Obama administration upset because Hobby Lobby prevents women from getting "free contraceptive coverage," Obama doesn't understand economics, clearly nothing is free

White House press secretary Josh Earnest: "Well, as the constitutional lawyer who sits in the Oval Office would tell you is, he would read the entire decision before he passed judgment in terms of his own legal analysis. What we have been able to assess so far ... is that there is a problem that has been exposed, which is that there are now a group of women of an indeterminate size who no longer have access to free contraceptive coverage simply because of some religious views held, not by them necessarily, but by their bosses.   We disagree and the constitutional lawyer in the Oval Office disagrees with that conclusion from the Supreme Court. And that's why we--primarily, because he is concerned about the impact it could have on the health of those women."

The notion that "contraceptive coverage" is free is absurd.   If an insurance company completely covers 100% of the cost of RU-486 or other contraceptives, that costs the insurance company something and means that the premium is going to have to be higher.  Even worse, Obamacare forces up the premiums for younger people (those who are obviously most likely to use contraceptives) relative to older ones.  If Obama was concerned about the relatively small costs of contraceptives, why doesn't he first not raise young people's premiums so dramatically?  This is the reason that Obamacare needs a lot of young people signing up to keep the premiums down, they cross subsidize the others getting insurance.

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Serious problem of concussions in professional soccer

Striking one's head against a hard ball over and over again never seemed like a good idea.  But of course there are also all the accidental falls and hits to the head.  Here is an interesting article in the journal Neurology entitled: "Chronic traumatic brain injury in professional soccer players."

Methods: Fifty-three active professional soccer players from several professional Dutch soccer clubs were compared with a control group of 27 elite noncontact sport athletes. All participants underwent neuropsychological examination. The main outcome measures were neuropsychological tests proven to be sensitive to cognitive changes incurred during contact and collision sports.
Results: The professional soccer players exhibited impaired performances in memory, planning, and visuoperceptual processing when compared with control subjects. Among professional soccer players, performance on memory, planning, and visuoperceptual tasks were inversely related to the number of concussions incurred in soccer and the frequency of "heading" the ball. Performance on neuropsychological testing also varied according to field position, with forward and defensive players exhibiting more impairment.
Conclusion: Participation in professional soccer may affect adversely some aspects of cognitive functioning (i.e., memory, planning, and visuoperceptual processing).

For college, women's soccer appears to have a higher rate of concussions than men's football or soccer: 6.3 per 10,000 exposures in women’s soccer versus 4.9 for men’s soccer and 6.1 per 10,000 for men’s football.   Indeed, for college sports, women's soccer has the highest rate of concussions.  

For high school, girls' soccer has the second highest rate of concussions behind football, but when concussions do occur girls and boys' high school soccer have worst concussions than do football (click on figure to make it larger).



Girls' high school basketball might not have a lot of concussions, but their concussions tend to be pretty bad.  The most severe concussions requiring 22+ days to recuperate from appear to be twice the percentage for both boys and girls' soccer.  More is available here.

There is another study on college players, but the survey method used here is fairly problematic.  The survey indicates that soccer players are much less likely than football players to even realize that they have had a concussion.  If the rate of perceived concussions is related to the rate that people answer the survey, you will get relatively more underreporting of concussions among soccer players.  The questionnaires indicated that "70.4% of the football playersand 62.7% of the soccer players had experienced symptoms of a concussion during theprevious year."  But much of that difference could be explained by differences in reporting rates. 

Here is another academic article of interest:
British Journal of Sports Medicine: The Effect of Protective Headgear on Head Injuries and Concussions in Adolescent Football (Soccer) Players: "In the population studied, 47.8% had experienced symptoms of a concussion during the current football year. 26.9% of athletes who wore headgear (HG) and 52.8% of those who did not wear headgear (No-HG) had concussions."

Here is something else that a reader sent me.

SOCCER CONCUSSIONS: GET THE FACTS
-- 92,505 Concussions in High School Soccer

National High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study 2011/2012. http://www.nationwidechildrens.org/cirp-rio
-- Players NOT wearing protective soccer headgear are 2.65 times more likely to suffer a concussion than those who did wear headgear
Al-Kashmiti, Delaney, et al “The Effect of Protective Headgear on Head Injuries and Concussions in Adolescent Football (Soccer) Players,” British Journal of Sports Medicine (2007). http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2007/07/05/bjsm.2007.037689 .abstract - Dr. J. Scott Delaney, jscott.delaney@mcgill.ca
-- Concussions in soccer are not commonly caused by heading the ball
Boden, Kirkendall et al, “Concussion Incidence in Elite College Soccer Players,” American Journal of Sports Medicine (1998), 26:238-41. http://ajs.sagepub.com/content/26/2/238.short
-- “Head to head impacts posed high concussion risk”
Withnall, Shewchenko et al., “Effectiveness of Headgear in Soccer,” British Journal of Sports Medicine (2005), 39(supp1):i40-i48. http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/39/suppl_1/i40.full
-- In a peer-reviewed study, 62.7% of college-level soccer players had concussion symptoms in a single year
Delaney, Lacroix et al., “Concussions Among University Football and Soccer Players,” Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine (2002), 12(6):331-38. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12466687
-- The number of sports concussions is believed to be under-reported by 90%
NIH Consensus Development Panel, “Rehabilitation of Persons with Traumatic Brain Injury,” Journal of the American Medical Association (1999), 282:974-83. http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=191465 mediarelations@jamanetwork.org
-- The concussion rate in soccer is similar to that in American football
Baroff, “Is Heading a Soccer Ball Injurious to Brain Function?” Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation (1998), 13(2):45-52. http://journals.lww.com/headtraumarehab/Abstract/1998/04000/I s_Heading_a_Soccer_Ball_Injurious_to_Brain.7.aspx

-- After the first concussion, the risk of a second one increases by a factor of four
Gerberich, Priest et al., “Concussion Incidences and Severity in Secondary School Varsity Football Players,” American Journal of Public Health (1973), 73:1370-75. http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/abs/10.2105/AJPH.73.12.13 70
-- Subsequent concussions are usually more serious than the first one, even if the impacts are similar
Collins, Lovell et al., “Cumulative Effects of Concussion in High School Athletes,” Neurosurgery (2002), 51(5):1175-81. http://journals.lww.com/neurosurgery/Abstract/2002/11000/Cum ulative_Effects_of_Concussion_in_High_School.11.aspx
-- Second Impact Syndrome (rapid swelling of the brain, potentially catastrophic outcome) may occur if the head is impacted before the brain has recovered from a concussion
Cantu, “Recurrent Athletic Head Injury: Risks and When to Retire,” Clinics in Sports Medicine (2003), 22(3):593-603. http://www.sportsmed.theclinics.com/article/S0278- 5919(02)00095-9/fulltext
-- Younger players require more time to recover from a concussion than older players
Field, Collins et al., “Does Age Play a Role in Recovery from Sports-Related Concussion? A Comparison of High School and Collegiate Athletes,” Journal of Pediatrics (2003), 142(5):546- 53. http://www.jpeds.com/article/S0022-3476(03)00116- 1/abstract - journal.pediatrics@cchmc.org
-- Girls are more likely to be concussed than boys
Fuller, Junge et al., “A Six Year Prospective Study of the Incidence and Causes of Head and Neck Injuries in International Football,” British Journal of Sports Medicine (2005), 39(supp1):i3-i8. http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/39/suppl_1/i3.full.pdf 

Here is an interesting blog on soccer concussions.

