what if?

There Will Always Be An England

But - as Christopher Fountain reports - I'm not so sure........

A six-year-old boy who went to school with a bag of Mini Cheddars in his packed lunch has been suspended for four days after teachers said it contravened its healthy eating policy.

Riley Pearson, from Colnbrook, near Slough, was excluded from Colnbrook C of E Primary School after teachers discovered the snack and called in his parents.

After a meeting with headmaster Jeremy Meek, they were sent a letter telling them Riley would be excluded from Wednesday until Monday because he had been 'continuously breaking school rules'.

The school, which was placed in special measures after Ofsted inspectors deemed it 'inadequate' in 2012, introduced a healthy eating policy at the start of term.

A letter was sent to parents saying that from 14 January, packed lunches should be 'healthy and balanced'.

Parents were told: 'Chocolate, sweets, crisps and fizzy drinks are not allowed. 

Well.  There you have it!

Could I Vote for This Guy?

Yes I could!

"The reason why Republicans I think sometimes get in trouble is ... they talk about cutting things. Too many people in our party talk about austerity and not about reform. There's a difference.

The mistake I think we often make is," he continued, "if we're the party of no, and we're the party of austerity, the people of this country want more. The difference is, the left offers them more government, more benefits, more assistance. We should offer them more freedom, more opportunity, more prosperity."

Walker says he "obsesses" on fiscal issues because that's what voters elected him to do. He's principled and conservative on abortion and marriage, but hey says social issues simply aren't the centerpiece of his agenda. And he blames the media and Democrats for trying to make them the centerpiece of every Republican's agenda.

"The reason the left wants to talk about those other issues and obsess about those issues is because they can't cut it when it comes to the economy and fiscal issues. They want any sort of distraction to get off-topic, off-message to go on some tangent out there to have people be distracted from what the real issues are."

His advice to fellow conservatives is to talk less about social issues and, if forced to, "it's just a simple answer and move on."

 

"Outrageous Prosecution"

Cutting to the core of our basic freedoms; Alan Dershowitz has his say.

The Justice Department's tactics remind Dershowitz of the words of Stalin's secret police chief, Lavrentiy Beria, who said, "Show me the man and I’ll find you the crime."

"This is an outrageous prosecution and is certainly a misuse of resources," charged Dershowitz. "It raises the question of why he is being selected for prosecution among the many, many people who commit similar crimes.

"This sounds to me like it is coming from higher places. It is hard for me to believe this did not come out of Washington or at least get the approval of those in Washington."

Here is what Joseph diGenova, former US attorney and a partner at diGenova and Toensing, has to say: "What strikes me as unusual is that it involves a single donation made by an individual with no criminal record. It seems to me that a misdemeanor makes much more sense than a felony charge."

A Response to Amy Glass

Via Instapundit, I just read this sad and ignorant rant about feminism and motherhood.

Every time I hear someone say that feminism is about validating every choice a woman makes I have to fight back vomit.

Do people really think that a stay at home mom is really on equal footing with a woman who works and takes care of herself? There’s no way those two things are the same. It’s hard for me to believe it’s not just verbally placating these people so they don’t get in trouble with the mommy bloggers.

Having kids and getting married are considered life milestones. We have baby showers and wedding parties as if it’s a huge accomplishment and cause for celebration to be able to get knocked up or find someone to walk down the aisle with. These aren’t accomplishments, they are actually super easy tasks, literally anyone can do them. They are the most common thing, ever, in the history of the world. They are, by definition, average. And here’s the thing, why on earth are we settling for average?

Just for starters, Ms. Glass, "literally anyone" can not always be a mom.  For instance - there is me.  Due to an IUD 40 years ago, while I didn't use my life, I did lose all my reproductive organs.  So - no babies for me. Adoption was an option but believe me, not the most "common and super easy" task out there.  I imagine my friends who dealt with infertility and miscarriage would agree with me.

While you were busy considering vomiting about women having the right to choose, you didn't comment much about being a good mom.  I can see that someone who appears to have no clue about what being a mom is all about wouldn't appreciate that being a good one is not a facile task.  Yet, I can see from years of watching other women be good moms, I am well aware that it can be challenging.  But, unlike being a teacher or attorney or nurse or CEO or any other sort of job - once you're a mom; that's it.  No searching for another position, no "discovery of self."  A good mom hunkers down and does her job - day in, year out.

