News of the Week for December 8th<\/sup>, 2013<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Issa: FBI impeding inquiry into IRS targeting of conservative groups<\/a> <\/p>\n House of Representatives Could Vote on \u201cUndetectable Firearms Act\u201d Soon <\/a> Opposition to Gun Control Up 23 Percent Since January<\/a> The Three Most Important Ongoing Second Amendment Cases<\/a> The Three Most Important Ongoing Second Amendment Cases<\/a> <\/p>\n Obama to Give Wind Farms 30-Year Pass on Eagle Deaths<\/a> Obama to Give Wind Farms 30-Year Pass on Eagle Deaths<\/a> <\/p>\n Bioethicist Wants to Prevent Elderly People From Living Too Long<\/a> Baby not covered under ObamaCare family plan<\/a> ‘Political Witch Hunt’: ObamaCare Critics Got Their Audit Letters On The Same Day<\/a> Sebelius Declares War on Bone-Marrow Donors <\/a> Audit: Health care subsidies vulnerable to fraud<\/a> Doctors boycotting California’s Obamacare exchange<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Here’s what a shooting war in the East China Sea might look like<\/a> Obama\u2019s Surrender Reaches the East China Sea <\/a> Afraid of China, State Dept Undermines Two Centuries of U.S. Doctrine<\/a> <\/p>\n That Viral “Poverty Thoughts” Essay Is Totally Ridiculous<\/a> Franken in trouble in MN for 2014?<\/a> White Men Can\u2019t Sue for Sexual Discrimination<\/a> Male or Female? Uh uh. Bellevue College Now Gives You Seven Gender Choices<\/a> Redskins honor members of the Navajo Code Talkers Association<\/a> GOP targets blue states in battle for Senate<\/a> Male and female brains wired differently, scans reveal<\/a> Bernie Sanders Open To 2016 Presidential Run<\/a> Could ‘He’ and ‘She’ Be Replaced by ‘They,’ ‘Ze,’ ‘Sie,’ ‘E,’ ‘Ou,’ and ‘Ve’?<\/a> ACLU Sues Catholic Bishops Because Catholic Hospitals Don\u2019t Do Abortions<\/a> We Have a \u2018White House Youth\u2019 Now?<\/a> Phobias may be memories passed down in genes from ancestors<\/a> Common Core Assignment Makes Parents Identify Whether They Are \u2018Liberal\u2019 or \u2018Conservative\u2019<\/a> Daily Caller\u2019s \u2018Jim Treacher\u2019 punched in face, placed in handcuffs <\/a> Obamacare loosens Democrats\u2019 tenuous hold on Senate<\/a> \u2018We Are in a Progressive Moment Right Now\u2019: Bill de Blasio Fund-Raises for Emboldened Left<\/a> Dan Sullivan, Alaska U.S. Senate Candidate, Ran Office That Let Child Molester Go Free<\/a> Schumer Wakes Up to Obama Cut-Out Every Morning <\/a> Obama’s “Become The Very Danger The Constitution Was Designed To Avoid”<\/a> Felony Shrub-Trimming: San Diego Man Criminally Charged for Pruning Plants<\/a> The \u201cWarren Democrats\u201d want a Democratic Party war<\/a> Elizabeth Warren launches war on critical think tanks<\/a> University sends email to alumni equating the tea party with the KKK<\/a> Atheist Group Blasts Pryor: \u2018Theocrats Are Dangerous\u2019 <\/a> Princeton University Orchestra Debuts \u2018Ballad for Trayvon Martin\u2019<\/a> Same-Sex Weddings 17 Percent of Washington Marriages<\/a> Oh-oh, even California’s turning on Obama <\/a> Yale to hold Non-Human Rights Conference<\/a> Participate in Gay Wedding\u2026 or Go to Jail for a Year<\/a> Rocky Horror Elementary School<\/a> Judge orders baker to serve gay couples despite his religious beliefs<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Judge Rules Detroit Eligible For Bankruptcy <\/a> Obama Administration Preparing Flood of New Regulations <\/a> 11-year-old stopped from selling mistletoe, but told begging allowed<\/a> The Bad Jobs News <\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Thai PM flees police compound as protesters launch ‘people’s coup’; at least four dead<\/a> Venezuela’s Maduro vows stricter business inspections<\/a> Protests in Ukraine as the country teeters on the brink of revolution<\/a> Australia: Council sets rules on body language<\/a> Venezuela: \u201c21st Century socialism\u201d = same old Communism <\/a> Power outage plunges most of Venezuela into darkness<\/a> Truck with dangerous radioactive waste stolen in Mexico<\/a> The Once Great City of Havana<\/a> Growing up without a father can permanently alter the BRAIN: Fatherless children are more likely to grow up angry and turn to drugs<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Thomas Sowell: Random Thoughts <\/a> The Revolt Against Urban Gentry <\/a> The Exploited Laborers of the Liberal Media<\/a> Why a healthy society should resist the new generation of gender-neutral pronouns<\/a> Why Millennials Can\u2019t Grow Up<\/a> Because Lying and Resenting is What Angels Do<\/a> Why British lefties should love their country<\/a> Ignoring History: The Folly of Our Iran Pact <\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Newsboy.jpg\" "\\"News")
<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n\n
<\/a>Obama Scandals<\/h1>\n
