Matt Barber
Look at your life. Life is hard. Look at the
news. In our fallen, sinful world, evil swirls
about like a violent dust devil, clouding the
air of absolute truth and muddying the
waters of pure grace that flow to eternal life
through Christ Jesus.
It seems the world has gone mad, and it has.
Relativism rules as up is down, black is white
and that which God calls evil is called good.
All forms of sexual immorality are celebrated
and deceptively tagged “human rights,” while
God’s design for marriage, family and
sexuality, along with true human rights, are
systematically trampled to accommodate
disorder and sin. Innocent children are
slaughtered at will in the safety of their
mothers’ wombs, while demonic political
systems rooted in the pagan traditions of
Islam and secular humanism stack the bodies
of tens-of-millions like cordwood.
The enemy is enraged because his time is
short.
Yet through it all, and in His infinite mercy
and grace, God gives us a taste of things to
come.
In biblical terms, the number 8 represents a
new beginning with God. It signifies man’s
covenantal relationship with his Creator
through the physical act of circumcision,
which, in the Jewish tradition, is performed
on the male child’s eighth day. For the
Christian, whether Jew or Gentile, we
undergo a “circumcision of the heart”
through belief upon, communion with and
worship of Jesus, the God-man.
That’s why I believe the Holy Spirit, through
the Apostle Paul, gave mankind eight specific
things to “think about” so that “the God of
peace will be with you.” There can be peace
in the eye of storm – a “new beginning” each
day – and that peace is Christ with us.
Said Paul: “Finally, brothers and sisters,
whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever
is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely,
whatever is admirable – if anything is
excellent or praiseworthy – think about such
things” (Philippians 4:8).
1) Whatever is true
The opposite of true is the lie. Truth is fixed.
Truth is objective. Moral relativism fosters
the absurd notion that truth is malleable and
subjective. Therefore, relativism is a lie. But,
as Pilate asked Christ, “What is truth?” God’s
created order, His natural law, is truth. The
Bible is God’s word. The Bible is truth. It is
called “the word of truth. “In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God” (John 1:1). Jesus
Himself is truth. He says, “I am the way and
the truth and the life. No one comes to the
Father except through me” (John 14:6).
Immerse yourself in the word of God and you
cannot help but “think about” truth.
2) Whatever is noble
Merriam Webster defines “noble” as “having,
showing, or coming from personal qualities
that people admire (such as honesty,
generosity, courage, etc.).” We know noble
when we see it. We see it in the teenage boy
who returns the cash-flush wallet to the lost
and found. We see it in the philanthropist
who anonymously and generously gives to the
widow and the poor – to “the least of these.”
We see it in the men and women who serve
so that we may enjoy freedom. We especially
see it in the soldier, in anyone, who lays
down his life so that others may live.
3) Whatever is right
There is right and wrong. Right is correct.
Wrong is incorrect. Love, true love, which
derives from love Himself, is right. Hate is
wrong. Right stems from truth and grace.
Wrong stems from the lie, enmity and
ruthlessness. Right is to forgive others so that
we may be forgiven. Wrong is to resent,
begrudge and refuse to forgive. Right is the
exclusivity of Christ. Wrong is the
“inclusivity” of religious pluralism. Right
comes from God the Father. Wrong comes
from the father of lies.
4) Whatever is pure
“Pure” is that which is “free from what
vitiates, weakens, or pollutes: containing
nothing that does not properly belong.”
Chastity is pure. Fornication is impure.
Fidelity to one’s spouse and the faithful
marriage bed is pure. Adultery is impure.
True marriage is pure. Counterfeit same-sex
“marriage” is “vitiated, weakened and
polluted” by sexual immorality and is,
therefore, impure. Contentment is pure.
Covetousness is impure. Selflessness, when
harmonized with and motivated by God’s
moral truths, is pure. Selfishness is impure.
Jesus is pure. We are impure. True
Christianity is pure. Apostate “Christianity”
and other false religions that deny Christ and
the truth of His word are impure.
5) Whatever is lovely
“Lovely” is defined as “attractive or beautiful,
especially in a graceful way.” Outward
beauty can be lovely. Inward beauty that
derives from the Holy Spirit is always lovely.
The creative arts are lovely, especially when
motivated by a desire to serve, honor and
glorify the Creator. Handle’s Messiah is
lovely. The Sistine Chapel is lovely. God’s
nature, creation and created order is lovely.
My beautiful wife and daughters are lovely,
inside and out.
6) Whatever is admirable
That which is “admirable” is “worthy of
admiration; inspiring approval, reverence, or
affection.” The whole of God’s creation, save
those aspects corrupted by sin, is admirable.
Our Creator God is beyond admirable and
worthy of infinite wonder, praise and
worship. Unfortunately, in our sinful nature,
we often admire things that fall well short of
admirable. We “think about” things
anathema to those eight given us by Paul.
7) Whatever is excellent
Excellence means “of extremely high quality.”
We are told to not only think about that
which is excellent, but to strive for excellence
in all we do. “Whatever your hand finds to
do, do it with all your might. …” (Ecclesiastes
9:10)We also know excellence when we see it.
Michael Jordan was excellent. Legendary jazz
drummer Buddy Rich was excellent. The rib-
eye at Ruth’s Chris is excellent. President
Obama’s leadership and policies – economic,
social, and national security-related, both
foreign and domestic – are decidedly not
excellent.
8) Whatever is praiseworthy
Finally, Webster’s defines “praiseworthy” as
“laudable: deserving praise: worthy of
praise.” The previous seven things Paul gives
us to “think about” are also praiseworthy.
They are laudable. That which is true, noble,
right, pure, lovely, admirable and excellent, is
also praiseworthy.
Do you see what Paul did here – what the
Holy Spirit did through Paul? He gave us eight
things to “think about.” Does anything in
particularly strike you about these eight
things?
They are eight in One.
Each of these eight things represents a
specific character trait of Christ Himself.
Jesus is true. Jesus is noble. Jesus is right.
Jesus is pure. Jesus is lovely. Jesus is
admirable. Jesus is excellent and, finally,
perhaps most importantly, Jesus is infinitely
and eternally praiseworthy.
23 Jun 2014
THE PAGES OF OUR LIVES
Rich Galen
Sap Alert: This past weekend marked the 50th
anniversary of the graduation from high
school of the class of 1964 from West Orange
(New Jersey) Mountain High. That's what this
column will be about.
If you are looking for an angry screed, hit the
key now and tune in later in the week when
I'm cranky again.
The thing about fifty years isn't that it goes by
so quickly when you're looking backwards,
and seems so impossibly far away when
you're looking ahead. That's true, but it's not
what is most important.
What I got to thinking about this past
weekend - the weekend of the inaccurately
named "50th Reunion" of my high school
graduating class - was about the inexorability
of the whole thing. (The inaccuracy occurs
because we have not had 50 reunions, it is
the reunion marking the 50th anniversary of
our graduation.)
From the moment of our birth one page
comes off the calendar of our lives every 24
hours (or, to keep the accuracy thing going,
23 hours, 56 minutes, 4.1 seconds).
Good times, bad times, smooth or rough,
happy or sad: One day, one page.
There are pages we would like to rip off, tear
into shreds, throw away from our lifetime
calendars in about 12 hours, and forget
about. Others, we would like to savor and
keep for weeks or months, and remember
forever.
Both are possible, but the will each use up the
same exact 23 hours, 56 minutes, 4.1 seconds.
Not more. Not less.
Stipulating that graduation day for the West
Orange Mountain class of 1964 was on the
Summer Solstice of that year, June 21; 18,262
pages have fallen from the life calendars of
every one of the living 236 graduates. No
more. No less.
Gathering about half of them in the same
place at the same time allowed us to share the
vast variety of careers that a group of middle
class kids from Northern New Jersey have
been allowed to pursue during America's post
World War II go-go decades.
At this point in their lives many of my
classmates have retired and, being from New
Jersey, a significant number of them have
relocated to Florida. But there was a
California contingent, a classmate that came
from Finland and one from Israel. And one,
of course, from Alexandria, Virginia.
The last reunion I went to was our 42nd. At
the time I wondered (in a reply-all email)
why 42nd? "Why not 41st or 43rd," I wrote.
"Those are prime numbers. That's at least a
little amusing. What's funny about 42?"
One of my mates replied-all to my query with
this: "Because we're all turning sixty, you
moron."
I would have gotten to that if I'd thought
about it long enough.
Now, most of the class is 68 with a few of the
"children" including me, still 67.
When we were 60, we all looked like slightly
older versions of what we looked like when
we were 17 and 18. For the most part we
could look at one another and remember in a
glance who was who.
But, the pages of the calendar have taken
their toll on most of us physically over the
past eight years. Without name tags complete
with senior yearbook photos attached, it
would have been very difficult to answer the
question: "Do you remember who I am?"
Once I looked at the name and photo, each
68-year-old face resolved itself into the 18-
year-old person I remembered from high
school.
I also wondered what was going on fifty years
before we graduated, It was on June 28, 1914
(the 100th anniversary will be next Saturday)
when Archduke Franz Ferdinand was
assassinated sparking the Great War; a war
the U.S. would not enter for nearly three
more years. From July on, the rest of the year
is largely taken up by the news of European
nations choosing up sides.
Except for July 11, 1914 when Babe Ruth
made his major league debut with the Boston
Red Sox.
At our 50th reunion, the old flirtations
became new flirtations between slightly older
men and women. The high school feuds have
been either resolved, forgotten, or forgiven.
The talk had moved from who is secretly
dating whom, to what type of hearing aids we
favored and what brand of statin we are
taking.
The pages of our calendars will continue, God
willing, to drop away. Some day each of us
will reach the cardboard at the back and
we'll say goodbye.
But for this weekend, at least, a group of
senior citizens were young high school
graduates again and got to share their 18+
thousand calendar pages with one another
leaving with a new little twinkle in our
collective reading-glasses-needed eyes, the
better for having reconnected, and having
relived, the days that have gone by oh so
quickly.
Sap Alert: This past weekend marked the 50th
anniversary of the graduation from high
school of the class of 1964 from West Orange
(New Jersey) Mountain High. That's what this
column will be about.
If you are looking for an angry screed, hit the
key now and tune in later in the week when
I'm cranky again.
The thing about fifty years isn't that it goes by
so quickly when you're looking backwards,
and seems so impossibly far away when
you're looking ahead. That's true, but it's not
what is most important.
What I got to thinking about this past
weekend - the weekend of the inaccurately
named "50th Reunion" of my high school
graduating class - was about the inexorability
of the whole thing. (The inaccuracy occurs
because we have not had 50 reunions, it is
the reunion marking the 50th anniversary of
our graduation.)
From the moment of our birth one page
comes off the calendar of our lives every 24
hours (or, to keep the accuracy thing going,
23 hours, 56 minutes, 4.1 seconds).
Good times, bad times, smooth or rough,
happy or sad: One day, one page.
There are pages we would like to rip off, tear
into shreds, throw away from our lifetime
calendars in about 12 hours, and forget
about. Others, we would like to savor and
keep for weeks or months, and remember
forever.
Both are possible, but the will each use up the
same exact 23 hours, 56 minutes, 4.1 seconds.
Not more. Not less.
Stipulating that graduation day for the West
Orange Mountain class of 1964 was on the
Summer Solstice of that year, June 21; 18,262
pages have fallen from the life calendars of
every one of the living 236 graduates. No
more. No less.
Gathering about half of them in the same
place at the same time allowed us to share the
vast variety of careers that a group of middle
class kids from Northern New Jersey have
been allowed to pursue during America's post
World War II go-go decades.
At this point in their lives many of my
classmates have retired and, being from New
Jersey, a significant number of them have
relocated to Florida. But there was a
California contingent, a classmate that came
from Finland and one from Israel. And one,
of course, from Alexandria, Virginia.
The last reunion I went to was our 42nd. At
the time I wondered (in a reply-all email)
why 42nd? "Why not 41st or 43rd," I wrote.
"Those are prime numbers. That's at least a
little amusing. What's funny about 42?"
One of my mates replied-all to my query with
this: "Because we're all turning sixty, you
moron."
I would have gotten to that if I'd thought
about it long enough.
Now, most of the class is 68 with a few of the
"children" including me, still 67.
When we were 60, we all looked like slightly
older versions of what we looked like when
we were 17 and 18. For the most part we
could look at one another and remember in a
glance who was who.
But, the pages of the calendar have taken
their toll on most of us physically over the
past eight years. Without name tags complete
with senior yearbook photos attached, it
would have been very difficult to answer the
question: "Do you remember who I am?"
Once I looked at the name and photo, each
68-year-old face resolved itself into the 18-
year-old person I remembered from high
school.
I also wondered what was going on fifty years
before we graduated, It was on June 28, 1914
(the 100th anniversary will be next Saturday)
when Archduke Franz Ferdinand was
assassinated sparking the Great War; a war
the U.S. would not enter for nearly three
more years. From July on, the rest of the year
is largely taken up by the news of European
nations choosing up sides.
Except for July 11, 1914 when Babe Ruth
made his major league debut with the Boston
Red Sox.
At our 50th reunion, the old flirtations
became new flirtations between slightly older
men and women. The high school feuds have
been either resolved, forgotten, or forgiven.
The talk had moved from who is secretly
dating whom, to what type of hearing aids we
favored and what brand of statin we are
taking.
The pages of our calendars will continue, God
willing, to drop away. Some day each of us
will reach the cardboard at the back and
we'll say goodbye.
But for this weekend, at least, a group of
senior citizens were young high school
graduates again and got to share their 18+
thousand calendar pages with one another
leaving with a new little twinkle in our
collective reading-glasses-needed eyes, the
better for having reconnected, and having
relived, the days that have gone by oh so
quickly.
IRAQ CRISES: LATEST SIGNS OF U.S VULNERABILITY TO OIL PRICE SPIKES
Ken Blackwell
The ongoing conflict in Iraq has serious
implications for vital U.S. interests, the extent
of which are difficult to decipher at this early
stage. Who ends up holding the keys to power
within Iraqi territory? What happens to the
regional balance of power? How will Iran’s
pursuit of nuclear weapons—and our efforts
to stop them—be affected?
One immediate effect of the turmoil,
however, is painfully obvious: oil prices have
already hit a nine-month high. Brent crude
reached $115 per barrel this week, a level our
country has not experienced since the height
of U.S. tensions with Syria in September
2013. As a result, a number of market
analysts now expect U.S. gasoline prices to
surpass their highest levels for the month of
June since 2008, rising from today’s level of
$3.68 per gallon to as much as $3.80 per
gallon by the end of the month.
If that were not troubling enough, Iraq’s vital
importance to the global oil market could
mean that today’s rising prices may be just
the beginning . Markets are already reeling
from a series of oil production outages in
countries across the globe—from Nigeria,
Libya, and South Sudan to Iraq, Iran, and
Syria. Any additional loss of supplies from
Iraq could stress the system to its limit and
send oil prices to levels that many of
America’s political leaders had hoped were a
thing of the past.
A recent analysis by the Commission on
Energy and Geopolitics, a group of former
high-ranking military and civilian
government officials, found that a partial
disruption to Iraq’s oil supplies—1 mbd, or
about a third of Iraq’s current production—
would cause oil prices to rise by more than
$30 per barrel, amounting to an approximate
50 cent per gallon increase at the pump for
American consumers. With the United States
consuming close to 20 million barrels of oil
per day, it doesn’t take a trained economist to
understand that we would take a serious
economic hit.
At today’s oil price levels, the average U.S.
family is already spending more than twice
as much on gasoline as they were a decade
ago—a total of $2,700 per household in 2012
compared to $1,200 in 2002 according to the
Bureau of Labor Statistics. An oil price spike
of the magnitude described by the
Commission and other analysts would send
spending on oil to record levels and have an
immediate, damaging impact on economic
growth.
We need to take back control of our economic
fate. We shouldn’t accept as fact the idea that
our overall prosperity and economic well-
being are held hostage to the kinds of
violence, extremism, corruption, and
mismanagement that are endemic to the
global oil market. We can do better, and we
have options.
Part of the answer can be found in rising
domestic oil production. The U.S. oil boom
has provided significant benefits, including
an improved balance of trade and hundreds
of thousands of new American jobs. That
should be embraced and supported. However,
no matter how much we produce at home, oil
will be priced in a global market, meaning
that geopolitical events beyond our control
will still have the ability to send our economy
into a tailspin.
Energy security starts and ends with oil
consumption, and that means we have to do
something about transportation. About 70
percent of the oil America consumes is used
in the transportation sector, and 92 percent
of all fuel used to power that sector is derived
from oil. Reducing oil dependence in the
transportation sector is a tremendous
opportunity to de-link the American economy
from the global oil market and the various
events—like the crisis in Iraq—that impact
that market.
The solutions have already begun to be
implemented. More than 200,000 electric
vehicles and 140,000 vehicles powered by
natural gas are currently on America’s
roadways. Simply converting the nation’s
fleet of heavy-duty, long-haul trucks to
natural gas would save 2 million barrels of oil
every day. The widespread adoption of
passenger vehicles powered by electricity
would have an even greater impact, and such
vehicles are selling at a crisp pace and
earning rave consumer reviews.
Still, more must be done to accelerate this
progress. The country needs to increase its
investment in oil-displacement transportation
technologies so that we can more quickly
sever our ties to the global oil market and
shield our economy from its volatility. Doing
so will also benefit our national security, as
decreasing our economic exposure to oil price
spikes will provide foreign and defense
policymakers with expanded options.
Time and time again, we’ve learned the
lesson that oil dependence makes us
vulnerable to flare-ups in the Middle East
and around the globe. Of all the serious
fallout that will stem from the current crisis
in Iraq, all we can predict with confidence is
that any resultant high oil prices will harm
our economy at a time when our families and
businesses can hardly afford another setback.
Let this latest lesson be the one that motivates
us to embrace the solutions that are now at
our fingertips.
