There[']s a Question Mark Hanging Over the Apostrophe[']s Future.  The U.S., in fact, is the only country with an apostrophe-eradication policy.  The program took off when President Benjamin Harrison set up the Board on Geographic Names in 1890.  By one board estimate, it has scrubbed 250,000 apostrophes from federal maps.

The Looming Student Loan Crisis.  Failure to scrutinize employment income contributed to the housing crisis and now threatens student loans, which total more than $1 trillion.

Excluded by the Inclusion Cops.  I'm tired of being told what I'm allowed to read and hear by statist hacks like Inspector Veerappan.  John O'Sullivan likes to call the politically correct British police "the paramilitary wing of The Guardian".  Unfortunately, the "Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Bureau" would take that as a compliment.

Roger Stone: LBJ had Kennedy killed.  Legendary Republican operative Roger Stone claims in his new book that Lyndon Johnson arranged John F. Kennedy's assassination, and that Richard Nixon and Johnson had a documented relationship with Lee Harvey Oswald's killer, Jack Ruby, years before Ruby shot Oswald in the basement of Dallas police headquarters in 1963.

University of Georgia stops plant photosynthesis to generate solar power.  Researchers at the University of Georgia have [...] discovered a way to generate electricity from plants through hijacking the photosynthesis process.  By altering the proteins inside a plant cell's thylakoids, which store solar energy, scientists can intercept electrons through a carbon nanotube backing that draws them away before they're used to make sugar.  While the resulting power isn't phenomenal, it's still two orders of magnitude better than previous methods, according to the university.

New Wyoming lithium deposit could meet all US demand.  Last year virtually all of the major brine and mineral-based lithium producers increased their prices, which in turn has spurred prospecting.  In the US exploration has been largely centred in Nevada, but the growing worldwide market for lithium has also spurred exploration in Argentina, Australia, Bolivia and Canada.  And now, the good news.  University of Wyoming researchers found the lithium while studying the idea of storing carbon dioxide under-ground in the Rock Springs Uplift, a geologic formation in southwest Wyoming.

Unsustainable and Unconstitutional General Welfare Spending.  Obviously, there is a spending problem in Washington, D.C., and the reason for it is no mystery.  The largest expenditure in Obama's budget — and the largest federal outlay in every budget since 1970 — is an expense item labeled "payments for individuals," which includes spending on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment benefits, disability payments, and other federal welfare subsidies.  These payments constituted 65 percent of all federal spending in 2012 and are expected to grow to 70 percent in 2016.  (By contrast, national defense spending was 19 percent of the federal budget in 2012 and will decrease to only 14 percent in 2016.)

FBI Hunts Cop Killer Domestic Terrorist.  This one is hiding out in Cuba, where she is being treated like a celebrity.  Which is pretty much how Columbia University treats domestic terrorists.

The 'pay to grieve' 9/11 museum is a national disgrace.  9/11 family members never wanted a billion-dollar money pit.  All we hoped for was a simple, uplifting, honorable and patriotic memorial for all who were lost that terrible September day.  Instead, those who want to pay their respects will have to pay Bloomberg & Co.

New Poll Finds CNN Far Less Believable Cable Channel Than Fox News.  It used to be that whenever an important news story broke, cable television viewers would quickly turn to CNN for must-see coverage of what was happening.  However, according to a poll conducted regarding the five-day coverage of the Boston Marathon bombing, that is definitely no longer the case.  The survey, which was conducted by the liberal Huffington Post website and the international marketing agency YouGov, determined that former titan CNN came in as far less trustworthy than Fox News over which was the most believable cable news channel.

Thirteen correctional officers indicted in Maryland.  More than a dozen Maryland state prison guards helped a dangerous national gang operate a drug-trafficking and money-laundering scheme from behind bars that involved cash payments, sex and access to fancy cars, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.  Thirteen female corrections officers essentially handed over control of a Baltimore jail to gang leaders, prosecutors said.  The officers were charged Tuesday [4/23/2013] in a federal racketeering indictment.

Police buried Trayvon's criminal history.  Sanford Police Department (SPD) investigator Chris Serino, for instance, said publicly of Martin, "This child has no criminal record whatsoever."  He called Martin "a good kid, a mild-mannered kid."  The media almost universally sustained this tragically false narrative. [...] For a variety of reasons, none of them good, elements within the SPD and the Miami-Dade School District Police Department, or M-DSPD, conspired to keep Martin's criminal history buried.

A 'Rag Tag Bunch' Strikes Gold.  It seems that "Trayvon" should have been on trial in Miami rather than enjoying his "suspension" in Sanford the night George Zimmerman killed him in self-defense.  Do read the whole thing to understand the deception with which liberalism has distorted this fiasco and the greater fiasco of crime in the Miami-Dade School System.

A Criminologist Questions Sandy Hook.  A statistical analysis of 30 years' worth of mass public shooting hard data shows that the odds are 2,000 to 1 against the processes underlying that data accounting for the kill/wound figures of the Sandy Hook shooting.  Therefore, very meaningful and very serious questions arise as to precisely what transpired in Newtown — questions that are very unlikely to receive a hearing in the MSM.

