This small volume is both entertaining and informative. A concise history of the Magna Carta and its times, the history and political situation that led to it being adopted, the civil war that followed, and it's impact as both myth and reality of western history. the book deals with religion, the universities, the economy of the times and many other details of the life of both nobles and us "lower orders." One of the authors was also a co-author of the excellent The Year 1000. I highly recommend it. ~Bob
Must Read: Becoming America
Excerpt: Today we are going through, at both the college and high school levels, a major, largely negative, reassessment of the American past. In some ways, this suggests parallels to the strategy of the Bolsheviks about whom Serge wrote. Under the communists, particularly in the Stalinist epoch, the past was twisted into a tale suited to the needs of the state and socialist ideology. This extended even to Bolshevik history, as Josef Stalin literally airbrushed his most hated rivals – notably Leon Trotsky, founder and people’s commissar of the Red Army – into historical oblivion. In the modern reformulation, America – long celebrated as a beacon of enlightenment and justice – now is often presented as just another tyrannical racist and sexist state. The founding fathers, far from being constitutional geniuses, are dismissed as racist thugs and suitable targets of general opprobrium. (Kotkin is the author of the provocative, thoughtful book, The New Class Divide. ~Bob)
Excerpt: Given the triad of history, geography and culture, it is no accident that Europe on the Mediterranean is being hit first by Third World immigration heading northward. Southern Europe always seems to owe money to the north.
Excerpt: The trouble with the donor class, by and large, is that it is resistant to change because it doesn't want to change. The Democratic and Republican donor classes donate for their business interests, but the Democratic donor class has a radical edge. Groups like the Democracy Alliance want a fundamental transformation of the country. And they understand how they can make money off that. There are too many Republican single issue donors who are fairly liberal on everything outside that issue. And there are too many big business interests and financial folks who live in major cities and only differ from liberals in their economic policy. (This is really a very thoughtful and distressing article. Greenfield points out that the Liberal/Left side has more control of its supporters, more focus from its leaders, and of course we know the media and academia really are bulwarks for them. Conservatives are actually a more diverse crowd, with much less effective leadership, and thus naturally at a serious disadvantage on the political battlefield. And he's right, it's not enough to fight a holding action against the Left, we need to fight an aggressive battle to really retake the minds and hearts of a lot of people whose interests will actually be better served by conservative policies. --Del )
Worth Reading : AMERICA Col.
WaPo Fact Checker: Hillary Clinton’s incomplete timeline on her personal e-mail account. By Glenn Kessler
Excerpt: As part of Clinton ’s effort to clear up questions about her e-mail set-up, Clinton should begin using a more complete timeline regarding her staff member’s dealings with the State Department on this matter. The current timeline is incomplete. Three Pinocchios.
CENTCOM: Syrian Rebel Unit Gave Quarter of Its U.S.-Coalition Equipment to al-Nusra
But Sen. McCain vetted these dudes and posed for pix and selfies and all....Barb
And these refugees are thirsty and hungry???
Comments from the forwarded email: Please help these refugees with food and water!!! Should we? Look at the thanks the "good Samaritans" are getting! Hmmm another video not on mainstream media why? The food and water were provided by the Red Cross and was not acceptable because the Cross is a Christian symbol. Perhaps also the water was not certified Halal!! Why was it not on TV? They discard food and water and there is predominance of young men? The food and water were provided by the Red Cross and was not acceptable because the Cross is a “Christian” symbol.
Worth Reading
Excerpt: America ’s loopy left is enamored of someone who becomes cranky about bobblehead figurines. Sober Democrats are queasy about nominating Hillary Clinton, who has much to apologize for but no aptitude for apologies. Those Republicans who hope she is denied the nomination are perhaps imprudent. And even Republicans who recoil from Donald Trump’s repulsiveness might want to defer the delicious pleasure of witnessing his apoplexy when he joins, as surely he will, the ranks of those he most despises — “losers.” ... Trump believes he should be president because of his business savvy. But he has, in effect, shrunk the large inheritance he received from his father. In 1982, Forbes reported Trump’s net worth at $200 million. Vox calculates that if he had put that in an index fund “at a 0.15 percent fee, he’d have $6.3 billion today after dividend taxes, almost certainly more than he actually does.” And an Associated Press analysis showed that if in 1988 he had put his money in an index fund he would have $13 billion. (He has not really revealed his net worth, but any Trump reticence is as welcome as it is rare.)
