News

France dispatches carrier battle group to Libya

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French Rafale Fighter
French Rafale Fighter

From the Times of India.

Excerpt:

France on Sunday sent its Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier to Libya to bolster the West’s air campaign against Muammar Gaddafi’s forces.

The French Navy’s flagship set off from the southern naval port of Toulon at 1210 GMT, with 20 warplanes, most them Rafale and older Super Etendard combat jets, as well as helicopters and two E-2 Hawkeye surveillance aircraft.

Tugs pulled it from the wharf as dozens of onlookers watched it depart.

“The aircraft carrier is 24 hours by sea from the Libyan coast but will take 36 to 48 hours to get there, to take the time to load on the fighter jets that will participate in the operations and to hold some landing exercises,” a military source said.

The aircraft carrier was to be escorted by three frigates — the anti-submarine Duplex, the anti-air Forbin and the multi-mission stealth Aconit — and the oil tanker La Meuse, military officials said.

The French naval group was to be protected by a nuclear attack submarine, they added.

French warplanes also continued sorties over Libya early Sunday as part the West’s biggest intervention in the Arab world since the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.

Saturday, French jets spearheaded the West’s assault with four air strikes in Libya, destroying several armoured vehicles of forces loyal to the embattled Libyan strongman.

Sarkozy is, of course, the leader of the French conservatives. And of the free world? France started combat operations in Libya on March 10th!

Learn more about the French Rafale fighters here (they are fairly new), and the Charles de Gaulle here. It is a CVN, not a CV. Extremely capable, and fairly new.

Commentary

Book review of “A Meaningful World”

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From Melissa at Hard-Core Christianity.

Excerpt:

In A Meaningful World: How the Arts and Sciences Reveal the Genius of Nature, Benjamin Wiker and Jonathan Witt argue that, contrary to the nihilism spawned by reductionist materialism, meaning virtually pervades the cosmos. They demonstrate how meaning is evident, not only in the biological realm, but also in chemistry, mathematics, and astrophysics. Wiker and Witt go beyond offering an argument for intelligent design; they set out to prove that the universe is a work of genius intelligence; it is “meaning-full” rather than meaningless. They postulate that, akin to the elaborate, multi-layered works of the literary mastermind William Shakespeare, the universe and the life it contains cannot simply be reduced to their smallest parts; they must be taken as ingeniously contrived, integrated wholes whose parts are often interdependent and viable only within their appropriate context. They liken reductionism to an acid that damages everything it touches, be it man’s brilliant creative expressions or the scientific endeavor to discover the truth about the nature of life and the universe.

This is a good book for people who want to know the difference that objective detection of design makes to a person’s worldview. If there is a design in the universe, there is a designer. And that design comes out in science, literature, art and almost everything else.

News

CBO finds that Obama understated budget deficits by 2.3 TRILLION

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From the Hill. (H/T Michelle Malkin)

Excerpt:

The Congressional Budget Office on Friday released its analysis of President Obama’s 2012 budget proposal and found it does less to rein in deficits and the debt than the administration had estimated.

CBO estimates Obama’s plan would produce 10 years of deficits totaling $9.5 trillion. By 2021, it would increase the debt held by the public to 87 percent of gross domestic product.

The administration, using different methods, estimated budget deficits would total $7.2 trillion over the next 10 years under the 2012 budget. It forecast that total debt in 2021 would be 77 percent of GDP.

The White House also said total deficits over the next decade would be $1.1 trillion more without the recommendations included in Obama’s budget.

Marc Goldwein, policy director for the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, said that CBO has found the effects to be almost nil.

He explained that the difference between the CBO’s $9.5 trillion estimate and OMB’s $7.2 trillion estimate comes from two sources: rosy economic growth assumptions by OMB and offsets for the Medicare doc fix as well as transportation spending OMB did not specify in the budget and which CBO will not factor in.

The most important aspect of CBO’s analysis is that, while OMB claimed the president’s budget “stabilized” the debt at 77 percent of GDP over the 10-year window, CBO estimates the debt will grow throughout the period and end up at 87 percent, he said.

Here’s Michelle Bachmann explaining that since the Democrats took control of the budget in 2007, over 5 trillion dollars has been added to the debt.

The chart Michele is talking about:

Barack Obama Budget Deficit
Barack Obama Budget Deficit

The last Republican budget was in 2006. The recession started in 2007, along with the spending.

Meanwhile, the Obama will attend his fourth party event of the month. It’s party time! Just like in college!