I might add that if it weren't for all the good moms out there, the world would be in far worse shape than it is. It's moms who give us a sense of self, teach us to undertake a wealth of tasks - and excel at them. When others may have given up on us - it's the caring moms of the world who dust us off and help us face the world once again.

In large part, because I could not do "the most common thing, ever, in the history of the world" perhaps I have more appreciation of just how special and meaningful being a mom is.  And, I hope that one day, you are able to open your eyes and your mind, Ms. Glass, and see what I know to be true.

 

A New Direction

Some of the liberals I know think terribly of conservatives.  When the latter talk about altering welfare and insist that the "war on poverty" has been a losing battle, they former denounces them.  "They're selfish" - "they're heartless" - etc., etc.

While not everyone has concern for the poor, however, I think that most people do wish we had fewer in poverty.  So it is not that conservatives are heartless and selfish; it's that they don't want to continue policies that for decades have done little - if anything at all, really - to combat poverty.

Paul Ryan has a fine column today on searching for a "new way" to battle this scourge.

On this less-than-golden anniversary, we should renew the fight. The federal government needs to take a comprehensive view of the problem. It needs to dump decades-old programs and give poor families more flexibility. It needs to let communities like Pulaski High develop their own solutions. And it needs to remember that the best anti-poverty program is economic growth.

Please read the whole column.  Irrespective of your political allegiances, most would agree that finding methods to improve the lot of today's poor is a worthy goal.

I have been doing volunteer work in Minneapolis at an incredibly fine charter school.  The students that it serves mostly come from poor families.  Nevertheless, both the desire of the students and their parents to learn and climb out of their circumstances is strong.

When I took photos last May of graduation, I saw kids and their families celebrating.  The love and the pride and the hard work they are willing to do to achieve success for the next generation moves me.  All of us should want to do what we can so that at some point down the road, we can say with joy, "Finally, we are winning the war against poverty."

Outrage of the Day

My buddy in Greenwich, fellow Realtor Christopher Fountain, highlights today's outrage:  instead of focusing on the numerous terrors around the world, the United Nations is instead going to hone in like a laser on our own nation's shame:  what to be done about the name "Washington Redskins."

Not one penny of taxpayer dollars should be sent to this execrable organization ... but, I know millions will be. Sigh.

On a far brighter note, the New York Times finally has an article of wit and interest!  Chris F justifiably is highlighted here.

Slandering the Dead

How low can this administration go?

Very low.

Shifting blame to our dead ambassador is wrong on the facts. I know—I was there.

When I arrived in Tripoli on July 31, we had over 30 security personnel, from the State Department and the U.S. military, assigned to protect the diplomatic mission to Libya. All were under the ambassador's authority. On Sept. 11, we had only nine diplomatic security agents under Chris's authority to protect our diplomatic personnel in Tripoli and Benghazi.

I was interviewed by the Select Committee and its staff, who were professional and thorough. I explained this sequence of events. For some reason, my explanation did not make it into the Senate report.

To sum up: Chris Stevens was not responsible for the reduction in security personnel. His requests for additional security were denied or ignored. Officials at the State and Defense Departments in Washington made the decisions that resulted in reduced security. Sen. Lindsey Graham stated on the Senate floor last week that Chris "was in Benghazi because that is where he was supposed to be doing what America wanted him to do: Try to hold Libya together."  He added, "Quit blaming the dead guy."

Our Diplomat in Japan

What happens when the Obama administration sends an idiot as our diplomat to Japan?  This.

In office just two months, U.S. Ambassador Caroline Kennedy took to social media this weekend to condemn an annual dolphin hunt in western Japan portrayed by opponents as needlessly cruel.

"Deeply concerned by inhumaneness of drive hunt dolphin killing. USG opposes drive hunt fisheries," Kennedy tweeted in both English and Japanese. "USG" refers to the U.S. government.

The message seemed to catch both officials and public here by surprise. Government spokesman Yoshihide Suga defended the dolphin hunt at a regular press conference Monday as "in accordance with the law."

But Japanese social media were less circumspect.

"The drive hunt is a traditional fishery that was established long before the foundation of the United States of America," said one message posted in response. "Isn't it inhumane to kill millions of cows and sheep for consumption?" asked another.

Kennedy's dolphin tweet could complicate relations between two vital allies, says Robert Dujarric, director of the Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies at Temple University of Japan, in Tokyo.

