History for May 15

History for May 15 - On-This-Day.com:

Peace Officer Memorial Day

100th birth anniversary of mountaineer Tenzing Norgay (1914-83), co-conqueror of Mount Everest with Edmund Hillary in 1953.

Birth anniversary of astronomer, mathematician and scientist Nicolas Louis De Lacaille (1713-62). He mapped nearly 10,000 stars in the Southern Hemisphere from 1750-54 and established a catalog system for the stars he observed.

Birth anniversary of L. Frank Baum, creator of the World of Oz (1856-1919).

Birth anniversaries of Richard Avedon (1923-2004), Joseph Cotton (1905-94), Pierre Curie (1859-1906)

Happy Birthday! Madeleine Albright, Trini Lopez, Kathleen Sebelius

1862 - The U.S. Congress created the U.S. Department of Agriculture. 


1911 - The U.S. Supreme Court ordered the dissolution of Standard Oil Company, ruling it was in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. 


1930 - Ellen Church became the first female flight attendant. 


1957 - Britain dropped its first hydrogen bomb on Christmas Island in the Pacific Ocean. 


1963 - The last Project Mercury space flight was launched. 


1970 - U.S. President Nixon appointed America's first two female generals. 


1972 - Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace was shot by Arthur Bremer in Laurel, MD while campaigning for the U.S. presidency. Wallace was paralyzed by the shot. 


1988 - The Soviet Union began their withdrawal of its 115,000 troops from Afghanistan. Soviet forces had been there for more than eight years. 


1997 - The Space shuttle Atlantis blasted off on a mission to deliver urgently needed repair equipment and a fresh American astronaut to Russia's orbiting Mir station. 

Obama: Amnesty Necessary ‘For Our Safety and Security’

Obama: Amnesty Necessary ‘For Our Safety and Security’:
"Despite spending year prohibiting law enforcement officers from doing their jobs, President Obama declared on Tuesday that it’s “not fair” to law enforcement officials who have to deal with a broken immigration system.
 Further, Obama claimed that changes to immigration laws- not enforcing existing laws- are needed “for our safety and security.”
 This statement comes just days after a recent report showed that ICE was forced to release 36,000 convicted criminal illegal immigrants into the population as they awaited deportation."

These States Could See Huge Insurance Rate Hikes Because of Obamacare | TheBlaze.com

These States Could See Huge Insurance Rate Hikes Because of Obamacare | TheBlaze.com:
"Insurance companies operating in the Washington state Obamacare exchange will reportedly raise their rates by as much as 26 percent, while rates in Virginia could go up by nearly 15 percent, presenting even more problems for the law that was sold in part on a promise that consumers would pay less for health care."

No money for bullets but money for a traitor's sex change?------Pentagon OKs Manning transfer for gender treatment

My Way News - Pentagon OKs Manning transfer for gender treatment:
"In an unprecedented move, the Pentagon is trying to transfer convicted national security leaker Pvt. Chelsea Manning to a civilian prison so she can get treatment for her gender disorder, defense officials said.
Manning, formerly named Bradley, was convicted of sending classified documents to anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks.
The soldier has asked for hormone therapy and to be able to live as a woman."

Cigarette Smuggling Undermines Tax Revenue

Cigarette Smuggling Undermines Tax Revenue [Michigan Capitol Confidential]:
"In 2012, more than 27 percent of all Michigan in-state consumption was smuggled. 
In New York, almost 57 percent of all cigarettes consumed in the state were also illicit. 
This has profound effects on the revenue generated by state (and sometimes local) government."

Rush Limbaugh’s Explosive Claim About Radical Terrorist Group Boko Haram and the Obama ‘Regime’ | TheBlaze.com

Rush Limbaugh’s Explosive Claim About Radical Terrorist Group Boko Haram and the Obama ‘Regime’ | TheBlaze.com:
"Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh on Tuesday argued the Obama “regime” — as well as former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and First Lady Michelle Obama — “sympathize” with radical Islamic terror group Boko Haram.
Limbaugh also said the recent hashtag activism promoted by the first lady is actually “aimed at helping” the terrorists of Boko Haram."

RINOs lies....again!---------Does tea party favorite Justin Amash vote more often with Democrats or Republicans?

