Month: October 2016

Study: Mixing alcohol and energy drinks ‘has the SAME effect on the brain as taking cocaine’

Mixing energy drinks with alcohol alters the activity in the adolescent brain – which lasts into adulthood, according to a new study conducted at Indiana’s Purdue University. The brain chemistry of mice given high levels of caffeine drinks mixed with alcohol was similar as those given cocaine. Energy drinks, like Red Bull and Monster, contain as much as ten times the caffeine as soft drinks and are often marketed to teenagers. However, little is known about the health effects of the drinks, especially when they are consumed with alcohol. Dr. Richard van Rijn and his team at Purdue looked at the effects of mixing highly caffeinated energy drinks with alcohol in adolescent mice. “It seems the two substances (high energy drinks and alcohol) together push them over a limit that causes changes in their behavior and changes the neurochemistry in their brains,” he said. “We’re clearly seeing effects of the combined drinks that we would not see if drinking one or the other.” But these alcohol studies cannot be performed in adolescent boys and girls for ethical and legal reasons. But, past research has shown the changes seen in the brains of mice exposed to drugs are very similar to the changes seen in human beings. The Purdue researchers found repeated exposure to the caffeinated alcohol caused the mice to become increasingly more active – similar to the mice that were given cocaine. They also detected increased levels of a protein called FosB, which is a marker of long-term changes in brain chemistry and is elevated in those abusing drugs like cocaine. Dr. van Rijn added, “That’s one reason why it’s so difficult for drug users to quit because of these lasting changes in the brain.” The mice given alcohol also showed a slight tolerance to cocaine in their adult years, the researchers noted. Graduate student Meridith Robins, who worked on the study, found that mice exposed to caffeinated alcohol during adolescence were less sensitive to the pleasurable effects of cocaine as they grew older. This means they would need to use more cocaine to get the same “high.” Dr. van Rijn said: “Mice that had been exposed to alcohol and caffeine were somewhat numb to the rewarding effects of cocaine as adults. “Mice that were exposed to highly caffeinated alcoholic drinks later found cocaine wasn’t as pleasurable. “They may then use more cocaine to get the same effect.” The Purdue study was published in the journal, PLOS One.

Load of manure dumped outside Ohio County DNC HQ

A massive pile of manure was dumped on the doorstep of the Warren County Democrats in Ohio – and police are searching for the culprit. It sounds like one of those shovel-ready jobs President Obama is always talking about. A spokesperson for the party told Fox 18 that it took three trucks to move all the manure. That’s a whole lot of fertilizer – even for Democrats. I wonder if Hillary Clinton was giving a speech nearby? “What reasonable person thinks this is OK???” party chair Bethe Goldenfield wrote on a Cincinnati-area Facebook political page. “I won’t be responding to anyone who thinks this is acceptable behavior. It is ILLEGAL.” Police said the entire incident was captured on video — but so far no one has been arrested.

HAHA!!  To see a photo of this pile of dung, and read the rest of this funny story by Todd Starnes, click on the text above.     🙂

French: The FBI’s October Surprise Is Devastating for Hillary Clinton

The Democratic presidential nominee is again under criminal investigation less than two weeks before the election. Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/441552/fbi-hillary-clinton-email-server-investigation-reopened-over-new-emails On Friday afternoon, the FBI uncorked the mother of all October surprises, announcing in a letter to Congress that it has re-opened its investigation of Hillary Clinton’s “personal email server.” The reason? During an “unrelated investigation”* it uncovered e-mails that “appear to be pertinent” to Clinton’s case. It is seeking to determine whether the e-mails contain classified information and can’t yet determine their significance. Stripped of the legalese, it means that Hillary is back in legal jeopardy. The FBI doesn’t investigate and recommend enforcement actions against computer servers. It holds people accountable, and Hillary is the person most responsible for her own e-mail. I have three initial thoughts. First, these e-mails must be prima facie problematic. There is no way the FBI publicly re-opens this investigation on the eve of a presidential election if the new e-mails contained information about yoga routines or wedding plans. Moreover, the very fact that the FBI is trying to determine whether the e-mails contain classified information indicates that their content is setting off alarm bells in the Bureau. In other words, this is serious. Second, the e-mails could have an impact on the decision whether to charge Hillary or her aides either under the Espionage Act or for obstructing the initial investigation, perhaps by lying to the FBI. Recall that Comey previously exonerated Clinton under a made-up legal standard, but if there are more e-mails — and if Clinton or her aides worked to conceal their existence from the FBI — then their conduct may even rise to the FBI’s arbitrary, higher threshold of lawlessness. At the very least, it renders the FBI’s previous decision not to prosecute even more suspect. Third, unless the FBI announces the investigation and clears her within the span of basically one work week (an action that would be deeply problematic on its own terms), Hillary’s closing argument to the American people is going to be that Donald Trump is so dangerous that it’s worth gambling your vote on a woman under current criminal investigation. Will there be any Democrats who will urge Clinton to step aside?

