I am one who steers very clear of tinfoil hat conspiracy theories. I often believe liberals/progressives plant stories in order to distract and disrupt, enabling them to pursue their true goals and objectives. That's why I stress the importance of staying focused on the modern liberal socialist policies of the Obama administration, not the sideshow antics.

However, as a former combat commander, I have been trained to look for trends. And I believe we've found a very disturbing one. it seems that back door gun control is in full effect in the United States. Why? Thanks to Obama's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), we can no longer smelt lead from ore in the United States.

What this all means is that after December 2013, any ammunition that will be available to US citizens will have to be imported, which will surely increase the price and possibly come under government control.  Welcome to Obama's backdoor gun control.

Will 2013 be a better year? A number of economic commentators have been saying the worst is behind us. I think they are wrong, and here is why. In most major countries, including the United States, government is growing faster than the private sector.

As Mitchell's Golden Rule explains, when the private sector grows faster than government, prosperity increases, and when government grows faster than the private sector, misery increases.

As can be seen in the accompanying table, in most of the major nations, debt-to-GDP ratios are increasing, because the deficits as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) are greater than economic growth -- meaning these countries are getting deeper in the hole each year.  The US is one of them.

I write this with a Reidel glass of Rosemount Merlot at the ready, toasting the forced departure of an individual who has infested America’s airwaves for 43 years - ever since he joined CBS News in 1962. I won’t be watching Dan Rather’s final broadcast this evening, just as I haven’t watched CBS News for many years. I’ll merely sip my merlot in gratitude for all those bloggers who exposed Rather’s Memogate and did him in. And my friend Brent Bozell.

"Ukraine in Turmoil," was the headline yesterday (11/26) in the New York Times.  And no wonder.

Twenty years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine is slipping back under Kremlin control, and Ukrainians are deeply angry. Their governments's shock decision to opt for Vladimir Putin's Russia and pull out of EU talks on the eve of a historic deal is a dramatic upset to their freedom - and to the European balance of power.

It is the first major defeat for the EU in its eastward march since the fall of Communism. While the region's geopolitics remain fluid, the upset may prove as fateful as the signing of the Treaty of Pereyaslav in 1654 by the Cossack chief Bohdan Khmelnytsky, who turned his back on the West and agreed to let independent Ukraine be absorbed into the Russian Empire.

"Ukraine's government suddenly bowed deeply to the Kremlin. The politics of brutal pressure evidently work," said Sweden's foreign minister Karl Bildt.  Here's how they work.

The Drudge Report has been running hilarious headlines this week on Anthony "Little" Weiner's run for Mayor of New York.  It was one year ago (last week of May, 2011) that Weinergate broke, resulting in the punniest week ever for the HFR.

How could Drudge resist red-siren headlining the news of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's putdown of Weiner's candidacy as PREMATURE ELECTION, and subtitling the headline with an altered quote of Cuomo:  "Shame on us if we erect him."

Nothing is deadlier to a politician than to be a joke in the eyes of the public.  Jay Leno did it to Zero on The Tonight Show Monday night (5/20).  Here's the transcript but be sure and watch the embedded video of Kids Ask Obama the Darndest Questions.

You know the HMS (His Majesty's Ship) Zero is in danger of sinking when the rats of the Libtard Media have started abandoning it.

On Wednesday (5/22), the editorial staff of the New York Times ran an official op-ed condemning "the Obama administration" for "threatening fundamental freedoms of the press."

And yesterday evening (5/23), the entire home page of HuffPo, the Libtard media's main website, was devoted to a demand that Eric Holder resign:  "TIME TO GO"  blared HuffPo.

The only news this week that could possibly be better than Holder soon to be an ex-AG is this.

Mrs. Zero  will be taking an "extended vacation" for the next few months, running away and hiding from the world and shutting up so we won't have to suffer her insufferable busybody hectoring.

Tax revenue in 2013 will be lower (despite the just passed tax increase), and government spending will be higher than forecast. It's an easy prediction -- and this is why.

The capital gains tax rate and the tax on dividends is being raised from 15 percent to 23.5 percent for higher-income people. There are many studies, including those made by the U.S. Treasury, showing that the revenue-maximizing rate on capital gains is less than 15 percent.

Taking a capital gain is often a discretionary event, and it is well documented that capital gains realizations fall as the rate is increased. Thus, this rate increase will be a net revenue loser for the government.

Expenditures will also be far higher than forecast. The simple fact is the Obama administration and Congress, particularly the Democrats, are unable to resist the urge to spend more.