To stay or go? UK to vote on membership in European Union

To stay or go? UK to vote on membership in European Union. - CSMonitor.com:
"...The final piece of the agreement was, in many ways, the most delicate.
And yet, for British voters, it touched on perhaps the most pertinent issue: immigration.
Cameron wanted to withdraw certain benefits from EU migrants, in an effort to stem the influx that has thwarted his immigration targets.
Some of the eastern European countries took exception to this, but in spite of their reservations, a compromise was reached, the most significant aspect of which was the “emergency brake,” which will allow in-work benefits for migrants to be reduced for the next seven years.
Specifically, while the UK had already made unemployment benefit unavailable to EU migrants, these new measures affect benefits available to people who are working, essentially forms of state assistance (such as tax credits) to help those on low income.
...Should the UK vote to leave the EU, one possible repercussion is a fresh vote on Scottish independence, meaning that breaking away from the European Union could, in turn, lead to the disintegration of the United Kingdom itself.
As for the EU, Dahrendorf Fellow on Europe-North America Relations Tim Oliver, at the London School of Economics IDEAS department, sees three possible outcomes of a so-called Brexit:

• “[The EU] could integrate further, strengthening the power of the Eurozone and Germany; 
• it could unravel, Britain triggering some form of domino effect that leads to further withdrawals; 
• or it could muddle through as it has in the past, unified but strained.”

At this point, the vote is too close to call, and as the campaign machines grind into gear, they still have everything to play for...”

WHY WOULD OBAMA ALLOW GREEN BERET To Be Discharged For Saving Life Of Young Boy Kept As Sex Slave By Muslim Afghan Police Chief » 100percentfedUp.com

WHY WOULD OBAMA ALLOW GREEN BERET To Be Discharged For Saving Life Of Young Boy Kept As Sex Slave By Muslim Afghan Police Chief » 100percentfedUp.com:

"It’s hard to read stories like this without wondering how a Commander in Chief can so easily desert those who sacrifice all for our nation, in favor of looking the other way when it comes to twisted Islamic traditions….

“De Oppresso Liber” (To Liberate the Oppressed) ~~Motto of the U.S. Army Special Forces"

EDITORIAL: Global-warming Ice Capades

EDITORIAL: Global-warming Ice Capades - Washington Times:
He who lives by the crystal ball must expect occasional bits of ground glass in his pudding, and the false prophets of global warming and their cheerleaders in the media are learning that lesson the hard way.
After years of predicting that man-made global warming would melt the planet’s glaciers and drown coastal towns beneath rising oceans, the threat itself is melting like ice in April.
That’s cause for both celebration and a little humility in the face of the many mysteries of nature still to be unraveled.
Data from two NASA satellites, employed in the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment between 2002 and 2014, enabled researchers to analyze the effects of glacier loss.
They found to their surprise that trillions of tons of water wound up not in the sea but spread across the planet’s land mass. 
In fact, 3.2 trillion tons of water, equal to the volume of Lake Huron, soaked into thirsty soil or were collected in lakes and underground aquifers.
“We always assumed that people’s increased reliance on groundwater for irrigation and consumption was resulting in a net transfer of water from the land to the ocean,” says the lead author, J.T. Reager. “What we didn’t realize until now is that over the past decade, changes in the global water cycle more than offset the losses that occurred from groundwater pumping — causing the land to act like a sponge, at least temporarily.”
So dry land soaks up water. 
Who knew? 
It’s always reassuring when science comports with common sense..."

Why are we learning Chinese while they are NOT learning English?!!-----For NYC Firefighters Learning Mandarin, Service Starts With 'Ni Hao'

For NYC Firefighters Learning Mandarin, Service Starts With 'Ni Hao' : NPR:
"...About a dozen firefighters, EMTs and paramedics are taking the first Mandarin classes funded by the New York City Fire Department Foundation.
It's the start of a voluntary program that organizers hope to expand into other Chinese dialects and Asian languages in the future.
For now, these first responders spend two hours a week learning Mandarin from Lily Cheung.
"A lot of them, they're working full time. 
You would think they're dead tired, have no energy, but no, they just put so much energy to the class," she says.
"They participate. They answer questions."
..."It's also to show the communities that we embrace them as citizens of this city, that we are in acceptance of their culture and the transition that they're going through," he says..."

