Old Jarhead’s Political Sirep December 26, 2012

Old Jarhead’s Political Sirep December 26, 2012

Robert A. Hall

The Philosophy of the Old Jarhead Blog

www.tartanmarine.blogspot.com

The Old Jarhead SitRep is a blog of political news and conservative opinion, that has had about 700,000 page views since founded in 2008, is read in many counties (Iran? Indonesia? Russia? Go figure.) and was up to 30,000 page views a week recently. Plus I throw in some humor and human interest pieces that catch my attention for seasoning. I try to include foreign sources and info you won’t get in the MSM, but I often use links to pieces in the Washington Post, New York Times, Politico, Reuters and other liberal leaning sources No one is required to read it, or any of the links. A majority of the pieces are sent to me by readers, for which I’m grateful, others come from newsfeeds I subscribe to. I get some from Twitter, but often don’t have time to look at my feeds there. I stop sending the link to people who become nasty or too angry. I used to forward political items, but was sending too many e-mails to my list, so a few years ago, I started collecting them on the blog to access in one place. I use maybe 50% of the conservative pieces sent me, probably less than 5% of the liberal opinion sent, usually to illustrate their views. Readers who don’t like that are welcome to start their own blogs. Blogs are free and so is speech in America right now, despite leftist efforts to outlaw “hate speech” they disagree with and Islamist efforts to outlaw criticism of Islam, while retaining the right to describe other religions in vile terms. I try to avoid items that will turn off thoughtful centrists and leftists or low-information independents, including “red meat” pieces with intemperate language or wild speculation, conspiracy theories with no supporting facts and silly distractions like the so-called “birther” issue (but I don’t always succeed). I predicted correctly four years ago the “birther” thing was going nowhere, was a huge waste of time and resources, and played into the hands of the left, much as the impeachment of Bill Clinton did in the 1990s. (I said so at the time.) I do sometimes include things I don’t agree with that I think readers might find of interest. Readers are requested to read all items critically and with skepticism—just like a newspaper! Readers who send formatted pieces (title, link, and a fair use excerpt of three sentences unless the piece is very short. than fewer) to tartanmarine(at)gmail.com have a higher chance of my using them than people who just send a link. I often include thoughtful comments from contributors. (Tell me if you want you full name used.) A piece without a link has a much lower chance of being used—it depends on how interesting it is and how much time I have right then to search for it. I understand if you don’t have the time to format or even to find a link—please understand my time is pretty limited too. There are no ads on my blog, no fees and I receive no income from it. When I retire, that might need to change, but for now, that’s how it is. I do promote my books, with the royalties going to charity. Thanks for reading and contributing. ~Bob.

School Obama’s Daughters Attend Has 11 Armed Guards

http://clashdaily.com/2012/12/school-obamas-daughters-attend-has-11-armed-guards/

Excerpt: Some interesting news has broken in the wake of the latest push for gun control by President Obama and Senate Democrats: Obama sends his kids to a school where armed guards are used as a matter of fact. (Don’t your kids deserve the same protection? ~Bob.

Worth Reading: Random Thoughts. By Thomas Sowell 

http://townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2012/12/25/random-thoughts-n1473508?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl

Excerpt: When I was growing up, an older member of the family used to say, "What you don't know would make a big book." Now that I am an older member of the family, I would say to anyone, "What you don't know would fill more books than the Encyclopedia Britannica." At least half of our society's troubles come from know-it-alls, in a world where nobody knows even 10 percent of all.

Four Democrats convicted of voter fraud, one acquitted despite testimony of voters.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvFJI_I8h_Y&feature=youtu.be

But it doesn’t happen, right. I’m sure liberals saw this news on MSNBC. ~Bob.

Kenyan Christians fear former brethren are attacking churches. By Fredrick Nzwili

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/1212/africans_become_jihadists.php3#.UNiOK-RZVIE

When they convert, don’t they get a copy of Obama’s “Islam is a religion of peace” memo? Save a lot of blood. ~Bob. Excerpt: Kenyan church leaders and analysts are expressing concern that recent Muslim converts from Christian rural regions are the new breed of jihadists targeting churches, public places, and police in the country. Al Shabab, a militant Islamist group with ties to Al Qaeda, is no longer relying on its traditional base of Somali or Swahili Muslims.

