Out Sick

I’m experiencing ague.  The flu bug has me wiped out.    Hopefully, Ronin can jump in and post something.  If not, leave any interesting links you come across in the comments section of this post.

Cheers and God Bless,

Dr. Bulldog

Andrew Breitbart Has Passed Away

I’m just shocked. 

I don’t know what to say.  Andrew was one of the best.

I’ll keep Andrew’s family and friends in my prayers:

In Memoriam: Andrew Breitbart (1969-2012)
by Larry Solov- BigGovernment.com

With a terrible feeling of pain and loss we announce the passing of Andrew Breitbart.

Andrew passed away unexpectedly from natural causes shortly after midnight this morning in Los Angeles.

We have lost a husband, a father, a son, a brother, a dear friend, a patriot and a happy warrior.

Andrew lived boldly, so that we more timid souls would dare to live freely and fully, and fight for the fragile liberty he showed us how to love.

Andrew recently wrote a new conclusion to his book, Righteous Indignation:

I love my job. I love fighting for what I believe in. I love having fun while doing it. I love reporting stories that the Complex refuses to report. I love fighting back, I love finding allies, and—famously—I enjoy making enemies.

Three years ago, I was mostly a behind-the-scenes guy who linked to stuff on a very popular website. I always wondered what it would be like to enter the public realm to fight for what I believe in. I’ve lost friends, perhaps dozens. But I’ve gained hundreds, thousands—who knows?—of allies. At the end of the day, I can look at myself in the mirror, and I sleep very well at night.

Andrew is at rest, yet the happy warrior lives on, in each of us.

Update:  Here’s a little more info:

[…]

Breitbart was walking near his home in Brentwood, Calif just after midnight Thursday when he collapsed according to his father-in-law Orson Bean. Someone saw Breitbart fall and called 911. Emergency crews tried to revive him and rushed him to the emergency room at UCLA Medical Center, Bean said.

[…]

Source: Andrew Breitbart Dead at 43 | NBC San Diego

Australian Ethicists Argue in Favor of Infanticide in the “Journal of Medical Ethics”

When one plays God, incongruously divining right from wrong, the konzentrationslagern surely loom on the horizon:

Ethicists Argue in Favor of ‘After-Birth Abortions‘ as Newborns ’Are Not Persons’

Liz Klimas – The Blaze

Two ethicists working with Australian universities argue in the latest online edition of the Journal of Medical Ethics that if abortion of a fetus is allowable, so to should be the termination of a newborn.

Alberto Giubilini with Monash University in Melbourne and Francesca Minerva at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics at the University of Melbourne write that in “circumstances occur[ing] after birth such that they would have justified abortion, what we call after-birth abortion should be permissible.”

The two are quick to note that they prefer the term “after-birth abortion“ as opposed to ”infanticide.” Why? Because it “[emphasizes] that the moral status of the individual killed is comparable with that of a fetus (on which ‘abortions’ in the traditional sense are performed) rather than to that of a child.” The authors also do not agree with the term euthanasia for this practice as the best interest of the person who would be killed is not necessarily the primary reason his or her life is being terminated. In other words, it may be in the parents’ best interest to terminate the life, not the newborns.

The circumstances, the authors state, where after-birth abortion should be considered acceptable include instances where the newborn would be putting the well-being of the family at risk, even if it had the potential for an “acceptable” life. The authors cite Downs Syndrome as an example, stating that while the quality of life of individuals with Downs is often reported as happy, “such children might be an unbearable burden on the family and on society as a whole, when the state economically provides for their care.”

This means a newborn whose family (or society) that could be socially, economically or psychologically burdened or damaged by the newborn should have the ability to seek out an after-birth abortion. They state that after-birth abortions are not preferable over early-term abortions of fetuses but should circumstances change with the family or the fetus in the womb, then they advocate that this option should be made available.

The authors go on to state that the moral status of a newborn is equivalent to a fetus in that it cannot be considered a person in the “morally relevant sense.” On this point, the authors write:

Both a fetus and a newborn certainly are human beings and potential persons, but neither is a ‘person’ in the sense of ‘subject of a moral right to life’. We take ‘person’ to mean an individual who is capable of attributing to her own existence some (at least) basic value such that being deprived of this existence represents a loss to her.

