History for December 13

History for December 13 - On-This-Day.com
Dick Van Dyke 1925 - Actor, comedian, Christopher Plummer 1929 - Actor, John Davidson 1941 - Singer, actor, game show host ("That's Incredible," "Hollywood Squares") 


Ted Nugent 1948 - Musician, Steve Buscemi 1957 - Actor, Taylor Swift 1989 - Singer, songwriter 



1577 - Five ships under the command of Sir Francis Drake left Plymouth, England, to embark on Drake's circumnavigation of the globe. The journey took almost three years. 


1636 - The United States National Guard was created when militia regiments were organized by the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. 


1809 - The first abdominal surgical procedure was performed in Danville, KY, on Jane Todd Crawford. The operation was performed without an anesthetic. 


1862 - In America, an estimated 11,000 Northern soldiers were killed or wounded when Union forces were defeated by Confederates under General Robert E. Lee, at the Battle of Fredericksburg. 


1913 - The Federal Reserve System was established. 


1937 - Japanese forces took the Chinese city of Nanking (Nanjing). An estimated 200,000 Chinese were killed over the next six weeks. The event became known as the "Rape of Nanking." 


1978 - The Philadelphia Mint began stamping the Susan B. Anthony U.S. dollar. The coin began circulation the following July. 


1988 - A bankruptcy judge in Columbia, SC, ordered the assets of the troubled PTL television ministry sold to a Toronto real estate developer for $65 million. 

Cruz, Lee, Sessions Fight For Defund Amnesty Vote | The Daily Caller

Cruz, Lee, Sessions Fight For Defund Amnesty Vote | The Daily Caller:

"Republican Sens. Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, and Jeff Sessions are pushing for a vote to defund President Obama’s executive amnesty in the “Cromnibus” spending bill Friday night, The Daily Caller has learned.
The trio of conservative senators is hoping to get the defund vote onto the Senate floor as a “point of order,” which would force a procedural vote on the issue without Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid having to introduce it."

Congressman Wants FDIC to Pay for ‘Choking' Businesses

Congressman Wants FDIC to Pay for ‘Choking' Businesses:

"By “reputational risk,” Luetkemeyer was referring to a list originating within the FDIC that categorizing certain industries as risks to the banking industry. The goal, as part of Operation Choke Point, was to encourage banks to end relationships with customers engaged in those enterprises, choking them off from their financial life blood."

Google engineers: Renewables can't fix climate change

Google engineers: Renewables can't fix climate change « Watchdog.org
It hasn’t received much play in the media, but two Google engineers assigned by the company to show how renewable energy can tackle climate change each came to a blunt conclusion:

It can’t be done.“Trying to combat climate change exclusively with today’s renewable energy technologies simply won’t work; we need a fundamentally different approach,” engineers Ross Koningstein and David Fork said after analyzing a four-year project called “RE<C” — which means Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal.

The goal was to show that renewables — such as solar power and wind turbines — can generate electricity cheaper than a coal-fired power plant.
But they couldn’t pull it off.

....“My reaction was, ‘No kidding,’ ” Bryce told Watchdog.org.

The RE<C project showed renewables “could not provide the enormous quantities of energy that the world demands in anything that the time frame was required to help deal with the issue of climate change or at costs that people could afford,” Bryce said. “It’s a remarkable bit of truth-telling.”

“Unfortunately, most of today’s clean generation sources can’t provide power that is both distributed and dispatchable,” Koningstein and Fork wrote. “Solar panels, for example, can be put on every rooftop but can’t provide power if the sun isn’t shining.....”

Obama’s No Longer Hiding his Communist Nature; Look at What He Said!

Obama’s No Longer Hiding his Communist Nature; Look at What He Said!:

"As Obama spews communist talking points and invents biblical scriptures that don’t actually exist, we are reminded by Civil Rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to “Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.”

If Barack Obama adhered to this ideology, the community agitator-in-chief would find himself out of a job and without his sycophantic followers."

