History for December 18

History for December 18 - On-This-Day.com
Ty Cobb 1886 - Baseball player, Betty Grable 1916, Ossie Davis 1917 - Actor 


Keith Richards 1943 - Musician (Rolling Stones), Steven Spielberg 1947 Movie producer-director, 
Brad Pitt 1963 Actor 


1862 - The first orthopedic hospital was organized in New York City. It was called the Hospital for Ruptured and Crippled. 


1865 - Slavery was abolished in the United States with the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution being ratified. 


1898 - A new automobile speed record was set at 39 mph (63 kph). 


1912 - The discovery of the Piltdown Man in East Sussex was announced. It was proved to be a hoax in 1953. 


1940 - Adolf Hitler signed a secret directive ordering preparations for a Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. Operation "Barbarossa" was launched in June 1941. 


1956 - "To Tell the Truth" debuted on CBS-TV. 


1957 - The Shippingport Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania went online. It was the first nuclear facility to generate electricity in the United States. It was taken out of service in 1982. 


1998 - The U.S. House of Representatives began the debate on the four articles of impeachment concerning U.S. President Bill Clinton. It was only the second time in U.S.history that process had begun. 


2009 - General Motors announced that it would shut down its Saab brand. 

LIBERTY REVIEW

LIBERTY REVIEW:

http://www.libertyreview76.blogspot.com/2014/12/remember-when-by-tammy-derouin-remember.html

Remember When

By Tammy Derouin

Do you remember a time when the president of the United States, actually loved his country?  Well, there’s a loaded question.  There is a debate as to whether our Pres-a-king is or isn’t a natural born American citizen.  I feel there is enough of a reasonable doubt for an investigation.  There should have been a thorough investigation long before he was sworn into office.  The press should have jumped on this like the pit bulls they once were.  However, putting that issue aside, let’s say he is a natural born citizen.  Why does he hate his home land, the freest nation in the world?  Why does he seek to destroy everything which has made this country great? 

The United States has given him and millions of others opportunities they wouldn’t have had, had they been born in other areas of the world.  This goes for every single one of us.  Most of us have a basic knowledge of the lands our ancestors called home.  Many of us are a mix of several nationalities.  Most of the nationalities flowing through our veins have been at war at one time or another.  Look where you are now located!  The sacrifices of those who came before you have given you a better life.  You live in a land which guarantees the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Gruber's Numbers for Colo. Don't Add Up

Gruber's Numbers for Colo. Don't Add Up:

"Jonathan Gruber’s health-care forecasting is failing in Colorado as Vermont’s Gov. Peter Shumlin prepares to use the economist’s math for single-payer health care.

As Vermonters anxiously await a Gruber-modeled financing plan for Green Mountain Care, modeling done for Colorado’s health exchange by Jonathan Gruber Associates has proven wildly erroneous."

Rolling Stone's ignorance was bad, but it is a bias we all share

Ken Braun: Rolling Stone's ignorance was bad, but it is a bias we all share | MLive.com
The mockery of Rolling Stone’s scandalously fake campus rape story has been well deserved. But one theme - that it’s a case of liberal media bias - is halfway off the mark. It is a case of ignorant bias, to be sure, but it transcends ideology.

When I was 13 years old back in 1981, I read The Satan Seller. The book is the 1972 autobiography of Mike Warnke, a former Satanic high priest who became a Christian comedian and pastor. It is a nightmarish tale of Satanic rapes, drugs, violence and organized crime. The back cover includes favorable newspaper reviews from the New York Times and others.

His personal history allowed Warnke to become the national expert on the occult through the late 1970s and 80s. ABC News reporters Hugh Downs, Barbara Walters and Tom Jarriel of the Emmy-Award winning 20/20 featured Warnke in a half hour report that implied the organized Satanist conspiracy was to blame for numerous criminal and violent incidents in every state. And Warnke was a rock star on the Christian media circuit, with his records and appearances making him a wealthy man.

Demonic forces were both more fascinating and easier to fear when I was in early middle school. But eventually I lost interest, and forgot about Warnke for two decades

As a skeptical 34-year old adult, I stumbled over the book again in 2002. Every fantastically absurd detail came rushing back from memory, tripping critical thinking alarms that weren’t fully formed when I was 13. I knew in an instant it was a fraud, and rushed to the Internet thinking I could expose him if he was still getting away with it.