The ongoing conflict in Iraq has serious
implications for vital U.S. interests, the extent
of which are difficult to decipher at this early
stage. Who ends up holding the keys to power
within Iraqi territory? What happens to the
regional balance of power? How will Iran’s
pursuit of nuclear weapons—and our efforts
to stop them—be affected?
One immediate effect of the turmoil,
however, is painfully obvious: oil prices have
already hit a nine-month high. Brent crude
reached $115 per barrel this week, a level our
country has not experienced since the height
of U.S. tensions with Syria in September
2013. As a result, a number of market
analysts now expect U.S. gasoline prices to
surpass their highest levels for the month of
June since 2008, rising from today’s level of
$3.68 per gallon to as much as $3.80 per
gallon by the end of the month.
If that were not troubling enough, Iraq’s vital
importance to the global oil market could
mean that today’s rising prices may be just
the beginning . Markets are already reeling
from a series of oil production outages in
countries across the globe—from Nigeria,
Libya, and South Sudan to Iraq, Iran, and
Syria. Any additional loss of supplies from
Iraq could stress the system to its limit and
send oil prices to levels that many of
America’s political leaders had hoped were a
thing of the past.
A recent analysis by the Commission on
Energy and Geopolitics, a group of former
high-ranking military and civilian
government officials, found that a partial
disruption to Iraq’s oil supplies—1 mbd, or
about a third of Iraq’s current production—
would cause oil prices to rise by more than
$30 per barrel, amounting to an approximate
50 cent per gallon increase at the pump for
American consumers. With the United States
consuming close to 20 million barrels of oil
per day, it doesn’t take a trained economist to
understand that we would take a serious
economic hit.
At today’s oil price levels, the average U.S.
family is already spending more than twice
as much on gasoline as they were a decade
ago—a total of $2,700 per household in 2012
compared to $1,200 in 2002 according to the
Bureau of Labor Statistics. An oil price spike
of the magnitude described by the
Commission and other analysts would send
spending on oil to record levels and have an
immediate, damaging impact on economic
growth.
We need to take back control of our economic
fate. We shouldn’t accept as fact the idea that
our overall prosperity and economic well-
being are held hostage to the kinds of
violence, extremism, corruption, and
mismanagement that are endemic to the
global oil market. We can do better, and we
have options.
Part of the answer can be found in rising
domestic oil production. The U.S. oil boom
has provided significant benefits, including
an improved balance of trade and hundreds
of thousands of new American jobs. That
should be embraced and supported. However,
no matter how much we produce at home, oil
will be priced in a global market, meaning
that geopolitical events beyond our control
will still have the ability to send our economy
into a tailspin.
Energy security starts and ends with oil
consumption, and that means we have to do
something about transportation. About 70
percent of the oil America consumes is used
in the transportation sector, and 92 percent
of all fuel used to power that sector is derived
from oil. Reducing oil dependence in the
transportation sector is a tremendous
opportunity to de-link the American economy
from the global oil market and the various
events—like the crisis in Iraq—that impact
that market.
The solutions have already begun to be
implemented. More than 200,000 electric
vehicles and 140,000 vehicles powered by
natural gas are currently on America’s
roadways. Simply converting the nation’s
fleet of heavy-duty, long-haul trucks to
natural gas would save 2 million barrels of oil
every day. The widespread adoption of
passenger vehicles powered by electricity
would have an even greater impact, and such
vehicles are selling at a crisp pace and
earning rave consumer reviews.
Still, more must be done to accelerate this
progress. The country needs to increase its
investment in oil-displacement transportation
technologies so that we can more quickly
sever our ties to the global oil market and
shield our economy from its volatility. Doing
so will also benefit our national security, as
decreasing our economic exposure to oil price
spikes will provide foreign and defense
policymakers with expanded options.
Time and time again, we’ve learned the
lesson that oil dependence makes us
vulnerable to flare-ups in the Middle East
and around the globe. Of all the serious
fallout that will stem from the current crisis
in Iraq, all we can predict with confidence is
that any resultant high oil prices will harm
our economy at a time when our families and
businesses can hardly afford another setback.
Let this latest lesson be the one that motivates
us to embrace the solutions that are now at
our fingertips.
GLOBALIZATION AND IDENTITY POLITICS: CONTESTING IDEAS
Sohan Prasad Sha
There are contesting ideas among academicians with
regard to ‘identity’, ‘ethnicity’, ‘caste’, ‘religion’,
‘linguistic’, and ‘regional’ boundaries. Globalisation has
led to the movement of people in the Himalayan as well
as trans-Himalayan regions in South and West Asia,
and opened up new socio-political space that has an
inherent impact on these contesting ideas which often
transcend national bonds or are repackaged in new
narratives. In this context, researchers seek new
methodological or analytical tools to reflect these
complexities through the prism of “belonging” “to
uncover crucial shifts in the meaningful constellations
reproduced and evolving in global era.”
This book has emerged from an earlier volume in the
same series, The Politics of Belonging in the Himalayas:
Local Attachments and Boundary Dynamics , published in
2011. The editors of this volume, Gerard Toffin and
Joanna Pfaff-Czarnecka, bring together a range of
dynamic contributors from diverse disciplines like
anthropology, religious studies, international studies,
sociology, cultural studies etc, who have been working
in Nepal and Himalayan India. At best, this book
problematises the myths about globalisation that is
often popularised to integrate the world into a single-
space and promote homogenisation. It offers a new
dimension to the features of globalisation - connectivity,
interdependence, and openness - as a multifaceted
process impinging upon the relations of ‘belonging’.
Belonging and the Politics of Self is conveniently
organised in five parts and sixteen chapters which
provide historical and (trans)migration anthropological
analyses and perspectives on the politics of the
Himalayan region, and asserts the concept of
‘belonging’ circumstantially.
The first section, 'Shifting Horizons of Belonging',
contains three essays. In chapter 2, Blandine Ripert
attempts to understand the Tamang community of
central Nepal where religious conversion to Christianity
is a process to connect the local to the global and to
avoid the full sense of belonging attached to Hinduism
at the national-level, which has led to the overall
marginalisation of Tamangs in their own local social
space. Sara Shneiderman discusses the case of the
Thangmi ethnic group (chapter 3) and narrates the story
of their circular migration from Nepal (Dolkaha and
Sindhupalchok district) to India (Darjeeling district) in
which their ‘politics of belonging’ describes the
processes of social inclusion (in India) and exclusion (in
Nepal, in terms of caste, ethnic and economic
exploitation). The last essay of this section by Pascale
Dollfus (chapter 4) deals with the changing life of
nomads, once known to be pastoralists from Ladakh in
India.
The second section, 'Migrant Experiences in South Asia
and Beyond', contains three essays. Jeevan R Sharma
discusses the case of male migrants from rural hill
villages in Western Nepal to Mumbai, India, in which the
narratives of belonging (chapter 5) are attached to their
identities as men and as a way to transcend their status
due to material, symbolic and emotional pressure to
look after their families back home. Mitra Pariyar et al.
deal with Nepali diaspora communities in two social
spaces (Xhapter 6), ex-Gurkhas in the UK and the
Newar community in Sikkim (India), in which the UK is
characterised as a weak multicultural society as
compared to Sikkim. The last essay in this section by
Tristan Brusle deals with Nepali labour migrants in Doha
(Qatar) and Uttarakand (India). Here, the sense of
belonging varies along caste and regional lines (chapter
7). For instance, the stereotype of Nepali migrant
labourers as Bahadur vs Dhotiwala and Madhesis vs
Pahadis blurs as well as complicates the sense of
belonging.
The third section, 'Creating Transnational Belonging',
contains four essays. Sondra L Hausner discuss the
case study of Nepali nurse migrants to the UK and how
they reconcile identity and belonging in two nation-
states (chapter 8) while struggling for professional
integrity and against discriminatory policies their in host
country. Ben Campbell contextualises the
multiculturalism aspect (chapter 9) of Manchester city,
UK and the Nepali festival held there “to make a make a
show of their belonging to Manchester, at the same time
as their affective belonging to Nepal.” The other two
essays narrate the story of Nepali immigrants in the US.
Bandita Sijapati (chapter 10) draws attention to how
Nepali youth feel alienated from a “sense of ‘being in
America’ but not ‘belonging to America’.” The last essay
in this section by Susan Hangen deals with the Gurung
ethnic community (chapter 11) in the US and their sense
of belonging through “promoting and preserving their
[Gururg] identity abroad” and their simultaneous
“commitment [to projects] to end ethnic inequality…of
indigenous nationalities in Nepal.”
The fourth section, 'Globality and Activist Experience'
contains three chapters. Chiara Letizia (chapter 12)
shows how Buddhism among some ethnic groups like
Tharu and Magar in Nepal becomes a politics of their
global recognition and helps in the imagination of new
forms of belonging through liberation from a
discriminatory Hindu state. The two subsequent essays
by Tanka Subba and Vibha Arora draw attention
towards the proposed power project in Dzongu, North
Sikkim, and the Lepcha community’s socio-political
belonging which is “to the place and its
culture” (chapter 13) and “belonging with cyber
activism” ( chapter 14) to promote their identity.
The fifth section, 'National Reconfiguration', contains
three chapters. Mark Turin (chapter 15) brings in
linguistic assertion to (re)claim identity in the case of
Nepal through Nepali vs Hindi which often blurs the
sense of belonging to a community in the larger national
identity. However, the Lepcha community of Sikkim
(India) has constructed its own sense of belonging by
“becoming Indian through Sikkimese, becoming
Sikkimese being Lepcha”, while the English language
acts as a glue that defies territorial boundaries. Martin
A Mills (chapter 16) narrates the complex history of
Tibet in the Tibet Autonomous Region to contextualise
the sense of belonging in the trans-Himalayan socio-
political landscape. Michael Hutt (chapter 17) discussed
the sense of belonging called ‘institution (monarchy)’ to
explain why the Shahs of Nepal could not survive
institutionally while the Bhutanese Wangchuck monarchy
survived. Moreover, the complexity of language, religions
etc help to explain through comparative perspective the
belongingness of the monarchy as an institution in
Nepal which could not survive, while the Bhutanese
monarchy did as it embodies national identity.
The bringing together of diverse case studies in one
volume makes it difficult to give conceptual clarity to
‘belonging’, which blurs considerably. That being said,
the volume’s introduction makes a sincere effort to
distinguish ‘belonging’ and various categories like
identity, religion, language, ethnicity, caste, region in
theory. However, for the reader, ‘belonging’ and ‘the
politics of self’ might be difficult to reconcile
conceptually. The reader can certainly look forward to
new insights on ground realities, problematic social and
political landscapes and fascinating narratives, rather
than the movement of the people of the Himalayan
region.
There are contesting ideas among academicians with
regard to ‘identity’, ‘ethnicity’, ‘caste’, ‘religion’,
‘linguistic’, and ‘regional’ boundaries. Globalisation has
led to the movement of people in the Himalayan as well
as trans-Himalayan regions in South and West Asia,
and opened up new socio-political space that has an
inherent impact on these contesting ideas which often
transcend national bonds or are repackaged in new
narratives. In this context, researchers seek new
methodological or analytical tools to reflect these
complexities through the prism of “belonging” “to
uncover crucial shifts in the meaningful constellations
reproduced and evolving in global era.”
This book has emerged from an earlier volume in the
same series, The Politics of Belonging in the Himalayas:
Local Attachments and Boundary Dynamics , published in
2011. The editors of this volume, Gerard Toffin and
Joanna Pfaff-Czarnecka, bring together a range of
dynamic contributors from diverse disciplines like
anthropology, religious studies, international studies,
sociology, cultural studies etc, who have been working
in Nepal and Himalayan India. At best, this book
problematises the myths about globalisation that is
often popularised to integrate the world into a single-
space and promote homogenisation. It offers a new
dimension to the features of globalisation - connectivity,
interdependence, and openness - as a multifaceted
process impinging upon the relations of ‘belonging’.
Belonging and the Politics of Self is conveniently
organised in five parts and sixteen chapters which
provide historical and (trans)migration anthropological
analyses and perspectives on the politics of the
Himalayan region, and asserts the concept of
‘belonging’ circumstantially.
The first section, 'Shifting Horizons of Belonging',
contains three essays. In chapter 2, Blandine Ripert
attempts to understand the Tamang community of
central Nepal where religious conversion to Christianity
is a process to connect the local to the global and to
avoid the full sense of belonging attached to Hinduism
at the national-level, which has led to the overall
marginalisation of Tamangs in their own local social
space. Sara Shneiderman discusses the case of the
Thangmi ethnic group (chapter 3) and narrates the story
of their circular migration from Nepal (Dolkaha and
Sindhupalchok district) to India (Darjeeling district) in
which their ‘politics of belonging’ describes the
processes of social inclusion (in India) and exclusion (in
Nepal, in terms of caste, ethnic and economic
exploitation). The last essay of this section by Pascale
Dollfus (chapter 4) deals with the changing life of
nomads, once known to be pastoralists from Ladakh in
India.
The second section, 'Migrant Experiences in South Asia
and Beyond', contains three essays. Jeevan R Sharma
discusses the case of male migrants from rural hill
villages in Western Nepal to Mumbai, India, in which the
narratives of belonging (chapter 5) are attached to their
identities as men and as a way to transcend their status
due to material, symbolic and emotional pressure to
look after their families back home. Mitra Pariyar et al.
deal with Nepali diaspora communities in two social
spaces (Xhapter 6), ex-Gurkhas in the UK and the
Newar community in Sikkim (India), in which the UK is
characterised as a weak multicultural society as
compared to Sikkim. The last essay in this section by
Tristan Brusle deals with Nepali labour migrants in Doha
(Qatar) and Uttarakand (India). Here, the sense of
belonging varies along caste and regional lines (chapter
7). For instance, the stereotype of Nepali migrant
labourers as Bahadur vs Dhotiwala and Madhesis vs
Pahadis blurs as well as complicates the sense of
belonging.
The third section, 'Creating Transnational Belonging',
contains four essays. Sondra L Hausner discuss the
case study of Nepali nurse migrants to the UK and how
they reconcile identity and belonging in two nation-
states (chapter 8) while struggling for professional
integrity and against discriminatory policies their in host
country. Ben Campbell contextualises the
multiculturalism aspect (chapter 9) of Manchester city,
UK and the Nepali festival held there “to make a make a
show of their belonging to Manchester, at the same time
as their affective belonging to Nepal.” The other two
essays narrate the story of Nepali immigrants in the US.
Bandita Sijapati (chapter 10) draws attention to how
Nepali youth feel alienated from a “sense of ‘being in
America’ but not ‘belonging to America’.” The last essay
in this section by Susan Hangen deals with the Gurung
ethnic community (chapter 11) in the US and their sense
of belonging through “promoting and preserving their
[Gururg] identity abroad” and their simultaneous
“commitment [to projects] to end ethnic inequality…of
indigenous nationalities in Nepal.”
The fourth section, 'Globality and Activist Experience'
contains three chapters. Chiara Letizia (chapter 12)
shows how Buddhism among some ethnic groups like
Tharu and Magar in Nepal becomes a politics of their
global recognition and helps in the imagination of new
forms of belonging through liberation from a
discriminatory Hindu state. The two subsequent essays
by Tanka Subba and Vibha Arora draw attention
towards the proposed power project in Dzongu, North
Sikkim, and the Lepcha community’s socio-political
belonging which is “to the place and its
culture” (chapter 13) and “belonging with cyber
activism” ( chapter 14) to promote their identity.
The fifth section, 'National Reconfiguration', contains
three chapters. Mark Turin (chapter 15) brings in
linguistic assertion to (re)claim identity in the case of
Nepal through Nepali vs Hindi which often blurs the
sense of belonging to a community in the larger national
identity. However, the Lepcha community of Sikkim
(India) has constructed its own sense of belonging by
“becoming Indian through Sikkimese, becoming
Sikkimese being Lepcha”, while the English language
acts as a glue that defies territorial boundaries. Martin
A Mills (chapter 16) narrates the complex history of
Tibet in the Tibet Autonomous Region to contextualise
the sense of belonging in the trans-Himalayan socio-
political landscape. Michael Hutt (chapter 17) discussed
the sense of belonging called ‘institution (monarchy)’ to
explain why the Shahs of Nepal could not survive
institutionally while the Bhutanese Wangchuck monarchy
survived. Moreover, the complexity of language, religions
etc help to explain through comparative perspective the
belongingness of the monarchy as an institution in
Nepal which could not survive, while the Bhutanese
monarchy did as it embodies national identity.
The bringing together of diverse case studies in one
volume makes it difficult to give conceptual clarity to
‘belonging’, which blurs considerably. That being said,
the volume’s introduction makes a sincere effort to
distinguish ‘belonging’ and various categories like
identity, religion, language, ethnicity, caste, region in
theory. However, for the reader, ‘belonging’ and ‘the
politics of self’ might be difficult to reconcile
conceptually. The reader can certainly look forward to
new insights on ground realities, problematic social and
political landscapes and fascinating narratives, rather
than the movement of the people of the Himalayan
region.
22 Jun 2014
3 WAYS GOD RESPOND TO WICKED LEADERS
Doug Giles
I don't know about you, but when I look at
the multifaceted ways Obama and his ilk are
destroying our nation I get more angry and
depressed than Ted Nugent being forced to
watch Lois Lerner do an interpretive dance to
Boy George's song Do You Really Want To
Hurt Me, the extended cut.
Obama has overwhelmed/is truly
overwhelming our nation with truly
overwhelming cataclysmic crises that have
left a lot of good people saying, “Screw it. I'm
moving to Panama.”
Despair seems to be the soup de jour and it's
being served up to us cold. Ice cold.
When I get around people who still give a flip
about our nation the conversation inevitably
goes to “What can we do to stop this fetid
mess BHO and his boys are foisting upon our
land?”