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Industry IT experts say IRS claims about lost emails make no sense

From Fox News:

An industry group is claiming the IRS should have kept full records of its apparent destruction of ex-official Lois Lerner's hard drive, saying "the notion that these emails just magically vanished makes no sense whatsoever."  

The latest to weigh in on the lost emails controversy is the head of the International Association of Information Technology Asset Managers. Group president Barbara Rembiesa released a statement on Thursday questioning recent testimony by IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, who told Congress last Friday that Lerner's hard drive was "recycled and destroyed" after it crashed in 2011.  

She claimed that a certified "IT asset destruction" team should have been brought in to document and complete that process.  

"If this was done, there would be records. If this was not done, this is the smoking gun that proves the drive or drives were destroyed improperly -- or not at all," she said. . . .

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"IRS Commissioner: 'I Do Not Remember' How I Was Told Lerner Emails Lost"

This gets to the simple question of honesty.  It isn't be quite as bad as the revelation that they didn't try to retrieve Lois Lerner's emails when she had a hard disk crash (they claimed that they had six months of backups at the IRS, but they only looked on her hard disk when the crash occurred and didn't go to the IRS backups and soon dropped the outside vendor who was backing up the emails).  Still, it isn't clear why Koskinen is credible.

Rep. Jim Jordan: "I want to focus on when you did officially learn, according to your definition. The chairman asked you who told you this information, you can’t remember?" 

IRS Commissioner John Koskinen: "I do not remember." 

Jordan: "Did someone say in person, did they send you an email, how did you get the information?" 

Koskinen: "I do not recall, I do not get emails on these subjects so I’m sure it was someone in person." 

Jordan: "This has been a major news story for the last 13 months, and you don’t remember who came up to you and said ‘hey boss, we lost Lois Lerner’s emails’? You don’t even remember anything about that situation?" 

Koskinen: "I remember being told in April–" 

Jordan: "But you don’t remember who told you?" 

Koskinen: "I do not recall who told me." 

Jordan: "Something that’s been a front page story, you would think that would be significant enough to remember how it happened, when they told you, what the actual date was. You might even remember where you were standing." 

Koskinen: "You’ve got to remember I’m running an agency with 90,000 people, we are dealing with a whole set of–" 

Jordan: "This has been the biggest issue in front of your agency for the last year!" 

Koskinen: "We were in the middle of filing season as all this was going on."  

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"Hillary Clinton Says Opponents Of Gun Control Laws ‘Terrorize’ Americans"

Teacher in the studio audience: Do you think that reinstating the ban on assault weapons and banning high capacity magazines would do any good?
Clinton: Yes, I do.  I do.

More in the write up on the interview is available here:

“We cannot let a minority of people, and that’s what it is, it is a minority of people, hold a viewpoint that terrorizes the majority of people,” Clinton said during a live CNN town hall. The comments were Clinton’s deepest foray into an exceedingly controversial political subject since leaving the State Department last year. 

“I was disappointed that the Congress did not pass universal background checks after the horrors of the shootings at Sandy Hook,” she said in response to a question from a school teacher in the audience. “I don’t think any parent, or any person should have to fear about their child going to school or going to college because someone for whatever reason, psychological, emotional, political, ideological, whatever, could possibly enter that school property with an automatic weapon and murder innocent children, students, teachers.” 

“I will speak out [on this subject] no matter what role I find myself in,” Clinton pledged, referring to her consideration of a presidential bid in 2016.

Of course, I believe that Hillary is clearly knowingly lying when she talks about automatic weapons.

The video also repeats the false claim about 74 more school shootings

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Women ages 55 to 64 hit hardest by increased costs under Obamacare

From the Washington Post:

What Mark Pauly, Scott Harrington, and Adam Leive of the Wharton School have done is to figure out how much non-elderly individuals spent on insurance before the ACA and then compared these figures with what they’ll spend after the ACA.  They did this by using survey data for 2010 through 2012 from the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey that show how much people spent on health care, including premiums and out of pocket payments.  By looking at the total spent rather than just on premiums, the data reflect the fact that someone who buys a policy with a low premium can expect to have higher out of pocket costs, and vice versa.  They report their findings in a paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research. 

For post-ACA prices, they looked at the premiums for the various levels of coverage (these levels are classified according to various metals: bronze, silver, gold and platinum) and estimated out of pocket payments according to data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. The data were tabulated by age and gender for the bronze and the two lowest price silver plans. 

After crunching the numbers, they found that people who buy the bronze or silver plans on the federal exchanges will spend a moderate amount more  — from $694 to $1,165 a year, or 14 to 24 percent — on premiums and out of pocket expenses than they did before the health reform took effect. 

However, that average figure masks a huge redistribution of the costs to older women from nearly everyone else. 

Total expected premiums and out of pocket expenses rose by 50 percent for women age 55 to 64 — a much larger increase than for any other group — for policies on the federal exchanges relative to prices that individuals who bought individual insurance before health care reform went into effect. 

Women age 55 to 64 will pay from $2,185 to $2,738 more in premiums and out of pocket  expenses under the new health insurance environment than they did pre-ACA.
Premiums for the second-lowest silver policy are 67 percent higher for a 55 to 64-year-old woman than they were pre-ACA. . . .

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Note that the Obama administration supported police being able to search people's cell phones without a search warrant

From the Washington Times:

The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that police cannot go snooping through people’s cell phones without a warrant, in a unanimous decision that amounts to a major statement in favor of privacy rights.Police agencies had argued that searching through the data on cell phones was no different than asking someone to turn out his pockets, but the justices rejected that, saying a cell phone is more fundamental. . . .
The Obama administration and the state of California, both of which sought to justify cell phone searches . . .
The court did carve out exceptions for “exigencies” that arise, such as major security threats. 

