Game of Drones

Game of Drones | Hoover Institution:
Again, there was little controversy over drones extending their mission beyond the conventional battlefield to nearby Pakistan—at least as long as the missions were relatively few (about 50-70 during the two Bush administration terms) and were thought to be mostly adjunct operations in the ongoing ground war against the Taliban.

Since 2009, however, three unexpected developments have raised a national outcry about the use of drones. First, the politics of UAVs became almost surreal. Barack Obama, who ran in 2008 against the Bush-Cheney anti-terrorism protocols, arguing that they were either without utility or constitutional support, increased the frequency of drone attacks radically when he became president. Indeed, in just four years, he outdid the Bush total of eight years by a factor of six—to over 400 separate missions. Kills were now not just confined to enemy combatants on the battlefield, or even a top twenty cadre from the al Qaeda or Taliban high command, but, by 2013, may have accounted for somewhere between 2,500-3,500 deaths. Strikes blew up suspected enemies from Afghanistan and Pakistan to Yemen, Somalia, and Libya.

Conservatives seemed exasperated: should they cheer on the Obama conversion (the President likewise kept Guantanamo Bay open, and embraced or expanded renditions, tribunals, and preventative detentions), or damn his prior harmful and hypocritical opposition? Should liberals ignore the legal implications of targeting those without uniforms and distant from the battlefield, in fear of imperiling the otherwise progressive Obama agenda? Or should they keep intact their civil liberties fides by faulting Obama as they did Bush? Or should they point proudly to liberals’ newfound credibility on national security?

In addition, there was a political incongruity. 

The Bush administration’s waterboarding of three confessed terrorists was considered illegal torture, while vaporizing well over 2,000 suspected terrorists by judge/jury/executioner drones was not considered such a drastic anti-terrorism measure.

900,000 choose to come off sickness benefit ahead of tests

900,000 choose to come off sickness benefit ahead of tests - Telegraph:
"The 878,300 who decided not to have an official assessment of whether they were fit for work was more than a third of the total number of people claiming sickness-related benefits.
The statistics also revealed that some claimants cited conditions such as “blisters”, “sprains and strains” and “acne” as preventing them from having a job."

Sundown in America

Sundown in America - NYTimes.com:
"Over the last 13 years, the stock market has twice crashed and touched off a recession: American households lost $5 trillion in the 2000 dot-com bust and more than $7 trillion in the 2007 housing crash. Sooner or later — within a few years, I predict — this latest Wall Street bubble, inflated by an egregious flood of phony money from the Federal Reserve rather than real economic gains, will explode, too."

We happy few

Blog: We happy few:
"Using the numbers from recovery.gov, the website that explains, sort of, how the ARRA stimulus money was spent, we find that the state of New York had created 5,856 "recipient reported jobs" at cost of  $14.321 billion.
That's about $2.4 million per job.
California had 14,079 "recipient reported jobs" at a cost of  $27.254 billion. 
About $1.9 million per job.
The state of Washington used $3.3 million for each job.
Ohio ran $1.7 million per job, and thrifty Florida spent only $1.1 million on each job created with the ARRA stimulus funds. 
Will you be remembering these numbers as you pay your Federal taxes on April 15th this year?"

Need a Job? Invent It

Need a Job? Invent It - NYTimes.com:
“Because of this, the longer kids are in school, the less motivated they become.
Gallup’s recent survey showed student engagement going from 80 percent in fifth grade to 40 percent in high school. More than a century ago, we ‘reinvented’ the one-room schoolhouse and created factory schools for the industrial economy.
Reimagining schools for the 21st-century must be our highest priority.
We need to focus more on teaching the skill and will to learn and to make a difference and bring the three most powerful ingredients of intrinsic motivation into the classroom: play, passion and purpose.”
What does that mean for teachers and principals?
“Teachers,” he said, “need to coach students to performance excellence, and principals must be instructional leaders who create the culture of collaboration required to innovate. "

Payrolls Plunge To 88K, Biggest Miss Since December 2009, Participation Rate At New 30 Year Low

