Image 01 Image 03

July 2013

The last in my series of posts from Israel: After leaving the Valley of Tears battle monument, we descended from the Golan Heights towards Israel's northernmost town, Metula. But along the way, we stopped at the Druze town of Mas'ade for lunch at the Nedal Restaurant.  Here's the view towards Mount Hermon (lost then recaptured during the 1973 Yom Kippur War) from in front of the restaurant: [caption id="attachment_60845" align="alignnone" width="501"](Mas'ade Druze Village Israel, looking towards Mount Hermon) (Mas'ade Druze Village Israel, looking towards Mount Hermon)[/caption] You can see on this map how far north Metula is: [caption id="attachment_60711" align="alignnone" width="505"](Metula, Israel - Map View) (Metula, Israel - Map View)[/caption] These map view give a good perspective on how Metula is surrounded on three sides by Lebanon: [caption id="attachment_60710" align="alignnone" width="464"](Metula, Israel - Street Map View) (Metula, Israel - Street Map View)[/caption]

National Security Agency Director Gen. Keith Alexander was met with both heckling and applause at the Black Hat  information security conference in Las Vegas, Nevada on Wednesday. Ever since the leaks from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden thrust the agency's domestic surveillance policies into the limelight...

Of the 50 states in the US, 49 of them require the State to disprove a defendant’s claim of self-defense, beyond a reasonable doubt. Ohio, on the other hand, requires that the defendant prove self-defense by a preponderance of the evidence. Why is Ohio Such...

... in the U.S.A. as of 5:04 a.m. Eastern, after an 11 hour flight from Israel to JFK.  Then the 4.5 hour drive to Ithaca.  So suffice it to say I'm tired. My final Israel travel post, which was mostly prepared yesterday while I was in...

Anne Frank's diary is widely read---or at least parts of it, in some form or other. And even those who have never read it are probably familiar with a few quotes from it, the most highly publicized of which may be Anne's observation: "in spite...

There are so many things wrong with ObamaCare that it's hard to know where to start.  One of the latest is something CNBC is calling a "quirk" that . . .  could ultimately mean thousands of dollars less for you under a quirk in the new...

Another in my ongoing posts from Israel: After we left the Tel Saki Battle Memorial on Monday, we continued north, to the Quneitra Crossing, the only active border crossing between Syria and Israel, manned by U.N. forces.  Several weeks ago Syrian rebels briefly seized the area on the Syrian side, and there still is fighting in the area. Here is the view of the crossing from the recently opened Israeli Avital Volcanic Park.  There was smoke rising in the distance, but it was hard to capture because of the lighting conditions: [caption id="attachment_60691" align="alignnone" width="512"]Quneitra Crossing Golan Heights view from Avital Park (Quneitra Crossing, Golan Heights, view from Avital Volcanic Park)[/caption] We then headed to the nearby Golan Heights Wind Farm, which had a better view of the smoke rising from the area: [caption id="attachment_60693" align="alignnone" width="516"]Golan Heights Wind Farm - map view (Golan Heights Wind Farm - map view)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_60692" align="alignnone" width="537"]Golan Heights Wind Farm - View of Syria (Golan Heights Wind Farm - View of Syria)[/caption]

Detroit is poised to become the largest American city to go bankrupt. So what are politicians to do with city workers whose votes were guaranteed with the promise of lavish pension perks like free healthcare? Obamacare exchanges, of course! The retirees that cities like Detroit are trying to...

...the way much of it has now turned on Weiner? That's the question asked by a commenter at this post about The New Yorker's new cover mocking Weiner. My answer, in a nutshell, is no. After all, there is no real cost to turning on Weiner. The...

A state appeals court has unanimously upheld a lower court's decision to stop the Sugary Drinks Portion Cap Rule, more popularly known as the "Soda Ban." https://twitter.com/CNBC/status/362229392518291456 From Reuters: New York City's plan to ban large sugary drinks from restaurants and other eateries was an illegal overreach of...

Howard Dean wrote in the Wall Street Journal that ObamaCare's IPAB needs to be "removed."  He explains why in terms that will be familiar to those of us who have opposed the ObamaCare Tax nightmare from the beginning: One major problem is the so-called Independent Payment...

In its latest attack on news outlets, the Syrian Electronic Army hijacked the Twitter account of Thomson Reuters news agency. It started with this tweet late Monday afternoon, which I re-tweeted shortly thereafter in case it disappeared (and it has). https://twitter.com/Liberty_Chick/status/361991625175609345 It was preceded by several other tweets containing political cartoons, which are captured here in screen shots. (Warning, they're not exactly funny). SEA-reuters2a