Hillary in a Nutshell..... :: Theo Spark
This is how a US Senator looks upon a crook....
.....and this is how a US Senator looks upon an American Hero.
Saturday, September 22, 2007
America can’t afford George Soros By Marie Jon’
Mr. George Soros is one contemptible man, in my personal opinion. He is not America's friend. However, the far left Democrats running for the presidency as well as their party are beholden to him. That fact should be looked upon as upsetting and very worrisome.
Indeed, you are judged by the people you associate with. Soros is manipulative. He is one of many reasons that the Democrat Party is smug and arrogantly unruly. The media merely reflects his image.
Full Article...
The Asian Century? By Gordon G. Chang
Robert D. Kaplan, in a thoughtful piece in today’s New York Times, suggests that we are living in “the Asian Century.” His argument in “Lost at Sea” is that China, India, Japan, and South Korea are modernizing their militaries, especially building “big decks” and enlarging their fleets. The United States Navy, he notes, will have to share the sea’s lanes with ships from other nations. Writes Kaplan: “The military trend that is hiding in plain sight is the loss of the Pacific Ocean as an American lake after 60 years of near-total dominance.”
Sphere: Related ContentThe Un-American Call for National Service by Alex Epstein
The lead article in a recent issue of Time magazine makes the case for “universal national service”--which the article describes as “the simple but compelling idea that devoting a year or more to national service, whether military or civilian, should become a countrywide rite of passage, the common expectation and widespread experience of virtually every young American.” This is just the latest call from commentators and politicians for Americans to engage in more national service. National service, they all claim, is necessary to preserve and sustain America’s greatness; the Time article calls it “a recipe for keeping a republic.”
In fact, the idea of national service is profoundly un-American.
Sphere: Related ContentWhat Really Happened in Jena By Jared Taylor
Everyone in America has now heard of Jena, Louisiana, and its alleged racial abominations. Its crimes are said to be so great that on Sept. 20, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton had to lead a massive “civil rights” march through the sleepy town of 3,000 to drag it into the modern era. Young blacks from all over the country took part, many comparing the demonstration to events in Selma or Birmingham half a century ago.
It takes some digging to find out what actually happened in Jena, but we are not witnessing a return to Jim Crow. Although blacks have treated LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters like a reincarnation of Bull Connor, the more closely his actions are examined the more reasonable they seem. These events have become a rallying cry for “civil rights” for only one reason: The national media have shamelessly warped them to fit the pattern of unregenerate Southern bigotry. Here is what actually happened.
Sphere: Related ContentIslam and Marxism and Unmetabolized Rage :: ShrinkWrapped
In his article in City Journal this week, Theodore Dalrymple commented on the ongoing and evolving alliance between Islam and Marxism:
Sphere: Related ContentIslam, the Marxism of Our Time
Some troubling signs in EuropeTwo of the men that the German police arrested in early September for plotting a series of huge explosions in the country were young German converts to Islam. It is impossible to know how many such German converts there are, but it is thought to run into tens of thousands, principally men; in the nature of things, it is also uncertain how many of them are attracted to extremism, but few people are so attracted by moderation that they are converted by it.
...
All this suggests that Islam is fast becoming the Marxism of our times. Had Fritz G. and Daniel S. grown up a generation earlier, they would have become members of the Baader-Meinhof Gang rather than Islamic extremists. The dictatorship of the proletariat, it seems, has given way before the establishment of the Caliphate as the transcendent answer to some German youths’ personal angst.
This is good news indeed for Islamists, but not so good for the rest of us.
This is not just a difference of opinion - we are now fighting evil :: A Newt One
The increase in the wickedness that is on display from our ‘fiends’ (er, friends . . . sorry!) on the left is not surprising, but stunning nonetheless. Today on the radio I heard some examples that caused me to consider that this isn’t ‘liberal vs. conservative’ anymore. This is genuinely good vs. evil – we are good, and the moonbats are evil.
Dr. Laura took a call today from a soldier who has been fighting in Iraq. He wanted to make peace with his father who is dying of pancreatic cancer. His father, a left wing godless loon, had told his son that he was a murderer while he was overseas fighting for freedom in the middle east. Dr. Laura told this soldier, “your father is a small, pitiful person and jealous of your life of purpose. When small people are jealous, they say evil things.”
Sphere: Related ContentThe College Puts President Nichol Out to Pasture :: Gates of Vienna
The incompetent president of the College of William and Mary has been put out to pasture. Thanks to unrelenting pressure by the angry alumni and students of the College, President Nichol’s duties will be limited to fund-raising; he is barred from any further impulsive behaviors which leave in their trail a great deal of distress and disgust in The College community.
Remember the Wren Cross fiasco in November of last year? Without consulting anyone, President Nichol removed the cross which had been sitting on the chapel’s altar since the 1930’s. He had it stored in a sacristy closet because one person objected to its presence. But as the Baron said at the time:
Sphere: Related ContentMexicans Welcome a North American Union :: Gates of Vienna
Americans are extremely naive if they do not understand that their authorities at the very highest levels have de facto abandoned their national borders in favor of a regional economic bloc in North America. The EU is the model:
Mexican official urges North American Union
At a Denver conference on intercontinental trade corridors, a Mexican mayor called for a swift move toward a European Union-style merger of the U.S., Canada and Mexico.Sphere: Related Content
Referring to Europe, Evaristo Lenin Perez of Ciudad Acuna – a sister city of Del Rio, Texas – told the Great Plains International Conference, “It’s a model we need to follow quickly.”
Perez later told WND, “If only people know the benefits of opening the borders and working together, improving the quality of life for all, then no one would be opposed to the idea of a North American Union.”
Friday, September 21, 2007
Is Separationism practically feasible? by Lawrence Auster
Fjordman writes:
I follow the discussion regarding separationism with interest. I am in the separationist camp myself. Islam isn't reformable. In the long run, the only strategy that will work is to break Islam down by letting Muslims suffer the consequences of their culture without bailing them out, show them that this is caused by Islam and make them leave Islam. We should separate ourselves from Muslims as much as possible. And by "we" I don't just mean Westerners, but non-Muslims in general.Sphere: Related ContentWe should stop giving Muslims any kind of aid. There are several reasons for this. The first one is that it's not our job to fix their problems. They're adults, they can do so themselves.
AL QAEDA CALLS ON N. AFRICAN MUSLIMS TO CLEANSE SOUTHERN EUROPE OF FRENCH AND SPANISH :: Real Clear Religion
We must take seriously the words of Al Qaeda. If there is one thing we have learned from this heretical cult is that they are persistent about their targets. They want the return of Andalusia and the submission of the "Crusaders and their children" under Allah, just as they wanted to bring about the destruction of the World Trade Center.
Sphere: Related ContentThe Middle East's Gathering Storm By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY
Iran, on the path toward nuclear weapons, says it's drawn up plans to bomb Israel. Syria, meanwhile, is working with Iran to arm missiles with chemical warheads. Will the world heed these danger signs?
In "The Gathering Storm," his history of World War II, Winston Churchill recalls how President Roosevelt once asked for suggestions about what the war should be called. "The Unnecessary War," Britain's wartime prime minister replied. "There never was a war more easy to stop than that which has just wrecked what was left of the world from the previous struggle."
The world today is seeing the gathering of forces that, if allowed to coalesce, could unnecessarily and avoidably leave multitudes dead.
In Iran, for instance:
Sphere: Related ContentRead Hillary's Lips: 'No New Bureaucracy' By Amy Menefee
The lead story in the media should be how much Hillary Clinton is not telling us about her $110-billion-a-year health care plan.
The New York senator and Democratic presidential candidate isn’t answering any questions she doesn’t want to answer – like how to enforce a nationwide mandate for health insurance. And in coverage of her newly-announced health care plan, the media let Clinton’s vagueness go unchallenged.
“The Hillary Clinton health plan: too hot? Too cold? Or just right? We’ll check in with all sides in our ‘Reality Check.’”
Sphere: Related ContentMore RBI's Than A-Rod: The Savage Nation Slowly Chips Away at the So-Called Haditha Massacre By Andrew T. Durham
The fabrication of the Haditha "Massacre" is crumbling piece by piece before our eyes. Methodically, like military precision, the onion peels are dropping away as soldier after soldier involved in this disgraceful charade have their charges dropped. In short order, with the grace of God, all of these victimized soldiers will find themselves exonerated and, at the same time, independent radio talk show host Michael Savage comes all the more closer to batting a thousand.
Sphere: Related ContentSo, you want to visit Ground Zero? By Joseph Farah
I think it's a mistake to deny Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad an opportunity to visit Ground Zero.
In fact, I think whatever Ahmadinejad's destination is, whatever his location is, should be Ground Zero.
