Trey Gowdy Criticizes Pentagon Response on Benghazi | TheBlaze.com

Trey Gowdy Criticizes Pentagon Response on Benghazi | TheBlaze.com:

"Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., said in a statement that the Defense Department ignored a request for nearly five weeks for the pilots who sent drones over Benghazi and Tripoli, and that the Pentagon, at the end of April, then provided an incomplete list.

“The committee needs all of the names so the relevant witnesses can be interviewed and the investigation completed,” Gowdy said. “Surely (the Defense Department) can complete the simple task of finding the people within the chain of command in less than three months.”

The Racist Trees of Our National Parks

The Racist Trees of Our National Parks | Frontpage Mag
Mickey Fearn, the National Park Service Deputy Director for Communications and Community Assistance, made headlines when he claimed that black people don’t visit national parks because they associate them with slaves being lynched by their masters.
Yellowstone, the first national park, was created in 1872 in Wyoming.
Slavery was over by then and no one had ever been lynching slaves around Old Faithful anyway.
But false claims of racism die very hard.
Now Alcee Hastings, an impeached judge, and a coalition of minority groups is demanding increased “inclusiveness” at national parks. 
High on their list is the claim that, “African-Americans have felt unwelcome and even fearful in federal parklands during our nation’s history because of the horrors of lynching.”  
What do national parks have to do with lynchings?
Many national parks have trees.
People were hung from trees.
It’s racial guilt by arboreal association.
Trees are racist down to their roots.
The origin of the bizarre racist lynching theory of national parks appears to be Carolyn Finney. Finney was an actress noted for, apparently, little more than an appearance in The Nutt House.
Then she became a cause célèbre for race activists when she was denied tenure by Berkeley’s Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management because her work didn’t meet academic standards.
Her supporters blamed racism, rather than her academic shortcomings, and protested vocally.
These days she’s a diversity advisor to the U.S. National Parks Advisory Board..."

Obama's Overtime Rule Tried at IBM, and It Didn't Work

Obama's Overtime Rule Tried at IBM, and It Didn't Work:
"Juggling work and family life is hard.
On Wednesday the Labor Department made it even harder for millions of salaried workers.
The administration’s new overtime regulations will effectively turn them into hourly employees.
The regulation won’t increase their earnings, but it will greatly reduce their control over their schedules.
The Fair Labor Standards Act requires employers to pay hourly workers overtime for working over 40 hours a week.
But the Fair Labor Standards Act regulations exempt many salaried employees. 
This makes sense: 
Salaried employees get paid to do a particular job, not work particular hours.
They also generally have more control over when and where they work.
Many salaried employees have the flexibility to do things like take off early in the afternoon to attend a child’s soccer game, and then finish their work from home in the evening when their child has gone to sleep.
Similarly, millions of salaried employees telecommute at least once a month.
On Wednesday it raised the overtime “threshold” test for salaried employees to $47,500 a year.
All salaried employees making less than that—no matter how advanced their job duties—now qualify for overtime. 
Their employers must pay time and a half when they work more than 40 hours a week.
On the surface this seems appealing.
Why shouldn’t workers get extra pay for working longer hours?
However, economic research shows that is unlikely to happen.
Most employers respond to overtime laws by reducing base pay an offsetting amount. 
Combining new overtime pay and lower salaries, most workers will earn almost exactly what they made before.
This is what happened when IBM reclassified 7,000 salaried and technical-support workers as overtime-eligible in a lawsuit settlement.
It also cut their base pay by 15 percent, leaving total earnings unaffected. 
Even liberal supporters of the rule concede that the “wage offer reflects expected overtime hours” and so there will be “no change at the margin” in pay..."

My Period and Me: A Trans Guy's Guide to Menstruation — Everyday Feminism

My Period and Me: A Trans Guy's Guide to Menstruation — Everyday Feminism
"I’m doing the cramp wiggle at my desk chair right now.
You know, the seat acrobatics you do when you’ve got cramps, but you’re too lazy to get up and get Advil, and it hasn’t gotten bad enough yet that you’ve got to lie on the ground with your butt up in the air.
It’s funny. 
When I initially began writing this article, I hadn’t had anything resembling a period in months. 
And then my doctor switched my birth control on me, and my reproductive organs took full advantage of the slight change in hormones. 
My body really, really wants to menstruate, y’all.
Oh. 
This might be a good time to mention that I’m a dude – one with a uterus. 
A very, very excitable uterus.
I actually did okay when the Great Body Part Mechanic in the Sky was handing out body parts. 
I have broad shoulders; fat settles on my belly instead of my thighs; and I have narrow hips. 
I’m built like a little bull (or refrigerator).