Does tea party favorite Justin Amash vote more often with Democrats or Republicans? | PolitiFact:
So where does Rogers’ claim come from?
Rogers spokeswoman had no response but forwarded our request to Amash’s challenger Ellis. They noted that in 2012, a Congressional Quarterly analysis found Amash’s votes put him on the same side of President Barack Obama 51 percent of the time.
It’s an interesting tidbit, but it won’t help Rogers on the Truth-O-Meter.
The analysis only looked at 61 votes that year where Obama had a stated position.
It includes many consequential bills, but it’s just a fraction of the total votes taken in 2012. Further, in 2011 and 2013, Amash was opposite Obama 75 percent of the time.
But it did help us find a few interesting examples of Amash voting with Obama’s favored positions.
For example, Amash voted "no" on a GOP bill in 2012 that would have extended lower rates for student loans and pay for it with cuts to Obamacare. It passed the House despite a veto threat from Obama.
On his Facebook page, Amash said he sided against it because he didn’t believe the cuts covered the cost of lowering student loan rates.
Also in 2012, he voted against Republicans on a bill to replace across-the-board spending cuts (the so-called "sequester") with other more targeted cuts, while lifting spending caps on the military. Obama, instead, wanted to replace the sequester with tax increases and cut in other ways; Amash said he opposed the Republican proposal because it increased spending.
More recently, Amash was one of just three Republicans (and 20 lawmakers in total) not to vote for more sanctions against Iran last July.
At the time, the Obama administration was asking for some leeway from Congress to approach the newly elected Iranian regime with alternatives.
Amash later said of his vote: "If our goal is peaceful reform within Iran, it would be wise to give the new president an opportunity to talk before turning to new threats."
But again, these are a relatively small number of high-profile votes.
Congressional Quarterly found Amash never voted with his party less than 85 percent of the time in a given year.
Our ruling
Rogers said Amash "votes more with the Democrats than with the Republicans." Rogers didn’t back up his claim, but we found two sources that showed that Amash has sided with Republicans upward of 80 percent of the time. That may be lower than many of his colleagues, and we found found a few high-profile examples of his voting against his own party. But by the numbers, he votes far more often with Republicans than Democrats.
We rate Rogers’ statement False.

Harvard’s Kennedy School Adds Privilege-Checking to New-Student Orientation

Harvard’s Kennedy School Adds Privilege-Checking to New-Student Orientation - The Cut:
The wonks in training at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government will soon be subjected to a new and touchy-feely line of inquiry:
Checking Your Privilege 101. 
In response to growing demand from student activists, administrators committed Friday to adding a class in power and privilege to its orientation program for incoming first-year students.
“We’re at one of the most powerful institutions in the world, yet we never critically examine power and privilege and what it means to have access to this power,” says Reetu Mody, a first-year masters student in public policy and a campus activist.
“We’re excited to have the administration on board for training all Harvard Kennedy School first years.”
.....Last month, they held a privilege walk: 77 students occupied the school’s courtyard, where two facilitators led a “privilege visualization exercise.”

Government monopoly-------KD Investigates: Mail Problems Persist, Some Ends Up In Garbage

KD Investigates: Mail Problems Persist, Some Ends Up In Garbage « CBS Pittsburgh:
“People in the area are walking from one street to another street basically delivering their own mail,” he said.
But perhaps most shocking is Kevin Whalen’s experience: his wife saw their mail carrier putting something in their garbage can.
“So I came outside lifted up the lid and all this mail was in here,” he said.

Texas Gun Shop’s ‘Funny’ Sign Is Sure to Rile Up the Left: ‘I Like My Guns Like Obama Likes…’ | Video | TheBlaze.com

Texas Gun Shop’s ‘Funny’ Sign Is Sure to Rile Up the Left: ‘I Like My Guns Like Obama Likes…’ | Video | TheBlaze.com:
 "Tactical Firearms ruffled some feathers with its “funny” sign in front its Katy, Texas, location recently. The sign was both pro-gun and anti-Obama."