Lunch video-----College Students On The Iowa Caucus - Can't Find New Hampshire on Map

Noon-toon

Critics Suggest Race, Religion and Politics Shaped Obama’s Decision Not to Attend Scalia’s Funeral | TheBlaze.com

Critics Suggest Race, Religion and Politics Shaped Obama’s Decision Not to Attend Scalia’s Funeral | TheBlaze.com:

"The funeral mass for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was held Saturday morning at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. Scalia’s son, Rev. Paul D. Scalia delivered the homily, which focused on the former justice’s deep Catholic faith and his devoted family life.

Justices, judges, congressional leaders, cabinet secretaries, former legal clerks who served under Scalia, Vice President Joe Biden and Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz gathered at the nation’s largest Roman Catholic church to pay homage to Scalia, who died last Saturday at age 79."

NATO warns Turkey it can't count on support in a conflict with Russia as tensions escalate

NATO warns Turkey it can't count on support in a conflict with Russia as tensions escalate | Daily Mail Online:

• European diplomats warned that Ankara cannot invoke Article 5
• Germany says that NATO cannot 'pay the price for a war started by Turks'
• Turkey has called for international ground operation in Syria 
• Russia called Security Council meeting to halt Turkey's shelling of Kurds

Obamafication of Men | The Political Hat

Obamafication of Men | The Political Hat:
 The War on Boys and the obsession of the Left with abolishing the notion of masculinityand the male gender itself is now being funded under the Obama administration in an attempt to challenge “rigid masculinity norms”:

“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is spending nearly $1 million on a study that seeks to change gender norms to prevent sexual assault, teaching young men to resist ‘rigid masculinity.’

“The project seeks to produce ‘healthy masculinities’ in young black males in Pittsburgh, using a curriculum called ‘Manhood 2.0.’ The curriculum involves ‘identifying examples of policing gender and sexuality’ and teaches young men that masculinity is not about physical strength.”

     They’ve spent nearly $1 million so far, and the budget will not end until next year, with the project continuing on through most of 2018.

     And just to underscore the transformative nature of this use of taxpayer money:

“‘Manhood 2.0 curriculum will encourage discussions about being a man using arts-based approaches and other interactive strategies, conversations and role play around healthy sexual relationships, and youth as social change agents,’ the fact sheet said.

“In an email, Miller further detailed what ‘gender transformative programming’ means.

“‘”Gender transformative programming” involves identifying and challenging rigid masculinity norms about what it means to be a man, identifying examples of policing gender and sexuality (through media messages), and envisioning different ways of expressing one’s masculinity (that does not involve physical strength, use of violence, sexual conquest),’ she said.”

     You can not fool mother nature.  Male impulses will remain.  By destroying the norms and mores that have channeled these biological drives towards good, you free them to destructive ends; denying them will not protect society therefrom.

Slouching toward World War III

Slouching toward World War III: Glenn Reynolds:
Abandoning the helm and allowing Putin to have his way, Obama has turned the Cold War clock back.
At the Democratic debate last week, there was a lot of back-and-forth between Bernie and Hillary about Hillary’s relationship with Henry Kissinger.
And while I’m not a Kissinger fan in particular, I have to give those old-time Cold Warriors credit: Despite the widespread belief from the 1950s through the 1980s that a nuclear World War III was almost inevitable, they managed to avoid it and to produce an outcome where freedom expanded around the world by the end.
Our current generation of foreign-policy leaders isn’t doing quite as well. 
In fact, as intelligence expert John Schindler writes in the Observer, we seem to be slouching toward World War III now.
Schindler writes that the Russo-Turkish conflict in Syria looks poised to expand:
"As rebel forces defend Aleppo in Stalingrad fashion, the Syrian military, with Russian help, commences a protracted siege of the city, employing massive firepower, which becomes a humanitarian nightmare of a kind not seen in decades, a tragedy that would dwarf the 1992-95 siege of Sarajevo.
However, any Turkish move to lift that siege, even with international imprimatur, would quickly devolve into all-out war. ...
"Many Western insiders think along similar lines.
By letting Mr. Putin get away with whatever he likes in Syria, Obama has created a deeply dangerous situation in the region.
By abandoning his infamous Syria “redline” in September 2013, the White House in effect outsourced American policy there to Putin, as I warned at the time, and which the Obama administration, powerless to influence terrible events in Syria, is slowly realizing."
A war between Russia and Turkey would put the United States, and Europe, in an uncomfortable position. 
Since Turkey remains a NATO ally (though a shakier one than in the past), war between Turkey and Russia could easily suck us in. 
...Well, now it looks like we have a new Cold War.
And don’t just take my word for it.
Ask Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, who says that the world has slipped into a “new Cold War.”
So, despite President Obama’s snark and Clinton and Sanders’ infighting, the question isn’t about what happened in the 1980s. It’s about whether we’ll do as well in the coming decades.
At the moment, things don’t look especially promising."