So although I don’t take testosterone, my body looks male in many ways that are important to me.
Unfortunately, there’s still my reproductive system.
When I got my period – at eleven – I discovered that my female hormones were just about as excited about menstruation as they could possibly be.
I used to think that this was something I’d just have to deal with, like my small hands and long eyelashes. 
But then, my psychiatrist prescribed me birth control pills.
She had correctly identified that I’m least stable in the weeks before and after my period. 
So I got to take BC for “continuous suppression of periods.”
I mostly get to forget that I can have periods. 
But I can’t pretend that I’m going to be able to avoid it permanently. 
Every once in a while,
I have a full blown period attack.
So that’s my life. 
My period is going to period whenever it gets the chance..."

Muslim Nations Block LGBT Groups From Attending a United Nations Conference on AIDS | TheBlaze.com

Muslim Nations Block LGBT Groups From Attending a United Nations Conference on AIDS | TheBlaze.com:

"A group of 51 Muslim nations has blocked 11 gay and transgender rights organizations from attending a United Nations conference on AIDS next month, and now major Western nations are protesting, according to the Associated Press.

A letter from Egypt on behalf of the nations in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to the president of the U.N.’s General Assembly — "

It is very interesting that the administration has aligned itself with two extremely different groups. One group however, the religion of peace, has made it very clear how it feels about the other.
Are we ready to wake up?

Portland school board bans climate change-denying materials

Oregon Local News - Portland school board bans climate change-denying materials:
"In a move spearheaded by environmentalists, the Portland Public Schools board unanimously approved a resolution aimed at eliminating doubt of climate change and its causes in schools.
“It is unacceptable that we have textbooks in our schools that spread doubt about the human causes and urgency of the crisis,” said Lincoln High School student Gaby Lemieux in board testimony.
“Climate education is not a niche or a specialization, it is the minimum requirement for my generation to be successful in our changing world.”
The resolution passed Tuesday evening calls for the school district to get rid of textbooks or other materials that cast doubt on whether climate change is occurring and that the activity of human beings is responsible. 
The resolution also directs the superintendent and staff to develop an implementation plan for “curriculum and educational opportunities that address climate change and climate justice in all Portland Public Schools...”

AM Fruitcake

History for May 21

History for May 21 - On-This-Day.com:
Plato 427 B.C., Glenn Hammond Curtiss 1878, Armand Hammer 1898


Raymond Burr 1917, Andrei Sakharov 1921 - Soviet physicist, he came to be regarded as the father of the Soviet hydrogen bomb, Soviet antiwar activist, Mr. T (Lawrence Tero Tureaud) 1952


1819 - Bicycles were first seen in the U.S. in New York City. They were originally known as "swift walkers."


1881 - The American branch of the Red Cross was founded by Clara Barton.



1922 - The cartoon, "On the Road to Moscow," by Rollin Kirby won a Pulitzer Prize. It was the first cartoon awarded the Pulitzer.


1924 - Fourteen-year-old Bobby Franks was murdered in a "thrill killing" committed by Nathan Leopold Jr. and Richard Loeb. The killers were students at the University of Chicago.


1927 - Charles A. Lindberg completed the first solo nonstop airplane flight across the Atlantic Ocean. The trip began May 20.


1956 - The U.S. exploded the first airborne hydrogen bomb in the Pacific Ocean over Bikini Atoll.


1968 - The nuclear-powered U.S. submarine Scorpion, with 99 men aboard, was last heard from. The remains of the sub were later found on the ocean floor 400 miles southwest of the Azores.


1982 - The British landed in the Falkland Islands and fighting began.

Obama Appoints Transgender Leader to Advisory Council on Faith-Based Neighborhood Partnerships | TheBlaze.com

Obama Appoints Transgender Leader to Advisory Council on Faith-Based Neighborhood Partnerships | TheBlaze.com:

"The Obama administration has appointed a transgender individual to the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-based Neighborhood Partnerships, selecting Barbara Satin for a post along with two representatives of minority faiths.

Satin, who was born a man but identifies as a woman, is an Air Force veteran, a member of the United Church of Christ and currently works with the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, according to CBN News."

State Expects to Take $2.4 Billion More; Media Cries 'Deficit!'

State Expects to Take $2.4 Billion More; Media Cries 'Deficit!' [Michigan Capitol Confidential]: "Based on recent media headlines, readers and viewers could be excused for believing the state of Michigan’s budget is in crisis mode.
It’s not. 
Over the next two fiscal years, Michigan’s state government expects to collect almost $2.4 billion more from sales, income, business and property tax payments than it gets now.
While the increases are slightly less than earlier estimates suggested they might be, even in Lansing a nearly $2.4 billion cumulative raise over two years is considered real money.
Yet “budget crisis” is exactly how most media outlets characterized the recent changes in revenue estimates produced by the state Department of Treasury and the House and Senate fiscal agencies. Here’s what people should know:
Is the state losing money?
No. 
According to a revenue consensus produced this week by the Michigan Treasury and the Legislature's fiscal agencies, the state is projected to collect $740 million more in the next fiscal year (which starts Oct. 1, 2016) than it will get this year. Even larger revenue increases are projected for the following year.
How can there be a “deficit” if they’re getting more money?
There is no deficit..."
Read on and see the lies!

China says it's ready if US ‘stirs up any conflict’ in South China Sea

China says it's ready if US ‘stirs up any conflict’ in South China Sea:
"BEIJING — China's attempts to claim a nearly 1.4-million-square-mile swathe of open ocean are without precedent and probably without legal merit, but Beijing continues to assert its right to the economically critical zone — and increasingly puts its claims in military terms.
Speaking to a small group of reporters in Beijing on Thursday, a high-ranking Chinese official made his warning clear:
The United States should not provoke China in the South China Sea without expecting retaliation.
"The Chinese people do not want to have war, so we will be opposed to [the] U.S. if it stirs up any conflict," said Liu Zhenmin, vice minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 
"Of course, if the Korean War or Vietnam War are replayed, then we will have to defend ourselves..."

‘Toilet terrorists’ get U.S. military hero canned

‘Toilet terrorists’ get U.S. military hero canned:

"A revered military leader, retired Lt. Gen. William “Jerry” Boykin, has been dismissed from his teaching post at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia for comments he made responding to President Obama’s order to public schools to allow boys who “identify” as girls to use girls restrooms and changing facilities."

Feds Funded Condoms More Than Fighting Female Genital Mutilation

Feds Funded Condoms More Than Fighting Female Genital Mutilation:
"The federal government has spent more money trying to invent the “origami condom” than it has to combat female genital mutilation.
The Government Accountability Office released a report Thursday finding that America’s efforts to combat the harmful practice of gender-based violence around the world is “limited.”
More than 200 million women and girls alive today have suffered from female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C), or “procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia for non-medical reasons.”
Though the State Department has recognized female genital mutilation as “gender-based violence,” the agency has done little to invest in fighting the practice abroad.
...The State Department’s only stand-alone effort specifically targeting female genital mutilation is in Guinea, and has only received $1.5 million over 2 years.
The amount is less than what Daniel Resnic received from taxpayers for his so-called origami condoms.
...The stated purpose for Resnic’s project was HIV prevention.
He was given $2.4 million from the NIH to create a male and female version of his silicone-based condoms modeled off the Japanese folding paper, and the “first-of-its-kind anal condom.”
However, the condoms never hit the market, as Resnic was accused of wasting funding from the National Institutes of Health on full body plastic surgery, lavish parties at the Playboy mansion, a Cadillac, and vacation homes..."

State Fails to Make Required Teacher Pension Fund Contribution

State Fails to Make Required Teacher Pension Fund Contribution [Michigan Capitol Confidential]: "For the sixth year in a row, Michigan officials failed to pay the full amount the state's own experts say is required to adequately fund the school employee pension system.
In addition to the risks associated with adding to the billions in unfunded liabilities the system has already accumulated, this is also imposing more stress on local school budgets.
According to rules of a defined benefit pension system, the state is supposed to contribute an amount called the “annual requirement contribution,” or ARC, into the Michigan Public School Employees Retirement System (MPSERS) every year.
For 2015, actuarial accountants say that comes to $2.18 billion.
But the state of Michigan paid just $1.97 billion, a $210 million shortfall.
The last year the state fully paid the recommended amount was 2009, and since then, the cumulative underfunding has totaled $2.03 billion.
“Underfunding pensions kicks the costs for current service into the future and is unfair to teachers, administrators and taxpayers alike,” said James Hohman, the assistant director of fiscal policy for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy..."

Lunch video-----Be a Man. Get Married.

Noon-toon

Sean Hannity Releases 4 Minute Video Of Obama Praising Islam | 365 USA News

Sean Hannity Releases 4 Minute Video Of Obama Praising Islam | 365 USA News:

"Obama claims that he is a Christian, but there is no religion that he has talked more emphatically about than Islam. In pieces, it might be easy to overlook, but when you put all his comments together, you’ll see that Obama is very determined to push the “religion of peace.”

