PTSD Veterans Fight Addiction to Prescription Painkillers

At WSJ, "For Veterans With PTSD, A New Demon: Their Meds: Threat of Addiction to Prescription Painkillers Heightened With Mental Illness":

NEWPORT, N.H.—Desperation drove Timothy Fazio, a former Marine, to turn up around midnight at a veterans' hospital near Boston. His post-traumatic stress disorder was causing flashbacks and blackouts. He had leapt from a balcony.

And he had overdosed, twice, on painkillers originally prescribed for a hand injury suffered in Iraq.

"I want detox," Mr. Fazio told doctors that night in 2008, his medical files say.

After a week of withdrawal, Mr. Fazio checked himself out of the Veterans Health Administration hospital—and was given 168 pills of the same opiumlike drug he was already addicted to, according to his files, which The Wall Street Journal has reviewed. The next day, the hospital gave him another 168 pills.

PTSD and painkillers are the twin pillars of a new mental-health crisis in America. Many of the more than two million Americans who served in Iraq or Afghanistan suffer, as Mr. Fazio does, from a mixture of pain and PTSD. The VA treats many of them with powerful opioid painkillers for their pain. But opioids can be a combustible mix with mental illness because of a heightened addiction risk.

Effectively, some critics say, it amounts to treating mental illness with addictive narcotics.

A study by a VA researcher found that veterans with PTSD were nearly twice as likely to be prescribed opioids as those without mental-health problems. They were more likely to get multiple opioid painkillers and to get the highest doses. Veterans with PTSD were more than twice as likely to suffer bad outcomes like injuries and overdoses if they were prescribed opioid painkillers, the study found.

In Mr. Fazio's case, between 2008 and 2011 the VA prescribed him more than 3,600 pills containing oxycodone, a narcotic painkiller from the same family as heroin and morphine, his records show. He overdosed a total of six times.

"I was always a tough kid, but I feel like this has been the toughest fight of my life," Mr. Fazio said in March, after a spell of homelessness that saw him sleeping in an ATM lobby. "I don't know if I'm going to win it."

The VA declined to comment on Mr. Fazio's treatment and said it would review his records. It said it follows uniform guidelines and procedures for veterans' pain care, adding that those are being reinforced with further training of doctors and patients in safe opioid use. "The Veterans Health Administration has worked aggressively to promote the safe and effective use of opioid therapy for veterans," it said.

The number of vets with both PTSD and pain isn't known. But some 30% of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans under VA care have PTSD, VA figures show, and more than half suffer chronic pain.

Continue reading.

'The White House is Desperate to End #ObamaCare Blues...'

Major Garrett reports, for CBS News:



I know the press is still soft for the Chicago Jesus, but all this critical reporting on the mofo's utter incompetence and moral bankruptcy is quite stunning. It's almost as if George W. Bush was back in the White House.

More here, "Obama's Second Term FUBAR as Approval, Personal Favorability Hit the Crapper."

Obama Tech Support Arrives to 'Fix' the Website and #ObamaCare

Tweeted this out after cracking up on Facebook yesterday.

.@RSMcCain Via @PRHouseworth, the tech surge is coming to fix #ObamaCare! pic.twitter.com/8GTRlKHgaG

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) November 12, 2013

Supreme Court to Hear Challenge to Union 'Card-Check Neutrality Agreements'

It's supposed to be one of the most important labor cases before the Supreme Court in decades, at the New York Times, "Supreme Court to Take Up Challenges to Union Practices":

Labor leaders and businesses are closely watching a Supreme Court case to be argued this Wednesday that involves a popular strategy used by unions to successfully organize hundreds of thousands of workers.

That strategy — widely deployed by the Service Employees International Union and the Unite Here hotel workers union — involves pressuring an employer into signing a so-called neutrality agreement in which the employer promises not to oppose a unionization drive. By some estimates, more than half of the recent successful unionization campaigns involve such agreements, which sometimes allow union organizers onto company property to talk with workers.

Benjamin Sachs, a professor of labor law at Harvard Law School, said the case before the Supreme Court was potentially “the most significant labor case in a generation.”

Professor Sachs said that if the court ruled against labor, it could significantly hobble efforts by private sector unions to organize workers. He added that the other big labor case the Supreme Court has agreed to hear this session could have a significant impact on public sector unions. In that case, a home-care worker has asked the court to rule that the state of Illinois violated her First Amendment rights by requiring her to pay “fair share” fees, much like dues, to a union she did not support.