Payrolls Plunge To 88K, Biggest Miss Since December 2009, Participation Rate At New 30 Year Low | Zero Hedge:
"So much for "open-ended QE driven recovery". Moments ago the March Non-farm payroll hit and it was a doozy, printing at 88K, below the lowest forecast of 100K, well below the expected number of 190K, and a tragedy compared to the February revised print of 268K (was 236K). This was the biggest miss to expectations since December 2009 and the worst print since June 2012. The unemployment rate declined to 7.6%, but this was due entirely to the collapse in the labor force participation rate, which declined by 20 bps to 63.3%, a new 30 year low.
And now the time to come up with excuses is here."

Why Abundant Oil Hasn't Cut Gasoline Prices

Why Abundant Oil Hasn't Cut Gasoline Prices - Businessweek
With competition fierce for limited pipeline capacity, producers have begun moving crude on barges and trains, adding as much as $17 a barrel to the price of domestic oil. 

That extra cost eventually makes its way to the price at the pump. 

Ethanol requirements have backfired. 

The idea was to stretch a limited oil supply, cut reliance on imported crude, and make use of abundant corn harvests. 

But today the ethanol program is raising costs for refiners even as the price of oil has fallen 10 percent over the last year.

Complicating the equation is a 1920 law called the Jones Act, which requires any cargo shipped between U.S. ports to be carried by vessels that are based in the U.S., made in the U.S., and crewed mostly by U.S. citizens. The law was intended to protect U.S. shipping interests but has made it more costly to move fuel between U.S. ports. This in particular hurts the Northeast, which is struggling to meet its fuel needs after several refineries closed in the last two years. According to Ed Morse, chief commodity analyst at Citigroup (C), those constraints add between $6 and $8 a barrel to transport costs. As a result, it’s often cheaper for a Gulf Coast refiner to send gasoline to Brazil than to New York.

In late 2011 the U.S. quietly surpassed Russia as the largest exporter of such refined products as gasoline and diesel. Canada’s fuel imports from the U.S. jumped 15 percent in 2012. Brazil’s demand for U.S.-made fuel rose 6 percent. China’s leapt 17 percent. Exports to Venezuela and India more than doubled. Without realizing it, U.S. drivers are competing for American-made gasoline with consumers in Latin America and Asia, where demand is rising. “Americans don’t think about their prices being impacted by a global market,” says Morse. “The American public just thinks about the rising price at the pump.”

The Senate Trouble-Maker in Waiting

The Senate Trouble-Maker in Waiting - NationalJournal.com:
"Not long ago, the idea of someone like Amash clearing the primary field in a Senate race would have been unthinkable. 
An outspoken libertarian with views that often run counter to recent GOP orthodoxy (he led a failed coup against Speaker John Boehner earlier this year), Amash has minimal support among the Republican political class.
He’s also only 32 years old, serving his second term in Congress, and has little name recognition—even across Michigan.
But in modern GOP politics, as shown by the examples of Sens. Paul, Marco Rubio of Florida, and Ted Cruz of Texas—all of whom were opposed by the establishment in their primary races—conservative outsiders have an inside track to the upper chamber."

Gun Grabbers’ Latest Gambit

PJ Media » Gun Grabbers’ Latest Gambit:
“A contingent of liberal Democrats in Congress is proposing a new federal gun control idea: mandatory liability insurance for gun owners.”
Gun purchasers without such insurance would face a fine of “as much as $10,000″ if the “Firearm Risk Protection Act” introduced in March by New York’s Carolyn Maloney and seven other Democratic congressmen were ever to become law."

Social Programs Face Cutback in Obama Budget

Social Programs Face Cutback in Obama Budget - NYTimes.com:
"Mr. Obama’s budget will propose a new inflation formula that would have the effect of reducing cost-of-living payments for Social Security benefits"

Question of the Day: Should Michigan change its high school graduation requirements to eliminate Algrebra II and foreign languages?