9/11 death 'toll'.  The 9/11 Memorial foundation, funded to the tune of $830 million, has begun nickel-and-diming visitors for ticket reservations.  Even though the nonprofit has long vowed admission to the sacred site would be free, it is now demanding $2 per ticket for all advance reservations made online or by phone.  Officials quietly rolled out the fee on March 1 [...]

The Gosnell Grand Jury Report.  Having now read the Gosnell grand-jury report, I must say I'm extremely impressed with how well-written it is.  Yes, the underlying facts are horrifying and disgusting.  But it reads like some of the best journalism.  Is that typical?

HHS Sebelius: America is a violent country.  Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius Friday declared America a violent country, and she blamed the media, Hollywood and street crime for the Wild West culture.  In a House budget hearing, Sebelius also said that violence in American culture has a "desensitization" effect that can push the mentally ill over the edge.

The Editor says...
Hollywood is the first place President Obama goes when he wants to raise money for Democrats.  If his administration genuinely feels that Hollywood is one of the country's biggest problems, perhaps he shouldn't fraternize with the Hollywood kingpins.

Democrat Robin Kelly wins special Illinois House election, but what about prison?  Despite the endorsement of President Obama, Robin Kelly easily won election Tuesday night [4/9/2013] in a special House election to represent Illinois' troubled Second Congressional District.  The sprawling urban-suburban district, containing Chicago's ugly South Side, was formerly represented by Jesse Jackson Jr., who like a number of Illinois politicians will be residing in a federal penitentiary for a while.

When a car salesman tells you keyless entry is safe, ask about this:
High-Tech Thieves Use New Gadget To Gain Keyless Access To Vehicles In Long Beach.  Police are asking for the public's help in identifying three tech-savvy criminals wanted for a series of car burglaries in which they used an unknown device to gain keyless entry to vehicles.

Conservatives Shouldn't Own Newspapers?  The Los Angeles Times is up for sale, and there are super-wealthy conservative bidders.  Get the popcorn out and watch the liberals squeal.

Give me two fish filets and help me with my homework.
McDonald's want ad demands bachelor's degree, two years experience for cashier.  With colleges producing more graduates, and youth unemployment at a sky-high 11.5 percent, even landing a job selling Big Macs is getting competitive.  Consider:  A job opening at a Massachusetts McDonald's restaurant for a full-time cashier requires one to two years experience and a bachelor's degree.

Associated Press bans the phrase 'illegal immigrant'.  "It's 'illegal immigrant' no more" says the Associated Press, which banished the phrase from its usage guide on Tuesday — the latest stylistic edict for journalists who have for years juggled such terms as "undocumented worker" or "illegal alien," its politically incorrect variant.  "The Stylebook no longer sanctions the term 'illegal immigrant' or the use of 'illegal' to describe a person.  Instead, it tells users that 'illegal' should describe only an action, such as living in or immigrating to a country illegally," said the senior vice president and executive editor Kathleen Carroll.

Clear Data: More Federal Dollars Push Up Unemployment.  How do we know when government spending is too high or too low, or if fiscal policies are stimulative or restrictive?  As President Obama and Congress work to shrink the $1 trillion federal budget deficit, it is important that they understand the fundamental inverse relationship between the size of government and jobs.  Since 1970, all six instances when our government got larger as a percent of GDP, the unemployment rate went higher.  All six times when government got smaller as a percent of GDP, our unemployment rate went lower.

Pedro is reluctant to "give back to the community."
Pedro Quezada, $338M Powerball winner, owes $29K in child support.  The New Jersey man who won the $338 million Powerball jackpot owes approximately $29,000 in child support.  Authorities stopped by Pedro Quezada's Passaic apartment on Wednesday [3/27/2013], one day after the 44-year-old claimed a lump-sum payment worth $221 million, or about $152 million after taxes.  No one answered the door.

Three Egyptian divers 'tried to hack through internet ocean-floor cables [...]'.  It is believed they were trying to cut through an SEA-ME-WE 4 undersea cable — one of the main connections between Asia and Europe, running from France to Malaysia and linking Italy, north Africa, the middle east and south Asia.

Paul's Budget Kills Departments of Commerce, Education, Housing, and Energy.  "Washington has a serious and reckless spending problem that must be re-evaluated.  American families across the country are required to live by a budget and Congress should be no different — every taxpayer dollar needs to be spent more wisely.  Therefore, I am offering a plan that will address this country's looming debt crisis in a truly timely manner — balancing the budget in just five years," Paul said.

Pope Francis: 'I Am Thinking Particularly of Dialogue With Islam'.  Speaking on Friday [3/22/2013] at an audience held for diplomats accredited to the Vatican, Pope Francis said that he hoped to "intensify dialogue" with other religion, particularly Islam.  He noted the pope is also known as the "pontiff" — or "a builder of bridges" — and that St. Francis was a peacemaker.

The Editor says...
The Pope needs to go back and read Exodus 20:3-4.  Then he should compare those verses in the Catholic Bible to the Authorized King James Version.

Despite abortion views, Biden, Pelosi receive Communion in Vatican Mass.  Vice President Joseph R. Biden and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi both received Communion during the Mass to celebrate the installation of Pope Francis in spite of their pro-choice position on abortion.  The vice president's office confirmed Tuesday night [3/19/2013] that both he and Mrs. Pelosi took Communion during the Mass at St. Peter's Square in Rome.