In the case being argued on Wednesday, Unite Here Local 355 vs. Mulhall, an employee of Mardi Gras Gaming in Florida sued Unite Here, asserting that its neutrality agreement with the company was illegal. The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruled in his favor, finding that the agreement was a “thing of value” that federal labor law bars employers from giving to any union or union official.

More at that top link.

And at Labor Pains, "SCOTUS to Ask, “What about the Employees?”":

Mardi Gras Gaming agreed to recognize a card-check procedure, not to speak out on the issue of unionization, and to hand over a list of unionizable employees to the union. In return, the union agreed not to strike and to help pass a ballot measure allowing slot machine gambling. Employees who oppose unionization like Martin Mulhall, who filed suit to block the agreement, had no seat at the table.

The Cato Institute legal team argues that these perks absolutely are “things of value,” noting:

We argue that, not only are Mardi Gras’s concessions clearly “things of value,” they are the types of exchanges that the Taft-Hartley Act was specifically passed to prohibit. The union exchanged a promise of “peace” from strikes and boycotts for concessions from the casino that compromised Mr. Mulhall’s right to dissent from unionization. The “exchange” was little better than extortion.

It's extortion alright. The union goons are breathing down their necks.

Infighting Can Be Fun – Meanwhile We're Losing the #War

Via Becca Lower:

Yes, we need to have the conversation about where the Republican party is going. People like Mike Lee and Ted Cruz (and others) are making compelling arguments. But should that mean losing the path we’re all on, the one that leads to beating back the forces of the Left who despise us and everything we have built together as Americans? Should that fall victim to our squabbles? Not on Veterans Day, not any day. While we’re infighting about whether someone’s speaking the conservative message exactly the way we’d like them to, we’re losing the #War.

RTWT.

President Moron

From William Gensert, at American Thinker, "Obama: The Most Dangerous of Morons":

There have been bad presidents -- see Jimmy Carter.  Yet has there ever been a president as staggeringly incompetent as Barack Obama?  Really, can there be any other explanation for his performance as president than the man is, well...a moron?

Let's face it, we all know them.  They are the people who either started out with money, or have spent a lifetime failing up.  Despite a distinct lack of accomplishment, personal or professionally, they believe they are the smartest person in every room.  They cannot utter a sentence that does not include "I," "me," and "my," and they never stop speaking.  To quote Alice Roosevelt, they are "the corpse at every funeral, the bride at every wedding and the baby at every christening."

They seem to Forrest Gump their way through life, with one undeserved success after another.

Does this remind you of anyone?

Have you ever noticed how many of these "really smart" people there are in government?  It's a magnet for morons, and it seems every damn one of them is portrayed by the media as a genius in his own right.  Yet, they never seem to be able to do anything but make things worse, and usually much worse.

These are America's morons and Barry is their leader.

Obama has strange tastes.  His favorite show is Homeland.  He's proud to tell people this, and don't get me wrong, I like the show myself -- as a work of fiction.  Then again, I'm not the President of the United States of America.  In that case, the bar should be set higher.

A president who brags about liking a show where one of the lead characters assassinated the Vice President of the United States is not one to be taken seriously as president, or as anything.

One more time for emphasis, the President of the United States willingly tells people his favorite show is one in which the Vice President was assassinated.

What is this guy, a moron?

The answer is yes, he is a moron, and worse, he is the most dangerous of morons, one who doesn't think he is a moron.

Don't get me wrong, this is not an anti-moron screed.  In my life, I have had more than 2,000 people work for me.  Morons have their place.  A good manager reads an employee and his skill set and uses that person to the maximum of his abilities.  A moron can contribute.  A moron can be an effective employee -- I've had many of them.

Yet when he is delusional and lacks self-awareness, he often has the 'I can do anything' syndrome and ends up thinking he can be President of the United States, while believing he's got game like Lebron and is smarter than all his advisors.

A dangerous moron, at times, can self-limit the damage done, by lightening the workload.  Having surprisingly risen past his level of competence, he naturally thinks he is actually so great, he doesn't have to work hard.  So...he doesn't.  Instead he plays golf, and throws parties, and gives speeches, and looks longingly at his reflection in the mirror.

Narcissus was convinced no one was prettier than Narcissus.  And Barry is convinced no one smarter than Barry.

A moron can be productive -- providing he knows his limitations and can use what God has given him within those limitations.  A dangerous moron, however, is all arrogance and bluster, always convinced that every one of his incompetent actions and the inevitable results, are actually brilliant successes and if not, somebody else's fault.  Dangerous morons hate to admit they were wrong.  They are also incapable of feeling shame or guilt.

Dirty Harry Callahan said: "A man's got to know his limitations."  And Clint Eastwood talked to an empty chair.  Well...Barack Obama is the iconic "empty suit," which, by definition is the most dangerous of morons...

Continue reading.

Grim Toll Rises in Philippines

At WSJ, "Grim Toll Rises Amid Ruin and Chaos: Death Toll Above 1,700 Is Likely Much Higher":

People covered their faces with towels and scarves against the stench of death Monday, clogging the typhoon-ravaged roads of the hardest hit part of the Philippines in a traffic jam of desperation.

Headed into one center of devastation were Filipinos frantic to find loved ones, or help, or both; fleeing in the other direction were battered and fearful survivors of the howling winds and raging waves of supertyphoon Haiyan.

As the death toll surged and food and water became scarce three days after the storm, tens of thousands of refugees struggled to find their way to aid. With the return of cellphone signals and as rescuers cut their way toward isolated communities on Monday, the depth of the loss of lives became clearer. The government put the death count at 1,744—and it was expected to rise much further. Thousands remained missing.

On the streets of Tacloban, capital of the shattered province of Leyte, stiffened animal carcasses and human bodies were a common sight, some out in the open, others partly covered by tarps or sheet metal.

The road to Tacloban's airport was jammed with people trying to get out as limited commercial service restarted. At the same time, the road into town was also snarled by motorbikes and cars—even as humanitarian workers warned that both food and water were rapidly running out.

Continue reading.

Oops! #ObamaCare TV Ads Kinda Forget to Mention Individual Mandate Penalty

Yeah, the California advertisement below is all about the utopian healthcare heavens parting, or something. It's pretty disgusting.

At the New York Times, amazingly, "Talk of Penalty Is Missing in Ads for Health Care":

New York’s health exchange slogan is “Today’s the Day.” Minnesota has enlisted Paul Bunyan. Oregon held a music contest, and California stresses the “peace of mind” that will come with insurance.

The state and federal health insurance exchanges are using all manner of humor and happy talk to sell the Affordable Care Act’s products. But the one part of the new system that they are not quick to trumpet is the financial penalty that Americans will face if they fail to buy insurance.

On state exchange websites, mention of the penalty is typically tucked away under “frequently asked questions,” if it appears at all. Television and print ads usually skip the issue, and operators of exchange telephone banks are instructed to discuss it only if asked. The federal website, now infamous for its glitches, mentions the penalty but also calls it a fee, or an Individual Shared Responsibility Payment.

The euphemisms and avoidance of any discussion of the penalty are no accident, both supporters and critics of the law say. While the mandate for all Americans to buy health insurance — with a penalty if they do not — was the linchpin of the Supreme Court decision upholding the law, and is considered the key to its success, poll after poll has found that it is also the least popular part of the program.

State exchange operators say that they are not trying to hide the penalty, but that their market research has taught them that, at least in the initial phase, consumers will be more receptive to soothing messages and appeals to their sense of collective responsibility than to threats of punishment.

“We feel that the carrot is better than the stick,” said Larry Hicks, a spokesman for Covered California. “This is a new endeavor. We want people to come in and test our wares.”

But there is also the dirty little secret of the penalty: It is a bit of a chimera, because the federal government cannot use its usual tools like fines, liens or criminal prosecutions to punish people who do not pay it. The penalty is supposed to be reported and paid with the income tax returns of those who do not buy insurance, but the government has not said how it will collect from those who owe it but do not pay it, though the law allows it to deduct from any income tax refunds.

“It might be that they want to be positive,” said Michael Cannon, director of health policy studies at the conservative Cato Institute. “But it’s also the case that an informed customer is not their best customer.”

And for many healthy middle-class people, a side-by-side comparison might suggest that it would be more cost-effective to pay the penalty than to buy insurance.

Cost effectiveness? Heaven forfend we can't have that!

Continue reading.

If Only We'd Have Gotten the Public Option...

The left's response to the catastrophic ObamaCare rollout has been to (1) deny there's a problem, because once the website's working everything will be rosy, or something, or (2) to demonize those criticizing the president as greedy, racist capitalist scumbags raping the disadvantaged out of healthcare, or thereabouts.

There might be a couple other versions I'm leaving out, but so far that's about it. Folks on the left just aren't getting it. And they're not taking it too well. ObamaCare's not working and is not likely to ever work, because just wanting to provide universal health coverage doesn't necessarily translate into the political and technological competence to make it happen.

So here's one of today's example, at NewsBusters, "NYT Prints Op-Ed 'Daring to Complain About Obamacare'; Leftist Wrath Ensues." Following the links takes us to Lori Gottlieb's op-ed at the New York Times, "Daring to Complain About Obamacare." By now Ms. Gottlieb's story is all too familiar. Millions of people have been losing their insurance, and it's become an enormous political problem for the Democrats. At this point it's almost a certainty that a major policy change will be adopted, perhaps delaying full implementation of the law until 2015. Actually, at this point I say let it go into effect, so Democrats can eat that f-ker at the polls next November.

Either way, it's going to be ugly. But the Newsbusters piece trolled the comments at NYT, and doing likewise I noticed this comment below from an anti-captialist Obama supported who was down for a "robust" public option in 2009. (The public option was the socialist left's preferred socialist option, pushed, during the congressional debate in 2009, by people like Jane Hamsher at Firedoglake.)

You gotta love the attacks on "private insurance companies":

Do not blame President Obama for the fact private insurance companies are using the ACA as an excuse to change your policies and increase your premiums.

Blame 3 Senators (Nelson, D-NE; Lieberman, I-CT; and Landrieu, D-LA). President Obama wanted a public option in the bill, but those 3 Senators announced they would not vote for cloture if the bill contained public option. Without a vote for cloture, Harry Reid had to bring a bill to the floor without a public option. They sided with big insurance (who were afraid of government competition) and against the people.

If there were a public option, people could choose it instead of paying what private insurance companies charge. Consider education, people can send their children to free public schools or pay tuition to send their children to private schools. In the case of the ACA, there is no choice. Everybody must purchase private insurance. This is great for the bottom line of private insurance companies; but not so great for the people.

Ironically, my former Senator, Cornhusker Kickback Ben Nelson, lives in a state that requires that all power generation be public (there are no private electric companies in Nebraska). We have some of the lowest electric rates in the country because power is socialized in Nebraska (the people own the means of electricity generation).

Give me public insurance (e.g., Medicaid and Medicare) any day. The ACA doesn't even give the public the option of buying public insurance.

And no surprise, but Martin Longman jumped on the socialist bandwagon, attacking Ms. Gottlieb as a liar, "Another ObamaCare Liar."

She's not lying. Nor are the millions of others who've been kicked to the curb by this law. But leftists are not dealing with reality here. They're operating through the utopian socialist healthcare ideology that got us to this spot in the first place. It's time to unravel it. And that will come after the Republicans win back control in Washington and repeal the left's ObamaCare monstrosity.

More from JustOneMinute, "We'll Score This as 'Not A Like'," and Legal Insurrection, "Tax The American Prospect to pay this lady’s increased health care bill."

U.S. Marines Arrive in the Philippines to Help Disaster Relief

At the Marine Corps Times, "More Marines, aircraft head to devastated Philippines."

And the Washington Post, "Typhoon survivors in Philippines plead for food, medicine as US Marines fly in help."



Also at USA Today, "Relief effort intensifies after Philippines tragedy."

'If you like your teeth you can keep them. Period...'

Seen on Twitter.



More, at Twitchy, "Brit Hume retweets promise made in new ‘Obamacare dental plan’ [pic]."

France Saves the West From Very Bad Nuclear Deal with Iran

At the Wall Street Journal, "Vive La France on Iran":

We never thought we'd say this, but thank heaven for French foreign-policy exceptionalism. At least for the time being, François Hollande's Socialist government has saved the West from a deal that would all but guarantee that Iran becomes a nuclear power.

