Latest Analysis, Commentary and Opinion*
(The title of each article is linked to the complete article)

Thursday, October 13, 2011

PhotoZoom Pro 4:  A dream program for enlarging images and photos
   Software piece by Malcolm T. Hedges (10/13/11)

Enlarging an image or photo is a very difficult task.  PhotoZoom Pro 3.1 did an excellent job, but version 4.1 is more powerful and improved.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

They’re Baaaaaacccckkk: Race Riots in America
   Disorder piece by Guest: Colin Flaherty (10/12/11)

When I told my friends I was working on a magazine article, then a book, about a tsunami of racial violence in America over the last two years, they said, “I haven’t heard about that.“

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Palestine - Sarkozy Makes Monumental Mistake
   Middle East piece by David Singer (10/11/11)

France’s President - Nicolas Sarkozy - has made a mistake of historic proportions - possibly dashing any hope of the two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs coming to fruition - after he told(1)  the French magazine Le Canard Enchaîne:

The World Doesn’t Owe You a Living
   Welfare State piece by Aaron Goldstein (10/11/11)

When I think about the Occupy protests in New York, Washington, D.C. and here in Boston (as well as in other cities across this country) I think about what my maternal grandfather used to tell me and my siblings. In his deep, authoritative baritone he would exclaim, “The world doesn’t owe you a living.”

Cyprus on the World Stage
   Middle East piece by Daniel Pipes (10/11/11)

Cyprus, an island of roughly 1.3 million inhabitants near Turkey and Syria, finds itself on the cusp of momentous change, with great opportunities and dangers. It belatedly makes a grand debut on the world stage after domestic Greek-Turkish communal issues have consumed its first 51 years of independence.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

‘Will Warmists Face Justice for their Deceptions?‘
   Global Cooling piece by Alan Caruba (10/9/11)

When you murder someone the case is never closed. The same holds when you murder the truth. No matter how long it takes, truth is defended despite all the calumnies heaped on those who stand firm against the lies and the propaganda intended to persuade those who have been deceived.

Saturday, October 8, 2011

UPMC’s Taking Snit With Highmark Out On Patients?
   Health Care piece by J.J. Jackson (10/8/11)

In the Greater Pittsburgh area, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) is well known.  Sometimes however it is not known for the best of reasons.  While UPMC has many good doctors that work for it and is known for good quality care, it is also often cursed for what it has done.  For years and years UPMC has been gobbling up as many regional hospitals and doctor’s offices under its own banner as it can.

Friday, October 7, 2011

How Do We Re-Industrialize America
   Economics piece by Robert R. Owens (10/7/11)

Manufacturing in America peaked in 1979(1) when 19.5 million Americans actually produced durable goods.  In the last 30 years our manufacturing sector has declined by 40%(2) losing almost 8 million jobs.  Nearly 6 million jobs have been lost since 2000(3) and since the Great Recession began we have lost an average 89,000 manufacturing jobs every month(4) for the last two years.  Due to this dramatic constriction America has fallen below 12 million workers employed in manufacturing for the first time since 1946(5) and is now below levels not seen since 1941(6).  This dismal record portrays(7) the stunning decline of America as a manufacturing superpower.  And while a rise in productivity(8) has helped America maintain a prominent position in the world this has not resulted in manufacturing continuing to be an avenue for upward mobility for Americans.

This Toll Tolls for You
   Transportation piece by Guest: Michael R. Shannon (10/7/11)

Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell’s successful effort to open the rest stops on I–95 was a very good idea. His current effort to open tollbooths on I–95 is not.

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

How Conservative Candidates Can Give Us a RINO Nominee
   Election 2012 piece by Selwyn Duke (10/5/11)

While I certainly understand the frustration of those who complain of RINO primary rise, it’s important to accept the reality of how it happens.  It is not, as some would say, a matter of the “Republican Party giving us another John McCain.”  Nominees aren’t appointed; they’re elected.  It is not the result of a New World Order conspiracy bent on keeping the Ron Pauls of the world from power.  Voters may sometimes have chips on their shoulders; there are no controlling chips in their brains.  Of course, the media can and do shape public opinion, but they only truly sing in unison when their candidate (read: any Democrat) has his hide on the line during the general election.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Ignorance In Action
   Bird-Brain Flu piece by Guest: Chris Clancy (10/4/11)

It’s not unusual for liberals to defend stimulus spending by saying that things would have been even worse without it. This is what is known as a counterfactual argument(1). To make matters worse they then go on to say that the real problem was that the stimulus spending was not big enough in the first place!