Scariest video you will EVER see!!!!-----Muslim Demographics

Tim Skubick: The odds of raising (MI) taxes to fix roads just went up

And the leftist media wonks are doin' the Snoopy dance!
Tim Skubick: The odds of raising taxes to fix roads just went up | MLive.com

The odds of raising taxes to fix the roads have gone up as the anti-taxers saw one of their friends go rogue.

After steadfastly and earnestly opposing anything that even smelled like a tax boost, the GOP Speaker of the House is now “open” to exploring all “options” on the tax hike front.

Who’da thunk it?

It was one of the major developments this week in the continuing saga of “will they or won’t they” raise new road revenue?

For months Rep. Jase Bolger has been the odd-guy out in the meetings with the other three legislative leaders and Mr. Snyder. But during an interview this week, he raised the prospects of a possible tax boost.

Just to make sure the correspondent got the story right, this pointed question was asked and then answered.

“If we run the story tonight that the Speaker of the House is willing to raise new revenue through a tax increase, that would be accurate?”

Without blinking he said, “I’m open to that.”

Somewhat surprised at the revelation the reporter said, “That’s news.”
Now smiling the speaker noted, “You always make good news.”

Democrat majority (with submissive RINOs) vote for $$$ half-billion tax increase------Senate OKs tighter Internet sales tax collection

Senate OKs tighter Internet sales tax collection | Crain's Detroit Business
LANSING — Amazon and other online retailers with ties to Michigan would have to collect its 6 percent sales tax on purchases under legislation approved Thursday by a divided Senate.
Backers say the bills would level the playing field because brick-and-mortar businesses must assess the tax on customers.
The legislation was sent to the Republican-led House for its consideration in the waning days of the legislative session.
It won approval on a 21-16 vote in the GOP-controlled Senate, picking up support from 11 Democrats and 10 Republicans.
Wal-Mart and other stores in Michigan must collect the sales tax when selling goods over the Internet.
Shoppers currently are required to pay unpaid "use" taxes on online, catalog, mail- and telephone-order purchases when they file their state tax returns.
But few taxpayers comply, paying less than $6 million this year.
The state Treasury Department estimates that $482 million in revenue from remote sales went uncollected in the last fiscal year.
The bills could raise in the ballpark of $50 million a year from Amazon, Overstock, eBay and other Internet retailers with a "nexus" to the state.

Tea Party Representative: King Obama’s Amnesty is Turning America into a Lawless Open Borders Society

Tea Party Representative: King Obama’s Amnesty is Turning America into a Lawless Open Borders Society:

"By a razor-thin margin of 214-212, the House voted to advance the $1.1 trillion stop-gap spending deal, known as the “cromnibus,” despite the protests of many principled conservatives who view it as the job of Congress to thwart unconstitutional maneuvers by the president when they can."

New way to promote ObamaCare: 7-Eleven

New way to promote ObamaCare: 7-Eleven | TheHill:
"ObamaCare ads will now appear on 7-Eleven receipts at more than 7,000 stores nationwide as government health officials expand their outreach in the second year of healthcare sign-ups.
Information about ObamaCare sign-ups will appear on the bottom of receipts for anyone using an mobile payment company called PayNearMe, which allows bank-less customers to pay in stores like 7-Eleven and Family Dollar.
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell announced the new partnership with the tech start-up PayNearMe on Thursday at a store in Washington, D.C.
“Putting these reminders at the bottom of PayNearMe receipts will help get health coverage information into the hands of traditionally hard-to-reach consumers,” HHS wrote in a statement.
The partnership will help HHS “reach financially underserved and other cash-preferring consumers,” the statement reads."

The IRS Scandal, Day 582

TaxProf Blog: The IRS Scandal, Day 582
Columbus Dispatch editorial: ‘Lost’ IRS Emails Might Reveal Truth:

It’s unsurprising that the “lost” email messages of former IRS official Lois Lerner, the disappearance of which conveniently coincided with her being investigated for the improper targeting of conservative groups, have been located by the Treasury Department’s inspector general.

Tech experts, as well as common sense, suggested from the outset that it was implausible that the emails just happened to vanish when they did, and were unrecoverable.

But that was the administration’s story, and it was sticking to it — at least until after the midterm elections.

The inspector general reported that 30,000 of Lerner’s emails have been recovered from the period of January 2009 to June 2011, the critical time when she and her colleagues were going after nonprofit groups whose ideology they didn’t like.

The content of the emails is unknown; investigators have said it might take months to sift through them.

For those who have lost track: Politically active conservative groups had their applications for nonprofit status delayed leading up to the 2012 elections and were asked improper questions about their affiliations, beliefs and even the content of their prayers. Some cried foul, but largely were ignored for months.

The Internal Revenue Service denied the targeting until after the election, and only when it became clear the issue wasn’t going away.

In May 2013, Lerner staged a limited confession in response to a planted question at a conference, in apparent attempt to limit the damage.

President Barack Obama at first expressed anger and vowed to get to the bottom of the issue ... until he felt it had blown over enough to dismiss the whole affair as a “phony scandal” without a “ smidgen” of corruption involved.

Meanwhile, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, appointed about a year ago, went before Congress insisting that the agency had bent over backward to recover Lerner’s emails, but “confirmed that backup tapes from 2011 no longer existed because they have been recycled, pursuant to the IRS normal policy.”

Not only would that have violated standard government records policy, according to testimony from the head of the National Archives, it turned out not to be true.

In light of all this, it’s alarming that after extracting the Lerner emails from the recovered files, the IG plans to send them to the IRS for redactions of confidential information. That would be the definition of allowing the fox to guard the henhouse.

It’s good news that the American public might finally get some answers in this investigation.

But it’s another dismaying example of how the administration that promised to be the “most transparent in history” has routinely misled, delayed and obfuscated in an effort to make its actions look better, especially before an election.

• Fox News, Fox News Poll: 70 Percent Want Congress to Keep Probing IRS

Protect yourself!!!------'I Slapped That Gun': Grandma Fights Off Three Carjackers

'I Slapped That Gun': Grandma Fights Off Three Carjackers:
"A group of carjackers may have thought this 67-year-old Indianapolis grandmother was an easy target.
They were wrong.
When one put a gun in Kay Kise's face and demanded the keys to her van, she slapped the pistol away and fought back.
“The next thing I know he's got a gun right in my face and he's telling me 'give me the keys to that van.'
I said, you're not getting my van and I slapped that gun to the side," she said.
In the ensuing struggle, she was pistol-whipped but her cries for help alerted a neighbor and the attackers fled when the woman ran outside.
Police believe the attackers were teenagers. Kise's left eye was swollen shut and she was treated at the hospital for broken bones in her face and bleeding in her brain.

More details from WISH-TV: 

According to an IMPD police report, the incident happened around 8 p.m. Sunday. Kay Kise, 67, said she had just finished Christmas shopping and was parked in front of her home in the 200 block of North Randolph Street.

She said three men approached her asking for directions, then one pulled out a gun and put it to her face. She said the men were demanding the keys to her van. Despite being outnumbered and unarmed, Kise didn’t back down.

...Kise’s granddaughters knew she was strong willed, but even they were surprised.

“Any other person would probably have kind of clammed up and gave up them the keys,” said granddaughter Ashley Howard.

Latest hate crime: Using the English language correctly

Latest hate crime: Using the English language correctly by Kevin Whiteman

Editorial: Latest hate crime: Using the English language correctly

"...Now that got me thinking, which hurt like hell … why am I quite often corrected AND admonished for using the English language correctly? I was “corrected” once by an oh-so-PC airhead because I referred to Orientals as … wait for it … Orientals. As this vacuous bird-brain sneered down her leathery-tanned nose as me, “Kevin, rugs are Oriental, my friend Kim is an Asian.” To wit, I retorted, “Do you even know what ‘Oriental’ means?”

Stunned silence. But I went on despite the irritating sound of the wind whistling through her head, “‘Oriental’ means ‘of the east.’ Just like ‘Occidental’ means ‘of the west.’ Kinda like Occidental College up in LA. You know, it’s on the West Coast, right? So if your friend Kim so desires to refer to my Dad’s European ancestors as ‘Occidentals,’ I could care less. Just don’t correct me for using the English language correctly.”

As time when by and by Western civilization furthered the process of slow suicide, now I’m told if I call the male of the species from China a Chinaman, I’m an evil person. Wait, is an Irishman no longer an Irishman? Scotsmen are no longer Scots nor men? But in all fairness, I can see the conundrum associated with the linguistic oxymoron that is Frenchman.

.......Yet the most idiotic knee-jerk reaction has been in regards to the word “niggardly.” My apologies to the perpetually outraged, but niggardly has absolutely no connection in any way, shape or form to either the color black or anything concerning the black race. The word is not rooted in the Latin word for black (the nominative neutral): Nigrum.

Niggardly actually comes to us from the Norsepersons-of-undetermined-gender, aka: (“The Vikings.”) Definition: “Niggardly” (noun: “niggard”) is an adjective meaning “stingy” or “miserly”, perhaps related to the Old Norse verb nigla = “to fuss about small matters”.[1] It is cognate with “niggling”, meaning “petty” or “unimportant”, as in “the niggling details.”

So with all that said, should I raise hell if someone ever utters within earshot of me “That’s not germane to the conversation”? Maybe someone just insulted my Bavarian heritage. I also demand that Tales of the South Pacific, Once Were Warriors, and Mutiny on the Bounty should all be taken out of all libraries and burned. I feeeeel they insult my Islander lineage.

Now doesn’t that sound silly?

Government wasted millions of taxpayer dollars in a fight with itself over food packaging safety | TheBlaze.com

Government wasted millions of taxpayer dollars in a fight with itself over food packaging safety | TheBlaze.com:

"Several conservative groups have asked incoming House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) to help end a fight within the federal government over food packaging safety — a fight that has already cost taxpayers more than $170 million.

Groups like Americans for Tax Reform, Citizens Against Government Waste, and the National Taxpayers Union wrote to Chaffetz Wednesday to say the National Institutes of Health has handed out $172 million in grants over the last 14 years to study the safety of bisphenol A, or BPA."

Students Demand Censorship of George Will, Won't Listen to Someone They Don't Like

Students Demand Censorship of George Will, Won't Listen to Someone They Don't Like - Hit & Run : Reason.com:
"Another day, another group of insolent students demanding that their university censor a prominent speaker and deprive the rest of campus of the opportunity to learn from him.
George Will is slated to give Michigan State University's fall semester commencement address on December 13th and receive an honorary degree from the university.
But because one of the thousands of columns he has written in his life was deemed controversial by those on the far-left side of the campus sexual assault issue, some students want him disinvited from campus
........Of course, whether one agrees with an invited speaker entirely, partly, or not at all is beside the point.
In fact, a strong case can be made that it is even more important to hear from notable people whose views differ from one's own—especially on campuses, where opportunities to hear opinions critical of liberalism are in short supply.
...More than 70,000 people signed the petition, started by the women’s rights advocacy group UltraViolet, which has called Will a “rape apologist.”
MSU President Lou Anna Simon, at least, has refused to disinvite Will.....
Indeed, "disinvitation season," as Foundation for Individual Rights in Education President Greg Lukianoff calls it, shows no sign of winding down.
The problem of universities cancelling speakers on behalf of censorship-inclined students may even be worsening.
If a liberal arts education has any purpose, it is to teach students the importance of Enlightenment values like free speech, tolerance, and rational debate.
When students demand that authorities silence dissenting views, they unintentionally demonstrate that they don't deserve the diplomas they are about to receive.

Feel-good funeral of the day!

(1) Venkata Ramesh:

Post by Venkata Ramesh.

History for December 12

History for December 12 - On-This-Day.com:
Gustave Flaubert 1821, Edvard Munch 1863 - Norwegian artist, Edward G. Robinson 1893 


Frank Sinatra 1915, Bob Barker 1923, Ed Koch 1924 


Connie Francis 1938, Dionne Warwick 1940, Cathy Rigby 1952 


1792 - In Vienna, 22-year-old Ludwig van Beethoven received one of his first lessons in music composition from Franz Joseph Haydn. 


1800 - Washington, DC, was established as the capital of the United States. 


1870 - Republican, Joseph H. Rainey of South Carolina became the first black lawmaker to be sworn into the U.S. House of Representatives. 


1901 - The first radio signal to cross the Atlantic was picked up near St. John's Newfoundland, by inventor Guglielmo Marconi. 


1917 - Father Edward Flanagan opened Boys Town in Nebraska. The farm village was for wayward boys. In 1979 it was opened to girls. 


1925 - The "Motel Inn," the first motel in the world, opened in San Luis Obispo, CA. 


1975 - Sara Jane Moore pled guilty to a charge of trying to kill U.S. President Ford in San Francisco the previous September. 


1982 - 20,000 women encircled Greenham Common air base in Britain in protest against proposed cite of U.S. Cruise missiles there. 


1989 - Leona Helmsley was fined $7 million and sentenced to four years in prison for tax evasion. 


1998 - The House Judiciary Committee rejected censure, and approved the final article of impeachment against U.S. President Clinton. The case was submitted to the full House for a verdict. 


2000 - The U.S. Supreme Court found that the recount ordered by the Florida Supreme Court in the 2000 U.S. Presidential election was unconstitutional. U.S. Vice President Al Gore conceded the election to Texas Gov. George W. Bush the next day. 


2001 - In Beverly Hills, CA, actress Winona Ryder was arrested at Saks Fifth Avenue for shoplifting and possessing pharmaceutical drugs without a prescription. The numerous items of clothing and hair accessories were valued at $4,760. 


2002 - North Korea announced that it would reactivate a nuclear power plant that U.S. officials believed was being used to develop weapons.

Berlin Becomes the First Place in the World to Offer This Holiday to Atheist Students | TheBlaze.com

Berlin Becomes the First Place in the World to Offer This Holiday to Atheist Students | TheBlaze.com:

"Atheist students in Berlin have just been awarded their very own holiday, complete with a day off from school just like their Jewish, Christian and Muslim counterparts who are permitted to exit the classroom to commemorate religious celebrations."

10 Failed TV Shows That No One Should Have Approved

10 Failed TV Shows That No One Should Have Approved - Listverse:

"Heil, Honey I’m Home! isn’t like the others on this list in any way, shape, or form.
It’s not a reality show, it’s not a news show, and it lacks any semblance of historical accuracy.
The bizarre sitcom follows the misadventures of the Hitlers. 
Adolf and Eva Braun have moved to the suburbs of Berlin and are quite happy there.
That is, until they meet their new neighbors, the Jewish Goldensteins. 
Hilarity theoretically ensues."

Obama Keeps Citing the Bible to Tout Immigration Reform — but Do You Remember What He Said About Doing Just That in 2006? | TheBlaze.com

Obama Keeps Citing the Bible to Tout Immigration Reform — but Do You Remember What He Said About Doing Just That in 2006? | TheBlaze.com:

"President Barack Obama has once again invoked the Bible to defend his executive action on immigration. While TheBlaze already highlighted some of the potential problems with his latest claim that the holy book “says don’t throw stones in glass houses,” there’s something else worth noting.

Obama’s recent use of the story about Mary and Joseph being turned away from the inn and believers being commanded not to mistreat foreigners — a concept in Deuteronomy 10:19 — to tout immigration reform appear to depart from thoughts he outlined in a faith-themed speech delivered eight years ago."

Obamacare Offers a $3,000 Incentive to Hire Amnestied Illegals Over Native-Born Americans

Report: Obamacare Offers a $3,000 Incentive to Hire Amnestied Illegals Over Native-Born Americans:
Nearly five million illegal immigrants will be eligible for legal status and work permits under President Obama’s amnesty. They are not, however, currently eligible for Obamacare. 

According to the Washington Times, because the amnestied illegals are exempt from Obamacare, employers who decide to hire them will not have to pay the $3,000 annual penalty for each employee who goes on the Obamacare exchange and receives a subsidy. 

“Under Obamacare, businesses with 50 or more employees are supposed to provide insurance coverage to their full-time workers,” The Washington Times’ Stephen Dinan reports. 

“If they refuse, they are assessed a penalty for every employee who receives subsidies to sign up for coverage on the health exchanges. 

But because the newly legalized illegal immigrants covered by Mr. Obama’s order can’t sign up for the exchanges or receive subsidies, employers aren’t penalized for hiring them.”

Dead Simple Hack Allows for “Rebel” Keurig K-Cups

Dead Simple Hack Allows for “Rebel” Keurig K-Cups | Hackaday:
"If you haven’t actually used a Keurig coffee machine, then you’ve probably at least seen one.
They are supposed to make brewing coffee simple.

....Unfortunately newer versions of these machines have a sort of DRM, or lockout chip.
In order to prevent unofficial k-cups from being manufactured and sold, the Keurig machines have a way to detect which cups are legitimate and which are counterfeit. 
It appears as though the machine identifies the lid specifically as being genuine.
It turns out this “lockout” technology is very simple to defeat. "

ISIS Wants to Sell James Foley’s Body for $1 Million

ISIS Wants to Sell James Foley’s Body for $1 Million | Mediaite:
"Per BuzzFeed’s Mike Giglio, ISIS is now trying to sell the body of James Foley, the American freelance journalist they beheaded last summer, for $1 million.

Giglio talked to a former Syrian rebel, who told him:
This former rebel said he was approached by an ISIS leader who asked him to find a channel to either the U.S. government or Foley’s family. 
Like the other sources, he noted a price of $1 million and the promise of DNA. 
“They ask for $1 million, and they will send DNA to Turkey, but they want the money first,” he said. “They will not give the DNA without the money.”
He claimed his motivation was to help the grieving family find closure, calling his work “a humanity case.”
ISIS executed several western journalists last summer, part of a terror campaign to raise the Sunni militant group’s global specter.
Foley’s execution, and the following murder of Steven Sotloff, compelled a military response from the United States and some Middle Eastern countries, arguably what ISIS was after."

GOP suppoerts $50 MILLION tax increase????-------State House revives Internet sales tax plan

State House revives Internet sales tax plan | Crain's Detroit Business:
"LANSING — Michigan lawmakers are breathing new life into bills that would force retailers such as Amazon.com to collect the state's sales tax on Internet purchases.
The House on Tuesday is expected to prepare the legislation for a possible vote later this week. Similar bills are pending in the Senate after a committee approved them last week.
Retailers with stores in Michigan must collect the 6 percent sales tax when selling items online. But Internet-only stores like Amazon don't have to assess the sales tax unless they have a physical presence in the state.
Traditional brick-and-mortar stores say Amazon has an unfair competitive advantage in selling tax-free goods.
Shoppers are supposed to voluntarily pay a 6 percent "use" tax for their online purchases when they file Michigan tax returns.
But few do.
The Senate Fiscal Agency estimates that if the legislation is enacted, it could generate $50 million more a year in tax revenue for state and local governments. 
Legislators' potential movement of the bills comes as they are looking to increase taxes or redirect tax revenue to improve deteriorating roads and other transportation infrastructure."