[…]

Merely being human is not in itself a reason for ascribing someone a right to life. Indeed, many humans are not considered subjects of a right to life: spare embryos where research on embryo stem cells is permitted, fetuses where abortion is permitted, criminals where capital punishment is legal.

North Carolina Preschooler Has Packed Lunch Confiscated; Forced to Eat School Cafeteria Food

Thank you Moochelle Obama! 

Yet another reason to homeschool your children:

Lunch Police

Nanny state report: NC school officials confiscate preschooler’s homemade lunch
By Matthew Boyle – The Daily Caller

A North Carolina elementary school forced a preschool student to eat cafeteria chicken nuggets for lunch on Jan. 30 after officials reportedly determined that her homemade meal wasn’t up to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s standards for healthfulness, according to a report from the Carolina Journal.

The newspaper reported that the four-year-old girl brought a turkey and cheese sandwich, a banana, potato chips and apple juice in her packed lunch from home. That meal didn’t meet with approval from the government agent who was on site inspecting kids’ lunches that day.

The Department of Health and Human Services’ Division of Child Development and Early Education requires that all lunches served in pre-kindergarten programs must meet USDA guidelines. Meals, the guidelines say, must include one serving each of meat, milk and grain and two servings of fruit or vegetables. Those guidelines apply to home-packed lunches as well as cafeteria meals.

The Carolina Journal reported that the girl and her mother wish to remain anonymous to avoid public scrutiny, but she did write to her state representative to complain about it.

“I don’t feel that I should pay for a cafeteria lunch when I provide lunch for her from home,” the mother wrote in a complaint to her state representative, Republican G.L. Pridgen of Robeson County.

“What got me so mad is, number one, don’t tell my kid I’m not packing her lunch box properly,” the girl’s mother told a reporter. “I pack her lunchbox according to what she eats. It always consists of a fruit. It never consists of a vegetable. She eats vegetables at home because I have to watch her because she doesn’t really care for vegetables.”

The story has sparked national outrage against bureaucrats and politicians who aim to force food standards and health initiatives into place through legislation and regulatory action. North Carolina Republican Party spokesman Rob Lockwood told The Daily Caller it’s the latest example of why government “intrusion” isn’t helping anyone.

“More parental inclusion, less government intrusion would go a long way to solving our nation’s woes,” Lockwood said in an email. “Today is not a strong day for big-government, nanny-state enthusiasts.”

Eric Holder Withholding Two Months of Justice Elena Pagan’s Emails From Judiciary Committee Investigating Her Role in Crafting Strategy to Defend Obamacare

If you have nothing to hide, then why all the stonewalling, Mr. withHolder?

GOP questions ‘two-month gap’ in Kagan’s health care involvement
By Stephen Dinan – The Washington Times

The top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee said Thursday that the Obama administration is fueling speculation about Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan’s impartiality because it won’t turn over documents detailing her role in crafting the legal strategy to defend the health care law while she was serving in the administration.

Rep. Lamar Smith, the committee chairman, told Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. that emails show Justice Kagan took an interest in the case in January 2010, when she was solicitor general, and he demanded to know what role she played between then and March 2010, when Mr. Obama tapped her to sit on the high court.

“The issue is, how involved was she in health care discussions between Jan. 8 and March 5? Just as President Nixon had an 18½-minute gap, does Ms. Kagan have a two-month gap?” Mr. Smith, Texas Republican, said.

Conservative groups have called for Justice Kagan to recuse herself from ruling on the case challenging the constitutionality of Mr. Obama’s health care law, which the Supreme Court last month said it will consider next year.

Mr. Smith has requested a fuller explanation of Justice Kagan’s role. He said the Justice Department had denied his request but never cited any legal privilege to withhold information.

Military to Rescind Policy Banning Families from Bringing Bibles and Other Religious Materials to Wounded Loved Ones

What I want to know is, why they were banned in the first place?  Who’s responsible for this policy?  And, how the heck did this even happen?

Does anyone else get that nagging feeling that a Muzzy is somehow behind this?

U.S. Military to Rescind Policy Banning Bibles at Hospital
By Todd Starnes – RadioFOXNews

Walter Reed National Military Medical Center said they are rescinding a policy that prohibits family members of wounded military troops from bringing Bibles or any religious reading materials to their loved ones.

The decision to rescind the ban on Bibles came exactly one day after a Republican lawmaker denounced the policy on the House floor and called on President Obama to publicly renounce the military policy.