Pat Condell again
Why Can’t the Next Secretary of the Army be a Veteran?
Some very sad numbers, but totally understandable. --Del
Excerpt: At the beginning of the century you could at least understand why there was a debate. Intelligent people believed that enlightened government could outperform the marketplace. All over the world they tried to put that belief into practice. The result was carnage on a scale never seen before. An estimated people were killed by their own governments in the last century! That is six times the number who died in combat, fighting wars. Here is another stunning fact. The great majority of those deaths were at the hands of true believers -- people who were ideologically driven and were at least nominally committed to making the world a better place.
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2015/09/yemen-clad-as-woman-islamic-state-jihadi-murders-10-at-shia-mosque
Excerpt: But remember: in the West, if you raise security concerns about the burqa or niqab, you’re a racist, bigoted Islamophobe.
Excerpt: He seems to delight in making it absolutely clear to the world just how spectacularly he fooled Barack Obama and John Kerry, and got what he wanted out of them without being diverted from his genocidal plans to the slightest degree.
State discovers hundreds more Clinton e-mails for release to Benghazi
Excerpt: The State Department will provide Congress with 925 additional e-mails from former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton to assist the investigation of the 2012 attacks on U.S. facilities in Benghazi , Libya Benghazi had requested and as the agency reviews Clinton ’s e-mails for public release.
These places banned booze. Now they’re dealing with something far worse
Excerpt: "Dry counties" that prohibit alcohol sales seem to have a bigger meth problem than other counties.
Worth Seeing: VIDEO: "Moderate" Muslims show their true colours!
Muslim woman reads Qur’an, leaves Islam
Multi-culturalists should try it. ~Bob
Islamist on CBS: “I Want Every Woman in this Country Covered from Head to Toe” (WATCH)
No feminist/leftist response. Too cowardly. ~Bob
SEVEN WAYS POPE FRANCIS SLAPPED CONSERVATIVES IN THE UNITED STATES
The one that gets me right off is the phony setup with the little girl magically making it past security with a nice letter about her illegal family. But all the rest of it is pretty much on point. I watched some of the Bill Maher show, where he and of course some very fair-minded friends reviewed the Pope's visit, and while they all admitted that Liberals jumped on some of what he said, and Conservatives jumped on others of what he said, in the end they were having a wonderful time ridiculing everything about Catholic dogma, and Maher really got wound up on how idiotic it is that the Pope is against same sex marriage, adoption by same sex couples, transgenders, etc, etc. And of course the rampant nonsense of not allowing women priests. The overall scene was one of that fantastic smug righteousness of ultraliberals. Sickening, but what else is new? I was waiting for them to get going on just one or two of the practices of Islam, but they didn't seem to get around to that. Can't blame them, it's just so much safer to ridicule Christianity in any of its forms. I have to agree that the Pope could and in my opinion should have hit a bunch of things a lot harder than he did. Yeah, he mentioned some things in fairly un-confrontational ways, but maybe the Vicar of Christ is supposed to speak truth to power when the occasion comes. When he goes home again I'll be just as happy. --Del. People are complaining the Pope is too political, but the Papacy has always been political. In 1215, Pope Innocent III effectively annulled the Magna Carta, the great charter of English liberty that western limited government is based upon, saying it was shameful and King John and the Barons should not observe it. They barons ignored him, just as progressives will ignore this Pope on gay marriage and abortion, and conservatives will ignore him on global warming and immigration. ~Bob
Interesting: Why Americans Still Think the Economy Is Terrible. By Neil Irwin
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/17/upshot/why-americans-still-think-the-economy-is-terrible.html?_r=0
Excerpt: That’s what makes the latest annual data on incomes, released by the Census on Wednesday morning, an important corrective.
The median American household in 2014 had a lower income, in inflation-adjusted terms, than it did in 2013. The $53,657 the household in the middle of the income distribution earned last year was down 1.5 percent from the year before, though the census said that shift was not statistically significant.