Dem Senators Vote to Keep WH Tours Closed.  While President Obama's administration has suggested that the Secret Service is to blame for the closure of White House tours, the onus now falls on the Democrat-controlled Senate.  On Wednesday [3/20/2013], Democrats rejected a Republican attempt to reopen the White House tours in a straight party-line vote.  54 Democrats voted against reopening the tours.  None have voted to defund President Obama's golf trips.

White and Wrong in Philly.  [Robert] Huber's article contains mostly tepid examples of whites' negative experiences with blacks and primarily black neighborhoods, such as a Philadelphia resident whose grill was stolen from her backyard but "blames herself" for not fencing it in.  Its tone is basically apologetic, absolving a drug dealer of responsibility because he was just "trying to get by" and describing the US' racial history as "horrible and daunting."  Yet this wasn't good enough for Mayor Michael Nutter and his comrades.  They still want Huber silenced.

Mayor Nutter Threatens Magazine with Criminal Charges for "White in Philly" Story.  Philly's Mayor Nutter is living up to his name.  And more troublingly his language quite clearly summons up the censorship used in countries such as Canada and the UK to suppress freedom of speech.  This isn't about the content of the article.  That's not even the point now.  It's about the mayor of a major city threatening a magazine without the usual Freedom of the Press types having much to say about it.

Despite Cuts, Schumer Gets Marine Corps Band to Play at St. Patrick's Day Parade.  Forget the sequester.  If you're Chuck Schumer, there are ways around it.  Consider the recent example of a U.S. Marine Corps band cancelling its scheduled performance at a St. Patrick's Day parade due to the "sequester" — and Chuck Schumer's successful "push" for the band to come anyway.

Government Steering Americans Toward a Tele-Work, Tele-Shop, Mass-Transit Future.  The Obama administration envisions a "low-carbon, low-petroleum" future where Americans tele-work, tele-shop, walk, bike and use carpools or mass transit if they must leave the neighborhood at all.  A study released Friday [3/15/2013] says the U.S. has the potential to reduce petroleum use and pollution in the transportation sector by more than 80 percent by 2050.  In other words, gasoline-powered cars may go the way of the dinosaur, and many Americans may end up living in planned, mixed-use, "walkable" neighborhoods, built along mass transit lines.

Poll: Government dissatisfaction highest since Watergate.  More Americans cite dissatisfaction with government as the biggest problem facing the country than at any other time since the months leading up to the Watergate scandal, a new poll finds.  Twenty percent of those surveyed call dissatisfaction with government the country's biggest problem, according to a Gallup survey on Thursday [3/14/2013] — up from 16 percent the month before.

Hundreds of family pets, protected species killed by little known federal agency.  Over the years, Wildlife Services has killed thousands of non-target animals in several states — from pet dogs to protected species — caught in body-gripping conibear traps and leg hold snares, or poisoned by lethal M-44 devices that explode sodium cyanide capsules when triggered by a wild animal — or the snout of a curious family pet.

No matter what you do, you can't be fired from a government job.
GSA ordered to give job back to executive fired after Las Vegas conference scandal.  The General Services Administration was ordered this week to reinstate a senior executive who lost his job last year amid revelations of lavish spending at a Las Vegas conference.  GSA officials had told Paul Prouty that he "knew or should have known about the questionable and excessive expenditures" that embarrassed the Obama administration when they were revealed last year.  But the agency failed to prove that the career civil servant in charge of federal buildings in the Rocky Mountain region was guilty of misconduct, the Merit Systems Protection Board ruled.

3,000 More Dead Pigs Won't Make the Huangpu River Any Worse.  The Huangpu River, a source of drinking water to Shanghai's 23 million residents, should basically be called rotting swine soup.  Some 3,000 more decomposing pigs have been found in the river near Shanghai since Monday [3/11/2013], bringing the number to about 6,000 dead hogs, but authorities claim that water is just fine.

Update:
Shanghai dead pig toll nears 12,600.  The number of dead pigs retrieved from waters in and near China's financial hub of Shanghai has reached 12,566 after local authorities plucked 611 pig carcasses Saturday [3/16/2013] from the Huangpu River, which provides drinking water to the city's 23 million residents.

Pew: For Every 10 Americans, Only 3 Trust The Government.  The Pew Research Center in Washington, D.C. has found that fewer Americans than ever trust the decisions made by the government.  Data collected from a survey taken in January of this year indicates that all demographics and partisan groups experienced an increasing lack of faith in government leadership, according to a release posted on the Pew Research website late last week.

Ryan Shows How To Balance The Budget Without Tax Hikes.  Rep. Paul Ryan's latest budget plan shows that we can balance the budget in just a decade without any new taxes and still increase spending if we get rid of the massive cost of ObamaCare./p>

Yes, Ted Cruz Likely Eligible to be President.  On Mar. 8, reporter Carl Cameron on Special Report on Fox News Channel was surveying potential GOP 2016 presidential candidates.  Then he raised Ted Cruz — one of the most brilliant constitutional lawyers ever to serve in the Senate — the new 41-year old Hispanic senator from Texas.  Cameron added, "But Cruz was born in Canada and is constitutionally ineligible" to run for president.  While many people assume that, it's probably not true.

