Update
Slammed for time and had computer email issues, but pulled a
lot of important news for today's post. ~Bob
Book Recommendation: Riding the Red
Horse [Kindle Edition]. Edited by Tom Kratman and Vox Day
This is a terrific collection of short military science
fiction and essays on war in the future that will be of interest to not only SF
fans, but those interested in how future conflicts might go. The collection is
edited by Vox Day and Tom Kratman, whose engrossing military science fiction
books I have recommended on my blog. It acknowledges its debt to Jerry
Pournelle's excellent There Will Be War anthologies,
and contains a story by that master. Short stories predominate, with setting a
few years to centuries in the future. Some of the pieces I rate as "must
reads," including "Sucker Punch" and "Battlefield
Lasers" by Eric S. Raymond," "Red Waves in the South
China Sea " by James F. Dunnigan, "War Crimes" by
Benjamin Cheah and Tom Kratman's very well thought out essay, " Learning
to Ride the Red Horse: The Principles of War." The essay that hit me
hardest was " Make the Tigers Fight: Soviet Strategy in Asia ,
1925-1975," by James D. Perry. I cannot tell how much of it is based on
fact and how much on informed speculation, but it was enraging and sickening in
turns. Unfortunately, the book is available in only a Kindle edition. Being an
antediluvian jarheadosaurus, I'm a paper and ink guy, so I had to download a
reader to my computer. However, if the upcoming cataract surgery doesn't
improve my reading, I will have to think about a Kindle, despite having five
shelves of yet-to-be-read history, economic and political books plus a dozen
novels, as I understand that like my computer the Kindle will enlarge the
print. Their plan is to put out annual anthologies. My plan is to survive to
read every one. ~Bob
General News and Comment
Must Read: The Seductions of Appeasement. By Victor
Davis Hanson
Excerpt: Before World War II appeasement was a good word,
reflecting a supposedly wise policy of understanding an enemy’s predicaments.
Sober Western democracies would grant tolerable concessions to aggressive
dictators in Germany , Italy , and Japan to satiate their appetites
for more. With such magnanimity everyone would avoid a nightmare like another
Somme or Verdun .
Appeasement is always a seductive diplomacy because in the short term a bloody
crisis is at least avoided. Hopes then rise that either tensions will cool as
aggressors are pacified — or at least the latter won’t start trouble until the
appeasers are long out of office. Appeasement is based on the theory that if
you give one or two scraps of leftovers under the table to the dog at your
feet, he will wag his tail and leave, grateful for such generosity, rather than
to prove be even peskier for more.
Quote
With benefits from the state comes
subservience to the state. --Theodore Dalrymple, Anything Goes
Older, but worth reading: The CIA Interrogations
Followed the Law. Some of those now criticizing the program as illegal seem
oddly uninterested in the laws they themselves helped write. By Michael B.
Mukasey
Excerpt: Take, for example, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the prime
mover behind last week’s release of a more than 500-page “Executive Summary” of
the report by Democrats on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. She
attaches her own six-page foreword, beginning with the dutiful assurance on the
first page that the “horror” of the television footage of the 9/11 attacks
“will remain with me for the rest of my life.” Thus credentialed, Sen.
Feinstein proceeds to the task at hand: CIA personnel “decided to initiate a
program” of “brutal interrogation techniques in violation of U.S. law,
treaty obligations, and our values.” Setting aside for a moment the reference
to “our values,” that statement is demonstrably false. Laws are a technical
business in which both terminology and chronology play a part. So if the law
that criminalizes torture defines it in a certain way, that definition—and no
more—is what it is, punditry and cocktail-party figures of speech
notwithstanding. (If you hit a paywall, Google the title.)
The ‘Equality’ Racket. By Thomas Sowell
Excerpt: Some time ago, burglars in England scrawled a message on the
wall of a home they had looted: “RICH BASTARDS.” Those two words captured the
spirit of the politicized vision of equality — that it was a grievance when
someone was better off than themselves. That, of course, is not the only
meaning of equality, but it is the predominant political meaning in practice,
where economic “disparities” and “gaps” are automatically treated as
“inequities.”
