Pat Buchanan writes that in Estonia last week President Obama assured tiny Estonia that were Estonia attacked, the NATO alliance, including the armed forces of the United States, would come to help.

Pat comments that this Obama war guarantee would have been considered madness by Obama’s Cold War predecessors.

Pat writes, “In 1994, George Kennan called the expansion of NATO into the old Soviet bloc a strategic blunder of potentially epic proportions. Yet we not only brought into NATO all the Warsaw Pact nations, George W. Bush brought in the Baltic republics.”

Pat asks, “How would NATO save Estonia without destroying Estonia?”

…if Ukraine’s cause is militarily hopeless, what would be Estonia’s chances in a clash with Moscow? Estonia has three percent of Ukraine’s population and is less than one-tenth its size. If Moscow decided to take Estonia, it could do so in 48 hours.

And should Putin engage in so rash an act, what would NATO do?

Would 28 NATO nations declare war and send troops? Would the United States declare war on Russia and conduct air strikes on Russian forces inside and outside Estonia?

Would we send aircraft carriers into the Baltic Sea? Would we start a war with Russia that could lead to early use of tactical atomic weapons, devastating Estonia and causing massive deaths?

How would NATO save Estonia without destroying Estonia?

To eliminate second thoughts about our war guarantee to Estonia, some in Washington are calling for permanent U.S. bases and the stationing of U.S. troops in the Baltic states, so that any Russian incursion would lead to U.S. casualties and a definite clash with Russia.

Presumably this threat would deter Russia in perpetuity.

But if it doesn’t deter Putin, or if a future Russian ruler regards it as a bluff and chastises Estonia, what do we do then? Put the B-2s on alert and go to DEFCON-2, as we did in the Cuban missile crisis?

You have two days until the anniversary of the most horrific terrorist attack on U.S. soil. In Benghazi, terrorists showed that they were eager to reopen America’s wounds by attacking again on 9/11. Today the U.S. faces Al Qaeda, ISIS and an unstable world with porous borders. Anyone could be inside the country and anything could happen on 9/11/2014. The question is, are you ready?

Here are five things you and your family can do to give yourselves the bare minimum amount of preparedness. Just to be on the safe side. We’re not suggesting you run out and buy a self-sufficient mountain retreat (though you could). The things we’re recommending are things you do every day, only instead of waiting until 9/11/2014, you’ll do them on 9/10/2014.

1. Fill your car’s gas tank. Easy right? Remember Superstorm Sandy knocking out all the pumps in New Jersey? Much easier to fill up on 9/10 than to be without on 9/11. Take along a couple Jerry-cans if you have them. Long Term: store quite a bit of gasoline at home. Remember to cycle it out on a regular basis.
2. Charge your cell phone. New Yorkers will surely remember how valuable working cell phones were on 9/11. With wireline phone lines damaged or jammed with traffic, cell phones picked up the slack. But even cell phones are not completely reliable. Long Term: Buy a satellite phone.
3. Withdraw a bit of money from the bank. Keeping $100, $1,000 or $10,000 on hand won’t hurt you in the case of a successful terrorist attack. Small denominations are the best. Long Term: Develop a cache of “Disaster Currencies.”
4. Where allowed, be armed. Whether it’s with sharpened pencils, our favored Travel Wrench, or a firearm, have the tools to protect yourself. Long Term: Buy a Henry US Survival AR-7 Rifle for every member of the family old enough to shoot.
5. If you don’t have it, get it. If you’ve seen the shelves cleared of water by imminent bad weather, you have some small inkling of what they’d look like after an attack on the power grid. You should have at least five days’ worth on hand. Long Term: Buy a Reliance Hydroller, a hand pump for your well, and keep water on hand at all times.

There you go. Five easy steps to making yourself exponentially more prepared for any adverse events that could occur on 9/11/2014, or any other day.

Hopefully 9/11/2014 will be a day we can peacefully honor and remember those we lost in New York, Washington D.C., Pennsylvania, and Libya. The anniversary of the loss of so many innocent Americans should serve as a day for retrospection, contemplation, remembrance, and gratitude.

“Blood drips from its pages,” words from a parliamentary speech by Geert Wilders. Wilders, a populist Dutch politician and head of the country’s Party for Freedom, has campaigned to stop what he views as the Islamisation of the Netherlands and compares the Quran with the Mein Kampf.

In his speech, Wilders warned that the Netherlands has become the victim of Islam, that the Koran calls for perpetual war against non-believers, and that the Koran is a hunting permit for millions of Muslims. Wilders call the Koran a license to kill and refers to the Koran as “that filthy book is the Constitution of the Islamic state.” Wilders believes that what ISIS does is what Allah commands and that this bloodthirsty ideology was able to nestle in the Netherlands because the country’s elites looked away.