Assad threatens to attack TA in case of NATO strike
   Middle East piece by Offsite (10/4/11)

In meeting with Turkish FM, Syrian president discusses possibility of NATO strike, says ‘I won’t need more than six hours to transfer hundreds of rockets to Golan to fire at Tel Aviv’

Monday, October 3, 2011

Early Divide
   History piece by Guest: Robert Rohlfing (10/3/11)

“I am a Republican, a black, dyed in the wool Republican, and I never intend to belong to any other party than the party of freedom and progress”. - Frederick Douglass - In 1856 the Republicans ran a war hero and civil rights proponent from the Mexican War, John C. Fremont.  The Democrats ran James Buchanan who eventually won the election. This was at the beginning of the Republican party. Fremont and the Republican’s platform consisted of Nine planks. Six of those planks directly targeted equality and liberation of enslaved black Americans. Buchanan and the Democrats launched a verbal hit campaign smearing Fremont. Some of the verbiage they used was that the Republicans would unleash a horde of freed blacks who would rob white workers of their job’s and ruin the neighborhoods while marrying your daughters. In 1857 you had a slave named Dred Scott who sued for his freedom, but the Democrat appointed Supreme Court ruled against him stating that blacks, enslaved or free, were not considered human, but property and thus they did not deserve the right to vote or sue as in this case. This decision is an example of the uphill struggle that slave and former slaves faced leading up to the mid 1800’s. The Democrat Party was dominant in just about all aspects of government. This started to change in the three key election years ; 1856, 1858, and 1860.

Saturday, October 1, 2011

‘vWhat the frack is going on here?‘
   Energy piece by Paul Driessen (10/1/11)

Hydraulic fracturing opponents misrepresent facts to protect their ideologies and agendas - Hydraulic fracturing sends “huge volumes of toxic fluids” deep underground at high pressure, to fracture shale rock and release natural gas, Food and Water Watch claims. “Billions of gallons of toxic fluids” will “contaminate” groundwater and drinking water “for generations.” We need to “Ban Fracking Now.”

Is the Federal Reserve Constitutional
   Federal Reserve piece by Robert R. Owens (10/1/11)

The Federal Reserve is the central bank of the United States.  It is in charge of printing money issuing bonds and setting interest rates for those bonds.  Article 1, Section 8 says(1), “The Congress shall have Power ... to coin Money, regulate the Value thereof” the Federal Reserve is never mentioned.  Has it always been this way?  Does any other country do this?  How did the Federal Reserve get its power over our currency and our economy?  And the issue so many are interested in today: is the Federal Reserve constitutional?

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Courageous Movie Portrays a Different Kind of Courage
   Society piece by Guest: Meg Korpi, Rusty Wright (9/29/11)

Courageous begins as a fast-paced police drama with plenty of heart-pounding action, and a spine-tingling surprise within the first three minutes. Good-natured banter and comic mishaps had us laughing, but the movie quickly reveals an introspective side that portends more than levity and brave guys in uniforms chasing bad guys in do-rags.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

‘Is Turkey Going Rogue?‘
   Middle East piece by Daniel Pipes (9/27/11)

In a Middle East wracked by coups d’etat and civil insurrections, the Republic of Turkey credibly offers itself as a model thanks to its impressive economic growth, democratic system, political control of the military, and secular order(1).

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

The CEO Who Got Fined For Hiring Too Many People
   Employment/Jobs piece by Offsite (9/21/11)

Peter Schiff, the CEO of Euro Pacific Capital, testified before the House Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs, Stimulus Oversight, and Government Spending on September 13.  He was there to speak on the subject of job creation, but Schiff also knows a few things about how the government can destroy jobs.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Victory is sweet, but the war continues
   EPA piece by Paul Driessen (9/20/11)

Millions of Americans recently celebrated the demise of the Environmental Protection Agency’s job-killing ground-level ozone regulations. While a toast was appropriate, we shouldn’t drink too much champagne just yet.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Now Running Windows 8 Developer Preview
   Computers piece by Malcolm T. Hedges (9/15/11)

Downloaded Windows 8 Developer Preview yesterday and installed this morning. Installation/upgrade from Windows 7 Home Premium took about 40 minutes on AMD Athlon XP 2800+ with 2GB ram.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Strange Facts about America’s ‘Poor’
   Economics piece by Offsite (9/13/11)

This morning, the Census Bureau announced that a record 46.2 million, or one in seven Americans, lived in poverty last year. Although the current recession greatly increased the number of poor persons, high levels of poverty predate it.

Cut Loose at Fifty: Chapter Five - Spring Festival
   Asia piece by Guest: Chris Clancy (9/13/11)

My first semester in China drew to a close.

Al Gore and The Lakes of Molten Lava
   Global Warming piece by Dennis T. Avery (9/13/11)

CHURCHVILLE, VA - Al Gore returns to your TV screen in a 24-hour telethon September 14. He will presumably warn us about the lakes of molten lava that Mother Nature will pour upon us unless we agree to starve in the dark.

In Praise of NYC’s Muscular Counterterrorism
   National Security piece by Daniel Pipes (9/13/11)

U.S. law enforcement agencies have generally responded to 9/11 with a pretend counterterrorism(1) policy. They insist that naming the enemy as Islamism causes terrorism, that Islamist violence is just one of many co-equal problems (along with neo-Nazis, racial supremacists, et al.), and that counterterrorism primarily involves feel-good steps such as improving civil rights, passing anti-discrimination laws, and displaying goodwill to Islamists.

Monday, September 12, 2011

Libertarians Should Invest More Down Under
   General piece by David John Marotta (9/12/11)

Marotta On Money - Libertarians and economists both recognize that countries with more economic freedom experience higher gross domestic product (GDP) growth. That growth translates into higher stock returns for investors savvy enough to look for governmental fiscal restraint rather than government stimulus.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Federal Fever
   The Republic piece by Bruce Walker (9/11/11)

Most of the problems caused by politics and government in America today are caused by the federalization of government and by the unnatural elevation of the judiciary over the elected branches of government.  This surely does not mean that lousy folks and dirty crooks cannot win state and local elections and cannot create political machines.  What it does mean, however, is that Americans and their businesses can pull up and move to states that are friendlier or more honest.

Real Hope for a Change
   The Republic piece by Robert R. Owens (9/11/11)

Hope and change were the magic words that swept a relatively unknown, inexperienced Barack Obama into the Oval Office. He campaigned as the one able to fix the Bush economy. Once in office he has protested that he didn’t know how bad the economy was even though that was what he had run his campaign on. He has spent the majority of his first term blaming everyone for everything. His signature accomplishments, the stimulus, Obamacare and the Dodd-Frank financial reform have done more to hurt than help. Serial vacations and weekly golf outings aside, President Obama has worked hard and has so far managed to turn a recession into the Great Recession. Now he offers the opening salvo of his 2012 campaign economic platform and the message is, “More of the same” with no solution in sight.

America’s Job Status: Unemployed
   Employment/Jobs piece by Guest: Paul A. Ibbetson (9/11/11)

Need a job? How about a job that pays the bills? These questions no longer apply to isolated parts of the country that have faced natural disasters or workers displaced by ENRON-type white collar criminal activity. In America, finding substantive work and keeping it has now become a national question of importance to everyone. For a growing number of people, the answer from the business world to the question of employment has been, ‘We are not hiring at this time.‘

The Slow, Certain Death of the Global Warming Theory
   Global Cooling piece by Alan Caruba (9/11/11)

I have been predicting the death of the global warming theory since late in the last decade when it became obvious that the Earth had entered into a cooling cycle. By 2009 the leak of thousands of emails between the “scientists” whose computer models the claims were based upon revealed they were in a state of panic regarding this obvious phenomenon.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Means-Test and Privatize Social Security
   Social Security piece by David John Marotta (9/6/11)

We need to move beyond good intentions and craft public policy that actually works. The first step in building a viable system is to acknowledge that Social Security as it exists today is a failure either way you look at it.(1)