You Might Be Surprised By Which State Grabbed the Top Spot for “Well-Being”

/7 Comments/in , /by

When it comes to well-being, Alaskans nabbed the top spot in the United States, according to an annual ranking. . .

Hawaii and South Dakota followed Alaska in spots two and three. And Kentucky stayed in the 49th spot, where it’s been for a number of years.

The 2014 rankings, released Thursday, are based on over 176,000 phone interviews with people in all 50 states. The Index measures how people feel about and experience their daily lives, and looks at their health across five categories: purpose, social, financial, community and physical.

Over the past seven years, Alaska has ranked in the top 10 four times. And Alaskans are having a good year for a reason, according to Dan Witters, research director of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index.

“They do a lot of the blocking and tackling, as far as taking care of themselves and making good choices, but also demonstrating good holistic well-being in ways that extend beyond the conventional physical wellness,” Witters said. (Read more from, “You’ll be Surprised about Which State Grabbed the Top Ranking” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

White House Opens with Muslim Prayer at Summit on Violent Extremism; No Other Religion Was Mentioned [+videos]

/15 Comments/in , /by

By Penny Starr. A Muslim prayer was recited at the start of the second day of the White House summit on “Countering Violent Extremism,” but no other religious text was presented during the portion of the event that was open to the press.

Imam Sheikh Sa’ad Musse Roble, president of the World Peace Organization in Minneapolis, Minn., recited a “verse from the Quran” following remarks by Obama administration officials and Democratic members of Congress.

“In translation those verses of the Quran mean ‘Whoever kills a soul unless for a soul or for corruption in the land, it’s as if he has slain mankind entirely, and whoever saves one life, it’s as if he has saved mankind entirely,’” Adam said.

“Mosques serve as (sic) beacon of hope,” Adam said. “While imams’ provide moral compass for the Muslim community in navigating life.”

Adam said “religious leaders” want to have “dialogue” with the U.S. government about “issues of concern” and said that Muslim imams have spoken out against terrorism. (Read more about the prayer at the summit on violent extremism HERE)

_______________________________________________________

Obama: ‘Islam Has Been Woven Into the Fabric of Our Country Since Its Founding’

By Susan Jones. We hear a lot about the United States’ Judeo-Christian heritage, but according to President Obama, “Islam has been woven into the fabric of our country since its founding.”

That’s what the president told a White House conference on “countering violent extremism” on Wednesday.

Obama has said similar things in the past:

“I also know that Islam has always been a part of America’s story,” Obama said in a June 2009 speech in Cairo, Egypt. “Islam has always been part of America,” he said in a 2010 statement marking the start of Ramadan. And in a 2014 statement marking Eid, Obama said the holiday “also reminds us of the many achievements and contributions of Muslim Americans to building the very fabric of our nation and strengthening the core of our democracy.”

In his speech on Wednesday, Obama was making the point that Western nations must show that they “welcome people of all faiths,” at a time when “extremists” are saying that Western nations are “hostile to Muslims.” (Read more about the Muslim Prayer at Summit on Violent Extremism HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Freedom of Press Across the World, “Dramatically Worse,” US Slips Further Behind

/1 Comment/in , /by

The non-profit organization Reporters Without Borders, devoted to supporting journalists worldwide, published its annual index this month. In six continents, the conditions for free media in 2014 became not just worse, but “dramatically worse,” according to the group’s “2015 World Press Freedom Index”. . .

In two-thirds of the 180 surveyed countries the indicators for press freedom have declined. Violations against freedom of information rose by 8 percent (to a total of 3,719) compared to 2014 and by almost 10 percent compared to 2013. For a number of countries, no data is available at all, being closed to any independent journalistic activity.

Not surprisingly, there is a strong correlation between media freedom, political freedoms and economic freedom. In countries where individuals are able to exercise their freedom to create economic activity, according to The Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom, the media also tend to function as watchdogs of government activity. In both categories, the majority of countries in the top are western democracies.

