the team at GW’s Department of Health Policy that did the study. “The navigator laws are having a real effect.”
“”This is a blatant attempt to add cumbersome requirements to the navigator program and deter groups from working to inform Americans about their new health insurance options and help them enroll in coverage,” U.S. Health and Human Services department spokesman Fabien Levy said in September after Texas passed its law.”
Yeah! How dare you question the president’s ACORN friends. And asking for background checks is racist too!
🙄
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6. And last one for today, the wussification of the American male continues. 🙄
I prefer the title “Clueless and Raising Children” but the author calls it, “I Never Thought My Son Would Play With Guns”
From The HuffPost “I woke up this morning to my nearly 5-year-old son, his big blue eyes close to mine, saying “Mama! Let’s play!” Somehow, I dragged myself to the living room where he had set up dinosaurs. He told me the rules: “My dinosaurs have superpowers and yours don’t. Mine find yours and then kill them with their power!” That woke me up.
I wondered if I should say something to him about killing — again. I tried to redirect the violence in the play by having my dinosaurs offer friendship and joint living in a cave. He didn’t bite. “No! they are not friends! OK mama? OK?” “OK,” I said, in resignation. Because at that moment, it felt like I had lost that battle.
What happened to my gentle little boy who would cradle his dolls if they happened to fall on the ground? Where is the boy who would never consider the possibility of intentionally hurting another? And where did this one, who pretends to shoot others, come from? “My son will never do that,” I used to say.
As usual, parenting is humbling.
Guns first showed up last year. Amidst his love affair with Mary Poppins and Annie, he also started asking about weapons. He wanted me to cut a gun out of cardboard so he could take it to school. Mortified, I imagined his teachers’ reactions when they saw it.”
OH THE HORROR!!!!!! 😯
And there’s plenty more liberal hand wringing at the link. 🙄
Oh yeah, and she’s a therapist, so she gets to share her expertise with other people’s kids too. 😉
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Wandering Views 
From The Telegbraph, via Drudge:
“The only thing that might save us is if John Kerry wins the Nobel Prize and leaves us be”,
By Inna Lazareva, Jerusalem
11:42AM GMT 14 Jan 2014
Israeli defense minister Moshe Yaalon has scathingly attacked US Secretary of State John Kerry and the US-led peace process in private conversations, according to reports.
“Secretary of State John Kerry—who arrived here determined, and who operates from an incomprehensible obsession and a sense of messianism—can’t teach me anything about the conflict with the Palestinians”, Mr Yaalon is reported as saying.
Mr Yaalon reportedly made his statements in the course of a number of conversations held with American and Israeli officials, according to Israeli daily Yediot Ahranot.
“The only thing that might save us is if John Kerry wins the Nobel Prize and leaves us be”, said the Defence Minister.
Turning to the US-led efforts to bring Israelis and Palestinians to an interim agreement in the current round of peace talks, Yaalon dismissed the American proposals with disdain.
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Oh LOL. That HuffPo parenting piece is beyond parody.
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Children will do what children will do. I hate to shop. I hardly ever left my baby with anyone unless it was something where I could not take her. She was just a little bitty baby girl when she came into the living room with her baby doll strapped in her stroller, had her “pocket-purse” on her arm and told me to “watch the baby, I am going shopping”.
I remember this occassionally so that when she is a Mommy and I am a GrandMommy, I will know that my role is to watch the baby while she goes shopping. Oh the fun we will have then. I plan to make all sorts of messes she will have to clean.
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Kim — My mother told me more than once, “just wait til you have kids” now she just says, “not my problem, I already raised my kids”. It is sweet revenge when you can watch your child struggle the same way you did with them.
1. I’d take the Heritage Foundation’s Freedom Index with a grain of salt. Bahrain rated almost as high as the US and they shoot protesters. Hong Kong, not a real country, is tied to a repressive Chinese regime yet is rated as #1. Looking at the criteria, there is no measurement of personal freedom other than property rights.
2. A plea for judicial activism AJ?
I think this is more an admission of the existence of a dysfunctional government structure.
3. In a politically sensitive case, you need a smoking gun or two and until then, there won’t be even a whisper of charges from the FBI
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HRW, You made an interesting point about Hong Kong and the Freedom Index. Texas would clearly be #1 except that it is tied to a repressive Yankee regime. Chile and Estonia beat the US again!
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Meanwhile, Singapore is #2 and its people play Southern songs:
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Very nice, Ricky.
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Thank you, 6 Arrows. If that orchestra would play an entire concert of Stephen Foster songs, I would travel to Singapore to attend.
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