History for April 23

History for April 23 - On-This-Day.com:

450th birth anniversary of William Shakespeare (1564-1616).

Miguel de Cervantes: Death Anniversary (1616)

James Buchanan, 15^th President of the US: Birth Anniversary (1791-1868).

Birth anniversary of Shirley Temple Black (1928-2014)

Happy Birthday! Valerie Bertinelli, Joyce Dewitt, Lee Majors

1500 - Pedro Cabal claimed Brazil for Portugal. 





1900 - The word "hillbilly" was first used in print in an article in the "New York Journal." It was spelled "Hill-Billie". 


1950 - Chaing evacuated Hainan, leaving mainland China to Mao and the communists. 






1985 - The Coca-Cola Company announced that it was changing its 99-year-old secret formula. New Coke was not successful, which resulted in the resumption of selling the original version. 





1988 - A U.S. federal law took effect that banned smoking on flights that were under two hours. 


1997 - An infertility doctor in California announced that a 63-year-old woman had given birth in late 1996. The child was from a donor egg. The woman is the oldest known woman to give birth. 



2004 - U.S. President George W. Bush eased sanctions against Libya in return for Moammar Gadhafi's agreement to give up weapons of mass destruction. 





2005 - The first video was uploaded to YouTube.com. 

More on Obamacare’s “Bailout” for Health Insurers

More on Obamacare’s “Bailout” for Health Insurers | The Beacon:
"In other words, the Obama administration does not have the slightest idea how much taxpayers’ money is jeopardized by these risk corridors. 

This is a reckless way to manage our finances. 
The Congressional Research Service has suggested that payouts from the risk corridors require appropriations. Congress would do its duty by ensuring that the administration does not pay out any money from risk corridors without such legislative authority."

Award-Winning Song Writers Behind ‘Frozen’ Out With Giant Claim About Disney and God | Video | TheBlaze.com

Award-Winning Song Writers Behind ‘Frozen’ Out With Giant Claim About Disney and God | Video | TheBlaze.com:
"The Academy Award-winning husband and wife duo who wrote the songs for the popular animated film “Frozen” recently said that, while Disney is open to hiring staff who have worked on potentially off-color projects in the past, the company doesn’t welcome God and religious themes into its movies."

"...initially involve about 600 troops"?-------US troops arrive in Poland for exercises across Eastern Europe amid Ukraine crisis

US troops arrive in Poland for exercises across Eastern Europe amid Ukraine crisis | Fox News:
"WASHINGTON –  U.S. Army paratroopers are arriving in Poland to begin a series of military exercises in four countries across Eastern Europe to bolster allies in the wake of Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula last month.
Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby said Tuesday that the exercises will last about a month, and initially involve about 600 troops."

"Alleged"?------Alleged 100-person brawl, gun incident in city of Muskegon under investigation

Must read the comments!

Alleged 100-person brawl, gun incident in city of Muskegon under investigation | MLive.com:

"MUSKEGON, MI -- An incident where allegedly 100 people gathered to fight in Muskegon and three people reported having a gun pointed at them during the same brawl on Sunday, April 20 remains under investigation, police said.

 The investigation into the Easter evening incident, reported around 7:55 p.m., remained under investigation Tuesday, April 22, police said.

At the time of the call, the complainant reported that about 100 people were fighting in the 400 block of Catawba Street in the city of Muskegon.

 Police arrived to find about 20 people arguing in the area.

A group of those same individuals ran behind a home in the area, and officers pursuing them were advised that a subject had a gun."

What a "great" man.........Obama Skipped Aunt's Funeral; Went Golfing Instead

Obama Skipped Aunt's Funeral; Went Golfing Instead | The Weekly Standard:
"President Obama did not attend the funeral of his late aunt Zeituni Onyango.
Instead, he went golfing.
 The New York Times reports:
After Zeituni Onyango, the woman President Obama once called Auntie, died in a South Boston nursing home this month, her closest relatives gathered her belongings at her nearby apartment.
There, framed photographs of her with the president covered the wall.
Weeping before a polished wood coffin at her wake this past Saturday, they described Ms. Onyango, the half sister of the president’s father, as “the spirit of the Obama family” and talked about raising money to send her body back to Kenya.
Mr. Obama helped pay funeral expenses and sent a condolence note, Ms. Onyango’s family members said, but the president did not attend, as he was golfing."

