Forest fires as an act of jihad?

Posted by: Phineas on June 19, 2013 at 3:11 pm » 0 Comments

**Posted by Phineas Summertime is forest fire season in much of the western United States; here in California, it’s almost an annual ritual to watch some part or another (or several at once) of the state go up in smoke.  And the causes can be as mundane as they are frustrating: firebugs getting their thrills; [...]

 

State Senator Elbert Guillory: Why I chose to become a Republican

Posted by: Phineas on June 18, 2013 at 5:01 pm » 6 Comments

**Posted by Phineas Oh, this is a good video that’s going to tick off a lot of Democrats: (Transcript at Real Clear Politics) First, welcome to the party, Senator. I love what you have to say. Second, I hope your political body armor is strong, because the last thing your former colleagues in the Democratic [...]

 

You’re not being hacked, @SharylAttkisson. You’re being haunted.

Posted by: Phineas on June 18, 2013 at 2:45 pm » 1 Comment

**Posted by Phineas How else would you explain computers mysteriously turning on and off? It’s gotta be ghosts: CBS News announced on Friday that the computer of investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson’s computer had registered multiple breaches, a disclosure that prompted a great deal of speculation about just who was responsible for the misbehavior. In a short segment [...]

 

#Obamacare: Party of the working man to shaft hourly workers

Posted by: Phineas on June 17, 2013 at 4:49 pm » 3 Comments

**Posted by Phineas This is what happens when Washington tries to dictate “one size fits all” regulations for a very complex national market, such as health care. As Jillian Kay Melchior explains in National Review, the authors of Obamacare faced a conundrum: they wanted firms with 50 or more employees working 30 or more hours [...]

 

New York: the Enviro-Luddites’ Fracking Insanity

Posted by: Phineas on June 16, 2013 at 12:01 pm » 6 Comments

**Posted by Phineas One of the things about the environmental Left that drives me most nuts is its resistance to reason and empirical fact. Global warming is a good example: what started as a theory many years ago, that the Earth is warming dangerously and the climate heading for disastrous changes because of the carbon [...]

 

You’re not paranoid if they really are out to get you, @SharylAttkisson

Posted by: Phineas on June 14, 2013 at 3:13 pm » 2 Comments

**Posted by Phineas A few weeks ago, I mentioned CBS reporter Sharyl Attkisson’s strong suspicions that her home and work computers had been accessed by unknown persons. Coming in the wake of revelations about the government’s seizure of phone records for journalists and editors at the Associated Press and a secret warrant for phone records and email belonging to Fox reporter [...]

 

Yet another scandal: A US ambassador soliciting underage prostitutes?

Posted by: Phineas on June 12, 2013 at 1:14 pm » 3 Comments

**Posted by Phineas It started with the dial already set to “Bad:” accusations of sexual assault, illegal drug rings, and members of former Secretary of State Clinton’s security detail hiring call girls. On top of that were charges in an Inspector General’s report that high-ranking officials at State had interfered with investigations by the Diplomatic Security [...]

 

Does al Qaeda now have surface to air missiles?

Posted by: Phineas on June 11, 2013 at 6:29 pm » 5 Comments

**Posted by Phineas Oh, this is not good. Not good at all: The photocopies of the manual lay in heaps on the floor, in stacks that scaled one wall, like Xeroxed, stapled handouts for a class. Except that the students in this case were al Qaeda fighters in Mali. And the manual was a detailed guide, [...]

 

Not enough scandals for you? Here, have four more!

Posted by: Phineas on June 11, 2013 at 2:13 pm » 6 Comments

**Posted by Phineas Via Gabriel Malor at Ace’s, who laments that the misbehavior at the EPA has largely flown under the radar, overshadowed so far by the IRS, NSA, Rosen, and so many other stories. He collects them all in a handy post, but here’s a summary: Remember former Administrator Lisa Jackson’s hidden email account using [...]

 

Paging John LeCarre! #NSA leaker a Chinese agent?

Posted by: Phineas on June 10, 2013 at 3:51 pm » 8 Comments

**Posted by Phineas This is getting weirder and weirder, but, at the same time, tantalizingly plausible: Former CIA case officer Bob Baer revealed on CNN Sunday evening that intelligence officials were possibly considering Edward Snowden’s case as Chinese espionage, after Snowden came forward this afternoon from an undisclosed Hong Kong location. “Hong Kong is controlled by [...]