\nThe House\u2019s chief investigator says the FBI is stonewalling his inquiry into whether the agency and the Internal Revenue Service targeted conservative group True the Vote for special scrutiny, and Rep. Darrell E. Issa is now threatening subpoenas to pry loose the information from FBI Director James B. Comey Jr.<\/p>\n<\/a>Gun Rights<\/h1>\n
\nThe House of Representatives is looking to vote on the new Undetectable Firearms Act bill, proposed by Rep. Steve Israel, which would re-implement and expand the previous incarnation. Not only would the new bill ban 3D printed firearms, but it would ban \u201cany major component of which, when subjected to inspection by the types of x-ray machines commonly used at airports, does not generate an image that accurately depicts the shape of the component.\u201d What that means exactly is up to the interpretation of the Attourney General, Eric Holder, who is not exactly a friend of gun rights. So those polymer AR-15 receivers might soon be illegal if they don\u2019t meet with holder\u2019s approval. The bill also extends the ban to include plastic magazines that are printed in the home . . .<\/p>\n
\nAccording to a poll by CNN and ORC International, opposition to gun control has risen 23 percent since January. As a result, a majority of Americans no longer support gun control. <\/p>\n
\nAddressing who can own guns, where they can carry them, and whether guns can be transported to a second home.<\/p>\n
\nAddressing who can own guns, where they can carry them, and whether guns can be transported to a second home.<\/p>\n<\/a>Hide the Decline<\/h1>\n
Environment &
\n“Green Energy”<\/h2>\n
\nThe Obama administration is about to approve a rule that will ensure the death of golden and bald eagles for the next 30 more years. <\/p>\n
\nThe Obama administration is about to approve a rule that will ensure the death of golden and bald eagles for the next 30 more years. <\/p>\n<\/a>Obamacare<\/h1>\n
Government in Healthcare<\/h2>\n
\nBioethicist Founding Father Daniel Callahan has long supported death panel health care rationing based on age. He has now weighed in against spending a lot on research to delay the aging process.<\/p>\n
\nThis baby\u2019s not on board with ObamaCare. Long Islander Cornelius Kelly found it would be no problem to secure a family plan for his wife and three older kids through New York\u2019s health-care exchange, but his 18-month-old daughter was out in the cold. The baby would need her own insurance policy.<\/p>\n
\nIn response to IRS Targeting Of ObamaCare Critics Should Be A Bigger Story<\/p>\n
\nAs if she already were not busy steering the flaming train wreck called ObamaCare, Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius is aggravating the diseases of American patients, some 1,000 of whom could drop dead in 2014 thanks to her cruel interference. This is one of today\u2019s most vivid cases of the federal government\u2019s heartless, boneheaded, and potentially fatal high-handedness.<\/p>\n
\nTreasury inspector warns health care subsidies vulnerable to fraud, suggesting future problems<\/p>\n
\nAn estimated seven out of every 10 physicians in deep-blue California are rebelling against the state’s Obamacare health insurance exchange and won’t participate, the head of the state’s largest medical association said.<\/p>\n<\/a>War & Terror<\/h1>\n
\nTensions are escalating as China tries to claim a new zone of airspace authority\u2014which the U.S. promptly ignores. Here’s what to expect if this cold war involving Japan, China, the U.S., and other East Asian nations heats up.<\/p>\n
\nHere\u2019s another example of how dangerous the Obama administration\u2019s timid foreign policy can be. The Chinese declare a new Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) over a portion of the East China Sea that includes islands which currently belong to Japan. The U.S. rightly flies a pair of B-52s right into it, and announces that our warplanes will not comply. So far so good. But there\u2019s another problem: The Chinese declaration requires all transiting private aircraft to identify themselves, their destination, etc.<\/p>\n
\nTrust John Kerry’s State Department to walk into a Chinese-made trap.<\/p>\n<\/a>National<\/h1>\n
\nThere are times when the good deeds that happen by the magic of the Internet make us quite giddy. This time? Well, this time they make us cringe, to the tune of $100,000.<\/p>\n
\nDon\u2019t get too excited about the latest St. Cloud State University poll in Minnesota, but it does at least offer a glimmer of hope for a Minnesota Republican Party that still finds itself in financial and organizational straits. Just a year after getting blitzed in the 2012 election, Minnesotans find themselves less than enchanted with Democratic officeholders. And 2014 incumbent Sen. Al Franken fares the worst of all<\/p>\n
\nI have no idea if the allegations against Archie Comics CEO Nancy Silberkleit by her male co-workers are true or not. They are bizarre, reports the NY Daily News. Five male co-workers allege that she interrupts meetings shouting \u201cP*nis!\u201d whenever they talk instead of using their names, among other nutty antics. As you can imagine, the men have a problem with this.<\/p>\n
\nRecently, Ron’s wife was filling out an application for Bellevue College when she noticed something interesting. Instead of the standard “Male” and “Female” boxes that one checks on applications, there was the question: What is your ‘gender identity’? And seven different options: Feminine, Masculine, Androgynous, Gender Neutral, Transgender, Other and Prefer Not To Answer.<\/p>\n
\nAs a joint celebration of the NFL\u2019s Salute to Service month and Native American Heritage month, the Washington Redskins recognized four members of the Navajo Code Talkers Association.<\/p>\n
\nIn 2012, Democrats snagged Senate seats from Republicans in states where the GOP should have prevailed with relative ease. In 2014, Republicans want to show they can play that game, too.<\/p>\n
\nMaps of neural circuitry show women’s brains are suited to social skills and memory, men’s perception and co-ordination<\/p>\n
\nSen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) wants to make sure that there is a strong progressive voice in the 2016 presidential field, and he’s willing to jump in if no one else does.<\/p>\n
\nFor those who revere clarity in the English language, be prepared; there are a number of young people who are now preferring to eschew the two traditional pronouns for human beings, “he” and “she,” and choosing instead to identify their gender by such terms as \u201cthey,\u201d \u201cze,\u201d sie,\u201d \u201ce,\u201d \u201cou,\u201d and \u2018ve.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nThe \u201cpro-choice\u201d manta abortion activists have employed for decades is supposed to mean that people have a choice if they want to get an abortion or participate in one. But pro-choice is truthfully pro-abortion more often than the pro-abortion side cares to admit.<\/p>\n
\nIt\u2019s interesting how this administration uses our nation\u2019s house for its political whims. It shut down White House tours to make hay out of the sequester budget cuts. Now it\u2019s hosting this \u201csummit\u201d not to talk about our nation\u2019s history or anything that all Americans could get behind. It\u2019s hosting this summit to transmit its talking points about Obamacare. It\u2019s about the cult, not the country, with this administration.<\/p>\n
\nMemories may be passed down through generations in DNA in a process that may be the underlying cause of phobias<\/p>\n
\nAn assignment sent home from an Oak Forest, IL high school government class is raising eyebrows among parents who are shocked by the questionnaire they and their children are required to fill out. The questionnaire (below) has the parents identify their positions on a number of highly-charged issues, and then places them on a \u201cpolitical spectrum\u201d.<\/p>\n
\nTuesday night, the Daily Caller\u2019s Sean Medlock, who writes and tweets under the pen name \u201cJim Treacher,\u201d had a violent run-in on the streets of a northwest Washington D.C. neighborhood and tweeted about it afterward. He says he was nearly run over by a car, after which an altercation ensued with the driver \u2014 a man named \u201cJosh.\u201d <\/p>\n
\nLast July, I noted that Nate Silver thought Republicans would probably end up with 50 or 51 Senate seats after the 2014 election. This, of course, was before the Obamacare rollout generated a surge of ill-will towards Democrats.<\/p>\n
\nLast night Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio was again the darling of the left. Headlining a Brooklyn fund-raiser for the group New York Communities for Change, Mr. de Blasio was hailed as a progressive hero and the fruit of a more than decade-long battle by labor groups, grassroots organizations and the Working Families Party to crown one of their own. <\/p>\n
\nA candidate for U.S. Senate, Daniel S. Sullivan, ran the legal office that let a criminal out of jail who sexually assaulted a toddler and murdered an elderly couple\u2014just twelve hours after he was released from state prison for a previous rape felony.<\/p>\n
\nWhile giving a tour of the \u201cOmega House,\u201d where he and two other Democratic lawmakers live, Chuck Schumer revealed that, while his room doesn\u2019t have much, it includes a cardboard cut-out of President Obama at the foot of his bed. \u201cThe exalted leader,\u201d Schumer told CNN\u2019s Dana Bash.<\/p>\n
\nThe danger is quite severe. The problem with what the president is doing is that he’s not simply posing a danger to the constitutional system. He’s becoming the very danger the Constitution was designed to avoid. That is the concentration of power in every single branch.<\/p>\n
\nThe San Diego County District Attorney\u2019s Office filed felony vandalism charges against 46-year-old Ocean Beach, California, resident Juvencio Adame for \u201cdefacement, damage and destruction\u201d of public property in excess of $400. Felony charges can result in significant prison time.<\/p>\n
\nLeaders of the center-left \u201cThird Way\u201d think tank put out an op-ed this week that threatens to turn into a full-blown Democratic Party war. Jon Cowan and Jim Kessler warned their fellow Democrats that the hard-left style of new electeds like Elizabeth Warren and Bill de Blasio has no sustainable future. The lefty blogger community has turned on the centrist Democrats and is pushing elected Dems to disavow the sensible advice.<\/p>\n
\nAs you read the rest of this post, please keep in mind that Elizabeth Warren never has authorized release of her hiring files at Harvard Law School or other employers to see whether her phony Native American and Cherokee status was known at the time of hiring.<\/p>\n
\nA public university sent an email to alumni highlighting the esteemed research of one of its professors \u2014 research that notes many similarities between the old Ku Klux Klan and its modern-day equivalent, the tea party.<\/p>\n
\nSenator Mark Pryor, an Arkansas Democrat facing one of the toughest reelection races in 2014, isn\u2019t just in Republicans\u2019 crosshairs. He released an ad this week calling the Bible his \u201cNorth Star\u201d and saying it gives him \u201cguidance to do what\u2019s best for Arkansas.\u201d The spot drew criticism from the right, the left, and now, from apolitical atheists. Annie Laurie Gaylor, a spokesperson for the Freedom from Religion Foundation, tells National Review Online that the spot is theocratic and disturbing, and that Pryor\u2019s comments should raise questions about his policy views.<\/p>\n
\nTrayvon Martin continues to be a subject of intense interest for the academic elite. The Princeton University Orchestra and the University Concert Jazz Ensemble is set to debut \u201cThe Ballad for Trayvon Martin\u201d today, NJ.com reports.<\/p>\n
\nGay weddings made up 17 percent of marriages in Washington this past year, the first year gay marriages were legal in the state, state officials reported Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\nAs everyone knows, California is the la-de-dah, laid-back land of liberalism that’s been Barack Obama’s political ATM for six years. Hollywood stars have loved him, fronted multi-multi-million-dollar fundraisers for him.<\/p>\n
\nThere were plenty of headlines about a lawsuit seeking a court ruling that four captive Chimpanzees were persons and entitled to \u201cthe right to bodily liberty via a writ of habeas corpus. The suits, filed in New York Supreme Court, are based on scientific evidence proving that chimpanzees are self-aware and autonomous, and therefore entitled to be recognized as \u201clegal persons\u201d with certain fundamental legal rights.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nBecause freedom isn\u2019t free. It has to be taken away. And then redistributed to persecuted groups like two bored gay men whose idea of love involves suing people.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cEqual rights\u201d sounds so wonderful. Who can be against equality?<\/p>\n
\nA Colorado judge says a baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex ceremony must serve gay couples despite his religious beliefs, a ruling that a civil rights group hailed as a victory for gay rights.<\/p>\n<\/a>Economy
\n& Taxes<\/h1>\n
\nAnd we have a new city atop the list of Largest US Municipal Bankruptcies. Congratulations Detroit!<\/p>\n
\nThe Obama administration is preparing to roll out a wave of new regulations next year, covering everything from fracking to e-cigarettes, in an attempt to get rules in place before the president\u2019s second term ends.<\/p>\n
\n11-year-old entrepreneur Madison Root was selling bags of hand picked mistletoe in Oregon\u2019s Portland Saturday Market to help pay for her braces, but was told to stop because she was violating a city code. The young salesperson told KATU 2 news, “I wouldn’t think that I’d have any problems because people are asking for money, people are selling stuff, this is a public place.” But the private security guard for the Portland Saturday Market said she was violating Chapter 20.12.020, which makes sales without permits illegal.<\/p>\n
