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November 2013

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 30, 2013 8 Comments

I wasn't watching live because I didn't really care. But the rubbing-it-in that's going on is quite enjoyable to watch. (I was tempted to draw political analogies, but that would have cheapened the moment.) Good collection of video/gifs/photos at SB Nation. https://twitter.com/gregorydjohnsen/status/406945912863211520 https://twitter.com/japarsons/status/406946057298259968 https://twitter.com/sbnation/status/406943478870843392 https://twitter.com/AaronWorthing/status/406950865309007872 Good luck collecting: https://twitter.com/tjboyd15/status/406829975053291520...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 30, 2013 25 Comments
If Obama can do it, why can't I? A follow up to a prior question, What race is an illegal alien? Obama is pivoting back to immigration reform, which really amounts to an amnesty push, because without amnesty there could be "reform" of a wide variety of immigration issues. During a speech at DreamWorks, Obama curiously stated that he could tell who were immigrants based on their faces (transcript via RCP):
OBAMA: As I was getting a tour of DreamWorks, I didn't ask, but just looking at faces, I could tell there were some folks who are here not because they were born here, but because they want to be here and they bring extraordinary talents to the United States. And that's part of what makes America special. And that's part of what, by the way, makes California special, because it's always been this magnet of dreamers and strivers. And people coming from every direction saying to themselves, you know, if I work hard there I can have my piece of the American Dream.
I know exactly what he means. I spotted this immigrant from a mile away (the one on the left). Piers Morgan Mike Tyson Must have been the fear of deportation on his face:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 30, 2013 5 Comments
Days of Rage is just about every day in the anti-Israel movement. Today is was a Day of Rage over an Israeli proposal, still working its way through the Knesset, to relocate about 15% of the Bedouin who live in the Negev Desert from dispersed, mostly dilapidated housing built without permits into newer, more centralized housing also in the Negev. That plan has sparked the usual cries of Ethnic Cleansing from anti-Israeli international groups and Israeli leftists. In fact, no one is being cleansed. The vast majority of Bedouins will stay where they are, and none will be forced out of the area the Bedouins have inhabited in Israel. The Day of Rage has not received a lot of attention in U.S. media, or even on social media outside of the hastag #StopPrawerPlan. But not for lack of trying. AP reports:
Large protests over a plan to resettle nomadic Bedouin Arabs in Israel's southern Negev desert caused injuries Saturday and led to some arrests as well as condemnation from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Protests focused on a bill that would move thousands of Bedouins into government-recognized villages. Opponents charge the plan would confiscate Bedouin land and affect their nomadic way of life, but Israel says the moves are necessary to provide basic services that many Bedouins lack and would benefit their community while preserving their traditions.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 30, 2013 13 Comments
Operation Fixed Website is about to get under way.
Tomorrow, the Obama administration will unleash a public relations campaign declaring healthcare.gov fixed: Obama administration officials said Saturday they were "on track" to have the problematic ObamaCare website running smoothly by their self-imposed Nov. 30 deadline. "With the scheduled upgrades last night and tonight, we're on track to meet our stated goal for the site to work for the vast majority of users," Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services spokesman Aaron Albright told Fox News, in a statement. Administration officials have since announcing the deadline qualified expectations and outcomes by repeatedly saying the site would work for the “vast majority of people.” The Washington Post earlier Saturday reported the administration was prepared to announce Sunday that they have met deadlines for improving HealthCare.gov.
Fixed has been so far defined downward for healthcare.gov, that almost anything other than a 404 Error message is "fixed". Via NPR, How Will We Know If HealthCare.gov Is Fixed?

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 30, 2013 64 Comments
Compensation means how much you get paid, right? Or payment for a loss? Or any of the other common usages, right? Reader Bronwyn was not happy when she learned that in Common Core mathematics, compensation means encouraging students to guess the wrong but easier answer, then teaching them how to compensate for the wrong answer to get to the right result:
My 4th grade daughter attends a Christian school here in Orange Co., Ca. I do not like their choice in a common core math book at all, but I have been particularly amused by the use of the term "compensation." The teachers actually had to send home an email because none of the parents had any idea what the term meant. I attached a copy of the definition in the book because it just seems so fitting during this Obama Administration. "compensation: you choose numbers close to the numbers in the problem to make the computation easier and then adjust the answer for the numbers chosen." All this under the lesson- Using mental math to multiply. This must be Obama's math! Here we parents thought it was how we got paid?
Here's the question posed to the students to which the featured image was the answer:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 30, 2013 4 Comments

In a campus culture devoted to giving everyone a trophy: The most common grade at many schools? “A” of course! Ignoring Failure in Higher Education LA Times Report: Getting into College is Easier Except for white males, whose Trophy Privilege has gone on long enough: Duke Lacrosse Rape Accuser Found...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 30, 2013 4 Comments

Voting for Obama "despite everything" was enough to get him through 2012. Spotted in Ithaca at the Wegmans shopping center....

Posted by Mandy Nagy on November 29, 2013 1 Comment

The FEC has fined the campaign committee of former U.S. Representative Jesse Jackson Jr. for failing to file its required 2012 year-end campaign finance disclosure report. From Roll Call: A small fine from a small federal agency for not reporting may be the least of former Rep....

