More black on white crime: Canton, Ohio

This story comes via Top Conservative News:

The Perps:

Japheth Thomas, 19
Mikal Johnson, 18

The Victim:

Eugene H. Render, 88

From CantonRep.com…

Police arrested two Canton teenagers Monday in connection to the shooting death of an 88-year-old man.

Japheth Thomas, 19, of 533 Clarendon Ave. NW, was arrested about 6 a.m. on unrelated warrants at Clarendon Avenue NW and Sixth Street NW, said Capt. Dave Davis of the Canton Police Department.

Mikal Johnson, 18, of 132 Bedford Ave. NW, was arrested about 3:30 p.m. at his residence.

Both are charged with aggravated murder, aggravated robbery and aggravated burglary. Arrest photos were not available Monday.
Davis said detectives are continuing to investigate and further charges may be pending.

Eugene H. Render, 88, was shot twice, once in the chest and once in the abdomen, and found in his kitchen about 6:12 p.m. Saturday in the 300 block of Montrose Avenue NW.

The Stark County coroner’s office pronounced Render dead at the scene.

“We believe it was a burglary gone wrong,” Davis said.

Remember folks, an armed society is a polite society. This man found it out, the hard way. Prayers for his family. Here’s hoping these thugs rot in jail and in the devil’s hell. 😡

Interesting Obamacare story

Yeah, I know, I said I was burning out. But, this one is pretty good.

In the short term, I am the kind of person for whom the Obamacare mandate is a pain in the neck. My husband and I, both writers, have been buying health insurance on the individual market for several years, paying about a thousand dollars a month for a policy that covers us and our two children. We were among those Americans who liked our policy: we had to choose doctors from within a network, but there were plenty to choose from, including the pediatrician we’d gone to since our kids, now teen-agers, were born. We had no deductible and a reasonable cap on out-of-pocket expenses: five thousand dollars a year. We were less happy when, in early October, our insurer, CareFirst Blue Cross, raised our monthly premium by three hundred dollars with no explanation. (The only health expenses we’d incurred in the previous year were for the annual checkups that the schools required for the kids.) This was a big increase for us, especially since our writing income tends to fluctuate from month to month and year to year. Then, like many of the twelve million or so Americans who buy their own insurance, we received a letter from CareFirst in late October saying that our policy would be cancelled, because it didn’t conform to Affordable Care Act requirements. I did what I usually do in these circumstances: I procrastinated.

via My Cancelled Policy, and My Values : The New Yorker.

It’s a good read, go check it out. I will say this, like I wrote in my previous posting: The Democrats wanted this, and they got it; and because of this, I really do not believe that any of the Democrats or anyone who voted for Obama, have a legit reason to complain. They brought the lies of the Obama campaign, and White House. So, they should really just shut up.

 

Some good economic news for a change

The economy is recovering, albeit at a very slow pace.

Here are two stories on the recovery:

Via Market Watch:

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Private-sector employment picked up in November, as employers added 215,000 jobs, Automatic Data Processing Inc. reported Wednesday. Economists had forecast that private-sector employers added 178,000 jobs, up from an originally estimated gain of 130,000 jobs in October, according to a Dow Jones Newswires survey. On Wednesday ADP revised October’s gain to 184,000. Economists use ADP’s data to get a feeling for the U.S. Labor Department’s employment report, which will be released Friday and covers government jobs in addition to the private sector. Economists polled by MarketWatch expect the government’s report to show that nonfarm employment rose by 180,000 jobs in November, compared with an increase of 204,000 in October. Markets are searching jobs data this week for clues about when the Federal Reserve will deem the economy healthy enough to start paring its massive asset-purchase program, which officials crafted to stimulate growth by keeping downward pressure on long-term interest rates.

There are some, like on the neoconservative right, that would say that this is simply not enough. To that I say, it does not happen overnight. The economy can be destroyed in minutes; but it does take a long time for it to build back up. Obamacare aside, this is good news. I just wish the numbers were higher. 

And another via Market Watch:

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) – The nation’s trade deficit fell 5.4% to $40.6 billion in October, as the U.S. exported more petroleum, soybeans and collectibles while buying foreign-made goods at a slower rate, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. Economists polled by MarketWatch had projected the deficit would decline to $40.4 billion in October on a seasonally adjusted basis. Exports rose 1.8% to $192.7 billion. Imports climbed a smaller 0.4% to $233.3 billion, but that still marked the highest level since March 2012. American exports of petroleum jumped nearly 16% to lead the way. Exports of soybeans, which are down sharply so far this year, increased by nearly 22%. The U.S. also sold more artwork, gold and diamonds. On the other side of the ledger, the U.S. imported more crude oil, petroleum-based products, toys and pharmaceutical drugs. Over the past three months, the trade deficit has averaged $40.9 billion, little changed from $40.2 billion September and down just slightly compared to one year ago. In September, the trade gap was revised up to $43.0 billion from a preliminary reading of $41.8 billion.

As an American, as someone who is not too keen on globalism, this is very good news. The United States has the ability to produce its own goods, without relying on import, we just have not had the chance to do it. Now, if we could just stop relying on China for cheap electronics, we would be in very good shape.

Obamacare burnout

This is what I am calling it.

As you all might have noticed, I really just have not been writing the headlines as of late. As funny as this might sound; I am honestly just sick and tired of hearing about Obamacare. It seems everyday, day in and day out; there is another headline about Obamacare —- the website is broken, the enrollee numbers are down, blah blah blah, on and on and on.

It just gets darned old. So much in fact, that I just stopped watching Fox News; because that is all they ever talk about anymore. It was like this during the 1990’s, during the Monica scandal; 24/7 Monica, Monica, Monica…. By the time Clinton was out of office, I was just happy not to have to listen to the media drone on about it.

Maybe it is because I am not on normal sleeping hours, maybe it is because I am simply getting old and crotchety. Maybe it is because I have ADHD and get bored easily. But, I just find all of this whining and hand wringing to be quite annoying. I just the media would find something else to talk about; namely our economy or something — anything.

Are there not other important things to write about? Are there not any other political stories that could be followed; instead the constant droning on about Obamacare?

Yes, I know about Detroit’s bankruptcy. Man, do I ever. The labor movement here is in a tizzy about that one. I simply say this: this should be a textbook example of why public sector unions do not work and why they should have never been created. Heck, even the White House does not want to be involved with that mess, they did the old fake federalist dodge, “let the city handle it!” A very good dodge, but I digress.

The national media should be talking about the job situation in this Country and a lack of them; and what is causing the job market to stagnate. The media should be talking about the federal reserve and how they continue to pump currency into our money system and devalue the price of the dollar. The media should be talking about how America’s progressive tax system is choking the small business owner into having to lay off employees and thereby creating a problem for the working man.

But, instead we get Obamacare. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

It just gets old. I mean, Republicans have no right to complain about this Obamacare debacle. It is their fault that we even have this disaster on our hands. If they had actually selected a candidate that could have actually won the Presidency in 2008 and 2012; and not had a Republican who basically was traitor to the party, who voted for the bill —- we would not be in this spot in the first place.

The way I see it; the Republicans ought to just man up, suck it up, pay for the insurance and shut the hell up and next time, not choose someone who cannot win an election. my point is basically, that the right made their own bed, they ought to just lay in it and stop the stupid whining.

UPDATE: Something else that I thought about, after I came over here and laid down in the bed. Some may think that I am unfairly tarring the Republicans and not saying anything about the Democrats.

Let me say this about the Democrats: You voted for Obama. You supported and advocated for Obamacare. You have no right to complain about the cost and/or inconvenience of Obamacare. So, you essentially own this debacle so stop complaining about it and accept it for what it is.

Another thing that is particularly galling about this whole thing is the fact that the Republicans are doing the whole, “oh you poor people!” routine, which is so fake that it is pathetic. Because in all honesty the Republicans are snickering behind the supporters of Obamacare back saying, “haha this is what you get!” There is nothing that annoys me more than fake sympathy from the loyal opposition.

Again, I really do not mind reporting the facts. But, when it repeated over, and over, and over… It just gets old…

Chuck Schumer on Wall Street and Left & Right Wing Blogs

I found these two quotes to be interesting, they’re from an interview in The New Republic:

IC: You and Mayor Bloomberg, in 2007, said that reregulating Wall Street would cause people to flee overseas to London. That is very different than Warren.

CS: It has got to be, to me, a careful balance, OK? Wall Street excesses helped lead to the Great Recession. And to sit there and do nothing, or do what the Republicans want—repeal Dodd-Frank—makes no sense. But on the other hand, I think that you just don’t attack Wall Street because they’re successful or rich.

I just unsuccessfully, with Bloomberg, supported raising the building height in midtown Manhattan, so we could build more office buildings. Office buildings are our factories—imagine the people of Michigan saying, “We don’t want to build a new auto factory, because the Ford family will get richer, or the person who builds the factory will make money.” You’ve got to look at the effect on average folks. The vast majority of the people employed by Wall Street are the secretary who goes in to work on the Long Island Rail Road, who makes fifty, sixty, seventy thousand dollars a year. I’m not saying Elizabeth does this, but there are some on the far left who just have a visceral hatred of Wall Street. It’s counterproductive.

IC: You don’t think Elizabeth Warren makes a villain out of Wall Street?

CS: I am just going to leave it at what I said.

Okay, I get this, he is an anti-populist, most mainline establishment Democrats are. This is because they get most of their funding from big businesses, believe it or not. Warren is a fluke and what I would call a liberal version of a Tea Partier. Grassroots and all that.

However, this quote here really made me wonder:

IC: Forget Warren then. Is this a problem for your party?

CS: You don’t want to go after them for the sake of going after them. The left-wing blogs want you to be completely and always anti–Wall Street. It’s not the right way to be.

IC: So are the left-wing blogs as bad as the Tea Party ones in this case?

CS: Left-wing blogs are the mirror image. They just have less credibility and less clout.

We do? That is news to me. I have not had anyone from the Republican Party contact me at all. Of course, I am a Paleoconservative and a good majority of the Republican Party is pretty much Neoconservative; but I digress. I think Schumer might be overstating that one a bit. I can tell you this; if Schumer is saying that the right-wing blogs are taking marching orders from the RNC, then he is very highly mistaken. Anyone who reads the blogs on the right knows that the grassroots/tea party crowd, which does make up a good amount of the Blogosphere; is not very happy with the RNC at all.

So, this idea that the right-wing blogs have some sort of special inside clout with the party, I believe, is a mistaken assumption on Schumer’s part.

Others: Post Politics, Mock Paper Scissors, Daily Kos, Shakesville, Talking Points Memo, Outside the Beltway, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Dish, Althouse. (Via Memeornadum)

Posting pulled due to stupidity

I hope Kelly Thomas’s killers are sued.

But, I had to pull this posting.

The reason is this page was linking to it. The real cute thing is, he is an Amateur Radio Operator. Idiot. 🙄 😡

For the record, I do not condone the killing of law enforcement officers. I simply want them to be brought to justice. I also do not support the actions of the leftist hacking group anonymous. They’re bigger thugs than the cops who killed Kelly Thomas.

That is all.

 

Whoa: DailyKos Censors Ted Rall

This is crazy….

The Story via Ted Rall: (H/T Newsbusters)

Daily Kos is a major liberal/Democratic Party blog. About a year ago, the blog began running cartoons. To their credit, they paid a modest fee for them. Many alternative political cartoonists were invited; I was not.

At the time, the owner of the blog mentioned as an aside that I would be welcome, like anyone else, to post to Daily Kos. A few weeks ago, I decided to take him up on that.

Why did I post there for free? To access readers, many of whom would enjoy my work if they saw it. It was an experiment.

The experiment ended yesterday. When I went to log on, I received the above message. I clicked the acknowledgement.

Which marks the end of my experiment posting to Daily Kos. I might consider altering the way I draw a political figure for a paying client. A very high-paying client. Someone who employed me full-time.

I’m sure not going to alter my drawing style for $0.00 money.

The offending Cartoon, hopefully Rall won’t beat me up for this:

If You Like Our Troops, You Can Keep Them

For publishing that, he got the following from DailyKos’s admins:

Untitled-1

You can look at the conversation about the posting at DailyKos.

Mr. Rall, you just earned yourself a place on my blogroll. Kudos to you for being brave enough to speak the truth about Obama and his disaster of a healthcare plan.

I believe it goes without saying, that this right here; is a perfect, textbook example of why I stopped voting for the Democratic Party.

The Hypocrisy of Rod Dreher

I hate to be the person to point this out. But, when I must, I must.

It seems that Rod Dreher shows a bit of compassion and shame when it comes to Mormons who disguise themselves to make some sort of statement about social justice:

The bishop went to the pulpit, pulled off his disguise, and shocked the congregation. More:

Ward member Jaimi Larsen was among those surprised it was her bishop. “I started feeling ashamed because I didn’t say hello to this man … He was dirty. He was crippled. He was old. He was mumbling to himself,” she said.

I am absolutely certain I would have done just as Jaimi Larsen did. This shames me.

However, when it comes to Christians who Dreher happens to disagree with, when it comes to Doctrine; Dreher has no such shame at all:

What a life Paul Crouch had. That’s the most neutral thing I can muster. If you sell people hope and meaning, you can make millions.

As I wrote about my piece on Paul Crouch; I do not make a habit of mocking or criticizing other ministries. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule; like in the case of Charles Stanley, which is more to do with his rejection of Biblical doctrine, rather than his Ministry style.

I am calling Dreher on this one; because this is nothing more than a religious partisan attack on someone who has most likely done more to further the body of Christ, than Rod Dreher as even done. Seeing he is a supposed former papist — who has turned to the idiocy of the orthodox, one should not be too shocked about this sort of tripe from him.