History for January 6

History for January 6 - On-This-Day.com
Joan of Arc 1412, Jacques-Ètienne Montgolfier 1745, Jedediah Smith 1799 


Carl Sandburg 1878, Danny Thomas 1912, John Z. DeLorean 1925 


1759 - George Washington and Martha Dandridge Custis were married. 


1838 - Samuel Morse publicly demonstrated the telegraph for the first time. 


1941 - Richard Widmark made his debut on radio in "The Home of the Brave." 


1942 - The first commercial around-the-world airline flight took place. Pan American Airlines was the company that made history with the feat. 


1945 - The Battle of the Bulge ended with 130,000 German and 77,000 Allied casualties. 


1952 - "Peanuts" debuted in Sunday papers across the United States. 


1975 - ABC-TV debuted "A.M. America." 


1994 - Figure skater Nancy Kerrigan was clubbed on the right leg by an assailant at Cobo Arena in Detroit, MI. Four men were later sentenced to prison for the attack, including Tonya Harding's ex-husband. 

Ted Cruz: Supreme Court Will Dismantle Second Amendment if Hillary Clinton Is Elected President | TheBlaze.com

Ted Cruz: Supreme Court Will Dismantle Second Amendment if Hillary Clinton Is Elected President | TheBlaze.com:

"WINTERSET, Iowa — Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz on Monday warned voters that their Second Amendment rights are in jeopardy if they elect Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton this November.

“If Hillary Clinton is elected president, the Supreme Court will rule that no individual American has any individual right to keep and bear arms whatsoever,” the Texas senator said. “And the government can make it a felony for you to own a firearm and protect your family.”

AG LORETTA LYNCH CLARIFIES OBAMA GUN RULE

Instapundit » Blog Archive » AG LORETTA LYNCH CLARIFIES OBAMA GUN RULE. SUMMARY:
AG LORETTA LYNCH CLARIFIES OBAMA GUN RULE. SUMMARY: 

“I suspect President Obama is hoping for ignorant crap like this from the media to make it look like he’s really doing something.”

What actually happened: 

• “This has always been the law if you have a Federal Firearms License, and it’s always been illegal to be selling guns for “livelihood or profit” without first obtaining an FFL. 
• The new EOs change nothing in that regard. 

But we do have some guidance from the Attorney General that indicates the Administration may indeed try to prosecute marginal cases it previously would not have. . . . 

• So this is not to be part of any rule change, but merely a policy decision to prosecute ‘gun dealers, hobbyists and collectors,’ under the ‘new guidance.’ 

Rather than change the rule, they will use the current vague rule to send ‘hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.’ 

• Though, in this case, it’s not mere harassment, but an intent to imprison. 

They know if they don’t put the dampers on the growing gun culture, their dream of destroying the Second Amendment will never be realized.”

Brazil Heads for Worst Recession Since 1901, Economists Forecast

Brazil Heads for Worst Recession Since 1901, Economists Forecast - Bloomberg Business:
"Brazil’s economy will contract more than previously forecast and is heading for the deepest recession since at least 1901 as economic activity and confidence sink amid a political crisis, a survey of analysts showed.
Latin America’s largest economy will shrink 2.95 percent this year, according to the weekly central bank poll of about 100 economists, versus a prior estimate of a 2.81 percent contraction. Analysts lowered their 2016 growth forecast for 13 straight weeks and estimate the economy contracted 3.71 percent last year.
Brazil’s policy makers are struggling to control the fastest inflation in 12 years without further hamstringing a weak economy.
Finance Minister Nelson Barbosa, who took the job in December, has faced renewed pressure to moderate austerity proposals aimed at bolstering public accounts and avoiding further credit downgrades.
Impeachment proceedings and an expanding corruption scandal have also been hindering approval of economic policies in Congress.

Mizzou Administrator: First Amendment Isn’t a ‘Free Pass to Go Round Saying Hateful Things’ | TheBlaze.com

Mizzou Administrator: First Amendment Isn’t a ‘Free Pass to Go Round Saying Hateful Things’ | TheBlaze.com:

"The Economist reported:

Yet the First Amendment does not give people a free pass to go round saying hateful things, points out Mr. Henson. To help students and faculty realise this, Mizzou has developed a new guide to ‘inclusive terminology’ which ensures a healthy level of respect for all minority groups. It includes terms such as ‘adultism’ (prejudice against the young), ‘minoritised’ (when under-represented groups are made to feel inferior) and intersextionality (obscure)."