Worth Reading
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/is-obama-a-muslim
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/is-obama-a-muslim
Excerpt: do not believe Barack Obama is a Muslim, nor do I think he is a Christian, nor do I think it matters, because he is not motivated by any religious belief, but by a secular ideology. All of his convictions and actions can be explained by a single supposition.
Antigun "statistics": Figures don't lie, but liars do figure.
Excerpt: On September 21 Americans for Responsible Solutions–the gun control group founded by Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly–tweeted numbers from the Center for American Progress Action Fund (CAP) claiming armed citizens in America have killed more people since 1989 than all wars since 1776 combined. The tweet contains a meme which says, “The number of deaths from gun violence just since Reagan’s presidency is higher than the number of soldiers killed in combat in all of
Obama Throws Christian Refugees to Lions. By Raymond Ibrahim
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6564/obama-christian-refugees
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6564/obama-christian-refugees
This is one hell of a sad situation to see our authorities bringing down on true refugees from oppression and serious threats of death. --Del
5 Judges: Forcing Contraception Reg on Nuns Like Providing 'Only Non-Kosher Food' to Jewish Prisoner. By Terence P. Jeffrey
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/5-judges-forcing-contraception-reg-nuns-providing-jewish-prisoner
So far the Little Sisters of the Poor have lost their case to not have to provide contraception coverage in the health care package for their workers, as being against their core religious beliefs. This needs to end up in front of the Supreme Court, with a lot of prayers that 5 of the 9 there will see it the way that 5 of the 12 on the appeals court saw it. The dissenting opinions of the judges on the appeal court are not hard to understand and make perfect sense. How the other seven figure that forcing the nuns to do something clearly against their beliefs is not denying them the right to observe their religion is one of those questions which is mostly answered by understanding the PC bias so often seen now even among judges. --Del
Excerpt: Seven years after the last housing debacle devastated the world economy, we may be on the verge of another, albeit different, bubble. If the last real estate collapse was created due to insanely easy lending policies aimed at the middle and working classes, the current one has its roots largely in a regime of cheap money married to policies of planners who believe that they can shape the urban future from above.
Wave of migrants will give Europe an extreme makeover. By Joel Kotkin
Excerpt: The massive, ongoing surge of migrants and refugees into Europe has brought up horrendous scenes of deprivation, along with heartwarming instances of generosity. It has also engendered cruel remembrances of the continent’s darkest hours. But viewed over the long term, this crisis may well be the prelude to changes that could dissipate, and even overturn, some of the world’s most-storied and productive cultures.
Some may prefer to ignore the long-term impacts of huge migration from the often-chaotic developing world – where 99 percent of the world’s population growth will be taking place – to the more orderly, prosperous and low-fertility richer countries. Separated from the daily drama, the human movement from Syria, the rest of the Middle East and Africa can be seen as potentially changing European society forever by breaking its already-weak Christian foundations and threatening the future of Europe’s elaborate welfare states. In many ways this invokes the vision laid out in the 1973 French novel “Le Camp des Saints,” which envisioned a Europe overwhelmed by a tide of poor refugees.
