I post articles because I think they are of interest. Doing so doesn’t mean that I necessarily agree with every—or any—opinion in the posted article. Nor that I disagree with them, of course.
Egyptian Police Redeploying
Excerpt: Egypt Egypt during a Jan. 30 meeting with the commanders of the Central Security Forces (CSF) in Nasr city east of Cairo
Excerpt: A tally of credible figures from around Egypt
Biden: Mubarak not a dictator, protests not like Eastern Europe
Hard to know if this is administration policy, or Biden running off at the mouth. Or maybe they plan to keep BO in power thirty years? ~Bob. Excerpt: Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is not a dictator and shouldn't step aside in the face of mounting protests against his nearly 30-year rule.
Excerpt: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called for an "orderly transition" to democracy in Egypt
Working Group on Egypt Calls for Suspension of U.S.
Excerpt: The prestigious and, since its formation less than a year ago, consistently ahead-of-the-curve Working Group on Egypt, co-chaired by Michele Dunne of Carnegie and Robert Kagan of Brookings, has just issued a new statement late Saturday. The Group includes Middle East and foreign policy experts ranging from Elliott Abrams of the Council of Foreign Relations and Ellen Bork of the Foreign Policy Initiative to Tom Malinowski of Human Rights Watch and Brian Katulis of the Center for American Progress. Its members have been warning for months that the situation in Egypt is unstable, and they’ve been urging the U.S. government to take a more active role in planning for a post-Mubarak Egypt Egypt
Excerpt: In November 2003, President George W. Bush laid out this question: "Are the peoples of the Middle East somehow beyond the reach of liberty? Are millions of men and women and children condemned by history or culture to live in despotism? Are they alone never to know freedom and never even to have a choice in the matter?" The massive and violent demonstrations underway in Egypt , the smaller ones in Jordan and Yemen , and the recent revolt in Tunisia
Worth Reading : The Egypt
Excerpt: It is not at all clear what will happen in the Egyptian revolution. It is not a surprise that this is happening. Hosni Mubarak has been president for more than a quarter of a century, ever since the assassination of Anwar Sadat. He is old and has been ill. No one expected him to live much longer, and his apparent plan, which was that he would be replaced by his son, Gamal, was not going to happen even though it was a possibility a year ago. There was no one, save his closest business associates, who wanted to see Mubarak’s succession plans happen. As his father weakened, Gamal’s succession became even less likely. Mubarak’s failure to design a credible succession plan guaranteed instability on his death. Since everyone knew that there would be instability on his death, there were obviously those who saw little advantage to acting before he died. Who these people were and what they wanted is the issue. Let’s begin by considering the regime. In 1952, Col. Gamal Abdel Nasser staged a military coup that displaced the Egyptian monarchy, civilian officers in the military, and British influence in Egypt Egypt Nasser ’s death, Anwar Sadat replaced him. On Sadat’s assassination, Hosni Mubarak replaced him. Both of these men came from the military as Nasser did. However their foreign policy might have differed from Nasser ’s, the regime remained intact…. It is certainly not clear that they are weaker than the democratic demonstrators. It is a mistake to confuse the Muslim Brotherhood’s caution with weakness. Another way to look at them is that they have bided their time and toned down their real views, waiting for the kind of moment provided by Mubarak’s succession. I would suspect that the Muslim Brotherhood has more potential influence among the Egyptian masses than the Western-oriented demonstrators or Mohamed ElBaradei, the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, who is emerging as their leader.
