Posts
The State of the World: Germany's Strategy
by George Friedman,
STRATfor.com
March 12, 2012
The idea of Germany having an independent national strategy runs counter to everything that Germany has wanted to be since World War II and everything the world has wanted from Germany. In a way, the entire structure of modern Europe was created to take advantage of Germany's economic dynamism while avoiding the threat of German domination. In writing about German strategy, I am raising the possibility that the basic structure of Western Europe since World War II and of Europe as a whole since 1991 is coming to a close. If so, then the question is whether historical patterns of German strategy will emerge or something new is coming. It is, of course, always possible that the old post-war model can be preserved. Whichever it is, the future of German strategy is certainly the most important question in Europe and quite possibly in the world.
Origins of Germany's Strategy
Before 1871, when Germany was fragmented into a large number of small states, it did not pose a challenge to Europe. Rather, it served as a buffer between France on one side and Russia and Austria on the other. Napoleon and his campaign to dominate Europe first changed the [....]
http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/state-world-germanys-strategy?utm_source=freelist-f&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20120313&utm_term=gweekly&utm_content=readmore&elq=8a572e4eccd9459d9f1f27a66b40ec0c
State Beer Excise Tax Rates (Map)
by Nick Kasprak,
heritage.org
March 5, 2012
Today's Monday Map shows state excise tax rates on off-premise sales of beer.
The U.S. Does Not Need “International Permission” to Defend its Interests
by Brett Schaefer
heritage.org
March 10, 2012
Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta’s comments earlier this week were a very revealing insight into the Obama administration’s mindset on the legal regime governing America’s decisions to use force. During the hearing, Secretary Panetta repeatedly stated that the U.S. needed “permission” from international bodies and organizations as a legal basis for using military force, citing NATO support or a United Nations Security Council resolution as an example of such “legal basis” for action.
Senator Jeff Sessions sought to clarify the Secretary’s position asking, before the administration sought to get congressional approval or inform congress about the action “you would seek permission of the international authorities?” This led to a stunning exchange: [....]
http://blog.heritage.org/2012/03/10/the-u-s-does-not-need-international-permission-to-defend-its-interests/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Heritage%2BHotsheet
What the U.S. could learn from Mexico
by Jon D. Markman,
marketwatch.com
March 16, 2012
Sometimes we talk about the Federal Reserve as if it were a monolith run by a single kingpin, Ben Bernanke, who is surrounded by seven dwarves. Yet that is far from the case, as there are many regional Fed presidents with deep credentials who add a lot of thinking and intuition to the mix. One of the most impressive and provocative is Dallas Fed Chairman Richard Fisher, who has been a holdout against endless quantitative easing and who has said repeatedly that the central bank has done all it can to help employment, and the rest is up to private industry and the executive branch.
Fisher's background is exactly what you would like to see in a central bank exec -- a mix of global savvy, academic smarts, business practicality and military precision. And right now he is giving us a very positive signal for Mexico, of all places. If he's right that Mexico is in better shape than the United States to pursue the opportunities ahead in the global economy, you could make a lot more money in iShares Mexico /quotes/zigman/260604/quotes/nls/eww EWW -0.10% than in the S&P 500 /quotes/zigman/3870025 SPX +0.11% . Consider that from 2003 to present, EWW is up 450% vs. +60% for the benchmark U.S. index. And the discrepancies that have helped Mexico grow faster the United States are even more evident now than ever.
Fisher was born in Los Angeles to two foreign-born parents (an Australian and a South African of Swedish ancestry), but moved to Mexico City as an infant. He lived in Mexico through middle school, and considers [....]
