John Boehner: Obama On A Mission To “Annihilate The Republican Party.” By Nick Wing. The Huffington Post, January 23, 2013.
John Boehner Warns: Obama Is Trying To “Annihilate The Republican Party.” By Josh Feldman. Mediaite, January 23, 2013.
Speaker Boehner Discusses Challenges Facing the Nation and the Republican Party in Address to The Ripon Society. RiponSociety.org, January 23, 2013.
Speaker John Boehner Addresses the Ripon Society. Video. Ripon Society. YouTube, January 23, 2013.
Friday, January 25, 2013
Lessons Conservatives Need to Learn. By Peggy Noonan.
Lessons Conservatives Need to Learn. By Peggy Noonan. Wall Street Journal, January 24, 2013.
Obama is a formidable foe. He means to change the country and crush the GOP.
Noonan:
Finally, it became obvious this week that the Republican party top to bottom has to start taking Barack Obama seriously. All the famous criticisms of him are true: He has no talent for or interest in sustained, good-faith negotiations, he has no real sense of alarm about the great issue of the day, America's debt. He’s a chill presence in a warm-blooded profession.
But he means business. He means to change America in fundamental ways and along the lines of justice as he sees it The proper response to such a man is not—was not—that he’s a Muslim, he’s a Kenyan, he's working out his feelings about colonialism. Those charges were meant to marginalize him, but they didn’t hurt him They damaged Republicans, who came to see him as easy to defeat.
He doesn’t care if you like him—he’d just as soon you did, but it’s not necessary for him. He is certain he is right in what he’s doing, which is changing the economic balance between rich and poor. The rich are going to be made less rich, and those who are needy or request help are going to get more in government services, which the rich will pay for. He’d just as soon the middle class don’t get lost in the shuffle, but if they wind up marginally less middle class he won’t be up nights. The point is redistribution.
The great long-term question is the effect the change in mood he seeks to institute will have on what used to be called the national character. Eight years is almost half a generation. Don’t you change people when you tell them they have an absolute right to government support regardless of their efforts? Don’t you encourage dependence, and a bitter sense of entitlement? What about the wearing down of taxpayers? Some, especially those who are younger, do not fully understand that what is supporting them is actually coming from other people; to them it seems to come from “the government,” the big marble machine far away that prints money.
There is no sign, absolutely none, that any of this is on Mr. Obama's mind. His emphasis is always on what one abstract group owes another in the service of a larger concept. "You didn't build that" are the defining words of his presidency.
He is not going to negotiate, compromise, cajole. Absent those efforts his only path to primacy in Congress is to kill the Republican Party, to pulverize it, as John Dickerson noted this week in Slate, to “attempt to annihilate the Republican Party,” as Speaker John Boehner said in a remarkably candid speech to the Ripon Society.
Mr. Obama is not, as has been said, the left’s Ronald Reagan. Reagan won over, Mr. Obama just wins. What Mr. Obama really is is Franklin D. Roosevelt without the landslides. He has the same seriousness of intent but nothing like the base of support.
Obama is a formidable foe. He means to change the country and crush the GOP.
Noonan:
Finally, it became obvious this week that the Republican party top to bottom has to start taking Barack Obama seriously. All the famous criticisms of him are true: He has no talent for or interest in sustained, good-faith negotiations, he has no real sense of alarm about the great issue of the day, America's debt. He’s a chill presence in a warm-blooded profession.
But he means business. He means to change America in fundamental ways and along the lines of justice as he sees it The proper response to such a man is not—was not—that he’s a Muslim, he’s a Kenyan, he's working out his feelings about colonialism. Those charges were meant to marginalize him, but they didn’t hurt him They damaged Republicans, who came to see him as easy to defeat.
He doesn’t care if you like him—he’d just as soon you did, but it’s not necessary for him. He is certain he is right in what he’s doing, which is changing the economic balance between rich and poor. The rich are going to be made less rich, and those who are needy or request help are going to get more in government services, which the rich will pay for. He’d just as soon the middle class don’t get lost in the shuffle, but if they wind up marginally less middle class he won’t be up nights. The point is redistribution.
The great long-term question is the effect the change in mood he seeks to institute will have on what used to be called the national character. Eight years is almost half a generation. Don’t you change people when you tell them they have an absolute right to government support regardless of their efforts? Don’t you encourage dependence, and a bitter sense of entitlement? What about the wearing down of taxpayers? Some, especially those who are younger, do not fully understand that what is supporting them is actually coming from other people; to them it seems to come from “the government,” the big marble machine far away that prints money.
There is no sign, absolutely none, that any of this is on Mr. Obama's mind. His emphasis is always on what one abstract group owes another in the service of a larger concept. "You didn't build that" are the defining words of his presidency.
He is not going to negotiate, compromise, cajole. Absent those efforts his only path to primacy in Congress is to kill the Republican Party, to pulverize it, as John Dickerson noted this week in Slate, to “attempt to annihilate the Republican Party,” as Speaker John Boehner said in a remarkably candid speech to the Ripon Society.
Mr. Obama is not, as has been said, the left’s Ronald Reagan. Reagan won over, Mr. Obama just wins. What Mr. Obama really is is Franklin D. Roosevelt without the landslides. He has the same seriousness of intent but nothing like the base of support.
Men at Arms, Stop Whining Like Girls. By Ralph Peters.
Sergeant rock-ette: Women are already in combat. By Ralph Peters. New York Post, January 24, 2013.
Jindal’s Populist Manifesto Has a Problem. By Jonathan S. Tobin.
Jindal’s Populist Manifesto Has a Problem. By Jonathan S. Tobin. Commentary, January 25, 2013.
The Health of America Is Not About Government. Speech to the Republican National Committee. By Bobby Jindal. Real Clear Politics, January 25, 2013. Also find it here. Find video here.
The Health of America Is Not About Government. Speech to the Republican National Committee. By Bobby Jindal. Real Clear Politics, January 25, 2013. Also find it here. Find video here.
Yes, Mr. President, We Are a Nation of Takers. By Nicholas Eberstadt.
Yes, Mr. President, We Are a Nation of Takers. By Nicholas Eberstadt. Wall Street Journal, January 24, 2013.
Syrian children attend school in Aleppo despite continued bombardment, bloodshed.
Syrian children attend school in Aleppo despite continued bombardment, bloodshed. Photo Blog. NBCNews.com, January 2, 2013.
 |
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A girl looks up to the sky after hearing
the sound of shelling as she sits on a toy pony in the playground of Al-Tawheed
school in Aleppo, Syria on Jan. 1. Muzaffar Salman/Reuters.
|
Tumor and Teeth in Late Roman Spain.
Tumor and Teeth in Late Roman Spain. By Noah Wiener. Bible History Daily, January 23, 2013.
Toothy Tumor Found in 1,600-Year-Old Roman Corpse. By Owen Jarus. LiveScience, January 21, 2013.
An ovarian tetratoma of late Roman age. By Núria Armentano, Mercè Subirana, Albert Isidro, Oscar Escala, Assumpció Malgosa. International Journal of Paleopathology, December 2012.
Wiener:
Archaeologists excavating a Spanish necropolis discovered a calcified tumor with a bone and four teeth in the pelvis of a late Roman woman. This is the first time that archaeologists have come across the bizarre cancer in the ancient world. Known as ovarian teratoma, the tumor can form human eggs from germ cells to create hair, teeth and bone. This 1600-year-old tumor appears to have been benign, and may not have caused the death of the 30-something year-old woman, who was part of a lower economic class during a period when a fragmented Spain was divided between the Vandals, Suevi and Alans as the Roman Empire collapsed.
Toothy Tumor Found in 1,600-Year-Old Roman Corpse. By Owen Jarus. LiveScience, January 21, 2013.
An ovarian tetratoma of late Roman age. By Núria Armentano, Mercè Subirana, Albert Isidro, Oscar Escala, Assumpció Malgosa. International Journal of Paleopathology, December 2012.
Wiener:
Archaeologists excavating a Spanish necropolis discovered a calcified tumor with a bone and four teeth in the pelvis of a late Roman woman. This is the first time that archaeologists have come across the bizarre cancer in the ancient world. Known as ovarian teratoma, the tumor can form human eggs from germ cells to create hair, teeth and bone. This 1600-year-old tumor appears to have been benign, and may not have caused the death of the 30-something year-old woman, who was part of a lower economic class during a period when a fragmented Spain was divided between the Vandals, Suevi and Alans as the Roman Empire collapsed.
Senator Rand Paul on US, F-16 Fighters, Egypt and Israel.
Senator Rand Paul on US, F-16 Fighters, Egypt and Israel. Video. On the Record with Greta Van Susteren. Fox News, January 24, 2013. Also find it here and here.
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