In the 2002 movie, “Minority Report,” police are empowered to arrest people for crimes they will commit in the future. That was a movie. In real life–or what passes for such in Washington, D.C.–predicting future “crime” has become part of the equation by which the Congressional Budget Office is calculating “savings” in the latest healthcare bill concocted by the House of Representatives.

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Recently, at my local Starbucks I asked the young barista behind the counter about a chronic medical problem she had that will soon require surgery. Her answer left me gobsmacked, ‘Management said I can’t talk about my health – it’s a HIPAA violation.”

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After ignoring the Israeli public for a year, Barack Hussein Obama chose to address it on the 14th anniversary of his assassination. Why? Because it serves the administration’s goals both domestically and abroad.

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It wasn’t Colonel Mustard in the library with the candelabra. And contrary to recent press reports, it wasn’t Prince Alwaleed in the desert with a cartel. It was, in fact, Dr. Bernanke in the temple with the printing press. And since Dr. Bernanke is, in effect, the dollar incarnate — the walking embodiment of the soundness of our currency — if the dollar does die, it will not have been murder. It will have been suicide.

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It was because of a woman named Bertha Kinsky. She was a pacifist and a free-thinker (which means anti-religious). He fell in love with her, and they married, but she left him. He was wealthy, but not intellectually respected. He inherited his father’s industrial business, which was, horror of horrors, an arms manufacturer. He was not a college graduate, but he learned chemistry anyway and developed dynamite, and became one of the wealthiest men in the world. He went on to write poems and anti-Christian plays, but they never respected him. She never really respected him. Alfred Nobel had money, but not status. 

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The easy-money advocates had a tough summer. In August alone, the price level increased almost half a percent, raising the average annual rate of inflation for the past three months to almost 5 percent. Wholesale prices, especially of raw materials, have also been moving upwards, as has the “prices paid” index of the Institute for Supply Management’s survey of the manufacturing sector (the service sector has had more mixed recent results). Across the board, the stats show a broad consensus that we have switched from a deflationary trend to an inflationary one. 

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Well, it seems as though the 74-year-old cartoonist is still, four years later, having to deal with death threats from “peaceful” Muslim radicals.

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In an upstate New York special congressional election next week, conservatives are rushing to the aid of a third-party candidate who could guarantee the seat switches to the Democrats. And they don’t seem to care.

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The championship round of the national pastime should be a moment of unity. Save for supporters of the teams playing in the Fall Classic, the country should come together and celebrate a sport as American as apple pie.

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Bob Trask is a uniquely American spiritual philosopher and self-help teacher who hails from the Pacific Northwest. For over three decades, he has been spiritual guide, author, and counselor to thousands. In his recently published book, “Romancing the Soul” Trask expands his vision of the “Trask Triangle,” a paradigm he developed in his first book, “Living Free.”

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Vice President Joe Biden’s trip last week to Poland and the Czech Republic may have helped soothe rattled allies after Team Obama pitched overboard the W-era, anti-Iran missile shield that was to be deployed in both countries. But the new missile-defense plan he pitched has problems.

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Isn’t it something the way the same names that helped dismantle Yugoslavia and Serbia seem to be resurfacing to dismantle Israel? All the names that fingered Serbia as it dealt with terror are giving Israel the same trouble. They and their credibility and careers could have been demolished, these people stopped in their tracks, if anyone gave a damn about Western machinations in the Balkans. Instead they’re coming back to haunt more than just the Serbs.

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Sometimes the trivial is annoying enough where it warrants comment. Within the context of the disclaimer, a few observations about ex-ESPN baseball analyst Steve Phillips and his purported “sex addiction.”

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Earlier today, President Obama spoke to a group of military servicemen and women in Jacksonville, Florida. With the impending decision on troop strength in Afghanistan at the forefront of everyone’s mind, the Bama warned that he was still deciding when to decide. And then he transparently disguised his political stall as noble deliberation: “I will never rush the solemn decision of sending you into harm’s way,” he said.

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     Directed by Sebastian Silva, The Maid won the World Cinema Jury Award at the Sundance Film Festival.  Beautifully acted by an ensemble cast that makes an upper class professional family totally believable, its problem lies in the director’s attempt to create expectations similar to genre movies we know and then subvert them.  The film opens with the family preparing a surprise birthday celebration for the maid who has worked for them and raised the children for over twenty years.  Raquel is a dour woman, uneasy with displays of affection and mired in the compulsive execution of  her daily routine.  Both shrewd and capable, she is also hamstrung by her growing rigidity, exacerbated by unexplained headaches and dizzy spells that cause two accidents, one serious enough to land her in the hospital.  As other maids are brought in to assist her, we see her grow increasingly paranoid in her need to protect her territory against usurpers.  She locks the successive maids out of the house, imperiously demeans them and eventually pushes the envelope by discarding a new kitten acquired by the oldest daughter, a college student who sees clearly what her mother will not face.

