Cops Use GPS Cannon to Track Your Car (+video)

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Photo Credit: WND Police cars across the country are being equipped with a system for tagging and tracking vehicles using Global Positioning System, or GPS, technology.

The StarChase system installs into the grille of a police car a compressed-air cannon, which can fire 4.5-inch GPS projectiles that stick to a parked or fleeing vehicle, using a high-grade adhesive. The GPS tags then enable the patrol car to back off, while computers at police headquarters track the suspect car’s movements.

The system was designed to eliminate the need for high-speed car chases, which are blamed for 360 deaths every year, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Trevor Fischbach, president of the Virginia Beach-Va.-based StarChase, told Industry Leaders magazine the system enables police to keep tabs on a fleeing suspect and plan how to apprehend him strategically, rather than race wildly after him.

“The agencies using StarChase report back that officer behavior across the entire on-duty patrol is totally different,” Fischbach commented. “Normally, when officers hear ‘pursuit in progress’ over their radios, they fly to the scene. StarChase reduces that adrenaline. Now, when they hear ‘StarChase’ over the radio, they stay put and wait for further instructions from dispatch.”

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Mom Told By Judge To Stop Breastfeeding (+video)

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Photo Credit: opposingviews.com A woman from Northampton County, Pa., became angry after being told by a judge that she could no longer breastfeed her 10-month-old daughter.

Jessica Moser, who has been in a custody battle with her daughter Jasmine’s father, was ordered by a family court judge two weeks ago to stop breastfeeding Jasmine so the child can spend two days overnight with her dad, WFMZ-TV reported.

Pumping breast milk is not an option because Moser says she can’t pump enough for two days, and Jasmine will not drink from a bottle.

“I’m feeling frustrated, hurt,” Moser told WFMZ-TV. “I’m trying to keep myself from crying, it’s very emotional.”

Moser says she has been the only one taking care of Jasmine since she was born last December.

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China Loosens Its One-Child Policy (+video)

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Photo Credit: Carlos Barria / ReutersThe Chinese government announced on Nov. 15 that it will loosen its notorious family-planning scheme, commonly known as the one-child policy. The new regulations will allow couples in which at least one parent is an only child to have two offspring. Xinhua, China’s official news agency, said the reform was designed to “steadily adjust and improve family planning policies.”

The reform is part of what the Chinese government earlier this week referred to as “fine-tuning” of its restrictive family-planning policy, which was unveiled in 1979. (Generally speaking, the scheme limited urban families to one child but allowed rural couples to have more than one child in certain cases.) The curtailing of reproductive freedom, its supporters contend, meant that 400 million fewer Chinese were born, allowing for an unprecedented economic boom over the past 30-plus years.

But critics have assailed the policy for both the human-rights abuses it gave rise to—forced abortions and sterilizations, to name just two—as well as its social costs, which are now multiplying. China today faces a dramatic increase in its elderly population, along with too few young people to take care of all these retirees. The nation must also contend with an alarming gender imbalance because some parents have terminated pregnancies of female fetuses in order to ensure a favored boy as their sole child. By some estimates, China will have an extra 25 million young males by 2020.

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Modern Day Cannibalism? Scientists Plan to Produce Gelatin from Human DNA

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Photo Credit: ALAMYReports last week that researchers could be just six months away from producing the world’s first artificial meat, using thousands of stem cells bred in a laboratory, sent a wave of fascination around the world. Yet there is an even more ghoulish prospect ahead: the idea of eating artificial food made from humans.

This may sound like science fiction, yet a new technique for making gelatin from human DNA is attracting “increasing interest from research and industrial circles”, according to a new study by scientists from the Beijing University of Chemical Technology. The paper, published recently in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry, revealed that successful experiments had been carried out in which human genes were inserted into a strain of yeast to “grow” large amounts of recombinant (genetically engineered) human gelatin.

Gelatin has a long history of use as a gelling agent by the food industry – and, according to the journal’s publisher, the American Chemical Society, human-derived gelatin “could become a substitute for some of the 300,000 tons of animal-based gelatin produced annually for desserts, marshmallows, candy and innumerable other products”.

There would be safety issues to consider. When an ice-cream parlour in London began selling flavours derived from human breast milk earlier this year, it was soon withdrawn for hygiene reasons. The Food Standards Agency said: “There would be a restriction on the sale or import of this type of product, because it would require a pre-market safety assessment.”

However, scientists do not believe that the new gelatin product would pose any risk. “There’s a very high degree of similarity between gelatin that comes from a cow, a pig, and a human,” explains Dr David Olsen, senior scientist at FibroGen, which specialises in recombinant gelatins. “So due to their similarities, I can’t see why there would be a health risk to it. It’s a very similar protein to what people have been ingesting for many years.”