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/what-the-us-could-learn-from-mexico-2012-03-16?link=mw_home_kiosk
The Mental Illness Behind Anonymous
by John Ransom,
townhall.com
March 11, 2012
Ca7 wrote: It's cute that you would try to paint this as "democrats don't think of unemployment insurance fraud as a crime" when your only specific example of unemployment insurance fraud is one where all the parties involved were actually arrested on fraud charges.- in response to How Stimulating: Unemployment Benefits for Murderers
Dear Comrade 7,
Actually the specific examples (plural) that I included did include one example where someone was arrested on fraud charges- because he was unlucky enough to be incarcerated for murder. Local authorities got involved where the feds likely wouldn’t have. And like the typical progressive, you point to the exception and ignore the rule. The rule is that $16.5 billion was paid out [....]
http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/johnransom/2012/03/11/the_mental_illness_behind_anonymous/page/full/
The Body Politic: This campaign needs more women and less gynecology
by Virginia Heffernan,
news.yahoo.com
March 15, 2012
Actual women—instead of phony gynecological issues—pervaded the last election. Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, Elizabeth Edwards, Michelle Obama, Katie Couric and even Tina Fey can each credibly be said to have changed the outcome of the 2008 presidential election, as Rebecca Traister documented in her rollicking chronicle of that race, Big Girls Don't Cry: The Election That Changed Everything for American Women. And those were just the women at the podiums. In Traister's account, each campaign hired women aplenty on the understanding that they could help their candidates, in one way or another, to attract voters. Got that? Women didn't come around to discuss obscure lady matters, but to help campaigns win votes.
Yet this time around, genuine women have disappeared, in favor of sex talk smuggled under the rubric of "values." The conversation recalls nothing so much as the days when the nightly news shows couldn't stop running pseudo-health segments that featured male reporters fondling silicon breast implants. They'd cluck over their hazards and fondle away at the translucent synthetic protoplasms. Today's fondlers of ultrasound wands seem no less prurient. It's time we sidelined the fine points of obstetrics from public discourse in an election year. Just as girlie magazines are marketed to male readers, public discourse that features women's body parts should be clearly labeled—as Playboy used to be—"Entertainment for Men."
Transvaginal probes? Entertainment for Men. Interstate abortions? Entertainment for Men.
Single-sex entertainment is just fine, as far as it goes. But "transvaginal" anything and "interstate abortions"—no matter what side you're on—don't count as social issues. This stuff [....]
http://news.yahoo.com/this-campaign-needs-more-women-and-less-gynecology.html
Analysis Archive
Various Staff Reports,
STRATfor.com
Dated Archives
The Geopolitics of Nationalism and Dual Citizenship
Mar 17, 2012
Geopolitics is central to STRATFOR's methodology, providing the framework upon which we study the world. The foundation of geopolitics in our time is the study of the nation-state, and fundamental to this is the question of the relationship of the individual to the nation-state.
Special Series: European Economies At Risk - Italy
March 16, 2012
Despite short-term improvements, long-term problems will hamper Italy's efforts to escape its economic crisis.
The Kachin's Role in Myanmar-Chinese Relations
March 16, 2012
The Kachin may shape Myanmar's ability to secure international investment and its relationship with China.
[....]
http://www.stratfor.com/analysis/1848-historys-shadow-over-middle-east?utm_source=freelist-f&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20120314&utm_term=kaplan&utm_content=readmore&elq=d4187f253bb148fa9e86d7c73a9a1455
Source: Pelosi Gets Involved In NY Redistricting
by Liz Benjamin,
capitaltonight.com
March 9, 2012
Concern that the special master’s congressional maps will cost Democrats seats in true blue New York has spurred House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to get involved in the state’s redistricting battle.
According to a high-level Democratic source with knowledge of Pelosi’s efforts, the minority leader has placed calls to both Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, urging them not to let the proposal released by US Magistrate Judge Roanne Mann earlier this week become law. Her argument is twofold, the source said. First, as the first woman to [....]
http://www.capitaltonight.com/2012/03/source-pelosi-gets-involved-in-ny-redistricting/
Harry Reid Opts for Political Theater on Judicial Nominees
by Rob Bluey
heritage.org
March 14, 2012
Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has rightfully earned the reputation of running a do-nothing Senate. More than 1,000 days have elapsed since the upper chamber approved a budget. He’s currently ignoring the House-passed JOBS Act and actively opposing steps to lower gas prices. Now, in a blatant political stunt, Reid is attempting to blame the Republican minority for the Senate’s failure to confirm 17 of President Obama’s district court nominees.
