Photo, left: Celebrated and now-mourned Maori New Zealand homeless man:   Bernard "Ben" Hana, a/k/a "Blanket Man" (8 February 1957 – 15 January 2012), was a homeless man who wandered the inner city streets of Wellington, New Zealand. He was a local fixture and something of a celebrity, and was typically found on the footpath in the precincts of Cuba Street and Courtenay Place. Hana was a self-proclaimed devotee of the Māori sun god Tama-nui-te-rā, and claimed that he should wear as few items of clothing as possible, as an act of religious observance. As a result, he would sometimes remove all his clothing, which resulted in the consequent attendance of police officers.
His name of "Blanket Man" was a reference to his usual mode of dress, which was a single blanket, long dreadlocks and either a loin cloth or briefs. His activities and presence provoked a degree of public debate within Wellington. It's believed Hana chose to live on the streets after killing a friend in a drink-driving accident as a form of self-penance. In the late 1970s Hana associated with the Black Power gang, living in Wellington, going by the name Bugs and fathering two children.
Judicial hearings and convictions   Hana was arrested and imprisoned several times for offences including public nudity and possession of cannabis. His criminal record reportedly ran 17 pages long. In 1979, he was convicted of drunk driving causing death.Ben Hana visited the South Island for the first time in 2010, was arrested, charged and flown home after being provided with a shower and new overalls.
In 2010, a judge ordered that Hana be made a mental health patient to be housed in Wellington Hospital's psychiatric ward 27, where "he will have clean clothes, regular meals, and no access to drink and drugs." In the same year he was released back onto the streets without any notable change in character. In his later years he was a diagnosed schizophrenic under a community treatment order which allowed forced medical treatment as an outpatient.
Local celebrity   With his distinctive look and high visibility location, Hana became something of a local celebrity. In general, he was tolerated by some shopkeepers outside whose premises he sat, and by passers-by, although there have been times of opposition from other shopkeepers. Also, on occasions when he decided to push the boundaries of offensive behaviour, police officers were likely to be in attendance. As someone who departed from the patterns of normal behaviour, Hana had become a figure of amusement, sympathy, disgust and even some academic interest. During the 2006 Rugby Sevens tournament, one costumed group appeared in dreads and blankets, mimicking his distinctive look.
Death  Hana, age 54, died in Wellington Hospital at 3:35 P.M. on 15 January 2012 of suspected viral myocarditis. However, he was suffering medical problems stemming from heavy alcohol use and malnutrition. A temporary shrine was created outside the ANZ Bank on Courtenay Place, a location where Hana could often be found. Messages were written on the building's facade, and flowers, candles, food and other items were left in tribute. Among those who paid tribute were Wellington mayor Celia Wade-Brown and sports athlete Sonny Bill Williams. His funeral was paid for by the philanthropist Gareth Morgan.
 
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-hosts: Mary Kissel, Wall Street Journal Editorial Board & host of Opinion Journal on WSJ Video.  Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents.
 
Hour One
Thursday  30 July 2015 / Hour 1, Block A:Mary Kissel, Wall Street Journal Editorial Board & host of Opinion Journal on WSJ Video.  in re: Mission Impossible; Washington Post; David Plouffe's new hat: Uber spokesman. "Progressives need to learn . . ."  Hunh?  Uber isn’t about partisanship. http://www.wsj.com/video/opinion-journal-ubers-transportation-transforma...
NRO today on the Westchester showdown:   http://www.nationalreview.com/article/421766/fair-housing-comes-home-hillary  HUD focusses on Chappaqua in Westchester. The Feds value diversity without saying how to evaluate. Rainbow vision imposed across America – Westchester has a large Black and Hispanic population – to impose outcomes: if you take federal money, we'll tell you where to bld housing, town by town. Rob Astrorino said this is unconstitutional. Supreme Court invented a new route and concurred with the feds: OK to sue vs discrimination even if there was no intention to discriminate. Affirmatively Affirming Fair Housing – hundreds of pages long. Chappaqua: Mrs Clinton's home address.