HEY, WAIT, I THOUGHT THE SCIENCE WAS SETTLED!

Instapundit » Blog Archive » HEY, WAIT, I THOUGHT THE SCIENCE WAS SETTLED! Nutritional Folklore: Dr. Walter C. Willett

HEY, WAIT, I THOUGHT THE SCIENCE WAS SETTLED! Nutritional Folklore:

Dr. Walter C. Willett, a Harvard epidemiologist who has spent many years studying cancer and nutrition, sounded almost rueful as he gave a status report. Whatever is true for other diseases, when it comes to cancer there was little evidence that fruits and vegetables are protective or that fatty foods are bad.

About all that can be said with any assurance is that controlling obesity is important, as it also is for heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, hypertension, stroke and other threats to life. Avoiding an excess of alcohol has clear benefits. But unless a person is seriously malnourished, the influence of specific foods is so weak that the signal is easily swamped by noise. . . .

The hypothesis that fatty foods are a direct cause of cancer has also been crumbling, along with the case for eating more fiber. The idea that red meat causes colon cancer is shrouded in ambiguity. Two meta-analyses published in 2011 reached conflicting conclusions — one finding a small effect and the other no clear link at all. If hamburgers are carcinogenic, the effect appears to be mild. One study suggests that a 50-year-old man eating a hefty amount of red meat — about a third of a pound a day — raises his chance of getting colorectal cancer to 1.71 percent during the next decade, from 1.28 percent. Spread over a population of millions, that would have an impact. From the point of view of an individual, it barely seems to matter.

Yet all the nutritional commands — like the command to avoid sunlight — have been issued in the Voice Of Authority, with doubters and skeptics condemned as disrespecters of science.
There’s even the suggestion that the war on tobacco caused people who quit smoking to gain weight, with more cancers resulting from obesity than from cigarettes.
If that proves out, will the anti-smoking folks be targeted like the tobacco companies were?

Why Sports Fans are Sports Fans

Why Sports Fans are Sports Fans | Wait But Why:

To non-sports fans, caring about sports makes no sense.

If you’re a sports fan, here’s how non-sports fans view your love of your team:

A bunch of strangers in their 20s and 30s are paid to play games against each other that have no real world consequences, and you’ve decided that you care a ton about this. There are teams that must win and teams that must lose, and players that must play better than other players—and this is all critical.

Meanwhile, the players that must play well sometimes get traded to the teams that must lose, and now you want those players to play badly. In fact, the only thing you’re really rooting for is a certain set of jerseys, regardless of who happens to be wearing them.

Then there’s the fact that as you follow your team that must win, almost every season ends with them losing, leaving your face looking like this:

Or this:

Or this:

Then, every 30 years or so, this team you so badly want to win actually wins! 30 years and thousands of hours of time and dedication and finally, the ultimate goal is achieved—and then what happens? Some major change in your life? No, you go stand on the street and yell things, and then people start rioting, which makes no sense because they’re happy.

Then you spend a few days reading articles about the great victory, buy a t-shirt, and go on with your life. That’s it. That’s what it was all for.

Like I said, it’s an odd phenomenon.

And yet, one of the few things nearly every country in the world has in common is sports fandom. When something is both odd and universal, there’s gotta be something deeper going on.
As a big sports fan from a city full of frightening sports fan lunatics (Boston), I feel the need to take a shot at getting to the bottom of this.

click link to read the rest

Top 10 handguns in the U.S

Top 10 handguns in the U.S. - Photos - Washington Times:

Criticize ‘gays,’ get sued for ‘crime against humanity’

Criticize ‘gays,’ get sued for ‘crime against humanity’:
"U.S. District Judge Michael Posner has allowed to proceed a case brought against Lively by an African group called Sexual Minorities Uganda, or SMUG.
SMUG demands Lively be punished for criticizing homosexuality, calling his speech a “crime against humanity” in violation of “international law.” The plaintiffs allege the Alien Tort Statute in the United States allows them to make the charge in a U.S. court.
But Lively’s attorney, Horatio Mihet of Liberty Counsel, says his client’s preaching is protected by the Constitution."