The typical response is: Get knowledgeable
about what our nation was originally
intended to be and what a cartoon of that we
have now become. After that get active, get
vocal, protest, vote with your money, join
Facebook groups with like-minded warriors,
go to a bunch of conferences, scream at the
television, and of course, vote during
elections.
The problem is we do all that and it still
doesn't look like we're putting a dent in what
the President and the progressives are doing
to our land and a lot of folks think that our
votes won't count anyway because of voter
fraud and corruption.
Some people of faith conclude, “Well ... I
guess this is The End. Our preacher said it
was gonna get this way before Jesus returns
to kick some ass.' And they resolve
themselves to apathy and cynicism and
become about as active Howard Hughes was
during the flu season.
Speaking of God, for those who still care
about Him and what He and His word think,
what does the Bible say we should believe and
look for when our nation is getting gutted and
ransacked by leaders and policies that try to
dispense with that which is holy, just and
good? Does it lead us to despair? Should we
look for Jesus to rapture us out of this mess?
Should our current climate make believers act
like Lewis Black? Are. We. Done. For?
First off, let state that as much as it might
look like we’re Paula Abduling and going one
step forward and three steps back with the
best of our efforts to right the Obama wrongs,
I do believe our righteous works are working
and we need to step everything that we’re
doing up several notches and get aggressive
with the progressives.
Secondly, who the heck says that God’s only
recourse when dealing with sucky situations
is to rapture his people out the mess they’ve
allowed themselves to get into? Biblically
we've got a slew of passages that show that
God can and will jackhammer rulers who
dispense with his way and turn nations into a
lawless, idolatrous and godless mess. For
instance check out Psalm 2 gloomy Christian
…
Why do the nations rage
and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together,
against the Lord and against his Anointed,
saying,
“Let us burst their bonds apart
and cast away their cords from us.”
He who sits in the heavens laughs;
the Lord holds them in derision.
Then he will speak to them in his wrath,
and terrify them in his fury, saying,
“As for me, I have set my King
on Zion, my holy hill.”
I will tell of the decree:
The Lord said to me, “You are my Son;
today I have begotten you.
Ask of me, and I will make the nations your
heritage,
and the ends of the earth your possession.
You shall break them with a rod of iron
and dash them in pieces like a potter's
vessel.”
Now therefore, O kings, be wise;
be warned, O rulers of the earth.
Serve the Lord with fear,
and rejoice with trembling.
Kiss the Son,
lest he be angry, and you perish in the way,
for his wrath is quickly kindled.
Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
Let’s break this Psalm down, shall we? So,
what do we have? Well, according to the
psalm we have a nation and their ruler[s]
that’re blowing off God and his righteous
decrees, right? Right.
How does God respond? Does he pout? Quit?
Move to Panama? Start overeating Hagen Daz
because he’s so depressed? Does he
emotionally check out and starting smoking
weed and get into tie-dyeing beefy T’s to pass
the time? Let’s see shall we?
According to Psalm 2 God does three things.
1. He laughs at the people and rulers who
snub his ways. God’s amused that the puny
ants he has created have now decided they
can take things from here and they don’t
need his holy ways or wisdom. Not only does
he laugh at these wicked rulers who seek
autonomy but he also scoffs at them and
holds ‘em in derision. He thinks not only is
their rebellion laughable but he also makes
fun of them and sneers at them. Didn’t they
ever teach you this at Sunday School? I didn’t
think so. But it is Biblical, eh?
2. God rebukes the people and the rulers
crapping on the nation. “Rebuke” is a word
we don’t hear much of anymore, which
makes me like it all the more. Rebuke is sharp
or harsh disapproval. Check it out. Psalm 2
does not say, “God forgives and forgets” how
wicked people and policies are destroying a
land. It doesn’t say he’s changed his eternal
ways and is now cool with their hip, groovy,
21 century decisions. It does not say he’s
passive and merely acknowledges or, worse
yet, winks at their wantonness. Oh, heck no.
It says he castigates the folks that are jacking
things up.
3. Not only does God laugh, scoff and rebuke
the unrighteous acts of ingrate leaders, Pslam
2 also states that He is out to terrify him.
What does that mean? I don’t know but it
sounds terrifying, doesn’t it? When God arises
to whup some ass, from what I’ve read and
seen, you don’t what to be the recipient of
that pool cue. In several different ways the
inspired psalmist brands the reader with the
revelation that leaders and godless policies
impenitently pursued and propagated stir up
God’s terrible wrath and that he will unleash
it on their particular heads and land. Here,
in this psalm, a promise is given, in a
metaphorical way, that he will break and
dash their wicked ruler and their reign into
pieces. Whatever that means, it sounds pretty
bad and pretty thorough.
In conclusion, according to the Verbum Dei,
God states, according to Psalm 2, that he’s
going to bless his people; he promises to
establish his son’s rule and to protect those
who take refuge in him. For those who’re
blowing Him off and leading their nation
down highway 666 to CrapTown, God
promises in no small or unclear way to deal
with them in an exhaustive manner as only
he can.
Therefore, my brothers and sisters, who love
God and this great land: expose, fight, protest,
vote, rally, decry and do everything in your
power to derail this dastardly dismantling of
our nation; and never forget that a Holy God
is also monitoring this BS and will temporally
and eternally kick the backside of those who
despise and dispense with His ways.
I don't know about you, but when I look at
the multifaceted ways Obama and his ilk are
destroying our nation I get more angry and
depressed than Ted Nugent being forced to
watch Lois Lerner do an interpretive dance to
Boy George's song Do You Really Want To
Hurt Me, the extended cut.
Obama has overwhelmed/is truly
overwhelming our nation with truly
overwhelming cataclysmic crises that have
left a lot of good people saying, “Screw it. I'm
moving to Panama.”
Despair seems to be the soup de jour and it's
being served up to us cold. Ice cold.
When I get around people who still give a flip
about our nation the conversation inevitably
goes to “What can we do to stop this fetid
mess BHO and his boys are foisting upon our
land?”
The typical response is: Get knowledgeable
about what our nation was originally
intended to be and what a cartoon of that we
have now become. After that get active, get
vocal, protest, vote with your money, join
Facebook groups with like-minded warriors,
go to a bunch of conferences, scream at the
television, and of course, vote during
elections.
The problem is we do all that and it still
doesn't look like we're putting a dent in what
the President and the progressives are doing
to our land and a lot of folks think that our
votes won't count anyway because of voter
fraud and corruption.
Some people of faith conclude, “Well ... I
guess this is The End. Our preacher said it
was gonna get this way before Jesus returns
to kick some ass.' And they resolve
themselves to apathy and cynicism and
become about as active Howard Hughes was
during the flu season.
Speaking of God, for those who still care
about Him and what He and His word think,
what does the Bible say we should believe and
look for when our nation is getting gutted and
ransacked by leaders and policies that try to
dispense with that which is holy, just and
good? Does it lead us to despair? Should we
look for Jesus to rapture us out of this mess?
Should our current climate make believers act
like Lewis Black? Are. We. Done. For?
First off, let state that as much as it might
look like we’re Paula Abduling and going one
step forward and three steps back with the
best of our efforts to right the Obama wrongs,
I do believe our righteous works are working
and we need to step everything that we’re
doing up several notches and get aggressive
with the progressives.
Secondly, who the heck says that God’s only
recourse when dealing with sucky situations
is to rapture his people out the mess they’ve
allowed themselves to get into? Biblically
we've got a slew of passages that show that
God can and will jackhammer rulers who
dispense with his way and turn nations into a
lawless, idolatrous and godless mess. For
instance check out Psalm 2 gloomy Christian
…
Why do the nations rage
and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together,
against the Lord and against his Anointed,
saying,
“Let us burst their bonds apart
and cast away their cords from us.”
He who sits in the heavens laughs;
the Lord holds them in derision.
Then he will speak to them in his wrath,
and terrify them in his fury, saying,
“As for me, I have set my King
on Zion, my holy hill.”
I will tell of the decree:
The Lord said to me, “You are my Son;
today I have begotten you.
Ask of me, and I will make the nations your
heritage,
and the ends of the earth your possession.
You shall break them with a rod of iron
and dash them in pieces like a potter's
vessel.”
Now therefore, O kings, be wise;
be warned, O rulers of the earth.
Serve the Lord with fear,
and rejoice with trembling.
Kiss the Son,
lest he be angry, and you perish in the way,
for his wrath is quickly kindled.
Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
Let’s break this Psalm down, shall we? So,
what do we have? Well, according to the
psalm we have a nation and their ruler[s]
that’re blowing off God and his righteous
decrees, right? Right.
How does God respond? Does he pout? Quit?
Move to Panama? Start overeating Hagen Daz
because he’s so depressed? Does he
emotionally check out and starting smoking
weed and get into tie-dyeing beefy T’s to pass
the time? Let’s see shall we?
According to Psalm 2 God does three things.
1. He laughs at the people and rulers who
snub his ways. God’s amused that the puny
ants he has created have now decided they
can take things from here and they don’t
need his holy ways or wisdom. Not only does
he laugh at these wicked rulers who seek
autonomy but he also scoffs at them and
holds ‘em in derision. He thinks not only is
their rebellion laughable but he also makes
fun of them and sneers at them. Didn’t they
ever teach you this at Sunday School? I didn’t
think so. But it is Biblical, eh?
2. God rebukes the people and the rulers
crapping on the nation. “Rebuke” is a word
we don’t hear much of anymore, which
makes me like it all the more. Rebuke is sharp
or harsh disapproval. Check it out. Psalm 2
does not say, “God forgives and forgets” how
wicked people and policies are destroying a
land. It doesn’t say he’s changed his eternal
ways and is now cool with their hip, groovy,
21 century decisions. It does not say he’s
passive and merely acknowledges or, worse
yet, winks at their wantonness. Oh, heck no.
It says he castigates the folks that are jacking
things up.
3. Not only does God laugh, scoff and rebuke
the unrighteous acts of ingrate leaders, Pslam
2 also states that He is out to terrify him.
What does that mean? I don’t know but it
sounds terrifying, doesn’t it? When God arises
to whup some ass, from what I’ve read and
seen, you don’t what to be the recipient of
that pool cue. In several different ways the
inspired psalmist brands the reader with the
revelation that leaders and godless policies
impenitently pursued and propagated stir up
God’s terrible wrath and that he will unleash
it on their particular heads and land. Here,
in this psalm, a promise is given, in a
metaphorical way, that he will break and
dash their wicked ruler and their reign into
pieces. Whatever that means, it sounds pretty
bad and pretty thorough.
In conclusion, according to the Verbum Dei,
God states, according to Psalm 2, that he’s
going to bless his people; he promises to
establish his son’s rule and to protect those
who take refuge in him. For those who’re
blowing Him off and leading their nation
down highway 666 to CrapTown, God
promises in no small or unclear way to deal
with them in an exhaustive manner as only
he can.
Therefore, my brothers and sisters, who love
God and this great land: expose, fight, protest,
vote, rally, decry and do everything in your
power to derail this dastardly dismantling of
our nation; and never forget that a Holy God
is also monitoring this BS and will temporally
and eternally kick the backside of those who
despise and dispense with His ways.
OBAMA'S DEFICIENT STUDENT LOAN PLAN
Steve Chapman
The government normally doesn't care
whether you or I accumulate large bills for
home improvement, a new car or exotic
vacations. But Barack Obama feels no
hesitation in concluding that the cost of
higher education has placed "too big a debt
load on too many young people." Therefore,
something must be done.
The problem with Obama's analysis is
defining "too big." Compared to what? Most
of these young people, often in conjunction
with their parents, have voluntarily
shouldered student loans to pursue their
studies. If they thought the burden was too
heavy, they didn't have to take it on.
They have done so not because they are
careless wastrels, but because they place an
accurate value on higher education. They
comprehend that it is very likely to pay for
itself and that forgoing it would be the most
costly option of all.
The president says the debt burden makes it
hard for these people "to start a family, buy a
home, launch a business or save for
retirement." But they would most likely have
even less money for those purposes had they
avoided borrowing by avoiding college.
That's because people with bachelor's degrees
make more money than people without --
nearly twice as much, on average. Not only
that, but the value of higher education has
risen substantially. Over the past 50 years,
the real value of a degree has tripled.
Some perspective is in order. Though some
students acquire huge debts, two-thirds
graduate owing $10,000 or less, and only 2
percent owe more than $50,000. Not all of the
latter need to worry. A newly minted doctor,
lawyer or MBA from a good school can expect
an income more than adequate to the need.
Obama wants to let some five million
borrowers cap their monthly repayments at
10 percent of their income and, after 20
years, be relieved of any remaining balance.
What would the change cost? "We'll figure
that out the back end," said Education
Secretary Arne Duncan, in one of the more
alarming budget projections ever issued.
The administration blames the problem on
the growing cost of higher education. It has a
point. College costs have risen much faster
than other prices. In 1973, annual resident
tuition at the University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign was $496 -- which is $2,566 in
today's money. For the 2013-2014 academic
year, the sticker price for U of I freshmen was
$11,834 -- four times more, in real terms,
than their parents might have paid.
But thinking that more federal aid will make
college affordable is like believing that a dog
can catch its tail if it goes faster. One reason
colleges charge so much more today is that
federal aid makes it easier for students to
cover the bill. The more the government does
the less reason students have to demand cost
control, and the higher tuition will climb.
Forgiving more debts after 20 years (10 for
those in "public service" jobs), as Obama
proposes, adds to the expense inflicted on
taxpayers without doing borrowers much
good in the meantime.
Among those taxed to provide these benefits
are people who earn less than college
graduates because they didn't go to college. If
it seems unfair for people to shoulder big
loans to finance their degrees, it's even more
unfair for people without degrees to share the
sacrifice.
A better idea than Obama's is to make
repayments simpler and more efficient by
shifting to paycheck deductions, like Social
Security taxes, at a rate chosen by the
borrower, for up to 25 years. This gives
borrowers more flexibility in the short run
and the long run. University of Michigan
professors Susan Dynarski and Daniel
Kreisman, who devised the plan, figure it
would cost taxpayers no more than the
current program and might cost less.
The other thing that would really help is a
stronger economy, which would put more
debt-ridden grads into the jobs they prepared
for. Any loan terms are tough for the
unemployed and underemployed.
But the rising cost of college mainly stems
from the fact that people are willing to pay a
lot because it's so valuable, and it won't stop
going up until it declines in value or they
become more cost-conscious.
Obama says he really cares about the issue
because he and his wife paid off their loans
just 10 years ago. Obviously he wishes their
education had cost less. But note: He doesn't
say it wasn't worth it.
The government normally doesn't care
whether you or I accumulate large bills for
home improvement, a new car or exotic
vacations. But Barack Obama feels no
hesitation in concluding that the cost of
higher education has placed "too big a debt
load on too many young people." Therefore,
something must be done.
The problem with Obama's analysis is
defining "too big." Compared to what? Most
of these young people, often in conjunction
with their parents, have voluntarily
shouldered student loans to pursue their
studies. If they thought the burden was too
heavy, they didn't have to take it on.
They have done so not because they are
careless wastrels, but because they place an
accurate value on higher education. They
comprehend that it is very likely to pay for
itself and that forgoing it would be the most
costly option of all.
The president says the debt burden makes it
hard for these people "to start a family, buy a
home, launch a business or save for
retirement." But they would most likely have
even less money for those purposes had they
avoided borrowing by avoiding college.
That's because people with bachelor's degrees
make more money than people without --
nearly twice as much, on average. Not only
that, but the value of higher education has
risen substantially. Over the past 50 years,
the real value of a degree has tripled.
Some perspective is in order. Though some
students acquire huge debts, two-thirds
graduate owing $10,000 or less, and only 2
percent owe more than $50,000. Not all of the
latter need to worry. A newly minted doctor,
lawyer or MBA from a good school can expect
an income more than adequate to the need.
Obama wants to let some five million
borrowers cap their monthly repayments at
10 percent of their income and, after 20
years, be relieved of any remaining balance.
What would the change cost? "We'll figure
that out the back end," said Education
Secretary Arne Duncan, in one of the more
alarming budget projections ever issued.
The administration blames the problem on
the growing cost of higher education. It has a
point. College costs have risen much faster
than other prices. In 1973, annual resident
tuition at the University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign was $496 -- which is $2,566 in
today's money. For the 2013-2014 academic
year, the sticker price for U of I freshmen was
$11,834 -- four times more, in real terms,
than their parents might have paid.
But thinking that more federal aid will make
college affordable is like believing that a dog
can catch its tail if it goes faster. One reason
colleges charge so much more today is that
federal aid makes it easier for students to
cover the bill. The more the government does
the less reason students have to demand cost
control, and the higher tuition will climb.
Forgiving more debts after 20 years (10 for
those in "public service" jobs), as Obama
proposes, adds to the expense inflicted on
taxpayers without doing borrowers much
good in the meantime.
Among those taxed to provide these benefits
are people who earn less than college
graduates because they didn't go to college. If
it seems unfair for people to shoulder big
loans to finance their degrees, it's even more
unfair for people without degrees to share the
sacrifice.
A better idea than Obama's is to make
repayments simpler and more efficient by
shifting to paycheck deductions, like Social
Security taxes, at a rate chosen by the
borrower, for up to 25 years. This gives
borrowers more flexibility in the short run
and the long run. University of Michigan
professors Susan Dynarski and Daniel
Kreisman, who devised the plan, figure it
would cost taxpayers no more than the
current program and might cost less.
The other thing that would really help is a
stronger economy, which would put more
debt-ridden grads into the jobs they prepared
for. Any loan terms are tough for the
unemployed and underemployed.
But the rising cost of college mainly stems
from the fact that people are willing to pay a
lot because it's so valuable, and it won't stop
going up until it declines in value or they
become more cost-conscious.
Obama says he really cares about the issue
because he and his wife paid off their loans
just 10 years ago. Obviously he wishes their
education had cost less. But note: He doesn't
say it wasn't worth it.