Forget Transgender, Get Ready for Transpecies.  Species dysphoria is the equivalent of Gender dysphoria.  Mentally ill persons with gender dysphoria are fashionably diagnosed with Gender Identity Disorder.  There is as of yet no Species Identity Disorder, but that is no doubt coming.  Like Trannies, Transpecies Americans create special pronouns for themselves and insist that refusing to pretend that they're cats or wolves is a hate crime.

Elderly Woman Dies After Nurse Refuses to Give Her CPR.  A 911 dispatcher pleaded with a nurse at a Bakersfield, Calif., senior living facility to save the life of an elderly woman by giving her CPR, but the nurse said policy did not allow her to, according to a newly released audiotape of the call.

The Editor says...
Two questions come to mind immediately:  Why did she call 9-1-1, and why did she go to school to become a nurse?  It appears that she is not a nurse, but a janitor or perhaps a zookeeper.  There's nothing wrong with being a janitor or a zookeeper, unless you were hired to be a nurse.  If she didn't want to resuscitate the dying patient, she should have waited until she could say, "There is someone here who has died," rather than, "There is someone here who is dying."

Projected Growth in Unpaid Bills Shows Illinois on Path to Total Breakdown.  On Monday [2/25/2013], the Insitute for Illinois' Fiscal Sustainability (IIFS), an outfit associated with the Civic Federation, a "nonpartisan" organization which appears to have leftist instincts and funding, warned that the state government's $8 billion stack of unpaid bills will grow to $22 billion in five years.  IIFS correctly blames out of control pension costs, and recommends several reforms which don't seem to match the urgency of the situation.

GOP Leaders Break 72-Hr Pledge.  The House Republican leaders today [3/6/2013] rushed through a vote on a 269-page $982-billion continuing resolution (CR) to fund the federal government for the remainder of fiscal 2013 in direct violation of a pledge they made to the American people to post bills online for at least 72 hours before voting on them.

American Conservative Union Chairman: Legalize Illegal Aliens.  American Conservative Union Chairman Al Cardenas said he supported a bipartisan Senate effort at immigration reform, stressing that the proposal must include a way for an estimated 11 million illegal aliens to "come out of the shadows" and be given "a legal status where they can be secure in this country for their future and that of their children."

Border Patrol Union Local 2544: What They Think of Homeland Security.  The Arizona Local 2544 Union members website, which they make clear is not an official Border Patrol Website, also makes it clear exactly how they feel about the Department of Homeland Security.  After you read [this article], read Idol Worship vs Reality, a Local 2544 dissertation on the administration.

Now they tell us: AP kills word 'sequestration'.  It hasn't even happened yet, but the Associated Press style gurus are killing the word "sequestration."

Clearing Away the Rubble...with Black Hawks, Tanks, and Loads of Ammo.  I've lived in this country my entire life and never heard of government agencies stockpiling millions of rounds of the hollow-point "training ammo" listed in its solicitations or shooting blanks from military aircraft over our neighborhoods and cities.  Not until now.  None of this makes sense if things are as peachy as the president claims, and I think these circumstances raise enough questions to warrant a congressional hearing.

The Feds Want Your Retirement Accounts.  Quietly, behind the scenes, the groundwork is being laid for federal government confiscation of tax-deferred retirement accounts such as IRAs.  Slowly, the cat is being let out of the bag.

Senate Hearings Already Held: National Retirement Accounts.  The Senate held RECESS hearings in October 2010 — only Senators Harkin (D-IA) and Socialist Bernie Sanders (D-VT) were in attendance, representing the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.  First up to testify before Harkin and Sanders was a Ross Eisenbrey, the Vice President of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), which "is housed on the third floor of the building occupied by the George Soros-funded Center for American Progress." [...] As I discussed earlier this month, part of this is about bailing out union pensions with your retirement.

Mosquito repellent Deet 'losing its effectiveness'.  The mosquito repellent Deet, which is widely used by holidaymakers and residents in warm climates, is losing its effectiveness, scientists say.

The Editor says...
Nobody makes such claims about DDT.  DDT kills mosquitoes, whereas Deet just diverts them to someone else.

Insolvency, U.S.A..  There are fiscal cliffs at every level of government, and it doesn't help that states and many municipalities cannot legally go bankrupt.

Saving the Fish to Kill the Fish.  Saving the fish isn't about saving the fish.  It's about preventing fishermen from making a living selling the fish.

'Trillions of carats' of diamonds found under Russian asteroid crater.  The Russian government has revealed that a vast quantity of high-quality diamonds rests beneath a Siberian impact crater, numbering in the "trillions of carats".

Virginia moves closer to creating state's own currency.  Lawmakers in Virginia say they want to keep their options open in case the value of the U.S. dollar ever collapses — so they're considering minting state coinage.  The Washington Post reported Tuesday [2/5/2013] that a proposal to study the effectiveness of such a plan "sailed through" the state's lower house this week.

Here's a sure way to drive small businesses out of business:
Democrats: Stop banning job candidates with criminal records.  New Jersey Democrats today introduced legislation meant to give convicted criminals a better shot at finding work and, sponsors hope, avoid returning to a life of crime.  The measure, known as "ban the box," would require employers to consider the qualifications of job candidates before asking about criminal histories.  Only after a person is offered a position would a company be allowed to inquire about past convictions under the bill, according to a draft copy.

