Category Archives: Issues

“Acts of Love” and other Rubbish from Jeb Bush

Tell you what. The dentist says my son needs braces, and since straight teeth will help him advance in the world as an adult, I steal your wallet and use your cash and credit card to pre-pay for the dental work. That would be okay with you, right, ’cause the crime was motivated by an “act of love”?

Or maybe my wife is extremely depressed because we can’t afford to replace the automatic dishwasher that conked out last fall, so I sneak into your yard in the wee small hours of the morning to cut the copper coils out of your HVAC system, then sell the copper to get money to buy her a spiffy new Whirlpool. You would be willing to sweat it out this summer, right, knowing that your discomfort was in support of an “act of love”?

No less ridiculous was this rationale offered yesterday by former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, a possible Presidential candidate, now pathetically kissing up to the Hispanic community in hopes of cornering their votes:

Yes, they broke the law, but it’s not a felony. It’s an act of love. It’s an act of commitment to your family. I honestly think that that is a different kind of crime that there should be a price paid, but it shouldn’t rile people up that people are actually coming to this country to provide for their families.

But does Bush really want our votes, at least for his own candidacy? Political pundit Mickey Kaus says no, that Jeb is just being “John Alden” to Marco Rubio’s “Miles Standish”:

He’s not running, but he’s making space for Marco Rubio. Look at it this way: The GOP establishment is desperate to suppress Tea Party conservatives and also obtain the immigration amnesty they believe will win Latinos and relieve them of the need to do too much rethinking in other areas. P.S.: The need to rehabilitate Rubio–-which means avoiding a big immigration fight, at least in 2015 and 2016–-would be one more reason the GOP establishment might feel it’s now-or-never for passing an immigration reform bill. That would help explain the increasingly desperate and sneaky (but possible successful) efforts to keep amnesty alive.

Jeb Bush, also a Common Core supporter by the way, has said that he will make a decision on whether he will be a candidate in the 2016 Presidential race by the end of this year. But if he does, he can forget about getting my vote.

A Brief Recap of the regularly scheduled Morehead City CCTPP Meeting of April 1, 2014: Part 2 of 3 (Blake Beadle)

The Morehead City faction of the Crystal Coast Tea Party Patriots held their regular weekly meeting Tuesday evening. The agenda was packed, and the meeting room was near full with a couple of dozen members in attendance, all of whom were attentive to each of the scheduled speakers. Since there was considerable interlocution with all three candidates for office during the meeting, this recapitulation will be broken into three posts, one each to address the policies and performance of each candidate.

Second up was Blake Beadle, one of the three Republican candidates for the Carteret County Board of Education seat given up by Vice Chairwoman Cathy Neagle. (We have heard already from fellow Republican candidate Randy Steele, and we are scheduled to have the third Republican candidate, Janiece Wall, return to our meeting next week on April 8th.) Mr. Beadle grew up in Hubert, just west of Swansboro, and attended school there. He graduated from high school in Maryland, then furthered his education at Cape Fear Community College and UNC-Wilmington. He graduated from UNC-W after meeting his future wife, Millie Grady, who is a native of Carteret County. He later worked in Washington, DC, for a time before moving back to Carteret County.

Mr. Beadle began his prepared remarks by noting that North Carolina ranks 46th in the nation in teacher pay, from which I infer that he believes some redress is in order. He went on to talk about some of his special interests as regards the county’s BOE fiscal policies, including his interest in leasing rather than purchasing of some durable equipment, and the development of Key Performance Indicators (KPI) to enable cost savings in the portion of the system budget that is not allocated to teacher remuneration.

He supports the eventual elimination of teacher tenure, but thinks that greater financial incentives should be offered to teachers in order to compensate them for giving it up. He supports vouchers, charter schools, and home schooling as alternatives to the status quo. He describes himself as being conflicted on the issue of Common Core, as he thinks the adoption of national standards will help students, now and in the future, by enabling them to better cope with the increased mobility that our population is experiencing. He notes, however, that there are drawbacks to Common Core, and in his view the undesirable curriculum controls and dictates for the Math and Language Arts subjects are foremost among them.

Mr. Beadle also promised that, if elected, some portion of his compensation for serving on the Board would be devoted to establishing three High School level scholarships in the County for the promotion of learning in the vocational, educational, and culinary fields. For further information, readers are encouraged to visit Mr. Beadle’s “Blake For Education” website, HERE.

Were Our Efforts For Naught? Maybe Not!

PowerLine Co-blogger Paul Mirengoff notes today that the volume of comments in opposition to the proposed IRS regulatory constraints on organizations that have or sought tax-exempt status under Section 501(c)(4) have forced a reconsideration. An excerpt:

I don’t know whether the criticisms have been heard by the IRS but their weight has been felt. Today IRS Commissioner Koskinen told an audience at the National Press Club that his agency is unlikely to finalize the proposed regulations this year.

Koskinen said:

During the comment period, which ended in February, we received more than 150,000 comments. That’s a record for an IRS rulemaking comment period. In fact, if you take all the comments on all Treasury and IRS draft proposals over the last seven years and double that number, you come close to the number of comments we are now beginning to review and analyze.

It’s going to take us a while to sort through all those comments, hold a public hearing, possibly repropose a draft regulation and get more public comments. This means that it is unlikely we will be able to complete this process before the end of the year.

Great news, if true, because putting off the implementation of the proposal until next year means that there is a greater probability that a larger Republican presence in Congress might kill them altogether.

We should all recognize that this result is largely due to the efforts of Washington DC attorney Cleta Mitchell, and to all the conservative and Tea Party groups around the country that raised such holy hell about the proposal. Including us, the Crystal Coast Tea Party Patriots.

Sec’y of State Kerry Gets No Love From the Palestinians

It seems that the foolish Obama/Kerry gambit to bring peace to the Middle East has gone down in flames, preventing the further consideration, fortunately, of an even more foolish offer to release Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard in an attempt to entice the Netanyahu government into rolling over and exposing their under-belly to the Palestinians.

