February 25, 2014

Cambridge Police Commissioner Is Pleased to Find Less Crime



Crime is down and so is freedom. What about crimes that Cambridge police refuse to investigate because the Commissioner thinks they are not crimes? Was the Commissioner surprised at this press release? Does he not know what his PR flacks will release to the public, using standards which the FBI no longer uses? Why do Cambridge police withhold descriptions of street robbery suspects? Are Cambridge police protecting criminals? If there are no police reports of crime there are no crimes. Easy way to reduce crime. Just ignore civilians. Speaking about victimization, what about police abuses of persons with disabilities? Do they count as crimes? 

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2014/2/24/cambridge-crime-low/#

Serious Crime in Cambridge Hits 50-Year Low
By DANIEL R. LEVINE
Harvard CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
February 23, 2014

Soundbites on Current Events


[From list]
This just in
"I think the delusion is often very deep."
- "House of Cards" actor Kevin Spacey on members of Congress

Enough already
“The naiveté of Barack Obama and John Kerry is stunning.”
- Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., on the White House response to the turmoil in Ukraine
http://washingtonexaminer.com/soundbites-whos-delusional-now/article/2544422

Soundbites: Who's delusional now?
BY CHARLIE SPIERING
FEBRUARY 22, 2014 AT 10:46 AM

Environmental Activists Work To Suppress Speech



[From article]
How ironic, then, that some environmental activists launched a petition urging the Post not to publish Krauthammer’s column on Friday.
Their response to opinions they disagree with is to suppress the speech.
Brad Johnson (@ClimateBrad), the editor of HillHeat.com and a former Think Progress staffer, boasted on Twitter that 110,000 people had urged the newspaper “to stop publishing climate lies” like the Krauthammer piece.

http://michellemalkin.com/2014/02/24/global-warming-causing-settled-science-crowd-to-attempt-to-silence-dissent/

Global warming causing ‘settled science’ crowd to attempt to silence dissent
By Doug Powers
February 24, 2014 11:25 AM

U.S. Attorney General Urges State Attorneys Generals To Ignore Laws


[From article]
Attorney General Eric Holder is taking the lawless attitude of the Obama administration and passing it down to state attorneys general. Yesterday during an interview with The New York Times, Holder said state attorneys general do not have to enforce laws they disagree with, specifically when it comes to the issue of gay marriage.

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2014/02/25/eric-holder-to-state-attorneys-general-you-dont-have-to-enforce-laws-you-disagree-with-n1800255

Eric Holder To State Attorneys General: You Don't Have to Enforce Laws You Disagree With
Katie Pavlich
Feb 25, 2014

More Obama Lawlessness, Private Emails at EPA



[From article]
It pays to know people in charge, especially if they are federal regulators. Emails suggest that an Environmental Protection Agency regional administrator used a private AOL email account to correspond with environmentalists.
Such email use is prohibited by agency rules and is seen as a way to skirt transparency requirements.
Emails show that EPA Region 2 Administrator Judith Enck gave advice to environmental activists, including securing government funding, getting meetings with high-level officials and attending events.

http://dailycaller.com/2014/02/24/emails-another-top-epa-official-used-private-email-account-to-aid-environmentalists/

Emails: Another top EPA official used private email account to aid environmentalists
11:54 AM 02/24/2014

Civilians Question Priorities of AARP


[From letter]
Washington has rendered Soylent Green a prophetic cautionary tale rather than a nonfiction scare tactic. I have never in my life endorsed any militant or radical groups, but now I find myself listening to them. I don’t have to agree with them to appreciate the fear which spawned their existence. Their borderline insanity presents little more than a balance to the voice of the Socialist mindset in power.
Perhaps I became American by a great stroke of luck in some cosmic uterine lottery, but in my adulthood I CHOOSE to embrace it and nurture the freedoms it represents as well as the responsibilities it requires.

Here is the letter….

http://www.millerfarmsequinetransport.com/aarpletter.php

In August 2009 Cyndy wrote this letter to AARP by request of Walt. It's circulation was such that they were receiving emails and phone calls in excess of 100 per day. Even SNOPES got involved to verify the validity of the letter.


http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/aarp.asp

Cambridge Police Withhold Description of Street Robbery Suspect



[From article]
the victim told officers that she had just left an area business, when a man approached her and told her to take out $200 from an ATM or he was going to hurt her. The victim said these were the only words exchanged between them. She went to a nearby ATM and withdrew $200, while the suspect reportedly waited outside at the corner. She handed the money over to the suspect who then fled toward Elm Street.
Officers redacted a description of the man in their reports, but returned to the scene of the crime in the hopes of retrieving surveillance video.

Why do Cambridge police withhold a description of the suspect? Are they protecting criminals from law abiding citizens?

http://cambridge.wickedlocal.com/article/20140225/NEWS/140227924

Police: Cambridge woman robbed at Porter Square ATM
Posted Feb. 25, 2014 @ 10:37 am
Updated at 10:39 AM
Cambridge Chronicle

February 24, 2014

Ohio Polar Bear Attack, Form of Knockout


[From article]
Only the presence of a Bible over his heart saved the life of a Dayton, Ohio, bus driver who is in the hospital today with injuries suffered during a form of black mob violence called a “polar bear attack.”
Police say the bus driver is lucky to be alive after three black “teenagers” stabbed and shot him. A Bible over the bus driver’s heart stopped two bullets and allowed him to fight off a knife attack from his assailants.
One additional bullet struck him in the leg. The teens also stabbed him in the arm.
The attack came this morning at 5:30 when the driver stopped his bus because of mechanical difficulties.http://www.wnd.com/2014/02/bible-saves-bus-driver-from-racial-attack/

'DIVINE INTERVENTION' SAVES MAN FROM BLACK MOB
Teenagers go on 'polar bear' hunt
Colin Flaherty
February 24, 2014

February 22, 2014

George Washington's Birthday





My Timid Eternity
 
I am thinking how lonesome it will be in Heaven
with only George Washington and me there. 
I suppose we will recite the Beatitudes
and wonder when they are coming---
the meek, the merciful, the peacemakers,
those who are pure in heart. 
Roasting marshmallows in the evening
I will broach the subject of lies. 
He will hand me a wig
and some leeches, which I will decline,
still thinking about the others---
if they went to the Babies Camp by mistake
we could maybe get a letter out.
Heaven should not be full of worry
but if anyone knows more about it than this, 
if you have your own version---
leafy, airy, full, fountainous---
bless you, you are more lonesome 
than either the General or I. 
 
Mary Ruefle
Selected Poems
Wave Books, 2011

February 21, 2014

Changing Cambridge, MA Government, Elections

Posted February 12, 2014 9:16 PM ET; Last updated February 21, 2014 9:55 AM ET

In his two-part statistical analysis of voting in Cambridge, (Rick Snedeker, "Let’s end Proportional Representation in Cambridge," Feb. 11, 2014; and "Exhausted votes and mandates in Cambridge's PR system," Feb. 20, 2014, Cambridge Chronicle) Mr. Snedeker fails to distinguish between the form of City government, Plan E under state law, and the method of elections. He does not mention the reason for the city government charter change in 1940. Some suggest it was corruption. Why is that subject seldom discussed by voters, officials and journalists? Especially in a one party state, even after public officials are jailed. What part of "Power corrupts." do the evolved superior Cambridge population not understand? Have the genes of Cambridge voters been cleansed of mendacity, sadism, greed and common sense? How often are integrity and common sense issues in elections?

The importance of acknowledging the reason for proportional voting is called the Fallacy of Chesterton's Fence. If you do not know the reason for a procedure, process or law, you may not repeal it. But if you understand why the rule or law exists, then you may be allowed to change it.

http://abovethelaw.com/2014/01/the-fallacy-of-chestertons-fence/

In George G. Szpiro's wonderful book, Numbers Rule, the author explains the many forms of elections tried throughout history. None of them are perfect. Some have the opposite of desired results, e.g., eliminating the best candidates. Finally Snedecker does not distinguish between low and high information voters.
Mr. Snedeker's interest in government is noble. Cambridge City government is run by people elected under one system. They are bound to act under another set of laws. How closely do these people exercise their power according to law? City Council meetings indicate the amount of lawlessness of the city government. Motions to suspend the rules are the most frequently heard motion.
There are serious dysfunctions of city, state and U.S. government mechanisms, including elections. But aside from pointing out alleged flaws in the current voting system, according to his standards, he makes no proposals to improve the system. Was this system of voting established for a reason? He does not discuss it.

http://cambridge.wickedlocal.com/article/20140211/NEWS/140219178/?tag=1

COLUMN: Let’s end Proportional Representation in Cambridge Part 1 of 2
By Rick Snedeker
Cambridge Chronicle
Posted Feb. 11, 2014 @ 4:17 pm

* * *

http://cambridge.wickedlocal.com/article/20140220/NEWS/140229489/?tag=1

COLUMN: Exhausted votes and mandates in Cambridge's PR system  Part 2 of 2
By Rick Snedeker
Posted Feb. 20, 2014 @ 4:37 pm
Cambridge Chronicle

February 20, 2014

Cambridge Police Intimidate Critic of Police Abuses


Cambridge police employees joined Harvard University campus police employees in a brutal 43-year campaign harassing a 70-year-old white male who they all say is "crazy." For 17 years I've lived in a building owned and operated by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Campus police employed graduate students in psychology at Harvard University Medical School to conduct an unlawful behavior conditioning project trying to make me into a homosexual. After many years of complaints the graduate student vacated her premises adjacent to mine. She yielded to another just-as-depraved criminal police psychologist.