“The President of the United States should address this and should excoriate the people who brought about this policy and the individual who brought it about should be dismissed from the United States Military,” Rep. Steve King (R-IA) told Fox News & Commentary.

King spoke from the House floor Thursday blasting a policy memorandum from the commander of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center written by Chief of Staff C.W. Callahan. The September 14th memo covers guidelines for “wounded, ill, and injured partners in care.”

“No religious items (i.e. Bibles, reading material, and/or artifacts) are allowed to be given away or used during a visit,” the policy states.

“That means you can’t bring in a Bible and read from it when you visit your son or your daughter, perhaps – or your wife or husband,” King said. “It means a priest that might be coming in to visit someone on their death bed couldn’t bring in the Eucharist, couldn’t offer Last Rites. This is the most outrageous affront.”

A spokesperson for the medical center told Fox News late Friday that the policy will be rewritten and its intent will be made “crystal clear.”

“The instructions about the Bibles and reading material have been rescinded,” said Sandy Dean, a public affairs officer for Walter Reed. “It will be written to articulate our initial intention which was to respect religious and cultural practices of our patients.”

Obamacare Forcing Michigan-Based Medical Technology Company to Lay Off 5% of Workforce

File under “Jobs Deleted and/or Graved”:

Mich. company plans Obamacare layoffs
by Joel Gehrke Commentary Staff Writer – Washington Examiner

Stryker Corporation, a Michigan-based medical device company with operations around the world, is laying off five percent of its employees in order to offset the cost of a tax passed as part of Obamacare in 2009 and scheduled to take effect in 2013.

“The targeted [employee] reductions and other restructuring activities are being initiated to provide efficiencies and realign resources in advance of the new Medical Device Excise Tax scheduled to begin in 2013,” Stryker announced in a November 10 press release, “as well as to allow for continued investment in strategic areas and drive growth despite the ongoing challenging economic environment and market slowdown in elective procedures.”

Industry executives believe that the 2.3 percent tax will cost $20 billion in revenue over ten years. “If this tax is implemented in 2013, it will undermine our industry’s ability to create and maintain good jobs in the U.S., and worse, will lead to higher costs for patients, undercutting one of the primary goals of health care reform,” the head of a major medical device industry trade group warned in July.

Stryker CEO Stephen MacMillan hinted at such a response to the Obamacare provision in September. “There is no doubt that we’re already starting to think about actions that offset that additional tax,” he said at a conference, according to MassDevice.com. “”Here we are, one of the greatest industries in the country, and we’re staring down on January 1st, 2013 and the addition of a 2.3 percent excise tax, while meanwhile on the other side all the discussion in Washington is about creating jobs,” he added.

Obesity on the Rise in India

Apparently, we have outsourced obesity, too:

Almost 70% of urban youth in India obese: Study
India Today

People in the age group of 24 to 39 years, who have been living in big metros or booming small towns, are at the risk of being obese, a recent study has suggested.

The study puts an alarming 70 per cent of India’s urban population in the obese or overweight category. And, at risk is the generation that Facebooks rather than go over to meet friends, bonds over gaming sessions on Playstations or X-boxes rather than play cricket or badminton, the study warns.

Yeah, since they apparently don’t have a Wii amongst them—well, that’s the conclusion I’ve garnered from the article–they could all sit around and bloat up, err, bond over a game of Kreedaa Kaushalya instead of playing on outdated, crappy game consoles invented by Americans!

The national capital faces the ignominy of being the obesity capital of the country, while Chandigarh shares the top spot with Delhi.

While declining sex ratio has been a concern in the country for years, there is now a new worrying trend emerging in the cities. The number of obese women in urban areas has been on the rise. Every second member of the fairer sex falls into this category.

And, for long, India’s young population has been touted as India’s USP in the globalised economy. However, it also seems to be hit by the severe problem of obesity. For, it is the 24-39 age group that is the worst affected.

Why urban India? Experts suggest obesity has to do with the lifestyle of the majority of the population in urban India. The urban populace has easy access to high-calorie packaged foods such as burgers, chips and colas.

Darn those Americans!  Forcing those poor kids to eat and drink their capitalist junk food!

Moreover, people in cities follow a sedentary lifestyle. Little or no physical activity and a predilection for gizmos such as video games, computers are to blame.