At the online New York Post, John Podhoretz has up an opinion piece about the debacle. From the article, this key portion:

On Tuesday, the Palestinians took eight months of relentless work by Kerry and threw it in the garbage. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas announced he will seek membership for “Palestine” in various international forums and treaties as the equivalent of a sovereign nation.

That move violates the central concept of the so-called “two-state solution,” according to which the Israelis and Palestinians need to come to mutual agreement on the borders of a Palestinian state.

In response, Kerry canceled his bazillionth trip to the region. And yet he couldn’t admit what the cancellation implicitly acknowledged.

“It is completely premature tonight to draw any kind of judgment, certainly any final judgment,” Kerry said. “The important thing is to keep the process moving and find a way to see whether the parties are prepared to move forward.”

To borrow one of President Obama’s favorite expressions, let’s be clear: the Palestinians do not really want peace. The Palestinians do not REALLY WANT peace. The Palestinians DO NOT REALLY WANT PEACE. So why don’t we just quit wasting our time with this b/s, already?

It has been said before that by the time Obama leaves office the perception that his presidency was as inept as was Jimmy Carter’s will be seen as a “best case” scenario. This episode will only fuel that flame.

For the full article, click HERE.

A Brief Recap of the regularly scheduled Morehead City CCTPP Meeting of April 1, 2014: Part 1 of 3 (Al Novenic)

The Morehead City faction of the Crystal Coast Tea Party Patriots held their regular meeting last night. The agenda was packed, and the meeting room was near full with a couple of dozen members in attendance, all of whom were attentive to each of the scheduled speakers. Since there was considerable interlocution with all three candidates for office during the meeting, this recapitulation will be broken into three posts, one each to address the policies and performance of each candidate.

First up was Al Novenic, the third candidate and the second challenger for North Carolina’s 3rd District Congressional seat currently held by Representative Walter Jones. Mr. Novenic, also known by the nickname “Big Al” (website with several position papers and videos is HERE), is a retired Marine First Sergeant who currently has a real estate operation in the Jacksonville area. His wife Tina came with him, and assisted his presentation by disseminating a few hand-outs to the members.

Mr. Novenic is a strong speaker with a notably forthright presence, and he did not hesitate to answer all of the questions put to him during the meeting. Indeed, he and his wife stayed to the end of the meeting in order to discuss his views with interested members.

He characterized himself as a strong supporter of the Second Amendment, and as to the nation’s economy, he favors a flatter tax structure (with a maximum rate of maybe 15%) that would shift business-friendly tax policies away from large corporations and toward small business. He believes that the federal budget could be significantly reduced if the tax code were to be scrutinized for unjustifiable loopholes, and if our welfare entitlement system was reformed to reduce or eliminate many of the more abused elements.

As a realtor, he strongly favors proactive measures to shore up the housing market, saying that the housing sector is “the number one job creator in the country.” In addition, when asked what congressional committee assignments he would pursue if elected, he named the Armed Services Committee, the Marine Fisheries Committee, and the Agriculture Committee.

As noted in the preceding paragraph, Novenic has numerous policy position papers, essays, and videos on his website that further detail his views, and I would urge interested viewers to check out the site. The link is in the second paragraph, above, and HERE.

NC-BOE Finds 35,000 Incidences of 2012 Double-Voting

Seems that Jay Delancy is definitely on to something. Here is the complete text of Andrew Johnson’s article at the online National Review:

North Carolina’s Board of Elections found that tens of thousands of registered voters from the state have personal information matching that of registered voters in other states, and appear to have voted in states other than North Carolina in 2012. In some cases, votes were cast under names of individuals who had passed away before Election Day.

The review searched databases in 27 other states and 101 million voter records for information such as matching names, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers.

The review found that 35,570 North Carolina voters from 2012 shared the same first names, last names, and dates of birth with individuals who voted in other states. Another 765 Tar Heel State residents who voted in 2012 had the the same names, birthdays, and final four digits of a Social Security number as voters elsewhere.

Meanwhile, the election board’s executive director, Kim Westbrook, told lawmakers that 81 deceased North Carolinians apparently voted in 2012 as well. While some appear to have submitted absentee ballots prior to their death, she said “there are between 40 and 50 who had died at a time that that’s not possible.”

Westbrook offered a series of proposals for the state to consider to better secure its voting practices and reduce fraud, including on-site digital face-recognition or electronic-signature technology.

For more detail, also check out THIS article from WRAL.com, in Raleigh.

An NRA for Ka-nife Owners

I welcome this development and have for a long time, ever since Mrs. Saunders confiscated my high-quality German-made switchblade in the seventh grade. Darned ole’ busybody. I paid five bucks for that knife, and it was the envy of every other boy on the schoolyard.

Below is the full text from the article that appeared on Brietbart:

With gun control defeated in 2013 and unlikely to make any headway with the 2014 elections, forcing Democrats to tack to the center, many citizens are lining up to push back laws restricting knife ownership.

The battle is being led by Knife Rights, an organization Doug Ritter founded in 2006 after realizing “there was not an NRA for knife owners.”

According to KnifeRights.org, Ritter has already succeeded in seeing “knife preemption laws” enacted in Arizona, Utah, New Hampshire, Georgia, Kansas, and Alaska.

Moreover, the National Journal reports that a knife bill which repeals the carrying and sale of switchblade knives has been passed in Tennessee, and Governor Bill Haslam (R) is expected to sign it.

The bill repeals the state’s ban on switchblade knives and the 4-inch blade limit heretofore placed on knives carried by those “with intent to go armed.” The legislation “also preempts any city or town ordinance that regulates knives.”

NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre fully supports the work of Knife Rights, calling them “the premier grassroots organization protecting our right to own knives.” He adds: “Those who love freedom need Knife Rights.”

And yes, there is a Second Amendment issue here. After all, the one-armed, gun averse folks among us have the right to concealed carry also, don’t they?