>> UPDATE: Realizing his stunt wouldn’t work, Reid reversed course late Wednesday, agreeing to deal with Republicans on some of the nominees. Read the story on Scribe.
“Republicans have refused to allow us to even vote — won’t even allow us to vote — on these qualified judicial nominees,” Reid declared. “Republicans have prevented the Senate from doing its constitutional duty and that’s what it is.”
Reid should be commended for his hyperbole.
Let’s begin with the fact that Reid is majority leader, the one who sets [....]
http://blog.heritage.org/2012/03/14/morning-bell-harry-reid-opts-for-political-theater-on-judicial-nominees/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell
Voter ID Proponents Launch Counteroffensive Against DOJ
by Rob Bluey
heritage.org
March 17, 2012
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is currently blocking implementation of voter ID laws in South Carolina and Texas. It’s the latest battle in the fight for voter integrity at the ballot box and the reason two supporters of voter ID are launching a robust defense the laws.
“We believe this offensive by the Justice Department must be met with a counteroffensive,” said Ken Blackwell, Ohio’s former secretary of state. He is working on the project with Ken Klukowski, a fellow with the American Civil Rights Union and faculty member at Liberty University’s School of Law. The two will launch their project in the coming days. Blackwell and Klukowski warn that liberals will stop at nothing in their quest to topple voter ID laws. The NAACP has even brought the issue to the U.N. Human Rights Council, an organization whose members include China, Cuba and Russia. Blackwell previously served as U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Human Rights Commission, the organization’s predecessor.
Listen to the interview with Blackwell and Klukowski on Scribecast
Klukowski believes the Holder’s actions against South Carolina on Texas are driven purely by politics to “gin up an electoral base to drive turnout on Election Day.” He noted that Holder is only blocking laws in states subject to Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, a civil rights-era law that gives [....]
http://blog.heritage.org/2012/03/17/scribecast-voter-id-proponents-launch-counteroffensive-against-doj/
No Jobs For Americans
by Paul Craig Roberts,
Personal Liberty Digest
March 13, 2012
On March 9, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) announced that 227,000 new nonfarm payroll jobs were created by the economy during February. Is the government’s claim true?
No. Statistician John Williams reports that 44,000 of these jobs, or 19 percent, consist of an add-on factor derived from the BLS’s estimate that 44,000 more unreported jobs from new business start-ups were created than were lost by unreported business failures. The BLS’s estimate comes from the bureau’s “birth-death model,” which works better during normal times but delivers erroneous results during troubled times such as the economy has been experiencing during the past four years.
Taking out the 44,000 added-on jobs reduces the February jobs number to 183,000 but does not provide a full correction. In an economy as troubled as the U.S. economy is, most likely the deaths exceeded the births, but we don’t know what the number is. Was it 20,000? 50,000? What number do we deduct from the 183,000? We simply do not know. Williams reports that seasonal adjustment factors do not work properly during troubled economic times and add their own overstatement to the jobs figure. If anyone could estimate the overestimate of new jobs that results from malfunctioning seasonal adjustments, it is Williams; but he doesn’t provide an estimate. Most likely, the new jobs [....]
http://personalliberty.com/2012/03/13/no-jobs-for-americans/?eiid=
New Taste Journal
Whole Grain · Whole Food · Whole Planet
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.
Each and every morning we all need to get something into our empty stomachs before charging out into the world. The daily challenge is to find healthy breakfast foods that will fill us up and deliver lasting energy.
The answer is fresh whole grains for breakfast. If the idea of eating whole grains in the morning seems a little strange consider this; Common grains such as wheat, rice, and corn, are actually the same grains that are featured in all of the well known processed breakfast cereals that we have been eating for years.
The big difference is that fresh whole grains are simple, unprocessed whole foods. They offer a naturally delicious flavor and a wonderful chewy texture. They will fill you up and give you long lasting energy without mid-morning fatigue or hunger.
Here are some recipes that you can enjoy time after time. [....]
http://www.newtaste.com/essentialrecipes.html
Another Brutal Dictator Chooses Gun Control
by Daniel J. Mitchell,
townhall.com
March 10, 2012
[...added, below...] you’ll see the best poster ever produced on gun control. It shows the various tyrants that have disarmed citizens as part of their oppressive rule. But it’s missing one face, Hugo Chavez, the hopefully-soon-to-die dictator of Venezuela.
In recent remarks to the Latin American Herald Tribune, Venezuelan Interior and Justice Minister Tareck El Aissami announced that the government will begin suspending firearm importation, effective this month. Furthermore, local gunsmiths will no longer be able to market or sell firearms and ammunition. According to El Aissami, “As of March, every last gun shop remaining in Venezuela – and there are less than 80 – should be closed. That is to say, in Venezuela, the perverse chapter of the commercialization of firearms and munitions is over.”
If you support the 2nd Amendment, you’ll enjoy these gun control posters (here,here, here, here, and here). And here are some amusing images of t-shirts and bumper stickers on gun control (here, here, and here). In addition, I’ve posted three different videos on gun control (here, here, and here). And here’s my interview on NRA-TV. Last but not least, you’ll like this powerpoint presentation on Firearms and the Second Amendment.
Amen to Pat Robertson on Marijuana Legalization
Even though I’m a dull and straight-laced guy, that doesn’t mean I want the government to pester, harass, and persecute people for engaging in victimless crimes that I find distasteful. Especially when interventionism and prohibition doesn’t work. To be blunt, the War on Drugs has been a costly failure (much like the War on Poverty). Fortunately, it appears that more and more people are coming to the same conclusion – and many of them aren’t libertarians. For instance, I recently cited Mona Charen’s wise comments about the issue. Even more remarkable are the statements from one of [....]
http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/danieljmitchell/2012/03/10/another_brutal_dictator_chooses_gun_control/page/full/
February: Worst Monthly Deficit in History
by Bob Beauprez,
townhall.com
March 11, 2012
Back in February, 2009 Barack Obama said, “today I’m pledging to cut the deficit we inherited in half by the end of my first term in office.” Not only has he not delivered on his pledge, the deficit is still headed in the wrong direction. The Congressional Budget Office announced yesterday that the federal government amassed the worst monthly deficit in history in February – an astounding $229 billion dollars of red ink in only a single month. Thus far for just the first five months of fiscal year 2012, the government has accumulated $631 billion of new debt, and is borrowing 42 cents of every dollar it spends. At this rate, the government will set yet another record deficit in 2012.
From the Washington Times:
It is the 41st straight month the government has run a deficit — itself a record streak that dates back to the final months of President George W. Bush’s tenure. Before now, the longest streak on record was 11 months. For all of fiscal year 2012, which began Oct. 1, the budget analysts said the government has raised $869 billion in revenue but spent $1.5 trillion so far. The government’s fiscal year ends on September 30, so voters will be armed with fresh information when they vote in November. Obama should feel [....]
http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/bobbeauprez/2012/03/11/february_worst_monthy_deficit_in_history
Elena Kagan Edited Derrick Bell Article Calling Constitution “The Problem”
by Patrick Brown,
westernjournalism.com
March 12, 2012
In November 1985, the Harvard Law Review published an article by Derrick Bell that was a “classic” in the development of Critical Race Theory. The article was edited by then-student Elena Kagan, and was cited by Prof. Charles Ogletree in support of her nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Barack Obama in 2010. The article makes clear that Critical Race Theory sees the U.S. Constitution as a form of “original sin”–a view later embraced by Obama as a state legislator, and reflected in his actions and appointments. The following is an excerpt from the non-fiction portion of the article; much of what follows is a fictional story that Bell intended as a parable of racial “fantasy.” (99 Harv. L. Rev. 4)
From the article:
At the nation’s beginning, the framers saw more clearly than is perhaps possible in our more enlightened and infinitely more complex time the essential need to accept what has become the American contradiction. The framers made a conscious, though unspoken, sacrifice of the rights of some in the belief that this forfeiture was necessary to secure the rights of others in a society embracing, as its fundamental principle, the equality of all. And thus the framers, while speaking through the Constitution in an unequivocal voice, at once promised freedom for whites and condemned blacks to slavery….