TODAY'S YOUTH WAS RAISED IN BUBBLE WRAP!

Obamacare Tightens Yoke on Small Business

Obamacare Tightens Yoke on Small Business | The American Spectator
One of the worst of Obamacare’s ill-conceived provisions went quietly into effect on January 1.
The employer mandate, previously inflicted only on businesses with 100 or more employees, will now be imposed on those with as few as 50.
This mandate will prevent countless small employers from hiring workers they would otherwise have hired and incentivize many others to replace full-time employees with part-timers.
It is such an obvious job killer that the Obama administration delayed enforcement until after the 2014 midterms, the liberal Urban Institute has called for its repeal, and it has even been obliquely criticized by Hillary Clinton.
The employer mandate requires all businesses with 50 or more full-time employees to provide health coverage to at least 95 percent of these employees as well as any dependents they may have under age 26 — or pay crippling fines.
But not all small employers can afford to offer insurance.
Those which lack the resources to do so will avoid the mandate by assuring that the number of full-time workers they employ remains below 50.
And, because Obamacare has arbitrarily redefined “full-time” to mean 30 or more hours per week, the employer mandate effectively caps both the number of workers many businesses can hire and how many hours they will work...."

Excellent read! It's ALL about ethanol-----How Cruz Wins New Hampshire, and the Nomination

Articles: How Cruz Wins New Hampshire, and the Nomination:
"Ted Cruz thinks he's going to win Iowa, and will compete for the nomination with whichever of the establishment candidates wins New Hampshire.
But he's selling himself short.
He should also win New Hampshire, allowing him to wrap up the nomination on March 1st.
For if he wins Iowa, he will have defeated the ethanol lobby.
And beating Big Corn on its home turf is what can propel him to a win in New Hampshire.
People in New Hampshire hate ethanol. 
Ethanol is corrosive, it destroys engines. 
If ethanol-laced gasoline is more than a couple months old, it can't be used in high performance small engines.
It is hydroscopic, attracting water, another problem with performance.
A lot of guys have a personal problem with ethanol.
Go to any tavern in New Hampshire and you'll hear an earful.
There's nothing worse than getting all rigged out with your chain saw, ready to rip, and your saw won't start.
Your ports and jets have been clogged by residue released by the ethanol in your fuel, a solvent.
So you haul your saw down to the mechanic, cursing ethanol the whole way.
Ethanol is despised and resented.
In 2014 the New Hampshire House overwhelmingly passed HB 1220, which would have reduced the ethanol in New Hampshire gasoline.
It was a futile gesture, but a sign of the anger people feel toward this junk.
Ethanol is different than almost any other government boondoggle, in that everyday Americans have to put up with it on a daily basis.
Some government handouts, such as those to Rubio's favorite,
Big Sugar, are easy to ignore.
You pay an extra nickel when you buy a bag of sugar -- big deal.
But a whole lot of people, working class people, actually hate ethanol, in ways that coastal elites don't understand.
And it is especially resented by New Hampshirites because it is a symbol of Iowan perfidy.
New Hampshire voters have never asked for special treatment from the presidential candidates who compete there.
There's no maple syrup support program.
But as soon as Iowa butted in on New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation primary in 1976, the political elites of Iowa came up with the ethanol boondoggle, and demanded that presidential candidates support it.  
This doesn't sit well in New Hampshire.
Because it's more, of course, than just ethanol.
It's craven politicians seeking the White House, in the first state they compete in, whoring for the votes of a special interest that the rest of the country is forced to put up with. 
It's corporate welfare in general. 
It's the poster child of the Washington cabal, which is so intensely despised. It's what's wrong with the Republican Party, and the country..."

Lunch video-----Donald Trump TV AD Campaign AD Commercial 2016 ✔

Noon-toon

Obama Declares Executive Actions on Gun Control Are ‘Well Within My Legal Authorities’ | TheBlaze.com

Obama Declares Executive Actions on Gun Control Are ‘Well Within My Legal Authorities’ | TheBlaze.com:

 "President Barack Obama asserted that the executive actions on gun control to be announced this week are legally in his authority and will have popular support.