Thursday  30 July 2015 / Hour 1, Block B:  Edward W Hayes, criminal defense attorney par excellence, in re: the No Clue City and its Utopian mayor:  They did clean up  the people living o 57th and Madison; but Penn Station is as bad as the Times story said. I also saw someone sleeping in a filthy blanket next to my home, and then someone picking through the garbage.   Fellow with  his toiletries disrobed and bathed in the fountain at Columbus Circle.  Bathing supplies stored under a park bench.  You'd think that the guys running the spectacular mall across the street would be calling the authorities every minute. In Bklyn, glorious townhouses being robbed all the time.  How about you’re walking your small child past all this?  And tourists?  Yike.  In subway, see obviously homeless people who rented a child and are begging – here's a $100 mil line in the City's budget for homeless people, What's happeneing?  Not putting deranged homeless people in shelters – the mayor is awaiting a total disaster. No moral hazard for indigents on the streets. It feels not safe.
. . . De Blasio stated at the time that his administration was 'using every resource we have to combat homelessness.'  The growing epidemic has prompted the mayor's office to set aside $100million in annual spending to address the situation.
But judging by Mr Frydman’s photos, the mayor's efforts have fallen short so far.  The images show that Columbus Circle - a major transportation hub located at the southwest corner of Central Park, has become a popular gathering spot for the city's disheveled vagrants. Mr Frydman’s photos depict a half-dozen bedraggled-looking men dressed in rags sleeping on benches ringing the fountain and reclining on the steps of an imposing granite-and-marble monument dedicated to Christopher Columbus.
As recently as this month, Mayor de Blasio said he has 'real concern' about vagrants occupying public spaces all throughout the city. 'I think he needs to address the situation,' Frydman said of the mayor. 'I think he needs to allow the police to do their job, and part of their job is quality of life issues.'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3180497/Pictured-Half-naked-homeless-man-bathes-bar-soap-New-York-City-s-Columbus-Circle-fountain.html#ixzz3hPY6vuYY 
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook  ;  http://www.city-journal.org/2015/eon0727mm.html
http://www.myfoxny.com/story/29635780/city-hall-nypd-ponder-strategy-as-attacks-by-homeless-increase
Thursday  30 July 2015 / Hour 1, Block C: Cori O'Connor, WSJ Editorial, in re: the Texas school story: woman who’s educated her three sons at home, then into good colleges and now all three are engineers – just put in charge of Texas school system.  Donna Bahorich simply has spoken well of the entire school system.
http://www.wsj.com/video/opinion-journal-teaching-texas/6E1618EF-C93A-4310-9494-073FFFE5EE48.html  ;  http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/sunday-commentary/20150710-point-person-our-qa-with-state-board-of-education-chair-donna-bahorich.ece  ;  Texas Governor Appoints a Homeschooler to Head State Education Board
Thursday  30 July 2015 / Hour 1, Block D:  David Davenport, Hoover, in re: post-Christian America: Elites and Courts Push America into a Post-Christian Era – "God bless America" – Europeans assume we're always at church, assembling Protestant missions to help the beknighted.  This has worn away sp under this president.  Post-Christian era? I reluctantly reach this conclusion: polls showing major loss in numbers of young people from church, plus many who don't believe in God, plus a massive court movement to strip the word "God" from the public square. Madison pointed out that the courts were to be the weakest of the three. Puzzling that climatology has become an almost-religion globally. Christianity has survived worse than this; rather, in a free republic we've always understood that democracy functions based on underlying virtue; whence will that come without religion?  Vl Putin routinely speaks with the Orthodox church asking it to encourage religiosity, marriage, et al.  All of Europe ought to be concerned abut their demographics – incl Putin I imagine.  Even in the US, plenty of president s weren't strongly Christian but recognized the values that undergird the nation.