Liberals Can't Erase Reagan's Record. By David Limbaugh
Excerpt: Ever since Reagan's two terms in office, Democrats
have been trying to recast those years of remarkable peacetime growth, without
inflation, as a time of abject greed — when the rich got richer and the poor
got poorer. But the facts have never corroborated their propaganda. To really
understand Reagan's record — and thus mainstream conservatism still today — you
must remember just how bleak things were during the Carter years. At the end of
Jimmy Carter's term, unemployment was 7.4 percent, and galloping toward double
digits; inflation was already in double digits; and interest rates were a
staggering 21.5 percent. There was no end in sight. (Very nicely done, it's
always good to just go to the basic facts. --Del )
Marine Harrier: Incredible Jet Landing on an Aircraft
Carrier
GAO: TARP Bailouts Are Going To Cost Taxpayers
Billions. By Peter Fricke
Excerpt: Although some Troubled Asset Relief Program
investments have returned a profit to taxpayers, a new report says non-housing
programs overall will likely cost taxpayers billions.
Excerpt: Colin Chisholm III, or “Lord Chisholm,” as he calls
himself, was sentenced to 21 months in prison Monday after it was discovered he
and his wife, Andrea – had been living on a $1.2 million yacht while
collecting tens of thousands of dollars in American taxpayer benefits.
Time capsule dating
to 1795 included coins, newspapers. By Steve LeBlanc
Excerpt: When conservators at the Museum
of Fine Arts , Boston
gingerly removed items from the box Tuesday, they found five tightly folded
newspapers, a medal depicting George Washington, a silver plaque, two dozen
coins, including one dating to 1655, and the seal of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Shocking New Report
Proves Corruption in Chicago Schools
Excerpt: A Chicago
school operations employee collaborated with at least five co-workers and
multiple outside businesses to fabricate expenses and bilk the city’s public
schools of almost a million dollars. That account is merely the most
spectacular tale in a lengthy annual report released Monday by
the inspector general of Chicago Public Schools, which found dozens of
instances of corruption and suspicious dealings by the school district’s
employees. (Ah yes, the "Chicago
way" in action. Massive corruption in a school system that doesn't
graduate even half the kids who start high school. Isn't it amazing that
after all the decades of rule by the same Party, which is the one that says it
exists to serve the people, such things could possibly have gone on? --Del. Can't say I'm
shocked. ~Bob)
New Regulations Cost
$181.5 Billion in 2014
Excerpt: Last year, federal agencies proposed and finalized
$181.5 billion worth of regulations. Sam Batkins, Director of Regulatory Policy
at the American Action Forum, has analyzed the 79,066 pages of new regulations,
which threaten higher prices for consumers and new burdens on businesses.
What's in that $181.5 billion?
The
Overcriminalization of America
Excerpt: Overcriminalization has led to the mass incarceration
of those ensnared by our criminal justice system, even though such imprisonment
does not always enhance public safety. Indeed, more than half of federal
inmates are nonviolent drug offenders. Enforcing so many victimless crimes
inevitably leads to conflict between our citizens and law enforcement. As we
have seen all too often, it can place our police officers in harm’s way,
leading to tragic consequences for all involved. (Koch is, of course, the
conservative businessman whom liberals see as the monster under the bed. ~Bob)
The Disturbing Coburn Report: The departing senator’s final oversight report shows a DHS that’s wasteful, prone to corruption, and unable to keep us safe. By Ryan Lovelace
The Disturbing Coburn Report: The departing senator’s final oversight report shows a DHS that’s wasteful, prone to corruption, and unable to keep us safe. By Ryan Lovelace
Excerpt: Only three in every 100 illegal immigrants will
ever face deportation. That’s one of many shocking revelations found in the
final oversight report of Oklahoma
senator Tom Coburn. Coburn, who was the ranking member of the Homeland Security
and Governmental Affairs Committee, has exposed some glaring problems at the
Department of Homeland Security. Coburn’s report,
released on Saturday, details DHS’s failure to fulfill any of its five core
functions: securing the border, enforcing immigration law, preventing
terrorism, safeguarding cyberspace, and strengthening national preparedness.