The study which suggested that 70 per cent urban Indians are fat or overweight was conducted on 46,000 people who had internet access. Increase in the sale of cigarettes and alcohol consumption does not help either.

Darn those evil native Americans and their tobacco!  They’ve got some nerve, forcing these poor, innocent folks to smoke cigarettes!

Risks with obesity Piling on the calories without a check could have serious consequences for one’s health, especially if the person is classified overweight or obese.

There are more than 30 medical conditions associated with obesity and individuals who are obese can develop multiple ones.

The most prevalent obesity related diseases are diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease or cardiovascular problems.

It also heightens risk of a stroke, affects gall bladder and can aid the onset of osteo-arthiritis and leads to respiratory problems or sleeping disorders and even some kinds of cancers.

Children at risk What probably should set the alarm bells ringing is a November 2010 study by the National Diabetes, Obesity and Cholesterol Foundation of India.

It found that one in three children in private schools in Delhi were obese. The reasons though were quite similar to adult obesity, packaged foods and an acute lack of physical activity.

Virginia Appeals Court Strikes Down Challenge to Obama’s Health Care Deform Law

Since 2 out of 3 of the judges on the court were personally hand-picked by Obama, was there ever any doubt as to the outcome?  

What I found most interesting is that the court didn’t strike down the challenge based on the merits of the case.  They struck it down based on the “lack of legal standing” by the state of Virginia to pursue the challenge!  This is the same lame-@ss trump-card the courts have been playing for the past few years whenever the question of Obama’s eligibility hits their docket:

Appeals court shoots down Virginia’s healthcare challenge
By Sam Baker – The Hill

A federal appeals court on Thursday dismissed one of the highest-profile challenges to President Obama’s healthcare reform law.

The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals said Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R) does not have a legal right to sue over the law’s requirement that most people buy insurance. The court vacated a lower court’s ruling in the case and instructed the lower court to dismiss the suit.

The Supreme Court is almost certain to have the final say on whether the coverage mandate is constitutional. Most legal observers expect the court to hear arguments during the term that begins in October, and rule in the summer of 2012.

The 4th Circuit’s long-awaited decision isn’t a huge surprise: those who attended oral arguments in the suits said the judges seemed skeptical of the mandate’s critics, especially Cuccinelli. All three of the judges who heard the case were appointed by Democratic presidents, and two were appointed by Obama.

The mandate has a mixed record in federal appeals courts. The 6th Circuit upheld the requirement in a June decision, while the 11th Circuit — which heard the high-profile challenge filed by 26 state attorneys general — ruled that the mandate is unconstitutional.

Unlike those 26 states, Cuccinelli sued on the grounds that enforcing the mandate would violate Virginia law. As Congress moved closer to passing healthcare reform, Virginia enacted a law that says state residents can’t be forced to purchase insurance.

But the 4th Circuit panel said Virginia does not have standing to sue over the mandate because it lacks a “personal stake” in the issue.

The judges seemed concerned during oral arguments that allowing his suit to proceed would essentially allow the states to exempt themselves from whatever federal laws they might choose.

Michelle Obama Orders Up 1,700 Calorie Lunch For Herself at Shake Shack in D.C.

Typical commie elitist:  Do as I say, not as I do:
Vodpod videos no longer available.
Burger, Fries & Shake! Michelle Obama Orders 1,700-Calorie ‘Shake Shack’ Lunch

Eddie Scarry – TheBlaze

This is rich. And high in saturated fats.

Michelle Obama was spotted at the burger joint Shake Shack in Washington, DC, Monday afternoon. She ordered a burger, French fries, a chocolate milkshake and a Diet Coke (she’s watching her figure), according to the Washington Post.

Obama recently admitted French fries are a bit of an addiction for her, but her engorged appetite at Shake Shack still might come as a bit of shock given her primary concern since joining her husband in the White House has been battling child obesity.

And it was only last month she helped replace the iconic Food Pyramid with the new “Choose My Plate” graphic (which, unlike the Food Pyramid, has no place at all for “fats, oils and sweets”).

Based on the nutritional guide on Shake Shack’s website, that one meal amounted to 1,700 calories. That’s 85% of the standard 2,000-calories-per-day diet.

This is also Obama’s second public helping of fries within the last month. Yum!

Watch Michelle Obama promote her “Let’s Move” campaign, which targets ending child obesity:

And the timing may not be so good — check out the cover of next month’s Better Homes & Garden: