Category: Aggregated

I am not Charlie, nor will I ever be. Wearing a Je suis Charlie badge is one sure way of getting attention, but I will leave that to others. And another thing: Obscenity has no redeeming social value, and Charlie Hebdo was and is one long obscenity. But let’s start with that famous Parisian march of mourners, one that had more criminals in its front row than a Mafia funeral. How is it possible that the gangster who calls himself the Emir of Qatar went marching and pretending to honor the dead journalists when it is he who is the … Continue reading →

At this writing, Islamic State militants are engaging in some of the most horrific persecution of Iraqi Christians since the days of the Roman Empire. Children are being beheaded, parents gunned down, churches burned, and whole populations uprooted, all to feed a monster known as radical Islam. While I believe that those who commit such atrocities should be held accountable personally for this violence, I am under no delusion as to who bears much of the responsibility for creating the conditions that have nurtured this outrage: conservative American Christians. That’s correct; I am calling out the Religious Right for helping … Continue reading →

The votes are in and the decision is overwhelmingly clear. Chris Kyle—the Navy SEAL portrayed in the blockbuster movie purported killer of some 200 Iraqis during four tours of duty—is the people’s choice. From record ticket sales to major media accolades, from the halls of Congress to the White House, the nation has spoken: “American Sniper” is all-American. Chris Kyle—the most lethal killer in U.S. military history, a true hero, a brave warrior—has been anointed as a role model for all that America has come to stand for. “American Sniper has the look of a bona fide cultural phenomenon!” said … Continue reading →

Daily supplements with the probiotic Lactobacillus gasseri SBT2055 may help weight loss in people with obese tendencies, according to new research. After twelve weeks of consuming a fermented milk product containing the Lactobacillus strain, study subjects averaged a 4.6 percent reduction in abdominal fat and a 3.3 percent reduction in subcutaneous fat. NutraIngredients reports: “Furthermore, body weight dropped by 1.4 percent and waist size decreased by 1.8 percent … The study extends previous findings … which showed LG2055 may reduce fat levels (adiposity) and fat cells in animals”. What does the bacteria in your gut have to do with your … Continue reading →

On a chilly morning in late January 2015,  an unlikely assortment of former U.S. and U.K. intelligence officers gathered at the former headquarters of the Stasi — the former East Germany’s Ministerium fuer Staatssicherheit  [Ministry of State Security] — for a tour of Berlin’s “Stasi Museum.” The delegation – which included ex-officers from the National Security Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency and British MI5, who count themselves among the members of the Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence (SAAII) – had traveled to Berlin to confer the 2015 Sam Adams Award for Integrity in Intelligence on former NSA senior … Continue reading →

Game of Thrones actor Hafthór ‘Thor’ Björnsson has broken a 1,000-year-old weight lifting record to become ‘The World’s Strongest Viking’. The 26-year-old lifted a 30-foot log, weighing 1,433lbs on his shoulders and carried it for five steps during the World’s Strongest Viking competition in Norway. The Icelandic strongman, who plays Gregor ‘The Mountain’ Clegane on the drama series based on the books by George R R Martin, has now got his eyes on the World’s Strongest Man-title. Read the Whole Article

In his recent trip to India, President Obama repeated a long-standing pattern of his — denigrating the United States to foreign audiences. He said that he had been discriminated against because of his skin color in America, a country in which there is, even now, “terrible poverty.” Make no mistake about it, there is no society of human beings in which there are no rotten people. But for a President of the United States to be smearing America in a foreign country, whose track record is far worse, is both irresponsible and immature. Years after the last lynching of blacks … Continue reading →

Since the beginning of time, television pundits and other serious thinkers have beckoned the young to die or lose limbs in pointless, illegal wars. Just in the last 15 years alone, our groomed foreign policy experts and think tank fellows have made compelling cases for armed humanitarian interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and about a half dozen other defenseless nations desperately in need of drone strikes or some other form of Western aid. Some might think this ancient practice of the privileged few urging everyone else to perish for nothing is outdated—maybe even harmful. Perhaps. But tradition is very important in … Continue reading →

Ludwig von Mises is one of my heroes. He abided by a fundamental principle in life: “Never give an inch.” It was often said by Chicago School economists and other non-Austrian economists that Mises was just too hard core. He was just too unbending. For an example of this criticism, watch this brief video, which is a segment from the PBS series, The Commanding Heights. The key comes at 1:30: an interview with Milton Friedman. Friedman dismisses Mises for standing firm. But on the issue at hand — the welfare state — he was right. At the age of 19, … Continue reading →

When I was growing up, I noticed that my dad kept his car well-stocked with supplies. A lot of the equipment was for his job busting poachers as a game warden, but most of the things were for emergency situations. And there were plenty of times when m…

‘Global oil prices have plummeted after the US crude stockpiles reached its highest level over the past 33 years. Reports said on Wednesday that US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) and Brent North Sea crude, […]