News Roundup & Commentary (12/28/2015)

The New York Times (12/29/2015)
T.S.A. Moves Closer to Rejecting Some State Driver’s Licenses for Travel"The new standards also require that licenses be equipped with “machine readable” technology, like a chip or a magnetic strip, to store all that personal information.

Data from one state should also be made available electronically to all other states, and possibly also to federal authorities."

CommentaryWhat's next.. requiring passports for air travel from one state to another or state border checkpoints for cars?



The Daily Mail (12/28/2015)
Just 300 ISIS jihadis held Ramadi for seven months against Iraqi force of 10,000"The US-led coalition praised the performance of the Iraqi forces in retaking Ramadi, an operation in which it played a significant role, training local forces, arming them and carrying out what it said were 600 air strikes since July."

CommentaryPardon the pun but it doesn't seem we're getting the most bang for our buck with these Iraqi forces. I also noticed there's not much of a Ramadi left from what I'm seeing in the pictures. No electric, water, food nor houses. I'm not expecting any great rush of citizens wishing to return unless all this gets fixed up. Gee I wonder who's going pay for that, don't you?

Besides, according to The New York Times, "Although he declared the city “fully liberated,” another military commander, Maj. Gen. Ismail al-Mahlawi, later said that pockets of resistance remained in about 30 percent of the city."



The New York Times (12/28/2015)
$250,000 a Year Is Not Middle Class"Mrs. Clinton is using a definition of middle class that has long been popular among Democratic policy makers, from her husband to Barack Obama when he was a candidate: any household that makes $250,000 or less a year. Yet this definition is completely out of touch with reality. It also boxes her in. The most recent Census Bureau data showed that median household income — what people in the exact middle of the American spectrum earn — is $53,657."

CommentaryShe's only off by about $3,846 a week. According to her I'm not middle class by any means. Not even lower class. Hell it appears I don't have any class at all!



The Daily Mail (12/27/2015)
Christmas brawl shuts down Kentucky mall: 2,000 unruly youths cause havoc"The chaos came just a day after another brawl at a mall in Florida saw scores of teenagers - including dozens of girls - lash out at each other in the street. There were also minor disturbances on Saturday at shopping centers in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and Long Island, New York."

Commentary Must be the school districts fault for not raising these kids the right way, eh?

It seems these malls have one thing in common. They all are indoor malls. Maybe developers ought to consider ripping the roofs off of them and converting them to outdoor ones.

A common thread among kids is they love to fight. Maybe we shouldn't have ended the 'Selective Service' draft system back in '72'. How about this instead. We send the ones caught fighting to boot camp for 12 weeks then classify them 1A. That way if we need extra military members in the future they would be given first priority and an opportunity to fulfill their passions. I'll give them free clothing, food, lodging and hell even three hundreds bucks a month spending money. Sure beats what taxpayers are now paying for detention faculties to house these little bravehearts. At least they'd being doing something useful before going off to college wreaking further havoc.