Posted by Mandy Nagy on November 29, 2013 1 Comment

It's not entirely clear yet exactly what's happened, but something funny appears to be going on. I first noticed it a little while ago when this tweet appeared in my Twitter timeline (the tweet has since been deleted, so below is a screenshot). Others caught a shot...

Posted by Mandy Nagy on November 29, 2013 8 Comments
A busy San Diego highway was shut down and snarled traffic for Thanksgiving day travelers Thursday after a brother decided to play a joke on his sister by calling to tell her there was a bomb in her car. From NBC San Diego:

A prank phone call between a brother and sister involving a bomb hoax led officials to block traffic in both directions on San Diego's busy Interstate 15 on Thanksgiving afternoon.

The freeway shutdown began around 2:45 p.m. at northbound and southbound I-15 near Miramar Way.

Lt. Lorenzo Ruano with the California Highway Patrol said a woman was driving on the freeway with a friend when she received a phone call from an unknown person, whose voice she did not recognize. The person on the other end told the woman there was a bomb in her car.

Lt. Ruano said the woman immediately pulled over by the center divide on northbound I-15, just south of the Miramar Way overpass, and called 911.

You can pretty much guess at least some of what happened next.

Posted by Mandy Nagy on November 29, 2013 7 Comments
Since the announcement of the Iran nuclear deal and the administration's release of a fact sheet on the matter, Iran has disputed the White House's interpretation of the agreement.  While Iran has insisted that the agreement recognizes its right to enrich uranium, Secretary of State John Kerry has said, "We do not recognize a right to enrich." The Washington Post published this piece Thursday by its editorial board that points out notable omissions in the fact sheet distributed by the Obama administration.
THE FACT sheet distributed by the Obama administration about the nuclear agreement with Iran is notable for its omissions. The 2,000-word document, like President Obama’s televised statement Saturday night about the deal, stresses Iran’s pledge to cap its enrichment of uranium, delay the completion of a plutonium-producing reactor and accept additional inspections — measures that will guard against an attempt to produce a bomb while negotiations continue.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 29, 2013 247 Comments

Charles Krauthamer observes the lawlessness of the Obama administration: Remember how for months Democrats denounced Republicans for daring to vote to defund or postpone Obamacare? Saboteurs! Terrorists! How dare you alter “the law of the land.” This was nonsense from the beginning. Every law is subject to...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 29, 2013 15 Comments
It may be the biggest Obamacare lie of all. Not that you can keep your health care plan if you like your plan. Not that you can keep your doctor if you like your doctor. Not all of the phony cost estimates and supposed efficiencies. The biggest lie of all is that 15-30 million additional people who will be enticed or shoved onto Medicaid will receive quality health care.  In reality, they will receive health care "insurance," but there will be few doctors willing to see them because the reimbursement rates are so low. I have mentioned before how, anecdotally, almost every doctor with whom I speak sings that same song, that Medicaid reimbursements are so low they either have to restrict or eliminate Medicaid patients. It's not just anecdotal.  Even The New York Times notes that the problem will become much worse under Obamacare, Medicaid Growth Could Aggravate Doctor Shortage (h/t @Drudge_Report):

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 29, 2013 30 Comments

It will stand the test of time. Those who were willing to stand against Obamacare despite all the name calling, and who are proven to have been correct. Obama and Democrats now are scrambling to delay various portions of the Obamacare rollout, even though such delays when...

Posted by New Neo on November 28, 2013 19 Comments

The New York Times chose the following photo to illustrate a front-page article about genetic screening in Israel for a breast cancer gene: There's been a lot of flak about the photo's inclusion of the nipple---or to be more accurate, the half-aureole. But that's hardly the...

Posted by Laurel Conrad on November 28, 2013 10 Comments
After a long bus ride from Cornell back to Virginia yesterday, I get the rare chance today to escape the campus lefties and spend some quality time with my family. And while it's easy to fixate on scary things like the job market I'm about to enter after graduation, today in particular, I reflect on what a conservative college student has to be grateful for.

1) The Republicans control the house

Which is at least something. US_House_of_Representatives_Logo

2) Obamacare is self-imploding

Want to hear a funny joke? Healthcare.gov.

Posted by David Gerstman on November 28, 2013 9 Comments
The Israeli delegation has just returned from the Philippines after nearly two weeks of providing emergency care to the island nation's survivors of Typhoon Haiyan. According to the Jerusalem Post the first baby delivered by the Israeli medical teams was named "Israel." In fact Israel - the IDF particularly - has been one of the world's great first responders in recent years, helping countries across the globe deal with the results of man made and natural disasters. The IDF has a map on its blog, with links to many of its notable accomplishments. View #IDFWithoutBorders in a larger map Japan, 2011, Earthquake/Tsunami According to the IDF:
The majority of the medical equipment taken to Japan by the IDF, including x-ray machinery and lab equipment, will remain in Japan in order to benefit the physicians and local authorities providing care to the community of Minamisanriku and its vicinity. ...
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