Why Is Jeb Bush
Smiling? Mike Huckabee’s “exploration” announcement is good
news for the former Florida
Excerpt: This is all to say Huckabee isn’t “exploring” the
question of whether he’s running any more than Bush is. Bush wouldn’t resign
from all those corporate boards and Huckabee wouldn’t walk off the Fox stage —
or any stage — unless they’d already decided. Huckabee’s announcement is good
news for Bush for an obvious reason: The more crowded the right side of the
Republican field, the clearer it will be on the left.
Excerpt: The dad also blames the Marine Corps, saying his
son was in boot camp in South
Carolina but left after five months. “When he came
back he was totally different person,” he said. “He had a problem being around
crowds and he didn’t like civilians. I told him, ‘Jase, this is not life.'” Yeah,
five months in Marine Corps is what screwed him up – tens of thousands of
Marines who spent a helluva lot longer than that, saw a lot more than Polanco
saw, go to their regular jobs everyday without shooting cops or engage in armed
robbery. (Just to be safe, I'm going to keep an eye on me. ~Bob)
Governor Scott
Walker’s Inaugural Address
Excerpt: Unlike other places around the world, this document
says, in Wisconsin ,
it doesn’t matter what class you were born into or what your parents did for a
living. Here, our opportunities should be as equal as possible, but the
outcomes should still be up to each and every one of us. In Wisconsin , we understand that true freedom
and prosperity do not come from the mighty hand of the government. They come
from empowering people to control their own lives and their own destinies
through the dignity born from work. In Wisconsin ,
we understand people create jobs, not the government. Those who choose to
employ—be it one or many—are to be appreciated and encouraged, so as to prosper
and increase employment for others in the future. In Wisconsin , we understand the best way to
improve lives and strengthen families, as well as raise wages, is to assist people
to get a better education and to acquire more skills. This is how we grow
household incomes, while putting people to work.
Autopilot
Nation: Conservatives lament, and liberals brag, that Obama has
fundamentally transformed America
Excerpt: Six years of slumber later, a surging America finally
is transcending even the effects of hope and change. For the last few years,
most Americans have tuned out their president’s no-time-to-profit rhetoric.
They just kept slogging away at what they always did as the most productive
people in the world, and waited for the natural up-bound of a moribund economy.
Obama himself understands that America
is prevailing despite his efforts, and the evidence comes from his own
admissions. In a recent National Public Radio interview, Obama took credit for
the fact that the deficit was falling — as if, suddenly, fiscal prudence is a
good thing and red-ink stimulus is not.
Taxpayers Lose
Billions as Auto Industry Bailout Ends
Excerpt: In late December 2014, the U.S. Treasury Department
announced the official end of the automobile industry bailout, after loans
given to two of the “Big Three” automakers have been repaid to the government’s
satisfaction. However, final accounting tallies published in 2014 reveal that
the corporations received almost $10 billion more than they repaid.
Gun News
More on the M-16
I tested an M-16 at Air Police HQ at
Tan Son Nhut, after guys in the field kept telling me about the problem and the
lack of enough cleaning gear. It was a clean weapon, right out of the armory. I
fired a clip then tossed a small amount of dirt, really dust, in the air over
the open receiver. New clip, three rounds, then jam.
When my first story appeared MACV
went ape. The general, he had a French name, told me I was all kinds of wrong,
until I dropped the cartridge cases on his desk; round 4 had plowed into the
jammed case of round 3. Oh, was he pissed off.
Colt guys explained to me that the
M-16 was machined to minute tolerance, so it only took a few grains of dirt or
mud to cause a jam. The wet and humidity also caused minute rust spots in the
chambers and barrels. They and the dirt led to jamming.
Colt took hundreds, maybe
thousands, of M16s back to Okinawa to have the
chambers chromed. I came home in January, 1968, a couple of weeks before Tet
and I didn’t hear any about M16s because a few months later I was shipped off
to cover Latin America .
Another complaint was cleaning
gear. You probably remember that the M-1 had a cleaning kit in the stock. The
M-16 did not; they had a cleaning kit for each squad or something like. You
also remember guys with shaving brushes in the camo elastic around their
helmets; they were for cleaning out M-16 chambers.
Actually my stories didn’t cause a
big noise anywhere except at MACV in Saigon .
It wasn’t until CBS-TV did a piece from Danang about Marines with jammed M-16s
that it raised a fuss back in the US . The pictures spoke thousands of
words. The Marines didn’t want the M-16 to begin with, they still wanted the Stoner
system or to keep the M-14.