Is your 401K about to be nationalized?  The $19.4 trillion sitting in personal retirement accounts like the 401K may be too tempting an apple for a government that is quite broke, both monetarily and morally.  The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau director Richard Cordray recently mentioned these accounts in a recent interview, stating "That's one of the things we've been exploring and are interested in, in terms of whether and what authority we have."

Obama misses budget deadline.  President Obama missed the Monday [2/4/2013] deadline for submitting a budget to Congress, marking the fourth time in five years he has been late — and in a town where missing deadlines is routine, this one is beginning to get noticed.  The Budget Act requires that he submit a blueprint for taxes and spending by the first Monday in February, but only once, in 2010, has he met that deadline.  This year, the White House hasn't yet said when it will have a plan.

Gitmo Detainees Return to Field of Battle.  Former terrorists held at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo, Cuba were detected by U.S. intelligence agencies recently working with Islamist rebels in Syria, according to U.S. officials.  The al Qaeda-linked terrorists in Syria are part of a group called the Al Nusrah Front that is fighting alongside the Free Syrian Army (FSA), the rebels opposing the Bashar al-Assad regime in the civil war.  The number and names of the former Guantanamo inmates were not disclosed.

Guess which giant special interest is really polluting Alaska?  I wonder who was responsible for this mess?  BP?  Chevron?  But wait... if you read back to the first paragraph of that article, it almost sounds as if the US BLM (Bureau of Land Management) is in charge here.  How could that be?  An what's a "legacy well?"

Rep. Gohmert Calls On Obama's Former Constitutional Law Students To File Class-Action Lawsuit.  Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas appeared on Fox News' Hannity to discuss the court ruling against Obama on his National Labor Relations Board appointee.

LSU instructor sues university.  An LSU faculty member is suing the university, alleging that she was fired after reporting what she called the School of Art's theft of more than $75,000 from students.  In Margaret Herster's lawsuit filed this month, the digital art instructor says the art program illegally charged students course fees that hadn't first been approved by the Legislature as required by law.

The EEOC's New Rule on Background Checks.  [Scroll down]  The reasoning is as follows: Blacks and Hispanics are more likely to be incarcerated than whites.  Therefore, even a facially neutral policy against hiring ex-offenders will screen out more blacks and Hispanics than whites.  Consequently, the agency argues, this may constitute evidence of unlawful racial discrimination in violation of Title VII, giving the EEOC the authority to investigate and sue offending employers.

Big Brother's pencil-pushing bureaucrats guarantee high prices will stay high.
Louisiana stops sale of cheap milk at market.  A Louisiana supermarket was forced to yank its low-cost milk special after state auditors objected to the price.  Fresh Markets in Perkins Rowe was selling milk for $2.99 a gallon as part of a weekly promotion deal, but Louisiana requires that retailer markups be at least 6 percent above invoice and shipping costs, The Advocate reports.  State Agriculture and Forestry Commissioner Mike Strain said Fresh Market violated state regulations by selling milk below cost as part of a promotion.

State stops sale of cheap milk.  For Lafayette stockbroker Kenneth Daigle, buying a gallon of milk is no longer the bargain it used to be on Tuesdays at Fresh Market.  The upscale supermarket chain yanked milk from its $2.99 once-a-week promotion after a state auditor objected to the low price.

Walid Shoebat to America: You have been infiltrated, your president is a Muslim.  Walid Shoebat spoke a few days ago on Bible Prophecy talking mainly about Islam and the Antichrist.  But he focused part of his message on America and why he believes she will be one of the major countries fighting against the Islamic Antichrist in the end.  He acknowledges, though, that America has been infiltrated by the enemy, that even our own president is a Muslim who is supporting the Muslim Brotherhood in different parts of the world whether it be in Egypt or Syria.  Most of us here know that already but itŐs great to hear Walid speak the truth.

What's that?  Obama is a Muslim?  Yes, he is.

New Hampshire has most machine guns per capita in the country.  The number of automatic weapons in New Hampshire increased dramatically after 2010, according to federal firearms records, although it remains unclear whether the growth is being driven by civilians, law enforcement or the military.  The number of registered machine guns in New Hampshire spiked 80 percent between the end of 2010 and March 2012, according to the most current data available from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).

A real leader doesn't need a teleprompter.
Sen. Ted Cruz says the GOP should focus on opportunity for lower classes.  Freshman Senator Ted Cruz challenged the Republican Party to return to championing growth and opportunity for the lower and working classes during a lunchtime address at the National Review Institute Conference Saturday afternoon [1/26/2013].  Speaking without a lectern or notes, Cruz moved easily around the stage as he presented his vision for the Republican Party's future to the audience at the conference.  "The policies of the Obama administration have fundamentally failed the communities struggling to climb the economic ladder," Cruz said.

President Obama's Cat-Food Future For Retirees.  Americans are drawing down their 401(k)s for nonretirement needs in record numbers, just as Social Security goes bust.  This portends poverty for millions as the White House fiddles.

Coulter: Guns Don't Kill People, Mentally Ill Do.  Seung-Hui Cho, who committed the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007, had been diagnosed with severe anxiety disorder as a child and placed under treatment.  But Virginia Tech was prohibited from being told about Cho's mental health problems because of federal privacy laws. [...] He was involuntarily committed to a mental institution for one night and then unaccountably unleashed on the public, whereupon he proceeded to engage in the deadliest mass shooting by an individual in U.S. history.