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Five Jaw-Dropping Quotes from the Catastrophically Awful Obamacare Press Conference

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President Obama had three goals coming into yesterday’s press conference: First, to shift responsibility for the Obamacare fiasco onto insurers by saddling them with mid-implementation changes. Second, to quell Democratic panic on Capitol Hill. And third, to nudge the media toward turning the page on his healthcare debacle. He accomplished none of these things. Indeed, he made things worse — sinking his presidency to a new nadir. A few jaw-dropping quotes:

(1) “What we’re also discovering is that insurance is complicated to buy.” Really, Mr. President? You’re “discovering” this minor detail three years after you forced through a massive, unpopular overhaul of the entire system? This statement is a breathtaking admission of abject dereliction and incompetence. ABC News’ Rick Klein also notes that the administration’s long-time talking points assured skeptical consumers that Obamacare would be easy to buy. That’s what all of the “just like Expedia!” comparisons were about. Now, with millions getting booted from their plans, with a horribly broken website exacerbating the pain, Obama suddenly sees the light. A disgrace.

2) “What we’re essentially saying is the Affordable Care Act is not going to be the factor in what happens with folks in the individual market.” Points for candor, I guess. Here the president explicitly spells out the motivation behind his so-called “fix” — which even liberal wonks and industry experts are admitting are unworkable and will make the law’s problems worse. The goal is not to repair the damage; the goal is to scapegoat someone else for the Obamacare wreckage that awaits. Insurance companies are the new villains. Insurers, who’ve been in bed with Obama on this law from the beginning, aren’t going to take the demonization lying down. Obama is decreeing a 13th-hour disruption that they cannot comply with at this stage, and that will throw their finances into chaos. They will, in turn, hike premiums even more next year. This is the death spiral, ladies and gentlemen. And Obama will try to stand to the side and point at his former Obamacare partners as the culprits. It’s shameful. And I suspect it won’t work. His credibility is in the tank.

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Obama Announces One Year Optional Delay In Requiring Insurance Companies To Cancel Policies (+video)

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Photo Credit: Breitbart By David Espo and Julie Pace.

Bowing to pressure, President Barack Obama on Thursday announced changes under his health care law to give insurance companies the option to keep offering consumers plans that would otherwise be canceled.

The administrative changes are good for just one year, though senior administration officials said they could be extended if problems with the law persist. Obama announced the changes at the White House.

“This fix won’t solve every problem for every person, but it’s going to help a lot of people,” the president said.

But it was unclear if state officials, who would have to implement the changes, would go along. Insurers also had concerns.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners said the president’s proposal could undermine the new health insurance markets his law seeks to create.

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‘Fairy Tale’ Continues as Obama Proposes Extralegal Obamacare Fix

By Daniel Halper.

Earlier this week, former President Bill Clinton advised President Obama to “honor the commitment” he made and to allow Americans to keep their health care plans, if they like them. That was a central promise Obama made when he sold Obamacare, but one that turned out not to be true when Obamacare began to be implemented last month.

“So I personally believe, even if it takes a change to the law, the president should honor the commitment the federal government made to those people and let them keep what they got,” Clinton in an interview released Tuesday.

Now President Obama is taking Clinton’s advice and trying to honor that commitment. In remarks today at the White House today, Obama said, “I completely get how upsetting this can be” to lose insurance plans that I promised Americans would be able to keep. “To those Americans, I hear you loud and clear.”

But there’s a catch with president’s proposed solution. The president is not proposing that the law be changed to allow all health insurance plans grandfathered into Obamacare’s eligibility requirements.

No, instead the White House is saying that it will use “enforcement discretion” to allow illegal health insurance plans to be able to still be sold. That is, the Obama administration will not enforce the penalty on individuals for not having eligible health insurance plans and they’ll allow the insurance companies to still sell so-called bad plans — plans they technically can’t sell under Obamacare.

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Miller Calls Out Begich Duplicity On ANWR

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Photo Credit: SenateDemocratsFairbanks, Alaska. November 14, 2013 –  In response to the junior senator’s statement earlier this week on US Interior Secretary Sally Jewell’s Speech before the National Press Club, US Senate candidate Joe Miller today highlighted the duplicity of Mark Begich’s position on resource development in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
 
Interior Secretary Sally Jewell re-asserted her insistence that ANWR “should remain off-limits to development,” because “there are some places too special to develop.” In return, Senator Begich pledged to “fight any effort by the Obama Administration to make ANWR off limits.”

“I think it is worth noting that Mark Begich’s way of fighting for ANWR development includes voting to confirm Sally Jewell as Secretary of Interior.” Miller said. “It is a mystery to me how Mr. Begich can imagine that he has any credibility on this issue when he is, at least in part, personally responsible for elevating the very people to power who are blocking access to Alaska’s resources.”

Last year the state’s oil production hit a record low of 526,000 barrels a day, down from its 1988 peak when 2.1 million barrels of oil flowed through the Alaska Pipeline daily. Alaska has fallen to fourth in total oil production among the 50 states.

 
It should also be noted that Mr. Begich’s own party platform explicitly opposes ANWR development, as does his choice for president, Barack Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Secretary Jewell, and EPA administrator Regina McCarthy, who Begich also voted to confirm.