Of course, I was too late. In 1992, two investigative reporters from the Christian magazine Cornerstone put together an exceptionally researched and devastating takedown of his whole story.

A larger mystery remains. If I had been the same adult back in the 1970s and read Warnke’s tall tale, I would have still spotted the nonsense. And surely there were many like me who did.

So how did Warnke get away with it for 20 years, blowing by the skepticism of award-winning veteran mainstream journalists and legions of other people?

A simple answer: Our vivid imagination for danger is what protected us as we moved from caves to condominiums, but our biology has evolved at a fraction of the pace of our technology. We now exist in an absurd level of comfort for primates still hard-wired to fear imminent starvation and enemy tribes at our doorstep. With far fewer concrete threats, we now fill our heads with abstract worries.

Defense Funding Extends Beyond the Pentagon’s Budget

Defense Funding Extends Beyond the Pentagon’s Budget | Mercatus:
"This week’s chart puts into perspective the amount of funding—and expense—that is not accounted for in the figures widely cited by policymakers and defense officials.
 Using a methodology conceived by Winslow Wheeler of the Project on Government Oversight, line items from other areas of the federal budget relevant to defense and security issues are added to the fiscal year 2013 base. 

Once these expenses are included, it’s clear that the reported defense spending figures underestimate the overall cost of defense and national security programs by over $350 billion in fiscal year 2013 (the most recent year of finalized data)."

Reports: Federal Judge Says Obama Violated the Constitution With Immigration Action | TheBlaze.com

Reports: Federal Judge Says Obama Violated the Constitution With Immigration Action | TheBlaze.com:

"A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that President Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration runs afoul of the Constitution.

Judge Arthur Schwab, who handles cases in the Western District of Pennsylvania, made the ruling in a case involving an immigrant from Honduras, according to Reuters."

72 Million More Reasons To Doubt The Mainstream Press

72 Million More Reasons To Doubt The Mainstream Press - Investors.com:
"Media Malfeasance:
In less than two weeks, bombshell stories of a vicious gang rape and a millionaire teen investor were exposed as frauds that never would have made it into print but for gross negligence and liberal bias.
Over the weekend, Jessica Pressler, a "star reporter" at New York magazine, told the story of an underage teen who'd already made $72 million trading stocks on his lunch break.
It was part of a series on why people should love the city.
The story spread like wildfire, showing up in the New York Post, Marketwatch, the New York Daily News, Fox News and others.
And why not?
New York magazine occupies one of the top rungs on the media elite ladder.
Surely it would never publish a piece that hadn't been thoroughly fact-checked and edited.
Turns out the $72 million-kid story had gone through those steps.
The magazine even sent a fact-checker to the 17-year-old's home to view a bank statement.
Plus, Pressler's tale fit comfortably with how liberals view Wall Street — as little more than a lottery where someone can "score" millions by "playing" the market.
So why bother being skeptical of the kid's tale?
But the story was, in fact, a complete hoax. 
The teen in question, Mohammed Islam, apparently was a member of an investing club at his high school, but he had never put a dime of actual money into the market.
.....Meanwhile, the University of Virginia gang rape story continues to unravel, exposing new depths of laziness, recklessness and bias at Rolling Stone.
It's now clear that there were so many holes in "Jackie's" rape claims that anyone who'd done the minimum of unbiased reporting would have dismissed her as not credible and moved on.
But Jackie's story supported the current liberal belief that sexual assaults are rampant on college campuses.
So why doubt her?
In New York magazine's defense, it did quickly and fully own up to its mistake.
"We were duped," it told readers.
Now if only the mainstream press could be as upfront about its biased, agenda-driven reporting, which repeatedly misleads and misinforms the public."

Soooo, more money will fix everything?---------Detroit warrant backlog frees suspects

Detroit warrant backlog frees suspects
Dozens of suspected murderers, rapists and other criminals who were arrested by Detroit Police over the past four years have been released because of a backlog of unsigned warrants at the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office, The Detroit News has found.
Among the pending and as yet unsigned warrants are 21 for murder, including one going back to 2010. 
There are 105 for sexual assaults, 126 for child abuse and 25 from the Detroit Police Fatal Squad.
In most cases, police were forced to release the suspects, since state and federal law says they can't be held beyond 72 hours without being arraigned.
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy insists many of the releases are a result of too few employees in her office.