Wilders believes that two-thirds of all Dutch say that the Islamic culture does not belong in the Netherlands and that it is time to start the de-Islamisation of the Netherlands.

From my years in France, I have seen the same view preached by FN party leader Marine Le Pen, who, were an election to be held in France today, would easily defeat Socialist Francois Hollande. Wilders urges that it is time close the country’s borders to immigrants from Islamic countries: “Madam Speaker, war has been declared against us. We have to strike back hard.”

America is reaching the point where too many people are receiving government benefits and not enough people are paying for those benefits, warns Rep. Paul Ryan in a recent WSJ article.

In 1970, the number of individuals receiving food stamps was below 10 million. In 2003 it had climbed to 20+ million. Last year, the number of individuals receiving food stamps was approaching 50 million.

As Ed Feulner points out in The Washington Times, “Today, the federal government operates more than 80 means-tested welfare programs that provide cash, food, housing and medical care to poor and low-income Americans.”

Because government produces nothing, it earns nothing. The only money government has is what it takes from taxpayers or borrows against the payments of future taxpayers. “Every dollar that government redistributes to someone, it must first take from someone else,” writes Mr. Feulner. Read here about the consequences of our escalating government largesse.

Everything government “gives” to one person or organization must be taken from another person or organization. Every dollar that government redistributes to someone, it must first take from someone else, and then deduct carrying costs before passing it on.

We can see some of the results of this in the 2014 Index of Culture and Opportunity, published recently by the Heritage Foundation. The index reports how food-stamp participation has soared over the past decade. From 2003 to 2013, it grew by more than 26 million people.

To show how much of a jump this is, consider that in 1970 the number of individuals receiving food stamps was well below 10 million. By 2003, it was just above 20 million. By 2013, it was fast approaching 50 million.

Meanwhile, the index also charts how total welfare spending has climbed, rising by $246 billion between 2003 and 2013. Today the federal government operates more than 80 means-tested welfare programs that provide cash, food, housing and medical care to poor and low-income Americans.

The Cato Institute’s Michael Tanner writes, “Nationwide, roughly 70 percent of Obamacare plans offer fewer doctors and hospitals than typical pre-Obamacare plans.” Most ACA plans, especially the low-cost bronze and silver plans, have restricted networks.

As Mr Tanner explains here, the sickening facts are that O’Care is most likely going to make it harder for Americans to see a doctor or obtain health care.

Of course, we already know that the limited network of physicians available through most Obamacare exchange-based insurance plans is making it more difficult to see the doctor of your choice. Despite efforts by state regulators to mandate that insurers include more doctors and hospitals in their networks, most Obamacare plans, especially the comparatively low-cost bronze and silver plans, continue to have restricted networks. Nationwide, roughly 70 percent of Obamacare plans offer fewer doctors and hospitals than typical pre-Obamacare plans.

But there is an even bigger issue lurking below the surface.

Even without Obamacare, the Association of American Medical Colleges warns us that we face a shortfall of at least 130,000 doctors by 2025. While both enrollment in medical schools and graduation are up slightly, the increase is nowhere near enough to offset expected retirements. Roughly 40 percent of current doctors are age 55 or over. Moreover, the United States already trails many other countries in the number of physicians per capita, at just 2.5 per 1,000 people. This is compared to nearly 4 per 1,000 in Germany and Switzerland.

Medicine is simply no longer the profession that it once was. In 1970, the average income of general practitioners was $185,000 (in 2014 dollars). Today, even though doctors now see nearly twice as many patients as they did back then, average physician income has fallen to just $161,000. At the same time, the average medical-school graduate now begins his career with more than $170,000 in debt.

Obamacare will squeeze physician incomes still further.

Governor Rick Scott is holding a lead over his challenger, former Governor Charlie Crist in Florida’s gubernatorial race. I support Rick Scott for Florida governor. The Naples Daily’s Matt Dixon has the story on the poll here:

Most recent numbers have shown Gov. Rick Scott opening a lead over Democrat Charlie Crist, a trend continued in a poll conducted by Associated Industries of Florida.

The group’s most recent survey has Scott topping Crist by a 47-41 margin when those two are the only candidates included. That lead shrinks to a 44-41 margin, within the poll’s 3.1 percent margin of error, when Libertarian Adrian Wyllie, candidates with no party affiliation, and undecided voters are included.

Associated Industries of Florida, which has endorsed Scott, is one of the state’s largest business lobbies. It conducts regular polls, but has a track record of only sharing the results privately with members. Officials declined to comment on the most recent survey, obtained by the Scripps-Tribune Capital Bureau.

Like other recent public polls, the numbers show Crist’s popularity has slipped with nearly all demographics.