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Isn't it enough that Lois Lerner was using the IRS to target conservatives? Now it turns out that she was also targeting Republican politicians

From Fox News:

Congressional investigators have uncovered emails showing ex-IRS official Lois Lerner targeted a sitting Republican senator for a proposed internal audit, a discovery one GOP lawmaker called "shocking." . . . .
The emails appear to show Lerner mistakenly received an invitation intended for Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, in 2012.
The event organizer, whose name is not disclosed, apparently offered to pay for Grassley's wife to attend the event, which caught Lerner's attention. The December 2012 emails show that in response, Lerner suggested to an IRS colleague that the case be referred for an audit.
"Looked like they were inappropriately offering to pay for his wife. Perhaps we should refer to Exam?" she wrote.
Her colleague, though, pushed back on the idea, saying an offer to pay for his wife is "not prohibited on its face." There is no indication from the emails that Lerner pursued the issue any further.
Republicans pointed to the exchange as yet another example of Lerner using her position in the Exempt Organizations unit to apply scrutiny to conservatives.
"We have seen a lot of unbelievable things in this investigation, but the fact that Lois Lerner attempted to initiate an apparently baseless IRS examination against a sitting Republican United States Senator is shocking," Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., said in a statement.
"At every turn, Lerner was using the IRS as a tool for political purposes in defiance of taxpayer rights." . . .

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The incredible 3% drop in GDP can't be blamed on the cold weather

The Obama administration suggests that it was unusually cold weather that explains the drop, but looking it is hard to see any relationship between abnormally low temperatures and GDP growth.

Click on figures to enlarge them.

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My newest piece at Fox News: "What the Supreme Court still doesn't understand about guns"

John Lott's latest piece at Fox News starts this way:

In what’s being hailed by many as a victory for gun-control advocates, the recent Supreme Court decision on “straw” purchases of guns has completely muddled the whole issue of background checks and “straw” purchases for potential gun owners.

The court ruled 5-4 that, as The Hill.com put it, “one legal gun owner may not acquire a firearm on behalf of another — a practice known as "straw" purchasing. 

The case heard by the high court involved a Virginia police officer, Bruce Abramski, who bought a gun, a Glock 19 handgun, for his uncle. The police officer, who could get a discount on guns, bought the gun in Virginia. He then transferred it to his uncle, who lived in Pennsylvania, through a second licensed dealer in the state. 

The Obama administration successfully prosecuted Abramski for two felonies. The Justice Department said that the same federal background check form where Abramski indicated that he wasn’t a straw purchaser involved perjury as well as for providing false information to the gun dealer who sold the gun. 

The five Justices who supported Obama’s prosecution, claimed: “That information helps to fight serious crime. When police officers retrieve a gun at a crime scene, they can trace it to the buyer and consider him as a suspect.” 

But there are two big problems with their claim. . . . .

The rest of the piece is continued here.

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Liberal Radio Show host tries to get people killed, will yell shots fired when he sees someone openly carrying a gun

This is about as dangerous of a suggestion as I have heard.

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2.8% of Americans are newly insured through Obamacare exchanges, those using exchanges are slightly less healthy than average

Gallup's new poll results are discussed here.  My one concern is they discuss "newly insured" and not "net new insured."

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IRS Commissioner John Koskinen on the hot seat

In response to Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa asking about IRS Commissioner John Koskinen's earlier promise to the committee in March to turn over all documents.
Koskinen engages in some amazing double talk about what he meant by his promise that there would be no problems with him turning over all the promised emails: "I never said that I would provide you emails that we didn't have."

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Shop keeper kills robber wielding a 6-inch hunting knife

From the Philadelphia Inquirer:

. . . Police did not release the 46-year-old shopkeeper's name, but sources identified her as Sharon Doyle, who worked as a police officer in Philadelphia, Lower Makefield, and Warminster Township. She also served as a Secret Service agent from 2002 to 2004, according to a resume posted online.
She was behind the counter of Stan's Health Foods, on the 7100 block of Frankford Avenue in Mayfair, just after 5 p.m. when a 47-year-old man walked in and brandished a 6-inch hunting knife, said Philadelphia Inspector Scott Small.
"No other employees, no customers," Small said. "Just her and the robbery suspect."
The man went behind the counter and threw the cash register on the floor to break it, Small said, then began collecting the money scattered on the floor. He then put the knife to the woman's chest, Small said, and she sprang into action.
She drew a gun and fired a single shot into the man's chest, Small said. The man collapsed on the floor.
When police arrived moments later, the suspect was still clutching some cash in his left hand, Small said. A knife was found nearby.
The man was pronounced dead shortly afterward at Aria Health-Torresdale Campus. . . . .

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Hillary Clinton: "We’re Not ‘Truly Well Off’"

The Guardian newspaper has this:

"But they don't see me as part of the problem," she protests, "because we pay ordinary income tax, unlike a lot of people who are truly well off, not to name names; and we've done it through dint of hard work," she says . . . .

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Jackson, MS: "Would-be robber bets potential victim won't have gun" and loses

From the Clarion Ledger in Mississippi:

A alleged would-be robber took a gamble outside a north Jackson motel Friday morning, betting a potential victim, a guest at Motel 6, wouldn't have a gun.
The guest did though and shot the alleged robber, reported WLBT.
. . .  the man, who left the motel's premises after being shot, was picked up by an ambulance later at Pines, an apartment complex on Watkins Drive.
The report stated the failed robber approached the motel guest asking for a cigarette. When the guest said he didn't have any, the other man walked away before turning back around with a gun in his hand pointed at the victim and reportedly saying, "Betcha ain't got one of these."
The guest, whom WLBT reported is a contractor from the Gulf Coast, is not facing charges at this time, though the case will be presented to a Hinds County grand jury. . . .

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Really, seriously? Harry Reid Claims Dems Don't Have Billionaire Backers

SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV): But what else should we expect? The decisions by the Supreme Court have left the American people with a status quo in which one side’s billionaires are pitted against the other side’s billionaires. Except one side doesn't have billionaires. We must undo the damage done by the Supreme Court’s recent campaign finance decisions.

Steyer brothers, Michael Bloomberg and George Soros are among some of the billionaires who are throwing a lot of money behind Democrats.  Can the media really keep a straight face on this one?