University Of Wisconsin Offers Feminist Biology Fellowship

University Of Wisconsin Offers Feminist Biology Fellowship | The Daily Caller

The taxpayer-funded University of Wisconsin–Madison is now offering a pioneering postdoctoral fellowship in feminist biology.
.....The feminist biology postdoctoral fellowship will focus on gender-related research and attempt to educate young research scientists on the perils of gender bias.

Politically correct Latinos on campus wage war on TACOS

Politically correct Latinos on campus wage war on TACOS | The Daily Caller

This month, a tiny minority of Latino students has effectively banned everybody else on college campuses from having a good time celebrating Cinco de Mayo, a once-obscure Mexican holiday that was popularized by the makers of Corona beer.
For example, the all-you-can-eat “Pi Phiesta” taco bar fundraisers that some chapters of Pi Beta Phi sorority throw each year around Cinco de Mayo to raise money for local charities are likely going extinct thanks to the forces of political correctness......The sorority felt compelled to change its “Pi Phiesta” into an ocean-themed party where tacos happened to be served...... critics call Cinco de Mayo celebrations involving tacos “cultural appropriation” — “actions that trivialize aspects of a culture by not respecting a custom’s symbolic significance or the history of a style of dress or other artifact.”
Pi Beta Phi’s national office has advised its local chapters to avoid all taco-eating around Cinco de Mayo.

Why the Left Doesn't Care about Bad Economic News

Why the Left Doesn't Care about Bad Economic News « The Dennis Prager Show The Dennis Prager Show:

Most conservatives, and just about all independents, have a huge misperception of the left. They think that the gulf between conservatism and leftism is primarily about means, not goals.

This perception is wrong. It is their goals that are irreconcilable. And until conservatives, independents and the Republican Party understand this, it will not be possible to defeat the left.

Take economic indicators. Most conservatives talk and act as if bad economic news disturbs the left as much as it disturbs them. It doesn’t.

..........Now back to our riddle. Why do these state-crushing economic statistics — nearly every one of which is the result of left-wing policies — have no effect on California’s Democrats, the Los Angeles Times editorial page, New York Times economics columnist Paul Krugman or almost anyone else on the left?

The answer is that they don’t care. Yes, of course, as individuals with a heart, most people, right and left, care about people losing their jobs. 

......They don’t care because the left is not interested in prosperity; the left is interested in inequality and in the environment. Furthermore, the worse the economic situation, the more voters are likely to vote Democrat. The worse the economic situation, the greater the number of people receiving government assistance; the greater the number of people receiving government assistance, the greater the number of people who will vote Democrat.

Therefore, both philosophically and politically, the left has no reason to be troubled by bad economic news. And it isn’t. It is troubled by inequality and carbon emissions.

Read the whole article

Half-a-Trillion Dollars Later, States Still Don’t Have Working Obamacare Sites

Half-a-Trillion Dollars Later, States Still Don’t Have Working Obamacare Sites:
"What remains amazing is the gall of Obamacare supporters in government. Each state that continues to fail in their endeavor to create a website simply seems to shrug it off and blame someone else.
 In the private sector, when a product fails as miserably as Obamacare has on all fronts, heads must roll. CEOs resign, marketing agents are scolded, shareholders demand accountability for the colossal missteps.
 With government, however, we are the shareholders and not only have the American people rejected Obamacare, they have sat and watched bureaucrats demonstrate the stunning incompetence of government and their failure to achieve the modest success of building websites that work."

DETROIT Documentary | MURDER CITY directed by Al Profit

U.S. Economy Contracted In First Quarter, Latest Figures Show

U.S. Economy Contracted In First Quarter, Latest Figures Show - Real Time Economics - WSJ:
"A first-quarter contraction is looking more and more likely.
A couple weeks ago, the Commerce Department said U.S. economic output expanded at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 0.1% in the first three months of the year.

A near-stall for the economy, for sure, but at least it wasn’t worse.
That initial estimate was the government’s best guess, using the data available at the time.
Based on more up-to-date figures, including the March trade data released last week, private forecasters now expect gross domestic product contracted in the first quarter for the first time in three years.
The latest evidence came Tuesday, when the Commerce Department released reports on retail sales and business inventories.
Retail sales in February and March were revised up, but business inventories grew less in March than the agency had assumed in its GDP calculations."