THE IMPEACHMENT OF BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA
Kevin McCullough
When the President was first elected, I
pledged to wait from the day of his election--
to his then swearing in--to begin critique of
his public policy. I promised to do so because
in the day of the first "post racial" President I
felt it was a necessary discipline to criticize
him on policy, actions, behaviors, and
decisions rather than abstract arguments like
birth certificates and "the President is a
secret Muslim" conspiracies.
For the duration of his presidency I have kept
this rule. I have not bought into the
conspiracies, I have observed what our courts
have said about the birth certificate, and I
have narrowed my critique to what his
actions are. In my nine-week number one
political best-seller NO HE CAN'T I refined
those arguments to four specific sections of
critique--and even complimented him on an
attribute I found admirable.
None of the above has shielded me from the
irrationally insane defenders of the President
from labeling me racist, homophobic, bigoted,
and the usually invoked stuff the left throws
out when they have absolutely nothing to
debate you of substance over.
Early in his Presidency I felt his view points
were just wrong, as time went by I believed
his goals were misguided/short-sighted, as his
term continued I believed his policies were
damaging, but now I believe his decision
making is treacherous.
It is for that final item that I have publicly
now finally called for what many normal
people who listen to me on close to a 1000
affiliates a day have been saying--some for
months--that the time for impeaching
President Obama has come. They believe this
is imperatively important if the Senate is won
by the opposing party in November.
For the record I was on-the-air and on the
record supporting the impeachment of
William Jefferson Clinton. Lying to a federal
prosecutor is a felony and in every sense of
the word a felony is a high crime. But I also
believe direct imperilment of the nation--
treachery--is as well. And on the level of
treacherous acts the President's
administration stands singularly cast as the
worst Presidential administration in
American history.
Highlights as to why:
1. Fast and Furious Scandal : running high powered weapons to
major drug cartels on purpose ended up
getting border patrol personnel killed with
the same weapons in just days to weeks
following.
2. Black Panther Case Nullification: with an
actual conviction in hand against the Black
Panthers for voter intimidation, blocking the
free access to polling stations, and literal
threatening of press who showed up to cover
it, as well as those they believed to be against
the President, the administration
purposefully voids the consequences of the
behavior that was dangerous to the welfare of
the voting public.
3. 2009 State Dinner Breaches : any breach of
security is problematic but to do so more
than once is pure recklessness.
4. Benghazi Attack on 9.11.12 : No idea where
the President was during the attack from
5:16pm the night of till nearly 6:30am the
next morning. His lack of action the evening
of the battle, seems to have led to a deadly
malaise that comes with voids in leadership
vacuums.
5. The Benghazi Cover-Up : The lack of truth
telling about everything related to the attack
is a crime that still haunts the victims'
families of the ambassador, the navy seals,
and the retired air-man who all lost their
lives that night. What we know that the
President knew was that as of 5:30-5:45pm
the night of the attack, the Pentagon notified
the White House that this was not a
spontaneous demonstration, that it was
terrorism, and connected to the Muslim
Brotherhood. We know that the White House
then developed talking points--in the midst of
a contested Presidential election--that told
factually untrue things about the origin of the
attack. The Ambassador to the United
Nations--at the President's behest--told these
to the nation on five separate Sunday
morning news network broadcasts. The
President then repeated these points, along
with the Secretary of State to the victims'
families at Andrews Air Force base. The
President then repeated these false
assumptions again to the world at the United
Nations' general assembly. And even as the
military has now supposedly found and
arrested the terrorist behind the Benghazi
attack, the administration has yet to admit
that the action of 9.11.12 was an orchestrated
terror attack.
7. The Bowe Bergdahl disaster: Pretending to
obtain the "freedom" of an individual who
walked away from his unit, in betrayal of his
nation, who declared jihad against America,
and desired to become and be part of the
Taliban is a national embarrassment. But on
it's own it is an acceptance of the betrayal of
the nation. Hosting this individual's parents
in a Rose Garden ceremony, while his dad
speaks to him via television in the language
of the terrorists is unfathomable.
8. The Release of the Taliban 5: Allowing five of
the worst terrorists captured in the fight
against us, admitting that he fully believes
they will return to the fight against us, and in
a straight face attempting to argue that it was
the right thing to do defies credulity. The
problem that they have already taken visitors
from Al Qaeda, the Taliban of Pakistan, the
Taliban of Afghanistan, the Muslim
Brotherhood, Hamas and Hezbollah
demonstrates that they are far from being "in
custody" and likely are already scouting out
locales to begin planning their next
contribution to the intifada against the USA.
9. Changing the Rules of Engagement on USA
Border : With a flurry of rules being changed
and implemented in the last two weeks,
Border Patrol have been turned into a
feckless, powerless, agency that is disallowed
to do even what their name implies. And
since the rule changes have gone into effect,
hundreds per hour, and thousands per day
are violating our border's sovereignty--
among them Syrians, Egyptians, and Saudis.
10. Watching Al Qaeda Take Iraq: Forgetting
that 4000 brave Americans paid the ultimate
price to give freedom to the Iraqi people, the
greatest cost of this passive action is the
possible beginning of a testing ground for a
new Al Qaeda territory, where they may plan,
train, refine, and execute plans against the
free world. The confiscation of vehicles,
weapons, and ammunition coupled with the
robbery of up to one half billion dollars will
make defeating them difficult under any
circumstances--much less ones where a
complete lack of discernment or priorities is
understood.
Each of these ten items has contributed to the
direct treachery that we face as a people.
Each of them crossing a threshold by which
the President's actions went from being
merely offensive or damaging to the health of
the United States, to actually being dangerous
to our welfare.
One could make an argument that any of
them singularly might be grounds for
impeachment. But the sum total of their
impact collectively leaves little doubt that
whether his motives are negligent or
intentional, his decisions are not trust
worthy, and for this he deserves to be
removed from office.
When the President was first elected, I
pledged to wait from the day of his election--
to his then swearing in--to begin critique of
his public policy. I promised to do so because
in the day of the first "post racial" President I
felt it was a necessary discipline to criticize
him on policy, actions, behaviors, and
decisions rather than abstract arguments like
birth certificates and "the President is a
secret Muslim" conspiracies.
For the duration of his presidency I have kept
this rule. I have not bought into the
conspiracies, I have observed what our courts
have said about the birth certificate, and I
have narrowed my critique to what his
actions are. In my nine-week number one
political best-seller NO HE CAN'T I refined
those arguments to four specific sections of
critique--and even complimented him on an
attribute I found admirable.
None of the above has shielded me from the
irrationally insane defenders of the President
from labeling me racist, homophobic, bigoted,
and the usually invoked stuff the left throws
out when they have absolutely nothing to
debate you of substance over.
Early in his Presidency I felt his view points
were just wrong, as time went by I believed
his goals were misguided/short-sighted, as his
term continued I believed his policies were
damaging, but now I believe his decision
making is treacherous.
It is for that final item that I have publicly
now finally called for what many normal
people who listen to me on close to a 1000
affiliates a day have been saying--some for
months--that the time for impeaching
President Obama has come. They believe this
is imperatively important if the Senate is won
by the opposing party in November.
For the record I was on-the-air and on the
record supporting the impeachment of
William Jefferson Clinton. Lying to a federal
prosecutor is a felony and in every sense of
the word a felony is a high crime. But I also
believe direct imperilment of the nation--
treachery--is as well. And on the level of
treacherous acts the President's
administration stands singularly cast as the
worst Presidential administration in
American history.
Highlights as to why:
1. Fast and Furious Scandal : running high powered weapons to
major drug cartels on purpose ended up
getting border patrol personnel killed with
the same weapons in just days to weeks
following.
2. Black Panther Case Nullification: with an
actual conviction in hand against the Black
Panthers for voter intimidation, blocking the
free access to polling stations, and literal
threatening of press who showed up to cover
it, as well as those they believed to be against
the President, the administration
purposefully voids the consequences of the
behavior that was dangerous to the welfare of
the voting public.
3. 2009 State Dinner Breaches : any breach of
security is problematic but to do so more
than once is pure recklessness.
4. Benghazi Attack on 9.11.12 : No idea where
the President was during the attack from
5:16pm the night of till nearly 6:30am the
next morning. His lack of action the evening
of the battle, seems to have led to a deadly
malaise that comes with voids in leadership
vacuums.
5. The Benghazi Cover-Up : The lack of truth
telling about everything related to the attack
is a crime that still haunts the victims'
families of the ambassador, the navy seals,
and the retired air-man who all lost their
lives that night. What we know that the
President knew was that as of 5:30-5:45pm
the night of the attack, the Pentagon notified
the White House that this was not a
spontaneous demonstration, that it was
terrorism, and connected to the Muslim
Brotherhood. We know that the White House
then developed talking points--in the midst of
a contested Presidential election--that told
factually untrue things about the origin of the
attack. The Ambassador to the United
Nations--at the President's behest--told these
to the nation on five separate Sunday
morning news network broadcasts. The
President then repeated these points, along
with the Secretary of State to the victims'
families at Andrews Air Force base. The
President then repeated these false
assumptions again to the world at the United
Nations' general assembly. And even as the
military has now supposedly found and
arrested the terrorist behind the Benghazi
attack, the administration has yet to admit
that the action of 9.11.12 was an orchestrated
terror attack.
7. The Bowe Bergdahl disaster: Pretending to
obtain the "freedom" of an individual who
walked away from his unit, in betrayal of his
nation, who declared jihad against America,
and desired to become and be part of the
Taliban is a national embarrassment. But on
it's own it is an acceptance of the betrayal of
the nation. Hosting this individual's parents
in a Rose Garden ceremony, while his dad
speaks to him via television in the language
of the terrorists is unfathomable.
8. The Release of the Taliban 5: Allowing five of
the worst terrorists captured in the fight
against us, admitting that he fully believes
they will return to the fight against us, and in
a straight face attempting to argue that it was
the right thing to do defies credulity. The
problem that they have already taken visitors
from Al Qaeda, the Taliban of Pakistan, the
Taliban of Afghanistan, the Muslim
Brotherhood, Hamas and Hezbollah
demonstrates that they are far from being "in
custody" and likely are already scouting out
locales to begin planning their next
contribution to the intifada against the USA.
9. Changing the Rules of Engagement on USA
Border : With a flurry of rules being changed
and implemented in the last two weeks,
Border Patrol have been turned into a
feckless, powerless, agency that is disallowed
to do even what their name implies. And
since the rule changes have gone into effect,
hundreds per hour, and thousands per day
are violating our border's sovereignty--
among them Syrians, Egyptians, and Saudis.
10. Watching Al Qaeda Take Iraq: Forgetting
that 4000 brave Americans paid the ultimate
price to give freedom to the Iraqi people, the
greatest cost of this passive action is the
possible beginning of a testing ground for a
new Al Qaeda territory, where they may plan,
train, refine, and execute plans against the
free world. The confiscation of vehicles,
weapons, and ammunition coupled with the
robbery of up to one half billion dollars will
make defeating them difficult under any
circumstances--much less ones where a
complete lack of discernment or priorities is
understood.
Each of these ten items has contributed to the
direct treachery that we face as a people.
Each of them crossing a threshold by which
the President's actions went from being
merely offensive or damaging to the health of
the United States, to actually being dangerous
to our welfare.
One could make an argument that any of
them singularly might be grounds for
impeachment. But the sum total of their
impact collectively leaves little doubt that
whether his motives are negligent or
intentional, his decisions are not trust
worthy, and for this he deserves to be
removed from office.
PUTIN PREPARING TO COME TO IRAQ'S RESCUE
Night Watch
Iraq: Situation update. News sources indicate
that some Iraqi government forces remain in
the Baiji refinery complex, but are
surrounded. Fighting also continues at Tal
Afar in the northwest, where another Iraqi
army unit remains.
Fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the
Levant (ISIL) also are engaged with Kurdish
militiamen south of Kirkuk.
Comment: Ultra-extreme Islamist propaganda
still warns that the terrorists intend to attack
Baghdad, but thus far they continue to work
on consolidating the territory they claim to
control. Multiple news services reported that
Iraq is assembling forces and making
preparations for a large counter-offensive to
take back the north.
Russia: Russian President Vladimir Putin
spoke with Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki
over the phone and expressed his support for
Iraq.
"Putin confirmed Russia's complete support
for the efforts of the Iraqi government to
speedily liberate the territory of the republic
from terrorists," according to a Russian
statement released after the phone call.
Comment: Longstanding Russian interests
were disrupted by the US intervention. In the
last three years, Putin has been rebuilding
Russian ties with Iraq through arms
assistance. The Iraqi helicopter gunships that
are mentioned occasionally by the news
media were bought from Russia last year in
an arms contract worth more $4.3 billion.
Iraq purchased at least 40 Russian
helicopters, including Mi-28 NE Night
Hunters.
The first Russian-trained Iraqi pilots, crews
and technicians completed training last
autumn. Without those gunships, Iraq would
have little to no air power to bring against
ISIL and its supporters.
Turkey: Thinking about a Kurdish state . Turkish
political analysts and politicians are
rethinking their longstanding hostility to the
formation of an independent Kurdish state.
This is a reaction to the ISIL incursion and
the partial Sunni rebellion in northern Iraq.
One official said, "It has become clear for us
that Iraq has practically become divided into
three parts."
Comment: Kurdestan's stability has proven
beneficial and profitable for Turkey. The
Kurds made their second major sale of oil
today. Kurdish oil is exported through
Turkey. The ISIL incursion reportedly has
prompted Kurdish insurgents in Turkey to
return to Iraq's Kurdish autonomous region
to help defend it. Iran and the Kurdish region
are the only stable geo-political entities on
Turkey's southern and southeastern borders.
Turkey has opposed the formation of an
independent Kurdish state because Turkish
leaders judged it would pose an instability
threat to Turkey's Kurdish region. Now, even
in Ankara, the idea of redrawing the borders
of Iraq is more acceptable than it was before
the ISIL incursion. A change in Turkey's
policy from hostility to support of a Kurdish
state would be more revolutionary than the
creation of a Sunni state in Iraq.
Ukraine: Situation update. President
Poroshenko ordered his forces to cease fire
today and to halt military operations in
eastern Ukraine for a week. This is part of
Petroshenko's peace plan.
Russia immediately dismissed the peace plan,
saying that it looks like an ultimatum and
lacks an offer to start talks with the
insurgents.
Ukrainian parliamentary speaker Oleksandr
Turchynov said on 20 June that Ukrainian
security forces have shut down the
Ukrainian-Russian border. Petroshenko
promised the border would be closed by the
end of this week.
Russia: The US State Department spokesperson
said that the US has information that
additional tanks have been prepared for
departure. The US also said it has
information that Russia has accumulated
artillery at a deployment site in southwest
Russia, including a type of artillery utilized
by Ukrainian forces but no longer in Russia's
active forces.
Comment: Separatists reported that Ukrainian
forces ceased firing near Slavyansk, but
conditions at other cities were not clear. The
purpose of the ceasefire is to allow separatists
to surrender and give up their weapons.
The Russian leaders distrust Petroshenko
because he refuses to talk with the
separatists. Russia appears to be making
preparations to provide military equipment
support to the separatists that will enable
them to withstand the Ukrainian offensive
and compel Petroshenko to negotiate with
them.
If the Russians decide to send military
equipment to the separatists, Ukrainian
border guards would be noimpediment.
Iraq: Situation update. News sources indicate
that some Iraqi government forces remain in
the Baiji refinery complex, but are
surrounded. Fighting also continues at Tal
Afar in the northwest, where another Iraqi
army unit remains.
Fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the
Levant (ISIL) also are engaged with Kurdish
militiamen south of Kirkuk.
Comment: Ultra-extreme Islamist propaganda
still warns that the terrorists intend to attack
Baghdad, but thus far they continue to work
on consolidating the territory they claim to
control. Multiple news services reported that
Iraq is assembling forces and making
preparations for a large counter-offensive to
take back the north.
Russia: Russian President Vladimir Putin
spoke with Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki
over the phone and expressed his support for
Iraq.
"Putin confirmed Russia's complete support
for the efforts of the Iraqi government to
speedily liberate the territory of the republic
from terrorists," according to a Russian
statement released after the phone call.
Comment: Longstanding Russian interests
were disrupted by the US intervention. In the
last three years, Putin has been rebuilding
Russian ties with Iraq through arms
assistance. The Iraqi helicopter gunships that
are mentioned occasionally by the news
media were bought from Russia last year in
an arms contract worth more $4.3 billion.
Iraq purchased at least 40 Russian
helicopters, including Mi-28 NE Night
Hunters.
The first Russian-trained Iraqi pilots, crews
and technicians completed training last
autumn. Without those gunships, Iraq would
have little to no air power to bring against
ISIL and its supporters.
Turkey: Thinking about a Kurdish state . Turkish
political analysts and politicians are
rethinking their longstanding hostility to the
formation of an independent Kurdish state.
This is a reaction to the ISIL incursion and
the partial Sunni rebellion in northern Iraq.
One official said, "It has become clear for us
that Iraq has practically become divided into
three parts."
Comment: Kurdestan's stability has proven
beneficial and profitable for Turkey. The
Kurds made their second major sale of oil
today. Kurdish oil is exported through
Turkey. The ISIL incursion reportedly has
prompted Kurdish insurgents in Turkey to
return to Iraq's Kurdish autonomous region
to help defend it. Iran and the Kurdish region
are the only stable geo-political entities on
Turkey's southern and southeastern borders.
Turkey has opposed the formation of an
independent Kurdish state because Turkish
leaders judged it would pose an instability
threat to Turkey's Kurdish region. Now, even
in Ankara, the idea of redrawing the borders
of Iraq is more acceptable than it was before
the ISIL incursion. A change in Turkey's
policy from hostility to support of a Kurdish
state would be more revolutionary than the
creation of a Sunni state in Iraq.
Ukraine: Situation update. President
Poroshenko ordered his forces to cease fire
today and to halt military operations in
eastern Ukraine for a week. This is part of
Petroshenko's peace plan.