 
Hour Two
Thursday  30 July 2015 / Hour 2, Block A: Michael Singh, Senior Fellow & managing dir, The Washington Institute and a former senior director for Middle East affairs at the National Security Council; in re: alternate Iran deals. A centrifuge manufactures e fissile material in a bomb. The smaller it is, the harder to find [by IAEA, for example], and the more efficient, the quicker. R&D in the Iran deal: some is innocent, the real pursuit of science, where we offer to help Iran; and then dual-use (scientific plus military). Most of Iran's current centrifuges are relatively antiquated; Iran wants more efficient centrifuges to operate more swiftly - now, potentially 16X more efficient.  . . .  In this agreement, do the benefits outweigh the costs?  Iran already has one of he world's largest collections of ballistic missiles; is now working n intercontinental ballistic missiles. On this deal, it's false to say, "This deal or war."  For one thing, Iran is nowhere near ready for war.  Note that the lead French negotiator said that rejecting this deal will lad to a much better deal!  Further, if the US holds to sanctions the Europeans will not circumvent them. We've diplomatically painted ourselves into a corner, but e can get past this. Congress is being told by a significant French dip that there's a better deal  in the future if we reject this one.   http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/uploads/Documents/testimony/SinghTestimony20150729.pdf  ;  http://freebeacon.com/national-security/ret-admiral-stavridis-you-can-drive-a-truck-through-holes-in-iran-deal/  http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=27167
Thursday  30 July 2015 / Hour 2, Block B: Mohsen Sazegara, Iranian journalist and pro-democracy political activist; in re: the Iranian deal, and responses and reactions to it.  . . .  Iranian people want a normal life, normal relations with the world, do not want the released funds to go to terrorist worldwide. The govt is moving in the same direction as before. Esp after the green movement, where millions of people went tot the streets to shout, Down with the Supreme Leader," he knows that he doesn’t have the majority with him, that he needs to rely on only a small group, maybe one million max, who'll protect him in his hard-line stance.  The US Congress and treasure y have enough tools to control the expenditure of the tens of billions to ensure that it all goes to food and needed supplies – if they choose to use the tools. If it goes to the federal bank of Iran, then it'll go to terrorism. His first  attention will be to Syria.  Syrian deputy PM has bragged, "We're happy with this deal and waiting for a one-billion-dollar credit line>" Damascus is waiting for our money.
Thursday  30 July 2015 / Hour 2, Block C: Joseph Humire, exec dir, Center for a Secure Free Society (SFS); in re:  Venezuela's economy is dire; will take cash wherever they can get it; are optimistic about the proposed Iran deal. State oil co, Pedevesta, laundered $16 Bil to Iran during the period of the sanctions.  Iran has blt 80 (according to SOCOM) (actually - hundreds) new "cultural centers" in South America, used as spy centers, and can audit sessions of the Bolivarian group. Criminal terrorist pipeline, incl Hezbollah.   Planning dozens of AMIA bombings in the future. Argentina: realigned itself closer to Iran, hoping for money, credit, loans, investment.  Iranian strategy was always targeting to larger nations - Argentina, Mexico, et al, but now are romancing the ALBA countries.  Argentina wants nuclear technology.  Velayti recently was on an Argentine news channel: would you ever consider talking about the AMIA bombing just to clear your name?  Nyet. Iran said to have 40,000 agents n South America! Well positioned to send terrorists into the US.
A Richer Iran Will Target the Americas  Last October police in Lima found detonators and TNT in the home of a Hezbollah operative (by Mary Anastasia O'Grady, Wall Street Journal). In the foreword to the 2014 book “Iran’s Strategic Penetration of Latin America,” former Colombian Defense Minister Marta Lucía Ramírez wrote that Venezuela’s “ ‘axis of unity’ with Iran embodies Latin America’s growing distance” from the U.S. “This is not to distract from the many conflicts the U.S. is engaging in the Middle East or elsewhere,” she noted. But she wanted “to remind our northern neighbors of the kind of disengagement in Latin America that led to a nuclear standoff in 1962.”  Now the Obama administration has agreed to phase out many economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for its promises to disable parts of its nuclear program. The deal provides for winding down international restrictions on trade and investment with Iran. It is also expected to gradually liberate more than $100 billion in Iranian assets frozen by the U.S. and other countries.  This means that even if the agreement prevents Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, it will make the world less safe. National Security Adviser Susan Rice admitted as much last Wednesday when CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked if “support [for] international terrorism” might be one use for the liberated assets. “In fact,” Ms. Rice said, “we should expect that some portion of that money would go to the Iranian military and could potentially be used for the kinds of bad behavior that we have seen in the region up until now.”  Advertisement  And not only in the Mideast. One likely destination for some of that money will be the Islamic Republic’s military, ideological and terrorist activities in the U.S. backyard. As Joseph Humire, executive director of the Washington-based Center for a Secure Free Society, put it to me last week, “if Iran gets access to the global financial system, they’re going to double down in Latin America.”  Iran has targeted Latin America since the mid-1980s by establishing . . .