Tourists Besiege Cairo Airport
Excerpt: Thousands of passengers were stranded at Cairo Egypt Saudi Arabia , Lebanon , the United Arab Emirates and Jordan organized an additional 10 flights to evacuate their citizens, officials at Cairo International Airport
Excerpt: Politics abhors a vacuum. Just like the Palestinians fell for the lies of Hamas, it is not impossible that some day soon Egypt Israel
Good column: The Fall of the Strongmen
Excerpt: The attempt to establish a post-colonial order of kings and strongmen to replace the British and French colonial rule over the Arab Muslim world was doomed from the start. Some of the kings were overthrown by native officers who had been trained by the British and the French to fight their wars. The officers who overthrew them became strongmen themselves. The recently deposed Ben Ali was a Tunisian officer trained in French and American schools, who had helped push out the French and his predecessor. Egypt 's Mubarak was an Air Force officer who replaced Sadat, who replaced Nasser-- all members of the Free Officers Movement which overthrew the Egyptian monarchy. Saddam Hussein took power in a coup against the coup led by army officers which had deposed the King of Iraq. Syria Middle East . The only Middle-Eastern Arab countries which held onto their monarchies, were either oil rich enough to spread the wealth to the important families and retain only a weak military to avoid the risk of being overthrown by their own army while relying on US protection (e.g. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE) or so small and deliberately apolitical to avoid attention (Jordan, Morocco). The rest ended up with military strongmen, some backed by the US , some backed by the Soviet Union . The Soviet backed strongmen usually unveiled some poorly thought out version of Arab Socialism. The US
Gaza-Egypt border sealed indefinitely
Excerpt: Egyptian authorities have closed indefinitely the crossing with the Gaza Strip as the army deployed in the northern Sinai, a Ma'an correspondent said Sunday. Egyptian security contacted the government in Gaza Gaza also confirmed that strict instructions were given to smugglers telling them all tunnels would remain closed to ensure no Palestinians in Gaza were able to enter Egypt Gaza
Watch video released by Detroit
It Doesn't Have to Make Sense: It's Just the Law – Statements
Excerpt: In 1996, an unhappy consumer attacked the City Marshal of Lancaster, Missouri with a hammer.(1) The Marshal defended himself and later vented his adrenaline to the responding Sheriff stating, “I hope the son-of-a-bitch is dead.” This led to the Marshal’s conviction for involuntary manslaughter and a sentence of seven years in prison.(2) The story had a happy ending, but a story four years and tens of thousands of dollars in the making, and not a story the Marshal enjoyed very much. The Marshal might have avoided the worst part of the story had he not confused his right to remain silent with the right of free speech. (The article is pretty well done. I have had private conversations with assorted law officers, some retired, on this subject, and their advice is pretty much the same. The system does make mistakes, there are cops and prosecutors who are intent on getting a conviction on any remotely likely suspect. We know too well these days that innocent people have even wound up on Death Row. So caution is the watchword if you're ever involved in violent self-defense. --Del
What ‘Obama the Unready’ Could Learn From Alfred the Great
Excerpt: Would Barack be better named “St. Peter Obama”—considering how overwhelmingly he embodies the Peter Principle? On that question there can be no debate. He offered himself unready for any leadership position, and was then rewarded for his incompetence. Not only is Barack no Ronald Reagan, he can’t even lead. As such, Obama hearkens back to another unfortunate historical character—Æthelred the Unready. Æthelred was an English king who so completely misused his opportunity he became synonymous with lack of preparation and poor decisions. Obama and Æthelred have many coincidences during equally cursed reigns. When we compare the lives of the worst and best English potentates, certain truths can be gleaned by our Marxist boy king. Such lessons are the subject of this essay. (As a descendent of Æthelred—really—I take offense at the comparison. ~Bob.)
American facing possible murder charge in Pakistan
Simple. If they don’t release him, we sell bigger A-bombs to India Pakistan will pursue murder charges against a U.S. Pakistan , and the government - already viewed by some critics as being subservient to the United States U.S. with suspicion or enmity because of its occupation of neighboring Afghanistan and regular missile attacks against militant targets in Pakistan
How BBC warmists abuse the science
Excerpt: Horizon’s “Science Under Attack” turned out to be yet another laborious bid by the BBC to defend the global warming orthodoxy it has long been so relentless in promoting. Their desperation is understandable. The past few years have seen their cherished cause crumbling on all sides. The Copenhagen USA
Climate Change: Sir Paul Nurse's Big Boo Boo
Excerpt: (Comment): Using the stats, as the Cap mentioned, can work either way. I have tried to explain this before as does Lee Gerhard below. He summarises the true situation on warming/ cooling with some more good sense from Rob Davis and Paul Reiter: USA - Dr. Lee C. Gerhard, UN IPCC expert reviewer, past director and State Geologist with the Kansas Geological Society and a senior scientist emeritus of the University of Kansas
Giffords receives treatment denied to US troops
Excerpt: As U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords begins rehabilitative therapy in Houston after being shot in the head in Tucson U.S.
The case for mercenaries in Somalia
Excerpt: In 1969, as a member of the presidential commission appointed to consider replacing the draft with an all-volunteer military, the great University of Chicago economist Milton Friedman had a famous exchange with General William Westmoreland, the US commander in Vietnam Somalia Somalia Del
BBC Running Sanitized Clip of Female Genital Mutilation Happening Now in the UK
Have American Teachers Moved 'To the Left' of Obama?