Question of the Day: Should Michigan change its high school graduation requirements to eliminate Algrebra II and foreign languages? | MLive.com:
"Supporters of the requirements say that changes already allow students to customize their curriculum and that the changes aren't needed.
What do you think?
Should students be required to take Algebra II and foreign languages to get their high school degree?
Does it better prepare them for a career?"

Outrageous!… Dem Rep. Degette Mocks Senior Citizen – Says “You’d Probably Be Dead Anyway” if Confronted by Armed Criminals (Video)

Outrageous!… Dem Rep. Degette Mocks Senior Citizen – Says “You’d Probably Be Dead Anyway” if Confronted by Armed Criminals (Video) | The Gateway Pundit:
"During the question and answer period a concerned Denver citizen asked Democratic Representative DeGette how he was supposed to defend himself under the new Colorado gun laws.
DeGette smirked and mocked the senior citizen saying,
“The good news for you, you live in Denver. The Denver PD would be there within minutes. (laughing) You’d probably be dead anyway.”
Really?
That’s the Democratic response to concerned homeowners?
To mothers?
To seniors protecting their homes?
“You’d probably be dead anyway.”"

First Amendment Victory! | Ottawa County Patriots

First Amendment Victory! | Ottawa County Patriots:
 "Update:  April 4th. 12:00PM
To the applause of a standing room only crowd in court, Judge Servass, dismissed the case against the owner of Verium Farms in Gaines township as unconstitutional."

Obama: Newtown Shooter Gunned Down 20 Children With 'Fully Automatic Weapon'

Obama: Newtown Shooter Gunned Down 20 Children With 'Fully Automatic Weapon' | The Weekly Standard:
"-- by a fully automatic weapon in that case, sadly."
According to the prosecutor, Stephen J. Sedensky III, the killer, Adam Lanza, "killed all 26 victims inside Sandy Hook Elementary School with a Bushmaster .223-caliber rifle before taking his own life with a Glock 10 mm handgun.
He says Lanza had another loaded handgun with him inside the school as well as three, 30-round magazines for the Bushmaster," ABC previously reported.
Each of the guns used is a semi-automatic weapon, and not one is an automatic weapon."

The Coming Global Warming Voter Backlash

Articles: The Coming Global Warming Voter Backlash:
"The volcanic eruption of Mount Pinotubo in the Pacific belched as much greenhouse gases into the atmosphere in a few weeks as 1,000 years of humans driving automobiles. 
Similarly, the production of methane gas -- a more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide (CO2) -- from herds of wildebeest in Africa far exceeds the greenhouse gas emissions of the largest U.S. cities.
The only scientific data we ever had is this: over the geological history of the Earth, when temperature increased, 800 years later we see a rise in atmospheric CO2. 
Higher temperatures are not caused by carbon dioxide in the air. 
CO2 cannot cause a warmer climate, because warming occurs 800 years on average before any increase in CO2 levels. 
(It is suspected that CO2 dissolved in the oceans escapes as the oceans grow warmer.) "

33 things you should never say to a TSA agent

No humor zone: 33 things you should never say to a TSA agent:
"During a bag search, a Flint (FNT) traveler stated: "Be careful, there's a bomb in my bag."

Tell youngsters the truth: the UK needs you to work not go to university

Tell youngsters the truth: the UK needs you to work not go to university - Telegraph:
"The horrible truth is that central planning never works: just as the authorities cannot possibly know how many widgets an economy ought to produce, or what the “right” price for goods will turn out to be, they cannot possibly know many decades in advance what skills will be required, or what percentage of school-leavers should go to university. 
It is hard to fathom what Tony Blair was thinking when he promised that half of 18-year-olds would go to university.
The result has been betrayal, broken dreams, graduates working in coffee shops, a business community that still cannot find the right people with the right soft and hard skills, and a generation of young people crumbling under ever larger student debts.
It’s a social catastrophe for which nobody has yet paid the price; even worse, it remains politically unacceptable for those in a position of power to point any of this out."