SWAT Team Raids Suburban Family Home Over Teenager’s Science Project

On the morning of April 20, 2012, Bob Harte woke up to pounding at his door. He answered the door to find a fully-armed team of SWAT officers from the Sheriff’s Office in Johnson County, Kansas. The officers pushed Harte to the floor of his home, then gathered his wife, his 13yo son, and his 7yo daughter together and sat them on the living room couch before commencing a two-hour raid of the residence, all the while with cop cars and flashing blue lights filling his yard and rousing his community.

The deputies refused to tell Harte why they were searching his home until they had completed the raid, but as they were leaving they told him they were searching for narcotics. They found none, and left him a receipt stating that there were “No items taken.” In order to allay the natural suspicions of his neighbors at seeing a SWAT team raid on his home, Bob Harte had to take this receipt around to show his neighbors in order to prove that he and his family were not criminals.

The Harte’s, two former CIA employees with no criminal records, wanted to know how they had been selected for the raid, but the County officials would not tell them. So they filed suit, eventually spending $25,000 dollars to find out, because they felt, as I do, as you would, that the public has an interest in knowing whether law enforcement raids of residential properties are based on a well-founded allegation of wrong-doing, validated by the careful scrutiny of the magistrates or judges who sign the authorizing warrants.

For more on this episode and it’s aftermath, check out THIS article at Yahoo News, and THIS article from local Kansas City television station KSHB (which includes a video), and THIS article from Opposing Views, an independent media site based in Los Angeles.

My purpose in posting about such occurances as this one is that I think that law enforcement in the United States is becoming too militarized, and that magistrates and judges are all too often derelict in their duty to clearly identify a legitimate “probable cause” before signing warrants for searches, particularly of residential properties. However, I also acknowledge that LEO’s have a vested interest in trying to employ overwhelming force when they have a realistic expectation of armed resistance. So, HERE is another perspective, more fair and balanced.

Really? A “Profile In Courage” or an “Act Of Betrayal”?

Former President George Hiram Walker Bush (Bush-41) is being given a Profile In Courage Award by the JFK Presidential Library Foundation for his capitulation to the Democrats in the 1990 Congress, in which he agreed to raising tax rates as a part of that year’s budget deal. There are at least two things about this that are of note:

The first is the irony of being given an award for raising taxes by the Presidential Library Foundation of the President that urged onto Congress the largest reduction in marginal income tax rates in the last half-century.
The second is that Bush-41’s son George W. Bush, who became President in his own right (Bush-43) has acknowledged his opinion, to many of his friends in private, that the single biggest factor in the failure of his father to win re-election against Bill Clinton in 1992 was his father’s betrayal of his “read my lips, no new taxes” pledge during the 1988 campaign, in which he won over Democratic candidate Michael Dukakis.

The full story, from USA-Today, is HERE.

Democrat Intransigence on the Proposed IRS Regs: Were Our Efforts For Naught?

President Obama wants increased funding for the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the Senate wants to give it to him. And at first blush, it seems like a straightforward and uncomplicated proposition, as reflected in this excerpt from Thursday’s post at CNN’s Money blog:

The International Monetary Fund [IMF] has agreed to lend Ukraine up to $18 billion over the next two years as its new government tries to stave off economic collapse. Kiev has been running dangerously low on cash to pay for imports and service its debts since the ousting of pro-Moscow former President Vitkor Yanukovych last month, which killed off a $15 billion financial lifeline from Russia.

and

“The IMF package should be sufficient to prevent the country falling into a full-blown balance of payments crisis, in which the hrvynia would drop sharply and output would collapse,” said William Jackson, emerging market economist at Capital Economics. In return for the bailout, Ukraine will implement a program of unpopular reforms aimed at stabilizing the economy and creating the conditions for a return to sustained growth. Central to the program are commitments by Ukraine to tackle corruption — a major concern of international lenders — and reforming the country’s energy market, including the gradual withdrawal of subsidies on natural gas.

But with 100,000 Russian troops poised at the border, things are getting more complicated. On top of that, the House Republicans, who are reluctant to bless the IMF expansions that the President favors, want a quid pro quo. They have agreed to pass the IMF funding bill, which will enable the IMF to prevent chaos in the Ukrainian monetary system, in return for the Obama administrations’s promise to back off on implementation of the new IRS regulations that would restrict the political activism of the many conservative organizations that fall under the IRS Section 501(c)(4) rules for non-profits.

So, does Boehner have a deal? Nope, nada, no way, Jose. As reported earlier this week by Eliana Johnson at the online National Review (with my slight editing for brevity):

In the ongoing negotiations over a bill to fund aid to Ukraine, Republicans in both chambers told Democrats privately that they would cede ground on the IMF provision — which gives more influence within the organization to developing countries and, Republicans say, diminishes that of the United States — if Democrats agreed to delay the proposed rules.

and

Democrats wanted approval for new IMF rules and more funding for the president’s pre-kindergarten program, among other things, but were unwilling to give in on the IRS regulations: Democrats and the administration rejected [the] offer to trade increased funding for the IMF for an amendment that would have delayed them. “The spin is that Republicans are so petty, but the truth is that Democrats are willing to sacrifice everything, including the IMF reforms they wanted, to keep them,” says a senior Republican aide.

For more, check out THIS at CNN, and THIS at National Review.

Hobby Lobby, in the Eye of the ObamaCare Hurricane

Until this past week, I had never set foot in a Hobby Lobby store, and the first impression I had when I entered the Morehead City store was that it was enormous. It was also not what I expected. There were no lavish displays of model electric trains, no section for battery powered remote-controlled model dune buggies, model boats, model airplanes, helicopters, or quadrocopters, not even a telescope for a harmless bit of stargazing.