Think Salem witch insanity-------Campus hate crime hoaxes: A best-of list

Campus hate crime hoaxes: A best-of list
Read 'em all:

From New Jersey to Wyoming, college campuses around the country have been plagued with hate crime hoaxes in recent years. Sometimes justified as trying to raise awareness for progressive social causes, the hoaxes often worked.

The College Fix compiled this list of recent university hate crime hoaxes.

Racist Facebook messages posted by student himself – November 2014

A University of Chicago student admitted to posting racist and violent messages against himself on his Facebook page after claiming his account was hacked. The elaborate hoax was an attempt to shame the school into making policy changes addressing race on campus.

The con artist, Derek Caquelin, initially said that a group known as the UChicago Electronic Army was responsible for hacking his account. Caquelin claimed that the hackers were seeking retaliation for his online complaints about offensive Halloween costumes.

He eventually confessed to the hoax – which prompted a federal investigation – on his Facebook page. But it didn’t stop more than 400 of the school’s students from signing a petition demanding the university make tangible policy changes to “address the culture of racial intolerance at the University of Chicago.”

‘White Only’ and ‘Colored’ signs publicity stunt – August 2014

In an effort to “make a point” about social injustice, a student at Sweet Briar College in Virginia hung signs on doors and water fountains in a dormitory reading “White Only” and “Colored.”

The interim president of the all-female liberal arts college, James Jones, tried to spin the stunt into a teachable moment.

In an announcement to the Sweet Briar community, Jones noted that the previous night the community had watched the play Sweet Remembrance, which depicts “a racially divided world view.” The president speculated: “Someone, moved by the play, sought to use the old, abusive words to remind us that while such terms were part of the historical past, some of the emotions lurking behind the words might still linger in a few.”

The vandal emailed Jones explaining the hoax, writing that her mission was to show that “words can still have an extreme impact.”

In a response email, Jones asked that the student turn herself in, but noted that her hoax was “well intentioned.”

More sickness and lies at the link.

Using Stealthy Tactic, Obama Is ‘on Track to Take More High-Level Executive Actions Than Any President Since Harry Truman’ | TheBlaze.com

Using Stealthy Tactic, Obama Is ‘on Track to Take More High-Level Executive Actions Than Any President Since Harry Truman’ | TheBlaze.com:

"President Barack Obama has signed 33 percent more “presidential memoranda” in less than six years than former President George W. Bush did in eight, USA Today reports. Little-mentioned presidential memoranda has the same force of law as executive orders, but Obama has seemingly been able to downplay the extent of his executive orders by using the former.

Because of this fact, USA Today reports that Obama is “on track to take more high-level executive actions than any president since Harry Truman battled the ‘Do Nothing Congress’ almost seven decades ago.”

Carolinas politicians get payouts from broker

My Way News - AP: Carolinas politicians get payouts from broker:

"CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Soon after taking office, North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory and U.S. Rep. Mark Sanford of South Carolina accepted six-figure stock payouts from an online mortgage broker accused by regulators of deceiving its customers.
The two Republicans served as directors at Tree.com, the Charlotte-based corporate parent of the website LendingTree.
As board members, they were entitled to large chunks of restricted company stock if they held their positions long enough.
Both resigned after their election victories, which would have rendered their unvested stock worthless had the board not taken special action to provide them early payouts."

Local health advocates to host town hall meeting as Muskegon prepares for 'Wellville' challenge

Local health advocates to host town hall meeting as Muskegon prepares for 'Wellville' challenge | MLive.com:
"Each community is expected to produce new evidence about health outcomes and attract major financial investments to the region in the form of public transit opportunities, food subsidies, school lunch programs and other health-related developments.
HICCup, which will use five metrics to assess each region's success, estimated that the Wellville Five communities will need at least $15 million to implement their goals."