Revealed: Who Obama Is Welcoming Into The White House Today Speaks Louder Than Any Words

Revealed: Who Obama Is Welcoming Into The White House Today Speaks Louder Than Any Words:

"While on Hannity, Mckesson said Michael Brown was “murdered by a cop” who used his power to kill Brown, “because he knew that power would be protected.”  Kevin Jackson, from The Black Sphere, concluded Mckesson is simply a “race baiter” and a “race pimp” who only goes around the country starting problems and then leaves, forcing someone else to clean up his messes.

Mckesson now wants to be the mayor of Baltimore and has filed the paperwork to be a cadidate for mayor of the tumultuous city. The Black Lives Matter movement apparently now has a political candidate and may morph into a political party, as Mckesson has created a new organization called Campaign Zero."

New Hampshire voter-fraud probe into Sanders campaign expands after latest Project Veritas video

New Hampshire voter-fraud probe into Sanders campaign expands after latest Project Veritas video - Washington Times:
The New Hampshire voter-fraud investigation into Vermont Sen. Bernard Sanders’ campaign has grown with the release of a second undercover video showing out-of-state staffers saying they exploited the law in order to vote in the Democratic presidential primary.

New Hampshire Assistant Attorney General Stephen G. LaBonte said Thursday he had seen both hidden-camera videos released this month by Project Veritas Action, including the latest footage showing top staffers saying they had registered to vote using the campaign office’s address in Manchester, an apparent violation of state law.

Mr. LaBonte launched an investigation last week after the release of the first Project Veritas video, which shows poll workers advising undercover investigators on how to game the system to vote in the Feb. 9 primary.

“I’ve seen the first video. I’ve also seen the second video,” Mr. LaBontetold The Washington Times. “We are looking into it.”

...The second video focuses on Hugo Palma, Mr. Sanders’ regional field director, who says on hidden camera that he had registered using the field office address in order to vote in the New Hampshire primary even though he lives in Colorado Springs.
Other staffers said the practice was commonplace. "

AM Fruitcake

History for February 21

History for February 21 - On-This-Day.com:
Zachary Scott 1914, Sam Peckinpah 1925 - Director, Erma Bombeck 1927 - Humorist, columnist, writer 


Alan Rickman 1946, Kelsey Grammer 1955 - Actor ("Cheers", "Frazier"), Jennifer Love Hewitt 1979 - Actress ("Party of Five", "I Know What You Did Last Summer", "Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit") 


1842 - John J. Greenough patented the sewing machine.


1848 - The Communist Manifesto was published by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.


1904 - The National Ski Association was formed in Ishpeming, MI.


1916 - During World War I, the Battle of Verdun began in France. The battle ended on December 18, 1916 with a French victory over Germany.


1947 - Edwin Land demonstrated the Polaroid Land Camera to the Optical Society of America in New York City. It was the first camera to take, develop and print a picture on photo paper all in about 60 seconds. The photos were black and white. The camera went on sale the following year.


1965 - Malcolm X was assassinated in New York City at the age of 39 by assassins identified as Black Muslims.


1988 - In Baton Rouge, LA, TV evangelist Jimmy Swaggart confessed to his congregation that he was guilty of an unspecified sin. He announced that he was leaving the pulpit temporarily. Swaggart had been linked to an admitted prostitute.


1989 - U.S. President George H.W. Bush called Ayatollah Khomeini's death warrant against "Satanic Verses" author Salman Rushdie "deeply offensive to the norms of civilized behavior."