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Everything Americans need to know about the economic implications of the Obama administration’s determination to mandate a 90% cut in Wall Street salaries and bonuses is contained in the above proverb. Let me paraphrase:

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Now comes word from Tehran that the Iranians are rejecting the much-touted plan of two weeks ago to ship their low-enriched uranium out of the country, primarily to Russia, to be highly enriched and then sent back to Iran to be used only for “peaceful purposes.” When this tentative deal was announced, there was much ballyhooing: President Obama has done it! He’s flipped an enemy into a deal-making partner!

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     Americans have now been made unequivocally aware that the Tribeca Film Festival doesn’t have a problem with its newest outpost in Qatar refusing to allow Israeli passport holders into their country; nor does it seem to care that Israeli films are banned along with all Israeli products.  Co-directors Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal have joined with a former intern, Sheikha Mayassa, daughter of the ruling family of Qatar to inaugurate the Doha Tribeca Film Festival which will open this week.  Several months ago, the Sony Ericsson WTA (tennis) chose to play in Dubai where Shahar Pe’er, an Israeli athlete, was forbidden entry.  The tournament went on despite this act of blatant discrimination.  It wasn’t until Andy Roddick had the integrity to resign that Dubai was fined, Ms. Pe’er was compensated both financially and in her ranking and the WTA insisted that Dubai must admit Israelis in order to retain a spot on future WTA calendars.

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The Democratic candidate for Virginia attorney general, Stephen C. Shannon, has suggested that Republican opponent Kenneth T. Cuccinelli is a bigot because he supports states’ rights. The Washington Post reports:

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Re-reading a 2007 Der Spiegel article recently, I came across some information about the brother of indicted war criminal and U.S. buddy Ramush Haradinaj. Daut Haradinaj was speaking at an event honoring a dead Albanian poet-nationalist after serving a prison sentence for manslaughter.

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It was probably wrong to idealize baseball in its golden era, but that’s what kids do, and baseball was always for the kids. It’s a great game, sufficiently slow to let us savor each play, sufficiently fast to have the heart pound with excitement.

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Am I misinterpreting a sentence about Gore Vidal? I mean, is there any other way to read it?

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The Democrats are caught between the need to set up structures that will prevent future meltdowns and the pressures they face from well-heeled Wall Street-based interest groups. They are under cross-pressure to act in the public interest and to survive in the political system: those who displease groups with deep pockets face tough re-election campaigns, as their opponents will get the large amounts of funds needed these days to run for office.  Hence, despite all the talk about new regulations, surprisingly little is happening.

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What a difference a Vice President makes. We’ve gone from a brilliant and strong VP to a hapless, weak, buffoon of one.

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At fundraiser the other night, the president said: “You know, the other side, they just kind of - sometimes - do what they’re told. Democrats, you all are thinking for yourselves.”

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Let’s start with two recent news items that reinforce the official story of Bosnia, which happens to coincide with the Muslim version of the story:

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     A Democratic state senator in South Carolina was so offended by an op-ed in the local Times written by two Republican county chairmen that he has called for their dismissal along with a denunciation by the state party chair.  What were the “disgusting, unconscionable” words that were “prejudice in its purest form?”  They follow:  “There is a saying that the Jews who are wealthy got that way not by watching dollars, but instead by taking care of the pennies and the dollars taking care of themselves.”  This was used to extrapolate, by example, how Senator Jim DeMint’s (fitting name) opposition to using earmarks for funding would save the state money and benefit everyone.  Of course linking Jews to money has hit a sore spot ever since the original money-changers were bounced out of the temple, giving us all a bad rep for a few millenia.  But of all the stereotypes regarding Jews, I’d pick prudence and frugality as the complimentary and benign.

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The attempt to buy the NFL’s St. Louis Rams by a group reportedly including two of the most unlikely bedfellows ever imagined–Rush Limbaugh and George Soros–illustrates yet another incident of gross malfeasance by the mainstream media.

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Answer: now the Germans have been dissed by President Obama too.

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It is all so familiar

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First, the Taliban and their jihadi allies have clearly shown that they have cells capable of conducting terror attacks way beyond their enclaves. Hence one needs to expect protracted violence in urban zones. The armed Islamists aren’t a new force appearing only this year, but a network growing for decades. Now is their time to try to take out the secular government.

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Howard Unruh has died.  Now, most readers have never heard that name, or may confuse it with the prominent Unruh family of past California politics.

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And how are you enjoying your column today? I trust it is holding your interest, and passing the time pleasantly. . . .

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Do not hold your breath for a McChrystal Congressional testimony for according to Rahm Emanuel, president Obama does not want him to do so. Clearly, they do not trust him. Dickerson thought he got Rahm to commit to an delayed testimony but Rahm realized his error and sought to fix it. If the transcript will not convince you, I suggest you watch the tape (about 4:17 minutes into the discussion), especially Rahm’s body language:

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Arik Sharon, the man whose early gambles secured an all important Israeli victory in the 1973 war is lucky not to see the consequences of his 2005 gamble to leave Gaza. His sidekick and successor, Ehud Olmert, is not as lucky. He came to America to deliver a speech and found himself face to face with the trouble he wrought, Electronic Intifada members berating him for taking military steps to bring to an end years of Hamas shelling of Southern Israel from Gaza. It was not an onetime humiliation but one posted on youtube for anyone to view and review to their hearts content.

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