“The good news is that these are not only recommendations that are well within my legal authorities and the executive branch but they are also ones that the overwhelming majority of the American people, including gun owners, support and believe in,” Obama said Monday from the Oval Office."

Read 'em!-----Here Are 18 Books You Should Read in 2016

Here Are 18 Books You Should Read in 2016

Escape From Chicago

Escape From Chicago | Frontpage Mag
Chicago is on fire.
It’s America’s mass shooting capital. 
Its deadliest neighborhoods are gang territories prowled by thousands of killers with some of the highest murder rates in the world.
So far, 442 people have been shot and killed in Chicago this year. 2,540 were shot and wounded. 2,982 were shot. 
Fewer Americans died fighting Saddam Hussein in the Gulf War than in a year in Chicago.
On Christmas Day, two people were killed and 10 wounded. 
Chicago has tens of thousands of gang members and someone usually gets shot every 3 hours.
Or at least beaten up.
On Sunday, Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s African-American Deputy Chief of Staff was assaulted at a prayer vigil for a police shooting by an attacker shouting anti-Semitic slurs. 
Rapper King Louie, who coined “Chiraq” was released from the hospital after being shot seven times.
He blamed the devil. 
"The devil's working overtime. 
That's what's going on in Chicago."
But in Chiraq, the devil is a Democrat. 
Chicago Democrats are closely entangled with its 68,000 gang members who deliver the votes and the money. 
There are more gang members in Chicago than people of English ancestry. 
That makes them a powerful voting bloc. 
And Democrats bow to their wishes.
A Latin Kings member described how the vote organizing worked. 
“Every chapter had to vote for that guy… That was a direct order. That means you can’t say no.” 
Under the Dems, that’s Chicago democracy.
Chicago Democrats ritualistically demand gun control, but carefully avoid cracking down on their own political base. 
Obama calls for “common sense solutions” after every shooting, but like a good Chicago Democrat he voted against a 1999 bill to try anyone carrying out a shooting in school as an adult. Under Obama, 
Federal gun-crime prosecutions in Chicago have became as rare as honest Chicago Democrats..."

Obama's "smart diplomacy" leading to WW3?-----Mideast tensions soar as Saudi Arabia rallies countries to cut ties with Iran

Mideast tensions soar as Saudi Arabia rallies countries to cut ties with Iran - The Washington Post: "BEIRUT — The Middle East slid dangerously closer to regional conflict Monday after Saudi Arabia rallied its Sunni allies to sever diplomatic ties with Iran, prompting alarmed appeals for restraint from powers across the globe.
Bahrain and Sudan joined Saudi Arabia in cutting off relations with Iran, and the United Arab Emirates, a key Iranian trading partner, recalled its ambassador from Tehran, as the fallout from the execution of a prominent Shiite cleric in Saudi Arabia on Saturday heightened sectarian tensions across the Middle East.
The Obama administration, caught in the middle by its quest for a closer relationship with Iran and its long-standing alliance with Saudi Arabia, said it hoped Tehran and Riyadh would dial back the hostile rhetoric that has fueled the worst crisis between the regional rivals in decades.
“We’re urging all sides to show some restraint and to not further inflame tensions that are on quite vivid display in the region,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters in Washington.
China, the European Union and Russia also called on Tehran and Riyadh to take steps to settle their differences peacefully, with Russia, an emerging center of gravity in the region, offering to mediate between them, according to Russian news agencies."

ALERT: Obama Slaps Military in the Face, Uses Air Force Base For INFURIATING Purpose

ALERT: Obama Slaps Military in the Face, Uses Air Force Base For INFURIATING Purpose:

"One of the biggest challenges of the illegal immigration crisis is how to handle the thousands of children who stream across the southern border each month.

The Obama administration’s Department of Homeland Security has been securing locations to temporarily house unaccompanied alien children, and its idea is to house them at military bases across the country."

If You Can't Lick 'Em...