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Collecting articles on the Justice Department's Operation Choke Point

Washington Times: Congress: Obama uses Justice Dept. to target gun sellers, ‘high risk’ businesses

A House panel says the Obama administration is using the Justice Department to target and “choke out” businesses it finds objectionable, from gun dealers and payday lenders to drug paraphernalia sellers and porn merchants.
The administration is using an anti-credit card fraud effort dubbed Operation Choke Point to go after legitimate businesses it deems “high-risk,” says a staff report by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. . . . .
“Operation Choke Point is the Justice Department’s newest abuse of power,” Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican and committee chairman, said Thursday. “If the administration believes some businesses should be out of business, they should prosecute them before a judge and jury. By forcibly conscripting banks to do their bidding, the Justice Department has avoided any review and any check on their power.”
The Washington Times has reported that several gun retailers have been dropped by their banks as a result of the operation — the most recent being Powderhorn Outfitters, a sporting goods shop in Hyannis, Massachusetts, which was dropped last week by TD Bank after a 36-year business relationship. . . .

Daily Caller: Congressman Proposes Choking Off Funding For DOJ Program Targeting Gun Dealers

A Missouri congressman . . . Blaine Luetkemeyer wants to choke off funding for “Operation Choke Point.”
“What it does is goes after an entire industry whether it’s obeying the law or not. And that’s just wrong,” Luetkemeyer said of the initiative in an interview with The Daily Caller.
The Republican lawmaker’s amendment was successfully attached to the Commerce, Justice, and Science appropriations bill which passed a vote in the House late Thursday.
The amendment comes on the heels of a staff report issued Thursday by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. The report claims that “Operation Choke Point has forced banks to terminate relationships with a wide variety of entirely lawful and legitimate merchants.”
This happens because the anti-fraud initiative, which is operated by the Department of Justice which works in conjunction with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, forces banks to more closely monitor their business relationships with companies in industries deemed “high risk.”
Banks can suffer “reputational risk” by failing to spot fraudulent practices.
This has had a chilling effect in forcing banks to be overly cautious in who they do business with, says Luetkemeyer.
“They are operating legally, and yet Operation Choke Point is not there to go after the bad actors, which I support them doing,” he said, adding, “the problem I have with Operation Choke Point is it goes one step further.”
Luetkemeyer said that gun sellers, ammunition sellers, coin dealers, tobacco sellers, career repair service providers and many other businesses have been wrongly ensnared because of the initiative’s overreach. . . .

AWR Hawkins has some discussion on these issues here. 

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Absolutely devastating contrast between Obama's bragging about “Al Qaeda is on the path to defeat" and what has happened

If you like to see a video with some of Obama's bragging claims about his victories against Al Qaeda with what has actually happened, the beginning of this video with Obama's quotes is worth a look.

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Even leftist Al Hunt says "Optics Are Terrible" With Clinton's Death Tax Hypocrisy

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Privatize currencies?: It is being seriously talked about

Private companies providing currency have a much better incentive to keep price levels constant.  But it is unlikely that governments will want to give up the power to earn seigniorage (the difference in value between what the currency can buy and the cost of making it -- so a $50 bill may only cost a few cents to make, it buys $50).  Some system of taxation might allow governments to extract that seigniorage, though government taxation might go well beyond that amount.  The UK Guardian has an interesting article:

The UK should privatise the pound and replace it with a cryptocurrency like bitcoin, according to a paper published Wednesday by the free-market Institute of Economic Affairs. 

Kevin Dowd, a professor of finance and economics at Durham University, says that although bitcoin isn't the first example of private money, it is the first that governments can't shut down. Therefore, he says, authorities should admit that it's here to stay, and allow competition on a level playing field between all alternative forms of money. 

That might include allowing taxes to be payed in cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and dogecoin, or even fully privatising the pound, selling off the right to mint the currency to the highest bidder. 

"Let's suppose that bitcoin became a very prominent currency," Dowd told the Guardian. "[To ensure a level playing field], the government itself would accept bitcoin in tax payments. So, in effect, the government should not be favouring its own currency, or any particular currency, through any of its unique powers. Nor have regulations against them. 

"The natural analogy is with some of the old, bad, monopolies like British Gas or British Telecom. Telecom is a very good example: for a long time, we had a government monopoly, which stifled innovation, and the service was poor. Once that got opened up, competition opened, new innovation prospered, and we got all sorts of innovation that we couldn't possibly anticipate, and we're a lot better off for it." . . . .

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Newest piece at Fox News: “Obama making up facts about guns”

My newest Fox News starts this way:

President Obama just can't seem to help himself. Over and over again, he makes exaggerated or false claims about guns and crime.  

Last year Obama kept asserting the bogus numbers such as “40 percent of all gun purchases take place without a background check.”  Besides the study being based on a tiny survey it was started before the Federal background check law went into effect.   

Moreover, the 40 percent figure referred to all transfers, not just sales, and the vast majority of transfers took place within families through gifts and inheritances. Then, for good measure, Obama added an extra 4 percentage points to increase the number from 36 to 40 percent. 

Unfortunately, this past Tuesday Obama was at it again.  He lamented: 

"My biggest frustration has been that this society has not been willing to take some basic steps to keep guns out of the hands of people who can do just unbelievable damage.  We are the only developed country on earth where this happens." 

Does Obama not consider Norway a developed country?  After all, Anders Breivik shot 69 people to death and wounded 110 others.  That attack holds the record for a single-person shooting spree.

Is Germany a developed country?  While the president focused on school shootings, he never acknowledged that two of the three worst K-12 school shootings have occurred in Germany since 2000, not in the United States.  These were: 

-- Erfurt, Germany on April 26, 2002: a former student killed 18 at a secondary school.

-- Winnenden, Germany, March 11, 2009: a 17-year-old former student killed 15 people, including nine students and three teachers. 

A partial list of mass shootings in Europe from 2000 to early 2010 is available here. 

Obama also claimed: "The idea, for example, that we couldn't even get a background check bill in to make sure that if you are going to buy a weapon you have to go through a fairly rigorous process so that we know who you are so that you can't just walk up to a store and buy a semi-automatic weapon makes no sense." 

Obama ought to try purchasing a gun himself. . . .

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How Hillary Clinton has poorly treated Secret Service Agents

How someone treats low level people often tells you a lot about a person.  From the UK Daily Mail:

If Hillary Clinton runs, and wins the Presidential race in 2016, the Republicans won't be the only ones with trepidation. The Secret Service, who have tangled with Hillary since she became First Lady in 1993, will also be quaking in their lace-ups. Hillary has been known to hurl a book at the back of the head of one agent driving her in the Presidential limo accusing him of eavesdropping, forget her ps and qs by never thanking her protectors and lob profanity-laced orders when she just wanted the agents to carry her bags - a job not on agents' 'to do' list.'Stay the f**k away from me! Just f*****g do as I say!!!' she is quoted as saying to an agent who refused to carry her luggage in the book Unlimited Access by FBI agent Gary Aldridge. . . .
Emmett launches a stinging attack on the Clinton administration staff he used to protect - branding them arrogant and claiming that ex-First Lady Hillary Clinton was aloof.He tells how Hillary never said 'thank you' to agents . . . .