Thankfully, Sean Hannity has made it easy to view these pieces as a whole, by posting a four-minute supercut of all of President Obama’s most outrageous comments."

EPA seeks to boost ethanol in fuel supply

EPA seeks to boost ethanol in fuel supply | TheHill:
"The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) wants to increase the amount of ethanol and other biofuels in the nation’s fuel supply.
...That ended up angering both the ethanol industry, which wants more of its product to be mandated, and the oil industry, which wants the program rolled back.
The agency plans to mandate that 18.8 billion gallons of biofuels be blended into the country’s gasoline and diesel supply next year.
...“Consumers’ interest should come ahead of ethanol interests,” Frank Macchiarola, downstream group director for API, said in a statement.
“EPA is pushing consumers to use high ethanol blends they don’t want and that are not compatible with most cars on the road today. 
The administration is potentially putting the safety of American consumers, their vehicles and our economy at risk...”

Unexpected...yeah. Right...-----State of Michigan faces $460M deficit; painful cuts to be made

State of Michigan faces $460M deficit; painful cuts to be made | WJBK:
"The state of Michigan is facing a $ 460 million deficit over the next two years.
That means some painful cuts will have to be made - including state services you depend on.
That means officials will have to cut costs and state services you depend on could be on the chopping block.
...Michigan House members are up for re-election this fall so there will be no tax increases to eradicate the deficit  and that you can take to the bank."

'Stunning': EPA had to pay $55K to get child molester to retire

'Stunning': EPA had to pay $55K to get child molester to retire | Washington Examiner:
"The Environmental Protection Agency was forced to pay $55,000 to get an employee to retire because the EPA was unable to fire him, even though he was a convicted child molester who also imitated a police officer, officials testified Wednesday.
The settlement was discussed at a House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing on EPA employee misconduct Wednesday. Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, said that was one of the most egregious cases of employee misconduct and misuse of taxpayer dollars.
Stan Meiburg, acting deputy administrator at the EPA, said the agency attempted to fire the employee but the Merit Systems Protection Board, which adjudicates personnel decisions, overturned the decision.
Instead, the agency paid the employee $55,000 to retire and leave the agency, he said..."

1.1 billion Twitter hits for Cruz in online rally, setting records | Washington Examiner

1.1 billion Twitter hits for Cruz in online rally, setting records | Washington Examiner:

"Sen. Ted Cruz and his supporters are taking over the world of social media, the latest example being a "Twitter Rally" for the GOP presidential candidate that sent tweets to 1.1 billion followers.

It occurred midnight Monday when the independent grassroots support group "Cruz Control" blasted out nearly 75,000 tweets on the candidate's behalf under the #CruzCrew hashtag."

Feel-good of the day!-----Watch These Terrorists Have No Idea What Blows Them Up

Watch These Terrorists Have No Idea What Blows Them Up | American Military News:
"Check out this footage of American forces getting ready to attack terrorists that are planning to set up a roadside bomb to take out an American convoy.
In the video, you can see the terrorists gauging the distance between the bomb and where the convoy will be passing over.
The distance was 2.5 miles away in the night – or says the YouTube caption.
These terrorists had no idea what hit them."

AM Fruitcake

History for May 20

History for May 20 - On-This-Day.com
Dolley Payne Madison 1768 - U.S. First Lady, wife of 4th President James Madison, Honore de Balzac 1799 - Novelist, John Stuart Mill 1806 - Editor, philosopher


Jimmy Stewart 1908 - Actor (Philadelphia Story [1940]; The Glenn Miller Story, It’s a Wonderful Life, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington), Joe Cocker 1944 - Singer, songwriter, Cher (Cherilyn Sarkisian LaPierre) 1946 - Singer (Sonny & Cher), actress (Moonstruck [1987]; The Witches of Eastwick, Silkwood, Mask)


1830 - The fountain pen was patented by H.D. Hyde.


1873 - Levi Strauss began marketing blue jeans with copper rivets.


1902 - Cuba gained its independence from Spain.






1916 - Norman Rockwell’s first cover on "The Saturday Evening Post" appeared.


1927 - Charles Lindbergh took off from New York to cross the Atlantic for Paris aboard his airplane the "Spirit of St. Louis." The trip took 33 1/2 hours.


1932 - Amelia Earhart took off to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She became the first woman to achieve the feat.


1939 - The first regular air-passenger service across the Atlantic Ocean began with the take-off of the "Yankee Clipper" from Port Washington, New York.


1969 - U.S. and South Vietnamese forces captured Apbia Mountain, which was referred to as Hamburger Hill.