Hope n' Change Cartoons: If You Can't Lick 'Em...:

And there goes our new year's resolution not to use expletives in cartoon punchlines.
Americans who were already feeling a bit nervous about the Islamization of our nation now have yet another official "stamp of approval" to worry about: the Post Office's new 2016 Forever Stamp which honors two Islamic "Eid" festivals.
One of them is Eid al-Adha, which honors the willingness of Ibrahim to slit his son's throat after being "triple dog dared" by Allah. 
As part of the festival, modern Muslims are expected to sacrifice their best farm animal assuming they have the financial ability to first buy it an orange jumpsuit.
The new stamp is a radiant purple and gold, and features ornate calligraphy that allegedly says"May your EID be blessed," although for all we know it might actually say "Tell the infidels that your bomb is a clock."
 Seriously, we'd have more luck trying to read a Jackson Pollock painting.
In fairness to the Post Office, they're actually issuing a lot of stamp designs this year which go beyond honoring Barack Obama's favorite religion.
For instance, there will be a stamp commemorating ice cream (the president's favorite dessert), Shirley Temple (the president's favorite cocktail), and the planet Uranus.
About which, the less said the better.

Going postal since the 7th century.

History for January 5

History for January 5 - On-This-Day.com:
Stephen Decatur 1779, George Reeves 1914, Robert Duvall 1930 


Diane Keaton 1946, Ted Lange 1947, Bradley Cooper 1975 - Actor


1896 - It was reported by The Austrian newspaper that Wilhelm Roentgen had discovered the type of radiation that became known as X-rays. 


1914 - Ford Motor Company announced that there would be a new daily minimum wage of $5 and an eight-hour workday. 


1933 - In California, construction of the Golden Gate Bridge began. 


1934 - Both the National and American baseball leagues decided to use a uniform-size baseball. It was the first time in 33 years that both leagues used the same size ball. (MLB) 


1956 - In the Peanuts comic strip, Snoopy walked on two legs for the first time. 


1961 - "Mr. Ed" debuted. The show would run for six years. 


1972 - U.S. President Richard M. Nixon ordered the development of the space shuttle. 


1998 - U.S. Representative Sonny Bono died in skiing accident. 

State BANS All Gender Specific Bathrooms... Obama's America Must "Go" Together

State BANS All Gender Specific Bathrooms... Obama's America Must "Go" Together:

"We now live in a world where men have complete and total access to the ladies restroom — disheartening to say the least.

According to the Family Policy Institute, under a new rule, businesses are now mandated in Washington state to open the bathroom doors to men and women freely — meaning both genders can partake of the same facility.

You have the Human Rights Commission to thank for this."

We don't have a clue!-----How Many Illegal Immigrants Live in the US?

How Many Illegal Immigrants Live in the US?:
"Call any journalist, pundit, anchor, strategist or lobbyist and ask:
1. How many illegal immigrants are in the United States? 
2. What is your source for that number?
Almost without exception he or she will answer:
1.  11 million. 
2. The Pew Research Center.
For a decade now, no number has been given greater certitude and less investigation than that.
Not even the number of planets in our solar system has enjoyed such constancy and acceptance.
Since so much of the national discourse, debate, culture and treasure hinges on the accuracy of the number 11 million, one would think that some enterprising reporter would seek his Pulitzer by validating or debunking it.
Nope.
Just unquestioned faith.
No curiosity as to the source for that iconic value, or the methodology creating it.
So the correct answers are:
 1. Nobody really knows. 
2. It’s not Pew.
Suppose you were tasked with determining how many left-handed Swedes are in the U.S.
A good statistician would come up with a survey asking:
Are you a Swede?
Are you left-
handed?
Simple, no? You’d come up with a pretty good number after a few adjustments such as discounting the too-many Vikings in Minnesota and excluding the ambidextrous and amputees.
Now let’s give the task to the U.S. Census Bureau, a congressionally funded agency headed by a political appointee.
That simple survey takes on new impedimenta..."

What Explains the Vicious Left?