Totalitarian and Communist states rank much further down, and at the bottom of the information list are “black holes,” where independent information simply does not exist. Countries in this segment are from regions such as North Africa and the Middle East controlled by non-state terrorist groups like ISIS or Boko Haram.

The United States disappointingly ranks 46th, having declined three places in 2014. This is due to the Obama administration’s heavy handed approach to certain journalists, including the New York Times’ James Risen, who came under pressure to reveal his sources.(Read more about the freedom of press across the world HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

The Joe Miller Show: Investor Says International Economic Collapse Imminent, the Worst Since Before 1873

/1 Comment/in , , /by

On The Joe Miller Show yesterday, national commentator and investor Charles Ortel predicted a worldwide meltdown worse than 2008, the Great Depression, or even 1873. He examines the ratio of wages to total international debt and says that the breaking point is in sight. Listen to this compelling interview here.

____________________________________________

The Birth Pangs of the Coming Great Depression are Upon Us

By Michael Snyder. The signs of the times are everywhere – all you have to do is open up your eyes and look at them. When a pregnant woman first goes into labor, the birth pangs are usually fairly moderate and are not that close together. But as the time for delivery approaches, they become much more frequent and much more intense. Economically, what we are experiencing right now are birth pangs of the coming Great Depression. As we get closer to the crisis that is looming on the horizon, they will become even more powerful. This week, we learned that the Baltic Dry Index has fallen to the lowest level that we have seen in 29 years. The Baltic Dry Index also crashed during the financial collapse of 2008, but right now it is already lower than it was at any point during the last financial crisis. In addition, “Dr. Copper” and other industrial commodities continue to plunge. This almost always happens before we enter an economic downturn. Meanwhile, as I mentioned the other day, orders for durable goods are declining. This is also a traditional indicator that a recession is approaching. The warning signs are there – we just have to be open to what they are telling us.

And of course there are so many more parallels between past economic downturns and what is happening right now.

For example, volatility has returned to the markets in a big way. On Tuesday the Dow was down about 300 points, on Wednesday it was down another couple hundred points, and then on Thursday it was up a couple hundred points.

This is precisely how markets behave just before they crash. When markets are calm, they tend to go up. When markets get really choppy and start behaving erratically, that tells us that a big move down is usually coming.

At the same time, almost every major global currency is imploding. For much more on this, see the amazing charts in this article.
(Read more from “Economic Collapse Imminent” HERE)

________________________________________________________________

The Joe Miller Show broadcasts weekdays from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Alaska Time (6 p.m. to 8 p.m. EST), on 1080 AM and 95.1 FM, Anchorage. It is also carried via live streaming at JoeMiller.us. Podcasts from prior shows are found HERE. If you’d like to advertise on or sponsor The Joe Miller Show, please email [email protected]

Ron Paul: Predicts Break-Up of the Nation, Says Secession is Happening

/6 Comments/in , /by

By Andrew Kaczynski. Former Republican presidential candidate and congressman Ron Paul says secession is happening and it’s “good news.” Paul later predicted the states would stop listening to federal laws.

“I would like to start off by talking about the subject and the subject is secession and, uh, nullification, the breaking up of government, and the good news is it’s gonna happen. It’s happening,” Paul, the father of potential Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul, told a gathering at the libertarian Mises Institute in late January. The event Paul was speaking at was titled “Breaking Away: The Case for Secession.”

Paul said secession would not be legislated by Congress, but would be de facto, predicting “when conditions break down…there’s gonna be an alternative.” (Read more about Ron Paul saying it was good that secession is happening HERE)

_____________________________________________________

Here’s Why Ron Paul Thinks the U.S. Didn’t Want to Catch Bin Laden

By Andrew Kaczynski and Megan Apper. Former Republican presidential candidate and congressman Ron Paul says he doesn’t believe the United States government wanted to catch Osama Bin Laden because they needed him as an excuse to build up the military and invade Middle Eastern countries.

“Matter of fact, can’t you just see the difference that might have occurred. Ya know, they knew where Bin Laden was. I don’t think they really wanted to catch him because he was used as the excuse for us, you know, invading various countries and building up the military,” Paul said on Scott Horton’s radio program. (Read more from this story HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Ann Coulter: GOP Double-Crossing Traitors

/12 Comments/in , /by

Now that a federal judge has held Obama’s illegal executive amnesty unconstitutional, perhaps U.S. senators will remember that they swore to uphold the Constitution, too.

Back when they needed our votes before the last election, Republicans were hairy-chested warriors, vowing to block Obama’s unconstitutional “executive amnesty” — if only voters gave them a Senate majority. The resulting Republican landslide suggested some opposition to amnesty. . .

Poll after poll showed Americans ranking illegal immigration as the No. 1 most important problem facing the nation. We haven’t changed our minds. Last week, an Associated Press-Gfk poll showed that Obama’s single most unpopular policy is his position on illegal immigration. . .

Why don’t Republicans spend all their airtime attacking the media for lying about what Obama’s amnesty does and what the Democrats are doing? It’s hard to avoid concluding that Republicans aren’t trying to make the right arguments. In fact, it kind of looks like they’re intentionally throwing the fight on amnesty.

If a Republican majority in both houses of Congress can’t stop Obama from issuing illegal immigrants Social Security cards and years of back welfare payments, there is no reason to vote Republican ever again. (Read more from Ann Coulter’s “GOP Double-Crossing Traitors” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

UN Investigating Horrific Claims That ISIS is Stealing and Selling Organs

/2 Comments/in , /by

By Ray Sanchez. The United Nations is looking into claims that ISIS — already considered the wealthiest terrorist group on record — may be harvesting organs from slain civilians and gaining financial benefits by trafficking the body parts, officials said Wednesday.

But Britain’s ambassador to the U.N., Mark Lyall Grant, said the issue has not been officially discussed. Grant said there was no proof or evidence of the claim made by Iraq’s ambassador to the United Nations.

The Iraqi ambassador, Mohamed Alhakim, on Tuesday urged the Security Council to investigate the deaths of 12 doctors in Mosul, Iraq. He said they were killed after refusing to remove organs from bodies.

“Some of the bodies we found are mutilated … that means some parts are missing,” he told reporters, adding that there were openings in the back of the bodies where the kidneys would be located.

“This is clearly something bigger than we think,” Alhakim said. (Read more from, “ISIS is Stealing and Selling Organs” HERE)

______________________________________________________

How ISIS Makes (and Takes) Money

By Ashley Fantz. The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria has crude, stomach-turning tactics when it comes to dealing with its enemy, but experts say that its moneymaking methods are highly sophisticated, especially for such a new terror group.

Here’s a look at how ISIS has made (and taken) millions . . .

ISIS makes between $1 million and $2 million each day from oil sales, numerous sources tell CNN. The oil comes mostly from refineries and wells that ISIS controls in northern Iraq and northern Syria.

The militants smuggle oil into southern Turkey, for example, and sell it to people who desperately need it just to carry on some semblance of everyday life.

The United States-led coalition fighting ISIS has repeatedly targeted ISIS oil assets in an effort to, in part, damage this arm of the group’s financial system. (Read more from this story HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

The Internet is Not Broken and Obama Does Not Need to Fix it [+video]

/4 Comments/in , /by

By Ajit Pai and Joshua Wright. If you like your wireless plan, you should be able to keep it. But new federal regulations may take away your freedom to choose the best broadband plan for you. It’s all part of the federal government’s 332-page plan to regulate the Internet like a public utility — a plan President Barack Obama asked the Federal Communications Commission to implement in November and that is coming up for a vote Feb. 26.

While the plan contains no shortage of regulations, the most problematic may be the new “Internet conduct” rule. It’s a vague rule that gives the FCC almost unfettered discretion to micromanage virtually every aspect of the Internet, including the choices that consumers have for accessing it. If a company doesn’t want to offer an expensive, unlimited data plan, it could find itself in the FCC’s cross hairs.