The Constitution has survived for two centuries and, despite earnest efforts by committed people, the contradiction remains, shielded and nurtured through the years by myth. This contradiction is the root reason for the inability of black people to gain legitimacy — that is, why they are unable to be taken seriously when they are serious and why they retain [....]
http://www.westernjournalism.com/bell-via-kagan-on-critical-race-theory-the-constitution-is-the-problem/
Defining Deviancy Down
by Star Parker,
townhall.com
March 12, 2012
In 1993, then Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan published a paper in which he coined the phrase “defining deviancy down.” He was ringing an alarm about what he saw as a dangerous social unraveling as result of our redefining deviant behavior as normal, rather than doubling down on traditional standards of behavior. It’s through this lens that we should view the Obama administration mandate that employers provide free contraception and sterilization and its refusal to grant an exemption to morally opposed religious institutions.
Our audacious president, as part of his ongoing enterprise to transform America, has gone beyond defining deviancy down. Abortion, sterilization, and sexual promiscuity have not just been redefined as normal. They are considered “reproductive rights” for which we all should foot the bill. Consider Rush Limbaugh’s much ballyhooed verbal assault on a Georgetown law student for testifying before Congress in favor of forcing her Jesuit university to provide students free contraception. In a Gallup poll done in 1969, [....]
http://townhall.com/columnists/starparker/2012/03/12/defining_deviancy_down/page/full/
Blitzing the Department of Education
by Katie Kieffer,
townhall.com
March 12, 2012
Tim Tebow and I both blitzed the Department of Education; we were both homeschooled. Tebow became the first homeschooler to win the Heisman Trophy and he’s now an NFL starting quarterback. And, as someone who was homeschooled through eighth grade and attended a private high school before graduating from college, I personally know that young people don’t need the federal government running their education.
I think American children and their parents deserve more than an unconstitutional, one-size-fits-all federal education system. I think local governments and individual parents have the constitutional right to decide how and where children go to school. Let’s eliminate the Department of Education.
The Department of Education is unconstitutional because it violates the Tenth Amendment, which states: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” There is no federal mandate for public education in the Constitution, so no one has a constitutional right to an education subsidized by federal taxpayer dollars. To be exact, since the Constitution does [....]
http://townhall.com/columnists/katiekieffer/2012/03/12/blitzing_the_department_of_education/page/full/
Did radical Muslims help send Obama to Harvard?
White House refuses to release president's law school records
by Jerome R. Corsi,
worldnetdaily.com
July 21, 2009
President Obama’s unwillingness to allow the American public to see his records at Harvard Law School prevents resolution of a continuing controversy over whether radical Islamic influences promoted his admission and financed his legal education there. In an appearance on the New York-produced “Inside City Hall” television show, octogenarian Harlem lawyer Percy Sutton – whose clients included Malcolm X – explained that Islamic radical Khalid Abdullah Tariq al-Mansour, “one of the world’s wealthiest men,” asked him to write a letter of recommendation to Harvard Law School for then relatively unknown Barack Obama. Sutton described al-Mansour as being from Texas, saying al-Mansour was the “principal adviser to one of the world’s richest men,” most likely [....]
http://www.westernjournalism.com/did-radical-muslims-help-send-obama-to-harvard/
A Practical Guide to Situational Awareness
by Scott Stewart,
STRATfor.com
March 14, 2012
For the past three weeks we have been running a series in the Security Weekly that focuses on some of the fundamentals of terrorism. First, we noted that terrorism is a tactic not exclusive to any one group and that the tactic would not end even if the jihadist threat were to disappear. We then discussed how actors planning terrorist attacks have to follow a planning process and noted that there are times during that process when such plots are vulnerable to detection.
Last week we discussed how one of the most important vulnerabilities during the terrorism planning process is surveillance, and we outlined what bad surveillance looks like and described some basic tools to help identify those conducting it. At the end of last week's Security Weekly we also discussed how living in a state of paranoia and looking for a terrorist behind every bush not only is dangerous to one's physical and mental health but also results in poor security. This brings us to this week, where we want to discuss the fundamentals of situational awareness and explain how people can practice the technique in a relaxed and sustainable way.
Situational awareness is very important, not just for personal security but as a fundamental building block in collective security. Because of this importance, Stratfor has written about situational awareness many times in the past. However, we believe it merits repeating again in order to share these concepts with our new readers as well as serve as a reminder for our longtime readers.
More Mindset than Skill
It is important to note that situational awareness -- being aware of one's surroundings and identifying potential threats and dangerous situations -- is more of a mindset than a hard skill. Because of this, situational awareness is not something that can be practiced only by highly trained government agents or specialized corporate security teams. Indeed, it can be exercised by anyone with [....]
http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/practical-guide-situational-awareness?utm_source=freelist-f&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20120315&utm_term=sweekly&utm_content=readmore&elq=2deadc0804a949e2bcc44a4652597e7d
Conservative Cartoons
Conservative Cartoons and other Political Cartoons on Western Journalism.com. Commenting on current affairs with humor and wit. Scroll down to see our full collection, or subscribe to get daily conservative cartoons to your inbox. Feel free to share with family and friends!
St Patrick Santorum
by Cagle Cartoons
March 17, 2012
©2012 Brian Fairrington, Cagle Cartoons
Afghanistan Off Ramp
by Cagle Cartoons
March 16, 2012
St Patricks Cash For Gold
by Cagle Cartoons,
March 16, 2012
[....]
http://www.westernjournalism.com/conservative-cartoons/
US faces increasing threat of cyberattacks by terrorists, including on battlefield, officials say
by Catherine Herridge,
foxnews.com
March 09, 2012
An eventual full-scale cyberattack on the U.S. by a terrorist organization is "a certitude," a former senior intelligence official told Fox News, and "cyberterrorists" already are making criminal use of the technology to steal money and move it around to finance their operations. Tech-based terror threats are increasingly raising concerns in Washington, and FBI Director Robert Mueller testified this week that such threats are among the most serious facing the U.S. -- including on the battlefield. Officials are reporting a sharp increase in the number of attacks by hackers, and Mueller, while not mentioning [....]
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/03/08/us-faces-increasing-threat-cyberattacks-by-terrorists-including-on-battlefield/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Heritage%2BHotsheet&test=latestnews
We need to focus more on the 113th Congress
by 'pgk'
March 9, 2012
user 10138940
Buffalo, NY
As the elections are approaching, the Republican presidential primaries are dominating both the mainstream media, and conservative talk radio. But, I am very uncomfortable with the blatant omission of what we really should be concerning ourselves with. That is the House and Senate! Mitt Romney is leading in the primary race, and he has stated that he will repeal Obamacare. However, who is going to write the bill that repeals it? Louise Slaughter? Kathy Hochul? Brian Higgins? Chuck Schumer (although his term is not over for about 4 years)? Kirsten Gillibrand? (And sadly, many Republicans may not be inclined to repeal it either.)