"There are far more important questions between the U.S. and Japan. The key to the dolphin business is getting Japanese to oppose it. But will this help? Or on the contrary, will it start a nationalistic reaction against meddling by a (foreign) country," says Dujarric.

That her father was both brilliant and a masterful speaker is no guarantee that his daughter is, also...

A Tale of Two Data Stories

Can someone please tell me why people are thinking it is the End of the World because of the data breach with Target? **  And yet, having incredibly poor security and thus access to a world of private information about people (including social security numbers) with Obamacare is a yawner?

Good luck explaining to me why more people aren't hysterical about this.

There is a technique called — what we call passer reconnaissance, which allows us to query — look at how the website operates and performs. And these type of attacks that, you know, I’m mentioning here in the 70,000 that you’re referencing is very easy to do. It’s a rudimentary type attack that doesn’t actually attack the website itself, it extracts information from it without actually having to go into the system. Think of it this way. Think of something where you have a car and the car doors are open and the windows are open, you can see inside of it. That’s basically what they allow you to do. And there is no real sophistication level here. It is just really wide open. So, there is no hacking actually involved. And 70,000 was just one of the numbers that I was able to go up to. And I stopped after that. You know, and I’m sure it’s hundreds of thousands, if not more and it was done within about a four-minute time frame. So, it’s just wide open. You can literally just open up your browser, go to this and extract all this information. Not actually having to hack the website itself.

You don’t need to hack the website. The data is right out there for anyone to gather, apparently.

 

** (Full disclosure; working at Target headquarters was my first "real" job after graduate school - and I am a Target shareholder.  Irrespective of the data breach - it's a great company.)

The Prophetic Voice

My thanks to Scott Johnson at Powerline for this fine remembrance of Martin Luther King Jr.

King’s prophetic call must have been both a source of strength and of concern. His strength was manifest; he rarely let his concern show. Perfection is not a condition of the prophet’s call, and King was both imperfect and aware of his imperfections. His unbending strength is all the more remarkable.

It is difficult to comprehend that King was only 39 years old at the time of his assassination in Memphis on April 4, 1968, or that the prospect of his death weighed so heavily on his mind. He seems too young to have accomplished so much, or to have maintained his judgment under such trying circumstances. The magnitude of his own trials must have had a deep impact on him.

King's courage, wisdom, energy, judgment and much more render him an American with one of the most positive impacts upon our nation and our people.  No matter your background, color, age - no matter what - we all owe this man and enormous debt.

Its Own Intolerance

Those who espouse today's "progressivism" may not realize it - but - in many cases, it has become exactly what it professes to condemn.  Followers are embracing a strong faith of their own, with little to no room for acceptance of anyone who thinks dissimilarly.

Liberalism is the new "orthodoxy" - as this author explains.

I couldn’t believe it. I was trying to discuss traditional marriage – and the state was trying to stop me.

My findings were shocking: not only Christians, but also Muslims and Jews, increasingly feel they are no longer free to express any belief, no matter how deeply felt, that runs counter to the prevailing fashions for superficial “tolerance” and “equality” (terms which no longer bear their dictionary meaning but are part of a political jargon in which only certain views, and certain groups, count as legitimate).

Only 50 years ago, liberals supported “alternative culture”; they manned the barricades in protest against the establishment position on war, race and feminism. Today, liberals abhor any alternative to their credo. No one should offer an opinion that runs against the grain on issues that liberals consider “set in stone”, such as sexuality or the sanctity of life.

Intolerance is no longer the prerogative of overt racists and other bigots – it is state-sanctioned. It is no longer the case that the authorities are impartial on matters of belief, and will intervene to protect the interests and heritage of the weak. When it comes to crushing the rights of those who dissent from the new orthodoxy, politicians and bureaucrats alike are in the forefront of the attacks, not the defence.

Let outsiders see the faithful as a vulnerable group persecuted by right-on and politically correct fanatics who don’t believe in free speech. Let them see believers pushed to the margins of society, in need of protection to survive. Banned, misrepresented, excluded – and all because of their religion? Even the most hardbitten secularist and the most intolerant liberal should be offended by the kind of censorship people of faith are facing today. If believers can awaken a sense of justice in those around them, they may have taken a first important step in reclaiming the west as an area where God is welcome.