Muslim Riots in Sydney
This clip of violence in AU is from 2012, but was just posted on Facebook. After the violence, the Muslims chant, "Obama, Obama, we love Obama." ~Bob
Was It Fixed? Army General Told Subordinates: 'A Woman Will Graduate Ranger School
FIORINA WAS RIGHT. By Glenn T. Stanton
I listened to an NPR interview with the woman who is the head of Planned Parenthood. In it she angrily trashed Carly Fiorina for "the big lie", the totally made up story of a video of a fully formed fetus, still showing signs of life, about to be cut up and harvested for its brain. The accusations of that story being a total lie have flown thick and fast, but the actual video does exist and there's link to it below. People are so defensive of the right to abortions that even when the evidence is that the practice can be taken far too far, when fetal development really has progressed to where life is quite possible, they don't want to admit it. It's like admitting anything bad, ever, about actual abortion practice simply cannot be allowed, so it's denial, denial, denial when the examples come up. Of course the people who can do abortions on well developed fetuses have to be hardened and close their sensibilities to the reality of the tiny life they are ending. Those babies are no more real to them than naturally aborted fetuses; if they saw it any other way, how could they keep on doing it? We're not going to repeal Roe vs Wade, but having rules that limit abortions to very early in the pregnancy would seem the least that a humane society would tolerate. The Planned Parenthood people are not going to change how they do things, and I don't want a penny of my tax money going to them. The present debate is silly, since all the grants for the year have already been awarded, but fighting about this now, with the evidence in front of people about what they do, is still worthwhile. --Del
Fed Refuses To Comment On Yellen's Health
WORLD VIEW: AFTER HAJJ STAMPEDE DISASTER, MUSLIMS DEBATE THE ‘WILL OF ALLAH’
Fate and destiny, per Saudis....rather than God vs. Allah. --Barb
Obamacare Is Back In Court. By Sally Pipes
'Homeless by Choice' in New York. By Daniel Greenfield
Excerpt: As Mohamed can tell you, being homeless in the city under Bill de Blasio isn’t too bad for the bums. To be homeless in New York City today means three meals a day, a microwave oven, TV, free laundry, free Internet, free health care and a prepaid cell phone with 300 minutes a month. That was a few years ago. Maybe they have free laptops now. If that sounds like a better deal than most New Yorkers or tourists get, you’re right. It’s why bums from across the country and even the world have been flocking to the privileged life of a Big Apple bum. (Very interesting look into "homelessness" in NYC. While I am well aware there are "real" homeless people, that is, the ones who used to be in sanitariums but got thrown into the public, and the ones who have a sad history of alcoholism/drug use and failed careers, it's clear we now have a range of individuals who are finding it not just survivable but downright comfortable to be on the street and collecting on every benefit a very generous set of social programs and charities will provide. Hey, it must be nice to have zero responsibilities, but always food and a place to sleep, and even a cell phone and wifi and some level of medical care. There are days when I wouldn't mind spending a week or more just lying around in that kind of situation. No job, no taxes, forms, fees, no places I have to be or people I have to see, no tasks I have to perform, no worries, just chill out and enjoy the moment. The thing about people is that they are adaptive, and some will look at any kind of free benefit system and figure out how to take advantage of it. If you are smart, and listen to others who know the ropes, you can play the systems like a piano and make out like a bandit. Whether it's any of the welfare benefits or Social Security disability or the VA system (for those who can prove or even fake military experience), you can eventually milk it for all its worth and then some. From our own experience helping very poor people at various times, we know that doing charity means sooner or later someone will take advantage. You have to accept that as a risk of being compassionate. But you also can try to hold down your vulnerability, and it looks like in some places, maybe NYC, there's a need to tighten up on the giveaway programs. --Del )
Drowning Syria to Keep an Iran
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/09/09/drowning-syria-to-keep-an-iran-deal-afloat.html?via=mobile&source=twitter&utm_source=jolt&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Jolt09282015&utm_term=Jolt
Excerpt: On September 10, 2013, President Obama gave a stirring speech from the White House in response to the chemical weapon attack on the Damascus suburbs of Ghouta which left over 1,400 Syrians dead—suffocating from sarin gas launched in the middle of the night on a civilian population by the Assad regime. Many of the victims were children. Their images—doll-like and waxy-skinned—haunted the world. Obama asked members of Congress and the American people to watch the videos of Syrian children dying on hospital floors. He then asked, “What kind of world will we live in if the United States of America sees a dictator brazenly violate international law with poison gas and we choose to look the other way?” It’s been almost two years since that speech. Today, we live in the world that the president described. A world in which people in powerful positions chose to look the other way. And so the daily carnage in Syria , by barrel bomb, by beheading, and yes, by chemical weapons, continued.
Buried deep within today’s Quinnipiac poll. By Jim Geraghty, Morning Jolt
American voters oppose 53 – 41 percent admitting 10,000 Syrian refugees to the U.S. over the next year. Democrats support admitting refugees 60 – 33 percent, with Republicans opposed 71 – 24 percent and independent voters divided with 45 percent supporting the extra refugees and 48 percent opposed. Voters say 58 – 36 percent the refugees would pose a threat to U.S. security.