The Small Business Administration's Welfare For The Wealthy

The Small Business Administration's Welfare For The Wealthy:
"Private country clubs, marinas, ski lodges, Napa/Sonoma Valley wineries, aesthetic enhancement clinics, Hollywood limousine chauffeurs, Rolex jewelers,  luxury pet resorts, Lamborghini auto dealers, venture capital companies, and much more receive billions of dollars in SBA subsidized lending.
The motto of the Small Business Administration (SBA) supports entrepreneurial grit and the little guy: “The SBA helps Americans start, build and grow businesses.”
Yet, proponents of Small Business Administration (SBA) loan programs will be hard pressed to justify many of the examples cited within our recently released Federal Transfer™ Report- SBA Loans to the Wealthy Lifestyle.
...SBA lending is supposed to “to aid small businesses which are unable to obtain financing in the private credit marketplace.” 
Yet, since 2007, there have been nearly 35,000 “small business” loans between $1 million and $5 million, many to companies who may have been able to obtain credit elsewhere.
....But the deeper, more systemic, problem with the SBA is that the federal government just isn’t very good at picking winners and losers.
When the SBA approves a loan, taxpayer money is used to pit one taxpaying business against another. 
Who decides?  
Not the market, but SBA bureaucrats who clearly have refined tastes.
Consider a few of the businesses that have been subsidized since 2007:
Four private country clubs including Horseshoe Bend Country Club, Marietta, GA ($5.0 million); Crystal Falls Golf Club, Dawsonville, GA ($4.3 million); Stafford Hills Club, Tualatin, OR ($4.3 million); and West Hills Country Club, Middletown, NY ($4.2 million). In fact, 48 exclusive clubs received $110 million in SBA lending."

Beware: Putin the wounded animal

Beware: Putin the wounded animal—commentary:
"Vladimir Putin is not a good man and not a good leader.
There, I said it … and the U.S. government basically began saying that eight months ago, when it joined with other Western nations in imposing a series of economic sanctions on Putin's Russia.
The sanctions hurt Russia a bit, but now oil's freefall is causing the ruble to crash and slamming that nation with a guaranteed recession or even depression.
This would be something worthy of extreme vigilance for the U.S. government and investors alike even if Russia were a true democracy governed by at least semi-responsible leaders.
But it's worse.
Much worse.
Vladimir Putin has always been a lot more like a petty Latin American dictator than a statesman. Think about it:
He made his bones in the secret police, consolidated his power with a ring of super wealthy backers, and he claps political opponents in jail at a moment's notice.
In short, Putin is like a Augusto Pinochet or a Juan Perón … but with much more steely resolve, a massive military, and nuclear bombs.
But even with Putin's extremely visible and frightening track record before us, it's clear the Obama administration and even the investment community is still not prepared for the extent of the damage the Russian leader can unleash on his own people, on his neighbors, and on the U.S. financial markets.
There is nothing more dangerous than a wounded animal.
Vladimir Putin is wounded — and he's not known for holding back.
His entire adventure in Ukraine this year is example of just how destructive and unpredictable Putin can be, and that all happened when oil was still trading at $100 a barrel.
So what could he do now?
For all we know, Putin has already done a lot of the following things, but here's just a partial list:
1. Launch another attack on Ukraine or another neighboring nation
2. Cut off energy supplies to the rest of Europe
3. Launch an all-out cyber war on Western and U.S. companies and government agencies
4. Nationalize foreign-owned or -controlled businesses inside Russia"

‘We Try to Make It Really High’: Philadelphia Tax Boss Admits to Making Up a Man’s $280K Tax Bill, Judge Rules He Has to Pay Anyway | TheBlaze.com

‘We Try to Make It Really High’: Philadelphia Tax Boss Admits to Making Up a Man’s $280K Tax Bill, Judge Rules He Has to Pay Anyway | TheBlaze.com:

"When Nathan Lerner got a $280,772 tax bill from the city of Philadelphia, he knew something fishy was going on.

In fact, he claimed he didn’t owe the city a cent — and Philadelphia’s revenue manager essentially backed him up.

But last week, as the Patriot-News reported, a judge reluctantly ruled that Lerner couldn’t challenge the fabricated bill, all because Lerner had tried to represent himself in court and bungled a bureaucratic order."