Inequality

And where left and right should concur.

In its entirety - as I cannot find a link that works, yet you need to read it!

Kids like these deserve a shot at a good life - irrespective of their humble origins.

Well Intentioned - But

I still maintain that many of those who push for higher minimum wage laws are motived by good intentions. Still, no matter how noble intentions may be, results ultimately are what matter in people's lives.

Here is yet one more article about how, when it comes to mandated higher minimum wages, too often the results for entry level workers is not a superior scenario.

The futility of these policies was made evident by two stories, which appeared side by side in the New York Times last week. The first of these stories carries the headline “After Winning a Raise, 175 Workers At a Queens Casino Lose Their Jobs.” That result would never have happened if the workers had won their raises by demonstrating higher levels of productivity to their employer, The Resorts World Casino. Instead, these wage increases were dictated by a labor arbitrator who doubled the base wages for workers in the casino under the living wage arrangement that he imposed on the firm.

No one should be thrilled that restaurant workers have to settle for wages of $5 per hour plus tips. But a steady job at that level is better than no job at the $12 base pay ordered by the arbitrator. The casino sought to raise food prices to compensate for the increased costs, but the law of demand applies to consumers as well. In hard times, they won’t stand for the increased prices, so the casino closed a food operation that could only operate at a loss, leaving 175 union members to scramble for jobs.

Ultimately, if you really care, then push for policies that afford people better educations, more opportunities for jobs and business growth, etc.  

"A Good Job is an Important Opportunity"

"But - only if it exists."

An immigrant to Minneapolis from Somali concisely explains the harm that good intentioned minimum wage hike proponents can cause, should they get their wishes fulfilled.

Simply stated, if the Legislature increases the minimum wage to $9.50 and attaches it to inflation, it is likely to put most of the lower-skilled people in my company and other similar companies out of work. There simply isn’t enough profit to even keep this part of a business like mine operating.

An artificially high wage doesn’t just affect people who are often in a first or early job, seeking training with which they can create a great future. The impact of such an artificially high wage would hit our clients hard.

I believe the home-health-care profession provides a tremendously compassionate service, one that helps sick or injured people stay in their homes. If policymakers place costs on autopilot, they will have to answer to those in our communities we are no longer able to serve. Likely, some of these same legislators will suddenly feel obligated to “keep helping,” by creating programs to make up for services they have legislated out of existence.

Many in the Somali-American and other new American communities came here for opportunity as I did. As policymakers place increased pressures on these small-business entrepreneurs, I ask them to consider the consequences. I can’t even call them “unintended,” because the Legislature knows full well what will happen if it creates an environment where businesses can only fail.

Please be wary of how good-sounding legislation affects our neighbors, customers and clients. Please be wary of how this affects me — and my employees.

A good job is an important opportunity, but only if it exists.

How Do You Know They're Lying?

Their lips are moving.

Declassified documents highlight more and more lies about Benghazi from the Obama administration.

Minutes after the American consulate in Benghazi came under assault on Sept. 11, 2012, the nation's top civilian and uniformed defense officials -- headed for a previously scheduled Oval Office session with President Obama -- were informed that the event was a "terrorist attack," declassified documents show. The new evidence raises the question of why the top military men, one of whom was a member of the president's Cabinet, allowed him and other senior Obama administration officials to press a false narrative of the Benghazi attacks for two weeks afterward. 

Numerous aides to the president and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton repeatedly told the public in the weeks following the murder of Ambassador Stevens and three other Americans that night -- as Obama's hotly contested bid for re-election was entering its final stretch -- that there was no evidence the killings were the result of a premeditated terrorist attack, but rather were the result of a protest gone awry. Subsequent disclosures exposed the falsity of that narrative, and the Obama administration ultimately acknowledged that its early statements on Benghazi were untrue. 

Ham's declassified testimony further underscores that Obama's earliest briefing on Benghazi was solely to the effect that the incident was a terrorist attack, and raises once again the question of how the narrative about the offensive video, and a demonstration that never occurred, took root within the White House as the explanation for Benghazi. 

The day after the attacks, which marked the first killing of an American ambassador in the line of duty since 1979, Obama strode to the Rose Garden to comment on the loss, taking pains in his statement to say: "We reject all efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others." As late as Sept. 24, during an appearance on the talk show "The View," when asked directly by co-host Joy Behar if Benghazi had been "an act of terrorism," the president hedged, saying: "Well, we're still doing an investigation." 