Alaskans overwhelmingly support the development of ANWR, but what they are coming to realize is that, as in the case of Begich’s 60th and deciding vote for ObamaCare, the Obama-Reid agenda comes first.

Miller concluded, “Mark Begich runs ads in the state claiming to be ‘as independent as Alaska.’ What he apparently means is that his actions in DC are independent from his rhetoric at home.”  
 

Obama Likens Health Care Law To Forcing People to ‘Buy a New Car’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: AP Photo/Charles DharapakBy Melanie Hunter.

President Barack Obama on Thursday compared the grandfather clause in Obamacare to telling people they have to buy a new car right now even if they can’t afford it – when cars were first required to have seat belts or air bags.

“So what we’re saying now is if you’re buying a new car, you’ve got to have a seat belt. Well, the problem with the grandfather clause that we put in place is it’s almost like we said to folks, ‘You gotta buy a new car, even if you can’t afford it right now,’” he said during Thursday’s press conference on how to fix the Affordable Care Act.

“And sooner or later, folks are going to start trading in their old cars, but if their life circumstance is such that for now at least, they want to keep their old car even if the new car is better, we should be able to give them that option, and that’s what we want to do,” Obama said.

According to healthcare.gov, grandfathered health insurance plans “are those that were in existence on March 23, 2010 and haven’t been changed in ways that substantially cut benefits or increase costs for consumers. Insurers must notify customers with these policies that they have a grandfathered plan.”

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Photo Credit: APObama: ‘I Must Win Back Credibility’

By Ben Shapiro.

On Thursday, President Obama took to the White House podium to explain that he would be unilaterally allowing insurance companies to continue selling health insurance plans Americans liked and wanted to keep. Obamacare has already wiped away those plans, and will undoubtedly drive up rates in both the now-broken individual market and the high-risk pool of people likely to enter the Obamacare exchanges.

President Obama was half an hour late to his press conference, which was supposed to begin at 11:35 a.m. ET. During his comments, he never called Obamacare by that name; instead, he reverted to terming it the Affordable Care Act. “Today I want to update the American people on our efforts to implement and improve the Affordable Care Act,” Obama said.

From there, Obama turned to the horrendously low Obamacare enrollment numbers. He noted that 106,000 Americans had selected a health insurance plan. “Is that as high a number as we’d like?” Obama said. “Absolutely not. But it does mean that people want affordable healthcare.” After blaming the website again, Obama said, “there’s no question that there’s real demand for quality affordable health insurance.”

Later, when asked by National Journal’s Major Garrett why he had continued to pump the website just one week before launch, and whether he had been informed about the technical problems, President Obama claimed ignorance. “I was not informed directly that the website was not working,” Obama said. “If I’d been informed, I wouldn’t have gone out and said ‘The website is going to be great.’” He added, “I don’t think I’m stupid enough” to compare the website to Amazon or Travelocity knowing it would fail.

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State Insurance Regulators ‘Concerned’ about Obama’s Proposed Health Care Fix

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Photo Credit: ThinkstockAt a Thursday press conference, President Obama, in attempt to calm the backlash from millions of Americans losing their insurance coverage, announced that insurers would no longer be bound by the requirements of his health care law for plans currently in effect.

He said that now the issue would be up to insurers and state regulators.

But Jim Donelon, president of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (the organization representing state insurance commissioners), said that state regulators are “concerned” about Obama’s announcement and aren’t clear on how it could be workable.

Here is the full statement from Donelon, emailed through a NAIC spokesman:

We share the President’s and Congress’ concerns about policy cancellations and issues including gaps in coverage that may result from them, and fully understand the anxiety of the residents of our states who have received these notices. This anxiety is especially heightened given the issues with the federal exchange.

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Health Law Rollout’s Stumbles Draw Parallels to Bush’s Hurricane Katrina Response

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Photo Credit: Gabriella Demczuk/The New York TimesBarack Obama won the presidency by exploiting a political environment that devoured George W. Bush in a second term plagued by sinking credibility, failed legislative battles, fractured world relations and revolts inside his own party.

President Obama is now threatened by a similar toxic mix. The disastrous rollout of his health care law not only threatens the rest of his agenda but also raises questions about his competence in the same way that the Bush administration’s botched response to Hurricane Katrina undermined any semblance of Republican efficiency.

But unlike Mr. Bush, who faced confrontational but occasionally cooperative Democrats, Mr. Obama is battling a Republican opposition that has refused to open the door to any legislative fixes to the health care law and has blocked him at virtually every turn. A contrite-sounding Mr. Obama repeatedly blamed himself on Thursday for the failed health care rollout, which he acknowledged had thrust difficult burdens on his political allies and hurt Americans’ trust in him.

“It’s legitimate for them to expect me to have to win back some credibility on this health care law in particular and on a whole range of these issues in general,” Mr. Obama said. The president did not admit to misleading people about whether they could keep their insurance, but again expressed regret that his assurances turned out to be wrong.

“To those Americans, I hear you loud and clear,” Mr. Obama said as he announced changes intended to allow some people to keep their insurance.

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