What Explains the Vicious Left? | The Weekly Standard:
"The asymmetry of modern politics is clear to every conservative; painfully clear to several Yale undergraduates who asked me about it recently. 
Leftists, they pointed out, are hostile, nasty, and seem to have no concept of a civil conversation. Why? 
Because they are winning?
Losing?
Are natural-born bullies?
And how can this dangerous mood be changed?
It’s not just a question of civility versus rudeness—which of course is no small thing in itself.
The deeper problem is that the left seems to have lost its taste for democracy.
Naturally there are exceptions to the modern trend, benign leftists and nasty rightists. (Trump is a special case: see below.)
The trend itself is partly explained by the Obama sneer; presidents have enormous influence.
FDR's bouncy, feisty smile, Reagan's geniality, Clinton's one-of-the-boys grin, W's good-natured earnestness are part of history; and Obama's real "legacy" (aside from worldwide crisis) is that bitter sneer.
His rudeness to political opponents has made a rotten political climate much worse. 
But the left's growing reputation for belligerent intolerance transcends Obama.
You see characteristic leftist arrogance among global warmers, who show their respect for their opponents by refusing to listen to them and implying that they are crackpots.
On campus, leftists have spit at conservatives, screamed obscenities at moderate liberals, yammered on about phony "rape crises" while doing everything they could think of to promote universal debauchery, rigged local votes to silence opponents of the Kill Israel (aka "BDS") movement.
The list goes on, the arrogance is staggering, the asymmetry all too obvious.
Conservatives, bursting with facts and ideas (and anger and dismay), are eager to have it out with liberals and maybe even convince a few.
Liberals are eager to make assertions and strike moral poses, but not to respond to rational argument or speak to the facts.
Read on.

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS AT LITTLE ROCK PROFESSOR FILES FOIA ACTION TO GET LAW SCHOOL ADMISSIONS DATA,…

Instapundit » Blog Archive » UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS AT LITTLE ROCK PROFESSOR FILES FOIA ACTION TO GET LAW SCHOOL ADMISSIONS DATA,…:
"UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS AT LITTLE ROCK PROFESSOR FILES FOIA ACTION TO GET LAW SCHOOL ADMISSIONS DATA, COLLEAGUES RETALIATE BY CHARGING HIM WITH RACISM: 
“After two professors emailed complaints about Steinbuch’s lawsuit — questioning his grading practices and whether he is biased against minority-group students given his research conclusions that the school has lower admissions standards for black students — an investigation into his grading and the bias complaint has begun.”

Sounds like something the legislature shou
ld look into.
And it’s a debacle for the law school, particularly as people will tend to assume that whatever they’re hiding must be awfully bad — not just affirmative action admissions disparities, which most schools have, but something more serious, like false numbers reported to the ABA and bar examiners, or maybe Texas-style political admissions.
Sooner or later, the truth will come out, of course, but in the meantime the speculation is likely to be intense, and bad for the school.

Meanwhile, this is bad enough, and if there’s racism here, it’s not Prof. Steinbuch’s:

Steinbuch is researching race-based admissions at the school.

His research shows the law school admitted black students with significantly lower admissions scores than white students over the 6-year period studied and that those students failed the bar exam at a rate twice as high as white students’, he said.

The school never informed students with low entrance scores of their lower likelihood of bar passage, and as a result certain students continued to enroll at the school “to their own financial detriment,” the lawsuit states.

Ouch."

Democrats Officially Condemn Americans Who Speak Out Against Muslims! - Eagle Rising

Democrats Officially Condemn Americans Who Speak Out Against Muslims! - Eagle Rising:

"Once again, Congressional representatives overstep their Constitutional bounds and advance a resolution that condemns free speech, something protected in the First Amendment, which is part of the very Constitution these anti-Americans swore an oath before God to uphold. Oh, I know, they claim it is "hate speech," but it really is targeting those who tell the truth about the religion of pieces, Islam."

Glenn Reynolds: Chicago sings blue-model blues

Glenn Reynolds: Chicago sings blue-model blues:
"Around the nation, this year, you can see two phenomena at work:

• One is the collapse of what Walter Russell Mead calls the “Blue Model” of government, one based on unions, racial/ethnic politics, high regulation and high taxes. 
• The other is the steadily more desperate efforts of Blue Model politicians to keep kicking the can down the road.

For starters, look at Rahm Emanuel’s Chicago. Rahm Emanuel, a major inner-circle supporter of both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, is not a stupid man.
Nonetheless, he’s finding it harder and harder to hold things together.
Right now, Emanuel is facing problems over the police shooting of Laquan McDonald.
Video makes it pretty clear that the shooting wasn’t justified, but the city withheld the video until, conveniently enough, after Emanuel had won a sharply-contested election.
McDonald’s family received a $5 million settlement (which some have characterized as hush money) and emails obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times last week show that city officials were more interested in managing the news than in getting to the bottom of what happened.
Meanwhile, Chicago faces other problems, including a secret jail where prisoners were kept from their lawyers, numerous other instances of police misconduct and racial discrimination and a sinking school system.
...Plus, as in most large, Democratic cities, the police and other city workers are unionized and, effectively, almost impossible to fire.
As Mead notes, “There is a harsh conflict of interest between the city’s employees and the city’s voters. ...
It is in the interests of public sector unions to shelter employees from oversight and threats to their job security, regardless of how well they perform.”
And, also like most large blue jurisdictions (and some red ones), Chicago is in financial trouble, not least because of the high pensions secured by those unionized workers, pensions that the city can’t really afford to pay.
In May, Moody’s downgraded Chicago’s credit rating to “junk,” with a negative outlook, based on this and other problems..."