Excerpt: It seems like a strange time to “move to the left.” But it seems to be happening nonetheless. Since his self-confessed “shellacking” in last November’s election, much has been said about how President Obama’s rhetoric has shifted to the philosophical “right.” Gone are the pejorative remarks about how Americans must stop consuming more than their “fair share” of the earth’s resources, and the scolding of oil and pharmaceutical companies for earning “record profits” (the President would probably be thrilled if any American business were to set profit records today). “In” are the kinds of comments that are typical of an American President. Mr. Obama recently announced that he wants to embrace “Thomas Edison’s principles,” and that he desires for Americans to “invent stuff” and “make stuff.” He has even stated that he wants to open-up more foreign markets so American companies can sell more of their products and services globally. Indeed, the past few weeks have seen a dramatic change in the President who spent two years bowing to foreign heads of state, and lamenting America America America
Outwitting Lethal Government Policies
Excerpt: Over the past fifty years, at least a half-million Americans, and perhaps many more, have died prematurely due to ill-designed and badly executed liberal programs. The causes, as I reveal in detail in Death by Liberalism, range from the criminal justice "reforms" of the 1960s, which triggered a crime wave that that killed up to 268,000 Americans, to government-mandated fuel standards responsible for up to 125,000 lives. At least a thousand people are murdered each year by the derelict insane, with many deinstitutionalized lunatics dying as well, giving us a total of as many as 70,000 deaths. The number of deaths of children under the "protection" of state child care agencies is unknown (largely concealed by "privacy" laws) but must total in the thousands. (Twenty-one children died in this manner last year in Los Angeles County Zimbabwe or the slaughter that followed the communist victory in SE Asia ? All the result of liberal chimeras. ~Bob.)
Clarice's Pieces: She Wouldn't Hurt a Fly
Excerpt: This week, Glenn Beck called [Frances Fox] Piven out on her advocacy of violence. In response, the New York Times, a group that has amusingly chosen to call itself the Center for Constitutional Rights, and the American Sociological Association have attacked Beck for daring to take her at her word. Now, with Piven exposed to a broader audience than usual as a firebrand who holds views dangerous to democratic life, her friends have dolled her up in widow's weeds (her equally radical husband, Richard Cloward, died in 2001) and noted her age (78) to distract us from her work. They want us to think, as did Psycho's Norman Bates channeling his long-dead mother, that "[t]hey'll see and they'll know and they'll say, 'Why she wouldn't even harm a fly.'" Stanley Kurtz at NRO; Ann Althouse, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin who has her own blog site; and the Wall Street Journal's James Taranto have taken the lead in this fight to expose Piven and her defenders.
IFAK First Aid
Excerpt: Training today is really amazing, covering lots of things in depth that people never used to see until on the ground and in the fight. And it's made our guys the best professional soldiers on the planet. Below is one video that I found fascinating. It's great that we have lots of creative people using modern resources and methods to give our guys as much preparation for the real thing as is humanly possible. –Del
Is there any politician (besides Allen West of course) who will stand against Islam?
Excerpt: Some of us first started getting a bad feeling about Christie when we heard his wishy-washy comments about the Ground Zero Mosque — which were especially disturbing since so many New Jerseyans died in the Twin Towers on 9/11. But we liked Christie so much that we tried to overlook it. Unfortunately, Christie’s Muslim-coddling comments look even worse now, in the light of recent revelations about Christie’s associations with radical Islamists.
The 10 families costing Britain
Excerpt: The Nur's house was on the market for 1,050 pounds a week, but rent has been set at 2,000 pounds - the maximum under housing benefit rules. [There used to be inspections of rental properties by government officials to ascertain the 'fair rent' but apparently no longer. - Kate]
Classic Countermoonbattery from Ronaldus Maximus
Excerpt: 2011 marks two great centennials: the adoption of the M1911 by the US Army (acknowledged recently) and the birth of the heroic countermoonbat Ronald Reagan, which will be acknowledged throughout the year, starting with this.
Grooming of Girls by Asian Gangs Fuelled by Unhappy Arranged Marriages to Cousins Claims Muslim Peer
Excerpt: Studies have shown that 55 per cent of British Pakistanis marry their first cousins, usually from abroad. In Bradford , the figure is as high as 75 per cent. Although marriages between first cousins is lawful in Britain America Derby Rotherham , a gang of five Asian men were jailed in November for grooming white girls as young as 12.
Obama swaps Iraq and Afghanistan
Bad teleprompter! No biscuit! But, really, should people be pilloried for the kind of mis-speak we all do? Okay, sure, the press does that to Republicans like Bush, but is it fair? ~Bob. Excerpt: Hit with a tough question about his administration’s policy in Afghanistan and Iraq Iraq ” for “Afghanistan Afghanistan by the end of this year,” Obama said, a fairly significant misstatement of his administration’s Afghanistan
Turkey: Islamic supremacists enraged over realistic TV portrayal of Suleiman the Magnificent
Excerpt: Reality is always inconvenient for them. Remember, "slander" in Islamic law refers not to telling untruths about someone, but to saying something about someone else that he doesn't want known, even if it's true. That sums up the whole Islamic apologetic enterprise in the West, as well as the rage over this TV series.