No president will repeal Obamacare unless the bill to repeal it first comes out of Congress! So, it doesn’t really matter if Mitt, or Rick, or Newt, or Ron, or anyone else wins the Republican primary and maybe then is elected President. If we don’t have a conservative enough House AND Senate, there won’t be any repeals, nor passage of any other fiscally responsible bills! I fear that even if a Republican is elected President, that a liberal Congress will push through some wishy-washy bill in the guise that they are “correcting” the faults with Obamacare (or any other legislation), Then blaming the Republican when it does not work. We need to settle for no less that absolute repeal of Obamacare, and absolute balanced budget that not only eliminates the deficit, but also starts to pay down the debt!!! [....]
http://www.wesurroundrochester.com/boards/view/viewthread?thread=21245952
9 Sneaky Sources of Sugar
by David Zinczenko, Matt Goulding
yahoo.com
March 02, 2012
Who's the scariest supervillain of all time? Darth Vader? The Joker? Bruce Jenner's plastic surgeon? All pretty nasty, it's true. But let me nominate an evil force with greater powers. A villain who can be both solid and liquid, who can be as fine as dust or as hard as rock, and who lives inside of almost everything you eat. I'm talking, of course, about sugar.
I've yet to meet a person who doesn't occasionally crave something sweet—ice cream, cookies, candy. We think to ourselves: "One brownie won't kill us. It's harmless." And that's true—one brownie is harmless. But it accounts for only a fraction of the sugar you'll eat in a day. According to the American Heart Association, Americans down about 22 teaspoons of the sweet stuff every day. (Imagine choking that down all at one time.) And most of that comes from less-than-obvious sources. Manufacturers today put sugar in everything from the bread in your pantry to the turkey on your table. That makes sweet ol' sugar the ultimate supervillain—or at the very least a driving force behind heart disease and diabetes.
So let's put this into perspective. If you're currently taking in more than 120,000 sugar calories each year—as is the average American—then you're adding 35 pounds of sugar-induced flab to your body annually. But here's the good news: Every dark thriller has a path to salvation. To help you find the way, I've identified the most nefarious sources of sugar currently crouching in the dark shadows of your diet. Start dodging these villains today and you'll earn a body worthy of a sequel.
Sneaky Sugar Source #9:
Asian Sauces Asian sauces—or at least American versions of Asian sauces—are notorious sources of hidden sugars. The viscous liquids that give us [....]
http://health.yahoo.net/experts/eatthis/9-sneaky-sources-sugar
Steps to Economic Recovery and Economic Growth
by J.D. Foster, Ph.D.
March 8, 2012
More Testimony Before the
Committee on Finance
United States Senate
Chairman Baucus, Ranking Member Hatch, Members of the Senate Finance Committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today. My name is J. D. Foster. I am the Norman B. Ture Senior Fellow in the Economics of Fiscal Policy at The Heritage Foundation. The views I express in this testimony are my own and should not be construed as representing any official position of The Heritage Foundation. The risks to the economy remain great, and so too does the need to focus on jobs and economic growth. Last year, the economy grew at a pedestrian 1.7 percent, according to the latest estimates. Most private forecasts for 2012 are only slightly more optimistic. Even the Administration’s otherwise remarkably rosy budget forecast shows only 2.7 percent growth for 2012.
Approaching three years after the end of the Great Recession, the economy should be accelerating smartly. It isn’t. We have a couple decent quarters of growth, followed by worries of renewed recession. Speculation, argumentation, theorizing, and models are now irrelevant on this point. The President’s stimulus policies failed. What recovery we now experience is demonstrably not attributable to his stimulus policies, but to the natural strengths of the United States economy operating despite, not with help from, the President’s policies. The unique weakness in the current recovery becomes most apparent when compared to the last recession of similar magnitude which began in 1981. As the chart below shows, the recent and earlier recessions were similarly deep and painful, yet the economy bounced back sharply the last time, and has not done so under President Obama.
I take no pleasure in pointing out this inescapable reality, nor in the fact that I predicted this policy failure three years ago. I would much rather have been wrong and for millions of my fellow citizens to be gainfully employed in all those jobs the President promised to create. The federal government employed an impressive array of fiscal stimulants to the U.S. economy to soften the recession’s blow and accelerate recovery. President George W. Bush started the [....]
http://www.heritage.org/research/testimony/2012/03/steps-to-economic-recovery-and-economic-growth?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Heritage%2BHotsheet
Presidential Pork Kills Keystone
by John Ransom
townhall.com
March 9, 2012 56 Senators voted in favor of a plan yesterday that would allow the Keystone pipeline to go forward by cancelling the bureaucratic roadblocks put up by the Obama administration/world-wide bus tour.