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Obama administration moves to regulation cell phone navigation apps

Does anyone really think that the Obama administration is competent on designing cell phone apps?  People don't want apps that distract themselves from driving, but there are trade-offs people face in usefulness versus distraction.  Will the Obama administration care about usefulness?  From the NY Times:

Getting directions on the road from Google Maps and other smartphone apps is a popular alternative to the expensive navigation aids included in some cars. The apps are also a gray area when it comes to laws banning the use of cellphones or texting while driving. 

The Transportation Department wants to enter the argument. 

The department is intensifying its battle against distracted driving by seeking explicit authority from Congress to regulate navigation aids of all types, including apps on smartphones. 

The measure, included in the Obama administration’s proposed transportation bill, would specify that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has the authority to set restrictions on the apps and later order changes if they are deemed dangerous, much the way it currently regulates mechanical features of cars. . . .

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"Mass Shootings Have Long History"

A chart on how deaths from K-12 school shootings has changed over the past 23 years is available here.  From the Discovery Channel:

Although it sounds sadly modern, the account was published in the New York Times more than a century ago.
Dated April 10, 1891, the article described an elderly man firing a shotgun at children playing in front of St. Mary's Parochial School in Newburgh, N.Y.
"None of the children were killed, but several were well filled with lead," the report said.
More than a century earlier, on July 26, 1764, a teacher and 10 students were shot dead by four Lenape American Indians in Greencastle, Penn., in what is considered the earliest known U.S. mass school shooting.
Indeed, killing or trying to kill a mass of people is not a modern phenomenon. For as long as there has been history, there have been gruesome mass murders. . . .

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Apparently Cantor's defeat not due to the Tea Party: Heavy Democrat voting in Republican Primary

From The Hill newspaper:

"We had probably 15,000 card-carrying Democrats come into this primary. There's just no way to anticipate something like that," Allen tells The Hill. . . ."My guess is now looking at the precinct-by-precinct analysis, probably half this electorate wasn't Republican," he said. "There's not a pollster in this country who polls voters from the other party in primary."
His analysis mirrors McLaughlin's.
"Where the voter surge was, it was Democrats who united against Cantor, who don't like him. And the mistake for our campaign above all the others, we should have polled Democratic primary voters and see if they were going to come into the Republican primary," McLaughlin said. "That's really the difference here. The reason the poll was wrong is no one anticipated Democrats were going to come in and play and they did, and that was the surge in turnout. That's why the poll was wrong, we were polling off the Republican sample." . . .

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My newest piece in the Philadelphia Inquirer: Killers seek gun-free zones for attacks

The newest piece in the Philadelphia Inquirer:

The shootings last week at Seattle Pacific University and on Tuesday at a high school near Portland, Ore., both occurred at places that banned guns — gun-free zones. The shooting last Wednesday in Canada also took place where citizens were not allowed to carry guns. 

Time after time these killers pick places where civilian guns are banned. Around the world, virtually all the attacks where at least four people have been shot to death occurred where civilians were not able to use guns to defend themselves. 

Gun-control advocates claim that would-be killers don’t care about whether victims can defend themselves with a gun. After all, they reason, these killers are irrational and want to die anyway. 

Elliot Rodger, who shot to death three people in Santa Barbara a couple of weeks ago, explained why he picked his target. His 141-page “Manifesto” makes it clear that he feared someone with a gun would stop him before he was able to kill enough people. He wrote: 

“Another option was Deltopia, a day in which many young people pour in from all over the state to have a spring break party on Del Playa Street. I figured this would be the perfect day to attack Isla Vista, but after watching Youtube videos of previous Deltopia parties, I saw that there were way too many cops walking around on such an event. It would be impossible to kill enough of my enemies before being dispatched by those damnable cops.” 

The Canadian mass shooter, Justin Bourque, also understood the importance of gun-free zones. On his Facebook page, Bourque posted comics poking fun at how gun-free zones make these crimes possible. One depicted a completely defenseless victim pleading with a man pointing a gun at him: “But wait ... there’s a GUN BAN in this city ... you can’t do this, we passed a law!” The gunman is shown thinking to himself: “Great, another one of these fruit loops.” 

Bourque knew that no civilians would be able to legally carry a gun to stop him (since the 1970s, Canada has banned permitted concealed handguns). 

The contrast on Sunday in Las Vegas couldn’t have been starker. Two killers shot two police officers to death. After they stole the officers’ guns and ammo, they proceeded to a nearby crowded Walmart. However, one customer, a concealed-carry permit holder, confronted the attackers and delayed them, giving other customers a chance to escape. Although the permit holder was killed, shortly after that the killers committed suicide.
All too frequently, mass killers can choose between many similar movie theaters or malls to attack. But they pick the one where victims can’t defend themselves. 

The killer at the Aurora, Colo., movie theater shooting in July 2012 lived within a 20-minute drive of seven movie theaters that were showing the premier of the Batman movie. He could have simply chosen the theater that was closest to his apartment or the one with the largest auditoriums in the state. Instead, he picked the single theater where guns were banned and the victims would be defenseless. 

And take Dylan Klebold, one of the two Columbine killers. He had been closely following and strongly opposed Colorado legislation that would have let citizens carry a concealed handgun. In fact, the Columbine attack occurred on the very day the bill was scheduled for final passage. Presumably, Klebold feared being stopped during his attack by someone with a weapon. 

Unfortunately, gun-control advocates refuse to admit how effective concealed carry can be in defending against mass slaughter. This past Saturday, Shannon Watts, the president of Michael Bloomberg’s anti-gun group Moms Demand Action, was asked on CNN if there was even one time “where a bad guy with a gun has been stopped in any other way or by a person other than a law enforcement officer with a gun or by killing himself?” Watts replied: “This has never happened.” 

She is simply wrong. 

Attacks have been stopped at schools before police arrived. That includes shootings at Pearl, Miss., and Edinboro, Pa., and colleges like the Appalachian Law School in Virginia. It has happened in busy downtowns such as Memphis; in churches such as the New Life Church in Colorado Springs; in malls in Portland, Ore., and Salt Lake City; and outside an apartment building in Oklahoma. 

Deterrence matters. Letting people defend themselves prevents attacks, and it also limits the harm should the attack occur. It might be one of the reasons that Michael Bloomberg and Shannon Watts both have armed bodyguards. 

*John Lott is the president of the Crime Prevention Research Center and the author of “More Guns, Less Crime.”

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"Gutfeld: 74 school shootings since Sandy Hook? Not so fast"

Greg sets the record straight on Bloomberg's false claims about 74 school shootings since Columbine (see here).

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Fox News is far more trusted than other TV news: The Public Religion Research Institute and The Brookings Institution poll

Via Erik Wemple's blog at the Washington Post with the title "Ouch: MSNBC barely registers in media study":

The failure of any outlet to reap a wider Democratic/liberal audience, suggests the report, could stem from ideological diversity within the Democratic Party (46% liberal, 31% moderate and 20% conservative). . . .

An alternative explanation is that there is relatively little difference between Broadcast News, CNN, and Public Television.  Possibly MSNBC's and the Daily Show with Jon Stewart's performances is so small because there are relatively few hard leftists.

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Washington Post: "ABC News’s Diane Sawyer destroys Hillary Rodham Clinton on Benghazi"

ABC US News | ABC Celebrity News

Erik Wemple at the Washington Post has this analysis of Clinton's interview last night on ABC News:

A standard defense for Hillary Rodham Clinton when facing questions about Benghazi, Libya, has been to cite her commissioning of a report from the State Department’s Accountability Review Board (ARB), which took a deep look at the attacks that claimed the lives of four U.S. personnel on Sept. 11, 2012. In testimony before Congress in January 2013, Clinton said: “I hurried to appoint the Accountability Review Board led by Ambassador Pickering and Admiral Mullen so we could more fully understand from objective, independent examination, what went wrong and how to fix it. I have accepted every one of their recommendations.” 

In an interview with Clinton that aired last night on ABC News, anchor Diane Sawyer threw the ARB right back in the face of the former secretary of state. The two tangled over the preparedness of the U.S. diplomatic installation in Benghazi for a terrorist attack. In defending her work on this front, Clinton stressed that she had delegated the particulars of security to the experts in the field. “I’m not equipped to sit and look at blueprints to determine where the blast walls need to be, where the reinforcements need to be. That’s why we hire people who have that expertise,” said Clinton . . . 

Sensing an opening, Sawyer cited the document that Clinton herself has so often cited: “This is the ARB: the mission was far short of standards; weak perimeter; incomplete fence; video surveillance needed repair. They said it’s a systemic failure.”
Clinton replied, “Well, it was with respect to that compound.” . . .  

Sawyer’s slow and steady line of questioning on Benghazi security prompted Clinton to utter this self-contradictory and sure-to-be-repeated statement: “I take responsibility, but I was not making security decisions.”

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St. Louis: Husband and wife use guns to stop two armed men from entering their home

From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

A husband and wife armed with guns were able to stave off an apparent home invasion Monday night, police said.
One man was killed and a second taken to a hospital in the incident, which happened about 11 p.m. . . .
According to police, a 17-year-old girl who lived at the home was outside retrieving something from her car when she was approached by two armed men who demanded she return to her residence.
The teen's father, 34, saw the men walking with his daughter, got his firearm and fired several shots at them, striking both of the men as they entered his home. The teen's mother, 34, also retrieved a gun and fired once at the men, but did not hit them, police said.
One of the men, Terrell Johnson, 31 . . . collapsed on the living room floor and was pronounced deceased at the scene.
The second man . . . was treated for gunshot wounds to the chest and both thighs. . . .

Thanks to Tony Troglio for the link.

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More Obama lawlessness: using executive action to unilaterally rewrite student loan legislation

Who needs congress when the president can just rewrite the laws himself?  From the Boston Globe:

. . . The dual strategy — taking executive action while urging Congress to finish the job — has become Obama’s signature playbook this year. Stymied by gridlock as Congress marches toward the midterm elections, he has repeatedly sought ways to go around Congress with modest steps.
Under an income-based repayment plan created by Congress, the maximum monthly payment is already set to drop from 15 percent of income to 10 percent in July 2014. But that plan only affects new borrowers. Obama’s ‘‘Pay as You Earn’’ plan uses another part of existing law to offer similar benefits to people who already borrowed to finance their education.
In previous Obama budgets, the White House has predicted that making the plan retroactive would cost the federal government billions of dollars in the early years. Asked about the costs Monday, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said the administration won’t know how much it will cost until they go through the rule-making process to put the expansion in place.
‘‘We actually don’t know the costs yet,’’ Duncan said. ‘‘We'll figure that out on the back end.’’
Republican leaders in Congress have faulted Obama’s steps on loan repayments for failing to address the root cause: college costs that are too high. . . .

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Sen. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) upset about Bergdahl dad's tweet: “I am still working to free all Guantanamo prisoners. God will repay the death of every Afghan child.”

Machin might be wanting to separate himself from Obama because he is toxic in West Virginia, but this is still strong language.  Whether it means anything in practice is debatable.  From The Hill newspaper:

Did Bergdahl or his father attempt to make inappropriate contact with the Taliban?Some lawmakers are demanding answers about what efforts Bergdahl or his father, Robert, made to contact the Taliban.
Bergdahl’s team leader told CNN that radio and cellphone intercepts revealed chatter about an American looking to speak to the Taliban.
Time magazine reported that Robert Bergdahl was in contact with the Taliban and commissioned an Afghan tailor to make the traditional outfit his son wore when he was handed over to American special forces.
Days before Bergdahl was released, his father posted a note on Twitter addressed to a Taliban spokesman claiming, “I am still working to free all Guantanamo prisoners. God will repay the death of every Afghan child.”
The tweet was later deleted.
“We’re dealing with a soldier that should be looked in[to] more extensively,” said Sen. Joe Manchin (W.Va.), a Democrat on the Armed Services Committee. “There’s a lot to be answered here and there’s a lot of peculiar behavior that has gone on between the family, this soldier and his actions.”
Manchin cited Robert Bergdahl’s tweet.
“When his father puts out a statement on Twitter four days before he was released, it was very disturbing,” he said. . . .

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WH withholds information on IRS turning over a database of tax-exempt organizations to the FBI

Obama administration claims that release of confidential IRS tax information that was turned over to FBI wasn't political, but why won't the Obama administration unwilling to tell congress about what information released?  From Politico:

Republicans charged the IRS on Monday with potentially violating federal tax privacy laws by turning over a database of tax-exempt organizations to the FBI, the latest salvo in their ongoing probe of the IRS’s scrutiny of tea party groups. 

The IRS acknowledged that some non-public taxpayer information was shared in the documents but said a tiny fraction of the data at issue was “inadvertently” shared. 

