Flu Effects And Future Plans

Healthcare, Ilana Mercer, IlanaMercer.com

Boring. Seven weeks after first contracting a virulent strain of flu that waylaid me for this long, I thought I was finally well enough to resume running. Yesterday, I covered my usual 3.5 miles and felt just dandy. The next day (today), the ribcage seized up in pain.

I would not have ordinarily visited the doctor, but since this pox has lasted so long, I went. It turns out that, as a result of coughing so long and so hard (and so long ago), I have Costochondritis.

Has anyone heard of “Costochondritis”? It has nothing to do with that shopping Eden, Costco. Rather, it’s torn or inflamed interstitial tissue “at the junction of the rib and its cartilage.”

More drugs, physical inaction and weight gain. I’ll have to make up for this by working on the new book, pain permitting.

On a happier note, thanks to a remarkably generous donor who came through today, I should be able to resume work on a special feature you’ll love, once I recover fully. Funds permitting, an app. too is in the works. Last year, Barely a Blog was made mobile-friendly. Make sure you upload the BAB icon to your mobile phone.

And stay tuned.

Wages Of War Waged By A ‘Good Country’

Foreign Policy, Iraq, War

As was pointed out in “Where’s America’s Right To Referendum, Secession?,” military intervention by the US is considered a good thing by the Bill-O’Reilly school of “thought,” because the US is “a good country.”

Naturally, the American media are not chronicling the wages of a war waged by their “good country,” but Al Jazeera is. Here’s what Iraqi’s must endure daily thanks to the war waged by Bush (who is surely not a “thug” like Putin):

“According to the United Nations Assistance Mission to Iraq [UNAMI], a total of 703 Iraqis were killed and another 1,381 were injured in February. These figures do not include those killed and injured in Anbar province, where 189 were killed and 550 were injured in Ramadi and 109 were killed and 648 were injured in Fallujah.”

A series of deadly attacks in Iraq have killed about 50 people and injured 80, police officials have said.

In one of Friday’s incidents, an explosive-laden tanker was driven into the federal police headquarters in the village of Injanah, 55km north of Baquba, killing 12 people and wounding five, including the head of the federal police, Brigadier General Raghib al-Umairi, and his assistant.

In Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, an attack killed 10 people and injured 27.

AFP news agency reported that a suicide bomber blew himself up at a funeral inside a mosque. Anbar has been the scene of protracted fighting between anti-government fighters and security forces, leading to months of bloodshed and the internal displacement of hundreds of thousands of people.

In the Sarha region of Salaheddin, clashes early on Friday led to a series of explosions, including one near an army base, that killed 12 people and injured 13.

In separate incidents, police said gunmen opened fire on an army checkpoint near the city of Samarra, killing two people, while car bombings killed nine and injured 25 in Dibis, a town located near Kirkuk.

Medical officials confirmed the casualties from Friday’s attacks. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk to the media, according to Associated Press news agency.

No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attacks.

MORE.

Government’s Main Function: The Transfer Of Money

Government, Taxation

Mitt Romney told the truth in the 2012 campaign about the 47 percent. If anything, he underestimated the severity of the Taker Problem in U.S. society. Writes Jeffrey Dorfman:

“Mitt Romney aimed low in his famous remark. We are now well past a majority in terms of how many people are net receivers from the government. The coalition of voters who have an economic interest in voting for more goodies from the government is over 70 percent and growing.”

AND, “… in 2010 the top 40 percent of families paid 88 percent of all taxes—and that is all taxes, not just income taxes.”

In case you’ve forgotten, “During the 2012 presidential campaign … Mitt Romney was reported to have commented about how 47 percent of Americans were bound to vote for Democrats (or whatever party promised them free stuff) since they did not pay any income taxes. …”

AND, in case you don’t know:

“… about 70 percent of the federal government’s spending is the transfer programs already accounted for. … in actuality around 70 percent of American families are receiving more from the government than they are paying in.”

MORE.

Where’s America’s Right To Referendum, Secession?

Federalism, Foreign Policy, Liberty, Military, Multiculturalism, Neoconservatism, Political Correctness, Russia

“Where’s America’s Right To Referendum, Secession?” is the current column, now on WND. An excerpt:

From a node in the neoconservative network, a Fox News studio, Charles Krauthammer has complained about the eviction of the Ukrainian Navy from the city of Sevastopol, where it was headquartered. Not a word did the commentator say about the city’s location: Sevastopol is on the Crimean Peninsula. It would appear that the city now falls within Crimean jurisdiction—starting on March 16, the day the people of Crimea voted to secede from Ukraine.

By most estimates, between 97 and 93 percent of Crimean voters said yes to a reunion with Russia. High too was voter turnout. McClatchy pegs it at 83 percent of registered voters in Crimea. BBC News was agreed, also reporting a ballot of ‘more than 80 percent.’ Zerohedge.com counted a ‘paltry’ 73 percent turnout, still ‘higher than every U.S. presidential election since 1900.’

As rocker Ted Nugent might say, the Russians and Crimeans are blood brothers. Nugent got into trouble for using this perfectly proper appellation to describe his affinity for a politician, of all people: Texas Republican gubernatorial hopeful Greg Abbott. Notwithstanding that in the land of the terminally stupid, linguistic flourish can land one in hot water—blood brother is a good, if colorful, turn of phrase that denotes fealty between like-minded people. Steeped in state-enforced multiculturalism, America’s deracinated, self-anointed cognoscenti have a hard time grasping the blood-brother connections between the people of Russia and Crimea.

For no apparent reason other than that it is pro-Russian, Americans have reflexively aligned themselves against the swell for secession in southern Ukraine. Separatist referenda in Kosovo, Catalonia, South Sudan and Scotland have been accepted without demur by a political and media establishment unprepared to countenance a similar referendum in Crimea. …”

… Read on. The complete column is “Where’s America’s Right To Referendum, Secession?” now on WND.

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