My M-16 pieces whipped MACV into a
lather. Every reporter in VN wanted to spend a Day With Westy and like everyone
else I had applied. One evening an Air Force LTC came to my room and I should
be at MACV the next morning. As he left, the LTC said, “And Bob, don’t mention
the M16.” Westy comes out with his ADC and we go out to his little private jet.
The ADC was up front behind the pilot; the general and I sat facing each other.
We were no sooner wheels up than he leans toward me and, “Now Bob, about the
M-16.” He told me the IaDrang story and said I could use it but on deep
background, no attribution.
Ralph Kennan, who had been my
predecessor in VN, was in The Sun DC Bureau. He got a call from Col. William
“Wild Bill” Hacker, who had been JUPAO spokesman but was back in the Pentagon.
Ralph sent me a cable that Hacker had called and said the story was bullshit,
etc. I sent back a cable that “I got the story from the highest source it is
possible to get a story from here.” I heard no more about it.
The AK, of course, was crude
enough that it didn’t have these jamming problems and functioned well enough to
give people a fit in so many places around the world. U.S. troops have certainly seen plenty of them,
in Eastern Europe and all over the Middle East .
Cheers, Bob Erlandson.
The 5.62? NATO AR
French terrorist
bloodbath: First-responder police arrived unarmed, fled.
And, of course, none of the law-abiding dead had guns to
protect themselves. ~Bob
Jeff Foxworthy and
Alan Jackson Targeted by Moms Demand Action for Gun
http://freedomoutpost.com/2015/01/jeff-foxworthy-alan-jackson-targeted-moms-demand-action-gun-sense/
Excerpt: You can file this under, "You might be a bunch
of un-American, dimwitted liberals if…"
The Michael Bloomberg anti-gun
organization known as Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense have now set their
sights on comedian Jeff Foxworthy and
Country music star Alan Jackson because
they agreed to appear at the 2015 NRA Annual Meetings & Exhibitions in
Nashville on April 11.
Satire: Create your own Gun Free Zone
Homeowner shoots,
kills man trying to enter his home
Excerpt: A man who feared for his — and his family’s —
safety shot and killed a man who had run away from a South Austin group home Monday
morning, according to Austin
police. Investigators say the shooting happened just before 6:30 a.m. in
the 10200 block of Brantley Bend. A few minutes before the
shooting, several 911 calls came in reporting a man who had been walking around
the neighborhood banging on doors.
Race Card News
Worth Reading
Excerpt: Kristof's other "overwhelming" evidence
of the current effects of past slavery is that blacks do not have as much
income as whites. But Puerto Ricans do not have as much income as Japanese Americans.
Mexican Americans do not have as much income as Cuban Americans. All sorts of
people do not have as much income as all sorts of other people, not only in the
United States ,
but in countries around the world. And most of these people were never enslaved.
... If we wanted to be serious about evidence, we might compare where blacks
stood a hundred years after the end of slavery with where they stood after 30
years of the liberal welfare state. In other words, we could compare hard
evidence on "the legacy of slavery" with hard evidence on the legacy
of liberals.
Navy vet, 100,
persuades protesters to let him speak: 'Give me a chance'
Excerpt: "I feel I'm no hero," said Raschio,
dynamic and spry, before the event. "I don't accept it as being a hero. I
accept it as being a part of my job." Shortly after Wyden began speaking,
though, protesters erupted in the back of the room, shouting "hands-up,
don't shoot!" More
than 100 pushed through the doors, banged on the windows from outside and
hoisted signs.
Oprah Winfrey:
Leaders Need to Step Up Following Ferguson
Excerpt: Oprah Winfrey is ready for
African-American leadership to step up to the plate in the wake of recent
social unrest following the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson ,
Missouri , and the choking death of Eric Garner
in New York .
The media mogul, who also produced and costarred in “Selma ,” thinks the ongoing marches and
protests are “wonderful,” but she’s searching for more.