Mark Levin: Background Check Needed For Barack Obama.  Mark Levin is calling for background checks for all politicians, including one Barack Hussein Obama.  [Video clip]

Woman drives 900 miles out of her way after GPS error.  Put too much faith in technology and you may wind up in Croatia. [...] The woman only wanted to go about 90 miles from her hometown of Hainault Erquelinnes, Belgium, to pick up a friend at the Brussels train station.  Her GPS device sent her about 900 miles to the south before (during the second day of driving) she realized that something was amiss.

Leahy: Abolish mandatory minimum sentences.  The longest-serving Democrat in the Senate on Wednesday called for scrapping mandatory minimum sentences at both the federal and state levels, and said he wants Congress to take a critical look at the way U.S. law enforcement agencies use drones. [...] "This fast-emerging technology is cheap, but I think just because it's available doesn't mean it helps.  I think there could be a significant threat to the privacy and civil liberties," he said.

White House now requires 'We the People' petitions to have 100,000 signatures for official response.  President Barack Obama's deputies have quadrupled the number of signatures that petitioners on the administration's "We the People" website must collect to get an official response from the White House, following a series of popular, provocative and disrespectful signature drives by his critics.

The Editor says...
So you get a White House response.  Big deal.  What have you gained?

Civil servant working two full time public jobs, 70 miles apart.  A Michigan civil servant is in hot water after being exposed as holding down two six-figure public posts at the same time — earning him more than the Vice President.  Barnett Jones, has been paid $273,750 since May as Flint's administrator of public safety and head of security for the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, despite the fact the posts are both full-time and based 70 miles apart, according to the Free Press.

RFK Jr. says lone gunman not solely responsible for assassination of President Kennedy.  Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is convinced that a lone gunman wasn't solely responsible for the assassination of his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, and said his father believed the Warren Commission report was a "shoddy piece of craftsmanship."

The Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy.  Matthew Continetti writes at the Washington Free Beacon about the formation of an incredibly powerful lobbying group, composed of organizations that boast millions of political foot soldiers, with a total income measured in the billions of dollars.  It plans to spend tens of millions of dollars pushing a rigid ideological agenda.  It's a textbook example of everything we are constantly told is "wrong" with Washington, a combination of big money, political self-interest, political influence, and secrecy.

The Trillion-Dollar Platinum Coin.  Of course, there is one small problem:  Platinum is currently selling for about $1,590 a troy ounce.  So a $1 trillion coin would weigh 26,221 "troy tons," which might present a bit of a transportation problem getting from the mint to the Federal Reserve.  There is also the problem that nowhere near that much platinum has ever been mined since the metal first came to the attention of chemists in the 1740s.

Two years in the slammer if your dog bites a burglar.  The United Kingdom seems to have a lot of concern for protecting the rights of burglars as they commit crimes against law abiding citizens.  The case of Tony Martin, convicted of murder (later reduced to manslaughter after an international outcry) in 1999 for killing a burglar in his house with a shotgun was only the beginning.

Next Big Gov't Housing Bailout: Federal Housing Administration.  The Federal Housing Administration (FHA)'s 2012 audit confirmed what has been obvious for some time:  The FHA is deeply underwater, with a negative economic value of $34 billion.  With over $1 trillion in mortgages backed by the FHA, even minor changes in the housing market could add tens of billions to that total.  A taxpayer bailout is inevitable.

Fiscal Cliff Deal: $1 In Spending Cuts For Every $41 In Tax Increases.  When Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush increased taxes in return for spending cuts — cuts that never ultimately came — they did so at ratios of 1:3 and 1:2.

The Real Country-Killer in 2013.  Every week, the U.S. Treasury borrows money to keep operating, by holding auctions of "T-Bills."  Institutional investors, foreign and domestic, show up to bid on these government bonds (Treasury Bills).  What if investors decide that it just isn't worth risking any more of their money?  There won't be any money.  Even when the country still looks strong, investors could sit on the sidelines, worrying:  "Let someone else take the risk."  If the lending stops, can the country survive when the Ponzi scheme collapses?  What if there is no money to cut social security or Medicare checks, or operate the government?

Obama Orders Raise for Biden, Members of Congress, Federal Workers.  President Barack Obama issued an executive order to end the pay freeze on federal employees, in effect giving some federal workers a raise.  One federal worker now to receive a pay increase is Vice President Joe Biden.

Any Raise is Too Much; Congress Approval Rating is 18%.  Congress has done such a beautiful job handling the fiscal cliff and debt ceiling that president Obama felt it mandatory to issue an Executive Order giving [Vice President] Biden [and] Congress pay raises.

Home Depot Promotes Mexican-Made Coca-Cola Products.  Did Home Depot get a good deal from the bottler which enables them to "pander" to Hispanic labor force at-large?  Is "Made in America" branding simply not cool in the Era of Obama, and will it be diminished by similar promotions in the future?  I can only wonder what the local union employees that work for Coca Coca think about Home Depot promoting and selling the same non-American labor force products.