But there was other stuff, lots of other stuff. The second thing I noticed after walking in was, off to my right, a very large area devoted to the display of artificial flowers. Being in firm possession of a Y chromosome, I do not have much interest in flowers, artificial or otherwise, so I moved on. I saw sewing and knitting supplies, picture framing materials, art supplies, even some ready-made doll houses, and as I continued wandering about the store, my amazement grew at what I would characterize as the largest inventory of household knick-knacks in the universe. And yes, there were some religious items, but not significantly more than you would find at a Target or Wal-Mart, in my opinion.

I went to the store in order to learn a little about the nature of the retail chain that has become the center of a controversial case that was argued just this past week in front of the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS). The case is Sebelius versus Hobby Lobby Stores, and in combination with the similar Conestoga Wood Specialties versus Sebelius suit, it presented to the Justices the question of whether a business can be forced by the government to provide health insurance coverage to it’s employees when that coverage will encompass goods and/or services to which the business ownership objects on religious grounds. In this case the objectional “goods and/or services” are contraceptives, which are mandated by ObamaCare.

Based on how most Court observers assess the arguments, the ruling on this case (expected in June) will be decided on a 5/4 split with Justice Kennedy as the swing vote. No one knows which arguments the Court will find more persuasive, but for more information and detail, check out these links to three articles reporting on the oral arguments before the Court last Tuesday. The first, HERE, is a recap from SCOTUSBlog legal journalist Lyle Denniston. The second, HERE, is from Sarah Torre posting in a Q-&-A format at the online National Review, and the third, HERE, is a posting by law professor Eugene Volokh in which he presents a technical analysis of the core arguments in the case.

I’m rooting for the conservative side to prevail, for two reasons. First, because it would be the right outcome on constitutional grounds, and second, because it would be another serious wound for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Admiral Jeremiah Denton is Dead at 89

Years ago I read “When Hell Was In Session”, retired Navy Admiral Jeremiah Denton’s account of his seven and a half year residency at the Hanoi Hilton and other prisons maintained by the North Vietnamese for captured American air crew members. As a Navy Captain, he was often the ranking officer. Aside from being one of the prisoners held longest by the North Vietnamese, Admiral Denton also achieved a measure of fame when he blinked his eyes during a propaganda interview to spell out, in Morse Code, the word “TORTURE”.

There are many remembrances of him in the media today, but THIS one actually contains video of the Admiral blinking the code.

Can We Follow In Indiana’s Footsteps?

In the presentations that I have attended where the subject of Common Core arose, there have been conflicting opinions as to whether North Carolina would be required to refund to the federal government all the money received as incentives for the adoption and implementation of Common Core in our State, were we to abandon Common Core altogether.

In a new Common Core development reported by Alec Torres at the online National Review, Indiana’s Republican Governor Mike Pence has signed a bill withdrawing the State from the Common Core program. An excerpt:

At first, the initiative seemed full of promise; it was little-known and seldom critiqued outside of education-policy circles. In Indiana, the effort to implement the Common Core was spearheaded by Republican governor Mitch Daniels and his fellow Republican Tony Bennett, the superintendent of public instruction, with the support of Democrats and Republicans alike. In August 2010, only two months after the final standards were made public, Daniels touted the Common Core as a simplification of the state standards that had previously been in place, and the state board of education voted unanimously to join. Implementation began the next school year. Only four states — Alaska, Nebraska, Texas, and Virginia — refused to adhere to the new standards.

Even in the full article, HERE, no mention is made of Indiana having to pay back any funding, and I think such an expensive consequence would have been mentioned. So, can we follow Indiana’s lead? The NC General Assembly is studying the issue even now, and I hope their conclusion can be in the affirmative.

For some background on Common Core, check out THIS article from the North Carolina Institute for Constitutional Law.

Professor Willingham and College Football Player Unions

A couple of months ago I put up a short post, HERE, about UNC academic advisor Mary Willingham’s efforts to expose the sham of athlete academic performance in the UNC system, particularly UNC-CH. Now, Professor Willingham’s allegations are back in the news after having been authenticated by the recent statements in HBO and ESPN interviews of former UNC-CH football players Deunta Williams, Michael McAdoo, and Bryon Bishop. Just to illustrate how abysmally poor the academic abilities of some UNC athletes are, the graphic below (which I have reformatted to better fit this post) is an essay written by one of them to satisfy an assignment in a UNC-CH African-American Studies class:

Lest you think this is an excerpt, it is not. That’s it. That’s the entire essay. Now make sure you are sitting down when I reveal to you that the paper was graded, according to ESPN, as an A-minus paper.

So, what connection is there between this and the recent proposals to allow college athletic teams to unionize? Well, first, the foregoing part of this post graphically illustrates that many college athletes are not students in any serious sense, but rather employees of the school’s athletics department. The unionization movement, therefore, simply reflects reality. And, in my view, anything that will expose and highlight this reality can only hasten the process of bursting the higher-education bubble (meaning the “business model” of our university system, the one that makes college so inordinately expensive) in American academe, and that’s a good thing.

Although details are lacking at this point, I think it can be assumed that taxpayers would balk at funding the salaries of unionized college athletes, so the requisite revenue would presumably come from game ticket sales. That would make even more visible the obvious truth that college athletic programs are a business separate and apart from the delivery of a college education. Once athletes become paid in a manner commensurate with their value to the athletics program money machine, I don’t think the association could long endure.

For more, check out THIS article on CNN.com, THIS article at the New-&-Observer, THIS article at Yahoo Sports, and THIS article at The Daily Caller.

Why Is Trouble Still Brewing In The South China Sea?

In another example of an American military leader tacitly acknowledging how the perception of American weakness is inviting foreign adventurism, the Chief of Naval Intelligence for the U.S. Pacific Fleet said this in recent weeks:

… the PLA [the Chinese “Peoples Liberation Army] has been given the new task to be able to conduct a short sharp war to destroy Japanese forces in the East China Sea following with what can only be expected [to be] a seizure of the Senkakus or even a southern Ryukyu [islands] …

And earlier this week, Army General Curtis Scaparrotti, the commander of U.N. and U.S. forces in South Korea, also questioned whether U.S. forces would be able to quickly counter a sudden large-scale offensive in the region, saying this before a Congressional hearing:

“I am concerned about the readiness of the follow-on forces in our theater … Given the indications and warnings and the nature of this theater and the threat that we face, I rely on rapid and ready forces to flow into the peninsula in crisis.”