But restricting service plan options is inherently anti-competitive and anti-consumer. The inevitable results will be higher prices and less service for consumers along with an especially adverse impact on small providers and upstart competitors trying to differentiate themselves in a crowded market. (Read more about how the internet is not broken HERE)

________________________________________________________

Why Can’t the Public See Obama’s Proposed Internet Regulations?

By Mark Hemingway. Republican senators Mike Lee, Ben Sasse, and Rand Paul have all been high profile opponents of the Obama administrations current plan to regulate the internet — in particular, Lee has called the regulation a government “takeover” of the internet and says it amounts to a “a massive tax increase on the middle class, being passed in the dead of night without the American public really being made aware of what is going on.”

(Read more from this story HERE)

_________________________________________________________

Billionare Mark Cuban Says Net Neutrality Will ‘F*** Everything Up’

By Dawn Chmielewski. Billionaire investor and ABC “Shark Tank” star Mark Cuban unloaded on the Federal Communications Commission’s plan to fundamentally change how it oversees the open Internet.

“That will f*** everything up,” said the voluble Cuban in remarks Wednesday at the Code/Media conference at The Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel, Calif.

In early February, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler proposed tough new rules for Internet lines that would prohibit wired and wireless broadband providers from collecting payment to cut to the front of the line, or blocking and throttling lawful content and services.

Cuban said this bid to significantly expand the agency’s authority to regulate broadband providers is nothing more than an attack on giant media companies like Comcast*.

“Net neutrality is just a demonization of big companies,” Cuban said. (Read more from this story HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Iraqi Christian Men Join the Fight Against ISIS and Here’s Why

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: Daily Signal By Josh Siegel. Athra Kado had never shot a gun before, let alone seen a battlefield.

Until recently Kado, 25, spent his young career in a classroom, teaching high school students how to speak Syriac, his native language.

But Kado is one of hundreds of Assyrian Christian men—many with no military experience—taking up arms to protect their towns from ISIS terrorists who invaded this part of Iraq early last year.

“If we don’t have land to live, what’s the purpose of teaching a language?” Kado tells The Daily Signal in a Skype interview from a former U.S. military facility outside the city of Kirkuk, where he is finishing up a training camp with 500 or so amateur fighters.

Recruits to the new Christian militia, or battalion, say their villages and families were abandoned by Iraqi government and peshmerga forces last summer, letting the terrorists seize control. (Read more about the Iraqi Christian men joining the fight against ISIS HERE)

________________________________________________________

Army Veteran Joins the Fight Against ISIS in Iraq

By Newsmax. Saint Michael, the archangel of battle, is tattooed across the back of a U.S. army veteran who recently returned to Iraq and joined a Christian militia fighting Islamic State in what he sees as a biblical war between good and evil.

Brett, 28, carries the same thumb-worn pocket Bible he did whilst deployed to Iraq in 2006 – a picture of the Virgin Mary tucked inside its pages and his favourite verses highlighted.

“It’s very different,” he said, asked how the experiences compared. “Here I’m fighting for a people and for a faith, and the enemy is much bigger and more brutal.”

Thousands of foreigners have flocked to Iraq and Syria in the past two years, mostly to join Islamic State, but a handful of idealistic Westerners are enlisting as well, citing frustration their governments are not doing more to combat the ultra-radical Islamists or prevent the suffering of innocents.

The militia they joined is called Dwekh Nawsha – meaning self-sacrifice in the ancient Aramaic language spoken by Christ and still used by Assyrian Christians, who consider themselves the indigenous people of Iraq. (Read more from this story HERE)

___________________________________________________________

Despite ISIS Forcing Her Out of Her Home, Young Girl Asks God to Forgive the ISIS Militants

By Samuel Smith. Even though her village was seized by the Islamic State and she’s now living a rough life in an unfinished mall in Kurdish-protected Northern Iraq, a displaced Christian refugee child is asking God to “forgive” the ISIS militants.

After ISIS seized most of the Mosul region of Iraq last June, over 400 mostly Christian displaced Iraqi families from the villages of Qaraqosh, Bartella and Kharamles descended upon the Kurdish capital of Erbil to live in a half-built mall in the in the Christian neighborhood of Ainkawa.