http://www.securefreesociety.org/authors/joseph-humire/  ;  http://www.jta.org/2015/07/30/news-opinion/israel-middle-east/argentina-asks-will-iranian-suspect-in-amia-attack-benefit-from-nuclear-deal ; http://www.clarionproject.org/print/analysis/iran-fans-out-40000-agents-south-america ; http://www.wsj.com/articles/a-richer-iran-will-target-the-americas-1437342912
Thursday  30 July 2015 / Hour 2, Block D: Ronen Bergman, Senior Correspondent for Military and Intelligence Affairs for Yedioth Ahronoth; in re: The West’s capitulations.  . . .  The junk factory. Iran now has eight tons of used nuclear fuel, is in charge of it (instead of Russia controlling it, as originally agreed).
WHAT INFORMATION COLLECTED BY ISRAELI INTELLIGENCE REVEALS ABOUT THE IRAN TALKS Over the years of negotiation, concession after concession from the West   On Nov. 26, 2013, three days after the signing of the interim agreement (JPOA) between the powers and Iran, the Iranian delegation returned home to report to their government. According to information obtained by Israeli intelligence, there was a sense of great satisfaction in Tehran then over the agreement and confidence that ultimately Iran would be able to persuade the West to accede to a final deal favorable to Iran. That final deal, signed in Vienna last week, seems to justify that confidence. The intelligence—a swath of which I was given access to in the past month—reveals that the Iranian delegates told their superiors, including one from the office of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, that “our most significant achievement” in the negotiations was America’s consent to the . . .
Hour Three
Thursday  30 July 2015 / Hour 3, Block A: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: Congress has more and more questions about the Iran deal; more detail reveals more contradictions inherent in the document.  Many citizens briefed early by Wendy Sherman and McDonough.   . . . Gen Dempsey, Adm Stavrides, many senior mil figures, do not favor this deal. Verification regime "resembles Swiss cheese"; "you could drive a truck through the holes in the deal.."  French, Russians, everybody trying to make a deal with Iran, while Saudis and Egyptians enter from a different angle. UN SC resolution: "Provisions of this resolution do not constitute resolutions of JAPOA." Forget the five-year restriction on Iran manufacturing mil nukes.   Labor and Likud agree in disfavoring this [bad] deal. More people need to study this deal and be in contact with Congressman.  Benjamin Pollard:  release date was set 30 yeas ago – way more than anyone convicted of comparable deeds.  Jim Woolsey.
Thursday  30 July 2015 / Hour 3, Block B: Benjamin Weinthal, FDD in Central Europe; in re:  . . .  European Muslims:  Swedish Muslims make up the bulk of the perpetrators. Here in Germany, athletes warned not to identify themselves as Jewish, not to go into Muslim neighborhoods. This Iran deal gives a green light to Hezbollah activists – who currently march through Berlin and Vienna. They killed Jews and associated gentiles in Bulgaria several years ago.   Failure to integrate; govts incompetent, romance of ISIS, Internet radical preachers – as well as state-sponsored anti-Jewish railing.  Return f ISIS fighters, rise of jihadi orgs in Europe (Hezb, Hamas); failure to integrate immigrants; also European tolerance for high levels of anti-Jewish sentiment.  "The German will ever forgiver the Jews of Auschwitz" – extended to "Europeans will never forgive the Jews for the Holocaust."
Analysis: Europe to drop sanctions on Iranian terrorists and entities  ;  Dramatic rise in anti-Semitic incidents recorded in UK  Jewish community’s security authority says 53% increase stems from ‘anxiety’ leading to more reporting   ;  European Companies: Enter the Iranian Market at Your Own Risk With the signing of an Iranian nuclear agreement earlier this month, European companies along with leading politicians have moved at astonishingly fast pace to enter Iran’s markets. However, European businesses still face an enormously risky economic environment. While sanctions will soon be lifted, many of the businesses and individuals have a proven record of money laundering, sanctions evasion and other illicit financial activity. How European companies manage this threat remains to be seen ; Top French official says if Congress rejects Iran deal, a better deal could be achieved
Thursday  30 July 2015 / Hour 3, Block C: Josh Kraushaar, National Journal, in re: now is Joe Biden’s political moment, as the vice president looks like a more electable Democrat than Hillary Clinton.
Thursday  30 July 2015 / Hour 3, Block D: Josh Rogin, BloombergView, in re: Top French Official Contradicts Kerry on Iran Deal  Secretary of State John Kerry has been painting an apocalyptic picture of what would happen if Congress killed the Iran nuclear deal. Among other things, he has warned that “our friends in this effort will desert us." But the top national security official from one of those nations involved in the negotiations, France, has a totally different view: He told two senior U.S. lawmakers that he thinks a Congressional no vote might actually be helpful.
Hour Four
Thursday  30 July 2015 / Hour 4, Block A: Daniel Henninger, WSJ, in re: “I play to people’s fantasies,” Trump explains. “. . . It’s an innocent form of exaggeration — and a very effective form of promotion.” Perception is reality, he writes, and achieving an “aura” (a recurring word in his writings) around his projects, his ideas and himself is essential . . .  http://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-in-river-city-1438210876  ;     http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/book-party/wp/2015/07/30/i-just-binge...
Thursday  30 July 2015 / Hour 4, Block B:   Robert Zimmerman, behindtheblack.com, in re: Astronomers confirm existence of Earthlike exoplanet 21 light years away  Worlds without end: Astronomers have confirmed the existence of a rocky Earthlike exoplanet only 21 light years away.  HD 219134b is also the closest exoplanet to Earth to be detected transiting, or crossing in front of, its star and, therefore, perfect for extensive research. “Transiting exoplanets are worth their weight in gold because they can be extensively characterized,” said Michael Werner, the project scientist for the Spitzer mission at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. “This exoplanet will be one of the most studied for decades to come.”
The planet has a mass 4.5 times that of Earth, and orbits its sun every three days, which means it is not likely to harbor life. Its sun also harbors three other small exoplanets, but little is known of them.  Expect a lot more news coming from HD 219134b, however. With transits every three days, astronomers are going to have a lot of opportunities to study its atmosphere and make-up.
Thursday  30 July 2015 / Hour 4, Block C:  Nicole Bullock, Financial Times, in re: Puerto Rico bondholders present debt plan
Thursday  30 July 2015 / Hour 4, Block D:   Myron Magnet, City Journal, in re:  Order, Please, Not Utopia Bill de Blasio’s New York has the wrong priorities.  Amidst fear and loathing, it’s hard not to have a smidgen of sympathy for Frederick Young, the 43-year-old career criminal who slashed a pretty young Korean tourist’s arm with a machete in Bryant Park last month. After all, it’s no fun—and not one’s own fault—to have demonic voices in one’s schizophrenic head, warning that every passerby is a Martian carrying enough Kryptonite to blow you up if you don’t attack him now. Even political philosopher Thomas Hobbes acknowledged that madmen live outside the social contract, lacking the reason to understand, much less obey, the laws. In the 1960s, the destruction of the state mental hospital system—inspired in part by flower-child sentimentality and in part by a cynical ploy to dump the mentally ill off the state budget and onto some other government’s ledger—created a disaster whose cruelty historians will add to the list of other barbarities that the supposedly enlightened, supposedly progressive twentieth century perpetrated.
But one look at the smirking face of drunken bum John Addis, 40, sticking out his tongue as police frog-marched him into custody Saturday, after he smashed Xiaoming Huang, 51, across the face with a two-by-four, without a word of warning, as the Chinese tourist walked by the Grand Hyatt Hotel on 42nd Street, where he had been staying, inspires nothing but outrage. What you see here is not madness but evil. Here is a muscular, well-nourished guy, who reportedly bought eight or ten cans of beer a day from the local 7-Eleven, presumably drank them, and then, having drowned any inhibitions, went out and assaulted passersby randomly, sometimes at least giving the warning of “___ you, bitch!” before sucker-punching a 39-year-old woman walking on Second Avenue. The 7-Eleven employees, one of whom Addis already had assaulted, expected him to kill somebody, and of course the cops have arrested him repeatedly. As Aristotle rightly judged, the man who commits crimes when drunk is doubly guilty—not only of the crime but also of voluntarily divesting himself of the reason that tells him the difference between good and evil, and makes him human. And he deserves a double punishment.  . . .
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