And also from earlier this week, Admiral Samuel Locklear, commander of the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Command, weighed in:

… the reality is, is that to get Marines around effectively, they require all types of lift. They require the big amphibious ships, but they also require connectors (meaning landing craft and other amphibious vehicles). The lift is the enabler that makes that happen, so we wouldn’t be able to [successfully carry out a contested amphibious assault without additional resources] …”

So, why so much concern over what may be brewing in a region surrounding an oceanic basin half a world away? The answer can be summarized into three basic points of contention, illustrated by this first map of the area, below. The three points of contention overlap, but can be thought of as first, the maritime claims, meaning the national claims to fishing rights for a body of water; second, the national claims over resources on or beneath the sea-bed, primarily petroleum and natural gas deposits, and; third, rights of navigation. In today’s world, the claims to fishing rights and sea-bed rights are most often combined under the term Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), which typically extends out to 200 nautical miles (nm) from a national coastline. In this map, I have used the map scale to superimpose two red arrows that approximate the extent of the 200nm limit, and a red line across the arrow tips to approximate the outer terminus of the zone.

At this point it may be useful to note that the word “boundary” (as in international boundary) refers to a point behind which a nation has complete sovereignty, and such “coastal waters” boundaries extend out to three miles from a shoreline. Points that go beyond the boundary are referred to as “limits” in order to avoid confusion. The EEZ terminus is a zonal limit, as is the Territorial Sea (out to 12nm) and the Contiguous Zone (out to 24nm). A nation may not restrict the international rights of navigation beyond it’s Territorial zone. Also, a nation generally cannot exceed the other limits noted above except by treaty.

The most important line on the second map (above) is the red line, as it encompasses the maritime and resource claims of the Peoples Republic of China (China, or PRC), and increasingly, claims to exclusive rights of navigation as well. Most authorities (and reasonable people) would agree with the posture of the United States on these claims, which is that they are outrageously over-reaching, and a serious threat to peace in the region if and when they are enforced by the Chinese military.

And there have been numerous examples in recent months of such enforcement measures, from Chinese gunboats harassing fishing vessels from Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam, and the Philippines, to Chinese announcements that commercial airliner overflights would require advance permission, to intimidating behavior aimed at U.S. Navy vessels transiting the passage, to renewed territorial claims on islands claimed by Japan and other nations. Considering that the South China Sea is the second most busy sea lane on the planet, China’s attempts at limiting the rights of navigation there are especially troubling.

All of this combined seems to strongly indicate that China is itching for an armed confrontation in the area. However, their ambitions are not directed at the United States, but primarily toward Japan, Taiwan, and the Philippines. In years past, these ambitions have been held in check by the determination of every American president since World War I to preserve, and enforce if necessary, international rights in this critical region.

So, forgive a little metaphor mixing when I ask, does President Obama “walk softly and carry a big stick”? Or does he just “talk the talk”? By now, I think Vladimir Putin has clearly figured out the answer to that question, as have the Iranian mullahs, and maybe the Chinese leadership as well. And, if the Chinese do seize the Senkakus and/or the Ryukyus, and if they are allowed to get away with it, how long before they decide that the time is ripe for a takeover of Taiwan, and then a move on the Japanese home islands?

Before the last wound heals, Paul Ryan shoots himself in the foot again.

My fearless prediction: this guy is never going to be a Republican nominee for the U.S. Presidency so long as he keeps doing stuff like THIS. Among the Ryan quotes as he spoke before a breakfast hosted by the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce:

“To me, it’s not a question of ‘if’ we fix our broken immigration laws, it’s really a question of ‘when.’”

“Please know that we understand the value of immigration. We know its importance; we know its roots, its history here in America; and we have ideas on how to make this go forward and make it work so that we do have the rule of law, so that we do have reform, so that we’re not in the same position fifteen years down the road.”

Readers may also remember that, in an interview earlier this year with his hometown newspaper (the Janesville, Wisconsin, “Gazette”) Ryan acknowledged that Boehner and company do not yet have the votes to pass an immigration reform bill, but that “we’re working hard to find where that consensus lies.”

Unfortunately, Ryan’s idea of a “fix” seems to include amnesty. Sigh.

ObamaCare Escape Hatch – Health Care Sharing Ministries

From John Berlau’s article from yesterday at OpenMarkets, the Competitive Enterprise Institute blog:

Buried in Section 1501 on page 148 of the so-called Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is an exemption from the individual mandate for a “health care sharing ministry,” a group whose members “share a common set of ethical or religious beliefs and share medical expenses among members in accordance with those beliefs.” For any member of such group, the law says, “No penalty shall be imposed.”

Intriguing, no? Read the whole thing, HERE.

When In San Francisco, Wear Your Pistol To Bed

That wacky 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has again come up with a doozy of a ruling, this time on a Second Amendment case arising out of a San Francisco ordinance that requires gun owners to keep all their firearms either disabled (via use of a trigger lock) or locked in a gun safe EXCEPT WHEN BEING CARRIED ON THEIR PERSON. The ordinance applies to all residents, even those without children or those living alone.

A key excerpt from the Court’s ruling:

Thus, even when a handgun is secured, it may be readily accessed in case of an emergency. Further, section 4512 [of the San Francisco ordinance] leaves open alternative channels for self-defense in the home, because San Franciscans are not required to secure their handguns while carrying them on their person. Provided San Franciscans comply with the storage requirements, they are free to use handguns to defend their home while carrying them on their person.

Yeah, right. Pajamas with a holster pocket, coming to San Francisco area Wal-Marts soon. Check out Eugene Volokh’s analysis of the silliness at the Volokh Conspiracy, HERE.