This MSNBC Host has Some Choice Words for Those Upset about Obamacare

This MSNBC Host has Some Choice Words for Those Upset about Obamacare:

"Not surprisingly, she completely agrees with Obama that Democrats should proudly brag about Obamacare and campaign on it for the mid-term elections. In going back to the progressive Democrat mantra that some plans were eliminated because they were ‘substandard’ or ‘junk plans,’ Harris had this to say to the victims of Obama’s lie along with some praise for the Democrats. "





WOW!  When did we get affordable health care?

Mortgage Standards Are Plunging – It’s Muppet Fleecing Time All Over Again

Mortgage Standards Are Plunging – It’s Muppet Fleecing Time All Over Again | Zero Hedge

Submitted by Mike Krieger of Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,

In February, I highlighted the fact that subprime loans were about to make a return in my piece: Subprime Mortgages are Back…This Time Marketed as “Second Chance Purchase Programs.” 
In that article, I posited that with the “all cash” private equity shops and hedge funds no longer able to make good returns through buying new homes to rent, these investors would need some sucker to sell to in order to realize a return.
...That sucker, as always, will be the retail muppets, and those muppets will be lured in through subprime. 
This is now starting to happen in earnest.

The following article from the Wall Street Journal is both depressing and disturbing.
Rather than allowing home prices to reset at a lower level after the 2008 crash where normal buyers could afford a sane 20% mortgage, our central planners decided to do “whatever it takes” to re-inflate the housing bubble.
This was achieved through wealthy investment pools buying properties for all cash.
The trouble is, with home prices now inflated by these financial buyers and no real increase in wages, homes are simply unaffordable. 
So what do you do? 
You bring back subprime and get the peasants long real estate with essentially zero money down all over again. 
Truly remarkable.

From the Wall Street Journal:

While standards remain tight by historical measures, lenders have started to accept lower credit scores and to reduce down-payment requirements.

One such lender is TD Bank, Toronto-Dominion Bank’s U.S. unit, which on Friday began accepting down payments as low as 3% through an initiative called “Right Step,” geared toward first-time buyers and low- and moderate-income buyers. TD initially launched the program last year with a 5% down payment. It keeps the product on its books and doesn’t charge for insurance. Borrowers also don’t need to put down any of their own cash if a family, state or nonprofit group provides a down-payment gift.

So a measly 5% downpayment wasn’t good enough. They had to drop it to 3%. Frightening.

Professor: Republicans are ‘Racist, Misogynist, Money-Grubbing People’

Professor: Republicans are ‘Racist, Misogynist, Money-Grubbing People’ | Washington Free Beacon

Brent Terry, a professor at Eastern Connecticut State University was caught on audio telling his Introduction to Creative Writing class that Republicans will close colleges if they prevail in 2014 and that they are “racist, misogynist, money-grubbing people” who want to suppress the liberal vote.

Campus Reform reports:

In a four-minute recording of a classroom lecture obtained by Campus Reform, Professor Brent Terry is heard strongly suggesting that conservatives are greedy racists who want to suppress the vote of anyone who might vote liberal.

“…racist, misogynist, money-grubbing people have so much power over the rest of us. And want things to go back—not to 1955, but to 1855,” Terry said to his Introduction to Creative Writing class Monday morning.

“There are a lot of people out there that do not want black people to vote, do not want Latinos to vote. Do not want old people to vote, or young people to vote. Because generally, people like you are liberal.”

The audio, captured by a current student who wishes to remain anonymous, also claims that if Republicans win the senate in 2014, colleges will start “closing up.”

“It’s absolutely possible that the Republicans will take over the Senate as well as the House. And we will live in a very, very, very different kind of country if that happens. I mean, colleges will start closing up if they, if these people have their way.”

Michelle Obama is a Big Fan of Splurging

Michelle Obama is a Big Fan of Splurging: "It’s easy to understand how someone would think she meant travel. After all, she spent more than $7 million on a 3-day side trip jaunt over to Italy. That’s just a dent in the tens of millions of dollars that she has spent on trips to Spain, Africa, China, Colorado, Martha’s Vineyard, and the list goes on and on. Don’t forget about that annual 2-week plus lavish vacation to Hawaii for Christmas!
All of these trips, of course, are taken on the taxpayer dime. Simply going home to Chicago doesn’t suffice for the Obamas. They have taken full advantage, and I do stress ‘taken advantage,’ of perks that come with the Oval Office with their numerous, extravagant vacations and parties on what seems like a monthly basis."