The Chicago
UK Muslims pelt soldier in uniform with eggs, excrement
Former Grand Mufti of Lebanon : No way except jihad to liberate “Palestine
Excerpt: What? Jihad? Not “dialogue”? Why doesn’t Pope Francis sit down with Sheikh Muhammad-Rashid al-Qabbani and explain to him how “authentic Islam and the proper reading of the Koran are opposed to every form of violence”? That will clear up the Grand Mufti’s misunderstanding of Islam in a trice.
UK hospital moved RAF sergeant over fears his uniform would offend Muslims
65 Year Anniversary of D-Day - Yogi Berra Feature
SEVEN WAYS POPE FRANCIS SLAPPED CONSERVATIVES IN THE UNITED STATES
The one that gets me right off is the phony setup with the little girl magically making it past security with a nice letter about her illegal family. But all the rest of it is pretty much on point. I watched some of the Bill Maher show, where he and of course some very fair-minded friends reviewed the Pope's visit, and while they all admitted that Liberals jumped on some of what he said, and Conservatives jumped on others of what he said, in the end they were having a wonderful time ridiculing everything about Catholic dogma, and Maher really got wound up on how idiotic it is that the Pope is against same sex marriage, adoption by same sex couples, transgenders, etc, etc. And of course the rampant nonsense of not allowing women priests. The overall scene was one of that fantastic smug righteousness of ultraliberals. Sickening, but what else is new? I was waiting for them to get going on just one or two of the practices of Islam, but they didn't seem to get around to that. Can't blame them, it's just so much safer to ridicule Christianity in any of its forms. I have to agree that the Pope could and in my opinion should have hit a bunch of things a lot harder than he did. Yeah, he mentioned some things in fairly un-confrontational ways, but maybe the Vicar of Christ is supposed to speak truth to power when the occasion comes. When he goes home again I'll be just as happy. --Del
Hillary Clinton Personally Signed Off On Decision She Said She Was Not Involved In
Yes. Of course, we had the North Korea deal with Clinton to keep N. Korea from getting a nuke, People were promised they could keep their plan and doctor under Obamacare, and that their premiums would go down $2500, which he knew was a lie at the time, (assuming he had read it before he said what it would do.). China will pay no attention to the climate deal when it suits them, but it's a good way to slow the US economy (where carbon has gone down unlike China ). The immigration plan, where he went around Congress, will bankrupt our economy and welfare system and we are already $18T in debt, not to mention the unfunded liability for entitlement plans, including Obamacare, which is estimated from $87T to $240T. (See "The West and the Tyranny of Public Debt" http://www.newsweek.com/2010/12/27/the-west-and-the-tyranny-of-public-debt.html from Newsweek in 2010. Cuba got everything it wants for us, but still denies basic freedoms and persecutes political dissidents. Obama attacked George Bush in 2008 for using executive orders to go around Congress and promised to end that! Gay marriage, which I supported back when Obama and Hillary were against it, was passed by the court, not Obama or the Congress, so not part of his legacy. No new wars? O, right, he intervened without Congressional approval in Libya and turned it into a terrorist hell hole at constant war, he drew a red line in Syria was not enforced, but helped turn it into a Russian client state and is overwhelming Europe with "refugees," many believe to be ISIS terrorists. And, of course, he "ended the war in Iraq ," creating the rise of ISIS and endless murder and death. He took credit all over the place for ending the war in Iraq , then said it wasn't his decision. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DpBwmN66As A wonderful legacy.
Bundle of marijuana worth $10,000 falls from the sky and crushes doghouse
Science Knowledge Quiz
11/12. ~Not bad for so long out of school. ~Bob
Satire: Campaign Staffers Making Progress Conditioning Hillary Clinton To Replicate Emotions
Satire: Special Forces To Change ‘Free The Oppressed’ Motto After Complaints From Afghans Holding Sex Slaves
Excerpt: “We want to make sure we are not offending our coalition partners and not judging them based on our own biases,” said Col. Dwight S. Barry, a Pentagon spokesperson. “At the end of the day, we just have to respect that raping young boys and mutilating female genitals is just a part of their culture.”
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment