Thursday, June 12, 2014

Today's dose of political news and comment

General Political News and Comment

Book Recommendation: America the Beautiful: Rediscovering What Made This Nation Great. By Ben Carson M.D. 
I've ordered copies of this book to give as gifts; it has over 2,000 5-star reviews on Amazon. Dr. Carson, a brilliant neurosurgeon, has long been prominent in the medical world. Recently he burst into the political world when he was invited to speak at the National Prayer Breakfast. He refused to let Obama's handlers read (and presumably censor) his speech in advance. His criticism of Obamacare made him an instant darling of conservatives, and calls for "Carson for President" began to be heard. But Carson is, or was as of the writing of this book, a long-time independent, and he condemns the behavior of both parties. He is clearly a fiscal conservative who believes in limited government and self-reliance. But his views on many social issues such as immigration, healthcare, racism and the safety net might take some of the shine off his luster for social conservatives. Never having held public office, he also has what I think is a charmingly-naive faith in the power of logic, common sense and morality to move politicians to work to solve problems for the common good. Speaking as a former five-term state senator, in politics, if it wins the next election, it's moral and common sense to do it, for both sides. An example is his statement that if more anti-Nazi Germans would have spoken out against Hitler, the holocaust could have been avoided. but those who did, like Hans and Sophia Scholl, were executed. Likewise, he says as do many that the moderate Muslims need to speak out against the jihadists. But, again, every day moderates who speak out are murdered. It's why a man with a six shot revolver can often hold off an unarmed crowd of a hundred--he can't kill them all, but no one wants to be the first to rush him. Never-the-less, I would vote for Dr. Carson for public office given the chance, even though I would disagree on some policy issues. He projects an ethical basis and a deep religious conviction, which are attested to by his works, and there is no doubt that his intellect and work ethic is in the 99th percentile. His story is moving. Like Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams, Carson grew up in abject poverty, in his case in the Detroit and Boston Ghettos, where his mother, who was functionally illiterate worked menial jobs to put food on the table, but insisted on a solid education for Carson and his brother. She made the boys read and write reports on two books a week, which they never realized she couldn't read. For a treat, she'd save enough money to take them to the fair--enough to get in, that is. There was no money to ride the rides or buy an ice cream cone. Carson, blessed with that intellect and work ethic, overcame poverty and racism to become very wealthy from his surgery, books, and public speaking. He and his wife Candy have funded the Carson Scholars Program, which offers an opportunity to get better educations to kids with the intellectual potential but not the funds. He has a new book out, One Nation: What We Can All Do to Save America's Future, which I look forward to reading. Carson on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Carson

My 2008 Predictions for the Obama Presidency
Think I was five for six. ~Bob

Scary: A World Without Antibiotics
Excerpt: Multidrug-resistant (MDR) organisms are growing in number. In some cases, there are no antibiotics that can work against them. According to the Centers for Disease Control, the problem is dire: infections that could easily have been eliminated five years ago with antibiotics now have no cure. In 2011, there were 750,000 hospital-acquired infections in the U.S. Of that number, 75,000 patients died while being hospitalized. As bacterial resistance has grown, the number of companies developing new antibacterial agents has shrunk, partly due to the relatively low return on investment and regulatory requirements. In 2002, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) changed the requirements for testing of antibiotics, more than doubling the number of patients required in late-stage antibiotic clinical trials. The result? Fewer companies wanted to perform antibacterial research. Since 2002, most pharmaceutical companies have abandoned their research and development programs for antibiotics. (Having been in the VA hospital three times since March 1 on antibiotic IV drips for pneumonia and other bugs, this is a real concern. Each time has been tougher. ~Bob

Eric Cantor succumbs to tea party challenger Tuesday
Excerpt: House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (Va.), the chamber’s second-ranking Republican, was badly beaten in a primary contest Tuesday by an obscure professor with tea party backing — a historic electoral surprise that left the GOP in chaos and the House without its heir apparent.

The Issue That Likely Fueled Cantor’s Defeat. By Genevieve Wood
Excerpt: Rarely is an election about just one specific issue. But Eric Cantor’s position on immigration reform, which included supporting some types of amnesty, fueled his defeat.
His opponent, Dave Brat, made it the focal point of his campaign to oust Cantor. And while the political class is putting much of the blame for Cantor’s defeat on consultants who gave him bad advice and had faulty polls showing him way ahead just weeks before, the stories pouring out of Texas and Arizona over the weekend about the influx of illegal immigrant children flooding across the southern border may very well have turned those polls on their head. (I hope Brat can hold the seat. Immigration is a better issue with GOP voters than with the general electorate. Expect the Democrats to target this one, if they have a viable candidate and a close district--I don't know the demographics of the seat, but read it is an R+10 district. But as an unknown in 1972, I won a D+30 district. ~Bob)

Cantor to step down from GOP post, touching off leadership scramble
Excerpt: Fox News is told a new leadership election will be held June 19, a little more than a week from now. Cantor, who said he will serve out the remainder of his seventh term as a Virginia congressman, told reporters he made the decision to give up his majority leader post with "great humility." 

For GOP, Re-Evaluation Time. By George Will ·
Excerpt: It is often folly to try to tickle national portents from local events. But there are fewer purely local political events now that elections have become increasingly nationalized in this era of inter-party and intra-party ideological combat. So, consider how the unhorsing of Cantor may strike some other Republicans.

Ex-Border Agents: Immigrant Flood 'Orchestrated'
Excerpt: An organization of former Border Patrol agents Wednesday charged that the federal government, under the administration of President Obama, is deliberately arranging for a flood of immigrant children to arrive in America for political purposes. “This is not a humanitarian crisis. It is a predictable, orchestrated and contrived assault on the compassionate side of Americans by her political leaders that knowingly puts minor illegal alien children at risk for purely political purposes,” said the statement released by the National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers. “Certainly, we are not gullible enough to believe that thousands of unaccompanied minor Central American children came to America without the encouragement, aid and assistance of the United States government,” the officers said.

White House Admits Border Crisis Is 'Larger Than We Anticipated'
Excerpt: The Fox News Latino report linked above stated that FEMA is taking charge of the crisis. ...1,200 children are now being housed at the Lackland Air Force Base facility that was turned over the HHS last month. The DOD is now expanding its housing availability for this crisis to include the Naval Base in Vetura CountyCalifornia and Fort SillOklahoma.

Gutierrez: Obama To Unilaterally Enact Amnesty After Cantor Loss
Excerpt: Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), perhaps the most outspoken amnesty proponent in Congress, said the stunning defeat of Majority Leader Eric Cantor in the primary Tuesday is no impediment to President Obama moving forward with immigration unilaterally. “When people say there’ll be no action on immigration, watch the White House,” Gutierrez said in a brief interview with Breitbart News... "I believe the president has within existing law the power to take action to protect the immigrant community, and I think he will take those actions.” (Now that the president can legislate, why are we wasting money having a Congress? ~Bob)

Obama's Criminal Activity on Immigration
Excerpt: In other words, Obama didn’t like the law, so he wouldn’t be enforcing it. That had nothing to do with prosecutorial discretion and everything to do with executive tyranny.... President Obama will undoubtedly move to utilize executive action to legalize some eleven to twelve million illegal immigrants if he sees his prospects in the 2014 midterm elections slipping away – and after the election if he does not.

Chicago Public School Prom Slogan: “This is Are Story.” By Michael Minkoff
Excerpt: A public school in Chicago recently evidenced the very fine job we’re doing of educating our youths. Its deliciously satirical prom slogan was “This is Are Story.” Clearly, this is a rapier wit social commentary tidbit on the educational plight of the poorest members of inner city Chicago.

ANOTHER Jack in the Box in Texas Robbed at Gunpoint After Chain Says No to Guns
Excerpt: How’s that no guns policy working out for you there Jack In The Box? We have yet another armed robbery at a Jack in the Box restaurant in Texas just weeks after the chain asked legal gun owners to leave their firearms at home.

VFW Demands Obama Get Marine from Mexico
Excerpt: The Veterans of Foreign Wars is demanding President Obama personally seek the release of Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi from a Mexican jail where he has been held since March 31 for entering the country with several firearms.
VFW National Commander William Thien wrote in an open letter on Friday that if Obama can break U.S. policy on talking with terrorists to secure the freedom of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl then he should be able to call Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and ask for Tahmooressi's release.