History for May 14

History for May 14 - On-This-Day.com

Flower Moon--May full moon (3:16 PM, EDT)

“The Stars and Stripes Forever” Day: first public performance of this march in 1897.

Birth anniversary of Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit (1686-1736).

Happy Birthday! Cate Blanchett, George Lucas, Mark Zuckerberg

1796 - The first smallpox vaccination was given by Edward Jenner. 


1804 - William Clark set off the famous expedition from Camp Dubois. A few days later, in St. Louis, Meriwether Lewis joined the group. The group was known as the "Corps of Discovery." 


1853 - Gail Borden applied for a patent for condensed milk. 



1862 - The chronograph was patented by Adolphe Nicole. 


1878 - The name Vaseline was registered by Robert A. Chesebrough. 


1897 - "The Stars and Stripes Forever" by John Phillip Sousa was performed for the first time. It was at a ceremony where a statue of George Washington was unveiled. 


1897 - Guglielmo Marconi made the first communication by wireless telegraph. 


1904 - In St. Louis, the Olympic games were held. It was the first time for the games to be played in the U.S. 


1942 - The Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) was established by an act of the U.S. Congress. 


1948 - Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the independent State of Israel as British rule in Palestine came to an end. 


1961 - A bus carrying Freedom Riders was bombed and burned in Alabama. 


1975 - U.S. forces raided the Cambodian island of Koh Tang and recaptured the American merchant ship Mayaguez. All 40 crew members were released safely by Cambodia. About 40U.S. servicemen were killed in the military operation. 


1980 - U.S. President Carter inaugurated the Department of Health and Human Services.

No Joke: White House Tweets Picture of Obama on Throne

No Joke: White House Tweets Picture of Obama on Throne:

"Apparently, that is exactly how Obama sees himself."

Warren Buffett: The Billion-Dollar King of Abortion

Warren Buffett: The Billion-Dollar King of Abortion | Media Research Center:

They say the key to successful investing is diversification. But Berkshire Hathaway Chairman & CEO Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor known as the  “Oracle of Omaha,” is a one-issue man -- and that issue is abortion.

Through the foundation he financed with more than $3 billion of his own money, Buffett donated $1,230,585,161 to abortion groups worldwide from 2001 to 2012. These groups, including Planned Parenthood, NARAL and the Population Council, either campaign for pro-abortion legislation, perform abortions themselves, or helped develop the controversial abortion drug RU-486. Buffett gave an additional $21 million to these groups between 1989 and 1996. (Tax forms between 1997 and 2000 are not available.)

So the $1.2 billion that Buffett gave to these organizations is enough to pay for the abortions of more than 2.7 million babies in the womb. Those figures come from the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute, which says the average amount paid for a surgical abortion in the United States is $451 for the first trimester. That accounts for the majority of abortions.

To put that in perspective, Warren Buffett donated enough money to abortion groups to perform as many abortions as there are people in the entire city of Chicago.

Feds Spending $1.5 Million on ‘Bicycle Trains,’ ‘Walking School Buses’ to Get Fat Kids to Lose Weight

Feds Spending $1.5 Million on ‘Bicycle Trains,’ ‘Walking School Buses’ to Get Fat Kids to Lose Weight | Washington Free Beacon:
The federal government is spending more than $1.5 million to research how “bicycle trains” and “walking school buses” can help obese children lose weight.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is currently funding two studies to a researcher at Seattle Children’s Hospital, both of which aim to get more children to stop riding the school bus.

Dr. Jason Mendoza has received $405,835 for a pilot study on “bicycle trains,” or a group of kids who bike to school with adult chaperons. The project is billed as a “low-cost, practical program to reduce risk of obesity for at-risk children.”

....The study’s premise is that there is a correlation between the decline in walking to school and the increase in childhood obesity in recent decades.

Senator: Feds Pressured States to Adopt Common Core | TheBlaze.com

Senator: Feds Pressured States to Adopt Common Core | TheBlaze.com:
"Common Core, while backed by the Obama administration, is not a formal federal policy, but was established by the National Governors Association and the Council for Chief State School Officers.
“They adopted this and, to make it look like it was state-oriented and coming from the grassroots up, I think maybe it’s easier to sell that until you start looking into where the roots of it happened, basically here in Washington, D.C,” Grassley said."