Harvard University employs psychologists for evaluations contrary to law. It is a violation of state and U.S. privacy statutes to perform an evaluation without consent. The problem is that (1) in Cambridge and at Harvard University inconvenient laws can be ignored. You can see how well the Harvard Law School trained Obama, who practices this principle at every chance. And (2) psychologists like psychiatrists believe they are above the laws and have no need to obey or even know laws which regulate their behavior. They believe they are omniscient and morally superior to ordinary humans. They believe their genes have been cleansed of greed, mendacity and sadism. Like their police admirers control freak psychologists are out of control with their abuse of power, self love, trying to control anyone and testing those they do not like or do not understand. It is what these narcissistic deluded people do. They believe they are the smartest man in the room even at Harvard University where everyone is the smartest man in the room. Cambridge police refuse to enter onto Harvard University property unless I provided evidence to them, unlike complaints by other crime victims e.g., rape victims for whom police gather evidence.

On February 15, 2014 a suspect unknown to police allegedly punched several local pedestrians without provocation as they walked along Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge. The police spokesman, a Deputy Superintendent, said the man was mentally ill, crazy, or he was on "substances" and that caused the crimes. He said that without knowing who the suspect is. It is a pervasive pattern among police and prosecutors who attribute criminal conduct to mental illness, without any rational basis. It is an example of how police and prosecutors think of persons with disabilities. It is illegal to discriminate based on disability, violating city, state and US laws.

The problem in Cambridge is that discrimination laws are only enforced for homosexuals, women and black persons. Recently the city added Muslims and illegal aliens. The latter two groups are especially of interest to Cambridge police even when they do not have jurisdiction. Nonetheless city officials and Harvard University officials openly insult and abuse persons with disabilities while they vigorously protect the other groups.

City officials refuse to address criminal conduct on Harvard University property without evidence. It is surprising that after my message to city officials including but not limited to the police commissioner, elected leaders and concerned civilians, city police employees did not refuse to enter onto Harvard University property to conduct harassment and try to provoke violence.

[link to updated and edited message]

http://enoughroom.blogspot.com/2014/02/knockout-comes-to-cambridge-ma.html

They disturb my sleep every one or two hours. Prior to this unusual visit by city police employees it was exclusively Harvard University campus police employees with an occasional visit by city police employees. There is no reluctance to cross the property line when it suits Cambridge police employees for criminal conduct. They attack speech protected by the First Amendment seeking relief from unlawful police activity. They refuse to stop unlawful conduct especially when victims have legal disabilities, contrary to city, state and U.S. laws. It is one more example verifying my many years of complaints to city, state and U.S. officials about this pervasive unlawful conduct. One of the few groups, for which Massachusetts officials tolerate harassment and abuse, is persons with disabilities.

In typical misguided policy Cambridge officials ignore violations by Harvard University of city ordinances, state and U.S. laws. But when this fact is published reluctant officials become enraged and focus on silencing the messenger. Not that civilians in Cambridge or elsewhere in the U.S. are concerned about criminal conduct by government officials. In Cambridge as elsewhere when a politician or a taxpayer or voter expresses concern about malfeasance they are met with insults, "You're a racist." or "You're mentally ill." relentless personal attacks. Spinelessness is preferred to addressing lawlessness by government officials. Now Cambridge police employees add to the abuse by visiting your home and disturbing your sleep every hour or two.

Peggy Noonan observed this pattern in her essay:

[From article]
And it is all about the behavior of our elites, our upper classes, which we define now in a practical sense as those who are successful, affluent and powerful. This group not only includes but is almost limited to our political class, Wall Street, and the media, from Hollywood to the news divisions.
They’re all kind of running America.
They all seem increasingly decadent.
What are the implications of this, do you think?

http://blogs.wsj.com/peggynoonan/2014/02/18/our-decadent-elites/

February 18, 2014, 7:58 PM
Our Decadent Elites
Peggy Noonan

It is troubling that the Obama FCC initiative plans to place monitors in newsrooms around the country.

[From article]
An FCC commissioner is warning people about an agency study that would bring government monitors into newsrooms and inspect issues like the amount of time spent on the “critical information needs” of Americans in news content.

http://www.mediaite.com/online/fcc-commissioner-warns-of-agency’s-plan-to-monitor-newsrooms/

FCC Commissioner Warns of Agency’s Plan to Monitor Newsrooms
by Josh Feldman
8:44 pm, February 19th, 2014

Two gentlemen told me in Cambridge: "There is no such thing as Free Speech." One long term black Cambridge politician told me in February 2014, "I have to watch you so that you do not cause trouble." Huh? Is that what he thinks is the mission of government? Not to protect freedom but to curb it? The answer in Cambridge is yes. There is no need to place monitors in the newsroom of the New York Times, the Washington Post or NPR. They self censor and do not criticize the misguided government miscreants. It is the same in Cambridge where residents in the nine local home owners associations obey what Harvard University and city officials promote unless it affects the value of their homes.

Cass Sunstein a darling of Harvard Law School, and the Obama White House openly advocates limiting free speech and eliminating the First Amendment. Wendy Kaminer in her courageous book, Worst Instincts, provides details of how the ACLU went off the tracks and no longer focuses on the Bill of Rights. It has become a fund raising operation to promote leftist causes.

The United States fell to 46th on the Reporters Without Borders Freedom Index.

http://rsf.org/index2014/en-index2014.php#

World press freedom index 2014
Biggest rises and falls in the 2014 World Press Freedom Index

Knockout Comes To Cambridge, MA


[Below my commentary are links to three reports and two transcripts of the on air reports from Boston, MA television channels four WBZ, and five WCVB.]

A film clip shows a young black man walk up behind a white couple, and sucker punch the man. The reporter, Liam Martin says the same man punched two others placing one in hospital from his injuries. From the many video clips I've seen of this same kind of street attack of a young black male attacking white victims, it is likely that this was in fact an example of the knockout attacks. It is how they are done. You can see hundreds of these attacks on the web site

whitegirlbleedalot.com

It is run by award winning journalist, Colin Flaherty who wrote a book of the same title White Girl Bleed A Lot, describing such attacks across the nation.

Closely tied to the attacks are denial by police and journalists that these are knockout attacks black suspects targeting white victims. Flaherty documents this pattern over and over, again and again. Cambridge police did not post any alert on their web site as of Monday February 17, 2014 at about 4:00 PM. If there is a young black man (with or without "mental issues") who randomly attacks white people without provocation, walking about Cambridge, do citizens have a need to know this? Why does it require a television station to alert the public? The Cambridge Chronicle did not have a report about these attacks at the above time, two days after the attacks. Link to report published later (5:17 PM) is below.

With regard to the Cambridge attack and report there are some typical nonsensical and intentionally misleading comments by Cambridge police. The irrational attitudes are supported by the opinions of persons interviewed by Liam Martin.

Martin reports that Cambridge police could not find the suspect. That means they do not know who he is. But Martin adds, "The police say 'They believe he suffers from a mental health issue.'" Wow! What makes them say that if they do not know the suspect? Could it be that Cambridge police believe that all people who commit crimes have mental health issues? Or that all persons with a disability are violent criminals? Do they believe that all persons accused of mental illness are violent? It is the pervasive irrational belief among police and prosecutors in Massachusetts. It is also irrational nonsense, bias. It suggests that Cambridge police openly express their negative bias toward persons they believe have "mental health issues" as Mr. Martin reports. And what if the man exhibits "mental health issues?" What is the connection to violence? To crime? And if the man has "mental health issues" why does that mean it was NOT a knockout attack?

Alex Farrell, employed at BoConcepts furniture store is qutoed by Martin saying, "I don't know what was going through his head but he was certainly disturbed." Oh? If he does not know what was in his head, how does he know he was disturbed? Maybe he was thinking "I just feel like punching out some white guy." Maybe he felt like exercising his muscles. How does Farrell arrive at disturbed? Is that more bias against troubled persons? Are all emotionally disturbed persons violent? Are most of them violent? Do most people believe that disturbed persons are violent?

Farrell added: "It's hard to really find an explanation, for, for things like this. Because it was unprovoked." Yet the Cambridge police assure the television reporter that it was NOT a knockout attack. How do they know that if they do not know who the suspect is?

