Monica

Who Is The Man On The Ground?

Posted on by Monica

At approximately 10:30 pm on Thursday, April 18, 2013, an MIT police officer, Sean Collier, age 27, was shot and killed on campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, while responding to a disturbance. Police believe the Boston Bombing suspects, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev shot the officer five times to get his gun because they only had one gun. It is unclear how many bullets were in Officer Collier’s gun or why the brothers thought the gun would be so valuable they would shoot the officer five times for it and call attention to themselves before their whereabouts were known by police. In the end, the brothers failed to remove the officer’s gun from his holster–their heinous crime was in vain. Mystery continues to surround the death of the MIT officer, however, and the Middlesex DA released today a request for witnesses to the crime.
The first responder to the MIT officer’s call for backup, Officer Collier’s friend and former classmate, Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Police Officer Richard Donohue, might have been the only one in a position to illuminate the events as they unfolded in Cambridge that night. By a tragic coincidence, however,

Monica

Who Is The Naked Man?

Posted on by Monica

https://austrogirlblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/tamerlan-tsarnaev-boxing-2006.jpg?w=300
CNN reported last Thursday night that the police had taken two men into custody following a car chase possibly in connection with the Boston Marathon bombing and the killing of a police officer at MIT.  During the report, they showed footage shot by CNN of one of the suspects, handcuffed and naked, being walked by police to a police cruiser.
The top video below shows the CNN footage.  This was aired Thursday night before the early Friday morning shootout that killed Tamerlan Tsarnaev. Who is the naked man in custody? Is it Tamerlan Tsarnaev? If not, who is he and why isn’t there an official explanation of the arrest?  If it is Tsarnaev, why did authorities let him go then engage him in a gunfight?
The critical question is, “Is the naked man Tamerlan Tsarnaev?” Judge for yourself. Before you play the video, compare its frozen image of the naked man with the still photos of Tamerlan Tsarnaev below it. (If you want to get back to that frozen image after you play the video, refresh this page.)

Monica

Amazing Eyewitness Account of Tamerlan Tsarnaev Shootout

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Contrast this video* with the bizarre report that police claimed Tamerlan was run over by his own brother and possibly killed by him: Boston Bombing Suspect Likely Killed by Younger Brother And who is the guy in the video below? He is obviously not either of the Tsarnaev brothers (begin at 7:00). [wpvideo SlMoNiUH]   (more…)

Monica

CISPA, Social Security & FBI's Terror Net

Posted on by Monica

There was so much news this week that I didn’t have time to follow up on everything on air. Here a few articles that should answer the biggest questions raised on this week’show. First, What is CISPA? CISPA Isn’t ‘Son of SOPA’ (But That’s Not Saying Much) Second, Is Social Security Fully Funded? Misleading the (more…)

Monica

FOX Deliberately Went Easy On Obama

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In August 2011, when I first read The Washington Times article, “Was CIA behind Operation Fast & Furious?,” by Robert Farago and Ralph Dixon, I was waiting on the edge of my seat for the scandal to ignite in the media, at least on the right. From arming the Sinaloa drug cartel, to laundering money for them and allowing their drugs in the country, to attempting a cover-up, the Obama administration was overseeing nefarious activity with all the makings of an Iran-Contra and Watergate combined. When the scandal failed to explode, I started to smell a rat. At first I figured the Republicans were neutered because the roots of the overarching Project Gunrunner reached back into the Bush Administration, but when the media, particularly The Wall Street Journal and FOX News, failed adequately to elucidate the clear distinctions between Bush’s operations and Obama’s and failed to expose Operation Fast & Furious for all that it was, I started to believe the fix was in.
As I saw Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder lie to the Senate then lie about lying then get caught in both lies,

Monica

The Story of Stuff: Propagandizing Your Children

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Here is the insanely anti-capitalist and wildly inaccurate video designed for school children here and around the world: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GorqroigqM] And here is a very engaging rebuttal: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5uJgG05xUY] And here is a truly delightful video on the philosophy of liberty – a nice balm for the brain after watching The Story of Stuff! [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muHg86Mys7I]

Monica

Conservative "Core Principles" or Just Political Expedients?

Posted on by Monica

Front and center on the opinion page of The Wall Street Journal yesterday was an article titled “A Conservative Case for Gay Marriage” and opposite was a full-page article titled “Evangelicals in Push for Immigration Overhaul.” Both articles make great points and are breaths of fresh air from the right, but the timing of this one-eighty makes me like the neo-conservative machine less not more.
A year ago, “defense of marriage” and stopping the “flow of illegals” were sold as inviolable conservative “core principles” by Republican politicians and the media who serve them. These were issues the likes of Karl Rove and Paul Ryan solemnly if not rabidly defended, and they were issues used against traditional conservatives and libertarians like Ron Paul. As any traditional conservative can tell you, however, these are not “core principles” of conservatism–not even neo-conservatism! These issues were intentionally manufactured to polarize voters on a single issue that would get their votes despite being betrayed by the Republican Party on the truly universal conservative principle: fiscal restraint.

Monica

Crony Capitalism: How the Sausage Is Made

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It is surprisingly hard for many people to understand that government regulation is often more of a boon to big business than it is a burden to them, but the current debate on minimum wage serves as a simple illustration.
When I saw a recent headline: Costco CEO: Raise The Minimum Wage To More Than $10 Per Hour, my first thought was, “How does this guy benefit from a higher minimum wage?”, and my second thought was, “Aha!” I cracked the code in an instant. Costco I thought, must pay more than $10 per hour already, while its competitors must pay less. That means Costco would not be affected at all by an increase in the minimum wage to $10, while any of its competitors that pay below $10 per hour could see their business models severely impaired. And so it is.
Costco’s minimum salary is $11.50 per hour while Wal-Mart pays new workers only $8. Costco is very light on service and very high on efficiency, with each customer spending much more per visit than Wal-Mart customers. A skillful, efficient workforce is integral to Costco’s business model. On the other hand, Wal-Mart has myriad employees, some of whom do nothing but greet customers, and with lower priced items and higher customer volume, each employee-customer interaction generates only modest revenue to the company.  Its larger but lower-cost sales force is the only way for Wal-Mart to keep volume up and prices low.
Costco’s current CEO, Craig Jelinek, as well as its former CEO and founder, James Sinegal, claim that they pay more to their employees because it’s the right thing to do, and it is, but not morally right as they imply, just right for their business model.
Here are the numbers that prove my point

Monica

The Moral Hazard of Socialism

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When I first heard that the new pope took the name Francis in an effort to focus the Church on the poor, I thought it could go either way.  St. Francis gave up his wealth and lived in poverty, and Franciscan priests take a vow of poverty to this day. Dedicating oneself to the poor is noble, of course, but I have grown skeptical when the poor are invoked as a call to action. I have found that too often the poor are used as an excuse to expand the size and scope of government, while decade after decade we are told we must redouble our efforts in the War on Poverty.