Of course not, David.  Attorney David French was the author of that piece.

Haunted forests around the world

Thanks to fairy tales and legends of the Blair Witch variety, a dense, dark forest can elicit feelings of dread. And while most spooky moments can be chalked up to our campfire imaginations running wild, some places around the world carry legitimately terrifying histories that are much harder to brush off with a nervous laugh. From woods with high-pitched screams echoing through the trees to the tragic site of hundreds of deaths, these seven forests are certainly not for the faint of heart. To see this list, click here.

Happy Halloween!    🙂

Immigration Officer: Border Deluge of Illegal Aliens ‘Is The Worst We’ve Ever Seen’

The flood of illegal aliens pouring across the southern border has become a “crisis situation” and is even worse than the record 2014 border surge, says an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer from El Paso, Texas with more than ten years of service to the agency. The ICE agency has no room to house the arriving surge, so many illegals are being released into American communities where they disappear “into the wind never to be seen by us again,” the agent said. The agent—who spoke to Breitbart News exclusively on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation by the administration—detailed how his overrun agency has been forced to pull agents from their mission of removing criminal aliens from the nation’s interior, so that they can help process the cross-border influx of illegal aliens. The illegal aliens, mostly from Central America, are using President Barack Obama’s policies to request asylum, work permits and green cards. Whereas unlawful aliens traditionally sought to evade border agents in hopes of reaching U.S. cities where they could illegally fill American jobs, reports document how many of these new migrants are now turning themselves in to border patrol agents believing they’ll be allowed to stay permanently. This 2016 influx of migrants from Central America had exceeded 117,000 by Oct. 1, marking a new record..

Unreal..  Consider this today’s glaring proof of why it is absolutely critical that we BUILD THE WALL NOW!!!…and put U.S. Army National Guard troops physically ON the border with Mexico.  Then, those troops need to stay ON that border until that wall/fence is finally built above, and below ground (to prevent tunneling)…however long that takes.  Simultaneously, we need to be deporting illegals already here by the hundreds of thousands (and yes, you read that correctly), paying particular attention to known gang members (i.e. MS-13, etc.), already convicted criminal aliens, and those determined by an immigration judge to be deported…regardless of age or gender.  And, that’s just the bare minimum, folks.  To do anything less is not only foolish, but it’s contrary to our country’s national security and economic interests.  To read the rest of this article, click on the text above…

FBI Investigation Into Bribery With Clinton Foundation Spans Nation, Multiple Field Offices, Says WSJ

FBI investigators from across the country have been following leads into reports of bribery involving the Clinton Foundation. Multiple field offices have been involved in the investigation. A report in Sunday’s Wall Street Journal (WSJ) by Devlin Barrett revealed that agents assigned to the New York field office have been carrying the bulk of the work in investigating the Clinton Foundations. They have received assistance from the FBI field office in Little Rock according to “people familiar with the matter, the WSJ reported. Other offices, including Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., have been collecting evidence to regarding “financial crimes or influence-peddling.” As far back as February 2016, FBI agents made presentation to the Department of Justice (DOJ), the WSJ’s sources stated. “The meeting didn’t go well,” they wrote. While some sources said the FBI’s evidence was not strong enough, others believed the DOJ had no intention from the start of going any further. Barrett wrote that the DOJ officials were “stern, icy and dismissive of the case.” Barrett wrote, “’That was one of the weirdest meetings I’ve ever been to,’ one participant told others afterward, according to people familiar with the matter.” It appears there was rift between the FBI and the DOJ with how to move forward with the investigation. Agents in the Washington office were directed to focus on a separate issue relating to the actions of former Virginia Governor and Clinton Foundation Board Member Terry McAuliffe. Agents inside the FBI believed they could build a stronger case if the investigation of McAuliffe and the foundation were combined. FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe seemed to be caught in the middle of the fight between DOJ officials who appeared to want to slow down or shut down the investigation and FBI agents who were eager to pour more resources into the investigation. Barrett wrote, “’Are you telling me that I need to shut down a validly predicated investigation?’ Mr. McCabe asked, according to people familiar with the conversation. After a pause, the official replied, ‘Of course not,’ these people said.” Some of the WSJ sources told Barrett that a “stand down” order had been given to the FBI agents by McCabe. Others denied that no such order was given. Preet Bharara, an assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, appears to have taken in interest in moving forward from the DOJ side, the Daily Caller’s Richard Pollock reported in August.

Wow…

Is video of ‘strange thing’ in Alaska river a Loch Ness monster-like creature?

Are the icy waters of an Alaska river home to a Loch Ness monster-like creature? Bureau of Land Management staffer Craig McCaa was recording video of the Chena River Oct 18 when he saw a 12-to-15-foot-long object swirling back and forth in the current for several minutes, the Alaska Dispatch News reports. McCaa posted the video on the BLM-Fairbanks video page where speculation is runing rampant over what the creepy object might be, the paper reports. As of Saturday the video has been viewed more than 178,000 times. “I initially thought, and several people thought, it could be some rope that snagged on the bottom of the river with chunks of ice,” McCaa said. “Other people have mentioned everything from sea monster to giant sturgeon.” McCaa said he shot the video from a safe distance on a bridge. “I don’t know what I would have done if I had come by in a canoe or something,” he told the Dispatch. “But looking from it above on the University Avenue bridge I didn’t feel too threatened.” Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologist Klaus Wuttig told the Dispatch he thinks it’s probably just rope stuck to a bridge pier that floated to the surface because of ice particles.

Things that make you go, “Hmmmmm….”  To see the video in question, click on the text above.

Army says 2-star general committed suicide on Alabama Army post

The Army said Friday it has determined that suicide was the cause of death of a two-star general who was found dead in his home on a military base in Alabama. Maj. Gen. John Rossi was found dead July 31 at Redstone Arsenal, two days before he was to assume command of Army Space and Missile Defense Command. He is the first Army general to commit suicide on active duty since record-keeping began in 2000, according to the Army. Military suicides soared earlier this decade and remain a major source of concern; they typically have affected lower-ranking military members. Rossi, a West Point academy graduate and an air defense artillery officer by training, had just moved onto Redstone Arsenal and was scheduled to be promoted to lieutenant general when he took command of Space and Missile Defense Command. A written statement by the Army on Friday made no mention of what might have prompted Rossi to take his own life. The Rossi family issued a statement through the Army expressing thanks for wide support and urging those who may need suicide-prevention help to seek it immediately. “To the Army, he was Maj. Gen. Rossi,” it said. “To us, he was John — husband, dad.” “We ask for the time and space to grieve in private, and for the Army to continue to better understand suicide, and to help and treat those in need,” the family statement added. “For our family, this has been an incredibly painful time, and we ask that you continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers. To all the other families out there, to the man or woman who may be facing challenging times, please seek assistance immediately. Compassionate and confidential assistance is available.”

Indeed..  What a horrible story..  And, our prayers definitely go out to the Rossi family.  Normally we don’t do the human interest stories here at The Daily Buzz..  But, having spent a couple years as a “field grade” Army officer in the Army’s “Space and Missile Defense Command” (SMDC) which MG Rossi was slated to take command of, this story is particularly hard hitting on a personal level.  And, I’ve known several soldiers personally who have committed suicide.  It’s truly awful..and a problem that most Americans aren’t really aware just how big of a problem it is in the military.

Tancredo: Hillary Clinton Should Step Down to Avoid Constitutional Crisis

The announcement by the FBI that it has reopened the criminal investigation into Hillary’s email server is more than an embarrassment to the Clinton presidential campaign. It is a ticking time bomb that could do more damage to our country than the Watergate scandal if allowed to explode. The Watergate investigation revealed Nixon’s attempted cover-up of the June 1972 break-in at Democratic National Committee HQ at the Watergate Hotel. It was the cover-up that led to Nixon’s downfall, not the break-in. The FBI investigation has already revealed Hillary Clinton’s perjury, and a new investigation of additional classified documents shared through her personal email server can lead to criminal indictments—unless the FBI itself wants to fall on its sword in a far more visible and viral cover-up than we have seen to date. It is not at all clear that the FBI has not already been hopelessly compromised: Did the FBI have knowledge of Barack Obama’s participation in the illegal email server and the president’s lies about it to the public? Who will investigate the investigators? What happens if Clinton wins the election and is then indicted on criminal charges prior to January 20? What happens if the FBI again fails to recommend criminal charges but the House of Representatives finds her in contempt of Congress and asks the Department of Justice to prosecute her for perjury? What happens if the Congress holds up all presidential appointments and all Democrat legislation until a nonpartisan Special Prosecutor is appointed? The likelihood of a constitutional crisis grows each day that Clinton continues to lie about her classified emails and continues to avoid criminal penalties for her possible perjury. If Clinton wins the election and is sworn in as President, she can only be removed by impeachment by the House and conviction by the Senate. If Democrats win majority control of the Senate on November 8, Clinton could defy the Congress and either refuse to appoint a Special Prosecutor or appoint someone who would rubber stamp her criminal behavior. The patriotic thing for Hillary Clinton to do would be to step aside and let the DNC select Tim Kaine as the party’s presidential candidate. But since that would almost certainly lead to a tidal wave of support for Donald Trump, that will not happen. The national Democrat Party is not famous for its fidelity to constitutional norms. The difference between the Watergate scandal and the Clinton perjury scandal is that in 1974, a delegation of Republican members of Congress went to Nixon and told him point blank he must resign because they would vote to remove him if he didn’t. Republicans suffered devastating losses in the 1974 elections because of the Nixon resignation—even though no members of Congress were implicated in Nixon’s cover-up. In the Watergate scandal, Republicans in Congress put the truth and the rule of law above politics. Democrats do not behave that way; Democrats put politics above everything, including the Constitution. Besides, the Clintons have been here before and survived. In 1998, Bill Clinton committed perjury — and obstruction of justice – and got away with it because, as Democrat Senators admitted publicly, they would not remove one of their own for merely telling a lie. After all, they said, Bill Clinton’s lie was not about policy, it was about sex with a White House intern. The national media will of course do its best to deflect public attention away from the new FBI criminal investigation. Indeed, that is already happening. Like liberal newspapers across the country, The Denver Post considers it necessary to link the FBI story to the Associated Press survey of public opinion on the veracity of the “groping” allegations against Trump. The media has not yet managed to find any credible allegation of criminal wrong-doing against Trump, but is working hard to divert public attention away from Clinton’s newest scandal. A constitutional crisis is not entirely avoided even if Hillary Clinton loses to Donald Trump on November 8. Let’s suppose President Trump asks newly appointed Attorney General Rudy Giuliani to appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate Clinton’s misuse of a private email server. A Democrat-controlled Senate could obstruct that investigation and threaten all kinds of retribution against the new President. Thus, in typical Washington fashion, a bipartisan deal would likely be struck to let Hillary off the hook—all in the name, of course, of saving taxpayer money. A very real constitutional crisis has already occurred and it is ongoing — the transparent politicization of the FBI and the Department of Justice by the Obama team and the resulting loss of public confidence in those law enforcement institutions. Americans now have additional reasons to be wary of expanded federal powers.

Agreed!  Of course, Hillary is too much of an arrogant, self-righteous, entitlement-minded, limousine liberal to do something as honorable as stepping aside.  Just the opposite, I’m afraid.  She’ll do anything, and everything she can, to win…at all costs…regardless of the law, or the consequences.  That article was written by former Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-CO).

One-fourth of US cancer deaths linked with 1 thing: smoking

Cigarettes contribute to more than 1 in 4 cancer deaths in the U.S. The rate is highest among men in southern states where smoking is more common and tobacco control policies are less strict. The American Cancer Society study found the highest rate among men in Arkansas, where 40 percent of cancer deaths were linked to cigarette smoking. Kentucky had the highest rate among women – 29 percent. The lowest rates were in Utah, where 22 percent of cancer deaths in men and 11 percent in women were linked with smoking. “The human costs of cigarette smoking are high in all states, regardless of ranking,” the authors said. They analyzed 2014 health surveys and government data on smoking rates and deaths from about a dozen smoking-linked cancers. Lung, throat, stomach, liver, colon, pancreas and kidney cancers were among those included, along with leukemia. The researchers estimated how many cancer deaths were likely attributable to smoking, and compared that with deaths from all cancers. Results were published Monday in. JAMA Internal Medicine. While U.S. smoking rates have been falling, 40 million U.S. adults are cigarette smokers and smoking is the top cause of preventable deaths, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The study found that at least 167,000 cancer deaths in 2014 – about 29 percent of all U.S. cancer deaths – were attributable to smoking.