Russia immediately dismissed the peace plan,
saying that it looks like an ultimatum and
lacks an offer to start talks with the
insurgents.
Ukrainian parliamentary speaker Oleksandr
Turchynov said on 20 June that Ukrainian
security forces have shut down the
Ukrainian-Russian border. Petroshenko
promised the border would be closed by the
end of this week.
Russia: The US State Department spokesperson
said that the US has information that
additional tanks have been prepared for
departure. The US also said it has
information that Russia has accumulated
artillery at a deployment site in southwest
Russia, including a type of artillery utilized
by Ukrainian forces but no longer in Russia's
active forces.
Comment: Separatists reported that Ukrainian
forces ceased firing near Slavyansk, but
conditions at other cities were not clear. The
purpose of the ceasefire is to allow separatists
to surrender and give up their weapons.
The Russian leaders distrust Petroshenko
because he refuses to talk with the
separatists. Russia appears to be making
preparations to provide military equipment
support to the separatists that will enable
them to withstand the Ukrainian offensive
and compel Petroshenko to negotiate with
them.
If the Russians decide to send military
equipment to the separatists, Ukrainian
border guards would be noimpediment.
CONNECTING THE DOTS OF PRESIDENT OBAMA
Michael Youssef
Let me just say that President Obama is
probably not a Muslim, but not a Christian,
either. Most likely, he’s agnostic. Politics is
his religion.
That doesn’t mean that he doesn’t possess
strong loyalties. Many people are afraid to
discuss those loyalties, however, lest they be
branded some type of crazy “Obama is a
Muslim” truther.
But let me throw out twenty “dots” and see if
you can connect them into a pattern:
1. Barack Obama spent part of his childhood
in Indonesia, stepson to a Muslim. His
natural father was born as a Muslim in
Kenya.
2. Obama romantically reminisces about his
fond memories of hearing the "izan," or
the Muslim call to prayer, echoing from a
nearby mosque each day.
3. One of his closest friends in Chicago is a
member of the Hamas terror group,
funded in part by Qatar.
4. Obama claims to embrace the Christian
faith, however, he attended a churchfor
20 years where he was taught by a
preacher who sees Islam and Christianity
on par with each other.
5. During his 2008 campaign, Mr. Obama
saw himself as the defender of Islam in
America and promised to eliminate
prejudices against Muslims (something I
have never witnessed).
6. He asked the head of NASA (yes, NASA!) to
ensure the defense of Islamic causes and
to help improve their reputation.
7. Among his first overseas trips as President
of the United States were to Muslim
countries with secular governments:
Turkey and Egypt.
8. In Turkey, he declared that America was
not a Christian nation.
9. In Egypt, he humiliated his host, then-
president of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, by
insisting that the Muslim Brotherhood, an
outlawed Islamist group, occupy the front
seats for his "lecture" at Cairo University.
10. President Obama has largely ignored the
U.S. National Day of Prayer , which was
signed into law by President Harry
Truman and is recognized on the first
Thursday of May.
11. Conversely, he has annually hosted
Islamic leaders for an "iftar" during the
Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
12. In 2011, he forced a sovereign nation
(Egypt) under U.S. influence to accept a
member of the Muslim Brotherhood as its
new president, despite unofficial results
that showed his opponent had actually
won by a slight margin.
13. Then, after the subsequent collapse of the
Muslim Brotherhood government in
Egypt, Mr. Obama continued to support
the terrorist group - going against more
than 30 million Egyptians who had sought
to oust that illigitimate government.
14. He suspended aid to Egypt in retaliation
for ousting the Muslim Brotherhood cabal
from power - aid that was agreed upon
more than 30 years prior.
15. President Obama failed to bring to justice
the Islamist killers of the U.S. Ambassador
to Libya and three others. [This article
was written before the capture of Ahmed
Abu Khattala ]
16. Mr. Obama has recognized the Hamas
coalition Palestinian government, to
Israel's deep disappointment, despite our
government's repeated official
designation of Hamas as a terror
organization.
17. In at least four cases, he appointed
Muslim Brotherhood-sympathizers to his
administration, instead of more moderate
or secular American Muslims.
18. He met personally with the Emir of Qatar
at the 2014 West Point graduation
ceremony, who was supposedly there to
witness the first Qatari obtain a military
bachelor degree from West Point. Qatar
funds various Islamic terrorist groups
around the world, plus they host almost
every Islamist terror misfit group in their
country (including the Muslim
Brotherhood). Qatar has offended so
many Arab countries that even Saudi
Arabia threatened to blockade it.
19. Now President Obama has entrusted Qatar
with five known terrorists released from
Guantanamo Bay, which he secretly
exchanged for an Army deserter.
20. To top all that off, the father of the Army
dererter claimed the White House for
Islam by naming the name of Allah
during his speech at the Rose Garden.
For those who know me, it won’t come as a
surprise when I say that I love the Muslim
people. I grew up with them, and I have spent
lots of time and money to share the love of
Christ with them. But this article isn’t about
how we should feel toward Muslims.
I have put forward those twenty “dots” so
readers can try to connect them and
understand how we are governed. It’s
important to have a clear picture of where
we’ve been and where we’re going.
During an election year, every citizen needs
to be informed about the decisions of our
government. We must take a hard look at
every candidate, regardless of political
affiliation. Congress has the power to affirm
or restrain the direction we are headed in.
Let me just say that President Obama is
probably not a Muslim, but not a Christian,
either. Most likely, he’s agnostic. Politics is
his religion.
That doesn’t mean that he doesn’t possess
strong loyalties. Many people are afraid to
discuss those loyalties, however, lest they be
branded some type of crazy “Obama is a
Muslim” truther.
But let me throw out twenty “dots” and see if
you can connect them into a pattern:
1. Barack Obama spent part of his childhood
in Indonesia, stepson to a Muslim. His
natural father was born as a Muslim in
Kenya.
2. Obama romantically reminisces about his
fond memories of hearing the "izan," or
the Muslim call to prayer, echoing from a
nearby mosque each day.
3. One of his closest friends in Chicago is a
member of the Hamas terror group,
funded in part by Qatar.
4. Obama claims to embrace the Christian
faith, however, he attended a churchfor
20 years where he was taught by a
preacher who sees Islam and Christianity
on par with each other.
5. During his 2008 campaign, Mr. Obama
saw himself as the defender of Islam in
America and promised to eliminate
prejudices against Muslims (something I
have never witnessed).
6. He asked the head of NASA (yes, NASA!) to
ensure the defense of Islamic causes and
to help improve their reputation.
7. Among his first overseas trips as President
of the United States were to Muslim
countries with secular governments:
Turkey and Egypt.
8. In Turkey, he declared that America was
not a Christian nation.
9. In Egypt, he humiliated his host, then-
president of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, by
insisting that the Muslim Brotherhood, an
outlawed Islamist group, occupy the front
seats for his "lecture" at Cairo University.
10. President Obama has largely ignored the
U.S. National Day of Prayer , which was
signed into law by President Harry
Truman and is recognized on the first
Thursday of May.
11. Conversely, he has annually hosted
Islamic leaders for an "iftar" during the
Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
12. In 2011, he forced a sovereign nation
(Egypt) under U.S. influence to accept a
member of the Muslim Brotherhood as its
new president, despite unofficial results
that showed his opponent had actually
won by a slight margin.
13. Then, after the subsequent collapse of the
Muslim Brotherhood government in
Egypt, Mr. Obama continued to support
the terrorist group - going against more
than 30 million Egyptians who had sought
to oust that illigitimate government.
14. He suspended aid to Egypt in retaliation
for ousting the Muslim Brotherhood cabal
from power - aid that was agreed upon
more than 30 years prior.
15. President Obama failed to bring to justice
the Islamist killers of the U.S. Ambassador
to Libya and three others. [This article
was written before the capture of Ahmed
Abu Khattala ]
16. Mr. Obama has recognized the Hamas
coalition Palestinian government, to
Israel's deep disappointment, despite our
government's repeated official
designation of Hamas as a terror
organization.
17. In at least four cases, he appointed
Muslim Brotherhood-sympathizers to his
administration, instead of more moderate
or secular American Muslims.
18. He met personally with the Emir of Qatar
at the 2014 West Point graduation
ceremony, who was supposedly there to
witness the first Qatari obtain a military
bachelor degree from West Point. Qatar
funds various Islamic terrorist groups
around the world, plus they host almost
every Islamist terror misfit group in their
country (including the Muslim
Brotherhood). Qatar has offended so
many Arab countries that even Saudi
Arabia threatened to blockade it.
19. Now President Obama has entrusted Qatar
with five known terrorists released from
Guantanamo Bay, which he secretly
exchanged for an Army deserter.
20. To top all that off, the father of the Army
dererter claimed the White House for
Islam by naming the name of Allah
during his speech at the Rose Garden.
For those who know me, it won’t come as a
surprise when I say that I love the Muslim
people. I grew up with them, and I have spent
lots of time and money to share the love of
Christ with them. But this article isn’t about
how we should feel toward Muslims.
I have put forward those twenty “dots” so
readers can try to connect them and
understand how we are governed. It’s
important to have a clear picture of where
we’ve been and where we’re going.
During an election year, every citizen needs
to be informed about the decisions of our
government. We must take a hard look at
every candidate, regardless of political
affiliation. Congress has the power to affirm
or restrain the direction we are headed in.
THE UN-DUPING OF AMERICA
Sarah Perry
Gov. Mary Fallin of Oklahoma has done what
might once have been improbable, and
signed a bill removing from the Sooner State
every vestige of the Common Core State
Standards Initiative.
Oklahoma is just the latest state to mount a
legislative revolt against Common Core. It
appears the scales are off the eyes of an
increasing number of Americans, those who
were made to believe that federal meddling
in education was best for their children, best
for commerce, and perhaps most critically,
their own idea. They were sold whole cloth
on the concept that all state educational
benchmarks needed to be chucked in favor of
an initiative that arose from corporate edu-
crats whose interests were intrinsically tied
to the standards themselves; standards that in
the words of Bill Gates, Common Core’s
money man, were geared toward creating a
“ large uniform base of customers.”
Indiana led the way when it formally
withdrew from the Common Core State
Standards Initiative in March. In an effort to
retain federal funding and No Child Left
Behind Waivers, Gov. Mike Pence substituted
standards “ by Hoosiers, for Hoosiers ” that
were nothing more than a simple re-branding
of the previous Core material.
Despite this, Indiana’s withdrawal is proving
to be the critical crack in the fed-led
education dam. On Indiana’s heels, law
makers in South Carolina, North Carolina,
Missouri, and Oklahoma have taken up the
cause, and passed legislation to withdraw
from the Core Standards.
South Carolina’s Gov. Nikki Haley made clear
her enmity for the Standards from the start,
stating that she would continue to fight
implementation of the Core “ until it’s no
longer part of our school system’s
curriculum .” On May 30th, she made good on
that promise, signing into law H 3893 that
required the development of new, non-Core
standards by the 2015-2016 academic year.
Shortly thereafter on June 5, Gov. Mary Fallin
of Oklahoma signed HB 3399 nullifying
Common Core in her state. As the chair of the
National Governor’s Association – the
organization that co-sponsored the initiative
and holds the copyright to the Standards –
her decision to dump them is a political wild
card. The bill ensures the standards are
meticulously compared with previous Core
standards so there isn’t a back-door re-
introduction, as per Indiana. Fallin stated,
“What should have been a bipartisan policy
is now widely regarded as the president’s
plan to establish federal control of curricula,
testing and teaching strategies.”
HB 1061 was filed in North Carolina with the
strong support of Lt. Gov. Dan Forest who
also serves on the state education board, and
who has made vocal his support for the
elimination of Core standards in favor of
those drafted from scratch by the State Board.
Similar legislation is currently under
consideration in the Senate. While Missouri
Gov. Jay Nixon hasn’t indicated which way
he leans on his state’s bill , if ratified, the
legislation would allow teachers to continue
using any recently adopted standards while a
committee of educators, parents, and
business leaders develops new standards to
be put into effect in two years. Louisiana's
Gov. Bobby Jindal has revised his original
position on Core, and is now considering
executive action to withdraw his state from
the Standards and the PARCC testing
consortium that would administer uniform
tests based on those standards, stating : "We
can have rigorous standards without giving
control to the federal government. Parents
deserve a voice in this debate."
And on it goes.
It may well be that the privacy-violating
databases required by the Core program are
tipping the scales against it. The Department
of Education’s Faustian report of February
2013 elucidates federally funded and
mandated student databases that not only
include academic information, but can
similarly be used to create a personal dossier
comprised of “ health-care history,
disciplinary record, family income range,
family voting status, and religious
affiliation .” The DOE report seeks to
catalogue “ attributes, dispositions, social
skills, attitudes, and intrapersonal resources,
independent of intellectual ability ,” under the
guise of tracked and tailor-made academic
rigor.
If this period of American wakefulness has
taught us anything, it’s that despite the lure of
language like “rigorous” and “benchmarked,”
or the pledge of success in “college, career
and life,” We The People will only be fooled
once.
Gov. Mary Fallin of Oklahoma has done what
might once have been improbable, and
signed a bill removing from the Sooner State
every vestige of the Common Core State
Standards Initiative.
Oklahoma is just the latest state to mount a
legislative revolt against Common Core. It
appears the scales are off the eyes of an
increasing number of Americans, those who
were made to believe that federal meddling
in education was best for their children, best
for commerce, and perhaps most critically,
their own idea. They were sold whole cloth
on the concept that all state educational
benchmarks needed to be chucked in favor of
an initiative that arose from corporate edu-
crats whose interests were intrinsically tied
to the standards themselves; standards that in
the words of Bill Gates, Common Core’s
money man, were geared toward creating a
“ large uniform base of customers.”
Indiana led the way when it formally
withdrew from the Common Core State
Standards Initiative in March. In an effort to
retain federal funding and No Child Left
Behind Waivers, Gov. Mike Pence substituted
standards “ by Hoosiers, for Hoosiers ” that
were nothing more than a simple re-branding
of the previous Core material.
Despite this, Indiana’s withdrawal is proving
to be the critical crack in the fed-led
education dam. On Indiana’s heels, law
makers in South Carolina, North Carolina,
Missouri, and Oklahoma have taken up the
cause, and passed legislation to withdraw
from the Core Standards.
South Carolina’s Gov. Nikki Haley made clear
her enmity for the Standards from the start,
stating that she would continue to fight
implementation of the Core “ until it’s no
longer part of our school system’s
curriculum .” On May 30th, she made good on
that promise, signing into law H 3893 that
required the development of new, non-Core
standards by the 2015-2016 academic year.
Shortly thereafter on June 5, Gov. Mary Fallin
of Oklahoma signed HB 3399 nullifying
Common Core in her state. As the chair of the
National Governor’s Association – the
organization that co-sponsored the initiative
and holds the copyright to the Standards –
her decision to dump them is a political wild
card. The bill ensures the standards are
meticulously compared with previous Core
standards so there isn’t a back-door re-
introduction, as per Indiana. Fallin stated,
“What should have been a bipartisan policy
is now widely regarded as the president’s
plan to establish federal control of curricula,
testing and teaching strategies.”
HB 1061 was filed in North Carolina with the
strong support of Lt. Gov. Dan Forest who
also serves on the state education board, and
who has made vocal his support for the
elimination of Core standards in favor of
those drafted from scratch by the State Board.
Similar legislation is currently under
consideration in the Senate. While Missouri
Gov. Jay Nixon hasn’t indicated which way
he leans on his state’s bill , if ratified, the
legislation would allow teachers to continue
using any recently adopted standards while a
committee of educators, parents, and
business leaders develops new standards to
be put into effect in two years. Louisiana's
Gov. Bobby Jindal has revised his original
position on Core, and is now considering
executive action to withdraw his state from
the Standards and the PARCC testing
consortium that would administer uniform
tests based on those standards, stating : "We
can have rigorous standards without giving
control to the federal government. Parents
deserve a voice in this debate."
And on it goes.
It may well be that the privacy-violating
databases required by the Core program are
tipping the scales against it. The Department
of Education’s Faustian report of February
2013 elucidates federally funded and
mandated student databases that not only
include academic information, but can
similarly be used to create a personal dossier
comprised of “ health-care history,
disciplinary record, family income range,
family voting status, and religious
affiliation .” The DOE report seeks to
catalogue “ attributes, dispositions, social
skills, attitudes, and intrapersonal resources,
independent of intellectual ability ,” under the
guise of tracked and tailor-made academic
rigor.
If this period of American wakefulness has
taught us anything, it’s that despite the lure of
language like “rigorous” and “benchmarked,”
or the pledge of success in “college, career
and life,” We The People will only be fooled
once.
21 Jun 2014
ISIL GAIN MORE FOLLOWERS THROUGHOUT THE MIDDLE-EAST
Night Watch
China-Vietnam: Today Vietnamese press
reported that Beijing announced it was
towing a second drilling rig into the South
China Sea.
According to a statement posted on the
website of China's Maritime Safety
Administration, the rig will be towed between
18 and 20 June and is currently 104 nautical
miles northeast of Da Nang and 60 nautical
miles from China's Hainan Island.
Yesterday, China's State Councilor Yang Jiechi
arrived in Hanoi on Wednesday to engage in
talks with Vietnam's top leaders -- Party Chief
Nguyen Phu Trong, Prime Minister Nguyen
Tan Dung, and Deputy PM and Foreign
Minister Pham Binh Minh -- about the oil rig
issue.
Comment: It is unclear whether Chinese
actions and announcements are
uncoordinated or deliberately calculated to
provoke the Southeast Asian leaders. Either
way, the Chinese leaders do not seem to care.
They send diplomats, but they have no
authority to negotiate issues of sovereignty or
to commit China to any policy or practice
inconsistent with its claims of sovereignty.
Their task is to persuade the Southeast Asians
to accept the Chinese position and to warn
against violent escalation.