A coven of corruption-----Flashback 2013: “Climate Change” Expert Jailed for Conning EPA out of $900K

Flashback 2013: “Climate Change” Expert Jailed for Conning EPA out of $900K:
"The EPA has been hit with a veritable flood of scandals recently.
We covered the Animas River spill, caused by the EPA’s rush to solve a non-problem involving a mine’s wastewater, which impacted the water quality for several Western states.
In 2013, one climate change expert who posed as a CIA operative was jailed for conning the agency out of nearly $1 Million.
The Environmental Protection Agency’s top climate change expert and highest paid employee was sentenced to 32 months in federal prison today for defrauding the government.
John C. Beale, who lives with his wife in Virginia, claimed he was a CIA agent working in Pakistan so he didn’t have to show up for work for months at a time and defrauded the government out of more than $900,000….
The 65-year-old’s 13 year scam was ‘inexplicable’ and ‘unbelievably egregious’, Judge Ellen Huvelle said in Washington D.C. federal court today.
At least Beale was candid about his motivation!
“Why did I do this? Greed – simple greed – and I’m ashamed of that greed,” Beale told the court. He also said it was possible that he got a “rush” and a “sense of excitement” by telling people he was worked for the CIA. “It was something like an addiction,” he said.

Lunch video-Must see to the end!-----"SIR, I WILL NOT OBEY THAT ORDER."

Noon-toon

Here’s What Supreme Court Justice Scalia Just Said About Religious Neutrality, the Constitution — and Why ‘God Has Been Good’ to America | TheBlaze.com

Here’s What Supreme Court Justice Scalia Just Said About Religious Neutrality, the Constitution — and Why ‘God Has Been Good’ to America | TheBlaze.com:

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said Saturday the idea of religious neutrality is not grounded in the country’s constitutional traditions and that God has been good to the U.S. because Americans honor him, the Associated Press reported."

Not much educatin' goin on and it ain't cheap!---Imagine if those schools made Boeing airliners.......Seattle schools spend nearly $1 million on travel as parents donate to retain teachers

Seattle schools spend nearly $1 million on travel as parents donate to retain teachers | EAGnews.org: "SEATTLE – In October, administrators of Seattle Public Schools announced that 25 teachers across the district were being transferred – a month into the school year – because district enrollment projections had fallen woefully short.
Parents reacted with outrage.
One father was moved to make an unplanned $77,000 donation to Seattle’s Alki Elementary to help that school save teachers from transfer, according to the Seattle Times.
And that father did not even have children at that particular school.
It was the second year in a row that many students suddenly had their teachers snatched away, just when they were getting accustomed to learning from them.
Last fall, the staff at Gateway Elementary staged a last-minute fundraising campaign that brought in $66,000 – enough to maintain a teacher who was about to be transferred by the district, according to a report from WestSeattleTimes.com.
District officials argued that they lacked the funds to leave the teachers in the classrooms where they were already teaching, and hire a few more to fill holes in schools with shortages.
But as Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat recently noted, the district increased its central staff budget by 16 percent this year, and the superintendent’s office budget by 16.4 percent.
So perhaps there was some money available after all, but it was spent in the wrong places.
“Every year there’s some management blunder that’s so dumbfounding that we parents, admittedly, start to go a little crazy,” Westneat wrote in a recent column.
Those parents might really get mad if they learned how much district administrators are compensated every year.
In the 2014-15 fiscal year, an astonishing total of 275 employees, mostly administrators, made at least $100,000 in straight salary.
They were paid a combined $31.9 million.
It gets worse.
A grand total of 312 employees – again, mostly administrators – made at least $100,000 in salary plus benefits, costing the district a grand total of $38.7 million.
Then there was the district’s 2014-15 travel budget. Seattle Public Schools had 85 different transactions with an agency called Travel Leaders, which was paid a total of $848,406 in taxpayer dollars.
There were also a few more trips, not booked through the agency, that totaled $76,375.
That means the district spent nearly $1 million on travel in 2014-15.
And for what?
According to the district’s report card from the state, Seattle Public Schools as a whole failed to meet annual yearly progress goals.
In fact, every group of students in every racial and socio-economic demographic failed to meet progress goals, in elementary, middle school and high school.
So there’s a lot of spending going on at Seattle Public schools, but not a lot to show for it.
“The way the district does business is insane,” Chandra Hampson, the PTA president from a district schools, was quoted as saying by Westneat.
A lot of readers probably shook their heads in agreement when they read that remark."