It is a violation of local, state and U.S. laws for police to discriminate against persons with disabilities. Yet they do every day and seldom is there any public disourse objecting to this abuse of power. My efforts to get the attention of city, state and U.S. officials about this unlawful pervasive abuse, have been ignored. Taxpayer funded human services corporations and professionals remain silent about this improper if not illegal police attitude toward persons with disabilities. The local Cambridge newspaper refuses to publish my complaints. The local taxpayer funded PBS television station still denies on air access to victims of such bias on their broadcasts. The prominent public television personality Emily Rooney, former News Director at WCVB, refused to address this issue for more than ten years. She threatened to have me banned from Boston when I kept complaining about the unlawful denial of equal access to taxpayer funded media.

According to this WCVB television reporter the Cambridge police state unequivocally that it was NOT a knockout attack. How do they know that, if they do not know who the suspect is? Cambridge police state "They believe the suspect is either mentally ill or was under the influence of substances." Really? Are all violent crimes a result of mental illness and/or substances? No more evil? No more sociopaths? Psychopaths? Aggression? Hate? No more premeditation?

Finally whenever the local newspaper in Cambridge reports crime, they report only the street not the business near or at where the crimes are committed. Often they do not reveal the identity by race or ethnicity of the suspects. It is not clear if the police withhold that information or the newspaper does it. In any case it shows how provincial, mindless and unhelpful the local government and/or its alleged watchdog journalists are.

* * *

[video embedded]
http://www.wcvb.com/news/cambridge-police-seek-suspect-who-punched-three-in-head/24521712

Cambridge police seek suspect who punched three in head
UPDATED 5:29 PM EST Feb 17, 2014
Attacks reported on Massachusetts Ave in Cambridge
WCVB-TV

* * *

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2014/02/16/camera-captures-sucker-punch-attack-on-cambridge-sidewalk-2/

Camera Captures Sucker Punch Attack On Cambridge Sidewalk
February 16, 2014 11:44 PM

[CBS Boston Video]



* * *
[From article]
"The assault investigations are ongoing, but as of this morning no arrest has been made," said Jack Albert, deputy superintendent of the Cambridge Police Department. "We believe at this point, that these assaults were not a case of ‘Knockout,’ but a situation where an individual who was either under the influence or suffering from some type of mental illness was responsible for the assaults."

http://cambridge.wickedlocal.com/article/20140217/NEWS/140216419

Police: Man punches four random people near Harvard Square
Posted Feb. 17, 2014 @ 5:19 pm
Cambridge Chronicle
Cambridge, Mass.

* * *

Transcript of television report WCVB-TV (ABC Boston affiliate) 
5:00 PM newscast Monday February 17, 2014.

Liam Martin reported. "This was Saturday [February 15, 2014] afternoon, broad daylight the suspect punched someone up on Massachusetts Avenue, punched his second here at the intersection of Dana Street and then a third outside of the BoConcept furniture store. Three victims in about thirty minutes. Cambridge police on the lookout for this man [shows video clip] who left one person in the hospital and two more injured, after a string of random attacks."

Joe Gioviglio, cleaning snow on Dana Street: "I heard yelling and screaming over there."

Liam Martin: "Joe Gioviglio said he heard a commotion Saturday afternoon on Massachusetts Avenue. The suspect had punched his first victim in the face. He then walked up Mass Ave. to the intersection with Dana Street, punched his second man in the head, swung and missed at a third here at the Cellar Restaurant, and then this [video plays again] the suspect caught on camera, rushes up behind a couple from Winchester and sucker punches the man in the head."

Gioviglio: "It's a little like shocking. You know, I mean. Especially if I was here with my family. Like I bring my daughter into Boston, three-year-old daughter, every weekend. And so. I can't even imagine that happening when I'm here with her."

Liam Martin: "Cambridge police said they canvassed the area Saturday but couldn't find the suspect. They believe he suffers from a mental health issue."

Alex Farrell: "I don't know what was going through his head but he was certainly disturbed."

Liam Martin: "Alex Farrell spoke with us yesterday (Sunday). He works at BoConcept and he's pictured here [video clip plays] helping the last victim. He and residents along Mass Ave. stunned by such a random act of violence."

Farrell: "It's hard to really find an explanation, for, for things like this. Because it was unprovoked."

Liam Martin: "Now there was some thought initially that these attacks could have been part of a national trend called knockout game. Cambridge police say that is not the case. They believe the suspect is either mentally ill or was under the influence of substances. Live in Cambridge, Liam Martin, WCVB News Center Five."

* * *

Transcript of CBS Boston affiliate WBZ-TV Channel 4
February 17, 2014 11:00 PM Newscast.

Lisa Hughes, studio anchor: "Now a WBZ exclusive. They never saw it coming. Victims of a random attack now sharing their story. This is video though that is hard to watch. A man walks up behind this couple in Cambridge then suddenly slugs them. And they weren't the only victims. Let's get to Jim Armstrong who is live in Cambridge with the interviews you will see only here on WBZ. Jim?"

Jim Armstrong: "Lisa, three different victims in this case. All of them asked us not to use their names on television. All of them tell a very similar story, namely, they were walking this weekend right here on Mass Ave. when out of nowhere and for no reason they were savagely attacked."

White man victim with dark facial hair, black cap and glasses: "Before I knew it, I was like just punched in the face. And he was just, he just took off. [Shows his black facial scars]"

Armstrong: "This man the first of three victims Saturday afternoon. He's a Harvard [University] Medical School neurobiologist now nursing his bruises."

White man first victim: "There's nothing I could have done differently, really. I mean there's no time to react."

Armstrong: "Different victims tell the same story and you can watch it happen here to another guy caught on a store surveillance system. The suspect approaches, strikes and moves on. In this case he was apparently screaming, 'So you think that's funny?' before he attacked."

White woman with long blond hair: "It took me a long time actually to process what had happened. But whenever I did I looked up and he was just casually walking away still screaming."

Armstrong: "After this woman's boyfriend was punched the couple retreated to the store for help."

White woman: "I think it's more, 'I can't believe that that happened. And you're just walking down the street and you get struck for doing absolutely nothing. It makes you a little, ah, nervous even to be out sometimes."

Armstrong: "Even more so for the third victim."

White man with knit cap with red stripe, glasses: "He cries like an animal. And, uh, he then, uh, uh, hurt me with hand, with his hand."

Armstrong: "He's a visiting scholar at Tufts University. You can see him stumble into the same store with his umbrella after being attacked as well. "

White Tufts man victim: "To me it's really shocking, surprising to me. Because I thought that Boston was a quiet city."

Armstrong: "The suspect was described as a twenty something black man wearing a black coat, dark knit cap and blue jeans, with a black sling-style backpack."

First victim: "It could have been a lot worse I suppose. But this is the worst weekend I've had in a long time, possibly ever. [Laughs]"

Armstrong: "All these victims also have something else in common. They tell us they desperately want to see this guy caught, if for no other reason, they say, than to make sure he doesn't do this to someone else. Live in Cambridge, Jim Armstrong, WBZ News. Lisa."

February 14, 2014

California's Love Candidate


[From article]
Though perhaps not a household name, Williamson is something of a celebrity: Her self-help books have earned her national recognition, and her weekly lectures on spirituality have made her a fixture in Los Angeles for over 30 years. Back in October, having at long last grown tired of politics as usual, frustrated with the Democratic party of which she has been a member all her life, and armed with a large grassroots following (she claims more than 400,000 Facebook fans and 200,000 Twitter followers), she announced her independent candidacy for Waxman’s seat and has been kissing proverbial babies ever since.
New Age spiritual teacher, guru to movie stars, friend of Oprah — she is both self-actualized and self-made. Born to a Jewish family in Houston in 1952, by the late 1970s, Williamson confesses, “I was a total mess.” After bouncing “from relationship to relationship, job to job, city to city, looking for some sense of identity or purpose,” she found herself living in New York, “seeking relief in food, drugs, people, or whatever else I could find to distract myself.”
[. . .]
As we file out of the Woman’s Club — our political apathy most heartily rebuffed, a nascent sense of brotherhood among us, the energy of a newfound love for our fellow man propelling us merrily toward the parking garage next door — a bearded, burnt-out-looking man sporting a grungy flannel under his “Marianne for Congress” T-shirt asks if anyone can give him a ride to a place called Café Gratitude in Venice. An awkward silence ensues. Nobody in the crowd responds, or even makes eye contact with him, doing their best to ignore his existence.
And so it is.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/god-help-us_778813.html?page=1

God Help Us
Marianne Williamson’s campaign to save America’s soul, starting with California’s 33rd Congressional District
FEB 17, 2014, VOL. 19, NO. 22 

Sweden Rethinks Child Punishment



[From article]
A best-selling Swedish academic has concluded that permissive parenting is creating a generation of arrogant young adults who lack social empathy, personal resilience and, after a childhood of pampering, are destined to be bitterly disappointed in life.
“Saying 'no’ to a child is not the same as beating a child. Parents should act like parents, not best friends,” says David Eberhard, psychiatrist, father of six and author of How Children Took Power. “They should prepare their kids for adult life by teaching them how to behave, not treat them like princes or princesses. In Sweden, they think that any form of intervention against the child is a sort of molesting.
[. . .]
“What strikes me as the most disturbing feature of Swedish society is the voluntary abdication of adult authority,” says Frank Furedi, Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Kent and author of Paranoid Parenting. “It began with stigmatising the punishment of children and mutated into a fear of disciplining them, which is what parents are supposed to do. The area for concern isn’t what happens to them as children, but what happens to them as they grow up.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/mother-tongue/10636279/Have-Swedens-permissive-parents-given-birth-to-a-generation-of-monsters.html

Have Sweden’s permissive parents given birth to a generation of monsters?
As the children spared the rod come of age, doubts about the practice are growing, Judith Woods finds
By Judith Woods
7:13PM GMT 13 Feb 2014

King Obama?