What could go wrong? Obama asks banks to offer risky loans

Harsanyi: What could go wrong? Obama asks banks to offer risky loans:
"Think about this statement.
The administration is asking banks – banks that Washington bails out; banks that Washington crafts regulations for — to embrace risky policies that put the institution and its investors (not to mention, all of us) in a  precarious position.
So precarious, in fact, that banks have to ask government if they can be freed of any legal or financial consequences."

Obama administration recruiting 'navigators' for health law plans

Obama administration recruiting 'navigators' for health law plans - Washington Times:
"The Obama administration proposed guidelines on Wednesday for “navigators” who will assist people who buy health insurance on virtualmarketplaces under President’s Obama’s health care law.
The marketplaces, or “exchanges,” established by the Affordable Care Act are state-based portals where persons without employer-based insurance can shop among competing private health plans.
Participation in the exchanges is set to begin on Oct. 1.
Insurance coverage from the exchanges will take effect on Jan. 1."

$423,500 Stimulus Program on 'Correct Condom Use' Yields Zero Jobs

$423,500 Stimulus Program on 'Correct Condom Use' Yields Zero Jobs | The Weekly Standard:
"The details of a stimulus grant awarded to Indiana University to study condom use have now been released on a government website.
The study, titled "Barriers to Correct Condom Use," is now completed, according to the website, and the university received $423,500 of stimulus funds to perform the study."

Muskegon's Michigan Steel Inc. closes, lays off workers, prepares to liquidate

Muskegon's Michigan Steel Inc. closes, lays off workers, prepares to liquidate | MLive.com:
"That was at the dedication of an expansion at Rothbury Steel, when state assistance provided the company and that led to an increase employment at the plant to 300.
As of the end of last year, Rothbury Steel was operating with about 70 employees, according to Oceana County economic development officials."

The effects of Wal-Mart on local labor markets ✩

http://www.mbconservation.org/pdf/LMMYVWMSC(Tab07).let.pdf

[Video] Fifteen Year Old Young Lady Leaves Maryland Anti Gun Politicians Speechless

[Video] Fifteen Year Old Young Lady Leaves Maryland Anti Gun Politicians Speechless

Gun control: ignorance in search of power |

Gun control: ignorance in search of power |
RealClearPolitics brings us a new intellectual high-water mark in the gun control debate, as Colorado Rep. Diana DeGette, a Democrat, makes it clear that she doesn’t really know what a “magazine” is, or how they work – she just knows she wants power over them: ”I will tell you these are ammunition, they’re bullets, so the people who have those now they’re going to shoot them, so if you ban them in the future, the number of these high capacity magazines is going to decrease dramatically over time because the bullets will have been shot and there won’t be any more available.”
Golly, whatever will we do if those cunning criminals – er, excuse me, “persons who choose to operate outside the law,” in accordance with the new Associated Press stylebook – figure out that magazines can be reloaded?
This degree of nitwittery is not uncommon in the gun control debate.
 The anti-gun crowd is having a good day if they can avoid referring to ammunition magazine as “clips.” Barack Obama’s phony statistic about “40 percent of all gun purchases taking place without a background check” – which has been debunked by conservatives many times, but is finally getting a fact-check workover from the mainstream press – could most charitably be described as ignorance of how gun sales work.
I suspect Obama himself knows it isn’t true – his advisers certainly do – and he’s just flogging the lie because it sounds useful.
But a lot of his supporters don’t know it’s untrue, because they have minimal personal experience with the purchase and transfer of firearms.
The hysteria around “assault weapons” is an example of using loaded language to exploit a general lack of knowledge about rifles.
Most of the characteristics that land rifles on the “assault weapons” ban list are cosmetic, with little bearing on the weapon’s effectiveness.
Sometimes gun control zealots like to slip in terms like “military weapons,” to conjure images of rocket launchers and squad automatic weapons tucked into gun racks in the pickup trucks of NRA life members, who are one fender-bender away from pumping entire neighborhoods full of lead.
For that matter, the concept of “semi-automatic” guns is deliberately conflated with fully automatic fire.