While the negotiating details still aren't fully known, the French made clear Saturday that they objected to a nuclear agreement that British Prime Minister David Cameron and President Barack Obama were all too eager to sign. These two leaders remind no one, least of all the Iranians, of Tony Blair, Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan or George W. Bush. That left the French to protect against a historic security blunder, with Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius declaring in an interview with French radio that while France still hopes for an agreement with Tehran, it won't accept a "sucker's deal."

And that's exactly what seems to have been on the table as part of a "first-step agreement" good for six months as the parties negotiated a final deal. Tehran would be allowed to continue enriching uranium, continue manufacturing centrifuges, and continue building a plutonium reactor near the city of Arak. Iran would also get immediate sanctions relief and the unfreezing of as much as $50 billion in oil revenues—no small deliverance for a regime whose annual oil revenues barely topped $95 billion in 2011.

In return the West would get Iranian promises.

RTWT.

PREVIOUSLY: "Critics Ask Why France Scuttled Iran Nuclear Deal."

George W. Bush Veterans Day Message

Just awesome, "A Veterans Day Message From President George W. Bush."



Via Twitchy, of which the hatred highlighted there is just too much for the day, "Pathetic: Veterans Day brings out the Bush Derangement Syndrome."

Oh My! Sarah Palin Stuffs Matt Lauer's #ObamaCare 'Apology' Meme

This is too good!

Matt Lauer doubles-back with the "Obama apologized" line, but Palin's having none of it. She rightly debunks the story that everything will be fine once the healthcare.gov website is fixed. The problems go way beyond the website. And the look on Lauer's mug is gold.

Via Doug Powers, at Michelle's blog, "Matt Lauer pushes Dem O-care talking points; Sarah Palin doesn’t take the bait."

What Palin does is bring the grassroots message of decency and values right into America's living rooms. I'm sure it's a shock to the system for the left's regressive ghouls. They'll dash for their channel-changers faster than a cockroach scurries for the baseboards at the flip of the light-switch.



She also plugs her new book, Good Tidings and Great Joy: Protecting the Heart of Christmas.

What a great American.

Added: Also at the Other McCain, "Go, @SarahPalinUSA, Go! Whacks Lauer, ObamaCare on ‘Today’ Show (VIDEO)."

#ObamaCare Marriage Penalty Pushes Brooklyn Couple to Consider Divorce

At Breitbart, "Married Couple Considers Divorce to Save Money on Obamacare."

And at the Atlantic, of all places, "The Hidden Marriage Penalty in Obamacare":

The first time I heard Nona Willis Aronowitz talk about getting divorced to save money on health insurance I thought she couldn't really be serious. We were at Monte's, an old Italian place in South Brooklyn, having dinner with a group of New York women writers in late July.

"Don't do it!" I urged her, certain, having watched my friends over the years, that no matter how casually she or her husband might treat the piece of paper that says they are married, getting unhitched would inevitably change their relationship as profoundly as getting hitched in the first place.

But with the arrival of the Affordable Care Act's insurance exchanges, the question for Nona and her husband Aaron Cassara moved from the realm of casual conversation to a real financial conundrum. Aged 29 and 32, respectively, they were facing tough times for their professions, a wildly expensive city, and the scary prospect that both of them could shortly be uninsured. Right now Nona only has a COBRA plan—"which I can barely afford"—that ends January 1, she tells me. Her last staff job ended when the media outlet she was working for laid off its whole editorial team; she's been a full-time freelancer since. Aaron, a filmmaker who works part-time and also freelances, has been uninsured since her layoff, because it would be too expensive to have him on COBRA too.

Any married couple that earns more than 400 percent of the federal poverty level—that is $62,040—for a family of two earns too much for subsidies under Obamacare. "If you're over 400 percent of poverty, you're never eligible for premium" support, explains Gary Claxton, director of the Health Care Marketplace Project at the Kaiser Family Foundation.

But if that same couple lived together unmarried, they could earn up to $45,960 each—$91,920 total—and still be eligible for subsidies through the exchanges in New York state, where insurance is comparatively expensive and the state exchange was set up in such a way as to not provide lower rates for younger people. (Subsidy eligibility is calculated using a complicated formula involving income in relation to the poverty line, family size, and the price of plans offered through a state's marketplace.)

Nona and Aaron's 2012 income was higher than the 400 percent mark, but not by much. In New York City, that still doesn't take you very far for two people. If their most recent months of income are in the same range, they will get no help at all with buying insurance through the exchanges if and when they apply, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation and eHealth subsidy calculators. Premiums for the two for silver-level plans came in at $9,248 for the year.