[From article]
President Obama will be spending Valentine's Day with the one he loves the most. Michelle and the kids will be vacationing separately.
Sound familiar? The president and first lady spent Presidents Day weekend in separate vacations last year as well. That, you might remember, was when the White House itself was closed to schoolchildren who had saved up all year for their trips to D.C. only to find out the administration could no longer afford to give tours. But Congress somehow managed to fully fund tours of the U.S. Capitol.
You might also recall that during Presidents Day weekend last year America's celebrity in chief had taxpayers pick up the tab for his trip to play golf with Tiger Woods at the exclusive Floridian golf resort in Palm City, Fla.
[. . .]
The president's golf trip alone would have funded the White House tours for a year.
[. . .]
But as president, Obama reminded us recently, you "can do whatever you want." It's good to be king.

http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials-viewpoint/021314-690044-obama-travels-without-michelle-to-rancho-mirage.htm

Is Barack Obama Our First American King?
By MICHAEL RAMIREZ
Posted 06:41 PM ET

U.S. Senator Accused of Court Case Hijacking


[From article]
Since December, the libertarian lawmaker, a tea party favorite, had been working with former Reagan administration lawyer Bruce Fein to draft a class-action suit seeking to have the National Security Agency’s surveillance of telephone data declared unconstitutional; the two men appeared together as early as last June to denounce the NSA’s activities.
But when Paul filed his suit at the U.S. District Court in Washington on Wednesday morning, Fein’s name had been replaced with that of Ken Cuccinelli, the failed Republican gubernatorial candidate in Virginia who until last month had been the state’s attorney general. Cuccinelli has never argued a case in that courthouse, and he isn’t even a member of the D.C. bar
[. . .]
The unceremonious jettisoning of a constitutional lawyer in favor of the man best known for his unsuccessful suit to have Obamacare declared unconstitutional suggests that Paul’s legal action has more to do with politics than the law. And there are other clues. In Fein’s version, Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) was listed as a plaintiff along with Paul, but in the final complaint the Democrat was gone and the tea party group FreedomWorks was added in his place. Both suits list as defendants the director of national intelligence, the FBI director and the director of the NSA, but Fein’s version had named the defense secretary and the attorney general. Cuccinelli’s version dropped those two — but added President Obama as a defendant, an incendiary change.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dana-milbank-rand-paul-and-ken-cuccinelli-accused-of-stealing-nsa-lawsuit/2014/02/12/058675aa-942b-11e3-83b9-1f024193bb84_story.html

Rand Paul and Ken Cuccinelli accused of stealing NSA lawsuit
By Dana Milbank
Published: February 12, 2014

Academics Focus On Black Employment, Ignore Disabled Persons, Republicans, Conservatives




How many men have been on the cover of Sports Illustrated swimsuit issues? What about persons with disabilities? How many NFL coaches, post game pundits, quarterbacks, and how many NBA guards, coaches, play by play announcers have disabilities? When talking about discrimination, and victimhood, why do the special interest lobbyists for women and "minorities" omit this group of persons who are as numerous as homosexuals and black people? How many Republicans, conservatives are in management positions in Hollywood, or for that matter tenured faculty at UCLA, Harvard, Columbia, Yale, Stanford, etc.?

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/ucla-diversity-study-blasts-hollywood-679871

UCLA Diversity Study Blasts Hollywood as 'Woefully Out of Touch'
2:48 PM PST 2/12/2014 
by Jonathan Handel

Black Teen Gang Beats White Cleveland Vet



[From article]
During the attack, the teens made several derogatory remarks about Robinson.
“What they were saying was, ‘Knock that boy out!’ ‘White boy.’ ‘Cracker,’” he was quoted as saying about the incident. “They were saying, ‘Knock that white boy out.’”
This week, three suspects – Kenneth Matthews, Ronald Reid Williams and an unnamed 16-year-old girl – were arrested by Cleveland and RTA police. The latter filmed the attack with her cell phone, and was said to still have the video at the time of her apprehension.

http://cleveland.cbslocal.com/2014/02/14/knock-that-white-boy-out-arrests-made-after-mob-of-teens-attack-disabled-vet/

‘Knock That White Boy Out’: Arrests Made After Mob Of Teens Attack Disabled Vet
February 14, 2014 3:16 PM
CBS News Cleveland OH

February 12, 2014

Astronomers Found Thousands of More Galaxies


[From article]
Four unknown galaxy clusters, each potentially containing thousands of individual galaxies, have been discovered some 10 billion light years from Earth.
Astronomers used a new way of combining data from the two European Space Agency satellites, Planck and Herschel, to identify more distant galaxy clusters than has previously been possible.
The researchers believe up to 2,000 further clusters could be identified using this technique, helping to build a more detailed timeline of how clusters are formed.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2556972/A-peak-early-universe-Four-galaxy-clusters-10-BILLION-light-years-away-farthest-2-000-more.html

A peek into the early universe: Four galaxy clusters 10 BILLION light years away are the farthest ever found - and there could be 2,000 more
Clusters were found by combining data from Planck and Herschel satellites
Each cluster contains hundreds of thousands of galaxies bound by gravity
They reveal what the universe looked like when it was just three billion years old
Up to now, the most distant clusters found by astronomers date back to when the universe was 4.5 billion years old
Daily Mail (UK)
By ELLIE ZOLFAGHARIFARD
PUBLISHED: 01:03 EST, 12 February 2014 | UPDATED: 05:30 EST, 12 February 2014




History And Fate Awaits Obama



[From article]
Obama's political heritage is rooted in the postwar Islamic strongman role pioneered by Gamel Abdul Nasser, the leader of Egypt from 1953 to 1970, and then refined by numerous other such figures, including Achmed Sukarno and Mohammed Suharto of Indonesia.
Sukarno was a colorful leader who controlled a populist coalition of the military, the peasants, and the intelligentsia (among them a powerful communist party), through a three-ring political circus in which the main attraction was Sukarno's never-ending one-man battle against the West. After nearly two decades of this, the country was in serious danger of going into the dumpster -- Sukarno had pulled Indonesia out of the UN and was kissing up to the Chinese, in the process turning ever larger sections of government over to the local communists. This lost him the military, always a mistake for a third-world strongman, and in 1965 things came to a head with a bungled coup (planned by whom? -- something that remains uncertain to this day) in which a number of military officers were murdered. The army struck back, and after a confused interlude featuring massacres across the country, the communists were out (most of them -- estimates range up to half a million -- dead), Sukarno was under house arrest, and General Suharto had ended up as maximum leader.
Suharto ran the country as his personal fiefdom for the next thirty-odd years. At the end of that period he had distinguished himself as possibly the most corrupt ruler in history, with a fortune of thirty billion plus stashed in various foreign banks. His avaricious family, which controlled most of the county's industry, pocketed at least as much. Under Suharto's control, Indonesia became notorious for its atrocities in West Irian and East Timor, at the same time meandering its way to a vague prosperity that in no way matched nearby Singapore and Malaysia.
This was the political culture in which Barack Obama came to consciousness.
[. . .]
It is not communist, it is not socialist, it is not democratic, any more than Nasser, who probably used the word as often as Lenin, was a socialist. It is pure third-world authoritarianism. This is what half of the American electorate, largely consisting of Low Information Voter boobs assisted by mulish conservatives, put into office two times in a row in the sophisticated, technologically-advanced 21st century.
[. . .]
Andrew Cuomo governs downtown Albany and New York City. He pays attention to nothing else in the state -- the Mohawk Valley, the Finger Lakes, the Adirondacks, may as well not exist. He acts for two interfaced elites -- political in Albany and financial in NYC.
[. . .]
The prospect we're facing is not 1984, or Nazi Germany, or even Suharto's Indonesia. It is contemporary Argentina, controlled by elites, bouncing from one political extreme to the other, run by an ever more bizarre train of lunatics, with a government that relates to the people in much the same way that a parasite relates to its host.
[. . .]
Now the balance must be restored, one way or another, with or without the cooperation of the political classes of this county -- and perhaps of any classes at all.