The POWs Obama is Leaving Behind in Afghanistan. By Michael Benge
Excerpt: Put aside, for a moment, Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. What about the health of two other American captives that Obama is leaving behind: Caitlan Coleman and her one-year-old child? Caitlan, then pregnant, and her Canadian husband Joshua Boyle were captured by the Taliban in late 2012 while traveling in a mountainous region near Kabul, Afghan’s capital. Videos of the captives were emailed to Caitlan’s parents in July and September last year, so the Administration was well aware of their plight while negotiating with the Taliban for Bergdahl’s release. One can only wonder why the major news media and even Obama’s critics are ignoring this question during the current debate. If a Republican president had carried out such an outrageous swap while leaving Caitlan and her child behind, there would be shrieks about a war on women. (Trust my friend Mike Benge to come up with the "details" that everyone else has missed entirely. So will Mr. Obama now suddenly figure out that he can trade a bunch more Taliban for this couple, and thus lower the Gitmo population some more? Will he bother to tell Congress this time, or just do it on some emergency pretext like last time? And in truth, I personally would go at least as far to rescue these civilian innocents as I might have for Bowe Bergdahl. --Del)

Excerpt: EPA draft regulations released this week mandate power plants cut carbon emissions by 30 percent by 2030. According to the EPA’s own measurements, the new regulations are set to do much more economic harm than environmental good. The EPA estimates the cost of the regulations at $8.8 billion a year in 2030. The product? An EPA estimated warming prevention of .03 degrees Celsius by 2100. In other words, consumers will pay $616 billion more in energy costs for what the government claims will prevent warming of .03 degrees Celsius in 86 years– hardly a worthwhile expenditure even if we are to take the EPA at their word. (First, there's a video gone viral about a farming family explaining how the new EPA overreach on every tiny stream or patch of muddy ground in the country is a disaster for farmers and a lot of other people. I'll have to see if I can find and forward that. Meanwhile....Here's a winner to peruse.....Del)

Miss USA Contestant Says She Is a ‘Product of Rape’
Excerpt: Miss Pennsylvania Valerie Gatto, a contestant on last night’s Miss USA pageant, described herself as a “product of rape” in an interview with TODAY.com. Gatto revealed she was conceived after her mother was raped at knifepoint by a stranger.

Who Owns You? By Walter E. Williams 
Excerpt: Darcy Olsen, president of the Arizona-based Goldwater Institute, and Richard Garr, president of Neuralstem, a biotech company, wrote "Right to Try experimental drugs" in USA Today (5/28/2014). They pointed out that "this year, more than 5,000 Americans will lose their battle with ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease." Up until recently, there was no medicine on the market that significantly improved the lives of ALS patients. But now there is one in clinical trials that holds considerable promise, but it has not been granted Food and Drug Administration approval. The average amount of time it takes to get a drug through the FDA approval process is 10 years. That's time that terminal patients don't have.

With new hack, cellphone can get data out of computers
http://www.timesofisrael.com/with-new-hack-cellphone-can-get-data-out-of-computers/
Cutting off the Internet won’t keep you safe from long-distance hackers, Ben Gurion University researchers discovered. Using a technique called air-gap network hacking, all a hacker has to do is implant the right kind of malware into a cellphone that gets within range of a computer. Hackers on the other side of the world could use cellphone-based malware to remotely access any data they want, using the electromagnetic waves emanating from computer or server hardware, with no need for an Internet connection

US spy agencies heard Benghazi attackers using State Dept. cell phones to call terrorist leaders
Excerpt: ....In an exclusive interview on Fox News’ “Special Report,” Stahl said members of a CIA-trained Global Response Staff who raced to the scene of the attacks were “confused” by the administration’s repeated implication of the video as a trigger for the attacks, because “they knew during the attack…who was doing the attacking.” Asked how, Stahl told anchor Bret Baier: “Right after they left the consulate in Benghazi and went to the [CIA] safehouse, they were getting reports that cell phones, consulate cell phones, were being used to make calls to the attackers' higher ups.”... Stahl said that when he deposited the traumatized passengers at Ramstein, the first individual to question the CIA security officers was not an FBI officer but the senior State Department diplomat on the ground. (Were they talking about the video Obama blamed? ~Bob)

Obama Suggests US Needs Ban On Semiautomatic, Automatic Weapons
http://dailycaller.com/2014/06/10/obama-suggests-us-needs-ban-on-semiautomatic-automatic-weapons/
Excerpt: President Barack Obama Tuesday suggested that the U.S. government should follow Australia’s example in dealing with shooting sprees, which involved strict gun bans on semiautomatic and automatic weapons. “Australia had a mass shooting [in 1996] similar to Columbine and Newtown, and just said, ‘That’s it, we’re not seeing that again,’ and basically imposed very severe tough gun laws and they haven’t had a mass shooting since,” .... Those laws included the confiscation of nearly all handguns and rifles.

Husband and wife shoot gunmen who try to enter their St. Louis home, killing 1, police say
And rescuing 17-year-old daughter who was being held at gun point. ~Bob. Excerpt: A husband and wife armed with guns were able to stave off an apparent home invasion Monday night, police said. One man was killed and a second taken to a hospital in the incident, which happened about 11 p.m. in the 4600 block of Newport Avenue.

Excerpt: The White House is adopting enhanced security procedures during foreign trips after the name of a CIA official was accidentally leaked to the press during President Barack Obama’s visit to Afghanistan late last month. However, no one was disciplined or fired as a result of the leak. (Hardly news. The Obama administration has never fired or disciplined anyone for corruption, illegality or failure. Even the head of the VA resigned voluntarily. ~Bob)

Opposition to Bergdahl POW Swap Rises to 54%
Excerpt: The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 54% of Likely U.S. Voters now disagree with the decision to release five Taliban leaders from the Guantanamo terrorist prison camp in exchange for the one U.S. military prisoner of war being held by the Taliban in Afghanistan. That’s up 11 points from 43% a week ago. Just 29% agree with the Obama administration’s decision to make the prisoner swap, an 11-point drop from 40% last week. 

Obama Quits Afghanistan: Bringing Bergdahl home was useful for closing Gitmo and winding down the war. By Victor Davis Hanson
Excerpt: Amidst the swap conundrum, the president has defended the trade by referencing history and the American experience in past wars. But here, too, what the president states is not always accurate. Obama insisted that “we have a rule, a principle, that when somebody wears our country’s uniform and they’re in a war theater and they’re captured . . . we’re going to do everything we can to bring ’em home . . . and regardless of whatever circumstances there are, it is our obligation to bring them home.” Yet the United States has not routinely sought to bring captives home, “regardless of whatever circumstances there are.” 

Great Lakes Finally Ice-Free After Record Ice Longevity
Excerpt: With summer just around the corner, for the first time in seven months the Great Lakes are officially free of ice. ... "This year is the longest we've seen ice on Lake Superior in our 40 years of records," Physical Scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration George Leshkevich said.

Hillary Clinton and Income Inequality. By Bernard Goldberg
Excerpt: Sure, it would be fun to hear Hillary drone on and on the way liberal Democrats do about how unfair it is that the rich have so much and the poor don’t. Fun because this is a woman who reportedly hauls in $200,000 for a one-hour speech and who, along with her husband, is worth at least $100,000,000. If you got dizzy looking at all the zeroes, the number is one …hundred … million

EU's top court may define obesity as a disability
We need this here. Then we can eat and drink what we want, not exercise, and collect disability! ~Bob

The Impact of Obamacare on Small Business
Excerpt: Since nearly two-thirds of Americans with health coverage have employer-sponsored health insurance, much of the burden of complying with the ACA will fall on businesses. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that the required coverage for individuals will cost $5,800 a year or more by 2016 -- equivalent to an additional $3 per hour "minimum health wage." Family coverage could cost more than twice that amount. Because businesses with less than 50 full-time employees are exempt from the requirement to provide health insurance, those with 50 or more workers are incentivized to cut their workforces, move employees to part time or not offer coverage at all. The ACA's $2,000 fine per worker for not providing health insurance is less than the cost of providing it. While firms were told that their health plans would be "grandfathered," insulating them from regulation, that status is easily lost when plans change. Two-thirds to 80 percent of small business employer plans will likely lose their grandfathered status. Large, self-insured companies and unions, however, are free to change their third-party administrators and still retain grandfathered status.

ObamaCare and the CBO – No Longer 'Giddy.' By Larry Elder 
Excerpt: After all, in December, 2009 – months before the legislation’s passage – Obama assured us, “I made clear from day one that I would not sign a health insurance reform bill if it raised the deficit by one dime – and neither the House, nor the Senate bill does.” Nervous “conservative Democrats” vowed, as did Obama, to oppose any expansion of health care coverage if it added to the deficit, which, in turn, would add to the national debt, then at $11.9 trillion.

Excerpt: When Presidential leadership has been called for during the Obama Presidency, whether in domestic affairs, or in foreign affairs, Barack Obama has sounded retreat. Do I need to laundry list them still again? ... It might be too late for Obama. Then, perhaps not. At least as far as understanding why our military tradition must be maintained if we are to remain a world leader. Here's what Barack Hussein Obama really needs: He needs to be taken down to Fort Hood and be run through army basic training. His arrogance and sense of self will surely result in a good old "blanket party". For those unfamiliar with the term, when a grunt doesn't want to act as a member of a team, when his behavior or attitude is driving down the morale of the unit, the guys get together, wrap that rogue in a blanket, then proceed to beat the hell out him. After a few good blanket parties, believe me, Barack will get the message. (He likes to wear USMC tee shirts when playing basket ball, like a kid dressing up as a superhero. Maybe Parris island would be better. ~Bob)

The VA Sacrificed Vets for Solar Panels. By Daniel Greenfield 
Excerpt: The VA Scandal began at the Phoenix VA Health Care System where administrators earned promotions and bonuses by shunting patients who needed treatment into fake waiting lists. As many as 40 veterans had died while waiting for care and 1,715 veterans in the Phoenix VA HealthCare System had waited more than 90 days for an appointment. ... But each and every year, from 2009 to 2011, the Phoenix VA Health Care System put in solar panels. T

Undercover Investigation Exposes Planned Parenthood’s Controversial Sex Ed Advice
Excerpt: Planned Parenthood, which is receiving taxpayer funding under Obamacare for teen sex education, is the subject of a new undercover investigation that exposes its counselors providing graphic sexual advice to minors. The undercover video consists of footage with counselors as well as Planned Parenthood’s own promotional materials. Those materials include a Planned Parenthood-sponsored series called “A Naked Notion” that features BDSM—a practice that involves sexual partners beating, lashing, or otherwise inflicting pain on each other—as the topic for one of its segments.

Religion of Peace News

Americans being evacuated from Iraqi air base as militants advance
Excerpt: Americans were being evacuated Thursday from a major Iraqi air base as Al Qaeda-aligned militants toppled cities in the country's north and threatened to advance toward Baghdad. A senior U.S. official confirmed to Fox News that Americans were being evacuated from a base in Balad, which had been one of the largest training missions in Iraq. (Leading from Behind becomes Running to the Rear. ~Bob)

Second Iraq city falls to Al Qaeda-aligned militants
Excerpt: Al Qaeda-inspired militants pushed deeper into Iraq's Sunni heartland Wednesday, swiftly conquering Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit as soldiers and security forces abandoned their posts and yielded ground once controlled by U.S. forces.
The advance into former insurgent strongholds that had largely been calm before the Americans withdrew less than three years ago is spreading fear that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, struggling to hold onto power after indecisive elections, will be unable to stop the Islamic militants as they press closer to Baghdad.

We Are Losing the War on Terror: The brazen attacks in Mosul and Karachi are just the latest signs that the bad guys are gaining momentum. By David Rothkopf
Excerpt: The ground truth about the spread of terrorism will be a hard one for many Americans to swallow after 13 costly years of war. Terrorism is spreading worldwide. Our enemies have sustained our blows, adapted, and grown. Two questions loom large as a consequence: Where did we go wrong and what do we do now? Recent headlines and new studies support the conclusion that global terror trends are heading in an ever more dangerous direction. In early June, the Rand Corporation released a study that detailed the growing threat. (Not exactly good news, but knowing the truth is what is important. --Del. If the American people wanted to win, they would have voted differently in 2008 and 2012. ~Bob)

Iraq Civil War Is Exactly What Democrats Wanted
Excerpt: The chaos that is unfolding in Iraq is being portrayed in the media as an unexpected development. It certainly is an unnecessary fate for a country that had, until recently, a chance of survival. Yet it is not only the predictable, but in fact the desirable, outcome in Iraq for Democrats, who in 2006 were pushing for as quick a withdrawal from Iraq as possible--never mind the foreseeable consequences, including genocide and a terrorist takeover.

Iraq Wants America Back to Fight Insurgents With Air Strikes
Excerpt: Two and a half years after the last U.S. soldier departed, an al Qaeda offshoot is in control of Mosul and headed for Baghdad—and Iraq’s prime minister is requesting U.S. air strikes. It seems like only yesterday that Iraq’s prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, was celebrating as the last American soldiers left Iraq. Now, with an al Qaeda offshoot threatening to take Baghdad, Maliki’s government is quietly asking at least some troops—specifically airmen and drone pilots—to return. (Unless al-Maliki can deliver several million votes to Democrats in November, he doesn't have a prayer of getting help from the administration. He better have his Swiss bank account and bolt hole ready--the Obama administration will desert him like he was Chris Stevens rather than risk the wrath of the base, regardless of how many die. ~Bob)

Iraqi Drama Catches U.S. Off Guard
Excerpt: At a closed-door gathering of Gulf states in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in May, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and his Arab counterparts all signaled agreement on one thing for the first time: Islamist forces seizing territory in Syria and Iraq had become a regionwide menace that can't be ignored. What they didn't agree on was what to do about it, U.S. officials said.The fall this week of the Iraqi cities Mosul and Tikrit to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham rebel group shows how the insurgent threat is outpacing the response and posing a challenge to President Barack Obama's approach of limiting U.S. involvement in foreign conflicts.... "It makes you want to kill yourself," a senior U.S. official said of the intelligence on ISIS, which was presented by U.S. and Gulf allies during the May meeting in Jeddah. "It makes you want to kill yourself," a senior U.S. official said of the intelligence on ISIS, which was presented by U.S. and Gulf allies during the May meeting in Jeddah. (If ISIS isn't careful, Obama will lead an attack from behind and vow to bring them to justice! ~Bob)

Iraqi Kurds 'fully control Kirkuk' as army flees
Excerpt: Iraqi Kurdish forces say they have taken full control of the northern oil city of Kirkuk as the army flees before an Islamist offensive nearby.
"The whole of Kirkuk has fallen into the hands of peshmerga," Kurdish spokesman Jabbar Yawar told Reuters. "No Iraq army remains in Kirkuk now." Kurdish fighters are seen as a bulwark against Sunni Muslim insurgents.

The Price of Abandoning Iraq. From The Patriot Post
As recently as 2009, then-CIA Director Michael Hayden said, "Al-Qaida is on the verge of a strategic defeat in Iraq." Yet in just a few short years, we have watched the entire Middle East melt down in the "Arab Spring" after Barack Obama sounded the retreat from Iraq and Afghanistan, falsely claiming that al-Qaida and Islamic terrorism were "on the run" after Osama bin Laden's termination. Indeed, jihadis with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) have now seized the key Iraqi cities of Mosul and Tikrit -- after retaking Fallujah in January. Baghdad is next. According to an American counterterrorism official, "The group looks at Syria and Iraq as one interchangeable battlefield, and its ability to shift resources and personnel across the border has measurably strengthened its position in both theaters." If the U.S. still had a sizable troop presence in Iraq, it's possible -- if not likely -- that Iraq would be stable today. Perhaps even Syria would be. Instead, the region has paid a high price for BO's Hope 'n' Change, as al-Qaida didn't die just because Obama said it had.

The US killed six jihadists, including four Uzbeks, in the first reported drone strike in Pakistan's tribal areas since the edn of December 2013. The unmanned Predators or the more deadly Reapers fired several missiles at a compound and a vehicle in the village of Darga Mandi in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan, Dawn reported. The village is just outside of Miramshah, the home of the Haqqani Network, a Taliban subgroup that is closely tied to al Qaeda.

Criticizing Islam Becomes "Incitement to Imminent Violence." By Abigail R. Esman
Excerpt: You could say it is a new form of Islamic honor crime: the silencing of those who dare besmirch the honor of Islam or its prophet, except the suppression now doesn't come from Muslims only. These days, it's the work of secular groups and governments: theaters in Germany, prominent publishers in England and the USA, of public prosecutors in the Netherlands, and most recently, of the Spanish Supreme court. (Muslims attacking Jews and Christian in the vilest terms is still free speech, thus fine. ~Bob)

Jewish Teens Escape Axe Attack Near Paris
Excerpt: The teens, aged 14 and 15, said they were walking to the Lilac Synagogue with their grandfather to attend Tikkun Leil Shavuot, a custom in which Jews study scripture all night. While crossing the town’s Market Square, the two boys and their grandfather, all wearing kippahs, said they were followed by a tall man in his 20s wearing a long beard. They described the man as having an athletic figure and an Arab appearance. Producing a hatchet, the man began to chase the two boys, according to the BNVCA report, then whistled to three other men who joined the chase.

Al-Qaida Establishes Islamic Caliphate Across Syria, Northern Iraq
http://dailycaller.com/2014/06/11/breaking-al-qaida-establishes-islamic-caliphate/#ixzz34NUEDCiD
Excerpt: Al-Qaida has established a new Islamic Caliphate. The Obama administration’s failure to secure a status-of-forces agreement with the government of Iraq, or to take decisive action in Syria to end that civil war, has provided al-Qaida an opportunity to fulfill its dream of creating an new Islamic Caliphate governed under Sharia law — and it is a direct threat to U.S. national security. On Tuesday, June 10, 2014, just days shy of the two and a half year anniversary of the departure of the last U.S. combat forces from Iraq, news broke that hundreds of al-Qaida-linked terrorists belonging to Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) had taken Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul, and possibly all of the surrounding Nineveh Province.

Excerpt: Now Islamic communities, including Ahmadiyyas, are demanding that Christian symbols are removed during Islamic funerals.

America’s Underground Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) Crisis
Excerpt: FGM is illegal in the U.S.—yet activists estimate that hundreds of thousands of girls are at risk of being cut each year. As a one-week-old baby, Jaha Dukureh was circumcised—just as women in her family had been for generations in their home country of Gambia. Fifteen years later, when she was brought to the United States for an arranged marriage, she was taken to a New York City doctor who worked closely with African communities, in order to be “reopened” for her husband. “Now that I think back,” Dukureh remembers, “that’s what pisses me off. The fact that I was 15—you saw how young I was, you didn’t say anything, you didn’t do anything.”

Worth Reading: Trojan Horse debate: We were wrong, all cultures are not equal: For years, we all turned a blind eye to the segregation of Muslim pupils. Now it is time to stand up to propagators of barbarism and ignorance

Excerpt: Let me quote Myriam Francois-Cerrah, a writer and Muslim convert, who told Channel 4 News on Tuesday that she rejected calls by the Prime Minister and Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, for schools to promote British values. “In many ways, the problem is creating a hierarchy of cultures when you say you need to promote British values,” she objected. “What does that say to children in a classroom whose heritage harks from outside the British Isles? It says this country has superior moral values and you are coming from some backward culture whose values you … must not consider equal to our own. Funnily enough, that’s exactly what we are saying, Myriam. Spot on! A Muslim girl who winds up in Bolton or Luton should thank her lucky stars she doesn’t live in Sudan – or Pakistan, where, only last month, a woman was stoned to death by her family for the crime of marrying a man of whom they disapproved. Farzana Parveen’s father explained: “I killed my daughter as she had insulted all of our family by marrying a man without our consent, and I have no regret over it.” Are British values superior to Mr Parveen’s? I do hope so. Unfortunately, the great lie underpinning the creed of multiculturalism, as spouted by Francois‑Cerrah and her ilk, is that all cultures are “equally valid”. (This lady is now going to be in serious trouble, I worry about what will happen to her. But she is brave, and of course (not that it matters) 100% correct. It's long past time to stop with this "every culture is equal" BS, we don't even think the culture of this country 50 years ago is equal to what it is now, and it's tremendously better than it was 200 years ago. There are times when it is perfectly appropriate to be "judgmental", and the enormous level of abuse of women in many Islamic areas is absolutely worth judging to be a bad thing, in fact, a very bad thing. That doesn't mean we are perfect or anywhere near it. But we sure as hell are better in at least some ways, and anyone who denies that is a damn fool. --Del. well, I wasn't wrong. i always knew that saying the cultures of Germany and the UK in 1939 were of equal value was a pernicious lie, like saying the culture of Sweden, the US, Iran and pakistan today are all equally valid. ~Bob)

No comments:

Post a Comment