Political Predictions for 2016

Political Predictions for 2016 - Reason.com:
Take Judge Andrew Napolitano's quiz about the year ahead.
Andrew Napolitano | December 31, 2015
[Ed. note: Judge Napolitano's choices are marked with italics.]

1) The Republican nominee for president in 2016 will be...
a. Donald Trump by unanimous acclamation of the Republican National Convention.
b. Ted Cruz by unanimous acclamation of the convention.
c. Mitt Romney after a contested, bitter, brokered convention.
d. none of the above.

2) The Democratic nominee for president in 2016 will be...
a. Hillary Clinton.
b. Bernie Sanders.
c. Al Gore after a contested, bitter, brokered Democratic National Convention.
d. not Hillary Clinton, because she will be indicted by a federal grand jury for various crimes.

3) The voters will elect in a landslide...
a. whoever promises to give them the biggest piece of the federal pie.
b. whoever scares them the most.
c. whoever comes across as most faithful to the Constitution.
d. a sleeper candidate not yet on the scene.

4) The 2016 Republican platform will promise...
a. to eradicate the Islamic State group by using ground troops and fighting an all-out war.
b. to replace Obamacare with a lighter, easier version of it.
c. to make abortion illegal, except for in cases of rape and incest.
d. to bring the troops home and let the Russians fight the Islamic State.

5) The 2016 Democratic platform will promise...
a. a 2016 version of "a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage."
b. free health care for those who want it.
c. criminalizing hate speech.
d. all of the above.

6) The Super Bowl will be won by...
a. the Carolina Panthers.
b. the New England Patriots, but only by cheating.
c. the New York Jets after the greatest comeback in NFL history.
d. none of the above.

7) The World Series will be won by...
a. the New York Mets.
b. the San Francisco Giants.
c. the Boston Red Sox, but only after they acquire A-Rod from the Yankees.
d. none of the above.

8) In 2016, climate change...
a. will be embraced by the Republican Party in a dramatic turnabout.
b. will be defined as an article of faith by Pope Francis.
c. will be exposed as a fraud.
d. will leave the public marketplace of ideas.

Obama's 'Streisand Effect' Presidency

Obama's 'Streisand Effect' Presidency | The Weekly Standard:
"Earlier this week, it made news that "Bringing Peace, Security to Syria" was listed as one of the top achievements in 2015 by the Obama State Department.
If this is what peace and security in Syria look like, I’d hate to see the hellish charnel house the region would have to become for the State Department to admit it's chaos.
This bizarre messaging reminded me of another bit of news that came out of the White House recently:
Obama gave the Medal of Freedom to Barbra Streisand. 
While ISIS and The Prince of Tides both fall under the heading of "things I dislike intensely," I will try and explain more precisely why these two things are related.
Streisand hasn't exactly been a pop culture fixture over the last few decades.
In fact, if you're on the younger side, Streisand's fame extends primarily to an internet phenomenon, known as the "Streisand Effect." 
In 2003, a photographer trying to document coastal erosion took a picture of Streisand's Malibu home from a helicopter and posted it online.
There was no attempt to specifically draw attention to Streisand's home; it was one of 12,000 pictures of the coast that the photographer took.
Nonetheless, Streisand sued to have the photo removed from the web. 
Of course, the silly legal action ended up drawing more attention to the picture of her house than it would have if she'd just left it alone. 
It became an internet meme. 
People were posting photos of her house, just to spite her.
So it's a wonder that the Obama presidency hasn't quite figured out that denying the existence of the obvious actually doesn't help.
When you say there's peace and security in Syria, you're not convincing anyone that's the case. You're inevitably drawing attention to the fact the region is a mess and the Obama administration's handling of the situation has been terrible.
It's not just limited to Syria, either.
Denial of the obvious has been a feature of the Obama presidency.
Recall that Obama told Bill O'Reilly in his Super Bowl interview a few years back that there was "not a smidgen of corruption" at the IRS. 
Well, no.
In fact, the IRS held a press conference to admit its own wrongdoing and the chief IRS official involved is pleading the Fifth.
When you deny the obvious, the effect is to sow distrust among those voters who are concerned about the scandal.
What about "Obamacare is working"? 
We hear that a lot.
Maybe this messaging is necessary because it gives liberal supporters a talking point to rally around, but for the rest of us in the "reality-based community" the undeniable fact is that the law is failing in very significant ways.
Insurance costs are up 27 percent despite promises that the law would make it cheaper, and even Hillary Clinton is now conceding in Democratic debates that the law has made the insurance industry less competitive and in Iowa she's admitting the law is killing jobs.
Unless you're already on Team Obama, this kind of denial is polarizing at best and infuriating at worst.
So why do they do it?
Well, the general rule in Washington is never assume malice when incompetence and arrogance will suffice.
It's more than possible that Obama and those in his administration are in a bubble.
Indeed, that was heavily suggested by the recent fracas when The New York Times reported—then memory-holed—a report where Obama said he underestimated how much the recent ISIS attack in San Bernardino had spooked Americans because he didn't watch cable news."

These are worth a look!-----13 Google Chrome Tips That Will Make Your Life Better | TIME

13 Google Chrome Tips That Will Make Your Life Better | TIME:
From learning a new language to saving money while online shopping
Since it debuted in 2008, Google Chrome has quickly risen to be the most popular web browser in the world, beating out Firefox and Internet Explorer.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t make it better.
There are many extensions and programs that innovative developers have built to make using Chrome more productive and more fun.
With them, you can save articles to read anywhere, learn a new language, save money while shopping, and even improve your writing.
And the beauty is that they don’t actually require you to put in any extra work.
These 13 extensions and apps can help you both streamline your Chrome browsing and help you do things you didn’t even know were possible.
Read on to become a Google Chrome pro:

City Councilman Wants Citizens to Throw Rocks, Bricks and Bottles at Police | Video | TheBlaze.com

City Councilman Wants Citizens to Throw Rocks, Bricks and Bottles at Police | Video | TheBlaze.com: "A Mississippi city councilman is in hot water for suggesting residents attack police officers from other districts and counties with rocks, bricks and bottles.

Speaking earlier in the week about police chases crossing into Jackson’s jurisdiction, Councilman Kenneth Stokes publicly stated, “Let’s get rocks, let’s get bricks and let’s get bottles and start throwing them and then they police won’t come in here anymore.”

Predators for Hillary

Predato
"...Unlike Cosby, Bill Clinton's most well-known extramarital activities were consensual.

Yeah, right. Tell that to Juanita Broaddrick, and Paula Jones, and Kathleen Willey...

Miss Abrams concludes:

Bill Clinton is scheduled to headline his first solo campaign events next week as he hits the stump to get voters excited for the former secretary of state's candidacy. While the Clintons are ignoring attacks by Trump and others, they are also likely hoping that Cosby does not stay in the news for too long so that voters can focus on the 42nd president's charm and not his affairs.

I don't think dropping your pants and instructing a state employee to "kiss it", or groping the breasts of a grieving widow, or telling a woman after you've raped her twice that "you might want to put some ice on that" meets the minimum definition of an "affair". 
But evidently "the 42nd president's charm" still works on Abigail Abrams.

The retreat to euphemism is most telling. 
The President and Mrs Clinton's marriage is an arrangement, the protection of which necessitated Hillary's enthusiastic participation in the trashing of his victims. 
No doubt she'd do the same if the Epstein story were ever to receive the coverage in the US papers that it's received in Britain. 
Which is why there are no half-measures for Donald Trump here: he has to go "the full Lewinsky" (as Laura Rosen Cohen advises) or not at all. 
They're going to need a lot more euphemisms.rs for Hillary :: SteynOnline\