Voter Fraud

All my favorite liberals assert that claims of "voter fraud" are merely fronts to keep people of color from voting.

Are they right?  Well - please read this and then let me know what you think.

Liberals who oppose efforts to prevent voter fraud claim that there is no fraud — or at least not any that involves voting in person at the polls.

But New York City’s watchdog Department of Investigations has just provided the latest evidence of how easy it is to commit voter fraud that is almost undetectable. DOI undercover agents showed up at 63 polling places last fall and pretended to be voters who should have been turned away by election officials; the agents assumed the names of individuals who had died or moved out of town, or who were sitting in jail. In 61 instances, or 97 percent of the time, the testers were allowed to vote. Those who did vote cast only a write-in vote for a “John Test” so as to not affect the outcome of any contest. DOI published its findings two weeks ago in a searing 70-page report accusing the city’s Board of Elections of incompetence, waste, nepotism, and lax procedures.

The Board of Elections, which has a $750 million annual budget and a work force of 350 people, reacted in classic bureaucratic fashion, which prompted one city paper to deride it as “a 21st-century survivor of Boss Tweed–style politics.” The Board approved a resolution referring the DOI’s investigators for prosecution. It also asked the state’s attorney general to determine whether DOI had violated the civil rights of voters who had moved or are felons, and it sent a letter of complaint to Mayor Bill de Blasio. Normally, I wouldn’t think de Blasio would give the BOE the time of day, but New York’s new mayor has long been a close ally of former leaders of ACORN, the now-disgraced “community organizing” group that saw its employees convicted of voter-registration fraud all over the country during and after the 2008 election.

Al Franken’s 312-vote victory in 2008 over Minnesota senator Norm Coleman gave Democrats a filibuster-proof Senate majority of 60 votes, which allowed them to pass Obamacare. Months after the Obamacare vote, a conservative group called Minnesota Majority finished comparing criminal records with voting rolls and identified 1,099 felons — all ineligible to vote — who had voted in the Franken–Coleman race. Fox News random interviews with ten of those felons found that nine had voted for Franken, backing up national academic studies that show felons tend to vote strongly for Democrats.

Minnesota Majority took its findings to prosecutors across the state, but very few showed any interest in pursuing the issue. Some did, though, and 177 people have been convicted as of mid 2012 — not just “accused” but actually convicted — of voting fraudulently in the Senate race. Probably the only reason the number of convictions isn’t higher is that the standard for convicting someone of voter fraud in Minnesota is that the person must have been both ineligible and must have “knowingly” voted unlawfully. Anyone accused of fraud is apt to get off by claiming he didn’t know he’d done anything wrong.

Given that we now know for certain how easy it is to commit undetectable voter fraud and how serious the consequences can be, it’s truly bizarre to have officials at the New York City Board of Elections and elsewhere savage those who shine a light on the fact that their modus operandi invites fraud. One might even think that they’re covering up their incompetence or that they don’t want to pay attention to what crimes could be occurring behind the curtains at their polling places. Or both.

How the War Was Lost

How long can we continue poor policies to attempt to aid the poor in our nation?

Immigration

A fine column on a critical issue involving immigration today.

What is needed is a change in overall immigration policy that would make Garcia’s case impossible. Even without amnesty, Garcia should long ago have received permanent legal-resident status. But our current system is hopelessly backlogged, and waits of two or more decades is the rule, not the exception, for people from Latin America and parts of Asia. The number of permanent visas available is too small to accommodate US labor demands, much less the desire of people like Garcia to contribute their talents to our nation.

Unless Congress acts — and soon — we’ll see more states like California that try to dig their ways out of the morass our immigration laws have created. Immigration policy is a federal responsibility, but Congress has abrogated this responsibility for the last decade.

Keeping bad federal laws on the books doesn’t advance the rule of law. It only encourages scofflaws and state usurpation of the federal role.

The Danger of the Press Today

Note how incredibly misleading this AP report is.  And yes; it matters.

"An Astonishing Gift"

A bridge buddy of mine originally from India told me that when he reached the United States, he literally kissed the ground.  

Here is another man who feels similarly.

I wish that those Americans who trash their country for its failings or doubt the value of their citizenship could give it up and reapply for it, just to see with fresh eyes what an astonishing gift it still is.