Pakistani: Sunni jihadists murder Shi'ite in hospital

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2012/12/pakistani-sunni-jihadists-murder-shiite-in-hospital.html

Didn’t get the memo. ~Bob

Syrian Christians fear bleak future after Assad

http://news.msn.com/world/syrian-christians-fear-bleak-future-after-assad

Excerpt: Many Christians in Syria worry they will be marginalized or even targeted if the country's Sunni Muslim majority, which forms the majority of the opposition to President Bashar Assad, takes over. (Oh, I’m sure once Obama’s Syrian Opposition buddies take over, things will be peaceful. They always are in cemeteries. ~Bob.)

Worth Reading: Christianity 'close to extinction' in Middle East: Christianity faces being wiped out of the “biblical heartlands” in the Middle East because of mounting persecution of worshippers, according to a new report.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9762745/Christianity-close-to-extinction-in-Middle-East.html

Excerpt: The study warns that Christians suffer greater hostility across the world than any other religious group. … The most common threat to Christians abroad is militant Islam, it says, claiming that oppression in Muslim countries is often ignored because of a fear that criticism will be seen as “racism”.

Syria: Religious Police Patrol Aleppo’s Countryside

http://english.al-akhbar.com/node/14438

Excerpt: The Syrian opposition groups that have taken control of Aleppo’s countryside are deploying a religious police force to enforce new laws, such as barring women from driving and making prayer compulsory. (Waiting for Obama to speak out about this “war on women.” Expecting a long wait. “But it’s their culture!” So is slavery, that okay? ~Bob.

Egyptian forces intercept 17 rockets headed for Gaza

http://www.longwarjournal.org/threat-matrix/archives/2012/12/egyptian_forces_intercept_17_r.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LongWarJournalSiteWide+%28The+Long+War+Journal+%28Site-Wide%29%29

Excerpt: On Monday, an attempt to smuggle 17 short-range rockets into Gaza was foiled by Egyptian security forces. The rockets, said to be of the French-made SNEB 68 mm caliber air-launched unguided model, were reportedly confiscated 22 kilometers (13.67 miles) south of el Arish, in the northern Sinai.

Yemeni official charged with apostasy, faces death penalty

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2012/12/yemeni-official-charged-with-apostasy-faces-death-penalty.html

Excerpt: "This is an Islamic country, and Islam is clear about everything. There is no need for people to voice their opinions about it. And if he truly is an apostate, he should be punished." 

John Kerry: Still Wrong After All These Years. By Daniel Greenfield 

http://frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/john-kerry-still-wrong-after-all-these-years/?utm_source=FrontPage+Magazine&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=34ad7da738-Mailchimp_FrontPageMag

Excerpt: A year and a half before Osama bin Laden was found living in a compound at the heart of Pakistan’s military establishment, Senator John Kerry was celebrating the passage of the “Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act,” also known as the Kerry-Lugar Pakistan Bill. Under either name, Kerry was offering a rather sizable giveaway to a government that had a long history of ties to the Islamic terrorists that the United States was fighting.

Shot For Being White. By Jamie Glazov 

http://frontpagemag.com/2012/jamie-glazov/shot-for-being-white/?utm_source=FrontPage+Magazine&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=34ad7da738-Mailchimp_FrontPageMag

Excerpt: Finally they came upon a 20-year-old college kid named Joshua. They took his money, cell phone and sandwich. Then he asked them to only take his money and not his ID because he explained to them it was hard to replace. Then they shot and killed him. (If Joshua looked like Obama’s son, the media would be all over this. ~Bob.)

Flashback: Anwar al-Awlaki Leading Muslim Prayers on Capitol Hill, 2002. By Robert Spencer 

http://frontpagemag.com/2012/robert-spencer/flashback-anwar-al-awlaki-leading-muslim-prayers-on-capitol-hill-2002/?utm_source=FrontPage+Magazine&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=34ad7da738-Mailchimp_FrontPageMag

Excerpt: But now Jihad Watch reader Carolynn has alerted me to the fact that it is also noteworthy for capturing the slain jihad terror mastermind Anwar al-Awlaki, who was in contact with Major Nidal Hasan, the Fort Hood jihad mass murderer; Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Christmas underwear jihadist; and others, leading Muslim prayers on Capitol Hill. Screenshots above show the minute mark where you can see him in the video.

The Lost Verses of the Quran. By Theodore Shoebat 

http://frontpagemag.com/2012/theodore-shoebat/the-lost-verses-of-the-quran/?utm_source=FrontPage+Magazine&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=34ad7da738-Mailchimp_FrontPageMag

Excerpt: Is the Quran of today, the same as it was when it was first written? Muslims says that it is. But there is evidence to suggest that the reality is otherwise. In old books on Islam that I have acquired, I have found references to verses in the Quran which cannot be found in today’s copies. (Probably we have the King James version of the Qur’an. ~Bob.)

To Hell With Charity? Part 2
http://www.wnd.com/2012/12/to-hell-with-charity-part-2/#MzyVHCsWsfVgDMhK.99 http://www.wnd.com/2012/12/to-hell-with-charity-part-2/#MzyVHCsWsfVgDMhK.99 

Excerpt: This is no time for equity wars over giving. Now is not the time in America’s history or fragile economic recovery to be engaging in class warfare, monkeying with beneficial tax laws or trying to separate the wheat from the chaff among charitable givers. Reducing charitable deductions will affect people’s willingness to give!

Did Benghazi Mission Violate International Law? Newly released probe may raise new questions about facility

http://www.wnd.com/2012/12/did-benghazi-mission-violate-international-law/#xSyPLkRKFJYUGhGJ.99 

Excerpt: Was the U.S. mission in Benghazi established in violation of international law? According to the 39-page report released this week by independent investigators probing the Sept. 11 attacks at the diplomatic facility, the U.S. mission in Benghazi was set up without the knowledge of the new Libyan government. “Another key driver behind the weak security platform in Benghazi was the decision to treat Benghazi as a temporary, residential facility, not officially notified to the host government, even though it was also a full-time office facility,” the report states. 

US Navy Seal's 'apparent suicide' in Afghanistan under investigation: Commander Job W Price died from non-combat related injury while supporting operations in Uruzgan province

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/dec/23/us-navy-seal-death-afghanistan

Excerpt: Navy Seal Commander Job W Price, 42, of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, died on Saturday from a non-combat-related injury while supporting stability operations in Uruzgan province, Afghanistan. A US military official said the death "appears to be the result of suicide".

Bill Ayers: Left Must Utilize Its ‘Absolute Access’ To America’s ‘Classrooms’

http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-TV/2012/12/22/Bill-Ayers-On-Liberal-Indoctrination-the-left-must-utilize-its-absolute-access-to-classrooms

Excerpt: In this video, obtained by EAGnews.org, Ayers gives leftists advice on how to change the country from "movements on the ground." "If we want change to come, we would do well not to look at the sites of power we have no access to..." Ayers says. "We have absolute access to the community, the school, the neighborhood, the street, the classroom, the workplace, the farm, the shop.” (This brainwashing and recent crimes at schools good reason to home school. –Barb.)

CIA Rips ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ Over Waterboarding

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/12/23/CIA-Rips-Zero-Dark-Thirty-Over-Waterboarding

Excerpt: “What I want you to know is that Zero Dark Thirty is a dramatization, not a realistic portrayal of the facts. CIA interacted with the filmmakers through our Office of Public Affairs but, as is true with any entertainment project with which we interact, we do not control the final product. It would not be practical for me to walk through all the fiction in the film, but let me highlight a few aspects that particularly underscore the extent to which the film departs from reality.” (Premiered wide in US 12/19/12. Where are the global riots and demonstrations? This, after all, is the film made with the cooperation of the Party and POTUS and DOD and CIA, leaking confidential information, not some unknown US Government informer. And the Pakistani MD who helped us—Not a finger lifted to help him. –Barb.)

Daughter Regrets Leaving Gun in Car after Parents Murdered
http://politicaloutcast.com/2012/12/daughter-regrets-leaving-gun-in-car-after-parents-murdered/#ixzz2Fze9eWsK

Excerpt: The law had been campaigned for by Dr. Suzanna Hupp, who was present at the massacre where both of her parents were shot and killed. She later expressed regret for obeying the law by leaving her firearm in her car rather than keeping it on her person due to the fact that it could have cost her chiropractic license.

Self-Righteous Atheists Are Misguided Killjoys

http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/12/self-righteous_atheists_are_misguided_killjoys.html#ixzz2FsHlbFPD

Excerpt: It's that time of year again. 'T'is the season to be jolly -- or, if you're an atheist activist, to throw a wet blanket over the holidays. (Yes, no one is going to really destroy Christmas, on the one hand as a sort of winter holiday and feel-good time, and on the other hand, the celebration of the birth of Christ for the practitioners of the religion. But militant secularists and atheists (these overlap a lot but not totally) have been pushing the envelope further every year for a while now. The irony is that what they are doing is objecting to any signs of a belief system they don't want imposed on them, while never seeing that they are working to impose their belief system on everyone else. And the statement at the end about how an absolute secular state compares to a theocracy is really a gem for consideration. –Del. Secular states are often Socialist Theocracies. ~Bob.)