Don’t Want No Cheese, Lord, Just Lemme Outah Da Trap

One weekend when I was a teenaged college student, I brought home from NCSU (the best college I ever flunked out of) a friend who was a Math major. My father was still raising a few hogs then, and my friend and I were out in the yard, leaning up against the hog pen, when he idly wondered, “Why do you build the pens in a rectangle? You know, you could enclose more area with less lumber if you built them round.” The question took me aback somewhat, and I did not have a good answer, so I paused to give it some thought. While I was mulling it over my Dad walked up, so I relayed my friend’s question to him. Dad looked at us both as if we were imbeciles, then stated what he plainly thought was an obvious truth: “Without a corner, there would be no place to hem up a hog if you needed to catch one”.

President Obama clearly wants to “hem up” everyone who might have an alternative to becoming enrolled in ObamaCare. Ed Haislmaier is a senior research fellow in the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Health Policy Studies, and late last week he posted an article at the online National Review about the latest “executive order” that is intended to tighten the ObamaCare noose. It focuses on “indemnity insurance”, and the full article is HERE.

Immigrants March for North Carolina Drivers Licenses

Most of us remember how it was in a typical North Carolina DMV office before the state stopped issuing Drivers Licenses to illegal immigrants. I do, rather clearly. I was living in Wake County near a DMV office at the time, and the line was out the door with lots of people who looked decidedly Hispanic. After the law was changed, the hordes evaporated almost overnight.

Now the illegals are becoming bolder. The text below is presented in its entirety from a Saturday article (with the same title) on WRAL.com:

Immigrant families and their supporters marched through downtown Raleigh Saturday in hopes of being able to drive in North Carolina.

About 100 people who support driver’s licenses for immigrants living illegally in North Carolina marched down Fayetteville Street to the Governor’s Mansion.

“I’m afraid that I could get stopped and not really know what’s going to happen next. I may be sent back to where I came from, Mexico, or go to jail and pay a heavy fine,” said Rafael Mendiola, who attended Saturday’s protest.

A recently released study by the state Department of Public Safety concluded that giving driving permits to immigrants in the state illegally should lead to safer driving, although there’s no established statistical basis to verify that conclusion.

The study also listed the downsides to issuing the licenses, including more resources needed for the Division of Motor Vehicles and the influx of applicants, many of whom may not pass the exam.

An “influx of applicants”? Ya think?

USS Gerald Ford (CVN-78) Shaking Out in Newport News

During most of my three-year U.S. Army hitch in the early sixties I was stationed at Fort Story, which is sited on the Virginia coast at Cape Henry, and which marks the southern boundary of the entrance to Chesapeake Bay. Fort Story was a small base that headquartered the Army’s amphibious operations on the east coast. From our second-story office window at the base HQ I could look out the window, and occasionally I would grab the office binoculars when I spotted the nuclear powered aircraft carrier Enterprise (CVN-65) passing through the offshore channel. Although officially classified, the scuttlebutt at the time was that the actual top speed of the Enterprise was about fifty miles per hour, and I remember idly wondering once how far the 95,000-ton carrier would penetrate the shoreline if her skipper were to run her onto the beach at full speed.

The Enterprise is now being decommissioned at the Huntington-Ingalls shipbuilding facility in Newport News, Virginia on the James River, along the northern circumference of the giant Hampton Roads anchorage. This facility was once known as the Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company, and was the shipyard for which my uncle was a welder in World War 2. The Enterprise sits near it’s replacement, the nuclear powered carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78).

The Gerald Ford is the first of a new class of American carriers, designed to replace the Nimitz-class. She is bigger than any previous American aircraft carrier, with a length of 1,106 feet and a displacement of 112,000 tons. Among the many other improvements to her design, she will be the first U.S. carrier to use the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS), which employs an electrically-powered sled to hurl planes into the air rather than a steam catapult. The sailors assigned to the Enterprise used to say that her steam catapult could throw a Volkswagen Beatle a mile off her bow. I don’t know how true that was, but the EMALS rig is supposed to be considerably more powerful than the steam catapults.

For much more information on the Ford, check out THIS article from Popular Mechanics magazine, and THIS entry on WikiPedia.

Jury Rules UNC-W Violated Free Speech Rights of their own Professor Mike Adams

The American Center for Law & Justice (ACLJ) is reporting a good outcome in their suit against UNC-W on behalf of Professor Mike Adams. The following is the text of the article in it’s entirety:

In Greenville, North Carolina, a jury in federal court found that the University of North Carolina-Wilmington violated criminology professor Mike Adams’ free speech rights when it denied his application for promotion to full professor. The ACLJ represents Dr. Adams, along with Alliance Defending Freedom attorney Travis Barham.

Dr. Adams is a conservative Christian who also regularly contributes to Townhall.com, where he often critiques the widespread leftist abuses within colleges and universities.

His speech caused a furious response within his university, with the Chancellor even attempting to alter the standards for promotion to allow the faculty to consider professors’ protected speech in promotion decisions.

When Dr. Adams submitted his application for full professor, university officials rejected it through the use of a completely-fabricated promotion standard, passed along false and misleading information about his academic record, explicitly considered the content of his protected speech in promotion documents, and – incredibly – allowed a professor who’d filed a false criminal complaint against Dr. Adams to cast a vote against his application.

The verdict represents a significant victory for the First Amendment and for academic freedom, sending a message nationwide that colleges and universities will be held accountable if they attempt to impose ideological, religious, or political litmus tests on professors or students.

The jury’s verdict was for liability only, and the judge will decide Dr. Adams’ relief within weeks.

In the meantime, we are grateful that justice was done and will press on to defend liberty in colleges and universities nationwide.

Hat tip to Ken Lang for this pointer, as he posted the link on the CCTPP Facebook page earlier.

Drudge Says: Small Business Owners Already Having To Pay ObamaCare Individual Mandate Tax If They Opt Out

There is a big kerfuffle going on now in the liberal media, as left-wing media pundits try to minimize the downside to the reporting by Matt Drudge (of the Drudge Report) that he has already had to pay the first installment of his three quarterly ObamaCare tax payments. Although the penalty for not complying with the Individual Mandate takes effect beginning January 1st of next year for other individuals, Mr. Drudge maintains that it took place on January 1st of this year for those individuals who are self-employed. Mr. Drudge has never revealed his staffing numbers, but from this it appears that they may be in excess of fifty.

Brietbart reporter Matthew Boyle explains in more detail, HERE.

UPDATE

Jeffrey Young of the Huffington Post got this from a Jackson-Hewitt Senior Vice-President:

“That’s perplexing,” said Brian Haile, the senior vice president for health-care policy at Jackson Hewitt Tax Service, a tax-preparation company. The IRS has no mechanism in place yet to even accept individual mandate penalties and hasn’t even published the tables taxpayers will use to work out how much they owe. Plus, any money sent in can’t be earmarked especially for that, he explained. The IRS didn’t respond to a request for additional information about collecting mandate penalties. Drudge didn’t respond to an email asking him to elaborate on his tweet.

“For whatever reason, Matt Drudge has decided to give the government an interest-free loan,” Haile said.

I wonder what the Vegas line is for this match-up? Anyhoo, more to come, probably, so don’t touch that dial!

Conservative Economic Policies Enable Teacher Pay Hikes

Good news, it seems, for North Carolina teachers. From Dan Way’s article at Carolina Journal Online, which contains essentially the same information as on Page 7 of the current Carolina Journal hardcopy issue:

Early career teachers will get pay raises starting in the fiscal year beginning July 1, and teachers with up to seven years of service will collect double-digit percentage increases, Governor Pat McCrory announced Monday. The package is expected to cost less than $200 million and will not require a tax increase.

In a show of unity with election-year overtones, the governor, Lt. Gov. Dan Forest, House Speaker Thom Tillis, and Senate leader Phil Berger, all Republicans, said GOP economic policies that helped to spur increased revenue, and prudent fiscal management, made possible the raise in base pay from $30,800 to $35,000 for more than 42,000 teachers.

“At $35,000, North Carolina will at least be competitive nationally, and a leader in the Southeast for pay, and ahead of Tennessee, Georgia, and South Carolina in base pay,” McCrory said.

and

The new pay hike will come in two phases — $2,200 the first year and $2,000 the second — a 14 percent hike, for teachers with up to five years’ experience. Teachers with between six and nine years, who qualify for higher pay than less-experienced teachers under the current salary structure, will reach the $35,000 base with raises ranging from $550 to $3,780, or 2 percent to 12 percent.

McCrory also announced “substantial raises” effective January 1st targeting more than 3,000 nurses, highway patrol officers and others “whose base pay was too low for too long,” and uncompetitive with private sector pay.

McCrory said the state will roll back its cutoff of 10 percent supplemental pay for teachers who attain master’s degrees. That will allow teachers who took any classes as of last July 1 to collect the extra pay upon completion of their master’s degrees.

Berger said bills will be introduced in the short session on the pay raise and master’s supplements.

For the full article, click HERE.

We Have Heard This Song Before, I Recognize The Refrain

Earlier this week the U.S. Census Bureau released a routine report that confirmed a long-anticipated tipping point in the state of California. For the first time, the largest demographic within a continental U.S. state is Hispanic (at 39%) rather than white non-Hispanic, and the trend is continuing. This does not bode well for California, in my view.

Trailing in this trend, but not far behind, is Texas. One-half of the collective public school student population in Texas is Hispanic. As the Hispanic percentage in these states (and maybe others) continues to rise, the natural pressures to assimilate will diminish. The result will be huge enclaves in which thousands, perhaps millions of people will be able to live out their lives without ever having to speak English or to adopt the customary features of the United States culture. We already have some smaller examples, like the Cubans in south Florida and the Somalies in Minnesota.

Want some proof? Yesterday, it was reported that the principal of a middle school in a town about one hour’s drive south of Houston was fired earlier this year for telling the student body that they were to speak only English during the school day while on the school grounds. Here is an excerpt of the article reporting the firing, from the Houston Chronicle:

Hempstead Middle School Principal Amy Lacey was placed on paid administrative leave in December after reportedly announcing, via intercom, that students were not to speak Spanish on the school’s campus. The Hispanic population of the rural area, roughly 50 miles northwest of Houston, is growing quickly, and Latino advocates say that it’s important to allow Spanish in public schools.

“When you start banning aspects of ethnicity or cultural identity,” says Augustin Pinedo, director of the League of United Latin American Citizens Region 18, “it sends the message that the child is not wanted: ‘We don’t want your color. We don’t want your kind.’ They then tend to drop out early.”

Recognize it? You should, as this strategy of an ethnic minority taking on the mantle of victimhood in order to gain a political and cultural advantage has become a familiar pattern in America.

The full article is HERE.

Since We Are All Out Of Rockets, Let’s Do Sociology Studies

From the opening paragraphs of a new article on what NASA is wasting your taxpayer dollars on these days, under the Obama administration’s oversight:

Few think Western civilization is on the brink of collapse—but it’s also doubtful the Romans and Mesopotamians saw their own demise coming either.

If we’re to avoid their fate, we’ll need policies to reduce economic inequality and preserve natural resources, according to a NASA-funded study that looked at the collapses of previous societies.

“Two important features seem to appear across societies that have collapsed,” reads the study. “The stretching of resources due to the strain placed on the ecological carrying capacity and the economic stratification of society into Elites and Masses.”

In unequal societies, researchers said, “collapse is difficult to avoid…. Elites grow and consume too much, resulting in a famine among Commoners that eventually causes the collapse of society.”

[snip]

The study was sponsored by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and headed by the National Science Foundation’s Safa Motesharrei.

The obvious question, it seems to me, is why the hell is the National Aeronautics & Space Administration doing this? This seems so far afield from what they ought to be engaged in that I am beginning to suspect that Lois Lerner has found a new home.