During the course of its probe into the IRS tea party targeting scandal, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said it learned the tax agency sent 1.1 million pages of tax return data about 501(c)(4) organizations to the FBI just before the 2010 midterms, Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) wrote in a letter to IRS Commissioner John Koskinen. . . . 

the IRS said, the data on such disks “can sometimes inadvertently include material that should have been redacted.” 

Oversight contends that the IRS — as well as Lerner — potentially broke the law by releasing taxpayer data, protected under parts of the tax code known as 6103, the lawmakers told Koskinen. . . .

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Public schools ban sunscreen, willing to let students get serious sunburn rather than risk "allergic reactions," worried kids will eat it

Are these public school teachers parents?  Are they really more worried about allergic reactions to sunscreen than they are to kids getting serious sunburn?  From Fox News:

A Texas mom is angry over a school ban on sunscreen that she says led to her daughter getting a severe sunburn during a field trip.
The North East Independent School District has the restriction because it considers sunscreen toxic, and fears kids will eat it, parent Christy Riggs, of San Antonio, told Fox News.
“The reality is: Children don’t eat sunscreen and they’re not going to,” Riggs said.
School district spokeswoman Aubrey Chancellor told ABC News that allergic reactions to sunscreen are one of the numerous reasons the district does not allow sunblock in its 72 schools. . . . .

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Concealed Carry Permit Holder may have stopped North Las Vegas shooting that left three people dead

UPDATE: The Las Vegas Review Journal has this:

After the shooting, the couple headed toward a nearby Wal-Mart, where Jerad Miller was confronted by Joseph Robert Wilcox, 31, of Las Vegas. Wilcox was legally carrying a concealed pistol. Wilcox was unaware that Amanda Miller, who was pushing a shopping cart, was involved in the incident and “lying in wait,” the official said.

She slipped behind Wilcox and shot him at close range.
“He had no idea the wife was walking behind him,” the police official said of the murdered man. “This guy (Wilcox) was not some idiot with a gun. To me, he was a hero. He was trying to stop an active shooter.”
It wasn’t immediately clear if Wilcox fired a shot, or if he hit Jerad Miller before he died. . . .

Even though Wilcox failed to shot these killers, he appears to have delayed them and given others a chance to escape.

ORIGINAL POST: It appears as if two people killed two police officers and then a concealed carry permit holder who tried to stop the two killers as they went to a nearby Walmart.  Immediately after the exchange of fire with the permit holder the killers committed suicide.  Waiting for more information.

From the UK Daily Mail:

The two suspects shot then shot dead a a civilian who is believed to have been carrying a concealed firearm and had opened fire on them as they ran into the Walmart, Deputy Sheriff Kevin McMahill said during an afternoon press conference. . . .

From the Australian Yahoo News:

The attackers then headed to a nearby Walmart store, exchanging gunfire with and ultimately killing a civilian who was carrying a concealed weapon. . . . 

The Las Vegas Review Journal reports:

One unconfirmed report is that the two exchanged gunfire with a citizen who was carrying a concealed weapon, and that one of the shooters was injured. . . .

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Obama story on Bergdahl unraveling: questions on Obama's claims about Bergdahl's health and threats to his life

CNN: Taliban Told Special Ops Bergdahl Doesn't Have Any Serious Health Issues, Medical Officials in Germany confirm that his condition is certainly not one of life or death, questions raised about Obama administration's initial explanation for not telling Congress about trade with Taliban.


Of course, the Obama administration seems to realize that their initial story isn't working out too well so now they are claiming that they had to make the deal quickly because "the Taliban threatened to kill Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl if the pending deal to free him was made public."  From Fox News:

. . . But one senior source told Fox News that this claim is "ridiculous," since "notifying Congress does not make it public."  A member of the Senate Intelligence Committee added: "This is BS." Congressional sources argue that leaders of the congressional intelligence committees -- who were kept in the dark here -- were able to keep the secret when they were told "months in advance" about plans to go after Usama bin Laden. Sources tell Fox News such lawmakers are "regularly trusted with sensitive information that is not made public." Fox News is also told that these notifications can be classified -- further ensuring such information would remain private. Asked about the notion that a threat on Bergdahl's life was the reason for not notifying Congress, one House Republican aide said, "That's a flimsy, and frankly offensive, argument." . . . .

NBC has a devastating news story about the Obama administration claims available here.

Some other information
Bergdahl Squad Leader: After He Deserted, the Accuracy of IED Attacks Against Us Improved

Bergdahl Squad Leader: If 'Bergdahl Hadn't Deserted Us,' Six Americans Might Still Be Alive


Hillary Clinton defends the trade.  Even Diane Sawyer seems surprised when Hillary says it "doesn't matter" how Bergdahl ended up in the situation that he did

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Finally, a real solution to hangovers

From the New York Post:

. . . It could be in a drug called ampelopsin, aka dihydromyricetin, found in oriental raisin trees. It’s a traditional Chinese cure that may actually work, and is now being sold over the counter as BluCetin.
UCLA researcher Richard Olsen, who has been studying the effects of low to moderate drinking, thinks the drug may bind to an ethanol receptor called delta-GABA-R — and deflect booze.
Then again, do we really want a society in which heavy drinking occurred without automatic retribution? College students might binge-drink themselves into a collective stupor. Drunk driving could see an uptick. And, alarming as it is to think about, “The Hangover, Part IV” could be even more boring than III. . . .

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"Mississippi sails through voter ID test"

It is hard to think of a more flawless experience with any voting experience.  From the Clarion-Ledger:

Mississippi’s new voter ID law caused few problems in the first election since its controversial passage, with only one report of a voter turned away for lack of identification.

A Pike County poll worker mistakenly told a person he couldn’t cast a ballot without an ID, said county Election Commissioner Trudy Berger.

“It was a misunderstanding,” Berger said. “We trained on it that nobody is ever told they can’t vote, period. As soon as we heard that had happened, we sent an election commissioner down there to solve the problem.”

According to the new law, voters must present a driver’s license or other government-issued ID to cast a ballot through the normal process. Those without ID can vote by affidavit ballot, after which they have five business days to show an acceptable form of photo ID, or apply for a Mississippi voter ID card, at the circuit clerk’s office.

The Secretary of State’s Office was notified of the incident, Berger said. But beyond that, the agency had few calls about voter ID issues. . . . 

Voters expressed little, if any, inconvenience at the polls due to the new law.

Madison County resident Meme Wittmayer said it was hassle-free. . . .

Some types of IDs are interesting:

Mississippi’s law says voters can show one of 10 types of government-issued photo identification, including a driver’s license, passport, gun license or student ID from any accredited public or private college. For the past several months, people who lack an acceptable form of ID have been able to go to an election clerk’s office to get a free, state-issued voter ID card with name, address and photo. . . .