Biofuel credits behind mystery cross-border train shipments.  The mystery of the trainload of biodiesel that crossed back and forth across the Sarnia-Port Huron border without ever unloading its cargo, as reported by CBC News, has been solved.  CBC News received several tips after a recent story about a company shipping the same load of biodiesel back and forth by CN Rail at a cost of $2.6 million in the summer of 2010.  It turns out the shipments were part of a deal by a Toronto-based company, which made several million dollars importing and exporting the fuel to exploit a loophole in a U.S. green energy program.

Chinese prison factories revealed.  A Chinese prisoner's note, found in a box of Kmart Halloween decorations by an unsuspecting Oregonian, described the horrors of China's prison-factories.  Despite that sort of thing not supposed to be happening, it is happening because China remains a communist tyranny.

Has Obama's Big Spending Also Bought American Silence On Chinese Prison Camps?  Despite a slew of laws to the contrary, it looks as though America's vaunted trade relationship with China — the one hailed by the Obama administration and praised by CEOs from Siemens, Bayer, Coca-Cola, Citibank, and General Electric — remains what it always has been:  a great slave empire.

EEOC Protected Classes.  On September 19, 2012, the Newark, New Jersey Municipal Council passed Ordinance 12-1630, "which limits employers' ability to conduct criminal background checks."  The ordinance went into effect November 18, 2012 and "prevents employers with five or more employees who do business, employ persons or take applications for employment in the City of Newark, from asking applicants about their criminal history."  The employer "can only perform the background check after a conditional offer has been made and the employer makes a 'good faith determination' that the job position is of a sensitive nature."  Sensitive nature is, however, not defined.

Egypt: Nobody Gets Out With More Than $10K.  The tyranny is in full swing in Egypt, where the government has now banned anyone wanting to leave the country from taking more than $10,000 with them.  This is the same measure used by the government of Iran to prevent emigration, or to confiscate the cash of those who do wish to emigrate.

Alaska legislative aide's anti-Islam activism forces resignation.  A legislative aide who joined an anti-Islam group and became obsessed with its mission crossed the line and illegally used state resources to promote its interests, a state ethics panel concluded in a ruling released Friday [12/14/2012]. [...] [Karen] Sawyer's activism on behalf of Stop Islamization of America became an issue when she was chief of staff to Palmer Rep. Carl Gatto before his death this year.

Nelson Mandela 'proven' to be a member of the Communist Party after decades of denial.  Now, nearly half a century after the court case that made him the world's best-known prisoner of conscience, a new book claims that whatever the wider injustice perpetrated, the apartheid-era prosecutors were indeed right on one question:  Mr Mandela was a Communist party member after all.

NASA is completely unnecessary.  The Air Force has its own space program.
U.S. military sends mystery space drone back into orbit.  The U.S. military launched its highly secretive unmanned $1 billion X-37B space plane into orbit today from Cape Canaveral on top of an Atlas V rocket.  The U.S. Air Force which operates the small, top-secret version of the space shuttle still will not say how long the third X-37B mission will last, nor what the vehicle will be doing in orbit.

Many so-called comedians are political propagandists.
Comedian: Liberal comics 'don't want to make fun of Obama because they feel that it will weaken him'.  Conservative stand-up comedian Evan Sayet says there is "no doubt" his fellow comics have taken it easy on President Barack Obama.  "They've even admitted it themselves," he told The Daily Caller.  "Liberals don't want to make fun of Obama because they feel that it will weaken him if they honestly point out his foibles and his shortcomings.  The narrative is that Obama is sort of a god (in fact, Evan Thomas of Newsweek said exactly that.)

That's just crazy!
Congress strikes word 'lunatic' from US laws.  Americans may be forgiven for calling their lawmakers "lunatics" given the partisanship that has consumed Washington, but that term will no longer be allowed in laws promulgated by Congress.  The House of Representatives voted 398-1 on Wednesday [12/5/2012] to strike the word "lunatic" from all federal legislation.

The Editor says...
The word lunatic is archaic, but it is still well-known.  Everybody knows what the word means, and it isn't particularly defamatory if the shoe fits.  Doesn't the Congress have more important things to work on?

Massive Anti-Obama Rally Planned for Inauguration Day.  Inspired by concerns of unemployment, the economy, Benghazi, and matters of foreign policy; organizers are promoting a "Massive Anti-Obama Rally @ Obama's Inauguration Day."  Their goal?  500,000+ protesters armed with signs identifying the reason for their participation in the rally.

Oak Ridge and NVIDIA unveil Titan supercomputer.  Titan, according to Oak Ridge's announcement, is 10 times more powerful than its predecessor, Jaguar, with a theoretical peak performance of 20 petaflops, or 20,000 trillion calculations per second.

Does Government Want To Drain Americans' 401(k) Plan?  As Washington debates what to do about the fiscal cliff that it foolishly created, many potential sources of new revenue will be thrown on the table.  One of them is likely to be 401(k) plans.

Cornyn labels 'outrageous' Obama's 'crazy idea' to unilaterally raise debt ceiling.  John Cornyn is known for being a politician who carefully chooses his words.  He is, by choice, deliberate and judicious.  Today [11/30/2012], he was just plain mad.  In an interview on Fox News, the San Antonio Republican condemned a proposal floated by the White House to unilaterally raise the nation's debt ceiling if Congress fails to act before the spring 2013 deadline.  "It's profoundly irresponsible," Cornyn said.  "So that's a crazy idea and I'm amazed that [Treasury] Secretary [Tim] Geithner had the courage to float that yesterday."

Treasury Borrowed $211.69 Per U.S. Household on Black Friday.  The U.S. Treasury increased the net debt of the United States $24,327,048,384.38 on the day after Thanksgiving, which equals approximately $211.69 for each of the nation's 114,916,000 households.

$6800 per capita in redistributed wealth.
$3.4 billion Indian settlement finalized.  Finalization of a $3.4 billion settlement between the United States and nearly 500,000 American Indians was lauded Monday [11/26/2012] by the Obama administration.

Tulsans against Chloramine.  The Tulsa Metropolitan Utility Authority (TMUA) recently switched Tulsa's water system from the use of chlorine as a secondary disinfectant to chloramine — a combination of chlorine and ammonia — despite concerns about the effects of the chemical when ingested, used in cooking, or used in bathing.  The conversion was complete at the end of July 2012.  Chloramine-treated water can't be used directly in fish ponds and can't be used in dialysis.  It is documented to cause deterioration of materials commonly used in plumbing.

Sandy Island 'Undiscovered' After Appearing on Maps.  Sandy Island was nowhere to be found when Australian scientists reached the South Pacific location where it appeared on Google Earth, nautical charts and world maps.  "It raises all kinds of conspiracy theories," expedition member Steven Micklethwaite said, adding that the CIA is among the sources of the world coastline database.

States Choose Own Paths With One-party Governments.  Starting next month, Americans in 25 states will have Republican governors and Republicans in control of both houses of the state legislatures.  They aren't all small states, either.  They include about 53 percent of the nation's population.  At the same time, Americans in 15 states will have Democratic governors and Democrats in control of both houses of the state legislatures.  They include about 37 percent of the nation's population.  That leaves only 10 percent in states in which neither party is in control.

WWII code 'may never be cracked'.  Experts at intelligence agency GCHQ have asked for help in de-coding a message found attached to a pigeon leg, thought to date back to WWII.  The dead bird was found in a chimney in Surrey a few weeks ago.

Report: French officials accuse US of hacking Sarkozy's computers.  [Scroll down]  According to the l'Express report, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano reportedly did not deny the allegations when asked point-blank about them.  "We have no greater partner than France, we have no greater ally than France," Napolitano reportedly answered, at the opening of an interview with l'Express.  "We cooperate in many security-related areas.  I am here to further reinforce those ties and create new ones."

Obama administration declares: 'we have no greater ally than France'.  In an interview with L'Express, Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano told her French audience that "we have no greater partner than France, we have no greater ally than France," in an effort to convince them that Washington had not been hacking into Nicolas Sarkozy's office ahead of the French presidential election, as some French sources are suggesting.

FBI raids Detroit Public Library; $1,000 trash cans, possible shady deals raise eyebrows.  "There may be an individual who awarded contracts for personal gain.  And if that is the case, it is a total violation of the public trust," Jonathan Kinloch, president of the Detroit Library Commission, told the [Detroit] Free Press.  According to Kinloch, the contracts involve two technology firms that were hired for at least $2 million to update the library's computer systems.  A library official allegedly had ties to at least one of the contractors, and benefited personally from the million-dollar deals, he said.

The CIA Has Closed Its Climate Change Research Office.  EEnews.net's Greenwire reports the CIA has shut down its Center on Climate Change and National Security due to budget constraints.  The closure evidently took place earlier this year.

FHA Faces $13.5B Fiscal '12 Deficit, Audit Says.  The Federal Housing Administration faced a deficit of $13.5 billion for the fiscal year ending in September, according to an audit released late Thursday.  The report says the FHA will not have the capital resources available to handle the estimated losses on the roughly $1.1 trillion in mortgage debt that it backstops.  In total, the FHA has $25.6 billion in resources, but is forecast to see future cash flows of negative $39.1 billion, creating the deficit.  Analysts have said the FHA could require a bailout from taxpayers in order to bridge the gap.

White House website deluged with secession petitions from 20 states.  How would Old Glory look with 30 stars instead of 50?  As far-fetched as it may sound, the White House might soon be forced by its own rules to examine the question.  On Nov. 7, the day after President Barack Obama was re-elected, the White House's website received a petition asking the administration to allow Louisiana to secede.

"In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later:  the logic of their position demanded it.  Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality, was tacitly denied by their philosophy.  The heresy of heresies was common sense."

— George Orwell    

The Editor says...
If an individual had done what Sony did, peddling a product with a built-in rootkit, he could have been sent to prison as an evil, pernicious hacker.  But the courts seem to look favorably on music companies that are trying to protect their intellectual property, no matter how they do it.

Automatic registration for the draft:  The Texas DPS is going to automatically register 18 to 26 year old males with the US Selective Service (military draft) when they apply for or renew a Texas driver's license.

The Editor says...
This raises some important questions.  How many state agencies use their leverage to gather information for federal agencies?  And what other agencies will begin using this technique?

Charges Dropped Against Yee.  Citing national security concerns, the Army on Friday [3/19/2004] dropped all charges against a Muslim chaplain accused of mishandling classified documents at Guantanamo Bay, which houses suspected terrorists.

The Editor says...
The charges were dropped because of "national security concerns"?  That's why he was arrested!

The Editor says...
Obviously the International Court has no leverage with which to enforce this order.