Fleeing the tax man

French actor Gerard Depardieu has moved to Belgium, and has explained very clearly that it is because he resents paying 75% of his income to the state in taxes. He is not the only high income person to move away from the high tax rate, but he is by far the most known one, and the subject of a lot of discussion in France now. The government socialists call him unpatriotic and even immoral for doing this. They have equated in their minds being a good citizen with being a cheerful indentured servant of the government and its budget. I would agree that a patriot and a moral person would not object to paying some reasonable level of taxes to their country, as a fair share of their wealth to the society that has allowed them to be so prosperous. Of course the key word there is "reasonable", and obviously there are those who think taking the lion's share of an individual's earned income is reasonable. I would disagree with that, and I think most of us would disagree it as well. Personally, I would have a hard time justifying any tax rate that exceeds 50%, and would think that a sliding scale starting at 20% and climbing up to 50% for only the really super rich would be as much as anyone should ask. What is interesting is the obvious belief on the part of some that the state has every right to gobble up as much of a person's income as they see fit. That idea is really contrary to the idea of individual rights as the cornerstone of the society, and that's what our Founders believed in. They were smart people, and contrary to some popular belief about how things change over time, I believe some principles are timeless, and the Founders were good at finding those. --Del

Don’t Do It, Shinzo Abe! Derek Scissors, Ph.D.

http://blog.heritage.org/2012/12/19/dont-do-it-shinzo-abe/

Excerpt: While Mr. Abe may prove to be exactly what the country needs in terms of foreign policy, his economic promises mirror the policies that have mired Japan in two decades of stagnation. Mr. Abe has made headlines promising more aggressive public spending and “unlimited” money supply increases to seek inflation. Taken together, there is no chance these will work.

Sharia in action in Yemen: Slavery still widely practiced

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2012/12/sharia-in-action-in-yemen-slavery-still-widely-practiced.html

Excerpt: Muhammad owned slaves, and the Qur'an takes the existence of slavery for granted, even as it enjoins the freeing of slaves under certain circumstances, such as the breaking of an oath: “

Quote

Where misunderstanding serves others as an advantage, one is helpless to make oneself understood. –Lionel Trilling

Blues Cruise: Steaming past Guantánamo, en route to the Cayman Islands, a boatload of Republicans ponder the plight of a party at sea.

http://nymag.com/news/features/republican-caribbean-cruise-2012-12/

Excerpt: The whole thing was white, and broken, that much was clear. (Funny that “white” party has two Asian governors, a Hispanic Governor, Two Hispanic US Senators and a black US Senator. The Democrats have? And some good black Republicans lost: Mia Love, Vernon Parker and Allen West among others. But still the lie continues. ~Bob.)

4 Firefighters shot, 2 dead at fire near Rochester

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/national_world&id=8930383

Excerpt: Police Chief Gerald Pickering said Tuesday that 62-year-old William Spengler, who served 17 years in prison for the 1980 hammer slaying of his grandmother, armed himself with a revolver, a shotgun and a semiautomatic rifle before he set his house afire to lure first responders into a death trap before dawn on Christmas Eve. … As a convicted felon, he wasn't allowed to possess weapons. (Gee, good thing the gun laws didn’t allow him to have guns. If we’d executed him after his first murder, this would have been prevented. ~Bob.)

US drone strike kills Jordanian, Yemeni AQAP operatives

http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2012/12/us_drone_strike_kill_17.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LongWarJournalSiteWide+%28The+Long+War+Journal+%28Site-Wide%29%29

Excerpt: The US targeted al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula fighters in the first reported drone strike in Yemen in seven weeks. A Yemeni and a Jordanian AQAP operative are said to have been killed after remotely piloted Predators or the more deadly Reapers fired several missiles at their vehicle as they traveled in the Manaseeh area of Baydah province in central Yemen, local intelligence officials and tribesmen told AFP. Three more "militants" are said to have been wounded.

School Protection

It is curious that we never here of mass shootings at inner city schools, despite the violence of the surrounding neighbourhoods. I've always presumed that it because many of the students are well armed. Be that as it may, I think we can constructively protect schools like Sandy Hook by contracting security out to established experts on turf protection - the local street gangs. What kook is kookie enough to want to fight his way past MS 13, the Crips, the Bloods, the Gangster Disciples or whatever the local muscle happens to be called, just for the fleeting glory of gunning down a bunch of unarmed kids before offing himself? Come on, Mr. Obama. Our inner cities are filled with such talented young men. Put them to work! --Tom H.