As the families had picked up and fled their villages in a hurry before the ISIS militants reached their towns, the families could only afford to bring bare necessities and are now living in the mall without much more than the mattresses, blankets and other handouts they receive from humanitarian organizations.

A correspondent with the Arabic Christian television network SAT-7’s “Kids” program interviewed children living in the Ainkawa Mall’s refugee camp and asked them what they missed the most about their lives back home.

In talking with the reporter and camera crew, a little girl named Myriam, from Qaraqosh, assured that although her life has changed drastically in the last year and her family’s future remains uncertain, God continues to provide for her and her family. (Read more from this story HERE)

____________________________________________________________

Vicar of Baghdad Warns Westerners: Don’t Join Christian Militia Against ISIS, Christians Are ‘Hopeless at Fighting’

By Leonardo Blair. Concerned about reports that some idealistic Christian sympathizers have been moving to Iraq and Syria to join the fight against ISIS, the Vicar of Baghdad, Rev. Canon Andrew White, warned against the trend this week because, he said, the Christian militia fighting against ISIS in Iraq is “hopeless at fighting.”

Recounting a conversation he had with one of his Iraqi Christian guards to Christian Today while on a fundraising mission in Tennessee, White explained that the Christian fighters are “universally hopeless at fighting, let alone fighting ISIS.”

“I said to him (Iraqi Christian guard), ‘What would you do if ISIS were coming toward us?’ He said, ‘I would rip off my uniform and run.’ So I said, ‘Why do you do this job?’ He said, ‘I do it because I need the money,'” said White.

“Christians are no good at being soldiers. If going to join the new militia makes them feel good, great. But it will achieve absolutely nothing. We are dealing with an evil, evil regime as we saw in Libya with the beheadings of the Coptic Christians. There is very little that any Iraqi Christian or British Christian can do to help. The best thing they can do is stay at home,” he added. (Read more from this story HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Jeb Bush is Unelectable According to This Conservative Group [+video]

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Daily Signal By Ken McIntyre. A conservative group’s new online ad portrays Jeb Bush as “unelectable” to the presidency because the Republican presented a public service award to the Democratic favorite, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Clinton received the award, the video emphasizes, on Sept. 10, 2013 – one day short of the first anniversary of the terrorist attacks on U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya, that left four Americans dead and stained her legacy as secretary of state.

(Read more about the conservative group saying Jeb Bush is unelectable HERE)

____________________________________________________________

Hotline’s GOP Presidential Power Rankings

By National Journal Staff. Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio and a surging Scott Walker top Hotline’s new GOP Presidential Power Rankings – in part because they’re that good, and in part because the competition has been so bad.

If you’re going to make mistakes in the presidential race, it’s better to make them early. But Rand Paul and Chris Christie have stumbled so often they’ve slipped from the top-tier slots they occupied in the first round of the Power Rankings we released last month. Walker is moving hard in the opposite direction.

We rank would-be candidates’ chances of winning the Republican nomination based on their individual strengths and weaknesses, political organizations, poll numbers – and on the odds that they even decide to run. No serious candidates are officially running yet. Here’s how it looks if they do:

1. Jeb Bush (Previous ranking: 1)

The former Florida governor stays on top for now, if only because his fundraising prowess — charging $100,000 per ticket at a recent Wall Street event — is unrivaled among his Republican peers. But the past few weeks have revealed chinks in Bush’s armor. For starters, his first major policy speech in Detroit was flat and uninspiring; it wasn’t until the Q&A section that Bush came to life and spoke with energy and urgency about his candidacy. Worse was Bush’s failure to properly vet CTO Ethan Czahor, who was pushed out after reporters found a history of offensive remarks on social media and elsewhere. Bush aspires to be a hip, 21st-century campaigner. But his team’s failure to investigate the background of a major hire — whose 177 tweets could have been reviewed in a matter of minutes — raises serious doubts about the agility and tech savvy of the emerging Bush operation. Remember: His last winning campaign was in 2002, before Twitter even existed.

(Read more from this story HERE)