A Pharmacist Pitches Comparison Shopping for Prescription Drugs

A Pharmacist Pitches Comparison Shopping for Prescription Drugs - Businessweek:

Michael Rea was working as a pharmacist at a Kansas City, Mo., Walgreens (WAG)in 2008, when an elderly customer came to him with a dire situation: The co-pays on her monthly prescription costs were making it hard for her to afford her mortgage payments. When Rea crunched the numbers, he says, he was able to save the patient $250 a month by choosing cheaper drugs and shopping at pharmacies that offered better deals.

The patient kept her house, and Rea launched Rx Savings Solutions to extend the service to others. Last month, Rea says the Olathe (Kansas)-based company won a contract to pare prescription costs for employees of the state of Kansas. Between that deal and work for other employers, Rea expects Rx Savings to serve 250,000 people in 2014—enough for the 14-employee company to be profitable this year.

Rx Savings takes advantage of pricing practices that result in prescription costs that vary widely among different pharmacies. For example, Consumer Reportspublished research last year showing that the cost of a month’s supply of generic Lipitor, used to lower cholesterol, varied from $17 to $150, depending on the pharmacy. “The idea of saving money isn’t novel,” says Rea, but pharmacists are generally too busy to parse pricing data for patients individually.

Your tax dollars at work-----U-M to move big tree for building project

U-M to move big tree for building project | The Detroit News:
"Ann Arbor — Plans for a $135 million addition to the University of Michigan’s business school include moving a 65-foot-tall tree that’s thought to be more than 200 years old.
The Ann Arbor News reports the Stephen M. Ross School of Business project includes moving the oak from its place in a courtyard at the north side of the Ross complex, facing the School of Education, to a lawn area off Tappan Street.
School spokesman Rick Fitzgerald says the cost of between $300,000 and $400,000 to move the tree is factored into the overall project, which is funded by donors.
Fitzgerald said the tree, which has a trunk that’s 55 inches in diameter, must be moved to build a connection between the planned building, the existing Ross building and the library building."

These 2 Maps Blow Up the Debate on The Keystone Pipeline

These 2 Maps Blow Up the Debate on The Keystone Pipeline:

"Now do you get it?

The Keystone Pipeline would represent a .04% increase in U.S. pipelines.

That’s 4/100ths of 1%, a comparison identical to 2 feet versus 1 mile, or 1 teaspoon compared to 3 1/4 gallons.

Of course, we should build the pipeline.

It should have been built years ago.

The next time anyone questions the wisdom of it, use these graphs and these comparisons to educate them."

Parents Thought They Were Meeting With the School Principal to Complain About State Testing — Instead, They Were Greeted by a Cop | TheBlaze.com

Parents Thought They Were Meeting With the School Principal to Complain About State Testing — Instead, They Were Greeted by a Cop | TheBlaze.com:
"The Finneys claim they didn’t receive notice of the cancellation and showed up at the school in the morning. They were greeted by a police officer.
According to the Journal, the Finneys said the officer was kind, but told them being on school property while actively opposed to the test was “kind of a trespassing thing.” Further, the Finneys claim, they were told their kids weren’t permitted on school grounds if they were not participating in the state exams."

BIG!-----Supreme Court upholds Michigan's ban on affirmative action

Supreme Court upholds Michigan's ban on affirmative action | Detroit Free Press | freep.com:
"The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld a ban on using race in admissions to Michigan’s public universities. 
The court was divided on the case, which overturns a U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals decision.
 The opinion, written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, says the case is not about race admissions policies but about whether voters in a state can choose to prohibit consideration of racial preferences."

