Doctors' Full Page Ad Against Obamacare

A full-page advertisement, authored by gastroenterologist Farid Naffah and signed by more than 40 other Ohio physicians, warns newspaper readers in the state that Obamacare "is an administrative and fiscal disaster, bringing higher health care costs, a severe physician shortage and the rationing of medical services," reports the Daily Caller.

In the letter, the doctor argues that, “If all you know about Obamacare is that it will provide insurance to 32 million Americans who don’t have it; that patients with pre-existing conditions may not be excluded from coverage; that certain screening procedures are offered without co-payments, and that children may remain on their parents’ plan until the age of twenty-six, you would have no reason to fear or oppose it.”

Economic Recoveries: Reagan vs. Obama

"Obama's policies have produced a smaller economic recovery than any since World War II," argue Investor's Business Daily editors. "If you want to see what a really huge recovery looks like, take a look at the one President Reagan oversaw."  IBD adds this graphic (enlarged version here):

Malkin: Planned Parenthood's Mammogram Sham

"Planned Parenthood's 'women's health' mantle is a sham," writes Michelle Malkin. "An undercover investigation of 30 Planned Parenthood clinics in 27 different states, conducted by pro-life group Live Action, confirmed that the abortion provider does not perform breast cancer screenings. We don't provide those services whatsoever, a staffer at Planned Parenthood of Arizona admitted. Planned Parenthood's Comprehensive Health Center clinic in Overland Park, Kan., acknowledged: "We actually don't have a, um, mammogram machine, at our clinics." But don't just take Live Action's word for it..."

Read her full article.

Law Prof Warns of New Assaults to Free Speech

"Free speech is dying in the Western World," writes GWU law professor Jonathan Turley, who catalogues efforts to limit free speech in Europe and the U.S.

Such efforts focus not on the right to speak but on the possible reaction to speech — a fundamental change in the treatment of free speech in the West. The much-misconstrued statement of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes that free speech does not give you the right to shout fire in a crowded theater is now being used to curtail speech that might provoke a violence-prone minority. Our entire society is being treated as a crowded theater, and talking about whole subjects is now akin to shouting “fire!”

Turley identifies 4 rationales used by speech-restricting advocates:

Sowell on Ann Coulter's book, "Mugged"

Thomas Sowell heaps praise on Ann Coulter and her new book.

If you are sick and tired of seeing politicians and others playing the race card, or if you are just disgusted with the grossly dishonest way racial issues in general are portrayed, then you should get a copy of Ann Coulter's new book, "Mugged." Its subtitle is: "Racial Demagoguery from the Seventies to Obama."

Few things are as rare as an honest book about race. This is one of the very few, and one of the very best.

Friess: More Fat Cats, Please!

"What the 'supposed 99 percent' don't realize," writes businessman Foster Friess in Newsweek, "is that they are better off if there are more fat cats, not less."

He cites a few examples of fat cats' largess: David Koch's $100 million gift to cancer research. Bill Gates' $28 billion to global health initiatives, which saved an estimated 5.8 million lives in Africa alone. Mark Zuckerberg's $100 million to New Jersey public education.

Friess argues that asking fat cats to pay higher taxes only "enlarges government" and "creates divisiveness."

For example, if you want to buy a Cadillac and I want to buy a Ford, we go to our respective dealers and we’re both happy. But if the government starts issuing automobiles, suddenly you and I become political enemies over how we position our favorite car. We have so many government activities that divide us. If it were left to the private sector, people would not have those animosities.

An enlarged government also leads to waste. Who in their right mind would voluntarily contribute to any of these "investments" made by our own government:

• $700,000 for a pig flatulence study in Thailand,
• $500,000 to study shrimp on a treadmill,
• $1.9 million to study the drinking habits of prostitutes on the job ... in China?

He doesn't say, but could have, that free-market capitalism, and the fat cats it creates, have lifted more people out of poverty throughout the world than any redistributionist government system.

Shouldn't Matt Damon be a Little Embarrassed?

There's a little surprise behind Matt Damon's latest flick, "Promised Land." No, the surprise isn't that the movie, according to Phelim McAleer, "attacks fracking—a new way to get oil and gas out of the ground, which has become the latest villain of the environmental movement." It's that the film "is being financed by New Image Abu Dahbi—a company fully owned by the government of the United Ara Emirates."

The UAE is a small Arab kingdom with a spotty record on freedom-of-speech issues and whose economy is completely dependent on selling oil and gas. The UAE stands to lose trillions of dollars if fracking leads to increasing energy independent for the United States and Europe, as many analysts predict.

Media outlets don't seem bothered by this revelation, certainly not to the extent they were bothered by another recent movie release.

“Won’t Back Down,” a film just released at the weekend, casts a cold eye on the union-dominated public-school system. Starring Oscar winner Viola Davis and Maggie Gyllenhaal, it is an emotional, heartwarming tale of parents succeeding against the odds.

But many reviewers have focused on attacking the funding for the film.

The NPR reviewer called it a “propaganda piece . . . from a conservative mogul.” Slate.com’s critic called it an “agenda-driven piece of crap . . . financed by conservative Christian billionaire Phil Anschutz.”

Strange, next to the utter lack of curiosity about funding for “Promised Land.”

Until the media start applying consistent standards and asking difficult questions about that film’s funding, we’ll never know if Matt Damon has gone from producing works of art to a new, more sinister type of film — a very different “movie on demand."

Incidentally, McAleer, a documentary film producer is currently working on "FrackNation," a new documentary telling the truth about fracking. Watch for it.