\nThis morning\u2019s jobs numbers, as Kevin Hassett and Robert Stein wrote in this space, had good news about the labor market in November, and confirmed that the economy seems to be perking up \u2014 consumer confidence is (unexpectedly) strong, GDP growth is respectable, etc. That liftoff may be enough to cause the Federal Reserve to consider slowing its bond-buying program when it makes a policy announcement next week, but it should be noted it\u2019s far from enough to completely heal the sclerosis of the American labor market. As Jim Pethokoukis points out on his blog, unemployment remains a huge problem \u2014 more than 4 million people have been looking for a job for more than half a year \u2014 and the labor market overall hardly looks vibrant. One of the scariest charts of the recovery, showing that the share of working-age people with jobs has barely risen at all since the depths of the recession:<\/p>\n<\/a>International<\/h1>\n
\nAbout 30,000 protesters launched a “people’s coup” on Thailand’s government on Sunday, swarming state agencies in violent clashes, taking control of a state broadcaster and forcing the prime minister to flee a police compound.<\/p>\n
\nVenezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro said a stricter wave of inspections for suspected price-gouging would begin on Saturday in an aggressive pre-election “economic offensive” aimed at taming the highest inflation in the Americas.<\/p>\n
\nAnarchy in Kiev: Police cower from chain-wielding protestors and mob hurling petrol bombs as Ukraine teeters on the brink of revolution after 300,000 people take over Independence Square<\/p>\n
\nNegative body language including shrugging shoulders, rolling eyes, deep sighing and finger-pointing is to be prohibited at a Perth council under new guidelines on behaviour.<\/p>\n
\nLast month I referred to Maduro\u2019s incarceration of business owners as the start of the really bad news: the mask dropped completely.<\/p>\n
\nVenezuela’s second massive power outage of the year plunged much of the nation into darkness on Monday night, prompting renewed talk of sabotage from President Nicolas Maduro’s government and cries of incompetence from its foes.<\/p>\n
\nMexican authorities scrambled Wednesday to find a truck containing “extremely dangerous” radioactive material used in medical treatment that was stolen by two gunmen two days ago, officials said.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cHavana is like Pompeii and Castro is its Vesuvius.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nCanadian scientists believe growing up in a fatherless household could have a greater impact on daughters than on sons
\nThey said growing up without a father could permanently alter the structure of the brain and produce children who are more aggressive
\nDr Gabriella Gobbi of McGill University in Canada said that the main impacts were seen in the prefrontal cortex<\/p>\n<\/a>Opinion<\/h1>\n
\nObama’s get-out-of-jail-free card<\/p>\n
\nThe imminent departure of New York\u2019s Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and his replacement by leftist Bill DeBlasio, represents an urban uprising against the Bloombergian \u201cluxury city\u201d and the growing income inequality it represents. Bloomberg epitomized an approach that sought to cater to the rich\u2014most prominently Wall Street\u2014as a means to both finance development growth and collect enough shekels to pay for services needed by the poor.<\/p>\n
\nI was 21 years old when I took out my earring, combed my hair, and tried concealing my distaste for power and Washington, DC, in order to ask questions at press conferences. It was the summer of 2006, and I had just left college to work for a small, do-gooding nonprofit that covered Capitol Hill for public radio.<\/p>\n
\nYou can cut off Thomas Beatie\u2019s breasts and give him hormones to grow a beard, but he\u2019s not a pregnant male; he\u2019s a bearded, breast-less pregnant female<\/p>\n
\nHelicopter parenting has caused my psychotherapy clients to crash land.<\/p>\n
\nThat nursing of grievance \u2013 from hoax hate crimes to hallucinated racism – is a subject that\u2019s cropped up here many times since. It\u2019s a trend that\u2019s becoming increasingly surreal. As, for instance, when Kerri Dunn, a psychology professor at Claremont McKenna College, slashed her own tyres and defaced her own car with abusive and racist messages, before walking over to puzzled onlookers and asking if they\u2019d seen who was responsible. Despite being witnessed vandalising her own vehicle, Dunn protested her victimhood to faculty and police, citing a \u201ccrisis of hate\u201d on campus, while students held rallies for \u201ctolerance and diversity.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nLike all nations, we’ve at times behaved shabbily. But why, when our radical roots go so deep, does the left so rarely embrace patriotism?<\/p>\n
\nDictatorships abandon treaties when they become inconvenient.<\/p>\n