Student IDs seem a little suspect and easy to forge.

Before the vote the Washington Post noted that not everyone was thinking that it would go smoothly.

Mississippi NAACP President Derrick Johnson said the civil rights group will pay attention Tuesday to ensure that no one is prevented from voting.
“We do understand that the state of the law has changed because of the Supreme Court decision, but the rights of voters have not changed,” Johnson said. . . .

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New advance let's us determine age of fingerprint within one or two days

This advance will be important against people who can claim that their fingerprints were left at another date.  From CBS News:

. . . A team of Dutch forensic scientists has discovered how to accurately date fingerprints to within one or two days of when they were left on an object, as long as they're no more than 15 days old, according to reports.
"Being able to date the prints means you can determine when a potential suspect was at the crime scene or which fingerprints are relevant for the investigation," Marcel de Puit, fingerprint researcher at the Dutch Forensic Institute (NFI), told French news agency AFP.
Fingerprint analysis has played a huge role in solving crimes for more than a century. It was first used in an American court to convict a killer in 1911.
Fingerprint ridges are believed to be unique to each person. Not even identical twins have the same patterns.
The prints left behind when a person's fingertips touch an object are composed of a complex mixture of bodily chemicals, and that apparently holds the key to the Dutch scientists' discovery.
"Some (chemicals) disappear over time and it's the relative proportions of these chemicals that allow us to date a fingerprint," said de Puit to AFP.
This may have huge implications for future criminal prosecutions.
Steve Tillmann is a retired deputy sheriff with more than 30 years of experience based in Covina, California. He is also an expert witness in forensic investigations.
He told CBS News he has faced questions about the freshness of fingerprints at least a dozen times. . . .

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Bill Clinton didn't defend Hillary from narrative that "ultraliberal wife" responsible for debacle of his health care plan

Bill Clinton was urged to fight against against this narrative, but he decline to do so.  From Bloomberg.com:

President Bill Clinton was coached to combat the narrative that his “health-care debacle” was the result of influence from his “ultraliberal wife” and “wonky” elites, according to the fifth batch of Clinton administration documents released by his presidential library. 

White House health adviser Ira Magaziner delivered that advice before Clinton sat down with authors and journalists David Broder and Haynes Johnson on July 17, 1995, to discuss the failure of his health-care plan, which had been championed by then-first lady Hillary Clinton, now a leading prospect for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016. 

“Right now, as you know, the First Lady and I and to some extent you, are blamed for the so-called ‘health-care debacle’ by the Washington conventional wisdom,” Magaziner wrote in a memo. 

“You were influenced by your ultraliberal wife and ‘wonky’ old college friend to accept this unwise venture over the objections of most of your advisors,” he wrote of the perceptions about the bill’s demise. “Your presidency, the Democratic Party and any chance of reasonable health reform went down the drain due to this grave error.” 

Magaziner urged Clinton to fight that image in his interview with Broder and Johnson . . .

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Errors made by license plate readers

With millions of license plate numbers being collected everyday, TechDirt has some examples of errors available here.

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Shocking: the Obama administration's tries to personally destroy reputations of soldiers who served with Bergdahl

Megyn Kelly has a great segment over at Fox (available here).  After the Obama administration referred to Bergdahl as a hero who had served with distinction, six soldiers who served with Bergdahl, some who had been his friends, spoke out to correct the record.  The Obama administration's response: accuse them of not knowing what they were talking about, of "swift boating" Bergdahl, and finally describing them as psychopaths.  Doesn't everyone think that this goes too far when the Obama administration engages in the politics of personal destruction against soldiers who did risk their lives and served honorably in Afghanistan?  As someone whose son did serve in Afghanistan in the army, I find this attack by the Obama administration of our service men one of the most troubling things that I have ever seen by them.  No political attack seems out of bounds for the Obama administration.

Another discussion of the Obama administration "slimming" those soldiers who served with Bergdahl is available here.  Here is a discussion of a woman who lost her son when he was searching for Bergdahl.

More information on recent information that Bergdahl declared jihad in 2010 is available here.

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2014 is shaping up as yet another election where gun control advocates massively outspend those who support self defense rights

Politico has the list of races that they are targeting here.  When you add Gifford's $20 million to the $50 million that Bloomberg plans to spend this year and the money that other gun control groups are putting up, this is going to be yet another election where gun control advocates massively outspend those who support self defense rights.  From Politico:

The group said they have raised $14.5 million in donations so far and is on track to meeting its fundraising goal of $20 million by the end of the election cycle. . . . 

“The NRA typically spends about $20 million an election cycle,” added Kelly.”We’ve had great success in the amount of money we’ve raised. … [T]his debate is not going to be out of balance anymore.” . . . 

Democratic Rep. Ron Barber in Arizona . . .; Democratic Sen. Mark Udall in Colorado; Democratic Rep. Bruce Braley, running for Senate in Iowa, Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu in Louisiana; Republican Sen. Susan Collins in Maine; Democratic Sen. Al Franken in Minnesota; Sen. Jeanne Shaheen and Reps. Carol Shea-Porter and Ann McLane Kuster, all Democrats, in New Hampshire; Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan in North Carolina; and GOP Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick in Pennsylvania.

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Newest Fox News piece: Media feeding frenzy over open carry guns in restaurants much ado about nothing

My newest piece at Fox News starts this way:

The NRA’s strong statement reprimanding a few people for carrying long guns into restaurants was bound to get media attention. Bloomberg’s Moms Demand Action and much of the media quickly jumped in and described various restaurants as “asking customers to leave their guns at home.” But their assertions couldn’t be more misleading. 

The headline at USA Today saying “No Guns Inside” or at MSNBC and Huffington Post saying “No-Gun Policies” are simply wrong. 

A big deal has been made of Starbucks, Jack in the Box, Chipotle, Wendy's, Applebee's, Chili’s and Sonic’s supposed bans on guns, with Bloomberg’s groups declaring “victory.” 

Yet, Starbucks “respectfully requesting” customers no longer bring in openly carried guns is not a ban on guns. 

Jack in the Box’s statement “we would prefer that guests not bring their guns inside our restaurant” refers to open carry.  Neither restaurant forbids customers from carrying concealed handguns and comments like “request” or “prefer” are a long ways from bans. 

Calls to all these restaurants revealed that none of them have changed their policy about posting any signs banning either generally banning guns or permitted concealed handguns. 

With 11 million concealed handgun permits in the United States, it is understandable why none of these businesses want to risk losing that many customers. 

From a general crime-deterrence perspective point of view, . . .

The rest of the piece is available here.

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