Liberals' Use of Black People, Part II. By Walter E. Williams
Excerpt: Last
week’s column focused on the ways liberals use blacks in pursuit of
their leftist agenda, plus their demeaning attitudes toward black people. Most
demeaning are their double standards. It was recently reported that Rep. Steve
Scalise, R-La., the House majority whip, spoke at a 2002 gathering hosted by
white supremacist leaders when he was a Louisiana
state representative. Some are calling on Scalise to step down or for House
Speaker John Boehner to fire him. There’s no claim that Scalise made racist
statements. Hardly anyone blinks an eye at the Rev. Al Sharpton’s racist
statements, such as: “White folks was in the caves while we (blacks) was
building empires. … We built pyramids before Donald Trump ever knew what
architecture was. … We taught philosophy
and astrology and mathematics before Socrates and them Greek homos ever got
around to it.”
Al Sharpton’s ace
card. By Kathleen Parker
Excerpt: One might also conclude that the United States
has a hearty appetite for the carnival barker, the jester, the rabble-rouser,
the race-baiter and, lest we leave anyone out, the performance-activist who pretends
to be a newsman while fomenting unrest that only he can quell. I haven’t yet
said Al Sharpton, but if his name came to mind, there must be a reason.
In nearly every high-profile case of late that involved a
black alleged victim and a white alleged perpetrator, Sharpton has injected himself as arbiter.
Excerpt: Choosing to hate people simply based upon the color
of their skin is despicable! Likewise, presuming that all whites are inherently
racist based strictly upon the color of their skin is appalling. "How is
it that Asians can succeed in America
and we can't?" That was the question some of my friends and I asked
ourselves as teenagers.
Obamacare/Government Healthcare News
Cry me a river: Harvard Ideas on Health Care Hit
Home, Hard
Excerpt: For years, Harvard’s experts on health
economics and policy have advised presidents and Congress on how to provide
health benefits to the nation at a reasonable cost. But those remedies will now
be applied to the Harvard faculty, and
the professors are in an uproar.
Members of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the heart of
the 378-year-old university, voted overwhelmingly in November to oppose changes
that would require them and thousands of other Harvard employees to pay more
for health care. The university says the
increases are in part a result of the Obama administration’s Affordable Care Act,
which many Harvard professors championed.
Religion of Peace News
The Real Islam: At least 12 dead in shooting at
office of satirical French publication
Excerpt: Black-clad gunmen stormed the Paris offices of a
satirical publication known for lampooning Islam early Wednesday, killing 12
and injuring as many as 15 before escaping, French officials said. As many as
three Kalashnikov-toting shooters were being sought after the attack at Charlie
Hebdo, the publication known for challenging Muslim terrorists with a 2011
caricature of Prophet Muhammed on its cover and which recently tweeted a
cartoon of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Two policemen and several
journalists - including the cartoonist behind the weekly publication's
provocative images, were among the dead.
Charlie Hebdo:
Martyrs for the Truth. By Abigail R. Esman
Excerpt: With the massacre of Charlie
Hebdo magazine's editors and cartoonists in Paris by Islamic gunmen early Wednesday afternoon,
the forces of radical Islam lay the gauntlet down: radical Islam is not just
fighting against Western freedom, or the hegemony of Western powers. Their real
enemy is truth.
Shouts of 'Allahu Akbar' at Jihad Massacre at French
Magazine Shooting. By Pamela Geller
Excerpt: No one is safe. And we can expect to warned and
admonished about the “fear of reprisals” which never come, and “islamophobia.” President Obama and the leftist lapdogs will
insist this mass murder is “not Islamic.” (And the western media will censor
their reports on ISIS, al Qaeda and Boko Haram because they know the government,
too busy with "outreach" appeasement, won't protect them. ~Bob)
Excerpt: Ms Rey says: "They shot on Wolinski, Cabu...
it lasted 5 minutes... I had hidden under my desk. They spoke French
perfectly... they said they were al-Qaeda." Benoit Bringer, a journalist
who works next door for the agency Premieres Lignes Tele, tells French TV: “Two
black-hooded men entered the building with Kalashnikovs. A few minutes later we
heard lots of shots.” He says the gunmen left the building after ten minutes.