[comment]
Georgiaboy61 February 12, 2014
There is one final possibility you neglect to mention: modern people, often being ignorant of history, tend to assume that the worst regimes, dictatorships and tyrannies all lie in the past - and that we have seen the last of figures such as Hitler, Stalin, Mao and the like. What if that assumption is wrong? What if Obama is sui generis - the prototype of a new and even more dangerous tyrant than those of the past?

http://www.americanthinker.com/2014/02/obamas_fate_comments.html#disqus_thread

February 12, 2014
Obama's Fate
By J.R. Dunn

Teens Brutally Murder Young Texas Girl



[From article]
Authorities say that after the boys lured Cervantes to a vacant apartment in southeast Houston on Feb. 5, they hit her with an ashtray, a toilet tank lid and a window blind rod, strangled her and also stabbed her in the face with a screwdriver.
[. . .]
Jordan said that at one point during the assault, Cervantes yelled out to them, "Why are you doing this to me?"
The boys held down Cervantes to keep her from escaping, authorities said.
Authorities are still trying to determine if Cervantes died from strangulation, the blows she received to her head or from internal injuries from the sexual assault, Jordan said.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/02/11/3927666/2-charged-in-slaying-of-15-year.html

Official: Deal with devil prompted girl's killing
By JUAN A. LOZANO
February 11, 2014

Harvard Student Dies In NJ Car Crash



[From article]
Angela R. Mathew ’15 died in the accident, which occurred at 12:35 a.m. Monday, according to New Jersey State Police. She was 20 years old.
[. . .]
Mathew, a Leverett House resident, was a neurobiology concentrator from Albuquerque,N.M., and was a high school seminar director for the Harvard Mock Trial Association, according to the team’s website.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2014/2/10/student-death-traffic-new-jersey/

Undergraduate Killed in N.J. Traffic Accident Monday Morning
By MADELINE R. CONWAY
Harvard CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
February 9, 2014
UPDATED: Feb. 10, 2013, at 11:01 p.m.

Thousands Of Bodies Found On Grounds of Former Mississippi Mental Hospital



[From article]
Officials now believe there may be as many as 2,000 century-old graves underneath the soil.
Archaeologists have been studying grave sites discovered on the UMC campus for some time; several dozen grave sites were discovered last year.
[. . .]
'The property that the University of Mississippi Medical Center is located on used to be the location of the state insane asylum, which operated from 1855 to 1935,' Mazurak said.
'Historically we knew that there were a lot of graves, many of which were not marked. In the '90s, we took the handful of marked graves and reinterred them in a designated cemetery area,' he said.
[. . .]
'We're guessing because there's no personal remains, no clothes, not even really any buttons or pins or anything, that they were probably residents of the asylum and either buried in a shroud or not buried with anything, so that would put them probably around in the mid to late 1800s to early 1900s,' said Anderson.
[. . .]
Moving the bodies would reportedly cost about $3 million so the University has said it will probably look at alternate sites for construction, rather than try to relocate the graves.
The expansion will most likely be relocated to another location on the 164-acre campus.
It's possible there could be more unmarked graves belonging to tuberculosis patients, former slaves, or possibly even Civil War dead, according to the Clarion-Ledger.
The State Lunatic Asylum opened on the site in 1855, housing 150 patients.
After the end of the Civil War, it expanded to house more than 300 residents in a district known as Asylum Hill.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2556767/Workers-discover-1-000-corpses-site-old-mental-asylum.html

What lies beneath? Gruesome find as workers discover more than 1,000 corpses at site of old Mississippi mental asylum
University of Mississippi Medical Center had planned to build a parking garage east of the dental school
Testing in the area revealed 1,000 bodies, believed to have been patients at the Mississippi State Lunatic Asylum a century ago
Future expansion plans might be halted because other bodies may lie beneath the earth including former slaves, TB victims and possibly even Civil War dead
Staff have always known there was a cemetery associated with the old asylum somewhere on the property, but no one knew for sure where it was until now
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
PUBLISHED: 10:36 EST, 11 February 2014 | UPDATED: 12:14 EST, 11 February 2014

New York Parents Protest Teachers Who Supported Convicted Pedophile


[From article]
Now the demand for the identities of the teachers as an online petition is currently making the rounds, according to EAGnews.org, which attempted to file a Freedom of Information Act request for the letters but was shot down by the Judge's office, being told that only government officials could make a request.
[. . .]
“Those employed by public school systems are state-mandated reporters,” reads another comment. “There should never be a time when they don't report suspected child abuse or neglect of any kind...especially at the hands of an adult in the school.”
[. . .]
School District officials told FoxNews.com they also want to know the identities of the teachers for their own internal investigation.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/02/12/rochester-parents-demand-names-teachers-who-backed-pedophile-colleague/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+foxnews%2Fmost-popular+%28Internal+-+Most+Popular+Content%29

New York public school parents demand names of teachers who backed pedophile colleague
By Perry Chiaramonte
Published February 12, 2014
FoxNews.com

"Angel of Death" Visits Ray Nagin, Democratic Mayor of New Orleans Convicted of 20 Counts of Bribery


[From article]
The charges against Nagin included one overarching conspiracy count along with six counts of bribery, nine counts of wire fraud, one count of money laundering conspiracy and four counts of filing false tax returns. He was acquitted of one of the bribery counts.
Each charges carries a sentence from 3 to 20 years, but how long he would serve was unclear and will depend on a pre-sentence investigation and various sentencing guidelines.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/02/12/jury-reaches-verdict-in-ex-new-orleans-mayor-nagin-bribery-case/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+foxnews%2Fmost-popular+%28Internal+-+Most+Popular+Content%29

Ex-New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin found guilty of corruption
Published February 12, 2014
FoxNews.com

Government Continues to Increase Its Domestic Military Arsenal


[From article]
“From fiscal years 2008 through 2013, DHS purchased an average of 109 million rounds of ammunition for training, qualification, and operational needs, according to DHS data,” GAO reports. “DHS’s ammunition purchases over the 6-year period equates to an average of 1,200 rounds purchased per firearm-carrying agent or officer per year. Over the past 3 fiscal years (2011-2013), DHS purchased an average of 1,000 rounds per firearm-carrying agent or officer and selected DOJ components purchased 1,300 rounds per firearm-carrying agent or officer.”

http://dailycaller.com/2014/02/12/dhs-to-purchase-75-1-million-rounds-of-ammunition-this-year/

DHS to purchase 75.1 million rounds of ammunition this year
Caroline May
4:32 PM 02/12/2014

White House: Dine As We Say, Not As We Do


[From article]
The Obamas welcomed French President Francois Hollande on Tuesday and served him and their high-status guests a 2,500 calorie meal, triple the calorie count that first lady Michelle Obama and the U.S. Department of Agriculture have required for public school lunches.

http://dailycaller.com/2014/02/12/last-nights-white-house-dinner-totaled-2500-calories/

Last night’s White House dinner totaled 2,500 calories
4:28 PM 02/12/2014

Comedy Genius Sid Caesar Dead at 91


[From article]
“Real life is the true comedy,” he said in a 2001 interview with The Associated Press. “Then everybody knows what you’re talking about.”
[. . .]
“As wild an idea as you get, it won’t go over unless it has a believable basis to start off with,” he told The Associated Press in 1955. “The viewers have to see you basically as a person first, and after that you can go on into left field.”
[. . .]
His first TV comedy-variety show, “The Admiral Broadway Revue,” premiered in February 1949. But it was off the air by June. Its fatal shortcoming: unimagined popularity. It was selling more Admiral television sets than the company could make, and Admiral, its exclusive sponsor, pulled out.

http://nypost.com/2014/02/12/sid-caesar-comic-genius-of-1950s-television-dies/

Sid Caesar, comic genius of 1950s television, dies
By Associated Press
New York Post
February 12, 2014 | 3:55pm

February 10, 2014

Jewelry Theft in New York City Nets $700 K, Two Arrested


[From article]
“Extraordinarily great detective work on that case was notified of that event within about three minutes of it occurring…. Literally less than 24-hours later they had two suspects in custody. We recovered some of the property and I anticipate that we will be able to resolve a number of NYC police cases as a result of that,” Bratton said.
“To have something like that happen in the heart of our shopping district, is to say, something you don’t like to see,” he said.

http://nypost.com/2014/01/31/2-busted-in-700k-cartier-watch-heist/

2 busted in $700K Cartier watch heist
By Dana Sauchelli and Jamie Schram
New York Post
January 31, 2014 | 12:56pm