Calif. tax preparers paid bounty for every Obamacare sign up

Calif. tax preparers paid bounty for every Obamacare sign up | The Daily Caller:
"Tax-preparing companies are getting paid by an Obamacare exchange to enroll people in Obamacare plans, The Daily Caller has learned.
At least 79 tax service providers, including offices of major companies like Liberty Tax Service and Jackson Hewitt Tax Service, are listed as certified Obamacare enrollment entities in the state of California, according to state exchange records.
California’s Obamacare exchange, Covered California, pays enrollment entities for signing people up for Obamacare.
“Certified Enrollment Entities are paid a flat-fee of $58 per successful application and $25 per successful annual renewal,” according to California Health Benefit Advisers. 
”The Enrollment Entities compensate the individual Enrollment Counselors.”"

Obama's green energy projects fail, even when they are successful

Abengoa: Obama's green energy projects fail, even when they are successful | The Daily Caller:

While the CEC is concerned about visual impacts, and local tribes worry about the project due to potential artifacts that may be present, American taxpayers should be opposed to the cronyism, abuse, mismanagement, and violations involved in one of the companies: Abengoa — which received $2.8 billion in taxpayer funding.

This report will expose one of the largest recipients of Obama’s green energy funding: Abengoa — which if not stopped, will get even more taxpayer dollars.
On April 2, 2014, Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz, said: “the department would probably throw open the door for new applications for renewable energy project loan guarantees during the second quarter of this year.”

Here’s a taste of what you’ll learn about Abengoa and how it operates:

• Crony-connected, Stimulus-funded, Spanish-owned company builds/opens solar generating station—currently producing electricity.
• Brings foreigners to U.S. to fill jobs from welders to administration to engineers to management—often working on tourist visas for as long as 9 months.
• Many Americans, who do have jobs on the project, get fired so expats can have the jobs.
• Health insurance fraud committed by putting expats on plans when they are not on payroll (expats on tourist visas were paid out of accounts payable).
• American vendors/contractors payments are intentionally delayed while U.S. taxpayer funds are in Spain collecting interest—$70 million owned to U.S. vendors.

New York City has roasted a man to death.

Brazen Bull | National Review Online:
They’re from the government, and they’re here to hurt. 
Because of his mental problems, Mr. Murdough was to be kept under close supervision — he was to be checked every 15 minutes, in fact.

Rikers Island has many problems, from gang riots to widespread rape. 

There are plenty of criminals on both sides of the bars. 

It also has some more mundane problems, such as malfunctioning climate-control systems. Mr. Murdough was kept in a six-by-ten cinderblock cell, which effectively became a brick oven when the dysfunctional heating system caused the temperature in the cell to become, in the precisely chosen words of Mark Cranston, the acting commissioner of the city’s corrections department, “unusually high,” which is precisely what you’d have to be to imagine that those words provide an adequate description of the circumstances in question.

Mr. Murdough, trying to keep from freezing to death, was instead baked to death.

...For the negligent homicide of Mr. Murdough, the corrections officer responsible for checking on his condition was given a 20-day suspension. 
When this produced a gale of criticism, it was extended to 30 days. 
Because the law is written in no small part for the benefit of those who enforce it, the officer cannot legally be suspended for a longer period. 
A mechanical-systems supervisor was transferred. 
The warden in charge has been transferred as well, and has received a ceremonial demotion.
Rikers corrections officers are represented by a powerful union, and government employees are the nation’s most powerful special-interest group.
How powerful?
Two senior Rikers officers who were charged with a raft of felonies involving the abuse of an inmate during a training exercise, and who filed false reports to cover it up and suborned new recruits to file false reports to support their fiction, continued collecting six-figure compensation packages until the moment the judge’s gavel came down to punctuate the word “Guilty.”"

Terrorists take up arms as Kerry blames Israel

Terrorists take up arms as Kerry blames Israel:
"The information comes after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry largely blamed Israel for the collapse in Mideast talks he was attempting to broker here.
Israel is considering rescinding the amnesty deal extended to members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, the so-called military wing of PA President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah organization."

And now we drop hundreds of millions (of money that doesn't exist) on the same geniuses who destroyed the city-----As Detroit rape kits sit untested, justice for victims is denied

As Detroit rape kits sit untested, justice for victims is denied | Detroit Free Press | freep.com:

"Nearly five years after the discovery of 11,000 abandoned rape evidence kits in a Detroit police warehouse sparked outrage, only about 2,000 of the kits have undergone DNA testing, allowing serial rapists to remain free and in some cases commit more attacks."