According to one report, they shouted: “We have killed Charlie Hebdo! We have
avenged the Prophet Mohammed!” (Incredible. Broad daylight, middle of Paris . Terrorists killed
and drove away unopposed. Note: Article mentions couple of Paris police officers arriving on bikes;
probably Gendarme, unarmed in the past but I thought that changed long ago. Obviously
it did not. My cousin was Paris
motorcycle cop, retired, armed and in many a gunfight, always carried an
unmarked pistol in saddlebags since "if he made a mistake," the
deceased would have a pistol in hand. The Paris
cop lying on ground wounded and then terrorists calmly walks over to him and
while cop has hand up probably begging for his life, he gets a shot in the
head. The French police are not going to forget that barbarity on one of their
unarmed own. --JP)
Why are the Parris murders terrorism, while the Fort Hood
Excerpt: White House press secretary Josh Earnest initially
used the word “if” when asked whether Wednesday’s deadly attack in France was an act of terrorism.
Appearing on CNN, Earnest was pressed about describing the
attack as “violence” instead of terrorism.
Flashback: White
House Questioned Newspaper’s ‘Judgment Behind the Decision to Publish’ Muhammad
Cartoons. By Fred Lucas
Excerpt: The White House in 2012 said it had “questions
about the judgment of publishing” cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in the
French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. On Wednesday, masked gunman stormed the newspaper’s offices, killing 12 people,
including 10 journalists. President Barack Obama condemned it as a “terrorist act.”
Newspaper Editor
Killed in Paris
Excerpt: Regardless, Charbonnier refused to live in fear and
proudly proclaimed, "I'd rather die standing than live on my knees"
as Islamists threatened his life daily. He continued to publish satirical
material about Islam. He was a staunch advocate for free speech and will
continue to be an example of courage for journalists everywhere.
Excerpt: SEVERAL PUBLISHERS in Western countries have
disgraced themselves in recent years with self-censorship to avoid being
targeted by Islamic militants. The French newspaper Charlie Hebdo did the opposite:
Even after its offices were firebombed in 2011, and even after its editor was
put on an al-Qaeda wanted list, it continued to courageously publish cartoons
and articles lampooning Islam — as well as Christianity, Judaism and
established religion in general.
Consequently, the heinous attack it suffered Wednesday — when
gunmen shouting “Allahu Akbar” invaded its Paris offices and slaughtered 12 people, including editor
Stéphane Charbonnier and the police officers defending him — is a direct
challenge to the West’s commitment to free expression.
Excerpt: Two officials, speaking on condition of anonymity,
named the suspects to the Associated Press as Frenchmen Said Kouachi and Cherif
Kouachi, in their early 30s, as well as 18-year-old Hamyd Mourad, whose
nationality wasn't immediately clear. (Frenchmen? Sacre Bleu. ~Bob)
Paris terrorists
identified as Islamic state members: Said Kouachi, Cherif Kouachi and
Hamyd Mourad
Excerpt: With French army deployed over Christmas to
maintain security in France
from daily Muslim violence, threats, and attacks, the civil war against Islam
in the land of Eurabia Paris
has been downplaying the whole matter of radical Islam for years, and in
Germany Merkel has been dismissing all the protesters as racists, skinheads,
and semiNazis. Apparently denial is some kind of political policy for her and a
lot of other German intellectuals. My friend who lives there with his German
wife tells me the demonstrations have a fringe of extremists, of course, but
are mainly just regular middle class people who are sick and tired of the
coddling the new immigrants get (at huge taxpayer expense) and the
aggressiveness of some of the radical Islamists. I figure push is coming to
shove pretty soon over there. If it were here, by now we'd have organized groups
patrolling around the suspect areas. And they'd be people with carry permits.
But they have really tight gun control laws in France
and Germany ....
so they should all be safe, shouldn't they? Maybe that doesn't actually work
out the way some people think. --Del )
Obama Rolls Dice With
American Lives Over GITMO Releases: Snake eyes, you die. Seven, eleven, you
live. All other rolls of the dice are anybody’s guess. By J. D. Gordon
Excerpt: Yes, just like craps, such is the randomness of
President Barack Obama’s gamble on releasing so many radical Islamic terror
suspects from Guantanamo
and hoping they don’t kill Americans and our allies. Yet sadly it’s no game, countless
lives are at stake. (The writer makes his points well. Many of this have felt
strongly about this all along. --Del )
Excerpt: "The new year started very well, I was
attacked by six masked “anti-fascists” on Jagtvej, Nørrebro in Copenhagen . It is obviously not everyone who
likes my art,’ writes Dan Park ironically on his facebook profile under a
picture where you can see that one of the artist’s eyes has been severely
damaged in the attack."