The entire piece can be seen HERE.

Well, It’s A Start

Speaking as someone who has been on both ends of the stick at various times, I cannot take pleasure at the news that someone is losing his job. And yet, because the shrinkage of the bureaucracy at all levels of government is such an important goal, it was encouraging to read this News-&-Observer piece over the weekend about the elimination of over eighty positions in the NC Department of Environment & Natural Resources (DENR) so far this year. And anything that provokes such alarm in the Sierra Club is likely to be a very good thing.

From the article, this bit:

“The loss of staff at EEP raises the question of whether the state of North Carolina will continue to provide high quality mitigation services in the future to protect our wetlands and water quality,” said Cassie Gavin, director of governmental relations for the North Carolina chapter of the Sierra Club.

Environmental groups across the state have expressed alarm about regulatory rollbacks, budget cuts and staff reductions imposed by the General Assembly and Governor Pat McCrory’s administration. DENR Secretary John Skvarla has come under particular criticism because of his “customer-friendly” philosophy, honed while he clashed with regulators when he was in the private sector.

The full article, behind the N-&-O paywall and including some history of one of the targeted DENR agencies, is HERE.

Time to Break Out the Tar and Feathers

Richard Nixon bears some of the blame, as he created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by executive order in 1970. In the intervening 44 years, the EPA has grown to massive proportions, now employing over 17,000 in ten regional offices, plus many more in contractual arrangements. It’s budget is in excess of 8.6-billion dollars per year. It is a bureaucratic colossus, and as colossi are prone to do, it throws it’s weight around, often crushing the little people in the process.

That is what is currently happening to the family of welder Andy Johnson, who lives with his wife Katie and their three kids on a small “farmette” in Wyoming. Andy, foolishing thinking that he could do what he wished on his own property, built a small stock pond on the property for the recreational enjoyment of his family. Then the EPA fell on him like a ton of bricks, demanding that he reverse his actions and fill in the pond.

From the story written earlier this week by Barnini Chakraborty at Fox News:

The EPA order on January 30th gave Johnson 30 days to hire a consultant and have him or her assess the impact of the supposed unauthorized discharges. The report was also supposed to include a restoration proposal to be approved by the EPA as well as to contain a schedule requiring all work be completed within 60 days of the plan’s approval.

If Johnson doesn’t comply — and he hasn’t so far — he’s subject to $37,500 per day in civil penalties as well as another $37,500 per day in fines for statutory violations.

Read the entire disgusting story, HERE.

Representative Pat McElraft ventures into the Lion’s Den

In a courageous move, Representative Pat McElraft spoke yesterday before a crowd of teachers at the combined Bogue Sound Elementary School and Croatan High School off Highway-24 near Broad Creek. Here is an excerpt from the Carteret County News-Times article by Cheryl Burke, in which Representative McElraft gives a little background on the legislation at issue:

Ms. McElraft said when Gov. McCrory and legislators took office, they inherited a $3.5 billion state budget deficit. Plus, the state is facing an astronomical cost for Medicaid, which has hurt the economy even more. She said half of the state’s population is now on Medicaid.

“The first order of business was getting the state back in sound fiscal shape,” she said, adding that lowering corporate taxes and taxes on small businesses has encouraged new businesses to move to the state.

“We had to deal with that before we could start paying our bills,” she said. “We need to get you all up to the national average (for pay), but we need a revenue stream to do that.”

Representative McElraft indicated a willingness to work in favor of a broader policy for raises and bonuses than the “top 25%” scheme mandated by the 2013 legislation, but to her great credit, especially considering the opposing sentiments of her audience, she reiterated her support for the eventual elimination of teacher tenure. This is important, as in my view, the elimination of teacher tenure is the linchpin of education reform here in North Carolina.

The fill CNT article can be seen HERE.

Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act sent to Prez

The house version of this bill was passed earlier in the week, the Senate version passed on Thursday, and the President is expected to sign it into law very soon. For the last couple of days I have been trying to find information on how the House and Senate versions of this bill will be (were?) reconciled, with little success. Here is an excerpt from an interesting take published by the town of Dennis, MA on their Planning Department blog, with some editing on my part:

Section 3 deals with repealing increases in rates that have occurred over the past 18 plus months. It repeals a requirement that any policy bought after July 2012 be for “full actuarial risk” and removes a requirement that properties sold would be immediately subject to full actuarial risk.

This is important, as most coastal communities have thousands of properties being added to the flood zone as part of the pending map changes. Prior to July 2012 the owner of a home constructed before the Flood Insurance Rate Maps went into effect was allowed to buy flood insurance at a discounted rate if the home met the standards that were in place at the time of construction. Under Biggert-Waters this provision was removed. The 2014 bill has restored this provision. Also, properties located within the flood zones established in 1986 and 1992 had, before Biggert-Waters, been able to transfer their discounted flood insurance to new purchasers. This transferability of flood insurance policies protected property values and provided an incentive for homeowners to maintain flood insurance even after all mortgages had been paid off. When this ended in July 2012, home buyers were finding they faced hefty insurance rate increases that made homes they were about to close on unaffordable.

Another part of the rate increase repeal is a bit more curious, as it removes a provision that established paying full risk value for a new policy if a homeowner allowed coverage to lapse and replaces it with a provision that protects the discounted rate for a future purchase of of flood insurance by placing a caveat that the full risk value is not required if the dropping of the coverage was as a result of the insurance no longer being required. I am not sure where this takes us and have not seen much discussion of this provision. It appears to allow for a homeowner to drop flood insurance when a mortgage is paid off and pick up the discounted rate again at a future date. I am not sure if this is the intent, but we will have to wait for guidance.

The rate increase repeal also provides for refunds for over-payments based upon repealing increases that have occurred. It would appear that this refund issue will affect a very small cross-section of people, mainly those who have purchased flood zone property since July 2012 and had the new full risk premiums assessed rather than previously existing grandfather rates.

And another report, this one from Fox News, HERE.