This guy needs to be taken out – along with his genocidal mullah buddies in Tehran.
Frankly, I'm embarrassed that my country is still playing footsie with this fanatical madman – this pint-sized Hitler in the making.
Sphere: Related ContentDeath fears of the Boomer Left By James Lewis
"Back in the Sixties," sighs an ex-hippie lady I know, "everybody was happy. Really. Everybody."
Gosh, that wasn't what other people remember. Most teenagers go through a lot of ups and downs, and in the Sixties the Baby Boomers were rollercoastering through their own adolescence. (Some still are.)
But as the Boomer Left thinks back to those glory years, they sound like the poet Wordsworth rhapsodizing about the early French Revolution -- before the heads started to roll from Dr. Guillotin's clever new contraption:
Sphere: Related ContentIslamo-Fascism Awareness Week By Frontpagemag.com
Beginning on October 22, student groups across the nation will hold Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week on their campuses. These protest weeks will feature a series of events designed to bring a message to these academic communities that challenges most of what students are taught about the so-called War on Terror both in the classroom and on the quad.
The Week’s events will include speeches about Islamo-Fascism by prominent figures, including former Senator Rick Santorum (Penn State, Temple and UPenn), Sean Hannity (Columbia), Ann Coulter (Tulane and USC), Dennis Prager (UC Santa Barbara), Robert Spencer (Brown, Dartmouth, University of Rhode Island, and DePaul), Daniel Pipes (Northeastern and UPenn), David Horowitz (Columbia, Emory, Ohio State, Michigan and Wisconsin), Michael Ledeen (Maryland), Nonie Darwish (UCLA and Berkeley), Wafa Sultan (Stanford) and radio talk show hosts Melanie Morgan (San Francisco State), Michael Medved (University of Washington), Martha Zoeller (Georgia Tech), Alan Nathan (George Mason), Mark Larson (to be named) and many others.
Sphere: Related ContentIgnoring Criminals While Banning Guns By Alan Caruba
As the shock of the murder, execution style, of three Newark, NJ teenagers and wounding of a fourth begins to fade, the problem unfortunately will not. The problem is the willful refusal to look at the alleged perpetrators of this crime and draw some useful lessons to avoid further killings.
Political columnist, Tom Moran, writing in The Star-Ledger, the state’s largest daily, said, “Let’s hope the governor is just clearing his throat and that he has more ambitious plans in the works to fight violence in cities like Newark. Because in this critical week after the most savage murders we’ve seen in years, he’s talked mostly about gun control, the go-to response of liberal politicians everywhere.”
Sphere: Related ContentChina Builds World's Largest Navy By Cliff Kincaid
Did you know that China could become the world’s leading naval power by 2020? That’s the verdict of military analyst Tony Corn. This may help explain why the U.S. Navy thinks a piece of paper called the U.N. Law of the Sea Treaty provides some sort of protection for American forces on the high seas. It offers no such protection, of course, but it creates the impression that Navy leaders are doing something about our increasing weakness and vulnerability. However, like so many other U.N. treaties, including the 19 anti-terrorism treaties in effect on 9/11, this one offers a false sense of security. It will mask a dramatic decline in our military power.
Sphere: Related ContentStorm Track Intimidation: Legal Jihad Exposed :: The Gathering Storm
Muslim employment discrimination suits have increased dramatically since 1990 with the biggest increase after 9/11. The year 2007 is on track to have the largest number of Muslim discrimination opinions in history.
Sphere: Related ContentIn terms of their geographic source, courts in New York, California, Illinois, Texas and Washington D.C. were most common jurisdictions issuing Muslim employment decisions. In fact, the total cases from those five jurisdictions constitute about one-half of the total.
Peas in a Pod: The UN and Mad Jad :: Gates of Vienna
You may remember former Governor Mitt Romney’s firm letter to the UN regarding their witless invitation to Iran’s disturbed leader - the nut case who swears he has a halo and is busy building a special road for the 12th Imam - offering to have him address the General Assembly:
“If President Ahmadinejad sets foot in the United States, he should be handed an indictment under the Genocide Convention…”
“The United States and the world must take a strong stand against the terrorist Iranian regime and the time for action is now.”
Romney also thought that if the UN couldn’t understand something so elemental, then the U.S. should withdraw its support.
Sphere: Related ContentMexican Political Convention—Coming To LA By Allan Wall
During this exciting and unpredictable political season, there is a political convention scheduled for September 30th, in Los Angeles, California.
It’s not the Democratic Party, nor the Republican Party. Nor is it the Libertarian Party, the Green Party or the Constitution Party. It’s not even the Labor Party, the Marijuana Party or the Socialist Alternative Party.
No, the party holding its convention on that date is the PAN—the Partido Acción Nacional, the National Action Party of…Mexico. (It’s the party of Felipe Calderon and Vicente Fox).
Now this is not an ordinary PAN convention, as they would hold here in Mexico. No, this is a convention specifically designed for Mexican PANistas living in the U.S.A.—some of whom are American citizens!
What’s going on here?
Sphere: Related ContentExplaining Liberal Thinking In A Single Column By John Hawkins
Liberals love to think of themselves as intellectual and nuanced, but liberalism is incredibly simplistic. It's nothing more than "childlike emotionalism applied to adult issues." Very seldom does any issue that doesn't involve pandering to their supporters boil down at its core level to more than feeling "nice" or "mean" to liberals. This makes liberals ill equipped to deal with complex issues.
Since liberals tend to support or oppose policies based on how those policies make them feel about themselves, they do very little intellectual examination of whether the policies they advocate work or not. That's because it doesn't matter to them whether the policy is effective or not; it matters whether advocating the policy makes them feel "good" or "bad," "compassionate" or "stingy," "nice" or "mean."
Sphere: Related ContentRate My Terrorist Professor Dot Com By Mike S. Adams
Dear Provost Frank (provost@kent.edu):
Over the course of the last several months, Kent State University has been trying to handle a firestorm of negative publicity resulting from its continued employment of pro-terrorist professor Julio Pino. In defense of Pino, your university has asserted that his violent rhetoric is not only protected by the First Amendment but also irrelevant to his employment because he expresses those views on his own time. But, recently, I’ve found that simply isn’t the case.
Yesterday, I took the time to log on to www.RateMyProfessors.com to see whether there was any evidence suggesting Pino was spreading anti-Semitic and anti-American rhetoric in the classroom. I also wondered whether he was one of those History professors more into teaching about his present political views than teaching about the past.
Here’s what I found:
Sphere: Related ContentThe Case For World War IV By DANIEL JOHNSON
I am an admirer of Rudy Giuliani, the greatest mayor New York has ever had, who deserves his place in history whether or not he realizes his presidential ambitions. I am also a fan of the British professor of history at Harvard, Niall Ferguson, whose books — such as "Colossus, Empire" and most recently "The War of the World" — are big, bold, scholarly and rightly popular.
Mr. Ferguson also writes an influential column in London's Sunday Telegraph. This week he devoted it to a harsh critique of Mr. Giuliani's "naïve" ideas about foreign policy, and in particular any historical analogies between the present war on terror and past global conflicts.
Sphere: Related ContentAhmadinejad In New York :: New York Sun Editorial
If the bizarre request of President Ahmadinejad to lay a wreath at ground zero has been put to rest once and for all, New Yorkers can thank three persons — the police commissioner, Raymond Kelly; Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Daniel Gillerman, and Matt Drudge. That, at least, is how we reconstruct the events that yesterday stunned and briefly outraged thousands of New Yorkers, a number of candidates on the hustings, and even the White House, as it looked for a while that consideration might be given to the idea that the Iranian anti-Semite and terror master, due in town for a meeting of the U.N. General Assembly, might be allowed downtown to visit the scene of Al Qaeda's crime.
Sphere: Related ContentA Philosophy for Activism By The Realist
The last column on The Inverted World, “Prospects for Activism,” generated much impassioned commentary, and, because this is an issue of such urgent interest, I want to respond to at least some of the comments in a full-length column. Commenters had a variety of suggestions for pro-white activism, including starting lobbying and legal defense groups, creating videos for YouTube, and writing Wikipedia articles on race. People also suggested that I expand this website by adding forum or a blog.
Sphere: Related ContentWho Saved Greek Political Philosophy? The Flemings, Not the Arabs :: The Brussels Journal
It is true that some Greek and other classics were translated to Arabic, but it is equally true that Muslims could be highly particular about which texts to exclude. As Iranian intellectual Amir Taheri explains: “It is no accident that early Muslims translated numerous ancient Greek texts but never those related to political matters. The great Avicenna himself translated Aristotle’s Poetics. But there was no translation of Aristotle's Politics in Persian until 1963.”
In other words: There was a great deal of Greek thought that could never have been “transferred” to Europeans by Arabs, as is frequently claimed by Western Multiculturalists, because many Greek works had never been translated into Arabic in the first place. Muslims especially turned down political texts, since these included descriptions of systems in which men ruled themselves according to their own laws. This was considered blasphemous by Muslims, as laws are made by Allah and rule belongs to his representatives.
Sphere: Related ContentIf Mothers Ruled the World By Pia de Solenni
As I watched Sally Field's primetime Emmy rant to the effect that there'd be no wars if only women ran the world, I found myself wondering, "When was the last time you spent any time with a group of women? Have you watched Desperate Housewives or The View?"
Until I married, my best friends were both women and men. Now, my best friend is my husband and I'm fortunate to have many good friends, both men and women. I grew up with three brothers, no sisters. I had close girl friends, but I felt sorry for my friends who had sisters because they were always fighting with them, especially over clothing. A quintessential nerd with a very bad haircut, I experienced no blissful feelings of sisterhood with my sixth grade classmates. In high school, I rather enjoyed being on the debate team because it wasn't just girls. After a few months of living in an all-girls dorm in college, I was convinced that I probably didn't have a religious vocation since I couldn't relish the idea of living with a bunch of women for the rest of my life. Though I came to realize that more would have to factor into the discernment of a religious vocation, my opinion of communal living with women did not change after four years of dorm life.
Sphere: Related ContentThe Devil and the Democrats By Lance Fairchok
When MoveOn.org ran its New York Times attack ad against General Petraeus prior to his congressional testimony, they did so with the full knowledge and consent of the Democratic leadership. During the hearing more than the usual level of partisan grandstanding and staged audience participation obscured the issue, as the Democrats attempted to discredit an honest soldier and a man of integrity, honor and rare intellect. An accurate synopsis of the entire circus would be, “We appreciate your service and sacrifice but you’re a liar and a willing shill for the President,” no matter that the President is the Commander in Chief whose orders the General is duty bound to obey.
This was, of course, homage to the MoveOn.org left and their Soros-led financiers and quite purposely reflected the vicious spirit of the Times ad. It was also an example of just who the Democrats now answer to, and what institutions they are willing to denigrate in their quest for political supremacy. Luckily, their transparent political theatrics did not sit well with many Americans and it will likely backfire.
Sphere: Related ContentColumbia University: Ahmadinejad Yes, ROTC No by William Kristol
TWO DAYS AGO, Columbia University announced that next Monday, September 24, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will speak and participate in a question and answer session with university faculty and students at Columbia. According to the university statement, "This opportunity for faculty and students to engage the President of Iran came about after Ambassador Mohammad Khazaee at the Iranian Mission to the United Nations initiated contact with Columbia through a member of the faculty, Richard Bulliet, who is a specialist on Iran."
So at the request of the Iranian government, Columbia University will host the president of a terrorist regime which is right now responsible for the deaths of American soldiers on the field of battle. Indeed, this distinguished guest, who is so honoring Columbia by his presence, will be introduced by no one less than the president of Columbia, Lee Bollinger.
Sphere: Related Content25 Senate Democrats Support "Betray Us", Including Hillary by Ed Morrissey
The Senate passed the Jon Cornyn amendment condemning the MoveOn.org ad that called General David Petraeus a liar and potential traitor, 72-25. All 25 Senators who voted in support of these smears against an American military commander that they unanimously promoted to four stars came from the Democratic Party. It includes two declared presidential candidates and the top leadership of the Senate Democratic Caucus.
Those who voted to support MoveOn's smear:
Sphere: Related ContentLarry Summers & the Thought Police By Kathleen Parker
The latest smack-down of former Harvard President Lawrence Summers should extinguish any remaining doubt that political correctness is the new McCarthyism.
Summers, you'll recall, was driven out of his university post in 2005 after he suggested at a conference that gender differences might account for an underrepresentation by women in science, math and engineering.
Never mind that scientific evidence suggests as much. One simply doesn't say -- ever -- that men and women aren't equal in every way.
Summers' remarks were seized upon, taken out of context and misinterpreted by many, including one female biologist from MIT, who walked out on the president's talk, later saying that she felt she was either going to faint or throw up.
Sphere: Related ContentThursday, September 20, 2007
The Decline of Truth :: Sigmund, Carl, and Alfred
If there is a defining characteristic of the transition from the Era of Narcissism to the Age of Psychopathy, it is in how we as a society have come to define and interpret truth.
In the Age of Psychopathy, it isn’t only what is and isn’t objective truth that comes into question. Even our sense of what is or isn’t truth has become subject to debate. Typical narcissism with its sometimes over-the-top grandiose individualism has been supplanted by a malignant sociopathy that manipulates and exploits in the name of some ideal or “greater good.”
Reality, facts and truths are deliberately and regularly ignored or obfuscated simply because they get in the way of an agenda.
Whether it is to secure power, anchor political ideologies or to establish a position in a given hierarchy, truth is undermined and tsunamis of destructive events are unleashed, all in the name of supposedly ‘selfless’ interest.
Sphere: Related ContentIt’s Not Hillarycare, It’s Hillarycon by Michael Reagan
Sometimes Hillary Clinton leaves me breathless with the sheer arrogance of her assumption that the American people are like a bunch of straw-chewing rubes eager to buy her latest brand of snake oil.
She introduced her latest excursion into the field of health care in America by assuring us that under her national health care plan people will no longer be denied needed emergency medical services because they lack health insurance.
Sphere: Related ContentChina threatens 'nuclear option' of dollar sales By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
The Chinese government has begun a concerted campaign of economic threats against the United States, hinting that it may liquidate its vast holding of US treasuries if Washington imposes trade sanctions to force a yuan revaluation.
Two officials at leading Communist Party bodies have given interviews in recent days warning - for the first time - that Beijing may use its $1.33 trillion (£658bn) of foreign reserves as a political weapon to counter pressure from the US Congress.
Shifts in Chinese policy are often announced through key think tanks and academies.
Sphere: Related ContentAmericans Conning Together By John Perazzo
America Coming Together (ACT), a pro-Democrat organization whose creation was both conceived and funded by the billionaire financier George Soros, has in essence joined the ranks of those Chinese government agents who illegally sought to influence the outcomes of American presidential elections in the 1990s. We now know that in 2004 Soros and ACT attempted, like those agents of Communist China had done a decade before, to buy the U.S. presidency, plain and simple. The common denominator in both instances was the Democratic Party, the self-professed champion of the average, honest working stiff.
Sphere: Related ContentViolation By Forkum
From Reuters: Iran's Ahmadinejad denied Trade Center visit.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been denied a request to visit the World Trade Center site of the September 11 attacks, New York police said on Wednesday.Sphere: Related ContentAhmadinejad, who regularly accuses the United States of arrogance in his speeches, had asked to visit the site while in New York for the United Nations General Assembly this month.
Terror Finance Case: "Operation Cash-Out" By Jeffrey Imm
The U.S. Attorney's Office announced today that a federal grand jury indicted 39 defendants and one business in an international money laundering case that includes one person accused of concealing terrorist financing. The terror finance case, "Operation Cash-Out", had an international scope with defendants in United States, Spain, Canada and Belgium, with the use of hawala money-transmitting businesses to launder millions of dollars.
Substantive news reports on this came out today from: U.S. Attorney's Office press release, Baltimore Sun, ABC, and NBC, with a potentially related story in Spain reported by AP.
The Baltimore Sun reported that during a news conference on Thursday that 32 of the 39 defendants had been arrested in the past 24 hours: "U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein said most of the defendants were under arrest -- at least 16 of them in Maryland -- and that an additional six had been arrested last night". NBC WBAL-11 TV reported that "[r]aids were conducted in Maryland, Washington D.C., New Jersey and Spain on Thursday". The U.S. Attorney's Office press release states that "Operation Cash-Out" includes a total of 46 defendents.
Sphere: Related ContentHello, Dalai! By Gordon G. Chang
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the new face of Western resolve, will meet with the Dalai Lama this Sunday. In a move obviously intended to further rile Beijing, Germany’s leader will receive His Holiness in the German chancellery.
China immediately summoned Berlin’s ambassador to complain. Chinese diplomats are busy these days because this week they also objected to the Tibetan’s upcoming visit with Canada’s Stephen Harper, scheduled for next month. The Canadian prime minister also went out of his way to poke the Chinese in the eye by announcing that he too would receive the Nobel laureate in a government facility (the Dalai Lama’s last meeting with a Canadian leader, which took place in 2004, was a five-minute affair in the residence of the Roman Catholic archbishop in Ottawa).
Sphere: Related ContentMy Costly Wisecrack By R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.
Forty years ago this autumn I began my professional life as an innocent procreator of wisecracks by founding The American Spectator, a magazine that I suppose is taking its place in American literature as one extended wisecrack. At the Spectator we have always seen a joke lurking where the humorless and smug perceive a sacred cow or a golden opportunity. This week it became clear that a joke is a dangerous thing -- the humorless and the smug are in the ascendancy.
Sphere: Related ContentLife, Liberty and Freedom: The Greatest Common Good on Earth By JB Williams
Throughout world history, people seeking dominion over other people have always claimed that their desire for ultimate power serves some greater common good. They sell the notion that their personal quest for power is justified by their need to save you little people from yourselves.
But in America, there is no common good greater than the “unalienable” rights to Life, Individual Liberty and Personal Freedom, the God given right to define and pursue Happiness through individual achievement, promised to every legal American citizen.
“Unalienable” Means NOT Negotiable!
Thomas Jefferson carefully recorded our founding principles in our nations founding document, the Declaration of Independence, upon which all else has been built. Jefferson set the foundation for our country upon these fundamental principles…
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Sphere: Related ContentTahrir in Central Asia: How America Misreads Islamist Threats By Prof. Matthew Crosston
The following article examines and analyzes the philosophical underpinnings of the Hizb ut-Tahrir in Central Asia. It does so to highlight a larger, more important theoretical and policy point: The United States, in its global war against terror, has improperly defined what constitutes a legitimate Islamist threat. As a result, it mislabels many Islamist groups that do constitute a real security threat to the United States and to democratic regimes in general.
This article focuses on how the United States engages Central Asia with the declared goal of fostering democratic development. The analysis reveals a disturbing reality: an apparent willingness on the part of the United States to overlook and accept domestic repression within the Ferghana Valley states of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan. Consequently, American engagement, unwittingly helps produce greater Islamic radicalization. More importantly, these radicalized groups, rather than focusing exclusively on their domestic oppressors and local revolution, aim at targets beyond Central Asia.
Sphere: Related ContentCAIR’s Cruel Summer By Patrick Poole
It’s been a bad summer for the Council on America-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Shrinking membership. Being named unindicted co-conspirator in a federal terror financing trial. And as I will show below, plummeting finances in recent months. Is there any good news in sight for America’s most prominent mouthpiece for Islamic extremism?
Back in February, I broke the story about CAIR’s declining membership:
An inspection of CAIR’s most recent publicly available IRS Form 990 (2004) shows for that year they received $119,029 in membership dues for that year (line 3). But at $25 per membership (the current rate is $35), that would mean that in 2004, CAIR only had 4,761 dues-paying members – less than 5,000 members out of 8 million Muslims in America. This would mean that CAIR only represents 1 out of every 1,680 Muslims. Even if a lower 6 million Muslim population figure were assumed, CAIR would still only be able to claim representation for 1 out of every 1,260 Muslims for that year.
Sphere: Related ContentSenator John Kerry flips the bird at Washington war vets By Judi McLeod
Senator John Kerry is taking heat for having sat largely mute when University of Florida student Andrew Meyer was being manhandled and tasered by campus police all for asking the wrong questions at Tuesday's town hall meeting.
"Kerry was absolutely impotent in the situation," radio talk show host Michael Savage told a caller to The Savage Nation last night.
While most are aware that Kerry did nothing while Meyer was writing on the floor in pain after being tasered, only a handful of people know that Kerry insulted a group of war veterans just two days before.
Sphere: Related ContentSenate Slaps American People in the Face - Again By Sher Zieve
The Democrat-run Senate has provided We-the-People with yet another example of its aversion to the will of US citizens. Despite the fact that the American people, in overwhelming numbers, told both Houses of Congress that they did not and do not want any Amnesty Bill for any illegal aliens - the Senate is determined to pass one. Now Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) and his pro-illegal-invasion bunch are working diligently to push through the DREAM (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors) Act. This is the same bill that provides the receipt of benefits for illegal aliens' "children" that are either not provided or are far greater than the benefits provided for US citizens' children.
Sphere: Related ContentThe Dangerous Cocktail of Global Sinisterism By Bruce Walker
Several recent articles, especially one by Caroline Glick in the Jerusalem Post one by Victor Davis Hanson posted on FrontPage, reinforce a theme that I have been making for several years in articles, in a book, and now in the second edition of that book, Sinisterism: Secular Religion of the Lie (Revised and Updated Edition.) What is that critical point?
Sphere: Related ContentWashington Post Says Communists are 'Freedom Fighters', Thompson Says Americans Are By Warner Todd Huston
Who is right? Thompson or the Washington Post?
On September 7th, Fred Thompson made what the Washington Post unpatriotically reported was a "grandiose claim." Thompson told Iowans that when you look back over our history "our people have shed more blood for other people's liberty than any other combination of nations in the history of the world.''
The Washington ComPost begs to differ. They cite several "combinations" of nations from ancient times to the losses of the allies fighting the Germans in both World Wars as their “proof" that others have shed more blood to free "other people" than have Americans. But, far from "proof," the Post's argument falls flat under scrutiny.
'Al Qaida in Iraq is on the run': U.S. takes out top commander north of Baghdad :: World Tribune
Officials said U.S. and Iraqi special forces captured a senior Al Qaida commander in Iraq. They said the commander was responsible for numerous bombings as well as storing anti-aircraft and other missiles for attacks on the U.S.-led coalition.
"Al Qaida in Iraq is on the run," U.S. military spokesman Maj. Winfield Danielson said. "Our operations are hampering their ability to terrorize the Iraqi people."
Sphere: Related ContentWednesday, September 19, 2007
Patriots Arrested In Islamic-Occupied Brussels By Marcus Epstein
The dismissal of the Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov by Vladimir Putin was unsurprisingly front page news and subject of many editorials in the mainstream media. Conservatives also added their concern that it was a step back for democracy in Europe. David Pryce-Jones harrumphed on NRO: “If all this isn’t annoying and teasing, then it’s real trouble ahead.”
But in contrast, a direct attack on free speech and democracy in the heart of Western Europe has received very little attention.
On the sixth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, a large demonstration was to be held in Brussels—"the Capital of The New Europe"—to protest what organizers called "The Islamization of Europe". Part of this demonstration was to be a minute of respectful silence for the victims slaughtered by the terrorists six years ago.
This was a powerful gesture of Western solidarity reminiscent of Le Monde's famous September 12 headline, "We Are All Americans Now."
Sphere: Related ContentSen. Kennedy Tries To Slip ‘Hate Crime’ Bill Into Defense Budget Authorization :: TVC
Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) is trying to add his pro-homosexual hate crimes bill S. 1105 into the Department of Defense Reauthorization bill. He hopes that by adding it to the DoD bill, President Bush will be forced to sign the entire DoD bill into law – with S. 1105 attached. This dangerous anti-Christian bill is co-sponsored by Republican Gordon Smith of Oregon.
Sphere: Related ContentSweden Learns That Appeasement Doesn’t Pay By Fjordman
While the largest political party in Sweden, the Social Democrats, are launching a formal cooperation with the Muslim Brotherhood for the mutual benefit of both (Muslims predominantly vote for Leftist parties) Muslims are openly threatening the life of cartoonist Lars Vilks ("Let his destiny be a lesson to others," as one Muslim preacher warned during a free speech seminar in Stockholm organized by humanists and ex-Muslims).
Islamists are pushish for a boycott of Swedish firms. Websites run by militant Islamists have listed the names of over 100 Swedish companies as possible targets in the ongoing row surrounding the publication in Swedish newspapers of Vilks’ caricatures of the Muslim prophet Muhammad. Detailing the addresses, maps and logos of Swedish businesses, the websites called for their readers to boycott these firms and "take revenge" on Sweden for the publication of the controversial cartoon.
Sphere: Related ContentImagine That By Lisa Fabrizio
Is it any coincidence that the two entities American liberals probably hate most are organized religion and our military? Liberal groups like Moveon.org run ads disparaging military men of honor like General David Petraeus while folks like the ACLU and the "Reverend" Barry Lynn have made the elimination of God in public their life's work.
But what do these groups have in common? While they all preach a gospel of socialism, secularism and sexual worship, the main driving force behind those who denigrate our military and religious practices is egotism. They just can't wrap their minds around the concept that there is something bigger than themselves.
Sphere: Related ContentTesla's Last Triumph By William Tucker
Last week New York City's Con Edison brought to a conclusion one of the most bitterly fought technological debates of all time when it announced it would disconnect the last five customers in New York City receiving direct current electricity.
"They're mostly small users," said Robert McGhee, a spokesman for Con Edison, "nobody you ever heard of. One of them is a residence. They may have to provide their own power if they want to keep using direct current. But for us it wasn't worth the expense."
Sphere: Related ContentWhere's the Heir to Reagan? By Tony Blankley
All the Republican candidates for president have attempted to claim Ronald Reagan's mantle. But it takes more than a formulaic recitation of conventional conservative pieties -- low taxes, balanced budgets, strong defense, traditional values -- to deserve to be heir to the Reagan legacy.
Of course, Reagan believed in and fought for all those goals. But there was something quite unconventional about Reagan's view of America that accounted for his great success as a conservative. Perhaps the key to Reagan's unique brand of conservatism can be found in his presidential nomination acceptance speech delivered in Detroit's Joe Louis Arena on July 17, 1980.
Sphere: Related ContentWork is not a necessary evil. It is, instead, an intrinsic source of pleasure and value By ARTHUR C. BROOKS
Marienthal is a small Austrian village about half an hour from Vienna by train. In the 1920s, it was dominated by one textile factory, which employed the majority of the town’s residents. As the firm fell on hard economic times, it pulled the fortunes of Marienthalers down with it: by the time the factory closed in 1929, three-quarters of the town’s 478 families had lost their income.
The Marienthalers were not starving—Austria in those years had unemployment insurance that covered most of a factory worker’s wages. But the townspeople languished nonetheless. There were no regular jobs to replace their old positions, and to qualify for unemployment support workers were strictly prohibited from taking any part-time work. One poor soul lost his benefits after he was discovered playing the harmonica on the street for money. Economic circumstance and government policy conspired to guarantee that the Marienthalers had nowhere to go and nothing to do.
Sphere: Related ContentCIA Shut Down in Iraq :: Pajamas Media
According to exclusive information obtained by Pajamas Media’s Washington editor Richard Miniter, the movement of key CIA station personnel in Baghdad has been all but shut down. Are we witnessing Iran’s counter-strike to the surge?
Movements of key CIA station personnel in Baghdad—along with most State department diplomats and teams building police stations and schools—have been frozen for the second day in a row, according to a State department source who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Essentially, the CIA, State department and government contractors are stuck inside the International Zone, also known as “the Green Zone,” in Central Baghdad. Even travel inside that walled enclave is somewhat restricted.
Sphere: Related ContentIs There a Trial Lawyer in the House? by Ann Coulter
The only "crisis" in health care in this country is that doctors are paid too little. (Also they've come up with nothing to help that poor Dennis Kucinich.)
But the Democratic Party treats doctors like they're Klan members. They wail about how much doctors are paid and celebrate the trial lawyers who do absolutely nothing to make society better, but swoop in and steal from the most valuable members of society.
Maybe doctors could get the Democrats to like them if they started suing their patients.
Sphere: Related ContentLeftwing causes converge with the 9/11 denial movement. by Sonny Bunch
Certain events can be expected each time the 9/11 anniversary rolls around. Opinion writers will opine about how the attacks did or didn't change America. Moments of silence will take place in any number of locales. Think tanks will host panels discussing everything from the war on terror to the impact on immigration reform. And the loosely affiliated conspiracy theorists that comprise the 9/11 Truth Movement will hold rallies and conferences around the country to bring themselves attention.
Sphere: Related ContentStudents Know Less After 4 College Years By ANNIE KARNI
Students at many of the country's most prestigious colleges and universities are graduating with less knowledge of American history, government, and economics than they had as incoming freshmen, with Harvard University seniors scoring a "D+" average on a 60-question multiple-choice exam about civic literacy.
According to a report released yesterday by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, the average college senior at the 50 colleges and universities polled did not earn a passing grade.
Sphere: Related ContentEXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed By Ben Stein
I’m Ben Stein – many of you know me from the classic film, “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” or from my Comedy Central show “Win Ben Stein’s Money”. Still others of you may know me as a speechwriter, for presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. You may even have read my books, attended one of my lectures at The American University, Washington DC, or seen me on the talk shows.
I’m glad you found this site, because I want to share with you my thoughts from time to time here about a subject that is very near and dear to me: freedom. EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed is a controversial, soon-to-be-released documentary that chronicles my confrontation with the widespread suppression and entrenched discrimination that is spreading in our institutions, laboratories and most importantly, in our classrooms, and that is doing irreparable harm to some of the world’s top scientists, educators, and thinkers.
Sphere: Related ContentMugged By Reality: Part II By Thomas Sowell
Nothing is easier than to second-guess other people's decisions, ignoring the inherent limitations of knowledge, the pressures of circumstances, and the dangers of alternative courses of action.
Americans in all parts of the political spectrum have made serious mistakes about Iraq.
Some have been the mistakes of honorable people -- indeed, mistakes to which honorable people may be more prone than others. Other people have acted with utter dishonor and dishonesty -- the most shameful recent example being the smearing of General David Petraeus as a liar before he had said a word.
Sphere: Related ContentReject the Lie of White "Genocide" Against Native Americans By Michael Medved
Few opinions I've expressed on air have produced a more indignant, outraged reaction than my repeated insistence that the word "genocide" in no way fits as a description of the treatment of Native Americans by British colonists or, later, American settlers.
I've never denied that the 400 year history of American contact with the Indians includes many examples of white cruelty and viciousness --- just as the Native Americans frequently (indeed, regularly) dealt with the European newcomers with monstrous brutality and, indeed, savagery. In fact, reading the history of the relationship between British settlers and Native Americans its obvious that the blood-thirsty excesses of one group provoked blood thirsty excesses from the other, in a cycle that listed with scant interruption for several hundred years.
Sphere: Related ContentUpdated Analysis for "Warning Order" By Sean Osborne
This is an updated analysis of the current Russian strategic long-range aviation nuclear exercise is scheduled to conclude on Friday, 21 September, and related imminent events.
The exercises this month have effectively returned the United States and Russia to the same type of strategic ‘games’ seen so often during the so-called ‘Cold War.’ The rules of these ‘games’ remain unchanged. These rules hold that should Russian aircraft cross what is known as the “line of death” that would be an invitation to full-scale war between the United States and Russia. The Russian have not crossed this line. The recent landing of a U.S. B-52H with live nuclear warheads at Barksdale AFB in Louisiana is a prime indicator that the United States is pro-actively countering the Russian exercises with our own strategic aviation deterrent, known in days gone by as “oil burner” runs. As in the days of the ‘Cold War’ the Russia of today is not suicidal, at least not on the level that their Iranian al-Mahdi hastening friends pretend to be.
Sphere: Related ContentIsrael Puts Out Another Fire By Lance Thompson
On 7 June 1981, eight Israeli F-16s bombed Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor with a daring, long-distance raid that crippled Saddam Hussein’s nuclear weapons program. There were loud protests throughout the "world community" about this violent penetration of Iraqi territory. But secretly, the world breathed a sigh of relief–a dictator’s access to nuclear weapons was pushed into the hazy future, and the Middle East conflict was spared the introduction of doomsday firepower.
Now we learn from the London Sunday Times that the Israelis have done it again. On the night of 6 September 2007, Syrian air defenses suddenly went dark. Israeli F-15s of the 69th Fighter Squadron approaching from the Mediterranean crossed the Syrian coast and streaked to an industrial complex that Syria says is engaged in agricultural research, but Israel believes is used to extract uranium from phosphates.
Sphere: Related ContentVAWA Gives More Rights to Illegals than Citizens By Carey Roberts
Attention, ladies of the world: The U.S. Congress has now granted you the Keys to Kingdom that will unlock the door to U.S. citizenship, a good-paying job, and tons of free services. Here’s how it works.
First, get into the United States, anyway you can. If you’re going to do it legally, a Temporary Worker visa is the easiest way. But why bother with the paperwork, just walk across the border when they’re looking the other way!
Next, you need to find a man. Do it quickly before they can deport you. And preferably a guy who can’t afford his own lawyer — I’ll explain why in a minute.
Tell him you came to the United States to find a new life, to start over, whatever. Use your feminine wiles. Tell him how badly your previous boss or boyfriend treated you. Move in with him. If you can get pregnant or married, that much better.
Sphere: Related ContentRudy Looking Dangerously Presidential by Doug Patton
Early in my career as a political speechwriter, a young but wise campaign manager explained why candidates from the same party too often tear each other to pieces in the primaries. He told me that when all the candidates of your party are shooting at the probable opponent from the other party, your frontrunner is going to get shot in the back. I thought of that analogy the other day as I read about Rudy Giuliani’s potent political attacks on Hillary Clinton.
Sphere: Related ContentHardline takeover of British mosques By Andrew Norfolk
Almost half of Britain’s mosques are under the control of a hardline Islamic sect whose leading preacher loathes Western values and has called on Muslims to “shed blood” for Allah, an investigation by The Times has found.
Riyadh ul Haq, who supports armed jihad and preaches contempt for Jews, Christians and Hindus, is in line to become the spiritual leader of the Deobandi sect in Britain. The ultra-conservative movement, which gave birth to the Taleban in Afghanistan, now runs more than 600 of Britain’s 1,350 mosques, according to a police report seen by The Times.
Sphere: Related ContentAn Unholy Alliance Denied By Mark D. Tooley
A budding courtship between Iran’s theocracy and the American Religious Left hit a speed bump on September 7 when the U.S. State Department denied visas to a “religious delegation” from Iran that was to meet here with U.S. clerics.
The romance began last Fall when eager U.S. church officials met with and were enchanted by Iran’s chief theocrat, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, while he was in New York. The kisses continued when, at Ahmadinejad’s gracious invitation, the U.S. prelates visited Iran in February, where they were assured by the Iranian president and other officials of the Shiite police state that Islam disapproves of nuclear weapons.
But the consummation of this romance apparently has been delayed by the U.S. State Department’s very non-romantic intransigence. Visas for 4 of the 14 Iranian clerics were denied, including the group’s two leaders, which seems to have led to the assignation’s cancellation.
Sphere: Related ContentWorst Approach to Counter-terrorism Yet By Steven Emerson
On Wednesday, October 3rd, the New Jersey Department of Homeland Security is hosting its "5th Annual Counter-Terrorism Conference" titled, "Radicalization: Global Trend, Local Concern?" The conference is part of the agency's "First Responder Training" and speakers and experts are brought in to instruct department employees on various topics related to security and counter-terrorism.
In a decision that defies reason, slated to speak on a panel called "To What Extent is Radicalization a Concern in the U.S.?," is none other than Georgetown University's John Esposito, a man who has never met a radical Muslim he didn't like.
At a banquet held by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in Dallas in August of this year, Esposito stated:
Sphere: Related ContentThe death of relativism By Judea Pearl
I used to believe that the world essentially divided into two types of people: those who were broadly tolerant, and those who felt threatened by differences. If only the former ruled the earth, I reasoned, the world might know some measure of peace. But there was a problem with my theory, and it was never clearer than in a conversation I had with a Pakistani friend who told me that he loathed people like George Bush who insisted on dividing the world into "us" and "them". My friend did not realise that he was in fact falling straight into the camp of people he loathed.
Sphere: Related ContentCAIR REP POSTS THREAT AGAINST PRESIDENT BUSH ON HIS WEBSITE By Joe Kaufman
(Coral Springs, FL) Last month, Hussam Ayloush, the Executive Director of CAIR-Los Angeles (CAIR-California), posted on his blog a threat against President George W. Bush. The author of the threat is Sami Al-Hajj, an enemy combatant currently residing in Guantanimo Bay prison, of whom Ayloush believes should be released and apologized to.
The threat reads: “America, you ride on the backs of orphans, and terrorize them daily. Bush, beware.” As of now, it is still located on Ayloush's website.
Ayloush’s post, which contains a picture of Al-Hajj, can be found here: http://hussamayloush.blogspot.com/2007/08/prisoner-345.html.
Sphere: Related ContentHILLARYCARE REVEALED By Neal Boortz
Hillary Rodham, almost certain to be the nominee of the Democrat MoveOn Party, finally unveiled her government-run healthcare plan yesterday. For comic relief Ms. Rodham told the assembled crowd that this health care plan would not be "government run." It's pretty much what everyone anticipated.
In essence ... everyone will be required to purchase a health insurance policy, either on their own or through their employer. And just who is going to require the purchase of these policies? Your local sheriff? Well, not exactly. The Imperial Federal Government will do the requiring here, and, one must assume, the enforcing.
Sphere: Related ContentSocialized Medicine Is Broken and Can't Be Fixed By John Stossel
Last week I pointed out that Michael Moore, maker of the documentary "Sicko," portrayed the Cuban health-care system as though it were utopia -- until I hit him with some inconvenient facts. So he backed off and said, "Let's stick to Canada and Britain because I think these are legitimate arguments that are made against the film and against the so-called idea of socialized medicine. And I think you should challenge me on these things."
OK, here we go.
Sphere: Related ContentEvolutionary Humanism: the Antithesis by Linda Kimball
The worldview of Evolutionary Humanism (or scientific naturalism) has two central components. The first is metaphysical; the second epistemological. Metaphysically, Evolutionary Humanism infers that the natural or material realm either self-created or has existed eternally. This doctrine is known as scientism. In addition, this worldview teaches us to believe that everything---including life and intelligence---came about through unseen (immaterial) processes of motion called evolution. Epistemologically, it demands that sensory knowledge (empiricism) be the only authoritative source of knowledge.
Sphere: Related ContentLefty Says it's Not His Country Anymore! by Warner Todd Huston
Harvard Magazine, a magazine that caters to the alumnus of Harvard University, gives us the blather of one of their professors, Howard Gardner, who is despairing on how we eeeevil conservatives are taking over his country.
To start with, the short Harvard Mag piece tries hard to explain why anyone should care about Gardner. Apparently it's mostly because of his 1983 theory of "multiple intelligences." This theory holds that humanity has different types of intelligences, that an IQ test cannot measure a person's intelligence effectively, and that our different kinds of intelligence (I've heard it called "genius") is often hard to quantify. Some have a genius in dealing with people, some have their ability in music, some in mathematics, etc. Everyone's great ability is different than the next fellow's. That this particular theory seemed innovative or groundbreaking proves that the only "genius" that people in academia have is that of stating the obvious and pompously proclaiming it to be of great insight.
Sphere: Related ContentTuesday, September 18, 2007
Optimism and War By MARK MOYAR
The latest comparison between Vietnam and Iraq goes like this: David Petraeus is another William Westmoreland, another general who spoke optimistically about a doomed war in order to serve the president's political purposes. Similar lines have also been drawn from General Petraeus to General Westmoreland's predecessor, General Paul Harkins, and to General Westmoreland's successor, General Creighton Abrams. This reasoning rests upon notions about the Vietnam War that have withered under study by historians. And it betrays a misunderstanding of a military commander's duties.
David Halberstam and Neil Sheehan produced the portrait of a hopelessly optimistic General Harkins. After General Harkins declared that the South Vietnamese had won the Battle of Ap Bac in 1963, Messrs. Halberstam and Sheehan decided that General Harkins was reflexively dismissing anything that ran contrary to official optimism. Messrs. Halberstam and Sheehan had decided that Ap Bac was a disastrous South Vietnamese defeat from listening to Lieutenant Colonel John Paul Vann, who grossly exaggerated South Vietnamese mistakes to conceal that he had committed the biggest tactical mistake of the battle. As Colonel Vann himself acknowledged, estimated enemy fatalities at Ap Bac exceeded South Vietnamese fatalities.
Sphere: Related ContentStudy shows ethnic diversity without boundaries and without a dominant culture leads to ethnic conflict by Lawrence Auster
When uber-liberal Brandeis University publicizes a study (Via ParaPundit.) concluding that "good fences make good neighbors," that "well-defined borders help prevent ethnic tension," and that when a dominant culture lacks the force to impose its standards on other cultures, ethnic conflict breaks out, you know that there is something shifting in the fundaments of the modern world. The story, based on an article in Science, is posted at a website called EurekAlert, but it lists a contact person at Brandeis University where the study was done, so it would seem to be an official release. It's interesting enough to post the full text here
Sphere: Related ContentGood fences make good neighbors
Novel study show how ethnic conflict is governed by global pattern formation.
What socialized medicine is really like By Joseph Farah
Question: Do you know why so many Americans are ready to give up a little bit more of their freedom and see a little bit less of their paycheck every week for a nationalized health care program?
Answer: Because most Americans have not yet experienced the horrors of socialized medicine first hand.
That's why.
That's the only reason.
But, in this global village we keep hearing about, it is getting more difficult to hide the shortcomings of what will soon become known in this country as HillaryCare.
In England, for instance, it is not at all unusual for patients to be denied needed surgery because they refuse or are unable to quit smoking.
Sphere: Related ContentHillary Care: Orwell on Steroids? by gmony714 :: NowPublic
Are we ready for Hillary Care 2.0. You think your civil rights are being attacked now? Wait till the smartest woman in the world lays out her plans to control your lives from birth till death. Will this be the same disaster her last venture into Heath care was?
WASHINGTON - Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday that a mandate requiring every American to purchase health insurance was the only way to achieve universal health care but she rejected the notion of punitive measures to force individuals into the health care system.Sphere: Related Content"At this point, we don't have anything punitive that we have proposed," the presidential candidate said in an interview with The Associated Press. "We're providing incentives and tax credits which we think will be very attractive to the vast majority of Americans."
Economy Not Reliant On Immigration By DAN STEIN
If this were true, a tough choice would have to be made between economic stagnation and the social and environmental impact of adding further population growth on top of what is already too much.
Fortunately, there is no real dilemma. The economy can grow in a healthy fashion with a low level of immigration. How do we know? Our economic history demonstrates this fact.
Between 1925 and 1965, we had a level of immigration that averaged less than 180,000 admissions per year. Illegal immigration during that period was not the serious problem that it is today.
Sphere: Related ContentDID ISRAEL DESTROY A SYRIAN NUCLEAR SITE? By Clifford D. May
Earlier this month, Israeli jets penetrated Syrian airspace and destroyed...what? The Times of London reports:
Sphere: Related Content[I]ntelligence sources suggested it was a highly successful Israeli raid on nuclear material supplied by North Korea. ...
"This was supposed to be a devastating Syrian surprise for Israel," said an Israeli source. "We've known for a long time that Syria has deadly chemical warheads on its Scuds, but Israel can't live with a nuclear warhead."
Reading the tea leaves on Tehran By Blake Hounshell
I think we know what side of the burgeoning "bomb Iran" discussion Bob Gates is on. Speaking with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday, who asked about comments by Gen. David Petraeus about Iranian Revolutionary Guards bases thought to be supplying arms to Shiite militants in Iraq, the U.S. secretary of defense indicated that diplomacy remains the Bush administration's preferred approach to the Islamic Republic. My transcription:
Sphere: Related ContentRamadan Kareem Ads :: Muslamics
Just to give you an idea of the Ramadan ads here in Dubai (and probably in the rest of the Arab world). Krispy Kreme has a cool one too with date filled doughnuts and all (sorry, couldn't find it online).
Anbar Awakens Part II: Hell is Over By Michael Totten
RAMADI, IRAQ – In early 2007 Ramadi, the capital of Iraq’s Anbar Province, was one of the most violent war-torn cities on Earth. By late spring it was the safest major city in Iraq outside Kurdistan.
Abu Musab Al Zarqawi’s Al Qaeda in Iraq had seized control with the tacit blessing of many local civilians and leaders because they promised to fight the Americans. But Al Qaeda’s rule of Ramadi was vicious and cruel. They turned out not to be liberators at all, but the Taliban of Mesopotamia.
Al Qaeda met resistance, after a time, from the Iraqis and responded with a horrific murder and intimidation campaign against even children. The Sunni Arabs of Ramadi then rejected Al Qaeda so utterly they forged an alliance with the previously detested United States Army and Marine Corps and purged the terrorists from their lands.
Sphere: Related ContentThe Veiling of Sculptures in Germany :: Gates of Vienna
In cities all across Germany this morning, residents woke up to find female statues in their municipalities veiled. Based on the photos, mannequins in store windows were included among those figures forced into modesty.
A press release from the group that claims responsibility for the action was emailed to us this morning:
Sphere: Related ContentVeiling of sculptures and statues in a Germany-wide campaign
On the 18 September 2007, several female statues and sculptures in the cities of Berlin, Braunschweig, Bremen, Hamburg, Cologne, Witten, and Wuppertal are veiled with a Burka and a headscarf.
Treason Lobby’s DREAM Act—Amnesty For Anchor Adults By Marcus Epstein
Immediately after the defeat of the S 1348 amnesty, I warned in Human Events that we could expect a series of mini amnesties beginning with the DREAM Act, which would give amnesty to illegal aliens who came to this country before the age of 16 and who achieve a high school diploma or GED. (DREAM stands for "Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors", which was likely an afterthought, as with the "Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism " Act—the DREAM Act is supposed to evoke the American Dream, just as the PATRIOT Act is supposed to evoke patriotism. )
Just on schedule, the nightmare begins. The DREAM Act is expected to tacked on to a Senate defense appropriations bill and voted on as early as this week.
Sphere: Related ContentThe Code Pink Hate-America Happy Hour By Mary Katharine Ham
It’s a canard of the hard anti-war Left that they all, without exception, hate the war, but support the troops. Loathe the president but love the country. In fact, it’s a talking point that hating the war and loathing the president are very special, smarter ways of loving one’s country than all that Neanderthal flag-draping and militaristic ”Don’t-Tread-On-Me” rhetoric on the right.
You know, because, why send a soldier a box of Slim Jims when you can jimmy the lock at the local fascist war-machine recruiting office and put it out of commission, right? Dissent is patriotic, especially when it involves pointless perpetrations of vandalism.
Sphere: Related ContentMedia Madness By James Bowman
"Let's face it, if the mothers ruled the world, there would be no goddamned wars in the first place," said Sally Field at the Emmy Awards on Sunday. Mixing up its categories of taboos, the New York Times calls "goddamned" (which it forbears to repeat) "a vulgarity" rather than a profanity, but it doesn't reflect on the vulgarity of the Hollywood-style self-righteousness, presumably because it's too much like its own. Let's face what, exactly? Her opinion? For how on earth can she possibly know what would or would not be the case if mothers ruled the world? If mothers ruled the world it wouldn't be the world anymore -- that's about all we can be sure of and therefore all that we have to "face." But she speaks as if her mere speculation were the most unarguable and ineluctable of realities. Well, there's a lot of it going around. I think of it as a form of media madness.
Sphere: Related ContentIslam, the Marxism of Our Time Theodore Dalrymple
From an Islamist point of view, the news from Europe looks good. The Times of London, relying on a police report, recently observed that the Deobandis, a fundamentalist sect, now run nearly half of the 1,350 mosques in Britain and train the vast majority of the Muslim clerics who get their training in the country. The man who might become the sect’s spiritual leader in Britain, Riyadh ul Haq, believes that friendship with a Christian or a Jew makes “a mockery of Allah’s religion.” At least no one could accuse him of a shallow multiculturalism.
According to Le Figaro, 70 percent of Muslims in France intend to keep the fast during Ramadan, up from 60 percent in 1989. Better still, from the Islamist point of view, non-practicing Muslims feel increasing social pressure to comply with the fast, whether they want to or not. The tide is thus running in the Islamists’ favor.
Sphere: Related ContentRussia practicing pre-emptive nuclear strikes on U.S. By Sean Osborne
Russia is back to their old tricks. Better still, they never stopped them. In addition to arming our enemies like Iran and Syria, they are now playing dangerous war games reminiscent to the warmer periods of “the Cold War.”
Drowned out in the media by tales of O.J. and Brittney, it is probably news to the majority of Americans that as you are reading this, Russian strategic bombers are conducting a series of long-range training flights, complete with aerial refueling, simulating a full-fledged nuclear cruise missile strike on the Continental United States. These exercises, conducted in a time when world tensions continue to mount, are scheduled to continue through September 21st.
Sphere: Related ContentJimmy Carter's War Against the Jews :: FrontPage.com
It was almost exactly five years ago that Jimmy Carter was awarded a Nobel Peace prize for his grandstanding attacks on his country and his president in the run-up to the Iraq war.
But it is Israel, a small democratic nation amidst a sea of hostile dictatorships, that has been the object of Carter's most enduring obsessions and the target of his most unscrupulous slanders.
Our newest flash video, "Jimmy Carter's War Against the Jews," lays bare this aspect of Carter's political career in devastating detail. Based on a pamphlet by Jacob Laksin, the video powerfully refutes the lies that Carter has spread about the Jews and Israel in his many books and speeches.
Sphere: Related ContentThe Return of the American Nightmare: A.K.A. The DREAM Act By Michael Cutler
Once again, in a continuing effort to sneak measures past the American public that will empower and grant amnesty to illegal aliens, Stealth Senators are now actually – and amazingly - willing to slide an immigration amendment to a Department of Defense authorization bill (HR 1585) that will accomplish just that, and they are poised to vote on it this week. This amendment is sponsored by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), and is officially Senate Amendment 2237, otherwise known as the DREAM Act…as in (for most Americans), I must be dreaming.
Sphere: Related ContentHamas, Three Months After By Noah Pollak
It has been three months since Hamas took power in Gaza, and what a short, strange trip it’s been. In the beginning, Hamas spokesmen assuaged the consciences of credulous op-ed page editors everywhere with submissions that promised an enlightened, progressive Islamist government. One spokesman wrote in the New York Times that “Our sole focus is Palestinian rights and good governance.” He also said in a Washington Post op-ed that Hamas’s ambitions in Gaza are actually western ambitions: “self-determination, modernity . . . and freedom for civil society to evolve.” Another wrote, in the Los Angeles Times, that “Gaza will be calm and under the rule of law—a place where all journalists, foreigners, and guests of the Palestinian people will be treated with dignity.” (At the time he offered no word on how many yoga studios and organic food stands would be opened.)
Sphere: Related ContentIf mothers ruled the world, there’d be no goddamn….lots of things. By Rachel Lucas
I remember the first time I encountered this sort of opinion - that if women were in charge, humanity would live in peace. I was 11 or 12 years old and read it in a book, and I swear to god, I actually laughed out loud. I remember thinking, this fool has obviously never met any females.
It starts in about 4th grade, when girls start engaging in what can only be called a war of attrition via emotional abuse. They form evil little cliques and set about utterly destroying each other’s self-esteem and pride. I got glasses when I was 11, and the first dozen people to call me “four-eyes” were girls. When I didn’t start growing boobies as early as some of the others, it was the girls who snickered at me on the playground and called me President of the Itty-Bitty Titty Committee. There was a fat girl in my neighborhood back then, and guess who shunned her and called her “pig” and “lardbutt” on the bus? Not the boys. (Granted, they just ignored her. But which is really worse?)
Sphere: Related ContentRecognizing the Axis of Evil By Caroline Glick
If media reports of last week's IAF raid in Syria pan out, the attack against a North-Korean-supplied Syrian nuclear facility in eastern Syria should serve as a pivotal event in the free world's understanding of the enemy it faces in the current global war. The central question now is whether this clarity will be followed by a strategic shift in the US and Israeli governments' conceptualizations of the challenges facing them in the various theaters of war and diplomacy in which they are now engaged.
What the raid exposed is that the free world faces a cohesive alliance of enemy forces that collaborate closely in their joint and separate offensives against their common foes. Whether or not it is called the axis of evil, after the IAF raid it is undeniable that its members - North Korea, Iran and Syria - collaborate closely in their joint war.
Sphere: Related ContentMugged By Reality in Iraq By Thomas Sowell
In a world where the tragedy that is Iraq is usually discussed only in media sound bites and political slogans, it is especially gratifying to see an adult, intelligent, and insightful account of life inside Iraq by someone who lived there for nine months in the early days of the occupation in 2003 and 2004, and who saw the fundamental mistakes that would later plague the attempt to create a viable Iraqi government.
John Agresto, a career American academic and former college president who volunteered to go help create a better higher education system in Iraq, learned a lot about Iraqi society in general and about American attempts to create a better society there.
His recently published book is titled "Mugged by Reality" and is subtitled: "The Liberation of Iraq and the Failure of Good Intentions."
Sphere: Related ContentMonday, September 17, 2007
The outline of reality, the shadow of the real world By David Hardaker
I always thought a cataclysmic war would come out of the blue, suddenly, and without warning like 4 passenger jets. But no, we can see this in the clear. Or certainly the unmistakable outline of a war. A real war.
Israel keeping mum on Syrian 'attacks'
In Israel there is an official blackout on any information related to the supposed attack on Syria. (File photo) (Reuters: Ammar Awad)
At first there was a wall of secrecy about a supposed Israeli attack on Syria 10 days ago. Now, the leaks have started and there are suggestions the air assault by Israel was in response to Syria's nuclear ambitions.
In Israel itself there is an official blackout on any information related to the attack, with the Israeli military censor banning any reporting from Israeli sources.
However the British and American press, quoting unnamed US sources, have been putting together an alarming picture.
Sphere: Related ContentThe Blackwater Incident In Iraq :: Freedom's Zone
Blackwater being banned from Iraq by Iraq's Interior Minister, the Islamist - Jawad Bulani, is all over the cable media today, with CNN International putting on what could only be described as an anti-Blackwater hit piece featuring the anti-blackwater, ultra-liberal, author and moonbat exraordinaire - Jeremy Scahill. Blackwater's position is that a State Department convoy protected by Blackwater was violently attacked by armed insurgents, not civilians, and the Blackwater security contractors did their job, as they damned well should have - they fired back to defend human life - their own and the lives of the people their job was to protect:
Sphere: Related ContentMuslim Brotherhood's papers detail plan to seize U.S. by Kafir
From The Dallas Morning News - Amid the mountain of evidence released in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing trial, the most provocative has turned out to be a handful of previously classified evidence detailing Islamist extremists' ambitious plans for a U.S. takeover.
A knot of terrorism researchers say the memos and audiotapes, many translated from Arabic and containing detailed strategies by the international Islamist group the Muslim Brotherhood, are proof that extremists have long sought to replace the Constitution with Shariah, or Islamic law.
But some academics and Muslim leaders say that the ideals contained in the documents were written by disgruntled foreign dissidents representing a tiny radical fringe. The documents also pre-date the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and the 80-year-old Muslim Brotherhood is now either inactive or largely underground in America.
Sphere: Related ContentHillary Blows Her MoveOn.org Moment By RICHARD COHEN
If there is a phrase more closely associated with both Hillary and Bill Clinton than "the politics of personal destruction," it does not come to mind.
All the others — "It's the economy, stupid," for instance — belong to one or the other, but "the politics of personal destruction" is a phrase both Clintons have used repeatedly — so much so, it seems, that for Hillary it has lost all meaning.
When, for instance, Gen. David Petraeus was slimed as "General Betray Us," Hillary Clinton looked the other way. This was the politics of personal expediency.
Sphere: Related ContentSouthern German Towns Become Hub of Jihadism Roland Ströbele
The arrest earlier this month of three Islamic radicals suspected of planning attacks on American military installations in Germany has again called attention to the southern German towns of Neu-Ulm and Ulm. The alleged leader of the trio, Fritz G., comes from Ulm. As Roland Ströbele of the local Neu-Ulmer Zeitung reports, the twin cities on opposite banks of the Danube have in recent years become a bustling hub of Jihadist activism.
NEU-ULM/ULM, Germany -- And once again the trail leads to Neu-Ulm. One of the three presumed members of an Islamic terror group arrested earlier this month in Germany comes from Ulm. The 28-year-old Fritz G. is supposed even to have been the ringleader of the group, which is accused of planning bomb attacks on the Frankfurt Airport and the U.S. military base in Ramstein.
Sphere: Related ContentThe American Healthcare System: A Personal Anecdote :: The Free Citizen
A little after noon, on July 18th of this year, I tore my anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). I thus began my odyssey through a series of steps from diagnosis to surgery and am currently in physical therapy. I am told that I won’t be 100% healed until about a year post surgery. The worst part, however, is that I will be unable to work for what appears to be approximately twelve weeks after the surgery.
This is a long time being disabled from work and it lead me to wonder: What would my situation be like if we had the government run system Michael Moore envisions? In an attempt to answer, here is a comparison of waiting times between stages of treatment and the median times in Canada:
Sphere: Related ContentPatton’s Words no Longer Ring True :: Big Dogs Weblog
In the movie Patton, George C Scott delivers Patton’s speech to the Third Army. The colorful speech was toned down so as to allow a PG rating for the movie and not to offend the sensitivities of some Americans. The speech is awe inspiring and is a battle rally cry for the troops but in it, Patton (through Scott) makes a statement that he believed to be true, and at the time it was. The portion from the speech is:
Sphere: Related ContentWhen you were kids, you all admired the champion marble shooter, the fastest runner, the big league ball players, the toughest boxers. Americans love a winner and will not tolerate a loser. Americans play to win all the time. Now, I wouldn’t give a hoot in hell for a man who lost and laughed. That’s why Americans have never lost and will never lose a war. Because the very thought of losing is hateful to Americans.
AQI’s Desperation: Female Suicide Bombers :: Gates of Vienna
Al Qaeda in Iraq is claiming the formation of a new fighting group: “Al-Khansa Suicide Bomber Brigade.” This stalwart band of warriors will consist of women only.
Pamphlets left in Sunni Muslim mosques and neighborhoods in Baghdad proclaim:
“Verily a group of faithful women, consisting of mothers, wives and daughters of martyrs who were members of the Islamic State of Iraq, have formed the suicide bomber brigade al-Khansa…”
Al-Khansa was a seventh century poet - a woman named Tumadir bint Amru al-Harith bint al-Sharid- who converted to Islam in Mohammed’s early days. Her sons died in holy wars and she wrote paeans to their glorious deaths.
Dying for Socialized Medicine? By Mark :: RedState
The famously disciplined candidate Senator Hillary!™ Clinton committed a rare gaffe today during the rollout of her much anticipated and ballyhooed health care initiative.
”Here in America people are dying because they couldn't get the care they needed when they were sick.
"I'm here today because I believe it is long past time that this nation had an answer," Clinton said. "I believe America is ready for change. [my emphasis]
Really? People are dying while waiting to receive health care? Doesn’t the Senator know that there is a Federal law requiring stabilizing treatment for anybody presenting at a hospital regardless of their ability to pay?
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