But if they applied as unmarried individuals with something like their 2012 income, one of them would get at least $3,964 in subsidies toward the purchase of a plan, or possibly even be eligible for Medicaid, thanks to their uneven individual earnings that year. And if they fall below the 400 percent threshold, which Nona says they might this year, they could get substantial subsidies as a couple that are still worth less than what they'd be eligible for as individuals. These gaps are the marriage penalty.

Continue reading.

Look, progressives are doing all they can to destroy the institution of marriage. The ObamaCare marriage penalty is just one more weapon in the left's arsenal against moral decency, tradition, and basic self-sufficiency.

Obama's Second Term FUBAR as Approval, Personal Favorability Hit the Crapper

At the Wall Street Journal, "Health-Law Rollout Weighs on Obama's Ratings, Agenda: Approval, Personal Favorability Polling Sags, Creating New Complications for Second Term" (via Cracker Squire):

President Barack Obama, bogged down by problems with his signature health-care program, is seeing both his approval and personal-favorability ratings with Americans sag, creating new complications for his second-term agenda.

During past turbulence in Washington, Americans' approval of the job Mr. Obama is doing dipped. But in those stretches, Mr. Obama was buoyed by voters' general admiration for him as a person and by their trust in his credibility.

That has changed recently, particularly as thousands of Americans lose their insurance coverage under the health law's rollout, despite the president's pledge that anyone who liked their current plan could keep it.

The president has apologized to Americans about the insurance-cancellation notices, and he is taking other steps to shore up his political standing. But if his reservoir of personal goodwill continues to diminish, it could hamper him at a time when his administration is trying to repair the insurance website on which much of the Affordable Care Act rests.

An Obama administration official said the recent standoff over the government shutdown and raising the nation's borrowing limit was bound to take a toll on the president's popularity. "I think the president took on the least amount of water after that fight than any of the other actors involved," the official said.

Going forward, Mr. Obama wants to enlist the public as allies in the push to pass an immigration overhaul, expand access to early-childhood education and raise the minimum wage. All these goals already are drawing resistance from congressional Republicans, and if the public sours on him, the job is that much more difficult.

"His credibility is hurt, because he said things that aren't quite true," said Lou D'Allesandro, deputy Democratic leader in the New Hampshire Senate, referring to the vow that Americans could keep their health plans. "Unless a couple of dramatic things happen, he could be a lame duck by January."

A survey released last week by the Pew Research Center found the president's approval rating at 41%, down 10 points since May. Pew's pollsters compared Mr. Obama's fortunes to the slide that former President George W. Bush saw. At a comparable point in Mr. Bush's second term—after Hurricane Katrina had hit—Mr. Bush's job approval stood at 36%.

By contrast, second-term support for Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan held steady in Pew polling, with 58% and 62% of the public, respectively, approving of their job performance at a similar point in their presidencies.

Chris Lehane, a former Clinton White House official, said that Mr. Obama's "political success depends on maintaining trust" and that the White House must work to keep intact this "most precious leadership asset."

"Second-term presidents have hit those moments when they lost the trust of a critical mass of the public…which effectively made them lame ducks," Mr. Lehane said. He said he doesn't believe Mr. Obama has reached that point.

Mr. Obama also is facing an increasingly uneasy Democratic contingent in Congress, with some lawmakers worried the rollout of the health law might damage their election prospects. Last week, Mr. Obama met with Democratic senators facing re-election in 2014, some of whom aired their complaints about the implementation of the health law. Later, Mr. Obama flew to Louisiana on Air Force One with one such senator, Louisiana's Mary Landrieu. After the plane landed, the president and Ms. Landrieu went separate ways: Mr. Obama to a port in New Orleans, Ms. Landrieu to an event in the western part of the state. Her office said she had a previous commitment.

Mr. Obama has little influence with the Republicans he needs to make policy gains, and his sliding poll numbers figure to only weaken his hold.

But it is difficult for Mr. Obama to work in bipartisan fashion because of GOP animosity toward him, some policy activists said.

Critics Ask Why France Scuttled Iran Nuclear Deal

Maybe Hollande's just not quite ready to throw Israel under the bus?

