Daily Commentary – Monday, July 21, 2014 – The Crash of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 is a Reminder

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Daily Commentary – Monday, July 21, 2014 Download

Rolling Stones … The 5 Most Dangerous Guns in America … Reads Like a 4th Grade Essay

Hey Rolling Stone … please stick to reporting on music, because this article is nothing short of embarrassing.

Rolling Stone has a list of the top 5 most dangerous guns in America as per By Kristen Gwynne. In other words, basically any gun that actually shoots a bullet or buckshot is dangerous. HUH? Looking at the title one might think that Ms. Gwynne was going to provide us a list of the actual brand name and type of guns that are used in most crimes or murders, rather than providing us a 4th grade essay on “Most dangerous Guns in America for Dummies”. My apologies to 4th graders across the United States. How exactly can all guns be the most dangerous guns in America. As The Truth About Guns opines, “In other words, guns are the most dangerous guns in America. Small ones more than big ones, although really small ones not so much. Well that’s just dumb.” YES IT IS. I cannot even call this media bias. it’s media stupidity.

Rolling Stones list of the 5 most dangerous guns:

1. Pistols
2. Revolvers
3. Rifles
4. Shotguns
5. Derringers

You have got to read the article to get a true appreciation of just how far Rolling Stone has fallen and what passes for news in today media. With regards to a revolver: “Some grenade launchers, shotguns, and rifles also have rotating barrels, but the term ‘revolver’ is generally used to describe handguns. Revolver types include single and double-action firing mechanisms, the latter of which does not require a cocking action separate from the trigger pull”. Rifles on the other hand, “were created to improve the accuracy of smoothbore muskets, for which the musket ball was often an bad fit due to manufacturing complications. Accurate and easy-to-aim, rifles are now the most common hunting weapon.” GOOD GRIEF.

Some one might want to tell Rolling Stones that knives, hands, fists, feet, clubs and baseball bats are more dangerous and actually killed four of the five “guns” referenced above. And look here, for 2012, clubs, blunt objects, hands fists and feet all out-pace firearms.

Sarah Palin Uses the “I” Word for Obama & Fires Back at Attorney General Eric Holder at Western Conservative Summit … “I Don’t Need Lectures From Eric Holder”

PALIN SHREDS THE ALL …

At the Western Conservative Summit in Denver, Colorado former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin slammed President Barack Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder and the gutless GOP establishment Congress who do nothing about a lawless president. Palin stated, you hear politicians these days denouncing Barack Obama saying he is a lawless, imperial president who ignores court orders and changes laws by executive fiat. And refuses to enforce laws that he just doesn’t like.” Palin went on to say, “That is true, but the question is … hey politicians what ya going to do about it?” Then she went there with the “I ” word. Palin said, “we need a little less talk and a lot more action …  There is only one remedy for a president who commits high crimes and misdemeanors and it’s impeachment.”

Then Palin fired back at Eric Holder, “I don’t need lectures from Eric Holder, a guy, get this, so incompetent that he denied voter fraud existed even after someone claimed that they were Eric Holder and they got his ballot and they voted in D.C.”

“Oh dear, Eric. Not many cabinet members in U.S. history have been held in contempt of Congress, but he still wants to weigh in,” Palin said.

Palin pushed back on Holder’s claim that race might still be a major factor in America, calling it a “disgusting, false charge.”

“Try to get it,” Palin said. “Illegal immigration hurts all Americans – all races and backgrounds.”

Western Conservative Summit: 7-19-14

The Hill:

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin hit back at Attorney General Eric Holder on Saturday for criticizing her call to impeach President Obama over the border crisis.

“I don’t need lectures from Eric Holder, a guy – get this – so incompetent that he denied voter fraud existed even after someone claimed that they were Eric Holder and they got his ballot and they voted in D.C.,” Palin said at the Western Conservative Summit in Denver.

Palin was referring to an April 2012 video by a conservative activist that showed a man entering a Washington, D.C., polling center and requesting Holder’s ballot, offering up the official’s mailing address. The video did not actually show a ballot being cast in Holder’s name.

Earlier this month the former Republican vice presidential candidate called for the president’s impeachment for his handling of illegal immigration. “This unsecured border crisis is the last straw that makes the battered wife say ‘no mas,’” Palin wrote on the Breitbart website.

