Detroit News

Detroit— If more citizens were armed, criminals would think twice about attacking them, Detroit Police Chief James Craig said Thursday.
Urban police chiefs are typically in favor of gun control or reluctant to discuss the issue, but Craig on Thursday was candid about how he’s changed his mind.
“When we look at the good community members who have concealed weapons permits, the likelihood they’ll shoot is based on a lack of confidence in this Police Department,” Craig said at a press conference at police headquarters, adding that he thinks more Detroit citizens feel safer, thanks in part to a 7 percent drop in violent crime in 2013.
Craig said he started believing that legal gun owners can deter crime when he became police chief in Portland, Maine, in 2009.
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D’oh… this is funny.   Apparently Mr. Rachel Maddow anticipated someone within the Washington Post giving him ten million dollars (or more) to fund another left-wing news blog.   Oh the stupid – it hurts.
(Via New York Times)  Ezra Klein, an analyst, columnist and television commentator who runs The Washington Post’s Wonkblog, is making plans to leave the newspaper after failing to win support for a new website he wanted to create within the company, according to four people with knowledge of the negotiations.
Mr. Klein, who quickly ascended into the ranks of the Washington media establishment with a multiplatform blend of policy nuance and number-crunching on Wonkblog, approached Katherine Weymouth, the Post’s publisher, in recent weeks, the people said.
After consultation with the newspaper’s editor, Marty Baron, according to one of the people, he put forward a proposal with detailed revenue projections to build a new website dedicated to explanatory journalism on a wide range of topics beyond political policy.
It would have been affiliated with The Post, the person said, but would have been a separate enterprise. The investment he sought, the person said, was in eight figures.  (continue reading)

From Streams in the Desert, January 1
…Deuteronomy 11:12 describes the land that the children of Israel would be entering,

“…the eyes of the Lord are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year.”
…there lies before us the new year and we go forth to possess it. Who can tell what we shall find? What new experiences, what changes shall come, what new needs shall arise? But here is the cheering, comforting gladdening message from our Heavenly Father, “The Lord thy God careth for it.” and “His eyes are upon it away to the ending of the year.”
All our supply is to come from the Lord. Here are springs that shall never run dry; here are fountains and streams that shall never be cut off. Here…is the gracious pledge of the Heaven Father. If He be the Source of our mercies they can never fail us.
…We cannot tell what loss and sorrow and trial are doing. Trust only. The Father comes near to take our hand and lead us on our way today. It shall be a good, a blessed new year!

 Turn it up. Sing. Dance.

Live like there is no tomorrow.

Dance like no one’s watching.

And then, having done all – we stand.

 

It is remarkable how laser focused people tend to be around Libya and Hillary Clinton. The focus is almost exclusively on the Benghazi attack which killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans, Sean Smith, Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty.
The Benghazi attack which occurred on Sept 11, 2012, was a symptom of foreign policy failure; the actual cause of the policy failure happened a full year-and-a-half earlier in February 2011.
Part I Link – The Origin Of The Libyan Crisis

Part Two – An Administration Desperate To Catch Up

Against two weeks of silence in February 2011, and a fawning U.S. media beginning to doubt their own beliefs in the administration, the White House begins damage control for their earlier detachment.
When Susan Rice skipped a Feb 25, 2011 emergency weekend U.N. Security Council meeting, the Obama administration was compromised in their ability to influence any real outcome in Libya.
Without the U.S. seated at the policy table the U.N. made two strategic resolutions/decisions which were brutally short-sighted.

The first mistake was a resolution banning the sale or transfer of arms or weaponry into Libya during the civil war.   On it’s face the ban might sound like a generally good idea;  however, in reality it was exceptionally self-defeating.   After all, it banned all weapons from entering Libya, including weapons for the opposition – which most thought would be needed for the “rebels” to defend themselves.

The second mistake was criminal charges brought about by the ICC (International Criminal Court) against the Kaddaffi regime.   Nothing tells a dictator to double down on his position like telling him you as soon as this is over we will lock you and your family up for life.

Essentially those charges filed by the ICC solidified the certainty that Kaddaffi would never compromise.   He was drawn to a bold position that either he would win the civil war, or he would die trying.    Losing the war would mean death or a life in prison – one of these was now certain.   So what did Kaddaffi have to lose by fighting?

This Security Council resolution highlights the emotional short-sighted outcome of most U.N. determinations.   However, historically the U.S. has tempered logic to the 6 nation table of stupidity.   But not this time.    This time, at the specific direction of President Obama and his policy team, the U.S. did not even participate. (more…)

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.
For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

(CNNMoney) — The family-owned business at the center of the hit TV show “Duck Dynasty” has launched its own line of guns.

The gunmaker Mossberg has teamed with Duck Commander, the company owned by “Duck Dynasty’s” Robertson clan, to release nine different shotguns, as well as two semiautomatic rifles and a semiautomatic pistol.
Mossberg has begun shipping some of the shotguns to distributors, according to spokeswoman Linda Powell. She declined to name specific retailers that will carry them.  (link)

(Via Daily Mail)  Hospital staff in Northern Virginia are turning away sick people on a frigid Thursday morning because they can’t determine whether their Obamacare insurance plans are in effect.
Patients in a close-in DC suburb who think they’ve signed up for new insurance plans are struggling to show their December enrollments are in force, and health care administrators aren’t taking their word for it.
In place of quick service and painless billing, these Virginians are now facing the threat of sticker-shock that comes with bills they can’t afford.
‘They had no idea if my insurance was active or not!’ a coughing Maria Galvez told MailOnline outside the Inova Healthplex facility in the town of Springfield.
She was leaving the building without getting a needed chest x-ray.
‘The people in there told me that since I didn’t have an insurance card, I would be billed for the whole cost of the x-ray,’ Galvez said, her young daughter in tow. ‘It’s not fair – you know, I signed up last week like I was supposed to.’ (more…)

Bill Whittle thinks that Obama’s second term is all down hill from here.  Not only that, he thinks the progressives can be run out of Washington.  What do you think?

RUSH LIMBAUGH […]  Now, last year, before HealthCare.gov opened for business, the Regime said they needed seven million before the end of the year, before this day. They needed seven million, and over the weekend they were doing hoops and making dances and having parties because they claimed that the corner had been turned and 2.1 million people had signed up.
So somebody said, “Well, wait, you said you needed seven million,” and they’re saying, “No, we didn’t,” but they did.  It’s on tape, it’s in print, but they’re just denying it.  “We didn’t say seven million! Nobody ever said seven million,” and in a political sense, the Republicans don’t know what to do with this.  Do you know how to deal with a liar?  It is a challenging thing to deal with a liar. But these people, this is a political party that just lies as a matter of course.
The problem with it is that the impressionable low-information people who vote for them believe all these lies, and then they create lives, circumstances, based on a series of lies.  And then standards begin to crumble, and then promises mean nothing, and then honor and integrity come to mean nothing, and then standards don’t exist.  And then there’s nothing accountable and nothing anybody can depend on.  So there aren’t any guardrails — and that’s where we are, in many ways, in our culture.  (more…)