At LAT, "France's role in scuttling Iran nuclear deal prompts speculation":

WASHINGTON — France's role in the unraveling of an international deal to curb Iran's nuclear program brought angry reactions Sunday from Tehran, glowing praise from Iran's detractors and a whirl of speculation about what the French motive might be.

A marathon round of international talks in Geneva fell short of a widely anticipated deal early Sunday after French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius objected, saying the terms of a preliminary accord were too easy on Tehran. Many nations fear Iran has been secretly seeking a nuclear weapons capability, despite its claims to want nuclear power only for energy and medical purposes.

Fabius broke an informal rule of the six-nation diplomatic group that has been negotiating with the Iranians by going public with his criticism of the preliminary deal, which was aimed at opening the way for comprehensive negotiations over the nuclear program.

"One wants a deal … but not a sucker's deal," Fabius said.

When the negotiations ground to a temporary halt, Iran was quick to point a finger.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told the National Assembly that Tehran would not be intimidated by any country's "sanctions, threats, contempt and discrimination," according to Iran's student news service. "For us there are red lines that cannot be crossed."

The semiofficial Fars news agency criticized the "destructive roles of France and Israel" for the failure of negotiators to reach an interim deal and ran a caricature of France as a frog firing a gun. "By shooting he feels he is important," the commentary said.

In contrast, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) tweeted that France "had the courage to prevent a bad nuclear agreement with Iran. Vive la France!"

The halt in talks set off a debate on whether France's intervention was motivated by commercial or geopolitical interests in the Middle East.

Good for France. Sheesh, doesn't anyone understand that Iran's up to no good?

More at that top link.

Radical Left Rejects Rational Ideas That Make the World Go 'Round

From the letters to the editor, at the New York Times, "Role of Humanities, in School and Life":

The humanities professors who spoke out on the causes of declined student enrollment did not mention a major factor that’s reshaped humanities education since 1970, when the decline began: postmodernism.

In the 1990s, when I was an English major at the University of Michigan, postmodernists dominated humanities study, and in their zeal to critique “Western culture,” they pointedly spurned old Enlightenment notions of “the classics,” “science,” “reason” and even “knowledge” itself — categories that they quarantined in dubious scare quotes as if they were hazardous materials. I fled my passion, literature, for a practical and rational-minded career in medicine.

While the professors justifiably cite inadequate funding and marketplace demand for scientists and engineers as causes of the marginalization of the humanities, they also ought to look inward at their profession’s rejection of the rational ideals that make the educated world go round.

AUSTIN RATNER
Brooklyn, Oct. 31, 2013

The writer is the author of two novels and a physiology textbook.

Yes. Indeed. That might be worth pointing out, that the radical left has destroyed decency and rationalism in American life. It can't be said enough, so don't stop saying it. Shout it from the rooftops: THE RADICAL LEFT IS DESTROYING ALL THAT'S GOOD IN THE UNITED STATES!!

PREVIOUSLY: "Ethnic Studies Programs Crash and Burn at Cal State University."

Obama 'Deeply Saddened' by Typhoon Haiyan Devastation

At London's Daily Mail, "Obama 'deeply saddened' by Typhoon Haiyan devastation as US marines go to Philippines to assist in relief efforts after thousands killed."



IMAGE CREDIT: iOWNTHEWORLD.

Robbie Williams: 'Mack the Knife'

Via Ghost of a Flea.

Oh the shark babe has such teeth, dear
And he shows them pearly white
Just a jack knife has ol’ MacHeath, babe
And he keeps it out of sight

You know when that shark bites with his teeth, dear
Scarlet billows start to spread
Fancy gloves though wears ol’ MacHeath, babe
So there's never, never a trace of red

On the sidewalk, Oh Sunday morning don’t you know
Lies a body just oozing life
And Someone's sneaking around the corner
Could that be our boy Mack the knife?

From a tug boat down by the river don’t you know
Lays a cement bag just dropping on down
That’s cement's there, it’s there for the weight, dear
I’ll get you ten ol’ Macky is back in town

Did you hear bout Louie Miller? He disappeared, babe
After drawing out all his hard earned cash
And know MacHeath spends, he spends just like a, like a sailor
Could it be, could it be, could it be, our boy did something rash?

[2x]
Jenny Diver Oh Sukey Tawdry
Look out Miss Polly Peachum and Oh Lucy Brown
Yeah the line forms on the right, babe
Now that Macky is back in town