Holder said in an interview aired Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that Palin “wasn’t a particularly good vice presidential candidate” and “an even worse judge of who ought to be impeached and why.”

“Oh dear, Eric. Not many cabinet members in U.S. history have been held in contempt of Congress, but he still wants to weigh in,” Palin said.

Palin pushed back on Holder’s claim that race might still be a major factor in America, calling it a “disgusting, false charge.”

“Try to get it,” Palin said. “Illegal immigration hurts all Americans – all races and backgrounds.”

Florida Jury Awards $23.6 Billion to Widow of Michael Johnson in Smoking Lawsuit Against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company … What Happened to Personal Responsibility?

Sorry, I am no fan of the cigarette industry, but I am one of personal responsibility. I generally cannot stand the smell of cigarette smoke and don’t understand why anyone even uses them, but this jury verdict is absurd and needs to be overturned by appeal.

An Escambia County, Florida jury awarded the widow of of a 36 year old man who died of lung cancer $23.6 million. The verdict included more than $16 million in compensatory damages. Cynthia Robinson claimed that smoking killed her husband, Michael Johnson, in 1996 at the age of 36 after he had smoked from the age of 13. The widow stated that R.J. Reynolds was negligent in not informing him that nicotine is addictive and smoking can cause lung cancer. The lawyer for the plaintiff’s said that because of the juror’s age, he had to shoe how the tobacco industry presented its product before the public awareness campaigns on tobacco risks and dangers in the 1990′s. HUH? Robinson’s attorneys, Christopher Chestnut also went on to say, “The jury wanted to send a statement that tobacco cannot continue to lie to the American people and the American government about the addictiveness of and the deadly chemicals in their cigarettes.” HUH?

A Florida jury awarded a widow $23.6 billion in punitive damages in her lawsuit against tobacco giant R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, her lawyer said.

Cynthia Robinson claimed that smoking killed her husband, Michael Johnson, in 1996. She argued R.J. Reynolds was negligent in not informing him that nicotine is addictive and smoking can cause lung cancer. Johnson started smoking when he was 13 and died of lung cancer when he was 36.

The jury award Friday evening is “courageous,” said Robinson’s lawyer, Christopher Chestnut.

“If anyone saw the documents that this jury saw, I believe that person would have awarded a similar or greater verdict amount,” he said.

The Escambia County trial took four weeks and the jury deliberated for 15 hours, according to the Pensacola News Journal. The verdict included more than $16 million in compensatory damages, the newspaper said.

Chestnut said five of the six jurors who heard the case were 45 or younger, which meant he had to show them how the tobacco industry presented its product before the public awareness campaigns on tobacco risks and dangers in the 1990s, he said.

Okay, let’s do the math for the obviously challenged Florida jury. I guess this one might be as clueless as the Florida jury that deliberated in the Casey Anthony murder case. For 50 years we have been warned that smoking is hazardous to our health, where was Michael Johnson during that time?

FIRST … WHO DOES NOT KNOW THAT CIGARETTES ARE HARMFUL TO YOUR HEALTH AND CAUSE LUNG CANCER?

United States was the first nation to require a health warning on cigarette packages.

Now for the numbers.

1. Michael Johnson died in 1996 at the age of 36 from lung cancer.
2. This means the deceased would have been born in 1960.
3. Johnson would have begun smoking in 1973 as the story above states he began smoking at the age of 13.
4. WHAT PARENT ALLOWS THEIR CHILD TO SMOKE AT THE AGE OF 13?
5. All 50 states bad laws banning sales to minors by 1950. The most common age of restriction for cigarettes and tobacco products today applies to persons under the age of 18. In an effort to ensure stricter enforcement 11 states have lowered the age of restriction from 21 to 15 (Tobacco Merchants Association, 1971: 1-2).
6. The smoking age was 18 meaning for 5 years the decease was breaking the law and smoking as a minor. Who’s fault was that?
7. In 2006 Florida state Supreme Court tossed out a $145 billion class-action verdict. That ruling also said smokers and their families need only prove addiction and that smoking caused their illnesses or deaths.
8. In 2008 on behalf of her late husband, Michael Johnson Sr.
9. 2014 a Florida jury awards $23.6 billion in punitive damages in a lawsuit against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco.

Now for some more relevant numbers.

• On June 12, 1957, Surgeon General Leroy E. Burney declared it the official position of the U.S. Public Health Service that the evidence pointed to a causal relationship between smoking and lung cancer.
• The 1964 report on smoking and health had an impact on public attitudes and policy. A Gallup Survey conducted in 1958 found that only 44 percent of Americans believed smoking caused cancer, while 78 percent believed so by 1968. In the course of a decade, it had become common knowledge that smoking damaged health, and mounting evidence of health risks gave Terry’s 1964 report public resonance.
• The Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act of 1965 (Public Law 89–92) required that the warning “Caution: Cigarette Smoking May Be Hazardous to Your Health” be placed in small print on one of the side panels of each cigarette package. The act prohibited additional labeling requirements at the federal, state, or local levels.
• In June 1967 the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued its first report to Congress recommending that the warning label be changed to “Warning: Cigarette Smoking Is Dangerous to Health and May Cause Death from Cancer and Other Diseases.”
• In 1969 Congress passed the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act (Public Law 91–222), which prohibited cigarette advertising on television and radio and required that each cigarette package contain the label “Warning: The Surgeon General Has Determined That Cigarette Smoking Is Dangerous to Your Health.”
• In 1981 Congress enacted the Comprehensive Smoking Education Act of 1984 (Public Law 98–474), which required four specific health warnings on all cigarette packages and advertisements:SURGEON GENERAL’S WARNING: Smoking Causes Lung Cancer, Heart Disease, Emphysema, and May Complicate Pregnancy.
      SURGEON GENERAL’S WARNING: Quitting Smoking Now Greatly Reduces Serious Risks to Your Health.
      SURGEON GENERAL’S WARNING: Smoking by Pregnant Women May Result in Fetal Injury, Premature Birth, and Low Birth Weight.
      SURGEON GENERAL’S WARNING: Cigarette Smoke Contains Carbon Monoxide.

I am of the belief that if cigarette tobacco is so bad, then make them illegal to use. Otherwise, it is just a way of the local, state and federal government making tax money off of lung cancer. It is an individual’s choice to smoke. Sorry folks, unless you were born prior to 1965 or your terminal lung cancer occurred prior to then, you have no one to blame but yourself. For nearly 50 years there have been warning labels on cigarette packages.

EXACTLY HOW MANY WARNINGS DOES ONE NEED BEFORE THEY REALIZE THAT SOMETHING IS HAZARDOUS TO THEIR HEALTH?

Secretary of State John Kerry Caught on Hot Mic Comment About Israel … “It’s a Hell of a Pinpoint Operation”

Once again the Obama administration treats it’s allies with condemnation … Kerry was for saying it was an Israel hell of a pinpoint operation, before he was against it.

Secretary of State John Kerry was caught on a hot mic during this Sunday morning’s round robin of talk shows with some interesting and blunt remarks as a condemnation of Israeli tactics Kerry said on the open mic, . “It’s a hell of a pinpoint operation” not once but twice.”The Washington Post’s reports:

Kerry’s comments are clear. “It’s a hell of a pinpoint operation,” he says, then repeats it. “It’s a hell of a pinpoint operation.” It’s an apparent reference to Israel’s insistence that its incursion into the region would be limited. “It’s escalating significantly,” the person on the phone replies, and Kerry then says: “We’ve got to get over there. I think we ought to go tonight.” He then calls it “crazy” to be “sitting around.”

Sec. of State Kerry was asked by Chris Wallace on ‘Fox News Sunday’ what he meant by his comments. As reported at Powerline, In an unusual moment during Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace presented Secretary of State John Kerry with video recorded before he came on air and asked Kerry whether he thought that Israel went too far? Let the double talk begin.

“When you said it’s a hell of a pinpoint operation,” Wallace asked, are you “upset that the Israelis are going too far?”

“It’s very difficult in these situations,” Kerry said, repeating that the United States supports Israel’s right to defend itself. He then explained his comments by saying, “I reacted, obviously, in a way that anybody does in respect to young children and civilians.”