“The 56-42 vote came after President Barack Obama called Democratic senators to lobby them to oppose the 1,700-mile Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry tar sands oil from western Canada to refineries along the Texas Gulf Coast,” reports FoxNews.
“Even so, 11 Democrats sided with Republicans to sidestep Obama's rejection of the pipeline and allow the $7 billion project to go forward.”
Yet, despite the majority vote, Senate rules apparently require a 60-vote supermajority to create jobs in this country. And according to Democrat Party rules, any vote to create jobs also has to have a massive, wasteful, multi-trillion dollar appropriation attached to it. This rules out Keystone. With that in mind, it’s time for voters to begin to ask the most obvious question: What quid pro quo is Obama promising members of Congress, to stall the pipeline and the immediate, well-paying jobs that go along with it? And only the congresstrons who [....]
http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/johnransom/2012/03/09/presidential_pork_kills_keystone
Geithner Draws Wrong Dodd-Frank Lessons and Forgets Fannie Mae
by David C. John,
heritage.org
March 5, 2012
There were plenty of lessons to learn after the financial crisis of 2008. Unfortunately, neither Congress nor the Obama Administration was willing to take the time to learn them. Instead, they acted before they understood the causes of the crash or what to do to avoid similar bailouts in the future.
The result was the Dodd–Frank financial regulation law—trash compacter legislation filled with heavy-handed, counterproductive provisions, many of which had only a loose connection to the problems raised by the financial crisis. But in the end, this hodgepodge bill failed to address the root causes of the financial crisis and will do little to prevent future bailouts. To make matters worse, legislators gave no thought to how the individual provisions would fit together, leaving a complex mess for regulators to sort out.
Unfortunately, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner still buys into the Dodd–Frank myth, which he makes clear in a new Wall Street Journal op-ed. After a quick review of events from the 2008 crisis, he notes that: “For all these reasons, President Obama asked Congress to pass tough reforms quickly, before the memory of the crisis faded. The Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, signed into law by the president on July 21, 2010, put in place safer and [....]
http://blog.heritage.org/2012/03/05/geithner-draws-wrong-dodd-frank-lessons-and-forgets-fannie-mae/
Blindly Following Barack Hussein Obama: A Theory
by Tim Powers,
westernjournalism.com
March 10, 2012
Ever since the high profile emergance of Barack Hussein Obama in 2007, America has seen a cult- like following behind him. They are often referred to as Obamabots, Obamazombies, or Obama Kool-Aid drinkers. Anyone that has studied history knows that we have seen this type of behavior before. Specifically, we saw it in 1939 Germany with the rise of Adolph Hitler. As far as the Kool-Aid reference, one can google “Jim Jones” and/or ”Jonestown” to learn that cult leader Jim Jones and his followers committed mass suicide by drinking a beverage laced with poison. My opinion is that if enough people drink the Obama Kool-Aid, America will surely die.
Now to my theory. I studied subliminal programming (which is used in most stores through their intercom systems to help curb stealing) and backward masking (the placement of messages inside a message in a backward fashion) many years ago in a church course that I took. I believe that in the case of Obama followers, these techniques are being applied. In some cases, they may be man made such as the current buzz words that we hear today like “hope” and “change”, “democracy”, “fair share”, and “moving forward.” In other cases, I believe, it is purely spiritual. The Holy Bible says in Eph 6:12 “for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darknessof this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
Now we move on the the Christian faith of Barack Hussein Obama. A Christian would not turn his back on Isreal, a Christian would [....]
http://www.westernjournalism.com/blindly-following-barack-hussein-obama-a-theory/
Until Next Sunday....
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