Navy Yard Shooter Fooled Psychiatrists



[From article]
The gunman who killed 12 people in last year’s rampage at Washington’s Navy Yard lied so convincingly to Veterans Affairs doctors before the shootings that they concluded he had no mental health issues despite serious problems and encounters with police during the same period, according to a review by The Associated Press of his confidential medical files.
Just weeks before the shootings, a doctor treating him for insomnia noted that the patient worked for the Defense Department but wrote hauntingly “no problem there.”
[. . .]
In a bizarre incident in Newport, R.I., Alexis told police on Aug. 7 that disembodied voices were harassing him at his hotel using a microwave machine to prevent him from sleeping. After police reported the incident to the Navy, his employer, a defense contracting company, pulled his access to classified material for two days after his mental health problems became evident but restored it quickly and never told Navy officials it had done so.

http://nypost.com/2014/01/31/gunmans-doctor-before-navy-yard-rampage-no-problem-there/

* * *
[From article]
The medical records said Alexis, 34, was found sleeping in the VA waiting room in Providence on Aug. 23 while waiting to see a doctor. During that visit he was prescribed 50 milligrams of trazodone, an antidepressant and anti-anxiety medication that in such low doses can be used to treat insomnia.
[. . .]
Five days later, on Aug. 28, Alexis visited a VA medical facility in Washington, again complaining of sleeplessness: “Patient presents to ER with c/o (case of) awakening each morning about 4 a.m. like clockwork and he cannot figure out why this is happening.”
[. . .]
Another doctor that night described the examination as “unremarkable.” The VA gave him 10 more tablets of trazodone and sent him home just before 9 p.m.
[. . .]
Before the Navy Yard shootings, Alexis left behind a note that FBI agents recovered saying he had been targeted by ultra-low frequency radio waves for the previous three months — the period that covered his visits to the VA medical facilities when he denied he was experiencing any stress or violent thoughts.

Gunman’s doctor before Navy Yard rampage: ‘No problem there’
Associated Press
January 31, 2014 | 8:29am

New York Armored Truck Theft, $300 K


http://nypost.com/2014/02/01/gunmen-hold-up-armored-truck-in-brazen-queens-heist/

Manhunt after brazen $300K truck heist
By Matt McNulty and Josh Saul
February 1, 2014 | 2:09am

Film Maker Charged With Campaign Finance Violation, Political Motivation


[From article]
“This is not some far-out Orwellian scenario,” wrote the late William Safire of The New York Times in 2002, in the panicky aftermath of 9/11. “Here is what will happen to you: Every purchase you make with a credit card, every magazine subscription you buy and medical prescription you fill, every Web site you visit and e-mail you send or receive . . . will go into what the Defense Department describes as ‘a virtual, centralized grand database.’ 
[. . .]
Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz doesn’t think so. “The idea of charging him with a felony for this doesn’t sound like a proper exercise of prosecutorial discretion,” he said. “I can’t help but think that [D’Souza’s] politics have something to do with it . . . It smacks of selective prosecution.”

http://nypost.com/2014/02/01/welcome-to-the-united-states-of-paranoia/

‘Welcome to the United States of paranoia’
By Michael Walsh
February 1, 2014 | 1:30pm

Special Police Officer, Hospital Security Charged With Illegal Drug Sales



http://cambridge.wickedlocal.com/article/20140131/NEWS/140138983

Special police officer faces drug charges after arrest in Somerville
A special police officer from Somerville was arrested and charged with drug possession.
Posted Jan. 31, 2014 @ 6:55 pm
Jan 31, 2014 at 6:59 PM

Health Care Act Exposed as Misguided, Unlawful Changes By Obama


[From article]
Section 1342 of the Affordable Care Act forces taxpayers to make insurers whole for most of the losses incurred selling ObamaCare exchange plans through 2016. The bailout is designed to conceal the failure of the president's signature health law until he is out of office.
No one in the Obama administration talked up the advantages of bailing out insurers. It was kept under wraps until the fall of 2013. That's when 5 million to 6 million health plans were canceled because they didn't comply with ObamaCare's one-size-fits-all coverage requirements effective Jan. 1.
Insurers developed new plans, as the health law required, set premiums (generally higher) and sent out notices canceling the old plans.
That caused public outrage. Trying to quell it, the president ignored his own law and told insurance companies on Nov. 14 they could keep selling the old plans. Insurers were caught off guard. They predicted there would be less demand for their new plans and that they'd lose money.
Here's where the plot thickens. On the same day, an Obama administration health official, Gary Cohen, announced that the federal government (taxpayers) will offset most losses, citing Section 1342.
Sweetening what the law already guarantees, he pledged to "modify" the bailout's "final rules to provide additional assistance." That's when Congress finally did its job and read Section 1342.

http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials-on-the-right/013114-688457-obamacare-has-a-dirty-little-secret.htm?p=full

A Few More Reasons To Repeal ObamaCare
By BETSY MCCAUGHEY
 Posted 01/31/2014 05:32 PM ET

Gender Wage Gap Propaganda



[From article]
President Obama repeated the spurious gender wage gap statistic in his State of the Union address. “Today,” he said, “women make up about half our workforce. But they still make 77 cents for every dollar a man earns. That is wrong, and in 2014, it’s an embarrassment.”
What is wrong and embarrassing is the President of the United States reciting a massively discredited factoid. The 23-cent gender pay gap is simply the difference between the average earnings of all men and women working full-time. It does not account for differences in occupations, positions, education, job tenure, or hours worked per week. When all these relevant factors are taken into consideration, the wage gap narrows to about five cents. And no one knows if the five cents is a result of discrimination or some other subtle, hard-to-measure difference between male and female workers. In its fact-checking column on the State of the Union, the Washington Post included the president’s mention of the wage gap in its list of dubious claims.
[. . .]
The sexes, taken as a group, are somewhat different. Women, far more than men, appear to be drawn to jobs in the caring professions; and men are more likely to turn up in people-free zones. In the pursuit of happiness, men and women appear to take different paths.
During a candidate forum for U.S. Rep. for the Fifth District in  Massachusetts, the winning candidate and now U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark made the same false claim. With dumbed down voters, deceptive politicians can make any claim knowing they will not be questioned. Even if a few dedicated journalists check as in this case, fewer voters will read the correction.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/02/01/no-women-don-t-make-less-money-than-men.html

No, Women Don’t Make Less Money Than Men
It’s the bogus statistic that won’t die—and president deployed it during the State of the Union—but women do not make 77 cents to every dollar a man earns.
Christina Hoff Sommers

Facts About Valerie Jarrett


[From article]
Others in media and Washington circles portray Jarrett, who held top positions in Chicago government and business, as a brilliant strategist and thinker who practically runs both wings of the White House and who did as much or more than anyone to put the Obamas there. In 1991, Jarrett, then Mayor Rich Daley’s deputy chief of staff, offered Michelle Robinson a job in City Hall. Before Michelle accepted, she insisted that Jarrett meet with Michelle’s fiancé Barack Obama. Jarrett promptly took both under her wing and, over the years, introduced Barack to the inner Daley circle, to wealthy business people, and to the people who mattered in her enclave, Hyde Park—all of which helped Obama as he moved up from community organizer to Springfield to Washington.

http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/Felsenthal-Files/January-2014/The-Mysteries-and-Realities-of-Valerie-Jarrett-Mystery-Woman-of-the-White-House/

The Truth About Valerie Jarrett, Mystery Woman of the White House
The close adviser and friend of the Obamas is one of DC’s most powerful people—but what exactly does she do?
Carol Felsenthal

Defamation Suit For Claim Climate Change Data Is Fraudulent



[From article]
The case stems from Mr. Steyn’s written reference to Michael Mann’s climate change data as fraudulent, according to news website Raw Story.
Of especial ire to Mr. Mann was that Mr. Steyn quoted Competitive Enterprise Institution analyst Rand Simberg, who compared Mr. Mann to convicted Penn State child molester Jerry Sandusky.
Mr. Simberg called Mr. Mann “the Jerry Sandusky of climate science, except that instead of molesting children, he has molested and tortured data.”
[. . .]
Mr. Steyn is representing himself after firing the magazine’s legal team over a dispute related to how the judge was handling the case.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jan/31/climate-scientist-case-against-national-review-go-/

Defamation suit against Mark Steyn, National Review a go, judge says
Friday, January 31, 2014
By Cheryl K. Chumley
The Washington Times

Lasting Negative Effects of Kelo, Property Taking By Government


[From article]
The Supreme Court voted 5-4 to uphold a Connecticut Supreme Court ruling that the city of New London and a nonprofit quasi-public entity that the city had set up, then called the New London Development Corporation (NLDC), were entitled to seize, in a process known as eminent domain, the homes and businesses of Kelo, the Cristofaros, and five other nearby property owners in the name of “economic development” that would generate “new jobs and increased revenue,” in the words of since-retired Justice John Paul Stevens, author of the majority opinion.
[. . .]
The Constitution’s Fifth Amendment bars governments from taking private property unless the taking is for a “public use.” Historically “public use,” as courts had interpreted it, meant a road, a bridge, a public school, or some other government structure. But in the Kelo decision, the High Court majority declared that “economic development” that would involve using eminent domain to transfer the property of one private owner to a different but more economically ambitious private owner — such as a hotel — qualified as a public use just as much as, say, a new city library.
[. . .]
After Kelo, more than 40 state legislatures passed laws that banned or restricted the use of eminent domain for the purpose of economic rejuvenation, especially when it meant displacing homeowners. At least seven states amended their constitutions to ban the use of eminent domain for economic development, and some state courts explicitly rejected the Kelo ruling as precedent for interpreting those states’ own taking laws.
[. . .]
The Berman and Kelo rulings affirmed a particular kind of liberal vision: that large-scale and intricate government plans trump individuals’ property rights. The Berman case involved a thriving department store in Southwest that could not in any way have been said to be a slum property and whose owners wanted it to stay where it was — just as Susette Kelo and the Cristofaros wanted to stay where they were.
[. . .]
In a footnote to his majority opinion in Kelo, Justice Stevens rejected this contention, reiterating that the “development plan was not intended to serve the interests of Pfizer, Inc., or any other private entity, but rather to revitalize the local economy by creating temporary and permanent jobs, encouraging spin-off economic activities and maximizing public access to the waterfront.” Still, it couldn’t help but be noticed that a Pfizer executive, George Milne Jr., head of the company’s research operations, was a board member of the NLDC. Or that David Burnett, husband of the NLDC’s chairman, Claire Gaudiani, then the president of Connecticut College, one of New London’s three institutions of higher learning, worked under Milne at Pfizer. In a 2001 interview with the Hartford Courant that he undoubtedly later regretted, Burnett said, “Pfizer wants a nice place to operate. We don’t want to be surrounded by tenements.”
[. . .]
The NLDC might have won its case in the courts of law, but it did everything to lose it in the court of public opinion, its critics alleged: having real estate agents harass elderly Fort Trumbull owners on the telephone; showing up on their front porches waving contracts as they were sitting down to their Italian Sunday lunches; in the case of Billy Von Winkle, locking the tenants out of a Fort Trumbull apartment house he owned; trying to extract “rent” from those who resisted on the theory that the NLDC already had title to their properties; and immediately bulldozing the homes of everyone who sold, so as to isolate the seven holdouts psychologically and physically.
[. . .]
Susette Kelo and the Cristofaros, who held out the longest, got nearly half a million dollars apiece. Kelo was allowed to have her pink house disassembled and then reassembled on a lot in downtown New London as a monument to her struggle. She moved to Groton. The Cristofaro house was bulldozed in 2007, but New London, at Michael Cristofaro’s insistence, placed a plaque on a bluff overlooking the Thames in memory of his mother, Margherita, who had died in 2003, while the lawsuit was pending (Pasquale Cristofaro died in 2009). Michael Cristofaro, who had lived in New London all his life, moved to Waterford.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/kelo-revisited_776021.html

‘Kelo’ Revisited
Properties were seized and a neighborhood razed in the name of ‘economic development’ that never came
FEB 10, 2014, VOL. 19, NO. 21
BY CHARLOTTE ALLEN

Ethanol Bad For Engines, May Void Warranties


[From article]
Drivers have become more and more aware that not only is the higher corn gas bad for engine components, it actually costs you money by cutting down on your mileage.
[. . .]
But one factor which some auto shoppers may not be aware of is that the industry is aware of these dangers and they aren’t going to honor warranties on vehicles guzzling the latest 15% ethanol blend unless you’ve got a brand new car or one that is specifically rated as a “flex fuel vehicle.”
[. . .]
Keep in mind that you’re paying for this though your tax dollars because of subsidies which continue to keep the “renewable fuels” push not only afloat, but mandatory in most cases. And in exchange for your big hearted investment, unless you do your research, you can see your boat engine, your lawnmower and even your family car producing expensive repair bills. And unless your car is one of the new ones which “qualifies” by way of design, your warranty may be void.
For now – thanks to Uncle Sugar – ethanol free gas is going to cost a bit more at the pump. But the EPA shows no signs of relenting, and until the President who put the current policymakers in place is out of office there’s no relief in sight. It may be worth the extra investment to put real gas in your tank just to avoid the downstream costs later.

http://hotair.com/archives/2014/02/01/automakers-continue-to-quietly-void-warranties-if-you-use-e-15-gas/

Automakers continue to quietly void warranties if you use E-15 gas
POSTED AT 10:01 AM ON FEBRUARY 1, 2014
BY JAZZ SHAW

Celebrating Low Information Voters


[From article]
these citizens perform their civic duty on election day. But they have no real clue for whom or what they are voting. Yes, when it comes to their occupational callings, investment, or sport picks, they may be highly rational. It's just politics and public affairs that hold no interest for them. It has long been hoped that the silent majority would one day wake and grow politically engaged. In 2010, the Tea Party Movement did just that. But it yet speaks as no more than a marginal voice. The majority remains politically asleep. And this silence understandably draws the ire of those who can see the fiscal calamities to come and care deeply about the country's future. But perhaps the community of the concerned should reconsider its position. The "know-nothings" may yet hold the key to "taking our country back."
[. . .]
First, there is cynicism. Americans have little use for their elected leaders and disdain for the political process, as such. Politicians plead for their votes but rarely keep their word. Any position or solemn campaign "promise" can be "recalibrated" two weeks or two campaign miles down the road. "They are all only in it for themselves." Sadly, that's all true. But apathy is also fueled by skepticism. If the cynic believes there's nothing we can do about the hopelessly corrupt system, the skeptic believes that there's no way of knowing what to do.
[. . .]
public apathy is the simple desire to live and be left alone. It is a penchant to care most about the things that matter most: making a living, managing expenses, handling emergencies, and raising the kids.
[. . .]
When will the average American wake up and reach for her ballot? When the agent from the National Institutes of Health is standing in her kitchen demanding to know precisely what she is feeding her family?

http://www.americanthinker.com/2014/02/lets_hear_it_for_the_low_information_voter.html

February 1, 2014
Let's Hear It for The Low Information Voter
By Jerome Huyler

Police Downplay Injuries From Knockout Crimes



[From article]
Last year, Philadelphia Magazine published a story called “Being White in Philadelphia.” It described how racial tension and fear of black on white crime is an every day fact of life in the City of Brotherly Love. Mayor Michael Nutter said the story was despicable.
Also in January in Seattle, another city that experiences regular and frequent cases of black mob violence, KIRO TV news reports one neighborhood experienced a “string of seemingly random attacks by teenagers.”
The news station does not state what the police reports do: The suspects are black.
[. . .]
In New Orleans, a well known local musician is in a coma after he was attacked by a group of black people on January 20. He was not robbed and “Doug Potter’s family and friends believe he may have been a target of the ‘Knockout’ Game,” said WWL TV.
Police have video of the attack and of the suspects strolling and strutting away from the scene. WWL TV in New Orleans did identify the suspects by race. But the reporter did wonder why the musician was the object of the “senseless attack.”
In the Indianapolis suburb of Lawrence, police are appealing for help in the January 4 slaying of a white college student. The victim was getting gas when a car full of black people pulled up, got out, and were seen trying to break into his car, before they shot him in the head.

http://www.wnd.com/2014/02/knockouts-still-considered-minor/

COPS, MEDIA: 'KNOCKOUT' INJURIES 'MINOR'
'This kind of violent crime is life-changing and traumatic to the victim'
Colin Flaherty
February 1, 2014

New, New York Mayor Relaxes Focus on Crime



[From article]
Nothing has been more important to the revival of New York than the conquest of crime. New York’s unprecedented crime drop is the greatest urban success story of the last half-century, one that should be seized upon by every conservative politician searching for a government program to support. But if New Yorkers once again fear walking home at night from the subway, if tourists worry about getting to their hotel after a concert or a show, expect the folly of electing a mayor who thought he could play politics with public safety to become clear.

http://www.city-journal.org/2014/eon0131hm.html

HEATHER MAC DONALD
Re-breaking the Windows
Mayor de Blasio’s decision to settle the NYPD lawsuit threatens the city’s triumph over crime.
31 January 2014

Mayor Of Trenton NJ and Brother Convicted of Bribery



[From article]
Mack and his brother Ralphiel were found guilty of soliciting bribes from parking garage developers who were working as informants for the FBI. After a month-long trial that included heavy use of wiretaps and recordings made by the government during a two-year investigation, the mayor was found guilty on all counts in a unanimous verdict by the jury late Friday afternoon.
Ralphiel Mack was found guilty of three extortion and bribery related offenses, but innocent of the wire and mail fraud charges his brother was convicted of.

http://www.nj.com/mercer/index.ssf/2014/02/convicted_trenton_mayor_tony_mack_to_remain_in_office_until_monday_barring_resignation.html

Convicted Trenton Mayor Tony Mack to remain in office until Monday barring resignation
By Times of Trenton Staff Writers
on February 08, 2014 at 1:43 PM, updated February 08, 2014 at 2:44 PM
By Alex Zdan and Jenna Pizzi

Michelle Malkin, Political Powerhouse Readies For 2014 Elections


[From article]
Malkin, 43, says she’s using her influence — and her confrontational approach — on behalf of candidates she deems worthy of it in this year’s midterm.
“I see the practically unlimited power that social media has to help push the issues and causes and people I care about,” Malkin told POLITICO in a recent interview. “I know what I’m good at.”

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/02/michelle-malkin-2014-elections-republicans-103284.html

Michelle Malkin girds for 2014 GOP civil war
By MACKENZIE WEINGER
 2/8/14 2:48 PM EST Updated: 2/8/14 6:08 PM EST

Large Heroin Ring Busted in New York City



[From article]
The pipeline starts in Mexico, where cartels traffic Colombian-produced heroin by the kilogram. The wholesalers smuggle the drugs into the United States concealed in trucks, through tunnels dug under the southwest border and, in one recent case, by molding and coloring the heroin to look like coffee beans and shipping it via UPS to a private postal box in Queens.
In the Northeast, the cartels have increasingly supplied Dominican middlemen who rely on a business model for heroin mills that emphasizes discipline, quality control and an absence of violence.
The retailers favor residential settings in safe neighborhoods as a means of cover. Raids by Brennan's office and the DEA in recent years have found them in a newly renovated apartment in midtown Manhattan that rented for $3,800 a month and in a two-story, red-brick home in the New York City suburb of Fort Lee, N.J.
A mill found in an 18th-floor apartment in upper Manhattan had a sign that read, "Clean Up After Yourselves - The Management." At another discovered across the street from Manhattan College in a Bronx, immigrant workers wore school sweatshirts to try to blend in.
Workers can make up to $5,000 a week. They're also given meals and toiletries to help make it through 12-hour shifts.
[. . .]
Elizabeth Thompson, a recovering addict who got hooked on heroin and relied on home delivery while going to law school in Philadelphia, described the delivery men who came to her door at an apartment building there as prompt and courteous.
"I never felt unsafe with them," said the 30-year-old Thompson, now policy coordinator with the New Jersey Drug Policy Alliance. "They wanted the business. And I was a good customer for a long time."
For as many years as the various control freak organizations have me under surveillance and harassment, there were enterprising young men dealing drugs making huge profits and ensuring a good life for themselves afterwards. One of many was Jay-Z now a prominent musical genius, and entrepreneur marketing mogul in New York City. His drug dealing past has not kept him from the White House or from endorsing upscale clothing stores in Manhattan. But among the many groups, local police, FBI informants, Communists, Harvard University campus police, Harvard University building superintendents keep me under 24/7 surveillance, harassment, provocations, threats, humiliation, ridicule, sleep disturbances every one or two hours every day, tampering with my computer and telephone communications, causing my computer to crash, and degenerating the functioning of my browsers and operating systems. One dedicated older member of a gambling ring, followed me to Las Vegas about four years ago to tell me, "You're not so important any more." Huh? I was important enough for him to follow me there. And all of the above groups still take turns watching me, harassing me as described above. So I am still important to them. I am no longer important to the government which used me and abused me, drugging me as part of a human experiment to try to make me into a homosexual, and then used me to fight organized crime for 15 years without paying me. They simply continue discrediting me with non stop character assassination to cover up what they did to me for 15 years. The government prevents me from getting relief from the criminal abuse and stands by to allow sociopaths to conduct this abuse of a now 70 years old white male. They currently use student at Harvard University who are as depraved as the government criminal class they want to join.

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/heroin-mill-door-nyc-dealers-blend-22424729

The Heroin Mill Next Door: NYC Dealers Blend In
ABC News NEW YORK
February 8, 2014 (AP)
By TOM HAYS
Associated Press

Red Light Camera Contracts May Be Corruption Connected



[From article]
Rosenberg noted in the suit that Redflex “bestowed gifts and bribes on ... officials in dozens of municipalities within, but not limited to the following states: California, Washington, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Colorado, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Florida, New Jersey, Tennessee, Virginia, and Georgia.”
He said Redflex bribed local officials with meals, golf outings and tickets to professional football and baseball games. The expenses were listed as categories such as “entertainment” and “celebratory tokens,” according to the suit.
[. . .]
Rosenberg was fired by Redflex a year ago after the Chicago controversy became public, and the company sued him in the Superior Court of the State of Arizona for misappropriation of company funds. In his answer/counterclaim, Rosenberg said he was simply "carrying out orders" from Redflex.

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2014/02/fired_red-light_camera_executive_company_bribed_officials_in_13_states_including_nj.html

Fired red-light camera executive: Company bribed officials in 13 states, including NJ
By Mike Frassinelli
The Star-Ledger
on February 08, 2014 at 8:00 AM, updated February 08, 2014 at 8:57 PM

Liz Hurley, Monica Lewinsky Separated At Birth?



[From article]
This week Liz Hurley's ex-boyfriend Tom Sizemore made sensational claims that the actress had a secret affair with former President Bill Clinton.
Sizemore has now dismissed the allegations as drug-induced ramblings, saying that he has never met Clinton and never gave him Hurley's phone number.
But while the claims may have proven false, the Daily Mail can reveal a striking resemblance between Hurley and Clinton's former lover, Monica Lewinsky

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2554396/After-Liz-Hurley-denies-affair-Clinton-reveal-remarkable-likeness-lover-Monica-Lewinsky.html

After Liz Hurley denies an affair with Clinton, we reveal her remarkable likeness to his lover Monica Lewinsky
By CLAIRE CISOTTI
PUBLISHED: 19:15 EST, 7 February 2014 | UPDATED: 19:58 EST, 7 February 2014

Inspector Generals Under Attack By Democrats


[From article]
The IRS scandal is so bad that Democrats are unleashing total war in an attempt to beat back a full airing of the abuse. The old adage, "The best defense is a good offense," is all the more valid when the major media outlets are on their side. It is not necessary to have any actual facts to use as rebuttal for the indefensible; it is enough to simply throw a cloud of dust, so as to discredit any charges - in the eyes of supporters and media sycophants.
[. . .]
If evidence is found of Obama's involvement in weaponizing the IRS to target the tea party, that would clearly be an impeachable offense. It may be politically impossible to impeach the First Black President, bit nobody in the Democratic Party wants to test that out, should such evidence be uncovered by an Inspector General. Reining in Russell George is thus a high priority. President Nixon's Articles of Impeachment, on which Hillary Clinton worked as a committee staffer, included that very charge, something that is highly awkward for a party that appears likely to nominate her for the presidency.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2014/02/dems_declare_war_on_inspector_general_uncovering_irs_scandal.html

February 8, 2014
Dems declare war on Inspector General uncovering IRS scandal
Thomas Lifson

Are Boehner and McConnell Working With Obama For Global Masters?



[From article]
Could it be that Boehner and McConnell have sold their souls, and our rights and freedoms, to partner with other entrenched establishment elites atop both major political parties, to protect our puppet dictator? Could Boehner and McConnell have been clandestinely and strategically placed into their positions of leadership, to advance the global elite puppeteers’ agenda against the United States of America, and freedom throughout the world?
[. . .]
We have, what appears to be, a gutless GOP leadership that has become increasingly docile towards a renegade regime that has grown increasingly hostile against the U. S. citizen/taxpayer, our rights and freedoms, and our constitutional republic. From a political perspective, this does not make sense, so don’t we need to think outside of the boxes in which the puppeteer-controlled media have confined our thinking?
[. . .]
Our puppet dictator could not have been as successful as he has been in destroying our culture, economy and republic without hidden assistance from unlikely sources.
[. . .]
What is motivating either of them to cede our rights and freedoms, and participate in the controlled destruction of our constitutional republic, with impunity? Is it just about the wealth and power they accrue, or is it more sinister than that?
[. . .]
The puppeteer-controlled media control the narrative, accusing patriotic citizens of being anti-Hispanic and anti-Latino. The reality is that patriotic citizens are placing all legal citizens of, and visitors to the United States above those here illegally, without regard to race, creed, color, or country/countries of origin. Additionally, there is a valid concern about criminals and those who may seek to do harm to our republic from within, with origins from China, North Korea, and Russia. Considering the challenges Muslims continue to create throughout Europe, and the incremental push for Sharia Law within the United States, our borders must be secured, prior to any discussion of legitimate immigration reform.
[. . .]
don’t we need to be asking why Boehner and McConnell are acting distressingly akin to Pelosi and Reid? Doesn’t this expose the myth that we have a true, two-party political system?

http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/61028

Obama’s Praetorian Guards!
By A.J. Cameron 
Saturday, February 8, 2014