Cultural psychology:
How Islam managed to stay medieval for 1,400 years. By Nicolai Sennels,
Psychologist
Excerpt: While almost all other cultures changed from
primitive and medieval to democratic and egalitarian societies, one culture has
managed to keep even its most brutal and backward traditions and values for
1,400 years until today. Still today, the majority of Muslims prefer to live by
values that can be traced all the way back to the desert tribes in which the
founder of their religion lived. Getting to know life in Muslim families and
societies is like traveling back to the time of Muhammad. Here one finds
shocking laws and traditions that are obviously criminal and inhumane — but for
some reason accepted — in our otherwise humanistic culture. ... What are the
cultural psychological factors making Islam able to stay medieval for 1,400
years?
Excerpt: The Muslim population of Britain
reached 3.4 million in 2014 to become around 5.3% of the overall population of
64 million, according to figures extrapolated from
a recent study on the growth of the Muslim population in Europe .
In real terms, Britain has
the third-largest Muslim population in the European Union, after France and Germany . Islam and Islam-related
issues were omnipresent in Britain
during 2014, and can be categorized into four broad themes: 1) Islamic
extremism and the security implications of British jihadists in Syria ; 2) the continuing spread of Islamic
Sharia law in Britain ;
3) the sexual exploitation of British children by Muslim gangs; and 4) Muslim
integration into British society.
Predictably getting the Lindt Cafe siege wrong. By Bernard Gaynor
Excerpt: Australia
has woken to the devastating news that two hostages died in the Lindt Café last
night. Like all Australians, my thoughts and prayers are with the families of
those now grieving. But I am not going to join in with the mob in perpetuating
the myths that are already being circulated as a result of this completely
preventable tragedy. And it was completely preventable. It was the entirely
predictable outcome of the decision to allow a violent culture with a
superiority complex and an itchy trigger finger to take root in Australia . ...
Bernard Gaynor has a background in military intelligence, Arabic language and
culture and has returned from three Iraq deployments.
Defeated at American
Historical Association. By Jeffrey Herf
Excerpt: University
of Maryland Professor Jeffrey Herf
Islamic Militants
Scream ‘Allahu Akbar!’ & Spray Machine Guns at a Jet. Then the MiG Turns
Around.
Turkish Marxist group
claims Istanbul
Excerpt: A banned Marxist group in Turkey says it carried out Tuesday's suicide
bombing in Istanbul
in which the female bomber and a policeman died.
Bait: US To Send More Troops to Iraq
Excerpt: Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby said
Tuesday that the U.S. would
be sending additional troops to Iraq
over the next six weeks as part of the training mission that already authorized
up to 3,100 American troops. Of those, there are already about
2,150U.S. troops in Iraq today, including about 300 at al Asad airbase in
Anbar Province and about 100 at Camp Taji north of Baghdad.
Executed for the
world to see, ISIS release footage of brave Iraqi police officers who
infiltrated the Islamist group but were caught aiding coalition air strikes
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2897672/Executed-world-ISIS-release-footage-brave-Iraqi-police-officers-infiltrated-Islamist-group-caught-aiding-coalition-air-strikes.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2897672/Executed-world-ISIS-release-footage-brave-Iraqi-police-officers-infiltrated-Islamist-group-caught-aiding-coalition-air-strikes.html
Excerpt: Islamic State have released photos from one of
their forthcoming videos showing the execution of eight Iraqi police officers,
who are accused of informing on Islamic State for the Iraqi government. Entitled
'the Day of Judgement', the photos show eight Iraqi men dressed in orange Guantanamo Bay
Islamic State attack kills 23 Iraqi troops, Sunni fighters
Islamic State attack kills 23 Iraqi troops, Sunni fighters
Excerpt: A suicide blast targeting Iraqi security forces and
subsequent clashes with Islamic State extremists on Tuesday killed at least 23
troops and pro-government Sunni fighters in the country's embattled western province of Anbar
Excerpt: In a grotesque twist of the saying "live by
the sword, die by the sword", an Islamic State executioner in Syria who
carried out beheadings for the jihadist group has been found with his
head cut off. The body of Egyptian-born Abu Zaid al-Masri, the deputy emir
of the feared al-Hesbah (or Hisbah) force in the eastern province of Deir
Lejeune Marines
prepare for deployment to Afghanistan
Excerpt: Just months after marking the end of the Corps'
combat operations in Afghanistan ,
officials revealed that Marines are headed back into the war-torn country, but
details of the deployment remain scarce. The disclosure came in a Marine
Corps news release outlining preparations being made by 2nd Air Naval
Gunfire Liaison Company aboard Camp
Lejeune , North Carolina Afghanistan by tackling various
"real-life" scenarios between Dec. 8 and 11, according to the
release.
Erdogan Grooms a New
Jihad Generation. By Abigail R. Esman
Excerpt: First, he promised to build a new, "religious
generation." Now, Turkey 's
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appears to be going one step further: creating,
too, a new generation for jihad. If that sounds a bit like the Islamic State,
there is one significant distinction: IS leaders shape their youth by teaching
them to use Kalashnikovs and knives. Erdogan is shaping children's minds. And
that can be far more dangerous.
Greek oil tanker
bombed in Libyan port of Derna
Excerpt: Libyan air force jets have bombed a Greek-operated
oil tanker chartered by Libya 's
national oil company, killing two crew members. A Libyan military spokesman
told the BBC that the ship's movements at the port of Derna
Interesting: Saudi Arabia
http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/saudi-arabia-faces-challenges-new-year#axzz3NrSmXF50
http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/saudi-arabia-faces-challenges-new-year#axzz3NrSmXF50
Excerpt: Riyadh
begins this year under considerably more duress than it faced 12 months ago.
Not only is King Abdullah gravely ill (a bout of pneumonia forced the 90-year-old
ruler to ring in the new year in the hospital and on a ventilator), but the
world's largest oil-producing country has also entered into a price war with
American shale producers. Because Saudi Arabia
and its principal regional allies, Kuwait
and the United Arab Emirates ,
boast more than a trillion dollars in cash reserves between them, they will be
able to keep production levels constant for the foreseeable future.
Bosnia
Excerpt: “When did Muhammad ever behead anyone?” asks
Selvedin Beganovic. He meant it as a rhetorical question to show that the
Islamic State is un-Islamic. But then there is this:
Israeli attacked by
men singing anti-Semitic songs in Berlin
Excerpt: German police are investigating an attack on an
Israeli who was beaten by a group of young men after he asked them to stop
singing anti-Semitic songs on the Berlin
subway on New Year's Eve. Spokesman Martin Dahms said Monday police are still
looking for the attackers.
Muslim cleric: If
Jews had been “respectable,” Hitler wouldn’t have killed them. By Robert
Spencer, JihadWatch.org
Excerpt: During a December 28, 2014 Hamas TV show,
Palestinian imam Sheik Iyad Abu Funun said: “If the Jews had been a
respectable, well-bred people,… [Hitler] would not have done those things to
them. … Corruption is deeply rooted in that nation.” Abu Funun, who in the past
was sentenced to 29 years in an Israeli prison, was released in the 2011 Shalit
prisoner swap. He was later rearrested after resuming his militant activity and
expelled from Bethlehem to Gaza for ten years. Abu Funun delivers
sermons in a Gaza
mosque and recently began to moderate a show on the Hamas-owned Al-Aqsa TV
channel, where he made the current statements.
*****
Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam Veteran who served five
terms in the Massachusetts State Senate. He is the author of The Coming Collapse of the American Republic.
http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Collapse-American-Republic-prevent/dp/1461122538/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304815980&sr=1-5
For a free PDF of Collapse, e-mail him at tartanmarine(at)gmail.com. Hall’s
eleven books are listed here:
http://tartanmarine.blogspot.com/2010/07/new-book-published.html.
His blog of political news and conservative comment is www.tartanmarine.blogspot.com.
Posts
Re, the M-16. Did three years of Combat Security in Vietnam. Fired thousands of rounds without a single jam. When they dropped the magazine count from 20 to 18 I never heard a single complaint of jamming. Just my experience.
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