Iraq: The status of the Baiji refinery remains
unclear. Eyewitnesses told the press that they
saw black militant flags flying over the
refinery at Baiji. An Iraqi general said the
government force protecting the refinery was
still inside Thursday and that the force was in
regular contact with Baghdad. The refinery's
workers had been evacuated to nearby
villages, he said.
Helicopter gunships flew over the refinery to
stop any militant advance, the general said.
The ultra-extremists reportedly took over a
building just outside the refinery and were
using it to fire at the government forces.
Samarra. Fighting continues for control of
Samarra, which is the site of the Shiite shrine
to Imam Ali al-Hadi and to his son Imam al-
Askari. Police reported that Sunni militants
fired rocket or mortar rounds towards the
shrine complex, injuring 14 people. The
shrine is undamaged.
Comment: Control of Samarra has important
bearing on outside intervention by Iran and
Lebanese Hizballah because of the Shiite
shrine. Sunni militants damaged the mosque
in February 2006 and in June and July 2007.
That led to sectarian vengeance killings in
which thousands died.
Baghdad. Officials reported more instances of
sectarian murder.
Police and morgue officials said the bodies of
four men were discovered in the Shiite
Baghdad district of Abu Dashir on Thursday.
The bodies were handcuffed and had gunshot
wounds to the head and chest. The officials
presumed they were Sunnis.
A roadside bomb hit a police patrol on a
highway in the east of Baghdad, killing two
police officers and wounding two. A car bomb
also exploded inside a parking lot in
Baghdad's southeastern Shiite neighborhood
of New Baghdad, killing three people and
wounding seven.
Politics. Al-Maliki rejected a US request that
he step down because he was re-elected in
the April elections. His party is entitled to
form a government. He accused the US of
meddling in Iraqi internal affairs.
Comment: There are no reports of ISIL
movements into Baghdad.
Ripple Effects from Iraq
Syria: Tribal leaders in Aleppo said today that
they would ally with ISIL and obey the
group's orders, following a meeting with ISIL
leaders. At the meeting, ISIL's spokesmen
talked about their future plans, calling ISIL a
global association.
Other subjects included the increase in ISIL's
support among Iraqis and providing aid to
civilians. ISIL also called on the leaders of the
Elbu Hamis, Beni Said, el-Avan and el-Ganim
tribes to respect and apply Sharia law. In a
joint statement after the meeting, tribal
leaders said they would help ISIL fight to
establish a new Islamic state across Iraq and
Syria.
Comment: Since Syrian government forces
and Hizballah militiamen control much of
Aleppo, this statement looks mostly like a
propaganda ploy. Two points, however, are
worth noting. First is ISIL's claim that it now
is a global association. That calls to mind al
Qaida, as an association or company.
The second point is that pro-militant
propaganda increasingly focuses on erasing
the national boundaries set by the colonial
powers in 1916. That idea is becoming
popular among Arabs.
Lebanon: Hizballah will fight in Iraq. Hasan
Nasrallah, the secretary general of the
Lebanese Hizballah, threatened that his party
would not hesitate to take part in the ongoing
fighting in Iraq if a need arises there. Hasan
Nasrallah told the press that Hizballah is
willing to sacrifice five times as much as it
sacrificed in Syria in order to protect the
holy shrines in Iraq.
Comment: Lebanese Hizballah sent fighters to
Iraq in the mid-2000's to support Shiites
fighting against the Sunni rebels. Nasrallah's
threats are not idle.
ISIL shows no signs of moving against
Baghdad, much less the Karbala and Najaf
south of Baghdad. An ISIL attack at Samarra,
however, 78 miles north of Baghdad, might
test Nasrallah's commitment again.
Egypt: Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis (Supporters of
the Holy House) posted a statement on the
Web that it will attack Americans in Egypt if
the US attacks ISIL in Iraq.
Comment : Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis is an
Egyptian terrorist group that is responsible
for many of the attacks against Egyptian
forces and interests in Sinai during the past
three years. Since the overthrow of the Mursi
regime, it has become more active and
bolder, attacking outside Sinai. It claimed
responsibility for a bombing attack In Cairo
in January. It is reported to have support
from the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.
An increased threat to American citizens
abroad is one of the predictable ripple effects
of US intervention in the Iraq crisis.
Ukraine: Politics. Today, Ukrainian President
Poroshenko said he would sign an association
agreement with the European Union (EU) on
27 June.
Petroshenko also spoke by telephone with
Russian President Putin today. The Ukrainian
presidential website claims Petroshenko was
firm in demanding and expected Russian
support for his peace plan.
Comment: The Russian version of the talk was
slightly different. Putin stressed that
Ukrainian security operations must stop
immediately. Neither side mentioned whether
they discussed the EU association agreement.
Differences over Ukraine's association with
the EU started the crisis and led to Crimean
secession. Russian leaders do not appear to
have softened their opposition to a pro-
Western Ukraine.
Security. Ukrainian forces continued
operations and claimed to have killed
hundreds of separatists in an armored attack.
No ceasefire exists. Separatists renewed their
plea for Russian assistance. NATO sources
reported another build-up of Russian forces
near the border of eastern Ukraine.
The militiamen of the Donetsk People's
Republic claimed they shot down a Ukrainian
Su-25 ground support aircraft during a battle
for the village of Yampil, north of Donetsk
Region.
Comment: If the aircraft shoot down claim is
confirmed, it would suggest the militiamen
are using more sophisticated air defense
missiles. They might become capable of
degrading Ukraine's air superiority.
China-Vietnam: Today Vietnamese press
reported that Beijing announced it was
towing a second drilling rig into the South
China Sea.
According to a statement posted on the
website of China's Maritime Safety
Administration, the rig will be towed between
18 and 20 June and is currently 104 nautical
miles northeast of Da Nang and 60 nautical
miles from China's Hainan Island.
Yesterday, China's State Councilor Yang Jiechi
arrived in Hanoi on Wednesday to engage in
talks with Vietnam's top leaders -- Party Chief
Nguyen Phu Trong, Prime Minister Nguyen
Tan Dung, and Deputy PM and Foreign
Minister Pham Binh Minh -- about the oil rig
issue.
Comment: It is unclear whether Chinese
actions and announcements are
uncoordinated or deliberately calculated to
provoke the Southeast Asian leaders. Either
way, the Chinese leaders do not seem to care.
They send diplomats, but they have no
authority to negotiate issues of sovereignty or
to commit China to any policy or practice
inconsistent with its claims of sovereignty.
Their task is to persuade the Southeast Asians
to accept the Chinese position and to warn
against violent escalation.
Iraq: The status of the Baiji refinery remains
unclear. Eyewitnesses told the press that they
saw black militant flags flying over the
refinery at Baiji. An Iraqi general said the
government force protecting the refinery was
still inside Thursday and that the force was in
regular contact with Baghdad. The refinery's
workers had been evacuated to nearby
villages, he said.
Helicopter gunships flew over the refinery to
stop any militant advance, the general said.
The ultra-extremists reportedly took over a
building just outside the refinery and were
using it to fire at the government forces.
Samarra. Fighting continues for control of
Samarra, which is the site of the Shiite shrine
to Imam Ali al-Hadi and to his son Imam al-
Askari. Police reported that Sunni militants
fired rocket or mortar rounds towards the
shrine complex, injuring 14 people. The
shrine is undamaged.
Comment: Control of Samarra has important
bearing on outside intervention by Iran and
Lebanese Hizballah because of the Shiite
shrine. Sunni militants damaged the mosque
in February 2006 and in June and July 2007.
That led to sectarian vengeance killings in
which thousands died.
Baghdad. Officials reported more instances of
sectarian murder.
Police and morgue officials said the bodies of
four men were discovered in the Shiite
Baghdad district of Abu Dashir on Thursday.
The bodies were handcuffed and had gunshot
wounds to the head and chest. The officials
presumed they were Sunnis.
A roadside bomb hit a police patrol on a
highway in the east of Baghdad, killing two
police officers and wounding two. A car bomb
also exploded inside a parking lot in
Baghdad's southeastern Shiite neighborhood
of New Baghdad, killing three people and
wounding seven.
Politics. Al-Maliki rejected a US request that
he step down because he was re-elected in
the April elections. His party is entitled to
form a government. He accused the US of
meddling in Iraqi internal affairs.
Comment: There are no reports of ISIL
movements into Baghdad.
Ripple Effects from Iraq
Syria: Tribal leaders in Aleppo said today that
they would ally with ISIL and obey the
group's orders, following a meeting with ISIL
leaders. At the meeting, ISIL's spokesmen
talked about their future plans, calling ISIL a
global association.
Other subjects included the increase in ISIL's
support among Iraqis and providing aid to
civilians. ISIL also called on the leaders of the
Elbu Hamis, Beni Said, el-Avan and el-Ganim
tribes to respect and apply Sharia law. In a
joint statement after the meeting, tribal
leaders said they would help ISIL fight to
establish a new Islamic state across Iraq and
Syria.
Comment: Since Syrian government forces
and Hizballah militiamen control much of
Aleppo, this statement looks mostly like a
propaganda ploy. Two points, however, are
worth noting. First is ISIL's claim that it now
is a global association. That calls to mind al
Qaida, as an association or company.
The second point is that pro-militant
propaganda increasingly focuses on erasing
the national boundaries set by the colonial
powers in 1916. That idea is becoming
popular among Arabs.
Lebanon: Hizballah will fight in Iraq. Hasan
Nasrallah, the secretary general of the
Lebanese Hizballah, threatened that his party
would not hesitate to take part in the ongoing
fighting in Iraq if a need arises there. Hasan
Nasrallah told the press that Hizballah is
willing to sacrifice five times as much as it
sacrificed in Syria in order to protect the
holy shrines in Iraq.
Comment: Lebanese Hizballah sent fighters to
Iraq in the mid-2000's to support Shiites
fighting against the Sunni rebels. Nasrallah's
threats are not idle.
ISIL shows no signs of moving against
Baghdad, much less the Karbala and Najaf
south of Baghdad. An ISIL attack at Samarra,
however, 78 miles north of Baghdad, might
test Nasrallah's commitment again.
Egypt: Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis (Supporters of
the Holy House) posted a statement on the
Web that it will attack Americans in Egypt if
the US attacks ISIL in Iraq.
Comment : Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis is an
Egyptian terrorist group that is responsible
for many of the attacks against Egyptian
forces and interests in Sinai during the past
three years. Since the overthrow of the Mursi
regime, it has become more active and
bolder, attacking outside Sinai. It claimed
responsibility for a bombing attack In Cairo
in January. It is reported to have support
from the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.
An increased threat to American citizens
abroad is one of the predictable ripple effects
of US intervention in the Iraq crisis.
Ukraine: Politics. Today, Ukrainian President
Poroshenko said he would sign an association
agreement with the European Union (EU) on
27 June.
Petroshenko also spoke by telephone with
Russian President Putin today. The Ukrainian
presidential website claims Petroshenko was
firm in demanding and expected Russian
support for his peace plan.
Comment: The Russian version of the talk was
slightly different. Putin stressed that
Ukrainian security operations must stop
immediately. Neither side mentioned whether
they discussed the EU association agreement.
Differences over Ukraine's association with
the EU started the crisis and led to Crimean
secession. Russian leaders do not appear to
have softened their opposition to a pro-
Western Ukraine.
Security. Ukrainian forces continued
operations and claimed to have killed
hundreds of separatists in an armored attack.
No ceasefire exists. Separatists renewed their
plea for Russian assistance. NATO sources
reported another build-up of Russian forces
near the border of eastern Ukraine.
The militiamen of the Donetsk People's
Republic claimed they shot down a Ukrainian
Su-25 ground support aircraft during a battle
for the village of Yampil, north of Donetsk
Region.
Comment: If the aircraft shoot down claim is
confirmed, it would suggest the militiamen
are using more sophisticated air defense
missiles. They might become capable of
degrading Ukraine's air superiority.
"REAL" AND "UNREAL" WAGES
Mark Shedlock
What follows is a guest post from Doug Short
at Advisor Perspectives . This post has its
roots in a discussion we had about
"real" (inflation-adjusted) wages.
Doug took our initial discussion and merged
it with the number of hours people work.
Here is the decidedly bleak result: Real
weekly earnings were $825 in 1973. Today
they are $690.
Doug Short Guest Post
As a follow-up on some collaboration with
Mike Shedlock in advance of his recent
commentary on wages over time, here's a
perspective on personal income for
production and nonsupervisory private
employees going back five decades.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics has been
collecting data on this workforce cohort since
1964. The government numbers provides
some excellent insights on the income history
of what we might think of as the private
middle class wage earner.
The first snapshot shows the growth of
average hourly earnings. The nominal data
exhibits a relatively smooth upward trend.
here are, however, two critical pieces of
information that dramatically alter the
nominal series: The average hours per week
and 2) inflation.
The average hours per week has trended in
quite a different direction, from around 39
hours per week in the mid-1960s to a low of
33 hours at the end of the last recession. The
post-recession recovery has seen a
disappointingly trivial 0.7 bounce (that's 42
minutes).
What about inflation? The next chart adjusts
hourly earnings to the purchasing power of
today's dollar. I've use the familiar Consumer
Price Index for Urban Consumers (usually
abbreviated as the CPI) for the adjustment.
Theoretically, the CPI is designed to reflect
the cost-of-living for metropolitan-area
households.
Now let's multiply the real average hourly
earnings by the average hours per week. We
thus get a hypothetical number for average
weekly wages of this middle-class cohort,
currently at $690 -- well below its $825 peak
back in the early 1970s.
Note that this is a gross income number that
doesn't include any tax withholding or other
deductions.
Latest Hypothetical Annual Earnings: $35,000
If we multiply the hypothetical weekly
earnings by 50, we get an annual figure of
$35,497. That's a 16.4% decline from the
similarly calculated real peak in October
1972. I've highlighted the presidencies during
this timeframe. My purpose is not necessarily
to suggest political responsibility, but rather
to offer some food for thought. I will point
out that the so-called supply-side economics
popularized during the Reagan
administration (aka "trickle-down"
economics), wasn't exactly very effective for
production and nonsupervisory employees.
Footnote for economist geeks: Here is a slightly
different look at the data. I've adjusted using
the less familiar Consumer Price Index for
Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers,
which among other things, assigns a higher
weighting to gasoline (e.g., longer drives to
work and the grocery store). Also, this is the
series the government uses to calculate Social
Security Cost of Living Adjustments (COLAs).
Here is the real hourly history with this
deflator.
Here is the real hourly data multiplied by the
average weekly hours. The latest data point is
14.1% below the 1972 peak.
For additional perspectives on earnings, see
my commentaries on household income.
Monthly Median Incomes Since 2000
By Quintile and Top Five Percent
Median Incomes by Age Bracket
Deflating the American Dream
End Doug Short
Real vs. Unreal Wages and Earnings
I asked Doug if we could factor in social
security, disability, and income taxes. Ideally,
we would also need to factor in property
taxes, sales taxes, and fees.
One might also want to factor in food stamps
and other transfer payments.
Unfortunately, there is no realistic way to
easily do all that. Instead, let's take a look at
Historical Payroll Taxes from the Social
Security Administration.
In 1973 the combined Social Security and
Medicare payment was 5.850%. Today it is
7.65%.
Given that workers making wages as shown
in the charts above would not have hit the
FICA limit, it would be reasonable to subtract
an additional 1.8% from today's weekly $690
weekly figure.
Each person would need to do sales taxes for
their own state. Today the Illinois minimum
sales tax rate is 6.25%. Depending on
localities, it can be as high as 9.75%.
I cannot find a historical table, probably on
purpose. No state would want to publish such
a thing, but I seem to recall something like
4%.
Whatever the rate, assuming most people
making these wages spend damn near
everything, it would be safe to subtract the
difference, whatever it is. Do the same for
income taxes, which Governor Quinn recently
raised from 3% to 5%.
Realistically, there is nothing "real" about
"real" earnings and wages. Thus we must look
at "unreal" wages (incorporating all of the
above ideas) to get the true picture.
It is very safe to say, the decline in "unreal"
weekly earnings from $825 in 1973 to $690
today, understates the decline by a huge
degree.
"Unreal" wages ignores transfer payments
that come out of some else's pocket.
Of course "unreal" is really "real" and "real"
is really "unreal", so it's easy to be confused.
Who to Blame?
I have outlined on many occasions who is to
blame for this sorry state of affairs. The
answer is the Fed, fractional reserve lending,
and government bureaucrats. Nixon closing
the gold window was icing on the cake.
The Fed is hell bent on achieving inflation.
Wages did not keep up because it was easier
to outsource.
In-sourcing is now the buzzword, but the Fed
has cost of money so low that it's easy for
corporations to borrow money and invest in
technology and software to replace workers.
That would be a lot harder to do if wages
were $2.50 an hour. And most people would
be a lot better off if prices were
correspondingly lower as well.
Those with first access to money
(governments, banks, the already wealthy)
are the only ones who gain from inflation.
Everyone else loses. The result is a shrinking
of the middle class.
Instead of pointing the finger at the real
problem, the Fed blames robots and
Democrats blame corporations and
Republicans. Meanwhile, Republicans and
Democrats alike fund wars and other
activities via the printing press that the US
cannot possibly afford.
If routine price inflation did not benefit the
banks and the wealthy at the expense of
everyone else, we probably would not have it.
The word that best describes the process is
"theft".
What follows is a guest post from Doug Short
at Advisor Perspectives . This post has its
roots in a discussion we had about
"real" (inflation-adjusted) wages.
Doug took our initial discussion and merged
it with the number of hours people work.
Here is the decidedly bleak result: Real
weekly earnings were $825 in 1973. Today
they are $690.
Doug Short Guest Post
As a follow-up on some collaboration with
Mike Shedlock in advance of his recent
commentary on wages over time, here's a
perspective on personal income for
production and nonsupervisory private
employees going back five decades.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics has been
collecting data on this workforce cohort since
1964. The government numbers provides
some excellent insights on the income history
of what we might think of as the private
middle class wage earner.
The first snapshot shows the growth of
average hourly earnings. The nominal data
exhibits a relatively smooth upward trend.
here are, however, two critical pieces of
information that dramatically alter the
nominal series: The average hours per week
and 2) inflation.
The average hours per week has trended in
quite a different direction, from around 39
hours per week in the mid-1960s to a low of
33 hours at the end of the last recession. The
post-recession recovery has seen a
disappointingly trivial 0.7 bounce (that's 42
minutes).
What about inflation? The next chart adjusts
hourly earnings to the purchasing power of
today's dollar. I've use the familiar Consumer
Price Index for Urban Consumers (usually
abbreviated as the CPI) for the adjustment.
Theoretically, the CPI is designed to reflect
the cost-of-living for metropolitan-area
households.
Now let's multiply the real average hourly
earnings by the average hours per week. We
thus get a hypothetical number for average
weekly wages of this middle-class cohort,
currently at $690 -- well below its $825 peak
back in the early 1970s.
Note that this is a gross income number that
doesn't include any tax withholding or other
deductions.
Latest Hypothetical Annual Earnings: $35,000
If we multiply the hypothetical weekly
earnings by 50, we get an annual figure of
$35,497. That's a 16.4% decline from the
similarly calculated real peak in October
1972. I've highlighted the presidencies during
this timeframe. My purpose is not necessarily
to suggest political responsibility, but rather
to offer some food for thought. I will point
out that the so-called supply-side economics
popularized during the Reagan
administration (aka "trickle-down"
economics), wasn't exactly very effective for
production and nonsupervisory employees.
Footnote for economist geeks: Here is a slightly
different look at the data. I've adjusted using
the less familiar Consumer Price Index for
Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers,
which among other things, assigns a higher
weighting to gasoline (e.g., longer drives to
work and the grocery store). Also, this is the
series the government uses to calculate Social
Security Cost of Living Adjustments (COLAs).
Here is the real hourly history with this
deflator.
Here is the real hourly data multiplied by the
average weekly hours. The latest data point is
14.1% below the 1972 peak.
For additional perspectives on earnings, see
my commentaries on household income.
Monthly Median Incomes Since 2000
By Quintile and Top Five Percent
Median Incomes by Age Bracket
Deflating the American Dream
End Doug Short
Real vs. Unreal Wages and Earnings
I asked Doug if we could factor in social
security, disability, and income taxes. Ideally,
we would also need to factor in property
taxes, sales taxes, and fees.
One might also want to factor in food stamps
and other transfer payments.
Unfortunately, there is no realistic way to
easily do all that. Instead, let's take a look at
Historical Payroll Taxes from the Social
Security Administration.
In 1973 the combined Social Security and
Medicare payment was 5.850%. Today it is
7.65%.
Given that workers making wages as shown
in the charts above would not have hit the
FICA limit, it would be reasonable to subtract
an additional 1.8% from today's weekly $690
weekly figure.
Each person would need to do sales taxes for
their own state. Today the Illinois minimum
sales tax rate is 6.25%. Depending on
localities, it can be as high as 9.75%.
I cannot find a historical table, probably on
purpose. No state would want to publish such
a thing, but I seem to recall something like
4%.
Whatever the rate, assuming most people
making these wages spend damn near
everything, it would be safe to subtract the
difference, whatever it is. Do the same for
income taxes, which Governor Quinn recently
raised from 3% to 5%.
Realistically, there is nothing "real" about
"real" earnings and wages. Thus we must look
at "unreal" wages (incorporating all of the
above ideas) to get the true picture.
It is very safe to say, the decline in "unreal"
weekly earnings from $825 in 1973 to $690
today, understates the decline by a huge
degree.
"Unreal" wages ignores transfer payments
that come out of some else's pocket.
Of course "unreal" is really "real" and "real"
is really "unreal", so it's easy to be confused.
Who to Blame?
I have outlined on many occasions who is to
blame for this sorry state of affairs. The
answer is the Fed, fractional reserve lending,
and government bureaucrats. Nixon closing
the gold window was icing on the cake.
The Fed is hell bent on achieving inflation.
Wages did not keep up because it was easier
to outsource.
In-sourcing is now the buzzword, but the Fed
has cost of money so low that it's easy for
corporations to borrow money and invest in
technology and software to replace workers.
That would be a lot harder to do if wages
were $2.50 an hour. And most people would
be a lot better off if prices were
correspondingly lower as well.
Those with first access to money
(governments, banks, the already wealthy)
are the only ones who gain from inflation.
Everyone else loses. The result is a shrinking
of the middle class.
Instead of pointing the finger at the real
problem, the Fed blames robots and
Democrats blame corporations and
Republicans. Meanwhile, Republicans and
Democrats alike fund wars and other
activities via the printing press that the US
cannot possibly afford.
If routine price inflation did not benefit the
banks and the wealthy at the expense of
everyone else, we probably would not have it.
The word that best describes the process is
"theft".
SEX CHANGE REGRET
Michael Brown
While some might find the story laughable, I
personally find it tragic: Don Ennis, an
experienced TV news producer was fired
from his job, allegedly for performance-
related issues, after reappearing as Dawn
Stacey Ennis, marking his third gender
change since last year.
With little sympathy, one website reported,
“A television producer who has changed his
gender three times has now more time on his
hands to know who she or he is.”
Worse still, the New York Daily News,
apparently forgetting that Ennis had lived
almost all of his life as a male, announced,
“Dawn Ennis was canned weeks after her
latest transition from her male persona, Don
Ennis.”
What? It was not Don Ennis who was the
“male persona”; it was Dawn Ennis who was
the “female persona.” And Don is a he, not a
she. In fact, before his wife left him when he
became Dawn the first time around, they had
been married for 17 years and had three
kids.
It would appear that Ennis is quite troubled
and in need of serious help, but even to
suggest such a thing is to be branded
transphobic and hateful.
To all who pull the “transphobia” card, I urge
you to reconsider your rhetoric. Sometimes
compassion causes us to ask the hard
questions rather than simply to affirm
someone in their gender confusion.
Let’s not forget that in May, 2013, when Don
suddenly appeared at work in a black dress
as Dawn, he claimed to have “an unusual
hormone imbalance.”
And he wrote: “Please understand this is not
a game of dress-up, or make-believe, it is my
affirmation of who I now am and what I must
do to be happy, in response to a soul-
crushing secret that my wife and I have been
dealing with for more than seven years,
mostly in secret.”
Three months later, when he reverted back to
Don, “He said that he had amnesia, claiming
his wife dressed him in a wig and created a
fake ID card bearing the name ‘Dawn.’
“‘I am now totally, completely, unabashedly
male in my mind, despite my physical
attributes,’ he said in an email to colleagues.
“Ennis said that while his memories of the
past 14 years had returned, his female
identity did not.”
And now he has reverted to Dawn.
Is it transphobic to say that this man needs
help?
There was also the tragic story of sports
columnist Mike Penner, who became
Christine Daniels, only to revert back to Mike
Penner, before taking his own life.
You can be assured that any coworker who
did not welcome him as Christine would have
been lectured or even disciplined, and yet
questioning his new identity, with love and
sensitivity, might have been the most
compassionate thing to do.
Yet to do so would be to swim against the tide
of political correctness. And it would be a
dangerous swim at that. Just yesterday (June
18th), “the White House announced Obama
will sign an executive order that would
prohibit federal contractors from
discriminating on the basis of sexual
orientation or gender identity.”
Back in 2012, Brad (aka Ria) Cooper, was set
to be Britain’s youngest sex-change patient at
the tender age of 18. An October 28, 2012
headline in the Mirror read: “‘I was a boy..
then a girl.. now I want to be a boy again’:
Agony of teen who is Britain's youngest sex-
swap patient.”
The article, which still insisted on identifying
Brad as Ria, noted that, “Her decision, which
comes after two suicide attempts, calls into
question whether she was too young to be
allowed to swap sexes in the first place.”
Yet it appears that we have learned nothing
from stories like this, stories which I cite not
to demean or mock those who identify as
transgender, nor to suggest that these
experiences are the norm. Instead I cite them
to urge us to seriously reconsider the
direction in which we are heading as a
society.
In recent days, in Canada, a 12-year old girl
has received a new birth certificate
identifying her as a boy, based entirely on
her self-perceptions, while here in the States,
millions have watched a viral video in which
a family shares how they have embraced
their daughter’s identity as a boy, despite the
child being just 6 years old.
When Dr. Keith Ablow expressed a dissenting
view regarding this little one, he was roundly
condemned for his comments and labelled “a
serial misinformer on LGBT issues.”
Is there really no possibility that this girl
actually is a girl and that she could be helped
to embrace her female identity with proper
treatment? Is this really a transphobic
position?
Earlier this week, Dr. Paul McHugh, formerly
chair of the Johns Hopkins psychiatric
department and a longtime opponent of sex-
change surgery, penned an Op Ed piece for
the Wall Street Journal, arguing that “policy
makers and the media are doing no favors
either to the public or the transgendered” by
not treating transgender “confusions ... as a
mental disorder that deserves understanding,
treatment and prevention.”
He cited a 2011 study from Sweden that
followed the lives of 324 “sex-reassigned”
persons over a 30-year period (from
1973-2003), noting that “beginning about 10
years after having the surgery, the
transgendered began to experience
increasing mental difficulties. Most
shockingly, their suicide mortality rose almost
20-fold above the comparable
nontransgender population.”
This confirmed a similar study McHugh had
commissioned decades earlier at Johns
Hopkins, and for opposing sex-change
surgery, he is vilified to this day.
Is it possible that something other than
transphobia is driving him?
Walt Heyer has lived through this himself,
undergoing years of hormone treatments and
then sex-change surgery to become a woman,
only to realize over a period of years that he
was, in fact, a man and that there were other
issues he needed to address in his life.
To help others, he has launched the
SexChangeRegret.com website, featuring
articles like, “The insanity of hormone
blockers for kids,” and “1,500 Sex Changers
Request Surgical Reversals” (this was in one
center in Belgrade alone), and “Regret Is Real
—and Transgenders Are Going Back.”
And he too is vilified for his courageous and
compassionate stance.
Is it too much to ask that we stop and
reconsider our ways before embracing such
radical societal change?
Is it only transphobia and ignorance that
drives such a request?
While some might find the story laughable, I
personally find it tragic: Don Ennis, an
experienced TV news producer was fired
from his job, allegedly for performance-
related issues, after reappearing as Dawn
Stacey Ennis, marking his third gender
change since last year.
With little sympathy, one website reported,
“A television producer who has changed his
gender three times has now more time on his
hands to know who she or he is.”
Worse still, the New York Daily News,
apparently forgetting that Ennis had lived
almost all of his life as a male, announced,
“Dawn Ennis was canned weeks after her
latest transition from her male persona, Don
Ennis.”
What? It was not Don Ennis who was the
“male persona”; it was Dawn Ennis who was
the “female persona.” And Don is a he, not a
she. In fact, before his wife left him when he
became Dawn the first time around, they had
been married for 17 years and had three
kids.
It would appear that Ennis is quite troubled
and in need of serious help, but even to
suggest such a thing is to be branded
transphobic and hateful.
To all who pull the “transphobia” card, I urge
you to reconsider your rhetoric. Sometimes
compassion causes us to ask the hard
questions rather than simply to affirm
someone in their gender confusion.
Let’s not forget that in May, 2013, when Don
suddenly appeared at work in a black dress
as Dawn, he claimed to have “an unusual
hormone imbalance.”
And he wrote: “Please understand this is not
a game of dress-up, or make-believe, it is my
affirmation of who I now am and what I must
do to be happy, in response to a soul-
crushing secret that my wife and I have been
dealing with for more than seven years,
mostly in secret.”
Three months later, when he reverted back to
Don, “He said that he had amnesia, claiming
his wife dressed him in a wig and created a
fake ID card bearing the name ‘Dawn.’
“‘I am now totally, completely, unabashedly
male in my mind, despite my physical
attributes,’ he said in an email to colleagues.
“Ennis said that while his memories of the
past 14 years had returned, his female
identity did not.”
And now he has reverted to Dawn.
Is it transphobic to say that this man needs
help?
There was also the tragic story of sports
columnist Mike Penner, who became
Christine Daniels, only to revert back to Mike
Penner, before taking his own life.
You can be assured that any coworker who
did not welcome him as Christine would have
been lectured or even disciplined, and yet
questioning his new identity, with love and
sensitivity, might have been the most
compassionate thing to do.
Yet to do so would be to swim against the tide
of political correctness. And it would be a
dangerous swim at that. Just yesterday (June
18th), “the White House announced Obama
will sign an executive order that would
prohibit federal contractors from
discriminating on the basis of sexual
orientation or gender identity.”
Back in 2012, Brad (aka Ria) Cooper, was set
to be Britain’s youngest sex-change patient at
the tender age of 18. An October 28, 2012
headline in the Mirror read: “‘I was a boy..
then a girl.. now I want to be a boy again’:
Agony of teen who is Britain's youngest sex-
swap patient.”
The article, which still insisted on identifying
Brad as Ria, noted that, “Her decision, which
comes after two suicide attempts, calls into
question whether she was too young to be
allowed to swap sexes in the first place.”
Yet it appears that we have learned nothing
from stories like this, stories which I cite not
to demean or mock those who identify as
transgender, nor to suggest that these
experiences are the norm. Instead I cite them
to urge us to seriously reconsider the
direction in which we are heading as a
society.
In recent days, in Canada, a 12-year old girl
has received a new birth certificate
identifying her as a boy, based entirely on
her self-perceptions, while here in the States,
millions have watched a viral video in which
a family shares how they have embraced
their daughter’s identity as a boy, despite the
child being just 6 years old.
When Dr. Keith Ablow expressed a dissenting
view regarding this little one, he was roundly
condemned for his comments and labelled “a
serial misinformer on LGBT issues.”
Is there really no possibility that this girl
actually is a girl and that she could be helped
to embrace her female identity with proper
treatment? Is this really a transphobic
position?
Earlier this week, Dr. Paul McHugh, formerly
chair of the Johns Hopkins psychiatric
department and a longtime opponent of sex-
change surgery, penned an Op Ed piece for
the Wall Street Journal, arguing that “policy
makers and the media are doing no favors
either to the public or the transgendered” by
not treating transgender “confusions ... as a
mental disorder that deserves understanding,
treatment and prevention.”
He cited a 2011 study from Sweden that
followed the lives of 324 “sex-reassigned”
persons over a 30-year period (from
1973-2003), noting that “beginning about 10
years after having the surgery, the
transgendered began to experience
increasing mental difficulties. Most
shockingly, their suicide mortality rose almost
20-fold above the comparable
nontransgender population.”
This confirmed a similar study McHugh had
commissioned decades earlier at Johns
Hopkins, and for opposing sex-change
surgery, he is vilified to this day.
Is it possible that something other than
transphobia is driving him?
Walt Heyer has lived through this himself,
undergoing years of hormone treatments and
then sex-change surgery to become a woman,
only to realize over a period of years that he
was, in fact, a man and that there were other
issues he needed to address in his life.
To help others, he has launched the
SexChangeRegret.com website, featuring
articles like, “The insanity of hormone
blockers for kids,” and “1,500 Sex Changers
Request Surgical Reversals” (this was in one
center in Belgrade alone), and “Regret Is Real
—and Transgenders Are Going Back.”
And he too is vilified for his courageous and
compassionate stance.
Is it too much to ask that we stop and
reconsider our ways before embracing such
radical societal change?
Is it only transphobia and ignorance that
drives such a request?
THE MOST DANGEROUS INVESTMENT STRATEGY
Mark Skousen
“If we are in a transition period, the person
in the most danger is the one who has
recently done well, because he’s done well on
things that are about to change.”
-- Dean LeBaron (Batterymarch Financial
Management)
Last Friday, the Wall Street Journal had a
cover story, “Big Investors Lose Even as Market
Rises,” about hedge fund managers like Paul
Tudor Jones whose investments are down for
the year even as the stock market is ahead by
5%. Tudor and other big hedge fund
managers have taken losses on buying Nikkei
Japanese stocks and shorting Treasuries.
These big financial operators were betting
that last year’s winners would continue to
outperform.
But last year’s winners may be this year’s
losers, and vice versa. Treasuries have rallied
this year, surprising most investors. Japan
imposed a massive increase in its national
sales tax in its misguided attempt to reduce
its high debt level, rather than growing its
way out of debt. The Nikkei index, which was
up sharply last year, has suffered this year.
Meanwhile, ourForecasts &
Strategiesportfolio of high dividend-paying
stocks and funds have outperformed the stock
market this year, with 15 out of 18
recommendations profitable. We’ve made
several changes in our portfolio in 2014,
shifting into energy stocks and India, whose
stock market is booming now that it has voted
in a pro-business prime minister.
I asked Donald Smith, my favorite hedge fund
manager in New York, about the Wall Street
Journal story, and he was happy to report
that his portfolio is ahead 19.6% so far this
year before fees. He’s been bullish on airline
stocks, which have skyrocketed. Don has
managed money for more than 30 years with
incredible success -- he’s outperformed
Warren Buffett. He will be doing a breakout
session at FreedomFest on his “deep value”
investing strategy. I hope you can join us --
his session alone will be worth the price of
the ticket. To see what all of the excitement is
about, see below.
Yours for good investing, AEIOU,
Mark Skousen
Upcoming Appearances
FreedomFest, July 9-12, 2014 , Planet Hollywood,
Las Vegas : Here's what Rick Sampley , senior
vice president of Raymond James, wrote:
“During my entire career, I have never
before been to one venue that allowed me
access to and interaction with such a
concentration of great thinkers and financial
professionals. If one values capitalism and
practical approaches to navigating the daily
challenges of investing in these treacherous
times, then FreedomFest is a must. This is
truly a conference for great investment
thinkers and doers. A most impressive aspect
of FreedomFest was simply how the day to
day conference was managed: it ran like a
Swiss watch. Unlimited kudos to your
conference organizer. How did you manage
to get all these great people in one place at
one time and start and finish meetings right
on time… including all the wonderful
breakout sessions? During the conference I
met many people who have been coming to
FreedomFest for years… I will certainly be
one of them in the future." Why do Steve
Forbes, John Mackey, John Stossel , Alex Green,
Peter Schiff and dozens of other speakers
attend all three days? Find out by going to
www.freedomfest.com , or call Tami Holland,
1-866-266-5101 . Our room block at Planet
Hollywood is almost sold out, so hurry! The
big show is only three weeks away!
In case you missed it, I encourage you to read
my e-letter posted last week on Eagle Daily
Investor about whether the European Central
Bank’s interest rate cuts are good or bad .
You Blew It!
Thousands of Undocumented Children Flood the
United States
“Hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants
who came to the United States as children will
be allowed to remain in the country without
fear of deportation.” -- President Barack
Obama (June 16, 2012)
When the Dream Act was not passed by
Congress a few years ago, President Obama
designed to take things into his own hands. In
2012, he signed executive action that allowed
800,000 young undocumented immigrants
under the age of 16 to stay in the United
States. “They are Americans in their heart, in
their minds, in every single way but one: on
paper,” he said.
Now we are paying the consequences.
Thousands of under-aged children are being
brought from Central America to the United
States and left there without their parents.
Word is spreading quickly that Homeland
Security won’t deport children if they are
from Canada or Mexico. As a result,
thousands of parentless children are crossing
the border. U.S. facilities in Texas are at or
near capacity for the immigrants because of a
"record increase in underage migrants,"
which led to the transfer of hundreds to
Arizona, a spokesman said. Talk about
expensive babysitting.
“If we are in a transition period, the person
in the most danger is the one who has
recently done well, because he’s done well on
things that are about to change.”
-- Dean LeBaron (Batterymarch Financial
Management)
Last Friday, the Wall Street Journal had a
cover story, “Big Investors Lose Even as Market
Rises,” about hedge fund managers like Paul
Tudor Jones whose investments are down for
the year even as the stock market is ahead by
5%. Tudor and other big hedge fund
managers have taken losses on buying Nikkei
Japanese stocks and shorting Treasuries.
These big financial operators were betting
that last year’s winners would continue to
outperform.
But last year’s winners may be this year’s
losers, and vice versa. Treasuries have rallied
this year, surprising most investors. Japan
imposed a massive increase in its national
sales tax in its misguided attempt to reduce
its high debt level, rather than growing its
way out of debt. The Nikkei index, which was
up sharply last year, has suffered this year.
Meanwhile, ourForecasts &
Strategiesportfolio of high dividend-paying
stocks and funds have outperformed the stock
market this year, with 15 out of 18
recommendations profitable. We’ve made
several changes in our portfolio in 2014,
shifting into energy stocks and India, whose
stock market is booming now that it has voted
in a pro-business prime minister.
I asked Donald Smith, my favorite hedge fund
manager in New York, about the Wall Street
Journal story, and he was happy to report
that his portfolio is ahead 19.6% so far this
year before fees. He’s been bullish on airline
stocks, which have skyrocketed. Don has
managed money for more than 30 years with
incredible success -- he’s outperformed
Warren Buffett. He will be doing a breakout
session at FreedomFest on his “deep value”
investing strategy. I hope you can join us --
his session alone will be worth the price of
the ticket. To see what all of the excitement is
about, see below.
Yours for good investing, AEIOU,
Mark Skousen
Upcoming Appearances
FreedomFest, July 9-12, 2014 , Planet Hollywood,
Las Vegas : Here's what Rick Sampley , senior
vice president of Raymond James, wrote:
“During my entire career, I have never
before been to one venue that allowed me
access to and interaction with such a
concentration of great thinkers and financial
professionals. If one values capitalism and
practical approaches to navigating the daily
challenges of investing in these treacherous
times, then FreedomFest is a must. This is
truly a conference for great investment
thinkers and doers. A most impressive aspect
of FreedomFest was simply how the day to
day conference was managed: it ran like a
Swiss watch. Unlimited kudos to your
conference organizer. How did you manage
to get all these great people in one place at
one time and start and finish meetings right
on time… including all the wonderful
breakout sessions? During the conference I
met many people who have been coming to
FreedomFest for years… I will certainly be
one of them in the future." Why do Steve
Forbes, John Mackey, John Stossel , Alex Green,
Peter Schiff and dozens of other speakers
attend all three days? Find out by going to
www.freedomfest.com , or call Tami Holland,
1-866-266-5101 . Our room block at Planet
Hollywood is almost sold out, so hurry! The
big show is only three weeks away!
In case you missed it, I encourage you to read
my e-letter posted last week on Eagle Daily
Investor about whether the European Central
Bank’s interest rate cuts are good or bad .
You Blew It!
Thousands of Undocumented Children Flood the
United States
“Hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants
who came to the United States as children will
be allowed to remain in the country without
fear of deportation.” -- President Barack
Obama (June 16, 2012)
When the Dream Act was not passed by
Congress a few years ago, President Obama
designed to take things into his own hands. In
2012, he signed executive action that allowed
800,000 young undocumented immigrants
under the age of 16 to stay in the United
States. “They are Americans in their heart, in
their minds, in every single way but one: on
paper,” he said.
Now we are paying the consequences.
Thousands of under-aged children are being
brought from Central America to the United
States and left there without their parents.
Word is spreading quickly that Homeland
Security won’t deport children if they are
from Canada or Mexico. As a result,
thousands of parentless children are crossing
the border. U.S. facilities in Texas are at or
near capacity for the immigrants because of a
"record increase in underage migrants,"
which led to the transfer of hundreds to
Arizona, a spokesman said. Talk about
expensive babysitting.
OBAMA LOSERS
John Ransom
10) In six short years as president, Obama has
taken the Democratic Party from the One to
done. While it’s way too early to write off the
party even for 2014, the wounds created by
supporting this colossal bozo will be even
longer to heal than the wounds inflicted by
Jimmy Carter. Obama said way more then he
knows when he admitted that the problem is
that he’s president, not emperor.
9) Remember when the Fawning News Media
said that comedians would have a tough time
making fun of Obama because he was so
serious, so perfect, so black? Well the FNM
seems to get under that bar no matter how
low we set it, don’t they? Comedians aren’t
just making fun of the president now; they’re
making fun of the media as well. In a recent
poll, 82% of people that I asked randomly as I
met them on the street said about journalists
in general… well, I can’t repeat it.
8) Remember bullet number 9 above? About
the Fawning News Media? Well if you can’t
be funny at the expense of Obama these days,
you just can’t be funny. Look, the dude has a
stick permanently stuck up his rear end—I
said stick, ok? It would be tough to not be
funny about a guy who takes himself as
seriously as Obama does. Stopping the seas
from rising? Healing the earth? The guy can’t
even run a website with less monthly traffic
than your typical news organization.
Comedians have been placer mining that stake
for six years, more or less. When Obama’s
gone they’ll have to go back to hard rock
mining like the rest of us. Let’s hope they’ll
find the courage and resourcefulness to be
funny about Hillary too, even though she
doesn’t have a stick in her rear.
7) Electricity has gone from the rainbow-
powered, “free” energy source made possible
by windmills and magic rays of sunshine, to
a dirty, pollution emitting source of danger
that hunts us down while we sleep. The
culprit? Cheap, reliable sources of Domestic
Coal that power electric all over the USA. So
Obama says, “no more coal power plants,”
even as his energy policy—if it can be really
called that—depends on generating more
electricity for the growing number of bumper
cars, known ironically as “Smart cars”. The
result is that coal prices will come down, and
we’ll ship cheap, reliable domestic coal to
China at much cheaper prices thus allowing
Chinese consumers to get the low, low prices
that Americans can’t enjoy. Oh, and we’ve
lost 50,000 coal jobs so far, with another
17,000 power plant jobs expected to go. Add
in an additional 80,000 coal jobs waiting for
the axe to fall, multiply by the numbers of
jobs that support coal workers and you get
about 600,000 jobs lost.
6) Get ready to die. Really. We all gotta go
sometime, and with this president it’s more
and more likely that patients will die
unattended when their oxygen tube gets
pinched and they suffocate in a VA style
healthcare environment. In the meantime,
they’ll have the privilege of paying higher
premiums for someone else’s right to die
from what used to be known as “medical
malpractice” but now gets the distinction of
being called natural causes…of Obamacare.
5) Someone you may not have met yet will
likely curse you in a future too predictable to
deny. That’s right: They’re called grandkids .
Today our debt is $155,000 per US taxpayer.
And if you raised their parents the right way,
the grandkids, who are taxpayers in a future
too predictable to deny, will get the honor of
paying down that balance, interest and
principal. Just tell them that food and shelter
are overrated. After all, if they get the
benefits that we enjoyed, the president says
the world will boil over. Why can’t grandkids
just be grateful for our sacrifice?
4) I feel sorry for the next African-American
candidate for president of the United States.
There will be an enormous amount of
scrutiny on the next candidate because there
was so little on Obama. While we have all
suffered under Obama, no population has
suffered more than the black community.
Poverty rates are up, along with
unemployment for blacks. It’s an amazing
fact that while Obama has literally pledged
trillions to backstop Wall Street, he has spent
nothing to stop the violence in the
neighborhoods surrounding his Hyde Park
mansion. Black people need their own Tea
Party.
3) Hillary Clinton’s wounds are mostly self-
inflicted, but the world’s first woman
president of the United States has gone from
a certainty to a casualty under Obama. If
Obama doesn’t hate the Clintons, he does a
reasonable facsimile of it, as expressed by his
inattention to foreign policy under Hillary.
She was foolish to even take a place in his
cabinet. The proper stance for the power
hungry Hillary would have been to remain
aloof. I know: You’re shocked too that a
Clinton didn’t do the right thing.
2) The intelligence community (IC) is an
anonymous group of people who quietly go
through their day, keeping America’s secrets
—even from their own family. They live
amongst us-- and we are unaware of it-- and
they truly have been at war since 9/11. If you
think they aren’t suffering under this
president, then you aren’t paying attention.
From the Snowden disclosures, to the sacking
of General Petraeus, to the Gitmo fiasco, to
the drone strikes, to Benghazi, the IC knows
the truth but never has a voice. It kills them.
Literally. So if you see a field agent of any
one of the dozen intel agencies from the
Defense Intelligence Agency, to the CIA to the
National Security Agency, give them a hug.
They need it. Of course you won’t see them,
yet alone hear from them. That’s why you
need to speak up for them.
1) Speaking of war, people are dying in
Afghanistan right now in a war that Obama’s
former Secretary of Defense says that Obama
doesn’t believe in. That’s right: American
military forces are taking casualties because
Obama lacks the political courage to pull our
troops out of Afghanistan. In almost a
textbook repeat of Vietnam, the president has
asked the troops to do a job that he doesn’t
believe in. According to Col. Allen West “we
lost 630 U.S. soldiers [in Afghanistan under
Bush]. In early 2009, the Obama
administration authorized the
implementation of the COIN (Counter-
Insurgent) strategy, more focused on
‘winning hearts and minds’ than winning a
war, and over the next five years, the U.S.
death toll nearly tripled.” There were 4,800
coalition casualties in Iraq and 3,400 in
Afghanistan. As I have noted previously, over
70 percent of US casualties in Afghanistan
happened under Obama. That’s a really steep
price to pay for something Obama doesn’t
want: namely victory. That’s the biggest
betrayal by Obama’s presidency, yet gets the
least ink of anything he’s done.
For that I apologize to our troops, since
Obama never will. We should never again
elect a commander-in-chief who will let our
troops down like that. It's one thing to fight a
war poorly. Lincoln did that without losing
his integrity. It's another thing to ask men
and women to die because the polls tell you
to.
10) In six short years as president, Obama has
taken the Democratic Party from the One to
done. While it’s way too early to write off the
party even for 2014, the wounds created by
supporting this colossal bozo will be even
longer to heal than the wounds inflicted by
Jimmy Carter. Obama said way more then he
knows when he admitted that the problem is
that he’s president, not emperor.
9) Remember when the Fawning News Media
said that comedians would have a tough time
making fun of Obama because he was so
serious, so perfect, so black? Well the FNM
seems to get under that bar no matter how
low we set it, don’t they? Comedians aren’t
just making fun of the president now; they’re
making fun of the media as well. In a recent
poll, 82% of people that I asked randomly as I
met them on the street said about journalists
in general… well, I can’t repeat it.
8) Remember bullet number 9 above? About
the Fawning News Media? Well if you can’t
be funny at the expense of Obama these days,
you just can’t be funny. Look, the dude has a
stick permanently stuck up his rear end—I
said stick, ok? It would be tough to not be
funny about a guy who takes himself as
seriously as Obama does. Stopping the seas
from rising? Healing the earth? The guy can’t
even run a website with less monthly traffic
than your typical news organization.
Comedians have been placer mining that stake
for six years, more or less. When Obama’s
gone they’ll have to go back to hard rock
mining like the rest of us. Let’s hope they’ll
find the courage and resourcefulness to be
funny about Hillary too, even though she
doesn’t have a stick in her rear.
7) Electricity has gone from the rainbow-
powered, “free” energy source made possible
by windmills and magic rays of sunshine, to
a dirty, pollution emitting source of danger
that hunts us down while we sleep. The
culprit? Cheap, reliable sources of Domestic
Coal that power electric all over the USA. So
Obama says, “no more coal power plants,”
even as his energy policy—if it can be really
called that—depends on generating more
electricity for the growing number of bumper
cars, known ironically as “Smart cars”. The
result is that coal prices will come down, and
we’ll ship cheap, reliable domestic coal to
China at much cheaper prices thus allowing
Chinese consumers to get the low, low prices
that Americans can’t enjoy. Oh, and we’ve
lost 50,000 coal jobs so far, with another
17,000 power plant jobs expected to go. Add
in an additional 80,000 coal jobs waiting for
the axe to fall, multiply by the numbers of
jobs that support coal workers and you get
about 600,000 jobs lost.
6) Get ready to die. Really. We all gotta go
sometime, and with this president it’s more
and more likely that patients will die
unattended when their oxygen tube gets
pinched and they suffocate in a VA style
healthcare environment. In the meantime,
they’ll have the privilege of paying higher
premiums for someone else’s right to die
from what used to be known as “medical
malpractice” but now gets the distinction of
being called natural causes…of Obamacare.
5) Someone you may not have met yet will
likely curse you in a future too predictable to
deny. That’s right: They’re called grandkids .
Today our debt is $155,000 per US taxpayer.
And if you raised their parents the right way,
the grandkids, who are taxpayers in a future
too predictable to deny, will get the honor of
paying down that balance, interest and
principal. Just tell them that food and shelter
are overrated. After all, if they get the
benefits that we enjoyed, the president says
the world will boil over. Why can’t grandkids
just be grateful for our sacrifice?
4) I feel sorry for the next African-American
candidate for president of the United States.
There will be an enormous amount of
scrutiny on the next candidate because there
was so little on Obama. While we have all
suffered under Obama, no population has
suffered more than the black community.
Poverty rates are up, along with
unemployment for blacks. It’s an amazing
fact that while Obama has literally pledged
trillions to backstop Wall Street, he has spent
nothing to stop the violence in the
neighborhoods surrounding his Hyde Park
mansion. Black people need their own Tea
Party.
3) Hillary Clinton’s wounds are mostly self-
inflicted, but the world’s first woman
president of the United States has gone from
a certainty to a casualty under Obama. If
Obama doesn’t hate the Clintons, he does a
reasonable facsimile of it, as expressed by his
inattention to foreign policy under Hillary.
She was foolish to even take a place in his
cabinet. The proper stance for the power
hungry Hillary would have been to remain
aloof. I know: You’re shocked too that a
Clinton didn’t do the right thing.
2) The intelligence community (IC) is an
anonymous group of people who quietly go
through their day, keeping America’s secrets
—even from their own family. They live
amongst us-- and we are unaware of it-- and
they truly have been at war since 9/11. If you
think they aren’t suffering under this
president, then you aren’t paying attention.
From the Snowden disclosures, to the sacking
of General Petraeus, to the Gitmo fiasco, to
the drone strikes, to Benghazi, the IC knows
the truth but never has a voice. It kills them.
Literally. So if you see a field agent of any
one of the dozen intel agencies from the
Defense Intelligence Agency, to the CIA to the
National Security Agency, give them a hug.
They need it. Of course you won’t see them,
yet alone hear from them. That’s why you
need to speak up for them.
1) Speaking of war, people are dying in
Afghanistan right now in a war that Obama’s
former Secretary of Defense says that Obama
doesn’t believe in. That’s right: American
military forces are taking casualties because
Obama lacks the political courage to pull our
troops out of Afghanistan. In almost a
textbook repeat of Vietnam, the president has
asked the troops to do a job that he doesn’t
believe in. According to Col. Allen West “we
lost 630 U.S. soldiers [in Afghanistan under
Bush]. In early 2009, the Obama
administration authorized the
implementation of the COIN (Counter-
Insurgent) strategy, more focused on
‘winning hearts and minds’ than winning a
war, and over the next five years, the U.S.
death toll nearly tripled.” There were 4,800
coalition casualties in Iraq and 3,400 in
Afghanistan. As I have noted previously, over
70 percent of US casualties in Afghanistan
happened under Obama. That’s a really steep
price to pay for something Obama doesn’t
want: namely victory. That’s the biggest
betrayal by Obama’s presidency, yet gets the
least ink of anything he’s done.
For that I apologize to our troops, since
Obama never will. We should never again
elect a commander-in-chief who will let our
troops down like that. It's one thing to fight a
war poorly. Lincoln did that without losing
his integrity. It's another thing to ask men
and women to die because the polls tell you
to.
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