Muskegon Heights to receive $1.8 million to fight blight; part of state's $75 million in federal funding

Muskegon Heights to receive $1.8 million to fight blight; part of state's $75 million in federal funding | MLive.com:
"MUSKEGON HEIGHTS, MI – Muskegon Heights will be given $1.8 million to demolish more than 200 homes blighted beyond repair, officials said Tuesday, Dec. 16.
City manager Natasha Henderson said Muskegon Heights, the Muskegon County Land Bank and county treasurer Tony Moulatsiotis turned in a strong application to the state in short order.
  "It was definitely another example of collaboration and Muskegon County at its best," Henderson said.
The money will be used to knock down decaying homes, with an emphasis on those near schools, to make the community safely walkable, Henderson said.
Empty homes in disrepair are viewed as a danger by law enforcement.
"It'll be utilized specifically for demolition," she said.
"We went through a tedious process of ensuring these homes are actually beyond repair.""

The Land of Magical Thinking: Inside Putin’s Russia

The Land of Magical Thinking: Inside Putin’s Russia | World Affairs Journal:
"Russia’s mortality rate is horrific.
According 2012 World Health Organization statistics, a fifteen-year-old Russian male has a life expectancy that’s three years less than a fifteen-year-old Haitian boy’s.
The life expectancy of a fifteen-year old Russian female is sixty-one, three years less than in Cambodia.
Russians die from cardiovascular disease and from accidents, murder, and suicide.
They smoke, they drink, they despair.
Russia’s great wealth is based on extraction of oil and gas.
Even so, the value of Russia’s exports in 2013 barely exceeded Belgium’s. 
And energy prices are falling.
...“Long-term economic progress,” says Eberstadt, “depends on improving productivity through new knowledge . . . Patent awards and application provide a crude but telling picture . . . Consider applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty . . . Russia comes in No. 21—after Austria—racking up less that 0.6 percent of the world’s total. 
The population of Russia is more than fifteen times that of Austria.
Russia’s ‘yield’ of patents per university graduate is vastly lower than Austria’s—thirty-five times lower.
By this particular metric Russia is only fractionally better placed than Gabon.”

History for December 17

History for December 17 - On-This-Day.com:
Humphry Davy 1778, Joseph Henry 1797, Arthur Fiedler 1896 


William Safire 1929, Ernie Hudson 1945 - Actor, Eugene Levy 1946 


Barry Livingston 1953 - Actor, Sean Patrick Thomas 1970 - Actor, Giovanni Ribisi 1974 - Actor 


1791 - A traffic regulation in New York City established the first street to go "One Way." 


1830 - South American patriot Simon Bolivar died in Colombia. 


1903 - The first successful gasoline-powered airplane flight took place near Kitty Hawk, NC. Orville and Wilbur Wright made the flight. 


1939 - The German pocket battleship Graf Spee was scuttled by its crew, bringing the World War II Battle of the Rio de la Plata off Uruguay to an end. 


1957 - The United States successfully test-fired the Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile for the first time. 


1959 - The film "On the Beach" premiered in New York City and in 17 other cities. It was the first motion picture to debut simultaneously in major cities around the world. 


1969 - Television history was made when Tiny Tim and Miss Vicki Budinger were married on "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson. 


1976 - WTCG-TV, Atlanta, GA, changed its call letters to WTBS, and was uplinked via satellite. The station became the first commercial TV station to cover the entire U.S. 


1986 - Wayne "Danke Schoen" Newton won a $19.2 million suit against NBC News. NBC had aired reports claiming a link between Newton and mob figures. The reports were proven to be false. 


2004 - U.S. President George W. Bush signed into law the largest overhaul of U.S. intelligence gathering in 50 years. The bill aimed to tighten borders and aviation security. It also created a federal counterterrorism center and a new intelligence director.

Michael Mann, Author of Debunked Hockey Stick Graph, Presents Lecture on Scientific Ethics

Michael Mann, Author of Debunked Hockey Stick Graph, Presents Lecture on Scientific Ethics:

"They noted that “It appears that news media and some pro-environmental organizations have the tendency to accentuate or even exaggerate the damage caused by climate change.” However, they found that “the information manipulation has an instrumental value, as it ex post induces more countries to participate in an IEA (International Environmental Agreement), which will eventually enhance global welfare.”

In other words, climate change ethics stipulates that it’s ok to exaggerate and perhaps even lie, as long as you’re doing so to protect the planet."