By Nathan Barton

Good morning.  First, let us look quickly at some war news.  Last week, we continued to find fighting all over the place.

No boots on the ground?  Really?  Fellow soldiers of the 1st Infantry Division (Mechanized) are being deployed soon.  Specifically, according to Army Times, “The 1st Infantry Division headquarters will deploy to Iraq in the coming weeks as the U.S. expands its war against the Islamic State, officials announced Thursday. The Big Red One, of Fort Riley, Kansas, will be the first division headquarters to go to Iraq since the U.S. withdrawal in 2011.”  This is a headquarters, which means that more troops will almost certainly follow.  The Division’s First Brigade is already in Kuwait.  More and more lies.

Europeans join U.S.-led campaign against Islamic State.  Britain, Denmark and Belgium offered military support but limited their involvement to Iraq.  They understand and refuse to be drawn into the Fuehrer’s hate against Assad and Syria, and what increasingly looks like a plan to permanently partition Syria.

Meanwhile, U.S.-led strikes pressure al Qaeda’s Syria group to join with Islamic State.  Mariam Karouny of Reuters claims that Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, the Nusra Front, is facing mounting pressure from its own members to reconcile with its rival Islamic State and confront a common enemy after U.S.-led air strikes hit both groups this week. Unintended consequences, or is this what the Fuehrer WANTED to happen? Him and the entire military-industrial complex, for both the US and NATO?  Consider this commentary about how defense contractors love the Caliphate.

More jihad on American shores, and deep in the Heartland: and another case where an armed quasi-“civilian” kept a nasty situation from getting far worse. Man recently fired from Okla. factory beheaded a co-worker, and tried to do the same to another worker.  It turns out that the man is a Muslim and had tried to convert the first worker without success. An executive at the food-processing plant, who is a reserve deputy, shot the attacker to stop him.  Far better if SEVERAL of the people in the factory had been armed; far better if the armed citizen had killed the murderer.

Although we don’t hear as much about the civil war that continues to ravage the United [sic] Mexican States, that bloody, multi-sided war continues, with the narco-cartels on one side, the police gangs and politicians on another, the Army on another, and the people sort of caught (dead) in the middle.  Apparently, the US does have “boots on the ground” here – perhaps the Albuquerque Police Department is sending trainers:  the Mexican Army has charged an officer and seven other soldiers with murdering twenty-two civilians in what had been claimed to be a firefight but instead appears to have been an execution or massacre.

Home front:

I heard that someone shot (but did not kill) a cop in Ferguson, Missouri: more on that in the next commentary, I’m sure.

Debate heats up over timing to replace Holder, as with midterm elections looming, the GOP was already seeking leverage points in the nomination process to replace U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.  Maybe, just maybe, they don’t HAVE to?  I know, I know, that means he’d stay on – and further discredit the administration, right?  This is ONE man that certainly echoes a thought by Mark Twain (I believe): “I believe in term limits for politicians: one term in office, one term in jail.”  Six years in prison wouldn’t begin to make up for Holder’s evil actions, even if you took every penny in his accounts AND his pension (which has to be at Congressional levels, now, after “serving” six presidents).

Five myths about billionaires that too many people believe or claim to believe. A governance expert from the Brookings Institution debunks the power of the rich: Can they buy elections? Are they really anti-tax?  Actually, we know that many rich people LOVE taxes and the current tax system, because it is written to let them preserve and expand their wealth in so many ways: taxes are for the “little people.”  Consider Warren Buffett, or George Soros, or the Kerry couple.  As for “buying elections,” well, there are so many ways of doing that – or buying the politicos AFTER they get elected, that it is hard to pin it down.

Redskins fans on the DC-local ‘Daily Show’ tried to revoke their consent after the TV station reneged on promises made to the fans. An attorney for the fans sent a letter to producer revoking the fans’ permission to appear on the show. The TV station and the network and apparently the courts all rejected the fans’ complaint and the program aired.  This sort of stupidity is getting worse and worse: the fans surely knew that the station and producers were NOT to be trusted: the opponents have a simple option if they do not like the team’s name: buy it from the existing owners (there is, ultimately a price for which the team will be sold) and rename it to something more appropriate for the cesspool in which it is based: the Washington Politicians, perhaps, or the Washington Bureaucrats, or the Washington Traitors.

Rand Paul tells religious conservatives they have a friend in liberty. Back in February, Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) told an American Principles Project that his libertarian leanings do not equate to a libertine ideology. The senator sounded emboldened in that message Friday, telling a crowd at the Values Voters summit that liberty is a natural ally to the beliefs held by social conservatives in the United States. Well, Rand and I agree – and especially that liberty is the ONLY condition in which religious people can live without excessive fear of persecution.  Just because we believe that something is WRONG to do does NOT mean that there has to be a human law against it, and we are NOT expected OR authorized to enforce God’s laws.  He WILL do that himself.

The Anti-Vaccination Epidemic? As of Aug. 29, about 600 cases of measles have occurred in the U.S. in 2014: the largest outbreak in 20 years — in a country that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared measles-free in 2000… I think that it is not so much an epidemic (which it really isn’t yet) due to people against vaccination as it is a combination of mistrust of government and medical authorities, a failure of the vaccination system, and people who are so poorly educated that they cannot and will not think and act for themselves to prevent contagion from spreading.

Obama administration has paid WebMD to propagandize Obummercare. WebMD is the Wikipedia of general health information for the English-speaking world. That’s a rough comparison – WebMD also represents itself as an advocate for patients and a current events tracker for health issues. But it nevertheless collects more site visits than any other U.S. health information resource. But now we MUST question ALL of the information posted on it, because it has sold out to the FedGov and cannot be trusted to be honest and impartial.  What a disappointment.

High School students invented a “no-roll-back” device for hand-powered wheelchairs which could win them $100,000, The Blaze reports.

Mama’s Note: Stories like this give me hope for the future. Not all of our young people are insane.

Nathan: I see no reason for them NOT to be able to mass produce and market this whether they win the big prize or not.  I suspect that their government-run, tax-funded school has some sort of rules against “commercial enterprises,” but what they really need is a chapter of Future Business Leaders of America and more mentors like the grandfather. For that matter, Glen Beck’s 1791 Supply Company might be a sponsor for them.

Mama’s Note: Didn’t even give any thought to the “prize,” just the idea that there are some young people who actually still can and do think.