Obama’s Response to Marine Beaten by Black Mob Will Make You SICK | John Hawkins' Right Wing News

Obama’s Response to Marine Beaten by Black Mob Will Make You SICK | John Hawkins' Right Wing News:

"Guess he’s the wrong skin color. Imagine that. These black teens who are Black Lives Matter acolytes are wanted for other crimes as well. Chris Marquez is still waiting for the outcry over what he views as a hate crime. He’ll be waiting a long time with this president. Marquez was hit in the back of the head with a gun. When he hit the ground they viciously beat him, ripped his pants and stole his wallet with $400 and several credit cards in it. They then spent $115 via those cards. You would think the police could track them down with that and a surveillance video. We’re waiting."

The Most Trusted State Governments Are Red

The Most Trusted State Governments Are Red - The American Interest:
Bad news for the blue model at the state level: According to a recentGallup poll, red states are home to some of the most trusted state governments in the country, and blue states are home to some of the least. 
The four states whose governments have the highest “confidence” ratings—North Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska, and Montana—are all red, while the four states whose governments have the lowest ratings—Illinois, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Jersey—are all deep blue. 
(Note: The terms red and blue refer to governing models, not partisan affiliation of the current state leadership; blue New Jersey has a Republican governor, and red Montana has a Democratic governor).
Three of the four blue states most facing a confidence crisis are suffering from acute blue model decay in the form of runaway public pension costs..."

These 8 federal agencies are the worst. Here's how to fix them

These 8 federal agencies are the worst. Here's how to fix them | Washington Examiner
"Many conservatives are quick to say the Department of Education should be abolished.
For example, Ted Cruz included the department in his list of five agencies that must go.
It's important for the department and its programs to be eliminated, rather than just shifting it into another agency, said Neal McCluskey, who directs the Center for Educational Freedom at the libertarian Cato Institute.
"It doesn't mean much if you just get rid of the department and you keep all the programs, and you move all the programs to [the Department of Health & Human Services]," McCluskey told the Washington Examiner.
"It's the programs that are ultimately the problem."
McCluskey said only two Department of Education activities can be justified: the Office for Civil Rights, to enforce the 14th Amendment, and Impact Aid, which gives federal funds to school districts that are burdened by nearby federal installations such as military bases or large science labs.
Even then, the department doesn't perform those two activities particularly well, McCluskey said, but at least they're justifiable.
...Of the department's 4,137 employees, "many of those jobs don't have to exist," Hess said..."
Read on!

BOOM: 4 Countries Join To Send BRUTAL Message To “Refugees"

BOOM: 4 Countries Join To Send BRUTAL Message To “Refugees":

"Czech President Milos Zeman is not a proponent of allowing more refugees into his country. He has even said the crisis is an organized invasion, and it seems the citizens in his country agree with him. A recent poll suggested that at many as 65 percent of Czechs were against taking in war refugees.

Countries across the world are waking up to the serious problems refugees are causing and they’re not waiting around to put measures in place to help keep the problem manageable."

DC MEDICAL DIRECTOR DROPS BRUTAL RESIGNATION LETTER, CALLS OUT OFFICIALS

Instapundit » Blog Archive » DC MEDICAL DIRECTOR DROPS BRUTAL RESIGNATION LETTER, CALLS OUT OFFICIALS: The medical director of D…:
DC MEDICAL DIRECTOR DROPS BRUTAL RESIGNATION LETTER, CALLS OUT OFFICIALS:

The medical director of D.C.’s fire department resigned in a scathing letter to Mayor Muriel Bowser, charging that “people are dying needlessly” in “a highly toxic” culture where reform is impossible.

Poor response times plague the District fire department. Bowser hired Dr. Jullette Saussy seven months ago for the specific purpose of reforming the department. Confirmed in November and named EMS Medical Director and Assistant Fire Chief, Saussy is already fed up with the D.C. system. In her resignation letter to the Mayor dated January 29 she rips the culture of a department that she argues values bureaucratic structure over meaningful medical reforms, reports WTOP.

“The culture of the DC Fire and EMS Department is highly toxic to the delivery of any semblance of quality pre-hospital patient care,” Saussy writes in her letter. “EMS reform, even attempts to make basic changes, are met with resistance from the top down.”

Saussy accuses the fire department of fostering a “feel good” environment which relies on manipulated or incomplete data that serves as their measure of performance. She says it creates a false reality within the department, where people are not properly overseen and issues fail to ever be addressed.

Hasn’t a false reality in the District of Columbia been a given since about 1913 or so?
(And isn’t that true in most if not allDemocrat-run cities?)

Read the whole letter here.

Why does "the State" release on Friday afternoons?------State releases hundreds of Clinton emails just before Nevada caucus

State releases hundreds of Clinton emails just before Nevada caucus | Washington Examiner:
State Department officials published 550 of Hillary Clinton's private emails Friday in accordance with a judge's order in a contentious Freedom of Information Act case.
The roughly 1,000 pages of emails came just hours before the start of the Nevada caucus Saturday.
Clinton has faced increased scrutiny of her private email use since the end of last month, when the State Department withheld at least 22 emails deemed "top secret," the highest level of classification in government.
Since then, Clinton has attempted to argue the controversial decision was the result of "over classification."
The State Department inspector general's acknowledgement that former Secretary of State Colin Powell transmitted two potentially classified emails on his private email account more than a decade ago has given Clinton supporters fodder in their argument that Clinton did nothing wrong in setting up her own email network."

Lunch videos-----Top 10 Viral Aviation Videos of 2015

Top 10 Viral Aviation Videos of 2015 | Flying Magazine:
From heart-stopping landings to gorgeous flights, check out these most-watched videos.
These days almost anything aviation can be caught on video — stunning airshow performances, hair-raising emergencies or priceless experiences you can only get while being in the cockpit.
Thanks to the accessibility of video cameras, people have the opportunity to capture some pretty incredible and unbelievable moments that were much more difficult to record only a few years ago. These 10 viral aviation videos were featured in Flying’s Enews over the year and they are definitely worth watching again and again.

Noon-toon

Sorry, Girls Just Have to Deal With Being Assaulted for the Sake of Trans People | TheBlaze.com

Sorry, Girls Just Have to Deal With Being Assaulted for the Sake of Trans People | TheBlaze.com:

"Dispatch from the Inevitable File out of Seattle: A man undressed in the women’s locker room of a local pool. Actually, he entered the locker room on numerous occasions, once while young girls were getting changed.

Under normal circumstances, the police would be called and the intrusive creep would be arrested. However, "

FIRE Announces 10 Worst Colleges for Free Speech: 2016

FIRE Announces 10 Worst Colleges for Free Speech: 2016 - FIRE:
Nearly half of America’s top colleges maintain speech codes that blatantly violate First Amendment standards. 
But every year the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) takes a closer look at the past year’s incidents of college censorship to determine the nation’s 10 worst abusers of student and faculty free speech rights.

This year’s list of the 10 worst colleges for free speech—published with detailed descriptions at The Huffington Post—includes many public colleges or universities bound by the First Amendment. 
Some of them, on the other hand, are private colleges that, though not required by the Constitution to respect student and faculty rights, nonetheless promise to do so. This year’s list features:

• Mount St. Mary’s University
• Northwestern University
• Louisiana State University
• University of California, San Diego
• Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota
• University of Oklahoma
• Marquette University
• Colorado College
• University of Tulsa
• Wesleyan University

Among the institutions on FIRE’s annual “worst of the worst” list are a university that fired two faculty members for criticizing the university president’s plan to oust low-performing freshmen, a college that suspended a student for making a six-word joke on social media,and even one university that punished a student for something someone else said—and then went after the student newspaper for reporting on the story..."

Attack on marriage?-----Robots Can Now Flawlessly Iron Clothes

Robots Can Now Flawlessly Iron Clothes | Motherboard

GIF: YouTube

Somewhere on the laundry list of things that humans can do easily and robots totally suck at it handling clothes. A shirt isn’t a rigid object like a coffee cup, for example, which robots can quite easily handle; folding and ironing one requires some seriously advanced on the fly computing.

Well, here’s some comforting or terrifying news, depending on which side of the “robots are going to take all our jobs or make life awesome” debate: robots can totally iron clothes all by themselves now.

What’s more, the robot is honestly a hell of a lot better at ironing than I am—and, let’s face it, probably you, too. I mean, just look at that technique, those crisp lines… Frankly, the end result speaks for itself.